Now, Lest You Should Know Nothing About Him, Let Me Tell
You That At His Own Expense He Fitted Out
A vessel, and established
himself at Borneo, where he soon acquired so great [an] ascendancy
over the native Rajah, that
He insisted on resigning to him the
government of his province of Sarawak. Here, with only three
European companions, by moral and intellectual force alone, he
succeeded in suppressing piracy and civil war among the natives and
opened a trade with the interior of Borneo which promises great
advantages to England. . . . Everybody here has the INFLUENZA--a
right-down influenza, that sends people to their beds. Those who
have triumphed at their exemption in the evening, wake up perhaps in
the morning full of aches in every limb, and scoff no longer. . . .
Dinner parties are sometimes quite broken up by the excuses that
come pouring in at the last moment. Lady John Russell had seven
last week at a small dinner of twelve; 1,200 policemen at one time
were taken off duty, so that the thieves might have had their own
way, but they were probably as badly off themselves.
LETTER: To Mr. and Mrs. I.P.D.
LONDON, December 16, 1847
My dear Uncle and Aunt: . . . On Saturday Mr. Hallam wrote us that
Sir Robert Peel had promised to breakfast with him on Monday morning
and he thought we should like to meet him in that quiet way. So we
presented ourselves at ten o'clock, and were joined by Sir Robert,
Lord Mahon, Macaulay, and Milman, who with Hallam himself, formed a
circle that could not be exceeded in the wide world. I was the only
lady, except Miss Hallam; but I am especially favored in the
breakfast line. I would cross the Atlantic only for the pleasure I
had that morning in hearing such men talk for two or three hours in
an entirely easy unceremonious breakfast way. Sir Robert was full
of stories, and showed himself as much the scholar as the statesman.
Macaulay was overflowing as usual, and Lord Mahon and Milman are
full of learning and accomplishments. The classical scholarship of
these men is very perfect and sometimes one catches a glimpse of
awfully deep abysses of learning. But then it is ONLY a glimpse,
for their learning has no cumbrous and dull pedantry about it. They
are all men of society and men of the world, who keep up with it
everywhere. There is many a pleasant story and many a good joke,
and everything discussed but politics, which, as Sir Robert and
Macaulay belong to opposite dynasties, might be dangerous ground.
After dinner we went a little before ten to Lady Charlotte
Lindsay's. She came last week to say that she was to have a little
dinner on Monday and wished us to come in afterwards. This is
universal here, and is the easiest and most agreeable form of
society. She had Lord Brougham and Colonel and Mrs. Dawson-Damer,
etc., to dine.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 43 of 60
Words from 21817 to 22317
of 30995
