. . . On Sunday
Mr. Emerson Dined With Us With Lady Morgan And Mrs. Jameson--The
Authoress.
On Monday I took him to a little party at Lady Morgan's.
His works are a good deal known here.
I have great pleasure in
seeing so old a friend so far from home. . . . I think we shall have
very few of our countrymen out this spring, as travelling Europe is
so uncertain, with everything in commotion. Those who are passing
the winter in Italy are quite shut in at present, and if war begins,
no one knows where it will spread.
LETTER: To W.D.B.
LONDON, April 7, 1848
. . . On Wednesday we had an agreeable dinner at Mrs. Milner
Gibson's. Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli, Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan (brother of
Mrs. Norton), etc., were among the guests. After dinner I had a
very long talk with Disraeli. He is, you know, of the ultra Tory
party here, and looks at the Continental movements from the darkest
point of view. He cannot admit as a possibility the renovation of
European society upon more liberal principles, and considers it as
the complete dissolution of European civilization which will, like
Asia, soon present but the ashes of a burnt-out flame. This is most
atheistic, godless, and un-christian doctrine, and he cannot himself
believe it. The art of printing and the rapid dissemination of
thought changes all these things in our days.
LETTER: To I.P.D.
April 10
This is the day of the "Great Chartist Meeting," which has terrified
all London to the last degree, I think most needlessly. The city
and town is at this moment stiller than I have ever known it, for
not a carriage dares to be out. Nothing is to be seen but a
"special constable" (every gentleman in London is sworn into that
office), occasionally some on foot, some on horseback, scouring the
streets. I took a drive early this morning with Mr. Bancroft, and
nothing could be less like the eve of a revolution. This evening,
when the petition is to be presented, may bring some disturbance,
not from the Chartists themselves, but from the disorderly persons
who may avail themselves of the occasion. The Queen left town on
Saturday for the Isle of Wight, as she had so lately been confined
it was feared her health might suffer from any agitation. . . . I
passed a long train of artillery on Saturday evening coming into
town, which was the most earnest looking thing I have seen. . . .
To-day we were to have dined at Mrs. Mansfield's, but her dinner was
postponed from the great alarm about the Chartists. There is not
the slightest danger of a revolution in England. The upper middle-
class, which on the continent is entirely with the people, the
professional and mercantile class, is here entirely conservative,
and without that class no great changes can ever be made. The Duc
de Montebello said of France, that he "knew there were lava streams
below, but he did not know the crust was so thin." Here, on the
contrary, the crust is very thick.
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