. . . 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.
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