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. And yet I can see in the most
conservative circles that a feeling is gaining ground that some
concessions must be made. An enlargement of the suffrage one hears
now often discussed as, perhaps, an approaching necessity.
Friday, April 14
The day of the Chartists passed off with most ridiculous quiet, and
the government is stronger than ever.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 95 of 117
Words from 25188 to 25447
of 30995
