Part 13 (1/2)

[28] An allusion to Napoleon's letters to Josephine from Italy, which she had been reading.

Peel had taken the first step towards feeding the poor at home. He had also done his best to relieve the immediate distress of Ireland. s.h.i.+ploads of Indian corn had been landed, and public works for the help of the dest.i.tute established up and down the country. But the chief grievance of the Irish, which was at the bottom of half the agrarian crime, had not been remedied.

The House of Lords, by having thrown out Peel's Bill for compensating outgoing tenants for improvements their own money or exertions had created, was largely responsible for the violence and sedition now threatening life and property throughout Ireland. The true remedy having been rejected by the Lords, the Government had to meet violence by violence. No sooner had the Corn Bill been pa.s.sed in the House of Commons than Peel brought in a stringent Sedition Bill for Ireland. Lord John and the Whigs disliked the Bill because it was extremely harsh.

_Lady John to Lord John Russell_

EDINBURGH, _March_ 12, 1846

Nothing that I read in the speeches in favour of the Coercion Bill convinced me that it would do the slightest good.... It must embitter the Irish against England, for which there is no need.

Nothing can be more shocking than the continual outrages and murders in Ireland; but it is the penalty we pay for a long course of misgovernment, and from which nothing but a long course of mild and good government can set us free; certainly not severe indiscriminate measures which mark out Ireland still more as an unhappy conquered province, instead of a part of the nation. Such are my sentiments, dearest, on this subject, which always makes my blood boil.... I read the ”Giaour” two nights ago to Addy--it has as great and as numerous beauties as any poem Byron ever wrote--but I find I am not old enough, or wise enough, or good enough to _bear_ Byron, and left off feeling miserable, as he always contrives to make one; despair is what he excels in, and he makes it such beautiful despair that all sense of right or wrong is overwhelmed by it. I said to Addy that one always requires an antidote after reading Byron, and that she and I ought instantly to go and hem pocket-handkerchiefs, or make a pudding--and that is what she has ill.u.s.trated in the newspaper I send.

_Lord John to Lady John Russell_

HOUSE OF COMMONS, _March_, 1846

Your views about the Irish Coercion Bill are very natural; but Bessborough, who is the best authority we have about Irish matters, thinks it will tend to stop crime--and especially the crime of murder. I should be loath to throw out a Bill which may have this good effect; but I shall move a resolution which will pledge the House to measures of remedy and conciliation. This may lead to a great debate.... The little girls look very nice, but Toza [29] is, if possible, thinner than ever. However, she laughs and dances like a little fairy. I dined with Mrs. Drummond yesterday. Macaulay [30]

was there--entertaining, and not too much of a monopolist--I mean of talk--which, like other monopolies, is very disagreeable.

[29] Victoria.

[30] Lord John had written to his wife in April, 1845: ”Macaulay made one of his splendid speeches again last night.... He is a wonderful man, and must with the years before him be a great leader.”

_Lady John to Lord John Russell_

EDINBURGH, _March_ 19, 1846

After dinner we drove to Portobello sands and there got out and walked for an hour; the sea was of the brightest blue, covered with sails; Inchkeith and the opposite coast so clear that every inequality of hill or rock was seen; Arthur's Seat, grand and snowy, was behind us, and the glittering sands under our feet--the whole beautiful far beyond description and beyond what I have yet seen it in any weather; for the east wind and bright sun are what it requires. How I did wish for you! I need not say that I only half enjoyed it, as I only half enjoy anything without you. My comfort in your absence is to think that you are not taken from me for nothing, but for your country's service; and that even if we could have foreseen four years ago all the various anxieties and trials that awaited us, we should have married all the same. As it was, we knew that ours could not be a life of quiet ease; and it was for me to decide whether I was able to face the reverse--and I _did_ decide, and I _am_ able--

”Io lo cercai, fui preso Dall' alta indole sua, dal suo gran nome; Pensai dapprima, oh pensai che incarco E l'amor d'un uomo che a gli' altri e sopra!

Perche allor correr, solo io nol lasciai La sua splendida via, s' io non potea Seguire i pa.s.si suoi?”

Now I am sure you do not know where those lines are from. They are a wee bit altered from Manzoni's ”Carmagnola”; and they struck me so much, when I read them to-day, as applicable to you and me, and made me think of your ”splendida via” and all its results.

_Lady John to Lord John Russell_

EDINBURGH, _March_ 23, 1846

Thanks for your precious letter of Sat.u.r.day. You need not grieve at having brought cares and anxieties ... upon me. You have given me a love that repays them all; and such words as you write in that letter strengthen me for all that our ”splendida via” may entail upon us, however contrary to my natural tastes or trying to my natural feelings. What a delightful hope you give of your getting away on the 2nd--but I am too wise to build upon it.

_Lady John to Lord John Russell_

EDINBURGH, _March_ 25, 1846

.... There is a calmness and fairness and _depth_ in conversation here which one seldom meets with in London, where people are too much taken up by the present to dwell upon the past, or look forward to the future--and where consequently pa.s.sion and prejudice are mixed up with most that one hears. Dante, and Milton, and Shakespeare, etc., have little chance amid the hubbub of the great city--but with all its faults, the great city is the place in the world I most wish to see again.... At poor Lady Holland's one _did_ hear the sort of conversation I find here, and surely you must miss not only her but her house very much.

_Lord John to Lady John Russell_