East Sheen, September 22, 1861.
My Dearest Mother:
I am writing you a little note again. I can do no more until such time as we
shall be settled at Vienna. We came down here last evening to spend Sunday with
your old friends Mr. and Mrs. Bates. He is the same excellent, kindly old
gentleman he always was, and is as stanch an American and as firm a believer in
the ultimate success of our cause as if he had never left Boston.
. . . I have lost no time since I have been in England, for
almost every day I have had interesting conversations with men connected with
the government or engaged in public affairs.
There will be no foreign interference, certainly none from England,
unless we be utterly defeated in our present struggle. We spent a few days with
our friends the De Greys in Yorkshire. During my visit I went up to the north
of Scotland to pass a couple of days with Lord John Russell at Abergeldie. It
is an old Scotch castle, which formerly belonged to a family of Gordon of
Abergeldie. The country is wild and pretty about it, with mountains clothed in
purple heather all round, the Dee winding its way through a pleasant valley, and
the misty heights of Lochnagar, sung by Byron in his younger days, crowning the
scene whenever the clouds permit that famous summit to be visible.
I was received with the greatest kindness. There were no
visitors at the house, for both Lord and Lady Russell are the most domestic
people in the world, and are glad to escape from the great whirl of London
society as much as they can. In the afternoons we went with the children out in
the woods, making fires, boiling a kettle, and making tea al fresco with
water from the Dee, which, by the way, is rather coffee-colored, and ascending
hills to get peeps of the prospects.
Most of my time, however, was spent in long and full
conversations tete-a-tete with Lord John (it is impossible to call him by his
new title of Earl Russell).
The cotton-manufacturers are straining every nerve to supply
themselves with cotton from India and other sources. But it seems rather a
desperate attempt to break up the Southern monopoly, however galling it is to
them.
I can only repeat, everything depends upon ourselves, upon
what we do. There are a few papers, like the “Daily News,” the “Star,” and the “Spectator,”
which sustain our cause with cordiality, vigor, and talent.
The real secret of the exultation which manifests itself in
the “Times” and other organs over our troubles and disasters is their hatred
not to America so much as to democracy in England. We shall be let alone long
enough for us to put down this mutiny if we are ever going to do it. And I
firmly believe it will be done in a reasonable time, and I tell everybody here
that the great Republic will rise from the conflict stronger than ever, and
will live to plague them many a long year.
. . . We shall probably remain another week in London, for I
have not yet seen Lord Palmerston, whom I am most anxious to have some talk
with, and he is expected to-morrow in London. While I was stopping with Lord
John, the queen sent to intimate that she would be pleased if I would make a
visit at Balmoral, which is their Highland home, about one and a half miles
from Abergeldie. Accordingly, Lord John went over with me in his carriage. We
were received entirely without ceremony by the Prince Consort (we were all
dressed in the plainest morning costumes), who conversed very pleasantly with us,
and I must say there was never more got out of the weather than we managed to
extract from it on this occasion. After we had been talking some twenty minutes
the door opened, and her Majesty, in a plain black gown, walked quietly into
the room, and I was presented with the least possible ceremony by the Prince
Consort. I had never seen her before, but the little photographs in every
shop-window of Boston or London give you an exact representation of her.
They are so faithful that I do not feel that I know her
appearance now better than I did before. Her voice is very agreeable and her
smile pleasant. She received me very politely, said something friendly about my
works, and then alluded with interest to the great pleasure which the Prince of
Wales had experienced in his visit to America.
The Prince Consort spoke with great animation on the same
subject. There is not much more to be said in regard to the interview. I
thought that the sending for me was intended as a compliment to the United
States, and a mark of respect to one of its representatives.
Most affectionately
your son,
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 204-7
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