Robert Meade came here last night and gave the good news of
the safety of the 'Parana.'
I have a letter from Fanny Kemble, dated December 27th. On
American affairs she says: 'As to going to war with America, I do not think
England will do it, for I am sure the Americans will do all they can to avert
such a catastrophe. In spite of their bragging, and their Bulls' Run, the
people are undoubtedly brave, and have plenty of pluck in them, but in
their present position of affairs, a conflict with England would simply be
impossible for them, and they are perfectly aware of it. Everybody without exception
is horrified at the idea of such a calamity, and where you have picked up the
idea that they are ambitious of having such a climax put to their disastrous
difficulties, I cannot conceive. If they are forced to fight, they will; for
whatever you may think to the contrary, they are not in the least cowardly;
but, wanting in common sense, as I do think they are (more than any people in
the world, I begin to think), they will assuredly do everything they can to
avert such a catastrophe, and I do hope most fervently that no evil feeling for
their past vulgar insolence and folly, and no desire to open their cotton
market for our uses again, will induce England to aggravate their present
troubles by taking any ungenerous advantage of them.
'You can form no idea of the difficulties these people have
had to struggle with, in their present contest with their rebellious Southern
States. You can form no idea, even by the miserable results that reach you, of
their state of ignorance and want of preparation for war—of the extraordinary
effects of the blessed conditions of prosperity under which they have hitherto
lived, in paralysing them at the beginning of a contest, for which they were
wholly unprepared. Their utter democracy, too, acts in a thousand ways as an impediment
to their getting up at once, and wielding effectually and suddenly their vast
means of offence and defence; but I do not believe that, for as bad a beginning
as they have made, they will not steadily carry out the purpose of reducing the
Seceding States to submission (whatever they may be able to do with them
hereafter); and remember that the French Armies of the Revolution were the
troops of a Government whose monstrous and ludicrous theories did not prevent
their soldiers from fighting well enough. These people are so absurd and so
offensive in all their demonstrations, that English people cannot,
in the midst of their amazement and disgust, conceive the difficulties they
have had to encounter, and the wonderful energy (all the more wonderful for
their ignorance) with which they have grappled with them. I am much shocked by
the news of Prince Albert's death. It is much to be deplored that his life
should thus have been prematurely shortened, for he was a worthy gentleman,
whose influence seems to me to have been excellent in the sphere in which he
exerted it, and who surely filled a difficult and not dignified position with
great discretion and good sense.'
SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the
Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 10-12
