You may spare your anxieties about me, for I do assure you, that if I
were an old Sevres China jar, I could not have more careful handling
than I do. Every body is considerate; a great deal to say, when there
appears to be so much excitement. Every body seems to understand how
good for nothing I am; and yet, with all this consideration, I have been
obliged to keep my room and bed for a good part of the time. One
agreeable feature of the matter is, it gave me an opportunity to make
the acquaintance of the celebrated homoeopathic physician, Dr.
Henderson, in whose experiments and experience I had taken some interest
while in America.
Of the multitudes who have called, I have seen scarcely any.
Mrs. W., with whom I am staying, is a most thoughtful nurse. They are
Friends, and nothing can be more a pattern of rational home enjoyment,
without ostentation and without parade, than a Quaker family.
Though they reject every thing in arrangement which savors of
ostentation and worldly show, yet their homes are exquisite in point of
comfort. They make great use of flowers and natural specimens in
adorning their apartments, and also indulge to a chaste and moderate
extent in engravings and works of art. So far as I have observed, they
are all "tee-totalers;" giving, in this respect, the whole benefit of
their example to the temperance cause.
To-morrow evening is to be the great tea party here. How in the world I
am ever to live through it, I don't know.
The amount of letters we found waiting for us here in Edinburgh was, if
possible, more appalling than in Glasgow. Among those from persons whom
you would be interested in hearing of, I may mention, a very kind and
beautiful one from the Duchess of Sutherland, and one also from the Earl
of Carlisle, both desiring to make appointments for meeting us as soon
as we come to London. Also a very kind and interesting note from the
Rev. Mr. Kingsley and lady. I look forward with a great deal of interest
to passing a little time with them in their rectory. Letters also from
Mr. Binney and Mr. Sherman, two of the leading Congregational clergymen
of London. The latter officiates at Surrey Chapel, which was established
by Rowland Hill. Both contain invitations to us to visit them in London.
As to all engagements, I am in a state of happy acquiescence, having
resigned myself, as a very tame lion, into the hands of my keepers.
Whenever the time comes for me to do any thing, I try to behave as well
as I can, which, as Dr. Young says, is all that an angel could do in the
same circumstances.
As to these letters, many of them are mere outbursts of feeling; yet
they are interesting as showing the state of the public mind. Many of
them are on kindred topics of moral reform, in which they seem to have
an intuitive sense that we should be interested. I am not, of course,
able to answer them all, but C---- does, and it takes a good part of
every day. One was from a shoemaker's wife in one of the islands, with a
copy of very fair verses. Many have come accompanying little keepsakes
and gifts. It seems to me rather touching and sad, that people should
want to give me things, when I am not able to give an interview, or even
a note, in return. C---- wrote from six to twelve o'clock, steadily,
answering letters.
April 26. Last night came off the _soirée_. The hall was handsomely
decorated with flags in front. We went with the lord provost in his
carriage. The getting in to the hall is quite an affair, I assure you,
the doorway is blocked up by such a dense crowd; yet there is something
very touching about these crowds. They open very gently and quietly, and
they do not look at you with a rude stare, but with faces full of
feeling and intelligence. I have seen some looks that were really
beautiful; they go to my heart. The common people appear as if they knew
that our hearts were with them. How else should it be, as Christians of
America?--a country which, but for one fault, all the world has reason
to love.
We went up, as before, into a dressing room, where I was presented to
many gentlemen and ladies. When we go in, the cheering, clapping, and
stamping at first strikes one with a strange sensation; but then every
body looks so heartily pleased and delighted, and there is such an
all-pervading atmosphere of geniality and sympathy, as makes one in a
few moments feel quite at home. After all I consider that these cheers
and applauses, are Scotland's voice to America, a recognition of the
brotherhood of the countries.
We were arranged at this meeting much as in Glasgow. The lord provost
presided; and in the gallery with us were distinguished men from the
magistracy, the university, and the ministry, with their wives, besides
the members of the antislavery societies. The lord provost, I am told,
has been particularly efficient in all benevolent operations, especially
those for the education of the poorer classes. He is also a zealous
supporter of the temperance cause.
Among the speakers, I was especially interested in Dr. Guthrie, who
seems to be also a particular favorite of the public. He is a tall, thin
man, with a kind of quaintness in his mode of expressing himself, which
sometimes gives an air of drollery to his speaking. He is a minister of
the Free Church, and has more particularly distinguished himself by his
exertions in behalf of the poorer classes.
One passage in his speech I will quote, for I was quite amused with it.
It was in allusion to the retorts which had been made in Mrs. Tyler's
letter to the ladies of England, on the defects in the old country.
"I do not deny," he said, "that there are defects in our country. What I
say of them is this--that they are incidental very much to an old
country like our own. Dr. Simpson knows very well, and so does every
medical man, that when a man gets old he gets very infirm, his blood
vessels get ossified, and so on; but I shall not enter into that part of
the subject. What is true of an old country is true of old men, and old
women, too. I am very much disposed to say of this young nation of
America, that their teasing us with our defects might just get the
answer which a worthy member of the church of Scotland gave to his son,
who was so dissatisfied with the defects in the church, that he was
determined to go over to a younger communion. 'Ah, Sandy, Sandy, man,
when your lum reeks as lang as ours, it will, may be, need sweeping
too.'[J] Now, I do not deny that we need sweeping; every body knows
that I have been singing out about sweeping for the last five years. Let
me tell my good friends in Edinburgh, and in the country, that the
sooner you sweep the better; for the chimney may catch fire, and reduce
your noble fabric to ashes.
"They told us in that letter about the poor needlewomen, that had to
work sixteen hours a day. ''Tis true, and pity 'tis 'tis true.' But does
the law compel them to work sixteen hours a day? I would like to ask the
writer of the letter. Are they bound down to their garrets and cellars
for sixteen hours a day? May they not go where they like, and ask better
wages and better work? Can the slave do that? Do they tell us of our
ragged children? I know something about ragged children. But are our
ragged children condemned to the street? If I, or the lord provost, or
any other benevolent man, should take one of them from the street and
bring it to the school, dare the policeman--miscalled officer of
justice--put his foot across the door to drag it out again to the
street? Nobody means to defend our defects; does any man attempt to
defend them? Were not these noble ladies and excellent women, titled and
untitled, among the very first to seek to redress them?"