Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, at the Athenaeum, to Elizabeth Reid, [no address], 26 February 1848. 

30 Russell Square

26th Feb 48

Athenaeum

My dear Mrs Reid –

       I must attend the ballot here next Friday ^Monday^, because there is an unfortunate friend of mine coming on for election with scarcely any support And sure to be blackballed unless he have a few active partisans – And the ballotting hours are the worst for your party between 9 & 11 –

       What can make you congratulate me on the French news? Could I think only of Louis Philippe I should rejoice at an act of signal poetic justice But the yet uncertain events of last years war by which civilization may be retarded for centuries – I do not say that this will be the result – But the peril is tremendous – If the party for the moment in power be so rash as to declare a republic (which is the last report), a civil war will probably follow And it is to be feared that the great military powers will not have yet turned wisdom enough to let the parties in France fight it out, which would be the best thing for Europe

       If France be united I scarcely think that they would again commit the enormous blunder of attacking the united country without the aid of England, which they could not have –

       I do not deny that this transaction has its beau citè – The worst is; That we not unfrequently see that the people who are capable of bursts of heroic courage want intelligence to avail themselves of the victory their valor carried – So insensible are the French to the worth of real liberty & justice that they would willingly support L: Ph: in his worst actions. The glory of obtaining Spain justified in their eyes his unparalleled atrocity towards the unhappy Queen

       Of Liberty they know & care nothing It is only Equality – This is the national character I can have no pleasure on in or entertain any hope from the success of such a people – nothing more likely than that they will elect a military emperor Only I am not aware that the man is at hand – What would they not give for a second Napoleon!

                                    &c &c &c

                                                 H. C. Robinson 

Mrs Reid

No Address, Postmark, or Endorsement.

Text:  BC/RF/103/4/7, Royal Holloway University of London.