Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to Lady Anne Isabella Byron, [no address], 14 April 1855.

[f. 93r]

Athenaeum

for 30 Russell Square

London

14th April 1855

Dear Lady Byron          

       I am gratified by your letters, And yet in the last particularly, there are points in which I have not the courage to contradict you, and yet ^tho’^ I cannot assent to several of your remarks. You know that the line under a word is sometimes more important than the word underlined – “Can you think there is adequate security for the conduct of it [the Review] when the names of the Editors are witheld from me at least” –

       Had you merely said “I cannot feel sufficient confidence since the names of the editors are not made known to me” I could not have answerd the Qun but in the expected way – I certainly have not been more definitely employed than yourself informed than yourself on any subject than yourself intentionally And it is impossible that there could have been any wilful slight – “witheld” implied more than the mere absence of information.          

       And I shall feel surprised that the Prospective [f. 93v] should be thought too Unitarian in the Sectarian Sense – I know no men who carry the comprehension further than J. J. T and J. M. who were to me the guarantees of liberality – I should suppose no one thinks ^a truth^ “better for being shut up in a book” But a book may contain a truth more distinctly than nature or as much as the beholder of nature is left to draw his own inference – but the book is express

       It cannot I should think be said that separation is the fault of the deliverer of a message which those to whom it was addressed would not receive it. This remark applies to your words rather than the spirit of your declaration in favour of natural religion

       As to the young men one of whom you suppose I “know you greatly mistrust” I really shod not have thought I could properly say more than that I suspected you mistrusted him – And that I should have said with reference only to his business of qualifications not his moral fitness—I know no untried young men of whom the same might not be said – that is by any one who required a degree of confidence which I thought you did not require.

       But I must break off – I hope you have not abandoned the scheme plan thought of coming to the neighbourhood of London, and that I may still indulge the hope of seeing you.

       I have not yet given my answer for I have not yet had the required information to those who are striving to set up the Rev: Mr J. J. T. is in the Country. The whole affair has very much troubled me – I read your letter to Miss Goldsmid  She is gratified by your expressions of approbation of course, I entirely agree with you, but have not yet read the English translation as it deserves to [f. 94r] be read – I hope to be able soon to speak with more satisfaction on the subject – But my faculties are daily declining both in the power of comprehension & retention –

             I am dear Lady Byron

                         &c &c &c

                                     H. C. Robinson

The Lady Noel Byron

Text:  MS-DEP Lovelace-Byron 109, fols. 93-94, Bodleian Library, Oxford.