Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to Elizabeth Reid, [no address], undated [c. 1863].

My dear Mrs Reid.

       Your letter, without date, has just been forwarded to me, having been inclosed by accident in a letter as appears by the envelope inclosed –

       I have a double engagement which puts it out of my power to come to you tomorrow. I am engaged to dine with Dr Rees, but I shall probably be unable to go because I must attend the Committee on the Bill in the Ho: of Commons.

       What a glorious Triumph of the cause of religious liberty! We have had nothing like it for many years I have no doubt you read every word in the commons debate It was delightful to find all the talent on the right side And that the intolerants were such dunces –! I called the other evening on you to exchange congratulations with you –

       As to the question – To be or not to be applied to your generous scheme – I am unwilling to interpose with my opinion because it is one of the vices of my character using the word in an unusual sense – Perhaps weakness or more applicable, but that does not serve – precisely But the fact is I want courage – And I am always more sharpsighted to objections & difficulties than to the means of removing them And that is a great fault –

       I thought the idea of obtaining such a bill as the one that is now so manfully fighting its way thro’ the commons, very absurd –

        I thought the scheme of the Political Economy to be quite ridiculous & sure to fail

       What a happiness that I had not a voice on either of those occasions that might have defeated the enterprise --          

                         “Push the lore that deadens young desire”

As to your meeting: The doctrine expressed in the line above is a memento that I ought not to give any opinion on the subject But I will call soon on you – In the mean while allow me to caution you against a mistake into which ardent & generous natures are ever prone to fall – And into which I know you have fallen in three several instances in connection with this the scheme of your’s That of mistaking a warm wish that a thing could be alone, an approbation of the object if attainable, for with a belief in the attainability & a readiness to concur in measures for securing it – I have been told by two of th your friends, they speaking on the subject to me & not I to them, that I had enterd heartily into your views – And where I was induced by this to state more fully what I thought I was answerd in both instances – Oh that’s precisely our opinion

       Do not my dear Madam be hurt at this for I should be unjust to myself if I did not repeat to you what I have said to others whenever I had an occasion –

       “I love Mrs R. more for her failures than I do other people for their successes[”] –

       Believe me my dear Madam

             With the highest esteem

                         &c &c &c

                                     H. C. Robinson

30 Russell Square

Text: BC/RF/103/4/29, Royal Holloway University of London.