The Henson Journals

[51]

Tuesday, June 1st, 1909.

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"Residence in the Court of London" by Richard Rush. Minister from the United States from 1817 to 1825 3rd Ed. 1892.

The writer describes a conversation with Lord Erskine on June 7 1818 in which Burke was mentioned:–

'What a prodigy Burke was! He exclaimed. 'He came to see me not long before he died. I then lived on Hampstead Hill. 'Come Erskine' said he, holding out his hand, 'let us forget all; I shall soon quit this stage, & wish to die in peace with everybody, especially you'. I reciprocated his sentiments, & we took a turn round the grounds. Suddenly he stopped. An extensive prospect broke upon him. He stood rapt in thought. Gazing on the sky, as the sun was setting, 'Ah! Erskine', he said, pointing towards it, 'you cannot spoil that because you cannot reach it; it would otherwise go; yes, the firmament itself – you & your reformers would tear it down: .......

Desiring to hear something of Burke's delivery from so high a source I asked him about it. "It was execrable" he said. "I was in the House of Commons when he made his great speech on American conciliation, the greatest he ever made. He drove everybody away. I wanted to go out with the rest, but was near him & afraid to get up; [52] so I squeezed myself down & crawled under the benches like a dog, until I got to the door without his seeing me, rejoicing in my escape. Next day I went to the Isle of Wight. When the speech followed me there, I read it over & over again; I could hardly think of anything else I carried it about me, thumbed it, until it got like wadding for my gun". Here he broke out with a quotation from the passages beginning, "But what, says the financier, is peace without money?" which he gave with a fervour, showing he felt it. He said that he was in the House when he threw a dagger on the floor, in his speech on the French Revolution, & it "had like to have hit my foot". "It was a sad failure", he added, "but Burke could bear it". p 237–239.

We went to the station where I paid 16 dollars for a drawing room car to Chicago. Then we went to the Congress Library, & found Mr Putnam, the Librarian, was away. The assistant–librarian showed us great courtesy, and explained the arrangements of the Library very thoroughly. We spent more than 1 1/2 hours pleasantly: & then came home for luncheon, shadowed always by the portentous & now imminent task of PACKING. I wrote to Harold & to Stokes ament the MS. of my lectures, which were sent to Newhaven yesterday.

[53]

We left Washington at 5.45 p.m. comfortably – the term of course is relative – accommodated in a "drawing room. The arrangement of the windows designed to keep out dust & ashes is unfavourable to sight–seeing. The dinner was bad & costly. Our negro was also slow in preparing our bed, so that we did not turn in until after 11 p.m.

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