1853 E. V. B. 13 and delicacy of the complex tracery of branches was seen distinctly to the smallest twig in the nearer trees. There was almost the same feeling of admiration for successful elaboration and perfect execution that might have been felt in looking at a picture of the subject. The children have been much enjoying their time here, and the variety of company in the drawing-room and housekeeper's room is useful in diverting F―'s attention from books, in which he is apt to get too much immersed.—Yours affectionately, W. F. P. LONDON, 17th February 1853. DEAR E.-We were on Saturday at Madame Bunsen's, at your uncle's old house in Carlton Terrace, now bought for the Prussian minister at the Court of St. James. There is a colossal bust of Frederick the Great on the staircase. I suppose it has the largest cocked-hat and feathers which ever figured in a work of art. The floor of the long drawing-room is inlaid with polished wood, and has no carpet. Altogether the house is now very handsome, and all in good taste. We had some people dining with us last week, and among them a very charming and clever person,—the E. V. B. of Child's Play,—which you may have seen in Montagu Square. She is Mrs. Boyle,-a daughter-in-law of Lord Cork, and her husband has a living near Frome, where Mr. Bennett is playing his fantastic tricks before high heaven; and we are much delighted with her, and regret that we are not likely, from her residence in the country, ever to see much of her. We met her at Eastlake's; but I fancy she and J- knew something of each other beforehand, by Boxall's description of one to the other of them. J— On Monday Master Walter will be three years old, and is 14 IRELAND AND THE JEWS 1853 going to entertain some of his young friends with a conjuror. Yours affectionately, W. F. P. 18th April.-Evening at Mrs. Carrick Moore's in Clarges Street. Faraday, Babbage, Lyells, Mrs. Jameson, Lady Eastlake, John Murray, Sir C. Fellowes, etc. 19th April.-Evening at Chauncey Hare Townsend's. Dickens, Bunsen, F. Stone, Millais, Derwent Coleridges, Samuel Laurence, Dr. Elliotson, Leach, etc. 23d April 1853. DEAR E.-You say that the Irish take a great interest in the Jews. I wonder if this feeling is as old as Cromwell's time, and whether it prompted him to his scheme of selling Ireland to the Jews, and letting them build a national temple in Dublin. Generally speaking, one would say that the interest taken in the Jews anywhere is not so great as the interest taken by them, and perhaps the want of scope for the latter development of interest in Ireland may leave room for the former.-Yours affectionately, W. F. P. 15th May. With Boxall to Marochetti's studio, in Onslow Square. Saw his figure of Prince Arthur and head of Lord Lansdowne. Introduced to Count Massimo d'Azeglio, who was painting in one of the rooms. 23d May. At dinner W. B. Donne, Spedding, Lear, Copley Fielding. 1853 ST. MARK'S, CHELSEA 15 LONDON, 31st May 1853. DEAR E.-We had L—O— dining with us the other day. He does not seem to find Scots Law more to his taste than our English commodity in that line. He was full of "turning tables," and a great believer in all the foolish things that are current about them. Perhaps you would like to hear the most wonderful story on this subject. It was during the late cold weather, when everybody was suffering from influenza, that a table surrounded by a circle of devotees was so much affected by their "vital influence" that it actually gave a loud sneeze, and another table in the same room immediately said, “God bless you!" One day last week we were at a very pretty entertainment at St. Mark's, Chelsea. It was the birthday of Christabel Coleridge, and was celebrated by a child's party in the garden. Fairy wands with flowers had been prepared for the children, and they ran about in groups, or one by one, like little Arcadians. Then there were many of the redcoated boys from the Military School, with their juvenile band to play marches and country-dance tunes, while the boys and girls made merry round a May-pole. It was a real children's party, with nothing unchildlike, or which children could not or might not enjoy. F—— was much delighted. Yours affectionately, W. F. P. 3d June.-Presided as one of the Masters at the examination of articled clerks for admission as attorneys at the Law Institution, and dined with the Council. I was much dissatisfied with the system under which the examination was at this time conducted, when the candidates were 16 EXAMINING AT LAW INSTITUTION 1853 either simply passed or plucked, and there were no means of recognising the credit due to those who had distinguished themselves by their answers. I wrote to Lord Campbell, as Lord Chief Justice, on the subject, and received an answer favourable to the adoption of honorary distinctions, and this was the beginning of the award of honours in these examinations, which has since prevailed. At this or on some subsequent occasion I got from one candidate for admission to practice as an attorney as answer to the question, "Can a minor sue, or be sued, on a promise to marry?"—" No, because marriage is not a necessary." To the question, "What is a charter-party?" came for answer, "A charter-party is the party who charters a ship." LONDON, 5th July 1853. MY DEAR E.—On Friday we are to have the pleasure of a visit to Macready for a week. His patient endurance of the greatest sorrows that can befall a man has more than ever endeared him to us, and we hope that our visit may help to dispel some of the sadness which must always remain in his house. Touching the "moving tables," I suppose that Faraday's letter printed in the Times has satisfied all sensible people, although I do see that a philosopher in Southwark thinks his experiments "unfair." For the other folly of the day 1853 SPIRITUAL IMPOSTURES 17 which you mention, I wonder at you writing of it so seriously, for I have always thought the spirit-rapping business one of the most culpable and degrading impostures ever practised upon the superstitious and weak-minded, and having upon its front all the indicia of fraud. Conceive the abominable imposture of a supposed conversation with Sir John Franklin ! I want no other spirits to assist me in the comprehension of the mystery of "rapping" than the spirit of making money, which has been potent to transfer some of that master-mover of all things from the pockets of some fools to those of the pretenders to the art of conversing with the dead. As to the particular explanation of how the fraud is practised, I am no more bound to be able precisely to explain it than how M. Houdin, or any other amuser of the public, contrives to pour champagne, port, and sherry out of the same bottle, or to extract an inexhaustible supply of bouquets from the inside of a hat. No doubt it involves some clever contrivances, enormous impudence, and a good deal of close observation of character and of what goes on in the room, and, above all, a boundless reliance upon the gullibility of mankind, which is the grand article in the stock in trade of all charlatans— political, legal, psychological, or otherwise and upon the chapter of accidents and lucky coincidences, which probably furnish them with their most successful hits. I have not attended, and do not mean to attend, any of these performances, which, besides their folly and fraud, are said to be the dullest affairs possible.-Yours affectionately, W. F. P. In the summer we paid a second visit to Macready at Sherborne, and passed the greater VOL. II C |