April 10
This is the day of the "Great Chartist Meeting,"which has terrified all London to the last degree,I think most needlessly.The city and town is at this moment stiller than I have ever known it,for not a carriage dares to be out.Nothing is to be seen but a "special constable"(every gentleman in London is sworn into that office),occasionally some on foot,some on horseback,scouring the streets.I took a drive early this morning with Mr.Bancroft,and nothing could be less like the eve of a revolution.This evening,when the petition is to be presented,may bring some disturbance,not from the Chartists themselves,but from the disorderly persons who may avail themselves of the occasion.The Queen left town on Saturday for the Isle of Wight,as she had so lately been confined it was feared her health might suffer from any agitation....Ipassed a long train of artillery on Saturday evening coming into town,which was the most earnest looking thing I have seen....
To-day we were to have dined at Mrs.Mansfield's,but her dinner was postponed from the great alarm about the Chartists.There is not the slightest danger of a revolution in England.The upper middle-class,which on the continent is entirely with the people,the professional and mercantile class,is here entirely conservative,and without that class no great changes can ever be made.The Duc de Montebello said of France,that he "knew there were lava streams below,but he did not know the crust was so thin."Here,on the contrary,the crust is very thick.And yet I can see in the most conservative circles that a feeling is gaining ground that some concessions must be made.An enlargement of the suffrage one hears now often discussed as,perhaps,an approaching necessity.
Friday,April 14
The day of the Chartists passed off with most ridiculous quiet,and the government is stronger than ever....If the Alien Bill passes,our American friends must mind their p's and q's,for if they praise the "model republic"too loudly,they may be packed off at any time,particularly if they have "long beards,"for it seems to be an axiom here that beards,mustaches,and barricades are cousins-german at least....Mr.Bancroft goes to Paris on Monday,the 17th,to pass the Easter holidays.He will go on with his manuscripts,and at the same time witness the elections and meeting of the Convention.
