Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle Part 45

'I cannot accept your kind invitation. I must be at home at Easter, on two or three accounts connected with sermons to be preached, parsons to be entertained, Mechanics' Inst.i.tute meetings and tea-drinkings to be solemnised, and ere long I have promised to go and see Mrs. Gaskell; but till this wintry weather is pa.s.sed, I would rather eschew visiting anywhere. I trust that bad cold of yours is _quite_ well, and that you will take good care of yourself in future.

That night work is always perilous.--Yours faithfully,

'C. BRONTE.'

TO MISS WOOLER

'HAWORTH, _April_ 13_th_, 1851.

'MY DEAR MISS WOOLER,--Your last kind letter ought to have been answered long since, and would have been, did I find it practicable to proportion the prompt.i.tude of the response to the value I place upon my correspondents and their communications. You will easily understand, however, that the contrary rule often holds good, and that the epistle which importunes often takes precedence of that which interests.

'My publishers express entire satisfaction with the reception which has been accorded to _Villette_, and indeed the majority of the reviews has been favourable enough; you will be aware, however, that there is a minority, small in number but influential in character, which views the work with no favourable eye. Currer Bell's remarks on Romanism have drawn down on him the condign displeasure of the High Church party, which displeasure has been unequivocally expressed through their princ.i.p.al organs--the _Guardian_, the _English Churchman_, and the _Christian Remembrancer_. I can well understand that some of the charges launched against me by those publications will tell heavily to my prejudice in the minds of most readers--but this must be borne; and for my part, I can suffer no accusation to oppress me much which is not supported by the inward evidence of conscience and reason.

'"Extremes meet," says the proverb; in proof whereof I would mention that Miss Martineau finds with _Villette_ nearly the same fault as the Puseyites. She accuses me with attacking popery "with virulence," of going out of my way to a.s.sault it "pa.s.sionately." In other respects she has shown with reference to the work a spirit so strangely and unexpectedly acrimonious, that I have gathered courage to tell her that the gulf of mutual difference between her and me is so wide and deep, the bridge of union so slight and uncertain, I have come to the conclusion that frequent intercourse would be most perilous and unadvisable, and have begged to adjourn _sine die_ my long projected visit to her. Of course she is now very angry, and I know her bitterness will not be short-lived--but it cannot be helped.

'Two or three weeks since I received a long and kind letter from Mr.

White, which I answered a short time ago. I believe Mr. White thinks me a much hotter advocate for _change_ and what is called "political progress" than I am. However, in my reply, I did not touch on these subjects. He intimated a wish to publish some of his own MSS. I fear he would hardly like the somewhat dissuasive tendency of my answer; but really, in these days of headlong compet.i.tion, it is a great risk to publish. If all be well, I purpose going to Manchester next week to spend a few days with Mrs. Gaskell. Ellen's visit to Yarmouth seems for the present given up; and really, all things considered, I think the circ.u.mstance is scarcely to be regretted.

'Do you not think, my dear Miss Wooler, that you could come to Haworth before you go to the coast? I am afraid that when you once get settled at the sea-side your stay will not be brief. I must repeat that a visit from you would be antic.i.p.ated with pleasure, not only by me, but by every inmate of Haworth Parsonage. Papa has given me a general commission to send his respects to you whenever I write--accept them, therefore, and--Believe me, yours affectionately and sincerely,

'C. BRONTE.'

CHAPTER XIV: WILLIAM SMITH WILLIAMS

In picturing the circle which surrounded Charlotte Bronte through her brief career, it is of the utmost importance that a word of recognition should be given, and that in no half-hearted manner, to Mr. William Smith Williams, who, in her later years, was Charlotte Bronte's most intimate correspondent. The letters to Mr. Williams are far and away the best that Charlotte wrote, at least of those which have been preserved. They are full of literary enthusiasm and of intellectual interest. They show Charlotte Bronte's sound judgment and good heart more effectually than any other material which has been placed at the disposal of biographers.

They are an honour both to writer and receiver, and, in fact, reflect the mind of the one as much as the mind of the other. Charlotte has emphasised the fact that she adapted herself to her correspondents, and in her letters to Mr. Williams we have her at her very best. Mr.

Williams occupied for many years the post of 'reader' in the firm of Smith & Elder. That is a position scarcely less honourable and important than authorship itself. In our own days Mr. George Meredith and Mr. John Morley have been 'readers,' and Mr. James Payn has held the same post in the firm which published the Bronte novels.

Mr. Williams, who was born in 1800, and died in 1875, had an interesting career even before he became a.s.sociated with Smith & Elder. In his younger days he was apprenticed to Taylor & Hessey of Fleet Street; and he used to relate how his boyish ideals of Coleridge were shattered on beholding, for the first time, the bulky and ponderous figure of the great talker. When Keats left England, for an early grave in Rome, it was Mr. Williams who saw him off. Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and many other well-known men of letters were friendly with Mr. Williams from his earliest days, and he had for brother-in-law, Wells, the author of _Joseph and his Brethren_. In his a.s.sociation with Smith & Elder he secured the friendship of Thackeray, of Mrs. Gaskell, and of many other writers. He attracted the notice of Ruskin by a keen enthusiasm for the work of Turner. It was he, in fact, who compiled that most interesting volume of _Selections from the writings of John Ruskin_, which has long gone out of print in its first form, but is still greatly sought for by the curious. In connection with this volume I may print here a letter written by John Ruskin's father to Mr. Williams, and I do so the more readily, as Mr. Williams's name was withheld from the t.i.tle-page of the _Selections_.

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

DENMARK HILL, 25_th November_, 1861.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I am requested by Mrs. Ruskin to return her very sincere and grateful thanks for your kind consideration in presenting her with so beautifully bound a copy of the _Selections_ from her son's writings; and which she will have great pleasure in seeing by the side of the very magnificent volumes which the liberality of the gentlemen of your house has already enriched our library with.

'Mrs. Ruskin joins me in offering congratulations on the great judgment you have displayed in your _Selections_, and, sending my own thanks and those of my son for the handsome gift to Mrs. Ruskin,--I am, my dear sir, yours very truly,

'JOHN JAMES RUSKIN.'

What Charlotte Bronte thought of Mr. Williams is sufficiently revealed by the mult.i.tude of letters which I have the good fortune to print, and that she had a reason to be grateful to him is obvious when we recollect that to him, and to him alone, was due her first recognition. The parcel containing _The Professor_ had wandered from publisher to publisher before it came into the hands of Mr. Williams. It was he who recognised what all of us recognise now, that in spite of faults it is really a most considerable book. I am inclined to think that it was refused by Smith & Elder rather on account of its insufficient length than for any other cause. At any rate it was the length which was a.s.signed to her as a reason for non-acceptance. She was told that another book, which would make the accredited three volume novel, might receive more favourable consideration.

Charlotte Bronte took Mr. Williams's advice. She wrote _Jane Eyre_, and despatched it quickly to Smith & Elder's house in Cornhill. It was read by Mr. Williams, and read afterwards by Mr. George Smith; and it was published with the success that we know. Charlotte awoke to find herself famous. She became a regular correspondent with Mr. Williams, and not less than a hundred letters were sent to him, most of them treating of interesting literary matters.

One of Mr. Williams's daughters, I may add, married Mr. Lowes d.i.c.kenson the portrait painter; his youngest child, a baby when Miss Bronte was alive, is famous in the musical world as Miss Anna Williams. The family has an abundance of literary and artistic a.s.sociation, but the father we know as the friend and correspondent of Charlotte Bronte. He still lives also in the memory of a large circle as a kindly and attractive--a singularly good and upright man.

Comment upon the following letters is in well-nigh every case superfluous.

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_February_ 25_th_ 1848.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I thank you for your note; its contents moved me much, though not to unmingled feelings of exultation. Louis Philippe (unhappy and sordid old man!) and M. Guizot doubtless merit the sharp lesson they are now being taught, because they have both proved themselves men of dishonest hearts. And every struggle any nation makes in the cause of Freedom and Truth has something n.o.ble in it--something that makes me wish it success; but I cannot believe that France--or at least Paris--will ever be the battle-ground of true Liberty, or the scene of its real triumphs. I fear she does not know "how genuine glory is put on." Is that strength to be found in her which will not bend "but in magnanimous meekness"? Have not her "unceasing changes" as yet always brought "perpetual emptiness"? Has Paris the materials within her for thorough reform? Mean, dishonest Guizot being discarded, will any better successor be found for him than brilliant, unprincipled Thiers?

'But I damp your enthusiasm, which I would not wish to do, for true enthusiasm is a fine feeling whose flash I admire wherever I see it.

'The little note inclosed in yours is from a French lady, who asks my consent to the translation of _Jane Eyre_ into the French language.

I thought it better to consult you before I replied. I suppose she is competent to produce a decent translation, though one or two errors of orthography in her note rather afflict the eye; but I know that it is not unusual for what are considered well-educated French women to fail in the point of writing their mother tongue correctly.

But whether competent or not, I presume she has a right to translate the book with or without my consent. She gives her address: Mdlle B--- {373} W. c.u.mming, Esq., 23 North Bank, Regent's Park.

'Shall I reply to her note in the affirmative?

'Waiting your opinion and answer,--I remain, dear sir, yours faithfully,

'C. BELL.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_February_ 28_th_, 1848.

'DEAR SIR,--I have done as you advised me respecting Mdlle B---, thanked her for her courtesy, and explained that I do not wish my consent to be regarded in the light of a formal sanction of the translation.

'From the papers of Sat.u.r.day I had learnt the abdication of Louis Philippe, the flight of the royal family, and the proclamation of a republic in France. Rapid movements these, and some of them difficult of comprehension to a remote spectator. What sort of spell has withered Louis Philippe's strength? Why, after having so long infatuatedly clung to Guizot, did he at once ign.o.bly relinquish him?

Was it panic that made him so suddenly quit his throne and abandon his adherents without a struggle to retain one or aid the other?

'Perhaps it might have been partly fear, but I daresay it was still more long-gathering weariness of the dangers and toils of royalty.

Few will pity the old monarch in his flight, yet I own he seems to me an object of pity. His sister's death shook him; years are heavy on him; the sword of Damocles has long been hanging over his head. One cannot forget that monarchs and ministers are only human, and have only human energies to sustain them; and often they are sore beset.

Party spirit has no mercy; indignant Freedom seldom shows forbearance in her hour of revolt. I wish you _could_ see the aged gentleman trudging down Cornhill with his umbrella and carpet-bag, in good earnest; he would be safe in England: John Bull might laugh at him but he would do him no harm.

'How strange it appears to see literary and scientific names figuring in the list of members of a Provisional Government! How would it sound if Carlyle and Sir John Herschel and Tennyson and Mr. Thackeray and Douglas Jerrold were selected to manufacture a new const.i.tution for England? Whether do such men sway the public mind most effectually from their quiet studies or from a council-chamber?

'And Thiers is set aside for a time; but won't they be glad of him by-and-by? Can they set aside entirely anything so clever, so subtle, so accomplished, so aspiring--in a word, so thoroughly French, as he is? Is he not the man to bide his time--to watch while unskilful theorists try their hand at administration and fail; and then to step out and show them how it should be done?

'One would have thought political disturbance the natural element of a mind like Thiers'; but I know nothing of him except from his writings, and I always think he writes as if the shade of Bonaparte were walking to and fro in the room behind him and dictating every line he pens, sometimes approaching and bending over his shoulder, _pour voir de ses yeux_ that such an action or event is represented or misrepresented (as the case may be) exactly as he wishes it.

Thiers seems to have contemplated Napoleon's character till he has imbibed some of its nature. Surely he must be an ambitious man, and, if so, surely he will at this juncture struggle to rise.

'You should not apologise for what you call your "crudities." You know I like to hear your opinions and views on whatever subject it interests you to discuss.

'From the little inscription outside your note I conclude you sent me the _Examiner_. I thank you therefore for your kind intention and am sorry some unscrupulous person at the Post Office frustrated it, as no paper has reached my hands. I suppose one ought to be thankful that letters are respected, as newspapers are by no means sure of safe conveyance.--I remain, dear sir, yours sincerely,

'C. BELL.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_May_ 12_th_, 1848.