ayard.

1852.

[Sidenote: Mr. James Bower Harrison.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, TAVISTOCK SQUARE, _5th January, 1852._

DEAR SIR,

I have just received the work[53] you have had the kindness to send me,
and beg to thank you for it, and for your obliging note, cordially. It
is a very curious little volume, deeply interesting, and written (if I
may be allowed to say so) with as much power of knowledge and plainness
of purpose as modesty.

Faithfully yours.

[Sidenote: Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Sunday Night, 15th February, 1852._

MY DEAR BULWER,

I left Liverpool at four o'clock this morning, and am so blinded by
excitement, gas, and waving hats and handkerchiefs, that I can hardly
see to write, but I cannot go to bed without telling you what a triumph
we have had. Allowing for the necessarily heavy expenses of all kinds, I
believe we can hardly fund less than a Thousand Pounds out of this trip
alone. And, more than that, the extraordinary interest taken in the idea
of the Guild by "this grand people of England" down in these vast hives,
and the enthusiastic welcome they give it, assure me that we may do what
we will if we will only be true and faithful to our design. There is a
social recognition of it which I cannot give you the least idea of. I
sincerely believe that we have the ball at our feet, and may throw it up
to the very Heaven of Heavens. And I don't speak for myself alone, but
for all our people, and not least of all for Forster, who has been
absolutely stunned by the tremendous earnestness of these great places.

To tell you (especially after your affectionate letter) what I would
have given to have had you there would be idle. But I can most seriously
say that all the sights of the earth turned pale in my eyes, before the
sight of three thousand people with one heart among them, and no
capacity in them, in spite of all their efforts, of sufficiently
testifying to you how they believe you to be right, and feel that they
cannot do enough to cheer you on. They understood the play (_far better
acted by this time than ever you have seen it_) as well as you do. They
allowed nothing to escape them. They rose up, when it was over, with a
perfect fury of delight, and the Manchester people sent a requisition
after us to Liverpool to say that if we will go back there in May, when
we act at Birmingham