(as of course we shall) they will joyfully
undertake to fill the Free Trade Hall again. Among the Tories of
Liverpool the reception was equally enthusiastic. We played, two nights
running, to a hall crowded to the roof--more like the opera at Genoa or
Milan than anything else I can compare it to. We dined at the Town Hall
magnificently, and it made no difference in the response. I said what we
were quietly determined to do (when the Guild was given as the toast of
the night), and really they were so noble and generous in their
encouragement that I should have been more ashamed of myself than I hope
I ever shall be, if I could have felt conscious of having ever for a
moment faltered in the work.

I will answer for Birmingham--for any great working town to which we
chose to go. We have won a position for the idea which years upon years
of labour could not have given it. I believe its worldly fortunes have
been advanced in this last week fifty years at least. I feebly express
to you what Forster (who couldn't be at Liverpool, and has not those
shouts ringing in his ears) has felt from the moment he set foot in
Manchester. Believe me we may carry a perfect fiery cross through the
North of England, and over the Border, in this cause, if need be--not
only to the enrichment of the cause, but to the lasting enlistment of
the people's sympathy.

I have been so happy in all this that I could have cried on the shortest
notice any time since Tuesday. And I do believe that our whole body
would have gone to the North Pole with me if I had shown them good
reason for it.

I hope I am not so tired but that you may be able to read this. I have
been at it almost incessantly, day and night for a week, and I am afraid
my handwriting suffers. But in all other respects I am only a giant
refreshed.

We meet next Saturday you recollect? Until then, and ever afterwards,

Believe me, heartily yours.

[Sidenote: Mrs. Cowden Clarke.]

TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _3rd March, 1852._

MY DEAR MRS. CLARKE,

It is almost an impertinence to tell you how delightful your flowers
were to me; for you who thought of that beautiful and delicately-timed
token of sympathy and remembrance, must know it very well already.

I do assure you that I have hardly ever received anything with so much
pleasure in all my life. They are not faded yet--are on my table
here--but never can fade out