This meekness is very touching, and
makes one question the more whether they have all their rights. There
have been disturbances, within a day or two, in Liverpool, and shops have
been broken open and robbed of bread and money; but this is said to have
been done by idle vagabonds, and not by the really hungry work-people.
These last submit to starvation gently and patiently, as if it were an
every-day matter with them, or, at least, nothing but what lay fairly
within their horoscope. I suppose, in fact, their stomachs have the
physical habit that makes hunger not intolerable, because customary. If
they had been used to a full meat diet, their hunger would be fierce,
like that of ravenous beasts; but now they are trained to it.
I think that the feeling of an American, divided, as I am, by the ocean
from his country, has a continual and immediate correspondence with the
national feeling at home; and it seems to be independent of any external
communication. Thus, my ideas about the Russian war vary in accordance
with the state of the public mind at home, so that I am conscious
whereabouts public sympathy is.
March 7th.--J----- and I walked to Tranmere, and passed an old house
which I suppose to be Tranmere Hall. Our way to it was up a hollow lane,
with a bank and hedge on each side, and with a few thatched stone
cottages, centuries old, their ridge-poles crooked and the stones
time-worn, scattered along. At one point there was a wide, deep well,
hewn out of the solid red freestone, and with steps, also hewn in solid
rock, leading down to it.
Pages:
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175