I am wearying to write you a long letter, and first let me offer you my best congratulations on the recent successes in Monterey;—this Mexican war must give you much anxiety, from the various difficulties which General Taylor has had to encounter in a country scarcely known, and where the climate was new and therefore trying to his troops. I was delighted to observe that the President had made offers of peace, because such a step is worthy of a great, and powerful, and magnanimous nation; thus a wise parent offers to his refractory child, or a forbearing friend to his companion, constant and kindly proposals of peace, pitying the recklessness and stupidity which continue to prompt a refusal of their proffered tenderness.
The ill-fated Great Britain carried myself and my doctor home in safety. Our passage was agreeable, and the recollection of it makes me feel much for the ship, and for her commander. Poor Captain Hawkens had taken leave of his wife, who was not expected to live many hours, just before he sailed. She has since rallied, but only for a season. In a few moments he seemed to lose everything that would render life desirable—his fortune and his fame, and the partner of his life. There is no doubt that the Great Britain had outrun her reckoning. My husband who is the chairman of the Marine Insurance Company has voted in favor of giving her a chance through the aid of a well-experienced engineer; but nothing can be done until the spring, and she will have much to suffer during the winter, besides the danger of rusting.
I have had a most pleasant chit-chat letter from Mrs. Plitt, giving me all the details of our various friends; I have also heard from the bishop who is still suffering from the refractory tooth, and still with extraordinary pertinacity refusing “to pluck it out, and cast it from him.” I am going this day to write and upbraid his “holiness” with neglecting to practise what he preaches. Mr. Ingersoll tells me that he is again a candidate for Congress, and I most earnestly hope he will be successful on account of the vexatious affair which occurred in the spring. Nothing has contributed more to my happiness than your gentlemanly and considerate expressions of unabated regard for my guardian. His letter is like himself, unreserved in confidence, and always a most pleasant mingling of smiles and tears.
I called with my husband to pay our respects to Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft. They had a stormy passage, and Mrs. B. was suffering from the effects of it. The American Chamber of Commerce, of which my husband is the treasurer, waited upon the minister with their best wishes and welcome. He made a very appropriate speech, and acquitted himself extremely well. His manners are less popular than those of McLane, but I predict that he will be highly esteemed and respected here. Mrs. B. is quite a nice woman, and the American ladies have a naïveté which I hear is much admired as a contrast to the sameness of manner which necessarily exists among the aristocratic ladies of an old country. They see none but the artificial phases of society.
I have been in London a month, and have had an interview with the commissioners of the board of emigration, Mr. Elliot and Mr. Rogers. They entered fully into the subject of the Emigrant Surgeon’s Bill. I told them your opinion, and gave them among other documents the report of the expenses of whaling vessels for sickness; they regard it as a very important statement in our favor. I believe them both to be in earnest, and the more especially as they requested me to procure for them various kinds of information relative to the supply of surgeons having taken out diplomas in Liverpool, Dublin, New York, etc. Of course I have lost no time in setting the requisite machinery to work. The commissioners frankly stated that the shipowners would make the same difficulties that Mr. Grinnell had conjured up on the other side. As the bill will have to go through parliament, of course it will be some time before I hear anything from the board; but as soon as I do, I shall hasten to inform you who have been so valuable an ally to me.
Accompanied by my husband, I had afterwards an interview with Lord Palmerston, and after showing him the letter which I wrote in January last from Washington, on the subject of Pakenham’s unfitness for his position there, I fortified the report by several anecdotes. The secretary looked perplexed, heard me most patiently, and when I had ended my story, endeavored as well as he could to defend his representative. As far as respectful politeness allowed me to go, I entirely differed from him, and I said that he was quite unequal in capacity to the men he had to deal with; that he knew nothing of commerce; received neither the Americans nor the English at his house; had quarrelled with the chairman of foreign relations in the House of Representatives; and in fact that this government should send one of their foremost men to Washington with rank, wealth, good manners, and ability to carry him through.
Lord Palmerston then observed:
“Well, they have got more than they bargained for.”
Mrs. M.—They will have the whole of Oregon very soon, my lord.
Lord P.—Do you really think so?