Twelve days later, in despatch No. 223, Lowell returned to the subject of the change of ministry, and after some shrewd and witty conjectures as to the course of events, drawn in part from his study of the Spanish mind, he took up a more serious matter.

“The crucial question for the new cabinet will not, I conceive, arise from domestic politics, but rather from the economic reforms demanded by the Island of Cuba. Señor Cánovas assured me a week ago that he ‘was ready and should be glad to concede any reforms that would not produce a deficit in the Cuban budget, but that he could not consent to make the island a burden on the peninsula.’ The minister of Ultramar said substantially the same thing to me last evening. I told him smilingly that I had a deep interest in the matter, because I feared that I should have my hands full of Cuban claims if they delayed much longer.

“The Cuban deputies and senators are, I believe, very much discontented with the turn things have taken. Several have already gone home, and more are to follow. The affairs of Cuba certainly look ominous, but those who prophesy a general movement for separation there seem to forget that the island is inhabited by two distinct and mutually suspicious races, and that the whites, being of Spanish origin, are as obstinately divided in political sentiment as their kinsmen here. General Grant’s visit to Cuba seems to attract some attention. The Minister for Foreign Affairs asked me about it yesterday. I answered carelessly that I knew nothing more than what I saw in the newspapers; that the same motives no doubt carried the general thither that had carried him to Europe and Asia; that he was also to visit Mexico, a circumstance which I had seen connected by some journalists with an apocryphal movement in that country for annexation to the United States. You can infer what rumors are rife by a question asked me by the Pro-nuncio here, ‘whether negotiations were on foot for a purchase of Cuba by the United States.’ I told him that such a report was very likely to arise from the well-known fact that General Prim when in power had favored such a scheme, and turned the conversation to something else.”

Early in 1880, entirely without Lowell’s knowledge or motion, a suggestion from one or two friends, conspiring with the wishes of the State Department at Washington, led to the offer of a transfer from Madrid to London. On 22 January, Lowell wrote to his daughter: “Day before yesterday I was startled with a cipher telegram. My first thought was ‘Row in Cuba—I shall have no end of bother.’ It turned out to be this: ‘President has nominated you to England. He regards it as essential to the public service that you should accept and make your personal arrangements to repair to London as early as may be. Your friends whom I have conferred with concur in this view.’ You see that is in very agreeable terms, and at least shows that Government is satisfied with my conduct here. I was afraid of its effects on mamma at first; but she was pleased, and began at once to contrive how I could accept, which she wished me to do. I answered: ‘Feel highly honored by the President’s confidence. Could accept if allowed two months delay. Impossible to move or leave my wife sooner.’”

How intimately Lowell connected the change with the condition of his wife, and how her state subdued any exhilaration he might have felt, appears further from a letter written 13 February, 1880, to a friend who had been moving in the matter at home. “I did not know that you had any hand in it when I wrote to Mr. Evarts and told him that had I been consulted I should have had grave doubts about accepting. Accordingly I wish you would contrive to let them know at Washington that I was in utter ignorance of what my friends were doing. Indeed, I hardly know even now what I shall (or rather what I can) do. When the telegram came Fanny had been going on well for six weeks, but about a fortnight ago came another relapse and she is now in a very nervous state again,—not absolutely out of her head, but incapable of controlling herself.... If this relapse should prove transitory like the others, I shall probably be obliged to leave Fanny here, and go to London for my presentation, and then come back on leave. For I cannot very well renounce the appointment now after having consented to accept it. Fanny was so well when the telegram came that I did not hesitate to consult her about it. She was very much pleased and insisted on my accepting, but now I have the dreadful suspicion that it was the excitement of this news that upset her again. It is true that the change did not show itself for more than a week, and there are reasons for attributing it to physical causes, but I cannot shake off the bitter reproach of having been imprudent. And yet what could I do? The doctor had told me that in a month at farthest I should be able to move her, and she was so perfectly herself then that I had no fears. It is now twelve o’clock (noon) and she is still asleep. The nurse thinks her better. She woke for a few moments, took some beef tea, and dropped off again. Sleep is always good for her. I hope it is a good sign that this relapse has not been so bad as the last before it. Before that she had been better for a few days only and I was never sure that the excitement of the brain was more than diminished. But when this began she had been perfectly self-possessed for weeks, and we took great comfort together in the twenty-third psalm. I am glad I was born long enough ago to have some superstitions left. They stand by one somehow, and the back feels that it has a brother behind it.[73] I long to be at home again, and it will not be a great while now. If we get to England, it is more than half way.”

Lowell carried out the plan he had outlined. His friends, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Field, were in Madrid, and he left Mrs. Lowell under their watchful supervision, and went reluctantly to England, reaching London 7 March, 1880. His friends kept him informed daily by telegraph and letter of the condition of the invalid, and it so chanced that she had another relapse shortly after he had left her. He was in despair, and heaped reproaches upon himself for having gone; yet when he reasoned, he saw he had done only what he must do. A more reassuring telegram came on the 9th of March, and on the 14th he was persuaded that Mrs. Lowell had issued from this crisis and come fairly out on the other side. In a week more, he had had his audience with the Queen, and taking brief leave of absence, had set out for Madrid, whence he was now able to remove his wife to England. The life of both of them was brightened during the summer that followed by the coming of Mr. and Mrs. Burnett on a brief visit from America.

CHAPTER XV
THE ENGLISH MISSION
1880-1885

The two and a half years that Lowell passed at Madrid formed an excellent preparation for the more important post which he was to occupy near the Court of St. James. The etiquette of a high diplomatic position does not differ greatly in the different capitals; if anything, more punctilio would be observed in Madrid than in London. It was something, at any rate, to have become wonted to the function of a minister plenipotentiary. But this was a trifle compared with the advantage which Lowell enjoyed in the possession now of self-confidence. He had tried on the coat and found it fitted him well; he could wear it in London where he would be in a far more conspicuous position. He had practised the diplomatic art in a country where the language was foreign and the race unfamiliar, and if in his short residence he could, with some assurance, analyze the internal political conditions, he might hope more quickly to be able to apprehend nice discriminations in the current politics of a country where he was at home in language, literature, and history.

It is scarcely to be doubted that his performance of diplomatic duties in Spain had made it easy for the President to appoint him to the highest foreign station. But it is also likely that the choice was made mainly upon the ground of Lowell’s fitness to act as a mediator between the two countries. With the exception of Motley, there never had been an American minister to England who was first and foremost a man of letters, and yet in no other field of human endeavor was there so great a community of intelligence. Literature had been honored in its representatives in many courts of Europe and in consular offices, but the presumption is that heretofore political and commercial relations with England had been of so complex a character that it was thought desirable to have a trained man of affairs or of law and statesmanship at the post. Moreover, it was a great political prize, and men of letters are, as a rule, non-combatants in politics. But Lowell had been initiated in Spain, and it was a far more simple process, so far as political effect might be considered, to transfer him to England than to have made that a direct appointment.

The educated men of America were delighted with the appointment. They felt at once that they had a spokesman. And it may fairly be said that Americans generally were gratified; for a man of letters who has won high recognition, especially if his work has been in the field of poetry, history, or general literature, occupies a secure place in the regard of his countrymen, and is subject to less suspicion or jealousy than one in any other conspicuous position. By its very nature a literary reputation is widespread and not local. A very great lawyer, unless he has also been in the public eye as a member of government, is taken on trust by all but his professional brethren. A great author through the process of growing great has become known to increasing numbers of his countrymen. It is doubtful if any other author, save Longfellow, would at once have been so accepted by Americans as their proper representative in London.