12 Cork St., B[urlington] G[ardens]. - Thanks for Wortley's £2; not sure of current balance as Salomons is away; probable costs of granite monument to Hood with a bronze bust by Campbell; favours very simple inscription. Should not get involved with publication of Hood's verse; Moxon will get someone like Dickens to ensure sales. Pleased by Houghton's appreciation of George Sand and the 'humanitaires' but the Fourierists are superior in their ability to organise labour; Milnes would see this if he could conquer his aversion to Fourier's neologisms and read attentively. 'Suppose you stood naked on Kennington Common, on a frosty day, which would you prefer - A humanitaire contemplating you with moistened heavenward eyes & folded arms... A Lord Ashley, who would put you on one glove towards clothing you... Or a Fourierist who would furnish you with a complete suit, and supply its proper warmth to every shivering nerve?' - only the last can solve problems as diverse as the destiny of Constantinople and the economy of a poultry yard; breadth of vision. If visiting Paris Milnes must meet Daly and Pelletan, 'a cher ami once I fancy of G. Sand'.
Re memorial to Thomas Hood.
12 Cork St, B[urlington] G[ardens], London. - Is recommending Thomas Hood's son Tom for a place at the Charterhouse; asks Milnes to use influence with Lord Wharncliffe or one of the other governors to secure presentation. Postscript. - Admires Lord Dudley Stuart's defence of the woman recently molested by the police - 'It is not by treating them as dogs, that we shall make them more like women'.
Postmarked Maidstone. - Sends 'a scribble' for correction; no need to send a proof as he does not return until Thursday.
Including many letters re Thomas Hood and family, Fourierism etc.
245 and 247 enclosing notes from C. Daly, [Jul. 1845?] and Mar. 1848.
5: Account of the home life of William Coningham, MP.
[26] Pall Mall. - There is a great philosophical gulf between them: 'I believe in the Mystery of Evil as a Fact, & you do not'; Man is capricious towards lesser beings, but may himself be controlled by a superior will, known to the ancients as Fate and now called Providence; pagan and Christian notions of good and evil; Milnes saved from despair by belief in human progress, despite remnants of savegary; 'I & you are wheels which have our own function in the machine - let us go on regularly, & leave the rest to [God]'.
Thanks Ward for magazine and news of [Thomas] Hood; enlisting Lord Francis [Egerton?] was a good idea; sends newspaper account [no longer present] of Birmingham Athenic Institute, which would welcome copies of the magazine. Ward's otherwise striking Camberwell article gave the impression he had not met Susan Cleverly. [Meinhold's] Amber Witch is an obvious fraud; Fourierism is flawed in requiring to be understood as a complete system, for mankind lives on mixed crumbs of philosophy; 'All that's great & good in the world is got at indirectly by the masses - the Philosopher, of course, may hold the complete and abstract Truth'.
Will try to obtain papers of the Labourer's Friend Society for Ward's friend; success of the model lodging house; there will be no revolution in Britain: 'the poorest mechanics know the truths of the relations between labour & capital as well as the laws of gravity'; contrast with France; dismay here at sequestration of French royal property; fear that no private property will be safe; property should be secure whatever its value; missed M. [Coinderat?] when he called.