Riding and C. Fowler Buxton M. P.[1] who has much influence in Manchester, requesting that the proposal of my letters to the Cotton Associations meet with due consideration. I addressed a short note also, (continuing a conversation I had last autumn on the agricultural capabilities of the United States,) to the editor of the Times. Colonel Hamilton, who has the most encouraging view of the project, promised me to write to Lord Stanley[2] and friends at Liverpool by the following steamer's mail.
I trust that what has been thus done (previous to my receiving any intimation that you had thought of soliciting money in England) will have prepared the ground favorably to Mr. Paddleford's arrival. It is a most fortunate circumstance that a competent person will be present to meet objections and take advantage of various circumstances in the discussion, if one should occur, in which facts, likely to be familiar to Mr. P., will tell happily.
With regard to the proposal to be made by Mr. Paddleford, if any, and the information most desirable to be furnished, he will of course be guided by circumstances, but unless met with much greater favor than I can anticipate, I may venture to say that I am confident in the judgment that it would not be best to urge much more at present than careful enquiry, in some such manner as I have done in my letters. We shall find, I apprehend, a strong influence against us in East India and other colonial interests, and also in a narrow patriotism. From Lord Goderiche's letter to me, I am sure that the American political relations of the project should be kept out of sight as much as possible in England. The name of the N. E. E. Aid Society should not at present be mentioned, because the Society has a certain political notoriety and English gentlemen will generally feel it to be their duty, not to listen to a proposal which seems likely to connect their names with the internal political affairs of a foreign government. This is not only somewhat reasonable but with the class represented by the Times, it happens now to be a fashion. They may be drawn into it gradually, as they gain knowledge of the true character of the society, perhaps, but the dread of lending their aid even indirectly to what might turn out to be a merely political scheme (in the narrow sense), would be likely to prevent their giving the subject a fair hearing. Everybody knows who has had to do with Englishmen, that it is peculiarly true of them, that it is the first step which costs. The great point at first is to get them to listen. If they will go so far this autumn as to send out an agent to obtain information, I shall feel quite sure of our leading them from that to the most valuable co-operation. …[3]
- ↑ George Frederick Robinson (1827–1909, at this time known by the courtesy title of Lord Goderich) was afterward Earl de Grey and Ripon and first Marquis of Ripon. On March 30, 1857, he had been elected to succeed Cobden as M. P. for the West Riding of Yorkshire. Charles Buxton (1823–1871), son of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, was returned to the House of Commons for Newport in 1857.
- ↑ Lord Stanley (1826–1893), eldest son of the fourteenth Earl of Derby and afterward fifteenth earl and cabinet minister, was from 1848 to 1859 M. P. for King's Lynn.
- ↑ Here follows a criticism of the work of an English traveller, Robert Russell (North America, its Agriculture and Climate, Edinburgh, 1857), which Olmsted feared might exert an unfavorable influence on the English attitude toward
