64 [CHAP, rv 



CHAPTER IV 



1842 



A Revolution at Geneva Taking children to the pantomime 

 Baron Humboldt Charles visits Shrewsbury Elizabeth with 

 Emma at Gower Street Emma at Maer The death of 

 Sismondi Jessie moves to Tenby. 



SISMONDI was now seriously ill and Jessie's life was full of 

 sadness and anxiety. Her deafness interfered with her 

 enjoyment of society, and she and Sismondi were miserable 

 at the revolution which broke out in Geneva. Finding he 

 could neither guide nor stem it, he was arranging to leave 

 Geneva and return to Pescia. 



Madame Sismondi to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



CHENE, January lltli [1842]. 



. . . Public events have come nearer me and disturbed 

 me more than ever they did before. The storm is passed, 

 but no one yet can tell the ravages it will have made. The 

 Constituante continues its sittings daily, but Sismondi has 

 given up attending them and I imagine will be dismissed 

 if he does not dismiss himself. The Radicals are now 

 attacking the national Church, and the Methodists and 

 Catholics unite with them, so that there is little hope but 

 that it will fall with the Constitution, and the Academy 

 after that, in short everything of the old Geneva will be 

 effaced from the earth. There are no concerts, balls, or 

 soirees among the Genevoises, one meets no one in the 

 streets or shops. It is exactly as if half the town were 

 dead and the other half in mourning. The evil they have 

 done me individually, and after all one's patriotism, 



