64                                                                                [chap.   TV
 

CHAPTER IV

1842

A Eevolution 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 iU 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, Jam>uary llth [1842].

. . . PubHc 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 Httle 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,