INTRODUCTION
The boy who saw—he was too far off to hear—John Wesley preach at Colchester in 1790, in 1846 began to be intimate with F.W.Robertson, and was an admirer of Frederick Maurice as well as of Newman. Robinson was a student at the University of Jena in 1800, remaining in Germany for more than five years; he was foreign correspondent of The Times in Altona in 1807, and a life-long friend of Walter as a result. In the following year he was "foreign editor," and in this capacity in 1808 escaped from Corunna only just before the battle. His Diary records in detail contemporary emotions after Trafalgar and Waterloo; in May 1856 he mentions a "peace sermon" after the Crimea, and there is a detailed account of the Prussian victories of 1866.
Machinery riots and rick burning, the massacre at Peterloo, the first spring bed in which he slept, the first steamers, the first railway[1]—all these things are described and commented upon by this indefatigable diarist; he tells of elections before the Reform Bill, of the long fight for the abolition of slavery, of criminal prosecutions when the death-penalty was inflicted for petty theft, of current prices at various periods, and of social manners and customs. His Remains thus serve as a source for various kinds of investigation.
They present, nevertheless, a formidable task to the investigator. Dr. Sadler's edition of the Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence—the only one hitherto available—confessedly does not include more than a twenty-fifth or thirtieth part of the whole. From 1811 to 1867 there is a detailed daily journal; from 1790 to 1843 there are four huge volumes of Reminiscences, averaging 450 folio pages; there are 32 volumes of correspondence, each containing some 160 letters—for the most part to or
- ↑ "We hear of some astonishing inventions by means of steam, by which carriages are to be impelled on the public roads to the exclusion of horses."—Thomas Robinson to H. C. R., Nov. 22, 1829. On June 10, 1833, H. C. R. travelled by rail from Liverpool to Manchester and back. On July 4 he wrote a detailed description of his experiences to his brother Thomas.
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