"I am afraid I must go down to Spezzia again, and for a week too. The cares of office are heavy, and I am afraid I serve a country ungrateful enough not to appreciate me."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, Florence, _Jan_. 20, 1866.
"I have been obliged to put off Spezzia till the 20th, but shall have to pass a week or ten days there _then_. Meanwhile I am at work thinking over (not writing) 'Sir Brook.' I want to do the thing well, but I have not yet got the stick by the handle.
"From what I can pick up from those who read O'D., no paper ought to have more than one joke. One plum to a pudding is the English taste.
All the rest must be what the doctors call 'vehicle,' and drollery be administered in drop doses. Of course I get public opinion in a very diluted form here,--but such is the strength in which it reaches me.
"Robt. Lytton is better,--one eye safe, and hopes of the other. Have you heard that Oliphant has been dangerously ill, at N. York?--a menace of softening of the brain having declared itself, and of course such a malady is never a mere threat. I am sincerely sorry for him, and so will you be.
"My trip to town will depend on the events in the House. If our friends come in I will certainly go over. Tell Mrs Blackwood to read O'Dowd on 'Thrift ': she will see that there are certain people it will never do with."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, Florence, _Feb_. 3, 1866.
"If what I hear be true, our friends have made a precious 'fiasco' of it in their game of politics. They have so palpably shown Lord Russell all the weak points of his Bill--every damaging ingredient in it--that he has deliberately changed the whole structure, enlarged its provisions, and made it (appear at least) such a measure as may settle the question of Reform for some years to come. It is so like the Conservatives! They certainly are more deficient in the skill required to manage a party than any section in the House. Why, in Heaven's name, show their hand?
and above all, why show it before the trump-card was turned? If their cause were twice as good as it is, and if the men who sustain it were fourfold as able, the press of the Party would reduce it to insignificance and contempt. Never was such advocacy in the world as 'The Herald' and 'Standard.'
"A few days ago, and even his own papers declared Lord R. was rushing to his ruin; but the Conservatives cried out 'Take care!' and he has listened to the warning. A mere franchise reform must have inevitably wrecked him. The very carrying it would have been a success that must have been worse than any defeat. I don't think that men so inept as the Tories deserve power, and I'm sure they could not retain it if they got it.
"I hear Mill was a failure, and I own I'm not sorry. I hate the men he belongs to, either in letters or politics. Bright was certainly good.
It was Bow-wow! but still a very good Bow-wow!--better than the polished platitudes of Gladstone, which the world accepts as philosophy.
"But confound their politics. I send you 'B. F.,' and I send it early, because I want the proof back as soon as you can. I am going to idle, but whether at Rome or across to Sardinia, or only over to Elba, I have not decided. I am hipped and want some change,--the real malady being I'm growing old, and don't like it, and revenge my own stupidity by thinking the people I meet insupportably dull and tiresome."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, Florence, _Feb_. 6, 1866.
"I begin a short note to you now that I have just got back, full sure that I shall have to acknowledge one from you before I finish.
"I am glad to see 'The Times' extract largely from the 'Two Rebellions.'
The Jamaica affair, I hear, will be the _acrimonious_ fight of the session. What I am told is that the country will stand at present no Ministry of which Gladstone is not a part, and that if Lord R. goes (as he may), it must be some patchwork of Stanley, Gladstone, and some mild members of the Conservative party. One thing I am _assured_ is certain,--Gladstone is far less liberal than he was.
"I own I am more puzzled than enlightened by all this, but I give it as I get it.
"Jamaica is a bad business. Had they lynched Gordon it would have been all right; but the mock justice was dreadful! Besides, it really pushes High Churchism too far to hang a man because he has not attended a vestry.
"The post is in, and no letter from you. No matter! I meant to idle to-day; and so I'll stroll into Florence and gossip at the Legation, where I can post you the three 'O'Dowds' I have done for next month,--a short paper, but perhaps long enough. I wrote 'The Tiger' under the infliction of a d------d old Indian, who'll kill _me_ if this paper doesn't kill _him_.
"Do you know anything of a new magazine which Cholmondeley Pennell is going to edit? Bulwer and Browning are, I believe, in his interest. He writes me a long yarn about it, but I think he has too many poets on his list for success.
"It struck me last night what a good _Noctes_ might be made out of your corps,--with Lytton, Hamley, Oliphant, and O'Dowd all talking after their several ways. Wouldn't it be a rare bit of fun?
"A millionaire countryman of yours has actually beggared me at whist, and the d------d ass can't play at all."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Florence, _March_ 10,1866.
"I have corrected this without my wife's aid, for she is too weak and poorly to help me, and it will require careful looking over. I am glad you like it; I rather think well of it on re-reading.
"I believe my holiday is knocked up, and a chance of O'Dowding the Pope to be deferred, for I must hasten off to Spezzia to meet a Royal Commission on the Arsenal. I hope I may have the O'D. proof before I go, as I may be detained a week.
"Have you any weekly ('Saturday Review,' 'Examiner,' Spectator,' or other) that has literary news, reviews, &c. disposable? if so, and perfectly convenient, send it to me occasionally, for I get too much 'bent' in politics,--_malgre moi._
"I really would rather be porter to the House than a lord-in-waiting."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, _March_ 14, 1866.
"A patchwork quilt is cakes and gingerbread compared to this blessed proof, but I'm in and out a Georges Dandin! You said, and said truly, that the sketch of the House was meagre, and I have dilated--I hope not diluted--it; but my writing is open to that rendering.
"I have made the 'Fenian Pest' also a little fatter. Will you try and see that the slips come on at their proper places.
"I am not well. It may be gout, it may be fifty things, but it _feels_ d------ly like breaking up. I ought to be at Spezzia, but I am so out of sorts that I don't like leaving home. After all, I have no right to complain. I have been a good many years in commission, and never docked yet for repairs!
"Dizzy is going to let Gladstone have a walk over for the first racing, but I suspect that the real jockeyship will be to make the first and last heats the race."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Villa Morelli, _March_ 26, 1866.
"It is only to-day that I feel able to write a line and thank you. Your letter and cheque reached me two days ago, but I did not like to make my daughter write to you lest you should feel alarmed at it.
"I am a little better,--I am, that is to say, in less pain, but very weak and low. I believe I shall rub through it, but it must be a close thing. It was, after all, only what Curran called 'a runaway knock.' but it sounded wonderfully as if I was wanted.
"They don't talk any more of knife-work, and, so far, I am easier in mind; but my nerves are so shaken by pain and bad nights that whatever promised relief would be welcome.
"I have two chaps, of 'Sir B.' ready, but perhaps next week--I hope so--I will be able to go on. It would be a comfort to me to be at work."