_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Dec_. 4,1870.
"I am so convinced of your better judgment, that when I differ from you I am ready to withdraw a favour and take your verdict. In the present case you will, however, see that 'Pall Mall' of the 29th has ventured on 'quizzing' war incidents and correspondents as freely, and I don't think more successfully, than myself.
"At all events, you are the only competent judge of the matter, and I can't move pleas in demurrer, and if it be not safe, don't print him or use him.
"I only write a very hurried line to say so much, and now go back to a sofa again, for I am crippled with gout and worse--if there be a worse.
"I am not up to writing: the last thing I had done was an 'interview'
of M'C. with the Emperor at Metz, and it is dangerously near the waste-paper basket at this writing."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Dec_. 22, 1870.
"I am so low and _decourage_ that I have little heart to send you the two O'Ds. that go with this.
"The Gortschakoff one is, I think, smart; the other is only original. If the world should offer, meanwhile, matter for a third, I'll try and take it _toute fois_ if it be that you like and approve of these.
"I am going more rapidly downward than before. I suppose I shall run on to spring, or near it. Though, like Thompson's argument for lying in bed, 'I see no motive for rising,' I am quite satisfied to travel in the other direction.
"I don't wonder that the British world is growing French in sympathy.
The Prussians are doing their very utmost to disgust Europe, and with a success that cannot be disputed.
"I hope, if you in England mean war with Russia, that you do not count on Austria. She will not, because she cannot, help you; and a Russian war would mean here dismemberment of the empire and utter ruin. If Austria were beaten, the German provinces would become Prussian; if she were victorious, Hungary would dominate over the empire and take the supremacy at once. Which would be worse? I really cannot say."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Dec_ 29,1870.
"I give you all my thanks for your kind letter, which, owing to the deep snow in Styria, only reached me to-day. I am, of course, sorry the world will not see the fun of M'Caskey as do the Levers, but it is no small consideration to me to be represented in that minority so favourably.
"Poor Anster used to tell of an Irish fortune so 'tied up' by law that it could not be untied, and left the heirs to die in the poorhouse.
Perhaps my drollery in the M'Caskey legend is just as ingeniously wrapped up, and that nothing can find it. At all events, I have no courage to send you any more of him.
"I am told (authoritatively) that Paris will give in on the 15th January, but I scarcely believe it. The Germans have perfectly succeeded in making themselves thoroughly unpopular through Europe, and this mock anger with England is simply contemptible. If this insolence compels us to have a fleet and an army, we shall have more reason to be grateful to than angry with them; but how hard either with Childers or Cardwell? and how to get rid of the Whigs?
"Gladstone's letter to the Pope would be a good subject to 'O'Dowd,'
but I cannot yet hit on the way. It is, however, a little absurd for a Minister to be so free of his outlying sympathies when he is bullied by America, bearded by Russia, and Bismarcked to all eternity.
"I am glad to hear of Oliphant. It gives great interest to the correspondence to remember a friend's hand in it.
"I have been always forgetting to ask you about Kinglake. A bishop who came through here said he had died last autumn. Surely this is not true.
I hope not most sincerely."
XXI. TRIESTE 1871
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Feb_. 15, 1871.
"I am now on my twelfth day in bed, somewhat better at last, but very low and depressed. I had, before I was struck down, begun an 'O'Dowd,'
but how write for a public that buys 150,000 copies of 'Dame Europa's School'! Is there any use in inventing epigrams for such an auditory?
Tomorrow is the black day of the post, and can bring me no letter, or I should not bore you with this."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Fiume Istrica, _Feb_. 28,1871.
"Your kind letter and its enclosure reached me safely here, where I have been sent to refit. I believe the word suits, as I have got fluid in my pericardium, and my condition is therefore one of being water-logged, which means unseaworthy, but not yet gone down.
"The Gladstone request to Robinson to falsify the date of his letter is too atrocious; and as the 'O'Dowds' are made of certain subtle analysis, this case cannot be so treated, there being fortunately no parallel instance to put against it.
"As to old Russell: he was instructed to bark, and he went farther, and growled; but as Bismarck knew he was muzzled, there came nothing of it.
"My impression is the Turks are going to throw us over and make alliances with Russia, and seeing how utterly powerless we are, small blame to them. England is rapidly coming to the condition of Holland. I think another fifty years will do it, and instead of the New Zealander, a Burgomaster will sit on London Bridge and bob for eels in the muddy Thames.
"So you mean to be in town this April? Not that I have any hope of meeting you. Tell Mrs Blackwood for me how glad I should be to spoil her breakfast once more!"
_To Dr Burbidge._
"Trieste, _March_ 26, 1871.
"Your letter found me at Rome, where I had been sent for a change of air. It was my first visit to Sydney since her marriage, and I enjoyed myself much, and threw off my cough, and could get up stairs without blowing like a grampus.
"I cannot tell you how sincerely I thank you for your letters. I know of no man but yourself from whom I should have liked to have letters on the same theme, and if my illness did not make me as reflective as you hoped for, your letter has given me much thought.
"It is easy enough for a man to mistake deep dejection for reflection, and so far I might have deceived myself, for I have been depressed to a state I never knew till now.
"I am cared for and watched and loved as much as is possible for a man to be, and all the while I am companionless. The dear friend who was with me through every hour of my life is gone, and I have no heart for any present [? or future] occupation without her. My impatience is even such, that I do not like those signs of returning health that promise to keep me longer here; and I trust more complacently in breaking up than in anything. With all this, your letter has been a great--the greatest--comfort I have yet felt, and your affection is very dear to me. I think I know how only such warm friendship would have taken the tone and the words you use, and it comes to me like water to a man thirsting."
_To Mr John Blackwood._