Volume Ii Part 5 (2/2)
”I merely write a line. Your note and cheque came all right to me this morning. My thanks for both. I have had four mortal days of stupidity, and the fifth is on me this morning; but after I have had a few days at Spezzia I hope to be all right and in the harness again.
”If Dizzy's vote of censure is not very much amplified in his _expose_, it ought not to be difficult to meet it. The persistent way he dogged Palmerston to say something, anything, is so like Sir Lucius O'Trigger seizing on the first chance of a contradiction and saying, 'Well, sir, I differ from you there.'
”Pam's declaration that 'war' was possible in certain emergencies--when, for instance, the king should have been crucified and the princesses vanished--was the only thing like devilling I heard from him yet. This is, however, as palpably imbecility as anything they could do, and _one_ symptom, when a _leading one_, is as good as ten thousand.
”Old Begration once told the Duke of Wellington that the discovery of a French horse-shoe 'not roughed' for the frost in the _month of October_ was the reason for the burning of Moscow. They said: 'These French know nothing of our climate; one winter here would kill them,' It was the present Duke told me this story.
”You will have had my O'D. on the Conference before this, and if the Debate offer anything opportune for comment I'll tag it on. The fact is, one can always do with an 'O'Dowd' what the parson accomplished when asked to preach a charity sermon,--graft the incident on the original discourse. Indeed I feel at such moments that my proper sphere would have been the pulpit. Perhaps I am more convinced of this to-day, as I have gout on me. Don't you know what Talleyrand said to the friend who paid him a compliment on his fresh and _handsome_ appearance as he landed at Dover?--'Ah! it's the sea-sickness, perhaps, has done it.'”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Villa Morelli, Florence, _July_ 10, 1864.
”What a hearty thing it was with you to send me the Bishop's letter. I hope I may keep it. Do you know that it was by the merest accident that I did not allude to _himself_ in the paper--or, rather, it was out of deference to his ap.r.o.n; for one of the most brilliant evenings I ever remember in my life was having the Bishop and O'Sullivan to dine with me and only two others, and Harry Griffin was the king of the company.
Moore used to say, when complimented on his singing the melodies, 'Ah!
if you were to hear Griffin.' But why don't he recognise me? When we are ready with our vol. i. I shall ask you to send one or two, or perhaps three or four, copies to some friends. Let me beg one for the Bishop, and I'll send a note with it. I think your note _will_ do me good. It _has_ already, and I am down and hipped and bedevilled cruelly.
”Palmerston will, I take it, have a small majority, but will he dissolve?
”I only ask about the length of T. B. on your account; for my own part I rather like writing the story, and if the public would stand it, I'd make it as long as 'Clarissa Harlowe.'”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Florence, _July_ 11, 1864.
”I send you a short O'D. on the Debate, and so I shall spare you a letter. If, as now, there is no time for a proof,--though I think there may,--look to it closely yourself. My hand at times begins to tremble (I never give it any cause), and I find I can scarcely decipher some words.
How _you_ do it is miraculous. My gout will not _fix_, but hangs over me with dreariness and 'devil-may-careisms,' so that though I have scores of great intentions I can _do_ nothing.
”I count a good deal on a two hours' swim, and I am off to take it by Wednesday. If the sharks lay hold on me, finish T. B. Marry him to Alice, and put the rest of the company to bed indiscriminately.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Florence, _July_ 12, 1864.
”I send you with this a few lines to finish the serial O'D., a few also to complete 'Be always ready with the Pistol,' and--G.o.d forgive me for the blunder!--two stray pages that ought to come in somewhere (not where it is numbered) in the last-sent O'D. on 'Material Aid.' Will your ingenuity be able to find the place--perhaps the end? If not, _squash_ it, and the mischief will not be great.
”I start to-night for the sea-side, so that if you want to send me a proof for the next ten days, send it in _duo_, one to Spezzia and the other here, by which means you shall have either back by return of post.
<script>