Volume Ii Part 18 (1/2)
”I hope you'll like it, as also the sterner one on 'Hospitalities _ex-officio_.'
”The post here is now very irregular,--indeed since we're a capital the place has gone to the devil. I don't know whether the dulness or the dearness be greatest.
”The Radicals, waiting for reform and taking the destruction of the Irish Church meanwhile, remind one of Nelson's c.o.xwain's saying when asked if he would have a gla.s.s of rum or a tumbler of punch, that 'he'd be drinking the rum while her ladys.h.i.+p was mixing the punch.' Ireland is to be complimented for her projected rebellion by fresh concessions.
Never was there such a splendid policy.
”The Italians say, 'The toad got no tail at the creation of the world because he never asked for one.' Certes, my countrymen won't be deficient in their caudal appendages on such grounds.
”I am hipped by bad weather, undeveloped gout, and other ills too numerous to mention, but still------”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Spezzia, _Dec_. 4, 1866.
”In reply to your note, and its enclosure referring to a pa.s.sage in one of my late 'O'Dowds' that an admiral is a sort of human rhinoceros, &c., I have simply to say that the joke is a very sorry one, and one of the worst I have ever uttered, if it give offence; but I most distinctly declare that I never entertained the most distant idea of a personality.
Indeed my whole allusion was to the externals of admirals,--a certain gruffness, &c., which in itself is much too superficial a trait to include a personality.
”That I could say anything offensive to or of a service from which I have received nothing but politeness and courtesy, and some of whose members I regard as my closest and best friends, seems so impossible a charge against me that I know not how to answer it. Indeed nothing is left for me but a simple denial of intention. It then remains, perhaps, to apologise for an expression which may be misapprehended. I do so just as frankly. I think the men who so read me, read me _wrongfully_. No matter; my fault it is that I should be open to such misconstruction, and I ask to be forgiven for it.
”So much of reparation is in my power (if time permit), and I would ask you to a.s.sist me to it--to omit the entire pa.s.sage when you republish the papers in a volume.
”Will you, in any form that you think best, convey the explanation and the amends to the writer of the note you have enclosed?”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Villa Morelli, Florence, _Dec._ 4, 1866.
”I have just read the note you enclosed me calling my attention to my having said that an admiral was a sort of 'human rhinoceros.' I beg to recant the opinion, and when opportunity serves I will do so publicly, and declare that I believe them to be the most thin-skinned of mortals, otherwise there was nothing in the paragraph referred to which could give the slightest offence.
”To impute a personality to it would be for the reader to attach the pa.s.sage to some one to whom he thought it applicable, if there be such.
”When they mentioned vice or bribe, It's so pat to all the tribe, Each cried that was levelled at me.
”Now I had not the vaguest idea of a personality; I was simply chronicling a sort of professional gruffness and mysteriousness,--both admirable in the way of discipline, doubtless, but not so agreeable socially as the gifts of younger and less responsible men.
”Omit the whole pa.s.sage, however, when you republish the papers; and accept my a.s.surance that if ever I mention an admiral again, I will insert the word 'bishop' in my MS., and only correct it with the proof.
”It is not easy to be serious in replying to such a charge of 'doing something prejudicial to the service.' There is no accounting, however, for phraseology, as Mr Carter called the loss of his right eye 'a domestic calamity.'
”Once more, I never meant offence. I never went within a thousand miles of a personality; and if ever I mention the sea-service again, I hope I may be in it.
”P.S.--Make the fullest disclaimer on my part, if you can, to the quarter whence came the letter, as to either offence or personality,--but more particularly the latter. I am only sorry that the letter, not being addressed to myself, does not enable me to reply to the writer with this a.s.surance.”
_To Mr John Blackwood._