Volume Ii Part 22 (2/2)
”That Europe endures the insolence of his late letter is the surest evidence of the miserable cowardice of the age.
”The scene of the king's departure here was very touching. He left at 3 o'clock on Monday, just as day was breaking, but the whole city was up and in the streets to take leave of him. All the ladies in their carriages, and the great squares crammed as I never saw them on Monday.
The king was so moved that he could not speak, and the enthusiasm was really overwhelming. If this army gets a first success it will dash on gallantly and do well; if it be repulsed----
”Should the Conservatives come in, will they have the wit to offer the mission here to Hudson? It would do more for them as a party than forty votes in the House. It would stop at once the lurking suspicion as to their retrograde tendencies in Italy, on which Palmerston taunted them, and by which he kept them out of office for years.
”I own I have no confidence in the world-wisdom of Conservatives. They know the Carlton, and they know, not thoroughly but a good deal of, the 'House'; but of Englishmen at large and the nation,--of what moderate, commonplace, fairly educated and hard-headed people say and think,--they know nothing. But one has only to look at them to see that they represent idiosyncrasies, not cla.s.ses. Lytton and Disraeli are only types of two families.
”How well the Yankees have behaved in this Fenian brawl! Let us not be slow to acknowledge it. If I were a man in station I would say, now is the time to pay all Alabama claims, and not higgle whether we owe them or not. Now is the moment not to be outdone in generosity, but say let us have done once and for ever with this miserable bickering--let us criticise each other frankly and fairly, but in the spirit of men who wish each other well. As for _us_, we want one ally who will really understand _us_, and if we could once get the Yankee to see that we meant to be civil to him, we _might_ make a foundation for a friends.h.i.+p that would serve us in our day of need.
”We are actually deluged now with war correspondents--'Times,' 'Post,'
'Telegraph,' 'D. News,' &c. By the way, what a series might be made of M'Caskey's advices for the war: insolent braggart notices of what was and what ought to have been done, &c. I thought of it yesterday when I had a lot of these war Christians at dinner.
”Only think, there is a Queen's messenger called Nigor Hall (Byng Hall, or, as the Frenchmen call him, 'Bunghole') who, criticising Tony Butler, said I had made a gross blunder in making him lose his despatches. Now the same B. H. has just lost the whole Constantinople bag on arriving at Ma.r.s.eilles, and Louis Nap. is diligently conning over Lyons' last missives to F. O. and seeing what game we are 'trying on' to detach Russia from France.
”P.S.--I send an instalment of 'Sir B.' and let me have it early, as I am drawing towards the 'Tattenham corner of the race.' I want to see how it looks. Read it carefully, and give me your shrewdest criticism.
”I have just heard that there is a plot here to carry off Cook's excursionists for ransom by the brigands. What a good 'O'Dowd' it would make to warn them!
”The first shot is to be fired by the Italians tomorrow, the anniversary of 'St Martin's,' which they think they won!”
_To Mr John Blackwood._
”Villa Morelli, _June_ 28, [1866].
”I begin this at midnight, the first cool moment of the twenty-four hours, to finish to-morrow some time before post hour. I see that you have learned our disaster here already--a sore blow, too, to a young army: but _que voulez-vous?_ La Marmora is an a.s.s, with a small head and a large face like Packington. You might make a first lord of him, but never a general. The attack of the first division had never been intended to do more than draw out the Austrians and encourage the belief that the _grand_ attack was to follow: meanwhile Cialdini was to have crossed the Po and moved on Rovigo. The blundering generals made a real movement of it, and got a real thras.h.i.+ng for their pains. The division was all but cut to pieces. They fought well--there's no doubt of it; they even bore beating, which is more than one would have said of them.
The king was twice surrounded and all but made prisoner, and the princes behaved splendidly.
”It is a great misfortune that they should have met a repulse at first.
I say this because they _must_ have Venice, and I think the great thing is that they should have it without French intervention. I hope if the Conservatives come in that they will see this, and see that Italy cannot go back without being a French province. If we have a policy at all,--sometimes I doubt it,--it is to prevent or _delay_ French aggrandis.e.m.e.nt. That stupid bosh of volunteer soldiering has so bemuddled English brains that they fancy we have an army. Why, a costermonger with his donkey might as well talk of his 'steed.' I wouldn't say this to a foreigner, nor let them say it to _me_, but it's true. If we could patch up the Italian quarrel and get Venice for them, and arrange an alliance between Italy and Austria, we should do more than by following the lead of Louis Napoleon and playing 'cad' to him through Europe.
”Are the Derbys really coming in? Who will be F. Secretary? I was going to say, 'Who wants me?'
”I was thinking of keeping a running comment on the war in 'O'Dowd,'
the events jotted as they occurred, with such remarks as suggested themselves--a hotch-potch of war, morals, politics, &c. What think you?
Of course, with a certain seriousness; it is no joking matter, in any view one takes of it.
”What a wonderful book 'Felix Holt' is! I read much of it twice over, some of it three times, and throughout there is a restrained power--a latent heat--far greater than anything developed. She at least suggests to _me_ that her _dernier mot_ is not there on _anything_. It is not a pleasant book as to the effect on the mind when finished; but you cannot forget it, and you cannot take up another after it. It is years since anything I read has taken the same hold upon me.
”Here has just come news that General Chiera has been shot by court-martial for treason, having betrayed the Italian plans to the Austrians. What next? The Neapolitans have earned a dark fame for themselves in all their late history. I don't know yet if the story is authentic.
”I have little confidence in the Tories' hold of office, and I have less still that they will do anything for me, though there is scarcely a man of the Party who has not given me pledges or a.s.surances of remembrance.
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