Volume Ii Part 44 (1/2)
_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.