*****
Cannes April 27, 1885
I cannot imagine Russia drawing back in so supremely favourable a position. What is hard to understand is her having gone so far, and deliberately resolved on war. But I see that there is something in all this that has entirely escaped me. It seems so clear that our policy is to restore Russia to the position she had attained before the Congress of Berlin, that, therefore, we are not only her best, but her only friends—that I am quite bewildered, and half suspect that there has been some tremendous mistake in our management. I should like to have the chance of distracting Mr. Gladstone with various talk, in all this anxiety. Probably I shall be at Carlton H. Terrace on Friday week. Will you tell me there when we can meet? ... Tennyson's really profound animosity[[256]] against the P.M. has long been known to people in his confidence, and has come out at last. It was one reason, but not the only one, of my dislike to his peerage.
*****
Maine, whose series of articles form in reality an assault on the Government, promises to adopt all my remonstrances in the reprinting of them. These filled twenty-six of my pages, in all; so I count on a considerable modification of the text.
I hope there will be a possible play ... when we come to town.
—— is very intelligent, agreeable, amiable, a little complex in design; accurate calculation sometimes resides in the corner of her eye, and she knows how to regulate to a hair's breadth, when she smiles, the thin red line of her lips.
Prince's Gate June 20, 1885
No one ever saw Mr. Gladstone in better spirits than he was at dinner yesterday. I hope it was the hitch.[[257]] It is a bore to be away when the thing is to be decided. May agrees with me, and with that other Radical[[258]] from Cambridge, that even the ingeniously remodelled assurances ought not to be given; when we have preserved peace with so much difficulty, no concession not absolutely required should be made to these dangerous successors.[[259]] But it will need great fortitude, and I do not seriously hope for success against the strong wish of so many colleagues.
*****