“I am convinced we ought to resort to conscription, and the time is fit for it. Now that you have given the masses privileges, let them assume duties. So long as you denied them the suffrage, you pretended to govern them and for them. Now the system is changed: they have taken the responsible charge of the State, and its first duty is defence.
“What hatfuls of money Dickens is making in America! I am half persuaded I could do the ‘trick’ too, but in another way.
“Give my warmest and best regards to your wife, and all my good wishes for the ‘year time’ (if the word be English).
“Have you seen Patton’s book—the ugly side of human nature? My youngest daughter made a very clever review of it, and, I believe, burnt it after.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Trieste, Jan. 16,1868.
“Though I did not fully concur in your view of M’C.‘s letter, I have made such emendations and additions as will make the sarcasm thin enough to appeal to you.
“I still think it is the best squib I have done.
“Trusting that you will now be of my mind, and that my codicils, &c., may come in aright.
“I have just returned from attending the ex-Emperor’s funeral,—four mortal hours in a uniform on a mule, with a fierce north-easter and a High Mass!”