“You are right. I feel it more strongly since you said it that Tony has a long way to go. Hope he is worthy of Alice; but is he in this respect any worse than his neighbours? I don’t believe any man was worth the woman that inspired a real passion, and he only became approximately so by dint of loving her. And so if T. B. does ever turn out a good fellow it is Alice has done it, and not yours very faithfully.
“My thanks for your cheque, which came all safe. I thought O’D. had better be anecdotic and gossipy at first, but when I send you the batch (which I will in a day or two), tell me if something more didactic ought to come into preachment.”
To Mr John Blackwood
“Casa Capponi, Florence, Jan. 22, 1864.
“I send you herewith a piece of O’Dowderie, and if it be too light—I don’t suspect that’s its fault—I’ll weight it; and if it be too doughy, I’ll put more barm in it; and, last of all, if you don’t like it, I’ll burn it.
“What in the name of all good manners does Lord Russell mean by writing impertinences to all Europe? He is like an old Irish beggar well known in Dublin who sat in a bowl and kicked all round him. As to fighting for the Danes, it is sheer nonsense. They haven’t a fragment of a case, and we should not enjoy Mr Pickwick’s poor.... consolation of shouting with the largest mob.
“The Italians are less warlike than a month ago. The ‘Men of Action’—as the party call themselves who write in the newspapers but never take the field—declare that they are only waiting for the signal of ‘Kossuth’ from Hungary; but the fate of the Poles—who do fight and are brave soldiers—is a terrible a fortiori lesson to these people here, and I suspect they are imbibing it.
“I got a long letter yesterday from Lord Malmesbury and the criticism of Kinglake’s history. Why they don’t like it I cannot imagine. I believe he has hit the exact measure of the Emperor’s capacity, courage, and character altogether, and I go with him in everything.”
To Dr Burbidge.
“Florence, Feb. 11, 1864.