To Mr John Blackwood.
“Villa Morelli, Friday, Nov. 3, 1866.
“I am rather out of spirits,—indeed I feel that my public and myself are at cross-purposes.
“D——— their souls—(God forgive me)—but they go on repeating some stone-cold drollery of old Pam’s, and my fun—hot and piping—is left un-tasted; and as to wisdom, I’ll back O’Dowd against all the mock aphorisms of Lord Russell and his whole Cabinet. It would not do to touch Palmerston in O’D.: I could not go on the intensely laudatory tack, and any—the very slightest—qualification of praise would be ill taken. Do you know the real secret of P.‘s success? It was, that he never displayed ambition till he was a rich man. Had Disraeli reserved himself in the same degree, there would have been nothing of all the rotten cant of ‘adventurer,’ &c., that we now hear against him. Begin life rich in England, and all things will be added to you.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Villa Morelli, Florence, Nov. 6,1865.
“I think the Bagmen deserve an ‘O’Dowd’; their impertinent wine discussion is too much to bear. I don’t suspect the general public will dislike seeing them lashed, and from the specimens I have met travelling, I owe some of the race more than I have given them.
“I think there is a good chance of a (short-lived) Conservative Government next year, and then Gladstone and le Déluge. Unless some great change resolves the two parties in the House into real open enemies (not camps where deserters cross and recross any day), we shall have neither political honesty nor good government.
“The present condition of things makes a lukewarm public and disreputable politicians.”
To Mr John Blackwood.