“I hear that the Government mean to hand over Eyre to the Radicals; and though there is much in his case hard to defend, that the man did his best in a great difficulty according to ‘his lights’ I am convinced.
“I have such a good story for you about Drummond Wolff versus Bulwer,—but I can’t write it. You shall hear it, however, when I come over in spring, even if I go down to Edinburgh to tell it.
“A great many happy Christmases to you and all yours.”
To Mr John Blackwood.
“Croce di Malta, Spezzia, Dec. 30, 1866.
“Your last pleasant note and its ‘stuffing’ has just reached me here, where I am consularising, bullying Custom-house folk, and playing the devil with all the authorities to show my activity in the public service. I can’t endure being away from home and my old routine life; but there was no help for it, and I am here now for another week to come.
“The name I want for the author of Tony is ‘Arthur Helsham,’ the name of my mother’s family; and the last man who bore the aforesaid was the stupidest blockhead of the house, and the luckiest too. Faustum sit augurium.
“As to G. Berkeley’s book, it is quite impossible to do anything at all commensurate with so rascally a book. It is hopeless work trying to make a sweep dirtier, and I agree with you—better not touch him.”