Here are some further letters concerned with that meeting or written to me soon afterwards:—
“Christ Church, Oxford,
“March 26th, 1877.
“My dear Miss Cobbe,
“I beg to thank you sincerely for your kind letter.
“So far as I can see there is, I fear, little chance of my being at liberty to take part in the proceedings on the 27th of April.
“However, with the names which you announce, you will be more than able to dispense with any assistance that I could lend to the common object. You will, I trust, be able to strengthen Mr. Holt’s hands. If what I have heard of his measure is at all accurate, it seems to be at once moderate and efficient.
“I was much struck by an observation which you were, I think, said to have made the other day at Bristol, to the effect that as matters now stand everything depends upon the discretion, or rather, upon the moral sympathies of the Home Secretary. Mr. Cross, I believe, would always do well in all such matters. But it does not do to reckon with the Roman Empire as if it were always to be governed by a Marcus Aurelius.
“I am, my dear Miss Cobbe,
“Yours very truly,