Woe to him who bloods a child
For ambitious visions wild,
Poor baby Bunting!
“October 6th, 1870.—I am, I think, rapidly changing sides about this horrid war. You know I was a tremendous Prussian at the outset, but (although the French deserve all they get) I really can’t stand the bombardment of Paris; besides, Bismarck is repulsive.”
“Offley, 1871.
“I think that the high and mighty tone assumed by Herr Gustave Solling (German superhuman excellence, Handel, Beethoven, Minnesingers, &c.) the worst possible vehicle for the defence of the German terms of peace. When a man talks ‘buncombe,’ it shows that he has an uneasy feeling that his case is a weak one. The cynical line is the right one for the Germans; why not say, in the words of Wordsworth,—
‘And why? Because the good old rule
Sufficeth them; the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,