Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume Ii Part 35

"Trieste, _Feb_. 13, 1869.

"I was very impatient to hear from you. What you say of the whist story is all true, though I didn't make my man a fellow of All Souls' but only a master of that college. Some of the fellows are, however, notoriously the worst whisters going. They are selected for convivial qualities, not the gentlemanlike ones. Unhappily there is a distinction.

"Of course it wants point, just as one-franc Bordeaux wants 'body.' It is merely meant to be light tipple, and if it does not give heartburn there is nothing to grumble at over it.

"Still I'd have made it better if I knew how, but I couldn't hit on anything I thought improvement.

"My wife has got a serious relapse, and I have not written a line since I wrote to you. It will suit my book--that is, my story (not my banker's book)--if you could begin with me by your new volume in July; but of course I am at the mercy of your other engagements."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _March_ 2, 1869.

"I send you two short, but I think spicy, O'Ds., and will try to add another. My girls say that if F. O. does not 'inform me' something about the 'new series,' it will be strange and singular, for it is certainly impertinent.

"The war is evidently drawing near, but the terror of each to begin grows greater every day. It is firmly believed here that a secret understanding binds Russia and America, and that if England moves out of strict neutrality the States mean to be troublesome. Farragut told me he saw no navy to compare with the Russian, but I know enough of Yankees to accept his talk with more than one grain of salt.

"The efforts of France and Prussia to secure the alliance of Italy are most amusing, as if the events of late had not shown how totally inoperative Italy was, and that nothing could be worse than her army except her fleet.

"My poor wife makes no progress towards recovery, and all we can do, by incessant care, is to support her strength. I never leave the house now, and am broken in spirits and nearly 'off the hooks.'

"Do write me a line when you have time. It is always pleasant to hear from you."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _March_ 14, 1869.

"You are quite right, there was a clear _non sequitur_ in the new series O'D., and I have corrected it, I hope, satisfactorily.

"You are not, I think, so right about 'Norcott,'* at least I hope not, for I cannot see the improbability or impossibility you speak of in the latter part. The sketch of Hungarian life was, I believe, perfectly correct, and there was no more improbability in the story than that of heaping many incidents in the career of a single individual, which, after all, is a necessity of a certain sort of fiction, and pardonable so long as they are not incongruous. It is not worth discussing, besides; indeed, I never do uphold or even defend what I have done except the critic be, as you are, a friend whose objections are meant as warnings and guidings.

* "That Boy of Norcott's," which was just finis.h.i.+ng its serial course in "The Cornhill Magazine.' and is coming to see me. He and 'his'n' are living with the Bloomfields, who have most hospitably taken them in till they can house themselves, which (you know) can only be done in Austria on the 24th August.

"My chances of seeing London this year decrease almost daily. My poor wife's symptoms are very threatening, and I cannot leave home now, though much pressed to pay a long-promised visit to Croatia, even for a day.

"Robert Lytton is now Secretary at Vienna,

"You don't agree with me about the proximity of war, but I know it has been twice, within the last three weeks, on the very brink of beginning.

Louis Napoleon has fallen into a state of silent despondency, in which he will give no orders, offer nothing, nor agree to anything, and R[ouher] is often left days without any instructions to guide him.

"As for Austria, she is in a terrible funk, _el du raison_. Her army is but half drilled, and the new weapon is a puzzle to the raw recruits; besides this, she has nothing that could be called a general,--nothing above the Codrington cla.s.s, which, after all, can only pull through by the pluck and bravery of British troops.

"The hatred of Prussia is so inveterate here that anything like a candid opinion as to the chances of the campaign against France is not to be looked for, but so far as I can see men would generally back the French.

How would the Whigs conduct a great war, I wonder? Certainly Cardwell and his economics would cut a sorry figure if he were called on for a big effort.

"I hope the mode in which Gladstone proposes to _endow_ Maynooth (while affecting mere compensation) will give the Tories a strong ground of attack. The Bill is a palpable project to buy every one at the expense of the Irish Church. The landlord, the tenant, the priest, the Presbyterian, even the Consolidated Fund, are to be relieved of part of their charge for Irish charities; and yet it will pa.s.s, if for no other reason than that the nation sees one party to be as dishonest as the other, and that if Gladstone were beaten by Dizzy, Dizzy would carry the measure afterwards.

"If the 'Ballot' O'D. be late to send back in proof, you will deal with it yourself. It is well to take the themes that are before men's eyes, and say our say while there are ears to hear us.

"The Emperor of Austria arrives here on Friday, and I am bidden to a great banquet, to be eaten in a tight uniform and epaulettes 'with what appet.i.te I may.' I wish I could O'Dowd them all, and take my vengeance 'in kind.'"

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Trieste, _April_ 13, 1869.

"The piece of autobiography is fact. I was a young college man when I did the trick, and can to this day remember one sentence of Boyton's own words, which I gave in the report verbatim. The peer was the late Marquis of Downs.h.i.+re, the greatest a.s.s of the Conservative party, _et c'est beaucoup dire_. Boyton's death was commemorated by a beautiful article in 'Blackwood,'--I believe written by O'Sullivan, but I'm not sure. As for the '_Speech_-Makers' Manual,' it was published by Koutledge & Co. I got it out before I wrote my papers. It is incredibly absurd. The inscrutable man I refer to was Villiers--Fred Villiers,--a great friend of all the Bulwers, and formerly M.P. for Canterbury. He was no Villiers, had nothing, nor belonged to any one; but he was at the top of London society and knew every duke in England, and made a brilliant career of it for at least ten years or more.

"I am very full of my trip to London, and mean to take my youngest daughter over--she has never been in England--to visit some friends and pa.s.s the summer in Devons.h.i.+re. My leave is a very short one; and as they stop my pay, I can't afford to prolong it. It will be a great delight to me to see you and Mrs Blackwood again, and I feel this is to be my farewell visit to England, my possibly last appearance before retiring from the boards for ever.

"I have just found the reference to Boyton. It is taken from 'The Dublin Evening Mail' (the paper in which I gave Downs.h.i.+re his speech) for August 1833, but my impression is that there is another and longer notice of him in some other magazine later on.

"It is very rarely that I wish for my youth back again; but now that I have begun to think of those days, and all the fine-hearted fellows I knew in them, I cannot repress the wish that I was once more what I was thirty-five years ago, and take my chance for doing something other and better than I have done.

"The Austrians and Italians are doing now what they ought to have done fifteen years ago, making an alliance _against_ France--that is, to maintain a united neutrality if pressed by France to join her. How strange it is that nations, no more than individuals, do not see that it is not enough to do the _right thing_, but that it ought to be done at the _right time_ also.

"For ever since I have known Italy I have said her natural ally was Austria, her natural enemy France."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Hotel du Louvre, Paris, _May_ 4,1869.

"'Thus far into the bowels of the land have we marched' without other impediment than the Custom House officers, and mean to be in London by Thursday next. Will you drop me a line to Jr. Carlton to say when we may hope to see you?

"I'd not have delayed in Paris, but Lyons has been exceedingly kind and hospitable, and I am glad to have a long gossip with him over things past and present and to come.

"I have done nothing but _rencontre_ with old schoolfellows--white-headed rascals that terrify me with their tiresome stories and half-remembered remembrances. Good G.o.d, am I like these Pharisees? is my constant question, and I have never the pluck to answer it.

"We travelled a whole day with Lewes and his wife (Adam Bede), and were delighted with her talk. Her voice alone has an indescribable charm.

"I write in the buzz of a room with 250 travellers and fifty or more particular acquaintances who are telling me what they fancy are good stories, though if I tried to palm them on you as such, you'd soon let me know your mind.

"Tanti saluti a la Signera"

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"33 Brook Street, London, _May_ 12,1869.

"I cannot tell you how I feel the disappointment of not seeing you here, and my regret is all the deeper for the cause of your absence. I thoroughly know besides how you yourself regard a position which, while you are powerless for all good, leaves you still unable to quit it. I fervently hope that your poor brother may rally, and that I may soon hear better tidings of him. In the turmoil and movement around me I always feel like a man the day after a hard drinking-bout, my head aching, my senses confused, my memory shaken, and through all a sort of shame that this is not my place at all, and that I am wastefully squandering my hard-got half-crowns to the detriment of my family. On the other side of the picture I find great kindness and great courtesy, a number of agreeable people to talk to, and the only women I have seen for a long while who, to be pleasant, do not need to be made love to. We have been greatly asked out, and some of my old friends have vied with each other in kindness to my daughters.