Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters Volume Ii Part 22

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Croce di Malta, Spezzia, _June_ 15, 1866.

"Here I am at my post. Spezzia is about to receive a new accession of greatness and become the station for transmitting the post to England and France, as the Bologna line will have to be given up entirely to the army to advance or retreat on, as events may determine.

"I have been three days here. I am the only _stranger_ (!) in the place.

All the hotels empty, and I have the Gulf to my own swimming.

"There's a pretty little girl, a granddaughter of Lord Byron, here--Lady Arabella Nash--on a visit to the Somervilles.

("By the way, has granddaughter two d's or one? I have left it both ways in the proof which I send you by this post.)

"I wish I could get a house down here, and retire from the pomps and short whists of life, the odd tricks and all the honours!

"There is one--only one; but the scoundrel asks me an iniquitous rent.

He knows, Italian like, that I have a fancy for it, and he'll keep it unlet to torture me.

"I shall be back in time for the O'D. proof (if it should be sent out), and you shall have it by return.

"One comfort--at least we are promised it--of the new postal line will be an express train down here, for at present the railroad is only something above a fast walking pace, and the cabs at the station always announce to the late arrivals that they can overtake the train at will.

"Do you believe in war yet? And how long do you believe you can keep out of it? The French Emperor's real reluctance is not knowing what England might do with a change of Government, what Tory counsels might advise, and what possible alliance with Russia might ensue if it was once clearly seen what the aggressive designs of France meant. Many here a.s.sert (and not fools either) that L. Nap. has decided on taking the old 'Cisalpine Gaul' (with Turin, &c.)."

_To Mr Alexander Spencer._

"Florence [or Spezzia], _June 17_,1866.

"I am in the midst of great difficulties. Chapman & Hall, after years of intercourse, have shown the cloven foot, and are displaying [tactics]

which, if successful, will wrest from me all my copyrights and leave me ruined. The story is long and intricate, nor could I at all events bore you with a recital which nothing but time, temper, and good management may conduct to a good result. My present anxiety is [to know] if [ ]

remitted to you 60 to go towards the insurances. He says he did, but he is well capable of deceiving me. I had half a mind to go over to England the other day and put the affair into a lawyer's hands, but my difficulty was to know how, having begun such litigation, I was to bear its charges and at the same time earn my daily bread.

"Fred Chapman is now here, having come out to induce me to give him an a.s.signment of all my copyrights as security for a debt they claim against me of 2500, but which I utterly deny and dispute.

"Drop me one line to say if the 60 has reached you.

"How are you all, and how does time treat you? I am growing terribly old--older than I ever thought or feared I should feel myself. Does my last book please you? Some of my critics call it my best; but I have lost faith in them as in myself, and I write as I live--from hand to mouth.

"My poor old friend James has just died at Venice, an utter break-up of mind having preceded the end."

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Villa Morelli, _June_ 24, 1866.

"I see by the telegram that the Whigs have resigned, and it is [Lord Dunkellin's] jaw-bone has slain the giant. Oh dear, do you know him? He dined here with us some short time ago, with Gregory and some others, and we thought him the poorest thing of the lot.

"I have great doubts that our people can form an Administration. They have the cane too, it is true, to help them; but they may have to give all the plums to their supporters, and their old friends won't like eating the 'dough' for _their_ share of the pudding.

"Worse than this is the miserable press of the Party. Can't men see that the whole tone of public opinion in England has taken the Italian side of the Venetian question? There is no longer a right and wrong in these things when sympathies--and something stronger than sympathies--come in; and the stupid 'Standard' goes on raving about treaties scarcely a rag of which remain, and which every congress we have held since '13 has only demolished some part of. If Austria be wise and fortunate she will take Silesia and make peace with Italy, ceding Venice. What every one wants is securities against France; but we have converted the brigand into a sheriffs officer, and thrown an air of legality over all his robberies.

"That Europe endures the insolence of his late letter is the surest evidence of the miserable cowardice of the age.

"The scene of the king's departure here was very touching. He left at 3 o'clock on Monday, just as day was breaking, but the whole city was up and in the streets to take leave of him. All the ladies in their carriages, and the great squares crammed as I never saw them on Monday.

The king was so moved that he could not speak, and the enthusiasm was really overwhelming. If this army gets a first success it will dash on gallantly and do well; if it be repulsed----

"Should the Conservatives come in, will they have the wit to offer the mission here to Hudson? It would do more for them as a party than forty votes in the House. It would stop at once the lurking suspicion as to their retrograde tendencies in Italy, on which Palmerston taunted them, and by which he kept them out of office for years.

"I own I have no confidence in the world-wisdom of Conservatives. They know the Carlton, and they know, not thoroughly but a good deal of, the 'House'; but of Englishmen at large and the nation,--of what moderate, commonplace, fairly educated and hard-headed people say and think,--they know nothing. But one has only to look at them to see that they represent idiosyncrasies, not cla.s.ses. Lytton and Disraeli are only types of two families.

"How well the Yankees have behaved in this Fenian brawl! Let us not be slow to acknowledge it. If I were a man in station I would say, now is the time to pay all Alabama claims, and not higgle whether we owe them or not. Now is the moment not to be outdone in generosity, but say let us have done once and for ever with this miserable bickering--let us criticise each other frankly and fairly, but in the spirit of men who wish each other well. As for _us_, we want one ally who will really understand _us_, and if we could once get the Yankee to see that we meant to be civil to him, we _might_ make a foundation for a friendship that would serve us in our day of need.

"We are actually deluged now with war correspondents--'Times,' 'Post,'

'Telegraph,' 'D. News,' &c. By the way, what a series might be made of M'Caskey's advices for the war: insolent braggart notices of what was and what ought to have been done, &c. I thought of it yesterday when I had a lot of these war Christians at dinner.

"Only think, there is a Queen's messenger called Nigor Hall (Byng Hall, or, as the Frenchmen call him, 'Bunghole') who, criticising Tony Butler, said I had made a gross blunder in making him lose his despatches. Now the same B. H. has just lost the whole Constantinople bag on arriving at Ma.r.s.eilles, and Louis Nap. is diligently conning over Lyons' last missives to F. O. and seeing what game we are 'trying on' to detach Russia from France.

"P.S.--I send an instalment of 'Sir B.' and let me have it early, as I am drawing towards the 'Tattenham corner of the race.' I want to see how it looks. Read it carefully, and give me your shrewdest criticism.

"I have just heard that there is a plot here to carry off Cook's excursionists for ransom by the brigands. What a good 'O'Dowd' it would make to warn them!

"The first shot is to be fired by the Italians tomorrow, the anniversary of 'St Martin's,' which they think they won!"

_To Mr John Blackwood._

"Villa Morelli, _June_ 28, [1866].

"I begin this at midnight, the first cool moment of the twenty-four hours, to finish to-morrow some time before post hour. I see that you have learned our disaster here already--a sore blow, too, to a young army: but _que voulez-vous?_ La Marmora is an a.s.s, with a small head and a large face like Packington. You might make a first lord of him, but never a general. The attack of the first division had never been intended to do more than draw out the Austrians and encourage the belief that the _grand_ attack was to follow: meanwhile Cialdini was to have crossed the Po and moved on Rovigo. The blundering generals made a real movement of it, and got a real thrashing for their pains. The division was all but cut to pieces. They fought well--there's no doubt of it; they even bore beating, which is more than one would have said of them.

The king was twice surrounded and all but made prisoner, and the princes behaved splendidly.

"It is a great misfortune that they should have met a repulse at first.

I say this because they _must_ have Venice, and I think the great thing is that they should have it without French intervention. I hope if the Conservatives come in that they will see this, and see that Italy cannot go back without being a French province. If we have a policy at all,--sometimes I doubt it,--it is to prevent or _delay_ French aggrandis.e.m.e.nt. That stupid bosh of volunteer soldiering has so bemuddled English brains that they fancy we have an army. Why, a costermonger with his donkey might as well talk of his 'steed.' I wouldn't say this to a foreigner, nor let them say it to _me_, but it's true. If we could patch up the Italian quarrel and get Venice for them, and arrange an alliance between Italy and Austria, we should do more than by following the lead of Louis Napoleon and playing 'cad' to him through Europe.

"Are the Derbys really coming in? Who will be F. Secretary? I was going to say, 'Who wants me?'

"I was thinking of keeping a running comment on the war in 'O'Dowd,'

the events jotted as they occurred, with such remarks as suggested themselves--a hotch-potch of war, morals, politics, &c. What think you?

Of course, with a certain seriousness; it is no joking matter, in any view one takes of it.

"What a wonderful book 'Felix Holt' is! I read much of it twice over, some of it three times, and throughout there is a restrained power--a latent heat--far greater than anything developed. She at least suggests to _me_ that her _dernier mot_ is not there on _anything_. It is not a pleasant book as to the effect on the mind when finished; but you cannot forget it, and you cannot take up another after it. It is years since anything I read has taken the same hold upon me.

"Here has just come news that General Chiera has been shot by court-martial for treason, having betrayed the Italian plans to the Austrians. What next? The Neapolitans have earned a dark fame for themselves in all their late history. I don't know yet if the story is authentic.

"I have little confidence in the Tories' hold of office, and I have less still that they will do anything for me, though there is scarcely a man of the Party who has not given me pledges or a.s.surances of remembrance.