_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Casa Capponi, Florence, _Nov._, 23,1863.
"The sight of your handwriting is very comforting to me. I tell you frankly I get no letters that cheer me like yours now. I quite agree with you about Turkey, and our policy has no other defence than that it is better to leave open to contingencies what, if we were to deal with summarily, we should finish at once. In not negotiating with Nicholas England was simply giving way to one of those intermittent attacks of morality which seize her after some aggressive paroxysm--a Caffre war or the annexation of [?Oude] We have done scores of things--and if we live and prosper will do them again--far more reprehensible than a part.i.tion of Turkey. I believe the Crimean war was a signal blunder, and the peace that followed it worse than the war.
"As to Turkey as a question for a paper, I can only say as Lord Plunkett did of a _crim. con. case_: "I"d like to have a hundred pounds to argue it either way."
"How glad I am you like "The Dodds." I know I have never done, nor ever shall do, anything one half so good, because it is original. I decanted, through all the absurdities of Dodd"s nature, whatever I really knew of life and mankind, and it is that very admixture of shrewd sense and intense blundering that makes an Irishman. The perception and the _enjoyment_ of the very domestic absurdities that overwhelm him with shame would in any other nature mean insanity, but they only make an Irishman very true to his national characteristics, and rather a pleasant fellow to talk to.
"I"ll send you soon a sketch of my intentions as to "The Dodd" papers; perhaps you are right in keeping the name back.
"Your brother was quite right. My compliments to him, and say he shall not be bored with any more Italian politics. I suppose my old medical instincts led me into the mess, and made me fancy that an "occasional bitter" was always useful I"ll send you a batch of MSS. in a day or two, and _when you send me the proofs I"ll go ahead vigorously._
"I am reading Kinglake, and delighted with him. I go with every line of him."
_To Dr Burbidge._
"Casa Capponi, Florence, _Dec_, 1,1863.
"I have at last bullied my attack, though a severe rheumatism has seized on me and brought me to my knees in more senses than one. I am truly sorry to hear you are out of sorts. Let me prescribe. Go up to the V.
Consulate, extremity of the Casa Falconi, and make Freddy (Sanders, F.) search out from among the bottles there one of brandy--it is wonderfully old and good--and take it home, and give yourself a stiffish gla.s.s of the same, cold, without water, a short time before bed-hour, and follow it each day by ten grains quinine in two separate doses--five grains each, [?_C"est_] _la grande cure_.
"I am not yet sure whether I have lost MSS. as well as proof, the last, certainly, as you may know to your cost some fine day when you see No.
2 walk in once more to have his face washed, for indeed I could not make the corrections you did, and I know they ought to be made. By the way, neither of us remarked that I gave the same maid--Honore--to Sir William Wardle and the Vyners.
"I cannot get to work as I ought. I have a good many anxieties, and I bear them less well than I used. Strange dispensation, that one"s load should grow heavier as the back to bear it grows weaker!
"I am making a shocking mull of "Luttrell," I feel and know, and can"t help it. I suppose I shall go down to Spezzia in a few days--that is, next week, but I don"t like leaving home with my wife so nervous and suffering.
"The Church here at a dead-lock. Pendleton threatening, the vestry coaxing, the parson putting forth each Sunday all his most attractive graces, but still, to be sure, asking for more; and the public, most of whom are in the migratory state, declare that they belong to another parish, and are deaf to the charmer."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Florence, _Sat.u.r.day, [Dec]_ 5, [1863.]
"I got a fright at finding that your letter of the 30th does not acknowledge the receipt of "Tony." part five, and I hope it has reached you and will soon reach me. I was wrong about seeing Staffa,--that is, I have seen it, but only twice or thrice in as many years,--a mere chance effect of atmosphere which ought not to have been set down as a common occurrence. Bulwer Lytton amused me about the Colonial habits, but what would he say if the Sec. (as in Duke of Newcastle case) was in the Lords, and never went to the House of Lords at all? His other remark is of more consequence--about Maitland"s connection with Neapolitan politics; and I am sorry that he dislikes it, sorry because he is a consummately good critic, and if he with his reflective habits thought my politics a bore, Heaven help me with the genuine novel-reader!
"But, as you truly say (and with more truth in my particular case than in most men"s), I must only do the best I can in my _own_ way, not meaning that I do not desire to be told when I am wrong, and feel thankful to any one who will take that trouble with me, and endeavour, moreover, so far as I can, to benefit by the counsel I would not tell him of the author. It will, besides, enable him to be more free in stating his opinion, which the oftener you can obtain for me the better.
"I so fully agreed with you in not reviving Kenny Dodd, that I have created a new man, Cornelius O"Dowd, whose letter to you is enclosed herewith--the third chapter, being "The Friend of Gioberti," which caused a laugh from those who have little mirth in their hearts of late.
I"m not sure you"ll like the thing (though I do), but you will never disconcert me by frankness, backed up, as I now find it to be, by a very kindly feeling towards me. There will very soon be events stirring enough to record here. These people are bent on war, and the secret agent of the Government left this yesterday for Caprera to confer with Garibaldi."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Casa Capponi, Florence, _Dec_, 19, 1863.
"There"s a common belief here that no letters with a photograph can pa.s.s through the Florence post office, as some amateur official is certain to secure it. If this (a copy for a bust that had a year ago some likeness to me) reaches you it will be perhaps lucky, and if it fail there will be no great misfortune to you. The sight of me, either in the flesh or cardboard, has long ceased to make any one more light-hearted. I am shaking away, and if I try to write in my present condition you"d shake too. _Speriamo_--the weather will change soon, and, though I"m not given to be over-sanguine of late, I hope to be again at work in a few days, and send you a new relay of "Tony."
"I wish you"d throw your eye over "Luttrell," and tell me what you think of it.
"A happy Xmas to you and yours."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Casa Capponi, Florence, Dec 23, 1863.
"I send you herewith four chapters, to make at least part of No. 6, "Tony." Read and comment, and let me soon see the proof, for this is my one busy consular moment and I can do nothing "fictionally" for some time, though Heaven knows, I know nothing of bottomry, nothing of weight, Nothing of cargo, demurrage, or freight. And such a maze are my faculties wrapt in,
"I never could say To this blessed day Is it the Consul should pay or the Captain?"
"_Addio_, and a pleasanter and happier Christmas than is the lot of yours faithfully."
_To Dr Burbidge._
"Casa Capponi, Dec. 26, 1863,
"Will you kindly post the enclosed for me to imply that I am a resident of Spezzia, and still enjoy the graceful hospitalities of the Hotel d"Odessa?
"I am glad you take the view which, though I did not word before, I myself entertained of the "Athenaeum" criticism. I believe I can guess the secret spring which set the attack in motion, and the whole is not worth thinking of, and I can dismiss it from my thoughts without even an effort.
"Still, I do not believe "Luttrell" will do, and my conviction is that the despair that attaches to Ireland, from Parliament down to "Punch,"
acts injuriously on all who would try to invest her scenes with interest or endow her people with other qualities than are mentioned in police courts.
"Tell me, and the theme is a pleasanter one, do you take or give yourself a holiday at this season? You surely do not treat the old age and last moments of the year so disparagingly as to make working days of them! Well, then, come up and give us three or four of them here. I make no excuse for a dull house, probably you wouldn"t come if it were a gay one, but such as it is you will be a very welcome guest, and I am sure that a little new venue and new witnesses in the box would be of service to you."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
[Undated.]
"My present plan is of such a book as would make an ordinary 3-vol.
novel, for which I have, I believe, sufficient material for a good story, and a stirring one. I have not, however, written one line beyond what I have sent you, so that to trust me you must take my own security.
"Serial-writing not alone adapts itself to my habits, but actually chimes in with a certain mixture of indecision and facility which marks whatever I do in this way--that the success or failure of any character before the world has always guided me, whether to work out the creation more fully and perfectly, or to abandon it quietly. To give an instance,--I could give over fifty,--Micky Free was never intended to figure in more than a pa.s.sing scene in "Charles O"Malley"; but the public took to him, and so I gave him to them freely.
"All these "Confessions of Harry Lorrequer" will neither exhibit my artistic or constructive power in a very high light. _N"importe!_ if you take me, you must take me as they do the two-year-olds--with all my engagements, which are to write in the only way I have hitherto done, or I honestly believe I could do at all.