"I don"t suspect that the supremacy of Prussia will be unmitigated gain to us--far from it; but we shall not be immediate sufferers, and we shall at least have the cla.s.sic comfort of being the "last devoured."
"I hope you gave Lord Lytton and myself the credit (that is due to us) of prophesying this war."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"_Sept_. 1, 1870.
"I have so full a conviction of _your_ judgment and such a thorough distrust of my own, that I send you a brief bit of M"Caskey _for your opinion_. If you like it, if you think it is what it ought to be and the sort of thing to take, just send me one line by telegraph to say "Go on." I shall continue the narrative in time to reach you by the 18th at farthest, and enough for a paper. Remember this--the _real war narrative_ is already given and will continue to be given by the newspapers, and it is only by a _mock_ personal narrative, with the pretentious opinions of this impudent blackguard upon all he sees, hears, or meets with, that I could hope for any originality.
"My eldest daughter is very eager that I should take your opinion at once, and I am sure you will not think anything of the trouble I am giving you for both our sakes."
_To Mr William Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Sep_. 2, 1870.
"What a kind thought it was to send me the slip with Corkhardt"s paper!
It is excellent fun, and I send it to-day to the Levant to a poor banished friend on a Greek island.
"I regard the nation that thrashes France with the same sort of grat.i.tude I feel for the man who shoots a jaguar. It is so much done in the interests of all humanity, even though it be only a blackguard or a Bismarck who does it.
"I send you an O"D. to make enough for a short paper with the other sent on Monday last.
"I sent your uncle a specimen page of M"Caskey, but by bad luck I despatched it on my birthday, the 31st August,* and, of course, it will come to no good. It was Dean Swift"s custom to read a certain chapter of Job on his birthday, wherein the day is cursed that a man-child was born. I don"t go that far, but I have a very clear memory of a number of mishaps (to give them a mild name) which have taken this occasion to date from. It would be very grateful news to me to learn I was not to see "another return of the happy event," but impatience will serve me little, and I must wait till I"m asked for."
* The statement here as to his birthday is sufficiently explicit See vol. i p. 2.--E. D. the credit of reviewing "Lothair," I am determined to say that these papers were written by Colonel Humbug!
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Sept_ 11,1870.
"Since I got your "go on" I have never ceased writing about M"Caskey.
Upon you I throw all the responsibility, the more as it has very nearly turned my _own_ brain with its intrinsic insanity.
"I suppose I have sent you folly enough for the present month; and if you will write me one line to say you wish it, I will set to work at once at the next part and to the extent you dictate.
"Pray look fully to the corrections, and believe me [to be] not very sane or collected."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Sept_. 13, 1870.
"The post, which failed completely yesterday, brought me your three proofs to-day. I now send a short, but not sweet, O"Dowd on "Irish Sympathy" (whose correction you must look to for me), but which is certainly the best of the batch.
"I had hoped to have heard you mention the receipt of M"Caskey, whose revelations on the war will only be of value if given at once. I also sent off some additional matter for M"C. on Sunday last, and hope they have arrived safely.
"I wish you would send me "John" as a whole. If you should do so, send it to F. O., to the care of F. Alston, Esq., to be forwarded to me. I do not know of any novel-writer I like so well as Mrs. O., and if I could get her to write her name in any of her books for me I"d treasure it highly. She is the most womanly writer of the age, and has all the delicacy and decency one desires in a woman."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Sept_. 14, 1870.
"My sincere thanks for your note and its enclosure. It seems to me that I do nothing but get money from you. I suspect, however, that you will soon be freed from your pensioner. I am breaking fast, and as really the wish to live on has left me, my friends will not grudge me going to my rest.
"I am indeed glad that you like the O"Ds. I tear at least three for one I send you, being more than ever fearful of that "brain-breakdown" than I am of a gorged lung or a dropsical heart.
"From your telegram about M"Caskey, I was disposed to think you wished _the contribution for the October No._, and set to work at once to send another batch. I do not now understand whether this is your intention.
Of course (if possible) it were all the better it were begun immediately, because in the next part I could bring him up to recent events, and make his impatient comments on actual occurrences more outrageously pretentious and extravagant. You will tell me what you intend when you write.
"Some Hungarians--great swells in their own land--have been here, and are pressing the girls and myself to go to them a bit. It would be a great boon to my poor daughters, and for them I would try it if I could, but I have no heart for it. There was a time a month on the Danube would have been a great temptation to me.
"I will tell Syd to write to you, and you"re lucky if she does not do so with an MS."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Sept_. 16,1870.
"The war interruption delayed your proof, which only reached me this morning, and as the second part must be in your hands before this, I am hopeful that it will all appear in October No., so that by the No. in November I may bring things down to the actual date of pa.s.sing events.
I wish this because I know that the _apropos_ will be the chief merit of the whole.
"When I can get him into diplomatic correspondence about the Peace, &c, I think there should be some good fun; but I shall not go on till I hear from you or see that this is out, as I always do best on the spur of publication.
"This dictating to the King of Prussia how he ought to make peace, when none of us saw or presumed to say how he should have made war, is to me insufferable; and the simple question, "How much moderation would France have had had she reached Berlin?" settles the whole dispute. The insolent defiance of the Parisians within about a week of eating each other is a proof that these people may be thrashed and scourged, but the outrageous self-sufficiency cannot be squeezed out of them. I have not a shadow of pity for them, and it is without any remorse that I see them going headlong to--Bismarck!
"Victor Hugo"s address to the Germans beats not only Banagher, but beats Garibaldi in high-flown absurdity. Dear me! to think what old age can do for a man! What a warning to us small folk when we see a really great head come to such Martin Tupperism as this. Perhaps, however, it is a law of nature, and that poets, like plums, should be taken before they drop.
"Let me have even one line from you if I"m to go on with M"C."
_To Mr John Blackwood._
"Trieste, _Sept_. 21,1870.
"In the hope that M"Caskey has reached in time and makes his bow next month, and seeing that as events go fast he must stir himself to keep up with them, I have never quitted him since I wrote. I therefore send off two chapters, whose headings I defer till I see the print, and will, if you approve, bring him up to Sedan in the ensuing parts for the November No.
"The absurd idea has got such hold of me that I cannot free myself of it even for a moment, and if the reader only catches my _intention_ the thing will have a chance of success. In fact, I want to try a mild and not _offensive_ quiz on all "sensational" reporting. M"Caskey, fortunately, is a fine lay figure for such humbug, and being already in part known through "Tony Butler," needs no introduction.