Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. II

To Mr John Blackwood.

“Villa Morelli, Florence, April 16,1866.

“It was a great relief to my mind to know that ‘Sir B.’ was up to the mark, as your note tells me, for I felt so shaken by illness that very little would have persuaded me the whole craft was going to pieces; and all they said to me here I took as mere encouragement, though, sooth to say, my home critics do not usually spoil me by flatteries. I am better, but not on the right road somehow. I am deplorably weak, and my choice seems to be between debility and delirium tremens, for to keep up my strength I drink claret all day long.

“How the Conservatives must have misplayed the game! To show the Ministry the road out of the blunder was as stupid a move as ever was made, and yet it is what they have done. They ought, besides, to have widened their basis at once by making Lord Stanley a pont du diable to reach Lowe and Horsman. There is a current hypocrisy in English public opinion – about admitting new men – sharing the sweets of office and such like. Why not cultivate it?

“From men who ought to know, I am told war is certain between Prussia and Austria.

“There is a rumour here that Italy offered terms to Austria for the cession of Venice, even to the extent of troops! It is hard to believe it. The Austrian alliance, if it were possible, would be the crowning policy of Italy and the only barrier against France; but national antipathies are hard to deal with, and here they are positively boundless.”

To Dr Burbidge

“Florence, Friday, April 1866.

“My thanks for your most kind note. My attack was only a ‘runaway knock’ after all I believe when the pallida mors does come, he gives a summons that there’s no mistaking. But I was only ill enough to suggest to myself the way by which I might become worse, and now it’s all over.

“I cannot make up my mind about the house till I go down and see in what state I receive it. There is, I suspect, very little furniture; but I mean to see, and decide soon, if I can. I assure you I look on £90 for a very poor quarter in a very poor place as a large rent, though you do persist in knocking my head off on account of my extravagance, which is a mere tradition, and you might as well bring up against me my idleness at school. The worst is, I used formerly to make money as easily as I spent it. I now find a great disinclination to work – that is, I am well aware, an expression for a disability.”

To Dr Burbidge.

“Casa Capponi, Florence, Thursday, May 1866.

“By a telegram from Sanders, received too late to reply to by post yesterday, I learned that our funds had amounted to sixty-five pounds, and I accordingly wrote to ‘My Lord’ to state as much, and also that the congregation, alike in grateful recognition of the gratuitously afforded services of Doctor Burbidge, as in the very fullest desire to secure his services, had appointed him to the chaplaincy, – a nomination which, in the event of any subsidy from the F. Office, they earnestly hoped his lordship would confirm.

“I believe I said it in rather choice phrase, but that was the substance, and I am very hopeful that he will do all that we ask.

“My wife had another attack of the rigor and fever yesterday, and Wilson apprehends some tertian character has inserted itself into the former illness. She is very ill indeed, so much so that although my married daughter is confined to bed and seriously ill at a hotel only a few hundred yards off, Julia cannot leave the house to see her. You see how impossible it would be for me to be away.

“I write very hurriedly, but I wished you to know that all, so far as we can do it, is now done, and if F. O. will only be as gracious as I hope, we shall have accomplished our great wish, and the Spezzia chaplaincy be a fact.”

To Mr John Blackwood.

“Florence, May 2, 1866.

“Herewith goes the next ‘Sir B.’ I was very glad indeed to get your last few lines, for I am low, low! I can’t pick up, somehow. But I don’t want to bore you with myself or mes maux.

“So they won’t resign! I think, on the whole, it’s as well, – I mean, that seeing what sort of composite thing a new Government must be, and how the Whigs have been beaten by a ‘byblow’ – not in a fair fight by the regular Opposition, – it’s better to wait and see.

“Here we are going to war and to bankruptcy together. The only question is, Which will be first? That infernal knave L. Nap. has done it all, and the Italians are always cheated by him through thinking that they are greater cheats than himself. But an old boatman of mine at Spezzia said, ‘There are three nations that would out-rogue the devil, – the Calibrese, the Corsicans, and the Pigs.’ How the last came to their nationality I can’t explain.

“You have seen notice of the Bishop of Limerick’s death. I don’t think he has, in one respect, left his equal behind him in the Irish Bench. He was the most thoroughly tolerant man I ever knew, and half a dozen men like him would do more to neutralise the acrimony of public feeling in Ireland than all the Acts of Parliament. His intellect was just as genial as his heart.”

To Mr John Blackwood.

“Florence, May 15, 1866.

“I wish I could pack myself up in the envelope that holds this and join you at breakfast in that pleasant parlour in the Old Burlington, where we laughed so much last spring; but there are good reasons for not saluting the General, beginning with the small one, ‘no powder.’

“Here we are in ruin. Gold and silver are all withdrawn from circulation, and the small notes promised by the Government delayed in issue to enable a set of scoundrelly officials to sell the reserve gold at 10 per cent and silver at 12. The banks will not discount, nor will they advance (the latter of most moment to me), and we are in all the pains of bankruptcy without that protection which a prison affords against dunning.

“I sent off ‘Sir B.’ proof to-day to W. B. I am sincerely glad you like it.

“I make no way towards strength or spirits. I believe with me they mean the same thing.

“If we have no war, we shall have a revolution here. All the good powder will not be wasted!”

To Mr John Blackwood.

“Villa Morelli, Florence, June 11,1866.

“Is it ignorant or wilful stupidity in the English papers that ignores the part L. Nap. is playing in the foreign imbroglio? It is one or the other. The whole machinery is his; and the very hot enthusiasm we see here was first excited by P. Napoleon’s visit and the encouragement the ‘Reds’ got from him.

“If Elliot were worth a sou, England would have been able to avert the war. There was one moment in which Austria would have listened, if only warned of the treachery planned against her. Hudson would have been the man here.

“Don’t send me any bill or cheque, for we are deluged with paper money here, and are obliged to pay from 5 to 8 per cent to change large notes into small. Even the 100-f. note costs this. I must try and get money out in gold (Naps., not sovereigns) through F. O. Any of the messengers will take it. Could you find out for me if it would be more profitable to buy Naps, in London, or change notes or sovereigns for them in Paris? Already this new form of robbery is half ruining us all here.

“I have been living on loans from my wife for six months, and she has at last stopped the supplies, though I have willingly offered to raise the rate of interest. Perhaps she suspects I shall not be able to raise the wind.”

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 assert (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 assignment of all my copyrights as security for a debt they claim against me of £2500, but which I utterly deny and dispute.