Dear Miss Buckley,-- ... How wonderfully the Russians have got on since you left! A very little more and the Turkish Government might be turned out of Europe--even now it might be with the greatest ease if our Government would join in giving them the last kick. Whatever power they retain in Europe will most certainly involve another war before twenty years are over.--Yours very faithfully, ALFRED R. WALLACE. * * * * * TO MISS BUCKLEY _Waldron Edge, Croydon. May 2, 1879._ Dear Miss Buckley,-- ... My "Reciprocity" article seems to have produced a slight effect on the _Spectator_, though it did snub me at first, but it is perfectly sickening to read the stuff spoken and written, in Parliament and in all the newspapers, about the subject, all treating our present practice as something holy and immutable, whatever bad effects it may produce, and though it is not in any way "free trade" and would I believe have been given up both by Adam Smith and Cobden.--Yours very faithfully, ALFRED R. WALLACE. * * * * * He was always ready, even eager, to discuss his social and land nationalisation principles with his scientific friends, with members of his own family, and indeed with anyone who would lend a willing ear. HERBERT SPENCER TO A.R. WALLACE _38 Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, W. April 25, 1881._ Dear Mr. Wallace,--As you may suppose, I fully sympathise with the general aims of your proposed Land Nationalisation Society; but for sundry reasons I hesitate to commit myself, at the present stage of the question, to a programme so definite as that which you send me. It seems to me that before formulating the idea in a specific shape it is needful to generate a body of public opinion on the general issue, and that it must be some time before there can be produced such recognition of the general principle involved as is needful before definite plans can be set forth to any purpose....--Truly yours, HERBERT SPENCER. * * * * * HERBERT SPENCER TO A.R. WALLACE _38 Queen's Gardens, Bayswater, W. July 6, 1881._ Dear Mr. Wallace,--I have already seen the work you name, "Progress and Poverty," having had a copy, or rather two copies, sent me. I gathered from what little I glanced at that I should fundamentally disagree with the writer, and have not read more.