“The finest part of Scott’s nature to my thinking was the grand heroic spirit--that trumpet-stop on his organ--which elevated our commonplace people and stirred the heart of all that was high-spirited and generous amongst us. It was the anti-climax to our realism and sensationalism--detective Police Literature or Watch-house Romance. “This was the tone I wanted to see praised and recommended, and I was sorry to see how little it was touched on. The very influence that a gentleman exerts in society on a knot of inferiors was the sort of influence Scott brought to bear upon the whole nation. All felt that there was at least one there before whom nothing mean or low or shabby should be exhibited.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Trieste, _Aug_. 28, 1871. “The day after Langford left this, my horse, treading on a sharp stone that cut his frog, fell on me and crushed my foot,--not severely, but enough to bring on the worst attack of gout I ever had in my life, and which all my precautions have only kept down up to this from seizing on the stomach. My foot was about as big and as shapely as Cardwell’s head. I am now unable to move, and howl if any one approaches me rashly. “I told Langford of a curious police trial for swindling here at Vienna--curious as illustrating Austrian criminal procedure, &c. He thought I ought to report it in ‘O’Dowd.’ I send it off now for your opinion and judgment (and hope favourably). It might want a little retouching here and there, but you will see and say. “I was delighted with your ‘Scott’ speech--the best of them of all that I read, and I see it has been copied and recopied largely. Your allusion to Wilson was perfect, and such a just homage to a really great man whom all the Cockneyism in the world cannot disparage. “I am in such damnable pain that I can hardly write a line, but I want you to see the ‘Police’ sketch at once. Can I have a proof, if you like it, early? as perhaps when I am able to move I shall have to get to some of the sulphur springs in Styria at once. “My enemy is now making a demonstration about my left knee, and, as the newspapers say, _La situation est difficile_. “I am not so ill but that I can desire to be remembered to Mrs Blackwood.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “_Sept._, 9, 1871. “Between gout and indignation I am half mad. Gladstone at Whitby is worse to me than my swelled ankle, and I send you a furious O’D. to show that the Cabinet are only playing out--where they do not parody--the game of the Communists. “Whether it will be in time to send me a proof I cannot tell, but you will, I know, take care of me. I feel in writing it as though we had been talking the whole thing together, and that I was merely giving a _résumé_ of our gossip.