“Your first objection to Cave’s ‘spoonyness’ * I answer thus. Cave was heartily ashamed of himself for having played at stakes far above his means, and, like a man so overwhelmed, was ready to do, say, or approve of anything in his confusion. I was drawing from life in this sketch. * In ‘Sir Brook Fossbrooke.’ of doctrine by the opposite poles--Exeter and Cashel, Colenso and Carlisle; but you will see that I never instanced these men, or any other individuals, as likely to offer their pulpits. “2nd, Sewell’s addressing the men in his town so carelessly. He never saw them before; they came, hundreds, to see a race, and his acquaintances and the public were so mingled. He addressed them with an insolence not infrequent in Englishmen towards ‘mere Irish,’ and only corrected himself when pulled up. “I am deep in thinking over the story; and though I have not written a line, I am _at it_ night and day.” To Mr John Blackwood. “Florence, _Dec_. 12,1865. “I have just got your note. I need not say it has not given me pleasure, for I really thought--so little are men judges of their own work--that there were some of these O’Ds. equal to any I ever wrote. The paper that requires either explanation or defence can’t be good, and so I accept the adverse verdict. I make no defence, but I must make explanation. “In the ‘Prof. Politeness’ paper there is no personality whatever. I simply expressed divergence. “As to the practice, I have seen it over and over, and I can vouch for it in hospitals, home and foreign, as well. “I have expunged ‘Times,’ and made the word ‘newspapers’; I have cancelled ‘C. Connellan’ altogether. And now I trust your fear of an action must be relieved,--though if Corney Connellan were to be offended, I might really despair of a joke being well taken by any one.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, _Christmas Day._ “I send you a full measure of ‘Sir B.’ for next month, and despatch it now, as I have only remained here to eat my Christmas dinner, and start to-morrow for Spezzia, where I have some eight or ten days’ work before me. “I hope you will like the present ‘envoy.’ I have taken pains with the dialogue, and made it as sharp and touchy as I could. “There is, I hear, a compact _in petto_ between the Whigs and the Irish by which all Irish Education is to be made over to the Church of Rome. If so, a paper on the way in which countries, essentially Romish, reject the priest’s domination and provide against all subjugation to the Church, might be well timed. It has only struck me this morning, but it is worth you turning your mind to, especially if the papers were to be ready and in print for the eventuality of the debate in Parliament, and _debate there will be on the question_. “I am not sure I could do such a paper, but I could be of use to any one who could, and give him some valuable material, too, from Italian enactments.