“I hope the Party mean to do somewhat for me. It’s an infernal shame to see Earle in the list and me--nowhere. For thirty years I have done them good service in novels and other ways, and they have given me what an under butler might hesitate over accepting.” _To Mr John Blackwood._ “Villa Morelli, Florence, _July_ 16, 1866. “I send you by this post the corrected proof of O’D. and a portion to add to the war notes. It’s ticklish work prophesying nowadays; but so far as I can see, the imbroglio with France promises to become serious. We hear here that a strong fleet is at Toulon ready to sail for the Adriatic, and coupling this with the flat refusal of the Prince Napoleon to interfere (he being intensely Italian in his leanings), one may see that the French policy will not be over regardful of the feelings of this people. Genoa is being armed in haste, the sea-forts all munitioned and mounted with heavy guns; and as these cannot be intended against Austria, it is pretty clear that at last the Italians mean to strike a _real_ blow for freedom. Spezzia, too, is arming, and the inaction heretofore observable in the Italian fleet may not improbably be ascribed to the fact that tougher work is before them than a petty fight with the Austrian flotilla. The Italians have fourteen ironclads, some of them really splendid ships, and one, the _Affondatore_, lately built in England, the equal of almost any afloat. They are well armed and well manned; and though I don’t think they could _beat_ the French, they could make a strong fight against the _French Mediterranean squadron_, and would, I am sure, not bring discredit on their service. I am sure the ‘country’--I mean the people of England--would go with the Government that would succour a young nation struggling to assert its liberty. I do not mean that we should rashly proclaim war, but simply show that the national sympathy of England was opposed to all coercion of Italy and averse to seeing the Peninsula a French province. I feel certain Louis Napoleon would listen to such remonstrances coming from a _Conservative_ Cabinet, where ‘meddling and muddling’ were not traditions. “The Emperor counts so completely on English inaction that the mere show of a determined policy would arrest his steps. The complexity of the game increases every hour, and any great battle fought in Germany may decide the fate of Italy. “You will see how my first part of O’D. predicted the cession of Venice. I am rather proud of my foresight. “There is great dissatisfaction here felt about the inaction of the Italian fleet. Some allege they want coals, some say courage. I don’t believe either: I think they were sent off so undisciplined and so hastily ‘conscripted,’ they are mobs and not crews.