-gulfs,--towards
the bottomless Pool, if some flooring be not found. To me it is
not intrinsically a new phenomenon, only an extremely hideous
one. _Altum Silentium,_ what else can I reply to it at present?
The Turk War, undertaken under pressure of the mere mobility,
seemed to me an enterprise worthy of Bedlam from the first; and
this method of carrying it on, _without_ any general, or with a
mere sash and cocked-hat for one, is of the same block of stuff.
_Ach Gott!_ Is not Anarchy, and parliamentary eloquence instead
of work, continued for half a century everywhere, a beautiful
piece of business? We are in alliance with Louis Napoleon (a
gentleman who has shown only _housebreaker_ qualities hitherto,
and is required now to show heroic ones, _or_ go to the Devil);
and under Marechal Saint-Arnaud (who was once a dancing-master in
this city, and continued a _thief_ in all cities), a Commander of
the Playactor-Pirate description, resembling a _General_ as
Alexander Dumas does Dante Alighieri,--we have got into a very
strange problem indeed!--But there is something almost grand in
the stubborn thickside patience and persistence of this English
People; and I do not question but they will work themselves
through in one fashion or another; nay probably, get a great
deal of benefit out of this astonishing slap on the nose to their
self-complacency before all the world. They have not _done_ yet,
I calculate, by any manner of means: they are, however,
admonished in an ignominious and convincing manner, amid the
laughter of nations, that they are altogether on the wrong road
this great while (two hundred years, as I have been calculating
often),--and I shudder to think of the plunging and struggle they
will have to get into the approximately right one again. Pray
for them also, poor stupid overfed heavy-laden souls!--Before my
paper quite end, I must in my own name, and that of a select
company of others, inquire rigorously of R.W.E. why he does not
_give_ us that little Book on England he has promised so long? I
am very serious in saying, I myself want much to see it;--and
that I can see no reason why we all should not, without delay.
Bring it out, I say, and print it, _tale quale._ You will never
get it in the least like what _you_ wish it, clearly no! But I
venture to warrant, it is good enough,--far too good for the
readers that are to get it. Such a pack of blockheads, and
disloyal and bewildered unfortunate