hard on Mr. Doilly. I
have not had time to direct search to be made in "Chambers's;" but as to
the main part of the story having been printed somewhere, I have not the
faintest doubt. And I believe my correspondent to be also right as to
the where. You could not help it any more than I could, and therefore
will not be troubled by it any more than I am.

The more I get of your writing, the better I shall be pleased.

Do believe me to be, as I am,
Your genuine admirer
And affectionate friend.

[Sidenote: Mr. Rusden.]

GAD'S HILL PLACE, HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
_Sunday, 24th October, 1869._

MY DEAR MR. RUSDEN,

This very day a great meeting is announced to come off in London, as a
demonstration in favour of a Fenian "amnesty." No doubt its numbers and
importance are ridiculously over-estimated, but I believe the gathering
will turn out to be big enough to be a very serious obstruction in the
London streets. I have a great doubt whether such demonstrations ought
to be allowed. They are bad as a precedent, and they unquestionably
interfere with the general liberty and freedom of the subject.

Moreover, the time must come when this kind of threat and defiance will
have to be forcibly stopped, and when the unreasonable toleration of it
will lead to a sacrifice of life among the comparatively innocent
lookers-on that might have been avoided but for a false confidence on
their part, engendered in the damnable system of _laisser-aller_. You
see how right we were, you and I, in our last correspondence on this
head, and how desperately unsatisfactory the condition of Ireland is,
especially when considered with a reference to America. The Government
has, through Mr. Gladstone, just now spoken out boldly in reference to
the desired amnesty. (So much the better for them or they would
unquestionably have gone by the board.) Still there is an uneasy feeling
abroad that Mr. Gladstone himself would grant this amnesty if he dared,
and that there is a great weakness in the rest of their Irish policy.
And this feeling is very strong amongst the noisiest Irish howlers.
Meanwhile, the newspapers go on arguing Irish matters as if the Irish
were a reasonable people, in which immense assumption I, for one, have
not the smallest faith.

Again, I have to thank you most heartily for yo