My only objection to Florence is the distance from London, and the expense of the journey.  One’s heart is pulled at through different English ties and can’t get the right rest, and I think we shall move northwards—­try France a little, after a time.  The present year has been full of petty vexation to us about the difficulty of going to England, and it becomes more and more doubtful whether we can attain to the means of doing it.  There are four of us and the child, you see, and precisely this year we are restricted in means, as far as our present knowledge goes; but I can’t say yet, only I do very much fear.  Nobody will believe our promises, I think, any more, and my poor Arabel will be in despair, and I shall lose the opportunity of authenticating Wiedeman; for, as Robert says, all our fine stories about him will go for nothing, and he will be set down as a sham child.  If not sham, how could human vanity resist the showing him off bodily?  That sounds reasonable....

Certainly you are disinterested about America, and, of course, all of us who have hearts and heads must feel the sympathy of a greater nation to be more precious than a thick purse.  Still, it is not just and dignified, this vantage ground of American pirates.  Liking the ends and motives, one disapproves the means.  Yes, even you do; and if I were an American I should dissent with still more emphasis.  It should be made a point of honour with the nation, if there is no point of law against the re publishers.  For my own part, I have every possible reason to thank and love America; she has been very kind to me, and the visits we receive here from delightful and cordial persons of that country have been most gratifying to us.  The American minister at the court of Vienna, with his family, did not pass through Florence the other day without coming to see us—­General Watson Webbe-with an air of moral as well as military command in his brow and eyes.  He looked, and talked too, like one of oar dignities of the Old World.  The go-ahead principle didn’t seem the least over-strong in him, nor likely to disturb his official balance.  What is to happen next in France?  Do you trust still your President?  He is in a hard position, and, if he leaves the Pope where he is, in a dishonored one.  As for the change in the electoral law and the increase of income, I see nothing in either to make an outcry against.  There is great injustice everywhere and a rankling party-spirit, and to speak the truth and act it appears still more difficult than usual.  I was sorry, do you know, to hear of dear Mr. Horne’s attempt at Shylock; he is fit for higher things.  Did I tell you how we received and admired his Judas Iscariot?  Yes, surely I did.  He says that Louis Blanc is a friend of his and much with him, speaking with enthusiasm.  I should be more sorry at his being involved with the Socialists than with Shylock—­still more sorry; for I love liberty so intensely that I hate Socialism.  I hold it to be the most desecrating