There might and ought to be a pecuniary compromise; but a compromise of principle would be fatal.

I am anxious that before we go too far with the Minghetti project here (separate administration of provinces) we should learn from America that a certain degree of centralisation (not carried out too far) is necessary to a strong and vital government.  And Italy will want a strong government for some years to come.  There is much talk of war in the spring, and if Austria will not cede Venetia war must be, even if she should satisfy her other provinces, which she will probably fail to do.

This is a dull lecture, but you will pardon it and me.

I know all your goodness and sympathy.  Do not think that I think that any bond is broken, or that anything is lost.  We have been fed on the hillside, and now there are twelve baskets full of fragments remaining.

May God bless you and love you both!

Your ever affectionate and grateful
BA.

* * * * *

To Miss I. Blagden

126 Via Felice, Rome:  Tuesday, [January 1861].

Ever dearest Isa,—­I wrote a long letter, which you have received, I do hope, and am waiting for a long one from you to tell me that you are not suffering any more.  This is on business merely—­that is, it is merely to give you trouble, the customary way for me to do business in these latter days.  Will you, dear, without putting yourself to too much inconvenience by overhaste, direct the ‘Nazione’ people to send the journal, to which we must subscribe for three months, to S.E. le General Comte de Noue, Comandante della piazza di Roma.  No other name. The General, who can do what he pleases, pleases to receive our paper (our kind Abbe mediating) on condition that we do not talk of it, and so at last I shall attain to getting out of this dark into the free upper air.  It is insufferable to be instructed by the ‘Giornale di Roma’ as to how Cialdini writes to Turin that his Piedmontese are perfectly demoralised, and that the besieged dance for triumph each time an Italian cannon is fired into the vague.  On the other hand, I hear regularly every morning from the Romans that Gaeta is taken,[96] with the most minute particulars, which altogether is exasperating.  The last rumour is of typhus fever in the fortress, but I have grown sceptical, and believe nothing on either side now.  One thing is clear, that it wasn’t only the French fleet which prevented our triumph....

Robert came home this morning between three and four.  A great ball at Mrs. Hooker’s—­magnificent, he says.  All the princes in Rome (and even cardinals) present.  The rooms are splendid, and the preparations were in the best taste.  The Princess Ruspoli (a Buonaparte) appeared in the tricolor.  She is most beautiful, Robert says.