London, 8 January 1882 

Dear Moor, 

We were glad to hear that there was no reason for yours and Tus- 
sy’s silence and, even though you couldn’t be expected to make very 
much progress in view of the adverse weather, you have at least bene- 
fited to the extent that the danger of a relapse has now been pretty 
well eliminated, which was, after all, the main reason why you were 
sent to Ventnor. 

The festive season here ends tomorrow. Schorlemmer will be re- 
turning to Manchester, and then it’s back to the grindstone. I am 
looking forward to it; things were really getting too much. Tuesday 
with Lenchen, Friday with Pumps, yesterday with the Lafargues, to- 
day here at my house— and every morning the eternal Pilsener; it 
couldn’t go on indefinitely. Lenchen was always one of the party, of 
course, and still is, so she hasn’t felt too lonely. 

* See this volume, pp. 191-95. 

By the time you get this note you will have been edified by old Wil- 
liam’s* magnificent proclamation in which he avows his solidarity 
with Bismarck and declares all this to be the free expression of his own 
opinion.?*! J also liked the bit about the inviolability of the person of 
the monarch having persisted in Prussia since time immemorial. Par- 
ticularly when one considers the shots fired by Nobiling.!?° How 
comforting for Alexander II and III that their persons should be in- 
violable! One might, by the way, imagine that one was living under 
a travesty of Charles X when one reads that sort of drivel. 

There has been yet another nice item in The Standard, a letter from 
a Russian general about the situation and the Nihilists,?*? just like 
what used to be said and written by the Prussian generals of 1845 
about demagogues,**? liberals, Jews, the bad principles of the 
French, and the universal and undying loyalty to the king felt by the 
sound core of the nation. Which didn’t, of course, set the revolution 
back one day. You will have seen that the zemstvos?’ have rebelled 
against Ignatiev, partly via the medium of petitions, partly by an out- 
right refusal to convene.*** That is a most important step, the first to 
be taken by official bodies under Alexander III. 

Like you, we hope for better weather. Yesterday was very fine 
with a north-wester from which you will have been sheltered. Schor- 
lemmer and I were on the go the whole day and it was not until half 
past midnight that we accompanied Lenchen home from Laura’s, 
covering the whole distance on foot. Today it’s been beastly and 
wet, though during a brighter spell we got out and about for an hour 
or so with Sam Moore who turned up again the day before yesterday. 
It’s blowing good and hard again outside. How is Tussy actually? 
Regards to her and to you from us all. 

Your 
F. E.