608 TRAVEL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [1870, 



TO R. W. CHURCH. 



CAMBRIDGE, October 14, 1870. 



MY DEAK FKIEND : . . . I have the hour of leisure 

 and am in the mood for writing this evening. The 

 latter I may count on, but the former I cannot, in 

 these busy and rather distracting days. 



On Tuesday evening last I heard Tom Hughes give 

 a public lecture, the only one he gives in America. 

 He manfully stood up and turned the tables upon us, 

 by insisting that the Americans were wronging the 

 British, by blaming them when they ought to be 

 praised for their general conduct during the war of 

 the Rebellion. His lecture was very able and pleas- 

 ant ; and he seemed well pleased, as well he might 

 be, at the reception of it. He, at least, did excellent 

 service in our behalf, in our times of trial. 



The next evening I met him at the house of a col- 

 league here in Cambridge, and had a very pleasant 

 talk with him. On telling him that I came near to 

 hearing him speak to the electors of Frome, and was 

 prevented only by the rainy day that made our walk 

 to Longleat too late, he spoke of you with much in- 

 terest, and told me, what I did not know, that he was 

 of Oriel while you were tutor. He is very much 

 pleased with his trip through the country. 



As to the Franco-German war, it is thus far a 

 succession of wonders, and now when a week passes, 

 like the last, without any astounding event, one feels 

 dissatisfied. At first, the crowning and unexpected 

 result, of judgment overtaking Louis Napoleon here 

 on the spot, was only to be rejoiced over. And I 

 think you in England must all be glad to see the vul- 

 gar Empire vanish in a day, and in the collapse show 

 how hollow and good for nothing it was in what we 



