1885 LETTERS FROM ROME 397 



HOTEL VICTORIA, ROME, 

 VIA DEI DUE MACELLI, Feb. 16, 1885. 



MY DEAR DONNELLY I have had it on my mind to 

 write to you for the last week ever since the hideous 

 news about Gordon reached us. But partly from a faint 

 hope that his wonderful fortune might yet have stood 

 him in good stead, and partly because there is no great 

 satisfaction in howling with rage, I have abstained. 



Poor fellow ! I wonder if he has entered upon the 

 " larger sphere of action " which he told me was reserved 

 for him in case of such a trifling accident as death. Of 

 all the people whom I have met with in my life, he and 

 Darwin are the two in whom I have found something 

 bigger than ordinary humanity an unequalled simplicity 

 and directness of purpose a sublime unselfishness. 



Horrible as it is to us, I imagine that the manner of 

 his death was not unwelcome to himself. Better wear 

 out than rust out, and better break than wear out. The 

 pity is that he could not know the feeling of his country- 

 men about him. 



I shall be curious to see what defence the super- 

 ingenious Premier has to offer for himself in Parliament. 

 I suppose, as usual, the question will drift into a brutal 

 party fight, when the furious imbecility of the Tories will 

 lead them to spoil their case. That is where we are ; on 

 the one side, timid imbecility "waiting for instructions 

 from the constituencies " ; furious imbecility on the other, 

 looking out for party advantage. Oh ! for a few months 

 of William Pitt. 



I see you think there may be some hope that Gordon 

 has escaped yet. I am afraid the last telegram from 

 Wolseley was decisive. We have been watching the news 

 with the greatest anxiety, and it has seemed only to get 

 blacker and blacker. 



[Touching a determined effort to alter the management 

 of certain Technical Education business.] 



