As soon as I possibly can, I look
forward to continuing its perusal.
The papers tell us that your Ministry has been beaten on the Chinese War.
It seems to me to have been an ill-chosen battle-field. The war was,
perhaps, somewhat wantonly begun, and very roughly managed; but the
fault lay with distant and subordinate agents. Now that it has begun, no
Cabinet can avoid carrying it on vigorously. The existing Ministry will
do as well for this as any other. As there is no line of policy to be
changed, the upsetting is merely to put in the people who are now
out.
If the Ministry falls, the man least to be pitied will be our friend
Lewis. He will go out after having obtained a brilliant triumph on his
own ground, and he will enjoy the good fortune, rare to public men, of
quitting power greater than he was when he took it, and with the enviable
reputation of owing his greatness, not merely to his talents, but also to
the respect and the confidence which he has universally inspired.
All this delights me; for I feel towards him, and towards all his family,
a true friendship.
To return to China.
It seems to me that the relations between that country and Europe are
changed, and dangerously changed.
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