I returned on April 18, sprained my ancle on the 19th, and have been on
my back ever since. I have spent the time in looking through Fonfrède,
who is a remarkable writer, and makes some remarkable prophecies, in
finishing Grote's ninth and tenth volumes, in reading Kenrick's 'Ancient
Egypt,' which is worth studying, and in reading through Horace, whom I
find that I understand much better after my Roman experience.

I differ from you as to the chances of reaction in this country. I
believe that we are still travelling the road which you have so well
mapped out, which leads to democracy. Our extreme _gauche_, which we call
the Manchester School, employs its whole efforts in that direction. It
has great energy, activity, and combination. The duties of Parliament and
of Government have become so onerous, and the facing our democratic
constituencies is so disagreeable, and an idle life of society,
literature, art, and travelling has become so pleasant, that our younger
aristocracy seem to be giving up politics, and hence you hear the
universal complaint that there are no young men of promise in public
life.

The House of Commons is full of middle-aged lawyers, merchants,
manufacturers, and country-gentlemen, who take to politics late in life,
without the early special training which fitted for it the last
generation.

I fear that the time may come when to be in the House of Commons may be
thought a bore, a somewhat vulgar spouting club, like the Marylebone
Vestry, or the City of London Common Council.

I do not know whether Lord Derby has gained much in the last four months,
but Lord John has certainly lost. His Reform Bill was a very crude