Letter from Laurence Oliphant, London, to Madame Rose Blaze de Bury, 1860? January 24 : autograph manuscript signed.

Writing to say that he received her letter while staying in a country house (John Thadeus?) Delane, "to whom I showed it" and going on to say "he is thoroughly alive to the merits of our friend and declares that Palmerston is also", that he believes Palmerston is "only pretending" to believe (something concerning their unidentified friend) and that it is a "dangerous game to play", as the "ignorant public will not be able to discriminate between the pretense & the reality"; stating that he spoke to Milner Gibson on the subject and found him thoroughly influenced by (Richard) Cobden, that "The Time itself is too deeply commited to the Palmerston policy to say all it feels on the matter, but as you will observe from the tone of its articles they have not been gulled by this Commercial Treaty", and that "the effect it has produced has been much less than I expected - the fact that we are to begin reducing our duties at once, & the French 16 months hence, has considerably damped public enthusiasm"; saying that he has not seen (Alexander William) Kinglake, but that he has communicated with him and hopes he will take up the matter; remarking that enthusiasm for armament "is as ardent as ever & a standing contradiction to our profession of confidence in our ally"; observing that the greatest diffuculty faced by "advocates of a policy of non-interference" is the "bigotry of the Evangelical party" who "would ally themselves with his Satanic Majesty himself to have a fling at the Pope" and "throw themselves in the Emperors arms and sell their own country for the miserable satisfaction of seeing the Pope shorn of his temporalities."; stating that he looking for information from her and that "Lord Elgin is well but will not come out of his shell."