Item 114 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Caroline Trevelyan

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Aulla. - Thanks his mother for her letter [10/44]; she must now be 'pretty well satisfied with the elections'; thinks 'even George can't be so very pessimistic'. They only know the result up to Monday. London 'seems to be playing up well': if the counties follow, 'there won't be much of an opposition left'. It will be a 'great responsibility for the Government', as they are not likely to have such a chance again. Hopes they will 'prepare for a House of Lords campaign': thinks the Liberals should 'ask leave to settle the business of the House of Lords' in the next election campaign, as no doubt the Lords will have 'by then made themselves unpopular by rejecting [Liberal] bills'; also 'to settle Ireland once and for all' and to 'pass a general reform bill on the lines of one man one vote, one vote one value'. All these things 'hang together', and he does not think any one can pass by itself, but together they might 'carry the next election'. Hopes the Liberal candidate at Stratford [Malcolm Kincaid-Smith] will win.

'C[harles] and M[olly]'s paper' has just arrives and 'looks amusing', but he has 'hardly read it yet'. Sends thanks to his father for his letter [12/91], to which he will reply soon. Today it is the festa of Sant Antonio: passing through Aulla this morning he saw the piazza 'crowded with the whole population, both of human beings and of beasts, horses, mules, donkeys and cows' waiting for the priests to bless the beasts. Is getting on quite well with his opera libretto [The Bride of Dionysus]; Bessie is very well.