subject.  It was at a dinner given by Sir ——­, that some one inquired if he (Sir James Mackintosh) had ever discovered the author of a certain libellous attack on himself.  “Not absolutely, though I have no doubt that ——­ was the person.  I suspected him at once; but meeting him in Pall Mall, soon after the article appeared, he turned round and walked the whole length of the street with me, covering me with protestations of admiration and esteem, and then I felt quite sure of my man!”

My Vevaisan made many inquiries as to the probable result of the present struggle, and appeared greatly gratified when I told him that I apprehended no serious danger to the republic.  I made him laugh by mentioning the opinion of the witty Abbe Correa, who said, “The Americans are great talkers on political subjects; you would think they were about to fly to their arms, and just as you expect a revolution, they go home and drink tea.”  My acquaintance was anxious to know if our government had sufficient strength to put down nullification by force, for he had learned there was but a single sloop of war, and less than a battalion of troops, in the disaffected part of the country.  I told him we possessed all the means that are possessed in other countries to suppress rebellion, although we had not thought it necessary to resort to the same system of organization.  Our government was mild in principle, and did not wish to oppress even minorities; but I made no doubt of the attachment of a vast majority to the Union, and, when matters really came to a crisis, if rational compromise could not effect the object, I thought nine men in ten would rally in its defence.  I did not believe that even civil war was to produce results in America different from what it produced elsewhere.  Men would fight in a republic as they fought in monarchies, until they were tired, and an arrangement would follow.  It was not common for a people of the same origin, of similar habits, and contiguous territory, to dismember an empire by civil war, unless violence had been used in bringing them together, or conquest had first opened the way to disunion.  I did not know that we were always to escape the evils of humanity any more than others, or why they were to fall heavier on us, when they proceeded from the same causes, than on our neighbours.  As respects the small force in Carolina, I thought it argued our comparative strength, rather than our comparative weakness.  Here were loud threats of resistance, organized and even legal means to effect it, and yet the laws were respected, when sustained by only a sloop of war and two companies of artillery.  If France were to recall her battalions from La Vendee, Austria her divisions from Italy, Russia her armies from Poland, or England her troops from India or Ireland, we all know that those several countries would be lost, in six months, to their present possessors.  As we had our force in reserve, it really appeared to me that either our disaffection was very different