This time I was prevented by ill health.

* * * * *

Two or three months ago, I wrote to you from the country a letter which was addressed to Kensington.  Did you receive it? and if so, why have you not answered it?

I wrote upon politics, but especially I asked you about yourselves, your occupations and projects, some questions to which I was very anxious to have answers.  At any rate, do now what you ought to have done then—­write to me.

I do not now write about politics, because we do not talk, or at least write about them in France any more than in Naples; besides, such subjects are not suitable to an invalid.

I will only tell you, as important and authentic pieces of information, that the new court ladies have taken to trains and little pages, and that the new courtiers hunt the stag with their master in the Forest of Fontainebleau in dresses of the time of Louis XIV. and cocked hats.

Good-bye!  Heaven preserve you from the mistakes which lead to revolutions, and from the revolutions which lead to masquerades.  A thousand kind regards.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

London, December 4, 1852.

My dear Tocqueville,—­Your letter of November 13 is, I think, the first that I have received from you since March.

That which you addressed to me at Kensington, two months ago, did not reach me.  I have written to you one or two; I do not know with what success.

I grieve to hear of rheumatism and pleurisy.  You say nothing of Madame de Tocqueville, whence I hope that I may infer that she, at least, is well.

We have all been flourishing.  We passed the vacation in Wales and Ireland, and brought back a curious journal,[4] which I hope to send or bring to you.

I do not think that I shall venture to Paris at Christmas, though Ellice and Thiers are trying to persuade me.  I have too vivid a recollection of the fog, cold, and dirt of last year; but I fully resolve to be with you at Easter—­that is, about March 24.

The present Government, with all its want of principle and truth, and with all its want of experience, is doing much better than I expected.

The law reforms are far bolder than any that my friends ever proposed, and the budget, which was brought forward last night, contains more that is good, and less that is bad, than was hoped or feared.

Its worst portion is the abolition of half the malt tax, which leaves all the expense of collection undiminished, besides being a removal of a tax on a luxury which I do not wish to see cheaper.  It is probable, however, that the doubling of the house tax will be rejected, in which case Disraeli will probably retain the malt tax, and the budget will sink into a commonplace one.

The removal of certain burdens on navigation and the change in the income tax are thought good, and generally the Government has gained by the budget.  I am now inclined to think that it may last for some months longer—­perhaps for some years.