[Footnote 1:  See p. 107.]

‘Of course,’ I said, ’it must be full of blunders.  No one who writes on the politics of a foreign country can avoid them.  I want your help to correct a few of them.’

‘Since you ask me,’ he answered, ’for a candid criticism, I will give you one.  I accuse you rather of misappreciation than of misstatement.  First with respect to Louis Napoleon.  After having described accurately, in the beginning of your paper, his unscrupulous, systematic oppression, you end by saying that, after all, you place him high among our sovereigns.’

‘You must recollect,’ I answered, ’that the article was written for the “Edinburgh Review,” the organ of our Government, edited by Lord Clarendon’s brother-in-law—­and that the editor thought its criticisms of Louis Napoleon so severe, that after having printed it, he was afraid to publish it.  I went quite as far as I prudently could.  I accused him, as you admit, of unscrupulous oppression, of ignorance of the feelings of the people, of being an idle administrator, of being unacquainted with business himself, and not employing those who understand it, of being impatient of contradiction, of refusing advice and punishing censure—­in short, I have praised nothing but his foreign policy—­and I have mentioned two errors in that.’

‘But I have a graver accusation to bring against you,’ replied Tocqueville.  ’You couple as events mutually dependent the continuance of the Imperial Government and the continuance of the Anglo-Gallic Alliance.  I believe this opinion not only to be untrue, but to be the reverse of the truth.  I believe the Empire and the Alliance to be not merely, not mutually dependent, but to be incompatible, except upon terms which you are resolved never to grant The Empire is essentially warlike—­and war in the mind of a Bonaparte, and of the friends of a Bonaparte, means the Rhine.  This war is merely a stepping stone.  It is carried on for purposes in which the mass of the people of France take no interest.  Up to the present time its burthens have been little felt, as it has been supported by loans, and the limits of the legal conscription have not been exceeded.  But when the necessity comes for increased taxation and anticipated conscriptions, Louis Napoleon must have recourse to the real passions of the French bourgeoisie and peasantry—­the love of conquest, et la haine de l’Anglais.  Don’t fancy that such feelings are dead, they are scarcely asleep.  They might be roused in a week, in a day, and they will be roused as soon as he thinks that they are wanted.

’What do you suppose was the effect in France of Louis Napoleon’s triumph in England?

’Those who know England attributed it to the ignorance and childishness of the multitude.  Those who thought that the shouts of the mob had any real meaning either hung down their heads in shame at the self-degradation of a great nation, or attributed them to fear.  The latter was the general feeling.  “Il faut,” said all our lower classes, “que ces gens-la aient grande peur de nous.”