A-propos of statesmen, we cannot understand how a man who made, inter pocula, the speech of ——­ on his travels can remain in a government.  I think that even ours, though so long-suffering towards its agents, could not tolerate anything similar even if it should secretly approve.  Absolute power has its limits.  The Prince de Ligne, in a discourse which you have doubtless read, seems to me to have described it in one word by saying that it was the speech of a gamin.

I am, however, ungrateful to criticise it, for I own that it amused me extremely, and that I thought that Morny especially was drawn from life; but I think that if I had the honour of being Her Britannic Majesty’s Prime Minister, I should not have laughed so heartily.  How could so clever a man be guilty of such eccentricities?

In my last letter to our excellent friend Mrs. Grote, I ventured to say that there was one person who wrote even worse than I did, and that it was you.  Your last letter has filled me with remorse, for I could actually read it, and even without trouble.  I beg, therefore, to make an amende honorable, and envy you your power of advancing towards perfection.

* * * * *

I still think of paying a little visit to England in June.  Adieu, dear Senior.  Do not be angry with me for not writing on politics.  Indeed I could tell you nothing, for I know nothing, and besides, just now politics are not to be treated by Frenchmen, in letters.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

Tocqueville, March 8, 1857.

I still write to you, my dear Senior, from hence.  We cannot tear ourselves away from the charms of our retreat, or from a thousand little employments.  We shall scarcely reach Paris, therefore, before you.  You will, therefore, yourself bring me the remainder of your curious journal.  What I have already seen makes me most anxious to read the rest.  I have never read anything which gave me more valuable information on Egypt and Oriental politics in general.  As soon as I possibly can, I look forward to continuing its perusal.

The papers tell us that your Ministry has been beaten on the Chinese War.  It seems to me to have been an ill-chosen battle-field.  The war was, perhaps, somewhat wantonly begun, and very roughly managed; but the fault lay with distant and subordinate agents.  Now that it has begun, no Cabinet can avoid carrying it on vigorously.  The existing Ministry will do as well for this as any other.  As there is no line of policy to be changed, the upsetting is merely to put in the people who are now out.

If the Ministry falls, the man least to be pitied will be our friend Lewis.  He will go out after having obtained a brilliant triumph on his own ground, and he will enjoy the good fortune, rare to public men, of quitting power greater than he was when he took it, and with the enviable reputation of owing his greatness, not merely to his talents, but also to the respect and the confidence which he has universally inspired.