I have returned, however, full of gratitude for the marks of consideration and affection showered upon me in England.  I shall never forget them.

I found my wife already installed here, and in good health; and I have resumed my busy and peaceful life with a delight which does honour to my wisdom.  For I had been so spoiled in England that I might have been afraid of finding my retreat too much out of the way and too quiet.  But nothing of the sort has happened.  The excitement of the past month appears to have added charms to the present.

Nevertheless, I have not yet set to work again, but I am full of good resolutions, which I hope to execute as soon as I have completely returned to my usual habits.  These first days have been devoted to putting everything into its regular order.

In France we are almost as much interested as you in England in the affairs of India.  Everyone, even in the country, asks me for news of what is going on there.

There is a natural disposition to exaggerate the evil and to believe that your dominion is overturned.  For my part, I am waiting with the utmost and most painful anxiety for the development of the drama, for no good can possibly result from it; and there is not one civilised nation in the world that ought to rejoice in seeing India escape from the hands of Europeans in order to fall back into a state of anarchy and barbarism worse than before its conquest.

I am quite sure that you will conquer.  But it is a serious business.

A military insurrection is the worst of all insurrections, at least in the beginning.  You have to deal with barbarians, but they possess the arms of civilised people given to them by yourselves.

My wife, who has preserved her English heart, is particularly affected by the spectacle which Bengal at present affords.

If you have any more particular news than is to be found in the newspapers, you will give us great pleasure by communicating them.

Remember me to Mrs. and Miss Senior, and to your daughter-in-law.

My wife sends many kind regards to them, as well as to you.

Adieu, dear Senior.  Believe in my sincere affection.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

P.S.—­I fancy that the first effect of the Indian affair will be to draw still closer the alliance between England and France.

Tocqueville, November 15, 1857.

I am somewhat angry with you, my dear Senior, for not having yet given us your news.[1] It is treating our friendship unfairly, I have not written to you because I doubted your following exactly your intended route, but I will write to you at Athens, as I think that you must now be there.  If you have followed your itinerary your travels must have been most interesting to you, and they will be equally curious to us.  I conclude that you only passed quickly through the Principalities in following the course of the Danube.