I have not yet, however, been able to read what you have sent. I am, at this moment, so wrapped up in my second work on America, that I scarcely see or hear what is going on around me. I think that my book will be finished in the summer, and published next autumn. I do not know if it will be good; but I can affirm that I cannot make it better. I devote to it all my time and all my intelligence.

Our ministry is still in a dubious state.1 Its downfall does not appear to be imminent, but it may happen at any moment in consequence of the most trifling question; for the majority in the Chamber may be said rather to suffer the ministers to exercise the functions of government than to entrust them with its responsibilities. It would have a still worse chance if it were not for M. Molé, who attracts many members naturally hostile to the theorists.2 The material prosperity of the country is still very great and increases slowly but steadily; if we are able to preserve peace and our institutions, even in their present imperfect state, for twenty years longer, the internal aspect of France will be entirely metamorphosed.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

Kensington, February 15, 1838.

My dear Sir, Mr. Ellice, who has distinguished himself among our diplomatists and administrators, is on

Sic in Original.-ED.

& Doctrinaires is the French expression.—ED.

1838.]

Handloom Inquiry Commission.

19

his way to Paris, and is very anxious to have the honour of making your acquaintance. I have ventured therefore to give him this note of introduction; and I have begged him to take charge of two little works of mine which may not yet have reached you; one of them indeed-the Instructions to Assistant Commissioners in the Handloom Inquiry-is not yet published, and what I send is only the proof. It may serve as a specimen of the inquiries which we are instituting as to the state of the labouring population.

I was delighted to find from the note which I had the honour of receiving from you last summer, that you were then busily engaged on your work on American Manners. It is a great happiness that such a subject should have fallen into such hands.

I shall be very anxious to hear of its completion, and still more so if I hear that the termination of your labours is likely to enable you to revisit England.

I am thinking myself, if I can escape for a fortnight, of making, in the beginning of April, a short tour in Normandy with Lord Shelburne, Lord Lansdowne's now only remaining son. I fear, however, that there is no chance of your being at that time in the country.

Mrs. Senior begs me to present to you her compliments, and to say how anxious she is to renew her acquaintance with you, and to make that of Madame de Tocqueville.

With our united regards, believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly,

N. W. SENIOR,

Château de Baugy, February 29, 1838.

The post has this instant brought me, my dear Mr. Senior, the letter of which Mr. Ellice was the bearer, and which he could not deliver in person as I have been away from Paris for some months, and shall continue to be so for some months longer.

I sincerely regret that I was not able to make the acquaintance of Mr. Ellice, whose name, I need not say, was well known to me. Pray tell him how eagerly I should have sought and cultivated his society if I had been in Paris. I would myself write to him to express my regret if I knew his address.

I hope, my dear Mr. Senior, that you will feel a great admiration for me when you hear that I have torn myself away from the charms of Paris, and of the whole political and literary world fermenting there, in order to shut myself up with my books, pens, and paper in the midst of forests almost as dense as those of the New World and much less poetical.

I could find no other way of finishing the book at which I have been working almost incessantly for the last three years, and in spite of this effort I am not yet quite sure of completing it, as I want to do, by the middle of the summer.

I

The subject is much more difficult and infinitely wider than I supposed when I undertook its treatment. should probably have recoiled from the task had I been aware of its extent.

1 am staying here with one of my brothers, far enough

1838.]

Literary Occupation.

21

from Paris to enjoy perfect liberty, but near enough to take a holiday there from time to time and fetch the books I require. I am leading a busy, monotonous, but very agreeable life, so do not pity me too much.

Allow me to tell you that it is a very mistaken idea on your part to think of taking a pleasure trip in Normandy in the month of April. Do you not know France is of all countries the one where you most require a bright sun to make you forget the bad inns? You should instead pay a little visit to Paris, and let me know beforehand. I should certainly join you there, for I feel an intense desire for some conversation with you. I should also be very glad to make acquaintance with Lord Lansdowne's son. Pray remember me particularly to his father.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

[Two letters follow asking for information on the measures taken by England for the emancipation of slaves. They consist merely of questions. I am sorry to say that Mr. Senior's answers were not among the letters returned to me.-ED.]

Masters' Offices, Southampton Buildings, February 27, 1841. My dear Sir, I take advantage of the privilege of General Hamilton to send to you a copy of a Report on Handloom Weavers, which I printed a few days ago, after having given to it the leisure of nearly two

years. If you can find time to look through it, you will find that it treats at some length many important questions.

During the course of the last two months I have read through, not for the first or even the second time, your great work. Will you allow me to offer to you the following observations?

You appear to consider France as eminently democratic, England as eminently aristocratic. And yet many of the qualities which you describe as marking democratic societies appear to belong to us much more than to you.

In England

For instance, the desire for bien-être. the desire to make and increase a fortune seems to me to urge many more people, and more constantly and forcibly, than in France.. A French tradesman spends much more of his time and of his money on amusement and dress than an English one; he retires much sooner from business, satisfied wlth his fortune. I believe that next to the United States there is no population so sedulously intent on fortune as the English and Scotch.

Take again individualism. Except on questions affecting religious opinions and religious feelings, such as Church questions, slavery, or` slave trade, little interest is felt in politics by the English people.

No ordinances of the Crown would produce in London barricades or insurrection. Probably there are not one hundred people out of London who have taken the pains to know where Ghilzie is, or what has been the nature of the Indian war, in which an empire is supposed to