JOHN STUART MILL. 333 



1837. "London and Westminster Review" : "Aphorisms" (Jan- 

 uary) ; " Arm and Carrel" (October). 



1838. " London and Westminster Review " : " A Prophecy " (Jan- 

 uary). "Alfred de Vigny" (April). "Bentham" (August). 



1839. Illness. Received six months' leave of absence, and traveled 

 in Italy. 



1840. " London and Westminster " : " Coleridge " (March). " Edin- 

 burgh Review": De Tocqueville's "Democracy" (October). With 

 Henry at Falmouth, in his last illness. 



He tells us how he was excited by the French Revolution of 1830, 

 and visited Paris in consequence. He wrote on the 13th August a 

 long letter to his father on the state of parties. He begins : " I have 

 had some conversation with M. Say, and a great deal with Adolphe 

 d'Eichthal and Victor Lanjuinais, and I have been a very assiduous 

 reader of all the newspapers since I arrived. At present, if I were to 

 look only at the cowardice and imbecility of the existing generation 

 of public men, with scarcely a single exception, I should expect very 

 little good ; but when I consider the spirit and intelligence of the 

 young men and of the people, the immense influence of the journals, 

 and the strength of the public voice, I am encouraged to hope that as 

 there has been an excellent revolution without leaders, leaders will not 

 be required in order to establish a good government." He then goes 

 on to give a detailed account of how the revolution was accomplished 

 the flinching of the generals of the army, the cowardice and mean- 

 ness of Dupin above everybody. He has the lowest opinion of the 

 ministry, not a Radical among them except Dupont de l'Eure ; all mere 

 place-hunters. Thiers at the meeting for organizing the resistance 

 showed great weakness and pusillanimity. (I heard him long after- 

 ward say he detested Thiers.) Of the new measures he praises most 

 the lowering of the age qualification to the Chamber from forty to 

 thirty ; he has seen no one that attaches due importance to this change. 

 " I am going to the Chamber of Deputies to-morrow with Mr. Austin, 

 and next week I am to be introduced to the Society of 'Aide-toi,' 

 where I am to be brought in contact with almost all the best of the 

 young men, and there are few besides that I should at all care to be 

 acquainted with. ... I have heard of an immense number of the most 

 affecting instances of the virtue and good sense of the common people." 

 These last observations are thoroughly characteristic. Young men and 

 ouvriers were Mill's hopes. 



We learn from himself that he wrote the articles in the " Examiner " 

 on French politics for several years. Even when English politics be- 

 came all-engrossing, he still maintained his interest and fond hopes in 

 the future of France. 



His first bad illness was ten years after the beginning of the period 



