CORRESPONDENCE. 335 



intolerable to those who have some relief for its abuses. 

 France has no countries subsidiary to her prosperity, and 

 the sentiment of the nation is opposed to aristocracy, and 

 yet such is the secret object of her present rulers. They 

 do not see that England has got on in spite of her aristoc- 

 racy, and not by its means, and that when the true agents 

 of her wealth and power are beginning to fail her, that she 

 cannot bear the inflictions of that aristocracy, and is about 

 to get rid of it, too, along with other evils. But there is 

 something so seductive in the social distinctions and the 

 real superiority of the English gentlemen over their neigh- 

 bors, that it proves too powerful for their patriotism. It is 

 fashionable to say that France is not good enough for free 

 institutions. Surely this involves a fallacy. Free institu- 

 tions mean the responsibility of the rulers to the ruled ; 

 and the worse the former are, the greater is the need of 

 this responsibility. We trust the word of an honorable 

 man ; we look for bond and mortgage from a knave. If 

 men were virtuous, government would be unnecessary. A 

 strong police can exist in a republic ; the strongest and 

 best in Europe is in Switzerland, and that is all which is 

 required to suppress ordinary vice ; and, as to public cor- 

 ruption, surely the more responsibility the better. 



Again, there is no better training for public virtues than 

 publicity and freedom. You will ask me what I expect 

 from all this. It is my opinion things cannot stand as they 

 are. The press is virtually free in France, and five years 

 have made a great change in its tone. The government 

 has -been guilty of the weakness of offering a premium to 

 all the revolutionists in Europe to overturn them, since 

 without France no other country can get on. I have little 

 respect for the king, though I think he is rather a weak 

 than a bad man. It is impossible to foretell what course 

 events will take in this inflammable nation, but the move- 

 ment cannot be stopped. There will be more or less free- 

 dom all over Europe fifty years hence, or even sooner. 

 Public opinion has already secured it in most countries, 



