Robinson.J ^^ [May 7, 



perhaps stood alone, among the writers of his epoch. This was his rare 

 union of a mind eminently scientific, with a beautiful imagination. This 

 combination of what are usually deemed opposite mental traits, is apparent 

 frequently in his writings, but is perhaps most apparent in his letters on 

 North America, and in a smaller work published in 1863, on " Ancient 

 and Modern Mexico." 



"With so quick an intellect, so fine a memory, and love of and capacity 

 for labor, a great deal was written by Mr. Chevalier during the last half 

 century, besides the works mentioned in this memoir. Independently of 

 his letters from America which first attracted attention to him as a writer, 

 he published in 1840, a large work on the "Lines of Communication and 

 Public Works of the United States," with an accompanying atlas (two 

 volumes in quarto and the atlas in folio), which has never been translated 

 in English, but which made the internal improvements of the United 

 States, at that time, better and more accurately known to Europeans than 

 they were to ourselves. His lectures at the College of France and other 

 works on Political Economy, and his brochures on Gold and Currency, are 

 well known to readers on those subjects. In addition, he gave to the world 

 a magnificent introduction to the reports of the International Exposition 

 of 1867, and was a co-laborer during the whole period in the principal 

 periodical journals of France, as well as a contributor of able articles on 

 subjects of the day to the Journal Des.Debats. 



On the 1st page of this memoir, I mentioned having had "the pleasure 

 during a visit to France in 1837, of seeing the mother of Mr. Chevalier, 

 and his devoted sister Pauline (afterwards Madame Moroche) and learned 

 then the secret of his rapid rise in pubiic estimation, both as a writer and 

 statesman." 



Mr. Chevalier and myself were in Paris, students of our respective pro- 

 fessions, in the years 1825, 1836, and 1827, but did not meet there at that 

 time. Our acquaintance commenced when he visited this country on his 

 mission from Mr. Thiers in 1838. He then brought me a letter from one of 

 our Paris cotemporaries, asking my assistance to him in his objects, which 

 it gave me pleasure to render. The more I saw of him the more interest- 

 ing I found him, and when he left America to return to France in 1835, 

 we had become attached friends. When I afterwards visited Paris in 1837, 

 he was one of the first persons to call on me, and I was made literally at 

 home, whenever I could spare time to visit him, in his modest apartment, 

 I forget the street, and number ; but it was not far from mine, which was 

 at the Hotel de Londres in the Place Vendome. 



Instead of the appartement de garqon in which I had expected to find my 

 friend, I found his remarkable mother, and his sister Pauline and young 

 brother Martial, residing with him ; the two first, to relieve him of the 

 trouble of taking care of himself, and thereby leave him more time for his 

 studies and labors, as well as to make his time more pleasant in the brief 

 intervals he allowed himself for recreation ; and the younger brother 

 brought with them to have, under the guardianship of his mother and 

 sister, the advantages of Paris training without its perils. 



