Tocqueville, July 25, 1855.
I wrote to you yesterday, my dear Senior, a long letter according to my
promise.
But when I read it over I felt that it was absurd to send such a letter
by the post, especially to a foreigner, and I burnt it.
Since the assault of the 18th,[1] the interference of the police in
private correspondence has become more active. Many of my friends as well
as I myself have perceived it. More letters have been kept back and more
have been stopped. Two of mine have been lost. You may remember that two
letters from me failed to reach you, three years ago. The danger is
greater in the country, where handwritings are known, than in Paris. You
advise me to put my letters into a cover directed to your Embassy, which
will forward them. But this is no security. If a letter be suspected, it
is easy to open and re-seal it, and still easier simply to suppress it.
And, in fact, after all, you have lost little. I wrote to you only what I
have a hundred times said to you. We have lived so much together, and
with such perfect mutual confidence, that it is difficult for either of
us to say anything new to the other.
Besides, on reading over again, with attention, your note of our last
conversation,[2] I have nothing to alter. All that I could do would be to
develope a little more my opinions, and to support them by additional
arguments. I feel more and more their truth, and that the progress
of events will confirm them much more than any reasonings of mine can do.
We are annoyed and disturbed, having the house full of workmen. I am
trying to warm it by hot air, and am forced to bore through very old and
very thick walls; but we shall be repaid by being able to live here
during the winter.
I am amusing myself with the letters which our young soldiers in the
East, peasants from this parish, write home to their families, and which
are brought to me. This correspondence should be read in order to
understand the singular character of the French peasant. It is strange to
see the ease with which these men become accustomed to the risks of
military life, to danger and to death, and yet how their hearts cling to
their fields and to the occupations of country life. The horrors of war
are described with simplicity, and almost with enjoyment. But in the
midst of these accounts one finds such phrases as these: "What crop do
you intend to sow in such a field next year?" "How is the mare?" "Has
the cow a fine calf?" &c. No minds can be more versatile, and at the same
time more constant. I have always thought that, after all, the peasantry
were superior to all other classes in France. But these men are
deplorably in want of knowledge and education, or rather the education to
which they have been subjected for centuries past has taught them to make
a bad use of their natural good qualities.
It seems to me that Lord John's resignation will enable your Cabinet to
stand, at least for some time. All that has passed in England since the
beginning of the war grieves me deeply. Seen from a distance, your
Constitution appears to me an admirable machine which is getting out of
order, partly from the wearing out of its works, partly from the
unskilfulness of its workers. Such a spectacle is useful to our
Government.
I asked you some questions, which you have not answered. Is Mrs. Grote
returned from Germany? Is she well? Has she received my letter addressed
to her at Heidelberg? The last question is always doubtful when one
writes from France.
I send you a letter from the Count de Fénelon, which I think will
interest you. You will give it me back when we meet.
I am very curious to know what you will think of Egypt; and I hope that
we shall be established in Paris when you return.