[Footnote 1: On the 18th June, 1855, the French and English made an
unsuccessful assault on Sebastopol.--ED.]
[Footnote 2: That of the 28th May, 1855.--ED.]
Tocqueville, September 19, 1855.
Your letter, my dear Senior, of the 26th of August, has much interested
me. I see that you are resolved on your great journey. I could say like
Alexander, if the comparison were not too ambitious, that I should wish
to be in your place if I were not in my own; but I cannot get satiated
with the pleasure of being at home after so long an absence. Everything
is pleasure in this country life, among my own fields. Even the solitude
is charming; but were I anywhere else, I should envy you your tour.
Everything in Egypt is curious: the past, the present, and the future. I
hope to learn much from your Journal, which I trust that I shall have. We
shall certainly meet you in Paris.
The noise made by the fall of Sebastopol has echoed even to this distant
corner of France. It is a glorious event, and has delighted every
Frenchman of every party and of every opinion, for in these matters we
are one man.
I fear that the victory has been bought dearly. There is not a
neighbouring village to which the war has not cost some of its children.
But they bear it admirably. You know, that in war we show the best side
of our character. If our civilians resembled our soldiers we should long
ago have been masters of Europe.
This war has never been popular, nor is it popular, yet we bear all its
cost with a cheerfulness admirable when you consider the sorrows which it
occasions, aggravated by the distress produced by the dearness of bread.
If, instead of the Crimea, the seat of war had been the Rhine, with a
definite purpose, the whole nation would have risen, as it has done
before.
But the object of the war is unintelligible to the people. They only know
that France is at war, and must be made, at any price, to triumph.
I must confess, that I myself, who understand the object for which all
this blood is shed, and who approve that object, do not feel the interest
which such great events ought to excite; for I do not expect a result
equal to the sacrifice.
I think, with you, that Russia is a great danger to Europe. I think so
more strongly, because I have had peculiar opportunities of studying the
real sources of her power, and because I believe these sources to be
permanent, and entirely beyond the reach of foreign attack. (I have not
time now to tell you why.) But I am deeply convinced that it is not by
taking from her a town, or even a province, nor by diplomatic
precautions, still less by placing sentinels along her frontier, that the
Western Powers will permanently stop her progress.
A temporary bulwark may be raised against her, but a mere accident may
destroy it, or a change of alliances or a domestic policy may render it
useless.
I am convinced that Russia can be stopped only by raising before her
powers created by the hatred which she inspires, whose vital and constant
interest it shall be to keep themselves united and to keep her in. In
other words, by the resurrection of Poland, and by the re-animation of
Turkey.
I do not believe that either of these means can now be adopted. The
detestable jealousies and ambitions of the European nations resemble, as
you say in your letter, nothing better than the quarrels of the Greeks in
the face of Philip. Not one will sacrifice her passions or her objects.
About a month ago I read some remarkable articles, which you perhaps have
seen, in the German papers, on the progress which Russia is making in the
extreme East. The writer seems to be a man of sense and well informed.
It appears that during the last five years, Russia, profiting by the
Chinese disturbances, has seized, not only the mouth of the Amoor, but a
large territory in Mongolia, and has also gained a considerable portion
of the tribes which inhabit it. You know that these tribes once overran
all Asia, and have twice conquered China. The means have always been the
same--some accident which, for an instant, has united these tribes in
submission to the will of one man. Now, says the writer, very plausibly,
the Czar may bring this about, and do what has been done by Genghis Khan,
and, indeed, by others.
If these designs are carried out, all Upper Asia will be at the mercy of
a man, who, though the seat of his power be in Europe, can unite and
close on one point the Mongols.
I know more about Sir G. Lewis's book[1] than you do. I have read it
through, and I do not say, as you do, that it must be a good book, but
that it _is_ a good book. Pray say as much to Sir George when you see
him, as a letter of mine to Lady Theresa on the subject may have
miscarried.
It is as necessary now for friends to write in duplicate from town to
town, as it is if they are separated by the ocean and fear that the ship
which carries their letters may be lost. I hear that our friend John Mill
has lately published an excellent book. Is it true? at all events
remember me to him.
Adieu, my dear Senior. Do not forget us any more than we forget you.
Kindest regards to Mrs. Senior, and Miss Senior, and Mrs. Grote.