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• Preface.
• Mr. Senior’s Introductory Note to the Conversations, Written In 1859.
• Correspondence and Conversations of A. De Tocqueville.
• Correspondence.
• Alexis De Tocqueville to N. W. Senior.
• Letter From Archbishop Whately.
• To N. W. Senior, Esq.
• Conversations.
• Extract From Mr. Senior’s Journal.
• Correspondence.
• Conversations.
• Correspondence.
• Conversations.
• Normandy. ChÂteau De Tocqueville, August 1850.
• Conversations.
• Journal In Normandy.
• Correspondence.
• Tocqueville During the Republic. Sorrento and Paris. 1851.
• Sorrento. January and February, 1851.
• Conversations.
• Correspondence.
• Conversations.
• Correspondence.
• To N. W. Senior, Esq.

Correspondence.

[I have looked in vain for the original or a copy of the letter from M. de Tocqueville, to which the following is an answer. Large extracts from it are appended to the article on Lamartine published last year in the Journals in France and Italy, and to the Journal for 1849, vol. i. p. 214.—Ed.]

• Masters’ Offices,

December 10, 1849.

My dear M. de Tocqueville,—

A thousand thanks for your interesting and instructive letter. I have ventured to add as notes to the article, of course not naming you, the two anecdotes of Lamartine. They confirm, I think, his account. When I was last in Paris I saw an enormous letter from Marshal Bugeaud, giving an account of what he saw and did on February 24. His story exactly tallies with Lamartine’s. The story which you tell of the detachment of the 10th Legion, he tells thus: ‘After the King’s retreat I went home, changed my dress, and went back towards the Palais Bourbon. When I got there I met some deputies running out of the Chamber, frightened to death. Those who could speak cried, “All is over; they have proclaimed the Republic!” I ran to a detachment of the 10th Legion, which was stationed in the place, and said, “You don’t wish for a Republic?” “No sacre bleu!” they said. “Then come with me to the Chamber.” There were about 150 of them. They ran for their arms. Oudinot joined us, and we moved on the Chamber. About twenty deputies met us, escaping from the Chamber. “All is lost,” they said; “the Duchess is going to the Invalides. The Republic is proclaimed.” And it was too late, or we were too few, and so the monarchy fell. Had the Court been at Vincennes, had I had the command a fortnight sooner, things might have passed differently. But all had been neglected, no preparation made for resistance or for retreat, no plan laid down, no instructions given, no supplies of ammunition, no deposits of provisions, no collections of the tools necessary for breaking open doors and piercing walls; nothing was thought of except to follow what was recollected of the management of 1834. I have often talked to the ministers, and to M. Guizot, about the danger to which their want of preparation exposed the monarchy, but I never could excite their interest, or even gain their attention. There was a sort of sneer, as if they thought I was talking to get a command.’

Is not this your detachment of the 10th Legion?

What you say of the immediate causes of the Revolution is very important. Mon siége est fait—but this is not the last time that I shall write about the 24th of February.

I have no use for the proofs, unless perhaps you could send them to M. Pichot, the editor of the Revue britannique, with my compliments, and tell him that the article will come out in London in three weeks, and if he wishes to translate it for his review, and publish the translation at any time after that, they are at his service.

It is probable, however, that the Revolution has, among better things, destroyed the Revue britannique.

Lord Lansdowne was delighted with his French visit. He had an interview of some hours with your President, and negotiated a resumption of intercourse between him and Molé, who had ceased to visit the Élysée after the coup d’état. I have seen nobody else, being confined by bronchitis.

Kindest regards from all of us to you and Madame de Tocqueville. Ever yours,

N. W. Senior.

[There is a gap here in the correspondence. There is no letter on either side till after the next journal.—Ed.]