erty, even when that cause suffers in another country,
delights me. What I regret is that your generous indignation is directed
against so petty a tyrant.

I must say that America is a _puer robustus_. Yet I cannot desire, as
many persons do, its dismemberment. Such an event would inflict a great
wound on the whole human race; for it would introduce war into a great
continent from whence it has been banished for more than a century.

The breaking up of the American Union will be a solemn moment in the
history of the world. I never met an American who did not feel this, and
I believe that it will not be rashly or easily undertaken. There will,
before actual rupture, be always a last interval, in which one or both
parties will draw back. Has not this occurred twice?

Adieu, dear Senior. Do not be long without letting us hear from you, and
remember us affectionately to Mrs. Senior and to your daughter.

Ashton House, near Phoenix Park, Dublin, September 26, 1856.

My dear Tocqueville,--Your letter found me at Haddo House, Aberdeenshire,
where we have been spending a fortnight with Lord Aberdeen.

It has been very interesting. Lord Aberdeen is one of our wisest
statesmen.

* * * * *

I found Lord Aberdeen deprecating the war, notwithstanding its success,
utterly incredulous as to the aggressive intentions attributed to
Nicholas, and in fact throwing the blame of the war on Lord Stratford
and, to a certain degree, on Louis Napoleon.

I found him also much disturbed by our Naples demonstration, believing it
to be an unwarranted interference with an independent Government.

* * * * *

Ever yours,

A.W. SENIOR.

Tocqueville, November 2, 1856.

I am grateful to you, my dear Senior, for your kindness in telling me
what I most wished to hear. The judgments of such men as those with whom
you have been living, while they delight me, impose on me the duty of
unrelaxed efforts.

Your fortnight at Lord Aberdeen's amused me exceedingly, and not the
least amusing part were the eccentricities of A.B.

There is one point in which the English seem to me to differ from
ourselves, and, indeed, from all other nations, so widely that they form
almost a distinct species of men. There is often scarcely any connection
between what they say and what they do.

No people carry so far, especially when speaking in public, violence of
language, outrageousness of the