you in Paris in March.

I say no more, for I cannot write to you on what would most interest
you--French politics. Much is to be said on them; but you will understand
my silence if you study our new Law of Public Safety, and remember who is
the new Home Minister.[1] For the first time in French history has such a
post been filled by a general--and what a general!

I defer, therefore, until we meet, the expression of feelings and
opinions which cannot be safely transmitted through the post, and only
repeat how eager I am for our meeting.

Kind regards to Mrs. Senior.

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

[Footnote 1: General Espinasse.]

Tocqueville, February 21, 1858.

I received your letters with great pleasure, my dear Senior, and I think
with still greater satisfaction that I shall soon be able to see you.

I shall probably arrive in Paris, with my wife, at about the same time as
you will, that is to say, about the 19th of next month. I should have
gone earlier if I were not occupied in planting and sowing, for I am
doing a little farming to my great amusement.

I am delighted that you intend again to take up your quarters at the
Hotel Bedford, as I intend also to stay there if I can find apartments.

I hope that we shall be good neighbours and see each other as frequently
as such old friends ought to do. _A bientot!_

A. DE TOCQUEVILLE.

[Mr. Senior ran over to England for a few weeks instead of remaining in
Paris. The meeting between the two friends did not, therefore, take place
till April.--ED.]

CONVERSATIONS.

_Paris, Saturday, April_ 17, 1858.--We had a discussion at the Institut
to-day as to a bust to fill a niche in the anteroom. Rossi was proposed.
His political merits were admitted, but he was placed low as to his
literary claims as an economist and a jurist. Dupin suggested Talleyrand,
which was received with a universal groan, and failed for want of a
seconder. Ultimately the choice fell on Dumont.

'Nothing that is published of Talleyrand's,' said Tocqueville to me as we
walked home, 'has very great merit, nor indeed is much of it his own. He
hated writing, let his reports and other state papers be drawn up by
others, and merely retouched them. But in the archives of the _Affaires
etrangeres_ there is a large quarto volume containing his correspondence
with Louis XVIII during the Congress of Vienna. Nothing can be more
charming. The great European questions which were then in debate, the
diplom