out our ambassadors, seized by force on disputed territory, and
threatened war on every pretence.'

'It is true,' said Beaumont, 'that during the last twenty years American
diplomacy has not been such as to inspire affection or respect But you
must recollect that during all that time America has been governed by the
South.'

'It is true,' I said, 'that the presidents have generally been Southerns,
but I am not aware that the North has ever disavowed their treatment of
us. This is certain, that throughout the Union, insolence to England has
been an American statesman's road to popularity.'

_Monday., August _19.--We walked in the afternoon over the commons
overlooking the sea, and among the shady lanes of this well-wooded
country.

We came on a group of about twelve or thirteen reapers taking their
evening meal of enormous loaves of brown bread, basins of butter, and
kegs of cider.

M. Roussell, the farmer in whose service they were, was sitting among
them. He was an old friend and constituent of Tocqueville, and for thirty
years was Maire of Tocqueville. He has recently resigned. He rose and
walked with us to his house.

'I was required,' he said, 'to support the prefect's candidate for the
_Conseil general_. No such proposition was ever made to me before. I
could not submit to it. The prefect has been unusually busy of late. The
schoolmaster has been required to send in a list of the peasants whose
children, on the plea of poverty, receive gratuitous education. The
children of those who do not vote with the prefect are to have it no
longer.'

I asked what were the wages of labour.

'Three francs and half a day,' he said, 'during the harvest, with
food--which includes cider. In ordinary times one franc a day with food,
or a franc and a half without food.'

'It seems then,' I said, 'that you can feed a man for half a franc a
day?'

'He can feed himself,' said M. Roussell, 'for that, but I cannot, or for
double that money.'

The day labourer is generally hired only for one day. A new bargain is
made every day.

The house was not uncomfortable, but very untidy. There are no ricks,
everything is stored in large barns, where it is safe from weather, but
terribly exposed to vermin.

A bright-complexioned servant-girl was in the kitchen preparing an
enormous bowl of soup, of which bread, potatoes, and onions were the
chief solid ingredients.

'Roussell,' said Beaumont, 'is superior to his class. In gener