Correspondence Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to | Page 8

famille_, and his organs the 'Constitutionnel' and
the 'Patrie' announced a fortnight ago that the Emperor had sent to him
the Order of St. Andrew, which is given only to members of the
Imperial family, and an autograph letter of congratulation on the _coup
d'état_.
Kissileff says that all this is false, that neither Order nor letter has been
sent, but he has been trying in vain to get a newspaper to insert a denial.
It will be denied, he is told, when the proper moment comes.
'It is charming,' said Madame de Tocqueville, 'to see the Emperor of
Russia, like ourselves, forced to see his name usurped without redress.'
Madame B. had just seen a friend who left his country-house, and came
to Paris without voting, and told those who consulted him that, in the
difficulties of the case, he thought abstaining was the safest course.
Immediately after the poll was over the Prefect sent to arrest him for
_malveillance_, and he congratulated himself upon being out of the
way.
One of Edward de Tocqueville's sons came in soon after; his brother,
who is about seventeen, does duty as a private, has no servant, and
cleans his own horse; and is delighted with his new life. That of our
young cavalry officers is somewhat different. He did not hear of the
_coup d'état_ till a week after it had happened.

'Our regiments,' said Lanjuinais, 'are a kind of convents. The young
men who enter them are as dead to the world, as indifferent to the
events which interest the society which they have left, as if they were
monks. This is what makes them such fit tools for a despot.'
_Thursday, January 8, 1852_.--From Sir Henry Ellis's I went to
Tocqueville's.
[3]'In this darkness,' he said, 'when no one dares to print, and few to
speak, though we know generally that atrocious acts of tyranny are
perpetrated everyday, it is difficult to ascertain precise facts, so I will
give you one. A young man named Hypolite Magin, a gentleman by
birth and education, the author of a tragedy eminently successful called
"Spartacus," was arrested on the 2nd of December. His friends were
told not to be alarmed, that no harm was intended to him, but rather a
kindness; that as his liberal opinions were known, he was shut up to
prevent his compromising himself by some rash expression. He was
sent to Fort Bicêtre, where the casemates, miserable damp vaults, have
been used as a prison, into which about 3,000 political prisoners have
been crammed. His friends became uneasy, not only at the sufferings
which he must undergo in five weeks of such an imprisonment in such
weather as this, but lest his health should be permanently injured. At
length they found that he was there no longer: and how do you suppose
that his imprisonment has ended? He is at this instant at sea in a convict
ship on his way to Cayenne--untried, indeed unaccused--to die of fever,
if he escape the horrors of the passage. Who can say how many similar
cases there may be in this wholesale transportation? How many of
those who are missing and are supposed to have died at the barricades,
or on the Boulevards, may be among the transports, reserved for a more
lingering death!'
A proclamation to-day from the Prefect de Police orders all persons to
erase from their houses the words 'Liberté,' 'Êgalité,' and 'Fraternité' on
pain of being proceeded against administrativement.
'There are,' said Tocqueville, 'now three forms of procedure:
_judiciairement, militairement_ and _administrativement._ Under the
first a man is tried before a court of law, and, if his crime be grave, is
sentenced to one or two years' imprisonment. Under the second he is
tried before a drumhead court-martial, and shot. Under the third,
without any trial at all, he is transported to Cayenne or Algiers.'

I left Paris next day.
[Footnote 1: I was not able to resist retaining this conversation in the
Journals in France.--ED.]
[Footnote 2: It must be remembered that M. de Corcelle is an ardent
Roman Catholic.--ED.]
[Footnote 3: This conversation was also retained in the Journals in
France.--ED.]

CORRESPONDENCE.

Kensington, January 5, 1852.
My dear Tocqueville,--A private messenger has just offered himself to
me, a Mr. Esmeade, who will return in about a fortnight.
The debate on Tuesday night on the Palmerston question was very
satisfactory to the Government. Lord John's speech was very well
received--Lord Palmerston's very ill; and though the constitution of the
present Ministry is so decidedly unhealthy that it is dangerous to
predict any length of life to it, yet it looks healthier than people
expected. It may last out the Session.
The feeling with respect to Louis Napoleon is stronger, and it tends
more to unanimity every