‘My dear R.,—I went to see L. Philippe at St. Leonards on Wednesday. I found him quite well and in excellent spirits, but so altered in appearance that I should certainly not have known him. However, the medical men think he is recovering, and that the disease was not organic. He is pleased with the flocking of men of all shades from Paris to visit him, and he has been of much use in forwarding the President’s dotation, holding that a refusal must have brought on a dreadful crisis and probably ended in an absolute monarchy.
‘I sat yesterday with Lyndhurst and found him in excellent health and spirits on recovering his sight. The attack of the lunatic on the Queen 1 will give us the plague of addresses and trials. It is rather a pity the mob were kept from killing the man, for sudden and summary justice would do more to prevent repetition of the offence than twenty trials, and all you do by such trials is example. A madman’s life is worth less than nothing to himself or the world.
‘No one can tell what is to be the majority to-night in the Commons. I believe it will be considerable.’
