‘My dear R.,—I have to thank you, which I do most
heartily, for your kind letter. I wish I could afford you any return by giving
you information as to the state of this unhappy country—unhappy, with all
the elements of the greatest prosperity. But the fatal effects of a sudden, and
utterly groundless, revolution (1848) continue to be felt in every way. There
is a general sense of insecurity which pervades the whole people, and all feel
gloomy and alarmed. I really consider that there is no foundation for this
alarm, as far as regards general convulsion, because there is among all parties
such a dread of it, that this is likely to prevent violence, except from the
rabble. But partial outbreaks may very probably take place. However, the bad
effects of the prevailing sense of insecurity are everywhere to be seen. No
speculations are entered into and all manufactures and trade are kept in as
much suspense as possible, in order to wait and see what may happen. The
feeling which I find most universal, except, perhaps, among the Socialists and
Rouges, who, of course, one never sees, is indignation at the shelter given in
England to all insur-
| LORD BROUGHAM’S LETTERS | 399 |
‘I found nobody at Paris except Madame Lieven, and the diplomatic people, and also Thiers. The almost universal feeling is against this proceeding of Joinville.1 The violent Republicans like it, because it hurts the President’s chance, who, however, is pretty sure to be re-elected in one way or another. But the general wish is for Royalty as the only means of living tolerably secure from perpetual change, only there is no Royalist party ready to take the Government, and they all must submit to a Republic nearly all despise and hate.
‘I am here in a sultry summer, but I hope to see you before Christmas or very soon after it, and to find you as well as when I left you.
‘The journey here is now so easy that I could have arrived the fourth day from Paris, had I not stopped to pay a visit on the road.
