’Then he has a strong will, perfect self-reliance, and the most restless activity.  All these qualities give him great influence.  He led the centre gauche into most of its errors.  H——­ used to say, “If you want to know what I shall do, ask G——.”

’Among the secondary causes of February 1848 he stands prominent.  He planned the banquets.  Such demonstrations are safe in England.  He inferred, according to his usual mode of reasoning, that they would not be dangerous in France.  He forgot that in England there is an aristocracy that leads, and even controls, the people.

‘I am alarmed,’ he continued, ’by your Reform Bill.  Your new six-pound franchise must, I suppose, double the constituencies; it is a further step to universal suffrage, the most fatal and the least remediable of institutions.[3]

’While you preserve your aristocracy, you will preserve your freedom; if that goes, you will fall into the worst of tyrannies, that of a despot, appointed and controlled, so far as he is controlled at all, by a mob.’[4]

Madame de Tocqueville asked me if I had seen the Empress.

‘No,’ I said, ‘but Mrs. Senior has, and thinks her beautiful.’

‘She is much more so,’ said Madame de Tocqueville, ’than her portraits.  Her face in perfect repose gets long, and there is a little drooping about the corners of the mouth.  This has a bad effect when she is serious, as everyone is when sitting for a picture, but disappears as soon as she speaks.  I remember dining in company with her at the President’s—­I sat next to him—­she was nearly opposite, and close to her a lady who was much admired.  I said to the President, looking towards Mademoiselle de Montigo, “Really I think that she is far the prettier of the two.”  He gazed at her for an instant, and said, “I quite agree with you; she is charming.”  It may be a bon menage’

‘To come back,’ I said, ’to our Eastern question.  What is Baraguay d’Hilliers?’

‘A brouillon,’ said Tocqueville.  ’He is the most impracticable man in France.  His vanity, his ill-temper, and his jealousy make him quarrel with everybody with whom he comes in contact.  In the interest of our alliance you should get him recalled.’

‘What sort of man,’ I asked, ‘shall I find General Randon?’

‘Very intelligent,’ said Tocqueville.  ’He was to have had the command of the Roman army when Oudinot gave it up; but, just as he was going, it was discovered that he was a Protestant.  He was not so accommodating as one of our generals during the Restoration.  He also was a Protestant.  The Duc d’Angouleme one day said to him, “Vous etes protestant, general?” The poor man answered in some alarm, for he knew the Duke’s ultra-Catholicism, “Tout ce que vous voulez, monseigneur."’

[Footnote 1:  My conversations with M. de Tocqueville during this visit were written out after my return from Paris and sent to him.  He returned them with the remarks which I have inserted.—­N.W.  SENIOR.]