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Precaution by James Fenimore Cooper
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her from detractors abroad; he sought to save her from flatterers at home.
I will not say that he was in as good humor with his country when he
wrote _Home at Found_, as when he wrote his _Notions of the Americans_,
but this I will say that whether he commended or censured, he did it in
the sincerity of his heart, as a true American, and in the belief that it
would do good. His _Notions of the Americans_ were more likely to lessen
than to increase his popularity in Europe, inasmuch as they were put forth
without the slightest regard to European prejudices.

In 1829, he brought out the novel entitled the _Wept of Wishton-Wish_, one
of the few of his works which we now rarely hear mentioned. He was engaged
in the composition of a third nautical tale, which he afterwards published
under the name of the _Water-Witch,_ when the memorable revolution of the
Three Days of July broke out. He saw a government, ruling by fear and in
defiance of public opinion, overthrown in a few hours, with little
bloodshed; he saw the French nation, far from being intoxicated with their
new liberty, peacefully addressing themselves to the discussion of the
institutions under which they were to live. A work which Cooper afterwards
published, his _Residence in Europe_, gives the outline of a plan of
government for France furnished by him at that time, to La Fayette, with
whom he was in habits of close and daily intimacy. It was his idea to give
permanence to the new order of things by associating two strong parties in
its support, the friends of legitimacy and the republicans. He suggested
that Henry V. should be called to the hereditary throne of France, a youth
yet to be educated as the head of a free people, that the peerage should
be abolished, and a legislature of two chambers established, with a
constituency of at least a million and a half of electors; the senate to
be chosen by the general vote, as the representative of the entire nation,
and the members of the other house to be chosen by districts, as the
representatives of the local interests. To the middle ground of politics
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