can do you little harm. But to us Frenchmen the consequences of war
_must_ be calamitous. If we fail, they are national loss and humiliation.
If we succeed, they are slavery.'

'Of course,' I said, 'the corruption that infects the civil service must
in time extend to the army, and make it less fit for service.

'Of course it must,' answered Tocqueville. 'It will extend still sooner
to the navy? The _matériel_ of a force is more easily injured by jobbing
than the _personnel_. And in the navy the _matériel_ is the principal.

'Our naval strength has never been in proportion to our naval
expenditure, and is likely to be less and less so every year, at least
during every year of the _règne des fripons_.'

_Tuesday, May_ 24.--I breakfasted with Sir Henry Ellis and then went to
Tocqueville's.

I found there an elderly man, who did not remain long.

When he went, Tocqueville said, 'That is one of our provincial prefects.
He has been describing to us the state of public feeling in the South.
Contempt for the present Government, he tells us, is spreading there from
its headquarters, Paris.

'If the Corps Législatif is dissolved, he expects the Opposition to
obtain a majority in the new House.

'This,' continued Tocqueville, 'is a state of things with which Louis
Napoleon is not fit to cope. Opposition makes him furious, particularly