As to military despotism, would France bear _that_, do you think? Is the
French army, besides, made after the fashion of standing armies, such as
we see in other countries? Are they not eminently _civic_, flesh of the
people's flesh? I fear no military despotism for France, oh, none. Every
soldier is a citizen, and every citizen is or has been a soldier.

Altogether, instead of despairing, I am full of hope. It seems to me
probable that the door is open to a wider and calmer political liberty
than France has yet enjoyed. Let us wait.

The American _forms_ of republicanism are most uncongenial to this
artistic people; but democratical institutions will deepen and broaden,
I think, even if we should soon all be talking of the 'Empire.'

As to the repressive measures, why, grant the righteousness of the
movement, and you must accept its conditions. Don't believe the
tremendous exaggerations you are likely to hear on all sides--don't, I
beseech you.

The President rode under our windows on December 2, through a shout
extending from the Carrousel to the Arc de l'Etoile. The troups poured
in as we stood and looked. No sight could be grander, and I would not
have missed it, not for the Alps, I say.

You say nothing specific. How I should like to know _why_ exactly you
are out of spirits, and whether dear Mr. Martin is sad too. Robert and I
have had some domestic _émeutes_, because he hates some imperial names;
yet he confessed to me last night that the excessive and contradictory
nonsense he had heard among Legitimists, Orleanists, and _English_,
against the movement inclined him almost to a revulsion of feeling.