secure to it in all times of danger a confidence and respect which
counteract in public opinion the rashness and heat of the popular
assembly. On what principles that senate should be formed, with what
functions invested, what share of the executive--especially in foreign
affairs, declarations of war, or treaties of peace--should be accorded to
it, will no doubt need the most deliberate care of the ablest minds. But
a senate I thus sketch has alone rescued America from the rashness of
counsel incident to a democratic Chamber; and it is still more essential
to France, with still more favourable elements for its creation. From
England we must borrow the great principle that has alone saved her from
revolution--that the head of the State can do no wrong. He leads no
armies, he presides over no Cabinet. All responsibility rests with
his advisers; and where we upset a dynasty, England changes an
administration. Whether the head of the State should have the title of
sovereign or president, whether he be hereditary or elected, is a
question of minor importance impossible now to determine, but on which I
heartily concur with you that hereditary monarchy is infinitely better
adapted to the habits of Frenchmen, to their love of show and of honours
--and infinitely more preservative from all the dangers which result from
constant elections to such a dignity, with parties so heated, and
pretenders to the rank so numerous--than any principle by which a popular
demagogue or a successful general is enabled to destroy the institutions
he is elected to guard. On these fundamental doctrines for the
regeneration of France I think we are agreed. And I believe when the
moment arrives to promulgate them, through an expounder of weight like
yourself, they will rapidly commend themselves to the intellect of
France. For they belong to common sense; and in the ultimate prevalence
of common-sense I have a faith which I refuse to medievalists who would
restore the right divine; and still more to fanatical quacks, who imagine
that the worship of the Deity, the ties of family, and the rights of