nd two of the bridges are under repair. But these are
small tokens which anything else might have brought about as well. The
people are all at work. The little streets are rife with every sight and
sound of industry; the place is as quiet by ten o'clock as
Lincoln's-inn-fields; and the only outward and visible sign of public
interest in political events is a little group at every street corner,
reading a public announcement from the new Government of the forthcoming
election of state-officers, in which the people are reminded of their
importance as a republican institution, and desired to bear in mind
their dignity in all their proceedings. Nothing very violent or bad
could go on with a community so well educated as this. It is the best
antidote to American experiences, conceivable. As to the nonsense 'the
gentlemanly interest' talk about, their opposition to property and so
forth, there never was such mortal absurdity. One of the principal
leaders in the late movement has a stock of watches and jewellery here
of immense value--and had, during the disturbance--perfectly
unprotected. James Fahzey has a rich house and a valuable collection of
pictures; and, I will be bound to say, twice as much to lose as half the
conservative declaimers put together. This house, the liberal one, is
one of the most richly furnished and luxurious hotels on the continent.
And if I were a Swiss with a hundred thousand pounds, I would be as
steady against the Catholic cantons and the propagation of Jesuitism as
any radical among 'em: believing the dissemination of Catholicity to be
the most horrible means of political and social degradation left in the
world. Which these people, thoroughly well educated, know perfectly. . . .
The boys of Geneva were very useful in bringing materials for the
construction of the barricades on the bridges; and the enclosed song may
amuse you. They sing it to a tune that dates from the great French
Revolution--a very good one."

But revolutions may be small as well as their heroes, and while he thus
was sending me his Gamin de Geneve I was sending him news of a sudden
change in Whitefriars which had quite as vivid interest for him. Not
much could be told him at first, but his curiosity instantly arose to
fever pitch. "In reference to that _Daily News_ revolution," he wrote
from Geneva on the 26th, "I have been walking and wondering all day
through a perfect Miss Burney's Vauxhall of conjectural dark walks.
Heaven