nnel. An
Englishman, dozing under a kind of half reformation, is not excited
to think by such gross absurdities as stare a Frenchman in the face,
wherever he looks, whether it be towards the throne or the altar. In
fine, I believe this nation will, in the course of the present year,
have as full a portion of liberty dealt out to them, as the nation can
bear at present, considering how uninformed the mass of their people is.
This circumstance will prevent the immediate establishment of the trial
by jury. The palsied state of the executive in England is a fortunate
circumstance for France, as it will give her time to arrange her
affairs internally. The consolidation and funding their debts, will give
government a credit which will enable them to do what they please.
For the present year the war will be confined to the two empires and
Denmark, against Turkey and Sweden. It is not yet evident, whether
Prussia will be engaged. If the disturbances of Poland break out into
overt acts, it will be a power divided in itself, and so of no weight.
Perhaps by the next year England and France may be ready to take the
field. It will depend on the former principally, for the latter, though
she may be then able, must wish still a little time to see her new
arrangements well under way. The English papers and English ministry
say the King is well. He is better, but not well: no malady requires a
longer time to insure against its return than insanity. Time alone can
distinguish accidental insanity from habitual lunacy.

The operations which have taken place in America lately fill me with
pleasure. In the first place, they realize the confidence I had, that,
whenever our affairs go obviously wrong, the good sense of the people
will interpose, and set them to rights. The example of changing a
constitution, by assembling the wise men of the State, instead of
assembling armies, will be worth as much to the world as the former
examples we had given them. The constitution, too, which was the result
of our deliberations, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to
men, and some of the accommodations of interest which it has adopted
are greatly pleasing to me, who have before had occasions of seeing how
difficult those interests were to accommodate. A general concurrence of
opinion seems to authorize us to say it has some defects. I am one of
those who think it a defect, that the important rights, not placed in
security by the frame of the