place
without any charms that I could see, puffed into celebrity by Alexander
Dumas. The Duke de Morny invested in building there a good deal of the
money which he made by the _coup d'etat_. Life at a French
watering-place seems to be as close an imitation of life at Paris as
French ingenuity can produce under the adverse circumstances of the
case. Nothing but the religion of fashion can compel these people
periodically to leave the capital for the sea. The mode of bathing is
rather singular. I found that the Americans did not, as is commonly
believed in England, put trousers on the legs of their pianos, but I
believe you are more particular than we are; and therefore, perhaps, you
would be still more surprised than we are at seeing a gentleman wrapped
in a sheet stalk before the eyes of all the promenaders over the sands
to the sea, and there throw off the sheet, and at his leisure get into
the water. At the risk of exposing my English prudishness, I ventured to
remark to a French acquaintance that the fashion was _un peu libre_. I
found, rather to my astonishment, that he thought so too.

At Val Richer, near Lisieux, is the pleasant country-house of M. Guizot.
There, surrounded by his children and his grandchildren, a pretty
patriarchal picture, the veteran statesman and historian reposes after
the prodigious labors and tragic vicissitudes of his life. I say he
reposes; but his pen is as active as ever, only that he has turned from
politics and history to the more enduring and consoling topic of
religion. He has just given us a volume on Christianity; he is about to
give us one on the state of religion in France. It will be deeply
interesting. In the revival of religion lies the only hope of
regeneration for the French nation. And whence is that revival to come?
From the official priesthood, and the jesuitical influences depicted in
_Le Maudit_? Or from the Protestant Church of France, itself full of
dissensions and turmoils, in which M. Guizot himself has been recently
involved? Or from the school of Natural Theologians represented by
Jules Simon? We shall see, when M. Guizot's work appears. It is from his
religious character as well as from his attachment to constitutional
liberty, I imagine, that M. Guizot has, unlike the mass of his
countrymen, watched the American struggle with ardent interest, and
cordially rejoiced in the triumph of the Union and of freedom.

There are of course very different opinions as to