ourts than I could
wish; and yet, in all the freedom of an otherwise unfettered
intercourse, I have never dared to introduce the subject of any suit in
which I have been a party. I have been afraid of wounding your sense of
right, to say nothing of my own, and of forfeiting your esteem, or at
least, of losing your society. Now had we been Frenchmen, you would have
expected me to _solicit_ you; you would probably have heard me with the
bias of an old friend; and my adversary must have been a singularly
lucky fellow, or you a very honest one, if he did not get the worst of
it, supposing the case to admit of doubt. Formerly, it was known that
influence prevailed; bribes were offered and received, and a suit was a
contest of money and favouritism rather than one of facts and
principles.

I asked General La Fayette not long since, what he thought of the actual
condition of France as respects the administration of justice. In most
political cases he accused the government of the grossest injustice,
illegality, and oppression. In the ordinary criminal cases he believed
the intentions of the courts and juries perfectly fair, as, indeed, it
is difficult to believe they should not be. In the civil suits he
thought a great improvement had taken place; nor did he believe that
there now exists much of the ancient corruption. The civil code of
Napoleon had worked well, and all he complained of was a want of fitness
between the subordinate provisions of a system invented by a military
despot for his own support, and the system of _quasi_ liberty that had
been adopted at the restoration; for the Bourbons had gladly availed
themselves of all the machinery of power that Napoleon bequeathed to
France.

A gentleman who heard the conversation afterwards told me the following
anecdote. A friend of his had long been an unsuccessful suitor in one of
the higher courts of the kingdom. They met one day in the street, when
the other told him that an unsealed letter, which he held in his hand,
contained an offer of a pair of carriage-horses to the wife of the judge
who had the control of his affair. On being told he dare not take so
strong a step, M. de ----, my informant, was requested to read the
letter, to seal it and to put it in the _boite aux lettres_ with his own
hands, in order to satisfy himself of the actual state of justice in
France. All this was done, and "I can only add," continued M. de ----,
"that I afterwards saw the horses in th