Letters on England. By Louis Blanc. (Sampson Low, So; and
Co.) —Letters full of epigrams of singular clearness and sense, but some-
how not so interesting as any of their author's more formal works.
There is a scrappy tone of necessity about such letters. M. Louis Blanc draws his deductions often from very slight premisses, and once or twice he, who really sympathizes with England and understands her, is betrayed by a love of over-refining into injustice. In attributing the grief for Cavour, for instance, to jealousy of France he is entirely wrong. That
deep feeling was the result of a real admiration, an admiration English- men seldom fail to feel for one who, redressing immense injuries, is nevertheless at heart aristocratic and conservative. If any foreign feel- ing entered into the matter, it was hatred of the Papacy, to which Englishmen felt rather than knew Cavour was a deadly foe. TWO• sentences, however, attributed to Cavonr, and widely known in England, would of themselves explain the feeling for his person. "Your Ma- jesty forgets that my House is as old as that of Savoy," and "I will have no state of siege. Anybody can govern with a state of siege." Englishmen in their hearts' core like their lords to be of that type.. Yet the letters are full of wise sentences, and we doubt if the one permanently bad element in the English character was ever more pithily described than in the following extract :—" Hence, in almost every one of the constituent members of English society,.
a very curious sert' of dualism. Take an English gentleman ; he is the best of men. Penetrate into the recesses of his nature, and you will love him. You will find him, beneath a reserved exterior, en- dowed with much feeling. He will charm you by the sincerity of his character, the solidity of his attachments, and his unostentatious. generosity. That justice in small matters which constitutes the• security of mutual relations, you may regard it as certain you will have to admire in him. But let an event occur by which the material wel- fare of England is compromised, you will be surprised to see your friend apply to the conduct of his country principles quite different from those which serve to regulate his own actions. This man of sense and feeling will not allow that any one should dispute England's right to be inexor- able. This just man will openly, before your very eyes, bow down to the god of might."
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