events passing around him. His view of the Russian war and of the
French alliance was set forth with much plainness of speech in a
letter to Max Muller:*

"I felt in the autumn (and you were angry at me for saying so) that
the very worst thing which could happen for Europe would be the
success of the policy with which France and England were managing
things. Happily the gods were against it too, as now, after having
between us wasted sixty millions of money and fifty thousand human
lives, we are beginning to discover. But I have no hope that things
will go right, or that men will think reasonably, until they have
first exhausted every mode of human folly. I still think Louis
Napoleon the d--d'est rascal in Europe (for which again you will be
angry with me), and that his reception the other day in London will
hereafter appear in history as simply the most shameful episode in
the English annals. Thinking this, you will not consider my opinion
good for anything, and therefore I need not inflict it upon you.
Humbugs, however, will explode in the present state of the
atmosphere, and the Austrian humbug, for instance, is at last, God
be praised for it, exploding. John Bull, I suppose, will work
himself into a fine fever about that; but he will think none the
worse of the old ladies in Downing Street who are made fools of: and
will be none the better disposed to listen to people who told him
all along how it would be. However, in the penal fatuity which has
taken possession of our big bow-wow people, and in even the general
folly, I see great ground for comfort to quiet people like myself;
and if I live fifteen years, I still hope I shall see a Republic
among us."

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