With the knowledge I have acquired of the duties of the several
officers, and the entire command of my time here at a quiet place,
and long-established methodical habits, I can get through the work
very well, though it becomes trying sometimes. Arrears I never allow
to accumulate, and regular hours, and exercise, and sparing diet,
with water beverage, keep me always in condition for office work. I
often wish that you could have half the command of your hours, mode
of living, and movements, that I have. However, they will soon be
much more free than mine. I am very glad that you have the one year
more for a wind up; and hope that good fortune will attend you to the
last. You say nothing, however, about your foot. The papers and
letters from home have just come in. I hear that Lord John is very
unwell, and will not be able to stand the work many months more, and
that Sir R. Peel is obliged to be _cupped_ once a-week, and could not
possibly take office. Who is to take helm in the troubled ocean, no
one knows. I am glad that Metternich has been kicked out, for he and
Louis Philippe are the men that have put in peril the peace and
institutions of all Europe. I only wish that the middle class was as
strong in France as it is in England; it is no doubt infinitely
stronger than it was; while the lower order is better than that of
England, I believe, for such occasions. They have good men now in the
provisional Government--so they had in 1788; and, like them, the
present men will probably be swept away by the mob. They are not,
however, likely to be embarrassed by other nations, since the days of
Pitt and George III. are passed away, and so are the feudal times
when the barons could get up civil wars for their own selfish
purposes. There are no characters sufficiently prominent to get up a
civil war, but the enormous size of the army is enough to create
feelings of disquiet. It is, however, officered from the middle