Power was concentrated in Paris and in the provincial capitals. The
smaller towns and the agricultural population were unorganised and
defenceless. The 14th of July revealed the terrible secret that the
Master of Paris is the Master of France.'
_Paris, May_ 18.--I spent the day at Athy, the country-seat of M.
Lafosse,[1] who had been my companion in our Egyptian journey.
'What do you hear,' I asked, 'of the Empress?'
'Nothing,' he answered, 'but what is favourable; all her instincts and
prejudices are good. Lesseps, who is nearly related to her, has many of
her letters, written during the courtship, in which she speaks of her
dear Louis with the utmost affection, and dwells on the hope that if ever
she should become his wife, she may be able to induce him to liberalise
his Government.'
'And now,' he said, 'tell me what you heard in England about our Canal?'
'I heard nothing,' I answered, 'except from Maclean. He told me that he
thought that the Maritime Canal, if supplied from the sea, would become
stagnant and unwholesome, and gradually fill. That that plan was formed
when the levels of the two seas were supposed to differ, so that there
would be a constant current.
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