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Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859

"Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859, Volume 2"

They
had scarcely any officers, or even _sous_ officers, that knew anything of
their business. The drill sergeants required to be drilled. The generals,
and indeed the greater part of the officers, were divided into hostile
factions--Absolutists, Rouges, Constitutional Liberals, and even
Austrians--for at that time, in the exaggerated terror occasioned by the
revolutions of 1848, Austria and Russia were looked up to by the greater
part of the noblesse of the Continent as the supporters of order against
Mazzini, Kossuth, Ledru Rollin, and Palmerston. The Absolutists and the
Austrians made common cause, whereas the Rouges or Mazzinists were
bitterest against the Constitutional Liberals. Such an army, even if
there had been no treason, could not have withstood a disciplined enemy.
When it fell a victim to its own defects, and to the treachery of
Ramorino, Chrzanowski retired to Paris.'--(_Extracted from Mr. Senior's
article in the 'North British Review.'_)
Chrzanowski died several years ago.--ED.]

CORRESPONDENCE.
Kensington, August 20, 1856.
My dear Tocqueville,--A few weeks after my return to London your book
reached me--of course from the time that I got it, I employed all my
leisure in reading it.


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