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for a few days, and I have just been talking with him about it.1 . . . .
Hoping that when your leisure permits we may hear from you again,
Very sincerely yours,
To Prince John, Duke of Saxony, Dresden.
Boston, July 22, 1850.
my dear Prince,—I have desired to write to you for some time, and acknowledge the receipt of a very interesting and instructive letter which you sent me in the spring, and a note of May 9, in which you speak with your accustomed kindness of my ‘History of Spanish Literature,’ of which I had early ventured to send you a copy.
But the state of our public affairs, on which I wished to say something, seemed every week to be likely to take a decisive turn . . . . I have waited, however, in vain.
The debates are still going on, the decision is still somewhat uncertain, and the disturbed and excited state of public opinion and feeling is still unappeased.
But in the midst of this angry discussion has come a melancholy event, of which you have already heard,—I mean the very sudden death of the President of the United States; an event which, perhaps, will not exercise a great influence on the course of public affairs, but is worth particular notice, from the circumstance that what has accompanied and followed it throws a strong light on the nature and operation of the free institutions of this country. . . . . . The shock was very great; and, in a despotism, the loss of the head of the government, under circumstances of such national embarrassment, would have undoubtedly, I think, brought on a period of confusion.
But here, the course of things was not in the least shaken.
The next day 