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so that both departments will be going on right, and you will be better off for the winter than if you had remained at Quebec. . . . .
I have heard Thackeray's four lectures on the four Georges, truculent enough in their general satire,—though not much beyond the last half-volume of ‘Harry Esmond’ about Queen Anne,—but full of generous passages about individuals.
The sketches of the German princes of the seventeenth century, and down to the middle of the eighteenth, with which he opened, amused me more than anything else.
They were capital.
The passage most applauded was a beautiful tribute of loyalty to Queen Victoria, and the tone and manners of her Court.
It was given, on his part, with much feeling, and brought down the house—always crowded—very fervently. . . . His audience was the best the city could give, and above twelve hundred strong, besides which, he repeated the lecture about George III.
to an audience of two thousand, two or three evenings ago.1 . . . .
We are all well, and send you kindest regards. . . . . Pleasant letters came from the Lyells, last steamer, and all accounts announce the entire success of Prescott's book.
Yours faithfully,
To King John, of Saxony.2
Boston, November 20, 1855.
Sire,—I received duly your Majesty's last letter, full of wise philosophy and sound sense both on European and American affairs; but I have not earlier answered it, because there is so little to send from this side of the Atlantic that can be interesting on the other.
We think and talk about your great war between the eastern and western divisions of Europe, almost as much as you do, and look with the same sort—if not the same degree—of eagerness for telegraphic despatches.
For we feel that all Christendom rests on one basis of civilization, and that whatever shakes its foundations in one part does 