George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[36] that, being at the headquarters of the allies as they were advancing upon Paris, in 1814, Lord Castlereagh, after hearing of the occupation of Eastport and the lower part of Maine, said, one day, rubbing his hands with some satisfaction, ‘We shall take two or three of the United States now, and I think we shall be able to keep them, too.’

When, however, peace was made, in 1815, and he congratulated his lordship upon it, he seemed uncommonly well pleased.

September 3.—I spent the evening, until quite late, with old General Laharpe, who had invited a few people to meet us; . . . . but I cared about nobody there except our host and hostess, who received us in a fine suite of rooms over the library suite, in the principal of which was a portrait of Alexander, ‘given to his friend and instructor in 1814,’ as the inscription set forth. When the company was gone, the old gentleman, who had told me about the beginning of the correspondence and diplomatic intercourse between Russia and the United States, showed me a letter of the Emperor to him. It was dated July 7, 1803, consisted of three sheets, and was very kind and affectionate. Laharpe had sent him, just before, one of Jefferson's messages to Congress, which had been furnished him by Joel Barlow at Paris. To this the Emperor replied:—

‘I should be extremely happy’—I believe I remember the words, and that my translation is literal—‘if you could put me in more direct relations with Erskine and Jefferson. I should feel myself greatly honored by it.’

This Laharpe showed to Barlow, and thereupon Jefferson wrote to the Emperor. A correspondence followed, and finally diplomatic relations. Why are none of the letters given in the published works of Jefferson?

Such talk of the old gentleman made my evening interesting, and I parted from him, after eleven o'clock, with a good deal of regret. He is a truly venerable person, upon whom old age sits with a gracefulness that is very rare.

September 4.—We drove to-day on the beautiful banks of this beautiful lake, through the rich fields and vineyards of the Pays de Vaud, and in sight always of the mountains of Savoy, from Lausanne to Geneva . . . . We stopped to see the Chateau at Coppet, which we found a very comfortable and even luxurious establishment on the inside, though of slight pretensions outside. The room—a long hall — that Mad. de Stael used for private theatricals was fitted up by Auguste for a library, in which he placed the books both of his mother and his grandfather, and at one end of it a fine statue of