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[192] . . . I there met the Editor of the Journal des Debats, but as1 he could not speak English, nothing passed between us. I have also dined with Monsieur Tourgueneff, my Russian admirer,2 and a nobleman by nature as well as by station. . . . I have also had a very agreeable interview with the celebrated Professor Laboulaye, who strongly reminded me, in his sweet,3 gentle manners, and in the shape of his head, of the lamented Professor Follen. Even he is not allowed to address a class or4 assemblage of persons in more than two places in the whole city of Paris! Everything here is under governmental espionage and dictation, and therefore in a volcanic condition, although the volcano is capped for the present.

Mr. Garrison met still another eminent Frenchman:5

Two or three days ago, I wrote a letter to M. Cochin,6 expressive of my admiration of his character and works in relation to Slavery and the Results of Emancipation, and my desire to have an interview with him, if agreeable, before leaving Paris for London. He immediately wrote a very cordial note in reply, and then drove in his carriage a long distance to our hotel, and sent up his card, with the letter. As I happened to be all alone, . . . I could not read his letter, which was written in French; and as the servant who brought me the letter and card could not understand a word of English, I could not make any response; and so M. Cochin had to drive home without seeing me! He left an invitation to have me take breakfast with him the next morning, and Harry, at my request,7 went along with me to act as my interpreter. We were very heartily received; but though Cochin, I am assured, can speak very well in English, yet his diffidence was apparently so great about it that he chose to carry on the conversation wholly in French, talking with great fluency and animation, Harry interpreting what he said as he went along. We stopped only twenty or thirty minutes, declining to take the breakfast which we saw spread in another room, though he assured us that his wife (whom we did not see, as she probably expected to see me at breakfast) could speak English readily. Cochin is in the prime of life, has a fine countenance, and in his manners is a finished gentleman, as well as one of the most eminent men in France for his literary and scientific ability. His family descent is old and high.

This was only one of many experiences in which his ignorance of any language but his own was a sad drawback

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