I have before me a letter from a French liberalist, of high character and attainments, now a resident of the United States, who has himself had the advantage of a personal intercourse with M. Laboulaye, in which he says : “For the last two years scarcely has he, in his chaire de legislation cornparee, given one. of his eloquent lectures without introducing; the United States —their greatness, their constitution, their trials, and their destinies. It is by thus particularizing his teachings that he has aroused for America a universal interest, for no week passes that the learned professor has not around his desk representatives from all the nations of Europe. Even ladies of all ranks and countries—English,. Russians, Germans and Spaniards— I ■ . seated there, side by side with the students of the. Quartier Latin, listen to and applaud his eloquent and earnest advocacy of American nationality and free institutions.” M. Laboulaye himself relates the incident by which his thoughts and sympathies were first turned towards the people and the institutions of the United States. Everybody who has been in Paris will remember the long rows of wooden trays, filled with the strangest jumble of old books, that stretch along the river edge of the Quai Voltaire, and the other contiguous quais on that side of the Seine. One may find there books in all the languages of the world, and sometimes stray copies- cf very rare works. Well, one day, now several years ago, M. Laboulaye amused himself with rummaging amongst the old books exposed for sale on the Quai Voltaire. His eye caught the title of a book in English ; he took it up, opened it, read a few moments, demanded its price, paid it, some few sous, and with-his eyes still fixed qpon its open pages, resumed his walk towards the Champs Elysee. Arrived there, he seated himself upon one of the numerous chairs always ready to be hired, and continued to read on until the last page of his new acquisition was finished ; and then, instead of returning home,
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