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238 "testimonial" to buy you an estate in Virginia. "Brave" can be, under Nannie's husband's guidance, your farmer. He is young and intelligent, and has not suffered during the war like Dick, and consequently he has not so great a hatred in his blood. You and Madame Maury, with your little darlings and Dick, can stay here till the time comes that you can go back in safety, enjoying no public, but a farmer's life, in ease and comfort, giving the world the benefit of your genius. A man of sixty years of age does not commence a new life, and can do no good in a new sphere of action. God grant my prayer that you may soon be back in good health among your friends in Europe!

Your friend,

The heroic General Lee held the same views as Commodore Jansen. He wrote the following letter to Maury on the subject of the colonization of the empire of Mexico by planters of the South:—

. . . . We have certainly not found our form of government all that was anticipated by its original founders; but this may be partly our fault in expecting too much, and partly due to the absence of virtue in the people. As long as virtue was dominant in the Republic, so long was the happiness of the people secure. I cannot, however, despair of it yet; I look forward to better days, and trust that time and experience—the great teachers of men under the guidance of our ever-merciful God—may save us from destruction, and restore to us the bright hopes and prospects of the past. The thought of abandoning the country, and all that must be left in it, is abhorrent to my feelings, and I prefer to struggle for its restoration, and share its fate, rather than to give up all as lost. I have a great admiration for Mexico: the salubrity of its climates, the fertility of its soil, and the magnificence of its scenery, possess for me great charms; but I still look with delight upon the mountains of my native State. To remove our people to a portion of Mexico which would be favourable