A _little civility_ would have gone a great way with the French; if in your Speech on the 11th of August some regret had been expressed, it would have greatly modified the feelings of the French.

But Palmerston _likes to put his foot on their necks_! _Now, no statesman must triumph over an enemy that is not quite dead_, because people forget a real loss, a real misfortune, but they won't forget _an insult_.

Napoleon made great mistakes that way; he hated Prussia, insulted it on all occasions, but still _left it alive_.

The consequence was that in 1813 they rose to a man in Prussia, even children and women took arms, not only because they had been injured, but because they had been treated with _contempt_ and _insulted_.

I will here copy what the King wrote to me lately from Paris: "Vous ne vous faites pas d'idee a quel point l'approbation publique soutient les armements, c'est universel.