HÔTEL AND RUE DE LA PAIX, PARIS, Tuesday, August 17, 1858. MY DEAR SIR,--I have fresh occasion to be unhappy that I am still an invalid, because it prevents me from joining in the well-deserved honors which our countrymen here are about to offer you. As I would not be thought indifferent to the occasion, I seize the moment to express in this informal manner my humble gratitude for the great discovery with which your name will be forever associated. Through you Civilization has made one of her surest and grandest triumphs, beyond any ever won on a field of battle; nor do I go beyond the line of most cautious truth, when I add, that, if mankind had yet arrived at a just appreciation of its benefactors, it would welcome such a conqueror with more than a marshal’s baton. I write to you frankly, and with a still cordial memory of that distant day, when, in the company of a friend who is no longer on earth, I first had the happiness of taking you by the hand. Believe me, my dear Sir, with much regard, Ever sincerely yours, CHARLES SUMNER. PROFESSOR MORSE. LONGING FOR DUTIES OF POSITION. FROM A LETTER TO A FRIEND, DATED AT AIX, SAVOY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1858. This extract is taken from the public papers of the time. AIX, SAVOY, September 11, 1858. … Look at the map of Europe, and you will find, nestling in the mountains of Savoy, between Switzerland and France, the little village of Aix, generally known as Aix-les-Bains, from the baths which give it fame. There I am now. The country about is most beautiful, the people simple and kind. My life is devoted to health. I wish that I could say that I am not still an invalid; yet, except when attacked by the pain on my chest, I am now comfortable, and enjoy my baths, my walks, and the repose and incognito which I find here. I begin the day with _douches_, hot and cold,--and when thoroughly exhausted, am wrapped in sheet and blanket, and conveyed to my hotel, and laid on my bed. After my walk, I find myself obliged again to take to my bed for two hours before dinner. But this whole treatment is in pleasant contrast with the protracted suffering from fire which made the summer a torment. And yet I fear that I must return to that treatment. It is with a pang unspeakable that I find myself thus arrested in the labors of life and in the duties of my position. This is harder to bear than the fire. I do not hear of friends engaged in active service--like Trumbull in Illinois--without a feeling of envy. … CHARLES SUMNER. INDEPENDENCE AND UNITY OF ITALY. LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING AT NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 17, 1860.