You know, I suppose, that O'Connor is a general of division, and a
commander of the Legion of Honour,--the bosom friend of Talleyrand, and
courting, at this moment, a young lady, a relation of our Empress, whose
portion may one day be an Empire. But I am told that, notwithstanding
Talleyrand's recommendations, and the approbation of Her Majesty, the
lady prefers a colonel, her own countryman, to the Irish general. Should,
however, our Emperor announce his determination, she would be obliged to
marry as he commands, were he even to give her his groom, or his horse,
for a spouse.

You can form no idea how wretched and despised all the Irish rebels are
here. O'Connor alone is an exception; and this he owes to Talleyrand, to
General Valence, and to Madame de Genlis; but even he is looked on with a
sneer, and, if he ever was respected in England, must endure with
poignancy the contempt to which he is frequently exposed in France. When
I was in your country I often heard it said that the Irish were generally
considered as a debased and perfidious people, extremely addicted to
profligacy and drunkenness, and, when once drunk, more cruelly ferocious
than even our Jacobins. I thought it then, and I still believe it, a
national prejudice, because I am convinced that the vices or virtues of
all civilized nations are relatively the same; but those Irish rebels we
have seen here, and who must be, like our Jacobins, the very dregs of
their country, have conducted themselves so as to inspire not only
mistrust but abhorrence. It is also an undeniable truth that they were
greatly disappointed by our former and present Government. They expected
to enjoy liberty and equality, and a pension for their treachery; but our
police commissaries caught them at their landing, our gendarmes escorted
them as criminals to their place of destination, and there they received
just enough to prevent them from starving. If they complained they were
put in irons, and if they attempted to escape they were sent to the
galleys as malefactors or shot as spies. Despair, therefore, no doubt
induced many to perpetrate acts of which they were accused, and to rob,
swindle, and murder, because they were punished as thieves and assassins.
But, some of them, who have been treated in the most friendly,
hospitable, and generous manner in this capital, have proved themselves
ungrateful, as well as infamous. A lady of my acquaintance, of a once
large fortune, had