of the Duke of York’s expedition was liable to cause—­in France it would have destroyed the Government. (This is an opinion rather tinged by the Revolution, but it is true that our House of Commons looks to final results.) They were strong, he said, by “les souvenirs attachants a l’histoire”; that on the contrary he could make eighty senates in France as good as the present; that he had intended to create a nobility by marrying his generals, whom he accounted as quite insignificant, notwithstanding the titles he had given them, to the offspring of the old nobility of France.  He had reserved a fund from the contribution which he levied when he made treaties with Austria, Prussia, etc., in order to found these new families.  “Did you get anything from Russia?”

    N. No, I never asked anything from her but to shut her ports
    against England.

    He wished, he said, to favour the re-establishment of the old
    families, but every time he touched that chord an alarm was raised,
    and the people trembled as a horse does when he is checked.

He told the story of the poisoning, and said there was some truth in it—­he had wished to give opium to two soldiers who had got the plague and could not be carried away, rather than leave them to be murdered by the Turks, but the physician would not consent.  He said that after talking the subject over very often he had changed his mind on the morality of the measure.  He owned to shooting the Turks, and said they had broken their capitulation.  He found great fault with the French Admiral who fought the battle of the Nile, and pointed out what he ought to have done, but he found most fault with the Admiral who fought—­R.  Calder—­for not disabling his fleet, and said that if he could have got the Channel clear then, or at any other time, he would have invaded England.

He said the Emperor of Russia was clever and had “idees liberales,” but was a veritable Grec.  At Tilsit, the Emperor of Russia, King of Prussia, and N. used to dine together.  They separated early—­the King of Prussia went to bed, and the two Emperors met at each other’s quarters and talked, often on abstract subjects, till late in the night.  The King of Prussia a mere corporal, and the Emperor of Austria very prejudiced—­“d’ailleurs honnete homme.”

    Berthier quite a pen-and-ink man—­but “bon diable qui servit le
    premier, a me temoigner ses regrets, les larmes aux yeux.”

    Metternich a man of the world, “courtisan des femmes,” but too
    false to be a good statesman-"car en politique il ne faut pas etre
    trop menteur.”