April 25. I dined yesterday with my daughters, at the Palais de l'Elysée Bourbon. The dinner was not a large one. The Diplomatic Corps were not there. Some of the President's friends and portions of his household formed the company. Colonel Edgar Ney, the name on which Marshal Ney has shed such high military renown; General Fabvier, and that devoted friend of the President throughout his adversity at Ham and elsewhere, Doctor Conneau,these were present; with some of his own family, and others belonging to his establishment.

In receiving his guests, the Prince President gave his hand to all. The topics were familiar. He was courteously attentive to his company, and all the appearances of the dinner were in unison with the palatial establishment. The servants, as they moved about the table in the old green livery, seemed to call up the shade of Napoleon, whose sword won the palace we were in; whose saloons, brilliant at one period under the glare cast upon everything by his conquests, beheld also the handwriting on their walls.

June 8. We are at the Swedish Minister's tonight, invited with the Diplomatic Corps and others, to hear Jenny Lind sing. We understood she had declined singing on the stage in Paris, or elsewhere, publicly; but the Minister of her country, and his amiable consort, the Countess de Lowenhielm, in

duced her to come to their domicil and sing for the gratification of themselves and their friends invited to hear her. It was a treat to listen to this highlygifted songstress under such circumstances.

June 16. An Insurrection has been attempted this week. The immediate cause of it was an alleged violation of the Constitution, in sending a French Army to Rome to put down the cause of Italian liberty. Hatred of democracy, say the Mountain party, which the Government scarcely conceals on the banks of the Seine, breaks out openly on the banks of the Tiber. The Government reply that the portion of the French Army at Rome under General Oudinot was sent there to protect Italian liberty against its enemies the ultras. Here is presented a disputed point. General Cavaignac, an avowed and uniform Republican, but reflecting and prudent withal, had himself sent troops to Rome, when Executive head of the Government, with the same object. The Mountain party raised an issue on this point, and preferred charges of impeachment in the Assembly against the Ministers, quoting the articles of the Constitution asserted to have been violated. The Ministers were sustained by a large vote, their majority being 350. The vote of the Mountain party was 195. Encouraged rather than daunted, the party asserted more strenuously that the Constitution was broken,

and, by various signs and manifestoes, announced their intention of appealing to a battle in the streets against the Government. They raised imperfect barricades, and took steps for constructing more. They also met at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, to deliberate on further measures of resistance.

The President and his Ministers were awake to their proceedings. Immediately Paris was put in a state of siege-and, as it so turned out, by about the same majority in the Assembly which had rejected the charges of impeachment against the Ministers. The military power of the Government was drawn upon, and so energetically used by General Changarnier, now commander of the troops and National Guards of Paris, that the barricades were destroyed, the meeting at the "Conservatoire" broken up, and a "demonstration" of twenty thousand people, collected and moving in column in the region of the Church of the Madeleine, effectually dispersed by a few battalions of the troops and cavalry, without a battle, and with little or no bloodshed. Entire quiet was restored in a few hours.

By this prompt success, and his own proclamation to the people on the occasion, the Prince President appears to have gained with the conservative Republicans, in and out of the Assembly. General Cavaignac voted with them, and spoke briefly and

well. So did Thiers; and the National Guard also went with the Government. The feeling appears to be general in society that, whatever the merits of the question on this Italian policy pursued by the Government, a resort to force by the defeated party in the Chamber was, under all circumstances, wholly unjustifiable.

September 7. Returned last night, with my daughters, from a visit of three days to our friends the Lafayettes, at La Grange, department of Seineand-Marne.

We

While away, we were at Fontainbleau. visited its Palace, saw all its curiosities, and the gardens. We also walked through parts of the forest close by, so well known to Royalty in French history. In seeking out some of the majestic old oaks and other curiosities of the forest, we might have been lost among its intersecting roads and paths, but for a peasant guide we had, who also piloted us to a limpid rivulet among rocks, where we were refreshed with cool water from a shaded spring.

Nothing could exceed the friendliness of our welcome at La Grange. The very name of that place is dear to Americans. We associate it with Mount Vernon, the home of Washington; to whom General Lafayette seemed as a son; his youthful

and chivalrous sword having first been drawn in our Revolutionary War under the auspices of our great chief. The present head of the family is Mr. George Lafayette, only son of the General, whose name has been more than once mentioned in these notes, and always in the affectionate spirit I ever desire to cherish towards himself and that family. His consort, the venerated Madame Lafayette, still lives as the mistress at La Grange. The sons and daughters and daughter-in-law under the roof, while we were there, give to the guests of that revered home the beau ideal of ancient gentry in retirement, dispensing hospitality in ways as cordial as refined. The building is of the fifteenth century, castellated in appearance, standing amidst the shade of old trees, and with ivy on its walls. Their carriage was in waiting for us at the last station; and when we arrived at the house, in the evening of a fine autumnal day, the head of the family, and other members of it, were already at the portal, and received us, as we alighted, with a kindly warmth and grace we can never forget. The attentions we had during our whole stay were in harmony with our first reception; and we took our leave of their hospitable mansion and family circle never to think of our visit but with pleasurable and grateful recollections.