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au service de France, depuis leur organisation en 1691, Par M. de la Ponce," as prepared for publication. We requested, in consequence, a friend to watch its earliest appearance, and to forward us a copy. With this view the author was written to; but his reply, in our possession, states that seeing no prospect of a sale, or subscriptions likely to meet the cost of publication, he had relinquished the intention, which is to be regretted, as the most extensive and authentic information could certainly be obtained through the French archives. In the advertisement, it is stated that, at the close of the seventeenth century, nearly two hundred Irish families, the élite of that ancient race, took refuge in France, and settled there, in alliance with French families; but their precipitate departure from home, and the revolution of 1789, caused the loss of their papers. However, from the subsisting documents, the work will extend to a large quarto volume, divided into four parts. 1° A résumé of ancient Irish history to the seventeenth century. 2° A rapid sketch of the causes of the first emigration of the Irish noblesse, and organisation of the Brigade, with lists of colonels, &c. 3° Their glorious deeds. 4° The alphabetical arrangement of one hundred and thirty-two families of Milesian, and fifty-two of Anglo-Irish families, who have furnished officers, of all degrees, to the French armies, with their emblasoned coats of arms, their respective genealogies, original property, and explanation of the mottos, &c.

Had this prospectus been adequately completed, the work would, doubtless, be highly interesting; but we know not how far the writer may be equal to the task. The materials collected by him, he says, are

If so

large in number and valuable in substance. proved on investigation, some patriotic Irishman possessing the means, will, we hope, purchase them. Meanwhile, the abandonment of the contemplated work has been a great disappointment to us. We might possibly discover, and thence correct some unsuspected errors, as well as derive from it facts and views calculated to impart to this article a more finished form.

Well and proudly may we, in termination, apply to the valiant, but expatriated sons of Ireland, who constituted the collective body of the foreign brigade, the noble lines of Byron

66

Star of the brave! whose beams hath shed,
Such glory o'er the quick and dead."

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF O'CONNELL.*

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CORK MAGAZINE.

Cork, September 1848.

As the great name of O'Connell confers importance on every word or act emanating from, or attributed to him, I shall, I trust, be allowed to present to your readers the following observations suggested by a cursory view of Mr. O'Neill Daunt's "Personal Recollections" of that illustrious Irishman. Where, however, I feel bound to indicate an inaccuracy, I must add, that my experience of Mr. O'Connell's powers of memory and faithfulness of narration, which I have had frequent occasions to admire, compels me rather to ascribe the occurring inadvertences to Mr. Daunt's imperfect remembrance of what he does not appear to have taken immediate note, than to O'Connell's erroneous recital of the circumstances. Such, at least, in many instances, will, I apprehend, be found the case. Personal anecdotes of eminent men are the just and natural objects of attraction; and never more so than

Some necessary retrenchments in this article, as it appeared in the Magazine, have been replaced by equivalent additions.

when offered to us as the individual's unpremeditated expression of his pregnant mind on any arising event; and it would be difficult indeed to exhibit the subject of a narrative, in more perfect undress, more free from all pretension or effort of display, than we here behold this distinguished personage. Numerous, consequently, have been the extracts from the popular work, distributed through various channels; but, as fiction is not the author's aim, his statements can only possess value in proportion to their truth; and several certainly demand correction, as the ensuing pages will, I think, demonstrate.

Passing over a few trivial grounds of animadversion, I find in chapter the tenth, of the first volume, these words

"We spoke of the ancient noblesse of France, and the peers of Napoleon's creation, whose honors were confirmed by Louis XVIII.—If Louis had not confirmed them, he could not have kept his throne one hour," &c.

But Napoleon, though lavish of titles to his marshals and favorites, civil as well as military, never created a Peer; nor did his conferred titles give or imply legislative power. A senate, indeed, existed, or a house of elders, in name rather than independent authority, without, likewise, any necessarily attendant title of nobility-simple, and otherwise undignified citizens like those of the United States; consequently quite distinct, in attributes and character, from the House or Chamber of Peers instituted by the restored monarch, who formed it much after the model of the English House of Lords. In 1843, when the British Association assembled in Cork, Professor Robinson

committed a similar mistake, in affirming that Napoleon had made the Astronomer Lalande a peer; but the error was quickly disproved by me, in the Literary Gazette of 23rd September, 1843. In 1830, the peerage was limited to the individual's life, and was wholly suppressed last February. The first title of Napoleon's nobility, as I have elsewhere observed, was that of the Duke of Dantzic, conferred on Marshal Lefebvre, the 28th of May, 1807, after the capitulation of that long besieged city; and most numerous were the subsequent similar marks of distinction bestowed during the war, wholly separate, however, from any legislative function. But the sole title of French origin in this multitude was that of Valmy, borne by Kellerman, to whom, though under the command of Dumouriez, the victory of that field, (20th September 1792,) was principally due, the first of the series that subsequently signalised the revolutionary arms. His grandson, however, is now a legitimist, or zealous partisan of the elder Bourbons. Every other titular illustration founded on foreign conquest, thence derived its designation, like our titles of St. Vincent and Mahon; but all were recognised by the restored dynasty, though strongly remonstrated against by the sovereigns of the re-conquered territories, as trespassing on their special prerogatives.

On the restoration of the military degree of Marshal by Bonaparte, in May, 1804, although the ancient number was confined to twelve, eighteen of his most distinguished generals were simultaneously promoted, who, nearly all of plebeian birth, still assumed, in their progressive advance, the spirit, the suited bearing, and conscious dignity of their elevation. Not so

VOL. II.

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