"BALTIMORE, 1849.... No one expects me to be grateful for the evil chance of having been born here. Society and conversation belong to older countries: you ought to thank your stars for your European birth.... France, _je l'espere_, is in a transition state, and will not let her brilliancy be put under an extinguisher called _la Republique_. The emperor hurled me back on what I most hated on earth, my Baltimore obscurity: even that shock could not destroy the admiration I felt for his genius and glory. I have ever been an imperial Bonapartist _quand meme_, and am enchanted at the homage paid by six millions of voices to his memory in voting an imperial President: the prestige of the name has elected a prince who has my most ardent wishes for an empire. Dear Lady Morgan, having been cheated out of my inheritance from my late rich and unjust father, I have only ten thousand dollars annually. You speak of my 'princely' income. I have all my life been tortured and mortified by pecuniary difficulties: but for my industry, energy and determination to conquer a decent sufficiency to live on in Europe, I might have remained as poor as you first saw me.... Lamartine and Chateaubriand are giving their memoirs to the public: the first _de son vivant_. When I knew Lamartine he was charge d'affaires from Charles X. Florence was then a charming place. I met him every night in society. How little did I foresee that he was to become a poetical republican, and that dear Florence was to be travestied in a republic! Hoping that England may remain steady and faithful to monarchical principles, that at least some refined society may be left in the world, I shall, _Dieu permettant_, have the satisfaction of seeing you next summer." Neither the climate nor "the freezing social _convenance_" of England pleased Mme. Bonaparte, though she was received with distinction. "Abroad, these fair insulars _occasionally_ unbend and are charming" she says, "but at all times I have found Englishmen of birth the best bred and most agreeable men in the world."