From the French recent papers we learn that Arthur O'Connor, one of the prominent actors in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, has just closed his prolonged life at his residence, the Château de Bignon, near Nemours (Seine et Marne) in France. When, in 1834, by permission of the government of Lord Grey, he and his accomplished wife were in this city (Cork), with the view of disposing of his inherited and not confiscated property, in order to invest the produce in France, I was almost in daily intercourse with them; and, from my recollection of the lady's father, the Marquis de Condorcet, a distinguished mathematician, but better known as the biographer and ardent propagator of Voltaire's infidel principles, as well as the zealous partisan of the Revolution, though finally its victim, I was always a welcome visitor. O'Connor, whom Bonaparte had raised to the rank of General of Division, equivalent to that of General in full in our service, being next to the degree of Marshal, told me that the disunion and personal altercations of the Irish Legion engaged in the service of the then republican France had deservedly and utterly estranged and disgusted the French successive rulers, particularly Napoleon, in whose triumphs they consequently were not allowed to participate as a national body. The rancorous duel between two officers, McSweeny and Corbet, both from Cork, had made a deep impression on the great soldier, and the Legion was disbanded. Having inquired from O'Connor whether he did not intend to publish the events of his variegated life, he told me that he was preparing the narrative; but, on mentioning to his wife that he had made this acknowledgment, she immediately called on me with an earnest request that I would dissuade him from doing so. She did not explain her motive, and I only promised to avoid the future renewal of the subject in our conversations. As yet, whatever preparations he may have made, the press has not been resorted to; though, if in existence, as may be presumed, the work, or its materials, will not, most probably, be suffered to remain in closed and mysterious secrecy. The Memoirs, for so he entitled it, cannot fail to be most interesting; for he was a man of truth, and incapable of misrepresentation, though, of course, liable to misconception, in his recital of events; nor can it be denied, that a history, in any degree worthy of the theme--that is, of the Irish Rebellion, is still unpublished.[1] Whatever objection may have prevented the publication during his life, none, I should suppose and hope, can now be urged after his death, which, singularly enough, in an article devoted to him in the _Biographie Universelle_, I find as having occurred so long since as 1830. His son, too, is there represented as the husband of his own mother! the writer, with other confusions of facts, having mistaken Arthur for his elder brother, Roger O'Connor, father of the present eccentric Feargus, M.P.