Mindful of France's welfare, without occupying myself further with myself or my friends, I at that period submitted the following note to Monsieur: "If the King did me the honour to consult me, this is what I should propose for the good of his service and the repose of France. "The Left Centre of the Elective Chamber is gratified at the nomination of M. Royer-Collard[153]: still, I should think peace more assured, if they brought into the Council a man of merit taken from that side and chosen from among the members of the Chamber of Peers or the Chamber of Deputies. "To place in addition in the Council a deputy from the side of the Independent Right. "To complete the distribution of offices in that spirit. "As to things: "To bring forward at a suitable time a complete law on the liberty of the press, said law to abolish constructional prosecutions and the optional censorship; to prepare a communal law; to complete the Septennial Act, carrying the eligible age to thirty years; in one word, to proceed, Charter in hand, courageously to defend religion against impiety, but at the same time to protect it against fanaticism and the indiscretions of a zeal that do it great harm. "As to foreign affairs, three things must guide the King's ministers: the honour, the independence and the interest of France. "New France is wholly Royalist; she may become wholly Revolutionary: let them follow the institutions, and I would answer with my head for a future of many centuries; let them violate or molest those institutions, and I would not answer for a future of a few months. "I and my friends are ready to support with all our strength an administration formed on the bases as suggested above. "CHATEAUBRIAND." A voice in which the woman prevailed over the princess came to give consolation to what was only the affliction of a life incessantly varying. The handwriting of H.R.H. the Duchess of Cumberland was so greatly altered that I had some difficulty in recognising it. The letter bore the date of the 28th of September 1821: it is the last which I received from that royal hand[154]. Alas, the other noble friends who at that time supported me in Paris have quitted this earth! Shall I, then, remain with such stubbornness here below that none of the persons to whom I have attached myself can survive me? Happy they on whom age has the effect of wine and who lose their memory when they have had their fill of days!