formed for furnishing specimens of the noblemen of _la Vieille Cour_
and the present time, than the Duc de Talleyrand and the Marquis de
Dreux-Brezé. The Duc, well-dressed and well-bred, but offering in his
toilette and in his manners irrefragable evidence that both have been
studied, and his conversation bearing that high polish and urbanity
which, if not always characteristics of talent, conceal the absence of
it, represents _l'ancien régime_, when _les grands seigneurs_ were more
desirous to serve _les belles dames_ than their country, and more
anxious to be distinguished in the _salons_ of the Faubourg St.-Germain
than in the _Chambre de Parlement_.

The Marquis de Dreux-Brezé, well-dressed and well-bred, too, appears
not to have studied either his toilette or his manners; and, though by
no means deficient in polite attention to women, seems to believe that
there are higher and more praiseworthy pursuits than that of thinking
only how to please them, and bestows more thought on the _Chambre des
Pairs_ than on the _salons à la mode_.

One is a passive and ornamental member of society, the other a useful
and active politician, I have remarked that the Frenchmen of high birth
of the present time all seem disposed to take pains in fitting
themselves for the duties of their station. They read much and with
profit, travel much more than formerly, and are free from the narrow
prejudices against other countries, which, while they prove not a man's
attachment to his own, offer one of the most insurmountable of all
barriers to that good understanding so necessary to be maintained
between nations.

Dined yesterday at St.-Cloud with the Baron and Baroness de Ruysch; a
very agreeable and intellectual pair, who have made a little paradise