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'My father could no longer consider Buonaparte as a great man, abiding by his principles, and content with the true glory of being the first citizen of a free people; but as one meditating usurpation, and on the point of overturning, for the selfish love of dominion, the liberty of France.

With this impression, my father declared that he would not go to the court of a usurper.

He never went to his levees, nor would he be presented to him.
'My father had not the presumption to imagine that in a cursory view, during a slight tour, and a residence of four or five months at Paris, he could become thoroughly acquainted with France.
Besides, his living chiefly with the select society which I have described precluded the possibility of seeing much of what were called les nouveaux riches.
'The few general observations he made on French society at this time I shall mention.

He observed that, among the families of the old nobility, domestic happiness and virtue had much increased since the Revolution, in consequence of the marriages which, after they lost their wealth and rank, had been formed, not according to the usual fashion of old French alliances, but from disinterested motives, from the perception of the real suitability of tempers and characters.