[April 1834]

Ireland was still smoking with the embers of rebellion; and Lord Cornwallis, who had been sent expressly to extinguish it, and was said to have fulfilled his mission with energy and success, was then the Lieutenant, and was regarded at that moment with more interest than any other public man. The separate Irish Parliament was originally no badge of honour or independence: it began in motives of convenience, or perhaps necessity, at a period when the communication was difficult, slow, and interrupted. The French officers, with the detachment left under their orders by the Commander-in-chief, stayed about one month at Killala. This period allowed opportunities enough for observing individual differences of character, and the general tone of their manners. The officer left in command at Killala, when the presence of the Commander-in-chief was required elsewhere, bore the name of Charost. He was a lieutenant-colonel, aged forty-five years, the son of a Parisian watchmaker.