L E T T E R S

299Letter Nr. 40Paris, May 20, 1836Caesar Plater[To Minister of the Interior]Count Plater has the honor of presenting to the Count of Montalivet,Minister of the Interior, the following note on the subject of the Poles living incommon in Paris at 11 Notre Dame des Champs Street.Two kinds of motives concern the Minister of the Interior. I knowpersonally the people who live in the house as well as their dispositions andtheir lives and I see there the nucleus of a real moral reform in the bosom ofthe Polish Emigration, an enterprise undertaken conscientiously and withintentions which deserve the protection and encouragement of every goodman. I have the conviction that the members of this house as political refugesconceive their duties to the government which accords them such benevolentprotection and the conduct they have decided on in this respect, all this by theinfluence which the example of these men would have on the entireEmigration could hace consequences of this highest importance to stamp outthe disordes and irregularities which until now were a chief and almost generalfactor in the relations of the Polish refugees and the French government. Inthese two respects the house in question is quite exceptional in all that hasbeen undertaken up to now in the Polish Emigration.(MSS 8590 pp. 1074, 1075, 1076, 1077, CRR)