HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. HISTORICAL CHARACTERS: TALLEYKAND MACKINTOSH COSbETT CANNING ^ViJ BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR HENRY LYTTON BULWER, G.C.B. TjafWr.^ a-r.e private friends and adherents who took little part in public * " The ministers, the royalists of the Assembly, were all left in ignorance of the King's intentions, and exposed to great peril. Such was the situation, not only of the National Guards and their officers, but also of the most devoted of the King's friends, the Due de Brissac, commander of the Swiss Guards, and M. de Montmorin, who had unwittingly given a passport in the name of the Baroness de Korflf." 70 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. affairs. It is further to be presumed thaf^, according to his constant incertitude and indolence, never long or fiimly fixed on any one project, he was scared by appre- hensions of the mob at the moment when most disposed to remaia quietly in his palace, and alarmed at the risk and trouble of moving when actually pressing the prepa- rations for his journey. In this manner we may best reconcile his writing to M. de Bouille, to expect him at Montmedy within a week of his declaring to the sovereigns of Europe (23rd April) that he was satisfied with his condition at Paris : in this manner, likewise, we may explain his solemnly assuring the general of the National Guard that he would not quit the Tuileries, only two or three days before he actually did so * He rarely did what he intended to do ; and belied him- self more frequently from change of intentions, than from intentional insincerity. YIIT. At all events, it seems probable (returning to the fact with, which we are in the present instance most con- cerned) that Louis XYI.'s departure took place without M. de Talleyrand's active assistance, but I do not think it probable that it was altogether without his know- ledge. The ex-Bishop had such a varied and extensive ac- quaintance that he was pretty certain to know what he wished to know ; and it was according to his usual prac- tice to contrive that he should not be compromised if the King's projects failed, and yet that he should be in a situation to show that the King was indebted to him if those projects succeeded. It is useless to speculate on what might have occurred had the unfortunate monarch reached his destination : for travelling in a carriage pecu- liarly heavy and peculiarly conspicuous at the rate of three miles an hour, walking up the hills, putting his * "Ce prince (Louis XVI.) dont on. ne pent trop deplorer le manque de bonne foi dans cette occasion, lui donna les assurances si positives, si solennelles, qu'il crut pouvoir repondre sur sa tete que le roi ne partirait pas." — Memoires de Lafayette. TALLETBAND. I head out of the windows at the post-houses, Louis XVI. arrived at the place where he was to have met his escort twenty hours later than the appointed time, and was finally stopped at the hridge of Varennes hy a few resolute men, and reconducted leisurely to the capital, amidst the insults of the provinces and the silence of Paris. The important question then arose. What was to be done respecting him ? Was he to be deposed in favour of a republic ? All contemporary writers agree that, at this moment, the idea of a republic was only in a few visionary minds. Was he to be deposed in favour of a new monarch, which, considering the emigration of his brothers and the infancy of his child, could only be in favour of a new dynasty ? or, was he to be reinstated in the position he had quitted ? IX. The views and conduct of M. de Talleyrand are at this crisis interesting. We have been told by contemporaries, that he and Sieyes were of opinion that there was a better chance of making the Eevolution successful with a limited monarchy under a new chief, elected by the nation, than under the old one, who claimed his throne in virtue of hereditary right ; and we can easily understand their reasoning. A king who had succeeded to a throne from which his ancestors had been accustomed for centuries to dictate absolutely to their people, could hardly be sincerely satis- fied wdth possessing on sufferance a remnant of his ances- tors' former authority ; nor could a people be ever wholly without suspicion of a prince who had to forget the ideas with which he had received the sceptre before he could respect those which restricted the use of it. Louis XYL, moreover, had attempted to escape from his palace, as a prisoner escaping from his gaol, and as a prisoner thus escaping he had been caught and brought back to his place of confinement. It was difficult to make anything of a sovereign in this condition save a puppet, to be for a while the tool, and ere long the victim, of contending parties. 72 BISTOmCAL CHARACTERS. Now, M. de Talleyrand had always a leaning to the Orleans branch of the House of Bourbon : neither did he think so ill of the notorious personage who was then the representative of the Orleans family, as the contemporaries from whose report posterity has traced his portrait. Of this prince he once said, in his own pithy manner, " Le due d'Orleans est le vase dans lequel on a jete toutes les ordures de la Kevolution ;"* and this was not untrue. Philippe d'Orleans, indeed, who has figured in history under the nickname or sobriquet of " Egalite," was neither fitted for the part of a great sovereign in turbulent times nor for that of a quiet and obscure citizen at any more tranquil period. Nevertheless, he was not so bad a man as he has been represented; for both Legitimists and Kepublicans have been obKged to blacken his character in order to excuse their conduct to him. His character has, furthermore, been mystified and ex- aggerated, as we have looked at it by the lurid glare of that unnatural vote which brings the later period of his life always prominently and horribly before iis. Still, in reality, he was rather a weak man, led into villainous deeds by want of principle, than a man of a strong and villainous nature, who did not scruple at crimes when they seemed likely to advance his ambition. His only one strong passion was a desire to be talked about. It is possible that the King, by skilful management, might have turned this ruling wish of his most powerful subject to the profit of his monarchy : for the young Due de Chartres was at one time anxious to shine as an aspirant to military fame. The government, however, denied his request to be employed as became his rank ; and when, despite of this denial, he engaged in a naval combat as a volunteer, the court unjustly and impoHticly spread reports against his courage. To risk his hfe in a balloon, to run riot in every extravagance of debauch, to profess the opinions of a repubhcan though the first prince of the blood royal, were demonstrations of the same disposition which might have made him a gallant soldier, a furious * " The Due d'Orleans is the vase into which people have thrown all the filth of the Eevolution." TALLEYBAND. bigot, a zealous royalist, and even a very tolerable consti- tutional monarch. As to the yarious stories of his incessant schemes and complicated manoeuvres for exciting the populace, debauch- ing the soldiery, aDd seizing the crown, they are, in my opinion, no more worthy of credit than the tales which at the same period were equally circulated of Louis XYI.'s drunkenness, and Marie-Antoinette's debaucheries. Be- longing to those whom Tacitus has described as "men loving idleness — though hating quiet," seeking popularity more than power, and with a character easily modelled by circumstances, I am by no means certain, that if M. de Talleyrand did think of bestowing on him what was after- w^ards called a " citizen crown " (it must be remembered that he had not then been lowered and disgraced by the folhes or crimes into which he was subsequently led), the plan was not the best which could have been adopted. But there was one great and insurmountable obstacle to this design. General Lafayette commanded the National Guard of Paris, and although his popularity was already on the wane, he was still — Mirabeau being dead — the most powerful citizen that had been raised up by the Kevolu- tion. He did not want to run new risks, nor to acquire greater power, nor to have a monarch with more popu- larity or more authority than the runaway king. Courageous rather than audacious, more avid of popu- larity than of power, a chivalric knight-errant, an amiable enthusiast, rather than a great captain, or a practical politician, the part which suited him was that of parading himself before the people as the guardian of the constitu- tion, and before the sovereign as the idol of the nation. To this part he wished to confine himself; and the monarch under whom he could play it most easily was Louis XYI. Nor was this all. Ambitious men may agree as to sharing the attributes of office; vain men will not agree as to sharing the pleasure of applause : and it is said that Lafayette never forgot that there was another bust, that of the Due d'Orleans, carried about the streets of Paris together with 74 HISTORICAL CIIARAOTERS. his own, on tlie memorable day whicli saw the destruction of the Bastille. To any idea, therefore, of the Due d'Or- leans as King of France, he was decidedly opposed. X. Thus, after making just that sort of effort in favour of the younger branch of the Bourbons which left him free to support the elder one, if such effort proved abortive, M. de Talleyrand finally declared for Louis XYI., as the only person who could be monarch, if a monarchy could be preserved; and was also for giving this prince such a position as he might honourably accept, with functions that he might really fulfil. The King himself, it must be added, was now in a better disposition than he had hitherto been for frankly accepting the conditions of the new existence proposed to him. A hero, or rather a saint, when it was required of his fortitude to meet danger or to undergo suffering, his nature was one of those which shrink from exertion, and prefer endurance to a struggle for either victory or escape. It was with difiiculty that he had been so far roused into action as to attempt his recent expedition ; he had been disgusted with its trouble, more than awed by its peril. Death itself seemed preferable to another such effort. He had seen, likewise, from the feeling of the provinces, and even from the infidelity of the troops, who, sent to escort him, might have attempted his rescue ; but who, when told to cry, " Vive le Boi !" cried, " Vive la Nation /" that, even if he had reached M. de Bouille's camp, it would have been difficult for that general, notwithstanding his firmness of character and military ability, to have placed the sovereign of France in any position within the French territory from which he might have dictated to, or even treated with, the French people. To quit Paris, therefore, a second time was evidently to quit France and to unite himself with, and to be subordinate to, that party of emigres which had always preferred his younger brother, whose presumption had become insulting to his authority and offensive to Marie- Antoinette's pride. TALLETBAND. 75 On the other hand, many persons of note in the Assembly who had hitherto employed their talents and their popularity towards the weakening of the monarchical power, were at this juncture disposed to strengthen it. Amongst the commissioners sent to conduct Louis XYI. from Yarennes to Paris, was Barnave, an eloquent young la^-yer, who, from a desire to distinguish himself in a glorious rivalry with Mirabeau, had adopted that party in the Assembly which, whilst declaring itself against a republic, contended in all discussions, and especially in the famous discussion on the veto, for abridging and in fact annihilating the royal authority. Struck by the misfor- tunes of Marie-Antoinette, — beauty never appearing so attractive to a generous heart as in the hour of distress, — and convinced, perhaps, by his own personal observations that Louis XVL had in many respects been grossly calumniated, Barnave had at last adopted the views which had previously been formed by his great rival, whose ashes then slept in the Pantheon. The two Lameths also, officers of noble birth, possessing some talent and more spirit, perceiving that by the course they had hitherto pursued they had raised up at each step more formidable rivals amongst the lower classes of society than any they would otherwise have had to encounter amongst the leaders of the nobility or the favourites of the court, w^ere now as anxious to restrain the democracy which they hated, as Barnave was to assist the queen whom he loved ; whilst many of all ranks, conscientiously in favour of liberty, but as justly alarmed at anarchy, beginning to consider it more important to curb the license of the mob and the clubs than that of the King and the government, were for rallying round the tottering throne and trying to give it a tolerable foundation of security. xr. For these reasons, then, there was a combination of interests, desires, and abilities, in favour of establishing Louis XYL at the head of such a constitution, as, if not the best possible, would have been the best possible at that time ; and, every other rational project seeming out of the HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. question, M. de Talleyrand entered, as I have said, into this one, although with less faith in its practicability than some of his coadjutors. There were, however, at this moment circumstances which favoured it. An assemblage, collected together by the influence and exhortations of the most violent of the Jacobins for the purpose of signing a petition to the Assembly against the continuance of the monarchy, having given a sufficient pretext by its tumultuous character and excesses to justify the act, was dispersed by Lafayette at the head of the National Guard, and with the authority of Bailly, mayor of Paris ; — that is, with the force and au- thority of the whole mass of the bourgeoisie, or middle class. The Eepublicans were daunted. A revision of the con- stitution, moreover, was required ; for the desultory and inconsistent manner in which many of the measures of the Assembly had been voted, rendered it necessary to dis- tinguish between those which were temporary in their character and those that were to remain fundamental laws of the State. This revision offered the opportunity of intro- ducing changes of importance into the constitution itself, and amongst these a second chamber or senate. To this addition even Lafayette consented; although his opinion was that such second chamber should be elective, as in the United States (his constant model), and not hereditary as in England, which another section of public men — anxious to maintain an aristocracy as well as a monarchy — desired. The moderate party, still powerful in the departments, in Paris, and in the National Guard, as well as in the army, had not, nevertheless, by itself a majority in the Assembly ; and a mere majority could not have undertaken ; so great a plan as that contemplated. With the aid of the Koyalists, however, the execution of this plan was easy. But the Eoyalists, consisting of two hundred and ninety members, with the Abbe Maury at their head (Cazales, the other leader of the Koyalist party, at this time emigrated), retaining their seats in the Assembly, declined to take any part in its proceedings ; — and in this manner the only hope of safety for the King was destroyed TALLEYRAND. 11 by the very persons who arrogated to themselves the title of ''the King's friends;" nor was this course, though foolish and unpatriotic, altogether unnatural. What a party can least bear is the triumph of its oppo- nents : the consolidation of a constitutional government was the triumph of that party, which from the beginning of the Revolution had advocated such a government and declared it possible. The triumph of the opposite party, on the contrary, was, that there should be an absolute monarchy, or no monarchy ; a government of " lettres de cachet,'' or no government. This party had to prove that to diminish the sovereign's power was to conduct him to the scaffold ; that to give the people freedom was to over- throw society. Thus, if they did not hope for the worst, they would do nothing to secure the best that was practicable. It is conjunctures like these which confound the calculations of those who fancy that men will act according to their interests. Left to themselves, the Constitutionalists had not suffi- cient power to give battle to the democrats in the Assembly and the clubs out of it. They voted the King a body-guard and a privy purse — measures better calculated to excite the envy than to curb the license of the populace ; and then, betrayed by the same wish to show their dis- interestedness, which had made them parties, in November, 1789, to the stupid declaration that no member of the National Assembly should be the King's minister, they committed the still greater folly of declaring that no member of the National Assembly should sit in the next legislature, nor hold any office under the Crown during its continuance ; a decree decapitating France, and delivering an untried constitution into the hands of inexperienced legislators. This decree left the future too obscure for any man of calmness and judgment to flatter himself that there was more than a faint probability of fixing its destinies for some years to come ; but whatever these destinies might be, the reputation of the statesman whose views formed the mind of a rising generation, would survive the errors and passions of a past one. 78 EISTORIOAL CHARACTERS. It was witli this thought before him that M. de Talley- rand, just previous to the dissolution of the National Assembly, or, as it is sometimes called, TAssemhlee con- stituante, brought under its notice a vast project of education, then too late to be decided upon, but which, printed and recommended to the attention of the coming legislature, and having at one extremity the communal school and at the other the Institute, exists with but slight alterations at this very day. The Assembly now separated (on the 13th of September) amidst that usual exhibition of fireworks and fetes which mark the history of the animated and variable people, who, never contented and never despairing, exhibit the same joy when they crown their heroes or break their idols. Such was the end of that great Assembly which passed away rapidly from the face of affairs at the moment, but which left its foot-print on the world for generations that have not yet effaced it. In this Assembly, M. de Talleyrand was the most conspicuous figure after Mirabeau, as he was hereafter in the Empire the most conspicuous personage after Napoleon ; and I have dwelt more on this portion of his career than I may do upon others, because it is the one least known, and for which he has been least appreciated. The reputation, however, which he obtained and justly earned in those violent and turbulent times, was not of a violent or turbulent character. A member of the two famous clubs of the day (Jacobins and Feuillans), he frequented them occasionally, not to take part in their debates, but to be acquainted with and influence those who did. In the National Assembly he had always sided with the most moderate who could hope for power, and who did not abjure the Eevolution. Necker, Mounier, Mirabeau, had successively his support so long as they took an active part in public affairs. In the same manner he acted, when they disappeared, with Barnave and the two Lameths ; and even with Lafayette, though he and that personage disliked and despised each other. No personal feeling altered his course; it was TALLEYRAND. 79 never marked by personal prejudices, nor can I say that it was ever illumined by extraordinary eloquence. His influence arose from his proposing great and reasonable measures at appropriate times, in singularly clear and elegant language ; and this from the height of a great social position. He did not pretend to be guided by sentiment or emotion; neither hatred, nor devotion, nor apprehension, ever seemed to affect his conduct. He avowed that he wished for a constitutional monarchy, and was willing to do all he could to obtain one. But he never said he would sacrifice himself to this idea if it proved impossible to make it successful. Many have attacked his honour because, being a noble and a churchman, he sided against the two orders he belonged to ; but in reality he rather wished to make ancient things live amongst new ideas than to sweep ancient things away. Others have denied his sagacity in promoting a revolution which drove him from affluence and power into poverty and exile. But, in spite of what has been said to the contrary, I by no means beUeve that the end of the Eevolution of 1789 was the natural conse- quence of its commencement. The more we examine the history of that period, the more we are struck by the incessant and unaccountable follies of those who wished to arrest it. There was no want of occasions when the most ordinary courage and good sense on the part of the King and his friends would have given the one all the power it was advisable he should exercise, and preserved the other in as influential a position as was compatible with the abolition of intolerable abuses. No man can calculate with accuracy on all the faults that may be committed by his opponents. It is probable that M. de Talleyrand did not calculate on the utter subversion of the society he undertook to reform ; but it appears that at each crisis he foresaw the dangers that were approaching, and counselled the measures most likely to prevent their marring his country's prospects and his own fortunes. At the actual moment, he perceived that the new legislature would be a new world, which could neither have the same notions, nor belong to the same society, nor 80 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. be subject to the same influences, as the last ; and that the wisest thing to do was to withdraw himself from the Paris horizon until the clouds that obscured it had, in some direction or other, passed away. In England, he was sufficiently near not to be forgotten, and sufficiently distant not to be compromised. England, moreover, was the natural field of observation at that moment for a French statesman. To England, therefore, he went, accompanied by M. de Biron, and arrived in London on the 25th of January, 1792. ( 81 ) Part III. FROM CLOSE OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO CONSULATE. M. de Talleyrand in London. — Manner and appearance. — Witticisms. — Visit to England. — Lord Grenville refuses to discuss business with him. — Goes to Paris ; returns with letter from King. — State of art'aiis in France prevents success of any mission in England. — Arrives in Paris just prior to the 10th of August. — Escapes and returns to England, the 16th of September, 1792. — Writes to Lord Grenville, declaring he has no mission. — Sent away the 28th of January, 1794X-Goes to Apierica. — Waits until the death of Robespierre. — Gets then permission to return to France, — Cheuier declares that he was employed by Provi^onal Government in 1792, when he had told Lord Gren- ville he was not. — Successful reception. — Description of Directory and of society at that time. — Chosen Secretary of Institute, and read two remarkable memoirs to it. — Named Minister of Foreign Affaii-s. — Sides with Barras and Executive against the Assemblies. — Negotiations at Lille broken off. — Addre.>-s to diplomatic agents. — Peace of Campo Formio. — Bonaparte goes to Egypt. — Democrats triumph in the Directory. — M. de Talleyrand quits office, and publishes an answer to accusations made against him. — Paris tired with the Directory. — Bonaparte returns from Egypt. — Talleyrand unites with Sieyes to overturn the Government, and place power in Bonaparte's hands. When M. de Talleyrand made his first appearance in our country, many persons in it still continued favourable to the French devolution, and viewed with esteem those who had rather sought to destroy crying abuses than to put fantastical theories into practice. Thus, although naturally preceded by the calumnies which were certain to be circu- lated about a man who had played so remarkable a part on so eventful a scene as that which he had just quitted, the ex-Bishop of Autun was, on the whole, well received by a large portion of our aristocracy, and became particu- larly intimate at Lansdowne House. The father of the late marquis mentioned to me that he remembered him dining there frequently, and being particularly silent and 82 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. particularly pale. A contemporary, indeed, describes M. de Talleyrand at this time as aiming to impose on the world by an air of extreme reserve : — " His manner was cold, he spoke little, his countenance, which in early youth had been distinguished for its grace and delicacy, had become somewhat puffed and rounded, and to a certain degree effeminate, being in singular contrast with a deep and serious voice which no one expected to accompany such a physiognomy. Kather avoiding than making advances, neither indiscreet, nor gay, nor famihar, but sententious, formal, and scrutinizing, — the English hardly knew what to make of a Frenchman who so little represented the national character. " But this exterior was a mask, which he threw off in the circles in which he was at his ease, talking in these freely, taking the greatest pains to please, and being remarkable for the choice of his expressions and a certain epigrammatic wit, which had a singular charm for those who were accustomed to his society. His was the saying cited by Chamfort, a pro])os of Eulhieres,* who — on observing that he did not know why he was called ill- natured, for in all his life he had never done but one ill-natured action — was replied to by M. de Talleyrand's drily observing, ' M quand finira-t-elle f — * when will it end ?' " One evening, playing at long whist, the conversation turned on an old lady who had married her footman ; some people expressed their surprise, when M. de Talleyrand, counting his points, drawled out in a slow voice, ' At nine, one does not count honours' "Another time," says the person from whom I am quoting, " we were speaking of the infamy of a colleague, when I burst out by exclaiming, ' That man is capable of assassinating any one !' ' Assassinating, no F said M. de Talleyrand, coolly ; ' iwisoning, yes F "His manner of narrating was full of grace; he was a model of good taste in conversation. Indolent, voluptuous, * M. de Rulhibres, rancien secretaire du baron de Bretueil a St. P^tersboiiro;, le confident du marechal de Richelieu, le poete de la duchesse d'Egmont, narrateur fort rodoute de Catherine II., &c. &c. TALLEYRAND. 83 bom for wealth, and grandeur, he accustomed himself in exile to a life simple and full of privations, sharing with his friends the produce of his magnificent library, which he sold very ill, the spirit of party preventing many from be- coming purchasers." This description, from Dumont (pp. 361, 362), is interesting as a personal sketch at one of the most critical periods of M. de Talleyrand's life ; that is, at the commence- ment of his career as a diplomatist ; for the voyage to England which he was now making, first suggested to Louis XYI, by M. de Montmorin, and subsequently realized by the minister who succeeded him, was (though this could not be officially avowed on account of the self- denying ordinance of the National Assembly) of an official character; a fact suspected if not known at the time. Lord Gower, indeed (our ambassador at Paris), speaks of it in January as a mission of peace. Lord Grenville, in a communication to Lord Gower, in February, says M. de Talleyrand had brought him a letter from M. Delessart, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in March again he thus writes :* " I have seen Monsieur de Talleyrand twice since his arrival on the business of his mission to this country. " The first time he explained to me very much at large the disposition of the French government and nation to enter into the closest connection with Great Britain, and proposed that this should be done by a mutual guarantee, or in such other manner as the government of this country should propose. Having stated this, he earnestly requested that he might not receive any answer at the time, but that he might see me again for that purpose. I told him that, in compliance with his request, I would see him again for the object he wished, though I thought it fair to apprise him that, in all probability, my answer would be confined to the absolute impossibility of entering into any kind of discussion or negotiation on points of so delicate a nature with a person having no official authority to treat upon them. When I did see him again I repeated this to him, telling him it was the only answer I could give to any * March 9. Lord Greuville to Lord Gower. 84 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. proposal that lie might make to me, although I had no difficulty in saying to him individually, as I had to every Frenchman with whom I had conversed on the present state of France, that it was very far from being the dispo- sition of H. M. Government to foment or prolong any dis- turbance^ there with a view of any profit to be derived J from them to this country." ' The coyness of Lord Grenville to enter into political discussions at this moment with M. de Talleyrand might arise in some degree from the position of the French ministry, for though M. de Talleyrand had brought a letter, as has been said, from M. Delessart, who belonged to the more moderate section of the French ministry, his intimate friend in it was the Comte de Narbonne ; named, just previous to M. de Talleyrand's departure, minister of war, and who, being the youngest and most ardent member of the government, was all for an immediate war with Austria, as the only means of saving France from the internal agitation that was preying on her, and the only means of definitively separating the King from the French emigres and the court of Vienna, whose counsels rendered it impossible to count on his conduct. M. de Talleyrand shared these ideas. Narbonne's colleagues, however, soon began to think the young soldier's views, to which they had at one time half assented, were too adventurous ; and M. de Talleyrand's position becoming more and more difficult, was, after Lord Grenville's conversation in March, untenable. He returned, therefore, to Paris, and on arriving at its gates, learnt that M. de Narbonne was out of office. But the moderate Constitutionalists who thought of governing without M. de Narbonne had not been employed till their party had lost its influence, and were unable to stem the opposition to which the removal of their popular colleague had given a new impulse. They soon, therefore, gave way to the celebrated Gironde, a band which, though rigid in its own principles of conduct, was not indisposed to profit by the assistance of able men less scrupulous ; and General Dumouriez, a clever and bold adventurer, became minister of foreign afiairs. He had precisely the TALLEYRAND. 85 same views as Narbonne with respect to a war with Austria, and thought that it was of the utmost importance to make sure of the neutraHty of England. M. de Talleyrand had, as w^e learn from Lord Gower, the address to speak satisfactorily of the sentiments of the British Government after returning from his late expedi- tion, and to attribute whatever was unfriendly in its language to the irregularity of the character he had appeared in. He was again chosen, then, as the French negotiator ; and though, as in the former instance, he could not be named ambassador, everything that the law per- mitted was done to give weight to his character ; — Louis XYI. giving him a letter to George HI. expressive of his confidence in the bearer. In the meantime, M. de Chauvelin, a gentleman of fashion, professing popular principles, but who would never have been placed in so important a post had not M. de Talleyrand been his coun- sellor, was named minister plenipotentiary. M. Dumouriez announces this double appointment to Lord Grenville on the 21st of April, that is, the day after the declaration of war with Austria, saying — " That M. de Talleyrand, in his recent voyage to London, had stated to Lord Grenville the desire of the French government to contract the most intimate relations with Great Britain. That it \^as particularly desirable at that moment, when France was on the eve of a war that she had not been able to avoid, to assure herself of the friend- ship of that government which could most aid in bringing about a peace ; that for this object M. de Chauvelin had been named minister plenipotentiary, a gentleman chosen on account of the knowledge which his Majesty had of his person, sentiments, and talents ; and that to him had been adjoined, in consequence of the extreme importance of the negotiation, M. de Talleyrand (whose abilities were well known to Lord Grenville), and M. de Koveray,* formerly frocureur-general in Geneva — a gentleman known in Switzerland as well as in France ; and the King hoped that the efforts of three persons, understanding the situa- He acted as secretary to the mission. 86 HISTOJRIOAL CHARACTERS. tion of France, and enjoying great confidence with the French people, would not be without result." This letter was dated, as we have said, on the 21st April, but the embassy did not reach its destination till the month of May: M. de Chauvelin having been at first displeased with the adjunction of M. de Talleyrand, and not indisposed to prolong his dissatisfaction, had not the minister, fatigued with quarrels about trifles at so critical a moment, terminated them by saying, " M. de Talleyrand s'amuse, M. de Chauvelin fronde, M. de Koveray mar- chande :* if these gentlemen are not off by to-morrow night they will be superseded." The story (told by Dumont) is worth notice, as showing the careless indolence which the ci-devant bishop often affected in the affairs which he had most at heart — an indolence which he afterwards justified by the well-known maxim, '' Point de zele, Monsieur !"t n. It was not for want of zeal, however, that this second mission, notwithstanding the King's letter, was even more unsuccessful than the first; but for another very good reason : viz., that whatever MM. de Chauvelin or Talley- rand might say and do in London, the turn which affairs were taking more and more decidedly at Paris was such as could not but destroy the credit of any agent of the French government. The Legislative Assembly had been especially framed to place power in the hands of the middle classes, and was intended to be alike hostile to the nobles and the mob. But the middle class, the most weighty auxiliary that a government can have, is rarely found capable of directing a government. Vergniaud and Eoland, who were on this occasion its organs, lost week by week their prestige ; the rabble, which forced the palace on the 20th of June, began day by day to be more convinced of its power. What authority remained to the representative of a sove- * M. de Talleyrand amuses himself, M. de Chauvelin grumbles, and M. de Roveray bargains. t No zeal, sir. TALLEYRAND. reign whose habitation was not secure and whose person was insulted ? Amidst such events the Eevolution lost in England most of its early patrons. Fox, Sheridan, and a tew of their particular clique, formed the sole associates of the French embassy ; and Dumont, whom I again quote as a trustworthy witness, describes a scene at Fianelagh which testifies the general unpopularity in England of every Frenchman having an official position. " At our arrival we perceived a buzzing sound of voices saying, * Here comes the French embassy !' Eegards, evincing curiosity but not amity, were directed at once tow^ards our battalion, for we were eight or ten, and we soon ascertained that we should not want space for our promenade, every one retreated to the right and left at our approach, as if they were afraid that there was con- tagion in our very atmosphere." M. de Talleyrand, seeing that all attempt to negotiate under such circumstances was vain, returned to Paris just previous to the 10th August, and was there when the wavering and unfortunate Louis XYI. lost his crown by a combination between the Ghondins and the Jacobins : the first W'ishing to have the appearance of a victory, the latter aiming at the reahty. M. de Talleyrand had been the object of attack w^hen the united Eepublicans w^re muster- ing their forces for the combat, and he felt himself by no means secure after their triumph. The popular movement had now in truth swept over all the ideas and all the individuals it had commenced wath ; its next excesses were likely to be still more terrible than the last, and the wary diplomatist thought that the best thing he could do was to get back to England as soon as possible. III. He got his passport from Danton, then in the provisional government, and whom he knew as an early partisan of the Due d'Orleans ; and he used, when last in London, to tell a story as to the manner in which he obtained it by a timely smile at a joke, which the jocular and truculent tribune had just passed on another petitioner. But I HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. shall have presently to allude further to this passport. The bearer of it but just escaped in time. Among the papers found in the famous iron cupboard, discovered at the Tuileries, was the following letter from M. de Laporte, the intendant of the King's household, to whom I have already alluded as having communicated the wishes of the King as to M. de Talleyrand's first mission, and dated the 22nd of April, 1791 : "Sjre, "J'adresse a Yotre Majeste une lettre ecrite avant-hier, et queje n'ai repue qu'hier apres-midi; elle est de I'eveque d' Autun qui parait desirer servir Yotre Majeste. II m'a fait dire qu'elle pouvait faire I'essai de son zele, et de son credit, et lui designer les points ou elle desirait I'employer."* The original communication, however, here alluded to, was not discovered : and M. de Talleyrand himself boldly denied that it had ever been written. It is possible that he knew it was destroyed (it is said that he purchased it from Danton), but at all events, various concomitant cir- cumstances seemed to prove that he had been more in the interest and confidence of the Court than he could now safely avow ; and the Convention issuing and maintaining a decree of accusation against him, he was unable to return to France on the 8th April, 1793, which he ought to have done in order not to be comprised in the general list of emigres, and was thus forced to remain in England. The first thing he had done on arriving there was to address the following letter to Lord Grenville : — * " Sire, — I address to your Majesty a letter written the day before yesterday, and which I only received yesterday after mid-day. It is from the Bishop of Autim, who seems desirous to serve your Majesty. He had it conveyed to me that the King might make a trial of his zeal and influence, and indicate to him the points on which he could be employed." TALLEYRAND. 89 " 18th September, Kensington Square.* " My Lord, " I have tlie honour of informing you that I ar- rived in England two days ago. The relations which I had the advantage of having with you, during my stay in London, make this a duty to me. " I should reproach myself for not promptly performing it, and for not offering my first homage to the minister whose mind has shown itself on a level with the great events of the present times, and who has always manifested views so pure, and a love of liberty so enlightened. " On my first voyages, the King had intrusted me with a mission to which I attached the greatest value. I wished to hasten the moment of the prosperity of France, and consequently connect her, if possible, with England. " I hardly, indeed, dared to hope for such a blessing in our circumstances, but I could not resolve not to make exertions for attaining it. "The assurance you vouchsafed to give us of the neutrality of your government at the epoch of the war, appeared to me most auspicious. "Since that moment, everything has cruelly changed * " 18 septembre, Kensington Square. " My Lord, " J'ai I'honneur de vous informer que je suis arrive en Angle- terre il y a deux jours. Les rapports que j'ai eu Tavantage d'avoir avec vous pendant mon sejour k Londres m'en font un devoir. " Je me reprocherais de ne pas m'en acquitter promptement et de ne pas offrir mes premiers hommages an ministre dont I'esprit m*a paru au niveau des grands ^venements de cette dpoque, et qui a toujours manifeste des vues si pures, et un amour eclaire de la vraie liberte. " A mes premiers voyages j'etais charg^ par le roi d'une mission k laquelle j'attachais le plus grand prix. Je voulais hater le moment de la prosperite de la France, et par consequent I'attacher, s'il etait possible, a I'Angleterre. " J'osais a peine, il est vrai, esperer tant de bonheur dans nos cir- constances, mais je ne pouvais me resoudre a ne pas faire des efforts pour y parvenir. " L'assurance que vos daign^tes nous donner de la nentralit6 de votre gouvernement a I'^poque de la guerre me parut un presage trbs-heureux. " Depuis ce moment tout est cruellement change parmi nous, et 90 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. amongst us ; and althougli nothing can ever nnrivet my heart or my wishes from France, and though I Hve in the hope of returning thither as soon as the laws shall have resumed their reign, I must tell you, my Lord, and I am desirous that you should know, that I have at this time absolutely no kind of mission in England, that I have come here solely for the purpose of seeking repose, and the enjoyment of hberty in the midst of its true friends. " If, however, my Lord Grrenville should wish to know what France is at this moment, what are the different parties that disturb her, and what is the new provisional executive power, and lastly, what is permitted to conjecture of the terrible and frightful events of which I have ahnost been an eye-witness, 1 shall be happy to give such infor- mation, and to avail myself of the occasion to renew the expression of the respectful sentiments with which I am, my Lord, your most humble and obedient servant, " Talleyrand-P^rigord." There is no trace of Lord Grenville's having taken any notice of this communication. Nothing, however, was done for some time to disturb the fugitive's residence amongst us. M. de Chauvelin was sent away by the British govern- ment after the execution of Louis XYI. on the 24th of January, 1793, and it was not till the 28th of January, qnoique rien ne puisse jamais detacher mon coeur ni mes voeiix de la France, et que mon espoir soit d'y retonrner aussitdt que les lois y auront repris leur empire, je dois vous dire, mylurd, et je tiens beaucoup li ce que vous sachiez que je n'ai absolument aucune espece de mission en Angleterre, que j'y suis venu uniquement pour y cher- cher la paix et pour y jouir de la liberte au milieu de ses veritables amis. " Si pourtant mylord Grenville desirait connaitre ce que c'est que la France en ce moment, quels sont les differents partis qui I'agitent, et quel est le nouveau pouvoir executif provisoire, et enfin ce qu'il est permis de conjecturer des terribles et epouvantables dvenements dont j'ai ete presque le t^moin oculaire, je serais charme de le lui apprendre et de trouver cette occasion de lui renouveler I'assurance des sentiments de respect avec lesquels je suis, mylord, votre tres- humble, et tr^s-obdissant serviteur, " Talleyrand-Perigord." TALLEYBAND. 91 1794, that M. de Talleyrand received an order, under the powers conferred by the Alien Bill, to quit England. He wrote a letter, dated 30th, to Lord Grenville, in which he begs to be allowed to justify himself from any false accusation, declares that if his thoughts have been often turned to France, it has only been to deplore its disasters, repeats that he has no correspondence with the French government, represents the calamitous condition he should be reduced to if driven from our shores, and finally appeals to the British minister's humanity as well as justice. IV. M. DE Talleyrand's declaration.* " My respect for the King's Council, and my confidence in its justice, induce me to lay before it a personal declara- tion more detailed than that which, as a stranger, I am bound to lay before a magistrate. " I came to London towards the end of January, 1792, intrusted by the French government with a mission to the government of England. The object of this mission, at a moment when all Europe seemed to declare itself against France, w^as to induce the government of England not to renounce the sentiments of friendship and good neighbour- hood of which it had given constant proofs towards France during the course of the Kevolution. The King, especially, whose most ardent wishes were the preservation of a peace which seemed to him as useful to Europe in genei'al as to * " Declaration de Monsieur de Talleyrand, "Mon respect pour le conseil du roi, et ma confiance en sa justice m'engagent k lui presenter une declaration pereonnelle plus detaill6e que celle que je vois comme etranger presenter au magistrat. " Je suis venu k Londres vers la fins de Janvier 1792, charg6 par le gouvernement fran9ais d'une mission auprfes du gouvernement d'Angleterre. Cette mission avait pour objet, dans un moment o\i toute I'Europe ]:)araissait se declarer contre la France, d'eugager le gouvernement d'Angleterre de ne point renoucer aux sentiments d'amitie et de bon voisinage qu'il avait montre constamment en faveur de la France pendant le cours de la Revolution. Le roi surtout, dont le voeux le plus ardent etait le maintien d'une paix qui lui paraissait aussi utile a I'Europe en general qu'a la France en particulier, le roi attachait un grand prix k la neutralite et k I'amiti^ 92 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. France particularly, attached great value to the neutrality, and to the friendship of England, and he had ordered M. de Montmorin, who retained his confidence, and M. de Laporte, to acquaint me with his wishes on this suhject. I was, moreover, instructed by the King's ministers to make to the government of England proposals referring to the commercial interests of both nations. The constitution had not allowed the King, while honouring me with his commands, to invest me with a public capacity. This want of an official title was held by my Lord G-renville to be an obstacle to any political conference. I demanded, in consequence, my recall, and I returned to France. A minister plenipotentiary was sent some time after; tbe King commanded me to assist in the negotiations, and informed his BritRnnic Majesty of this by a private letter. I remained attached to the duty the King had imposed upon me until the epoch of the 10th of August, 1792. At that time I was in Paris, where I had been called by the minister of foreiiOfn affairs. After having been for more than a month without being able to obtain a passport, and having remained exposed during all this time, both as an administrator of the department of Paris, and as a member of the Constituent Assembly, to all the dangers de I'Angleterre, et il avait charge Monsieur de Montmorin qui con- servait sa confiance, et Monsieur de Laporte, deme t^moigner son desir k ce sujet. J'etais charge de plus par les ministres duroi de faire au gouvernement d'Angleterre des propositions relatives a I'interet commercial des deux nations. La constitution n'avait pas permis au roi en me chargeant de ses ordres, de me revetir d'un caract^re public. Ce de'faut de titre officiel me fnt oppos^ par mylord Grenville comme un obstacle k toute conference politique. Je demandai en consequence mon rappel a Monsieur de Laporte, et je retournai en France. Un ministre plenipotentiaire fut envoye quelque temps apres ; le roi me cliargea d'en seconder les travaux, et en fit part a S. M. Britannique par une lettre particuliere. Je suis reste attache au devoir que le roi m'avait impost jusqu'al'epoque du 10 aout, 1792. J'etais alors a Paris otl j'avais et^ appel^ par le ministre des affaires etrangeres. Apres avoir ^te plus d'un mois sans pouvoir obtenir de passeport et etre reste expose pendant tout ce temps, et comme administrateur du departement de Paris, et comme membre de I'Assembl^e Constituante a tons les dangers qui peuvent menacer la vie et la liberte, j'ai pu enfin sortir de Paris vers le milieu de septembre, et je suis venu en Angleterre jouir de la paix TALLETBANB. 93 which can threaten life and Hberty, I was at length able to leave the French capital about the middle of September, and I have reached England to enjoy peace and personal safety under the shelter of a constitution protecting liberty and property. There I have been living, as I always have done, a stranger to all discussions and all interests of party, and having nothing to fear before just men from the publicity of any of my political opinions, or from the knowledge of any of my actions. Besides the motives of safety and liberty which brought me back to England, there existed another reason, doubtless a very legitimate one, which was some personal business, and the early sale of a rather considerable library which I possessed in Paris, and which I had brought over to London. " I must add, that having become in some measure a stranger to France, where I have maintained no other relations than those connected with my personal affairs, and an ancient friendship, I cannot approach my own country save by those ardent wishes which I form for the revival of its liberty and of its happiness. "I thought that in circumstances where ill-will may avail itself of various prejudices in order to turn them to the profit of those enmities due to the first periods of our revolution, it was carrying out the views of the King's et de la surete personnelle a I'abri d'une constitution prot^ctrice de la liberte et de la propri6te. J'y existe, comme je I'ai toujours et6, etranger a toutes les discussions et a tous les inte'rets de parti ; et n'ayant pas plus a redouter devant les hommes justes la publicity d'une seule de mes opinions politiques que la connaissance d'une seule de mes actions. Outre les motifs de surety et de liberty qui m'ont ramene en Angleterre, il est une autre raison, tres-legitime sans doute, c'est la suite de quelques affaires personnelles et la vente prochaine d'une bibliotheque assez considerable que j'avais a Paris, et que j'ai transportee h. Loudres. ** Je dois ajoutir que devenu en quelque sorte etranger k la France, ou je n'ai conserve d'autres rapports que ceux de mes affaires person- nelles, et d'une ancienne amitie je ne puis me rapprocher de ma patrie que par les voeux ardents que je fais pour le r6tablissement de sa liberte et de son bonheur. " J'ai cru que dans des circonstances ou la malveillance pouvait se servir de quelques preventions pour les faire tourner au profit d'inimities dues aux premieres epoques de notre Revolution, c etait remplir les vues du conseil du roi que de lui offrir dans une declara- 94 HI8T0RIQAL CHARACTERS. Council, to offer it a precise exposition of the motives for my stay in England, and an assured and irrevocable guarantee of my respect for its constitution and its laws. " Talleyband. "January 1,1793." Y. Nothing can be more clear and precise than this declara- tion, but it was ineffectual, and its writer now sailed for the United States, carrying with him letters of recom- mendation from different members of the Opposition, and, amongst others, from the Marquis of Lansdowne, with whose intimacy, as I have said, he had been especially honoured. Washington replied : "30th August, 1794. " My Lord, *' I had the pleasure to receive the introduction from your Lordship delivered to me by M. de Talleyrand- Perigord. I regret very much that considerations of a political nature, and which you will easily understand, have not permitted me as yet to testify all the esteem I enter- tain for his personal character and your recommendation. " I hear that the general reception he has met with is such as to console him, as far as the state of our society will permit, for what he abandoned on quitting Europe. Time will naturally be favourable to him wherever he may be, and one must believe that it will elevate a man of his talents and merit above the transitory disadvantages which result from differences as to politics in revolutionary times. " Washington." VI. It will be seen from the foregoing communication that M. de Talleyrand was spoken of with some respect, and that his reception in the United States had been rather flattering than otherwise. But the French name generally tion precise un exposd des motifs de mon s6jour en Angleterre, et un garant assurd et irrevocable de mon respect pour la constitution et pour les lois. "ler Janvier, 1793." "Talleyrand. TALLEYRAND. 95 had lost its popularity ; for Lafayette was an exile in the prisons of Olmiitz, and the bloodthirsty violence of the Convention and the intrigues of its agents were in nowise congenial with American feelings. The moment, however, was one of considerable excitement ; the able men who had hitherto formed round their venerable president a united government were splitting up into opposing parties; the treaty with England was under dispute; and M. de Talleyrand, intimate with Jefferson, was active, it is said, in adding to the prevailing agitation, and endeavouring to thwart the policy of the government which had lately banished him from its shores. His endeavours, however, were unsuccessful; and becoming heartily wearied with his new place of exile, he employed what capital he had been able to save from his varied career in fitting out a ship, in which, accompanied by M. de Beaumetz, like himseh' a fonner member of the National Assembly, he was about to sail for the East Indies. But during the years that had elapsed since his quitting Paris, events which had been rushing on with a demoniacal rapidity through almost every horror and every crime (each phase in this terrible history being marked by the murder of one set of assassins and the momentary rule of another), had arrived at a new crisis. The Gironde, whom I left trembling and triumphant on the 10 th of August, had been soon after strangled in the giant grasp of Danton. Danton, too indolent and self-confident to be a match for his more cool and ambitious coadjutor, had bent his lofty head beneath the guillotine, to which he had delivered so many victims ; and, finally, Kobespierre himself had just perished by the hands of men whom fear had rendered bold, and experience brought in some degree to reason, inasmuch as that they at last felt the necessity of re-establishing some of those laws by which alone society can be preserved. M. de Talleyrand on learning these occurrences deter- mined on abandoning his commercial enterprises and striving once more for pow'er and fortune amidst the shifting scenes of public affairs. And here, as often. Fortune favoured him ; for the vessel in which he was about to embark, sailing with his 96 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. friend, was never afterwards seen or heard of. All his eJBTorts were now bent on returning to his native country, where he had many active in his behalf. Amongst the most influential of these was a remarkable woman, of whose talents we have but a faint idea from her works, which — though bearing witness to an ardent imagination and a powerful intellect — hardly give evidence of that natural and startling eloquence which sparkled in her conversation. The daughter of Necker, of whom I speak, just awakening from the horrors of a nightmare that had absorbed almost every sentiment but fear, was at this period the centre of a circle, in which figured the most captivating women and the ablest men, rushing with a kind of wild joy back to those charms of society which of late years had been banished from all places, except perhaps the prisons, wherein alone, during what has been emphatically called the " Keign of Terror," any records of the national gaiety seem to have been preserved. Amongst the intimates at Madame de Stael's house was the surviving Chenier (Joseph-Marie), who on the 18th of Fructidor addressed the Convention, after the return of M. de Montesquieu had just been allowed, in the following characteristic terms : " I have a similar permission to demand for one of the most distinguished members of the Constituent Assembly — M. de Talleyrand-Perigord, the famous Bishop of Autun. Our different ministers of Paris bear witness to his services. I have in my hands a memoir of which the duplicate exists in the papers of Danton ; the date of this memoir is 25th of November, 1792, and it proves that M. de Talleyrand was actually occupied in the affairs of the Eepublic when he was proscribed by it. Thus, persecuted by Marat and Kobespierre, he was also banished by Pitt from England ; but the place of exile that he chose was the country of Franklin, where, in contemplating the imposing spectacle of a free people, he might await the time when France should have judges and not murderers ; a Eepublic, and not anarchy called laws !" How are we to reconcile this declaration with M. de Talleyrand's solemn protestations to Lord Grenville ? How could M. de Talleyrand have been writing memoirs TALLEYRAND. 97 to Danton and yet have come over to England, " solely for the purpose of seeking repose ?" That the passport to which we have drawn attention bore out M. Chenier's affirmation cdlant a Londres par nos ordres — " going to London by our orders " — is certain, for M. de Talleyrand afterwards confirmed this fact in a pamphlet which we shall have by-and-by to notice. But of the memoir we can learn nothing further. The friends of M. de Talleyrand say that probably it never existed, or that, if it did, it could only be a paper of no importance, and not such a one as the English govern- ment would have objected to. They add that the form given to the passport was the only one Danton could have ventured to give without danger from the provisional council; that the English government must have been acquainted with it ; and that M. de Talleyrand merely availed himself of it, and pretended that it placed him in the position of a French agent, when this was necessary to procure his return to France or to defend himself against the charge of emigration. I must leave it to his autobiography to clear up what- ever is obscure in this transaction ; but at present it seems to justify the French lady, who, when the conversation once turned on the agreeable qualities of the Abbe de Perigord, acknowledged it would be difficult to refuse him her favours, but that it would be impossible to give him her confidence. VU. At all events, Chenier's pleading was successful. The permission to return was granted ; and, accordingly, M. de Talleyrand retraversed the Atlantic, and, having been driven on the English coast by stress of weather, arrived in the month of July, 1795, at Hamburg, then the place of refuge for almost all emigres, especially Orleanists, as well as of Irish malcontents : Madame de Genlis, Madame de Flahaut, Lord Edward FitzGerald, &c. The condition of Europe may be briefiy described at this time by saying that the French arms had been generally successful. Belgium was taken ; the expedition under the Duke of York beaten and repulsed; Holland HISTORICAL (JBAEACTEBS. had become an allied and submissive Eepublic ; on most of the towns of the Khine floated the tricolour flag ; Spain had sued for and obtained peace ; Prussia was neutral. The expedition to Quiberon had been a complete failure ; and although the French generals, Pichegru and Jourdan, began to experience some reverses, the Directory was pow^erful enough, both abroad and at home, to justify the support of prudent adherents. M. de Talleyrand consequently saw no objection to serving it. But before appearing at Paris, he judged it well to stay a short time at Berlin, which, being then the central point of observation, would make his arrival in France more interesting. After this brief preparation, he appeared in the French capital, and found his name one of the most popular in the drawing-rooms (he never had the popularity of the streets), in that capricious city. The ladies formerly in fashion spoke of his wit and address from memory ; those of more recent vogue, from curiosity ; the great mass of the Convention were well disposed to have a " grand seigneur" in their suite; the ^^ grands seigneurs" w^ho still remained in France, to have one of their own body in power ; all the political leaders recognised his ability, and were anxious to know to what particular section he would attach himself. Even among the " savants " he had a party ; for he had been named, though absent, member of the Institute, which had recently been formed on the basis that he had laid down for it. Above all things, he was well known as a liberal, and undefiled by the bloody orgies of freedom. Under such circumstances, he again appeared on the stage of pleasure and afiairs. YIII. The first movement of all parties after the death of Kobespierre had been, as I have said, against the con- tinuance of the murderous system connected with his name; but it was difiicult to combine into any one government or policy the various parties that were triumphant; that is, the violent Democrats, who had risen against their chief; — the more moderate Kepublicans, TALLEYRAND. 99 who had been rather spectators than actors during the domination of the Convention ; — and the Constitutionahsts of the National and Legislatiye Assemblies. The reaction once begun, extended by degrees, until it provoked con- flicts between extremes ; and it was only alter a series of struggles, now against the Jacobins and now against the disguised Eoyalists, that a sort of middle party formed the Constitution of year III., which was founded on the principle of universal tolerance ; assuring, however, to the Conventionalists a supremacy, by exacting that two-thirds of the new assemblies should be chosen from amongst them. These new assemblies were of two kinds, both elected : the one called " the ancients," a sort of senate, which had the power of refusing laws ; the second, the Five Hundred, which had the power of initiating laws. The executive was entrusted to a Directory, which, in order to guard against a despot, consisted of five members : Carnot, with whose republican severity M. de Talleyrand had little sympathy; Lareveillere-Lepaux, whose religious reveries he had turned into ridicule by christening the " Theophilantropes " (a sect of deists whom Lareveillere patronised) Lesfiloux en troupe; Letoumeur, an engineer ofiicer, who had little or no influence ; Eewbell, a law}^er, and a man of character and ability, not ill-disposed to him ; and Barras. This last man, at the time I am speaking of the most powerful member of the Directory, was the sort of person who frequently rises to a greater height in civil commotions than any apparent merit seems to warrant. Clever, with- out great ability ; intriguing, without great address ; bold and resolute on any critical occasions, but incapable of any sustained energy ; of gentle birth, though not of any great historical family, — he had acquired his influence by two or three acts of courage and decision ; and was forgiven the crime of being a noble, in consideration of the vii'tue of being a regicide. Having been chosen by his colleagues, as the man best acquainted with and accustomed to the world, to represent the government with society, — he sustained this position by easy manners and a sort of court with which he contrived to surround himself; a court 100 inSTOBICAL CHARACTERS. containing all the fragments of tlie old society that were yet to be found mingled with affairs. In the south of Europe, and in the East, many such adventurers have risen to great fortunes and retained them. In the north, and (strange to say) especially among the changing and brilliant people of France, more solid qualities, and a more stern and equable character, seem essentially necessary for command. Richelieu, Mazarin, Louis XL, Louis XIY., even Eobespierre, differ- ing in everything else, were all remarkable for a kind of resolute, every-day energy, for a spirit of order and system which the voluptuary of the Luxembourg wanted. His drawing-room, however, was a theatre where the accom- plished gentleman of former times was still able to shine, and his prejudices, though he affected democratic principles in order to shield himself from the charge of being born an aristocrat, were all in favour of the ex-noble. To Barras, therefore, M. de Talleyrand attached himself. IX. The society of Paris was never more ^^ loiquante,'' if I may borrow an expression from the language of the country of which I am speaking, than at this moment. Nobody was rich. Pomp and ceremony were banished ; few private houses were open : a great desire for amuse- ment existed ; there were no pretensions to rank, for who would have ventured to boast of his birth ? There was no drawing into sets or cliques, for such would still have been considered as conspiracies. People lived together in public fetes, in public gardens, at theatres, at subscription- balls, like those of Marbeuf, where the grocer's wife and the monseigneur's danced in the same quadrille ; each being simply qualified by the title of ^' citoyenne'' The only real distinction was that of manners. An active, artful, popular man of the world, amidst such a confused assemblage of all orders, bent on being amused, had full play for his social and political quahties. But this was not all ; with the taste for gaiety had also returned the taste for letters. Here, again, M. de Talleyrand found ijieans to excite attention. I have said that, during his TALLEYBAND. loi absence from France he had been elected a member of the National Institute, which owed its origin, as I have noticed, to the propositions he had laid before the National Assembly just previous to its dissolution. He had also been chosen its secretary ; and it was in this capacity that he now addressed to the moral and scientific class, to which he belonged, two memoirs : the one on the com- mercial relations between England and the United States, and the other on colonies generally. There are few writings of this kind that contain so many just ideas in so small a compass. In the first, the author gives a general description of the state of American society, the calm character, the various and pecuhar habits, the Saxon laws, and rehgious feehngs of that rising community. He then shows, what was at that time little understood, that the mother country had gained more than she had lost by the separation ; and that the wants of Americans connected them with English interests, while their language, educa- tion, history, and laws, gave them feelings^, which, if properly cultivated, would be — Enghsh. The memoir on colonisation, however, is even superior to the preceding one ; it is in this memoir on colonisation that M. de Talleyrand points out — for. he even then per- ceived what has since been gradually taking place — the impossibility of long continuing slave labour or of main- taining those colonies which requu'ed it. He foresaw that such colonies existed in the face of sentiments which must, whether rightly or wrongly, in a few years sweep them away. He looked out for other settlements to supply their place ; and Egypt and the African coast are the spots to which, with a singular prescience, he directed the atten- tion of his country ; whose inhabitants he describes, from their sense of fatigue, from their desire of excitement, and in many instances, from their disappointment and dis- content, to be peculiarly in want of new regions of rest, of enterprise, and of change. *' The art of putting the right men in the right places " (the phrase is not, I may observe en passant, of to-day's invention), he observes profoundly, " is perhaps the first in the science of government ; but," he adds, " the art of I 102 HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. finding a satisfactory position for the discontented is the most difficult. " To present distant scenes to their imaginations, views agreeable to their thoughts and desires, is," he says, " I think, one of the solutions of this social problem."* In three weeks after the reading of this memoir, M. de Talleyrand accepted the office of minister of foreign aiffairs. The immediate cause of his being named to replace Charles Delacroix in this post, used to be thus related by himself : — "I had gone to dine at a friend's on the banks of the Seine, with Madame de Stael, Barras, and a small party which frequently met. A young friend of Barras, who was with us, went out to bathe before dinner, and was drowned. The director, tenderly attached to him, was in the greatest affliction. I consoled him (I was used to that sort of thing in early life), and accompanied him in his carriage back to Paris. The ministry of foreign affairs immediately after this became vacant; Barras knew I wanted it, and through his interest I procured it." But this was not the sole cause of his selection. The state of affairs was at this time critical; the reaction, produced by the horrors of the democrats, became stronger and stronger under a government of indulgence. In proportion as the ordinary relations of society recom- menced, the feeling against those who had disturbed and for a time destroyed them, became more and more bitter. At last the hatred of the Eobespierreans verged towards an inclination for the Eoyalists; and Pichegru, the president of the Assembly of the Five Hundred, and a general at that time in great repute, was already in cor- respondence with Louis XVIII. The Directory itself was divided. Carnot, an impracti- cable man of genius and a violent Eepublican, sided with * " L'art de mettre des hommes k leur place est le premier de la science du gouvernement ; mais celui de trouver la place des mecon- tents est a coup stir le plus difficile ; et presenter a leur imagination des lointains, des perspectives oil puissent se prendre leurs pens^es et leurs d^sirs, est, je crois, une des solutions de cette difficultd sociale." TALLEYRAND. 103 the opposition from personal dislike to his colleagues and from a belief that any new convulsion would end by the triumph of his own principles. He carried with him Barthelemy, the successor to Letourneur, who had lost his place in the Directory by the ballot, which was periodically to eliminate it. Eewbell and Lareveillere-Lepaux ranged themselves with Barras, who, satisfied with his position, and having to keep it against the two extreme parties, was glad to get into the ministry, as attached to him, a man of well-known ability and resolution. Besides, the negotiation with Great Britain at Lille, w^hich not unnaturally followed the defeat of all her con- tinental allies, suggested the appointment of a more dis- tinguished diplomatist than M. Delacroix, who presided at that time over the department to which M. de Talley- rand was appointed. The new minister soon justified the choice that had been made of him. His eye took in at once the situation in which Barras found himself, — a situation that singularly resembled one in our own times. The majority of the executive was on one side, and the majority of the legisla- tive bodies on the other. The question was agitated by the Assembly as to whether it should not take the first step, and, without regard for the constitution, obtain possession by any means of the executive power. General Pichegru hesitated, as did General Changarnier after him. Talleyrand advised Barras not to hesitate. He did not ; and, taking the command of the troops in virtue of his office, seized the chief men amongst his opponents, to whatever party they belonged. Carnot, Barthelemy, and Pichegru were amongst the number, and, though Carnot escaped by flight, M. de Talleyrand equally got rid of an enemy, and the ardent Eepublicans lost a leader. XI. The worst effect of this coup -d'etat was the interruption of the negotiations at Lille, and of the arrangements which Monsieur Maret was on the point of concluding, which Talleyrand had himself favoured, but which were impos- 104 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS, sible to a government that had now to seek popularity as a protection to usurpation. The idea of peace with England being thus abandoned, M. de Talleyrand addressed a circular to his agents, which, considering the time at which it was written and the position which its writer held at that moment, is a model of tact and ability. He describes England as the sole enemy of France. He dates her power and prestige from the times of Cromwell and the spirit and energy which liberty inspires. He bases the power and prestige which France ought then to hold on that same liberty, and invokes the victories which she had just gained. He describes in a way that suited his purpose the manner in which Great Britain had acquired her influence, and accuses her of having abused it. He shows to his agents the immense importance of an intelligent diplomacy. He warns them against shocking the habits and ideas of the nations to which they are sent ; he tells them to be active without being agitators. He instils into them the conviction of the greatness of France and the necessity of making that greatness acknowledged and sympathised with. He counsels them to avoid little tricks, and to evince that confidence in the strength and continuance of the Republic, which would inspire such confidence in others. He points out how all the misfortunes and changes in the government of France had been brought about by the feeble and apathetic position which she had held abroad during the reign of the later princes of the House of Bourbon ; and, finally, he assures them of his support, and adds that he appreciates highly the services which their talents may render to their country. It is in this manner that great ministers form able agents. In the meantime the treaty of Campo Formio had established peace in Italy and Germany on conditions advantageous to France, though, by the cession of Yenice to Austria, she abdicated the cause for which she had hitherto pretended to fight. Bonaparte, to whom this peace was due, now visited Paris, and saw much of M. de Talleyrand, who courted TALLEYRAND. 105 him with assiduity, as if foreseeing his approaching destiny. But the time for a closer alHance was not yet arrived: Napoleon, indeed, was not himself prepared for the serious meditation of the design which he subsequently executed. Yague ideas of conquest and greatness floated before his eyes, and the gigantic empires that courage and genius have frequently founded in the East, were probably more famihar with his thoughts than any tyranny to be established in his own country (May, 1798). He set out for Egypt, then, where he thought of reahsing his splendid dreams, and where the Directory, following a traditional policy not yet abandoned, thought of striking a desperate blow against the ancient enemy and rival with whom alone she had now to maintain a conflict. With him seemed to depart the fortunes of his country. A new European coalition broke out with the murder of* the French pleni- potentiaries at Eastadt, and divisions of all kinds manifested themselves in France. The victories of the allies on the Upper Ehine and in Italy increased these divisions, and added to the strength of the democratic party, to which the overthrow of Pichegru and his associates had already — contrary to the intention of Barras, who, as I have said, had wished to maintain a middle course — given an increased influence. The loss of Eewbell, whose energy the Democrats dreaded, and whose seat in the Directory became legitimately vacant, gave strength to their desires, the more especially as Sieyes, who replaced Eewbell, entered the executive with his usual mania of propounding some new constitution. M. de Talleyrand, attacked as a noble and an emigre, resigned his department, and published a defence of his conduct, which is remarkable, and of which I venture to give, in an abbreviated and free translation, some of the most salient points: — ***** " I am accused of creating the league of kings against our Eepublic ! I ! If I have been known for one thing more than another, it has been for my constant desire for an honourable peace ; the great result that will alone give solidity to our institutions ! So it is I, then, who 106 HISTORICAL CHAPiACTERS. seek to augment our enemies, exasperate our friends, break our treaties, indispose neutrals, and menace other states witli principles they do not wish to accept — and who make this accusation ? They who are always stirring up discord, invoking the horrors of war ; they, whose aim it is to produce revolutions throughout the world, who address to every power by turn the most injurious, absurd, and impohtic reproaches; who employ the press to cir- culate the assertion that monarchies and republics are natural enemies ; and who left to me the task of calming the governments whom they kept in a state of constant disquietude nnd alarm. ***** " It is true that Austria, after the treaty of Campo Formio, though that treaty was favourable to her, began new combinations and alliances against us — and that England and Eussia engaged her in their designs. If I had been ignorant of their intrigues or hostile prepa- rations, if I had not informed the government of them, then, indeed, I might justly be accused. But, not only do I defy any one to show that I ever neglected my duty for a single day, it so happens that five months before the entry of the Eussians into Italy, I procured a copy of the coiiibined plans of Russia and Austria, and delivered them to General Joubert, who has frequently declared that they were of the utmost utility in his operations. ***** " But I am a Constitutionalist of 1791 (a title I glory in), and, consequently, I offer no guarantee to the Eepublic. " If it were not true that a patriot of 1789, who has not hesitated to take his oath to the Eepublic, and fre- quently repeated it, has no favour to expect from a French government that is not republican ; — it is certain either that the Eepublic will establish itself, or that it wiU perish in a general confusion, or that it will be again submitted to a royalty furious and revengeful. From the Confusionists and the Eoyalists it appears to me that I have little to expect. Is this no guarantee ? " But — I am an emigre 1 an emigre ! When the first republican authority — the National Convention — declared TALLEYRAND. 101 with Tinanimity, at the period of its greatest independence and its greatest force, that my name should be effaced from the Hst of emigres, I was sent to London on the 7th of September, 1792, by the executive government. My passport, dehvered to me by the provisional council, is signed by its six members, Lebrun, Servan, Danton, Claviere, Eoland, IMonge. It was in these terms : " ' Laissez passer Ch. Maurice Talleyrand, allant a Londres ])ar nos ordresJ [M. de Talleyrand here repeats what was said by Chenier.] " Thus I was authorised to quit France, and to remain out of it until the orders I received were revoked, which they never were. But not wishing to prolong my absence, I asked, the instant that the Convention re- covered the liberty which had been for a time suppressed, to return to my native land, or to be judged if I had committed any offence that merited exile. My request was granted. I left France then by orders which I re- ceived from the confidence of the French government. I re-entered it directly it was possible for me to do so with the consent of the French government. What trace is there here of emigration ? ***** " Well, then, it was I * who made Malmesbury, who had been sent about his business by Charles Delacroix, return — not, it is true, to Paris, but — to Lille, the centre of our military Boulevards.' " What is the truth? On the 13th Prairial, year Y., Lord Grenville proposed to enter into negotiation ; on the 16th the proposal was accepted; on the 25th Charles Delacroix sent passports to England, and fixed on Lille as the place of negotiation. '* On the 29th Lord Grenville accepts Lille as the place of negotiation, and announces the choice of Lord ]\Ialmes- bury as the English negotiator. On the 2nd Messidor, the Directory sanctions this arrangement. On the 28th the conferences commence at Lille, and it was not till the 28th I was named minister. 108 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. " I am attacked for all the acts of the ex-Directors. My accusers know that, if my opinion differed from theirs, I should not have charged them with errors when they were in place, and still less should I do so now, when they are stripped of power, and that all I desire to re- member is theu' kindness and confidence. " It is for this reason that in my report to the legis- lative body I only glanced rapidly over the fact that all that was to be decided relative to Italy and Switzerland, during my ministry, was decided without my knowledge and concurrence. I could have added that, to the changes operated in the Cisalpine Eepublic, I was entirely a stranger ; that, when the citizen Eivaud was sent to that Eepublic as ambassador, I was asked for letters of credence in blank, and that I only learnt of his mission after it had been in activity. But my enemies do not pause here. " Ignorance and hatred seem to dispute as to which should accumulate the most falsehoods and absurdities against my reputation. '* I am reproached for not having invaded Hanover : but if I had advocated carrying the war into that country in spite of the neutral line which protects it, how much more just and more violent would have been the attacks on me for having violated that neutrality, and thereby roused Prussia against us ! " Then it is said I should have assailed Portugal ! And if I had done so and been opposed by Spain, and thus lost an alliance so useful to us, what reproaches should I not have encountered ! " But I did not sufficiently encourage letters of marque against England. Five hundred and forty-five privateers fell into the hands of the English, from the commencement of the war till the year YI. of the Eepublic. The number of prisoners in England amounts to thirty-five thousand ; these cost fifteen millions to support on an enemy's territory, and it is principally owing to letters of marque that we owe this result. " I will say no more ; but surely I have said enough to inspire the most discouraging reflections as to that moral TALLEYRAND. 109 disorganization — as to that aberration of mind — as to tliat overthrow of all reasonable ideas — as to that want of good faith, of the love of truth, of justice, of esteem for oneself and others — which are the distinguishing characteristics of those publications which it is difficult to leave unanswered, and humiliating to reply to."* ***** We find, from the above, that the ex-minister did not scruple to make his defence an attack, and to treat with sarcasm and disdain the party by which he had been ejected ; but at the same time that he denounces the follies of the over-zealous Eepublicans, he declares himself un- equivocally for a republic : and justifying what he had done, ridiculing what he had been condemned for not doing, he throws with some address the blame of much that had been done against his opinion on those Directors still in power. What he says as to the negotiations at Lille shows sufiiciently the difficulties, after the 18th of Fructidor, of any peace with England ; and a passage that I have quoted, and to which I had previously alluded, bears out what had been said by Ch^nier as to the famous pass- poi-t. In these " Eclaircissements," however, the ex-minister aimed more at putting himself in a good position for future events, than at referring to past ones. He would hardly, indeed, have fixed his signature to so bold a publication if his enemies had been firm in their places : but abeady the Directory was tottering to its fall. xir. The great evil of any constitution, formed for a par- ticular time and not the result of continual adaptation to the wants of various epochs, is that it is altogether of one character and is almost immediately out of date. The con- stitution of the Directory, framed after a period of great popular violence and individual despotism, was framed upon the principle of so nicely checking every action in the * (XII.) Eclaircissements donne's par le citoyen Talleyrand k ses concitoyens. 110 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. State, that there should be no honest means for any indi- vidual gaining great power or distinction. But when the influence of individuals in a government is over-zealously kept down, the influence of government collapses, and becomes unequal to restrain the agitation of a society more ardent and ambitious than itself. Thus, during four years, the Constitution of the year III. was preserved in name by a series of actual infringe- ments of it. Now, the Directory checked the councils by transporting the opposition ; now, the opposition put down the Directory by compelling an unpopular director to resign his office ; and now again, the absence of all laws against the license of the press was compensated for by declaring hostile journahsts enemies of the State, and punishing a clever article as an insurrection. Nor was this all : where civil ability can create no great career a civilian can excite no great enthusiasm. The persons in civil employment had their prestige hmited by the same contrivances that limited their power ; the nation was fatigued with talkers, for talking had no result: a general alone could strike its imagination, for a general alone was in the situation to do anything remarkable. Each party saw this. The patriots or democrats, represented in the Directory by Lare'veillere and Gohier (who had become a Director instead of Treillard) ; Barras, of no particular opinion, who might be said to represent those generally who were intriguing for place ; and Sieyes, the most capable of the executive, at the head of a moderate section, still for maintaining the Eepublic and establishing order, though under some new form. Sieyes had with him a majority in the Council of Ancients, a powerful minority in the Council of the Five Hundred, and some of the most eminent and capable men in France, amongst whom was M. de Talleyrand. He sought then a General like the rest, but the choice was not so easy to make. Hoche was no more ; Joubert had just perished ; Moreau was irresolute ; Massena, though crowned by the victory of Zurich, too much of the mere soldier ; Augereau, a Jacobin ; Bernadotte, unreliable. At this moment (on the 9th October, 1799), Bonaparte TALLEYBAXD. Ill landed from Egypt, He broke the quarantine laws, he had deserted his army, but the country felt that he was wanted ; and through his progress to Paris, as well as on his arrival there, he was hailed by acclamations. His object at this time, if he had any distinct one, was the Dne^tory, for which, however, he wanted a dispensa- tion as to age. But he found that the majority of the Directory would not hear of this dispensation. Something else was to be tried, and that something else could only be combined with Barras or Sieyes. Now Barras, Bonaparte hated : for Barras had been his protector, without having been his friend. In regard to Sieyes, M. Thiers has said, not untruly, that two superior Frenchmen, until they have had the opportunity of flattering one another, are natural enemies. Moreover, Bonaparte and Sieyes had met at Gohier's without exchanging a syllable, and had separated, disliking each other more than ever. M. de Talleyrand undertook to reconcile these two men, whose rivalry had to be conquered by their interests, — and he succeeded. But, with Sieyes, a total subversion of the existing state of things was a matter of course, because the only ambition he ever fostered was that of inventing institutions, which he did with a rare intelligence as to the combination of ideas, forgetting that societies have something in them besides ideas. A revolution therefore was decided upon ; it was to be brought about by the Ancients, of whom Sieyes was sure, and who were to declare that the chambers were in danger at Paris, and should be assembled at St. Cloud ; the safety of these assemblies was then to be confided to the guardian- ship of Bonaparte ; and the dissolution of the Directory by the resignation of a majority of its members was to follow. After this, it was supposed that the majority of the Five Hundred, overawed by a large mihtary force, opposed by the other branch of the Legislature, and having no govern- ment to support it, would, in some way or other, be over- come. The first two measures accordingly were taken on the 18th Brumaire, but the third remained. Sieyes and Duces, who acted together and who resigned, were balanced by Gohier and Moulins, who would not give in their resig- 112 HISTORICAL CHABAGTERS. nation ; while Barras had the casting vote ; and it was M. de Talleyrand again, who, in conjunction with Admiral Bruix, was charged with the task of coaxing this once important man into accepting insignificance and retreat. In this task he succeeded, and the vanquished director, conquered as much, perhaps, hy his own indolence, as by his politic friend's arguments, stepped out of the bath, reposing in which his two visitors had found him, into the carriage which bore him from the Luxembourg, and thus the Directory being no longer in existence, a charge of grenadiers in the Orangery of St. Cloud settled the affair on the day following. XIII. In glancing over the narrative of these events, we shall see that, if a similar result could have been otherwise arrived at (which is doubtful), it certainly could not have been arrived at in the same peaceful and easy w^ay, but for the assistance of M. de Talleyrand. The legal part of the recent change was effected by Sieyes, whom he had united with Bonaparte ; and accomplished through Barras, whose abdication he also procured. The time for reward- ing these services was come, and when Napoleon became first consul, M. de Talleyrand was made minister of foreign affairs. In following him through the period which intervened between the 10th of August, 1792, and the 18th Brumaire, we find him a fugitive to England under doubtful auspices, an exile in America dabbling in politics, projecting com- mercial adventures, and, above all, waiting on events which proved fortunate to him. Having quitted France as the partisan of a constitutional monarchy, he returns to it when the feverish passions and opinions which had so long convulsed it were settled down under a republic — too strong to be overturned by Eoyalists — too weak to promise a long existence. He takes office under the government which he finds, a government that, compared with its immediate pre- decessors, offered in a remarkable manner the security of property and life. TALLEYRAND. 113 He sides, amidst the conflicts wliicli still continue, with those who are for a middle course, between bringing back the Bourbons with all their prejudices, or re-establishing the Eobespierreans with all their horrors. In these poli- tical struggles he exhibits moderation and resolution : in the department which he fiUs, he shows tact and capacity. His two memoirs, read before the Institute, are remarkable for the elegance of their style and the comprehensiveness of their ^dews.* Defending himself against the two parties who assailed him — the one for being too much, the other for being too little, of a republican — he uses language which is at once bold, dignified, and moderate, and the only question that can arise is as to whether it was sincere. Finally, he throws a government — which is at once feeble, profligate, divided, and conscious of its own in- capacity, — into the hands of a man of great genius, by whom he expected to be rewarded, and who, upon the whole, seemed the one most capable of steadying the course, promoting the prosperity, and elevating the destiny of his country. * See Appendix. 114 HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. . Paet IY. fikst consulate. Talleyiand supports the extension of the First Consul's power, based on a principle of toleration and oblivion of the past. — Napoleon attempts peace with England ; fails, — Battle of Marengo. — Treaty of Luneville and peace of Amiens. — Society at Paris duiing the peace. — Rupture. — M. de Talleyrand supports Consulate for life, Legion of Honour, and Concordat. — Gets peimission from the Pope to wear the secular costume and to ailminister civil affairs. — Marries. — Execution of Due d'Enghien. — New coalition. — Battle of Austerlitz. — Treaty of Presburg. — Fox comes into power; attempts a peace unsuccessfully. — Prussia declares against France, and is vanquished at Jena. — Peace of Tilsit. — M. de Talleyrand resigns Ministry of Foreign Attairs. — Ditfei-ences about policy in Spain. — Talleyrand and Fouche now at the head of a quiet opposition. — Russian campaign ; idea of employing M. de Talleyrand. — Napoleon's defeats commence. — Otters M. de Talleyrand the Ministry of Foreign Afl'airs after the battle of Leipsic, but on unacceptable conditions. — In the continued series of disasters that ensue, Talleyrand always advises peace. — Tries to persuade Marie- Louise not to quit Paiis. — Doubtful then between a regency with her and the Bourbons. — When, however, her departure suspends the constituted authority, and the Emperor of Russia takes up his residence at the Hotel Talleyx'and, and asks M. de Talleyrand what government should be established, he says that of the Bourbons. — Efforts to obtain a Constitution with the Restoration. — Napoleon ariives at Fontainebleau. — Negotiates, but finally abandons the French throne, and accepts the island of Elba, under the title of Emperor, as a retreat. I. One of M. de Talleyrand's striking phrases (a phrase I have already quoted) was that the great Eevolution " avait desosse la France " — " had dishoned France !" There had ceased, in fact, to be any great principles in that country, holding affairs together, and keeping them in form and order. He said, then, " What principles cannot do, a man must. When society cannot create a govern- ment, a government must create society." It was with this idea that he was willing to centre in Napoleon all the power which that wonderful man's commanding genius TALLEYRAND. 115 required. But lie wanted, in return, two things: one, that he should himself profit by the power he aided in establishing ; the other, that that power should be exercised, on the whole, for the benefit of the French nation. Bely- ing, for the moment, on the fulfilment of these conditions, he delivered himself up to a dictatorship which should quietly and gradually absorb all the used-up opinions and institutions. Sieves, who, with a more profound, had a less sagacious intellect, imagined that after he, a man of letters, had handed over the State to a daring, unscrupulous man of the world, he could govern tbat man. But M. de Talley- rand rather despised and underrated Sieyes, whom he looked on as a tailor who was always making coats that never fitted — a skilful combiner of theories, but without any tact as to their application; and when some one, a propos of the new constitution, which Sieyes had under- taken to frame, said, " Apres tout ce Sieyes a un esprit hie7i profond^' he replied, " Profond ! Hem ! Yous voulez dire peut-etre creuxr* Bonaparte's conduct justified this witticism ; for when the first project of the constitution alluded to was presented to him, he treated it with ridicule, in the well-known phrase : " A man must have little honour or intellect who would consent to be a pig, put up in a stye to fatten on so many millions a year." The hero of the ISth Brumaire was not, in truth, a man who would accept the robes without the reality of power ; and having taken out of the plan proposed for his acceptance wbat suited his views, and discarded the rest, he endowed himself with as much authority as he thought would be tolerated ; for though France was wearied with perpetual changes and convulsions, she was not at that time prepared to end them by a new sovereignty. One of the causes, indeed, which facilitated Napoleon's early steps towards the great object of his ambition, was the general incredulity as to the possibility of his attain- ing it. * " After all that Sieyes has a very profound intellect." " Pro- found ! Hem ! You mean perhaps — hollow.^' 116 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS. M. de Talleyrand himself did not, in all probability, imagine that he was making a military empire, when he was aiming at concentrating authority in the hands of the chief of the Kepublic ; but he thought that the first care was to steady a community which had so long lost its balance ; and on one occasion, shortly after the formation of the new government, and when the part which the first consul was to play was not yet altogether decided, he is said by a contemporary* to have held, at a private inter- view with the first consul, the following language :t — " Citizen consul, you have entruste 1 to me the ministry of foreign affairs, and I will justify your confidence ; but I think I must declare to you that henceforth I will com- municate with you alone. This is no vain presumption on my part. I say that, in the interest of France — in order that it may be well governed — in order that there may be unity of action in its conduct — you must be the first consul ; and the first consul must have in his hands all the political part of the government ; i.e., the ministry of the interior and of the police, for internal affairs ; and my ministry for foreign ; and also the two great ministries of execution, the war and the marine. It would be proper that these five departments should communicate with you alone. The administrations of justice and finance are, no * Bourrienne. t *' Quand Roger Dncos et Sieyes portaient le titre de consuls, les trois membres de la commission consulaire etaient egaiix, si non de fait, dii moins en droit. Cambaceres et Lebrun les ayant remplace's, M. de Talleyrand, appele dans le meme moment k succeder k M. Eeinhard an ministere des relations exterieures, fut re9u en audience particuliere dans le cabinet du premier consul. " ' Citoyen Consul,' lui dit-il, ' vous m'avez confie le ministere des relations exterieures, et je justifierai votre confiance; mais je dois vous declarer d^s k present que je ne veux travailler qu'avec vous. II n'y a point Ik de vaine fierte de ma part ; je vous parle seulement dans I'interet de la France. Pour qu'elle soit bien gouvernee, pour qu'il y ait unit6 d'action, il faut que vous soyez le premier consul, et que le premier consul ait dans sa main tout ce qui tient directement k la politique, c'est-a-dire les ministeres de I'interieur et de la police, pour les aflairesdu dehors ; ensuite les deux grands moyens d'execu- tion, la guerre et la marine. II serait done de toute convenance que les ministres de ces cinq d^partements travaillassent avec vous seul. L'administration de la justice et le bon ordre dans les finances tien- TALLEYRAND. ll' doubt, connected with the policy of the State by many ties, but these ties are less inseparable from that polic}' than the departments I have mentioned. If you will allow me to say so, then, general, I would add that it would be convenient to give to the second consul, a very clever jurisconsult, the department of justice ; and to the third consul, also very able as a financier, the direction of the finances. These matters will occupy and amuse them. And you, general, having at your disposal all the main- springs of government, will be able to give it that fitting direction for arriving at the noble aim which you have in view — the regeneration of France." ir. The minister of foreign afiairs, in advising a willing Hstener thus to take possession of all important affairs, merely echoed, it must be allowed, a general sentiment ; for all the difierent parties then in presence saw the new dictator through glasses coloured by their own particular illusions. The Koyalists imagined that General Bona- parte would turn out a General Monk; the moderate Eepublicans, a General Washington ! M. de Talleyrand knew that Bonaparte was neither a Monk nor a Washing- ton ; and that he would neither hand over the power he had acquired to the exiled dynasty, nor lay it down at the feet of the French people. He was aware, on the con- trary, that he would keep it as long as he could keep it ; and he wished him to keep it with a system which should nent sans doiite k la politique par une foule de liens : mais ces liens sont moins sacre's. Si vous me permettez de le dire, general, j'ajouterai qu'il conviendrait de donner au deuxieme consul, tres- habile jurisconsulte, la haute main suv la justice, et au troisieme consul, ejalemeut bien verse dans la connaissance des lois financieres, la haute main sur les finances. Cela les occupera, les amusera ; et vous, general, ayant a votre disposition les parties vitales du gou- vernement, vous arriverez au noble but que vous vous proposez — le regeneration de la France.' " " Qui ne reconnait la le premier germe de I'archichancellerie et de I'architi esorerie de I'empire ?" (Bourrienne, Memoires, vol. iii., pp. 324, 325. 118 HISTORICAL CHABACTEES. have at its head the men of the Kevolution, without exclud- ing men of the ancient regime who would accept the prin- ciples that the Kevolution had founded. This was precisely, at that moment, the view of Napoleon himself; and the appointment of Fouche, a regicide, as minister of police, and the permission for the Koyalist emigres and the pro- scribed priests to return to France, gave the exact expres- sion of the policy that was thenceforth to be pursued. But none knew better than the first consul that it was necessary, having gained power by war, to show that he wished to consolidate it by peace. He addressed, there- fore, his famous letter to George III.,* on the effect of which he counted little, and his minister of foreign affairs less. But it was always something in the eyes of his nation to have evinced his own inclination for an interval of repose, and to have placed himself on a level with kings when he spoke to them as the popular chief of the French people. The refusal of England to treat was the signal of a new coalition, and the renewal of a general war ; at the com- mencement of which Bonaparte, by a stroke of genius, defeated the Austrians in Italy when they were marching as they conceived without opposition into France. But although the hopes of the cabinet of Yienna were struck down at the battle of Marengo, it did not yet sub- mit to despair, even when the Emperor Paul, flattered by the attentions of the first consul (who had returned him his prisoners newly clothed), had withdrawn from the coalition. The policy of France, under these circum- stances, was to create divisions amongst the remaining allies (Austria and England) by opening negotiations with each. This was tried by M. de Talleyrand with the cabinet of Yienna, through the means of the Comte St. Julien, who (sent to settle some particulars relative to the convention which took place after the Italian war) actually signed a treaty which his government disowned ; and with that of St. James, through the means of an agent em- ployed in the exchange of prisoners, but whose attempts as a negotiator also failed. The success of Moreau, in * See Napoleon^s Letter to King George III. tefore Marengo. TALLEYRAND. 119 Germany, however, at last obtained the treaty of Lune- ville ; and shortly afterwards M. Otto concluded in London the preliminaries of a similar treaty, which was received with equal joy by the French and English nations. The skill with which these affairs were conducted was generally acknowledged ; but M. de Talleyrand had never- theless to undergo the mortification of seeing Joseph Bonaparte named the negotiator with Lord Cornwallis instead of himself. He accepted, however, this arrange- ment with a good grace, for he had this great advantage over most men, — his vanity submitted itself easily to his interest or his ambition; and seeing the impolicy of a rivalry with the first consul's eldest brother, he saw also that, having already obtained the signature of the prelimina- ries of a treaty, he should have with the public all the merits of that treaty if it took place, and Joseph Bonaparte all the blame, if any failure in the further negotiations occurred. In the meantime, the seas were opened at once to France, and the Enghsh government, having made this immediate concession, was almost bound to give way in any subse- quent discussions ; for to have yielded what France most de- sii'ed in order to obtain peace, and then not to have obtained it, would have been ridiculous. Thus, a definitive treaty was shortly afterwards signed at Amiens, and Paris reopened its gates to the excited curiosity of the English traveller. III. During this period M. de Talleyrand's house became necessarily one of the great resorts of foreign visitors. He lived in the Hotel Galifet, then the official residence of the minister of foreign afiairs, a large hotel in the Kue St. Dominique (Faubourg St. Germain), which had been built by a rich colonist of St. Domingo, who gave no other order to his architect than to erect an hotel with ninety- nine columns — a monument of the skill of the builder, and of the singularity of the proprietor — which yet remains. The principal habitues of the ministry were M. de Montrond, Due de Laval, M. de Saint-Foix, General Duroc, Colonel Beauharnais, afterwards Prince Eugene, Fox, Erskine, &c., &c. 120 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Some few yet remember the easy nonclialance with which, rechning on his sofa by the side of the fire, the minister of foreign affairs welcomed those whom he wished to make at home, the extreme and formal civility which marked his reception of his colleagues and the senators with whom he was not intimate, and the careless and pleasing familiarity that he used towards the favourite officers of the first consul, and the ladies and diplomatists to whom he was partial. The enmity which for the last few years had been so violent between the French and English people was beginning to subside amidst their intercourse ; but, unhappily for them and for the world, the peace, or rather truce, which they had concluded could only be maintained by acknowledging a galling inferiority to the French ruler, who, it was evident, regarded our retirement from the contest we had long waged without dishonour as a means for relieving St. Domingo, confirming his dominion over Italy, and invading Switzerland, circumstances which rendered it justifiable for England to retain Malta, even though she had foolishly and inconsiderately engaged to resign it. 1 need hardly observe that the conduct of Napoleon throughout the whole of this affair was overbearing ; but that of his minister of foreign affairs was the reverse ; and I should add that that minister had the credit of having obtained, just as Lord Whitworth was departing, the first consul's permission to propose an arrangement which would have left us Malta for such a compensation as, under all the circumstances, might perhaps have been accepted. But this compromise being haughtily rejected, war somewhat abruptly recommenced. The respite, however, thus secured, had served Napo- leon's purposes, and enabled him, by the popularity it brought, to lay the first stones of the Empire, — in the Legion of Honour, out of which grew the nobility of the Empire; — in the consulship for life, which was a step towards the hereditary rank he soon assumed ; and in the Concordat, which preluded his coronation by the Pope. It is not to be presumed that these great innovations TALLEYRAND. 121 on the principles which had so long been dominant took place without a struggle. All the ardent republicans combated them as a matter of course, designating the tyrant who proposed them as a second Caesar, who evoked the patriotism of a second Brutus. But a more serious party also attacked them in the legislative bodies, nor was it without an illegal act of authority that this party was vanquished. The measures in question were not in fact popular, and the Concordat at one time seemed not unlikely to provoke an insurrection in the army. M. de Talleyrand, nevertheless, supported these mea- sures warmly ; and, with the aid of Cambaceres, softened and conciliated many of their opponents. " We have," he constantly repeated, " to consolidate a government and reorganize a society. Governments are only consolidated by a continued policy, and it is not only necessary that this policy should be continued, — people should have the conviction that it will be so. " I look upon the consulship for life as the only means of inspiring this conviction." So again, he said, with respect to the Legion of Honour and the Concordat, " In reorganizing any human society, you must give it those elements which you find in every human society. " Where did you ever see one flourish without honours < or religion ? The present age has created a gi'eat many new things, but it has not created a new manldnd ; and if you mean to legislate practically for men, you must treat men as what they always have been and always are." For the Concordat he had a peculiar reason to plead ; no one gained so much by it: for he now legitimately entered into civil life on the authority of his spiritual master, and by a brief which I here cite : — " To our very dear son, Charles Maurice Talleyrand* " W^e were touched with joy at learning your ardent * " ^ notre Trh-cher Fils, Charles Maurice Talleyrand. " Nous avons ^te touche de joie quand nous avons appris I'ardent desir que vous avcz de vous recoiicilier avec nous et avec rE^lise 12'i HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. desire to be reconciled with us and the Catholic Church : loosening then on your account the bowels of our fatherly- charity, we discharge you by the plenitude of our power from the effect of all excommunications. We impose on you, as the consequence of your reconciliation with us and the Church, the distribution of alms, more especially for the poor of the church of Autun, which you formerly governed : we grant you, moreover, the liberty to wear the secular costume and to administer all civil affairs, whether in the office you now fill, or in others to which your government may call you." This brief was taken by M. de Talleyrand as a permis- sion to become a layman, and even to take a wife. The lady he married, born in the East Indies, divorced from a M. Grrand, and mentioned, in connection with a scandalous story, in the life of Sir Philip Francis, was as remarkable for being a beauty as for not being a wit. Every one has heard the story (whether true or invented) of her asking Sir George Kobinson after his man " Friday." But M. de Talleyrand vindicated his choice, saying, " A clever wife often compromises her husband ; a stupid one only com- promises herself." lY. It was shortly after the renewal of hostilities that the event occurred which has given rise to the most con- troversy concerning Napoleon, and to the bitterest attacks upon M. de Talleyrand. I speak of the execution of the Dnfi fVEnprViim. Many details attending this transaction are still m dispute; but the broad outline of it is as follows : — The pure Eepublicans (as they were then called) had, catholique. Dilatant done k votre egard les entrailles de notre charity paternelle, nous vous degageons par la plenitude de notre puissance du lien de toutes les excommunications. Nous vous imposons par suite de votre reconciliation avec nous et avec I'Eglise, des distribu- tions d'aumones pour le soulagement surtout des pauvres de I'eglise d' Autun que vous avez gouvernee. Nous vous accordons le pouvoir de porter I'habit seculier, et de gerer toutes les affaires civiles, soit qu'il vous plaise de demeurerdans la charge que vous exercez main- tenant, soit que vous passiez a d'autres auxquelles votre gouveme- ment pourrait vous appeler." TALLEYRAND. 123 on the one Land, at this period become desperate ; on the other hand, the latitude that had for a time been allowed to the Koyalists, had given that party courage. The renewal of an European war increased this courage. The power and prestige of the marvellous person at the head of the consular government had made both parties consider that nothing was possible to them as long as he lived. A variety of attempts had consequently been made against his life. The popular belief — that of Bonaparte himself — was that these attempts proceeded mainly from the emigres, aided by the money of England, a belief which the foolish correspondence of the British minister at Munich, Mr. Drake, with a pretended emigre — in fact, however, an agent of the French government (Mahee), — might unfortunately have encouraged. George Cadoudal, the daring leader of the Chouans, who had already been implicated in plots of this kind, was kno^vn to be in Paris and engaged in some new enterprise, with which Pichegru, certainly — Moreau, apparently — was connected. But in the reports of the police it was also stated that the conspirators awaited the arrival at Paris of a prince of the house of Bourbon. The Due d'Enghien, then residing at Ettenheim, in the Duchy of Baden, seemed the most likely of the Bourbon princes to be the one alluded to : and spies were sent to watch his movements. The reports of such agents are rarely correct in the really important particulars. But they were particularly unfortunate in this instance, for they mistook, owing to the German pronunciation, a Marquis de Thumery, staying with the Bourbon Prince, for Dumouriez : and the presence of that general on the Ehenan frontier, and with a Conde, strongly corroborated all other suspicions. A council was summoned, composed of the three consuls, — Bonaparte, Cambaceres, Lebrun, — the minister of justice and police, Eegnier, — and Talleyrand, minister of foreign affairs.* At this council (10th March 1804) it was discussed whether it would not be advisable to seize the Due * Fouche, not then in office, was also consulted. 124 EI8T0BICAL CHARACTERS. d'Enghien, though out of France, and bring him to Paris ; and the result was the immediate expedition of a small force, under Colonel Caulainconrt, which seized the prince on the Baden territory (15th March) ; M. de Talleyrand, in a letter to the Grand Duke, explaining and justifying the outrage. Having been kept two days at Strasburg, the royal victim was sent from that city, on the 18th, in a post chariot, arrived on the 20th at the gates of Paris at eleven in the morning; was kept there till four in the afternoon; was then conducted by the boulevards to Vincennes, which he reached at nine o'clock in the evening ; and was shot at six o'clock on the following morning, having been condemned by a military commission— com- posed of a general of brigade (General HuUin), six colonels, and two captains — according to a decree of the governor of Paris (Murat) of that day (20th JMarch), which decree (dictated by Napoleon) ordered the unfortunate captive to be tried on the charge of having borne arms against the Eepublic : of having been and being in the pay of England, and of having been engaged in plots, conducted by the English in and out of France, against the French govern- ment. The concluding order was, that, if found guilty, he should be at once executed. The whole of this proceeding is atrocious. A prince of the dethroned family is arrested in a neutral state, with- out a shadow of legality;* he is brought to Paris and tried for his life on accusations which, considering his birth and position, no generous enemy could have con- sidered crimes ; he is found guilty without a witness being called, without a proof of the charges against him being adduced, and without a person to defend him being allowed.! * It is even remarked, that a few days previous, the Due Dalberg had been informed that there was no jealousy of the emigres at that place. — See M. de Rovigo, voL ii., and Letter of the Due Dalherg to M. de Talleyrand, 13th "November, 1823. f There were two " jproces-verhaux,^^ or accounts taken of this trial. The one published in the Moniteur, which cites the laws in virtue of which the prince was condemned, and the i)ieces that were brought forward in proof of the accusation. This is evidently an afterthought : there was not time to write it at the spot and on the TALLEYBAND. 125 This trial takes place at midniglit, in a dungeon; and the prisoner is shot, before the break of day, in a ditch ! It is natural enough that all persons connected with such a transaction should have endeavoured to escape from its ignominy. General Hullin has charged Savary (after- wards Due de Kovigo), who, as commander of the gen- darmerie, was present at the execution, with having hurried the trial, and prevented an appeal to Napoleon, which the condemned prince demanded. The Due de Eovigo denies with much plausibility these particulars, and indeed, all concern in the affair beyond his mere presence, and the strict fulfilment of the orders he had received; and accuses M. de Talleyrand — against whom it must be observed he had on other accounts a special grudge — of having led to the prince's seizure by a report read at the Council on the 10th March ; of having intercepted a letter written to the first consul by the illustrious captive at Strasburg, and of having hastened and provoked the execution, of which he offers no other proof than that he met Talleyrand, at five o'clock, coming out of Murat's, who was then, as I have said, governor of Paris, and who had just given orders for the formation of the military commission. It must be observed also, that, for the report of what passed in the council, M. de Kovigo only quotes a conversation which he had some years afterwards with Cambaceres, who was anxious to prove that he himself had opposed the violation of the German territory. As to the supposed letter written by the Due d'Enghien, the persons about the Due declared that he never wrote a letter at Strasburg; and in the prince's diary, which speaks of a letter to the Princesse de Eohan, there is no mention of a letter to the first consul. With respect to another letter, written, the Due de Eovigo seems to sup- pose, by M. Massias, Frencli minister at Baden, there is no scene. The other cites nothing but the decree of the 29th Ventose, and the answers of the jjrince, after a deliberation on which he is ordered to immediate execution ; this is genuine. The laws by which he is condemned are left in blank. 126 HISTOBICAL CEABACTERS. trace of it in the French archives ; whilst the mere fact of M. de Talleyrand having been at Murat's proves nothing (if it be true that he was there) beyond the visit. Indeed, as Murat himself blamed the execution, and did what he could to avert it (see Thiers' Consulate and Emjpire, vol. V. p. 4), there is some probability that, if M. de Talleyrand sought Murat, it was with a view of seeing what could be done to save the prince, and not with the view of destroying him. On the other hand, Bourrienne, who had opportunities of knowing the truth, asserts that M. de Talleyrand, so far from favouring this murder, warned the Due d'Enghien, through the Princesse de Eohan, of the danger in which he stood. The Due Dalberg, minister of Baden at Paris in l(i04, also speaks of M. de Talleyrand as opposed to all that was done in this affair.* Louis XVIIL, to whom M. de Talleyrand wrote when the Due de Eovigo's statement appeared, ordered that personage to appear no more at his court. Fouche declared the act to be entirely that of the first consul ; and lastly, Napoleon himself always maintained that the act was his own, and justified it. For myself, after weighing all the evidence that has come before me (none of it, I must admit, quite conclusive), my persuasion is that the first consul had determined either to put the prince in his power to death, or to humiliate him by a pardon granted at his request ; and it seems to me not improbable that he hesitated, though rather disposed, perhaps, to punish than to spare, till all was over. For this supposition there is the declaration of his brother Joseph, who says that a pardon had been promised to Josephine ; of Madame de Eemusat, who, playing at chess that evening with Napoleon, states that he was muttering all the night to himself lines from the great * " Bonaparte seul, mal inform^ par ce que la police avait de plus vil, et n'ecoutant que sa fureur, se porta a cet exc^s sans consulter. 11 fit enlever le prince avec I'intention de le tuer. 11 est connu que sous votre ministere vous n'avez cess^ de moderer les passions de Bonaparte."— le^/'er of Due Dalberg^ May 13, 1823. TALLEYRAND. French poets in favour of clemency ; and, lastly, there is an order given to M. Keal, minister of police, who was charged to see : the Due d'Enghien, and to report to Bonaparte the result of the interview, which evidently implied that no execution was intended till the minister's report had reached the terrible disposer of life or death, who might then finally take his resolve. But the opportunity of coming to a decision, after receiving the report of the minister of police, never occurred. By one of those unforeseen accidents which sometimes frustrate intentions, M. Keal, to whose house the written instructions I have been speaking of were carried by Savary himself, had gone to bed with the injunction not to be disturbed, and did not wake till the prince was no more : — so that Napoleon had not the chance of clemency, which he undoubtedly expected, pre- sented to him. At all events, whatever may have been the intentions of this extraordinary man, whose policy was generally guided by calculations in which human life was considered of small importance, I believe, as far as regards the person I am principally occupied with : first, that M. de Talleyrand did read at the Council on the 10th of March a memoir containing the information that had reached his office, and which he was naturally obliged to report; secondly, that when M. de Cambaceres spoke agaiQst the original arrest, M. de Talleyrand remained silent, which may be accounted for either by a wish not to compromise himself, or, as persons well acquainted with Napoleon have assured me, by a knowledge that this was the best way to give efficacy to M. de Cambaceres' arguments ; thirdly, that when M. de Talleyrand wrote to the Grand Duke of Baden, excusing the intended violation of his territory, he did endeavour to convey such a warning to the Due d'Enghien as would prevent his being captured ; finally, that when the Due was brought up to Yincennes he gave no advice (\\hich he thought would be useless) to Bonaparte, but approved of the efibrts made by Josephine and Joseph, who were the best mediators in the prince's behalf, and that, being also aware of the instructions sent to M. Eeal, he did not think the execution probable. 128 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. As to taking an active part in this tragedy, such conduct would not he in harmony with his character ; nor have the accusations, to which his position not un- naturally exposed him, heen supported by any trustworthy testimony. To have lent himself, however, even in ap- pearance, to so dark a deed, and to have remained an. instrument in Napoleon's hands after its committal, evinces a far stronger sense of the benefits attached to office, than of the obloquy attached to injustice. This, it is said, he did not deny ; and, when a friend advised him to resign, is reported to have replied : " If Bonaparte has been guilty, as you say, of a crime, that is no reason why I should be guilty of a folly." The execution of the Due d'Enghien took place during the night of the 20th March. On the 7th of April, Pichegru, who had been arrested, was found strangled in his room, as some thought, by the police — as the govern- ment declared, by his own hands ; George Cadoudal, who had also been captured, suffered on the scaffold ; and Moreau, after being brought before a tribunal which condemned him to two years' imprisonment, had this absurd sentence commuted into exile. Bonaparte having thus struck terror into the partisans of the ancient dynasty, and having rid himself of his most powerful military rival, placed on his head, amidst the servile approbation of the Legislature and the apparent acquiescence of the nation, a crown which was solemnly consecrated by Pius VIT. (2nd December, 18U4). V. The assumption of the imperial title was an epoch in the struggle which had for some time been going on between the two statesmen who contributed the most, first, to raise the power of Napoleon, and finally to over- throAV it. Talleyrand and Fouche are these two states- men ; and they may be taken as the representatives of the classes whose adhesion marked Bonaparte's force, and whose defection marked his decline. The one, a great nobleman, an enlightened member of the Constituent Assembly, a liberal, such as the fashion, the theories, and the abuses of the old regime had created him. The other TALLEYRAND. 129 a plebeian and conventionalist of the mountain, a democrat and regicide by circumstances, position, and the fury of the time. From the 18th Brumaire they both attached themselves to the first consul's fortunes. Cool, unpre- judiced, without hatred, without partialities, each, not- withstanding, had the feelings of his caste; and, in moderating the passion and influencing the views of Napoleon, the one never forgot that he was born in the aristocracy, the other that he was the offspring of the people. Fouche, then, was for employing the republican forms, and entrusting authority exclusively to what may be called new men. Talleyrand was rather for returning to the fashions of a monarchy, ridiculed, to use his own expression, the " parvenus " who had never walked on a " parquet,"* and endeavoured to introduce into the em- ployment of the State the aspirants whose principles were liberal, but whose names were ancient and historical. The Empire which was the natural consequence of the tendency which Talleyrand had favoured and Fouche opposed, nevertheless united and wanted these two poli- ticians ; for while it sanctioned the advantages and titles of the old nobility, it established on a firm and equal basis a new nobility, and brouglit both to a central point, under the rule of a man of genius. Fouche, once the Empire decided upon, renounced all further attempts to limit Napoleon's will, and only sought to regain his favour. Talleyrand, conceiving that all the hopes of the en- lightened men of his youth who had sought to obtain a constitutional monarchy were at that moment visionary, abandoned them for a new order of things, which, while it pressed upon the energy and intellect of the individual Frenchman, gave a concentrated expression to the energy and intellect of the French nation, and made it ready to accept a glorious tyranny without enthusiasm, but with- out dissatisfaction. Nor was the French nation wholly wrong. * The houses of the upper classes had oaken floors, called parquets : the houses of the lower classes had brick floors. K 130 HISTOBIQAL CHARACTERS. A great deluge had swept just recently over all that previous centuries had established ; society was still on a narrow and shaking plank which required widening, strengthening, but, above all, fixing over the still turbulent and agitated waters. Everything of ancient manners, of those habits of thought, without which no community of men can march long or steadily together, was gone. No received notions on essential subjects anywhere existed ; and a nation which has no such notions cannot have that sort of public morality which is, to the position and re- spectability of a state, what private morality is to the respectability and position of an individual. The first essential to a community is order, for under order received notions establish themselves. Order combined with liberty is the highest degree of order. But order without liberty is preferable to disorder and license. Now, Napoleon's internal government, with all its faults, was the personification of order, as that of the convention had been of disorder ; and what was the consequence ? a spirit of freedom grew up amidst the despotism of the latter, as a submission to tyranny had been engendered under the wild violence of the former. The phrase, that Bonaparte " refaisait le lit des Bourbons,''* was a criticism on his own policy, but it might be an eulogium on that of his followers. VI. In the meantime a change of forms and titles at Paris was the sign of a similar change throughout Europe. Kepublics became kingdoms: the Emperor's family, sovereigns : his marshals and favourites, princes and grand dignitaries of the Empire. Those who had shared the conqueror's fortunes had a share allotted to them in his conquests, and for a moment the theory of the nineteenth century brought back the realities of the middle ages. Yet, and notwithstanding these signs and tokens of ambition, had it not been for the rupture with England and the cruel deed at Yincennes, Napoleon's new dignity, that gave a splendid decoration to his new power and an * " Was re-makino; the bed of the Bourbons." TALLEYRAND. 131 apparent close to his adventurous career, would probably have induced the continent, without absolutely prostrating itself at his feet, to have acknowledged and submitted to his superiority. But the fortitude with which England had braved his menaces, and the act which had sullied his renown, produced a new coalition, and led to a treaty between England and Eussia and Austria, the one signed on 11th of April, and the other the 9th of August, 1805. So formidable a combination served to disturb Bonaparte from the project of an invasion, with which he was then threatening our shores. But his star, though somewhat clouded, was still in the ascendant. The battle of Auster- litz sanctioned the title of Imperator, as the battle of Marengo had done that of Consul. M. Slignet has given us a curious instance, extracted from the French archives, of the comprehensive views of the minister of foreign affairs at this period.* Immedi- ately after the victory of Ulm, M. de Talleyrand wrote to Napoleon in something like these terms : " While your Majesty is gaining the victories which will lead to a glorious peace, I am considering how that peace can best be established. There are four great States in Europe — France, Eussia, England, and Austria. England and France, from their juxtaposition, their spirit, and consequent rivality, may be considered natural enemies ; that is to say, no great war will take place in Europe without these powers coming into collision. In such case, Eussia cannot cordially be with France as long as she retains her projects over the Ottoman empire, which it would be madness in us to encourage. Austria, on the other hand, is sure to side with England as long as her frontiers join ours, and her natural objects of am- bition are the same. A great policy, therefore, would be to deprive Eussia of her Turkish dreams, and Austria of the possessions neighbouring to those states which we protect, and which, in fact, are ours. I would take from Austria, then, Suabia, in Southern Germany, the Tyrol, adjoining Switzerland ; and I would make Venice an * See Memoires sur Talleyrand^ read in the Academy by M. Mignet, May 11, 1839. 132 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. independent Eepublic, and tlius a barrier to both parties in Italy. To this plan, however, Austria herself must consent with satisfaction, or it cannot be permanent ; and I would obtain that consent by giving her, in exchange for what we take, Wallachia, Moldavia, Bessarabia, and the northern portion of Bulgaria. By this plan, your Majesty will remark, the Germans are for ever shut out of Italy, Austria made the rival of Eussia and guardian of the Ottoman empire, and the Russians excluded from Europe, and thus directed upon the kingdoms of Central Asia, where they will naturally come into conflict wdth the rulers of Hindostan." " This project," says M. Mignet, " being conceived at a time when nothing was impossible, might, after the battle of Austerlitz, have been accomplished, and would doubtless have given another destiny to Europe, and established the grandeur of France on solid foundations." Napoleon, however, was not inclined to adopt so great a plan on the suggestion of another ; nor, indeed, is it impossible but that the secret instinct of his pecuHar genius, which was for war, opposed itself to a permanent system of tranquillity. He advanced, then, in the false policy which ultimately proved his ruin ; neither gaining the affection nor utterly destroying the power of the van- quished: and the cabinet of Vienna, subdued m Italy, humbled, by the confederation of the Ehine and the eleva- tion of the secondary states, in Germany, but with its power not annihilated, and its good- will not conciliated, signed the treaty of Presburg. This treaty, which severed the relations between the Eussian and Austrian empires, and a change which now took place in the British councils, afforded another chance of giving to the new empire a peaceful and durable existence. VII. Mr. Fox had succeeded to Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Fox was an advocate of peace and an admirer of the warrior who guided the destinies of France. He was also a personal friend of M. de Talleyrand. The Emperor Alexander shared in some degree Mr. Fox's admiration. The hopes TALLEYRAND. 133 whicli he had founded on an alliance with Austria were now, moreover, at an end, and no one at that time relied on the shuffling, grasping, and timid policy of Prussia. Both the Eussian and English cabinets were willing then to treat. M. d'Oubril was sent to Paris by the cabinet of St. Petersburg, and negotiations begun through Lord Yarmouth, the late Marquis of Hertford (then a " detenu "*), between the cabinets of St. James and the Tuileries. M. de Talleyrand, in these double negotiations, succeeded in getting the Eussian negotiator to sign a separate treaty, which, however, the Eussian government disavowed ; and acquired such an influence over Lord Yarmouth, that the English government deemed it necessary to replace him by Lord Lauderdale, who was empowered to negotiate for the two allied governments. It is but just to observe that M. de Talleyrand, though thwarted by a variety of intrigues, laboured with the utmost assiduity in favour of a peaceful termination of this negotiation ; for he already saw, and at this time almost alone saw, that without peace all was yet a problem, and that, to use the words of a con- temporary, " a succession of battles was a series of figures, of which the first might be ' A,' and the last * zero.' 't The position of Malta and Sicily, botli at this time in our hands, the natural reluctance that we felt at resigning them without solid guarantees for European tranquillity ; and the impossibility of getting such guarantees from the pride and ambition of an aspirant to universal empire, were nevertheless difficulties too great for diplomacy to overcome ; and when Prussia, which had lost the golden opportunity of fighting France with Austria by her side, had become so involved by secret engagements with Eussia and by public engagements with France — and so restless in the dishonourable and dangerous position in which she found herself, as to be determined on the desperate ex- periment of escaping from her diplomacy by her anns, another great European struggle commenced. * The term applied to persons detained in France at the rupture of the peace of Amiens. t Memoir es de Rovigo. 134 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. Throughout the new campaigns to which this new coalition led — campaigns beginning with the victory of Jena and closing with the peace of Tilsit — M. de Talley- rand accompanied his imperial master; and though he could hardly be said to exercise a predominant influence over those events, which a more violent character and a more military genius decided, his calmness and good sense (qualities rarely, if ever, abdicated by him) produced a \ moderating effect upon the imperious warrior, that tended generally to consolidate his successes. The sort of cool way in which he brought to ground many of this ex- traordinary man's flights, testing them by their practical results, is well enough displayed in a reply which he made to Savary, who, after the battle of Friedland, said, " If peace is not signed in a fortnight. Napoleon will cross the Niemen." *' Et a quoi bon," replied M. de Talleyrand, " passer le Niemen ?"* " Why pass the Niemen ?" The Niemen, then, partly owing to M. de Talleyrand's counsels, was for this once not passed ; and, at last, France, pretending to sacrifice Turkey, and Eussia abandoning England, the two combatants signed a treaty, which anticipated that the domination of Europe was for the future to be shared between them. VIII. At this period M. de Talleyrand, who had been more struck in the recent war by the temerity than by the triumph of the conqueror, thought that Napoleon's military and his own diplomatic career should cease. Fortune, indeed, had carried both the one and the other to the highest point, which, according to their separate characters and the circumstances of the times, they were likely to attain. To Napoleon's marvellous successes seemed now to belong a supernatural prestige, which the slightest mis- fortune was capable of destroying, and which a new victory could hardly augment. So also the reputation of M. de Talleyrand was at its height, and many were disposed to consider him as great a master in the science of politics as * Memoires de Rovigo, vol. iii. p. 116. TALLEYRAND. 135 his sovereign was in that of war. He had acquired, more- over, immense wealth, as it is said, by extorted gifts from ', the Powers with which he had been treating, and more especially from the small princes of Germany, whom in the general division of their territory he could either save or destroy, and also by successful speculations on the stock exchange :* — means of acquiring riches highly dis- creditable to his character, but thought hghtly of in a country that teaches the philosophy of indulgence, and had recently seen wealth so rudely scrambled for, that the " Res si i^ossis rede " had become as much a French as ever it was a Eoman proverb. His health, moreover, was broken, and unequal to the constant attendance on the Emperor's person, which had become almost inseparable from his office ; while the elevation of Berthier to the rank of vice- constable established a precedency exceedingly galling to his pride. Under these circumstances, he solicited and obtained pennission to retire, and already Prince de Benevent received the title of "vice-grand electeur," raising him to the rank of one of the great dignitaries of the Empire ; a position which it appears — so small are even the greatest of us — he desired. This change in his situation, however, was by no means as yet what it has sometimes been represented — a " dis- grace." He still retained great influence in the Emperor's councils, was consulted on all matters relative to foreign affairs, and even appointed with M. de Champagny, his successor, to conduct the negotiations with the court of Spain, which, owing to the invasion of Portugal and the quarrels which had already broken out in the family of Charles lY., were beginning to assume a peculiar cha- racter.! It has been said, indeed, on the one side, that M. de Talleyrand was opposed to any interference with Spain ; * With re<:ard to his habits in this respect, it may not be amiss to refer to the American correspondence : State Papers and Public Documents of the United States, vol. iii. pp. 473 — 479. f A note written by M. Izquierdo, Spanish ambassador to the Court of France, and dated 24th of March, 1808, is exceedingly curious respecting these particulars. 136 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. and, on the other, that it was actually he who first counselled Bonaparte's proceedings in that country. It is probable that he did so far compromise himself in this matter as to advise an arrangement which would have given the territory north of the Ebro to France, and yielded Portugal as a compensation to the Spanish monarch. It is not impossible, moreover, that he knew as early as 1805 — for Joseph Bonaparte was then told to learn the Spanish language — that Napoleon had vague dreams of replacing the Bourbon by the Bonaparte dynasty in the Peninsula. But when the French armies, without notice, took possession of Burgos and Barcelona ; when an insur- rection deposed Charles lY., and the Emperor was about to adopt the pohcy, not of peaceably aggrandizing France and strengthening Spain against Great Britain, but of kidnapping the Spanish princes and obtaining by a sort of trick the Spanish crown, he was resolutely and bitterly opposed to it, saying : " On sempare des couronnes, mats on ne les escamote pas " (" one takes a crown from a sovereign's head, but one does not pick his pocket of it"). " Besides, Spain is a farm which it is better to allow another to cultivate for you, than to cultivate yourself" Comte de Beugnot, in his memoirs recently published, speaks thus of these transactions : * " The Prince de Benevent was acquainted, in all its details, with what had passed (at Bayonne). He appeared indignant. ' Victories,' he said, ' do not suffice to efface such things as these, because there is something in them which it is impossible to describe, that is vile, deceitful, cheating ! I cannot tell what will happen, but you will see that no one will pardon him (the Emperor) for this.' The Due Decres, indeed," M. de Beugnot continues, " has told me more than once that the Emperor had in his presence reproached M. de Talleyrand for having counselled what * " Le prince etait instruit dans le plus grand detail de ce qui s'etait passe h Bayonne, et il m'en parut indigne : * Les victoires,' me disait-il, ' ne suffisent pas pour effacer de pareils traits, parce qu'il y a la je ne sais quoi de vil ; de la tromperie, de la tricherie ! Je ne peux pas dire ce qui en arrivera, mais vous verrez que cela ne lui sera pardonne par personne.' Le due Decres m'a plus d'une fois assurd que TEmpereur avait reproclie en sa pre'sence a M. de Talley- TALLEYBAND. 137 took place at Bayonne, without M. de Talleyrand seeking to excuse himself. This has always astonished me. It is sufficient to have known M. de Talleyrand to be sure that, if he had been favourable to dispossessing the princes of the House of Bourbon of the Spanish throne, he would not have resorted to the means that were employed. Besides, when he spoke to me, it was with a sort of passion that he never displayed but on subjects which strongly excited him." There can be no doubt, indeed, that what took place as to Spain was a subject of great difference between M. de Talleyrand and Napoleon. M. de Talleyrand would never afterwards during the reign of Louis XYIII. have pubHcly affirmed this, surrounded as he was by contemporaries and enemies, if it had not been true. Moreover, the general voice of the time, which is more in such cases to be trusted than any individual testimony, loudly proclaimed it ; and as to not answering Napoleon when he was pouring forth in violent and insulting language the accusations which he sometimes levelled at those who displeased him, it is well known that M. de Talleyrand never replied to such attacks but by an impassible face and a dignified silence. IX. Nor were the affairs of the Peninsula the only ones on which M. de Talleyrand and the Emperor at this time disagreed. The French troops entered Kome and Spain (for Napoleon was now for despoiling the Pope as a prince, after courting him as a Pontiff) about the same epoch ; and the Prince of Benevent was as opposed to one violence as to the other. It was not, however, out of this affair, or that affair in particular, that the enmity between the emperor and his rand de liii avoir conseille tout ce qui s'etait fait a Bayonne, sans que celui-ci etit cherche k s'en de'fendre. Cela m'a toujours ^tonne. D'abord, il suffit de connaitre un peu M. de Talleyrand pour etre bien sfir que, si au fond il a ete d'avis de deposseder du trone d'Espagne les princes de la maison de Bourbon, il n'a certainement pas indique les moyens qu'on a employes. Ensuite, lorsqu'il m'en a parle, c'etait avec une sovte de colore qu'il n'eprouve qu'en presence des evenements qui le remuent fortement." 138 HISTOmCAL CHARACTERS. former minister — an enmity so important in the history of both — took its rise. M. de Talleyrand, the Empire once established and fortunate, had attached himself to it with a sort of enthu- siasm. The poesy of victory, and the eloquence of an exalted imagination, subdued for a time the usual noncha- lance and moderation of his character. He entered into all Napoleon's plans for reconstituting " An Empire of the Francs,'' and reviving the system of fiefs and feudal digni- taries ; by which it is, however, true, that the followers and favourites of the conqueror had nothing to lose. " Any other system," he said, " but a military one, is in our circumstances at present impossible. I am, then, for making that system splendid, and compensating France for her liberty by her grandeur." The principality he enjoyed, though it by no means satisfied him, was a link between him and the policy under which he held it. He wished to keep it, and to safeguard the prosperity of a man, whose adversity would cause him to lose it. But he had a strong instinct for the practical ; all governments, according to his theory, might be made good, except an impossible one. A government depending on constant success in difficult undertakings, at home and abroad, was, according to his notions, impossible. This idea, after the Peace of Tilsit, more or less haunted him. It made him, in spite of himself, bitter against his chief — bitter at first, more because he liked him than because he disliked him. He would still have aided to save the Empire, but he was irritated because he thought he saw the Empire drifting into a system which would not admit of its being saved. A sentiment of this kind, however, is as little likely to be pardoned by one who is accustomed to consider that his will must be law, as a sentiment of a more hostile nature. Napoleon began little by little to hate the man for whom he had felt at one time a predilection, and if he dis- liked any one, he did that which it is most dangerous to do, and most useless ; that is, he wounded his pride with- out diminishing his importance. It is true that M. de Talleyrand never gave any visible sign of being irritated. TALLEYRAND. 139 But few, whatever the philosophy with which they forgive an injury, pardon a humihation ; and thus, stronger and stronger grew by degrees that mutual dissatisfaction which the one vented at times in furious reproaches, and the other disguised under a studiously respectful indifference. X. This carelessness as to the feelings of those whom it would have been wiser not to offend, was one of the most fatal errors of the conqueror, who could not learn to subdue his own passions : but he had become at this time equally indifferent to the hatred and affection of his adherents; and, under the ordinary conviction of persons over-satisfied ■with themselves, fancied that everything depended on his own merits, and nothing on the merits of his agents. The victory of Wagram, and the marriage with Marie-Louise, commenced, indeed, a new era in his history. Fouche was dismissed, though not without meriting a reprimand for his intrigues ; and Talleyrand fell into unequivocal disgrace, in some degree provoked by his witticisms ; whilst round these two men gathered a quiet and observant opposition, descending with the clever adventurer to the lowest classes, and ascending with the dissatisfied noble to the highest. The scion of the princely house of Perigord was, indeed, from his birth, quite as much as from his position in the Empire, at the head of the discontented of the aristocracy ; M. de Talleyrand's house then (the only place, perhaps, open to all persons, where the government of the day was treated without reserve) became a sort of " rendezvous " for a circle which replied to a victory by a hon mot, and con- fronted the borrowed ceremonies of a new court by the natural graces and acknowledged fashions of an old one. All who remember society at this time, will remember that the ex-minister was the sole person who had a sort of existence and reputation, separate and distinct from the chief of the State, whose policy he now affected to consider, and probably did consider, as verging towards the passion of a desperate gambler, who would continue to tempt Fortune until she grew wearied and deserted him. / 140 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Nor did the Austrian alliance, which the Emperor had lately formed, meet with M. de Talleyrand's approval, although he had at one period advised it, and been also mixed up in the question of a marriage with the imperial family of Kussia. This change might have proceeded from his now seeing that such an union as he had at one time favoured, in the hope that it would calm the restless energy of Napoleon, would only stimulate his ambition : or it might have been because, having had nothing to do with the resolutions adopted at Vienna, he had gained nothing by them. At all events, what he said with apparent sincerity, was — "Nothing is ever got by a policy which you merely carry out by halves." " If the Emperor wants an alliance with Austria, he should satisfy Austria : does he think that the House of Hapsburg considers it an honour to ally itself with the House of Bonaparte ? What the Emperor of Austria desires, is to have his provinces restored, and his empire raised and revived : if the government of France does not do this, it disappoints him ; and the worst enemies we can have are those we disappoint." These sentiments, however, found as yet no echo out of the circle of a few independent and enlightened politicians. I remember two of these — both high in the service of the Empire — M. de Barante and M. Mole, referring in my hearing to a conversation they had had at the period I am speaking of, and one saying to the other, " Do you call to mind how we both regarded what was passing before us as a magnificent scene in an opera, which, whilst . it satisfied the eye with its splendour, did not fill the mind with a sense of its reality ?" But the masses were still dazzled by the splendid achievements of a man who, of all others, in ancient or modern history, would have been the greatest if he had joined the instincts of humanity with those of genius: but now each day that passed added to the fatal disposition which separated his future from his past ; each hour he N4 became more haughty and self-confident, and more inclined to an isolated career, which neither tolerated counsel nor clung to afi'ection. Josephine, the wife of his youth — TALLEYBAND. 141 Pauline, his favourite sister — Louis, his youngest brother — Massena, his ablest general — were added to the list on which his two ablest ministers were inscribed. He had no longer even the idea of conciliating mankind to his arbitrary authority. His mighty intellect, subdued by his still mightier ambition, submitted itseK to adopt a system of despotism and oppression which interfered not only with the political opinions, but with the daily wants, of all his subjects and all his allies. War with him had become an effort to exterminate those who still opposed him, by oppressing those who had hitherto aided him. Thus, he had seized the Eomaii pontiff, kidnapped the Spanish kiog, taken violent posses- sion of the Hanseatic towns and the North of Germany ; and even those countries which were free from his armies, were bound, as he contended, to obey his decrees. In this state of things commenced the last and fatal stru^rgle between the two potentates, who a short time before had projected partitioning the empire of the world as friendly confederates, and were now prepared to contend for it as deadly foes. Nor was the justice of M. de Talleyrand's views ever more conspicuous ! The destruction of Prussia, by making Russia and France neighbours, had in itself tended to make them enemies. Moreover, the proud and offended, but dissimulating Czar, though redoubling his courtesy towards the court of France after the choice of an Austrian archduchess, lest he might be supposed hurt by the rejection of a marriage with a princess of his own family, had begun to feel that, with the rest of continental Europe subdued and Austria apparently gained, he was alone in his independence; and to fret under the rein, which his imperious rider pulled, with superb indifference, somewhat too tightly. Besides, though invested with unbounded authority over his people by law and custom, there was the example of his father to teach him that he could not wholly dis- regard their interests or wishes ; yet this was what the Emperor of the French exacted from him. His subjects were not to sell their produce to the only purchaser who was ready and desirous to buy it ; — and being thus harshly 142 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS. and foolislily placed between revolution and war, Alexander chose the latter. XT. On the other hand, Napoleon, in determining on a conflict of which he did not disguise from himself the importance, awoke for a moment to his former sense of the necessity of usin,i^ able men in great affairs, and was disposed, notwithstanding his disagreements with M. de Talleyrand, to send him to Warsaw to organise a kingdom of Poland; nor was it surprising that, confident in the sagacity and tact of the agent he thought of employing, he was also satisfied that, in the event of that agent's accepting employment, he might count perfectly on his fidelity; for throughout M. de Talleyrand's long career and frequent changes there is not any instance of his having betrayed any one from whom he accepted a trust. The difficulty of reconciling the Prince de Benevent's position with that of the Due de Bassano, who accompanied the Emperor on this campaign as minister of foreign affairs, prevented, it is said, the projected arrangement. But neither during this transient gleam of returning favour, nor after it, did M. de Talleyrand's opinion against the chances which Napoleon was unnecessarily (as he thought) running, ever vary; neither were they disguised. He insisted principally on the chance of war, which often decides against the ablest general and the most skilful combinations ; on the great loss which would result from a defeat, and the small gain that would follow a victory. The whole of Europe that the reckless general left behind him was, he knew, kept down merely by fear and con- straint, and though ready to assist an advancing army, certain to fall on a retreating one. Besides, supposing defeat was almost impossible, what had France to gain by success ? Alexander might reiterate his promise of preventing all commercial interchange between Great Britain and his dominions ; but would he be able to keep that promise ? He could not. The mind of Napoleon, however, had now been trained by Fortune to consider wars mere military parades, shortly after the commencement of which he TALLEYBAND. 143 entered the capital of his conquered enemy and returned to Paris to be greeted by enthusiastic acclamations at the theatre. He required this sort of excitement, and like most men similarly influenced, convinced himself that what was pleasing to his vanity was demanded by his interests. There were three epochs, indeed, in Napoleon's career : the first, when he fought for glory abroad to gain empire at home ; the second, when, being master of the govern- ment of France, he fought to extend the limits of France, and to make himself the most powerful individual in his nation, and his nation the most powerful nation in the world; the third, when France being but a secondary consideration, his ambition was bent on becoming master of the universe, and acquiring a dominion of which France would be almost an insignificant portion. It is necessary to bear this in mind, since it explains Napoleon's Eussian campaign ; it explains the difficulties he raised against withdrawing his troops from Germany after that campaign had ended in defeat ; and his constant dislike to accept any conditions that put a positive ex- tinguisher on his gigantic projects. To support his own confidence in such projects he persuaded himself that a charm attached to his existence, that supernatural means would arrive to him when natural means failed. He did not, however, neglect on this occasion the natural means. When Fouche expressed his apprehensions at so vast an enterprise, the soldier's answer is said to have been, " I wanted 800,000 men, and I have them."* But France had begun to be at this period wearied even with his successes ; and the afiair of Mallet, which happened just previously to the arrival of the bad intelligence from Kussia, showed pretty clearly that her Emperor's fall or defeat left an open space for any new system that circum- stances might favour or impose. No sooner, then, had the news that Moscow was burnt reached Paris than M. de Talleyrand considered the Bonapartist cause as lost. Not that Bonaparte might not * " II me fallait 800,000 hommes, et je les ai." — Memoires de Fouche, vol. ii. p. 113. 144 HISTORICAL CHABACTEBS. yet have saved himself by prudence, but he was not prudent ; not but that the French government might not yet have brought as many men in uniform into the field as the allies, but that nations fought on one side, and merely soldiers on the other. The sagacious statesman, therefore, who now began again to be consulted, advised a conclusion of the war, promptly, at once, and on almost all conditions. So, again, when the defection of the Prussians was known, and Napoleon summoned a council to determine what should be done under such circumstances, he said : " Nego- tiate : you have now in your hands effects which you can give away ; to-morrow they may be gone, and then the power to negotiate advantageously will be gone also."* During the armistice at Prague (June, 1813), when the prestige of two or three recent victories coloured the negotiations, and France might have had Holland, Italy, and her natural frontiers, both Talleyrand and Fouche, who was also asked for his advice, repeated constantly, " The Emperor has but one thing to do — to make peace ; and the more quickly he makes it, the better he will make it." So also, when M. de St. Aignan, after the battle of Leipsic, brought propositions from Frankfort, which might even yet have given France her frontier of the Ehine (November), M. de Talleyrand urged their acceptance with the least delay, and told the Emperor that a bad peace was better than the continuation of a war that could not end favourably. t Napoleon himself at this time wavered, and with a momentary doubt as to his own judgment, and a remem- brance very possibly of happier times, offered the portfolio of foreign affairs to his ancient minister, but on the con- dition that he should lay down the rank and emoluments of vice-grand-elector. The object of the Emperor was thus to make M. de Talleyrand entirely dependent on his place; but M. de * Memoires de Bovigo, vol. vi. p. 66. t " Une mauvaise paix ne peut nons devenir aiissi fiineste que la continuation d'une guerre qui ne peut plus nous etre favorable." — Memoires de Bovigo, vol. vi. p. 229. TALLEYBAND, 145 Talleyrand, who would have accepted the office, refused the condition, saying, "If the Emperor trusts me, he should not degrade me ; and if he does not trust me, he should not employ me ; the times are too difficult for half measures." XII. The state of affairs at this period was assuredly most critical. In looking towards Spain, there was to be seen an English army, crowned by victory, and about to descend from the Pyrenees. In looking towards Gemiany, there was a whole population, whom former defeat had ex- asperated, and recent success encouraged, burning to cross the Ehiue in search of the trophies of which an enemy still boasted. In Italy, a defection in the Emperor's family was about to display the full extent of his mis- fortunes. In Holland, the colours of the exiled family (the House of Orange) were displayed with i-apture amidst shouts for national independence; even the King of Denmark had left the French alliance ; while in France a people unanimated by liberty, an army decimated by defeat, generals that had lost their hopes, and arsenab which were empty, were the sole resources with which its ruler had to encounter all Europe in arms. The refusal of M. de Talleyrand, then, to accept office at such a time, unless with all the confidence and splendour that could give it authority, was natural enough ; but it is also not surprising that the sovereign who had made that offer should have been irritated by its rejection, whilst many urged that the vice-grand-elector, if not employed, should be arrested. All proof, however, of treason was wanting ; and the chief of the Empire justly dreaded the effect which, both at home and abroad, any violent act might produce ; for it was far more difficult, than many have supposed, for him to strike, when his power was once on the declme, any strong blow against an eminent functionary. His government was a government of functionaries, throughout whom there reigned a sort of fraternity that could not safely be braved. This stern man had, moreover, — and this was one of the most remarkable and amiable portions of his character — a L 146 HISTOBICAL CHABACTERS. sort of tenderness, which he never overcame, for those who had once been attached to his person, or had done eminent service to his authority.* He resolved, then, not to take any violent measure against M. de Talleyrand ; but though he could restrain his anger from acts, he could not from expressions. A variety of scenes was the consequence. Savary relates one which happened in his presence and that of the arch-chancellor. I have also read of one in which Napoleon, having said that if he thought his own death likely he would take care that the vice-grand-elector should not survive him, was answered by M. de Talleyrand rejoining, quietly and respectfully, that he did not require that reason for desiring that his Majesty's life might be long preserved. M. Mole recounted to me another, in the following terms : " At the end of the Council of State, which took place just before the Emperor started for the campaign of 1814, he burst out into some violent excla- mations of his being surrounded by treachery and traitors ; and then turning to M. de Talleyrand, abused him for ten minutes in the most violent and outrageous manner. Talleyrand was standing by the fire all this time, guarding himself from the heat of the flame by his hat ; he never moved a limb or a feature ; any one who had seen him would have supposed that he was the last man in the room to whom the Emperor could be speaking; and finally, when Napoleon, slamming the door violently, departed, Talleyrand quietly took the arm of M. MoUien, and limped with apparent unconsciousness downstairs. But on getting home, he wrote a dignified letter to the Emperor, saying, that if he retained his present dignity, he should be by right one of the regency, and that as he could not think of holding such a charge after the opinion his Majesty had expressed of him, he begged- to resign his post, and to be allowed to retire into the country. He was informed, however, that his resignation would not be accepted, and that he might stay where he was." * " ' Jamais,' dit-il au dignitaire qui le liii insinuait, ' jamais je ne donnerai la main h, la perte d'un homme qui m'a longtemps servi.' " — Memoires de Hoviyo, vol. vi. p. 298. TALLEYRAND. 147 It is to be presumed that insults like that I have been relating went a great way towards alienating and disgust- ing the person they were meant to humiliate ; but though at the head of a considerable party which were dissatisfied, M. de Talleyrand did little more than watch the proceed- ings of 1814, and endeavour to make the fall of Napoleon, should it take place, as little injurious to France and to himself as possible.* During the conferences at Chatillon, he told those whom the Emperor most trusted, that he would be lost if he did not take peace on any terms; when, however, towards the end of these conferences, peace seemed impos- sible with Napoleon, he permitted the Due Dalberg to send M. de VitroUes to the allied camp with the informa- tion, that, if the allies did not make war against France, but simply against its present ruler, they would find friends in Paris ready to help them. M. de Vitrolles carried a slip of paper from the Due in his boot as his credentials, and was allowed to name M. de Talleyrand ; but he had nothing from that personage himself which could compromise him irrevocably with this mission. M. de Talleyrand saw, nevertheless, at that moment, that a new chief must, as a matter of course, be given to France, and he wished to be the person to decide who that chief should be, and under what sort of institutions the government should be assigned to him. StjU, his communications with the Bourbons were, I beheve, merely indirect. Many of their partisans were his * M. Thiers gives the account of such a scene as we have just de- scribed, but fixes it in 1809 ; nothing is omitted, not even the position of M. de Talleyrand and his hat ; and in this account M. Thiers makes N a}X)leon accuse Talleyrand of the murder of the Due d'Enghien. I cannot but believe that M. Thiers's authority has been incorrect. Count Mol^ could not be mistaken as to dates and facts, for he was present at the scene I have related, and stated to me all the details, as I have given them, without touching on the Due d'Enghien, which he certainly would have spoken of had Napoleon himself done so. The Emperor's reproaches were, according to Count Mole, entirely confined to w^hat he considered were M. de Talleyrand's intrigues at that particular time — intrigues which were not, however, then further advanced than in clearing away the obstacles which might interfere with his defection, if Napoleon was ultimately defeated. 148 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. relatives and friends. He said obliging things of Louis XYIII. to them, and he received obliging messages in return : but he did not positively adopt their cause ; in fact, it seems doubtful whether he did not for a certain time hesitate between the ancient race, and the King of Eome with a Council of regency, in which he was to have had a place. At all events, he kept the minister of police, according to Savary's own account, alive to the Eoyalist movements in the south. It may even be said that he did not desert the Bonaparte dynasty till it deserted itself: for at the Council, assembled when the allies were approaching Paris to determine whether the Empress should remain in the capital or quit it, he advised her stay in the strongest manner, saying it was the best, if not the only, means of preserving the dynasty, and he did not cease urging this opinion until Joseph Bonaparte produced a letter from his brother, stating that in such a case as that under consideration Marie-Louise should retire into the provinces. It was then that, on leaving the council chamber, he said to Savary : * " Here, then, is the end of all this. Is not that also your opinion ? we lose the rubber with a fair game. Just see where the stupidity of a few ignorant men, who perse veringly work on the influence acquired by daily intercourse, ends by carrying one. In truth, the Emperor is much to be pitied, and yet nobody will pity him ; for his obstinacy in holding to those who surround him, has no reasonable motive ; it is only a weakness which cannot be conceived in such a man. What a fall in history ! To give his name to adventures, instead of giving it to his age 1 When I think of this I cannot help being grieved. * " Eh bien ! voilii done la fin de tout ceci. N'est-ce pas aussi voire opinion ? Ma foi ! c'est perdre une partie k beau jeu. Voyez un peu oil mfene la sottise de quelques ignorants qui exercent avec perseverance une influence de chaque jour. Pardieu ! I'Empereur est bien a plaindre, et on ne le plaindra pas, parce que son obstina- tion a garder son entourage n'a pas de motif raisonable ; ce n'est que de la faiblesse qui ne se comprend pas dans un homme tel que lui. Voyez, monsieur, quelle chute dans I'histoire ! Donner son nom k des aventures au lieu de le donner k son sifecle ! Quand je pense k cela je ne puis m'empecher d'en gemir. Maintenant quel parti TALLEYRAND. 149 And now what is to be done ? It does not suit every one to be crushed under the ruins of the edifice that is to be overthrown. Well, we shall see what will happen ! " The Emperor, instead of abusing me, would have done better in estimating at their first value those who set him against me. He should have seen that friends of that kind are to be more dreaded than enemies. What would he say to another who let himself be reduced to the state in which he is now ?" xriT. The observation that it did not suit every one to be overwhelmed under the ruins of the government about to fall, applied, as it was intended to do by M. de Talleyrand, to himself. The part, however, he had to play was still a difficult one ; desirous to remain in Paris in order to treat with the allies, he was ordered, as a member of the regency, to Blois. Nor was it merely because he feared that Napoleon might yet conquer, and punish his dis- obedience, that he disliked to resist his command ; there is a sense of decency in public men which sometimes supplies the place of principle, and the vice-grand-elector wished to avoid the appearance of deserting the cause which notwithstanding he had resolved to abandon. The expedient he adopted was a singular and charac- teristic one. His state carriage was ordered and packed for the journey : he set out in it with great pomp and ceremony, and found, according to an arrangement pre- viously made with Madame de Eemusat, her husband at the head of a body of the National Guard at the barrier, who stopped him, and, declaring he should remain in the capital, conductod him back to his hotel, in the Kue St.' Florentin, in which he had soon the honour of receiving the Emperor Alexander. prendre ? II ne convient pas k tout le monde de se laisser engloutir sous les ruiaes de cat edifice. Allons, nous verrous ce qui arrivera ! " L'Empereur, au lieu de me dire des injures, aurait mieux fait de juger ceux qui lui inspiraient des preventions ; il aurait vu que des amis comme ceux-lk sont plus k craindre que des ennemis. Que dirait-il d'un autre s'il s'etait laisse mettre dans cet ^tat ?'* — Memoires du Due de Rovigo, citds jjar M. Thiers. 150 HISTORICAL CHABACTEBS. The success of the campaign had been so rapid, the march to Paris so bold, the name of Napoleon and the valour of the French army were still so formidable, that the Emperor of the Eussias was almost surprised at the situation in which he found himself, and desirous to escape from it by any peace that could be made safely, quickly, and with some chance of duration. Beyond this, he had no fixed idea. The re-establishment of the Bourbons, to which the English Government inchned, seemed to him in some respects dangerous, as well on account of the long absence of these princes from France, as from their indi- vidual character and the prejudices of their personal adherents. To a treaty with Napoleon he had also reasonable objection. Some intermediate plan was the one perhaps most present to his mind ; a regency with Marie-Louise, — a substitution of Bernadotte for Bona- parte ; but all plans of this sort were vague, and to be tested by the principle of establishing things in the manner 'most satisfactory to Europe, and least hateful to France. Universal opinion pointed out M. de Talleyrand as the person not only most able to form, but most able to carry out at once whatever plan was best suited to the emer- gency. This is why, on arriving at Paris, the Emperor took up his abode at M. de Talleyrand's house, Kue St. Florentin, where he held, under the auspices of his host, a sort of meeting or council which determined the destiny of France. XIV. Among various relations concerning this council is that of M. Bourrienne, and if we are to believe this witness of the proceedings he recounts, M. de Talleyrand thus answered the Emperor's suggestion as to the crown prince of Sweden, and pronounced on the various pretensions that had been successively brought forward : " Sire, you may depend upon it, there are but two things possible, Bonaparte or Louis XVIII. I say Bonaparte ; but here the choice wiU not depend wholly on your Majesty, for you are not alone. If we are to have a soldier, however, let it be Napoleon ; he is the first TALLETEAND. 151 in the world. I repeat it, sire: Bonaparte or Louis XYIII. ; each represents a party, any other merely an intrigue." It was a positive opinion thus forcibly expressed that, according to all accounts, decided the conqueror, who is said to have declared subsequently : " When I arrived at Paris, I had no plan. I referred everything to Talleyrand ; he had the family of Napoleon in one hand, and that of the Bourbons in the other ; I took what he gave me." The resolution not to treat with Napoleon or his family being thus taken, M. de Talleyrand engaged the Emperor of Eussia to make it known by a proclamation placarded on the walls of Paris, and the public read in every street that " Les souverains allies ne traiteront plus ni avec Napoleon Bonaparte ni avec aucun membre de sa famille." But this was not all. M. de Talleyrand did not wish to escape from the despotism of Napoleon to fall under that of Louis XYIII. He counted little on royal grati- tude, and it was as necessary for his own security, as for that of his country, that the passions of the emigration and the pride of the House of Bourbon should be kept in check by a constitution. Hence, at his instigation, the famous proclamation I refer to contained the following sentence : " lis reconnaitront et garantiront la constitu- tion que la nation fran^aise se donnera, et invitent par con- sequent le Senat a designer un gouvernement provisoire qui puisse pourvoir aux besoins de I'administration ; il preparera la constitution qui conviendra au peuple fran9ais. Alexandre. 31 mars 1814." In this manner the alhes recognised the Senate as the representative of the French nation, and, as M. de Talley- rand had a predominant influence with the Senate, his victory seemed secure. This was on the 31st March. But on the 30th, late towards the night, and as Marmont and Mortier, having defended the heights of Paris valiantly during the day, were quitting that city in virtue of a capitulation they had been compelled by the circumstances in which they found themselves to sign, Napoleon, who had taken the advance v^ 152 HISTORICAL CHABACTEES. of his army, arrived at the environs of his capital, and learnt from General Belliard, who was leaving it, what had occurred. With the view of collecting his troops, still on their march, at Fontainebleau, and gaining time for this purpose, he sent Caulincourt, who had represented him at Chatillon, to the sovereigns, who were then masters of the situation, with orders to enter into feigned negotia- tions with them, on almost any terms. Now, though the Czar and the King of Prussia had pretty well resolved to have nothing further to do with Napoleon, and had stated that resolution in a pretty decided manner, there was disquietude in the neighbour- hood of the great captain, who could rely on a military force, amounting, it was said, to 50,000, exclusive of the forces of Marmont and Mortier. The armies of Augereau and Soult also still existed at no immense distance. The lower class in Paris, who had more national sentiments and less personal interests in jeopardy than the upper, were, as it had been remarked in the passage of the Eussian and Prussian troops through Paris, moody and discontented ; a shadow of the former terror of Napoleon's power still remained on the minds of many who had so long bowed to his will, and were only half disposed to overthrow his authority. Negotiations, as Caulincourt's presence at Paris proved, would be attempted. There was no time, then, to be lost. On the 1st April, M. de Talleyrand assembled the Senate under his pre- sidence (for, as vice-president and grand dignitary of the Empire, this function legitimately belonged to him). That body, surprised at its own power, and placing it readily in its president's hands, who (alluding to Marie- Louise's retreat) called on them to come to the aid of a state without any constituted authority, named, " seance tenantej" "a provisional government," consisting, with M. de Talleyrand at its head, of five members. These persons had all played an honourable and distinguished part under the Empire or in the National Assembly, but the only one representing Legitimist opinions was the Abbe Montesquieu. At the same time the Senate, entirely partaking M. de TALLEYRAND. 153 Talleyrand's ideas as to a constitution, engaged itself to form one within a few days. Nothing, however, was as yet said of the intended exclu- sion of iSapoleon and his family, nor of the approaching reign of the Bourhons. Many of the partisans of the latter were as much astonished as vexed at this omission. Still entertaining ideas which they had carried into a long exile, they could not even conceive what France, or the French Senate, or the allies, had to do with the dis- posal of the French government. \Yas not Louis XYIII. the next in blood to Louis XVI. ? Could there be a doubt that he was the only possible king, the unholy and auda- cious usui'per having been defeated ? Did not the Comte d'Artois, said the ladies of the Faubourg St. Germain, long to embrace his early associate, the Bishop of Autun ? M. de Talleyrand, with a smile slightly cynical, acknow- ledged the extreme happiness that this embrace would give him; but begged, half mysteriously, that it might be deferred for the present. He did not, however, think it expedient that the Senate should delay any longer con- firming the act of the coalition as to Napoleon's deposition ; and that assembly (exposing, as the motives of its conduct, a thousand grievances which it had been its previous duty to prevent), declared, as the Emperor Alexander had already declared, that neither Napoleon nor his family should reign in France, and relieved the nation from its oath of allesdance. It named also a ministry composed of men suited for the occasion, and thus assumed provisionally all the attributes of government. In the meantime the deposed Emperor, stiU at Fontaine- bleau, with an energy which misfortune had not abated, was counting his gathering forces, studying the position of his foes, and forming the plan for a final and desperate effort, which consisted in defeating one of the three divisions of the enemy, which was on the left bank of the Seine, and following it in its flight into the streets of Paris, where, amidst the general confusion, he felt certain of an 154 HISTOBICAL CHABACTERS. easy victory, even if amongst the blazing ruins of the imperial city. With him losses that led to success were not calculated : and though he would have preferred victory on other terms, he was perfectly willing to take it as he could get it. At least, this was said ; and the intention attributed to him, and which he did not deny, having being promulgated before it was executed, shattered the remaining fidelity of his superior officers. He could not understand their timorous scruples ; nor they his desperate resolves. An altercation ensued, and, rendered bold by despair, the marshals ventured to urge his abdication in favour of his son. He foresaw the futility of this proposition, but was nevertheless induced to accede to it, partly in order to show the idleness of the hopes which his unwelcome counsellors afiected to cherish, partly in order to get rid of their presence, and thus to find himself free, as he thought, to execute his original projects, should he determine on doing so. Ney, Macdonald, together with Caulincourt, who had rejoined the Emperor on the 2nd of April, and communi- cated the inefficacy of his previous mission, were sent then to the allied sovereigns ; they were to enumerate their remaining forces, protest as to their unwavering fidelity to that family, the fortunes of which they had so long followed — declare resolutely against the legitimate princes, whom they considered strangers to their epoch ; and state, with firmness, their resolve to conquer or perish by the side of their ancient master, if this, the last proposal they could make in his name, were rejected. They carried with them Marmont, at the head of the important division of Bonaparte's army stationed on the Essonne, and commanding the position of Fontainebleau. This general, though the one most favoured by Napoleon, had nevertheless already entered into a capitulation with the Austrian general ; but, urged by his brother marshals, to whom he confessed his treason, to retract his engagements, he did so ; and ordering those ofiicers under his command, and who had been acquainted with his designs, to remain quiet till his return, accompanied Ney and Macdonald to TALLEYBAND. 155 Paris. The haughty bearing, the bold and vehement language, of men accustomed to command and conquer, and representing an army which had marched victoriously from Paris to Moscow, made an impression on the some- what flexible Alexander. He did not accord nor deny their petition, and granted them another interview on the morrow, at which the King of Prussia was to be present. This one took place on the 5th of April, at two in the morning, with himself alone. The struggle was yet undecided ; for the Emperor of Kussia was never very favourable, as I have said, to the Legitimists, and quite alive to the consideration of settling matters quietly with Bonaparte, who had arms in his hands, rather than with the Bourbons, who had not. M. de Talleyrand had aaain to exert himself, and with his easy, respectful, but self-confident manner, to point out the feebleness and dishonour of which (though acting under feelings of the noblest generosity) the Czar would be accused, if, after having compromised himself and his allies by what he had been doing during the last few days, he was at last to undo it. He added, as it is said, that he did not, in holding this language, consult his own interests, for it was probable that he should have a more durable position under the regency of Marie-Louise, if such a regency could be durable, than under that of the emigra- tion, which, it was much to be feared, from what was then passing (he wished to call the Emperor's attention to the efforts which this party was at that very moment making against the publication of a constitution), would, ere long, become more powerful and more forgetful than could be desired. " Pardon my observations, sire," he continued — " others are uneasy, but I am not — for I know full well that a sovereign at the head of a valorous army is not likely to admit the dictation of a few officers of a hostile force, more particularly when they represent the very principle of constant war which the French nation repu- diates, and which has armed the allies." Both the Emperor Alexander (whose transitory emotion soon passed away) and the King of Prussia received the marshals on the following day, under the impressions that 156 HIST OBI OAL CHARACTERS. M. de Talleyrand's remarks and their own considerate judgment produced ; and tlie refusal to treat on any basis that gave the government of France to Napoleon or his family, was clearly but courteously pronounced. The marshals were persisting in their representations, when a Eussian officer, who had just entered the room, whispered something into Alexander's ear : it was the intelligence that the division of Marshal Marmont had quitted its post ; an accident produced by the officers, to whom he had confided his troops, having fancied that their intended treachery was discovered, and would be punished, unless immediately consummated. After such -a defection, the moral power of the deputation, which could no longer speak in the name of the army, was gone; and all it attempted to procure was an honourable provision for the Emperor and the Empress, if the former tendered an immediate abdication. The advice of his generals, who accepted these poor conditions, left their commander no alternative but submission, for his government was a military machine, of which the main instrument now broke in his hands. On the 6th, the Senate framed a constitution, which, on the 8th, was published, creating a constitutional monarchy, with two chambers, and conferring the throne of France on Louis XVIII. if he accepted that constitution. On the 11th was signed a treaty by which Marie-Louise and her son received the principality of Parma, and Napoleon the sovereignty of Elba, a small island on the coast of Italy, where it was presumed that a man, still in the prime of life, and with the most restless spirit that ever beat in human bosom, would remain quiet and contented in the sight of empires he had won and lost. ( 157 ) Part Y. from the fall of the emperor napoleon, in 1814, to THE END OF M. DE TALLEYRANd's ADMDflSTRATION, IN SEPTEMBER, 1815.. Comte d'Ai-tois, Lieutenaut-General of France. — Treaty of the 23rd of April for the evacuation of France. — Louis XVIII., contrary to M. de Talley- rand's advice, refuses to accept the crown with a constitution as the gift of the nation; but, agreeing to the first as a right, grants the second. — Forms his government of discordant materials, naming M. de Talleyrand, of whom his distrust and jealousy, soon apj^ear, Minister of Foreign Aifairs. — Reactionary spirit of the Emigre' jarty and Comte d'Artois. — Treaty of Paris. — M. de Talleyrand then goes to Vienna, and, in the course of negotiations there, contrives to make a separate treaty with Austria and Great Britain, and thus to break up solidarity of the alliance aiiainst France. — Bonaparte escapes from Elba. — New treaty against Napoleon ; not clear as to its intentions, but appear- ing as renewal of Treaty of Paris. — Bourbons go to Ghent. — Bonaparte in- stalled at the Tuileries. — M. de Talleyrand goes to Carlsbad. — Prince Metter- nich intrigues with Fouche for Napoleon's deposition in favour of the regency of his wife; does not succeed. — The Allies again take up Louis XVIIl. — M. de Talleyrand goes to Ghent. — At fiist ill received, — -Lectures the Bourbons. — Is again made Minister. — Opposed by Royalist party and the Emperor of Russia; feebly supported by us ; abandoned by Louis XVIII. — Resigns. I. Such for the moment was the end of the long straggle which M. de Talleyrand had maintained with a man superior to all others in the power of his faculties ; but who, owing to certain faults, which were perhaps inse- parable from the haughty and imaginative nature of those taculties, was finally vanquished by the patience, moderation, and tact of an adversary of far inferior genius, whose hostility he had, by a singular instinct, dreaded, and, by an unaccountable carelessness, provoked. I have said that when M. de Talleyrand first attached himself to the destinies of Napoleon, he expected from 158 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. him — first, Ms own advancement ; secondly, the advance- ment of French interests. He followed Napoleon, then, obsequiously up to the period at which he foresaw clearly that the policy of that personage was beginning to be such as would neither profit an intelligent adherent nor establish a durable empire. It cannot be said, however, that in separating himself from this policy, after the treaty of Tilsit, he left his sovereign in a moment of adversity. France never ap- peared to people in general so great, nor its ruler so stable, as at that epoch. It was not at the moment of any evident dechne in either, but at a moment when to a keen observer there was visible a tendency which if pursued would, a little sooner or a little later, plunge both into inextricable calamities, that the Prince de Benevent detached himself quietly from the chariot that bore the great soldier's fortunes. Even then he did little more than express with mode- ration the convictions he felt ; and indeed his opposition when most provoked was never against the individual whom he had served, but against the system that indi- vidual was blindly pursuing. As the horizon grew darker, he neither shrank from giving his advice, which events proved invariably to be just, nor refused his services, if they were allowed the necessary means of being useful. His infidelity up to the last consisted in giving counsel that was rejected, and taking measures with much reserve for preserving himself and his country in some degree from the fate that was preparing for its ruler. Nor was it until Napoleon and the nation became two distinct things, and it appeared necessary to destroy the one in order to save the other, that it can be said that M. de Talleyrand conspired against the man, who, it must be added, never asked for heartfelt devotion in exacting blind obedience. There was nothing on earth, in fact, which Napoleon himself ^^ould not have sacrificed, and did not unscru- pulously sacrifice, to promote his own objects. He said, and I believe thought, that these were the happiness and TALLEYBAND. 159 glory of France. Behind his selfishness there was, all must admit, a great and nohle idea ; but those who felt sure that he was mistaken were not bound to subject their notions of patriotism to his : M. de Talleyrand had not been his creature, nor raised up from the dust by him. He had been a distinguished and eminent man before General Bonaparte's career had commenced, and it is hardly fair to talk of his treachery to a man, who had of late years wearied him with aflronts, — when the most intimate of that man's favourites (Marshal Berthier) told Louis XYIII. at the commencement of the Piestoration, "that France had groaned for twenty-five years under the weight of misfortunes that only disappeared at the sight of its legitimate sovereign." The principal if not tbe only 'question at issue con- cerning M. de Talleyrand in these afiairs is, AYhether the advice to place Louis XYIII on the French throne was good or bad advice? What other candidates were there? Bonaparte vanquished was out of the question. He had not only become odious to M. de Talleyrand ; he was equally so to all Europe and to all France, — the broken fragments of his army excepted. There was something to say in favour of a regency with Marie-Louise ; but her husband himself declared at Fontainebleau that she was incapable of acting for herself. If Napoleon was in a situation to direct her, the govern- ment was evidently still Napoleon's. If she was placed in the hands of the marshals, the exchange was that of a military empire with order and a redoubtable chief, for a military empire with confusion and without a chief; Marie-Louise was, moreover, out of Paris. Had she remained at Paris, had Bonaparte perished on the field of battle, or been placed anywhere in secure guardianship, the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, assisted and controlled by four or five men of eminence, moderation, and capacity, whom the alhes could have joined to her, might have been a possibility more compatible perhaps with the epoch than the half-forgotten inheritor of the crown of Louis XYL ; but when the choice was to be made, this combination had gone by. 160 mSTOEICAL GHABACTERS. Then there was the House of Orleans. But this younger branch of the Bourbon family was personally almost as unknown to France as the elder one. The name that connected it with the Eevolution was not popular, on the other hand, even with the revolutionists. A mere soldier put on Napoleon's throne by foreigners was an evident humiliation to the French people. Louis XYIII., therefore, really seems the only person at the moment who \ could carry with him to the vacant place any dignity, and represent there, as M. de Talleyrand said, any principle. This prince in early life had been supposed favourable to constitutional government. His residence of late years had been in a constitutional country. He had never been remarkable for the strength of his personal attachments, and he had, moreover, in his character, or at least in his manner, a certain authority, which rendered it probable that he would keep in order the more zealous of his partisans. Thus, it seemed likely that he would frankly accept such a government as England possessed and France had desired in 1789, to the opinions of which period the more thinking portions of the French nation still looked back with respect. Eisks had to be run, whatever resolution might be taken ; but risks in critical times have always to be run, and a man of action can only choose the least dangerous. II. At all events, having deliberately adopted the legitimate monarchy with a constitution, there can be no doubt as to M. de Talleyrand having followed up this idea, amidst immense difficulties, with great boldness and dexterity. The task, however, so far as it depended on his skill, tact, and activity, was now nearly over ; and its ultunate success was about to be confided to those who were to reap the fruits of his efforts. It will have been seen, by what I have said of the constitution voted by the Senate, that Louis XYin. was named King conditionally on his accepting a constitution; a clause against which the Royalists had revolted. TALLETBAND. 161 The Comte d'Artois, at that time out of Paris and in no recognised position, insisted on appearing in the capital ; and, Napoleon having abdicated on the 11th, he executed his intention on the 12th, assuming the title of " Lieu- tenant-general of the Kingdom," a title which he pretended to have received from his brother, but which his brother, it appears, had never given him. Nothing could be more awkward than the position thus created : Louis XYIII. was not yet sovereign by any national act ; and yet the Comte d'Artois pretended that he was invested with royal authority by Louis XVIII. To establish as a right the Bourbon monarchy, was by no means the intention of those who had called back the Bourbon family ; and yet they had so compromised them- selves to the Bourbon cause, that it was no easy matter to recede from the ground they stood upon. The resolution to be taken had to be immediate. Should the existing authorities assist at the Comte d'Artois' entry or not ? M. de Talleyrand and the provisional government did assist, for their abstinence would have been a scandal ; the Senate did not assist, for its presence would have stultified its previous decisions. I am led to insert an animated account of this entry, not only because it is painted with the colouring of an eye- witness ; but because it gives an amusing description of the concoction of a celebrated hon mot, which was not without its efiect on the early popularity of the prince to whom it was attributed. * " Next morning (12th of April), we marched out to meet the prince. It was one of those lovely days of early spring which are so delightful in the climate of Paris. The sun was shining with all its splendour, and on every side the tender buds were sprouting under the influence of its subdued and genial warmth. There were flowers * " Le Icndemain, 12 avril, on se mit en marche pour aller au- devant de Monsieur. Le temps ^tait admirable ; c'etait un de ces premiers jours du printemps, ravissants sous la temperature de Paris, oil le soleil brille de tout son eclat, et ne distribue qu'une chaleur douce aux germes encore tendres qui sourdissent de toutes parts. Quelques fleurs d^j^ entr'ouvertes, un vert tendre qui commen9ait k M 162 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. already half blown, and the soft green was just beginning to peep from the trees, while the spring notes of birds, the joyous expression of every face, our march enlivened by the dear old tune of good King Henry, all served to mark out this day as a festival of Hope. There was little order in our ranks, but many shed tears. As soon as Monsieur was in sight, M. de Talleyrand advanced to welcome him, and, leaning against the prince's horse with that indolent grace, which the weakness of his legs excused, he paid him a short compliment, remarkable for its delicacy and good taste. Feeling that Frenchmen were pressing him on all sides, the prince was too affected to make him a reply, but said with a voice stifled by sobs, ' Monsieur de Talleyrand, gentlemen.— Thank you — I am too happy — Let us proceed, let us proceed — I am too happy !' " Since then, we have heard the same prince reply to speeches with presence of mind and effect : but, to those who saw and heard him the day of his entry into Paris, he* has never been so eloquent as on that occasion. We now proceeded in the direction of Notre-Dame, according to the old custom of going, after every joyful event, to the most Venerable church of Paris, in order to offer solemnly to Grod the grateful homage of the French nation. The procession was principally composed of National Guards, but it also poiiidre sur les arbres, le chant des oiseaux piintaniers, Fair de joie repaudu sur les figures, et le vieux refrain du bon Henri qui marquait la marche, avaient signal^ cette entrde comme la fete de I'Esperance. II y r^gnait peu d'ordre, mais on y repandait des larmes. D^s qu'on vit paraitre le prince, M. de Talleyrand alia k sa rencontre, et en s'appuyant sur le cheval du prince, avec la grace nonchalante qu'autorise la faiblesse de ses jambes, il lui debita un compliment en quatre lignes, frappe au coin d'une sensibilite exquise. Le prince, qui, de toutes parts se sentait presse par des Fran^ais, dtait trop emu pour pouvoir repondre; il dit, d'une voix etouffee par les sanglots : ' Monsieur de Talleyrand, Messieurs, je vous remercie ; je suis trop heureux. Marchons, marchons, je suis trop heureux !' " Nous avons entendu depuis, le meme prince repondre avec de la presence d'espritetdu bonheur aux harangues qu'on luifaisait, mais, pour ceux qui I'ont vu et qui I'ont entendu k son entree a Paris, il ne fut jamais aussi Eloquent que ce jour-la. Le cortege se mit en marche loour Notre-Dame, suivant I'antique usage d'aller porter k Dieu, dans la premiere eglise de Paris, les hommages solennels des Fmn^ais pour chaque evenement heureux. La garde nationale TALLEYRAND. 163 contained Kussian, Prussian, Austrian, Spanish, and Portu- guese officers, and the prince at their head appeared hke an angel of peace descended into the midst of the great European family. From the Barriere de Bondy to the Parvis Notre- Dame, faces beaming with joy were seen at every window. The streets were crowded with people who pressed round the prince with shouts of applause. It was difficult for him to advance in the midst of such general enthusiasm, but when some one attempted to clear the way by removing this pleasing impediment, he exclaimed, ' Never mind, sir, never mind, we have plenty of time before us.' Thus was the prince borne along to Notre- Dame, if I may be allowed the expression, on the hearts of Frenchmen. After entering the sanctuary, when he cast himself down before the altar, which had received during so many centuries the prayers of his fathers, a vivid ray of light fell upon his countenance, and made it appear almost heavenly. He prayed fervently, and we all did the same. The tears trickled down our cheeks, and they escaped from the eyes even of the foreigners. Oh ! how sincerely, how fervently was each verse of the hymn of gratitude upraised to Heaven ! When the ceremony was concluded, several of the prince's old servants, who had bewailed his absence formait le fond du cortege, mais il se composait aiissi d'officieis russes, prussiens, autrichiens, espagnols, portugais, a, la tete desqaels le prince apparaissait comme un ange de paix descendu au milieu de la grande famille europeenne. Depuis la Barriere de Bondy jusqu'au Parvis Notre-Dame, il n'y avait pas une fenetre qui ne flit garnie de figures rayonnantes de joie. Le peuple, r^pandu dans les rues, pouisuivait le prince de ses applaudissements et de ses cris. A j)eine pouvait-il avancer au milieu de I'ivresse g^ne'rale, et il r^- pondit a quelqu'un qui voulait ecarter de si douces entraves : ' Laissez, Monsieur, laissez, j'arriverai toujours trop tot.' " C'est ainsi que le prince fut, s'il est permis de le dire, porte jus- qu'k Notre-Dame sur les coeurs des Fran9ai8 ; et "k son entree dans le sanctuaire, lorsqu'il se prosterna aux pieds de I'autel, qui avait, durant tant de si^cles, recu les prieres de ses pferes, un rayon de lumifere trfes-vive vint frapper sur sa figure et lui imprima je ne sais quoi de celeste. II priait avec ardeur ; tons priaicnt avec lui. Des Lirmes mouillaient nos yeux; il en e'chappait aux Strangers eux- mSmes. Oh! avec quelle verite, avec quelle ardeur, chaque strophe de I'hymne de la reconnaissance etait pouss^e vers les cieux ! A la fin de la c^r^monie, de vieux serviteurs du prince qui avaient pleura' 164 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. during thirty years, came to embrace liis knees, and he raised them up with that heart-sprung grace so touching and so natural to him. Tlie return from Notre -Dame to the Tuileries was no less animated and happy ; and when he had reached the court of the palace, the prince dis- mounted, and turning to the National Guard, addressed them in a speech perfectly suited to the occasion. He shook hands with several of the officers and men, begging them to remember this happy day, and protesting that he himself would never forget it. 1 ordered the palace doors to be opened for the prince, and had the honour of showing him into the wing which he was to inhabit. " I asked him to give me his orders for the rest of the day, and to tell me the hour at which I should present myself the next morning. He seemed to hesitate whether he would dismiss or retain me. I thought I could perceive tliat this arose from kindly feeling, so I told him that I should be afraid of troubling him an instant longer, as he must be fatigued, and it was to me that he replied, ' How can I possibly be fatigued ? This is the only happy day I have enjoyed for thirty years. Ah ! sir, what a delightful day ! Say that I am pleased trente ans son absence embrassaient ses genoux, et il les relevait avec cette grace du coeur si touch ante et qui lui est si naturelle. Le retour, de Notre-Damc aux Tuileries ne fnt pas moins anime, moins heureux, et, parvenu dans la cour du palais, le prince descendit le cheval et adressa k la garde nationale une allocution parfaitement appliqude k la situation. II prit la main k plusieurs oflBciers et soldats, les pria de se souvenir de ce beau jour, et leur protesta que lui-meme ne I'oublierait jaroais. Je fis ouvrir devant le ])rince les portes du palais et j'eus I'lionneur de I'introduire dans I'aile qu'il devait habiter. " Je lui demandai ses ordres pour le reste de la journ^e, et I'heure k laquelle je devais me presenter le lendemain pour le travail. Le prince paraissait hesiter s'il me laisserait partir ou me retiendrait. Je crus m'apercevoir que c'etait indulgence de sa part, et je lui dis que je craindrais de I'occuper une minute de plus, parce que je le supposais fatigue, et c'est k moi qu'il repondit : — ' Comment voulez- vous que je sois fatigue ? C'est le seul jour de bonheur que j'ai goute depuis trente ans. Ah! monsieur, quelle belle journee! .Dites que je suis heureux et satisfait de tout le monde. Voilk m ordres pour aujourd'hui — a demain, a neuf heures du matin.' TALLEYRAND. 165 and satisfied with everybody. These are my orders for to-day. To morrow morning, at nine o'clock.' " After leaving tlie prince, I resumed my usual oc- cupation, and quitted it at about eleven o'clock in the evening, to go to M. de Talleyrand's. I found him dis- cussing the events of the past day with MM. Pasquier, Dupont de Nemours, and Angles. They all agreed that it had been a complete success. M. de Tallevrand re- minded us that an article would have to be written for the Moniteur. Dupont offered to do it. ' Xo, no,' re- plied M. de Talleyrand, ' you would make it too poetical ; I know you well : Beugnot will do for that ; I dare say that he will step into the library, and knock us off an article in a moment.' " I sat down to my work, which was not very difficult : but when the prince's answer to M. de Talleyrand had to be mentioned, I did not know what to do. A few words, springing from a deep emotion, make effect by the manner in which they are spoken, and by the presence of the objects which have suggested them; but, when they have to be reproduced on paper, stripped of these accompaniments, they remain cold, and it is very lucky if they are not ridiculous. I returned to M. de Talley- rand, and informed him of the difficulty. * Let us see,' he answered, ' what Monsieur did say ; I did not catch " En qiiittant le prince, je repris mon travail ordinaire et je le quittai sur les onze heures du soir pour aller chez M, de Talleyrand. Je le trouvai s'entretenant de la joiirnee avec MM. Pasquier, Dupont de Nemours, et Angles. On s'accordait a la trouver parfaite. M. de Talleyrand rappela qu'il fallait un article au Moniteur. Dupont s'offrit de le faire. * Non pas,' reprit M. de Talleyrand, ' vous y mettriez de la poesie ; je vous connais. Beugnot suffit pour cela; qu'il passe dans la bibliotheque et qu'il broche bien vite un article pour que nous Ten voy ions k ISauvo.' " Je me mets k la besogne qui n'etait pas fort epinense, mais par- venu k la mention de la reponse du prince a M. de Talleyrand, j'y suis embarrasse. Quelques mots echapp6s k un sentiment profond produisent de I'effet par le ton dont ils sontprononcds, par la presence des objets qui les out provoques, mais quand il s'agit de les traduire sur le papier, depouilles de ces entours, ils ne sont plus que froids, et trop heureux s'ils ne sont pas ridicules. Je revieus a M. de Talley- rand, et je lui fais part de la diflficulte'. — ' Voyons,' me repondit-il, 166 HISTOEICAL CHARACTERS. much ; he appeared to me to be afifected, and very anxious to continue his journey ; but, if what he said does not suit you, invent an answer for him.' ' But how can I make a speech that Monsieur never pronounced ?' ' There is no difficulty about that ; make it good, suitable to the person and to the occasion, and I promise you that Monsieur will accept it, and so well, that in two days he will believe he made it himself ; and he will have made it himself; you will no longer have had anything to do with it.' Capital ! I returned and attempted my first version, and brought it to be approved. * That won't do,' said M. de Talleyrand, ' Monsieur never makes an- titheses, nor does he use the slightest rhetorical flourish. Be brief, be plain, and say what is best suited to the speaker and to his audience : that's all.' ' It seems to me,' replied M. Pasquier, ' that what is troubling a good many minds, is the fear of changes, which would be brought about by the return of the princes of the house of Bourbon ; that point would perhaps have to be touched, but delicately.' ' Good ! and I also recommend it to you,' said M. de Talleyrand. I attempt a new version, and am sent back a second time, for having made it too long and too elaborate. At last I am delivered of the one inserted in the Moniteur, in which I make the prince say, ' qu'a dit Monsieur ? Je n'ai pas entendu grand'chose ; il me parais- sait emu et fort ciirieux de continiier sa route ; mais si ce qu'il a dit ne vous convient pas, faites-lui une reponse.' ' Mais comment faire un discours que Monsieur n'a pas tenu ?' * La difficulte n'est pas la : faites-le bon, convenable h. la personne et au moment, et je vous promets que Monsieur I'acceptera, et si bien, qu'au bout de deux jours il croira Fa voir fait, et il I'aura fait ; vous n'y serez plus pour rien.' A la bonne heure ! Je rentre, j'essaye une premiere version, et je I'apporte k la censure. ' Ce n'est pas cela,' dit M. de Talley- rand, * Monsieur ne fait pas d'antitheses et pas la plus petite fleur de rhetorique. Soyez court, soyez simple, et dites ce qui convient davantage k celui qui parle et k ceux qui ecoutent ; voilk tout.' * II me semble,' reprit M. Pasquier, ' que ce qui agite bon nombre d'esprit's est la crainte des changements que doit occasionner le retour des princes de la maison de Bourbon ; il faudrait peut-6tre toucher ce point, mais avec delicatesse.' * Bien ! et je le recom- mande,' dit M. de Talleyrand. ' J'essaye une nouvelle version et je suis renvoy<^ une seconde fois, parce que j'ai ete trop long et que le style est appr^te. Enfin j'accouche de celle qui est au Moniteur, et TALLEYBANB. 167 ' No more discord ; Peace and France ; at last I revisit my native land; nothing is changed, except it be that there is one Frenchman the more.' ' This time I give in !' exclaimed the great censor. ' That is what Monsieur said, and I answer for it having been pronounced by him ; you need not trouble yourself any longer.' And in fact the speech turned out a regular success : the newspapers took it up as a lucky hit ; it was also repeated as an engagement taken by the piiace ; and the expres- sion, ' One Frenchman 7nore F became the necessary password of the harangues, which began to pour in from all quarters. The prince did not disdain commenting upon it in his answers : and M. de Talleyrand's prophecy was fully accomplished." III. The just described spectacle was gay, but its gaiety was merely superficial. Deeper seated was the danger 1 have referred to. The Senate had neither gone to meet the Comte d'Artois nor attended the Te Deum. It might be said that the members of the provisional government had done so ; but the absence of the Senate was, not- withstanding, remarked. It was determined not to leave things uncertain, and to have a clear understanding as to whether the Comte d'Artois meant to despise the national authorities, or to submit to them. This question had to be brought to issue with the least possible delay. The 13th and 14th of April were spent in negotiations. Napoleon was still in France. Two armies had not yet given in their adhesion to the new order of things. The alhes had solemnly declared that the French oil je fais dire an prince : ' Plus de divisions : la paix et la France ; je la revois enfin ; et rien n'y est change, si ce n'est qiill s'y trouve un Fran9ais de plus.' * Pour cette Ibis je me rends !' reprit enfin le grand censeur, ' c'est bien Ik le discours de Mwisieur, et je vous repouds que c'est lui qui I'a fait; vous pouvez etre tranquille k present.' Et en effet le mot fit fortune : les journaux s'en empar^- rent comme d'un a propos heureux ; on le reproduisit aussi comme un engagement pris par le prince, et le mot, ^un Frangais de plus!' devint le passeport oblige des harangues qui vinrent pleuvoir de toutes parts. Le prince ne dedaigna pas de le cummenter dans ses reponses, et la prophetic de M. de Talleyrand fut completement realisee." 168 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. government should be one chosen by the Senate, and not one chosen by Louis XYIII. It took, nevertheless, all ]\I. de Talleyrand's tact and patience to get the Comte d'Artois and the zealots of his party to act with ordinary prudence. An arrangement was at last arrived at in this manner : The Senate, professing to know that constitutional principles animated the heart of the Comte d'Artois, offered him the Lieutenant-generalship of France. The Comte d'Artois accepted the post, saying that though he could not take upon himself to sanction the constitution of the Senate, with which he was acquainted, but which had to be considered by the King, he never- theless felt sure that he could safely affirm that his Majesty would accept the principal features in it * * Page 41, du Consulat. — "A huit heiires du soir le Sdiiat se pr^senta aux Tuileries, ayant en tete son president, M. de Talley- rand. Ce personnage si bien fait pour les representations oti il fallait temperer le fermete i^ar une exquise politesse, s'approcha du Prince, et selon sa coutume s'appuyant sur une canne, la tete penchee sur I'epaule, lut un discours k la fois filer et adroit, dans lequel il expliquait la conduite du S^nat sans I'excuser, car elle n'avait pas besoin d'excuse. " ' Le Senat,' disait-il, ' a provoqu^ le retour de votre auguste maison au trone de France. IVop instruit par le present et le passe, il desire avec la nation affermir [lOur jamais I'autorite royale sur une juste division des pouvoirs, et sur la liberte publique, seules garanties du bonheur et des interets de tous. " ' Le Senat, persuade que les principes de la constitution nouvelle sont dans votre coeur, vous detere, par le ddcret que j'ai I'bonneur de vous presenter le titre de lieutenant-gendral du royaume jusqu'k I'arriv^e du Roi, votre auguste frere. Notre respectueuse confiance ne pent mieux honorer I'antique loyaute qui vous fut transmise par vos ancetres. "* Monseigneur, le Senat, en ces moments d'allegresse publique, ublig^ de rester en apparence plus calme sur la limite de ses devoirs, n'en est pas moins pe'netre des sentiments universels. Votre Altesse Royale lira dans nos coeurs a travers la retenue meme de notre langage.' " ****** M. de Talleyrand joignit k ces paroles fermes et resj3ectueuses les protestations do devouement qui dtaient alors dans toutes les bouches ; il y mit de moins la banalite et la bassesse qui se rencou- traient dans presque toutes. *' Le Prince repondit par le texte de la declaration convenue. TALLEYRAND. 169 The government was thus installed until the arrival of Louis XYIII. ; and on the 23rd, M. de Talleyrand signed, under his royal highness's authority, the treaty which obliged the foreign armies to quit France, and the French troops to quit the fortresses out of France which they still held. The most urgent foreign question was thus settled; but the permanent condition of internal affairs, though the temporary arrangement I have been describing established something like a principle in favour of a constitution, still depended on the arrangements that might finally be made with Louis XYIII. M. de Talleyrand, exceedingly anxious on this subject, had sent M. de Liancourt to the King, in the hope that his Majesty would listen and speak to his messenger confidentially. It was true that M. de Talleyrand was warned that the Due de Liancourt, who had belonged to the Eevolution, would not be well received by the monarch of the Eestoration. if a certain nobleman, M. de Blacas, was by his side. But the Prince de- Benevent treated this idea du haut de sa grandeur. What ! the sovereign who owed him (M. de Talleyrand) his throne ; who was at once indolent and ambitious ; who knew nothing of the country in which he was to appear, a country in which he had no partisans who could guide 'Messieurs,' dit-il, 'j'ai pris connaissance de I'acte constitutionnel qui rappelle au trone de France le Roi, mon auguste hhve. Je n'ai point recu de lui le pouvoir d'accepter la Constitution, mais je connais ses sentiments et ses principes, et je ne crains pas d'etre desavou^ en assurant en son nom qii'il en admettra les bases.' "Aprfes cet engaejement explicite, la de'claration eimnierait les bases elles-memes, c'est-k-dire la division des pouvoirs, le partage du gouvernement entre le Koi et les Cliambres, la responsabilite des ministres, le vote de I'impot par la nation, la liberte de la presse, la liberte individuelle, la liberte des cultes, rinamovibilite' des juges, le maintien de la dette publiqne, des ventes, dites nationales, de la Legion d'Honneur, des grades et dotations de I'armee, I'oubli des votes et actes anterieurs, etc. * J'espere ajouta le Prince, que I'^nu- meration de ces conditions vous suffit, et comprend toutes les garanties qui peuvent assurer la liberte et le repos de la France.' " 170 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. him by their counsels or aid him by their influence, and in which were still the sovereigns with whom M. de Tal- leyrand had been the confederate — would decline to receive a man of the first respectabihty and the highest birth, universally beloved, because he had taken the same part that M. de Talleyrand himself had taken in the public afiairs of former times, and this when the new sovereignty was to be founded on all parties and opinions, and have, moreover, a constitution for its basis ; the thing was im- possible. M. de Talleyrand replied to the person who gave him this warning — " The King, you say, will look back on the past, but Nature has placed the eyes of men in the front of their heads, in order that they may look forward." Undoubtedly, the warning referred to seemed absurd, but it was correctly given. M. de Liancourt saw " the certain M. de Blacas," but came back without having seen Louis XYIIL* * Page 121. — " ' Je sais tout cela mieux que vous,' r^pondit M. de i Talleyrand, 'mais il ne I'aut pas qu'il en reste de trace dans I'esprit du roi, et c'est pour que I'oubli soit patent que j'ai choisi le due de Liancourt ; c'est Thomme du pays ; il y fait du Men k tout le monde, 11 est place pour en faire au roi, et je vous proteste qu'il sera bien re9u. Ce qui est passd est passe : la nature n'a pas donne aux horames d'yeux par derri^-e, c'est de ce qui est devant qu'il faut s'occuper, et il nous restera encore assez k faire. Mais cependant, si M. de Liancourt trouvait de la difficulte a approcher du Eoi? Car on s'accorde k dire qu'il est sous le joug d'un M. de Blacas qui ne laisse aborder que ceux qui lui conviennent. Qu'est-ce que ce Blacas? Je ne sais pas d'od il vient et me soucie assez pen de la savoir. Kous alloQS entrer dans un regime constitutionnel ou le credit se mesurera sur la capacity. C'est par la tribune et par " les affaires que les hommes prendront desormais leur place, et se chargera qui voudra d'e'pier le moment du lever et de vider les poches du roi a son coucher.' " M. de Liancourt etait en effet parti, et partageant I'illusion de M. de Talleyrand il croyait aller reprendre sans difficulte aupr^s du roi I'exercice de son ancienne charge de maitre de la garderobe^ Tons deux avaient notablement compt^ sans leur bote. M. dc Liancourt ne vit point le roi, mais seulement M. de Blacas, qui Ic congedia avec la politesse froide qui ne lui manque jamais. Lq hasard me fit rencontrer M.de Liancourt au retour, et avant qu'il etii pu voir M. de Talleyrand, je lui demandai comment il avait ete refii 11 me r^pondit : * Mai, tr^s-mal, ou, pour mieux dire, pas du tout. II TALLEYRAND. 171 In sending the particular person he had selected to Louis XYIII., M. de Talleyrand had the idea of engaging the King at once with the party to which that person belonged, viz., the moderate men of the early Eevolution : men who were, by opinion, in favour of constitutional monarchy, but who had been so mixed up mth persons of all parties and opinions, as to know all and have friends amongst all. In such a party he saw a centre at which divergent lines might meet— a backbone, to which might be attached the scattered members of the great and varied society out of which a new government had to be con- structed. The project was not a bad one, and it is pro- bable that during the first days of an uncertain triumph it would have succeeded. But the unexpected popularity of his family, the general acceptance of the " white cockade," the reports of his brother and the ardent Eoyalists, which did not fail to reach him with suitable exaggerations, and the positive abdication of Napoleon, created a new phase in Louis's affairs, and hesitating what to do, he determined on doing nothing till he arrived in France. This was sufiicient to show M. de Talleyrand, who did not subsequently forget M. de Blacas, that there would be a court circle in the new reign from which he should be excluded ; that the King neither meant to confide in him nor to ofiend him ; that a system was not to be formed ; that if he did not break with the sovereign on whose head he had a few days previously placed a crown, he must compromise with that sovereign's prejudices and favourites. There were not as yet sufficient motives for a rupture. Circumstances would shortly develop them- selves, and give many opportunities for a decided course. y a Ik iin certain M. de Blacas qui garde les avemies et vous croyez bit'ii que je ne nie suis pas abaiss^ h, lutter contre ; au reste, je crains fort que M. de Talleyrand n'ait donne dans un pi^ge : les princes vont nous revenir les memes que loi-squ'ils nous ont quittes.' *' Le roi nous fut bientot annonce ; les affaires se pressaient les unes sur les autres de telle sorte qu'a peine I'insucc^s de M. de Lian- court put effleurer I'attention. II fallait, toutelbis, qu'il eiit donne beaucoup a penser a M. de Talleyrand, car il n'en parlait k per- sonne." 172 HISTORICAL CEARACTEBS. In the meantime a policy of principle was to be sacrificed to a policy of dexterity. Had he been consulted, he would certainly not have counselled Louis XYIII., who made a sort of triumphal entry into London on the 20th, to have said he owed his crown to the Prince Kegent ; putting aside the Emperor Alexander, who was still in Paris, and the Senate and the Assembly, which were the only constituted organs at that time of the nation's wishes, and the only authority which the French army and the French people would so easily have obeyed. But he met his Majesty at Compiegne, where Louis had determined to stay three or four days before entering Paris and fixing his ultimate resolves. The meeting w^ould have been curious to witness. Both personages were perfect actors in their way, and each with a pretension to superiority, was determined not to be subalternised by the other. Louis had acted the part of king for some years with the more care and punctiliousness because he was only king in name. Tal- leyrand had been accustomed from his youth to the highest positions in society ; in later years he had been admitted into the intimacy of sovereigns, and been treated by them, if not on a footing of equality, with the highest respect ; and he had just disposed of the fortunes of France. The descendant of kings meant to impose the sovereign on his powerful subject at once, with the airs of royalty, for which he was famous. The bishop, noble, and diplomatist was prepared to encounter these airs with the respectful well-bred nonchalance of a man of the world, who knew his own value ; and the natural but not obsequious defer- ence of a great minister to a constitutional monarch. It is probable that neither said what he intended to say, or what contemporaries have said for them ; but it is re- ported that Louis gave M. de Talleyrand to understand that, in remaining tranquil and contented until Providence had placed the crown on his head, he had played the proper part of the prince and the philosopher, acting with tar more dignity and wisdom than the bustling men of action who had been occupied during this time with their own advancement. TALLEYBAND, 173 On the other hand, when his Majesty, wishing perhaps to efface the impression of observations that were not altogether complimentary, spoke in admiration of M. de Talleyrand's abilities, and asked him how he had contrived, first to overturn the Directory, and finally Bonaparte, M. de Talleyrand has the credit of ha^dng replied with a sort of naivete which, when it suited him, he could well assume : " Really, sire, I have done nothing for this : there is something inexplicable about me which brings ill luck on the governments that neglect me."* Finally, as to essentials, the King appears, without entering much into details, to have given M. de Talleyrand to understand that France would have a constitution, and M. de Talleyrand the administration of foreign afiairs. This was all that 31. de Talleyrand now expected. Nevertheless he tried, on a subsequent occasion, to persuade the legitimate monarch that his throne would acquire increased solidity by being accepted as the spon- taneous gift of the nation. A really great man in Louis's place would probably have provoked a vote by universal sufii-age ; the mere fact of appealing to such a vote would have attained a universal assent, springing from a universal enthusiasm ; and, in fact, such a vote for a king who had legitimacy in his favour would at the same time have renewed the vigour of the legitimist principle. A very prudent man would not have run this risk ; he would have made the most of the vote of the Senate, since it was given, and taken for granted that it was a vote in favour of bis race as well as of himself. A vain and proud man, however, could not so easily divest himself of a pecuhar quality which only he possessed. Any man might be chosen king of the French, but Louis XYIII. alone could be the legitimate King of France. This hereditary ris^ht to the throne was a personal pro- perty. He had claimed it in exile : he was resolved to * " Mon Dieii, sire, je n'ai rieii fait pour cela. C'est qiielqiie chose d'inex]tlicable que j'ai en moi et qui porte malheur aux gouvernements qui me negligent." 174 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. assert it in power, and when M. de Talleyrand was for continuing the argument, he cut him short, according to contemporaneous authorities, by observing with a courteous but somewhat cynical smile : " You wish me to accept a constitution from you, and you don't wish to accept a constitution from me. This is very natural ; mais, mon cher M. de Talleyrand, alors moi je serai debout, et vous assis."* V. The observation just quoted admitted of no reply. Still Louis had the good sense to see that he could not enter Paris without some explanations, and the promise, more or less explicitly given, of a representative government. Unlike the Comte d'Artois, he felt no sort of difficulty about giving this promise, and was even willing to concert with his minister as to the most popular manner in which he could give the guarantees he intended to offer without abandoning the point on which he resolved to insist. The first thing, however, to provide for, was a meeting between the sovereign who had taken the crown as a right, and the Senate who had offered it on conditions. This meeting took place on the 1st of May, at Saint- Ouen, a small village near Paris, where the King invited the Senate to meet him. M. de Talleyrand, on presenting this body, pronounced a speech, composed with much art, and spoke for both parties. He said that the nation, enlightened by experience, rushed forward to salute the sovereign returning to the throne of his ancestors ; that the Senate, participating in the sentiments of the nation, did the same ; that, on the other hand, the monarch, guided by his wisdom, was about to give France institu- tions in conformity with its intelligence, and the ideas of the epoch : that a constitutional " Charter " (a title the King had selected) would unite every interest to that of the throne,, and fortify the royal will by the concurrence of all wills ; that no one knew better than his Majesty the value of institutions for a long time tried happily by a * " But then, my dear M. de Talleyrand, I should be standing, and you seated." TALLEYRAND. 175 neiglibouring people, and furoisliiiig aid and not opposition to all kings who loved the laws, and were the fathers of their people. A few words from the King, confirming what M. de Talleyrand had said, left nothing to be desired ; and on the 3rd of May was published the famous declaration of Saint-Ouen, which, after stating that much that was good in the constitution proposed by the Senate on the 6th of April would be preserved, added that some articles in it bore signs, notwithstanding, of the haste with which they had necessarily been written, and must consequently be reformed ; bat that his Majesty had the full intention to give to France a constitution that should contain all the liberties that Frenchmen could desire, and that the project of such a constitution would ere long be presented to the chambers. Louis XVIII., thus preceded, entered Paris amidst a tolerable degree of enthusiasm, and, seating himself in the palace of his ancestors, began to prepare his existence there. His first thought was to reconstitute his household, and, in doing this, M. de Talleyrand-Perigord was named grand aumonier. The new ministry was next to be formed, and M. de Talleyrand figured as minister of foreign affairs ; and was honoured with the title of prince, though he could no longer add to it — of Benevent. The other persons named in the new ministry, and who afterwards attracted notice, were the Abbe de Montesquieu, minister of the interior, a gentleman of learning and talent, but wholly unused to affairs, and a Koyalist as much from prejudice as from principle (M. Guizot, by the way, commenced his career under M. de Montesquieu) ; and the Abbe Louis, minister of finance, whose financial abilities were universally acknowledged. But the most important minister for the moment was the minister of the household, " that certain M. de Blacas," of whose influence over Louis XVIII. M. de Talleyrand had been early informed. M. de Blacas was one of those gentlemen of the second order of nobility, who often produce on the vulgar a stronger effect as a grand seigneur than nobles of the first 176 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. class, because they add a little acting to the natural dignity usually attendant upon persons who have been treated from their infancy with distinction. He was middle-aged, good-looking, courteous, a good scholar, a great collector of medals, very vain of his court favour, which was based on his long knowledge of all the moral and physical weaknesses of his master, and with an entire confidence in the indestructibility of an edifice which he had seen, notwithstanding, raised on the ruins of its own foundation. He had, also, such a confidence in his own capacity that he conceived it impossible for any one but an egregious fool, or a malignant personal enemy, to doubt it. He concentrated in his hands the King's resolutions on all afiairs, except foreign affairs, which Si. de Talleyrand managed directly with his Majesty. A government was thus formed, and the first duty ot that government was to make a treaty of peace with the victorious powers. M. de Talleyrand had, necessarily, the conduct of this negotiation. Ihere were two questions at issue : the one, the arrangements between the Euro- pean potentates who had to give possessors to the terri- tories they had taken from France ; and the other, the arrangements to be made between France and these potentates. Some persons thought it would be possible to deal with the two questions together, and that France could be admitted into a congress where the special questions of France with Europe, and the questions that had to be decided by the European sovereigns between themselves, could be settled simultaneously.* But a little consideration will, I think, show that the questions between France and Europe, and the questions between the diff'erent States of Europe, which had been in hostility with France, were perfectly distinct. It would also have been absurd, and consequently im- possible, for France to have exacted, that all the matters that had to be arranged as resulting from the late war with France, should be treated in France. * M. Thiers is of this opinion. TALLEYRAND. The capital of France was the proper place for treating as to French interests. The capital of one of the allies was the place where the affairs between the alHes were naturally .to he discussed. Paris was chosen in the first case, Vienna in the second. The allies, however, had undoubtedly placed themselves in a false position towards the French nation, and this was felt when a peace with it had to be concluded. They had declared that they separated Napoleon from France, that they only made war against the French ruler, and that they would give the country better con- ditions than they would give the Emperor. M. de Talley- rand, therefore, came forward, saying, "Well, you were going to give Kapoleon the old limits of the French monarchy, what will you give France ?" The alhes replied, as it was certain they would reply, that the promises alluded to were vague, they could not dispose of the property of others ; that France had nothing legitimate but that which she held before a predatory succession of conquests ; that the allies held, it was true, the conquered territories recovered from the French, but that they could not give them back to wrongful acquirers ; that the general understanding was, that France should have its ancient limits, and that when the allies had agreed on the 23rd of April to withdraw their troops from the French territory, it had been understood that this was the territory of ancient France. Anything more was out of the question. M. de Talleyrand, however, obtained the;/' frontier of 1792, and not that of 1790, and in rounding that frontier, added some fortresses and inhabitants to the kingdom of Louis XYI. Moreover, Paris remained the mistress, and was permitted to boast of remaining the mistress, of all the works of art ravished from other nations, being thus, in fact, constituted the artistic capital of the world. Such a limited result, however, did not satisfy the French people with peace when the horrors of war were over ; and we find in various works concerning these times comments on the inconceivable Ugerete of M. de Talley- rand, in not procuring more advantageous conditions. N 178 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. I confess that I think that Europe should never have made compromising promises; and that she should have fulfilled generously whatever promises she had made ; but upon the whole France, which in her conquests had de- spoiled every power, ought to have been satisfied when, in the returning tide of victory, those powers left her what she had originally possessed. Poor M. de Talleyrand ! he carried off all the absurd reproaches he had to encounter with a dignified indifier- ence : even the accusation which was now made against him, of having signed the treaty of April, in which the provisional government, not being able to hold the fort- resses still occupied by French troops out of France, with a foreign army demanding them in the heart of Paris, resigned them on the condition that France itself should be evacuated. " You seem to have been in a great hurry, M. de Talleyrand," said the Due de Berry, " to sign that unhappy treaty." "Alas, yes., mon seigneur ; I was in a great hurry. There are senators who say I was in a great hurry to get the crown ofiered to your Eoyal house; a crown which it might otherwise not have got. You observe, monseigneur, that I was in a great hurry to give up fortresses which we could not possibly have kept. Alas, yes, monseigneur, I was in a great hurry. But do you know, monseigneur, what would have happened if I had waited to propose Louis XYIII. to the allies, and had refused to sign the treaty of the 23rd of April with them ? No ; you don't know what would have happened ! No more do I. But at all events you may rest assured, we should not now be disputing as to an act of the prince, your father." Again, when a little after this the son of Charles X. was boasting of what France would do when she got the three hundred thousand troops that had been locked up in Ger- many, Talleyrand, who had been seated at some little distance and apparently not listening, got up, and approaching slowly the Due de Berry, said, with half-shut eyes and a doubtful look of inquiry, "And do you really think, monseigneur, that these three hundred thousand men can be of any use to us ?" " Of use to us ! to be sure they TALLEYRAND. 179 will." " Hem !" said M. de Talleyrand, fixing the Due, ' " you really think so, monseigneur ? I did not know ; tor we shall get them frem that unfortunate treaty of the •23rd of April !" The best of it was that Charles X. had thought this treaty the great act of his life, until his son said it was a great mistake ; and he did not know then whether he should defend it in his own glorification, or throw all the blame of it on M. de Talleyrand. VI. The next link in the chain of events, — a final treaty of peace between France and Europe having been con- cluded (on the 30th of May), — was the promulgation of the long-promised constitution ; for the sovereigns who were still in Paris, and with whom the Eestoration had commenced, were anxious to leave it ; and they said that they could not do so until the promises they had made to the French nation were fulfilled. The 4th of June, therefore, was fixed for this national act. The King had promised, as it has been seen, that the frame of a constitution should be submitted to the Senate and the legislative body. He appointed the Abbe Montesquieu, whom we have already named, and a M. Ferrand, a person of some con- sideration with the Eoyalist party, to sketch the outline of this great work, assisted by M. de Beugnot, an accom- plished gentleman, not very particular in his principles, but very adroit in his phraseology ; when done, such sketch was submitted to and approved by the King, and passed on to two commissions, one chosen from the Senate and the other from the legislative body, the king reserving to himself the right of settling disputed points. The result was generally satisfactory, for though the constitution was so framed as to give it the air of being a grant from the royal authority, it contained the most essential principles of a representative government, namely : — Equality before the law, and in the distribution of 180 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. taxation, — the admissibility of all to public employments, — the inviolability of the monarch, — the responsibility of ministers, — the freedom of religion, — the necessity of annual budgets ; — and, finally, the permission to express in print and by pubUcation all opinions — such permission being con- trolled iby laws, which were to repress or punish its abuse. There was to be a lower chamber with the qualification for the electors of the payment of three hundred francs, direct taxes ; and, for the eligible, of one thousand francs. The upper chamber was not then made hereditary, though the King might give an hereditary peerage. A great portion^of the Senate, the dukes and peers before the Kevolution, and other persons of distinction, formed the house of peers. The legislative body was to act as the lower chamber until the time for which the members had been chosen was expired. The senators, not carried on into the peerage, were given as a pension the payment that formerly attached to their function. The King bargained that the new constitution should be called " La Charte Constitutionnelle ;" " Charte " being an old word that the kings had formerly employed, and that it should be dated in the nineteenth year of his reign. The preamble also stated that "the King, in entire possession of his full rights over this beautiful kingdom, only desires to exercise the authority he holds from God and his ancestors, in determining the bounds of his own power." A phrase which somewhat resembles one of; Bolingbroke's, who says : " The infinite power of God is limited by His infinite wisdom." It cannot be affirmed that M. de Talleyrand had any- thing to do with the framing of "the Charter," since Louis XYIIL's instruction to the commissioners was to \ I keep everything secret from M. de Talleyrand ; but it was; the sort of constitution he had insisted upon : and thus the Restoration was accomplished according to the plan which he had undertaken to give to it, when he obtained the decrees which deposed the Bonapartes and recalled the Bourbons. TALLEYEAND. 181 VII. I have said that when M. de Talleyrand created the government of Louis XVIII., he wanted to give it a back- bone, consisting of a party of able, practical, and popular men of moderate opinions. But Louis XVIIL, as a prin- ciple, distrusted all men in proportion to their popularity and ability, his ministers especially. M. de Talleyrand, therefore, was, in his eyes, a person who should be con- stantly watched, and constantly suspected. Louis XVIII. had also in horror the idea of his cabinet being a ministry, i.e., a compact body agreeing together. His notion as to driving was that horses who were always kicking at each other, were less likely to kick at the carriage ; furthermore, he considered that everything which was not as it had been thirty years back was really wrong, though he did not mean to take the trouble of changing it, and that all this new set of persons he had to deal with were coquins — not a gentleman amongst them. That it was proper manners, since they existed, to treat them courteously, and proper policy, since they had a certain power in their hands, to temporise with them ; but in his heart of hearts he looked upon them as yahoos, who had got into the stalls of horses, and were to be kicked out directly the horses, strengthened by plentiful feeds of corn, were up to the enterprise. In the mean- time nothing was to be risked, so that he sat himself down as comfortably as he could in his arm-chair, received aU visitors w^ith an air which an actor, about to play Louis XIV., might have done well to study; wrote pretty billets, said sharp and acute things, and felt that he was every inch — a king. Such was the sovereign of France ; but there was also another demi-sovereign, who was to be found in the Pavilion Marsan, inhabited by the Comte d'Artois. I esteem that prince, whom it has been the fashion to decry, more in some respects than I do his brother ; for though he had not a superior intelhgence, he had a heart. He really wished well to his country : he would have laid down his life for it, at least he thought he would : 182 HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. Lis intentions were excellent ; but lie relied on his old notions and education for tlie means of carrying them out. Louis XYIII. was more cultivated, more cynical, more false : he loved France vaguely, as connected mth his own pride and the pride of his race: he thought ill of the world, but was disposed to extract the most he could from it towards his own comfort, dignity, and prosperity. This character was not amiable, but its coldness and hard- ness rendered its possessor more secure against being duped, though not against being flattered. The Comte d'Artois was both flattered and duped ; but it was by addressing themselves to his better qualities that his flatterers duped him. They depicted the French people as eminently and naturally loyal : full of sympathy and respect for the descendants of Henry lY. and Louis XIY. " Poor children ! they had been led away by having bad men placed over them in the different functions of the State : all that was necessary was to place good men, loyal men, men who had served the royal family even in exile — men, in short, who could be relied upon, in the public employments. The church, too — that great instrument of government, and that great source of comfort and content- ment to men — that guardian of the mind which prevents its emotions from wandering into the regions of false theories and hopes — had been treated with contempt and indifference. The church and the throne were required to aid each other — the Bourbons had to bring them into harmony. On these conditions, and on these conditions alone — conditions (so said all whom the Comte d'Artois consulted) so clear, so simple, so pious, and so just — the safety and prosperity of the monarchy depended." The whole mistake consisted in considering the French a people that they were not, and ignoring what they were, and in fancying that a few prelects and priests could suddenly convert a whole generation from one set of ideas to another. But the Comte d'Artois' doctrines were pleasing to Louis XYIIL, though he did not quite believe in them, and still more pleasing to all the friends or favourites who enjoyed his intimacy. Thus, though they had not the support of his convic- TALLEYBAXD. 183 tions, they influenced his conduct ; which, however, never being altogether what Monsieur and his party required, vas always watched by them with suspicion, and frequently apposed with obstinacy. Where, then, could M. de Talleyrand turn for aid to maintain the government at the head of which he figured ? To the King? he had not his confidence. To his colleagues ? they did not confide in each other. To the Comte d'Artois ? he was in opposition to his brother. To the Eoyahsts ? they wanted absolute possession of power. The Imperalists and Eepublicans were out of the question. Moreover, he was not a man who could create, stimulate.^ command. To understand a situation and to bring to bear not unwilling assistants on its immediate solution, to collect the scattered influences about him, and direct them to a point at which it was their own interest to arrive ; this was his peculiar talent. But to sustain a long and protracted conflict, to overawe and govern opposing parties ; this was beyond the colder temperament of his faculties. .^ His only parliamentary efibrt then was an exposition in the chamber of peers of the state of the finances, which exposition was as clear and able as his financial statements always were. For the rest, he trusted partly to chance, partly to the ordinary and natural workings of a constitu- tional system, which was sure in time to produce parties ^^dth opinions, and even ministers, who, in their common defence, would be obliged to adopt a common policy and line of conduct. Thus, shrugging up his shoulders at M. de Fontanes' declaration that he could not feel free where the press was so, and smiling at Madame de Simiane's notions as to a minister, who, according to her and the ladies of the Faubourg St. Germain, should be a grand seigneur, with perfect manners and a great name, who had hard-working men with spectacles under them, called houleiix* to do their business — he hastened his prepara- * " Madame de Simiane reprit : ' II ne s'agit pas de cela ; c'^tait bon du temps de Bonaparte ; aujourd'hiii il faut mettre dans les ministeres des gens de quality et qui ont a leurs ordres des bons travailleurs qui font les affaires, ce qu'on appele des bouleux.' " — Metuoires de Beugnof, p. 142. 184 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. tions for joining the congress at Vienna, which was to have commenced its sittings two months after the treaty of Paris, that is, on the 30th of July, hut which had not met in the middle of September. VIII. I have said that the congress was to commence on the 30th of July, but it was not till the 25th of September that the Emperor of Kussia, the King of Prussia, and tbe other kings and ministers of the different courts who were expected there, began to assemble. M. de Metternich, Lord Castlereagh, afterwards succeeded by the Duke of WeUington, the Prince Hardenberg, the Count Nesselrode, though only as second to the Emperor Alexander himself, who was his own negotiator, were the principal persons with whom M. de Talleyrand was associated. His task was not an easy one. His sovereign owed his crown to those whose interests bad now to be decided ; he ^ might himself be considered under obhgations to them. It required a strong sense of a high position not to sink into a subordinate one. M. de Talleyrand had this, and sat himself down at Vienna with the air of being the ambas- sador of the greatest king in the world. He was accompanied by persons with names more or less distinguished. The Due Dalberg, the Comte Alexis de Noailles, M. de la Bernadiere, and M. de Latour du Pin. The first, M. de Talleyrand said, would let out secrets which he wished to be known ; the second would report all he saw to the Comte d'Artois, and thus save that prince the trouble of having any one else to do so. As to M. de la Bernadiere, he would keep tbe Chan- cellerie going, and M. de Latour du Pin would sign the passports. The ideas he himself took under these circumstances to Vienna were, — to get France admitted into the congress on the same footing as other powers ; to break up in some way or other the compactness of the confederation recently formed against her, and to procure friends from the body which was now a united enemy ; to procure the expulsion of Murat from the throne of Naples, and lastly, to remove TALLEYRAND. 185 the Emperor of Elba to a more distant location (Bermuda, or the Azores, were spoken of). The dissolution of the alliance was the independence of France, however brought about, xis for the expulsion of Murat from Naples, or the removal of Napoleon from Elba, these, no doubt, were great objects to the Bourbons in France ; but it is possible that there were other grounds also which induced M. de Talleyrand to pursue them. If Murat were removed from Naples, and Napoleon were in some place of security, and the elder branch of the Bourbons compromised itself in France, two other govern- ments, according to circumstances, were still on the cards. The regency with Napoleon's son, or a limited monarchy with the Due d'Orleans. M. de Talleyrand had seen enough before he went to Vienna, and probably heard enough since he had been there, to make him doubtful of the success of his first ex- periment : but his position was such that in any combina- tion in France that had not the late Emperor Napoleon at its head, he would still be the person to whom a large party in and out of his own country would look for the solution of the difficulty which the downfall of Louis XVIII. would provoke. The basis of the congress of Vienna was necessarily that furnished by the engagements which had already taken place between the allies at Breslau, Toplitz, Chau- mont, and Paris ; engagements which concerned the re- construction of Prussia according to its proportions in 1806, the dissolution of the Confederation of the Khine ; the re-establishment of the House of Brunswick in Hanover ; and arrangements, to which I shall presently allude, concerning the future position of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. As all that was to be distributed was a common spoil in the hands of the allies, they suggested that a committee of four, representing England, Austria, Prussia, and Eussia, should first agree amongst themselves as to the partition; and that an understanding having been esta- blished between these — the principal parties — this under- 186 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. standing should be communicated to the others; to France and Spain in particular ; — whose objections would be heard. Such an arrangement excluded France from any active part in the first decisions, which would evidently be sus- tained when the four allies had agreed upon them. The tact and talent of M. de Talleyrand were displayed in getting this sentence reversed. Taking advantage of the treaty of peace which France had already signed, he contended that there were no longer alliaj but simply powers who were called upon, after a war which had created a new order of things in Europe, to consider and decide in what manner this new order of things could best be established for the common good, and with the best regard to the old rights existing before 1792, and the new rights which certain states had legiti- mately acquired in the long struggle which, with more or less continuity, had existed since that epoch. With some difficulty he at last made these ideas prevail, and the committee of four was changed into a committee of eight, comprising all the signataries to the treaty of Paris : Austria, England, Kussia, Prussia, France, Spain, Portugal, and Sweden. This first point gained, the second, — viz., a division amongst the allies, was to be brought about. Any pre- cipitate effort to do this would have prevented its success. M. de Talleyrand waited to work for it himself until rival interests began to work with him. Now Austria's great pre-occupation was to regain her old position in Italy, without diminishing the importance of that to which she pretended in Germany. The views of Kussia, or rather of the Emperor Alex- ander, were more complicated, and formed with a certain greatness of mind and generosity of sentiment, though always with that craft which ;mingled with the imperial chivalry. I have just said that I should speak of the arrange- ments respecting the Duchy of Warsaw, which were con- templated during the war in the event of the allies being successful. It had been settled that this duchy — once I TALLEYRAND. 181 delivered from the pretensions of Napoleon — should be divided between the three mihtary powers, Austria, Prus- sia, and Eussia. But the Emperor of Eussia now took a higher tone. The annihilation of Poland, he said, had been a disgrace to Europe : he proposed to himself the task of collecting its scattered members, and reconstituting it with its own laws, religion, and constitution. It would be a pleasure to him to add to what he could otherwise re-assemble, the ancient Polish provinces under his dominion. Poland should live again with the Czar of Eussia for its king. I doubt whether the Emperor Alexander did not overrate the gratitude he expected to awaken, and underrate the feeling existing amou'^- the Poles, not merely as to nationality, but as to national independence. But his notion most assuredly was, that he should thus create as an avant-gm^de into Europe a powerful kingdom, capable of rapid improvement, and combining with a com- plete devotion to his family, all the enthusiasm of a people who again stood up amidst the nati(m5 of the world. He argued, moreover, and not without reason, that a kingdom of Poland thus existing would inevitably ere long draw back to itself all those portions of alienated territory which were in the hands of the other co-parti- tioning powers, and that thus Eussia would ere long dominate the whole of that kingdom which she had at one time condescended to divide. This project was of course easily seen through in Prus- sia as well as in Austria ; but Eussia presumed that Austria would be satisfied with her Italian acquisitions. He saw, however, that Prussia required no common bribe. The bribe proposed was Saxony, and thus a secret engage- ment was entered into between the two northern courts : Eussia promising to stand by Prussia's claims as to Saxony, and Prussia promising to support Eussia's plans as to Poland. With respect to England, she seemed more especially occupied with the idea of forming a united kingdom of Holland and Belgium, and beguiled by the delusion that you could unite by treaties populations which were dis- 188 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. united by sympathies, fancied she could, by the union proposed, create a barrier against French ambition where England was most concerned ; and thus save us in future from those dangers by which we were menaced when the Scheldt was in Napoleon's possession, and the British coast was menaced by maritime arsenals, which confronted it from Brest to Antwerp. The conflict which at once commenced had reference to the ambitious claims of Prussia and Kussia. The King of Saxony, though an ally of Napoleon, had been faithlul to France, and there was a feeling in the French nation favourable to him. As to Poland, France, which has always taken a lively interest in Polish inde- pendence as a barrier against Russian aggrandisement, could not see with satisfaction an arrangement which was to make Poland an instrument of Eussian power. Our disposition as to Prussia was at first somewhat undecided. We did not approve of the destruction of Saxony, still we were not unwilling to see a strong state established in the north of Germany, if it was an inde- pendent state : and would therefore at first have allowed the addition of Saxony to the Prussian dominions, if Prussia would have joined with Great Britain and Austria against the Eussian projects in Poland. Austria, on the other hand, was quite as much against the Prussian pro- ject as the Eussian one ; but Prince Metternich, being perfectly aware that Prussia would not separate herself from Eussia, affected to fall into Lord Castlereagh's views, and agreed to sacrifice Saxony if Prussia would insist with ourselves on Polish independence. Prussia, as Prince Metternich foresaw, refused this; and indeed took possession of Saxony, as Eussia did of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, assuming towards the other powers an attitude of defiance. In the meantime the question of Saxony became popular with the English parliament and the English court : with the English parliament, which is always against the oppressor ; and with the English court, which began to think that, when Prussia had once got Saxony, she might take a fancy to Hanover. Austria gladly perceived this TALLEYRAND. 189 change, and it was agreed that England and Austria should oppose themselves conjointly and distinctly to the intentions haughtily manifested by the two northern courts. Thus England, Austria, and France found themselves linked together by common opinions. Still there were reasons why the first two powers hesitated as to connecting themselves with the third. These reasons were — the connection which M. de Talley- rand desired, would be a rupture of that league by which the peace of Europe had been obtained ; it was uncertain whether France could give /Austria and England any practical aid ; and also it was doubtful whether she would not exact more for such aid, if she did give it, than it was worth, and aim at renewing all the ambitious designs which the overthrow of Napoleon and the treaty of Paris had set at rest. The principal objection wore away as it became more and more evident that Prussia and Eussia had already entered into separate and particular engagements, which rendered it not only justifiable but necessary for England and Austria, if they did not mean to submit servilely to the results of these engagements, to guard against them by counter-engagements between themselves. With respect to the power of France as an auxiliary, M. de Talleyrand, by an able exposition of the state of afi'airs at "Vienna, induced the French government to display its military capacity by raising the French army from 130,000 to 200,000, and creating the facility for increasing it to a far more formidable amount — a measure which the extraordinary recovery of French finances under the able administration of M. Louis rendered easy, and which produced a considerable moral effect, both in France and out of it. At the same time the ambassador of France, in his numerous conversations with Lord Castlereagh and M. de Metternich, held this language : " A government to last must be faithful to its origin. Bonaparte's was founded by conquest : he was forced to continue conquering ; that of the present sovereign of France is based on principle. To this principle it must 190 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. adhere ; it is the principle of legitimate right, which conquest, until confirmed by treaty, cannot effect. We support the King of Saxony on this principle : we do not want then to be paid for doing so. In supporting his throne, we guarantee our own. Do you doubt my sincerity ? I will sign any paper you wish to tranquillize all suspicion as to our ambition." It was in this manner that he led by degrees to the X< signing of the secret treaty of 3rd of January, 1815, a treaty by which Austria, England, and France bound themselves to furnish each 150,000 men, to support any one of the three powers which might be attacked by other powers attempting forcibly to alter the equilibrium of Europe for their own advantage. The names of the powers suspected were not mentioned, and the compact entered into was essentially of a defensive character ; but it was in sympathy with French feelings ; it broke up the anti-French alliance, and gave to France the two most important aUies she could hope to gain; for England alone had formed the late coalition, and without her a coalition could not be again formed. M. Thiers, who is too prone to consider that all states- manship consists in acquiring extensions of territory, objects to everything done by M, de Talleyrand, and considers that this diplomatist should have waited quietly, rather favouring Prussia and Eussia, and that then these powers wdlild have offered France Belgium or the frontiers of the Ehine, in which case Prussia and Eussia would, he considers, have been more advantageous allies to France than England and Austria. Now, of all ideas the one that seems the most extrava- gant to me is that Prussia, or even Eussia, would have reseated France on the Ehine, or brought her back in any way nearer to Germany. I feel certain that under no circumstances was this likely. But, at all events, Prussia and Eussia would only have made the strange proposal on which M. Thiers counts, at the last extremity. They would have previously carried their negotiations with their late allies to the utmost limit ; and as we were prepared to make many concessions, and did indeed finally TALLEYRAND. 191 give up one-tliird of Saxony to Prussia, and as much of Poland as she could well digest to Russia, there is not the slightest probability that, for the remaining differences, Prussia and Russia would have purchased the aid of France by a large increase of frontier and a deadly quarrel with Great Britain and Austria. M. de Talleyrand then, in following the policy suggested by M. Thiers, would, in the first place, have lost the opportunity which he more wisely seized of separating the great powers ; he would also have ungenerously abandoned Saxony, and at the same time so disgusted England, that it would afterwards have been impossible to get an English parliament to vote a sixpence for sustaining the Bourbon cause. Waterloo would never have been fought ; Russia and Prussia could have done httle without Enghsh sub- sidies ; and France would have been again delivered into the hands of Napoleon, whose triumph would have been M. de Talleyrand's own ruin ; and the ruin of the master he then served. As it is not my intention to enter into the general subject of the treaty of Vienna, which I have always considered alike defective in principle and policy, I shall not follow the negotiations I have been alluding to further ; though it may be as well, since I have spoken of Naples, to observe that M. de Talleyrand never obtained Prince Metternich's attention to the dethronement of Murat until the Prussian and Russian questions had been settled by suitable arrangements ; for Prince Metternich was too wise to have Germany and Italy on his back at once ; when, however, these arrangements were completed, and the brother-in-law of Napoleon had compromised himself by intrigues, which had been watched but allowed to ripen, the Austrian statesman then gave the French ambassador a private but positive assurance that the Kingdom of Naples should shortly be restored to its old As to the question of a change of residence for Napoleon, that was decided, just as the congress was closing, by Napoleon himself; who, not ignorant of the plans that were maturing for his removal from a position wherein 192 BISTOBIOAL CHARACTERS. nothing but the most absurd want of consideration could ever have placed him, engaged in that audacious enterprise, the most glorious, though the most fatal, in his meteor- like career. IX. It vyas in the midst of the gaieties of a ball on the 5th of March,* and just as the congress was about to separate, that from a small group of sovereigns collected together and betraying the seriousness of their conversation by the gloom of their countenances, there came forth as a sort of general murmur: — " Bonaparte has escaped from Elba." Prince Metternich, it is said, was the only person who at once divined that the ex-Emperor's intentions were to march at once on Paris. The success of so bold an adventure was, of course, doubtful; but in the hope there might still be time to influence public opinion, a proclamation, proposed (at the instigation of the Duke of Wellington) by Austria, and signed 13th March by France and the four great powers, denounced the Emperor of Elba in language only applicable to a pirate or a freebooter : a languao^e that Louis XVIII. had used at Paris on the 6th of March, and might use with some propriety, but which came far less decorously from princes who had not very long previously treated this pirate and freebooter as *' the king of kings," and which was unsuitable to the lips of a sovereign who was speaking of the husband of his favourite daughter. People, however, often cover a hesitation in their decisions by an extravagance in their attitude. Tbe idea of a new war was popular with no one ; the different powers, moreover, represented at Yienna, were no longer on the same cordial terms of fraternity that had distinguished their relations at Paris ; they felt notwith- standing, that, in the face of a common danger they must consider as extinguished their several rivalries and animosities, and show themselves united and determined on the deadly combat, which alone could, if successful, * So many and sucli different accounts are given of the time and manner in which this news arrived, that I merely give the popular, without answering for its being the accurate one. TALLEYBAND. 193 repair the effects of their imprudence and save the honour of their arms. Shortly after this came the news of that glorious and soul-stirring march through legions who, when commanded to point their hayonets at the breast of their old commander as a traitor, wept at his knees as a father ; but this great historical romance rather strengthened than weakened the resolves that had previously been formed ; and the procla- mation of the 1 3th of March was soon succeeded by the treaty of the 25th. This treaty, to which the four allied powers were the only principal parties, was a revival of the treaty of Chaumont and the treaty of Paris. The position of the Bourbons was not clearly defined ; for though Louis XYIII. was invited to be a party to it, the allies, and England in particular, expressly declared that they did not attempt to impose a government on France, nor bind themselves to support the claims of the fugitive monarch. I say " fugitive monarch " because Louis XVIII. had by this time tested the value of his adherents, and was settling down quietly at Ghent ; Na- poleon being as quietly re-established in the Tuileries. The secret of all that had occurred is to be stated in a few words. Louis XYIII. had not gained the affections of the French nation ; his predecessor had retained the affections of the French army. There was little mystery in the intrigues of the Bonapartes. The Queen Hortense (Comtesse de St. Leu) resided at Paris, and the conversa- tion of her drawing-room was a constant conspiracy whilst the correspondence she received was the confidence of half the capital. Barras and Fouche both informed M. de Blacas of much that was going on, and offered to give him more detailed information ; but that gentleman's horizon was limited, and what he did not see he did not believe. Moreover, the Koyalists conceived that the most Christian king had gained the consciences of the military by naming an aumonier, with the rank of captain, to each regiment, and had the provinces in his hands, because he had placed them in those of functionaries who professed hatred to "the usurper.*" Q 194 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. " What had they to fear ?" Thus, the country which had been fatigued with the soldier and the drum, was teased by the mass and the emigre. And, in the meantime, the veterans of the great army, who saw themselves replaced by a guard of young gentlemen with good names and splendid uniforms ; and the beauties of the Empire, who found themselves out of fashion amongst the great ladies of the legitimate court, were at the two ends of the electric wire, which had only to be touched by the little man in the grey great-coat, in order to vibrate through the heart of every soldier who had ever followed the imperial eagle, and still kept the tricolour cockade in his writing-desk or his knapsack. X. The conduct of M. de Talleyrand at Vienna had been that which he always followed to any government that employed him — zealous and faithful. He had, in short, been an active and able agent, carrying out the policy which Louis XVIII., with whom he kept up a private correspondence, thought the best for his dynasty and for France ; and he had succeeded in giving both dignity and influence to a government which in reahty wanted both. He had not during his foreign mission meddled with the internal pohcy of the court, nor relaxed in his endeavours to serve it on account of the faults it com- mitted : but to his intimate friends he had made no secret of his belief that it was taking a road which would probably lead to ruin. When it had arrived at that goal the case was different. He did not separate himself from it — but he did not link himself indissolubly with it. He showed no hesitation, however, as to declaring against its opponent. Concentrating himself indeed on the one idea of getting rid of Napoleon, he repeated constantly to those who expatiated on the deficiency of the Eestoration, " I don't know what government may be the best for France, but I do know that Napoleon's is the worst." His old master would willingly have softened this animosity; and Fouche, who was intriguing with all parties, with the intention of choosing the most powerful, TALLEYRAND. 195 sent M. de Montrond to Yienna to learn what lie could, as to the real intentions of the alliance, and more especially as to the intentions of M. de Talleyrand, whose services M. de Montrond was to endeavour, by any assurances he might judge necessary, to obtain. This M. de Montrond was a specialty of his epoch : a type of that French roiie whom Faublas, and more par- ticularly the " liaisons danger euses,'' had produced. He had ruled the world of fashion by his loves, his duels, and his wit, which was superior to any man's, for nearly forty years. He was one of M. de Talleyrand's pets, as M. de Talleyrand was one of his admirations. Each spoke ill of the other, for each said he loved the other for his vices. But no one could speak to M. de Talleyrand with so much intimacy as M. de Montrond, nor obtain from him so clear an answer. For they trusted each other, though M. de Montrond would never have told any one else to trust I^I. de Talleyrand, nor M. de Talleyrand told any one else to trust M. de Montrond. This latter gentleman, the soul of Queen Hortense's circle, and at the same time the friend of the Due d'Orleans, whom he had known in Sicily, to which islan war and to defend the liberty of the press. — Reasons for the course he puisued. — Share in the advent of Louis Phihppe. — Accepts tlie embassy to London. — Conduct and policy when there. — Retires after the Quadruple Alliance. — Discourse in the Institute on M. Reinhard. — Death. — Summary of character. M. DE Talleyrand gave a proof of his sagacity when he foresaw that, with the violent EoyaHsts enteriDg into power under a minister named by the Autocrat of the North, a state of things was preparing that would lead to a war of opinion throughout Europe, and unite the governments that could not support liberal institutions with that party in the French nation which repudiated them. He was equally sagacious in retiring voluntarily from affairs, and doing so on national and not on party grounds. But at the same time he could not long have remained at the head of a parliamentary government, even had he been free from the peculiar difficulty which then surrounded him. To direct affairs with such a government, in critical times, one must have some of the passions of those times. M. de Talleyrand, as I have said at the beginning of this sketch, had no passions. He represented the power of reason ; but that power, which predominates at the end of every crisis, has its voice drowned at the commencement. His administration then was necessarily doomed : but he had at least the credit of having endeavoured, first to prevent and then to HIS TOPdCA L CIIA EA TEES. moderate those acts of vengeance wliich a minority that obtains the supremacy always wishes to inflict on an ad- verse majority : for he furnished jiassports and even money (the budget of foreign affairs w-as charged wdth four hundred and fifty-nine thousand francs for this purpose) to all who felt desirous to quit France — Ney, though he did not profit by the indulgence, might have done so. The list of proscriptions at first contained one hundred persons, M. de Talleyrand reduced that number to fifty- seven.* Labedoyere — and this owing entirely to his own imprudence, in obliging the government either to release him publicly or to bring him to trial — was the only victim of an administration which wished to be moderate when every one was violent. A most memorable epoch in French history now com- menced — the constitutional education of the French nation. It went through a variety of vicissitudes. For a time the Eoyalist reaction, headed by the Comte d'Artois, prevailed. It was then for a moment stopped by the jealousy of Louis XVIII., who felt that France was in reality being governed by his brother, who could ride on horseback. After a short struggle the conflict between the two princes ceased, and M. de Yillelle wath more or less adroitness governed them both. The elder at last was deprived by death of the sceptre he had ceased to wield independently, and with the ardent desire he had ever felt to be loved by his countrymen, Charles X. legiti- mately commenced his right of ruling them. But a hesitating policy of conciliation producing after a short eflbrt but a doubtful result, another policy was resolved upon. The King would show that he was king, and he selected a ministry ready to be his soldiers in a tattle against popular ideas. The battle was fought : the King w^as vanquished. So passed the time from 1815 to 1830. Within this epoch of fifteen years, during which it must be said that France, however agitated and divided, made * Of whom nineteen to be tried by military law, tbe rest banished. A list of sixty, who were to be warned to quit France, Avas in the same spirit reduced to twenty. TALLEYRAND. 211 an immense progress under the institutions that she owed in no small degree to M. de Talleyrand, that statesman was little more than a spectator of passing events. The new patriots, orators, journalists, generals of the day, occupied public attention, and he ceased to be considered except as one of those characters of liistory that have been too interesting in their day to be consigned quietly to posterity. Moreover, the judgment passed on him from time to time by contemporaneous writers was usually superficial and sometimes supercilious. As to the deputies whom local influence and the zeal of parties returned to the lower chamber, they were for the most part unknown to him by their antecedents, and not worth knowing for their merits. In the upper chamber, where men of high rank and intellectual eminence were certainly to be found, his per- sonal influence was not great ; the sympathies and recol- lections of that chamber, whether amongst the old Eoyalists or most distinguished Bonapartists, were against him. There was no one consequently to press him to take part in its debates, nor were there many subjects of discussion sufliciently important to arouse his indolence, and call forth with dignity the exertions of a statesman who had played so great a part amidst the great events of that marvellous period through which his career had run. On one memorable occasion, however, he stepped boldly forward to claim — if affairs took the course which many thought most probable — the first place in a new system : this was when war, in 1823, was declared against Spain. II. That war was commenced by M. de Chateaubriand, who had always been M. de Talleyrand's antipathy, not merely as a war against the Spanish people, or in support of the Spanish monarch, but as a war which was to be considered an armed declaration in favour of ultra-monarchical prin- ciples, thus justifying all the previsions with which M. de Talleyrand had quitted ofiics. A victory was certain to deliver France into the hands of the ultra-Eoyalist party ; 212 HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. defeat or difficulty was as certain to give power to more moderate men and more moderate opinions. In the one case, M. de Talleyrand had nothing to hope ; in the other, it was necessary to fix attention on the fact that he had predicated misfortune. The struggle in Spain, moreover, depended greatly on the state of public opinion ; and this alone made it advisable to endeavour to create as strong a belief as possible that men of weight and consideration looked upon it with apprehension and disfavour. It was under these circumstances that M. de Talleyrand expressed the following opinion :* " Messieurs," this impressive discourse commences, " il y a aujourd'hui seize ans qu'appell^ par celui qui gouver- nait alors le monde a lui dire mon avis sur une lutte a engager avec le peuple espagnol, j'eus le malheur de lui deplaire, en lui devoilant I'avenir, en revelant tons les dangers qui allaient naitre en foule d'une aggression non moins injuste que temeraire. La disgrace fut le prix de ma sincerite. Etrange destinee, que celle qui me ramene apres ce long espace de temps a renouveler aupres du souverain legitime les memes efibrts, les memes conseils. Le discours de la couronne a fait disparaitre les dernieres esperances de amis de la paix, et, menayant pour I'Es- pagne, il est, je dois le dire, alarmant pour la France. . . . Oui, j'aurai le courage de dire toute la verite. Ces memes sentiments chevaleresques qui, en 1789, entrainaient les coeurs genereux, n'ont pu sauver la monarchie legitime, ils peuvent encore la perdre en 1823." * " Gentlemen, — It is to-day sixteen years ago, that, called by him who then governed the world to give him my opinion as to a conflict which we were about to engage in with the Spanish people, I had the misfortune to displease him by unveiling the future, and revealing all the dangers likely to spring from an aggression not less unjust than rash. Disgrace was the price of my sincerity. Strange destiny ! that which brings me back after this long space of time to renew to my legitimate sovereign the same efforts, the same counsels. The speech of the crown has dispelled the last hopes of the friends of peace, and, menacing Spain, it, I ought to say it, alarming for France. . . . Yes, I will have the courage to tell all the truth. The chivalrous sentiments, which in 1789 carried away the generous hearts of that epoch, could not save the legitimate monarchy : they mav lose it in 1823." TALLEYRAND. 213 The Spanish war, in spite of these alarming prognosti- cations, was successful ; and courtiers sneered not unnatu- rally at the statesman who had denounced it. But if M. de Talleyrand had not shown his usual foresight, he had not acted contrary to his usual prudence. People, in de- ciding on the conduct they should adopt, can only calcu- late upon probabilities, and must, after all, as Machiavelli with his worldly experience observes, "leave much to chance." This sort of prophecy, contained in the speech I have just quoted from, had a good deal in its favour ; M. de Chateaubriand himself had, as I once heard from the lips of a person to whom he spoke confidentially, the most serious doubts as to the issue of the approaching campaign ; though he considered that its happy termina- tion would firmly establish the Bourbons as sovereigns in France, and himself as their prime minister : in both of which conclusions he was wrong, though it seemed likely he would be right. The contemplated enterprise was, in fact, unpopular ; the prince at its head was with- out capacity, the generals around him were on ill terms with each other, the soldiers themselves of doubtful allegiance. A considerable body of Frenchmen and some French soldiers were in the enemies' ranks, and were about, in the name of liberty and Napoleon II., to make an appeal, from the opposite shore of the Bidassoa, to their advancing comrades. The courage of the nation now attacked had on many occasions been remarkable ; the discipline of its armies had been lately improved ; the policy of England was uncer- tain; the credit of France was far from good. These were all fair elements out of which it was by no means unreasonable to concoct a disastrous presage, which, like many presages, had a tendency to realise itself. But more especially it should be observed that the predictions of M. de Talleyrand, if unfortunate, would do him no harm, and if fortunate, would replace him on the pinnacle of power. III. The ex-minister of Louis XYIII. thus revived the recollections of the ex-minister of Napoleon le Grand ; as 214 HISTORICAL CIIARACTERS. already the member of the Chamber of Peers had vindi- cated the principles of the veteran of the National Assembly ; for on the 24th of July, 1821, we find him expressing the same sentiments in favour of the liberty of the press after practical experience, which at the com- mencement of his career he had proclaimed with theoretical anticipations. As the question at issue is not yet solved in the country he was addressing, it may not be without interest to hear what he says :* ****** "■ Without the liberty of the press there can be no representative government ; it is one of its essential instruments — its chief instrument, in fact : every govern- ment has its principles, and we cannot remember too often that frequently those principles which are excellent for one government are detestable for another. It has been abundantly demonstrated by several members of this House, both in this and the preceding session, that without the liberty of the press representative government does not exist. I will not, then, repeat what you have already heard or read, and which is no doubt the frequent subject of your reflections. " But there are two points of view in which it appears to me the question has not been sufficiently treated, and which I resolve into two propositions : '' 1st. The liberty of the press is a necessity of the time. * " Sans la liberie de la presse il n'y a point de gouvernement re- pre'sentatif : elle est un de ses instruments essentiels, elle en est I'instrument principal : chaque gouvernement a les siens, et nous ne nous souvenons pas assez que souvent ceux qui sont bons pour tel gouvernement sout detestables pour tel autre. Jl a ete' demontr^ jusqu'a I'^vidence, par plusieurs membres de cette Chambre, qui, dans cette session et dans le precedentes, ont parle sur cette matiere, que sans la liberty de la presse il n'y a point de gouvernement re- presentatif. Je ne vous redirai done point ce que vous avez tons ou entendu, ou lu, et ce qui a du souvent etre I'objet de vos meditations. " Mais il est deux points de vue sous lesquels la question ne me parait pas avoir ete suffisamment examinee et que je rdduis a ces deux propositions : " 1°. La liberty de la presse est une necessite du temps. TALLEYBAND. 215 " 2nd. A government exposes itself when it obstinately refuses, and that for a lengthened period, what the time proclaims as necessary. " The mind is never completely stationary. The dis- covery of yesterday is only a means to arrive at a fresh discovery to-morrow. One is nevertheless justified in affirming that it ap])ears to act hy impulses, because there are moments ivhen it appears particularly desirous of hringing forth — of producing ; at others, on the contrary, tchen, satisfied hy its conquests, it appears to rest itself, and is occupied in putting the treasures it has acquired in order, rather than in seeking after new ones. The seventeenth century was one of these fortunate epochs. The human intellect, dazzled hy the immense riches which the art of printing had put at its disposal, paused to gaze in admiration on the wondrous sight. Giving itself up entirely to the enjoyment of letters, science, and art, its glory and happiness became concentrated in tlie production of masterpieces. All the great men of the time of Louis XIY. vied with each other in embellishing a social order, beyond which they saw nothing, and desired nothing, and which appeared to them made to last as long as the glory of the great king, the object alike of their respect and of their enthusiasm. But when they had exhausted the " 2°. Un gouvernement s'expose quand il se refuse obstinement et trop longtemps k ce que le temps a proclame necessaire. " L'esprit humain n'est jamais complfetement stationnaire. La decouverte de la veille n'est pour lui qu'un moyen de plus d'arriver k des decouvertes nouvelles. II est pourtant vrai de dire qu'il semble proceder par crises, parce-qu'il y a des epoques ou il est plus particulierement tourmente du besoin d'enfanter et de produire, d'autres, au contraire, ou, satisfait de ses conquetes, il parait se reposer sur lui-meme, et plus occupe de mettre ordre k ses richesses que d'en acquerir de nouvelles : le dix-septieme sifecle fut une de ces Epoques fortunees. L'esprit humain, etonne' des richesses immenses dont I'imprimerie I'avait mis completement en possession, s'arreta d'admiration pour jouir de ce magnifique heritage. Tout entier aux jouissances des lettres, des sciences et des arts, il mit sa gloire et son bonheur k produire des chefs-d'a3uvre. Tons les grands genies du siecle de Louis XIV. travaillerent a I'envi a embellir un ordre social au-delk duquel ils ne voyaient rien, ils ne desiraient rien, et qui leur paraissait devoir durer autant que la gloire du grand Roi, objet de 216 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. fertile mine of antiquity, their intelligent activity found itself almost compelled to search elsewhere, and discovered nothing new, except in speculative studies that embrace all the future, and of which the limits are unknown. It was amidst these dispositions that the eighteenth century dawned — a century so little resembling the preceding one. To the poetical lessons of Telemachus succeeded the theories of ' the Esprit des Lois,' and Port Eoyal was replaced by the Encyclopaedia. " I pray you to observe, gentlemen, that I neither censure nor approve : I simply relate. " In calling to mind all the calamities poured out upon France during the Eevolution, we must not be altogether unjust towards those superior men that brought it about ; and we ought not to forget, that if in their writings they have not always been able to avoid falling into error, we owe to them the revelation of some great truths. Above all, let us not forget that we ought not to make them responsible for the precipitation with which France rushed practically into a career which her philosophers merely indicated. Thoughts were turned at once into action, and one might well say, ' Woe to him who in his foolish pride leurs respects et de leur enthousiasme. Mais quand on eut epuisd cette mine f^conde de I'antiquite, I'activite de I'esprit liumain se trouva presqiie forcee de chercher ailleurs, et il ne trouva de clioses nouvelles que dans les etudes speculatives qui embrassent tout I'avenir, et dont les limites sont inconnues. Ce fut dans ces disposi- tions que s'ouvrit le dix-huiti^me si^cle, qui devait si pen ressembler au precedent. Aux lemons po^tiques de Telemaque succe'dferent les theories de I'esprit des lois, et Port-Royal fut remplace par I'En- cyclopedie. "Je vous prie de remarquer, Messieurs, que je ne blame ni n'approuve : je raconte. " En nous rappelant tons les maux verses sur la Franco pendant la revolution, il ne faut cependant pas etre tout~k-fait injuste envers les genies snpdrieurs qui I'ont amende ; et nous ne devons pas oublier que si dans leurs ecrits ils n'ont pas toujours su se preserver de I'erreur, nous leur devons aussi la revelation de quelques grandes Veritas. N'oublions pas surtout que nous ne devons pas les rendre responsables de la precipitation inconsideree avec laquelle la France, presque tout enti^re, s'est lancee dans la carriere qu'ils s'etaient contentes d'indiquer. On a mis en pratique des aper9us, et toujours on a pu dire : ' malheur a celui qui dans son fol orgueil veut aller TALLEYRAND. 217 would go beyond the necessities of his epoch ! Some abyss or revolution awaits him.' But when we simply follow the necessity of an epoch, we are certain not to go astray. " Now, gentlemen, do you wish to know what were in 1789 the real necessities of that epoch? Turn to the mandates of the different orders represented in the National Assembly. All that ivere then the reflected wishes of enlightened men are ivhat I call necessities. The Constituent Assembly was only their interpreter when it proclaimed liberty of worship, equality before the law, individual liberty, the right of jurisdiction (that no one should be deprived of his natural judges), the liberty of the p^ess. "It was little in accordance with its epoch when it instituted a single chamber, when it destroyed the royal sanction, when it tortured the conscience, &c. &c. And, nevertheless, in spite of its faults, of which I have only cited a small number — faults followed by such great calamities — posterity which has begun for it accords to it the glory of establishing the foundation of our new public rights. ^^ Let us hold J then, for certain, that all that is desired, that all that is joroclaimed good and useful hj all the au-dela des necessites du temps, rabime ou quelque revolution Tattendent,' Mais qnand on ne fait que ce que le temps commande, on est sur de ne pas s'egarer. " Or, Messieurs, voulez-vous savoir quelles dtaient en 1789 les veritables necessites du temps ? ouvrez les cahiers des differents ordres. Tout ce qui etait alors le voeu reflechi des hommes eclaires, voila ce que j'appelle des necessites. L'Assemblee Constituante n'en fut que I'interprfete lorsqu'elle proclama la liberty des cultes, I'egalit^ devaut la loi, la liberie individuelle, le droit des jurisdictions (nul ne peut etre distrait de ses juges naturels), la liberty de la presse. " Elle fut peu d'accord avec le temps lorsqu'elle institua une Chambre unique, lorsqu'elle detruisit le sanction royale, lorsqu'elle tortura les consciences, etc, etc. Et cependant, malgre ses erreurs, dont je n'ai cite qu'un petit nombre, erreurs suivies de si grandes calamites, la post^rite qui a commence pour elle, lui reconnait la gloire d'avoir etabli les bases de notre nouveau droit public. " Tenons done pour certain que ce qui est voulu, que ce qui est proclam^ bon et utile par tons les hommes eclaire's d'un pays, sans 218 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. enlightened men of a country^ ivithout variation, during a series of years diversely occupied, is a necessity of the times. Such, gentlemen, is the liberty of the press. I address myself to all those amongst you who are more particularly my contemporaries — was it not the dear object and wish of all those excellent men whom we so admired in our youth — the Malesherbes, the Trudaines — who surely were well worth the statesmen we have had since ? The place which the men I have named occupy in our memories amply proves that the liberty of the press consolidates legitimate renown; and if it destroys usurped reputations, where is the harm ? " Having proved my first proposition, that the liberty of the press is in France the necessary result of the state of its society, it remains for me to establish my second proposition — that a government is in danger when it obsti- nately refuses what the state or spirit of its society requires. " Ihe most tranquil societies, and those which ought to be the most happy, always number amongst them a certain class of men who hope to acquire by the means of disorder those riches which they do not possess, and that importance which they ought never to have. Is it prudent to furnish the enemies of social order with pretexts for discontent, variation pendant une suite d'annees diversement remplies, est une ne'cessit^ du temps. Telle est, Messieurs, la liberte de la presse. Je m'adresse k tons ceux d'entre vous qui sont plus particuliere- ment mes con tern porains, n'etait-elle pas I'objet des voeux de tons ces hommes excellents que nous avons admires dans notre jeunesse, — des Malesherbes, des Trudaines, — qui certes valaient biens les hommes d'etat que nous avons depuis ? La place que les hommes quej'ai nommes occupent dans nos souvenirs prouve bien que la liberte de la presse consolide les renommees legitimes; et si elle mine les reputations usurpees, oil done est le mal ? " Apres avoir prouve que la liberte de la presse est en France le resultat necessaire de I'etat actuel de la societe, il me reste k dtablir ma seconde proposition, qu'un gouvernement s'expose quand il se refuse obstinlment k ce que le temps a proclame une necessite. *' Les societes les plus tranquilles et qui devraient etre les plus heureuses, renferment toujours dans leur sein un certain nombre d'hommes qui aspirent k conquerir, k la faveur du desordre, les richesses qu'ils n'ont pas et I'importance qu'ils ne devraient jamais avoir. Est-il prudent de mettre aux mains de ces ennemis de I'ordre TALLEYRAND. 219 without which their individual efforts to promote disturb- ance would be impotent ? " Society in its progressive march is destined to ex- perience new wants. 1 can ^perfectly understand that governments ought not to he in any hurry to recognise them ; hut when it has once recognised them, to take back what it has given, or, what comes to the same thing, to be always suspending its exercise, is a temerity of which I more than any one desire that those who conceived the convenient and fatal thought may not have to repent. The good faith of a government should never be com- promised. Now-a-days, it is not easy to deceive for long. There is some one tvho has more intelligence than Voltaire; more intelligence than Bonaparte ; more intelligence than each of the Directors— than each of the ministers, past, present, and to come. That some one is everyhody. To engage in, or at least to persist in, a struggle against what according to general belief is a public interest, is a political fault, — and at this day all political faults are dangerous. *' When the press is free — when each one knows that his interests are or will be defended — all wait with patience a justice more or less tardy. Hope supports, and with social, des motifs de mecontentement sans lesquels leur perversity serait eternellement impuissante ? " La societe, dans sa marche progressive, est destinee a subir de nouvelles ne'cessites ; je comprends que les gouvernements ne doivent pas se hater de les reconnaitre et d'y faire droit ; mais quand il les ont reconnues, reprendre ce qu'on a donne, on, ce qui revient au meme, le suspendre sans cesse, c'est une teme'ritd dont, plus que personne, je desire que n'aient pas a se repentir ceux qui en concoi- vent la commode et funeste pensee. 11 ne faut jamais compromettre la bonne I'oi d'un gouvernement. De nos jours, il n'est pas facile de tromper longtemps. 11 y a quelqu'un qui a plus d'esprit que Voltaire, plus d'esprit que Bonaparte, plus d'esprit que chacun des directeurs, que cliacun des ministres passes, presents, k venir, c'est tout le monde. ^'engager, ou du moins persister dans une lutte oil tout le monde se croit inleresse, c'est une faute, et aujourd'hui toutes les fautes politiques sont dangereuses. " Quand la presse est libre, lorsque chacun peut savoir que ses interets sont ou seront defendus, on attend du temps une justice plus ou moins tardive ; I'esperance soutient, et avec raison, car cette \ 220 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. reason, for this hope cannot be deceived for long; but when the press is enslaved, when no voice can be raised, discontent will soon exact, on the part of the government, either too much concession or too much repression." On the 26th of February, 1822, M. de Talleyrand spoke on the same subject, commenting on the rights accorded by, and the intentions which had presided over, the charter. Such efforts on such subjects preserved for his name a national character, and connected the most me- morable acts of his own career with the most ardent as- pirations of his country. lY. Still, notwithstanding these occasional appearances on the public stage, it is certain that the easy though mo- mentary triumph of a cause of which he had somevv^hat solemnly announced the almost certain defeat, disgusted him from further meddling in affairs, and much of his time was afterwards passed out of Paris, at Yalencay, the estate which he meant should be ancestral, in Touraine. His fortune, moreover, was much affected by the bank- ruptcy of a commercial house in which he had engaged himself as what we call a '' sleeping partner." Never- theless he held, when in the capital, a great existence : — his drawing-room becoming to the Kestoration what it had been to the best days of the Empire — a rival court, and a court which gathered to itself all the eminences of the old times, and all the rising young men of the new. There, from his easy-chair, drawn up to the window which looks upon the Tuileries, and surrounded by those who had acted in the past with him, or who might make a future for him, he read with pleased composure the fall of ministry after ministry on the flushed countenance of the eager deputy rushing to or from the fatal vote ; until, at the nomination of M. de Polignac, he repeated calmly to those about him, the phrase he is said to have pro- esperance ne peut etre longtemps trompde ; mais quand la presse est asservie, quand nuUe voix ne peut s'elever, les mecontentements exigent bientot de la part du gouvernement, ou trop de faiblesse ou trop de repression." TALLEYBAND. 221 nounced after the Eussian campaign : " C'est le commence- ment cle la Jin." Indeed, ever since the dismissal of the National Guard, and the failure of M. de Martignac's ministry, which, tried as it was and at the time it was, conld not but fail, he spoke without reserve, though always with expressions of regret, to those in his intimacy, of the extreme peril to which the legitimate monarchy was hurrying ; and he could do this with the more certainty, from the knowledge he possessed of Charles X.'s character, the good and bad qualities of which he con- sidered equally dangerous. V. The following account of the share which 31. de Talley- rand took in the new Ee volution, that, after many ominous preludes, at last took place, was given me by an actor in the history he relates. For the first two days of the insurrection, viz., the 27th and 28th of July, M. de Talleyrand said little or nothing, remaining quietly at home and refusing himself to all inquirers. On the third day he called to him his private secretary, and with that winning manner he knew so well how to adopt when he had any object to gain, said to him : '• M. C , I have a favour to request of you ; go for me to St. Cloud " (the service was one of some danger and difficulty), " see if the royal family are still there, or what they are doing." The secretary went and found Charles X. just departing for Eambouillet. M. de Talleyrand, who had during his messenger's absence seen General Sebastiani, General Gerard, and two or three other influential persons of the same party and opinions, on hearing that the King had quitted St. Cloud, retired to his room and remained there alone for about two hours, when he again sent for the same gentleman, and this time his manners were, if possible, more persuasive than before. " I have yet another and greater favour to ask, M. C . Go for me to Neuilly ; get by some means or other to Madame Adelaide;* give her this piece of paper,, and when she has read it, either see it burnt or bring it back * The Due d'Orleans' sister. 222 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS. to me." The piece of paper contained merely these words : " Madame pent avoir toute confiance dans le porteur, qui est mon secretaire." " When madame has read this, you will tell her that there is not a moment to lose. The Due d'Orleans must be here to-morrow ; he must take no other title than that of Lieutenant-general of the Kingdom, which has been accorded to him — ' le reste viendra.' " With this confidential message, M. C started. With great difficulty — for the gates of Neuilly were closed to every one — he got to the chateau and to Madame. On saying that he brought a message from M. de Talleyrand, " Ah, ce bon prince, j etais sure qu'il ne nous oublierait pas !"* The messenger then delivered his credentials and his message. " Tell the prince that I will pledge my word for my brother's following his advice. He shall be in Paris to-morrow," was the reply : after which M. C had the courage to ask, though with some hesitation, that the piece of paper should be destroyed or returned. It was given back to him, and he restored it to M. de Talley- rand, who did not, by the way, forget to ask for it. It only remains to say that the Dae d'Orleans did come to Paris the following day ; did only take the title of Lieu- tenant-general ; and that the rest did, as M. de Talleyrand had predicted, follow. Thus ended the last Kevolution with which this singular man was blended. When the message he sent arrived, the future king of the French was concealed, the conduct he seemed likely to pursue uncertain; and those who know anything of revolutions will be aware of the value of a day and an hour. Moreover, this prince got to the throne by the very door which M. de Talleyrand had warned Louis XVIII. to close, viz., a constitution proceeding /rom the people. Nor is this all : the knowledge that M. de Talleyrand had recognised, and even been concerned in establishing, the new dynasty, had no slight influence on the opinion formed of it in other courts, and might be said more especially to have decided our own important and imme- diate recognition of it. He himself was then offered the * Ah, the good prince ! I knew he would not forget us. TALLEYRAND. 223 post of minister of foreign affairs, but he saw it was more difficnlt and less important than that of ambassador to St. James', and while he refused the first position he ac- cepted the last. VI. The choice was a fortunate one. No one else could have supplied the place of M. de Talleyrand in England at that juncture ; he knew well and personally both the Duke of WelHngton and Lord Grrey, the chiefs of the opposing parties, and it was perhaps his presence at the British court, more than any other circumstance of the time, which preserved, in a crisis when all the elements of war were sti-ugghng to get loose, that universal peace which for so many years remained un- broken. With a firm conviction, indeed, of the necessity of this peace, he took the best and only course for maintaining it. An ordinary diplomatist is occupied with the thousand small aifairs passing through his hands, and the thousand ideas of more or less importance connected with them. M. de Talleyrand's great talent, as I have more than once said, was in selecting at once in every affair the most important question of the moment, and in sacrificing, without delay or scruple, whatever was necessary to attain his object with respect to that question. He saw that the peaceful acceptance of the Orleans' dynasty could be obtained, and could only be obtained, by being on good terms with England. A quarrel with us was an European war; a good understanding with us rendered such a war unlikely, almost impossible. Belgium was the especial question on which all earlier negotiations turned, and on which the amity of our government depended. That country, smarting under many real, and irritated by the thought of many fancied, grievances, had thrown off" the Dutch yoke. The Dutch troops, who with a little more vigour might have been victorious, had retreated, beaten, from Brussels; the frontier fortresses were in the hands of the insurgents, and it is no use dis- guising the fact that there was, is, and ever will be, a considerable party in France in favour of extending the 224 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. French frontier, and comprising Antwerp within the French dominions. England, however, was not then dis- posed, and prohahly will not at any time be disposed, with statesmen caring for the safety of their country, to submit to this. She had, in fact, as I have said at the peace of 1814, provided es23ecially, as she thought, for the safety of the Netherlands, by the amalgamation of the Belgian and Dutch provinces into one kingdom, and by the fortresses which she had built or repaired for protecting that kingdom. This policy was now overthrown, and could not be re- constructed without exciting the warlike and excited spirit of the French people. On the other hand, we could only make a limited sacrifice to French susceptibility and ambition. Much skill then was necessary on the part of all persons, but more especially on the part of the French negotiator, to avoid any serious wound to the interests of the one nation, or to the feelings of the other. There was a call, in short, for the steadiest discretion without any change of purpose ; and all through the various phases of those long negotiations, by which jarring questions were finally composed, M. de Talleyrand warily persevered in his plan of planting the new government of France amongst the established governments of Europe through its alliance with Great Britain. The establishment of conferences in London was one of the most artful of the measures adopted with this end. Here the ambassador of Louis Philippe was brought at once, and in union with the Cabinet of St. James', into almost daily and intimate communication with the repre- sentatives of the other great powers. A variety of misre- presentations were removed, and a variety of statements made, not merely useful for the questions which were especially under discussion, but for the general position and policy of the State which the veteran diplomatist re- presented. The quadruple alliance — an alliance of the western and constitutional governments of Europe — was, in fact, a mere extension of the alliance between France and England, and a great moral exhibition of the trust placed by the TALLEYRAND. 22r parties themselves in that alliance. With this remarkable and popular compact— a compact which embodied the best principles on which an Anglo-French alliance can be formed— the diplomatic career of M. de Talleyrand closed. He felt, as he himself said, that there " is a sort of space between death and life, which should be employed in dying decently." The retirement of Lord Grey removed from the scene of public affairs in England that generation which, long accustomed to the reputation of a man who had filled half a century with his name, treated both himself and his opinions with the flattering respect due to old remem- brances. To the men of the new government he was, comparatively speaking, a stranger. The busy time of their career he had passed in seclusion from afiairs. They considered him, in a certain degree, as antiquated and gone by : a sentiment which he was keen enough to detect, and sensitive enough to feel deeply. His opinions, indeed, became somewhat embittered by certain affronts or negligences of which, during the latter part of his embassy, he thought he had to complain ; and, after his retirement, it is said that he rather counselled his royal master to consider that the advantages sought for in an alliance with England were obtained, and that the future policy of France should be to conciliate other powers. YII. At all events M. de Talleyrand, during his mission in England, not only sustained his previous reputation, but added very considerably to it. What struck the vulgar, and many, indeed, above the vulgar, who did not remember that the really crafty man disguises his craft, was the plain, open, and straightforward way in which he spoke of and dealt with all public matters, without any of those mysterious devices which distinguish the simpleton in the diplomacy from the statesman who is a diplomatist. In fact, having made up his mind to consider the Euglish alliance at this time essential to his country, he was well aware that the best and only way of obtaining it was by Q X 226 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. such frank and fair dealing as would win tlie confidence of British statesmen. Lord Palmer ston told me that his manner in diplomatic conferences was remarkable for its extreme absence of pre- tension, without any derogation of authority. He sat, for the most part, quiet, as if approving : sometimes, however, [ stating his opinion, but never arguing or discussing ; — a I habit foreign to the natural indolence which accompanied \him throughout his active career, and which he also con- . demned on such occasions, as fruitless and impolitic : " I j argue before a public ' assembly," he used to say, " not because I hope to convince any one there, but because I wish my opinions to be known to the world. But, in a room beyond which my voice is not to extend, the attempt to enforce my opinion against that which another is engaged to adopt, obliges him to be more formal and positive in expressing his hostility, and often leads him, from a desire to shine in the sense of his instructions, to go beyond them." Whatever M. de Talleyrand did, therefore, in the way of argument, he usually did beforehand, and alone, with the parties whom he was afterwards to encounter, and here he .. tried to avoid controversy. His manner was to bring out the principal point in his own opinion, and present it to the best advantage in every possible position. Napoleon complained of this, saying, he could not conceive how people found M. de Talleyrand eloquent. " II tournait toujours sur la meme idee." * But this was a system with him, as with Fox, who laid it down as the great principle for an orator who wislied to leave an impression. He was apt, however, to ask to have a particular word or sentence, of which he had generally studied the bearing and calculated the effect, introduced into a paper under dis- cussion, and from the carelessness with which he made the request it was usually complied with. There was some- thing in this silent way of doing business, which disap- pointed those who expected a more frequent use of the brilliant weapons which it was well known that the great * He always turned round the same idea. TALLEYBAND. wit of the day had at his command. But in the social circle which he wished to charm, or with the single individual whom he wished to gain, the effect of his pecu- liar eloquence generally overran the expectation. M. de Bacourt, who was secretary to his embassy in London, informed me " that M. de Talleyrand rarely wrote a whole despatch," but that a variety of little notes and phrases were usually to be found in his portfolio. When the question which these notes referred to had to be treated, they were produced, and confided to him (M. de Bacourt), who was told the general sense of the document he was to write, and how such memoranda were to be introduced. Finally, a revisal took place, and the general colouring, which proved that the despatch came from the ambassador, and not from his chancery, was fused over the composition. As a general rule in business, M. de Talley- rand held to the rule, that a chief should never do anything that a subaltern could do for him. " You should always," he used to say, " have time to spare, and rather put off till to-morrow what you cannot do well and easily to-day, than get into that hurry and flurry which is the necessary consequence of feeling one has too much to do." I have painted the subject of this sketch personally in his early life. Towards the close of his existence, the like- nesses of him that are common are sufliciently resembling. His head, with a superfluity of hair, looked large, and was sunk deep into an expanded chest. His countenance was pale and grave, with a mouth, the under-lip rather pro- truding, which formed itself instantly and almost in- stinctively into a smile that was sarcastic without being ill- natured. He talked little in general society, merely ex- pressing at intervals some opinion that had the air of an epigram, and which produced its effect as much from the manner with which it was brought out, as from its intrinsic j merit. He was, in fact, an actor, but an actor with such \ ease and nonchalance that he never seemed more natui'al than when he was acting. His recorded hon mots, of which I have given some, have become hackneyed, especially the best. But I will 228 HISTOEICAL CHARACTERS. venture to mention a few that occur to me, as I am writing, and which are remarkable as expressing an opinion con- cerning an individual or a situation. When the Comte d'Artois washed to be present at the councils of Louis XVIII., M. de Talleyrand opposed the project. The Comte d'Artois was offended, and reproached the minister. " Un jour," said M. de Talleyrand, " Yotre Majeste me remerciera pour ce qui deplait a Yotre Altesse Koyale." M. de Chateaubriand was no favourite with M. de Tal- leyrand. He condemnQd him as an affected writer, and an impossible politician. When the " Martyrs " first appeared, and was run after by the public with an appetite that the booksellers could not satisfy, M. de Fontanes, after speaking of it with an exaggerated eulogium, finished his explanation of the narrative by saying that Eudore and Cymodocee were thrown into the circus and devoured " par les betes." '' Comme I'ouvrage," said M. de Talleyrand. Some person saying that Fouche had a great contempt for mankind, *' C'est vrai," said M. de Talleyrand, " cet homme s'est beaucoup etudie." There is a certain instinct which most persons have as to their successor ; and when some one asked M. de Tal- leyrand a little before the Due de Eichelieu, governor of Odessa, was appointed prime minister in his own country, whether he, M. de Talleyrand, really thought that the Due was fit to govern France, he replied, to the surprise of the questioner, " Most assuredly ;" adding, after a slight pause, " No one knows the Crimea better." A lady, using the privilege of her sex, was speaking with violence of the defection of the Due de Eaguse. " Mon Dieu, madame," said M. de Talleyrand, " tout cela ne prouve qu'une chose. C'est que sa montre avan^ait et tout le monde etait a I'heure." A strong supporter of the chamber of peers, w^hen there was much question as to its merits, said, " At least you there find consciences." " Ah, oui," said M. de Talley- rand, " beaucoup, beaucoup de consciences. Semonville, par exemple, en a au moins deux." Louis XYIIL, speaking of M. de Blacas before M. de TALLEYBAND. 229 Talleyrand had expressed any opinion concerning him, said, " Ce pauvre Blacas, il aime la France, il m'aime, mais on dit qu'il est suffisant." " Ah oui, Sire, suffisant et insuffisant." As Madame de Stael was praising the British Con- stitution, M. de Talleyrand, turning round, said in a low, explanatory tone, " Elle admire surtout Ihaheas corpus.'' One evening at Holland House the company had got into groups, talking over some question of the moment in the House of Commons; and thus M. de Talleyrand, left alone, got up to go away, when Lord Holland, with his usual urbanity, following him to the door, asked where he was going so early. " Je vais aux Travellers, pour entendre ce que vous dites ici." We could prolong almost indefinitely this record of sayings from which M. de Talleyrand, notwithstanding his many services and great abilities, derives his popular and traditional reputation: but, in reality, they belong as much to the conversational epoch at which he entered the world, as to himself. VIII. On quitting England, he quitted not only diplomacy, A as I have said, but public life, and passed the remainder of his days in the enjoyment of the highest situation, and the most agreeable and cultivated society, that his country could afford. His fortune and ability might now, according to the Grecian sage, be estimated ; for his career was closed ; and, as the old sought his saloon as the hearth on which their brighter recollections could be revived, so the young were glad to test their opinions by the experience of " the politic man," who had passed through so many vicissitudes, and walked with a careless and haughty ease over the ^ ruins of so many governments, at the fall of which he had assisted. He himself, with that cool presence of mind for which he was so remarkable, aware that he had but a few years between the grave and himself, employed them in one of his great and constant objects, that of prepossessing the age about to succeed him in his favour, and explaining 230 EISTOBICAL CHABACTERS. to those whom he thought Hkely to influence the coming generation, the darker passages of his brilhant career. To one distinguished person, M. Montahvet, who related to me the fact, he once said : " You have a prejudice against me, because your father was an Imperialist, and you think I deserted the Emperor. I have never kept \ fealty to any one longer than he has himself been obedient to common sense. But, if you judge all my actions by this rule, you will find that I have been eminently con- sistent ; and where is there so degraded a human being, or so bad a citizen, as to submit his intelligence, or sacrifice his country, to any individual, however born, or however endowed ?" This, indeed, in a few words, was M. de Talleyrand's theory ; a theory which has formed the school, that with- out strictly adhering to the principle that common sense should be the test of obedience, bows to every authority with a smile and shrug of the shoulders, and the well- known phrase of •' La France avant tout." Shortly previous to his last illness he appeared (evidently with the intention of bidding the world a sort of dignified adieu) in the tribune of the Institute. The subject which he chose for his essay was M. Keinhard, who had long served under him, and was just dead, and between whom and himself, even in the circumstance of their both having received an ecclesiastical education, there was some sort of resemblance. The discourse is interesting on this ground, and also as a review of the different branches of the diplomatic service, and the duties attached to each — forming a kind of legacy to that profession of which the speaker had so long been the ornament. IX. " Gentlemen, — * " I was in America w^hen I was named a member of the Institute, and placed in the department of moral * "Messieurs, — " J'^tais en Amdrique, lorsque I'on eiit la bonte de me nommer Membre de I'lnstitut, et de m'attacher a la classe des sciences TALLEYRAND. 281 and political sciences, to which I have had the honour of being attached ever since it was first established. "On my return to France, I made it my principal object to attend its meetings, and to express to my new colleagues, many of whom we now so justly regret, the pleasure it gave me to find myself one of their number. At the first sitting I attended, the hureau was being renewed, and I had the honour of being named secretary. During six months, I drew up, to the best of my ability, the minutes of the proceedings, but my labours betrayed perhaps a little too plainly my difiidence, for I had to report on a work, the subject of which was new to me. That work, which had cost one of our most learned col- leagues many researches, many sleepless nights, was ' A Dissertation on the Eiparian Laws.' It was about the same period that I read at our public meetings several papers, which were received with such indulgence as to be thought worthy of being inserted in the memoirs of the Institute. But forty years have now elapsed, during which I have been a stranger to this tribune ; first, in consequence of frequent absence; then from duties, to which I felt bound to devote my whole time and attention ; I must also add, from that discretion, which, in times of morales et politique, k la quelle j'ai depuis son origine, riioiineur d'appartenir. " A mon retour en France, men premier soin fut de me rendre k ses seances, et de temoigner aux personnes qui la composaient alors, et dont plnsieurs nous ont laisse' de justes regrets, le plaisir que j'avais de me trouver un de leurs coUegues. A la premiere stance k laquelle j'assistai, on renouvelait le bureau et on me fit I'honneur de me nommer secretaire. Le proces-verbal que je rddigeai pendant six mois avec autant de soin que je le pouvais, portait, peut-etre un pen trop, le caract^re de ma deference ; car j'y rendais compte d'un travail qui m'etait fort etranger. Ce travail, qui sans doute avait coute bien des recherches, bicn des veilles h. un de nos plus savants coUegues, avait pour titre ' Dissertation sur les Lois Ripuaires.' Je fis aussi, a la merae qx)que, dans nos assemblees publiques, quelques lectures que I'indulgence, qui m'etait accordee alors, a fait insurer dans les Memoires de I'lnstitut. Depuis cette epoque, quarante annees se sont ecoulees, durant lesquelles cette tribune m'a ^te comme interdite, d'abord par beaucoup d'absences ensuite par des fonctions auxquelles mon devoir etait d'appartenir tout entier: je dois dire aussi, par la discretion que les temps difficiles exigent d'un 232 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. difficulty, is required of a man employed in public affairs ; and finally, at a later period, from the infirmities, usually brought on, or at least aggravated, by age. " At the present moment, I feel myself called upon to perform a duty, and to make a last appearance before this Assembly, in order that the memory of a man, known to the whole of Europe ; —of a man whom I loved, and who, from the very foundation of the Institute, has been our colleague, should receive here a public testimony of our esteem and regret. His position with respect to my own furnishes me with the means of speaking with authority of several of his merits. His principal, but I do not say his only, claim to distinction, consists of a correspondence of forty years, necessarily unknown to the public, and likely to remain so for ever. I asked myself, ' Who will mention this fact within these walls ? who, especially, will consider himself under the obligation of directing your attention to it, if the task be not undertaken by me, to whom the greater part of this correspondence was addressed, to whom it always gave so much pleasure, and often so much assistance in those ministerial duties, which I had to perform during three reigns .... so very different in character ?' " The first time I saw M. Eeinhard, he was thirty, and homme livre aux affaires ; et enfin, plus tard, par les infirmites que la vieillesse amfene d'ordinaire avec elle, ou du moins qu'elle aggrave toujours. " Mais aujourd'hui j'eprouve le besoin, et je regarde comme un devoir de m'y presenter une derniere fois, pour que la memoire d'uii homme conmi dans toute I'Europe, d'un homme que j'aimais, et qui, depuis la formation de I'lnstitut, etait notre collogue, refoive ici un temoignage public de notre estime et de nos regrets. Sa position et la mienne me mettent dans le cas de reveler plusieurs de ses merites. Son principal, je ne dis pas son unique titre de gloire, consiste dans une correspon dance de quarante annees ne'cessairement ignoree du public, qui, tres-probablement, n'en aura jamais connaissance. Je me suis dit : * Qui en parlera dans cette enceinte ? Qui sera surtout dans I'obligation d'en parler, si*ce n'est moi, qui en ait re9U la plus grande part, k qui elle fut toujours si agreable, et souvent si utile dans les fonctions ministerielles que j'ai cues k remplir sous trois regnes . . . tres-differents ?' "Le comte Eeinhard avait trente ans, et j'en avais trente-sept, TALLEYRAND. 233 I thirty-seven, years of age. He entered public life with the advantage of a large stock of acquired knowledge. He knew thoroughly five or six languages, and was familiar with their literature. He could have made himself re- markable as an historian, as a poet, or as a geographer ; and it was in this last capacity that he became a member of the Institute, from the day it was founded. " Already at this time he was a member of the Academy of Sciences of Grottingen. Born and educated in Germany, he had published in his youth several pieces of poetry, which had brought him under tlie notice of Gesner, Wieland, and Schiller. He was obhged at a later period to take the waters of Carlsbad, ^^ here he was so fortunate as to find himself frequently in the society of the celebrated Goethe, who appreciated his taste and acquirements sufficiently to request to be informed by him of everything that was creating a sensation in the French literary world. M. Eeinhard promised to do so ; engagements of this kind between men of a superior order are always reciprocal, and soon become ties of friendship ; those formed between j\I. Eeinhard and Goethe gave rise to a correspondence, which is now published in Germany. " We learn from these letters that when he had arrived quand je le vis pour le premiere fois. II entrait aux affaires avec nn grand fonds de connaissances acquises. II savait bien cinq ou six langues dont les littdratures lui e'taient familieres. II eut pu se rendre celebre comme poete, comme historien, comme ge'ograpbe; et c'est en cette quality qu'il fut membre de I'lnstitut, des que rinstitut fut cre'e. " II etait dej^ k cette epoque, membre de I'Academie des Sciences de Gottingen. Kfe et eleve' en Allemagne, il avait publie dans sa jeunesse quelques pieces de vers qui I'avaient fait remarquer par Gesner, par Wieland, par Schiller. Plus tard, oblige pour sa santd, de prendre les eaux de Carlsbad, il eut de bonheur d'y trouver et d'y voir sou vent le ce'lebre Gothe, qui apprecia assez son gotit et ses con- naissances pour desirer d'etre averti par lui de tout ce qui faisait quelque sensation dans la litterature francaise. M. Eeinhard le lui promit : les engagements de ce genre, entre les hommes d'un ordre superieur, sont toujours reciproques et deviennent bientot des liens d'amitie : ceux qui se formerent entre M. Keinhard et Gothe don- nerent lieu k une correspond ance que Ton imprime aujourd'hui en Allemagne. " On y verra, qu'arrive a cette Epoque de la vie ou il faut definitive- 234 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. at that time of life, when it is necessary to select defini- tively the profession for which one feels most aptitude, M. Eeinhard, before making his final decision, reflected seriously upon his natural disposition, his tastes, his own circumstances and those of his family ; and then made a choice singular at that time, for instead of choosing a career that promised independence, he gave the preference to one in which it is impossible to secure it. The diplo- matic career was selected by him, nor is it possible to blame him ; qualified for all the duties of this profession, he has successively fulfilled them all, and each with distinction. " And I would here venture to assert that he had been successfully prepared for the course he adopted by his early studies. He had been remarked as a proficient in theology at the Seminary of Denkendorf, and at that of the Pro- testant faculty of Tubingen, and it was to this science especially that he owed the power, and at the same time the subtlety, of reasoning, that abounds in all his writings. And to divest myself of the fear of yielding to an idea which might appear paradoxical, I feel obliged to bring before you the names of several of our greatest diplomatists, who were at once theologians and celebrated in history for having conducted the most important political ne- gotiations of their day. There was the chancellor, Cardinal ment clioisir im dtat M. Eeinhard fit gur lui-mgme, sur les gouts, sur sa position et sur celle de sa famille un retour s6rieux qui prd- ceda sa determination ; et alors, chose remarquable pour le temps, k des carri^res oil il eut pu etre independant, il en pr^fera une oii il ne pouvait I'etre. C'est a la carrifere diplomatique qu'il donna la pre- ference, et il fit bien : propre a tons les eniplois de cette carriere, il les a successivement tons remplis, efc tous avec distinction. "Je hasarderai de dire ici que ses Etudes premieres I'y avait heureusement prepare. Celle de la theologie surtout, oil il se fit remarquer dans le Seminaire de Denkendorf et dans celui de la faculte protestante de Tubingen, lui avait donne une force et en meme temps une souplesse de raissonnement que Ton retrouve dans toutes les pieces qui sont sorties de sa plume. Et pour m'oter k moi-meme la crainte de me laisser aller k une idee qui pourrait paraitre paradoxale, je me sens oblige de rappeler ici les noms de plusieurs de nos grands negociateurs, tous th^ologiens, et tous remarques par I'histoire comme ayant conduit les affaires politiques TALLEYBAXJD. 235 Duprat, equally skilled in canon and civil law, -who established with Leo X. the basis of the Concordat, of which several articles are still retained. Cardinal d'Ossat, who, in spite of the efibrts made by several great powers, succeeded in effecting a reconciliation between Henry lY. and the Court of Kome. The study of his letters is still recommended at the present day to young men who are destined for political life. Cardinal de Polignac, a theo- logian, poet and diplomatist, who, after so many disastrous campaigns, was able to preserve, by the treaty of Utrecht, the conquests of Louis XIV. for France. "The names I have just mentioned appear to me sufficient to justify my opinion that M. Eeinhard's habits of thought were considerably influenced by the early stu- dies to which his education had been directed by his father. '•' On account of his solid, and, at the same time, various acquirements, he was called to Bordeaux, in order to discharge the honoui'able but modest duties of a tutor in a Protestant family of that city. There he naturally became acquainted with several of those men whose talents, errors, and death have given so much celebrity to our first legislative assembly. M. Eeinhard was easily persuaded by them to devote himself to the service of France. les plus importantes de leurs temps: le cardinal chancelier Duprat aussi verse dans le droit canon que dans le droit civil, et qui fixa avec Leon X. les bases du concordat dont plusieurs dispositions sub- sistent encore aujourd'hui. Le cardinal d'Ossat, qui, malgre les efforts de plusieurs grandes puissances, parvint k reconcilier Henry IV. avec le cour de Rome. Le recueil de lettres |qu'il a laisse est encore prescrit aujourd'hui aux jeunes gens qui se destinent k la carri^re politique. Le cardinal de Polignac, the'ologien, poete etnegociateur, qui, apres tant de guerres malheureuses sut conserver k la France, par le traits d'Utrecht, les conquetes de Louis XIV. " Les noms que je viens de citer me paraissent suffire pour justifier I'influence qu'eurent, dans mon opinion, sur les habitudes d'esprit de M. Reinhard, les premieres etudes vers lesquelles I'avait dirige I'e'du- cation paternelle. " Les connaissances a la fois solides et varices qu'il y avait acquises I'avaient fait appeler a Bordeaux pour remplir les honorables et modestes fonctions de pre'ceptor dans une famille protestante de cette ville. Lk, il se trouva naturellement en relation des hommes dont le talent, les erreurs et la mort jetferent tant d'eclat sur notre 236 EISTOBICAL CHABACTEBS. " It is not necessary to follow him step by step through all the vicissitudes of his long career. In the succession of offices confided to him, now of a higher, now of a lower order, there seems to he a sort of inconsistency and absence of regularity, which, at the present day, we should have some difficulty in conceiving. But, at that time, people were as free from prejudice with respect to places as to persons. At other periods, favour, and sometimes discern- ment, used to confer situations of importance. But, in the days of which I speak, every place had to be won. Such a state of things very quickly leads to confusion. " Thus, we find M. Eeinhard first secretary of legation at London ; occupying the same post at Naples ; minister plenipotentiary to the Hanseatic towns of Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck ; chief clerk of the third division in the department of foreign affairs ; minister plenipotentiary at Florence ; minister of foreign afiairs ; minister plenipo- tentiary to the Helvetian Eepublic ; consul-general at Milan ; minister plenipotentiary to the Circle of Lower Saxony ; president in the Turkish provinces beyond the Danube, and commissary-general of commercial relations premiere assemblee legislative. M. Eeinhard se laissa facilement entrainer par eux k s'attacher au service de la France. " Je ne m'astreindrai point a le suivre pas k pas k travers les vicis- situdes dont fut remplie la longue carriere qii'il a parcourue. Dans les nombreux emplois que lui furent confi^s, tantot d'un ordre eleve, tantot d'un ordre inferieur, il semblerait y avoir une sorte d'incoherence, et comme une absence de hierarchic que nous aurions aujourd'hui de la peine k comprendre. Mais k cette ^poque il n'y avait pas plus de prejug^s pour les places qu'il n'y en avait pour les personnes. Dans d'autres temps, la faveur, quelquefois le discerne- ment, appelaient k toutes les situations ^minentes. Dans le temps dont je parle, bien ou mal, toutes les situations ^taient conquises. Un pareil ^tat de choses mene bien vite k la confusion. " Aussi, nous voyons M. Reinhard, premier secre'taire de la legation a Londres ; occupant le meme emploi k Naples ; ministre pl^nipo- tentiaire auprfes des villes anseatiques, Hambourg, Breme et Lubeck ; chef de la troisieme division au departement des affaires etrang^res ; ministre plenipotentiaire ^ Florence; ministre des relations exte- rieures ; ministre plenipotentiaire en Helvetic ; consul-ge'neral k Milan ; ministre plenipotentiaire pres le cercle de Basse-Saxe ; president dans les provinces turques au dela du Danube, et commis- saire-g^neral des relations commerciales en Moldavie ; ministre pleni- TALLEYRAND. 237 in Moldavia; minister plenipotentiary to the King of Westphalia ; director of the Chancellerie in the depart- ment of foreign affairs ; minister plenipotentiary to the Germanic Diet and the free city of Frankfort; and, finally, minister plenipotentiary at Dresden. " What a number of places, of charges, and of interests, all confided to one man, and this at a time when it seemed likely that his civil talents would be less justly appreciated, inasmuch as that war appeared to decide every question. "You do not expect me, gentlemen, to give here a detailed account of all M. Keinhard's labours in the various employments, which I have just enumerated. This would require a volume. " I have only to call your attention to the manner in which he regarded the duties he had to perform, whether as chief clerk, minister, or consul. "Although M. Keinhard did not possess at that time the advantage which he might have had a few years later of being able to study excellent examples, he was already perfectly aware of the numerous and various qualities that ought to distinguish a chief clerk in the foreign office. A dehcate tact had made him feel that the habits of a chief clerk ought to be simple, regular, and retired; that, a potentiaire aupres du roi de Westphalie ; directeur de la chancellerie du departement des affaires dtrangeres; ministre plenipotentiaire aupres de la diete germanique, et de la ville libre de Frankfort, et, enfin, ministre plenipotentiaire k Dresde. " Que de places, que d'emplois, que d'inteiets confids a un seul homme, et cela, k une epoque oii les talents paraissaient devoir etre dautant moins apprecies que la guerre semblait, a elle seule, se charger de toutes les affaires ! "Vous n'attendez done pas de moi, Messieurs, qu'ici je vous rende conipte en detail, et date par date, de tons les travaux de M. Reinhard dans les differents emplois dont vous venez d'entendre I'enumeration. II iaudrait faire un livre. " Jc ne dois parler devant vous que de la maniere dont il com- prenait les fonctions qu'il avait a remplir, qu'il ftit chef de division, ministre, ou consul. " Quoique M. Reinhard n'etit point alors I'avantage qu'il aurait eu quelques annees plus tard, de trouver sous ses yeux d'excellents modeles, il savait dejk combien de qualites, et de qualites diverses, devaient distinguer un chef de division des affaires etrangeres. Un tact delicat lui avait fait sentir que les moeurs d'un chef de division 238 EISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. stranger to the bustle of the world, he ought to live solely for his duty, and devote to it an impenetrable secrecy ; that, always prepared to give an answer respecting facts or men, he must have every treaty fresh in his memory, know its historical date, appreciate its strong and weak points, its antecedents and consequences, and finally be acquainted with the names of its principal negotiators, and even with their family connections ; that, in making use of this knowledge, he ought, at the same time, to be cautious not to offend a minister's self-esteem, always so sensitive, and, even when he should have influenced the opinion of his chief, to leave his success in the shade ; for he knew that he was to shine only by a reflected light. Still, he was aware that much consideration would be the reward of so pure and modest a life. " M. Eeinhard's power of observation did not stop here ; it had taught him to understand how rare is the union of qualities necessary to make a minister of foreign affairs. Indeed, a minister of foreign aftairs ought to be gifted with a sort of instinct, which should be always prompting him, and thus guarding him, when entering into any discussion, from the danger of committing himself. It is requisite that he should possess the faculty of appearing devaient etre simples, reguli^res, retirees ; qu'e'taanger au tumulte du monde, il devait vivre uniquement pour les affaires et leur vouer un secret impenetrable ; que, toujours pret k repondre sur les faits et sur les hommes, il devait avoir sans cesse presents k la memoire tous les traite's, connaitre historiquement leiirs dates, apprecier avec justesse leiirs cotes forts et leurs cotes faibles, leurs antecedents et leurs consequences ; savoir, enfin, les noms des principaux n^gocia- teurs, et ni^me leurs relations de famille ; que, tout en faisant usage de ces connaissances, il devait prendre garde k inquieter I'amour- propre toujours si clairvoyant du ministre, et qu'alors meme qu'il I'entrainait a son opinion, son succes devait rester dans I'ombre ; car il savait qu'il ne devait briller que d'un eclat re'flechi ; mais il savait aussi que beaucoup de consideration s'attachait naturellement k une vie aussi pure et aussi modeste. " L'esprit d'observation de M. Reinhard ne s'arretait point Ik ; il I'avait conduit k comprendre combien la reunion des qualites neces- saires k un ministre des affaires etrangeres est rare. II faut, en effet, qu'un ministre des affaires etrangeres soit doue d'une sorte d'instinct qui, I'avertissant promptement, I'empeche, avant toute discussion, de jamais se compromettre. 11 lui faut la faculte de se montrer ouvert i TALLEYEASD. open, while remaining impenetrable; of masking reserve with the manner of frankness ; of showing talent even in the choice of his amusements. His conversation should be simple, varied, unexpected, always natural, and at times naive ; in a word, he should never cease for an instant dui-ing the twenty-four hours to be a minister of foreign affairs. " Yet all these qualities, however rare, might not suffice, if they did not find in sincerity a guarantee which they almost always require. I must not omit to notice here this fact, in order to destroy a prejudice, into which people are very apt to fall. No ! diplomacy is not a science of craft and duplicity. If sincerity be anywhere requisite, it is especially so in political transactions ; for it is that which makes them solid and durable. It has pleased people to confound reserve with cunning. Sincerity never authorizes cunning, but it admits of reserve ; and reserve has this peculiarity, that it increases confidence. " If he be governed by the honour and interests of his country, by the honour and interests of bis sovereign, by the love of a liberty based upon order and the rights of all men, a minister of foreign afi^airs, who knows how to fill his post, finds himself thus in the noblest position to which a superior mind can aspire. en restant impenetrable ; d'etre reserve avecles formes de I'abaudon, d'etre habile jusque dans le choix de ses distractions ; il faut que sa conversation soit simple, vari^e, inattendue, toujours naturelle et parfois naive ; en un mot, il ne doit pas cesser un moment, dans les vingt-quatre heures, d'etre ministre des afiaires etrangeres. " Ceijendant, tout ces qualites, quelque rares qu'elles soieut, pourraient n'etre pas sufiBsantes, si la bonne foi ne leur donnait une garantie dont elles ont presque toujours besoiu. Je dois le rappeler ici, pour detruire un prejuge assez g6n^ralement repandu : non, la diplomatic n'est point une science de ruse et de duplicity. Si la bonne foi est necessaire quelque part, c'est surtout dans les trarsac- tions politiques, car c'est elle qui les rend solides et durables. On a voulu conlbndre la reserve avec la ruse. La bonne foi n'autorise jamais la ruse, mais elle admet la reserve ; et la reserve a cela de particulier, c'est qu'elle ajoute k la confiance. "Domine par I'honneur et I'interet du prince, par I'amour de la liberte, fonde sur I'ordre et sur les droits de tous, un ministre des affaires e'trangeres, quand il salt Tetre, se trouve ainsi place dans la plus belle situation k laquelle un esprit elev6 puisse pretendre. 240 HISTORICAL CHABACTER8. " After having been a distinguished minister, how many things more must be known to make a good consul ! For there is no end to the variety of a consul's attributions ; and they are perfectly distinct from those of the other persons employed in foreign affairs. They demand a vast amount of practical knowledge which can only be acquired by a peculiar education. Consuls are called upon to dis- charge, for the advantage of their countrymen, and over the extent of their jurisdiction, the functions of judges, arbitrators, and promoters of reconcihation ; it frequently happens that they are employed in other civil capacities ; they perform the duties of notaries, sometimes those of naval administrators ; they examine and pronounce upon sanitary questions ; it is they who are enabled, by their numerous professional connections, to give correct and perfect notions respecting the state of commerce or naviga- tion, or of the manufactures peculiar to the country where they reside. Accordingly, as M. Eeinhard never neglected anything which might confirm the accuracy of the in- formation required by his government, or the justice of the decisions which he had to pronounce as a political agent, as a consular agent, or as a naval administrator, he made a profound study of international and maritime law. It was owing to this study, that he became persuaded that " Apres avoir ete un ministre habile, que de choses il faut encore savoir pour un bon consul ! Car les attributions d'un consul sont varices k I'infini ; elles sont d'un genre tout different de celles des autres employes des affaires ^trang^res. Elles exigent une foule de connaissances pratiques pour lesquelles une Education particuliere est necessaire. Les consuls sont dans le cas d'exercer, dans I'etendue de leur arrondissement, vis-k-vis de leurs compatriotes, les fonctions de juges, d'arbitres, de conciliateurs ; sou vent ils sont ofBciers de I'etat civil ; ils remplissent I'emploi de notaires, quelquefois celui d'administrateur de la marine; ils surveillent et constatent I'dtat sanitaire ; ce sont eux qui, par leurs relations habituelles, peuvent donner une idee juste et complete de la situation du commerce, de la navigation et de I'industrie particuliere au pays de leur residence. Aussi M. Eeinhard, qui nenegligeait rien pour s'assurer de la justesse des informations qu'il etait dans la cas de doaner a son gouverne- ment, et des decisions qu'il devait prendre comme agent politique, comme agent consulaire, comme administrateur de la marine, avait- 11 fait une etude appro fondie du droit des gens et du droit maritime. TALLEYRAND. 241 the day would come wlien, by skilful political combina- tions, a universal system of commerce and navigation would be inaugurated, which would respect- the interests of all nations, and be established on such foundations that war itself would be powerless to assail its principles, even were it able to suspend some of its effects. "He had also learned to resolve, with accuracy and promptitude, every question connected with exchange, arbitration, valuation of money, weights and measured; and all this without a single dispute ever having arisen from the information he had supplied, or the judgments he had pronounced. But it is also true that the personal consideration, which accompanied him during his whole career, gave a weight to his interference, in every question that required his assistance, and in all arbitrations where he had to give a decision. " But, however extensive may be a man's information, however vast his capacity, there is nothing so rare as a complete diplomatist. We should perhaps have found one in M. Eeinhard if he had possessed but one qualification more. He observed well, and understood well ; when he took up his pen, he could give an admirable account of what he had seen and heard. His written language was Cette ^tude I'avait conduit k croire qu'il arriverait un temps oti, par des combinaisons habilement pr^parees, il s'etablirait im systeme general de commerce et de navigation, dans lequel les interets de toutes les nations seraient respcctes, et dont les bases fnssent telles que la guerre elle-meme n'en \At alterer le principe, dllt-elle sus- pendre quelques-unes de ses consequences. II etait aussi parvenu h, resoudre avec surety et promptitude toutes les questions de change, d'arbitrage, de conversion de monnaies, de ix)ids et mesures, et tout cela sans que jamais aucune reclamation se soit ^leve'e contre les informations qu'il avait donne'es et contre les jugements qu'il avait rendus. II est vrai aussi que la consideration personnelle qu'il I'a suivi dans toute sa carri^re donnait du poids h, son intervention dans toutes les affaires dont il se melait et h. tous les arbitrages sur lesquels il avait a prononcer. " Mais, quelque etendues que soient les connaissances d'un homme, quelque vaste que soit sa capacity, etre un diplomate complet est bien rare ; et cependant M. I^einhard I'aurait peut-etre dte', s'il eut en une qualite de plus ; il voyait bien, il entendait bien ; la plume a la main, il rendait admirablement compte de le qu'il avait vu, de ce qui lui avait ^te dit. Sa parole ^crite dtait abondante, facile, B 242 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. ready, abundant, witty, and pointed. Thus we find that, of all the diplomatic correspondence of my time, none was preferred to that of Count Eeinhard by the Emperor Napoleon, who had the right, and was under the necessity, of being difficult to please. But this eloquent writer was embarrassed when he had to speak. To carry out his intentions, his mind required more time than ordinary conversation afibi'ds. To express his thoughts with faci- lity, it was necessary for him to be alone, and not inter- fered with. " In spite of this serious difficulty, M. Eeinhard always succeeded in doing, and doing well, whatever was in- tvusted to him. How, then, did he find the means of succeeding ? whence did he derive his inspirations ? "He received them, gentlemen, from a deep and true feeling, which guided all his actions — from the sense of duty. People are not sufficiently aware of the power derived from this feeling. A life wholly devoted to duty is very easily diverted from ambition ; and that of M. Rein- hard was entirely taken up by his professional avocations, while he never was influenced in the slightest degree by an interested motive or a pretension to premature advancement. " This worship of duty, to which M. Eeinhard continued spirituelle, piquante ; aussi, de toutes les correspondances diploma- tiques de mon temps, il n'y en avait aucime k laquelle I'empereur NapoleoD, qui avait le droit et le besoin d'etre difficile, ne prdferat celle du comte Eeinhard. Mais ce meme homme qui e'crivait k merveille s'exprimait avec difficulte. Pour accomplir ses actes, son. intelligence demandait plus de temps qu'elle n'en pouvait obtenir dans le conversation. Pour que sa parole interne pdt se reproduire facilement, il fall ait qu'il I'fit seul et sans intermddiaire. " Malgre cet inconvenient re'el, M. Eeinhard reussit toujours k faire, et bien faire, tout ce dont il etait charge. Oii done trouvait-il ses moyens de reussir, oU prenait-il ses inspirations ? "II les prenait. Messieurs, dans un sentiment vrai et profond qui gouvernait toutes ses actions, dans le sentiment du devoir. On ne salt pas assez tout ce qu'il y a de puissance dans ce sentiment. Une vie tout critiere au devoir est bien aiseraent degagde d'ambition. La vie de M. Eeinhard etait uniquement employee aux fonctions qu'il avait k remplir, sans que jamais chez lui il y eili trace de calcul personnel ni de pretention k quelque avancement pr^cipit^. " Cette religion du devoir, k laquelle M. Eeinhard fut fidele tout sa TALLEYRAND. 243 faithful to the end of his days, comprised entire acquies- cence in the orders of his superiors — indefatigahle vigilance, which, joined to much penetration, never suffered them to remain ignorant of anything which it was expedient for them to know — strict truthfulness in all his reports, how- ever unpleasing their contents — impenetrable discretion — regular habits, which inspired esteem and confidence — a style of living suited to his position — and finally, constant attention in giving to the acts of his government the colour and lucidity which their importance demanded. "Although age seemed to invite M. Eeinhard to seek the repose of private life, he would never have asked per- mission to retire from active employment, so much did he fear to be thought lukewarm in the duties of a profession which had occupied the greater part of his days. "It was necessary that his Majesty's ever-thoughtful benevolence should have providently intervened to place this great servant of France in a most honourable position, by calHng him to the Chamber of Peers. " Count Eeinhard enjoyed this honour during too short a time. He died suddenly on the 25th of December, 1837. " M. Eeinhard was twice married. By his first wife he has left a son who is now following a political career. For vie, consistait en une soumission exacte aux instructions et aiix ordres de ses chefs ; dans une vigilance de tons les moments, qui, jointe a beaucoup de perspicacite, ne les laissait jamais dans I'igijor- ance de ce qu'il leur importait de savoir; eu une rigoureuse ve'iacite dans tous ses rapports, qu'ils dussent etre agreeables on de'plaisants ; dans une discretion impenetrable, dans une regularite de vie qui appelait la con fiance et I'estime ; dans une representation de'cente, entin dans im soin constant k donner aux actes de son gouverne- ment la couleur et les explications que reclamait I'int^'et dcs affaires qu'il avait a trailer. *' Quoique Tage etit marque pour M. Eeinhard le temps du repos, il n'aurait jamais demande sa retraite, tant il aurait crainte de montrer de la tiedeur a servir dans une carriere qui avait ete celle de toute sa vie. " II a fallu que la bienveillance royale, toujours si attentive, fut prevoyante pour lui, et donnat h, ce gi-and serviteur de la France la situation la plus honorable en I'apiDellant a la chambre des pairs. " M, le comte Reinhard n'a pas joui assez longtemps de cet hon- neur, et il est mort presque subitement le 25 decembre, 1837. " M. Reinhard s'etait marie deux fois. II a laisse' du premier lit 244 HISTORICAL CHARA0TER8. the son of such a man the best wish that we can form is that he may resemble his father." The force of nature, which a long life had exhausted in a variety of ways, seemed now unequal to any fm'ther struggle. A disease, which at Prince Talleyrand's age was almost certain to be fatal, and w^hich had already made its appear- ance, assumed a more formidable character. An operation was advised. The prince submitted to it, and bore it with a fortitude that surprised even those who most knew the stoicism which he on all occasions aifected and usually practised. Dangerous symptoms, however, soon followed, and his physician judged it an act of duty to warn him that his disorder might be fatal. He was urged indeed to do so by the noble patient's relations, who were especially anxious that he should die in peace with the church ; and when convinced that he could not recover, he assented to all that was asked of him, in this respect, as a favour that could not hurt himself, and was agreeable to those about him. The following account of his last moments is given by a person who was present at them : " When I entered the chamber where reposed the veteran statesman, he had fallen into a profound slumber, from which some amend- ment was augured by his physicians. The slumber, or rather lethargy, had continued for about an hour after my arrival, when it became curious to observe the uneasiness which was manifested, as time drew on, even by those dearest and nearest, lest this repose, however salutary, should endure beyond the hour fixed for the King's visit, for the sovereign intended to pay M. de Talleyrand this last homage. " With some difficulty he was at last aroused and made to comprehend the approaching ceremony, and hardly was he lifted from his reclining position and placed at the edge un fils qui est aujourd'hui dans la cavviere politique. Au fils d'un tel p^re, tout ce qu'on peut souhaiter de mieux, c'est de lui ressembler." TALLEYRAKD. 24: of the bed, when Louis Philippe, accompanied by Madame Adelaide, entered the apartment. * I am sorry, Prince, to see you suffering so much,' said the King, in a low tremulous voice, rendered almost inaudible by apparent emotion. ' Sire, you have come to witness the sufferings of a d}dng man ; and those who love him can have but one wish, that of seeing them shortly at an end.' This was uttered by M. de Talleyrand in that deep strong voice so pecuhar to himself, and which the approach of death had not the power to weaken. " The royal visit, like all royal visits of a disagreeable nature, was of the shortest duration possible. Indeed, the position was to all parties embarrassing and painful. Louis Philippe rose, after an effort and some few words of consolation, to take his leave ; and not even at this last moment did the old prince lose his wonted presence of mind, or forget a duty which the etiquette he had been bred in dictated — that of introducing those formally to the sovereign who found themselves in his presence. Slightly raising himself, then, he mentioned by name his physician, his secretary, his principal valet, and his own private doctor, and then observed slowly : ' Sire, our house has received this day an honour worthy to be inscribed in our annals, and which my successors will remember with pride and gratitude.' It was shortly afterwards that the first symptoms of dissolution were observed, and a few persons were then admitted to his chamber; but the adjoining room was crowded, and exhibited a strange scene for a room so near the bed of death. " The flower of the society of Paris was there. On one side old and young politicians, grey-headed statesmen, were gathered round the blazing fire, and engaged in eager conversation; on another was to be seen a coterie of younger gentlemen and ladies, whose sidelong looks and low pleasant whispers formed a sad contrast to the dying groans of the neighbouring sufferer. " Presently, the conversation stopped ; the hum of voices was at an end. There was a solemn pause, and every eye turned towards the slowly opening door of the prince's chamber. A domestic entered, with downcast looks and 246 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. swollen eyes, and advancing towards Dr. C , who like myself had just then sought an instant's relief in the draw- ing-room, whispered a few words in his ear. He arose instantly, and entered the prince's chamber. The natural precipitation with which this movement was executed hut too plainly revealed its cause. There was an insiantaneous rush to the door of the apartment within which M. de Talleyrand was seated on the side of his bed, supported in the arms of his secretary. It was evident that Death had s t his seal upon that marble brow ; yet I was struck with the still existing vigour of the countenance. It seemed as if all the life which had once sufficed to furnish the w^hole being was now contained in the brain. From time to time he raised up his head, throwing back with a sudden movement the long grey locks which impeded his sight, and gazed around ; and then, as if satisfied with the result of his examination, a smile would pass across his features, and his head would again fall upon his bosom. He saw the approach of death without shrinking or fear, and also without any affectation of scorn or defiance. " If there be truth in the assertion, that it is a satisfac- tion to die amidst friends and relations, then, indeed, must his last feeling towards the world he was for ever quitting have been one of entu^e approbation and content, for he expired (on the 17th of May, 1838) amidst regal pomp and reverence ; and of all those whom he, perhaps, would have himself called together, none were wanting. " The friend of his maturity, the fair young idol of his age, were gathered on bended knee beside his bed, and if the words of comfort whispered by the murmuring priest failed to reach his ear, it was because the sound was stifled by the wailings of those he had loved so well. Scarcely, how^ever, had those eyes, whose every glance had been watched so long, and with such deep interest, for ever closed, when a sudden change came over the scene. " One would have thought that a flight of crows had suddenly taken wing, so great was the precipitation with which each one hurried from the hotel, in the hope of being first to spread the news amongst the particular set or coterie of which he or she happened to be the oracle. TALLEYBAXn. 247 Ere nightfall, that chamber, which all the clay had been crowded to excess, was abandoned to the servants of the tomb ; and when I entered in the evening, I found the very arm-chair, whence I had so often heard the prince launch the courtly jest or stinging epigram, occupied by a hired priest, whispering prayers for the repose of the departed soul." X. M. de Talleyrand was buried at Yalen^ay, in the chapel of the Sisters of St. Andre, which he had founded, and in which he had expressed a desire that the family vault should be placed. ffis career and character have been gradually developed in this sketch, so that there remains little to say of them / here. They were both, as I have elsewhere observed, y^ coloured by their times, and must be regarded in con- ' nection with an epoch of social immorahty and constant political change. Many of his faults were so inherent in that epoch, that, although they justly merit blame (for vice and virtue should be independent of custom and example), they also admit of excuse. As to the variety of political parts which he played in the different scenes of the great drama which lasted half a century, one is daily seeing changes so extraordinary and so rapid amongst the most respectable pubhc men of our own day, and even of our own country, that it would be absurd not to acknowledge that, when years run rapidly through changeful events, we must expect to find those whose career is embarked on so unsteady a current, uncertain and variable in their opinions. The stiff con- sistent character is of the middle ages. At the commencement of the great Eevolution of 1789, M. de Talleyrand took the liberal side in politics ; a strong party of his own rank and profession did not do so, but many of the most illustrious did ; and with the best motives. A certain interval elapsed; the monarchy was overthrown ; a reign of madness and terror succeeded it ; and, emerging from this sanguinary obscurity, men were 248 HISTORICAL CffABACTEBS. just beginning to adopt some principles of order, which they brought together under the name of a Eepubhc. It is hardly for us (who have with our own eyes seen Frenchmen of high rank and generally acknowledged honour, even the personal friends of a deposed sovereign, , become, within a few days after his fall, Eepublicans ; and | within a few years the confidential leaders of another = dynasty) — it is hardly for us, I say, to judge with any great severity a Frenchman, who, returning to France at the time at which M. de Talleyrand revisited it, consented to serve the Directory. Keither can we be sui-prised, when it appeared evident that under the Directory things were again approaching the state of terror and confusion, of which so horrible a recollection still existed, that M. de Talleyrand preferred the government of one man to the want of any government at all — the organization of society under a temporary despotism, to its utter and radical decomposition. By and by, license and disorder being vanquished, moderate and regular notions as to liberty grew up ; the dictator then appeared the tyrant, — and the fortunate soldier, the military gambler after fortune. This soldier converted the nation into an army, and his army was beaten : and M. de Talleyrand aided in reviving that nation, and giving it the framework of a consti- . tutional system, under a legitimate monarchy ; — almost, V in fact, that very system which thirty-five years before he had wished to see established. Years rolled on and seemed to bring with them the renewal of the old maxim, that " Eestorations are impossible." The royal emigre^ pointedly described as having forgotten nothing and learned nothing during his misfortunes, had not suf- ficiently imbibed the spirit of a new society which had risen up since his youth — a society which had neither the customs nor inclinations on which he considered that a monarchy should be maintained. Charles X.'s views created suspicions which his acts, greatly exaggerated by those suspicions, hardly justified. But the knowledge that he thought that public liberty depended solely on his will, made the slightest movement towards controlling that libei-ty — dangerous. TALLEYRAND. 249 The crown fell into the gutters of Paris. The govern- ment which most resembled the one which was overturned was still a monarchy with a monarch taken from the same family as the one deposed, but who was willing to accept his throne as a gift of the French nation and could not pretend to it as a legitimate right. M. de Talleyrand helped to form such a government. It cannot be said that he departed in this case from his principles, though he changed his allegiance. In fact, I hardly think, looking calmly and dis- passionately at each of the epochs I have thus rapidly passed over, that any sensible and moderate man will deny that the side taken by M. de Talleyrand was the one on^^ which, in every instance, lay good sense and moderation. It cannot be said that in the various changes that marked his career, he ever acted disinterestedly ; but at the same time it may be urged that every time he accepted office he did thereby a real service to the cause he espoused, and even to the country to which he belonged. There can be no doubt that at the first establishment of something like order and government under the Eepublic, the relations of France with foreign powers were considerably strengthened by a man of M. de Talleyrand's bu'th and well-known acquhements and abihties being selected as minister of foreign affairs. It is also undeniable that, during the Consulate and early part of the Empire, the experience, sagacity, and tact of the accomplished diplomatist were eminently useful to the youDg, half-educated, and impetuous warrior whose fiery genius had placed him at the head of the State. To Louis XYIII. M. de Talleyrand's assistance, when that sovereign recovered his throne, was invaluable, and Louis Philippe derived in no small degree, as I have already noticed, the respect which foreign governments paid so promptly to his suddenly-acquired authority from the fact that M. de Talleyrand had consented to undertake the embassy to London. I must likewise here repeat that to which I have already called attention. No party had to complain of treachery or ingratitude from this statesman so frequently stigmatised as fickle. The coui'se he took 250 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. ■^ at the different periods of his eventful hfe was that which ^ seemed natural to the position in w^hich he found himself, and the course which both friend and foe expected from him. His defections were from those whose policy he had been previously opposing, and whose views the higher order of intellects in his country condemned at the time that his own hostility commenced. Indeed, the rule of his conduct and the cause of his success may be pretty generally found in his well-known and wise maxim, that " The thoughts of the greatest number of intelligent persons in any country, are sure, with a few more orj less fluctuations to become in the end that public opinion *■ which influences the State." It must, however, be confessed that there is something to an honest nature displeasing in the history of a statesman who has served various masters and various systems, and appeared as the champion of each cause at the moment of its triumph. Eeason may excuse, explain, or defend such versatility, but no generous sympathy calls upon us to applaud or recommend it. The particular and especial talent of M. de Talleyrand \ was, as I have more than once exemplified, his tact; the art of seizing the important point in an affair — the pe- culiar characteristic of an individual, the genius and tendency of an epoch! His other qualities were acces- sories to this dominant quality, but of an inferior order and in an inferior degree. His great good fortune was to have been absent from France during the horrors of the Committee of Public Safety ; his great merit, to have served governments when in serving them he served the public interests. His great defect, a love of money, or rather a want of scruple as to how he obtained it. I never heard any clear justification of his great wealth, though that which, it is said, he gave to Bonaparte, "I bought stock before the 18th Brumaire, and sold it the day afterwards," has wit and a jprojpos to recommend it. His great calamity was to have been minister of foreign affairs at the moment of the execution of the Due d'Enghien ; and the part of his conduct most difiicult to explain justifiably, is to be found in the TALLEYBAND. contradiction between his declaration to Lord Grenville, when he came over to England after the 10th of August in 1792, that he had nothing to do with the provisional government then established in France, and the declaration of M. de Chenier to the convention in 1795 — a declaration which he himself subsequently repeated— that he went to England at the time alluded to as Danton's agent. An extract from the Moniteur, the 27th of May, 1838, page 1412, quoting from the Gazette des Tribunaux, is worth preserving :* " We have already said that in the sequel to the will of Prince Talleyrand was found a sort of manifesto, in w^hich the celebrated diplomatist asserted the principles which had guided him in his political life, and explained his way of looking at certain events. "According to various facts we have collected, the following is the substance of that declaration, which is dated in 1836, and which, in accordance with the wish of the testator, has been read to the family and assembled friends. " The prince declares that before all things, and to all things, he had preferred the true interests of France. " Explaining himself on the part he had taken in the return of the Bourbons in 1814, he says that, in his opinion, the Bourbons did not re-ascend the throne in virtue of a pre-existing and hereditary right ; and he gives us, moreover, to understand that his counsels and * " Nous avons dit qii'k la suite du testament du prince de Talleyrand se trouvait une sorte de manifeste, dans lequel le celfebre diplomate exposait les principes qui I'avaient guide dans sa vie politique, et exprimait sa maniere de voir k I'egard de certains evenements. " Voici, d'apres les renseignements que nous avons recueillis, ce que contient en substance cette declaration, qui porte la date de 1836, et qui, conformement au voeu du testateur, a et^ lui k la famille et a ses amis assembles. *' Le prince declare qu'avant tout et k tout, il a prefere les vrais inter^ts de la France. " S'expliquant sur la part qu'il a prise k la rentree des Bourbons en 1814, il dit que, dans son opinion, les Bourbous ne remoutaient pas sur le trOne en vertu d'un droit hereditaire, et pre-existant, et il \ 252 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS, advice were never wanting to enlighten them on their true position, and on the conduct which they ought to have followed in consequence. " He repels the reproach of having betrayed Napoleon ; if he abandoned him, it was when he discovered that he could no longer blend, as he had up to that time done, France and the Emperor in the same affection. This was not ivithouf a lively feeling of sorrow, for he oived to Napoleon nearly all his fortune. He enjoins his heirs never to forget these obligations, to tell them to their children, and to instruct these, again, to tell them to their offspring ; so that if some dag a man of the name of Bonaparte should he found in want of assistance, he should always find it in the family of Talleyrand. '' Keplying to those who reproached him for having served successively all governments, he observes that he had done so without the least scruple, guided by the idea that, in whatever situation the country might be, there were always means of doing it some good, and that to do this good was the business of a statesman." Supposing the testament thus spoken of to exist, it is curious ; and the expression of gratitude to the Bonaparte family is the more creditable from the fact that it could donne meme li entendre que ses conseils et ses avis ne leiir manque- rent pas pour les eclairer sur leur vraie position, et sur la conduite qu'ils devaient tenir en consequence. " II re]wusse le reproche d'avoir trahi Napoleon : s'il I'a aban- donne, c'est lorsqu'il reconnut qu'il ne pouvait plus confondre, corame 11 I'avait fait jusqu'alors, la France et I'Empereur dans une meme affection ; ce ne fiit pas sans un vif sentiment de douleur, car il lui devait h pen pr^s toute sa fortune ; il engage ses heritiers a ne jamais I'oublier, k le repeter k leurs enfants, et ceux-ci k ceux qui naitront d'eux, afin, dit-il, que si quelque jour un homme du nom de Bonaparte se trouvait dans le besoin, ils s'empressassent de lui donner aide, secours et assistance. " Repondant h ceux qui lui reprochent d'avoir servi snccessive- ment tons les gouvernements, il declare qu'il ne s'en est fait ancun • scrupule, et qu'il a agi ainsi, guide par cette ])ensee que, dans quelque situation que ftit un pays, il y avait toujours moyen de lui faire du bien, et que c'etait a operer ce bien que devait s'appliquer un homme d'etat." TALLEYBAND. 253 not have been made "with any idea that it would be re- warded. As to the defence set up for serving all dynasties and all causes, it cannot apply to any country where public men have the power, out of office, to put down a bad government, as they have in office the power to uphold a good one. I will conclude with the appreciation of a French friend, who thus summed up many of my own remarks : — " Enfin, chez M. de Talleyrand, I'amenite et la raison remplaeaient le coeur, et la conscience. Avec bien des defauts qui ont temi sa reputation, il avait toutes les qualites qui devaient faire prosperer son ambition. Ses talents qu'il a employes constamment pour son propre avantage, il les a employes presque aussi constamment pour le bien public. Beaucoup attaque et peu defendu par ses contemporains, il n'en restera pas moins pour la posterite un des hommes les plus aimables de son temps et un des citoyens les plus illustres de son pays." 254 ' HISTORICAL CTTARACTEBS. MACKINTOSH, THE MAN OF PROMISE. Part I. FROM HIS YOUTH TO HIS APPOINTMENT IN INDIA. Mackintosh's character. — Character of men of his type. — Birth and parent- age. — Starts as a physician, fails, and becomes a newspaper writer, and author of a celebrated pamphlet in answer to Buike's " Thoughts on the French Revolution." — Studies for the bar. — Becomes noted as a public character, violent on the Liberal side. — Becomes acquainted with Mr. Burke. — Modifies his opinions. — Gives lectures on public law, remarkable for their eloquence and their Consei'vative opinions. — Becomes the advocate of Peltier ; makes a great s})eech, and shortly afterwards accepts an appointment in India. I. I STILL remember, amongst the memorable events of my early youth, an invitation to meet Sir James Mackintosh at dinner ; and the eager and resiDectful attention with which this honoured guest was received. I still re- member also my anxiety to learn the esj^ecial talents, or remarkable works, for which Sir James was distinguished, and thft-unsatisfactory replies which all my questions eli- cited. [_He was a writer, but many had written better ; he was a speaker, but many had spoken better ; he was a philosopher, but many had done far more for philosophy ; and yet, though it was difficult to fix on any one thing in which he was first-rate, it was generally maintained that he was a first-rate man. There is, indeed, a class amongst mankind, a body numerous in all literary societies, who are far less valued for any precise thing they have done than according to a vague notion of what they are capable MACKINTOSH. 255 of doing. Mackintosh may be taken as a type of this class ; not that he passed his hfe in the learned inactivity to which the resident members of our own universities sometimes consign their intellectual powers, but which more frequently characterizes the tranquil scholars, whose erudition is the boast of some small German or Italian cityT^ (_^ut though mixing in the action of a great and stirring community, a lawyer, an author, a member of parliament, Mackintosh never arrived at the eminence in law, in letters, or in politics, that satisfied the expectations of those who, living in his society, were im^essed by his intellect and astonished at his acquirement^ (jf I were to sum up in a few words the characteristics of the persons who thus promise more than they ever perform, I should say that their powers of comprehension are greater than their powers either of creation or exposi- tion ; and that their energy, though capable of being roused occasionally to great exertions, can rarely be rehed onjor any continued ejSbrtTj (They collect, sometimesnti rather a sauntering manner, an immense store of varied information. But it is only by fits and starts that they are able to use it with efiect, and at their happiest moments they rarely attain the simple grace and the natural vigour which give beauty and life to composition. Then- deficiencies are inherent in their nature, and are never therefore entirely overcome. They have not in their minds the immortal spark of genius, but the faculty of comprehending genius may give them, in a certain degree, the power of imitating it ; whilst ambition, interest, and necessity, will at times stimulate them to extraordinary exertions. As writer s, theyjusuaJIy^ wantj)rigiii^ ease^ and p ower : as men oi action, tact, firmness, and decision. The works in which theyTnost—stteceed are usually short, and written under temporary excitement ; as statesmen, they at times attract attention and win applause, but rarely obtain authority or take^and keep the lead-in" public ~aEj^._Jn society^ how- eYef,"llie more faculty of rememberings and comprehending a variety of things is quite sufficient to obtain a consider- 256 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. estimates the power of a man's abHities b3L„saQie-..-t£a^gi^ and ephemeral display of thertu j I will now turn from these general observations to see how far they are exemplified in the history of the person whose name is before me ; a person who advanced to the very frontier of those lands which it was not given to him to enter ; and who is not only a favourable specimen of his class, but who, as belonging to that class, represents in many respects a great portion of the public during that memor- able period of our annals, which extends from the French Eevolution of 1789 to the English Keform Bill in 1830. II, The father of Sir James was a Scotch country gentle- man, who, having a small hereditary property, which he could neither part with nor live upon, entered the army early, and passed his life almost entirely with his regiment. Young Mackintosh was born on the 24th of October, 1765, in the county of Inverness, and was sent as soon as he could be to a school at Fortrose; where he fell in with two books which had a permanent influence on his future career. These books were " Plutarch's Lives " and the " Roman History," books which, by making him am- bitious of public honours, rendered his existence a per- petual struggle between that which he desired to be and that for which he was best suited. At Aberdeen, then, where he was sent on quitting Fortrose, he was alike remarkable for his zeal in politics, and his love for meta- physics — that is, for his alternate coquetry between an active and a meditative life. At Edinburgh, also, where he subsequently went to study medicine, it was the same thing. In the evening he would go now and then to a " spouting " club and make speeches, while the greater part of his mornings was spent in poetical lucubrations. To the medical profession he paid little attention, till all of a sudden necessity aroused him. He then applied himself, with a start, to that which he was obliged to know ; but his diligence was not of that resolute and steady kind which insures success as the consequence of a certain MACKINTOSH. 257 period of application ; and after rusliing into the novelties of the Brunonian S3^stem,* which promised knowledge with little labour, and then, rushing back again, he re- solved on takins: his countrvmen's short road to fortune, and set out for England. His journey, however, did not answer. He got a wife, but no patients; and on the failure of his attempts to establish himself at Salisbury and at Weymouth, retired to Brussels — ill, wearied, and disgusted. The Low Countries were at that time the theatre of a struggle between the Emperor Joseph and his subjects ; the general convulsion which shortly afterwards took place throughout Europe was preparing, and the agitation ""of men's minds was excessive. These exciting scenes called the disappointed physician back to the more alluring study of politics ; and to this short visit to the Continent he owed a knowledge of its opinions and its public men, which first served him as the correspondent of a newspaper. The Oracle ; and, subsequently, furnished him with materials for a pamphlet which in an instant placed him in the situation he so long occjipied as one of the most jpromising men of his day. t Th is celebrated pamphlet, published in 1791, and known under the name of " Vindicise Gallicae," whether we consider the circum- stances under which it appeared, the opponent whom it combated, or the ability of the composition itself, merited all the attention it received, and was the more successful because it gave just the answer to Burke wMch Burke himself would have given to his own EeflectionsJ ( Thus, the club of Saint James', the cloister of Trinity * Brunonian System. — Medical doctrines first broached by Dr. John Brown, in his " Elementai Medicinge," in 1780. He imagined that the body was endowed with a certain quantity of excitability, and that every external agent acted as a stimulant on this property of excitability. Health consisted in a just proportion of stimnlation, but when this was carried too far, exhaustion, or direct debility, was the consequence, and when not far enough, indirect debility. The diseases which he supposed to arise from one or other of those two states were classed into two orders, the sthenic and the asthenic. Brown was considered no great prophet in his own country, but he exercised considerable influence on the medical doctrines of the Italian schools, which to this day are somewhat tinctured with Brunonianism. 258 ElSTOmCAL CHARACTERS. College, had a writer to quote, whose sentiments were in favour of liberty, and whose language, agreeable to the ear of the gentleman and the scholar, did not, in defending the patriots_of France, advise their imitation or approve their excessesj *' Burke," he says, " admires the Kevolution of 1 688 ; but we, who conceive that we pay the purest homage to the authors of that Eevolution, not in contending for what they then did, but for what they would now do, can feel no inconsistency in looking on France — not to model our conduct, but to invigorate the spirit of freedom. We permit ourselves to imagine how Lord Somers, in the light and knowledge of the eighteenth century, how the patriots of France, in the tranquillity and opulence of England, would have acted. " We are not bound to copy the conduct to which the last were driven by a bankrupt exchequer, and a dissolved government ; nor to maintain the establishments which were spared by the first in a prejudiced and benighted age. *' Exact imitation is not necessary to reverence. We venerate the principles which presided in both, and we adapt to political admiration a maxim which has long been received in polite letters, that the only manly and liberal imi- tation is to speak as a great man would have spoken, had he li^ed in our times, and been placed in our circumstances." (_There is much even in this passage to show that the adversary was still the imitator, imbued with the spirit and under the influence of the genius of the very writer whom he was bold enough to attack. Many, nevertheless, who, taken by surprise, had surrendered to the magisterial eloquence of the master, were rescued by the elegant pleading of the scholar. Everywhere, then, might be heard the loudest applause, and an applause well merited. On the greatest question of the times, the first man of the times had been answered by a young gentleman aged twenty-six, and who, hitherto unknown, was appreciated bviiis first successj LThe leaders of me Whig party sought him out ; they paid him every attention. His opinions went further than theirs; for he was an advocate of universal suffrage, MACKINTOSH. 259 an abolitionist of all titles, an enemy to a senate or second assembly. No persons practically contending for power could say tbey exactly sanctioned such notions as these ; but all praised the style in which they were put forth, and, allowing for the youth, lauded the talent, of the author. Indeed, " the love to hatred turned " ever repudiates moderation, and the antagonist of Burke was certain of the rapturous cheers of those whom that great but passionate man had deserted. In this manner Mackintosh (who was now preparing for the bar) became necessarily a party man, and a violent party man. Mr. Fox praised his abilities in Parliament; the famous Keform Association called the " Friends of the People " chose him for their honorary secretary. A great portion of the well-known declaration of this society was his composition ; and in a letter to the Prime Minister of the day (Mr. Pitt), he abused that statesman with a fierceness and boldness jaf msBctive which even political controversy scarcely allowedJ \JSere was the great misfortune of his life. This fierC^ ness and boldness were not in his nature ; in becoming a man of action, he entered upon a part which was not suited to his character, and which it was certain therefore he would not sustain. The reaction soon followed. Amongst its first symptoms was a review of Mr. Burke's " Eegicide Peace." The author of the review became known to the person whose writing was criticised : a correspondence ensued, very flattering to Mr. Mackintosh, 'whcL_shortly afterwards spent a few days at Beaconsfield (1796) J [ It was usual for him to say, referring to this visit, that in haK an hour Mr. Burke overturned the previous reflec- tions Qf his whole life. There was some exaggeration, doubtless, in this assertion, but it is also likely that there was some truth in it. His opinions had begun to waver, and at that critical moment he came into personal contact with, and was flattered by, a man whom every one praised, and who praised few. At all events, he was converted, and not ashamed of his conversion, but, on the contrary, mounted with confidence a stage on which his change might be boldly justifiedj The faults as well as the excellences of the English 260 H18T0BICAL CHARACTEES. character arise from that great dislike to generalise which has made us the practical, and ULjnany instances the pre- judiced, people that we are. [Abroad, a knowledge of general or natural law, of the loundations on which all laws are or ought to be based, enters as a matter of course into a liberal education. In England lawyers themselves disregard this study as useless or worse than useless.* They look, and they look dihgently, into English law, such as it is, established by custom, precedent, or act of Parliament. They know all the nice points and proud formalities on which legal justice rests, or by which it may be eluded. The conflicting cases and opposing opinions, which may be brought to bear on an unsound horse, or a contested footpath, are deeply pondered over, carefully investigated. But the great edifice of general juris- prudence, though standing on his wayside, is usually passed by the legal traveller with averted eyes : the antiquary and the philosopher, indeed, may linger there ;— but the pkdding man of business scorns to arrest his stepgj IWhen, however, amidst the mighty crash of states and doctrines that followed the storm of 1791 — when, amidst the birth of new empires and new legislatures, custom lost its sanctity, precedent its authority, and statute was made referable to common justice and common sense, — then, indeed, there uprose a strong and earnest desire to become acquainted with those general principles so often cited by the opponents of the past ; to visit that armoury in which such terrible weapons had been found, and to see whether it could not afford means as powerful for defending what remained as it had furnished for destroying what had already been swept awayT] III. A course of Lectures on Public Law — about which the public knew so little, and were yet so curious — offered a road to distinction, which the young lawyer, confident in his own abilities and researches, had every temptation to tread. Private interest procured him the Hall at Lincoln's * It is fair to observe that this prejudice is gradually disap- pearing. MACKINTOSH. 261 Inn ; but this was not suiQ&cient ; it was necessary that he should make the world aware of the talent, the know- ledge, and the sentiments with which he undertook so great a task. He published his introductory essay— the only memorable record of the Lectures to which we are referring that now remains. The views contained in this essay may in many instances be erroneous ; but its merits as a composition are of no common kind. Learned, eloquent, it excited nearly as much enthusiasm as the " Yindiciae Grallicae," and deserved, upon the whole, a higher order of admiration. But praise came this time from a different quarter. A few years before, and Mackintosh had spoken of Mr. Pitt as cold, stern, crafty, and ambitious; possessing "the parade without the restraint of morals ;" the '' most pro- found dissimulation with the utmost ardour of enterprise ; prepared by one part of his character for the violence of a multitude, by another for the duphcity of a court."* It was under the patronage of this same Mr. Pitt that the hardy innovator now turned back to " the old ways," proclaiming that '' history was a vast museum, in which specimens of every variety of human nature might be studied. From these great occasions to knowledge," he said, " lawgivers and statesmen, but more especially mo- ralists and political philosophers, may reap the most important instruction. There, they may plainly discover, amid all the useful and beautiful variety of governments and institutions, and under all the fantastic multitude of usages and rites which ever prevailed among men, the same fundamental, comprehensive truths — truths which have ever been the guardians of society, recognised and revered (with very few and shght exceptions) by every nation upon earth, and uniformly taught, with still fewer exceptions, by a succession of wise men, from the first dawn of specu- lation down to the latest times." " See," he continued, "■ whether from the remotest periods any improvement, or even any change, has been made in the practical rules of human conduct. Look at the code of Moses. I speak of it now as a mere human com- * Letter to Mr. Pitt. 262 EISTOBICAL CHABACTEES. position, without considering its sacred origin. Considering it merely in that hght, it is the most ancient and the most curious memorial of the early history of mankind. More than 3000 years have elapsed since the composition of the Pentateuch ; and let any man, if he is able, tell me in what important respects the rule of life has varied since that distant period. Let the institutes of Menu be ex- plored with the same view ; we shall arrive at the same conclusion. Let the books of false religion be opened ; it will be found that their moral system is, in all its good features, the same. The impostors who composed them were compelled to pay this homage to the uniform moral sentiments of the world. Examine the codes of nations, those authentic depositories of the moral judgments of men : you everywhere find the same rules prescribed, the same duties imposed. Even the boldest of these ingenious sceptics who have attacked every other opinion, have spared the sacred and immortal simplicity of the rules of life. In our common duties, Bayle and Hume agree with Bossuet and Barrow. Such as the rule was at the first dawn of history, such it continues at the present day. Ages roll over mankind ; mighty nations pass away like a shadow ; virtue alone remains the same, immutable and unchange- ableu" frhe object of Mackintosh was to show that the instinct 01 man was towards society; that society could not be kept together except on certain principles ; that these principles, therefore, from the nature of man — a nature predestined and fashioned by God — were at once universal and divine, and that societies would perish that ignored them ; — a true and sublime theory ; but with respect to which we must, if we desire to be practical, admit that yariety of qualifications which difierent civihzations, dif- ferent climates, accidental interests, and religious pre- scriptions interpose^ It may be saidT^r instance, that no society could exist if its institutions honoured theft as a virtue, and instructed parents to murder their children ; but a great and cele- brated society did exist in ancient Greece, — a society ■which outhved its brilliant contemporaries, and which MACKINTOSH. 263 sanctioned robbery, if not detected ; and allowed parents to kill their children, if sickly. It is perfectly true that the ten commandments of the Jewish legislator are ap- plicable to all mankind, and are as much revered by the people of the civilized world at the present day, as by the semi-barbarous people of Israel 3000 years ago. They are admitted as integrally into the religion taught by Christ, as they were into the religion taught by Moses. But how different the morality founded on them ! How different the doctrine of charity and forgiveness from the retributive prescription of vindicative justice ! Nay, how different the precepts taught by the various followers of Christ themselves, who draw those precepts from the same book! If there is anything on which it is necessary for the interest and happiness of mankind to constitute a fixed principle of custom or of law^, it is the position of woman. The social relationship of man with woman rules the destiny of both from the cradle to the grave ; and yet, on this same relationship, what various notions, customs, and laws! I make these observations, because it is w^ell that we should see how much is left to the liberty of man, whilst we recognise the certain rules by which his caprice is limited : how much is to be learned from the past — how much is left open to the future ! (But all argument at the time that Mackintosh opened hisTlectures consisted in the opposition of extremes. As the one party decried history altogether, so the other referred everything to history ; as the former sect declared that no reverence was due to custom, so the latter announced that all upon which we valued ourselves most w^as tra- ditional. Because those fanatics scoffed at the ideas and manners of the century that had just elapsed, these referred with exultation to the manneia and ideas that prevailed some thousands of years beforej /Mackintosh stood forth, confessedly, as History's champion ; and with the beautiful candour, which marked his modest and elevated frame of mind, confessed that the sight of those who surrounded his chair — the opinions he 264 HISTORICAL CEABACTERS. knew them to entertain — the longing after applause, for which every public speaker, whatever his theme, naturally thirsts — aud also, he adds, " a proper repentance for former errors " — might all have heightened the quahties of the orator to the detriment of the lecturer, and carried him, " in the rebound from his original opinions, too far towards the opposite extreme."jj IV. "We shall soon have to inquire what were the real nature and character of the change which ha confessed that his language at this time exaggerated. rSuffice it here to say that, amidst the sighs of his old friends, the applauses of his new, and the sneering murmurs and scornful remarks of the stupid and the envious of all parties, his eloquence (for he was eloquent as a professor) produced generally the most flattering effects. StatesmcD, lawyers, men of letters, idlers, crowded with equal admiration round the amusing moralist, whose glittering store of knowledge was collected from the philosopher, the poet, the writer of roj^ance and historyT] 1^' In mixing up tEe sparking julep," says ^n eloquent thou^h__somewhat affected writer, " that by its potent application was to scour away the drugs and feculence and peccant humours of the body politic, he (Mackintosh) seemed to stand with his back to the drawers in a meta- physical dispensary, and to take out of them whatever ingredients suited his purpose.''tj In the meanwhile (having 10*80118 first wife and married again) he pursued his professional course, though without doing anything as an advocate equal to his success as a professor. M. Peltier's trial, however, now took place. M. Peltier was an emigre, whom the neighbouring revolution had driven to our shores ; a gentleman possessing some ability, and ardently attached to the royal cause. He had not profited by the permission to return to * Letters to Mr. Sharpe. Sea " Life of Sir Jan.es Macldntcsh," by his Son. t Hazlitt. MACKINTOSH. 265 France, wliich had been given to all Frencli exiles, but carried on a French journal, which, finding its way to the Continent, excited the remarkable susceptibility of the first consul. This was just after the peace of Amiens. Urged by the French government, our own undertook the prosecution of M. Peltier's paper. The occasion was an ode, in which the apotheosis of Bonaparte was referred to, and his assassination pretty plainly advocated. So atro- cious a suggestion, however veiled, or however provoked, merited, no doubt, the reprobation of all worthy and high- minded men ; but party spirit and national rancour ran high, and the defender of the prosecuted journalist was sure to stand before his country as the enemy of France ani^the advocate of freedom. [K variety of circumstances pointed out Mr. Mackintosh as the proper counsel to place in this position ; and here, by a singular fortune, he was enabled to combine a hatred to revolutionary principles with an ardent admiration of that ancient spirit of liberty, whicbL is embodied in the most popular institutions of EnglandJ " Circumstanced as my client is," he exclaimed, in his ratherstudied but_yet powerful declamation, "the most refreshing object his eye can rest upon~is an English jury ; and he ieels with me gratitude to the Euler of empires, that after the wreck of everything else ancient and vene- rable in Europe, of all established forms and acknowledged principles, of all long-subsisting laws and sacred institutions, we are met here, administering justice after the manner of our forefathers in this her ancient sanctuary. Here these parties come to judgment ; one, the master of the greatest empire on the earth ; the other, a weak, defenceless fugi- tive, who waives his privilege of having half his jury composed of foreigners, and puts himself with confidence on a jury entirely English. Gentlemen, there is another view in which this case is highly interesting, important, and momentous, and I confess I am animated to every exertion that I can make, not more by a sense of my duty to my client, than by a persuasion that this cause is the first of a series of contests with the ' freedom of the press.' My learned friend, Mr. Perceval, I am sure, will never 266 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. disgrace his magistracy by being instrumental to a measure so calamitous. But viewing this as I do, as the first of a series of contests between the greatest power on earth and the only press that is now free, I cannot help calling upon him and you to pause, before the great earthquake swallows up all the freedom that remains among men ; for though no indication has yet been made to attack the freedom of the press in this country, yet the many other countries that have been deprived of this benefit must forcibly impress us with the propriety of looking vigilantly to ourselves. Holland and Switzerland are now no more, and near fifty of the imperial crowns in Grermany have vanished since the commencement of this prosecution. All these being gone, there is no longer any control but what this country affords. Every press on the Continent, from Palermo to Hamburg, is enslaved ; one place alone remains where the press is free, protected by our govern- ment and our patriotism. It is an awfully proud con- sideration that that venerable fabric, raised by our ancestors, still stands unshaken amidst the ruins that surround us. YmtJire the advanced guard of liberty'' &c. [After the delivery of this speech, which, after being translated by Madame de Stael, was read with admiration not only in England, but also on the Continent, Mr. Mack- intosh, though he lost his cause, was considered no less promising as a pleader, than after the publication of the " Vindiciae Gallicse " he had been considered as a pamphleteer. In both instances, however, the sort of effort he had made seemed to have exhausted him, and three months had not elapsed, when, with the plaudits of the public, and the praise of Erskine, still ringing in his ears, he accepted the Kecordership of Bombay from Mr. Ad- dington, and retired with satisfaction to the well-paid and knighted indolence of India. His objects in so_doing wp^ he said, to make a fortune, and to write a workj [We shall thoroughly understand the man when we see wnrtt he achieved towards the attainment of these two objects. He did not make a fortune ; he did not write a work. The greater part of his time seems to have been employed in a restless longing after society, and a perpetual MACKINTOSH. 267 dawdling over books; during the seven years lie was absent, he speaks continually of his projected work as "always to be projected." "I observe/' he says, in one of his letters to Mr. Sharpe, " that yon touch me once or twice with the spur about mybooks on Morals. I felt it gall me, for I have not begun/^ 268 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. Paet II. HIS STAY IN INDIA AND HIS CAREER IN PARLIAMENT. Goes to India. — Pursuits there. — Returns home dissatisfied with himself. — F]nters Pailiament on the Liberal side. — Reasons why he took it. — Fails in fii-st speech. — Meiits as an orator. — Kxtracts from his speeches. — Modern ideas. — Exces>ive punishments. — Mackintosh's success as a law reformer. — General parliamentary career. Sir James Mackintosh, in accepting a place in India, abdicated tlie chances of a brilliant and useful career in England ; still his presence in one of our great dependen- cies was not without its use — for his literary reputation offered him facihties in the encouragement of learned and scientific pursuits — which, when they tend to explore and illustrate the history and resources of a new empire, are, in fact, political ones; while his attempts to obtain a statistical survey, as well as to form different societies, the objects of which were the acquirement and communi- cation of knowledge, though not immediately successful, did not fail to arouse in Bombay, and to spread much farther, a different and a far more enlightened spirit than that which had hitherto prevailed amongst our speculating settlers, or rather sojourners in the East. The mildness of his judicial sway, moreover, and a wish to return to Europe with, if possible, a " bloodless ermine,"* contributed not only to extend the views, but to soften the manners of the merchant conquerors, and to lay thereby something like a practical foundation for subsequent legislative im- provement. I To himself, however, this distant scene seems to have * He only sanctioned one execution. MACKINTOSH. 269 possessed no interest, to have procured no advantage. Worn by the chmate, wearied by a series of those small duties and trifling exertions which, unattended by fame, ofier none of that moral excitement which overcomes physical fatigue; but little wealthier than when he undertook his voyage, having accomplished none of those works, and enjoyed little of that ease, the visions of which cheered him in undertaking it ; a sick, a sad, and, so far as the acceptance of his judgeship was concerned,, .a, re- pentant man, he (in 1810) took his way homewards!J " It has happened," he observes in one of his letters — " it has happened by the merest accident that the ' trial of Peltier ' is among the books in the cabin ; and when I recollect the way in which you saw me opposed to Perceval on the 21st of February, 1803 (the day of the trial), and that I compare his present situation — whether at the head of an administration or an opposition — with mine, scanty as my stock is of fortune, health, and spirits, in a cabin nine feet square, on the Indian Ocean, I think it enough that I am free from the soreness of disappointment." There is, indeed, something melancholy in the contrast thus offered between a man still young, hopeful, rising high in the most exciting profession, just crowned with the honours of forensic triumph, and the man prematurely old, who in seven short years had become broken, dispirited, and was now under the necessity of beginning life anew, with wasted energies and baffled aspirations. But Sir James Mackintosh deceived himself in thinking that if the seven years to which he alludes had been passed in England, they would have placed him in the same position as that to which Mr. Perceval had ascended within the same period. Had he remained at the bar, or entered Parliament instead of going to India, he might, indeed, have made several better speeches than Mr. Perceval, as he had already made one ; but he would not always have been speaking well, like Mr. Perceval, nor have pushed himself forward in those situations, and at those opportunities, when a good speech would have been most wanted or most effective. At all events, his talents for active hfe were about to have a tardy trial ; the object of 270 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. \ his early dreams and hopes was about to be attained — a seat the in House of Commons. He took his place amongst the members of the Liberal opposition; and many who remembered the auspices under which he left England, were somewhat surprised at the banner under which he now enlisted^ II. QSere is the place at which it may be most convenient to consider Sir James Mackintosh's former change ; as well as the circumstances which led him back to his old con- nections. He had entered life violently democratical, — a strong upholder of the French Kevolution ; he became, so to speak, violently moderate, and a strong opponent of this same Eevolution. He altered his politics, and this aH&cation was followed by his receiving an appointmentj (^uch is the outline which malignity might fill up with the darkest colours; but it would be unjustly. The machinery of human conduct is complex ; and it would be absurd to say that a man's interests are not Hkely to have an influence on his actions. But they who see more of our nature than the surface, know that our interests are quite as frequently governed by our character as our character is by our interests. The true explanation, then, of Mackintosh's conduct is to be found in his order of intellect. His mind was not a mind led by its own in- spirations, but rather a mind reflecting the ideas of other men, and of that class of men more especially to which he, as studious and speculative, belonged. The commence- ment of the French Kevolution, the long-prepared work of the Encyclopedists, was hailed by such persons (we speak generally) as a sort of individual success. Burke did much to check this feeling; and subsequent events favoured Burke. But by far the greater number of those addicted to literary pursuits sympathized with the popular party in the States-General. Under this impulse the " Vindicise Gallicae " was written. The exclusion of the eminent men of the National Assembly from power modified, the execution of the Girondists subdued, this impulse. At the fall of those eloquent Kepubhcans the MACKINTOSH. 271 lettered usurpation ceased ; and now literature, instead of being opposed to royalty, owed, like it, a debt of j^engeance to that inexorable mob which had spared neitherj It was a^thejime^h^n^ wh was recanting tha03!ackmtosFlnade his recantation. Most men of his class and nature took the same part in the same events ; for such men were delighted with the theories of freedom, but shocked at its excesses ; and, indeed, it is difficult to conceive anything more abhorrent to the gentle dreams of~ar~crviIisedr~phiIosophy than that wild hurricane of liberty which carried ruin and desolation over France in the same blast that spread the seeds of future prosperity. *We find, it is true, this beautiful passage in the " Yindiciae Gallicse :" " The soil of Attica was remarked by antiquity as producing at once the most delicious fruits and the most violent poisons. It is thus with the human mind ; and to the frequency of convulsions in the common- wealths we owe those examples of sanguinary tumult and virtuous heroism which distinguish their history from the monotonous tranquilhty of modern states." But though these words were used by Mackintosh, they were merely transcribed by him ; they belong to a deeper and more daring genius — they are almost literally the words of Machiavel, and were furnished by the reading, and not by the genuine reflections, of the youthful pamphleteer. He had not in rejoicing over the work of the Constituante anticipated the horrors of the Convention ; the regret, therefore, that he expressed for what he condemned as his early want of Judgment, was undoubtedly sincere; and iiD^one can foirly blame him for accepting, under such circumstances, a post which was not political, and which removed him from~tfae nngry arena in which he would have Ead"tb~' combat with former friends, whose rancour may be appreciated by Dr. Parr's brutal reply — when Mackintosh asked him, how Quigley, an Irish priest, executed for treason, could have been worse. ' '" 111 tell you. Jemmy — Quigley was an Irishman, he might have been a Scotchman ; he was a priest, he might have been a lawyer ; he was a traitor, he might have been an apostate." 272 HISTOBI€AL CIIABACTERS, Thus much for the Bombay Eecordership. [But the feverish panic which the sanguinary government ol* Kobes- pierre had produced — calmed by his fall, soothed by the feeble government which succeeded him, and replaced at last by the stern domination of a warrior who had at least the merit of restoring order and tranquillity to his country — -illed awa£3 (^ variety of circumstances — including the publication oiThe " Edinburgh Keview," which, conducted in a liberal and moderate spirit, made upon the better educated class of the British population a considerable impression — favoured and aided the reaction towards a more temperate state of thought. A new era began, in which the timid lost their fears, the factious their hopes. All question of the overthrow of the constitution and of the confiscation of property was at an end ; and as politics thus fell back into more quiet channels, parties adopted new watchwords and new devices. The cry was no longer, " Shall there be a Monarchy or a Eepublic ?" but, " Shall the Cathohcs continue woscribed as helots, or shall they be treated as fma men ?j (j)uringme seven years which Sir James had passed in India, this was the turn that had been taking place in affairs and opinions. It is hardly possible to conceive any change more calculated to carry along with it a mild and intelligent philosopher, to whom fanaticism of all kijuds was hatefuL) fThose whom he had left, under the standard of Mr. Pitt, contending against anarchical doctrines and universal conquest, were now for disputing one of Mr. Pitt's most sacred promises, and refusing to secure peace to an empire, at the very crisis of its fortunes, by the establish- ment of a system of civil equality between citizens who thought differently on the somewhat abstruse subject of transubstantiation. Mr. Perceval, at the head of this section of politicians, was separated from almost every statesman who possessed any reputation as a scholar. Mr. Canning did not belong to his administration ; Lord Wellesley was on the point of quitting it. There never was a government to which what may be called the thinking MACKINTOSH. 273 class of the country stood so opposed. Thus, the very same sort of disposition which had detached Sir James Mackintosh, some years ago, from his early friends, was now disposing him to rejoin them ; and he moved back- wards and forwards, I must repeat, in both instances — when he went to India a Tory,* and when he entered Parliament a Whig — with a considerable body of persons, who, though less remarked becaji^se less distinguished, honestly pursued the same conductj All the circumstances, indeed, wEich marked his conduct at this time do him honour. Almost immediately on his return to England, the premier offered him a seat in Parliament, and held out to him the hopes of the high and lucrative situation of President of the Board of Con- trol. A poor man, and an ambitious man, equally anxious for place and distinction, he refused both ; and this re- fusal, of which we have now the surest proof, was a worthy answer to the imputations which had attended the acceptance of his former appointment. liOrd Abinger, who has since recorded the refusal of a seat from Mr. Perceval, was himself the bearer of a similar offer from Lord Cawdor ;t and under the patronage of this latter nobleman Sir James Mackintosh first entered Parliament (1813) as the Member for Nairnshire, a repre- sentation the more agreeable, since it was that of his ancestral county, wherein he had inherited the small property which some years before he had been compelled to part with. I III. Any man entering the House of Commons for the first time late in life possesses but a small chance of attaining considerable parliamentary eminence. It requires some time to seize the spirit of that singular assembly, of which most novices are at first inclined to over-rate and then to under-rate the judgment. * He would perhaps have repudiated this name ; but, as far as opinions o;ave the title, it certainly at this time belonged to him. t See "Life of Sir James Mackintosh," by his Son, pp. 246 and 279. X Subsequently he sat for Knaresborough, under the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire. T 274 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. \A learned man is more likely to be wrong than any otn^r. He fancies himself amidst an assembly of medi- tative and philosophic statesmen ; he calls up all his deepest thoughts and most refined speculations; he is anxious to astonish by the profundity and extent of his views, the novelty and sublimity of his conceptions ; as he commences, the listeners are convinced he is a bore, and before he concludes, he is satisfied that they are blockheads/^ The orator, however, is far more out in his conjectures than the audience. T The House of Commons consists of a mob of gentlemen, tfe greater part of whom are neither without talent nor information. But a mob of well- informed gentlemen is still a mob, requiring to be amused rather than instructed, and only touched by those reasons and expressions which, clear to the dullest as to the quickest intellect, vibrate-through an assembly as if it had buiu)ne ear and one mindj (Besides, the House of Commons is a mob divided bene- ficially, though it requires some knowledge of the general genius and practical bearings of a representative govern- ment to see all the advantages of such a division, into parties. What such parties value is that which is done in their ranks, that which is useful to themselves, of ad- vantage to a common cause ; any mere personal exhibition is almost certain to be regarded by them with contempt or displeasure. Differing amongst themselves, indeed, in almost everything else — some being silent and fastidious, some bustling and loquacious, some indolent and looking after amusement, some incapable of being and yet desiring to appear to be men of business, some active, public- spirited, and ambitious — all agree in detecting the philo- sophic rhetorici an. Anything in the shape of subtle re- finement, — anything that borders on learned generalities, is sure to be out of place. Even supposing that the new member, already distinguished elsewhere although now at his maiden essay in this strange arena, has su fficien t tact to see the errors into which he is likely to fall, he is still a suspected person, and will be narrow ly watclied _as to any design of parading his own acquire ments at the expense of other people's patisjice.:,^ MACKINTOSH. 275 How did Sir J. Mackintosh first appear amongst auditors thus disposed? Lord Castlereagh moyed, on the 20th of December, 1814, for an adjournment to the 1st of March. At that moment the whole of Europe was pouring, in the full tide of victory, into France. Every heart thrilled with recent triumph and the anticipation of more complete success. The ministry had acquired popularity as the reflection of the talents of their general and the tardy good fortune of their allies. The demand for ad- journment was the demand for a confidence which they had a right to expect, and which Mr. Whitbread and the leading Whigs saw it would be ungenerous and impolitic to refuse. They granted then what was asked ; Mackin- tosh alone opposed it. His opposition was isolated, certain to be without any practical result, and could only be accounted for by the desire to make a speech ! Lord Castlereagh, who was by nature the man of action which Mackintosh was not, saw at once the error which the new Whig member had committed, and determined to add as much as possible to his difficulties. Instead, there- fore, of making the statement which he knew was ex- pected from him, and to which he presumed the orator opposite would affect to reply, he merely moved for the adjournment as a matter of course, which needed no justification. By this simple manoeuvre all the formidable artillery which the profound reflector on foreign politics and the eloquent lecturer on the law of nations had brought into the field, was rendered useless. A fire against objects which were not in view, an answer to arguments which had never been employed, was neces- sarily a very tame exhibition, and indeed the new member was hardly able to get through the oration to which it was evident he had given no common care. In slang phrase, he " broke down." Why was this ? Sir James Mackintosh was not ignorant of the nature of the assembly he addressed ; he could have explained to another all that was necessary to catch its ear ; but, as I have said a few pages back, the character of a person governs his interests far more frequently than his interests govern his character ; and the man I am speaking of was not the man whom a 276 HISTORICAL OHARACTERS. sort of instinct hurries into the heat and fervour of a real contest. To brandish his ghttering arms was to him the battle. He therefore persuaded himself that what he did with satisfaction he should do with success. It was just this which made his failure serious to him. The runner who trips in a race and loses it may win races for the rest of his life ; but if he stops in the middle of his course, because he is asthmatic and cannot keep his breath, lew persons would bet on him again. Now, the failure of Mackintosh was of this kind ; it was not an accidental, but a constitutional one, arising from defects or peculiarities that were^art of himself. He never, then, recovered from it. fAnd yet it could not be said that he spoke ill ; on the coStrary, notwithstanding certain defects in manner, he spoke, after a little practice, well, and far above the ordinary speaking of learned men and lawyers. Some of his orations may be re^ with admira- tion, and were even received with applausej lY. Where shall we find a nobler tone of statesmanlike philosophy than in the following condemnation of that policy which attached Genoa to Piedmont* — a condemna- tion not the less remarkable for the orator's not unskilful attempt to connect his former opposition to the French Ee volution with the war he was then waging against the Holy AlHance ? " One of the grand and patent errors of the French Kevolution was the fatal opinion, that it was possible for human skill to make a government. It was an error too generally prevalent not to be excusable. The American Eevolution had given it a fallacious semblance of support, though no event in history more clearly showed its false- hood. The system of laws and the frame of society in North America remained after the Kevolution, and remain to this day, fundamentally the same as they ever were.f The change in America, like the change in 1688, was * 27tli April, 1815. t This idea has lately been brought forward by M. de Tocqiie- ville, and treated by many as a novelty. MACKINTOSH. 277 made in defence of legal right, not in pursuit of political improvement ; and it was limited by the necessity of defence which produced it. The whole internal order remained, which had always been Eepublican. The some- what slender tie which loosely joined these Kepublics to a monarchy, was easily and without violence divided. But the error of the French Eevolutionists was, in 1789, the error of Europe. From that error we have been long re- claimed, by fatal experience. " We now see, or rather we have seen and felt, that a government is not like a machine or a building, the work of man ; that it is the work of nature, like the nobler produc- tions of the vegetable or animal world, which man may improve and corrupt, and even destroy, but which he cannot create. We have long learned to despise the ignorance or the hypocrisy of those who speak of giving a free constitution to a people, and to exclaim, with a great living poet : ' A gift of that which never can be given By ail the blended powers of earth and heaven !' " Indeed, we have gone, perhaps as usual, too near to the opposite error, and not made sufficient allowances for those dreadful cases, which I must call desperate, where, in long- enslaved countries, it is necessary either humbly and cautiously to lay foundations from which hberty may slowly rise, or acquiesce in the doom of perpetual bondage on our- selves and our children. " But though we no longer dream of making govern- ments, the confederacy of kings seem to feel no doubt of their own power to make a nation. A government cannot be made, because its whole spirit and principles spring from the character of the nation. There would be no difficulty in framing a government, if the habits of a people could be changed by a lawgiver ; if he could obliterate their recol- lections, transform their attachment and reverence, extin- guish their animosities and correct those sentiments which, being at variance with his opinions of public interest, he calls prejudices. Now this is precisely the power which our statesmen at Vienna have arrogated to themselves. 278 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS. They not only form nations, but they compose them of elements apparently the most irreconcilable. They made one nation out of Norway and Sweden ; they tried to make another out of Prussia and Saxony. They have, in the present case, forced together Piedmont and Genoa to fonn a nation which is to guard the avenues of Italy, and to be one of the main securities of Europe against universal monarchy. " It was not the pretension of the ancient system to form states, to divide territory according to speculations of military convenience. " The great statesmen of former times did not speak of their measures as the noble lord (Lord Castlereagh) did about the incorporation of Belgium with Holland (about which I say nothing), as a great improvement in the system of Europe. That is the language of those who revolu- tionize that system by a partition like that of Poland, by the estabHshment of the Federation of the Ehine at Paris, or by the creation of new states at Vienna. The ancient principle was to preserve all those States which had been founded by Time and Nature, the character of which was often maintained, and the nationality of which was some- times created by the very irregularities of frontier and inequalities of strength, of which a shallow policy com- plains ; to preserve all such States down to the smallest, first by their own national spirit, and secondly by that mutual jealousy which makes every great powder the opponent of the dangerous ambition of every other; to preserve nations, living bodies, produced by the hand of Nature — not to form artificial dead machines, called nations, by the words and parchment of a diplo- matic act — was the ancient system of our wiser fore- fathers, &c. &c. . . ." V. There is also a noble strain of eloquence in the following short defence of the slave-treaty with Spain : " I feel pride in the British flag being for this object subjected to foreign ships. I think it a great and striking proof of magnanimity that the darling point of honour of our country, the British flag itself, which for a thousand MACKINTOSH. 279 years has braved the battle and the breeze, which has defied confederacies of nations, to which we have chmg closer and closer as the tempest roared around us, which has borne us through all perils and raised its head higher as the storm has assailed us more fearfully, should now bend voluntarily to the cause of justice and humanity — should now lower itself, never having been brought low by the mightiest, to the most feeble and defenceless — to those who, far from being able to return the benefits we would confer upon them, will never hear of those benefits, will never know, padi&ps, even our name." /By far the most efiective of Sir James Mackintosh's speeches in Parliament, however, was one that he delivered (June, 1819) against " The Foreign Enlistment Bill," a measure which was intended to prevent British subjects from aiding the South American colonies in the struggle they were then making for independence. No good report of this oration remains, but even our parliamentary records are sufficient to show that it possessed many of the rarer attributes of eloquence, and moving ^^ith a rapidity and a vigour (not frequent in Sir James's eflbrts), prevented his language from seeming laboured or his learning tediousj It contained, doubtless, other passages more striking in the delivery, but the one which follows is peculiarly pleasing to me — considering the argument it answered and the audience to which it was addressed : '' Much has been said of the motives by which the merchants of England are actuated as to this question. A noble lord, the other night, treated these persons with great and unjust severity, imputing the solicitude which they feel for the success of the South American cause to interested motives. Without indulging in commonplace declamations against party men, I must considerately say that it is a question with me whether the interest of merchants do not more frequently coincide with the best interests of mankind than do the transient and limited views of politicians. If British merchants look with eagerness to the event of the struggle in America, no doubt they do so with the hope of deriving advantage Irom 280 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. that event. But on what is such hope founded ? On the diflfusion of beggary, on the maintenance of ignorance, on the contirmation, on the estabhshment of tyranny in America? No ; these are the expectations of Ferdinand. The British merchant builds his hopes of trade and profit on the progress of civiHzation and good government ; on the successful assertion of freedom — of freedom, that parent of talent, that parent of heroism, that parent of every virtue. The fate of x\merica can only be necessary to commeice as it becomes accessory to the dignity and the happiness of the race of man." (As a parliamentary orator, Sir James Mackintosh never beiore or afterwards rose to so great a height as in this debate ; but he continued at intervals, and on great and national questions, to deliver what may be called very remarkable essays up to the end of his careerj I myself was present at his last efibrt of this description ; and most interesting it was to hear the man who began his public life with the " Yindicise GalHcse," closing it with a speech in favour of the Eeform Bill. During the interval, nearly half a century had run its course. The principles which, forty years before, had appeared amidst the storm and tempest of doubtful discussion, and which, since that period, had been at various times almost totally obscured, were now again on the horizon, bright in the steady sunshine of matured opinion. The distinguished person who was addressing his countrymen on a great historical question was himself a history, — a history of his own time, of which, with the flexibility of an intelhgent but somewhat feeble nature, he had shared the enthusiasm, the doubt, the despir, the hope, the triumph. [The speech itself was remarkable. Overflowing with thought and knowledge, containing sound geueral prin- ciples as to government, undisfigured by the violence of party spirit, it pleased and instructed those who took the pains to listen to it attentively ; hut it wanted the qualities which attract or command attentioni f It were vain to seek in Mackintosh for the playful fancy MACKINTOSH. 281 of Canning, the withering invective of Brougham, the deep earnestness of Plunkett. The speaker^s^person, moreover, was gaunt and ungainly, his accent ScotcTi, liis voice monotonous, his actiun (the regular and graceless vibration oiTtwo long arms) sometimes vehement without passion, ftnrrsQTnejJ Tnes almost cringing through good nature and cmlity^^In short, his mamier, wanting altogether the quietconcentration of self-possession, was peculiarly opposed to that dignified, simple, and straightforward style of puhhc speaking, which may he characterised as " English.'^] Still, it must be remembered that he was then at an advanced age, and deprived, in some degree, of that mental, and yet more of that physical, energy, which at arL^rlier ■period might possibly have concealed these delects. \ I have heird, indeed, that on previous occasions there haabeen moments when a temporary excitement gave a natural animation to his voice and gestures, and that then the excellence of his arguiaents was made strikingly manifest bvan effective delivery.^ iHis chief reputation in Parliament, nevertheless, is not as an orator, but as a person successfully connected with one of those great movements of opinion which are so long running their course, and which it is the fortune of a man's life to encounter and be borne up upon when they are near their goal, j -^ VIT. Sii- Thomas More, m his "Utopia" (1520), says of thieving, that, "as the severity of the remedy is too great, so it is ineffectual." In Erasmus, Ealeigh, Bacon, are to be found almost precisely the same phrases and maxims that a few years ago startled the House of Commons as novelties. " What a lamentable case it is," observes Sir Edward Coke (1620), " to see so many Christian men and women strangled on that cursed tree of the gallows, the prevention of which consisteth in three things : * Good education, * Good laws, ' Bare pardons.' " Evelyn, m his preface to " State Trials " (1730), 282 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. observes, " that our legislation is very liberal of the lives of offenders, making no distinction between the most atrocious crimes and those of a less degree." " Experience," says Montesquieu, " shows that in countries remarkable for the lenity of their laws, the spirit of its inhabitants is as much affected by slight penalties as in other countries by severe punishments."* This feeling became general amongst reflecting men in the middle and towards the end of the eighteenth century. Johnson displays it in the "Kambler" (1751). Black- stone expressly declares that "every humane legislator should be extremely cautious of establishing laws which inflict the penalty of death, especially for slight offences." Mr. Grose, in writicg on the Criminal Laws of England (1769), observes : " The sanguinary disposition of our laws, besides being a national reproach, is, as it may appear, an encouragement instead of a terror to delinquents." At this time also appeared the pamphlet of " Beccaria " (1767), which was followed by an almost general move- ment in favour of milder laws throughout Europe. The Duke of Modena (1780) abolished the Inquisition in his states; the King of France, in 1781, the torture; in Eussia, capital punishment — never used but in cases of treason — may be said, for all ordinary crimes, to have been done away with. In England, where every doctrine is sure to find two parties, there was a contest between one set of men who wished our rigorous laws to be still more rigorously executed, and another that considered the rigour of those laws to be the main cause of their inefficiency. A pamphlet, called " Thoughts on Executive Justice," which produced some sensation at the moment, represented the tirst class of malcontents, and the author declaimed vehemently against those juries, who acquitted capital offenders because it went against their conscience to take away men's lives. Sir Samuel Eomilly, then a very young man, replied to this pamphlet with its own facts, and contended that the way of insuring the punishment of criminals was to make that punishment more proportionate to their offences. * " On the Power of Punishments," ch. xii. MACKINTOSH. 283 From this pamphlet dates the modern battle which the great lawyer, whose public career commenced with it, carried subsequently to the floor of the House of Com- mons. His exertions, however, were less fortunate than they deserved to be. To him, indeed, we owe, in a great measure, the spreading of truths amongst the many which had previously been confined to the few; but he never enjoyed the substantial triumph of these truths, for the one or two small successes which he obtained are scarcely worth mentioning. ^ His melancholy death took place in 1819, and l^ir James Mackintosh, who had just previously called the attention of Parliament to the barbarous extent to which executions for forgery had been carried, now came forward as the successoi:of Komilly in the general work of criminal law reformation .7 In March, 18i9, accordingly, he moved for a committee to inquire into the subject, and obtained, such being the result in a great measure of his own able and temperate manner, a majority of nineteen. Again, in 1822, though opposed by the ministers and law-ofiQcers of the Crown, he carried a motion which pledged the House to increase the efficiency hy diminishing Hie rigour of our criminal jurisprudence ; and, in 1823, he followed up this triumph by Nine Eesolutions, which, had they been adopted, would have taken away the punishment of death in the case of larceny from shops, dwelling-houses, and on navigable rivers, and also in those of forgery, sheep-stealing, and other felonies, made capital by the " Marriage and Black Act ;" in short, be proposed that sentences of death should only be pronounced when it was intended to carry them into execution. Mr. Peel, then home secretary, opposed these resolutions, and obtained a majority against them ; but he pledged himself at the same time to undertake, on behalf of the government, a plan of law reform, which, although less comprehensive than that which Sir James Mackintosh contended for, was a great measure in itself, and an immense step towards further improvement. Mackintosh's success, throughout these efforts, was 284 HISTORICAL CIJARACTEBS. mainly due to the Jilain unpretending manner in which he stated his case, c^ don't mean," he said, "to frame a new criminal code ; God forhid I should have such an idle and extravagant pretension. I don't mean to abolish the punishment of death ; I believe that societies and in- dividuals may use it as a legitimate mode of defence. Neither do I mean to usurp on the right of pardon now held by the Crown, which, on the contrary, I wish, practi- cally speaking, to restore. 1 do not even hope that I shall be able to point out a manner in which the penalty of the law should always be inflicted and never remitted. But I find things in this condition— that the infliction of the law is the exception, and I desire to make it the rule. I find two hundred cases in which capital punishment is awarded by the statute-book, and only twenty-five in which, for seventy years, such punishment has been executed. "Why is this ? Because the code says one thing, and the moral feeling of your society another. All I desire is that the two should be analogous, and that our laws should awards such punishments as our consciences permit us to inflict."} U[t was this kind of tone which reassured the House that it was not perilling property by respecting life, and brought about more quickly than less prudent manage- ment would have done that reform to which the general spirit of the time was tending, and which must necessarily, a few years sooner or later, have arrived/) YIII. ThuSj Sir James Mackintosh not only delivered some remarkable speeches in Parliament, but he conne^^JJis name with a great and memorable parliamentary triumph ; nor is this all, he was true to his party, opposinJ3he government, though with some internal scruples, in 1820 ; supporting Mr. Canning in 1827 ; and going again into opposition, to the Duke of Wellington, in 1828. T5nd yet, notwithstanding the ability usually displayed in his speeches, notwithstanding "the result of~'his efforts "m 'criminal law reform^ and, more than all, notwithstanding the constancy during late^ears of his politics, he held but MACKINTOSH. 285 a third-rate place with the Whigs, and when they came into office in 1830, was only made secretary at that board of which he had been offered the presidency twenty years before. It is easy to say that this was because he had not aristocratical connections. Mr. Poulett Thompson was not more highly connected, and yet, though thirty years his junior, and far his inferior in knowledge and mental capacity, received at the time a higher office, and rose in ten years to the first places and honours of the State. The one had much the higher order of intelligence, the other the more resolute practical character. What you expected from the first, he did not perform ; the other went beyond your expectations. For this is to be re- marked : a man's career is formed of the number of little things \\e is always doing, whereas your opinion of him is frequently derived, as I have already said, from something which, under a particular stimulus, he has done once or tsdce, and may do now and then. [The fact is that Mackmtosh was not fit for the daily toil an3 struggle of Parliament ; he had not the quickness, the energy, the hard and active nature of those who rise by constant exertions in popular assemblies. He did very , well to come out like the State steed, on great and solemn 'n occasions, with gorgeous caparison and prancing action, but he did not do as the every-day hack on a plain road. He was, moreover, inclined by his nature rather to repose than to strife ; and that which we do by effort we cannot be doing for ever— nor even do frequently well. His reason, which was acute, told him what he should be ; but he had not the energy to be it. For instance, on return- ing to England, he exclaimed : " It is time to be some- thing decided, and I am resolved to exert myself to the utmost in public life, if I have a seat in Parliament, or to condemn myself to profound jfitirement if the doors of St. Stephen's are barred to me.^ He had not, however, been many years a member before he accepted a professorship (year 1818) at Haileybury College, because it left him in the House of Commons; and refused the chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh * See *' Life of Sir James Mackintosh," by bis Son, vol. ii. p. 2. 286 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. p(1818), because, it would have withdrawn him from it. [_The great stream of public life thus passed for ever by him ; he could neither commit himself to its waves nor yet avoid lingering on its shores. Now and then, in a moment of excitement, he would rush into it, but it was soon again to retire to some sunny reverie, or some shady regret, where he could quietly plot for the future, or mourn over the past, or indulge the seheme of lettered indolence which wooed him at the momenij ( 287 ) Part III. MERITS AS A WRITER, DEATH, AND ESTIMATE OF GENERAL CAPACITY AND CHARACTER. History of England. — Articles in " Edinburgh Review." — Ti-eatise on Ethical Philosophy. — Revolution of 1688. — Bentham's system of morals and politics. — His own death. — Compaiison with Montaigne. I. I HAVE said that Sir James Mackintosh allowed himself to 1)6 lured from the strife of politics by the love of letters. And what was the species of learned labour on which his intervals of musing leisure were employed ? He read at times — this he was always able and wilHng to do — for the future composition of a great historical work — the "History of England " — which his friends and the public, with a total ignorance of his sort of character and ability, always sighed that he should undertake, and considered that he would worthily accomplish. But while he read for the future composition of this work, he actually wrote but little for it. The little he did write was undertaken at the call of some particular impulse, and capable of being finished before that impulse was passed away. In such writings he followed the bent of his nature, and in them accordingly he best succeeded, as they who refer to his contributions to the " Edinburgh Review "* may be well * Principal Papers of Sir James Mackintosh in the " Edinburgh Eeview " : Yol. 20. Account of Boy horn Blind and Deaf. lb. Wakefield's Account of Ireland. 21. Madame de Stael : On Suicide. 22. Ih. L'Allemagne. lb. On Ro£:ei-s' Poems. 288 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. disposed to acknowledge. At last, within a few yards of his grave, he made a start. Life was drawing to a close, the season for action was almost passed, and of all he had mused and read and planned for it, there existed nothing. This thought galled him to a species of exertion, and he is one of the very few men who, at an advanced age, crowded the most considerable and ambitious of their works into the last years of their hfe. The volumes on "English History" brought out in Dr. Lardner's " Encyclopedia," the " Life of Sir Thomas More," which appeared in the same publication, a " Treatise on Ethical Philosophy," and a commencement of the "History of the Kevolution of 1688," delivered to the world after his death, are these works. They all exhibit the author's defects and merits ; third- rate in themselves, and yet at various times persuading us that he who wrote them was a first-rate man. Let us take up, for instance, the volumes on " English History." Vol. 24. On the French "Restoration. 26. Life of James II. (Stuart's Papers.) 27. Stuart's Preliminary Essay (Metaphysics) to Encyclo- paedia Britannica. 36. Ih. 34. Parliamentary Eeform. 35. Sismondi : Histoire des Fran9ais. 36. Sir George Mackenzie's " Scotland." 44. Who wrote " Eikon Basilike ?" lb. Danish Eevolution. (Struensee.) November, 1822. The Partition of Poland. No. 89. Portugal— Don Miguel. The following articles were also published by Sir James in the " Monthly Review " : Year 1795. Vol. 19. Burke's Letter to a Noble Lord. Ih. A Letter to Mr. Miles, occasioned by his late scurrilous attack on Mr. Burke. 20. Miscellaneous Works of Gibbon (Part). " 1796. Ih. Roscoe's "Life of Lorenzo de Medici." Ih. Moore's " View of the Causes of the French Pevolution." 21. Burke's Two Letters. Ih. Thousjhts on A Pegicide Peace. Ih. O'Brien's " Utrnm Horun ?" Ih. Burke's Two Letters (concluded). MACKINTOSH. 289 (jDhe narrative is languid, and interrupted by disquisitions : the style is in general prolix, cumbrous, cold, profuse ; nevertheless, these volumes are full of thought and know- ledge ; they contain many curious anecdotes, many scattered observations of profound wisdom, while here and there burst upon us, by surprise it must be confessed, passages which, wi'itten under a temporary excitement, display remarkable spirit and power J Such is the description of Becket's murder: II. " Provoked by these acts of extraordinary imprudence, Henry is said to have called out before an audience of lords, knights, and gentlemen, ' To what a miserable state am I reduced, when I cannot be at rest in my own realm, by reason of only one priest ; is there no one to deliver me from my troubles?' Four knights of distinsruished rank, William de Tracy. Hugh de Moreville, Eichard Briths, and Keginald Fitz-Urse (December 28), interpreted the King's complaints as commands. They repaired to Canterbury, confirmed in their purpose by finding that Becket had recommenced his excommunications by that of Kobert de Broe, and that he had altered his course home- ward to avoid the royalist bishops on their way to court, in Normandy; they instantly went to his house, and required him, not very mildly, to withdraw the censures of the prelates, and take the oath to his lord-paramount. He refused. John of Salisbury, his faithful and learned secretary, ventured at this alarming moment to counsel peace. The primate thought that nothing was left to him but a becoming death. " The knights retired to put on their armour, and there seems to have been suflicient interval either for negotiation or escape. At that moment, indeed, measures were pre- paring for legal proceedings against him. " But the visible approach of peril awakened his sense of dignity, and breathed an unusual decorum over his language and deportment. He went through the cloisters into the church, whither he was followed by his enemies, attended by a band of soldiers, whom they had hastily gathered together. They rushed into the church with 290 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. drawn swords. Tracy cried out, ' Where is the traitor ? Where is the archbishop ?' Becket, who stood before the altar of St. Bennet, answered gravely, 'Here am I, no traitor, but the archbishop.' I'racy pulled him by the sleeve, saying : ' Come hither, thou art a prisoner.' He pulled back his arm with such force as to make Tracy stagger, and said: 'What meaneth this, William? I have done thee many pleasures ; comest thou with armed men into my church?' 'It is not possible that thou shouldst live any longer,' called out Fitz-Urse. The intrepid primate replied : ' I am ready to die for my God, in defence of the liberties of the Church.' "At that moment, either by a relapse into his old disorders, or to show that his non-resistance sprung not from weakness, but from duty, he took hold of Tracy by the habergeon, or gorget, and flung him with such violence as had nearly thrown him to the ground. He then bowed his head, as if he would pray, and uttered his last words : ' To God and St. Mary I commend my soul, and the cause of the Church !' Tracy aimed a heavy blow at him, which fell on a bystander. The assassins fell on him with many strokes, and though the second brought him to the ground, they did not cease till his brains were scattered over the pavement."* III. The characters of Alfred, of William I., of Henry YII,, are superior "to any sketches of the same persons with which I am acquainted. The summing up of events into pictures of certain epochs is frequently done with much skill, and I particularly remember a short description of the commencement of the Crusades, concluding with the capture of Jerusalem; — the state of Europe in the thirteenth century, comprising a large portion of history in two pages ; and the death of Simon de Montfort, with the establishment of the Enghsh Constitution. In a true spirit of historical philosophy, Sir James Mackintosh says : " The introduction of knights, citizens, and burgesses into the Legislature, by its continuance in circumstances * The death of Rizzio is an almost equally vivid description. MACKINTOSH. 291 SO apparently inauspicious, showed bow exactly it suited the necessities and demands of society at that moment. Ko sooner had events brought forward the measure, than its fitness to the state of the community became apparent. It is often thus that in the clamours of men for a succession of objects, society selects from among them the one that has an affinity with itself, and which most easily combines with its state at the time." The condition of Europe, also, just prior to the wars of the Koses, is rapidly, picturesquely, and comprehensively sketched. " The historian who rests for a little space between the termination of the Plantagenet wars in France and the commencement of the civil wars of the two branches of that family in England, may naturally look around him, reviewing some of the more important events which had passed, and casting his eye onward to the preparations for the mighty changes which were to produce an influence on the character and lot of the human race. A very few particulars only can be selected as specimens from so vast a mass. The foundations of the political system of the European commonwealth were now laid. A glance over the map of Europe, in 1453, will satisfy an observer that the territories of different nations were then fast approach- ' ing to the shape and extent which they retain at this day. The English islanders had only one town of the continent remaining in their hands. The Mahometans of Spain were on the eve of being reduced under the Christian authority. Italy had, indeed, lost her liberty, but had yet escaped the ignominy of a foreign yoke. Moscovy was emerging from the long domination of the Tartars. Venice, Hungary, and Poland, three states now placed under foreign masters, guarded the eastern fi-ontier of Christendom against the Ottoman barbarians, whom the absence of foresight, of mutual confidence, and a disregard of general safety and honour, disgraceful to the western governments, had just sufi'ered to master Constantinople and to subjugate the eastern Christians. France had consolidated the greater part of her central and command- mg territories. In the transfer of the Netherlands to the I 292 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. liouse of Austria originated the French jealousy of that l^ower, then rising in South-Eastern Germany. The empire was daily becoming a looser confederacy under a nominal ruler, whose small remains of authority every day continued to lessen. The internal or constitutional history of the European nations threatened, in almost every con- tinental country, the fatal establishment of an absolute monarchy, from which the free and generous spirit of the northern barbarians did not protect their degenerate pos- terity. In the Netherlands an ancient gentry, and burghers, enriched by traffic, held their still limited princes in check. In Switzerland, the patricians of a few towns, together with the gallant peasantry of the Alpine valleys, escaped a master. But Parliaments and Diets, States-General and Cortes, were gradually disappearing from view, or reduced from august assemblies to insigni- ficant formalities, and Europe seemed on the eve of ex- hibiting nothing to the disgusted eye but the dead uniformity of imbecile despotism, dissolute courts, and cruelly oppressed nations. "In the meantime the unobserved advancement and diffusion of knowledge were preparing the way for dis- coveries, of which the high result will be contemplated only by unborn ages. The mariner's compass had con- ducted the Portuguese to distant points on the coast of Africa, and was about to lead them through the unploughed ocean to the famous regions of the East. Civilized men, hitherto cooped up on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, now visited the whole of their subject planet and became its undisputed sovereigns. The great adventurer* was then born, who, with two undecked boats and one frail sloop, containing with difficulty a hundred and twenty persons, dared to stretch across an untraversed ocean, which had hitherto bounded the imaginations as well as the enterprises of men ; and who, instead of that India renowned in legend and in story, of which he was in quest, laid open a new world which, under the hands of the European race, was one day to produce governments, laws, manners, modes of civilization and states of society * Columbus, born 1441, or earlier, according to Mr. W. Irving. MACKINTOSH. 293 almost as different as its native plants and animals from those of ancient Europe. " Who could then —who can even now — foresee all the prodigious effects of these discoveries on the fortunes of mankind ?" lY. No one will deny that what I have just quoted might have been written by a great historian ; yet no one will say that the work I quote from is a great history. It is a series of parts, some excellent, some indifferent, but which altogether do not form a whole. The fragment of the Eevolution, though a fragment, presents the same qualities and defects. The narrative is poor ; some of the characters, such as those of Eochester, Sunderland, and Halifax — and some of the passages (that with which the work opens, for instance) — are excellent ; but then, these fine figures of gold embroidery are worked here and there with care and toil, on an ordinary sort of canvas. The " Life of Sir Thomas More " is the only comj^lete performance; and this because it was a portrait which mi.o^ht have been taken at one sitting. The " Treatise on Ethics," first published in the supple- ment of the seventh edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britan- nica," and which has since appeared in a separate form under the auspices of Professor Whewell, is still more remarkable, both in its design and execution, as charac- terising the author. He seems here, indeed, to have been aware of his own capabilities, and to have accommodated his labours to them ; for his work is conceived in separate and distinct portions, and he undertakes to write the course and progress of philosophy by descriptions of its most illustrious masters and professors ; a plan gracefully imagined, as difiusing the charm of personal narrative over dry and speculative disquisition. Nothing, accordingly, can be better executed than some of these pictures. It would be difficult to paint Hobbes, Leibnitz, Shaftesbury, more faithfully, or in more suitable colours; the contrast between the haughty Bossuet and the gentle Eenelon is perfectly sustained ; while Berkeley the virtuous, the benevolent, the imaginative, is drawn 294 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. with a pencil whicli would even have satisfied the admira- tion of his contemporaries : V. " BerJceley. — Ancient learning, exact science, polished society, modern literature, and the fine arts, contributed to adorn and enrich the mind of this accomplished man. All his contemporaries agreed with the satirist in ascribing '"To Berkeley every virtue under lieaven !' "Adverse factions and hostile wits concurred only in loving, admiring, and contributing to advance him. The severe sense of Swift endured his visions; the modest Addison endeavoured to reconcile Clarke to his ambitious speculations. His character converted the satire of Pope into fervid praise. Even the fastidious and turbulent Atterbury said, after an interview with him, * 80 much understanding, so much knowledge, so much innocence, and such humility, I did not think had been the portion of any but angels, till I saw this gentleman.'* ' Lord Bathurst told me,' says Warton, ' that the members of the Scribblers' Club being met at his house at dinner, they agreed to rally Berkeley, who was also his guest, on his scheme at Bermudas. Berkeley, having listened to the many lively things they had to say, begged to be heard in his turn, and displayed his plan with such an astonishing and animating force of eloquence and enthusiasm that they were struck dumb, and, after some pause, rose all up together, with earnestness exclaiming, " Let us set out with him immediately!"'! It was when thus beloved and celebrated that he conceived, at the age of forty-five, the design of devoting his life to reclaim and convert the natives of North America ; and he employed as much influence and solicitation as common men do for their most prized objects, in obtaining leave to resign his dignities and revenues, to quit his accomplished and affectionate friends, and to bury himself in what must have seemed an intellectual desert. After four years' * Buncombe's Letters, pp. 106, 107. t Warton on " Pope." I MACKINTOSH. 295 residence at Newport, in Khode Island, he was compelled, by the refusal of government to furnish him with funds for liis college, to forego his work of heroic, or rather godlike benevolence, though not without some consoling forethought of the fortune of a country where he had sojourned : " ' Westward the course of empire takes its way : The first four acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the da}', Time's noblest oflsijring is its last.' " Thus disappointed in his ambition of keeping a school for savage children, at a salary of a hundred pounds a year, he was received on his return with open arms by the philosophical Queen, at whose metaphysical parties he made one, with Sherlock, who, as well as Smallridge, was his supporter, and with Hoadley, who, following Clarke, was his antagonist. By her influence he was made Bishop of Cloyne. It is one of his greatest merits, that though of English extraction, he was a true Irishman, and the first eminent Protestant, after the unhappy contest at the Eevolution, who avowed his love for all his countrymen ;* and contributed, by a truly Christian address to the Koman Catholics of his diocese, to their perfect quiet during the rebellion of 1745. From the writings of his advanced years, when he chose a medical tractt to be the vehicle of philosophical reflections, though it cannot be said that he relinquished his early opinions, it is at least apparent that his mind had received a new bent, and was habitually turned from reasoning towards contemplation. His immaterialism, indeed, modestly appears, but only to purify and elevate our thoughts, and to fix them on mind, the paramount and primeval principle of all things. ' Perhaps,' says he, ' the truths about innate ideas may be, that there are properly no ideas on passive objects in the mind but what are derived from sense, but that there are also, besides these, her own acts and operations — such are notions ;' a statement which seems once more to admit general conceptions, and which might have served, as well as the parallel passage of Leibnitz, as the basis of modern * See his "Querist," p. 358, published in 1737. t " Siris ; or, Reflections on Tar Water." 296 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. philosophy in Germany. From these compositions of his old age, he then appears to have recurred with fondness to Plato, and the later Platonists : writers from whose mere reasonings an intellect so acute could hardly hope for an argumentative satisfaction of all its difficulties, and whom he probably either studied as a means of inuring his mind to objects beyond the visible diurnal sphere, and of attach- ing it, through frequent meditation, to that perfect and transcendent goodness, to which his moral feelings always pointed, and which they incessantly strove to grasp. His mind, enlarging as it rose, at length receives every theist, however imperfect his belief, to a communion in its philosophic piety. ' Truth,' he beautifully concludes, ' is the cry of all, but the game of few. Certainly, where it is the chief passion, it does not give way to vulgar cares, nor is it contented with a little ardour in the early time of life ; active perhaps to pursue, but not so fit to weigh and revise. He that would make a real progress in knowledge, must dedicate his age as well as youth, the latter growth as well as first fruits, at the altar of truth.' So did Berkeley, and such were almost his latest words. " His general principles of ethics may be shortly stated by himself : ' As God is a being of infinite goodness. His end is the good of His creatures. The general well-being of all men of all nations, of all ages of the world, is that which He designs should be procured by the concurring actions of each individual.' Having stated that this end can be pursued only in one of two ways— either by com- puting the consequences of each action, or by obeying the rules which generally tend to happiness ; and having shown the first to be impossible, he rightly infers, ' That the end to which God requires the concurrence of human actions, must be carried on by the observation of certain determinate and universal rules, or moral precepts, wliich in their own nature have a necessary tendency to promote the well-being of mankind, taking in all nations and ages, from the beginning to the end of the world.'* A romance, of which a journey to an Utopia in the centre of Africa * Sermon in Trinity College Chapel on " Pasisive Obedience," 1712. MACKINTOSH. 297 forms the chief part, called, ' The adventures of Signer Gaudentio di Lucca,' has been commonly ascribed to him ; probably on no other ground than its union of pleasing invention with benevolence and elegance/'* YI. The following short description of the practical Paley comes aptly after that of this charming Utopian : " Paley. — The natural frame of Paley's understanding fitted it more for business and the world than for philo- sophy; and he accordingly enjoyed with considerable relish the few opportunities which the latter part of his life afforded, of taking a part in the affairs of his country, as a magistrate. Penetration and shrewdness, firmness and coolness, a vein of pleasantry, fruitful, thougli some- what unrefined, with an original homeliness and signi- ficancy of expression, were perhaps more remarkable in his conversation than the restraints of authorship and profession allowed them to be in his writings. His taste for the common business and ordinary amusements of life, fortunately gave a zest to the company which his neigh- bourhood chanced to yield, without rendering him in- sensible to the pleasures of intercourse with more en- lightened society. The practical bent of his nature is visible in the language of his writings, which, on practical matters, is as precise as the nature of the subject requires ; but, in his rare and reluctant efibrts to rise to first principles, becomes undeterminate and unsatisfactory, though no man's composition was more free from the impediments which hinder a writer's meaning from being quickly and clearly seen. He possessed that chastised acuteness of discrimination, exercised on the affairs of men, and habitually looking to a purpose beyond the mere increase of knowledge, which fonns the character of a lawyer's understanding, and which is apt to render a mere lawyer too subtle for the management of affairs, and yet too gross for the pursuit of general truths. His style is as near perfection, in its kind, as any in our language. Perhaps no words were ever more expressive and illustra- * "Gentleman's Magazine," 1777. 298 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. tive than tliose in wliicli he represents the art of life to be that of rightly setting our habits." — " Ethical Philo- sophy," p. 274. Such are the portraits in this work; the history of ancient ethics, and the vindication of the scholiasts also, are in themselves and as separate compositions of great merit ; but when, after admiring these different fragments, we look at the plan, at the system which is to result from them, or endeavour to follow out the line of reasoning which is to bring them together — we quit the land of realities for that of shadows, and are obliged to confess that the author has barely sufficient vigour to make his meaning intelligible. YII. To give the history intended to be given by Sir James's treatise, would be without the scope of the present sketch ; but it may not be amiss to say something of the state of the philosophical opinions which existed at the time of its publication, and which, in fact, called it forth. Hel- vetius, the friend of Yoltaire and Diderot — Helvetius, whose works have been considered as merely the record of those opinions which circulated around him — the most amusing, if not the most logical of metaphysicians, wrote that everything proceeded from the senses, and that man (for this was one of his favourite hypotheses) differed from a monkey mainly because his hands were tenderer and more soft. The doctrine of sensation led necessarily to that of selfishness, since, owing what we think to what we feel, every idea is the consequence of some pain or pleasure, and our own pains and pleasures are thus the parents of all our emotions. A strong reaction, however, took place in the beginning of the nineteenth against the eighteenth century; the original existence of certain sentiments or affections im- planted by nature, was contended for, in Germany and in Scotland, under a variety of qualifications. The school, which said that the afiections arose from this primary source, called them disinterested, as that which contended MACKINTOSH. 209 that they more or less directly proceeded from some cause which had reference to ourselves, called them interested. There was but one step easily made by both parties in carrying out their doctrines. The philosophers who thought that self-interest, "through some certain strainers well refined," was the cause of all our actions and ideas, maintained that utility was the only measure of virtue, or of greatness. The philosophers of the opposite faction argued on the contrary, that as many of our emotions were natural and involun- tary, so there was also a sense of wrong and right, natural and involuntary, and connected with those emotions im- planted in us. Living in a retired part of London, visited only by his adorers and disciples, looking rarely beyond the confines of his early knowledge, and on the train of thinking it had inspired, an old and singular gentleman, with great native powers of mind, almost alone resisted the new impulse, and, classifying and extending the doctrines of the French philosophy, established a reputation and a school of his own. The charm of Mr. Bentham's philo- sophy, however obscured by fanciful names and un- necessary subdivisions, is its apparent clearness and sim- plicity. He considers with the disciples of Helvetius — 1, that our ideas do come from our sensations, and that conse- quently we are selfish ; 2, that man in doing what is most useful to himself does what is right. Yery strange and fantastical notions have been pro- pagated against the philosopher by persons so egregiously mistaking him as to imagine that what he thus says of mankind generally — of man, meaning every man — is said of a man, of man separately ; so that a murderer, pretend these commentators, has only to be sure that a second murder is useful to him by preventing the detection of the first, in order to be justified in committing it. It were useless to dwell upon this ridiculous construction. But in urging men to pursue the general interest of society at large, in telling them that to do what is most for that interest is to act usefully and thereby virtuously, 300 HISTORICAL CIIABACTERS. Mr. Bentliam found it necessary to explain how sucli in- terest was to be discovered. Accordingly he has propounded that the general interest of a society must be considered to be the interest of the greatest number in that society, and that the greatest number in any society is the best judge of its interest. Moreover, in the further development of his doctrine, he contends that a majority would always, under natural cir- cumstances, govern a minority, and that, therefore, there is a natural tendency, if not thwarted, towards the happiness and good government of mankind. This system of philosophy gained the more attention from its being also a system of politics. According to Mr. Bentham, that which was most important to men depended on main- taining what he considered the natural law, viz., governing the minority by the majority. YIII. Unfortunately for the destiny of mankind, and the soundness of the Benthamite doctrine, it is by no means certain that the majority in any community is the best judge of its interests ; whilst it is even less certain, if it did know these interests, that it would necessarily and invariably follow them. In almost every collection of men the intelligent few know better what is for the common interest than the ignorant many ; and it is rare indeed to see communities or individuals pursuing their interest steadily even when they perceive it clearly. It would, perhaps, be more reconcilable to reason to say that the intellect of a community should govern a community ; but this assertion is also open to objection, since a small number of intelligent men might govern for their own interest, and not for the interes*t of the society they re- presented. In short, though it is easy to see that the science of government does not consist in giving power to the greatest number, but in giving it to the most in- telligent, and making it for their interest to govern for the interest of the greatest number; still, every day teaches us that good government is rather a thing relative than a thing absolute ; that all governments have good MACKINTOSH. 301 mixed with evil, and e\il mixed with good ; and that the statesman's task, as is heautiMly demonstrated by Montes- quieu, is, not to destroy an evil combined with a greater good, nor to create a good accompanied with a greater evil; but to calculate how the greatest amount of good and the least amount of evil can be combined together. Hence it is, that the best governments with which we are acquainted seem rather to have been fashioned by the working hand of daily experience, than by the artistic fingers of philosophical speculation. Nevertheless, the theory, that the good of the greatest number in any community ought to be the object which its government should strive to attain, and the maxim, that the interest and happiness of every unit in a com- munity are to be treated as a portion of the interest and happiness of the whole community, are humanizing pre- cepts, and have, through the influence of Mr. Bentham and of his disciples, produced, within my own memory, a considerable change in the public opinion of England. Mr. Bentham's name, then, is far more above the scoff of his antagonists than below the enthusiasm of his dis- ciples ; and it is in this spirit, and with a becoming respect, that Sir James Mackintosh treats the philosopher while he combats his philosophy. IX. In regard to the theory of Sir James himself, if I understand it rightly (and it is rather, as I have said, indistinctly expressed), he accepts neither the doctrine of innate ideas disinterestedly producing or ordering our actions, nor that of sense-derived ideas by which, with a concentrated regard to selt, some suppose men to be governed — but imagines an association of ideas, naturally suggested by our human condition, which, according to a pre-ordinated state of the mind, produces, as in chemical processes, some emotion different from any of the combined elements or causes from which it springs. This emotion, once existing, requires, without consi- deration or reflection, its gratification. In this manner the satisfaction of benevolence and pity springs as much 302 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. from a spontaneous desire as the satisfaction of hunger; and man is unconsciously taught, through feehngs ne- cessary to him as man, to wish involuntarily for that which, on reflection and experience, he would find (such is the beautiful dispensation of Providence) most for his happiness and advantage. The union, assemblage, or incorporation, if one may so speak, of these involuntary desires, affecting and affected by them all, becomes our universal moral sense or con- science, which in each of its propensities is gratified or mortified, according to our conduct. X. Here end my criticisms. They have passed rapidly in review the principal works and events of Sir James Mackintosh's life;* and what have they illustrated? That, which I commenced by observing : thatf he had made several excellent speeches, that he had taT^en an active part in politics, that he had written ably upon history, that he had manifested a profound knowledge of ji philosophy ; but that he had not been pre-eminent as an orator, as a politician, as an historian, as a philosopher.! It may be doubted whether any speech or book of his will long survive his time; but a very valuable work might be compiled from his writings and speeches. Indeed, there are hardly any books in our language more interesting or more instructive than the two volumes * He published the ** Vindicise Gallicse " in 1791 ; he gave his lectures in 1799 ; he appeared as Peltier's advocate in the same year ; he entered Parliament in 1813 ; he delivered his celebrated speech against the Foreign Enlistment Bill in 1819, and carried his motion pledging the House of Commons to an improvement in the criminal law in 1822 ; his work on " Ethics " was published in 1830 ; his " History of England " in 1830-31. t B. Constant was another instance of this kind, and it is singular to see Mackintosh himself thus judging him : — " Few men have turned talent to less account than Constant. His powers of mind are very great, but as they have always been exerted on the events of the moment, and as his works want that laboured perfection which is more necessary but more difficult in such writings than in any others, they have left us a vague or faint reputation which will scarcely survive the speaker or writer." MACKINTOSH. 303 published by his son, and which display in every page the best qualities of an excellent heart and an excellent under- standiog, set off by the most amial>le and remarkable simplicity. His striking, peculiar, aud unriyalkd merit, however, was that of a conversationalist. Great good- natlire^ great"~and yet gentle animation, much learning, /' and a soimcl, discriminating, and comprehensive judgment, made liim this. He had little of the wit of words — brilliant repartees, caustic sayings, concentrated and epi- grammatic turijs of exj)ression. But he knew everyiliing and couId"talk of everything without being tedions.; A ladyT)f^reat wit, intellect, and judgment (Lady WiQiam Eussell), in describing his soft Scotch voice, said to me — " Mackintosh played on your understanding with a flageolet, Macaulay with a trumpet." [Having lived much by himself and with books, and mucF"also in the world aud with men, he had the hght anecdote and easy manner of society, and the grave and serious gatherings in of lonely hours. He added also to much knowledge consi- derable powers of observation ; and there are few persons of whom he speaks, even at the dawn of their career, whom he has not judged with discrimination. His agreeableness, moreover, being that of a full mind ex- pressed with facihty, was the most translatable of any man's, and he succeeded with foreigners, and in France, which he visited three times — once at the peace of Amiens, again in 1814, and again in 1824 — quite asjnuch as in his own country, and with his own countrymeuj' Madame de Stael and Benjamin Constant prized him not less than did Lord Dudley or Lord Byron. fTt was not only in England, then, but also on the Continent, where his early pamphlet and distinguished friendships had made him equally krx)wn — that he ever remained the man of i^romise ; until, amidst hopes which his vast and various information, his wonderful memory, his copious elocution, and his transitory fits of energy, still nourished, he died, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, universally admired and regretted, though without a high reputation for any one thingj^r the ardent attachment of any particular set of personsT} His death, which took place the 30th of May, 1832, was occasioned 304 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. by a small fragment of chicken-bone, wliicb, having lacerated the trachea, created a wound that ultimately proved fatal. He met his end with calmness and resig- nation, expressing his belief in the Christian faith, and. placing his trust in it. vNo man doing so little ever went through a long life continually creating the belief that he would ultimately do so much. A want of earnestness, a want of passion, a want of genius, prevented him from playing a first-rate part amongst men during his day, and from leaving any of those monuments behind him which command the ^ attention of posterity. A love of knowledge, an acute and ^ capacious intelligence, an early and noble ambition, Jed him into literary and active life, and furnished him with the materials and at moments with the energy by which success in both is obtained. An amiable disposition, a lively flow of spirits, an extraordinary and varied stock of in- formation made his society agreeable to the most distin- guished persons of his age, and induced them, encouraged by some occasional displays of remarkable power, to consider his available abilities to be greater than they really w ere.] " What have you done," he relates that a French lady once said to him, " that people should think you so superior ?" " I waa-obliged," he adds, " as usual, to refer to my projects." (For active life he was too much of the academic school :— believing nearly all great distinctions to be less than they were, and remaining irresolute between small ones. He passed, as he himself said, from Burke to Fox in half an hour, and remained weeks, as we learn from a friend (Lord Nugent), in determining whether he should employ " usefulness " or " utility " in some par- ticular composition. Such is not the stuff out of which great leaders or statesmen are formed. His main error as a writer and as a speaker was his elaborate struggle against that easy idle way of dehvering himself, which made the charm of his talk when he did not think of what he was saying J " The great fault of my manner," he himself observes somewhere, " is that I overload." And to many of his more finished compositions we might, MACKINTOSH. 305 indeed, apply the old saying of the critic, who on being asked whether he admired a certain tragedy of Dionysius, repHed : " I have not seen it ; it is obscured with lan- guage." His early compositions had a sharper and terser style than his later ones, the activity of the author's mind being greater, and his doubts and toils aftej^-^perfection less; but even these were o ver-prepared . \ Can he be considered a failure ? No ; if you compareTiim with other men. Yes; if you compare him with the general idea entertained as to himself. The reputation he attained, however vague and uncertain, the writings that he left, though inferior to the prevalent notions as to his powers, — all placed him on a pedestal of conspicuous, though not of gigantic elevation amongst his contemporaries. The results of his life only disappointed when you measured them by the anticipations which his merits had excited — then he became "the man of promise." Could he have arrived at greater eminence than that which he attained ? if so, it must have been by a different road. I cannot repeat too often that no man struggles perpetually and victoriously against his own character ; and one of the first principles of success in life, is so to regulate our career as rather to turn our physical constitution and natural inclinations to good account,^an to endeavour to counteract the one or oppose the otherj There can be no general comparison between Montaigne and Mackintosh. The first was an original thinker, and the latter a combin er_and retailer of the thoughts of others . But I have often pictured to myself the French philosopher lounging away the greatest portion of his life in the old square turret of his chateau, yielding to his laziness all that it exacted from liim, and becoming, almost in spite of himself, the first magistrate of his town, and, though carelessly and discursively, the greatest writer of his time. He gave the rein to the idleness of his nature, and had reason to be satisfied with the employment of his LOn the other hand, let us look at the accomplished Scotchman, constantly agitated by his aspirations after fame and his inclinations for repose ; formed for literary 306 HISTOPJCAL CHABACTER8. ease, forcing himself into political conflict — dreaming of a long-laboured history, and writing a hasty article in a review; earnest about nothing, because the objects to which he momentarily directed his efforts were not likely * to give the permanent distinction for which he pined; and thus, with a doubtful mind and a broken career, achieving httle that was worthy of his abilities, or equal to the expectations of his friends. I have said there can be no general comparison between men whose particular faculties were no doubt of a very different order ; yet, had the one mixed in contest with the bold and factious spirits of his day, he would have been but a poor " ligueur ; " and had the other abstained from politics and renounced long and laborious compositions, merely writing under the stimulus of some accidental inspiration, it is probable that his name would have gone down to posterity as that of the most agreeable and instructive essayist of his remarkable epoch. But at all events that name is graven on the monument which commemorates more Christian manners and more mild legislation : and " Blessed shall he be," as said our great lawyer, " who layeth the first stone of this building ; more blessed he that proceeds in it ; most of all he that finisheth it iiithe glory of Grod, and the honour of our king and nation.'J ( 307 ) C B B E T T, THE CONTENTIOUS MAN. Part I. FROM HIS BIRTH, IN MARCH, 1762, TO HIS QUITTING THE UNITED STATES, JUNE 1ST, 1800. Sou of a small farmer. — Boyhood spent in the country. — Runs away from home. — Becomes a lawyer's clerk. — Enlists as a soldier, 1784. — Learus grammar and studies Swift. — Goes to Canada. — Remarked for good conduct. — Rises to rank of sergeant-major. — Gets discharge, 1791. — Marries. — Quits Europe for United States. — Starts as a bookseller in Pennsylvania. — Becomes a political writer of great power. — Takes a violent anti-republican tone. — Has to sufTer different prosecutions, and at last sets sail for England. The character wbicli I am now tempted to delineate is just the reverse of that which I rise from describing. Mack- intosh was a man of great powers of reasoning, of accomphshed learning, but of little or no sustained energy. His vision took a wide and calm range ; he saw all things coolly, dispassionately; and, except at his first entry into life, was never so lost in his admiration of one object as to overlook the rest. His fault lay in rather the opposite extreme ; his perception of the universal weakened that of the particular, and the variety of colours which appeared at once before him became too blended in his sight for the adequate appreciation of each. The subject of this memoir, on the contrary, though he could argue well in favour of any opinion he adopted, had not that elevated and philosophic cast of mind which makes men inquire after truth for the sake of truth. 308 HISTORICAL CHARACTEES. regarding its pursuit as a delight, its attainment as a duty, Neither could lie take that comprehensive view of affairs which affords to the judgment an ample scope for the comparison and selection of opinions. But he pos- sessed a rapid power of concentration ; a will that scorned opposition ; he saw clearly that one side of a question which caught his attention; and pursued the object he had momentarily in view with an energy that never recoiled before a danger, and was rarely arrested by a scruple. The sense of his force gave him the passion for action; but he encouraged this passion until it became restlessness, a desire to fight rather for the pleasure of fighting than for devotion to any cause for which he fought. While Mackintosh always struggled against his cha- racter, and thereby never gave himself fair play, the person of whom I am now about to speak — borne away in a perfectly opposite extreme — allowed his character to usurp and govern his abilities, frequently without either usefulness or aim. Thus, the one changed sides two or three times in his life, from that want of natural ardour which creates strong attachments ; the other attacked and defended various parties with a furious zeal, upon which no one could rely, because it proceeded from the tem- porary caprice of a whimsical imagination, and not from the stedfast enthusiasm of any well-meditated conviction. With two or three qualities more, Cobbett would have been a very great man in the world ; as it was, he made a great noise in it. But I pass from criticism to narrative. II. William Cobbett was born in the neighbourhood of Farnham, on the 9th of March, 1762. The remotest ancestor he had ever heard of was his grandfather, who had been a day labourer, and, according to the rustic habits of old times, worked with the same farmer from the day of his marriage to that of his death. The son, Cobbett's parent, was a man superior to the generality of persons in his station of life. He could not only read and write, but he knew also a little mathematics ; under- COBBETT. 309 stood land surveying, was honest and industrious, and had thus risen from the position of labourer, a position in which he was bom, to that of having labourers under hiuK Cobbett's boyhood, I may say his childhood, was passed in the fields : first he was seen frightening the birds from the turnips, then weeding wheat, then leading a horse at harrowing barley, finally joining the reapers at harvest, driving the team, and holding the plough. His literary instruction was small, and only such as he could acquire at home. It was shrewdly asked by Dr. Johnson, " What becomes of all the clever schoolboys ?" In fact, many of the boys clever at school are not heard of afterwards, because if they are docile they are also timid, and attend to the routine of education less from the love of learning than the want of animal spirits. Cobbett was not a boy of this kind. At the age of sixteen he determined to go to sea, but could not get a captain to take him. At the age of seventeen he quitted his home (having already, when much younger, done so in search of adventures), and without communicating his design to any one, started, dressed in his Sunday clothes, for the great city of London. Here, owing to the kind exertions of a passenger in the coach in which this his first journey was made, he got engaged after some time and trouble as under- clerk to an attorney (Mr. Holland), in Gray's Inn Lane. It is natural enough that to a lad accustomed to fresh air, green fields, and out-of-door exercise, the close atmo- sphere, dull aspect, and sedentary position awaiting an attorney's under-clerk at Gray's Inn must liave been hateful. But William Cobbett never once thought of escaping from what he called "an earthly hell" by a return to his home and friends. This would have been to confess himself beaten, which he never meant to be. On the contrary, rushing from one bold step to another still more so, he enlisted himself (1784') as a soldier in a regiment intended to serve in Nova Kr^cotia. His father, though somewhat of his own stern and surly nature, begged, prayed, and remonstrated. But it was useless. The recruit, however, had -some months to pass in England, since, peace having taken place, there was no 310 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. hurry in sending off the troops. These months he spent in Chatham, storing his brains with the lore of a cir- culating library, and his heart with love-dreams of the librarian's daughter. To this period he owed what he always considered his most valuable acquisition, a knowledge of his native language ; the assiduity with which he gave himself up to study, on this occasion, insured his success and evinced his character. He wrote out the whole of an English grammar two or three times; he got it by heart; he repeated it every morning and evening, and he imposed on himself the task of saying it over once every time that he mounted guard. "I learned grammar," he himself says, " when I was a private soldier on the pay of sixpence a day. The edge of my berth, or that of the guard-bed, was my seat to study on ; my knapsack was my book-case, a bit of board lying on my lap was my writing-table, and the task did not demand anything like a year of my life." Such is will. In America, Cobbett remained as a soldier till the month of September, 1791, when his regiment was relieved and sent home. On the 19 th of November, he obtained his discharge, after having served nearly eight years, never having once been disgraced, confined, or reprimanded, and having attained, owing to his zeal and intelligence, the rank of sergeant-major without having passed through the intermediate rank of sergeant. The following was the order issued at Portsmouth on the day of his discharge : " Portsmouth, 19th Dec. 1791. " Sergeant-Major Cobbett having most pressingly ap- plied for his discharge, at Major Lord Edward Fitzgerald's request, General Frederick has ordered Major Lord Edward Fitzgerald to return the Sergeant-Major thanks for his behaviour and conduct during the time of his being in the regiment, and Major Lord Edward adds his most hearty thanks to those of the General."' HI. At this period Cobbett married. Nobody has left us wiser sentiments or pithier sentences on the choice of a COBBETT. 311 wife. His own, the daughter of a sergeant of artillery, stationed like himself at New Brunswick, had been selected at once. He had met her two or three times, and found her pretty; beauty, indeed, he considered indispensable, but beauty alone would never have suited him. Industry, activity, energy, the qualities which he possessed, were those which he most admired, and the partner of his life was fixed upon when he found her, one morning before it was distinctly light, " scrubbing out a washing-tub before her father's door." " That's the girl for me," he said, and he kept to this resolution with a fortitude which the object of his attachment deserved and imitated. The courtship was continued, and the assurance of reciprocated afiection given ; but before the union of hands could sanctify that of hearts, the artillery were ordered; home for England. Cobbett, whose regiment was then at some distance from the spot where his betrothed was still residing, unable to have the satisfaction of a personal farewell, sent her 150 guineas, the whole amount of his savings, and begged her to use it— as he feared her residence with her father at Woolwich might expose her to bad company — in making herself comfortable in a small lodging with respectable people until his arrival. It was not until four years afterwards that he himself was able to quit America, and he then found the damsel he had so judiciously chosen not with her father, it is true, nor yet lodging in idleness, but as servant-of-all-work for five pounds a year, and at their first interview she put into his h^nds the 150 guineas which had been confided to her — untouched. Such a w^oman had no ordinary force of mind ; and it has been frequently asserted that he who, once beyond his own threshold, was ready to contend with every government in the world, was, when at home, under what has been appropriately called the government of the petticoat. Cobbett's marriage took place on the 3rd of February, 1792; that is, about ten weeks after his discharge; but having in March brought a very grave charge against some of the officers of his regiment, which charge, when a court- martial was summoned, he did not appear to support, he 312 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Avas forced to quit England for France, where he remained till September, 1792, when he determined on trying his fortune in the United States. lY. On his arrival he settled in Philadelphia, and was soon joined hy Mrs. Cohbett, who had not accompanied him out. His livelihood was at first procured by giving English lessons to French emigrants ; and it is a fact not without interest that a celebrated person who figures amongst these sketches^ — M. de Talleyrand — wished to become one of his pupils. He refused, he says, to go to the ci-devant bishop's house, but adds, in his usual style, that the lame fiend hopped over this difiiculty at once by offering to come to his (Gobbett's) house, an offer that was not accepted. About this time Doctor Priestley came t(^ America. The enthusiasm with which the doctor was received roused the resentment of the British soldier, who moreover panted for a battle He published then — though with some difficulty, booksellers objecting to the un- popularity of the subject, an objection at which the author was most indignant — a pamphlet called " Observations on Priestley's Emigration." This pamphlet, on account both of its ability and scurrility, made a sensation, and thus commenced the author's reputation, though it only added Is. l^d. to his riches. But he was abusing, he was abused. This was to be in his element, and he rose at once, so far as the power and peculiarity of his style Avere concerned, to a foremost place amongst political writers. This style had been formed at an early period of life, and perhaps unconsciously to himself. " At eleven years of age," he says in an article in the Evening Post, calling upon the reformers to pay for returning him to Parliament, " my employment was clipping of box-edgings and weeding beds of flowers in the garden of the Bishop of Winchester at the castle of Farnham, my native town. 1 had always been fond of beautiful gardens, and a gardener ^vho had just come from the King's gardens at Kew gave me such a description of them as made me instantly resolve to work in those COBBETT. 313 gardens. The next morning" (this is the early adventure I have previously spoken of), " without saying a word to any one, ofi' I set, with no clothes except those upon my back, and with thirteen halfpence in my pocket. I found that I must go to Eichmond, and I accordingly went on from place to place inquiring my way thither. A long day (it was in June) brought me to Eichmond in the after- noon. Two pennyworth of bread and cheese and a penny- worth of small beer which I had on the road, and one halfpenny that I had lost somehow or other, left three pence in my pocket. With this for my whole fortune, I was trudging through Eichmond in my blue smock-frock, and my red garters tied under my knees, when, staring about me, my eye fell upon a little book in a bookseller's window, on the outside of which was written ' The Tale of a Tub, price 3d' The title was so odd that my curiosity was excited. I had the threepence ; but then I could not have any supper. In I went and got the little book, which I was so impatient to read, that I got over into a field at the upper corner of Kew Gardens, where there stood a haystack. On the shady side of this I sat down to read. The book was so different from anything that I had ever read before, it was something so new to my mind, that, though I could not understand some parts of it, it delighted me beyond description, and produced what I have always considered a sort of birth of intellect. " I read on until it was dark without any thought of supper or bed. When I could see no longer, I put my little book in my pocket and tumbled down by the side of the stack, where I slept till the birds in the Kew Gardens awakened me in the morning, when off I started to Kew, reading my little book. The singularity of my dress, the simplicity of my manner, my lively and confident air, and doubtless his own compassion besides, induced the gardener, who was a Scotchman, I remember, to give me victuals, find me lodging, and set me to work ; and it was during the period that I was at Kew that George lY. and two of his brothers laughed at the oddness of my dress while I was sweeping the grass-plot round the foot of the Pagoda. The gardener, seeing me fond of books, lent me some 314 HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. gardening books to read ; but these I could not relisb after my 'Tale of a Tub,' which I carried about with me wherever I went, and when I — at about twenty years old — lost it in a box that fell overboard in the Bay of Fundy, in North America, the loss gave me greater pain than I have since felt at losing thousands of pounds." V. Many had cause to remember this evening passed under a haystack at Kew. The genius of Swift engrafted itself naturally on an intellect so clear and a disposition so inclined to satire as that of the gardener's boy. Cobbett's earliest writings are more especially tinged with the colouring of his master. Take for instance the following fable, which will at all times find a ready applica- tion: " In a pot-shop, well stocked with wares of all sorts, a discontented, ill-lbrmed pitcher unluckily bore the sway. One day, after the mortifying neglect of several customers, * Gentlemen,' said he, addressing himself to his brown brethren in general — * gentlemen, with your permission, we are a set of tame fools, without ambition, without courage, condemned to the vilest uses ; we suffer all with- out murmuring ; let us dare to declare ourselves, and we shall soon see the difference. That superb ewer, which, like us, is but earth — these gilded jars, vases, china, and, in short, all those elegant nonsenses whose colour and beauty have neither weight nor solidity — must yield to our strength and give place to our superior merit.' This civic harangue was received with applause, and the pitcher, chosen president, became the organ of the assembly. Some, however, more moderate than the rest, attempted to calm the minds of the multitude ; but all the vulgar utensils, which shall be nameless, were become intractable. Eager to vie with the bowls and the cups, they were impatient, almost to madness, to quit their obscure abodes to shine upon the table, kiss the lip, and ornament the cupboard. ''In vain did a wise water-jug — some say it was a platter — make them a long and serious discourse upon the GOBBETT. 315 utility of their vocation. * Those,' said he, 'who are destined to great employments are rarely the most happy. We are all of the same clay, 'tis true, but He ^Yho made us formed us for different functions; one is for ornament, another for use. The posts the least important are often the most necessary. Our employments are extremely different, and so are our talents.' "This had a most wonderful effect; the most stupid began to open their ears ; perhaps it would have succeeded, if a grease -pot had not cried out in a decisive tone : ' You reason like an ass — to the devil with you and your silly lessons.' Now the scale was turned again ; all the horde of paus and pitchers applauded the superior eloquence and reasoning of the grease-pot. In short, they deter- mined on an enterprise ; but a dispute arose — who should be the chief? Every one would command, but no one obey. It was then you might have heard a clatter ; all put themselves in motion at once, and so wisely and with so much vigour were their operations conducted, that the whole was soon changed — not into china, but into rubbish." VI. The tendency of this tale is manifest. It was in oppo- sition to the democratic spirit mainly because such was the ruling spirit of the country in which the author had come to reside — a democratic spirit which has since developed itself more fully, but which then, though predominant, had a powerful and respectable party to contend against. The constitution of the United States had indeed perfectly satisfied none of its framers. Franklin had declared that he consented to it, not as the best, but as the best that he could then hope for. Washington expressed the same opinion. It necessarily gave birth to two parties, which for a time were held together by the position, the abilities, and the reputation of the first president of the new Eepublic. They existed, however, in his government itself, where Jefferson represented the Democratic faction, and Hamilton the Federal or Conservative one. To the latter the president — though holding the balance with apparent impartiality — belonged ; for he was an English 316 IIISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. gentleman, of a firm and moderate character, and, more- over, wished that the government of which he was the head should be possessed of an adequate force. The great movement, however, in France — which he was ahnost the only person to judge from the first with calm discernment — overbore his views and complicated his situation. Determined that the United States should take only a neutral position in the European contest, he was assailed on all sides — as a tyrant, because he wished for order— as a partisan of Great Britain, because he wished for peace. To those among the native Americans, who dreamt impos- sible theories, or desired inextricable confusion, were joined all the foreign intriguers, who,, banished from their own countries, had no hopes of returning there but as enemies and invaders. " I am called everything," said Washington, " even a I^ero."* His continuance in the presidency, to which he was incited by some persons to pretend for a third time, had indeed become incompatible with his character and honour. The respect which he had so worthily merited and so long inspired was on the wane. The cabinet with which he had commenced his government was broken up; his taxes, in some provinces, were refused ; a treaty he had concluded with England was pretty generally condemned ; and as he retired to Mount Yernon, the democratic party saw that approaching triumph which the election of their leader to the presidency was soon about to achieve. The cry against Great Britain was fiercer; the shout for Jefferson was louder than it had ever been before. VIT. At this time Cobbett, then better known as Peter Porcupine, a name which on becoming an author he had assumed, and which had at least the merit of representing his character appropriately, having quarrelled with a legion of booksellers, determined to set up in the bookselling line for himself; and in the spring of 1796, he took a house in Second Street for that purpose. Though he was not so universally obnoxious then as he * Letter to Mr. Taylor. " Writings," vol. xii. s. 212. GOBBETT. subsequently became, his enemies were already many and violent — bis friends warm, but few. These last feared for him in the course he was entering upon ; they advised him, therefore, to be prudent — to do nothing, at all events, on commencing business, that might attract public indig- nation; and, above all, not to put up any aristocratic portraits in his windows. Cobbett's plan was decided. His shop opened on a Monday, and he spent all the previous Sunday in so pre- paring it that, when he took down his shutters on the morning foUowiug, the people of Philadelphia were actually aghast at the collection of prints, arrayed in their defiance, including the effigies of George III., which had never been shown at any window since the rebellion. From that moment the newspapers were fiUed, and the shops placarded, with "A Blue Pill for Peter Porcupine," "A Pill for Peter Porcupine," " A Eoaster for Peter Porcupine,'" " A Picture of Peter Porcupine." Peter Porcupine had become a person of decided consideration and importance. " Dear father," says the writer who had assumed this name, in one of his letters home, " when you used to set me off to work in the morning, dressed in my blue smock- frock and woollen spatterdashes, with a bag of bread and cheese and a bottle of small beer over my shoulder, on the little crook that my godfather gave me, little did you imagine that I should one day become so great a man." vin. Paine's arrival in America soon furnished fresh matter for invective. Paine, like Priestley, was a Eepublican ; and was, like Priestley, hailed with popular enthusiasm by the Eepublicans. Cobbett attacked this new idol, there- fore, as he had done the preceding? one, and even with still greater virulence. This carried him to tlie highest pitch of unpopularity which it was possible to attain in the United States, and it was now certain that no opportunity would be lost of restraining his violence or breaking his pen. In August, 1797, accordingly, he was indicted for a libel against the Spanish minister and his court ; but the bill was ignored by a majority of one ; and indeed, it 318 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS, would have been difficult for an American jury to have punished an Englishman for declaring the Spanish king at that time " the tool of France." A question was now raised as to whether the obnoxious writer should not be turned out of the United States, under the Alien Act. This having been objected to by the Attorney General, a new course of prosecution was adopted. Nearly all Cobbett's writings were brought together into one mass, and he was charged with having published throughout them libels against almost every liberal man of note in America, France, and England. Under such a charge he was obliged to find recognisances for his good behaviour to the amount of 4000 dollars, and it was hoped by a diligent search into his subsequent writings to convict him of having forfeited these recognisances. His enemies, indeed, might safely count on his getting into further troubles ; nor had they long to wait. A Doctor Kush having at this time risen into great repute by a system of purging and bleeding, with which he had attempted to stop the yellow fever, Cobbett, who could ill tolerate another's reputation, even in medicine, darted forth against this new candidate for public favour with his usual vigour of abuse. " Can the Eush grow up without mire, or the flag without water ?" was his exclamation, and down went his ruthless and never-pausing flail on poor Dr. Kush's birth, parentage, manners, character, medicine, and everything that was his by nature, chance, or educa- tion. This could not long continue ; Cobbett was again indicted for a libel. In tyrannies justice is administered unscrupulously in the case of a political enemy ; in democracies also law must frequently be controlled by vulgar prejudice and popular passion. This was seen in the present case. The defendant pleaded, in the first place, that his trial should be removed from the Court of the State of Pennsylvania to that of the United States. It was generally thought that as an alien he could claim to have his cause thus transferred. This claim, however, was refused by the chief justice, whom he had recklessly affronted ; and the trial coming on when a jury was pretty certain to be COBBETT. 319 hostile, Cobbett was assessed in damages to the amount of 5000 dollars; nor was much consolation to be derived from the fact that on the 14th December, the day on which he was condemned for libelling Eush, General Washington died, in some degree the victim of that treatment which the libelled doctor had prescribed. The costs of the suit he had lost, added to the fine which the adverse sentence had ^imposed, made altogether a considerable sum. Cobbett was nearly ruined, but he bore himself up mth a stout heart ; and for a moment turning round at bay faced his enemies, and determined yet to remain in the United States. But on second thoughts, without despairing of his fortunes, he resolved to seek them elsewhere ; and set sail for England. This he did on the 1st of June, 1800 ; shaking the dust from his feet on what he then stigmatised as " that infamous land, where judges become felons, and felons judges." 320 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Part II. FROM JUNE 1st, 1800, TO MARCH 2STH, 1817, WHEN, HAVING ALTOGETHER CHANGED HIS POLITICS, HE RETURNS TO AMERICA. Starts a paper, by title The Porcupine, which he had made famous in America. — Begins as a Tory. — Soon verges towards opposition. — Abandons Porcupine and commences Register. — Prosecuted for libel. — Changes politic^, and becomes radical. — Prosecuted again for libel. — Convicted and imprisoned. — Industry and activity though confined in Newgate. — Sentence expires. — Released. — Power as a writer increases. — Government determined to put him down. — Gieditors pressing. — He returns to the United States. The space Cobbett filled in the public mind of his native land was at this time, 1800, considerable. Few, in fact, have within so brief a period achieved so remarkable a career, or gained under similar circumstances an equal reputation. The boy from the plough had become the soldier, and distinguished himself, so far as his birth and term of service at that time admitted, in the mihtary profession ; the uneducated soldier had become the writer ; and, as the advocate of monarchical principles in a Eepub- lican state, had shown a power and a resolution which had raised him to the position of an antagonist to the whole people amongst whom he had been residing. There was , Cobbett on one side of the arena, and all the democracy of \ democratic America on the other ! \_ He now returned to the Old World and the land for which he had been fighting the battle. His name had preceded him. George III. admired him as his champion; Lord North hailed him as the greatest political reasoner of his time (Burke being amongst his contemporaries) ; Mr. Windham — the elegant, refined, classical, manly, but whimsical Mr. Windham — was in raptures at his genius ; COBBETT. 321 and though the Enghsh people at this time were beginniDg to be a little less violent than they had been in their hatred of France and America, the English writer who despised Frenchmen and insulted Americans, was still a popular character in England. Numerous plans of life were open to him ; that which he chose was the one for which he was most fitting, and to which he could most easily and naturally adapt himself. He again became editor of a pubhc paper, designated by the name he had rendered famous, and called The Porcujjine. The principles on which this paper was to be conducted were announced with spirit and vigour. " The subjects of a British king," said Cobbett, "like the sons of every provident and tender father, never know his value till they feel the want of his protection. In the days of youth and ignorance I was led to believe that comfort, freedom, and virtue were exclusively the lot of Eepublicans. A very short trial convinced me of my error, admonished me to repent of my folly, and urged me to compensate for the injustice of the opinion which I had conceived. During an eight years' absence from my country, I was not an unconcerned spectator of her perils, nor did I hsten in silence to the slander of her enemies. " Though divided from England by the ocean, though her gay fields were hidden probably for ever from my view, still her happiness and her glory were the objects of my constant solicitude. I rejoiced at her victories, I mourned at her defeats ; her friends were my friends, her foes were my foes. Once more returned, once more under the safeguard of that sovereign who watched over me in my infancy, and the want of whose protecting arm I have so long had reason to lament, I feel an irresistible desire to communicate to my countrymen the fruit of my ex- perience ; to show them the injurious and degrading consequences of discontent, disloyalty, and innovation ; to convince them that they are the first as well as happiest of the human race, and above all to warn them against the arts of those ambitious and perfidious demagogues who could willingly reduce them to a level with the cheated 322 HISTORICAL CHAllACTEIiS. slaves, in the bearing of whose yoke I had the mortification to share." 11. The events even at this time were preparing, which in their series of eddies whirled the writer we have been quoting into the midst of those very ambitious and per- fidious demagogues whom he here denounces. Nor was this notable change, under all the circumstances which surrounded it, very astonishing. In the first place, the party in power, after greeting him on his arrival with a welcome which, perhaps, was more marked by curiosity than courtesy, did little to gratify their champion's vanity, or to advance his interests. With that indifierence usually shown by official men in our country to genius, if it is unaccompanied by aristocratical or social influence, they allowed the great writer to seek his fortunes as he had sought them hitherto, pen in hand, without aid or patronage. lu the second place, the part which Mr. Pitt took on the side of Catholic emancipation was contrary to all Cobbett's antecedent prejudices : and then Mr. Pitt had treated Cobbett with coolness one day when they met at Mr. Windham's. Thus a private grievance was added to a public one. The peace with France — a peace for w^hich he would not illuminate, having his windows smashed by the mob in consequence — disgusted him yet more with Mr. Addington, whose moderate character he heartily despised ; and not the less so for that temporising statesman's inclination rather to catch wavering Whigs than to satisfy discon- tented Tories. These reasons partly suggested his giving up the daily journal he had started (called, as I have said, Tlie Forcu])ine), and commencing the Weekly Political Registery which he conducted with singular ability against every party in the country. I say against every party in the country ; for, though he was still, no doubt, a stout advocate of kingly government, he did not sufficiently admit, for the purposes of his personal safety, that the king's government was the king's ministers. Thus, no doubt to his great surprise, he found that he, Greorge III.'s most devoted servant, was summoned one morning to COBBETT. 328 answer before the law for maliciously intending to move and incite the liege subjects of his Majesty to hatred and contempt of his royal authority. The libel made to bear this forced interpretation was taken from letters in November and December, 1803, signed '' Juverna," that appeared in the Register, and were not flattering to the government of Ireland. III. If we turn to the state of that country at this time, we shall find that the resignation of Mr. Pitt, and the hopeless situation of the Catholics, had naturally created much discontent. Mr. Addington, it is true, was anything but a severe minister : he did nothing to rouse the passions of the Irish, but he did nothing to win the heart, excite the imagination, or gain the afiection of that sensitive people. The person he had nominated to the post of Lord Lien- tenant was a fair type of his own ministry, that person being a sensible, good-natured man, with nothing brilliant or striking in his manner or abilities, but carrying into his high office the honest intention to make the course he was enjoined to pursue as little obnoxious as possible to those whom he could not expect to please. In this manner his government, though mild and inoffensive, neither capti- vated the wavering nor overawed the disaffected; and under it was hatched, by a young and \dsionary enthusiast (Mr. Emmett), a conspiracy, which, though contemptible as the means of overturning the established authority, was accompanied at its explosion by the murder of the Lord Chief Justice, and the exposure of Dublin to pillage and flames. The enemies of ministers naturally seized on so fair an occasion for assailing them, and Cobbett, who held a want of energy to be at all times worse than the want of all other qualities, put his paper at their disposal. In the present instance, the writer of " Juvema's " letters, calling to his aid the old story of the wooden horse which carried the Greeks within the walls of Troy, and exclaiming, " Equo ne credite Teucri !" compared the Irish administration, so simple and innocuous in its outward appearance, but containing within its bosom, as 324 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. he said, all the elements of mischief, to that famous and fatal prodigy of wood ; and after complimenting the Lord Lieutenant on having a head made of the same harmless material as the wooden horse itself, thus flatteringly pro- ceeded : " But who is this Lord Hardwicke ? I have discovered him to be in rank an earl, in manners a gentle- man, in morals a good father and a kind husband, and that, moreover, he has a good library in St. James's Square. Here I should have been for ever stopped, if I had not by accident met with one Mr. Lindsay, a Scotch parson, since become (and I am sure it must be by Divine Providence, for it would be impossible to account for it by secondary causes) Bishop of Killaloe. From this Mr. Lindsay I further learned that my Lord Hardwicke was celebrated for understanding the mode and method of fattening sheep as well as any man in Cambridgeshire." I The general character of the attack on Lord Hardwicke 1 may be judged of by the above quotation, and was cer- tainly not of a very malignant nature. It sufficed, however, to procure a hostile verdict ; and the Editor of the Foli- tical Register was declared " Guilty of having attemptec' j to subvert the King's authority." | This, however, was not all. Mr. Plunkett, then Solicitor-General for Ireland, had pleaded against Mr. Emmett, whose father he had known, with more bitterness than perhaps was necessary, since the culprit brought forward no evidence in his favour, and did not even attempt a defence. Mr. Plunkett, moreover, had himself but a short time previously expressed rather violent opinions, and, when speaking of the Union, had gone so far as to say that, if it passed into a law, no Irishman would be bound to obey it. In short, the position in which he stood was one which required great delicacy and forbearance, and delicacy and forbearance he had not shown. " Juverna " thus speaks of him : " If any one man could be found of whom a young but unhappy victim of the justly offended laws of his country had, in the moment of his conviction and sentence, uttered the following apostrophe : ' That viper, whom my father nourished, he it is whose principles and doctrines now COBBETT. 325 drag me to my grave ; and he it is who is now brought forward as my prosecutor, and who, by an unheard-of exercise of the royal prerogative, has wantonly lashed with a speech to evidence the dying son of his former friend, when that dying son had produced no evidence, had made no defence, but, on the contrary, acknowledged the charge and submitted to his fate ' — Lord Kenyon would have turned with horror from such a scene, in which, if guilt were in one part punished, justice in the whole drama was confounded, humanity outraged, and loyalty insulted." These observations, made in a far more rancorous spirit than those relating to Lord Hardwicke, could not fail to be bitterly felt by the SoHcitor-General, who was probably obliged, in deference to Irish opinion, to prosecute the editor of the paper they appeared in. He did so, and obtained 50 OZ. damages. Luckily for Cobbett, however, he escaped punishment in both suits ; for the real author of these attacks, Mr. Johnson, subsequently Judge Johnson, having been dis- covered, or having discovered himself, Cobbett was left without further molestation. But an impression had been created in his mind. He had fought the battle of loyalty in America against a host of enemies to the loss of his pro- perty, and even at the hazard of his life. Shouts of triumph had hailed him from the British shores. The virulence of his invectives, the coarseness of his epithets, the exaggeration of his opinions, were all forgotten and forgiven when he wrote the English language out of England. He came to his native country ; he advocated the same doctrines, and wrote in the same style ; his heart was still as devoted to his king, and his wishes as warm for the welfare of his country ; but, because it was stated in his journal that Lord Hardwicke was an excellent sheep- feeder, and Mr. Plunkett a viper — (a disagreeable appel- lation, certainly, but one soft and gentle in comparison with many which he had bestowed, fifty times over, on the most distinguished writers, members of Congress, judges and lawyers in the United States — without the regard and esteem of his British patrons being one jot 326 BISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. abated) — lie had been stigmatised as a traitor and con- demned to pay five hundred pounds as a libeller. He did not recognise, in these proceedings, the beauties of the British Constitution, nor the impartial justice which he had always maintained when in America, was to be found in loyal old England. He did not see why his respect for his sovereign prevented him from saying or letting it be said that a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was a very ordinary man, nor that a Solicitor-General of Ireland had made a very cruel and ungenerous speech, when the facts thus stated were perfectly true. The Tory leaders had done nothing to gain him as a partisan, they had done much that jarred with his general notions on politics, and finally they treated him as a political foe. The insult, for such he deemed it, was received with a grim smile of defiance, and grievous was the loss which Conservative opinions sustained when those who represented them drove the most powerful controversialist of his day into the op- posite ranks. Nor can the value of his support be estimated merely by the injury inflicted by his hostility. When Cobbett departed from his consistency, he forfeited a great portion of his influence. With his marvellous skill in exciting the popular passions in favour of the ideas he espoused ; with his nicknames, with his simple, sterling, and at all times powerful eloquence, it is difficult to limit the effect he might have produced amongst the classes to which he belonged, and which with an improved education were beginning to acquire greater power, if acquainted with their habits and warmed by their passions, he had devoted his self-taught intellect to the defence of ancient institu- tions and the depreciation of modern ideas. But official gentlemen then were even more official than they are now ; and fancying that every man in office was a great man, every one out of it a small one, their especial contempt was reserved for a public writer. If, however, such persons, the scarecrows of genius, were in- different to Cobbett's defection, they whose standard he joined hailed with enthusiasm his conversion. These were not the Whigs. Cobbett's was one of those COBBETT. 327 natures which never did things by halves. Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hunt, Major Cartwright, and a set of men who propounded theories of parhamentary reform — which no one, who was at that time considered a practical states- man, deemed capable of realization — were his new asso- ciates and admirers. Nor was his change a mere change in political opiaion. It was, unfortunately, a change in political morality. The farmer's son had not been educated at a learned university — having his youthful mind nourished and strengthened by great examples of patriotism and consistency, drawn from Greece and Kome: — he was educating himself by modern examples from the world in which he was living, and there he found statesmen slow to reward the advocacy of their pubhc opinions, but quick to avenge any attack on their personal vanity or individual interests. It struck him then that their principles were like the signs which innkeepers stick over their tap-rooms, intended to catch the traveller's attention, and induce him to buy their liquors ; but having no more real signification than " St. George and the Dragon," or the "Blue Boar," or the " Flying Serpent ;" hence concluding that one sign might be pulled down and the other put up. to suit the taste of the customers, or the speculation of the landlord. And now begins a perfectly new period in his life. Up to this date he had always been one and the same indi- vidual. Every corner of his being had been apparently filled with the same loyal hatred to Frenchmen and Democrats. He had loved, in every inch of him, the king and the church, and the wooden walls of Old England. "A\Tio will say," he exclaims in America, "that an Englishman ought not to despise all the nations in the world? For my part I do, and that most heartily." What he here says of every one of a difierent nation fi'om his own, he had said, and said constantly, of every one of a different political creed from his own, and his own political creod had as yet never varied. But consistency and Cobbett here separated. Not only was his new self a complete and constant contradiction with his old self — this was to be expected : but whereas his old self was one solid 328 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. block, his new self was a piece of tesselated workmanship, in which were patched together all sorts of materials of all sorts of colours. I do not mean to say that, having taken to the liberal side in politics, he ever turned round again and be- came violent on the opposite side. But his liberalism had no code. He recognised no fixed friends — no definite opinions. The notions he advocated were such as he selected for the particular day of the week on which he was writing, and which he considered himself free on the following day to dispute with those who adopted them. As to his alliances, they were no more closely woven into his existence than his doctrines ; and he stood forth distinguished for being dissatisfied with everything, and quarrelling with every one. IV. The first tilt which he made from the new side of the ring where he had now taken his stand was against Mr. Pitt — whom it was not difiicult towards the close of his life to condemn, for the worst fault which a minister can commit — being unfortunate. Cobbett's next assault — on the demand of the Whigs for an increase of allowance to the king's younger sons — was against Eoyalty itself, its pensions, governorships, and rangerships, which he called " its cheeseparings and candle-ends !" Some Kepublicans on the other side of the Atlantic must have rubbed their spectacles when they read these effusions ; but the editor of the Register was indifferent to provoking censure, and satisfied with exciting astonishment. Besides, we may fairly admit, that, when the King demanded that his private property in the funds should be free from taxation (showing he had such property), and at the same time called upon the country to increase the allowances of his children, he did much to try the loyalty of the nation, and gave Cobbett occasion to observe that a rich man did not ask the parish to provide for his offspring. " I am," said he, " against these things, not because I am a Kepublican, but because I am for monarchical government, and conse- quently adverse to all that gives Eepublicans a fair occa- sion for sneering at it." In the meantime his periodical labours did not prevent COBBETT. 829 his undertaking works of a more solid description ; and in 1806 he announced the " ParHamentary Kegister," which was to contain all the recorded proceedings of Parliament from the earliest times ; and was in the highest degree useful, since the reader had previously to wade through a hundred volumes of journals in order to know anything of the history of the two Houses of Parliament. These more serious labours did not, however, interfere with his weekly paper, which had a large circulation, and, though without any party influence (for Cobbett attacked all parties), gave him a great deal of personal power and importance. " It came up," says the author, proudly, " like a grain of mustard-seed, and like a grain of mustard-seed it has spread over the whole civilised world." Meanwhile, this peasant-born politician was uniting rural pursuits with literary labours, and becoming, in the occupation of a farm at Botley, a prominent agriculturist and a sort of intellec- tual authority in his neighbourhood. From this life, which no one has described with a pen more pregnant with the charm and freshness of green fields and woods, he was torn by another prosecution for libel. Y. The following paragraph had appeared in the Courier paper : " London, Saturday, July 1st, 1809. "Motto. — The mutiny amongst the Local Militia, which broke out at Ely, was fortunately suppressed on Wednesday by the arrival of four squadrons of the German Legion Cavalry from Bury, under the command of General Auckland. " Five of the ringleaders were tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to receive five hundred lashes each, part of which punishment they received on Wednesday, and a part was remitted. A stoppage for their knapsacks was the ground of complaint which excited this mutinous spirit, and occasioned the men to surround their officers and demand what they deemed their arrears. The first division of the German Legion halted yesterday at New- market on their return to Bury." 330 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. On this paragraph Cobbett made the subjoining obser- vations : " * Summary of politics. Local Militia and German Legion.' See the motto, English reader, see the motto, and then do, pray, recollect all that has been said about the way in which Bonaparte raises his soldiers. Well done, Lord Castlereagh ! This is just what it was thought that your plan would produce. Well said, Mr. Huskisson ! It was really not without reason you dwelt with so much earnestness upon the great utility of the foreign troops, whom Mr. Wardle appeared to think of no utility at all. Poor gentleman! he little thought how great a genius might find employment for such troops ; he little imagined they might be made the means of compelling Englishmen to submit to that sort of discipline which is so conducive to producing in them a disposition to defend the country at the risk of their lives. Let Mr. Wardle look at my motto, and then say whether the G-erman soldiers are of no use. Five hundred lashes each 1 Ay, that is right ; flog them ! flog them ! flog them ; they deserve it, and a great deal more ! They deserve a flogging at every meal time. Lash them daily ! Ijash them daily ! What ! shall the rascals dare to mutiny^ and that, too, when the German Legion is so near at hand ? Lash them ! Lash them ! Lash them ! they deserve it. Oh ! yes, they deserve a double-tailed cat. Base dogs ! what, mutiny for the sake of the price of a knapsack ! Lash them ! flog them ! base rascals ! mutiny for the price of a goat-skin, and then upon the appearance of the German soldiers they take a flogging as quietly as so many trunks of trees." VI. The attack on the Hanoverian troops, who had nothing to do with the question as to whether the militiamen were flogged justly or not, was doubtless most illiberal and unfair. Those troops simply did their duty, as any other disciplined troops would have done, in seeing a superior's order executed. It was not their fault if they were employed on this service ; neither were they in our country or our army under ordinary circumstances. They had COBBETT. 331 lost their own land for fighting our battles ; they were in our army because they would not serve in the army of the enemy. But we can hardly expect newspaper writers to be more logical and just than forensic advocates. A free press is not a good unmixed with evil ; there are arguments against it, as there are arguments for it ; but where it is admitted as an important part of a nation's institutions, this admis- sion includes, as I conceive, the permission to state one side of a question in the most telling manner, the correc- tive being the juxtaposition of the other side of the ques- tion stated with an equal intent to captivate, and perhaps to mislead. Two years' imprisonment, and a fine of £1000 only wanted the gentle accompaniment of ear-cropping to have done honour to the Star Chamber ; for, to a man who had a newspaper and a farm to carry on, imprisonment threat- ened to consummate the ruin which an exorbitant fine was well calculated to commence. Cobbett was accused of yielding to the heaviness of the blow, and of offering the abandonment of his journal as the price of his forgiveness. I cannot agree with those who said that such an ofier would have been an un- paralleled act of baseness. Tn giving up his journal, Cobbett was not necessarily giving up his opinions. Every one who wages war unsuccessfully retains the right of capitulation. A writer is no more obhged to rot uselessly in a gaol for the sake of his cause, than a general is obliged to fight a battle without a chance of victory for the sake of his country. A man, even if a hero, is not obliged to be a martyr. Cobbett's disgraceful act was not in making the proposal of which he was accused, but in denying most positively and repeatedly that he had ever made it ; for it certainly seems pretty clear, amidst a good deal of contradictory evidence, that he did authorize Mr. Eeeves, of the Alien Office, to promise that the Register should drop if he was not brought up for judg- ment ; and if a Mr. Wright, who was a sort of factotum to ColDbett at the time, can be believed, the farewell was actually written, and only withdrawn when the negotiation 332 HISTORICAL CEARACTEBS. was known to liave failed. At all events, no indulgence being granted to tlie offender, lie turned round and faced fortune with his usual hardihood. In no portion of his life, indeed, did he show greater courage — in none does the better side of his character come out in brighter rehef than when, within the gloomy and stifling walls of New- gate, he carried on his farming, conducted his paper, educated his children, and waged war (his most natural and favourite pursuit) against his enemies with as gay a courage as could have been expected from him in sight of the yellow cornfields, and breathing the pure air he loved so well. " Now, then," he says, in describing this period of his life, "the book-learning was forced upon us. I had a farm in hand ; it was necessary that I should be constantly informed of what was doing. I gave all the orders, whether as to purchases, sales, ploughing, sowing, breed- ing — in short, with regard to everything, and the things were in endless number and variety, and always full of interest. My eldest son and daughter could now write well and fast. One or the other of these was always at Botley, and I had with me — having hired the best part of the keeper's house — one or two besides, either their brother or sister. We had a hamper, with a lock and two keys, which came up once a week or oftener, bringing me fruit and. all sorts of country fare. This hamper, which was always at both ends of the line looked for with the most lively interest, became our school. It brought me a journal of labours, proceedings, and occurrences, written on paper of shape and size unfform, and so contrived as to margins as to admit of binding. The journal used, when my eldest son was the writer, to be interspersed with drawings of our dogs, colts, or anything that he wanted me to have a correct idea of. The hamper brought me plants, herbs, and the hke, that I might see the size of them; and almost every one sent his or her most beautiful flowers, the earliest violets and primroses and cowslips and blue- bells, the earliest twigs of trees, and, in short, everything that they thought calculated to delight me. The moment the hamper arrived, I — casting aside everything else — set COBBETT. 333 to work to answer every question, to give new directions, and to add anything likely to give pleasure at Botley. '' Every hamper brought one letter, as they called it, if not more, from every child, and to every letter I wrote an answer, sealed up and sent to the party, being sure that that was the way to produce other and better letters ; for though they could not read what I wrote, and though their own consisted at first of mere scratches, and after- wards, for a while, of a few words written down for them to imitate, I always thanked them for their pretty letter, and never expressed any wish to see them write better, but took care to write in a very neat and plain hand myself, and to do up my letter in a very neat manner. " Thus, while the ferocious tigers thought I was doomed to incessant mortification, and to rage that must extinguish my mental powers, I found in my children, and in their spotless and courageous and affectionate mother, delights to which the callous hearts of those tigers were stran_a-ers. ' Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid.' How often did this line of Pope occur to me when I opened the little fuddling letters from Botley. This correspondence occupied a good part of my time. I had all the children with me, turn and turn about ; and in order to give the boys exercise, and to give the two eldest an opportunity of beginning to learn French, I used for a part of the two years to send them for a few hours a day to an abbe, who lived in Castle Street, Holborn. All this was a great relaxation to my mind ; and when I had to return to my literary labours, I returned fresh and cheerful, full of vigour, and full of hope of finally seeing my unjust and merciless foes at my feet, and that, too, without caring a straw on whom their fall might bring calamity, so that my own family were safe, because — say what any one might — the community, taken as a whole, had suff'ered this thing to be done unto us. " The paying of the workpeople, the keeping of the accounts, the referring to books, the writing and reading of letters, this everlasting mixture of amusement with book-learning, made me, almost to my own surprise, find at the end of two years that I had a parcel of scholars 334 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. growing up about me, and, long before the end of tbe time, I had dictated my Register to my two eldest children. Then there was copying out of books, which taught spell- ing correctly. The calculations about the farming affairs forced arithmetic upon us ; the use, the necessity of the thing, led to the study. " By and by we had to look into the laws, to know what to do about the highways, about the game, about the poor, and all rural and parochial affairs. " I was, indeed, by the fangs of government defeated in my fondly-cherished project of making my sons farmers on their own land, and keeping them from all temptation to seek vicious and enervating enjoyments; but those fangs — merciless as they had been — had not been able to prevent me from laying in for their lives, a store of useful information, habits of industry, care, and sobriety, and a taste for innocent, healthful, and manly pleasures. The fiends had made me and them penniless, but had not been able to take from us our health, or our mental possessions, and these were ready for application as circumstances might ordain." VII. At length, however, Cobbett's punishment was over; and his talents still conferred on him sufficient considera- tion to have the event celebrated by a dinner, at which Sir Francis Burdett presided. This compliment paid, Cobbett returned to Botley and his old pursuits, literary and agricultural. The idea of publishing cheap news- papers, under the title of " Twopenny Trash," and which, not appearing as periodicals, escaped the Stamp Tax, now added considerably to his power; and by extending the circulation of his writings to a new class, — the mechanic and artisan, in urban populations, — made that power dangerous at a period when great distress produced general discontent — a discontent of which the government rather tried to suppress the exhibition, than to remove the causes. Nor did Cobbett speak untruly when he said, that the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and the passing of the celebrated "Six Acts," in the year 1817, were more directed against himself than against all the other writers COBBETT. 335 of sedition put together. But notwithstanding the exulta- tion which this position gave him for a moment, he soon saw that it was one which he should not be able to main- tain, and that the importance he had temporarily acquired had no durable foundation. He had no heart, moreover, for another midsummer's dream in Newgate. Nor was this all. Though he had not wanted friends or partisans, who had furnished him with pecuniary aid, his expenses had gone far beyond his means ; and I may mention as one of the most extraordinary instances of this singular person's influence, that the debts he had at this time been allowed to contract amounted to no less than £34,000, a sum he could not hope to repay. For the first time his ingenuity furnished him with no resource, or his usual audacity failed him; and with a secrecy, for which the state of his circumstances accounted, he made a sudden bolt (the 28th of March, 1817) for the United States, informing his countrymen that they were too lukewarm in their own behalf to justify the perils he incurred for their sakes; and observing to his creditors that, as they had not resisted the persecutions from which his losses had arisen, they must be prepared to share with his family the consequences of his ruin. Sir Francis Burdett had been for many years, as we have seen, his friend and protector, and had but recently presided at the festival which commemorated his release from confinement ; but Sir Francis Burdett was amongst those from whom Cobbett had boiTowed pretty largely; and though the wealthy baronet could scarcely have ex- pected this money to be repaid, yet, having advanced it to a political partisan, he was not altogether pleased at seeing his money and his partisan slip through his fingers at the same time; and made some remarks which, on reaching Cobbett's ears, irritated a vanity that never slept, and was only too ready to avenge itself by abuse equally ungrateful and unwise- 336 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Part III. FROM QUITTING ENGLAND IN 1817 TO HIS DEATH IN 1835. Settles on Long Island, — Professes at first great satisfaction. — Takes a farm. • — ^Writes his Grammar. — Gets discontented. — His premises burnt, — He returns to England, and carries Paine's bones with him. — The bones do not succeed. — Tries twice to be returned to Parliament. — Is not elected, — Becomes a butcher at Ken>ington. — Fails there and is a banl^rupt. — His works from 1820 to 1826. — Extracts. — New prosecution. — Acquitted. — Comes at last into Parliament for Oldham. — Character as a speaker. — Dies. — (Jeneral sum- ming up. I. The epoch of Cobbett's flight from England was decidedly the one most fatal to his character. So long as a man pays his bills, or sticks to his party, he has some one to speak in his favour ; but a runaway from his party and his debts, whatever the circumstances tliat lead to his doing either, must give up the idea of leaving behind him any one disposed to say a word in his defence. Cobbett pro- bably did give up this idea, and, having satisfied himself by declaring that the overthrow of the regular laws and constitution of England had rendered his person as a public writer insecure, and his talents unprofitable, in his native country, seemed disposed to a divorce from the old world, and to a reconciliation with the new. At all events, he viewed America with very different eyes from those with which he had formerly looked at it. The weather was the finest he had ever seen ; the ground had no dirt ; the air had no flies ; the people were civil, not servile ; tbere were none of the poor and wretched habitations which sicken the sight at the outskirts of cities and towns in England; the progress of wealth, ease, and enjoyment evinced by the regular increase of the size of the farmers' buildings, spoke in praise of the system of government under which it had taken place ; and, to crown all, four COBBETT. 337 Yankee mowers weighed down eight English ones ! During the greater part of the time that these encomiums were written, Cobbett was living at a farm he had taken on Hami^stead Plains, Long Island, where he wrote his grammar, the only amusing grammar in the world, and of which, when it was sent to his son in England, 10,000 copies were sold in one month. A year, however, after his arrival at Long Island, a fire broke out on his premises and destroyed them. The mis- fortune was not, perhaps, an untimely one. Whatever. Cobbett might have been able to do in the United States as a farmer, he did not seem to have a chance there of playing any part as a politician. He was not even taken up as a " lion," for his sudden preference for Eepublican institutions created no sensation amongst men who were now all heart and soul Kepublicans. He was not a hero ; and he could not, consistently with his present doctrines, attempt to become a martyr. He had, to be sure, the satisfaction of saying bitter things about the tyranny established in his native land ; but these pro- duced no effect in America, where abuse of monarchical government was thought quite natural, and he did not see the effect they produced at home. Moreover, they did not after all produce much effect even there. His period- ical writings were like wine meant to be drunk on the spot, and lost a great deal of their flavour when sent across the wide waters of the ocean. They were, indeed, essentially written for the day, and for the passions and purposes of the day. Arriving after the cause which had produced them had ceased to excite the public mind, their sound and fury were like the smoke and smell of an explosion without its noise or its powers of destruction. Cobbett saw this clearly, though even to his own children he would never confess it. n. The condition of England, moreover, at this moment excited his attention, perhaps his hopes. A violent policy can never be a lasting one. The government was begin- ning to wear out the overstretched authority that had been confided to it, and the community was beginning to 338 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. feel tliat you should not make (to use the words of Mr. Burke) " the extreme remedies of the State its daily bread." On the other hand, the general distress, which had created the discontent that these extreme remedies had been employed to suppress, was in no wise diminished. The sovereign and the administration were unpopular, the people generally ignorant and undisciplined, neither the one nor the other understanding the causes of the prevalent disaffection, nor having any idea as to how it should be dealt with. Such is the moment undoubtedly for rash or designing men to propagate wild theories; and such is also the moment when bold men, guided by better motives, will find, in a country where constitutional liberty cannot be entirely destroyed, the means of turning the oppressive measures of an unscrupulous minister against himself. With the one there was a chance of war against all go- vernment, with the other a chance of resistance against bad government. The revolutionist and the patriot were both stirring, whilst a vague idea prevailed amongst many, neither patriots nor revolutionists, that our society was about to be exposed to one of those great convulsions which overturn thrones and change the destiny of em- pires. Cobbett was probably too shrewd to look on such a crisis as a certainty ; but he was very probably sanguine enough to build schemes on it as a possibility. Besides, there were strife and contention in the great towns, and murmurings in the smaller hamlets; and, where there were strife and contention and murmurings, such a man as Cobbett could not fail to find a place and to produce an effect. This was sufficient to make him feel restlessly anxious to reappear on the stage he had so abruptly quitted. But he was essentially an actor, and disposed to study the dramatic in all his proceedings. To slink back unperceived to his old haunts, and recommence quietly his old habits, would neither suit his tastes, nor, as he thought, his interests. It was necessary that his return should be a sensation. Too vain and too quarrel- some to pay court to any one, he had through life made COBBETT. 339 friends by making enemies. His plan now ^Yas to raise a howl against the returning exile as an atheist and a demagogue amongst one portion of society, not doubting that in such case he would be taken up as the champion of civil and religious liberty by another. III. The device he adopted for this object was disinterring, or saying he had disinterred, the bones of Thomas Paine, whom he had formerly assailed as " the greatest disgrace of mankind," and now declared to be "the great en- lightener of the human race," and carrying these bones over to England as the relics of a patron saint, under whose auspices he was to carry on his future political career. Now, Paine had been considered the enemy of kingly government and the Christian religion in his time, and had greatly occupied the attention of Cobbett, who had styled him " an infamous and atrocious miscreant," but he had never been a man of great weight or note in our country ; many of the existing generation scarcely knew his name, and those who did felt but a very vague retro- spective interest in his career. In vain Cobbett celebrated him as "an unflinching advocate for the curtailment of aristocratical power," and " the boldest champion of popular rights." In vain he gave it clearly to be under- stood that Paine did not believe a word of the Old Testament or the New; nobody, in spite of Cobbett's damning encomiums, would care about Paine, or consider a box of old bones as anything but a bad joke. So tliat after vainly oflering locks of hair or any particle of the defunct and exhumed atheist and Piepublican at a low price, considering the value of the relics, he let the matter drop ; and, rubbing his hands and chuckling with that peculiar sardonic smile which I well remember, began to treat the affair as the world did, and the inestimable frag- ments of the disinterred Quaker suddenly disappeared, and were never heard of more. But though his stage trick had failed to give him im- portance, his sterling unmistakable talent and unflagging 340 HISTORICAL CHAllACTERS. energy were sufficient to secure him from insignificance. Cobbett in England, carrying on his Register, charlatan as he might be, unreliable as he had become, was still a personage and a power. He supplied a sort of writing which every one read, and which no one else wrote or could write. People had no confidence in him as a politician, but, in spite of themselves, they were under his charm as an author. He was not, however, satisfied with this ; he now pretended to play a higher part than he had hitherto attempted. In his own estimate of his abilities — and perhaps he did not over-rate them — his talent as an orator might, under cultivation and practice, become equal to that which he never failed to display as a pamphleteer. A seat in the House of Commons had become then the great object of his ambition, and with his usual coolness, which might, perhaps, not unadvisedly be termed impu- dence, he told his admirers that the first thing they had to do, if they wanted reform, was to subscribe 5000?., and place the sum in his hands, to be spent as he might think proper, and without giving an account of it to any person. " One meeting," he says, arguing this question — " one meeting subscribing 5000Z. will be worth fifty meetings of 50,000 men." On the dissolution of Parliament, at the demise of Greorge HI., he pursues the subject. " To you " — he is speaking to his partisans — " I do and must look for support in my public efibrts. As far as the press can go, I want no assistance. Aided by my sons, I have already made the ferocious cowards of the London press sneak into silence. But there is a larger range — a more advantageous ground to stand on, and that is the House of Commons. A great effect on the public mind I have already produced, but that is nothing to the effect I should produce in only the next session of June in the House of Commons ; yet there I cannot be without your assist- ance." Coventry was the place fixed on as that which should have the honour of returning Cobbett to the House of Commons. Nor was the place badly chosen. In no town r COBBETT. 34 in England is the class of operatives more powerful, and by this class it was not unnatural to expect that he might be elected. The leading men, however, amongst the operatives, whilst admiring Cobbett, did not respect him. The Groodes and the Pooles — men whom I remember in my time — said in his day, " He is a man who will as- suredly make good speeches, but nobody can tell what he will speak in favour of, or what he will speak about. That he will say and prove that Cobbett is a very clever fellow, we may be pretty sure ; but with respect to every other subject there is no knowing what he will say or prove." Nor did the story of Paine and his bones do Cobbett any service with the Coventry electors. Some considered his conduct in this affair impious, others ludicrous. "I say, Cobbett, where are the old Quaker's bones ?" was a question which his most enthusiastic admirers heard put with an uncomfortable sensation. He puffed himself in vain. His attempt to enter the great national council was this time a dead failure, and clearly indicated that though he might boast of enthusi- astic partisans, he had not as yet obtained the esteem of an intelligent public. This, however, did not prevent his announcing not very long afterwards that bronze medals, which judges thought did justice to his physiognomy, might be had for a pound apiece — a price which he thought low, considering the article. The medals, how- ever, in spite of their artistic value, and the intrinsic merit of the person they represented, were not considered a bargain ; and some of Mr. Cobbett's most devoted friends observed that they had had already enough of his bronze. This was preparatory to his starting to contest Preston (1826). But he was no better treated there than at Coventry, being the last on the poll, though as usual perfectly satisfied mth himself, notwithstanding a rather remarkable pamphlet got up by a rival candidate, Mr. Wood, which placed side by side his many incon- sistencies. Mr. Huish, in a work called " Memoirs of Cobbett," pub- lished in 1836, states that this singular man now appeared 342 HISTOBICAL CHABACTEBS. in a new character that required no constituents ; coming forth " as a vendor of meat, and weekly assuring his readers that there never was such mutton, such beef, or such veal, as that which might be seen in his windows, an assurance which continued uninterruptedly," says this author, " until one inauspicious day, when it was replaced by the announcement of "William Cobbett, butc]ier, at Kensington, having become a bankrupt."* But this story, though told thus circumstantially (I have not, for the sake of brevity, copied the exact words, but in all respects their meaning), though generally repeated, and apparently confirmed by other contemporaneous writers, is incorrect ; and we are not to count amongst Cobbett's eccentricities that of cutting up carcases as well as reputations. IV. But whatever the other pursuits Cobbett had indulged in since his return to England, none had interfered with those which his literary talents suggested to him. " A Work on Cottage Economy," a Volume of Sermons, "The Woodlands," "Paper against Gold," "The Kural Eides," " The Protestant Keformation," were all published between the years 1820 and 1826. His "Eural Kides," indeed, are amongst his best compositions. No one ever described the country as he did. Everything he says about it is real. You see the dew on the grass, the fragrance comes fresh to you from the flowers ; you fancy yourself jogging down the green lane, with the gipsy camp under the hedge, as the sun is rising ; you learn the pursuits and pleasures of the country from a man who has been all his life practically engaged in the one, and keenly enjoying the other, and who sees everything he talks to you of with the eye of the poet and the farmer. " The History of the Protestant Eeformation " turned out a more important production than the author probably anticipated — for his chief aim seems to have been to volunteer a contemptuous defiance to all the religious and * Pase 393. COBBETT. 343 popular feelings in England. The work, however, was taken up by the Catholics, translated into various lan- guages, and widely circulated throughout Europe. The author's great satisfaction seems to consist in calling Queen Elizabeth, " Bloody Queen Bess," and Mary, " Good Queen Mary," and he, doubtless, brought forward much that could be said against the one, and in favour of the other, which Protestant writers b.ad kept back ; still his two volumes are not to be regarded as a serious history, but rather as a party pamphlet, and no more racy and eloquent party pamphlet was ever written. I quote a passage of which those who do not accept the argu- ment may admii-e the composition : "Nor must we by any means overlook the effects of these institutions (monastic) on the mere face of the country. That man must be low and mean of soul who is insensible to all feeling of pride in the noble edifices of his country. Love of country, that variety of feelings which altogether constitute what we properly call pa- triotism, consist in part of the admiration of, and veneration for, ancient and magnificent proofs of skill and opulence. The monastics built as well as wrote for posterity. The never-dying nature of their institutions set aside in all their undertakings every calculation as to time and age. Whether they built or planted, they set the gene- rous example of providing for the pleasure, the honour, the wealth, and greatness of generations upon generations yet unborn. They executed everything in the very best manner; their gardens, fishponds, farms, were as near perfection as they could make them ; in the whole of their economy they set an example tending to make the country beautiful, to make it an object of pride with the people, and to make the nation truly and permanently great. " Go into any county and survey, even at this day, the ruins of its, perhaps, twenty abbeys and priories, and then ask yourself, ' What have we in exchange for these 7 Go to the site of some once opulent convent. Look at the cloister, now become in the hands of some rack-renter the receptacle for dung, fodder, and fagot-wood. See the 844 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. hall, where for ages the widow, the orphan, the aged, and the stranger found a table ready spread. See a bit of its walls now helping to make a cattle-shed, the rest having been hauled away to build a workhouse. Kecog- nise on the side of a barn, a part of the once magnificent chapel ; and, if chained to the spot by your melancholy musings, you be admonished of the approach of night by the Yoice of the screech-owl issuing from those arches which once at the same hour resounded with the vespers of the monk, and which have for seven hundred years been assailed by storms and tempests in vain; if thus admonished of the necessity of seeking food, shelter, and a bed, lift up your eyes and look at the whitewashed and dry-rotten shed on the hill called the ' Gentleman's House,' and apprised of the ' board wages ' and ' spring guns,' which are the signs of his hospitality, turn your head, jog away from the scene of former comfort and grandeur ; and with old-English welcoming in your mind, reach the nearest inn, and there, in a room, half-warmed and half-lighted, with a reception precisely proportioned to the presumed length of your purse, sit down and listen to an account of the hypocritical pretences, the base motives, the tyrannical and bloody means, under which, from which, and by which, the ruin you have been wit- nessing was effected, and the hospitality you have lost was for ever banished from the land." V. The popularity of Mr. Canning had now become a grievous thorn in Cobbett's side. That of Mr. Kobinson (afterwards Lord Goderich) had at one time sorely galled him. But Mr. Kobinson's reputation was on the wane; the reputation of Mr. Canning, on the contrary, rose higher every day ; and when that statesman, after being deserted by his colleagues, stood forward as premier of a new government, being taken up by Sir Francis Burdett, and many of the Whig leaders, Mr. Cobbett set no bounds to his choler ; and, in company with Mr. Hunt, made at a Westminster dinner (in 1827) a foolish and ill-timed display of his usual hostility to the popular feeling. COBBETT. 345 His character, in sooth, was never so low as about this period, and in 1828, when he offered himself as a candi- date for the place of common councilman (for Farringdon Without), he did not even find one person who would propose him for the ofiice. It is needless to add that he was now an utterly soured and disappointed man, and in this state the year 1830 found him. The close of that year was more full of melancholy presage for England than perhaps any which the oldest man then alive could remember. The success of the insurrection at Paris had shaken the political foun- dations of every state in Europe. Scarcely a courier arrived without the bulletin of a revolution. The minds of the intelligent classes were excited ; they expected, and perhaps wished for, some great movement at home, ana- logous to those movements which a general enthusiasm was producing on the Continent. The minds of the lower classes were brutalized by the effects of a Poor Law which had taught them that idleness was more profitable than labour, prostitution than chastity, bad conduct, in short, than good. Consequently, there was on the one hand a widely-spread cry for parliamentary reform, and on the other a general rural insurrection. Amidst this state of things the ministry of the Duke of Wellington retired, and Lord Grey's, composed of somewhat discordant materials, and with a doubtful parliamentary majority, took its place. Fires blazed throughout the country ; rumours of plots and insurrections were rife, and the Register appeared with an article remarkable for its power, and which indirectly excited to incendiarism and rebellion. The Attorney-Greneral prosecuted it. I had then just entered Parliament, and ventured to condemn the prosecution, not because the article in question was blameless, but because I thought that the period for news- paper prosecutions by government was gone by, and that they only excited sympathy for the ofiender. I was not wrong in that opinion ; for the jury being unable to agree as to a verdict, Cobbett walked triumphantly out of court, and having gained some credit by his trial, was shortly afterwards returned to Parliament for Oldham, being 346 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. at the same time an Tinsnccessful candidate for Man- chester. The election, however, was less the effect of public esteem than of private admiration, since the veteran journalist owed his success mainly to the influence of a gentleman (Mr. Fielden) who had the borough of Oldham pretty nearly under his control. Still, it was a success, and not an inconsiderable one. The ploughboy, the private of the 5 4th, after a variety of vicissitudes, had become a member of the British Legislature. Nor for this had he bowed his knee to any minister, nor served any party, nor administered with ambitious interest to any popular feeling. His pen had been made to serve as a double-edged sword, which smote alike Whig and Tory, Pitt and Fox, Castlereagh and Tierney, Canning and Brougham, Wellington and Grey, even Hunt and Waith- man. He had sneered at education, at philosophy, and at negro emancipation. He had assailed alike Catholicism and Protestantism ; he had respected few feelings that Englishmen respect. Nevertheless, by force of character, by abilities to which he had allowed the full swing of their inclination, he had at last cut his way, unpatronized and poor, through conflicting opinions into the great council chamber of the British nation. He was there, as he had been through life, an isolated man. He owned no followers, and he was owned by none. His years surpassed those of any member who ever came into Parliament for the first time expecting to take an active part in it. He was stout and hale for his time of life, but far over sixty, and fast advancing towards three score years and ten. It was an interesting thing to most men who saw him enter the House to have palpably before them the real, living William Cobbett. The generation amongst which he yet moved had grown up in awe of his name, but few had ever seen the man who bore it. The world had gone for years to the clubs, on Saturday evening, to find itself lectured by him, abused by him ; it had the greatest admiration for his vigorous eloquence, the greatest dread of his scar-inflicting lash ; it had been living COBBETT. 347 with him, intimate with him, as it were, but it had not seen him. I speak of the world's majority ; for a few persons had met him at county and public meetings, at elections, and also in courts of justice. But to most members of Parlia- ment the elderly, respectable-looking, red-faced gentleman, in a dust-coloured coat and drab breeches with gaiters, was a strange and almost historical curiosity. Tall and strongly built, but stooping, with sharp eyes, a round and ruddy countenance, smallish features, and a peculiarly cynical mouth, he realized pretty nearly the idea that might have been formed about him. The manner of his speaking might also have been anticipated. His style in writing was sarcastic and easy — such it was not unnatural to suppose it might also be in addressing an assembly ; and this to a certain extent was the case. He was still colloquial, bitter, with a dry, caustic, and rather drawling delivery, and a rare manner of arguing with facts. To say that he spoke as well as he wrote, would be to place him where he was not — among the most effective orators of his time. He had not, as a speaker, the racine>s of diction, nor the happiness of illustration, by which he excels as a writer. He wanted also some physical qualifications un- necessary to the author, but necessary to the orator, and which he might as a younger man have naturally possessed or easily acquired. In short, he could not be at that time the powerful personage that he might have been had he taken his seat on the benches where he was then sitting, when many surrounding him were unknown — even unborn. Still, I know no other instance of a man entering the House of Commons at his age, and becoming at once an efiective debater in it. Looking carelessly round the assembly so new to him, with his usual self-confidence he spoke on the first occasion that presented itself, proposing an amendment to the Address; but this was not his happiest effort, and consequently created disappointment. He soon, however, obliterated the failure, and became rather a favourite with an audience which is only unfor- giving when bored. It was still seen, moreover, that nothing daunted him ; 34^ HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. the murmurs, the " Oh !" or more serious reprehension and censure, found him shaking his head with his hands in his pockets, as cool and as defiant as when he first stuck up the picture of King George in his shop window at Phila- delphia. He exhibited in Parliament, too, the same want of tact, prudence, and truth ; the same egotism, the same combativeness, and the same reckless desire to struggle with received opinions, that had marked him previously through life, and shattered his career into glittering fragments, from which the world could never collect the image, nor the practical utility of a whole. A foolish and out-of-the-way motion, praying his Majesty to strike Sir Eobert Peel's name off the list of the Privy Council, for having proposed a return to cash payments in 1819, was his wildest efibrt and most signal defeat, the House receiving Sir Eobert, when he stood up in his defence, with a loud burst of cheers, and voting in a majority of 298 to 4 in his favour. Cobbett, however, was nothing abashed ; for this motion w-as rather a piece of fun, in his own way, than anything serious ; and in reality he was less angry with Sir Eobert Peel, on account of his financial measures in 1819, than on account of his being the most able speaker in Parlia- ment in 1833. VI. In the new Parliament elected in January 1835, and which met on the 19 th February, Cobbett was again member for Oldham. But his health was already much broken by the change of habits, the want of air, and the confinement which weighs on a parliamentary life. He did not, however, perceive this; it was not, indeed, his habit to perceive anything to his own disadvantage. He continued his attendance, therefore, and was in his usual place during the whole of the debate on the Marquis of Chandos's motion for a repeal of the Malt Tax, and would have spoken in favour of the repeal but for a sudden attack of the throat, to which it is said that he was subject. On the voting of Supplies, which followed almost immediately afterwards, he again, notwithstanding his indisposition, exerted himself, and on the 25th of May persisted in voting COBBETT. 349 and speaking in support of a motion on Agricultural Distress. At last, lie confessed he was knocked up, and retired to the country, where for some little time he seemed restored. But on the night of the 11th of June, 1835, he was seized with a violent illness, and on the two following days was considered in extreme danger by his medical attendant. He then again rallied, and on Monday, the 15th. talked (says his son in an account of his death, published on the 20th of June), in a collected and sprightly manner, upon politics and farming. " wishing for four days' rain for the Cobbetts' com and root crops," and on Wednesday could remain no longer shut up from the fields, but desired to be carried round the farm, and criticised the work which had been done in his absence. In the night, however, he grew more and more feeble, until it was evident (though he continued till within the last half-hour to answer every question that was put to him) that his agitated career was drawing to a close. At ten minutes after one p.m. he shut his eyes as if to sleep, leant back, and was no more — an end singularly peaceful for one whose life had been so full of toil and turmoil. The immediate cause of his death was water on the chest. He was buried, according to his own desire, in a simple manner in the churchyard of Farnham, in the same mould as that in which his father and grandfather had been laid before him. His death struck people with surprise, for few could remember the commencement of his course, and there had seemed in it no middle and no decline; for though he went down to the grave an old man, he was young in the path he had lately started upon. He left a gap in the public mind which no one else could fill or attempt to fill up, for his loss was not merely that of a man, but of a habit — of a dose of strong drink which all of us had been taking for years, most of us during our whole lives, and which it was impossible for any one again to concoct so strongly, so strangely, with so much spice and flavour, or with such a variety of in- gredients. And there was this peculiarity in the general regret — it extended to all persons. AVhatever a man's talents, whatever a man's opinions, he sought the Ueghter 350 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. on the day of its appearance with eagerness, and read it with amusement, partly, perhaps, if De la Eochefoucault is right, hecause, whatever his party, he was sure to see his friends ahused. But partly also because he was certain to find, amidst a great many fictions and abundance of im- pudence, some felicitous nickname, some excellent piece of practical-looking argument, some capital expressions, and very often some marvellously-fine writing,* all the finer for being carelessly fine, and exhibiting whatever figure or sentiment it set forth, in the simplest as well as the most striking dress. Cobbett himself, indeed, said that "/^^s popularity was owing to his giving truth in clear language ;" and his language always did leave liis meaning as visible as the most limpid stream leaves its bed. But as to its displaying truth, that is a difierent matter, and would be utterly impossible, unless truth has, at least, as many heads as the Hydra of fable; in which case our author may claim the merit of having portrayed them all. This, however, is to be remarked — he rarely abused that which was falling or fallen, but generally that which was rising or uppermost. He disinterred Paine when his memory was interred, and attacked him as an impostor amongst those who hailed him as a prophet. In the heat of the contest and cry against the Catholics — whom, when Mr. Pitt was for emancipating them, he was for grinding into the dust — he calls the Pieformation a devastation, and pronounces the Protestant religion to have been established by gibbets, racks, and ripping-knives. When all London was yet rejoicing in Wellington hats and Wellington boots, he asserts " that the celebrated victory of Waterloo had caused to England more real shame, more real and substantial disgrace, more debt, more distress amongst the middle class, and more misery amongst the working class, more injuries of all kinds, than the kingdom could have * People are often at this day disputing as to whether a particular picture is by the master it is attributed to, or by one of his scholars. A pecuHarity of genius in an artist is to create first-rate imitators in those who hve in his society ; and it is not unworthy of notice that one of the best pieces of writing in Cobbett's best style is " The Rat Hunt " {Political Register, vol. xci. p. 380), and was by the pen of Mr. J. M. Cobbett, Mr. Cobbett's son. COBBETT. 351 ever experienced by a hundred defeats, whether by sea or by land." He had a sort of itch for bespattering with mud everything that was popular, and gilding everything that was odious. Mary Tudor was with him " Merciful Queen Mary;" Elizabeth, as I have already observed, " Bloody Queen Bess ;" our Navy, " the swaggering Navy ;" Napoleon, "a French coxcomb;" Brougham, "a talking lawyer ;" Canning, " a brazen defender of corruptions." His praise or censure afforded a sort of test to be taken in an inverse sense of the world's opinion. He could not bear superiority of any kind, or reconcile himself to its presence. He declined, it is said, to insert quack puffs in his journal, merely, I believe, because he could not bear to spread anybody's notoriety but his own ; while he told his correspondents never to write under the name of subscriber — it sounded too much like master. As for absurdity, nothing was too absurd for him coolly and deliberately to assert : " The English government most anxiously wished for Napoleon's return to France." " There would have been no national debt and no paupers, if there had been no Keformation." " The population of England had not increa-ed one single soul since he was born." Such are a few of the many paradoxes one could cite from his writings, and which are now before me. Neither did his coarseness know any bounds. He called a newspaper a " cut-and-thrust weapon," to be used with- out mercy or delicacy, and never thought of anything but how he could strike the hardest. "There's a fine Congress-man for you ! If any d d rascally rotten borough in the universe ever made such a choice as this (a Mr. Blair MacClenachan), you'll be boimd to cut my throat, and suffer the sans culottes sovereigns of Phila- delphia — the hob-snob snigger-snee-ers of Germanstown — to kick me about in my blood till my corpse is as ugly and disgusting as their living carcases are." " Bark away, hell-hounds, till you are suffocated in your own foam." " This hatter turned painter (Samuel F. Bradford), whose ^ heart is as black and as foul as the liquid in which he dabbles." "It is fair, also, to observe that this State (Pennsylvania) 352 EISTOPdCAL CIIARACTEBS. labours under disadvantages in one respect that no other State does. Here is precisely that climate which suits the vagabonds of Europe ; here they bask in summer, and lie curled up in winter, without fear of scorching in one season, or freezing in the other. Accordingly, hither they come in shoals, just roll themselves ashore, and begin to swear and poll away as if they had been bred to the business from their infancy. She has too unhappily acquired a reputation for the mildness or rather the feeble- ness of her laws. There's no gallows in Pennsylvania. These glad tidings have rung through all the democratic club-rooms, all the dark assembhes of traitors, all the dungeons and cells of England, k^cotland, and Ireland. Hence it is that we are overwhelmed with the refuse, the sweeping, of these kingdoms, the offal of the jail and the gibbet. Hence it is that we see so many faces that never looked comely but in the pillory, Imibs that are awkward out of chains, and necks that seem made to be stretched." It would be difficult to put together more pithy sentences, or more picturesque abuse than is set forth in the scurrilous extracts I have been citing; yet Cobbett's virulence could be conveyed in a more dehcate way when- ever he thought proper : " Since then. Citizen Barney is become a French com- modore of two frigates, and will rise probably to the rank of admiral, if contrary winds do not blow him in the way of an enemy." His mode of commencing an attack also was often singularly effective from its humour and personality : " He was a sly-looking fellow, with a hard, slate-coloured countenance. He set out by blushing, and I may leave any one to guess at 'the efforts that must be made to get a blush through a skin like his." Again: "Having thus settled the point of controversy, give me leave to ask you, my sweet sleepy-eyed sir !" The following picture is equal to anything ever sketched by Hogarth, and is called " A Summary of Proceedings of Congress," November, 1794 : " Never was a more ludicrous farce acted to a bursting audience. Madison is a little bow-legged man, at once COBBETT. S53 stiff and slender. His countenance has that sour aspect, that conceited screw, which pride would willingly mould into an expression of disdain, if it did not find the features too skinny and too scanty for its purpose. His thin, sleek air, and the niceness of his garments, are indicative of that economical cleanliness which expostulates with the shoeboy and the washerwoman, which flies from the danger of a gutter, and which boasts of wearing a shirt for three days without rumpling the frill. In short, he has, take him altogether, precisely the prim, mean, prig-like look of a corporal mechanic, and were he ushered iato your parlour, you would wonder why he came without his measure and his shears. Such (and with a soul which would disgrace any other tenement than that which contaias it) is the mortal who stood upon his legs, confidently predicting the overthrow of the British monarchy, and anticipating the pleasure of feedhig its illustrious nobles with his oats." Again, let us fancy the following sentences, imitating what the gentlemen of the United States call " stump speaking," delivered with suitable tone and gesture on the hustings : " The commercial connection between this country (America) and Great Britain is as necessary as that between the baker and the miller ; while the connec- tion between America and France may be compared to that between the baker and the milliner or toyman. France may furnish us with looking-glasses, but without the aid of Britain we shall be ashamed to see ourselves in them; unless the sans culottes can persuade us that threadbare beggary is — a beauty. France may deck the heads of our wives and daughters (by the bye, she shan't those of mine) with ribbons, gauze, and powder; their ears with bobs, their cheeks with paint, and their heels with gaudy parti-coloured silk, as rotten as the hearts of the manufacturers; but Great Britain must keep warm their limbs and cover their bodies. When the rain pours down, and washes the rose from the cheek, when the bleak north-wester blows through the gauze, then it is that we know our friends." Cobbett's talent for fastening his claws into anything or any one, by a word or an expression, and holding them 2 A 354 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. down for scorn or up to horror — a talent wliicli, through- out this sketch, I have frequently noticed — was unrivalled. '•' Prosperity Eobinson," " (Eolus Canning," " The Bloody Times,'' " the pink-nosed Liverpool,'' " the unbaptized, buttonless blackguards " (in which way he designated the disciples of Penn),* were expressions with which he attached ridicule where he could not fix reproach, and it is said that nothing was more teasing to Lord Erskine than being constantly addressed by his second title of " Baron Clackmannan." VII. I have alluded, at the commencement of this sketch, to the fact that if the life of Mackintosh was in contradiction to his instincts, and forced to adapt itself to his wishes or ideas, that of Cobbett was ruled by his instincts, to which all ideas and wishes were subordinate. His inclinations were for bustle and strife, and he passed his whole life in strife and bustle. This is why the sap and marrow of his genius show themselves in every line he sent to the press. But at the same time his career warns us how little talents of the highest order, even when accompanied by the most unflagging industry, will do for a man, if those talents and that industry are not disciphned by stedfast principles and concentrated upon noble objects. It is not to be understood, indeed, when I say that a man should follow his nature, that I mean he should do so without sense or judgment ; your natural character is your force, but it is a * Of this sect, by the way, he elsewhere speaks in these eulogistic terms : " Here am I amongst the thick of the Quakers, whose houses and famiUes pleased me so much formerly, and which pleasure is now revived. Here all is ease, plenty, and cheerfulness. These people are never giggling, and never in low spirits. Their minds, like their dress, are simple and strong. Their kindness is shown more in acts than in words. Let others say what they will, I have uniformly found those whom I have intimately known of this sect sincere and upright men ; and I verily believe that all those charges of hypocrisy and craft that we hear against Quakers, arise from a feeling of envy ; envy inspired by seeing them possessed of such abundance of all those things which are the fair fruits of care, industry, economy, sobriety, and order ; and which are justly for- bidden to the drunkard, the prodigal, and the lazy." COBBETT. 355 force that you must regulate and keep applied to the track on which the career it has chosen is to be honourably run. I would not recommend a man with military propensities to enter the church ; I should say, " Be a soldier, but do not be a military adventurer. Enlist under a lawful banner, and fight for a good cause." ( Cobbett acknowledged no banner ; and one cannot say, considering the variety of doctrines he by turns adopted and discarded, that he espoused any cause.\ Nor did he consider himself bound by any tie of private or political friendship. As a beauty feels no gratitude for the homage which she deems due to her charms, so Cobbett felt no gratitude for the homage paid to his abilities. His idea of himself was that which the barbarian entertains of his country. Cobbett was Cobbett's universe ; and as he treated mankind, so mankind at last treated him. They admii^ed him as a myth, but they had no affection for him as a person. His words were realities, his principles rtions. It may indeed be contended that a predominant idea ran winding through all the twistings and twinings of his career, connecting his different inconsistencies together; and that this was " a hatred for tyranny."J " He always took his stand," say his defenders, " with fne minority :" and there is something in this assertion. But there is far less fun and excitement in fighting a minority, with a large majority at one's back, than in coming out, at the head of a small and violent minority, to defy and attack a body of greater power and of larger numbers. It was this fun and excitement which, if I mistake not, were Cobbett's main inducements to take the side he took in all the contests he engaged in, whether against the minister of the day, or against our favourite daughter of the eighth Henry, who reigned some centuries before his time. Still the tendency to combat against odds is always superior to the tendency to cringe to them, and a weak cause is not unfrequently made victorious by a bold assertion. It must be added also, in his praise, that he is always a hearty EngUshman. He may vary in his opinions as to doctrines and as to men, but he is ever for making 356 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. England great, powerful, and prosperous — her people healthy, brave, and free. He never falls into the error of mistaking political economy for the whole of political science. He does not say, " Be wealthy, make money, and care about nothing else." /^He advocates rural pursuits as invigorating to a population, although less profitable than manufacturing. He desires to see Englishmen fit for war as well as for peace. There is none of that puling prim- ness about him which marks the philosophers who would have a great nation, like a good boy at a private school, fit for nothing but obedience and books. To use a slang phrase, there was "a go" about him which, despite all his charlatanism, all his eccentricities, kept up the national spirit, and exhibited in this one of the highest merits of political writing. The immense number of all his publica- tions that sold immediately on their appearance, sufficiently proves the wonderful popularity of his style; and it is but just to admit that many of his writings were as useful as popular. A paper written in 1804, on the apprehended invasion, and entitled " Important Considerations for the People of this Kingdom," was placed (the author being unknown) in manuscript before Mr. Addington, who caused it to be printed and read from the pulj^it in every parish through- out the kingdom. For many years this paper was attri- buted to other eminent men ; and it was only when some one thought of attacking Cobbett as an enemy of his country, that he confessed the authorship of a pamphlet, to the patriotism of which every Englishman had paid homage. Again, in 1816, the people of the northern and midland counties being in great distress, attributed their calamities to machinery, and great rioting and destruction of property was the consequence. Cobbett came forward to stop these vulgar delusions. But he knew the nature of the public mind. It was necessary, in order to divert it from one idea, to give it another. So, he ridiculed the idea of distress proceeding from machinery, and attributed it to misgovernment. Of his twopenny pamphlet, called " A Letter to Journeymen and Labourers," 30,000 copies were COBBETT. 351 sold in a week, and with such advantage that Lord Brougham, in 1831, asked permission to repubhsh it. Much in his exaggerations and contradictions is likewise to be set down to drollery rather than to any serious design to deceive. I remember the late Lady Holland once asking me if I did not think she sometimes said ill-natured things ; and on my acquiescing, she rejoined : " I don't mean to burn any one, but merely to poke the fire." Cobbett liked to poke the fire, to make a blaze; but in general — I will not say always — he thought more of sport than of mischief. At all events, this very spirit of change, of criticism, of combativeness, is the spirit of journalism; and Cobbett was not only this spirit embodied, but — and this renders his life so remarkable in our history — he represented journalism, and fought the fight of journalism against authority, when it was still a doubt which would gain the day. Let us not, indeed, forget the blind and uncalculating intolerance with which the law struggled against opinion from 1809 to 1822. Writers during this period were transported, imprisoned, and fined, without limit or con- science ; and just when government became more gentle to legitimate newspapers, it engaged in a new conflict with unstamped ones. No less than 500 vendors of these were imprisoned within six years. The contest was one of life and death. Amidst the general din of the battle, but high above all shouts more confused, was heard Cobbett's bold, bitter, scornful voice, cheering on the small but determined band, which defied tyranny without employ- ing force. The failure of the last prosecution against the Register was the general failure of prosecutions against the Press, and may be said to have closed the contest in which government lost power every time that it made victims. Such was Cobbett — such his career! I have only to add that, in his family relations, this contentious man was kind and gentle. An incomparable husband, an excellent father ; and his sons — profiting by an excellent education, and inheriting, not, perhaps, the marvellous energies, but 358 HISTORICAL CIIABACTERS. a great portion of the ability, of their father — carry on mth credit and respectability the name of a man, who, whatever his faults, must be considered by every Englishman who loves onr literature, or studies our history, as one of the most remarkable illustrations of his very remarkable time. ( 359 ) CANNING, THE BRILLIANT MAX. Part I. FROM BIRTH AND EDUCATION TO DUEL WITH LORD CASTLEREAGH. Proper time for writing a biography. — Mr. Canning born (1770). — Educa- tion at Eton and Oxford. — Early literary performances. — Brought into Parlia- ment by iVIr. Pitt. — Politics he espoused. — His commencement as a speaker. — Writes for the Anti-Jacobin. — Quits office with Mr. Pitt. — Opposes Mr. Addington. — Returns to office with Mr. Pitt. — Distinguishes himself in opposition to " All the Talents." — Becomes JNlinister of Foreign Aftairs on their fall. — Foreign policy. — Quarrel with Lord Castlereagh, and duel. There is no periodat wMch3iL_eiriisent jg>erson is so little considerecl^_so_mucErTofgotten and disregardedTas during the f ew yea rs succeeding his decease. His name, no longer noised alBove that of others by the busy zeal of his partisans, or the still more clamorous energies of his op- ponents, drops away suddenly, as it were, from the mouths of men. To his contemporaries he has ceased to be of importance — the most paltry pretender to his place is of more ; — while posterity does not exist for him, until the dead are distinctly separated fromjthe living ; until the times In whicE he~Eved, and^ Ihe scenes in which he acted^^avejbe^mejas a dfstant prospecOrom which the eye_c an at onceT s^ingle~ouF~from amidst the mass of ordinary objects, those which were the memorials-, of their epoch, and are to become the beacons of after-gene- rations. 360 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. The Frencli, who are as fond of putting philosophy into action as we are coy of connecting theory with practice, marked out, at one moment, a kind of intermediate space between the past and the present, the tomb and the pantheon ; but the interval of ten years, which they as- signed for separating the one from the other, is hardly sufficient for the purpose. [We are, however, now arrived at the period that permits our considering the subject of this memoir as a character in history which it is well to describe without further procrastination. Every day, indeed, leaves us fewer of those who remember the clearly-chiselled countenance which the slouched hat only slightly concealed, — the lip satirically curled, — the penetrating eye, peering along the Opposition benches, — of the old parliamentary leader in the House of Commons. It is but here and there that we find a survivor of the old day, to speak to us of the singularly meUifluous and sonorous voice, the classical language — now pointed into epigram, now elevated into poesy, now burning with passion, now rich with humour — which curbed into still attention a willing and long- broken audience.] (^The great dnanges of the last half-century have, moreover, created such a new order of ideas and of society, that the years preceding 1830 appear as belonging to an antecedent century ; and the fear now is — not that we ' are too near, but that we are gliding away too far from the events of that biography which I propose to sketch. And yet he who undertakes the task of biographical de- lineation, should not be wholly without the scope of the influences w^hich coloured the career he desires to sketch. The artist can hardly give the hkeness of the face he never saw, nor the writer speak vividly of events which are merely known to him by tradition, i II. fit is with this feeling that I attempt to say something 01 a man, the most eminent of a period at which the government of England was passing, imperceptibly perhaps, but not slowly, from the hands of an exclusive CAN NIX G. 361 but enlightened aristocracy, into those of a middle class, of which the mind, the energy, and the ambition had been gradually developed, under the mixed influences of a war which had called forth the resources, and of a peace which had tried the prosperity, of our country ; — a middle class wliich was growing up with an improved and extended education, amidst stirring debates as to the height to which the voice of public opinion should be allowed to raise itself, and the latitude that should be given, in a singularly mixed constitution, to its more democratic par^ ]\Tr. Canning was bom on the 11th of April, 1770, and belonged to an old and respectable family originally re- sident in Warwickshire.* A branch of it, obtaining a grant of the manor of Garvagh, settled in Ireland in the reign of James I., and from this branch Mr. Canning descended ; but the misfortunes of his parents placed him in a situation below that which might have been expected from his birth. His father, the eldest of three sons — George, Paul, and Stratford — was disinherited for marrying a young lady (Miss Costello) without fortune ; and having some taste for literature, but doing nothing at the bar, he died amidst the difficulties incidental to idle habits and elegant tastes. Mrs. Canning, left without resources, attempted the stage, but she had no great talents for the theatrical profession, and never rose above the rank of a middling actress. Her son thus feU under the care of his uncle, Mr. Stratford Canning, a highly respectable merchant, and an old Whig, much in the confidence of the leaders of the Whig party and possessing considerable influence with them. A small inheritance of 200Z. or 300Z. a year sufficed for the expenses of a liberal education, and after passing through the regular ordeal of a private school, young Canning was sent to Eton, and subsequently to Christ Church, Oxford. At Eton no boy ever left behind him so many brilliant recollections. Gay and high- * His son, the late Earl Canning, represented War\Yick in the House of Commons from August, 1836, to March, 1837. 362 HISTORICAL CHABACTEB8. spirited as a companion, clever and laborious as a student, he obtained a following from his character, and a repu- tation from his various successes. This reputation was the greater from the schoolboy's triumphs not being merely those of school. Known and distinguished as " G-eorge Canning," he was yet more known and distin- guished as the correspondent of '' Gregory Griffin ;" — such being the name adopted by the fictitious editor of the Microcosm., a publication in the style of the Spectator, and carried on solely by Eton lads. In this publication, the graver prose of the young orator was incorrect and inferior to that of one or two other juvenile contributors, but some of his lighter productions were singularly graceful, and it would be difficult to find anything of its kind superior to a satirical commentary upon the epic merits of an old ballad : " The queen of hearts She made some tarts All on a summer''s day^^ &c.* " I cannot leave this line," says the witty commentator, " without remarking, that one of the Scribleri, a de- scendant of the famous Martinus, has expressed his suspicions of the text being corrupted here, and proposes, instead of ' All on,' reading ' Alone,' alleging, in the favour of this alteration, the effect of solitude in raising the passions. But Hiccius Doctius, a High Dutch com- mentator, one nevertheless well versed in British literature, in a note of his usual length and learning, has confuted the arguments of Scriblerus. In support of the present reading, he quotes a passage from a poem written about the same period with our author's, by the celebrated Johannes Pastor (most commonly known as Jack Shepherd), entitled, ' An Elegiac Epistle to the Turnkey of Newgate,' wherein the gentleman declares, that, rather indeed in compliance with an old custom than to gratify any particular wish of his own, he is going " * All hanged for to be Upon that fatal 'J'yburn tree.' * See Micnxosm. I CANNING. 363 " Now, as nothing throws greater hght on an author than the concurrence of a contemporary writer, I am in- cHned to be of Hiccius' opinion, and to consider the ' All ' as an elegant expletive, or, as he more aptly phrases it, ' elegans expletivum.' " The other articles to which the boyish talent of the lad, destined to be so famous, may lay claim, are desig- nated in the will of the supposed editor, Mr. Griffin (contained in the concluding number of the Microcosm)^ which, amongst special bequests assigns to " Mr. George Canning, now of the college of Eton, all my papers, essays, &c., signed B." r "'• (Jt is needless to observe that an Eton education is more for the man of the world than for the man of books. It teaches little in the way of science or solid learning, but it excites emulation, encourages and gratifies a love of fame, and prepares the youth for the competitions of y-f manhood. Whatever is dashing and showy gives pre- eminence in that spirited little world from which have issued so many Enghsh statesmen. It developed in Canning all his natural propensities. He Bias the show boy at Mont^n days with master and studentj " Look, papa, — there, there ; — that good^ooking feUow is Canning — such a clever chap, but a horrible Whig. By Jupiter, how he gives it to Pitt !" Nor was this wonderful. The youthful politician spent his holidays with his uncle, who only saw AYhigs ; and then, what clever boy would not have been charmed by the wit and rhetoric of Sheridan— by the burning elo- quignce of Fox? (The same dispositions that had shown themselves at Eton, carried to Oxford, produced the same distinctions. Sedulous at his studies, almost Kepublican in his prin- ciples, the pride of his college, the glory of his debating society, the intimate associate of the first young men in birth, talents, and prospects, young Canning was thus early known as the brilliant and promising young man of his day, and thought likely to be one of the most distin- 364: HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. guished of those intellectual gladiators whom the great parties employed in their struggles for power ; struggles which seemed at the moment to disorder the administration of affairs, but which, carried on with eloquence and ability in the face of the nation, kept its attention alive to national interests, and could not fail to diffusejihroughout it a lofty spirit, and a sort of pohtical education! IV. From the University Canning went to Lincoln's Inn. It does not appear, however, that in taking to the study jof the law he had any idea of becoming a Lord Chancellor, [j^here was nothing of severity in his plan of hfe — he dined out with those who invited him, and his own little room was at times modestly lit up for gatherings together of old friends, who enjoyed new jokes, and amongst whom and for whom were composed squibs, pamphlets, news- paper articles, in steady glorification of school and college opinions, which the Oxonian, on quitting the University, had no doubt tlie intention to sustain in the great battles of 4)arty warfarej But events were then beginning to make men's con- victions tremble under them ; and, with the increasing differences amongst veteran statesmen, it was difficult to count on youthful recruits.; [At all events, it is ab'out this time that Mr. Canning's political career begins. It must be viewed in relation to the par^iicular state of society and government which then existedj From the days of Queen Anne there had been a contest going on between the two aristocratic factions, " Whig " and " Tory." The principles professed by either were frequently changed. The Tories, such as Sir William Windham, under the guidance of Bolingbroke, often acting as Eeformers ; and the Whigs, under AValpole, often acting as Conservatives. The being in or out of place was in fact the chief difference between the opposing candidates for office, though the Whigs generally passed for being favourable to popular pretensions, and the Tories for being favourable to Koyal authority. CANNING. 365 In the meantime public opinion, except on an occasional crisis when the nation made itself heard, was the opinion of certain coteries, and public men were the men of those coteries. It not unfrequently happened that the most distinguished for ability were the most distinguished for birth and fortune. But it was by no means necessary that it should be so. The chiefs of the two conflicting armies sought to obtain everywhere the best soldiers. Each had a certain number of commissions to give away, or, in- other words, of seats in ParHament to dispose of. They who had the government in their hands could count from that fact alone on thirty or forty. It matters little how these close boroughs were created. Peers or gentlemen possessed them as simple property, or as the effect of dominant local influence. The Treasury con- trolled them as an effect of the patronage or employments which office placed in its hands. A certain number were sold or let by their proprietors, and even by the Admini- stration ; and in this manner men who had made fortunes in our colonies or in trade, and were averse to a public canvass, and without local landed influence, found their way into the great National Council. They paid their 5000Z. down, or their 1000/. a year, and could generally, though not always, find a seat on such terms. But a large portion of these convenient entries into the House of Commons was kept open for distinguished young men, who gave themselves up to public affairs as to a profession. A school or college reputation, an able pamphlet, a club, or county meeting oration, pointed them out. The minister, or great man who wished to be a minister, brought them into Parliament. If they failed, they sank into insignificance ; if they succeeded, they worked during a certain time for the great men of the day, and then became great men themselves. [_This system had advantages, counterbalanced by defects, and gave to England a set of trained and highly educated statesmen, generally well informed on all national questions, strongly attached to party combinations, connected by the ties of gratitude and patronage with the higher classes, having a certain contempt for the middle : keenly alive 366 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. ^'\ to the glory, the power, the greatness of the country, and ^^^' sympathising little with the hahits and wants of the great V^ ^'^ masses of the peopkj ^^ [They had Tnot a correct knowledge of the feelings and wants of the poor man, — they understood and shared the feelings of the gentleman. Bread might be dear or cheap, they cared httle about it ; a battle gained or lost afiected them more deeply. A mob might be massacred without greatly exciting their compassion; but the loss of a great general or..^of a great statesman they felt as a national calamity^ [_Suchwere the men who might fairly be called "political adventurers:" a class to which we owe much of our political renown, much of our reputation for political capacity, but which, in only rare instances, won the public esteem or merited the popular affections. Such were our political adventurers when Mr. Pitt sent for Mr. Canning, a scholar of eminence and a young man of superior and shining abilities, and offered him a seat in the House of Commonsr/ ^/--"^ The following is the simple manner in which this interview is spoken of by a biographer of Mr. Canning :* "Mr. Pitt, through a private channel, communicated his desire to see Mr. Canning; Mr. Canning of course complied. Mr. Pitt immediately proceeded, on their meeting, to declare to Mr. Canning the object of his re- questing an interview with him, which was to state that he had heard of Mr. Canning's reputation as a scholar and a speaker, and that if he concurred in the policy which the Government was then pursuing, arrangements would be made to bring him into Parliament." The person to whom this offer was made accepted it ; nor was this surprising. " ^ I have already said that events were about this period taking place, that made men's convictions tremble under them ; and in fact the mob rulers of Paris had in a few months so desecrated the name of Freedom, that half of its ancient worshippers covered their faces with their hands, and shuddered when it was pronounced. * In the Life given in the edition of Mr. Canning's Speeches. CANNING. 367 But there were also other circumstances of a more personal nature, which, now that young Canning had seriously to think of his entry into public life, had, I have been assured, an influence on his resolutions. The first incident, I was once told by Mr. John Allen, that disinclined Mr. Canning (who had probably already some misgivings) to attach himself irrevocably to the Whig camp, was the following one : Lord Liverpool, then Mr. Jenkinson, had just made his appearance in the House of Commons. His first speech was highly suc- cessful. " There is a young friend of mine," said Mr. Sheridan, "whom I soon hope to hear answering the honourable gentleman who has just distinguished himself : a contemporary whom he knows to possess talents not inferior to his own, but whose principles, I trust, are very difierent from his." This allusion, however kindly meant, was disagreeable, said Mr. Allen, to the youthful aspirant to pubhc honours. It pledged him, as he thought, prematurely ; it brought him forward under the auspices of a man, who, however distinguished as an individual, was not in a position to be a patron. Other reflections, it is added, followed. The party then in opposition possessed almost every man distinguished in pubHc life : a host of formidable com- petitors in the road to honour and pi eferment, supposing preferment and honour to be attainable by talent. But this was not all. The "Whig party, then, as always, was essentially an exclusive party ; its preferments were con- centrated on a clique, which regarded all without it as its subordinates and instruments. On the other side, the Prime Minister stood almost alone. He had every office to bestow, and few candidates of any merit for official employments. Haughty from temperament, and flushed with power, which he had attained early and long exercised without control, he had not the pride of rank, nor the aristocratic attachments for which high families linked together are distinguished. His partisans and friends were his own. He had elevated them for no other reason than that they were his. By those to whom he had once shown favour he had always 368 IIISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. stood firm ; all who had followed had shared his fortunes ; there can be no better promise to adherents. These were not explanations that Mr. Canning could make precisely to the Whig leaders, but he had an affection for Mr. Sheridan, who had always been kind to him, and by whom he did not wish to be thought ungrateful. He sought, then, an interview with that good-natured and gifted person. Lord Holland, Mr. Canning's contemporary, was present at it, and told me that nothing could be more respectful and unreserved than the manner in which the ambitious young man gave his reasons for the change he was prepared to make, or had made ; nothing more warm- hearted, unprejudiced, and frank, than the veteran orator's reception of his retiring joroteges confession : nor, indeed, could Mr. Sheridan help feeling the application, when he was himself cited as an example of the haughtiness with which " the great Whig Houses " looked down on the lofty aspirations of mere genius. The conversation thus alluded to took place a little before Mr. Pitt's proposals were made, but probably when they were expected. Mr. Canning, his views fairly stated to the only person to whom he felt bound to give them, and his seat in Parlia- ment secured, placed himself in front of his old friends, whom Colonel Fitz-Patrick avenged by the following couplet : " The turning of coats so common is grown, That no one would think to attack it ; But no case until now was so flagrantly known Of a schoolboy turning his jacket." There was little justice in Colonel Fitz-Patrick's satire. Nine-tenths of Mr. Fox's partisans, old and young, were deserting his standard when Mr. Canning quitted him. The cultivated mind of England was, as it has been said in two or three of these sketches, against the line which the Whig leader persisted to take with respect to the French Eevolution — even after its excesses ; and it is easy to conceive that the cause of Liberty and Fraternity should have become unfashionable when these weird sisters were CANNING. SCO seen brandishing the knife, and dancing round the guillo- tine. Admitting; however, the legitimacy of the horror with which the assassins of the Committee of Public Safety inspired the greater portion of educated Englishmen, it is still a question whether England should have provoked their hostility ; for, after the recall of our ambassador and our undisguised intention of making war, the Kepublic's declaration of it was a matter of course. '• Where could be the morahty," said Mr. Pitt's opponents, " of bringing fresh calamities upon a land which so many calamities already desolated ? Where the policy of concen- trating and consolidating so formidable an internal system by an act of foreign aggression? And if the struggle we then engaged in was in itself inhuman and impolitic, what was to be said as to the time at which we entered upon it ? "The natural motives that might have suggested a French war, were — the wish to save an unhappy monarch from an unjust and violent death; the desire to subdue the arrogance of a set of miscreants who, before they we) e prepared to execute the menace, threatened to overrun the world with their principles and their arms. If these were our motives, why not draw the sword, before the Sovereign whose life we wished to protect had perished? Why defer our conflict with the French army until, flushed with victory and threatened with execution in the event of defeat, raw recruits were changed into disciplined and desperate soldiers? Why reserve our defence of the unhappy Louis till he had perished on the scafibld — our war against the French Republic until the fear of the executioner and the love of glory had made a nation unanimous in its defence? Success was possible when Prussia first entered on the contest: it was impossible when we subsidized her to continue it." The antagonists of the First Minister urged these arguments with plausibility. His friends replied, "that Mr. Pitt had been originally against all interference in French afiairs ; that the conflict was not of his seeking ; that the conduct of the French government and the feelings of the English people had at last forced him into it ; that he had not wished to anticipate its necessity ; but that if 2 B 370 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS. lie had, the minister of a free country cannot go to war at precisely the moment he would select ; he cannot guard against evils which the puhlic itself does not foresee. He must go with the public, or after it ; and the puhlic mind in England had, like that of the Ministers, only become convinced by degrees that peace was impossible. "As to neutrality, if it could be observed when the objects at stake were material, it could not be maintained when those objects were moral, social, and religious. " When new ideas were everywhere abroad, inflaming, agitating men's minds, these ideas were sure to And every- where partisans or opponents, and to attempt to moderate the zeal of one party merely gave power to the violence of the other. " It was necessary to excite the English people against France, in order to prevent French principles, as they were then called, from spreading and fixing themselves in England." Such was the language and such the opinions of many eminent men with whom Mr. Canning was now associated, when, after a year's preliminary silence, he made his first speech in the House of Commons. \L This first speech (January 31, 1794), like many first speeches of men who have become eminent orators, was more or less a failure. The subject was a subsidy to Sardinia, and the new member began with a scoff at the idea of looking with a mere mercantile eye at the goodness or badness of the bargain we were making. Such a scoff at economy, uttered in an assembly which is the especial guardian of the public purse, was injudicious. But the whole speech was bad ; it possessed in an eminent degree all the ordinary faults of the declamations of clever young men. Its arguments were much too refined: its arrangement much too systematic : cold, tedious, and unparliamentary, it would have been twice as good if it had attempted half as much; for the great art in speaking, as in writing, consists in knowing what should not be said or written. This instance of ill success did not, however, alienate CANNING, 371 the Premier ; for Mr. Pitt, haughty in all things, cared little for opinions which he did not dictate. In 1795, therefore, the unsubdued favourite was charged with the seconding of the address, and acquitted himself with some spirit and effect. The following passage may be quoted both for thought and expression : " The next argument against peace is its insecurity ; it would be the mere name of peace, not a wholesome and refreshing repose, but a feverish and troubled slumber, from which we should soon be roused to fresh horrors and insults. What are the blessings of peace which make it so desirable ? What, but that it implies tranquil and secure enjoyment of our homes ? What, but that it will restore our seamen and our soldiers, who have been fighting to preserve those homes, to a share of that tranquillity and security ? What, but that it will lessen the expenses and alleviate the burdens of the people? What, but that it explores some new channel of com- mercial intercourse, or reopens such as war had destroyed ? What, but that it renews some broken link of amity, or forms some new attachment between nations, and softens the asperities of hostility and hatred into kindness and conciliation and reciprocal goodwill ? And which of all these blessings can we hope to obtain by a peace, under the present circumstances, with France ? Can we venture to restore to the loom or to the plough the brave men who have fought our battles ? Who can say how soon some I'resh government may not start up in France, which may feel it their inclination or their interest to renew hostilities ? The utmost we can hope for is a short, delusive, and suspicious interval of armistice, without any material diminution of expenditure ; without security at home, or a chance of purchasing it by exertions abroad ; without any of the essential blessings of peace, or any of the possible advantages of war : a state of doubt and preparation such as will retain in iteelf all the causes of jealousy to other states which, in the usual course of things, produce remon- strances and (if these are answered unsatisfactorily) war." i. HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. VII In 1796, Parliament was dissolved, and Mr. Canning was returned to Parliament this time for WendoA^er. He had just been named Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; and it has been usual to refer to this appointment as a proof of his early parliamentary success. He owed the promotion, however, entirely to the Prime Minister's favour ; [for though his late speech, better than the pre- ceding one, had procured him some credit, there was still a careless impertinence in his manner, and a classical pedantry in his style, which were unsuitable to the taste of the House of Commons. Indeed, so much had he to reform in his manner, that he now remained, by, as it is said, Mr. Pitt's advice, silent for three years, endeavouring during thi^time to correct his faults and allow them to be forgottenj It does not follow that he was idle. The Anti- Jacobin, started in 1797, under the editorship of Mr. Gifford, for the purpose which its title indicates, was commenced at the instigation and with the support of the old contributor to the Microcosm, and did more than any parliamentary eloquence could have done in favour of the anti-Jacobin cause. " Must wit," says Mr. Canning, who had now to contend against the most accomplished humorists of his day, " be found alone on falsehood's side ?" and having estabhshed himself as the champion of " Truth," he brought, no doubt, very useful and very brilliant arms to her service. The verses of '* New Morality," spirited, exaggerated, polished, and virulent, satisfied the hatred without offending the taste (which does not seem to have been at that time very refined) of those classes who looked upon our neighbours with almost as much hatred and disgust as were displayed in the verses of the young poet ; while the " Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder " — almost too trite to be quoted, and yet too excellent to be omitted — will long remain one of the happiest efforts of satire in our language : CANNING. " Imitation Sapphics. THE FRIEND OF HUMANITY AND THE KNIFE- GRINDER. " Friend of Humanity : " Needy Knife-<2;rinder, whither are you going ? Rough is the road, — your wheel is out of order ; Bleak blows the blast, — your hat has got a hole in't, So have your breeches. " Weary Knife-grinder, little think the proud ones, Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike Road, what hard work 'tis crying all day, ' Knives and Scissors to grind, !' ** Tell me, Knife-grinder, how came you to grind knives ? Did some rich man tyrannically use you ? Was it the squire, or parson of the parish. Or the attorney ? " Was it the squire, for killing of his game ? or Covetous parson, for his tithes distraining ? Or roguish lawyer, made you lose your little All in a lawsuit ? " Have you not read the ' Rights of Man,' by Tom Paine ? Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids. Ready to fall as soon as you have told your Pitiful story. " Knife- Grinder : Story ! God bless you, I have none to tell, sir ; Only last night, a-drinking at the ' Chequers,' These poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were Torn in a scuffle. Constables came up for to take me into Custody ; they took me before the justice : Justice Aldmixon put me in the parish Stocks for a vagrant. I should be glad to drink your honour's health in A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence ; But, for my part, I never love to meddle With politics, sir. 374 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. '* Friend of Humanity : " I give tliee sixpence ? I'll see thee damn'd first. Wretch, whom no sense of wrong can rouse to vengeance ! Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded, Spiritless outcast !" \_Exit, hiching over the wheel, in a fit of universal philanthropy.'] An instance of the readiness of Mr. Canning's Muse may be here related. When Frere had completed the first part of the " Loves of the Triangles," he exultingly read over the following lines to Canning, and defied him to improve upon them : " Lo ! where the chimney's sooty tube ascends, The fair Trochais from the corner bends ! Her coal-black eyes upturned, incessant mark The eddying smoke, quick flame, and volant spark ; Mark with quick ken, where flashing in between, Her much-loved smoke-jack glimmers thro' the scene ; Mark how his various parts together tend, Point to one purpose, — in one object end ; 1'he spiral grooves in smooth meanders flow, Drags the long chain, the polished axles glow. While slowly circumvolves the piece of beef below." Canning took the pen, and added : " The conscious fire with bickering radiance burns. Eyes the rich joint, and roasts it as it turns." These two lines are now blended with the original text, and constitute, it is said, the only flaw in Frere's title to the sole authorship of the first part of the poem, from which I have been quoting : the second and third parts were both by Canning. In prose I cite the report of a peroration by Mr. Erskine, whose egotism could hardly be caricatured, at a meeting of the Friends of Freedom. " Mr. Erskine concluded by recapitulating, in a strain of agonizing and impressive eloquence, the several more prominent heads of his speech : He had been a soldier, and a sailor, and had a son at Winchester School ; he had been called by special retainers, during the summer, into CANNING. 375 many different and distant parts of the country, travelling chiefly in post-chaises ; lie felt himself called upon to declare that his poor faculties were at the service of his country — of the free and enlightened part of it, at least. He stood here as a man ; he stood in the eye, indeed in the hand, of God — to whom (in the presence of the company, and waiters) he solemnly appealed ; he was of nohle, perhaps royal blood ; he had a house at Hampsteatl ; was convinced of the necessity of a thorough and radical reform ; his pamphlet had gone through thirty editions, skipping alternately the odd and even numbers ; he loved the Constitution, to which he would chng and grapple ; and he was clothed with the infirmities of man's nature ; be w^ould apply to the present French rulers (particularly Barras and Beubel) the words of the poet : " ' Be to their faults a little blind ; Be to their virtues ever kind, Let all their ways be unconfined, And clap the iiadlock on their mind 1' and for these reasons, thanking the gentlemen who had done him tbe honour to drink his health, he should propose ' Merlin, the late Minister of Justice, under the Directory, and Trial by Jury.' " I refer those who wish to know more of the literary merits of Mr. Canning to an article, July, 1858, in the " Edinburgh Eeview," in which article the accomplished writer has exhausted the subject he undertook to treat. VNor was Mr. Canning's reputation for wit, at this time, gained solely by his pen. Living with few, though much the fashion, who could be more charming in his own accomplished circle — when, the pleasant thought lighting up his eye, playing about his mouth, and giving an in- describable charm to his handsome countenance, he aban- doned himself to the inspiration of some happy moment, and planned a practical joke, or quizzed an incorrigible bore, or related some humorous anecdote? No one's society was so much prized by associates ; no one's talents so highly estimated by friends ; and his fame in the draw- ing-room, or at the dining-table, was at least as brilliant as that which he subsequently acquired in the senatej 376 HIISTORICAL CHARACTERS. This, indeed, was the epoch in his life at which perhaps he had the most real enjoyment; for though he felt conscious that his success in Parliament had not yet been complete, the feeling of certainty that it would become so, now began to dawn upon him, and the triumphs that his ardent nature anticipated went probably even beyond those which his maturer career accomplished. VIII. On the 11th of December, 1798, Mr. Tierney made a motion respecting peace with the French Eepublic. The negotiations at Lille, never cordially entered into, were at this time broken off. We had formed an alliance with Eussia and the Porte, and were about to carry on the struggle with new energies, though certainly not under very encouraging auspices. The coalition of 1792-3 was completely broken up. Prussia had for three years been at peace with France; nor had the Cabinet of Vienna seen any objection to signing a treaty which, disgracefully to all parties, sacrificed the remains of Venetian liberty. France, in the meanwhile, distracted at home, had, notwithstanding, enlarged her empire by Belgium, Lux- emburg, Nice, Savoy, Piedmont, Genoa, Milan, and Holland. There were many arguments to use in favour of abandoning the struggle we had entered upon : the uncertain friendship of our allies ; the increased force of our enemy ; and the exhausting drain we were maintaining upon our own resources. In six years we had added one hundred and fifty millions to our debt, by which had been created the necessity of adding to our annual burdens eight millions, a sum equal to the whole of our expenditure when George III. came to the throne. But the misfortunes which attend an expensive contest, though they necessarily irritate and dissatisfy a people with war, are not always to be considered irrefutable arguments in favour of peace. This formed the substance of the speech which Mr. Canning delivered on Mr. Tierney 's motion. (Defective in argument, it was effective in delivery, and added considerably to his reputation as a speaker) In the meantime, our sworn enmity to France and to CANNING. 377 French principles, encouraged an ardent inclination to both in those whom we had offended or misgoverned. The. Directory in Paris and the discontented in Ireland had, therefore, formed a natural if not a legitimate league. The result w^as an Irish rebellion, artfully planned, for a long time unbetrayed, and which, but for late treachery and singular accidents, would not have been easily overcome. Mr. Pitt, taking advantage of the fears of a separation between Great Britain and the sister kingdom, which this rebellion, notwithstanding its prompt and fortunate sup- pression, had created, announced, in a message from the Crown, a desire still further to incorporate and consolidate the two kingdoms. Whatever may have been the result of the Irish Union, the promises under which it was passed having been so long denied, so unhappily broken, there was certainly at this period reason to suppose that it would afford the means of instituting a fairer and less partial system of government than that under W'hich Ireland had long been suffering. As for the wail which was then set up, and which has since been re-aw^akened, for the independent Legislature w^hich was merged into that of Great Britain, the facility with which it was purchased is the best answer which caii be^iven to the assertions made of its value. (The part, therefore, that jMr. Canning adopted on this question (if with sincere and honest views of conferring the rights of citizenship on our Irish Catholic fellow- subjects, and not with the intention, which there is no reason to presume, of gaining their goodwill and then betraying their confidence) is one highly honourable to an English statesman. | But another question now arose. That Catholic Emancipation was frequently promised as the natural result of the Union, has never been disputed. As such promises were made plainly and openly in Parliament, the King could not be supposed ignorant of them. Why, then, if his Majesty had such insuperable objections to their fulfilment, did he allow of their being made ? And, on the other hand, how could his Ministers compromise their characters by holding out as a lure to a large majority of the Irish people a benefit which they 378 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. bad no security for being able to concede ? Mr. Canning's language is not ambiguous : " Here, tben, are two parties in opposition to each other, who agree in one common opinion ; and surely if any middle term can be found to assuage their animosities, and to heal their discords, and to reconcile their jarring interests, it should be eagerly and instantly seized and applied. That an union is that middle term, appears the more probable when we recollect that the Popery code took its rise after a proposal for an union, which proposal came from Ireland, but which was rejected by the British government. This rejection produced the Popery code. If an union were therefore acceded to, the Pojoery code would he unnecessary. I say, if it was in consequence of the rejection of an union at a former period that the laws against Popery were enacted, it is fair to conclude that an union would render a similar code unnecessary — that an union would satisfy the friends of the Protestant ascend- ency, without passing new laws against the Catholics, and wdthout maintaining those which are yet in force."* The Union, nevertheless, was carried ; the mention of Catholic Emancipation, in spite of the language just quoted, forbidden. Mi. Pitt (in 1801) retired. IX. There will always be a mystery hanging over the trans- action to which I have just referred, — a mystery difficult to explain in a manner entirely satisfactory to the character of the King and his minister. One can only presume that the King was willing to let the Union be carried, on the strength of the Premier's promises, which he did not think it necessary to gainsay until he w^as asked to carry them into effect ; and that the Minister counted upon the important service he would have rendered if the great measure he was bringing forward became law, for the influence that w^ould be necessary to make his promises valid. It cannot be denied that each acted with a certain want of candour towards the other unbecoming their * Speech on the King's Message relative to Union with Ireland, January 2, 1799. i CANNING. 379 respective positions, and that both behaved unfairly towards Ireland. Mr. Pitt sought to give consistency to his conduct by resigning ; but he failed in convincing the public of his sincerity, because he was supposed to have recommended Mr. Addington, then Speaker of the House of Commons, and the son of a Doctor Addington, who had been the King's physician (to which circumstance the son owed a nickname he could never shake off), as his suc- cessor ; and Mr. Addington was only remarkable for not being remarkable either for his qualities or for his defects, being just that staid, sober sort of man who, respectable in the chair of the House of Commons, would be almost ridiculous in leading its debates. Thus an appointment which did not seem serious, per- plexed and did not satisfy the public mind ; more especially as the seceding minister engaged himself to support the new Premier, notwithstanding their difference of opinion on the very question on which the former had left office. The public did not know then so clearly as it does now that the King, who through his whole life seems to have been on the brink of insanity, was then in a state of mind that rendered madness certain, if the question of the Catholics, on which he had morbid and peculiar notions, was persistingly pressed upon him; and that Mr. Pitt thus, rightly or wrongly, thought it was his duty, after sacrificing office, to stop short of driving the master he had so long served into the gloom of despair. This, how- ever, was a motive that could not be avowed, and conse- quently every sort of conjecture became current. Was the arrangement made on an understanding with the King, and would Mr. Pitt shortly resume the place he had quitted ? Did Mr. Pitt, if there was no such arrange- ment, really mean to retain so incapable a person as Mr. Addington, at so important a time, at the head of the Government of England, or was his assistance given merely for the moment, with the intention of subsequently with- drawing it? At first the aid offered to the new Premier by the old one was effective and ostentatious ; but a great portion of the Opposition began also to support Mr. Addington, 380 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. intending in this way to allure hiin into an independence which, as they imagined, would irritate his haughty friend, and separate the protege from the patron. The device was successful. The Prime Minister soon began to entertain a high opinion of his own individual import- ance, Mr. Pitt to feel sore at being treated as a simple official follower of the Government, which he had expected unofficially to command, and ere long he retired almost entirely from Parliament. He did not, however, acknow- ledo;e the least desire to return to power. I In this state of things, the conduct of Mr. Canning seSmed likely to be the same as Mr. Pitt's, but it was not so. He did not, even for a moment, affect any disposition to share the partiality which the late First Lord of the Treasury began by testifying for the new one. Sitting in Parliament for a borough for which he had been elected through government influence, his conduct for a moment was fettered ; but obtaining, at the earliest opportunity, a new seat (in 1802) by his own means — that is, by his own money — he then went without scruple into the most violent oppositionj His constant eHorts to induce Achilles to take up his spear and issue from his tent, are recorded by Lord Malmesbury, and though not wholly disagreeable to his discontented chief, were not always pleasing to him. He liked, no doubt, to be pointed out as the only man who could direct successfully the destinies of England, and enjoyed jokes levelled at the dull gentleman who had become all at once enamoured of his own capacity ; but he thought his dashing and indiscreet adherent passed the bounds of good taste and decorum in his attacks, and he disliked being pressed to come forward before he himself felt convinced that the time was ripe for his doing so. Too strong a show of reluctance might, he knew, dis- courage his friends ; too ready an acquiescence compromise his dignity, and give an advantage to his enemies. He foresaw, indeed, better than any one, all the diffi- culties that lay in his path. The unwillingness of the Sovereign to exchange a minister with whom he was at his ease, for a minister of whom he always stood in awe ; CANNING. 881 the unbending character of Lord Grenville, with whom he must of necessity associate, if he fonned any government that could last, and who, nevertheless, rendered every difficulty in a government more difficult by his uncompro- mising character, his stately bearing, and his many personal engagements and connections. More than all, perhaps, he felt creeping over him what his friends did not see and would not believe — that premature decrepitude which consigned him, in the prime of hfe, to the infir- mities of age. Thus, though he felt restless at being deprived of the only employment to which he was accus- tomed, he was not very eager about a prompt reinstatement in it, and preferred waiting until an absolute necessity for his services, and a crisis, on which he always counted, should float him again into Downing Street, over many ob- stacles against which his bark might otherwise be wrecked. His real feelings, however, were matter of surmise ; many people, not unnaturally, imagined that Mr. Canning represented them ; and the energetic partisan, mixing with the world, derived no small importance from his well-known intimacy with the statesman in moody retire- ment. [His marriage, moreover, at this time with Miss Joan Scott, one of the daughters of General Scott, and co-heiress with her sisters. Lady Moray and Lady Titch- field, brought him both wealth and connection, and gave a solidity to his position which it did not previously posses^ [^n the meantime the Addington administration went on, its policy necessarily partaking of the timid and half- earnest character of the man directing it. ' Unequal to the burden and the responsibility of war, he had concocted a peace, but a peace of the character which Mr. Canning had previously described : "a peace without security and without honour :" a peace which, while it required some firnmess to decline, demanded more to maintain, since the country was as certain to be at first pleased with it as to be soon ashamed of it. No administration would have had the boldness to surrender Maltaj few would have been so weak as to promise the cessionTJ 382 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Indeed, almost immediately after concluding this halcyon peace, we find the Secretary of War speaking of " these times of difficulty and danger," and demanding " an in- creased military establishment." Nor was it long before an additional 10,000 men were also demanded for our naval service, i On both these occasions Mr. Canning, supporting the demand of the Minister, attacked the Administration ; and after stating his reasons for being in favour of the espe- cial measure proposed, burst out at once into an eloquent exhibition of the reasons for his general opposition : " I do think that this is a time when the administration of the Government ought to be in the ablest and fittest hands. I do not think the hands in which it is now placed answer to that description. I do not pretend to conceal in what quarter I think that fitness most eminently resides. I do not subscribe to the doctrines which have been advanced, that, in times like the present, the fitness of individuals for their political situations is no part of the consideration to which a Member of Parliament may fairly turn his attention. I know not a m'ore solemn or im- portant duty that a Member of Parliament can have to discharge than by giving, at fit seasons, a free opinion upon the character and qualities of public men. Aivay with the cant of measures, not men — the idle supposition that it is the harness, and not the horse, that draws the chariot alone/. No, sir ; if the comparison must be made — if the distinction must be taken — measures are com- paratively nothing, men everything. I speak, sir, of times of difficulty and danger — of times when systems are shaken, when precedents and general rules of conduct fail. Then it is that not to this or that measure, however prudently devised, however blameless in execution, but to the energy and character of individuals a state must be indebted lor its salvation. Then it is that kingdoms rise and fall in proportion as they are upheld, not by well- meant endeavours (however laudable these may be), but by commanding, overawing talent — by able men. And what is the nature of the times in which we live ? Look at France, and see what we have to cope with, and consider what has made her what she is — a man ! You will tell CANNING. 383 me that she was great, and powerful, and formidable before the date of Bonaparte's government — that he found in her great physical and moral resources — that he had but to turn them to account. True; and he did so. Compare the situation in which he found France with that to which he has raised her. I am no panegyrist of Bonaparte ; but I cannot shut my eyes to the superiority of his talents — to the amazing ascendency of his geniu^. Tell me not of his measures and his policy. It is his genius, his character, that keeps the world in awe. Sir, to meet, to check, to curb, to stand up against him, we want arms of the same kind. I am far from objecting to the large military establishments which are proposed to you. I vote for them with all my heart. But, for the purpose of coping with Bonaparte, one great commanding spirit is worth them all !"*/ [^Ir. Canning was rightT No cant betrays more igno- rance than that which affects to undervalue the qualities of public men in the march of public affairs.;' However circumstances may contribute to make individuals, indi- viduals have as great a share in making circumstances. Had Queen Elizabeth been a weak and timid woman, we might now be speaking Spanish, and have our fates de- pendent on the struggle between Prim and Narvaez. Had James II. been a wise and prudent man, — instead of the present cry against Irish Catholics, our saints of the day would have been spreading charges against the violence and perfidy of some Puritan Protestant, some English, or perhaps Scotch, O'Connell. Strip Mirabeau of his eloquence, endow Louis XYI. with the courage and the genius of Henry IV., and the history of the last eighty years might be obliterated. Mr. Canning, I repeat, was right ; the great necessity in arduous times is a man who inspires other men ; and the satirist, in measuring the two rivals for office, was hardly wrong in saying : " As London to Paddington, So Pitt is to Addington.'" * Speecli on the Army Estimates, Dec. 8, 1802. 384 HISTORICAL CHARACTEES. XT. Well-adapted ridicule no public man can withstand, and there seems to have been something peculiar to Mr. Addington that attracted it. Even Mr. Sheridan, his steady supporter to the last (for the main body of the Whigs, under Mr. Fox, when they saw a prospect of power for themselves, uniting with the Grenvillites, went into violent opposition) — even Mr. Sheridan, in those memor- able lines : " I do not love thee, Doctor Fell, The reason why 1 cannot tell ; But this 1 know, and know full well, I do not love thee, Doctor Fell " : quoted in defence of the Minister whom so many attacked without saying why they disapproved, furnished a nick- name that too well applied to him, and struck the last nail into the coffin that a mingled cohort of friends and enemies bore — a smile on their faces — to the tomb. Previous to this, the war, which had been suspended %ij mutual bad faith, was recommenced, each party com- plaining of the other. The man to whom Mr. Canning had been so long pointing now came into power, but was not precisely the man, in spite of Mr. Canning's eulogium, for the sort of crisis in which he assumed it. There was, indeed, a singular contrast in the life of Lord Chatham and that of his son. The first Pitt was essentially a war minister ; he seemed to require the sound of the clarion and trumpet and of the guns proclaiming victory from the Tower, to call forth the force and instincts of his genius. In peace he became an ordinary person. The second Pitt, on the contrary, was as evidently a peace minister. In quiet times his government had been eminently successful. Orderly, regular, methodical, with a firm and lofty soul, and the purest motives for his guides, he had carried on the business of the country, steadily, prudently, and ably — heedless of the calumnies of envy, or the combinations of factions : but he wanted that imagination which furnishes resources on unexpected occasions. The mighty CANNING. 385 convulsion which made the world heave under his feet did not terrify him, but it bewildered him ; and nothing could be more unfortunate, or even more wavering, than his conduct when he had to deal with extraordinary events. Still, in one thing he resembled his father — he had un- bounded confidence in himself. This sufficed for the moment to give confidence to others ; and his stately figure, standing, in the imagination of the nation, by the side of Britannia, added to the indomitable courage of our mariners, and shed a kindred influence over the heroic genius of their chief. But though Mr. Pitt had in a supreme degree the talent of commanding the respect of his followers and admirers, he had not the genial nature which gives sway over equals ; and Mr. Fox had of late won to himself many eminent persons who by their opinions and antecedents were more naturally disposed to join his rival. The Premier felt this difficulty, and being wholly above jealousy, would have coalesced with Mr. Fox, and formed a ministry strong in the abilities which at that critical time were so required. But George III., with a narrowness of mind that converted even his good qualities into defects, said, " Bring me whom you please, Mr. Pitt, except Fox." This exception put an end to the combination in view ; for, in spite of Fox's disinterested remonstrances, or, perhaps, in consequence of them, none of his friends would quit his side. Nevertheless, proud, accustomed to power, careless of responsibility, defying all opponents, inspiring awe by his towering person and sonorous voice, as well as by the lofty tone of his eloquence and the sohtary grandeur of his disposition, alone in front of a stronger j)halanx of adversaries than ever, perhaps, before or since, were marshalled against a minister, — Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Windham, the Grenvilles, Mr. Grey, JMr. Tierney — as daring and undaunted in appearance as in the first flush of his youthful glory, stood this singular personage, honoured even in his present isolation with the public hopes. But Fortune, which in less eventful moments had followed, chose this fatal moment for deserting him. In vain he turned to his most able supporter for assistance : 2 c 386 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS, that early friend, more unfortunate than himself, stood disabled, and exposed to a disgraceful impeachment. The struggle was too severe ; it wore out a spirit which nothing could bend or appal. On the 23rd of January, 1806, immediately after the news of the fatal battle of Austerlitz, which chilled the remains of life within him, and on the anniversary of the day on which, twenty-five years before, he had been returned to ParHament, Mr. Pitt died. XII. Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox (the King's antipathy was this time overborne by necessity) formed the new Ministry, in which Lord Sidmouth (late Mr. Addington), who, Mr. Canning said, " was like the small-pox, since everybody must have him once in their lives," was also included. During the short time that Mr. Canning had lately held office, his situation as Treasurer of the Navy had invested him with the defence of Lord Melville, a defence which he conducted with much tact and ability^^nd to this his parliamentary labours had been confined. f^The employment of " All the Talents " (as the new Acfeinistration, com- prising men of every party, was called) now left him almost alone amongst the parliamentary debaters in onppsition. This position was a fortunate onej Tin the most formidable and successful attacks against Lord Ellenborough's seat in the Cabinet, which was indefensible — against Mr. Windham's Limited Service Bill, of which party spirit denied the merits — he led the way. His success on all these occasions was great, and the style of his speaking now began to show the effects of care and experience. A less methodic mode of arguing, a greater readiness in replying, had removed the unprepossessing impression of previous study ; while an artful rapidity of style permitted that polish of language which is too apt, when unskilfully employed, to become prolix, monotonous, and languid. It was this peculiar polish, accompanied by a studied though apparently natural rapidity, which, becoming more and more perfect as it became apparently more natural, subsequently formed the es-ential excellence of Mr. Canning's speaking; for his poetical illustrations CANNING. 387 required the charm of his delivery, and his jokes, imitated from Mr. Sheridan, were rarely so good as their model ; although, even in his manner of introducing and dealing with these, we may trace, as he advanced, a very marked improvementj The coalition between parties at one time so adverse as those enlisted under the names of Fox, Grenville, and Addington, could only be maintained by the ascendency of that master-spirit which had been so long predominant in the House of Commons. But when Mr. Fox undertook the arduous duties of the Foreign Office, his health (that treasure which statesmen often spend with improvidence, and which he had wasted more than most men) was already beginning to fail, rendering heavy the duties of public life ; and in 1806 — while our diplomacy at Paris was making a last attempt to efiect that honourable peace which had so long been the object of the worn-out minister's desires — that great statesman, whose generous and noble heart never deceived him, but whose singular capacity in debate was often marred by a remarkable want of judgment in action, followed his haughty predecessor to an untimely grave. The Grenville Administration, after the death of Mr. Fox, was no more the former Administration of Lord Grenville than the mummy, super stitiously presumed to preserve the spirit of the departed, is the real lining body of the person who has been embalmed. It avoided, how- ever, the ignominy of a natural death, by being the first Administration which, according to Mr. Sheridan, *'not only ran its head against a wall, b .t actually built a wall for the purpose of running its head against it." This instrument of suicide was the well-known bill " for securing to all his Majesty's subjects the privilege of serving in the Army and Navy." A measure which, by permitting Irish Catholics to hold a higher military rank than the law at that time allowed them, showed the \N hig government to be true to its principles, but without tact or ability in carrying them out ; for this bill, brought forward honour- ably but unadvisedly, withdrawn weakly, alarming many, and never granting much, dissatisfied the Catholics, 388 HISTORICAL CIIARACTEBS!. angered the Protestants, and gave tlie King tlie op- portunity of sending a ministry he dishked about their business, on a pretext which there. was sufficient bigotry in the nation to render popular. ^ A dissolution amidst the yell of " No Popery !" took place ; and it was by this cry that the party with which Mr. Canning now consented to act reinstalled itself in power^ XIII. A person well qualified to know the facts of that time, once told me that, not very long before the dissolution of the Ministry to which he succeeded, at a time certainly when that dissolution was not so apparent, Mr. Canning had privately conveyed to Lord Grrenville, who had previously made him an offer, his wish to secede from opposition, and had even received a promise that a suitable place (Mr. Windham's dismissal was at that time arranged) should be reserved for him. Eeminded of this when affairs had become more critical, he is said to have observed, " it was too late." LWhatever may be the truth as to this story — and such stories are rarely accurate in all their details — one thing is certain, the brilliant abilities of the aspiring orator, though then and afterwards de- preciated by the dull mediocrity which affects to think wit and pleasantry incompatible with the higher and more serious attributes of genius, now became apparent, and carried him through every obst^le to the most important political situation in the countryj LIST OF MINISTERS. President of the) Council. . . . f Lord High Chancellor Lord Privy Seal First .Lord of the| Treasury . . . f First Lord of thei Admiralty . . ) Master - General of i the Ordnance . f In March, 1807. Viscount Sidmouth Lord Erskine . Lord Holland . Lord Grenville . Right Hon. T. Gren ville . . . Earl of Moira . In April, 1807. Earl Camden. Lord Eldon. J Earl of Westmore- \ land. Duke of Portland. Lord Mulgrave. Earl of Chatham. CANNING. 389 LIST OF MINISTERS— co/z^i«Me(?. la March, 1807. Secretary of State for the Home Office Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs . Secretary for War) and the Colonies . f President of the Board of Trade . Lord Chief Justice . Chancellor of the Exchequer . A seat in the Cabinet without office * > Earl Spencer Lord Howick Right Hon. Windham W. Lord Auckland . Lord Ellenborough. Lord H. Petty (after- wards Marquis of Lansdowne) . Earl Fitzwilliam. In April, 1807. Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards Lord Liverpool). Llr. Canning. Lord Castlereagh. Earl Bathurst. Hon. Spencer Perce- val. It is remarkable enougli that in the Whig or popular cabinet there was only one person (Mr. Windham) — a gentleman of great landed property, as well as of remark- able ability — who was not a lord or a lord's son. In the Tory cabinet Mr. Canning formed the only similar exception. The principles on which the new Government stood in respect to the Irish Catholics were soon put to the test by ]\Ir. Brand, afterwards Lord Dacre, who moved : "That it is contrary to the first duties of the con- fidential servants of the Crown to restrain themselves by any pledge, expressed or implied, from offering to the King any advice which the course of circumstances may render necessary for the welfare and security of any part of his Majesty's extensive empire." This motion was caused by the King having required the late Government to pledge itself not to bring forward any future measure of Catholic relief, and having dismissed it^xhen it refused thus to fetter its judgment. (Mr. Canning rose amidst an unwilling audience. The imputations to which his early change of principles had exposed him were rather vividly confirmed by the reckless- ness with which he now appeared to be rushing into office f 390 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS. amongst colleagues lie had lately professed to despise, and in support of opinions to which he was known to be opposed. The House received him coldly, and with cries of " Question," as he commenced an explanation or defence, marked by a more^ihan usual moderation of tone and absence of ornamentj The terms on which he had been with the former Administration were to a great degree admitted in the following passage : " For myself, I confidently aver that on the first intima- tion which I received, from authority I behoved to be unquestionable, of the strong difi'erence of opinion subsist- ing between the King and his Ministers, I took the de- termination of communicating what I had learnt, and I did communicate it without delay to that part of the late Administration with which, in spite of political differences, I had continued, and with which, so far as my own feelings are concerned, I still wish to continue in habits of personal friendship and regard. I communicated it, with the most earnest advice and exhortation, that they should lose no time in coming to such an explanation and accommodation on the subject at issue as should prevent matters from going to extremities." (^his statement, it is acknowledged, was perfectly correct ; but it leaves untouched the tale just alluded to, and which represented the Minister, who was then making his explanations, as having been ready to join an Admini- stration favourable to the Catholic claims, previous to his joining an Administration hostile to those claims. But though I have related this tale as I heard it, I do not pretend to vouch for its accuracy. But without denying or vouching for the truth of this tale (though the authority on which it rests is highly respectable), I may observe, it may be said that " no coalition can take place without previous compromise or intrigue," and that almost every Administration is formed or supported by coalition] HoW^indeed, had the Administration which now gave way been originally composed ? Of Mr. Windham, the loudest declaimer for war ; of Mr. Fox, the most deter- mined advocate of peace ; of Lord Sidmouth, the constant i CANXIXG. 391 subject of ridicule to both Mr. Windham and Mr. Fox. There was Mr. Sheridan, the champion of annual Parlia- ments ; Lord Grenville, opposed to all reform ! Besides, it was at that time accepted as an axiom by a large number of the supporters of the Catholics, that the Sovereign's health created a justifiable reason for leaving the Catholic question in abeyance, and that the attempt to push it forward at an untimely moment would not really tend to it^s-succes3. LNor did Lord Castlereagh, who had always shown himself an honest champion of the Catholic cause, evince more scruples on this matter than the new Foreign Secretary. But if Mr. Canning's friends made excuses » for him, Mr. Canning himself, always saying "that a 4^ thrust was the best parry," felt more disposed to attack the enemy than to defend himself; and many of the political squibs which turned the incapable Administration of " All the Talents " into ridicule, were attributed to his satirical fancy. From 1807 to 1810, he remained in officeT] XIV. The period just cited was marked by our interference in Spain, our attack on Copenhagen, and that expedition to the Scheldt, which hung during two years over the debates in Parliament, like one of the dull fogs of that rker. ^ur foreign policy, though not always fortunate, could no loii^eii_at least be accused of want of character and vigourJlj^LS to the intervention in Spain, though marked by the early calamity of Sir John Moore, it was still memorable for having directed the eye of our nation to the vulnerable point in that Colossus whom our consistency and perseverance finally brought to the ground,, The Danish enterprise was of a more doubtful character, and can only be judged of fairly by carrying our minds back to the moment at which it took place. That moment was most critical ; every step we took was of importance. Before the armies of France, and the genius of her ruler, lay the vanquished legions of the north and south of 392 niSTOBICAL CHARACTERS. Germany. From the House of Hapsburg the crown of Charlemagne was gone ; while the throne of the Great Frederick was only yet preserved in the remote city of Konigsberg. In vain Eussia protracted an inauspicious struggle. The battle of Friedland dictated peace. There remained Sweden, altogether unequal to the conflict in which she had plunged : Denmark protected by an evasive neutrality, which it was for the interest of neither contend- ing party to respect. On the frontiers of Holstein, in- capable of defence, hung the armies of France. Zealand and Funen, indeed, were comparatively secure, but people do not willingly abandon the most fertile of their pos- sessions, or defy an enemy because there are portions of their territory which will not sink before the first attack. Ministers laid some stress on their private information, and it is said that Sir E. Wilson, returning, perhaps it may be said escaping, with extraordinary diligence from Eussia after the Peace of Tilsit, brought undeniable intelligence as to the immediate intentions of our new allies. But private information was useless. We do not want to know what a conqueror intends to do, when we know what his character and interests imperatively direct him to do. It would have been absurd, indeed, not to foresee that Napoleon could not rest in neutral neighbour- hood on the borders of a country, the possession of which, whether under the title of amity or conquest, w^as eminently essential to his darling continental system, since through Tonningen were passed into Germany our manufactures and colonial produce. Had this, indeed, been disputable before the famous decree of the 21st of November,* that decree removed aU doubts. Denmark, then, had no escape from the mighty war raging around her, and had only to choose between the tyrant of the Continent or the mistress of the seas. If she declared against us, as it was likely she would do, her navy, joined to that of Eussia, and, as it soon would be, to that of Sweden, formed a powerful force— not, indeed, for * A virtual declaration of hostility against every neutral power. CANNING. 393 disputing the empire of the ocean ; there we might safely have ventured to meet the world in arms ; but for assisting in those various schemes of sudden and furtive invasion which each new continental conquest encouraged and facilitated — encompassed, as we became, on all sides by- hostile shores. | But if the neutrality of the Danes was impossible, if their fleet, should they become hostile to us, might add materially to our peril, was it wrong to make them enter frankly into our alliance, if that were possible, or to deprive ih,em of their worst means of mischief, if they would notjj' [After all, what did we say to Denmark ? — " You can- not any longer retain a doubtful position ; you must be for us, or we must consider you against us. ' If a friend, you may count on all the energy and resources of Great Britain.' " Denmark had offered to sell a large portion of her marine to Russia, and we offered to purchase it manned. It was required, she said, to defend Zealand; we-offered to defend Zealand for herr- (jBut our negotiation failed, and finally we seized, as be- longing to a power which was certain to become an enemy, the ships with which she refused to aid us as an ally. A state must be in precisely similar circumstances before it can decide whether it ought to do precisely a similar thingj Some blamed our conduct as unjust, whilst others praised it as bold. What perhaps may be said is, that if unjust at all, it was not bold enough. War once com- menced, Zealand should have been held; the stores and supphes in the merchant docks not left unnoticed; the passage of the Sound kept possession of. In short, our assault on Copenhagen should have been part of a per- manent system of warfare, and not suffered to appear a mere temporary act of aggression. C^Still it showed in the Minister who planned and stood responsible for it, three quahties, by no means common : ^^^ secrecy, foresight and decision?) 394 lUSTOEICAL CHABACTERS. XY. But if our conduct towards the Danes admits of defence, luckily for Mr. Canning tlie odium of that miserable expe- dition against Holland — in which " Lord Chatham, with his sword undrawn, Stood waiting for Sir Richard Straclian ; Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em, Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham ;" an expedition equally disgraceful to ministers and com- manders—fell chiefly on his colleague, who had originated and presided over it, having himself been present at the embarkation. L It is necessary here to say a word or two concerning tMt statesman, who, though agreeing with Mr. Canning upon the principal question of their time, was never cordially united with him. Lord Castlereagh joined to great boldness in action, — great calm and courtesy of manner, long habits of official routine, and a considerable acquaintance with men collectively and individually. He lived in the world, and was more essentially a man of the world than his eloquent contemporary ; but, on the other hand, he was singularly deficient in literary accomplish- ments, and this deficiency was not easily pardoned in an assembly, the leading members of which had received a classical education, and were as intolerant to an ungram- matical phrase as to a political blunder. His language — inelegant, difiuse, and mingling every variety of meta- phorical expression — was the ridicule of the scholar. Still the great air with which he rose from the Treasury Bench, threw back his blue coat, and showed his broad chest and white waistcoat, looking defiance on the ranks of the Op- position, won him the hearts of the rank and file of the government adherents. In afiairs, he got through the details of office so as to satisfy forms, but not so as to pro- duce results : for if the official men who can manufacture plans on paper are numerous, the statesmen who can give them vitality in action are rare; and Lord Castlereagh was. not one of theroT) [ There was never, as I have just said, any great cor- CANNING. 395 diality or intimacy between two persons belonging to the same party and aspiring equally to play the principal part in it. The defects of each, moreover, were just of that kind that would be most irritating to the eye of the other ; but they would probably have gone on rising side by side, if they had not now been thrown together and almost identified in common action. The success of most of Mr. Canning's schemes as Minister of Foreign Affairs depended greatly upon the skill with which Lord Castlereagh, as Minister of War, carried them into execution ; any error of the latter affected the reputation of the former ; thus the first difficulty was sure to produce a quarrel. Mr. Can- ning indeed was constantly complaining that every project that was conceived by the Foreign Office miscarried when it fell under the care of the War Office ; that all the gold which he put into his colleague's crucible came out, some- how or other, brass ; and these complaints were the more bitter, since, involuntarily influenced by his rhetorical predilections, he could not help exaggerating the conse« quences of mistakes in conduct, which were aggravated by mistakes in grammarT] (Nevertheless, wishmg, very probably, to avoid a public scandal, he merely told the head of the Government privately that a change must take place in the Foreign or in the War Department, and, after some little hesitation, the removal of Lord Castlereagh was determined on] but some persons from whom, perhaps, that statesman had no right to expect desertion, anxious to keep their abandon- ment of him concealed as long as possible, requested delay ; and the Duke of Portland, a man of no resolution, not daring to consent to the resignation of one of the haughty gentlemen with whom he had to deal, was glad to defer the affront that it was intended to put on to the other. Such being the state of things, Mr. Canning was prevailed upon to allow the matter to stand over for a while, re- ceiving at the same time the most positive assurances as to his request being finally complied with. At the end of the session and the conclusion of the enterprise (against Flushing) already undertaken, some arrangement was to be proposed, "satisfactory, it was hoped, to all parties." 396 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Sucli is the usual hope of temporising politicians. But, in the meantime, the Secretary of War was allowed to sup- pose that he carried into the discharge of the duties of his high post, all the confidence and approbation of the Cabinet. This was not a pleasant state of things to discover in the moment of adversity ; when the whole nation felt itself disgraced at the pitiful termination of an enterprise which had been very lavishly prepared and very ostentatiously paraded. Yet such was the moment when Mr. Canning, fatigued at the Premier's procrastination, disgusted by the calamity which he attributed to it, and resolved to escape, if possible, from a charge of incapacity, beneath which the whole Ministry was likely to be crushed, threw up his ap- pointment, and the unfortunate Secretary of War learnt that for months his abilities had been distrusted by a majority of the Cabinet in which he sat, and his situation only provisionally held on the ill-extorted acquiescence of a man he did not like, and who underrated and disliked him. His irritation vented itself in a letter which pro- duced a duel — a duel that Mr. Canning was not justly called upon to fight ; for all that he had done was to post- pone a decision he had a perfect right to adopt, and which he deferred expressly in order to spare Lord Castlereagh's feelings and at the request of Lord Castlereagh's friends. But the one of these gentlemen was quite as peppery and combative as the other, though it appeared he was not quite so good a shot, for Mr. Canning missed his opponent and received a disagreeable wound, though not a dangerous one ; the final result of the whole affair being the resig- nation of the Premier and of the two Secretaries of State, the country paying twenty millions (the cost of the late barren attempt at glory) because the friends of a minister had shrunk from saying anything unpleasant to him until he was prostrate. CANNING. 397 Part II. FROM ME. Perceval's administration to acceptance of THE governor-generalship OF INDIA. Mr. Perceval, Prime Minister. — Lord Wellesley, Minister of Foreign Affaii-s. — King's health necessitates regency. — The line taken by Mr. Canning upon it. — Conduct with respect to ]Mr. Horner's Finance Committee. — Absurd resolu- tion of ^Ir. Vansittart. — Lord Wellesley quits the Ministry. — Mr. Perceval is assassinated. — Mr. Canning and Lord W'ellesley charged to form a new Cabinet, and fail. — Further negotiations with Lords Giey and Grenville fail. — Lord Liverpool becomes head of an Administration which Mr. Canning declines to join. — Accepts subsequently embassy to Lisbon, and, in 1816, enters the Ministry. — Suppoils coeicive and restrictive measures. — Resigns office at home after the Queen's trial, and accepts the Governor-Generalship of Lidia. A new Administration brouglit Lord Wellesley to the Foreign Office, and Mr. Perceval to the head of aflairs. In 1810 the state of the King's health came once more before the public. Parliament met in November; the Sovereign was this time admitted by his courtiers to be unmistakedly insane. A commission had been appointed, but there was no speech with which to address the Houses ; no authority to prorogue them. Mr. Perceval moved certain resolutions. These resolutions were impor- tant, for they furnished a text for debate, and settled the question so much disputed in 1788-9, deciding (for no one was found to take up the old and unpopular arguments of Mr. Fox) that Parhament had the disposal of the Eegency ; and that the Heir-apparent, without the sanction of the Legislature, had no more right to it than any other indi- vidual. These first resolutions were followed by others, expressive of a determination to confer the powers of the Crown on the Prince of Wales, but not without restrictions. Here arose a new question, and of this question Mr. Canning availed himself, [interest and consistency alike demanded that he should stand fast to the traditions of 398 HISTOBICAL CHARACTEBS. Mr. Pitt, whose name was still the watchword of a con- siderable party. But Mr. Pitt had alike contended for the right of Parliament to name the Eegent, and for the wisdom of fettering the Eegency by limitations. Whereas Mr. Canning, though advocating the powers of Parlia- ment to name the Eegent, was not in favour of limitmg the Eegent's authority. Through these confronting rocks ihe wary statesman steered with the skill of a veteran pilot ^ " The rights of the two Houses," said he, " were pro- claimed and maintained by Mr. Pitt ; that is the point on which his authority is truly valuable. The principles upon which this right was affirmed and exercised are true for all times and all occasions. If they were the principles of the Constitution in 1788, they are equally so in 1811 ; the lapse of twenty-two years had not impaired, the lapse of centuries could not impair them. But the mode in which the right so asserted should be exercised, the precise provisions to be framed for the temporary substitution of the executive power — these were necessarily then, as they must be now, matters not of eternal and invariable prin- ciple, but of prudence and expediency. In regard to these, therefore, the authority of the opinion of any individual, however great and wise and venerable, can be taken only with reference to the circumstances of the time in w^hich he has to act, and are not to be applied without change or modification to other times and circumstances."! II. Ijlhus, all that partisanship could demand in favour of an abstract principle, was religiously accorded to the manes of the defunct statesman ; and a difference as wide as the living Prince of Wales couki desire, established between the theory that no one any longer disputed, and the policy which was the present subject of contention. Here Mr. Canning acted with tact and foresight if he merely acted as a political schemer. The Eoyal personage on whom power was about to devolve had always expressed * This is one of the portions from my original sketch, Avhich it would appear that Mr. Bell consulted and copied. See Appendix, t Speech on liegency Question, Dec. 31, 1810. CAXNING, 399 the strongest dislike, not to say disgust, at any abridgment of the Eegal authority. He was hkely to form a new Administration. The Whigs, it is true, were then considered the probable successors to power ; but the Whigs would want assistance; and subsequent events showed that a general feeling had begun to prevail in favour of some new combination of men less exclusive than could be found in the ranks of either of the extreme and opposing parties. But it is fair to add that the course which Sir. Canning might have taken for his private intere^ he had every motive to take for the public welfareTj Beyond the personal argument of the sick King's con- venience — an argument which should hardly guide the policy or afiect the destinies of a mighty kingdom — Mr. Perceval had not, for the restrictions he proposed, one resonable pretext. It might, indeed, be agreeable to George III., if he recovered from his sad condition, to find things and persons as he had left them ; and to recognise that aU the functions of Government had been palsied since the suspension of his own power. But if ever the hands of a sovereign required to be strongly armed, it was most assuredly in those times. They were no times of ease or peace in which a civilized people may be said to govern themselves ; neither were we merely at war. The war we were waging was of life or death ; the enemy with whom we were contending concentrated in his own mind, and wielded with his own hand, all the force of Europe. This was not a moment for enfeebling the Government that had to contend against him. (_The power given to the King or Eegent in our country is not, let it be remem- bered, an individual and irresponsible power. It is a National power devolving on responsible Ministers, who havaio account to the nation for the use they make of itT/ C^Vhat," said Mr. Canning (having assumed and as- serted the right of the two Houses of Parliament to supply the incapacity of the sovereign) — " what is the nature of the business which through incapacity stands still, and which we are to find the means of carrying on ? It is the business of a mighty state. It consists in the exercise of 400 fflSTOBIOAL CHABACTERS. functions as large as the mind can conceive — in the regu- lation and direction of the affairs of a__great, .a free^ and_a powerful people : in the care of their internal security and external interests ; in the conduct of foreign negotiations ; in the decision of the vital questions of peace and war ; and in the administration of the Government throughout all the parts, provinces, and dependencies of an empire extending itself into every quarter of the glohe. This is the awful office of a king ; the temporary execution of which we are now ahout to devolve upon the Eegent. What is it, considering the irresponsibility of the Sove- reign as an essential part of the Constitution, — what is it that affords a security to the people for the faithful exer- cise of these all-important functions ? The responsibility of Ministers. What are the means by which these func- tions operate ? They are those which, according to the inherent imperfection of human nature, have at all times been the only motives to human actions, the only control upon them of certain and permanent operation, viz., the punishment of evil, and the reward of merit. Such, then, being the functions of monarchical government, and such being the means of rendering them efficient to the pur- poses of good government, are we to be told that in pro- viding for its delegation, while it is not possible to curtail those powers which are in their nature harsh and unpopu- lar, it is necessary to abridge those milder, more amiable and endearing prerogatives which bear an aspect of grace and favour towards the subject ?f} III. There w^as no answer to Mr. Canning, but a very practical one. Mr. Perceval thought that the King would shortly recover and keep him in office — and that the Eegent, if his Eoyal Highness had but the power, would forthwith turn him out of it. Such an argument might I satisfy a more scrupulous minister. In vain, therefore. 1 was it urged, "If the powers of a monarch are not necessary now, they are never necessary. In consulting the possible feelings of the sick King, you are injuring the certain interests of kingly authority." CANNING. 401 The passions or interests of a faction will ever ride liigh over its principles ; and for a second time within half a century the theory of monarchy received the greatest practical insult from a high Tory minister. That the House of Commons thought a new era at hand was seen by its divisions. On the motion of Mr. Lamb (afterwards Lord Melbourne) against the '' Eestrictions," the majority in favour of Grovernment was but 224 to 200. A variety of circumstances, however, to which allusion will presently be made, prevented the general expectation from bein2^ realized. The Government remained, but it was not a Government that seemed likely to be of long duration. On one important question Mr. Canning almost immediately opposed it. lY. The report of a committee, distinguished for its ability, had attributed the depreciation in the value of bank-notes to their excessive issue, and recommended a return, within two years, to cash payments. Mr. Canning had belonged to this committee, and had given the subject, however foreign to his customary studies, much attention. The view which he took upon the sixteen resolutions moved by Mr. Horner, May 8, 1811, was, perhaps, the best. To all those resolutions, which went to fix as a principle that a real value in metal should be the proper basis for a currency — a general landmark, by which legislation should, as far as it was practicable, be guided — he assented ; that particular resolution, which, under the critical circumstances of the country, went to fetter and prescribe the moment at which this principle should be resumed, he opposed. Such opposition was unavailing ; and History instructs us, by the resolution which Mr. Vansittart then proposed, that no absurdity is so glaring as to shock the eye of prejudiced credulity. "May 13, 1811. " Eesolution III. — ' That it is the opinion of this committee (a committee of the whole House) that the promissory notes of the company (the Bank) have hitherto been, and are at this time, held in jpublic estimation to he 2 D 402 HISTORICAL CHABACTEE8. equivalent to the legal coin of the realm, and generally acce][>ted as such.' " The Cliancellor of the Exchequer thus called upon the House of Commons to assert, that the public esteemed a twenty shilling bank-note as much as twenty shillings ; and it had just been necessary to frame a law to prevent persons giving more than £1 and 1 shilling for a guinea, and all the guineas had disappeared from England. It had just been found expedient to raise the value of crown- pieces from 5s. to 5s. 6d. .(which was, in fact, to reduce £1 in paper to the value of 18s.), in order to prevent crown-pieces from disappearing also. Persons were in prison for buying guineas at a premium ; whilst pamphlets and papers were universally and daily declaring that the notes of the company were not at that time held in public J estimation to be equivalent to the legal coin of the realm. ' "When Galileo," said Mr. Canning, "first promulgated the doctrine that the earth turned round the sun, and that the sun remained stationary in the centre of the universe, the holy father of the Inquisition took alarm at so daring an innovation, and forthwith declared the first of these j)ropositions to be false and heretical, and the other to be ea"oneous in point of faith. The holy office pledged itself to believe that the earth was stationary and the sun movable. But this pledge had little effect in changing the natural course of things : the sun and the earth continued, in spite of it, to preserve their accustomed relations to each other, just as the coin and the bank-note will, in spite of the right honourable gentleman's re- solution." — [Keport of Bullion Committee.] But if the opposition had the best of the debate, the minister triumphed in the division ; nevertheless so equi- vocal a success, whilst lowering the character of Parliament, did not heighten that of the Ministry. Mr. Perceval, indeed, though possessing the quick, sharp mind of a lawyer, and the small ready talent of a debater, was without any of those superior qualities which enable statesmen to take large views. Great as an advocate, he was small as a statesman. Lord Wellesley CANNING, 403 at last revolted at his supremacy, and, quitting the government, observed that "he might serve with Mr. Perceval, but could never serve under him again. " V. About this time expired the period during which the Eegency restrictions had been imposed; and not long after, the Premier (being confirmed in office by new and unsuccessful attempts to remodel the Administration) was assassinated by a madman (11 May, 1812). The cabinet, which with Mr. Perceval was weak, with- out Mr. Perceval seemed impossible; and all persons at the moment were favourable to such a fusion of parties as would allow of the formation of a Cabinet, powerful and efficient. Lord Wellesley, a man who hardly filled the space in these times for which his great abilities quahfied him (co-operating with Mr. Canning, who was to be leader in the House of Commons), was selected as the statesman through whom such a Cabinet was to be formed. But Lord Liverpool, from personal reasons, at once declined all propositions from Lord Wellesley. Another negotiation was then opened, the basis proposed for a new ministry being that four persons should be returned to the Cabinet by Lord Wellesley and Mr. Canning ; four (of whom Lord Erskine and Lord Moira were two) by the Prince Kegent ; and five by Lords Grey and Grenville, whilst the prin- ciples agreed to by aU, were to be the vigorous prosecution ' of the war, and the immediate conciliation of the Catholics. The vigorous prosecution of the war and the conciliation of the Catholics were assented to ; nor was it stated that the other conditions were inadmissible, though it was suggested that there would be a great inconvenience in making the Cabinet Council a debating society, and entering it with hostile and rival parties. Lord Wellesley returned to the Eegent for further orders. But his Eoyal Highness deemed it expedient to consider that Lord Wellesley 's attempt had been a failm'e, and the task which had been given to him was transferred to Lord Moira. This nobleman, vain, weak, and honest, undertook the 404 EIBTORICAL CHABACTEBS. commission, and a new treaty was commenced with Lords Grey and Grenville, whose conduct at this time, it must be added, seems at first sight unintelligible ; for they were granted every power they could desire in political matters. But there were various personal and private reasons which rendered all arrangements difficult. In the first place, Lord Grey is said to have despised, and never to have trusted the Prince, who, as he believed, was merely playing with the Whig party. In the next, Lord Gren- ville could not make up his mind to resign the auditorship of the exchequer, a certain salary for life, nor to accept a lower office than that of First Lord of the Treasury, while the union of the two offices, the one being a check upon the other, was too evident a job to escape observation ; indeed, Mr. Whitbread had positively said that he could never support such a combination. 1 Thus, a variety of petty interests made any pretext* sufficient to interfere with the completion of a scheme which every one was eager to counsel, no one ready to adopt. The most ungracious pretext, that of dictating the Eegent's household, was chosen for a rupture ; but it happened to chime in with the popular cry, which was loud against the influence of Hertford House ; as may be seen by the speeches of the day, and particularly by a speech from Lord Donoughmore, in which he talks of the Marchioness of Hertford, to whose veteran seductions the . Eegent was then supposed to have fallen a victim, as " a matured enchantress " who had by " potent spells " de- stroyed all previous prepossessions, and taken complete possession of the Eoyal understanding. vr. There was as much bad taste as impolicy in these attacks ; and the long-pending struggle terminated at last in favour of Lord Liverpool, who on June 8, 1812, declared himself Prime Minister. \Why did Mr. Canning, who was solicited at the close of me session to join Lord Liverpool's Administration, decline to do so ? Not because he was personally hostile to Lord Liverpool : he was warmly attached to that nobleman; not because the CANNING. 405 Administration was exclusive, and only admitted those who were hostile to the Catholic Question ; for he subsequently says (May 18, 1819): "I speak with perfect confidence when I assert that those who gave their support to the present Ministry on its formation, did so on the under- standing that every member of it entered into office with the express stijmlaiion that he should maintam_^his own opinion in Parliament on the Catholic QuestionJ!J |Mr. Stapleton says it was because his friends thought that to the Foreign Office, which he was offered, ought to have been added the lead in the House of Commons, which Lord Liverpool would not withdraw from Lord Castlereagh. But Mr. Canning eventually became a member of the Government whose fate he now declined to share, leaving to Lord Castlereagh the lead in the House of Commons. How, then, are we to account for this difference of conduct at two diff'erent epochs 23 An explanation may thus be found : During the years 1810 and 1811, our continental policy had still remained unfortunate. True it was that, by the unexpected skill and unexampled energy of our new commander, we gained, during 1811, the possession of Portugal, driving from that country a general who had hitherto been equally conspicuous for his talents and his fortune. But the whole of the Spanish frontier, and the greatest part of Spain itself, was held by the French armies ; while the victory of Wagram, the revolution in Sweden, the marriage of Na- poleon, the birth of the King of Kome, had greatly added to the weight and apparent stability of the French empire. Our differences with the United States had also con- tinually increased; and in 1812, war, which had long been impending, was declared and justified in an eloquent and able statement by Mr. Madison. In the meantime Napoleon, surrounded by that luminous mystery which gave a kind of magic to his actions, was marching in all the pomp of anticipated triumph against the remote and solitary state which alone, on the humbled and subjugated continent, had yet the means and the courage to dispute his edicts and defy his power. Up to the 14th of September, when he entered Moscow, his 406 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. career was more marvellous, his glory more dazzling than ever. ^ VII. LSuch was the state of foreign affairs when Mr. Canning and his friends refused to connect themselves with a feeble and self-mistrusting administration. But the year following things were strangely altered. The retreat from Eussia had taken place ; the battle of Leipsic had been fought. Eussians, Austrians, Saxons, Swedes, Bavarians, Spaniards, Portuguese, the people of those various nations, who had formerly ta_defend their own territory, were now pouring into FranceJ The first gleams of victory shone over the gloomy struggle of twenty years. An accident yet unexplained — the burning of a city on the farthest confines of the civilized world — had changed the whole face of European affairs. "The mighty deluge," to use Mr. Canning's poetical language, " by which the Continent had been so long overwhelmed, began to subside. The limits of nations were again visible, and the spires and turrets of ancient establishments began to re-appear from beneath the-subsiding wave." * r From this moment Mr. Canning began to show con- fidence in a ministry which he had hitherto more or less despised. The desire of sustaining it in this crisis of the terrible conflict in which we were engaged, had no doubt some influence over his conduct ; but I venture to add that there are natures which, without being instigated by low and vulgar motives, have a propensity to harmonize with success. Mr. Canning's nature was of this de- scription. It loved the light to shine on its glittering surface; and he began to feel a sympathy for the Government, bright with the rays of anticipated fortune, which in darker moments he had shrunk from with antipathy and mistrust. ] Napoleon fell shortly afterwards, and Mr. Huskisson, the most celebrated of Mr. Canning's followers, was Speech on vote of thanks to the Marquis of Wellington, July 7, 1813. CANNING, 40^ gazetted as Commissioner of Woods and Forests; Mr. Canning himself (who at the last general election had been honoured by the unsolicited representation of Liver- pool) accepting an embassy to Lisbon. His acceptance of this office was one of the actions of his life for which he was most attacked ; it was considered a job ; for an able minister (Mr. Sydenham), on a moderate salary, was recalled, in order to give the eminent orator, whose support the Government wished to obtain, the appoint- ment of ambassador on a much larger salary : and although, when Mr. Lambton (afterwards Lord Durham) brought forward a motion on the subject, Mr. Canning made a triumphant reply to the specific charges brought against his nomination, and although he was altogether above the accusation of accepting any post for the mere sake of its emoluments, it was nevertheless clear that it was because he was going to Lisbon for the health of his son. and that it was more agreeable to him to go in an official position than as a simple individual, that he had been employed, and his predecessor removed, 'jt is need- less to add he would have acted more wisely had he not accepted a post in which littla, credit was to be gained and much censure was to be risked; On his return from Portugal he entered the Cabinet at the^head of the Board of Control. (During his absence many events had occurred to cha- racterize the Administration he joined. Peace finally established on the prostrate armies of France, which at "Waterloo had made their last struggle, left the war which we had pursued with so lavish an expenditure, and so desperate a determination, to be estimated by its results. Whatever the necessity of this war at its commencement, the cause under which it^had been continued for the last fourteen years was sacred^l [^ military chief at t£e head of a valorous soldiery, had during this time trampled on the rights and feelings of almost every people in Europe. The long-established barriers of independent states had been shifted or pulled down like hurdles, to make them fit the increasing or diminishing drove of cattle which it suited the caprices of 408 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. the French ruler that they should contain. The in- habitants of such states, treated little better than mere cattle, had been seized, sold, bartered, given away. It was no niaryel, then, that the conquerors became in the end the conquered ; for the struggle was one which commenced by all the kings marching against one people, and con- cluded by every people marching against one w^arrior. They invoked — these new assailants — wbat is best in philosophy, morality, policy; they conquered, and what did philosophy, morality, policy gain ? Were rights and natural-. sympathies respected? Were old landmarks re- sipifid^ [_The peace alluded to was said to be a peace founded on justice, and justice never deserts the w'eak ; yet Genoa was gone ; Venice w^as no more ; Poland remained partitioned ; Saxony had been plundered by Prussia with as unsparing a hand as that by \vhich she herself had been despoiled during the conquests of France. Norway, by a treaty, which Mr. Canning had said, in 1813, when still un- shackled by office, "filled him with shame, regret, and indignation," was become the unwilling recompense to Sw^eden for the loss of a province of which a mightier power had taken possession. A struggle of the fiercest nature had been steadily maintained merely for the sake of restoring things to their old condition ; and no nation not pre-eminent in power got back its own, except Spain, which recovered the Inquisition.* Even Holland w^as not re-invested with her ancient liberties, her old noble republican name. Stripped of her glorious history, and weakened by the addition of four millions of discontented subjects, the statesmen of the day fancied her more august and more secure. The errors committed at this time were those of a system ; for there were two courses to pursue in the re-settlement of Europe. Had it ap- peared that, after a conflict of nearly thirty years, during which violence had held unlimited sway, everything which w^as dear to the people it concerned, and which still stood forth vivid in history, was endowed with a new reality ; that at the overthrow of wrongful power, the right of the * See Apjj^ndix. CANNING. 409 meanest was everywhere weighed, and the right of the weakest everywhere established : had it appeared that the mightiest captain of modern times had only been van- quished by a principle — which, if the general interest could predominate, would regulate the destinies of the world — then indeed a lesson, of which it is impossible to calculate the effects, would have been given to all future ambitious disturbers of mankind: while the lovers of peace and virtue in every portion of the globe, even in France, would have seen something holy in the triumph which had been gained, and gathered round the cause of the allies. But if this was one policy, there was also another, and that other was adopted^j IX. As Bonaparte had cut up and parcelled out nations for the purpose of enlarging the boundaries and strengthening the dominions of France, so the conquerors of Bonaparte spoiled and partitioned with equal zeal, in order to control the boundaries and restrain the dominion of the warlike people they had defeated. The limits imposed by right, justice, antiquity, custom, were all disregarded, and an attempt, by preference, made to throw up against all future schemes of conquest the patchwork barrier of ill- united and discordant populations. Such had been the termination of affairs in Europe ; but our contest with America was also over. We had made a treaty with that Power — a treaty so contrived that it did not settle a single one of those questions for which we had engaged in war. Nor were the circum- stances under which this singular arrangement was com- pleted such as compelled us to accede to it. The whole force of the British empire was disengaged ; we could no longer say that our fleets were not invincible in one quarter of the world because their strength was exerted in another ; whilst, if we meant to keep the dominion of the seas — more important to us than the whole of that con- tinent we had been subsidizing and contending upon — there was every peril to apprehend from leaving unchecked the spirit of a rising rival, who had lately fought and fre- 410 EISTOBICAL CHARACTEB8. quently vanquislied us on our own element, and who during a long peace would have the opportunity to mature that strength of which she w^as already conscious and proud. \_In short, the peace of Europe affected our cha- racter for morality, that of America weakened the belief in our power^j' [Mr. Canning would hardly have joined an Administra- tion which had so mismanaged our foreign affairs, if the glory of our arms had not gilded in some degree the faults of our diplomacy. But the part which that diplomacy had played on the Continent was not without its effect upon things at home. We had become each year more and more alienated from our military allies, who having triumphed by the enthusiasm of their people, seemed disposed to govern by the bayonets of their troops. The Holy Alliance — that singular compact, invented partly by the superstition, partly by the policy of the Emperor Alexander — an alliance by which three sovereigns, at the head of conquering armies, swore in very mystical lan- guage to govern according to the doctrines of Christian charity, swearing also (which w^as more important) to lend each other assistance on all occasions, and in all places — this alliance, which no one could clearly under- stand, and which our Government refused to join, excited all the suspicion and all the apprehension which mystery never fails to produce, and made Englishmen, w^hile they were rejoicing at having subdued an overgrown and despotic tyranny in one quarter of the world, doubt whether they might not have created as dangerous a one in anotherJ X. Nor was this all. They who begin to be dissatisfied with the fruits of victory, soon grow more and more dis- satisfied with what victory has cost. Moreover, this period, from a variety of circumstances, some of them inseparable from the sudden transition from active war to profound peace, was one of great uncertainty and distress : whilst the public mind, no longer excited by military conflict, was the more disposed to political agitation. A demand for diminished imposts, and a demand for political CANNING. 411 reform, are always to be expected at such moments. Our form of government led more naturally to these demands, for the theory of the constitution was at variance with its practice ; the one saying that Englishmen should be taxed by their representatives, the other proving that they were in many instances taxed by persons who represented a powerful patron or a petty constituency, and not the people of England. The evils complained of were exag- gerated ; there were exaggerations also as to the remedies for which the most violent of the clamorous called. But the thoughts of the nation were directed to economy as a relief from taxation, and to parliamentary reform as a means of economy. Public meetings in favour of parlia- mentary reform were held ; resolutions in favour of par- liamentary reform were passed ; petitions praying for it were presented ; the energies of a free people, who thought themselves wronged, were aroused : great excitement prevailed. XI. The vessel of the state in these sudden squalls requires that those at the helm should govern it with a calm heart and a steady hand. Anger and fear are equally to be avoided, for they lead equally to violent measures, and the excitement of one party only feeds the excitement of the other. Lord Castlereagh, the leading spirit at this time in the Cabinet, vapid and incorrect as an orator, inefficient as an administrator, was still, as I have elsewhere said, not without qualities as a statesman — for he was cool and he was courageous ; and, therefore, if we now see him acting as if under the influence of the most slavish apprehension, we must look for some reasonable motive for his appearing to entertain fears which he could not have really felt. Now, the fact is, that he had but two things to do — to satisfy the discontented as aggrieved, or to rally the majority of the country against them as disafi'ected. The first policy would not keep his party in power; the second, therefore, was the one he preferred. The terrors of the timid were to be awakened; the passions of the haughty were to be aroused ; the designs of the mal- 412 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. contents were to be darkened — their strength increased — in short, to save the Ministry, it was essential that the State should be declared in danger. This is an old course ; it has been tried often : it was tried now. Thus Government opened the Session of 1817 with a " green bag." This bag, a true Pandora's box, contained threats of every mischief — assassination, incendiarism, in- surrection, in their most formidable and infuriated shapes. One conspiracy, indeed, was a model that deserves to be set apart for the use of future conspirators or — statesmen. It comprehended the storming of the Bank and the Tower, the firing the different barracks, the overthrow of every- body and everything, even the great and massive bridges which cross the Thames, and which were to be blown up as a matter of course ; but the traitors were pious and brave men, relying almost wholly on Providence and their courage, so that only two hundred and fifty pikes and some powder in an old stocking had been provided to secure the success of their undertaking:. XII. Many schemes equally plausible were attributed to, and perhaps entertained by, a few unhappy men in the manu- lacturing districts ; while the well-known doctrines of an enthusiast named Spence* — doctrines which inculcate the necessity of property being held in common, and which under different names have been continually put forward at every period of the world — found amongst the poor and starving, as they will ever find in times of distress and difficulty, a ready reception. " These doctrines," said Lord Castlereagh, " contain in themselves a principle of contradiction;" but he was not willing to trust to this principle alone ! Various laws were passed, tending to limit the right of discussion : men were forbidden to co-operate or correspond for the purpose of amending the existing constitution. Public meetings were placed at the disposal of a magis- * Sponce preached about the period of the French Eevolution, and his doctrines were revived now by his follower, Evans. CANNING. 413 trate, who could prevent or disperse them as he thought proper. Finally, the "Habeas Corpus" Act was sus- pended. Nothing could be more wanton or absurd than this last outrage on public freedom. The Ministers who were calling upon the country to defend our institutions, were for sweeping away their very foundations. In vain did Lord Grey, with even more than his usual eloquence, exclaim, " We are warned not to let any anxiety for the security of liberty lead to a compromise of the security of the State ; for my part, I cannot separate these two things ; the safety of the State can only be found in the protection of the liberties of the people." Having entered upon a career of terror, a new violence is daily necessary in order to guard against the con- sequences of the last ; nor was the addition of 3,000,000?. of taxes, imposed at the close of 1819, well adapted to soothe popular irritation. In the meantime the meeting at Manchester, foolishly got up, and foolishly and bar- barously put down, aroused a cry which only the utmost severity could hope to quell. Such severity was adopted in the Acts which prevented public and parish meetings ; which punished offences of the press with transportation ; which exposed the houses of peaceable inhabitants to mid- night search, and deprived an Englishman of what w^as once considered his birthright — the right of keeping arms for his own defence. At the same time the bulk of the nation was declared to be sound and loyal, the country prosperous ; and as a note which may perhaps be considered somewhat explanatory of these different declarations, came a demand for 10,000 additional troops. It was of no use to argue that the nation was quiet, and resolved only on constitutional means of redress. "Yes, sir," said the figurative seconder of the Address (1819) — " yes, sir, there has undoubtedly been an appearance of tranquillity, but it is the tranquillity of a lion waiting for Ids preij. There has been the apparent absence of danger, but it is that of a fire half-smothered by the weight of its own combustible materials." " The meeting at Manchester," argued Lord Lansdowne (Nov. 30, 1819), "if it had not 414- E18T0R1CAL CHARACTERS. been disturbed by the magistrates, would bave gone off quietly." " Perbaps," replied an orator wbo defended tbe Government, "tbat migbt bave been tbe case ; but wby? in tbe contemplation of tbings to come, tbe peaceable and quiet demeanour of tbe disaffected, instead of lessening tbe danger, ougbt to aggravate tbe alarm — ^psa silentia ter- rentr XIII. So because people assembled at a meeting wbicb was likely to disperse peaceably migbt at some future time (and tbis was conjecture) act less peaceably, tbey were to be cbarged and sabred ; wbile tbeir constitutional conduct neitber at tbis nor at any otber period could be of tbe least avail ; beat of language was not even necessary to procure tbem tbe treatment of rebels ; for if men met and were silent, if tbey met and never uttered a word, tbeir very silence, under tbe classical autbority of tbree Latin words, was to be considered full of awful treason. Jury after jury denounced the conduct of tbe Government by returning verdicts wbicb were accusations against it. Still tbe same system was persevered in. Ministers went tbrougb tbe country witb a drag net, bauling up — not one or two influential persons (sucb, indeed, tbey could not find) — but wbole classes of men. Spies also, as it appeared from tbe different trials, acted as incendiaries, contributing in no small degree to tbe marvellous plots that tbey discovered. In one instance, a fellow of tbe name of Oliver bad gone about to all wbom be imagined ill disposed, presenting Sir Francis Burdett's compliments ; a circumstance tbe more remarkable, smce tbe only decent colour ever attempted to be given to tbese notions of insurrection was, tbat tbe names of respectable persons bad been used in connection witb tbem. In anotber case a government creature, by tbe name of Edwards, actually advanced money to a gentleman wbo may be considered tbe arcb-traitor of tbe epocb, since be was tbe autbor of tbat famous conspiracy wbicb included in its programme cutting off all tbe ministers' beads. Tbis conspiracy — of wbicb Mr. Tbistlewood, supported by tbe aforesaid Mr. Edwards, Mr. Davidson, a man of CANNING. 415 colour, and Messrs. Tidcl and Brunt, two shoemakers, were the leaders — closed the series of those formidable plots for putting an end to King, Lords, and Commons, which for three years disturbed the country ; the Ministers affecting to consider that the wisdom of the policy they pursued was proved by the folly of those wretched men whom they delivered to the executioner. Another cu'cumstance is to be remarked in reviewing these times, and attempting to portray their spirit. The Government had not only been tyrannical at home, it had afforded all the assistance in its power to foreign tyrants. Fu'st was passed the Alien Bill ; a measure which might have been defended in 1793, when France was sending out her revolutionaiy apostles; which might, with a certain plausibility, have been asked for in 1814, when, if the war were concluded, peace could hardly be considered as established; but which in 1816 could have no other pretext than that of enabhng the minister of the day to refuse a refuge to any unhappy exile from the despotism of the Continent. Shortly afterwards (1819) came the Foreign Enlistment Bill. That which Queen Elizabeth refused to Spain when Spain was in the height of her power, was conceded to Spain, now fallen into the lowest state of moral as well as political degradation. It was true that during the Admi- nistration of Sir Eobert Walpole, and under the natural fears of Jacobite armies, formed on foreign shores, laws had been passed prohibiting British subjects, except upon special pennission, from engaging in foreign service ; and the pretext now put forward was insomuch plausible, that it pretended to place ser^dce in the armies of recognised and unrecognised states on the same footing — no law existing in respect to the last. But the law in existence had not been enforced. Spain, which had been hasty in recognising the independence of the United States, could not ask us to defeat rebellion in her own colonies. Those colonies had, in fact, been first instigated by us to revolt. The regulation, professing to be impartial, would only operate in reality against one of the parties; and with that party all our commercial interests were connected. 416 HISTORICAL CIIAnACTERS. r- . . . ^^^- [It is impossible to look back to these years, and to consider the conduct of Mr. Canning without deep regret. The most eloquent and plausible defences x>f the un-English policy which prevailed were made by hiinj (jn his speech in favour of the Seditious Meetings" Bill (Feb. 24, 1817), may be seen wit supplying the place of argument ; argu- ment rendered attractive by the graces of rhetoric, and forcible by the appearance of passion. He had now, indeed, nearly attained the perfection of his own style, a style which, as it has been said, united the three excel- lences of — rapidity, polish, and ornament ; and it was the first of these qualities, let it be repeated, which, though perhaps the least perceivable of his merits, was the greatest.) " "Wmt is the nature of this danger ? Why, sir, the danger to be apprehended is not to be defined in one word. It is rebellion ; it is treason, but not treason merely ; it is confiscation, but not confiscation within such bounds as have usually been applied to the changes of dynasties, or the revolution of states ; it is an aggregate of all these evils ; it is that dreadful variety of sorrow and suffering which must invariably fellow the extinction of loyalty, morality, and religion ; the subversion, not only of the constitution of England, but of the whole frame of society. Such is the nature and extent of the danger which would attend the success of the projects developed in the report of the committee. But these projects would never have been of importance, it is affirmed, had they not been brought into notice by persecution. Persecution I Does this character belong to the proceedings instituted against those who set out on their career in opposition to all law ; and w^ho, in their secret cabals, and midnight counsels, and mid-day harangues, have been voting for destruction every individual, and every class of individuals, which may stand in their way ? But the schemes of these persons are visionary. I admit it. They have been laid by these twenty years without being found to produce mischief. Be it so. Such doctrines when dormant may be harmless CANNING. 417 enough, and their intrinsic absurdity may make it appear incredible that they should ever be called up into action. But when the incredible resurrection actually takes place, when the votaries of these doctrines actually go forth armed to exert physical strength in furtherance of them, then it is that I think it time to be on my guard — not against the accomplishment of such plans (that is, I am mlhng to believe, impracticable), but against the mischief which must attend the attempt to accomplish them by force." [Throughout the whole of this passage it can hardly be said that there is a full stop. However studiously framed, not a period lingers ; a rush of sentences gives the audience no time to pause. Abruptly framed, rapidly delivered, the phrases which may have been for hours premeditated in the Cabinet, could not, in the moment of delivery, have the least appearance of art. The oratory of Mr. Canning was also remarkable for a kind of figurative way of stating common-places, which good taste may not approve, but which, neverthelesa^is well calculated to strike and inflame a popular assembly .J "The honourable gentleman," Mr. Canning says of Mr. Calcraft (March 14, 1817), " attempts to ridicule these proceedings. He is in truth rather hard to be satisfied on the score of rebellion ; to him it is not sufficient that the town had been summoned [N.B. it had been summoned by one man], it ought to have been taken ; the metropolis should not merely have been attacked, but in flames. He is so difficult in regard to proof that he would continue to doubt until all the mischief was not only certain but irreparable. For my part, however, I am satisfied when I hear the trumpet of rebeUion sounded ; I do not think it necessary to wait the actual onset before I put myself on my guard. I am content to take my precautions when I see the torch of the incendiary lighted, without waiting till the Bank and the Mansion House are blazing to the sky." ^ XV. iBut if there was much of eloquence, there was more of sophistry, in these pointed and painted harangues. The 2 E 418 HISTORICAL CHABACTEBS. designs on foot were represented as so formidable that they required the utmost rigour to suppress them ; and yet they were the designs of a few, of a very few, against whom millions were arrayed. These few were to be struck down at all hazards and by all means, in order that the millions might be in security. The anti- -U revolutionary statesman was simply borrowing from the revolutionary apostle. "What are a few aristo- crats," would Danton say, " to the safety of a nation ? Strike ! strike ! It is only terror that can save the Ee- public !" For such principles, destructive of all liberty, peace, and order, every just man must entertain the deepest horror ; and the dark shadow of those days still hangs over the party to whose excesses they are attribu- table, and obscures this part of the career of the statesman who defended theinj !l do not, however, think that Mr. Canning acted on the cool systematic calculation by which I do think Lord Castlereagh might have been guided. Looking at all affairs with the excitable disposition of the^poet^anJTBe (5 ratof ,'ahd having his attention more called by his office to the affairs of India ■"than"" fo those at home, it is ^t improbable that he allowed himself to be carried into the belief of dangers which the Grovernment he bc4oDgeOo had in a certain degree created, and in an enormous degree exaggerated; whilst the manner in which even calm' and sensible men had their heads confused and their judgment biassed by the alarming reports put in circulation, and the constant arrests that were taking place, reacted upon the Government itself, and made it fancy that the fictions reflected from its fear were truths established by facts. At all_ eiaats, whatever were the real opinions and con- victions of Mr. Canning, as he was~the"~mostr^te^[u^^ supporter of the policy in vogiie, he gathered round him- selFThe' greatest portion of the unpopulafiiy ThaFaSmdied it. 2rSpr». though he assumed th£air of def ying this un- popidarity, was he pleased with itj CANNING. 419 xvr. [The very bitterness, indeed, which he manifested to- wards his opponents at this time, shows that he was ill at ease with himself. Linked with a set of men whom in general he despised, and by whom he was iir a certain degree mistrusted, and accused, as he well knew, of accept- ing this alliance merely for the love of '* office," which the vulgar made to signify the mere " emoluments of place ;" — possessing;_a_ mind, which, elevated by education, was inclin^d_toJiber2IlljZ^^^^ ^-^^ praise of the fanatics ofhis own party, and careless also of the applause of those timoro us spirits am ongst the nation with whom he could fe^^no^sympathy ;^^^^kriowing he was detested by the great masses of the people, who^e applause he could not with his temperament refrain from coveting ; — knowing also that thoug'h supported by the love and admiration of a few aHe friends, he~ was "conSdedT^mnBy no great political p arty, and that "even if his duties imposed on him the necessity of struggling against existing difficulties, those difficultie s'''mrghO ave heen avoided or palliated by a more conciliatory and prudent policy; writhing under all these circiimstmrogs-ant^^ggitated by all these feelings, ^this alCTePampitious, and excitable_man may now be seen listening witEears almost greedy of a quarrel^ for re- proaches "'hg"could'"retof t, and insults he couH avenge. IVlrTHume, not very cautious in these matters, was called to account : Sir Francis Burdett, who had spoken disre- spectfully, was made to explain ; while to the author of an anonymous libel, in which the style and invectives of " Junius " were copied with doubtful success, was sent a note, eminently characteristic of the galled feelings and gallant spirit of the writer : "Sir, " I received early in the last week the copy of your pamphlet, which you, I take for granted, had the attention to have forwarded to me. Soon after I was informed, on the authority of your publisher, that you have withdrawn the whole impression from him, with the 420 HISTORICAL CHARACTEBS. view (as was supposed) of suppressing the publication. I since learn, however, that the pamphlet, though not sold, is circulated under blank covers. I learn this from (among others) the gentleman to whom the pamphlet is industriously attributed, but who has voluntarily and absolutely denied to me that he has any knowledge of it or its author. " To you, sir, whoever you may be, I address myself thus directly for the purpose of expressing my opinion that you are a liar and a slanderer, and want courage only to he an assassin, I have only to add that no man knows of my writing to you, and that I shall maintain the same reserve as long as I have an expectation of hear- ing from you in your own name." To this letter there was no reply. XYII. During the eventful years over which this narrative has been rapidly gliding, the Heiress to the crown, who who had already possessed herself of the affections of the British people, had expired (it was in Nov. 1817) ; and in 1820, as the Ministers, fatigued by their laborious efforts to excite alarm, began to allow the nation to re- cover its tranquillity, George III. (two years after his young and blooming grandchild) died also. The new King's hatred, and Queen Caroline's temper, rendering a more decent and moderate course impossible, occasioned the unhappy trial which scandalized Europe. Nor was the question at issue merely^ question involv- ing the Queen's innocence or guilt. [The people, com- paratively calm, as well on account of the recent improve- ment in trade, as in consequence of the cessation of that system of conspiracy-making or finding, which had so long kept them in a state of harassed irritation, were still for the main part thoroughly disgusted with the exhibi- tion of fear, feebleness, and violence which, under the name of Lord Liverpool, and through the influence of Lord Castlereagh, had for the last three years been dis- played. They detested the ministers of the Crown, and they were ahenated from the Crown itself, which had been CANNING. 421 perpetually arrayed against them^n prosecutions and almost as often stigmatised by defeatj It was thus that Queen Caroline appeared as a new- victim — as another person to be illegally assailed by the forms of law, and unjustly dealt with in the name of justice. Besides, she was a woman, and the daughter of a Eoyal house, and the mother of that ill-fated princess, whose early dt ath the nation still deeply mourned. The people, then, took up her cause as their own, and rallied at once round a new banner against their old enemies. On the other hand, the Goyernment, urged by the wounded pride and uncontrollable anger of the Sovereign, consented to bring the unfortunate lady he denounced before a public tribunal, and were thus committed to a desperate career, of which it was impossible to predict the_jesult. [M.Y. Canning had long been the unhappy Queen's intimate friend ; but in adopting her cause, he must, as we have been showing, have adopted her party — the party of discontent, the party of reform — a party against which he had, during the last few years, been fiercely struggling. Here, as far as the public can judge from the information before it, Hes the only excuse or explanation of his con- duct ; for it was hardly sufficient to retire (as he did) from any share in the proceedings against a friend and a woman, in whose innocence he said that he believed, when her honour and life were assailed by the most powerful_adversaries, and by charges of the most degrading characterj LHe refused, it is true, to be her active accuser ; but neither was he her active defender. He remained silent at home or stayed abroad during the time of the prosecu- tion, and resigned office when, that prosecution being dropped, the Cabinet had to justify its proceedings. The following letter to a constituent contains the account he thought it necessary to give of his conduct : " My dear Sm, " Tuddenham, Norfolk, Dec. 22, 1820. " I left town on Wednesday, a few minutes after I had written to you, not thinking I should be quite so 422 EISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. soon set at liberty to make you the comnmnication promised in my letter of that morning. I had hitherto forborne to make the communication, in order that I might not in any way embarrass others by a premature disclosure ; and I sincerely expected in return due notice of the time when it might suit them that the disclosure should be made. I have no doubt that the omission of such notice has been a mere oversight. I regret it only as it has prevented me from anticipating ^^ ith you, and the rest of my friends at Liverpool, the announcement in a newspaper of an event in which I know your kind partiality will induce you to feel a lively interest. The facts stated in the Courier o£-3Vednesday evening, are stated in substance correctly. LI have resigned my office. My motive for separating myself from the Government (however reluctantly at a conjuncture like the present) is to be found solely in the proceedings and pending discussions respecting the Queen. There is (as the Courier justly assumes) but this one point of difference between my colleagues and myself. Those who may have done me the honour to observe my conduct in this un- happy affair from the beginning, will recollect that on the first occasion on which it was brought forward in the House of Commons, I declared my determination to take as little part as possible in any subsequent stage of the proceedings. The declaration was made advisedly. It was made, not only after full communication with my colleagues, but as an alternative suggested on their part for my then retirement from the Administration. So long as there was a hope of amicable adjustment, my con- tinuance in the Administration might possibly be advan- tageous ; that hope was finally extinguished by the failure of Mr. Wilberforce's address^ On the same day on which the Queen's answer to that address was received by the House of Commons, I asked an audience of the King, and at that audience (which I obtained the following ddy) after respectfully repeating to his Majesty the declaration which I had made a fortnight before in the House of Commons, and stating the impossibility of my departing from it, I felt it my duty humbly to lay at his Majesty's CANNING. 423 feet the tender of my resignation. The King, with a generosity which I can never sufficiently acknowledge, commanded me to remain in his service, abstaining as completely as I might think fit from any share in the proceedings respecting the Queen, and gave me full authority to plead his Majesty's express command for so continuing in office. No occasion subsequently occurred in Parliament (at least no adequate occasion) for availing myself of the use of this authority, and I should have thought myself inexcusable in seeking an occasion for the purpose ; but from the moment of my receiving his Majesty's gracious commands, I abstained entirely from all interference on the subject of the Queen's affairs. I did not attend any meetings of the Cabinet upon that subject ; I had no share whatever in preparing or approv- ing the Bill of Pains and Penalties. I was (as you know) absent from England during the whole pro^^ress of the bill, and returned only after it had been withdrawn. " The new state in which I found the proceedings upon my return to England, required the most serious consider- ation ; it was one to which I could not conceive the King's command in June to be applicable. For a minister to absent himself altogether from the expected discus- sions in the House of Commons, intermixed as they were likely to be with the general business of the session, appeared to me to be quite impossible. To be present as a minister, taking no part in these discussions, could only be productive of embarrassment to myself, and of perplexity to my colleagues ; to take any part in them was now, as always, out of the question. " From these difficulties I saw no remedy except in the humble but earnest renewal to my Sovereign of the tender of my resignation, which has been as graciously accepted, as it was in the foimer instance indulgently declined. " If some weeks have elapsed since my return to England, before I could arrive at this practical result, the interval has been chiefly employed in reconciling, or en- deavouring to reconcile, my colleagues to a step taken by me in a spirit of the most perfect amity, and tending (in my judgment) as much to their relief as to my own. 424 HISTORICAL CEABACTERS. '^ It remains for me only to add that having purchased, hy the surrender of my office, the hberty of continuing to act in consistency with my original declaration, it is now my intention (but an intention perfectly gratuitous, and one which I hold myself completely free to vary, if I shall at any time see occasion for so doing) to be absent from England again until the agitation of this calamitous affair shall be at an end. " I am. Sir, &c., " George Canning." y Thus in the years 1821-22, Mr. Canning took little part in the business of the House of Commons, residing occasionally near Bordeaux or in Paris. He came to England, however, to speak on Mr. Plunkett's motion for a committee to consider the Catholic claims (February 28, 1821), and in 1822 also he made two memorable speeches — one on Lord John Eussell's motion for Parliamentary Eeform, and another in support of his own proposition to admit Catholic peers into the House of Lords. These last speeches were made in the expectancy of his speedy departure from England ; the Directors of the East India Company, in testimony of their appreciation of the zeal and intelligence with which he had discharged his duties as President of the Board of Control, having selected him as Governor-General of India, a situation which he had accepted. ( 425 ) Part III. FROM DEATH OF LORD LONDONDERRY TO PORTUGUESE EXPEDITION. Lord Castlereagh's death. — Mr. Canning's appointnaent as Foreign Secretary. — State of affairs. — Opposition lie encountered. — Policy as to Spain and South America. — Commencing popularity in the country, and in the House of Com- mens. — Affairs of Portugal and Brazil. — Kecognition of Brazilian empire. — Constitution taken by Sir Charles Stuart to Portugal. — Defence of Portugal against Spanish treacheiy and aggression. — Review of policy pursued thus far as a whole. At this critical moment Lord Castlereagb. who had now succeeded to the title of Lord Londonderry, worn out by a long-continued series of struggles with the popular passions — placed in a false position by the manner in which the great military powers ^ad at Tro ppau and Laybach announced principles which no„ Englisti'^ statesman could eier .gajictioB^ — too high-spirited to endure defeat, and without the ability requisite for forming and carrying on any policy that might be triumphant, — irritated, over- worked, and about to depart for Yerona with the intention of remonstrating against acts which he had been unable to prevent, — having lost all that calm and firmness wdth which his proud but cheerful nature was generally armed, — and overpowered at last by an infamous conspiracy to extort money, with the threat that he should otherwise be charged with a disgraceful and dishonourmg offence — put an end to his existence. - — • Fate looked darkly on the Tory party. Ever since 1817, it had excited one half of the community by fear, as a means of governing the other half by force. But the machinery of this system was now pretty well used up. Moreover the result of Queen Caroline's trial was a staggering blow to those who had been its advisers ; and 426 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS, though this unhappy and foohsh lady did all she could to destroy the prestige which had once surrounded her — and it was only unexpected decease that rescued her from ap- proaching contempt — even her death gave the authorities a new opportunity of injuring themselves by an idle and ofeisive conflict with her hearse. ^^ (Meanwhile the affairs in the Peninsula were becoming ' more and more obscured, whilst through the clouds which seemed everywhere gathering, some thought they could perceive the fatal hour in which a terrible despotism and an ignorant and equally terrible democracy were to dispute for the mastery of the world. In France the Bourbons trembled on their throne, and petty cabals and paltry conflicts amongst themselves rendered their rule at once violent, feeble, and uncertain. The volcanic soil of Italy was covered with ashes from a recent conflagration — some embers might yet be seen alive. Over the whole of Geimany reigned a dreamy discontent which any accident might convert into a practical revolution^ r "■ \ JL^^^* P^^* could the baffled and unpopular Ministeiaoif ) ^gland-lake amidst siKih^gtaieofth^ as I have been f describing ? To the advocacyoT'Hemocratic principles they were of course opposed. With the advoc^es of absolute power they dared not, and perhaps did not feel disposed to, side. Neutrality was their natural wish, since to be neutral required no effort and demanded no declara- tion of opinion. But it -is only the strong who can be really neutral ; and the Grovernment of the day was too conscious of weakness to hold with confidence the position which, if powerful, it could have preserved with dignity. Such being the miserable condition of the British cabinet when Lord Londonderry was alive, it became yet more contemptible on losing that statesman's energy and resolu- tion. Mr. Canning was its evident resource. Yet the wish to obtain Mr. Canning's services was by no means general amongst those in power, for the ministry was divided into two sections : one, hostile to Catholic Eman- cipation, to any change in, and almost any modification of, CANNING. 427 our long-standing system of high duties and commercial petection, and hostile also to all those efforts in favour of-constitutional liherty which had lately agitated the "6^tment ; the other, which, though opposed to any con- stitutional change that tended to increase the democratic element in our institutions, was still favourable to Catholic Emim^ip'Rtion as a means of conciliating the large majority oF~tlTer Irish people — to the development of the principles oT~T*ree Trade, as a means of augmenting onr national wealth — and to the spread of our pohtical opinions, under the idea that we should thus be extending our commercial, moral, and political powerTl ..^^ t^fiiese two parties, forcea to combine under the common battle-cry of " no parliamentary reform," — a reform which botlTopposed^^iii order to get a parliamentary majority for their united force) — were nevertheless jealous of each other, and in constant struggle for the predominant in- fluence. Mr. Canning out of office, and away in India, there could be no doubt that the more Conservative section of the Administration would occupy the highest ground ; Mr. Can ning not going to India, and coming into office, the m6Fe"TiBeral party, of^ whkli Jbe was universally con- si3ef3rthe_chie|, mignTovertop its rival. cLord Liverpool, however, was himself in a peculiar position. He agreed with Mr. Canning's opponents as to the Catholic Emanci- pation question, but with Mr. Canning on all other questions. ) His policy, therefore, was to rule a pretty equally balanced cabinet, and not to have one halt' too strong for the other. With this object he had lately given office to two or three followers of Lord Grenville, who, though himself retired from affairs, had still a party favourable to Catholic Emancipation, and hostile to consti- tutional innovations. For the same reason he now insisted on the necessity of offering the Secretaryship of Foreign Affairs to i\Ir. Canning, and impressed his opinions on this subject so strongly on the Duke of Wellington, that his Grace, though he had some prejudices of his own to conquer, undertook to vanquish those of his Majesty, against Mr. Canning's appointment. ) A lady who was an intimate friend of George lY., and at that moment of the 428 HISTORICAL CHABACTERS. Duke also, and who was then staying at Brighton, told me that the Duke went down to Brighton, and held an interview with the King, and she related to me parts of a conversation which, according to her, took place on this occasion. " Good God ! Arthur, you don't mean to propose that fellow to me as Secretary for Foreign Affairs ; it is im- possible ! I said, on my honour as a gentleman, he should never be one of my ministers again. You hear, Arthur, on my honour as a gentleman. I am sure you will agree with me, that I can't do what I said on my honour as a gentleman I would not do." *• Pardon me, Sire, I don't agree with you at all ; your Majesty is not a gentleman." The King started. "Your Majesty, I say," continued the imperturbable soldier, " is not a gentleman, but the Sovereign of England, with duties to your people far above any to yourself; and these duties render it imperative that you should at this time employ the abilities of jMr. Canning." " Well !" drawing a long breath, " if I must, I must," was finally the King's reply.* r- . "'• llkIr^_Canning_ thus ente red the ^jGabnet ; and under ordinary circumstances his domg so at such a crisis would have been hailed with general satisfaction. It so happened, however, that some time had elapsed between the death of Lord Castlereagh and any offer to his successor; and * The accuracy of this story having been disputeH, I asked Lady Palmerston, who was living in the same set as the lady in question, and also about this period residing at Brighton, whether she remem- bered hearing anything corroborating my information, and she said she perfectly well remembered hearing the anecdote I have narrated. But there is nothing in the Duke of Welliuiiton's letters to confirm it, and, like most tales of a similar nature, it probably had some foundation, but was not precisely correct either in details or dates. The main fact, however, remains untouched, and is indeed proved by the Wellington correspondence, viz., that Lord Liverpool applied to the Duke of Wellington to obtain the King's consent to Mr. Can- ning's appointment, and that the Duke succeeded, though not with- out difiBculty. CANNING. 429 during this interval, Mr. Canning, then on the verge of departure for the East, made a speech at Liverpool, which, from its remarkable moderation, was considered by many as the manifestation , of a wish to purchase place by a sacrifice of opinion, j The words most objected to were these : "^ " Gentlemen, if I were remaining in this country, and continuing to take my part in Parliament, I should con- tinue, in respect to the Catholic Question, to walk in the same direction that I have hitherto done. But I think (and as I may not elsewhere have an opportunity of expressing this opinion, I am desirous of expressing it here) — I think that after the experience of a fruitless struggle for more than ten years, I should, as an individual (speaking for none but myself, and not knowing whether I carry any other person's opinion with me) be induced henceforth, or perhaps after one more general trial, to seek upon that question a liberal compromised Thus, when instead of going to India the Governor-General, already named, came into office at home, it was said at onc^that he had done so on a compromise. ^^^ [The accusation was false, but there was some appear- ance of its being true, and those amongst the Opposition who believed it, were the more enraged, since they thought _A^ that if the Ministry had not been strengthened by the ^ new Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, it could not have sustained itself, in which case they themselves would have been called to powerT) -^^ [The speeches made agauist Mr. Canning were conse- quently of the bitterest kind. \ One, by Lord Folkestone, on a motion for the repeal "of the Foreign Enlistment Bill, delivered with extraordinary vehemence, accused him of truckling to France. " Sir," said Mr. Canning, in reply, " I will not follow the noble lord through a speech of which it would be impossible to convey the impression by a mere repetition of language. The Lacedaemonians, with the desire of deterring their children from the vice of intoxication, used occasionally to expose their slaves in a state of disgusting inebriety. But, sir, there is a moral as well as a physical 430 HISTORICAL CHARAOTERS. intoxication ; and never before did I behold so complete a personification of the character which I have somewhere seen described as exhibiting the contortions of the sihyl without her inspiration. I will not on this occasion reply to the noble lord's speech, being of opinion that this is not a fit opportunity for entering into the discussion it would provoke ; but let it not be supposed that I shrink from the noble lord ; for he may believe me when I say that however I may have truckled to France, I will never truckle to him." IV. This speech was delivered April 16, 1823. On the 17th another important discussion occurred in Parlia- ment. Mr. r*lunkett, who had joined the Administration with Mr. Canning, bringing forward on that day the claims of the Catholics, as a sort of token that he and those who thought with him had not, on taking office, abandoned the question of whicjL, they had so long been the most eminent supporters,^^ir Francis Burdett ac- cused both the Attorney- General for Ireland and the Secretary for Foreign Affixirs of seeking to make an idle parade of fine sentiments, which they knew would be prac- tically useless. Mr. Canning defended himself, and, as he sat down, Mr. Brougham rose : / " If," said he, " the other ministers had taken example by the single-hearted, plain, manly, and upright conduct of the right honourable Secretary for the Home Depart- ment (Mr. Peel), who has always been on the same side on this question, never swerving from his opinions, but standing uniformly up and stating them — who had never taken office on a secret understanding to abandon the question in substance while he contrived to sustain it in words — whose mouth, heart, and conduct have always been in unison ; if such had been the conduct of all the friends of emancipation, I should not have found myself in a state of despair with regard to the .Catholic claims. Let the conduct of the Attorney-General for Ireland (Mr. Plunkett) have been what it might — let him have deviated from his former professions or not — still, if the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs had only come forward at tliis CANNING. 431 critical moment, when the point was whether he should go to India into honourable exile, or take office in England and not submit to his sentence of transportation, but be condemned to hard labour in his own country — doomed to the disquiet of a divided council, sitting with his enemies, and pitied by his friends, with his hands chained and tied down on all those lines of operation which his own senti- ments and wishes would have led him to adopt — if, at that critical moment, when his fate depended on Lord Chan- cellor Eldon, and on his sentiments with respect to the Catholic cause — if, at that critical moment, he who said the other night that he would not truckle to a noble lord, but who then exhibited the most incredible specimen of monstrous truckling for the purpose of obtaining office that the whole history of political tergiversation could furnish. . . ." At these words, Mr. Canning, labouring to conceal emotion which Lis countenance had long betrayed, started up, and, in a calm voice, with his eye fixed on ^Ir. Brougham, said, " Sir, I rise to say that that is false." A dead silence of some minutes ensued ; the Speaker inter- fered ; neither party would retract, and both gentlemen were ordered into custody; but at last tha matter was arranged through Sir E. Wilson's mediation./ VWithout going into many details, I have thus said enough to show that Mr. Canning had, in his new post, to contend — first, against the disfavour of the Crown ; secondly, against the dislike, jealousy, and suspicion of a large portion of his colleagues ; thirdly, against the bitterest hostility of the moat able and eloquent amongst his parlia- njentary opponentsj Lit is necessary to take into consideration all these diffi culties in order to appreciate the rare abilities, the adroit adaptation of means to ends, the clever profiting by times and occasions, the bold bearing-up against powerful anta gonists, the conquest over personal antipathies, which in a few years placed England — humbled to the lowest degree v/hen Lord Castlereagh expired — in the highest position' 432 EISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. she ever occupied since the days of Lord Chatham ; and, at the same time, ended by making the most unpopular man with the nation, and the most distasteful minister to the,^vereign, the people's idol and the monarch's favouritej I have„jLSserted. that England was never in a more hunibled position than at the death of Lord Castlereagh. I had myself the opportunity of seeing this illustrated in a private and confidential correspondence between Prince Metternich and a distinguished person with whom he was on terms of great intimacy, and to whom he wrote with- out reserve ; — a correspondence in which the Prince, when alluding to our great warrior, who represented England at the Congress of Yerona, spoke of him as " the great Baby," and alluded to the power and influence of England as things past and gone. It was, in fact, too true that all memory of the long efforts of twenty years, eventually successful in liberating Europe, had wholly lapsed from the minds of those military potentates, who having durins^ war experienced every variety of defeat, appeared at the conclusion of peace to have recovered unbounded confidence in their arms. The institutions which had nourished the pride and valour to which we had owed our victories, were daily denounced by the sovereigns in whose cause we had fought ; and every new expression of opinion that came to us from the Continent, manifested more and more that Waterloo was forgotten by every nation but the French. Nothing, in short, was wanting to complete our degrada- tion after the false and impudent conduct of M. de Villele, but its disrespectful avowal ; and painful and humiliating must have been the sentiments of an English statesman, when he read the speech of the French minister in the Chamber of Deputies, and found him boast of having amused our Government by misrepresenting the force on the Spanish frontier as merely a cordon sanitaire, until it was made to act as army of invasion. CANNING. ■ 433 YL The ground, however, which the sovereigns forming the Holy Alliance had now chosen for fighting the hattle of principles, was not well selected by them for the conflict. During the despotism of Ferdinand, it was never for- gotten in this country, that those with whom he filled his prisons, those whose blood he shed, those of whose hopeless exile he was the cause, had fought side by side with our own gallant soldiers ; were the zealous and vahant patriots who had delivered the land from which they were driven, and re-established the dynasty which their tyrant dis- graced. Many, then, who disapproved of the new Spanish constitution, were disposed to excuse the excesses of freedom as the almost natural reaction from the abuses of absolute power. Nor was this all. There has always been a strong party in England justly in favour of a good understanding with the French nation. On such an understanding is based that policy of peace which Walpole and Fox judiciously advocated — the first more fortunately and more opportunely than the last. But as no policy should ever be carried to the extreme, we have on the other hand to consider that the only serious danger menacing to England is the undue aggrandisement of France. Her proximity, her warlike spii-it, her constant thirst for glory and territory, the great military and naval armaments at her disposal, the supremacy amongst nations which she is in the habit of affecting, are all, at certain times, threatening to our interests and w^ounding to our pride ; and when the\ French nation, with the tendency which she has always manifested to spread her opinions, professes exaggerated doctrines, whether in favour of democracy or despotism, the spirit of conquest and proselytism combined with power makes her equally menacing to our institutions and to our independence. Her predominance in Spain, more- over, which unites so many ports to those of France — ports in which, as we learnt from Napoleon I., armaments can be fitted out, and from which expeditions can be sent against our possessions in the Mediterranean, or our 2 F 434 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. empire in the Channel, or against Egypt, on the high road to our Indian dominions, has always been regarded by English statesmen with a rational disquietude, and on various occasions resisted with boldness, perseverance, and success ; nor did it matter to us whether it was the white flag or the tricolour which crossed the Bridassoa when either was to be considered the symbol of ambition and injustice. YII. (Thus, Spain became, not inauspiciously, the spot on which ajiberal English xoinister,, had to confront the .despotic governments of the Continent. But for- war on I account of Spain, England was not prepared; and, indeed, the treachery which we knew existed in the Spanish counsels , rendered war on account of that divided country out of the question. The only remaining means of opposition was I protestation, and Mr. Canning at once protested against I the act of aggression which France was committing, and \ against the principles put forth in its justification. The mode of doing this was rendered easy by the speech from the French throne, which was inexplicable, except as a bold assertion of the divine rights of kings ; and ibrjjiat slavish doctrine Mr. Canning, who, whichever side he took, was not very guarded in his exprassions, roundly stated that "he felt disgust and abhorrence." The gauntlet of Legitimacy having been thus thrown down, and being in this manner taken up, it only"" re- mained to conduct the contest. I Caution was necessary in the selection of an opportunity /where a stand should be made. Boldness was also neces- [ sary in order to make that stand without fear or hesitation, I when the fitting occasion arrived. / /QPrance, therefore, was permitted to overrun the Spanish *^, /territory without resistance. But Mr. Canning declared y I that, whilst England adopted, thus far, a passive attitude, I she could not permit the permanent occupation of Spain, ior any act of aggression against Portugal. At the same I tim^ he alluded to the recognition of the revolted provinces jin South America, which provinces France was expectiug CANNING. 435 to gain in compensation for her expenses, as an event merely dependent upon time, and protested against any\ seizure by France, or any cession by Spain of possessions 1 which had in fact established their independence. In ^ these expressions were shadowed out the whole of that course subsequently developed. They were little noticed, it is true, at the time, because they did not interfere with the plan of the moment, viz., the destruction of a constitu- tional government at Madrid ; but they became a texj to which our Minister could subsequently refer as a proof of the frankness and consistency of the policy that from the commencement of the French campaign he had been pur- suing. No one, however, understood better than the statesn man who had resolved on this policy, that to be powerful\ abroad you must be popular at home. Thus at the close I of the session in which he had denounced the absolute doctriiies of the French Legitimists, we see him passing through the great mercantile and manufacturing towns, and endeavouring to excite amidst the large and intelligent masses of those towns an enthusiasm for his talents, and that attachment to his person, which genius, when it comes into contact with the people, rarely fails to inspireJ VIII. ^^ On one of these occasions it was that he delivered the memorable speech, meant to resound throughout Europe, and spoken with exquisite propriety in sight of the docks at Plymouth. " Our ultimate object, no doubt, is the peace of the world, but let it not be said that we cultivate it either because we fear, or because we are unprepared for war. On the contrary, if eight months ago the Grovernment did not proclaim that this country was prepared for war, this was from causes far other than those produced by fear ; and if war should at last unfortunately be necessary, every intervening month of peace that has since passed has but made us so much the more capable of warlike exertion. The resources created by peace are indeed the means of war. In cherishing these resoui'ces, we but accumulate these means. Our present repose is no more a proof of 436 HISTOBICAL CHARACTERS. incapability to act, than tlie state of inertness and inac- tivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float on the waters above your town, is a proof that they are devoid of strength, and incapable of being fitted for action. You well know, gentlemen, how soon one of those stu- pendous masses, now reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness — how soon upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motion ; how soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage ; how quickly it would put forth all its heauty and its hravery ; collect its scattered elements of strength, and awaken its dormant thunder I Such as is one of those magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a display of its might, such is England herself ; while apparently passionless and motionless, she silently concentrates the power to he put forth on an adequate occasion.'' (^Luckily for Mr. Canning, the circumstances of the country in 1824 enabled him to maintain and increase that popularity which he was desirous to acquire. Trade had begun to thrive, the revenue to increase, taxation to diminish ; nor were these facts merely valuable in them- selves, they were also valuable in afi'ording a facility for entering more freely upon that large and comprehensive system of commerce which was the best adapted to a country that combined great maritime power with great manufacturing capacity^] fB esides, by entering frankly upon this system, Mr. Canning was giving strength to one of those links which now began .to unite him to the Opposition, and thus to rally round him by degrees nearly the whole liberal force of the House of Commons. Already, indeed, many of his opponents had softened in their tone, and Sir James Mack- intosh (June 25, 1824), referring to papers that had been laid before Parliament, passed the highest eulogy on the conduct which the Foreign Secretarv was adopting in respect to the South American questions CANNING. 431 € IX. The time is now arrived for speaking of that question. From the first moment that the intentions of the French government tov^ards Spain were known, Mr. Canning, as it has heen seen, hinted at the recognition of the Spanish colonies, and protested against any proceeding which i either directly or indirectly should hring them under the j authority of France. A variety of projects, — amongst/ which that of holding a congress of the Great Powers at Paris, for the purpose of considering how it might he most expedient to assist Spain in adjusting her difierences with the revolted colonies, was the most significant, — all tended to show the necessity of some immediate step for placing heyond dispute the condition of those colonies. By a series of measures, each in advance of the pre- ceding one, none going so far as to excite any hurst of resentment, Mr. Canning went on gradually towards the . ultimate decision he had in view. aw^ A warning to Spain that unless she forthwith effected \^^ ^ an accommodation with her former subjects, their inde- pendence would be recognised, was given and repeated ; a warning to France that the cession to any other power of the Spanish possessions in America would not he allowed, had also heen once given, and was now formally renewed The project of interferuig for their conquest with foreig troops, whatever might he decided by any congress, w boldly forbidden. Consuls had already been appointed attend to the interests of British commerce in those parts, and commissioners had been sent out to Columbia and Mexico (the emancipation of Buenos Ayres was undisputed) to report on their condition. The memorable declaration of the United States, frequently referred to since — as the, Munroe Doctrine, — and to which our foreign minister, byj' his communications with the United States Envoy iii London, had in no small degree contributed ; — a declaratioii to the effect that the United States would not see witlj indifference the attempt of any European power t<) establish itself on the American continent, was a positiv^ assurance of the only alliance that might be importani^ 438 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. should England have to contend hy force of arms against a I Frfijjch and Spanish expedition. ) [At last, strong in popularity at home, having by previous / measures, difficult to be opposed, lessened the shock that might have been produced abroad, Mr. Canning put the seal I to this portion of his plans, and announced his recognition ^ ofihree of the most powerful of the new republics) 'TThis recognition, however justifiable on its proper merits, is not merely to be considered on such isolated grounds. It formed a part, and an important part, of European poli cy ; it altered "the ''position "'in""wtrfeb'"this country stoodTbwards those powers who had declared their principles to be in opposition to our own. Now it was the turn of Austria, Prussia, and Eussia to remonstrate, and to have their remonstrances treated as those of England had been by them on former occasions. Thus, the part which Great Britain had hitherto played was for the first time reversed ; and her character, which at each late congress had been sinking lower and lower in the scale of public opinion, rose at once in the balance. This is the first important epoch in Mr. Canning's foreign administration?) X. The affairs of Portugal next demand attention. That country, from the commencement of the new conflict in the Peninsula, had been the scene of French intrigues for the purpose of destroying English interests ; and of court I cabals, with the object of favouring Don Miguel's pre- I tensions. The Queen, a violent and profligate old woman, who had never kept any terms with her passions, coun- tenanced the most desperate schemes ; and King John VI., a weak but not unamiable monarch, was even obliged on one occasion to seek safety on board a British frigate. The defeat of the conspiracy which occasioned this alarm ban- ished Don Miguel ; but M. Subserra, the King's minister and favourite, and a mere tool in the hands of France, still remained ; so that although the Portuguese government never took any open part against the Spanish Cortes, the King would never concede a constitution to his people (this being very strenuously opposed by the French Govern- CANNING. 439 ment and its allies), nor unite himself cordially with England, by giving Lord Beresford the command of his army, and conferring on M. Palmella the chief influence in his cabinet. Our situation in respect to Portugal was moreover complicated by the state of Brazil. Don Pedro, King John's eldest son, had been left Eegent in that colony by his father, when the latter returned to his more ancient dominions. The King's secret instructions were that the Prince should adopt any course that circumstances might render necessary, rather than allow so important a possession to pass from the family of Braganza. But the spirit of the Brazihans, who from the long residence of their monarch amongst them had for some time enjoyed the privileges of a Metropolitan State, would not submit to a renewal of their old dependence on the mother country ; and the Eegent was forced, in obedience to the injunctions just mentioned, to place himself at the head of a revolt, and to become, under the title of " Emperor," sovereign of a new kingdom. It may be doubtful whether Don Pedro's father was quite pleased at an act of which (whatever might be his commands in the case of a supposed contingency) it might always have been difficult to provd the necessity by formal and unpalatable explanations ; but the Portuguese in general were at all events far more violent than their monarch, and would at once have attempted the conquest of their rebellious but distant province if they had possessed any of the means requisite for such an undertaking. Mr.\ Canning, on the other hand, not only saw that Portugal, for her own sake, should endeavour to enter into some arrangement, admitting a fact which it was impossible to alter ; he was also obliged, in consequence of the policy which he was elsewhere pursuing, to endeavour to obtain for Brazil an independent position. It became desirable, then, on every account, to settle as soon as possible the difierences between the colony and the mother country ; and, having vainly attempted to do this in other ways, it was resolved at last, as the best and promptest course, to send some superior Diplomatist to Lisbon, who, if he succeeded in obtaining the consent of 440 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. Ihe Portuguese government to a moderate plan of accom- /modation, might proceed at once to Eio Janeiro, and [urge Don Pedro and his government to accept it. Sir Charles Stuart (afterwards Lord Stuart de Kothsay), was selected for the double mission, and sueceedjed,_after some difficultjj in accomplishing its object. He then, however, being in Brazil, xmdertook the arrangement of a com- mercial treaty between the newly emancipated colony and Great Britain, and some singular errors into which he fell delaying the completion of his business, he was still at Kio when KiflgJohn -djed. XI. Thft-Emperoi^-afBr^l^ Don Pedro, then became King of Px)rtugal ; and having to decide^n tte'relinquishment of one of these kingdoms, it seeming impossible to keep them permanently united, he assumed that, in abdicating the throne of Portugal, he had the right of dictating the method and terms of his abdication. He proposed, then, first, to take upon himself the crown to which he had succeeded ; secondly, in his capacity of sovereign of Por- tugal, to give a constitution to the Portuguese ; thirdly, if that constitution were accepted, and that Don Miguel, his brother, were willing to espouse Donna Maria, his (Don Pedro's) daughter, to place the ancient sceptre of Portugal in that daughter's hands. The apparent countenance of Great Britain, however obtained, was no doubt of consequence to the success of this project, and Sir Charles Stuart was prevailed upon to accept the title of Portuguese ambassador, and in such capacity to be the bearer of the new constitutional charter to Portugal. He thus, it is true, acted without Mr. Can- ning's authority, for the case was one which could hardly have been foreseen, and it may be doubted whether his conduct was well advised ; but still no experienced Diplo- matist would have taken upon himself so important a part as Sir Charles Stuart assumed, unless he had pretty fair reasons to suppose that he was doing that which would be agreeable to his chief; and when Mr. Canning gave his subsequent sanction to Sir Charles's conduct, by de- CANNINa. • 441 V^ daring in a despatch, dated July ]2, 1826, that the King entirely approved of the ambassador's having consented (under the pecuHar circumstances of his situation in Brazil) to be the bearer of the Emperor's decrees to Lisbon, the world in general considered the whole affair, as in fact it had become, the arrangement of Great Britain. \In this manner did we appear as having recognised the \ South American Eepublics, as having arranged the separa- \ tion and independence of the great Portuguese colony ; and, finally, as having carried a constitution into Portugal itself. AU the Powers leagued in favour of despotism, protesting at this time against the recognition of any colony, and France being then as their deputed missionary in Spain, for the express purpose of putting down a con- stitution in that countryT] ^ \)LP ' iThig^JS Jhe second memgrable^epoch in Mr. Canning's ^j ^ fo£§iga^oiicy^—^e second period in that'^iii^lomatic wa/ C^ which at Troppau and Verona had been announced, and- )f{;/v^ \^£hkh when the Due d'Angouleme crossed the Pyrenees, Ixflid hg en undertaken against Liberal opinions?! ^--^ XII. Lif our government at last stood in a position worthy of the strength and the intellect of the nation it represented, that position was, nevertheless, one that required for its maintenance the nicest tempering of dignity with for- bearance; no ofience was to be heedlessly given, none timidly submitted to. Spain and Portugal, long jealous and hostile, were marshalled under two hostile and jarring opinions. The most powerful, backed by friendly and kin- dred armies, was likely to invade the weaker ; and thaL weaker we were bound to defend by an indissoluble alhancej The first step manifesting the feelings of King Fer- dinand's government was a refusal to recognise the Por- tuguese Eegency established at King John's death ; but matters were certain not to stop here. Portuguese deserters were soon received in Spain, and allowed to arm ; nay, were furnished with arms by Spanish authority, for the purpose of being sent back as invaders into their native country. Even Spanish troops, in more than one instance, 442 HTSTOBICAL CEABACTERS. bostilely entered Portugal, while the Spanish ministry scrupled at no falselioods that might stretch a flimsy cover- ing-over their deceitful assurances and unfriendly designs. V_Things were in this state, peace rested upon these hollow and uncertain foundations, when Mr^ Canning received at the same time the official newg Jhat iiie rehei troops which had been organised in Spain were marching upon Lisbon-^ and the most, solemn declarations from Spain~^ herself that these very troops should be dispersed, and their chief arrested. The crisis for action seemed now to have arrived.; for England was bound, as I haye^'saidT-fey — treaty, to defend Portugal against a foreign power, and a foreign power was in this instance clearly, though meanly, indirectly, and treacherously assaihng her. To Bhrink from the dangerous obligation to which we stood pledged, or even to appear so to shrink, was to relinquish -that hold upon public opinion, both at home and abroad, which hold we had at last obtained, and to abandon the moral power which, if a contest did arise, would be the main portion of our strength. Onihe-other-harnd, to eomply with the request of the Portuguese government for succour (that Jpequest was now formally made), and to send a British yferce to Portugal was, nl^ dmibt, an event tha£ might be ^ (the commencement of a general war. Of all policies, a ^hesitating, shuffling policy would have been the worst. Had it been adopted, Spain, or those who then governed 8pain, would have proceeded to more violent and irre- mediable acts — acts to which we must have submitted with the grossest dishonour, or resented with the smallest chances of success?] XITT. At this moment, 12th Deocmber, 1826, Mr. Canning came down to the House ofCommons, his fine eye kindling with a sense of the magnitude of the transactions in which he was called upon to play so important a part; and having described the circumstances in which England was placed, and the obligations to which she was pledged, stated the manner in which the duty of the English government had been fulfilled CANNIKG. 443 " I understand, indeed, that in some quarters it has been imputed to his Majesty's ministers that an extra- ordinary delay intervened between the taking up the determination to give assistance to Portugal and the carrying of that determination into effect. But how stands the fact ? On Sunday, the 3rd of this month, we received from the Portuguese ambassador a direct and formal demand of assistance against a hostile aggression from Spain. Our answer was, that although rumours had reached us through France of this event, his Majesty's government had not that accurate information — that official and precise intelligence of facts on which it could properly found an application to Parliament. It was only on last Friday night that this precise information arrived — on Saturday his Majesty's confidential servants came to a decision. On Sunday that decision received the sanction of his Majesty ; on Monday it was communicated to both Houses of Parliament ; and this day, sir, at this hour in which I have the honour of addressing you, th^^oops are onjjieir march fOT embarkation." ^ {^ri^ passage possesses "all the qualities of oratory, and could hardly have been delivered without exciting a burst of applause. So again, when the Minister, his voice swelling, his arm outstretched, and his face turned towards the benches where sat the representatives of the great monarchs who, but a short time before, derided our power and denounced our principles, said, " We_go _ to- pLont the stgnflard af England ori the wfiU-hnmrn heights of Lisbon. Where that standard is phmted, foreign dominion shall not come,'* a thrill ran through the assembly at these simple burx)fflinous words. My con^action, indeed, was that this speech must throughout have produced as great an effect in delivery as it does, even now, in reading ; but I was talking the other day with a friend who, then being a Westminster boy, was present at the debate ; and he told me I was mistaken, and that with the exception of one or two passages such as those I have cited, there was a want of that elasticity anjjlow which distinguished Mr. Can- ning's happier efforts^! It is probable that not having had time, amidst the 444 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. business which the step he was taking had created, to prepare himself sufficiently, he had the air of being over- prepared, and, according to my friend, only rose to his full height as an orator, when he made thaL -Jamous allusion to the position which England then held between conflicting principles, like (Eolus between conflicting winds ; and when again, in reply, defending the course he had adopted during the recent French expedition, he thus elevated his hearers to a conception of the grandeur of his views, and the mingled prudence and audacity of his conduct. " If France occupied Spain, was it necessary, in order to avoid the consequences of that occupation, that we should blockade Cadiz ? No : I looked another way ; I sought the materials of occupation in another hemisphere. Contemplating Spain such as her ancestors had known her,^ I resolved that, if France had Spain, it should not be Spain with the Indies; I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the old." XIV. (But the Minister of Foreign Aflairs displayed talents far beyond those of the mere orator on this occasion. He took a step which was certain to incur the displeasure and excite the open hostility of a powerful party throughout Europe. Many who might have felt themselves obliged by honour to take this step would have done so with a timid and downcast air, endeavouring by an aff'ectation of humanity to deprecate the anger of the high personages they were oftending. Such men, exciting no sympathy, creating and maintaining no allies, encouraging the attacks and justifying the insults of all enemies, would have placed their country in a false and pitiful position, where, power- less and comprojnised, she would have stood before her opponents, exposed by her advance, tempting by her weakness. But tha,, sagacious know that a bold game must be played boldly, and that the great art of moderating opponents consists in gaining friends!) V^r. Canning, then/ neither flinched nor faltered. In venturing upon a measure which aroused the anger of so CANNING. 445 inaiijL-pQwerful iofis^he made those foes aware that if we WQre assailed Jbecause^ in fulfilment of treaties, we marched \ to tEe defence of a country which was attacked on account \ L^^ of its liberal institutions, England would gather beneath ) h^r-^standard all those who loved liberty throughout Europe. Our country was on the verge of a contest with thg""ilostpotent sovereigns. Our minister neither pro- .^ vokedr-nor quailed before those sovereigns, but plainly /^ toldri:hem^ that if such a contest did arise, it would be a contest in which many of the governments eager to pro- voke it might expect to find, side by side with our soldiers, . nolrafew of their own people — a contest in which, were '*^ Engtishlnen forced to take a part, they would not shrink from taking the part that befitted the brave and free descendants of men who had suffered for their reli gion at the sTake, and adjudged their monarch to the scatfoldj r- ''^- . . LSxitish troops, then, were at last sent in aid of Portugal; no other troops opposed them ; the expedition was saccess- ftrl-T and from that moment Mr. Canning was pointed to 1/*^ as the first statesman of his time; and Grreat Britain — without hg-ving .excited war or produced revolutions, j. fottowTnga course conformable to her interests, her history, , "^T and her character, backed by the sympathy of the free, \ and guaHed by the reverence and affection of the ihtgi lig ont ; hav ing shed no blood, having exhausted no treasure, having never uttered a word that our nation did not echo, nor shrunk from supporting a word that had been uttered — stood before the world in a yet more exalted and noble situation than even at that moment when Napoleon fled from AVaterlocviljiid the British drum was beating in the streets of Paris. J fjThis ift- the thrrC epochLin Mr. Canning:'g,conflict with the^jcaaisaclcis against constitutional principles. I have described the measures"^ which that conthct had been supported. It would be difficult to point out any stronger measures that a country, placed in similar circumstances, could have taken. But Mr. JI!annin^, acting w ith force and spirit, had acted without exaggeration. Se had not 446 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. said^'I wiU jvage wax^^ opinions;" lie had not told t£e sovereigns of JCjOj^paiQ^i^yEal^ Verona, " l^ecause you commit aggression and. injttsti(iey.X.j,¥ill do the same ; because you enter into a war againsi-Lifeeral governments, I will forthwith arm the peoi^le of my couiitry acrainst all goYernments of a despotic nature^^ y^ippresenting a state which did not wish to give the law, but which would not receive it, he neither cria gfid nor threatened. "Publish- what doctrines and take what course you may," was the language of Englajid!s great statesman, "I wiii shape my way according" -to the interQsls and treaties of my country with equal indepen- fWim such language the .,Spa.nish....jeplonies were re- cogTTised, bL^cause Spain could be no longer responsible for flieir coiiduet : because^i-ajice maiirtoaed herself in Spain under the hope' -tha4; . those colonies would furnish an indemnity for the money she had spent in re-establishing despotism in Spain itself; because England, at the head of constitutional governments, found it necessary to check the moral influence^f the Holy Alliance, at the head of absolute governmentsj Thus the separalTon of Brazil from Portugal was negotiated, since, the strug^le^ between the. mother country and her ancieni-but emancipated possession, was unfavour- al)le^Ji_ijitish_^fcQmnifirc£v . embarrassing to British in^iience, -and adverse to the general policy it was found expeiientj as I have said, to pursue in Spanish i^^^ica. fThus., British troops wera sent even ostentatiously to LfeboUj since Mr. Canning would not for a moment countenance the belief that England would shrink from her engagements to the weakest ally, although the form of ", government adopted by that ally was contrary to the particular opinions of the most powerful confederacy in the world."j ' -t-V YSnOierB it-k-especiaUy.to.be remarked that a policy wmch, regai'ded .as a whole* bears so decided an appearance, and which was certain to produce so considerable an efiect, offers hardly a single point ^Yhere the success was doubtful, or CANNING. 447 the per il_g;rfiat. J Developing itself, like that game where the skilful winner advances gradually but surely, each piece protected by another thi-ough a series of moves, our policy had only become conspicuous by the last move which obtained its victory. Our treaties with Buenos Ayres, with Mexico, and Columbia^-^guarded- 'as they were by our own previous declarations, and" also by the important^ declaration of the American President, could only expose .ua^taiL^seless and ingignificant_exhibition of displeasure. HDhe- -sevefaiLce-IjQf^Braz^^ from Portugal, as long as Portugal was a consenting party, could with .little decency be^jected to by an iiidiiiereiit power ; the concession of a charter to Poi ttigal, coming from the sovereign of Portugal himself J 3Yas an act which those who contended for the divine right of kings to do what they thought proper, could' liof well oppose : nnd finally, thp. Pxppflition of Bri^Hlr^ops- to. I4sbon — sent out at the time wEen the name of "Mr. Canning " had becoihe^tlie rallying word of England, and " England " herself the rallying word of the free. and the intelligent throughout the world, de- manded also under circumstances too well known to be dtsjDuted, and authorised by treaties which had always been aclvnowledged, and to which, from the very commencement of his administration, Mr. Canning had called attention — resolutely as it^ ^sr^^ announced, gallantly as it was made, and important as its impression on the public mind was sure to be — coujd hardly have been resented with propriety or advantageTjIOn each occasion the minister had made his stand at fneTappiest opportunity and on the strongest grOTmrls^ Abandoning, it is true, all direct resista,iice to I5"'iii''^' ^^^id to the principles she maintained — where such resistance must have been made with great peril, and with but small chance of success — he had adopted towards both France and-her- principles a sysfena 'of oppb^sitioh which] exhibited, itself by a variety of successive acts each by y/* itself little Hkely to be dangerous, and all in their com- bination certain to be effective. In the first place, instead' of meeting the enemy on a ground undermined by factions, and where a large mihtary force, inconsistent with the \^ 448 EISTOBICAL CHARACTEB8. nature of our means, would have been necessary, he carried the quarrel into a new hemisphere, and placed it on a question which, mistress of the seas, England had the undoubted power of deciding. Lastly, when a British army was sent to the continent, it was sent not on grounds which might merely he justifiable, but for reasons which were obligatory ; while the people to whose aid it marched — open to the ocean, animated by hereditary jealousy against their neighbours, accustomed to British command, and confident in British assistance — were the people whom we were most likely to be allowed to succour with im- punity, ajii most certain, should war ensue, of triumphantly de£endingj [SometEmg of chance and fortune, no doubt, was mingled inthe happy conduct of these events, as is the case in all human aftairs ; but there is visible a steady and impressive will, tempering and ruling them throughout; the mind y and spirit of a man, who was capable of f^ethought, w ; governed by precaution, and prompt in decisionj ( 449 ) Part IY. FROM THE BEGINNINa OF MR. CANNING's POPULARITY AS FOREIGN MINISTER TO HIS DEATH. jMr. Canning's position. — Altered tone of opposition. — Favour of King. — Death of Duke of York and of Lord Liverpool.— Struggle for the Premiership. — Nomination of Mr. Canning. — Secession of Duke of Wellington and Anti- Catholic party. — Junction with Whigs. — Formation of Cabinet. — Effect of Canning on the men of his time, and their effect on a subsequent one. — Eastern affairs. — Treaty concerning Greece with Russia and France. — Sickness. — Death. I. [Jt is needless to^ g^ytliat a poUcvwtich raised England so^Tiigli in tlie''^orld*s '^oBiMeraTioEr"waS popniai: with EnglTslimen ; they were proud of their country and of their minister. The AYhig opposition, moreover, which a'!' Iir4 depreciated that minister and praised his col- leagues, soon began to depreciate his colleagues and to praise him. But Mr. Canning's most extraordinary and u nexpected triumph was at court. From being the man in the (Jabinet the most odious to the King, he had be- come the King*^3 pet minister, and one of the most intimate of his chog gn'ien'clep'"^" "' ~ ^■Tb^Teader of tKe House of Commons had one peculiar mode of obtaining his Majesty's confidence, and cultivating his intimacy. It was his arduous duty to send to the Sovereign every night a written account of that night's proceedings in the assembly to which he belonged. It is easy to see the advantage which this estabhshed custom may give to a writer who expresses himself with tact and clearness. A minister of foreign affairs has also more opportunities thaBTany other minister of captivating the Koyal attention. Foreign pohtics, which constitute the arena in which kings are pitted against kings, are the politics which most interest royal personages. A monarch 2 G 450 HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. there represents before other monarchs the fame, the power, the character of the nation he rules ; he rises as it rises, he falls as it falls. George lY., whatever his faults, was not without talent or ambition. In early life he wished to distinguish him- self in military service abroad, and when, on this being denied him, he entered more deeply than discreetly into politics at home, (it was the desire for popularity which coDnected him with the Opposition?\ He still remembered the high position which after the oattle of Waterloo he held, as Eegent of England, amongst the great potentates of the earth; and though personally attached to Lord Castlereagh, and unwilling to sever himself altogether from the sovereigns who had formerly been his alhes, and who now in confounding Liberty with Anarchy came forward as the champions of Koyalty and order, still he was not insensible to the fact that he had become, little by little, a nonentity in the councils of his peers, and that his advice and opinions, even when expressed by the great warrior who had vanquished Napoleon, were treated with a disregard which was galling to his pride as a monarch, and painful to his feelings as an EngHshman. He ex- perienced no small exultation, then, when he saw this state-^f things reversed, and that the King of England was once more a personage whose policy created hope and alarm. He had, moreover, a singular propensity, which was in fact a sort of madness, for conceiving that he had played a personal part in all the events which had passed in his reign. Amongst other fancies of this kind, he be- lieved, or at least often spoke as if he believed, that he had been on the great battle-field which had terminated the war in 1815 ; and I have been told by two persons who were present, that one day at dinner, after relating his achievements on this occasion, he turned round to the Iron Duke and said : "Wasitnotso, Dake?" " I have heard your Majesty often say so," replied the Duke, drily.* It was easy, then, for Mr. Canning to * This story was related by Sir Roundell Palmer in his address to the jury in tlie trial of Kyves v. the Attorney-General. I do not CANNING. 451 make George IV. consider Mr. Canning's policy his policy, Mr. Canning's successes his successes, and indeed Mr. Canning always spoke to his Majesty, when the popularity of his administration became apparent, as if he had only followed the inspiration of a prescient and intelli- gent master. I should omit more trifling causes of favour, if I did not think them necessary to illustrate the character of the parties, and of the times of which I am speaking, and to show the_a ttention which Mr^ Canning^.Qnca. engaged in/ the \^^ ^^^ xeint obstacle k de nouvelles colonies, et se perdront toutes dans un interet commun, si Ton sait mettre k profit les erreurs et les prejuges qui ont fietries jusqu'k ce jour les nombreuses tentatives de ce genre. II n'entre point dans le plan de ce memoire de presenter tons les details d'un etablissement colonial, mon but n'etant que d'dveiller I'attention publique, et d'appeler sur ce sujet des meditations plus approfondies et les connaissances de tons ceux qui ont des localites k presenter. Toutefois je ne m'interdirai point d'enoncer quelques-uns des principes les plus simples, sur lesquels ces etablissements doivent gtre fondes ; j'ai besoin de me rassurer moi-meme contre la craiute de voir renouveler des essais de'sastreux. Je pense qu'on sentira le besoin de s'etablir dans des pays chauds, parce que ce sont les seuls qui donnent des avances a ceux qui y apportent de I'industrie ; dans des lieux productifs de ce qui nous manque et desireux de ce que nous avons, car c'est Ik le premier lien des metropoles et des colonies. On s'occupera, sans doute, k faire ces etablissements vastes, pour que hommes et projets y soient k I'aise ; varies, pour que chacun y trouve la place et le travail qui lui conviennent. On saura, surtout, qu'on ne laisse pas s'embarquer inconsid^'ement une multitude d'horames k la fois, avant qu'on ait pourvu aux besoins indispensa- bles k un premier etablissement ; et Ton se rapj)ellera que c'est par la plus inepte des imprevoyances que les expeditions de Mississipi en 1719, et de Cayenne en 1763, ontdevore tantde milliers de Fran^ais. Jusqu'a present les gouvernements se sont fait une espece de prin- cipe de politique de n'envoyer, pour fonder leurs colonies, que des individus sans industrie, sans capitaux et sans moeurs. C'est le principe absolument contraire qu'il faut adopter ; car le vice, I'igno- rance et la misere ne peuvent rien fonder : ils ne savent que de'truire. Souvent on a fait servir les colonies de moyens de punition ; et Ton a confondu imprudemment celles qui pourraient servir k cette destination, et celles dont les rapports commerciaux doivent faire la ricbesse de la metropole. II faut s^parer avec soin ces deux genres d'etablissements : qu'ils n'aient rien de commun dans leur origine, comme ils n'ont rien de semblable dans leur destination ; car I'im- pression qui resulte d'une origine fietrie a des efifets que plusieurs generations suffisent k peine pour effacer. Mais quels seront les liens entre ces colonies nouvelles et la France? L'histoire offre des resultats frappants pour decider la question. Les colonies grecques ^taient independantes ; elles pros- pererent au plus baut point. Celles de Kome furent toujours 492 APPENDIX. gouvem^es ; leurs progres furent presque nuls, et lenrs noms nous sont a peine connus. La solution est encore aujourd'iiui Ik, malgre la dij&erence des temps et des inte'rets. Je sals qu'il est difficile de convaincre des gouvernements qui ne savent pas sortir de I'babitude, qu'ils retireront le prix de leurs avances et de leur protection sans recourir k des lois de contrainte : mais il est certain que I'interet bien entendu de deux pays est le vrai lien qui doit les unir ; et ce lien est bien fort lorsqu'il y a aussi origine commune : il se conserve meme lorsque la force des armes a d^place les relations. C'est ce qu'on apercoit visiblement dans la Louisiane, restee fran9aise quoique sous la domination espagnole depuis plus de trente ans ; dans le Canada, quoiqu'au pouvoir des Anglais depuis le meme nombre d'ann^es : les colons de ces deux pays ont 6t6 Francais ; ils le sont encore, et un tendance manifeste les porte toujours vers nous. C'est done sur la connaissance anticipee des interets reciproques, fortifies par ce lien si puissant d'origine commune, que I'etablissement doit etre fonne, et sur la force de cet interet qu'il faut compter pour en. recueillir les avantages. A une grande distance, tout autre rapport devient, avec le temps, illusoire, ou est plus dispendieux que pro- ductif : ainsi, point de domination, point de monopole ; toujours la force qui protege, jamais celle qui s'empare ; justice, bienveillance ; voilk les vrais calculs pour les etats comme pour les individus ; voila la source d'une prosp6rite reciproque. L'experience et le raisonne- ment s'unissent enfin pour repousser ces doctrines pusillanimes qui supposent une perte partout oil il s'est fait un gain. Les principes vrais du commerce sont I'oppos^ de ces pr^juges : ils promettent k tous les peuples des avantages mutuels,et ils les invitent k s'enrichir tons k la fois par T^change de leurs productions, par des communica- tions libres et amicales, et par les arts utiles de la paix. Du reste, les pays propres k recevoir nos colonies sont en assez grand nombre ; plusieurs rempliraient parfaitement nos vues. En nous placa,nt dans la supposition ou nos lies d' Am^rique s'epui- seraient, ou meme nous ecbapperaient, quelques 6tablissements le long de la cote de I'Afrique, ou plutot dans les iles qui I'avoisinent, seraient faciles et convenables. Un auteur recommandable par les vues qui se manifestent dans ses ouvrages, tous inspires par I'amour du bien public, le citoyen Montlinot, dans un tr^s-bon memoire qu'il vient de publier, indique le long de cette c6te un arcbipel d'lles dont plusieurs, quoique fertiles, sont inbabitees et a notre disposition. M. le due de Cboiseul, un des hommes de notre si^cle qui a eu le plus d'avenir dans I'esprit, qui dejk en 1769 prevoyait la separation de I'Amerique de I'Angleterre et craignait le partage de la Pologne, cberchait dfes cette epoque k preparer par des n^gociations la cession de I'Egypte k la France, pour se trouver pret k remplacer par les memes productions et par un commerce plus etendu, les colonies americaines le jour oii elles nous ecbapperaient. C'est dans le meme esprit que le gouvernement anglais encourage avec tant de succfes la culture du sucre au Bengale ; qu'il avait, avant la guerre, com- mence un etablissement k Sierra-Leona, et qu'il en preparait un APPENDIX. 493 autre k Boulam. H est d'ailleurs une verite qu'il ne faut pas cher- cher k se taire : la question si indiscretement traitee sur la liberty des noirs, quel que soit le remMe que la sagesse apporte aux mal- heurs qui en out etd la suite, introduira, tot ou tard, un nouveau systeme dans la culture des denrees coloniales : il est politique d'aller au-devant de ces grands changements ; et la premiere idde qui s'ofifre k Tesprit, celle qui amene le plus de suppositions favor- ables, parait etre d'essayer cette culture aux lieux memes ou nait le cultivateur. Je viens k peine de marquer quelques positions ; il en est d'autres que je pourrais indiquer ^galement : mais, ici surtout, trop annoncer ce qu'on veut faire est le moyen de ne le faire pas. C'est d'ailleurs aux hommes qui ont le plus et le mieux voyage, k ceux qui ont porte dans leurs recherches cet amour eclaire et infatigable de leur pays ; c'est k notre Bougainville, qui a eu la gloire de becouvrir ce qu'il a 6te encore glorieux pour les plus il lustres navigateurs de I'Angleterre de parcourir apres lui ; c'est a Fleurieu, qui a si par- faitement observe tout ce qu'il a vu, et si bien eclaire du jour d'une savante critique les observations des autres ; c'est a de tels hommes k dire au gouvernement, lorsqu'ils seront interroges par lui, quels sont les lieux ou une terre neuve, un climat facilement salubre, un sol f^cond et des rapports marques par la nature, appellent notre Industrie et nous promettent de riches a vantages pour le jour du moins oii nous saurons n'y porter que des lumieres et du travail. De tout ce qui vient d'etre expos6, il suit que tout presse de s'occuper de nouvelles colonies : I'exemple des peuples les plus sages, qui en ont fait un des grands moyens de tranquil lite ; le besoin de preparer le remplacement de nos colonies actuelles pour ne pas nous trouver en arriere des evenements ; la convenance de placer la culture de nos denrees coloniales plus pr^s de leurs vrais cultivateurs ; la n6cessit6 de former avec les colonies les rapports les plus naturels, bien plus faciles, sans doute, dans des 6tablissements nouveaux que dans les anciens ; I'avantage de ne point nous laisser pr^venir par une nation rivale, pour qui chacun de nos oublis, chacun de nos retards en ce genre est une conquete ; I'opinion des hommes eclaires qui ont port6 leur attention et leurs recherches sur cet objet ; enfin la douceur de pouvoir attacher k ces entreprises tant d'hommes agit^s qui ont besoin de projets, tant d'hommes malheureux qui ont besoin d'es- perance. Memoires sur les relations commerciales des Etats-Unis avec VAn- gleterre, par le Citoyen Talleykakd. Lu le 15 germinal, an V. Il n'est pas de science plus avide de faits que I'e'conomie politique. L'art de les recueillir, de les ordonner, de les juger la constitue presque tout enti^re ; et, sous ce point de vue, elle a peut-etre plus k attendre de I'observation que du genie ; car, arrive le moment ou 11 faut tout 494 APPENDIX. eprouver, sous peine de ne rien savoir ; et c'est alors que les fails deviennent les verificateurs de la science, apres en avoir et^ les materiaux. Toutefois il faut se garder de cette t-manie qui voudrait toujours recommencer les experiences ; et ne jamais rien croire, pour avoir le droit de tout ignorer ; mais on ne doit pas moins repousser cette te'merite' qui, d^daignant tout ce qui est positif, trouve plus commode de deviner que de voir. Que faut-il done ? IJDir sans cesse les produits de I'observation k ceux de la pensee ; admettre, sans doute, les r^sultats que donnent certains faits generaux bien constants, bien d'accord, et vus tout en- tiers ; mais en meme temps, savoir appeler, dans les nouvelles questions et meme dans les profoudeurs de quelques-unes des an- ciennes, le secours de faits nouveaux ou nouvellement observes. 11 faut se defendre des premiers aperfus, ces axiomes de la paresse et de I'ignorance ; et enfin se defier beaucoup de ces principes ambi- tieux qui veulent tout embrasser ; ou plutot, corrigeant I'acception d'un mot dont on a tant abuse, n'appeler du nom de principe que I'idee premiere dans I'ordre du raisonnement, et non I'idee generate ; que ce qui precede, non ce qui domine. Plein de ces v6rites auxquelles tout nous ram^ne, j'ai cru pouvoir presenter k la classe de I'lnstitutk laquelle j'ai I'honneur d'appartenir quelques observations que j'ai e'te a portee de faire en Amerique, et dont les consequences m'ont plus d'une fois etonne. Je me suis persuade que quelques-unes de ces observations, veri- fi6es sur toute I'etendue d'un pays longtemps encore nouveau, pour- raient etre apportees au depot de I'economie politique, et y etre recues avec I'interet qu'on accorde en histoire naturelle k la plus simple des productions ramass^e par un voyageur sur sa route. Malheureusement, I'esprit de systeme est dans les sciences ce que I'esprit de parti est dans les soci^te's : il trouve les moyens d'abuser m§me des faits ; car il les denature, ou il en detourne les conse- quences ; raison de plus, non pour les dedaigner, mais pour apprendre k bien connaitre et ce qu'ils sont et ce qu'ils prouvent. On dit proverbialement qu'il ne faut pas disputer sur les faits. Si ce proverbe parvient un jour k etre vrai, il restera bien peu de dis- putes parmi les hommes. Un fait remarquable dans Thistoire des relations commerciales, et que j'ai et^ k portee de bien voir, m'a fait connaitre particuliferement jusqu'a quel point il importe d'etre observateur attentif dece qui est, alors qu'on s'occupe de ce qui sera et de ce qui doit etre. Ce fait est I'activit^ toujours croissante des relations de commerce entre les Etats-Unis et I'Angleterre ; activity qui, par ses causes et ses r6- sultats, n'appartient pas moins a I'economie politique qu'k I'histoire philosophique des nations. Lorsque, apres cette lutte sanglante, lutte oil les Fran9ai3 d^fen- dirent si bien la cause de leurs nouveaux allies, les Etats-Unis de r Amerique se furent afiffancbis de la domination anglaise, toutes les raisons semblaient se rdunir pour persuader que les liens de com- APPENDIX. 495 merce qui unissaient nagu^re ces deux portions d'un meme peuple allaient se rompre, et que d'autres liens devaient se former: le souvenir des oppressions qui avaient pese sur les Auiericains ; Tim age plus r^cente des maux produits par une guerre de sept ans ; I'humi- liation de dependre de nouveau, par leurs besoins, d'un pays qui avait voulu les asservir ; tons les titres militaires subsistent dans chaque famille americaine pour y perpetuer la de'fiance et la haine envers la Grande-Bretagne. Que si Ton ajoute ce sentiment si naturel qui devait porter les Americains k s'attacher par la confiance aux Francais, leurs freres d'armes et leurs libe'rateurs ; si Ton observe que ce sentiment s'^tait manifeste avec force lorsque la guerre se de'clara entre I'Angleterre et la France ; qu'a cette epoque les discours du peuple americain, la grande majorite des papiers publics, les actes memes du gouverne- ment, semblaient decouvrir une forte inclination pour la nation francaise, et ime aversion non moins forte pour le nom anglais ; toutes ces raisons si puissantes de leur reunion doivent en trainer vers ce resultat, que le commerce americain etait pour jamais detourne de son cours, ou que, s'il inclinait du cote de I'Angleterre, il faudrait bien peu d'eflforts pour I'attirer entierement vers nous ; des lors de nouvelles inductions sur la nature des rapports entre la metropole et les colonies, sur I'empire des gouts et des habitudes, sur les causes les plus d^terminantes de la prosperite du commerce, sur la direc- tion ^u'il pent recevoir des causes morales combinees avec I'int^ret, et, en derni^re analyse, beaucoup d'erreurs e'conomiques. L'observation, et une observation bien suivie, pent seule prevenir ces erreurs. Quiconque a bien vul'Amerique ne peut plus douter maintenant que dans la plupart de ses habitudes elle ne soit restee anglaise ; que son ancien commerce avec I'Angleterre n'ait meme gagne de I'activite, au lieu d'en perdre, depuis I'e'poque de I'inde'pendance des Etats-Unis, et que, par consequent, I'ind^pendance, loin d'etre funeste a I'Angleterre, ne lui ait et^ k plusieurs egards avantageuse. Un fait inattaquable le d^montre. L'Am^vique consomme annuellement plus de trois millions sterling de marchandises anglaises ; il y a quinze ans elle n'en consommait pas le moiti^ ; ainsi, pour I'Angleterre, accroissement d'exportation d'objets manu- facture's et, de plus, exemption des frais de gouvernement. Un tel fait, inscrit dans les registres de la douane, ne peut etre contest^ ; mais, on I'a deja dit, il n'est point de fait dont on n'abuse. Si Ton regardait celui-ci comme une suite necessaire de toute rupture des colonies, mSme des colonies k sucre, avec la metropole, on se trom- perait etrangement. Si, d'autre part, on voulait croire qu'il tient uniquement k des causes passage res, et qu'il est facile d'obtenir un resultat joppos^, on ne se tromperait pas moins. Pour echapper k I'une et I'autre erreur, il ne s'agit que de bien connaitre et de bien developper les causes du fait. II faut se h^ter de le dire, la conduite irr^fldchie de I'ancien gouvernement de France a, plus qu'on ne pense, prepare ce resultat 496 APPENDIX. favorable k I'Angleterre. Si, apres la paix qui assura rindependance de rAmerique, la France, eut senti tout le prix de sa position, elle eAt clierche k multiplier les relations qui pendant la guerre s'etaient heureusement Stabiles entre elle et ses allies, et qui s'etaient interrompues avec la Grande-Bretagne : alors, les anciennes habitudes etant presque oubliees, on etit pu du moins lutter avec quelque avantage contre tout ce qui pouvait les rappeler. Mais que fit la France a cette epoque ? Elle craignit que ces memes principes d'independance qu'elle avait proteges de ses armes chez les americains, ne s'introduisissent chez elle, et k la paix elle discontinua et decouragea toutes relations avec eux. Que lit I'Angleterre? elle oublia ses ressentiments, et rouvrit promptement ses anciennes communications, qu'elle rendit plus actives encore. Des lors, il fut decide que I'Amerique servirait les interets de I'Angleterre. Que faut-il en effet pour cela ? qu'elle le veuille et qu'elle le puisse. Or, volonte et pouvoir se trouvent reunis ici. Ce qui determine la volont^ c'est I'inclination, c'est I'interet. II parait d'abord etrange et presque paradoxal de pretendre que les Americains sont portes d'inclination vers I'Angleterre ; mais il ne faut pas perdre de vue que le peuple americain est un peuple depassionne, que la victoire et le temps ont amorti ses haines, et que chez lui les inclinations se reduisent k de simples habitudes : or, toutes ses habitudes le rapprochent de I'Angleterre. L'identite de langage est un premier rapport dont on ne saurait trop mediter I'influence. Cette identite place entre les hommes de ces deux pays un caractere commun qui les fera toujours se prendre I'un k I'autre et se reconnaitre ; ils se croiront mutuellement chez eux quand ils voyageront I'un chez I'autre ; ils echangeront avec un plaisir r^ciproque la plenitude de leurs pensees et toute la discussion de leurs interets, tandis qu'une barri^re insurmontable est elevee entre les peuples de different langage, qui ne peuvent prononcer un mot sans s'avertir qu'ils n'appartiennent pas k la meme patrie ; entre qui toute transmission de pensee est un travail penible, et non une jouissance ; qui ne parviennent jamais k s'entendre parfaitement, et pour qui le resultat de conversation, apr^s s'etre fatigues de leurs efforts impuissants, est de se trouver mutuellement ridicules. Dans toutes les parties de I'Amerique que j'ai parcourues, je n'ai pas trouve un seul Anglais qui ne se trouva Amdricain, pas un seul Fran9ais qui ne se trouva etranger. Qu'on ne s'etonne pas, au reste, de trouver ce rapprocbement vers I'Angleterre dans un pays oii les traits distinctifs de la constitution, soit dans I'union f^derale, soit dans les Etats sdpards, sont empreints d'une si forte ressemblance avec les grands lineaments de la constitu- tion anglaise. Sur quoi repose aujourd'hui la liberie individuelle en Amdrique? Sur les memes fondements que la liberty anglaise, Sur Vhaheas corpus et sur le jugement par jures. Assistez aux stances du Congr^s, k celle des legislatures parti culi feres ; suivez les discussions qui preparent les lois nationales : oti prend-on ses cita- tions, ses analogies, ses exemples ? Dans les lois anglaises, dans le» APPENDIX. 497 coutumes de la Grande-Bretagne, dans les rfeglements dii Parlement. Entrez dans les cours de justice : quelles autorites invoqne-t-on ? Les statuts, les jugements, les decisions des cours anglaises. Certes, si de tels hommes n'ont pas une tendance vers la Grande-Bretagne, 11 faut renoncer k connaitre I'influence des lois sur les hommes et nier les modifications qu'ils recoivent de tout ce qui les entoure. Inutilement, les noms de rdpublique et de monarchic semblent placer entre les deux gouvemements des distinctions qu'il n'est pas permis de confondre : il est clair pour tout homme qui va au fond des idees, que dans la constitution representative de I'Angleterre il y a de la republique, comme il y a de la monarchic dans le pouvoir executif des Americains. Cela a ete vrai surtout aussi longtemps qu'a dure la presidence du general Washington ; car la force d'opinion attachee k sa personue dans toute I'Amerique represente facilement I'esp^ce de pouvoir magique que les publicistes attribuent aux monarchies. La partie de la nation arnericaine chez qui Ton devrait recontrer le moins de prejuge's, les hommes qui reunissent I'aisance et I'instruction, ceux qui ont e'te les moteurs de la revolution, et qui, en soufflant dans I'ame du peuple la haine contre les Anglais, auraient dti, il semble, s'en p^netrer pour toujours ; ceux -Ik memes sont insensible- ment ramenes vers I'Angleterre par diffe'rents motifs. Plusieurs ont etds eleves en Europe ; et, a cette epoque, I'Europe des Americains n'etait que I'Angleterre. lis n'ont guere d'ide'es comparatives de grandeur, de puissance, d'elevation, que celles qui leur sont foumies par les objets tires de I'Angleterre; et, surpris eux-mdmes de la hardiesse du pas qu'ils ont fait en se separant, ils sont ramene's k une sorte de respect pour elle par tons leurs mouvements involontaires. lis ne peuvent pas se dissimuler que, sans la France, ils n'auraient pas reassi a secouer le jougde I'Angleterre; mais, malheureusement,ils pensent que les services des nations ne sont que des calculs, et non de I'attachement ; ils disent meme que I'ancien gouvernement de France, alors qu'il fit des sacrifices en leur faveur, agit bien plus pour leur independance que pour leur liberte ; qu'apr^s les avoir aides k se separer de I'Angleterre, il travailla sourdement a les tenir d^sunis entre eux, pour qu'ils se trouvassent emancipes sans avoir ni sagesse pour se conduire, ni force pour se proteger. Ainsi les inclinations, ou, si Ton veut, les habitudes, ram^nent sans cesse les Ame'ricains vers I'Angleterre ; I'interet, bien plus encore ; car la grande affaire, dans un pays nouveau, est incontes- tablement d'accroitre sa fortune. La preuve d'une telle disposition generale s'y manifeste de toutes parts : on la trouve avec Evidence dans la maniere dont on y traite tout le reste. Les pratiques religieuses elles-memes s'en ressentent extremement. A cet egard, voici ce que j'ai vu ; la liaison avec mon sujet ne tardera pas k se faire sentir. On sait que la religion a conserve en Anglet^rre un puissant empire sur les esprits ; que la philosophic meme la plus independante n'a ose s'y deprendre entierement des idees religieuses ; que depuis Luther toutes les sectes y ont penetre, que toutes s'y sont maintenues, 2 K 403 APPENDIX. que plusienrs y ont pris naissance. On salt la part qu'elles ont eiie dans les grandes mutations politiqaes; enfin, que toutes se sont traiisplantees en Amerique, et que quelques-uns des Etats leur doivent leur origine. On pourrait croire d'abord, qu'apres leur transmigration ces sectes sont ce qu'elles etaient auparavant, eten conclure qu'elles pourraient aussi auiter I'Amerique. Quelle n'est pas la surprise du voyageur lorsqu'il les voit co-exister toutes dans ce calme parfait qui semble k jamais inalte'rable ; lorsqu'en une meme maison le pfere, la niere, les enfants, suivent chacun paisiblement et sans opposition celui des cultes que chacun prefere. J'ai ete plus d'une fois temoin de ce spectacle, auquel rien de ce que j'avais vu en Europe n'avait pu me preparer. Dans les jours consacres k la religion, tons les individus d'une meme famille sortaient ensemble, allaient chacun aupres du ministre de son culte, et rentraient ensuite pour s'occuper des memes interets domestiques. Cette diversity d'opinions n'en apportait aucune dans leurs sentiments et dans leurs autres habitudes : point de disputes, pas meme de questions, a cet ^gard. La religion y semblait etre un secret individuel que personne ne se croyait le droit d'interroger ni de penetrer. Aussi, lorsque de quelque contr^e de I'Europe il amve en Amerique un sectaire ambitieux, jaloux de faire triompher sa doctrine en echauifant les esprits, loin de trouver, comme, partout ailleurs, des hommes disposes k s'engager sous sa banniere, a peine meme est-il apergu de ses voisins, son enthousiasme n'attire ni n'dmeut, il n'inspire ni haine ni curiosite; chacun enfin reste avec sa religion et continue ses affaires.* Un telle impassibility, que ne pent ebranler le fougueux pros^ly- tisme, et qu'il ne s'agit point ici de juger, mais d'expliquer, a indubitablement pour cause immediate la liberte et surtout r6j;alitd des cultes. En Amdrique, aucun n'est proscrit, aucun n'est ordonne, des lors point d'agitations religieuses. Mais cette e'gahte parfaite a elle-meme un principe : c'est que la religion, quoiqu'elle y soit partout un sentiment vrai, y est surtout un sentiment d'habitude ; toutes les ardeurs du moment s'y portent vers les mo} ens d'accroitre promptement son bien-etre ; et voiE en re'sultat la grande cause du calme parfait des Americains pour tout ce qui n'est pas, dans cet ordre d'idees, ou moyen ou obstacle. llemarquons, de plus, que les Amdricains des villes, nagu^re colons et des lors accoutume's k se regarder Ik comme etrangers, ont dti naturelleraent tourner leur activite vers les speculations commer- ciales, et subordonner k ces spe'culations les travaux memes de I'agriculture, par laquelle cependant elles doivent s'alimenter. Or, * Dans un temps de factions politiques cela cesserait d'etre exact ; car alors chaque secte voiidiait ne'cessairement etre Tauxiliaire de tel ou tel parti, comme on Ta deja vu; mais ces factions une fois calmees la religion devien- drait a I'instaat dans les Etats-Unis ce qu'elle y est aujourd'hui ; ce qui veut dire en resultat, qu'elle n'y a point de fanatibme pour son piojjre compte, et c'est deja beaucoup. — {Note du citoyen Talleyrand, au mois de ventose, an VII.) APPENDIX. 499 nne telle preference, qui suppose d'ahord un desir impatient de faire fortune, ne tarde pas a accroitre ce desir : car le commerce, qui etend les rapports de Thomme k I'homme, multiplie necessairement ses besoins ; et Tagriculture, qui le circonscrit dans la famille, ne'ces- sairement aussi les reduit. L'Amerique, dont la population est actuellement de plus de quatre millions d'habitants et augmente tres-rapidement, est dans I'enfance des manufactures ; quelques forges, quelques verreries, des tanneries, et un assez grand nombre de petites et imparfaites fabriques de casiniir, de tricot grossier et de coton dans quelques endroits, servent mieux a attester I'impuissance des efforts faits jusqu'k ce jour, qu'a fournirau pays les 'articles manufactures de sa consomma- tion journaliere. 11 en resulte qu'elle a besoin de recevoir de I'Europe, non-seulement une grande partie de ce qu'elle consomme interieurement, mais aussi une grande partiede ce qu'elle emploie pour son commerce exterieur. Or, tons ces objets sont fournis k I'Amdrique si completement par I'Angleterre, qu'on a lieu de douter si, dans les temps de la plus severe prohibition, I'Angleterre jouissait plus exclusivement de ce privilege avec ce qui etait alors ses colonies, qu'elle n'en jouit actuellement avec les Etats-Uuis inde pendants. Les causes de ce monopole volontaire sont, au reste, faciles k assigner : I'immensite de fabrication qui sort des manufactures anglaises, la division du travail, a la fois principe et conse'quence de cette grande fabrication, et particulifereraent I'ingenieux emploi des forces mecaniques adaptees aux differents proce'de's des manufactures, ont donn^ moyen aux manufacturiers anglais de baisser le prix de tons les articles d'un usage journalier au-dessous de celui auquel les autres nations ont pu le livrer jusqu'a ce jour. De plus, les grands capitaux des negociants anglais leur permettent d'accorder des credits plus longs qu'aiicun negociant d'aucune autre nation ne le pourrait faire : ces credits sont au moins d'un an, et souvent de plus. II en resulte que le negociant am^ricain qui tire ses marchandises d'Angle- terre, n'emploie presque aucun capital a lui dans le commerce, et le fait presque tout entier sur les capitaux anglais. C'est done reelle- ment rA.ngleterre qui fait le commerce de consommation de I'Am^-ique. Sans doute que le negociant Anglais doit, de mani^re ou d'autre, charger ses comptes de vente de I'interet de ses fonds dont il accorde un si long usage ; mais, comme les demandes se succedent et s'aug- mentent, chaque anne'e, il s'e'tablit une balance de paiements reguliei-s et de credits nouveaux qui ne laissent en souffrance qu'un premier debourse, dont I'interet est ^ re'partir sur les factures suivantes en meme temps que sur les premieres. Cette premiere dette etablit, comme on voit, un lien difticile a rompre des deux cotes entre le corre'spondant anglais et I'Americain. Le premier craint, s'il arretait ses envois, de renverser un debiteur dont la prosperite est la seule garantie de ses avances : I'Americain craint de son cote de quitter un fournisseur avec lequel il y a trop d'anciens comptes k r^gler. Entrc ces interets r^ciproques et cimentds par de longues habitudes, il est a 500 APPENDIX. peu pr^s impossible k une nation tierce d'intervenir. Aussi la France est-elle reduite avec rAraeriqiie a quelques fournitures de denrees particuli^res k son sol ; mais ellen'entre point en concurrence avec I'Angleterre sur la vente des objets manufactures, qu'elle ne pourrait etablir en Amerique ni a si bon compte, ni k si long terme de credit. Si Ton voulait objecter qu'il s'est fait pendant notre revolution de nombreuses exportations de marchandises francaises en Amerique, la reponse serait bien facile. De telles exportations n'ont rien de com- mun avec un commerce r^gulier ; c'est la speculation prdcipitee de ceux qui, ^pouvant^s des requisitions, du maximum et de tons les desastres revolutionnaires, ont prefer^ une perte quelconque sur leurs marchandises vendues en Amerique, au risque ou plutot a la certi- tude d'une perte plus grande s'ils les laissaient en France; c'est I'empressement turnultueux de gens qui demenagent dans un incendie et pour qui tout abri est bon, et non I'importation judicieuse de ne'gociants qui ont fait un calcul et qui le realisent. Du reste, ses objets se sont mal vendus, et les Amdricains ont prefere de beaucoup les marchandises anglaises : ce qui fournit un argument de plus pour I'Angleterre dans la balance des int^'ets americains. Ainsi le marchand americain est lie' k I'Angleterre, non seulement par la nature de ses transactions, par le besoin du credit qu'il y obtient, par le poids du credit qu'il y a obtenu, mais encore par la loi qui lui impose irresistiblement le goiit du consommateur ; ces liens sont si reels, et il en resulte des rapports commerciaux si con- stants entre les deux pays, que TAmerique n'a d'echange veritable qu'avec I'Angleterre ; en sorte que presque toutes les lettres de change que les Americains tirent sur ce continent sont payables k Londres. Gardons-nous cependant, en considerant ainsi les Americains sous un seul point de vue, de les juger individuellement avec trop de severite ; comme particuliers, on pent trouver en eux le germe de toutes les qualites sociales ; mais comme peuple nouvellement constitue et forme d'elements divers, leur caract^re national n'est pas encore decide. lis restent Anglais, sans doute par d'anciennes habitudes, mais peut-etre aussi parce qu'ils n'ont pas eu le temps d'etre entierement Americains. On a observe que leur climat n'etait pas fait ; leur caractere ne Test pas davantage. Que Ton consid^re ces cites populeuses d'Anglais, d'Allemands, de Hollandais, d'Irlaudais, et aussi d'habitants indigenes ; ces bourgades lointaines, si distantes les unes des autres ; ces vastes contrees incultes, traversees plutot qu'habite'es j)ar des hommes qui ne sont d'aucun pays; quel lien commun concevoir au milieu de toutes ces disparites. C'est un spectacle neuf pour le voyageur qui, partant d'une ville principale cu I'^tat social est perfectionne, traverse successivement tons les degres de civilisation et d'industrie qui vont toujours en s'affaiblissant, jusqu k ce qu'il arrive en tres-peu de jours a la cabane informe et grossi^re construite de troncs d'arbres nouvelle- ment abattus. Un tel voyage est une sorte d'analj'se pratique et APPENDIX, 601 vivante de Torigine des peuples et des Etats : on part de Tensemble le plus compose pour arriver aux elements les plus simples; a chaque journee on perd de vue quelques-unes de ces inventions que nos besoins, en se multipliant, ont rendues necessaires; et il semble que Ton voyage en arriere dans I'histoire des progr^s de I'esprit humain. Si un tel spectacle attache fortement I'imagination, si I'on se plait k retrouver dans la succession de I'espace ce qui semble n'appartenir qu'a la succession des temps, il faut se resoudre k ne voir que tres-peu de liens sociaux, nul caractere commun, parmi des hommes qui semblent si peu appartenir k la meme association. Dans plusieurs cantons, la mer et les bois en ont fait des pecbeurs ou des Mcberons ; or, de tels hommes n'ont point, a proprement parler, de patrie, et leur morale sociale se reduit k bien peu de chose. On a dit depuis longtemps que I'homme est disciple de ce qui I'entoure, et cela est vrai: celui qui n'a autour de lui que des deserts, ne peut done recevoir des lemons que de ce qu'il fait pour vivre. L'idee du besoin que les hommes ont les uns des autres n'existe pas en lui ; et c'est uniquement en decomposant le metier qu'il exerce, qu'on ^trouve le principe de ses affections et de toute sa moralite. Le bucheron amdricain ne s'int^resse k rien ; toute idee sensible est loin de lui : ces branches si elegamment jetees par la nature, un beau feuillage, une couleur vive qui anime une partie de bois, un vert plus fort qui en assombrit un autre, tout cela n'est rien ; il n'a de souvenir k placer nulle part : c'est la quantite de coups de hache qu'il faut qu'il donne pour abattre un arbre, qui est son unique id^e. II n'a point plants ; il n'en salt point les plaisirs, L'arbre qu'il planterait n'est bon k rien pour lui, car jamais il ne le verra assez fort pour qu'il puisse I'abattre : c'est detruire qui le fait vivre ; on detruit partout: aussi tout lieu lui est bon ; il ne tient pas au champ od il a place son travail, parce que son travail n'est que de la fatigue, et qu'aucune idee douce n'y est jointe. Ce qui sort de ses mains ne passe point par toutes les croissances si attachantes pour le cultivateur ; il ne suit pas la destinee de ses productions ; il ne connait pas le plaisir des nouveaux essais ; et si en s'en allant il n'oublie pas sa hache, il ne laisse pas de regrets la ou il a vecu des annees. Le pecheur americain recoit de sa profession une ame k peu prfes aussi insouciante, Ses affections, son int^ret, sa vie, sont k cotd de la socie'te k laquelle on croit qu'il appartient. Ce serait un prejug^ de penser qu'il est un membre fort utile ; car il ne faut pas comparer ces pecheurs-la k ceux d'Europe, et croire que c'est comme en Europe le moyen de former des raaletots, de faire des hommes de mer adroits et robustes ; en Amerique, j'en excepte les habitants de IS^antuket qui pechent la baleine, la peche est un me'tier de paresseux. Deux lieues de la cote, quand ils n'ont pas de mauvais temps a craindre, un mille quand le temps est inceitain, voilk le courage qu'ils montrent ; et la ligne est le seul harpon qu'ils sachent manier : ainsi leur science n'est qu'une bien petite ruse ; et leur 502 APPENDIX. action, qui consiste k avoir im bras pendant au bord d'lin bateau, resserable bien k de la faineantise. lis n'aiinent aucun lieu ; ils ne connaissent la terre que par une mauvaise maison qu'ils habitent ; c'est la mer qui leur donne leur nourriture ; aussi quelques morues de plus ou de moins determinent leur patrie. Si le norabre leur parait diminuer k tel endroit, ils s'en vont, et cherchent une autre patrie oil il y ait quelques morues de iilus. Lorsque quelques ^crivains politiques ont dit que la peche etait une sorted'agriculture, ils ont dit une chose qui a I'air brillant, mals qui n'a pas de \'erite. Toutes les qualites, toutes les vertus qui sont attachees a I'agricul- ture, manquent k I'homme qui se livre k la peche. L'agriculture produit un patriote dans la bonne acception de ce mot ; la peche ne sait faire que des cosmopolites. Je viens de m'arreter trop longtemps peut-etre k tracer la peinture de ces mceurs ; elle pent sembler etrangere a ce memoire, et pourtant elle en complete I'objet, car j'avais k prouver que ce n'est pas seule- ment par les raisons d'origine, de langage et d'interet que les Ameri- cains se retrouvent si souvent Anglais. (Observation qui s'applique plus particulibrement aux habitants des villes.) En portant mes regards sur ces peuplades errantes dans les bois, sur le bord des mers et le long des rivieres, mon observation generale se fortifiait k leur ^gard de cette indolence, de ce defaut de caractere k soi, qui rend cette classe d'Americains plus facile k recevoir et a conserver I'im- pression d'un caractere etranger. La dernifere de ces causes doit sans doute s'affaiblir et m^me disparaitre, lorsque la population toujours croissante aura pu, en fecondant tant de terres desertes, en rapprocher les habitants ; quant aux autres causes, elles ont des racines si profondes, qu'il faudrait peut-etre un etablissement fran^ais en Am^-ique pour lutter contre leur ascendant avec quelque espoir de succes. Une telle vue politique n'est pas sans doute k ndgliger, mais elle n'appartient pas k I'objet de ce memoire. J'ai dtabli que les Americains sont Anglais et par leurs habitudes et par leurs besoins ; je suis loin de vouloir en conclure que par leurs inclinations ils soient rest^s sujets de la Grande-Bretagne. Tout, il est vrai, les ram^ne vers I'Angleterre iudustrieuse, mais tout doit les eloigner de I'Angleterre m^re-patrie. lis peuvent vouloir ddpendre de son commerce, dont ils se trouvent bien, sans consentir k d^pendre de son autorite, dont ils se sont tres-mal trouves. lis n'ont pas oublie ce que leur a coiite leur liberty, et ne seront pas assez irrefiechis pour consentir a la perdre et a se laisser entrainer par des ambitions individuelles. lis n'ont plus, il est vrai , I'enthousiasme qui detruit ; mais ils ont le bon sens qui conserve, lis ne haissent pas le gouvernement anglais ; mais ce sera sans doute a condition qu'il ne voudra pas etre le leur. Surtout ils n'ont garde de se hair entre eux ; ensemble ils ont combattu, ensemble ils profitent de la victoire. Partis, factions, haines, tout a disparu :♦ en bons calculateurs ils * Cela etait littevalement vrai lorsque ce memoire a ete lu a I'Jnstitut. Si depuis ce moment des partis s'y sont formes de nouveau, s'il en est un qui travaille k remettre hoateusement TAmerique sous le joug de la Grande- APPENDIX. 503 ont trouve que cela ne produisait rien de bon. Aiissi personne ne reproche k son voisin ce qu'il est ; chacun cherche a le tourner a son avantaoe : se sent des voyageurs arrives k bon port, et qui croient au moins inutile de se deniander sans cesse pourquoi Ton s'est em- barqu6 et pourquoi Ton a suivi telle route. Concluons. Pour parvenir k la preuve complete du fait que j'avais avance sur les relations des Americains avec la Grande- Bretagne, il a fallu repousser les vraisemblances, ecarter les analogies ; done, dans les sciences positives surtout, il importe, sous peine de graves erreurs, de se defendre de ce qui n'est que probable. Ce fait lui-meme bien connu pouvait conduire k de faux resultats ; il portait a croire que I'independance des colonies etait un bien pour les metropoles : mais en remontant a ses veritables causes, la conse- quence s'est resserr^e. Maintenant on n'est plus en droit d'y voir autre chose, si ce n'est que I'inde'pendance des Etats-Unis a ete utile a I'Angleterre, et qu'elle le serait a tons les Etats du Continent qui, d'une part, offriraient les memes avantages a des colonies du meme genre, et, de I'autre, seraient secondes par les memes fautes de leurs voisins. Le d^veloppement des causes de ce fait a amene beaucoup de con- sequences ulterieures. En parcourant ces causes on a dti conclure successivement : 1°. Que les premieres annees qui suivent la paix decident du systeme commercial des Etats ; et que s'ils ne savent pas saisir le moment pour la tourner a leur profit, elle se tourne presque in^vi- tablement a leur plus grande perte. 2°. Que les habitudes commerciales sont plus difBciles a rompre qu'on ne pense, et que I'inteiet rapproche en un jour et youvent pour jamais ceux que les passions les plus ardentes avaient arme's pendant plusieurs annees consecutives : 3°. Que dans le calcul des rapports quelconques qui peuvent exister entre les hommes, I'identite de langage est une donne'e des plus concluantes : 4°. Que la liberte et surtout I'egalitd des cultes est une des plus fortes garanties de la tranquil lite sociale ; car Ik ou les consciences sont respectees, les autres droits ne peuvent manquer de I'etre : 5°. Que I'esprit de commerce, qui rend I'homme tolerant par indifference, tend aussi k le rendre personnel par avidite, et qu'un peuple surtout dont la morale a ete e'branlee par de longues agita- Bretagne, cela confirmerait boaucoup trop ce que j'e'tablis dans le cours de ce memoire, que les Americains sout encore Anglais ; n:ais tnut poite k croire qu'un tel parti ne triompheia pas, que la sagesse du gouvernement t.an^ais aura deconceite ses espeiances; et je n'aurai pas a re'tiacter le bien que je dis ici d'un peuple de qui je me plais a reccnnaitie qu'il n'est Anglais que par des habitudes qui ne tout-hent point a son independance politique et non {»ar le sentiment qui lui feiait )('g!etter de I'avou' conquise. — {NUe da citoyen Talleyrand, au mots de ventose, an VII.) 504 ' APPENDIX. tions, doit, par des institutions sages, 6tre attird vers ragriculture ; car le commerce tient toujours en effervescence les passions, et toujours I'agriculture les calme. Enfin, qu'apres une revolution qui a tout change, il faut savoir renoncer k ses haines si Ton ne veut renoncer pour jamais k son bonheur. 505 ) APPENDIX 11. There is a circumstance connected with the sketch of Mr. Canning which I am called upon to notice. The original MS. — which has since then been but very slightly altered — was completed twenty-six years ago, and the greatest part in print not very long afterwards. Before, however, the whole had been sent to the press, I was called away on diplomatic duty, and left the proof-sheets in the bands of Mr. Colburn and the printer's, Beaufort House ; abandoning in my own mind the intention of ever publishing or completing the work. In fact, in the busy life of Spain it was forgotten. On my return to England, in 1848, I received a visit from Mr. Bell, then editor of the Atlas. He sat with me some time, but did not make to me any pnrticular communica- tion, and it was only some time afterwards that I conjectured the purport of his visit. 1 then by accident, it might have been in America, read his Life of Mr. Canning, and found it was undeniably based on my original sketch. Many anecdotes were in it that I had had from private sources of a particular description, some of which anecdotes I have now omitted. Whole passages were entirely the same in purport and almost in expression ; in fact, there are parts, the one relating to the Treaty of Vienna and the partitions which then took place, for instance, which are almost verbally repeated. I did not think it worth while to take notice of this ; I was rather glad than otherwise that the labour, which I had considered thrown away, as far as any object of my own was concerned, had been useful in the composition of an able work by another ; and I only now mention the facts I have been relating, to clear myself from any charge of plagiarism which might otherwise be reasonably made against me. A copy of the old proofs I still retain. H. L. B. M. R. 1 . Separate, secret^ and confidential. (In cypher.) Foreign Office, Januaiy 31st, 1826. Sir, In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch is offering too little and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content, so we clap 2 L 506 APPENDIX. on Dutch bottoms just 20 per cent. Chorus of English Custom House officers and French douaniers: *' We clap on Dutch bottoms just 20 per cent.; Vous trapperez Falk avec 20 pour cent." 1 have no other commands from his Majesty to convey to your Excellency to-day. I am, with great truth and respect, Sir, Your Excellency's Most obedient humble servant, (Signed) George Canning. H. E. The Right Hon. Sir Charles Bagot, G.C.B., The Hague. 2. Secret. The Hague, February 3rd, 1826. Sir, I sincerely hope that this circumstance will not be productive of any public inconvenience ; but I am concerned to state that I do not possess any cypher by which I am enabled to decypher your despatch of the 31st of last month, which I received this morning ; the only cypher belonging to this embassy is letter S. I take the liberty of suggesting that it might be convenient at the present moment that I should be furnished with the cypher given to his Majesty's ambassador at St. Petersburg, or at least with that of which his Majesty's minister at Berlin may be in possession. I have the honour to be, with the highest respect, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, (Signed) Charles Bagot. The Right Hon. George Canning. 3. Secret and separate. Foreign Office, February 6th, 1826. In consequence of your despatch marked " Secret," of the 3rd instant, I send your Excellency the cyphers and the decyphers I and U, both of which are in the possession of his Majesty's ambassador at St. Petersburg and his Majesty's minister at Berlin. I regi-et the circumstance of your Excellency's not having been furnished with the proper cyphers, as I was anxious that your Excellency should receive with as little delay as possible the impression which has been made upon his Majesty's Government by the very opposite feelings and conduct which have been demonstrated by the governments of the Netherlands and France, in the late commercial negotiations with Great Britain. I am, &c.. His Excellency (Signed) George Canning. The Rio;ht Hon. Sir C. Bagot. 4. Private. -/} (y The Hague, February 13th, 1826. My dear Canning, You have fretted me to fiddlestrings, and I have a great mind not to give you the satisfaction of ever knowing how completely your mystification of me has succeeded. It was more than you had a right to expect when you 14 DAY USE RBTURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. j^P--**.-^ . fj Miitim I2Jan'6lTD| ^iwtj? 'tit.[^.tr RSCD LD REC'D LD JAN Eg 561 KtkC tiUNS '65-UAM im''^' o.C:\ «i57r Rrrc'D 5.:*i JUN 9 1961 . 2lWa:/62oR JAN 14 1977 BEC. C18. NOV 3 9 '^'^^ fp/^l^ iy\Qrd\j ^i LD 21A-50m-4,'60 (.A9562sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley U. C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES ^ >($IC :^-'v^ THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY