[6]The daughter of Lady Palmerston by her first marriage and a niece of Lord Melbourne. Lady Fanny was to marry Lord Jocelyn a few months later.[7]Young Colonel Cardigan had several quarrels with officers in his regiment, and after a duel with Captain Harvey Tuckett, whom he wounded, he was summoned before the House of Lords in its judicial capacity in 1841; he was acquitted, and his trial was merely a necessary concession to the law of the land against duelling.[8]M. de Bacourt, to whom this letter was addressed, was still acting as French Minister at Washington. This incident explains the coolness which arose between the Duchesse de Talleyrand and M. Thiers.[9]This great work consisted in copying and classifying papers which were collected under the title,Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand.[10]The Irish Registration Bill had been proposed by Lord Morpeth in the House of Commons, where it met with considerable opposition.[11]On February 16, 1841, King William I. of the Low Countries contracted a morganatic marriage with the Comtesse d' Oultremont-Vegimont, after abdicating in 1840, in favour of his son, King William II.[12]Extract from a letter.[13]The Sub-Prefect of Chinon at that time was M. Viel.[14]During the Canadian rebellion in 1837 and 1838, the steamshipCarolinehad been burnt on the Niagara River, and an Englishman, Mr. Amos Durfee, was killed. Mr. Alexander MacLeod, a United States citizen, was accused as his murderer, but Mr. Gridley, judge at Utica succeeded in proving his innocence.[15]Seep. 22 for the announcement of the marriage of Lord Beauvale with Mlle. Maltzan.[16]Benais, the country residence near Rochecotte, then belonged to M. and Madame de Messine, the parents of Madame du Ponceau.[17]Extract from a letter.[18]Dr. Andral was a son-in-law of M. Royer-Collard.[19]This letter from M. de Talleyrand to King Louis XVIII. and the reply sent to him by M. de Villèle in the King's name, may be found in the appendix of the third volume of theMemoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand.[20]Count Pahlen.[21]Seep. 15 (February 12, 1841). A judicial inquiry had been begun against M. de Montour, the manager of the newspaperla France, which had published the false letters. The matter was long delayed by the defence, and did not come before a jury until April 24. M. Berryer cleverly pleaded good faith on the part of M. de Montour, who had thought the letters authentic, though he had taken no pains to verify his belief. In the result the manager ofla Francewas acquitted by six votes to six.[22]The Comte de Paris, born on August 24, 1838, was privately baptized at the Tuileries on his birthday. He was not admitted into the church until nearly three years later, when the ceremony took place at Notre Dame with great splendour.[23]The Marquise de Castellane was then seriously ill with quinsy, from the effects of which she suffered for a long time.[24]These letters are addressed to M. de La Gervaisais, a young Breton gentleman, an officer of carbineers of Monsieur's regiment. The Princesse de Condé had made his acquaintance in 1786 at Bourbon l'Archambault, where she had been to take the waters, and her feeling for him was both deep and pure.[25]Queen Adelaide.[26]The Comtesse d'Oultremont.[27]In Shakspere'sMerchant of Venice.[28]Prince Anton Radziwill had been sent to Göttingen to conclude his studies, and while he was then staying in Germany in 1794, he made the acquaintance of Goethe, who was already working at the first part ofFaust. Prince Radziwill was profoundly attracted by the beauty of this work, and as he was himself a most enthusiastic musician he undertook to put certain scenes of the great poet's creation to music, and completed the work of composition by degrees. The Prince was on terms of personal intimacy with Goethe, who slightly modified the garden scene between Faust and Margaret at his request. The first performance ofFaustwith Prince Radziwill's music was given at Berlin in 1819, at the Palace Theatre of Monbijou, before the whole of the Prussian court. The Berlin Academy of Music, to which the Prince presented his work, has performed it almost annually since that date.[29]The author had accompanied the Prince de Talleyrand to Vienna for the Congress of 1815, and the Prince refers to the incident in his Memoirs as follows: "I also thought that it was necessary to destroy the hostile prejudice with which imperial France had inspired the high and influential society of Vienna; for this purpose the French Embassy must be made a social centre. I therefore asked my niece, the Comtesse Edmond de Périgord, to accompany me and do the honours of my house. Her readiness and tact caused general satisfaction, and were highly useful to me." (Vol. II. p. 208.)[30]Extract from a letter.[31]This lamentable scene, the sad event which marked the last evening which Charles X. and the Dauphin spent at Saint-Cloud, is related at length in the memoirs of the Duc de Raguse, to which reference is here made (Vol. VIII. Book XXIV.), and is partly reproduced in a book by M. Imbert de Saint-Amand, entitled TheDuchesse de Berry and the Revolution of 1830, which appeared in 1880.[32]The Queen of Hanover was the Duchess of Cumberland, by birth a Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She died on June 29, after suffering for three months from a form of consumption.[33]Hohlstein was the estate of the Princess of Hohenzollern Hechingen, by birth a Princess of Courlande.[34]La Jonchère was the property of M. Thiers at La Celle Saint-Cloud.[35]This protocol, which concluded the Egyptian question, was signed on July 13, 1841, by England, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Turkey. The Straits Convention, which was signed at the same time, added the signature of the French plenipotentiary to the rest.[36]On July 9 and 10 the inhabitants of Toulouse were disturbed by the question of the census. The agitation seemed to have died away when a serious rising broke out upon the 12th. Large bodies of people marched about the streets, and barricades were raised, and the 13th was a very threatening day. The town was saved by the wisdom of the temporary mayor, M. Arzac, who was able, by means of tact, to restore tranquillity.[37]The Duchesse de Talleyrand was born on August 21, 1793.[38]Where the Foreign Office is situated.[39]The revolutionary factions which were still seething, pursued their plan of destroying the Royal Family. On September 4, 1841, a pistol-shot was fired at the Duc d'Aumale as he was going down a street of the Faubourg Saint Antoine at the head of his regiment, the 17th Light Horse. The horse of Lieutenant-Colonel Levaillant, who was by the side of the Prince was killed by the ball.[40]The census at Clermont-Ferrand, as at Toulouse, was a pretext for disturbances which broke out on September 13, 1841, and continued the whole of the next day. The rioters attacked the armed force, and many soldiers were killed or wounded; the gates of the town were burnt, and a desperate combat ensued. It became necessary to send considerable military forces to the town to overwhelm the rebels and restore order.[41]The Marquis and Marquise de Castellane were now resident in Auvergne at their estate of Aubijou.[42]TheNationalhad published a correspondence concerning the disturbances at Clermont, full of falsehoods and invectives against the monarchy, and was accused of attacking the King's majesty and brought to trial. On September 24, 1841, a verdict of "Not Guilty" was passed by the jury of the Seine.[43]On October 7, 1841, at eight o'clock in the evening, Generals Leon and Concho took advantage of the fact that a regiment, formerly commanded by the latter, had arrived at Madrid. As the regiment was devoted to him the two Generals proposed to make a sudden attempt to carry off the Queen and the Infanta. They went to the palace at the head of a squadron of the Royal Guard, and while the regiment surrounded the palace they mounted to the Queen's apartments; these were fortunately guarded by halberdiers who offered a vigorous resistance, received them with rifle-shots, and drove them back several times. Espartero crushed this military plot, and had General Diego Leon shot on October 15.[44]On September 20, 1841, Colonel James W. Grogau, a citizen of the United States, was surprised during the night in the house of a certain Mr. Brown within the frontiers of his own country, by brigands in English uniform, who carried him away as a prisoner to Montreal in Canada. Mr. Richard Jackson, the Governor of Canada, immediately liberated him, and punished an English officer, Mr. Jackson, of Colonel Dyer's regiment, who had taken part in this attempt.[45]King Edward VII. was born on November 9.[46]After long struggles between the Carlists and the Christinos, which caused much bloodshed throughout the Peninsula until 1839, Don Carlos at this date was obliged to take refuge in France. He was ordered to reside at the town of Bourges, where he was kept under strict supervision, and not until 1847 did he obtain permission to leave for Austria.[47]The Duchesse de Talleyrand had an innate and instinctive fear of cats which she was never able to conquer.[48]Comte de Maistre.[49]Dupoty, an ardent republican, had vigorously opposed the July Government in certain newspapers under his management. When Quesnel made his attempt upon the life of the Duc d'Aumale in 1841, Dupoty was prosecuted and brought before the Chamber of Peers on a charge of moral complicity. He was condemned to five years imprisonment, and did not recover his liberty until the amnesty of 1844.[50]Then French Chargé d'Affaires at St. Petersburg.[51]Afterwards Madame de Terray; she was born in 1787.[52]King Frederick William went to England for the baptism of the Prince of Wales, to whom he stood godfather.[53]Mrs. Fry was a Quakeress, well known at London for her charity. The King of Prussia had been anxious to see her, and in the course of this visit she asked him to give his subjects the fullest liberty of conscience.[54]High-handed action in Mexico to the detriment of French residents obliged the French Government to raise claims in 1837, which produced no result. A French fleet then blockaded the fort of Saint Juan d'Ulloa, which commands the entrance to Vera Cruz. The fleet, under the command of Rear-Admiral Baudin, captured the fort on November 27, 1838, after a resistance of several months, and then obliged the Mexican Government to sign a treaty at Vera Cruz on March 9, 1839.[55]This work by M. de Rémusat eventually appeared in 1845; it contains a masterly exposition of Abélard's teaching and his scholastic philosophy.[56]At that time M. Gergonne, officer of the Legion of Honour.[57]The museum of Montpellier is now one of the best of provincial museums. It was founded in 1825 by Fabre, who returned to his native town after a stay of forty years in Italy, and brought with him a fine collection of pictures, some of which came to him from Alfieri, several works of art and a valuable library, which he bequeathed to the town of Montpellier on his death.[58]The Abbé Genoude was manager of theGazette de France.[59]The sight of the Corsican coast and the reading of Mérimée's novel,Colomba, which had just appeared in theRevue des Deux Mondes, stirred the enterprising character of the Marquis de Castellane to anxiety to make this journey, which he carried out with his family, and the excursion, which was somewhat adventurous at that time, lasted nearly two weeks. On his return to France he went to Perpignan, where the commandant was his father, the Comte de Castellane, who had been appointed Lieutenant-General after his return from the siege of Antwerp.[60]On February 8, 1842, Prince Nicolas Esterhazy had married Lady Sarah Villiers, daughter of Lord and Lady Jersey.[61]By filling the place of M. Humann.[62]Colombais a striking picture of a Corsican vendetta, which has remained a famous and popular book. Mérimée first published it in theRevue des Deux Mondes, where it appeared during the winter of 1842.[63]William Hope, a Dutch financier of English origin, son-in-law of General Rapp and the owner of a vast fortune, settled in Paris in a house in the rue Neuve des Mathurins, which became a social centre. When this house became too small for his numerous entertainments, Mr. Hope built the large residence at No. 57 Rue Saint Dominique, which was bought after his death by Baron Seillière. He bequeathed it to his daughter, who became Princesse de Sagan by her marriage with Boson de Talleyrand-Perigord, Prince de Sagan and grandson of the Duchesse de Talleyrand.[64]The Marquis de Castellane never recovered from this accident. He endured constant suffering with the greatest courage for five years and died in 1847 as a consequence of this fall, which the surgery of that day was unable to cure.[65]About the beginning of June 1842 an attempt was made to assassinate the Queen of England at almost the same place and in almost the same manner as in 1840.[66]Ussé, situated upon a hill opposite Rochecotte upon which it looks, was occupied in 1842 by the Comtesse de La Rochejaquelein, who was the widow of the Prince de Talmont and had married for the second time, her husband being the youngest brother of the hero ofla Vendée. The castle of Ussé was added to at different times, as is obvious from the picturesque originality of the building. The work was begun by Jacques d'Epinay, Chamberlain under Louis XI. and Charles VIII., in 1415 that he might be nearer to the Court. Ussé afterwards passed to the family of Bennin de Valentinay, one member of which married the eldest daughter of the Marshal of Vauban. He often visited the place, and to him are attributed the arrangement of the terraces and the building of the bastion which bears his name.[67]Mgr. Morlot, born at Langres in 1795, and Bishop of Orléans since 1839.[68]Kirchberg an Wald, a château occupied by Charles X. after 1830.[69]Extract from a letter to M. de Bacourt.[70]Francesca de Maistre.[71]Princess Albert of Prussia,néePrincess Marianne of the Low Countries.[72]This marriage, which all the English newspapers announced as likely to take place, was not performed, as the Queen absolutely refused her consent and was supported by the Privy Council. Prince George of Cambridge, through a letter from his solicitor to theObserver, gave a formal denial to the slanderous rumours in circulation, and Lady Blanche Somerset, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort by his second marriage, afterwards married Lord Kinnoul in 1848.[73]This Indian Prince was a rich banker, Duwarkanout Tayore, who was then travelling in England and France.[74]After an expedition in China the English had just concluded the treaty of Nankin, which opened new ports to European commerce and allowed foreigners to settle in Canton. The treaty with the United States had been signed on September 9, and settled the long debated question of the frontier line between Canada and the State of Maine.[75]Mother-in-law of M. Guizot.[76]Etudes sur les idées et sur leur union au sein du Catholicisme, two volumes in 8vo, Debécourt, 1842.[77]SeeAppendix.[78]The Duc Pasquier.[79]In 1843 the existence of Guizot's Ministry was endangered by the question of the secret service funds. M. Molé, whose Ministry had been overthrown in 1839 by the Thiers-Guizot coalition, thought that the moment was advisable to organise a league against his two adversaries. He went to work secretly by means of conversations in drawing-rooms and passages, and entered into relations with MM. Dufaure and Passy, who abandoned him at the critical moment. The debate on the secret service funds began in the Chamber on March 1 and turned in favour of the Cabinet, M. Guizot gaining one of his most brilliant successes on this occasion.[80]With Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg Gotha (1818-1881), brother of the Duchesse de Nemours. One of the children of this marriage is the present King of Bulgaria, Ferdinand I.[81]The Pavillon Marsan was occupied by the Duchesse d'Orléans.[82]On February 8, 1843, at half-past ten in the morning, an earthquake shock which lasted seventy seconds caused great damage at Guadeloupe, destroyed the town of La Pointe à Pitreand, almost the whole of this French colony, and engulfed thousands of dead and wounded. A great deal of damage was also done in the English Antilles.[83]In 1843 a Frenchman, M. Faye, discovered a periodic comet, whose orbit he calculated, and which bears his name. This discovery made some stir. M. Faye was awarded the Lalande prize of the Academy of Sciences and was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour.[84]A remarkable fragment upon Saint Cyr was printed and published in 1843 for private circulation. It may be regarded as the basis of the work of the Duc de Noailles onMadame de Maintenon and the Chief Events of the Reign of Louis XIV.The fragment appears at the beginning of the third volume of this work, which was to open the doors of the French Academy to the Duc de Noailles.[85]The Duc Pasquier.[86]His marriage with the Princesse Clémentine.[87]After the death of the Duc d'Orléans in 1842 the Chamber of Deputies passed a law nominating the Duc de Nemours as Regent of the Realm during the minority of the Comte de Paris in the event of the death of the old King. From this time the Prince sat in the Chamber of Peers and made official journeys of inspection through the departments.[88]The country of Neuchâtel had been ceded to Frederick I., King of Prussia, in 1707, and became French territory from 1806 to 1814. The treaties of Vienna had restored it to Frederick William III., though it remained within the Swiss Confederation. The state of things was to continue until the revolution of 1848, when the mountaineers expelled the Prussians. Frederick William IV. did not finally abandon his rights until 1850, and a convention signed on May 24, 1852, secured the independence of Neuchâtel while reserving to Prussia her rights.[89]M. de Custine had collected the memories of his journey in Russia in a work in four volumes, entitledRussia in 1839.[90]The reference is to the marriage of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia, afterwards Alexander II., with the daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt, which was celebrated at St. Petersburg on April 16, 1841.[91]Prince Sergius Trubetzkoi, when very young, had taken an active part in a conspiracy which broke out at St. Petersburg in 1825 with reference to the right of the Emperor Nicholas to the throne of Russia. He was accused of usurping the crown from his brother Constantine. Condemned to death by the Supreme Court of Justice, the punishment was commuted to perpetual exile in Siberia. There he was obliged to work in the mines as a convict. The Emperor Nicholas remained inflexible throughout his life, and would never pardon the conspirator against his person, who was not released until 1855 by Alexander II. on his accession to the throne. Princess Trubetzkoi, urged by passionate devotion, followed her husband into exile, and her action was regarded as the more heroic, as the married couple had previously lived on somewhat cold terms.[92]Extract from a letter.[93]Count Veltheim (1781-1848).[94]Prince Pückler in his works had shown an independence and boldness of judgment which, in conjunction with his liberal ideas, seemed far too advanced for so retrograde a court as that of Prussia, and had obliged him to absent himself.[95]This play, by Alexandre Dumas père, was then given at the Theatre Royal of Berlin (Schauspielhaus) from the German translation by L. Osten.[96]This novel,Der Mohr oder das Haus Holstein-Gattorp in Schweden, which appeared anonymously, takes as its hero a negro named Badin, who is said to have been actually brought from Africa to Sweden during his youth in 1751.[97]William III., who had been at Rome in 1771 as Crown Prince, returned to that city after his accession in 1783. Pius VI. was then Pope, and received the King with the greatest kindness. In June 1784 Gustavus III. came to Paris to revisit Queen Marie Antoinette, to whom he was greatly attached.[98]The Princesse de Carignan, the grandmother of King Charles Albert, was a Princess Joséphine of Lorraine and a sister of the charming Princesse Charlotte, the Abbess of Remiremont, for whom M. de Talleyrand felt so profound an affection.[99]The famous "Billy," as the Prince's friends called him.[100]Princess Pückler was divorced in 1817 by Count Charles von Pappenheim and married Hermann Pückler in the same year. They were divorced in 1826 because Prince Pückler, who was almost ruined by his wild extravagance, wished to marry a rich English woman, a Miss Harriet Hamlet. This project failed, and the Prince and his wife, though legally divorced, began life again very happily under the same roof, though they were not remarried.[101]This Abyssinian woman was called Machbouba. Prince Pückler had brought her back with him from his travels. She could not bear the northern climate, and died at Muskau after embracing the Catholic religion at Vienna through the influence of Princess Metternich, who took a keen interest in Machbouba.[102]On June 17, 1843, the King of Denmark, Christian VIII., disembarked at Putbus, where the King of Prussia was awaiting him.[103]The house of Courlande at Berlin, No. 7Unter den Linden, formed part of the fortune which the Duchesse de Talleyrand received on her father's death. The Duchesse sold this house, through her architect, in 1839, for ninety-five thousand thalers. The Emperor Nicholas bought it, and as the proprietor he gained the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. Apartments for the Emperor and his family were reserved in it, and it was then appropriated by the Russian Legation, which is still there.[104]The Prince Bishop of Breslau was then the Viscount Melchior von Diepenbrock, a cardinal (1798-1853).[105]Extract from a letter.[106]An allusion to the business connected with the Fief of Sagan, concerning which negotiations were then in progress.[107]The two buildings were opposite one another, and the wind drove the flames towards the palace of the Prince and Princess of Prussia.[108]A reference to the Archduke Stephan, son of the Archduke Joseph, Count Palatine of Hungary, who was then staying at Berlin on his way to Hanover.[109]Prince Augustus of Prussia, the younger brother of Prince Louis Ferdinand, who was killed in 1806 at Saalfeld, and the son of Prince Ferdinand, the last brother of Frederick the Great, was never married. He possessed a considerable fortune which he had increased by unscrupulous methods at the expense of his relations, and made a will by which the property of which he could not dispose reverted to the crown of Prussia, while the rest was bequeathed to his numerous natural children; so that he thus deprived his sister, Princess Radziwill, of the inheritance which should have gone to her. This scandal led to a famous law suit, which was lost by the Radziwills and attracted much public attention in Berlin.[110]The Russian Emperor, after a stay at Potsdam, barely escaped assassination as he was returning to his kingdom. As he passed through Posen on September 19 the people were mourning the death of General von Grolman, who had died of heart disease on September 15. A great favourite with every class of the population, the General had been buried on that same day, September 18, amid a great crowd of people. Advantage of the crowd was taken a short time afterwards to fire upon the carriage of theaides-de-camp, which was mistaken for the carriage of the Czar. Several bullets were found in the carriage and in the cloaks of the officers, but the event was never cleared up.[111]The Hohenzollern-Hechingen.[112]The Polish dynasty founded by Piast, which proceeded from 842-1370. A branch of the Piast family retained the Duchy of Silesia until 1675.[113]Extract from a letter.[114]The Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand contain an account of the scene to which these memoirs here allude. In the Appendix to this volume the reader will find the story, the truth of which is attested by M. de Vitrolles himself, as it is given in the Appendix to the second volume of theMemoirs of M. de Talleyrand.[115]Extract from a letter to M. de Bacourt.[116]After the fall of the Empire the department of Neuchâtel, which had belonged to Prussia since the time of Frederick II., joined the Swiss Confederation as its twenty-first canton, though it remained under the suzerainty of Prussia. This ambiguous position led to a series of disturbances and struggles. In 1847 Neuchâtel refused to take part in the war against the Sonderbund, and was condemned to pay an indemnity of nearly half a million to the Confederation.[117]Various anti-liberal attempts had been made between 1839-1840 in the Swiss Cantons of Tessin, Argovie, Valais, and Vaud. The Grand Council decreed the suppression of the convents. The Catholic Cantons protested and formed a league among themselves called the Sonderbund for the defence of their rights. The radical party regarded this movement as a violation of the constitution and declared war upon the Sonderbund, which was defeated in a desperate battle on the frontiers of the canton of Lucerne.[118]The mother of Prince Heinrich Carolath-Beuthen was by birth Duchess Amelia of Saxe-Meiningen and was the aunt of Queen Adelaide of England.[119]On the death of the Empress Marie Louise, in virtue of an arrangement made at Paris in 1817, Charles Louis of Bourbon, Duke of Lucca, took possession of the duchies of Parma and of Placentia. The duchy of Guastalla passed to the Duke of Modena who ceded the duchy of Lucca to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1848 the new Duke of Parma abdicated in favour of his son, Charles III., who had married Mademoiselle, the daughter of the Duc de Berry.[120]Throughout the period of struggle in Switzerland, the Powers had constantly sent warnings to the radical party. France in particular threatened armed intervention, but the events of 1848 caused the abandonment of this project.[121]Mademoiselle, daughter of the Duc de Berry.[122]Madame Adélaïde died rather suddenly on December 31, 1847.[123]Notwithstanding the victory of General Bugeaud at Isly, Abd-el-Kader, an energetic character, had contrived to continue the struggle in Algeria. In a final engagement, however, his most devoted adherents fell, and in 1847 he was obliged to surrender to General Lamoricière. Abd-el-Kader was kept a prisoner in France until the proclamation of the Empire. After Napoleon III. had set him at liberty he lived in Syria as a faithful and devoted friend of France.[124]The Duc Pasquier.[125]In the session of January 10, at the Chamber of Peers, M. de Barante, reporter to the committee, had read the proposed Address in reply to the speech from the throne. The proposal was vigorously attacked by the Comte d'Alton Shée who spoke for the dynastic party and had suddenly joined the opposition from the outset of the agitation for reform which preceded the revolution of February 1848. The Comte d'Alton Shée did not hesitate to express opinions entirely revolutionary, even while speaking in the Chamber and in this session he fulminated with all his eloquence against the foreign policy of M. Guizot, piling up accusations haphazard with reference to Portuguese, Swiss, and Italian affairs.[126]In the session of January 14, the Chamber of Peers resumed discussion of the seventh paragraph of the Address referring to Switzerland, and M. de Montalembert obtained one of his finest oratorical triumphs when he stigmatised in the loftiest terms the iniquitous and barbarous abuses of the revolutionary tyranny of which Switzerland was providing sad and grievous instances.[127]The policy of Lord Palmerston who had returned to the Foreign Office in 1846, had once more resumed a revolutionary character; particularly in the affair of the Sonderbund he was seen to be supporting Ochsenbein and Dufour against the Catholic Powers. He tricked M. Guizot who was negotiating to secure armed intervention with the help of Prussia and Austria and to oppose the English policy at a time when the submission of the seven cantons was already accomplished.[128]Extract from a letter addressed to M. de Bacourt who had just been appointed French Minister at Turin.[129]King Christian VIII. of Denmark was suddenly taken ill on January 6, 1848, and died on the 20th of the same month. Frederick VII., his son by his first marriage, succeeded him.[130]By birth Princess of Schleswig-Holstein.[131]The same meteor was seen in France a few days previously above Doullens: a sheaf of luminous rays extended horizontally from north to south, giving off light denotations comparable to those produced by a rocket.[132]Cardinal Diepenbrock.[133]The arms of Sagan were an angel upon a golden background.[134]King Louis Philippe who had resolved too late upon electoral reform and the dissolution of his ministry, was surprised by the massacre of the Boulevard des Capucines on February 23. On the 24th the whole of Paris was in a ferment, the revolution was triumphant and the King resolved to abdicate. He left the Tuileries and took refuge at first in the Castle of Eu and was under the delusion that his grandson, the Comte de Paris, might succeed him, but on the 25th he learnt that the Republic had been proclaimed and was forced to take refuge in England.[135]The Marquise de Castellane had gone with her children to La Délivrande, a village near Caen, which owes its origin to a famous pilgrimage of the Virgin. Mgr. de Quélen had there uttered ardent prayers that M. de Talleyrand might die a Christian death.[136]He was then French Minister at Berlin.[137]Herr von Radowitz was then sent to Vienna to try and arrange some co-operation between the two courts in view of the revolutionary storm which seemed to be threatening. Prince William, who had been governor of Mayence from 1844, returned to his post in view of the course of events.[138]In the confusion which prevailed during the unhappy day of February 24, at Paris, when every one fled as best he could, the Duchesse d'Orléans and her two children, after escaping the perils which they had run at the Chamber of Deputies, took refuge with M. Jules de Lasteyrie at the Hôtel des Invalides, which they left secretly during the night. From Paris to Aix la Chapelle, the Princess travelled in a public conveyance accompanied by the Marquis de Montesquiou and M. de Mornay. She then took the railway to Cologne, and after spending the night at Deutz, she went to Ems to ask refuge of the Grand Duke of Weimar who placed the castle of Eisenach at her disposal. It was not until June 1849 that she went to England to visit the Royal Family at St. Leonards, near Hastings, where the King and Queen had gone in view of their health.[139]The old district of Franconia, that is to say, part of Baden, Wurtemberg and Hesse, was then the scene of a movement akin to the Jacquerie: the peasants rose in a body and committed deplorable excesses; castles were burnt and plundered, and several landowners were killed or barbarously ill-treated. On the 10th of March serious disturbances broke out at Cassel under the pretext that the newly nominated ministers were the objects of popular disapproval. The arsenal was stormed and plundered of weapons; resistance was offered to the troops; the Life Guards retreated, but the populace held the barracks until the regiment was disbanded and the officers put upon trial.[140]On March 13 a formidable insurrection broke out at Vienna: the population rose in a body; the railways were torn up and the air resounded with cries, "The constitution and the liberty of the Press."][141]Prince Adam Czartoryski, who retained his delusions, was inspired with fresh hopes by the disturbances which prevailed on every side, and from which the Poles were trying to derive some advantage for themselves. The Prince arrived at Berlin where disorder was general and proclaimed with considerable effrontery that Lord Palmerston and M. de Lamartine had promised to support him by land and sea, if Prussia would declare the re-establishment of Poland. The presence of Prince Czartoryski at Berlin was regarded with such disfavour by the Emperor of Russia, that he informed his Minister, Baron Meyendorff, that he would be withdrawn from Poland, if the Prince prolonged his stay in that capital.[142]On April 2, 1848, at midday the second general Diet was opened at Berlin in one Chamber without any distinction of rank or representation. The commissary of this Diet, Herr von Camphausen, the President of the Council, accompanied by all the Ministers, opened the Diet in the King's name. He delivered a speech, at the conclusion of which he brought forward proposals for a law concerning elections for the purpose of bringing into force upon a wide basis the constitution which the King had granted to his people after the events of March 18.[143]After a collision between the troops and the people at Vienna on March 13, 1848, and after the insurrection in Venice, Prince Metternich, who was too prone to overrate his capacity for resistance, was forced by an infuriated mob to resign and to flee from Austria with his wife. At first they stayed in Dresden, but the unpopularity of the Prince was so great that they were obliged to proceed to Holland and thence to England. In 1849 they settled at Brussels.[144]This assembly was spontaneously convoked at Frankfort to provide the country with a centre of action in case the Princes declined to support the movement for amalgamation which was then in progress among the Germanic races. It was dissolved on April 2, after securing from the Princes at the Diet the promise that a German parliament should meet. A commission, however, was appointed by the army consisting of fifty members, to secure the execution of this promise, and these members were ordered to convoke a national parliament within one month, assuming that a parliament had not been already elected by the different states.[145]The news of the Paris Revolution had produced a great sensation in the Grand Duchy of Posen. A revolt broke out at Posen itself, where Mieroslawski, who was released from prison on March 19, formed an army and prepared for war. At Cracow when the news of the Vienna disturbances came in, seventy thousand Poles went to Count Deyne, the civil commissary, and demanded the liberty of four hundred of their compatriots.[146]There was no ultimatum properly so-called; this was only a newspaper report. The Polish National Committee merely published a manifesto proclaiming that until the independence of Poland was re-established, the Poles would consider any arbitrary division of their national districts as a new partition of Poland, and threatened to protest against any such violation before Europe as a whole. This protest was eventually made on April 26 by two letters from Prince A. Czartoryski, addressed to M. de Lamartine, the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Paris, and to Baron Arnim who held the same position at Berlin.[147]The noble and chivalrous Charles Albert, desiring to throw off Austrian influence, had formed a highly organised army and proclaimed a constitution. On him the hopes of Italian independence were set. Taking advantage of the insurrection which had broken out at Milan on March 18 and which had been followed by the defeat of the Austrian army and the flight of the Archduke Reynier, the King had declared war upon Austria on March 20. At first he rapidly carried the positions of the enemy as far as the Adige, but he was attacked by superior forces and afterwards (in August) he lost the murderous battle of Custozza and was obliged to evacuate Milan.[148]After Milan, Venice revolted in turn. On March 20 the Arsenal was captured by the insurgents. The civil governor, Count Palfy, placed his authority in the hands of Count Zichy, the military governor, who hesitated before the prospect of bloodshed and finally surrendered to the municipality and made a capitulation with the provisional government on March 22; Venice was thus freed from the Austrians. On March 21 Treviso had also been forced to capitulate and the Austrian garrison had left the town.[149]The Prussian troops commanded by General Blum, had marched upon Miloslaw which they captured after a desperate combat; but an advance guard which was pursuing the Poles when approaching a wood, was received by so sustained a fire, that the Prussians fled, rushed upon their own infantry which was following them, broke their ranks and swept the whole force away in rout. The Poles pursued the Prussians in turn, drove them out of Miloslaw and captured two of their guns.[150]On May 4 Count Ficquelmont, Minister of Foreign Affairs at Vienna, was forced to resign by a tumultuous demonstration of the students who regarded him as a pupil of Metternich.[151]For several days manifestations in favour of Poland had been proceeding at Paris. On May 15 a band of insurgents attacked and invaded the National Assembly, but order was quickly restored.[152]On May 1 a revolutionary movement broke out at Rome, caused by the Pope's refusal to declare war against Austria. The Ministry resigned: the Pope was threatened with a provisional government, and declared in a manifesto that as chief Pontiff he could not declare war but that he left the power of declaring war as a temporal prince to his Ministry. On May 5 Pius IX. was forced to accept a Ministry composed wholly of laymen which was constantly in opposition to him.[153]The little exiled court lived very quietly at the seat of Claremont in England which belonged to King Leopold who had kindly placed it at their disposal.[154]M. Boismilon.[155]It was thought that the Liberalism of Herr von Camphausen had sufficiently calmed the popular excitement to allow the Prince of Prussia to return to Berlin. At the outbreak of the disturbance he had been forced to take refuge in England. However, no sooner had the Prince arrived than the Camphausen Ministry was overthrown on June 20, after the capture and plunder of the Arsenal and the Ministry of Auerswald came into power.[156]An insurrection had been broken out at Naples. After six hours' desperate fighting the royal troops retained possession of the town, though they lost three or four hundred men. The Chamber and the National Guard were dissolved and a new Ministry was formed under the Presidency of Signor Cariati.[157]After a bombardment and some street fighting which lasted from the 12th to the 17th of June, Prince Windisch-Graetz was able to overcome the insurrection at Prague. During these struggles his wife was treacherously shot near the window of her drawing-room, while standing between her sisters, from the other side of the street.[158]In the National Assembly at Frankfort the Committee of the Fifty had been tempted several times to form a triumvirate as a centre of power. Eventually a commission of eleven deputies was elected in June. This commission appointed Archduke John for Austria, the old Prince William for Prussia, and Prince Charles for Bavaria. The combination was ironically known as the directory of the three uncles, these princes being the uncles of the kings of their respective countries. The proposal was vigorously opposed, and the Session of June 23 eventually elected the Archduke John as sole director. A deputation offered the dignity to the Archduke who accepted it, and appeared in the National Assembly on the following 12th of July.[159]When seven thousand workmen had been dismissed from the national workshops, a further outbreak caused much bloodshed in Paris for four days. On that occasion the Archbishop, Mgr. Affre, was killed upon one of the barricades where he was attempting to pacify the people.[160]Herr von Pfördten.[161]The discussions concerning the proposal of a deputy, Herr Stein, with reference to the army and to the control which the Ministry should exert upon the political opinions of officers, were concluded in the Chamber against the desires of the Cabinet. The Auerswald Ministry therefore resigned on September 11; on the 22nd of the same month the King appointed a new Cabinet of which General Pfuel was President.[162]It will be remembered that the populations of Schleswig and Holstein, who wished to be united with Germany, had revolted against Denmark, and that the Prussians had come to their help. After several bloody conflicts an armistice was concluded between Denmark and Prussia at Malmæ on August 26, but the National Assembly at Frankfort refused to assent to this armistice on the ground that Prussia did not ask its authorisation. The council of Ministers and all the Ministers of the Empire had thereupon resigned.[163]The Château of Trachenberg, not far from Breslau.[164]In the morning of October 6 a number of the population of Vienna opposed the departure of the troops which were marching upon Hungary to reinforce Baron Jellachich, and a bloodthirsty struggle broke out. The residence of the Minister of War was captured by assault, and the Minister, the Comte de la Tour, was stabbed, hung to a lamp-post, and riddled with bullets. The troops retired, were driven back at every point and forced to evacuate the town. The Emperor and the Imperial Family, who had returned to Vienna in the month of August, were obliged to retire once more and went towards Olmütz. There the emperor abdicated on December 2 in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph I.[165]General Count Lamberg had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Hungarian troops on September 25: the National Assembly at Pesth refused to recognise this nomination and declared all guilty of high treason who should obey him, and on his arrival at Pesth put him to death on the bridge which unites Buda and Pesth.[166]When Hungary was in a state of insurrection, the insurgents seized Count Eugène Zichy, accused him of communicating with the Austrian Army and of distributing copies of the emperor's proclamation. He was tried before a court presided over by Georgei and was condemned to death and shot in the island of Czepel and not hung, as the first rumour related.[167]General Brédy was killed at Vienna on October 6, 1848, during the struggle between the people and the National Guard in the suburb of Leopoldstadt, a few hours before the insurgents seized the residence of the Minister of War.[168]By the Black and Yellow party is meant the Imperial party, the members of which wore these colours.[169]On October 16 a further and bloodthirsty outbreak took place at Berlin, ending in a collision between the National Guard and the workmen. The result was to revive the agitation which had prevailed in this town with short intermissions since the month of March.[170]M. Arago, the French Minister, showed himself to the crowd which was cheering him before his residence. He uttered a few words in French and held out his hand to the people who were nearest to him.[171]A new Ministry, of which Count Brandenburg was President and Herr von Manteuffel was Minister of the Interior, had been appointed at Berlin on November 8. Its very first administrative act ended in a defeat: an ordinance of the King countersigned by the Count of Brandenburg transferred the National Assembly to the town of Brandenburg; the Assembly decided against this transference by a vast majority, and as the Government could not continue amid this increasing anarchy, it resolved upon vigorous action. On November 10 a considerable number of troops were drafted into the capital and occupied the entrance to the Assembly room. The Assembly protested against this violence, and an ordinance of the King then declared the civil guard disbanded; another ordinance issued on the 12th proclaimed Berlin to be in a state of siege. General Wrangel commanded the military forces and every measure was taken to avoid a collision.[172]In November 1848 the whole of the Royal Family had suffered from poisoning in consequence of the leaden pipes through which the water was carried.[173]The Austrian Diet had been sitting since November 15 at Kremsier in Moravia, in the beautiful castle of the Archbishops of Olmütz. The new Ministry was composed as follows: Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Stadion, Minister of the Interior; Krauss, Financial Minister; Bach, Legal Minister; Gordon, Minister of War; Bruck, Minister of Commerce; Thinnfeld, Minister of Agriculture; Kulmer, unattached.[174]The Pope had given his subjects a constitution on March 14, and after changing his Ministry several times he had at length decided on December 15 to appoint as his Prime Minister, Pellegrino Rossi, formerly French Ambassador to His Holiness and a personal friend of M. Guizot. Rossi undertook to establish a regular parliamentary government in the Papal States, relying upon the middle classes and intervening between the parties in opposition. He was not given the time to carry out his proposals: on November 15, as he was going to a Cabinet Council, he was stabbed in the throat by a militiaman and fell dead. This deed was a signal for a republican rising. The Pope confined himself to appointing a new Minister who was out of sympathy with the people, upon which the mob and the troops made their way to the Quirinal and ordered the Pope to change his Ministers. Pius IX., who was supported by the diplomatic body, declined to accede, and popular exasperation then reached its height. A desperate struggle broke out between the people and the guards, and the bullets even reached the interior of the palace. Eventually the Pope yielded under protest and consented to accept as his Ministers Sterbini, Galletti, Mamiani, and the Abbé Rosmini. But on November 25, dressed as an ordinary Abbé, he left Rome and sought the protection of the King of Naples at Gaeta, from which town he sent a protest to the Romans against recent events.[175]Herr von Gagern, who had undertaken to draw up a constitution for the Empire at Frankfort and to settle the central power upon a permanent basis, had come to Berlin to examine the situation and to learn whether the King of Prussia would be inclined to place himself at the head of the German Empire in the event of a rupture between Austria and Germany. The King absolutely declined this proposal, which was afterwards brought before him once more with more official authority in March 1849.[176]Like Pellegrino Rossi, Capo d'Istria suffered a violent death. He was accused by the Greeks of acting merely as the tool of Russia, and of using arbitrary methods to secure governmental power. He was assassinated in 1831 by the brothers George and Constantine Mavromichali, who wished to take vengeance upon him for the unjust imprisonment of their father and brother.[177]King Charles Albert did not abdicate until after the battle of Novara on March 23, 1849.[178]About December 15 Prince Windisch-Graetz at the head of the Austrian troops drove the Hungarians out of one position after another, until they retired behind the bastions of Raab, under the command of Georgei. As the great cold prevented their reinforcements from coming up, the Hungarians were obliged to abandon this position, which the Austrians captured without striking a blow, on December 27.[179]On September 29, 1848, near Veneleze, twelve miles away from Ofen, Jellachich was utterly defeated by General Moga. His army took flight and Jellachich was taken prisoner. He succeeded in escaping, however, and made his way through the forests to Mor, Risber, and at length to Raab.[180]Prince Louis Bonaparte had been nominated President on November 10, 1848. M. Molé related that on the morning of that day General Changarnier, the commander of the troops who were to take the President to the Elysée, after he had taken the oath, came to M. Molé and asked for directions, and said as he went out, "Well, supposing I take him to the Tuileries instead of to the Elysée!" to which M. Molé replied, "Mind you do nothing of the sort; he will go there soon enough of his own accord."][181]The greatest confusion prevailed in Frankfort as soon as the question arose of providing a definite head to the German Empire, and realising the fine promises of union by means of a practical conclusion. Austria pretended to adopt a waiting attitude which would enable her to stand apart from all details, as though she had no idea of entering into relations with Germany until Germany became a constituted state. Her intention, in short, was to take no steps with reference to her union with Germany until the choice of the head of the empire and of pre-eminence was decided in her favour or against her.[182]This war, which began upon the accession of Francis Joseph to the Austrian throne, lasted for three years. Hungary eventually yielded before the overwhelming force of Austria in alliance with Russia.
[6]The daughter of Lady Palmerston by her first marriage and a niece of Lord Melbourne. Lady Fanny was to marry Lord Jocelyn a few months later.[7]Young Colonel Cardigan had several quarrels with officers in his regiment, and after a duel with Captain Harvey Tuckett, whom he wounded, he was summoned before the House of Lords in its judicial capacity in 1841; he was acquitted, and his trial was merely a necessary concession to the law of the land against duelling.[8]M. de Bacourt, to whom this letter was addressed, was still acting as French Minister at Washington. This incident explains the coolness which arose between the Duchesse de Talleyrand and M. Thiers.[9]This great work consisted in copying and classifying papers which were collected under the title,Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand.[10]The Irish Registration Bill had been proposed by Lord Morpeth in the House of Commons, where it met with considerable opposition.[11]On February 16, 1841, King William I. of the Low Countries contracted a morganatic marriage with the Comtesse d' Oultremont-Vegimont, after abdicating in 1840, in favour of his son, King William II.[12]Extract from a letter.[13]The Sub-Prefect of Chinon at that time was M. Viel.[14]During the Canadian rebellion in 1837 and 1838, the steamshipCarolinehad been burnt on the Niagara River, and an Englishman, Mr. Amos Durfee, was killed. Mr. Alexander MacLeod, a United States citizen, was accused as his murderer, but Mr. Gridley, judge at Utica succeeded in proving his innocence.[15]Seep. 22 for the announcement of the marriage of Lord Beauvale with Mlle. Maltzan.[16]Benais, the country residence near Rochecotte, then belonged to M. and Madame de Messine, the parents of Madame du Ponceau.[17]Extract from a letter.[18]Dr. Andral was a son-in-law of M. Royer-Collard.[19]This letter from M. de Talleyrand to King Louis XVIII. and the reply sent to him by M. de Villèle in the King's name, may be found in the appendix of the third volume of theMemoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand.[20]Count Pahlen.[21]Seep. 15 (February 12, 1841). A judicial inquiry had been begun against M. de Montour, the manager of the newspaperla France, which had published the false letters. The matter was long delayed by the defence, and did not come before a jury until April 24. M. Berryer cleverly pleaded good faith on the part of M. de Montour, who had thought the letters authentic, though he had taken no pains to verify his belief. In the result the manager ofla Francewas acquitted by six votes to six.[22]The Comte de Paris, born on August 24, 1838, was privately baptized at the Tuileries on his birthday. He was not admitted into the church until nearly three years later, when the ceremony took place at Notre Dame with great splendour.[23]The Marquise de Castellane was then seriously ill with quinsy, from the effects of which she suffered for a long time.[24]These letters are addressed to M. de La Gervaisais, a young Breton gentleman, an officer of carbineers of Monsieur's regiment. The Princesse de Condé had made his acquaintance in 1786 at Bourbon l'Archambault, where she had been to take the waters, and her feeling for him was both deep and pure.[25]Queen Adelaide.[26]The Comtesse d'Oultremont.[27]In Shakspere'sMerchant of Venice.[28]Prince Anton Radziwill had been sent to Göttingen to conclude his studies, and while he was then staying in Germany in 1794, he made the acquaintance of Goethe, who was already working at the first part ofFaust. Prince Radziwill was profoundly attracted by the beauty of this work, and as he was himself a most enthusiastic musician he undertook to put certain scenes of the great poet's creation to music, and completed the work of composition by degrees. The Prince was on terms of personal intimacy with Goethe, who slightly modified the garden scene between Faust and Margaret at his request. The first performance ofFaustwith Prince Radziwill's music was given at Berlin in 1819, at the Palace Theatre of Monbijou, before the whole of the Prussian court. The Berlin Academy of Music, to which the Prince presented his work, has performed it almost annually since that date.[29]The author had accompanied the Prince de Talleyrand to Vienna for the Congress of 1815, and the Prince refers to the incident in his Memoirs as follows: "I also thought that it was necessary to destroy the hostile prejudice with which imperial France had inspired the high and influential society of Vienna; for this purpose the French Embassy must be made a social centre. I therefore asked my niece, the Comtesse Edmond de Périgord, to accompany me and do the honours of my house. Her readiness and tact caused general satisfaction, and were highly useful to me." (Vol. II. p. 208.)[30]Extract from a letter.[31]This lamentable scene, the sad event which marked the last evening which Charles X. and the Dauphin spent at Saint-Cloud, is related at length in the memoirs of the Duc de Raguse, to which reference is here made (Vol. VIII. Book XXIV.), and is partly reproduced in a book by M. Imbert de Saint-Amand, entitled TheDuchesse de Berry and the Revolution of 1830, which appeared in 1880.[32]The Queen of Hanover was the Duchess of Cumberland, by birth a Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She died on June 29, after suffering for three months from a form of consumption.[33]Hohlstein was the estate of the Princess of Hohenzollern Hechingen, by birth a Princess of Courlande.[34]La Jonchère was the property of M. Thiers at La Celle Saint-Cloud.[35]This protocol, which concluded the Egyptian question, was signed on July 13, 1841, by England, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Turkey. The Straits Convention, which was signed at the same time, added the signature of the French plenipotentiary to the rest.[36]On July 9 and 10 the inhabitants of Toulouse were disturbed by the question of the census. The agitation seemed to have died away when a serious rising broke out upon the 12th. Large bodies of people marched about the streets, and barricades were raised, and the 13th was a very threatening day. The town was saved by the wisdom of the temporary mayor, M. Arzac, who was able, by means of tact, to restore tranquillity.[37]The Duchesse de Talleyrand was born on August 21, 1793.[38]Where the Foreign Office is situated.[39]The revolutionary factions which were still seething, pursued their plan of destroying the Royal Family. On September 4, 1841, a pistol-shot was fired at the Duc d'Aumale as he was going down a street of the Faubourg Saint Antoine at the head of his regiment, the 17th Light Horse. The horse of Lieutenant-Colonel Levaillant, who was by the side of the Prince was killed by the ball.[40]The census at Clermont-Ferrand, as at Toulouse, was a pretext for disturbances which broke out on September 13, 1841, and continued the whole of the next day. The rioters attacked the armed force, and many soldiers were killed or wounded; the gates of the town were burnt, and a desperate combat ensued. It became necessary to send considerable military forces to the town to overwhelm the rebels and restore order.[41]The Marquis and Marquise de Castellane were now resident in Auvergne at their estate of Aubijou.[42]TheNationalhad published a correspondence concerning the disturbances at Clermont, full of falsehoods and invectives against the monarchy, and was accused of attacking the King's majesty and brought to trial. On September 24, 1841, a verdict of "Not Guilty" was passed by the jury of the Seine.[43]On October 7, 1841, at eight o'clock in the evening, Generals Leon and Concho took advantage of the fact that a regiment, formerly commanded by the latter, had arrived at Madrid. As the regiment was devoted to him the two Generals proposed to make a sudden attempt to carry off the Queen and the Infanta. They went to the palace at the head of a squadron of the Royal Guard, and while the regiment surrounded the palace they mounted to the Queen's apartments; these were fortunately guarded by halberdiers who offered a vigorous resistance, received them with rifle-shots, and drove them back several times. Espartero crushed this military plot, and had General Diego Leon shot on October 15.[44]On September 20, 1841, Colonel James W. Grogau, a citizen of the United States, was surprised during the night in the house of a certain Mr. Brown within the frontiers of his own country, by brigands in English uniform, who carried him away as a prisoner to Montreal in Canada. Mr. Richard Jackson, the Governor of Canada, immediately liberated him, and punished an English officer, Mr. Jackson, of Colonel Dyer's regiment, who had taken part in this attempt.[45]King Edward VII. was born on November 9.[46]After long struggles between the Carlists and the Christinos, which caused much bloodshed throughout the Peninsula until 1839, Don Carlos at this date was obliged to take refuge in France. He was ordered to reside at the town of Bourges, where he was kept under strict supervision, and not until 1847 did he obtain permission to leave for Austria.[47]The Duchesse de Talleyrand had an innate and instinctive fear of cats which she was never able to conquer.[48]Comte de Maistre.[49]Dupoty, an ardent republican, had vigorously opposed the July Government in certain newspapers under his management. When Quesnel made his attempt upon the life of the Duc d'Aumale in 1841, Dupoty was prosecuted and brought before the Chamber of Peers on a charge of moral complicity. He was condemned to five years imprisonment, and did not recover his liberty until the amnesty of 1844.[50]Then French Chargé d'Affaires at St. Petersburg.[51]Afterwards Madame de Terray; she was born in 1787.[52]King Frederick William went to England for the baptism of the Prince of Wales, to whom he stood godfather.[53]Mrs. Fry was a Quakeress, well known at London for her charity. The King of Prussia had been anxious to see her, and in the course of this visit she asked him to give his subjects the fullest liberty of conscience.[54]High-handed action in Mexico to the detriment of French residents obliged the French Government to raise claims in 1837, which produced no result. A French fleet then blockaded the fort of Saint Juan d'Ulloa, which commands the entrance to Vera Cruz. The fleet, under the command of Rear-Admiral Baudin, captured the fort on November 27, 1838, after a resistance of several months, and then obliged the Mexican Government to sign a treaty at Vera Cruz on March 9, 1839.[55]This work by M. de Rémusat eventually appeared in 1845; it contains a masterly exposition of Abélard's teaching and his scholastic philosophy.[56]At that time M. Gergonne, officer of the Legion of Honour.[57]The museum of Montpellier is now one of the best of provincial museums. It was founded in 1825 by Fabre, who returned to his native town after a stay of forty years in Italy, and brought with him a fine collection of pictures, some of which came to him from Alfieri, several works of art and a valuable library, which he bequeathed to the town of Montpellier on his death.[58]The Abbé Genoude was manager of theGazette de France.[59]The sight of the Corsican coast and the reading of Mérimée's novel,Colomba, which had just appeared in theRevue des Deux Mondes, stirred the enterprising character of the Marquis de Castellane to anxiety to make this journey, which he carried out with his family, and the excursion, which was somewhat adventurous at that time, lasted nearly two weeks. On his return to France he went to Perpignan, where the commandant was his father, the Comte de Castellane, who had been appointed Lieutenant-General after his return from the siege of Antwerp.[60]On February 8, 1842, Prince Nicolas Esterhazy had married Lady Sarah Villiers, daughter of Lord and Lady Jersey.[61]By filling the place of M. Humann.[62]Colombais a striking picture of a Corsican vendetta, which has remained a famous and popular book. Mérimée first published it in theRevue des Deux Mondes, where it appeared during the winter of 1842.[63]William Hope, a Dutch financier of English origin, son-in-law of General Rapp and the owner of a vast fortune, settled in Paris in a house in the rue Neuve des Mathurins, which became a social centre. When this house became too small for his numerous entertainments, Mr. Hope built the large residence at No. 57 Rue Saint Dominique, which was bought after his death by Baron Seillière. He bequeathed it to his daughter, who became Princesse de Sagan by her marriage with Boson de Talleyrand-Perigord, Prince de Sagan and grandson of the Duchesse de Talleyrand.[64]The Marquis de Castellane never recovered from this accident. He endured constant suffering with the greatest courage for five years and died in 1847 as a consequence of this fall, which the surgery of that day was unable to cure.[65]About the beginning of June 1842 an attempt was made to assassinate the Queen of England at almost the same place and in almost the same manner as in 1840.[66]Ussé, situated upon a hill opposite Rochecotte upon which it looks, was occupied in 1842 by the Comtesse de La Rochejaquelein, who was the widow of the Prince de Talmont and had married for the second time, her husband being the youngest brother of the hero ofla Vendée. The castle of Ussé was added to at different times, as is obvious from the picturesque originality of the building. The work was begun by Jacques d'Epinay, Chamberlain under Louis XI. and Charles VIII., in 1415 that he might be nearer to the Court. Ussé afterwards passed to the family of Bennin de Valentinay, one member of which married the eldest daughter of the Marshal of Vauban. He often visited the place, and to him are attributed the arrangement of the terraces and the building of the bastion which bears his name.[67]Mgr. Morlot, born at Langres in 1795, and Bishop of Orléans since 1839.[68]Kirchberg an Wald, a château occupied by Charles X. after 1830.[69]Extract from a letter to M. de Bacourt.[70]Francesca de Maistre.[71]Princess Albert of Prussia,néePrincess Marianne of the Low Countries.[72]This marriage, which all the English newspapers announced as likely to take place, was not performed, as the Queen absolutely refused her consent and was supported by the Privy Council. Prince George of Cambridge, through a letter from his solicitor to theObserver, gave a formal denial to the slanderous rumours in circulation, and Lady Blanche Somerset, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort by his second marriage, afterwards married Lord Kinnoul in 1848.[73]This Indian Prince was a rich banker, Duwarkanout Tayore, who was then travelling in England and France.[74]After an expedition in China the English had just concluded the treaty of Nankin, which opened new ports to European commerce and allowed foreigners to settle in Canton. The treaty with the United States had been signed on September 9, and settled the long debated question of the frontier line between Canada and the State of Maine.[75]Mother-in-law of M. Guizot.[76]Etudes sur les idées et sur leur union au sein du Catholicisme, two volumes in 8vo, Debécourt, 1842.[77]SeeAppendix.[78]The Duc Pasquier.[79]In 1843 the existence of Guizot's Ministry was endangered by the question of the secret service funds. M. Molé, whose Ministry had been overthrown in 1839 by the Thiers-Guizot coalition, thought that the moment was advisable to organise a league against his two adversaries. He went to work secretly by means of conversations in drawing-rooms and passages, and entered into relations with MM. Dufaure and Passy, who abandoned him at the critical moment. The debate on the secret service funds began in the Chamber on March 1 and turned in favour of the Cabinet, M. Guizot gaining one of his most brilliant successes on this occasion.[80]With Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg Gotha (1818-1881), brother of the Duchesse de Nemours. One of the children of this marriage is the present King of Bulgaria, Ferdinand I.[81]The Pavillon Marsan was occupied by the Duchesse d'Orléans.[82]On February 8, 1843, at half-past ten in the morning, an earthquake shock which lasted seventy seconds caused great damage at Guadeloupe, destroyed the town of La Pointe à Pitreand, almost the whole of this French colony, and engulfed thousands of dead and wounded. A great deal of damage was also done in the English Antilles.[83]In 1843 a Frenchman, M. Faye, discovered a periodic comet, whose orbit he calculated, and which bears his name. This discovery made some stir. M. Faye was awarded the Lalande prize of the Academy of Sciences and was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour.[84]A remarkable fragment upon Saint Cyr was printed and published in 1843 for private circulation. It may be regarded as the basis of the work of the Duc de Noailles onMadame de Maintenon and the Chief Events of the Reign of Louis XIV.The fragment appears at the beginning of the third volume of this work, which was to open the doors of the French Academy to the Duc de Noailles.[85]The Duc Pasquier.[86]His marriage with the Princesse Clémentine.[87]After the death of the Duc d'Orléans in 1842 the Chamber of Deputies passed a law nominating the Duc de Nemours as Regent of the Realm during the minority of the Comte de Paris in the event of the death of the old King. From this time the Prince sat in the Chamber of Peers and made official journeys of inspection through the departments.[88]The country of Neuchâtel had been ceded to Frederick I., King of Prussia, in 1707, and became French territory from 1806 to 1814. The treaties of Vienna had restored it to Frederick William III., though it remained within the Swiss Confederation. The state of things was to continue until the revolution of 1848, when the mountaineers expelled the Prussians. Frederick William IV. did not finally abandon his rights until 1850, and a convention signed on May 24, 1852, secured the independence of Neuchâtel while reserving to Prussia her rights.[89]M. de Custine had collected the memories of his journey in Russia in a work in four volumes, entitledRussia in 1839.[90]The reference is to the marriage of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia, afterwards Alexander II., with the daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt, which was celebrated at St. Petersburg on April 16, 1841.[91]Prince Sergius Trubetzkoi, when very young, had taken an active part in a conspiracy which broke out at St. Petersburg in 1825 with reference to the right of the Emperor Nicholas to the throne of Russia. He was accused of usurping the crown from his brother Constantine. Condemned to death by the Supreme Court of Justice, the punishment was commuted to perpetual exile in Siberia. There he was obliged to work in the mines as a convict. The Emperor Nicholas remained inflexible throughout his life, and would never pardon the conspirator against his person, who was not released until 1855 by Alexander II. on his accession to the throne. Princess Trubetzkoi, urged by passionate devotion, followed her husband into exile, and her action was regarded as the more heroic, as the married couple had previously lived on somewhat cold terms.[92]Extract from a letter.[93]Count Veltheim (1781-1848).[94]Prince Pückler in his works had shown an independence and boldness of judgment which, in conjunction with his liberal ideas, seemed far too advanced for so retrograde a court as that of Prussia, and had obliged him to absent himself.[95]This play, by Alexandre Dumas père, was then given at the Theatre Royal of Berlin (Schauspielhaus) from the German translation by L. Osten.[96]This novel,Der Mohr oder das Haus Holstein-Gattorp in Schweden, which appeared anonymously, takes as its hero a negro named Badin, who is said to have been actually brought from Africa to Sweden during his youth in 1751.[97]William III., who had been at Rome in 1771 as Crown Prince, returned to that city after his accession in 1783. Pius VI. was then Pope, and received the King with the greatest kindness. In June 1784 Gustavus III. came to Paris to revisit Queen Marie Antoinette, to whom he was greatly attached.[98]The Princesse de Carignan, the grandmother of King Charles Albert, was a Princess Joséphine of Lorraine and a sister of the charming Princesse Charlotte, the Abbess of Remiremont, for whom M. de Talleyrand felt so profound an affection.[99]The famous "Billy," as the Prince's friends called him.[100]Princess Pückler was divorced in 1817 by Count Charles von Pappenheim and married Hermann Pückler in the same year. They were divorced in 1826 because Prince Pückler, who was almost ruined by his wild extravagance, wished to marry a rich English woman, a Miss Harriet Hamlet. This project failed, and the Prince and his wife, though legally divorced, began life again very happily under the same roof, though they were not remarried.[101]This Abyssinian woman was called Machbouba. Prince Pückler had brought her back with him from his travels. She could not bear the northern climate, and died at Muskau after embracing the Catholic religion at Vienna through the influence of Princess Metternich, who took a keen interest in Machbouba.[102]On June 17, 1843, the King of Denmark, Christian VIII., disembarked at Putbus, where the King of Prussia was awaiting him.[103]The house of Courlande at Berlin, No. 7Unter den Linden, formed part of the fortune which the Duchesse de Talleyrand received on her father's death. The Duchesse sold this house, through her architect, in 1839, for ninety-five thousand thalers. The Emperor Nicholas bought it, and as the proprietor he gained the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. Apartments for the Emperor and his family were reserved in it, and it was then appropriated by the Russian Legation, which is still there.[104]The Prince Bishop of Breslau was then the Viscount Melchior von Diepenbrock, a cardinal (1798-1853).[105]Extract from a letter.[106]An allusion to the business connected with the Fief of Sagan, concerning which negotiations were then in progress.[107]The two buildings were opposite one another, and the wind drove the flames towards the palace of the Prince and Princess of Prussia.[108]A reference to the Archduke Stephan, son of the Archduke Joseph, Count Palatine of Hungary, who was then staying at Berlin on his way to Hanover.[109]Prince Augustus of Prussia, the younger brother of Prince Louis Ferdinand, who was killed in 1806 at Saalfeld, and the son of Prince Ferdinand, the last brother of Frederick the Great, was never married. He possessed a considerable fortune which he had increased by unscrupulous methods at the expense of his relations, and made a will by which the property of which he could not dispose reverted to the crown of Prussia, while the rest was bequeathed to his numerous natural children; so that he thus deprived his sister, Princess Radziwill, of the inheritance which should have gone to her. This scandal led to a famous law suit, which was lost by the Radziwills and attracted much public attention in Berlin.[110]The Russian Emperor, after a stay at Potsdam, barely escaped assassination as he was returning to his kingdom. As he passed through Posen on September 19 the people were mourning the death of General von Grolman, who had died of heart disease on September 15. A great favourite with every class of the population, the General had been buried on that same day, September 18, amid a great crowd of people. Advantage of the crowd was taken a short time afterwards to fire upon the carriage of theaides-de-camp, which was mistaken for the carriage of the Czar. Several bullets were found in the carriage and in the cloaks of the officers, but the event was never cleared up.[111]The Hohenzollern-Hechingen.[112]The Polish dynasty founded by Piast, which proceeded from 842-1370. A branch of the Piast family retained the Duchy of Silesia until 1675.[113]Extract from a letter.[114]The Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand contain an account of the scene to which these memoirs here allude. In the Appendix to this volume the reader will find the story, the truth of which is attested by M. de Vitrolles himself, as it is given in the Appendix to the second volume of theMemoirs of M. de Talleyrand.[115]Extract from a letter to M. de Bacourt.[116]After the fall of the Empire the department of Neuchâtel, which had belonged to Prussia since the time of Frederick II., joined the Swiss Confederation as its twenty-first canton, though it remained under the suzerainty of Prussia. This ambiguous position led to a series of disturbances and struggles. In 1847 Neuchâtel refused to take part in the war against the Sonderbund, and was condemned to pay an indemnity of nearly half a million to the Confederation.[117]Various anti-liberal attempts had been made between 1839-1840 in the Swiss Cantons of Tessin, Argovie, Valais, and Vaud. The Grand Council decreed the suppression of the convents. The Catholic Cantons protested and formed a league among themselves called the Sonderbund for the defence of their rights. The radical party regarded this movement as a violation of the constitution and declared war upon the Sonderbund, which was defeated in a desperate battle on the frontiers of the canton of Lucerne.[118]The mother of Prince Heinrich Carolath-Beuthen was by birth Duchess Amelia of Saxe-Meiningen and was the aunt of Queen Adelaide of England.[119]On the death of the Empress Marie Louise, in virtue of an arrangement made at Paris in 1817, Charles Louis of Bourbon, Duke of Lucca, took possession of the duchies of Parma and of Placentia. The duchy of Guastalla passed to the Duke of Modena who ceded the duchy of Lucca to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1848 the new Duke of Parma abdicated in favour of his son, Charles III., who had married Mademoiselle, the daughter of the Duc de Berry.[120]Throughout the period of struggle in Switzerland, the Powers had constantly sent warnings to the radical party. France in particular threatened armed intervention, but the events of 1848 caused the abandonment of this project.[121]Mademoiselle, daughter of the Duc de Berry.[122]Madame Adélaïde died rather suddenly on December 31, 1847.[123]Notwithstanding the victory of General Bugeaud at Isly, Abd-el-Kader, an energetic character, had contrived to continue the struggle in Algeria. In a final engagement, however, his most devoted adherents fell, and in 1847 he was obliged to surrender to General Lamoricière. Abd-el-Kader was kept a prisoner in France until the proclamation of the Empire. After Napoleon III. had set him at liberty he lived in Syria as a faithful and devoted friend of France.[124]The Duc Pasquier.[125]In the session of January 10, at the Chamber of Peers, M. de Barante, reporter to the committee, had read the proposed Address in reply to the speech from the throne. The proposal was vigorously attacked by the Comte d'Alton Shée who spoke for the dynastic party and had suddenly joined the opposition from the outset of the agitation for reform which preceded the revolution of February 1848. The Comte d'Alton Shée did not hesitate to express opinions entirely revolutionary, even while speaking in the Chamber and in this session he fulminated with all his eloquence against the foreign policy of M. Guizot, piling up accusations haphazard with reference to Portuguese, Swiss, and Italian affairs.[126]In the session of January 14, the Chamber of Peers resumed discussion of the seventh paragraph of the Address referring to Switzerland, and M. de Montalembert obtained one of his finest oratorical triumphs when he stigmatised in the loftiest terms the iniquitous and barbarous abuses of the revolutionary tyranny of which Switzerland was providing sad and grievous instances.[127]The policy of Lord Palmerston who had returned to the Foreign Office in 1846, had once more resumed a revolutionary character; particularly in the affair of the Sonderbund he was seen to be supporting Ochsenbein and Dufour against the Catholic Powers. He tricked M. Guizot who was negotiating to secure armed intervention with the help of Prussia and Austria and to oppose the English policy at a time when the submission of the seven cantons was already accomplished.[128]Extract from a letter addressed to M. de Bacourt who had just been appointed French Minister at Turin.[129]King Christian VIII. of Denmark was suddenly taken ill on January 6, 1848, and died on the 20th of the same month. Frederick VII., his son by his first marriage, succeeded him.[130]By birth Princess of Schleswig-Holstein.[131]The same meteor was seen in France a few days previously above Doullens: a sheaf of luminous rays extended horizontally from north to south, giving off light denotations comparable to those produced by a rocket.[132]Cardinal Diepenbrock.[133]The arms of Sagan were an angel upon a golden background.[134]King Louis Philippe who had resolved too late upon electoral reform and the dissolution of his ministry, was surprised by the massacre of the Boulevard des Capucines on February 23. On the 24th the whole of Paris was in a ferment, the revolution was triumphant and the King resolved to abdicate. He left the Tuileries and took refuge at first in the Castle of Eu and was under the delusion that his grandson, the Comte de Paris, might succeed him, but on the 25th he learnt that the Republic had been proclaimed and was forced to take refuge in England.[135]The Marquise de Castellane had gone with her children to La Délivrande, a village near Caen, which owes its origin to a famous pilgrimage of the Virgin. Mgr. de Quélen had there uttered ardent prayers that M. de Talleyrand might die a Christian death.[136]He was then French Minister at Berlin.[137]Herr von Radowitz was then sent to Vienna to try and arrange some co-operation between the two courts in view of the revolutionary storm which seemed to be threatening. Prince William, who had been governor of Mayence from 1844, returned to his post in view of the course of events.[138]In the confusion which prevailed during the unhappy day of February 24, at Paris, when every one fled as best he could, the Duchesse d'Orléans and her two children, after escaping the perils which they had run at the Chamber of Deputies, took refuge with M. Jules de Lasteyrie at the Hôtel des Invalides, which they left secretly during the night. From Paris to Aix la Chapelle, the Princess travelled in a public conveyance accompanied by the Marquis de Montesquiou and M. de Mornay. She then took the railway to Cologne, and after spending the night at Deutz, she went to Ems to ask refuge of the Grand Duke of Weimar who placed the castle of Eisenach at her disposal. It was not until June 1849 that she went to England to visit the Royal Family at St. Leonards, near Hastings, where the King and Queen had gone in view of their health.[139]The old district of Franconia, that is to say, part of Baden, Wurtemberg and Hesse, was then the scene of a movement akin to the Jacquerie: the peasants rose in a body and committed deplorable excesses; castles were burnt and plundered, and several landowners were killed or barbarously ill-treated. On the 10th of March serious disturbances broke out at Cassel under the pretext that the newly nominated ministers were the objects of popular disapproval. The arsenal was stormed and plundered of weapons; resistance was offered to the troops; the Life Guards retreated, but the populace held the barracks until the regiment was disbanded and the officers put upon trial.[140]On March 13 a formidable insurrection broke out at Vienna: the population rose in a body; the railways were torn up and the air resounded with cries, "The constitution and the liberty of the Press."][141]Prince Adam Czartoryski, who retained his delusions, was inspired with fresh hopes by the disturbances which prevailed on every side, and from which the Poles were trying to derive some advantage for themselves. The Prince arrived at Berlin where disorder was general and proclaimed with considerable effrontery that Lord Palmerston and M. de Lamartine had promised to support him by land and sea, if Prussia would declare the re-establishment of Poland. The presence of Prince Czartoryski at Berlin was regarded with such disfavour by the Emperor of Russia, that he informed his Minister, Baron Meyendorff, that he would be withdrawn from Poland, if the Prince prolonged his stay in that capital.[142]On April 2, 1848, at midday the second general Diet was opened at Berlin in one Chamber without any distinction of rank or representation. The commissary of this Diet, Herr von Camphausen, the President of the Council, accompanied by all the Ministers, opened the Diet in the King's name. He delivered a speech, at the conclusion of which he brought forward proposals for a law concerning elections for the purpose of bringing into force upon a wide basis the constitution which the King had granted to his people after the events of March 18.[143]After a collision between the troops and the people at Vienna on March 13, 1848, and after the insurrection in Venice, Prince Metternich, who was too prone to overrate his capacity for resistance, was forced by an infuriated mob to resign and to flee from Austria with his wife. At first they stayed in Dresden, but the unpopularity of the Prince was so great that they were obliged to proceed to Holland and thence to England. In 1849 they settled at Brussels.[144]This assembly was spontaneously convoked at Frankfort to provide the country with a centre of action in case the Princes declined to support the movement for amalgamation which was then in progress among the Germanic races. It was dissolved on April 2, after securing from the Princes at the Diet the promise that a German parliament should meet. A commission, however, was appointed by the army consisting of fifty members, to secure the execution of this promise, and these members were ordered to convoke a national parliament within one month, assuming that a parliament had not been already elected by the different states.[145]The news of the Paris Revolution had produced a great sensation in the Grand Duchy of Posen. A revolt broke out at Posen itself, where Mieroslawski, who was released from prison on March 19, formed an army and prepared for war. At Cracow when the news of the Vienna disturbances came in, seventy thousand Poles went to Count Deyne, the civil commissary, and demanded the liberty of four hundred of their compatriots.[146]There was no ultimatum properly so-called; this was only a newspaper report. The Polish National Committee merely published a manifesto proclaiming that until the independence of Poland was re-established, the Poles would consider any arbitrary division of their national districts as a new partition of Poland, and threatened to protest against any such violation before Europe as a whole. This protest was eventually made on April 26 by two letters from Prince A. Czartoryski, addressed to M. de Lamartine, the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Paris, and to Baron Arnim who held the same position at Berlin.[147]The noble and chivalrous Charles Albert, desiring to throw off Austrian influence, had formed a highly organised army and proclaimed a constitution. On him the hopes of Italian independence were set. Taking advantage of the insurrection which had broken out at Milan on March 18 and which had been followed by the defeat of the Austrian army and the flight of the Archduke Reynier, the King had declared war upon Austria on March 20. At first he rapidly carried the positions of the enemy as far as the Adige, but he was attacked by superior forces and afterwards (in August) he lost the murderous battle of Custozza and was obliged to evacuate Milan.[148]After Milan, Venice revolted in turn. On March 20 the Arsenal was captured by the insurgents. The civil governor, Count Palfy, placed his authority in the hands of Count Zichy, the military governor, who hesitated before the prospect of bloodshed and finally surrendered to the municipality and made a capitulation with the provisional government on March 22; Venice was thus freed from the Austrians. On March 21 Treviso had also been forced to capitulate and the Austrian garrison had left the town.[149]The Prussian troops commanded by General Blum, had marched upon Miloslaw which they captured after a desperate combat; but an advance guard which was pursuing the Poles when approaching a wood, was received by so sustained a fire, that the Prussians fled, rushed upon their own infantry which was following them, broke their ranks and swept the whole force away in rout. The Poles pursued the Prussians in turn, drove them out of Miloslaw and captured two of their guns.[150]On May 4 Count Ficquelmont, Minister of Foreign Affairs at Vienna, was forced to resign by a tumultuous demonstration of the students who regarded him as a pupil of Metternich.[151]For several days manifestations in favour of Poland had been proceeding at Paris. On May 15 a band of insurgents attacked and invaded the National Assembly, but order was quickly restored.[152]On May 1 a revolutionary movement broke out at Rome, caused by the Pope's refusal to declare war against Austria. The Ministry resigned: the Pope was threatened with a provisional government, and declared in a manifesto that as chief Pontiff he could not declare war but that he left the power of declaring war as a temporal prince to his Ministry. On May 5 Pius IX. was forced to accept a Ministry composed wholly of laymen which was constantly in opposition to him.[153]The little exiled court lived very quietly at the seat of Claremont in England which belonged to King Leopold who had kindly placed it at their disposal.[154]M. Boismilon.[155]It was thought that the Liberalism of Herr von Camphausen had sufficiently calmed the popular excitement to allow the Prince of Prussia to return to Berlin. At the outbreak of the disturbance he had been forced to take refuge in England. However, no sooner had the Prince arrived than the Camphausen Ministry was overthrown on June 20, after the capture and plunder of the Arsenal and the Ministry of Auerswald came into power.[156]An insurrection had been broken out at Naples. After six hours' desperate fighting the royal troops retained possession of the town, though they lost three or four hundred men. The Chamber and the National Guard were dissolved and a new Ministry was formed under the Presidency of Signor Cariati.[157]After a bombardment and some street fighting which lasted from the 12th to the 17th of June, Prince Windisch-Graetz was able to overcome the insurrection at Prague. During these struggles his wife was treacherously shot near the window of her drawing-room, while standing between her sisters, from the other side of the street.[158]In the National Assembly at Frankfort the Committee of the Fifty had been tempted several times to form a triumvirate as a centre of power. Eventually a commission of eleven deputies was elected in June. This commission appointed Archduke John for Austria, the old Prince William for Prussia, and Prince Charles for Bavaria. The combination was ironically known as the directory of the three uncles, these princes being the uncles of the kings of their respective countries. The proposal was vigorously opposed, and the Session of June 23 eventually elected the Archduke John as sole director. A deputation offered the dignity to the Archduke who accepted it, and appeared in the National Assembly on the following 12th of July.[159]When seven thousand workmen had been dismissed from the national workshops, a further outbreak caused much bloodshed in Paris for four days. On that occasion the Archbishop, Mgr. Affre, was killed upon one of the barricades where he was attempting to pacify the people.[160]Herr von Pfördten.[161]The discussions concerning the proposal of a deputy, Herr Stein, with reference to the army and to the control which the Ministry should exert upon the political opinions of officers, were concluded in the Chamber against the desires of the Cabinet. The Auerswald Ministry therefore resigned on September 11; on the 22nd of the same month the King appointed a new Cabinet of which General Pfuel was President.[162]It will be remembered that the populations of Schleswig and Holstein, who wished to be united with Germany, had revolted against Denmark, and that the Prussians had come to their help. After several bloody conflicts an armistice was concluded between Denmark and Prussia at Malmæ on August 26, but the National Assembly at Frankfort refused to assent to this armistice on the ground that Prussia did not ask its authorisation. The council of Ministers and all the Ministers of the Empire had thereupon resigned.[163]The Château of Trachenberg, not far from Breslau.[164]In the morning of October 6 a number of the population of Vienna opposed the departure of the troops which were marching upon Hungary to reinforce Baron Jellachich, and a bloodthirsty struggle broke out. The residence of the Minister of War was captured by assault, and the Minister, the Comte de la Tour, was stabbed, hung to a lamp-post, and riddled with bullets. The troops retired, were driven back at every point and forced to evacuate the town. The Emperor and the Imperial Family, who had returned to Vienna in the month of August, were obliged to retire once more and went towards Olmütz. There the emperor abdicated on December 2 in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph I.[165]General Count Lamberg had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Hungarian troops on September 25: the National Assembly at Pesth refused to recognise this nomination and declared all guilty of high treason who should obey him, and on his arrival at Pesth put him to death on the bridge which unites Buda and Pesth.[166]When Hungary was in a state of insurrection, the insurgents seized Count Eugène Zichy, accused him of communicating with the Austrian Army and of distributing copies of the emperor's proclamation. He was tried before a court presided over by Georgei and was condemned to death and shot in the island of Czepel and not hung, as the first rumour related.[167]General Brédy was killed at Vienna on October 6, 1848, during the struggle between the people and the National Guard in the suburb of Leopoldstadt, a few hours before the insurgents seized the residence of the Minister of War.[168]By the Black and Yellow party is meant the Imperial party, the members of which wore these colours.[169]On October 16 a further and bloodthirsty outbreak took place at Berlin, ending in a collision between the National Guard and the workmen. The result was to revive the agitation which had prevailed in this town with short intermissions since the month of March.[170]M. Arago, the French Minister, showed himself to the crowd which was cheering him before his residence. He uttered a few words in French and held out his hand to the people who were nearest to him.[171]A new Ministry, of which Count Brandenburg was President and Herr von Manteuffel was Minister of the Interior, had been appointed at Berlin on November 8. Its very first administrative act ended in a defeat: an ordinance of the King countersigned by the Count of Brandenburg transferred the National Assembly to the town of Brandenburg; the Assembly decided against this transference by a vast majority, and as the Government could not continue amid this increasing anarchy, it resolved upon vigorous action. On November 10 a considerable number of troops were drafted into the capital and occupied the entrance to the Assembly room. The Assembly protested against this violence, and an ordinance of the King then declared the civil guard disbanded; another ordinance issued on the 12th proclaimed Berlin to be in a state of siege. General Wrangel commanded the military forces and every measure was taken to avoid a collision.[172]In November 1848 the whole of the Royal Family had suffered from poisoning in consequence of the leaden pipes through which the water was carried.[173]The Austrian Diet had been sitting since November 15 at Kremsier in Moravia, in the beautiful castle of the Archbishops of Olmütz. The new Ministry was composed as follows: Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Stadion, Minister of the Interior; Krauss, Financial Minister; Bach, Legal Minister; Gordon, Minister of War; Bruck, Minister of Commerce; Thinnfeld, Minister of Agriculture; Kulmer, unattached.[174]The Pope had given his subjects a constitution on March 14, and after changing his Ministry several times he had at length decided on December 15 to appoint as his Prime Minister, Pellegrino Rossi, formerly French Ambassador to His Holiness and a personal friend of M. Guizot. Rossi undertook to establish a regular parliamentary government in the Papal States, relying upon the middle classes and intervening between the parties in opposition. He was not given the time to carry out his proposals: on November 15, as he was going to a Cabinet Council, he was stabbed in the throat by a militiaman and fell dead. This deed was a signal for a republican rising. The Pope confined himself to appointing a new Minister who was out of sympathy with the people, upon which the mob and the troops made their way to the Quirinal and ordered the Pope to change his Ministers. Pius IX., who was supported by the diplomatic body, declined to accede, and popular exasperation then reached its height. A desperate struggle broke out between the people and the guards, and the bullets even reached the interior of the palace. Eventually the Pope yielded under protest and consented to accept as his Ministers Sterbini, Galletti, Mamiani, and the Abbé Rosmini. But on November 25, dressed as an ordinary Abbé, he left Rome and sought the protection of the King of Naples at Gaeta, from which town he sent a protest to the Romans against recent events.[175]Herr von Gagern, who had undertaken to draw up a constitution for the Empire at Frankfort and to settle the central power upon a permanent basis, had come to Berlin to examine the situation and to learn whether the King of Prussia would be inclined to place himself at the head of the German Empire in the event of a rupture between Austria and Germany. The King absolutely declined this proposal, which was afterwards brought before him once more with more official authority in March 1849.[176]Like Pellegrino Rossi, Capo d'Istria suffered a violent death. He was accused by the Greeks of acting merely as the tool of Russia, and of using arbitrary methods to secure governmental power. He was assassinated in 1831 by the brothers George and Constantine Mavromichali, who wished to take vengeance upon him for the unjust imprisonment of their father and brother.[177]King Charles Albert did not abdicate until after the battle of Novara on March 23, 1849.[178]About December 15 Prince Windisch-Graetz at the head of the Austrian troops drove the Hungarians out of one position after another, until they retired behind the bastions of Raab, under the command of Georgei. As the great cold prevented their reinforcements from coming up, the Hungarians were obliged to abandon this position, which the Austrians captured without striking a blow, on December 27.[179]On September 29, 1848, near Veneleze, twelve miles away from Ofen, Jellachich was utterly defeated by General Moga. His army took flight and Jellachich was taken prisoner. He succeeded in escaping, however, and made his way through the forests to Mor, Risber, and at length to Raab.[180]Prince Louis Bonaparte had been nominated President on November 10, 1848. M. Molé related that on the morning of that day General Changarnier, the commander of the troops who were to take the President to the Elysée, after he had taken the oath, came to M. Molé and asked for directions, and said as he went out, "Well, supposing I take him to the Tuileries instead of to the Elysée!" to which M. Molé replied, "Mind you do nothing of the sort; he will go there soon enough of his own accord."][181]The greatest confusion prevailed in Frankfort as soon as the question arose of providing a definite head to the German Empire, and realising the fine promises of union by means of a practical conclusion. Austria pretended to adopt a waiting attitude which would enable her to stand apart from all details, as though she had no idea of entering into relations with Germany until Germany became a constituted state. Her intention, in short, was to take no steps with reference to her union with Germany until the choice of the head of the empire and of pre-eminence was decided in her favour or against her.[182]This war, which began upon the accession of Francis Joseph to the Austrian throne, lasted for three years. Hungary eventually yielded before the overwhelming force of Austria in alliance with Russia.
[6]The daughter of Lady Palmerston by her first marriage and a niece of Lord Melbourne. Lady Fanny was to marry Lord Jocelyn a few months later.
[7]Young Colonel Cardigan had several quarrels with officers in his regiment, and after a duel with Captain Harvey Tuckett, whom he wounded, he was summoned before the House of Lords in its judicial capacity in 1841; he was acquitted, and his trial was merely a necessary concession to the law of the land against duelling.
[8]M. de Bacourt, to whom this letter was addressed, was still acting as French Minister at Washington. This incident explains the coolness which arose between the Duchesse de Talleyrand and M. Thiers.
[9]This great work consisted in copying and classifying papers which were collected under the title,Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand.
[10]The Irish Registration Bill had been proposed by Lord Morpeth in the House of Commons, where it met with considerable opposition.
[11]On February 16, 1841, King William I. of the Low Countries contracted a morganatic marriage with the Comtesse d' Oultremont-Vegimont, after abdicating in 1840, in favour of his son, King William II.
[12]Extract from a letter.
[13]The Sub-Prefect of Chinon at that time was M. Viel.
[14]During the Canadian rebellion in 1837 and 1838, the steamshipCarolinehad been burnt on the Niagara River, and an Englishman, Mr. Amos Durfee, was killed. Mr. Alexander MacLeod, a United States citizen, was accused as his murderer, but Mr. Gridley, judge at Utica succeeded in proving his innocence.
[15]Seep. 22 for the announcement of the marriage of Lord Beauvale with Mlle. Maltzan.
[16]Benais, the country residence near Rochecotte, then belonged to M. and Madame de Messine, the parents of Madame du Ponceau.
[17]Extract from a letter.
[18]Dr. Andral was a son-in-law of M. Royer-Collard.
[19]This letter from M. de Talleyrand to King Louis XVIII. and the reply sent to him by M. de Villèle in the King's name, may be found in the appendix of the third volume of theMemoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand.
[20]Count Pahlen.
[21]Seep. 15 (February 12, 1841). A judicial inquiry had been begun against M. de Montour, the manager of the newspaperla France, which had published the false letters. The matter was long delayed by the defence, and did not come before a jury until April 24. M. Berryer cleverly pleaded good faith on the part of M. de Montour, who had thought the letters authentic, though he had taken no pains to verify his belief. In the result the manager ofla Francewas acquitted by six votes to six.
[22]The Comte de Paris, born on August 24, 1838, was privately baptized at the Tuileries on his birthday. He was not admitted into the church until nearly three years later, when the ceremony took place at Notre Dame with great splendour.
[23]The Marquise de Castellane was then seriously ill with quinsy, from the effects of which she suffered for a long time.
[24]These letters are addressed to M. de La Gervaisais, a young Breton gentleman, an officer of carbineers of Monsieur's regiment. The Princesse de Condé had made his acquaintance in 1786 at Bourbon l'Archambault, where she had been to take the waters, and her feeling for him was both deep and pure.
[25]Queen Adelaide.
[26]The Comtesse d'Oultremont.
[27]In Shakspere'sMerchant of Venice.
[28]Prince Anton Radziwill had been sent to Göttingen to conclude his studies, and while he was then staying in Germany in 1794, he made the acquaintance of Goethe, who was already working at the first part ofFaust. Prince Radziwill was profoundly attracted by the beauty of this work, and as he was himself a most enthusiastic musician he undertook to put certain scenes of the great poet's creation to music, and completed the work of composition by degrees. The Prince was on terms of personal intimacy with Goethe, who slightly modified the garden scene between Faust and Margaret at his request. The first performance ofFaustwith Prince Radziwill's music was given at Berlin in 1819, at the Palace Theatre of Monbijou, before the whole of the Prussian court. The Berlin Academy of Music, to which the Prince presented his work, has performed it almost annually since that date.
[29]The author had accompanied the Prince de Talleyrand to Vienna for the Congress of 1815, and the Prince refers to the incident in his Memoirs as follows: "I also thought that it was necessary to destroy the hostile prejudice with which imperial France had inspired the high and influential society of Vienna; for this purpose the French Embassy must be made a social centre. I therefore asked my niece, the Comtesse Edmond de Périgord, to accompany me and do the honours of my house. Her readiness and tact caused general satisfaction, and were highly useful to me." (Vol. II. p. 208.)
[30]Extract from a letter.
[31]This lamentable scene, the sad event which marked the last evening which Charles X. and the Dauphin spent at Saint-Cloud, is related at length in the memoirs of the Duc de Raguse, to which reference is here made (Vol. VIII. Book XXIV.), and is partly reproduced in a book by M. Imbert de Saint-Amand, entitled TheDuchesse de Berry and the Revolution of 1830, which appeared in 1880.
[32]The Queen of Hanover was the Duchess of Cumberland, by birth a Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She died on June 29, after suffering for three months from a form of consumption.
[33]Hohlstein was the estate of the Princess of Hohenzollern Hechingen, by birth a Princess of Courlande.
[34]La Jonchère was the property of M. Thiers at La Celle Saint-Cloud.
[35]This protocol, which concluded the Egyptian question, was signed on July 13, 1841, by England, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Turkey. The Straits Convention, which was signed at the same time, added the signature of the French plenipotentiary to the rest.
[36]On July 9 and 10 the inhabitants of Toulouse were disturbed by the question of the census. The agitation seemed to have died away when a serious rising broke out upon the 12th. Large bodies of people marched about the streets, and barricades were raised, and the 13th was a very threatening day. The town was saved by the wisdom of the temporary mayor, M. Arzac, who was able, by means of tact, to restore tranquillity.
[37]The Duchesse de Talleyrand was born on August 21, 1793.
[38]Where the Foreign Office is situated.
[39]The revolutionary factions which were still seething, pursued their plan of destroying the Royal Family. On September 4, 1841, a pistol-shot was fired at the Duc d'Aumale as he was going down a street of the Faubourg Saint Antoine at the head of his regiment, the 17th Light Horse. The horse of Lieutenant-Colonel Levaillant, who was by the side of the Prince was killed by the ball.
[40]The census at Clermont-Ferrand, as at Toulouse, was a pretext for disturbances which broke out on September 13, 1841, and continued the whole of the next day. The rioters attacked the armed force, and many soldiers were killed or wounded; the gates of the town were burnt, and a desperate combat ensued. It became necessary to send considerable military forces to the town to overwhelm the rebels and restore order.
[41]The Marquis and Marquise de Castellane were now resident in Auvergne at their estate of Aubijou.
[42]TheNationalhad published a correspondence concerning the disturbances at Clermont, full of falsehoods and invectives against the monarchy, and was accused of attacking the King's majesty and brought to trial. On September 24, 1841, a verdict of "Not Guilty" was passed by the jury of the Seine.
[43]On October 7, 1841, at eight o'clock in the evening, Generals Leon and Concho took advantage of the fact that a regiment, formerly commanded by the latter, had arrived at Madrid. As the regiment was devoted to him the two Generals proposed to make a sudden attempt to carry off the Queen and the Infanta. They went to the palace at the head of a squadron of the Royal Guard, and while the regiment surrounded the palace they mounted to the Queen's apartments; these were fortunately guarded by halberdiers who offered a vigorous resistance, received them with rifle-shots, and drove them back several times. Espartero crushed this military plot, and had General Diego Leon shot on October 15.
[44]On September 20, 1841, Colonel James W. Grogau, a citizen of the United States, was surprised during the night in the house of a certain Mr. Brown within the frontiers of his own country, by brigands in English uniform, who carried him away as a prisoner to Montreal in Canada. Mr. Richard Jackson, the Governor of Canada, immediately liberated him, and punished an English officer, Mr. Jackson, of Colonel Dyer's regiment, who had taken part in this attempt.
[45]King Edward VII. was born on November 9.
[46]After long struggles between the Carlists and the Christinos, which caused much bloodshed throughout the Peninsula until 1839, Don Carlos at this date was obliged to take refuge in France. He was ordered to reside at the town of Bourges, where he was kept under strict supervision, and not until 1847 did he obtain permission to leave for Austria.
[47]The Duchesse de Talleyrand had an innate and instinctive fear of cats which she was never able to conquer.
[48]Comte de Maistre.
[49]Dupoty, an ardent republican, had vigorously opposed the July Government in certain newspapers under his management. When Quesnel made his attempt upon the life of the Duc d'Aumale in 1841, Dupoty was prosecuted and brought before the Chamber of Peers on a charge of moral complicity. He was condemned to five years imprisonment, and did not recover his liberty until the amnesty of 1844.
[50]Then French Chargé d'Affaires at St. Petersburg.
[51]Afterwards Madame de Terray; she was born in 1787.
[52]King Frederick William went to England for the baptism of the Prince of Wales, to whom he stood godfather.
[53]Mrs. Fry was a Quakeress, well known at London for her charity. The King of Prussia had been anxious to see her, and in the course of this visit she asked him to give his subjects the fullest liberty of conscience.
[54]High-handed action in Mexico to the detriment of French residents obliged the French Government to raise claims in 1837, which produced no result. A French fleet then blockaded the fort of Saint Juan d'Ulloa, which commands the entrance to Vera Cruz. The fleet, under the command of Rear-Admiral Baudin, captured the fort on November 27, 1838, after a resistance of several months, and then obliged the Mexican Government to sign a treaty at Vera Cruz on March 9, 1839.
[55]This work by M. de Rémusat eventually appeared in 1845; it contains a masterly exposition of Abélard's teaching and his scholastic philosophy.
[56]At that time M. Gergonne, officer of the Legion of Honour.
[57]The museum of Montpellier is now one of the best of provincial museums. It was founded in 1825 by Fabre, who returned to his native town after a stay of forty years in Italy, and brought with him a fine collection of pictures, some of which came to him from Alfieri, several works of art and a valuable library, which he bequeathed to the town of Montpellier on his death.
[58]The Abbé Genoude was manager of theGazette de France.
[59]The sight of the Corsican coast and the reading of Mérimée's novel,Colomba, which had just appeared in theRevue des Deux Mondes, stirred the enterprising character of the Marquis de Castellane to anxiety to make this journey, which he carried out with his family, and the excursion, which was somewhat adventurous at that time, lasted nearly two weeks. On his return to France he went to Perpignan, where the commandant was his father, the Comte de Castellane, who had been appointed Lieutenant-General after his return from the siege of Antwerp.
[60]On February 8, 1842, Prince Nicolas Esterhazy had married Lady Sarah Villiers, daughter of Lord and Lady Jersey.
[61]By filling the place of M. Humann.
[62]Colombais a striking picture of a Corsican vendetta, which has remained a famous and popular book. Mérimée first published it in theRevue des Deux Mondes, where it appeared during the winter of 1842.
[63]William Hope, a Dutch financier of English origin, son-in-law of General Rapp and the owner of a vast fortune, settled in Paris in a house in the rue Neuve des Mathurins, which became a social centre. When this house became too small for his numerous entertainments, Mr. Hope built the large residence at No. 57 Rue Saint Dominique, which was bought after his death by Baron Seillière. He bequeathed it to his daughter, who became Princesse de Sagan by her marriage with Boson de Talleyrand-Perigord, Prince de Sagan and grandson of the Duchesse de Talleyrand.
[64]The Marquis de Castellane never recovered from this accident. He endured constant suffering with the greatest courage for five years and died in 1847 as a consequence of this fall, which the surgery of that day was unable to cure.
[65]About the beginning of June 1842 an attempt was made to assassinate the Queen of England at almost the same place and in almost the same manner as in 1840.
[66]Ussé, situated upon a hill opposite Rochecotte upon which it looks, was occupied in 1842 by the Comtesse de La Rochejaquelein, who was the widow of the Prince de Talmont and had married for the second time, her husband being the youngest brother of the hero ofla Vendée. The castle of Ussé was added to at different times, as is obvious from the picturesque originality of the building. The work was begun by Jacques d'Epinay, Chamberlain under Louis XI. and Charles VIII., in 1415 that he might be nearer to the Court. Ussé afterwards passed to the family of Bennin de Valentinay, one member of which married the eldest daughter of the Marshal of Vauban. He often visited the place, and to him are attributed the arrangement of the terraces and the building of the bastion which bears his name.
[67]Mgr. Morlot, born at Langres in 1795, and Bishop of Orléans since 1839.
[68]Kirchberg an Wald, a château occupied by Charles X. after 1830.
[69]Extract from a letter to M. de Bacourt.
[70]Francesca de Maistre.
[71]Princess Albert of Prussia,néePrincess Marianne of the Low Countries.
[72]This marriage, which all the English newspapers announced as likely to take place, was not performed, as the Queen absolutely refused her consent and was supported by the Privy Council. Prince George of Cambridge, through a letter from his solicitor to theObserver, gave a formal denial to the slanderous rumours in circulation, and Lady Blanche Somerset, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort by his second marriage, afterwards married Lord Kinnoul in 1848.
[73]This Indian Prince was a rich banker, Duwarkanout Tayore, who was then travelling in England and France.
[74]After an expedition in China the English had just concluded the treaty of Nankin, which opened new ports to European commerce and allowed foreigners to settle in Canton. The treaty with the United States had been signed on September 9, and settled the long debated question of the frontier line between Canada and the State of Maine.
[75]Mother-in-law of M. Guizot.
[76]Etudes sur les idées et sur leur union au sein du Catholicisme, two volumes in 8vo, Debécourt, 1842.
[77]SeeAppendix.
[78]The Duc Pasquier.
[79]In 1843 the existence of Guizot's Ministry was endangered by the question of the secret service funds. M. Molé, whose Ministry had been overthrown in 1839 by the Thiers-Guizot coalition, thought that the moment was advisable to organise a league against his two adversaries. He went to work secretly by means of conversations in drawing-rooms and passages, and entered into relations with MM. Dufaure and Passy, who abandoned him at the critical moment. The debate on the secret service funds began in the Chamber on March 1 and turned in favour of the Cabinet, M. Guizot gaining one of his most brilliant successes on this occasion.
[80]With Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg Gotha (1818-1881), brother of the Duchesse de Nemours. One of the children of this marriage is the present King of Bulgaria, Ferdinand I.
[81]The Pavillon Marsan was occupied by the Duchesse d'Orléans.
[82]On February 8, 1843, at half-past ten in the morning, an earthquake shock which lasted seventy seconds caused great damage at Guadeloupe, destroyed the town of La Pointe à Pitreand, almost the whole of this French colony, and engulfed thousands of dead and wounded. A great deal of damage was also done in the English Antilles.
[83]In 1843 a Frenchman, M. Faye, discovered a periodic comet, whose orbit he calculated, and which bears his name. This discovery made some stir. M. Faye was awarded the Lalande prize of the Academy of Sciences and was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour.
[84]A remarkable fragment upon Saint Cyr was printed and published in 1843 for private circulation. It may be regarded as the basis of the work of the Duc de Noailles onMadame de Maintenon and the Chief Events of the Reign of Louis XIV.The fragment appears at the beginning of the third volume of this work, which was to open the doors of the French Academy to the Duc de Noailles.
[85]The Duc Pasquier.
[86]His marriage with the Princesse Clémentine.
[87]After the death of the Duc d'Orléans in 1842 the Chamber of Deputies passed a law nominating the Duc de Nemours as Regent of the Realm during the minority of the Comte de Paris in the event of the death of the old King. From this time the Prince sat in the Chamber of Peers and made official journeys of inspection through the departments.
[88]The country of Neuchâtel had been ceded to Frederick I., King of Prussia, in 1707, and became French territory from 1806 to 1814. The treaties of Vienna had restored it to Frederick William III., though it remained within the Swiss Confederation. The state of things was to continue until the revolution of 1848, when the mountaineers expelled the Prussians. Frederick William IV. did not finally abandon his rights until 1850, and a convention signed on May 24, 1852, secured the independence of Neuchâtel while reserving to Prussia her rights.
[89]M. de Custine had collected the memories of his journey in Russia in a work in four volumes, entitledRussia in 1839.
[90]The reference is to the marriage of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia, afterwards Alexander II., with the daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt, which was celebrated at St. Petersburg on April 16, 1841.
[91]Prince Sergius Trubetzkoi, when very young, had taken an active part in a conspiracy which broke out at St. Petersburg in 1825 with reference to the right of the Emperor Nicholas to the throne of Russia. He was accused of usurping the crown from his brother Constantine. Condemned to death by the Supreme Court of Justice, the punishment was commuted to perpetual exile in Siberia. There he was obliged to work in the mines as a convict. The Emperor Nicholas remained inflexible throughout his life, and would never pardon the conspirator against his person, who was not released until 1855 by Alexander II. on his accession to the throne. Princess Trubetzkoi, urged by passionate devotion, followed her husband into exile, and her action was regarded as the more heroic, as the married couple had previously lived on somewhat cold terms.
[92]Extract from a letter.
[93]Count Veltheim (1781-1848).
[94]Prince Pückler in his works had shown an independence and boldness of judgment which, in conjunction with his liberal ideas, seemed far too advanced for so retrograde a court as that of Prussia, and had obliged him to absent himself.
[95]This play, by Alexandre Dumas père, was then given at the Theatre Royal of Berlin (Schauspielhaus) from the German translation by L. Osten.
[96]This novel,Der Mohr oder das Haus Holstein-Gattorp in Schweden, which appeared anonymously, takes as its hero a negro named Badin, who is said to have been actually brought from Africa to Sweden during his youth in 1751.
[97]William III., who had been at Rome in 1771 as Crown Prince, returned to that city after his accession in 1783. Pius VI. was then Pope, and received the King with the greatest kindness. In June 1784 Gustavus III. came to Paris to revisit Queen Marie Antoinette, to whom he was greatly attached.
[98]The Princesse de Carignan, the grandmother of King Charles Albert, was a Princess Joséphine of Lorraine and a sister of the charming Princesse Charlotte, the Abbess of Remiremont, for whom M. de Talleyrand felt so profound an affection.
[99]The famous "Billy," as the Prince's friends called him.
[100]Princess Pückler was divorced in 1817 by Count Charles von Pappenheim and married Hermann Pückler in the same year. They were divorced in 1826 because Prince Pückler, who was almost ruined by his wild extravagance, wished to marry a rich English woman, a Miss Harriet Hamlet. This project failed, and the Prince and his wife, though legally divorced, began life again very happily under the same roof, though they were not remarried.
[101]This Abyssinian woman was called Machbouba. Prince Pückler had brought her back with him from his travels. She could not bear the northern climate, and died at Muskau after embracing the Catholic religion at Vienna through the influence of Princess Metternich, who took a keen interest in Machbouba.
[102]On June 17, 1843, the King of Denmark, Christian VIII., disembarked at Putbus, where the King of Prussia was awaiting him.
[103]The house of Courlande at Berlin, No. 7Unter den Linden, formed part of the fortune which the Duchesse de Talleyrand received on her father's death. The Duchesse sold this house, through her architect, in 1839, for ninety-five thousand thalers. The Emperor Nicholas bought it, and as the proprietor he gained the title of Honorary Citizen of Berlin. Apartments for the Emperor and his family were reserved in it, and it was then appropriated by the Russian Legation, which is still there.
[104]The Prince Bishop of Breslau was then the Viscount Melchior von Diepenbrock, a cardinal (1798-1853).
[105]Extract from a letter.
[106]An allusion to the business connected with the Fief of Sagan, concerning which negotiations were then in progress.
[107]The two buildings were opposite one another, and the wind drove the flames towards the palace of the Prince and Princess of Prussia.
[108]A reference to the Archduke Stephan, son of the Archduke Joseph, Count Palatine of Hungary, who was then staying at Berlin on his way to Hanover.
[109]Prince Augustus of Prussia, the younger brother of Prince Louis Ferdinand, who was killed in 1806 at Saalfeld, and the son of Prince Ferdinand, the last brother of Frederick the Great, was never married. He possessed a considerable fortune which he had increased by unscrupulous methods at the expense of his relations, and made a will by which the property of which he could not dispose reverted to the crown of Prussia, while the rest was bequeathed to his numerous natural children; so that he thus deprived his sister, Princess Radziwill, of the inheritance which should have gone to her. This scandal led to a famous law suit, which was lost by the Radziwills and attracted much public attention in Berlin.
[110]The Russian Emperor, after a stay at Potsdam, barely escaped assassination as he was returning to his kingdom. As he passed through Posen on September 19 the people were mourning the death of General von Grolman, who had died of heart disease on September 15. A great favourite with every class of the population, the General had been buried on that same day, September 18, amid a great crowd of people. Advantage of the crowd was taken a short time afterwards to fire upon the carriage of theaides-de-camp, which was mistaken for the carriage of the Czar. Several bullets were found in the carriage and in the cloaks of the officers, but the event was never cleared up.
[111]The Hohenzollern-Hechingen.
[112]The Polish dynasty founded by Piast, which proceeded from 842-1370. A branch of the Piast family retained the Duchy of Silesia until 1675.
[113]Extract from a letter.
[114]The Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand contain an account of the scene to which these memoirs here allude. In the Appendix to this volume the reader will find the story, the truth of which is attested by M. de Vitrolles himself, as it is given in the Appendix to the second volume of theMemoirs of M. de Talleyrand.
[115]Extract from a letter to M. de Bacourt.
[116]After the fall of the Empire the department of Neuchâtel, which had belonged to Prussia since the time of Frederick II., joined the Swiss Confederation as its twenty-first canton, though it remained under the suzerainty of Prussia. This ambiguous position led to a series of disturbances and struggles. In 1847 Neuchâtel refused to take part in the war against the Sonderbund, and was condemned to pay an indemnity of nearly half a million to the Confederation.
[117]Various anti-liberal attempts had been made between 1839-1840 in the Swiss Cantons of Tessin, Argovie, Valais, and Vaud. The Grand Council decreed the suppression of the convents. The Catholic Cantons protested and formed a league among themselves called the Sonderbund for the defence of their rights. The radical party regarded this movement as a violation of the constitution and declared war upon the Sonderbund, which was defeated in a desperate battle on the frontiers of the canton of Lucerne.
[118]The mother of Prince Heinrich Carolath-Beuthen was by birth Duchess Amelia of Saxe-Meiningen and was the aunt of Queen Adelaide of England.
[119]On the death of the Empress Marie Louise, in virtue of an arrangement made at Paris in 1817, Charles Louis of Bourbon, Duke of Lucca, took possession of the duchies of Parma and of Placentia. The duchy of Guastalla passed to the Duke of Modena who ceded the duchy of Lucca to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1848 the new Duke of Parma abdicated in favour of his son, Charles III., who had married Mademoiselle, the daughter of the Duc de Berry.
[120]Throughout the period of struggle in Switzerland, the Powers had constantly sent warnings to the radical party. France in particular threatened armed intervention, but the events of 1848 caused the abandonment of this project.
[121]Mademoiselle, daughter of the Duc de Berry.
[122]Madame Adélaïde died rather suddenly on December 31, 1847.
[123]Notwithstanding the victory of General Bugeaud at Isly, Abd-el-Kader, an energetic character, had contrived to continue the struggle in Algeria. In a final engagement, however, his most devoted adherents fell, and in 1847 he was obliged to surrender to General Lamoricière. Abd-el-Kader was kept a prisoner in France until the proclamation of the Empire. After Napoleon III. had set him at liberty he lived in Syria as a faithful and devoted friend of France.
[124]The Duc Pasquier.
[125]In the session of January 10, at the Chamber of Peers, M. de Barante, reporter to the committee, had read the proposed Address in reply to the speech from the throne. The proposal was vigorously attacked by the Comte d'Alton Shée who spoke for the dynastic party and had suddenly joined the opposition from the outset of the agitation for reform which preceded the revolution of February 1848. The Comte d'Alton Shée did not hesitate to express opinions entirely revolutionary, even while speaking in the Chamber and in this session he fulminated with all his eloquence against the foreign policy of M. Guizot, piling up accusations haphazard with reference to Portuguese, Swiss, and Italian affairs.
[126]In the session of January 14, the Chamber of Peers resumed discussion of the seventh paragraph of the Address referring to Switzerland, and M. de Montalembert obtained one of his finest oratorical triumphs when he stigmatised in the loftiest terms the iniquitous and barbarous abuses of the revolutionary tyranny of which Switzerland was providing sad and grievous instances.
[127]The policy of Lord Palmerston who had returned to the Foreign Office in 1846, had once more resumed a revolutionary character; particularly in the affair of the Sonderbund he was seen to be supporting Ochsenbein and Dufour against the Catholic Powers. He tricked M. Guizot who was negotiating to secure armed intervention with the help of Prussia and Austria and to oppose the English policy at a time when the submission of the seven cantons was already accomplished.
[128]Extract from a letter addressed to M. de Bacourt who had just been appointed French Minister at Turin.
[129]King Christian VIII. of Denmark was suddenly taken ill on January 6, 1848, and died on the 20th of the same month. Frederick VII., his son by his first marriage, succeeded him.
[130]By birth Princess of Schleswig-Holstein.
[131]The same meteor was seen in France a few days previously above Doullens: a sheaf of luminous rays extended horizontally from north to south, giving off light denotations comparable to those produced by a rocket.
[132]Cardinal Diepenbrock.
[133]The arms of Sagan were an angel upon a golden background.
[134]King Louis Philippe who had resolved too late upon electoral reform and the dissolution of his ministry, was surprised by the massacre of the Boulevard des Capucines on February 23. On the 24th the whole of Paris was in a ferment, the revolution was triumphant and the King resolved to abdicate. He left the Tuileries and took refuge at first in the Castle of Eu and was under the delusion that his grandson, the Comte de Paris, might succeed him, but on the 25th he learnt that the Republic had been proclaimed and was forced to take refuge in England.
[135]The Marquise de Castellane had gone with her children to La Délivrande, a village near Caen, which owes its origin to a famous pilgrimage of the Virgin. Mgr. de Quélen had there uttered ardent prayers that M. de Talleyrand might die a Christian death.
[136]He was then French Minister at Berlin.
[137]Herr von Radowitz was then sent to Vienna to try and arrange some co-operation between the two courts in view of the revolutionary storm which seemed to be threatening. Prince William, who had been governor of Mayence from 1844, returned to his post in view of the course of events.
[138]In the confusion which prevailed during the unhappy day of February 24, at Paris, when every one fled as best he could, the Duchesse d'Orléans and her two children, after escaping the perils which they had run at the Chamber of Deputies, took refuge with M. Jules de Lasteyrie at the Hôtel des Invalides, which they left secretly during the night. From Paris to Aix la Chapelle, the Princess travelled in a public conveyance accompanied by the Marquis de Montesquiou and M. de Mornay. She then took the railway to Cologne, and after spending the night at Deutz, she went to Ems to ask refuge of the Grand Duke of Weimar who placed the castle of Eisenach at her disposal. It was not until June 1849 that she went to England to visit the Royal Family at St. Leonards, near Hastings, where the King and Queen had gone in view of their health.
[139]The old district of Franconia, that is to say, part of Baden, Wurtemberg and Hesse, was then the scene of a movement akin to the Jacquerie: the peasants rose in a body and committed deplorable excesses; castles were burnt and plundered, and several landowners were killed or barbarously ill-treated. On the 10th of March serious disturbances broke out at Cassel under the pretext that the newly nominated ministers were the objects of popular disapproval. The arsenal was stormed and plundered of weapons; resistance was offered to the troops; the Life Guards retreated, but the populace held the barracks until the regiment was disbanded and the officers put upon trial.
[140]On March 13 a formidable insurrection broke out at Vienna: the population rose in a body; the railways were torn up and the air resounded with cries, "The constitution and the liberty of the Press."]
[141]Prince Adam Czartoryski, who retained his delusions, was inspired with fresh hopes by the disturbances which prevailed on every side, and from which the Poles were trying to derive some advantage for themselves. The Prince arrived at Berlin where disorder was general and proclaimed with considerable effrontery that Lord Palmerston and M. de Lamartine had promised to support him by land and sea, if Prussia would declare the re-establishment of Poland. The presence of Prince Czartoryski at Berlin was regarded with such disfavour by the Emperor of Russia, that he informed his Minister, Baron Meyendorff, that he would be withdrawn from Poland, if the Prince prolonged his stay in that capital.
[142]On April 2, 1848, at midday the second general Diet was opened at Berlin in one Chamber without any distinction of rank or representation. The commissary of this Diet, Herr von Camphausen, the President of the Council, accompanied by all the Ministers, opened the Diet in the King's name. He delivered a speech, at the conclusion of which he brought forward proposals for a law concerning elections for the purpose of bringing into force upon a wide basis the constitution which the King had granted to his people after the events of March 18.
[143]After a collision between the troops and the people at Vienna on March 13, 1848, and after the insurrection in Venice, Prince Metternich, who was too prone to overrate his capacity for resistance, was forced by an infuriated mob to resign and to flee from Austria with his wife. At first they stayed in Dresden, but the unpopularity of the Prince was so great that they were obliged to proceed to Holland and thence to England. In 1849 they settled at Brussels.
[144]This assembly was spontaneously convoked at Frankfort to provide the country with a centre of action in case the Princes declined to support the movement for amalgamation which was then in progress among the Germanic races. It was dissolved on April 2, after securing from the Princes at the Diet the promise that a German parliament should meet. A commission, however, was appointed by the army consisting of fifty members, to secure the execution of this promise, and these members were ordered to convoke a national parliament within one month, assuming that a parliament had not been already elected by the different states.
[145]The news of the Paris Revolution had produced a great sensation in the Grand Duchy of Posen. A revolt broke out at Posen itself, where Mieroslawski, who was released from prison on March 19, formed an army and prepared for war. At Cracow when the news of the Vienna disturbances came in, seventy thousand Poles went to Count Deyne, the civil commissary, and demanded the liberty of four hundred of their compatriots.
[146]There was no ultimatum properly so-called; this was only a newspaper report. The Polish National Committee merely published a manifesto proclaiming that until the independence of Poland was re-established, the Poles would consider any arbitrary division of their national districts as a new partition of Poland, and threatened to protest against any such violation before Europe as a whole. This protest was eventually made on April 26 by two letters from Prince A. Czartoryski, addressed to M. de Lamartine, the Minister of Foreign Affairs at Paris, and to Baron Arnim who held the same position at Berlin.
[147]The noble and chivalrous Charles Albert, desiring to throw off Austrian influence, had formed a highly organised army and proclaimed a constitution. On him the hopes of Italian independence were set. Taking advantage of the insurrection which had broken out at Milan on March 18 and which had been followed by the defeat of the Austrian army and the flight of the Archduke Reynier, the King had declared war upon Austria on March 20. At first he rapidly carried the positions of the enemy as far as the Adige, but he was attacked by superior forces and afterwards (in August) he lost the murderous battle of Custozza and was obliged to evacuate Milan.
[148]After Milan, Venice revolted in turn. On March 20 the Arsenal was captured by the insurgents. The civil governor, Count Palfy, placed his authority in the hands of Count Zichy, the military governor, who hesitated before the prospect of bloodshed and finally surrendered to the municipality and made a capitulation with the provisional government on March 22; Venice was thus freed from the Austrians. On March 21 Treviso had also been forced to capitulate and the Austrian garrison had left the town.
[149]The Prussian troops commanded by General Blum, had marched upon Miloslaw which they captured after a desperate combat; but an advance guard which was pursuing the Poles when approaching a wood, was received by so sustained a fire, that the Prussians fled, rushed upon their own infantry which was following them, broke their ranks and swept the whole force away in rout. The Poles pursued the Prussians in turn, drove them out of Miloslaw and captured two of their guns.
[150]On May 4 Count Ficquelmont, Minister of Foreign Affairs at Vienna, was forced to resign by a tumultuous demonstration of the students who regarded him as a pupil of Metternich.
[151]For several days manifestations in favour of Poland had been proceeding at Paris. On May 15 a band of insurgents attacked and invaded the National Assembly, but order was quickly restored.
[152]On May 1 a revolutionary movement broke out at Rome, caused by the Pope's refusal to declare war against Austria. The Ministry resigned: the Pope was threatened with a provisional government, and declared in a manifesto that as chief Pontiff he could not declare war but that he left the power of declaring war as a temporal prince to his Ministry. On May 5 Pius IX. was forced to accept a Ministry composed wholly of laymen which was constantly in opposition to him.
[153]The little exiled court lived very quietly at the seat of Claremont in England which belonged to King Leopold who had kindly placed it at their disposal.
[154]M. Boismilon.
[155]It was thought that the Liberalism of Herr von Camphausen had sufficiently calmed the popular excitement to allow the Prince of Prussia to return to Berlin. At the outbreak of the disturbance he had been forced to take refuge in England. However, no sooner had the Prince arrived than the Camphausen Ministry was overthrown on June 20, after the capture and plunder of the Arsenal and the Ministry of Auerswald came into power.
[156]An insurrection had been broken out at Naples. After six hours' desperate fighting the royal troops retained possession of the town, though they lost three or four hundred men. The Chamber and the National Guard were dissolved and a new Ministry was formed under the Presidency of Signor Cariati.
[157]After a bombardment and some street fighting which lasted from the 12th to the 17th of June, Prince Windisch-Graetz was able to overcome the insurrection at Prague. During these struggles his wife was treacherously shot near the window of her drawing-room, while standing between her sisters, from the other side of the street.
[158]In the National Assembly at Frankfort the Committee of the Fifty had been tempted several times to form a triumvirate as a centre of power. Eventually a commission of eleven deputies was elected in June. This commission appointed Archduke John for Austria, the old Prince William for Prussia, and Prince Charles for Bavaria. The combination was ironically known as the directory of the three uncles, these princes being the uncles of the kings of their respective countries. The proposal was vigorously opposed, and the Session of June 23 eventually elected the Archduke John as sole director. A deputation offered the dignity to the Archduke who accepted it, and appeared in the National Assembly on the following 12th of July.
[159]When seven thousand workmen had been dismissed from the national workshops, a further outbreak caused much bloodshed in Paris for four days. On that occasion the Archbishop, Mgr. Affre, was killed upon one of the barricades where he was attempting to pacify the people.
[160]Herr von Pfördten.
[161]The discussions concerning the proposal of a deputy, Herr Stein, with reference to the army and to the control which the Ministry should exert upon the political opinions of officers, were concluded in the Chamber against the desires of the Cabinet. The Auerswald Ministry therefore resigned on September 11; on the 22nd of the same month the King appointed a new Cabinet of which General Pfuel was President.
[162]It will be remembered that the populations of Schleswig and Holstein, who wished to be united with Germany, had revolted against Denmark, and that the Prussians had come to their help. After several bloody conflicts an armistice was concluded between Denmark and Prussia at Malmæ on August 26, but the National Assembly at Frankfort refused to assent to this armistice on the ground that Prussia did not ask its authorisation. The council of Ministers and all the Ministers of the Empire had thereupon resigned.
[163]The Château of Trachenberg, not far from Breslau.
[164]In the morning of October 6 a number of the population of Vienna opposed the departure of the troops which were marching upon Hungary to reinforce Baron Jellachich, and a bloodthirsty struggle broke out. The residence of the Minister of War was captured by assault, and the Minister, the Comte de la Tour, was stabbed, hung to a lamp-post, and riddled with bullets. The troops retired, were driven back at every point and forced to evacuate the town. The Emperor and the Imperial Family, who had returned to Vienna in the month of August, were obliged to retire once more and went towards Olmütz. There the emperor abdicated on December 2 in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph I.
[165]General Count Lamberg had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Hungarian troops on September 25: the National Assembly at Pesth refused to recognise this nomination and declared all guilty of high treason who should obey him, and on his arrival at Pesth put him to death on the bridge which unites Buda and Pesth.
[166]When Hungary was in a state of insurrection, the insurgents seized Count Eugène Zichy, accused him of communicating with the Austrian Army and of distributing copies of the emperor's proclamation. He was tried before a court presided over by Georgei and was condemned to death and shot in the island of Czepel and not hung, as the first rumour related.
[167]General Brédy was killed at Vienna on October 6, 1848, during the struggle between the people and the National Guard in the suburb of Leopoldstadt, a few hours before the insurgents seized the residence of the Minister of War.
[168]By the Black and Yellow party is meant the Imperial party, the members of which wore these colours.
[169]On October 16 a further and bloodthirsty outbreak took place at Berlin, ending in a collision between the National Guard and the workmen. The result was to revive the agitation which had prevailed in this town with short intermissions since the month of March.
[170]M. Arago, the French Minister, showed himself to the crowd which was cheering him before his residence. He uttered a few words in French and held out his hand to the people who were nearest to him.
[171]A new Ministry, of which Count Brandenburg was President and Herr von Manteuffel was Minister of the Interior, had been appointed at Berlin on November 8. Its very first administrative act ended in a defeat: an ordinance of the King countersigned by the Count of Brandenburg transferred the National Assembly to the town of Brandenburg; the Assembly decided against this transference by a vast majority, and as the Government could not continue amid this increasing anarchy, it resolved upon vigorous action. On November 10 a considerable number of troops were drafted into the capital and occupied the entrance to the Assembly room. The Assembly protested against this violence, and an ordinance of the King then declared the civil guard disbanded; another ordinance issued on the 12th proclaimed Berlin to be in a state of siege. General Wrangel commanded the military forces and every measure was taken to avoid a collision.
[172]In November 1848 the whole of the Royal Family had suffered from poisoning in consequence of the leaden pipes through which the water was carried.
[173]The Austrian Diet had been sitting since November 15 at Kremsier in Moravia, in the beautiful castle of the Archbishops of Olmütz. The new Ministry was composed as follows: Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Stadion, Minister of the Interior; Krauss, Financial Minister; Bach, Legal Minister; Gordon, Minister of War; Bruck, Minister of Commerce; Thinnfeld, Minister of Agriculture; Kulmer, unattached.
[174]The Pope had given his subjects a constitution on March 14, and after changing his Ministry several times he had at length decided on December 15 to appoint as his Prime Minister, Pellegrino Rossi, formerly French Ambassador to His Holiness and a personal friend of M. Guizot. Rossi undertook to establish a regular parliamentary government in the Papal States, relying upon the middle classes and intervening between the parties in opposition. He was not given the time to carry out his proposals: on November 15, as he was going to a Cabinet Council, he was stabbed in the throat by a militiaman and fell dead. This deed was a signal for a republican rising. The Pope confined himself to appointing a new Minister who was out of sympathy with the people, upon which the mob and the troops made their way to the Quirinal and ordered the Pope to change his Ministers. Pius IX., who was supported by the diplomatic body, declined to accede, and popular exasperation then reached its height. A desperate struggle broke out between the people and the guards, and the bullets even reached the interior of the palace. Eventually the Pope yielded under protest and consented to accept as his Ministers Sterbini, Galletti, Mamiani, and the Abbé Rosmini. But on November 25, dressed as an ordinary Abbé, he left Rome and sought the protection of the King of Naples at Gaeta, from which town he sent a protest to the Romans against recent events.
[175]Herr von Gagern, who had undertaken to draw up a constitution for the Empire at Frankfort and to settle the central power upon a permanent basis, had come to Berlin to examine the situation and to learn whether the King of Prussia would be inclined to place himself at the head of the German Empire in the event of a rupture between Austria and Germany. The King absolutely declined this proposal, which was afterwards brought before him once more with more official authority in March 1849.
[176]Like Pellegrino Rossi, Capo d'Istria suffered a violent death. He was accused by the Greeks of acting merely as the tool of Russia, and of using arbitrary methods to secure governmental power. He was assassinated in 1831 by the brothers George and Constantine Mavromichali, who wished to take vengeance upon him for the unjust imprisonment of their father and brother.
[177]King Charles Albert did not abdicate until after the battle of Novara on March 23, 1849.
[178]About December 15 Prince Windisch-Graetz at the head of the Austrian troops drove the Hungarians out of one position after another, until they retired behind the bastions of Raab, under the command of Georgei. As the great cold prevented their reinforcements from coming up, the Hungarians were obliged to abandon this position, which the Austrians captured without striking a blow, on December 27.
[179]On September 29, 1848, near Veneleze, twelve miles away from Ofen, Jellachich was utterly defeated by General Moga. His army took flight and Jellachich was taken prisoner. He succeeded in escaping, however, and made his way through the forests to Mor, Risber, and at length to Raab.
[180]Prince Louis Bonaparte had been nominated President on November 10, 1848. M. Molé related that on the morning of that day General Changarnier, the commander of the troops who were to take the President to the Elysée, after he had taken the oath, came to M. Molé and asked for directions, and said as he went out, "Well, supposing I take him to the Tuileries instead of to the Elysée!" to which M. Molé replied, "Mind you do nothing of the sort; he will go there soon enough of his own accord."]
[181]The greatest confusion prevailed in Frankfort as soon as the question arose of providing a definite head to the German Empire, and realising the fine promises of union by means of a practical conclusion. Austria pretended to adopt a waiting attitude which would enable her to stand apart from all details, as though she had no idea of entering into relations with Germany until Germany became a constituted state. Her intention, in short, was to take no steps with reference to her union with Germany until the choice of the head of the empire and of pre-eminence was decided in her favour or against her.
[182]This war, which began upon the accession of Francis Joseph to the Austrian throne, lasted for three years. Hungary eventually yielded before the overwhelming force of Austria in alliance with Russia.