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CHAPTER IV
1844

Vienna, January 4, 1844.– I am packing up, saying goodbye and making the thousand little arrangements which precede departure. I shall leave Vienna very well satisfied with my stay and very grateful for the extreme kindness and courtesy that every one has shown me.

Sagan, January 24, 1844.– The day before yesterday I went out in a sledge to a shooting-party; two hundred and eighty head of game were killed. Yesterday I visited a very fine reformatory which is the chief house of its kind for this part of Silesia. It is in Sagan itself, in a house which was formerly a Jesuit convent. It is a well-arranged establishment conducted upon Christian principles by Baron von Stanger. He is a widower; in grief at the loss of a wife whom he adored, he was impelled by his religious feelings to devote himself to this work of redemption. The clergyman subordinate to him is a converted Jew, a kind of Abbé of Ratisbon, most zealous and conscientious and imbued with the missionary spirit. The results so far obtained are most satisfactory.

My life here is simple, quiet and I trust useful. I have also good news of all to whom I am sincerely attached, and no more physical trouble than I can well bear. To feel oneself entirely useless, to have no serious object in life, or to be paralysed by excessive physical suffering, are I think, the only conditions under which complaints to God are justifiable. I do not mention the pain of surviving those whom one loves whole-heartedly, for that is above all things a matter of feeling, to use the admirable expression of Madame de Maintenon. Besides, the continuous exercise of one's whole energies in relieving others or helping one's kith and kin is a great means of consolation.

Berlin, February 23, 1844.– The sect of the Pietists which is the scourge of Prussia, is doing more harm here than even atheists could produce. There is no doubt that Prussia, like the rest of Europe, is agitated by revolutionary feeling and that Silesia is in particular disturbed by these movements, the consequence of a mixture of populations. These hostilities and rivalries are fomented by the Pietists in a most unchristian way.

I have seen Princess Albert of Prussia again. She looks better since her tour in Italy. I was surprised to see her sprightly and cheerful air, as her position is the more difficult, since her father's death has deprived her of her strongest support.

I hear from Vienna that Madame de Flahaut is patronising the young Hungarians who are causing trouble at the Diet of Pressburg; that she praises their opposition speeches and encourages them to come to her house. At Vienna the authorities are surprised, but their feeling will soon pass that stage. Really, this woman has not a single diplomatic fibre in the whole of her dry anatomy.

Berlin, March 19, 1844.– In honour of the Mecklenburg and Nassau families and of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia, we have had some carnival festivities upon a small scale which have caused me a certain amount of trouble and weariness and left me rather tired. The Duke of Nassau is a most dismal looking person and I think an unpleasant person in every respect; he looks like a regimental surgeon. The young Duchess has an admirable figure and beautiful arms and complexion, but she has red hair, with the coarse chubby face of a doll; she is simple and very kind. The Hereditary Grand Duke of Russia is better in health but by no means improved in looks. Princess Augustus of Cambridge, who married the Crown Prince of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, exactly resembles what her aunt the Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg must have been at her age. In a few days we shall assume mourning here for the King of Sweden who is certainly dead.

Berlin, March 24, 1844.– I was in possession of the information which you have sent me113 with regard to the fact that Charles X. always did justice to M. de Talleyrand in reference to the interview between them during the night of the 16th and 17th of July, 1789. The King had said as much to the old Duchesse de Luynes, and I was with my uncle when she came to repeat the words of Charles X. to him. Since 1830 M. de Vitrolles has become so entirely a stranger to me that I do not quite see how I could ask him to testify to the nature of this interview, though he repeats his facts as he had them from the mouth of Charles X. himself.114

Berlin, March 30, 1844.– I am busy with farewell visits and the usual preparations and troubles of departure. I shall spend the greater part of April at Sagan, and shall start for Paris about the 20th, as I wish to be there for my daughter's confinement. I shall then spend a few days at Rochecotte and return to Germany about the end of June.

I have been very busy of late and have been obliged to leave several letters unanswered. Wide separation enables action to be taken which close neighbourhood would make difficult. The late M. de Talleyrand used to think a great deal of this system, and with every reason. He used to reproach me for the want of skill which I displayed in referring and replying to every statement, in my extreme fondness for argument and discussion, my inability to pass over difficult points, and my excessive insight into indiscretions and requirements. I used to tell him that in his position and at his age silence in certain respects was taken as a hint or a warning, and therefore permissible, but that I was too young and by no means sufficiently independent to adopt such habits. At that time I was right, but as youth is a fault which can be cured every day, in spite of itself, I have found for some time that the moment has come when I may treat as non-existent that which troubles or wearies me.

Here the memoirs are interrupted for three consecutive years. The Duchesse de Talleyrand started for France in the month of April 1844, to be with the Marquise de Castellane when she was confined of her son. The journey did not prove satisfactory, as she encountered difficulties with her French relations when she wished to secure their consent to the establishment of the fief of Sagan in favour of her eldest son. M. de Bacourt also disapproved of her proposal to settle in Germany, and the correspondence which has provided material for these chronicles became much less frequent. It was not resumed with any regularity until the end of 1847, after Rochecotte had been given to the Marquise de Castellane, and the Marquis de Castellane, the Duchesse de Talleyrand's son-in-law, had died. In consequence of this event the Duchesse de Talleyrand returned once more to France.

CHAPTER V
1847

Sagan, December 12, 1847.– I am delighted to learn that your nomination to the Embassy of Turin has been settled, since you desire the post.115 I hear from Berlin that the Emperor Nicholas is angry with Paul Medem for leaving his post without leave, and that he is therefore not receiving the treatment to which he is accustomed and to which he has a right. Count Nesselrode and his numerous friends are doing their best to disperse these clouds, and will doubtless be successful. At Berlin men's minds are full of Switzerland, the past history of which is a disgrace, while the present is an anxiety and the future a menace, especially in the south of Germany.116 M. Guizot, however, seems to go forward courageously with or without the concurrence of England, and at Berlin there is general satisfaction with his frankness and his decision. I have this from a high authority.

Sagan, December 18, 1847.– I hear upon good authority that the small states of Switzerland are in a great ferment, especially among the peasants, and that the heavy indemnities laid upon the unfortunate victims of the Sonderbund will probably drive them to a general revolt. Colleredo and Radowitz were to leave Vienna to-day for the Congress, at which the affairs of Switzerland are to be discussed.117

Yesterday I had a visit from Prince and Princess Carolath. I had seen them in London in 1830 when Prince Carolath was sent by the King of Prussia to congratulate William IV. on his succession. Through his mother, Prince Carolath is cousin german of the Dowager Queen of England.118 By birth the princess was Countess Pappenheim, a granddaughter of the Chancellor Hardenberg; after her mother had been divorced from Count Pappenheim, she married Prince Pückler-Muskau. She is very kind and charitable to the poor, writes charming verses, reads a great deal, and speaks several languages.

Sagan, December 24, 1847.– The Empress Marie Louise is dead. A year ago this event would hardly have been noticed, but it now adds a further complication to the state of northern Italy, which was certainly not required in a district that is threatened upon every side. The people of Parma are said to be trembling lest they should fall under the government of the wretched Duke of Lucca, and are thought to be on the point of revolt.119 The Grand Duke of Tuscany, disturbed by the liberal movement, is harassing the Court of Vienna. The Papacy is said to be in the same position as Tuscany. It seems impossible that Piedmont should escape all this ferment, and this is the fact which interests me most in the whole affair. Apparently there are many assassinations in Italy. I know that the members of the diplomatic body are not greatly exposed, but crimes about one, even if not aimed at oneself, make life difficult and sad. At Vienna society is said to be restless and touchy and inclined to duelling. For this there are several reasons. The first and chief is the extraordinarily tumultuous Diet of Hungary, where the young and untamed nobility of liberal ideas spends its time during the week, and returns from Pressburg on Saturday to spend the Sunday at Vienna and to shout its defiance in the chief casinos, until clubs have been formed. The party opposed to Metternich (I refer to the conservatives, many of whom are very hostile to him) regard Austria's attitude upon the Swiss question as deplorable.120 It is loudly asserted that Prince Metternich is being deceived by Lord Palmerston, and that instead of issuing clever notes he should have made armed demonstrations, and that if he has sufficient intellect remaining for the first he has not the energy for the second alternative. I am therefore assured that this winter will be unpleasant at Vienna, and that there have already been lively and disagreeable scenes. Madame de Colloredo is the only cheerful person; resplendent in the magnificent jewels which her new husband has given her, dressed in youthful and coquettish style with roses in her hair as a girl of fifteen, she is totally indifferent to the mockery aimed at her, which she is enabled to bear by the attentions of Count Colloredo, who seems to be deeply in love and fully satisfied. Such is the gossip from Vienna which my brother-in-law brought back yesterday.

Sagan, December 28, 1847.– I fear that Italy must be bristling with domestic and diplomatic difficulties. I am assured that the Duke of Lucca will not assert his rights over Parma, and will abandon them to his son. He has shown such want of tact, and has committed such blunders in England, that Queen Victoria requested the Austrian Ambassador to induce the Prince of Lucca to leave England at once, as she would otherwise be obliged to command his departure herself. It is very sad for Mlle. de Rosny, his wife,121 who is said to be charming and distinguished.

M. de Radowitz is a clever and learned man, who thinks a great deal of himself and is a great talker. He leads the Catholic mystical party in Prussia, and is therefore entirely in the King's good graces and confidence.

Barante writes to me from Paris, assuring me that the relations between Russia and France are by no means so near a revival as people said; he seems to me rather to aim at succeeding the Duc de Broglie as Ambassador at London than at following Bresson in the Embassy at Naples.

CHAPTER VI
1848

Sagan, January 4, 1848.– I am quite overwhelmed by the death of Madame Adélaïde.122 It is a misfortune for the King, for the poor and for my children. In her I lose a friend who regretted daily the loss of M. de Talleyrand, whose death I have also every reason to deplore. And thus the sad year of 1847 has come to an end with this sudden blow, and I can quite understand that the King's private friends begin the year 1848 under gloomy auspices. The political horizon seems very dark. I do not maintain that the turn of the north will never come, but at the present moment the south is in a very feverish condition.

Sagan, January 6, 1848.– There is some truth in Madame de Lieven's remarks concerning Humboldt: I do not assert that he is absolutely radical, but his liberalism is of a very advanced type and at Berlin he is thought to be urging the Princess of Prussia along the path which she does not always follow with sufficient prudence. However, Humboldt is too clever to compromise himself and though he may make himself conspicuous to some extent, he is at bottom a remnant of the few disappearing elements of the eighteenth century.

I know enough of King Louise Philippe to be convinced of his courage and his presence of mind: when therefore I saw the submission of Abd-el-Kader in the newspaper, I at once considered that the King would regard this event as counterbalancing his grief in some degree.123 The ties of affection which united him to his sister were so strong that he probably will not feel his loss most deeply at the first moment, but as life resumes its usual course, when he finds that she is not present to listen to him and to share his thoughts at the time when he used to visit her and give her his confidence, his isolation will be felt and sadness will begin. The Queen is undoubtedly no less devoted and loyal to him, but she is to some extent preoccupied by family cares and her mind does not run in the same direction; she is not always in the King's room awaiting the royal pleasure at every moment, while her religious tendencies are in advance of those of the King. In short she may be much but she cannot be everything. However, it is much better that the King should survive his sister than that he should have died before her, for such a shock would have killed Madame forthwith, I am perfectly certain.

Sagan, January 10, 1848.– Though I am not free from care when I am in good health, it must not be imagined that I have a terror of sudden death, the occasion of which I cannot foresee, though of its certainty I have no doubt. I have no wish to die, but I have no pleasure in life. My life's work has certainly been done and all my tasks are accomplished. What remains affects me but little. It is but a matter of filling up the time and it is hardly worth the little daily efforts which it costs. However, I refuse to be overcome by depression. I have made up my accounts and settled my affairs, and have therefore no reason for sadness, and as long as I am alive my energy will continue; but I can never grow resigned to the idea of finding myself useless, and I trust that God will be so gracious as to leave me the power of sympathy with the wants of those about me until the last moment. If I did not love the poor I should think myself more miserable than they. Fortunately I feel more drawn towards them every day and they compensate for many losses.

Sagan, January 12, 1848.– I have been invited to the funeral ceremonies of Madame Adélaïde at Dreux. The King is greatly depressed and feels very lonely. I am very anxious as to what this year 1848 may have in store for me.

It seems that the Duc de Montpensier has been commissioned to arrange his aunt's private papers.

Sagan, January 18, 1848.– I am carefully reading the debates in the French Chambers and have been delighted by the noble answers of the Chancellor124 and the clever replies of M. de Barante to this M. d'Alton Shée who carries his tactlessness too far.125 The general prospect seems dark and there is no point upon the horizon to which I can look with satisfaction.

Sagan, January 20, 1848.– I have been attentively reading the speech upon the Address in the Chamber of Peers, and was charmed by the clear and noble speech of the Duc de Broglie, while I was reduced to tears by the brilliant oration of M. de Montalembert on the affairs of Switzerland, as he spoke with such sincere emotion, with such cleverness and resource, and exposed so entirely the intrigues of the abominable Lord Palmerston.126 I really do not know why every one should be so ready to consider that intermediary who is the curse of the age: it seems quite obvious to me that M. Guizot has been duped by him in the matter of Switzerland; in his place I should have been better inspired, and I cannot imagine how any one can cease to distrust him after the many experiences of his bad faith.127

Sagan, January 26, 1848.– So you are leaving Paris to-day to begin a new phase of your existence.128 I could wish that your latest news from Turin might be satisfactory, but I doubt if this will be the case. The most important point is that the health of the King of Sardinia should be restored and fortified; he seems to be a clever and enlightened Prince, quite aware of the necessities of the age, though disinclined to make unnecessary concessions to them. I trust that he, yourself, and Italy in general may have a long and glorious existence.

I have a long letter from my daughter Pauline full of regret at your approaching departure, which she regards as another severe trial.

The news of the death of the King of Denmark has just reached us; this will further complicate the state of affairs in the North, and apparently Europe129 will not escape any resulting difficulty. The King of Denmark was a learned and enlightened monarch and enjoyed an excellent reputation; I had the honour of seeing him and of knowing the Queen fairly well, a most saintly person;130 her mother and mine were intimate friends, and among my mother's papers I have found letters from the Duchess of Augustenburg.

Sagan, January 29, 1848.– Yesterday we saw a remarkable meteor: for twenty minutes a column of fire seemed to connect heaven and earth; the sun appeared to be about a third of the way up the sky, and from the lower part of its disc depended this luminous column which seemed to be supported by the horizon of the earth.131 It was a beautiful and imposing spectacle. Some centuries ago astrologers would have drawn many horoscopes based upon this event. I draw my prognostications from newspapers, and I dare not hope that this phenomenon portends any good.

Sagan, February 10, 1848.– On the 5th of the month I was very agreeably surprised by the arrival of the Prince Bishop of Breslau.132 In spite of the unpleasant weather and his bad health he was anxious to wish me many happy returns of the day and to say mass here in person on St. Dorothea's Day. He was accompanied by several ecclesiastics and the chief Catholic lords of the province. The Prince Bishop proposed my health at dinner in a charming speech, dealing with the signification of the name of Dorothea and with the arms of Sagan,133 which he was good enough to term a speaking coat of arms. He trembled with emotion and spilled a few drops of wine from his glass, whereupon he made an end, saying to me, "When the heart speaks, the hand trembles."

The typhus fever which is devastating Upper Silesia threatens to appear here, though we hope that it may be less deadly than it is upon the other side of Breslau. The extremes of want and hunger have been more successfully met here than in other parts of the province. In Upper Silesia this disease has caused dreadful ravages. The doctors have succumbed to it, and were it not for the Brothers of Charity sent by the Prince Bishop, the people would be without relief. Four thousand orphans are wandering about. Mgr. Diepenbrock, following the example of Mgr. de Quélen after the ravages of the cholera in 1833, proposes to open a place of refuge for them to which the Catholics of the province are to devote their time and energy. The plan has been elaborated here.

Weimar, February 18, 1848.– We have had a succession of festivities here in honour of the birthday of the reigning Grand Duchess. The day before yesterday an excellent performance was given of an opera which has made much stir in Germany, called Martha, by the composer Flotow. The libretto and the music are very pretty, and the orchestra was admirably conducted by Liszt. He is Capellmeister to the Weimar Court, with definite leave of absence for nine months in the year. Of this he recently took advantage to make a tour in Constantinople and Odessa, in the course of which he made much money. This evening he is to play to us privately at the house of the Grand Duchess, after Prince Pückler-Muskau has read some extracts dealing with his stay with Mehemet Ali. There is to be previously a little dinner at the young Court of the Hereditary Prince. Attempts are made here to cherish the sacred fire of art and literature, which for sixty years or more has gained for Weimar the title of the Athens of Germany. The Grand Duchess, in order to perpetuate the tradition, has devoted a certain number of rooms in the castle to the memory of poets, philosophers, and artists who have made the district famous. Fresco paintings recall the various subjects of their works, and the rooms are decorated with busts, portraits, views of the historical scenes and curious sites, and pieces of furniture of different periods. The Grand Duchess enjoys a considerable private fortune, which she expends very nobly upon charitable foundations, and in the decoration of her residences. For a hundred years the Court of Weimar has been very well divided among various Princesses; the grandmother of the present Grand Duke was the patroness of Schiller, of Goethe and Wieland, and under her patronage the classical literature of Germany was able to flourish; her daughter-in-law, the mother of the present Grand Duke, was the only Princess of Germany who was able to overawe Napoleon. She saved the kingdom for her husband, the Duke, by her courage and firmness. M. de Talleyrand often took pleasure in describing the scenes in which this Princess confronted the conqueror. The daughter-in-law of the present Grand Duchess, the Princess of the Low Countries, is also clever and well educated; she has a charming voice, great tact, and a simple manner which increases the effect of her good qualities; everything shows that she will be worthy to continue the tradition of the remarkable Princesses who have reigned over the Court of Weimar. Among them one might almost include the Duchess d'Orléans, as her mother was a sister of the reigning Grand Duke.

Berlin, February 28, 1848.– The day before yesterday I was far from thinking that an interval of forty-eight hours would have brought such vast changes of the situation. The telegraph has successively announced a series of events, though without details, none of which, however, prepared us for the startling news of the abdication of Louis Philippe, and of the regency of the Duchesse d'Orléans.134 We had no knowledge of the causes or exigencies of the situation, nor can we say what events can be ascribed to prudence or to weakness; but apart from the historical value of these events, which we shall learn later, the simple fact is sufficiently crushing to cause general consternation here, which is equally widespread among all parties from the highest to the lowest. The considerations which throng upon the mind are the same in every case, and there is only one way of regarding the question and its probable results. These results will affect not only all Governments, but also all private rights. The Princess of Prussia, who is united to her cousin by the keenest sympathy, is quite overwhelmed; she thinks that my presence may help her to bear the weight of anxiety, so that I have spent many hours with her in conjectures upon all these dreadful events, and in lamentations concerning the mystery which still veils the greater part of this drama, or, rather, of this sad tragedy. These grievous events will be re-echoed more quickly and more loudly in Italy than anywhere else; the rest of Europe will then follow, for the respite momentarily granted cannot be long. The fact is that it is impossible to find a single part of Europe where undisturbed peace and quiet is certain. Even America does not seem to me to be secure from disintegrating elements; such is the general tendency of the age, and we must learn to endure it in the positions in which Providence has naturally placed us. I am thankful, however, that I had induced Pauline to leave Paris on February 23 for Le Délivrande.135 I had disapproved of this plan in view of the coldness of the season, but I am now tempted to think it quite providential. This poor child's nerves have already been so shaken that they would have been overstrained by the sight and uproar of the city in tumult.

Poor Madame Adélaïde died at the right time and God has rewarded her affection for her brother by sparing her this bitter grief. This is also true of M. de Talleyrand; I cannot say the same of the Duc d'Orléans, who might have been able to turn these terrible events in another direction if he had been alive.

Considerable excitement is beginning in Russia, but it is true to say that the health of the Emperor Nicholas is very bad. He has an eruption at the knee-joints which makes it difficult for him to walk, and the want of exercise consequently increases the sluggishness of the liver to which he is subject; in short, his health gives cause for anxiety.

Berlin, March 2, 1848.– Since February 28 the most frightful news has arrived every hour with despairing rapidity. To-day a rumour is in circulation which seems to indicate a tendency to a counter-revolution at Paris; I admit that I put no faith in it. My last direct news is dated the 24th, and was written during the quarter of an hour for which the regency of the Duchesse d'Orléans lasted. Letters of the same date have arrived at Berlin, and we have the Moniteur of the 25th, but nothing more. These messages have not been delayed, and so we must withhold our judgment upon events and upon the people who have figured in this tragedy until we know the combination of events which induced the King to yield, and has, so to speak, paralysed his action and that of his family. These unfortunate people are already the objects of disapproval and criticism; I think it would be better to suspend any final judgment. Appearances, however, are very strange, and incline one to think that M. Guizot and the Duchesse d'Orléans have both shown courage and firmness in their several spheres of action. The English post which arrived yesterday evening gave no news of Louis Philippe or his family; they are said to be all at London, but on this subject there is no official or certain news, and the movements of individuals are marked by extreme uncertainty. The Marquis de Dalmatie136 is playing a strange part here; thirty-six hours ago he sent away his servants, has been selling his furniture and his diamonds, complaining of his poverty, and going from door to door saying that he is a poor émigré, and cursing the Sovereign whom he represented six days ago. He does not thereby improve his position. It is thought that as long as the Duchesse d'Orléans and the Comte de Paris are on French territory he ought to maintain his official position and adopt the attitude which it requires; moreover, it is known that his father is very rich, and it is improbable that confiscation would take place except in cases of actual exile. I shall therefore advise my children not to become émigrés, as I remember M. de Talleyrand's constant advice against this course.

The excitement here with regard to the European consequences of the days of February may easily be imagined. The Belgian Minister, M. de Nathomb, told me yesterday that a strong anti-French movement was becoming manifest in Belgium. Herr von Radowitz started for Vienna last night, and Prince William, the King's uncle, has gone to Mayence.137

The telegram which has just come in officially announces the arrival of the Duchesse d'Orléans and her two children at Deutz, on the outskirts of Cologne.138 The district of Baden is being overcome by excitement, and there is much anxiety as to the possible course of events. People say that there have also been disturbances in Cassel.139 May God have pity upon this poor old world and those members of it in particular who are dear to me!

Berlin, March 14, 1848.– The whole country between the Rhine and the Elbe is in commotion. Even here the troops are confined to barracks to-day and popular disturbances are expected. If the King had been willing to convoke the Diet a few days ago difficulties would have been greatly decreased. The best chance here is to follow constitutional forms openly and promptly; delay, hesitation, or intrigue will produce a crisis, the extent of which cannot be foreseen. Hence the present week is likely to be very critical here; the burgomasters of the great towns have arrived with terrifying petitions; revolution is more or less avowed everywhere, and it is impossible to say what will be or can be done. Meanwhile the poverty and the typhus fever are increasing.

The Duchesse d'Orléans is at Ems with her two children, travelling as the Marquise de Mornay: she is anxious to remain entirely incognito and her confidants therefore deny the fact of her presence at Ems. She is, however, certainly there, for I have seen people who have talked to her.

Sagan, March 24, 1848.– Serious events have taken place at Berlin; precious time has been lost, and after hesitation half-measures have been reluctantly begun. Further action has been extorted only by fear, after two days, March 18 and 19, the horror of which I shall never forget. Highly disturbing symptoms proceeding from Breslau have affected Silesia; attacks have been made here upon the town hall and the garrison; so far the castle has been spared. My servants thought that my presence might calm the excitement and I hastened to the spot. So far I have had no reason to regret my action, but as the neighbourhood of the Russians is a source of extreme and increasing bitterness, my brother-in-law thinks that I should not stay here and is sending me back to Berlin, where, however, the atmosphere is by no means calm. He proposes to stay at Sagan to make head against the storm and to save what can be saved. Meanwhile the financial crisis is at its height: there is no money in the country, no one can pay, bankruptcies are declared on every side, while panic and agitation are paramount. Pandora's box has been overturned upon Europe. I have just heard that the Grand Duchy of Posen is in a ferment and as my estates touch the frontier, I have a further cause for alarm, but I trust in the mercy of God, am entirely calm, resigned and resolved to bow my head without murmuring to the decrees of Providence. I only ask from Heaven the life and health of those whom I love. The uproar at Vienna has quite amazed me. We advance from peril to peril.140

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 the Memoirs 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."]
Altersbeschränkung:
12+
Veröffentlichungsdatum auf Litres:
11 August 2017
Umfang:
560 S. 1 Illustration
Rechteinhaber:
Public Domain