530 The Life, Character, and [Nov. 



liamentary distinction will be to the better promises given to their consti- 

 tuents. 



The " fair humanities" of that region of the law were insufficient 

 to detain him longer within its limits. The part he had played, at 

 the breaking out of the Revolution, rendered him eminently distasteful 

 to such of his countrymen as had sought shelter in England from 

 motives of loyalty or fear ; and, it is to be presumed, that his presence 

 was scarcely palatable to the British government of the day ; alive, as it 

 evinced itself, to the danger that threatened the country from without, and 

 to the menacing attitude assumed by certain societies within the kingdom. 

 These causes, probably, induced him to take his passage to the United 

 States of America. There he found himself in the precise situation of 

 a fair witness, recently examined by the president of one of the Parisian 

 tribunals : <e Are you married, Madam ?" " No, Sir." " Are you a 

 widow ?" " No."" Are you a spinster ?" " No, I am independent !" 

 In fact he was independent of country, attachments, friends, and fortune. 

 The latter he might haply have offered to the first mendicant he met, 

 without exciting extraordinary emotions of gratitude ; so he philosophi- 

 cally determined, in a moment of hateful leisure, to devote himself and 

 his energies to the Republic of America, and he became a citizen of 

 the United States. 



In the Museum of Philadelphia, as I have heard it told, amongst 

 the strange and anomalous things contained within its walls, a " pretty 

 considerable" portion of admiration is demanded by the custos, of 

 each coming visitor, for an oath The oath of allegiance of Monsieur 

 de Talleyrand, written with his own hand. The simple Philadel- 

 phians must be, however, rather indifferent connoisseurs in what is 

 rare. If the asseveration were in the form of the per caput hoc juro 

 of the young Ascanius, the value of the invocation was certainly not 

 indifferent ; but, if he preferred the terms of Homer to Virgil, haply 

 he might adopt the celebrated wish of the Grecian, " that, if he proved 

 unfaithful to his contract, he might be invested with horns." Whether 

 the penalty thus voluntarily attached to the infraction of his engagement 

 has been imposed or not, will probably be learnt from the Morning Post, 

 on occasion of the presentation. 



The homely and economic government of the States, however, offered 

 to M. Talleyrand little encouragement to ambition or the desire of 

 gain. The charge of the Pare aux Cerfs, alone, would have defrayed 

 all the expenses of republican administration, and left much to spare. 

 The glories of the earlier reign of Louis XVI. were also probably 

 not forgotten. If in his " pride of place," as minister of foreign affairs, 

 he qualified us as boutiquiers, with all our refinement, wealth, and 

 magnificence, the.sober forbearance of his new friends, in national expen- 

 diture, must have proved little suited to his taste ; and he soon turned his 

 thoughts to his native land, leaving the Philadelphian promissory-note 

 to be protested when it should become due. The observation of Pius 

 the Sixth, " That at Rome Heaven may be always arranged with," was 

 equally applicable to Paris, in his case; and for the fifth time Talleyrand 

 gave his assent to a new but existing order of things, to the modes 

 whereof he associated himself with equal grace and ease ; and while he 

 adapted himself to the times, looked to the future in full confidence 

 that, ere long, the times should adapt themselves to him. Cool, calcu- 

 lating, and unimpassioned, Monsieur Talleyrand was ambitious of great- 

 ness, more from a taste of those indulgences which greatness may allow, 



