1830.] Behaviour of M. Talleyrand. 531 



when wisely dealt with, than from the show and parade that attends it. 

 But the envy it excites, in tending to disturb his peace, was to be 

 avoided ; he determined, in so far as it was permitted him, to render 

 his talents serviceable to his country as to himself, and thus to screen 

 himself by a well acquired popularity from the ill effects of individual 

 jealousy. Hateful of change, as calculated to prejudice the repose he 

 loved, if systems have actually given way around him, it was not for 

 want of the warning voice of one who could best calculate results ; and, 

 if he were found ever identified, as a public man, with the brighter pages 

 of his country's history, during his eventful career, he contrived, with 

 consummate policy, and without the compromise of his safety or his 

 interest, that France and the world should comprehend his decided 

 opposition to unwise measures, and his due anticipation of their disas- 

 trous consequences. 



When the war with Spain commenced, and the conqueror of armies 

 hesitated not to risk defiance to a people, the health of the late minister 

 required his absence from Paris ; and, at Valency, he became the friend 

 and guardian of a Bourbon, and thus profited by the very vengeance of 

 his then master, in assuring to himself the gratitude of a family who, 

 he foresaw might be eventually summoned to replace him on the throne. 

 The first restoration was also that of health and strength to the prince ; 

 and his subsequent occasional attendances at court were ever indica- 

 tive of peaceful rule and public prosperity. The romantic beauties of 

 Switzerland awoke suddenly in his mind the desire of contemplating 

 nature in all her grandeur ; and while, from the walls of Lausanne, he 

 gazed upon the calm waters of the Leman, Messieurs De Villele and 

 Peyronnet were exercising Parisian patience, now by the censorship of 

 the press, now by the abolition of the national guards. With the nomi- 

 nation of Prince Polignac, the secretion of the prince's bile became 

 irregular; and the disorder augmented to such a degree as to necessitate, 

 prior to the celebrated ordonnances, a visit to the Sardinian territories, 

 where the almost miraculous qualities of the air of Nice enabled him to 

 return to Paris, precisely and appropriately at the moment the will of 

 the nation called Louis Philippe to the throne of France. It is true as 

 it is singular, that, while his presence has been hailed with joy by each 

 new pretender to power, no one of the fallen dared reproach him with 

 not having foretold the consequences of their errors. In all his country's 

 storms he ever found a shelter ; and, whenever a shower of favours fell, 

 never was he under an umbrella. But to leave politics for humaner 

 things. When the fair and witty Madame Tallien (subsequently the wife 

 of Ouvrard, the financier) was introduced to Monsieur de Talleyrand, 

 in her zeal for that liberty which was soon to expire with the consulate, 

 praising the liberal institutions of England, and speaking in rapture of 

 its laws, the memory of her various attachments called from him the 

 sarcastic observation " that undoubtedly the habeas corpus must princi- 

 pally have induced a preference in her mind for the British constitution." 

 This was doing comprehensive justice to the somewhat controverted 

 statements which la veuve de la Grande Armee, the virtuous and 

 veridique Madame de Saint-Elme has since presumed to advance, for 

 the instruction and improvement of an ungrateful world. If the 

 assumption of imperial power by the First Consul of France was not 

 unpalatable to Talleyrand, in a personal or political sense, the consti- 

 tution of the court was in no slight degree repugnant to his feelings 

 and his taste ; and if he lent himself to the will of one, formidable of 



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