RECOLLECTIONS OF CHATEAUBRIAND IN ENGLAND 183 



tained of the first. Above all, the metropolis itself was, in his eyes, 

 wholly changed, through the inroads made upon the manners of its 

 population by French revolutionary principles. The middle and 

 lower classes appeared to him squalled, ill-clad, and deteriorated in 

 healthy looks. The stature of the men had decreased the beauty 

 of the women had faded. Among other treasures hoarded during 

 his foreign travels, the Viscount had carefully preserved a collection 

 of old family paintings and engravings, which lent to the English 

 female physiognomy a bland and gracious expression irresistibly 

 pleasing, from its contrast with the more vivacious beauty of his own 

 country women : and for this soft winning grace " such as youth- 

 ful poets fancy when they love," his jaundiced eye now looked in 

 vain. The race of Britons was, in the Viscount's opinion, degenera- 

 ting. The melancholy truth is that the change was in the spectator, 

 and not in the living and moving drama which he witnessed. The 

 noble envoy was now some twenty years older than when he first saw 

 the white cliffs of Albion, and his grizzled and thinly scattered locks 

 but ill concealed the furrows which the hand of time began to write 

 upon his brow. He gazed with the chilled and withered feelings 

 of age on the scenes which he had first seen when warm in youth. All 

 even to his social position conspired to effect a change in his senti- 

 ments. Who can wonder that the no longer youthful but aristo- 

 cratical ambassador was unable to look with a complacent eye on 

 much that had been congenial to the warm heart of the young, though 

 impoverished and friendless emigrant ? 



A few days after his arrival in London, the Viscount de Chateau- 

 briand received a visit from M. de Montesquieu, grandson of the 

 celebrated author of L' Esprit des Loix. This gentleman had married 

 and settled in England, where he lived in great privacy and retire- 

 ment. As soon as his name was announced to the ambassador, the 

 latter advanced eagerly to meet him, seized him by the hand, and in 

 a tone of great emotion, " Ah !" said he, " how this visit rejoices 

 overpowers me ! you will smile at the thraldom which my fancy 

 exercises; but it almost seems to me that your grandfather in your 

 person deigns to visit me !" M. de Montesquieu could do no less 

 than draw upon his vocabulary of compliments in return. He was 

 in fact inspired by the occasion. "My duty," said he, " no less than 

 my inclination leads me to present myself to your excellency, whose 

 person is a noble compound at once of my grandfather and of the 

 immortal Fenelon." This was a handsome, and at the same time a 

 just eulogium ; and so deeply did it affect M. de Chateaubriand that 

 his eyes involuntarily streamed with tears. In juxta-position with 

 the adroit and spiritual flattery of the immortal president's grandson, 

 it may be curious to place a brief notice of M. de Chateaubriand's 

 reception by the corps diplomatique) shortly after his first audience of 

 his Britannic Majesty. " Gentlemen," said the king, presenting the 

 illustrious Frenchman to Prince Lieven and Prince Estherhazy " you 

 are reinforced by a new colleague." "We are happy and proud to 

 see him amongst us !" coldly replied the Austrian ambassador. 

 " Delighted and honoured by the accession," re-echoed his Prussian 

 excellency. Here was a set-off to the involuntary tributes of M. de 



