184 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHATEAUBRIAND IN ENGLAND. 



Montesquieu, and to the genuine though turbulent admiration evince d 

 by the ladies of Dover ! 



During the period of his stay in England, M. de Chateaubriand's 

 remarks in general and familiar conversation were rather subtle and 

 curious, than accurate or profound. He often expressed his surprise 

 at seeing but few external and prominent signs of that military force 

 which had successfully fought the battles of old England against 

 France and her revolutionary principles. Prodigious was his 

 wonderment that he seldom encountered, as in Paris, some vieille 

 moustache, whose hoary and formidable redundancy denoted its pos- 

 sessor's long familiarity with the " pride, pomp, and circumstance of 

 glorious war." He seemed almost to regret the absence of those 

 sun-burnt, iron-faced professors of the sabre, who may be seen on high 

 days and holy- days "frighting" the good city of Paris "from its 

 propriety," laughing loud, drinking hard, and ruining grisettes d la 

 cosaque. The noble stranger forgot the prudent jealousy which 

 England entertains of military influence, and that ardent spirit of 

 constitutional and civil liberty so hostile to the usurpation of the 

 sword. But that his appreciation of the social and political state of 

 England was often just and delicate, will perhaps be admitted after a 

 perusal of some of his opinions which we here put together nearly as 

 they were uttered that is to say, without much regard to order or 

 connexion. "Here," said he, "the framework of society is formed 

 of circles, each turning on its own centre. Even the opposition is 

 aristocratic. The monarchy has ceased to exist, and has dwindled to 

 a mere oligarchy. The government, such as it is, will Jail only by 

 the hand of its aristocracy : it has nothing to fear from its democracy ! 

 From the nullity of the monarchy and the power of the aristocracy 

 it results that, strickly speaking, and in the French acceptation of 

 the term, there is no court ; in other words, none of the nobility 

 cringe to a master, or bow before his nod. England has compara- 

 tively few court-flies, few court intrigues. The nobles, instead of 

 passing their days in base adulation of the sovereign, are busied 

 in preserving their power and influence in the country. The aristo- 

 cracy of England is at least an enlightened aristocracy : its members 

 might be deprived of their wealth of their properties, and yet 

 their personal merits would still suffice to place them at the top of the 

 social wheel. Hence the contrast, so often remarked elsewhere, be- 

 tween the splendour of posts and the incapacity of their occupants, 

 is of more rare occurrence in England. Public men there, are more 

 frequently in their proper places." 



We are far from agreeing on all these points with the gifted ambas- 

 sador of his late most Christian majesty LouisXVIII. ; but not a few of 

 them bear the indelible impress of truth. Above all, the opinion that 

 " the government will fall only by the hand of its aristocracy," seems 

 to us at this moment to have been dictated by the spirit of prophecy. 

 The forecast shadows of coming events, big with the destiny of a na- 

 tion, are already visible. 



The comparison which M. de Chateaubriand establishes between 

 English ideas of equality and liberty, and that republican enthusiasm 

 for egalite, so characteristic of a large portion of France, is, in our 



