Memoirs of the Duchesse de Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1836-1840
likely to abandon her. He replied that France even alone could have
prevented action, at the expense, however, of great energy and a
large display of force. He throws the whole responsibility upon the
King; he says that it is a case of inertia upon the throne, and that
with inertia in high places and also naturally ingrained in the
nation, nothing can be done; that if the Duc d'Orléans had been King
the course of events would have been different; that he would perhaps
have perished, but have perished with dignity, and would not have left
France in her present state of humiliation and hopelessness, in which
she will long continue. In any case, he is entirely devoted to the
Left, and M. Odilon Barrot drew the bonds tighter yesterday. Madame de
Lieven is, I think, really attached to Guizot, for she no longer goes
to the sessions of the Chamber, and confines herself to asking news of
them with much anxiety."
[144] A conflict arising from the revolution of July 1830 broke
out in Poland, where the Russians and the insurgents fought
terrible battles under the walls of Warsaw. On September 7, 1831,
Warsaw was obliged to capitulate in spite of a desperate
resistance, and the event caused great grief and sympathy
throughout France. An attempt was made to begin a revolt in Paris
and to overthrow the Ministry of Casimir-Perier, who had
recognised the impossibility of supporting Poland.
I now come to an extract from a letter from the Princesse de Lieven
herself: "Thiers seems to have decided that he will no longer serve
the King. He says that he will wait for the Duc d'Orléans. Syria is
lost for the Pasha. It is hoped and believed that he will yield to the
summons of the English Admiral Stopford. I suppose that the French
Government is advising him to do so; then the matter will be concluded
with no glory for France, we must admit, and with every credit to Lord
Palmerston. There are many people who strongly object to this latter
result. The Ministers here expect a decent majority of fifty or sixty
in favour of the Address, after which they will get on as well as they
can. M. Guizot seems very tired, but is full of courage. At Vienna
people are delighted with the change of Ministry and full of
confidence in the present Ministers. I have no news of public opinion
as yet from St. Petersburg. I am a little curious to hear what our
Russian public will say about this great affair which has been settled
without any active interference on the part of us Russians; it will
cause us some astonishment. You will probably ask me whether there is
a Russian public; the question is not unreasonable, but there is one,
as far as the East is concerned. When I was at London as Ambassadress
I ventured to call Turkey our Portugal; my own Court much appreciated
the epigram, but the English did not. No haste is shown here to
nominate a London Ambassador; I think they would prefer the Egyptian
business to be settled first. We shall certainly have to wait until
the middle of December. Madame de Flahaut does not know what to do,
torn as she is by the whims and fancies which are natural to her and
the extreme desire of her husband for a diplomatic post. The King
greatly wished his ambassadors to call upon Queen Christina in a body;
many of them felt scruples upon the point, but at length they decided
to go, regarding her as nothing more than the widow of Ferdinand VII.,
and in fact she is nothing more now. The Queen of England is said to
have had a very easy confinement, and will probably have seventeen
children like her grandmother. Madame de Nesselrode lives at the
Chamber of Deputies; she is in love with Thiers, and has joined the
Opposition extremists; she is finding life quite pleasant here. I see
very little of her as her time is taken up with the debates in the
Chamber and with theatres. My ambassador is crushed beneath the weight
of all the great Russian ladies who are grouped together in Paris. I
am sorry for him, for I can believe that it is entirely tiresome."
I would have been ready to make a bet that Madame de Nesselrode would
conceive a violent fancy for Thiers, if it were only to rival Madame
de Lieven's fancy for Guizot. After reading the speech of M. Barrot
and the series of invectives which he aimed directly at Guizot, I
began to wonder yesterday how such things could be said and heard
without leading to further explanations by means of swords and
pistols.
_Rochecotte, December 3, 1840._--The following are the most important
passages from the bulletin sent by M. de Salvandy, under date December
1, before and during the session of the Chamber. He says: "Have you
heard at Rochecotte a pleasant epigram by Garnier Pagès, who is to
speak to-day? 'I would strip them both, and their ugliness would then
be obvious.' This epigram very well sums up the situation. M. Thiers
retains his revolutionary attitude, but that is all; he remains
incompetent to many and impossible to all. M. Guizot is far from
having gained all that M. Thiers has lost. He has immense talent,
admirable strength of mind in times of storm, the gift of overaweing
all hostile revolts in the Assembly, and the art of raising the minds
of his audience to consider questions with him upon a higher plane and
from a wider point of view; these are his special advantages, though
he has never made the best of them. Yet he grows stronger, though he
raises no defences, and rests his power upon the majority without
permanently establishing it. The soil declines to be cultivated. M.
Thiers is like a mistress who is asked only to behave herself;
anything will be permitted to him, and his reputation will not suffer.
M. Guizot is the woman of strict morals who has been a failure and is
blamed for everything. This struggle between the Ambassador and the
Minister, in spite of attempts to soften it, does harm to the Chamber
and to public opinion. He is not even pardoned for his firm resolve to
abandon the principles of the Coalition, as if people would have
preferred him faithful to infidelity personified. The speech of
Dufaure seems to many people a manifesto intervening between the
Cabinet and M. Thiers; the action of Passy and Dupin in this direction
has caused much anxiety. My name is coupled with this movement because
no one imagines that Ministers in retirement are not displeased to be
employed. M. Molé is represented as hovering above all, although he
has no connection with the sphere in which the Ministry of May 12
predominates, for that Ministry, I think, regards it as a point of
honour to preserve its consistency by holding aloof from M. Molé, as
Jaubert thinks to remain consistent by retaining his seat among the
others, whom he wounds and annoys by his constant outcries against the
King and his enthusiasm for M. Barrot. Such is our position. The
ground seems to be crumbling beneath us. Alas for our country, which
should be strong and cannot be governed! Our Chamber is really the
OEil de Bœuf of the democracy.[145] Favourites, male and female,
disturb everything by their intrigues, and spend the time in
overthrowing one another, with the result that ruin is universal. I am
going to the Chamber, where MM. de Lamartine and Berryer will cross
swords, and shall close this letter there.
[145] An allusion to the OEil de Bœuf in the castle of
Versailles, where Court intrigues were hatched.
"_P.S._--Berryer has just spoken, a clever, brilliant, and perfidious
speech. He has protected Thiers by going straightway to the Tuileries.
There he has displayed his thunderbolts and launched anathemas against
M. Guizot the Ambassador, which have been definitely applauded three
times by the Assembly. M. de Lamartine is now rising to reply."
_Rochecotte, December 4, 1840._--The speech of M. Berryer shows the
state of the country from one point of view and that of M. de
Lamartine from another. These two speeches seem to me to be the most
brilliant effort on the part of one orator and the most lofty on the
part of the other that the whole discussion upon the Address has
produced. M. de Lamartine, for whom in general I have but a moderate
liking, greatly pleased me with his reply which seems to be wise, well
supported by facts, well thought out, and well delivered, with
excellent touches of straightforward feeling, which had its effect
upon the Assembly.
We are assured that the mission of M. Mounier to London is intended to
secure the help of England for the proposal of a marriage between the
innocent Isabella with her cousin Carlos, Prince of Asturias.
The remains of Napoleon have now been brought to Cherbourg. In Paris
no preparations are said to have yet been made for this ceremony,
which in my opinion will be very ridiculous.
_Rochecotte, December 5, 1840._--Yesterday I had a letter from M.
Royer Collard, from which the following is a striking extract: "A week
ago, madame, I was a prisoner in the Chamber, following a great debate
upon the Address with close interest. The audience have alternately
expressed dissatisfaction with the chief actors, but not from the same
point of view. The faults of Thiers are those of the Minister, and the
faults of Guizot those of the man. I do not know whether you noticed
in the newspapers that I was led to make a declaration in Guizot's
favour which he greatly needed, as he was in a difficulty, for no one
believed a word of what he was saying, although he spoke the truth.
The next day he came over to my place to thank me, boldly crossing the
whole Chamber for the purpose. I did not accept his thanks, and told
him that I had done nothing for him, but had been thinking only of
myself. He then buttonholed me in a corridor. I maintained a distant
attitude and refused to converse. The difference between the two men
is that Providence has not granted Thiers the power of distinguishing
between good and evil; Guizot has this power, but will not use it. He
is therefore the more guilty, but not, perhaps, the more dangerous. If
one could regard any decision of to-day as irrevocable, I should say
that they are both utterly ruined. I wish they were, but I am not sure
of it."
My son-in-law hears that the effect of Berryer's speech has been
tremendous. It seems to have dealt a death-blow to M. Guizot, and a
vigorous thrust in higher quarters. The Carlists are overjoyed. I am
inclined to think that they regard the event as more important than it
really is. Thiers loudly praises Berryer, and tells any one who will
listen to him that in point of art nothing is superior to it, and that
in 1789 no better performance was achieved.
The Princesse de Lieven, to whom some one related the thrust that
Guizot had received, answered that he had not been hit.
It is said that the ceremony in honour of the remains of Napoleon will
take place on the 15th of this month. How opportunely his ghost
arrives!
_Rochecotte, December 6, 1840._--I hear from a correspondent: "I have
no certain confirmation of Demidoff's death, but I know from a sure
source that he had a very unpleasant journey to Rome, and afterwards
some harassing interviews with the Cardinal's Secretary of State and
with the Russian Minister, after which he was obliged to leave the
Papal States, in accordance with orders. The consequent excitement
then caused him one of his worst attacks. Apparently he told a Greek
priest that his children would all be brought up in the Greek
religion, while he told the Catholic authorities that they would be
brought up as Catholics. Moreover, he said, with his usual assurance,
that with money anything could be gained from the Court of Rome, and
that he had sent a hundred thousand francs to the Pope for the
dispensations which he has procured. Cardinal Lambruschini, indignant