beneficial to mankind as of being so. His life strength of reason. By approving the sentiments was in every part of it set off with that graceful of a person with whom he conversed, in such parmodesty and reserve, which made his virtues more ticulars as were just, he won him over from those beautiful the more they were cast in such agree-points in which he was mistaken; and had so able shades. His great humanity appeared in the minutest circumstances of his conversation; you found it in the benevolence of his aspect, the complacency of his behavior, and the tone of his voice. His great application to the severer studies of the law had not infected his temper with any thing positive or litigious; he did not know what it was to wrangle on indifferent points, to triumph in the superiority of his understanding, or to be supercilious on the side of truth. He joined the greatest delicacy of good breeding to the greatest agreeable a way of conveying knowledge, that whoever conferred with him grew the wiser, without perceiving that he had been instructed. His principles were founded in reason and supported by virtue, and, therefore, did not lie at the mercy of ambition, avarice, or resentment. His notions were no less steady and unshaken, than just and upright. In a word, he concluded his course among the same well-chosen friendships and alliances with which he began it."—" Freeholder," No. 39. From the Dublin University Magazine. LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF PRINCE TALLEYRAND. PART IV.CONCLUSION. other ministers in disapproving such an appointment. Finding such to be the unanimous opinion of the cabinet, the king put an end to the conference. Soon after the elevation of Louis Philippe | nomination as contrary to the policy which to the throne of France, that sagacious he considered it the interest of France to sovereign, desiring to draw closer the bonds adopt. M. Bignon concurred with the of national amity with Britain; and feeling, moreover, that France, emerging from a great internal political convulsion, with a throne unsupported by the traditions of the past or the right of legitimacy, had need of The following day Talleyrand dined with support from foreign alliance, and could M. Lafitte. I thank you," said he, to look nowhere at that moment for such aid the minister, "for the compliments you and countenance so naturally as to Britain, paid me yesterday at the chateau. I know the first of the European States which ac-all: the king has related it to me." "You knowledged the Revolution of the Barri- are aware, then," replied Lafitte, "of the cades, ardently wished to send to London, terms in which I spoke of your capacity." as his representative, a diplomatist distin-"Let that pass," rejoined Talleyrand. guished at once by great ability, by a pre-"I added," continued Lafitte, "that I disposition to the British alliance, and by believed you to be incapable of violating the respect which illustrious descent is so your word." "That," resumed Talleysure to obtain from the British aristocracy.rand," is what I meant to thank you for." With these views his choice fell on Talley-" It is quite true, however," observed Larand. On the 4th September, 1830, he fitte, "that I also spoke of your unpopuaccordingly submitted to the council of his larity." Talleyrand smiled, and was siministers, assembled in the Tuileries, the question of nominating his highness the Prince Talleyrand to the embassy at London. This proposition instantly met serious opposition in the cabinet: M. Lafitte This was one of the earliest cases in declared that such a choice would, in his which Louis Philippe showed that determiopinion, be attended with considerable dan-nation to interfere personally in the affairs ger, inasmuch as it would be extremely un- of the state, which has since rendered his popular. This opinion was still more reign so remarkable, and excited such lively warmly espoused by M. Dupont (de remonstrances on the part of the advocates l'Eure). Count Molé, who is well known for constitutional government, who regard to have always leaned to a Russian rather the Royal irresponsibility, and the abstithan an English alliance, opposed such a nence of the sovereign from personal inter lent. In a few hours afterwards Lafitte learned from the mouth of the king that Talleyrand was ambassador to the Court of St. James. ference in the administration of the politi-¡ menacing the northern frontier of France. cal business of the state, as correlative This object being attained, M. de Talleyprinciples. rand finished his mission, and consummated The announcement of the appointment of his work by signing the treaty of quadruple Talleyrand to the embassy produced a live-alliance, which united France, England, ly sensation in England; and his known Spain, and Portugal, in a common league inclinations in favor of an alliance between in favor of peninsular civilization, and opEngland and France, gave rise to the most posed the league of the west to that of the favorable anticipations among the commer- north, in the interest of the cause of concial interests, as well as among those who stitutional government on the Continent of looked forward to the inestimable advanta- Europe. ges of the continuance of the general peace. On being presented at the Court of St. James, Talleyrand delivered an address to the following effect: "SIRE-Of all the vicissitudes to which my great age has exposed me-of all the various situations into which the last forty years, so fruitful in extraordinary events, have seen me thrown, none have so entirely satisfied my wishes as that appointment which has brought me once more to this happy country. Common principles draw more and more closely together these two great nations. England, like France, repudiates the principle of intervention in the internal concerns of other nations; and as the ambassador of a royalty unanimously elected by a great people, I feel myself at ease upon a land of freedom, near a descend ant of the illustrious house of Brunswick." He then finally retired from public life. He desired that between this world and the next a short season for reflection and repose should intervene. Nevertheless, one event was destined to draw him again from his retirement. The flame which was sinking in the socket was still to give an expiring flicker. His friend and contemporary, the learned though unobtrusive Count Reinhart, preceded him to the tomb, at an advanced age. They had often met and co-operated in their long and eventful career. They had witnessed the same political convulsions, the same succession of revolutions; and the departure of the one from the stage of life was a knell which foreboded the speedy exit of the other. Both were distinguished members of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. It is the custom of that body, on the decease of any of its more eminent members, to cause an éloge to be delivered by some one, selected for the purpose, among the survivors. Talleyrand conceived a wish to offer this tribute of respect to the memory of his deceased friend, and the Academy hailed with unmingled pleasure the opportunity of hearing for the last time that voice which had so often persuaded sovereigns, and of beholding that venerable visage, the indications of whose lineaments so often harbingered the fate of nations. The aged diplomate himself was also moved to this proceeding from the desire to bring to a final close, in the peaceful sanctuary of science, an existence which had been chequered by events so extraordinary, and agitated by revolutions for which history affords no parallel. His first efforts in his new capacity were directed to reproduce and realize the designs which, under less auspicious circumstances, he had urged upon the British Government in 1792. More successful at the close than in the opening of his long career, he succeeded in bringing into a friendly alliance two nations which rival pretensions had so long separated, but which he contended analogous institutions and common foreign interests ought to combine. The cabinets of Europe, seeing this aged and profound diplomatist, whose sagacity, enlarged by vast experience, and whose unvarying moderation, they so well knew, appointed to represent the Revolution at one of the most distinguished of the old courts, felt a stronger faith in the stability of its results, and a more favorable disposition to be reconciled to the existing state of things, and to treat on practicable terms with the On Saturday, the 3d March, 1838, the new government. Placed by the ascenden- meeting of the Academy was held, at which cy of his renown and his talent at the head it had been announced that M. de Talleyof the conference of London, M. de Talley-rand would personally deliver the academic rand succeeded in reconciling the powers to éloge on his deceased friend, M. de Reinthe dissolution of that union between Bel- hart. It was known that this would be the gium and Holland, which they had estab- last public appearance of the venerable lished in 1814, and in procuring the acknow-statesman and diplomatist. Nothing could ledgment of the independence of Belgium, exceed the excitement among all the more which thenceforth would cover, instead of elevated and enlightened classes which this manner of the most complete abandon. He must display his ability even in the selection of his amusements. His conversation must be simple and and naive. In a word, he must not allow himself, varied his remarks unexpected, but still natural for one moment, day or night, to forget that he is Minister of Foreign Affairs. event produced. The meeting 'assumed all the external appearances of a solemnity. Long before the appointed hour, the hall was completely filled. Every space where an individual could stand or sit was occupied. The élite of the high and the gifted were there. The most elevated official functionaries, those most renowned in literature, science, and the arts; the notabilities of foreign countries, the most emi-in need. I desire to insist the more on this, in ornent of the diplomatic corps, were all assembled, expressing in their countenances intense interest. Among this multitude our eye successively rested on the wellknown features of MM. Royer Collard, Guizot, Thiers, Cousin, Villemain, Quatremère de Quincy, de Bassano, Lemercier, Fauriel, Molé, de Montalivet, de St. Aulaire, de Barante, de Jaucourt, de Flahault, Bertin de Vaux, de Noailles, de. Valençay, Princes Esterhazy and d'Aremberg, &c. When the chair was taken by the President, the old wreck of all the Revolutions entered, leaning on the arm of M. Mignet, the Perpetual Secretary of the Academy. He took a seat which had been prepared for him, facing the President. He was costumed and coiffed as a high noble of the ancien régime, exhibiting to the attentive eyes of the numerous auditory that impassible serenity of look that no catastrophe was ever able to discompose. With a firm and clear voice, and perfect articulation, he read an elegant discourse, in which he noticed the various public functions which his late friend had fulfilled, and the eminent abilities he displayed. This gave occasion for general reflections on the qualities necessary to a minister of foreign affairs, and every order and class of diplomatist, from a consul upwards. M. Reinhart had in early life, like M. de Talleyrand himself, studied theology. This afforded an occasion for some curious reflections on the benefit which a statesman and diplomatist must derive from the early discipline of an ecclesiastical education. In illustration of these views, he adduced the examples of Cardinal Chancellor Duprat, Cardinal d'Ossat, Cardinal de Polignac, and M. de Lyonne. "Nevertheless, all these qualities, however rare they may be, can avail nothing, if good faith do not give them the support of which they stand No! Diplomacy is not a science of duplicity. If der to remove a prejudice which generally prevails, good faith be necessary anywhere, it is eminently so in political transactions, because it alone can render them solid and durable. Stratagem is often confounded with reserve. Good faith can never permit the one, but it fully warrants the other. Reserve is even to be the more recommended, because instead of destroying, it augments confidence. and by the honor and interest of his sovereign-by "Ruled by the honor and interest of his country, the love of that liberty which is founded on order and on the rights of all-a Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is thus qualified to fill his office, is placed in the finest position to which an elevated mind can aspire." At the conclusion of this discourse, M. Droz, the President, expressed to M. de Talleyrand with much dignity and grace the thanks of the Academy, and the octogenarian retired loaded with the felicitations of the most eminent individuals of his auditory. Notwithstanding his advanced age, such was the vigor of his faculties, and the brilliancy of his wit, that his friends had no apprehension of the near approach of his departure from this world. It was about two months after this memorable meeting of the Academy, that he felt the sudden attack of the malady which was destined to bring his mortal life to a speedy close. He bore, with a tranquil resignation and firm courage, which never deserted him, the agony of several cruelly painful operations. During this illness, which was destined to close his mortal career, the mind of the great statesman and diplomate continually reverted to the past, and his tenacious memory evolved before him the several events which he had witnessed, and in most of which he had borne a distinguished part. His nights, often sleepless from bodily sufFo-fering, were occupied with these medita Observing on the qualities displayed by M. de Reinhart, when he was Minister of reign Affairs, M. de Talleyrand said "A Minister of Foreign Affairs ought to be endowed with a sort of instinct which shall warn him against compromising himself before serious discussion. He must have the faculty of appearing frank and open when he is really impenetrable; of maintaining the most absolute reserve with the tions. A paper was found on his table one light of the lamp, such lines as these:— morning, on which he had written, by the "Behold eighty-three years past away! What cares!--what agitation !-what anxieties!-what ill-will!-what sad complications!-and all without other result, ex cept great fatigue of body and mind, and a | than equivalent to an oath formally taken profound sentiment of discouragement with before any earthly tribunal. Talleyrand regard to the future, and disgust with re-directed a few of his most confidential friends gard to the past!" For three months, he had been in constant communication with the Abbé Dupanloup, with whom he conversed daily on the subject of religion. This was not a movement of the moment, prompted by the approach of death, or induced by the feebleness of age and the prostration of bodily indisposition-it was a step he had long contemplated. On the occasion of delivering his éloge of Count Reinhart, he was heard to say, as he left the hall, "I have still one duty to perform, and I will do it."(J'ai quelque chose à faire et je le ferai.") That duty was his re-establishment in the communion of the Christian Church. He decided on doing this in such a manner, at such a moment, and surrounded by such circumstances of solemnity as would, he imagined, render it impossible for any one to question its sincerity and good faith, or to ascribe it to any other motive than a profound conviction of the truth and efficacy of the doctrine to which he gave so solemn an assent. It has been said, but without any sufficient grounds, that the attention of Talleyrand to religious subjects was first awakened by the spectacle of the daughter of his niece, the Duchesse de Dino, a child to whom he was most tenderly attached, going to her first communion-an occasion which, among Roman Catholics, is always regarded as one of peculiar solemnity. It is not improbable that, in the state of mind likely to precede his departure from this life, he may have been more touched with such an object, than if it had passed before him amidst the active and busy scenes in which he had been habitually engaged. But that such an incident could produce, in a mind like that of Talleyrand's, the effects ascribed to it, is a supposition the absurdity of which is so conspicuous, that it is difficult to imagine how it could be entertained by any serious writer. In accordance with the determination which he had taken, and to which he alluded on the occasion of his last visit to the Institute, he waited until he became sensible of the near approach of the moment of his departure from this life-a moment at which, according to the universal sentiments of mankind, a declaration of any kind is to be regarded as assuming the most solemn character, and however made, as being more to be called round his bed, and in their presence, and that of his domestic attendants, solemnly signed two documents, which he had previously written. One was a declaration of the principles which had guided him in his political career; and the other a letter to the pope, declaring his faith in the Roman Catholic religion, and expressing repentance for certain acts of his public life, in regard to the Catholic Church. This declaration of his principles was also annexed to his will, in which it was expressly directed that it should be read in the presence of his family. The following is a summary of this declaration: That in all his public conduct he was guided by a preference of the interests of France to all other things, and to all personal considerations. That he maintained invariably that the Bourbons were restored to the throne, not by any acknowledgment of any hereditary right, but because it was deemed the arrangement which, in the circumstances then existing, was most beneficial for France ;that he had declared this to Louis XVIN. and to his family, and had earnestly counselled them to adopt a system of liberal policy in accordance with such a principle; that he denies ever having betrayed Napoleon; he abandoned him only when he saw that it was impossible that he could be at once attached to him and to France; and that even then he did not leave him without the most lively grief, seeing that he owed to him almost his whole fortune. He enjoined his heirs never to forget this; to repeat it to their children, and their children's children, and to let it go down from generation to generation-that if ever one of the name of Talleyrand witnessed one of the name of Bonaparte in need, they must regard it as a sacred duty to give assistance to them. To those who reproach him with having successively served all governments, he replies that he had no scruple in doing so; that he acted so because he considered, that in whatever situation the country might be placed, it was always his duty to render it his services to the utmost extent of his power, and that, according to his judgment, such was the duty of every citizen. The letter to the pope was an explicit acceptation of the Roman Catholic faith, in which he was prepared to die. These documents were signed by him on the day of the 16th May, in the presence of eight witnesses, among whom were, the Duke de Noailles, M. Royer Collard, the Count St. Aulaire, the Baron de Barante, Dr. Cruveilheir, and the Abbé Dupanloup. The Abbé Dupanloup had some time previously presented to him his own copy of Bossuet's Journée du Chrétien. On the table in his room this volume was observed, on this occasion, to lie open at the page bearing the heading, "le Chrétien prépare sa dernière confession avant de mourir.” In the course of that evening it was announced to him that the king had come in person to visit him. Touched with this mark of respect, he observed-"C'est le plus grand honneur qu'ait jamais reçu ma maison." ("This is the greatest honor that ever has been conferred on my house.") A circumstance has been related of this interview, and repeated not only in the less serious productions of the hour, in which the scrupulous observance of accuracy is not expected, because it is not always possible, but in the pages of a work pretending to the severe character of history, and where a flagrant violation of truth is inexcusable. M. Louis Blanc, in his Histoire de Dix Ans, says, in recording the death of Talleyrand, and the visit of Louis Philippe "It is related and repeated even by ecclesiastics themselves, that the king having asked M. Talley rand if he suffered pain, the dying diplomate repli ed, Oui, comme Philippe let fall, in a low voice, the word • Dejà !'" un damné,' on which Louis An unanswerable proof can be given of the utter falsehood of this anecdote, and it is a proof of which M. Louis Blanc ought not to have been ignorant. It is well known to every one conversant with French memoirs, that the anecdote, if it ever had truth in relation to any one, is of a much older date than that of the death of Talleyrand. It was first, we believe, related of Cardinal de Retz, who, complaining to his physician of the pain he suffered in a certain illness, exclaimed, "Ah! Je sens les tourmens d'Enfer." To which the physician is reported to have replied, "Dejà, monseigneur?" The story, however, of whomsoever it be told, is in the last degree improbable, and most unfitly admitted into an historical work. On the following day, the symptoms of approaching dissolution became unequivocal, mortification extending to the more vital regions. The last rites of the Church were solemnly administered. He confessed and received the sacrament of extreme unction. The prayers for the dying were recited at his bed, in which he joined with much apparent fervor. When those addressed to his patron saints, Charles Archbishop of Milan, and Maurice, the martyrs, were said, he was heard to repeat in a feeble voice "Ayez pitié de moi!" At four o'clock, the Archbishop of Paris called at the hotel to inquire after him, and on hearing of his expected decease, he observed "Pour M. de Talleyrand je donnerais ma vie." The Abbé Dupanloup repeated this to Talleyrand, who, unable to resist his disposition to utter a mot, replied— "Monseigneur l'Archevêque aurait un meilleur usage à en faire." (My Lord the Archbishop has a better use to make of his life.) And heaving a sigh, expired, at half-past four in the afternoon of the 17th May, 1838, having lived eighty-four years and three months. By his will, which bears date in 1836, he left his niece, the Duchess de Dino, his residuary legatee. Legacies were left to his grand-nephew, the Duke of Valençay. This document is all in his own hand-writing, and bears annexed to it the declaration of political principles already mentioned. His memoirs, written by himself, are deposited in England, and his family are prohibited from publishing them until thirty years after his death, that is, until the year 1868. All publications pretending to be memoirs of him are to be disavowed by his family and representatives. The will concludes with a declaration that he dies in the Catholic faith, and directions that his remains shall be interred at the seat of his family at Valençay. The funeral took place on the 22d May, with great pomp. The troops of the garrison of Paris preceded and followed the cortége en grand tenue. The peers, deputies, the principal members of the corps diplomatique, the most distinguished members of the Institute, and those most eminent generally in literature, science, and the arts, formed the solemn procession. The pall was borne by the Duke Pasquier, President of the Chamber of Peers, Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, the Duke de Broglie, and Count Molé. The titles and orders borne by Prince |