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voke criticism and even ill-will, by austere | conscientious man, not yet metamorphosed conceit and a habit of meddling, like some into a "man of the world," and taking a whom we could name. Mr. Blewitt ap- simple, straightforward view of public pears to be quite unconscious what those perculiarities are which have entitled him to be included in this unenviable category, and, if he is an object of ridicule, it is certainly by no voluntary act of his own. Yet, for some years after he entered parliament, his rising to speak in the House was the signal for a burst of laughter, repeated at each brief sentence he was able to make audible. So unfavorable, indeed, was invariably his reception, that at last he seemed to regard the attempt to be a speaking member as an entirely hopeless one, and for the last three or four years he has condemned himself to a silence which is evidently far from agreeable to him.

The ridicule he has excited has been most unfair, and disproportioned to his deserts, because, in laughing at some peculiarities of person and manner, those who have made him their butt have overlooked his claims on their forbearance, at least, if not on their respect. No doubt it is difficult to see and hear Mr. Blewitt when exhibiting as a speaker, without finding one's risible muscles strongly stimulated. Not Liston's happiest touches in Tony Lumpkin could be more powerfully expressive of utter simplicity, than was one of Mr. Blewitt's imploring appeals,-in plaintive tones, and with aggrieved astonishment in his aspect, to know what it was that the House were laughing at; and, of course, the more he asked, and the longer he talked in this comical fashion, the more rude and irrepressible was the outbreak of merriment, until at last the hapless object of this vulgar and senseless ridicule would sit down in a sort of stupid despair, remaining silent, perhaps for many days or even weeks, till at last, perhaps, his patriotism could no longer be repressed, and he again mustered courage to speak, only to be again the subject of a similar boisterous and undignified farce. But those who laughed thus were often much more absurd than he, for they overlooked what he was saying in his odd mode of saying it. Because he looked and spoke like a "natural," they assumed that he must be one; and as he was himself perfectly conscious that he had something to say which was the result of thinking and conviction, it was only the more inexplicable to him that they never would let him say it. In point of fact, Mr. Blewitt is really an upright, consistent,

When

affairs, regulated by moral considerations,
rather than by those of political expediency.
He has, too, a sort of mother-wit, which, in
a man more favored by nature, would easily
be mistaken for insight; and has often
blurted out, in his strange way, truths
which, if set forth with the pompous gar-
niture of eloquent language, would have
secured for their originator a reputation
for more than ordinary sense.
speaking elsewhere than in the House of
Commons, Mr. Blewitt acquits himself
very well, delivering himself with fluency,
and even with a certain force; but against
laughter he cannot hold up-the derisive
shouts of the House of Commons annihilate
him. He is, moreover, a good writer; ex-
pressing himself, if not with elegance, at
least with clearness and vigor.

It is also something to set off against Mr. Blewitt's mishaps in the House, that he should have represented for ten years in successive parliaments so important a constituency as that of the Monmouth district of boroughs. In Monmouthshire he is a man of some consequence, and he is lineally descended from the last of the ancient kings of Wales. But these, and other claims on local respect, weigh but little with the House of Commons.

MR. COLLETT.

Mr. John Collett, the member for Athlone in the parliament which was dissolved in 1847, has only himself to thank if ever he was laughed at in the House. Although not the most intellectual looking of men, he is yet not so unfortunate as Mr. Blewitt in provoking laughter by personal peculiarities; yet the latter is certainly the superior of the two, both in ability and common sense. Mr. Collett provokes and justifies criticism, and even ridicule, by his own pretension-by the oblivious pertinacity with which he meddles in affairs altogether above his standing as a legislator, and, apparently, even beyond his entire comprehension. Nothing less will content him than to be a great Reformer-not a follower of others, but himself a leader; and he is equally ambitious in his choice of the objects of his revolutionary ardor. Church, especially, is marked out by him for destruction: he shuts his eyes, and rushes at it, as if sheer will would batter it

The

down. It is highly amusing to see the course of action, and, by so doing, he often utter unconsciousness of his own deficiencies throws all things in the legislature into with which he " runs-a-muck" at men or confusion. One service, however, and one institutions. It is as if there were but one alone, such men as Mr. Collett, whatever man right in the country, and that man may be their opinions, are capable of renJohn Collett. For he is too important a dering. They act as magnifying reflectors man to act regularly under others, who might of absurdity, and serve to deter others from compound with his oddities for his votes. pursuing their fixed ideas with the same No, he must have his own independent | extravagant pertinacity.

From Fraser's Magazine.

THE PRASLIN TRAGEDY.

FAMILIES OF CHOISEUL, PRASLIN, AND SEBASTIANI.

THE daily and weekly newspapers of England and France are conducted with wonderful ability, energy, and enterprise; but events succeed each other with such marvellous rapidity, and such is the passion for minute detail on the part of readers, that public writers have no space left to moralize; and even though such space remained to them, it is by no means clear that the man of business or the man of pleasure would attend to a matutinal lecture on morality, or listen to a serious voice speaking from the best public instructor lying on the morning breakfast-table. A weekly print is, doubtless, in a more favorable position to speak seriously; but such lectures must not be too often repeated, or the hebdomadal journal would incur the suspicion of heaviness, and be eschewed like colocynth or assafoetida. Multiply interesting details as much as you like in daily and weekly newspapers; but if you go back to history, or seek to extract a moral from events, readers cry, "Fi, donc ! leave that to the pulpit!" and buy and read a more amusing print.

Columns and columns have been written and printed on the Praslin tragedy in all the daily papers; but few journals that we have seen have sought to go deep into the matter except the Spectator, and he has been rebuked and taken to task for his pains by some of his contemporaries.

Little remark has been made by our weekly contemporaries, however, on the family from which the monster duke descended, though that family is remarkable in many respects. The house of Choiseul is called by all French heralds great, illustrious, and powerful, deriving its origin

from Hugh, count de Bassigny, and of Boulogne sur Marne, and from the ancient Counts of Langres, of whom Raynier, count de Choiseul, was the first vassal in 1060. Raynier was the parent stock of all the branches of the house of Choiseul, at one time numbering nearly twenty, the greater part of which branches are now, however, extinct. Though the family has produced three marshals of France, numerous lieutenant-generals, major-generals, plenipotentiaries, ambassadors, bishops, and counsellors of state, yet it has, during the last century and a half, been chiefly remarkable for the advantageous marriages which its members contracted with rich heiresses. Thus they gained the seigneurie of Beurrey; the marquisate of Montigny, brought to them by Françoise de Barillon Morangis, dame de Montigny; thus they also gained the barony of Beaupré in Champagne by a marriage with Anne de Saint Amadour; and thus, in the last generation, they gained the heiress, Mdlle. de Catel; and, in the present, Mdlle. Sebastiani.

The most remarkable man of the family, in modern times, was the relative, not the grandfather, as the Observer newspaper would have it, of the late infamous duke, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs, of War, of Marine, and Colonel of the Swiss Guards under Louis XIV., and from whom the title descended to the father of the murderer. This man was, in effect, principal minister of France without ever being publicly invested with the title, and may be said to have governed the kingdom till 1770, when he was disgraced and exiled. The disgrace and the exile were the most remarkable events in his life, though he

played an important part in the politics had no disposition whatever to be the victim and intrigues of the time in which he lived. of a royal caprice, nor yet to lose her chance Though neither a genius nor a statesman, yet of success by a mal-adroit_answer, went he raised himself to a position of fortune and straightway to her relative, Etienne Franpower higher than any man since the time çois de Choiseul, then Count de Stainville, of Richelieu. His cleverness, his gaiety, his to whom she first communicated the conflippant and presumptuous tone and man- tents of, and subsequently confided, the ner, in which he was rivalled by the last royal missive. The count, expressing equal possessor of the title, the horrible murderer, surprise and gratification, insisted on a gained him a sort of unenviable renown in measured and well-reflected reply, which he society and at court Bitter, ironical, ma- was willing to indite, if time were given to lignant, and no mean master of satire, he him. He retired to his cabinet with the rendered himself formidable, not merely to original communication, but, instead of the occupants of place but to the numerous proceeding to answer it, instantly drove cloud of aspirants for office. So unami- with the letter in hand to the Pompadour. able and malignant was his character, that "Madame," said he to the royal courtehe is said to have furnished to Gresset the san, "you do me the cruel injustice of original of Cléon the Méchant, in the co-counting me among the number of your medy of that name. As this comedy was enemies, and of considering that I have first represented in 1745, the year of the entered into a plot to deprive you of the second Scotch rebellion, the Duke de Choi- good graces of the king; but, before you seul must have early attained his bad pre- condemn me outright, take and read this eminence, for he was then only in his twenty-letter." sixth year. His exterior, like that of the late duke, was neither handsome nor agreeable. He was plain, like his late monstrous namesake and kinsman, without being deformed; and wished, like him, also, to be considered a man of gallantry. The minister, like the monster who has lately cheated the guillotine of its due, was of middle stature, but, unlike the late Duke of Praslin, was distinguished by brilliant eyes, an expressive countenance, and a certain dignity and elegance of manners, which, notwithstanding the random freedom of his tongue, caused some of his vices to be overlooked. His arrows, shot here, there, and every where, did not even spare Madame de Pompadour, the favorite. In her regard he had gone even beyond the mark which he usually allowed himself; and was at one time apprehensive that he had compromised himself for ever, and closed the avenues to fame and power. A chance occasion, however, soon presented itself, by which he was enabled to repair his fault. One of his relatives, the young and handsome Countess de Choiseul-Praslin, aspired to supplant the reigning favorite in the affections of the king. Her wellmanaged and wily arts had not merely attracted the attention, but made some "His birth was illustrious, his valor impression, on the monarch; a correspond- well proven, his wit ready-pointed and ence took place between him and the practical," says the eloquent Lacretelle. would-be mistress, and Louis ultimately To abuse the government, to sneer at relisent her a royal declaration of passion in gion, and to deceive the fair sex, were then due form. The countess, who was desirous of something more than fleeting favor, and

The letter read, he explained to the marquise the manner in which he had be come possessed of it,-exaggerating the dangers to which his devotion exposed him. The Pompadour, astonished at her unjust suspicions, declared that her early prejudices were unfounded; that the Count de Stainville had proved himself, instead of an enemy, a generous and devoted friend; and that he would not find her ungrateful. The result was, that the unfortunate countess, the relative, Choiseul-Stainville, was exiled; that the feeble Louis flung himself at the feet of the ancient favorite, asking pardon for his momentary infidelity; and that the humble and virtuous man who acted so gentlemanly a part, was sent, for his reward, as ambassador to the court of Rome. It was at Rome Choiseul first studied politics; and, supported by the Pompadour, he soon obtained an ascendency over Benedict XIV. It may be thought that this is romance got up for the occasion, but "truth is strange, stranger than fiction ;" and the assiduous reader of French history need but refer to Duclos' Règne de Louis XV., to the pages of Anquetil and of Lacretelle, to convince himself that we have not exaggerated.

*Duclos, tom. vii., p. 348.

the great sources of renown. The Count de Stainville employed each method with success, but with a species of braggadocio and gasconade that shocked.

croit qu'elle l'adore toujours. Mais j'en doute, elle prend trop de peine à le persuader.'"*

A French prelate, who had lived long in the society of those ladies, thus speaks of them in reference to the remarks of Walpole :

"The Duchess of Choiseul was as Mr. Wal

pole painted her, and deserves all he has said of appear to justify his remarks. She was stout and strong-built in person, with a high color, small and lively eyes, and a harsh voice. Her address and demeanor appeared, at first, repulsive; but the qualities of her mind widely differed from the representation made of them to Mr. Walpole."

her. The exterior of Madame de Grammont would

The scandalous chronicles of the time insinuate, if they do not assert, that Choiseul became the lover of the Pompadour; and that it was by these means he substituted his own firm will for the caprices of a weak woman, and the feeble resolves of an indolent king. Society allowed that he was a brilliant man, if not a first-rate genius; and a brilliant man has always been highly appreciated in France. In his personal demeanor he was apparently frank, unreserved, and liberal; and kindly to those who stood by him, or were willing to become his dependants. But, like all his race before habit of playfully calling the duchess GrandMadame du Deffand, who was in the and since, he sought a rich heiress to wife; and in obtaining one of the greatest matches, the 5th of May, 1766, "Elle a été charmamma, says, in a letter to Walpole of in point of wealth, in the kingdom, hemante." And, in another letter of the 4th was enabled, by adding his lady's dowry to of January, 1787, she gives her portrait, his own fortune, and the emoluments which from which we make the following exhe derived from his many employments, to vie with the wealthiest in the land. The virtues, the modesty, the cultivated understanding, and lofty character, of the Countess of Choiseul, recall the attributes and virtues of Fanny Sebastiani, the unfortunate and lately murdered duchess, scarcely, however, more unfortunate or less unhappy than her predecessor. Duchess of Choiseul of that day had no children; but we should have thought that the graces and quiet repose of such a woman, the charms of her mind added to her feminine beauty and tenderness, would have captivated the heart of any man not absolutely a brute or a demon. Horace Walpole, an exact and critical observer, and one not prone to flatter women, thus speaks, in a letter to Gray, of the Duchess de Choiseul, née du Chatel,-

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"She has beautiful eyes, and is a perfect little model in wax. Her modesty and hesitation are compensated by the sweetest of voices and the happiest enunciation. Oh, it is the prettiest, the most amiable, the most kindly, little person, soit jamais sortie d'un œuf enchanté!' so correct in qui her expressions and in her thoughts-of a disposition so kindly and so obliging. loves her, except her husband, who prefers to her his own sister, the Duchess of Grammont, a species of Amazon, of a proud and haughty spirit, equally arbitrary in her likings and her dislikes, and who is herself detested.

"Madame de Choiseul, who is dotingly fond of her husband, is the martyr of this preference, to which she submits with a good grace. L'on

tract:

"You ask of me your portrait, but you don't know the difficulty of limning it. Every one will take it for the portrait of an unassuming being, for mortals are not disposed to believe in virtues they do not themselves possess. There is not an inhabitant of the skies who surpasses you in virtues, though they have surpassed you by their intentions and their motives. You are as pure, as just, as charitable, as it is possible to be. If you become as good a Christian as you are a woman, you will be a perfect saint. Meanwhile, be content to be the example and model of women. Nature has endowed you with such warmth and passion, that people conclude, if you were not also endowed with the soundest sense and judgthis is the reason why they forgive your virtues. ment, you could not be so perfect as you are, and So many virtues and so many excellences inspire respect and admiration, but this is not what you wish; your modesty, which is extreme, looks not to distinction; you do all that in you lies to make all the world believe that you are not above them."

Such was the woman whom the Choiseul of two generations ago daily crucified by towards Marguerite de Valois, "qu'il such a preference as Henry III. exhibited amait," says Duclos, "plus que fraternellement."† For his sister, this monarch instituted the order of the St. Esprit.

From Rome the Count de ChoiseulStainville was sent to Vienna, where he insinuated himself into the good graces of

*Euvres de Lord Orford, tom. v., p. 365.

† Duclos, Morceaux Historiques, tom. ix., p. 65.

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Maria Theresa so effectively, that she requested the ambassador to select the masters and professors for the young archduchess, whom she wished to educate à la Française.

general body of Jesuits, and a vast number of pamphleteers and anonymous writers, have not scrupled to charge on the Duke of Choiseul, and his sister Madame de Grammont, the poisoning of the prince.

Not long after these events, the minister who was made by one favorite, Pampadour, was destroyed by another, La Dubarry. The king exiled both him and his uncle, the Duke of Praslin-the former to Chauteloup, and the latter to Praslin. The singular tone of the royal letter deserves to be recorded. Here it is, in extenso:—

In 1758 Choiseul-Stainville entered on the duties of Minister for Foreign Affairs. He soon obtained possession of the departments of war and marine, and the correspondence of Spain and Portugal. Yet a very short time before this, his character was so infamous, that a French writer says "Je l'ai vu écarté de plusieurs maisons; il s'en falloit peu qu'on ne le regardait comme une espèce; je l'ai une fois enten"Mon Cousin-Le mécontentement que me du défendre sur cette imputation qu'il n'a causent vos services me force à vous exiler à Chaujamais méritée, mais il était du moins fort teloup, où vous vous rendrez dans vingt-quatre heures. Je vous aurais envoyé beaucoup plus humiliant pour lui que cela fit question." loin (and here was the sting), si ce n'était l'estime By the aid of the favorite, Madame de particulière que j'ai pour Madame la Duchesse de Pompadour, Choiseul obtained the rank of Choiseul dont la santé m'est fort intéressante. duke and peer, and shortly after secured Prenez garde que votre conduite ne me fasse prenfor his uncle, the Count of Choiseul-Pras-dre un autre parti. Sur ce je prie Dieu, mon lin, the titular rank of Minister for Foreign cousin, qu'il vous ait en sa sainte garde." Affairs, the real power being enjoyed by himself. During this period he lived like a prince, received the emoluments of three portfolios, the pay of Colonel-General of the Swiss, of Governor of Touraine, and of Governor of Haguenau, making a total revenue of seven millions of francs. But, notwithstanding the rich marriage he had made, his wife's dowry, and his own fortune, amounting to a million of francs, yet he was obliged to call on the bounty of the king to pay his debts, and he received of the monarch two millions of francs for the purpose.

Thus, while he and the favorite governed France despotically, he was himself governed by the Duchess of Grammont, qu'il amait plus que fraternellement. The extravagance, follies, and vices of this woman, destroyed his credit and his reputation, and became daily more and more insupportable. Madame de Grammont obtained such an ascendency over him, that he was never a free agent, unless in those occasional journeys which he made into the provinces. The history and details of this influence are frequently alluded to in the Memoirs of the time, and may be found in the pages of Grimm, Madame d'Epinay, Diderot, Saint Lambert, Madame Graffigny, Madame du Hausset, and others. One good, however, was effected by it, namely, the expulsion of the Jesuits, to whom the dauphin had given himself corps et ame. The dauphin soon after fell ill and died, and the cabal of the Duke de la Vaugyon, the

ties between him and the infamous Egalité,
The disgrace of the duke drew closer the
ties between him and the infamous Egalité,
then Duke of Chartres, the father of that
other virtuous and self-denying man, the
Le duc de
present King of the French.
time, "força toutes les consignes et vint
Chartres," says one of the memoirs of the
se jeter dans les bras," de l'exilé de Chau-
teloup.

"Sure a pair was never seen,

So justly formed to meet by nature." At the commencement of a new reign, the Duke de Choiseul presented himself at the court of Louis XVI., but the monarch received him coldly, for nothing could persuade him that he had not a hand in the death of his father, and not all the efforts of the queen, Marie Antoinette, who had known the duke in early youth, when he was ambassador at Vienna, could remove this impression.

The duke died in Paris, in May, 1785; and within a few years after, his sister, the Duchess of Grammont, was guillotined by a revolutionary tribunal.

As the minister left no children, the title descended to Claude Antony Gabriel, count de Choiseul-Beaupré, afterwards Duke de Choiseul, cousin of the Duke Antony Cæsar, duke of Choiseul Praslin, father of the murderer.

The Duke of Choiseul-Praslin, father of the last duke, early espoused the Revolutionary party; and, as he separated himself from the nobility to which he belonged,

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