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from the sway of prejudices, a sympathizing | regiment in 1741. On his return to Paris heart, an upright and trustworthy character. he obtained the favor of Madame de PomHis policy seemed to have discarded all mala padour, and was appointed Lieutenantfides, and he never employed dissimulation at General in 1748, and Duke of Choiseul in the cost of honesty. His reserve consisted 1758. In 1753 he went as ambassador to in his not saying all that he thought; but he Rome, and in 1757 to Vienna, whence he never said what he did not think. He knew was recalled in 1758 in order to fill the how to fathom the views of other diploma- office of Minister for Foreign Affairs. He tists, by the approaches and insinuations resigned this appointment in 1761, to his that they employed to penetrate his own. cousin, Count Choiseul, afterwards Duke of He neither flattered the mood nor the views Praslin, and undertook the War and Marine of his superiors, and he used to threaten to department in its stead. In 1770 he was resign office if they refused the good that he thrown out of office by Madame Dubarri, saw was necessary. In his own house he and ordered to his country seat at Chanteloup. was amiable, familiar, and confidential. But After the accession of Louis XVI., he was in conformity with the fate that attaches to permitted to return to Paris, and was somethe most perfect of men, his numerous rare times desired to attend in council. He was qualities were mixed with foibles and peculi- mainly instrumental in effecting the alliance arities. He occasionally carried the levity of between Austria and France, and he was his manners, and the neglect of respect, a also the creator of the great alliance belittle too far. He was sometimes seen coolly tween the Bourbon courts. He drove the and deliberately to mount his horse or to Jesuits from France, chiefly because they enter his carriage, in order to take a drive, were protected by the Dauphin, who was an from which he would not return till six opponent of Choiseul's policy. During his o'clock in the evening, at the very moment administration Corsica was added to France, when a numerous company that he had in- which is also indebted to him for its admiravited was about to sit down to dinner. ble military schools, the revival of its navy, When invited to dine with others, he would and substantial reforms in colonial affairs. let his host wait two or three hours for him, His lady, Louise Honorine Crozat du and even cause his own covers to be brought Chatel, was the daughter of a very opulent with him. He was seen looking at himself merchant. After his death, which took place in a pocket mirror at his sovereign's table, in May, 1785, she sacrificed the greater part where he would also clean his teeth, polish of her fortune to pay his debts, and retired his snuff-box, read letters, answer them, and into a convent. When these institutions were ask for a light in order to seal them. He suppressed by the Revolution, she lived in had an invincible dislike to business that occa- seclusion in Paris, where she died in 1801. sioned a long and difficult discussion. Con- Gleichen thus describes Choiseul :— vinced that his natural readiness and pene"The Duke of Choiseul was of small tration would easily remove the greatest stature, rather compact than thin, and his obstacles, he had not the patience to examine ugliness was quite amusing. His little eyes minutiæ and accessories, so that instead of sparkled with intelligence, his nez retroussé probing matters to the bottom, he passed gave him an agreeable expression, and his judgment upon them from the first appear- large laughing lips announced the liveliness ance that they presented to his mind. At of his sallies. Amiable, noble, open-hearted, the same time he knew how to present his magnanimous, gallant, fond of splendor, view of matters in such a seductive light, and liberal, proud, bold, fiery, and even boiling with so many appearances of conformity and over with spirit, he reminded you of the old probability, that no one would have sus- French chevalier. But he also united with pected that he had only glanced at them these qualites many faults attaching to his superficially." nation he was thoughtless, indiscreet, arrogant, dissipated extravagant, hasty and rash.

Etienne François Duke of Choiseul Amboise, who was born on the 18th of June, 1719, was descended from a branch of the ancient and powerful family of Choiseul, and made his entrance into public life as Count of Stainville. Educated in a Jesuit seminary, he distinguished himself in military service, and was rewarded at Prague with a

"When he was ambassador at Rome, Benedict XIV. pronounced him a fool who had much mind.' I have never known a man who was equally expert in spreading merriment and delight around him. he entered a room, he seemed, metaphorically speaking, to search his pockets, and to draw forth an inexhaustible supply of jests and

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gayety. He could not resist the desire of making those happy, who knew how to value the good things that he scattered around. He used to borrow any intellectual treasures that he could find without too arduous a search, and to regard them as a loan that he was bound to repay. On the other hand, he could not endure the sight of misery, and I have heard him jest in what appeared to me a very unfeeling manner about the complaints of the family of his cousin Choiseul-le-Marin, whom he had been forced to banish, in order to shield himself against his furious invectives. He was wont to steel himself after this fashion with a mockseverity, against the pliancy and sensitiveness that formed a real part of his character. I once heard him reply to Madame de Choiseul, who called him a tyrant: Say, rather, a velvet tyrant.' Hence the surest way of obtaining his assent to your requests, was to provoke his wrath in the first instance by some other means, and on another subject; because when the storm was over the lion became a lamb.

"It was one of the finest qualities of the Duke of Choiseul, that he was a magnanimous enemy and a true friend. A striking evidence of this statement is found in the case of the Duke of Aiguillon, who was accused before the Parliament, and saved by the Duke of Choiseul, who, although as one of the witnesses he was required to bear testimony against his old enemy, yet kept back much that might have been prejudicial to him. The enduring attachment of a host of courtiers who followed him after his disgrace to Chanteloup, and who remained faithful to him till his death, proves how good a friend he had been to them. He bestowed on the Bailiff de Solar, the Sardinian Ambassador, the most refined and the tenderest evidences of an almost childlike attachment. De Solar was almost the only man whom the Duke of Choiseul treated with a kind of reverence, possibly because he had been his teacher in jurisprudence when he was at Rome. He procured for him his nomination as ambassador to Paris, the office of mediator at the peace of 1762, presents of immense value, and the dignity of abbé, with an income of fifty thousand francs. All the pious attentions that can be shown by a son to his father, were displayed by Choiseul and his family to the sufferer during his long and fearful illness, which terminated in his death from cancer, shortly after he had been loaded with these benefits by his friend.

"Choiseul loved temerity, and I found a way to his heart," adds Gleichen, "by an almost offensive expression, which I defended with all the romantic folly of a young man of twenty-two. I came to Frascati in 1756, in order to spend the two last summer-months at his house. The Duke spoke rather disrespectfully of the Margravine of Baireuth, the elder sister of the King of Prussia, who had educated me and sent me to Rome. I answered him in such a haughty and cutting way, that he threw his serviette upon the table and stood up.

"As my horse was at hand, I ordered it to be saddled, and wished to leave. Madame de Choiseul detained me, and I agreed to remain, only upon the condition that the ambassador promised never to say anything of the Margravine in my presence, that I could not hear with propriety. He kept his word; treated me from that time with the greatest distinction, and when the King of Prussia raised his arm against France, one month later, by invading Saxony, Choiseul never employed a single unamiable expression against the Margravine or her brother, without previously asking my permission in jest."

His wayward arrogance was displayed in a somewhat unfavorable light during the first carnival after his appointment as ambassador to Rome. We shall compare the accounts that Gleichen and Flassan give of this occurrence, and present the reader with the result. The circumstance that led to the explosion seems to have been an alteration in the ancient custom by which the box that was usually occupied by the French Ambassador at the theatre had been appropriated to himself by the Governor of Rome. Another account represents the alteration to have consisted in a new regulation that was established by Benedict, whereby the foreign ambassadors were required to draw lots for their boxes, like the Roman nobles. Whichever is the true version, the result was the same. Choiseul resisted this innovation, stormed furiously against the ecclesiastical authorities, and threatened to throw all intruders out of his box into the pit; nay, one account states that he made preparations for his departure from Rome. The Pope is reported to have sent Cardinal Valenti to Choiseul in order to induce him to listen to reason. This prelate, who possessed great dignity and eloquence, addressed him in very energetic terms, by which he expected to browbeat the ambassador. "Do you know what was his reply ?" said the Cardinal to Gleichen. He flipped his fingers in my face (Choiseul's usual ges

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ture to express indifference) and said: "Vous | vous moquez de moi, Monseigneur, voilà trop de bruit pour un petit prestolet, quand il s'agit d'un Ambassadeur de France." Whether this scene occurred or not, the Pope yielded, and Choiseul retained his box with the reputation of being a mad-cap. Flassan states that when Benedict shortly after appointed the Governor a cardinal and Secretary of State Choiseul, knowing him to be his enemy, went to the Pope and protested against his nomination. Benedict stated that he was not master to appoint whom he pleased, and when Choiseul persisted, the Pope arose, excited, and said: "Fail Papa," (he plays the Pope.) Choiseul felt that the Pope was right, and answered: "No, holy father, let each of us perform the duties of our station; you continue to play the Pope, and I will play the Ambassador." It appears that Choiseul found means afterwards to become reconciled with the Governor by pretending that he was indebted to his own intercession for his elevation to the office of Secretary of State.

"Choiseul," proceeds Gleichen," had led a wild and dissipated life in his early youth. When he was appointed Ambassador to Rome, he was still very ignorant. He read little, but he never forgot anything that he had read. His quick, subtle, penetrating, and ready mind guessed your thought before it was half uttered, anticipated all explanations, and masked its ignorance by dazzling others with its brilliancy. He used to be satisfied with knowing the substance of things, leaving all details to his secretaries. He wrote the most secret dispatches with his own hand, without making a rough draught of them beforehand, and forwarded them by courier without retaining a copy. His handwriting was so illegible that an ambassador was once obliged to send back his dispatches from inability to decipher them. He labored little, and did a great deal. His intrigues and his pleasures consumed a considerable time; but he atoned for the loss by the quickness of his intelligence, and by his readiness in work. He contrived several methods for facilitating bis labors; and amongst others, a plan that enabled him to condense a great quantity of reading and writing into a single act. Every courier brought him a basket full of letters and petitions, which it was his duty to read, as Minister of War. But he did nothing of the sort, first, because it was almost impossible, and secondly, because he had many other things to do. A clerk read the letters for him, and wrote their number and contents on half a sheet of paper. He read over this to

the minister, who thereupon dictated the substance of his resolutions, which were written on the other side of the sheet. The minister then read over the whole and signed them. Hereupon the sheet was passed on to another clerk, who drew up the answers in conformity with it, when they were simply signed with his signet, and forwarded without being revised by the minister. As the originals of all these dispatches were deposited among the archives, a lasting record was retained by which to rectify every misapplication of the signet.

"Never was a minister more indiscreet in his expressions than the Duke of Choiseul; it was his great defect. His levity, his fiery temper, his love of wit, and not unfrequently the ebullitions of his spleen, were its natural causes; nevertheless, there were noble treasures in his heart that made his faults almost venial: from the uprightness of his mind, as well as his love of justice, he hated all that was hollow and false, and the elevation of his character scorned the timid precautions and the petty pedantry of political science. When at length he learned from experience to know his fault, he made a jest of it instead of trying to reform it. He forgot the perplexities in which it plunged him, in the pleasure that he experienced in extricating himself from them; for the most distinguished characteristic of his mind was his ready wit in difficulties. He had ever all his wits about him, whether he were engaged in pleasure, in rectifying failures, or in making reparations for wrongs committed. His ingenuity in finding resources was something marvellous, and had he been alive at the Revolution, he alone might possibly have found the means of averting it.

"An officer who had persecuted him unmercifully at all his audiences, in order that he might obtain the Cross of St. Louis, placed himself at last between the minister and the door through which he was about to escape, so as to force his attention. Roused by such impudence, the Duke became so heated that he said: 'Allez vous faire . . .;' when suddenly recollecting that he was concerned with a soldier, and a nobleman, he recovered himself, and continued: Allez vous faire protestant et le roi vous donnera la croix de mérite.'

"He loved honor, riches, and power, in order to enjoy them, and to enable those around him to partake in their enjoyment. He was not so proud of his place as of his person. When he thought of his descent, he was reminded that in former days a man

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liament had given its countenance to their suppression in France, the consent of the King was required in addition, and he had a secret leaning towards the society which was also befriended by the whole royal family, and a large party in the council and at court. Choiseul carefully avoided standing forth as their enemy before his sovereign, but he forwarded whatever was needful to the King of Spain, who was engaged in a personal correspondence with Louis XV. My opinion is, however, that the Jesuits wrought their own downfall. Their money speculations in France, their imprudences in Spain, and, above all, the arrogance, obstinacy, and absurd recklessness of their General at Rome, began and

of rank would have thought himself lowered | by accepting the place of Secretary of State, and that all such officials before him had been lawyers, except the Abbé de Bernis. He fancied, accordingly, that he was conferring a great honor on Louis XV., in consenting to become his minister. Although it was well known by the whole world that France, once so terrible, was shorn of her terrors; that Louis XV. was determined to avoid war at any sacrifice, and that the ruinous state of his finances was admitted by himself; and although he was in the habit of saying, Do not draw upon the king, it is of no use,' nevertheless, the Duke of Choiseul succeeded in maintaining the dignity of the crown. His inconsiderate rashness occasion-compassed their ruin. When the latter was ed a complete panic in Europe. Yet people were mistaken; he appeared more threatening than he really was, nor would he ever have ventured to transgress the limits that had been unconditionally prescribed for him. "It is reported that when Choiseul was at Rome, the General of the Jesuits confessed to him, that he had been declared an enemy of the order on account of a thoughtless expression of his early youth, and it is asserted that the fear instilled into him by the insight that he thus obtained of their complicated inquisitorial system, was the cause of all that he did later against them. This is a mistake; he became their enemy, owing to misdemeanors on their part, and through other circumstances. Being Ambassador at Rome, and annoyed at the cruel persecution occasioned in France by the Molinistic party, through the introduction of confessionals for the dying, he devoted himself heart and soul, in conformity with his instructions, to countermine the Jesuits, who were no favorites of Benedict XIV. The Jesuits became now his declared enemies, and never ceased to persecute him by means of the devout party. At the beginning of his ministry, they employed the Duke of Vauguyon as a tool to induce the Dauphin to give the King a memorial full of calumnies against Choiseul. After the latter had justified himself, he received permission to declare himself openly against the Dauphin to whom his father had already given a sharp reprimand. When the Dauphin gave Choiseul a somewhat ungracious reception, the latter was bold enough to say to him: Monseigneur, j'aurais peut-être le malheur d'être un jour votre sujet, mais je ne serais jamais votre serviteur.' Shortly after, the courts of Madrid and Lisbon expelled the Jesuits, and they, as well as Choiseul, mutually assisted each other. Although the Par--TRANslator.

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informed that Father Malagrida had been ar-
rested on account of his attempt to assassi-
nate the King of Portugal, several friends of
the Jesuits, together with Father Ricci,*
were assembled at Cardinal Negroni's. All
advised him to write to the King of Portugal
at once, stating that the Order, though con-
vinced of the innocence of Father Malagrida,
yet thought fit to solicit the mercy of his
Most Faithful Majesty towards him. But the
General was inflexible; he wrote a foolish let-
ter, maintaining that a Jesuit could only be
judged by his own society, which was con-
sequently expelled from Portugal.
It ap-
pears that it had been represented to Louis
XV. that the Jesuits maintain the principle,
"that a tyrant or a king who was an enemy
of the Catholic religion ought to be put to
death," a circumstance that made a deep
impression upon him because of the recent
attempt upon his life. Hereupon Marshal
Soubise, the chief organ of the devout party
in the council, gave it as his advice that a
condemnation and prohibition of this ancient
principle should be obtained from the Gene-
ral. But Ricci arrogantly rejected every at-
tempt of the kind, saying that the denounc-
ing of that principle, which had never been
more than a play of thought, would be ta-
citly to admit that it was a doctrine and
opinion of the Order, and the very supposi-
tion of such a thing would be a blot on the
society. It was on this occasion that he de-
livered this sentence, celebrated for its folly:

Sint ut sunt, aut non sint.' This sealed the fate of the Jesuits in France. Clement XIV., who feared them even more than he hated them, defended them long after this, and I

*At that time General of the Order.

Robert Francis Damien had attempted to assassinate Louis XV. on the 5th of January, 1757.

have been informed by Cardinal de Bernis | that it was only by threatening to remit his bull that this Pope was induced to promise the abolition of the Order, a promise which he drew up in his own handwriting in order to obtain the tiara, thus publishing his own disgraceful simony. I do not believe that Benedict XIV. was poisoned by the Jesuits. They were not the men to commit useless crimes, and this poisoning would have been superfluous, like moutarde apres diner. Pombal, Charles III., and the Duke of Choiseul, all died a natural death. Clement died from the fear of death. The idea of poison was always present to his mind, and the speedy decomposition of his body was the effect of the terrible anxiety that had killed him. If the Jesuits had been as bad as was supposed, they would still exist."*

"Choiseul was accused of bringing the finances into disorder. I can testify to the pains that he took after the death of Madame de Pompadour to sift this matter and find remedies. He solicited the advice of Forbonnet and M. de Mirabeau,† who both expressed their astonishment at his penetration in such a difficult business. When, however, he came to see how impossible it was to remedy this disorder, which resulted from the weakness of the King, from ancient abuses, and from the insatiable rapacity of the cour tiers, he despaired of reconciling his plans of economy with the maintenance of his influence and authority. His integrity and his business-like habits appeared in a favorable light in the account that he gave of the savings in his department. As he always wished to be independent and fixed in his position, he would have liked to fill the situation of Chief Intendant of Finance. The great responsibility attaching to the office would have given him the right to refuse all impertinent pretensions, even those of the King; and he would have been legally justified in using the words, "Sire, my head will answer for it." But this had been foreseen by Louis XV., who had, moreover, an invincible aversion to the revival of any of the old offices of the crown. When we come to compare, however, the debt of Louis XV.'s reign with that of Louis XVI., and the deficit during the latter reign, with the resources that were brought to light by the Revolution, it will be found that there is no such great reason for

They do still exist. Yet Gleichen may be right; their revival is only an artificial and unnatural effort, and their power is, if not destroyed, greatly decayed.

The father of the orator.

exclaiming against Louis XV., and that it would have been unnecessary to call together the States-General, if the government of Louis XVI. had taken the pains to apply a portion of those resources to the exigencies of the State."

But

"It would have been better for Choiseul if he had shown as much attachment and regard to his wife as he did to his sister. He would have had fewer, less cheerful, and less flattering, but wiser, more virtuous, and more disinterested friends, than those with whom the Duchess of Grammont, through his reliance on her, had surrounded him. He would not have had the numerous enemies occasioned by her insolence, her prejudices, and her misguided influence; and his noble nature would have escaped the crust that commonly forms about a minister's. heart. Madame de Choiseul was morally the most perfect being that I have ever known. She was an incomparable wife, a true and wise friend, and a spotless woman. She was a saint, though she had no other faith than that which virtue teaches. her delicate health, the weak state of her nerves, the melancholy of her temperament, and the meditative cast of her mind, made her earnest, firm, precise, eloquent, metaphysical, and almost a prude. At all events, her sister-in-law, and the giddy circle that surrounded her, represented her in this light to her husband. Yet he was penetrated with gratitude and esteem for a woman who worshipped him, who disarmed the enemies of his sister, and whom he was just enough to acknowledge as a being purer, firmer, and more meritorious than himself. The Duchess of Grammont was more like a man than a woman. She had a coarse voice, a bold and forward appearance, free and brutal manners. She exhibited the qualities of her brother in an exaggerated light, which gave her, as a woman, a rough and repulsive exterior. Her resemblance to Choiseul, together with the art that she employed to amuse him, had given her great influence over him, of which she used to boast so insolently, that she did great injury to the reputation and even the happiness of her brother: for this ambitious woman greatly hastened the fall of the minister, although it was considerably delayed by the great sympathy that was felt for the Duchess of Choiseul by the King, the whole court, and even by the enemies of her husband. All the world knew that Louis XV. had said, when he banished this minister to Chanteloup, that he would have treated him much more se

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