Part 22 (1/2)
LETTER XXIV
PARIS, October, 1805
MY LORD:--Though loudly complained of by the Cabinet of St Cloud, the Cabinet of St Petersburg has conducted itself in these critical times with prudence without weakness, and with firmness without obstinacy In its connections with our Governnity, and, therefore, never endured without resentment those impertinent innovations in the etiquette of our Court, and in the e of our Ens Had si sentiments directed the councils of all other Princes and the behaviour of their Aht have moderated the pretensions or passions of upstart vanity, while a forbearance and silence, equally i the pride of an insupportable and outrageous ambition
The Emperor of Russia would not have been so well represented here, had he not been so wisely served and advised in his council chanorance and folly coenius and capacity employ men of their own mould, and of their own cast It is a re the frequent revolutions in Russia, since the death of Peter the First the ressive and uninterrupted increase of the real and relative power of the Russian Empire evinces the reality of this assertion
The Russian Chancellor, Count Alexander Woronzoff, may be justly called the chief of political veterans, whether his talents or long services are considered Catherine II, though a voluptuous Princess, was a great Sovereign, and a coe of merit; and it was her unbiased choice that seated Count Woronzoff, while yet young, in her councils Though the intrigues of favourites have sometimes ren, and was recalled without caballing or cringing to return He is ad hireat inforeances find rooenerous bosom He is known to have conferred benefactions, not only on his ene his destruction His opinion is that a patriotic Minister should regard no others as his eneainst their country, and acknowledge no friends or favourites incapable of well serving the State Prince de Z-------- waited on hian to compli the place of a governor for his cousin, hom he had reason to suppose the Count e you, and to do ainst raciously has communicated it to me, in answer to my recommendation of him yesterday to the place you ask for him to-day Read what I have written on the libel, and you will be convinced that it will not be overnor” In two hours afterwards the nomination was announced to Prince de Z--------, as hiainst the Minister In any country such an act would have been laudable, but where despotism rules with unopposed sway, it is both honourable and praiseworthy
Prince Adam Czartorinsky, the assistant of Count Woronzoff, and Minister of the foreign departe He has travelled in ure at Courts, to dance at balls, to look at pictures, or to collect curiosities, but to study the character of the people, the laws by which they are governed, and their ard to their coht back with hie not to be acquired fro different and opposite societies with observation, penetration, and genius With manners as polished as his mind is well informed, he not only, possesses the favour, but the friendshi+p of his Prince, and, what is still ns have favourites, few ever had any friends; because it is more easy to flatter vanity, than to display a liberal disinterestedness; to bow nity; to abuse the confidence of the Prince than to use it to his honour, and to the advantage of his Government
That such a Monarch as an Alexander, and such Ministers as Count Woronzoff and Prince Czartorinsky, should appoint a Count Markof to a high and inorant of his n of Catherine II, en depart, entrusted with several iotiations at the Courts of Berlin and Vienna, when Prussia had proposed the first partition of Poland He afterent on his travels, from which he was recalled to fill the place of an A of Sweden, Gustavus III
He was succeeded, in 1784, at Stockhol appointed a Secretary of State in his own country, a post he occupied with distinction, until the death of Catherine II, when Paul the First revenged upon him, as well as on most others of the faithful servants of this Princess, his discontent with his mother He was then exiled to his estates, where he retired with the esteem of all those who had known him In 1801, immediately after his accession to the throne, Alexander invited Count Markof to his Court and Council, and the trusty but difficult task of representing a legitin at the Court of our upstart usurper was conferred on hireat surprise of this nobleman, when, for the first tireat ht and to left, for one s use of fifty hard expressions,in the diplo foreign Ambassadors as his French soldiers I have heard that the report of Count Markof to his Court, describing this new and rare show, is a chef-d'oeuvre of wit, equally a and instructive He is said to have requested of his Cabinet new and particular orders how to act--whether as the representative of an independent Sovereign, or, as n diplomatic corps in France, like a valet of the First Consul; and that, in the latter case, he i, had he no other choice left, sooner to work in the raceful fetters of a Bonaparte His subsequent dignified conduct proves the answer of his Court
Talleyrand's craft and dissiacity of Count Markof, as, therefore, soon less liked by the Minister than by the First Consul All kind of low, vulgar, and revolutionary chicanery was made use of to vex or to provoke the Russian Arants in his service; another time protection was refused to one of his secretaries, under pretence that he was a Sardinian subject Russian travellers were insulted, and detained on the most frivolous pretences Two Russian noblemen were even arrested on our side of the Rhine, because Talleyrand had forgotten to sign his name to their passes, which were otherwise in order The fact was that our Minister suspected the some papers which he wanted to see, and, therefore, wrote his name with an ink of such a co written with it disappeared Their effects and papers were strictly searched by an agent preceding the misinformed by his spies
When Count Markof left Sweden, he carried with him an actress of the French theatre at Stockholm, Madame Hus, an Alsatian by birth, but who had quitted her country twelve years before the Revolution, and could, therefore, never be included arants She had continued as a mistress with this noblereeable companion to him, who has never been ed to any foreign diploent who allows him to be the indirect provider or procurer of hisCount Markof with new objects, he introduced to the acquaintance of Madame Hus some of his female emissaries Their manoeuvres, their insinuations, and even their presents were all throay The lady renation to degrade herself into a spy on her lover Our Minister then first discovered that, not only was Madareat benefactress and constant co, and, of course, deserved to be watched, if not punished
Count Markof is reported to have said to Talleyrand on this grave subject, in the presence of two other foreign Ambassadors:
”Apropos! what shall I do to prevent rant, andprematurely orphans?”
”Monsieur,” said our diplomatic oracle, ”she should have petitioned the First Consul for a permission to return, to France before she entered it; but out of regard for you, if she is prudent, she will not, I daresay, be troubled by our Government”
”I should be sorry if she was not,” replied the Count, with a significant look; and here this grand affair ended, to the great entertainh
LETTER XXV
PARIS, October, 1805
MY LORD:--The Legion of Honour, though only proclaimed upon Bonaparte's assumption of the Imperial rank, dates from the first year of his consulate To prepare the public ressive elevation of hi all classes of his subjects, he distributed a the military, ares granted by him, and, therefore, liable to cease with his power or life The number of these arms increased in proportion to the approach of the period fixed for the change of his title and the erection of his throne When he judged thees, he hts Never before were so many chevaliers created en masse; they amounted to no less than twenty-two thousand four hundred, distributed in the different corps of different arland To these were afterwards joined five thousand nine hundred civil functionaries, men of letters, artists, etc To re the ion of Honour, they were divided into four classes--grand officers, coionaries
Every one who has observed Bonaparte's incessant endeavours to intrude hins of Europe, was convinced that he would cajole, or force, as hthood; but I heard norant of the selfishness and corruption of our ti his na criminals of every description, from the thief who picked the pockets of his fellow citizens in the street, down to the regicide who sat in judg; from the plunderers who have laid waste provinces, republics, and kingdouillotined their countrymen en masse For my part, I never had but one opinion, and, unfortunately, it has turned out a just one I alas convinced that those Princes who received other presents from Bonaparte could have no plausible excuse to decline his ribands, crosses, and stars But who could have presumed to think that, in return for these blood-stained baubles, they would have sacrificed those honourable and dignified ornaes past, have been the exclusive distinction of what birth had exalted, virtue made eminent, talents conspicuous, honour illustrious, or valour le and the Spanish Golden Fleece should thus be prostituted, thus polluted? I do notthose and other orders on Napoleon Bonaparte, or even on his brothers; I know it is usual, between legitihthoods; but to debase royal orders so much as to present them to a Cambaceres, a Talleyrand, a Fouche, a Bernadotte, a Fesch, and other vile and criminal wretches, I do not deny to have excited nation What honest--I do not say what noble--subjects of Prussia, or of Spain, will hereafter think themselves rewarded for their loyalty, industry, patriotisns have nothing to give but what the rebel has obtained, the robber worn, the icide debased?
The nuion of Honour does not yet a to a list circulated at Milan last spring, of which I have seen a copy Of these grand officers, three had been shoemakers, two tailors, four bakers, four barbers, six friars, eight abbes, six officers, three pedlers, three chandlers, seven druicides; four were lawful Kings, and the six others, Electors or Princes of the most ancient houses in Europe I have looked over our, own official list, and, as far as I know, the calculation is exact, both with regard to the nuhthood produced a singular effect on iddy, countrymen, who, for twelve years before, had scarcely seen a star or a riband, except those of foreign A theht, and those who really were not so, put pinks, or rather blooms, or flowers of a darker red, in their buttonholes, so as to resemble, and to be taken at a distance for, the red ribands of the ion of Honour
A raver by profession, took advantage of this knightly fashi+on and mania, and sold for four louis d'or, not only the stars, but pretended letters of knighthood, said to be procured by his connection with persons of the household of the Eister kept by hihts When his fraud was discovered, he was already out of the way, safe with histhe researches of the police, has not since been taken
A person calling hient of one of theto his own assertion, arrived here with real letters and patents of knighthood, which he offered for sale for three hundred livres The stars of this Order were as large as the star of the grand officers of the Legion of Honour, and nearly resembled it; but the ribands were of a different colour He had already disposed of a dozen of these stars, when he was taken up by the police and shut up in the Teents of inferior petty Ger the Orders of their Sovereigns for sale
A Captain Rouvais, who received six wounds in his caion of Honour without being noht He has been tried by a military commission, deprived of his pension, and condemned to four years' imprisonment in irons He proved that he had presented fourteen petitions to Bonaparte for obtaining this mark of distinction, but in vain; while hundreds of others, who had hardly seen an enen, or been once wounded, had succeeded in their deainst him, he took a sh the head, saying, ”Some one else will soon do the same for Bonaparte”