Part 12 (1/2)

Another entertain of Parliae IV, who had not perfor,' we are told, 'looked pale and bloated, and was obliged to sit on the throne for a considerable tih to read his speech During this ti boards soht stood Lord Liverpool, with the sword of state and the speech in his hand, and the Duke of Wellington on his left All three looked so reatness appear to e IV read his _banale_ speech with great dignity and a fine voice, but with that royal nonchalance which does not concern itself hat his Majesty promises, or whether he is sometimes unable to decipher a word It was very evident that the lad when the _corvee_ was over'

In one of his early letters the traveller gives his friend the following account of the manner in which he passes his day: 'I rise late, read three or four newspapers at breakfast, look in -book to see what visits I have to pay, and either drive to pay them in my cabriolet, or ride In the course of these excursions, I sole of the blood-red sun with the winter fogs often produces wild and singular effects of light After my visits I ride for several hours about the beautiful environs of London, return when it grows dark, dress for dinner, which is at seven or eight, and spend the evening either at the theatre or some small party The ludicrous routs--at which one hardly finds standing-rooland, however, except in a few diplo without a special invitation'

The prince seems to have been bored at most of the parties he attended; partly, perhaps, out of pique at finding hie in his little kingdom of Muskau, eclipsed in influence and wealth by many a British commoner

Few persons that he reat Rothschild, hom he dined more than once at the banker's suburban villa Of one of these entertainood-hu to hear him explain to us the pictures round his rooh their aood friends, and in a certain sense his equals ”Yes,” said he, ”the Prince of ----- once pressed me for a loan, and in the saraph letter, his father wrote tome, for Heaven's sake, not to have any concern in it, for that I could not have to do with a more dishonesthient and servant of these high potentates, all of whom he honoured equally, let the state of politics be what it , ”I never like to quarrel with reat prudence in Mr Rothschild to have accepted neither title nor order, and thus to have preserved a far more respectable independence

He doubtless owes ood advice of his extremely ae of the world, though not, perhaps, in acuteness and talents for business'

Although the prince had not as yet entered the ranks of authors, he was always interested inliterary people, such as Mr Hope, author of _Anastasius_, Mr Morier of _Hadji Baba_ faed the celebrity of a beauty for that of a fashi+onable novelist 'I called on Lady Charlotte,' he says, 'thein her house brown, in every possible shade; furniture, curtains, carpets, her own and her children's dresses, presented no other colour The roolasses or pictures, and its only ornaments were casts from the antique After I had been there some time, the celebrated publisher, Constable, entered This h, as I was told, he refused his first and best, _Waverley_, and at last gave but a s Lady Charlotte had better cause to be satisfied with hiardener, Rehde, a very important functionary at Muskau, arrived in London to be initiated into the ether the two enthusiasts, master and man, land, including Stanmore Priory, Woburn Abbey, Cashi+obury, Blenheim, Stowe, Eaton, Warwick, and Kenilworth, besides many of lesser note At the end of the excursion, which lasted three weeks, the prince declared that even he was beginning to feel satiated with the charlish parks On his return to London he was invited to spend a few days with Lord Darnley at Cobhalish country-house life

He was a little perturbed at being publicly reminded by his elderly host that they had made each other's acquaintance thirty years before

'Now, as I was in frocks at the ti for a further explanation, though I cannot say I was e so fully discussed before all the company, for you know I claim to look not more than thirty However, I could not but admire Lord Darnley's memory He recollected every circumstance of his visit to my parents with the Duke of Portland, and recalled to otten incident'

The _vie de chateau_ the traveller considered the lish life, by reason of its freedom, and the absence of those wearisouests The English custo always _en evidence_, however, occasioned hienerally only one rooo into this room except to sleep, and to dress twice a day, which, even without coueur_; for all meals are usually taken in public, and any one ants to write does it in the library There, also, those ish to converse, give each other _rendezvous_, to avoid the rest of the society

Here you have an opportunity of gossiping for hours with the young ladies, who are always very literarily inclined Many a e is thus concocted or destroyed between the _corpus juris_ on the one side, and Bouffler's works on the other, while fashi+onable novels, as a sort of intermediate link, lie on the tables in the middle

Early in February the prince paid a visit to Brighton, where he made the acquaintance of Count D'Orsay, and was entertained by Mrs

Fitzherbert He gives a jaundiced account of two entertainments, a public ball and a hton, declaring--probably with soreatest trials to which a foreigner can be exposed in England

'Every hters, for whoe sums to thethe youthful talent ad and struht and left, so that one is really overpowered and unhappy; and even if an Englishwo, she seldoreeable _dilettanti_, for they at least give one the diversion of a coreater confidence than a David, strike with his forefinger the note which he thinks his song should begin with, and then _entonner_ like a thunder-clap (generally a tone or ter than the pitch), and sing through a long aria without an accompaniment of any kind, except theone must have seen to believe it possible, especially in the presence of at least fifty people'

By the un in town, and the prince soon found himself up to the eyes in invitations for balls, dinners, breakfasts, and _soirees_ We hear of hi with the Duke of Clarence, toat the Lord Mayor's banquet, which lasted six hours, and at which the chiefand short; breakfasting with the Duke of Devonshi+re at Chiswick, being nearly suffocated at the routs of Lady Cowper and Lady Jersey, and attending his first ball at Ale his expectations oefully disappointed 'A large, bare room,' so runs his description, 'with a bad floor, and ropes round it, like the space in an Arab camp parted off for horses; two or three badly-furnished rooms at the side, in which the most wretched refreshments are served, and a coetting tickets, a great led; in which the dress was as tasteless as the _tournure_ was bad--this was all

In a word, a sort of inn-entertains And yet Allish world of fashi+on'

Unfortunately for his readers, the prince was rather an observer than an auditor; for he describes what he sees vividly enough, but seldom takes the trouble to set down the conversation that he hears Perhaps he thought it hardly worth recording, for he coredient in social intercourse, that the lighter and e, and that the art of conversation would soon be entirely lost 'In this country,' he unkindly adds, 'I should think it [the art of conversation] never existed, unless, perhaps, in Charles II's time

And, indeed, people here are too slavishly subject to established usages, too systematic in all their enjoyments, too incredibly kneaded up with prejudices; in a word, too little vivacious to attain to that unfettered spring and freedoreeable society I must confess that I know none more monotonous, nor hest society of this country A stony, marble-cold spirit of caste and fashi+on rules all classes, and hest tedious, the lowest ridiculous'

In spite of his dislike to politics as a subject of conversation, his Highness attended debates at the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and was so keenly interested in what he heard that he declared the hours passed like e IV with the task of forovernment, but had promptly been deserted by six ton, Lord Eldon, and Peel, ere now accused of having resigned in consequence of a cabal or conspiracy against the constitutional prerogative of the king to change his ministers at his own pleasure In the House of Coovernnificent speech, which flowed on like a clear streaham,'

we are told, 'tried to disarht upon the sensibility, or convinced the reason, of his hearers The orator closed with the solemn declaration that he was perfectly impartial; that he _could_ be impartial, because it was his fixed determination never, and on no terdoha, the hero of the day, now rose If his predecessorpresented the iladiator

All was noble, simple, refined; then suddenly his eloquence burst forth like lightning-grand and all-subduing His speech was, from every point of view, the most complete, as well as the lory of the debate'

On the following day the prince heard some of the late ministers on their defence in the House of Lords 'Here,' he observes, 'I saw the great Wellington in terrible straits He is no orator, and was obliged to enter upon his defence like an accused person He was considerably agitated; and this senate of his country, though composed of men whom individually, perhaps, he did not care for, appearedto him _en masse_ than Napoleon and his hundred thousands He stath he brought the matter tolerably to this conclusion, that there was no ”conspiracy” He occasionally said strong things--probably stronger than heother things, the folloords pleased me extremely: ”I am a soldier and no orator I am utterly deficient in the talents requisite to play a part in this great assembly I ht, of which I a Prime Minister” [Footnote: In January 1828 the duke became Prime Minister] When I question myself as to the total impression of this day, Iand lishman, the latter when I felt land, in spite of all the defects and blehest degree; and in conteins to understand why it is that the English nation is, as yet, the first on the face of the earth'

The traveller was by no s With that strain of practicality which contrasted so oddly with his sentimental and romantic temperament, he kept firland He had determined at the outset not to sell himself and his title for less than 50,000, but he confesses that, as time passed on, his demands became much more modest His matrimonial ventures were all faithfully detailed to the presu Lucie, for whose sake, the prince persuaded himself, he was far more anxious for success than for his own But he had not counted on the many obstacles hich he found hi his relations with his for at Muskau with all the rights and privileges of a _chatelaine_, while the prince never disguised his attachlish mothers ould have welcomed him as a son-in-laere led to believe that the divorce was only a blind, and that the prince's amous union The satirical papers represented him as a fortune-hunter, a Bluebeard who had ill-treated his first wife, and declared that he had proposed for the hand of the dusky Empress of Hayti, then on a visit to Europe

Still our hero obstinately pursued his quest, laying siege to the heart of every presentable-looking heiress to whom he was introduced, and if attention to the art of the toilet could have gained hi have been unsuccessful In dress he took the genuine interest and delight of the dandy of the period, and marvellous are the descriptions of his costu visits, of which he sometimes paid fifty in one day, he wore his hair dyed a beautiful black, a new hat, a green neckerchief with gaily coloured stripes, a yellow cashreen frock-coat and iron-grey pantaloons On other occasions he is attired in a dark-brown coat, with a velvet collar, a white neckerchief, in which a thin gold watch-chain is entwined, a waistcoat with a collar of _craold stars, an under-waistcoat of white satin, eold flowers, full black pantaloons, spun silk stockings, and short square shoes Style such as this could only be maintained at a vast outlay, fro-bill alone a to the prince's calculation, a London exquisite, during the season of 1827, required every week twenty shi+rts, twenty-four pocket-handkerchiefs, nine or ten pairs of summer trousers, thirty neckerchiefs, a dozen waistcoats and stockings _a discertion_ 'I see your housewifely ears aghast, et on without dressing three or four times a day, the affair is quite simple'

However much the prince ly objected to the process of hair-dyeing, and his letters are full of co the operation, which, he declares, is a form of slow poison, and also an unpleasant reed to play the part of youth in order to attain an object thathim more misery than happiness As soon as he is safely married to his heiress, he expresses his deterht say 'What a well-preserved old man!'

instead of '_Voila, le ci-devant jeune hoht, heiresses remained coy, or hly-developed personal vanity ounded by many a refusal, and so weary did he become of this woman-hunt, that in one letter to Lucie, dated March 5, 1827, he exclaims, 'Ah, my dearest, if you only had 150,000 thalers, I would ain to-morrow!'

PART II

The summer months were spent in visits to Windsor and other parks near London, and in a tour through Yorkshi+re In October his Highness was back in town, and engaged in a new matrimonial venture He writes to Lucie that 'the fortune in question is iloriously' In the correspondence published after the prince's death is the draft of a letter to Mr Bonha a forhter, 'Miss Harriet,' and detailing (with considerable reservations) the position of his financial affairs Muskau, he explains, is worth 4,000 a year, an income which in Gerland 'Everything belonging to me,' he continues, 'is in the best possible order; a noble residence at Muskau, and two sardens, in fact, all that make enjoy life (sic) in the country is amply provided for, and a numerous train of officious (sic) ofprincess at her own seat, or if she should prefer town, the court of Prussia will offer her every satisfaction' Owing to the fact that Muskau was ed for 50,000, he was forced, he confesses, to expect an adequate fortune with his wife, a circumstance to which, if he had been otherwise situated, he should have paid little attention