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During the Directory he was minister of justice, and was in that situation when he conspired with Bonaparte to overturn that government which he himself had framed, to which he had sworn fidelity, and which, as minister of justice, he was bound to maintain.

This man is despised by all parties. In the year 1795, a royalist conspiracy was detected in Paris, at the head of which was a man of the name of Lemaitre. Cambacérès's name figured there very conspicuously. However, he contrived, by his sans culotte phrases, and by his quibbles, to get himself acquitted!

This I am certain Bonaparte does not know, and I now communicate it to his Imperial Majesty, that about five years ago, Cambacérès was doing all in his power with the agents of Louis XVIII. to get an amnesty in case of a counter-revolution; and I rather think he succeeded, though I will not be positive on this subject. I do not know whether the King has granted him that favour.

His salary, as arch-chancellor, is 200,000l. sterling, for which he is obliged to give dinners to all the public functionaries, &c. &c.

LE BRUN,

ARCH-TREASURER OF THE EMPIRE.

A VERY different character, in every respect, to the preceding. Le Brun was a poet before the revolution; is a man of learning, sense, and probity. In the Constituent Assembly, as well as in the Council of Ancients, he was always distinguished for his moderation. He only spoke on the subject of finance. Mr. Le Brun is not at all a favourite of Bonaparte.

C. M. TALLEY RAND DE PERIGORD,

PRINCE OF

BENEVENTO, VICE ARCH CHAN-
CELLOR OF STATE.

Salary one million of livres per annum-45,000l. sterling:

"LA ROQUET dans son tems, PERIGORD dans le nôtre,

"Furent tous deux Evêques d'Autun,

"TARTUFFE est le portrait de l'un-
"Ah!-si MOLIERE eût connû l'autre ! !"

CHENIER *.

THE reader must have perceived that some kind of intimacy existed between M. Talleyrand and myself; that intimacy existed for upwards of 15 months, during which time, I am certain that one day did not pass, without my seeing that gentleman.

I believe, therefore, no man has had better means of forming a judgment of him, than I have had. Nor can it have escaped the reader, that Talleyrand's conduct to me personally was not such as to entitle him to any share of my esteem. But I say honestly, that I have no ill will towards him on account of the treatment I received from

*The above lines were written by Chenier, and were very much approved in Paris. La Roquet was a former Bishop of Autun, and Molière, it seems, had him in view when he wrote his celebrated comedy of Tartuffe.

him. I know that he acted in subservience to the will of his tyrant.

An injury received naturally excites indignation, and the person injured is easily excused, if he embraces an opportunity presented to him of revenge.—I act however, on the present occasion, on quite different principles; I write not from resentment of the wrongs I have suffered, or from personal feeling; I write that the world may be made acquainted with facts which as yet are not generally known. If, in writing on the atrocities of Bonaparte, I have let epithets escape me, which may be thought too strong, my defence is, that a historian ought to do justice, and when he describes the cruelties of a tyrant, he must call him cruel. Were the devil to sit to a painter, it would be impossible that the artist could represent him as an angel! He must draw the likeness, and the correctness of the likeness must be the criterion of his talent.

I believe no man who has appeared on the political stage within these twenty years, if we except Bonaparte, has excited more conversation than this M. Talleyrand.

Talleyrand de Perigord is of a very ancient family, and was destined for the church; before thirty, he was Bishop of Autun, at the Queen's particular request, who was very much displeased with his epigrams; therefore, to silence him, her

majesty was advised to prevail upon the king to make him a Bishop.

This elevation silenced Talleyrand, but did not cure him of his vices; a short time before the revolution, he, together with the celebrated Beaumarchais, was exiled from Paris for acts of swindling.

He was nevertheless appointed a deputy to the états généraux, in his quality of Bishop. It was Talleyrand who, out of pique to the clergy, made a motion in the Constituent Assembly in November, 1789, for the confiscation of church property. He, with Sieyes and Mirabeau, was the founder of the first jacobin club.

This was the Bishop who celebrated high mass on the altar of liberty in the Champ de Mars on the 14th July, 1790, and who consecrated the colours of the departments, calling them the sacred banners of liberty.

In the year 1792, he accompanied Mr. Chauvelin to this country as chargé d'affaires; this appointment was particularly urged by the king, as he considered Monsieur Chauvelin more attached to the revolutionary party than to himself.

Talleyrand's appointment gave likewise satisfaction to the commune of Paris, and to the jacobinical members of the executive government, who knew nothing of the double game he was playing*.

Talleyrand was then a pensioner of the King.

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