matic without being affected, and sentimental, without being mawkish.

'Le bucheron Americain ne s'interesse à rien; toute idée sensible est loin de lui; ces branches si elegamment jettées par la nature, un beau feuillage, une couleur vive qui anime une partie du bois, un verd plus fort qui en assombroit une autre, tout cela n'est rien: il n'a de sou venir à placer nulle part: c'est la quantité de coups de hache qu'il faut qu'il donne pour abattre un arbre, qui est son unique idée. Il n'a point plante; il n'en sait point les plaisirs. L'arbre qu'il planteroit n'est bon à rien pour lui; car jamais il ne le verra assez fort pour qu'il puisse l'abattre : c'est de detruire qui le fait vivre: on detruit par-tout aussi tout lieu lui est bon; il ne tient pas au champ où il a placé son travail, parce que son travail, n'est que de la fatigue, et qu'aucune idée douce n'y est jointe. Ce qui sort de ses mains ne passe point par toutes les croissances si attachantes pour le cultivateur; il ne suit pas la destinée de ses productions; il ne connoit par le plaisir des nouveaux essais; et si en s'en allant il n'oublie pas sa hache, il ne laisse pas de regrets là où il a vecu des années.'

Of his truly inimitable conversation, and the mixture of strong masculine sense, and exquisitely witty turns in which it abounded, -independently of the interest, and the solid value which it derived from a rich fund of anecdote, delivered in the smallest number possible of the most happy and most appropriate words possible,it would indeed be difficult to convey an adequate idea. His own powers of picturesque, and wonderfully condensed expression, would be hardly sufficient to present a portrait of its various and striking beauties. Simple and natural, yet abounding in the most sudden and unexpected turns-full of point, yet evidently the inspiration of the moment, and therefore more absolutely to the purpose than if it had been the laboured effort of a day's reflection, a single word often performing the office of sentences, nay, a tone not unfrequently rendering many words superfluous-always the phrase most perfectly suitable selected, and its place most happily chosen-all this is literally correct, and no picture of fancy, but a mere abridgement and transcript of the marvellous original; and yet it all falls very short of conveying its lineaments, and fails still more to render its colouring and its shades. For there was a constant gaiety of manner, which had the mirthful aspect of good-humour, even on the eve or on the morrow of some flash in which his witty raillery had wrapt a subject or a person in ridicule, or of some torrent in which his satire had descended instantaneous but destructive-there was an archness of malice, when more than ordinary execution must be done, that defied the pencil of the describer, as it did the attempts of the imitator-there were manners the most perfect in ease, in grace, in flexibility-there was the voice of singular depth and modulation,

and the countenance alike fitted to express earnest respect, unostentatious contempt, and bland complacency-and all this must really have been witnessed to be accurately understood. His sayings his mots, as the French have it are renowned; but these alone convey an imperfect idea of his whole conversation. They show indeed the powers of his wit, and the felicity of his concise diction; and they have a peculiarity of style, such, that, if shown without a name, no one could be at a loss to whom he should attribute them. But they are far enough from completing the sketch of his conversation to those who never heard it. A few instances may, however, be given, chiefly to illustrate what has been said of its characteristic conciseness and selection.

Being asked if a certain authoress, whom he had long since known, but who belonged rather to the last age, was not un 'peu ennuyeuse.' Du tout;' said he, elle était parfaitement ennuyeuse. A gentleman in company was one day making a somewhat zealous eulogy of his mother's beauty, dwelling upon the topic at uncalled-for length-he himself having certainly inherited no portion of that kind under the marriage of his parents. 'C'était, donc, monsieur votre père qui apparemment n'était 'pas trop bien,' was the remark, which at once released the circle from the subject. When Madame de Stael published her celebrated novel of Delphiné, she was supposed to have painted herself in the person of the heroine, and M. Talleyrand in that of an elderly lady who is one of the principal characters. • On

me dit' (said he, the first time he met her) que nous sommes 'tous les deux dans votre Romans, deguisés en femme.' Rulhieres, the celebrated author of the work on the Polish Revolution, having said, Je n'ai fait qu'un inconsequence de ma vie ;' Et quand finira-t-elle ?' was M. Talleyrand's reply.-' Genève. 'est ennuyeuse, n'est-ce pas ?' asked a friend- Surtout quand 'on s'y amuse,' was the answer. Elle est insupportable' (said he, with marked emphasis, of one well known; but as if he had gone too far, and to take off somewhat of what he had laid on, he added), Elle n'a que ce defaut-là.'- Ah, je sens des douleurs 'infernales,' said a person whose life had been supposed to be somewhat of the loosest. 6 Deja?' was the enquiry suggested to M. Talleyrand. Nor ought we to pass over the only mot that ever will be recorded of Charles X., uttered on his return to France in 1814, on seeing, like our Second Charles at a similar reception, that the adversaries of his family had disap

*

Certainly it came naturally to him; it is, however, not original. The Cardinal de Retz's physician is said to have made a similar exclamation on a like occasion; Deja, Monseigneur ?'

peared, Il n'y a qu'un Français deplus.' This was the suggestion of M. Talleyrand. He afterwards proposed, in like manner, to Charles' successor, that the foolish freaks of the Duchesse de Berri should be visited with this Rescript to her and her faction— Madame, il n'y a plus d'espoir pour vous. Vous serez 'jugée, condamnée, et graciée.'

Of his temper and disposition in domestic life, it remains to speak; and nothing could be more perfect than these. If it be true, which is, however, more than questionable, that a life of public business hardens the heart; if this be far more certainly the tendency of a life much chequered with various fortune; if he is almost certain to lose his natural sympathies with mankind, who has in his earliest years tasted the bitter cup of cruel and unnatural treatment, commended to his lips by the hands that should have cherished him; if, above all, a youth of fashionable dissipation and intrigue, such as M. Talleyrand, like ́ most of our own great men, undeniably led, has, in almost every instance been found to eradicate the softer domestic feelings, and to plant every selfish weed in the cold soil of a neglected bosom-surely it is no small praise of his kindly and generous nature, that we are entitled to record how marked an exception he formed to all these rules. While it would be a foolish and a needless exaggeration to represent him as careless of his own interest, or ambition, or gratifications, at any period of his life, it is nevertheless quite true that his disposition continued to the last gentle and kindly; that he not only entertained throughout the tempest of the revolutionary anarchy the strongest abhorrence of all violent and cruel deeds, but exerted his utmost influence in mitigating the excesses which led to them in others; that his love of peace in all its blessed departments, whether tranquillity at home, or amity and good-will abroad, was the incessant object of his labours; that, in domestic life, he was of a peculiarly placid temper, and full of warm and steady affections. His aversion to all violent courses was even, in some instances, carried to a length which prevented his wonted calmness of judgment, and his constant and characteristic love of justice, even when an adversary was concerned, from having their free scope. He never could speak with patience of Carnot, for having continued, during the Reign of Terror, to serve and to save his country by directing the war which defended her against Europe in arms;-forgetting how much less could be urged for his own conduct under the conscriptions of Napoleon, and under the military occupation of the Allies,-even admitting his predominant desire to prevent anarchy and conquest,-than might most fairly be offered in defence of that illustrious Republican's inflexible and uncompromising, though stern and undaunted virtue.

NOTE to the Article on George the Fourth and Queen Caroline, in Number 135.

We have received from Lord Stourton a Letter respecting our notice, in the above Article, of Mrs Fitzherbert's marriage; and we have much pleasure in laying before our readers a communition so creditable to the feelings of the noble writer.

To the Editor of the Edinburgh Review.

'SIR, A mistatement, no doubt unintentional, of the circum'stances attending the marriage of Mrs Fitzherbert, in one of your late Articles, being liable to a construction, in the views of ❝ members of her religious communion, injurious to her reputation, 'you will, I am sure, readily oblige me by inserting in your next number the following more accurate statement, for the fidelity ' of which I pledge my honour.

--

The marriage ceremony was performed, not out of this kingdom, as you have stated, but in her own drawing-room, in her 'house in town, in the presence of an officiating Protestant clergy6 man, and of two of her own nearest relatives. All the parties being now deceased, to ordinary readers this discrepancy will " appear of little moment; as the ceremony, wherever it was performed, could confer no legal rights; and no issue followed this ' union. But when I inform you, that in the one case, that 'stated in your Article, it would have been an invalid marriage 6 as affecting the conscience of Mrs Fitzherbert in the sight of her own Church; and that in the other case, it formed a conscien'tious connexion in the opinion of such portions of Christendom ' as hold communion with the See of Rome, I am confident you will permit this statement, under my name and reponsibility, to 6 appear in your Journal. I shall, moreover, add that the con"scientious validity of the contract depended upon the fact, that the discipline of the Council of Trent as to marriage has never 'been received in this country. I owe this plain counter-state'ment to the memory of Mrs Fitzherbert, in order that asper'sions which, from peculiar circumstances, she was herself unable ' to rebut when living, should not be inscribed without contradic'tion on her tomb. That I have not officiously imposed on my'self an unnecessary duty in endeavouring to protect the fame of 'this virtuous and distinguished lady, or am about to mislead by ' erroneous facts, I must appeal to the following extract from ⚫ one of Mrs Fitzherbert's letters to myself, which closely followed

' certain confidential communications, on which I rely for the perfect accuracy of my information on this delicate subject. "My dear Lord Stourton,

"I trust whenever it pleases God to remove me from this "world, my conduct and character, in your hands, will not dis6.66 grace my family or my friends. Paris, Dec. 7, 1833."

I remain, Sir,

• Your obedient humble servant,

• STOURTON.

'Mansfield Street, 30th June, 1838.'

In complying with Mr Perceval's request to reprint the following Letter, which has already appeared in some of the Newspapers, we must accompany it with one or two observa

tions.

Mr Perceval cannot possibly be acquainted with all the circumstances of the case, which his very natural and commendable filial affection has induced him to discuss. The statement given in our last Number was the topic of constant and uncontradicted comment during his respected father's life-certainly ever since the disclosures of Spring, 1813. If the Book, as intended to be published by Lord Eldon and him, had a bookseller's, and especially a printer's name to it, the statement is incorrect, how often soever it may have been repeated; but we must remind our correspondent, that no kind of contradiction will be given to the statement by merely producing a Book long since prepared for the press, with both publisher's and printer's names. Let him produce what his father and Lord Eldon intended to circulate in 1806 and 1807, and let us see whose names were upon that.

The assertion that the Book was simply and solely a collec'tion of authentic documents,' would astonish us if it did not prove that Mr Perceval cannot have seen the Book. We have seen it-so have very many others; and it contained, amongst other matter, an elaborate and vehement defence of the Princess; a laboured commentary on the evidence; and the most unsparing remarks upon her Royal Highness's persecutors.

To the Editor of the Edinburgh Review.

'St Leonard's on Sea, May 8, 1838

'SIR,-I have been requested by my eldest brother to transmit

to you the annexed copy of a Letter, addressed by him to the