Memoirs of the Duchesse De Dino (Afterwards Duchesse de Talleyrand et de Sagan), 1841-1850

200

On October 24 M. Creton had proposed to the National Assembly the abrogation of the laws proscribing the Bourbons. This question aroused a keen debate. Prince Jérôme Napoléon quoted the letters written in 1848 by the sons of Louis Philippe protesting against their banishment and asking permission to return to their native land on recognising the sovereignty of the people. M. Creton's proposal was rejected by 587 votes.

201

Robert Blum assumed the leadership of the Saxon democracy in 1848. He was sent to the Frankfort Assembly and showed some oratorical talent, but in taking part in the Vienna revolt, he was captured and shot by the Austrians.

202

The following is the well-known letter to Edgar Ney, which France interpreted as a future programme:

Paris, August 18, 1849.

"My Dear Ney, – The French Republic has not sent an army to Rome to crush Italian liberty, but on the contrary to regularise it by saving it from its own excesses and to give it a solid basis by placing on the pontifical throne the Prince, who was the first to take the lead courageously in all useful reforms.

"I am sorry to learn that the well-meant actions of His Holiness, as well as our measures, have been nullified by passions and hostile influences which wish to base the Pope's return upon proscription and tyranny. Kindly tell the General from me that he should in no case allow any act to be committed under the tricolour flag which could give a wrong meaning to our intervention. I interpret the temporal power of the Pope as follows: a general amnesty, the secularisation of the administration, the Napoleonic code and a Liberal government.

"My feelings were wounded when I read the proclamation of the three cardinals in which no mention was made of France or of the sufferings of her brave soldiers. Any insult to our flag or to our Union cuts me to the heart. Advise the General to make the fact clear that, though France does not sell her services, she demands some sense of gratitude for her sacrifices and her intervention.

"When our armies traversed the whole of Europe, their passage was everywhere marked by the destruction of feudal abuse and the sowing of the seeds of liberty. It shall not be said that in 1849 a French army could act with any other object or produce any other result.

"Ask the General to thank the army for its noble conduct in my name. I am sorry to learn that as regards the necessaries of life, it did not receive the treatment it deserved. I hope that he will be able to bring this state of affairs to an end forthwith. No pain should be spared to secure the comfort of our troops.

"Believe me, my dear Ney,Faithfully yours,Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.

We reproduce this letter from the text given by the Journal des Débats of September 7, 1849. M. Edgar Ney was orderly officer to the Prince President who had sent him on a mission to the Papal Government. Marshal Bugeaud was then in command of the French troops at Rome, but as he was suddenly carried off by cholera, his place was taken by General Oudinot who conducted all the military operations.

203

The reserve militia of Hungary.

204

On November 12, M. Barrot, Minister of the Interior, announced to the National Assembly at Paris that the President, in virtue of the rights conferred upon him by the decree of June 18, 1848, had ordered the liberation of the majority of the insurgents detained at Belle-Isle.

205

General Changarnier was then in command of the troops at Paris.

206

The King of Prussia refused to give T. Elssler the name of Fischbach, but gave her the title of Baroness of Barnim.

207

Waldeck was arrested and imprisoned in May as an accomplice in the great revolutionary conspiracy. After a long trial he was acquitted on December 5 by a court which was not regarded at Berlin as entirely impartial.

208

Driven from Frankfort, the remnants of the National Assembly collected at Stuttgart, and the Revolutionary party, giving the signal for open insurrection in Germany, took up arms in Saxony, in the Rhine Palatinate, and in the Duchy of Baden, overthrowing governments and securing victory everywhere until the Prussian troops established order. Saxony and Hanover then agreed with Prussia upon a new Constitution, and concluded the so-called alliance of the Three Kings; but Austria, who desired to become predominant in Germany, opposed the Prussian views and induced Saxony and Hungary to withdraw. Frederick William IV. then organised the Union with the remainder of his adherents and opened the Diet of Erfurt where the new Constitution was accepted. Then Austria, to prevent the recurrence of any similar project, induced the German States to re-establish the old Germanic Confederation, and this plan was executed in spite of Prussian opposition.

209

The Duc de Noailles had been elected to the Academy in the place of Chateaubriand. He, with M. de Broglie and M. Pasquier, there formed a small clique, known as the dukes' party.

210

The Abbé Dupanloup had recently been appointed Bishop of Orléans under the Ministry of Falloux, then Minister of Worship and Education.

211

Lord Palmerston's residence in 1849.

212

The Archduchess Elizabeth had lost her husband, the Archduke Ferdinand Charles Victor of Este, on December 15, 1849: in 1854 she married the Archduke Charles Ferdinand. She was the mother of Queen Marie Christina of Spain and the Archdukes Frederick, Charles Stephen, and Eugène.

213

From the "Henriade," Canto I.

214

M. de Persigny, aide-de-camp to the Prince President and elected representative to the Legislative Assembly in 1849, was occupied at Berlin upon a temporary mission, with no great success.

215

A royal message, which had been expected for several days, had been presented to the Prussian Chambers in the session of January 9. The formation of a hereditary peerage was then announced, while the introduction of financial measures was to be the privilege of the Second Chamber, and the King was to take an oath of fidelity to the Constitution. Numerous modifications were introduced for the purpose of restriction, but the King did not make his oath a condition sine qua non, but thought he was fulfilling a conscientious duty in thus submitting his scruples to the Chambers.

216

Russian Minister at Berlin.

217

Extract from a letter.

218

This statement was true.

219

At the time of the violent reaction which proceeded after 1849 in several European States, following the suppression of the revolutionary movement, thousands of proscribed Germans, Italians, and French, took refuge in Swiss territory. Their presence provided certain governments with a pretext for presenting claims to the Federal Government, which produced diplomatic difficulties.

220

On February 4, numerous meetings took place to prevent the proposal to overthrow the tree of liberty planted in the Rue du Carré-Saint-Martin at Paris. It was necessary to send troops to secure the performance of the order given by the prefect of police. Some people were killed and wounded. General de Lamoricière, who happened to be upon the spot, was in great danger and was only saved by escaping through an attic window on to the roof of a house, where some citizens had dragged him to protect him from the fury of the people.

221

The case of Pacifico had then reached its most critical point. This Portuguese Jew, who was under Prussian protection, claimed a considerable sum from the Greek Government in compensation for the pillage of a house on April 4, 1847, during a demonstration in the streets of Athens, at the time of a procession. The sum also included compensation for personal outrage. In order to obtain this indemnity Lord Palmerston blockaded the ports and coasts of Greece in 1850; on the intervention of France and the payment of the sum in question the blockade was raised. The French ambassador at London, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, left England, and this trivial incident nearly led to a general war.

222

Benningsen had been sent to Vienna to conciliate federal and individual instincts by a proposed Constitution which the four kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, Würtemberg, and Hanover were thought to have devised in concert with Austria. The attempt proved a failure.

223

Herr von Stockhausen.

224

Serious disorders had broken out in the Grand Duchy of Baden, where the Government of the Grand Duke Leopold I. had been strongly opposed by the Liberals, and had been struggling against unpopularity for years. This insurrection, which broke out in May 1849, was led by Mieroslawski. Leopold was obliged to leave Carlsruhe and his States, and was unable to return to them for a month, by which time the Prussians had intervened: their occupation of the country continued until 1850.

225

In Mecklenburg.

226

An allusion to the union between Prussia, Hanover, and Saxony, who had been ready to sign the Constitution in May 1849. The proposal came to nothing, as Hanover refused her adherence at the last moment under the influence of Austria.

227

This Congress had been convoked by Prussia upon the dissolution of the alliance of the Three Kings, from which Hanover and afterwards Saxony had withdrawn. The King of Prussia, asserting his desire to work for the unity of the German nation with all his power, convoked this Congress to oppose the ambitious ideas of Austria. The Princes answered the appeal, and the Congress was opened at Berlin on May 12.

228

This marriage in fact took place at Berlin on May 18, 1850.

229

The Bund was the alliance of all the German Sovereigns against a foreign enemy. It lasted until the war of 1866.

230

Administrative Council of the Federal State.

231

The Duke of Connaught born at Windsor on May 1, 1850.

232

On May 22, 1850, Sefeloge, a retired artillery sergeant, shot at the King as he was starting for Potsdam to spend the summer there. The King was tripped up by one of his spurs, and as he stumbled the bullet missed his head and merely grazed his right arm between the wrist and the elbow.

233

The Czar had then gone there.

234

The Sänger-Vereine are two choral societies founded centuries ago in Germany.

235

This monument was erected in memory of Eugène Beauharnais, who was made Duke of Leuchtenberg by King Ludwig of Bavaria, his father-in-law.

236

The name of the Royal Family of Bavaria.

237

The Duc de Bordeaux passed through Berlin, where his arrival caused much stir, on his way to Wiesbaden, where the question of the coalition between the two branches of the House of Bourbon was to be discussed. The King of Prussia, who was then at Potsdam, received him with great distinction. The Prince arrived on August 6 and stayed in the New Palace. He was accompanied by the Duc de Levis, the Marquis de La Ferté, M. Berryer, and by several other distinguished Frenchmen. During his stay Polyeucte was performed, and acted by Mlle. Rachel, who was at Berlin.

238

The Austrian General Haynau had become famous for his severe repressive measures in Italy during the bombardment of Peschiera and by his reprisals upon the inhabitants of Bergamo and Ferrara, by the sack of Brescia and the massacre of the insurgents. Afterwards, during the Hungarian war, he showed the same severity in the executions carried out at Pesth and Arad in October 1849; he was even said to have had women flogged. The General was staying at Berlin at that time.

239

Frederick VII., King of Denmark, married on August 7 a milliner named Lola Bosmussen, called the Danish Lola, who was made a Countess for the purpose. A rumour then spread from Hamburg that the King had abdicated in favour of his natural heir, the Duke of Oldenburg, in order to simplify the question of succession, but this news was without foundation.

240

Count Beust became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Dresden Cabinet in 1849, a post he had already held in 1841, and at the same time became responsible for the Ministry of Public Worship. He took an active part in the alliance of the Three Kings and attempted, with the concurrence of Austria, to bring about an alliance of the four Sovereigns.

241

King Louis Philippe died on August 26.

242

Popular feeling had been greatly aroused against General Haynau, on account of the repressive methods which he had used in the Italian and Hungarian wars in 1848 and 1849. In September 1850 he made a journey to London, and as he was visiting the brewery of Barclay and Perkins the workmen hooted him, mobbed him, tore out his moustaches, and threatened to throw him into their barrels.

243

Queen Louise died at Ostend on October 11, and was buried on the 16th at the Church of Laeken.

244

The struggle between Austria and Prussia had reached a critical point and provided the Emperor Nicholas with the opportunity of arbitrating between these two Powers, under pretext of preventing war. He went to Warsaw and there summoned conferences between the young Emperor of Austria and Prince Schwarzenberg, the President of the Austrian Council and the Count of Brandenburg representing Prussia. All eyes were turned in this direction, and assurances were given that every question which then disturbed Germany, the problems of Hesse, Schleswig, and of Austrian or Prussian supremacy, would be decided. The exasperation which the Count of Brandenburg experienced in consequence of the concessions then made by Prussia, was believed to be the cause of his death which occurred at the beginning of November.

245

The Prussian and Austro-Bavarian troops had in fact come into conflict on the road of Fulda, near the village of Brounzell, and five Austrian soldiers had been wounded in this outpost struggle.

246

Extract from a letter.

247

The conferences were held at Dresden in the greatest secrecy and were prolonged throughout the winter. They ended in a second Olmütz in May 1851.

248

This interview took place at Olmütz, not far from Oldenberg.

249

Herr von Manteuffel, who undertook temporarily the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs on the death of Count Brandenburg, secured a point of agreement between Austria and Prussia at Olmütz by consenting to the re-establishment of the Germanic Diet, by offering to support the abolition of the constitutional rights of the electorate of Hesse, and by handing over Schleswig-Holstein to Denmark. This policy of peace at any price, caused profound despondency in Prussia.

250

Herr von Gerlach was one of the editors of the New Gazette of Prussia, and the avowed chief of the so-called Kreuz party, often known as Gerlach's party.

251

An allusion to pages 123 and 124 of vol. i. of the Memoirs of Prince Talleyrand in which he referred to his interviews with the Comte d'Artois, without giving details of them.

252

June 1789, after the famous session of the 17th, when the Third Estate had proclaimed itself to be the National Assembly; M. de Talleyrand was at that time one of the clerical Deputies.