LETTER LXIV. MY LORD, Paris, October, 1805. THOUGH loudly complained of by the Cabinet of St. Cloud, the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh has conducted itself in these critical times with prudence without weakness, and with firmness without obstinacy. In its connexions with our government it has never lost sight of its own dignity, and therefore never endured without resentment those impertinent innovations in the etiquette of our court, and in the manner and language of our Emperor to the representatives of legitimate sovereigns. Had similar becoming sentiments directed the councils of all other princes, and the behaviour of their ambassadors here, spirited remonstrances might have moderated the pretensions or passions of upstart vanity, while a forbearance and silence equally impolitic and shameful, have augmented insolence, by flattering 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-chamber at St. Petersburgh. Ignorance and folly commonly select fools for their agents, while genius and capacity employ men of their own mould and of their own cast. It is a remarkable truth that notwithstanding the frequent revolutions. in Russia, since the death of Peter the First, the ministerial helm has always been in able hands; the progressive 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 volup tuous Princess, was a great sovereign, and a competent judge of. merit; and it was her unbiassed choice that seated Count Woronzoff, when young, in her councils. Though the intrigues of favourites have sometimes removed him, he always retired with the esteem of his sovereign, and was recalled without caballing or cringing to return. He is admired by all who have the honour of approaching him, as much for his obliging condescension as for his great information. No petty views, no petty caprices, no petty vengeances find room in his generous bosom. He is known to have conferred benefactions not only on his enemies, but on those who, at the very time, were meditating his destruction. His opinion is, that a patriotic minister should regard no other as his enemies but those conspiring against their country, and acknowledge no favourites incapable of well serving the state. Prince de Z waited on him one day, and, after hesitating some time, began to compliment him on his liberal sentiments, and concluded, by asking the place of governor for his cousin, with whom he had reason to suppose the Count much offended. "I am happy," said his Excellency, "to oblige you, and to do my duty at the same time. Here is a libel he wrote against me, and presented to the Empress, who graciously has communicat ed 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 is not my fault, if he is not to-day a governor." In two hours afterwards, the nomination was announced to Prince Z, who was himself at the head of a cabal against 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 de Czartorinsky, the assistant of Count de Woronzoff, and minister of the foreign department, unites with the vigour of youth, the experience of age. He has travelled in most countries in Europe, not solely to figure at courts, to dance at balls, to look at pictures, or to collect curiosities, but to study the characters of the people, the laws by which they are governed, and their moral or social influence, with regard to their com forts or misery. He therefore brought back with him a stock of knowledge, not to be acquired in books, but only found in the world, by frequenting 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 friendship of his Prince; and, what is still more rare, is worthy of both. All sovereigns have favourites, few ever had any friends; because it is more easy to flatter vanity, than to display a liberal disinterestedness; to bow meanly, than to in struct or to guide with delicacy and dignity; 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 Alexander, and such ministers as Count de Woronzoff and Prince de Czartorinsky, should appoint a. Count de Markoff to a high and important post, was not unexpected, by any one not ignorant of his merit. Count de Markoff was, early in the reign of Catharine II. employed in the office of the foreign department at St. Petersburgh, and was, whilst young, entrusted with several important negotiations at the Courts of Berlin and Vienna, when Prussia had propos ed the first partition of Poland. He afterwards went on his travels, from which he was recalled to fill the place of an ambassador to the late King of Sweden, Gustavus III. He was succeeded, in 1784, at Stockholm, by Count Muschin Puschin, after being appointed a secretary of state in his own country; a post he occupied with distinction, until the death of Catharine 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 es teem of all those who had known him. In 1801, immediately after his accession to the throne, Alexander invited Count de Markoff to his court and council : and the trusty but difficult task of representing a legitimate sovereign, at the court of our upstart usurper, was conferred on him. I imagine that I see the great surprise of this nobleman, when, for the first time, he entered the audience-chamber of our little great man, and saw him fretting, staring, swearing, abusing to the right and to the left, for one smile conferring twenty frowns, and for one civil word making use of fifty harsh expressions, marching in the di plomatic audience as at the head of his troops, and commanding foreign ambassadors as his French soldiers. I have heard that the report of Count de Markoff to his court, describing this new and rare show, is a chief-d'œuvre of wit, equally amusing 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 most of the other members of the foreign diplomatic corps in France, like a valet of the First Consul; and that, in the latter case, he implored, as a favour, an im mediate recall; preferring, had he no other choice left, sconer to work in the mines in Siberia, than to wear in France the dis graceful fetters of a Buonaparte. His subsequent dignified conduct, proves the answer of his court. Talleyrand's craft and dissimulation could not delude the saga. city of Count de Markoff, who was, 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 ambassador. Sometimes he was reproached, as having emigrants 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 forgot to sign his name to their passes, which were otherwise in order. The fact was, that our minister suspected them of carrying some papers, which he wanted to see, and, therefore, wrote his name with an ink of such a composition, that, af ter a certain number of days, every thing written with it disappeared. Their effects and papers were strictly searched by an agent preceding them from this capital, but nothing was found; our minister being misinformed by his spies. When Count de Markoff left Sweden, he carried with him an actress of the French theatre at Stockholm, Madame Hus, an Alsacian by birth, but who had quitted her country twelve years before the Revolution, and could, therefore, never be included among emigrants. She had continued as a mistress and an agreeable companion with this nobleman, and is the mother of several children by him, who has never been married. As I have often said, Talleyrand is much obliged to any foreign diplomatic agent, who allows him to be the indirect provider or procurer of his mistresses; after, in vain, tempting Count de Markoff 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 thrown away. The lady remained a faithful friend, and, therefore, refused with indignation to degrade herself into a spy on her lover. Our minister then first discovered, that not only Madame Hus was an emigrant, but had been a great benefactress, and constant compa nion of emigrants at St. Petersburgh, and, of course, deserved to be watched, if not punished. Count de Markoff is reported to have said to Talleyrand, on this grave subject, in the presence of two other foreign ambassadors, "A propos! what shall I do, to prevent my poor Madame Hus from being shot as an emigrant, and my poor children from becoming prematurely or phans ?"—" Sir," said our diplomatic oracle," she should have petitioned the First Consul for permission to return to France, before she entered it; but, in regard for you, if she is prudent, she will not, I dare say, 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 entertainment of all the foreign agents, who dared to smile or to laugh. LETTER LXV. Paris, October, 1805. MY LORD, THE Legion of Honour, though only proclaimed upon Buonaparte's assumption of the Imperial rank, dates from the first year of his consulate. To prepare the public mind for a progressive elevation of himself, and for consequential distinctions among all classes of his subjects, he distributed among the military, arms of honour, to which were attached precedence and privileges 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 them numerous enough to support his changes, he made all these wearers of arms of honour, Knights; never before, were so many chevaliers created en masse; they amounted to no less than twenty-two thousand four hundred, distributed in different corps of different armies, but principally in the Army of England. To these were afterwards joined five thousand nine hundred civil functionaries, men of letters, artists, &c. To remove, however, all ideas of equality, even among the members of the Legion of Honour, they were divided into four classes, grand officers, commanders, officers, and simple legionaries. * |