Rochecotte, November 28, 1840.—The Duc de Noailles writes: "You will see by reading the reports of yesterday's session in the Chamber of Deputies the excitement which pervaded the assembly. This establishes and confirms peace with disgrace. These events will be a heavy burden upon the future of the present dynasty. I think that the consequence at home will be a kind of reform in the Chamber, which will produce a dissolution, and also another Chamber, in which we shall be forced to endure a Left Ministry led by Thiers."
Madame Mollien writes to me: "Queen Christina is pretty; her complexion is superb, her skin fine and white; she has a gentle look and a clever and gracious smile, but those who wish to think her charming must look no lower than her head; in full detail she is almost a monstrosity, quite as much as her sister the Infanta. She came to France unattended by any of her ladies, though the newspapers are pleased to speak of some Doña, who, if she does exist, is probably nothing but a chambermaid. At Paris there are some Spanish ladies who will perform some kind of attendance upon her; at the present moment the Duchess of Berwick is so acting. Her suite is composed of only two men, who are both young; one especially, the Count of Raquena, does not seem to be more than twenty. He is a little man with fair moustaches, and looks like a comedy lieutenant. I do not know when the Queen will start. She says she is very happy here. I am afraid she will be too happy and stay too long. These royal visits always cause a certain amount of disturbance, which soon wearies the inhabitants of the Tuileries. She dines there every day, though she is staying in the royal palace. Her interview with her sister was very cold, but it passed off without any scene, and nothing more was expected."
The Duchesse de Bauffremont sent me news of the marriage of her grandson with the second Mlle. d'Aubusson; the eldest daughter is marrying Prince Marc de Beauvau. Gontran's marriage will not take place for a year, as the young lady is only fifteen; she will be enormously rich. Her mother is Mlle. de Boissy. Her father has been ill for ten years, and his property is in the hands of executors. Gontran is not yet nineteen, and a very handsome young fellow.
Rochecotte, November 29, 1840.—The day before yesterday the Journal des Débats was very curiously filled with the speeches of M. Passy and M. Guizot, throughout which M. Thiers must have felt himself somewhat uneasy. On the whole these explanations are not very creditable to the cleverness of any one except to the skill and the dignified tenacity of Lord Palmerston. It appears to me that all the French actors have emerged from the business somewhat bespattered, including even the little Bourqueney.
Rochecotte, November 30, 1840.—The discussions in the Chamber have induced me to read the newspaper through, and I am not sorry, for it is a curious drama, though one in which the situation is more interesting than the people, whose appearance becomes ever more threadbare as they adopt the most certain means of degradation, want of straightforwardness, simplicity, and truth in their dealings. Moreover, this discussion is like the Day of Judgment; whether they like it or not, every one is stripped of his fine feathers, and truth is forced to the forefront. Hitherto M. Villemain seems to me to speak the truth in the most suitable and striking language, but he is only in a position to speak for one side of the matter, though this, in my opinion, is the side to which blame chiefly attaches.
Rochecotte, December 1, 1840.—The Duc de Noailles tells me: "I had a long talk yesterday with M. Guizot, and I told him that recent events and all that discussion has brought forth will considerably complicate the present situation for a long time. He thinks, on the contrary, that the difficulties are only momentary, and that public feeling upon this question will be as short-lived as it was upon the Polish war eight years ago.[ [144] I also had a long talk with Berryer concerning his speech; he is thinking it over, and has some good ideas; his conclusion will probably give the Ministry a set-back. He will say that war is obviously impossible at this moment, but that peace as formulated by the Ministry is not acceptable to the Chamber, and that the Address should be referred to a new commission. Odilon Barrot and M. Dufaure have already proposed this idea, which might easily become popular. I also met Thiers at the Chamber, and walked about for ten minutes with him. I reminded him that I had already prophesied the events that have come to pass, because in this great business nothing could be done without alliances, while France was united to an ally who was opposed to her interests and obviously likely to abandon her. He replied that France even alone could have prevented action, at the expense, however, of great energy and a large display of force. He throws the whole responsibility upon the King; he says that it is a case of inertia upon the throne, and that with inertia in high places and also naturally ingrained in the nation, nothing can be done; that if the Duc d'Orléans had been King the course of events would have been different; that he would perhaps have perished, but have perished with dignity, and would not have left France in her present state of humiliation and hopelessness, in which she will long continue. In any case, he is entirely devoted to the Left, and M. Odilon Barrot drew the bonds tighter yesterday. Madame de Lieven is, I think, really attached to Guizot, for she no longer goes to the sessions of the Chamber, and confines herself to asking news of them with much anxiety."
I now come to an extract from a letter from the Princesse de Lieven herself: "Thiers seems to have decided that he will no longer serve the King. He says that he will wait for the Duc d'Orléans. Syria is lost for the Pasha. It is hoped and believed that he will yield to the summons of the English Admiral Stopford. I suppose that the French Government is advising him to do so; then the matter will be concluded with no glory for France, we must admit, and with every credit to Lord Palmerston. There are many people who strongly object to this latter result. The Ministers here expect a decent majority of fifty or sixty in favour of the Address, after which they will get on as well as they can. M. Guizot seems very tired, but is full of courage. At Vienna people are delighted with the change of Ministry and full of confidence in the present Ministers. I have no news of public opinion as yet from St. Petersburg. I am a little curious to hear what our Russian public will say about this great affair which has been settled without any active interference on the part of us Russians; it will cause us some astonishment. You will probably ask me whether there is a Russian public; the question is not unreasonable, but there is one, as far as the East is concerned. When I was at London as Ambassadress I ventured to call Turkey our Portugal; my own Court much appreciated the epigram, but the English did not. No haste is shown here to nominate a London Ambassador; I think they would prefer the Egyptian business to be settled first. We shall certainly have to wait until the middle of December. Madame de Flahaut does not know what to do, torn as she is by the whims and fancies which are natural to her and the extreme desire of her husband for a diplomatic post. The King greatly wished his ambassadors to call upon Queen Christina in a body; many of them felt scruples upon the point, but at length they decided to go, regarding her as nothing more than the widow of Ferdinand VII., and in fact she is nothing more now. The Queen of England is said to have had a very easy confinement, and will probably have seventeen children like her grandmother. Madame de Nesselrode lives at the Chamber of Deputies; she is in love with Thiers, and has joined the Opposition extremists; she is finding life quite pleasant here. I see very little of her as her time is taken up with the debates in the Chamber and with theatres. My ambassador is crushed beneath the weight of all the great Russian ladies who are grouped together in Paris. I am sorry for him, for I can believe that it is entirely tiresome."
I would have been ready to make a bet that Madame de Nesselrode would conceive a violent fancy for Thiers, if it were only to rival Madame de Lieven's fancy for Guizot. After reading the speech of M. Barrot and the series of invectives which he aimed directly at Guizot, I began to wonder yesterday how such things could be said and heard without leading to further explanations by means of swords and pistols.
Rochecotte, December 3, 1840.—The following are the most important passages from the bulletin sent by M. de Salvandy, under date December 1, before and during the session of the Chamber. He says: "Have you heard at Rochecotte a pleasant epigram by Garnier Pagès, who is to speak to-day? 'I would strip them both, and their ugliness would then be obvious.' This epigram very well sums up the situation. M. Thiers retains his revolutionary attitude, but that is all; he remains incompetent to many and impossible to all. M. Guizot is far from having gained all that M. Thiers has lost. He has immense talent, admirable strength of mind in times of storm, the gift of overaweing all hostile revolts in the Assembly, and the art of raising the minds of his audience to consider questions with him upon a higher plane and from a wider point of view; these are his special advantages, though he has never made the best of them. Yet he grows stronger, though he raises no defences, and rests his power upon the majority without permanently establishing it. The soil declines to be cultivated. M. Thiers is like a mistress who is asked only to behave herself; anything will be permitted to him, and his reputation will not suffer. M. Guizot is the woman of strict morals who has been a failure and is blamed for everything. This struggle between the Ambassador and the Minister, in spite of attempts to soften it, does harm to the Chamber and to public opinion. He is not even pardoned for his firm resolve to abandon the principles of the Coalition, as if people would have preferred him faithful to infidelity personified. The speech of Dufaure seems to many people a manifesto intervening between the Cabinet and M. Thiers; the action of Passy and Dupin in this direction has caused much anxiety. My name is coupled with this movement because no one imagines that Ministers in retirement are not displeased to be employed. M. Molé is represented as hovering above all, although he has no connection with the sphere in which the Ministry of May 12 predominates, for that Ministry, I think, regards it as a point of honour to preserve its consistency by holding aloof from M. Molé, as Jaubert thinks to remain consistent by retaining his seat among the others, whom he wounds and annoys by his constant outcries against the King and his enthusiasm for M. Barrot. Such is our position. The ground seems to be crumbling beneath us. Alas for our country, which should be strong and cannot be governed! Our Chamber is really the Œil de Bœuf of the democracy.[ [145] Favourites, male and female, disturb everything by their intrigues, and spend the time in overthrowing one another, with the result that ruin is universal. I am going to the Chamber, where MM. de Lamartine and Berryer will cross swords, and shall close this letter there.
"P.S.—Berryer has just spoken, a clever, brilliant, and perfidious speech. He has protected Thiers by going straightway to the Tuileries. There he has displayed his thunderbolts and launched anathemas against M. Guizot the Ambassador, which have been definitely applauded three times by the Assembly. M. de Lamartine is now rising to reply."