practice rigidly, throughout his whole administration. "I have already," says he, "been careful to give the public an account of every increase in my fortune, and of every new dignity conferred upon me, in the order in which they happened, and I shall continue this practice. As I look upon such results to be subject to calculation, I shall put every one in the way of doing it for himself, and, in the mean time, they will see it completely accomplished at the end of these memoirs." He accordingly proceeds to give the following detail of the patrimony with which he first started into public life, and of the gradual augmentation of his income by the offices successively bestowed upon him. "My father's estate being equally divided between me and the only surviving brother out of four, my share of it, added to my wife's fortune, which was ten thousand livres a-year, amounted but to an income of fifteen or sixteen thousand livres ; and as this was not much augmented during the five-and-twenty years in which the king's want of funds put it out of his power to reward his servants, this formed my whole income when the revenue of the state were committed to my care. I know there are many persons who would blush to make such a confession; but, as I have already said, there is but one thing of which a man need feel ashamed, and that is, of wealth corruptly or suspiciously acquired. For myself, I have neither the reproach of extortion, nor confiscation, nor equivocal profits, to fear; all that I have added to the means I set out with, has arisen wholly from the king's bounty towards me, so that I owe all to one God and one master. "What I had been able to add to my fortune up to the present year, 1598, amounted to the following sums. From my appointment as counsellor of Navarre, two thousand livres a-year; the same sum as counsellor of state, with a pension of three thousand six hundred livres, which the king annexed to this post; my salary as member of the council, having been raised by degrees, and in proportion to his majesty's estimate of my services, amounted, at this time, to twenty thousand livres; the king doubled my company of gend'armes, which consisted, at first, of only fifty men, and being afterwards with that of the queen, of which I was lieutenantcaptain, the pay amounted to five thousand livres. I was likewise made an honorary member of the Parliament of Paris, but to this no stipend was annexed. It was at this period that Chauvelier paid me, for the first dispensation which had ever been granted from the rule of forty days, the sum of four thousand crowns. I shall include in one item, the prefectship of Mante, which had been given to me, and that of Gergeau, which was given me afterwards. Such was the state of my fortune at that timet the progress of it, till then somewhat slow, became very rapid the following years, by the high offices with which his majesty honoured me, and by gratuities so considerable, that when I cast them up, they will form one of the most important items. I shall insert in it the very smallest of his presents, and even those which I received from other crowned heads. Before proceeding further," says he, "with these particulars, I will proceed to give a description of my daily employment, and of my mode of living, after I entered on my public capacity. Though, in order to dispose of this topic at once, it is necessary that I should advert to certain posts which were not given to me till some time afterwards." + From this account, which he then proceeds to detail, we learn that six days in every week a council was held, both morning and evening. The chief, which occupied three alternate days, was called "The Council of State and Finance," of which the king himself was president, and attended most punctually. The dukes and peers, the officers of the crown, the knights of the orders, insti * About 7501. The livre of the Paris mint was then twenty-five sous (one shilling and a halfpenny of our money), the livre Tournois, was twenty sous (ten pence); the money struck at Tours being less in value by one-fifth. Calculating, therefore, the livres as shillings, for the sake of even money, we shall have the amount in pounds sterling exact enough for the purpose of estimate, when the income of his respective appointments are stated as well as in every other case where the livre is the denominated coin. Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 404. † Ann. 1698. tuted by his majesty, or such as had a royal warrant, were admitted to a seat, and had a deliberative voice. All petitions, on whatever subject, were here received and examined. The remaining three days of the week were occupied, morning and evening, with councils of another kind, called Conseils des Parties, containing appeals and references from private parties; if there were any points in contest, they were despatched to the proper tribunals, care being taken that they were decided with prompt and even-handed justice. Sully never failed to be present at the council of state; the business almost wholly devolved upon him, and to him all letters and petitions were addressed. On questions which required great deliberation, which did not often occur, he generally accompanied his communication of them with a note, of the answer which it would be expedient to give. He was generally employed afterwards, till the hour of supper. When that arrived, he had the doors shut; and forgetting all public business, gave himself up wholly to his wife and children, and the society of a few intimate friends, and at ten retired to bed. The mass of business which thus came before him, though despatched with the utmost assiduity, necessarily engrossed the greatest portion of every day. It allowed but little relaxation even to the severest labour. Sully rose every morning at four, summer and winter. His two first hours were employed in reading and answering the memorials placed upon his bureau. This he called "cleaning the carpet." He then dressed to attend the council, which met at seven, and lasted till ten, sometimes eleven. The remainder of the morning he usually passed with the king, from whom he received directions on such affairs as fell within the particular situations which he occupied. At twelve o'clock he sat down to dinner; his table scarcely ever exceeded ten covers, and those of the most simple kind. To those who sometimes rallied him on this frugality, he always replied in the words of the ancient philosopher: "if the guests are wise, there will be sufficient for them; if they are not, I can dispense with their company." On rising from dinhe withdrew into his hall, in which he every day gave a stated audience, and ner, which, on this account, was always filled about this hour. All persons, of whatever class, were admitted, and every one's business was dispatched before he retired. All the minor duties, such as clearing the accounts of the different persons employed in repairing the highways, and keeping the fortresses in condition, were punctually performed at stated periods. His attention was likewise devoted to the marine, as well as to his office of grand-master of artillery. It required the strong constitution which Sully fortunately possessed to bear him through the fatigue of such varied occupation The king appreciated very highly this unremitting industry. On arriving one day at the Arsenal, where Sully resided, he asked, on entering, "Where is the minister?" The answer was, " He was writing in his cabinet." Henry, upon this, turning to two of his courtiers who were with him, said, smiling, " Didn't you think that they were going to tell me he was out hunting, or was with the ladies?" Then addressing him to the Duke de Roquelaire, said, " For how much would you lead such a life?" "Not for a kingdom," replied the duke. The avidity of the courtiers was very ill satisfied under the system of retrenchment which Sully had found it indispensable to adopt. They called him "the Negative ;" and said that the word yes was never in his mouth. The king, who was aware that abuses abounded every where, and that their reform was imperatively called for by the wants, and by the voice of the nation, not only approved the intrepidity with which his minister attacked them, but knowing what an invidious task he had undertaken, gave him his steadiest countenance and support. Before the date of his stewardship, many of the highest officers of government levied taxes for their own profit, sometimes of their own authority, at other times by virtue of edicts obtained covertly, and by intrigue. Sully opposed himself inflexibly to all this. Count Soissons, about this period, endeavoured to obtain from the king, as the reward of alleged services, an edict empowering him to impose a tax of fifteen sous (74d.) on every bale of linen brought into or carried out of the kingdom. According to his estimate, this impost would amount only to 10,000 crowns, although, according to Sully's calculation, it would have netted nearly 300,000. At the same time, other courtiers besieged the king, to obtain from him various grants and privileges, all at the expense of the people. Sully went to the palace to remonstrate against these vexatious importunities. He had no sooner arrived, than the Marchioness of Vernueil, one of the king's mistresses, approached him. She had been interesting herself in the success of these different solicitations. Sully did not conceal from her how much he was revolted by the applications thus made by those who surrounded the throne, which could not, in justice or in decency, be granted. "Indeed," said the favourite haughtily," the king would do well to make so many persons of quality discontented, merely to conform himself to your notions. Besides, on whom ought the king to confer favours, if not on his relations his courtiers, and his mistresses." "Ma dam," replied Sully, you would be perfectly right, if the king took the money out of his own purse; but it seems likely that he must take it out of the pockets of the merchant, the manufacturer, the working people, and the husbandman; now these classes, who not only maintain his majesty, but all of us, have enough in one master only, and do not want so many courtiers, princes, and mistresses." These expressions were reported to Henry, and with a comment calculated to impress the king with the belief that his minister publicly censured his extravagance, and branded all that were the objects of his bounty. But no sooner did the king learn in what quarter, and on what occasion, these remarks originated, than instead of being angered against Sully, he reproved those who would fain pervert them to his prejudice. LOVE'S LAST DREAM. En vain le jour succède au jour, Day follows day, yet leaves no trace I see my years, with swift increase, As round its trunk the ser'd oak sees My brow by age is silver'd o'er ; 1 The chill'd blood through my viens But oh, thine image-young and bright- Long call'd to thine immortal birth, And there to me thou dost appear DE LA MARTINE. The beauty to thy being given, Adorns thee in the sky; Thine eyes-whence life's sweet light was drivenBeam immortality. Wav'd by the fond and loving air, Still do thy tresses flow; The ringlets of thy long dark hair Thus veil'd, a softer radiance seems As we behold the sun's bright beams But oh, my love can know no night, In desert gloom, and in the storm, And hear; the wave reflects your form- And when the earth in slumber lies, When the soft breeze I hear, When gazing on those fires afar, That gem the veil of night, When zephyr from spring's brightest wreath In sweetest odours I but breathe Thy balmy sighs again. When wandering lone and silently, To pour my secret prayers for thee- And when I sleep, thy downy wings From thee my every dream still springs, If in that sleep thou should'st untie The chain of life, unblest, My soul's celestial part! I'd fly To waken in thy breast! Then should our souls, like blended beams Of the most blessed sun, Or mingled sighs, or partless streams, Be ONE-be ONLY ONE! ALP. WALKS ROUND OUR LIBRARY. OUR library, fair readers, is none of the largest. We are not of the whip-club, to determine if a coach and six horses could be dexterously turned therein, nor have we any very correct notion of how many volumes find places on our shelves; but we flatter ourselves, that the few hundred we possess are "choice," and this is almost asserting that they are, for the most part, old. Our readers will take it for granted, that the fashionable" libraries" have not contributed vastly to our stock; yet, it would be uncandid to say that we have not, here and there, selected a book from the publications of the last two or three years; though it would be equally unfair to assert that our catalogue owes much to them. We are a sort of absolute monarch in our library, our books are our subjects; we, notwithstanding the march of liberality, keep all of them in their proper places, tax them all as we please, play the despot with all the ease imaginable; exalt some, transport others—just as the whim moves us, so we move them, and as the title of the one or the other pleases our fancy, so we adopt the chosen author as our privy counsellor, for the time being. In our "walks round our library," we shall make a few notes, select a few scraps, record some of our thoughts thereon, and, perhaps, offer a few acceptable deductions. Many Irishmen of tolerable education misuse the words "bring," and "brought." They will say, "I went to Dublin last week; the mail brought me there nicely." "I am going to Cork to-morrow; the carriage will bring me there cleverly." This jargon extends occasionally to their literature. Hawksworth, in his preface to Swift's works, complains, that in an Irish edition, the editor has altered the passage, "A gentleman usher came from court, commanding my master to carry me thither," to "A gentleman came from court, commanding my master to bring me thither." EXQUISITE DESCRIPTION OF FEMALE BEAUTY. Mason had the true touch of poesy in his soul, though it did not often display itself in his Caractacus, Elfrida, or Botanic Garden. But his lines on the death of Lady Coventry, and those on the death of his own wife (a perfect gem!) are enough to establish my position. The whole range of English poetry does not contain a more fascinating delineation of female loveliness, than the following stanzas from his pen, present: Whene'er with soft serenity she smil'd, Or caught the orient blush of quick surprise, The liquid lustre darted from her eyes! |