founded, was yet in all its vigor-and that there- | speaking, his other features retained every mark fore, in spite of transient difficulties and petty of energy; his eyes and his mouth alone betrayed disagreements, her freedom would eventually sur-the debauchee. There is a certain glassiness in vive all the dangers to which, at that eventful the eye, and a certain tremulous smoothness in the period, by the mingled rage of despotism and de- lips, which I never missed in the countenance of mocracy, its most sacred bulwarks were exposed. a man of pleasure when he speaks. Fox had both "My eye formed acquaintance apace with the per- in perfection; it was only in the moments of his sons of all the eminent senators of England; but highest enthusiasm that they entirely disappeartheir first and last attraction was in those of Pitt and ed. Then, indeed, when his physiognomy was Fox. The names of these illustrious rivals had lighted up with wrath or indignation, or intensest long been, even among foreigners, familiar as earnestness-then, indeed, the activity of his feahousehold words;' and I recognised them the tures did full justice to their repose. The gam. moment I perceived them, from their likeness to bler was no longer to be discovered—you saw innumerable prints and busts which I had seen. only the orator and the patriot. They tell us, Fox, in repose, had by far the more striking that modern oratory and modern action are tame, external of the two. His face had the massiness, when compared with what the ancients witnessed. precision, and gravity of a bronze statue. His I doubt, however, if either in the Pnyx or the eyes, bright but gentle, seemed to lurk under a Forum, more over-mastering energy, both of lanpair of rectilinear, ponderous, and shaggy eye-guage and of gesture, was ever exhibited, than I brows. His cheeks were square and firm; his have seen displayed in the House of Commons by forehead open and serene. The head could have Mr. Fox. When he sat down, it seemed as if he done no dishonor to poet, philosopher, or prince. had been, like the Pythoness of old, filled and agiThere was some little indecision in the lips, and a tated Tw ayav Osw. His whole body was dissolved tinge of luxury all over the lower features of the in floods of perspiration, and his fingers continued face. But benignity, mingled with power, was for some minutes to vibrate, as if he had been the predominant as well as the primary expression recovering from a convulsion. of the whole; and no man need have started had he been told that such was the physiognomy of Theseus, Sophocles, or Trajan. Pitt, in the same state of inaction, would not have made nearly such an impression on those who knew him not. It must have required the united skill of Lavater and Spurzheim to discover in him prima facie, a great man. His position was stiff, his person meagre; his nose was ill-formed, and on a very anti-grecian angle; his lips were inelegantly wavering in their line; his cheekbone projected too much, and his chin too little. The countenance seemed ex-rious information, abundant means of confirming pressive of much cleverness, but it was not till he spake that the marks of genius seized upon the attention. Had an utter stranger been shown the heads at a theatre, and informed that they were those of the two great politicians of England, he would certainly have imagined the dark eyebrows and solemn simplicity to belong to the son of Chatham, and guessed the less stately physiognomy to be the property of his more mercurial antagonist. "Mr. Fox was a finer orator than Mr. Pitt. His mode of speaking was in itself more passionate, and it had more power over the passions of those to whom it was addressed. His language was indeed loose and inaccurate at times; but in the midst of all its faults, no trace could ever be discovered of the only fault unpardonable in orators as in poets-weakness. He was evidently a man of a strong and grasping intellect, filled with enthusiastic devotion to his cause, and possessing, in a mind saturated with the most multifa his position by all the engines of illustration and allusion. It was my fortune to hear him speak before Mr. Pitt, and, I confess, that upon the conclusion of his harangue, filled with admiration for his warmth, his elegance, and the apparent wisdom of the measures he recommended, it was not my expectation, certainly not my wish, that an impression equal or superior in power should. be left upon me by the eloquence of the rival statesman. "Not so, had he seen either of them for the first "Nevertheless, it was so. I do not say that I time in the act of speaking. A few sentences, consider Mr. Pitt as so nearly allied to the great combined with the mode of their delivery, were politician-orator of Athens as his rival; but I sufficient to bring matters to their due level-to think he exhibited a far higher specimen of what raise Mr. Pitt, at least to the original standard of a statesman-orator should be, than Mr. Foxhis rival, and I rather think, to take away some-perhaps than Demosthenes himself ever did. It is what of the first effect produced by the imposing true, that the illustrious ancient addressed a motmajesty of Mr. Fox's features. They were both ley multitude of clever, violent, light, uncertain, exquisite speakers, and yet no two things could be self-conceited, and withal, bigotted Athenians; more dissimilar than their modes of oratory. Fox and that the nature of his oratory was, perhaps, displayed less calmness and dignity than his phy- better than any other, adapted to such an ausiognomy might have seemed to promise. In With intense inspiration. and because the beauty of his pinions consisted only in the uniform majesty of their strength. dience, invested by the absurdities of a corrupted they criticised him, like the peacocks of the Hindoo constitution, with powers which no similar assem- fable, because he had no starry feathers in his tail, bly ever can possess without usurpation, or exercise without tyranny. Mr. Fox had a strong leaning as I apprehend, by far too strong a "The style of speaking which was employed leaning to the democratic part of the British by this great man, seems to be the only style worconstitution. He even spoke more for the mul- thy of such a spirit as his was, intrusted with such titude without, than for the few within, the walls duties as he discharged. Intellect imbodied in of the House of Commons; and his resemblance language by a patriot-these few words compreto Demosthenes was perhaps a fault, rather than hend every thing that can be said of it. Every an excellence. Mr. Pitt always remembered sentence proceeded from his mouth as perfect, in that it was his business to address and convince, all respects, as if it had been balanced and elaboranot the British AHMOE, but the British senate. ted in the retirement of his closet: and yet no man "His mode of speaking was totally devoid of for an instant suspected him of bestowing any hesitation, and equally so of affectation. The previous attention whatever on the form or lanstream of his discourse flowed on smoothly, unin- guage of his harangues. His most splendid apterruptedly, copiously. The tide of Fox's elo-pearances were indeed most frequently replies, so quence might present a view of more windings that no such supposition could exist in the minds of and cataracts, but it by no means suggested the those who heard him. I have heard many elosame idea of utility ;-nor, upon the whole, was quent orators in England as well as elsewhere, the impression it produced of so majestic a charac- but the only one who never seemed to be at a loss ter. Mr. Pitt was, without all doubt, a consum- for a single word, or to use the less exact instead mate speaker, but in the midst of his eloquence, it of the more precise expression, or to close a senwas impossible to avoid regarding him at all tence as if the beginning of it had passed from his times, as being more of a philosopher than of an recollection, was William Pitt. The thoughts or orator. What to other men seems to be a most the feelings of such a soul would have disdained to magnificent end, he appeared to regard only as be set forth in a shape mutilated or imperfect. In one among many means for accomplishing his like manner, the intellect of Pitt would have great purpose. Statesmanship was, indeed, with scorned to borrow any ornament excepting only him the TEKUN OXITEKTOVIKY, and every thing was from his patriotism. The sole fire of which he kept in strict subservience to it. What Plato made use was the pure original element of heaven. vainly wished to see in a king, had he lived in our It was only for such as him to be eloquent after days, he might have beheld in a minister. that sort. The casket was not a gaudy one; but it was so rich, that it must have appeared ridiculous around a more ordinary jewel. By men of barren or paltry minds, I can conceive it quite possible that Pitt, as a speaker, might have been contemplated with very little admiration. That which they are qualified to admire in a speech, was exactly what he, from principle, despised and omitted. He presented what he conceived to be the truth, that is, the wisdom of the case in simplicity, in noble simplicity, as it was. Minds of grasp and nerve comprehended him, and such alone were worthy of doing so. The small men who spend their lives in pointing epigrams or weaving periods, could not enter into the feelings which made him despise the opportunity of displaying, for the sake of doing; and they reviled him as if the power, not the will, had been wanting. "While Pitt and Fox were both alive, and in the fullness of their strength, in one or other of the great parties of England, each of these illustrious men possessed an inflexible host of revilers; almost, such is the blindness of party spirit, of contemners. It is a strange anomalous circumstance in the constitution of our nature that it should be so, but the fact itself is quite certain, that, in all ages, of the world, political, even more than military leaders, have been subjected to this absurd use of the privi lege which their inferiors have of judging them. So spake the Macedonian vulgar of Demosthenes; so the more pernicious Athenian rabble of Philip. The voice of detraction, however, is silenced by death; none would listen to it over the tomb of the illustrious. A noble and patriotic poet of England has already embalmed, in lines that will never die, those feelings of regret and admiration wherewith every Englishman now walks above the * Sir Walter Scott. "Genius, and taste, and talent gone, Drop upon Fox's grave the tear; mingled ashes of Pitt and Fox. The genius, the integrity, the patriotism of either, is no longer disputed. The keenest partisan of the one departed chief would not wish to see the laurel blighted on the bust of his antagonist. Under other names the same political contests are continued; and so, while England is England, must they ever be. But already, such is the untarrying generosity of this great nation, and such the natural calmness of its spirit, the public judgment is as one concerning the men themselves. The stormy passions of St. Stephen's chapel are at once chastened into repose by the solemn stillness of Westminster Abbey. "It is probable that this national generosity has been carried too far. For me, I partake in the general admiration-I refuse to neither the honor that is his due. But as I did while they were alive, so, now they are dead, I still judge them impartially. There is no reason why I should join in the atonement, since I was guiltless of the sin. NOTES AND ANECDOTES, Political and Miscellaneous--from 1799 to 1830.-Drawn from M. DE MARTIGNAC-HIS MINISTRY. ment, for the purpose of forming a correct opinion of Louis XVIII loved the charter as one does anything of his own creation. He would have it believed that it was freely given to the people, though he knew better than any one else that it had been imposed upon him by necessity. Louis XVIII had comprehended, from coveted the power to regulate its movement, and he its commencement, the revolution of 1789; he had attempted to do it, but he was without credit. He had been accused of treating, with a view to his private interests, with the enemies of the monarchy. guilt, and his first expression, on re-entering France, But a rival power had raised itself up by the side of the throne of Louis XVIII, full of indignation against what is called concessions made to the revolution, never speaking of the charter in any language but that of contempt, or of its author without disdain; tormenting and disgusting those Ministers who refused to bend their knee before it, and to assume its colors; calling religion to its aid, for the purpose of using it as an instrument; adherents; introducing corruption into the electoral invading all the public offices; covering France with its colleges, for the purpose of afterwards controlling the chamber; and, in fine, holding itself in readiness to profit by every event. This power was known under the name of the pavillon marsan. It had been denounced to the chamber and to France as a concealed government. It was Charles X, with his secret council, preparing, during the lifetime of his brother, the work of July, 1830. In 1814, Louis XVIII felt, that without the charter, "Mr. Fox was, I think, a man of great talents France could not be governed six months; but he had and of great virtues, whose talents and virtues not strength to suppress the false steps of men who had were both better fitted for a leader of Parliamen- shared his misfortunes, but who had not, like himself, tary opposition, than for a prime-minister of Eng-profitted by the lessons of experience. His weakness land; for his talents were rather of the destructive was punished by a second exile; he then avowed his than of the constructive kind, and his virtues were more those of an easy and gentle heart, than of a firm unshaken will. Providence fixed him, during the far greater part of his life, where he was best fitted to be, and was equally wise in determining the brighter fortune of his rival. That fortune, however bright, was nevertheless, to judge as men commonly do, no very enviable boon. The life of Pitt was spent all in labor—much of it in sorrow; but, England and Europe may thank their God his great spirit was formed for its destiny, and never sunk into despondence. Year after year rolled over his head, and saw his hairs turning gray from care, not for himself, but for his country; but every succeeding year left this Atlas of the world as proudly inflexible, beneath his gigantic burden, as before. Rarely, very rarely, has it happened that one man has had it in his power to be so splendidly, so eternally, the benefactor of his species. So long as England preserves, within her 'guarded shore,' the palladium of all her heroes-the sacred pledge of Freedom,—his name will be the pride and glory of the soil that gave him birth. Nay, even should, at some distant day, the liberty of that favored land expire, in the memory of strangers he shall abundantly have his reward; for that holy treasure which he preserved to England might, but for the high resolution of this patriot martyr, have been lost for ever, not to her only, but to the world. He was a man, take him for all in all, Louis XVIII struggled, with various success, during Sometimes five years against the pavillon marsan. yielding to well directed attacks, now having recourse also, showing himself jealous of his power, and striking, to stratagem, to secure himself a victory; sometimes, as with the ordinance of the 5th of September, an energetic blow. But Louis XVIII was old and infirm. This intestine war, this war waged daily, exhausted his strength. He felt his end approaching, and desired to die in peace. To accelerate its triumph, the faction, inimical to the new institutions of France, had skilfully profitted by the deplorable assassination of the Duke of Berri. Was the attempt of Louvel a political crime? Was it not rather an act of personal vengeance? Per haps at some future day it may be explained. It was, | have but an ephemeral existence, and thought it necesnevertheless, used as a political crime for the purpose sary to prepare themselves for resisting a storm that of showing to Louis XVIII the danger of doctrines was gathering in the sombre distance. which were developed by his charter. The old King had too much tact and intelligence to suffer himself to be deceived, or to fail to perceive the future dangers contained in the remedy proposed to him; but overcome by fatigue he opposed but a feeble resistance, and soon resigned himself into the hands of others. Selfish, like all old men, Louis XVIII probably said to himself, as Louis XV had done before-"All this will last, at least, as long as I do. My successors may arrange for themselves as well as they can ;" and calling M. de Villèle into the Ministry, he placed, in fact, all authority in the hands of his brother, of whose absolute incapacity he was, nevertheless, perfectly convinced. The reign of Charles X then really dates from the moment of M. de Villèle's coming into power. From that time the schemes of the dominant faction might be seen through. Renouncing the concealed warfare which had been carried on from 1815, against the charter, it commenced an open attack upon the institutions which Louis XVIII had conferred upon France. I was present in the month of December, 1830, at one of the sittings of the court, during the trial of the Ministers. I carried home a celebrated orator, who for a long time figured in the first rank at the bar, and now occupies an exalted situation in the magistracy. We were conversing on the subject of the request pronounced by one of the Commissioners of the Chamber of Deputies. "The Commissioners of the Chamber," he said, "are wrong; they do not understand their parts; they reduce an immense process-that of France against the restoration to the narrow proportions of a prosecution against individuals. If I had had to speak in this affair, I would have traced these facts to their true source. Throwing Louis XVIII aside, who acted in my opinion with perfect sincerity, I would have exhibited Charles X, swearing to the charter, first as a Prince, and afterwards as King, with the settled determination of destroying it. I would have followed him through fifteen years, laboring incessantly at his work, sometimes yielding, but only that he might the more perfectly succeed in his deceptions; and, because the moment for action did not appear to have yet arrived, down to the day on which he found Ministers, whose blind devotion and weak understanding allowed them to associate themselves with his mad enterprize; and I would, as by accident, have encountered these four heads, whom I would scarcely have deigned to touch." The Ministry of M. de Martignac was one of those impediments to which Charles X had to submit. This Ministry was composed of honest men whose good intentions were, however, never acknowledged by the opposition, which made no allowance for the actual good which it accomplished, or for the extra-parliamentary resistance which it everywhere encountered. The most enlightened members of the opposition, and among the number, Cassimir Périer, Benjamin Constant, and General Sebastiani, appreciated the Martignac Ministry; and if they did not frankly and openly unite themselves to it, it was because they foresaw that this Ministry-imposed on the crown by public opinion-could | M. de Martignac, a man of delicate and enlightened mind-a man of concession and conciliation might have secured the safety of the tottering throne of Charles X. He labored to do so conscientiously, and in opposition to Charles X himself; and to do so required some courage. He had first to struggle in the Council, to obtain leave to effect a little good, and afterwards to combat in the Chamber two oppositions-the one repelling the good-the other wishing for more than he offered-the one accusing him of stripping the monarch of his prerogatives-the other reproaching him with refusing to France the perfection of her institutions. To be the Minister of a King who refused him his confidence, and to see his good intentions misconstrued, was, for two years, the political fate of M. de Martig nac. It will be acknowledged, that to purchase power at such a price, is to pay for it dearly enough. M. de Martignac had filled important posts under the Ministry of M. de Villèle. Charles X hoped to find in him a man disposed to follow, under perhaps more conciliatory forms, the system of his predecessors. He thought that he would be enabled, with M. de Martignac, as with M. de Villèle, to arrive insensibly at the accomplishment of his schemes; he calculated on making but an apparent concession to public opinion. This was also the idea of the opposition. Charles X was deceived, and the opposition believed itself so. The acts of the Martignac Ministry soon disabused Charles X, and he hastened to break an instrument which no longer answered his purpose. Afterwards, convinced that success was impossible by any such means, he determined to act with open force; and the Polignac Ministry was formed. M. de Martignac had given all that an honest man could give to his King and his country; he had given his health and his life. After his retirement from office, those who had been his adversaries, rendered full homage to his honorable character, and his pure intentions. I have before said that this is the only justice which statesmen can expect. PRINCE POLIGNAC-COUNT REAL. M. de Polignac was named Minister of Foreign Affairs; his nomination, announced a long time in advance, was a defiance thrown in the teeth of the nation. It replied by a unanimous cry of anger and indignation. Arrived at power, M. de Polignac remained, what he had always been, presumptuous almost to madness, regarding everything which he had dreamed of as possible and easy; and he had dreamed of the overthrow of our institutions. M. de Polignac had, since 1815, shared the sentiments of Charles X. He was the person that Charles X was to call upon at the mo ment of the execution of his schemes. At the time of the conspiracy of Georges, and under the empire, Count Real had frequently occasion to render important services to the Messrs. Polignac. I must do them the justice to state, that they never failed to show themselves grateful. After his return from exile, M. Real instituted a suit against the Caraman family, who, profiting by his absence, had possessed themselves of several shares of stock in the canal du Midi, which had been given him by the Emperor. The spoliation of M. Real, executed in virtue of an ordinance, which had been surprised from Louis XVIII, was a monstrous iniquity; without the revolution of July, he would, however, have very probably lost his suit, as the heirs of Count Fermon, placed in absolutely identical circumstances, had lost theirs against the same individuals. The judges of the restoration allowed the unconstitutionality of the imperial decrees to be pleaded before them; but they bowed before a royal ordinance, whether defective or not in form, or consistent with, or contrary to the law, with all the respect that is shown in Turkey to a firman of the sultan. M. Real, instructed by the failure of the heirs of M. de Fermon, had carried his suit before the Council of State. It was there at the period of M. de Polignac's elevation to the Ministry. M. Real thought that he might solicit the support of one who did not hesitate to say that he was under obligations to him. attending to all the preparations for the trial of those concerned in that affair, he could declare that the name of M. de Polignac was not once mentioned in the whole process. M. Real had gone to the Court of Peers the very day that this letter was read by M. de Martignac. He had found a place in the tribune of the journalists. I was seated near him. M. de Polignac directed his opera glass to the different tribunes with the most perfect indifference. He at last recognized M. Real; and after having indicated his position to his fellow prisoner, saluted him in the kindest and most affable manner. "It was in that same manner," said M. Real to me, "that he saluted me the day that I visited him at the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.” M. DE MONBEL. M. de Monbel-I will not say the Baron de Monbel, because M. de Monbel is no more a Baron than M. d'Arlincourt is a Viscount. M. de Monbel's real name is Baron; he added the de Monbel to his patronimique because having been born in a village of the name of Monbel. M. d'Arlincourt's name is Victor d'Arlincourt: he signed himself V. d'Arlincourt. On one occasion, and because of the V which preceded his name, Louis XVIII called him a Viscount, and he has suffered himself to pass under that name ever since. The article in the penal code, which punished the usurpation of titles, having been abolished, one has nothing more to say to the Baron de Monbel than to the Viscount d'Ar The vehemence with which the journals expressed themselves, on the occasion of the formation of the Polignac Ministry, cannot be forgotten. M. Real was still affected by what he had just read, when he presented himself in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Being immediately admitted to an audience with the Minister, he was surprised at the perfect serenity of M. de Polignac, and the tranquil and calm tone in which he expressed himself. After a few words had been exchanged on the business which brought M. Real to the office, they began to speak of public affairs.lincourt. "Well, Count, what do you think of the situation in which we find ourselves?" M. Baron, of Monbel, (department de la Haute-Garonne,) could hardly have anticipated, in 1825, the for"I do not know whether I should congratulate, or tune which he afterwards possessed, or the career which condole with your excellency." "Condole with me-and why?" was to be opened to him. He was the son of an individual whose income did not exceed four thousand francs, "The struggle seems to be so seriously waged, that and was educated at the college of Serreze. In 1825, one cannot say who will win or who will lose." (the proof of this fact is to be found in the office of the "And are you, a man of experience, frightened by Minister of the Interior,) he solicited, in virtue of the these idle clamors?" "It is exactly because I am a man of experience, that I have hesitated whether to address your excellency compliments of congratulation or condolence." "Things are not so desperate, M. Real, as you appear to think; all will be calm." "I wish it may be so; but, in the meantime, your excellency does not seem to be upon a bed of roses." devotion of his whole family, and in consideration of his limited means, the place of councillor of prefecture at Toulouse. It was about this time, (he was then forty years of age,) that, having married a rich woman, he caused himself to be nominated a deputy. He appeared in the Chamber, for the first time, in 1827, during the ministry of M. de Martignac. For his debut he supported, in conformity with the interest of the Villèle ministry, the accusation brought forward by M. Labbey de Pompières against the ministry of M. de Martignac. Already he had himself called M. le Baron de Monbel. Under this assumed title and false name, "But should Providence, accidentally, refuse to med- he became a minister, and was tried and condemned. dle with your affairs.” "It is true; but you know that I have been worse off; when I was in your custody, for example, I managed to extricate myself; and I will again extricate myself with the aid of Providence." "Oh! Providence is with us he will not abandon us." M. Real saw M. de Polignac but once afterwards. It was in the Chamber of Peers during the trial of the Ministers. M. de Polignac had been accused in some publications of having participated in the attempt at assassination of the 3d Nivose. M. de Martignac, the defender of the ex-president of the Council, had applied to M. Real on the subject, who replied by letter, that having been charged with the duty of THE REFUSAL TO PAY TAXES-A Precedent. The associations for the refusal of taxes, followed quickly after the formation of the Polignac ministry. Facts have since proved that France was not deceived in its anticipations, and that it wisely comprehended the hostility to its institutions to be expected from such men as Messrs. de Polignac, Bourmont, and Labourdonnaie; nor was the government, on its side, long in un |