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METTERNICH AND PRINCESS LIEVEN

THE publication in 1880 of Prince Metternich's autobiographical Memoirs was a disappointment alike to the student of history and of character. In accordance with the writer's wish, they were not made known until thirty years after his death, and this reticence had only stimulated public curiosity. For nearly forty years Metternich had played the most prominent part in European politics, and had been the incarnation of the policy which for a time drove back and afterwards held in check the revolutionary spirit of which Napoleon had been the most vivid expression. He had been intimately connected with the chief actors in the struggle which ended in the collapse of more than one dynasty, and in the remodelling of the map of Europe. For these reasons it was hoped that his Memoirs when published would reveal much that was still inexplicable in the diplomacy of his day, and at the same time would throw some light on the personal character of the man who had held in his hand the threads of so many political intrigues. These hopes were not realised, and although the editor of the Memoirs may naturally be supposed to have used some discretion in the publication of the materials in his hands, there is greater ground for believing that the author himself modified his original intention. In the introductory note, written by Metternich in 1844, he expresses his conviction that 'those who make history have no time to write about it; at least, I have not.' This is so completely at variance with the intentions expressed by him in 1819, that we can only suppose that either indolence or policy caused him to abandon the original scheme, or perhaps even to destroy what he had already written. In this letter Metternich writes: 'After my death will be found Memoirs of the greatest interest concerning this man [Napoleon] and his time; a perfectly correct term, for the time was his. Many facts will be made intelligible, many doubts removed, many errors corrected by my Memoirs. I have been writing them for the last four years; I am working on them constantly, and I shall bring them to a conclusion, for already they are well advanced. . . This work is one of my favourite occupations. It will cover the whole period from 1806 to the Peace of Paris in 1815. I know

much about these twelve years, possibly more than anybody. I shall limit my work to the year 1815, because all that has happened since belongs to the domain of ordinary history.' Metternich, moreover, in the same letter expresses his conviction that few men knew Napoleon so well; that he had studied him closely and, he asserts, correctly, as time would show.

This letter, which is a model of style and descriptive power, was written on the anniversary of the battle of Leipsig (the 18th of October) the greatest event of modern times, and which decided the fate of Napoleon. It was published with Prince Metternich's Memoirs, but without any indication to whom it was addressed. It now affords an important clue to the letters to which it is proposed to call attention in these pages, but before dealing with them it may be as well to say briefly what is known of Metternich's private life and habits. His father, who had been in the Austrian diplomatic service, had acquired sufficient reputation to be able to start his son in the same profession, but there is little evidence to show that the latter displayed at first any special interest or aptitudes. He was employed on ceremonious duties which brought him to London, where he witnessed the trial of Warren Hastings, and to The Hague. During his absence his family were busily engaged in finding him a wife, and with such success that almost immediately after his return to Vienna, in the autumn of 1795, he was married at the age of twentyone to the granddaughter and heiress of Prince Kaunitz, the European coach-driver,' who had been the trusted adviser of Maria Theresa and of Joseph the Second. Whether the marriage was one de sentiment ou de raison it is unnecessary to inquire. But the terms in which Metternich refers to it certainly do not suggest that in taking the step he was carried away by his feelings :

On my return to Vienna I found my parents were busy in making up a marriage for me. . . . After certain preliminary negotiations the matter was left to the decision of the young people. I was just one-and-twenty, and the thought of marrying at that early age had never occurred to me. However, at soon became evident that my parents were extremely anxious for the marriage. I made acquaintance with my intended wife in the course of the summer, and the marriage took place on the 27th of September, 1795, at Austerlitz.

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This is the only reference to the matter which appears in Metternich's autobiography, but he adds that up to this time public affairs had little attraction for him, and that his own tastes would have led him to scientific pursuits. His marriage, however, had brought him into closer contact with those who directed public affairs, and it was the incapacity of these which drove him into politics, although, as he assures us, he was wholly without ambition throughout life. At any rate, his rise in Court favour was rapid, and he attracted the favourable notice of Baron Von Thugut, the

Minister of Foreign Affairs, at whose instigation he was deputed to represent the Westphalian nobility at the abortive Congress of Rastadt. Subsequently he acquitted himself as Austrian Envoy at Dresden and Berlin with so much credit that on the conclusion of the Treaty of Presburg, after Austerlitz, he was sent to Paris to establish harmony between the French and Austrian Empires. Throughout this busy time abroad there was little leisure for the growth of domestic sentiment at home, but, from the rare allusions to be found in contemporary gossip, Metternich's private life was not in any way distinguished from that of his fashionable and pleasureseeking contemporaries. The code of morals at the Court of Vienna was not especially strict, and so far as we may gather from the notebooks of Varnhagen, the letters of Gentz and Rahel, or even from those of the staid Wilhelm von Humboldt, the young and handsome Austrian diplomatist enjoyed successes other than professional. His whole life, moreover, bore witness to his love for women's society, but to his credit it must be added that his name was almost always associated with the most gifted, artistically and intellectually, of his time. Metternich was an admirable talker, a charming letter-writer, and remarkably well-informed on literary and artistic and even on scientific subjects. In fact, few men were better equipped for social success or for attracting women who were dissatisfied with the frivolity of Court life and its petty intrigues. In the following letters it will be admitted that both correspondents were fairly matched, and were probably drawn together in the first instance by a community of taste and feeling. With the closer relations which may have existed between them we are not concerned-pereunt et imputantur. For us the letters are interesting in so far as they reveal the human side of a great statesman's character, and of one who by his own act would seem to have wished posterity to regard him (notwithstanding his protest) as living solely for ambition, and finding no time or no place for love in his life.

Of Metternich's correspondent, the Princess Lieven, it is unnecessary to speak at length. By her correspondence with Earl Grey, edited some years ago by Mr. Guy L'Estrange, English readers were made acquainted with the Russian ambassadress's singular talent for letter-writing and her power of captivating the hearts of those whom she admitted to her intimacy. In a further instalment of her correspondence with her own family, which will shortly be published, the warmth of her feelings and the eagerness of her sometimes passionate attachment to her family and Emperor are not less strongly marked. At the date when the present letters were written Madame de Lieven had been married for nine or ten years to a husband who owed his appointment as much to his wife's Court influence as he did his long maintenance at his post to her tact and ability. In the delicate negotiations which were inces

VOL. LI-No. 300

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santly going on to maintain the friendly relations between the Great Powers Madame de Lieven was appealed to by statesmen of all shades, and if she sometimes shuffled the cards put into her hands to advance the interests, as she believed them, of her own country, it cannot be made a reproach to her.

Socially Madame de Lieven held an almost unique position in London. She found friends both in and outside the Prince Regent's set, among the leaders of the Opposition as well as those of the Ministerial salons. She was on good terms with both Lady Conyngham and Lady Jersey. Lady Harriet Spencer, better known as Lady Granville, maintained for her a warm attachment throughout life. Lady Canning and Lady Waterford speak of her with sincere regard, and amongst foreigners she counted Madame Swetchine and the Duchesse Decazes among her friends. By general consent she was clever, and, when she wished it, agreeable; but above all things she was as fastidious in the choice of her intimates as she was inflexible in refusing to relax the restrictions by which admission to 'Almack's' and her own drawing-room were guarded. Almost the only discordant note that we hear in the general concert of praise came from Chateaubriand, who met her at the Congress of Verona, and ridicules the protégés of 'a lady who had the privilege of seeing M. de Metternich in his hours of relaxation, when he put aside State affairs to effiloquer de la soie.' But Chateaubriand's judgment must be taken with reservation, for Madame Récamier had followed the French minister to Verona, and her salon was the rival to that of Madame de Lieven. It was possibly the feeling that the latter had been only too successful in her encroachments upon Madame Récamier's hitherto unchallenged privilege, and that Chateaubriand took up his friend's and country woman's cause. Years afterwards, in writing his Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, he describes Madame de Lieven as having a 'sour-visaged, unattractive face,' and as a woman commune, fatigante et aride,' whose only topic of conversation was 'la politique vulgaire.' Even of this, however, he would allow that she knew nothing, although she was capable of hiding the poverty of her ideas under a superfluity of words. Her chief occupation, according to the same authority, was to keep up clandestine correspondence with prominent personages, and at the same time she showed herself 'très forte en mariages manqués.' Arrows sped at a venture generally overshoot the mark, and the general verdict of posterity is that in the matter of veiling a lack of ideas under a cloud of words M. de Chateaubriand holds a prominent place among the literary politicians of the Restoration.

It is difficult to ascertain precisely when Metternich and Madame de Lieven first became acquainted, but it is assumed that they probably met for the first time at Vienna in 1814, when she was just entering upon her thirtieth and Metternich upon his forty-third

year. There is no record of the presence of Count Lieven at the Congress, and in all probability he remained in London during the whole of its sittings. In the years immediately following the final downfall of Napoleon there were doubtless opportunities of meeting, of which Metternich and Madame de Lieven availed themselves. It is more certain that they were much thrown together at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. They again met at the Congress of Verona in 1822, and presumably they were together in Rome during the winter 1823-4. What may have been the course of events subsequently, what lovers' quarrels or political differences may have arisen, or how far prolonged absence may have changed their relations, must be left to conjecture, but there is no doubt that their correspondence lasted until the end of 1825. After the accession of Nicholas and the change in Russian politics the feelings of the Princess towards the Austrian Chancellor, at least in so far as they are to be gathered from her letters to her brother, underwent a complete change, and when the news of Metternich's second marriage in 1827 reached her she dismissed the matter as un trait de berger, whilst her apparent estimate of his political character became the reverse of flattering. These letters, however, which will be shortly published, although they throw considerable light upon the personalities so closely interwoven with the political history of the time, give no clue to the actual relations which may have existed between Madame de Lieven and Prince Metternich.

It is far otherwise with the correspondence which M. Ernest Daudet has recently unearthed, and which with his permission is now laid before English readers. The story of its discovery is as interesting as the letters themselves, throwing much light upon the activity and omnipresence of the French secret police after the restoration of the Bourbons. Political espionage, as is well known, has existed from the earliest times of political life. Readers of Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic will recall how every secret letter or order written by Philip the Second of Spain was made known to William the Silent before even it reached Alva or Don John. In our own country Cecil and Walsingham were equally well served, and in France the system was further extended by Richelieu, Mazarin, and D'Argenson, although its full development was reserved for Fouché during the First Empire. It must not be supposed that the British Government was at any time more squeamish, although it may have been less methodical than its neighbours. At the time to which the following letters refer the Duc Decazes, then French Ambassador in London, writes to his master, Louis the Eighteenth, to warn him that all his private letters addressed to his representative are opened in the English Post Office. It makes one smile to find the King complaining of such proceedings in the same letter in which he speaks of the amusement given to him by reading copies

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