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mark were important enough to have afforded a precedent either of refusal or compliance on such a point of etiquette.

Again; we must observe that in the conclusion of his last notes with the French

minister, Lord Malmesbury seems beyond all measure over-civil. For instance, Citi

zen Delacroix writes:

'Monsieur-Le Dictatoire Exécutif me charge expressément devous requérir de me remettre officiellement dans les vingt-quatre heures votre ultimatum, signé de vous.

'Agréez, &c. CH. DELACROIX.'

The Editor should have given this concluding compliment,' Agréez, &c.' at full length, since he so gives the conclusion of Lord Malmesbury's reply. We find, however, in Debrett's State Papers for 1796, that the

translated form was :

Accept, Sir, the assurance of my high consideration.'-vol. v. p. 198.

Lord Malmesbury's reply to this cold form was, what it ought not to have been, a shade more civil:

'Le Lord Malmesbury prie le Ministre des Relations Extérieures d'agréer les assurances de sa haute considération.'—p. 364.

in Parliament on his too well bred' assurances of high consideration.'

One of Lord Malmesbury's entries in his diary is

Général Marbœuf, by a Corsican woman—well
'Nov. 8th.-Buonaparte said to be son of le
brought up by him at l'Ecole Militaire-clever,
desperate Jacobin, even terrorist.'-p. 304.
To which the Editor subjoins this note :-

'It is almost needless to state that this rumor (current at the time) was perfectly untrue. Madame Buonaparte's supposed partiality for General Marbœuf existed long after the birth of Napoleon. It is equally superfluous to add, that he never was a 'Terroriste."-p. 304.

We see no reason why Napoleon Buonaparte-the second of eight children, and bearing a striking likeness to his elder and younger brothers-should be singled out as the son of the Comte de Marbœuf; but all the statements, and of course the rea

soning, of the noble Editor's note are comCorsica in command of the French army as M. de Marbœuf went to pletely erroneous. early as 1765-four years before Napoleon's birth; and we know that it was to the patronage of M. de Marbœuf, the friend of the whole family, that Napoleon was indebted for his education at the Ecole Militaire. And to this the rejoinder was the order to As to his "never having been a Terrorist!" quit Paris in deux fois vingt-quatre heures-why, he never was any thing else! But signed tout court and without any compli- even in the more peculiar sense of the word, ment-" Charles Delacroix." To which it would have been by no means "superflugross impertinence Lord Malmesbury has-ous" if the noble Editor could have shown tens with all humility to say that he will him not to have been one of La Queue de quit Paris the next day, and

'Il prie le Ministre des Relations Extérieures d'agréer les assurances de sa haute considération.'-p. 365.

Robespierre. He and his brother Lucien were protegés of the younger Robespierre in his Terrorist pro-consulate in the south; and after the 9th Thermidor the first measure of the reaction was to arrest and im

tells us), for having belonged to Robespierre's faction-or to use the common language of the time, as Terrorists; and Lord Malmesbury writing in Paris, two years only after the events, and while living in the best-informed circles, is better authority, even if there were no other (and there is abundance) than his grandson's wholly unsupported assertion.*

As Citizen Delacroix ended his note so un-prison both the brothers (as Lucien himself ceremoniously, Lord Malmesbury should have tempered his own civility with a little dignity, by saying, that "not wishing to derogate from the ordinary usages of diplomatic courtesy (or something of that sort), he requests Citizen Delacroix to accept the assurances of his high consideration." There are, we admit, beaucoup de puérilités dans la diplomatie; but the maintenance of national dignity, even in trifles, is not of that class; and Lord Malmesbury's failure on this point was peculiarly unlucky, as he was specially instructed to be, and professes to have been, very nice on points of etiquette, and justifies some sarcastic observations which his old friend, Mr. Fox, made

* We insist upon this point for the sake of historical truth, which might be compromised by the uncontradicted assertion of so respectable a publication as this; and with the same object we will take this opportunity of clearing up a doubt with vol. xii. p. 239, and again in vol. xvi., p. 495, on respect to Buonaparte's age. We stated in Q. R., what seemed to us the best possible authority

Mr. Pitt, however, persisted, and was right on every account, the very circumstance of Delacroix's being still in office was a sufficient reason for Lord Malmes

We have seen that the impediment to the ation soit ouverte avec le Lord Malmesbury; negotiation of 1796 was the restitution to be cependant un autre choix lui eût paru d'un made to Austria; but by the preliminary plus heureux augure pour la prompte conclutreaties of Leoben and Montebello (18th sion de la paix.'—p. 373. April and 24th May, 1797) Cæsar made his own bad terms; and England had now no other continental engagements than the interests of her faithful, but (in this matter) unimportant ally, Portugal; and a desire to make some arrangement as to the private property of the House of Orange. Mr. Pitt, in his unwearied desire for peace, again thought this a favorable moment to renew the negotiation with France, where

there seemed both in the Government and

in the Legislative Councils a growing
spirit of moderation, or even, as it after-
wards appeared, of
counter-revolution.
The Editor says:-

'Lord Grenville was decidedly opposed to
this step, and long argued it with Pitt; but
the latter remained firm, repeatedly declaring
that it was his duty, as an English Minister
and a Christian, to use every effort to stop so
bloody and wasting a war.
He sent Lord
Malmesbury to Lisle with the assurance that
"he (Pitt) would stifle every feeling of pride
to the utmost to produce the desired result;"
and Lord Malmesbury himself went upon his
Mission, anxious to close his public life by an
act which would spare so much misery, and
restore so much happiness to mankind.

'On the brink of success, it will be seen by what unforeseen events he failed, for Europe was destined to eighteen more years of battles.'-p. 369.

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Lord Malmesbury was no doubt personally gratified at being again selected for this mission, but as Delacroix, his late discourteous antagonist, was still minister, he with great propriety and candor suggest ed that his nomination might not be considered as conciliatory. His surmise was just, for the first French answer stated that

'Le Directoire consent à ce que la Négoci

namely, a certificate of birth produced by Buonaparte himself at his marriage with Josephine, and deposited and then and still existing in the proper office at Paris-that he was born on the 5th of February, 1768. Why or how he was led to produce this false statement has never been explained; as the Constitution of that day required that public functionaries should have attained certain ages, Buonaparte was probably willing to advance by a year and a half the period of his eligibility: but from whatever motive, he assuredly produced a false certificate, for we have since collected many testimonies of dates prior to his celebrity and therefore of indisputable authority, which fix his birth to the 15th of August, 1769-the common date. See also the note, Quart. Rev. vol. lvii. p. 386.

bury's reappointment. But his Lordship escaped the practical epigram,' as Mr. Canning called it (iii. 437), of being met by Delacroix, by the selection of Lisle as the scene of the negotiation, and the nomination of Citizens Letourneur, Pléville le the part of France. The choice of these Peley, and Maret, as plenipotentiaries on gentlemen seemed also a pledge for the sincerity of their government, as they were all anti-jacobinical. Letourneur had just left the Directory by lot, an unlucky chance (if chance it was) which eventually produced the predominance of Barras and Rewbell, and the revolution of the 18th Fructidor. Pléville was a seaman of moderate politics as well as capacity. Maret, the afterwards celebrated Duke of Bassano, had, in addition to manners and feelings of the old school, principles by no means revolutionary, and the additional recommendation of having in a short mission to London in 1793 obtained some degree of favorable notice from Mr. Pitt. As Maret played so large a part in this negotiation, and so much a more important one in afterlife, we shall extract the account which he gave of himself when on a subsequent occasion Lord Malmesbury artfully suggested that, if the negotiation succeeded, the embassy to England might repair his fortune, which he confessed to be much deranged.

'Aug 30.-Maret assented, and intimated that if he was asked for it would forward his nomination. He then told all the story of his two missions to England, in 1792 and 1793; his connexion with Le Brun.* He said Mr. Pitt had received him very well, and that the to the then French Government, who were failure of his negotiation could be attributed bent on that war; that the great and decisive cause of the war was "quelques vingtaines d'individus marquans et en place qui avoient joué à la baisse dans la fonds et de là ils

Maret's first mission related to the domestic concerns of the Duke of Orleans. He had an interview with Mr. Pitt, and gave a favorable account of it to the Convention, who sent him over again in January, 1793, with a conciliatory mission, which was rendered nugatory by the mur der of Louis XVI. Le Brun was French Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1792-93.'—Ib.

avaient porté la Nation à nous déclarer la never made one serious practical step durguerre. Ainsi," said he, "nous devons tous ing the whole four months of discussion, nos malheurs à un principe d'agiotage." He but was, under the formal veil of intersaid, on his return to France, he was informed of this, and was considered as in possession of changing notes and projets, really awaiting so dangerous a secret, that they wanted first the issue of the great contest between the to send him to Portugal, which he refused; Jacobins and Modérés in Paris; and it was, then to Naples, which he was forced to accept; we suppose, as an episode in this conflict and and that he had every reason to believe that as a pierre d'attente for the moderate party his arrest and confinement were settled and that Maret, who belonged to it, opened a concerted at Paris before he left. He said he secret and separate communication with Lord Malmesbury, of which, as connected with the general negotiation, we see neither motive nor object.

spent thirty months in prison, partly at Mantua (where, if he had staid, he must have died), and partly in the Tyrol; that the academicians in Mantua, out of regard to the memory and character of his father, interested themselves about him, and that he believed he owed his change of prison to them; that, after all, his long confinement saved his life, as he certainly should have been guillotined had he remained in France, under the government of Robespierre.'-pp. 502-3.

On the 14th of July an Englishman of the name of Cunningham, who had been long settled at Lisle, called on Mr. Wellesley, the official secretary of the mission, as on business of the utmost importance; and he produced a note from a M. Pein-an intimate friend of his, and a near relation Lord Malmesbury was again attended by of Maret's, suggesting the expediency of Mr. George Ellis, still as a private friend, opening a secret and confidential channel by Mr. Wellesley, now Lord Cowley, as of between Lord Malmesbury and the perficial secretary, and by Lord Granville Le- son who had alone the conduct of the busiveson and Lord Morpeth as attached to the ness on the other side-viz., Maret-whose mission. The first symptoms were, how- opinions on all political subjects were very ever, not auspicious. He was met at the different from those of his colleagues'outset by three almost sine quâ non de- being the intimate friend of the new dimands. 1. The renunciation of the style rector Barthelemi, who was seriously desiand title of King of France. 2. The res- rous of the restoration of peace. This titution of the Toulon ships, which having strange overture was readily, but not withbeen taken only in deposit for the lawful out some suspicion accepted-Mr. Ellis, government of France, we were bound- (Mr. Wellesley being about to return to now that we admitted the republic to be a England) was appointed to communicate lawful government-to restore specifically as far as they existed, and in value, if we had destroyed them; and finally, that we should admit as a basis that we were to restore all our conquests from France, or any of her allies, and especially from Holland. The first of these demands perplexed our ministers very much-but they (rather, we presume, than Lord Malmesbury) had brought it on themselves by presenting the French with a projet of a treaty, which incautiously and unnecessarily began by setting forth our sovereign's full style and title. We say incautions and unnecessary -because when the point was hit, Lord Grenville offered to substitute either 'King of Great Britain' or 'Britannic Majesty,' and therefore it would have been It has been frequently alleged that M. sufficient to have used at first the inoffen- Thiers wrote his 'History' 'under the insive terms which were proposed when it spiration,' as the French phrase it, of M. was too late, and when the French were de Talleyrand. This his friends have deentitled to insist on the renunciation of a nied, but the way in which he mentions claim so imprudently, but so prominently this secret negotiation satisfies us that he made. But neither this nor the other two derived his information from either Talleypoints need detain us. The negotiation rand, Maret, or both; for heg ives a color and

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with M. Pein, and through them Maret conveyed information and advice to Lord Malmesbury, apparently in the style of one who in a game of whist should by secret signs let his adversaries know the state of his own and his partner's hand. Lord Malmesbury at first doubted the authenticity of these communications, but, in order to ascertain it, he stipulated that at the conference certain sigus should be made which should evidence Maret's confederacy with Pein.

his handkerchief out of one pocket, passing 'The sign agreed upon was Maret's taking it before his face, and returning it into the other.'-vol. iii. p. 450.

character to the transaction entirely false, but such, we think, as these informants would deem it prudent to adopt. According' says M. Thiers, with wonderful ignorance, or still more wonderful effrontery,

ate, and the communications became more friendly. There had been nothing of this kind last year'

though it is the usual and necessary consequence of the English representative 'According to the practice of English diplo-Government, and though the same Mr. macy, all was arranged for carrying on two Ellis had been there in exactly the same separate negotiations, one official and osten- position—

sible-the other secret and real. Mr. Ellis

had been given [fut donné] to Lord Malmes-because the negotiation was not sincere, but bury to conduct under him the secret negotia- this year it was necessary to arrive at effectual tion, and to correspond directly with Mr. Pitt. and amicable communications. Lord MalmesThis habitual custom [usage] of English di- bury, then, sounded fit donser] M. Maret to plomacy is rendered necessary by their repre-engage in private [particulière] negotiation. sentative Government.'-Thiers, Hist. de la Rev. Fr. vi. 18.

We really cannot imagine how a writer of M. Thiers' cleverness could imagine an 'usage' so notoriously untrue, or think of accounting for it by reasons so grossly absurd-it is our representative Government which renders any such practice utterly impossible-but this preamble was necessary to introduce the rest of the fable, and the mention of Mr. Ellis, whose name we very much doubt whether any man in France ever heard of but Maret and Co.,-confirms our suspicion that the Duke of Bassano communicated this misrepresentation to M. Thiers with a view to break the effect of the disclosure which he suspected might be hereafter made, and which now appears. M. Thiers then proceeds to misstate and discolor the facts to suit this apologetical version.

'Lord Malmesbury soon saw that the ostensible negotiation would come to nothing, and he took measures [chercha] to bring about a more intimate intercourse. M. Maret'

Before he consented, M. Maret wrote to the French ministry for permission. They readily agreed, and he immediately entered into private communications [pour-parlers] with the two English negotiators.'-lb. p. 20.

What follows is still more remarkable. M. Thiers says that when the 18th Fructidor came to render the negotiation almost hopeless

'Lord Malmesbury was so sincere in his wish to continue the treaty that he engaged M. Maret to try to find out at Paris whether there were not some means of influencing the Directory, and he even offered several millions [of francs] to buy the voice of one of the Directors. M. Maret refused to undertake any negotiation of the kind, and left Lille. Lord Malmesbury and Mr. Ellis went off immediately, and did not return.'-Ib. 72.

Now the facts of this story are scandalously perverted. The truth was this:

'In the beginning of the negotiation, a person named Potter came to Lord Malmesbury, stating, that he was sent by Barras to say, that if the English Government would pay that Director 500,000l. he would insure the peace. Lord Malmesbury, believing the offer to be unauthorized by Barras or only a trap laid for him by the Directory, paid no attention to it.'-Harris Papers, vol. iii. p. 492.

We beg our readers to observe that M. Thiers always employs the deferential form of Monsieur Maret and Monsieur de Talleyrand, though they were at this time Citizens Maret and Talleyrand, and noIt does not appear that Lord Malmesthing else till they became Duke of Bassano and Prince of Benevente. M. Thiers's bury informed Maret of this overture, adoption of the Monsieur-so out of keep-which took place before their confidential keep-intercourse had commenced; but subseing with time and place-indicates pretty plainly, that he was writing in communica- quently, on the 19th August, a Mr. Meltion with these great personages, whom he ville, of Boston, in America, renewed the did not venture to call plain Maret and Tal- proposal on the part of Barras to the same leyrand.

'M. Maret, more used to diplomatic habits than his colleagues, lent himself [s'y prêta] to Lord Malmesbury's proposition-but it was necessary to nego iate with Le Tourneur and Pléville, [the rough colleagues] to bring about meetings at the p'ay. The young people of the two embassies were the first to associ

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amount. 'But of course,' said Lord Malmesbury, his offer was rejected. I would not see him, and he conveyed it through Ellis, saying that he knew intimately Peregeaux' [the great Paris banker]. This offer and its rejection Ellis communicated to Maret through 'Pein, who professed to know nothing abont it, and

only advised him to refer to Peregeaux for Melville's character.'-1b. p. 493.

-was the real motive of the secret negotiation with Lord Malmesbury.

The curiosity, and we may even add the historical importance of this affair will, we

Can any reader doubt that M. Thiers' version of the affair was furnished to him by the parties in these transactions? Can trust, excuse the length at which we have he doubt-after seeing the indisputable developed it :-we wonder indeed the noble evidence so accidentally and unexpectedly Editor himself, who often quotes Thiers, supplied by this publication-that their ver- did not think it worth while to explain the sion is false in dates, facts, motives, and important discrepancies between his story every thing, and that the whole was, as we and Lord Malmesbury's testimony; and the have said, a precautionary echappatoire more particularly, as Thiers asserts that against future exposure?-and if that ex- Lord Malmesbury offered, and the Freuch posure had not been so unpremeditated had accepted, an indemnity of 500,000l. for and accidental, the false version would have answered its purpose.

the Toulon ships-an assertion utterly at variance with all his Lordship's statements.

The following extract from one of Mr. Canning's letters tends naturally to increase our suspicions that, besides the great political intrigue going on at Paris, their was much pecuniary jobbing in operation :

'I shall therefore tell you without scruple, first, that what I mentioned to you in my formfunds, has been confirmed to me since, in a er letter of Barthelemi's speculations in the manner that very much persuades me of the truth of that circumstance.

*

It would be hard to say whether in this extraordinary underplot Maret was endeavoring to deceive his French colleagues or his English confederates, or both-but it is very remarkable that this overture was made on the 14th of July-and on the 15th Citizen Talleyrand was announced in Paris Minister for Foreign Affairs! It is strange that neither Lord Malmesbury nor any of his correspondents seem to have noticed this remarkable approximation, not to say coincidence-particularly as Maret afterwards told Lord Malmesbury that on the day that Lord Malmesbury's nomination Secondly. That we have what we think was known at Paris, he and Talleyrand and here good reason to believe that Maret has a Barthelemi had met at dinner at Barras's, commission separate from his colleagues (I where the probable fate of the future ne- know not whether from Dutch or French augotiation was discussed. Nor must it be for-thority,) to treat for the surrender of the Cape gotten, that all these more than suspicious practices were nearly contemporaneous with that flagrant attempt at peculation and corruption exhibited by Talleyrand and his anonymous friends, 'Messrs. X and Y, and a Lady,' to the American Commissioners in Paris in October of the same year, and in which the celebrated burthen of Talleyrand's eternal song-Il faut de l'argentil faut beaucoup d'argent-first aroused the indignation of mankind. We suspect that Monsieur Maret may have known something of Monsieur X or Monsieur Y, or peradventure the Lady.' The whole story will be found in Debret's State Papers, vol. vii. p. 183; but M. Thiers' History makes no mention of this the most remark- This letter I do not find among the Harris able feature of the diplomacy of the Revo- Papers, although a subsequent one from Talleylution and of its greatest diplomatist. We rand to Bobus Smith is extant.'-Ed. It is odd ourselves have little doubt that Talleyrand that Bobus-Mr. Cannings familar Etonism for and Maret, and perhaps Barthelemi, were Bob-was Mr. Robert Smith, the elder brother of at this moment confederates; indeed, M. Mr. Sydney, and father of Mr. Vernon Smith. Thiers himself states that Maret was act- It is also to be regretted that he does not explain ing under the special sanction of the minis- how Mr. Canning obtained possession of all this ter at Paris, and there can be, we think, lit-correspondence, and how Bobus (then we believe a young barrister) came to be engaged in these tle doubt that l'argent-beaucoup d'argent delicate affairs.

for a sum of money. Thirdly, That the inclosed is a copy of a letter from Paris to Bobus Smith, written the day after Talleyrand's nomination, and the first part of the contents of which, but not the letter itself, Bobus has since communicated to me. Talleyrand, you may not know, perhaps, has been always a great friend of Bobus's, and of mine, since I went to Mr. Pitt some years ago, at Smith's desire, to endeavor to obtain a remission of his sentence of exile.'-vol. iii. p. 439.

Though we have not the details of Talleyrand's letter, it appears from a further despatch of Mr. Canning's, that it was something incredible :—

'I was not quizzing you, but telling a most

that the editor should not in his note have stated

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