The Memoirs of François René Vicomte De Chateaubriand Sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 4 (of 6)

Book Vii 1-30

Changes in the world--The years 1815 and 1816--I am made a peer of France--My first appearance in the tribune--Various speeches--The Monarchie selon la Charte--Louis XVIII.--M. Decazes--I am struck off the list of ministers of State--I sell my books and my Valley--My speeches continued, in 1817 and 1818--The Piet meetings--The Conservateur--Concerning the morality of material interests and that of duty--The year 1820--Death of the Duc de Berry--Birth of the Duc de Bordeaux--The market-women of Bordeaux--I cause M. de Villèle and M. de Corbière to take office for the first time--My letter to the Duc de Richelieu--Note from the Duc de Richelieu and my reply--Notes from M. de Polignac--Letters from M. de Montmorency and M. Pasquier--I am appointed Ambassador to Berlin--I leave for that embassy

Book Viii 31-63

The year 1821--The Berlin, Embassy--I arrive in Berlin--M. Ancillon--The Royal Family--Celebrations for the marriage of the Grand-duke Nicholas--Berlin society--Count von Humboldt--Herr von Chamisso--Ministers and ambassadors--The Princess William--The Opera--A musical meeting--My first dispatches--M. de Bonnay--The Park--The Duchess of Cumberland--Commencement of a Memorandum on Germany--Charlottenburg--Interval between the Berlin Embassy and the London Embassy--Baptism of M. le Duc de Bordeaux--Letter to M. Pasquier--Letter from M. de Bernstoff--Letter from M. Ancillon--Last letter from the Duchess of Cumberland--M. de Villèle, Minister of Finance--I am appointed Ambassador to London

Book Ix 64-112

The year 1822--My first dispatches from London--Conversation with George IV. on M. Decazes--The noble character of our diplomacy under the Legitimacy--A parliamentary sitting--English society--Continuation of the dispatches--Resumption of parliamentary labours--A ball for the Irish--Duel between the Duke of Bedford and the Duke of Buckingham--Dinner at Royal Lodge--The Marchioness Conyngham and her secret--Portraits of the ministers--Continuation of my dispatches--Parleys on the Congress of Verona--Letter to M. de Montmorency; his reply foreshadowing a refusal--A more favourable letter from M. de Villèle--I write to Madame de Duras--Death of Lord Londonderry--Another letter to M. de Montmorency--Trip to Hartwell--Note from M. de Villèle announcing my nomination to the Congress--The end of old England--Charlotte--Reflexions--I leave London--The years 1824, 1825, 1826 and 1827--Deliverance of the King of Spain--My dismissal--The Opposition follows me--Last diplomatic notes--Neuchâtel, in Switzerland--Death of Louis XVIII.--Coronation of Charles X.--Reception of the knights of the Orders

Book X 113-146

I collect my former adversaries around myself--My public charges--Extract from my polemics after my fall--Visit to Lausanne--Return to Paris--The Jesuits--Letter from M. de Montlosier and my reply--Continuation of my polemics--Letter from General Sébastiani--Death of General Foy--The Law of Justice and Love--Letter from M. Étienne--Letter from M. Benjamin Constant--I attain the highest pitch of my political importance--Article on the King's saint's-day--Withdrawal of the law on the police of the press--Paris illuminated--Note from M. Michaud--M. de Villèle's irritation--Charles X. proposes to review the National Guard on the Champ de Mars--I write to him: my letter--The review--The National Guard disbanded--The Elective Chamber is dissolved--The new Chamber--Refusals to co-operate--Fall of the Villèle Ministry--I contribute towards forming the new ministry and accept the Roman Embassy--Examination of a reproach

Book Xi 147-219

Madame Récamier--Childhood of Madame Récamier described by M. Benjamin Constant--Letter to Madame Récamier from Lucien Bonaparte--Continuation of M. Benjamin Constant's narrative: Madame de Staël--Madame Récamier's journey to England--Madame de Staël's first journey to Germany--Madame Récamier in Paris--Plans of the generals--Portrait of Bernadotte--Trial of Moreau--Letters from Moreau and Masséna to Madame Récamier--Death of M. Necker--Return of Madame de Staël--Madame Récamier at Coppet--Prince Augustus of Prussia--Madame de Staël's second journey to Germany--The Château de Chaumont--Letter from Madame de Staël to Bonaparte--Madame Récamier and M. Mathieu de Montmorency exiled--Madame Récamier at Châlons--Madame Récamier at Lyons--Madame de Chevreuse--Spanish prisoners--Madame Récamier in Rome--Albano-Canova: his letters--The Albano fisherman--Madame Récamier in Naples--The Duc de Rohan-Chabot--King Murat: his letters--Madame Récamier returns to France--Letter from Madame de Genlis--Letters from Benjamin Constant--Articles by Benjamin Constant on Bonaparte's return from Elba--Madame de Krüdener--The Duke of Wellington--I meet Madame Récamier again--Death of Madame de Staël--The Abbaye-aux-Bois

Book Xii 220-304

My Embassy to Rome--Three kinds of materials-Diary of the road--Letters to Madame Récamier--Leo XII. and the Cardinals--The ambassadors--The old artists and the new artists--Old Roman society--Present manners of Rome--Town and country--Letter to M. Villemain--Letter to Madame Récamier--Explanation concerning the memorandum I am about to quote--Letter to M. le Comte de La Feironnays--Memorandum on Eastern Affairs--Letters to Madame Récamier--Letter to M. Thierry--Dispatch to M. le Comte de La Ferronnays--More letters to Madame Récamier--Dispatch to M. le Comte Portalis--Death of Leo XII.--Dispatch to M. le Comte Portalis--Letter to Madame Récamier

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. IV

George IV The Duc Decazes The Duc de Berry Frederica Queen of Hanover The Duc de Richelieu The Marquess of Londonderry Madame Récamier Pope Leo XII

THE

MEMOIRS OF CHATEAUBRIAND

Volume Iv

BOOK VII

Changes in the world--The years 1815 and 1816--I am made a peer of France--My first appearance in the tribune--Various speeches--The Monarchie selon la Charte--Louis XVIII.--M. Decazes--I am struck off the list of ministers of State--I sell my books and my Valley--My speeches continued, in 1817 and 1818--The Piet meetings--The Conservateur--Concerning the morality of material interests and that of duty--The year 1820--Death of the Duc de Berry--Birth of the Duc de Bordeaux--The market-women of Bordeaux--I cause M. de Villèle and M. de Corbière to take office for the first time--My letter to the Duc de Richelieu--Note from the Duc de Richelieu and my reply--Notes from M. de Polignac--Letters from M. de Montmorency and M. Pasquier--I am appointed Ambassador to Berlin--I leave for that embassy.

To fall back from Bonaparte and the Empire to that which followed them is to fall from reality into nothingness, from the summit of a mountain into a gulf. Did not everything finish with Napoleon? Ought I to have spoken of anything else? What person can possess any interest beside him? Of whom and of what can there be any question after such a man? Dante alone had the right to associate himself with the great poets whom he meets in the regions of another life. How can one speak of Louis XVIII. in the stead of the Emperor? I blush when I think that, at the present moment, I have to cant about a crowd of petty creatures, of whom I myself am one, dubious and nocturnal beings that we were on a stage from which the great sun had disappeared.

The Bonapartists themselves had shrivelled up. Their members had become bent and shrunk; the soul was lacking to the new universe so soon as Bonaparte withdrew his breath; objects faded from view from the moment when they were no longer illuminated by the light which had given them colour and relief. At the commencement of these Memoirs, I had only myself to speak of: well, there is always a sort of paramountcy in man's individual solitude. Later, I was surrounded by miracles: those miracles kept up my voice; but at this present moment there is no more conquest of Egypt, no more Battles of Marengo, Austerlitz and Jena, no more retreat from Russia, no more invasion of France, capture of Paris, return from Elba, Battle of Waterloo, funeral at St. Helena: what remains? Portraits to which only the genius of Molière could lend the gravity of comedy!

While expressing myself upon our worthlessness, I taxed my conscience home: I asked myself whether I did not purposely incorporate myself with the nullity of these times, in order to acquire the right to condemn the others, persuaded though I were in petto that my name would be read in the midst of all these obliterations. No, I am convinced that we shall all fade out: first, because we have not in us the wherewithal to live; secondly, because the age in which we are commencing or ending our days has itself not the wherewithal to make us live. Generations mutilated, exhausted, disdainful, faithless, consecrated to the annihilation which they love, are unable to bestow immortality; they have no power to create a renown; if you were to nail your ear to their mouth, you would hear nothing: no sound issues from the heart of the dead.

One thing strikes me, however: the little world to which I am now coming was superior to the world which succeeded it in 1830; we were giants in comparison with the society of maggots that has engendered itself.

The Restoration offers at least one point in which we can find importance: after the dignity of one man, that man having passed, there was born again the dignity of mankind. If despotism has been replaced by liberty, if we understand anything of independence, if we have lost the habit of grovelling, if the rights of human nature are no longer disregarded, we owe these things to the Restoration. Wherefore also I threw myself into the fray in order, as far as I could, to revive the species when the individual had come to an end.

Come, let us pursue our task! Let us descend, with a groan, to myself and my colleagues. You have seen me amid my dreams; you are about to see me in my realities: if the interest decreases, if I fall, reader, be just, make allowance for my subject!

After the second return of the King and the final disappearance of Bonaparte, the Ministry being in the hands of M. le Duc d'Otrante and M. le Prince de Talleyrand, I was appointed president of the electoral college of the Department of the Loiret. The elections of 1815 gave the King the Chambre introuvable. I was carrying all the votes at Orleans, when I received the Order which called me to the House of Peers. My active career had hardly commenced, when it suddenly changed its course: what would it have been if I had been sent to the Elective Chamber? It is fairly probable that that career would, in the event of my success, have ended in the Ministry of the Interior, instead of taking me to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My habits and manners were more in touch with the peerage, and, although the latter became hostile to me from the first moment, by reason of my Liberal opinions, it is nevertheless certain that my doctrines concerning the liberty of the press and against the vassalage to foreigners gave the Noble Chamber the popularity which it enjoyed so long as it suffered my opinions.

Continue reading The Memoirs of François René Vicomte De Chateaubriand Sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 4 (of 6) free in the Wunder reader →