_Thursday, september 29th 1831._
After lord Londonderry's attack on
M. de Talleyrand, Lord Goderich said
in the course of his speech:
Another part of his noble friend's
speech to which he desired to advert,
was that which related to prince de
Talleyrand, whom his noble friend had
supposed to have great influence upon
the councils of this country, and whom,
proceeding on that supposition and upon
certain parts of that illustrious person's
past life, this noble friend has thought
he was justified in pursuing with the
most acrimonious animadversion although
an ambassador from a friendly
power. (_Loud cries of «hear»_) His noble
friend, to do him justice, had not dipped
his arrows so deeply in gall on
this as on a former occasion; but still
he must say that he had, even on this
occasion, indulged in language the most
imprudent and the most indiscreet that
any public man could be betray'd into,
with regard to an ambassador of a
friendly power. (_Cheers._) He would not
willingly have touched upon this part
of his noble friend's speech because he
thought the sooner it was forgotten,
the better; but then, if he were silent,
with regard to it, it might be supposed
that the government were of opinion
that those animadversions were not misplaced;
and of that, were the case, the
plain inference was, that prince de
Talleyrand ought not to be allowed to
remain here. If the government entertained
the same opinion as his noble
friend of prince de Talleyrand, it would
be their duty to represent to His Majesty
the king of the French that they could
not transact business with such a person.
He felt it necessary, therefore, to speak
as he had spoken respecting these aspersions
of the character of an individual
whose station ought to have shielded
him from such an assault. (_Cheers._) He
knew that his noble friend would say
that, because he protested against this
indiscreet, imprudent and unjustifiable
language, the government was truckling
to France. Let him, however remind his
noble friend, that prince de Talleyrand
had been the Minister of the last two
kings of France; that prince de Talleyrand
had also had a large and important
share in the deliberations of the congress
of Vienna; the result of which deliberations
the noble marquis thought so
wise and so good. (_Cheers._) Surely,
the noble marquis might have thought
of these facts; but if he had, he would
never have inter'd upon the unjust as
well as the invidious occupation of
ransacking every portion of prince de
Talleyrand's life and bringing-up in
judgment against him as present deeds
and acts of this day, transactions which
had taken place when the circumstances
of France were so different, and when
no man could act as his reason or his
inclination dictated; but as the strong
and uncontrolable tide of affairs compelled
him to fashion his course.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.--Before
he stated what his view of the subject
was (l'emploi d'officiers français dans
l'armée belge) he must be allow'd to
say a few words respecting an illustrious
individual (prince de Talleyrand) who
had been so strongly animadverted
upon by his noble friend near him.
True it was that that illustrious individual
had enjoy'd in a very high degree
the confidence of his noble friend's
deceased relative; and true it also was,
that none of the great measures which
had been resolved upon at vienna and
at Paris had been concerted or carried
on without the intervention of that
illustrious person. He had no hesitation
in saying that both at that time, in
every one of the great transactions that
took place then, and in every transaction
in which he had been engaged with
prince de Talleyrand since, the latest
of which had occured during the short
period in which he (the duke of Wellington)
had been in His Majesty's
councils after the late revolution in
France,--he had no hesitation in declaring
that in all those transactions,
from the first to the last of them, no
man could have conducted himself
with more firmness and ability with
regard to his own country, or with
more uprightness and honor in all his
communications with the ministers of
other countries, than prince de Talleyrand.
(_Cheers._) They had heard a good
deal of prince de Talleyrand from many
quarters; but he felt himself bound to
declare it to be his sincere and conscientious
belief that no man's public
and private character, had ever been so
much beleid as both the public and
the private character of that illustrious
individual had been. (_Much cheering._)
He had thought it necessary in common
justice, to say this much of an individual
respecting whose conduct and
character he had had no small means
of forming a judgment.
LORD HOLLAND--There was one part
of the noble Duke's speech which had
given him the greatest pleasure and
which reflected the highest credit upon
the noble Duke. He need hardly say that
he alluded to the temper, the manliness
and generosity with which the noble
Duke had animadverted upon what had
fallen from the noble marquis with
regard to prince de Talleyrand. On public
as well as on private grounds, he
thanked the noble Duke for that part of
his speech. There could be little difference
of opinion as to the injustice and the
want of generosity, of speaking in harsh
and insulting terms respecting the ambassador
of a friendly power, resident amongst
us. On the other hand he felt that there
could be no good taste in dwelling
upon the virtue and the merit of a man's
own acquaintance in an assembly like
that of their Lordships; yet he trusted
that he might be allowed to observe
that forty years acquaintance with the noble
individual who had been alluded to,
enabled him to bear his testimony to the
fact, that although those forty years had
been passed during a time peculiarly
fraught with calumnies of every description,
there had been no man's private
character more shamefully traduced,
and no man's public character more mistaken
and misrepresented, than the
private and public character of prince de
Talleyrand.