there is a tradition which, for the honour and character of Talleyrand,
we will believe to be unfounded, that when Mirabeau passed beside
the altar the officiating pontiff addressed to him some expressions
of mockery and irreligion, which must have weighed heavily upon
his conscience on his death-bed. There are, unfortunately, seasons
of youth and evil passions, when people give way to anti-Christian
ideas, and at that time a degree of impiety was the fashion. Was
it not then considered good taste to ridicule the holy and noble
ceremonies of the Catholic religion? Talleyrand took a part in all
the anti-religious proceedings of the Constituent Assembly upon the
situation of the clergy in France, and he was commissioned to apply the
civil constitution to his diocese, but the powerful opposition of his
clergy did not permit him to accomplish his purpose, for the greater
part of the parish priests refused to take the oath. He was present
at the consecration of the first constitutional bishops, and, if this
devoted conduct was considered deserving of praise by the assembly, it
was regarded in a very different light elsewhere, and drew upon him the
excommunication of the holy see. Pope Pius VI. published a bull against
the Bishop of Autun, in which he declared him out of the pale of the
Church, for having become an adherent of the civil constitution of
the clergy. This step needs no explanation, such a constitution being
in its very essence subversive of all Catholic faith. It was a work
of the ultra-Jansenist party, and so thoroughly overstepped all the
established rules, that it allowed the Jews and Protestants belonging
to various districts and corporations to participate in the election
of the Catholic clergy. A bishop or a schoolmaster was appointed in the
same manner that a deputy was elected for the National Assembly, for
the whole electoral body discharged their duties in the same manner.
An absurd principle of equality had levelled every thing; the people
appointed the mayors, the bishops, the parish priests, the deputies,
and the municipal officers. It was disorder in equality; the levelling
principle had trampled down society.
Talleyrand was the intimate friend of Mirabeau, or, to speak with
more precision, the great tribune made a tool of him. They had lived
together, and together had prepared their works for the Assembly. The
popular orator had just been attacked by the mortal disease which
carried him off in so rapid and mysterious a manner, and the Bishop
of Autun was present when his friend breathed his last. It was not as
a ghostly comforter affording him the consolations of his ministry,
it was not as a Catholic bishop pointing to a world beyond the grave
when those eloquent lips were about to be sealed in death; M. de
Talleyrand sat by the bedside of the dying man as the depository of
his last thoughts and of his political labours, which led to the
destruction of the monarchy. Mirabeau had committed to writing a work
upon the equal division of inheritance among the different members of
a family, and on the right of making testamentary dispositions, it
being the object of the Revolutionists to overturn civil rights as
they had already destroyed political ones, because it was well known
they were intimately connected. The Bishop of Autun undertook to read
the discourse of Mirabeau in the name of his friend at the National
Assembly, and excited the most lively enthusiasm while repeating the
last words of the orator whose career was now at an end. The life of
Mirabeau had been, in some respects, the reaction of a mind filled
with strong passions against the persecutions he had endured as a son
from the hand of a severe and inflexible father, and his discourse
upon limiting the right of making a will and on the equal division of
inheritance affords the most certain proof of it. The gift of eloquence
was held in the most enthusiastic estimation by the Constituent
Assembly, it resolved the greatest part of its business into brilliant
oratorical theories, resting upon the ideas of demolition, which were
the offspring of the eighteenth century, and as Talleyrand had some
difficulty in ascending the tribune, he played but a secondary part
at that time. He excited attention principally by his management of
business and by his assiduous attendance on committees; it does not
appear that he had attained, even at this period, to the reputation of
taciturn ability enjoyed by the Abbé Siéyès, and I seldom meet with his
name in important and brilliant discussions.
When the Constituent Assembly had concluded their work, Talleyrand
quitted France for England. M. de Chauvelin was ambassador there
from the unfortunate Louis XVI., and the Bishop of Autun received
a commission, of which the object was to draw the two governments
of France and England into a nearer resemblance to each other, by
establishing a system of two legislative chambers exactly upon the
model of the English houses of parliament. There was already some idea
of a revolution like that of 1688, and Talleyrand might serve as an
agent for the attempt, for there was a good understanding between him
and M. de Chauvelin, and a still better between him and the clubs of
England. But opinions travelled too fast to allow proper consideration
being given to the due balance of power, and the sovereignty of the
people had given rise to the scheme of a single chamber. Diplomatic
business now went on in a singular manner; instead of the clever and
prudent system, which since the commencement of the reign of Louis XVI.
had secured so many advantages to France, so many favourable treaties,
so many important annexations of territory, the diplomatic corps now
amused themselves in encouraging the propaganda and spreading every
where the spirit of Jacobinism. M. de Talleyrand had some interviews
with the principal leaders of the Whigs, and his intimacy with Earl
Grey began from this date. Shortly after this, being concerned in the
intrigues of Danton, he returned to Paris on the 11th of August, and he
always took pleasure in saying that his not having perished on the 2d
of September was owing to the efforts of that singularly energetic man,
as well as his having been able to obtain a passport for England.
As the course of events was progressing towards war, and that the trial
of Louis XVI. was considered by the Tories as a total subversion of
every thing, Talleyrand received an order to quit Great Britain in
virtue of the alien act, and was only allowed twenty-four hours to
make his arrangements. In the year 1793 people were in the midst of
revolutionary excitements; he, therefore, did not return to France, but
embarked for the United States, the country that was then pointed out
as a model, a pattern government, which the republican party in the
Legislative Assembly always cited as the most perfect that political
ideas could conceive, and which M. de la Fayette never ceased to
extol. At that time two schools prevailed, the American system and
the revolution of 1688, both of which have been since renewed and
perpetuated both in men and events.
Talleyrand settled in the United States, and during some years he
devoted himself to commerce, and engaged in speculations with a
considerable degree of activity. There always was something adventurous
and bold in his disposition in money matters; to use a familiar
expression, no one ever made his fortune oftener than M. de Talleyrand,
without being particularly scrupulous as to the means he employed.
His property in France was sequestered, it was, therefore, with very
limited funds that he commenced his mercantile operations in the United
States; and it was certainly singular enough to see a bishop of 1789,
afterwards a popular orator, then a secret diplomatist acting as a spy
for a party of the National Assembly, finally transforming himself into
a merchant in a counting-house at Boston or New York. The shades of the
ancient Bosons of Périgord, those great feudal barons, must have been
horrified and have indignantly grasped their lances and their coats
of arms when they contemplated their descendant seated amid bales of
cotton in a republic of shopkeepers. In this manner do revolutions
take hold of a man's destiny, play with it, and raise and abase it by
turns; but the nobility had already accustomed France to still more
extraordinary courses: had not men of noble birth in Brittany and
Gascony become freebooters and buccaneers under Henry IV., Louis XIII.,
and Louis XIV.?
A commercial profession in a country so distant from important
events did not suit Talleyrand's inclination, and when order was a
little restored, he lost no time in soliciting permission to return
to France, the scene of his earliest days. He had left many friends
there, among the partisans of what was called the moderate republic
and constitutional system; such were Chenier and Madame de Staël,
belonging to the literary and philosophical portion of society under
the Directory, who had regained some degree of importance after the
Reign of Terror was past, for in calmer times the different shades of a
party become more evident.
It was particularly to the earnest solicitations of Madame de Staël
that Talleyrand owed his return, and we know that her influence was
at that time very great. Chenier undertook the report, and a decree
was passed revoking the rigorous measures that had been adopted in
1793 against the late Bishop of Autun; it was also declared that he
had not emigrated. Talleyrand had at that time entirely left off
the ecclesiastical habit, and appeared every where as a layman. He
enjoyed in the world a great reputation for wit and talent; there was
something noble in his countenance, without its being exactly striking;
he carried his head remarkably well, and his hair fell in curls upon
his shoulders. He was no longer a young man, still his reputation for
gallantry and for agreeableness in society had procured for him a great
ascendancy over some women of that period, in the midst of that most
singular society in the time of Barras and the Directory, in which were
jumbled together men of high rank, contractors, renowned characters,
and courtesans. Talleyrand had brought with him Madame Grand, with
whom he had become acquainted at Hamburg, and, by a whimsical
contrast, it was said no woman ever was possessed of less sense or
less intelligence. We know how many capital stories were told of her
in the Fauxbourg St. Germain, of which even the republic was so much
afraid. The reason is, that the spirit of good society possesses great
influence at the time that a bad state of society prevails. Jests were
uttered, and the most charming _naïvetés_ were attributed to Madame
Talleyrand, of which that regarding _M. Denon and Robinson Crusoe_ is,
perhaps, the most inimitable.
As soon as he arrived in Paris, Talleyrand joined the Constitutional
Club, which used to meet at the Hôtel de Salm. Many thinking people
saw the republic was gradually coming to an end, it had then but
very little root in France. It was no longer possible to maintain a
feeble and violent democracy, which gave way to the most fantastic and
extraordinary paroxysms in the public assembly; people returned to
the system of the balance of power, and to the English ideas that the
school of Mounier and Lally-Tollendal had been desirous of rendering
prevalent in the Constituent Assembly, and that Talleyrand had been
commissioned to represent in London, in his secret mission, in which,
as I before observed, there was mingled some idea of a revolution like
that of 1688.
The institution of an executive directory had been the first step
towards an oligarchic system, where, in default of an unity of power,
a centre of action, reduced to five persons, had been established.
Talleyrand applied all his credit to the support of the Directory, for,
not being strong enough at that time to resist or to try to overturn
the government, his only object was to draw some advantage from it.
He refused steadily to join the royalist party, which, before the
18th Fructidor, was preparing the downfall of the Directory; still
less would he belong to the Jacobin faction, for which he felt a
strong antipathy, on account of its construction and its inclinations;
accordingly, when the 18th Fructidor burst over France, with the
proscription of the councils and the press, he was appointed to the
ministry for foreign affairs; and the _Moniteur_ announced that citizen
Talleyrand, devoted to the interests of the republic, was about to give
a powerful impulse to our relations with foreign powers. To accept
office under a republic was a singular employment for the heir of the
Bosons of Périgord; but then was not the heir of the Barras, a family
as old as the rocks of Provence, the chief of the five directors? A
curious history might be written by following the career of the old
nobility during the French revolution; they assumed the position that
men of gentle blood had done in former times during civil disturbances,
every thing adventurous suited the younger branches of a noble family.
We must now consider what was the state of France with regard to
foreign affairs. The Directory was at war with Austria, Russia, and
England; Belgium was ours, we occupied part of Italy, and the rest was
transformed into little republics, after the model of the executive
directory; for there was at that time, as during all revolutions, a
great propaganda mania. Money was the principal instrument of the
Directory, every thing was accomplished by means of bribery, and people
made haste to achieve a fortune, that they might afterwards spend it
in miserable debauchery. When a negotiation was opened with a foreign
power, the first step was to impose contributions, and to demand secret
presents; and the minister for foreign affairs was a sort of agent
commissioned to receive all this _spolia opima_, which afterwards went
to fatten the friends of Barras and Siéyès, or some women who invaded
the saloons of the Luxembourg, and presided over their sensual rites.
It was a time when modesty was banished; the state of society resembled
the Greek courtesans of the Directory, who, while they almost dispensed
with clothing, covered even their feet with precious stones. Talleyrand
began afresh to work at his fortune, but, no doubt, he manœuvred
with too little discretion, for at the end of some months he was
openly denounced by Charles de Lacroix, and was obliged to give in his
resignation, after having published a rather curious pamphlet, which I
have succeeded in obtaining; it bears the name of "Eclaircissements."
A pamphlet written by him is a very rare book, for he has written
very little in the course of his life. This little work contains an
exposition of the conduct of Citizen Talleyrand, from the time of the
Constituent Assembly to his appointment to the ministry for foreign
affairs, and is couched in very moderate language. The ex-minister
replies to his calumniators with remarkable clearness and simplicity,
appealing to the testimony afforded by the past, during the whole
course of his life. This pamphlet excited a vast controversy. Citizen
Talleyrand was also impeached as an extortioner from the tribune of
the Five Hundred, even by Lucien Buonaparte, and he was overwhelmed
under the evidence produced against him, with the view of applying
the principle of ministerial responsibility to his case. He had great
difficulty in escaping from this unpleasant situation, in which he had
been placed by rather too much avidity during his ministry for foreign
affairs. I must confess, one of the defects of his character was his
public indifference to all charges brought against him with regard to
money; it often compromised his reputation, and sometimes placed him in
a very awkward situation.
Having quarrelled with the Directory, we now find him working with all
his might for the establishment of the consular government. Buonaparte
had surrounded himself on his return from Egypt with all the men who
possessed any political talent or any idea of order in society, and he
did not disdain the extensive abilities of M. de Talleyrand. The Abbé
Siéyès had no predilection for the Bishop of Autun; there was an angry
feeling between them on clerical subjects; but Napoleon required them
both, he indulged in no feelings of repugnance when the triumph of his
ambition was at stake; he therefore employed them both, each according
to his abilities, so as to render them subservient to his designs. The
influence of Talleyrand over the constitutional party was not devoid
of utility upon the 18th Brumaire, and when the consular government
was established, the provisional commission appointed him minister for
foreign affairs as a recompense for the service he had rendered, and
Buonaparte confirmed him in his situation as soon as he was proclaimed
First Consul.
A more extensive field was now open before him; the consular government
was founded on a principle of unity, there was no longer in their
relations with foreign powers the unrestrained violence exhibited by
the National Convention, or the unconnected measures pursued by the
Directory. It was possible to negotiate with decency and moderation,
the relations of one state to another were assuming a character
of regularity they had never possessed under any of the preceding
governments, and then commenced the great diplomatic arrangements which
were at last to bless Europe with repose.
The glorious commencement of the consulate was distinguished by
numerous treaties; at Lunneville peace was concluded with Austria, at
Amiens a covenant was made with England; other treaties were succeeded
by peace with Russia and the Porte, and in all these negotiations
Talleyrand evinced great skill and knowledge of what was proper and
advisable. He placed the correspondence between governments upon an
excellent footing, keeping aloof from the extravagant system which the
agents of the Directory introduced into foreign negotiations during
the time of the _Carmagnole_ diplomatists, who levied so many forced
contributions upon the pictures, the gold crucifixes, and the little
property of the poor in the Mont de Piété.[9]
[9] A pawnbroking establishment in Paris under the protection of the
government.
These treaties were a great assistance to the fortune of Talleyrand,
being almost all followed by presents of considerable value, according
to the custom observed in negotiations between one state and another.
On these occasions the minister did not exhibit sufficient modesty,
I might say, sufficient discretion, for people had a tolerably good
idea how much he had gained by each treaty, in money and diamonds. No
doubt there was some exaggeration in the charges brought against him
by discontented people, but I repeat it, one great defect of M. de
Talleyrand was an inclination to play with bribery and corruption, and
to establish it as a theoretic principle, even in his conversation:
the stain remains upon his name. He held men in too much contempt, and
this is a sentiment which society always returns with interest. It was
now necessary he should lay the foundation of a new fortune; he entered
boldly into various speculations: while avaricious and economical in
little things, he gambled in the stocks with a perfect frenzy, and even
lost considerable sums of money in them. Immediately after the peace
of Amiens he had speculated upon a rise, and his gain appeared almost
certain, but it happened by one of those caprices which stock-jobbing
can alone explain, that the public funds fell more than ten per cent
after the signing of the treaty, and he lost several millions of francs
in a single turn of the stocks. These caprices of fortune occurred
repeatedly in the course of his long life, and explain the necessity he
was constantly under of repairing his fortune.
The late Bishop of Autun had just been entirely restored to secular
life by permission of Pope Pius VII. While the negotiation concerning
the concordat was in progress, the First Consul insisted M. Portalis
should write to Rome, and request a brief from the pope authorising the
secularisation of M. de Talleyrand; and the venerable Pius VII., who
made so many sacrifices to obtain peace for the Church, consented to
the act, though he rather exceeded his powers by so doing, as according
to the canon the character of priest is indelible. It is said that
this brief was not entirely explicit, the pontiff did not establish
a principle permitting the marriage of priests; he merely, in virtue
of his discretionary power, granted an act of indulgence and personal
pardon to M. de Talleyrand for a deed he had already committed.
The ex-bishop had hardly laid down his crosier before he was
compelled to submit to the imperious requisitions of the First
Consul. Buonaparte, who piqued himself upon his strict morality,
insisted he should enter the state of matrimony--a most grievous yoke
to impose upon a man of wit and good taste, for, with his habitual
tact, Talleyrand had been well aware of the amusement afforded to the
Fauxbourg St. Germain by the silliness and ignorance of Madame Grand,
and when she should be legally invested with the title of Citizeness
Talleyrand, how she would expose herself to the sarcasms and the
ridicule of the aristocracy! But there was no help for it, for the
First Consul had decided it should be so. The marriage was accordingly
celebrated at the municipality and in the church, and as people
expressed it, _the Bishop of Autun took to himself a wife_.
The ministry of the First Consul now comprehended two men of great
importance, Talleyrand and Fouché. The one represented at the court
of Buonaparte the ancient aristocracy restored--he was essentially
the man of diplomatic forms and traditions; Fouché, on the contrary,
was the representative of Jacobinism and the revolutionary principle,
which the First Consul considered as an internal malady fatal to his
power. A deeply-rooted and continual competition could not fail to
arise between two characters who had been led to accept office by
such different ideas, and who met in the presence of Napoleon as the
expression of such different systems. Both were men of incontestable
ability, and were constantly informing against each other, or, at
least, keeping a careful watch over the proceedings of their rival
colleague; in addition to which, Fouché was very anxious to obtain the
direction of Foreign affairs. Buonaparte was perfectly aware of the
hatred that existed between them, but he was too wise to sacrifice one
of the ministers to the other; each served as a check upon his rival,
and he listened to the information they gave him, quite certain that
neither would allow the treacherous dealings of the other to escape.
It was in this manner Fouché delivered to Buonaparte the minutes of
the secret treaty with Paul I., which Talleyrand had communicated to
the court of London through the medium of one of his agents. The agent
was sacrificed, but Buonaparte did not venture to touch his principal,
because there was some danger in making known the treachery. Talleyrand
afterwards employed the same agent in several subordinate negotiations;
indeed, it is well known that he rather preferred people who were not
much incommoded by scruples of conscience, men of whom he could boldly
disclaim all knowledge if necessary, and who were content he should do
so.
We now come to the lamentable affair of the Duc d'Enghien; and there
is not the slightest doubt that Talleyrand was as well acquainted as
General Savary with Buonaparte's determination to seize the prince.
He denied it in vain, for positive proofs exist of the truth of our
assertion; amongst others, his letter to the Baron of Edelsheim,
minister of Baden, which has been preserved in an entire state. The
following is an extract from it: "The First Consul has considered
it necessary to order two detachments to proceed to Offemburg and
to Ettenheim, to secure the authors of so odious a crime, which is
sufficient to deprive the persons who have been concerned in it of the
benefit of the law of nations."