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them itself, or to obtain a sanction for its own whims, is far removed from the generous and elevated spirit of a chief, strong in power, talents, and credit, who profits by the crowning moments of his fortune to renounce himself, and to restore to his country its legitimate superior, and the laws which secure its liberty. "Bonaparte was master, dictator, and sovereign of France in the hall of St. Cloud. Perhaps he was not so in the same degree on the morrow; but, in preserving the elements of his greatness, he destines the crown for his own head, were the recasting a crown in question. Like Cæsar, he has rejected it—but with the understanding that he might have taken it, but preferred restoring it to the people. He seems only to have desired the honour of this refusal, and a legal authority sufficient to conduct him, by means of laws dictated by himself, to an illustrious

repose.

"This, at least, is the opinion of acute observers; but, while they thus interpret his present views, they eschew all conjectures as to what may follow. Doubtless, while repeating to himself that he rejected the dignity of dictator, of protector, or of prince, he has repeated far more frequently, and been far oftener reminded by his flatterers, that it was in his power to become so.

"May he not have prescribed, as the condition of his splendid renunciation, that his plans be followed in constructing that new order of things, which he allows to take the place of his personal domination?

"Were this conjecture just, we might predict, especially taking Bonaparte's character into consideration, that any one who forms a different conception of liberty will be viewed as an enemy; and that any opposition to such acts of legislation and acts of government as he may please to enjoin, will restore to his ambition the utmost force it is capable of.

"In such a situation, a definite aim and boundary are seldom assigned; but the course of events decides all. Bonaparte's head is in the clouds; his career is a poem, his imagination a storehouse of heroic romances, his stage and arena accessible to every outburst of intellect or ambition. Who shall fix the limit where he will arrest his course? Is he sufficiently master of his feelings, of things, of times, and of his own fortune, himself to fix it?"

Mallet du Pan was obliged to stop the "Mercure Britannique" at its thirty-ninth number. This climate did not suit him, and the hard labour of getting up his journal (which was almost entirely written by himself) was too much for a constitution always delicate. He died at Richmond, after a long illness, on the 10th May, 1800.

It is gratifying to be told that the English Government had been prevailed upon by his friends to take the case of the dying man into consideration, and that his last hours were cheered by an assurance that the Ministry were about to adopt some measure with respect to Madame Mallet.

After his death, a pension of 200l. was granted to that lady, the son of the illustrious journalist having previously been appointed to a place in the Audit Office.

This English translation has been published with the approval of Mr. Mallet, the son of the celebrated French journalist, with whom the English publisher was in correspondence previously to its publication. The translation has been acknowledged to be so well executed, as to have led to the notion with some weekly newspapers that it is not a translation, whereas a mere glance at the book will show that it is.

THE CAREER OF PRINCE SCHWARZENBERG.

THIRTY years ago Prince Felix Schwarzenberg was the spoiled child of London society. He was an attaché of the Austrian Embassy; these embassies, and all appertaining to them, were much more looked up to than they are at present. The scion of a family of the first rank and wealth, young, handsome, and with more brain than was necessary in his position, no wonder he was a favourite. He was much blamed for his conduct with regard to a lady, the then wife of one of our statesmen ; but Prince Felix was little more than twenty. The lady went to him at Chandos House, not he to the lady, as was proved on the trial, and every one knew that A-n was the first lover, and the juvenile Schwarzenberg more a seduced boy than a veteran Lothario.

The family were originally Lords of Sensheim. Its chief became a favourite of the Emperor Sigismund, and married his sister. He was created Baron of Sensheim by that monarch in 1417; and having purchased the more extensive territory of Schwarzenberg, adopted that title. The family were declared princely in 1670; and were sovereign princes in Kletgau, which they held immediately under the Emperor. They were mediatized, however, in 1814 and 1815. Schwarzenberg is a province, extending five square German miles, and counts ten thousand inhabitants. The possessions of the family extend over twentythree square German miles, contains three hundred and thirteen villages, and yield an annual revenue estimated at six hundred thousand florins.

It was not, however, the head of the family, and the owner of this large property, which, of its members, occupied the most consideration either at the Court of Vienna, or in the politics of Europe. The Prince Schwarzenberg, to whom the world looked up, was the Field-marshal of the name. He, however, was but of a younger branch of the family, of rather he was the younger brother of Prince Joseph, who, in 1802, made over to him large estates in Bohemia, a property augmented in 1815 by the generosity of the Emperor, with several estates in Hungary. This officer, so renowned in his latter days, rendered so by the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, had been all his life a kind of Cassandra in the military councils of Austria. He began his martial career against the Turks before the French Revolution, and even at that time had been in every war and in every action.

But, though always employed in subordinate command, he had never been entrusted with the lead. He served under Mack at Ulm, and when that renowned commander surrendered, Schwarzenberg disdained to be a party to it, and cut his way through the French army with some regiments of Dragoons. Again, at Austerlitz, he was opposed to the giving battle, and the mode of giving it. In 1814 and 1815, however, his services were thought entitled to supreme command, and how he proved himself worthy of it, Leipzic and other fields sufficiently attest. Yet Marshal Schwarzenberg, of all the Austrian Court, was considered the man most favourable to Napoleon, and most inclined to the French alliance. In this sentiment the elder branch of the family joined. A great part of their domain was in Franconia, included in the Confederation of the Rhine, so that any permanent disagreement or hostility between the partizans of Austria and of France or Germany, must have

proved highly inimical to the interests of the family. When it was determined that the Arch-duchess Marie Louise should espouse the Emperor Napoleon, Marshal Prince Schwarzenberg was the envoy chosen by the Court of Vienna to conduct the Princess. He was at the same time appointed ambassador in Paris. What he felt most likely to want was the presence of the high-born, the French noblesse remaining in dudgeon. To supply this want, the elder and princely branch of the Schwarzenbergs accompanied the Marshal and aided in doing the honours of the embassy.

On the occasion of the marriage of Louis the Sixteenth with Marie Antoinette, an immense number of lives were lost in the crush, produced by the crowd in the Rue Royale and the Place Louis Quinze. It was considered as a most lugubrious omen, and those who afterwards marked the fate of that hapless king and queen looked back upon the dread omen as verified. What then were the forebodings and dismay, when a still more fearful catastrophe attended the fêtes consequent upon the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise.

The Prince-Marshal took a house in the Rue Mont-Blanc, or Chaussée d'Antin, as it used to be, and was subsequently called. He selected the quarter for his residence, as if on purpose, far from the quarter of the old noblesse, where he might have found large palaces and spacious apartments. But Napoleon did not like driving into the Faubourg St. Germain. Prince Schwarzenberg therefore took a house in the new quarter, and no sooner had taken it, than he found he had not space for the first fête he intended to give. He remedied the narrowness of the space, however, by taking in the garden and converting it into a temporary ball-room. It was fitted up with boards somewhat hastily, and then covered over as hastily with draperies and gay coloured calicoes and silks. This splendid fête was a cruel blow to the old French noblesse, who saw an Austrian Envoy and a Schwarzenberg giving a sumptuous fête in honour of the new sovereign, sprung from the Revolution, espousing a princess of the House of Austria, and a niece of Queen Marie Antoinette. Whatever bitter feelings were excited by the circumstance and by revived recollections, the bitterness was more than gratified by the way in which the fête ended.

The crowd of guests had poured in and filled the brilliant rooms; the dancing had for some time commenced; the Emperor entered with the Empress, and the gala was at its height, when a gust of wind happened to blow from its place one of the festoons of the drapery adorning the improvised apartment, it floated over a lamp, caught fire, and in an instant the entire drapery of the room was in a blaze. The wood work of the roof and walls was not many seconds in taking fire from the muslin and calico, and the edifice was on fire before the greater number of the guests were aware.

Word of the accident was instantly brought to Napoleon, who thought of the Infernal Machine, and of this as a pendant to it. His lowering countenance of course added to the anxieties of his host, and Prince Schwarzenberg, after a few hasty directions respecting the fire, turned all his attention to the Emperor and Empress, and to seeing them out of danger, before he looked to the safety even of his own family. The Emperor's carriage was procured and drawn up at a side door, for the way to the front led through the burning hall. To this the Prince directed his steps as soon as Napoleon and Marie Louise had driven

away, but it was no longer possible to penetrate into it or pass it. It was a sheet of flame, and, isolated from the staircase, it was impossible for the Prince to make search there. His own family, relatives, and principal guests were safe. There seemed little reason to doubt of this, until, after a time, the names of those saved were known, and the Princess, wife of Prince Joseph, was not amongst them.

The Emperor having deposited the Empress at the Tuileries, had by this time returned, and under his orders prompt measures were taken to put down the flame. It was some time ere this was effected and before they could penetrate into the improvised ball-room, the roof of which had fallen in. Here the worst fears of the anxious family were realized, by the discovery of the calcined body of the Princess Schwarzenberg, recognizable more by the quantity of jewels and ornaments, half melted upon her person, than by identity of any other kind. The body lay in a hole of the burnt floor, about which the quantity of water thrown upon it had formed a pool, and was still smoking. It was extraordinary that so eminent a personage should thus, and indeed almost alone, have perished, amidst hundreds of guests who would, any of them, have risked life for her.

Amidst this scene of ruin and death, on which the day was breaking, not the least striking object was a large gilt clock, that had stopped going in the height of the conflagration, but had not been destroyed; its hands pointing out the time of the catastrophe.

We mention, that when Field-marshal Schwarzenberg had come to Paris as ambassador, the elder branch of his family, to do him honour, had accompanied him. This was the Prince Joseph. He had espoused the Princess Pauline of Ahrenberg, who lost her life in the melancholy way which we have narrated. The cause of her destruction was her anxiety for the safety of her daughter, Elenora; she had been carried off to a place of safety at the commencement of the conflagration, a circumstance of which it was found impossible to apprize her mother. She accordingly penetrated into the burning ball-room, in search of her daughter, and perished in the act.

The death of the Princess Elenora, the daughter of Pauline, took place in a manner equally tragic. She was married to Prince Windischgratz, well known as the captor of Vienna from the insurgents, and the commander on the first invasion of Hungary. At the time of the revolution, he commanded the Austrian troops in Bohemia, and was, whilst at their head, assailed by an insurrection at Prague. The Princess was with him at the time, and unfortunately ventured near to a window of the hotel in which she was staying. She was struck by a ball from the insurgent ranks and instantly expired, in June, 1848. This was amongst the many causes that rendered Prince Felix so inveterate against the insurrectionists.

Besides the Princess Elenora, Prince Joseph and Pauline had three sons. The eldest, Prince Joseph Adolf, born in 1799, succeeded to the title in 1833. The second, Prince Felix, born in 1800, forms the subject of this memoir. The third, Frederic, entered the church: of him we may say a few words before proceeding to narrate the career and fortunes of his brother.

In Austria there are but two professions for gentlemen, diplomacy and the army. For the church, it is but very exceptionable; Prince Frederic of Schwarzenberg did, however, enter holy orders, and was made

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Archbishop of Saltzberg at the early age of four or five and twenty. He was a remarkably handsome youth, and all the dames of the Salzkammergut were loud in admiration of the beauty of the prelate. We wish that we could say as much of his wisdom or his toleration; but unfortunately, he was no other than the prelate who commenced and continued the persecution of the unfortunate families of the Zillerthal in the Tyrol, which were under his episcopal jurisdiction. All travellers, and most readers, have heard how about three fourths of the families of the Zillerthal thought fit to turn Protestants. They were for the most part landed proprietors, as the Tyrol peasants generally are. Complaints were made to Saltzberg; and the Archbishop, saying, that the law of the country tolerated existing Protestants, but would not tolerate future or converted ones, obtained a decree, sentencing the Protestants of the Zillerthal either to return to the bosom of the church, or to quit the dominions of Austria. They to a man preferred the latter. A short space was allowed them to sell their properties, which, as they could only be bought by the peasants of the region, were disposed of for little or nothing. The King of Prussia welcomed these exiles for conscience sake, and gave them lands and a village in the only district of his dominions that boasts a mountain. He located them at the foot of the Riesenberge, where they can have neither their vines nor their Indian corn, but where in recompense they come to church or chapel as they like, without fear of persecution.

The exiled Zillerthalars preserve their national costume, and seem happy, and in really a prosperous and thriving region.

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So much for the ecclesiastical polity of the Schwarzenbergs when under old Ferdinand, the grandfather of the present Emperor. handsome and intolerant Archbishop of Saltzberg has since been promoted to Prague.

There is no denying the great talents of Prince Metternich, who governed Austria down to the year 1848, and who kept so many discordant and uneasy elements from breaking into disorder for so long a time. There was not a province or a district of the empire that did not in that time make immense progress in material development and prosperity. The fault of Metternich was, not that he checked the Austrians from growing prosperous and rich, but that he knew not how to make the government share in their prosperity. As individuals grew wealthy or vicious, the treasury grew poorer and more indebted. In vain did he summon and consult his council; the routine of Austrian employés could not help him; once he took courage, and consulted an Englishman, who gave him excellent advice, and Metternich proceeded to follow it. But it created some jealousy, and created such a riot amongst the placemen, great and small, that Metternich himself was obliged to abandon it. Routine universally triumphs in Austria, and promotion goes by seniority; the prime minister had none but old men about him. If this rendered everything stationary in Austria during the lifetime of the old Emperor, it accomplished complete stagnation when his son, in a state of almost idiotcy, succeeded.

Metternich gave no place at Vienna to high nobles like Schwarzenberg. They might come to please the Court, the Emperor, or the Archduchesses, and so obtain a position to profit by intrigue. So that a capable man, like Schwarzenberg, was kept in London or at Naples or with his regiment.

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