BOOKS.
LOUIS XV.'s SECRET DIPLOMACY.,
[FIRST NOTICE.]
M. DE BROGLIE informs us that this work, " which has not even the remotest reference to the preoccupations of a very different nature with which his name has been recently connected," was in great part written already before 1870. It deals with an episode, in the reign of Louis XV., "already suspected in that monarch's lifetime, and officially confirmed by an utterance of
* Le Secret du Rot. Par le Duo de Broglie. 2 vole. Paris : Calmann Levy. 1879
his successor," but which is now first dragged into full light. That episode consists in a clandestine diplomatic action, carried on by Louis XV. behind the back of his Ministers, and for ends carefully concealed from them. It is hard to fancy a situation apparently more improbable. The autocratic King of France, whose mere whim had only to be spoken to make and mis- make policies, chose to engage in secret schemes, as if he were perforce driven to seek underground channels for the indulgence of his propensities. What is eminently typical of this wretched monarch's character, is the circum- stance that the projects thus initiated were carried on with a fluctuating and hesitating fitfulness which drove to despair agents of intelligence and energy,—a fitfulness characteristic of a nature not without quick perception, but with all resoluteness eaten out of its system, and which, through indifference to con- sequences, and an enervation that resulted in downright cowardice, recoiled from the exertion necessary to push any purpose through the slightest opposition. Hence, in his secret diplomacy, Louis XV. showed himself as wayward, as feeble, and as incapable of all consistency as he did in the public transactions of his reign. It is these underground proceedings which M. de Broglie narrates, in two admirably written volumes. Having had access to the jealously guarded records of the French Foreign Office, as well as to his own family archives (for an ancestor was the chief agent in these transactions), he has been able to illustrate thoroughly this hitherto mysterious chapter in history. No Con- servative leanings have led him to tone down the features in the story he tells. He frankly admits that " Louis XV.'s repu- tation (which had nothing to lose) will not gain by what stands in his pages." It is, indeed, doubtful whether anything previously published has exhibited in so glaring a light the political petti- ness of the meanest of French reigns.
The tale opens shortly before the peace of Aix la Chapelle, when some Polish magnates visited Paris, with the view of inducing the Prince de Conti to lay himself out to compete for the Polish throne, on the expected death of its occupant, Augustus of Saxony, as his grandfather had done sixty years before. The bait took, only the Prince felt the difficulties in the way of his being countenanced by French influence. The Dauphiness was daughter of Augustus, she was ardently devoted to her own family, and she had succeeded, by the charm of her manner, in gaining a certain hold on the blasj monarch. Conti, however, had his means of private access to the latter, and on submitting to his Sovereign the Polish proposals, he found Louis XV. by no means indisposed, in his languid manner, to entertain them. Ile gave a grant from his privy purse, and the French Resident at Warsaw received " a secret order, signed by the King, to keep up confidential communications with Polish nobles who might contemplate the eventual election of a French prince." Conti was to direct the correspondence, of which Argen- son, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was to be studiously kept in ignorance. This was the beginning of the secret action which, four years later on, assumed vaster proportions, when, on Russia and Austria striving to bring Poland into affiance, it became part of the avowed policy of France to counteract this move. Conti saw here the opening to make the accredited action of France subserve his personal aims, and he induced Louis XV. to name, for this purpose, as Ambassador the Count de Broglie, whom he initiated, " by confidential instructions in the King's name," as to what he was really intended to promote. One point was that he should strive to make, unconsciously, his official superior "do for the object he ignores, that which he would do were he to know it, and be charged with carrying it out." Eight hundred thousand francs were allotted by the King for secret service, and thus equipped, Count de Broglie set out on a mission, in the course of which he had to indite despatches with the covert intention of making his superior drift imperceptibly into the grooves of a policy secretly entertained by the Sovereign, to whom the Ambassador addressed a distinct series of confidential reports, through the medium of the Prince de Conti, unknown to the Minister.
The Count de Broglie had many remarkable qualities, but they were not those of a subservient agent for petty intrigue. He was of a fiery temper, and of an independent character unusual in the Court of Louis XV. ; he was by no means prone to patience, —ready with bold suggestions, and given to recommend vast schemes of general policy, when he should have merely executed particular orders. The incongruity of his double relations soon galled this high-tempered nobleman. "What I find most difficult to fulfil," he wrote to Conti, "is to send the Minister the accounts I am bound to send of all that happens, of all I do and see, and to make this conformable to the intentions of your Highness in the great purposes you have been directed by his Majesty to pursue. This often obliges me to conceal many things I see, and to suppose much I do not see, and that is a behaviour far removed from my habits of mind." Through an attitude very inadequately justi- fied by the pusillanimous tone of his communications from home, Broglie acquired extraordinary influence, and created a party in Poland which promised to thwart the disintegrating action of Russia. But as this strengthening of Poland seemed likely also to strengthen the Saxon interest, Conti began to address the ambitious Ambassador in a tone of manifest dissatis- faction with action " costly and useless and calculated to prejudice the secret business,"—namely, his own candidature. De Broglie's policy was to assure to King Augustus similar sub- sidies as he had drawm from England, and to make of Saxony an ally against Austria, while Poland was to prove an outpost against Russia. The celebrated Franco-Austrian alliance, which sud- denly changed the political system of the Continent, and made of Frederick an enemy to France, came therefore on him like a stunning blow. The whole of his Polish alliances crumbled away, in presence of a patent co-opera- tion with Russia. Under these circumstances, de Broglie showed extraordinary self-control in concealing his feelings, and an extraordinary quickness in devising a new policy. He now urged on his indolent Sovereign, with all the fire of his eager mind, the necessity to put Saxony, by effective assistance, in the position to checkmate in Germany the growing power of Prussia. " We are in a crisis," be wrote, of the gravest consequence for the present and the future,—most earnestly do I desire that we may do what redounds to the glory of his Majesty and the advantage of his service." Such ideas were anything but tasteful to Conti, who drily replied, " As to your plan of destroying the power of Prussia it is not capable of execution." De Broglie, however, had a head of his own, and no wretched red- tapeism could keep him in leading-strings. Casting to the winds Conti's personal interests, he threw himself ardently into the counsels of the Saxon monarch, on Frederick's invasion. It was de Broglie who induced the feeble Prince to occupy the entrenched camp at Pirna, which long obstructed the invader ; and he would not leave Dresden, although Frederick ordered him away, until he had received commands from Paris. It is highly amusing to read here how he defied the reiterated injunctions of the Prussian monarch. It is known that the Franco-Austrian alliance was favoured by the Pompadour influence. De Broglie entertained the old distrust of Austria. True to his ardent temperament, he drew up elaborate memoranda to prove the dangers of Austria's excessive aggrand- isement, and the need, in the event of her recovering Silesia, " of arrangements for modifications that might tranquillise " France. Louis XV. replied sharply to these inconveniently earnest coun- sels :—" I find it quite proper that you should make me all the representations which you deem it a duty to make but always have in view the intimate union with Vienna ; that is my work. I think it good, and I mean to maintain it." At this conjuncture, Conti dropped out of royal favour, as one become troublesome ; but this did not involve Broglie's disgrace. The King had taken a languid interest in his reports, and though he would not name him to Vienna, Broglie was commanded to con- tinue his secret correspondence through Tercier, head clerk in the Foreign Office, "who, without the knowledge of the Ministers, and under the royal eye, was to hold and pull the threads of this clandestine intercourse."
As usual, Broglie at once engaged impetuously in schemes that would have been excellent, if he had been sure of some solid sup- port. He aimed at absolutely overturning the Russian influence in Poland, and to that end he strove to get removed from St. Petersburg, Stanislaus Poniatowski, the Polish Envoy, and favourite of the then Grand Duchess Catherine. To his superior, the Abbe Berths—a sybarite, hoisted into office by Madame de Pom- padour, and to whom ease was the paramount object in life—a sub- altern of this stamp was supremely worrying. "Your nephew has the devil in his marrow," Bernis exclaimed to the Abbe de Broglie ; " he makes politics only according to his own mind ; in his de- spatches he assumes the tone of imperiousness, in all he does he has a hardness and an acerbity which partake of ferocity." Matters grew yet worse when, after the military catastrophe of R osbach, Broglie would still not acquiesce in narrowing the area of action, and dropping French interest in Poland. In his abruptly vehement way, he wrote to Tercier, for submission to the royal eye, the following curt ultimatum :—" What I demand is a command to uphold matters in the sense his Majesty instructed me, or else to drop them entirely ; get me this, for the mezzo
like Louis XV. This hallucination did not give way even under appointment. Yet at this moment of seemingly sobered appre- The reader will find a remarkable letter of several pages in which by a fresh call from the old voice. This call was not merely fresh, he lays bare the defects of the army, and states the conditions it was a call to operate in a totally novel direction. England was under which alone he would accept its command. No plainer the quarter where Louis XV. on a sudden had the idea of em- language can be conceived than that used by him ; it does honour ploying the Count's talents, and the purpose to which they were both to the character and intelligence of the Duo de Broglie. to be directed was nothing less than an invasion. This second, The vices of the system were, however, too strong. The evil and far more curious, chapter in the annals of the " King's genius of Madame de Pompadour did not rest until the inept Secret" must, however, be deferred to another occasion.
Soubise received a command, the immediate result being that the Duke's orders were not carried out, and the battle of Filling- hausen ended in a repulse for the French. Furious at Soubise's conduct, the Duke and his brother, who acted as chief of the staff, insisted on stating their grievances to Louis XV No warning from the trusty Tercier could prevent a personal visit to Versailles, to lay the case before the monarch, who knew
no better method of escaping this trouble than to order the two brothers into banishment to the Chateau de Broglie. Every one would think that the long-continued farce of secret diplomacy must now have been perforce dropped, but this was not at all the case. On the arrival of despatches from the French Resident at Warsaw, Tercier took the royal orders what he should do, when he learnt " that the recent event was to change nothing in the substance and the mode of correspondence ;" so that in the solitude of his brother's castle the Count was again to be put in receipt of the " King's secret," and was asked to continue, for his Sovereign's amusement, the visionary game of elaborating on paper vast political combinations, of which the central point was the fortification of Poland, with the view of throwing back Russia on the one hand, and keeping in check Prussia on the other. What pre-eminently characterises the disorganisation of the Ad- ministration are the devices whereby the Count was enabled to receive his despatches. Choiseul being on the track of the corre- spondence, no couriers could be sent publicly, for they would have attracted notice and been stopped. Tercier accordingly got Louis XV. to instruct the Postmaster-General " that whatever contrary order he might receive, he was to let pass freely and without being touched by any one all parcels bearing a specified address," which was that of a retired captain residing close to Broglie.
At this time occurred the death of the Czarina Elizabeth, which changed the policy of Russia ; and the tidings acted like an termine is no longer possible." The hackneyed mezzo termille was, electric spark on Broglie, who instantly saw the opportunity for nevertheless, what alone the wearied monarch could be brought to France easily resuming the action he wished her to exercise on the repeat, so that losing all patience, Broglie insisted on returning hom e. Northern Courts. With a sanguineness really beyond compre- At Versailles, Bernie " could not bring himself to receive with ordi- hension, in one who had gone through such experiences, nary civility the obstreperous agent who persisted in causing him he drafted instructions which he wished to have sent additional care in a distant part of the world ;" while Madame de to the French representatives at the different Courts ; and Pompadour frowned angrily, on one so haughty as to have twice what is more, he wrote a letter, to be submitted to the left Versailles without caring to take the Snitana's orders. No King, in which he had the boldness to say, " France had wonder the wearied monarch sought to put off the vehement never been in a like position," and " that all the world had a dis- Count with unmeaning words. " Circumstances are very deli- gust for her alliance." " The Count de Broglie," wrote Louis este," wrote, oracularly, Louis XV., "and I will let you know XV., in an offended tone, " indicates somewhat too much that the
my intentions, as soon as ever I can." peace we have just made is neither good nor glorious." Broglie Circumstances were delicate indeed, for under the incapable was, however, a man with unusual tenacity of purpose. He had generalship of Pompadour favourites, the armies of France had got it into his head that if only he could force his way to Ver- been thoroughly beaten, and the Duke of Brunswick had actu- sailles, he would still be able to push through the spirited policy he ally crossed the Rhine. One Divisional General alone had shown worked out to his own satisfaction. In vain the Dauphin was made capacity—the Due de Broglie—brother to the Count, and like to ask for his return. In vain the Count's sister, Madame de him, of a temperament not at all to the favourite's taste. To his Lameth, mother of the two brothers who played a conspicuous part camp the Count now flew, with the King's sanction, a change that, in the Revolution, besought Choiseul to intervene on her behalf. however, did not arrest the course of secret correspondence. By Louis XV. took a decided pleasure in perusing Broglie's letters, Louis's direction, the reports of the initiated foreign agents were but positively would not suffer the disturbance which his presence forwarded to Broglie at the camp, who, amidst the occupations of would cause in the Court, when an unexpected event enabled war, continued with unabated vigour through Tercier to trans* the two Broglies to visit Paris. The old marechale, their bold suggestions, that after having amused the monarch, were mother, had an apoplectic stroke, which in a few hoars forgotten. At this time, Choiseul succeeded to Bemis, and brought her to extremity. The King sent in the even- having got an inkling of what had been going on, he determined, ing to inquire about her, and on being informed of her im- at all events, to try and break up the machinery for underground minent peril, and that the old lady was not expected to live diplomacy. One morning Tercier was told that he was dismissed. through the night, he remarked, "I would just as soon have it so, Of course Louis XV. did nothing to protect his agent ; Tercier for then the Messieurs de Broglie will have no ground for begging lost his place ; but as the King would not forego the pleasure of me to let them come back to see her." Nevertheless, even this his secret diplomacy, he received an allowance from the privy confirmed royal egoist found that for very shame he could not purse, and was instructed still to be the channel, only in a more refuse permission to attend the obsequies. The brothers were ac- roundabout manner, for correspondence with Broglie. In all this, cordingly allowed to pass a specified number of days in Paris, what surprises one most is that there should have been found men but "with the express condition not to appear at Court." Sorrow- of so much sense as Tercier and Broglie to lend themselves, for so fully, Broglie saw himself obliged to wend his way again into
long, to a game so patently puerile as the attempt to effect a rural exile, and in a parting letter to Tercier he confessed that vigorous and far-reaching policy through the medium of a monarch at last the force of his imagination gave way under confirmed dis-
yet sharper experience. The terrible disasters of the French elation as to the reliance to be set on the King's steadfastness in army at last produced so profound an impression, that perforce any political project, the Count, instead of dropping finally the the supreme command had to be offered to the Duc de Broglie. ungrateful task of secret diplomacy, allowed himself to be lured
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