RAIKES'S CORRESPONDENCE.*
This correspondence is a supplement to the "Joarnal of Thomas Raikes," an interesting book which was published in 1856 and 1857, and had for its author one who, like Francis Osbaldistone, came of a good Yorkshire family, was the sou of a rich London merchant, bat had an aversion for commerce, and a marked preference for social and literary pursuits. Quitting the emmting-house soon after his majority, he became a man of fashion and a member of the inner circle of its ruling spirits, the Dandies. In the year 1832 the em- barrassments of the house with which he was connected compelled him to settle in Paris, and by much the greater part of the letters in this collection belongs to the period between that year and his death, in 1848, two years after his return to England. Besides the cor- respondence between the Duke of Wellington, there are a few letters from two er three other statesmen, English and foreign; the rest are from notable dandies, and are chiefly of value in a quasi-an- tiquarian point of view, as illustrating the character and habits of an extinct order of men, which possessed some remarkable gifts and graces, and was, with all its faults, the least objectionable product of the influence which George the Fourth exercised over society during his regency and reign. The signature C. C. Greville presents itself early in the volume, and the letters to which it is appended always arrest attention by the breadth and clearness of observation, and the sound, dispassionate judgment they display. The writer oould even pronounce a just eulogy on Talleyrand, who had told Lord Alvanley, not long before, speaking of the Duke of Welling- ton, with tears in his eyes, " C'est le seal homme d'dtat qui aitjamais dit du Bien de moi." Mr. Greville writes, "I cannot say how sorry I am for Talleyrand's death. He was one of that great school of politeness and social eminence which is now nearly, if not quite, ex- tinct; and, whatever he may have been in youth and middle age, his declining years have ebbed away with admirable tranquillity, and in the constant exercise of many very amiablequalities, as well as of a conservative wisdom and moderation becoming to himself and bene- ficial to the world." The next letter is from Lord Alvanley, who tells a capital story on the same subject : "Montrond is wonderful: apoplexy and gout do their worst, but cannot subdue his spirits and esprit ; he killed us with laughing at his stories about M. de Talleyrand's death, which, though it deeply affected him, has still its ludicrous side: and his legacy of a standing-up desk to write at did not soften his natural inclination to be a little sarcastic. He said that when the signature to the retractation was signed, a priest declared that it was a miracle, on which he gravely said that he had already known of just such another miracle—that when General Gouvins was killed, he, Montrond, with General Latour-Maubourg, went to the spot where he lay, and that they asked the only person who had seen the catastrophe how it occurred ; this was a hussar who replied, ' Le boulet l'a frappe, et il n'avait qua juste le temps de me dire, Prenez ma bourse et ma montre ; et it eat mort l' This apologue, as you may suppose, was like a shell thrown into Dino'a coterie."
The correspondence between Mr. Raikes and the Duke of Wel- lington, which fills the chief part of the book, is continued with but brief intermissions from July, 1840, to August, 1844. Mr. Raikes, whose sources of information appear to have been of the best kind, kept the duke as fait of all the political news of Paris from day to day, and his grace replies in short pithy notes, evincing his intense desire for the preservation of peace, of which he never quite despairs, even when the aspect of affairs appears most hopeless. He put some reliance in the wisdom on the one hand, and the justioe on the other, which he generously imputed to the French Ministers and their sovereign, but his hopes would have fared ill had they rested solely on so visionary a basis. His correspondent tells him (Sept. 22, 1840), "Every act which emanates from the men of July is devoid of dignity or sincerity ; they are fawning or insolent, false or irritating, according to the deference which they are enabled to exact from other nations; but never calm." Mr. Raikes very soon perceived, and never ceased to denounce, the perfidy of Louis Philippe's character, but failed to make his friends in England admit the fact until it was made glaring, by the trickery and breach of faith displayed in the affair of the Spanish marriages. He says, in December of the same year : " The duplicity of Louis Philippe is amply inherited by his son, the Duke of Orleans, who is wanting in the talent of concealment. He has had the naiveté to go first to M. Thiers, and assure him that he quite agreed with his policy ; that he sympathized with him; and, whenever his time should come, would again have recourse to his counsels. He has invited M. Mold, and told him that he looked up Milks judgment as the polar star of France, and he never fails to congratulate M. enizot on the wisdom with which he studies to surmount the present difficulties. rt is so completely in the character of Louis Philippe to have brought up his son iii his own principles, to have taught him that mankind could only be governed by.tieceit, that no one can be surprised at the result of his lessons on a mind not Endowed with superior acuteness, which, like all other minds of that stamp, is prone to mistake canning for wisdom."
In the following February, Mr. Raikes reports the despicable state
* Private Correspondence of Thomas Raikes with the Duke of Wellington, and other etrainouislied contempormies. Edited by his Daughter, Harriet Raikee. Richard y. of the Chamber of Deputies, and other information given him by one of the most intelligent, rational, and independent men in Franc; one who was biased by no ultra political feelings on either side : " The King,' said he, ' if he were not so chary of his money, might have a large majority on any question if he pleased.' The census is so low, notwithstand- ing the confused electoral system, that many of the deputies of the provinces are in very needy circumstances ; they can barely afford the expense of a journey to Paris, much less that of their stay during the meeting. Such men are always on the watch to sell their votes; a sum of even five hundred francs will often decide them to support any measure ; and, when the case is urgent, the Govern_ ment, by the aid of money, can always carry their point. One-half of the
deputies who carried the late bill voted against their real opinions. Yon talk,' said he, of the profligate times of Sir Robert Walpole in England; but here the venality is more contemptible, because the times are more enlightened, the bribes are more insignificant, and the corruption more general.' "
Previous page
