Ambassadress
THIS book takes the story of the fascinating Princess de Lieven long past her Metternich period op to the time of her death, when she was Guizot's mistress. I dislike its title because the Princess exercised her enormous influence on the whole for good. There was not a statesman, ambassador, or indeed diplomat of any calibre who was not a friend of hers at some period or another. When her husband was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James the Prince Regent liked her immensely and when he attained the throne he used to go in to dinner at the Pavilion in Brighton With Lady Conyngham on one arm and the Princess 'de Lieven on the other. She had some influence on the Tsar Alexander I, who at first disliked her, but unfortunately died not long after she had won him over. The same thing happened with Canning, whom she disliked at first but later learnt to respect. They were bosom friends just before his sudden death.
On the accession of the Tsar Nicholas I she and her husband were recalled to Russia and The Times leader of May 23, 1834, attacked her severely, describing her as 'arrogant, mischievous, odious and a supercilious ambassadress.' She did not care for Russia and went first to Germany and then to Paris, where on Talleyrand's death, she took his apartment in the Rue St. Florentin. Her salon there was one of the most famoui in Europe.
At this distance of time one is still not able to assess the value of her interference in European Politics. She certainly tried to do good according to her lights. Her devotion to Guizot during her last years is particularly touching, as this austere, dour, doctrinaire French Protestant, hardly seems to have been a very lovable character.
The great fault with this book is its carelessness. Words are spelt wrongly and French accents are Usually. wrong. The Tsar Alexander's sister, the Grand Duchess Anna, is sometimes referred to as the Duchess and sometimes as the Archduchess as
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