his dislike of lotteries. He supported all or most of the various loans proposed by Necker; and seconded Mirabeau's exhortations to keep faith with the national creditor. He suggested practical measures with a view to this end, and among others the sale of church lands (he had previously supported the abolition of tithes), reserving however a competent provision for the priesthood, and even improving the condition of the poorer clergy. He also proposed to establish a caisse d'amortissement,' as an additional guarantee to the state's creditors. The task of making arrangements for levying the part of the revenue derived from taxes upon persons exercising professions, and upon transfers of property, devolved upon M. de Talleyrand. Connected with his labours in preparing a new territorial division of France, and a new method of collecting the national revenue, was the motion which he made and carried in the Assembly, in August, 1790, to the effect that the king should be intreated to write to his Britannic majesty, to engage the parliament of England to concur with the National Assembly in fixing a natural unit of weights and measures; that, under the auspices of the two nations an equal number of commissioners from the Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London might unite to determine the length of the pendulum in the latitude of 45°, or in any other latitude that might be thought preferable, and to deduce from thence an invariable standard of weights and measures. At the same time that he was taking part with his colleagues of the Constituent Committee in these labours he was charged by them with the important task of preparing the report upon national education, which was read to the Assembly on the 10th, 11th, and 19th of September, 1791. The basis of the system advocated in this report was the secularization of instruction: education was to be the gift of the state, not of the church; the state was to provide instruction for those who proposed to enter the church, exactly as it was to provide instruction for those who proposed to enter any of the other learned professions. Equal stress was laid upon the establishment of elementary schools in every canton; and of a higher class of schools, for the benefit of those who were not destined to embrace a learned profession, in the chief town of every district. Two acts of M. de Talleyrand, which have been much commented upon, appear to be as it were necessary corollaries of the principles avowed in the legislative career we have been passing in review:-his appearance as principal actor in the theatrical celebration of the anniversary of the capture of the Bastille; and his taking upon him the office of consecrating the national clergy. career. men for their own good. M. de Talieyrand's idea, and he entertained it in common with a considerable number, was, that the Revolution might be guided, checked, and rendered useful by approximating the constitution of the French to that of the English government. He cared little for the creed of the church, but he wished to preserve the church, and to render it in France what the established church was in England. Hence his care, even while laying hands on the property of the church for the exigencies of the state, to retain an adequate provision for the clergy. hence his anxiety to identify the clergy with the nation. His anxiety to establish a constitution modelled upon that of England was always avowed. His views (the views he adopted, it is not meant to attribute originality to them, regarding territorial divisions and the organization of local government, finance, and education, though overborne for a time in the storm of the Revolution, have revived and been adopted by the Empire, the Restoration, and the pre sent dynasty. The recklessness as to the means by which he attained his ends which he displayed even at this period of his career is no evidence of insincerity, but merely of the want of faith in men, which the treatment he had experienced in early life, and his observation of the society he habitually mixed in, had instilled into him. It was his weakness through life to pride himself in the display of his power of refined mockery, regardless of the enemies it created: he gave vent to his spirit of raillery in actions as well as in words; and thus lent a grotesque colouring to his coups d'état, which rendered them more startling than if they had been as prosaic as those of other men. The world is perhaps less startled with the atrocity of passion in a statesman, than with a laughing air which shows his contempt for it. The most startling of his devices is his solemn inauguration of the constitutional monarchy by the religious celebration of the 14th of July. But the love of theatrical presentation and the delusive belief that good may be effected by it is strong in every man at some period of his life. Talleyrand in all likelihood looked forward at that moment to being the founder and future primate of a church which should be to France what the Anglo-Episcopal has been to England. The means to which he was driven to have recourse in order to carry through the installation of the national bishops, undeceived him, and brought back his early disgust for the profession with redoubled force. He not long after resigned his bishopric of Autun, and at the same time renounced his ecclesiastical character. The history of M. de Talleyrand from the 'dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, in September, 1791, till the It is absolutely necessary that some estimate be formed overthrow of the monarchy, on the 10th of August, 1792, of the conduct and character of M. de Talleyrand while a would be instructive were it merely as a demonstration of member of the first National Assembly, as a guide to an the folly of the self-denying ordinance with which that appreciation of his far more enigmatical subsequent body terminated its career. Its members were declared M. de Talleyrand entered the Assembly with the ineligible to the next assembly, and also incapable of reputation of a dexterous negociator, which he had receiving any appointment from the crown until two years acquired in his discharge of the office of agent to the had elapsed from the date of its dissolution. The conseclergy. He had then, and he retained in after-life, the qence was, that M. de Talleyrand among others was rencharacter of a self-indulgent man, of a man with a large dered incapable of any legislative or ministerial office. It instinct of self-preservation, but also of a humane man. was at that time an object with all who desired that the The disciple of Voltaire and Fontenelle could scarcely be Revolution should have fair play, to preserve peace with a very zealous Christian, but M. de Talleyrand had always England, which, although still ostensibly neutral, was been a respecter of conventional morality: his was pre- every day presenting additional symptoms of alienation. cisely that kind of disposition and intellect that supports The court party hated M. de Talleyrand for having taken a church not from belief, but as a useful engine for pre- part frankly with the Revolution; the republicans hated serving order in society. M. de Talleyrand, like all the him for his advocacy of a limited monarchy; all parties literati of his day, had a theoretical belief in the equality of distrusted him on account of his eternal sneer; but all men; at the same time that with regard to the privileges of parties agreed that he was the only man whose talents the nobility, he was inclined to support them in the same fitted him for the delicate mission to England. And it way that he did the authority of the church-as a useful po- was impossible to appoint him to it. He was dispatched litical engine. But involuntarily and perhaps unconsciously however, in January, 1792, without any ostensible diploM. de Talleyrand was a warmer partisan of the aristocracy matic character, to sound the English ministry, and attempt. than the clergy: he was noble by birth and attached by to commence negociations. His want of an official charactaste to the habits of a select society, whereas the ecclesias- ter allowed the queen to indulge her feelings of personal tical character forced upon him against his will had some- dislike to the ex-bishop of Autun by turning her back upon thing repulsive to him. In short, M. de Talleyrand saw him when he was presented at St. James's; and this recepclearly the rottenness and the absurdity of many of the old tion at once ensured his exclusion from general society, institutions of his country: he was willing, desirous, that and rendered him powerless. After the accession of the government should be organized and act in a manner to Gironde to office, the attempt to ensure at least neutrality: promote the general happiness; but he had no faith in the on the part of England was renewed: Chauvelin was sent capacity of men for self-government; and he had been to England as nominal, and along with him Talleyrand as educated in a church, many of whose members were at real ambassador. By this time however the French governthat time obliged to reconcile their consciences to remain- ment had become as obnoxious to the general public of ing in it by adopting the maxim that they were deceiving | England as to the court circles: the torrent was probably too strong to have been stemmed by Talleyrand, even though he had been in a condition to act directly and in person. He could do nothing, forced as he was to act by the instrumentality of a man too jealous and opiniative to conform honestly to the directions of one whose authority necessarily made him feel himself a mere puppet. Talleyrand's good faith at this period in labouring to preserve peace between England and France, as the only means of rendering a constitutional monarchy possible in the other country, and the steadiness with which he pursued his object, undaunted by the most gross personal insults, are satisfactorily established by the narrative of Dumont. Talleyrand was at Paris when the events of the 10th of August put an end to the monarchy; and it required all his dexterity to enable him to obtain passports from Danton, to enable him to quit Paris. He fled to England, and having saved little of his property, he was obliged to sell his library there to procure himself the means of support. The English government, jealous of his presence, after some time ordered him to leave the country in twenty-four hours; and proscribed in France, he was obliged, with a dilapidated fortune, to seek refuge in America, when he had almost attained his fortieth year. 6 Madame de Staël has claimed, and apparently with a good title, the credit of instigating Chenier to demand the recall of M. de Talleyrand after the fall of Robespierre and the termination of the reign of terror. The National Institute was founded about this time, and M. de Talleyrand had in his absence been appointed a member of the class of moral and political science. At the first sitting of this society which he attended he was elected secretary, an office which he held for six months. During this period he read two papers, afterwards published in the Mémoires de la Classe des Sciences Morales et Politiques de l'Institut National,' which are justly considered not only as the most able and original of his published writings, but as those which are most indisputably his own. The first of these is entitled Essai sur les Avantages à retirer de Colonies Nouvelles dans les Circonstances présentes; the second, * Mémoires sur les relations Commerciales des Etats-Unis avec l'Angleterre.' The latter is, properly speaking, a supplement--perhaps rather a pièce justificative' appended to the other. The great object of both is to point out the importance of colonies to a country like France, in which the revolutionary fervour, though beginning to burn dim, was still sufficiently powerful to prolong the reign of anarchy and suffering, unless measures were adopted to neutralize it. There can be no mistake as to the views being those of M. de Talleyrand himself. They are such as could only occur to a person entertaining the political opinions he had advocated in the Constituent Assembly, who having been exiled by the reign of terror' which decimated his countrymen, was living in a country where a successful revolution had quietly and speedily subsided into a settled form of government; in a country where he felt that an Englishman becomes at once a native, and a Frenchman remains for ever a foreigner.' Not satisfied with pointing out in what manner colonies might be rendered powerful assistants in tranquillising France, the essayist entered deeply into the principles of colonization, explaining the advantages to be derived from colonies, and the law by which their economical advantages might be perpetuated even after their political relations with the mother-country had ceased. In his treatment of his subject he evinces a clear and deep insight into the structure of society both in France and America, and just and extensive views in political economy. He was again engaged in politics with a desire to promote what Having adopted a profession in which success could only be expected under a settled government, believing a monarchical government to be the only one which could give tranquillity to his country, and anxious with many others to run up a make-shift government out of the best materials that offered, he naturally attached' himself to the growing power of Bonaparte. When the future emperor returned from Egypt, M. de Talleyrand had been six months in a private station; though, had he still retained office, he might with equal readiness have conspired to overturn the Directory. Bourrienne is not the best of authorities, but the earlier volumes of the memoirs which pass under his name are less falsified than the later; and an anecdote which he relates of Talleyrand's interview with the first consul, after being reappointed! minister of foreign affairs, is so characteristic, that its: truth is highly probable: M. de Talleyrand, appointedi successor to M. de Reinhart at the same time that Cam bacérès and Lebrun succeeded Sièyes and Roger Ducas as consuls, was admitted to a private audience by the first consul. The speech which he addressed to Bonaparte was so gratifying to the person to whom it was addressed, and appeared so striking to myself, that the words have remained in my memory:-" Citizen Consul, you have confided to me the department of foreign affairs, and I will justify your confidence; but I must work under no one but yourself. This is not mere arrogance on my part: in order that France be well governed, unity of action is re quired: you must be first consul, and the first consul must hold in his hand all the main-springs of the politicals machine-the ministries of the interior, of internal police,. of foreign affairs, of war, and the marine. The ministers. of these departments must transact business with you. alone. The ministries of justice and finance have, without: doubt, a powerful influence upon politics; but it is more indirect. The second consul is an able jurist, and the third: a master of finance: leave these departments to them; it will amuse them; and you, general, having the entire management of the essential parts of government, may pursue without interruption your noble object, the regene ration of France." These words accorded too closely with the sentiments of Bonaparte to be heard by him otherwise than with pleasure. He said to me, after M. de Talleyrand had taken his leave, "Do you know, Bourrienne, Talleyrand's advice is sound. He is a man of sense." He then added smilingly:-"Talleyrand is a dexterous fellow : he has seen through me. You know I wish to do what he advises; and he is in the right. Lebrun is an honest man, but a mere book-maker; Cambacérès is too much identified with the Revolution: my government must be something entirely new." It was not however so much the political talent displayed in these essays, as M. de Talleyrand's skill in employing the reviving influence of the salons of Paris, that obtained him the appointment of foreign minister under the Directory. Here again he was indebted to Madame de Staël, who assisted him through her influence with Barras. M. de Talleyrand accepted office under this unprincipled go- Napoleon and Talleyrand may be said to have under-vernment with a perfect knowledge of its character and its stood each other, and that in a sense not discreditable to weakness. His conviction that a Frenchman could never either. The good sense of both was revolted by the bloodfeel at home in America prompted him to grasp at the first shed and theatrical sentiment, the blended ferocity and opportunity of returning to his native country: his shat- coxcombry of the Revolution; both were practical states tered fortune and taste for expensive luxuries rendered men, men with a taste and talent for administration, not employment necessary for him, and political business was mere constitution-makers. Like most men of action, nei-the only lucrative employment for which he was qualified. ther of them could discern to the full extent the advantage There is nothing in his life to contradict the belief that he | an executive government can derive from having the line of action to a considerable extent prescribed by a constitution; but Talleyrand saw better than Napoleon that the laws which protect subjects by limiting the arbitrary will of the ruler, in turn protect him by teaching them legitimate methods of defending their rights. In another respect they resembled each other-neither was remarkably scrupulous as to the means by which he attained his ends; though this laxity of moral sentiment was kept in check by the natural humanity of both. Their very points of difference were calculated to cement their union. The observant self-centred mind of Talleyrand was lamed by its want of power to set others in motion: it is only through sympathy that the contagious love of action can be conveyed. The impassioned and imaginative soul of Napoleon was made to attach others to him and whirl them along with him; and this power was often too strong for itself: Napoleon, though capable of reflection, was too often hurried away by his instinctive impulses. Each of these men felt that the other was a supplement to himself. Talleyrand really admired and appreciated Napoleon. If he flattered him, it was by the delicate method of confirming him in the opinions and intentions which met his approbation. He dared to tell the First Consul truths which others were afraid to utter; and he ventured to arrest at times the impetuosity of Napoleon, by postponing the fulfilment of his orders until he had time to cool. He opposed, as long as there was any prospect of success, the divorce from Josephine; but his virtue gave way in the business of the Duke d'Enghien, for even though we exculpate him from participation in the execution of that prince, to gratify his master he sanctioned the violation of a neutral territory. This was however the only instance, in so far as Bonaparte is concerned, of his sacrificing the duty of a friend to flattery that can be brought home to him. Napoleon's frequent recurrence, in his conversations at St. Helena, to the subject of Talleyrand's defection, his attempts to solve the question at what time that minister began to betray him, show his appreciation of the services he had re ceived from him. foreign affairs and accept the nominal dignity of vicegrand-elector of the empire in addition to the titles of grand-chamberlam and prince of Benevento, which had previously been conferred upon him. An unprecedented career of victory had rendered Napoleon impatient of success; the consciousness of important services had rendered Talleyrand impatient of neglect; and the alienation thus originated was increased and confirmed by the dashing but vulgar soldiers, who formed such an influential part of the emperor's court, and their silly and vulgar wives, who could not pardon M. de Talleyrand his superior refinement, and who had all in turn smarted under his insupportable sarcasm. Napoleon in exile is said to have represented the resignation of M. de Talleyrand as involuntary, and rendered necessary by his stock-jobbing propensities. It is not impossible that the minister may have speculated more deeply in the funds than was altogether proper; but had there been no other reason for his dismissal, Napoleon could, and often did, wink at more flagrant pecuniary delinquencies. M. de Talleyrand, in his character of grandchamberlain, did the honours of the imperial court at Erfurt; and was on more than one occasion privately consulted by the emperor, who one day said, 'We ought not to have parted. In 1809 however the ex-minister was so loud and unreserved in his condemnation of the Spanish expedition, that Napoleon, on his return from the Peninsula, deprived him of the office of chamberlain. The last five years of the empire elicited many caustic criticisms from M. de Talleyrand, which were duly carried to the ears of the emperor, who retorted by sallies of abuse which irritated the prince without rendering him less powerful. In 1812 M. de Talleyrand is said to have predicted the overthrow of the empire. In 1813 overtures were made to him with a view to his resuming the portfolio of foreign affairs, but without success. In 1814 he re-appeared on the stage of active life on his own account. In 1814, as vice-grand-elector of the empire, he was a member of the regency, but was prevented joining it at Blois by the national guard refusing to allow him to quit For a time their alliance continued harmonious, and that Paris-not much against his will. When Paris capítuwas the time of Napoleon's success. The arrangement of lated, the emperor Alexander took up his residence in the the Concordat with the pope was the basis of the future house of the prince of Benevento. The words attributed empire, and that negociation was accomplished by Talley- by the Memoirs of Bourrienne to Talleyrand, in his converrand. The treaty of Luneville, secularising the ecclesias-sations with those in whose hands the fortune of war had tical principalities of Germany; the treaty of Amiens, re- for the time placed the fortunes of France, are charactercognising on the part of England the conquests of France, istic, true, and in keeping with his opinions and subseand the new form given to the Continental states by the quent conduct :-There is no other alternative but NaRevolution; the convention of Lyon, which gave form to poleon or Louis XVIII. After Napoleon there is no one the Cisalpine republic; all bear the impress of the peculiar whose personal qualities would ensure him the support of views of M. de Talleyrand. And the minister of foreign ten men. A principle is needed to give consistency to the affairs was fully aware of his own consequence. In 1801, new government, whatever it may be: Louis XVIII. rewhen obliged by the state of his health to use the waters presents a principle. Anything but Napoleon or Louis of Bourbon l'Archambaud, he wrote to Napoleon:-'I XVIII. is an intrigue, and no intrigue can be strong enough regret being at a distance from you, for my devotion to to support him upon whom it might confer power.' This your great plans contributes to their accomplishment.' view lends consistency to the conduct of M. de Talleyrand After the battle of Ulm, Talleyrand addressed to the em- at the close of Napoleon's career. Their alliance had peror a plan for diminishing the power of Austria to interfere long been dissolved; they stood confronting each other as with the preponderance of France, by uniting Tyrol to the separate and independent powers. M. de Talleyrand had Helvetian republic, and erecting the Venetian territory advocated a limited monarchy, until the old throne was into an independent republic interposed between the violently broken up and overturned; he had lent his aid kingdom of Italy and the Austrian territories. He pro- to construct a new monarchy and a new aristocracy out of posed to reconcile Austria to this arrangement by ceding the fragments of old institutions which the Revolution had to it the whole of Wallachia, Moldavia, Bessarabia, and left; he saw France again without a government, and, the northern part of Bulgaria. The advantages he antici- with his principles, he might have consistently taken office pated from this arrangement were that of removing Austria under any government, holding, as he did, the opinion from interfering in the sphere of French influence without that any government is better than none, and that any exasperating it, and that of raising in the East a power man may hold office under it provided he take care to do better able than Turkey to hold a balance with Russia. as much good and as little harm as he can. But M. de Napoleon paid no attention to the proposal. After the Talleyrand did more: he exerted the influence he posvictory of Austerlitz, Talleyrand again pressed it upon his sessed over Alexander to obtain the combination of connotice, but equally without effect. No change in the feel- stitutional forms with the recognition of legitimacy. Louis ings of the emperor and his minister can positively be XVIII. saved appearances by insisting upon being allowed traced to this event; but we see on the one hand a pertina- to grant the charter spontaneously, but it was M. de Talcious repetition of a favourite proposal, and on the other aleyrand's use of the remains of the revolutionary party silent and rather contemptuous rejection of it. We find at that made him feel the necessity of this concession. As a much later period Napoleon complaining of the pertina- minister Talleyrand insisted upon its observance with a city with which Talleyrand was accustomed to repeat any precision that rendered him as much an object of annoyadvice which he considered important; and we find Tal- ance to the courtiers of the Restoration as ever the pedantic leyrand speaking of Napoleon as one who could not be Clarendon was to the gay triflers who surrounded Charles II. served because he would not listen to advice. And we When he set out for the congress of Vienna, in September, cannot but see in the difference of opinion just mentioned 1814, the court of France is said to have presented the the commencement of that coolness which induced Talley- aspect of a school at the commencement of the holidays. rand, on the 9th of August, 1807, to resign the portfolio of The powers who had refused to concede to Napoleon at ' Britain on the 5th of September, 1830; and he held the appointment till the 7th of January, 1835, when he was succeeded by General Sebastiani. During these four years M. de Talleyrand, besides obtaining the recognition of the new order of things in France by the European powers, procured a similar recognition of the independence or Belgium, and concluded the quadruple alliance of England, France, Spain, and Portugal, for the purpose of re establishing the peace of the Peninsula. the head of a victorious army anything beyond the limits of France in 1792, gave more favourable terms to M. de Talleyrand, the representative of a nation upon which they had just forced a king. He baffled the emperor Alexander, who said angrily, Talleyrand conducts himself as if he were minister of Louis XIV.' On the 5th of January, 1815, he signed, with Lord Castlereagh and Prince Metternich, a secret treaty, having previously obliged Prussia to remain contented with a third of Saxony, and Russia to cede a part of the grand-duchy of Warsaw. The imbecility of the After his return from the mission to England, M. de Bourbons, by inviting the descent of Napoleon at Frejus, Talleyrand retired from public life. The only occasion on again unsettled everything. M. de Talleyrand dictated which he again emerged from domestic retirement was the proclamation of Cambray, in which Louis XVIII. con- when he appeared at the Académie des Sciences Morales fessed the faults committed in 1814, and promised to make et Politiques, to pronounce the éloge of Count Reinhard, reparation. He suggested the more liberal interpretation only three months before his own death. He died on the of the charter, announced from the same place. He ob- 20th of May, 1838, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. tained an extension of the democratic principle in the The object of this sketch has been to present, as far as constitution of the Chamber of Deputies, recommended the very imperfect materials which are attainable would the rendering the peerage hereditary, and induced the permit, a view of this very extraordinary man undisking, restored for a second time, to institute a cabinet torted by any partisan feeling either with regard to his council, of which he was nominated the first president. person or principles. It must be admitted in favour of M. The constitutional monarchy, the object of his earlier de Talleyrand that he was warmly beloved by those who wishes, was now definitively established; but the part he were his intimate friends, and by all who were at any time was destined to perform in it was that of a leader of oppo- employed under him. It must also be allowed that when sition. In his note of the 21st of September, 1815, he pro- his life is contemplated as a whole, it bears the imprint of tested, as prime minister, against the new terms which the a unity of purpose animating his efforts throughout. Freeallies intended to impose upon France. He said they were dom of thought and expression, the abolition of antiquated such conditions as only conquest could warrant. There and oppressive feudal forms and the most objectionable can only be conquest where the war has been carried on powers of the church, the promotion of education, the against the possessor of the territory, that is, the sovereign; establishment of a national religion, and a constitutional possession and sovereignty being identical. But when war government compounded of popular representation and an is conducted against a usurper in behalf of the legitimate hereditary sovereign and aristocracy-these were the obpossessor, there can be no conquest; there is only the re-jects he proposed for attainment when he entered the covery of territory. But the high powers have viewed the arena of politics. He attempted to approach this ideal as enterprise of Bonaparte in the light of an act of usurpa- far as circumstances would admit at all periods of his long tion, and Louis XVIII. as the real sovereign of France: career; and he ended by being instrumental in establishthey have acted in support of the king's rights, and ought ing it. No act of cruelty has been substantiated against to respect them. They contracted this engagement by him; and the only charges of base subserviency that aptheir declaration of the 13th and their treaty of the 25th of pear to be satisfactorily proved, are his participation in the March, to which they admitted Louis XVIII. as an ally attempt to extort a bribe from the American envoys, and against the common enemy. If there can be no conquest in the violation of an independent territory in the seizure from a friend, much more can there be none from an ally. of the Duc d'Enghien. His literary was subordinate to his His argument was fruitless: Louis XVIII. bowed to the political character. It is difficult to say how much of the dictation of his powerful allies; and M. de Talleyrand re-writings published in his name were really his own. signed office two months before the conclusion of the treaty Latterly, we are informed upon good authority, he was in which narrowed the frontiers of France and amerced her the habit of explaining his general views on a subject to in a heavy contribution. By this step M. de Talleyrand some one whom he employed to bring this communication enabled himself to contribute essentially to strengthening into shape; and when the manuscript was presented to the constitutional monarchy, to which, if he had any prin- him, he modified and retouched it until it met his views, ciple, he had through life preserved his attachment. Had throwing in a good deal of that wit which gave zest to his he been a party to the treaty, he must have shared with the conversation. The domestic life of M. de Talleyrand has elder branch of the Bourbons the odium which attached to not been alluded to; for almost every statement regarding all who had taken part in it; and hence thrown the oppo- it is poisoned by the small wit of the coteries of Paris. sition into the hands of the enemies of the constitution. By resigning office, he obtained a voice potential in the deliberations of the opposition; and no English nobleman born and bred to the profession could have discharged more adroitly the functions of an opposition leader. For fourteen years his salon was a place of resort for the leaders of the liberal party; in society he aided it by his conversational talents; in the chamber of peers he lent it the weight of his name and experience. He defended the liberty of the press in opposition to the censorship; he supported trial by jury in the case of offences of the press; and he protested against the interference of France in the internal affairs of Spain in 1823. By this line of conduct he was materially instrumental in creating a liberal party within the pale of the constitution; and to the existence of such a party was owing in no small degree the result of the revolution of 1830, in which, though the dynasty was changed, the constitution survived in its most important outlines. That revolution also placed Prince Talleyrand in a condition to realise what had been one of his most earnest wishes at the outset of his political career-an alliance between France and England as constitutional governments. To accomplish this he had laboured strenuously in 1792; to accomplish this was one of the first objects he aimed at when appointed minister for foreign affairs under the consulate: he accomplished it as representative of Louis Philippe. M. de Talleyrand was appointed ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Great The report upon education of 1791; a report to the first consul upon the best means of re-establishing the diplomatic service of France; the essays upon colonization, and the commercial relations of England and America; and the éloge of M. de Reinhard-may all be regarded as his own composition. The first is the most commonplace; the other three are master-pieces in their different ways. They bespeak an elegant and accomplished mind, a shrewd insight into character and the structure of society, and a felicitous and graphic power of expression. The wit of M. de Talleyrand was the wit of intellect, not of temperament. It was often full of meaning; always suggestive of thought; most frequently caustic. His reserve, probably constitutional, but heightened by the circumstances of his early life, and cultivated upon principle, was impenetrable. In advanced life it seemed even to have affected his physical appearance. When at rest, but for his glittering eye, it would have been difficult to fee. certain that it was not a statue that was placed before you. When his sonorous voice broke upon the ear, it was like a possessing spirit speaking from a graven image. Even in comparatively early life, his power of banishing all expression from his countenance, and the soft and heavy appearance of his features was remarked as contrasting startlingly with the manly energy indicated by his deep powerful voice. Mirabeau in the beginning, Napoleon at the close of the Revolution, threw him into the shade; but he outlasted both. The secret of his power was patience and pertinacity; and his life has the appearance cf being preternaturally lengthened out when we recollect the immense number of widely removed characters and having been protected for twenty-one years by a patent events of which he was the contemporary. It may be said from Queen Elizabeth, the first of the kind that ever was on the one hand that he accomplished nothing which time granted. One of these, 'O sacrum convivium,' was adapted did not in a manner bring about; but on the other it may by Dean Aldrich to the words I call and cry,' and is the be said, with equal plausibility, that scarcely any of the above-mentioned anthem, which still continues to be freleading events which have occurred in France in his day quently performed in most of our cathedrals. Two more would have taken the exact shape they assumed had not of his anthems are printed in Dr. Arnold's Collection. his hand interfered to give them somewhat of a bias or Tallis died in 1585, and was buried in the parish church direction. Next to Napoleon, he certainly is the most of Greenwich, in the chancel of which Strype, in his conextraordinary man the revolutionary period of France has tinuation of Stowe's Survey, tells us he saw a brass plate, given birth to. on which was engraved, in old English letter, an epitaph, Etudes et Portraits Politiques, par A. Mignet, Brux-in four stanzas of four lines each, giving a brief history of elles, 1841, pp. 131-194; Rapport sur l'Instruction Publique fait au nom du Comité de Constitution à l'Assemblée Nationale, les 10, 11, et 19 Septembre, 1791, par M. de Talleyrand, Paris, 1791-4; Edinburgh Review, vols. vi. and vii.; Mémoires par Etienne de Dumont; Correspon-lications relating to English church music. dence between the Envoys of the American States and M. de Talleyrand, Minister for Foreign Affairs in France, London, 1798, 12mo.; Considerations sur les principaux évènements de la Révolution Française, par Mme. la Baronne de Staël; Dix Années d'Exil, par la même; Mémoires par A. L. F. de Bourrienne, Paris et Londres, 1831; Mémorial de St. Helene; Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de France sous Napoléon, par MM. les GG. Montholon et Gourgaud; Eloge de M. le Comte de Reinhard prononcé à l'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, par M. le Prince de Talleyrand, dans la Séance du 3 Mars, 1838, Paris,.1838,) this renowned composer. The plate was carried away, TALLOW, MINERAL or MOUNTAIN. [HATCHETINE.] TALLY. This word appears to be derived from the French taille, or tailler, each of which expresses the idea of cutting or notching. The use of notched sticks or tallies may be traced to a very remote period, and there is reason to believe that they were among the earliest means devised for keeping accounts. Some writers conceive that the Greek symbolum (oúμßolor) was in some cases a species of tally, which was used between contracting parties; being broken in two, and one-half given to each. In the Pictorial Bible' (note on Ezek. xxxvii. 20), much curious information is brought together on the subject of writing or marking with notches upon sticks. The writer of that note refers to the tablets of wood called arones, upon which the Athenians inscribed the laws of Solon, and to the practice of the antient Britons, who, he says, used to cut their alphabet with a knife upon a stick, which, thus inscribed, was called Coelbren y Beirdd, "the billet of signs of the bards," or the Bardic alphabet.' 'And not only,' he continues, were the alphabets such, but compositions and memorials were registered in the same manner.' These sticks, he adds, were commonly squared, but were sometimes three-sided; each side, in either case, containing one line of writing. A cut which accompanies the note from which we quote, shows the manner of mounting several such inscribed sticks in a frame, so that they might be read conveniently. Another illustration, of later date, is the clog-almanac described by Dr. Plot, in 1686, as still common in Staffordshire. Such calendars, which had the various days marked made small enough to carry in the pocket, and sometimes larger, for hanging up in the house. Similar calendars are said to have been formerly used in Sweden. Perhaps the most curious of the illustrations collected in the note TALLIS, THOMAS, who is considered the patriarch of English cathedral music, was born at about t the same period as the famous Italian ecclesiastical composer Palestrina, whose birth took place in the year 1529. It has been stated, but most probably erroneously, that Tallis was organist to Henry VIII. and his successors. He undoubtedly was a gentleman of the chapel to Edward VI. and Mary and under Elizabeth the place of organist was added to his other office. He seems to have devoted himself wholly to the duties of the church, for his name does not appear to anything in a secular form. His entire Service, including prayers, responses, Litany, and nearly all of a musical kind comprised in our liturgy, and in use in our cathedrals, appears in Dr. Boyce's Collection, together with an anthem which has long been in high repute with the admirers of severe counterpoint. But for the smaller parts of his Service he was indebted to Peter Marbeck, organist of Windsor, who certainly is entitled to the credit of having added those solemn notes to the suffrages and responses which, under the name of Tallis, are still retained in our choirs, and listened to with reve-by notches of different forms and sizes, were sometimes rential pleasure. [MARBECK.] In 1575 Tallis published, in conjunction with his pupil, Bird (or Byrde), Cuntiones Sacrae, master-pieces of their kind; and these are rendered the more remarkable from referred to is the Saxon Reive-Pole, which either is, or has been down to a recent period, used in the Isle of Portland for collecting the yearly rent paid to the king as lord of the manor. This rent, which amounts to 14. 14s. 3d., is collected by the reive, or steward, every Michaelmas; the sum which each person has to pay being scored upon a squared pole, a portion of which is represented in the subjoined cut, with figures to mark the amount indicated by eacn notch. The black circle at the top,' observes the work from which we quote, denotes the parish of G Southwell, and that side of the pole contains the account of the tax paid by the parishioners; each person's account being divided from that of his neighbour by the circular indentations between each. In the present instance the first pays 24d., the second 4s. 2d., the next one farthing, and so on.' The other side of the pole which is represented in the cut is appropriated to the parish of Wakem, of which the cross within a circle is the distinctive mark. The tallies used in the Exchequer (one of which is represented by fig. 2) answered the purpose of receipts |