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THE DIPLOMATISTS OF EUROPE.

From the French of

M. CAPEFIGUE.

Edited by

Major-General Monteith,
K.L.S. F.R.S. &c.







London:
G. W. Nickisson,
215 Regent Street.

M.DCCC.XLV.

London:
Printed by George Barclay, 28 Castle Street,
Leicester Square.




CONTENTS.


                                                       PAGE

PRINCE METTERNICH                                         1

M. DE TALLEYRAND                                         58

COUNT POZZO DI BORGO                                    109

M. PASQUIER                                             172

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON                                  197

THE DUC DE RICHELIEU                                    223

PRINCE HARDENBERG                                       252

COUNT NESSELRODE                                        289

LORD CASTLEREAGH                                        327




AUTHOR'S PREFACE.


The sketches now offered to the reader have most of them been already
published in parts, in magazines and reviews. I have been advised to
collect them into one work, in order to make their tendency and their
spirit better understood.

The end I proposed to myself at the time I wrote them, was to efface
the prejudices which the decrepit schools of the Revolution, and of the
Empire, had cast over the vast intellects who have had the direction
of the government in various countries, or who still continue to guide
the state. This end, I think, was partly gained by the four sketches of
the career of Prince Metternich, Counts Pozzo di Borgo and Nesselrode,
and the Duke of Wellington. I have considered it the more essential to
complete this publication at present, because, for some years past,
people appear only to take pleasure in extolling those who have been
engaged in the work of destruction. The most illustrious public bodies
take pleasure in listening to the praises of those who have ruined
the old state of society, and no