[1] Nothing can exceed the paternal government of Austria to her hereditary states, or the severity of the police in her Italian dominions. In Hungary the Austrian power has never been sufficient to enable her to ameliorate the prominent defects of their still feudal system. The Italians, Sclavonians, and Hungarians, are still far from being amalgamated with the Austrians.

[2] The French commissioners were attacked on leaving the city and many killed.—Editor.

[3] See "Europe during the Consulate and the Empire of Napoleon."

[4] Prince Metternich told me the Emperor had locked the door.

[5] The sum of 5,000,000l. sterling was to be furnished for the year 1814, to be increased if necessary.—Editor.

[6] SuzerainetÉ.

[7] M. de Talleyrand, who had naturally an inclination in favour of ancient honours, preferred his title of duke of the old monarchy to his principality; for the title of prince, unless in connexion with the Blood Royal, was considered as of foreign extraction, and not to possess any aristocratic importance.

[8] The arms of M. de Talleyrand were, Gules, three lions, or, langued, armed, and crowned azure, prince's coronet on the shield, ducal crown on the mantle. Device, Re que Diou (Nothing but God above us).

[9] A pawnbroking establishment in Paris under the protection of the government.

[10] About 20,000l.

[11] Histoire de la Restauration.

[12] Signed in the month of March, vide Metternich.—Tr.

[13] Histoire de la Restauration.

[14] About 160,000l.

[15] I speak of the time before Lord Durham had taken the side of Russia and of Conservatism.

[16] "Il nobile Pasquale Pozzo di Borgo, oratore dei popoli di lÀ da' monti in Corsica...." 1584.

"... Per egregium virum Pasqualem Pozzo di Borgo, civem Adjacii, oratorem et procuratorem populorum provinciÆ Adjacii et SartenÆ, et aliorum hominum ultra montes CorsicÆ."

"Tutta la provincia di lÀ da' monti nell' isola di Corsica in generale, ha eletto per oratore il Capitano Secondo Pozzo di Borgo sÌ per assistere presso le VV. SS...." 1597.

All these charters are extracted from the work published by the wise and judicious magistrate, C. Gregori, Statuti Civili e Criminali di Corsica.

[17] I saw all these papers, which were printed in 1793, in the hands of Count Pozzo di Borgo; he took pleasure in shewing the curious decree against Napoleon, afterwards the pride and glory of Corsica. The consulta was composed of 1200 deputies.

[18] This observation appears to indicate some inaccuracy regarding the date of Paoli's demise. It took place in Feb. 1807.—Editor.

[19] Vide the article "Metternich."

[20] I have seen the rough copy of this proclamation written in pencil by Count Pozzo and corrected by Alexander himself.

[21] "Histoire de la Restauration."

[22] This memorial was found again some years afterwards at Warsaw. The Emperor Nicholas wrote to Pozzo di Borgo in 1830, "How rightly you foresaw what would happen! You would have saved us much difficulty and embarrassment."

[23] About twenty-eight millions sterling.

[24] On the 5th of April, 1824, the minister of finance brought forward a plan to substitute rentes at three per cent for those already existing at five per cent, reserving to the holders of the five per cent rentes the option between the repayment of their nominal capital and its conversion into three per cents at the rate of seventy-five. Some modifications were suggested, but the plan failed at the time. In the following year it was renewed, and then it was decreed that the proprietors of five per cent rentes should be allowed till the 22d of June (afterwards extended to the 5th of August) the faculty of demanding from the minister of finance their conversion into three per cents at the price of seventy-five, and till the 22d of September the faculty of requiring their conversion into four and a half per cent stock at par, with a guarantee in both cases against being paid off till September 1835. The rentes so converted were to continue to bear interest at five per cent until the 22d December, 1825.—Editor.

[25] Alexander had gone on a tour of inspection to the southern parts of his empire, and on arriving at a village in the Crimea, he insisted upon attending the service in a church which had long been shut up, in spite of the remonstrances of his attendants, who represented the danger arising from malaria. He was shortly afterwards seized with the fever common in the Crimea, and refused to submit to the strong measures recommended by his medical attendants, resolving to trust to abstinence and the mild remedies he had usually found successful when attacked by illness, but which were insufficient in this instance; and when he at last resigned himself into the hands of his physicians, it was too late. Reports were raised of his having been poisoned, but they were totally devoid of foundation.—Editor.

[26] See "L'Europe pendant le Consulat et l'Empire de Napoleon."

[27] Sapeurs-pompiers.

[28] The Comte de Chabrol had been appointed prefect of the Seine upon the dismissal of Frochot after Mallet's conspiracy, and had distinguished himself by the most inflated expressions of devotion to the Emperor. "What is life," said he, "compared to the immense interests which rest upon the sacred head of the heir of the Empire? For me, whom an unexpected glance of your imperial eye has called from a distance to a post so eminent, what I most value in the distinction is the honour and right of setting the foremost example of loyal devotion!"—Editor.

[29] The law to authorise arbitrary arrests was equivalent to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act in England: and it was originally brought forward by M. Decaze and strenuously supported by Baron Pasquier. It was proposed that it should continue in force for one year, and after a debate which lasted for several sittings, it was passed by a majority of nineteen votes, modified however by the introduction of a clause forbidding arrests to be made under it during the night. A law restraining the liberty of the press was also passed after being most obstinately contested. The majority in the chamber of peers was only two on this occasion.—Editor.

[30] He was accused of great political tergiversation, and M. Vaublanc, a keen royalist, designated him as "a man who never left one administration till he had prepared to enter another, who never deserted one set of friends till he had looked out for another more in favour at court, and who had skipped into successive cabinets with that ease which marked all his movements."—Editor.

[31] At the same moment that he dissolved the chamber of deputies, the king created seventy-six new peers, all of them people devoted to the government.

[32] Gawilghur.—Ed.

[33] 20th January, 1812.

[34] 7th April, 1812.

[35] 24th July, 1812.

[36] Witness Assaye, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, Vittoria, &c.—Editor.

[37] He had long had a seat in the House of Peers, but the mistake is very natural for a foreigner.—Editor.

[38] Upon this occasion the Duke of Wellington voted against his brother's measure.—Editor.

[39] The editor begs to remind the reader that he is not answerable for M. Capefigue's opinions.

[40] See Note, page 208.—Editor.

[41] About 800l.

[42] Now about 80,000.—Ed.

[43] The government of Odessa includes the island of Taman, and part of the Caucasian line, inhabited by the Cossacks of the Black Sea, who were settled on the Lower Kouban by Potemkin, as a defence against the incursions of the Circassians; forming a chain of intrenched villages, sufficiently near to communicate by signals, and supported by some regiments of infantry and artillery. The Circassians have never been able to make any serious impression on this line; and the Russians, whose object was purely defensive, never even crossed the Kouban with an intention of permanently establishing themselves beyond the river till the conclusion of the last Turkish war, during which Anapa, and all other forts possessed by the Turks on the Black Sea, were ceded to Russia. The Circassians had only tolerated these nominal dependencies of Turkey, as affording convenient points of trade and export for the slaves captured from Russia and Georgia, as well as those taken during their own domestic wars. The natural strength of the country and its deadly climate have hitherto checked the Russian conquests, but, sooner or later, it must yield to a power capable of sending unlimited reinforcements, while every action permanently diminishes the strength of the mountain tribes. The war, which has now lasted sixty years, can have no effect on the prosperity of the southern provinces of Russia, nor is it felt twenty miles from the frontier. The few Circassians that have been educated in Russia are not permitted to return to the tribes. The Caucasian guard formed by Prince Paskewitch in 1830, and who return periodically to their own country, may have a much greater effect; they are taken indiscriminately from all the tribes, Circassians, Lesghis, Chechens, and Ossatinians, forming a body of about two hundred men, in some measure resembling the Mamelukes of Napoleon.—Editor.

[44] Vide art. Pozzo di Borgo.

[45] 64 millions sterling.

[46] Ministres secrÉtaires d'État.

[47] Vide art. Pozzo di Borgo.

[48] Vide articles "Pozzo di Borgo" and "Richelieu."

[49] Count Capo d'Istria was murdered in September, 1831, by the brother and son of a Mainote he had imprisoned.—Ed.

[50] QuÆre, Coyne?—Editor.

[51] This assertion is untrue, and not borne out by any evidence.—Editor.

[52] Parliament decided upon the re-enactment of the Insurrection Act, and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, in Ireland.—Editor.

[53] This is a mistake.—Editor.