of the future. So at the date stated the explosion occurs, Napoleon pouring upon Talleyrand all the fury of his invective, reproaching him with the affair of the Duc d’Enghien, and clamouring to know where his enormous wealth had come from,—how much he had gained at play or on the stock exchange, and what was the sum of his bribes by foreign powers. Over and over again such scenes are repeated, the burden of the fierce reproaches being always the same; but Talleyrand stands impassive as a statue, remarking once, but not till he is out of the room, and is limping away, "What a pity that such a great man has been so badly brought up!" or sending in, at another time, a resignation, which of course is not accepted. The reproaches of the emperor were only too well founded, his minister having reaped a vast harvest from the smaller powers at the formation of the Rhenish Confederation; it is indeed recorded that Talleyrand once put a figure upon his gains in this department of corruption—the figure being no less than sixty million francs.
It is undoubtedly to his credit, however, that he steadily resisted a warlike policy, and that he was particularly opposed to the Russian invasion. He was occasionally employed in diplomatic negotiations, and was even again offered the post of foreign minister if he would give up that of vice-grand-elector. This offer, which would have placed him at the mercy of Napoleon, he declined, and the breach between the two widened. Before the events of 1814 his hotel had become the centre of anti-Napoleonic intrigue; as the crisis approached he communicated with the allies; when it was at hand he favoured a regency, and appeared anxious that Marie Louise should remain in Paris; and when this was abandoned he carefully arranged a feigned departure himself, but that his carriage should be turned back at the city gates; he did return; and the emperor Alexander was his guest at the Hôtel Talleyrand! The revolution was his work; and his nominee Louis XVIII. ascended the throne. For a third time, and again under a new master, he was appointed foreign minister. It would be difficult to overestimate the splendid services which he now rendered to France. In Paris, on 23d April, the treaty was concluded under which the soldiers of the allies were to leave French soil; and Talleyrand successfully urged that the territory of France should be the enlarged territory of 1792, and also that the great art treasures of which so many European cities had been despoiled should remain in Paris. A final treaty of peace between Europe and France was concluded on 30th May, and in September the congress of Vienna assembled. It was the scene of Talleyrand’s greatest triumphs. He succeeded single-handed in breaking up the confederation of the allies, and in reintroducing the voice of France into the deliberations of the European powers. Further, on January 3, 1815, a secret treaty was concluded between Austria, France, and England.
When Napoleon escaped from Elba and advanced towards Paris, Louis XVIII. retired to Ghent. Although the congress of Vienna was thus broken up, Talleyrand made no haste to follow him thither. He was puzzled and remained so during the Hundred Days. He despised Louis, and an early approach to Bonaparte was out of the question. He therefore coolly betook himself to Carlsbad, remarking, when an explanation was asked for, that the first duty of a diplomatist after a congress was to attend to his liver! Waterloo of course decided him. He appeared at Ghent, and was but coldly received. The foreign powers, however, intervened, conscious after Vienna of Talleyrand's value ; and, among others, Wellington insisted the great diplomatist must be taken into the councils of Louis, with the result that he became prime minister at the second restoration. But his position was one of extreme difficulty. The king disliked him; there were scenes bordering on violence in the royal presence; the Russian emperor intimated his hostility to him; he shared the odium of having a man like Fouché for a colleague; Chateaubriand and his party hated and beset him. Fortunately an excuse of a broad and national kind soon presented itself. He objected to the conditions which the allies were imposing upon France, refused to sign the treaty, and on 24th September resigned office.
He retired into private life, in which he remained for fifteen years. He only spoke in the House of Peers three times during this period, — twice (1821 and 1822) in favour of the liberty of the press, and once (1823) to protest against the Spanish war. But in 1830, when Charles X.’s reign was evidently imperilled, he again is at the centre of intrigue; and it is actually at his private but urgent suggestion that Louis Philippe heads the revolution, taking, to begin with, the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Declining the post of foreign minister, he proceeded to London as ambassador, conducting himself and serving his country with his usual consummate skill. He returned crowned with success after the formation of the Quadruple Alliance. In November 1834 he resigned, and quitted public life for ever.
He emerged from his retirement on March 3, 1838, to pronounce before the Institute the éloge of Reinhard, and in so doing to treat of diplomacy in general, and to suggest an indirect but adroit apology for his own career. He was received with unbounded enthusiasm by the élite of French literature and society—Cousin even exclaiming that the éloge was worthy of Voltaire. His last illness, which had by this time shown itself, soon prostrated him. He was visited on his death-bed by crowds of celebrities, including the king. He died on May 17, 1838, at the great age of eighty-four. He is buried at Valençay.
According to his desire, his memoirs under his own hand will not appear till 1890.
There is a considerable body of anonymous and untrustworthy literature both in French and English on the subject of this sketch. For the earlier part of Talleyrand’s career, see the general literature of the Revolution; for the Napoleonic, the general histories, including especially the Memoirs of the Due de Rovigo; for the third and last, also the general histories, and especially the Correspondence between Talleyrand and Louis XVIII., edited by Pullain (1880; transl. into English, 1881), and the Memoirs of Guizot. References abound to the private life of Talleyrand, and on it see also the Histoire Politique et Vie Intime, by G. Touchard-Lafosse (1848), and the Souvenirs Intimes sur M. de Talleyrand, by Amedée Pichot (1870). The student must be on his guard in perusing most of this last-mentioned literature. For many years the Histoire Politique et Privée, by G. Michaud (1853), stood practically uncorrected, although evidently a studied and bitter attack. The view taken by Louis Blanc in his Dix Ans (translated into English in 1846) is also quite distorted, and if one wishes to see a complete misreading of Talleyrand’s career it can be found in Blanc's tenth chapter of his fifth book. Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer rendered great service by his life of Talleyrand, published in his Historical Characters; and the worth and accuracy of Bulwer's biography, which was speedily translated into French, has been amply acknowledged by Sainte-Beuve in his valuable treatise (lectures) on Talleyrand published in 1870. Reference should also be made to Mignet, Bastide, and the Mémoires Politiques of Lamartine.
Caution will have to be exercised in reading Talleyrand's autobiography, which will not appear till 1890. The testimony of contemporaries will not be available to check it, and Talleyrand is proved to have presided at the destruction of much documentary evidence implicating himself, at the moment when the Russian emperor was living at his house. (t. s.)
TALLIEN, Jean Lambert (1769–1820), the chief leader of the party that overthrew Robespierre, was the son of the maître d'hôtel of the Marquis de Bercy, and was born in Paris in 1769. The marquis, perceiving the boy’s ability, had him well educated, and got him a place as a lawyer’s clerk. Being much excited by the first events of the Revolution, he gave up his desk to enter a printer’s office, and by 1791 he was overseer of the printing
