The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 03 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 03 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
Alas! Sir Robert, ‘How little knew’st thou of Calista!’ as a body may
say. But you have in part redeemed your errors, and revenged the trick
that was thus put upon your _preux chevalier_ notions of honour!—One
would think there was shuffling and paltering and evasion and cant and
cunning enough in the foregoing part of this transaction. What follows
is worse. After the campaigns which so providentially delivered France
and Europe from the hands of illegitimate into those of legitimate power
_en plein droit_, and while the immortal congress was yet assembled at
Vienna, ‘Prince Talleyrand, on the part of King Louis,’ says Mr.
Macirone, ‘was indefatigable in his exertions to induce the Austrian
government to withdraw their alliance from the King of Naples, from whom
the allied powers had so recently received the most efficient support.
The Austrian government being warmly urged to undertake the _holy war_
of legitimacy against its ally, the King of Naples, at length expressed
its willingness to comply, but alleged the exhausted state of the
finances of the country. _This difficulty was, it is said, immediately
removed by the British ministers, who offered to defray all the expense
of the expedition_, and moreover to furnish a British fleet, in
preference to a French fleet, as proposed by Talleyrand in his famous
note, which fleet should act in concert with and assist the movements of
the Austrian forces.’
One would think that after this open and profligate breach of faith, the
legitimates had made up their minds to keep no terms with illegitimacy.
But, no: expediency turns round once more, and British honour,
simplicity, and good faith, with it! Murat, in consequence of the
preparations against him, attacked the Austrians ‘at the very moment, as
it afterwards turned out, that the apprehensions of his union with
Napoleon, who had just returned to France from Elba, had determined the
British Cabinet to attend to the invocations of justice in his favour.
Lord Castlereagh had written to the Duke of Wellington, who was at that
time the plenipotentiary of the British court at Vienna, and informed
him, that _in consequence of the reappearance of Napoleon at the head of
the French nation_, the British ministers thought it adviseable to unite
all the force they could collect, and had consequently come to a
determination immediately to conclude a treaty of alliance with the King
of Naples.’
Bravo, my Lord Castlereagh! you may one day find, after all, that
honesty is the best policy; and we hope the Editor of _The Times_, in
the next number of _The Correspondent_, will relieve his praises of the
allies and his compliments to the Duke of Levis, by a criticism to prove
that Jonathan Wild and Count Fathom were ‘gentlemen and men of honour!’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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