Nesselrode has, in every respect, the most agreeable _salon_ in St. Petersburg, and the one where the most conversation goes on. He takes pleasure in collecting people who hold the most various opinions, in such a manner as to form a neutral ground, on which every body may meet; and when a man has reached a venerable age, full of years and of honours, what more can be desired? our tent must be pitched somewhere. When for forty years, people have been engaged in the most gigantic events, like the aged men in Homer, they offer hospitality to the young, when they recount to them all they have seen, and the judgment they have formed; they contemplate the present generation with the feelings experienced by a traveller who, from an elevated tower, looks down on the cities far below him, and the people incessantly busy, and thronging to perform the part assigned to them in the weary task of humanity. LORD CASTLEREAGH. I am about to write the life of a statesman whose character has been more violently attacked in the annals of England--I might almost say of Europe--than any other with whom I am acquainted. No one ever had to endure more outrages and insults, and no one ever displayed more inflexible firmness, in the course of a most chequered and agitated life. I shall offend many little prejudices, and hurt many vulgar opinions; but things of this sort have never prevented me from proceeding straight to the truths of history, respecting men who have accomplished a great political career.