The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852Greville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901
The Monday after I went to Goodwood, where we had the usual party,
with the addition of the King of the Netherlands, who was in high
glee, and full of enjoyment with his old friends, his cordial
reception here, and the gaieties with which he has been saluted on all
sides. On coming back to town I found Madame de Lieven arrived, and
had a talk with her about politics and what not. She gave me the real
account of the interview between Thiers and Guizot at her house, which
was not exactly as I had heard it. She sent for Thiers, to speak to
him about some mention he had made of the Empress Dowager of Russia
in his history, which was unfair and inexact. He came, and then she
ordered her doors to be closed to everybody while he was there. He
asked why she did so, and why Guizot, who was always let in, should be
excluded. She said it was on his account. He repeated, 'Why, as he did
not object.' After some talk, she said, 'If you really wish it, I will
withdraw my order.' He said he saw no reason why she should retain
it. She then desired him to ring the bell, and said, 'I am at home
to nobody but M. Guizot.' Presently Guizot came, not knowing Thiers
was there. He started with amazement; she burst out laughing; Thiers
laughed; Guizot laughed too. This hilarity ended, she told Guizot for
what object she had sent for Thiers, and then they talked over the
book, and the subject of the meeting. This ended, there was a pause,
when she said to Thiers, 'I have had a message to carry to you from
M. Guizot. He says he has behaved better to you than you have done to
him, for you threw M. Molé between his legs, and he has disembarrassed
you of M. Molé, and now there are only two political possibilities
left, You and Himself.' Guizot said, 'Yes, it is true; I begged the
Princess to say so.' They then began to talk politics, and discussed
persons and things, external and internal policy, peace and war,
all contingencies and probabilities. Thiers asked Guizot, 'Are you
determined to remain Minister?' He said, 'Decidedly yes.' Then they
discussed everything, and on every point were agreed, except on that
of peace and war; Guizot maintaining that peace might be preserved,
and Thiers insisting that in the long run it could not, and that
difference of opinion was what alone made them the representatives of
opposite principles, and influenced their conduct accordingly. She
says they talked over everything, very frankly, very civilly, and that
it was impossible for anything to be more interesting and more curious
than such a conversation between two such men, or more worth writing
down, if there had been a possibility of reporting it. She told me
Thiers' book was not thought much of in France, that the style was
criticised, and it was such a continual panegyric of Napoleon, as to
be rather an apology than a history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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