enjoy any
freedom without subscribing to certain abstract principles and arbitrary
tests, or as if the profession and subscription, nay, the technical
observance of such tests and principles, were not, on the other hand,
often compatible with practical oppression and tyranny."

MARIE ANTOINETTE is treated almost as badly as by Mr. Geffeson, who
thought her a devil, far less tenderly than we should have expected. Her
"amours" are spoken of, though with the limitation that "they were not
numerous, scandalous, or degrading." We gather that Talleyrand believed
her to have been guilty in a special instance named, and that Madame
Champan had confessed it to him. At the same time her person is not very
flatteringly described.

"As I was not presented at Court, I never saw the Queen but at the
play-house. She was then in affliction, and her countenance was, no
doubt, disfigured by long suffering and resentment. I should not,
however, suppose that the habitual expression of it, even in happier
seasons, had ever been very agreeable. Her beauty, however extolled,
consisted, I suspect, exclusively in a fair skin, a straight person, and
a stately air, which her admirers termed dignity, and her enemies pride
and disdain. Her total want of judgment and temper no doubt contributed
to the disasters of the Royal Family, but there was no member of it to
whom the public was uniformly so harsh and unjust, and her trial and
death were among the most revolting parts of the whole catastrophe. She
was indeed insensible when led to the scaffold; but the previous
persecution which she underwent was base, unmanly, cruel, and ungenerous
to the last degree."

On the other hand, a better case is made out for Egalite than any writer
has yet been bold enough, or informed enough, to attempt. His false
position with the Court is shown not to have been of his own seeking,
and to have ultimately driven him reluctantly into the ranks of the
extreme party. His courage is vindicated successfully, his sincerity and
truthfulness less so. Lord Holland retained his regard for the Orleans
family to the close of his life. He was one of the warmest defenders of
the late King of the French. There are some capital notices of
TALLYRAND.

"It was in this visit to Paris in 1791, that I first formed acquaintance
with M. Talleyrand. I have seen him in most of his vicissitudes of
fortune; from his conversation I have derived much of the little
knowledge I possess of t