it happened to be casually mentioned in conversation that
Chateaubriand was affected with deafness, and complained bitterly of
that infirmity. 'Je compends,' said Talleyrand; 'dequis qu'on a cesse de
parler de lui, il se croit sourd.'"

We find a long portrait gallery of ministers, and princes, and
princesses, one more imbecile, ignorant, and corrupt than another. One
minister did not know the difference between Russia and Prussia; another
always wrote Asiatic for Henseatic, and thought his correction
necessary. Much light is thrown on the first quarrel between Ferdinand
and his father; and the narrow escape of the Duke of Infantado is well
told. Godoy, like all who had the honor of Lord Holland's acquaintance,
was in some degree a favorite of his, his good qualities being brought
out to neutralize his many bad ones. Jovellanos and Arguelles appear the
only honest characters in the midst of such a mass of vice, and even
they were pedantic, impracticable, and prejudiced. No history,
narrative, or memoir can be so disgusting as those of Spain and its
court under the dominion of the House of Bourbon. The imagination of no
novelist has ever attained that _acme_ of duplicity, cruelty, villany,
and cowardice, which made up the character of Ferdinand. The general
opinion of PRINCE METTERNICH, since he has become familiar to London
circles, has been rather to diminish former opinion of his superior
wisdom. Lord Holland's early opinion of the prince is thus recorded:

"He seems hardly qualified by any superior genius to assume the
ascendency in the councils of his own and neighboring nations, which
common rumor has for some years attributed to him. He appeared to me, in
the short intercourse I had with him, little superior to the common run
of continental politicians and courtiers, and clearly inferior to the
Emperor of Russia in those qualities which secure an influence in great
affairs. Some who admit the degrading but too prevalent opinion that a
disregard to truth is useful and necessary in the government of mankind,
have on that score maintained the contrary proposition. His manners are
reckoned insinuating. In my slight acquaintance with him in London I was
not struck with them; they seemed such as might have been expected from
a German who had studied French vivacity in the fashionable novels of
the day. I saw little of a sagacious and observant statesman, or of a
courtier accustomed to very refined and enlightened socie