should
exercise an especial influence in the Peninsula; they were aware
that these questions were the peculiar concern and interest of
France and England, and they did not want to interfere. But for
the escape of Don Carlos, which altered the aspect of affairs in
Spain, and some trifling points of etiquette which might easily
have been adjusted, the Spanish question would have been settled
among the Powers long ago, and the Queen recognised by them all.
He said that for a long time past the affairs of Europe had been
extensively influenced by personal feelings and individual
interests and passions, greatly so on Palmerston's own part and
very much during the embassy of the Lievens, Madame de Lieven
having been so much influenced by partisanship and by her
fluctuating friendships and connections. The Emperor told
Esterhazy that it was impossible for him to leave Lieven there,
that he was not represented by him as he ought to be, that they in
some respects fell short of, and in others went beyond, the line
which their duty and his interests demanded. He said that the
Emperor Nicholas was a very remarkable man--absolute master, his
own Minister, and under no other influence whatever--that his
perceptions were just and his ideas remarkably clear, although his
views were not very extensive, and the circle within which these
ideas ranged was limited, Nesselrode not having a particle of
influence; his Ministers and Ambassadors were clerks; and while
his ease and affability to foreigners (to him--Esterhazy--in
particular) were excessively striking, he treated his Russians
with a loftiness that could not be conceived, and one and all
trembled in his presence with the crouching humility of slaves.
When he was at Prague he on a sudden set off and travelled with
amazing rapidity to Vienna, without giving any notice to anybody.
His object was to visit the Dowager Empress and the tomb of the
late Emperor. He alighted at Tatischef's (his Ambassador's),
where, as soon as his arrival was known, the Russian ladies who
were at Vienna full-dressed themselves and hurried off to pay
their _devoirs_. They were met in all their diamonds and feathers
on the staircase by Benkendorf, who said, 'Allez-vous en bien
vite; l'Empereur ne veut pas voir une seule de vous,' and they
were obliged to bustle back with as much alacrity as they had
come. Though the best understanding prevailed between the French
and Austrian Governments, and the latter is c