e same stirrings of pride and vanity which are found in
other men, they are mortified and disgusted, as well as
indignant, at such unworthy usage; they will, however, smooth
their ruffled plumage before Parliament meets, for they must
support the present Government, and Government will perhaps be a
little more cordial, as they can't do without these allies.

[8] [The lists of sheriffs for the ensuing year are
commonly handed in by the judges to the Clerk of the
Council in the Court of Exchequer on the morrow of St.
Martin.]

November 17th, 1836 {p.373}

I have had two other conversations with Esterhazy at different
times. He went to Brighton and saw the King, whom he thought much
_baisse_, but I do not know whether it is a proof of it that he
could not prevail upon his Majesty to enter upon foreign politics
with him. He repeated to me what he had said before of the
necessity of a strict and cordial union between Austria and
England, and the disposition of the former not to contest our
supremacy and influence in the Peninsula, but he harps upon the
_mode_ of doing this, which I don't quite understand. I gathered
from him, and have heard from other quarters, that Metternich's
influence is much diminished, and that the Austrian Cabinet is no
longer ruled by him as heretofore, and that there is not the same
union: but there would appear to be a very complete union in the
Austrian Imperial Family, who cling together from a sense of
their common interest, and in great measure from the respect and
attachment which they all feel for the memory of the late
Emperor. Esterhazy said it was remarkable, considering the
condition of the Imperial House--the Emperor[9] in a state
bordering on idiocy, not likely to live above four or five years
at the outside, and his uncles all men of talent and energy; the
next heir, the brother of the Emperor,[10] is a man of competent
sense, but the late Emperor's brothers he describes to be all
superior men.

[9] [The Emperor Ferdinand, here described, filled the
throne until 1848, when he abdicated in the great
convulsion of that year; he spent the rest of his life
in retirement at Prague, but he survived this
prediction nearly forty years.]

[10] [The Archduke Franz Joseph, father of the present
Emperor. But this Archduke never filled the throne.]

[Page Head: THE DUKE OF REICHSTADT.]

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