Peel on the 12th of May,
in Merchant Taylors' Hall, by 300 Conservative members
of the House of Commons.]

May 23rd, 1838 {p.094}

[Page Head: DEATH OF TALLEYRAND.]

Talleyrand is dead. He died after a short illness some day last
week. It would require a nice discrimination of character and
intimate knowledge of the man to delineate his, a great deal more
of both than I possess, therefore I shall not attempt it. During
the period of his embassy in England I lived a good deal with
him, his house being always open to me, and I dined there _en
famille_ whenever I pleased. Nothing could be more hospitable,
nothing more urbane and kind than he was; and it was fine to see,
after his stormy youth and middle age, after a life spent in the
very tempest and whirlwind of political agitation, how tranquilly
and honourably his declining years ebbed away. Still retaining
his faculties unimpaired, and his memory stored with the
recollections of his extraordinary and eventful career, and an
inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, his delight was to narrate,
which he used to do with an abundance, a vivacity, and a
_finesse_ peculiar to himself, and to the highest degree
interesting and attractive. No name was once held in greater
detestation in England than that of Talleyrand. He was looked
upon universally as a sink of moral and political profligacy.
Born at the end of Louis XV.'s reign, and bred up in the social
pleasures and corruptions of that polite but vicious aristocracy,
he was distinguished in his early youth for his successful
gallantries, for the influence he obtained over women, and the
dexterity with which he converted it to his advancement. A
debauched abbe and bishop, one of the champions and then one of
the victims of the Revolution, afterwards (having scrambled
through the perilous period of Terrorism) discarding his clerical
character, he became the Minister of the Consulate and the
Empire, and was looked upon all over Europe as a man of
consummate ability, but totally destitute of principle in public
or in private life. Disgraced by Napoleon, he reappeared after
his fall, and was greatly concerned in the restoration of the
Bourbons. For a short time only employed, but always treated by
them with consideration and respect, the Revolution of July again
brought Talleyrand prominently on the stage, and, to the surprise
of all men, he accepted the embassy to London. The years he
passed here were prob