while, the Court of Austria seemed indifferent, in comparison;--and Graf
von Kaunitz-Rietberg, Ambassador at Paris, was secretly busy, wheeling
Austria round on its axis, France round on its; and bringing them
to embrace in political wedlock! Feat accomplished by his Excellency
Kaunitz (Paris, 1752-1753);--accomplished, not consummated; left ready
for consummating when he, Kaunitz, now home as Prime Minister, or
helmsman on the new tack, should give signal. Thought to be one of the
cleverest feats ever done by Diplomatic art.

"Admirable feat, for the Diplomatic art which it needed; not, that I
can see, for any other property it had. Feat which brought, as it was
intended to do, a Third Silesian War; death of about a million fighting
men, and endless woes to France and Austria in particular. An exquisite
Diplomatist this Kaunitz; came to be Prince, almost to be God-Brahma
in Austria, and to rule the Heavens and Earth (having skill with his
Sovereign Lady, too), in an exquisite and truly surprising manner. Sits
there sublime, like a gilt crockery Idol, supreme over the populations,
for near forty years.

"One reads all Biographies and Histories of Kaunitz: [Hormayr's
(in--OEsterreichischer Plutarch,--iv. 3tes, 231-283); &c. &c.] one
catches evidence of his well knowing his Diplomatic element, and how to
rule it and impose on it. Traits there are of human cunning, shrewdness
of eye;--of the loftiest silent human pride, stoicism, perseverance of
determination,--but not, to my remembrance, of any conspicuous human
wisdom whatever, One asks, Where is his wisdom? Enumerate, then, do me
the pleasure of enumerating, What he contrived that the Heavens answered
Yes to, and not No to? All silent! A man to give one thoughts. Sits like
a God-Brahma, human idol of gilt crockery, with nothing in the belly of
it (but a portion of boiled chicken daily, very ill-digested); and
such a prostrate worship, from those around him, as was hardly
seen elsewhere. Grave, inwardly unhappy-looking; but impenetrable,
uncomplaining. Seems to have passed privately an Act of Parliament:
'Kaunitz-Rietberg here, as you see him, is the greatest now alive; he, I
privately assure you!'--and, by continued private determination, to have
got all men about him to ratify the same, and accept it as valid. Much
can be done in that way with stupidish populations; nor is Beau Brummel
the only instance of it, among ourselves, in the later epochs.

"Kaunitz is a ma