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From The Spectator. A GERMAN PRINCESS. ONE of the most extraordinary women of the last generation, who for many years, and during the most eventful epochs of European history, exerted an influence greater than that of reigning monarchs, the Duchess of Sagan, born Princess of Courland, died on the 19th September, at the Castle of Sagan, in Prussian Silesia. Princess Dorothea, of Courland, born August 21, 1793, was the youngest of four daughters of Prince Peter, son of the celebrated Ernest John de Biron, whom Anna of Russia raised from the dust to the highest dignities in the empire, giving him the Duchy of Courland as but a slight token of her favor. Ernest John de Biron, with all his failings was not devoid of geniality; but his son Peter had little of him but his extreme physical beauty. By the will of his father Peter married in early life; but his most violent temper made his matrimonial state a very unhappy one, and he brought two wives to the grave before he was thirty years old. Then he made the acquaintance of Ann Charlotte of Medem, the daughter of a poor German nobleman, possessing a small property in Courland; and, attracted by her physical and mental charms, offered her his hand, which she accepted. The offspring of this union were four daughters, who for a long time were held to be the most perfect beauties in Europe. Uniting the charms of unusual intellectual capacity with the symmetry of corporal perfection, the fame of the four princesses of Courland spread through the whole of Europe, and poets came to sing their praises, while kings worshipped at their feet. All had numerous brilliant offers of marriage; but, by the advice of their mother, every one of the four princesses made a love match, or what was held to be such. The eldest married a Count of Schulenburg; the second the Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen; the third a Duke of Acerenza; and the youngest, Dorothea, the Count de Talleyrand-Perigord, nephew of the great Talleyrand, a general in the French army. It was this last-named lady who died but a few weeks ago as Duchess of Sagan, after as eventful a career as ever fell to the lot of duchess or princess.

The union of Dorothea of Courland with the Count de Talleyrand, afterwards Duke

de Dino, was not a happy one, though professedly a love match. The princess was only sixteen years old at the time of her marriage, which took place on the 22d April, 1809, and so full of radiant beauty, that after the first month of her arrival in Paris, crowds used to follow her carriage in the streets, wherever she went, and masses of people stood for hours under the burning sun, or in pouring rain, to get a glimpse of her sweet face. For awhile, the count's vanity was gratified by this adoration paid to his young wife; but, blasé in his inmost nature, he ended by getting tired of even this enjoyment, and before long treated the princess with utter neglect. The knowledge of this could not long be hidden from the gossippers of the salons, and had the consequence of bringing forward a host of open admirers and amis,―among them Prince Talleyrand. The great statesman was unable to hide his fervent admiration of his young niece, and, confiding in his relationship, offered her the protection of his name and position. Shrewd far beyond her age, the Princess Dorothea neither refused nor accepted this protection; but while treating Talleyrand invariably as a kind and loving uncle, managed to keep him for some time at a respectful distance. This naturally increased the ardor of the enamored diplomatist, who henceforth, and for the rest of his life, became one of the most faithful and sincere friends of the princess. Probably there was not a single being in the world to whom Talleyrand, in his later age, was so thoroughly and so steadfastly attached as to his young niece. Dazzled at first by her extreme beauty, he was completely captivated, after somewhat fuller acquaintance, by the geniality of her intellect; to such an extent that not unfrequently her advice ruled the most important of his undertakings. An immediate point of sympathy between the prince and his niece was established in the dislike of both to the person and court of the emperor. The refined manners of Princess Dorothea recoiled at the innate vulgarity of the generals and field-marshals, and their low-born spouses, who gave the ton at the Tuileries; and the often coarse behavior of the mighty Cæsar himself appeared to her anything but imperial or heroic. Being imprudent enough to give vent to these feelings in occasional speeches, the

entry into Paris, and went straight to the Hotel Talleyrand, where he took up his residence. A few hours after, there issued from the mansion of the great diplomatist a document by which the crown of France was transferred from the head of Napoleon I. to that of the Count of Provence, alias Louis XVIII. It was in the drawing-room of Princess Dorothea that the paper fatal to the Napoleonic dynasty was signed by Prince Schwarzenburg and the rulers of Russia and Prussia.

princess soon came under the notice of sovereigns entered France, taking their road Fouché's myrmidons, whose reports en- to the capital, where the great statesman raged Napoleon so much as to make him was waiting their arrival in the privy-counforget the respect due to a princely lady not cil of Marie Louise. In the middle of his subject. Naturally, therefore, the dis- March, 1814, a well-known Swiss gentlelike of Talleyrand's niece to the emperor man, Cæsar la Harpe, had a long interview soon grew into hate, fanned as the sentiment with Princess Dorothea, which was followed was by the cutting sarcasms of the arch- by his departure for the invading army, and diplomatist, in which he freely indulged in his meeting with an old pupil, no less a perher presence. Added to this was the singu-sonage than Czar Alexander. On the 31st lar influence which Talleyrand exercised of the same month the Czar held his solemn over a number of ladies of the highest rank, and which, reacting on the young Princess of Courland, made her the devoted adherent of his vast political schemes. On the compulsory retreat of the prince to his magnificent castle of Valençay-but shortly before the prison of King Ferdinand VII. of Spain, and his brother, Don Carlos-Princess Dorothea followed him thither, determined to enter heart and soul into his plans, and to assist them with all the means in her power. The ex-minister being too closely watched by the spies of the Government to attempt Princess Dorothea accompanied Talleyeven the slightest movement, it was left to rand to the Congress of Vienna, and not a her to organize a series of secret meetings little contributed in that brilliant assemblage of the enemies of imperialism, which were of princes and ambassadors, to the successes not without effect on the subsequent fate of of the great diplomatist. Returned to France, Napoleon. The meetings were held alter- she obtained a separation from her husband, nately at the country-seat of the Prince of and thenceforth devoted herself entirely to Turn-and-Taxis and at the mansion of the the duties devolving upon her as presiding Princess of Vaudemont, at Suresne, and led genius of her uncle's household. Twenty to a connection with the Duke de Condé and years thus spent ended by giving her comthe Bourbons. While the conspiracy thus plete ascendency over the mind of the formed was progressing, news arrived of the prince, and a mastery over his will such as disastrous retreat of Napoleon from Russia, no one possessed before. When Talleyrand and the coalition of the great Continental was lying on his death-bed, as full of seepPowers against the long-endured supremacy ticism as ever, she insisted that he should of the Corsican conqueror. After a short become reconciled to the holy Mother Church. consultation with Talleyrand, Princess Dor- He smiled in answer, "I have never been in othea hurried to Prague, in the neighbor- a hurry, yet always arrived in time." But hood of which city her mother possessed the princess would allow no more jests, and considerable estates. Before she had been forthwith introduced Abbé Dupanloup, a many days at her chateau in Bohemia, Czar zealous missionary of the Church, since Alexander arrived with the King of Prus- then deservedly promoted to episcopal dusia, closely followed by Prince Metternich. ties. Talleyrand, helpless like a child under There were long nightly conferences, the upshot of which was the adherence of Austria to the declaration of war of the two northern sovereigns. Immediately after, Talleyrand's niece returned to Paris, accompanied by her mother and several new male Christian and faithful son of the Catholic servants, believed to be disguised noble emigrants. Not many months had elapsed before the victorious armies of the allied

the burning gaze of his niece, repeated every word dictated by the abbé, and on the morning of the 20th of May, 1838, with trembling hands, already in the agony of death, signed a paper by which he confessed himself a true

Apostolic Church. When, a few days after, his last will and testament was opened, it was found that Talleyrand had left the great

bulk of his fortune, amounting to near twenty millions of francs, to his beloved niece, Princess Dorothea. "A man living in falsehood; yet not what you can call a false man," says Thomas Carlyle, summing up his character.

and eminently handsome man, with a halo
of romance around him, Felix of Lichnow-
sky made a deep impression on the princess.
She invited him to stay at her Schloss, and
before long she declared herself, without
hesitation, deeply and madly in love with
him. Notwithstanding the difference of
age, the princess being fifty-three and
Prince Felix but thirty-one, he professed
to reciprocate her feelings, and agreed to
take up his abode at Sagan. The union of
hearts was soon drawn still closer by a
union of budgets. Prince Felix directed
all his creditors to apply at the Schloss of
Sagan for payment, and the princess was
too much in love not to take the hint thus
given, and paid bills to the amount of very
nearly the legacy left to her by her great
uncle. Wishing to distinguish himself in a
political career, Prince Felix entered the
Prussian House of Lords in 1847, and
achieved a considerable success as one of
the leaders of the Conservative party. Un-
happily, through the influence of the Duch-
ess of Sagan, he was chosen the following
year into the National Parliament at Frank-
fort, where, with his Prussian-lord feelings,
still unaltered, he found himself in the ranks
of the ultra-Conservatives.
There was a
local insurrection at Frankfort on Septem-
ber 18, 1848. in the progress of which Prince
Felix, in company with a friend, took a ride
through the suburbs. Near the village of
Bornheim he was attacked by a furious mob,
torn from his horse, and, while trying to es-
cape, shot through the breast. When the
fatal news reached the Schloss of Sagen, the
princess locked herself up in her room, re-
fusing all sustenance, and expressing her
determination to follow her lover in death.
However, the arrival of one of her sons
shook her resolution, and time and change
of scenery gradually lessened her immense
sorrow, which she gently nursed by erecting
numerous memorials of love within her
parks and gardens. "Felix-ruh," " Felix-
bank," and similar inscriptions throughout
the splendid domain of Sagan, forever com-
memorate the remembrance of Felix of
Lichnowsky.

By a singular freak of nature and circumstances, Princess Dorothea, having devoted the morning of her life to diplomatic intrigue, was fated to give the evening to the passion of love. By the death of her elder sister, she became, in 1845, sovereign owner of the Duchy of Sagan, a mediatized principality of about a hundred square miles, with some fifty thousand inhabitants, situated in Lower Silesia. Thereupon, the princess left France, and settled at the old Schloss of Sagan, a magnificent palace, surrounded by vast gardens, built by Wallenstein, and fitted up with all the pomp and splendor of a royal residence. In the course of the due visits of congratulation paid by the feudal lords of the neighborhood, Prince Felix of Lichnowsky made his appearance: the head of an old noble family, possessing large landed estates in Austrian and Prussian Silesia, and celebrated for the geniality of its members for several generations. The father of Felix, Prince Edward, gained a well-merited literary fame as author of a voluminous" History of the House of Hapsburg; " his grandfather was the friend and protector of Beethoven; and several other predecessors distinguished themselves highly both in the field and the cabinet. Prince Felix, born April 5, 1814, ran through a most romantic career in early youth. After having been a short time in the Prussian service, he went to Spain and offered his sword to the Pretender, Don Carlos; fought two years as general in the ranks of the insurgents, and, badly wounded, retired to his estates to write " 'Reminiscences of the years 1837 to 1839"-by no means flattering to the cause of Don Carlos. He then offered his services to the Shah of Persia, and went half-way thither; but suddenly turned his head to Portugal in search of fame and adventures. The result was another volume of Reminiscences," and a number of duels, out of all of which he came Princess Dorothea, Duchess of Sagan, victoriously. He then retired again to his died, as already stated, a few weeks ago, on estates, deeply involved by this time by his the 19th September last, at her royal resiextravagances, and here made the acquaint-dence. She retained her extreme beauty ance of Princess Dorothea. A tall, fine, almost up to the day of her death, and won-. THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. 966

66

been well executed, on account of the executants not having access to all the necessary information, and not possessing the necessary talents and experience. Perhaps of all "the eminent hands" who could have embarked in this labor, the most competent, all things considered, is M. Block. For being one of the heads of the Statistical Department of France, he has at his disposition the very best statistical data to be obtained in Europe, and he possesses a high reputation for his accuracy as a statistician, and his skill as a writer on economic subjects.

derful stories are told of the arts she em- the task has been entered into, it has not ployed to preserve the perfection of graces with which nature had gifted her. Her intellect, too, was unimpaired to the last, and the closing years of her career were occupied in the compilation of memoirs, destined to see the light of day at the same period as the historical notes of Prince Talleyrand, ordered, by solemn injunction, to remain unopened for thirty years after the death of the writer. It is very likely, therefore, that the year 1868 may reveal much that is yet dark in the history of Europe during the Napoleonic period, showing how mighty events, produced by the armed struggle of millions, under the guidance of military genius, have been not unfrequently counteracted by the silent intrigues of a few bold and restless spirits. Even the Mephistopheles of the French Revolution, and arch-diplomatist of the nineteenth century, must needs appear in a new light when seen under the inspiration of the fair eyes of a German princess.

From The Economist.

Puissance Comparee des Divers Etats de
l'Europe. By Maurice Block. (French
Edition, with an Atlas.) Gotha: Justus
Perthies.

A COMPARISON of the elements which constitute the power of the different countries of Europe is of great economic and political utility, and, though necessarily teeming with figures, is even not without interest for general readers, who regard books as instruments of amusement, not as supplying materials for thought. Not only does such a comparison determine the relative position of European States, but it is calculated to excite them to improvement in those respects in which they are backward,—and even the foremost among them are in some respects not equal to others of much less importance. The task of making the comparison has been rarely undertaken, owing to its extreme difficulty and aridity, arising from no two countries keeping their statistics in the same way, from very few having the same weights, moneys, and measures, and from differences between nations being almost always greater and more striking than the resemblances. And on the few occasions on which

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The publication which M. Block presents to us consists of a treatise and a series of tables on the national forces of the European nations, and of a set of colored maps exemplifying, and, so to speak, condensing, the results presented. In volume the publication is small indeed; but it contains a truly prodigious mass of information. Strictly speaking, the moral forces of a state are as important in the constitution of its power as the material; and they ought, therefore, to have figured in this work. But M. Block has thought fit to abstain from dealing with them, because he says "the means do not exist of weighing or measuring the moral relations between men and between societies, and because also the material forces of a country are an indication of its moral condition. On this point, we take the liberty of dissenting from our author. Undoubtedly the moral state of a nation cannot be measured with the same mathematical nicety as the material; but the degree of education and of crime can be ascertained with accuracy, and there are not wanting statistics rela tive to religion; and religious education and crime are the most important elements in a moral estimate.

Confined, however, as it is to material matters, the work of M. Block is of vast value. Not only does it fix the precise place which a European country occupies in the scale of material greatness,—that is in territory, population, military and naval power, finances, credit, agriculture, commerce, navigation, railways, manufactures, etc.,—but it makes known facts of which very few people have, we fancy, any idea. As an example of the latter let us take population: If the question were asked in what European country population increases the fastest, would not

nine persons out of ten be disposed to answer ling. Thus our commercial navigation (tonGreat Britain and Ireland? Yet M. Block nage of imports and exports) has increased shows that it is in Greece, and that four 83.3 per cent. in ten years (coasting trade not other countries outstrip ours. In the last included); but that of Austria has progressed thirty or forty years the annual average in- 180 per cent., of Holland 189.1, of Spain 113, crease of the population has been 2.16 per and even of France 88.5: and with regard cent. in Grecce, 1.57 in Prussia, 1.39 in Nor- to the number of vessels, whilst our increase way, 1.17 in Sweden, and 1.12 in Holland, in ten years has only been 26.5 per cent., whilst in Great Britain it has only been 1.9. that of France has been 39.6, of Austria 31.9, Again, is it not the general conviction that of Holland 34.6, of Germany 122.3, and of the army in France in proportion to the pop- Denmark 307. With the exception of Holulation is greatly more numerous than ours? land we are the most heavily taxed people Yet M. Block shows that in 1861 we had in Europe, our average per head being in 13.1 soldiers per 1,000 inhabitants, whilst French money 57f 12c, whilst in France the France had only 12.6. As regards the rela- average is only 49f 75c, in Austria 21f 37c, tive positions of nations, ours on the whole and in Prussia 28f 60c. The expense of our has much to be proud of, but not perhaps so army and navy is truly enormous, as it abmuch as Englishmen fondly imagine. We beat sorbs not less than 73.8 per cent. of what reall countries in the length of our railways, mains of the budget after the interest of the having 48.6 kilometres per 1,000 square kil- debt is paid. Even our formidable navy, on ometres; whilst Belgium, which comes next, which we rely so confidently, is not so strong has only 44.4; Holland next, 34.1; Switzer- as is thought. It presents 24 guns for the land, 20.5; and France only 16.9. Our credit protection of every 1,000 tons of merchant is superior to that of all other nations, 100f shipping, but Italy has 37.2 guns for every rente (£4 per annum) of our debt being worth 1,000 tons, Greece 45, Portugal 39.7, Swe3,066f (£122 12s); whilst the samne sum in den and Norway 27.5, France 22.3. that of Denmark, which comes next to us, is only worth 2,630f; Belgium the next, 2,600f; Holland the next, 2,500f; and France the next, 2,200f. Moreover, since 1847 we have actually reduced the annual outlay for our debt, whilst other countries have added enormously to theirs, France as much as 51.6 per cent.; Portugal, 89.6; Austria, 109; Prussia, 110.9; and Spain, 217.1. In the number of letters sent through the post-office, and which are an indication not only of the activity of the commerce but of the moral virtues of a people, we are far ahead, having on an average 1,907 per 1,000 inhabitants, whilst France has only 699, Prussia 669, Holland 492, and even little Switzerland, which comes immediately after us in the scale, only 1,630. In some other respects, also, we have reason to be satisfied with our national position. But on what may be called the dark side of our accounts there are various facts, and some of them are rather start

We have not thought it necessary to ver ify these and other figures contained in M. Block's work, his well-known accuracy and conscientiousness being to us a full guarantee of their correctness. Our readers will see from them that the work contains a per- . fect mine of curious and valuable information on matters of general importance, and that it throws new light on many of them, or rather removes the veil by which, from a large portion of the public, they have hitherto been covered. Such readers as are not disposed to study figures, can by an inspection of the atlas obtain a correct idea of the principal results presented. In conclusion, we express the wish that an English edition of this remarkable work may be produced; and we add thereto the suggestion that each map, instead of representing different countries in tints of the same color, should have each country in a distinct color, in order to be plainer.

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