vivacity. The establishment of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs was on the most liberal
scale. He was allowed ten thousand a year
to enable him to keep a handsome table and
receive his guests in a manner worthy of the
splendour of the rising government.

On the day of the levee there was a grand
parade. Bonaparte, mounted on a white charger,
accompanied by some general officers, reviewed
his troops, amounting to about six thousand
men, with great rapidity. Mr. Fox paid little
or no attention to it, conversing chiefly, while
it lasted, with Count Markhoff, the Russian
ambassador. The account of the levee at which
Mr. Fox was introduced to Bonaparte is
interesting from the words addressed to him by the
first consul; they are the prototype of many
similar speeches uttered sixty years later by
Napoleon the Third. We give the narrator's
own words:

"On the occasion of the great levee which
was to collect so many representatives of nations
and noble strangers from every country to pay
their respects to the first consul, several apartments,
having the general name of ' Salle des
Ambassadeurs,' were appropriated for the crowd
of visitors at the levee previous to their being
admitted to the first consul's presence. Lord
Holland, Lord Robert Spencer, Lord St. John,
Mr. Adair, and myself accompanied Mr. Fox
there. The grand masquerade of human life
was inexpressibly striking. A restrained
expression was often to be caught on the
countenances present, which seemed to say, 'Can
this be reality? Can it last?' 'What think
you of all this?' said the Chevalier d'Azara,
ambassador from Spain, addressing himself to Mr.
Fox, who made answer by a smile. 'It is an
astonishing time,' he continued; 'pictures,
statues—I hear the Venus de Medici is on the
way; what shall we see next?' A pleasant
dialogue ensued between these two statesmen,
diverting themselves, when scolding could avail
nothing. The American minister, Mr. Livingstone,
was plain and simple in his manner and
dress; Count Markhoff was covered with
diamonds, and of a most forbidding aspect, with
sound sense, however, malgré that face which no
lady would fall in love with, and an ungraceful
air; the King of Prussia's ambassador, the
Marquis Lucchesini, gaudily dressed—like a
foreign bird—but pleasing and easy of
demeanour; the Neapolitan ambassador, the
Marquis de Gallo, an unmeaning nobleman of the
old school; and the venerable and sage
negotiator, the Count Cobenzel, the Austrian
ambassador, were there, with a great number of
English noblemen and gentlemen who, with
many Russian and Swedish officers, with the
white scarf on their arm, crowded the rooms.
There was a much greater number of English
presented than of any other nation. The Cardinal
Caprara represented his holiness the Pope, with
his scarlet stockings and cap, a polite and
dignified ecclesiastic. This grand assemblage
was detained in the Salle des Ambassadeurs a
considerable time, during which several
servants in splendid lace liveries handed round
coffee, chocolate, and the richest wines and
cakes upon china bearing the initial B., without
any armorial, royal, or established mark of rank.
The heat was excessive, and expectation,
wearied with the pause, began to droop, when
the door opened, and the prefect du palais
announced to the Cardinal Caprara that the first
consul was ready; he afterwards called M.
d'Azara, upon which every one followed without
regular order or distinction of rank. We
ascended the great staircase between files of
musketeers!

"When we reached the inner apartment
where Bonaparte, surrounded by his generals,
ministers, senators, and officers, stood between
the two other consuls, Le Brun and
Cambacères, in the centre of a semicircle at the head
of the room, the numerous assemblage from the
Salle des Ambassadeurs formed into another
semicircle, and joined themselves to that at the
head of which stood the first consul.
Bonaparte, of a small and by no means commanding
figure, dressed plainly, though richly, in the
embroidered consular coat, looked like a
private gentleman indifferent to dress and devoid
of all haughtiness in his air. The two other
consuls, large, heavy men, seemed pillars too
cumbrous to support themselves, and during the
levee were sadly at a loss what to do—whether
the snuff-box or the pocket-handkerchief was to
be appealed to, or the left leg exchanged for the
right. The moment the circle was formed
Bonaparte began with the Spanish ambassador,
then went to the American, with whom he spoke
some time, and so on, performing his part with
ease and very agreeably, until he came to the
English ambassador, who, after the presentation
of some English noblemen, announced Mr.
Fox. Bonaparte seemed a good deal flurried,
and said very rapidly, 'Ah! Mr. Fox, I have
heard with pleasure of your arrival; I have
desired much to see you; I have admired in you
the orator and friend of his country, who in
constantly raising his voice for peace consulted
that country's best interests, those of Europe and
of the human race. The two great nations
require peace; they have nothing to fear; they
ought to understand and value one another.
In you, Mr. Fox, I see with much satisfaction
that great statesman who recommended peace
because there was no just object for war, who
saw Europe desolated to no purpose, and who
struggled for its relief.'

"Mr. Fox said little, or rather nothing. He
had always the same invincible repugnance to
acknowledge an address complimentary to
himself. A few questions and replies relative to
Mr. Fox's tour ended the interview."

Bonaparte is thus described:

"His (Bonaparte's) stature being small, and
his person, though not ill, yet not very well
formed, he cannot be supposed to have a very
striking air on that account; but his countenance
has a powerful expression, and decision
and determination, when he is grave and
thoughtful, are most emphatically marked on it.