The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

tion in the high world of Vienna. The news was too
startling, that the prop of privileged excluaiveness, the
pillar of the aristocracy of blood, should so far forget
his old principles as to unite himself to such a pedigree.
And again we are treated to the following style
of writing:—

This short idyl was. as Hormayr says, succeeded by the
" Hellbreughel and Salvator Rosa" of his third marriage
to Melanie Zichy ; the clever, bold, proud, passionate,
voluptuously beautiful daughter of that notorious Hunga-
rian family to which more than one political traitor has
owed his origin. She occupies a chapter of many pages in
the chronique acandateuse of Vienna. She was immode-
rately proud ; and, having long speculated on the and of
the Prince, she felt not a little disgus•ed when he ga%e the
preference to her humble friend Antonia. After Ler death,
Melanie carried her point: she became Princess Rut
her husband still had in his cabinet the portrait
of Antonia dressed in a plain white robe, with a bunch of
violets in her hand; and this picture faced his writing-
table, whilst the portrait of Melanie, in full dress, with •
profusion of diamouds, was hung on the wall behind his
chair. Melanie once, in the absence of the Prince, had the
position of the pictures reversed; but they were soon
restored to their old places. The insolence of the Princess
manifested itself in its strongest light. on the occasion of
the visit of the sons of Louis Philippe at Vienna. She
refused to acknowledge them. When the French Am-
bassador remonstrated with -- about it, the
Prince answered ; "Je n'ai pas fait Feducation de ma
femme."

At the risk of circulating matter the truth of
which may be doubted (as stated in this gross
style), and ou the treatment of which we dis-
approve, w e have extracted the foregoing pas-
sages. Our readers will perceive that the
style of this latter portion of the performance
is not unlike the revelations of certain extinct
Sunday papers. We can supply them with a
test by which they can measure the accuracy
of this author and his translator. The late
beautiful Lady Castlereagh (wife of Robert
Stewart, second Marquis of Londonderry) is
referred to in the fcllowing, manner :
Nostitz is rather hard up3n the " English." " The
English women," he says, " make us laugh at their strange
attire. They are the Seven Sleepers, who now again
(after the raising of the continental blockade) come forth
from their secluded cavern to town, where they have
become strangers. Lady Castlereagh is colossal and clumsy ;
her dress always startling by the most ridiculous variety of
tawdry and outré finery. Her manners are hoydenish and
reckless ; always boisterous, and always chattering, she is
the fun of the company, and is like mine hostess of the
Congress."

" Colossal and clumsy "—" hoydenish and reek-
" less "—" always boisterous." An author who
inserts such descriptions, so remote (tom the
truth, cannot meet with much credence.
But the ignorance of the translator equals the
impudence of the original. Dr. Vehse wrote
that Nostitz was " hard upon the English,"
and cited his posthumous libel upon Lady
Castlereagh, upon which the acute translator
supplies the following note :
The people on the Continent never distinguish between
Sc“tch, and Insh, alt of whom they comprise
under the general term of "English."
The translator knew that Lord Castlereagh
was " Irish," but he requires to be told that
Lady Castlereagh was an Englishwoman—the
Lady Emily Hobart, youngest daughter of
Robert, second Earl of Buckinghamshire.

We take for grouted that it was in order to
meet the present demand fen• books upon
Austria that this publication was issued in
English by its eminent publishers But the
book does not merit such distinction It is
deficient in order; its authorities are not
cited ; and it is little more than a collection of
biographic ana upon people dead two centuries,
and slipslop scandal, told in slipshod style,
about notorieties of our time. We do not
know that any description of persona in Eng-
land would approve that a literary man (say
with an Aberdeen LL.D.) should compile a
claptrap work, with scraps from the Satirist or
Age, garnished with extracts from Hansard, and
" original " tattle picked up in the low taverns
frequented by discarded servants, and then
call his farrage " The Court and Cabinets of
England since the Battle of Waterloo, with
Secret Memoirs of Living English Statesmen."
It would not add to the value of such a work
if it were issued in a translation at Paris, and
sent into every capital of Europe to poison
the stream of history, in the same way as the
fabricated " Memoirs of Poncho," which even
so generally trustworthy a writer as Sir
Archibald Alison was lured into quoting as
evidence, though the forger was tried and con-
victed under the French law, and severely
punished for his fraud. Such a perfonl44oo