Star.
London, England, 1827-02-06 00:00:00

PARIS, FEZ /WARY 1.

PRIVATS CORRIMPODENCIL,
The affair of the French Mahhals and their titles
still continues to occupy public 4tention, and to occa-
sion a great deal of talk in all the goons of Paris. The
gripping of the Louvre in 1815 did ftiot create a greater
sensation in certain classes than the attempt to deprive
Madame Onalinot of the ducal coronet of 'Reggio. In-
deed, these tiro events have a more intimate relation
than probably the parties interested are willing to allow.
The celebrated galleries and churches of Europe were
plundered of their works of art by republican or impe-
rial violence, to make up the gland coll. ction of the
Louvre. When the usurper wished to create feudal
rank, be committed a similar spoliation on foreign titles.
The nations of Europe having driven back the revolu-
tionary armies by which they had been robbed, retook
their own property where they found it, though as-
sorted in a royal palace, numbered, ticketed, and.
ranged in printed catalogues. Austria having, in
like manner, recovered her former provinces, says
to the Marshals who wear titles derived only
from their conquest, " I refuse to give these any longer.
because the territory to which they belong is as much
mine by right of conquest as it was that of Franco.
when these titles were coiferred by their temporary
possessor." The Marshals, by detesting the wandard
of Buonaparte, or by being unable to defend his Go•
vernment, exposed at oncethe Louvre to be plundered,
and their own coronets to be stripped. It was the stork
of usurpation and violence in both cases reversed by
conquest and super* power. The Marshals who de•
serted their master and creator in the hour of need,
have the least claim to the honours to which their fidelity

only could have entitled them; and the Erapet or of Aus•
trio, as the father-in-law of Napoleon, would have had
the least right to refuse the,e honours, had he nut given
the first example of desertion. But Austria dies not refuse
mere honorary distinctions, though they recall her own
defeats. She allows titles derived from battles, while
she refuses those derived from towns or provinces, ins-
plying something like feudal jurisdiction : she acknow-
ledges the title of the Duke of Wagram, while she de-
clines to recognize the Duke of Ragusa or Dalmatia.l
She even vet y reasonably declines to interfere with ter-
ritorialltitles derived from any other States but her own ;
and accordingly, as soon as the Austrian Ambassador
learnt (4 thing which hiought to have known long ago)
that the Reggio from which Oudinot derives his Duke-
dom was not in the north of Italy, but in Calabria, he
wrote him an invitation with the surerscription of
" Doe de Neggio."
This affair, you will perceive, has been brought bef re
the Chamber of Deputies, and NI. de Villete. has given
the only explanation which could have been expected
from his Government, before it had settled the impor-
tant point of etiquette with that of Austria. A, it is
yet far from being arranged, and may even lead to
some-act-of personal violence on the part of the Mar-
it may not be uninteresting to send you the follow.
ling details, on the correctness of which you may rely.
When the Duke of Belluno was turned out of the Cabi.
net about two years ago, and the mission to Vienna was
offered him, Pi ince Metternich apprized the French Mi-
nister of Fnreigii Affairs, M. de Chateaubriand, that
if the ex-War Minister presented him at the Court
of Austria, lie could only be received as Marshal,
Victor, and not as Duke of Belluno. Chateaubriand
teplied, that such an insolent pretension on the pact of
Austria could not be admitted, and that if persisted
lin; no Ambassador at all would be allowed to go to
Vienna on the part of France. At. Victor declined
receiving an appointment from a Cabinet which bad
expelled him, or bad the more pressing affair of
Quvrard's contracts to attend to, he gave up the idea
of the Austrian mission, and thus postponed the settle.
ment of a question which must otherwise have been
decided in his person. On the iecal of Boon Vincent,
and the appointinei t of Appony, the latter had orders,
from home, to consider litin,elf in respect to French
Marshals, as if he and they were at the Court of
Vienna, and to refuse them their territorial appel-
latious, should they appear at the hotel of his Em-
bassy. The first time that this order was executed,
was in the case of the Duchess of Ragusa. On pnesentinp
herself, about a fortnight ago, at the door of Arpony s
saloon, she heard herself announced as Marechale lo
Duchesse Marmont. S :e said aothing, joined cheerfully
the patty, and has, every subsequent soiree, returned to
endure the same insult without murmur or remonstrance.
The following is the reason now given for this submis-
sion to a treatment which has fired the blood cf old
Ragusa. Her husband is a great favourite at Court,
and is, moreover, much indebted in his fortune to Court
lib( rality ; and secondly, in passing through Vienna for '
the coronation at. Moscow last year, he had a claim of
• Extract from a speech of M. de VUlele, in the Sitting of the
Chamber of Deputies on the 31st of January :
" On this occasion, a question has been alluded to. me which I
am very glad to be able to offer some explanation—(Gesseref area-
sion of at t eßitort.) The Government of the King has been reproached
with not having exacted from foreigners aU the respect, all the
regard, to which it is entitled, and circumstances have been revived,
respecting which it is not ry to arraign the present Ministry.
" It is only those who have brought upon France the arms and
the armies of foreigners, who ought to afford explanation, which is
accidentally raised at this moment, after having been disposed of
by another administration in times, it must be confessed, more un-
fortunate and mere difficult than those in which we are at present
placed.

" No one has the right to prevent individuals retaining, in France,
titles which have been acquired in times anterior to the restoration,
and to the occupation of France; but, at the same time, France has
not the right of imposing on foreign Government..., the obligation of
recognizing these titles."—(Murmurs.)
M. Sebastiani—Tbh is not the question.
N. de Villelea—lt is the question. I repeat it. An Ambassa-
dor, in his hotel, a supposed to be in his own country (Murmurs);
and, out of that, he is in France. I think. I have stated the cue as
it really exists, and that I have likewise replied to those who accuse.
the present Administration of having consented to things which it
had the power of refusing ; although these things in the limits which
I have indicated, could not have been controlled by thisAtiministra-
tion,but by other 'Ministers who have preceded it,and who I again aca
knowledge it wete placed in circumstances In which they could not
do otherwise. This acquiestement of the prior administration, re-
solves itself, in my opinion, into a thing which is entirely within the
law of nations. We have not the right of exacting any recognition
of titles, which recall, not victories. but fiefs, which have returned
into the possession of Powers from whom we had conquered these
portions of territory. The Charter has 'appeased these titles. but
we cannot compel forslgilen to remplie them ha maims which
concern theieselves.