New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-11-05
The gon-srots j ral1srrnn.l.


a wonderful wit was TaIeyFand. His hon.mots
winch t6r thirty years we're the delight of the French
men ana the rest OF mankind, marked not merely
by the brevity which is always the sog of vii hnt
by 5abtletY OF thought aad delieaey ar exnressi6n
which constitute their highest charm Besides thi9
his keenest sarcasns had usually certain air f GOOD
breeding that distinguished them, greatly to his
credit from the malignant tests Of Rogers and 4ha
rough retorts of Douglas JerTold. Nothing IN The
way Of witty and civil rebake GonId he aaey shan
his Teproot of young gentleman who was boasting
of the extreme beauty OF bis mother apparently i'm
plying that he might account for the same advantage
Ia the person Of the son Cetat done said the great
diplomat, blandly, Monsieur, C0tre pere qui netdit
pas 81 bien q It was your fakheT. then, who was
not handsomep Lord Holland, in his Foreign Re-
minsCences gives another bon.mot OF TaIleyrand
which is not to be found in the old LIST Of his clever
sayings. At the time when the celebrity of Chateau
BRAND the Tainest of all FFenchen was rapidly on
the Wane, it happened TO be mentioned in c0nversa-
tion that he was growing quite deaf, and that he
complained bitterly Of that intrmity. Je compTelds
said Talleyrand, depus quO cesse de parleT de ui
IL se croft souTdt " I understand since everybody
has ceased talking about him he believes himself
deaf" The only ungalant remark that is recorded
among his innumerable jess, is his saucy comment on
the tender regard that lie had once entertained for
Madame de Stael: n fdut aUotT anne HRle de staeI
pour connaitre tout ie bonheF daiHler Vne bete i1
But atleyrand's finest Witticsm, and, as happy o
sarcasm as ever came from any man, is told in Lord
BrOnghams Times of George III. This has all the
polteness well the subtle wit that usually char
acterzed the honmots of Talleyrand. Not long after
his breach of friendship with Madame de Stae that
very intellectual and extremely masculine woman
wrote her novel Of Dephine, in which she satirized
her former friend in the character of an old woman:
she intended all the delicate charms Of the heroine to
be taken as her own. CHANGING to meet Madame de
S. after the publication of the book in fashion
able assembly, be said to her, bowing politely, IL
understand, Madame that in your last novel you and
figure disguised females ~ The retort was Ger
tainly sumner, and for keen wit was such as no
other man could have made. But never was a wind
bag so handsomely punctured as when he took the
"snbime" out OF an egotistical and vaingorous
speech of Mirabeau. At some important political
crisis the great orator descantng il society onthe
qualities which minister required to extricate the
nation from its difficulties namely great knowledge
genius familiarity with the upper classes, popularity
with the lower classes, the gift Of writing and speak
ing eloquenty all of which qualities it was obvious
enough he reckoned as his own. Everybody stared
with admiration but Talleyrand, who simply listened
attentivey to the end, and then observed : at
seems to me you have omitted Of the qualities of
this remarkable man should he not be very much
pted with the smallpox /" (piqse de Ia petite ceroe
This could be none other than Mirabeau, and the
effect upon the auditors can only be Imagined.
EBoston Post.