Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1883 — Metternich Seen by Himself. [ARTICLE]

Metternich Seen by Himself.

Prince Metternich, for forty years, ■was the leading statesman of Austria, and for over thirty years controlled the destinies of Europe. He ’embodied in his policy the principles of the most absolute despotism, and allowed the people no rights against their sovereign. He was thought to be selfish and unprincipled, and fond of rule. But in his autobiography, recently published, he represents himself as having a hearty dislike for public oilice, and as consenting to till it only at the command of the Emperor. He asserts that he was governed .during bis long career by a single regard for right and for the good of Europe. He said to the Emperor, “Your Maj; "Ssty Wishfes trie to enter on a spliere' lor ■which I believe I have no vocation. Public service has no attraction for me.” In a review of his life toward the close, he writes, “The part I have played has been not from choice, but from a feeling of duty. Free from every ambition, but that of honestly fulfilling the tasks which, owing to a variety of -circumstances, were laid upon me from the very beginning of my ministry, I have never left the path which seemed to me to be the right one. Unmoved by the errors of time, errors which always lead society to the abyss, I have had the happiness in a time full of dangers to save the cause of peace and the welfare of nations. ” Metternich must havj? been strangely misjudged by' his contemporaries, or be utterly deceived by himself as to, his own motives. Perhaps he was both misjudged and self-deceived, for even the best of men act from mixed motives.