Frans Josef von SAURAU (1760–1832), Austrian politician. Autograph letter to “Count Louis”; 4 pages, in-4 (central fold repaired). “It is a real delight for a man buried in piles of paperwork—and all too often condemned to the most tedious reading—to receive letters such as yours, dear Count Louis! They are charming flowers, all the more precious because I pluck them from among the thistles and narcotic plants that surround me.” He thanks the count for his efforts to procure “Newfoundland fishing dogs” for him and have them transported to Vienna. He will no longer employ Monsieur Rançonnet “for delicate errands.” He then discusses the choice of a banker… As for the state’s finances, he admits to being lost in “this tangled web of finances, loans, and subsidies […] I do not even know where we stand on several counts, and as soon as one thinks of formulating plans or taking measures aimed at the good of the state and the sovereign, there is immediately opposition (for it exists everywhere) that will take pleasure in thwarting you, and that is why no one can count on the success of even the most carefully planned schemes and undertakings of proven utility, which all too often fail despite the integrity and good intentions of the best of rulers—how fortunate we would be if we had only to consult his just judgment and his heart, the seat of all virtues”…