affairs a secret treaty, by which England, Austria, and France, had
mutually engaged to oppose, peaceably or by force, the dismemberment
of Saxony, which Russia and Prussia openly conspired.
The Emperor thought, that this treaty might perhaps alienate these two
powers from the Bourbon interest, and generate distrust and discord
between the allies. He directed the Duke of Vicenza, to show it to the
Russian minister; and represent it to him as a fresh proof of the
ingratitude, with which the court of the Tuileries repaid the numerous
benefits of Alexander. The existence of this triple alliance was
wholly unknown to M. de Boudiakeen, and appeared to cause him as much
surprise as dissatisfaction. But he declared, that he was too well
acquainted with the principles of his sovereign, to venture to flatter
himself, that the circumstance of this treaty, or any other, could
produce a favourable change in his disposition. He promised, however,
to make a faithful report to him of the conference he had had with M.
de Vicenza; and to express to him the desire, manifested by the
Emperor Napoleon, of becoming again the ally and friend of Russia.
The Emperor, in order to give more efficacy to his proposals, directed
the Princess Hortense, to confirm them in person to the Emperor
Alexander. He also caused letters to be written to Prince Eugene, and
to the Grand Duchess Stephanie of Baden, to request them, to renew
the same assurances to that sovereign, and to neglect no means of
detaching him from the coalition.
In fine, the Emperor directed overtures to be made to the cabinet of
London, by means of a person pointed out by the Duke of Otranto; and
in order to gain the suffrage of the parliament, and give the English
ministry a pledge of his good intentions beforehand, he abolished the
slave trade by a spontaneous decree.
After having taken these indirect steps, Napoleon thought his duty as
well as his dignity required him, to give a solemn and authentic
character to the manifestation of his pacific intentions.
Accordingly he wrote to the foreign sovereigns a letter couched in the
following terms:
"Sire, my brother,
"You will have heard in the course of last month of my return to the
French coast, my entering Paris, and the departure of the Bourbon
family. The true nature of these events must now be known to your
Majesty: they are the work of an irresistible power, the work and the
unanimous will of a great nation, who knows its duties and its
rights. The dynasty, which force had bestowed on the French people,
was not formed for them: the Bourbons would not accommodate themselves
either to their sentiments, or to their manners. France could not but
separate itself from them. Her voice called for a deliverer: the
expectations, that had induced me, to make the greatest of all
sacrifices, had been frustrated. I came, and from the spot where I
touched the shore I was conducted by the love of my people to the
bosom of my capital. The first wish of my heart is, to repay such
great affection by the maintenance of an honourable tranquillity. The
re-establishment of the imperial throne being necessary to the
happiness of the French, nothing can be more pleasing to my thoughts,
than to render it at the same time advantageous to the consolidation
of the tranquillity of Europe. Sufficient glory had crowned the
standards of the different nations by turns; the vicissitudes of fate
have occasioned a sufficient succession of great successes and great
defeats: a nobler career now opens itself to sovereigns, and I am the
first to enter it. After having exhibited to the world the spectacle
of great battles, it will be more pleasing, henceforth to know no
rivalry but that of the advantages of peace, no strife but the sacred
striving after the happiness of nations. France takes a pleasure in
frankly proclaiming this noble end of all her wishes. Jealous of her
own independence, the invariable principle of her politics will be the
most absolute respect for the independence of other nations. If such
be the personal sentiments of your Majesty, as I am happy to persuade
myself, the general tranquillity is ensured for a long time to come;
and justice, sitting on the confines of states, will be sufficient
alone to guard their frontiers.
"Paris, the 4th of April."
The Duke of Vicenza received orders, personally to express to the
foreign ministers the sentiments, with which the Emperor was animated:
but the couriers, who carried his despatches, could not reach the
places of their destination; one was arrested at Kehl, another at
Mayence; a third, sent off for Italy, could not get beyond Turin; the
communications were interrupted. The arrangements of the declaration
of the congress of Vienna of the 13th of March were acted upon
already.
This declaration, transmitted directly by the emissaries of the King
to the prefects of the frontier cities, and distributed by the
royalists, was in circulation at Paris. The inferior papers had
announced its appearance, and united in asserting, that such an act
was unworthy of the allied sovereigns, and could only be the work of
calumny and malevolence.
However, when it became impossible to question its legitimacy, it was
necessary to come to the resolution of no longer making a mystery of
it to the French people; and accordingly the following account was
given of it in the Moniteur on the 13th of April.
"Council of Ministers.
"_Sitting of the 29th of March._
"The Duke of Otranto, minister of the general police, states, that he
is about to read to the council a declaration, dated Vienna the 13th,
which is supposed to have been issued by the congress:
"That this declaration, as it contains an incentive to the
assassination of the Emperor, appears to him apocryphal: that, if it
should prove genuine, it would be unexampled in the history of the
world: that the libellous style, in which it is written, gives room to
suppose, it ought to be classed among the papers fabricated by
party-spirit, and by those pamphleteers, who of late years have
foisted themselves uncommissioned into all state affairs: that it
pretends to be signed by the English ministers; but it is impossible
to suppose, that the ministers of a free nation, and particularly Lord
Wellington, could have taken a step inconsistent with the legislation
of their country, and with their own characters: that it pretends to
be signed by the ministers of Austria; but it is impossible to
conceive, whatever political dissensions may subsist between them,
that a father could call for the assassination of his son: that,
contrary to every principle of religion and morality, it is derogatory
to the honourable character of the sovereigns, whose mandates are thus
compromised by the libellists: that this declaration has been known
several days, but, from the considerations abovementioned, it could
not be considered otherwise than as deserving the profoundest
contempt: that it was not deemed fit to engage the attention of the
ministry, till official reports from Metz and Strasburg made known,
that it had been brought into France by couriers from the Prince of
Benevento; a fact confirmed by the result of the investigation that
took place, and the interrogatories put: in fine, that it is proved,
that this paper, which could not have been signed by the ministers of
Austria, Russia, and England, was issued by the legation of the Count
of Lille at Vienna; which legation had added to the crime of provoking
assassination that of falsifying the signature of the members of the
congress.
"The pretended declaration of the congress, the reports from Metz and
Strasburg, as well as the investigation and interrogatories conducted
by order of the minister of the general police, which ascertain, that
the said declaration proceeded from the plenipotentiaries of the Count
of Lille at Vienna, will be sent to the presidents of the sections of
the council.
"DECLARATION.
"The powers, who signed the treaty of Paris, assembled in Congress at
Vienna, being informed of the escape of Napoleon Bonaparte, and of his
entering France by force of arms, owe to their own dignity, and to the
interests of society, a solemn declaration of the sentiments, with
which this event has inspired them.
"By thus infringing the convention, which settled him in the island of
Elba, Bonaparte has destroyed the only legal title he had to his
situation in life (_auquel son existence se trouvait attachee_.) By
re-appearing in France, with the design of disturbing and subverting
it, he has deprived himself of the protection of the laws, and has
made manifest to the universe, that there can be neither peace nor
truce with him.
"The powers declare in consequence, that Napoleon Bonaparte has thrown
himself out of all the relations of civilized society; and that, as an
enemy and disturber of the world, he has rendered himself obnoxious to
public vengeance.
"At the same time they declare, that, firmly resolved to maintain
unbroken the treaty of Paris of the 30th of March, 1814, and the
arrangements sanctioned by that treaty, as well as those they have
decreed, or may yet decree, for completing and consolidating it; they
will employ all their means, and unite all their efforts, to prevent
the general peace, the object of the wishes of all Europe, the
constant aim of their labours, from being disturbed anew; and to guard
it from every attempt, that would threaten to replunge nations into
the disorders and calamities of revolutions.
"And though intimately persuaded, that all France, rallying round its
legitimate sovereign, will annihilate without delay this last attempt
of a criminal and impotent delirium, all the sovereigns of Europe,
animated with the same sentiments, and guided by the same principles,
declare, that if, contrary to all calculation, any real danger
whatever should arise from this event, they will be ready to furnish
the King of France and the French nation, or any other government that
may be attacked, with the succours necessary to restore the public
tranquillity, as soon as they shall be demanded, and to make common
cause against all, who may attempt to disturb it.
"The present declaration, inserted in the register of the congress
assembled at Vienna, in the sitting of the 13th of March, 1815, shall
be made public.
"Done and certified as true by the plenipotentiaries of the eight
powers, who signed the Treaty of Paris, at Vienna, the 13th of March,
1815.
Here follow the signatures in the alphabetical order of the courts.
"Austria { The Prince de METTERNICH,
{ The Baron de WESSEMBERG.
Spain P. GOMEZ LABRADOR.
(_Espagne_)
{ The Prince de TALLEYRAND,
France { The Duke D'ALBERG,
{ LATOUR DUPIN,
{ The Count ALEXIS DE NOAILLES.
{ WELLINGTON,
{ CLANCARTY,
Great Britain { CATHCART,
{ STEWART.
{ The Count PALMELA,
Portugal { SALDANHA,
{ LOBO.
{ The Prince de HARDENBERG,
Prussia { The Baron de HUMBOLDT.
{ The Count de RASOUMOWSKI,
Russia { The Count de STAKELBERG,
{ The Count de NESSELRODE.
Sweden LOWENHIELM."
This declaration, which no doubt will hereafter excite the
astonishment of posterity, was commented upon and victoriously refuted
by the Emperor himself. Count Boulay, to whom the following report is
ascribed, had no farther share in it, than condensing it a little, and
softening some of its expressions.
Report of the committee of presidents of the council of state.
"In consequence of the reference made to it, the committee, composed
of the presidents of the sections of the council of state, has
examined the declaration of the 13th of March, the report of the
minister of the general police, and the papers added to them.
"The declaration is in an unusual form, composed in such strange
terms, and expresses such anti-social ideas, that the committee was
led to consider it as one of those supposititious productions, by
means of which despicable men endeavour to impose upon people's minds,
and mislead the public opinion.
"But the verification of the examinations taken at Metz, and of the
interrogatories of the couriers, admit no doubt, that the declaration
was sent by members of the French legation at Vienna; and consequently
it must be considered as adopted and signed by them.
"It is under this last point of view, that the committee imagines it
ought first to examine this production, which has no precedent in the
annals of diplomacy, and in which Frenchmen, men invested with the
most respectable of public characters, begin with a sort of outlawry,
with a provocation to assassinate the Emperor Napoleon.
"We say with the minister of the police, that this declaration is the
work of the French plenipotentiaries: because those of Austria,
Prussia, Russia, and England, could not have been capable of signing a
paper, which the sovereigns and people, to whom they belong, will be
eager to disavow.
"And in the first place these plenipotentiaries, most of them
coadjutors in the treaty of Paris, know, that Napoleon was there
acknowledged as retaining the title of Emperor, and as sovereign of
the island of Elba: they would have mentioned him by these titles, and
would not have deviated, either in matter or in manner, from the
respect they impose.
"They would have felt, that, agreeably to the laws of nations, a
prince, however trifling the extent or population of his state,
enjoys, as far as regards his political and civil character, the
rights belonging to every sovereign prince in respect to the most
powerful monarch; and Napoleon, acknowledged under the title of
Emperor, and in quality of a sovereign prince, by all the powers, was
no more amenable to the congress of Vienna than any of them.
"The forgetfulness of these principles, impossible to be supposed in
plenipotentiaries, who weigh the rights of nations maturely with
wisdom and consideration, has nothing astonishing in it when
manifested by French ministers, whose conscience reproaches them with
more than one act of treason, in whom fear has engendered rage, and
whose remorse leads their reason astray.
"Such men as these may have risked the fabrication and the
publication of a piece like the pretended declaration of the 13th of
March, in the hope of stopping the progress of Napoleon, and
misleading the French people with regard to the real sentiments of
foreign powers.
"But they cannot judge like these powers of the merits of a nation,
which they have misunderstood, betrayed, and delivered up to the arms
of foreigners.
"This nation, brave and generous, revolts against every thing that
bears the marks of cowardice and oppression: its affections are
heightened, when the object of them is threatened or affected by a
great injustice; and assassination, which the commencement of the
declaration of the 13th of March is intended to excite, will find not
a single hand to execute it, either among the twenty-five millions of
Frenchmen, the majority of whom attended, guarded, and protected
Napoleon from the Mediterranean to the capital; nor among the eighteen
millions of Italians, the six millions of Belgians or inhabitants of
the banks of the Rhine, and the numerous nations of Germany, who, on
this solemn occasion, have not pronounced his name without respectful
remembrance; nor a single individual of the indignant English nation,
whose honourable sentiments disavow the language, that those men have
dared to attribute to the sovereigns.
"The people of Europe are enlightened; they judge the rights of
Napoleon, the rights of the allied princes, and those of the Bourbons.
"They know, that the convention of Fontainbleau was a treaty between
sovereigns. Its violation, the entrance of Napoleon into the French
territory, like any other infraction of a diplomatic act, like any
hostile invasion, could only bring on an ordinary war; the result of
which can only be, to the person, that of being conqueror or
conquered, free or a prisoner of war; to possessions, that of being
lost or preserved, diminished or increased; and that every thought,
every threat, every attempt, against the life of a prince at war with
another, is a thing unheard of in the history of nations, and of the
cabinets of Europe.
"In the violence, the rage, the forgetfulness of principle, that
characterize the declaration of the 13th of March, we recognize the
envoys of the same prince, the organs of the same councils, who, by
the ordinance of the 6th of March, also put Napoleon out of the pale
of the law, also invoked for him the daggers of assassins, and also
promised a reward to whoever would bring his head.
"Yet what has Napoleon done? By his confidence he has honoured the men
of all nations, who were insulted by the infamous office to which they
were invited: he has shown himself temperate, generous, a protector,
even toward those who had devoted his head to destruction.
"When he spoke to General Excelmans, marching toward the column that
closely pressed Louis Stanislas Xavier; to General Count Erlon, who
was to receive him at Lille; to General Clausel, who was going to
Bourdeaux, where the Duchess of Angouleme was; to General Grouchy, who
marched to put a stop to the civil disturbances excited by the Duke of
Angouleme; every where, in short, orders were given by the Emperor,
that their persons should be respected, and sheltered from all attack,
from all danger, from all violence, during their progress on the
French territories, and to the moment of their quitting them.
"Contemporary nations and posterity will judge, on which side respect
has been paid in this grand conjuncture to the rights of nations and
of sovereigns, to the laws of war, the principles of civilization, and
the maxims of law civil and religious: they will pronounce between
Napoleon and the house of Bourbon.
"If, after having examined the pretended declaration of the congress
in this first point of view, we discuss it in its relations to
diplomatic conventions, to the treaty of Fontainbleau of the 11th of
April, ratified by the French government, we shall find, that their
violation is imputable only to those very persons who charge it on
Napoleon.
"The treaty of Fontainbleau has been violated by the allied powers,
and by the house of Bourbon, in what regards the Emperor Napoleon and
his family, in what affects the rights and interests of the French
nation:
"1st. The Empress Marie Louise and her son were to obtain passports
and an escort, to enable them to repair to the Emperor: but, far from
performing this promise, the wife was separated by force from her
husband, the son from his father, and this under painful
circumstances, when the strongest mind finds it necessary to seek
consolation and support in the bosom of its family and domestic
affections.
"2d. The safety of Napoleon, of the imperial family, and of their
suite, was guarantied (Art. 14 of the treaty) by all the powers: yet
bands of assassins were organized in France under the eyes of the
French government, and even by its orders, as the solemn proceedings
against the Sieur de Maubreuil will shortly prove, to attack both the
Emperor, his brothers, and their wives: this first branch of the plot
failing of the expected success, a tumult was planned at Orgon, on the
road taken by the Emperor, in order to make an attempt against his
life by the hands of some brigands: one of the cut-throats of Georges,
the Sieur Brulart, raised for the purpose to the rank of
major-general, known in Brittany, in Anjou, in Normandy, in la Vendee,
throughout all England, by the blood he has shed, was sent to Corsica
as governor, in order to prepare and insure the crime; and, in fact,
several solitary assassins attempted, in the island of Elba, to gain,
by the murder of Napoleon, the culpable and disgraceful salary which
was promised them.
"3d. The duchies of Parma and Placentia were given in full propriety
to Marie Louise, for herself, her son, and his descendants: yet, after
long refusal to put them into possession, the injustice was
consummated by an absolute spoliation, under the illusory pretext of
an exchange without valuation, without proportion, without
sovereignty, without consent; and the documents existing in the office
of foreign affairs, of which we have had an account presented to us,
prove, that it was at the instance and through the intrigues of the
Prince of Benevento, that Marie Louise and her son were despoiled.
"4th. A suitable establishment, out of France, had been given to
Prince Eugene, the adopted son of Napoleon, who has done honour to
France, where he was born, and gained the affection of Italy, where he
was naturalized; yet he has obtained nothing.
"5th. The Emperor had stipulated (Art. 3 of the treaty) in favour of
his brave soldiers the preservation of their salaries from the
Napoleon fund (_sur le mont Napoleon_); he had reserved out of the
extraordinary domain, and the funds remaining of the civil list, the
means of recompensing his servants, and of paying the soldiers, that
attached themselves to his fate. The whole was taken away and kept
back by the ministers of the Bourbons. An agent of the French soldiers
went in vain to Vienna, to claim for them the most sacred of all
property, the price of their valour and their blood.
"6th. The preservation of the property, movable and immovable, of the
Emperor's family, is stipulated by the same treaty (Art. 6); yet it
has been despoiled of both: in France, with force of arms, by
commissioned brigands; in Italy, by the violence of military
commanders; in both countries by seizures and sequestrations solemnly
appointed.
"7th. The Emperor Napoleon was to receive two millions of francs a
year, and his family two millions and a half, agreeably to the
distribution fixed by Art. 6 of the treaty: but the French government
has constantly refused to fulfil these engagements, and Napoleon would
have soon seen himself reduced to the necessity of dismissing his
faithful guard, for want of the means of ensuring its pay, if he had
not found in the grateful remembrances of the bankers and merchants of
Genoa and Italy the honourable resource of a loan of twelve millions,
which was offered him.
"8th. In fine, it was not without a motive, that certain persons were
desirous of separating from Napoleon, by any means, the companions of
his glory, models of attachment and constancy, unshaken guaranties of
his life and safety. The island of Elba was secured to him in full
property (Art. 3 of the treaty): yet the resolution to deprive him of
it, desired by the Bourbons, and solicited by their agents, had been
taken at the Congress.
"And if Providence in its justice had not interposed, Europe would
have seen attempts made against the person, the liberty of Napoleon,
banished for ever at the mercy of his enemies, far from his family,
separated from his servants, either to St. Lucie, or to St. Helena,
which was assigned him as a prison.
"And when the allied powers, yielding to the imprudent wishes, or
cruel instigations, of the agents of the house of Bourbon, have
stooped to violate a solemn contract, on the faith of which Napoleon
had absolved the French nation from its oaths; when himself, and all
the members of his family, saw themselves menaced and attacked in
their persons, in their property, in their affections, in all the
rights stipulated in their favour as princes, and even in those
secured by the laws to simple citizens; how ought Napoleon to act?
"Ought he, after having endured so many insults, and suffered so many
acts of injustice, to consent to the complete violation of the
engagements entered into with him; and, resigning himself to the fate
prepared for him, abandon also to their fearful destiny, his wife, his
son, his relations, and his faithful servants?