24th.—After dinner, while we were taking our coffee, the Emperor
observed that, about this time last year, he quitted the Island of
Elba. The Grand Marshal informed him that it was on the 26th of
February and on a Sunday. “Sire,” said he, “you directed mass to be
performed at an earlier hour than usual, that you might have the more
time for issuing the necessary orders.”
They sailed in the afternoon, and next morning at ten o’clock they
were still within sight, to the great anxiety of those who were
interested in their success.
The Emperor entered into conversation on this subject, and was, for
upwards of an hour, engaged in describing the details of that event,
which is unparalleled in history, both for the boldness of the
enterprise, and the miracle of its execution. I shall insert in
another part of my journal, the particulars which I collected on this
subject.
CAMPAIGNS OF ITALY AND EGYPT.—THE EMPEROR’S OPINION OF THE GREAT FRENCH
POETS.—TRAGEDIES BY LATE WRITERS.—HECTOR.—THE ETATS DE BLOIS.—TALMA.
25th—28th. Our days were for the most part very much alike; if they
seemed long in detail, they were rapidly shortened in a retrospective
view. They were without character or interest, and left only imperfect
recollections behind. In English he went on gradually improving. The
Emperor confessed that he had felt a moment of disgust; his _furia
Francese_ had, he said, at one time, given way; but he added that I
had reanimated him by means of a plan which he considered more certain
and infallible than any other—that of reading and analyzing a single
page over and over again until it was thoroughly learnt. The
grammatical rules were explained by the way. In this manner, there is
not a moment lost to study and memory. The progress at first appears
slow, the learner seems to advance but little in his studies; but by
the time he has come to the fiftieth page, he is astonished to find
that he knows the language. We had added a page of Telemachus to the
rest of our lesson, and we found the benefit of it. By this time,
however, the Emperor, though he had only had twenty or twenty-five
complete lessons, could understand any book; and would have been able
to make himself understood in writing. He did not comprehend all that
was said, it is true; but, as he observed, nothing could be concealed
from him for the future, and this was a great thing—this was a decided
victory.
The Campaign of Egypt was completed with the assistance of Bertrand,
as far as the want of materials would permit. The Emperor now
commenced, with another of the gentlemen, a new and very important
period; namely—from his departure from Fontainebleau, up to his return
to Paris and his second abdication. He possessed no document relating
to these rapid events; but it was that very rapidity which induced me
to entreat him to employ his memory in recording circumstances which
the hurry of events or party spirit might enfeeble or distort.
The Emperor also employed himself very frequently with me, in revising
the different chapters of the Campaign of Italy; this was generally
done immediately before dinner. He had directed me to arrange each
chapter in a regular and uniform manner; to mark out the proper
divisions of the paragraphs, and to note down and collect the
illustrative articles. This he called the digestive business of an
editor. “And your interest is concerned in it,” said he to me one day,
with an air of kindness which affected me; “henceforward it is your
property: the Campaign of Italy shall bear your name, and the Campaign
of Egypt that of Bertrand. I intend that it shall add at once to your
fortune and to your fame. There will be at least a hundred thousand
francs in your pocket, and your name will last as long as the
remembrance of my battles.”
With regard to our evenings, the _reversis_ had been relinquished a
second time; we could not continue it long. After the second or third
round, the cards were abandoned for conversation. We resumed our
readings: our stock of novels was exhausted, and plays occupied our
attention for the future, tragedies in particular. The Emperor is
uncommonly fond of analyzing them, which he does in a singular mode of
reasoning, and with great taste. He remembers an immense quantity of
poetry, which he learned when he was eighteen years old, at which
time, he says, he knew much more than he does at present. The Emperor
is delighted with Racine, in whom he finds a profusion of beauties. He
greatly admires Corneille, but thinks very little of Voltaire, who, he
says, is full of bombast and tinsel: always incorrect; unacquainted
either with men or things, with truth or the sublimity of the passions
of mankind.
At one of the _couchers_ at St. Cloud the Emperor analyzed a piece
which had just been brought out; it was _Hector_ by _Luce de
Lancival_: this piece pleased him very much; it possessed warmth and
energy of character. He called it a _head-quarter_ piece; and said
that a soldier would be better prepared to meet the enemy after seeing
or reading it. He added that it would be well if there were a greater
number of plays written in the same spirit.—Then, adverting to those
dramatic productions called _drames_ in French, and which he termed
_waiting-maids’ tragedies_, he said they would not bear more than one
representation, after which they suffered a gradual diminution of
interest. A good tragedy, on the contrary, gains upon us every day.
The higher walk of tragedy, continued he, is the school of great men;
it is the duty of sovereigns to encourage and disseminate a taste for
it. Nor is it necessary, he said, to be a poet, to be enabled to judge
of the merits of a tragedy; it is sufficient to be acquainted with men
and things, to possess an elevated mind, and to be a statesman. Then,
becoming gradually more animated, he added, with enthusiasm,—”Tragedy
fires the soul, elevates the heart, and is calculated to generate
heroes. Considered under this point of view, perhaps, France owes to
Corneille a part of her great actions; and, gentlemen, _had he lived
in my time, I would have made him a prince_.”
On a similar occasion, he analyzed and condemned the _Etats de Blois_,
which had just been presented for the first time at the theatre of the
Court; and perceiving among the company present the Arch-Treasurer
Lebrun, who was distinguished for his literary acquirements, he asked
his opinion of it. Lebrun, who was undoubtedly in the author’s
interest, contented himself with remarking that the subject was a bad
one. “That,” replied the Emperor, “was M. Renouard’s first fault; he
chose it himself, it was not forced upon him. Besides, there is no
subject, however bad, which great talent cannot turn to some account,
and Corneille would still have been himself even in one like this. As
for M. Renouard, he has totally failed. He has shewn no other talent
but that of versification; every thing else is bad, very bad; his
conception, his details, his result, are altogether defective. He
violates the truth of history; his characters are false, and their
political tendency is dangerous, and perhaps prejudicial. This is an
additional proof of what, however, is very well known, that there is a
wide difference between the reading and the representation of a play.
I thought at first that this piece might have been allowed to pass; it
was not until this evening that I perceived its improprieties. Of
these, the praises lavished on the Bourbons are the least; the
declamations against the Revolutionists are much worse. M. Renouard
has made the Chief of the Sixteen the Capuchine Chabot of the
Convention. There is matter in his piece to inflame every party and
every passion: were I to allow it to be represented in Paris, I should
probably hear of half a hundred people murdering one another in the
pit. Besides, the author has made Henri IV. a true Philinte, and the
Duke de Guise a Figaro, which is by far too great an outrage on
history. The duke of Guise was one of the most distinguished men of
his time; and if he had but ventured, he might, at that time, have
established the fourth dynasty. Besides, he was related to the
Empress; he was a Prince of the house of Austria, with whom we are in
friendship, and whose Ambassador was present this evening at the
representation. The author has, in more than one instance, shewn a
strange disregard of propriety.” The Emperor afterwards said that he
felt more than ever fixed in the determination he had formed not to
permit any new tragedy to be played on the public stage before it had
undergone a trial at the theatre of the Court. He therefore prohibited
the representation of the _Etats de Blois_. It is worthy of remark,
that, since the restoration of the King, this piece was revived with
the greatest pomp, and supported by all the favour which the
prohibition of the Emperor would naturally procure for it. But,
notwithstanding all this, it failed; so correct was the judgment which
Napoleon had passed upon it.
Talma, the celebrated tragedian, had frequent interviews with the
Emperor, who greatly admired his talent, and rewarded him
magnificently. When the First Consul became Emperor, it was reported
all over Paris, that he had Talma to give him lessons in attitude and
costume. The Emperor, who always knew every thing that was said
against him, rallied Talma one day on the subject, and, finding him
look quite disconcerted and confounded,—“You are wrong,“ said he, “I
certainly could not have employed myself better, if I had had leisure
for it.” On the contrary, it was the Emperor who gave Talma lessons in
his art. “Racine,” said he to him, “has loaded his character of
Orestes with imbecilities, and you only add to their extravagance. In
the _Mort de Pompée_, you do not play Cæsar like a hero; in
Britannicus, you do not play Nero like a tyrant.” Every one knows the
corrections which Talma afterwards made in his performances of these
celebrated characters.
CONTRACTORS, &C. DURING THE REVOLUTION.—THE EMPEROR’S CREDIT ON HIS
RETURN FROM ELBA.—HIS REPUTATION IN THE PUBLIC OFFICES AS A RIGID
INVESTIGATOR.—MINISTERS OF FINANCE AND THE TREASURY.—CADASTRE.
29th.—At six o’clock, the Emperor, having finished his daily
occupations, walked in the garden. We then took a drive in the calash:
it was quite dark, and rained very fast when we returned.
After dinner, while coffee was served round, which we took without
rising from our seats at the dining-table, the conversation turned on
what were termed Agents daring the Revolution, and the great fortunes
which they acquired. The Emperor knew the name, the family, the
profession, and the character, of every one of these men.
Scarcely had Napoleon attained the Consulship when he became engaged
in a dispute with the celebrated Madame Recamier, whose father held a
situation in the Post-office department. Napoleon, on first taking the
reins of Government, was obliged to sign in confidence a great number
of lists; but he soon established the most rigid inspection in every
department. He discovered that a correspondence with the Chouans was
going on under the connivance of M. Bernard, the father of Madame
Recamier. He was immediately dismissed, and narrowly escaped being
brought to a trial, by which he would doubtless have been condemned to
death. His daughter flew to the First Consul, and, at her
solicitation, Napoleon exempted M. Bernard from taking his trial, but
was resolute with respect to his dismissal. Madame Recamier, who had
been accustomed to ask for every thing, and to obtain every thing,
would be satisfied with nothing less than the re-instatement of her
father. Such were the manners of those times. The severity of the
First Consul excited loud animadversions; it was a thing quite
unusual. Madame Recamier and her party, which was very numerous, never
forgave him.
The contractors and agents were the class which, above all, excited
the uneasiness of the new Supreme Magistrate, who called them the
scourge and the plague of the nation. The Emperor observed that all
France would not have satisfied the ambition of those of Paris alone;
that, when he came to the head of affairs, they constituted an
absolute power; and that they were most dangerous to the state, whose
springs were obstructed by their intrigues, joined to those of their
numerous dependents.—In truth, said he, they could never be regarded
as any thing but sources of corruption and ruin, like Jews and
usurers. They had disgraced the Directory, and they wished in like
manner to control the Consulate. It may be said that at that period
they enjoyed the highest rank and influence in society.
“One of the principal retrograde steps,” said the Emperor, “which I
took, with the view of restoring the past state and manners of
society, was to throw all this false lustre back into the crowd. I
never would raise any of this class to distinction: of all
aristocracies this appeared to me the worst.” The Emperor rendered to
Lebrun the justice of having especially confirmed him in this
principle. “The party always disliked me for this,” said the Emperor;
“but they were still less inclined to pardon the rigid enquiry which I
instituted into their accounts with the Government.”
The Emperor said that in business of this sort he turned the service
of his Council of State to the best account. He used to appoint a
committee of four or five members of the Council, men of integrity and
intelligence. They made their report to him, and, if the case required
farther investigation, they wrote at the bottom of the report:
_Referred to the Grand Judge to enforce the laws_. The individuals
implicated generally endeavoured to compromise the affair, when it
arrived at this point. They would disgorge, one, two, three, or four
millions, rather than suffer the business to be legally investigated.
The Emperor was well aware, that all these facts were misrepresented
in the different circles of the capital, that they produced him many
enemies, and drew down upon him the reproach of arbitrariness and
tyranny. But he thus acquitted a great duty to the mass of society,
who must have been grateful to him for the measures he adopted towards
these bloodsuckers of the public.
“Men are always the same,” said the Emperor: “from the time of
Pharamond downwards, contractors have always acted thus, and people
have always acted in the same way towards them. But at no period of
the monarchy were they ever attacked in so legal a form, or assailed
so energetically and openly as by me. Even among the contractors
themselves, the few individuals who possessed honesty and integrity
found in this extreme severity a new guarantee for their own conduct.
A remarkable instance of this occurred after my return from Elba. Some
houses in London and Amsterdam secretly negotiated with me a loan of
from 80 to 100,000,000, at a profit of seven or eight per cent. The
net sum which was deposited in the Treasury of Paris, was paid to them
by _rentes_ on the great book at fifty, which were then distributed
among the public at fifty-six or fifty-seven.”
This resource, so useful in the crisis in which the Emperor was
placed, and which must at the same time have been so satisfactory and
flattering to himself personally, proves the real opinion that was
entertained of Napoleon in Europe, and the confidence which he
inspired. This negotiation, which was unknown at the time, explains
whence the Emperor derived the financial resources of which he
suddenly found himself possessed on his return from Elba; which was a
great subject of conjecture at the time.
The Emperor himself said that he enjoyed singular reputation among the
heads of offices and accountants. The examination of accounts was a
thing which he very well understood. “The circumstance that first
gained me reputation, in this way, was that, while balancing a yearly
account during the Consulate, I discovered an error of 2,000,000 to
the disadvantage of the Republic. M. Dufresne, who was then chief of
the treasury, and who was a perfectly honest man, at first would not
believe that the error existed. However, it was an affair of figures;
the fact could not be denied. At the treasury several months were
occupied in endeavouring to discover the error. It was at length found
in an account of the contractor Seguin, who immediately acknowledged
it, on being shewn the accounts, and restored the money, saying it was
a mistake.”
On another occasion as the Emperor was examining the accounts of the
pay of the garrison of Paris, he observed an article of sixty and some
odd thousand francs set down to a detachment which had never been in
the capital. The minister made a note of the error, merely from
complaisance, but was convinced in his own mind that the Emperor was
mistaken. Napoleon however proved to be right, and the sum was
restored.
The Emperor regarded as a matter of the highest importance the
separation of the departments of finance and the treasury, both for
the sake of keeping the business of the two departments distinct, and
for enabling them to become mutual checks to each other. The minister
of the treasury, under a sovereign like Napoleon, was the most
important man in the empire; not merely as a minister of the treasury,
but as comptroller-general. All the accounts of the empire came under
his examination, and he was thus enabled to detect every kind of
peculation and abuse, and to make them known to the sovereign; and
communications of this nature were daily made. To special
appropriations Napoleon also attached the greatest importance, as
having been among the happiest springs of his administration.
Speaking of the _cadastre_, he said that, according to the plan which
he had drawn up, it might be considered as the real constitution of
the Empire. It was the true guarantee of property, and the security
for the independence of each individual; for, the tax being once fixed
and established by the legislature, each individual might make his own
arrangements, and had nothing to fear from the authority or arbitrary
conduct of assessors, which is always the point most sensibly felt,
and the surest to enforce submission. During this conversation, the
Emperor gave his opinion of the talents of Messrs. Gaudin, Mollien,
and Louis, as well as most of his other Ministers and Councillors of
State. He concluded by observing that he had succeeded in creating a
system of administration doubtless the purest and most energetic in
Europe; and that he himself had the details so much at his command
that he was sure he now could, merely with the help of the Moniteur,
trace the complete history of the financial transactions of the Empire
during his reign.
March 1st.—To-day two vessels arrived from the Cape. One, the
Wellesley, a seventy-four, had another ship which had been taken to
pieces in her hold. Both were India built of teak-wood, three-fourths
cheaper than they could have been built in England. This is an
excellent kind of wood; and ships made of it are said to last much
longer than European-built ships; though hitherto it has been
complained that they are not such good sailers. However, it is not
improbable that this teak wood may produce a revolution in the
materials and construction of English ships.
2nd.—The China fleet is arrived. Several vessels successively entered
the road in the course of the day, and many others are within sight.
This is a sort of festival and harvest for the people of St. Helena.
The money which these transient visitors circulate in the Island
constitutes a chief portion of the revenues of the inhabitants.
At five o’clock the Emperor proceeded to the garden, and went on foot
as far as an opening between some of the hills, whence we could
discern several vessels in full sail, making for the Island. The last
ship that arrived from the Cape had brought a phaeton for the Emperor.
He wished to try it this evening, and he got into it, accompanied by
the Grand Marshal, and rode round the park. He, however, thinks that
this kind of equipage is both useless and ridiculous, in present
circumstances. After dinner the Emperor felt much fatigued; he has
been indisposed for some days, and he retired this evening at an early
hour.