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NAPOLEON'S LETTERS
TO JOSEPHINE
"_When all the lesser tumults, and lesser men of our age, shall
have passed away into the darkness of oblivion, history will
still inscribe one mighty era with the majestic name of
Napoleon._"--LOCKHART (in Lang's "Life and Letters of J. G.
Lockhart," 1897, vol. i. 170).
NAPOLEON'S LETTERS
TO JOSEPHINE
1796-1812
FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED AND
TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES SOCIAL,
HISTORICAL, AND CHRONOLOGICAL,
FROM CONTEMPORARY SOURCES
BY
HENRY FOLJAMBE HALL
F.R.HIST.S.
1901
LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press
PREFACE
I have no apology to offer for the subject of this book, in view of
Lord Rosebery's testimony that, until recently, we knew nothing about
Napoleon, and even now "prefer to drink at any other source than the
original."
"Study of Napoleon's utterances, apart from any attempt to discover
the secret of his prodigious exploits, cannot be considered as lost
time." It is then absolutely necessary that we should, in the words of
an eminent but unsympathetic divine, know something of the "domestic
side of the monster," first hand from his own correspondence,
confirmed or corrected by contemporaries. There is no master mind that
we can less afford to be ignorant of. To know more of the doings of
Pericles and Aspasia, of the two Caesars and the Serpent of old Nile,
of Mary Stuart and Rizzio, of the Green Faction and the Blue, of
Orsini and Colonna, than of the Bonapartes and Beauharnais, is worthy
of a student of folklore rather than of history.
Napoleon was not only a King of Kings, he was a King of Words and of
Facts, which "are the sons of heaven, while words are the daughters of
earth," and whose progeny, the Genii of the Code, still dominates
Christendom.[1] In the hurly-burly of the French War, on the chilling
morrow of its balance-sheet, in the Janus alliance of the Second
Empire, we could not get rid of the nightmare of the Great Shadow.
Most modern works on the Napoleonic period (Lord Rosebery's "Last
Phase" being a brilliant exception) seem to be (1) too long, (2) too
little confined to contemporary sources. The first fault, especially
if merely discursive enthusiasm, is excusable, the latter pernicious,
for, as Dr. Johnson says of Robertson, "You are sure he does not know
the people whom he paints, so you cannot suppose a likeness.
Characters should never be given by a historian unless he knew the
people whom he describes, _or copies from those who knew him_."
Now, if ever, we must _fix_ and _crystallise_ the life-work of
Napoleon for posterity, for "when an opinion has once become popular,
very few are willing to oppose it. Idleness is more willing to credit
than inquire ... and he that writes merely for sale is tempted to
court purchasers by flattering the prejudices of the public."[2] We
have accumulated practically all the evidence, and are not yet so
remote from the aspirations and springs of action of a century ago as
to be out of touch with them. The Vaccination and Education questions
are still before us; so is the cure of croup and the composition of
electricity. We have special reasons for sympathy with the first
failures of Fulton, and can appreciate Napoleon's primitive but
effective expedients for modern telegraphy and transport, which were
as far in advance of his era as his nephew's ignorance of railway
warfare in 1870 was behind it. We must admire The Man[3] who found
within the fields of France the command of the Tropics, and who needed
nothing but time to prosper Corsican cotton and Solingen steel. The
man's words and deeds are still vigorous and alive; in another
generation many of them will be dead as Marley--"dead as a door-nail."
Let us then each to his task, and each try, as best he may, to weigh
in honest scales the modern Hannibal--"our last great man,"[4] "the
mightiest genius of two thousand years."[5]
H. F. HALL.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See _infra_, Napoleon's Heritage, p. xxiv., Introduction.
[2] Dr. Johnson (_Gentleman's Magazine_, 1760), in defence of Mary
Stuart.
[3] _L'Homme_, so spoken of during the Empire, outside military
circles.
[4] Carlyle.
[5] Napier.
INTRODUCTION
Difficulties of translation--Napoleon as lexicographer and
bookworm--Historic value of his Bulletins--A few aspects of
Napoleon's character--"Approfondissez!"--The need of a Creator--The
influence of sea power--England's future rival---Napoleon as average
adjuster--His use of Freemasonry--Of the Catholics and of the
Jews--His neglect of women in politics--Josephine a failure--His
incessant work, "which knew no rest save change of occupation"--His
attachment to early friendships--The Bonaparte family--His influence
on literary men--Conversations with Wieland and Mueller--Verdict of
a British tar--The character of Josephine--Sources of the Letters--The
Tennant Collection--The Didot Collection--Archibald Constable and
Sir Walter Scott--Correspondence of Napoleon I.--Report of the
Commission--Contemporary sources--The Diary--Napoleon's heritage.
Napoleon is by no means an easy writer to translate adequately. He
had always a terse, concise mode of speaking, and this, with the
constant habit of dictating, became accentuated. Whenever he could
use a short, compact word he did so. The greatest temptation has
been to render his very modern ideas by modern colloquialisms.
Occasionally, where Murray's Dictionary proves that the word was
in vogue a century ago, we have used a somewhat rarer word than
Napoleon's equivalent, as _e.g._ "coolth," in Letter No. 6, Series
B (_pendant le frais_), in order to preserve as far as possible the
brevity and crispness of the original. Napoleon's vocabulary was not
specially wide, but always exact. In expletive it was extensive
and peculiar. Judging his brother by himself, he did not consider
Lucien sufficient of a purist in French literature to write epics;
and the same remark would have been partly true of the Emperor,
who, however, was always at considerable pains to verify any word
of which he did not know the exact meaning.[6] His own appetite
for literature was enormous, especially during the year's garrison
life he spent at Valence, where he read and re-read the contents of a
_bouquiniste's_ shop, and, what is more, remembered them, so much so
that, nearly a quarter of a century later, he was able to correct the
dates of ecclesiastical experts at Erfurt. Whatever he says or
whatever he writes, one always finds a specific gravity of stark,
staring facts altogether abnormal. For generations it was the fashion
to consider "as false as a bulletin" peculiar to Napoleon's
despatches; but the publication of Napoleon's correspondence, by
order of Napoleon III., has changed all that. In the first place,
as to dates. Not only have Haydn, Woodward and Cates, and the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_ made mistakes during this period, but
even the _Biographie Universelle_ (usually so careful) is not
immaculate. Secondly, with regard to the descriptions of the battles.
We have never found one that in accuracy and truthfulness would
not compare to conspicuous advantage with some of those with which
we were only too familiar in December 1899. Napoleon was sometimes
1200 miles away from home; he had to gauge the effect of his
bulletins from one end to the other of the largest effective empire
that the world has ever seen, and, like Dr. Johnson in Fleet
Street reporting Parliamentary debates (but with a hundred times more
reason), he was determined not to let the other dogs have the best of
it. The notes on the battles of Eylau (Series H) and Essling (Series
L), the two most conspicuous examples of where it was necessary to
colour the bulletins, will show what is meant. Carlyle was the first
to point out that his despatches are as instinct with genius as his
conquests--his very words have "Austerlitz battles" in them. The
reference to "General Danube," in 1809, as the best general the
Austrians had, was one of those flashes of inspiration which
military writers, from Napoleon to Lord Wolseley, have shown to be
a determining factor in every doubtful fray.
"_Approfondissez_--go to the bottom of things," wrote Lord Chesterfield;
and this might have been the life-motto of the Emperor. But to adopt
this fundamental common-sense with regard to the character of Napoleon
is almost impossible; it is, to use the metaphor of Lord Rosebery,
like trying to span a mountain with a tape. We can but indicate a few
leading features. In the first place, he had, like the great
Stagirite, an eye at once telescopic and microscopic. Beyond the
_mecanique celeste_, beyond the nebulous reign of chaos and old night,
his ken pierced the primal truth--the need of a Creator: "not every
one can be an atheist who wishes it." No man saw deeper into the causes
of things. The influence of sea power on history, to take one
example, was never absent from his thoughts. Slowly and laboriously he
built and rebuilt his fleets, only to fall into the hands of his "Punic"
rival. Beaten at sea, he has but two weapons left against England--to
"conquer her by land," or to stir up a maritime rival who will sooner
or later avenge him. We have the Emperor Alexander's testimony from
the merchants of Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool how nearly his
Continental System _had_ ruined us. The rival raised up beyond the
western waves by the astute sale of Louisiana is still growing. In less
than a decade Napoleon had a first crumb of comfort (when such crumbs
were rare) in hearing of the victories of the _Constitution_ over
British frigates.
As for his microscopic eye, we know of nothing like it in all history.
In focussing the facets, we seem to shadow out the main secret of his
success--his ceaseless survey of all sorts and conditions of
knowledge. "Never despise local information," he wrote Murat, who was
at Naples, little anticipating the extremes of good and evil fortune
which awaited him there. Another characteristic--one in which he
surpassed alike the theory of Macchiavelli and the practice of the
Medici--was his use of _la bascule_, with himself as equilibrist or
average adjuster, as the only safe principle of government. Opinions
on the whole[7] lean to the idea that, up to the First Consulate,
Napoleon was an active Freemason, at a time when politics were
permitted, and when the Grand Orient, having initiated Voltaire almost
on his deathbed, and having been submerged by the Terror, was
beginning to show new life. In any case, we have in O'Meara the
Emperor's statement (and this is rather against the theory of Napoleon
being more than his brother Joseph, a mere patron of the craft) that
he encouraged the brotherhood. Cambaceres had more Masonic degrees
than probably any man before or since, and no man was so long and so
consistently trusted by Napoleon, with one short and significant
exception. Then there was the _gendarmerie d'elite_, then the ordinary
police, the myrmidons of Fouche of Nantes--in fact, if we take Lord
Rosebery literally, Napoleon had "half-a-dozen police agencies of his
own." There was also Talleyrand and, during the Concordats, the whole
priest-craft of Christendom as enlisting sergeants and spies
extraordinary for the Emperor. Finally, when he wishes to attack
Russia, he convokes a Sanhedrim at Paris, and wins the active
sympathies of Israel. "He was his own War Office, his own Foreign
Office, his own Admiralty."[8] His weak spot was his neglect of woman
as a political factor; this department he left to Josephine, who was a
failure. She gained popularity, but no converts. The Faubourg St.
Germain mistrusted a woman whose chief friend was the wife of
Thermidorian Tallien--Notre Dame de Septembre. In vain Napoleon raged
and stormed about the Tallien friendship, till his final mandate in
1806; and then it was too late.
Another characteristic, very marked in these Home Letters, is the
desire not to give his wife anxiety. His ailments and his difficulties
are always minimised.
Perhaps no man ever worked so hard physically and mentally as Napoleon
from 1796 to 1814. Lord Rosebery reminds us that "he would post from
Poland to Paris, summon a council at once, and preside over it with
his usual vigour and acuteness." And his councils were no joke; they
would last eight or ten hours. Once, at two o'clock in the morning,
the councillors were all worn-out; the Minister of Marine was fast
asleep. Napoleon still urged them to further deliberation: "Come,
gentlemen, pull yourselves together; it is only two o'clock, we must
earn the money that the nation gives us." The Commission who first
sifted the _Correspondence_ may well speak of the ceaseless workings
of that mind, which _knew no rest save change of occupation_, and of
"that universal intelligence from which nothing escaped." The chief
fault in Napoleon as a statesman was intrinsically a virtue, viz., his
good nature. There was, as Sir Walter Scott has said, "gentleness and
even softness in his character. It was his common and expressive
phrase that the heart of a politician should be in his head; but his
feelings sometimes surprised him in a gentler mood."
To be a relation of his own or his wife's, to have been a friend in
his time of stress, was to have a claim on Napoleon's support which no
subsequent treachery to himself could efface. From the days of his new
power--political power, first the Consulate and then the Empire--he
lavished gifts and favours even on the most undeserving of his early
comrades. Fouche, Talleyrand, Bernadotte were forgiven once, twice,
and again, to his own final ruin. Like Medea, one of whose other
exploits he had evoked in a bulletin, he could say--but to his honour
and not to his shame--
"Si possem, sanior essem.
Sed trahit invitam nova vis; aliudque Cupido,
Mens aliud suadet. Video meliora, proboque
Deteriora sequor."
Treachery and peculation against the State was different, as Moreau,
Bourrienne, and even Massena and Murat discovered.
As for his family, they were a flabby and somewhat sensual lot, with
the exception of Lucien, who was sufficiently capable to be hopelessly
impracticable. He was, however, infinitely more competent than the
effeminate Joseph and the melancholy Louis, and seems to have had more
command of parliamentary oratory than Napoleon himself.
Napoleon's influence on literary men may be gauged by what Wieland[9]
and Mueller[10] reported of their interview with him at Erfurt. That
with Wieland took place at the ball which followed the entertainment
on the field of Jena. "I was presented," he says, "by the Duchess of
Weimar, with the usual ceremonies; he then paid me some compliments in
an affable tone, and looked steadfastly at me. Few men have
appeared to me to possess, in the same degree, the art of reading
at the first glance the thoughts of other men. He saw, in an
instant, that notwithstanding my celebrity I was simple in my manners
and void of pretension; and, as he seemed desirous of making a
favourable impression on me, he assumed the tone most likely to
attain his end. I have never beheld any one more calm, more simple,
more mild, or less ostentatious in appearance; nothing about him
indicated the feeling of power in a great monarch; he spoke to me as
an old acquaintance would speak to an equal; and what was more
extraordinary on his part, he conversed with me exclusively for an
hour and a half, to the great surprise of the whole assembly."
Wieland has related part of their conversation, which is, as it could
not fail to be, highly interesting. They touched on a variety of
subjects; among others, the ancients. Napoleon declared his
preference of the Romans to the Greeks. "The eternal squabbles of
their petty republics," he said, "were not calculated to give birth
to anything grand; whereas the Romans were always occupied with great
things, and it was owing to this they raised up the Colossus which
bestrode the world." This preference was characteristic; the
following is anomalous: "He preferred Ossian to Homer." "He was fond
only of serious poetry," continues Wieland; "the pathetic and
vigorous writers; and, above all, the tragic poets. He appeared to
have no relish for anything gay; and in spite of the prepossessing
amenity of his manners, an observation struck me often, he seemed to
be of bronze. Nevertheless, he had put me so much at my ease that I
ventured to ask how it was that the public worship he had restored
in France was not more philosophical and in harmony with the
spirit of the times? 'My dear Wieland,' he replied, 'religion is not
meant for philosophers; they have no faith either in me or my
priests. As to those who do believe, it would be difficult to give
them or to leave them too much of the marvellous. If I had to
frame a religion for philosophers, it would be just the reverse of
that of the credulous part of mankind.'"[11]
Mueller, the celebrated Swiss historian, who had a private interview
with Napoleon at this period, has left a still fuller account of the
impression he received. "The Emperor[12] began to speak," says Mueller,
"of the history of Switzerland, told me that I ought to complete it,
that even the more recent times had their interest. He proceeded from
the Swiss to the old Greek constitutions and history; to the theory of
constitutions; to the complete diversity of those of Asia, and the
causes of this diversity in the climate, polygamy, &c.; the opposite
characters of the Arabian and the Tartar races; the peculiar value of
European culture, and the progress of freedom since the sixteenth
century; how everything was linked together, and in the inscrutable
guidance of an invisible hand; how he himself had become great through
his enemies; the great confederation of nations, the idea of which
Henry IV. had; the foundation of all religion, and its necessity; that
man could not bear clear truth, and required to be kept in order;
admitting the possibility, however, of a more happy condition if the
numerous feuds ceased, which were occasioned by too complicated
constitutions (such as the German), and the intolerable burden
suffered by states from excessive armies." These opinions clearly mark
the guiding motives of Napoleon's attempts to enforce upon different
nations uniformity of institutions and customs. "I opposed him
occasionally," says Mueller, "and he entered into discussion. Quite
impartially and truly, as before God, I must say that the variety of
his knowledge, the acuteness of his observations, the solidity of his
understanding (not dazzling wit), his grand and comprehensive views,
filled me with astonishment, and his manner of speaking to me, with
love for him. By his genius and his disinterested goodness, he has
also conquered me." Slowly but surely they are conquering the world.
Of his goodness we have the well-weighed verdict of Lord Acton, that
it was "the most splendid that has appeared on earth." Of his
goodness, we may at least concur in the opinion of the old British tar
at Elba, quoted by Sir Walter, and evidently his own view, that "Boney
was a d--d good fellow after all."
With regard to the character of _Josephine_ opinions still differ
about every quality but one. Like the friend of Goldsmith's mad dog--
"A kind and gentle heart she had
To comfort friends and foes:"
either her brother Mason Cambaceres, or her brother Catholic and
unbrotherly brother-in-law Lucien.
From early days she had learnt "how to flirt and how to fib." Morality
was at a low ebb during the French Revolution, when women often saved
their necks at the expense of their bodies, and there is unfortunately
no doubt that Josephine was no exception. It is certain, however, from
his first letters to Josephine, that Napoleon knew nothing of this at
the time of his honeymoon (solus) in Italy. Gradually, but very
unwillingly, his eyes were opened, and by the time he had reached
Egypt he felt himself absolved from the absolute faithfulness he had
hitherto preserved towards his wife. On his return Josephine becomes
once more his consort, and even his friend--never again his only love.
Josephine's main characteristic henceforward is to make everybody
happy and comfortable--in spite of Napoleon's grumblings at her
reckless prodigality; never to say No! (except to her husband's
accusations) suits her Creole disposition best, especially as it costs
her no active exertion, and the Emperor pays for all. And so, having
been in turn Our Lady of Victories and Saint Mary the Egyptian, she
becomes from her coronation to her death-day "The Mother of the
Poor."
THE SOURCES OF THE LETTERS.--These may be divided into three
parts--(1st) the Early Love-Letters of 1796; (2nd) the Collection
published by Didot Freres in 1833; and (3rd) the few scattered Letters
gathered from various outside sources.
(1st) With regard to the Early Love-Letters of 1796, these are found
most complete in a work published by Longmans in 1824, in two volumes,
with the title, "A Tour through Parts of the Netherlands, Holland,
Germany, Switzerland, Savoy, and France, in the year 1821-2, by
Charles Tennant, Esq.; also containing in an Appendix Fac-simile
Copies of Eight Letters in the handwriting of Napoleon Bonaparte to
his wife Josephine."
The author introduces them with an interesting preface, which shows
that then, as now, the interest in everything connected with Napoleon
was unabated:--
"Long after this fleeting book shall have passed away, and with its
author shall have been forgotten, these documents will remain; for
here, perhaps, is to be found the purest source of information which
exists, touching the private character of Napoleon Bonaparte, known,
probably, but to the few whose situations have enabled them to observe
that extraordinary man in the undisguised relations of domestic life.
Although much already has been said and written of him, yet the
eagerness with which every little anecdote and incident of his life is
sought for shows the interest which still attaches to his name, and
these, no doubt, will be bequests which posterity will duly estimate.
From these it will be the province of future historians to cull and
select simple and authenticated facts, and from these only can be
drawn a true picture of the man whose fame has already extended into
every distant region of the habitable globe.
* * * * *
"I will now proceed to relate the means by which I am enabled to
introduce into this journal fac-simile copies of eight letters in the
handwriting of Napoleon Bonaparte, the originals of which are in my
possession. Had these been of a political nature, much as I should
prize any relics of such a man, yet they would not have appeared in a
book from which I have studiously excluded all controversial topics,
and more especially those of a political character. Neither should I
have ventured upon their publication if there were a possibility that
by so doing I might wound the feelings of any human being. Death has
closed the cares of the individuals connected with these letters. Like
the memorials of Alexander the Great or of Charlemagne, they are the
property of the possessor, and through him of the public; but not like
ancient documents, dependent upon legendary evidence for their
identity and truth.
"These have passed to me through two hands only, since they came into
possession of the Empress Josephine, to whom they are written by
their illustrious author. One of the individuals here alluded to, and
from whom I received these letters, is a Polish nobleman, who attached
himself and his fortunes to Bonaparte, whose confidence he enjoyed in
several important diplomatic negotiations."
This book and these letters were known to Sir Walter Scott, who made
use of some of them in his _History of Napoleon_. M. Aubenas, in his
_Histoire de l'Imperatrice Josephine_, published in 1857, which has
been lavishly made use of in a recent work on the same subject, seems
to have known, at any rate, four of these letters, which were
communicated to him by M. le Baron Feuillet de Conches. Monsieur
Aubenas seems never to have seen the Tennant Collection, of which
these undoubtedly form part, but as Baron Feuillet de Conches was an
expert in deciphering Bonaparte's extraordinary caligraphy, these
letters are very useful for reference in helping us to translate some
phrases which had been given up as illegible by Mr. Tennant and Sir
Walter Scott.
(2nd) The _Collection Didot_. This enormously valuable collection
forms by far the greater part of the Letters that we possess of
Napoleon to his wife. They are undoubtedly authentic, and have
been utilised largely by Aubenas, St. Amand, Masson, and the
_Correspondance de Napoleon I._ They were edited by Madame Salvage
de Faverolles. As is well known, Sir Walter Scott was very anxious to
obtain possession of these letters for his _Life of Napoleon_, and
his visit to Paris was partly on this account. In _Archibald
Constable and his Literary Correspondents_, edited in 1873 by his son,
we find the following:--
"_Letter from_ ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE _to_ SIR WALTER SCOTT.
"_August 30, 1825._
"I have had various conversations with Mr. Thomson on the subject of
Napoleon's correspondence with Josephine. Mr. Thomson communicated
with Count Flahault for me in the view of its being published, and
whether the letters could not, in the meantime, be rendered
accessible. The publication, it seems, under any circumstances, is by
no means determined on, but should they be given, the price expected
is five thousand guineas, which I should imagine greatly too much. I
have an enumeration of the letters, from whence written, &c. I shall
subjoin a copy of it."
When they were finally published in 1833, they seem to have been
stimulated into existence by publication of the _Memorial de
Saint-Helene_, better known in England as _Las Cases_. Doubtless
Hortense only allowed such letters to be published as would not injure
the reputation of her mother or her relations. In the Preface it is
stated: "We think that these letters will afford an interest as
important as delightful. Everything that comes from Napoleon, and
everything that appertains to him, will always excite the lively
attention of contemporaries and posterity. If the lofty meditation of
philosophy concerns itself only with the general influence of great
men upon their own generation and future ones, a curiosity of another
nature, and not less greedy, loves to penetrate into the inmost
recesses of their soul, in order to elicit their most secret
inclinations. It likes to learn what has been left of the _man_, amid
the preoccupations of their projects and the elevation of their
fortune. It requires to know in what manner their character has
modified their genius, or has been subservient to it.
"It is this curiosity that we hope to satisfy by the publication of
these letters. They reveal the inmost thought of Napoleon, they will
reflect his earliest impulses, they will show how the General, the
Consul, and the Emperor felt and spoke, not in his discourses or his
proclamations--the official garb of his thought--but in the free
outpourings of the most passionate or the most tender affections....
This correspondence will prove, we strongly believe, that the
conqueror was human, the master of the world a good husband, the great
man in fact an excellent man.... We shall see in them how, up to the
last moment, he lavished on his wife proofs of his tenderness. Without
doubt the letters of the Emperor Napoleon are rarer and shorter than
those of the First Consul, and the First Consul writes no longer like
General Bonaparte, but everywhere the sentiment is fundamentally the
same.
"We make no reflection on the style of these letters, written in haste
and in all the _abandon_ of intimacy. We can easily perceive they were
not destined to see the light. Nevertheless we publish them without
changing anything in them."
The _Collection Didot_ contains 228 letters from Napoleon to
Josephine, and 70 from Josephine to Hortense, and two from Josephine
to Napoleon, which seem to be the only two in existence of Josephine
to Napoleon whose authenticity is unquestioned.
(3rd) The fugitive letters are collected from various sources, and
their genuineness does not seem to be quite as well proved as those
of the Tennant or Didot Series. We have generally taken the
_Correspondence of Napoleon I._ as the touchstone of their merit to be
inserted here, although one of them--that republished from _Las
Cases_ (No. 85, Series G.)--is manifestly mainly the work of that
versatile author, who is utterly unreliable except when confirmed
by others. As Lord Rosebery has well said, the book is "an arsenal
of spurious documents."
We have relegated to an Appendix those published by Madame Ducrest, as
transparent forgeries, and have to acknowledge with thanks a letter
from M. Masson on this subject which thoroughly confirms these views.
There seems some reason to doubt No. I., Series E, but being in the
_Correspondence_, I have translated it.
The _Correspondence of Napoleon I._ is a splendid monument to the
memory of Napoleon. It is alluded to throughout the Notes as _The
Correspondence_, and it deserves special recognition here. Its
compilation was decreed by Napoleon III. from Boulogne, on 7th
September 1854, and the first volume appeared in 1858, and the last in
1870. With the first volume is inserted the Report of the Commission
to the Emperor, part of which we subjoin:--
"_Report of the Commission to the Emperor._
"SIRE,--Augustus numbered Caesar among the gods, and dedicated to him a
temple; the temple has disappeared, the Commentaries remain. Your
Majesty, wishing to raise to the chief of your dynasty an imperishable
monument, has ordered us to gather together and publish the political,
military, and administrative correspondence of Napoleon I. It has
realised that the most conspicuous (_eclatant_) homage to render to
this incomparable genius was to make him known in his entirety. No one
is ignorant of his victories, of the laws with which he has endowed
our country, the institutions that he has founded and which dwell
immovable after so many revolutions; his prosperity and his reverses
are in every mouth; history has recounted what he has done, but it has
not always known his designs: it has not had the secret of so many
admirable combinations that have been the spoil of fortune (_que la
fortune a dejouees_), and so many grand projects for the execution of
which time alone was wanting. The traces of Napoleon's thoughts were
scattered; it was necessary to reunite them and to give them to the
light.
"Such is the task which your Majesty confided to us, and of which we
were far from suspecting the extent. The thousands of letters which
were received from all parts have allowed us to follow, in spite of a
few regrettable _lacunae_, the thoughts of Napoleon day by day, and to
assist, so to say, at the birth of his projects, at the ceaseless
workings of his mind, which knew no other rest than change of
occupation. But what is perhaps most surprising in the reading of a
correspondence so varied, is the power of that universal intelligence
from which nothing escaped, which in turn raised itself without an
effort to the most sublime conceptions, and which descends with the
same facility to the smallest details.... Nothing seems to him
unworthy of his attention that has to do with the realisation of his
designs; and it is not sufficient for him to give the most precise
orders, but he superintends himself the execution of them with an
indefatigable perseverance.
"The letters of Napoleon can add nothing to his glory, but they better
enable us to comprehend his prodigious destiny, the prestige that he
exercised over his contemporaries--'le culte universel dont sa memoire
est l'objet, enfin, l'entrainement irresistible par lequel la France a
replace sa dynastie au sommet de l'edifice qu'il avait construit.'
"These letters also contain the most fruitful sources of information
... for peoples as for governments; for soldiers and for statesmen no
less than for historians. Perhaps some persons, greedy of knowing the
least details concerning the intimate life of great men, will regret
that we have not reproduced those letters which, published elsewhere
for the most part, have only dealt with family affairs and domestic
relations. Collected together by us as well as the others, they have
not found a place in the plan of which your Majesty has fixed for us
the limits.
"Let us haste to declare that, in conformity with the express
intentions of your Majesty, we have scrupulously avoided, in the
reproduction of the letters of the Emperor, any alteration,
curtailment, or modification of the text. Sometimes, thinking of the
legitimate sorrow which blame from so high a quarter may cause, we
have regretted not to be able to soften the vigorous judgment of
Napoleon on many of his contemporaries, but it was not our province to
discuss them, still less to explain them; but if, better informed or
calmer, the Emperor has rendered justice to those of his servants that
he had for a moment misunderstood, we have been glad to indicate that
these severe words have been followed by reparation.
"We have found it necessary to have the spelling of names of places
and of persons frequently altered, but we have allowed to remain
slight incorrectnesses of language which denote the impetuosity of
composition, and which often could not be rectified without weakening
the originality of an energetic style running right to its object,
brief and precise as the words of command. Some concise notes
necessary for clearing up obscure passages are the sole conditions
which we have allowed ourselves....
"The Commission has decided in favour of chronological order
throughout. It is, moreover, the only one which can reproduce
faithfully the sequence of the Emperor's thoughts. It is also the best
for putting in relief his universal aptitude and his marvellous
fecundity.
"Napoleon wrote little with his own hand; nearly all the items of his
correspondence were dictated to his secretaries, to his aides-de-camp
and his chief of staff, or to his ministers. Thus the Commission has
not hesitated to comprise in this collection a great number of items
which, although bearing another signature, evidently emanate from
Napoleon....
"By declaring that his public life dated from the siege of Toulon,
Napoleon has himself determined the point of departure which the
Commission should choose. It is from this immortal date that commences
the present publication.
"(Signed) THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION.
"_Paris, January 20, 1858._"
CONTEMPORARY SOURCES.--It is a commonplace that the history of
Napoleon has yet to be written. His contemporaries were stunned or
overwhelmed by the whirlwind of his glory; the next generation was
blinded by meteoric fragments of his "system," which glowed with
impotent heat as they fell through an alien atmosphere into oblivion.
Such were the Bourriennes, the Jominis, the Talleyrands, and other
traitors of that ilk. But
"The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart;"
and now, when all the lesser tumults and lesser men _have_ passed
away, each new century will, as Lockhart foretold, "inscribe one
mighty era with the majestic name of Napoleon." And yet the writings
of no contemporary can be ignored; neither Alison nor Scott, certainly
not Bignon, Montgaillard, Pelet, Mathieu Dumas, and Pasquier.
Constant, Bausset, Meneval, Rovigo, and D'Abrantes are full of
interest for their personal details, and D'Avrillon, Las Cases,
Marmont, Marbot, and Lejeune only a degree less so. Jung's _Memoirs of
Lucien_ are invaluable, and those of Joseph and Louis Bonaparte
useful. But the _Correspondence_ is worth everything else, including
Panckouke (1796-99), where, in spite of shocking arrangement, print,
and paper, we get the replies as well as the letters. The _Biographie
Universelle Michaud_ is hostile, except the interesting footnotes of
Begin. It must, however, be read. The article in the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_ was the work of an avowed enemy of the Napoleonic system,
the editor of the _Life and Times of Stein_.
For the Diary, the _Revue Chronologique de l'Histoire de France_ or
Montgaillard (1823) has been heavily drawn upon, especially for the
later years, but wherever practicable the dates have been verified
from the _Correspondence_ and bulletins of the day. On the whole, the
records of respective losses in the battles are slightly favourable to
the French, as their figures have been usually taken; always, however,
the maximum French loss and the minimum of the allies is recorded,
when unverified from other sources.
The late Professor Seeley, in his monograph, asserts that Napoleon,
tried by his plan, is a failure--that even before death his words and
actions merited no monument. We must seek, however, for the mightiest
heritage of Napoleon in his brainchildren of the second generation,
the Genii of the Code.
The Code Napoleon claims to-day its two hundred million subjects. "The
Law should be clean, precise, uniform; to interpret is to corrupt it."
So ruled the Emperor; and now, a century later, Archbishop Temple
(born in one distant island the year Napoleon died in another) bears
testimony to the beneficent sway of Napoleon's Word-Empire.
Criticising English legal phraseology, the Archbishop of Canterbury
said, "The French Code is always welcome in every country where it has
been introduced; and where people have once got hold of it, they are
unwilling to have it changed for any other, because it is _a marvel of
clearness_." Surely if ever Style _is_ the Man, it is Napoleon,
otherwise the inspection of over seven million words, as marshalled
forth in his _Correspondence_, would not only confuse but confound. As
it is, its "hum of armies, gathering rank on rank," has left behind
what Bacon calls a conflation of sound, from which, however, as from
Kipling's steel-sinewed symphony,
"The clanging chorus goes--
Law, Order, Duty and Restraint, Obedience, Discipline."
FOOTNOTES
[6] Sometimes he is perhaps more to be trusted than the leading
lexicographer, as for example when, the day after Wagram, he
writes his Minister of War that the _coup de Jarnac_ will come
from the English in Spain. Now, when the Jarnac in question was
slain in fair fight by La Chateignerie by a blow _au jarret_,
it was an _unexpected_ blow, but not surely, as Littre tells
us, _manoeuvre perfide_, _deloyale_. Nothing was too disloyal
for perfidious Albion, but for 30,000 English to outmanoeuvre
three marshals and 100,000 French veterans would be, and was,
the unexpected which happened at Talavera three weeks later.
[7] Findel's _History of Freemasonry_.
[8] Lord Rosebery.
[9] This versatile writer, the author of _Oberon_, the translator of
Lucian and Shakespeare, and the founder of psychological
romance in Germany, was then in his seventy-fifth year.
[10] The historian (1755-1809), "the Thucydides of Switzerland."
[11] Horne's _History of Napoleon_ (1841).
[12] Ibid.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Column Headings:
A: Pages.
B: Series.
C: Dates.
D: No. of Letters.
E: Sources.
F: Tennant.
G: Didot.
H: Various.
I: Pages of Corresponding Notes.
| | | | | E | |
| A | B| C | D |----------------------------------- | I |
| | | | | F | G | H | |
| | | | | | |{No. 2, from } | |
| 1-16 | A|1796 | 8 |{ Nos.} | |{ St. Amand, } |198-211|
| | | | |{1, } | |{ _La Citoyenne_} | |
| | | | |{3-8 } | |{ _Bonaparte_ } | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | |{Nos. }|{No. 15, from } | |
| 17-38 | B|1796-7 | 25 | |{1-14 }|{ Bourrienne's } |211-223|
| | | | | |{16-25}|{ _Life of_ } | |
| | | | | | |{ _Bonaparte_ } | |
| | | | | | | | |
| 39-46 | C|1800 | 4 | No. 3 | 1,2,4 | |223-225|
| | | | | | | | |
| 47-53 | D|1801-2 | 5 | | all | |225-231|
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |{No. 1, } | |
| | | | | | |{ _Correspondence_}|
| 55-60 | E|1804 | 6 | |{Nos. }|{No. 5, } |232-237|
| | | | | |{2,3,} |{ Collection } | |
| | | | | |{4,6 } |{ of Baron Heath} | |
| | | | | | | | |
| 61-74 | F|1805 | 19 | | all | |237-243|
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | |{No. 9A, from } | |
| | | | | | |{ Mlle. }|243-264 | |
| | | | | | |{ D'Avrillon } | |
| 75-118| G|1806-7 | 87 | |all but|{No. 85, from } | |
| | | | | | |{ Las Casas } | |
| | | | | | | | |
|119-122| H|1807 | 3 | | all | |264-267|
| | | | | | | | |
|123-128| I|1808 | 4 | | all | |267-269|
| | | | | | | | |
|129-132| J|1808 | 3 | | all | |269-273|
| | | | | | | | |
|133-140| K|1808-9 | 14 | | all | |273-278|
| | | | | | | | |
|141-154| L|1809 | 25 | | all | |278-295|
| | | | | | | | |
|155-165| M|1809-10| 22 | | all | |295-304|
| | | | | | | | |
|167-176| N|1810 |11[13]| | all | |304-310|
| | | | | | | | |
|177-181| O|1811 | 4 | | all | |311-312|
| | | | | | | | |
|183-197| P|1812-14| 2 | | all | |312-315|
| | | |------| | | | |
| | | | 242 | | | | |
316. APPENDIX (1).--Reputed Poem by Napoleon.
317. APPENDIX (2).--Genealogy of the Bonaparte Family.
317-321. APPENDIX (3).--Spurious Letters of Napoleon to Josephine.
FOOTNOTES
[13] Exclusive of two from Josephine to Napoleon.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
NAPOLEON _Frontispiece_
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY T. WRIGHT, AFTER
AN ORIGINAL DRAWING (_Photogravure_)
EUGENE BEAUHARNAIS _Face page_ 121
AFTERWARDS VICEROY OF ITALY (_Photogravure_)
JOSEPHINE BEAUHARNAIS _Face page_ 198
_Circa_ 1795 (_Photogravure_)
FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER, DATED APRIL
24, 1796 _Pages_ 202-3
NAPOLEON'S LETTERS
SERIES A
(1796)
"Only those who knew Napoleon in the intercourse of private life can
render justice to his character. For my own part, I know him, as it
were, by heart; and in proportion as time separates us, he appears to
me like a beautiful dream. And would you believe that, in my
recollections of Napoleon, that which seems to me to approach most
nearly to ideal excellence is not the hero, filling the world with his
gigantic fame, but the man, viewed in the relations of private
life?"--_Recollections of Caulaincourt_, _Duke of Vicenza_, vol. i.
197.
SERIES A
(For subjoined Notes to this Series see pages 198-211.)
LETTER PAGE
_Bonaparte made Commander-in-Chief_ 198
No. 1. 7 A.M. 198
No. 2. _Our good Ossian_ 199
No. 4. _Chauvet is dead_ 199
No. 5. Napoleon's suspicions 199
_The lovers of nineteen_ 200
_My brother_ 200
No. 6. _Unalterably good_ 201
_If you want a place for any one_ 201
No. 7. A criticism by Aubenas 201
_June 15th_ 204
_Presentiment of ill_ 210
No. 8. The Treaty with Rome 210
_Fortune_ 211
1796.
_February 23rd.--Bonaparte made Commander-in-Chief of the Army of
Italy._
No. 1.
_Seven o'clock in the morning._
My waking thoughts are all of thee. Your portrait and the remembrance
of last night's delirium have robbed my senses of repose. Sweet and
incomparable Josephine, what an extraordinary influence you have over
my heart. Are you vexed? do I see you sad? are you ill at ease? My
soul is broken with grief, and there is no rest for your lover. But is
there more for me when, delivering ourselves up to the deep feelings
which master me, I breathe out upon your lips, upon your heart, a
flame which burns me up--ah, it was this past night I realised that
your portrait was not you. You start at noon; I shall see you in three
hours. Meanwhile, _mio dolce amor_, accept a thousand kisses,[14] but
give me none, for they fire my blood.
N. B.
_A Madame Beauharnais._
* * * * *
_March 9th.--Bonaparte marries Josephine._
_March 11th.--Bonaparte leaves Paris to join his army._
No. 2.
_Chanceaux Post House,
March 14, 1796._
I wrote you at Chatillon, and sent you a power of attorney to enable
you to receive various sums of money in course of remittance to me.
Every moment separates me further from you, my beloved, and every
moment I have less energy to exist so far from you. You are the
constant object of my thoughts; I exhaust my imagination in thinking
of what you are doing. If I see you unhappy, my heart is torn, and my
grief grows greater. If you are gay and lively among your friends
(male and female), I reproach you with having so soon forgotten the
sorrowful separation three days ago; thence you must be fickle, and
henceforward stirred by no deep emotions. So you see I am not easy to
satisfy; but, my dear, I have quite different sensations when I fear
that your health may be affected, or that you have cause to be
annoyed; then I regret the haste with which I was separated from my
darling. I feel, in fact, that your natural kindness of heart exists
no longer for me, and it is only when I am quite sure you are not
vexed that I am satisfied. If I were asked how I slept, I feel that
before replying I should have to get a message to tell me that you had
had a good night. The ailments, the passions of men influence me only
when I imagine they may reach you, my dear. May my good genius, which
has always preserved me in the midst of great dangers, surround you,
enfold you, while I will face my fate unguarded. Ah! be not gay, but a
trifle melancholy; and especially may your soul be free from worries,
as your body from illness: you know what our good Ossian says on this
subject. Write me, dear, and at full length, and accept the thousand
and one kisses of your most devoted and faithful friend.
[This letter is translated from St. Amand's _La Citoyenne Bonaparte_,
p. 3, 1892.]
* * * * *
_March 27th.--Arrival at Nice and proclamation to the soldiers._
No. 3.
_April 3rd.--He is at Mentone._
_Port Maurice, April 3rd._
I have received all your letters, but none has affected me like the
last. How can you think, my charmer, of writing me in such terms? Do
you believe that my position is not already painful enough without
further increasing my regrets and subverting my reason. What
eloquence, what feelings you portray; they are of fire, they inflame
my poor heart! My unique Josephine, away from you there is no more
joy--away from thee the world is a wilderness, in which I stand alone,
and without experiencing the bliss of unburdening my soul. You have
robbed me of more than my soul; you are the one only thought of my
life. When I am weary of the worries of my profession, when I mistrust
the issue, when men disgust me, when I am ready to curse my life, I
put my hand on my heart where your portrait beats in unison. I look at
it, and love is for me complete happiness; and everything laughs for
joy, except the time during which I find myself absent from my
beloved.