18th.—The Emperor sent for me to his study before dinner; he was busy in
reading the newspapers which had just arrived. M. de Montholon solicited
permission to wait on him. He informed the Emperor that Madame de
Montholon had just been delivered of a daughter, and requested his
Majesty to do him the honour to stand godfather to the child.
After dinner, the Emperor again looked over the papers which he had
already perused, and remarked that France still remained in a state of
agitation and uncertainty: he observed that the latest English papers
used the most indecorous language with regard to the royal family....
One article led him to say: “Present circumstances, the necessities of
the moment, and sympathies of old date, concur in favouring the return
of the monks to France. This is a characteristic circumstance in France,
as in the territories of the Pope.” Then, dwelling on the subject of the
latter, he continued, “as for the Pope, it is his special affair, and is
calculated to restore his power. Would any one believe that, while he
was himself a prisoner at Fontainebleau, and while the question of his
own existence was under consideration, he argued with me seriously on
the existence of the monks, and endeavoured to induce me to re-establish
them! That was truly like the Court of Rome!”
This day was the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. The
circumstance was mentioned by some one present, and the recollection
of it produced a visible impression on the Emperor. “Incomprehensible
day!” said he in a tone of sorrow—"Concurrence of unheard of
fatalities!—Grouchy!—Ney!—D’Erlon!—Was there treachery, or only
misfortune!—Alas! poor France!—" Here he covered his eyes with his
hands. “And yet,” said he, “all that human skill could do was
accomplished! All was not lost until the moment when all had
succeeded!”
A short time afterwards, alluding to the same subject, he exclaimed; "in
that extraordinary campaign, thrice, in less than a week’s space, I saw
the certain triumph of France, and the decision of her fate slip through
my fingers.
“But for the desertion of a traitor, I should have annihilated the enemy
at the opening of the campaign. I should have destroyed him at Ligny, if
my left had done its duty.—I should have destroyed him again at
Waterloo, if my right had not failed me. Singular defeat, by which,
notwithstanding the most fatal catastrophe, the glory of the conquered
has not suffered, nor the fame of the conqueror been encreased: the
memory of the one will survive his destruction; the memory of the other
will perhaps be buried in his triumph!”
DEPARTURE OF THE NORTHUMBERLAND.—ON THE INTRODUCTION AND FORM GIVEN TO
THE CAMPAIGNS OF ITALY.—THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, BY AN AIDE-DE-CAMP OF
THE VICEROY’S.
19th.—To-day the Northumberland sailed for Europe.
This vessel had conveyed us to St. Helena; we had in the course of our
voyage maintained a friendly intercourse with the officers; the crew had
shewn us great kindness, and we had received attentions from Admiral
Cockburn himself, towards whom we entertained more of ill-humour than
absolute dislike, and whose conduct, after all, had not been of a nature
to wound our feelings. Whether from all these circumstances combined, or
some others which had escaped our notice, or whether owing to that
powerful and natural inclination which leads us to attach ourselves to
our fellow creatures, and to cherish social feelings with regard to each
other, I know not; but it is certain that we did not feel indifferent to
the departure of the Northumberland. It seemed as though we had lost
something in thus bidding adieu to our old shipmates.
The Emperor had passed a very bad night; he bathed his feet to relieve a
violent head-ache.
About one o’clock he went to take a walk in the garden, having in his
hand the first volume of an English work, respecting his own life. He
turned it over as he walked about. This work had evidently been written
in a less malignant spirit than Goldsmith’s. It certainly exhibited less
grossness; but it contained the same inventions, the same false
statements, and displayed the same ignorance. The Emperor read the
article relative to his childhood, and that period of his early life
which he spent at College. The whole was a tissue of misrepresentation;
and this led him to remark that I had been very right in suggesting that
a narrative of the events of his early career should be prefixed to the
campaign of Italy; and he added that what he had just read had fully
confirmed him in favour of this idea.
I ought before to have mentioned that, after the dictation of the
campaigns of Italy was concluded, and after it had all been arranged in
chapters, the Emperor was still undecided as to the manner in which he
should form an introduction to it. He had changed his mind frequently on
this subject, and had conceived many different ideas, which he by turns
abandoned and resumed. Sometimes he was inclined to commence with a few
unimportant enterprises in which he had been engaged before the siege of
Toulon; such as an expedition to Sardinia, which had failed, &c. At
other times he determined to open the subject by describing the first
events of the French revolution, the state of Europe and the movements
of our armies. I always disapproved these ideas, which, I conceived,
would carry him back to too remote a period. He had begun by dictating
to me the siege of Toulon, and this I maintained to be the proper point
of departure, and the most natural arrangement, since he had not
undertaken to write a history, but only his private Memoirs. In this
grand episode of the history of ages, he ought, I said, to appear all at
once on the theatre of the world, and to occupy the fore-ground which he
was destined never afterwards to quit. It was my place, as editor, to
record, in any introduction which I might think proper to make, all the
details of Napoleon’s early life, and of the events anterior to the
period to which his own dictations referred. The Emperor approved this
idea; and after discussing it one day at dinner, he decided on its
adoption. The form that has been given to the campaigns of Italy was
determined on by the above considerations, and to this subject the
Emperor alluded in his remark just mentioned, respecting the
introduction to the campaigns.
At three o’clock, the governor and the new admiral, Sir Pulteney
Malcolm, were presented to the Emperor, who, though labouring under
indisposition, was nevertheless very gracious and talkative.
Both before and after dinner, the Emperor amused himself by looking over
a work on the Russian campaign, written by an officer who had formerly
been one of the Viceroy’s aides-de-camp. The Emperor had heard it
described as a most odious production; but he has been so accustomed to
the attacks of libellers that declamation has but little effect upon
him. In works of this kind he looks to facts only; and under this point
of view he did not find the publication in question so bad as it had
been represented to him. “An historian,” said he, “would select from it
only what is good; he would take the facts and omit the declamation,
which is only calculated to please fools. The author of this work proves
that the Russians themselves burnt Moscow, Smolensko, &c.; he describes
the French as having been victorious in every engagement. The facts that
are to be found in this work,” continued the Emperor, "have evidently
been described for the purpose of being published during my reign, in
the period of my power. The declamatory passages have been interpolated
since my fall. The author could not easily pervert the ground-work of
his subject, though he has interspersed it with abusive remarks after
the fashion of the day.
“As to the disasters of my retreat, I left him nothing to say any more
than other libellers. My 29th bulletin plunged them into despair. In
their rage they accused me of exaggeration. They were provoked to a
pitch of madness. I thus deprived them of an excellent subject, I
carried off their prey.”
The Emperor quoted several passages from the works of this and some
other French authors, all of whom declaimed against their countrymen,
and gave a false picture of their achievements. He could not refrain
from observing that it was a circumstance unexampled in history to see a
nation strive to depreciate her own glory, to see her own sons thus
intent on destroying her trophies. “But from the bosom of France
avengers will doubtless arise. Posterity will brand with disgrace the
madness of the present day. Can these be Frenchmen,” he exclaimed, “who
speak and write in this strain? Are their hearts dead to every spark of
patriotism?—But no, they cannot be Frenchmen! They speak our language,
it is true; they were born on the same soil with us; but they are not
animated by the feelings and principles of Frenchmen!”
PROPHETIC REMARKS.—LORD HOLLAND.—THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF
WALES.—CONVERSATION RELATING TO MYSELF.
21st.—The Emperor took a walk in the garden attended by his suite. The
conversation turned on the possibility of our returning to Europe and
seeing France once more. “My dear friends,” said he, in a tone of
sincere feeling, and with an expression which it is impossible to
describe, “you will return!”—"Not without you," we all exclaimed with
one voice. This led us once more to analyze the probable chances of our
quitting St. Helena, and all yielded to the necessity of admitting that
our removal could only take place through the intervention of the
English. But the Emperor could not imagine how this intervention was
likely to be brought about. “The impression is made,” said he; “it has
taken too deep a root; they will everlastingly fear me. Pitt told them,
There can be no safety for you, with a man who has a whole invasion in
his single head.” “But,” observed some one present, “suppose new
interests should arise in England; suppose a truly constitutional and
liberal ministry should be established, would the English government
find no advantage in fixing through you, Sire, liberal principles in
France, and thereby propagating them throughout Europe?” “Certainly,”
replied the Emperor, “I admit all this.” “Well then,” continued the
individual who had first spoken, “would not this constitutional
administration find a guarantee in these liberal principles and in your
own interests?” “I admit this also,” replied the Emperor. "I can suppose
Lord Holland, as Prime Minister of England, writing to me at Paris: If
you do so and so I shall be ruined; or the Princess Charlotte of Wales,
whom we will suppose to have removed me hence, saying to me: If you act
thus, I shall be hated and shall be looked upon as the scourge of my
country. At these words I should stop short:—they would arrest me in my
career more effectually than armies.
“And after all, what is there to fear? That I should wage war? I am now
too old for that. Is it feared that I should resume my pursuit of glory?
I have enjoyed glory even to satiety. I have wallowed in it; and it may
be said to be a thing which I have henceforth rendered at once common
and difficult. Is it supposed that I would recommence my conquests? I
did not persevere in them through mania; they were the result of a great
plan, and I may even say that I was urged to them by necessity. They
were reasonable at the moment when I pursued them; but they would now be
impossible. They were practicable once; but now it would be madness to
attempt them. And besides, the convulsions and misfortunes to which
France has been subjected will henceforth produce so many difficulties,
that to remove them will be a sufficient source of glory without seeking
for any other.”
Two of the gentlemen of the Emperor’s suite had been to the town to see
the persons who had newly arrived at the Island, and to hear the news of
the day. The account which they delivered on their return occupied the
Emperor’s attention for some minutes in the garden. About six o’clock he
proceeded to his closet, desiring me to follow him; and by chance a
conversation was introduced, which to me was in the highest degree
interesting and valuable. Though the subject of this conversation
relates to myself personally, yet I cannot pass it over in silence; it
develops so many characteristic traits of the Emperor, that these would
furnish a sufficient apology for my laying it before the reader, were
any apology necessary.
The persons who had arrived by the Newcastle had spoken much of my
Historical Atlas, which led the Emperor again to remark on the
extraordinary celebrity of the work, and to express his surprise that he
should not sooner have become thoroughly acquainted with it.
“How happened it,” said he, “that none of your friends should have given
me a correct idea of it? I never saw it until I was on board the
Northumberland, and now I find it is known to every body. How came you
never to call my attention to it yourself? I should have appreciated
your merits, and should have made your fortune. I had formed a confused
and indifferent idea of your work, which perhaps influenced my mind
unfavourably with respect to yourself. Such is the misfortune of
Sovereigns; for doubtless no one entertained better intentions than
myself. Those who filled posts about my person might easily have brought
me to render full justice to the merit of your work; for it was a thing
that I could myself judge of, and I asked nothing more. Since I have
become acquainted with your tables, and am enabled to form a correct
notion of their valuable classification, and the indelible impression
which they are calculated to make on the memory, with regard to dates,
places, and collateral relations, I regret not having established a kind
of Normal School, in which the students should have been uniformly
instructed by the help of the Historical Atlas. Our Lyceums would have
been inundated with your work, or parts of it, and I would have ensured
to it the utmost degree of celebrity. Why, I say again, did you not call
my attention to it? It is painful to confess the secret; but it is
nevertheless true, that a little intrigue is indispensable to those who
wish to gain the favour of Sovereigns; modest merit is almost always
neglected. But, perhaps, after all, Clarke, Decrès, Montalivet, M. de
Montesquiou, or even Barbier, my librarian, might have withheld the
hints which you intended they should throw out to me; for it is another
mortifying truth, that favours are sometimes more attainable through the
medium of the _valet-de-chambre_ than by a higher channel! And how
happened it, that your friend Madame de S.... did not speak to me of
your work? We frequently rode in the same carriage together; and she
might have secured to you all the advantages she could have wished, by
describing your real merits to me.”—"Yes, Sire," I replied, “but at that
time I....” “I understand you. You did not then perhaps seek favours?”
“Sire, my hour had not yet arrived.” Then ensued a very long explanation
respecting my first introduction to the Emperor, the missions to which
he had appointed me, the opinion which he had formed of me, and which,
according to custom, had remained permanently fixed in his mind.
All this time I was standing near the writing-table in the second
chamber, while the Emperor walked backward and forward through the whole
length of both rooms. The subject of the conversation was to me most
interesting. But, to form a just conception of my feelings at this
moment, it would be necessary to look back to the time of Napoleon’s
power, to that period when no one dared hope to know his thoughts, or
ever to suppose the possibility of conversing familiarly and
confidentially with him. Such a happy circumstance would then have
appeared to me a dream: and now I almost regard it as a conversation in
the Elysian Fields.
“I had no correct idea of you,” said the Emperor, "I had no precise
knowledge of anything that concerned you. You had no friend near me to
commend you to my notice, and you neglected to put yourself forward.
Some of those persons on whom perhaps you thought you could rely even
acted in a way prejudicial to your interest. I knew nothing of your
work; if I had, it would have been a powerful circumstance in your
favour. I was not aware that you had, like myself, attended the military
school at Paris; that would have been another claim to my notice.
“You had been an emigrant, you would therefore never have enjoyed my
full confidence. I knew that you had been much attached to the Bourbons;
you would therefore never have been initiated in the great secrets of my
government.”—"But Sire," I replied, “your Majesty permitted me to
approach your person, you made me a Councillor of State, and entrusted
me with various missions.”—"That was because I conceived you to be an
honest man; and besides, I am not of a distrustful disposition. Without
knowing why, I considered you to be a man of pure integrity in all that
regarded pecuniary matters. If you had only mentioned a single word to
me about your affair of the commercial licenses with P....[——?], I would
have instantly rendered you justice. But, I say again, I should never
have employed you in any political affair."—"Then, Sire," said I, “what
risk did I not run, when in Paris and Holland! The English were then
situated with respect to us, as we now are with respect to them, and,
influenced by my old connections, I ventured in spite of your
regulations to forward their letters, when they appeared to me to
contain nothing objectionable. To what danger should I not have been
exposed had my conduct led to any accusation on the part of the Minister
of Police! And yet I conceived that I was only making a very natural and
discretionary use of the powers with which Your Majesty had entrusted
me, and the confidence which you had reposed in me. I felt so satisfied
in my own conscience, and was so convinced of the propriety of my
intentions, that I thought myself exempt from the observance of
regulations which seemed not to have been made for me.”—"Well," observed
the Emperor, “I could have conceived all this, I should readily have
given you credit for such an explanation of your conduct; for no one is
more ready to listen to reason than I. This was precisely the manner in
which I wished duty to be performed; and yet it is certain that you
would have been condemned had your conduct been the subject of enquiry,
because all would have raised their voices against you. Such was the
fatality of circumstances and the misfortune of my situation. Besides,
when once I conceived a prejudice, I retained it: this again was the
misfortune of my situation and my circumstances. But how could it be
otherwise? I had no time for details. I could only take into
consideration summaries and abstracts. I was very sure that I might
sometimes be deceived; but where was my alternative? Few sovereigns have
done better than I.”
“Sire,” said I, “I experienced deep mortification, at finding that your
Majesty never addressed a word to me at your Court circles and levees.
And yet you never failed to speak of me to my wife when I happened to be
absent: I sometimes thought that I was not well known to you, or feared,
particularly during later times, that your Majesty had some cause to be
displeased with me.”—"By no means," resumed the Emperor; “if I spoke of
you when absent, it was because I made it a rule always to speak to
ladies about their husbands when the latter were sent on missions. If I
neglected you when present, it was because I attached too little value
to you. It was the same with many other individuals; you were confounded
with the mass, you held only an ordinary rank in my regard. You were
permitted to approach me, and yet you did not turn this privilege to
good account; you were sent on missions, and yet you neglected to reap
the benefit of these appointments on your return home. It is a great
fault to keep in the back-ground at court. To my eyes you were in fact a
mere blank. Nevertheless, I recollect that I sometimes entertained
thoughts of employing you. The person connected with the ministry, on
whom you in some measure depended, who declared himself to be your
friend, and who had it in his power to serve you, diverted my attention
from you, and contributed to keep up my indifference towards you. He
knew you well, and perhaps feared you; and it is well known that in all
cases I went rapidly to work.”—"Sire," I replied, “my situation was the
more painful, since my friends were constantly congratulating me on the
favours which I received at Court, and predicting the brilliant fortune
that awaited me. Reports were continually raised of my having been
appointed to all sorts of posts:—sometimes it was asserted that I had
been created Maritime Prefect of Brest, Toulon, or Antwerp; that I had
been made Minister of the Interior or of the Marine; or that I had
received an important trust connected with the education of the King of
Rome, &c.”—"Well," said the Emperor, “now that you call the matter to my
recollection, some of these reports were not entirely destitute of
foundation. I certainly did entertain the idea of employing you to
assist in the education of the King of Rome; and I also intended, on
your return to Holland, to appoint you to be Maritime Prefect of Toulon,
which at that time I regarded as a sort of ministry. There were
five-and-twenty ships of the line in the roads, and I wished to augment
their number. In this instance, your friend, the Minister, turned my
attention from you. You belonged to the old navy, he observed; your
prejudices and those of the new officers must inevitably clash together.
This appeared to me a decided objection to your appointment, and I
thought no more about you; but now, since I have come to know you, I
find that you were precisely the man I wanted. I think, too, that I
entertained some other ideas respecting your advancement; but I must
again repeat that you neglected your own interests. You retreated when
you ought to have advanced. Need I tell you that, with the best
intentions on my part, the chance against procuring an appointment to an
important post was as great as that of winning a prize in the lottery.
An idea occurred to me, and I formed my decision; but if that decision
were not immediately carried into effect, it escaped my recollection;
for I had so much business on my hands. A luckier candidate was then
proposed, and he was installed in office.—But I interrupt you....”
“Sire,” continued I, "being ignorant of your Majesty’s kind intentions
respecting me, I was placed in a situation truly ridiculous, amidst the
numerous congratulations that I received. I endeavoured to extricate
myself from all this embarrassment with the best possible grace; but the
more efforts I made for this purpose, the more I was blamed for my
modesty. I never asked your Majesty for more than one thing, and that
was the situation of Master of Requests, which was immediately granted
to me. Clarke reproached me with having lowered my dignity by making
such a solicitation. He said that I should have asked to be made a
Councillor of State; and that your Majesty would have granted my
request."—"No," replied the Emperor, “I did not know you well enough for
that. I should have looked upon such a request as the result of silly
ambition.”—" Sire," I observed, “I had sufficient tact to guess what
your opinion would be.”—"Well,“ continued the Emperor, that was odd
enough. But perhaps Clarke was right after all. The solicitation of the
inferior post of Master of Requests might have injured you in my
opinion; that is to say, it might have tended to fix you in the rank in
which I had classed you. I was very well pleased to see my chamberlains
have something to do; but Master of Requests was too trivial a post. It
is curious,” continued he, “how my memory revives, now that I am
speaking on this subject. You had performed detached services, which had
rapidly escaped my recollection, because my attention had never been
directed to them. If they had been presented to my notice all in a mass,
they must have given me a very different opinion of you. You served as a
volunteer at Flushing. I knew this; and what I should have regarded as a
mere matter of course in any other individual, forcibly struck me in an
emigrant, who had for this purpose quitted his family, and who was not
without fortune.”—"Sire, I received the most gratifying reward on my
return. Your Majesty spoke to me on the subject."—"But," said he, “you
suffered this to be lost in the flood of oblivion. You addressed several
written communications to me. All these things occur to my recollection
by degrees. You transmitted to me some plans respecting the Adriatic
Sea, with which I was much pleased. The suggestion was to get possession
of the Adriatic, and to establish a fleet there. Ships could have been
built at no vast expense, with the wood produced in the immense forests
of Croatia. I submitted the whole to the Minister, who never more
mentioned the subject to me. But you presented some other things to my
notice.”—"Sire, you probably allude to the ideas respecting the system
of maritime warfare to be adopted against England, accompanied by an
explanatory map."—"Yes, I recollect. The map lay for several days on the
desk in my closet. I expressed a wish to see you; but you were absent on
a mission."
“Sire, about the same time I had the honour to address to you a plan for
transforming the Champ-de-Mars into a _Naumachia_, which would have been
an ornament to the palace of the King of Rome. I proposed that the basin
should be dug sufficiently deep to admit the launching of small
corvettes, which might have been built, rigged, manned and worked by the
pupils of the naval school, which, according to my plan, was to be
established at the military school. All the Princes of the Imperial
house might have been required to devote themselves to these naval
exercises for the space of two years, whatever might have been their
ultimate destination. Your Majesty might have induced the distinguished
families of the empire thus to procure for their sons a knowledge of
naval affairs. I doubted not that all these circumstances combined, and
the spectacle presented to the capital, would infallibly have rendered
the navy at once popular and national in France.”—"Ah! I was not aware
of the extent of your plan," said the Emperor, in whose mind every idea
immediately became magnified. “This design would have pleased me. It
might have produced immense results. From this plan there was but a step
to that of rendering the Seine navigable, and cutting a canal from Paris
to the sea. This could not have been regarded as too stupendous an
enterprise; for more was done by the Romans in ancient times, and more
has already been effected by the Chinese of the present day. It would
have afforded a pastime to the army in time of peace. I had conceived
many plans of the same kind. But our enemies kept me chained to war. Of
what glory have they robbed me!... But continue.”—
"Sire, I also submitted to your Majesty’s consideration some ideas
respecting the completion of the naval schools."—"Did I adopt them in
the schools which I established?" inquired the Emperor. “Did your
opinions coincide with mine?” “Sire, the plans for your schools were
already determined on; I merely suggested a few hints for their
completion.”—"Oh, now I recollect something of the matter. But I think
your ideas were a little too democratic; were they not?"—"No, Sire, I
set out from the principle that your Majesty had provided for the
exclusive competition of the intermediate class, and I proposed to add
below it all the chances that might be presented by the competition of
seamen; and above it, all the chances that might arise out of the
competition of individuals connected with the Court."—"Yes, I
recollect," said the Emperor, "your ideas were novel and singular, and
they attracted my attention. I submitted the plan to the Minister, who
either kept it for his own use, or turned it into ridicule. I also
remember that, in the correspondence relative to your mission to
Holland, which I ordered to be laid before me, there was mentioned a
plan for removing our ships from the German Ocean to the Baltic, by
means of canals, which should unite the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula.
This idea pleased me; it was after my own taste. And on your return,
seeing you at my levee, I was about to propose to you some measure for
the execution of your plan. But you did not seem to comprehend my
questions, or you gave me unsatisfactory and undecided answers. I
concluded that the ideas had probably been suggested by some one else,
and that you were taking credit for them. I therefore left you, and
turned to speak to your neighbour. I was to blame for acting thus
precipitately; but I could not help it.
"When I call to mind all these circumstances, I find that I had so many
motives for bestowing attention on you, that I am astonished I should
have neglected you: and I cannot help thinking that you must have
manœuvred admirably, before you could have succeeded in withdrawing
yourself so completely from my notice. It is very certain that all these
facts have but just now occurred to me: and at the period of our
departure, and some time afterwards, you were, with the exception of
your name and person, a stranger to me. I looked upon you as one of whom
I knew nothing. How do you account for this? You cannot perhaps explain
it; but it is nevertheless true.
“I ask again, why you did not avail yourself of the good offices of your
friends; or why you did not appeal to me in person?”—"Sire, those who
enjoyed the privilege of approaching nearest to your person were intent
only on advancing their own interests. Their friendship did not extend
beyond mere good wishes. To speak a word for another was what they
called using their influence; and that was reserved solely for their own
advantage. Besides, even though I had had the opportunity of speaking
for myself, I should always have preferred others to speak for me. You,
Sire, had but little leisure, your arrangements were very uncertain, it
was necessary to explain every thing to you in few words. At the same
time, I had so little confidence in myself, and was so fearful of
creating an unfavourable impression, that I preferred withdrawing myself
from your notice. For it was not sufficient to enter into intrigue; it
was necessary that the intrigue should be brought to a result."—"Perhaps
it was as well after all," said the Emperor. “You have judged the matter
rightly; for, even had I known as much of you as I now do, your reserve
and timidity would perhaps have ruined you. I now recollect a
circumstance, which probably operated to your prejudice. When M. de
Montesquiou proposed you as Chamberlain, he represented you as being
possessed of vast fortune; but I soon learned the contrary. I do not
mean to say that this circumstance was in any way injurious to you, or
that it afforded any ground of objection to you personally; but other
individuals, who wished to be appointed Chamberlains, complained of not
having been preferred on account of their superior fortune, or quoted
your example, if they thought themselves neglected on the score of their
poverty. This is the way at Court.”
“It appears evident, Sire, that, with my character, I was destined never
to be known to your Majesty.”—"Yes,“ said the Emperor and it had nearly
happened so. But yet, on my return, did I not appoint you a Chamberlain?
and their number was very limited. Did I not immediately create you a
Councillor of State? You had been a member of the old aristocracy, you
had been an emigrant, and you had undergone great trials; all these were
powerful recommendations to me. Besides, at that time, so many voices
were raised in praise of your conduct that, sooner or later, I must have
known you thoroughly.”
ARRIVAL OF THE LIBRARY.—HORNEMANN’S TESTIMONY
IN FAVOUR OF GENERAL BONAPARTE.
22nd.—To-day the weather was very bad. The Emperor sent for me about
three o’clock. He was in the topographical cabinet, surrounded by all
the persons of his suite, who were engaged in unpacking some boxes of
books which had arrived by the Newcastle. The Emperor himself helped to
unpack, and seemed to be highly amused with the occupation. Men
naturally adapt themselves to their circumstances: their enjoyments are
trivial in proportion as their sufferings are severe. On seeing the file
of Moniteurs, which had been so long expected, he expressed unfeigned
delight: he took it up and began eagerly to peruse it.
After dinner the Emperor looked over Park’s and Hornemann’s Travels in
Africa, and he traced their course on my Atlas. In these narratives,
Hornemann, and the African Society of London, bore ample testimony to
the generous assistance they had received from the General-in-chief of
the army of Egypt (Napoleon), who had seized every opportunity of
promoting their discoveries. The polite and handsome manner in which
these facts were mentioned was very gratifying to the Emperor, who had
been long accustomed to find his name connected with insulting epithets.
ON MEMORY.—TRADE.—NAPOLEON’S IDEAS AND PLANS
ON SEVERAL POINTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
23rd.—I attended the Emperor about three o’clock. He had been so
delighted at the receipt of his new books that he had passed the whole
night in reading and dictating notes to Marchand. He was very much
fatigued; but my visit afforded him a little respite. He dressed and
went out to walk in the garden.
During dinner the Emperor alluded to his immense reading in his youth;
and he found, from all the books he had perused relative to Egypt, that
he had scarcely any thing to correct in what he had dictated on Egypt:
he had stated many facts which he had not read, but which, on reference
to these books, he found to be correct.
The conversation turned on the subject of memory. The Emperor remarked
that a head without memory was like a garrison without fortifications.
His he said was a useful kind of memory. It was not general and
absolute; but relative, faithful, and only retentive of what was
necessary. Some one present observed that his own memory was like his
sight, that it became confused by the distance of places and objects, as
he removed from one situation to another; upon which the Emperor replied
that, for his part, his memory was like his heart, that it preserved a
faithful impression of all that ever had been dear to him.
A-propos of good memory and fond recollections, I must here note down a
remark of the Emperor’s, which I omitted to mention at the time it was
made. One day at dinner, while describing one of his engagements in
Egypt, he named numerically the eight or ten demi-brigades which had
been engaged. On hearing this, Madame Bertrand could not refrain from
asking how, after so long a time, he could possibly recollect all these
numbers. "Madame, this is a lover’s recollection of his former
mistresses," was Napoleon’s reply.
After dinner, the Emperor ordered my Atlas to be brought to him, for the
purpose of verifying the particulars which he had collected in his books
on Africa, and he was astonished to find every thing correspond so
accurately.
He then began to converse on trade, and the principles and systems which
he had introduced. He opposed the principles of economists, which he
said were correct in theory, though erroneous in their application. The
political constitution of different states, continued he, must render
these principles defective; local circumstances continually call for
deviations from their uniformity. Duties, he said, which were so
severely condemned by political economists, should not, it is true, be
an object to the exchequer: they should be the guarantee and protection
of a nation, and should correspond with the nature and the objects of
its trade. Holland, which is destitute of productions and manufactures,
and which has a trade only of transit and commission, should be free
from all fetters and barriers. France, on the contrary, which is rich in
every sort of production and manufactures, should incessantly guard
against the importations of a rival, who might still continue superior
to her, and also against the cupidity, egotism, and indifference of mere
brokers.
“I have not fallen into the error of modern systematizers,” said the
Emperor, "who imagine that all the wisdom of nations is centered in
themselves. Experience is the true wisdom of nations. And what does all
the reasoning of economists amount to? They incessantly extol the
prosperity of England, and hold her up as our model; but the
Custom-House system is more burthensome and arbitrary in England than in
any other country. They also condemn prohibitions; yet it was England
that set the example of prohibitions, and they are in fact necessary
with regard to certain objects. Duties cannot adequately supply the
place of prohibitions: there will always be found means to defeat the
object of the legislator. In France we are still very far behind on
these delicate points, which are still unperceived or ill-understood by
the mass of society. Yet what advancement have we not made! What
correctness of ideas has been introduced by my gradual classification of
agriculture, industry, and trade; objects so distinct in themselves, and
which present so great and positive a graduation!
"1st.—_Agriculture_; the soul, the first basis of the empire.
"2nd.—_Industry_; the comfort and happiness of the population.
"3rd.—_Foreign trade_; the superabundance, the proper application of the
surplus of agriculture and industry.
"Agriculture was continually improving during the whole course of the
Revolution. Foreigners thought it ruined in France. In 1814, however,
the English were compelled to admit that we had little or nothing to
learn from them.
"Industry or manufactures, and internal trade, made immense progress
during my reign. The application of chemistry to the manufactures caused
them to advance with giant strides. I gave an impulse, the effects of
which extended throughout Europe.
"Foreign trade, which in its results is infinitely inferior to
agriculture, was an object of subordinate importance in my mind. Foreign
trade is made for agriculture and home industry, and not the two latter
for the former. The interests of these three fundamental bases are
diverging and frequently conflicting. I always promoted them in their
natural gradation; but I could not, and ought not to have ranked them
all on an equality. Time will unfold what I have done, the national
resources which I created, and the emancipation from the English which I
brought about. We have now the secret of the commercial treaty of 1783.
France still exclaims against its author; but the English demanded it on
pain of resuming the war. They wished to do the same after the treaty of
Amiens; but I was then all-powerful; I was a hundred cubits high. I
replied that if they were in possession of the heights of Montmartre I
would still refuse to sign the treaty. These words were echoed through
Europe.
The English will now impose some such treaty on France, at least if
popular clamour, and the opposition of the mass of the nation, do not
force them to draw back. This thraldom would be an additional disgrace
in the eyes of that nation, which is now beginning to acquire a just
perception of her own interests.
"When I came to the head of the government, the American ships, which
were permitted to enter our ports on the score of their neutrality,
brought us raw materials, and had the impudence to sail from France
without freight, for the purpose of taking in cargoes of English goods
in London. They moreover had the insolence to make their payments, when
they had any to make, by giving bills on persons in London. Hence the
vast profits reaped by the English manufacturers and brokers, entirely
to our prejudice. I made a law that no American should import goods to
any amount, without immediately exporting their exact equivalent. A loud
outcry was raised against this: it was said that I had ruined trade. But
what was the consequence? Notwithstanding the closing of my ports, and
in spite of the English who ruled the seas, the Americans returned and
submitted to my regulations. What might I not have done under more
favourable circumstances?
"Thus I naturalized in France the manufacture of cotton, which
includes:—
"1st. _Spun-cotton._—We did not previously spin it ourselves; the
English supplied us with it as a sort of favour.
"2nd. _The woven-stuff._—We did not yet make it; it came to us from
abroad.
"3rd. _The printing._—This was the only part of the manufacture that we
performed ourselves. I wished to naturalize the two first branches; and
I proposed to the Council of State that their importation should be
prohibited. This excited great alarm. I sent for Oberkamp, and I
conversed with him a long time. I learned from him that this prohibition
would doubtless produce a shock, but that, after a year or two of
perseverance, it would prove a triumph, from which we should derive
immense advantages. Then I issued my decree in spite of all; this was a
true piece of statesmanship.
"I at first confined myself merely to prohibiting wove-cottons; then I
extended the prohibition to spun cotton; and we now possess within
ourselves the three branches of the cotton manufacture, to the great
benefit of our population, and the injury and regret of the
English:—which proves that, in civil government as well as in war,
decision of character is often indispensable to success. I offered a
million of francs as a reward for the discovery of a method of spinning
flax like cotton, and this discovery would undoubtedly have been
made,[24] but for our unfortunate circumstances. I should then have
prohibited cotton, if I could not have naturalized it on the continent.
Footnote 24:
Flax is actually now spun like cotton at Verviers and Liege.
"The encouragement of the production of silk was an object that equally
claimed my attention. As Emperor of France and King of Italy I
calculated on receiving an annual revenue of 120 millions from the
production of silk.
"The system of commercial licenses was no doubt mischievous! Heaven
forbid that I should have laid it down as a principle. It was the
invention of the English; with me it was only a momentary resource. Even
the continental system, in its extent and rigour, was by me regarded
merely as a measure occasioned by the war and temporary circumstances.
“The difficulties, and even the total stagnation, of foreign trade
during my reign arose out of the force of circumstances and the
accidents of the time. One brief interval of peace would immediately
have restored it to its natural level.”