19th.—The chimney of the saloon took fire in the night, but the flames
did not break out until day-light. Two hours sooner, and the building
would have been a heap of ashes.
The Emperor took a walk; he was attended by several of us, and we went
round the park on foot.
One of his shoe-buckles fell out, and we all eagerly strove to put it in
again; he, who succeeded, considered himself the most fortunate. The
Emperor, who would not have permitted this at the Tuileries, seemed here
to feel a kind of satisfaction at our conduct; he let us do as we liked,
and we were thankful to him for indulging us in an act, that did honour
to us, in our own opinion.
This leads me to observe that I have not yet spoken of our customary
manners when about his person, and I am more peculiarly induced to
notice them because we have received several London newspapers, which
circulate a thousand idle stories on this subject, and assert that the
imperial etiquette was as strictly maintained at Longwood as at the
Tuileries.
[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF LONGWOOD.]
The Emperor behaved to us in the kindest manner, and with a paternal
familiarity. We were, on our part, the most attentive and respectful of
courtiers. We uniformly endeavoured to anticipate his wishes; we
carefully watched all his wants, and he had scarcely time to make a sign
with his hand, before we were in motion.
None of us entered his apartment without being sent for, and, if any
thing of importance was to be communicated to him, it was necessary to
apply to be admitted. If he walked separately with any of us, no other
presumed to intrude. In the beginning, we constantly remained uncovered
near his person, which appeared strange to the English, who had been
ordered to put on their hats, after the first salute. This contrast
appeared so ridiculous to the Emperor that he commanded us, once for
all, to behave like them. Nobody, except the two ladies, took a seat in
his presence, unless desired to do so. He was never spoken to till he
had spoken first, and always, and in all cases, the conversation was
under his control and guidance. Such was the etiquette at Longwood,
which was entirely, as it must be evident, that of our recollections and
feelings.
On our return, the Emperor received and questioned, for a long time, the
master of the Newcastle.
In consequence of the fire in the saloon, and a billiard-table being
placed in the dining-room, we dined in the topographical cabinet. After
dinner, there being no other apartment to retire to, we were obliged to
remain a long time at table. That circumstance seemed, however, to give
an additional interest to the conversation; we became more acquainted,
more united with each other; we gave a greater scope to our language,
and the evening passed off more rapidly.
ESTABLISHMENTS FOR MENDICITY IN FRANCE.—NAPOLEON’S PROJECTS RELATIVE TO
ILLYRIA.—HOSPITALS.—THE FOUNDLING.—PRISONERS OF STATE.—IDEAS OF THE
EMPEROR.
20th.—The Emperor sent for me in the morning; I found him reading an
English work on the poor’s rate, the immense sums raised, and the vast
number of individuals maintained at the expense of their parishes; the
account embraced millions of men and hundreds of millions of money.
The Emperor was apprehensive that he had not read the work correctly, or
that he had mistaken the meaning. The thing, he said, seemed altogether
impossible. He could not conceive by what vices and defects so many poor
could be found in a country so opulent, so industrious, and so abundant
in resources for labour as England. He was still less capable of
comprehending, by what prodigy the proprietors, overloaded with an
oppressive ordinary and extraordinary taxation, were also enabled to
provide for the wants of such a multitude. “But we have nothing,” he
observed, “in France to be compared to it in the proportion of a
hundredth or a thousandth part. Have you not told me that I sent you
into the departments on a particular mission with regard to mendicity?
Let us see, what is the number of our beggars? What did they cost? How
many poor-houses did I establish? What was the number they held? What
effect had they in removing mendicity?”
To this crowd of questions I was compelled to answer that a considerable
period of time had since elapsed, that my mind had been occupied with
several other objects, and that it was impossible for me to enter into
correct statements from mere recollection; but that I had the official
report itself among the few papers I had preserved, and that, the first
time he might be pleased to send for me, I should be enabled to satisfy
him. “But,” said he, “go instantly and look for it, things are not
profitable unless seasonably applied, and I shall soon run it over _with
my thumb_, as Abbé de Pradt ingeniously said; although, to tell the
truth, I don’t much like to think of such subjects; they remind me of
mustard after dinner.”
In two minutes the report was in his hand. “Well!” said the Emperor to
me, also, in a very few minutes, for it might be really said that he had
not turned over the leaves; “well, this, in fact, is not at all like
England. Our organization, however, had failed; I suspected as much, and
it was on that account I entrusted you with the mission. Your report
would have been in perfect conformity with my views. You took up the
consideration frankly and like an honest man, without fear of exciting
the displeasure of the minister, by depriving him of a great many
appointments.
“I am pleased with a great number of your details. Why did you not come
and converse with me about them yourself? You would have satisfied me,
and I should have known how to value your services.”—“Sire, as things
were then situated, it would have been impossible for me to do so; we
were then involved in the confusion and embarrassment caused by our
misfortunes.”—“Your observation is perfectly correct; you establish an
unquestionable position. The fact is that, in the flourishing state to
which I had raised the empire, no hands could any where be found
destitute of employment. It was idleness and vice alone that could
produce mendicants.
“You think that their complete annihilation was possible; and, for my
part, I am of the same opinion.
“Your levy _en masse_, to build a vast and single prison in each
department, was equally adapted to the tranquility of society and to the
well-being of those confined in it;—your idea of making them monuments
for ages would have attracted my attention. That gigantic undertaking,
its utility, its importance, the permanence of its results, were all in
my way.
“With respect to your university for the people, I am very apprehensive
that it would have been but a beautiful chimera of philanthropy, worthy
of the unsophisticated Abbé de Saint Pierre. There is, however, some
merit in the aggregate of those conceptions; but energy of character,
and an unbending perseverance, for which we are not generally
distinguished, would be requisite to produce any good result.
“For the rest, I every day collect ideas from you in this place, of
which I did not imagine you capable; but it was not at all my fault. You
were near me; why did you not open your mind to me? I did not possess
the gift of divination. Had you been minister, those ideas, however
fantastical they might at first have appeared to me, would not have been
the less attended to, because there is, in my opinion, no conception
altogether unsusceptible of some positive good, and a wrong notion, when
properly controlled and regulated, often leads to a right conclusion. I
should have handed you over to commissioners, who would have analyzed
your plans; you would have defended them by your arguments, and, after
taking cognizance of the subject, I alone should have finally decided
according to my own judgment. Such was my way of acting, and my
intention; I gave an impulse to industry; I put it into a state of
complete activity throughout Europe; I was desirous of doing as much for
all the faculties of the mind, but time was not allowed me. I could not
bring my plans to maturity at full gallop; and, unfortunately, I but too
often wasted them upon a sandy foundation, and consigned them to
unproductive hands.
“What were the other missions with which I entrusted you?”—“One in
Holland, another in Illyria.”—“Have you the reports?”—“Yes, Sire.”—“Go
for them.” But I had not got to the door, when he said, “Never mind,
come back, spare me the trouble of reading such matters!—They are
henceforth, in reality, altogether useless.”—What did not these words
unfold to me!
The Emperor resumed the subject of Illyria. “In obtaining possession of
Illyria, it was never my intention to retain it; I never entertained the
idea of destroying Austria. Her existence was, on the contrary,
indispensably requisite for the execution of my plans. But Illyria was,
in our hands, a vanguard to the heart of Austria, calculated to keep a
check upon her; a sentinel at the gates of Vienna, to keep her steady to
our interests. Besides, I was desirous of introducing and establishing
in that country our doctrines, our system of government, and our codes.
It was an additional step to the regeneration of Europe. I had merely
taken it as a pledge, and intended, at a later period, to exchange it
for Gallicia, at the restoration of Poland, which I hurried on against
my own opinion. I had, however, more than one project with regard to
Illyria; for I frequently fluctuated in my designs, and had few ideas
that were fixed on solid grounds. This arose rather from adapting myself
to circumstances than from giving an impulse and direction to them, and
I was every instant compelled to shift about. The consequence was that,
for the greater part of the time, I came to no absolute decision, and
was occupied merely with projects. My predominant idea, however,
particularly after my marriage, was to give it up to Austria as an
indemnity for Gallicia, on the re-establishment of Poland, at any rate,
as a separate and independent kingdom. Not that I cared upon whose head,
whether on that of a friend, an enemy, or an ally, the crown was placed,
provided the thing was effected. The results were indifferent to me. I
have, my dear Las Cases, formed vast and numerous projects, all
unquestionably for the advancement of reason and the welfare of the
human race. I was dreaded as a thunderbolt; I was accused of having a
hand of iron; but the moment that hand had struck the last blow, every
thing would have been softened down for the happiness of all. How many
millions would have poured their benedictions on me, both then and in
future times! But how numerous, it must be confessed, the fatal
misfortunes which were accumulated and combined to effect my overthrow,
at the end of my career! My unhappy marriage; the perfidies which
resulted from it; that villainous affair of Spain; from which I could
not disengage myself; that fatal war with Russia, which occurred through
a misunderstanding; that horrible rigour of the elements, which devoured
a whole army; ... and then, the whole universe against me!... Is it not
wonderful that I was still able to make so long a resistance, and that I
was more than once on the point of surmounting every danger and emerging
from that chaos more powerful than ever!... O destiny of man!—What is
human wisdom, human foresight!”—And then abruptly adverting to my
report, he said, “I observed, that you travelled over a great number of
departments. Did your mission last long? Was your journey agreeable? Was
it of real benefit to you? Did you collect much information? Were you
enabled to form a correct judgment on the state of the country, on that
of public opinion?
“I now recollect that I selected you precisely because you had just
returned from your mission to Illyria, and I found in your report
several things which made a strong impression upon me; for it is
surprising how many things at present are every day brought back to my
memory, which, at the time, struck me in you, and which, by a singular
fatality, were immediately afterwards completely forgotten. When any
appointments were about to take place to those special and confidential
missions, the decree, with blanks for the names, was laid before me, and
I filled them up with persons of my own selection—I must have written
your name with my own hand.”
“Sire,” I replied, “there never was, perhaps, a mission more agreeable
and satisfactory in every point of view. I commenced it early in the
spring, and proceeded from Paris to Toulon, and from Toulon to Antibes,
following the line of coast and occasionally diverging into the
interior. I travelled nearly thirteen hundred leagues, but unfortunately
the time was short. The minister, in his instructions, had strictly
limited the period to three, or at most, to four months. It would be
difficult for me to give an adequate description of all the delight,
enjoyments, and advantages which I derived from the journey. I was a
member of your Council, an officer of your household. I was every where
considered as one of your _missi dominici_, and was received with
suitable respect. The more I behaved with discretion, moderation, and
simplicity, visiting myself the high functionaries, whose attendance I
was authorized to require, the more I was treated with deference and
complaisance. For one, who shewed any distrust, or betrayed any symptom
of ill-humour or envy; (for I afterwards learnt from themselves, that my
character, as a nobleman, emigrant, and chamberlain, formed three
certain grounds for reprobation;) for one, I repeat, who looked upon me
with a jealous eye, I found many whose communications were altogether
unreserved, even upon subjects, respecting which I should not have
presumed to make inquiry. They assured me that they took pleasure in
unbosoming themselves to me with perfect openness; that they viewed my
situation, near the person of the sovereign, as a favourable medium; and
considered me as the confessor upon whom they relied for transmitting
their most secret thoughts to the _Most High_. The more I endeavoured to
convince them that they were mistaken with regard to my situation and
the nature of my mission, the more they were confirmed in the contrary
opinion. In so short a period, what a lesson for me on mankind! There
were none of these high functionaries who did not differ from each other
with regard to the views, means, and designs of all the objects under
consideration; and yet they were all men selected with care, of tried
ability, and generally of great merit. Persons in private life also
looked up to me as to a ray of Providence, and applied to me either
publicly or in secret. How many things did I not learn! How numerous the
denunciations and accusations communicated to me! What a multitude of
local abuses, of petty intrigues, were disclosed to me!
“Altogether unacquainted with affairs, and until then absolutely
ignorant of official proceedings, I made use of that peculiar
opportunity to obtain information. I did not fail to make myself
acquainted with all the objects and particular circumstances of every
party. I was not apprehensive of shewing my ignorance to the first who
presented themselves, for I was thus enabled to qualify myself for
discussing business with the others.
“It is true, Sire, that my special mission was restricted to the
mendicity establishments and the houses of correction: but feeling, as I
did, all the want of a stock of knowledge, fit to render myself useful
to the Council of State, and taking advantage of my appointment, I
connected with it, of my own accord, the minute inspection of prisons,
hospitals, and beneficent institutions, and I also took a survey of all
our ports and squadrons.
“How magnificent the combination which thus presented itself to my view!
I every where beheld the most perfect tranquillity and complete
confidence in the government; every hand, every faculty, every branch of
industry, was employed; the soil was embellished by the flourishing
state of agriculture, it was the finest time of the year; the roads were
excellent; public works were in progress in almost in every quarter;—the
canal of Arles, the noble bridge of Bordeaux, the works of Rochefort,
the canals from Nantes to Brest, to Rennes, to Saint Malo; the
foundation of Napoleonville, intended to be the key of the whole
peninsula of Britanny; the magnificent works of Cherbourg, those of
Antwerp, sluices, moles, or other improvements in most of the towns of
the Channel—such is the sketch of what I saw.
“On the other hand, the ports of Toulon, Rochefort, L’Orient, Brest,
Saint Malo, Havre, and Antwerp, displayed an extraordinary degree of
activity; our roads were filled with vessels, and the numbers increased
daily: our crews were training in spite of every obstacle, and our young
conscripts were becoming good seamen, fit for future service. I, who
belonged to the old naval establishment, was astonished at every thing I
saw on board, so very great were the improvements made in the art, and
so far did they exceed, in every point of view, all that I had
witnessed.
“The squadrons belonging to the different ports got under sail every
day, and executed their regular manœuvres, like the parades of
garrisons, and all this took place within sight of the English, who
thought it a ridiculous farce, without foreseeing the danger with which
they were threatened; for, never at any period was our navy more
formidable, or our ships more numerous. We already had upwards of 100
afloat or on the stocks, and we were making daily additions to the
number. The officers were excellent, and animated with zeal and ardour.
I had no idea whatever of the forward state of our preparations, before
I witnessed it in person, and should not have believed it, had I been
told of it.
“With respect to the mendicity establishments, the special object of my
mission, your intentions, Sire, had been ill understood, and the plan
was altogether unsuccessful. In most of the departments, mendicity not
only remained with all its defects, but no steps whatever had been taken
for its annihilation. The fact was that several prefects, so far from
making the establishments a terror to the _mendicants_, had merely
considered them as a refuge for the _poor_. Instead of holding out
confinement as a punishment, they caused it to be sought after as an
asylum; and thus the lot of the prisoners might be envied by the
hard-working peasantry of the neighbourhood. France might, in that way,
have been covered with similar establishments, which might have been
filled without diminishing the number of mendicants, who commonly make a
trade of begging, and follow it in preference. I was, however, enabled
to judge that the extirpation of the evil was possible, and the example
of some departments, in which the prefects had taken a better view of
the subject was sufficient to produce that conviction. There were a few
in which it had entirely disappeared.
“It is an observation which makes an immediate and striking impression,
that, all other things fairly averaged, mendicity is much more rare in
those parts which are poor and barren, and much more common in those
which are fruitful and abundant. It is also infinitely more difficult to
effect its destruction in the places where the clergy have enjoyed
superior wealth and power. In Belgium, for instance, mendicants were
seen to derive honour from their trade, and boast of having followed it
for several generations. These claims belonged peculiarly to them, and
that country was accordingly the rendezvous of mendicity.” “But I am not
surprised at it,” resumed the Emperor, “the difficulty of this important
consideration consists entirely in discriminating accurately between the
_poor_ man who commands our respect, and the _mendicant_ who ought to
excite our indignation; besides, our religious absurdities confound
these two classes so completely that they seem to make a merit, a kind
of virtue, of mendicity, and to encourage it by the promise of heavenly
rewards. The mendicants are, in reality, neither more nor less than
monks _au petit pied_; so that in the list of them we even find the
mendicant monks. How was it possible for such ideas not to produce
confusion in the mind, and disorder in society? A great number of saints
have been canonized, whose only apparent merit was mendicity. They seem
to have been transplanted to Heaven for that, which, considered as a
matter of sound policy, ought to have subjected them to castigation and
confinement in this world. This would not, however, have prevented them
from being worthy of Heaven. But go on.”—
“It was not, Sire, without emotion that I observed the details of the
charitable establishments. In contemplating the anxiety, the cares, the
ardent charity, of so many sympathetic hearts, I was enabled to
ascertain that we were far from yielding the palm, whatever might be the
consideration, to any other people, and that we merely had less
ostentation and made less use of artificial means to enhance our merits.
The South, above all, and Languedoc, in particular, displayed a zeal and
animation of which it would be difficult to form an adequate conception.
The hospitals and alms-houses were every where numerous and well
attended to. The foundlings had increased tenfold since the revolution,
and I instantly ascribed it to the corruption of the times; but I was
desired to remark, and constant reflection convinced me of the truth,
that the result was, on the contrary, to be attributed to very
satisfactory causes. I was assured that formerly the foundlings were so
wretchedly taken care of, and so badly fed, that the whole of them were
diminutive, sickly, and short-lived, and that from seven to nine
perished out of ten; while at present their food, cleanliness, and the
care taken of them, in every respect are such that nearly all of them
are preserved, and constitute a fine race of children. They are thus
indebted for their numbers solely to their preservation. Vaccination has
also contributed, in an immense proportion, to their increase. These
children are now treated with such attention as to give rise to a
singular abuse. Mothers, even in easy circumstances, are tempted to
expose their infants; they afterwards apply at the hospital, and, under
a charitable pretence, offer to bring up one themselves; it is their own
which is restored to them with the benefit of a small allowance. All
this is carried on through the favour of the agents themselves, and
often for the purpose of obtaining a trifling pension for one of their
relations. Another abuse of this kind, and not less extraordinary, was
that which I observed in Belgium, of persons getting their names entered
a long time before, for the purpose of entitling them to send their
children to the hospital. Any young couple, on their marriage, strove to
get their names entered for vacancies, which fell to them some years
afterwards, as a matter of right; it was a part of the marriage
settlement.”—“O Jesus! Jesus!” exclaimed the Emperor, shrugging up his
shoulders and laughing, “and after this make laws and regulations!”—
$1“$2”$3But with regard to the prisons, Sire, they were almost uniformly
the scenes of horror and real misery, the shame and disgrace of our
provinces, absolute sinks of corruption and infection, which I was
obliged to pass through with the utmost haste, or from which I was
driven back in spite of all my efforts. I had formerly visited certain
prisons in England, and indulged in a smile at the kind of luxury which
I observed in them; but it was quite a different thing with respect to
ours, and my indignation was excited by the contrary extreme. There are
no offences, I might even say crimes, that are not sufficiently punished
by such habitations, and those who leave them should not, in strict
justice, have any further expiation to make. Yet after all those
confined in them were merely under a simple accusation, while those who
had been found guilty, the real criminals, and hardened villains, had
their special prisons, their houses of correction, where they were,
perhaps, too well taken care of; and even, in the latter case, the
honest day-labourer might have reason to envy their lot, and make
comparisons injurious to Providence and society. Another striking
inconsistency was observable in these houses of correction; it was the
amalgamation, the habitual mixture of all the classes upon whom sentence
had been passed. Some being imprisoned for small offences only for a
year, and others for fifteen, twenty years, or for life, on account of
the dreadful crimes they had perpetrated, it necessarily followed that
they would be all reduced to one moral level, not by the amelioration of
the latter, but rather by the corruption of the former.
“What struck me also very forcibly in La Vendée and the adjacent country
was that maniacs had increased there, perhaps, tenfold more than in any
other part of the empire, and that persons were detained in the
mendicity establishments and other places of confinement, who were
treated as vagabonds, or likely to become so, and who having been taken
up in their childhood, had no knowledge of their parents or origin. Some
of them had marks of wounds on their persons, but were ignorant how they
had been inflicted. They had, no doubt, been made in their infancy. The
opportunity of employing these persons, who had not acquired a single
social idea, has been suffered to pass by; they are now unfit for any
purpose.”—“Ah!” exclaimed the Emperor, “this is civil war and its
hideous train; its inevitable consequences and its certain fruits! If
some leaders make fortunes, and extricate themselves from danger, the
dregs of the population are always trodden under foot, and become the
victims of every calamity!”
“With respect to other matters, I found in the aggregate of these
establishments a considerable number of persons who, I was told, whether
right or wrong, were prisoners of state, and were kept in custody by
order of the high, the intermediate, or the low, police.
“I listened to all those prisoners, I heard their complaints, and
received their petitions, certainly, without any engagement on my part;
for I had no right to contract any; and besides, I was perfectly aware
that, having heard their testimony only, I could not attach guilt to any
person. With the exception, however, of some notorious villains, they
did not really, in general, deserve more at farthest than the common
punishments of the correctional police.
“I found among them, in the prisons of Rennes, a boy between twelve and
fourteen, who had, when only a few months old, been taken with a band of
_Chauffeurs_. They had been all executed, and the boy had remained there
ever since, without any decision on his case. His moral capabilities may
be easily appreciated. He never saw, knew, or heard any but villains;
they were the only kind of people of whose existence he was able to form
an idea.
“At Mont Saint-Michel, a woman, whose name I have forgotten,
particularly attracted my attention. She had rather a pretty face,
pleasing manners, and a modest deportment. She had been imprisoned
fourteen years, having taken a very active part in the troubles of La
Vendée, and constantly accompanied her husband, who was the chief of a
battalion of insurgents, and whom she succeeded, after his death, in the
command. The wretchedness she suffered, and the tears she shed, had
sensibly impaired her charms. I assumed a severe air during the recital
of her misfortunes, but it was put on for the purpose of concealing the
emotions which she excited. She had, by the kindness of her manners and
her other qualifications, acquired a kind of empire over the vulgar and
depraved women that were about her. She had devoted herself to the care
of the sick; the prison infirmary was entrusted to her, and she was
beloved by every one.
“With the exception of that woman, a few priests, and two or three old
Chouan spies, the rest exhibited but a filthy compound of disgusting or
extravagant depravity.
“I met with a married man, possessing an annual income of 15,000 livres,
evidently confined in consequence of his wife’s intrigues, after the
manner of the ancient _lettres de cachet_; and with prostitutes, who
assured me they were detained, not as a punishment for the
indiscriminate profusion of their favours, but out of spite at their
want of complaisance for a single person. They told me lies, or they did
not; but in either case ought they to be honoured with the title of
prisoners of state, to be maintained at the expense of two francs a day,
and contribute to render the government odious and ridiculous? Finally,
I met with an unhappy man in a town of Belgium, who had married one of
those girls for whom the municipalities provide marriage portions on
great occasions. He was imprisoned on a charge of having stolen the
portion, because he had neglected to earn it. He was positively required
to discharge that important debt, and he as positively refused. He was,
perhaps, required to do what was absolutely impossible for him.
“Immediately upon my return to Paris, I called on M. Réal, prefect of
police of the district I had just visited. I considered it my duty, I
said, to communicate to him, in a _friendly_ manner, the result of my
observations. I must do him justice; for whether he was far from having
a bad heart, whether he was impressed with my plain dealing, or affected
perhaps, Sire, by the magic influence of your uniform, he thanked me,
observed that I was doing him a real service, and assured me that he
would take immediate steps for _relieving_ and _redressing_, such were
his words, the cases I had laid before him. Meeting him, however, a few
days afterwards at an assembly, he said, with apparent grief, ‘That is
an unfortunate business, and very unfavourable to your Amazon (he
alluded to General Mallet’s rash enterprise), which I thought myself
capable of doing a few days ago of my own accord. I cannot now pretend
to undertake it without an order from a superior quarter.’—I do not know
how the thing ended.”
The Emperor dwelt some time on the abuses I had pointed out, and then
concluded: “In the first place, in order to proceed regularly, it was
incumbent upon you to ascertain whether your information was well
founded, and to hear the evidence against the persons accused; and then
it must be frankly admitted that abuses are inherent in every human
establishment. You see that almost every thing, of which you complain,
is done by the very persons who were expressly entrusted with the means
of prevention. Can a remedy be provided, when it is impossible to see
what passes every where? There is, as it were, a net spread over the low
places, which envelops the lower classes. A mesh must be broken and
discovered by a fortunate observer like you, before any thing of the
matter is known in the upper regions. Accordingly, one of my dreams
would have been, when the grand events of war were completely
terminated, and I returned to the interior in tranquillity and at ease,
to look out for half a dozen, or a dozen, of real philanthropists, of
those worthy men who live but to do good. I should have distributed them
through the empire, which they should have secretly inspected for the
purpose of making their report to me. They would have been _spies of
virtue_! They should have addressed themselves directly to me, and
should have been my confessors, my spiritual guides, and my decisions
with them should have been my good works done in secret. My grand
occupation, when at full leisure, and at the height of my power, would
have been the amelioration of every class of society. I should have
descended to the details of individual comfort; and, had I found no
motive for that conduct in my natural disposition, I should have been
actuated by the spirit of calculation; for, after the acquisition of so
much glory, what other means would have been left me to make any
addition to it? It was because I was well aware that that swarm of
abuses necessarily existed, because I wished for the preservation of my
subjects, and was desirous of throwing every impediment in the way of
subordinate and intermediate tyranny, that I conceived my system of
state prisons, adapted to any crisis that might occur.”—“Yes, Sire, but
it was far from being well received in our saloons, and contributed not
a little to make you unpopular. An outcry was every where raised against
the _new bastiles_, against the renewal of _lettres de cachet_.”—“I know
it very well.” said the Emperor, “the outcry was echoed by all Europe,
and rendered me odious. And yet, observe how powerful was the influence
of words, envenomed by perfidy! The whole of the discontent was
principally occasioned by the preposterous title of my decree, which
escaped me from distraction, or some other cause; for, in the main, I
contend that the law itself was an eminent service, and rendered
individual liberty more complete and certain in France than in any other
country of Europe.
“Considering the crisis from which we had emerged, the factions by which
we had been divided, and the plots which had been laid, and were still
contriving, imprisonment became indispensable. It was, in fact, a
benefit; for it superseded the scaffold. But I was desirous of
sanctioning it by legal enactments, and of placing it beyond the reach
of caprice, of arbitrary power, of hatred, and of vengeance. Nobody,
according to my law, could be imprisoned and detained as a prisoner of
state, without the decision of my privy council, which consisted of
sixteen persons; the first, the most independent and most distinguished
characters of the state. What unworthy feeling would have dared to
expose itself to the detection of such a tribunal? Had I not voluntarily
deprived myself of the power of consigning individuals to prison? No man
could be detained beyond a year, without a fresh decision of the
Privy-Council, and four votes out of sixteen were sufficient to effect
his release. Two councillors of state were bound to attend to the
statements of the prisoners, and became from that moment their zealous
advocates with the Privy Council. These prisoners were also under the
protection of the Committee of individual liberty, appointed by the
Senate, which was the object of public derision, merely because it made
no parade of its labours and their results. Its services, however, were
great; for it would argue a defective knowledge of mankind to suppose
that Senators, who had nothing to expect from ministers, and who were
their equals in rank, would not make use of their prerogative to oppose
and attack them, whenever the importance of the case called for their
interference. It must also be considered that I had assigned the
superintendence of the prisoners, and of the police of the prisons, to
the tribunals, which, from that instant, paralyzed the exercise of every
kind of arbitrary authority by the other branches of administration and
their numerous subordinate agents. After such precautions, I do not
hesitate to maintain that civil liberty was as effectually secured by
that law in France as it could possibly be. The public misconceived, or
pretended to misconceive, that truth, for we Frenchmen must murmur at
every thing and on every occasion.
“The fact is, that at the time of my downfal the state prisons scarcely
contained 250 persons, and I found 9000 in them, when I became Consul.
It will appear, from the list of those who were imprisoned, and upon an
examination into the causes and motives of their confinement, that
almost every one of them deserved death, and would have been sentenced
to it by regular process of law; and it consequently follows that their
imprisonment was, on my part, a benefit conferred upon them. Why is
there nothing published against me on this subject at present? Where are
the serious grievances to be found with which I am reproached? There are
none in reality. If some of the prisoners afterwards made a merit of
their sufferings with the King, on account of their exertions in his
favour, did they not by that proceeding pronounce their own sentence and
attest my justice? For what may seem a virtuous action in the King’s eye
was incontestably a crime under me; and it was only because I was
repugnant to the shedding of blood on account of political crimes, and
because such trials would have but tended to the continuance of
commotion and perplexity in the heart of the country, that I commuted
the punishment to mere imprisonment.
“I repeat it, the French were, at my era, the freest people of all
Europe, without even excepting the English; for, in England, if any
extreme danger causes the suspension of the _Habeas Corpus_ act, every
individual may be sent to prison at the mere will of ministers, who are
not called upon to justify their motives, or to account for their
conduct. My law had very different limits.” He concluded with
saying;—“And then, at last, if, in spite of my good intention, and
notwithstanding my utmost care, all that you have just said, and no
doubt, many other things, were well founded, it must not still be
considered so easy a task as it is thought to create a beneficial
establishment for a nation. It is a remarkable circumstance that the
countries which have been separated from us have regretted the laws with
which I governed them. This is an homage paid to their superiority. The
real, the only, mode of passing a decisive sentence upon me, with regard
to their defects, would be to shew the existence of a better code in any
other country. New times are drawing near, it will be seen,” &c.
About five o’clock, I was told by the Grand Marshal, who had just left
the Emperor, that he wished to see me. He had staid at home the whole of
the day. I found him engaged in examining the new billiard-table. He was
apprehensive that the weather was too damp for walking, and he played at
chess until dinner. In the evening, he read us Crebillon’s _Atrée et
Thyeste_. That piece seemed horrible to us; we found it disgusting, and
by no means of a tragic cast. The Emperor could not finish it.