_Effects of the Peace of Tilsit--Napoleon's views of a State of
Peace--Contrasted with those of England--The Continental
System--Berlin and Milan Decrees--British Orders in
Council--Spain--Retrospect of the Relations of that Country with
France since the Revolution--Godoy--His Influence--Character--and
Political Views--Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, applies to Napoleon
for Aid--Affairs of Portugal--Treaty of Fontainbleau--Departure
of the Prince Regent for Brazil--Entrance of Junot into Lisbon--His
unbounded Rapacity--Disturbances at Madrid--Ferdinand detected in a
Plot against his Father, and imprisoned--King Charles applies to
Napoleon--Wily Policy of Buonaparte--Orders the French Army to
enter Spain._
The peace of Tilsit had been of that character, which, while it settled
the points of dispute between two rival monarchies, who had found
themselves hardly matched in the conflict to which it put a period, left
both at liberty to use towards the nations more immediately under the
influence of either, such a degree of discretion as their power enabled
them to exercise. Such was Napoleon's idea of pacification, which
amounted to this:--"I will work my own pleasure with the countries over
which my power gives me not indeed the right, but the authority and
power; and you, my ally, shall, in recompense, do what suits you in the
territories of other states adjoining to you, but over which I have no
such immediate influence."
This was the explanation which he put upon the treaty of Amiens, and
this was the species of peace which long afterwards he regretted had not
been concluded with England. His regrets on that point were expressed at
a very late period, in language which is perfectly intelligible.
Speaking of France and England, he said, "We have done each other
infinite harm--we might have rendered each other infinite service by
mutual good understanding. If the school of Fox had succeeded, we would
have understood each other--there would only have been in Europe one
army and one fleet--we would have governed the world--we would have
fixed repose and prosperity every where, either by force or by
persuasion. Yes--I repeat how much good we might have done--how much
evil we have actually done to each other."[335]
Now, the fundamental principle of such a pacification, which Buonaparte
seems to the very last to have considered as the mutual basis of common
interest, was such as could not, ought not, nay, dared not, have been
adopted by any ministry which England could have chosen, so long as she
possessed a free Parliament. Her principle of pacification must have
been one that ascertained the independence of other powers, not which
permitted her own aggressions, and gave way to those of France. Her
wealth, strength, and happiness, do, and must always, consist in the
national independence of the states upon the continent. She could not,
either with conscience or safety, make peace with a usurping conqueror,
on the footing that she herself was to become a usurper in her turn. She
has no desire or interest to blot out other nations from the map of
Europe, in order that no names may remain save those of Britain and
France; nor is she interested in depriving other states of their fleets,
or of their armies. Her statesmen must disclaim the idea of governing
the world, or a moiety of the world, and of making other nations either
happy or unhappy by force of arms. The conduct of England in 1814 and in
1815, evinced this honest and honourable policy; since, yielding much to
others, she could not be accused of being herself influenced by any
views to extend her own dominion, in the general confusion and blending
which arose out of the downfall of the external power of France. That,
however, is a subject for another place.
In the meanwhile, France, who, with Russia, had arranged a treaty of
pacification on a very different basis, was now busied in gathering in
the advantages which she expected to derive from it. In doing so, it
seems to have been Buonaparte's principal object so to consolidate and
enforce what he called his Continental System, as ultimately to root out
and destroy the remaining precarious communications, which England, by
her external commerce, continued to maintain with the nations of the
continent.
[Sidenote: EFFECTS OF THE PEACE OF TILSIT.]
To attain this grand object, the treaty of Tilsit and its consequences
had given him great facilities. France was his own--Holland was under
the dominion, nominally, of his brother Louis, but in a great measure at
his devotion. His brother Jerome was established in the kingdom of
Westphalia. It followed, therefore, in the course of his brother's
policy, that he was to form an alliance worthy of his new rank. It has
been already noticed that he had abandoned, by his brother's command,
Elizabeth Paterson, daughter of a respectable gentleman of Baltimore,
whom he had married in 1803. He was now married at the Tuileries to
Frederica Catherine, daughter of the King of Wirtemberg.[336]
Prussia, and all the once free ports of the Hanseatic League, were
closed against English commerce, so far as absolute military power could
effect that purpose. Russia was not so tractable in that important
matter as the terms of the treaty of Tilsit, and Napoleon's secret
engagements with the Czar, had led him to hope. But Alexander was too
powerful to be absolutely dictated to in the enforcement of this
anti-commercial system; and, indeed, the peculiar state of the Russian
nation might have rendered it perilous to the Czar to enforce the
non-intercourse to the extent which Napoleon would have wished. The
large, bulky, and heavy commodities of Russia--hemp and iron, and timber
and wax, and pitch and naval stores--that produce upon which the Boyards
of the empire chiefly depended for their revenue, would not bear the
expense of transportation by land; and England, in full and exclusive
command of the sea, was her only, and at the same time her willing
customer. Under various elusory devices, therefore, England continued
to purchase Russian commodities, and pay for them in her own
manufactures, in spite of the decrees of the French Emperor, and in
defiance of the ukases of the Czar himself; and to this Buonaparte was
compelled to seem blind, as what his Russian ally could not, or would
not, put an end to.
The strangest struggle ever witnessed in the civilized world began now
to be maintained, betwixt Britain and those countries who felt the
importation of British goods as a subject not only of convenience, but
of vital importance, on the one hand, and France on the other; whose
ruler was determined that on no account should Britain either maintain
intercourse with the continent, or derive the inherent advantages of a
free trade. The decrees of Berlin were reinforced by others of the
French Emperor, yet more peremptory and more vexatious. By these, and
particularly by one promulgated at Milan, 17th December, 1807, Napoleon
declared Britain in a state of blockade--all nations whatever were
prohibited not only to trade with her, but to deal in any articles of
British manufactures.[337] Agents were named in every seaport and
trading-town on the part of Buonaparte. There was an ordinance that no
ship should be admitted into any of the ports of the continent without
certificates, as they were called, of origin; the purpose of which was
to show that no part of their cargo was of British produce. These
regulations were met by others on the part of Britain, called the Orders
in Council.[338] They permitted all neutrals to trade with countries at
peace with Great Britain, providing they touched at a British port, and
paid the British duties. Neutrals were thus placed in a most undesirable
predicament betwixt the two great contending powers. If they neglected
the British Orders in Council, they were captured by the cruizers of
England, with which the sea was covered. If they paid duties at British
ports, they were confiscated, if the fact could be discovered, on
arrival at any port under French influence. This led to every species of
deception by which the real character of the mercantile transaction
could be disguised. False papers, false entries, false registers, were
every where produced; and such were the profits attending the trade,
that the most trusty and trusted agents of Buonaparte, men of the
highest rank in his empire, were found willing to wink at this
contraband commerce, and obtained great sums for doing so. All along the
sea-coast of Europe, this struggle was keenly maintained betwixt the
most powerful individual the world ever saw, and the wants and wishes of
the society which he controlled--wants and wishes not the less eagerly
entertained, that they were directed towards luxuries and superfluities.
But it was chiefly the Spanish Peninsula, in which the dominion of its
ancient and natural princes still nominally survived, which gave an
extended vent to the objects of British commerce. Buonaparte, indeed,
had a large share of its profits, since Portugal, in particular, paid
him great sums to connive at her trade with England. But at last the
weakness of Portugal, and the total disunion of the Royal Family in
Spain, suggested to Napoleon the thoughts of appropriating to his own
family, or rather to himself, that noble portion of the continent of
Europe. Hence arose the Spanish contest, of which he afterwards said in
bitterness, "That wretched war was my ruin; it divided my
forces--obliged me to multiply my efforts, and injured my character for
morality."[339] But could he expect better results from a usurpation,
executed under circumstances of treachery perfectly unexampled in the
history of Europe? Before entering, however, upon this new and most
important era of Napoleon's history, it is necessary hastily to resume
some account of the previous relations between France and the Peninsula
since the Revolution.
[Sidenote: MANUEL DE GODOY--SPAIN.]
Manuel de Godoy, a favourite of Charles IV. and the paramour of his
profligate Queen, was at this time the uncontrolled minister of
Spain.[340] He bore the title of Prince of the Peace, or of Peace, as it
was termed for brevity's sake, on account of his having completed the
pacification of Basle, which closed the revolutionary war betwixt Spain
and France. By the subsequent treaty of Saint Ildefonso, he had
established an alliance, offensive and defensive, betwixt the two
countries, in consequence of which Spain had taken from time to time,
without hesitation, every step which Buonaparte's interested policy
recommended. But notwithstanding this subservience to the pleasure of
the French ruler, Godoy seems in secret to have nourished hopes of
getting free of the French yoke; and at the very period when the
Prussian war broke out, without any necessity which could be discovered,
he suddenly called the Spanish forces to arms, addressing to them a
proclamation of a boastful, and, at the same time, a mysterious
character, indicating that the country was in danger, and that some
great exertion was expected from the Spanish armies in her behalf.
Buonaparte received this proclamation on the field of battle at Jena,
and is said to have sworn vengeance against Spain.[341] The news of that
great victory soon altered Godoy's military attitude, and the minister
could find no better excuse for it, than to pretend that he had armed
against an apprehended invasion of the Moors. Napoleon permitted the
circumstance to remain unexplained. It had made him aware of Godoy's
private sentiments in respect to himself and to France, if he had before
doubted them; and though passed over without farther notice, this hasty
armament of 1806 was assuredly not dismissed from his thoughts.
In the state of abasement under which they felt their government and
royal family to have fallen, the hopes and affections of the Spaniards
were naturally turned on the heir-apparent, whose succession to the
crown they looked forward to as a signal for better things, and who was
well understood to be at open variance with the all-powerful Godoy. The
Prince of the Asturias, however, does not seem to have possessed any
portion of that old heroic pride, and love of independence, which ought
to have marked the future King of Spain. He was not revolted at the sway
which Buonaparte held in Europe and in Spain, and, far from desiring to
get rid of the French influence, he endeavoured to secure Buonaparte's
favour for his own partial views, by an offer to connect his own
interest in an indissoluble manner with those of Napoleon and his
dynasty. Assisted by some of the grandees, who were most especially
tired of Godoy and his administration, the Prince wrote Buonaparte a
secret letter, [11th October,] expressing the highest esteem for his
person; intimating the condition to which his father, whose too great
goodness of disposition had been misguided by wicked counsellors, had
reduced the flourishing kingdom of Spain; requesting the counsels and
support of the Emperor Napoleon, to detect the schemes of those
perfidious men; and entreating, that, as a pledge of the paternal
protection which he solicited, the Emperor would grant him the honour of
allying him with one of his relations.[342]
In this manner the heir-apparent of Spain threw himself into the arms,
or, more properly, at the feet of Napoleon; but he did not meet the
reception he had hoped for. Buonaparte was at this time engaged in
negotiations with Charles IV., and with that very Godoy whom it was the
object of the Prince to remove or ruin; and as they could second his
views with all the remaining forces of Spain, while Prince Ferdinand was
in possession of no actual power or authority, the former were for the
time preferable allies. The Prince's offer, as what might be useful on
some future occasion, was for the present neither accepted nor refused.
Napoleon was altogether silent. The fate of the royal family was thus in
the hands of the Stranger. Their fate was probably already determined.
But before expelling the Bourbons from Spain, Napoleon judged it most
politic to use their forces in subduing Portugal.
The flower of the Spanish army, consisting of sixteen thousand men,
under the Marquis de la Romana, had been marched into the north of
Europe, under the character of auxiliaries of France. Another detachment
had been sent to Tuscany, commanded by O'Farrel. So far the kingdom was
weakened by the absence of her own best troops; the conquest of Portugal
was to be made a pretext for introducing the French army to dictate to
the whole Peninsula.
Portugal was under a singularly weak government. Her army was ruined;
the soul and spirit of her nobility was lost; her sole hope for
continuing in existence, under the name of an independent kingdom,
rested in her power of purchasing the clemency of France, and some
belief that Spain would not permit her own territories to be violated
for the sake of annihilating an unoffending neighbour and ally.
Shortly after the treaty of Tilsit, the Prince Regent of Portugal was
required, by France and Spain jointly, to shut his ports against the
English, to confiscate the property of Britain, and to arrest the
persons of her subjects wherever they could be found within his
dominions. The Prince reluctantly acceded to the first part of this
proposal; the last he peremptorily refused, as calling upon him at once
to violate the faith of treaties and the rights of hospitality. And the
British merchants received intimation, that it would be wisdom to close
their commercial concerns, and retire from a country which had no longer
the means of protecting them.
In the meantime, a singular treaty was signed at Fontainbleau, for the
partition of the ancient kingdom of Portugal. By this agreement, a
regular plan was laid for invading Portugal with French and Spanish
armies, accomplishing the conquest of the country, and dividing it into
three parts. The province of Entre Minho y Douro, with the town of
Oporto, was to belong to the King of Etruria (who was to cede his
Italian dominions to Napoleon,) with the title of King of Northern
Lusitania; another portion, consisting of Alenteyo and the Algarves, was
to be given in sovereignty to Godoy, with the title of Prince of the
Algarves; and a third was to remain in sequestration till the end of the
war.[343] By the treaty of Fontainbleau, Napoleon obtained two important
advantages; the first, that Portugal should be conquered; the second,
that a great part of the Spanish troops should be employed on the
expedition, and their native country thus deprived of their assistance.
It is impossible to believe that he ever intended Godoy, or the King of
Etruria, should gain any thing by the stipulations in their behalf.
[Sidenote: JUNOT ADVANCES UPON LISBON.]
Junot, one of the most grasping, extravagant, and profligate of the
French generals, a man whom Buonaparte himself has stigmatized as a
monster of rapacity,[344] was appointed to march upon Lisbon, and
intrusted with the charge of reconciling to the yoke of the invaders, a
nation who had neither provoked war, nor attempted resistance.
Two additional armies, consisting partly of French and partly of
Spaniards, supported the attack of Junot. A French army, amounting to
40,000 men, was formed at Bayonne, in terms of the treaty of
Fontainbleau, destined, it was pretended, to act as an army of reserve,
in case the English should land troops for the defence of Portugal, but
which, it had been stipulated, was on no account to enter Spain, unless
such a crisis should demand their presence. It will presently appear
what was the true purpose of this army of reserve, and under what
circumstances it was really intended to enter the Spanish territory.
Meantime, Junot advanced upon Lisbon with such extraordinary forced
marches, as very much dislocated and exhausted his army. But this was of
the less consequence, because, aware that he could not make an effectual
resistance, the Prince Regent had determined that he would not, by an
ineffectual show of defence, give the invaders a pretext to treat
Portugal like a conquered country. He resolved at this late hour to
comply even with the last and harshest of the terms dictated by France
and Spain, by putting the restraint of a register on British subjects
and British property; but he had purposely delayed compliance, till
little was left that could be affected by the measure. The British
Factory, so long domiciliated at Lisbon, had left the Tagus on the 18th
of October, amid the universal regret of the inhabitants. The British
resident minister, Lord Strangford, although feeling compassion for the
force under which the Prince Regent acted, was, nevertheless, under the
necessity of considering these unfriendly steps as a declaration against
England. He took down the British arms, departed from Lisbon
accordingly, and went on board Sir Sidney Smith's squadron, then lying
off the Tagus. The Marquis of Marialva was then sent as an ambassador
extraordinary, to state to the courts of France and Spain, that the
Prince Regent had complied with the whole of their demands, and to
request that the march of their forces upon Lisbon should be
countermanded. Junot and his army had by this time crossed the frontiers
of Portugal, entering, he said, as the friends, allies, and protectors
of the Portuguese, come to save Lisbon from the fate of Copenhagen, and
relieve the inhabitants from the yoke of the maritime tyrants of
Europe.[345] He promised the utmost good discipline on the part of his
troops, while, at the same time the constant plunder and exactions of
the French were embittered by wanton scorn and acts of sacrilege, which,
to a religious people, seemed peculiarly horrible.[346] Nothing,
however, retarded the celerity of his march; for he was well aware that
it was his master's most anxious wish to seize the persons of the
Portuguese royal family, and especially that of the Prince Regent.
[Sidenote: ROYAL FAMILY EMBARK FOR BRAZIL.]
But the Prince, although his general disposition was gentle and
compromising, had, on this occasion, impressions not unworthy of the
heir of Braganza. He had determined that he would not kiss the dust at
the feet of the invader, or be made captive to enhance his triumph. The
kingdom of Portugal had spacious realms beyond the Atlantic, in which
its royal family might seek refuge. The British ambassador offered every
facility which her squadron could afford, and, as is now known, granted
the guarantee of Great Britain, that she would acknowledge no government
which the invaders might establish in Portugal, to the prejudice of the
House of Braganza. The Prince Regent, with the whole royal family,
embarked on board the Portuguese vessels of the line, hastily rigged out
as they were, and indifferently prepared for sea; and thus afforded
modern Europe, for the first time, an example of that species of
emigration, frequent in ancient days, when kings and princes, expelled
from their native seats by the strong arm of violence, went to seek new
establishments in distant countries. The royal family embarked (27th
Nov.) amid the tears, cries, and blessings of the people, from the very
spot whence Vasco de Gama loosened his sails to discover for Portugal
new realms in the East. The weather was as gloomy as were the actors and
spectators of this affecting scene; and the firmness of the Prince
Regent was applauded by the nation which he was leaving, aware that his
longer presence might have exposed himself to insult, but could have had
no effect in ameliorating their own fate.
Junot, within a day's march of Lisbon, was almost frantic with rage when
he heard this news. He well knew how much the escape of the Prince, and
the resolution he had formed, would diminish the lustre of his own
success in the eyes of his master. Once possessed of the Prince Regent's
person, Buonaparte had hoped to get him to cede possession of the
Brazils; and transmarine acquisitions had for Napoleon all the merit of
novelty. The empire of the House of Braganza in the new world, was now
effectually beyond his reach; and his general, thus far unsuccessful,
might have some reason to dread the excess of his master's
disappointment.
Upon the first of December, exhausted with their forced marches, and
sufficiently miserable in equipment and appearance,[347] the French
vanguard approached the city, and their general might see the retreating
sails of the vessels which deprived him of so fair a portion of his
prize. Junot, however, was soon led to resume confidence in his own
merits. He had been connected with Buonaparte ever since the
commencement of his fortunes, which he had faithfully followed. Such
qualifications, and his having married a lady named Comnene,[348] who
affirmed herself to be descended from the blood of the Greek emperors,
was sufficient, he thought, to entitle him to expect the vacant throne
of Lisbon from the hand of his master. In the meantime, he acted as if
already in possession of supreme power. He took possession of the house
belonging to the richest merchant in the city, and although he received
twelve hundred crusadoes a-month for his table, he compelled his
landlord to be at the whole expense of his establishment, which was
placed on the most extravagant scale of splendour. His inferior officers
took the hint, nor were the soldiers slow in following the example. The
extortions and rapacity practised in Lisbon seemed to leave all former
excesses of the French army far behind. This led to quarrels betwixt the
French and the natives; blood was shed; public executions took place,
and the invaders, proceeding to reduce and disband the remnant of the
Portuguese army, showed their positive intention to retain the kingdom
under their own exclusive authority.
This purpose was at last intimated by an official document or
proclamation, issued by Junot [1st Feb.] under Buonaparte's orders. It
declared, that, by leaving his kingdom, the Prince of Brazil had, in
fact, abdicated the sovereignty, and that Portugal, having become a part
of the dominions of Napoleon, should, for the present, be governed by
the French general-in-chief, in name of the Emperor.[349] The French
flag was accordingly displayed, the arms of Portugal every where
removed. The property of the Prince Regent, and of all who had followed
him, was sequestrated, with a reserve in favour of those who should
return before the 15th day of February, the proclamation being published
upon the first day of that month. The next demand upon the unhappy
country, was for a contribution of forty millions of crusadoes, or four
millions and a half sterling;[350] which, laid upon a population of
something less than three millions, came to about thirty shillings
a-head; while the share of the immense numbers who could pay nothing,
fell upon the upper and middling ranks, who had still some property
remaining. There was not specie enough in the country to answer the
demand; but plate, valuables, British goods, and colonial produce, were
received instead of money. Some of the French officers turned jobbers in
these last articles, sending them off to Paris, where they were sold to
advantage. Some became money-brokers, and bought up paper-money at a
discount--so little does the profession of arms retain of its
disinterested and gallant character, when its professors become
habituated and accustomed depredators.[351]
The proclamation of 2d February, vesting the government of Portugal in
General Junot, as the representative of the French Empire, seemed
entirely to abrogate the treaty of Fontainbleau, and in fact, really did
so, except as to such articles in favour of Napoleon, as he himself
chose should remain in force. As for the imaginary princedom of
Algarves, with which Godoy was to have been invested, no more was ever
said or thought about it; nor was he in any condition to assert his
claim to it, however formal the stipulation.[352]
[Sidenote: INTRIGUES AT MADRID.]
While the French were taking possession of Portugal, one of those
scandalous scenes took place in the royal family at Madrid, which are
often found to precede the fall of a shaken throne.
We have already mentioned the discontent of the Prince of Asturias with
his father, or rather his father's minister. We have mentioned that he
had desired to ally himself with the family of Buonaparte, in order to
secure his protection, but that the Emperor of France had given no
direct encouragement to his suit. Still, a considerable party, headed by
the Duke del Infantado, and the Canon Escoiquiz, who had been the
Prince's tutor,[353] relying upon the general popularity of Ferdinand,
seem to have undertaken some cabal, having for its object probably the
deposition of the old King and the removal of Godoy. The plot was
discovered; the person of the Prince was secured, and Charles made a
clamorous appeal to the justice of Napoleon, and to the opinion of the
world. He stated that the purpose of the conspirators had been aimed at
his life, and that of his faithful minister; and produced, in support of
this unnatural charge, two letters from Ferdinand, addressed to his
parents, in which he acknowledges (in general terms) having failed in
duty to his father and sovereign, and says "that he has denounced his
advisers, professes repentance, and craves pardon."[354] The reality of
this affair is not easily penetrated. That there had been a conspiracy,
is more than probable; the intended parricide was probably an
aggravation, of which so weak a man as Charles IV. might be easily
convinced by the arts of his wife and her paramour.
So standing matters in that distracted house, both father and son
appealed to Buonaparte as the august friend and ally of Spain, and the
natural umpire of the disputes in its royal family. But Napoleon
nourished views which could not be served by giving either party an
effectual victory over the other. He caused his ambassador, Beauharnois,
to intercede in favour of the Prince of Asturias. Charles IV. and his
minister were alarmed and troubled at finding his powerful ally take
interest, even to this extent, in behalf of his disobedient son. They
permitted themselves to allude to the private letter from the Prince of
Asturias to Napoleon, and to express a hope that the Great Emperor would
not permit a rebellious son to shelter himself by an alliance with his
Imperial family. The touching this chord was what Buonaparte desired. It
gave him a pretext to assume a haughty, distant, and offended aspect
towards the reigning King, who had dared to suspect him of bad faith,
and had mentioned with less than due consideration the name of a lady of
the Imperial house.
Godoy was terrified at the interpretation put upon the remonstrances
made by himself and his master, by the awful arbiter of their destiny.
Izquierdo, the Spanish ambassador, was directed to renew his
applications to the Emperor, for the especial purpose of assuring him
that a match with his family would be in the highest degree acceptable
to the King of Spain. Charles wrote with his own hand to the same
purpose. But it was Napoleon's policy to appear haughty, distant,
indifferent, and offended; and to teach the contending father and son,
who both looked to him as their judge, the painful feelings of mutual
suspense. In the meantime, a new levy of the conscription put into his
hands a fresh army; and forty thousand men were stationed at Bayonne, to
add weight to his mediation in the affairs of Spain.
[Sidenote: PROJECTS AGAINST SPAIN.]
About this period, he did not hesitate to avow to the ablest of his
counsellors, Talleyrand and Fouché, the resolution he had formed, that
the Spanish race of the House of Bourbon should cease to reign. His plan
was opposed by these sagacious statesmen, and the opposition on the part
of Talleyrand is represented to have been obstinate.[355] At a later
period, Napoleon found it more advantageous to load Talleyrand with the
charge of being his adviser in the war with Spain, as well as in the
tragedy of the Duke d'Enghien. In Fouché's Memoirs, there is an
interesting account of his conversation with the Emperor on that
occasion, of which we see room fully to credit the authenticity. It
places before us, in a striking point of view, arguments for and against
this extraordinary and decisive measure. "Let Portugal take her fate,"
said Fouché, "she is, in fact, little else than an English colony. But
that King of Spain has given you no reason to complain of him; he has
been the humblest of your prefects. Besides, take heed you are not
deceived in the disposition of the Spaniards. You have a party amongst
them now, because they look on you as a great and powerful potentate, a
prince, and an ally. But you ought to be aware that the Spanish people
possess no part of the German phlegm. They are attached to their laws;
their government; their ancient customs. It would be an error to judge
of the national character by that of the higher classes, which are
there, as elsewhere, corrupted and indifferent to their country. Once
more, take heed you do not convert, by such an act of aggression, a
submissive and useful tributary kingdom into a second La Vendée."
Buonaparte answered these prophetic remarks, by observations on the
contemptible character of the Spanish government, the imbecility of the
King, and the worthless character of the minister; the common people,
who might be influenced to oppose him by the monks, would be dispersed,
he said, by one volley of cannon. "The stake I play for is immense--I
will continue in my own dynasty the family system of the Bourbons, and
unite Spain for ever to the destinies of France. Remember that the sun
never sets on the immense Empire of Charles V."[356]
Fouché urged another doubt; whether, if the flames of opposition should
grow violent in Spain, Russia might not be encouraged to resume her
connexion with England, and thus place the empire of Napoleon betwixt
two fires? This suspicion Buonaparte ridiculed as that of a minister of
police, whose habits taught him to doubt the very existence of
sincerity. The Emperor of Russia, he said, was completely won over, and
sincerely attached to him.[357] Thus, warned in vain of the wrath and
evil to come, Napoleon persisted in his purpose.
But, ere yet he had pounced upon the tempting prey, in which form Spain
presented herself to his eyes, Napoleon made a hurried expedition to
Italy. This journey had several motives. One was, to interrupt his
communications with the royal family of Spain, in order to avoid being
pressed to explain the precise nature of his pretensions, until he was
prepared to support them by open force. Another was, to secure the
utmost personal advantage which could be extracted from the treaty of
Fontainbleau, before he threw that document aside like waste paper; it
being his purpose that it should remain such, in so far as its
stipulations were in behalf of any others than himself. Under pretext of
this treaty, he expelled from Tuscany, or Etruria, as it was now called,
the widowed Queen of that territory. She now, for the first time
learned, that by an agreement to which she was no party, she was to be
dispossessed of her own original dominions, as well as of those which
Napoleon himself had guaranteed to her, and was informed that she was to
receive a compensation in Portugal. This increased her affliction. "She
did not desire," she said, "to share the spoils of any one, much more of
a sister and a friend." Upon arriving in Spain, and having recourse to
her parent, the King of Spain, for redress and explanation, she had the
additional information, that the treaty of Fontainbleau was to be
recognised as valid, in so far as it deprived her of her territories,
but was not to be of any effect in as far as it provided her with
indemnification.[358] At another time, or in another history, this would
have been dwelt upon as an aggravated system of violence and tyranny
over the unprotected. But the far more important affairs of Spain threw
those of Etruria into the shade.
After so much preparation behind the scenes, Buonaparte now proposed to
open the first grand act of the impending drama. He wrote from Italy to
the King of Spain, that he consented to the proposal which he had made
for the marriage betwixt the Prince of Asturias and one of his
kinswomen; and having thus maintained to the last the appearances of
friendship, he gave orders to the French army, lying at Bayonne, to
enter Spain on different points, and to possess themselves of the strong
fortresses by which the frontier of that kingdom is defended.
FOOTNOTES:
[335] Las Cases, tom. iv., p. 163.
[336] The marriage took place on the 12th of August, and, a few days
after, Jerome was proclaimed king of Westphalia. The constitution of the
kingdom was issued on the 15th December, the new monarch's birth-day,
who had then completed his twenty-second year; and, on the 21st, Jerome
made his public entry into Cassel.
[337] Annual Register, vol. xlix., p. 779.
[338] For copies of the several Orders in Council, see Hansard's
Parliamentary Debates, vol. x., p. 126, and Annual Register, vol. xlix.,
pp. 745, 746, 754.
[339] Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 220.
[340] From the rank of a simple gentleman of the royal guards, Godoy
had, through the Queen's influence, been raised to the highest
dignities. "There was no jealousy in the Queen's attachment to this
minion; she gave him one of the royal family in marriage, but the
private life of the favourite continued to be as infamous as the means
whereby he had risen. It is said, that there was no way so certain to
obtain promotion, as by pandering to his vices; and that wives, sisters,
and daughters were offered him as the price of preferment, in a manner
more shameful than had ever before been witnessed in a Christian
country."--SOUTHEY, _History of the Peninsular War_, vol. i., p. 79.
[341] De Pradt, Mémoires sur la Révolution d'Espagne, p. 15.
[342] Southey, vol. i., p. 87.
[343] This treaty, together with a convention dependent on it, was
signed the 27th, and ratified by Napoleon on the 29th of October.
[344] Las Cases, tom. iv., p. 347.
[345] Proclamation from Alcantara, Nov. 17.
[346] "As if they had been desirous of provoking the Portuguese to some
act of violence which might serve as a pretext for carrying into effect
the threats which Junot had denounced, they burnt or mutilated the
images in the churches, and threw the wafer to be trodden under
foot."--NEVES, _Historia de la Guerra contra Nap._, tom. i., p. 196.
[347] "Not a regiment, not a battalion, not even a company, arrived
entire; many of them were beardless boys, and they came in so pitiable a
condition, as literally to excite compassion; foot-sored, bemired and
wet, ragged, and hungered, and diseased."--NEVES, tom. i., p. 213.
[348] "Her family was from Corsica, and resided in the neighbourhood of
mine; they were under great obligations to my mother, not merely for her
benevolence towards them, but for services of a more positive
nature."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. iv., p. 349.
[349] "The House of Braganza has ceased to reign in Portugal, and the
Emperor Napoleon wills that this fine country shall be governed entirely
in his name, by the general-in-chief of his army."
[350] The edict imposing this contribution was dated from Milan, Dec.
23.
[351] Southey, vol. i., p. 155.
[352] "Fallen from his dreams of royalty, and trembling for his life, he
was ready to make any sacrifice which might procure him the protection
of France."--NEVES, tom. i., p. 313.
[353] And author of an heroic poem on the Conquest of Mexico.
[354] Las Cases, tom. iv., p. 198; Southey, vol. i., p. 188; Savary,
tom. ii., p. 144.
[355] "So far from being opposed to it, M. de Talleyrand even advised
it. It was he who dictated all the preliminary steps, and it was with
the view of promptly carrying the measure into effect, that he so
urgently pressed the conclusion of peace at Tilsit. He was the first who
thought of the Spanish expedition; he laid the springs which it was
necessary to bring into play to complete the work."--_Mémoires de
SAVARY_, tom. ii., p. 139.
[356] Mémoires de Fouché, tom. i., p. 313.
[357] "I am sure of Alexander, who is very sincere. I now exercise over
him a kind of charm, independently of the guarantee offered me by those
about him, of whom I am equally certain."--FOUCHÉ, tom. i., p. 315.
[358] Memoir of the Queen of Etruria, p. 70; Southey, vol. i., p. 193.