PARIS, August, 1805.
MY LORD:--Not to give umbrage to the Cabinet of Berlin, Bonaparte
communicated to it the necessity he was under of altering the form of
Government in Holland, and, if report be true, even condescended to ask
advice concerning a chief magistrate for that country. The young Prince
of Orange, brother-in-law of His Prussian Majesty, naturally presented
himself; but, after some time, Talleyrand’s agents discovered that great
pecuniary sacrifices could not be expected from that quarter, and perhaps
less submission to France experienced than from the former governors. An
eye was then cast on the Elector of Bavaria, whose past patriotism, as
well as that of his Ministers, was a full guarantee for future obedience.
Had he consented to such an arrangement, Austria might have aggrandized
herself on the Inn, Prussia in Franconia, and France in Italy; and the
present bone of contest would have been chiefly removed.
This intrigue, for it was nothing else, was carried on by the Cabinet of
St. Cloud in March, 1804, about the time that Germany was invaded and the
Duc d’Enghien seized. This explains to you the reason why the Russian
note, delivered to the Diet of Ratisbon on the 8th of the following May,
was left without any support, except the ineffectual one from the King of
Sweden. How any Cabinet could be dupe enough to think Bonaparte serious,
or the Elector of Bavaria so weak as to enter into his schemes, is
difficult to be conceived, had not Europe witnessed still greater
credulity on one side, and still greater effrontery on the other.
In the meantime Bonaparte grew every day more discontented with the
Batavian Directory, and more irritated against the members who composed
it. Against his regulations for excluding the commerce and productions
of your country, they resented with spirit instead of obeying them
without murmur as was required. He is said to have discovered, after his
own soldiers had forced the custom-house officers to obey his orders,
that, while in their proclamations the directors publicly prohibited the
introduction of British goods, some of them were secret insurers of this
forbidden merchandise, introduced by fraud and by smuggling; and that
while they officially wished for the success of the French arms and
destruction of England, they withdrew by stealth what property they had
in the French funds, to place it in the English. This refractory and, as
Bonaparte called it, mercantile spirit, so enraged him, that he had
already signed an order for arresting and transferring en masse his high
allies, the Batavian directors, to his Temple, when the representations
of Talleyrand moderated his fury, and caused the order to be recalled,
which Fouche was ready to execute.
Had Jerome Bonaparte not offended his brother by his transatlantic
marriage, he would long ago have been the Prince Stadtholder of Holland;
but his disobedience was so far useful to the Cabinet of St. Cloud as it
gave it an opportunity of intriguing with, or deluding, other Cabinets
that might have any pretensions to interfere in the regulation of the
Batavian Government. By the choice finally made, you may judge how
difficult it was to find a suitable subject to represent it, and that
this representation is intended only to be temporary.
Schimmelpenninck, the present grand pensionary of the Batavian Republic,
was destined by his education for the bar, but by his natural parts to
await in quiet obscurity the end of a dull existence. With some
property, little information, and a tolerably good share of common sense,
he might have lived and died respected, and even regretted, without any
pretension, or perhaps even ambition, to shine. The anti-Orange faction,
to which his parents and family appertained, pushed him forward, and
elected him, in 1795, a member of the First Batavian National Convention,
where, according to the spirit of the times, his speeches were rather
those of a demagogue than those of a Republican. Liberty, Equality, and
Fraternity were the constant themes of his political declamations,
infidelity his religious profession, and the examples of immorality, his
social lessons; so rapid and dangerous are the strides with which
seduction frequently advances on weak minds.
In 1800 he was appointed an Ambassador to Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles
Maurice Talleyrand. The latter used him as a stockbroker, and the former
for anything he thought proper; and he was the humble and submissive
valet of both. More ignorant than malicious, and a greater fool than a
rogue, he was more laughed at and despised than trusted or abused.
His patience being equal to his phlegm, nothing either moved or
confounded him; and he was, as Talleyrand remarked, “a model of an
Ambassador, according to which he and Bonaparte wished that all other
independent Princes and States would choose their representatives to the
French Government.”
When our Minister and his Sovereign were discussing the difficulty of
properly filling up the vacancy, of the Dutch Government, judged
necessary by both, the former mentioned Schimmelpenninck with a smile;
and serious as Bonaparte commonly is, he could not help laughing. “I
should have been less astonished,” said he, “had you proposed my
Mameluke, Rostan.”
This rebuke did not deter Talleyrand (who had settled his terms with
Schimmelpenninck) from continuing to point out the advantage which France
would derive from this nomination. “Because no man could easier be
directed when in office, and no man easier turned out of office when
disagreeable or unnecessary. Both as a Batavian plenipotentiary at
Amiens, and as Batavian Ambassador in England, he had proved himself as
obedient and submissive to France as when in the same capacity at Paris.”
By returning often to the charge, with these and other remarks,
Talleyrand at last accustomed Bonaparte to the idea, which had once
appeared so humiliating, of writing to a man so much inferior in
everything, “Great and dear Friend!” and therefore said to the Minister:
“Well! let us then make him a grand pensionary and a locum tenens for
five years; or until Jerome, when he repents, returns to his duty, and is
pardoned.”
“Is he, then, not to be a grand pensionary for life?” asked Talleyrand;
“whether for one month or for life, he would be equally obedient to
resign when, commanded; but the latter would be more popular in Holland,
where they were tired of so many changes.”
“Let them complain, if they dare,” replied Bonaparte. “Schimmelpenninck
is their chief magistrate only for five years, if so long; but you may
add that they may reelect him.”
It was not before Talleyrand had compared the pecuniary proposal made to
his agents by foreign Princes with those of Schimmelpenninck to himself,
that the latter obtained the preference. The exact amount of the
purchase-money for the supreme magistracy in Holland is not well known to
any but the contracting parties. Some pretended that the whole was paid
down beforehand, being advanced by a society of merchants at Amsterdam,
the friends or relatives of the grand pensionary; others, that it is to
be paid by annual instalments of two millions of livres--for a certain
number of years. Certain it is, that this high office was sold and
bought; and that, had it been given for life, its value would have been
proportionately enhanced; which was the reason that Talleyrand
endeavoured to have it thus established.
Talleyrand well knew the precarious state of Schimmelpenninck’s grandeur;
that it not only depended upon the whim of Napoleon, but had long been
intended as an hereditary sovereignty for Jerome. Another Dutchman asked
him not to ruin his friend and his family for what he was well aware
could never be called a sinecure place, and was so precarious in its
tenure. “Foolish vanity,” answered the Minister, “can never pay enough
for the gratification of its desires. All the Schimmelpennincks in the
world do not possess property enough to recompense me for the sovereign
honours which I have procured for one of their name and family, were he
deposed within twenty-four hours. What treasures can indemnify me for
connecting such a name and such a personage with the great name of the
First Emperor of the French?”
I have only twice in my life been in Schimmelpenninck’s company, and I
thought him both timid and reserved; but from what little he said, I
could not possibly judge of his character and capacity. His portrait and
its accompaniments have been presented to me; such as delivered to you by
one of his countrymen, a Mr. M---- (formerly an Ambassador also), who was
both his schoolfellow and his comrade at the university. I shall add the
following traits, in his own words as near as possible:
“More vain than ambitious, Schimmelpenninck from his youth, and,
particularly, from his entrance into public life, tried every means to
make a noise, but found none to make a reputation. He caressed in
succession all the systems of the French Revolution, without adopting one
for himself. All the Kings of faction received in their turns his homage
and felicitations. It was impossible to mention to him a man of any
notoriety, of whom he did not become immediately a partisan. The virtues
or the vices, the merit or defects, of the individual were of no
consideration; according to his judgment it was sufficient to be famous.
Yet with all the extravagances of a head filled with paradoxes, and of a
heart spoiled by modern philosophy, added to a habit of licentiousness,
he had no idea of becoming an instrument for the destruction of liberty
in his own country, much less of becoming its tyrant, in submitting to be
the slave of France. It was but lately that he took the fancy, after so
long admiring all other great men of our age, to be at any rate one of
their number, and of being admired as a great man in his turn. On this
account many accuse him of hypocrisy, but no one deserves that
appellation less, his vanity and exaltation never permitting him to
dissimulate; and no presumption, therefore, was less disguised than his,
to those who studied the man. Without acquired ability, without natural
genius, or political capacity, destitute of discretion and address, as
confident and obstinate as ignorant, he is only elevated to fall and to
rise no more.”
Madame Schimmelpenninck, I was informed, is as amiable and accomplished
as her husband is awkward and deficient; though well acquainted with his
infidelities and profligacy, she is too virtuous to listen to revenge,
and too generous not to forgive. She is, besides, said to be a lady of
uncommon abilities, and of greater information than she chooses to
display. She has never been the worshipper of Bonaparte, or the friend
of Talleyrand; she loved her country, and detested its tyrants. Had she
been created a grand pensionary, she would certainly have swayed with
more glory than her husband; and been hailed by contemporaries, as well
as posterity, if not a heroine, at least a patriot,--a title which in our
times, though often prostituted, so few have any claim to, and which,
therefore, is so much the more valuable.
When it was known at Paris that Schimmelpenninck had set out for his new
sovereignty, no less than sixteen girls of the Palais Royal demanded
passes for Holland. Being questioned by Fouche as to their business in
that country, they answered that they intended to visit their friend, the
grand pensionary, in his new dominions. Fouche communicated to
Talleyrand both their demands and their business, and asked his advice.
He replied:
“Send two, and those of whose vigilance and intelligence you are sure.
Refuse, by all means, the other fourteen. Schimmelpenninck’s time is
precious, and were they at the Hague, he would neglect everything for
them. If they are fond of travelling, and are handsome and adroit,
advise them to set out for London or for St. Petersburg; and if they
consent, order them to my office, and they shall be supplied, if approved
of, both with instructions, and with their travelling expenses.”
Fouche answered his colleague that “they were in every respect the very
reverse of his description; they seemed to have passed their lives in the
lowest stage of infamy, and they could neither read nor write.” You have
therefore, no reason to fear that these belles will be sent to
disseminate corruption in your happy island.