PARIS, September, 1805.
MY LORD:--A ridiculous affair lately occasioned a great deal of bustle
among the members of our foreign diplomatic corps. When Bonaparte
demanded for himself and for his wife the title of Imperial Majesty, and
for his brothers and sisters that of Imperial Highness, he also insisted
on the salutation of a Serene Highness being given to his
Arch-Chancellor, Cambaceres, and his Arch-Treasurer, Lebrun. The
political consciences of the independent representatives of independent
Continental Princes immediately took the alarm at the latter innovation,
as the appellation of Serene Highness has never hitherto been bestowed on
persons who had not princely rank. They complained to Talleyrand, they
petitioned Bonaparte, and they even despatched couriers to their
respective Courts. The Minister smiled, the Emperor cursed, and their
own Cabinets deliberated. All routs, all assemblies, all circles, and
all balls were at a stop. Cambaceres applied to his Sovereign to support
his pretensions, as connected with his own dignity; and the diplomatic
corps held forward their dignity as opposing the pretensions of
Cambaceres. In this dilemma Bonaparte ordered all the Ambassadors,
Ministers, envoys, and agents ‘en masse’ to the castle of the Tuileries.
After hearing, with apparent patience, their arguments in favour of
established etiquette and customs, he remained inflexible, upon the
ground that he, as master, had a right to confer what titles he chose
within his own dominions on his own subjects; and that those foreigners
who refused to submit to his regulations might return to their own
country. This plain explanation neither effecting a conversion nor
making any, impression, he grew warm, and left the refractory
diplomatists with these remarkable words: “Were I to create my Mameluke
Rostan a King, both you and your masters should acknowledge him in that
rank.”
After this conference most of Their Excellencies were seized with terror
and fear, and would, perhaps, have subscribed to the commands of our
Emperor had not some of the wisest among them proposed, and obtained the
consent of the rest, to apply, once more to Talleyrand, and purchase by
some douceur his assistance in this great business. The heart of our
Minister is easily softened; and he assented, upon certain conditions, to
lay the whole before his Sovereign in such a manner that Cambaceres
should be made a Prince as well as a Serene Highness.
It is said that Bonaparte was not easily persuaded to this measure, and
did not consent to it before the Minister remarked that his condescension
in this insignificant opposition to his will would proclaim his
moderation and generosity, and empower him to insist on obedience when
matters of the greatest consequence should be in question or disputed.
Thus our regicide, Cambaceres, owes his princely title to the shallow
intrigues of the agents of legitimate Sovereigns. Their nicety in
talking of innovations with regard to him, after they had without
difficulty hailed a sans-culotte an Emperor, and other sans-culottes
Imperial Highnesses, was as absurd as improper. Report, however, states,
what is very probable, that they were merely the duped tools of
Cambaceres’s ambition and vanity, and of Talleyrand’s corruption and
cupidity.
Cambaceres expected to have been elevated to a Prince on the same day
that he was made a Serene Highness; but Joseph Bonaparte represented to
his brother that too many other princedoms would diminish the respect and
value of the princedoms of the Bonaparte family. Cambaceres knew that
Talleyrand had some reason at that period to be discontented with Joseph,
and, therefore, asked his advice how to get made a Prince against the
wishes of this Grand Elector. After some consideration, the Minister
replied that he was acquainted with one way, which would, with his
support, certainly succeed; but it required a million of livres to set
the wheels in motion, and keep them going afterwards. The hint was
taken, and an agreement signed for one million, payable on the day when
the princely patent should be delivered to the Arch-Chancellor.
Among the mistresses provided by our Minister for the members of the
foreign diplomatic corps, Madame B----s is one of the ablest in the way
of intrigue. She was instructed to alarm her ‘bon ami’, the Bavarian
Minister, Cetto, who is always bustling and pushing himself forward in
the grand questions of etiquette. A fool rather than a rogue, and an
intriguer while he thinks himself a negotiator, he was happy to have this
occasion to prove his penetrating genius and astonishing information. A
convocation of the diplomatic corps was therefore called, and the
suggestions of Cetto were regarded as an inspiration, and approved, with
a resolution to persevere unanimously. At their first audience with
Talleyrand on this subject, he seemed to incline in their favour; but, as
soon as he observed how much they showed themselves interested about this
trifling punctilio, it occurred to him that they, as well as Cambaceres,
might in some way or other reward the service he intended to perform.
Madame B----s was again sent for; and she once more advised her lover,
who again advised his colleagues. Their scanty purses were opened, and a
subscription entered into for a very valuable diamond, which, with the
millions of the Arch-Chancellor, gave satisfaction to all parties; and
even Joseph Bonaparte was reconciled, upon the consideration that
Cambaceres has no children, and that, therefore, the Prince will expire
with the Grand Officer of State.
Cambaceres, though before the Revolution a nobleman of a Parliamentary
family, was so degraded and despised for his unnatural and beastly
propensities, that to see him in the ranks of rebellion was not
unexpected. Born in Languedoc, his countrymen were the first to suffer
from his revolutionary proceedings, and reproached him as one of the most
active instruments of persecution against the clergy of Toulouse, and as
one of the causes of all the blood that flowed in consequence. A coward
as well as a traitor, after the death of Louis XVI. he never dared ascend
the tribune of the National Convention, but always gave a silent vote to
all the atrocious laws proposed and carried by Marat, Robespierre, and
their accomplices. It was in 1795, when the Reign of Terror had ceased,
that he first displayed his zeal for anarchy, and his hatred to royalty;
his contemptible and disgusting vices were, however, so publicly
reprobated, that even the Directory dared not nominate him a Minister of
Justice, a place for which he intrigued in vain, from 1796 to 1799; when
Bonaparte, either not so scrupulous, or setting himself above the public
opinion, caused him to be called to the Consulate; which, in 1802, was
ensured him for life, but exchanged, in 1804, for the office of an
Arch-Chancellor.
He is now worth thirty millions of livres--all honestly obtained by his
revolutionary industry. Besides a Prince, a Serene Highness, an
Arch-Chancellor, a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, he is also a
Knight of the Prussian Black Eagle! For his brother, who was for a long
time an emigrant clergyman, and whom he then renounced as a fanatic, he
has now procured the Archbishopric of Rouen and a Cardinal’s hat. His
Eminence is also a grand officer of the Legion of Honour in France, and a
Pope in petto at Rome.