_Retrospect--The Directory--they become unpopular--Causes of
their unpopularity--Also at enmity among themselves--State of
public feeling in France--In point of numbers, favourable to the
Bourbons; but the Army and monied Interest against
them--Pichegru, head of the Royalists, appointed President of
the Council of Five Hundred--Barbé Marbois, another Royalist,
President of the Council of Ancients--Directory throw themselves
upon the succour of Hoche and Buonaparte--Buonaparte's personal
Politics discussed--Pichegru's Correspondence with the
Bourbons--known to Buonaparte--He despatches Augereau to
Paris--Directory arrest their principal Opponents in the
Councils on the 18th Fructidor, and Banish them to
Guiana--Narrow and Impolitic Conduct of the Directory to
Buonaparte--Projected Invasion of England._
While the conqueror of Italy was pursuing his victories beyond the Alps,
the French Directory, in whose name he achieved them, had become, to the
conviction of all men, as unlikely to produce the benefits of a settled
government, as any of their predecessors vested with the supreme rule.
[Sidenote: RETROSPECT.]
It is with politics as with mechanics, ingenuity is not always combined
with utility. Some one observed to the late celebrated Mr. Watt, that it
was wonderful for what a number of useless inventions, illustrated by
the most ingenious and apparently satisfactory models, patents were
yearly issued: he replied, that he had often looked at them with
interest, and had found several, the idea of which had occurred to
himself in the course of his early studies. "But," said he, with his
natural masculine sagacity, "it is one thing to make an ingenious model,
and another to contrive an engine which shall work its task. Most of
these pretty toys, when they are applied to practical purposes, are
found deficient in some point of strength, or correctness of mechanism,
which destroys all chance of their ever becoming long or generally
useful." Some such imperfection seems to have attended the works of
these speculative politicians who framed the various ephemeral
constitutions of France. However well they looked upon paper, and
however reasonable they sounded to the ear, no one ever thought of them
as laws which required veneration and obedience. Did a constitutional
rule preclude a favourite measure, to break it down, or leap over it,
was the French statesman's unhesitating practice. A rule was always
devised applicable to circumstances; and before that, the theory of the
constitution was uniformly made to give way.
[Sidenote: THE DIRECTORY.]
The constitution of the year Three was not more permanent than those by
which it had been preceded. For some time, the Directory, which
contained men of considerable talent, conducted themselves with great
prudence. The difficulty and danger of their situation served to prevent
their separating, as the weight put above an arch keeps the stones in
their places. Their exertions in the attempt to redeem the finances,
support the war, and re-establish the tranquillity of the country, were
attended at first with success. The national factions also sunk before
them for a season. They had defeated the aristocratic citizens of Paris
on the 13th Vendemiaire; and when the original revolutionists, or
democrats, attempted a conspiracy, under the conduct of Gracchus
Babœuf,[309] their endeavours to seduce the troops totally failed,
and their lives paid the forfeit of their rash attempt to bring back the
Reign of Terror. Thus, the Directory, or executive power, under the
constitution of the year Three, were for a season triumphant over the
internal factions, and, belonging to neither, were in a situation to
command both.
But they had few who were really, and on principle, attached to their
government, and most endured it only as something better than a new
revolutionary movement, and otherwise in no respect eligible. To have
rendered their authority permanent, the Directory must have had great
unanimity in their own body, and also brilliant success abroad, and they
enjoyed neither one nor the other. The very concoction of their body
included the principles of disunion. They were a sort of five kings,
retiring from office by rotation, inhabiting each his separate class of
apartments in the Luxembourg palace, having each his different
establishments, classes of clients, circles of courtiers, flatterers,
and instruments. The republican simplicity, of late so essential to a
patriot, was laid aside entirely. New costumes of the most splendid kind
were devised for the different office-bearers of the state. This change
took its rise from the weakness and vanity of Barras, who loved show,
and used to go a-hunting with all the formal attendance of a prince. But
it was an indulgence of luxury, which gave scandal to both the great
parties in the state;--the Republicans, who held it altogether in
contempt;--and the Royalists, who considered it as an usurpation of the
royal dress and appendages.[310]
The finances became continually more and more a subject of uneasiness.
In the days of terror, money was easily raised, because it was demanded
under pain of death, and assignats were raised to _par_ by guillotining
those who bought or sold them at less than their full value; but the
powerful argument of violence and compulsion being removed, the paper
money fell to a ruinous discount, till its depression threatened, unless
remedied, altogether to stop the course of public business.[311] It
perhaps arose from the difficulty of raising supplies, that the
Directory assumed towards other countries a greedy, grasping, and
rapacious character, which threw disgrace at once upon the individuals
who indulged it, and the state whom they represented. They loaded with
exactions the trade of the Bavarian republic, whose freedom they had
pretended to recognise, and treated with most haughty superiority the
ambassadors of independent states. Some of these high officers, and
Barras in particular, were supposed accessible to gross corruption, and
believed to hold communication with those agents and stock-brokers, who
raised money by jobbing in the public funds--a more deservedly unpopular
accusation than which can hardly be brought against a minister. It was,
indeed, a great error in the constitution, that, though one hundred
thousand livres were yearly allowed to each director while in office,
yet he had no subsequent provision after he had retired from his
fractional share of sovereignty. This penury, on the part of the public,
opened a way to temptation, though of a kind to which mean minds only
are obnoxious; and such men as Barras[312] were tempted to make
provision for futurity, by availing themselves of present opportunity.
Their five majesties (sires) of the Luxembourg, as people called them in
ridicule, had also their own individual partialities and favourite
objects, which led them in turn to tease the French people with
unnecessary legislation. La Reveillere-Lepaux was that inconsistent yet
not uncommon character, an intolerant philosopher and an enthusiastic
deist. He established a priesthood, and hymns and ceremonies for deism;
and, taking up the hopeful project of substituting a deistical worship
for the Christian faith, just where Robespierre had laid it down, he
harassed the nation with laws to oblige them to observe the _decades_ of
their new calendar as holidays, and to work at their ordinary trades on
the Christian Sabbath.[313] At La Reveillere's theory freethinkers
laughed, and religious men shuddered; but all were equally annoyed by
the legislative measures adopted on a subject so ridiculous as this new
ritual of heathenism.[314] Another cause of vexation was the
philosophical arrangement of weights and measures upon a new principle,
which had, in the meantime, the inconvenience of introducing doubt and
uncertainty into all the arrangements of internal commerce, and
deranging entirely such as France continued to hold with countries who
were only acquainted with the ordinary standard.[315]
It might have been thought that the distinguished success of the French
arms under the auspices of the Directory would have dazzled the eyes of
the French, attached as they have always been to military glory, and
blinded them to other less agreeable measures of their government. But
the public were well aware, that the most brilliant share of these
laurels had been reaped by Buonaparte on his own account; that he had
received but slender reinforcements from France--the magnitude of his
achievements considered; and that in regard to the instructions of
government, much of his success was owing to his departure from them,
and following his own course. It was also whispered, that he was an
object of suspicion to the directors, and on his part undervalued their
talents, and despised their persons. On the Rhine, again, though nothing
could have been more distinguished than the behaviour of the Republican
armies, yet their successes had been checkered with many reverses, and,
contrasted with the Italian campaigns, lost their impression on the
imagination.
While they were thus becoming unpopular in the public opinion, the
Directory had the great misfortune to be at enmity among themselves.
From the time that Letourneur[316] retired from office in terms of the
constitution, and Barthelemy was elected in his stead, there was a
majority and an opposition in the Directory, the former consisting of
Barras, Rewbel,[317] and La Reveillere--the latter, of Carnot and
Barthelemy. Of the two last, Carnot (who had been, it may be remembered,
a member of the Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre) was a
determined Republican, and Barthelemy a Royalist;--so strangely do
revolutionary changes, like the eddies and currents of a swollen river,
bring together and sweep down side by side in the same direction,
objects the most different and opposed. Barthelemy of course dissented
from the majority of the Directors, because secretly and warmly he
desired the restoration of the Bourbons--an event which must have been
fraught with danger to his colleagues, all of whom had voted for the
death of Louis XVI. Carnot also differed from the majority, certainly
with no such wish or view; but, his temper being as overbearing as his
genius was extensive, he was impatient of opposition, especially in such
cases where he knew he was acting wisely. He advised strongly, for
example, the ratification of the articles of Leoben, instead of placing
all which France had acquired, and all which she might lose, on the last
fatal cast with an enemy, strong in his very despair, and who might
raise large armies, while that of Buonaparte could neither be reinforced
nor supported in case of a reverse. Barras's anger on the occasion was
so great, that he told Carnot at the council-board, it was to him they
owed that infamous treaty of Leoben.
While the Directory were thus disunited among themselves, the nation
showed their dissatisfaction openly, and particularly in the two bodies
of representatives. The majority indeed of the Council of Elders adhered
to the Directory, many of that body belonging to the old republican
partisans. But in the more popularly composed Council of Five Hundred,
the opposition to the government possessed a great majority, all of whom
were decidedly against the Directory, and most of them impressed with
the wish of restoring, upon terms previously to be adjusted, the ancient
race of legitimate monarchs. This body of persons so thinking, was much
increased by the number of emigrants, who obtained, on various grounds,
permission to return to their native country after the fall of
Robespierre. The forms of civil life began now to be universally
renewed; and, as had been the case in France at all times, excepting
during the bloody Reign of Terror, women of rank, beauty, talent, and
accomplishments, began again to resume their places in society, and
their saloons or boudoirs were often the scene of deep political
discourse, of a sort which in Britain is generally confined to the
cabinet, library, or dining-parlour. The wishes of many, or most of
these coteries, were in favour of royalty; the same feelings were
entertained by the many thousands who saw no possible chance of settling
the nation on any other model; and there is little doubt, that had
France been permitted at that moment an uninfluenced choice, the Bourbon
family would have been recalled to the throne by the great majority of
the French people.
But, for reasons mentioned elsewhere, the military were the decided
opponents of the Bourbons, and the purchasers of national domains,
through every successive sale which might have taken place, were deeply
interested against their restoration. Numbers might be on the side of
the Royalists; but physical force, and the influence of wealth and of
the monied interest, were decidedly against them.
[Sidenote: PICHEGRU.]
Pichegru might now be regarded as chief of the Royal party. He was an
able and successful general, to whom France owed the conquest of
Holland. Like La Fayette and Dumouriez, he had been disgusted with the
conduct of the Revolution; and like the last of the two generals named,
had opened a communication with the Bourbons. He was accused of having
suffered his army to be betrayed in a defeat by Clairfait; and the
government, in 1796, removed him from the command of the army of the
Sambre and Meuse, offering him in exchange the situation of ambassador
to Sweden. He declined this species of honourable exile, and, retiring
to Franche Compté, continued his correspondence with the Imperial
generals.[318] The Royalists expected much from the countenance of a
military man of a name so imposing; but we have seen more than once in
the course of these memoirs, that a general without an army is like a
hilt without the blade which it should wield and direct.
An opportunity, however, offered Pichegru the means of serving his party
in a civil capacity, and that a most important one. The elections of
May, 1797, made to replace that proportion of the councils which retired
by rotation, terminated generally in favour of the Royalists, and served
plainly to show on which side the balance of popular feeling now leaned.
Pichegru, who had been returned as one of the deputies, was chosen by
acclamation President of the Council of Five Hundred, and Barbé Marbois,
another Royalist, was elected to the same office by the Council of
Ancients, while, as we have already said, Barthelemy likewise friendly
to monarchy, was introduced into the Directory.
These elections were evil signs for the Directory, who did not fail soon
to be attacked on every side, and upbraided with the continuance of the
war and the financial distresses. Various journals were at the disposal
of the party opposed to the majority of the directors, and hostilities
were commenced between the parties, both in the assemblies, where the
Royalists had the advantage, and in the public papers, where they were
also favourably listened to. The French are of an impatient temper, and
could not be long brought to carry on their warfare within the limits
assigned by the constitution. Each party, without much regard to the
state of the law, looked about for the means of physical force with
which they might arm themselves. The Directory, (that is, the majority
of that body,) sensible of their unpopularity, and the predominance of
the opposite party, which seemed for a time to have succeeded to the
boldness and audacity of the revolutionary class had, in their agony of
extremity, recourse to the army, and threw themselves upon the succour
of Hoche and of Buonaparte.
We have elsewhere said, that Buonaparte at this period was esteemed a
steady Republican. Pichegru believed him to be such when he dissuaded
the Royalists from any attempt to gain over the General of Italy; and as
he had known him at school at Brienne, declared him of too stubborn a
character to afford the least hope of success. Augereau was of the same
opinion, and mistook his man so much, that when Madame de Staël asked
whether Buonaparte was not inclined to make himself King of Lombardy, he
replied, with great simplicity, "that he was a young man of too elevated
a character."[319] Perhaps Buonaparte himself felt the same for a
moment, when, in a despatch to the Directory, he requests their leave to
withdraw from the active service of the Republic, as one who had
acquired more glory than was consistent with happiness. "Calumny," he
said, "may torment herself in vain with ascribing to me treacherous
designs. My civil, like my military career, shall be conforming to
republican principles."[320]
The public papers also, those we mean on the side of the Directory, fell
into a sort of rapture on the classical republican feelings by which
Buonaparte was actuated, which they said rendered the hope of his return
a pleasure pure and unmixed, and precluded the possibility of treachery
or engrossing ideas on his side. "The factious of every class," they
said, "cannot have an enemy more steady, or the government a friend more
faithful, than he who, invested with the military power of which he has
made so glorious a use, sighs only to resign a situation so brilliant,
prefers happiness to glory, and now that the Republic is graced with
triumph and peace, desires for himself only a simple and retired
life."[321]
But though such were the ideas then entertained of Buonaparte's truly
republican character, framed, doubtless, on the model of Cincinnatus in
his classical simplicity, we may be permitted to look a little closer
into the ultimate views of him, who was admitted by his enemies and
friends, avouched by himself, and sanctioned by the journals, as a pure
and disinterested republican: and we think the following changes may be
traced.
Whether Buonaparte was ever at heart a real Jacobin even for the moment,
may be greatly doubted, whatever mask his situation obliged him to wear.
He himself always repelled the charge as an aspersion. His engagement in
the affair of the Sections probably determined his opinions as
Republican, or rather Thermidorien, at the time, as became him by whom
the Republican army had been led and commanded on that day. Besides, at
the head of an army zealously republican, even his power over their
minds required to be strengthened, for some time at least, by an
apparent correspondence in political sentiments betwixt the troops and
the general. But in the practical doctrines of government which he
recommended to the Italian Republics, his ideas were studiously
moderate, and he expressed the strongest fear of, and aversion to,
revolutionary doctrines. He recommended the granting equal rights and
equal privileges to the nobles, as well as to the indignant vassals and
plebeians who had risen against them. In a word, he advocated a free set
of institutions, without the intermediate purgatory of a revolution. He
was, therefore, at this period, far from being a Jacobin.
But though Buonaparte's wishes were thus wisely moderated by practical
views, he was not the less likely to be sensible that he was the object
of fear, of hatred, and of course of satire and misrepresentation, to
that side of the opposed parties in France which favoured royalty.
Unhappily for himself, he was peculiarly accessible to every wound of
this nature, and, anxiously jealous of his fame, suffered as much under
the puny attacks of the journalists,[322] as a noble steer or a gallant
horse does amid his rich pasture, under the persecutions of insects,
which, in comparison to himself, are not only impotent, but nearly
invisible. In several letters to the Directory, he exhibits feelings of
this nature which would have been more gracefully concealed, and evinces
an irritability against the opposition prints, which we think likely to
have increased the zeal with which he came forward on the Republican
side at this important crisis.[323]
[Sidenote: INTRIGUES OF PICHEGRU.]
Another circumstance, which, without determining Buonaparte's conduct,
may have operated in increasing his good-will to the cause which he
embraced, was his having obtained the clew of Pichegru's correspondence
with the house of Bourbon.[324] To have concealed this, would have been
but a second rate merit with the exiled family, whose first thanks must
have been due to the partisan whom he protected. This was no part for
Buonaparte to play; not that we have a right to say he would have
accepted the chief character had it been offered to him, but his
ambition could never have stooped to any inferior place in the drama. In
all probability, his ideas fluctuated betwixt the example of Cromwell
and of Washington--to be the actual liberator, or the absolute governor
of his country.
His particular information respecting Pichegru's negotiations, was
derived from an incident at the capture of Venice.
When the degenerate Venetians, more under the impulse of vague terror
than from any distinct plan, adopted in haste and tumult the measure of
totally surrendering their constitution and rights, to be new modelled
by the French general after his pleasure, they were guilty of a gross
and aggravated breach of hospitality, in seizing the person and papers
of the Comte d'Entraigues,[325] agent or envoy of the exiled Bourbons,
who was then residing under their protection. The envoy himself, as
Buonaparte alleges, was not peculiarly faithful to his trust; but,
besides his information, his portfolio contained many proofs of
Pichegru's correspondence with the allied generals, and with the
Bourbons, which placed his secret absolutely in the power of the General
of Italy, and might help to confirm the line of conduct which he had
already meditated to adopt.
Possessed of these documents, and sure that, in addressing a French army
of the day, he would swim with the tide if he espoused the side of
Republicanism, Buonaparte harangued his troops on the anniversary of the
taking the Bastille, in a manner calculated to awake their ancient
democratic enthusiasm:--"Soldiers, this is the 14th July! You see before
you the names of our companions in arms, dead in the field of honour for
the liberty of their country. They have set you an example; you owe your
lives to thirty millions of Frenchmen, and to the national name, which
has received new splendour from your victories. Soldiers! I am aware you
are deeply affected by the dangers which threaten the country. But she
can be subjected to none which are real. The same men who made France
triumph over united Europe, still live.--Mountains separate us from
France, but you would traverse them with the speed of eagles, were it
necessary to maintain the constitution, defend liberty, protect the
Government and the Republicans. Soldiers, the Government watches over
the laws as a sacred deposit committed to them. The Royalists shall only
show themselves to perish. Dismiss all inquietude, and let us swear by
the manes of those heroes who have died by our sides for liberty--let us
swear, too, on our standards--War to the enemies of the Republic, and of
the Constitution of the year Three!"[326]
It is needless to remark, that, under the British constitution, or any
other existing on fixed principles, the haranguing an armed body of
soldiers, with the purpose of inducing them to interfere by force in
any constitutional question, would be in one point of view mutiny, in
another high treason.
The hint so distinctly given by the general, was immediately adopted by
the troops. Deep called to deep, and each division of the army, whatever
its denomination, poured forth its menaces of military force and
compulsion against the opposition party in the councils, who held
opinions different from those of their military chief, but which they
had, at least hitherto, only expressed and supported by those means of
resistance which the constitution placed in their power. In other words,
the soldiers' idea of a republic was, that the sword was to decide the
constitutional debates, which give so much trouble to ministers in a
mixed or settled government. The Pretorian bands, the Strelitzes, the
Janissaries, have all in their turn entertained this primitive and
simple idea of reforming abuses in a state, and changing, by the
application of military force, an unpopular dynasty, or an obnoxious
ministry.
[Sidenote: AUGEREAU DESPATCHED TO PARIS.]
It was not by distant menaces alone that Buonaparte served the Directory
at this important crisis. He despatched Augereau to Paris, ostensibly
for the purpose of presenting the standards taken at Mantua, but in
reality to command the armed force which the majority of the Directory
had determined to employ against their dissentient colleagues, and the
opponents of their measures in the national councils. Augereau was a
blunt, bold, stupid soldier, a devoted Jacobin, whose principles were
sufficiently well known to warrant his standing upon no constitutional
delicacies.[327] But in case the Directory failed, Buonaparte kept
himself in readiness to march instantly to Lyons at the head of fifteen
thousand men. There rallying the Republicans, and all who were attached
to the Revolution, he would, according to his own well-chosen
expression, like Cæsar, have crossed the Rubicon at the head of the
popular party--and ended, doubtless, like Cæsar, by himself usurping the
supreme command, which he pretended to assert in behalf of the
people.[328]
[Sidenote: Sept. 4.]
But Buonaparte's presence was not so essentially necessary to the
support of the Directory as he might have expected, or as he perhaps
hoped. They had military aid nearer at hand. Disregarding a fundamental
law of the Constitution, which declared that armed troops should not be
brought within a certain distance of the Legislative Bodies, they moved
towards Paris a part of General Hoche's army. The majority of the
Councils becoming alarmed, prepared means of defence by summoning the
national guards to arms. But Augereau allowed them no time. He marched
to their place of meeting, at the head of a considerable armed
force.[329] The guards stationed for their protection, surprised or
faithless, offered no resistance; and, proceeding as men possessed of
the superior strength, the Directory treated their political opponents
as state prisoners, arrested Barthelemey--Carnot having fled to
Geneva--and made prisoners, in the hall of the Assembly and elsewhere,
Willot, President of the Council of Ancients, Pichegru, President of
that of the Five Hundred,[330] and above one hundred and fifty deputies,
journalists, and other public characters. As an excuse for these
arbitrary and illegal proceedings, the Directory made public the
intercepted correspondence of Pichegru; although few of the others
involved in the same accusation were in the secret of the Royalist
conspiracy. Indeed, though all who desired an absolute repose from the
revolutionary altercations which tore the country to pieces, began to
look that way, he must have been a violent partisan of royalty indeed,
that could have approved of the conduct of a general, who, like
Pichegru, commanding an army, had made it his business to sacrifice his
troops to the sword of the enemy, by disappointing and deranging those
plans which it was his duty to have carried into effect.
Few would at first believe Pichegru's breach of faith; but it was
suddenly confirmed by a proclamation of Moreau, who, in the course of
the war, had intercepted a baggage waggon belonging to the Austrian
general Klinglin, and became possessed of the whole secret
correspondence, which, nevertheless, he had never mentioned, until it
came out by the seizure of the Comte d'Entraigues' portfolio. Then,
indeed, fearing perhaps the consequences of having been so long silent,
Moreau published what he knew. Regnier had observed the same suspicious
silence; which seems to infer, that if these generals did not precisely
favour the royal cause, they were not disposed to be active in detecting
the conspiracies formed in its behalf.
[Sidenote: THE EIGHTEENTH FRUCTIDOR.]
The Directory made a tyrannical use of the power which they obtained by
their victory of the 18th Fructidor, as this epoch was called. They
spilt, indeed, no blood, but otherwise their measures against the
defeated party were of the most illegal and oppressive character. A law,
passed in the heat of animosity, condemned two directors, fifty
deputies, and a hundred and forty-eight individuals of different classes
(most of whom were persons of some character and influence,) to be
transported to the scorching and unhealthy deserts of Guiana, which, to
many, was a sentence of lingering but certain death. They were
barbarously treated, both on the passage to that dreadful place, and
after they arrived there. It was a singular part of their fate, that
they found several of the fiercest of their ancient enemies, the
Jacobins, still cursing God and defying man, in the same land of
wretchedness and exile.
Besides these severities, various elections were arbitrarily dissolved,
and other strong measures of public safety, as they were called,
adopted, to render the power of the Directory more indisputable. During
this whole revolution, the lower portion of the population, which used
to be so much agitated upon like occasions, remained perfectly quiet;
the struggle lay exclusively between the middle classes, who inclined to
a government on the basis of royalty, and the Directory, who, without
having any very tangible class of political principles, had become
possessed of the supreme power, desired to retain it, and made their
point good by the assistance of the military.
Buonaparte was much disappointed at the result of the 18th Fructidor,
chiefly because, if less decisive, it would have added more to his
consequence, and have given him an opportunity of crossing, as he termed
it, the Rubicon. As it was, the majority of the directors,--three men of
no particular talent, undistinguished alike by birth, by services to
their country, or even by accidental popularity, and cast as it were by
chance, upon supreme power,--remained by the issue of the struggle still
the masters of the bold and ambitious conqueror, who probably already
felt his own vocation to be for command rather than obedience.
Napoleon appears by his Memoirs to have regretted the violence with
which the victorious directors prosecuted their personal revenge, which
involved many for whom he had respect. He declares his own idea of
punishment would have gone no farther than imprisoning some of the most
dangerous conspirators, and placing others under the watchful
superintendence of the police. He must have taken some painful interest
in the fate of Carnot in particular, whom he seems to have regarded as
one of his most effective patrons.[331] Indeed, it is said that he was
so much displeased with the Directory even prior to the 18th Fructidor,
that he refused to remit a sum of money with which he had promised to
aid them for the purpose of forwarding that event.[332] Barras's
secretary was sent to task him with this contumacy: which he did so
unceremoniously, that the general, unused to contradiction, was about to
order this agent to be shot; but, on consideration, put him off with
some insignificant reply.
[Sidenote: THE DIRECTORY.]
It followed, from the doubtful terms on which Buonaparte stood with the
Directory, that they must have viewed his return to Paris with some
apprehension, when they considered the impression likely to be made on
any capital, but especially on that of Paris, by the appearance there of
one who seemed to be the chosen favourite of Fortune, and to deserve her
favours by the use which he made of them. The mediocrity of such men as
Barras never gives them so much embarrassment, as when, being raised to
an elevation above their desert, they find themselves placed in
comparison with one to whom nature has given the talents which their
situation requires in themselves. The higher their condition, their
demeanour is the more awkward; for the factious advantages which they
possess cannot raise them to the natural dignity of character, unless in
the sense in which a dwarf, by the assistance of crutches, may be said
to be as tall as a giant. The Directory had already found Buonaparte, on
several occasions, a spirit of the sort which would not be commanded.
Undoubtedly they would have been well pleased had it been possible to
have found him employment at a distance; but as that seemed difficult,
they were obliged to look round for the means of employing him at home,
or abide the tremendous risk of his finding occupation for himself.
It is surprising that it did not occur to the Directory to make at least
the attempt of conciliating Buonaparte, by providing for his future
fortune largely and liberally, at the expense of the public. He deserved
that attention to his private affairs, for he had himself entirely
neglected them. While he drew from the dominions which he conquered or
overawed in Italy, immense sums in behalf of the French nation, which he
applied in part to the support of the army, and in part remitted to the
Directory, he kept no accounts, nor were any demanded of him; but
according to his own account, he transmitted sixty millions of francs to
Paris, and had not remaining of his own funds, when he returned from
Italy, more than three hundred thousand.[333]
It is no doubt true, that, to raise these sums, Buonaparte had pillaged
the old states, thus selling to the newly formed commonwealths their
liberty and equality at a very handsome rate, and probably leaving them
in very little danger of corruption from that wealth which is said to be
the bane of republican virtue. But on the other hand, it must be
acknowledged, that if the French general plundered the Italians as
Cortez did the Mexicans, he did not reserve any considerable share of
the spoil for his own use, though the opportunity was often in his
power.
The commissary Salicetti, his countryman, recommended a less scrupulous
line of conduct. Soon after the first successes in Italy, he acquainted
Napoleon that the Chevalier d'Este, the Duke of Modena's brother and
envoy, had four millions of francs, in gold, contained in four chests,
prepared for his acceptance. "The Directory and the Legislative Bodies
will never," he said, "acknowledge your services--your circumstances
require the money, and the duke will gain a protector."
"I thank you," said Buonaparte; "but I will not for four millions place
myself in the power of the Duke of Modena."
The Venetians, in the last agony of their terrors, offered the French
general a present of seven millions, which was refused in the same
manner. Austria also had made her proffers; and they were nothing less
than a principality in the empire, to be established in Napoleon's
favour, consisting of two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants at
least, a provision which would have put him out of danger of suffering
by the proverbial ingratitude of a republic. The general transmitted his
thanks to the Emperor for this proof of the interest which he took in
his fortune, but added, he could accept of no wealth or preferment which
did not proceed from the French people, and that he should be always
satisfied with the amount of revenue which they might be disposed to
afford him.[334]
But however free from the wish to obtain wealth by any indirect means,
Napoleon appears to have expected, that in return for public services of
such an unusual magnitude, some provision ought to have been made for
him. An attempt was made to procure a public grant of the domain of
Chambord, and a large hotel in Paris, as an acknowledgment of the
national gratitude for his brilliant successes; but the Directory
thwarted the proposal.
[Sidenote: Nov. 5.]
The proposition respecting Chambord was not the only one of the kind.
Malibran, a member of the Council of Five Hundred, made a motion that
Buonaparte should be endowed with a revenue at the public charge, of
fifty thousand livres annually, with a reversion to his wife of one half
of that sum.[335] It may be supposed that this motion had not been
sufficiently considered and preconcerted, since it was very
indifferently received, and was evaded by the swaggering declaration of
a member,[336] that such glorious deeds could not be rewarded by gold.
So that the Assembly adopted the reasonable principle, that because the
debt of gratitude was too great to be paid in money, therefore he to
whom it was due was to be suffered to remain in comparative
indigence--an economical mode of calculation, and not unlike that
high-sounding doctrine of the civil law, which states, that a free man
being seized on, and forcibly sold for a slave, shall obtain no damages
on that account, because the liberty of a citizen is too transcendently
valuable to be put to estimation.
Whatever might be the motives of the Directory; whether they hoped that
poverty might depress Buonaparte's ambition, render him more dependent
on the government, and oblige him to remain in a private condition for
want of means to put himself at the head of a party; or whether they
acted with the indistinct and confused motives of little minds, who wish
to injure those whom they fear, their conduct was alike ungracious and
impolitic. They ought to have calculated, that a generous mind would
have been attached by benefits, and that a selfish one might have been
deterred from more doubtful and ambitious projects, by a prospect of
sure and direct advantage; but that marked ill-will and distrust must in
every case render him dangerous, who has the power to be so.
Their plan, instead of resting on an attempt to conciliate the ambitious
conqueror, and soothe him to the repose of a tranquil indulgence of
independence and ease, seems to have been that of devising for him new
labours, like the wife of Eurystheus for the juvenile Hercules. If he
succeeded, they may have privately counted upon securing the advantages
for themselves; if he failed, they were rid of a troublesome rival in
the race of power and popularity. It was with these views that they
proposed to Napoleon to crown his military glories, by assuming the
command of the preparations made for the conquest of England.
FOOTNOTES:
[309] An Italian, by name Buonarotti, and of the same family with the
great Michael Angelo, has recently published a full account of the
conspiracy of Babœuf,--to this writer the curious reader is referred.
"Les fruits sont à tous, la terre à personne," was his favourite text
and that of his fellow-levellers, and the burden of their songs, which
were to take place of Ca Ira, and La Carmagnole, was "Le Soleil luit
pour tout le monde." On being arrested, Babœuf wrote to the
Directory--"Whatever may be my fate, my name will be placed with those
of Barnevet and Sidney; whether conducted to death or to banishment, I
am certain of arriving at immortality!" He was condemned to the
guillotine in May, 1797, but stabbed himself in his prison.
[310] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 195.
[311] A decree of the Directory, of the 25th January, 1797, fixed the
current value of assignats at twenty sous for a hundred
francs.--MONTGAILLARD, tom. v., p. 4.
[312] "When Barras went out of the Directory, he had still a large
fortune, and he did not attempt to conceal it. It was not, indeed, large
enough to have contributed to the derangement of the finances, but the
manner in which it had been acquired, by favouring the contractors,
impaired the morality of the nation."--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. iv.,
p. 135.
[313] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 200.
[314] "La Reveillere-Lepaux was short, and his exterior was as
unprepossessing as can well be imagined; in his person he was a true
Esop. He wrote tolerably well, but his intelligence was confined, and he
had neither habits of business, nor knowledge of mankind. The Jardin des
Plantes and the Theophilanthropy, a new sect of which he had the folly
to become the founder, occupied all his time. He was an honest man--poor
when he became a member of the Directory, and poor when he left
it."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. ii., p. 136.
[315] "The new system of weights and measures will be a source of
embarrassment and difficulties for several generations; and it is
probable that the first learned commission employed to verify the
measure of the meridian, will find it necessary to make some
corrections. Thus are nations tormented about trifles!"--NAPOLEON,
_Montholon_, tom. iv., p. 203.
[316] "Letourneur de la Manche was born in Normandy. It is difficult to
explain how he came to be appointed to the Directory; it can only be
from one of those unaccountable caprices of which large assemblies so
often give an example. He was a man of narrow capacity, little learning,
and of a weak mind. He was, however, a man of strict probity, and left
the Directory without any fortune."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. ii., p.
142.
[317] "Rewbel, born in Alsace, was one of the best lawyers in the town
of Colmar. He possessed that kind of intelligence which denotes a man
skilled in the practice of the law,--his influence was always felt in
deliberations--he was easily inspired with prejudices, and had little
faith in the existence of virtue. It is problematical whether he did or
did not amass a fortune, during the time he was in the
Directory."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. ii., p. 138.
[318] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 210.
[319] "This singular answer was in exact conformity with the ideas of
the moment. The sincere Republicans would have regarded it as a
degradation for a man, however distinguished he might be, to wish to
turn the revolution to his personal advantage."--MAD. DE STAËL, tom.
ii., p. 175.
[320] Moniteur, No. 224, May 3, 1797.--S.
[321] Le Rédacteur, May 1, 1797.
[322] "All the journals were full of harangues against the General of
the Army of Italy: They depreciated his successes, vilified his
character, calumniated his administration, threw out suspicions
respecting his fidelity to the Republic, and accused him of ambitious
designs."--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. iv., p. 212.
[323] See especially his Letter to the Directory, 17th
July.--_Correspondence Inédite_, tom. iv., p. 14.
[324] Montholon, tom. iv., pp. 148, 211.
[325] This gentleman was one of the second emigration, who left France
during Robespierre's ascendency. He was employed as a political agent by
the Court of Russia, after the affair of Venice, which proves that he
was not at least convicted of treachery to the Bourbon princes. In July,
1812, he was assassinated at his villa at Hackney, near London, by an
Italian domestic, who, having murdered both the Count and Countess, shot
himself through the head, leaving no clew to discover the motive of his
villany. It was remarked that the villain used Count d'Entraigues' own
pistols and dagger, which, apprehensive of danger as a political
intriguer, he had always ready prepared in his apartment.--S.
[326] Moniteur, No. 305, July 23.
[327] "The Directory requested General Buonaparte to send one of his
generals of brigade to Paris, to await their orders. He chose General
Augereau, a man very decided in action, and not very capable of
reasoning--two qualities which rendered him an excellent instrument of
despotism, provided the despotism assumed the name of revolution."--MAD.
DE STAËL, tom. ii., p. 180.
[328] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 216.
[329] "I spent the night of the 17th in beholding the preparations for
the awful scene which was to take place in a few hours. None but
soldiers appeared in the streets. The cannon, brought to surround the
palace where the Legislative Body assembled, were rolling along the
pavements; but, except their noise, all was silence. No hostile
assemblage was seen any where; nor was it known against whom all this
apparatus was directed. Liberty was the only power vanquished in that
fatal struggle. It might have been said, that she was seen to fly, like
a wandering spirit, at the approach of the day which was to shine upon
her destruction."--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. ii., p. 182.
[330] "Astonishment was excited by the little respect which the soldiers
showed for a general who had so often led them to victory; but he had
been successfully represented as a counter-revolutionist--a name which
when the public opinion is free, exercises in France a kind of magical
power. Besides, Pichegru had no means of producing an effect on the
imagination: He was a man of good manners, but without striking
expression, either in his features or his words. It has often been said,
that he was guided in war by the councils of another. This is, at least,
credible; for his look and conversation were so dull, that they
suggested no idea of his being fit for becoming the leader of any
enterprise."--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. ii., p. 184.
[331] In Carnot's Memoirs, the merit of discovering Buonaparte's talents
and taking care of his promotion, is attributed to Carnot, rather than
to Barras. However this may be, it is certain that Napoleon acknowledged
great obligation to Carnot, and protested to him perpetual
gratitude.--See _Moniteur_, No. 140, Feb. 1, 1797.--S.
[332] Las Cases, tom. ii., p. 155.
[333] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 267.
[334] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 103.
[335] Moniteur, Nov. 8; Thibaudeau, tom. iii., p. 423.
[336] "Un grenadier Français avait fait une action très brillante; son
général lui offre trois louis. Plus noble, plus généreux, le grenadier
refuse, et lui dit: '_Mon général, on ne fait pas ces choses-là pour de
l'argent._' Irez-vous offrir de l'or à un homme courbé sous le poids des
lauriers? Non non, l'ame de Buonaparte est trop grande,"
&c.--THIBAUDEAU, tom. iii., p. 423.