_Preparations for the Invasion of Britain--Nelson put in command
of the Sea--Attack of the Boulogne Flotilla--Pitt leaves the
Ministry--succeeded by Mr. Addington--Negotiations for
Peace--Just punishment of England, in regard to the conquered
Settlements of the enemy--Forced to restore them all, save
Ceylon and Trinidad--Malta is placed under the guarantee of a
Neutral Power--Preliminaries of Peace signed--Joy of the English
Populace, and doubts of the better classes--Treaty of Amiens
signed--The ambitious projects of Napoleon, nevertheless,
proceed without interruption--Extension of his power in
Italy--He is appointed Consul for life, with the power of naming
his Successor--His Situation at this period._
As the words of the first consul appeared to intimate, preparations were
resumed on the French coast for the invasion of Great Britain. Boulogne,
and every harbour along the coast, was crowded with flat-bottomed boats,
and the shores covered with camps of the men designed apparently to
fill them. We need not at present dwell on the preparations for attack,
or those which the English adopted in defence, as we shall have occasion
to notice both, when Buonaparte, for the last time, threatened England
with the same measure. It is enough to say, that, on the present
occasion, the menaces of France had their usual effect in awakening the
spirit of Britain.
The most extensive arrangements were made for the reception of the
invaders should they chance to land, and in the meanwhile, our natural
barrier was not neglected. The naval preparations were very great, and
what gave yet more confidence than the number of vessels and guns,
Nelson was put into command of the sea, from Orfordness to Beachyhead.
Under his management, it soon became the question, not whether the
French flotilla was to invade the British shores, but whether it was to
remain in safety in the French harbours. Boulogne was bombarded, and
some of the small craft and gun-boats destroyed--the English admiral
generously sparing the town; and not satisfied with this partial
success, Nelson prepared to attack them with the boats of the squadron.
The French resorted to the most unusual and formidable preparations for
defence. Their flotilla was moored close to the shore in the mouth of
Boulogne harbour, the vessels secured to each other by chains, and
filled with soldiers. The British attack in some degree failed, owing to
the several divisions of boats missing each other in the dark; some
French vessels were taken, but they could not be brought off; and the
French chose to consider this result as a victory, on their part, of
consequence enough to balance the loss at Aboukir;--though it amounted
at best to ascertaining, that although their vessels could not keep the
sea, they might, in some comparative degree of safety, lie under close
cover of their own batteries. Meantime, the changes which had taken
place in the British administration, were preparing public expectation
for that peace which all the world now longed for.
[Sidenote: PITT LEAVES THE MINISTRY.]
Mr. Pitt, as is well known, left the Ministry, [Feb. 1801,] and was
succeeded in the office of first Minister of State by Mr. Addington, now
Lord Sidmouth. The change was justly considered as friendly to pacific
measures; for, in France especially, the gold of Pitt had been by habit
associated with all that was prejudicial to their country. The very
massacres of Paris, nay, the return of Buonaparte from Egypt, were
imputed to the intrigues of the English minister; he was the scape-goat
on whom were charged as the ultimate cause, all the follies, crimes, and
misfortunes of the Revolution.
A great part of his own countrymen, as well as of the French,
entertained a doubt of the possibility of concluding a peace under Mr.
Pitt's auspices; while those who were most anti-Gallican in their
opinions, had little wish to see his lofty spirit stoop to the task of
arranging conditions of treaty on terms so different from what his
hopes had once dictated. The worth, temper, and talents of his
successor, seemed to qualify him to enter into a negotiation to which
the greater part of the nation was now inclined, were it but for the
sake of experiment.
[Sidenote: TREATY OF AMIENS.]
Buonaparte himself was at this time disposed to peace. It was necessary
to France, and no less necessary to him, since he otherwise must remain
pledged to undertake the hazardous alternative of invasion, in which
chances stood incalculably against his success; while a failure might
have, in its consequences, inferred the total ruin of his power. All
parties were, therefore, in a great degree inclined to treat with
sincerity; and Buonaparte was with little difficulty brought to consent
to the evacuation of Egypt, there being every reason to believe that he
was already possessed of the news of the convention with Menou. At any
rate, the French cause in Egypt had been almost desperate ever since the
battle of Alexandria, and the first consul was conscious that in this
sacrifice he only resigned that which there was little chance of his
being able to keep. It was also stipulated, that the French should
evacuate Rome and Naples; a condition of little consequence, as they
were always able to reoccupy these countries when their interest
required it. The Dutch colony of the Cape of Good Hope was to be
restored to the Batavian republic, and declared a free port.
In respect of the settlements which the British arms had conquered,
England underwent a punishment not unmerited. The conquest of the
enemy's colonies had been greatly too much an object of the English
Ministry; and thus the national force had been frittered away upon
acquisitions of comparatively petty importance, which, from the
insalubrity of the climate, cost us more men to maintain them than would
have been swept off by many a bloody battle. All the conquests made on
this peddling plan of warfare, were now to be returned without any
equivalent. Had the gallant soldiers, who perished miserably for the
sake of these sugar-islands, been united in one well-concerted
expedition, to the support of Charette, or La Rochejacquelein, such a
force might have enabled these chiefs to march to Paris; or, if sent to
Holland, might have replaced the Stadtholder in his dominions. And now,
these very sugar-islands, the pitiful compensation which Britain had
received for the blood of her brave children, were to be restored to
those from whom they had been wrested. The important possessions of
Ceylon in the East, and Trinidad in the West Indies, were the only part
of her conquests which England retained. The integrity of her ancient
ally, Portugal, was, however, recognised, and the independence of the
Ionian islands was stipulated for and guaranteed. Britain restored porto
Ferrajo, and what other places she had occupied in the isle of Elba, or
on the Italian coast; but the occupation of Malta for some time
threatened to prove an obstacle to the treaty. The English considered it
as of the last consequence that this strong island should remain in
their possession, and intimated that they regarded the pertinacious
resistance which the first consul testified to this proposal, as
implying a private and unavowed desire of renewing, at some future
opportunity, his designs on Egypt, to which Malta might be considered as
in some measure a key. After much discussion, it was at length agreed
that the independence of the island should be secured by its being
garrisoned by a neutral power, and placed under its guarantee and
protection.
The preliminaries of peace were signed 10th October, 1801. General Law
de Lauriston,[642] the school companion and first aide-de-camp of
Buonaparte, brought them over from Paris to London, where they were
received with the most extravagant joy by the populace, to whom novelty
is a sufficient recommendation of almost any thing. But amidst the
better classes, the sensation was much divided. There was a small but
energetic party, led by the celebrated Windham, who, adopting the
principles of Burke to their utmost extent, considered the act of
treating with a regicide government as indelible meanness, and as a
dereliction, on the part of Great Britain, of those principles of
legitimacy, upon which the social compact ought to rest. More moderate
anti-Gallicans, while they regretted that our efforts in favour of the
Bourbons had been totally unavailing, contended with reason, that we
were not so closely leagued to their cause as to be bound to sacrifice
our own country, in a vain attempt to restore the exiled family to the
throne of France. This was the opinion entertained by Pitt himself, and
the most judicious among his followers. Lastly, there was the professed
Opposition, who, while rejoicing that we had been able to obtain peace
on any terms, might now exult in the fulfilment of their predictions of
the bad success of the war. Sheridan summed up what was perhaps the most
general feeling in the country, with the observation, that "it was a
peace which all men were glad of, and no man could be proud of."
Amiens was appointed for the meeting of commissioners, who were finally
to adjust the treaty of pacification, which was not ended till five
months after the preliminaries had been agreed on. After this long
negotiation, the treaty was at length signed, 25th March, 1802. The isle
of Malta, according to this agreement, was to be occupied by a garrison
of Neapolitan troops, while, besides Britain and France, Austria, Spain,
Russia, and Prussia, were to guarantee its neutrality. The Knights of
St. John were to be the sovereigns, but neither French nor English were
in future to be members of that order. The harbours were to be free to
the commerce of all nations, and the order was to be neutral towards all
nations save the Algerines and other piratical states.
Napoleon, had he chosen to examine into the feelings of the English,
must have seen plainly that this treaty, unwillingly acceded to by them,
and only by way of experiment, was to have a duration long or short, in
proportion to their confidence in, or doubt of, his own good faith. His
ambition, and the little scruple which he showed in gratifying it, was,
he must have been sensible, the terror of Europe; and until the fears he
had excited were disarmed by a tract of peaceful and moderate conduct on
his part, the suspicions of England must have been constantly awake, and
the peace between the nations must have been considered as precarious as
an armed truce. Yet these considerations could not induce him to lay
aside, or even postpone, a train of measures, tending directly to his
own personal aggrandisement, and confirming the jealousies which his
character already inspired. These measures were partly of a nature
adapted to consolidate and prolong his own power in France; partly to
extend the predominating influence of that country over her continental
neighbours.
By the treaty of Luneville, and by that of Tolentino, the independent
existence of the Cisalpine and Helvetian republics had been expressly
stipulated; but this independence, according to Buonaparte's explanation
of the word, did not exclude their being reduced to mere satellites, who
depended on, and whose motions were to be regulated by France, and, by
himself, the chief governor of France and all her dependencies. When,
therefore, the Directory was overthrown in France, it was not his
purpose that a directorial form of government should continue to subsist
in Italy. Measures were on this account to be taken, to establish in
that country something resembling the new consular model adopted in
Paris.
For this purpose, in the beginning of January, 1802, a convention of 450
deputies from the Cisalpine states arrived at Lyons, (for they were not
trusted to deliberate within the limits of their own country,) to
contrive for themselves a new political system. In that period, when the
modelling of constitutions was so common, there was no difficulty in
drawing up one; which consisted of a president, a deputy-president, a
legislative council, and three electoral colleges, composed, first, of
proprietors; second, of persons of learning; and, third, of commercial
persons. If the Italians had been awkward upon the occasion, they had
the assistance of Talleyrand; and soon after, the arrival of Buonaparte
himself at Lyons gave countenance to their operations. His presence was
necessary for the exhibition of a most singular farce.
A committee of thirty of the Italian convention, to whom had been
intrusted the principal duty of suggesting the new model of government,
gave in a report, in which it was stated, that, from the want of any man
of sufficient influence amongst themselves to fill the office of
president, upon whom devolved all the executive duties of the state, the
new system could not be considered as secure, unless Buonaparte should
be prevailed upon to fill that situation, not, as it was carefully
explained, in his character of head of the French government, but in his
individual capacity. Napoleon graciously inclined to their suit. He
informed them, that he concurred in the modest opinion they had formed,
that their republic did not at present possess an individual
sufficiently gifted with talents and impartiality to take charge of
their affairs, which he should, therefore, retain under his own chief
management, while circumstances required him to do so.
[Sidenote: PROJECTS OF AMBITION--CONSUL FOR LIFE.]
Having thus established his power in Italy as firmly as in France,
Buonaparte proceeded to take measures for extending his dominions in the
former country and elsewhere. By a treaty with Spain, now made public,
it appeared that the duchy of Parma was to devolve on France, together
with the island of Elba, upon the death of the present duke--an event at
no distant date to be expected. The Spanish part of the province of
Louisiana, in North America, was to be ceded to France by the same
treaty. Portugal, too, though the integrity of her dominions had been
guaranteed by the preliminaries of the peace with England, had been
induced, by a treaty kept studiously private from the British court, to
cede her province of Guiana to France. These stipulations served to show
that there was no quarter of the world in which France and her present
ruler did not entertain views of aggrandisement, and that questions of
national faith would not be considered too curiously when they
interfered with their purpose.
While Europe was stunned and astonished at the spirit of conquest and
accumulation manifested by this insatiable conqueror, France was made
aware that he was equally desirous to consolidate and to prolong his
power, as to extend it over near and distant regions. He was all, and
more than all, that sovereign had ever been; but he still wanted the
title and the permanence which royalty requires. To attain these was no
difficult matter, when the first consul was the prime mover of each act,
whether in the Senate or Tribunate; nor was he long of discovering
proper agents eager to gratify his wishes.
Chabot de L'Allier took the lead in the race of adulation.--Arising in
the Tribunate, he pronounced a long eulogium on Buonaparte, enhancing
the gratitude due to the hero by whom France had been preserved and
restored to victory. He therefore proposed that the Tribunate should
transmit to the Conservative Senate a resolution, requesting the Senate
to consider the manner of bestowing on Napoleon Buonaparte a splendid
mark of the national gratitude.
There was no misunderstanding this hint. The motion was unanimously
adopted, and transmitted to the Convention, to the Senate, to the
Legislative Body, and to the Consuls.
The Senate conceived they should best meet the demand now made upon
them, by electing Napoleon first consul for a second space of ten years,
to commence when the date of the original period, for which he was named
by the Constitution, should expire.
The proposition of the Senate being reduced into the form of a decree,
was intimated to Buonaparte, but fell short of his wishes; as it
assigned to him, however distant it was, a period at which he must be
removed from authority. It is true, that the space of seventeen years,
to which the edict of the Senate proposed to extend his power, seemed to
guarantee a very ample duration; and in point of fact, before the term
of its expiry arrived, he was prisoner at Saint Helena. But still there
was a termination, and that was enough to mortify his ambition.
[Sidenote: CONSUL FOR LIFE.]
He thanked the Senate, therefore, for this fresh mark of their
confidence, but eluded accepting it in express terms, by referring to
the pleasure of the people. Their suffrages, he said, had invested him
with power, and he could not think it right to accept of the
prolongation of that power but by their consent. It might have been
thought that there was now nothing left but to present the decree of the
Senate to the people. But the second and third consuls, Buonaparte's
colleagues at a humble distance, took it upon them, though the
constitution gave them no warrant for such a manœuvre, to alter the
question of the Senate, and to propose to the people one more acceptable
to Buonaparte's ambition, requesting their judgment, whether the chief
consul should retain his office, not for ten years longer, but for the
term of his life. By thus juggling, the proposal of the Senate was set
aside, and that assembly soon found it wisest to adopt the more liberal
views suggested by the consuls, to whom they returned thanks, for having
taught them (we suppose) how to appreciate a hint.
The question was sent down to the departments. The registers were opened
with great form, as if the people had really some constitutional right
to exercise. As the subscriptions were received at the offices of the
various functionaries of government, it is no wonder, considering the
nature of the question, that the ministers with whom the registers were
finally deposited, were enabled to report a majority of three millions
of citizens who gave votes in the affirmative. It was much more
surprising, that there should have been an actual minority of a few
hundred determined Republicans, with Carnot at their head, who answered
the question in the negative. This statesman observed, as he signed his
vote, that he was subscribing his sentence of deportation; from which we
may conjecture his opinion concerning the fairness of this mode of
consulting the people. He was mistaken notwithstanding. Buonaparte found
himself so strong, that he could afford to be merciful, and to assume a
show of impartiality, by suffering those to go unpunished who had
declined to vote for the increase of his power.[643]
He did not, however, venture to propose to the people another
innovation, which extended beyond his death the power which their
liberal gift had continued during his life. A simple decree of the
Senate assigned to Buonaparte the right of nominating his successor, by
a testamentary deed. So that Napoleon might call his children or
relatives to the succession of the empire of France, as to a private
inheritance; or, like Alexander, he might leave it to the most favoured
of his lieutenant-generals. To such a pass had the domination of a
military chief, for the space of betwixt two and three years, reduced
the fierce democracy and stubborn loyalty of the two factions, which
seemed before that period to combat for the possession of France.
Napoleon had stooped on them both, like the hawk in the fable.
The period at which we close this chapter was a most important one in
Napoleon's life, and seemed a crisis on which his fate, and that of
France, depended. Britain, his most inveterate and most successful
enemy, had seen herself compelled by circumstances to resort to the
experiment of a doubtful peace, rather than continue a war which seemed
to be waged without an object. The severe checks to national prosperity,
which arose from the ruined commerce and blockaded ports of France,
might now, under the countenance of the first consul, be exchanged for
the wealth that waits upon trade and manufactures. Her navy, of which
few vestiges were left save the Brest fleet, might now be recruited, and
resume by degrees that acquaintance with the ocean from which they had
long been debarred. The restored colonies of France might have added to
the sources of her national wealth, and she might have possessed--what
Buonaparte on a remarkable occasion declared to be the principal objects
he desired for her--ships, colonies, and commerce.
In his personal capacity, the first consul possessed all the power which
he desired, and a great deal more than, whether his own or the country's
welfare was regarded, he ought to have wished for. His victories over
the foes of France had, by their mere fame, enabled him to make himself
master of her freedom. It remained to show--not whether Napoleon was a
patriot, for to that honourable name he had forfeited all title when he
first usurped unlimited power--but whether he was to use the power which
he had wrongfully acquired, like Trajan or like Domitian. His
strangely-mingled character showed traits of both these historical
portraits, strongly opposed as they are to each other. Or rather, he
might seem to be like Socrates in the allegory, alternately influenced
by a good and a malevolent demon; the former marking his course with
actions of splendour and dignity; while the latter, mastering human
frailty by means of its prevailing foible, the love of self, debased the
history of a hero, by actions and sentiments worthy only of a vulgar
tyrant.
FOOTNOTES:
[642] General Law of Lauriston was born at Pondicherry in 1768. He died
at Paris in 1828.
[643] Montgaillard, tom. v., pp. 470, 476; Jomini, tom. xv., p. 17. "For
six weeks," says Fouché, "the ministry was busily engaged in collecting
and transcribing the registers in which the suffrages for the consulship
for life were inscribed. Got up by a special committee, the report
presented 3,568,185 votes in the affirmative, and only 9074 in the
negative. On the 2d August, a _senatus consultum_, called organic,
conferred the perpetual power on the First Consul Buonaparte; and on the
15th, the anniversary of his birth, solemn prayers were offered up to
God for having, in his ineffable bounty, granted to France a man who had
deigned to consent to bear the burden of supreme power for his whole
life."--Tom. i., p. 236.