English diplomacy.—Lord Whitworth.—Chatham.—Castlereagh.—Cornwallis.—Fox, &c.

Monday 10th.—The course of our conversation to day led the Emperor to observe, that nothing was so dangerous and so treacherous as official conversations with diplomatical agents of Great Britain.  “The English Ministers,” said he, “never represent an affair as from their nation to another, but as from themselves to their own nation.  They care little what their adversaries have said or say ;  they boldly put forward what their diplomatical agents have said, or what they make them say, on the grounds that those agents having a public and acknowledged character, faith must be placed in their reports.  It is in pursuance of this principle,” Napoleon added, “that the English Ministers published at the time, under the name of Lord Whitworth, a long conversation between me and Whitworth, the account of which was entirely false.”^[1]

That ambassador had demanded an audience of the First Consul, and to hold conferences with him personally.  The First Consul, who was himself fond of treating affairs directly, willingly assented.  “But this proved for me,” said the Emperor, “a lesson which altered my method for ever.  From this moment I never treated officially of political affairs, but through the intervention of my minister for Foreign Affairs.  He at any rate could give a positive and formal denial ;  which the sovereign could not do.

“ It is utterly false,” added the Emperor, “ that any thing occurred in the course of our personal interview, which was not in conformity with the common rules of decorum.  Lord Whitworth himself after our conference, being in company with other Ambassadors, expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and added, that he had no doubt all things would be satisfactorily settled.  But what was the surprise of those same Ambassadors when they read a short time after in the English newspapers the report of Lord Whitworth, in which he charged me with having behaved in the interview with unbecoming violence ?  We had some warm friends amongst these Ambassadors, and some of them went so far as to express their surprise to the English diplomatist, observing to him that his report was very different from what he had said to them immediately after the conference.  Lord Whitworth made the best excuse he could, but persisted in maintaining the assertions of the official document.

“ The fact is,” said the Emperor, “ that every political agent of Great Britain is in the habit of making two reports on the same subject ;  one public and false for the ministerial archives, the other confidential and true for the Ministers themselves, and for them alone ;  and when the responsibility of Ministers is at stake, they produce the first of these documents, which, although false, answers every purpose, and serves to exonerate them.  And thus it is,” added the Emperor, “that the best institutions become vicious, when they are no longer founded on morality, and when their agents are only actuated by selfishness, pride, and insolence.  Absolute power has no need of disguise ;  it is silent ;  responsible governments, when obliged to speak, have recourse to artifice, and lie with effrontery.

“ It is, however, a circumstance worthy of remark, that in my great struggle with England, the government of that country has constantly contrived to attach so much odium to my person and actions ;  and that they have so impudently exclaimed against my despotism, my selfishness, my ambition, and my perfidy, when they alone were guilty of all they dared to lay to my charge.  A very strong prejudice must have existed against me, I must have been indeed very much to be feared, since people could suffer themselves to be thus deceived.  I can understand it from Kings and Cabinets, their existence was at stake ;  but from the people !!..

“ The British Ministers spoke incessantly of my duplicity ;  but could any thing be compared to their machiavelism, their selfishness, during the existence of disorders and convulsions ;  which were kept alive by them ?

“ They sacrificed unfortunate Austria in 1805, merely to escape the invasion with which I threatened them.

“ They sacrificed her again in 1809, to be more at liberty to act in the Peninsula.

“ They sacrificed Prussia in 1806, in the hopes of recovering Hanover.

“ They did not assist Russia in 1807, because a they preferred to go and seize upon distant colonies, and because they were attempting to take possession of Egypt.

“ They gave to the world the infamous spectacle of bombarding Copenhagen in full peace, and lying in ambush to steal the Danish fleet.  They had already once before exhibited a similar spectacle by seizing, like highway robbers, also in full peace, four Spanish frigates laden with rich treasures.

“ Lastly, during the war in the Peninsula, where they endeavoured to prolong the existence of anarchy and confusion, their principal care was to traffic with the wants and the blood of the Spanish nation, by obliging it to purchase their services and their supplies at the expense of gold and concessions.

“ Whilst all Europe through their intrigues and their subsidies was bathed in blood, they were only intent upon providing for their own safety, gaining advantages for their trade, and obtaining the sovereignty of the sea, and the monopoly of the world.  As for myself I had never done any thing of the kind, and until the unfortunate business with Spain, which after all is not to be compared to the affair of Copenhagen, I can say that my morality is unimpeachable.  My actions had perhaps been dictatorial and peremptory, but never disgraced by perfidy.  Who can be surprised after all this, if in 1814, although England had really been the deliverer of Europe, not a single Englishman could show himself on the Continent without meeting at every step with maledictions, hatred, and execrations ?  Who can ask how this happened ?  Every tree bears its own fruit ;  we reap only what we have sown ;  and such was necessarily the infallible result of the misdeeds of the English Government, the tyranny and the insolence of the Ministers in London, and of their agents all over the globe.

“ For the last fifty years the administrations of Great Britain have gradually declined in consideration and in public estimation.  Formerly they were disputed by great national parties, characterised by grand and distinct systems ;  but now we see only the bickerings of one and the same oligarchy, having constantly the same object in view, and whose discordant members adjust their differences by compromise and concessions :  they have turned the Cabinet of St. James’s into a shop.

“ The policy of Lord Chatham was marked by acts of injustice, no doubt ;  but at least he proclaimed them with boldness and energy, they had a certain air of grandeur.  Pitt introduced into the Cabinet a system of hypocrisy and dissimulation.  Lord Castlereagh, the self-styled heir of Pitt, has brought into it the extreme of every kind of turpitude and immorality.  Chatham gloried in being a merchant ;  Lord Castlereagh, to the serious injury of his nation, has indulged himself in the satisfaction of acting the fine gentleman ;  he has sacrificed his country to fraternise with the great people of the continent, and from that moment has united in his person the vices of the saloon with the cupidity of the counting-house ;  the duplicity and obsequiousness of the courtier with the haughtiness and insolence of the upstart.  The poor English constitution is in imminent danger.  What a difference between such men, and the Foxes, Sheridans and Greys, those great talents, those noble characters of the opposition, who have been the objects of the ridicule of a victorious oligarchy !

“ Lord Cornwallis,” said the Emperor, “is the first Englishman that gave me, in good earnest, a favourable opinion of his nation ;  after him Fox, and I might add to these, if it were necessary, our present Admiral (Malcolm).

“ Cornwallis was, in every sense of the word, a worthy, good and honest man.  At the time of the treaty of Amiens, the terms having been agreed upon, he had promised to sign the next day at a certain hour :  something of consequence detained him at home, but he pledged his word.  The evening of that same day, a courier arrived from London proscribing certain articles of the treaty, but he answered that he had signed, and immediately came and actually signed.  We understood each other perfectly well ;  I had placed a regiment at his disposal, and he took pleasure in seeing its manoeuvres.  I have preserved an agreeable recollection of him in every respect, and it is certain that a request from him would have had more weight with me, perhaps, than one from a crowned head.  His family appears to have guessed this to be the case ;  some requests have been made to me in its name, which have all been granted.

“ Fox came to France immediately after the peace of Amiens.  He was employed in writing a history of the Stuarts, and asked my permission to search our diplomatical archives.  I gave orders that every thing should be placed at his disposal.  I received him often.  Fame had informed me of his talents, and I soon found that he possessed a noble character, a good heart, liberal, generous and enlightened views.  I considered him an ornament to mankind, and was very much attached to him.  We often conversed together, upon various topics without the least prejudice ;  when I wished to engage in a little controversy, I turned the conversation upon the subject of the machine infernale ;  and told him that his ministers had attempted to murder me ;  he would then oppose my opinion with warmth, and invariably ended the conversation by saying, in his bad French, First Consul, pray take that out of your head.  But he was not convinced of the truth of the cause he undertook to advocate, and there is every reason to believe that he argued more in defence of his country, than of the morality of its ministers.”

The Emperor ended the conversation, by saying :  “Half a dozen such men as Fox and Cornwallis would be sufficient to establish the moral character of a nation.  With such men I should always have agreed ;  we should soon have settled our differences, and not only France would have been at peace with a nation at bottom most worthy of esteem, but we should have done great things together.”

History of the Convention by Lacretelle.—Statistical Notice of the Oxen of the Island.—Puns.—Statistics in general.

The rain obliged us to return, and we walked alone for a long time in the saloon and the dining room.

We had been informed, that there were four thousand oxen in the island, and that the annual consumption consisted of five hundred, of which number one hundred and fifty were appropriated to us, fifty to the colony, and three hundred to the shipping.  It was added, that four years were requisite for the reproduction of the stock, and this formed a subject for our calculations ;  an employment for which the Emperor’s peculiar taste is well known.

The subsistence and consumption of these oxen constitute a great portion of the public interest in the island.  A single beast cannot be killed without the previous order of the governor, and it was stated by one of our people, that the owner of one of the houses or huts of the island, speaking to him on the subject, said :  “It is reported, that you complain up yonder, and consider yourselves unhappy ;  (he spoke of Longwood) but we are at a loss to make it out ;  for it is said that you have beef every day, while we cannot get it but three or four times a year, and even then we pay for it at the rate of fifteen or twenty pence a pound.”  The Emperor, who laughed heartily at the story, observed, “You ought to have assured him, that it cost us several crowns.”  Crowns in English, and in several languages of the continent, means also a piece of money.

I observed latterly, that it was the only pun I had till then heard from the Emperor’s mouth, but the person to whom I made the remark, said he had heard of his having made a similar one, and on the same subject in the isle of Elba.  A mason employed in some buildings, which were to be constructed by the Emperor’s order, had fallen and hurt himself ;  the Emperor wishing to encourage him, assured him, that it would be of no consequence.  “I have had,” said be, “a much worse fall than yours ;  but look at me, I am on my legs, and in good health.”

The Emperor’s attention was for a moment directed to political statistics.  He highly extolled the progress and utility of that new science, so well adapted, he observed, to point out the path of truth, to establish judgment, and confirm decision.  He called it the budget of things, and “without the budget,” he declared in a pleasant tone, “there is no safety.”

The singular application of the science by an Englishman or German, who had the patience and resolution, to ascertain the number of times each letter of the alphabet occurred in the Bible, was then noticed by a person present.  He also mentioned another application of it, less dull, but not less singular.  It was that made by a German, eighty years of age, who amused himself with calculating what he might have eaten, during his life, in beef, mutton, poultry, vegetables, &c. &c, as well as what he had drunk.  The estimate comprehended immense droves, flocks, and accumulations of all sorts.  The public market place was incapable of containing all he had devoured.  This minute applicant of the science did not stop there.  He had the curiosity to inquire how often he might have again swallowed the same things.  For, he judiciously observed, their transmutation in his person ought necessarily to have contributed to their reproduction.  The Emperor laughed much at the calculation, and more particularly at the whimsical repetition of the same eatables.

Characters.  Bailli, Lafayette, Monges, Grégoire, &c.—St. Domingo.—System to be followed.—Dictations on the Convention.

June 12th.—We have had three days of horrible weather, when a moment that promised to continue fine, induced the Emperor to take an airing in his carriage.  He had just finished reading the History of the Constituent Assembly, by Rabeau de St. Etienne.  He entertained very nearly the same opinion of this writer, as of Lacretelle.  He then took occasion to notice several characters.  “Bailli,” he said, “was not a bad man, but unquestionably a miserable politician.”

“ Lafayette was another simpleton, and by no means formed for the eminent character he wished to represent.  His political simplicity was such, that he could not avoid being the constant dupe of men and things.

“ All was lost on my return from Waterloo, by his insurrection of the chambers.  Who could have persuaded him, that I had arrived merely for the purpose of dissolving them ;— I, whose only safety was centred in them ?”

One of the party saying, by way of excuse or extenuation ;  “It was, however, sire, the same man, who, treating afterwards with the allies, was filled with indignation at their proposal of delivering up your Majesty, and eagerly asked, if it was to the prisoner of Olmutz, they dared to address themselves ;”— “But, sir,” replied the Emperor, “You run from one subject to another, or rather, you concur with, instead of opposing my opinion.  I have not attached the sentiments or intentions of M. de Lafayette ;  I have only complained of their fatal results.”

The Emperor then continued, in the same way, to review the leading men of that period.  He dwelt at considerable length on the affair of Favras, &c.

“ Besides,” observed the Emperor, “Nothing was more common, than to find men of that epoch quite the reverse in character of that which their words and actions seemed to establish.  Monges, for instance, might be considered a terrible man.  When war was resolved upon, he declared from the tribune of the Jacobins, that he would give his two daughters in marriage to the two first soldiers who might be wounded by the enemy.  This he was at liberty to do, in the strict sense of the gift, as far as it respected himself ;  but he maintained, that others should be compelled to follow his example, and that all the nobility should be put to death, &c.  Yet, Monges was one of the mildest and weakest men living, and would not allow a chicken to be killed, if he were obliged to do it himself, or to see it done.  This furious republican, as he believed himself, cherished, however, a kind of worship for me, which he pushed to adoration.  He loved me, as one loves his mistress.

“ Grégoire whose animosity to the clergy, whom he wished to bring back to their original simplicity, was so great that he might have passed for a champion of irreligion, may be mentioned as another instance ;  yet Gregoire, when the revolutionists were denying their God and abolishing the priesthood, was very nearly being massacred in mounting the tribune for the purpose of boldly declaring his religious sentiments, and protesting that he would die a priest.  At the very moment when the work of destruction was going on in all the churches against the altars, Gregoire erected one in his own apartment, and said mass there every day.  This man’s lot, however, is decidedly cast.  If he be driven from France, he must take refuge in Saint-Domingo.  The friend, the advocate, the eulogist of the negroes will be a god, or a saint among them.”

Saint-Domingo naturally became the next subject of our conversation.  I had, in my younger days, seen that colony in its most flourishing state.  The Emperor put many questions to me, and made himself acquainted with all the circumstances relating to that remote period.  When his enquiries were over, he said, “I shall, no doubt, astonish you ;  but I am convinced, even from your own statements, that the island has not, at this moment, lost a third ;  certainly not one half of its value, and that, in a short time, it will recover all its former prosperity.”

I should not, in reality, be surprised at it ;  for all the absurd stories, circulated in Europe respecting France, ought to put us on our guard against those which might be safely told with regard to Saint-Domingo.

The Emperor said, that after the restoration, the French government had sent out emissaries and proposals, which were laughed at by the negroes.  “As to myself,” he added, “on my return from the isle of Elba, I would have settled all differences with them ;  I would have recognized their independence, contented myself with some factories, like those on the coast of Africa, endeavoured to draw them closer to the mother country, and establish a kind of family commerce with them, which might, in my opinion, have been easily accomplished.”

“ I have to reproach myself with the attempt made upon the colony during the consulship.  The design of reducing it by force was a great error.  I ought to have been satisfied with governing it through the medium of Toussaint.  Peace with England was not sufficiently consolidated, and the territorial wealth I should have acquired by its reduction would have served but to enrich our enemies.”  He had, he observed, the greater reason to reproach himself with the attempt, because he had foreseen its failure, and it was executed against his inclination.  He had solely yielded to the opinion of the council of state and his ministers, hurried along, as they are, by the clamours of the colonists, who formed a considerable party at Paris, and were, besides, he said, either nearly all royalists, or in the pay of the English faction.

The Emperor assured us, that the army which had been sent out, consisted but of sixteen thousand men, and was quite sufficient.  The failure of the expedition was solely to be attributed to accidental circumstances, such as the yellow fever, the death of the Commander-in-chief, a new war, &c. &c.

“ Toussaint,” observed the Emperor, “was not a man destitute of merit ;  but he certainly was not so highly gifted as was attempted in his time to describe him.  His character, besides, was ill calculated to inspire real confidence ;  he had given us serious causes of complaint.  It would have been necessary to be always distrustful of his sincerity.  He was chiefly guided by an officer of engineers or artillery.  That officer had come to France before Leclerc’s expedition, and conferences were, for a long time, held with him.  He exerted himself very much to prevent the attempt, and described with great precision, all its difficulties, without pretending, however, that it was impossible.”  The Emperor thought that the Bourbons might succeed in reducing Saint-Domingo by force ;  but on that subject the result of arms was not to be calculated upon ;  it was rather the result of commerce and of grand political views.  Three or four hundred millions of capital swept away from France to a remote country ;  an indefinite period for reaping the fruits of such a sacrifice ;  the very great certainty of seeing them engrossed by the English, or swallowed up by revolutions, &c. &c.:  those were the points for consideration.  The Emperor concluded with saying, “The colonial system, which we have witnessed, is closed for us, as well as the whole continent of Europe ;  we must give it up, and henceforth confine ourselves to the free navigation of the seas, and the complete liberty of universal barter.”

The history of the Convention, of which Napoleon had already expressed his disapprobation, again presented itself to his thoughts ;  he was far from being satisfied with Lacretelle.  “Sentences in abundance,” he repeated, “and but little colouring ;  no depth ;  he is an academician, but, in no respect, an historian.”  He made me call my son, and dictated the two following notes, of which I give a literal copy, however imperfect they may be, for he never read them a second time.

NOTE I.

“ The Convention, called together by a law of the Legislative Assembly to form a new constitution for France, decreed the Republic ;  not that the most enlightened did not think the republican system incompatible with the existing state of manners in France, but because the Monarchy could not be continued without placing the Duke of Orleans on the throne, which would have alienated a great part of the nation.

“ An executive power, consisting of five ministers, was established by the Convention for conducting the affairs of the republic.

“ Two parties contended for the ascendancy in the National Convention ;  that of the Girondists, composed of men who had influenced the Legislative Assembly, and that of the Mountain, formed by the Commune of Paris, which had directed the atrocities of the 10th of August and the 2d of September ;  and commanded the population of the capital.

“ Vergniaud, Brissot, Condorcet, Guadet, and Roland, were the leaders of the Girondists ;  Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Collot d’Herbois, and Billaud-Varennes, headed the Mountain.  These two parties were alike indebted for their rise to the principles of the revolution.  Their conductors sprang out of the popular societies which they had successively rendered subservient to their views.

“ The party of the Girondists was more powerful in talents, and was eminently popular in the great provincial towns, particular at Bourdeaux, Montpelier, Marseilles, Caen, Lyons, &c.

“ The party of the Mountain possessed more energy and enthusiasm, and was no less popular in the capital and among the clubs of the departments.

“ The Girondist party, which, in the Legislative Assembly, had been the most ardent for the Revolution, became, in the Convention, the most moderate ;  because it had to contend there with a faction much more violent than itself, which had not found its way into the assembly.

“ The Girondists called their adversaries the faction of September, and constantly reproached them with the horrible massacre of which they were guilty.  They accused them of being hostile to every kind of national assembly, and of endeavouring to transfer the government of France to the Commune of Paris ;  but by these means the Girondists only excited against themselves the Jacobins of all the departments.

“ On its side, the Commune of Paris (the Mountaineers) stigmatized the Girondists by the name of the federalists, and charged them with the design of establishing a federative system in France similar to that of Switzerland.  They also accused them of endeavouring to stir up the provinces against the capital, and thus held them up to the detestation of the people of Paris, which could maintain its splendour only by the union and unity of the whole of the territory.  When the Girondists inveighed against the Mountaineers for the massacres of the 2d of September, the latter reproached the former with having, during the Legislative Assembly, rashly and without cause, declared war against all Europe.

“ The Girondists, at first, appeared to have the upper hand in the Convention, and they directed that Marat should be brought to trial, and that proceedings should be instituted against the assassins of September.  But Marat, supported by the Jacobins and the Commune of Paris, was acquitted by the revolutionary tribunal, and returned in triumph to the bosom of the assembly.

“ The trial of the King had been another apple of discord.  The two parties seemed to proceed in unison, and voted, it is true, for his death ;  but the greater part of the Girondists also voted for an appeal to the people ;  and here it is difficult to comprehend the reason of their conduct during that crisis.  If they wished to save the king, they were at liberty to do so ;  they had only to vote for deportation, exile, or the adjournment of the question ;  but to sentence him to death and make his fate depend upon the will of the people, was, in the highest degree, absurd and impolitic.  They seemed to be desirous, that after the extinction of the monarchy, France should be torn to pieces by civil war.

“ The general opinion since the commencement of the revolution, that the most audacious and unreasonable faction would always predominate, was from that moment verified.  The Girondists, however, maintained the contest with courage, and very often had majorities in the assembly during all the months of March, April, and May.  But the party of the Mountaineers had recourse, in these circumstances, to an expedient which it had constantly employed.  On the 31st of May, the fate of the Girondists was decided by an insurrection of the sections of Paris.  Twenty-seven were arrested, brought before the revolutionary tribunal, and sentenced to death ;  seventy-three were thrown into prison, and from that period the triumphant Mountain had no obstacles to surmount in the Convention.  Several Girondist deputies took refuge, however, at Caen, and there raised the standard of insurrection.  Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Montpellier, and several towns of Brittany embraced the cause of this party, and also took up arms against the Convention.

“ All these unconnected efforts were of no avail against the capital, and the Mountain remained in tranquil possession of the national tribune.  A circumstance altogether singular contributed to confirm the preponderance of Paris.  It was the assignats, then the only resource for supplying the treasury ;  not a single tax was then paid.

“ The provinces learnt with considerable emotion the event of the 31st of May, and the death of the most celebrated characters of the Girondist party.  The armies were not agitated by these results, they took no share in the insurrections of some provinces, and remained all attached to the Convention and the dominant party at Paris.

“ When the partial insurrection of certain towns in favour of the Girondists was known, all the armies had already taken the oath and testified their adhesion to the Mountain ;  besides, in the eyes of Frenchmen, Paris was France.  Neither did the departments of Alsace, la Moselle, la Flandre, la Franche Comté, and Dauphiné, where the principal forces of the republic are quartered, sympathize with the feelings of the federalist towns.

“ The 31st of May deprived France of men of great talents, zealously attached to liberty and the principles of the revolution.  The catastrophe might afflict the well disposed, but could not surprize them.  It was impossible for an assembly, which had extricated France from the critical situation to which she was reduced, to carry on public business with two parties so inveterately and irreconcileably opposed.  It was necessary for the safety of the republic, that one should extinguish the other, and there can be no doubt, that, had the Girondists obtained the victory, they would have consigned their adversaries to the scaffold.”

The Emperor who had dictated, in his usual way, from memory alone without any research, whether he was little satisfied with the task he had executed, or for some other reason, stopped here for the purpose, as he said, of recommencing a new dictation on the same subject.

NOTE II.

“ The Convention was established in September 1792, and terminated in October 1795.  Its reign, which lasted nearly three years, presents four eras.

“ The 1st, from its commencement to the 31st of May 1793—epoch of the destruction of the Girondists.

“ The 2d, to March 1794—overthrow of the commune of Paris.

“ The 3d, to July 1794—fall of Robespierre.

“ The 4th to the 14th Vendemiaire (4th October 1795)—installation of the Government of the Directory.

“ Its first era consisted of eight months, its second of ten, its third of four, its fourth of fourteen.  Total, three years.

“ During its first era the Convention was constantly divided between the parties of the Mountain and the Gironde.

“ Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Collot-d’Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, Carnot, Heraut de Sechelles, were the leaders of the party of the Mountain.

“ Brissot, Condorcet, Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonnè, Péthion, Lasource, Barbaroux, headed the party of the Gironde.

“ The two parties were equally hostile to the Bourbons and the royalists.

“ The men of the first were distinguished for superior energy, those of the second for superior talents.  They were both the partisans of a republican establishment.  The Mountaineers were desirous of a Republic for the purpose of destroying what was in existence before the Revolution, both men and things.  The Girondists were animated by the infatuation of youthful feeling, which presented at once Athens and Rome to their view, and brought back the remembrance of sublime antiquity.

“ The existence of the Mountaineers may be dated from the time of the Constituent Assembly.  They were the firebrands of the clubs so generally known by the name of Jacobin.  The insurrection of the Field of Mars was planned by them.

“ This party did not obtain admission into the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies.

“ The Girondists, who predominated in the legislative, were hostile to the constitution of 1794, and to the King.  They would not undertake his defence, and suffered him to be sacrificed to the efforts of the Mountain, which, however, was also their enemy.  It was the Mountaineers who caused the atrocities of the 20th of June, of the 10th of August, and of the 2d of September ;  they had then no party in the assembly ;  but they compelled the Girondists to join them after their victory.

“ The first era of the Convention presents the struggle of the Girondists and Mountaineers ;  the Girondists prevailed at that time in consequence of their superior talents, eloquence and their already acquired reputation.  The presidents were nearly all Girondists ;  they charged the Mountain with the design of destroying the National Assembly, and substituting in its place a Parisian Dictatorship.  They also reproached it with the massacre of September, &c. &c.

“ The Mountain, in its turn, charged them with wishing for a federative republic like Switzerland, with being hostile to the capital, and with having, without cause, placed the republic in a state of warfare with the whole of Europe.

“ The Mountain had at its command the Jacobins of Paris and the greatest part of the popular societies of the republic ;  the commune of Paris, the sections, the revolutionary tribunal, and the lower classes of the people of the capital were devoted to its interests.

“ The Girondists possessed great influence over the departments in general, and the enlightened part of the nation ;  their partisans were more numerous among the upper class of society.  The Girondists who had occupied the left side in the Legislative Assembly, and had shewn such animosity against the King, the ministers and the right side, or moderate party, were forced to shift places, and become in their turn the right side or moderate party, opposed to the vehement and overbearing Mountain, which henceforth formed the left side.

“ The Mountaineers, working on the plan they had adopted under the Constituent Assembly, enlisted all the passions in their service, and demanded, with loud cries, the death of the King.  The Girondists might, by openly defending him, have preserved his life ;  they had recourse to the singular system of condemning him, and after having thus destroyed the monarchy, they wished the sentence to be confirmed by an appeal to the people ;  in other words, they wished to destroy France by the horrors of a civil war.  This false combination of views opened their ruin—Vergniaud, one of the pillars of their party, pronounced sentence of death upon the King.

“ The Girondists were so powerful in the assembly, that several months of labour and several days of insurrection were necessary to destroy their influence in the Convention.

“ This party would have governed the Convention and crushed the Mountain, had its system of conduct been more direct and candid.  The metaphysicians had too weighty a preponderance in it.

“ The second era of the Convention is the reign of the Mountain.  Twenty-two of the principal Girondists perished on the scaffold, or fell by their own hands ;  seventy-three were thrown into prison.  The Mountain ruled with absolute power ;  it created the revolutionary government, and the Convention in a mass placed itself, of its own accord, under the yoke of the Committee of Public Safety and of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

“ In this second era, the sittings of the Convention no longer resembled those of the first ;  there was an end of discussion and of liberty ;  it was the despotism of the Decemvirs.  Some of the Deputies governed the Committees of General Security, of Finance, &c.  Others were dispatched by the Committee of Public Safety to the Armies and the Departments, and became real pro-consuls.

“ Every month, every week, every day, the government became more ferocious and sanguinary.  All those in the higher classes of society who had not emigrated ;  were heaped together in prison as objects of suspicion, and sent by hundreds to the scaffold.

“ After treating in this way every one who was of a noble family, a priest, a merchant, or a considerable proprietor, the excesses of the party recoiling upon itself, it ruled the Jacobins and the Commune of Paris with an iron hand ;  it enslaved the Convention, and threatened it with absolute annihilation ;  it preached up Atheism, and proscribed the arts, the sciences, and every species of talent.  The artists and men of science were thrown into prison as objects of suspicion, and there was a time when the National Library and the Garden of Plants were on the point of being burnt and laid waste.

“ Robespierre and Danton, struck with indignation at these outrages, united their efforts to put a stop to the frightful progress of popular madness.  The capuchin Chabot, Bazire, Fabre d’Eglantine, Hebert, Chaumet, Vincent, and all their associates, perished on the scaffold.

“ For the first time since the commencement of the Revolution, the people saw persons put to death as ultra-revolutionary, and no longer as having wished to stop the Revolution.  Their ideas were turned up-side down, and underwent a real revolution.

“ The prisons were filled with Sans-culottes, and with all that was basest in society.  It was remarked, that the apostate priests were numerous in that class.

“ The people beheld, without surprise and with joy, the punishment of those who had until then governed them, and that feeling was a revolution, which escaped the observation of Robespierre and Danton, and which they knew not how to convert to their advantage.

“ The third era presents a spectacle different from the other two.  Danton and Robespierre easily stopped the Revolution, and put a period to the power of the Commune of Paris ;  but after their success they fell out between themselves.

“ Danton, Camille des Moulins, Heraut de Sechelles, and Lacroix, were desirous of going a step farther, and putting an end to the assassinations of the Revolutionary Tribunal.  Danton and Lacroix had enriched themselves in their mission to Belgium.  Camille des Moulins, who, from the beginning of the Revolution had given himself the title of the Attorney-General of the Lanterne, was captivated and softened down by a young wife.  They had the boldness to demand, that the blow which had been just struck against Hebert, or the rest of Marat’s party should be turned to the benefit of the whole Republic—that no innocent person should in future be condemned-that the system of terror should be abolished—and that a Committee of Clemency should be established.

“ Billaud-Varennes and Collot d’Herbois, who took the lead in the Committee of Public Safety and among the great body of Jacobins, rejected these demands with indignation and fury ;  and Robespierre, after some hesitation, did not dare to second Danton, and made a sacrifice of him.  Danton, Camille des Moulins, Heraut de Sechelles, &c. perished on the scaffold, to which they were dragged by the whole Committee of Public Safety, and by the enraged Jacobins.  The people were struck with consternation, and for the first time expressed no sign of satisfaction.

“ What Robespierre, however, had not dared to do, and what he could have easily effected had he supported Danton, he had the presumption to undertake after the death of Danton.  In order to put a period to Atheism, he caused the existence of God to be proclaimed, and he endeavoured to reinstate the virtues, the sciences and arts.  Billaud Varennes, Collot d’Herbois, and Barrere, were struck with horror at seeing the termination of the revolutionary government.  They formed a coalition with all the representatives, who, in their missions, had caused the effusion of human blood, and with all the numerous friends whom Danton had in the Convention, such as Tallien, Fréron, Legendre ;  and when Robespierre was bold enough to give a glimpse of his plan for suppressing the administration of the pro-consuls, and for the necessity of bringing to justice the base characters, who had rendered the Revolution odious in the provinces, he was consigned to the scaffold.

“ The transactions of the 9th Thermidor constituted, in reality, the triumph of Collot d’Herbois and Billaud Varennes, men more horrible and blood thirsty than Robespierre ;  but that victory could not be obtained over the Jacobins and the commute, but by calling into action the whole of the citizens ;  so that, with respect to the middling classes and the people, the death of Robespierre was the death of the revolutionary government ;  and after various oscillations, those who wished to continue the system of terror and had sacrificed Robespierre, as he had sacrificed Danton, because he was desirous of softening down and moderating the revolution, found themselves drawn along with, and governed by, the public opinion.

“ During the last ten months, Robespierre frequently complained that he was rendered odious by having all the massacres, which were perpetrated, attributed to him.  The men who caused his destruction were more sanguinary and dreadful than he, but the whole nation, which had for a long time imputed all the assassinations to Robespierre, exclaimed that it was a triumph over tyranny, and that belief put an end to it.”

N.B. Here the dictation ended ;  the Emperor joined in common conversation, and as he never resumed it, we are deprived of the fourth era.

The Moniteur and liberty of the press.

June 13th.—The Emperor had just run over a great many numbers of the Moniteur.  “These Moniteurs,” said he, “so terrible and dangerous to so many reputations are uniformly useful and favourable to me alone.  It is with official documents that men of sense and real talents will write history ;  now, these documents are full of the spirit of my government, and to them I make an earnest and solemn appeal.”  He added, that he had made the Moniteur the soul, and life-blood of his government, and that it was the intermediate instrument of his communications with public opinion, both abroad and at home.  Every government had since followed his example more or less in that respect.  “ Whatever serious fault might be committed by any of the high functionaries employed in the interior, immediately,” said the Emperor, “an enquiry was set on foot by three Counsellors of State.  They made their report to me, in which they ascertained the facts and discussed the principles.  For my own part I had nothing more to do than to write at the bottom —‘Dispatched for execution according to the laws of the republic, or of the empire.’  My interference was at an end, the public result accomplished, and popular opinion did justice to the transaction.  It was the most formidable and dreadful of my tribunals.  Did any question arise abroad respecting certain grand political combinations or some delicate points of diplomacy ?  The objects were indirectly hinted at in the Moniteur.  They instantly attracted universal attention and became the topics of general investigation.  This conduct was at once the orderly signal for the adherents of the throne, and an appeal for all parties to public opinion.  The Moniteur has been reproached for the acrimony and virulence of its notes against the enemy.  But before we condemn them, we are bound to take into consideration the benefits they may have produced, the anxiety with which they occasionally perplexed the enemy, the terror with which they struck a hesitating cabinet, the stimulus which they gave to our allies, the confidence and audacity with which they inspired our troops,” &c.

The conversation next turned upon the liberty of the press, and the Emperor asked our opinions.  We talked for a long time very idly on the subject, and threw out a great number of common place ideas.  Some were hostile to it.  “Nothing,” said they, “can resist the liberty of the press.  It is capable of overthrowing every government, of agitating every society, of destroying every reputation.”  “It is only,” observed others, “its prohibition that is dangerous.  If it be restricted, it becomes a mine that must explode, but if left to itself it is merely an unbent bow, that can inflict no wound.”  Here the Emperor observed, that he was far from being convinced with regard to that point, but that it was no longer the question for consideration ;  that there were institutions at present, and the liberty of the press was among the number, on the excellence of which we were no longer called upon to decide, but solely to determine the possibility of withholding them from the overbearing influence of popular opinion.  He declared, that the prohibition under a representative government was a gross anachronism, a downright absurdity.  He had, therefore, on his return from the isle of Elba, abandoned the press to all its excesses, and he was well assured, that they had, in no respect, contributed to his recent downfall.  When it was proposed in council, in his presence, to discuss the means of sheltering the authority of the State from its attacks, he pleasantly remarked, “Gentlemen, it is probably yourselves you wish to protect, for, with respect to me, I shall henceforth continue a stranger to all such proceedings.  The press has exhausted itself upon me during my absence, and I now heartily defy it to produce any thing new or provoking against me.”

The War, and Royal Family of Spain.—Ferdinand at Valencey.—Errors in the Affairs of Spain.—Historical Sketch of these events, &c.—Napoleon’s admirable Letter to Murat.

June 14th.—The Emperor had been ill the whole of the night, and continued so during the day ;  he had a bath for his feet, and was not inclined to go out ;  he dined alone in his apartment and sent for me towards the evening.

The Emperor began the conversation, of which the constant subject was the Spanish war.  It has been seen in the notice, which I have already taken of it, that the Emperor took upon himself the whole blame of the measure.  I wish to avoid repetitions as much as possible, and shall, therefore, allude to those topics only which appeared new to me.

“ The old King and Queen,” said the Emperor, “at the moment of the event, were the objects of the hatred and contempt of their subjects.  The Prince of Asturias conspired against them, forced them to abdicate, and at once united in his own person the love and hopes of the nation.  That nation was, however, ripe for great changes and demanded them with energy.  I enjoyed vast popularity in the country, and it was in that state of things that all these personages met at Bayonne ;  the old king calling upon me for vengeance against his son, and the young prince soliciting my protection against his father, and imploring a wife at my hands.  I resolved to convert this singular occasion to my advantage, with the view of freeing myself from that branch of the Bourbons, of continuing in my own dynasty the family system of Louis XIV. and of binding Spain to the destinies of France.  Ferdinand was sent to Valencey, the old king to Marseilles, as he wished, and my brother Joseph went to reign at Madrid with a liberal constitution, adopted by a junta of the Spanish nation, which had come to receive it at Bayonne.”

“ It seems to me,” continued he, “that Europe, and even France, has never had a just idea of Ferdinand’s situation at Valencey.  There is a strange misunderstanding in the world with respect to the treatment he experienced, and still more so, with respect to his wishes and personal opinions as to that situation.  The fact is, that he was scarcely guarded at Valencey, and that he did not wish to escape.  If any plots were contrived to favour his evasion, he was the first to make them known.  An Irishman, (Baron de Colli) gained access to his person, and offered, in the name of George the Third to carry him off ;  but Ferdinand, far from embracing the offer, instantly communicated it to the proper authority.

“ His applications to me for a wife at my hands were incessant.  He spontaneously wrote to me letters of congratulation upon every event that occurred in my favour.  He had addressed proclamations to the Spaniards, recommending their submission ;  he had recognised Joseph.  All these were circumstances, which might, indeed, have been considered as forced upon him ;  but he requested from him the insignia of his grand order ;  he tendered to me the services of his brother, Don Carlos, to take the command of the Spanish regiments, which were marching to Russia,—proceedings to which he was, in no respect, obliged.  To sum up all, he earnestly solicited my permission to visit my court at Paris, and if I did not lend myself to a spectacle, which would have astonished Europe, by displaying the full consolidation of my power, it was because the important circumstances which called me abroad, and my frequent absence from the capital, deprived me of the proper opportunity.”

Towards the beginning of a new year, at one of the levees, I happened to be next to the Chamberlain, Count d’Arberg, who had been doing duty at Valencey, near the persons of the princes of Spain.  When the Emperor approached, he enquired if these princes conducted themselves with propriety, and added ;  “You have brought me a very pretty letter ;  but between ourselves, it was you that wrote it for them.”  D’Arberg assured him, that he was altogether unacquainted even with the nature of its contents.  “Well,” said the Emperor, “a son could not write more cordially to his father.”

“ When our situation in Spain,” observed the Emperor, “turned out dangerous, I more than once proposed to Ferdinand to return and reign over his people ;  that we should openly carry on war against each other, and that the contest should be decided by the fate of arms.”  “No,” answered the prince, who seems to have been well advised, and never deviated from that way of thinking.  “My country is agitated by political disturbances ;  I should but multiply its embarrassments :  I might become their victim, and lose my head upon the scaffold.  I remain ;  but if you will choose a wife for me ;  if you will grant me your protection and the support of your arms, I shall set out and prove a faithful ally.”

“ At a later period, during our disasters, and towards the end of 1813, I yielded to that proposal, and Ferdinand’s marriage with Joseph’s eldest daughter was decided ;  but circumstances were then no longer the same, and Ferdinand was desirous that the marriage should be deferred.  ‘You can no longer,’ he observed, ‘support me with your arms, and I ought not to make my wife a title of exclusion in the eyes of my people.’  He left me,” continued the Emperor, “as it seemed, with every intention of good faith, for he remained faithful to the principles which he avowed on his departure, until the events of Fontainebleau.”

The Emperor assured us, that, had the affairs of 1814 turned out differently, he would unquestionably have accomplished his marriage with Joseph’s daughter.

The Emperor, in reverting to these affairs, said, that the impolicy of his conduct was irrevocably decided by the results ;  but that independently of that kind of proof, depending upon consequences, he had to reproach himself with serious faults in the execution of his plans.  One of the greatest was that of treating the dethronement of the dynasty of the Bourbons as a matter of importance, and of maintaining, as the basis of his system, for its successor, was precisely the man, who, by his qualities and character, was certain to produce its failure.

During the assembly at Bayonne, Ferdinand’s former preceptor and his principal counsellor, (Escoiquiz) at once perceiving the vast projects entertained by the Emperor, and pleading the cause of his master, said to him :  “You wish to create for yourself a kind of Herculean labour, when you have but child’s play in hand.  You wish to rid yourselves of the Bourbons of Spain ;  why should you be apprehensive of them ?  They have ceased to exist ;  they are no longer French.  You have nothing to fear from them ;  they are altogether aliens with respect to your nation and your manners.  You have here Madame de Montmorency, and some new ladies of your court ;  they are not more acquainted with the one than with the other, and view them all with equal indifference.”  The Emperor unfortunately formed a different resolution.  I took the liberty of telling him, I had been assured by some Spaniards, that, if the national pride had been respected, and the Spanish junta held at Madrid instead of Bayonne, or even, if Charles IV. had been sent off and Ferdinand retained ;  the revolution would have been popular, and affairs would have taken another turn.  The Emperor entertained no doubt of it, and agreed that the enterprize had been imprudently undertaken, and that many circumstances might have been better conducted.  “Charles IV,” said he, “was, however, too stale for the Spaniards.  Ferdinand should have been considered in the same light.  The plan most worthy of me, and the best suited to my project, would have been a kind of mediation like that of Switzerland :  I ought to have given a liberal constitution to the Spanish nation, and charged Ferdinand with its execution.  If he acted with good faith, Spain must have prospered and harmonized with our new manners.  The great object would have been obtained, and France would have acquired an intimate ally and an addition of power truly formidable.  Had Ferdinand, on the contrary, proved faithless to his new engagements, the Spaniards themselves would not have failed to dismiss him, and would have applied to me for a ruler in his place.  At all events,” concluded the Emperor, “that unfortunate war of Spain was a real affliction, and the first cause of the calamities of France.  After my conferences at Erfurth with Alexander, England ought to have been compelled to make peace by the force of arms, or of reason.  She had lost the esteem of the continent ;  her attack upon Copenhagen had disgusted the public mind, while I distinguished myself at that moment by every contrary advantage, when that disastrous affair of Spain presented itself to effect a sudden change against me and reinstate England in the public estimation.  She was enabled, from that moment, to continue the war ;  the trade with South America was thrown open to her ;  she formed an army for herself in the peninsula, and next became the victorious agent, the main point of all the plots which were hatched on the continent, &c. &c.—All this effected my ruin.

“ I was then assailed with imputations, for which, however, I had given no cause.  History will do me justice.  I was charged in that affair with perfidy, with laying snares, and with bad faith, and yet I was completely innocent.  Never, whatever may have been said to the contrary, have I broken any engagement, or violated my promise, either with regard to Spain or any other power.  The world will one day be convinced, that in the principal transactions relative to Spain I was completely a stranger to all the domestic intrigues of its court ;  that I broke no promise made either to Charles IV. or to Ferdinand VII.;  that I violated no engagement with the father or the son ; that I made use of no falsehoods to entice them both to Bayonne, but that they both strove which should be the first to shew himself there.  When I saw them at my feet and was enabled to form a correct opinion of their total incapacity, I beheld with compassion the fate of a great people, I eagerly seized the singular opportunity, held out to me by fortune, for regenerating Spain, rescuing her from the yoke of England, and intimately uniting her with our system.  It was, in my conception, laying the fundamental basis of the tranquillity and security of Europe.  But I was far from employing for that purpose, as it has been reported, any base and paltry stratagems.  If I erred, it was, on the contrary, by daring openness and extraordinary energy.  Bayonne was not the scene of premeditated ambush, but of a vast master-stroke of state policy.  I could have preserved myself from these imputations by a little hypocrisy, or by giving up the Prince of the Peace to the fury of the people ;  but the idea appeared horrible to me, and struck me as if I was to receive the price of blood.  Besides, it must also be acknowledged that Murat did me a great deal of mischief in the whole affair.

Be that as it may, I disdained having recourse to crooked and common-place expedients—I found myself so powerful !—I dared to strike from a situation too exalted.  I Wished to act like Providence, which, of its own accord, applies remedies to the wretchedness of mankind, by means occasionally violent, but for which it is unaccountable to human judgment.

“ I candidly confess, however, that I engaged very inconsiderately in the whole of the affair, its immorality must have shewn itself too openly, its injustice too glaringly, and the transactions, taken altogether, present a disgusting aspect, more particularly since my failure ;  for the outrage is no longer seen but in its hideous nakedness, stripped of all loftiness in idea, and of the numerous benefits which it was my intention to confer.  Posterity, however, would have extolled it had I succeeded, and perhaps with reason, on account of its vast and happy results.  Such is our lot, and such our judgement in this, world ! ... But I once more declare, that, in no instance, was there any breach of faith, any perfidy or falsehood, and, what is more, there was no occasion for them.”  Here the Emperor resumed, in its totality and principle, the historical sketch of the affair respecting Spain, repeating many things which have been already noticed.

“ The court and the reigning family,” said the Emperor, “were split into two parties.  The one was that of the monarch, blindly governed by his favourite, the Prince of the Peace, who had constituted himself the real king ;  the other was that of the heir presumptive, headed by his preceptor, Escoiquiz, who aspired to the government.  These two parties were equally desirous of my support, and made me the most flattering promises.  I was, no doubt, determined to derive every possible advantage from their situation.

“ The favourite, in order to continue in office, as well as to shelter himself from the vengeance of the son, in case of the father’s death, offered me, in the name of Charles IV, to effect, in concert, the conquest of Portugal, reserving as an asylum for himself, the sovereignty of Algarva.

“ On the other hand, the prince of the Asturias, wrote to me privately, without his father’s knowledge, soliciting a wife of my choice, and imploring my protection.

“ I concluded an agreement with the former, and returned no answer to the latter.  My troops were already admitted into the Peninsula, when the son took advantage of a commotion to make his father abdicate, and to reign in his place.

“ It has been foolishly imputed to me, that I took part in all these intrigues, but so far was I from having any knowledge of them, that the last event in particular, disconcerted all my projects with the father, in consequence of which, my troops were already in the heart of Spain.  The two parties were aware, from that moment, that I might, and ought to be the arbiter between them.  The dethroned monarch, and the son, had recourse to me, the one for the purpose of obtaining vengeance, and the other, for the purpose of being recognized.  They both hastened to plead their cause before me, and they were urged on by their respective counsellors, those very persons who absolutely governed them, and who saw no means of preserving their own lives, but by throwing themselves into my arms.

“ The prince of the Peace, who had been very nearly massacred, easily persuaded Charles IV. and his queen, to undertake the journey, as they had themselves, been in danger of falling victims to the fury of the multitude.

“ On his part, the preceptor Escoiquiz, the real author of all the calamities of Spain, alarmed at seeing Charles IV. protest against his abdication, and in dread of the scaffold, unless his pupil triumphed, exerted every means to influence the young King.  This Canon, who had besides a very high opinion of his own talents, did not despair of making an impression on my decisions, by his arguments, and of inducing me to acknowledge Ferdinand, making me a tender, on his own account, of his services to govern, altogether under my controul, as effectually as the Prince of the peace could, under the name of Charles IV.  And it must be owned,” said the Emperor, “that, had I listened to several of his reasons, and adopted some of his ideas, I should have been much better off.”

“ When I had them all assembled at Bayonne, I felt a confidence in my political system, to which I never before had the presumption to aspire.  I had not made my combinations, but I took advantage of the moment.  I here found the Gordian knot before me, and I cut it.  I proposed to Charles IV. and the Queen, to resign the crown of Spain to me, and to live quietly in France.  They agreed, I could say, almost with joy, to the proposal, so inveterately were they exasperated against their son, and so earnestly did they and their favourite wish to enjoy for the future, tranquillity and safety.  The Prince of Asturias, made no extraordinary resistance to the plan, but neither violence nor threats were employed against him ;  and if he was influenced by fear, which I am very willing to believe, that could only be his concern.

“ There you have in very few words, the complete historical sketch of the affair of Spain ;  whatever may be said, or written on it, must amount to that ;  and you see, that there could be no occasion for me to have had recourse to paltry tricks, to falsehoods, to breaches of faith, or violation of engagements.  In order to establish my guilt, it would have been necessary to shew my inclination to degrade myself gratuitously ;  but of that propensity I have never given an instance.

“ As to the rest, the instant my decision was known, the crowd of intriguers that swarm in every court, and even those among them who had been the most active in producing the misfortunes of their country, endeavoured to get into favour with Joseph, as they had done with Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII.  They watched, with extraordinary diligence, the progress of events, and changed sides at a later period, in proportion as difficulties encreased, and our disasters came on.  They pursued the plan so successfully, that they are the persons, who, at this moment, govern Ferdinand.  And, what is truly horrible, the better to secure their influence, they did not hesitate to impute whatever was odious and criminal in past calamities, to the mass of simpletons, whom they proscribed and banished ;—of those men naturally well-disposed, and who, in principle, decidedly blamed Ferdinand’s journey.  Of this latter class, several, who opposed the journey, afterwards took the oath of allegiance to Joseph, who seemed then to be identified with the happiness and tranquillity of their country, and continued faithful to him, until the grand catastrophe that drove him from the throne.

“ It would be difficult to accumulate a greater mass of impudence and baseness, than that exhibited by all those intriguers, the principal performers in that grand scene.  It extenuates, one may fairly remark, the degradation to which similar acts of vileness have reduced France, in the eyes of Europe.  It is evident, that they do not belong to her exclusively.  Intriguing, ambitious, rapacious men, are everywhere to be found, and are every where the same.  Individuals alone are guilty ;  nations cannot incur the responsibility.  Their only disadvantage arises from their being forced to witness these misdeeds.  Unhappy the country, which becomes the scene of them !”

N.B.  At present, the affair of Spain is perfectly known, thanks to the writings of the principal actors, the canon Escoiquiz, the minister Cevallos, and others, but above all, to those of the worthy and respectable M. Llorente, who, under the anagrammatic signature of Nellerto, has published the Memoirs of that time, sanctioned by all the official documents.  The opposite contradictions of the two first, their mutual disputes, the assertions and denials of their contemporaries, have reduced their writings to their real value, by stripping them of whatever was erroneous, false, or even fabricated.  The result is, that, in the opinion of every cool and impartial judge, they all concur, even involuntarily, in confirming the justificatory assertions advanced by Napoleon ;  not, that they do not produce that difference which inevitably arises from the diversity of party-interest, but solely because neither of them actually establishes the grounds of positive crimination, nor furnishes any official document by which it can be proved, while all those, which exist, attest and sanction the contrary.

It may also be remarked in the history of those transactions, which must now be considered as genuine, that England herself was altogether a stranger to them, at least with respect to their origin, a fact which was far from Napoleon’s way of thinking, who, charged the English at the time, with being the first cause of all the intrigues, and who still persevered in the accusation at St. Helena ;  so habituated was he to discover them at the bottom of every plot, which was forming against him.

With respect to this affair of Spain, I have further to notice a letter from the Emperor, which throws more light upon the subject than volumes.  It is admirable, and the events which followed stamp it as a masterpiece.  It exhibits the rapidity, the eagle-eyed view, with which Napoleon formed his opinion of things and men.

Unfortunately it also shews, how much the execution of the inferiors employed during the greater part of the time, destroyed the finest and most exalted conceptions ;  and in that point of view this letter remains a very precious document for history.  It becomes prophetic by its date :—

29th March, 1808.

“ Monsieur le grand duc de Berg—I am afraid lest you should deceive me with respect to the situation of Spain, and lest you should also deceive yourself.  Events have been singularly complicated by the transaction of the 20th of March.  I find myself very much, perplexed.

“ Do not believe that you are about to attack a disarmed nation, and that you can by a mere parade of your troops, effect the subjugation, of Spain.  The revolution of the 20th of March proves, that the Spaniards possess energy.  You have to contend with a new people ;  it has all the courage, and will display all the enthusiasm shewn by men, who are not worn out by political passions.

“ The aristocracy and the clergy are the masters of Spain.  If their privileges and existence be threatened, they will bring into the field against us levies en masse, that may perpetuate the war.  I am not without my partisans ;  but if I shew myself as a conqueror, they will abandon me.

“ The Prince of the Peace is detested, because he is accused of having betrayed Spain to France.  This is the grievance which has assisted Ferdinand’s usurpation.  The popular is the weakest party.

“ The Prince of Asturias does not possess a single quality requisite for the head of a nation.  That will not prevent his being ranked as a hero, in order that he may be opposed to us.  I will have no violence employed against the personages of this family.  It can never answer any purpose to excite hatred and inflame animosity.  Spain has a hundred thousand men under arms, more than are necessary to carry on an internal war with advantage.  Scattered over several parts of the country, they may serve as rallying points for a total insurrection of the monarchy.

“ I lay before you all the obstacles which must inevitably happen.  There are others of which you must be aware.  England will not allow the opportunity to escape her without multiplying our embarrassments.  She daily sends packet-boats to the forces, which she maintains on the coasts of Portugal and in the Mediterranean ;  and she enlists into her service Sicilians and Portuguese.

“ The Royal Family not having left Spain for the purpose of establishing itself in its American colonies, the state of the country can be changed only by a revolution.  It is, perhaps, of all others in Europe, that which is the least prepared for one.  Those who witness the monstrous defects of that government, and the anarchy which has been substituted for the legitimate authority, are the fewest in number.  Those defects and that anarchy are converted to their own advantage by the greatest number.

“ I can, consistently with the interests of my empire, do a great deal of good to Spain.  What are the best means to be adopted ?

“ Shall I go to Madrid ?  Shall I take upon myself the office of Grand Protector in deciding between the father and the son ?  It seems to me a matter of difficulty to support Charles IV. on the throne.  His government and his favourite are so very unpopular, that they could not maintain themselves for three months.

“ Ferdinand is the enemy of France, and to that consideration he has been indebted for the crown.  His elevation to the throne would be favourable to the factions, which for five and twenty years have longed for the destruction of France.  A family alliance would be but a slender tie.  Queen Elizabeth and other French princesses perished miserably whenever they could be immolated, with impunity, to the atrocious spirit of vengeance.  My opinion is, that nothing should be hurried on, and that our measures ought to be regulated by events as they occur.  It will be necessary to strengthen the bodies of troops, which are to be stationed on the frontiers of Portugal, and wait .....

“ I do not approve of your Imperial Highness’s conduct in so precipitately making yourself master of Madrid.  The army ought to have been kept ten leagues from the capital.  You had no assurance that the people and the magistracy were about to recognise Ferdinand, without a struggle.  The Prince of the Peace must, of course, have partisans among those employed in the public service ;  there is also an habitual attachment to the old King, which might lead to unpleasant consequences.  Your entrance into Madrid, by alarming the Spaniards, has powerfully assisted Ferdinand.  I have ordered Savary to attend the new King, and observe what passes.  He will concert matters with your Imperial Highness.  I shall hereafter decide upon the measures necessary to be pursued.  In the mean time, I think it proper to prescribe the following line of conduct to you :

“ You will not pledge me to an interview, in Spain, with Ferdinand, unless you consider the state of things to be such, that I ought to recognise him King of Spain.  You will behave with attention and respect to the King, the Queen, and Prince Godoy.  You will require for them, and pay them the same honours as formerly.  You will manage matters so as to prevent the Spaniards from entertaining any suspicions of the course I shall pursue.  You will find no difficulty in this, as I know nothing about it myself.

“ You will make the nobility and clergy understand, that if the interference of France be requisite in the affairs of Spain, their privileges and immunities shall be respected.  You will assure them, that the Emperor wishes for the improvement of the political institutions of Spain, in order to place her in a relative state to that of civilised Europe, and to free her from the administration of favouritism..... You will tell the magistrates and the inhabitants of the towns and the enlightened classes, that Spain stands in need of having the machine of her government re-organised, of a system of laws calculated for the protection of the people against the tyranny and usurpations of feudality, and of establishments which may revive industry, agriculture, and the arts.  You will describe to them the state of tranquillity and ease enjoyed by France, notwithstanding the wars in which she has been constantly involved, and the splendor of religion, which owes its existence to the Concordat I have signed with the Pope.  You will explain to them the advantages they may derive from political regeneration ;  order and peace at home, respect and influence abroad.  Such should be the spirit of your conversation and your writings.  Do not hazard any thing hastily.  I can wait at Bayonne, I can cross the Pyrenees, and strengthening myself towards Portugal, I can go and carry on the war in that quarter.

“ I shall take care of your particular interests, do not think of them yourself.  Portugal will be at my disposal ... Let no powerful object engage you and influence your conduct ;  that would be injurious to me, and would be still more hurtful to yourself.

“ You are too hasty in your instructions of the 14th.; the march you order General Dupont to take is too rapid, on account of the event of the 19th of March.  They must be altered ;  you will make new arrangements ;  you will receive instructions from my Minister for Foreign Affairs.

“ I enjoin the strictest maintenance of discipline ;  the slightest faults must not go unpunished.  The inhabitants must be treated with the greatest attention.  Above all, the churches and convents must be respected.

“ The army must avoid all misunderstanding with the bodies and detachments of the Spanish army ;  a single flash in the pan must not take place on either side.

“ Let Solano march beyond Badajos, but watch his movements.  Do you yourself trace out the marches of my army, that it may be always kept at a distance of several leagues from the Spanish corps.  Should hostilities take place, all would be lost.

“ The fate of Spain can alone be decided by political views and by negociation.  I charge you to avoid all explanation with Solano, as well as with the other Spanish generals and governors.  You will send me two expresses daily.  In case of events of superior interest, you will despatch officers of ordonnance.  You will immediately send back the Chamberlain de T...., the bearer of this despatch, and give him a detailed report.

I pray God, M. le grand Duc de Berg, &c. &c.
(Signed)
NAPOLEON.”

June 15th.—The weather was superb ;  we took an airing in our calash, and observed very near the shore a large vessel, which seemed to manoeuvre in a singular manner.  We took it by its appearance for the Newcastle, which had been for some time expected to relieve the Northumberland ;  but it was only one of the Company’s ships.

During part of the day, the Emperor, after running over a great number of topics, came at length to mention several persons, who, were they at liberty, he said, would join him at St. Helena, and he undertook to explain the motives by which they might be influenced.  From this subject, he was led to touch upon the motives of those who were about him.  “Bertrand,” said he, “is henceforth identified with my fate.  It is an historical fact.  Gourgaud was my first officer of ordonnance, he is my own work, he is my child.  Montholon is Semonville’s son, a brother-in-law to Joubert, a child of the revolution and of camps.  But you, my good friend,” said he to the fourth, “you,” and after a moment’s thought, he resumed ;  “you, my good friend, let us know by what extraordinary chance you find yourself here ?”  The answer was, “Sire, by the influence of my happy stars, and for the honour of the emigrants.”

Articles sent from England.—The Emperor’s determination to prohibit the use of cotton in France.—The Conferences of Tilsit.—The Queen of Prussia.—The King.—The Emperor Alexander.—Anecdotes, &c.

June 16th.—The weather was completely fine ;  the Emperor entered my apartment about ten o’clock.  I was employed in dressing myself, and also in dictating my journal to my son.  The Emperor cast his eye over it for a few instants, and said nothing ;  he left it to look at some drawings.  They were topographical sketches, executed with the pen, of some of the fields of battle in Italy.  They were planned by my son, and we felt pleasure in reserving them as an agreeable surprise for the Emperor.  We had, until then, been employed upon them in secret.

I followed the Emperor to the garden ;  he talked a great deal on the articles that had been just sent to us from England, and which chiefly consisted of furniture.  He exposed the ill-grace and awkwardness of those who had been employed to deliver them to us.  He observed, that in presenting even what would have been most agreeable to us, they found the means of hurting our feelings.  He was, on that account, determined not to make use of them, and he declined accepting two fowling-pieces, which were particularly intended for him.  The Emperor breakfasted in the open air, and we were all invited to his table.

The conversation turning on fashions and dress, the Emperor said, that at one period, he had resolved to prohibit the use of cotton in France, for the more effectual encouragement of the lawn and Cambric trade of our towns in Flanders.  The Empress Josephine was shocked at the idea, which she decidedly opposed, and it was given up.

The Emperor was in a happy humour for conversation, and the weather was very mild, and tolerably pleasant.  He began walking in the kind of alley which is perpendicular to the front of the house.  The conversation turned on the celebrated epoch of Tilsit, and the following are the interesting particulars which I collected.

The Emperor remarked, that, had the Queen of Prussia arrived at the commencement of the negociations, she might have exercised considerable influence with respect to the result.  Happily she arrived, when they were sufficiently advanced to enable the Emperor to decide upon their conclusion four and twenty hours afterwards.  The King, it was thought, had prevented her early appearance, in consequence of a rising jealousy against a great personage, which was confidently stated, said the Emperor, “not to have been destitute of some slight ground.”

The moment of her arrival the Emperor paid her a visit.  “The Queen of Prussia,” said he, “had been very beautiful, but she was beginning to lose some of the charms of her youth.”

The Emperor declared, that the Queen received him like Mademoiselle Duchenois in the character of Chimene, thrown back into a grand attitude, demanding, calling aloud for justice.  In one word, it was altogether a theatrical scene ;  the representation was truly tragic.  He was unable to speak for an instant, and thought the only way of extricating himself was that of bringing back the business to the tone of regular comedy, which he attempted by presenting her with a chair, and gently forcing her to be seated.  She did not, however, discontinue the most pathetic expressions.  “Prussia,” she exclaimed, “had been blindfolded with respect to her power ;— she had dared to contend with a hero, to oppose herself to the destinies of France, to neglect his auspicious friendship ;  she was deservedly punished for it.  The glory of the great Frederic, his memory, and his inheritance had puffed up the pride of Prussia, and had caused her ruin &c. &c.”  She solicited, supplicated, implored.  Magdeburg, in particular, was the object of her efforts and wishes.  The Emperor kept his ground as well as he could.  Fortunately, the husband made his appearance.  The Queen reproved, with an expressive look, the unseasonable interruption, and shewed some pettishness.  In fact, the King attempted to take part in the conversation, spoiled the whole affair, and “I was,” said the Emperor ;  “set at liberty.”

The Emperor entertained the Queen at dinner.  She played off, said he, all her wit against me ;  she had a great deal :  all her manners, which were very fascinating ;  all her coquetry ;  she was not without charms.  “But I was determined not to yield.  I found it necessary, however, to keep a great command over myself, that I might continue exempt from all hind of engagement, and every expression, which might be taken in a doubtful sense, and the more so, because I was carefully watched, and peculiarly by Alexander.”

An instant before dinner Napoleon took a very beautiful rose from a flower stand, which he presented to the Queen.  She at first expressed by the motion of her hand a kind of prepared refusal ;  but suddenly recollecting herself, she said ;  Yes, but at least with Magdeburg.  The Emperor replied, “But ...... I shall observe to your Majesty, that it is I who present, and you, who are about to receive it.”  The dinner and the remainder of the time passed over in that manner.

The Queen was seated at table between the two Emperors, who rivalled each other in gallantry.  She was placed near Alexander’s best ear ;  with one he can scarcely hear.  The evening came, and the Queen having retired, the Emperor, who had shown the most engaging attentions to his guests, but, who had at the same time, been often driven to an extremity, resolved to come to a point.  He sent for M. de Talleyrand, and Prince Kourakin, talked big to them, and letting fly, continued he, some hard words, observed, that after all, a woman and a piece of gallantry ought not to alter a system conceived for the destiny of a great people, and that he insisted upon the immediate conclusion of the negociations and the signing of the treaty ;  which took place according to his orders.  “Thus,” said he, “the Queen of Prussia’s conversation advanced the treaty by a week or a fortnight.”  The Queen was preparing to renew her attacks the next day, and was indignant, when she heard that the treaty was signed.  She wept a great deal, and determined to see the Emperor Napoleon no more.  She would not accept a second invitation to dinner.  Alexander was himself obliged to prevail upon her.  She complained most bitterly, and maintained, that Napoleon had broken his word.  But Alexander had been always present.  He had even been a dangerous witness, ready to give evidence of the slightest action or word on the part of Napoleon in her favour.  “He has made you no promise,” was his observation to her ;  “if you can prove the contrary, I here pledge myself as between man and man to make him keep his promise, and he will do so, I am convinced.”—“But he has given me to understand,” said she, ..... “No,” replied Alexander, “and you have nothing to reproach him with.”  She came at length.  Napoleon, who had no longer any occasion to be on his guard against her, redoubled his attentions.  She played off, for a few moments, the airs of an offended coquette, and when the dinner was over, and she was about to retire, Napoleon presented his hand, and conducted her to the middle of the staircase, where he stopped.  She squeezed his hand, and said with a kind of tenderness ;  “Is it possible, that after having had the honour of being so near to the hero of the century and of history, he will not leave me the power and satisfaction of being, enabled to assure him, that he has attached me to him for life ?”— “Madam,” replied the Emperor in a serious tone, “I am to be pitied ;  it is the result of my unhappy stars.”  He then took leave of her.  When she reached her carriage, she threw herself into it in tears ;  sent for Duroc, whom she highly esteemed, renewed all her complaints to him, and said, pointing to the palace ;  “There is a place in which I have been cruelly deceived !”

“ The Queen of Prussia,” said the Emperor, “was unquestionably gifted with many happy resources ;  she possessed a great deal of information and had many excellent capabilities.  It was she, who really reigned for more than fifteen years.  She also, in spite of my dexterity and all my exertions, took the lead in conversation, and constantly maintained the ascendancy.  She touched, perhaps, too often upon her favourite topic, but she did so, however, with great plausibility and without giving the slightest cause of uneasiness.  It must be confessed that she had an important object in view, and that the time was short and precious.”

“ One of the high contracting parties,” said the Emperor, “had frequently assured her, that she ought to have come in the beginning or not at all, and observed that, for his part, he had done every thing in his power to induce her to come at once.  It was suspected,” continued the Emperor, “that he had a personal motive to gratify by her coming ;  but on the other hand, the husband had a motive equally personal in opposing it.”  Napoleon believed him to have been very kind and a sincere friend in the business.

“ The king of Prussia,” said the Emperor, “had requested his audience of leave on that very day, but I postponed it for four and twenty hours, at the secret entreaty of Alexander.  The king of Prussia never forgave me for putting off that audience ;  so clearly did it seem to him, that Royal Majesty was insulted by my refusal.

“ Another heavy charge against me, and of which he has never been able to divest his feelings, was that of having violated, as he said, his territory of Anspach in our campaign of Austerlitz.  In all our subsequent interviews, however important the subjects of our discussion, he laid them all aside for the purpose of proving, that I had really violated his territory of Anspach.  He was wrong ;  but in short, it was his conviction, and his resentment was that of an honest man.  His wife, however, was vexed at it, and wished him to pursue a higher system of politics, &c.”

Napoleon reproached himself with a real fault, in allowing the king of Prussia’s presence at Tilsit.  His first determination was to prevent his coming.  He would then have been less bound to shew any attention to his interests.  He might have kept Silesia, he might have aggrandized Saxony with it, and have probably reserved for himself another kind of destiny.  He further remarked ;  “I learn, that the politicians of the present day find great fault with my treaty of Tilsit ;  they have discovered, that I had, by that means, placed Europe at the mercy of the Russians ;  but if I had succeeded at Moscow ;  and it is now known how very near I was, they would, no doubt, have admired us for having, on the contrary, by that treaty, placed the Russians at the mercy of Europe.  I entertained great designs with respect to the Germans. ..... But I failed, and therefore I was wrong.  This is according to every rule of justice. .....”

Almost every day at Tilsit, the two Emperors and the King rode out on horseback together, but said Napoleon, “the latter was always awkward and unlucky.”  The Prussians felt it very visibly.  Napoleon was constantly between the two sovereigns ;  but either the King fell behind, or jostled and incommoded Napoleon.  He shewed the same awkwardness on their return :  the two Emperors dismounted in an instant, and took each other by the hand to go up stairs together.  But as the honours were done by Napoleon, he could not enter without first seeing the King pass.  It was sometimes necessary to wait for him a long time, and as the weather was often rainy, it happened that the two Emperors got wet on the king’s account, to the great dissatisfaction of all the spectators.

“ This awkwardness,” said the Emperor, “was the more glaring, as Alexander is in possession of all the graces, and equal, in elegance of manners, to the most polished and amiable ornaments of our Parisian drawing-rooms.  The latter was at times so tired of his companion, who seemed lost in his own sorrows, or in some other cause, that we mutually agreed on breaking up our common meeting to get rid of him.  We separated immediately after dinner, under the pretence of some particular business ;  but Alexander and I met shortly afterwards to take tea with one another, and we then continued in conversation until midnight, and even beyond it.”

Alexander and Napoleon met again some time after at Erfurt, and exchanged the most striking testimonies of affection.  Alexander expressed with earnestness the sentiments of tender friendship and real admiration which he entertained for Napoleon.  They passed some days together in the enjoyment of the charms of perfect intimacy and of the most familiar communications of private life.  “We were,” said the Emperor, “two young men of quality, who, in their common pleasures, had no secret from each other.”

Napoleon had sent for the most distinguished performers of the French Theatre.  A celebrated actress, Mademoiselle B——, attracted the attention of his guest, who had a momentary fancy to get acquainted with her.  He asked his companion whether any inconvenience was likely to be the result.  “None,” answered the latter ;  “only,” added he, intentionally, it is a certain and rapid mode of making yourself known to all Paris.  After to-morrow, post-day, the most minute details will be dispatched, and in a short time, not a statuary at Paris but will be qualified to give a model of your person from head to foot.”  The danger of such a kind of publicity appeased the monarch’s rising passion ;  “for,” observed Napoleon, “he was very circumspect with regard to that point, and he recollected no doubt the old adage, when the mask falls, the hero disappears.”

The Emperor assured us, that, had it been his wish, Alexander would certainly have given him his sister in marriage ;  his politics would have dictated the match, even had his inclination been against it.  He was petrified when he heard of the marriage with Austria, and exclaimed— “This consigns me to my native forests.”  If he seemed at first to shift about, it was because some time was necessary to enable him to come to a decision.  His sister was very young, and the consent of his mother was requisite.  This was settled by Paul’s will, and the Empress mother was one of Napoleon’s greatest enemies.  She was also the dupe of all the absurdities, all the ridiculous stories which had been circulated on his personal account.  “How,” she exclaimed, “can I marry my daughter to a man who is unfit to be any one’s husband ?  Shall another man take possession of my daughter’s bed, if it be necessary, that she should have children ?  She is not formed for such a fate.”— “Mother,” said Alexander, “can you be so credulous as to believe the calumnies of London and the insinuations of the saloons of Paris ?  If that be the only difficulty, if it be that alone which gives you pain, I answer for him, and many others have it in their power to answer for him with me.”

“ If Alexander’s affection for me was sincere,” said the Emperor, “it was alienated from me by the force of intrigue.  Certain persons, M——, or others at the instigation of T——, lost no seasonable opportunity of mentioning instances of my turning him into ridicule, and they assured him, that at Tilsit and Erfurt, he no sooner turned his back than I took my opportunity of laughing at his expense.  Alexander is very susceptible, and they must have easily soured his mind.  It is certain, that he made bitter complaints of it at Vienna during the congress, and yet nothing was more false ;  he pleased me, and I loved him.”

S....., one of Napoleon’s aides-de-camp, was sent immediately after the treaty of Tilsit to Alexander at Petersburg, and was loaded with favours.  The efforts and liberality of Alexander were inexhaustible to render himself agreeable to his new ally.

A circumstance of 1814 is related, which drew, it is said, from S...... a very happy allusion to his mission in Russia.

S..... was, on his return from Russia, appointed minister of the police at Paris.  A short time after the restoration, M. de B...., addressing him at the Tuileries, in a manner altogether careless and unreserved, said, “Now that all is over, you may tell us every thing ;  pray, who was your agent at Hartwell ?” (This was, as every one knows, the residence of Louis XVIII. in England) S....., astonished at the want of good sense, evinced by M. de B...... answered with dignity ;— “M. le Comte, the Emperor considered the asylum of kings as an inviolable sanctuary.  It was a principle which he impressed upon his police and we adhered to it.  We have since learnt, that the same conduct was not observed with respect to him.  But you, Sir, should entertain less doubt upon the subject than any other person.  When I arrived at Petersburgh, you were there on the part of the king.  The Emperor Alexander, in the first warmth of his reconciliation, acquainted me with every thing that respected you, and asked me whether it was the wish of my government, that you should be ordered to leave his dominions.  I had received no instructions upon that head.  I wrote for them to the Emperor.  His answer was, by return of courier, that he was satisfied with the sincere friendship of Alexander, that he would never interfere in his private arrangements ;  that he entertained no personal hatred against the Bourbons, and that if he believed it were possible for them to accept it, he would offer them an asylum in France, and any royal residence, which might be agreeable to them.  If you were then ignorant of these instructions, you will, no doubt, find them among the papers of the foreign office.”

1 We who have been at St. Helena, we who have seen and been concerned in the facts alledged by Lord Bathurst, before the parliament of Great Britain, we all can affirm before God and mankind, that the British Ministers have on that occasion fully deserved the just reproaches which they incurred at the time of Lord Whitworth.  Many Englishmen who were then at St. Helena, have acknowledged it to us, and have confessed that they blushed for their country !!