REVISION OF THE CHAPTERS ON THE ARMY OF ITALY.
22d.—The Emperor resumed his researches respecting Egypt. He gave me Strabo to look over; it was the edition which he had caused to be made. He commended the care and pains bestowed upon it, and said that it had been his intention to give us, in course of time, editions of all the works of the ancients, through the official medium of the Institute.—Before dinner the Emperor sent for me and my son, and spent at least six hours with us, reading over and recasting the chapters on the Tagliamento, Leoben, and Venice.
All is fine in these chapters on the Campaign of Italy. In that on the Tagliamento, we see how one single disposition, made on the banks of that river and hardly noticed, one of those movements which the Emperor calls the thought of the battle, must inevitably lead to the gates of Vienna.
The chapter on Venice is written after the manner of the ancients. However, the last chapter read always seems to be that which pleases most.
I was extremely unwell and very tired, not so much from fatigue occasioned by work, as from bodily indisposition. We amused ourselves this evening by reading the description of Ulysses’ departure from the Island of Calypso, and his arrival amongst the Pheacians.
ON SENSIBILITY.—ON THE INHABITANTS OF THE EAST AND
WEST; DIFFERENCES OBSERVABLE BETWEEN THEM, &C.
23d.—This morning the Emperor, conversing in his room, after touching on several subjects, spoke about sentiment, feelings, and sensibility, and having alluded to one of us who, as he observed, never pronounced the name of his mother but with tears in his eyes, he said, “But is this not peculiar to him? Is this a general feeling? Do you experience the same thing, or am I unnatural in that respect? I certainly love my mother with all my heart; there is nothing that I would not do for her, yet if I were to hear of her death, I do not think that my grief would manifest itself by even a single tear; but I would not affirm that this would be the case if I were to lose a friend, or my wife, or my son. Is this distinction founded on nature? What can be the cause of it? Is it that my reason has prepared me beforehand to expect the death of my mother, as being in the natural course of events, whereas the loss of my wife, or of my son, is an unexpected occurrence, a hardship inflicted by fate, which I endeavour to struggle against? Perhaps also this distinction merely proceeds from our natural disposition to egotism. I belong to my mother, but my wife and my son belong to me.” And he went on multiplying the reasons in support of his opinion, with his usual fertility of invention, in which there was always something original and striking.
It is certain that he was tenderly attached to his wife and his son. Those persons who have served in the interior of his household now inform us how fond he was of indulging his feelings of affection towards his family; and point out some shades in his disposition, the existence of which we were far from suspecting at the time.
He would sometimes take his son in his arms, and embrace him with the most ardent demonstrations of paternal love. But most frequently his affection would manifest itself by playful teazing or whimsical tricks. If he met his son in the gardens, for instance, he would throw him down or upset his toys. The child was brought to him every morning at breakfast time, and he then seldom failed to besmear him with every thing within his reach on the table. With respect to his wife, not a day passed here without his introducing her into his private conversations; if they lasted any length of time, she was sure to come in for a share in them, or to become the exclusive subject of them. There is no circumstance, no minute particular relating to her, which he has not repeated to me a hundred times. Penelope, after ten years’ absence, in order to convince herself that she is not deceived, puts some questions to Ulysses which he alone could answer. Well! I think that I should not find it difficult to present my credentials to Maria-Louisa.
In the course of the conversation in the evening, the Emperor, speaking of different nations, said he knew of only two,—the Orientals and the people of the West. “The English, the French, the Italians, &c.” said he, “compose one family, and form the western division; they have the same laws, the same manners, the same customs; and differ entirely from the Orientals, particularly with respect to their women and their servants. The Orientals have slaves; our servants are free: the Orientals shut up their women; our wives share in all our rights: the Orientals keep a seraglio, but polygamy has never been admitted in the West at any period. There are several other distinctions,” said the Emperor; “it is said that as many as eighty have been reckoned. The inhabitants of the East and of the West are therefore,” observed the Emperor, “really two distinct nations:—with the Orientals every thing is calculated to enable them to watch over their wives and make sure of them; all our institutions in the West tend, on the contrary, to put it out of our power to watch over ours, and to make it necessary for us to rely upon them alone. With us, every man who does not wish to pass for an idiot must have some occupation; and whilst he is attending to his business, or fulfilling the duties of his situation, who will watch for him? We must therefore, with our manners, rely entirely on the honour of our women, and place implicit confidence in them. For my part,” added he good-humouredly, “I have had both wives and mistresses; but it never came into my head to use any particular precaution to watch over them, because I thought that it was with these things as with the fear of daggers and poison in certain situations of life; the torment of guarding against them is greater than the danger we wish to avoid: it is better to trust to one’s fate.
“It is, however, a very knotty question to decide, which is the best method, ours or that of the Orientals; though, probably, not for you, ladies,” said he, casting an arch-look upon those who were present. “Yet it is certain that it would be a very great error to suppose that the Orientals have fewer enjoyments than we have, and are less happy than we are in the West. In the East, the husbands are very fond of their wives, and the wives are very much attached to their husbands. They have as many chances of happiness as we have, however different they may seem; for every thing is conventional amongst men, even in those feelings which, one would suppose, ought to be dictated by Nature alone. Besides, the women in the East have their rights and privileges, as ours have theirs: it would be quite as impossible to prevent them from going to the public bath, as it would be to prevent our women from going to church; and both abuse that liberty. You see, therefore, that the imagination, feelings, virtues, and failings of human nature, are circumscribed within a very narrow compass; and that the same things, with few exceptions and differences, are to be found everywhere.”
He then proceeded to account for, or to justify, polygamy among the Orientals in a very ingenious manner. “It never existed,” he said, “in the West: the Greeks, the Romans, the Gauls, the Germans, the Spaniards, the Britons, never had more than one wife. In the East, on the other hand, polygamy has existed in all ages: the Jews, the Assyrians, the Tartars, the Persians, the Turcomans, had all of them several wives. Whence could this universal and invariable difference have arisen? Was it owing to accident and to mere caprice? Did it depend on physical causes in individuals? No. Were woman less numerous, in proportion, among us than in Asia? No. Were they more numerous in the East than the men? No. Were the latter of superior stature, to us, or differently constituted? No. The fact is that the legislator, or that wisdom from on high which supplies his place, must have been guided by the force of circumstances arising from the respective localities. All the people of the West have the same form, the same colour; they compose but one nation, one family: it has been possible, as at the moment of the Creation, to assign to them but one helpmate—happy, admirable, beneficent law, which purifies the heart of the man, exalts the condition of the woman, and assures to both a multitude of moral enjoyments!
“The[“The] Orientals, on the other hand, differ from one another as much as day and night, in their forms and colours: they are white, black, copper-coloured, mixed, &c. The first thing to be thought of was their conservation, to establish a consanguineous fraternity among them, without which they would have been everlastingly persecuting, oppressing, exterminating one another: this could only be accomplished by the institution of polygamy, and by enabling them to have at one and the same time a white, black, mulatto, and copper-coloured wife. The different colours now constituting part of one and the same family, thus became blended in the affections of the chief and in the opinions of each of the females relatively to the others.
“Mahomet,” he added, “seems to have been acquainted with the secret, and to have been guided by it: otherwise how happened it that he, who treads so closely in the steps of Christianity, and deviates from it so little, did not suppress polygamy? Do you reply that he retained it only because his religion was wholly sensual? In this case, he would have allowed the Mussulmans an indefinite number of wives, whereas he limited it to four only, which would seem to imply a black, a white, a copper-coloured, and a mixed.
Besides, let it not be supposed that this favour of the law was put in practice for the whole nation; or there would not have been wives for them all. In fact, eleven twelfths of the population have but one, because they cannot maintain more, but polygamy in the chiefs is sufficient to attain the grand object: for, the confusion of races and of colours existing, by means of polygamy, in the higher class, it is enough to establish union and perfect equality among all. We must, therefore admit,” he concluded, “that if polygamy was not the offspring of a political combination, if it owed its origin to chance alone, that chance has in this instance, produced as much as consummate wisdom.”
The Emperor said that he had seriously thought of applying this principle to our colonies, in order to harmonize the welfare of the Negroes with the necessity for employing them. He had even, he said, consulted divines on this subject, to ascertain if there were not means, considering local circumstances, of reconciling our religious notions with this practice.
The Emperor continued conversing in this manner until after midnight.
ON HOLLAND AND KING LOUIS.—COMPLAINTS OF THE EMPEROR AGAINST THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY.—MATTERS OF HIGH POLICE, &C.—LETTER TO KING LOUIS, THE EMPEROR’S BROTHER.
24th.—The Emperor sent for me at about half-past twelve to his closet. Our conversation turned upon the succession of authors through which the light of history has been transmitted to us from the remotest antiquity down to the present time. This led him to read that part of the first table of the Historical Atlas which gives a recapitulation of them, and presents the whole at one view.
The conversation turned on the diversities of the human species. The Emperor sent for Buffon, to throw light upon the question; and continued for some time employed in seeking information on the subject.
Having dressed, the Emperor sent for my son, and we worked three or four hours at the chapters of the Campaign of Italy.
When this was completed, the conversation, through a variety of subjects, turned upon Holland and King Louis, respecting whom he said some things worthy of observation.
“Louis is not destitute of intelligence,” said the Emperor, “and has a good heart; but even with these qualifications a man may commit many errors, and do a great deal of mischief. Louis is naturally inclined to be capricious and fantastical, and the works of Jean Jaques Rousseau have contributed to increase this disposition. Seeking to obtain a reputation for sensibility and beneficence, incapable by himself of enlarged views, and, at most, competent to local details, Louis acted like a Prefect rather than a king.
“No sooner had he arrived in Holland, than, fancying that nothing could be finer than to have it said that he was thenceforth a true Dutchman, he attached himself entirely to the party favourable to the English, promoted smuggling, and thus connived with our enemies. It became necessary from that moment to watch over him, and even to threaten to attack him. Louis, then, seeking a refuge against the weakness of his disposition in the most stubborn obstinacy, and mistaking a public scandal for an act of glory, fled from his throne, declaiming against me and against my insatiable ambition, my intolerable tyranny. What then remained for me to do? Was I to abandon Holland to our enemies? Ought I to have given it another King? But in that case could I have expected more from him than from my own brother? Did not all the kings that I created act nearly in the same manner? I therefore united Holland to the empire; and this act produced a most unfavourable impression in Europe, and contributed not a little to pave the way to our misfortunes.
“Louis was delighted to take Lucien as his model: Lucien had acted nearly in the same manner; and if, at a later period, he has repented, and has even nobly made amends for his errors, this conduct did honour to his character, but could not produce any favourable change in our affairs.
“On[“On] my return from Elba in 1815, Louis wrote a long letter to me from Rome, and sent an ambassador to me. It was his treaty, he said, the conditions upon which he would return to me. I answered that I would not make any treaty with him, that he was my brother, and that if he came back he would be well received.
“Will it be believed that one of his conditions was that he should be at liberty to divorce Hortense! I severely rebuked the negotiator for having dared to be the bearer of so absurd a proposal, and for having believed that such a measure could ever be made the subject of a negotiation. I reminded Louis that our family compact positively forbade it, and represented to him that it was not less forbidden by policy, morality, and public opinion. I farther assured him that, actuated by all these motives, if his children were to lose their state through his fault, I should feel more interested for them than for him, although he was my brother.
“Perhaps an excuse might be found for the caprice of Louis’s disposition in the deplorable state of his health, the age at which it became deranged, and the horrible circumstances which produced that derangement, and which must have had a considerable influence upon his mind; he was on the point of death on the occasion, and has, ever since, been subject to most cruel infirmities: he is almost paralytic on one side.
“It is certain, however,” added the Emperor, “that I have derived little assistance from my own family, and that they have severely injured me and the great cause. The energy of my disposition has often been extolled; but I have been a mere milksop, particularly with my family; and well they knew it after the first moment of anger was over, they always carried their point by perseverance and obstinacy. I became tired of the contest, and they did with me just as they pleased. These are great errors which I have committed. If, instead of this, each of them had given a common impulse to the different bodies which I placed under their direction, we should have marched on to the poles; every thing would have given way before us; we should have changed the face of the world; Europe would now enjoy the advantages of a new system, and we should have received the benedictions of mankind! I have not been so fortunate as Gengis Khan, with his four sons, each of whom rivalled the other in zeal for his service. No sooner had I made a man a king, than he thought himself king by the grace of God, so contagious is the use of the expression. He was then no longer a lieutenant, on whom I could rely, but another enemy whom I was obliged to guard against. His efforts were not directed towards seconding me, but towards rendering himself independent. They all immediately imagined that they were adored and preferred to me. From that moment I was in their way, I endangered their existence! Legitimate monarchs would not have behaved differently; would not have thought themselves more firmly established. Weak-minded men! who, when I fell, had occasion to convince themselves that the enemy did not even do them the honour to demand the surrender of their dignities, or even to allude to it. If they are now put under personal restraint, if they are subject to vexation, it must proceed, on the part of the conqueror, from a wish to impose the weight of power, or from the base motive of gratifying his vengeance. If the members of my family excite a strong interest amongst mankind, it is because they belong to me and to the common cause; but assuredly there is not the least danger of any movement being produced by any of them. Notwithstanding the philosophy of several of them (for some of them had said, after the fashion of the chamberlains of the Faubourg St-Germain, that they were forced to reign,) their fall must have been sensibly felt by them, for they had soon accommodated themselves to the pleasures and comforts of their station; they were all really kings. Thanks to my labours, all have enjoyed the advantages of royalty; I alone have known its cares. I have all the time carried the world on my shoulders; and this occupation, after all, is rather fatiguing.
“It will perhaps be asked, why I persisted in erecting states and kingdoms? The manners and the situation of Europe required it. Every time that another country was annexed to France, the act added to the universal alarm which already prevailed, excited loud murmurs, and diminished the chances of peace. Then why, will it be farther said, did I indulge in the vanity of placing every member of my family on a throne? (for the generality of people must have thought me actuated by vanity alone:) why did I not rather fix my choice upon private individuals possessing greater abilities? To this I reply that it is not with thrones as with the functions of a prefect; talents and abilities are so common in the present age, among the multitude, that one must be cautious to avoid awakening the idea of competition. In the agitation in which we were involved, and with our modern institutions, it was proper to think rather of consolidating and concentrating the hereditary right of succession, in order to avoid innumerable feuds, factions, and misfortunes. If there was any fault in my person and my elevation, consistently with the plan of universal harmony which I meditated for the repose and happiness of all, it was that I had risen at once from the multitude. I felt that I stood insulated and alone, and I cast out anchors on all sides into the sea around me. Where could I more naturally look for support than amongst my own relations? Could I expect more from strangers? And it must be admitted that if the members of my family have had the folly to break through these sacred ties, the morality of the people, superior to their blind infatuation, fulfilled in part my object. With them their subjects thought themselves more quiet, more united as in one family.
“To resume: acts of that importance were not to be considered lightly; they were involved in considerations of the highest order; they were connected with the tranquillity of mankind, the possibility of ameliorating its condition. If, notwithstanding all these measures, taken with the best intentions, it seems that no permanent good has been effected, we must admit the truth of this great maxim, that to govern is very difficult for those who wish to do it conscientiously.”
The following letter, of a very old date, will serve to throw great light upon the words of Napoleon, mentioned a few pages back, respecting the conduct of his brother in Holland.
At a later period, King Louis published a sort of account of his administration, addressed to the Dutch nation; it is particularly interesting, after having read the above paragraph and the accompanying letter, to take up that document of King Louis, in order to be able to form an opinion on the subject founded on a due knowledge of all the circumstances.
“Castle of Marach, 3d April, 1808.
“Sir and brother.—The auditor D——t delivered to me an hour ago your despatch, dated 22d March. I send a courier who will take this letter to you in Holland.
“The use you have just made of the privilege of mercy cannot but produce a very bad effect. This privilege is one of the finest and noblest attributes of the sovereign power. In order not to bring it into discredit, it must be used only in cases when the royal clemency is not detrimental to the ends of justice, or when it is calculated to leave an impression of being the result of generous feelings. The present case is that of a number of banditti, who attacked and murdered several custom-house officers, with the intention of smuggling afterwards without interruption. These people are condemned to death; and your Majesty extends the royal mercy to them ... to a set of murderers, to men whom nobody can pity. If they had been caught in the act of smuggling; if, in defending themselves, they had killed some of the officers, then you might perhaps have taken into consideration the situation of their families, and their own; and have shewn an example of a kind of paternal feeling, by modifying the severity of the law, by a commutation of punishment. It is in cases of condemnation for offences against the revenue laws, it is more particularly in cases of condemnation for political offences, that clemency is well applied. In these matters the principle is that, if it is the Sovereign who is attacked, there is a certain magnanimity in pardoning the offender. On the first report of an affair of that kind, the sympathy of the public is immediately excited in favour of the offender, and not of him who is to inflict the punishment. If the Prince remits the sentence, the people consider him superior to the offence, and the public clamour is directed against those who have offended him. If he follows the opposite system, he is thought vindictive and tyrannical. If he pardons atrocious crimes, he is looked upon as weak, or actuated by bad intentions.
“Do not fancy that the privilege of mercy can always be used without danger, and that society will always commend the exercise of it in the Sovereign. The Sovereign is blamed when he applies it in favour of murderers or great malefactors, because it then becomes injurious to the interests of the community. You have too frequently, and on too many occasions, extended the royal mercy. The kindness of your heart must not be listened to when it can become prejudicial to your people. In the affair of the Jews, I should have done as you did; but in that of the smugglers of Middelburg, I should not have pardoned on any account. Many reasons ought to have induced you to let justice take its course, and give the example of an execution which would have produced the excellent effect of preventing many crimes by the terror which it would have inspired. Public officers are murdered in the middle of the night—the murderers are condemned. Your Majesty commutes the punishment of death into a few years’ imprisonment! How much will this not tend to dishearten all the persons employed in the collection of your revenue! The political effect produced by it is also very bad, for the following reasons:—Holland was the channel through which England had, for many years, introduced her goods on the Continent. The Dutch merchants have made immense profits by this trade; and that is the reason why the Dutch nation is partial to England, and fond of smuggling, and why it hates France, who forbids smuggling and opposes England. The mercy which you have extended to these smugglers and murderers is a kind of compliment which you have paid to the taste of the Dutch for smuggling. You appear to make common cause with them,—and against whom? Against me.
“The Dutch love you: your disposition is amiable, your manners are unaffected, and you govern them according to their inclination; but you would make a beneficial use of the influence you possess if you shewed yourself positively determined to suppress smuggling, and if you opened their eyes to their real interests: they would then think that the system of prohibition is good, since it is observed by the King. I cannot see what advantage your Majesty can derive from a species of popularity which you would acquire at my expense. Certainly Holland is no longer what it was at the time of the treaty of Ryswick; and France is not in the situation in which it was placed during the last years of the reign of Louis XIV. If, therefore, Holland is unable to follow a system of policy independent of that of France, it must fulfil the conditions of the alliance.
“It is not to the present alone that sovereigns must accommodate their policy; the future must also be the object of their consideration. What is at this moment the situation of Europe? On one side, England, who possesses, by her sole exertions, a dominion to which the whole world has been hitherto compelled to submit. On the other side, the French Empire and the Continental States, which, strengthened by the union of their powers, cannot acquiesce in this supremacy exercised by England. Those states had also their colonies and a maritime trade; they possess an extent of coast much greater than England; but they have become disunited, and England has attacked the naval power of each separately: England has triumphed on every sea, and all navies have been destroyed. Russia, Sweden, France, and Spain, which possess such ample means for having ships and sailors, dare not venture to send a squadron out of their ports. It is, therefore, no longer from a confederation amongst the maritime powers—a confederation which it would be besides impossible to maintain, on account of the distance, and of the interference of the various interests of each with those of the others—that Europe can expect its maritime emancipation, and a system of peace, which can be established only by the will of England.
“I wish for peace; I wish to obtain it by every means compatible with the dignity of the power of France; at the expense of every sacrifice which our national honour can allow. Every day I feel more and more that peace is necessary; and the sovereigns of the Continent are as anxious for peace as I am. I feel no passionate prejudice against England; I bear her no insurmountable hatred: she has followed against me a system of repulsion; I have adopted against her the Continental system, not so much from a jealousy of ambition, as my enemies suppose, but in order to reduce England to the necessity of adjusting our differences. Let England be rich and prosperous; it is no concern of mine, provided France and her allies enjoy the same advantages.
“The Continental system has, therefore, no other object than to advance the moment when the public rights of Europe and of the French Empire will be definitively established. The sovereigns of the North observe and enforce strictly the system of prohibition, and their trade has been greatly benefited by it: the manufactures of Prussia may now compete with ours. You are aware that France, and the whole extent of coast which now forms part of the Empire, from the Gulf of Lyons to the extremity of the Adriatic, are strictly closed against the produce of foreign industry. I am about to adopt a measure with respect to the affairs of Spain, the result of which will be to wrest Portugal from England, and subject all the coasts of Spain, on both seas, to the influence of the policy of France. The coasts of the whole of Europe will then be closed against England, with the exception of those of Turkey, which I do not care about, as the Turks do not trade with Europe.
“Do you not perceive, from this statement, the fatal consequences that would result from the facilities given by Holland to the English for the introduction of their goods on the continent? They would enable England to levy upon us the subsidies which she would afterwards offer to other powers to fight against us. Your Majesty is as much interested as I am to guard against the crafty policy of the English Cabinet. A few years more, and England will wish for peace as much as we do. Observe the situation of your kingdom, and you will see that the system I allude to is more useful to yourself than it is to me. Holland is a maritime and commercial power; she possesses fine sea-ports, fleets, sailors, skilful commanders, and colonies, which do not cost any thing to the mother-country; and her inhabitants understand trade as well as the English. Has not Holland, therefore, an interest in defending all those advantages? May not peace restore her to the station she formerly held? Granted that her situation may be painful for a few years; but is not this preferable to making the King of Holland a mere governor for England, and Holland and her colonies a vassal of Great Britain? Yet the protection which you would afford to English commerce would lead to that result. The examples of Sicily and Portugal are still before your eyes.
“Await the result of the progress of time. You want to sell your spirits, and England wants to buy them. Point out the place where the English smugglers may come and fetch them; but let them pay for them in money and never in goods, positively never! Peace must at last be made; and you will then conclude a treaty of commerce with England. I may perhaps also make one with her, but in which our mutual interests shall be reciprocally guaranteed. If we must allow England to exercise a kind of supremacy on the sea, a supremacy which she will have purchased at the expense of her treasure and her blood, and which is the natural consequence of her geographical position and of her possessions in the three other parts of the globe; at least our flags will be at liberty to appear on the ocean without being exposed to insult, and our maritime trade will cease to be ruinous. For the present we must direct our efforts towards preventing England from interfering in the affairs of the Continent.
“I have been led on, from the consideration of the mercy which you have granted, to the above details, and I have entered into them because I feared that your Dutch Ministers may impress your Majesty’s mind with false notions.
“I wish you to reflect seriously upon the contents of this letter, and to render the different subjects it treats upon objects of the deliberations of your councils, in order that your Ministers may give a proper direction and tendency to their measures. Under no pretence whatever will France allow Holland to separate herself from the Continental system.
“With respect to these smugglers, since the fault has been committed, it cannot be undone. I advise you, however, not to leave them in the prison of Middelburg; it is too near the spot where the crime was perpetrated: send them to the remotest part of Holland. The present having no other object, &c.
(Signed) “Napoleon.”
During dinner the Emperor asked his groom how his horse was; the groom answered that it was well fed, in good spirits, and in excellent condition. “I hope he does not complain of me,” said the Emperor, “if ever horse led the life of a canon, it is assuredly this.” It is now two or three months since the Emperor was on horseback.
ZEAL FOR WORKING.—IDEAS AND PLANS OF NAPOLEON RESPECTING OUR HISTORY, &C.—ON THE WORKS PUBLISHED, &C.—M. MÉNÉVAL; CURIOUS PARTICULARS.
25th—27th. The Emperor for some days past has been remarkably assiduous. All our mornings have been spent in making researches concerning Egypt, in the works of the ancient authors. We have looked over Herodotus, Pliny, Strabo, &c., together, without any other intermission than that which we required to eat our breakfast, which was served on his small table. The weather continued unfavourable, and the Emperor dictated every day and the whole day.
At dinner he told us that he found himself much better, and we then observed to him that for some time past, however, he had not been out of the house, and was occupied eight, ten, or twelve hours a day. “That is the very reason of my being better,” said he: “occupation is my element; I was born and made for it. I have found the limits beyond which I could not use my legs; I have seen the extent to which I could use my eyes; but I have never known any bounds to my capability of application. I nearly killed poor Ménéval; I was obliged to relieve him for a time from the duties of his situation, and place him for the recovery of his health near the person of Maria Louisa, where his post was a mere sinecure.”
The Emperor added that, if he were in Europe and had leisure, his pleasure would be to write history. He complained of the very indifferent manner in which history was written every where. The researches in which he had lately been engaged had proved this fact to him to a degree beyond any thing he could ever have suspected.
“We have no good history,” observed he, “and we could not have any; and the other nations of Europe are nearly in the same predicament as ourselves. Monks and privileged persons, that is to say, men friendly to abuses and inimical to information and learning, monopolized this branch of writing; they told us what they thought proper, or rather that which favoured their interests, gratified their passions, or agreed with their own views!—He had formed,” he said, “a plan for remedying the evil as much as possible; he intended, for instance, to appoint commissions from the Institute, or learned men whom public opinion might have pointed out to him, to revise, criticize, and re-publish our annals. He wished also to add commentaries to the classic authors which are put in the hands of our youth, to explain them with reference to our modern institutions. With a good programme, competition, and rewards, this end would have been accomplished; every thing,” he said, “can be obtained by such means.”
He then repeated, what I believe I have mentioned before, that it had been his intention to cause the history of the last reigns of our kings to be written from the original documents in the archives of our Foreign Office. There were also several manuscripts, both ancient and modern, in the Imperial Library, which he intended to have printed, classifying and embodying them under their different heads, so as to form codes of doctrine on science, morality, literature, fine arts, &c.
He had, he said, several other plans of a similar nature. And could any other period be found equally favourable to the execution of such plans? When will there be again united in the same man the genius to conceive and the power to execute them?
In order to check the production of the immense number of inferior works with which the public was inundated, without however trenching upon the liberty of the press, he asked what objection there could have been to the formation of a tribunal of opinion, composed of members of the Institute, members of the University, and persons appointed by the government, who would have examined all works with reference to these three points of view, science, morality, and politics; who would have criticized them, and defined the degree of merit possessed by each. This tribunal would have been the light of the public; it would have operated as a warranty in favour of works of real merit, insured their success, and thus produced emulation; whilst, on the contrary, it would necessarily have discouraged the publication of inferior productions.
All our evenings were devoted to the Odyssey, with which we are delighted. Polyphemus, Tiresias, and the Syrens, have quite charmed us.
The following details relate to M. Ménéval, to whom the Emperor alluded above; they will be considered invaluable, as they will serve to exhibit Napoleon in the sphere of his private life.
The Emperor, when First Consul, complained that he had no Secretary. He had just dismissed the one he had had during the campaigns of Italy and the expedition in Egypt; he was an old college acquaintance of the Emperor’s, a man full of intelligence, and to whom he was very much attached; but he had been obliged to part with him. His brother Joseph then offered him his own secretary, whom he had only had for a short time: Napoleon accepted the offer, and acquired a treasure. This the Emperor has repeated several times since. It was Ménéval, whom he has since made a baron, Maître[Maître] des Requêtes, and Secrétaire des Commandemens to the Empress Maria Louisa.
Ménéval’s title, when attached to the First Consul, was Secretary of the Portfolio; a long regulation was even made expressly regarding him; the principal article of which was that he should never, under any pretence whatever, have a secretary, or employ an amanuensis; which condition was strictly observed.
M. Ménéval was a man of gentle and reserved manners, very discreet, working at all times and at all hours. The Emperor never had reason to be dissatisfied or displeased with him, and was very much attached to him. The Secretary of the Portfolio had generally all the current business, all affairs that arose on a sudden emergency, or from a sudden thought. How many affairs, plans, and conceptions, have been discussed and transmitted through his medium! He opened and read all letters addressed to the Emperor; classed them for the Emperor’s examination, and wrote under his dictation.
The Emperor dictated so fast that, most frequently, in order to save time, the Secretary was obliged to endeavour to recollect the words, rather than attempt to write them down at the moment they were pronounced. In this, Ménéval particularly excelled. In the course of time, Ménéval was authorized himself to return answers on many subjects. He might easily have acquired great influence; but it was not in his disposition to seek to obtain it.
The Emperor was almost always in his closet; it might be said that he spent the whole day and part of the night in it. He usually went to bed at ten or eleven o’clock, and rose again about twelve, to work for a few hours more. Sometimes he sent for M. Ménéval, but most frequently he did not; and, aware of his zeal, he would sometimes say to him, “You must not kill yourself.”
When the Emperor went into his closet in the morning, he found bundles of papers already arranged and prepared for him by Ménéval, who had been there before him. If the Emperor sometimes allowed twenty-four hours, or two days, to elapse without going into it, his Secretary would remind him of it, and tell him that he would suffer himself to be overwhelmed with the mass of papers that were accumulating, and that the closet would soon be full of them. To this the Emperor usually answered good-humouredly: “Do not alarm yourself, it will soon be cleared;” and so indeed it was, for in a few hours the Emperor had despatched all the answers, and was even with the current business. It is true that he got through a great deal by not answering many things, and throwing away all that he considered useless, even when coming from his Ministers. To this they were accustomed; and when no answer appeared they knew what it meant. He himself read all letters that were addressed to him; to some he answered by writing a few words in the margin, and to others he dictated an answer. Those that were of great importance were always put by, read a second time, and not answered until some time had elapsed. When leaving his closet, he generally recapitulated those affairs that were of the greatest consequence, and fixed the hour at which they must be ready for him, which was always punctually attended to. If at that hour the Emperor did not come, M. Ménéval followed him about from place to place through the palace to remind him of it. On some of these occasions the Emperor would go and settle the affair, at other times he would say, “To-morrow; night is a good adviser.” This was his usual phrase; and he often said that he had indeed worked much harder at night than during the day; not that thoughts of business prevented him from sleeping, but because he slept at intervals, according as he wanted rest, and a little sufficed for him.
It often happened that the Emperor, in the course of his campaigns, was roused suddenly upon some emergency; he would then immediately get up, and it would have been impossible to guess from the appearance of his eyes that he had just been asleep. He then gave his decision, or dictated his answer, with as much clearness, and with his mind as free and unembarrassed, as at any other moment. This he called the after-midnight presence of mind; and he possessed it in a most extraordinary degree. It has sometimes happened that he has been perhaps called up as often as ten times in the same night, and each time he was always found to have fallen asleep again, not having as yet taken his quantum of rest.
Boasting one day to one of his ministers (General Clarke) of the faculty which he possessed of sleeping almost at pleasure and how little rest he required, Clarke answered in a jocular tone, “Yes, Sire, and that is a source of torment to us, for it is often at our expense; we come in for our share of it sometimes.”
The Emperor did every thing himself and through the medium of his Cabinet. He appointed to all vacant situations, and most frequently substituted new names to those of the persons proposed to him. He read the plans of his Ministers, adopted, rejected, or modified them. He even indited the notes of his Minister for Foreign Affairs, which he dictated to Ménéval, from whom he kept no secret. It was through Ménéval also that he wrote to the different sovereigns; in addressing whom he observed a formula which he had had drawn up from the reports of former times, and to the strict observance of which he attached great importance. All the Ministers transacted business with the Emperor together on one day of the week, appointed for that purpose, unless something occurred to prevent it. The business of each Minister was transacted in the presence of all the others, who were allowed to give their opinions respecting it, and each of them thus emptied his portfolio. A register was kept of the deliberations, of which there must be many volumes. Those documents that had been decided on were left to have the signature affixed to them, which was done through the medium of the Minister Secretary of State, who countersigned them. Sometimes some of these papers, after they had been thus decided on, were still sent to the Emperor’s cabinet to be revised and modified before the signature was put to them. The Minister for Foreign Affairs was the only one who, independently of his share in the general business transacted by the other Ministers, had besides, from the secret nature of his functions, other business to despatch in private with the Emperor.
One of the favourite aides-de-camp of the Emperor was entrusted with all that related to the personnel of the war-department. For a long time Duroc occupied this confidential post; afterwards Bertrand and Lauriston; Count Lobau was the last who filled it.
M. Ménéval, being in a very indifferent state of health, worn down by fatigue from application, and requiring some interval of repose, the Emperor gave him a situation in the household of the Empress Maria Louisa, which was, he said, quite a sinecure. However, the Emperor only parted with him on condition that he should come back to him as soon as he was well; and he never failed to remind him of it every time he saw him.
After Ménéval’s retirement, the business of the Emperor’s cabinet ceased to be conducted by one person only; Ménéval had a great many successors at the same moment, and the cabinet became a kind of office, in which several persons were employed. One of these persons, whom the Emperor had taken on the recommendation of others who had thought they could answer for him as for themselves, received an order, at the time of the disasters of 1814, to burn the documents that were in the closet; but, instead of obeying this order, he so far forgot his duty as to take them away with him: and, after the King’s restoration, he wrote to one of his Ministers to offer them to him. The Emperor found the proof of his treachery amongst the papers left at the Tuileries at the period of the 20th of March; and one morning having gone into his closet before any body was come, he wrote several times on a piece of paper, as if he had been trying his pen, Such a one (naming him) is a traitor—Such a one is a traitor; and laid it on the table where sat one of those who had recommended him, and who was himself, said the Emperor, a man on whose zeal and fidelity every reliance could be placed. This was the only reproach he ever addressed to him, and the only revenge he ever exercised on the offender.
Several traces may therefore still be found, and several documents must exist, of the business transacted in the Emperor’s cabinet. Some of these documents have been alluded to in the debates of the British Parliament; but Napoleon solemnly declared, on his return at the period of the 20th of March last, that these documents had been falsified. And they are not the only documents that are left of that ever-memorable administration.
There must be twenty or thirty folio volumes, and as many in quarto, containing the correspondence of the campaigns of Italy and of Egypt, collected and regularly classed.
There must be also about sixty or eighty folio volumes of the deliberations of the Council Ministers, collected by the Secretaries of State, the Duke of Bassano and Count Daru; and lastly, the minutes of the sittings of the[the] Council of State, written and arranged by M. Locré.
These are real and proud titles of glory for Napoleon. Upon these immortal monuments, all subsequent governments have modelled and directed their administration; and from them all future governments, of every country, will henceforth inevitably seek and derive information: so sure and solid have been the foundations which he has laid—so judiciously placed the landmarks—so deep are the roots—so much, in one word, does the whole bear the stamp of genius, and the character of rectitude and of duration.