[422] Cons. et Empire (Forbes's Trans.), xii. 15.
[423] Corr. de Nap., vol. xx. p. 235.
[424] Compare Metternich's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 188.
[425] Thiers, Cons. et Emp., Book xxxviii. p. 182.
[426] Corr. de Nap., vol. xxi. p. 70: "Mon principe est, La France avant tout." (Letter to viceroy of Italy.)
[427] Parl. Debates, vol. xxi. p. 1050; xxiii. p. 540.
[428] Cobbett's Parl. Debates, vol. xxi. pp. 1056, 1117.
[429] The decree was also shrouded in secrecy, and its existence denied in the Moniteur (Cobbett's Pol. Register, xviii. p. 701). Napoleon wrote to the viceroy of Italy, Aug. 6, 1810: "You will receive a decree which I have just issued to regulate duties on colonial produce.... It is to be executed in Italy; it is secret and to be kept in your hands. You will therefore give orders in pursuance of this decree only by ministerial letters." (Corr., vol. xxi. p. 28.)
[430] Thiers, Cons. et Empire, Book xxxviii. pp. 181-189.
[431] Monthly Magazine, Feb. 1811, vol. xxxi. p. 67.