Footnote 98: For the Moniteur, I presume.—Tr.[(Back to main text)]
Footnote 99: I cannot avoid here making a comparison. On the 15th of March, the Count d'Artois wished to form a legion from the light infantry and grenadiers of the national guard of Paris. He reviewed the twelve legions, harangued them, and announced, that he would march at the head of the volunteer national guards: a hundred and fifty turned out.
Napoleon from his closet called the national guard to the defence of the imperial cause: 150,000 men took up arms, and hastened to battle.
What must we conclude from this coldness on the one hand, and this enthusiasm on the other? I leave the question to be answered by those, who pretend, that the revolution of the 20th of March obtained the assent only of a handful of factious persons.[(Back to main text)]
Footnote 100: The reverses of Napoleon's fortune had been so rapid, that the possessors of great places, and of great preferment, had not had time to retrench their way of living. When the Bourbons were recalled, they were obliged to come to a reckoning with their means, and all these extravagant expenses ceased at once.
On the other hand, the new court, in order to distinguish itself from the imperial court, substituted the most offensive simplicity for the useful pomp of Napoleon. The richest emigrants imitated this pernicious example; and, as Napoleon remarked, the luxury of the table was almost the only kind, on which encouragement was not spared. The result of this economical system was, that the produce of our manufactories remained unemployed, and industry was suddenly paralyzed.
Thus commerce, which had loudly called for peace, was almost totally annihilated by it: and the manufacturers, the mechanics, the merchants (those of the sea-ports excepted), greatly regretted those happy times, when we were at war.
In fact, it must be admitted, that our industry was indebted to the war, and to our conquests, for its progress, and its prodigious increase. The war, by depriving us of the products of the English manufactories, had taught us, to manufacture for ourselves. The continual prohibition of these articles protected our rising manufactures from the danger of competition; and allowed them to engage with safety in the trials and expenses necessary for equalling or surpassing in perfection foreign manufactures. In all parts of the empire were seen manufactories for spinning and weaving cotton; and this branch of trade, almost unknown before, employed three hundred thousand work people, and produced goods to the value of more than two hundred and fifty millions.
The other products of our industry equally received improvements and extension; and France, in spite of the conscription, reckoned in its numerous workshops nearly twelve hundred thousand workpeople.
If this flourishing state of our continental trade were the effect of the enlargement of our territory, and the scope the war had given to our industry, we must say, that it was also the result of the succour, encouragement, and honorary distinctions, which Napoleon knew how to bestow appropriately on our manufacturers; and the return for those enormous sacrifices he made, to create, repair, and keep in order, those superb roads, and those numerous canals, which rendered the communications between France, and the countries subjected to its empire, equally easy, safe, and pleasant.[(Back to main text)]