The Emperor sent for Dr. O’Meara, in order that he might learn his personal opinion. He desired me to express to him, in English, that he had hitherto no cause of complaint against him: on the contrary, that he considered him to be an honest man, and as a proof of this, he would rely implicitly on the answers he might receive to the questions which he was about to put to him. It was necessary, he said, to come to an understanding. Was he to consider him as his own physician personally, or merely as a prison doctor, appointed by the English Government? Was he his confessor or his inspector? Had he made reports respecting him, or was it his intention so to do, if called upon? In the one case, the Emperor said he would readily continue to receive his attendance, and was grateful for the services he had already received; in the other case, he thanked him and begged him to discontinue his visits.
The doctor replied with great firmness, and in a tone of feeling. He said that his appointment was entirely professional, and had no connection with politics; he conceived himself to be the Emperor’s personal medical attendant, and was a stranger to every other consideration; that he had made no report respecting the Emperor, and that none had yet been demanded of him; that he could not imagine any circumstance which should induce him to make a report, except in case of serious illness, when it might be necessary to call in the aid of other professional men.
About three o’clock, the Emperor went into the garden with the intention of mounting his horse. He had been dictating for a considerable time to General Gourgaud, and had nearly got through the events of 1815. He was very well satisfied with the result of his labour.
I recommended to him next to commence the history of the Consulate; that brilliant period in which a nation in a state of dissolution was in a few moments magically re-composed, with respect to its laws, religion, morality, true principles, and honest prejudices; and all this amidst the universal applause and admiration of astonished Europe.
I was in England at this time. I told the Emperor that the mass of the emigrants were forcibly struck by these acts. The recal of the priests and of the emigrants was received as a blessing; and the great majority profited by it.
The Emperor asked me whether we had not been shocked at the word amnesty?—"No," I replied, “we knew all the difficulties which the First Consul had experienced in this respect. We knew that all the advantages of the measure were due to him, that he alone was our protector, and that every evil originated with those with whom he had been obliged to contend in our favour. Subsequently,” added I, “on our return to France, we found indeed that the Consul might have treated us better with respect to our property, and this without much difficulty, merely by assuming a silent and passive attitude. This we conceived would have sufficed in every case to have produced amicable arrangements between the old proprietors and the purchasers.”
“Doubtless, I might have done so,” said the Emperor, “but could I have trusted sufficiently to the emigrants?—Answer me this question.”
“Sire,” I replied, “now that I have more knowledge of public affairs, and take a more comprehensive view of things, I can readily conceive that policy required you to act as you did. Recent circumstances have proved how wise was the course which you pursued. It would have been bad policy to have dissatisfied the nation. The question of national property is one of the first bulwarks of public spirit and of the national party.”
“You are right,” observed the Emperor; "but I might nevertheless have granted all that was wished. For a moment I cherished the idea of doing so, and I committed a fault in not fulfilling this idea. I intended to form a mass, or a syndicate, of all the unsold property of the emigrants, and, on their return, to distribute it in a proportional ratio among them. But when I came to grant property to individuals, I soon found that I was creating too many wealthy men, and that they repaid my favours with insolence. Those who, by dint of petitioning and cringing, had perhaps obtained an annual income of 50 or 100,000 crowns, no longer lifted their hats to me; and far from evincing the least gratitude, they had the impertinence to pretend that they had paid secretly for the favours they enjoyed. This was the conduct of the whole Faubourg Saint-Germain. I restored the fortunes of these people, and they still remained no less hostile and anti-national. Then, in spite of the act of amnesty, I prohibited the restitution of the unsold forests, whenever they should exceed a certain value. This was doubtless an act of injustice, according to the letter of the law; but policy imperatively called for it: the fault was in the drawing up of the law, and the improvidence which dictated it. This re-action on my part, destroyed all the good effect of the recal of the emigrants, and robbed me of the attachment of all the great families. I might have guarded against this evil, or I might have neutralized its effects by my syndicate. For one great family alienated, I might have secured the attachment of a hundred provincial nobles, and thus I should in reality have strictly conformed with justice, which required that the emigrants, who had all run the same risk, embarked their fortunes in common on board the same ship, suffered the same wreck, and incurred the same punishment, should all receive the same indemnification. Here I committed an error,”[error,”] said the Emperor, “which[“which] the more unpardonable as I entertained an idea of the plan which I have just mentioned. But I stood alone, and was surrounded by opposition and difficulty. All parties were hostile to the emigrants: and meanwhile I was pressed by important affairs, time was running on, and I was compelled to direct my attention to other matters.
“Even so late as my return from Elba,” continued the Emperor, “I was on the point of executing a project of the same sort. If I had had time, I should have turned my attention to the poor emigrants from the provinces who were neglected by the Court. It is rather a singular circumstance that this idea was suggested to me by an old ex-minister of Louis XVI., whose services had been but ill requited by the Princes, and who pointed out to me various plans by which evils of the same kind might have been advantageously remedied.”