“A man named Bottot, a private agent of Barras, was sent to Napoleon with secret instructions, to endeavour to penetrate his views and to ascertain why he had not sent the three millions of which the Directory had stood so much in need. Bottot found the French General at Passeriano, and began to intrigue right and left with those who surrounded Napoleon; but he found every one warmly attached to the party that had triumphed; and, having some concerns of his own to arrange, he at last, in the course of some private conversations, confessed the secret of his mission and the vague suspicions entertained by the Directory. He had been soon undeceived by the appearance of simplicity which distinguished Napoleon’s establishment, by the frankness of Napoleon himself; and above all by the enthusiasm of the army, and of the whole of Italy in favour of the General. But, even if the suspicion of the Directory had been well founded, it would not have been difficult, with a few marks of attention, and some frank and unaffected conversations, to remove from Bottot’s mind, surrounded as he then was, all cause of umbrage.
“He wrote to Paris that the fears which had been entertained were altogether groundless, and much less to be dreaded than the perverseness of those who wished to excite them. But the three millions, it was objected to him, why were they refused? Napoleon had proved that the order sent by the Directory was mysterious and irregular, and that, encompassed as it was by such rogues as F—— and others, who had already robbed the public exchequer, he had thought it prudent to ascertain the truth; that he had immediately dispatched Lavalette, his confidential aid-de-camp, to Paris, and that, as soon as Lavalette had informed him of the true state of affairs, he was on the point of sending off the three millions, when the fate of the day was decided.”
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 diplomatic agents of Great Britain. “The English Ministers,” said he, “never represent an affair 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 diplomatic agents have said, or what they make them say, on the ground 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.”[[22]]
That ambassador had solicited an audience of the First Consul, and personal communications. The First Consul, who was himself fond of treating affairs directly, willingly assented. “But[“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 afterwards 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, being 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.