On our return, the Emperor received and questioned, for a long time, the master of the Newcastle.
In consequence of the fire in the saloon, and a billiard-table being placed in the dining-room, we dined in the topographical cabinet. After dinner, there being no other apartment to retire to, we were obliged to remain a long time at table. That circumstance seemed, however, to give an additional interest to the conversation; we became more acquainted, more united with each other; we gave a greater scope to our language, and the evening passed off more rapidly.
ESTABLISHMENTS FOR MENDICITY IN FRANCE.—NAPOLEON’S PROJECTS RELATIVE TO ILLYRIA.—HOSPITALS.—THE FOUNDLING.—PRISONERS OF STATE.—IDEAS OF THE EMPEROR.
20th.—The Emperor sent for me in the morning; I found him reading an English work on the poor’s rate, the immense sums raised, and the vast number of individuals maintained at the expense of their parishes; the account embraced millions of men and hundreds of millions of money.
The Emperor was apprehensive that he had not read the work correctly, or that he had mistaken the meaning. The thing, he said, seemed altogether impossible. He could not conceive by what vices and defects so many poor could be found in a country so opulent, so industrious, and so abundant in resources for labour as England. He was still less capable of comprehending, by what prodigy the proprietors, overloaded with an oppressive ordinary and extraordinary taxation, were also enabled to provide for the wants of such a multitude. “But we have nothing,” he observed, “in France to be compared to it in the proportion of a hundredth or a thousandth part. Have you not told me that I sent you into the departments on a particular mission with regard to mendicity? Let us see, what is the number of our beggars? What did they cost? How many poor-houses did I establish? What was the number they held? What effect had they in removing mendicity?”
To this crowd of questions I was compelled to answer that a considerable period of time had since elapsed, that my mind had been occupied with several other objects, and that it was impossible for me to enter into correct statements from mere recollection; but that I had the official report itself among the few papers I had preserved, and that, the first time he might be pleased to send for me, I should be enabled to satisfy him. “But,” said he, “go instantly and look for it, things are not profitable unless seasonably applied, and I shall soon run it over with my thumb, as Abbé de Pradt ingeniously said; although, to tell the truth, I don’t much like to think of such subjects; they remind me of mustard after dinner.”
In two minutes the report was in his hand. “Well!” said the Emperor to me, also, in a very few minutes, for it might be really said that he had not turned over the leaves; “well, this, in fact, is not at all like England. Our organization, however, had failed; I suspected as much, and it was on that account I entrusted you with the mission. Your report would have been in perfect conformity with my views. You took up the consideration frankly and like an honest man, without fear of exciting the displeasure of the minister, by depriving him of a great many appointments.
“I am pleased with a great number of your details. Why did you not come and converse with me about them yourself? You would have satisfied me, and I should have known how to value your services.”—“Sire, as things were then situated, it would have been impossible for me to do so; we were then involved in the confusion and embarrassment caused by our misfortunes.”—“Your observation is perfectly correct; you establish an unquestionable position. The fact is that, in the flourishing state to which I had raised the empire, no hands could any where be found destitute of employment. It was idleness and vice alone that could produce mendicants.
“You think that their complete annihilation was possible; and, for my part, I am of the same opinion.
“Your levy en masse, to build a vast and single prison in each department, was equally adapted to the tranquility of society and to the well-being of those confined in it;—your idea of making them monuments for ages would have attracted my attention. That gigantic undertaking, its utility, its importance, the permanence of its results, were all in my way.