But this peace, in which so many millions of people rejoiced, was of short duration. Having by the treaties of Luneville and Amiens[251] raised himself and France to the highest power and influence in Europe, Napoleon had now constituted himself consul for life; had restored the national religion to France, established tranquillity and good government in all the departments of the state, reorganised the finances, previously in a deplorable confusion; and had finally, with Prussia, secularised the ecclesiastical states of Germany, mediatised a number of smaller German princes, and parcelled out a large portion of Europe in the most arbitrary, though in some respects judicious manner. In a word, he had raised himself and France to the highest pitch of political influence, and only wanted the name of emperor, which in a year or two afterwards he assumed to be, in every sense the most powerful potentate in Europe. The world was dazzled with a success which, until that period, had been combined with many acts of profound wisdom. But this remarkable man, who could so well govern the unquiet spirit of France, could not govern himself—
“Oh! happy he who wisely can
Govern that little empire, man.”
Ere long his rage for power and distinction again involved all Europe in one of the most sanguinary wars recorded in the history of the world, a war which only terminated after the final struggle at Waterloo, and in the exile for ever of the Emperor from the scene of his glory.
Sequestrations of English property in France not raised.
All claims remain unanswered.
By the fourteenth article of the treaty of Amiens it was provided that all sequestrations[252] imposed in France and England on the property of their respective subjects during the war should be abolished, on the ratification of the peace; and, acting in the spirit of good faith, the English government, to prove their desire of living on terms of amicable intercourse with France, at once and punctually performed their part of this agreement. Indeed as early as the 25th of May, 1802, Mr. Merry, the English diplomatic agent at Paris, notified to the French minister that His Majesty had, in conformity with this article, taken off the sequestration on the property of all French citizens in his dominions, at the same time adding his belief that the French government would perform the same act of justice towards such Englishmen as might have property in France. The reasonable request contained in the latter part of this notification was urged more than once by Mr. Merry, but Lord Whitworth’s despatch from Paris to Lord Hawkesbury, dated the 10th of May, 1803, explains with how little success these applications were entertained by the French government. “With regard,” said his lordship, “to the numerous memorials and representations which I have had to make to this government in behalf of those of His Majesty’s subjects who have suffered by the detention and confiscation of their vessels and property in French ports, I have only to observe that they have, with one or two exceptions, remained unanswered.” Under circumstances so studiously insulting, the British government, to the surprise of its own people, persisted in a pacific, if not submissive, demeanour. Instead of resenting such conduct, the English ministers were content with making new efforts at conciliation. They removed all the prohibitions on French trade imposed during the war, placing her shipping in all respects on the same footing as the vessels of other states in amity with Great Britain, a course involving much injustice to many British subjects whose interests were thus postponed to the paramount exigencies of state necessity.
Restraint on commerce.
French spies sent to England to examine her ports, etc.
As every step of the First Consul indicated a desire to embarrass English commerce, it was impossible that friendly relations could be long maintained between France and England. Under the pretext of a renewal of arrangements formerly subsisting between the two countries, Napoleon despatched to England a number of agents whose ostensible occupation was to watch over the interests of French trade and navigation, their real business and most important commission being to make inquiries into the commercial value of each port; the course of exchange; the state of the neighbouring manufactures and fairs; together with every detail necessary for establishing a rivalry in trade. These in themselves were legitimate and perhaps not unfriendly objects, but each agent was further required “to furnish a plan of the ports of his district,” with “a specification of the soundings for mooring vessels.” If no plan could be procured, then he was enjoined to point out, “with what wind vessels could come in and go out, and what was the greatest draught of water with which they could enter therein deeply laden.”