[217] On the abdication of Louis, Napoleon sent an aide-de-camp for the minor, to whom he assigned a dwelling in a pavilion in the park of St. Cloud with his brother, and a few days after made him the above speech, which he caused to be inserted in the Moniteur. "This," says Madame de Staël, "is no libel, it is not the opinion of a faction: it is the man himself, it is Buonaparte in person, who brings against himself a severer accusation than posterity would ever have dared to do. Louis XIV. was accused of having said in private, 'I am the State;' and enlightened historians have with justice grounded themselves upon this language in condemning his character. But if, when that monarch placed his grandson on the throne of Spain, he had publicly taught him the same doctrine that Buonaparte taught his nephew, perhaps even Bossuet would not have dared to prefer the interests of kings to those of nations." Consid. sur la Rév. Franç., tom. ii., p. 379.
Dextra mihi Deus, et telum, quod missile libro,
Nunc adsint—— Æneidos, Lib. X.—S.
"Now! now! my spear, and conquering hand, he cry'd,
(Mezentius owns no deity beside!)
Assist my vows."—Pitt.
[219] "I had three objects in view in establishing an hereditary national nobility: 1st, to reconcile France to the rest of Europe; 2dly, to reconcile ancient with modern France; 3dly, to banish the remains of the feudal system from Europe, by attaching the idea of nobility to services rendered to the state, and detaching it from every feudal association. The old French nobles, on recovering their country and part of their wealth, had resumed their titles, not legally, but actually; they more than ever regarded themselves as a privileged race; all blending and amalgamation with the leaders of the Revolution was difficult; the creation of new titles wholly annihilated these difficulties; there was not an ancient family that did not readily form alliances with the new dukes. It was not without design that I bestowed the first title I gave on Marshal Lefebvre, who had been a private soldier, and whom every body at Paris remembered a sergeant in the French guards."—Napoleon, Montholon, tom. ii., p. 239.
[220] Considerations sur la Rév. Franç., tom. ii., p. 331.
[221] For the "Act of Confederation of the Rhenish League, done at Paris, July 12, 1806," see Annual Register, vol. xlviii., p. 818.
[222] See the "Act of Resignation of the Office of Emperor of Germany, by Francis, Emperor of Austria, August 6, 1806," Annual Register, vol. xlviii., p. 824.
[223] See Mr. Fox's letter to M. Talleyrand, February 20, 1806; Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. viii., p. 92; Annual Register, vol. xlviii., p. 708. After reading it, Napoleon's first words were, "I recognise here the principles of honour and of virtue, by which Mr. Fox has ever been actuated. Thank him on my part."
[224] For copies of the "Papers relative to the Negotiation with France," see Parliamentary Debates, vol. viii., p. 92; Annual Register, vol. xlviii., p. 708.
[225] Captain Maitland.