Part 35

At one of the _couchers_ at St. Cloud the Emperor analyzed a piece which had just been brought out; it was _Hector_ by _Luce de Lancival_: this piece pleased him very much; it possessed warmth and energy of character. He called it a _head-quarter_ piece; and said that a soldier would be better prepared to meet the enemy after seeing or reading it. He added that it would be well if there were a greater number of plays written in the same spirit.—Then, adverting to those dramatic productions called _drames_ in French, and which he termed _waiting-maids’ tragedies_, he said they would not bear more than one representation, after which they suffered a gradual diminution of interest. A good tragedy, on the contrary, gains upon us every day. The higher walk of tragedy, continued he, is the school of great men; it is the duty of sovereigns to encourage and disseminate a taste for it. Nor is it necessary, he said, to be a poet, to be enabled to judge of the merits of a tragedy; it is sufficient to be acquainted with men and things, to possess an elevated mind, and to be a statesman. Then, becoming gradually more animated, he added, with enthusiasm,—”Tragedy fires the soul, elevates the heart, and is calculated to generate heroes. Considered under this point of view, perhaps, France owes to Corneille a part of her great actions; and, gentlemen, _had he lived in my time, I would have made him a prince_.”

On a similar occasion, he analyzed and condemned the _Etats de Blois_, which had just been presented for the first time at the theatre of the Court; and perceiving among the company present the Arch-Treasurer Lebrun, who was distinguished for his literary acquirements, he asked his opinion of it. Lebrun, who was undoubtedly in the author’s interest, contented himself with remarking that the subject was a bad one. “That,” replied the Emperor, “was M. Renouard’s first fault; he chose it himself, it was not forced upon him. Besides, there is no subject, however bad, which great talent cannot turn to some account, and Corneille would still have been himself even in one like this. As for M. Renouard, he has totally failed. He has shewn no other talent but that of versification; every thing else is bad, very bad; his conception, his details, his result, are altogether defective. He violates the truth of history; his characters are false, and their political tendency is dangerous, and perhaps prejudicial. This is an additional proof of what, however, is very well known, that there is a wide difference between the reading and the representation of a play. I thought at first that this piece might have been allowed to pass; it was not until this evening that I perceived its improprieties. Of these, the praises lavished on the Bourbons are the least; the declamations against the Revolutionists are much worse. M. Renouard has made the Chief of the Sixteen the Capuchine Chabot of the Convention. There is matter in his piece to inflame every party and every passion: were I to allow it to be represented in Paris, I should probably hear of half a hundred people murdering one another in the pit. Besides, the author has made Henri IV. a true Philinte, and the Duke de Guise a Figaro, which is by far too great an outrage on history. The duke of Guise was one of the most distinguished men of his time; and if he had but ventured, he might, at that time, have established the fourth dynasty. Besides, he was related to the Empress; he was a Prince of the house of Austria, with whom we are in friendship, and whose Ambassador was present this evening at the representation. The author has, in more than one instance, shewn a strange disregard of propriety.” The Emperor afterwards said that he felt more than ever fixed in the determination he had formed not to permit any new tragedy to be played on the public stage before it had undergone a trial at the theatre of the Court. He therefore prohibited the representation of the _Etats de Blois_. It is worthy of remark, that, since the restoration of the King, this piece was revived with the greatest pomp, and supported by all the favour which the prohibition of the Emperor would naturally procure for it. But, notwithstanding all this, it failed; so correct was the judgment which Napoleon had passed upon it.

Talma, the celebrated tragedian, had frequent interviews with the Emperor, who greatly admired his talent, and rewarded him magnificently. When the First Consul became Emperor, it was reported all over Paris, that he had Talma to give him lessons in attitude and costume. The Emperor, who always knew every thing that was said against him, rallied Talma one day on the subject, and, finding him look quite disconcerted and confounded,—“You are wrong,“ said he, “I certainly could not have employed myself better, if I had had leisure for it.” On the contrary, it was the Emperor who gave Talma lessons in his art. “Racine,” said he to him, “has loaded his character of Orestes with imbecilities, and you only add to their extravagance. In the _Mort de Pompée_, you do not play Cæsar like a hero; in Britannicus, you do not play Nero like a tyrant.” Every one knows the corrections which Talma afterwards made in his performances of these celebrated characters.

CONTRACTORS, &C. DURING THE REVOLUTION.—THE EMPEROR’S CREDIT ON HIS RETURN FROM ELBA.—HIS REPUTATION IN THE PUBLIC OFFICES AS A RIGID INVESTIGATOR.—MINISTERS OF FINANCE AND THE TREASURY.—CADASTRE.

29th.—At six o’clock, the Emperor, having finished his daily occupations, walked in the garden. We then took a drive in the calash: it was quite dark, and rained very fast when we returned.

After dinner, while coffee was served round, which we took without rising from our seats at the dining-table, the conversation turned on what were termed Agents daring the Revolution, and the great fortunes which they acquired. The Emperor knew the name, the family, the profession, and the character, of every one of these men.

Scarcely had Napoleon attained the Consulship when he became engaged in a dispute with the celebrated Madame Recamier, whose father held a situation in the Post-office department. Napoleon, on first taking the reins of Government, was obliged to sign in confidence a great number of lists; but he soon established the most rigid inspection in every department. He discovered that a correspondence with the Chouans was going on under the connivance of M. Bernard, the father of Madame Recamier. He was immediately dismissed, and narrowly escaped being brought to a trial, by which he would doubtless have been condemned to death. His daughter flew to the First Consul, and, at her solicitation, Napoleon exempted M. Bernard from taking his trial, but was resolute with respect to his dismissal. Madame Recamier, who had been accustomed to ask for every thing, and to obtain every thing, would be satisfied with nothing less than the re-instatement of her father. Such were the manners of those times. The severity of the First Consul excited loud animadversions; it was a thing quite unusual. Madame Recamier and her party, which was very numerous, never forgave him.

The contractors and agents were the class which, above all, excited the uneasiness of the new Supreme Magistrate, who called them the scourge and the plague of the nation. The Emperor observed that all France would not have satisfied the ambition of those of Paris alone; that, when he came to the head of affairs, they constituted an absolute power; and that they were most dangerous to the state, whose springs were obstructed by their intrigues, joined to those of their numerous dependents.—In truth, said he, they could never be regarded as any thing but sources of corruption and ruin, like Jews and usurers. They had disgraced the Directory, and they wished in like manner to control the Consulate. It may be said that at that period they enjoyed the highest rank and influence in society.

“One of the principal retrograde steps,” said the Emperor, “which I took, with the view of restoring the past state and manners of society, was to throw all this false lustre back into the crowd. I never would raise any of this class to distinction: of all aristocracies this appeared to me the worst.” The Emperor rendered to Lebrun the justice of having especially confirmed him in this principle. “The party always disliked me for this,” said the Emperor; “but they were still less inclined to pardon the rigid enquiry which I instituted into their accounts with the Government.”

The Emperor said that in business of this sort he turned the service of his Council of State to the best account. He used to appoint a committee of four or five members of the Council, men of integrity and intelligence. They made their report to him, and, if the case required farther investigation, they wrote at the bottom of the report: _Referred to the Grand Judge to enforce the laws_. The individuals implicated generally endeavoured to compromise the affair, when it arrived at this point. They would disgorge, one, two, three, or four millions, rather than suffer the business to be legally investigated. The Emperor was well aware, that all these facts were misrepresented in the different circles of the capital, that they produced him many enemies, and drew down upon him the reproach of arbitrariness and tyranny. But he thus acquitted a great duty to the mass of society, who must have been grateful to him for the measures he adopted towards these bloodsuckers of the public.

“Men are always the same,” said the Emperor: “from the time of Pharamond downwards, contractors have always acted thus, and people have always acted in the same way towards them. But at no period of the monarchy were they ever attacked in so legal a form, or assailed so energetically and openly as by me. Even among the contractors themselves, the few individuals who possessed honesty and integrity found in this extreme severity a new guarantee for their own conduct. A remarkable instance of this occurred after my return from Elba. Some houses in London and Amsterdam secretly negotiated with me a loan of from 80 to 100,000,000, at a profit of seven or eight per cent. The net sum which was deposited in the Treasury of Paris, was paid to them by _rentes_ on the great book at fifty, which were then distributed among the public at fifty-six or fifty-seven.”

This resource, so useful in the crisis in which the Emperor was placed, and which must at the same time have been so satisfactory and flattering to himself personally, proves the real opinion that was entertained of Napoleon in Europe, and the confidence which he inspired. This negotiation, which was unknown at the time, explains whence the Emperor derived the financial resources of which he suddenly found himself possessed on his return from Elba; which was a great subject of conjecture at the time.

The Emperor himself said that he enjoyed singular reputation among the heads of offices and accountants. The examination of accounts was a thing which he very well understood. “The circumstance that first gained me reputation, in this way, was that, while balancing a yearly account during the Consulate, I discovered an error of 2,000,000 to the disadvantage of the Republic. M. Dufresne, who was then chief of the treasury, and who was a perfectly honest man, at first would not believe that the error existed. However, it was an affair of figures; the fact could not be denied. At the treasury several months were occupied in endeavouring to discover the error. It was at length found in an account of the contractor Seguin, who immediately acknowledged it, on being shewn the accounts, and restored the money, saying it was a mistake.”

On another occasion as the Emperor was examining the accounts of the pay of the garrison of Paris, he observed an article of sixty and some odd thousand francs set down to a detachment which had never been in the capital. The minister made a note of the error, merely from complaisance, but was convinced in his own mind that the Emperor was mistaken. Napoleon however proved to be right, and the sum was restored.

The Emperor regarded as a matter of the highest importance the separation of the departments of finance and the treasury, both for the sake of keeping the business of the two departments distinct, and for enabling them to become mutual checks to each other. The minister of the treasury, under a sovereign like Napoleon, was the most important man in the empire; not merely as a minister of the treasury, but as comptroller-general. All the accounts of the empire came under his examination, and he was thus enabled to detect every kind of peculation and abuse, and to make them known to the sovereign; and communications of this nature were daily made. To special appropriations Napoleon also attached the greatest importance, as having been among the happiest springs of his administration.

Speaking of the _cadastre_, he said that, according to the plan which he had drawn up, it might be considered as the real constitution of the Empire. It was the true guarantee of property, and the security for the independence of each individual; for, the tax being once fixed and established by the legislature, each individual might make his own arrangements, and had nothing to fear from the authority or arbitrary conduct of assessors, which is always the point most sensibly felt, and the surest to enforce submission. During this conversation, the Emperor gave his opinion of the talents of Messrs. Gaudin, Mollien, and Louis, as well as most of his other Ministers and Councillors of State. He concluded by observing that he had succeeded in creating a system of administration doubtless the purest and most energetic in Europe; and that he himself had the details so much at his command that he was sure he now could, merely with the help of the Moniteur, trace the complete history of the financial transactions of the Empire during his reign.

March 1st.—To-day two vessels arrived from the Cape. One, the Wellesley, a seventy-four, had another ship which had been taken to pieces in her hold. Both were India built of teak-wood, three-fourths cheaper than they could have been built in England. This is an excellent kind of wood; and ships made of it are said to last much longer than European-built ships; though hitherto it has been complained that they are not such good sailers. However, it is not improbable that this teak wood may produce a revolution in the materials and construction of English ships.

2nd.—The China fleet is arrived. Several vessels successively entered the road in the course of the day, and many others are within sight. This is a sort of festival and harvest for the people of St. Helena. The money which these transient visitors circulate in the Island constitutes a chief portion of the revenues of the inhabitants.

At five o’clock the Emperor proceeded to the garden, and went on foot as far as an opening between some of the hills, whence we could discern several vessels in full sail, making for the Island. The last ship that arrived from the Cape had brought a phaeton for the Emperor. He wished to try it this evening, and he got into it, accompanied by the Grand Marshal, and rode round the park. He, however, thinks that this kind of equipage is both useless and ridiculous, in present circumstances. After dinner the Emperor felt much fatigued; he has been indisposed for some days, and he retired this evening at an early hour.

THE INVASION OF ENGLAND.

3rd.—The Emperor sent for me at two o’clock; I found him shaving. He told me that I beheld in him a man who was on the point of death, on the brink of the grave. He added that I must have been aware that he was ill, because he must have waked me often during the night. I had, indeed, heard him cough and sneeze continually: he had a violent cold in his head, which he had caught in consequence of staying out too long in the damp air on the preceding evening. He stated his determination, in future, always to return in doors at six o’clock. After he had dressed, he sat down to his English lesson; but he did not continue at it long, for his head ached severely. He told me to sit down by him, and made me talk for more than two hours about what I had observed in London during my emigration. Among other things, he inquired, “Were the English very much afraid of my invasion? What was the general opinion at the time?”—“Sire,“ I replied, “I cannot inform you: I had then returned to France. But in the saloons of Paris we laughed heartily at the idea of an invasion of England; and the English who were there at the time did so too. It was said that even Brunet laughed at the scheme, and that you had caused him to be imprisoned because he had been insolent enough in one of his parts, to set some nut-shells afloat in a tub of water, which he called manœuvring his little flotilla.” “Well!” replied the Emperor, “You might laugh in Paris, but Pitt did not laugh in London. He soon comprehended the extent of the danger, and therefore threw a coalition on my shoulders at the moment when I was raising my arm to strike. Never was the English oligarchy exposed to greater danger.

“I had taken measures to ensure the possibility of my landing. I had the best army in the world; I need only say it was the army of Austerlitz. In four days I should have been in London; I should have entered the English capital, not as a conqueror but as a liberator. I should have been another William III.; but I would have acted with greater generosity and disinterestedness. The discipline of my army was perfect. My troops would have behaved in London just as they would in Paris. No sacrifices, not even contributions, would have been exacted from the English. We should have presented ourselves to them, not as conquerors but as brothers, who came to restore to them their rights and liberties. I would have assembled the citizens, and directed them to labour in the task of their regeneration; because the English had already preceded us in political legislation; I would have declared that our only wish was to be able to rejoice in the happiness and prosperity of the English people; and to these professions I would have strictly adhered. In the course of a few months, the two nations, which had been such determined enemies, would have thenceforward composed only one people, identified in principles, maxims and interests. I should have departed from England, in order to effect from south to north, under republican colours (for I was then First Consul) the regeneration of Europe, which, at a later period, I was on the point of effecting from north to south under monarchical forms. Both systems were equally good, since both would have been attended with the same result, and would have been carried into execution with firmness, moderation, and good faith. How many ills that are now endured, and how many that are yet to be experienced, would not unhappy Europe have escaped! Never was a project so favourable to the interests of civilization conceived with more disinterested intentions, or so near being carried into execution. It is a remarkable fact that the obstacles which occasioned my failure were not the work of men, but all proceeded from the elements. In the south, the sea frustrated my plans; the burning of Moscow, the snow and the winter, completed my ruin in the north. Thus water, air, and fire, all nature and nature alone, was hostile to the universal regeneration which nature herself called for!... The problems of Providence are insoluble!”

After a few moment’s silence, he reverted to the subject of the English invasion. “It was supposed,” said he, “that my scheme was merely a vain threat, because it did not appear that I possessed any reasonable means of attempting its execution. But I had laid my plans deeply, and without being observed. I had dispersed all our French ships; and the English were sailing after them to different parts of the world. Our ships were to return suddenly and at the same time, and to assemble in a mass along the French coasts. I should have had seventy or eighty French or Spanish ships in the Channel; and I calculated that I should continue master of it for two months. Three or four thousand small vessels were to be ready at a signal. A hundred thousand men were every day drilled in embarking and landing, as a part of their exercise. They were full of ardour, and eager for the enterprise, which was very popular with the French, and was supported by the wishes of a great number of the English. After landing my troops, I calculated upon only one pitched battle, the result of which could not be doubtful; and victory would have brought us to London. The nature of the country would not admit of a war of monœuvring. My conduct would have done the rest. The people of England groaned under the yoke of an oligarchy. On feeling that their pride had not been humbled, they would have ranged themselves on our side. We should have been considered only as Allies come to effect their deliverance. We should have presented ourselves with the magical words of liberty and equality,” &c.

After adverting to a great number of the minor details of the plan, which were all admirable, and remarking how very near execution it had been, he abruptly stopped, and said, “Let us go out, and take a turn.”

We walked for some time; it had been raining for three days, but now the weather was perfectly fine. The Emperor, not forgetting his resolution to be in-doors always by six o’clock, immediately ordered the calash; took a drive, and returned home in good time. My son followed on horse-back; it was the first time he had enjoyed such an honour. He acquitted himself very well, and the Emperor complimented him on the occasion.

The Emperor continued unwell, and retired to rest very early.

THE CHINESE FLEET.

4th.—To-day the Emperor received some captains of the China fleet. He conversed a long time with them respecting their trade, the facility of their intercourse with the Chinese, the manners of that people, &c. The ships which trade to China are from 14 to 1500 tons’ burthen, nearly equal to sixty-fours; and they draw from twenty-two to twenty-three feet of water: they are laden almost exclusively with tea. One of those just arrived had nearly 1500 tons on board. The cargoes of the six ships which came into the road last night are valued at about sixty millions; and as they will be subject to a duty of 100 per cent., on their arrival in England, 120 millions will thus at once be thrown into circulation in Europe.

Europeans are allowed very little liberty at Canton. Their residence is chiefly limited to the suburbs. They are treated with the greatest contempt by the Chinese, who assume an air of great superiority, and conduct themselves in a very arbitrary manner. The Chinese are very intelligent, industrious, and active; but they are great thieves and extremely treacherous. They transact all business in the European languages, which they speak with facility.