CHAPTER XV.

1808.

Promulgation of the Code of Commerce--Conquests by Status-consulte--

Three events in one day--Recollections--Application of a line of

Voltaire--Creation of the Imperial nobility--Restoration of the

university--Aggrandisement of the kingdom of Italy at the expense of

Rome--Cardinal Caprara'a departure from Paris--The interview at

Erfurt.

The year 1808 was fertile in remarkable events. Occupied as I was with

my own duties, I yet employed my leisure hours in observing the course

of those great acts by which Bonaparte seemed determined to mark every

day of his life. At the commencement of 1808 I received one of the first

copies of the Code of Commerce, promulgated on the 1st of January by the

Emperor's order. This code appeared to me an act of mockery; at least

it was extraordinary to publish a code respecting a subject which it

was the effect of all the Imperial decrees to destroy. What trade could

possibly exist under the Continental system, and the ruinous severity

of the customs? The line was already extended widely enough when, by a

'Senatus-consulte', it was still further widened. The Emperor, to whom

all the Continent submitted, had recourse to no other formality for

the purpose of annexing to the Empire the towns of Kehl, Cassel near

Mayence, Wesel, and Flushing, with the territories depending on them.

--[A resolution of the senate, or a "Senatus-consulte" was the means

invented by Napoleon for altering the imperial Constitutions, and

even the extent of the Empire. By one of these, dated 21st January

1808, the towns of Kehl, Cassel, and Wesel, with Flushing, all

already seized, were definitely united to France. The loss of

Wesel, which helonged to Murat's Grand Duchy of Berg, was a very

sore point with Murat.]--

These conquests, gained by decrees and senatorial decisions, had at

least the advantage of being effected without bloodshed. All these

things were carefully communicated to me by the Ministers with whom I

corresponded, for my situation at Hamburg had acquired such importance

that it was necessary I should know everything.

At this period I observed among the news which I received from different

places a singular coincidence of dates, worthy of being noted by the

authors of ephemrides. On the same day-namely, the 1st of February

Paris, Lisbon, and Rome were the scenes of events of different kinds,

but, as they all happened on one day, affording a striking example of

the rapidity of movement which marked the reign of Bonaparte. At Paris

the niece of Josephine, Mademoiselle de Tascher, whom Napoleon had

lately exalted to the rank of Princess, was married to the reigning

Prince of Ahremberg, while at the same time Junot declared to Portugal

that the house of Braganza had ceased to reign, and French troops were,

under the command of General Miollis, occupying Rome. This occupation

was the commencement of prolonged struggles, during which Pins VII.

expiated the condescension he had shown in going to Paris to crown

Napoleon.

Looking over my notes, I see it was the day after these three events

occurred that Bonaparte gave to his brother-in-law, Prince Borghese,

the Governorship-General of the departments beyond the Alps which he

had just founded; and of which he made the eighth Grand Dignitary of the

Empire. General Menou, whom I had not seen since Egypt, was obliged

by this appointment to leave Turin, where he had always remained.

Bonaparte, not wishing to permit him to come to Paris, sent Menou to

preside over the Junta of Tuscany, of which he soon afterwards made

another General-Governorship, which he entrusted to the care of his

sister Elisa.

--[Prince Camille Philippe Louis Borghese (1755-1832), an Italian,

had married, 6th November 1808, Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of

Napoleon, and the widow of General Leclerc. He had been made Prince

and Duke of Guastalla when that duchy was given to his wife, 30th

Marsh 1806. He separated from his wife after a few years. Indeed

Pauline was impossible as a wife if half of the stories about her

are true. It was she who, finding that a lady was surprised at her

having sat naked while a statue of her was being modelled for

Canova, believed she had satisfactorily explained matters by saying,

"but there was a fire in the room."]--

My correspondence relative to what passed in the south of France and of

Europe presented to me, if I may so express myself, merely an anecdotal

interest. Not so the news which came from the north. At Hamburg I was

like the sentinel of an advanced post, always on the alert. I frequently

informed the Government of what would take place before the event

actually happened. I was one of the first to hear of the plans of Russia

relative to Sweden. The courier whom I sent to Paris arrived there at

the very moment when Russia made the declaration of war. About the end

of February the Russian troops entered Swedish Finland, and occupied

also the capital of that province, which had at all times been coveted

by the Russian Government. It has been said that at the interview

at Erfurt Bonaparte consented to the usurpation of that province by

Alexander in return for the complaisance of the latter in acknowledging

Joseph as King of Spain and the Indies.

The removal of Joseph from the throne of Naples to the throne of Madrid

belongs, indeed, to that period respecting which I am now throwing

together a few recollections. Murat had succeeded Joseph at Naples, and

this accession of the brother-in-law of Napoleon to one of the thrones

of the House of Bourbon gave Bonaparte another junior in the college

of kings, of which he would have infallibly become the senior if he had

gone on as he began.

I will relate a little circumstance which now occurs to me respecting

the kings manufactured by Napoleon. I recollect that during the King of

Etruria's stay in Paris--the First Consul went with that Prince to the

Comedie Francaise, where Voltaire's 'OEdipus' was performed. This piece,

I may observe, Bonaparte liked better than anything Voltaire ever wrote.

I was in the theatre, but not in the First Consul's box, and I observed,

as all present must have done, the eagerness with which the audience

applied to Napoleon and the King of Etruria the line in which

Philoctetes says--

"J'ai fait des souverains et n'ai pas voulu l'etre."

["I have made sovereigns, but have not wished to be one myself."]

The application was so marked that it could not fail to become the

subject of conversation between the First Consul and me. "You remarked

it, Bourrienne?" . . . "Yes, General." . . "The fools! . . . They shall

see! They shall see!" We did indeed see. Not content with making kings,

Bonaparte, when his brow was encircled by a double crown, after creating

princes at length realised the object he had long contemplated, namely,

to found a new nobility endowed with hereditary rights. It was at the

commencement of March 1808 that he accomplished this project; and I saw

in the 'Moniteur' a long list of princes, dukes, counts, barons, and

knights of the Empire; there were wanting only viscounts and marquises.

At the same time that Bonaparte was founding a new nobility he

determined to raise up the old edifice of the university, but on a new

foundation. The education of youth had always been one of his ruling

ideas, and I had an opportunity of observing how he was changed by the

exercise of sovereign power when I received at Hamburg the statutes of

the new elder daughter of the Emperor of the French, and compared them

with the ideas which Bonaparte, when General and First Consul, had often

expressed to me respecting the education which ought to be given youth.

Though the sworn enemy of everything like liberty, Bonaparte had at

first conceived a vast system of education, comprising above all the

study of history, and those positive sciences, such as geology and

astronomy, which give the utmost degree of development to the human

mind. The Sovereign, however, shrunk from the first ideas of the man of

genius, and his university, confided to the elegant suppleness of M. de

Fontaines, was merely a school capable of producing educated subjects

but not enlightened men.

Before taking complete possession of Rome, and making it the second

city of the Empire, the vaunted moderation of Bonaparte was confined

to dismembering from it the legations of Ancona, Urbino, Macerata, and

Camerino, which were divided into three departments; and added to the

Kingdom of Italy. The patience of the Holy See could no longer hold out

against this act of violence, and Cardinal Caprara, who had remained

in Paris since the coronation, at last left that capital. Shortly

afterwards the Grand Duchies of Parma and Piacenza were united to the

French Empire, and annexed to the government of the departments beyond

the Alps. These transactions were coincident with the events in Spain

and Bayonne before mentioned.

After the snare laid at Bayonne the Emperor entered Paris on the 14th of

August, the eve of his birthday. Scarcely had he arrived in the capital

when he experienced fresh anxiety in consequence of the conduct of

Russia, which, as I have stated, had declared open war with Sweden,

and did not conceal the intention of seizing Finland. But Bonaparte,

desirous of actively carrying on the war in Spain, felt the necessity of

removing his troops from Prussia to the Pyrenees. He then hastened the

interview at Erfurt, where the two Emperors of France and Russia

had agreed to meet. He hoped that this interview would insure the

tranquillity of the Continent, while he should complete the subjection

of Spain to the sceptre of Joseph. That Prince had been proclaimed on

the 8th of June; and on the 21st of the same month he made his entry

into Madrid, but having received, ten days after, information of the

disaster at Baylen, he was obliged to leave the Spanish capital.

--[The important battle of Daylen, where the French, under General

Dupont, were beaten by the Spaniards, was fought on the 19th of July

1808.]--

Bonaparte's wishes must at this time have been limited to the

tranquillity of the Continent, for the struggle between him and England

was more desperate than ever. England had just sent troops to Portugal

under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley. There was no longer any hope

of a reconciliation with Great Britain: The interview at Erfurt having

been determined on, the Emperor, who had returned from Bayonne to Paris,

again left the capital about the end of September, and arrived at Metz

without stopping, except for the purpose of reviewing the regiments

which were echeloned on his route, and which were on their march from

the Grand Army to Spain.

I had heard some time previously of the interview which was about to

take place, and which was so memorable in the life of Napoleon. It

excited so much interest in Germany that the roads were covered with

the equipages of the Princes who were going to Erfurt to witness the

meeting. The French Emperor arrived there before Alexander, and went

forward three leagues to meet him. Napoleon was on horseback, Alexander

in a carriage. They embraced, it is said, in a manner expressive of the

most cordial friendship. This interview was witnessed by most of the

sovereign Princes of Germany. However, neither the King of Prussia nor

the Emperor of Austria was present. The latter sovereign sent a letter

to Napoleon, of which I obtained a copy. It was as follows:

SIRE, MY BROTHER,--My Ambassador in Paris informs me that your

Majesty is about to proceed to Erfurt to meet the Emperor Alexander.

I eagerly seize the opportunity of your approach to my frontier to

renew those testimonials of friendship and esteem which I have

pledged to you; and I send my Lieutenant-General, Baron Vincent, to

convey to you the assurance of my unalterable sentiments. If the

false accounts that have been circulated respecting the internal

institutions which I have established in my monarchy should for a

moment have excited your Majesty's doubts as to my intentions, I

fatter myself that the explanations given on that subject by Count

Metternich to your Minister will have entirely removed them. Baron

Vincent is enabled to confirm to your Majesty all that has been said

by Count Metternich on the subject, and to add any further

explanations, you may wish for. I beg that your Majesty will grant

him the same gracious reception he experienced at Paris and at

Warsaw. The renewed marks of favour you may bestow on him will be

an unequivocal pledge of the reciprocity of your sentiments, and

will seal that confidence which will render our satisfaction mutual.

Deign to accept the assurance of the unalterable affection and

respect with which I am, Sire, my Brother, Your imperial and royal

Majesty's faithful brother and friend,

(Signed) FRANCIS.

PRESBURG, 8th September 1808.

This letter appears to be a model of ambiguity, by which it is

impossible Napoleon could have been imposed upon. However, as yet he

had no suspicion of the hostility of Austria, which speedily became

manifest; his grand object then was the Spanish business, and, as I have

before observed, one of the secrets of Napoleon's genius was, that he

did not apply himself to more than one thing at a time.

At Erfurt Bonaparte attained the principal object he had promised

himself by the meeting. Alexander recognized Joseph in his new character

of King of Spain and the Indies. It has been said that as the price of

this recognition Napoleon consented that Alexander should have Swedish

Finland; but for the truth of this I cannot vouch. However, I remember

that when, after the interview at Erfurt, Alexander had given-orders

to his ambassador to Charles IV. to continue his functions under

King Joseph, the Swedish charge d'affaires at Hamburg told me that

confidential letters received by him from Erfurt led him to fear that

the Emperor Alexander had communicated to Napoleon his designs on

Finland, and that Napoleon had given his consent to the occupation. Be

this as it may, as soon as the interview was over Napoleon returned

to Paris, where he presided with much splendour at the opening of the

Legislative Body, and set out in the month of November for Spain.