Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
then imperatively required his presence at Madrid; but he was recalled
to Paris by the Minister of the Treasury, who wished to adjust his
accounts. The Emperor wanted money for the war on which he was entering,
and to procure it for the Treasury Ouvrard was sent to Amsterdam to
negotiate with the House of Hope. He succeeded, and Mr. David Parish
became the Company's agent.
Having concluded this business Ouvrard returned in all haste to
Madrid; but in the midst of the most flattering hopes and most gigantic
enterprises he suddenly found himself threatened with a dreadful
crisis. M. Desprez, as has been stated, had, with the concurrence of the
Treasury, been allowed to take upon himself all the risk of executing
the treaty, by which 150,000,000 were to be advanced for the year 1804,
and 400,000,000 for the year 1805. Under the circumstances which had
arisen the Minister of the Treasury considered himself entitled to call
upon Ouvrard to place at his disposal 10,000,000 of the piastres which
he had received from Spain. The Minister at the same time informed him
that he had made arrangements on the faith of this advance, which he
thought could not be refused at so urgent a moment.
The embarrassment of the Treasury, and the well-known integrity of the
Minister, M. de Barbe Marbois, induced Ouvrard to remit the 10,000,000
piastres. But a few days after he had forwarded the money a Commissioner
of the Treasury arrived at Madrid with a ministerial despatch, in which
Ouvrard was requested to deliver to the Commissioner all the assets he
could command, and to return immediately to Paris.
The Treasury was then in the greatest difficulty, and a general alarm
prevailed. This serious financial distress was occasioned by the
following circumstances. The Treasury had, by a circular, notified to
the Receivers-General that Desprez was the holder of their bonds. They
were also authorised to transmit to him all their disposable funds, to
be placed to their credit in an account current. Perhaps the giving
of this authority was a great error; but, be that as it may,
Desprez, encouraged by the complaisance of the Treasury, desired the
Receivers-General to transmit to him all the sums they could procure for
payment of interest under 8 per cent., promising to allow them a higher
rate of interest. As the credit of the house of Desprez stood high, it
may be easily conceived that on such conditions the Receivers-General,
who were besides secured by the authority of the Treasury, would enter
eagerly into the proposed plan. In short, the Receivers-General soon
transmitted very considerable sums. Chests of money arrived daily from
every point of France. Intoxicated by this success, Desprez engaged in
speculations which in his situation were extremely imprudent. He lent
more than 50,000,000 to the merchants of Paris, which left him no
command of specie. Being obliged to raise money, he deposited with the
Bank the bonds of the Receivers-General which had been consigned to
him, but which were already discharged by the sums transmitted to their
credit in the account current. The Bank, wishing to be reimbursed for
the money advanced to Desprez, applied to the Receivers-General whose
bonds were held an security. This proceeding had become necessary on the
part of the Bank, as Desprez, instead of making his payments in specie,
sent in his acceptances. The Directors of the Bank, who conducted that
establishment with great integrity and discretion, began to be alarmed,
and required Desprez to explain the state of his affairs. The suspicions
of the Directors became daily stronger, and were soon shared by the
public. At last the Bank was obliged to stop payment, and its notes were
soon at a discount of 12 per cent.
The Minister of the Treasury, dismayed, as well may be supposed, at such
a state of things during the Emperor's absence, convoked a Council, at
which Joseph Bonaparte presided, and to which Desprez and Wanlerberghe
were summoned. Ouvrard being informed of this financial convulsion
made all possible haste from Madrid, and on his arrival at Paris sought
assistance from Amsterdam. Hope's house offered to take 15,000,000
piastres at the rate of 3 francs 75 centimes each. Ouvrard having
engaged to pay the Spanish Government only 3 francs, would very
willingly have parted with them at that rate, but his hasty departure
from Madrid, and the financial events at Paris, affected his relations
with the Spanish Treasury, and rendered it impossible for him to afford
any support to the Treasury of France; thus the alarm continued, until
the news of the battle of Austerlitz and the consequent hope of peace
tranquillised the public mind. The bankruptcy of Desprez was dreadful;
it was followed by the failure of many houses, the credit of which was
previously undoubted.
To temper the exultation which victory was calculated to excite, the
news of the desperate situation of the Treasury and the Bank reached the
Emperor on the day after the battle of Austerlitz. The alarming accounts
which he received hastened his return to France; and on the very evening
on which he arrived in Paris he pronounced, while ascending the stairs
of the Tuileries, the dismissal of M. de Barbs Marbois. This Minister
had made numerous enemies by the strict discharge of his duty, and
yet, notwithstanding his rigid probity, he sunk under the accusation of
having endangered the safety of the State by weakness of character. At
this period even Madame de Stael said, in a party where the firmness of
M. Barbs Marbois was the topic of conversation--"What, he inflexible? He
is only a reed bronzed!" But whatever may be the opinion entertained
of the character of this Minister, it is certain that Napoleon's rage
against him was unbounded. Such was the financial catastrophe which
occurred during the campaign of Vienna; but all was not over with
Ouvrard, and in so great a confusion of affairs it was not to be
expected that the Imperial hand, which was not always the hand of
justice, should not make itself somewhere felt.
In the course of the month of February 1806 the Emperor issued two
decrees, in which he declared Ouvrard, Wanlerberghe, and Michel,
contractors for the service of 1804, and Desprez their agent, debtors
to the amount of 87,000,000, which they had misapplied in private
speculations, and in transactions with Spain "for their personal
interests." Who would not suppose from this phrase that Napoleon had
taken no part whatever in the great financial operation between Spain
and South America? He was, however, intimately acquainted with it,
and was himself really and personally interested. But whenever any
enterprise was unsuccessful he always wished to deny all connection with
it. Possessed of title-deeds made up by himself--that is to say, his
own decrees--the Emperor seized all the piastres and other property
belonging to the Company, and derived from the transaction great
pecuniary advantage,--though such advantage never could be regarded by
a sovereign as any compensation for the dreadful state into which the
public credit had been brought.
CHAPTER V
1805-1806.
Declaration of Louis XVIII.--Dumouriez watched--News of a spy--
Remarkable trait of courage and presence of mind--Necessity of
vigilance at Hamburg--The King of Sweden--His bulletins--Doctor Gall
--Prussia covets Hamburg--Projects on Holland--Negotiations for
peace--Mr. Fox at the head of the British Cabinet--Intended
assassination of Napoleon--Propositions made through Lord Yarmouth
--Proposed protection of the Hanse towns--Their state--
Aggrandisement of the Imperial family--Neither peace nor war--
Sebastiani's mission to Constantinople--Lord Lauderdale at Paris,
and failure of the negotiations--Austria despoiled--Emigrant
pensions--Dumouriez's intrigues--Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin--
Loizeau.
I have been somewhat diffuse respecting the vast enterprises of M.
Ouvrard, and on the disastrous state of the finances during the campaign
of Vienna. Now, if I may so express myself, I shall return to the
Minister Plenipotentiary's cabinet, where several curious transactions
occurred. The facts will not always be given in a connected series,
because there was no more relation between the reports which I received
on a great variety of subjects than there is in the pleading of the
barristers who succeed each other in a court of justice.
On the 2d of January 1806 I learned that many houses in Hamburg had
received by post packets, each containing four copies of a declaration
of Louis XVIII. Dumouriez had his carriage filled with copies of this
declaration when he passed through Brunswick; and in that small town
alone more than 3000 were distributed. The size of this declaration
rendered its transmission by post very easy, even in France.
All my letters from the Minister recommended that I should keep a strict
watch over the motions of Dumouriez; but his name was now as seldom
mentioned as if he had ceased to exist. The part he acted seemed to be
limited to disseminating pamphlets more or less insignificant.
It is difficult to conceive the great courage and presence of mind
sometimes found in men so degraded as are the wretches who fill the
office of spies. I had an agent amongst the Swedo-Russians, named
Chefneux, whom I had always found extremely clever and correct.
Having for a long time received no intelligence from him I became very
anxious,--an anxiety which was not without foundation. He had, in fact,
been arrested at Lauenburg, and conducted, bound, tied hand and foot,
by some Cossacks to Luneburg. There was found on him a bulletin which he
was about to transmit to me, and he only escaped certain death by having
in his possession a letter of recommendation from a Hamburg merchant
well known to M. Alopaeus, the Russian Minister in that city. This
precaution, which I had taken before he set out, saved his life.
M. Alopaeus replied to the merchant that, in consequence of his
recommendation the spy should be sent back safe and sound, but that
another time neither the recommended nor the recommender should escape
so easily. Notwithstanding this, Chefneux would certainly have paid with
his head for the dangerous business in which he was embarked but for the
inconceivable coolness he displayed under the most trying circumstances.
Though the bulletin which was found upon him was addressed to M.
Schramm, merchant, they strongly suspected that it was intended for me.
They demanded of the prisoner whether he knew me; to which he boldly
replied that he had never seen me. They endeavoured, by every possible
means, to extort a confession from him, but without success. His
repeated denials, joined to the name of M. Schramm, created doubts in
the minds of his interrogators; they hesitated lest they should condemn
an innocent man. They, however, resolved to make a last effort to
discover the truth, and Chefneux, condemned to be shot, was conducted to
the plain of Luneburg. His eyes were bandaged, and he heard the command
of preparation given to the platoon, which was to fire upon him; at
that moment a man approaching him whispered in his ear, in a tone
of friendship and compassion, "They are going to fire; but I am your
friend; only acknowledge that you know M. de Bourrienne and you are
safe."--"No," replied Chefneux in a firm tone; "if I said so I should
tell a falsehood." Immediately the bandage was removed from his
eyes, and he was set at liberty. It would be difficult to cite a more
extraordinary instance of presence of mind.
Much as I execrate the system of espionage I am nevertheless compelled
to admit that the Emperor was under the necessity of maintaining the
most unremitting vigilance amidst the intrigues which were going forward