Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
in the neighbourhood of Hamburg, especially when the English, Swedes,
and Russians were in arms, and there were the strongest grounds for
suspecting the sincerity of Prussia.
On the 5th of January 1806 the King of Sweden arrived before the gates
of Hamburg. The Senate of that city, surrounded on all sides by
English, Swedish, and Russian troops, determined to send a deputation to
congratulate the Swedish monarch, who, however, hesitated so long about
receiving this homage that fears were entertained lest his refusal
should be followed by some act of aggression. At length, however, the
deputies were admitted, and they returned sufficiently well satisfied
with their reception.
The King of Sweden then officially declared, "That all the arrangements
entered into with relation to Hanover had no reference to hint, as the
Swedish army was under the immediate command of its august sovereign."
The King, with his 6000 men, seemed inclined to play the part of the
restorer of Germany, and to make himself the Don Quixote of the treaty
of Westphalia. He threatened the Senate of Hamburg with the whole weight
of his anger, because on my application the colours which used to be
suspended over the door of the house for receiving Austrian recruits had
been removed. The poor Senate of Hamburg was kept in constant alarm by
so dangerous a neighbour.
The King of Sweden had his headquarters at Boetzenburg, on the northern
bank of the Elbe. In order to amuse himself he sent for Dr. Gall, who
was at Hamburg, where he delivered lectures on his system of phrenology,
which was rejected in the beginning by false science and prejudice,
and afterwards adopted in consequence of arguments, in my opinion,
unanswerable. I had the pleasure of living some time with Dr. Gall, and
I owe to the intimacy which subsisted between us the honour he conferred
on me by the dedication of one of his works. I said to him, when he
departed for the headquarters of the King of Sweden, "My dear doctor,
you will certainly discover the bump of vanity." The truth is, that had
the doctor at that period been permitted to examine the heads of the
sovereigns of Europe they would have afforded very curious craniological
studies.
It was not the King of Sweden alone who gave uneasiness to Hamburg; the
King of Prussia threatened to seize upon that city, and his Minister
publicly declared that it would very soon belong to his master. The
Hamburgers were deeply afflicted at this threat; in fact, next to the
loss of their independence, their greatest misfortune would have been
to fall under the dominion of Prussia, as the niggardly fiscal system
of the Prussian Government at that time would have proved extremely
detrimental to a commercial city. Hanover, being evacuated by the French
troops, had become a kind of recruiting mart for the British army, where
every man who presented himself was enrolled, to complete the Hanoverian
legion which was then about to be embodied. The English scattered gold
by handfuls. One hundred and fifty carriages, each with six horses,
were employed in this service, which confirmed me in the belief I had
previously entertained, that the English were to join with the Russians
in an expedition against Holland. The aim of the Anglo-Russians was
to make a diversion which might disconcert the movements of the French
armies in Germany, the allies being at that time unacquainted with the
peace concluded at Presburg. Not a moment was therefore to be lost in
uniting the whole of our disposable force for the defence of Holland;
but it is not of this expedition that I mean to speak at present. I only
mention it to afford some idea of our situation at Hamburg, surrounded,
as we then were, by Swedish, English, and Russian troops. At this period
the Russian Minister at Hamburg, M. Forshmann, became completely insane;
his conduct had been more injurious than advantageous to his Government.
He was replaced by M. Alopcous, the Russian Minister at Berlin; and
they could not have exchanged a fool for a more judicious and able
diplomatist.
I often received from the Minister of Marine letters said packets to
transmit to the Isle of France,(Mauritius) of which the Emperor was
extremely anxious to retain possession; and I had much trouble in
finding any vessels prepared for that colony by which I could forward
the Minister's communications. The death of Pitt and the appointment
of Fox as his successor had created a hope of peace. It was universally
known that Mr. Fox, in succeeding to his office, did not inherit the
furious hatred of the deceased Minister against France and her Emperor.
There moreover existed between Napoleon and Mr. Fox a reciprocal
esteem, and the latter had shown himself really disposed to treat. The
possibility of concluding a peace had always been maintained by that
statesman when he was in opposition to Mr. Pitt; and Bonaparte himself
might have been induced, from the high esteem he felt for Mr. Fox, to
make concessions from which he would before have recoiled. But there
were two obstacles, I may say almost insurmountable ones. The first was
the conviction on the part of England that any peace which might be
made would only be a truce, and that Bonaparte would never seriously
relinquish his desire of universal dominion. On the other side, it was
believed that Napoleon had formed the design of invading England. Had he
been able to do so it would have been less with the view of striking
a blow at her commerce and destroying her maritime power, than of
annihilating the liberty of the press, which he had extinguished in his
own dominions. The spectacle of a free people, separated only by six
leagues of sea, was, according to him, a seductive example to the
French, especially to those among them who bent unwillingly under his
yoke.
At an early period of Mr. Fox's ministry a Frenchman made the
proposition to him of assassinating the Emperor, of which information
was immediately transmitted to M. de Talleyrand. In this despatch the
Minister said that, though the laws of England did not authorise the
permanent detention of any individual not convicted of a crime, he had
on this occasion taken it on himself to secure the miscreant till such
time as the French Government could be put on its guard against his
attempts. Mr. Fox said in his letter that he had at first done
this individual "the honour to take him for a spy," a phrase which
sufficiently indicated the disgust with which the British Minister
viewed him.
This information was the key which opened the door to new negotiations.
M. de Talleyrand was ordered to express, in reply to the communication
of Mr. Fox, that the Emperor was sensibly affected at the index it
afforded of the principles by which the British Cabinet was actuated.
Napoleon did not limit himself to this diplomatic courtesy; he deemed
it a favourable occasion to create a belief that he was actuated by a
sincere love of peace. He summoned to Paris Lord Yarmouth, one of the
most distinguished amongst the English who had been so unjustly detained
prisoners at Verdun on the rupture of the peace of Amiens. He gave his
lordship instructions to propose to the British Government a new form of
negotiations, offering to guarantee to England the Cape of Good Hope
and Malta. Some have been inclined from this concession to praise the
moderation of Bonaparte; others to blame him for offering to resign
these two places, as if the Cape and Malta could be put in competition
with the title of Emperor, the foundation of the Kingdom of Italy, the
acquisition of Genoa and of all the Venetian States, the dethronement of
the King of Naples and the gift of his kingdom to Joseph, and finally,
the new partition of Germany. These transactions, of which Bonaparte
said not a word, and from which he certainly had no intention of
departing, were all long after the treaty of Amiens.
Every day brought with it fresh proofs of insatiable ambition. In fact,
Napoleon longed to obtain possession of the Hanse Towns. I was, however,
in the first place, merely charged to make overtures to the Senates of
each of these towns, and to point out the advantages they would derive
from the protection of Napoleon in exchange for the small sacrifice
of 6,000,000 francs in his favour. I had on this subject numerous
conferences with the magistrates: they thought the sum too great,
representing, to me that the city was not so rich as formerly, because
their commerce had been much curtailed by the war; in short, the Senate
declared that, with the utmost goodwill, their circumstances would not
permit them to accept the "generous proposal" of the Emperor.
I was myself, indeed, at a loss to conceive how the absurdity of
employing me to make such a proposition was overlooked, for I had,
really no advantage to offer in return to the Hanse Towns. Against
whom did Bonaparte propose to protect them? The truth is, Napoleon then
wished to seize these towns by direct aggression, which, however, he was
not able to accomplish until four years afterwards.
During five years I witnessed the commercial importance of these cities,
and especially of Hamburg. Its geographical situation, on a great river
navigable by large vessels to the city, thirty leagues from the mouth
of the Elbe; the complete independence it enjoyed; its municipal
regulations and paternal government, were a few amongst the many causes
which had raised Hamburg to its enviable height of prosperity. What, in
fact, was the population of these remnants of the grand Hanseatic League
of the Middle Ages? The population of Hamburg when I was there amounted
to 90,000, and that of its small surrounding territory to 25,000. Bremen
had 36,000 inhabitants, and 9000 in its territory; the city of Lübeck,
which is smaller and its territory a little more extensive than that of
Bremen, contained a population of 24,000 souls within and 16,000 without
the walls. Thus the total population of the Hanse Towns amounted to only
200,000 individuals; and yet this handful of men carried on an extensive
commerce, and their ships ploughed every sea, from the shores of India
to the frozen regions of Greenland.
The Emperor arrived at Paris towards the end of January 1806. Having
created kings in Germany he deemed the moment favourable for surrounding
his throne with new princes. It was at this period that he created
Murat, Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg; Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte-Corvo;
M. de Talleyrand, Duke of Benevento; and his two former colleagues,
Cambacérès and Lebrun, Dukes of Parma and Piacenza. He also gave to his
sister Pauline, a short time after her second marriage with the Prince
Borghese, the title of Duchess of Guastalla. Strange events! who could
then have foreseen that the duchy of Cambacérès would become the refuge
of a Princess of Austria, the widowed wife of Napoleon Bonaparte? In the
midst of the prosperity of the Imperial family, when the eldest of the
Emperor's brothers had ascended the throne of Naples, when Holland
was on the eve of being offered to Louis, and Jerome had exchanged his
legitimate wife for the illegitimate throne of Westphalia, the Imperial
pillow was still far from being free from anxiety. Hostilities did not
actually exist with the Continental powers; but this momentary state of
repose lacked the tranquillity of peace. France was at war with
Russia and England, and the aspect of the Continent presented great
uncertainty, while the treaty of Vienna had only been executed in part.
In the meantime Napoleon turned his eyes towards the East. General
Sebastiani was sent to Constantinople. The measures be pursued and his
judicious conduct justified the choice of the Emperor. He was adroit and
conciliating, and peace with Turkey was the result of his mission. The