Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
wrote to inform the Prince of Porte-Corvo of what had taken place; and
in my letter I solicited the suppression of an extraordinary tribunal
which had been created by General Dupas. He returned me an immediate
answer, complying with my request. His letter was as follows:
I have received your letter, my dear Minister: it forcibly conveys
the expression of your right feeling, which revolts against
oppression, severity, and the abase of power. I entirely concur in
your view of the subject, and I am distressed whenever I see such
acts of injustice committed. On an examination of the events which
took place on the 19th it is impossible to deny that the officer who
ordered the gates to be closed so soon was in the wrong; and next,
it may be asked, why were not the gates opened instead of the
military being ordered to fire on the people? But, on the other
hand, did not the people evince decided obstinacy and
insubordination? were they not to blame in throwing stones at the
guard, forcing the palisades, and even refusing to listen to the
voice of the magistrates? It is melancholy that they should have
fallen into these excesses, from which, doubtless, they would have
refrained had they listened to the civil chiefs, who ought to be
their first directors. Finally, my dear Minister, the Senator who
distributed money at the gate of Altona to appease the multitude
would have done better had he advised them to wait patiently until
the gates were opened; and he might, I think, have gone to the
Commandant or the General to solicit that concession.
Whenever an irritated mob resorts to violence there is no safety for
any one. The protecting power mast then exert its utmost authority
to stop mischief. The Senate of ancient Rome, so jealous of its
prerogatives, assigned to a Dictator, in times of trouble, the power
of life and death, and that magistrate knew no other code than his
own will and the axe of his lictors. The ordinary laws did not
resume their course until the people returned to submission.
The event which took place in Hamburg produced a feeling of
agitation of which evil-disposed persons might take advantage to
stir up open insurrection. That feeling could only be repressed by
a severe tribunal, which, however, is no longer necessary. General
Dupas has, accordingly, received orders to dissolve it, and justice
will resume her usual course.
J. BERNADOTTE
DENSEL, 4th May, 1808.
When Bernadotte returned to Hamburg he sent. Dupas to Lübeck. That city,
which was poorer than Hamburg, suffered cruelly from the visitation of
such a guest.
Dupas levied all his exactions in kind, and indignantly spurned every
offer of accepting money, the very idea of which, he said, shocked his
delicacy of feeling. But his demands became so extravagant that the city
of Lübeck was utterly unable to satisfy them. Besides his table, which
was provided in the same style of profusion as at Hamburg, he required
to be furnished with plate, linen, wood, and candles; in short, with the
most trivial articles of household consumption.
The Senate deputed to the incorruptible General Dupas M. Nolting, a
venerable old man, who mildly represented to him the abuses which were
everywhere committed in his name, and entreated that he would vouchsafe
to accept twenty Louis a day to defray the expenses of his table alone.
At this proposition General Dupes flew into a rage. To offer him money
was an insult not to be endured! He furiously drove the terrified
Senator out of the house, and at once ordered his 'aide de camp' Barrel
to imprison him. M. de Barrel, startled at this extraordinary order,
ventured to remonstrate with the General, but in vain; and, though
against his heart, he was obliged to obey. The aide de camp accordingly
waited upon the Senator Notting, and overcome by that feeling of respect
which gray hairs involuntarily inspire in youth, instead of arresting
him, he besought the old man not to leave his house until he should
prevail on the General to retract his orders. It was not till the
following day that M. de Barrel succeeded in getting these orders
revoked--that is to say, he obtained M. Notting's release from
confinement; for Dupas would not be satisfied until he heard that the
Senator had suffered at least the commencement of the punishment to
which his capricious fury had doomed him.
In spite of his parade of disinterestedness General Dupas yielded so far
as to accept the twenty Louis a day for the expense of his table which
M. Notting had offered him on the part of the Senate of Lübeck; but it
was not without murmurings, complaints, and menaces that he made this
generous concession; and he exclaimed more than once, "These fellows
have portioned out my allowance for me." Lübeck was not released from
the presence of General Dupes until the month of March 1809, when he
was summoned to command a division in the Emperor's new campaign against
Austria. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless the fact, that,
oppressive as had been his presence at Lübeck, the Hanse Towns soon had
reason to regret him.
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