Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
ambassador to England, cast his eyes--for what reason I know not--on
General Andreossi. I took the liberty of making some observation on a
choice which did not appear to me to correspond with the importance of
the mission. Bonaparte replied, "I have not determined on it; I will
talk to Talleyrand on the subject." When we were at Malmaison in the
evening M. de Talleyrand came to transact business with the First
Consul. The proposed appointment of an ambassador to England was
mentioned. After several persons had been named the First Consul said,
"I believe I must send Andreossi." M. de Talleyrand, who was not much
pleased with the choice, observed in a dry sarcastic tone, "You must
send Andre 'aussi', I Pray, who is this Andre?"--"I did not mention
any Andre; I said Andreossi. You know Andreossi, the general of
artillery?"--"Ah! true; Andreossi: I did not think of him: I was
thinking only of the diplomatic men, and did not recollect any of
that name. Yes, yes; Andreossi is in the artillery!" The general was
appointed ambassador, and went to London after the treaty of Amiens; but
he returned again in a few months. He had nothing of consequence to do,
which was very lucky for him.
In 1802 Jerome was at Brest in the rank of 'enseigne de vaisseau'--[A
rank in the navy equivalent to that of our lieutenant.]--He launched
into expenses far beyond what his fortune or his pay could maintain. He
often drew upon me for sums of money which the First Consul paid with
much unwillingness. One of his letters in particular excited Napoleon's
anger. The epistle was filled with accounts of the entertainments Jerome
was giving and receiving, and ended by stating that he should draw on me
for 17,000 francs. To this Bonaparte wrote the following reply:--
I have read your letter, Monsieur l'Enseigne de Vaisseau; and I am
waiting to hear that you are studying on board your corvette a
profession which you ought to consider as your road to glory. Die
young, and I shall have some consolatory reflection; but if you live
to sixty without having served your country, and without leaving
behind you any honourable recollections, you had better not have
lived at all.
Jerome never fulfilled the wishes of his brother, who always called him
a little profligate. From his earliest years his conduct was often a
source of vexation to his brother and his family. Westphalia will not
soon forget that he was her King; and his subjects did not without
reason surname him "Heliogabalus in miniature."
The First Consul was harassed by the continual demands for money made
on him by his brothers. To get rid of Joseph, who expended large sums at
Mortfontaine, as Lucien did at Neuilly, he gave M. Collot the contract
for victualling the navy, on the condition of his paying Joseph
1,600,000 francs a year out of his profits. I believe this arrangement
answered Joseph's purpose very well; but it was anything but
advantageous to M. Collot. I think a whole year elapsed without his
pocketing a single farthing. He obtained an audience of the First
Consul, to whom he stated his grievances. His outlays he showed were
enormous, and he could get no payment from the navy office. Upon which
the Consul angrily interrupted him, saying, "Do you think I am a mere
capuchin? Decres must have 100,000 crowns, Duroc 100,000, Bourrienne
100,000; you must make the payments, and don't come here troubling me
with your long stories. It is the business of my Ministers to give me
accounts of such matters; I will hear Decres, and that's enough. Let
me be teased no longer with these complaints; I cannot attend to them."
Bonaparte then very unceremoniously dismissed M. Collot. I learned
afterwards that he did not get a settlement of the business until after
a great deal of trouble. M. Collot once said to me, "If he had asked me
for as much money as would have built a frigate he should have had it.
All I want now is to be paid, and to get rid of the business." M. Collot
had reason and honour on his side; but there was nothing but shuffling
on the other.
CHAPTER IX.
1802.
Proverbial falsehood of bulletins--M. Doublet--Creation of the
Legion of Honour--Opposition to it in the Council and other
authorities of the State--The partisans of an hereditary system--
The question of the Consulship for life.
The historian of these times ought to put no faith in the bulletins,
despatches, notes, and proclamations which have emanated from Bonaparte,
or passed through his hands. For my part, I believe that the proverb,
"As great a liar as a bulletin," has as much truth in it as the axiom,
two and two make four.
The bulletins always announced what Bonaparte wished to be believed
true; but to form a proper judgment on any fact, counter-bulletins
must be sought for and consulted. It is well known, too, that Bonaparte
attached great importance to the place whence he dated his bulletins;
thus, he dated his decrees respecting the theatres and Hamburg beef at
Moscow.
The official documents were almost always incorrect. There was falsity
in the exaggerated descriptions of his victories, and falsity again in
the suppression or palliation of his reverses and losses. A writer, if
he took his materials from the bulletins and the official correspondence
of the time, would compose a romance rather than a true history. Of this
many proofs have been given in the present work.
Another thing which always appeared to me very remarkable was, that
Bonaparte, notwithstanding his incontestable superiority, studied to
depreciate the reputations of his military commanders, and to throw on
their shoulders faults which he had committed himself. It is notorious
that complaints and remonstrances, as energetic as they were well
founded, were frequently addressed to General Bonaparte on the subject
of his unjust and partial bulletins, which often attributed the success
of a day to some one who had very little to do with it, and made no
mention of the officer who actually had the command. The complaints made
by the officers and soldiers stationed at Damietta compelled General
Lanusse, the commander, to remonstrate against the alteration of a
bulletin, by which an engagement with a body of Arabs was represented as
an insignificant affair, and the loss trifling, though the General had
stated the action to be one of importance, and the loss considerable.
The misstatement, in consequence of his spirited and energetic
remonstrances, was corrected.
Bonaparte took Malta, as is well known, in forty-eight hours. The empire
of the Mediterranean, secured to the English by the battle of Aboukir,
and their numerous cruising vessels, gave them the means of starving the
garrison, and of thus forcing General Vaubois, the commandant of Malta,
who was cut off from all communication with France, to capitulate.
Accordingly on the 4th of September 1800 he yielded up the Gibraltar
of the Mediterranean, after a noble defence of two years. These facts
require to be stated in order the better to understand what follows.
On 22d February 1802 a person of the name of Doublet, who was the
commissary of the French Government at Malta when we possessed that
island, called upon me at the Tuileries. He complained bitterly that
the letter which he had written from Malta to the First Consul on the
2d Ventose, year VIII. (9th February 1800), had been altered in the
'Moniteur'. "I congratulated him," said M. Doublet, "on the 18th
Brumaire, and informed him of the state of Malta, which was very
alarming. Quite the contrary was printed in the 'Moniteur', and that
is what I complain of. It placed me in a very disagreeable situation at
Malta, where I was accused of having concealed the real situation of the
island, in which I was discharging a public function that gave weight
to my words." I observed to him that as I was not the editor of the
'Moniteur' it was of no use to apply to me; but I told him to give me a
copy of the letter, and I would mention the subject to the First Consul,
and communicate the answer to him. Doublet searched his pocket for the
letter, but could not find it. He said he would send a copy, and begged
me to discover how the error originated. On the same day he sent me
the copy of the letter, in which, after congratulating Bonaparte on his
return, the following passage occurs:--"Hasten to save Malta with men
and provisions: no time is to be lost." For this passage these words
were substituted in the 'Moniteur': "His name inspires the brave
defenders of Malta with fresh courage; we have men and provisions."
Ignorant of the motives of so strange a perversion, I showed this letter
to the First Consul. He shrugged up his shoulders and said, laughing,
"Take no notice of him, he is a fool; give yourself no further trouble
about it."
It was clear there was nothing more to be done. It was, however, in
despite of me that M. Doublet was played this ill turn. I represented
to the First Consul the inconveniences which M. Doublet might experience
from this affair. But I very rarely saw letters or reports published as
they were received. I can easily understand how particular motives might
be alleged in order to justify such falsifications; for, when the path
of candour and good faith is departed from, any pretext is put forward
to excuse bad conduct. What sort of a history would he write who should
consult only the pages of the 'Moniteur'?
After the vote for adding a second ten years to the duration of
Bonaparte's Consulship he created, on the 19th of May, the order of the
Legion of Honour. This institution was soon followed by that of the new
nobility. Thus, in a short space of time, the Concordat to tranquillize
consciences and re-establish harmony in the Church; the decree to recall
the emigrants; the continuance of the Consular power for ten years, by
way of preparation for the Consulship for life, and the possession
of the Empire; and the creation, in a country which had abolished all
distinctions, of an order which was to engender prodigies, followed
closely on the heels of each other. The Bourbons, in reviving the
abolished orders, were wise enough to preserve along with them the
Legion of Honour.
It has already been seen how, in certain circumstances, the First Consul
always escaped from the consequences of his own precipitation, and got
rid of his blunders by throwing the blame on others--as, for example, in
the affair of the parallel between Caesar, Cromwell, and Bonaparte. He
was indeed so precipitate that one might say, had he been a gardener, he
would have wished to see the fruits ripen before the blossoms had fallen
off. This inconsiderate haste nearly proved fatal to the creation of
the Legion of Honour, a project which ripened in his mind as soon as
he beheld the orders glittering at the button-holes of the Foreign
Ministers. He would frequently exclaim, "This is well! These are the
things for the people!"
I was, I must confess, a decided partisan of the foundation in France of
a new chivalric order, because I think, in every well-conducted State,
the chief of the Government ought to do all in his power to stimulate
the honour of the citizens, and to render them more sensible to honorary
distinctions than to pecuniary advantages. I tried, however, at the same
time to warn the First Consul of his precipitancy. He heard me not; but
I must with equal frankness confess that on this occasion I was soon
freed from all apprehension with respect to the consequences of the
difficulties he had to encounter in the Council and in the other
constituted orders of the State.
On the 4th of May 1801 he brought forward, for the first time
officially, in the Council of State the question of the establishment of
the Legion of Honour, which on the 19th May 1802 was proclaimed a law