Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812
Office, his own Admiralty."[8] His weak spot was his neglect of woman
as a political factor; this department he left to Josephine, who was a
failure. She gained popularity, but no converts. The Faubourg St.
Germain mistrusted a woman whose chief friend was the wife of
Thermidorian Tallien--Notre Dame de Septembre. In vain Napoleon raged
and stormed about the Tallien friendship, till his final mandate in
1806; and then it was too late.
Another characteristic, very marked in these Home Letters, is the
desire not to give his wife anxiety. His ailments and his difficulties
are always minimised.
Perhaps no man ever worked so hard physically and mentally as Napoleon
from 1796 to 1814. Lord Rosebery reminds us that "he would post from
Poland to Paris, summon a council at once, and preside over it with
his usual vigour and acuteness." And his councils were no joke; they
would last eight or ten hours. Once, at two o'clock in the morning,
the councillors were all worn-out; the Minister of Marine was fast
asleep. Napoleon still urged them to further deliberation: "Come,
gentlemen, pull yourselves together; it is only two o'clock, we must
earn the money that the nation gives us." The Commission who first
sifted the _Correspondence_ may well speak of the ceaseless workings
of that mind, which _knew no rest save change of occupation_, and of
"that universal intelligence from which nothing escaped." The chief
fault in Napoleon as a statesman was intrinsically a virtue, viz., his
good nature. There was, as Sir Walter Scott has said, "gentleness and
even softness in his character. It was his common and expressive
phrase that the heart of a politician should be in his head; but his
feelings sometimes surprised him in a gentler mood."
To be a relation of his own or his wife's, to have been a friend in
his time of stress, was to have a claim on Napoleon's support which no
subsequent treachery to himself could efface. From the days of his new
power--political power, first the Consulate and then the Empire--he
lavished gifts and favours even on the most undeserving of his early
comrades. Fouche, Talleyrand, Bernadotte were forgiven once, twice,
and again, to his own final ruin. Like Medea, one of whose other
exploits he had evoked in a bulletin, he could say--but to his honour
and not to his shame--
"Si possem, sanior essem.
Sed trahit invitam nova vis; aliudque Cupido,
Mens aliud suadet. Video meliora, proboque
Deteriora sequor."
Treachery and peculation against the State was different, as Moreau,
Bourrienne, and even Massena and Murat discovered.
As for his family, they were a flabby and somewhat sensual lot, with
the exception of Lucien, who was sufficiently capable to be hopelessly
impracticable. He was, however, infinitely more competent than the
effeminate Joseph and the melancholy Louis, and seems to have had more
command of parliamentary oratory than Napoleon himself.
Napoleon's influence on literary men may be gauged by what Wieland[9]
and Mueller[10] reported of their interview with him at Erfurt. That
with Wieland took place at the ball which followed the entertainment
on the field of Jena. "I was presented," he says, "by the Duchess of
Weimar, with the usual ceremonies; he then paid me some compliments in
an affable tone, and looked steadfastly at me. Few men have
appeared to me to possess, in the same degree, the art of reading
at the first glance the thoughts of other men. He saw, in an
instant, that notwithstanding my celebrity I was simple in my manners
and void of pretension; and, as he seemed desirous of making a
favourable impression on me, he assumed the tone most likely to
attain his end. I have never beheld any one more calm, more simple,
more mild, or less ostentatious in appearance; nothing about him
indicated the feeling of power in a great monarch; he spoke to me as
an old acquaintance would speak to an equal; and what was more
extraordinary on his part, he conversed with me exclusively for an
hour and a half, to the great surprise of the whole assembly."
Wieland has related part of their conversation, which is, as it could
not fail to be, highly interesting. They touched on a variety of
subjects; among others, the ancients. Napoleon declared his
preference of the Romans to the Greeks. "The eternal squabbles of
their petty republics," he said, "were not calculated to give birth
to anything grand; whereas the Romans were always occupied with great
things, and it was owing to this they raised up the Colossus which
bestrode the world." This preference was characteristic; the
following is anomalous: "He preferred Ossian to Homer." "He was fond
only of serious poetry," continues Wieland; "the pathetic and
vigorous writers; and, above all, the tragic poets. He appeared to
have no relish for anything gay; and in spite of the prepossessing
amenity of his manners, an observation struck me often, he seemed to
be of bronze. Nevertheless, he had put me so much at my ease that I
ventured to ask how it was that the public worship he had restored
in France was not more philosophical and in harmony with the
spirit of the times? 'My dear Wieland,' he replied, 'religion is not
meant for philosophers; they have no faith either in me or my
priests. As to those who do believe, it would be difficult to give
them or to leave them too much of the marvellous. If I had to
frame a religion for philosophers, it would be just the reverse of
that of the credulous part of mankind.'"[11]
Mueller, the celebrated Swiss historian, who had a private interview
with Napoleon at this period, has left a still fuller account of the
impression he received. "The Emperor[12] began to speak," says Mueller,
"of the history of Switzerland, told me that I ought to complete it,
that even the more recent times had their interest. He proceeded from
the Swiss to the old Greek constitutions and history; to the theory of
constitutions; to the complete diversity of those of Asia, and the
causes of this diversity in the climate, polygamy, &c.; the opposite
characters of the Arabian and the Tartar races; the peculiar value of
European culture, and the progress of freedom since the sixteenth
century; how everything was linked together, and in the inscrutable
guidance of an invisible hand; how he himself had become great through
his enemies; the great confederation of nations, the idea of which
Henry IV. had; the foundation of all religion, and its necessity; that
man could not bear clear truth, and required to be kept in order;
admitting the possibility, however, of a more happy condition if the
numerous feuds ceased, which were occasioned by too complicated
constitutions (such as the German), and the intolerable burden
suffered by states from excessive armies." These opinions clearly mark
the guiding motives of Napoleon's attempts to enforce upon different
nations uniformity of institutions and customs. "I opposed him
occasionally," says Mueller, "and he entered into discussion. Quite
impartially and truly, as before God, I must say that the variety of
his knowledge, the acuteness of his observations, the solidity of his
understanding (not dazzling wit), his grand and comprehensive views,
filled me with astonishment, and his manner of speaking to me, with
love for him. By his genius and his disinterested goodness, he has
also conquered me." Slowly but surely they are conquering the world.
Of his goodness we have the well-weighed verdict of Lord Acton, that
it was "the most splendid that has appeared on earth." Of his
goodness, we may at least concur in the opinion of the old British tar
at Elba, quoted by Sir Walter, and evidently his own view, that "Boney
was a d--d good fellow after all."
With regard to the character of _Josephine_ opinions still differ
about every quality but one. Like the friend of Goldsmith's mad dog--
"A kind and gentle heart she had
To comfort friends and foes:"
either her brother Mason Cambaceres, or her brother Catholic and
unbrotherly brother-in-law Lucien.
From early days she had learnt "how to flirt and how to fib." Morality
was at a low ebb during the French Revolution, when women often saved
their necks at the expense of their bodies, and there is unfortunately
no doubt that Josephine was no exception. It is certain, however, from
his first letters to Josephine, that Napoleon knew nothing of this at
the time of his honeymoon (solus) in Italy. Gradually, but very
unwillingly, his eyes were opened, and by the time he had reached
Egypt he felt himself absolved from the absolute faithfulness he had
hitherto preserved towards his wife. On his return Josephine becomes
once more his consort, and even his friend--never again his only love.
Josephine's main characteristic henceforward is to make everybody
happy and comfortable--in spite of Napoleon's grumblings at her
reckless prodigality; never to say No! (except to her husband's
accusations) suits her Creole disposition best, especially as it costs
her no active exertion, and the Emperor pays for all. And so, having
been in turn Our Lady of Victories and Saint Mary the Egyptian, she
becomes from her coronation to her death-day "The Mother of the
Poor."
THE SOURCES OF THE LETTERS.--These may be divided into three
parts--(1st) the Early Love-Letters of 1796; (2nd) the Collection
published by Didot Freres in 1833; and (3rd) the few scattered Letters
gathered from various outside sources.
(1st) With regard to the Early Love-Letters of 1796, these are found
most complete in a work published by Longmans in 1824, in two volumes,
with the title, "A Tour through Parts of the Netherlands, Holland,
Germany, Switzerland, Savoy, and France, in the year 1821-2, by
Charles Tennant, Esq.; also containing in an Appendix Fac-simile
Copies of Eight Letters in the handwriting of Napoleon Bonaparte to
his wife Josephine."
The author introduces them with an interesting preface, which shows
that then, as now, the interest in everything connected with Napoleon
was unabated:--
"Long after this fleeting book shall have passed away, and with its
author shall have been forgotten, these documents will remain; for
here, perhaps, is to be found the purest source of information which
exists, touching the private character of Napoleon Bonaparte, known,
probably, but to the few whose situations have enabled them to observe
that extraordinary man in the undisguised relations of domestic life.
Although much already has been said and written of him, yet the
eagerness with which every little anecdote and incident of his life is
sought for shows the interest which still attaches to his name, and
these, no doubt, will be bequests which posterity will duly estimate.
From these it will be the province of future historians to cull and
select simple and authenticated facts, and from these only can be
drawn a true picture of the man whose fame has already extended into
every distant region of the habitable globe.
* * * * *
"I will now proceed to relate the means by which I am enabled to
introduce into this journal fac-simile copies of eight letters in the
handwriting of Napoleon Bonaparte, the originals of which are in my
possession. Had these been of a political nature, much as I should
prize any relics of such a man, yet they would not have appeared in a
book from which I have studiously excluded all controversial topics,
and more especially those of a political character. Neither should I
have ventured upon their publication if there were a possibility that
by so doing I might wound the feelings of any human being. Death has
closed the cares of the individuals connected with these letters. Like
the memorials of Alexander the Great or of Charlemagne, they are the