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THE PERSONALITY OF NAPOLEON 
 
THE PERSONALITY 
 OF NAPOLEON 
 
 THE LOWELL LECTURES DELIVERED 
 AT BOSTON IN FEBRUARY- 
 MARCH 1912. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. HOLLAND ROSE, Litt.D. 
 
 READER IN MODERN HISTORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 
 
 ' ' 'Tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, 
 Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times, 
 Turning th' accomplishment of many years 
 Into an hour glass." 
 
 Shakespeare, King Henry V, Act I, Chorus. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. 
 
 1912 
 
3>c 
 
 Aoo3kS3 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS ; CHARLES WHITl'INGHAM AND CO. 
 TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Lectur]^!^ The Man . 
 
 I 
 
 "X n. The Jacobin 
 
 . . 36 
 
 III. The Warrior . 
 
 . 66 
 
 IV. The Lawgiver . 
 
 . 112 
 
 V. The Emperor . 
 
 . 148 
 
 'XVl. The Thinker . 
 
 . 189 
 
 VII. The World-Ruler 
 
 • 223 
 
 VIII. The Exile . 
 
 • 259 
 
MAPS AND PLANS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 North Italy 77 
 
 The Upper Danube 81 
 
 The Battle of Austerlitz . . • ■ 93 
 
 vu 
 
" Les hommes la plupart sont toangement faits ! 
 Dans la juste nature on ne les voit jamais ; 
 La raison a pour eux des bornes trop petites; 
 En chaque caractfere ils passent ses limites ; 
 Et la plus noble chose, ils la gitent souvent 
 Pour la vouloir outrer et pousser trop avant." 
 
 MOLli;RE, Le Tariuffe, Act I, Sc. 5. 
 
THE PERSONALITY OF 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 LECTURE I 
 
 THE MAN 
 
 " I confess, I have no notion of a truly great man that could 
 not be all sorts of men." — Carlyle, Heroes. 
 
 IN these lectures I propose briefly to estimate the 
 value of the personal factor in the Napoleonic 
 era. In no sense do they claim to be an exhaustive 
 analysis of character. The materials for such an ex- 
 amination probably do not exist; for, though the 
 number of the extant letters of Napoleon exceeds 
 32,000, yet by far the larger number deal solely with 
 facts; and even the imposing mass of the official 
 " Correspondance de Napoleon" (with additions by 
 Lecestre and Brotonne) does not explain the varia- 
 tions and contradictions which invest his being with 
 a charm sometimes almost Shakespearian in its 
 elusiveness. Even at St. Helena, when he claimed 
 that misfortune showed him to the world naked as 
 he was, the aureole of legend was beginning to gild 
 his brows. The truest estimate, then, will be that 
 
2 NAPOLEON 
 
 ^ /hich duly assesses the influences moulding his early 
 years, and traces the manifold activities, which, while 
 shaping the fortunes of France and Europe, also 
 helped to fashion his being. Restful natures can be 
 examined microscopically. On Napoleon the analyst 
 would exhaust his powers as vainly as a painter who, 
 from a stuffed specimen in a glass case, should seek 
 to depict the flight of the eagle. 
 
 Even in the case_ of a king o£_men_the_JiabLltat 
 counts for much; and, in part at least, Napoleon 
 owed his soaring strenuou^ nature to his native land;^ 
 Corsica. There Nature bestows her boons full shrewdly, 
 withholding so much as to spur men to some form of 
 activity, and so far rewarding their efforts as to yield 
 a sufficiency, with something of that leisure super- 
 added which makes life a delight, not a drudgery. 
 On the shores of the Mediterranean mankind first 
 lived a complete life, in some parts developing the 
 arts and sciences, in others sinking into luxury and 
 sloth, or in the more rugged lands keeping up the 
 primaeval habits of war and adventure thinly covered 
 by a veneer of culture. 
 
 These last were the conditions that obtained in 
 Corsica. It is to Italy what Ithaca is to Greece, echoing 
 faintly the rapturous music of the mainland, but add- 
 ing the warlike or wailing undertone of the High- 
 lander. The unrest of the sea, the awesomeness of the 
 mountains, are balanced by no glad and careless life 
 
 [in fertile plains. The crag, the forest, the sea dominate 
 Corsica. Like Ithaca, she is " rugged, a good nurse of 
 heroes," The wonder is that she has so rarely fulfilled 
 
THE MAN 
 
 t 
 
 the prophecy of Rousseau, that she would some dayV 
 astonish the world. For her sons have been hardened 
 byconstant strife and energised by frequent admixtures 
 of conquering races. All the peoples that swept over 
 the Mediterranean, from the times of the Phoenicians 
 and Greeks down to those of the Vandals and Arabs, 
 have left their mark upon the islanders. Probably the 
 stem is in the main Italian ; but the many grafts have 
 made of it a tougher tree, less fertile in fruit and 
 more so in thorns. How should it be otherwise? 
 A small people, exposed on all sides to raids, must 
 think first of defence, or, if that fails, of flight to the 
 forest and mountain, trusting by prowess or guile to 
 worst or tire out the invaders. To the Corsicans the sea 
 was perhaps more an enemy than a friend. If it yielded 
 fish and helped on the petty traders, it also brought 
 the Barbary rovers, who, if successful, swept off fisher- 
 men, traders, and their families into slavery. We are 
 apt to forget that less than a century has elapsed since 
 Lord Exmouth burnt out Algiers, that wasps' nest of 
 the Mediterranean. But the records of Corsica and 
 her many martello towers (so called from the hammer 
 struck on a bell to warn the country at the approach 
 of pirates) remind us of that dark shadow hang- 
 ing over her life and that of all Mediterranean 
 peoples. 
 
 In such a state of things self-defence is always the 
 first thought. Every Corsican of standing went about 
 armed. Many of them wore the trophies of the chase ; 
 and, in default of lawful game, would turn their arms 
 against neighbours with whom they were at feud, 
 
4 NAPOLEON 
 
 Y<Vhat the joust or tourney was to the barons of the 
 Tnainland, that the blood -feud, or vendetta, was to the 
 caporali, or chieftains, of Corsica. An injury, an insult, 
 2ven a haughty look, might provoke a feud which 
 ;ould be ended only with blood. The islanders recked 
 little of public law. For generations they had known 
 nothing but the decrees of Genoa; and them they 
 loathed as the behests of their would-be tyrants. Bos- 
 well, in his interesting " Account of Corsica," ascribes 
 the habit of private vengeance solely to this cause, and 
 says that the Corsican champion, Paoli, succeeded in 
 stamping out the vicious custom. Both assertions are 
 exaggerated. The vendetta was far older than Genoese 
 rule in Corsica, and it has survived to some extent to 
 our own days. Boswell is far nearer the truth when 
 he ascribes the vendetta to the violent passions of 
 the islanders, resulting from the heat of the climate, 
 " which forms the human frame to an exquisite degree 
 of sensibility. . . . T hey are p eople of strong passions 
 as well as of lively andyigorous^mmd'sr^T^e are ffi~ 
 material«-of whi«h-.nieai-areJta^^fprmedj^either good 
 or bad, in a. superior degree."^ The influence of the 
 vendetta on the charaHeFof the islanders was pro- 
 found. It made them a silent, suspicious, proud, and 
 vindictive race. In the virtual absence of national 
 law, the honour of the clan and the family was always 
 the first consideration. War, the chase, and the ad- 
 
 ' J. Boswell, "Account of Corsica" (1769), 160, 161, 241. So, 
 too, Napoleon ("Corresp.," ii, 163), said that the imagination 
 and the passions of the Corsicans were very lively, and that 
 they were extremely difficult to understand. 
 
THE MAN 5 
 
 vancernent or preservation of the kin were the govern- 
 ing factors in life. 
 
 The Corsicans displayed the virtues as well as the 
 defects of the clan system. If they were factious and 
 difficult to rule, they clave steadfastly to their chief- 
 tain. To desert him was the depth of dishonour. On 
 one occasion a youth ventured to do so. His father, 
 meeting him at the gate of the town, shot him dead ; 
 and public opinion approved the deed. To die for the 
 chief was a glorious act, and this chivalrous feeling 
 nerved the islanders to deeds of endurance and daring 
 astonishing to more civilized peoples. They had no 
 regular troops; for as Paoli said to Boswell, "We 
 should then have the bravery of this and that regi- 
 ment. At present, every single man is a regiment 
 himself Should the Corsicans be formed into regular 
 troops, we should lose that personal bravery which 
 has produced such actions among us." ' On the other 
 hand their moods were as fickle as their sea, and 
 savage as their mountains. No one has ever succeeded 
 in thoroughly taming the people of the interior. The 
 Genoese failed, as the French after them failed. 
 
 Tntn fh'g pri'mifciua rz-ymmnnil-y ^ISllapQlpnn Bcina^ . 
 
 parte was born at-..Aiacd£uaauiIl^.August ^i769 . It 
 was ,a ,tme..eLjft«cei:^aftll4^rain^^^^^^ The 
 
 islanders were struggling to throw off the yoke of the 
 French, who had taken over Corsica from the nerve- 
 less hands of the Genoese. The- first associations of 
 
 ppn^sJgL yfhnvn he- ?fi-prwarrlg rqjcjfif] ^(^ hpjcrhfg of ^Inry ; 
 
 ^ Boswell, p. 330. 
 
4 NAPOLEON 
 
 and up to his twentieth year he was at heart a rebel 
 against the French connection. Thus, in that forma- 
 tive period all the faculties that make for opposition 
 received abnormal development. His_wlLoJa lifewas 
 to be a_struggle. In truth, the struggle began before 
 his birth. His father and mother had to flee from their 
 home during the strife against the French; and Napo- 
 leon himself, when, as ruler of France, he set himself 
 against effeminacy, once declared with his usual 
 energy, "Before my birth, my mother was running 
 about over all the mountains of Corsica." Perhaps 
 the hardships of those months made him the slim 
 youth, whose aquiline sharpness of face and figure 
 aroused wonder and pity. But his constitution was 
 sound; his nerves were of steel; and that resolute 
 will hardened under the ceaseless pressure of danger. 
 The life of a man, as of a nation, is the stronger for 
 encountering privation in the early days. The 
 Spaniards in their age-long contests with the Moors, 
 the Scots in the fight with Nature and with England, 
 gained the grit which spread them over the world as 
 conquerors and leaders. Modern Italy was made by 
 her virile sons of the north; and Napoleon would not 
 have gone so far had he not early been inured to war 
 and hardship. Italy supplied his brain power; Corsica 
 made him a warrior. ^ ~ ■" 
 
 To speculate on the family ingredients that go to 
 make up the character of a child is a fallacious task. 
 Even the ordinary product of a one-room family 
 sometimes sets at defiance the laws of heredity ; and 
 
THE MAN 7 
 
 he who should seek to reconstruct a great genius on 
 biological principles would assuredly bring forth only 
 a dunamy. No : the World Spirit now and again visits 
 the earth, and in the being of some child enfolds in- 
 fluences of wonder-working potency. In other years 
 that same cradle may hold a doll, a mere liber- 
 tine. On this occasion, in August 1769, it enshrines 
 Napoleon; for some incalculable influence has raised 
 to the n'th power all the family characteristics that 
 make for greatness. 
 
 NeverthelesSj-NapeleoB-is -a~CQrsican,_an J^taliaikl- 
 In his" character, "fcbou'Rdifig-" in ^rongly^^naarkfid-.. 
 features, the nature of his -father, a restlesviJitrigi^-" 
 ing man, fond of literature and philosophy,^ appears^ 
 on what may be termed lihe, c«riL,sid£^f hisja£jlfe. 
 Charles Marie de Bonaparte, though he fought under 
 Paoli's banner, was not fitted to be a soldier. He was 
 essentially a schemer; but he lacked the toughness 
 and persistent energy which might have carried some 
 of his many schemes to a successful issue; and he 
 finally went over to the French side in an eminently 
 un-Corsican manner, which earned the contempt of 
 Napoleon. Still, Charles was a clever man, with 
 varied tastes and a veneer of academic culture which 
 sufficed for the municipal and legal honours at which 
 he aimed. He was an attorney, and in pursuit of 
 places and profits at Ajaccio showed untiring zeal 
 and considerable powers of intrigue. These, added 
 to the influence of his family, and that of his wife, 
 ' See the family pedigree in Masson, " Napoleon inconnu," i, 
 ad init. 
 
8/ NAPOLEON 
 
 brought him to the front; and he might have pros- 
 /pered but for restlessness and constant wire-pulling. 
 Finally his requests for patronage seem to have dis- 
 gusted the French officials and tired out his friends, 
 with the result that he finished his days in failure. He 
 began life poor, and he ended it virtually a bankrupt. 
 At the time of his marriage with Letizia Ramolino, a 
 girl of fifteen, the young couple had between them 
 property amounting to less than 14,000 francs in 
 value. Their children came fast, and for each child 
 he wove new schemes and intrigues, most of which 
 overshot the mark, the result being that his income 
 rarely met his needs. 
 
 These ceaseless embarrassments, which would have 
 broken down most women, only called forth the wifely 
 devotion and resolute thrift of Letizia. She came 
 of a hardy stock, which like the Bonapartes had won 
 distinction in mediaeval Italy, but had migrated from 
 Genoa to Corsica at the end of the fifteenth century. 
 There the Ramolini had intermarried with other 
 families of Italian origin for the most part, though in 
 Letizia there was a slight strain of Greek blood.' Her 
 mother was of the Pietra-Santa family, which sprang 
 from the warlike clans of the interior; and Letizia 
 herself developed a firm, proud, masculine character, 
 destined to have a great influence on that of Napoleon. 
 In him the restless scheming disposition of the father 
 was partly, not wholly, balanced by the hard, matter- 
 
 ' There seems to be no truth in Madame Junot's story that 
 the ancestor of Bonaparte, who came from Tuscany, was a 
 Greek named KaXonkpoe. Duchesse d'Abrant^s, " M^ms.," i, ch. 2. 
 
THE MAN 9 
 
 of-fact nature of the mother. She brought up her 
 children frugally, as there was need, tenderly, as her 
 hearted prompted, but with the Spartan severity 
 which their headstrong character demanded. They 
 loved her none the less, and respected her all the 
 more, because she did not spare the rod. Apparently 
 the only time when Napoleon received bodily chas- 
 tisement was in his seventeenth year, when he was 
 guilty of mimicking the limping gait of his grand- 
 mother. The quick eye of Letizia detected the offence; 
 and in due course the young lieutenant had to submit 
 to a sound birching. The tactical skill of Letizia on 
 this occasion equalled her firmness of mind and of 
 arm. She notified to him that he should go upstairs 
 to dress for some social function, and then with the 
 cane pounced upon him while disrobed. In the 
 shrewdness of the mother on this occasion may we 
 not see a homely forecast of the manoeuvres at 
 Castiglione and Austerlitz? 
 
 All the children of this quick-eyed, strong-minded 
 woman displayed average ability. Joseph, the eldest 
 surviving child, became a skilful diplomatist, and 
 might have figured as a fairly competent ruler in 
 ordinary times. Lucien and Elisa showed intellectual 
 ability and administrative capacity. Louis was clever 
 but crabbed. Pauline lived a butterfly life with easy 
 Italian grace ; and the youngest children, Caroline and 
 Jerome, almost rivalled her in the number of their 
 amours. Self-will, obstinacy, voluptuousness, figure 
 in all the children; ability in the first four; genius only 
 in Napoleon. 
 
10 NAPOLEON 
 
 He resembled the Corsicans in his short stature (he 
 stood about 5 ft. 5 in.') in the hardness of his nature, 
 which scorned danger and despised wealth, above all 
 in his family-pride, which later on raised his mother 
 to the position of first lady in France and his brothers 
 to the thrones of neighbouring lands. He himself once 
 described the Corsicans as " harsh, but at bottom 
 just"; and again in those words he described himself. 
 Benefits he ever remembered and generously rewarded. 
 He had a keen eye for wrongs or slights, and gener- 
 ally meted out revenge ; but he raised his old friends, 
 for instance Junot, to a position far above their deserts; 
 
 V and many of his difficulties late in life arose from 
 having placed his brothers and old comrades in 
 stations which demanded real capacity. This was a 
 defect in a great ruler, but one for which he is to be 
 honoured as a man. He often behaved to humbler de- 
 pendents with the hauteur oi a chief; but he knew the 
 
 ', infinite worth of fidelity and rewarded those who 
 showed it. Specially noteworthy is his treatment of 
 the son of Nicola Frate, who had bravely defended 
 him during the civil strifes of Corsica in the spring 
 of 1793. At that time the future world-conqueror 
 was fain to flee from Ajaccio on foot in order to 
 escape the violence of the opposing and triumphant 
 Paolists. Nicola Frate guided him on foot by secret 
 paths and helped him to escape from a position of 
 extreme peril. Napoleon ever remembered this, and 
 
 1 Bausset, " Cour de Napoldon," ch. 39, The height has also 
 been given as 5 ft. 7 in. ; but Bausset, Napoleon's chamberlain, is 
 the most credible authority. 
 
THE MAN II 
 
 in his will left 10,000 francs to the son of his faithful 
 guide. 
 
 The same document contains a curious proof of his 
 rancour. He bequeathed 10,000 francs to a French 
 officer, Cantillon, who had sought to murder Welling- 
 ton. The generosity and the rancour are both of them 
 Corsican traits, strongly marked in his character. 
 Time after time he astonished the world by the 
 splendour of his gifts and the terror of his vengeance. 
 At the time of his execution of the Due d'Enghien an 
 aide-de-camp ventured on the true but risky comment, 
 that the First Consul was returning to the customs of 
 his native isle. Five years later the Spanish Bourbons 
 were to feel the fatal sword-thrust which their chal- 
 lenge to him during the Jena campaign had seemed 
 to court. Skilled in hiding his resentment, he bided 
 his time, and in 1808 overwhelmed that dynasty in 
 apparently irretrievable ruin. It is highly probable 
 that he all along intended to avenge the affront ; ' and 
 the means of executing it were characteristic of the 
 man and of his race. The self-suppression, the secret 
 waiting, the intrigues to divide the House of Bourbon, 
 and then the final feline spring, are like an episode of 
 Florentine history. The French nature is more open, 
 sunny, and careless, which goes far to explain the 
 almost invariable failure of their conspiracies. Cer- 
 tainly the survivors of the French Revolution, a sad, 
 weary, disillusionized group, were mere schoolboys 
 in the hand of this silent, determined, resourceful 
 Italian. 
 
 ' Metternich, " Mems." (Eng. edit.), ii, 291. 
 
12 NAPOLEON 
 
 More than once, with the frankness which is his 
 most engaging feature, he expressed his contempt 
 of the French, especially of the Parisians. To Met- 
 ternich in the spring of 1812 he uttered these sur- 
 prising words: " In France talent is common enough; 
 but it is only talent ; there is nothing beneath it which 
 resembles character, and, still less, principle. Every- 
 one runs after applause, whether it comes from above 
 or below, no matter: they want to be noticed and 
 applauded." ' So, too, at St. Helena, he remarked to 
 General Gourgaud: "In France there will never be 
 a lack of clever scheming people; but there will always 
 be a lack of men of great character and vigour, in 
 fine, of men dowered with the sacred fire." ^ 
 
 I believe that he ascribed those supreme gifts only 
 to the ancient Romans. For them he had a profound 
 admiration. Though Alexander the Great winged 
 his fancies eastwards, the first two Caesars were his 
 models in war and politics. From Julius Caesar he 
 first learnt the lesson that decisive triumphs in war 
 are the fruit of singleness of aim and concentration 
 both of purpose and of forces. From Caesar Augustus 
 he borrowed largely in statecraft, but his debt to 
 Julius is greater. The close connection between the 
 brilliant conquest of Gaul and the foundation of 
 autocracy at Rome evidently inspired Bonaparte's 
 far-reaching plans of the years 1797-9; and the 
 clemency of the great Roman may have strengthened 
 the resolve of the First Consul to rally all parties to 
 
 ' Metternich, "Mems." (Eng. edit.), i, 151. 
 ' Gourgaud, " Journal," i, 299. 
 
THE MAN 13 
 
 the cause of political moderation which he made 
 emphatically his own. In all this, and in the carrying 
 out of great public works, Napoleon figured as a 
 second Julius Caesar. Strange destiny of mankind, 
 that the political powers of a whole people, dormant 
 during nearly eighteen centuries of fallow, should 
 now rise up in an island-scion of the race. 
 
 The four-square self-sufficiency characteristic of 
 the old Roman nature appears early in the nature of 
 Nap oleon Bonaparte. His mental trainin£r w^fi ^^'^^ 
 whichJ ifi-himself absorbed, not what others sought . 
 tojjaatil. He had a poor opinion of the education 
 given him by the monks at Brienne, and by the 
 authorities at the Ecole Militaire at Paris; but pro- 
 bably he would have disliked any French school. 
 At that time, and up to 1790, his feelings were 
 strongly Corsican. He hated the French, as the con- 
 querors of his country; and at the Paris seminary he 
 scorned the sons of nobles who formed a large part 
 of the pupils. Further, he longed to free Corsica 
 from the French; and this explains the arduous 
 studies in History and in the art of war, which he 
 undertook during his time in garrison at Valence and 
 Auxonne during the greater part of the years 
 1787-90. Ver y remarkable is the concentration of 
 thought. and-MoELffihkLfiakblM JthispaM.^ 
 to amass a most un usual amount of information on 
 Modern __History and so m e of the scie nces. Like 
 most car eful and persevering students, Tiemade his 
 own gntn.p:v3j:iev-thprph3rwnrking- the material intO- 
 the fibre pf his, own brain.;, and the note-books which 
 
14 NAPOLEON 
 
 have surviv_ed_reyeal. that methodizing faculty, th at 
 
 resolve to_ arrange and master facts, which is one 
 
 of the secret s of success in org anisation. His was 
 
 no ordinary brain, content with languidly survey 
 
 ing the facts of life at a distance, or sated, perhaps, 
 
 with the instruction imparted by others. He-Jias 
 
 more..Qr. less .a. rebel at -sdiool : but, when his min d 
 
 V had once awakened, it became a powerfu l machin e, 
 
 i grinding all the materials that came within reach, 
 
 , appropriating them and sorting them "Ir T^compar t- 
 
 ments ready for the time of use. All this was done 
 
 before or after the work of drill, and amidst con- 
 
 , ditions of health and poverty far from favourable to 
 
 prolonged study. Yet the written results of those 
 
 studies of about two years are portentous. They 
 
 extend to 368 large pages of print in M. Masson's 
 
 work, " Napoleon inconnu." That is, they would make 
 
 an average-sized book of these days. 
 
 The quality and variety of the work is as remark- 
 able as its extent. Bonaparte draws up a new con-' 
 stitution for a regimental club {la Calotte), which may 
 be called his first administrative effort. He writes 
 four long memoranda on artillery. Turning to the 
 Classics, he summarizes the first part of The Republic 
 of Plato, and writes notes on the government of the 
 ancient Persians, of Sparta and Athens, and on the 
 geography of ancient Greece. He also epitomizes 
 Greek and Egyptian history. Carthage and Assyria 
 attract him. Raynal's book on the two Indies first 
 turns his thoughts to the colonial and imperial 
 questions which are to dominate his policy during 
 
THE MAN IS 
 
 the Empire ; and perhaps it is the collision of England 
 and France in that sphere which leads him on to a 
 surprisingly careful study of English history down 
 to the year 1688. 
 
 He goes even farther afield. He studies the history 
 of the Arabs and the government of Venice, doubt- 
 less because of their influence on the Levant. To the 
 history of France he pays less attention, either because 
 he has been well drilled in it at school, or from lack 
 of special interest. On the other hand, Natural 
 Science, in the domains of Geography and Biology, 
 holds a prominent place in his thoughts, which play 
 inquisitively around the mysterious phenomena of 
 generation. Altogether what a programme of self- 
 culture is in these notes. 
 
 Side by side with this resolve to master the facts 
 of life are signs of an introspective brooding which 
 develops into melancholy, witness this extract from a 
 monologue on suicide which he wrote probably in 
 May 1786, while second lieutenant at Valence (aet. 17): 
 
 Always alone even in the midst of men, I come back to 
 my room to dream with myself, and to surrender myself to 
 all the vivacity of my melancholy. In which direction does 
 it tend to-day? Towards death. Being in the dawn of my 
 days, I can still hope to live a long time. I have been away 
 from my country for about six or seven years. What plea- 
 sures will be mine, when in four months' time I once again 
 see my countrymen and my relatives! From the tender 
 sensations with which the recollections of the pleasures of 
 ' my childhood now fill me, may I not infer that my happi- 
 'ness will be complete? What madness, then, leads me to 
 ' wish for death? Doubtless the thought — " What is there to 
 
i6 NAPOLEON 
 
 do in this world?" Since I must die, is it not just as well 
 that I should kill myself? If I had already passed my 6oth 
 year, I should respect the prejudices of my contemporaries, 
 and wait patiently until nature had finished with mej but, 
 since I begin to experience misfortune, and since nothing is 
 a pleasure to me, why should I support a life, in which 
 nothing turns out well for me? How far men are removed 
 from nature ! How cowardly they are, how abject, how ser- 
 vile! What spectacle shall I behold in my country? My 
 compatriots loaded with chains, while they tremblingly kiss 
 the hand that oppresses them. They are no longer Corsicans 
 whom a hero animated by his virtues, — enemies to tyrants, 
 luxury and vile courtiers. . . .' 
 
 The rest of the effusion is in the same passionate, 
 almost idyllic strain. We feel in it the pulsations of 
 a proud and sensitive nature, with here and there a 
 syncopated note of egotism. His sense of duty to 
 Corsica is not the dominant thought. To him life 
 is not, as it was to Mazzini, a mission, but a career; 
 and because he finds the Corsicans of his time un- 
 equal to those of the great days of Paoli, he thinks 
 of ending his tedious existence. We know not what 
 were the misfortunes, other than poverty, which then 
 beset him. Perhaps the impossibility of doing much 
 fretted his restless spirit; or the failure of some 
 scheme for arousing the Corsicans against the French 
 may have bred disgust of life. What turned the 
 current of his thoughts outwards and upwards is 
 matter for conjecture; but, as at St. Helena, he re- 
 fused to commit suicide, declaring it to be the act of 
 a coward." 
 
 1 Masson, i, 145. ^ » Nap. Corresp.," xxxi, 485. j 
 
THE MAN 17 
 
 Was it the deep fund of constancy of Bonaparte's 
 nature that repelled the unmanly thought ; or was it 
 the incoming of a sweet spring idyll into his life? 
 In those months spent at Valence he fell in love with 
 Mile. Colombier, the daughter of his hostess. At 
 St. Helena he said to Las Cases: "We could not 
 have behaved more innocently. We arranged little 
 meetings. I still remember one in the middle of 
 summer at daybreak. You will scarcely believe it; 
 but all our happiness consisted in eating cherries 
 together."^ We can picture the youth of seventeen, 
 with olive cheeks wan with study, feasting his eyes 
 on the face of the Provencal maiden, lit up by the all- 
 pervading glow of sunrise. I wonder that no artist 
 has depicted the scene. Doubtless those were among 
 the happiest moments of his life. How could he 
 think of suicide while this nymph of the cherry-trees 
 was near ? But she soon passed out of his life, which 
 she might have kept joyous and pure.' 
 
 We are apt to think of Napoleon as hard, stern, 
 inflexible; and undoubtedly he became so in later 
 years. It will be my aim in these lectures to try to 
 explain this transformation. For the present, notice 
 that in youth his being was rich in emotion; and, 
 had he developed on normal lines in an age happier 
 than that of the French Revolution, his nature might 
 have become finely balanced. Vigour in action 
 would have accompanied sensitiveness to higher 
 impressions; firm to control others, he would have 
 
 ^ Las Cases, "Memorial," i, 167 (27th to 31st August, 1815). 
 ' Later on she became lady in waiting to Napoleon's mother. 
 
 C 
 
i8 NAPOLEON 
 
 led them on to the brighter future which then 
 began to dawn. Nature seemed to fit him at nearly 
 all points for a career rich both in glory and bene- 
 ficence. He was of those who saw visions ; and poss- 
 ibly he might have brought them near to accomplish- 
 ment, if all had gone well. 
 
 But all did not go well, either with Corsica, or 
 with France, or with him. Disappointments fell thick 
 upon him after the proclamation of the French 
 Republic in September 1792. His career as Jacobin 
 will concern us in the next lecture. Therefore I 
 need only mention here the first mental shocks that 
 befel him. After battling hard for French democracy 
 in Corsica during nine months (September 1792-June 
 1793)1 he was obliged to flee from the island. Taking 
 refuge in Provence with his family, he was finally 
 treated no better by the Thermidorian party which 
 seized on power at Paris in July 1794. On a frivolous 
 charge they flung him into prison; and, not long after 
 his release, he was suddenly ordered to take an in- 
 fantry command in the Venddan campaign waged 
 against the royalist peasants. He refused to take up 
 this task ; and a sign of his mental unrest in the late 
 summer of 179S was his desire to go to Constantinople 
 to reorganize the artillery of the Sultan. By this 
 time, then, he is at heart a free-lance. At twenty-six 
 years of age he is that pathetic personage, a disillu- 
 sionized enthusiast. 
 
 Of the emotions formerly so rich in his nature, 
 there is only one which has not found full expression. 
 Love has not yet laid hold of him. Already he 
 
THE MAN 19 
 
 has sullied this side of his nature — so we may judge 
 from his own description of his first connection with 
 a courtesan in the Palais Royal, at Paris, in 1787. 
 The narrative is very life-like; and this characteristic 
 tells against the attempt that has been made to 
 explain it away as a mere exercise in composition, in 
 no way derogatory to " the principles of virtuous 
 conduct which he both taught and practised at this 
 period." Would a young man of virtuous conduct 
 choose such a theme in order to improve his style? 
 
 Another episode, of the year 1794, is far worse. 
 While in command of the artillery of the French 
 army operating in the Maritime Alps, a passing 
 passion for Mme. Thurreau, the wife of one of the 
 representatives on mission to that army, led him to 
 adopt the following device in order to please her. I 
 give the incident in his own words : " Taking her out 
 for a walk one day in the midst of our positions near 
 the Col di Tenda, the idea suddenly came to me 
 to give her a sight of a little engagement; and I 
 ordered the outposts to attack. We were victors, it 
 is true, but obviously it could lead to no result. The 
 attack was purely my fancy, and yet some men 
 remained stretched out on the ground. Therefore, 
 later on, every time that the memory of it has 
 occurred to me, I have strongly reproached myself 
 for it." ' 
 
 From sensuous habits he might have been saved by 
 a pure and enduring passion. Here Fortune failed 
 him. Not until his twenty-sixth year did he fall in 
 ' Las Cases, " Memorial," i, 202. 
 
20 NAPOLEON 
 
 love. His captor was Mme. de Beauharnais, a beauti- 
 ful Creole, more than six years his senior, whose in- 
 tellectual gifts by no means equalled her external 
 charms. Men of strongly marked character are often 
 captivated by their mental and physical opposites. 
 This was so with Bonaparte. Her languorous charms 
 called forth his ecstasies. During the Italian campaign 
 of 1796 his letters to her reveal the intensity of his 
 passion. These extracts must suffice: 
 
 Port Maurice, April 3 (1796). 
 
 . . . My unique Josephine, away from thee there is no 
 more joy: away from thee the world is a wilderness in which 
 I stand alone, and without experiencing the bliss of un- 
 burdening my soul. You have robbed me of more than my 
 soul; you are the one only thought of my life. When I am 
 weary of the worries of my profession, when I mistrust the 
 issue, when men disgust me, when I am ready to curse my 
 life, I put my hand on my heart where your portrait beats 
 in unison. I look at it, and love is for me complete happi- 
 ness; and everything laughs for joy, except the time during 
 which I find myself absent from my beloved. . . . Ah ! my 
 winsome wife, I know not what fate awaits me; but if it 
 keeps me much longer from you, it will be unbearable; my 
 strength will not last out. There was a time in which I 
 prided myself on my strength; and sometimes, when casting 
 my eyes on the ills which men might do me, on the fate 
 which destiny might have in store for me, I have gazed 
 steadfastly on the most incredible misfortunes without a 
 wrinkle on my brow or a vestige of surprise; but to-day the 
 thought that my Josephine might be ill; and above all, the 
 cruel, fatal thought that she might love me less, blights my 
 soul, stops my blood, makes me wretched and dejected, 
 
THE MAN 21 
 
 without even leaving me the courage of fury and despair. I 
 often used to say that men have no power over him who 
 dies without regrets; but to-day to die without your love, to 
 die in uncertainty of that, is the torment of hell; it is a life- 
 like and terrifying figure of absolute annihilation. I feel 
 passion strangling me. 
 
 Josephine, on the contrary, showed the shallowness 
 and frivolity of her nature by almost forgetting the 
 hero amidst the distractions of Paris. Her letters were 
 few and cold. At Tortona he writes, on 17th June 
 1796, in acute concern at her silence: " I have always 
 been fortunate ; never has my destiny resisted my will ; 
 and to-day I am hurt in what touches me in a unique 
 degree. Josephine, how can you remain so long with- 
 out writing to me? Your last laconic letter is dated 
 May 22. Moreover it is a distressing one for me; but 
 I always keep it in my pocket; your portrait and 
 letters are perpetually before my eyes." Again, at 
 Verona he writes (17th September 1796): " I write 
 very often and you seldom. You are naughty and un- 
 dutiful; very undutiful, as well as thoughtless. It is 
 disloyal to deceive a poor husband, an affectionate 
 lover." So, too, a month later, at Modena: "Your 
 letters are as cold as if you were fifty. We might 
 have been married fifteen years. One finds in them the 
 friendship and feelings of that winter of life. Fie! 
 Josephine! It is very naughty, very unkind, very un- 
 dutiful of you. What more can you do to make me 
 indeed an object of compassion? Love me no longer? 
 Eh; that is already accomplished! Hate me? Well, I 
 prefer that! Everything grows stale, except ill-will; 
 
22 NAPOLEON 
 
 but indifference, with its marble pulse, its rigid stare, 
 its monotonous demeanour! ... A thousand, thousand 
 very heartfelt kisses." 
 
 And yet, at St. Helena in his forty-eighth year, he 
 declared to Gourgaud : " At fifty one can no longer 
 love. Berthier was always in love ; but my heart is 
 bronzed over. I have never been thoroughly in love,ex- 
 cept perhaps with Josephine a little, and, again,because 
 I was twenty-seven years old when I knew her. I felt 
 much friendliness towards Marie Louise." ^ This utter- 
 ance is very remarkable. Mountain torrents foam and 
 boil in time of storm, drying up as quickly in drought; 
 but I doubt whether there is any other instance of a 
 man who hadJoved^asEonaparie once loved Josdphine, 
 afterwards denying that it was anything more_than 
 a passing incident of youth. True, his heart was 
 "bronzed" by war and failure. But the memory of 
 that bliss ought to have survived, despite the flighti- 
 ness and shallov/ness of Josephine. Was there not 
 something in Napoleon's nature, as in that of many 
 men of action, which encircled him in the present? 
 While he adores Josephine he is a different being 
 from the morbidly self-centred youth of the months 
 spent in Paris. In Italy, amidst the fond yearnings, of 
 unsated love, he is at the height of his mental powers. 
 The gradual clouding over of that vision darkens his 
 outlook on life. His tenderer feelings are blighted, 
 and when he hears of her_ misconduct during his ab- 
 sence in Egypt, his heart_ is seared, so that, twenty 
 years later, even before " the winter of life " has come, 
 ' Gourgaud, " Journal," ii, 8. 
 
THE MAN 23 
 
 he jioubts whether he. ever 4f new +he felt force-of -kive. 
 What a mental tragedy, comparable almost with the 
 political cataclysm ! Perhaps his failure to meet with 
 a worthy consort was partly accountable for that's 
 downfall. A woman, both loving and strong, would | 
 have guided^him aright at several crises in his career,! 
 toning down his anger, softening his. resentroents, andl 
 surrounding . hini witii. the invincible rampart of a| 
 nation's devotion. Josephine sometimes tried to effect _ 
 this; but sh^early,l^J:,,t}je,^jKei.J^^ she 
 
 ought to have wielded to the end. 
 
 F. yen in T taljr his — c onduct Avas-irregularr-smd-at- 
 St. HHffna hf adP'tt^ d having had seven mistresses. ' 
 Only in the case of the Polish Countess Walewska did 
 they inspire in him any real affection ; and the way 
 in which he afterwards talked about them was coarse 
 and brutal. At St. Helena his conversations were 
 sometimes of a low moral tone. He^declaredJnJkwou* — - 
 of prA-yr^nmy fir"-" ^""^"^--'nagff, adding to this the 
 
 natural- cQncl»siQ»r-that.woj] aan ou g h t to-be - sti bject 
 
 tQ-inaiL III the West women were treated too much as 
 equals: the eastern peoples put them in their right 
 position as inferiors.' On the whole there is much of 
 reason in the conclusion reached by Emerson and 
 John Codman Ropes, that Napoleon was not a gentle- 
 man.' 
 
 Pleas in extenuation may, however, be urged. 
 
 ^ Las Cases, "Memorial," iv, 137-139; Gourgaud, "Journal," 
 
 i, 81, 211; ii, 53, 305> 390- 
 » Emerson, "Representative Men (Napoleon)"; "Memorial 
 
 of J. C. Ropes," p. 18, 
 
24 NAPOLEON 
 
 Italians and Corsicans believed in the inferiority of 
 woman. The men smoked, grumbled, or plotted, 
 while the women figured as dolls or drudges, gener- 
 ally the latter. Boswell during his tour in Corsica was 
 amused to hear the men shout out " Le donne," " le 
 donne," to come and carry his baggage when he was 
 about to set out.^ In France it was not much better, 
 until the Revolution. Then, indeed, women began to 
 assert their rights; but their conduct displayed far 
 more vehemence than wisdom. Mme. de Stael, Mme. 
 Roland, Charlotte Corday, are interesting and pathetic 
 figures ; but their enthusiasm on the whole did more 
 harm than good. Women also made no effective pro- 
 test against the scandalous facilities for divorce which 
 crept in under the cloak of Liberty; and Napoleon, 
 incisively commenting on the conduct of their sex 
 during the Revolution, had some excuse for saying 
 that in the interests of order they had to be repressed 
 and put back in the old ruts. The history of the 
 feminist movement at that time needs to be studied ; 
 for its follies entailed a grievous set-back to the cause 
 of social progress.' Napoleon^ame to jhefront at the 
 time when women themselves had provoked a reaction 
 in favour of the^old Rornan_ ideas."~He""became "the 
 champion of that reaction ; and we can partly sym- 
 pathize with his incisive decjarationT" ""'Woingtr^lia ll 
 have no influence at niy Court. JThey may dislike me; 
 
 ' J. Boswell, "An Account of Corsica," p. 301. 
 
 ' See articles by Professor Aulard, in the "Revue bleue" 
 (i6th March 1898), and Lady Grant Duff, in the " Nineteenth 
 Century and After" (May 1912). 
 
THE MAN 25 
 
 but I on m y sid e shall have peace ar^d giiiftfness." 
 The most singular thing remains to be noted. This 
 high-handed treatment completely succeeded, except 
 in the case of a few feminine stalwarts ; and then, as 
 now, women often ranged themselves among his blind 
 devotees. 
 
 To resume, then, we find that the events of the 
 years 1793-9 blighted the hopes and aspirations of a 
 nature which was singularly full of promise. First 
 Corsica, then the French Revolution, then Josephine 
 disappointed him. Think what that implies. Native 
 land, political creed, wife, were not what they should 
 have been. In most men the disillusionment would 
 have dulled every feeling and paralysed action at its 
 source, the will. It enhances our sense of the majesty 
 of Napoleon'5. powers.-that^i)£vg)[it|igjess, he concgn- 
 trated them the more upon the.W4add..aW3Ui;y^, him,, and^, 
 became the greatest man of action since Julius Caesar. 
 And_ lhat is not all. Amidst the distractions of his f 
 
 manyj:sii3ed.-car££L.Ja£,J&gJJxedT^^Zafli.,£L^I ^ 
 sonSj^one of the kindest of brothers. / 
 
 He tr eated LetiziaBona^^'te' with great affection. 
 He calledher " a worthy woman." and at every rise iii 
 the e3jily.-paj.l--.Qf-bLs- ra.reer hq pent her money in ord er 
 to_mai_nt:ain_,he£_and the family in comfort. On be- 
 coming First Consul, he awarde3~to~lier the title 
 Madame Mere and bade her keep up becoming state. 
 Here they diifered. The "worthy woman" could never 
 bring herself to believe that the splendour of the Con- 
 sulate and Empire would be lasting. She did her best 
 to save money; and many were the tales of her 
 
26 NAPOLEON 
 
 parsimony in respect to candles and butter. To the 
 remonstrances of Napoleon Letizia would quaintly 
 reply: " If ever all of you fall on my hands again, you 
 will thank me for what I am now doing." The words 
 reveal a canny nature which Napoleon could not 
 understand. Nevertheless, she was right. Her old- 
 world thrift served to help the family long after his 
 death. Despite their differences respecting candles 
 and butter, she retained her hold over him. Whenever 
 he cheated at cards, she alone dared to remonstrate. 
 On such occasions she called out: " Napoleon, vous 
 vous trompez." ' It would be interesting to know 
 whether he revoked. 
 
 His behaviour towards his brothers and sisters is a 
 voluminous topic, varying with the moods and whims 
 of an essentially southern race. One thing is certain, 
 that dullness dwelt not in the Bonaparte household, 
 On the eight children nature had bestowed lively 
 imaginations, fervid longings for power, voluptuous 
 desires, and tart tongues. The sudden rise of such a 
 family from poverty to splendour owing to the genius 
 of the second brother supplies all the elements of 
 almost farcical comedy ; and the world has never ceased 
 to laugh or weep at their plots, their quarrels, their 
 amours, their treacheries. On the whole, Joseph, 
 Napoleon, and Louis come out the best from this 
 School for Scandal. If the powerful brother rated the 
 others harshly, they generally deserved it. They owed 
 everything to him ; yet, witJ i the pvrpp t jon o f Joseph 
 
 ^ S. Girardin, "Journal," ii, 327; Peyrusse, "Memorial," 
 p. 339- 
 
THE MAN 27 
 
 and- Louia^^thsy „Qf3teEu behaved most^aiaguate^illjj.^ 
 The youngest, .Caiolia!e.jiMJje£Qme^.iwa:e™ 
 tent responsible igj; the collapse of his power in_Jtolx 
 apd Germany; and the others, except Pauline, took 
 pleasure in thwarting his will at important crises. 
 Joseph was a kindly man, quite unequal to the posi- 
 tion to which he was raised at Madrid. I n-fkct^Xapolssn 
 sought to-jnake-aJJ-Jh is b r othe r s ca ^efr; -b »t th e y-res.. 
 mained ordinary fowl-, intent-on-strutting-and-CTQwing 
 before- tl^ir harems. His irritation at their incompet- 
 ence told fatally both on his domestic relations and 
 foreign policy. The family and the imperial ideals 
 constantly clashed; so that, adapting Macaulay's 
 dictum about Charles I, ^e may say that Napoleon 
 J would hay e bgeiLaJjettei^mkr i£b£j£S416:^a ^|^^^e" 
 '.bjpther.^In 1810 he exclaimed bitterly to Metternich: 
 " My relati ves have done me rn ^frr Viafm tVian T hav^.- 
 don e them good; and if I had to begin again, my 
 brothers and sisters should have nothing more than a 
 palace in Paris and a few million (francs) to spend in _ 
 idleness. The fine arts and charity should be their ' 
 domains, and not kingdoms, which some do not know 
 how to guide, while others compromise me by carry- 
 ing their imitation to the point of parody." ^ 
 
 To his sisters Napoleon also accorded most generous 
 treatment, which both Elisa and Caroline finally re- 
 compensed by the basest ingratitude and treachery. 
 
 ' Louis was far less ambitious and voluptuous. He ruled 
 Holland well. 
 
 ^ Metternich, "Mems.," i, 312. The last phrase refers to 
 Jerome at Cassel. 
 
28 NAPOLEON 
 
 Pauline behaved far better; she never worried him for 
 crowns or money. On one occasion she said: "I do 
 not care for crowns; if I had wished for one, I should 
 have had it; but I left that taste to my relatives.'" 
 Her goddess was Venus. Canova's statue of her in 
 the Borghese Villa at Rome recalls her sensuous 
 beauty. Nevertheless, she was a good sister, and, with 
 her mother, accompanied Napoleon to Elba. 
 
 We maycojicludejthen^that NajDoJ^eqn^conduct as 
 brother is highly-creditable; -No other -fetm-der- of a 
 dynasty has done so much for his relatives. As a rule, 
 new men huddle them away into comfortable or com- 
 fortless obscurity. Napoleon alone raised his mother, 
 brothers, sisters, and uncle to heights of splendour. 
 He, who gave a new lease of life to monarchy in a 
 time of decadence, also did much by his example to 
 strengthen the institution of the family when im- 
 paired by the license of the Jacobins. 
 
 The quarrels of the Bonapartes resulted from the 
 impetuosity of their natures. In Joseph and Pauline 
 alone was there a placid strain ; and what they lacked 
 in eagerness was fully made up to Napoleon and the 
 rest of them. Proneness to take sides is an Italian 
 characteristic. How else could the almost unintelligible 
 feuds of Guelfs and Ghibellines have for ages deluged 
 the Peninsula with blood ? The same peculiarity finds 
 expression in the career of an Italian, who fought 
 fourteen duels to make good his claim that Ariosto 
 was a finer poet than Tasso, and finally on his death- 
 bed confessed that he had never read a line of either 
 ' Metternich, " Mems.," i, 310, 
 
THE MAN 29 
 
 of them. It would not be surprising to find that he 
 was a connection of the Bonaparte family ; so keen 
 was their partisanship on all questions. Pelet, a 
 Councillor of State, who studied Napoleon closely, 
 noted impetuosity and trickery as prominent traits in 
 his character.! 
 
 I find far more, of impetU'O-sity- than trickery. True, j 
 there were many occasions- when hexesortedto false- J 
 heod^aad. deceptioiu. His policy towards the Spanish 
 dynasty in the spring of 1808 is an example of in- 
 sidious intrigue worthy of the Medici of Florence; 
 and the final cause of his fall in the spring of 
 1 8 14 was the interception of a letter dictated to 
 Caulaincourt, which proved his lack of sincerity during 
 the negotiations for peace then proceeding at Chitil- 
 lon.' Napoleon was not ashamed of such conduct. 
 He always meant to win at all costs, and on one 
 occasion said complacently, " I know when to ex- 
 change the lion-skin for that of the fox." ' 
 
 In the main, however, he decidedly preferred the 
 lion's part. The feline ease of his moves would 
 generally have captured the prey had he used less 
 energy and force ; but, as his enemies soon perceived, 
 impetuosity often dictated his actions; and these 
 qualities increased in proportion to the strength of 
 the opposition. Here was his weak point. His powers 
 were not held in check by moderation and common 
 sense. During his Egyptian expedition he talked 
 
 ' Pelet, "Napoleon in Council" (Eng. ed.), p. 17. 
 
 * A. Fournier, " Der Congress von Chdtillon," pp. 231, 232. 
 
 ' Pelet, p. 277. 
 
30 NAPOLEON 
 
 wildly about carrying his little force in Syria either 
 towards the Euphrates and India, or else towards 
 Constantinople, whence he would "take Europe in 
 the rear." So, too, during his intervention in Spain in 
 1808, which proved to be the beginning of the end, 
 he penned the following words : " I may find the 
 Pillars of Hercules in Spain, but I shall not find the 
 limits of my power. Ever since I have been in the 
 service I have seen nothing so cowardly as these 
 Spanish mobs and troops."^ This was written shortly 
 before the arrival of news of the surrender of 22,000 
 French troops to an approximately equal number of 
 Spaniards at Baylen — a fit retort to this senseless 
 boast. 
 
 I Yet this overweening and passionate temper was 
 generally held under the control of a firm will. Local 
 tradition at Boulogne has preserved an example of this. 
 In July 1804, during Napoleon's sojourn at that town 
 to prepare for the invasion of England, he chanced 
 to order a review of the flotilla on a morning when 
 the commander, Admiral Bruix, observed signs of a 
 coming gale. As responsible for the safety of the 
 flotilla in the roadstead, he reported that it would be 
 impossible to hold the review. Napoleon at once rode 
 to the admiral's quarters, his eyes blazing with pas- 
 sion at this unexpected disobedience. In vain did 
 Bruix assure him that a storm was brewing. The 
 Emperor replied, " The consequence is my affair, and 
 mine only. Obey at once." " Sire," came the reply, 
 " I will not obey." At once Napoleon stepped forward, 
 ' Lecestre, " Lettres inddites de Nap.," i, 226, 
 
THE MAN 31 
 
 and raised his riding-whip as if to strike Bruix. 
 Nothing daunted, the admiral laid his hand on his 
 sword, exclaiming, " Sire, beware." For some seconds 
 the men stood glaring at one another; then Napo- 
 leon flung down the whip and Bruix let go the sword- 
 handle. They parted. Magon, the second-in-com- 
 mand, gave the order for the review, which resulted 
 in the loss of some scores of men by drowning.' 
 
 Another case, in which the Emperor mastered his 
 temper more completely, occurred early in the Russian 
 campaign of 1812. In his anxiety to surprise the 
 Russian rearguard in Vilna, he ordered the famous 
 cavalry general, Montbrun, to push on with his corps 
 and seize the magazines. Etiquette required that the 
 order should come from Murat, Commander-in-Chief 
 of the cavalry. He, therefore, on seeing Montbrun's 
 advance, angrily bade him retire, and, despite Mont- 
 brun's explanation of the affair, persisted in this 
 punctilio, sent forward another cavalry corps, and 
 lost the prize at Wilna. Napoleon, rightly indignant 
 at Montbrun's retirement, vehemently reproached him 
 in presence of Murat. In vain did Montbrun glance 
 appealingly at Murat to exculpate him. Le beau 
 sabreur remained sheepishly silent. At last, unable to 
 endure Napoleon's reprimand, Montbrun drew his 
 sword and whirled it high in the air, and galloped 
 off, exclaiming, " You may go to the devil, all of you." 
 Napoleon remained speechless with rage; but, to the 
 surprise of his Staff, he turned his horse and rode 
 away, issuing no order for Montbrun's arrest. On the 
 ' F. Nicolay, " Napoleon at the Boulogne Camp," ch. ix. 
 
32 NAPOLEON 
 
 way back Murat explained the incident; and neither 
 
 Murat nor Montbrun incurred a further reprimand. 
 
 ' These two incidents reveal _the controlling gower 
 
 ;: of will over impetuous passion; and herein .lay, the 
 
 ;' terror of Napoleon's wrath, that in the highest trans- 
 
 I ports, it never escaped the grip ,Qf ..Jjuod- and._will. 
 
 I Men who for the time become wild beasts, like Paul I 
 
 1 of Russia, are less to be feared than, they who can at 
 
 'i need master the outbreak and , makg Jt subserve the 
 
 dictates of policy. During the famous scene with 
 
 Lord Whitworth at the Tuilleries on 13th March 
 
 1803, Napoleon never lost his self-possession. He did 
 
 not (as was reported) strike the British ambassador, 
 
 or even prepare to do so; he reserved the latter 
 
 form of argument for the ambassador of Portugal.' 
 
 Though he generally mastered his feelings, it was 
 
 .i only by an effort; for by nature he was' quick-tenT- 
 
 jNpered. Nervous energy appeared in his ter^^cpjm- 
 
 J r'meatg^the twitching of his muscles, the frown that 
 
 f, quickly clouded his„brQwJIOiLpI3",Eacin£jjg.and 
 
 I '^own the rpqrn while dictating letters, and, injhe 
 
 winter, his habit of standing before the,.fix£jaudJdck- 
 
 ■' ing the logs with his heel.^ But the rapid intuitions 
 
 ) of a calculating brain and the control of a sovereign 
 
 will endowed him with the strong quafitiercfiaracter- 
 
 istic of all dispositions. 
 
 In dwelling thus briefly on incidents that reveal 
 character, one is apt to exaggerate the salient points 
 
 ' Mr. Oscar Browning, " England and Napoleon," pp. 104, 1 16. 
 ^ " M^ms. de Gaudin, Due de Gaete," i, 331. 
 
THE MAN 33 
 
 and leave unnoticed the ordinary outlines. Let us, 
 then, remember that for the most part the bearing of 
 Napoleon was cheery and unaffected, pleasing yet 
 dignified. There was something in that short figure 
 which overawed the giants, Alexander of Russia and 
 Frederick William of Prussia. YetJnJJie4iresenGe-of / 
 those to wbem-4i&- gr a nted 4Hs-Aieadship. he,.fQr.JJie| 
 mojt_part, mainta,infid. an easy f^n;iiliarity, while his 
 suggestive and incisive .remarks opened up new jdstas 
 of_thought or lit up hackrieyed ihem£§,_ At Erfurt, in 
 1808, while the elegant dancing of the Czar Alex- 
 ander drew much attention, the chief centre of attrac- 
 tion was the dispute of the little Corsican with 
 Wieland on the merits and demerits of Tacitus. He 
 could transact complex affairs of State, and yet 
 devote mental energy to an interview with Goethe, 
 which charmed that monarch of the realms of thought. 
 Such a union of powers had not been seen in the 
 modern world; for Frederick the Great's patronage 
 of literature and the arts was stilted and artificial | 
 when compared with the living interest of Napoleon 
 in great themes. In t ruth his s upremacy rested largely 
 on his natur al powe rs a nd„on. thijange ' orEIs'ltugieg" 
 in youth, wWch Jus jmaryQUous .inaB£!«J.«iabled^m^ 
 to u tilize through a long career. 
 
 Here again he was well equipped for the struggle 
 of life. He .thought clearly, sorted his facts in th e 
 compartmente QiJakMsJS i-^qd had th e mental energ y 
 a nd tact which jjrought them out f or use at the right 
 moment. At St. Helena he said to Gourgaud: "In 
 part I owe the good measures that I adopted to my 
 
 D 
 
34 NAPOLEON 
 
 knowledge of Mathematics and my clear ideas on 
 
 everything. Myjnemory is^ingular. In youth I knew 
 
 the logarithms for more than thirty or forty numbers. 
 
 In Fmnc£-IJaiew-jiDt.o nly the names of the ..affieers 
 
 of all the reghnents, but the places where they were 
 
 recruited; I even knew Jhe spirit animatin^THemT" 
 
 *f his was no idle boast. On his return from Boulogne 
 
 to Paris in September 1805, he met a detachment of 
 
 troops wandering uncertain of the whereabouts of the 
 
 main body. He inquired the number of the regiment, 
 
 and, calculating by the date of its departure from the 
 
 coast, and the route he had prescribed, named the 
 
 place where it ought to be.^ Further, as will appeal 
 
 |- in Lecture III, if he did not kacwJSjhs^t he needed to 
 
 i know, he was not deterred, by silly nervousness or 
 
 ^ pompous, self-sufficiency from askings questions, 
 
 To all about him he communicated tke,Eassion for 
 
 thoroughness, which is the first condition of success. 
 
 Above all, there burnt in him the flame of genius. 
 
 • It defies analysis; it baffles description; but generals 
 { and troops felt the spell. Civilians who sought to 
 ; control the young warrior found themselves in the 
 i meshes of an all-controlling will — why, they knew not; 
 .; but one after another they succumbed. Animal mag- 
 
 * netism is perhaps a necessary concomitant to genius, 
 i which may be the effluence of exceptional and super- 
 ; abundant vitality. In any case, he who has it not 
 « will not go far in time of turmoil. He who has it will 
 
 control the ductile mass. The elder Pitt possessed 
 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," ii, 109. 
 " Lavalette, " Mdms.," ch. 24. 
 
THE MAN 35 
 
 :he resplendent charm, which flickered feebly in his 
 5on. Lafayette utterly lacked it, while to Mirabeau it 
 ivas vouchsafed in full measure. At times Danton's 
 being throbbed with masterful power, though from 
 insouciance he fell at the supreme crisis. We go far 
 to explain the fortunes of France when we duly assess 
 the magnetic influence of Mirabeau, Danton, Bona- 
 parte. 
 
 We have now surveyed some of the characteristics , 
 which enabled the great Corsican to charm, conquer, 
 and control. At all points he outstripped all com- j 
 petitors ; and, marvellous as were his exploits, he him- 1 
 self transcended them. It is said that one of the charms 
 of the oratory of the Earl of Chatham lay in the inde- 
 finable superiority of the man himself over his ora- 
 tions, even at the height of their power. So. too , we 
 may asser t that, able though Napoleon was in_the— 
 Cabinet and on thei}aMe.-fieid.,.Ite..Mtaa.fa x.m.Qre; t han ., 
 an a-'itHtft.dlplaiaaaiis± ^a-d.i.sr.Rrrij"p fy law giver^ a trium- 
 
 phant warrior, a. great JExapeia)i--ja£JUa-g£^^ of 
 all as man. 
 
LECTURE II 
 
 THE JACOBIN 
 
 " The person who really commands the army is your master, 
 the master of your Assembly, the master of your whole Republic' 
 — Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution. 
 
 IN the political realm revolutions bring about re- 
 sults not unlike those produced by earthquakes 
 in the physical sphere. The upheaval breaks up the 
 old order and jostles together individuals, classes, 
 and nations in the most surprising way, the outcome 
 finally being the initiation of nevif and potent energies, 
 though at the cost of great suffering in the present. 
 States are often the stronger for these trying ex- 
 periences. Even civil strifes sometimes set free great 
 and unsuspected powers, as appears in the records 
 of Greece and mediaeval Italy. England was never 
 so powerful as after the Civil War, in which she dis- 
 covered Cromwell; and France, as Pitt prophesied 
 in February 1790, speedily recovered from the time 
 of anarchy, and stood forth as the greatest of Euro- 
 pean Powers. One condition of recovery was that 
 she should find her Cromwell, and she found a greater 
 than he. 
 
 Here again it was the Revolution which brought 
 them together by a combination seemingly impossible. 
 But for that event Bonaparte would probably have 
 
 36 
 
THE JACOBIN 37 
 
 figured in history as a greater PaoH, the liberator of 
 Corsica from the French yoke. As to the sequel, 
 imagination may soar far and wide. Certainly Corsica 
 was too small a sphere for his energies ; and the task 
 of revolutionizing Italy, or of setting the East to 
 rights, would have appealed to his daring fancy and 
 ardent temperament. But it is scarcely possible to 
 picture him espousing the cause of France under the 
 ancien rdgime. Though educated at Brienne and Paris, 
 and trained for her army, he was a foreigner at heart 
 down to the year 1790. 
 
 His note-books supply proof of this. In a note, 
 written at Paris in November 1787, probably as pre- 
 face to a projected work on Corsica, he reminds his 
 countrymen that they are subjects of a great monarchy, 
 only the defects of which are felt by them ; and, he 
 adds, they will perhaps find a cure for these evils only 
 in the course of centuries.' It is almost certain that 
 he set about his early studies in the hope of liberat- 
 ing Corsica from France. As we saw in the last lecture, 
 his nature thrilled responsive to the sentiment of the 
 age. The hard, matter-of-fact side of his being, 
 which was ultimately to prevail amidst the turmoil of 
 life, had not as yet overshadowed the tenderer in- 
 stincts. He loved the country; and romance, music, 
 and poetry stirred him. He wrote exciting little tales 
 of adventure. H is prose seethed up in almost volcanic 
 fervour, boiling over with appeals to the heart, to 
 virtue, to all the virtues : " O Rousseau," he exclaims, 
 in the " Discours de Lyon" [1791], "why had it 
 ' F. Masson, "Napoleon inconnu," i, 184. 
 
38 NAPOLEON 
 
 to be that you should live only sixty years! In the 
 interests of virtue you ought to have been immortal ; 
 but, had you composed only ' le Devin du Village,' 
 this alone would be much for the happiness of those 
 like thee, and would deserve a statue, to be erected by 
 all who have sensibility." Several other passages 
 could be quoted, passages which at the time call the 
 blush of pride to the cheek of the composer, and a 
 flush of a very different feeling when they are quoted 
 against him ten years later. Assuredly Bonaparte is 
 more lovable because he once wore his heart on his 
 sleeve as became a disciple of Rousseau; and I 
 question whether, even during the heyday of the 
 Empire, he was happier than when, in his garret at 
 Valence or Auxonne, he was apostrophizing the 
 virtues with the fervour of a devotee. 
 
 But Rousseau, who called forth the " Sorrows of 
 Werther" was also the man who nerved the Jacobins 
 to their forceful schemes of social regeneration. 
 There is the curious anomaly of the man and of the 
 age. Under the silken glove was the grip of iron. 
 Roseate sentimentalism faded into the glare of the 
 Jacqueries; for those who went to the romances of 
 Rousseau to refresh their jaded feelings, often be- 
 came zealots of his political gospel. It was so with 
 Bonaparte : or, rather, he went to him as the champion 
 of the Swiss and the Corsicans. The potent influence 
 of the Genevese thinker is easy to explain. His 
 great work, the "Social Cuiitract," was the gospel of 
 the young democracy. It inspired Frenchmen with 
 faith in an age when religious faith had waned. He 
 
THE JACOBIN 39 
 
 declares the will of the people to be the only source 
 of law, treaties and rights acquired by conquest or 
 purchase (like that of France over Corsica) being 
 null and void by virtue of the primal compact whereby 
 a people becomes a people. Civilization, says Rous- 
 seau, corrupts men. Only in the natural instincts and 
 primitive rights will you find the healthy rules of 
 conduct for the individual and State. Back to the 
 Golden Age, he exclaims; and the cry inspires his 
 young admirer to many an outburst against the 
 degradation of the present, the grandeur of the heroic 
 past. 
 
 In his first controversial essay, of the year 1786, 
 Bonaparte champions Rousseau against a Genevese 
 pastor named Roustan, who had protested against 
 the attacks on Christianity contained in the " Social 
 Contract" (Book IV, Chapter VIII). Rousseau, 
 intent on proving the universal scope of the general 
 will of the people, had declared that Christianity 
 impaired its power. These are his words: "Jesus 
 came to establish on earth a spiritual religion, 
 which, separating the religious from the political 
 system, destroyed the unity of the State and caused 
 the intestine divisions which have never ceased to 
 agitate Christian nations." Here Bonaparte stoutly 
 defended Rousseau. He declared that Roman Catho- 
 licism broke up the unity of the State. " As to the 
 Roman religion {sic) there is convincing evidence to 
 prove that by it the unity of the State is broken." 
 The words are significant in view of his later efforts 
 to subject the Roman Catholic Church to his will, as 
 
40 NAPOLEON 
 
 representing " the general will." But, of course, the 
 greater part of his youthful thesis deals with the 
 arguments of Roustan in defence of the Reformed 
 Church. 
 
 Bonaparte does not argue much. He contents him- 
 self mainly with dogmatically repeating the dicta 
 of Rousseau. According to Bonaparte, Christians 
 are always thinking about the future life, and there- 
 fore care little for poverty and injustice in the present. 
 If the State tries to redress the balance, the Christian 
 will reply that the question is unimportant, since he 
 looks forward to the verdict of the Supreme Judge, 
 who will make good the inequalities of this fleeting 
 existence. This uncivic aloofness, says Bonaparte, 
 settles the question. The Christian is not of this 
 world; therefore he cannot be a citizen. He next 
 accuses Christianity of setting up a special body, 
 which divides the allegiance of the citizen, and may 
 even oppose the Government. True, Christianity tends 
 to make men happy; but so does the Government; 
 and the two processes may clash. Now, we must 
 admit that certain tendencies of the present age 
 justify his forecast; for the modern State seeks to 
 regulate domains of life which formerly pertained 
 solely to the Church. His prophecy is therefore very 
 remarkable. Nevertheless, the essay as a whole bears 
 so many signs of haste and rhapsodic zeal that it 
 need not be taken very seriously, especially the en- 
 deavour to overwhelm the Protestant pastor by the 
 assertion that Christianity destroys the unity of the 
 State because it has produced the Order of the Jesuits. 
 
THE JACOBIN 41 
 
 It would be interesting to find out how Bonaparte 
 framed his notions of these other-worldly Christians, 
 who meekly endured all manner of injustice here in 
 view of the Last Judgment; whose quiet obstinacy 
 somehow defeated the beneficient activities of the 
 Government from which they held so culpably aloof. 
 Apart from a few groups of white-robed, star-gazing 
 sectaries, these beings are not known to history, 
 which in the main has found Protestants to be made 
 of far other stuff. It is well to remember that this 
 essay belongs to Bonaparte's seventeenth year, the 
 time of his sojourn at Valence, which also produced 
 the monologue on suicide. Valence is not far from 
 the Cevennes Mountains, which bred Greathearts, not 
 unworldly dreamers. But the trend of the essay was 
 doubtless determined by the fact that Bonaparte had 
 hitherto read much of Rousseau, and little history to 
 balance it. 
 
 Nevertheless, this juvenile effort reveals one mental 
 trait which was destined to persist, namely, his resolve 
 to make the State the embodiment of the general will. 
 Thus, in theory, he is a Jacobin, a thorough Revolu- 
 tionist, three years before the beginning of the Revolu- 
 tion. During the course of that great event the 
 Jacobins came more and more to uphold the pro- 
 gramme of Rousseau. Belief in his theories hurried 
 France along in the quest for a social millennium. 
 War with neighbouring Powers infinitely complicated 
 the problem ; so that by the end of 1793 affairs tended 
 strongly towards the dictatorship which Rousseau 
 declared to be essential in the last resort for the safe- 
 
42 NAPOLEON 
 
 guard of popular liberty. Never has a philosopher 
 better befriended a great soldier. A magnetic at- 
 traction drew Rousseau towards Corsica, and Bona- 
 parte towards Rousseau. The French Revolution 
 completed the circuit; and hence that flash of cosmic 
 energy, the Napoleonic Empire. 
 
 It is in vain that we seek to discover Bonaparte's 
 opinion concerning the early events of the Revolu- 
 tion ; for no account survives. He was then in 
 garrison at Auxonne, a small fortress on the River 
 Sadne. It is an uninteresting little town; and he was 
 oppressed by ill health and poverty to such an extent 
 as to give up meat. Such is the rumour. The only 
 external events of his first sojourn at Auxonne (June 
 1788 — September 1789), are a narrow escape from 
 drowning in the river owing to cramp, and an ex- 
 pedition to a neighbouring town, Seurre, to repress 
 one of the many riots which took place on the news 
 of the capture of the Bastille. He acted with great 
 firmness, ordering his men to load, and then crying 
 out, "Let all honest people go home; I fire only on 
 the rabble {la canaille)!' Thus, he drew the line be- 
 tween liberty and license; his fraternity stopped short 
 of rowdies and plunderers. For them the bullet and 
 the bayonet were his argument; and it is probable 
 that, if all in authority had acted with the same de- 
 cision, France would not have sunk into anarchy. 
 
 At this critical time there is only one of his writings 
 which refers to the state of France. It is a careful and 
 detailed summary of the Report on French Finance 
 
THE JACOBIN 43 
 
 presented by Necker to the States-General on sth 
 May 1789. It showed an annual deficit of more than 
 56,000,000 francs, and of nearly triple that sum for 
 the previous year. The youth goes over all the sug- 
 gested economies, and notes that Corsica and some 
 outlying districts have no deputies. Three months 
 later, while in Corsica, he adds a note that a State 
 loan offered at Paris at 4I per cent, has been a com- 
 plete failure.^ We may conclude from these notes, and 
 from his anxiety to return to Corsica in August 1789, 
 that he saw in the difficulties of France the opportunity 
 of freeing his native land.' Bankruptcy at Paris would 
 bring freedom to Ajaccio. 
 
 It would be wearisome to attempt a recital of 
 Napoleon's efforts in Corsica during the long fur- 
 lough September 1789 — February 1791. The salient 
 points are as follows: Soon after his arrival he 
 seeks to found a democratic club at Ajaccio, and 
 even to form a National Guard. Both efforts are 
 crushed by the French Governor. Napoleon protests 
 against this high-handed action and journeys to 
 Bastia, the official capital, to make good his protest. 
 He prevails, and is able to reconstitute the Guard 
 at Ajaccio. His action thus far has been against the 
 royal Governor, rather than against France, where, 
 indeed, the King's authority has virtually lapsed. 
 The French National Assembly now alters the rela- 
 tions of Corsica to France : they have been that of the 
 conquered to the conqueror; they now become those 
 
 ' Masson, " Napoleon Inconnu," ii, 54-59- 
 
 ■' Chuquet, " La Jeunesse de Napoleon" (Brienne), p. 359. 
 
44 NAPOLEON 
 
 of fraternity. The Corsican exiles are allowed to 
 return, Paoli among them, and the island becomes a 
 Department, sharing in the privileges of the Depart- 
 mental System established early in the year 1790. 
 This is an unlooked-for boon. Only four years pre- 
 viously Napoleon had opined that centuries might 
 elapse before Corsica won her independence : now she 
 gained that boon in all but name. Is it surprising that 
 his being thrilled with joy and gratitude ; or that he 
 looked with disfavour on the English leanings of 
 Paoli? Long residence in England had given the old 
 man views very different from those now held by his 
 former admirer. Disagreement between two men so 
 energetic and masterful was inevitable. Boswell had 
 noted the proneness of Paoli to suspicion ; and now, 
 as an old man, long exiled by France, the robber of 
 his country's independence, he could not but look with 
 reserve on the ardent young Bonaparte, the founder of 
 a French club and of National Guards who flaunted 
 the tricolour cockade. Thus by degrees there began 
 an estrangement, the Bonapartes heading the French 
 or democratic party which had its chief strength 
 among the younger men in the towns. The interior 
 held to Paoli. 
 
 In February 1791 Napoleon returned to take up 
 his military duties at Auxonne. On his way up the 
 Rhone Valley he wrote to his uncle, Fesch, the future 
 Cardinal : 
 
 Serve, 8 February 1791.' 
 
 I am in the hut of a poor man, where I take pleasure in 
 
 ' Masson, "Napoldon Inconnu," ii, 195. 
 
THE JACOBIN 45 
 
 writing to you after long conversations with these brave 
 fellows. . . . Everywhere I have found the peasants very 
 firm in their opinions, especially in Dauphine; they are all 
 resolved to uphold the constitution or die. At Valence I 
 found the people resolute, the soldiers patriots and the 
 officers aristocrats. . . . What is called good society is three- 
 fourths aristocratic, that is, they cover themselves under the 
 mask of partisans of the English constitution. 
 
 The same tactics were employed by Paoli. To 
 Bonaparte this conduct was abhorrent ; and the 
 breach between him and the old hero became pro- 
 nounced when the latter poured cold water on his 
 fiery epistle to Count Buttafoco, and repelled his 
 request for further documents needful for a projected 
 history of Corsica with the cutting addition that 
 history ought not to be written in tender years.^ This 
 heartless reply blighted Bonaparte's Corsican aspira- 
 tions, and turned them more and more towards 
 France. 
 
 In these weeks of poverty spent at Auxonne he 
 worked hard at an essay in competition for a prize 
 ofTered by the Academy of Lyons, on the question, 
 "What Sentiments ought most to be inculcated to 
 men for their Happiness? " His thesis is very curious. 
 Religion does not figure at all prominently in his 
 reply, which is permeated by the crude materialism of 
 the school of Raynal. The young enthusiast declares 
 that man is born to be happy, nature having dowered 
 him with all the necessary faculties. On the physical 
 side the following are necessaries : food, a hut, clothing, 
 ' Masson, ii, 201. 
 
46 NAPOLEON 
 
 a wife. Turning to the mental side, he says we must 
 feel and reason ; and these two faculties are the attri- 
 bute of man. He thus sums up the question. " Ac- 
 cordingly, we must eat, sleep, beget children, feel, 
 and reason, in order to live our lives, therefore to be 
 happy." The life of the Spartans is his ideal ; for they 
 laid so much stress on strength and virtue. " Virtue 
 (he adds) consists in courage and force. Energy is 
 the life of the soul, the mainspring of the reason. 
 The excitements of the Spartan were those of the 
 strong man; and the strong man is good; only the 
 weak is wicked." 
 
 After this glorification of strength, worthy to rank 
 with that of Thrasymachus in the " Republic " of Plato, 
 the essayist faces the question of inequality, and asks 
 up to what point we may preach to men, and inspire 
 in them the hope of an equality of opportunity. He 
 pictures the case of a young and vigorous peasant, 
 marrying a wife, looking about him with disgust at 
 the superfluities of the idle rich, and going to the 
 priest for advice. " Man," replies the priest, " never 
 reflect about the order of society. God arranges every- 
 thing. Resign yourself to His providence. This Hfe is 
 only a journey, during which events are wrought by 
 a justice whose decrees we must not seek to fathom. 
 Believe, obey, never reason, and work. Those are 
 your duties." ' Bonaparte then turns with equal scorn 
 on the notary who decides these problems by musty 
 parchments. But his revolt against conventions stops 
 short of the institution of property. He does not 
 ' Masson, i, 293-296. 
 
THE JACOBIN 47 
 
 gird at the rich, but claims that at the other end of 
 the social scale shall be freeholders, artisans or small 
 tradesmen, able to live out their lives in comfort. In 
 this essay is seen Bonaparte's philosophy of life and 
 Napoleon's title to power. He made no war on the 
 rich, but was resolved to level up the poor to the 
 standard which ensured at least a modicum of enjoy- 
 ment. As to education, he lays stress on Geometry 
 and History. He calls History : " This basis of the 
 Moral Sciences, this torch of truth, this destroyer of 
 prejudices." — Mathematics and History will enable 
 the governors of the future ideal State to perfect 
 their Logic and guide peoples in the search for 
 truth.i 
 
 To the weeks following on the attempt of Louis XVI 
 to escape to the German frontier, we may assign an 
 interesting little fragment bearing on the question of 
 Republic or Monarchy. It deserves translating in 
 full: 
 
 For a long time my tastes have led me to take interest in 
 public affairs. If an unprejudiced publicist could entertain 
 doubts as to the preference which he ought to accord to re- 
 publicanism or monarchy, I think that to-day his doubts 
 ought to vanish. The Republicans are insulted, calumnied, 
 threatened, and then as sole reason it is urged that republi- 
 canism is impossible in France. In truth the monarchical 
 orators have done much for the fall of monarchy; for, after 
 having spent all their breath in vain analyses, they always 
 say that the republican Government is impossible because 
 it is impossible. I have read all the speeches of the mon- 
 
 ' Masson, i, 321. 
 
48 NAPOLEON 
 
 archical orators, and have seen in them great efforts to 
 sustain a bad cause. They wander off into assertions which 
 they do not prove. In truth, if I had had doubts, the read- 
 ing of their speeches would have dispelled them. Twenty- 
 five million people, say they, cannot exist as a Republic. 
 Without morals, no Republic. A great nation must have a 
 centre of union. That twenty-five million people cannot 
 exist as a Republic, is an impolitic saying. . . ." 
 
 There ends this fragment. It is all the more remark- 
 able because six years later, at the end of his Italian 
 campaign, he quoted with gusto the assertion which he 
 formerly derided. " What an idea," he said to Melzi 
 and Miot. " A Republic of 30,000,000 men, and with 
 our manners, our vices! How is it possible? That is 
 a fancy of which the French are at present full, but it 
 will pass away like all the others." ^ To explain this 
 entire change of opinion is my aim in this lecture. 
 
 Firstly, we notice that his democratic beliefs sprang 
 from a narrow experience and a partial study of life. 
 In Rousseau his clear-cut, ardent nature found that 
 mingling of opposites which for the time satisfied 
 his reason and fired his fancy. The symmetry and 
 dogmatism of the Genevese thinker appealed to the 
 Latin peoples in a way that Anglo-Saxons cannot un- 
 derstand. The Romance nations revelled in his senti- 
 mentalism; but they also delighted in a political 
 geometry which advanced from definitions to postu- 
 lates, from axioms to propositions, seemingly with the 
 triumphant certainty of Euclid ; so that when the con- 
 vert closed the book he could exclaim — " Q.E.F " For 
 
 ' " M^ms. de Miot de Melito," i, ch. vi. 
 
THE JACOBIN 49 
 
 it was no abstract proposition ; it was a problem of 
 political construction, which Rousseau so confidently 
 essayed ; and until the student looked away from that 
 symmetrical structure to the world of fact, the effect 
 was irresistible. 
 
 We must further remember that Rousseau wrote 
 the "Social Contract" with a Swiss canton, not France, 
 in view. He expressly stated that his pattern Re- 
 public could not be realized in a great country like 
 France ; and the French Jacobins committed an un- 
 pardonable crime alike against Rousseau and common 
 sense in their persistent effort to apply the principles 
 of his work to a great State and a social fabric founded 
 on Feudalism, unified by the monarchy, and extended 
 by war. Now, Bonaparte never was guilty of this 
 absurd blunder, so fatal to Robespierre, St. Just, and 
 the country which they dreamed of perfecting. In his 
 studies of Rousseau the young Corsican doubtless kept 
 in view his native island, the very land which the 
 theorist of Geneva had declared to be worthy of an 
 ideal constitution drawn up by himself Corsica herself, 
 however, rejected the democratic ideals of Rousseau. 
 Bonaparte during his last furlough in Corsica battled 
 bravely for the French cause; but the islanders clave 
 to Paoli as monarchist dictator; and the Bonaparte 
 family had to flee to France (June 1793). 
 
 In reality nothing was more favourable to his ulti- 
 mate advancement than this last furlough in Corsica. 
 I agree with M. Masson in thinking that he had 
 quitted Paris before the September massacres. Cer- 
 tainly he was absent at the time of the execution of 
 
 E 
 
so NAPOLEON 
 
 Louis and subsequent events. He also remained in 
 the South of France during the first part of the Reign 
 of Terror, and he therefore came to the front with 
 hands clean, while so many generals and Carnot him- 
 self, "the organizer of victory," were stained with 
 blood. The Corsican Caporale can have caught only 
 distant echoes of these outrages: but they must have 
 produced in him feelings of loathing such as all true 
 patriots felt. Civil strifes always dull civic sentiment; 
 and I question whether he afterwards felt absolute 
 confidence in French democracy. It is true that on 
 his arrival in Provence he sided with the Jacobins; 
 but the choice probably resulted from necessity quite 
 as much as conviction. For, firstly, he could not with- 
 out gross inconsistency oppose in Provence the cause 
 he had championed in Corsica; and secondly, the 
 Jacobins, now in power, were beginning to organize 
 the national defence with splendid energy. The 
 patriotic instinct, nay, the sense of self-preservation, 
 bade Frenchmen support any Government which bade 
 fair to expel the invaders. However irregular the 
 overthrow of the Girondins at Paris on 2nd June, the 
 triumphant Jacobins showed far greater capacity than 
 they. " Rally round the Republic, one and indivis- 
 ible " — such was the battle-cry. " No quarter to 
 Royalists, to Federalists, to those who impair the strik- 
 ing power of France." The cry appealed both to 
 advocates of Rousseau and believers in common sense. 
 To drive out the foreigners and crush malcontents 
 was the first and most obvious of duties. 
 
 This is the burden of Bonaparte's pamphlet, " Le 
 
THE JACOBIN 51 
 
 Souper de Beaucaire," which he wrote at or near that 
 town, probably early in August 1793. Possibly the 
 theme was suggested by an actual conversation with 
 royalist sympathisers whom he may have met there 
 or at Avignon. Under the thin disguise of " a Soldier," 
 he warns two royalist merchants of Marseilles, that 
 their cause is doomed to fail before the well-appointed 
 Jacobin force. The risings of Caen, Lyons,^ Bordeaux, 
 Grenoble and Avignon having collapsed, the men of 
 the seaboard must accept the new Jacobin Constitution. 
 Rich Marseilles must not jeopardize her existence for 
 what is now a dream. The Marseilles merchant con- 
 tests this and claims that all Provence will rise against 
 the Jacobins, who are detestable assassins ; Marseilles 
 is not like la Vendue, which wants a King ; she wants 
 a true Republic; she fights, not under th^ fleur-de-lys, 
 but under the tricolour. Bonaparte replies that Paoli 
 had hoisted the tricolour in Corsica, but only in order 
 to deceive the people. Facts soon showed him in his 
 true colours ; and, whatever pretexts are put forward 
 at Marseilles, that town will be fighting for Spain and 
 Austria if it resists the Republic. A citizen of Nlmes 
 and a manufacturer of Montpellier drive home the 
 same truth, that, whatever the Marseillais may call 
 themselves, they are in effect enemies of France. The 
 retort comes back that the Jacobins are guilty of 
 
 1 This must refer to some Republican success at Lyons : but 
 the city did not surrender until 9th October. Avignon sur- 
 rendered on 26th July, and Bonaparte entered Beaucaire on the 
 29th. Admiral Hood occupied Toulon on 28th August. These 
 facts fix the date of the pamphlet. 
 
52 NAPOLEON 
 
 assassination and other horrors, and Marseilles will 
 call in the Spanish fleet rather than admit them. At 
 this Bonaparte fires up. He warns the Marseillais that 
 such an act of treachery to the nation will brand their 
 city with infamy : within a week 60,000 patriots Will 
 fly at them if they are guilty of treason. Do they not 
 now see the extent of their error? Will they not throw 
 off the yoke of the small minority of traitors and 
 regain the town for the Republic — " You have been 
 misled," he exclaims, " it is no new thing for the 
 people to be led astray by a handful of conspirators 
 and intriguers. From all time the good nature and 
 ignorance of the multitude have been the cause of 
 most of the civil wars. . . . Marseilles will always be 
 the centre of Liberty, tearing only a leaf or two out of 
 the book of its history." 
 
 Such is the end of this interesting brochure. Its 
 tone is opportunist rather than Jacobinical. The in- 
 stinct in favour of national unity counts for more than 
 any political theory. Bonaparte admits that the Mar- 
 seillais may at heart be good republicans; but their 
 actions are those of bad patriots. His censures are 
 less bitter than those of the citizens of Nimes and 
 Montpellier. May we not see in this his aloofness from 
 these civil broils and a desire to end them, if possible, 
 by peaceable means? On the whole, the pamphlet is 
 a very creditable production. The dialogue is well 
 sustained ; and the conclusion is such as every friend 
 of France and of progress could endorse. 
 
 The incident has been skilfully visualized by a 
 French artist. Amidst the homely surroundings of an 
 
THE JACOBIN S3 
 
 inn at Beaucaire, lit up by a strong side-light, the 
 group eagerly discusses this great question. The four 
 civilians are seated at the supper-table and gaze fixedly 
 at the thin figure of the lieutenant, who stands erect, 
 almost defiant, at the end of the board. His thin, sallow 
 features are aglow with enthusiasm as he dilates on 
 the crime of resisting the Republic and helping its 
 enemies. The sleek merchants of Marseilles lean back 
 aghast as they foresee doom written plainly on their 
 efforts ; while the men of Nimes and Montpellier look 
 up with wonder and admiration at this indomitable 
 champion. The picture is a spirited embodiment of 
 Bonaparte's thoughts, which worthily interpreted the 
 instincts of self-preservation throbbing through the 
 French nation. 
 
 The forecast of the young officer was singularly 
 correct. The Jacobins of Marseilles, helped by the 
 army of Carteaux, soon restored the authority of the 
 Convention, thereby forestalling an Anglo-Spanish 
 occupation of the town. But on 28th August, at the 
 invitation of the Moderates and Royalists of Toulon, 
 Admiral Hood occupied that stronghold, thus setting 
 in motion events which served to bring Bonaparte to 
 the front. As is well known he was hastily summoned 
 to take command of the artillery of the Republicans.^ 
 After the re-capture of Toulon he took no part in the 
 fell work of guillotining. He left that to Fr^ron and 
 other creatures of the Convention. In a short time 
 (6th February 1794) he was named Brigadier-General, 
 
 ' See Colin, "L'Education militaire de NapoMon,"pp. 181-186; 
 Masson, ii, 478. 
 
54 NAPOLEON 
 
 commanding the artillery of the Army of Italy, whose 
 headquarters were at Nice. 
 
 His duties now brought him into contact with the 
 younger Robespierre, who, along with Saliceti, had 
 recommended that promotion. The two young men 
 saw much of each other, and Augustin Robespierre 
 thought highly of Bonaparte's abilities; for in his letter 
 of sth April 1794 to his brother, he names him among 
 other patriotic officers as a man of transcendent 
 merit. But he adds these curious words. " He is a 
 Corsican: he offers only the guarantee of a man of 
 that nation who has resisted the caresses of Paoli, and 
 whose estates have been ravaged by that traitor." An 
 undertone of suspicion may be heard under these 
 phrases. The Corsicans were noted intriguers; and 
 young Robespierre doubtless felt that he had little or 
 no hold over Bonaparte. Suspicion, however, pervaded 
 all the relations of life in that time of the Terror; and 
 it may be that the two were on friendly terms, so long 
 as their words and acts were those of good Jacobins. 
 As to Bonaparte's inmost sympathies at this time we 
 know very little. On hearing of the death of young 
 Robespierre he wrote: " I was somewhat affected by 
 his catastrophe ; for I was fond of him, and looked on 
 him as pure ; but, had he been my father, I would have 
 slain him had he aspired to tyranny." Robespierre's 
 sister, who saw Bonaparte at Nice, describes him as 
 not only a Republican, but a Montagnard, that is, a 
 convinced follower of her brother. She calls him " a 
 partisan of liberty in the widest sense, and of equality 
 in the truest sense." As is well known, Bonaparte, 
 
THE JACOBIN 55 
 
 during the Consulate, awarded to her a pension of 
 3,600 francs, a fact which proves his general sym- 
 pathy with the younger Robespierres. Whether he 
 was a thoroughly convinced follower of the dictator 
 is open to question. I believe that Bonaparte's good 
 sense would have revolted against the effort to crush 
 France into the mould of the " Social Contract " of 
 Rousseau. 
 
 Not long after the execution of the Robespierres at 
 Paris he fell into great danger. He was officially de- 
 nounced as a hypocritical intriguer, the contriver of 
 plans for the Robespierres, the betrayer of the plans 
 of campaign to the enemy, and guilty of acts of 
 treachery during a recent mission to the city of Genoa 
 These reckless charges could not be sustained even 
 in those mad days, when politics became the art of 
 guillotining your neighbours before they guillotined 
 you. The one thing needful was to be highly useful 
 to the State ; and this probably saved Bonaparte. The 
 Army of Italy badly needed his technical and topo- 
 graphical knowledge; and on these grounds alone the 
 Commission ordered his release, but without reinstat- 
 ing him in his rank of general (20th August). The 
 chief interest of this incident lies in the proof which 
 it reveals of Bonaparte's calm and serenity in presence 
 of imminent danger. While in prison at Fort Carrd 
 at Antibes (hard by the scene of his triumphant return 
 from Elba in 18 14) he wrote these words: " The feel- 
 ings of my conscience keep my spirit calm ; but those 
 of my heart are in turmoil, and I feel that, with a brain 
 cool, but a heart on fire, one cannot make up one's 
 
S6 NAPOLEON 
 
 mind to live long under suspicion." Also to his aide- 
 de-camp, Junot, he wrote: "Men may be unjust to 
 me, ray dear Junot, but it is enough to be innocent: 
 my conscience is the tribunal before which I arraign 
 my conduct. My conscience is calm when I question 
 it. Therefore do nothing about me; you would only 
 compromise me." This calm of conscious innocence 
 bespeaks a great man. At no time in his career does 
 Napoleon rise to a loftier moral height than during 
 those eleven days of imprisonment at Antibes. 
 
 His fortitude was to be still further tried. An ex- 
 pedition for the recovery of Corsica, in which he served 
 as general in command of the artillery, was a total 
 failure. It fell in with the British fleet, lost two vessels, 
 and the remainder with great difficulty succeeded in 
 reaching Toulon (March 1795). Shortly after his re- 
 turn to that seaport he received an order from the 
 Minister of War to betake himself to the Army of the 
 West as general of infantry. This was a serious re- 
 buff. While cherishing a hope to share in the forth- 
 coming invasion of Italy, he is to be sent off to hunt 
 the Chouans in the forests of la Vendue, a service which 
 he detested and in a capacity inferior to that of general 
 of artillery.^ In the hope of seeing this order changed 
 in one of the many political changes of the time, he at 
 once set out for Paris, taking with him Marmont, 
 Junot, and Louis Bonaparte. 
 
 Unfortunately, the chief account of him at that in- 
 teresting time of mental transition is that of Mme. 
 Junot. As a rule, the interest of French Memoirs rises 
 ' Colin, p. 328. 
 
THE JACOBIN 57 
 
 in proportion to their mendacity ; and certainly those 
 of the future Duchesse d' Abrantes are interesting. She, 
 however, brings Bonaparte to Paris nine months before 
 the actual time of arrival, which somewhat tells against 
 her account of his sharp features, his yellow and 
 emaciated cheeks, his slovenly appearance, enhanced 
 by ill-combed, ill-powdered hair, hanging down over 
 his gray overcoat; she also dwells on his lack of gloves 
 (a useless luxury he deemed them), and badly fitting 
 and ill-blackened boots. It is the external which 
 always attracts her notice. But there is one anecdote 
 which seems life-like. On her mother, Mme. Permon, 
 naming Saliceti to him, a smile passed rapidly over 
 his lips, and he said: "Ah! he wanted to ruin me; 
 but my star prevented him. However I must not 
 boast of my star; for who knows what may be my 
 fate?" Another story of Mme. Junot is that Bonaparte 
 came to their house at the close of that day of riot 
 and outrage, i Prairial (20th May), asking for hospit- 
 ality, as he had been unable to procure food while 
 wandering about the central districts; that he had 
 been in the Convention while the mob terrorized the 
 deputies of France, cutting off the head of F6raud, 
 who sought to protect the President, and holding it 
 up on a pike before him. In describing the scene 
 Bonaparte exclaimed : " Truly, if we continue thus to 
 sully our Revolution, it will be a disgrace to be a 
 Frenchman." Unfortunately for the story, Bonaparte 
 was at Chatillon about one hundred miles away from 
 Paris, at the time of these tragic occurrences.' But 
 ' Masson, " Nap. et sa Famille," i, 108. 
 
S8 NAPOLEON 
 
 he arrived at the capital seven or eight days after- 
 wards, and he may have spoken the words last cited ; 
 for they certainly express his contempt for mob rule. 
 
 In fact, all thinking men saw the urgent need of 
 repressing the disorderly elements of the populace. 
 Such a time comes in the course of every Revolution; 
 and happy is the State which finds a leader strong 
 enough to restore order and disinterested enough to 
 preserve liberty. 
 
 That good fortune was not the lot either of ancient 
 Rome or of modern Paris. The populace at Rome 
 cared little about political freedom if they had bread 
 and circus games; and Tiberius took care to give 
 them both, even after bad harvests.^ Napoleon also, 
 as ruler of France, always sought to " make work " in 
 time of depression, and expressed fear of the people 
 when embittered by privations. As for merely political 
 discontent, he held it cheap.^ Bonaparte's destiny 
 brought him to Paris at the time when the forces of 
 order triumphed. That city was gyrating in the vicious 
 circle which has more than once enclosed her. A great 
 pleasure resort is apt to beget both revolution and 
 reaction. The contrast between the ostentatious wealth 
 of the few and the poverty of the many breeds dis- 
 content more quickly than elsewhere; and if, as in 
 the year 1789, events lead to an explosion, the ruin 
 of the various trades dependent on the rich tends 
 sooner or later to promote a reaction. The events 
 of 1789-95, no less than those of 1848-9 and 1870-1 
 
 ' Tacitus, " Annals," bk. iv, ch. vi. 
 * Chaptal, "Souvenirs," pp. 287, 291. 
 
THE JACOBIN 59 
 
 bear witness to the strength of the opposing ten- 
 dencies which have operated at Paris in times of 
 strain. There, as also at Vienna in 1848-9, violent 
 outbreaks have been followed, almost automatically, 
 by reaction and repression. A pleasure-city exer- 
 cises a harmful unsettling influence on the Govern- 
 ment located in its midst. 
 
 Now, Bonaparte came to Paris when the star of 
 Liberty was paling before those of Mercury, Mars, 
 and Venus. He soon felt their charm. In July 1795 
 he describes in glowing terms the increase of diver- 
 sion and display. " Luxury, pleasure, and the arts 
 are reviving in a surprising manner. Libraries {sic), 
 courses on History, Chemistry, Botany, Astronomy, 
 come in succession. Everything is accumulated here 
 to distract and make life agreeable. One is withdrawn 
 from one's thoughts. And what means are there of 
 taking a dark view of this mental activity and this 
 social whirlpool? Women are everywhere, at the play, 
 at the theatre, on the promenade, in the library. In 
 the savant's study you meet with very pretty women. 
 ... A woman needs only six months of Paris to 
 know what is due to her and what is her empire." 
 
 Thus, Bonaparte is a devotee of Paris, the centre of 
 the arts and of social life, the city of thejeunesse dorh, 
 which has chased back the Jacobins to the outer slums. 
 As for politics, his chief desire is for a Government 
 strong enough to repress disorder, to keep a tight 
 hand on the Royalists, and to carry on the war to a 
 triumphant issue. This explains why, after the con- 
 clusion of the peace wich Spain, he draws up plans 
 
6o NAPOLEON 
 
 for transferring 30,000 troops from the Pyrenees to 
 the Maritime Alps to batter in the Austro-Sardinian 
 defence. Here is the secret motive which holds him 
 to Paris, outstaying the time of furlough before he 
 takes up his duties in la Vendue. For the time his 
 disobedience leads to degradation from the rank of 
 general. But fortune repairs his error, if error it be- 
 The rising of the malcontents of Paris on 1 3 Vend^- 
 miaire (5th October) gives him his chance; and he 
 sides with the French Convention in crushing a move- 
 ment, which, if not definitely royalist, would certainly 
 have become so. 
 
 There is a story to the effect that at first he doubted 
 whether to take the side of the Republican Govern- 
 ment or of the then malcontent majority. I do not 
 believe that he hesitated for one moment. His earlier 
 letters show that he hoped much from the new con- 
 stitution; he wanted, not a Jacobinical Government, 
 but a strong Government, prompt to seize the oppor- 
 tunity and overwhelm Austria in North Italy. It was 
 naught to him that the franchise was narrowed and 
 other reactionary changes came in. The new regime, 
 the Directory, promised to be vigorous; that was all 
 to him. 
 
 Thenceforth the conquest of Italyfilled his thoughts, 
 to the exclusion of the civic feelings once so strong. 
 In his proclamation at the beginning of the campaign 
 he addressed his men as soldiers, not as citizens, the 
 noble appellation hitherto always used ; and the in- 
 centive to action is the hope of glory and booty, not 
 of spreading the bounds of freedom. True, in the 
 
THE JACOBIN 6i 
 
 month of May, he informed the Italians that the 
 French were coming to break their chains ; but at the 
 same time he wrote to the Directory, " We will levy 
 20,000,000 francs in exactions from this country: it 
 is one of the richest in the world, but entirely ex- 
 hausted by five years of war." ' Of the Italians them- 
 selves he spoke in terms of utter contempt, even 
 for the volunteers who came forth to follow his 
 standards. At the end of the campaign occurred, the 
 betrayal of Venice, the pretext being the rising at 
 Verona, which resulted from the exactions of the 
 French troops. As is well known, by means of guile 
 Bonaparte secured the unopposed entry of the French 
 into Venice and the seizure of the fleet and arsenal. 
 On the 26th May 1797 he assured the new democratic 
 Municipality of Venice that he would do all in his 
 power to consolidate its liberties, and to place Italy 
 once more among the free and independent nations 
 of the world. But at the very same time he offered to 
 the Hapsburg Court the City of Venice and the 
 Eastern half of her possessions, excusing this conduct 
 by the following words to the French Directory: 
 " That populace, foolish, cowardly, in no wise fitted 
 for liberty, without land, without waters, should 
 naturally be left to those to whom we assign the 
 mainland {i.e. to the Austrians). We will take all their 
 ships, we will despoil the arsenal, take away all the 
 cannon, destroy the Bank, and keep Corfu and 
 Ancona for ourselves." 
 
 ' By the end of Frimaire, An VI (20th December 1797) he 
 levied 39,418,000 francs from Italy ("Nap. Corresp.," iii, 71). 
 
62 NAPOLEON 
 
 The words Ancona, Corfu are sign-posts pointing 
 to the East. There was to be his next great enter- 
 prise. We are apt to be dazzled by the brilliance of 
 his exploits. In conception and performance they 
 remind us of Alexander the Great and Coeur de Lion. 
 But the medal has a reverse. The seizure of Egypt 
 was an act of unprovoked aggression against a friendly 
 Power, Turkey. It therefore opened the cycle of wars 
 of conquest and aggrandizement. The principles of 
 the French Revolution, dulled in Italy, were forgotten 
 in the Levant; War there appeared in its most bar- 
 barous guise. Incidents, such as the emptying of 
 sackloads of heads of rebels in the great square at 
 Cairo, in order to cow the rebellious populace, and 
 the slaughter in^cold blood of 2,500 Turkish prisoners 
 on the seashore at Jaffa, brutalized the French troops 
 and their commander. The East has always exerted 
 a subtle influence on its invaders. In one of his noblest 
 quatrains, Matthew Arnold sang of her quiet in- 
 vincibility: 
 
 The East bowed low before the blast 
 
 In patient deep disdain; 
 
 She let the legions thunder past 
 
 And plunged in thought again.' 
 
 But the captured East has often prevailed over its 
 would-be captors. The decay of Athenian democracy 
 dates from the campaigns in Asia Minor. Rome 
 underwent a similar decadence largely from the like 
 cause; and French democracy, already compromised 
 in 1797-8 by the spoliation of Italy and Switzerland, 
 
 ' M, Arnold, " Obermann once more." 
 
THE JACOBIN 63 
 
 was to be hopelessly warped by the contest with the 
 semi-barbarous hordes of Egypt and Syria. A Re- 
 public which seeks to hold down Eastern fanatics 
 must, to some extent, use Eastern methods; and 
 generals, administrators, and soldiers employed in 
 that work imbibe crudely professional notions which 
 tell against citizenship. Twenty years earlier, contact 
 with the soldiers of Washington had helped to win 
 the French army for the Revolution; now the fights 
 with Mamelukes and Turks served to make its oiificers 
 the instruments of political reaction. 
 
 I have now sought to trace in outline the develop- 
 ment of Bonaparte's character from his eighteenth to 
 thirtieth year. The usual mistake is to regard that 
 character as fixed and solid. True, it became so in 
 later life; but his youthful nature was emotional, im- | 
 pressionable, almost fluid. Of the many indiscretions 
 to which such a being is prone, 1 believe there is only 
 one to which he did not succumb; he never wrote a 
 line of poetry. But he ran through nearly the whole ] 
 gamut of emotions of the Rousseau cult, probably 
 with the result of wearying his nerves before the strain 
 of the political game into which he plunged in 1790. 
 As we have seen, he then gave his heart to French 
 democracy, but, I believe, with the reservations pre- 
 scribed by insight and good sense. Failing to win 
 Corsica for that cause, he sought to serve it in France ; 
 but during the Reign pf Terror there is no proof that 
 he sympathized either with the more visionary of 
 Robespierre's aims or the sanguinary methods adopted 
 
64 NAPOLEON 
 
 to enforce them. At this time he sided with the Jaco- 
 bins, not as Terrorists, but as unflinching champions 
 of national unity. 
 
 Nevertheless, these horrible strifes left their mark 
 on him. As a Corsican, he was early inured to scenes 
 of blood. The wholesale guillotinings at Toulon and 
 elsewhere early in 1794 made him even more callous; 
 and to the spring of 1 794 belongs that reckless incident 
 at the Col di Tenda, described in the last lecture, when 
 he flung away the lives of a few soldiers so as to give his 
 mistress the sight of a skirmish. His unjust imprison- 
 ment which soon followed must have aroused disgust 
 of Parisian rule; and by the year 1795 he figures as 
 a man of pleasure, enamoured of Paris, less so of the 
 Republic, but ready to fight for any strong Govern- 
 ment which will put down the Royalists and push on 
 the war with vigour. For by the summer of 1795 the 
 vision of the conquest of Italy has enthralled him. 
 He realizes it to the full ; and then the East beckons 
 him. In the sphere of character the result is that in 
 1799 he comes back to the western world, not a 
 Cincinnatus, but a Caesar. 
 
 In August 1800, as First Consul, he paid a visit in 
 company with Girardin to Ermenonville, the last resid- 
 ence of Rousseau. On entering the death-chamber 
 he uttered these remarkable words : " He is a fool, 
 your Rousseau: it is he who has brought us to our 
 present condition." " Well ! " replied Girardin, " We 
 are not so badly off"." Napoleon said no more at the 
 time; but, as was his wont, he developed the thought 
 with even greater emphasis on visiting the tomb of 
 
THE JACOBIN 65 
 
 Rousseau in the Isle of Poplars, hard by. Gazing at 1 
 it, he said: "It would have been better for the repose I 
 of France that this man had never been born." — " Why \ 
 so, Citizen Consul?" asked Girardin. — "It is he who | 
 prepared the French Revolution." — " I should have ' 
 thought. Citizen Consul, that it was not for you to r 
 complain of the Revolution." — " Well," replied Napo- i 
 leon, " the future will discover whether it was not 
 better, for the repose of the world, that neither 
 Rousseau nor I had ever been born." — In those words, 
 which sound the death-knell of Jacobinism, we hear 
 the first clarion of advancing Imperialism. 
 
LECTURE III 
 
 THE WARRIOR 
 
 Les principes de C6sar ont 6t6 les mSmes que ceux d'Alex- 
 andre et d'Annibal ; tenir ses forces r^utiies, n'etre vulnerable 
 sur aucun point, se porter avec rapidity sur les points import- 
 ants, s'en rapporter aux moyens moraux, k la reputation de ses 
 armes, k la crainte qu'il inspirait, et aussi aux moyens politiques 
 pour maintenir dans la fid^litd ses allies. — Napoleon, Noies 
 sur VArt de Guerre. 
 
 THE term warrior may be taken to^ include the 
 more special words — ■figl^|ei:r.,ipg£irer aLarmies, 
 comman4er-jn-ch]^^jtrategist^a is 
 
 the widest of appellations ; and I apply it to Napo- 
 leon because his genius^Jox.jvar_3as .jJie^jaQgtJini- 
 versaLkMwn^Jo authentic 1^^^ For us heTs'the 
 
 real Wodin, the wP-Stp.rn-Ali'^vancter ■t.bf;,„r;rpa1-^ ttj^' 
 
 mod^^^^CagsaXt^ 
 
 The fighting instinct throbbed in his blood during 
 his tender years, witness that curious piece of self- 
 revelation imparted to Antommarchi at St. Helena. 
 When teased by his companions for his fondness of a 
 little girl, he would pick up sticks or stones, and pelt 
 or rush at his tormentors, without thinking of their 
 size or number. What is bred in the bone, comes out 
 through life; and this extraordinary hardiness and 
 pugnacity, inherited seemingly from the Pietra-Santa 
 family, distinguished him from first to last, from the 
 
 66 
 
THE WARRIOR 67 
 
 first charge at Montenotte to the onset of the Im- 
 perial Guard at Waterloo. In this combativ ejnstinct 
 lies th e secret of his power over the soldi ery. M ep" 
 will do anything ^ and go_anywhere_for_a_^^%^ing. 
 general, provided that he cares for their. interests and 
 'touches their i maginatio n. ' 
 
 Here again he was an ideal leader. To his generals 
 he for the most part turned the colder side of his 
 nature, exacting instant and unquestioning obedience, 
 giving them abundant opportunities to enrich them- 
 selves at the expense of the liberated peoples, and, 
 finally dowering them with immense domains. Some- , 
 times, however, he fired them with burning words, as ' 
 in the parting injunctions to General Lauriston, to 
 whom he entrusted the command of the troops on 
 Villeneuve's fleet designed for a landing in England : 
 " If you^xj^igBc%4^6vefS€ s,.aJ !way.s---JE£m^]aber--t-b€ge 
 three. ttogS:^^:JmiQn. of your-Jb rggs, ,ii£lijdt}£,,_and a ^ 
 firm i^soiye tQ.-die^ith glory . Tiies.e„ar e the thr ee 
 
 great prinaples, of thg,iaiiii3/XJlliJ^&ijd^ 
 Fortune_favour me^jn^all_ niy_o£erations. Death is 
 nothing; but to live vanquished and, witheut ..glory. is 
 tojdie every jday^' ' 
 
 His proclamations to the soldiers pulsate with 
 national pride. Never has a man of different race so 
 profoundly stirred great armies. Fr^m the.time of his 
 first appeal, in the spring of 1796, to march onward and 
 conquer Italy, to the last proclamation, five daysjae-. 
 fore Waterloo, urging every EreixchmaQ. to conqueror 
 die, he showed a supreme art in kindling the passion 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," x, 69. 
 
68 NAPOLEON 
 
 ' for^Ioixin-JJia_raiik_aa£LJle ; and when that flame 
 burns brightly in Celts they will do anything. .As. 
 Napoleon said, love of glory is^ with Frenchcien a 
 sixth sense. He set himself to develop it, often 
 treating his men with the old republican camaraderie. 
 In times of exceptional strain, as on the night before 
 J Jena, he encouraged the engineers and artillerymen 
 ■ by appearing at their side, watching their toil, and 
 ; speaj^ing the words that change men into Titans. Or 
 again, he would go over the battlefield, feeling the 
 pulse or the heart of the recumbent forms, and show- 
 ing genuine satisfaction when he discovered signs of 
 life that had not before been observed. Elspedall^i-be 
 loved to talk with his^ Old Guard, asking them how 
 long and where they. had. servje^^Qju^uiro'SiLaDEheir' 
 
 wounds, and so forth. Rp ityrag -ixMn nirl^nampH jJTgpn 
 
 les grognards, the very besj;. m^anSj_surely,^.o£Jseeging^ 
 grumbling.Mthin bounds. 
 
 What wonder that Wellington calculated the pre- 
 sence of Napoleoti'ori a battlefield t o Fe"wo) :th /\a£pri 
 troops, not only because his moves were skilful, his 
 i blows telling, but hecausgJiisjtrRry presen^^ f^ nerveH 
 [ the men to do their utmost^ and gave the gi qiip rpmp 
 ' confidence ijn the result. Thiebault relates that early 
 in 1797, when the French were about to invade 
 Austria through the Carnic Alps, the humblest pri- 
 vates spoke confidently of entering Vienna. They did 
 not trouble as to how it would come to pass. Enough 
 for them that Napoleon was at their head.^ This ex- 
 plains the marvels of the years 1796- 18 14. TEeywere 
 1 Thidbault, " Mdms.," i, 305 [Eng.'edit)f'' ~ 
 
THE WARRIOR 69 
 
 due. to. the influence of one who excelled both as a 
 stra.tsgis^ajactici|in, .gLj]|4„an inspirer of men. 
 
 In the year 1796 the opportunity was unique. The 
 First Coalition of the Powers against France was fast 
 crumbling to pieces. Tuscany, Prussia and Spain had 
 come to terms with France, and Spain was on the 
 point of making war on England. In four campaigns 
 the raw levies of the French Republic had hewn their 
 way to victory. " With bread and iron you can reach 
 China " — such was the cry of one of the early leaders. 
 Victory or the guillotine was the alternative before 
 the generals of the Republic ; and this drastic working 
 of the law of the survival of the fittest, thinning out 
 misfits who elsewhere would have gained promotion, 
 made the French forces a pre-Darwinian proof of the 
 strength of that salutary principle. Nearly all armies 
 have good stuff in them ; but in those of the monarch- 
 ist league it was kept under by customs of seniority 
 or Court favouritism; and only after long years of 
 failure did it come to the top. Ultimately the forces 
 of the Great Powers attained to nearly the same de- 
 gree of efficiency, thanks to the severe lessons taught 
 by France. But in all the campaigns up to 181 3 
 Napoleon displayed his superiority, uniting in his 
 own person the tactical skill of the Archduke Charles, 
 Wellington's power of sustaining a prolonged defens- 
 ive, and the eager pugnacity of BlUcher. 
 
 First among the essentials of a great leader are 
 clearness of insight and firii}iJS§.s„.of purpose. Bona- 
 parte early gave proof of these valuable gifts. At 
 Toulon in September 1793, he saw the importance of 
 
r 
 
 70 NAPOLEON 
 
 the English battery, called Fort Mulgrave, situated 
 on the height which commanded both the inner and 
 the outer harbours. True, the Commissioners of the 
 Convention had already determined to fire on the 
 British and Spanish fleets with red-hot balls ; and that 
 could be done effectively only from that point, the 
 importance of which both Royalists and Republicans 
 alike saw. Early in the defence, namely on 21st 
 September, the British and Spaniards seized that 
 commanding point and began to erect a battery; but, 
 owing to lack of skilled engineers, it was far too weak 
 to resist the continued bombardment and final assault. 
 Moreover, the garrison, in large part Spaniards, offered 
 no very firm resistance. Its capture, therefore, was a 
 task of little difficulty ; and it is clear that Bonaparte's 
 name remained unknown at the French War Office.' 
 The incident revealed his insight into a problem and 
 his persistent energy, nothing more. 
 
 On a far higher plane are his plans of July 1795 for 
 driving the Austrians from Italy. As will soon appear, 
 they traced out exactly the course of events in the 
 year 1796; and hardly less remarkable is the tenacity 
 of his resolve to carry out those designs. He outstays 
 his time of furlough in order to compass his aim ; he 
 risks expulsion from the French army in order that 
 he may become its most triumphant leader. He fears 
 not to " put his fortune to the touch," and at last For- 
 tune gives him all. 
 
 A sigri_nf^a^sbT>n£jiatiire is the resolvp t n master 
 every fact that,Ia. essential t o success. Where a weak 
 ' Colin, " L'Education militaire de Napoldon," p. 337. 
 
THE WARRIOR 71 
 
 or nervous man pretends t hat he knows, the strong j 
 andahisJDaajasKilEEiEi^iHIhatSeSfflKau Soon after 
 13 Vend6miaire, 1795, when Bonaparte was appointed 
 to a command in the Army of the Interior, he was ill 
 acquainted with infantry and cavalry, not to speak of 
 the myriad details of camp life. At once he began to| 
 ask the necessary questions. Thiebault graphically 
 describes the incident: 
 
 I can still see his little hat, surmounted by a chance 
 plume badly fastened on, his tricolour sash very carelessly 
 tied, his coat cut anyhow, and a sword, which, in truth, did 
 not seem the sort of weapon with which to make his fortune. 
 Flinging his hat on a large table in the middle of the room, 
 he went up to an old general named Krieg, a man with a 
 wonderful knowledge of detail and the author of a very good 
 soldiers' manual. He made him take a seat beside him at 
 the table, and began questioning him, pen in hand, about a 
 host of facts connected with the service and discipline. 
 Some of his questions showed such a complete ignorance 
 of some of the most ordinary things that several of my com- 
 rades smiled. I was myself struck by the number of his 
 questions, their order, and their rapidity, no less than by the 
 way in which the answers were caught up, and often found 
 to resolve other questions, which he deduced as conse- 
 quences from them. But what struck me still more was the 
 sight of a Commander-in-Chief perfectly indifferent about 
 showing his subordinates how completely ignorant he was 
 of various points of the business which the junior of them 
 was supposed to know perfecdy; and this raised him a 
 hundred cubits in my eyes.' 
 
 Anc*her-tH*lity-rieedluLJiM_the„vrarri^js_ger^^ 
 > Thiebault, " Mdms.," i, 267-8 (Eng. edit.). 
 
72 NAPOLEON 
 
 self-confidence, even after a great rey.erse. This 'Rongc, 
 parte displayed in EgjqjJ; after .Jid,son'sJxmmplL_at_ 
 the Battle of the Nile. To keep up the spirits of the 
 men he instituted races, concerts, and all kinds of dis- 
 tractions, besides stimulating the manufacture of gun- 
 powder and the many necessaries which the army now 
 had to supply in Egypt itself. What can be finer 
 than his words written to Kl^ber on 2ist August 1798: 
 — " If the English relieve this -sq.uadrQiLj5ji_an2ther, 
 and continue to Qverrun the Medkerranean, they wi ll 
 perhaps compel us to do greater things than we in- 
 tended."? . Equally remarkable are his letTers'to'Eear- 
 Admirals Villeneuve and Ganteaume, stating that the 
 British cannot keep up the blockade of Alexandria, 
 because they must convoy the French prizes to some 
 place of safety. During their absence, the Rear- 
 Admirals must rally all the French, Venetian and 
 Maltese vessels in the Mediterranean, thus forming a 
 naval force of eleven sail-of-the-line and five frigates 
 for the assistance of the army in its further operations. 
 In his view, then. Nelson's triumph was an inconveni- 
 ent, but only temporary check. Contrast this shrewd 
 discernment of Nelson's difficulties, this superb con- 
 fidence in the ultimate result, with the craven tone of 
 a letter of Tallien after witnessing the naval disaster. 
 " Placed on an eminence near the sea we witness this 
 terrible sight. ... If ever I have the good luck to land 
 once more on my native soil, nothing shall induce me 
 to quit it again. Of the 40,000 Frenchmen now in 
 Egypt there are not more than four who do not share 
 my feelings." Bonaparte, however, was one of the 
 
THE WARRIOR 73 
 
 four; and therefore the opinion of the mass was of 
 little consequence. 
 
 The personality of Napoleon never stood forth so 
 grandly as after a defeat. The most serious blow in 
 the middle part of his career was that dealt him 
 by the Archduke Charles at Aspern-Essling, north- 
 east of Vienna (2ist-22nd May 1809). True, the 
 Austrians were nearly double the strength of the 
 French, and the breaking of the bridges over the 
 Danube in Napoleon's rear seriously hampered his 
 operations; but it was difficult, even by all the arts 
 of bulletin-making, to represent that battle as any- 
 thing else than a terrible reverse. The gravity of 
 the situation weighed down his spirits, an additional 
 cause of dejection being the death of Marshal Lannes. 
 Assembling his generals, he asked their advice. Their 
 opinion in the main was for retreat; but this seems 
 to have awakened his combative instinct, and he re- 
 plied, in effect, that if they began to retire they would 
 have to shelter behind the Rhine; whereas if they 
 remained and threatened the enemy, it would hold 
 him to that spot and hinder a severe blow at their 
 communications. He would therefore occupy the 
 Lobau Island and Vienna, so as to resume the 
 offensive at the earliest possible time. 
 
 The ensuing six weeks rank among the most glori- 
 ous of his military career. He called up troops from 
 all quarters, even including North Tyrol, where Hofer 
 pressed the French hard; he spurred on to greater 
 exertions Eugene and the French army of Italy, now 
 invading Hungary; he defied the efforts of German 
 
74 NAPOLEON 
 
 patriotic bands, like those of Scliill and the Duke of 
 Brunswick-Gels; and he amused the Archduke 
 Charles with rumours of peace, while all the time he 
 prepared to deal a heavy blow across the Danube at 
 his almost unguarded left flank. The excessive 
 caution of the Archduke, the immobility of Prussia, 
 the delay of the British Government in striking a<t^ 
 Antwerp, stand in glaring contrast to the wonderful 
 resourcefulness of Napoleon, who, while held at bay rn 
 the heart of a hostile country, and threatened by a 
 rising of German patriots in his rear, triumphantly 
 crossed the Danube and drove his enemy from Wag- 
 ram. In that battle, it is true, he showed no excep- 
 tional skill. Wagram was a day of mere bludgeon 
 work; but the preparations for crossing the Danube, 
 and the superb and triumphant defiance to the threats 
 of half of the Continent, evince the loftiest and most 
 indomitable spirit. As he foresaw after Aspern, a bold 
 front would intimidate the Archduke Charles; and 
 the threat of crossing the Danube in force might be 
 expected to hinder the Austrians from striking at the 
 French communications. His forecast was justified. 
 Geniu.s paralysed talent. The Emperor retained the^ 
 initiative, even while acting on the defensive, and thus 
 succeeded in keeping open his communications with 
 France. The nervousness and comparative inactivity 
 of the Archduke at this time deprive him, in my 
 judgment, of all claim to be ranked among the world's 
 great commanders. 
 
 In a^ single^ lecture it is impossible to do more than 
 
THE WARRIOR 
 
 75 
 
 illustrate the outstanding features of ' 
 fare. They may. he^sumjnarizsiLasJsiioKS. : 
 
 In_Sj]aJ£gy: prompt '^dYanCf„i'l,,af grp^t foj-r^p "" 
 possible along the best line o^qperations ; or, in other 
 words, the adoption o£ a s trategic-offeng^g. irLlhe 
 swiftest and most effective manner. In tactks: con- 
 centration of masses against the enemy 's weak .point. 
 
 Strategy, tha t is, th e conduc t of war in its large out- 
 lines, and especially the choice of a line of op^ations, 
 deteririirijs "TKe^liole course o? iTlfampaign. It js 
 therefore more important than t^cticg,,. the, art of ar- 
 ranging and haridling troops on th e battlefi eld.' Many 
 commanders, for instance, Ney and Blucher, have 
 fought battles well on the ordinary lines, but have 
 lacked the imagination, the grip on the principles of 
 war, the topographical instinct, needed by the strate- 
 gist. His brain must, as it were, mirror the scene of 
 the campaign and the positions of his own and of the 
 enemy's forces, so far as he knows the latter., ..j^.' 
 N apn1pni^ , ,' ;aid; " A general!s_mirLd..must ,iB. respect 
 of lucidity, and iJ£anijeaaj:esF;mhle..;th£jj£iia.uaiLaJ£le» 
 scope and never create any mirage.'' Fux.the^j_the 
 commander needs to estimate at their true value the 
 
 obstacles in the way of either a rmy, seekigg_how he_ 
 may avo id, them and make thgni_gLdang^er to his op- 
 ponents. The fertility or otherwise of the country 
 along his line of advance, and the temper of the in- 
 habitants must also engage his attention ; and last, 
 but not least, the opportunities for forming and 
 
 ' See Jomini, " Prdcis de I'Art de Guerre," pp. 220-4, for sug- 
 gestive remarks on this. 
 
ye NAPOLEON 
 
 utilizing depots, or magazines, for the supply of his 
 army will be his constant care. It follows that a 
 faulty choice of a line of operations at the outset 
 vit iates the whole campaign. A piece or two may be 
 taken; but the opposing king will not be checkmated. 
 The most surprising, perhaps even the finest, ex- 
 ample of Napoleon's grasp of the principles of strategy 
 is his first campaign, that of 1796. The conclusion of 
 peace with Spain made it possible to open the cam- 
 paign in North Italy with the vigorous offensive at 
 which he always aimed. The discords between the 
 Austrians and Sardinians, their weariness of war, the 
 discontent of the Italians with Hapsburg rule, the 
 fertility of the North Italian plain, the difficulty of 
 maintaining a tame defensive on the war-swept Italian 
 Riviera, and the impossibility of Austria speedily 
 succouring her forces in Italy, all these considerations 
 entered into his decision. Holding that Riviera as 
 far east as Savona, he planned an invasion of Pied- 
 mont through the pass north of that town, because 
 there he could, as it were, strike off the point of the 
 capital letter V which represented the positions and 
 lines of communication of the Allies. The Sardinians 
 held the road leading north-west towards their capital, 
 Turin: the Austrians, that leading north-east down 
 the valley of the Bormida towards Milan and Mantua, 
 their sources of supply. In September 1794, at the 
 Battle of Dego, experience had shown that the Sar- 
 dinians would not move away eastwards across the 
 intervening hump of mountains to help their Allies 
 beaten in the valley of the Bormida. It was fairly 
 
78 NAPOLEON 
 
 certain that in a parallel case the Austrians would 
 be equally unchivalrous. Disunion, and therefore dis- 
 aster, must be the result ; and Bonaparte, mastering 
 the problem in some lodging at Paris, clearly foresaw 
 the surrender of Sardinia and the ruin of Austria in 
 her Italian domains. Nothing is more remarkable in 
 all his career than the foresight with which he dis- 
 cerned the advantages of the French invaders, the 
 disadvantages of the Austrian defenders, so soon as 
 the point of the allied wedge was struck off. Quite 
 correctly he saw that Austria could not stem the tide 
 of invasion save under the walls of Mantua. That 
 stronghold blockaded, the French could hew their 
 way through to Tyrol, provided that their comrades 
 in Swabia showed the same masterful energy. 
 
 This plan was not a mere brilliant improvisation. 
 In part, at least, it rested on a study of the movements 
 of the French marshal, de Maillebois, on the same 
 theatre of war in 1745 ; and he took with him Pezay's 
 account of that campaign. But he improved on his 
 original.^ For, starting from the Riviera, Maillebois 
 divided his forces, invading the basin of the Po in 
 two columns some seventy miles apart, and, far from 
 separating the Austro-Sardinian forces, caused them 
 to unite. The dispersion of the attacking columns 
 over so great an extent of country, especially moun- 
 tainous country, was a radical defect, which no tactical 
 successes could cure; and Maillebois effected little, 
 
 1 I cannot agree with Pierron's article in the " Journal des 
 Sciences militaires " (November 1888), and agree with the reply 
 to him in the month of March 1889. 
 
THE WARRIOR 79 
 
 even against a weak defensive. On tlie other hand, 
 Bonaparte acted on the maxim that " an army ought 
 to have but one line of operation which should be 
 carefully preserved, and abandoned only as the result 
 of weightier and overbearing considerations." By 
 massing his forces in the pass north of Savona and 
 promptly advancing, he defeated the Allies in detail, 
 drove them back along divergent lines of retreat, and 
 speedily compelled Sardinia to sue for peace. 
 
 This advantage enabled him to gain possession of 
 Coni and secure a shorter line of communication with 
 France, namely, that over the Col di Tenda, which 
 was free from the harassing attacks of Nelson's 
 cruisers. Thus, in sixteen days he crushed Sardinia, 
 rendered Britain's Sea Power almost useless in that 
 quarter, and left Austria no great stronghold but 
 Mantua for the defence of her Italian domains. It is 
 worth noting that the attainment of these brilliant 
 results depended on speed at the outset. If Bona- 
 parte had been a week later in meeting the Allies, 
 they could have united at the point of the V, that 
 is, in the pass above Savona ; and, with the advantages 
 both of number and position on their side, might well 
 have pushed him back into that narrow strip of coast, 
 where Nelson would have harassed his flank and cut 
 off supplies. Promptitude brought victory ; slackness 
 involved disaster. One of_Na poleon's Saxon admire rs, 
 ColoneL.yQa-Qd&leb€H-,-de9eribed his mili t Aiy -setenee 
 in these words :" For the executiaa_Q£-a_4ikiUKhich 
 
 he had conceiyecl jan an. .extensive-SGalej-a»d-whkiuhe 
 
 had carefully weighed, he chose with a firm and in- 
 
8o NAPOLEON 
 
 flexible will the means_ which should coiiducLiJm in 
 the quickest and most vigorous manner to^jitg^aim."^ 
 There is no example better than this first campaign. 
 At Sf. Helena he commented on the fact that Caesar 
 was at his best even in his first recorded battle; and 
 the same may be said of Napoleon. 
 
 Of the strategic combinations of his middle years 
 that which led to the Austrian disaster at Ulm is the 
 most striking. The problem confronting him was as 
 follows. In the early days of August 1805 he still 
 contemplated the possibility of invading England 
 with the splendid army concentrated near Boulogne; 
 but, finding his naval schemes miscarry, he defined 
 more clearly an alternative plan, which must for some 
 little time have been in his thoughts.^ Austria and 
 Russia, angered by his annexation of Genoa, were 
 entering the field as allies of Great Britain. A large 
 Austrian army, under the Archduke Ferdinand and 
 General Mack, crossed the River Inn on 8th Sept- 
 ember and invaded Bavaria, hoping to surprise the 
 Bavarians, now the avowed friends of France. Failing 
 in this. Mack occupied Ulm on the Upper Danube, 
 and Memmingen further south, on the River liler 
 (23rd September). There he awaited the arrival of 
 55,000 Russians, who were not due to arrive at the 
 River Inn, some 140 English miles further east, until 
 20th October. In point of fact, the Archduke Charles, 
 who drew up the plan of campaign, designed to strike 
 the chief blows in Italy, Ferdinand and Mack re- 
 
 ^ Von Odeleben, " Campaign in Saxony" (Eng. edit.), p. 41. 
 ^ Rose, "Pitt and Napoleon: Essays and Letters," pp. 142-4. 
 
82 NAPOLEON 
 
 maining on the defensive in Swabia until the Rus- 
 sians came up. Evidently Charles counted on the 
 continued quiescence of the French at Boulogne; and 
 up to nearly the end of August his hopes seemed 
 justified. But clearly the position was one of peril 
 if Napoleon should resolve to strike a blow at the 
 Austrians on the Upper Danube; and no campaign 
 shows more clearly the danger of framing a faulty 
 plan of operations, and mistaking wishes for facts. In 
 warfare, as in all spheres of action, imagination is a j 
 useful servant, but ,it, must alwavs~5e held in_strb^ 
 ordination to reason ;. .and--r.ea&QjQ_ghould_ever be at 
 work on all the facts available. 
 
 In those days, of course, the acquisition of news 
 was slow and difficult. Even the semaphore telegraph 
 worked slowly; but Napoleon had the advantage of 
 it both at Boulogne and Paris, while the Austrians in 
 hostile Bavaria were without good means of getting 
 news. Even so, if Ferdinand and Mack had scouted 
 vigorously in all directions and kept their minds 
 free from the dominating assumption just named, 
 they would have escaped disaster. 
 
 HereinJayJtheJjiference between them and Napo- 
 leon ,_ In 1 805, as in_all his best ca mpaignsTtEF Elm- 
 peror kept hisrnjnd open to^everyjragment^fevid- 
 ence. He had before him ^rae j^eneral conception, 
 that of beating the- Aust-ria«s before --J^e'^Sysiians 
 . came up. But the assertion that, even at Boulogne, 
 he resolved on all the stages of the grand march from 
 that seaport to Ulm, where Mack was to be swallowed 
 up, is sheer nonsense. The report was widely circu- 
 
THE WARRIOR 83 
 
 lated by indiscreet devotees, and deceived Thiers,' 
 but Napoleon's Correspondence shows that not until 
 1 3th September, that is, fourteen days after breaking 
 up his camp at Boulogne, did he know for certain 
 whether the Austrians had crossed the River Inn. 
 Only after receipt of advices from all his corps leaders 
 — and they were urged to send them twice or thrice 
 a day in critical times — did he call for maps, and, 
 lying down, measure distances with compasses, insert 
 pins, and then deduce new calculations. Thus his 
 plans developed only in proportion as he knew the 
 circumstances of the case. At this period his master- 
 ful will worked within the ever-widening circle of 
 ascertainable fact. *'' 
 
 Up to i6th or 17th September his chief aim was to 
 hurry on all his corps into Swabia in order to rescue 
 the South German forces from the grip of Austria. 
 On the 17th he ordered the corps of Ney and Lannes 
 to march by lengthy stages, arriving at Ulm on 9th 
 October; for he did not as yet know that Mack was 
 nearing that very city. News to that effect did not 
 reach him at St. Cloud until 20th September; but at 
 
 ' Thiers says that, turning from the ocean to the Continent, 
 " he dictated during several hours, with extraordinary coolness 
 and precision the plan ... of the immortal campaign of 1805." 
 Dupin ("Voyages dans la Grande Bretagne," vol. i, p. 244) says 
 that Napoleon, while still in a violent rage, "unhesitatingly, 
 without a pause, dictated the whole of the campaign of Auster- 
 litz," foreseeing everything, so that the plan was followed exactly 
 as far as Munich; and even beyond "the time alone under- 
 went some alteration." Mfeeval (" M^ms.," i, 408) distrusted 
 the story. 
 
84 NAPOLEON 
 
 once he issued revised orders, which clearly had in 
 view a great turning movement. Two or three days 
 later, in a hasty note, he outlined the stages by which 
 his six corps were by 17th October to occupy Ratis- 
 bon, Dietfurt, Ingolstadt, and Neuburg. This was 
 merely a general sketch, based on the assumption 
 that Mack would retreat; but when he found him to 
 be lingering at Ulm, he proceeded to draw in his nets 
 more closely, and on the 27th expressed to Berna- 
 dotte the hope that the turning movements entrusted 
 to him and Marmont would lead to Mack's de- 
 struction. 
 
 This confidence was not excessive; for he knew 
 Mack to be a vain and over-confident commander, 
 who with insufficient forces had plunged deep into 
 hostile territory and was now out of reach of help 
 from the Russians. The river valleys favoured the 
 movements of the French and brought them easily 
 to the enemy's rear. Finally the French army num- 
 bered 187,000 men, and, when joined by 28,000 South 
 Germans, was nearly three times the strength of the 
 Austrians. Having this enormous superiority of force, 
 he could venture on the final enveloping moves, 
 sending round his men in masses behind a moving 
 screen of cavalry. In no campaign have horsemen 
 done more efficient work ; and it is worth noting that 
 this was the first of Napoleon's campaigns in which 
 he made the best possible use of cavalry. An artil- 
 leryman in 1793, he mastered infantry tactics in Italy, 
 and now in Swabia showed the like ability with 
 cavalry, Murat being a brilliant executant. Perplex- 
 
THE WARRIOR 
 
 85 
 
 ing the enemy in front, flank, and rear, the French 
 horse left Mack in doubt where the chief blow would 
 fall; and to them the final triumph may in large 
 measure be ascribed. 
 
 Up to loth October it was possible that Mack 
 would draw off southwards from Ulm to Memmingen 
 and thence escape to Tyrol by the valley of the I Her. 
 That was by far the safest course; but Mack knew 
 so little of the French movements that he attempted 
 to break away down the Danube to the north-east. 
 He gained a small success, but Napoleon hurried up 
 Ney's corps, which by a daring and successful attack 
 on Elchingen completed the ring now closing in on 
 the doomed army. On the same day (14th October) 
 Soult captured Memmingen; and all the French, ex- 
 cept those told off to oppose the Russians, advanced 
 on Ulm, thereby compelling nearly the whole of 
 Mack's army to surrender (17th to 20th October). 
 With comparatively small losses Napoleon engulfed 
 an army of some 70,000 men. 
 
 This ristqni°^''"g— g^g"J^-™aq due fn the incisivf: , 
 
 of his enemies, and to Mack's inability to weigh 
 evidence. Only on .jJus.,j3j;;xaaiaa.jdid_ihe_Em£eror ^^ 
 attempt -thfi... widely -.aivdQfaJQg-JIlQxe&-sa_cdJt^^ 
 tempted by tMA\iSixia.Xis.in-i?g6; and now, only 
 because he rightly judged Mack to be a man on whom 
 he could safely perform this otherwise risky experi- 
 ment. The di^paxiiii-oLJQisss, the- lie .a3£.-.th£Jaad , 
 
 character., of the Austrian commander, and the mag- 
 
86 NAPOLEON 
 
 nitude of the. Blize within reach, .]usti6e4-tii4«-dajdng_ 
 strategy, which ranks as th,e. mosi hxii^'^^rit a nr) ^n'- ' 
 umphant effort of NaggTeon's genius. 
 
 Not" t he - l e abf 'fgfia'arkable proof ot fiis~confidence 
 in the final result is found in the bulletin, issued at 
 Noerdlingen on 7th October, ten days before the 
 triumphant finale. In it he pointed out to his troops 
 that by their grand turning movement they had 
 avoided the barrier of the Black Forest, and all pos- 
 sible attacks from the side of Tyrol, and were now in 
 the rear of the enemy, who had no time to lose if he 
 was to escape utter ruin. If the date of this bulletin 
 be correct, it supplies a curious proof of Napoleon's 
 desire to inspire his men to the highest degree of 
 hardihood. The troops had to endure long marches, 
 often amidst heavy rains, and with entire uncertainty 
 as to food at the end of the day. In reply to Mar- 
 mont's complaints on this last score Berthier made 
 these significant remarks : " In all his letters General 
 Marmont is always referring to the commissariat. I 
 repeat that in the war of invasion and of rapid move- 
 ment which the Emperor is waging there can be no 
 depots; and the commanding generals have them- 
 selves to see to it that they procure the necessary 
 supplies from the countries which they traverse." 
 Herein lay one cause of Napoleon's triumph at Ulm. 
 On urgent occasions he neglected the salutary and 
 almost essential rule of providing depots of stores, 
 and compelled his men to live from hand to mouth. 
 Of course this involved a terrible strain on the troops, 
 and led to marauding habits which ultimately turned 
 
THE WARRIOR 87 
 
 the peoples of Europe against Napoleon. But, for the 
 present, the speed which he gained during the critical 
 days of October 1805 assured the ruin of Austria and 
 of the Third Coalition. 
 
 As an example of tactical successes due to a masterly 
 strategic conception. Napoleon's movements on the 
 upper Danube, near Ratisbon, deserve careful study. 
 He himself was very proud of this episode in his 
 career, referring to the Battle of Eckmiihl (22nd April 
 1809) as the finest of his efforts. This is somewhat 
 curious; for it was an exceedingly confused conflict; 
 the number of the enemy actually engaged did not 
 equal that of the French ; while the material results 
 were by no means great. Probably Napoleon singled 
 it out as the most prominent incident in the five days 
 of fighting (i9th-23rd April), and intended to refer 
 to them as a whole. Indeed, they illustrate in a strik- 
 ing way a problem which he declared to be one of the 
 most difficult of the warrior's art, the passing from 
 the defensive to the offensive. Equally noteworthy 
 are they as revealing the close connection between 
 strategy and tactics in the conception of one who was 
 a master of both. Finally they show the supreme im- 
 portance of securing the initiative early in a campaign 
 and of keeping it, thereby compelling the enemy to 
 fight where and how you will, not as he wills. 
 
 At the beginning of the campaign of 1809, the 
 Austrians, as in 1805, invaded the territory of Napo- 
 leon's ally, Bavaria, somewhat earlier than he ex- 
 pected. They therefore gained initial advantages, at 
 
88 NAPOLEON 
 
 and near Ratisbon, which might have been far greater 
 had the Archduke Charles made use of the shorter 
 line of advance, that from the mountains of Bohemia. 
 Owing to a lack of determination that blighted an 
 otherwise brilliant career, Charles finally advanced by 
 the longer route south of the Danube and thus failed 
 to gain a decisive success over the widely scattered 
 forces of the French. At that time, early in April, 
 Berthier, commanding in the temporary absence of the 
 Emperor, proved himself unequal to the emergency. 
 Misunderstanding the instructions from Paris, and 
 confused by the Austrian onset, he left the French 
 corps so far isolated as to court disaster. It is, indeed, 
 most curious that, after being at Napoleon's right hand 
 since 1796, he should not have mastered the art of 
 concentrating an army at the most important point, 
 or along the line most suited for advance. Jomini 
 passes judgement that "in his twenty campaigns he 
 (Berthier) had failed to grasp the very first principles 
 of strategy." These vacillations and mistakes prob- 
 ably resulted from loss of nerve. Berthier's aide-de- 
 camp, Lejeune, describes him as trembling and bend- 
 ing under the weight of responsibility, and during 
 four days and nights riding to and fro along the tri- 
 angle, Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Donauworth. He might 
 well tremble. He had ordered Davout with the 
 strongest corps to hold Ratisbon, though a large part 
 of the French army was left scattered about Augs- 
 burg nearly eighty miles away, and while the Arch- 
 duke with 90,000 men was marching on Landshut, 
 a town on the River Isar, north-east of Munich. Thus, 
 
THE WARRIOR 89 
 
 Berthier had left an immense gap between Davout 
 and the French corps disseminated over and beyond 
 the large triangular space named above. Charles, by 
 persevering with his western forward movement, could 
 easily thrust a wedge into the gap, and, turning on the 
 enemy's corps, beat them in detail. 
 
 Such was the position on 17th April when Napoleon, 
 hurrying to the front, arrived at Donauworth. He at 
 once saw the urgency of the crisis and took steps to 
 call together his scattered troops, ordering Davout to 
 fall back at once towards Ingolstadt, and the other 
 French corps to advance with the utmost possible 
 speed, so as to form a united body near that town and 
 along the little River Ilm south of it. Again the 
 quickness of the French and the slowness of the 
 enemy soon altered the situation. In the middle of 
 April the Archduke Charles, could he have known it, 
 had the game in his hands ; but he lost his opportunity. 
 Napoleon, hurrying up Mass6na from the south-west 
 with that immortal message: Activity, activity, vitesseje 
 me recommande d vous — was able to attack with every 
 advantage of position on his side. For meanwhile the 
 Archduke Charles had decided to diverge northwards 
 from Landshut in order to seize Ratisbon, a move 
 which assured his connections with Bohemia and 
 secured the support of two corps marching from that 
 quarter. For these reasons the plan had much to 
 commend it, especially if he could catch Davout; but 
 it had the disadvantage of losing him the initiative on 
 his front and of exposing his flank to Napoleon. On 
 hearing this glad news, the Emperor drew himself up, 
 
90 NAPOLEON 
 
 and with flashing eye exclaimed: " Then I have them. 
 Their army is lost. We shall be at Vienna in a 
 month." ' 
 
 Napoleon now promptly seized the initiative which 
 is of decisive importance in war. Meanwhile the 
 Austrians, spread out on an outer arc, were executing 
 that perilous movement, a flank march in front of an 
 unbeaten and rapidly concentrating enemy. If the 
 Archduke had postponed that operation until he had 
 beaten the enemy's corps to the west, he might have 
 attained his end with little risk. As it was, he lost all 
 his earlier advantages of position, which Napoleon 
 promptly secured. Even on 20th April the French 
 and their Allies were inferior to the enemy by about 
 110,000 to 140,000; but their concentration and the 
 dissemination of the Austrians virtually decided the 
 campaign. Moving on interior and therefore shorter 
 lines (as in 18 14 in the series of battles begun at 
 Montmirail) the Emperor overpowered the enemy in 
 detail ; and only by the speedy capture of Ratisbon 
 from its small garrison did Charles save himself from 
 destruction. 
 
 AdmirationnLE_NapQleQ.n-s skill n eed not be mu ch 
 lessened by a percegtion of the mistakes of the Arch- 
 duke _CharJesjjfb£_th^_^Tea|est_gen^a^ 
 quickly detects-and..asjqmdd.y..pmiishps his antagonist 
 when committed to Jaulty. courses. It is also fair to 
 remember that Berthier's rash order to Davout to 
 occupy Ratisbon was one cause of the Archduke's 
 divergence northwards, and therefore of his exposing 
 ' Sdgur, " Histoires et M^moires," iii, 321. 
 
THE WARRIOR 91 
 
 himself to the prompt punishment inflicted by Napo- 
 leon. Possibly this was the reason why the Emperor 
 treated his Chief-of-Staff with all possible lenience. 
 Berthier was not only an excellent foil to Napoleon; 
 but his chief blunder had contributed to his master's 
 crowning triumph. 
 
 Defects have been pointed out in Napoleon's move- 
 ments during these critical days. The French general, 
 Bonnal/ accuses him of letting slip at the outset a 
 great opportunity of destroying the Austrians owing 
 to obsession by the overmastering idea of cutting off 
 their communications with Vienna at Landshut. Much 
 can be said in support of this charge. It is also true 
 that, overrating his successes in front of Ratisbon, he 
 failed to order a final advance of his wearied troops 
 which would have driven the enemy into the Danube. 
 The Archduke was therefore able to draw off his 
 troops across the river and retreat safely towards 
 Bohemia. But, even allowing that these five days of 
 fighting were not perfect, they completely altered the 
 situation, rescuing scattered forces from great danger, 
 and transforming them into a solid mass, which drove 
 aside a hitherto successful army, and gained control 
 over the most practicable road to Vienna. The five 
 victories and the undisputed march on the enemy's 
 capital were in the last resort the outcome of superior 
 strategy and unflinching confidence. 
 
 Passing from strategy to tactics, we are confronted 
 by a bewildering wealth of examples. Austenitz is 
 
 ' Bonnal, " La Manoeuvre de Landshut." 
 
92 NAPOLEON 
 
 the, mnst- -pfM-fiw^.,Q£, tVip Napnipnnir battles:, and, 
 though it has heen^so often^escribed^-I -ean-find no 
 other which outlines so clearly. th£-coiiceptieHS -0/1106 
 master. The position on the ist December 1805, the 
 eve of the battle, was as follows: — Napoleon, realizing 
 the danger of his position, 800 miles away from France, 
 opposed by the hitherto unbeaten forces of Russia 
 and the relics of those of Austria, resolved to bring 
 the campaign to a decisive issue before Prussia 
 declared against him and cut his communications. 
 He had therefore assumed an unusual tone of modera- 
 tion, and sent proposals for peace to the Czar 
 Alexander, which led to no result except to inspire 
 that impressionable young ruler with undue con^dence. 
 The French, falling back before the allied advance, 
 occupied gently rising ground behind the Goldbach 
 and in front of the town of Briinn. Thither Napoleon 
 called up all available troops, in accordance with his 
 maxim : " Befo re a battle concentra te allj^ourjorces; 
 neglect none ; one battalion oftendexidesTher day." 
 One small corps, that of Davout, may be said to have 
 decided Austerlitz. Napoleon called it up from Vienna; 
 and, after covering ninety miles in forty-eight hours, 
 the 11,000 heroes of Davout arrived on the eve of the 
 battle, prolonging the French line to the right, or 
 south, at the point where the hardest fighting was to 
 take place. 
 
 Napoleon, carefully surveying the field, discerned 
 by an intuition of genius the plan which his over- 
 confident enemies would almost certainly adopt, that 
 of cutting him off from his immediate base of supplies, 
 
THE WARRIOR 
 
 93 
 
 Vienna. True, he had another and shorter way of 
 communicating with France, namely, through Brlinn, 
 Klattau, and Ratisbon ; but he rightly judged that the 
 Allies would seek to turn his right wing so as to edge 
 him off into the hills on the north where the Prussian 
 
 Gtanfofi's Gej>gra^h^Sstah^OoBelont. 
 
 advance would complete his discomfiture. The Allies 
 should have been wary of attempting this turning 
 movement; for it brought their left wing before 
 two artificial lakes, those of Satschan and Monitz; 
 and three villages would have to be carried before 
 the hoped-for result was attained. Weyrother, the 
 originator of this perilous scheme, underestimated 
 
94 NAPOLEON 
 
 alike the genius of Napoleon, the strength of the 
 French, and the danger of the move. The plan was 
 drawn up before the arrival of Davout nearly equalized 
 the two armies. Napoleon now had some 70,000 men 
 as against about 80,000 of the Allies. His plan of 
 battle, which consisted in a defensive on his left and 
 right wings and an offensive at the centre, enabled 
 him to mass his men. The more he " refused " with 
 his right wing, the more he concentrated on interior 
 lines. The more the Allies gained ground on that side, 
 the more they extended their array along an outer 
 arc, thereby weakening the centre. Thus, in tactics 
 Napoleon followed the same general law which guided 
 his strategic combinations. He knew that Davout's 
 wearied men would fight a losing game stubbornly, 
 while the French centre, comprising the corps of Soult 
 and Bernadotte, stormed the crest of the Pratzenberg, 
 the plateau occupied by the allied centre. Here, ob- 
 viously, was the key of the Austro-Russian position; 
 but the Allies were so intent on working round Napo- 
 leon's left flank as to despatch in all about 40,000 men 
 against less than 12,000 under Davout. Consequently, 
 at the centre, the Russian General Kutusoff had no 
 more than 17,000 infantry, with a large corps of 
 Austrians under Liechtenstein supporting him on the 
 north. The crest of the plateau should have been 
 strongly defended by artillery to beat off a French 
 attack; but the Allies made little use of their super- 
 iority in this arm. Jomini assigns to them 330 cannon; 
 but certainly far fewer came into action, perhaps be- 
 cause of the large number sent with the dense column 
 
THE WARRIOR 95 
 
 attacking Napoleon's right. There in that marshy 
 ground they were of little use, and were easily cap- 
 tured at the end of the day. 
 
 So soon as we realize the faulty dispositions of the 
 Allies, and the resolve of Napoleon to profit by them 
 to the utmost, the course of events can be seen as by 
 a bird's-eye. Imagination pictures the gaps in the 
 allied line especially at the centre, the wheeling for- 
 ward at dawn of its left wing from the central hump 
 of the Pratzenberg, the stout resistance of Davout in 
 and about the villages of Telnitz and Sokelnitz; while 
 further north at the French centre, the serried masses 
 of two whole corps move against the slopes of the 
 Pratzenberg, breast them with comparatively little 
 opposition, and at the summit find only about half 
 their number of defenders. Further north on the 
 lower ground, Lannes and Bagration fight throughout 
 the day an almost equal conflict. First on the Pratzen- 
 berg do the French win a decisive success. Despite 
 the strenuous efforts of brave old Kutusoff, Soult and 
 Bernadotte push back the defenders. The counter- 
 attacks of the Russians are stoutly repelled. A last 
 desperate effort by the Grand Duke Constantine at 
 the head of the Russian Guards fails to retrieve 
 matters. The arrival of the French Imperial Guards 
 assures a complete triumph on the Pratzenberg; and 
 a headlong charge by Marshal Bessieres and the 
 Cavalry of the Guard drives the wreck of the allied 
 centre in utter rout back on the village of Austerlitz. 
 
 The position of their left wing is now beyond all 
 hope. The messages to recall it come too late; the 
 
96 NAPOLEON 
 
 victorious French easily cut it off from the Pratzen- 
 berg and edge it back towards the lakes and the 
 marshy ground between. Marbot's story of thousands 
 of Russians sinking slowly beneath the ice is one of 
 the picturesque legends which lend vivacity to French 
 memoirs of this period ; but the reality was terrible 
 enough. A few men of that devoted left wing were 
 drowned, very many more were cut off in the vil- 
 lages they had captured, but most were slain or cap- 
 tured by the cavalry. The losses of the Allies amounted 
 to 30,000 men and 186 guns, the outcome of a faulty 
 conception which played into the hands of a genius. 
 i 
 f A proof of the unfailing vivacity of Napoleon's brain 
 is the variety and freshness^jof .h js 9i c ta'^n_the art of 
 war. Here are some of them : 
 
 " The first quality nf-a— snlHiVr ?=; forfjti]dp_i]2_pri- 
 during fatigue and hardshi^_bravery is the second. 
 Poverty, hardship and misery are Jhe^schoolTof the 
 good_soldier. ..." 
 
 " Soldiers rausLin all-w.ays.be. encouraged t_o_rernain 
 with the colours: this you will attain by showing 
 great esteem for soldiers." 
 
 " An army is a people that obeys." 
 
 " Never attack a position in front which may be 
 taken by turning." ^ 
 
 " The junction of different corps should never be 
 effected in the vicinity of the foe." 
 
 ^ It is needless to say that Napoleon often broke this rule. 
 
THE WARRIOR 97 
 
 " At the commencement of a campaign thought 
 should be expended as to whether an advance should 
 be made or not; but when once the offensive has 
 been assumed it should be maintained to the last ex- 
 tremity." ' 
 
 " The strengtkof an-arnxy^-like. the amount of mo- 
 mentum in mechanics, is estiinated. by the mass multi- 
 plied by the velocity. A swift march enhances the 
 morale of the army-and inaceasfiS,,ita„p,QSSJL.-C9r„vic- 
 tory.'i— 
 
 "Men must be led by an iron hand in a velvet 
 glove." -- 
 
 " Courage is like Jovej_JtJeeds_oinJioge." 
 
 " In war all is mental ; and the mind and opinion 
 make up more than the half of the actual." 
 
 " The art of war is an immense study which com- 
 prises all others." 
 
 As Napoleon brouglit alL the powers of 4ii& mind 
 to bear upon the problenas ,.o£ji52a.E„._aad^ffi&s_ ad- , 
 mittedly the greatest warrior of ^all time, the ques- 
 tion naturally, arises— ;!iKby.Ka5-,be ever, beaten ? The 
 question would take long to answer. It must suffice 
 to say, firstly, that the results. of war are less per-* 
 manent now- than ia farmer ages, because in the 
 modern world nations are awake, highly organized, 
 and not mere raw.material for, the exploits of heroes ; 
 
 1 1809 is an example of the right use of this principle; 1812 
 of its abuse. 
 
 H 
 
98 NAPOLEON 
 
 , secondly, this awakening and organization went on 
 very rapidly in Napoleon's time owing to the weight 
 of his blows, the marauding habits of his troops during 
 his triumphant rushes, and the skill with which he 
 organized France and her vassal States. Thanks to 
 Stein, Scharnhorst and others, Central Europe re- 
 newed its youth and turned his weapons against him ; 
 armed nations confronted la grande nation; and 
 myriads of men, determined to conquer or die, con- 
 tested his supremacy from Cadiz to Moscow. Their 
 resolve became the more fixed as the enthusiasm of 
 ■f the French waned. In sho flt. by the year 1812 Napo- 
 '\ leon had burnt -up..that enthusiasm, jiejjnce said: " I 
 / have an income of 100,000 men.'^_DJiiduag4£Q4^ars_he 
 , -^ lived up to that income^ and_in_i8_i2, iSi^he far ex- 
 I ceeded it. After the frightful waste of his wars up to 
 ' Wagram and Torres Vedras he had at his disposal raw 
 recruits, not veterans. Even sq he accomplishgdwon- 
 ders; but keen-sighted observers saw the end ap- 
 proaching unless he gave U2_the impossible task of 
 dominating Europe, and allowed weary France to 
 recuperate. This wise passivity was alien to his 
 nature. Unlike Frederick the Great, who in his later 
 years safeguarded his conquests by a policy of ex- 
 treme moderation/^ Napoleon couldji^ L or \^uld n ot 
 r~ rest . Here lay the fund amenFal cause of his ruin. 
 \ that both_ as statesman and warrior he could not see 
 '' when it was time to stop^ )} ~~~ 
 
 The Peninsular Wa^-migblJiaKeJ aeen closed had he 
 recalled Joseph. Bonaparte and sent back Ferdin- 
 and VII to Madrid. But he scorned to do so," even in 
 
THE WARRIOR 99 
 
 1 8 i3; ,^when he needed evejry..jaan.>--.At-ilie„dQ^^^ 
 that campaign, he_^fessed_Jha|Jtja^ 
 blunder to have sa crific ed manxL^QUSs^Kk^ZEench- 
 men in order to force Joseph on the Spaniards, and 
 ^/that now he would just as-soon,5e.a-Eerdinand_at 
 |.' Madrid as Joseph; for Spain was a na|ural_ally_ pi 
 '/; France.! Qn this question wisdom-came-t o hi m-e niy 
 after he had lost a^quarter of a million of rr^en. 
 
 Whatp-agaiii^^E„j«e_ta.,,.sa^oiJlL&^^tem^ to 
 subdue Ru ssia w hile the Spanish_wax. ^r^\npA away 
 b is „ resource s? In_June_i.aL2,-Av4ien-he-held-feis^ Court 
 at Dresden _ before.-vassal-kings, the - French— ad» 
 miral, De_cres, remarked to Pasquier that Napoleon 
 would never again inhabit _Paris.—" What! " said, 
 Pasquier, " will he make Moscow or St. Petersburg his 
 capital?" — " He will not long have any, capital (came 
 the reply): he will not return from this war] or if 
 he returns, it will be without his army." ' This pro- 
 phecy is all the more significant because Decres 
 fathomed Napoleon's. plans for the invasion of Eng- 
 land in 1803-5 and realized the fearful risks of that 
 enterprise. Fortunately for France, Nelson inter- 
 vened, just as Sir Sidney Smith at Acre blotted 
 out the oriental dreams of .the year 1799, .,Jfl^8i^ 
 nothing^sto£ped^MaM&9a.mtn.he„rea^d^ 
 
 Self;Co nMeac£da.a-.Yaliakle,^ ifc In April 1809 it 
 
 ' Roederer, " Journal," p. 323. 
 
 ^ N. Senior, "Conversations with Thiers, etc.," i, 251. In 
 1854 Thiers said that Napoleon's ruin was certain from the 
 year 1808 (N. Senior, " Conversations with Thiers," i, 250). I 
 date it from 181 2, because Napoleon could have closed the 
 Spanish War before he undertook the Russian Campaign. 
 
loo NAPOLEON 
 
 helged_Na£oleon sijgnall^^ to turn theJ:ables_on. the 
 ArcJb.dlie Charles. JBiit after U8o9-sel£.confideiice. de- 
 generated! Jntojrashnessjind m m 
 <. oOli5-?Il?.5li§s. Perhaps this defect was accentuated 
 ■ by the marriage with Marie Louise, which J^ncreased 
 the tendency towards megalomania. jCertain it is that 
 in the campaign of 1812 he set at defiance the dic- 
 tates of prudence. To invade thAtjyAsLterntory^with; 
 out having any sure base of operations.was-highly 
 dangerous. After occupying Smolensk on 17th Au- 
 gust, he considered, only to reject it, the alternative 
 course of his advanced guard wintering there, with 
 friendly Lithuania close at hand; thenjn th^ spring 
 of 1 8 1 3 he could resume the march either on/Moscow 
 or St. Petersburg as occasion might offer. , Su.^.were 
 his projects. Now, what were the facts of the situa- 
 tion? Already in the advance to Smolensk he had 
 lost about 120,000 men, far more by disease or mar- 
 auding than in regular battles; and it was clear tKat 
 Barclay relied on Fabian tactics to wear downTtEe 
 Grand Army. Nevertheless, so much did Napoleon 
 rely on prestige that he resolved to press on, and, 
 after a decisive victory, dictate peace at Moscow. 
 That is, he argued as though he were in Austria or 
 Prussia, warring against a highly organized State.' 
 
 In reality he was fighting an amorphous or almost 
 amoebic organism, which had no heart and scarcely 
 any ganglia. Russia lived in her myriads of villages, 
 which, with their Mirs (village Communes) existed 
 much as usual despite the military wedge which he 
 ' Jomini, p. 357. 
 
THE WARRIOR loi 
 
 had driven in as far as Moscow. During his stay of 
 five weeks at the old capital of Russia the scales 
 did not fall from his eyes. With an indomitable 
 resolve, which would be sublime were it not tinged 
 with madness, he occupied the middle days of October 
 with working out a plan to march on St. Petersburg 
 and there dictate the peace which Alexander refused 
 to concede to him at Moscow. This delay was fatal. 
 JThe statement that the horrors of the retreat were 
 'due to the rigours of an exceptionally early winter is 
 no less superficial than fals^ No sharp frost set Jn 
 until 8th_JSrovem^r^at Jsj,_eighteen days after_he 
 began ius retreat. .IC instead of drawing up impossible, 
 plans at Moscow, he had set out early in October, he 
 woulcthave saved most of his troopsj(uis inability to 
 break through-tbe-RussianaHhp barredthe south-west 
 road at-Malojaloslavitz,<QpmpelledJiim to retreat by 
 his own devastated line of advance, .v\iiiLe_th£_gri£jof 
 wiater completed the.raiseries of the rnaraudingjjaiids 
 
 .,into, which the Grand Army had now dissolved. Shall 
 we blame the winter for all this? Nay, rather let us 
 
 )blams^the man, formerly endowed with keen foresight, 
 who now i)_mitted to take " General Winter " into 
 
 , a ccount. 
 
 Both in Russia and in Spain he was waging war 
 not merely against armies but against nations, nay 
 more, against the forces of nature. Str ange to say, 
 this once -dilig€Bt-.s±udgnt_of history and geography 
 
 jgnored their -teaching&^5lHs.JateLJiJa£%-^yOiadgr^ 
 has conquere"a the'~RTissians;;;4ft-4fe©-iieax]uof _^^ 
 empire; neither has any Land Pi^wer long h^^^ 
 
I02 NAPOLEON 
 
 S^n. True, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the 
 Moors, having command of the Mediterranean, con- 
 quered all, or nearly all, that peninsula. The Visi- 
 goths and the French, seeking to dominate it from 
 Toulouse, failed. This lesson was lost upon Napoleon, 
 even though the British fleet was now at hand to suc- 
 cour the Spanish and Portuguese patriots or threaten 
 the French flanks. Surely, if Charlemagne and the 
 kings of France failed to conquer and keep Spain, 
 when no great navy helped her, even Napoleon could 
 not hope to achieve that task, when he had against 
 him nearly all the population, formed in several 
 armies and numerous guerilla bands, assisted also by 
 Wellington's army and the British navy. A glance at 
 the map of Spain, ridged by five mountain chains and 
 bristling with the rough lands of the north, shows the 
 extreme difficulty of the enterprise. In such a land 
 victories over the ill-trained defenders did not imply 
 conquest. In fact, as Marshal Jourdan said, the 
 more the French gained ground, the greater became 
 their losses, the more dangerous their position ; and 
 when, as in 1810-11, the French held Wellington and 
 the chief Spanish armies at the further edge, the diffi- 
 culties reached their climax. In the year 1812 Napo- 
 leon should have bowed to the inevitable, and, at 
 most, have limited his aim to the occupation of the 
 provinces north of the Ebro. His pride forbade this 
 salutary step; and his overgrown Empire snapped 
 asunder under the double strain to which he sub- 
 jected it both in Spain and Russia.' 
 
 ' See Jomini, p. 77, on the danger of a double war. 
 
THE WARRIOR 103 
 
 Despite the-.^sas1fei*s-at-i8j 2 hfi,,,^^ 
 tinental System }• anA4;haLJin|iliedJ;be jdominatiqn. of 
 Germany. Escge sS-. Qj[ -^j||ffj;} Me nce again marred his 
 prospgfits in tlSSto^^aat^CHiilcampaign of tSI.3• 
 The Saxon cglpnel,_yon Odeleben, describes_ him as 
 brushing aside every piece of advice contraryto his 
 prepossessions and meeting every argument as to the 
 impossibility of any ^chemewith the ironical words: 
 " Ah ! on ne pent pas." In fact, he clung to his"7esorv"e 
 until impossibility stared him in the face.' 
 
 I judge this campaign to be his worst, because, after 
 the accession of Austria to the ranks of his enemies, 
 concentration along some line, where she could not 
 threaten his rear, was obviously necessary. Or, if he 
 continued to hold the long line of the Elbe from Ham- 
 burg to Dresden, entrenched camps were needed to 
 block the chief roads by which the Allies could ad- 
 vance from the mountains of Bohemia, and threaten 
 his communications with France. He did not even 
 draw in his troops from Silesia and other outlying 
 positions, and thus left the Allies, acting behind that 
 mountain screen, free to threaten his rear. True, he 
 beat them off at Dresden, his last great victory, but 
 he lost the fruits of that triumph in a fit of lethargy 
 afterwards, which perhaps accounts for the vague 
 orders for the pursuit and the consequent loss of Van- 
 damme's corps in the defile of Kulm. Three further 
 defeats of strong French corps under his lieutenants 
 failed to arouse him to the danger of his position 
 along the line of the Elbe. Now and again he even 
 
 > Von Odeleben, "Campaign in Saxony" (Eng. edit.), p. 41. 
 
I04 NAPOLEON 
 
 reverted to the plan of seizing Berlin and rescuing 
 his garrisons on the Oder, unconscious of the net 
 that the Allies were beginning to draw round him. 
 At times, as after hearing of Ney's defeat at Denne- 
 witz, he thought of withdrawing all his troops west- 
 ward as far as Erfurt; but during days and weeks 
 of vacillation or spasmodic activity he neglected to 
 do so, and finally had to abandon St. Cyr's corps at 
 Dresden, while with his remaining forces he concen- 
 trated on Leipzig. There he was beaten, a fact largely 
 due to his omission to call up St. Cyr in time. 
 
 This is not the Napoleon of the days of Rivoli, 
 , Ulm, Jena. His puga^9it^ajTd.Jdll4JCuai£C55^^n-^ 
 diminished ; Jjut hi s for esi ght is at fault ; and wor st of 
 all his brainj^ailstojKeigli^vi^ence arij|;ht Jlereg^Hs 
 as true oaU^J3iat-whi.r.h har.mnnJy.es.Hdth-bis own con -f 
 ceptisns, so Marmont observes.' He lets the vision of 
 a triuiuphant entry into Berlin, warp Jiis.jjudgement ; 
 he vehemently upbraids jiis lieutenants for t heir de- 
 feats, failing to realize that their ranks_are fuTTof 
 weary boys, and-that -Prussia_has...praduGed^a great 
 strategist, Gneisenau; and a fight-ing^ener^y JBlijcher. 
 It was the good fortune of Napoleon in .hjs early 
 years never to meet an..Antagonist worthy Qfjiis steel. 
 Hence that ingrained feeling of contempt for his 
 enemy, which for a time wrought wonders in Italy, 
 Swabia and Moravia, but led to the disasters of the 
 later years. 
 
 Limits of time preclude an adeqimte_ examination 
 of the Waterloo campaign. It must sufifice to say that 
 ' Marmont, " M6ms.," v, 281. 
 
THE WARRIOR 105 
 
 the Emperor's plan was here both bold and sound, 
 namely, to mass his troops on a line which would 
 enable him to drive Blucher and Wellington far apart. 
 In essentials, then, it resembles the beginning of his 
 first Italian campaign. Possibly the tenacious mind 
 clung to the memory of those bright days, and be- 
 lieved that the Allies, once severed, would not re- 
 unite. Certain it is that after defeating the Prussians 
 at Ligny, he believed he had disposed of them for 
 fully a week. This explains his_tard}^plan of pursuit 
 and his refusal^ during the early part of the fighLji. 
 Waterloo, to b£lieve„that_t]iey..could be- marching in- 
 force against his right flank. At the outset he _did not 
 know that they had been strenstliened,»by4Jie-ar*iva.l~ 
 of Bulow's corps of 31,000 men latp pn.Jhe prnd'P"-'^ 
 evening. But he should have allowed some marg in for_ 
 liiiToreseen occurrences favourable to the enemy, pee- 
 ing that their troops were known to be concentrating^. 
 This allowance he failed to make. He believed that 
 they had lost at and after Ligny as many as 45,000 
 men in killed, wounded, and deserters. Probably up to 
 about 4 p.m. he deemed the Prussian attack on his 
 right flank to be only that of Bulow's corps, as was 
 stated by a Prussian prisoner. 
 
 Further, he fought the battle against Wellington 
 carelessly, assured that it was the affair of a dejeuner. 
 He always despised the Duke, and he did-,nQt,Qb- 
 serve that hidden source of.strength of the British, 
 position, that it concealed ..the second line, and re- 
 serves. He also permitted far too many troops to 
 be expended on Hougomont; he allowed d'Erlon's 
 
io6 NAPOLEON 
 
 corps to charge in a formation far too dense for so 
 early a period in the fight; and finally he let his 
 cavalry be wasted in the glorious but ineffective 
 charges of 4-6 p.m. At a later period he blamed 
 Ney and others for those charges; but it is certain 
 that at that time he believed his cavalry had won 
 the British position and only needed a final charge 
 by Kellermann's cuirassiers to secure a decisive 
 triumph. He therefore (as he stated at St. Helena) 
 ordered Kellermann to advance "as if for the pur- 
 suit of the English army." ' The responsibility for 
 the last onset of the French horse therefore rests on 
 him. 
 
 During part of this phase of the battle hi^ attention 
 was distracted by the-Pxussiaji..flaiik,.attack4Jjutiafter 
 beating it off, as he believed, he devoted all his 
 strength to breaking Wellington's rig ht^cenitreT when , 
 in view of the uncertainties of the sitn atjiin. he should 
 have fought a defensive fight, or even drawn off alto- 
 gether. This stgpjLO.B!£Yer . was contrary to his in - 
 stincts, which always bade him pu sh on an attack t o 
 the utmost He therefore staked all on the supposi- 
 tion that Grouchy would arrive and take the Prussians 
 in the rear. Grouchy was greatly to blame, as Mr. 
 Ropes has abundantly proved; but for the Emperor 
 to trust everything to the discernment of a cavalry 
 general, who had never before held an independent 
 command, was a grave error of judgement. As is 
 well known. Napoleon sent in his last reserves of the 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xxxi, 194. See Rose, " Pitt and Napo- 
 leon: Essays and Letters," pp. 186-96, for further details, 
 
THE WARRIOR 107 
 
 Guard against Wellington's right centre. That mag- 
 nificent effort met with an equally staunch resist- 
 ance; and a final advance of the allied line swept all 
 before it. 
 
 » Thus erided- Napolean's_militai:jj_..caLeer;__ I have . , 
 I striven to jpoint ouEIE&^geripn^^ 
 I the disaster. They jnay perhaps^ be described as 
 I hardenjjog of til&t.rain. That once splendid o rganism, 
 J which acted as a perfect len s, at rue balancer of'atter- 
 j natives, and a swift framer of resolyes, .liow7eJ^ned {• 
 I the last feculty, even in a.n exaggeratedJJortn. but it I 
 \ distorted-events so ^as to fit ip with desires^_a nd rgj^is- | 
 yered fancies as fac ts. This deterioration has hap- 
 peried to several great warriors. It grew on Napoleon 
 rapidly after Tilsit, still more so after the Austrian 
 campaign of 1 809. The increase of his E mpire in 
 the year 18 10 is a sign of the megalomania which 
 both enlarged his resp.QniiHntiea™and. impaired-. his 
 faculty for meeting them aright. Some, persons have 
 ascribed his fall to failing health. After examining 
 that question with some care, especially for the year 
 1815, I conclude that his bodily powers were but 
 slight ly impa ired. That is also the conclusion of 
 Thiers and Houssaye.^ H is activity both before and 
 after Waterlc»xj;itas-.thaL.o £ .tL.man. in , goodJiealth. .„It..^ 
 was_the^ [udgemg Jlt..tk at had degenera ted ;.jM-ggjg-_ 
 himself had said : " Inwar all is men taL" 
 
 A~compa7KS!rBS!weeniffiS^ is in- 
 
 evitable, but cannot be instituted in detail. The two 
 men moved on different planes, which intersected only 
 ' Houssaye, "Waterloo," p. 482. 
 
io8 NAPOLEON 
 
 once. Napoleon personified the fire, the dash, the 
 brilliance of the south. Wellington, an Irishman only 
 in the place of his birth, certainly not in character, 
 embodied the hardness, caution, sound sense and 
 stubbornness characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon. By 
 temperament and of necessity he waged a defensive 
 warfare. The puny land forces of England having to be 
 husbanded at every turn, his first thought was to save 
 his army from destruction. That wasjthe lasj thought 
 of Napoleon, who Jn, his Jateryears^ recked little oT~ 
 losing 100,000 men if he could inflicJ;aJog§oij^OjOOO on 
 his enemy. Jnqpiring hnnnHlp ';^ pnthiic;iag m in h'g mpn, 
 he expected them_to perform p rodigies of endurance ; 
 and when they fellj. another, host, arose at the stam p 
 of his foot to repeat the miracle, .untiL.gen erous Fran ce 
 was bled white by her adopted son. Wellington, 
 austere and uninspiring, got far less out of his troops 
 before and after battles. On the field they fought 
 with native hardihood; but on no occasion did the 
 Duke win a campaign by continuous forced marches 
 like those of the French before Ulm; and never did 
 he spur on his army to the extraordinary feats which 
 in a fortnight after Jena laid Prussia at the invaders' 
 feet. Napier finely compares Wellington's battle to 
 the shock of a battering-ram. Napoleon's to the swell 
 and dash of a mighty wave which carries all before 
 it and then floods the land beyond.^ 
 
 In the nature of the case Wellington could rarely 
 plan the vast combinations which decided the fate of 
 Europe by a few trenchant strokes at the climax. In 
 ' Napier, " Peninsular War," bk. xxiv, ch. ii. 
 
THE WARRIOR 109 
 
 the year 1 8 1 3, the one_ campaign when he had a 
 superiority of force, his. moves were, as ^darin^ _aad- 
 successful as those of most QL-NapQlefln^s-wars,;. aud- 
 it is therefore incQrr£Gt.to.a^sertthaJJie always played 
 a saf& gam© and shone o»ly -in defence^ He .was a 
 master of defensive warfare, perhaps 4he..gEeateat.tlie .„ 
 world has ever seen ; but the series of rapid out- 
 flanking moves, which carried him from Valladolid to 
 Vittoria, may challenge comparison with, say, the 
 Marengo campaign, while Vittoria itself was better 
 fought than Marengo. The Briton of course had not 
 the strategic imagination which planned the Egyptian 
 and Russian expeditions; and his innate prudence 
 no less than his lack of men forbade his displaying 
 the superhuman audacity which wrested victory from 
 the jaws of defeat after Aspern. But in the sphere of 
 tactics he showed at Salamanca signal power in de- 
 tecting the false move of Marshal Marmont and 
 meting out prompt punishment. Salamanca will bear 
 comparison with the highest example of Napoleon's 
 tactical skill. Napier, who admired both leaders, thus 
 summed up their chief characteristics. ".Wdlillg.t2a. 
 
 action, .that /acuity o£ inspirationJbr__su^d£nl^des.^ 
 ciding^ the fate of whole campaigns_withjwjn£hj\^^ 
 leon was endowed beyond^all^mankind. It jg.Jhis„, 
 which especially constitutes military genius. For so 
 vast, so complicated are' the l;7)mBInations of war, so 
 easily and by such slight causes are they affected, 
 that the best generals do but grope in the dark, and 
 they acknowledge the humiliating truth. By the 
 
no NAPOLEON 
 
 number and extent then of their fine dispositions, and 
 not by their errors, the merit of commanders is to be 
 measured." ' 
 
 Napier, then, puts Wellington nQt. far..b&l fla: Nap o- 
 leon. The passage is ever memorable because it dis- 
 poses, or ought to dispose, of Aesugerficial state- 
 : ment that the greatest general is he \yho makes the 
 jfew^t mistaJses. 'Like all merely negative descrip- 
 tions, this does not carry us far. As well might one 
 say that the finest batsman is he who merely tires 
 out the bowling, never accepting a risk or giving a 
 chance. The French sneered at Wellington for adapt- 
 ing safe tactics. Salamanca, Vittoria -and-JS^atsrloo 
 were his retort. Because they despised^ hirn,Jie beat 
 the French marshals in turn, and finally Napoleon. 
 In one respect he was greater than . Napfilepn. Jru 
 wi se (adaptation of means t9 find", hp h as-Jiadjin 
 equal. To take two instances. While Napoleon, by 
 clinging on to Moscow threw away his best army, Well- 
 ington cautiously retreated from Madrid in face of 
 an overwhelming concentration of the French, and so 
 saved his army for the Vittoria campaign. Again at 
 Waterloo the Duke held back the cavalry brigades of 
 Vandeleur and Vivian, and at the crisis launched 
 them forward in a way which Napoleon considered 
 decisive of the fate of the day.° Too late Napoleon 
 must have repented of his rash assertion that Welling- 
 ton had no mind. The Duke's judgement, if not always 
 brilliant, was thoroughly sound; and it kept under 
 
 ' Napier, " Peninsular War," bk. xxiv, ch. ii. 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xxviii, 298 ; xxxi, 198. 
 
THE WARRIOR in 
 
 stern control the other faculties which, uncontrolled, 
 make for ruin. 
 
 Thus, even on that side of Napoleon's being which 
 soared beyond the comprehension of average men. 
 Nature found means to redress the balance; for the 
 exercise of terrifying and almost superhuman powers 
 binds mankind together for self-preservation ; and 
 leaders will arise, able, if not to vie with the war-lord 
 at all points, yet to deal out swift vengeance when he 
 overreaches himself. If th&.Eiaperor..had retained the 
 power, of self-analysis so strong in his youthj he would 
 have perceived that constant success warps the judge- 
 ment and impairs the faculty of weighing evidence 
 which is eminently needful for the maintenance, pf. 
 colossal power. His overthrow may ..therefore .-be 
 ascribed finally to the Nemesis„whichj working through ' 
 character, dogs the steps of unending triumph. 
 
LECTURE IV 
 
 THE LAWGIVER 
 
 " S'il y avait un art dans lequel Napoldon excell4t, c'^tait celui 
 de combiner la mesure de satisfaction qu'il fallait accorder k 
 chacun et de balancer tous les intdrets. — Pasquier, M^moires, 
 i, 150." 
 
 " TI7 QUALITY on the march": Such was a de- 
 
 J J scription of the French Revolutionary armies. 
 
 It was therefore natural that their greatest general 
 should be the ablest guide of the nation, when the 
 desire for peace and order supervened. For indeed 
 the gifts of command and organization are not un- 
 like in the two spheres. A successful commander 
 must possess the faculties of foresight as to the prob- 
 able course of events, of insight into character, and 
 of sound sense in the adjustment of conflicting in- 
 terests. Napoleon, as we have seen, declared that the 
 art of war was an immense study which included all 
 others.^ Certainly, warriors have often shone as law- 
 givers and administrators, witness the careers of 
 Pericles, Caesar, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, 
 William the Conqueror, Edward I, Cromwell, Peter 
 the Great, Frederick the Great, and Washington. 
 Napoleon also owed much of his success in legis- 
 
 ' Roederer, " Journal," p. 324. 
 112 
 
THE LAWGIVER 113 
 
 lation to the arduous self-culture of his early years. 
 His copious notes on books which described the 
 history and government of the chief nations of ancient 
 and modern times reveal his intense interest in their 
 experiments. Thus he remarks that the Persians, in 
 passing sentence on the guilty, took into account 
 their former conduct, and did not allow that one 
 crime should overshadow the good conduct of a whole 
 life. In studying the history of Sparta, he paid 
 special attention to the half-legendary legislation of 
 Lycurgus, designed to curb the royal power, and to 
 invigorate and moderate the energy of the citizens, 
 thereby preserving them both from despotism and 
 from anarchy. Lycurgus (he writes) saw the need of 
 inspiring the people with patriotism, and yet of keep- 
 ing it within due bounds ; also of safeguarding demo- 
 cracy by its necessary support, equality ; he therefore 
 resolved to apportion the land equally, and forbade 
 the use of gold and silver money. Public meals also 
 met with Bonaparte's approval. Further, as we saw 
 in Lecture II, the young Jacobin held strongly to 
 Rousseau's dogma of the unity of the State, con- 
 demning everything which impaired political and 
 social unity. The first article of his creed was the 1 
 dominance of the central authority representing the | 
 nation. j 
 
 These fundamental notions of his Jacobinical period f 
 were soon to be warped by the disillusionments of his | 
 early Hfe and the stern realities of warfare. But they 
 remained at the back of his mind, suffusing his 
 thoughts, suggesting parallels, and adding vivacity 
 
 I 
 
114 NAPOLEON 
 
 to his discourses in the Council of State. For him, 
 j the chief task of government ever was to unify, to 
 I break down provincial barriers, to abolish exceptional 
 j laws of classes or of districts, to govern for the people, 
 while allowing them little more than the form of self- 
 government, to mark out a wide sphere for the un- 
 fettered exercise of the central power, endowing it 
 with the intelligence and energy due to a careful 
 study of the past, a keen perception of the needs of 
 the present, and rational hopes for the future. 
 
 Fortunately for him he arrived at the centre of the 
 world's activities when revolutionary zeal had swept 
 away most of the old barriers throughout France and 
 her vassal States. The Jacobinical theory of govern- 
 ment here coincided with the monarchical instincts 
 always so powerful in France. Therefore the old and 
 5 the new elements in her life favoured the rise of an 
 f intelligent despotism; and he, the representative 
 alike of autocracy and republicanism, standing at 
 the point where these formerly clashing forces now 
 at last converged, pressed on and was borne along to 
 an unparalleled destiny. After a decade of upheaval, 
 order was earth's first law. He became the lawgiver, 
 {the executant of order, and proceeded to simplify 
 jboth the legislative and executive functions of the 
 State by identifying both with his will. The French 
 monarchy and the French Revolution were alike 
 merged in Napoleon. 
 f His administrative genius took France by storm 
 I in the year 1800. But those who had marked his 
 organization of Italy, Malta, and Egypt noticed the 
 
THE LAWGIVER 115 
 
 emergence of exceptional powers. His political ap- 
 prenticeship began in North Italy in the year 1796. 
 First of all he gripped with a firm hand the reins of 
 administration in the districts conquered or liberated 
 by the French arms. He forced the hands of the 
 Directors at Paris by strengthening the desire of the 
 Lombards and Modenese for independence. As far 
 as possible he stopped the peculations of the French 
 army agents and others, who both plundered the 
 people and robbed the army. He instituted a com- 
 mission for the trial of such crimes, and declared that 
 if he could spare a month to investigate the charges, 
 he would have all the guilty shot.^ 
 
 Then, too, note how firmly he, a youth of twenty - 
 seven, treated the Italians. After the last decisive 
 victories over Austria he announced to the French 
 Directory that, in order to found rational liberty in 
 the new Italian Republics, he would strive to lessen 
 the influence of the priests, who at present were 
 dictating the elections of deputies. He therefore took 
 upon himself to suspend the activity of the young 
 Government at Milan. On 8th May 1797 he wrote 
 to the Directory at Paris: "In four distinct com- 
 mittees I am having drawn up here all the military, 
 civil, financial, and administrative laws, which must 
 accompany the constitution. For the first occasion I 
 will make all the selections, and I hope that in three 
 weeks' time the new Italian Republic will be through- 
 out wholly and perfectly organized, and will be able 
 to walk alone." Here, then, for the first time were 
 1 "Nap. Corresp.," i, 573; ", 5°. 56, 219, 303. 
 
ii6 NAPOLEON 
 
 seen the astounding energy and resourcefulness of 
 the young general. He also perceived that the Italian 
 Jacobins, bitterly hostile to religion and the established 
 social order, needed a still firmer hand than the priests. 
 In that same letter he used these words : " I am chill- 
 : ing the hot-heads and heating the cold ", an excellent 
 1 motto for the reasonable man, who at all times tries 
 ; to keep the political temperature between sixty and 
 seventy degrees. In short, his policy was one of con- 
 ciliation. Hear his words of advice to the men of the 
 Cisalpine Republic at Milan respecting the new con- 
 stitution : " To be worthy of your destiny, pass only 
 laws that are wise and moderate. Carry them out 
 with force and energy. Encourage the spread of 
 intelligence and respect religion. Form your bat- 
 talions, not of men of straw, but of citizens attached 
 to the principles of the Republic and closely con- 
 cerned in its prosperity. ... I have made very many 
 State appointments, thereby running the risk of over- 
 looking the honest man and preferring the intriguer; 
 but there was greater inconvenience in letting you 
 make these first nominations. You were not yet 
 sufficiently organized." 
 
 His energies found a novel sphere in Egypt. Ever 
 anxious to make the most of every opportunity, he 
 took with him a company of savants, who were to 
 explore the buried treasures and develop the stagnant 
 powers of that land. Undaunted, nay, rather nerved 
 to greater efforts by the disaster to the French fleet 
 at Aboukir, he planned the Institute of Egypt, or- 
 
THE LAWGIVER 117 
 
 ganized in four sections — Mathematics, Physics, 
 Political Economy, and the Arts. At the first session ' 
 he suggested these questions for consideration. Could ^ 
 the baking-ovens of the army be improved? Was 
 there any substitute for hops in the brewing of beer? j. 
 How could the waters of the Nile be purified for ; 
 drinking purposes? Was a wind-mill or a water-mill ; 
 the more serviceable? Could gunpowder be produced | 
 in Egypt? What was the state of law and of education 
 in Egypt; and how could they be improved conform- 
 ably to the notions of the natives? I doubt whether a ; 
 learned society has ever received a more imperious/ 
 impulse towards the practical. 
 
 As for the civil administration of Egypt, Bonaparte 
 summoned an Assembly of Notables, who were to be 
 selected by the French generals commanding in the 
 fourteen provinces. Obviously it served merely as a 
 screen, thinly hiding the reality of military rule.' 
 When the embodiment of western energy meets the 
 stern passivity of the East, friction must ensue. Take 
 the following instance as typical of much. Bonaparte 
 issued an order that every Egyptian must wear a 
 tricolour cockade and every Nile boat must hoist a 
 tricolour flag (4th September 1798). It was by fussy 
 interferences like this, that the French irritated the 
 Moslems and contributed to bring about the revolt of 
 2 1st October at Cairo. 
 
 During the French occupation of Egypt commerce 
 suffered both from the war and the multitude of new 
 
 ' See, however, the instructions of 3rd September 1798, to 
 Murat. 
 
ii8 NAPOLEON 
 
 regulations which confused and vexed the natives.' 
 
 The letters of Kleber, Bonaparte's successor in Egypt, 
 
 dwelt persistently on the magnitude of the deficit. 
 
 The treasury was absolutely empty. The pay of the 
 
 army was 4,000,000 francs in arrear, and there were 
 
 6,000,000 francs more of debt. It is clear, then, that 
 
 ; Bonaparte soon exhausted the land by his exactions, 
 
 \ so that it could not meet the needs of the army and 
 
 i of an active administration of the western type. 
 
 Kldber also declared that the manufactures of cannon, 
 
 muskets, and gunpowder were failures, and the troops 
 
 were in rags. The picture may be too sombre; for 
 
 Kleber bitterly resented the sudden departure of 
 
 Bonaparte, which left him to face the problems of 
 
 bankruptcy long since imminent;' but there can be 
 
 little doubt that in Egypt, as in Malta, Bonaparte 
 
 overshot the mark. He forgot that orientals care very 
 
 I much about creeds and customs, and not at all about 
 
 I science and prosperity. In the immobile East caution 
 
 and self-restraint are the first of political virtues. 
 
 Now, great as were Napoleon's gifts as lawgiver, he 
 
 I lacked those sovereign qualities. Hi s n at u re was too 
 
 i fiery, his self-confidence too deep-roo ted, his ener gies 
 
 \ too many-sided, to keep within the bounds of prudence 
 
 needed_in the Orient; and thus, while at Paris he was 
 acclaimed as Conqueror of the East, in reality he left 
 behind him a half-naked army and an exhausted land. 
 Probably the administrative collapse in Egypt 
 helped to tone down his youthful eagerness. Certainly 
 
 ' Rose, "Napoleonic Studies," pp. 119-131. 
 
 ' " Kldber et Menou " (ed. by F. Rousseau), pp. 26, 76-84. 
 
THE LAWGIVER 119 
 
 he showed far greater wisdom in dealing with France ; 
 and it is clear that his many-sided activities were 
 much better suited to the settlement of a wealthy 
 land long in a state of turmoil than to the regulation 
 of needy orientals who only wanted to be left alone. 
 Energy is as useful in the former case as it is harmful 
 in the latter. True, France had suffered from an 
 excess of energy, but it was the energy of hostile 
 factions, which in their brief spell of power forced on 
 her decrees, often at the rate of a thousand a year, 
 soon to be altered by the next group of successful 
 intriguers. After these St. Vitus' dance antics France 
 needed a political paregoric. With admirable judge- 
 ment Bonaparte supplied it. 
 
 The evils of France before the coup (T^tat of Bru- 
 maire 1799 have, perhaps, been overrated. Both in 
 the civil and military spheres the worst was past.^ 
 The Allies had been beaten back from the frontiers, 
 and at home the extreme Jacobins had been crushed. 
 Affairs were beginning to right themselves under the 
 lead of Siey^s; but the influence of that bloodless 
 creature withered before that of Napoleon. With no 
 less wit than truth the First Consul justified his changes 
 in Siey^s' projected constitution: "What was I to do? 
 Sieyes put shadows on every side. It required a sub- 
 stance somewhere, and I put it there." That was 
 true ; he put himself at the central point of that com- 
 plicated mechanism, controlling the checks and bal- 
 ances, so that what would have been a mere weighing- 
 machine became a locomotive. The curious thing is 
 
 ' Aulard, " Hist, politique de la Rev. frang.," pp. 686-9, 695. 
 
I20 NAPOLEON 
 
 that Siey^s looked on impassively at this transforma- 
 tion of democracy into autocracy. In fact, he said to 
 Roederer : " After long reflection I am convinced that 
 for the settlement of affairs one man alone is needed, 
 and that man can be none other than Bonaparte.' 
 Or, as he remarked on another occasion, Bonaparte 
 was the only general who had the faculties of a 
 civilian. In truth, the other generals were either rough 
 and ignorant soldiers, or had no desire to meddle in 
 civil affairs. The only exceptions were Bernadotte, who 
 was unpopular, and Moreau, who, however active and 
 resourceful in the field, was in politics a mere schoolboy, 
 his opposition to Bonaparte on one occasion leading 
 him to confer the ribbon of the Legion of Honour on 
 his dog. 
 
 The dearth of great men told powerfully in favour 
 of Napoleon. Democracy can succeed only where the 
 great mass of the people is perpetually energized by 
 self-confidence, self-respect, and hope. The people 
 that falters is lost. Now, since the Reign of Terror, 
 France had often faltered and wavered. During five 
 years she found no competent guide, only ingenious 
 talkers. It is the bane of democracy that persuasive 
 speakers come to the front too easily, leaving far 
 behind the sage administrator, the able man of action. 
 That has been so from the age of Cleon onwards. 
 True, the risks of this peculiar system are lessened by 
 the presence of permanent officials, the secret prompt- 
 ers of the political stage. Nevertheless, the fortunes 
 of great peoples have been determined very largely 
 ' Roederer, " Journal," p. 14. 
 
THE LAWGIVER 121 
 
 by men whose first recommendation has been elo- 
 quence ; and only after sad experience has the balance 
 turned in favour of the man of action. Nowhere 
 have the oscillations been so sharp as in France; for in 
 the year 1789 orators abounded; and it took some 
 time to work through the rhetorical stratum down to 
 the bed rock. Dumont, the friend of Mirabeau, ironic- 
 ally remarked that, whereas in London nobody wished 
 to manage the State, in Paris everybody believed him- 
 self equal to the task.^ 
 
 This in part explains the course of the French 
 Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. By the year 1799 
 thetimeforthe man of action had come. His supremacy 
 was assured if he combined the functions of comman- 
 der-in-chief and permanent official. Napoleon em- 
 bodied them perfectly. In him the old Roman gift of 
 organization on a great scale was vivified by an exalted 
 patriotism,by a historic sensewhich weighed the aspira- 
 tions of new France against the experience of old 
 France,bya resolve to have done with the revolutionary , 
 jargon and to see things as they were. Too long had the ' 
 National Assemblies legislated for man in the abstract. 
 That legal figment was no more like a real man 
 than extract of beef is like the living ox. Napoleon 
 was determined to legislate, not for an abstraction,? 
 but for Parisians, Normans, Provengaux. So far back 
 as September 1797 he thus expressed his contempt 
 for the legislators of France : " This Legislature, with- 
 out eyes or ears for what surrounds it, must no longer 
 overwhelm us with a thousand decrees passed on the 
 ' Dumont, " Souvenirs sur Mirabeau," ch. x. 
 
122 NAPOLEON 
 
 spur of the moment, negativing one absurdity by 
 another, and leaving us, amidst three hundred foUos 
 of laws, a lawless nation." Napoleon was determined 
 , to decimate the laws, but to have the_surviving._part 
 I obeyed. The first essentials _DfLJlegi3la±iQQ-_ar.e to 
 simplify and to enforce. ,_ 
 
 His first important effort was in the sphere of local 
 government (February 1800). Here, as at so many 
 points, the Revolutionists had gone to ridiculous 
 excess. They had made too many local divisions, each 
 with an elective council. Consequently the voters soon 
 tired of going to the poll, still more of filling the 
 many posts set up by the Departmental System. 
 Judge of its demands on civic intelligence and patriot- 
 ism from the fact that one Frenchman in thirty was 
 a local official of some kind. The results were such 
 as always happen when legislation outruns the in- 
 telligence of those whom it aims at benefiting. The 
 frequent elections tired out Jacques Bonhomme 
 and told in favour of the two classes which never 
 weary of voting, jobbers and fanatics. In a short time 
 ' the whole system broke down and was replaced 
 \ largely by control exercised from Paris through rejire- 
 \ sentans en mission or the local Jacobin clubs. Affairs 
 \ were in much disorder in 1799: and Bonaparte did 
 well in turning his attention first to this pressing 
 problem. Sieyes and his colleagues had already 
 pointed to the solution, namely, the nomination at 
 Paris of Prefects responsible for the local government 
 of the Departments.' But Bonaparte's law of 17th 
 ' Vandal, " L'Avdnement de Bonaparte," ii, 189. 
 
THE LAWGIVER 123 
 
 February 1800 was more drastic than any which 
 Sieyes could have carried. Local self-government j 
 now made way for a system in which the initiative? 
 and control belonged ultimately to the First Consul. | 
 The chief authority in each Department was vested | 
 in a Prefect appointed by and responsible to the chief | 
 of the State. Sub-Prefects controlled the new and \ 
 smaller areas, the arrondissenients; while the mayors j 
 exercised executive functions in the smallest areas, | 
 the communes. Prefects, Sub-Prefects, and the mayors ■; 
 of all but the small towns and villages were ap-j 
 pointed by the First Consul; and Prefects named the* 
 mayors in the other cases. All these officials were \ 
 assisted by local elective councils ; but the extent of I 
 their assistance may be measured by the duration off 
 their sessions, which were limited to a fortnight a( 
 year. They then apportioned the national taxes for ! 
 their districts, and voted the local rates. 
 
 Thus, at one stroke Napoleon substituted his own \ 
 control for that which had been partially and fitfully \ 
 exercised by the elective bodies of the previous 
 decade. The same thing happened to the juges de 
 paix. Formerly elected by the people, they were now 
 to be named by the Prefects. The most astounding 
 fact remains to be noticed. The law passed with little 
 opposition even from the Tribunate, the criticizing 
 organ of the body politic. And thus, almost at a { 
 bound, France passed from local self-government to 
 an administrative autocracy which prepared the way j 
 for a political despotism. 
 The transformation at Paris was helped on by 
 
124 . NAPOLEON 
 
 Sieyes' inept arrangements. His constitution divided 
 the Legislature into four bodies — a Council of State 
 which prepared laws; a Tribunate, which merely 
 criticized but could not amend them; a Corps L6gis- 
 latif, deprived of speech and allowed merely to pass 
 or reject them; and, as a crown to this singular 
 system, a Senate, whose chief duty was to hold it 
 together. An American wit has described the con- 
 stitution of the United States as an ingenious con- 
 trivance for enabling America to talk herself hoarse. 
 Much the same was said about that of Sieyes. The 
 duty of the Tribunate was "to talk"; that of the 
 Corps Ldgislatif was " not to talk." Or, as Bonaparte 
 incisively remarked: "One hundred men do nothing 
 but talk, and three hundred do nothing but vote, 
 without speaking a word. Futile dream of a mediocre 
 intelligence." The First Consul soon made use of the 
 Senate for the purpose of declaring which members 
 of the Tribunate should form the fifth portion retiring 
 annually — a device which degraded the watchdog of 
 the constitution into a creature of the First Consul. 
 Against some of the more independent of the Tribunes, 
 notably Benjamin Constant, Daunou, and Ch^nier, he 
 declaimed in vehement terms (29th January 1801) as 
 " Metaphysicians whom it were well to duck in the 
 water. They are vermin that I have on my clothes. 
 You must not think that I will let myself be attacked 
 like Louis XVL I will not allow it." ' 
 
 Nothing is more surprising than the victory of one 
 
 ' Thibaudeau, " Bonaparte and the Consulate " (Eng. edit.), 
 P- 31- 
 
THE LAWGIVER 125 
 
 autocratic spirit over the instinct for liberty paramount 
 in France since 1789. That weary people acquiesced 
 even in the unjust punishment of exile accorded to 
 the Jacobin chiefs after the royalist plot of Nivose, 
 1800, with which they had not the slightest connec- 
 tion. Further, during the years 1800-2, Bonaparte 
 not only overthrew Austria and made a most advan- 
 tageous peace with England, but secured the support 
 of the peasants and all devout Catholics by the famous 
 treaty with the Vatican known as the Concordat. As 
 his treatment of this problem reveals character more 
 clearly than any number of adjectives and epithets 
 can do, I propose to review it somewhat fully. 
 
 While in North Italy he was much impressed by 
 the power of religion and the fidelity of the French 
 " orthodox " priests. Accordingly, not long after the 
 Battle of Marengo, he informed Cardinal Martiniana 
 of his willingness to treat with the Pope for the restora- 
 tion of public worship in France, provided that all 
 French Bishops, whether " orthodox " or " constitu- 
 tional," resigned their sees. Thereupon he, as First 
 Consul, would nominate for canonical investiture by 
 the Pope eminent ecclesiastics selected fairly from the 
 two parties into which the Church of France was then 
 divided. 
 
 As is well known, a law of the year 1790 had split 
 the Church of France into two sections, the " ortho- 
 dox," who kept unimpaired their allegiance to the 
 Pope, and the " constitutionals," who impaired it by 
 taking the oath of obedience to the new decree of 
 the National Assembly. Thereafter the "orthodox" 
 
126 NAPOLEON 
 
 t priests were regarded as enemies of the Revolution ; 
 S and at the worst crises even the "constitutionals" 
 I were forbidden to celebrate public worship. The 
 atheism of the Terrorists and of their would-be imi- 
 tators in 1797-9 served to disgust France, while 
 the patient heroism of the " orthodox " priests invested 
 the Church with a moral grandeur unknown in her 
 days of worldly prosperity. Affairs were therefore 
 tending towards some compromise when Bonaparte 
 became First Consul; and he never showed more 
 discernment and activity than in carrying through 
 his bargain with the Vatican. 
 
 : In truth the opportunity was unique. The Revolu- 
 
 ^ tionists had erred in thrusting upon the clergy an oath 
 
 contrary to the dogma of apostolical succession. He 
 
 resolved to end their fussy and needless intervention 
 
 in the domain of conscience. On the other hand, he 
 
 was equally resolved to retain for the French peasantry 
 
 the Church property seized or bought during the 
 
 Revolution, and to vindicate their freedom from tithe. 
 
 1 Thus, in the material sphere he pressed the Church 
 
 I hard, reducing it to dependence on stipends paid by 
 
 I the State, a plan which harmonized admirably with 
 
 his political aims, besides fulfilling the promise made 
 
 by Mirabeau in 1789 but soon broken by the Jacobins. 
 
 No part of their conduct had been so foolish and 
 
 mean as that by which, firstly, they violated conscience, 
 
 and, secondly, abrogated the State stipends which 
 
 were a set off to an act of State confiscation. The 
 
 problem was one which called for the intervention of 
 
 a strong and incisive personality; and Bonaparte 
 
THE LAWGIVER 127 
 
 adopted a line of conduct calculated to ease the ap- 
 prehensions of the peasantry, soothe the resentment 
 of the clergy, heal a religious schism, and rally to his 
 side the stately hierarchy of Rome. In no negotiation 
 of his life did he conciliate so many interests, appease 
 so much hatred, and gain over so many opponents. 
 With his usual keen discernment he foresaw these ad- 
 vantages to the cause of law and order; and it is 
 therefore not surprising that he pushed on the nego- 
 tiations with the Vatican swiftly, skilfully, secretly, so 
 that even his Council of State knew little about it 
 until the chief difficulties were adjusted. 
 
 He let fall the first hints of the approaching bargain 
 with Rome during a conversation with Roederer in 
 the garden at Malmaison in August 1800. Roederer, 
 a useful coadjutor at Brumaire, was president of that 
 section of the Council of State which dealt with the 
 internal affairs of France; and his faculty of dexter- 
 ously trimming,and of expressing public opinion, made 
 him a valuable adviser. On this occasion Bonaparte, 
 after speaking about the peculation of officials, burst 
 out with the assertion that France was and always 
 had been corrupt, and that her paramount need was 
 morality. But how could there be morality without 
 religion? When Roederer ventured to suggest that 
 religion must serve and not dominate the State, Bona- 
 parte assented, adding these curious words : " How 
 can you have order in a State without religion? 
 Society cannot exist without inequality of fortunes, 
 which cannot endure apart from religion. When one 
 man is dying of hunger near another who is ill of sur- 
 
128 NAPOLEON 
 
 feit, he cannot resign himself to this difference, unless 
 there is an authority which declares — ' God wills it 
 thus: there must be poor and rich in the world: but 
 hereafter and during all eternity the division of things 
 will take place differently.' " On several occasions 
 Bonaparte uttered the same thought. He regarded 
 religion as a political emollient, highly useful to ad- 
 minister in times of excitement, the priest holding in 
 reserve a spiritual sedative in case the policeman alone 
 could not cope with starving Lazarus. 
 
 Another advantage would accrue to Napoleon from 
 the compact with the Vatican. He might hope to gain 
 over the Royalists if the Church became his ally. 
 This motive appeared very clearly in his words to a 
 Councillor of State, Thibaudeau, during a conversa- 
 tion in the garden at Malmaison on loth June l8oi. 
 
 Last Sunday I was walking here alone when I heard the 
 church bells of Ruel. I felt quite moved by the sound ; so 
 strong is the power of early association. I said to myself, 
 " If such a man as I can be affected in this way, how deep 
 must be the impression on simple believing souls? What 
 have your philosophers and ideologues to say to that? A 
 nation must have a religion, and that religion must be under 
 the control of the Government. At present fifty imigre 
 bishops, pensioned by England, control the French clergy. 
 Their influence must be destroyed, and nothing but the 
 authority of the Pope can do that. He will deprive them of 
 their sees or induce them to send in their resignations. We 
 shall issue a declaration that the Catholic religion, being 
 that of the majority of the French nation, must be recog- 
 nized and organized. The First Consul will nominate 50 
 bishops, whom the Pope will institute. They will appoint 
 
THE LAWGIVER 129 
 
 the curis, and the State will give them all salaries. All alike 
 shall take an oath of fidelity to the Government. Those who 
 refuse to submit shall be banished, and those who preach 
 against the Government, shall be handed over to their eccle- 
 siastical superiors for punishment. The Pope shall confirm 
 the sale of Church property, and give his blessing to the 
 Republic. We shall have ' Salvam fac rem Gallicam ' chanted 
 at mass. The papal Bull is here: there are only a few ex- 
 pressions to be changed. People may call me a Papist if 
 they like. I am nothing. I was a Mohammedan in Egypt : 
 I shall be a Catholic in France for the sake of the people." ' 
 
 There in brief is the story of the Concordat. Bona- 
 parte pushed on the negotiations, cheered, it may be, 
 by the sound of the church bells of Ruel, and certainly 
 nerved by the resolve to remove the clergy from 
 the control of the fifty exiled bishops to that of an 
 equal number of bishops instituted by the Pope, but 
 taking their marching orders from the First Consul. 
 In the discussions with the Cardinals at Paris Bona- 
 parte displayed the same ready tact and resourceful- 
 ness, which sometimes dealt a rebuff to those subtle 
 reasoners even on their own ground of Church history 
 or ecclesiastical law. No ruler has ever displayed equal 
 skill in rapidly " getting up " a subject so as to refute 
 or perplex even an expert by some adroit sally. The 
 Concordat was proclaimed with great pomp at Notre 
 Dame on Easter Day, i8th April 1802. The Consuls 
 went in state to hear high mass; and it was noted 
 that Bonaparte's household now for the first time 
 appeared in full livery. The ambassadors and high 
 
 ' Thibaudeau, ^/. «V., pp. 153-155. 
 K 
 
I30 NAPOLEON 
 
 officials were also asked to come in state and bring 
 their servants in livery. The request seems to have 
 caused some inconvenience to those who previously 
 had kept up a republican simplicity; for at the tail of 
 the gorgeous procession were seen several hackney- 
 coaches with their numbers painted or pasted over. 
 f The carrying through of the Concordat was perhaps 
 j the most important success of Bonaparte's career; and 
 ' thereafter, if he had foreborne from pressing Pius VII 
 too hard, the Roman Church would have proved the 
 firmest stay of his throne. In November 1804, when 
 the aged pontiff was on the way to crown him at Paris, 
 he bade French officials treat him as though he had 
 200,000 troops at his back. The remark is character- 
 istic of this keen observer of human nature, who knew 
 how to derive added strength from every sentiment 
 and every institution. As an example of this useful 
 faculty I will quote his words to the Council of State 
 on 22nd May 1804 shortly after the proclamation of 
 the Empire: " It is my wish to re-establish the insti- 
 tution for foreign missions ; for the religious mission- 
 aries may be very useful to me in Asia, Africa, and 
 America, as I shall make them reconnoitre all the 
 lands they visit. The sanctity of their dress will not 
 only protect them, but serve to conceal their political 
 and commercial investigations. The head of the 
 missionary establishment shall reside no longer at 
 Rome but in Paris." ' Such was to be a Napoleonic 
 and up-to-date version of the Roman college de 
 propaganda fide. 
 
 ' Pelet, p. 243. 
 
THE LAWGIVER 131 
 
 Having so keen a perception of the value of clerical 
 support, surely he acted unwisely in alienating it. But 
 his resolve to dominate the Church by the Organic 
 Articles led to long and bitter strifes, ending with the 
 deposition of the Pope at Rome (May 1809), his en- 
 forced sojourn at Savona and Fontainebleau, and the 
 undoing of most of the work of pacification achieved 
 by the Concordat. This unworthy treatment of a de- 
 fenceless old man told against the Napoleonic Em- 
 pire more seriously than any one disaster in the field. 
 It is one of the mysteries of Napoleon's character and 
 career that he, who had displayed so much tact and 
 conciliation as First Consul, should finally have treated 
 the Pope with a haughty disdain which culminated in 
 downright persecution. 
 
 The treaty with Rome proved to be the starting 
 point of other enterprises. The first in point of time 
 and of importance was that of the Legion of Honour. 
 In order to understand the significance of this new 
 institution, one must remember that by the constitu- 
 tion of the year 1799 there were some 5,000 Notables 
 of the Nation, chosen by successive winnowings of 
 the adult males of France. They were the elect of 
 the people ; and from among them were to be chosen 
 the legislators and the chief executive officers of the 
 State. Objections had been raised as to the choice of 
 the Notables of the Nation ; but to supersede them 
 was to strike at the system of popular government 
 devised by Sieyes. This, however, is what Bonaparte 
 did. He mooted the proposal of a Legion of Honour 
 
132 NAPOLEON 
 
 in the middle of April 1802, that is, soon after the 
 declaration of peace with England and the proclama- 
 tion of the Concordat. Early in May he charged 
 Roederer to mention it to the Council of State. In 
 his private journal Roederer made a weak and ramb- 
 ling apology for the First Consul and himself, namely, 
 that neither of them foresaw the result of the new pro- 
 posal to be the replacement of the Lists of Notability 
 by a Legion appointed by the First Consul. So far 
 / as concerned Bonaparte this is mere trifling. The 
 '' raison d'etre of the proposal was the substitution of 
 personal choice for popular election; and this soon 
 proved to be the chief outcome of it. Very skilfully 
 Bonaparte represented that the new scheme would 
 give effect to Article 87 of the constitution which 
 promised a system of national rewards for eminent 
 military service. Obviously this article referred to 
 a badge or decoration for bravery or distinguished 
 service in the field; and when Roederer had read out 
 to the Council of State the new proposals, which 
 included rewards for civilians, Mathieu Dumas main- 
 tained that the article referred only to military rewards. 
 Thereupon Bonaparte broke forth into an elabor- 
 ate eulogium of civil qualities as surpassing those of the 
 soldier. He admitted that courage and prowess were 
 all important in the days of feudalism and chivalry; 
 but, said he, in the present age, the qualities needed 
 by a commander were foresight, power of calculation, 
 administrative ability, ready wit, eloquence such as 
 appeals to soldiers, and above all, knowledge of men. 
 All these were civil qualities. He continued thus: "The 
 
THE LAWGIVER 133 
 
 general who is capable of great things is he who 
 possesses the finest civil qualities. He is obeyed and 
 respected on account of his intellectual ability. . . . 
 Take the soldier and separate him from all his civic 
 surroundings, and you have a man who knows no other 
 law but brute force, who judges everything by that 
 standard, and sees nothing beyond it. The civilian, on 
 the contrary, makes the good of the nation his standard. 
 The method of the soldier is to act despotically; that 
 of the civilian is to submit to discussion, to truth, to 
 reason." 
 
 Such are a few outstanding sentences of a remark- 
 able speech, the effect of which is not much lessened 
 by the fact that the opportunity which evoked it 
 seems to have been fully foreseen. Bonaparte's words 
 produced a profound impression on the councillors, 
 who, being nearly all civilians, were delighted to hear 
 the greatest of soldiers place them above the soldiery. 
 They remained silent with admiration, and the First 
 Consul closed the session. Nevertheless, at the next 
 sitting some of them plucked up courage to contest 
 the proposal of a Legion of Honour. The jurist, 5 
 Berlier, said that it would lead straightway to aris- | 
 tocracy : crosses and ribbons were the toys of I 
 monarchy. Bonaparte, after a clever retort at the 
 expense of the Roman Republic and Brutus, boldly 
 declared that men were governed by toys. Ten years 
 of Revolution had not changed the character of the 
 French, who were high-spirited and light-hearted like 
 the Gauls, ready to bow before the stars of foreigners, 
 enamoured of glory and therefore of distinctions. 
 
134 NAPOLEON 
 
 These two speeches ensured the success of the 
 measure. True, ten members present out of twenty- 
 four voted against it; but all but one of the ten not 
 long afterwards accepted either the title of Count or 
 membership in the Legion of Honour.' Other results 
 followed, namely, the abolition of the Lists of Notables 
 in August 1802, and the institution ,0! An. order jof 
 Imperial Nobility in 1806. Napoleon almost certainly 
 had these aims in view when he instituted the Legion 
 of Honour; and by contrast one must admire the con- 
 duct of Washington, who, on becoming President, 
 abolished the Order of Cincinnatus, founded in 1783 
 as a reward for distinguished service in the field. 
 
 By the legislative achievements of the spring and 
 summer of 1802 Bonaparte determined the future of 
 France. She acquiesced in his supremacy; and on 
 2nd August he became First Consul for Life, with 
 power to nominate his successor. At the same time 
 he struck down the Tribunate. Even the illegal action 
 of the "conservative Senate" had failed to stop the 
 criticisms of that body, which greatly annoyed 
 Bonaparte by opposing the Legion of Honour and 
 certain articles of the Civil Code. He inveighed 
 against the Tribunes as " dogs whom I meet every- 
 where;" and again he said "The Tribunate must be 
 divided into sections, and its debates must be secret; 
 then they can babble as much as they like." His wish 
 became law by a Senatus Consultum of 4th August 
 1802, which reduced the Tribunate to fifty members, 
 selected by the Senate, and divided into five sections 
 ' Thibaudeau, p. 146, note. 
 
THE LAWGIVER 135 
 
 debating secretly. On the other hand, he enhanced 
 the power of that subservient body, the Senate, the 
 decrees of which soon took the place of laws passed 
 by the Corps L^gislatif. The Council of State also 
 suiifered by the creation of a Privy Council which 
 usurped many of its functions, and was completely at 
 his disposal. These modifications completed the reac- 
 tion from republicanism to autocracy, and the absorp- 
 tion of " the general will " in the will of Napoleon. 
 
 As a lawgiver, Bonaparte, First Consul, was far 
 greater than Napoleon, Emperor. Not yet had he set 
 himself to crush the least sign of opposition. In the 
 Council of State he seemed to court it. A councillor, 
 Pelet de la Lozere, vividly describes some of its 
 sessions which were enlivened by the presence of the 
 chief. Sometimes he announced his intention of being 
 present; but often the roll of the drums on the stair- 
 case of the Tuilleries gave the first warning of his 
 approach. He entered, preceded by his chamberlain, 
 followed by the aide-de-camp on duty, took his seat 
 on a chair only slightly raised above the level, and 
 invited attention to some proposal, or else listened to 
 the discussion on hand. If it did not interest him, he 
 sank into a deep reverie, or else threw in remarks, 
 not always to the point, but tersely and picturesquely 
 bodying forth his thoughts, either on problems of the 
 present or projects of the future. During these dis- 
 cursive moods, his presence did not expedite the dis- 
 cussions. Often they wandered into by-paths, whence 
 however, no one wished to return, so vivid was the 
 light thrown on the fortunes of France. At other 
 
136 NAPOLEON 
 
 times he elucidated the subject by searching ques- 
 tions that revealed his mental superiority. Of this he 
 was fully conscious, witness the following frank re- 
 mark — " Do you know why I allow so much discus- 
 sion at the Council of State? It is because I am the 
 strongest debater in the whole Council. I let myself 
 be attacked, because I know how to defend myself" ^ 
 As a result of his eager inquisitiveness, the sessions 
 were often very long, even lasting from nine a.m. to 
 five p.m., with only a quarter of an hour for lunch. 
 Towards the end, when other members showed signs 
 of fatigue, he seemed as fresh as ever, and at the time 
 of closing would jocularly pronounce the prorogation 
 most premature. Or again, during the all-night sessions 
 in which he demonstrated his inaccessibility to ordin- 
 ary human weakness, he rallied the nodding members 
 with the words : " Come, Sirs, we have not yet earned 
 our stipends." Sometimes his humour showed itself 
 in a more modest guise. During the debates on the 
 more technical points of the new Civil Code, he spoke 
 with great deference of the aged and experienced 
 jurist, Tronchet. Thus on 15th November 1801, he 
 said : " The words of such a man as Tronchet are 
 authoritative to us all. As for the rest of us, men of 
 the sword or of finance, who are not lawyers but 
 legislators, our opinions are of little consequence. In 
 these discussions I have sometimes said things which 
 a quarter of an hour later I have found were all wrong. 
 I have no wish to pass for being worth more than 
 I really am." There Bonaparte is at his best, un- 
 ■^ Roederer, "Journal," p. 133. 
 
THE LAWGIVER 137 
 
 spoiled as yet by domination and its sinister shadow, 
 flattery. 
 
 In his greatest and most enduring work, the codi- 
 fication of French law, his dominant motive was to 
 harmonize the conflicting ideas of the times of the , 
 Kevafution and of the monarchy. At several points 1 
 he went back to the old customs, as when he insisted j 
 on strengthening the control of the father over the j 
 children, and of the husband over the wife. Here his 
 Corsican notions clashed with those that prevailed 
 during the French Revolution. As we saw, the 
 customs of Corsica allowed a father in extreme cases 
 to kill his son ; and the power of the husband over the 
 wife was almost oriental. The social anarchy of the 
 Revolution favoured a reaction towards the old Roman 
 ideals ; and Bonaparte, profiting by the licence of the 
 Jacobins, now insisted on the complete supremacy of 
 the husband. These were his words : " The husband 
 must have absolute power to say to his wife : ' Madame, 
 you shall not go out: you must not go to the play; 
 you must not meet such and such a person.' " ' The 
 natural retort for a woman of spirit would be — " If 
 you speak so, I will go to the play, and I will meet 
 him." 
 
 At this point, then, we again notice Napoleon's 
 tendency to regulate and control. Surely he should 
 have seen that love, or, failing it, conjugal and per- 
 sonal honour, is the chief safeguard of marriage, and 
 that the multiplication of rules tends to weaken those 
 salutary feelings. But at all points he bore hard on 
 ' Thibaudeau, p. 195. 
 
138 NAPOLEON 
 
 women. In pursuance of his Romanesque notions a 
 wife was debarred from all control of her own and her 
 husband's property; she could not even mortgage it. 
 In other respects women were thrust back into a state 
 of dependence as bad as that imposed by the ancien 
 regime. The mental vacuity needful for the produc- 
 tion of a generation of Griseldas was brought about 
 by a scheme of education which he thus outlined to 
 the Council of State on 20th February 1806: " I do 
 not think we need trouble ourselves with any plan of 
 instruction for young females; they cannot be brought 
 up better than by their mothers. Public education is 
 not suited for them, because they are never called upon 
 to act in public. Manners are all in all to them ; and 
 marriage is all they look to."^ In this sphere the 
 defects of the Code are serious. The position of 
 woman was altered for the worse, so that even now 
 in the countries affected by the Code much must be 
 done in order to endow her with the rights accorded 
 by the laws and customs of the Revolution. At other 
 important points of the Code the influence of Napoleon 
 was reactionary, as in the imposition of unduly heavy 
 penalties or the retention of burdensome statutes. 
 5 Nevertheless, in many ways the Code marked a 
 j great advance. The compromise on the subject of 
 \ divorce was suited to the spirit of the times and the 
 need of reconstituting the family. The near approach 
 to equality of bequest to all the children of a family 
 was also a concession to revolutionary sentiment, 
 though Napoleon foresaw with regret its cramping 
 ' Pelet, p. 202. 
 
THE LAWGIVER 139 
 
 effect on the growth of population. Above all, the 
 Code Napoleon, along with the accompanying Codes 
 of Civil and Criminal Procedure, Penal Law and 
 Commerce, presented a reasoned and harmonious 
 body of statutes, such as had not appeared since the 
 days of Justinian. It did more. For the first time in 
 human society, the poor and unlettered had the 
 chance of knowing what the laws were ; for Napoleon 
 brought to bear on legal phraseology his own habits 
 of clear thinking, with the result that he who ran 
 might read and understand nearly all the articles of 
 the Code — an ideal not yet fully attained by any 
 branch of the practical English race. To some extent 
 the striving after simplicity was carried too far. He 
 himself admitted that this might be the case ; but the 
 danger was not avoided, and clearness of expression 
 was not seldom attained at the risk of completeness 
 of statement or of adaptability to probable contin- 
 gencies. But, when contrasted with the gloom and 
 chaos pervading the laws and feudal customs of Ger- 
 many and Italy, the Code appeared like a social gospel. 
 Well might the Emperor say at St. Helena that his 
 glory consisted, not in having won forty battles, but 
 in the deliberations of the Council of State and in the 
 Code Napoleon. None of his works bears so markedly 
 the imprint of his forceful personality. . 
 
 In no sphere of activity was Bonaparte's activity 
 exercised more characteristically than in regard to 
 National Education. That formative idea had been 
 promulgated by Rousseau in his suggestive novel, 
 
I40 NAPOLEON 
 
 "Emile"; and during the Directory and Consulate 
 Pestalozzi was beginning his quaint experiments at 
 Yverdun, while Robert Owen started an infant school 
 on equally original lines at New Lanark. It is scarcely 
 too much to say that the future of the European 
 nations has been largely determined by their attitude 
 to this great question. What was that of Napoleon? 
 The Jacobins had demolished the semi-monastic 
 system of education prevalent up to 1790. Bonaparte 
 had been trained in it at Brienne,and always spoke with 
 contempt of his teachers, the Minims. In place of the 
 old system the French Convention in 1793 outlined a 
 grand scheme of elementary schools, and central or 
 secondary schools, which should be free in all their 
 grades. Condorcet, who drew up the basic report on 
 this subject, defined the aim of education to be 
 " the cultivation of the physical, intellectual, and 
 moral faculties," so as to contribute to " the general 
 but gradual perfecting of the human race, the final 
 end towards which every social institution should be 
 directed." In the case of promising pupils access to 
 the University was to be facilitated. No country has 
 yet fully attained to the lofty ideal set forth by Con- 
 dorcet in April 1792. Owing to the turmoil of the 
 Revolution and lack of money little could be done to 
 give effect to these generous plans ; and it seems that 
 in 1799 there were in Paris only twenty-four ele- 
 mentary schools, and very few in the Departments. 
 Rather more central schools were to be found; but in 
 them the training was almost wholly scientific and 
 utilitarian. Thus, the grand aim of developing the 
 
THE LAWGIVER 141 
 
 faculties, which had been set forth by Condorcet and 
 other educational reformers, remained an ideal; but 
 with the advent of peace and prosperity during the 
 Consulate some approach to it was to be expected. 
 
 The performance fell far short of the wishes of the 
 friends of progress. Bonaparte did little or nothing \ 
 for elementary education, throwing the responsibility 1 
 for it on local Councils, while the teachers were to be 1 
 paid out of the scholars' fees, a plan destructive of all | 
 respect and discipline."^ As Thibaudeau remarked, it\ 
 seemed that the Government rather feared than en- 
 couraged too much enlightenment among the lower 
 orders, especially in the country. Very different was 
 Bonaparte's attitude towards secondary education. 
 This he furthered, by developing the central schools, 
 either as secondary schools supported by local funds, 
 or as lychs controlled by the Government. The theory 
 of State control had been affirmed by the law of 
 2Sth October 1795; but now it received a further 
 development suited to the new autocratic regime. 
 The curriculum was widened so as to include Classics | 
 and modern languages, while the discipline was almost f 
 military in character. To these lychs he attached as 
 many as 6,400 bourses or scholarships, 4,000 of which 
 went to the most promising pupils of the elementary 
 schools, while the remainder were allotted to the sons 
 of officers and officials. The lycees, therefore, had a 
 decidedly governmental tone, the details of the curri- 
 culum being prescribed by Napoleon on lines some- 
 what less utilitarian than those of the central schools, 
 but adapted to ensure success in some one calling 
 
142 NAPOLEON 
 
 rather than the unfolding of all the mental powers. 
 In regard to the College of St. Cyr and others at- 
 tached to the Prytaneum Bonaparte enjoined special 
 attention to the instruction which "can make good 
 workmen and men useful in the mechanical arts in 
 the public workshops whether of the army or of the 
 navy." The pupils at these schools were by no means 
 restricted to government service, but every care was 
 taken to induce them to enter it.' 
 
 The dependence of public instruction on the Govern- 
 ment was insured by the University of France, an 
 institution which exercised a general control over 
 public instruction. It bears the imprint of the organ- 
 izing instincts of the Emperor. After revolving the 
 matter for some time he mentioned it to the Council 
 of State on 20th February 1806, not long after his 
 return from the campaign of Austerlitz. These were 
 his words : " I wish to create such an establishment 
 for public instruction as may prove a nursery for 
 professors, rectors, and teachers generally, and that 
 they shall be stimulated by high motives. The young 
 men who devote themselves to the cause of education 
 ought to have clearly before them the prospect of 
 rising to the highest oiifices in the State. The base 
 of this great system of education will rest on the 
 college, its superstructure may be found in the Senate. 
 But in order to effect this, the principle of celibacy 
 must be established, at least so far as to preclude 
 marriage before the age of^ 25 or 30." Again on 
 1st March 1806 he said: "My desire is to establish 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," vii, 169 (Nap. to Chaptal, nth June 1801). 
 
THE LAWGIVER 143 
 
 an order, not of Jesuits whose head resides at Rome, 
 but of Jesuits whose sole ambition shall be to make 
 themselves useful and shall have no interest separated 
 from that of the public. . . . There ought to be two 
 distinct classes of masters — one who should teach the 
 pupils, another who should govern them; for these 
 matters require very different talents. It is my wish " 
 (he continued) " to create in France a civil order in 
 society. Heretofore there have existed in the world 
 only two orders, the military and the ecclesiastical. 
 . . . The civil order will be strengthened by the crea- 
 tion of a body of teachers and still more would it be 
 fortified by a large body of magistrates. . . . After 
 all, my chief object in establishing a body of in- 
 structors is that I may possess the means of directing 
 the political and moral opinions of the community." 
 And again on 20th March : " It occurs to me that the 
 corps of instructors may consist of about 10,000 per- 
 sons ; and it seems essential that the members of the 
 University — since that is to be its name — shall have 
 the exclusive right of teaching, and that they shall be 
 sworn in." ^ 
 
 In pursuance of these aims, the University of 
 France came into existence in 1808, an oath of 
 obedience being required from all its members, even 
 from teachers in the schools. They swore to obey 
 " the laws of the teaching body, which have as their 
 object the uniformity of instruction, and which tend 
 to form for the State citizens attached to their re- 
 
 ^ Pelet, pp. 199-204. See, too, Aulard, " Napoldon et le 
 Monopole universitaire." 
 
144 NAPOLEON 
 
 ligion, their prince, their country and their family." 
 Evidently this was quite as much a political as an 
 educational body. It gave effect to the earlier wish of 
 Napoleon to secure fixity in politics by means of 
 instruction based on established principles. ..." So 
 long as the people " (these were his words) " are not 
 taught from their earliest years, whether they ought 
 to be Republicans or Royalists, Christians or Infidels, 
 the State cannot properly be called a nation; for it 
 must rest on a foundation which is vague and uncer- 
 tain ; and it will be for ever exposed to disorders and 
 fluctuations." 
 
 How pathetic a trust in the omnipotence of law and 
 
 the pliability of mankind ! He regarded the people as 
 
 so much molten steel to be poured into his moulds, 
 
 ^ thereby assuming for ever the imprint of his will. 
 
 ] Energy like this accomplishes wonders after a time of 
 
 f upheaval; for mankind detests anarchy. Therefore, 
 
 I by retaining the best of the old order and adapting 
 
 1 it to the newer needs, the great organizer can 
 
 speedily form a kosmos out of chaos. But he must 
 
 beware of excess of zeal. Over-elaboration is a vice 
 
 to which vigorous minds are often prone; and the 
 
 I subsequent history of France emphasizes the need of 
 
 avoiding that pyramidal symmetry of construction 
 
 which almost precludes change in the future. This is 
 
 the chief defect of the Code Napoleon and of the 
 
 University of France. The prefectal system and the 
 
 I Concordat are open to the same general criticism. For 
 
 * they involve a system of State control which, with all 
 
 I its clearness and efficiency, is neither easily adapt- 
 
THE LAWGIVER 145 
 
 able to the changing conditions of modern life, nor f 
 calculated to develop individual initiative in the exe- I 
 cutants. 
 
 The legislative achievements of Napoleon are im- 
 mense. They, not the coup d'etat of Brumaire, closed 
 the Revolution ; and in this sense his assertion at St. 
 Helena, that he had destroyed the Revolution, is 
 correct' He destroyed it by satisfying the human 
 cravings which started that great movement. With 
 his wide knowledge of history, and the practical good 
 sense characteristic of his early manhood, he brought 
 about a compromise between the past and the present 
 .which met the needs of France in that generation ; 
 and aftei^ a decade of turmoil she hailed his work 
 with enthusiasm. 
 
 Nevertheless, it has its defects; and in the main 
 they correspond to those of his own nature. An 
 excess of eagerness and forcefulness appears at many 
 points of his career, and not least in his legisla- 
 tion. It gripped France fast as in an administrative 
 vice. He left nothing to the judgement of posterity; 
 and this is a serious defect ; for the efforts even of the 
 master-builders are feeble when compared with the ; 
 instincts of the race and the needs of succeeding ages. I 
 The model of a lawgiver should be a tree, not a ' 
 pyramid. Burke, in his " Reflections on the French I 
 Revolution," uttered this sage warning: " The nature 
 of man is intricate: the objects of society are of the 
 greatest possible complexity ; and therefore no single 
 disposition or direction of power can be suitable 
 ^ Lady Malcolm, " A Diary of St. Helena," p. 102. 
 L 
 
146 NAPOLEON 
 
 either to man's nature or to the quality of his affairs." ' 
 Well would it have been for Napoleon and for France 
 if he had realized the impossibility of meeting the 
 ever-changing requirements of a great people. His 
 legislation, while losing in symmetry, would have 
 gained in beneficence, had he felt the reverence for 
 the verdict of posterity which consecrated the genius 
 of Burke. As it was, Napoleon subjected the French 
 nature, then flaccid from perpetual change, to a too 
 sudden consolidation. True, he imparted to that 
 nation a firmness which rendered possible magnificent 
 exploits in the present, but at the cost of adaptability 
 and expansion in the future. 
 
 His self-sufficiency suffers by comparison with the 
 dignified self-suppression, the hopeful outlook on the 
 future, characteristic of the Athenian lawgiver, Solon. 
 He, living in a time of turmoil and faction, when 
 Athens had not won a definite position in Greece 
 assured her future by just laws, which, so far as we 
 know, were enacted solely by persuasive methods. 
 He lessened the power of the nobles and called the 
 people to political responsibility. He promoted edu- 
 cation of an enlightened type, but was careful to 
 leave it unfettered by the State. He also mitigated 
 the penal code of Draco, and lessened the hitherto 
 unlimited authority of the father over his children. 
 The laws of Solon everywhere bespeak a belief in 
 human nature, a resolve to trust to its higher in- 
 stincts, a reliance upon persuasion rather than force; 
 and after his year of office as archon, he is said to 
 ^ Burke, " Reflections," p. 72 (Mr. Payne's edit.). 
 
THE LAWGIVER 147 
 
 have travelled abroad in order that Athens might 
 more freely make trial of his laws during the ten 
 years in which nothing could be changed. After that 
 time the city was free to modify them according to 
 the teachings of experience. In these respects, Solon 
 stands forth as the ideal lawgiver, trusting in the 
 higher instincts of mankind, inducing the Athenians 
 to enter an ever-broadening path of political develop- 
 ment, and evincing by his own conduct a disin- 
 terestedness which is the choicest flower of civic 
 virtue. 
 
 Napoleon, coming to the front at a time of politicaH 
 reaction, scoffed at those who thought much about | 
 succeeding generations ; and in his resolve to meet all j , 
 the needs of the present, he stamped his personality J! 
 too deeply on the life of France. He organized it 
 swiftly, ably, and in a way that told for marvellous 
 efficiency at the time, though at the cost of that 
 flexibility which is the pledge of continuous progress. 
 He made France the compact, self-contained organism | 
 which was the envy of Europe in 1812, though she is 
 less able to meet the varied needs of 191 2. Such is 
 the judgement of many of her most gifted sons, who 
 feel somewhat cramped by the steel framework of 
 the Napoleonic system. But enough of criticism. It 
 is rarely the case that a statesman can meet the 
 needs both of the present and of the future. And we 
 may freely concur in Napoleon's words uttered at 
 St. Helena: "I filled up the gulf of anarchy and 
 unravelled chaos. I purified the Revolution, raised 
 the people, and strengthened monarchy." 
 
LECTURE V 
 
 THE EMPEROR 
 
 " Quand on veut fortement, constamment, on rdussit toujours " 
 (Napoleon to Paradisi, 3rd July 1805). 
 
 NOT long after- hris-FetH-rn-- from tbe-campaign 
 of Marengo Napoleon reaiaxked.JiiaiJiis,^ower 
 rested on the imagination of the Ffgnch^-This was 
 largely true. He alone of all the leaders of the Revo- 
 lution since the time of Mirabeau had thrilled the 
 French nature. His victories, the artistic trophies 
 which he sent from Italy, the proclamations which 
 set tingling the blood of civilians and soldiers, the 
 advantageous terms which he extorted from Austria 
 and Great Britain, the hopes held out by him of 
 /"wresting from hated Albion the empire of the sea, 
 i and the golden prospect of a world-wide dominion, 
 i served to inflame the brain of France, so that within 
 I the years 1796- 1802 it recurred to the ideals of the 
 :' reign of Louis XIV. At heart the French were no 
 i longer Republicans; they were /a grande nation. 
 \ Bonaparte alone had brought about this change; and 
 ; therefore he alone could be head of the French mon- 
 ■ archy of the future. 
 
 Yet there was another side to this question. Pas- 
 quier, Roederer, and others who recked little of con- 
 quests far afield, provided that Frenchmen might 
 
 148 
 
THE EMPEROR 149 
 
 gain peace at home, held that his rule rested on 
 a utilitarian basis. "You have on your side" (said 
 Roederer in July 1800) "their reason, the feeling of 
 their interests, their needs, but no enthusiasm. . . . 
 The cheers you have heard are nothing in comparison 
 with those which Lafayette aroused in 1789 and 1790, 
 though he had done nothing solid for the public weal. 
 Then it was that imagination held sway. To-day it 
 is only the intimate feeling of your usefulness, of your 
 necessity, which acts upon the French." ' If this truth 
 had struck home, it would have altered the career of 
 Napoleon and the history of the world. In that case 
 he would have figured as a greater Mirabeau, recon- 
 ciling the instincts of old France with the aspirations 
 of new France; and she, resting under his aegis, would 
 not have heard those fateful names, Friedland.Wagram, 
 and Borodino. Perhaps he would have been satisfied 
 to remain First Consul for life with power to nominate 
 his successor, taking as his model Washington, rather 
 than Alexander the Great or Caesar. 
 
 These remarks imply that Napoleon could have 
 curbed his will and his imagination, a difficult task, 
 but far from impossible; for in early years the ob- 
 jective cast of his thoughts provided a serviceable 
 check to his soaring fancy. The following sentences 
 of his letter of 7th October 1797 to Talleyrand go far 
 to explain his rapid rise to power: " It_is_ only with 
 prudeace.wiad£ti]3u.aiixLgreatjd.exterity that obstacles. . 
 
 ^ Roederer, "Journal," p. 9. In 1797, on Bonaparte remarking 
 to Sieyfes : " J'ai fait la grande nation," there came the retort, 
 " C'est parceque nous avions d'abord fait la nation." 
 
ISO NAPOLEON 
 
 are_surmouiitei-and.impoj-taiit-enda.attaia6d,-...^ffl£, 
 triumph to a fall there is only one step. . . . I_S£gjio^ 
 impo'siibility iri'aISimng"inirt[^J^oufse~(5f a few years 
 those splendid results^ of wJHch th eneated and' e n- 
 thusiastic imagination catches a glimpse, but which 
 the ejftremely cool, persevering, anS .aCfiUiate. nian 
 alone can grasp." How strange that the young con- 
 queror of Italy, who w;rote those words, siiouIH~fifteen 
 years later fling away his army in the campaign of 
 IMoscow! , -<--"- 
 
 The proclamation of the French Empire in May 
 1804, which opened the more grandiose period of 
 Napoleon's career, came as a shock to very many 
 Frenchmen who had believed in the disinterestedness 
 of the First Consul. Carnot voted against the change 
 and then retired into exile. Truguet, the admiral in 
 command of the Brest fleet, refused to sign the ad- 
 dress in favour of the Imperial title, and was deprived 
 of his post. Among the troops at Metz and Boulogne 
 there was some grumbling, many officers, e.g., Mac- 
 donald and Thi^bault, signing only in order to escape 
 annoyance. The exclusion of certain famous names 
 from the list of the new marshals and the inclusion 
 of Bessi^res proved that distinguished service counted 
 for little unless accompanied by political subservi- 
 ence. At Metz Roederer found the troops and the 
 townsfolk in a state of silent irritation, deeming the 
 execution of the Due d'Enghien a political murder, 
 and the condemnation of Moreau a piece of personal 
 malice. They refused to be comforted by the assur- 
 ance that the change to the Empire was only a change 
 
THE EMPEROR iji 
 
 of name, and made reply: "Why, then, are we not 
 spared the needless shame of destroying appearances 
 and titles which at least preserved for us the honour 
 of a kind of consistency and held off the reproach of 
 a stupid contradiction to our past? " ^ 
 
 These and other proofs which might be cited refute 
 Napoleon's assertion at St. Helena that it was impos- 
 sible in France to figure as a Washington." Every 
 intelligent Frenchman wished him to assume that role, 
 which could have been peaceful after the year 1801. 
 The resentment of a great part of France at the as- 
 sumption of the Imperial title was destined to strain her 
 relations to Napoleon. True, as Emperor, he had the 
 support of the great majority of Frenchmen, because 
 he guaranteed them against a Bourbon Restoration, 
 and its sequel, class distinctions, feudal dues, tithes, 
 and a resumption of landed property by the Church 
 and the nobles. B ut, intelligent men mnld nnt 'iee 
 why he needed t o become Emperor in order to keep 
 
 out I-Hp Bniii-hnnc; QnJy-tKngp wVin wpi-p 'itt-ff]y_ior-^ 
 norant of, .his J^npring amhil-inn a.nd rnflevihlf; jj/ilj 
 could- 'TlSginr ^'""^ .fca-ca^^ -playing \\]^ p^^-^ pf R 
 
 General ..MfiJlk, and ..t£.callin^_ Loui s X V H I . So far 
 back as the close of 1799 he had made that perfectly 
 clear to two Royalists of the West of France, Hyde 
 de Neuville and d' Andignd : " Take the side of glory. 
 Come under my flag," he said to them, " my govern- 
 ment will be the government of youth and intellect." 
 Andign^ gave an impatient shrug of the shoulders 
 
 ' Roederer, " Journal," p. 198. 
 
 ' Las Cases, " Memorial," i, 467-469. 
 
iS2 NAPOLEON 
 
 and replied : " Our place is elsewhere." Whereupon 
 the First Consul remarked : "What! Would you blush 
 to wear the uniform of Bonaparte? . . . What, then, 
 do you want in order to end the civil war? " " Two 
 things," answered Hyde; " Louis XVIII as legitimate 
 King of France, and Bonaparte to cover her with 
 glory." The First Consul smiled, but assured them 
 he would never recall the Bourbons; and when he 
 failed to move them, he cried out in a passion : " I 
 will burn your towns and your cottages." ^ . . . This 
 was invariably his tone. Not one sign did he ever 
 give that he would sacrifice the Republic to the old 
 dynasty. 
 
 Accordingly, Cambac^res and others who knew him 
 well deeply resented the sacrifice of the Republic to 
 his own aggrandizement. The new Emperor was 
 aware of this feeling, and therefore felt a certain dis- 
 trust, which in its turn begat a haughtiness of tone 
 alien to the happier days of the Consulate. Gorgeous 
 fetes, showers of new dignities, flamboyant proclama- 
 tions against "perfidious Albion," the concentration 
 of the national energies on the fleet and the Boulogne 
 flotilla, public works of great utility and splendour, 
 all served to divert public attention and hide the dis- 
 trust; but it was never wholly stifled. During the 
 campaign of 1806 in Prussia, Mollien, Minister of the 
 Public Treasure, sought to find out the real state of 
 mind of leading Frenchmen. He noticed that after the 
 victory at Jena, many who had previously prophesied 
 disaster and called Frederick William of Prussia the 
 ' Hyde de Neuville, " Mdms.," p. 372. 
 
THE EMPEROR 153 
 
 avenger of the world's liberty, afterwards declared 
 that God himself had strengthened Napoleon to be 
 the champion of the sanctity of treaties. Not that 
 those would-be manipulators of Providence desired 
 the return of the Bourbons ; they merely looked ahead 
 to a time when Napoleon should have fallen, and (says 
 MoUien), " held their devotion in reserve on behalf of 
 the next Government, whatever it might be." ' There 
 is a world of meaning in that phrase. A prominent 
 Frenchman made the shrewd remark about Napo- 
 leon III: "Celui-ci est condamn^ d'etre brillant." 
 Much the same necessity was laid upon the First 
 Napoleon; and his vivid fancy magnified the need 
 until it became the master motive of his life. 
 
 During several years the experiment completely 
 succeeded; and in the land of the Revolution its 
 " heir " was able to carry anti-Republican measures. 
 Thus he instituted a commission of senators, in order 
 to watch over the liberty of the Press, which suc- 
 ceeded in completely enchaining it. Another com- 
 mission safeguarded individual liberty, while in the 
 prisons were many who were detained solely at the 
 fiat of the Emperor. As Pasquier well remarks, Napo- 
 leon upheld in its entirety only one part of revolu- 
 tionary law, that which concerned the lands confis- 
 cated in and after the year 1789.^ 
 
 It is the nature of autocracy to become more self- 
 centred ; and a masterful character expands with every 
 new conquest. Napoleon's Ministers and the members 
 
 ' Mollien, " Mdms.," ii, 90 (edit, of 1845). 
 ^ Pasquier, "Mems.," i, 225. 
 
154 NAPOLEON 
 
 of the Council of State soon had cause to observe the 
 influence of the Imperial dignity on his character and 
 bearing. His use of the term, "subjects ".instead. of 
 " citizens " was significant ; and in succeeding months, 
 especially after receiving the holy qi},jrora_the Pope 
 at the coronation, he introduced., ra4ji;ft,_elaborate 
 ceremonies at Court and treated, old coAiasellors with 
 reserve. While placing in high stations Cambacdr^s, 
 Talleyrand, and Fouch6, he kept them in check by 
 fanning their mutual dislikes, and often dealt out- 
 rageous rebukes for trifling indiscretions. As for the 
 Council of State, where formerly he discussed matters 
 frankly, it became more and more a Court regis- 
 tering his mandates or the Senatus Consulta under 
 which they were thinly disguised. After his return 
 from Tilsit he evinced an especially dominating mood. 
 Mollien describes Napoleon's methods of overbearing 
 objections which occurred during the debates in the 
 Council of State. At such times (says Mollien) " he 
 armed his polemic with the most urgent arguments, 
 and in some cases with the bitterest censure, and 
 almost always with a flood of objections impossible 
 to foresee, still more so to combat, because the attempt 
 to catch hold of the thread would have been as vain 
 as to break it. He ended most of these confabula- 
 tions (as Talleyrand termed them) by asking those 
 who had held aloof if he was not right, and in this 
 case he always succeeded in finding every reason 
 submitting to his own. Sometimes also, after digres- 
 sions of two hours in which he alone spoke, he would 
 say, pointing to his chair and casting a look of good- 
 
THE EMPEROR 155 
 
 natured irony on his auditors, ' Confess that it is easy 
 to be clever on such a seat as this.'" On the other 
 hand he rarely nursed resentment against those who 
 opposed him ; and, on hearing that a certain council- 
 lor was still smarting under the reproaches levelled at 
 him, remarked: "He is quite wrong; for I scarcely 
 remember the affair." ' 
 
 This is characteristic of Napolep n. Hf. iparel y di s- 
 played the personal animosity to which a small and . 
 peevish nature is prone. In the main he was so coro- 
 pletely sure of his own superiority as. tQ ris e far abov e 
 the spitefulness which chara cterized ^ say, the dealings 
 of George HI with ■ Chatham joLRotiefipisrrg^with 
 Danton, or of Frederick William HI with Stein. 
 Napnleon _had the failings of ? " im-pngp 3^^, rfii'ip1"tp 
 nature, hut. in his,.b.£St.-iia3a Jl£..was free from the 
 pettinesses of weaker nien,_2JLi5ilHg5ll2QabkJKhje±he^ 
 he took enough Jntereat;«i- .pxeji^, JX,erJ_o_ feel .deegl^, 
 about them. For the most part he regarded them as 
 the instruments of his will, valuing,,lhfixn in propor- 
 tion to their efficiency, sharpening__their edge by_ap- 
 peals to love of France or s^..gi9XY^kpMHgSpM?^ 
 hard, but not so hard as he worked himself, and throw- 
 ing them aside on proof of incom£etence._He. did riot 
 hate them, any more , than one .liates a blunt-kuife. 
 H e sharpened it, or threw it aw ay. On one occasion 
 he soundly rated his Minister, Champagny, for not 
 having ready a report which involved long and arduous 
 researches in the Archives. On Champagny explain- 
 ing that the chief archivist, Hauterive, was ill, Napo- 
 1 Mollien, " M6ms.," ii, 221-223. 
 
iS6 NAPOLEON 
 
 leon turned about sharply towards a councillor who 
 was suffering terribly from the gout, and said, with an 
 untranslateable phrase: " Welt, -wh-en- Glerka-.axe_ ill, 
 they go to the hospital, and one gets others." ' In 
 fact he resolved to work everyone at_hi£li_£ressure 
 for the glory of France and the aggjandizemgnt of 
 his power. He regarded public policy as a magnifie d 
 game of chess, necessitating keen foresight,4irQ£ound 
 calculation, and inflexible resolve. The m en we re 
 pieces; thej^zejfi^§„_sji^&[]d£jia9m^ 
 
 The spread over Europe of the Napoleonic Empire, 
 seems to us now almost like the rise of the phantom 
 city limned by the genius of Milton : 
 
 Anon out of the earth a fabric huge 
 Rose like an exhalation. 
 
 We can explain the miracle on]y by t he impet uous 
 energy and many-sided ability. of -the-maste£:^ilder 
 and his unequalled power of drawing thejitmagtjrom 
 all his subordinates. Working often twelyg to sixteen 
 hours a day, gulping down his dinner "in twenty min- 
 utes, and finding as much rest in an hour spent in a 
 hot bath as ordinary men did in three or four Koufs 
 of sleep, he toiled with the intense actiyity ,and_con;; 
 centrated will-,ppwer nowadays needed. by.Jlje ,cori^ 
 troller of a great system of trusts. .H^love^wOTkj^As 
 his secretary, Meneval, remarked : " The devouring ac- 
 tivity of his brain, which never found enough material 
 on which to work, and kept growing in proportion to 
 
 ' Chaptal, " Souvenirs," p. 360. 
 
THE EMPEROR 157 
 
 the multi£licityof busines s, used to suffice for everv - 
 t_hing^ Napoleon said to Has Cases'at'St Helena: 
 ^" W3c k^[|jmyj elej ppt,for wy T was hnrn find fitted ■ 
 ^I have To^d the limits ofpower of ,m y legs and of 
 my_a^ es^ I h ave never di sfinvpreHjjl^o,';^ nf my ..pcuM^r 
 o f-wprk. So r was near killing that poor M^neval. I 
 had to replace him and send him to recruit with Marie 
 Louise, in whose service his employment was a mere 
 sinecure." ' 
 
 Th ese powers, directed by a keen and well-traine d 
 mind, and--propelledJiy_a_d£Lexminedj6yj,l^_enjWe 
 him to^fapple-withall- the. details of a vast adminis- 
 tration ■;_.saJitaiJie_becanie_the_original of St^Simon's 
 " crownedjcdustdalr" repla.diigjEeujdaLaanuwaess.-a^ 
 courtL3i_nonchalanceJx)La-wi3iJd:£mbra£ir^^ 
 cnrnpejljng jptelligfinre. Compare Napoleon's Gov/ 
 ernment with the distracting dualism prevalent at 
 Berlin up to 1807, or with Hapsburg pedantries, or 
 British conservatism, and the marvel of the Napoleonic 
 supremacy is explained. It is the supremacy of reason 
 over tradition, of energy over supineness. I 
 
 The -motives-en^whieb- he^relied .for. securing en^ 
 thusiastic --service— were patriQ|ism^__devotio.ri „tQ- Jiish 
 person , Itrve" of '^loryj-awdria-'the Ja&t, resort, ieasr— I- 
 need sayTTO*l»ing«afe©iAtthe patriotismpf the French. _ 
 It was never more ardent than after the triumphs of 
 the revolutionary arms ; and Napoleori became the 
 
 ' Mdneval, " Mdms.," i, 405 ; Las Cases, " Memorial," vi, 272 
 (25th September 1816). 
 
iS8 NAPOLEON 
 
 magnet attracting this errant entliusiasm. 
 characteristic of a powfirfiiLliat 
 ,! devotion; and never has man-beea-scuksotedlhj^erved 
 ( . as Napoleon. That sentiment throbs in every page of 
 the Memoirs of M^neval. On one occasion the Em- 
 peror unjustly accused him of frequenting the masked 
 ball of the Opera and another resort where his -op- 
 ponents were to be found. He chid him harshly for 
 this, but, seeing his secretary neither blench nor falter, 
 again accorded his unlimited confidence, which Mene- 
 val faithfully repaid. Sweet-tempered, quiet, and ex- 
 tremely reserved, he was iitted by nature to be the 
 dog-like companion of a man of genius; and a con- 
 vincing proof of the greatness of Napoleon lies in the 
 uniformly favourable estimate left by his secretary. 
 As for the devotion of the troops, it littered the half 
 of Europe with their bones, from Cadiz to Moscow. 
 But there are two incidents of special pathos recorded 
 by officers who took part in the Moscow campaign. 
 f The due de Fezensac, aide-de-camp to Berthier, re- 
 ( lates that, while the Grand Army was half-starving at 
 i Moscow, Napoleon held a review at the Kremlin, and 
 I the men pulled themselves together so pluckily and 
 I presented so fine an appearance as completely to 
 hide their misery. Indeed, the aspect of the army 
 was such as to convince him that with such troops he 
 could go anywhere and do anything. The other in- 
 cident refers to the ghastly scenes of the retreat from 
 the Beresina to Vilna. Sergeant Bourgogne relates 
 that, when men were perishing nightly by the in- 
 i sufficient camp-fires, some would hand sticks to Nape- 
 
THE EMPEROR 159 
 
 Icon's servants, with the words, " Take them for the 
 Emperor." ' 
 
 Napoleon's personality and his phenomenal energy\ 
 were a constant appeal for civic devotion. Take these ] 
 thrilling words to his young brother Jerome Bona- 
 parte at the beginning of his naval career: 
 die yetuag ^hnt-jxat if 4auju.hay£ Ji ^ed-withQut-gl-orv. 
 useless to the-tatkedaadj^Pi^JS-^ving no trace of your 
 existence ; for that is not to have lived at all.'' Then 
 agam, when Jerome left "ETs'^ship without permission, 
 in order to marry Miss Paterson of Baltimore, Napo- 
 leon's wrath was kindled as much by the breach of 
 naval discipline as by the misalliance. Ordering that 
 the bride should at once be sent back to America, he 
 wrote thus to Madame Mere about the bridegroom: 
 " I shall treat this young man severely if he shows 
 himself unworthy of the name he bears, during the 
 only interview I shall grant him, if he persists in 
 carrying on his liaison. If he shows no inclination to 
 wash away the dishonour with which he has stained 
 my name by forsaking his country's flag on land and 
 sea, for the sake of a wretched woman, I will cast him 
 off" for ever. I may make him an example which will 
 teach young soldiers the sacredness of their duty, and 
 the enormity of the crime they commit when they for- 
 sake their flag for a woman." ^ We cannot but pity 
 the young bride, whose future was thus cruelly blighted; 
 but much may be said in defence of Napoleon's action 
 
 ^ Fezensac, "Campagne de Russie," ch. iii; Bourgogne, 
 " M^ms.," ch. viii. 
 ^ Lecestre, "Lettres inddites de Nap.," i, 48. 
 
i6o NAPOLEON 
 
 in upholding the laws of France and the discipline of 
 the navy, which Jerome had broken. 
 
 The standard and the eagle were held up to special 
 veneration. The grant of the colours to the troops 
 was the occasion of a magnificent display early in the 
 Empire. It always took place with klat. Early in the 
 campaign of 1813 a recruit felt the inspiration that 
 thrilled in Napoleon's words, when, rising in his stir- 
 rups, he hurled at the regiment the appeal to swear to 
 defend the colours. " I felt, as we all felt, that he 
 snatched from our very navel the cry — 'Yes; we 
 swear.' " Owing to this spirit of devotion to the flag, 
 regiments let themselves be cut up rather than sur- 
 render the symbol of their own and their country's 
 honour; witness the splendid fight made by the 14th 
 line regiment at Eylau when cut off from its supports 
 and left standing alone on a hillock with swarms of 
 Cossacks around ; ' or the even more marvellous de- 
 fence of a battalion of Breton National Guards, at la 
 F^re Champenoise in 18 14, against repeated charges 
 of cavalry, until they were finally cut to pieces rather 
 than surrender. Such exploits betoken superhuman 
 bravery ; and it is this which in the last resort wins 
 battles. In November 1806 the citizens of Berlin 
 looked with astonishment at the little fellows of 
 Davout's corps who had beaten the splendid Prussian 
 Guards, physically far their superior, not knowing 
 
 ^ Marbot's " Memoirs," ch. xxix. I do not credit Marbot's 
 account of his ride out to the 14th and back, when a whole bat- 
 talion of the Old Guard opened fire on him and failed to hit 
 either him or his mare ! 
 
THE EMPEROR i6i 
 
 that, apart from generalship, it is the spirit pervading 
 the army which makes its fighting power. As Napo- 
 leon said: " I n vf&r mor ale and opinion are-lllQllfi.ti^'^"^ 
 half t^ batt je/^ 
 
 These considerations explain the fury of the Em- 
 peror at a capitulation. After a naval encounter little 
 creditable to his flag, he declared in burning words 
 that a navy was mere timber and hemp unless officers 
 and men were animated by sentiments of honour lead- 
 ing them to die rather than accept a rebuff. Again, to 
 Decr^s, Minister of Marine, he burst out with the in- 
 vective: "Your Villeneuve is not fit to command a 
 frigate," because Villeneuve after the action of 22nd 
 July 1805 off Cape Finisterre did not struggle on 
 towards Boulogne, but put back to Cadiz. Still more 
 terrible was his rage at hearing of the first great dis- 
 aster to the French arms on land, the surrender of 
 General Dupont with 22,800 men to the Spaniards at 
 Baylen on 21st July 1808. He might well be angry. 
 Hitherto he had believed the Spanish rising of 1808 
 to be the work of monks, peasants, and a few hot- 
 heads in the towns. Bessi^res' victory at Medina da 
 Rio Seco, a week before, had seemed to him the end 
 of the rebellion. " No battle," so he wrote to Bessi- 
 eres, "was ever gained in more important circum- 
 stances: it decides matters in Spain." ° And now 
 Baylen upset everything. " Read these documents," 
 he wrote to Clarke, Minister of War, " and you will 
 see that from the beginning of the world there never 
 was anything so stupid, so silly, so cowardly. This 
 
 » " Nap. Corresp.," xix, 570. " Ibid., xvii, 401. 
 
 M 
 
i62 NAPOLEON 
 
 justifies the Macks, the Hohenlohes, etc. I wish to 
 know what tribunals are to try these generals, and 
 what punishments the laws inflict on such a crime." 
 In order to exact punishment from Dupont and his 
 chief officers, he went to the Council of State with a 
 decree regulating the procedure of the court-martial. 
 He spoke to the Council vehemently, with the tears 
 in his eyes, enumerating the resources open to that 
 unfortunate general even in the last desperate mo- 
 ments ; and then he exclaimed : " Yes, the elder 
 Horace, in Corneille's play, is right, when, being asked 
 what his flying son could have done (in the fight one 
 against three) he says: ' He might have died '; or, he 
 adds, ' he might have called a noble despair to his 
 rescue.' Little," continued Napoleon, " do they know 
 of human nature who find fault with Corneille, and 
 pretend that he has weakened the eff'ect of the first 
 exclamation by that which follows." ' These examples 
 of heroism, together with the disgrace attending sur- 
 render, produced the soldiery glorified by Heine in 
 «' The Two Grenadiers." In real life they stand forth 
 on the slope of la Belle Alliance on the night of 
 i8th June 1815, animated by Cambronne's immortal 
 words: " The Guard dies and does not surrender." 
 
 Where NaDoleon_ could not insp ire „de:^ ion he 
 -str uck kat, He had the poor -opinion of luunanjllttiii'e 
 which prevails among politicians.; and we must re- 
 member that at the close of a violent Revolution men 
 show their worst side. -The-bullies, and-iatngUfi£S_are 
 apt to come out at the top, vaulting overjthdrjnore 
 ' Pelet, op. cit., p. 9 ; Corneille, " Horace," act. iii, sc. 6. 
 
THE EMPEROR 163 
 
 virtuous and consistent comrades. Napoleon .Iiad \ 
 lived through that time, which, ^s we saw,-sapped4 
 the idealism- of his youth and imbued- him with-hapd.4 
 and cynical notions. T henceforth he sought to find j 
 out th£..weak and b ad points of.m en.-andJn-££neral | 
 h e -exaggerated them^ As a Councillor of State ob- 
 served, " Napoieonjfliokitig dQKQiJi:2m.ifa,ajagfeha.^tt 
 
 which he had, teachedr. thou gfat ^he resLujjLmaokiad 
 smaller ^han they rea lly were; and this-was the cause 
 of his downfall." There is a deep truth in this.- A_ 
 man who desjiises. the iiumaEL race JSiiJI, eaadby^liaEk,.. 
 atipi^L^ ~*^~ ^ ' " """^ 
 
 There was somethinginthe countenanceof Napoleon 
 which produced fear, or at least apprehension. He 
 could be gracious, charming; but the change to a 
 frown on that serene brow, to a flash of anger from 
 those caressing eyes, came with southern suddenness, 
 so that the most prudent were ever on their guard, 
 and the strongest felt a presentiment of lurking dan- 
 ger. One of the English travellers detained at Nancy 
 by Napoleon's orders described his face as denoting 
 good sense and mildness, though accompanied by 
 haughtiness. Theeyes_expressed jprofound meditation. 
 But on Napoleon's return to Paris some ten weeks later, 
 after the campaign of Austerlitz, his look and bearing 
 betok^ed arrogance so visibly as to daunt all the 
 bystanders, the victor being clearly resolved to keep 
 the people at arm's length.* 
 
 A similar change occurred after all his great cam- 
 paigns: and at the climax of the Empire all the 
 '■ W. T. Williams, "State of France" (1802-6), ii, 130. 
 
i64 NAPOLEON 
 
 ingenuity of courtiers went to gratifying the whims 
 of the master. Alexandre Duval has described how, 
 during the reading of a drama to a circle of the friends 
 of Queen Hortense in her salon, they were startled by 
 the entrance of Napoleon, unannounced. At once the 
 company sprang up, and, forming a line, stood at at- 
 tention with all the promptitude of a company of 
 troops. One of the Marshals also confessed to a feel- 
 ing of terror at Court, so soon as the cry " L'Emper- 
 eur," was raised. His feelings were not exceptional ; 
 for he knew several " fine fellows " who trembled in 
 all their limbs on these occasions. General Vandamme, 
 a very swashbuckler, confessed that in the presence of 
 Napoleon he lost command of himself and became a 
 prey to feelings of confusion which were the nearest 
 approach he knew to fear. Finally^ note the following 
 incident as typical^of JiapoLeoja's influsH£&„avi£3Ee~ 
 other sex. At the Court at Dresden in May 1812 
 when he marched before the line of bowing ladies, 
 the gentlemen who stood behind them noticed that, 
 as the great man passed along, a deep flush of agita- 
 tion spread from shoulder to shoulder, producing, so ■ 
 we may conjecture, a picturesque crescendo and 
 , diminuendo in carmine.^ 
 
 Ultimately it proved to be a misfortune for Napoleon 
 that he inspired so general an apprehension. A 
 masterful nature is the better for intelligent and manly 
 criticism. Mme. de Stael early saw that Bonaparte 
 respected an outspoken opponent. So far back as the 
 year 1798 she noted an instance in which he was taken 
 ' Vandal, "Napoleon et Alexandre I," iii, 418. 
 
THE EMPEROR 165 
 
 aback by a spirited answer. Going up to a lady in 
 the Salon, who was admired for her beauty and 
 vivacity, he said with singular frankness : " Madame, 
 I do not like women meddling with politics." " You 
 are right. General," she replied; "but in a country 
 where their heads are cut off, they naturally want to 
 know why." Bonaparte made no reply. " He is a man," 
 continued Mme. de Stael, " who is quieted by real 
 resistance : those who have endured his despotism are 
 as much to blame as he himself is." ^ There is a deep 
 truth in this. Firm opposition calls forth the best 
 qualities of a strong man. Failing to meet with op- 
 position, he is apt to run to excess. Now, as we saw 
 in Lecture I, Napoleon could at need display surpris- 
 ing self-command even under great provocation. On 
 such occasions probably astonishment held him spell- 
 bound in the first moments, thus giving time for the 
 play of the sentiment of justice which generally pre- 
 scribed his conduct; for, as he once said: " I may be 
 
 a hard_man;butaJ„b2ttgmXam^jus^^ 
 moderating influence was a strong man^ adjniration 
 for strength in others. With his keen sense o f persona l 
 honour, h e could not but respect the same sentime nt, 
 in those, whom -he annoyed: and , always regarding 
 men As_in^tEu.mea.ts-ihr_his . .service, he sought to enlist 
 the ir enthus iastic support. Well would it have been 
 for him and for Europe if he had met with the same 
 courageous opposition in his Council Chamber. But 
 it was the bane of France that the Revolution killed 
 off the most consistent and courageous leaders, leaving 
 ' Mme. de Stael, " La Rev. Frangaise," bk. iii, ch. xv. 
 
i66 NAPOLEON 
 
 behind only men of the second rank or mere trim- 
 mers. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the Council of State 
 ever wholly acquiesced in this administrative despot- 
 ism. Cormenin, the historian of that body, thus de- 
 scribes its disapproval, if not its resistance : " How 
 often has not the Council done good service to the 
 people in tempering the fiery bursts of their chief by 
 the wisdom and calm of their deliberations? What 
 can be imagined more impressive, or indeed more 
 eloquent, than those long intervals of profound silence 
 which occurred from time to time in the Council? And 
 how often did not honourable and truly public spirited 
 members boldly advocate the cause of virtue and 
 freedom, even in the presence of the monarch himself, 
 and amidst the servile murmurs of less generous 
 spirits?"' 
 
 This attitude was certainly dignified; but the out- 
 come of it, so far as concerned France, was imper- 
 ceptible. After the Treaty of Tilsit, which made 
 Napoleon master of Europe, he dissolved the Tribun- 
 ate as useless. With equally good logic all the other 
 legislative bodies might have gone ; for the will of the 
 Emperor, working through the Privy Council and the 
 ministerial departments, held unbridled sway. He 
 cared little whether oflficials were popular or not. In 
 fact he often kept in office an unpopular Minister or 
 Prefect on the ground that such an one had no other 
 refuge than in him, and therefore would be faithful. 
 The Argus-eyed Emperor surveyed every action, 
 ' Cormenin, "Du Conseil d'Etat," p. 33, 
 
THE EMPEROR 167 
 
 every report from the standpoint — "Does it imply 
 devotion to me? " This vigilance was not relaxed even 
 during distant campaigns. " From the midst of his 
 camps, and amidst military operations, he was re- 
 solved," says Mollien, " not only to govern, but to 
 administer France; and he succeeded." ^ A typical 
 example of this decisive mastery of civil affairs when 
 in the midst of war is seen in his varied work on the 
 eve of the. JBattle of Austerlitz. After explaining, his 
 plan of49&ttle to his leading ^oiEceis,. he turned .aside 
 to dictate the organization of ther^-large,- boarding 
 school at St. Denis, which received a number of 
 daughters of the members of the Legion of Honour. 
 Na pnlenn drew up its nilgg, which guided tha.t jriH 
 stitutioiT~for many years,,, in an hour or two that 
 he snatcEeH' from •-work--at-Ae--«uiJJiEarJQUs details 
 connected with the , great battle on the following 
 
 457:^ 
 
 As a result of these multiform activities there was 
 built up the most far-reaching despotism that Europe 
 has seen since the days of the Roman Empire. 
 Napoleon summed up his ideas of the function of 
 government in a simile which grandly expressed his 
 sense of the political kosmos which he had created. 
 "Government," he said to Mollien, "plays the partof the 
 sun in the social system, whose various bodies should 
 revolve around this central luminary, each keeping 
 strictly to its own orbit." Yes; he himself was the 
 central orb, and his will was the law of gravitation 
 
 ' MoUien, " M6ms.," ii, 75- ' Pelet, ch. i. 
 
i68 NAPOLEON 
 
 which kept Ministers, Marshals, Legislature, Prefects, 
 rotating in their several orbits, the slightest deviation 
 being instantly checked by a flash of wrath from the 
 sun-god. To him and him alone all were answerable. 
 The lesser authorities, which since the days of old 
 Rome, had checked the absolutism of emperors and 
 kings were no longer in existence; and this raised him 
 high above his predecessors. Charlemagne, Charles V, 
 Henry VIII of England, Peter the Great, Frederick 
 the Great, were face to face with diverse barriers, 
 tribal, local, constitutional, aristocratic, or bureau- 
 cratic. Napoleon dominated a land whence the level- 
 ling tide of equality had swept away every barrier in 
 order to give effect to the supremacy of the general 
 will; and now, a decade later, the reaction against 
 the unnatural attempt to merge the individual in an 
 equalized mass helped to raise aloft a great personal- 
 ity in whom the individual achieved a signal revenge, 
 an unchallenged triumph. 
 
 He believed himself called to further the reaction 
 towards order and monarchy. In the spring of 1814, 
 when the sovereigns of Europe were preparing to 
 invade France, he said to Chaptal : "Wretches! They 
 do not see that I have crushed Revolutions, and have 
 worked twenty years to consolidate monarchy. They 
 will see that after me they will be too weak to stay 
 the torrent, which in ten years will sweep them all 
 away." At times even in the heyday of the Empire 
 he declared that it would pass away with him. " All 
 this will last while I hold out," so he once said to the 
 Council of State; " but, when I am gone, my son may 
 
THE EMPEROR 169 
 
 call himself lucky if he has a couple of thousand a 
 year." ^ 
 
 This feeling of a p prehensio n^ natural tq^ an eager 
 and nervous temperament,„Ksplaias,^theJmpetuosity 
 of his. onset against .^aJl,. enemies, internal^ or foreign, 
 in .. the, hope of crushing .all oppositioa during hi^^ 
 reign. Certainly the attempt to found monarchy on 
 the basis of a renovated society was a great and in- 
 spiring idea, which has had noteworthy results. The 
 impulse imparted by his public works to material 
 prosperity can scarcely be overestimated. To this 
 task he applied himself unceasingly ; and his keen 
 eye for geography no less than his discernment of 
 the elemental needs of mankind enabled him to mark 
 out the lines of development for the communications 
 and commerce of France and a large part of Europe. 
 Postponing to Lecture VII a brief description of 
 his plans for other lands, we may here glance at the 
 chief of those which furthered the prosperity of 
 France. 
 
 His admiration of the Caesars naturally led him to 1 
 study their methods of administration, notably the 
 system of roads which assured direct communication 
 between Rome and the chief provincial capitals, thus 
 binding together the Empire both in war and peace. 
 Napoleon in fancy saw himself the conqueror and 
 pacificator of all neighbouring lands ;-aii4^-th&,, road 
 or canal was, in a material sense,. the chief instrument 
 of his rule. He greatly improved the roads leading! 
 to the exposed borders of his Empire,,especially, those,,,. 
 ' Chaptal, " Souvenirs," p. 320 ; Pelet, xviii. 
 
170 NAPOLEON 
 
 from Paris to. Cologne, Mainz^ and,Strassbur.g*,asjJso 
 that skirting the left bank of the Jl-hi»©-from -Mainz 
 to Cologne. So, too, the roads over the Mont Cenis, 
 Mont Genevre and Simplon Passes were made prac- 
 ticable for armies with cannon, and tunnels were con- 
 structed where there was danger from avalanches. 
 After establishing Eugene as Viceroy of Italy at 
 Milan, he informed him that the roads and the service 
 of couriers must be improved so that a despatch 
 could go between Paris and Milan in five days.' While 
 preparing for the invasion of England, Napoleon 
 assigned the chief importance to the roads from Paris 
 to Boulogne, Cherbourg, and Brest, those leading 
 from the capital to Turin, Toulon and the Spanish 
 frontier ranking in the second place; while those to 
 Strassburg and Cologne {vid Brussels) were of small 
 account. Afterwards, of course, this order was altered, 
 and the roads to the Rhine and the Simplon held the 
 first place in his thoughts, the annexation of Canton 
 Valais in 1810 being largely due to his desire to con- 
 trol the Simplon road (completed in 1807) in the 
 valley of the Upper Rhone. All over France the im- 
 pulse of the great organizer sufficed greatly to improve 
 the communications. The improvement was all the 
 more striking because the Revolution, after sweeping 
 away the patriarchial system of the corvee, had re- 
 placed it by nothing effective. 
 
 In the year 1793 the Revolutionists had adopted a 
 very important means of sending news, the semaphore 
 telegraph, an invention of an engineer, Claude Chappe. 
 ^ " Nap. Corresp.," xi, 37. 
 
THE EMPEROR 171 
 
 Lanterns were attached to the arms by night, so that 
 both by night and day messages could be sent from 
 one signal post to another provided that they were 
 not more than 7|- miles apart. By these means tidings 
 came quickly along the first line, from Lille to Paris. 
 Napoleon greatly extended this useful device, con- 
 necting Paris with Brest on the west, on the east with 
 Huningen, as also with Milan vid Lyons. Owing to 
 the risk of discovery of the code of signals. Napoleon 
 seems to have trusted to couriers for matters of high 
 policy. In 1805 Lavalette, his Postmaster-General, 
 organized a plan by which postillions carried the des- 
 patches at high speed from stage to stage, registering 
 the time of arrival and departure in an official book. 
 This plan saved both time and money. Thenceforth 
 Napoleon received an answer back from the Viceroy 
 at Milan in eight days, and from Naples in fifteen 
 days. This excellent system largely contributed to 
 his successes.^ 
 
 The canal system of France received an immense \ 
 development under the Emperor. Up to his time 
 France had fallen behind England in this respect. 
 Brindley's Bridgwater Canal and other ventures had 
 been a great success; and early in the nineteenth 
 century important works, such as the Caledonian 
 Canal and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, were either 
 planned or actually begun. It has been stated that 
 few canals existed in France before Napoleon.* This 
 is unjust to Colbert and other able Ministers, who 
 
 ' Lavalette, " Mems.," ch. xxiv. 
 
 ^ "Cambridge Modern History," ix, 119. 
 
1/2 NAPOLEON 
 
 not only designed but carried out the Orleans Canal 
 and the Languedoc Canal, uniting the upper Garonne 
 to the Mediterranean. In all there were about 500 
 miles of canals in France at the end of the eighteenth 
 century. Napoleon constructed about 1,200 miles, 
 thus uniting all the chief river systems of France. The 
 most importantwere those connecting the Scheldt with 
 the Oise vid St. Quentin, which in 18 10 first brought 
 the coal of Belgium cheaply to Paris; also that from 
 Strassburg to the River Saone, more than 200 miles 
 in length. Paris, Lyons, and other large towns were 
 now able to export goods and receive food more 
 cheaply and expeditiously than before, a circumstance 
 highly favourable to political calm. Both to Chaptal 
 and to Roederer Napoleon confessed his dread of 
 riots brought about by hunger, and his unconcern 
 about merely political movements. In the latter case, 
 said he, " I would use grape shot without pity, and 
 with 1,200 men and four cannon would drive all Paris 
 back to its shops." But he feared the fierce moods of 
 a hungry people,, and used to pay out" cdnside?aBte~ 
 sums jo keep la rge firms employed. On more than 
 one oeea*ion-tlii-s-^evice-s.ucceeded. Chaptal alsojield 
 in reserve large stores of corn at Paris to sell at low 
 prices in case of need.' Several of Napolem?sTeftBfs 
 bear on the subject of bringing corn easily and cheaply 
 to Paris by canal or river; and on 6th March 1805 he 
 proposed to utilize for small barges the Ourcq aque- 
 
 ' Chaptal, " Souvenirs," 59, 286-291. These devices were 
 evidently borrowed from the late Roman Republic and the 
 Empire. 
 
THE EMPEROR 173 
 
 duct, which was designed to bring drinking water to 
 Paris from the district north of Meaux. 
 
 The original proposal for the Ourcq aqueduct came 
 about in a characteristic way. While conversing with 
 Chaptal in the garden at Malmaison, where so many 
 important matters were discussed, Napoleon uttered 
 these words : " My intention is to make Paris the 
 most beautiful capital in the world. I wish that in 
 ten years its population shall number 2,000,000." 
 Whereto Chaptal replied that so large a population 
 could not be improvised, even by a great sovereign 
 who made that city his residence and the centre of 
 art, science, and industry. To support 2,000,000 people 
 there must be plentiful means of bringing in food and 
 distributing the products of industry, both of which 
 were insufficient at Paris. Louis XIV had conceived 
 the grand idea of turning part of the waters of the 
 Loire into the Seine, in order to render it navigable 
 for a longer period, and to bring to the capital the 
 produce of the centre of France. At present, con- 
 tinued Chaptal, 1,000,000 people were fed with diffi- 
 culty. It was far better, then, to allow population to 
 regulate itself by natural law. " Good," said Napoleon, 
 " these reasons are solid : but I wish to do something 
 both great and useful for Paris. What are your ideas 
 on this subject?" "Give it water." "Bah! water! 
 There are several fountains and a great river in 
 Paris." In reply, Chaptal pointed out that drinking 
 water was scarce and dear, each small household 
 having to pay two sous for the two pails that were 
 needed every day. Further, there were no drinking 
 
174 NAPOLEON 
 
 troughs and no means of watering the streets. When 
 Napoleon pressed him for a remedy, he suggested 
 two means, the latter being to bring the water of the 
 River Ourcq by aqueduct down the valley of the 
 Marne to la Villette, whence it could be spread over 
 Paris. At once Napoleon replied: " I adopt the latter 
 project: when you go home send for M. Gauthey, 
 and tell him to set Joo men to work to-morrow at 
 la Villette to dig the canal." ' 
 
 At first sight the advantages of an intelligent 
 autocracy over a system of sub-committees, com- 
 mittees, and parliamentary Bills, seem overwhelm- 
 ing; but Chaptal states that even the great autocrat 
 could not move at that pace. Gauthey, the engineer, 
 insisted on surveying the ground before the 500 men 
 began to cut the trench ; and another delay happened 
 owing to the Emperor's desire to combine the supply 
 of drinking water to Paris with barge traffic,' a notion 
 which throws light on the hygienic notions prevalent 
 a little more than a century ago. Napoleon's interest 
 in the Ourcq scheme appears in the following incident. 
 While hunting in the Forest of Bondy, he came across 
 the aqueduct, and found to his great annoyance that 
 the work was for the time suspended. At once he 
 stopped the hunt, returned to Paris, and ordered all 
 
 ' Chaptal, " Souvenirs," 'pp. 357-359; Lanzac de Laborie, 
 " Paris sous Napoldon," pt. ii, p. 303, quotes Passy, " Frochot," 
 pp. 485-487, as claiming that Frochot, Prefect of the Seine, first 
 suggested the Ourcq scheme. 
 
 " " Nap. Corresp.," x, 193. Lanzac de Laborie, pt. ii (pp. 31 1- 
 312), states that in i8io-i8n epidemics of fever were due to the 
 impurity of the Ourcq water. 
 
THE EMPEROR 17S 
 
 those who were responsible to meet him on that 
 evening. We can imagine the reception which awaited 
 them.' 
 
 On another occasion Napoleon insisted on the 
 commencement of work before the plans were begun. 
 Not long before midnight he sent for his architect, 
 Fontaine, and ordered him on the next day to take 
 500 men to prepare for the construction of a triumphal 
 arch in the Place du Carrousel in honour of the army. 
 In vain did the architect represent that he had neither 
 an estimate nor a plan on which to work. Napoleon 
 insisted that he must begin on the next morning. 
 Great, then, was the surprise of Duroc, Grand Marshal 
 of the Palace, to see the 500 men beginning excava- 
 tions. At once he sent to upbraid Daru for not warn- 
 ing him; but Daru was equally in the dark. They 
 then sent for Fontaine, who solved the riddle, where- 
 upon all three set to work with all speed to design 
 the famous Carrousel arch, the foundations of which 
 were already being dug. 
 
 These are examples of a nervous activity which | 
 kept all Napoleon's Ministers and officials on the | 
 stretch, and made the political world tense with ex- / 
 pectation as to what next would happen. Such a 
 system had its merits among a people whose brain 
 had been over excited by abstract ideas and faction 
 fights. Napoleon subjected France to a mental rest- 
 cure and a strenuous training for the muscles. The 
 change was not unlike that which happens to nervous 
 over-taught youths, fresh from the lych, and perhaps 
 ' " M^ms. de Savary " (Due de Rovigo), i, 444. 
 
176 NAPOLEON 
 
 prone to Anarchism, when they come under the drill- 
 sergeant for a year or more. Where previously every- 
 thing went to feed the brain, now the muscles demand 
 the chief share ; and the restless, questioning student 
 becomes a dully obedient recruit. Doubtless France 
 needed a change in this direction; but it was so 
 sudden as to upset the balance of her faculties, leav- 
 ing her passive when she should have asserted her 
 will betimes. 
 
 The material gains were very great. Paris was 
 beautified and enriched. The Louvre became the 
 centre of the world's art treasures. Napoleon planned 
 and constructed four bridges, Austerlitz, Jena, the 
 Arts, and Sevres: he had pavements or footways 
 made for very many streets (only three had them 
 before 1789), and he planned the streets named Rivoli, 
 Castiglione, de la Paix, and des Pyramides. Notre 
 Dame was also cleared of several buildings which hid 
 it, or choked the approaches. Baron Haussmann under 
 Napoleon III said that he found Paris brick and left 
 it marble; but the change had begun with Napoleon I 
 and Chaptal. The latter claims that he proposed all 
 the plans for the beautifying of Paris. That is an ex- 
 aggeration. The great impulse came from Napoleon ; 
 Chaptal was but his instrument.^ 
 
 The great city of Lyons was much in Napoleon's 
 thoughts. Indeed, he is said to have preferred it to 
 Paris.^ He sought to stimulate its silk industry by a 
 
 ' Chaptal, p. 59 ; LanzacdeLaborie, pt. ii, pp. 113-124,131-141. 
 ' Lanzac de Laborie, pt. ii, p. 88. See, too, " Revue des deux 
 Mondes," 15th May 1912. 
 
THE EMPEROR 177 
 
 rigid protective system, which the traders of that town 
 highly appreciated ; and, as the bounds of the French 
 Empire were widened, a far larger market was opened 
 for the products of the Lyonnais in the Low Coun- 
 tries, North Germany and the greater part of Italy. 
 In times of dearth or of temporary crisis he sought 
 by purchases of goods to foster the industries of 
 Lyons and other large towns, with the result that 
 Lyons accorded to him a most enthusiastic reception 
 on his return from Elba in 1815. The masses in 
 France have always shown strongly protectionist 
 leanings ; and by furthering a " national " system of 
 commerce he appealed to them strongly. In March 
 1806, when there was some prospect of a peace with 
 England he said to the Council of State — " Within 
 forty-eight hours after the peace with England is con- 
 cluded, I shall prohibit the introduction of all foreign 
 produce, and promulgate a Navigation Act, which will 
 exclude from our ports all foreign vessels : ships, 
 besides being built of French timber, shall have two- 
 thirds of their crews French. Even English coals and 
 English ' milords ' shall not come to our shores, but 
 under the French flag. A great outcry will be raised 
 at first, because a very bad spirit pervades the French 
 commercial world ; but in the course of six years after- 
 wards, we shall be enjoying the greatest prosperity." 
 Shortly before that he said, " My system of finance 
 consists in establishing a vast number of indirect 
 taxes, the tariff or scale of which shall be extremely 
 moderate, and thus be susceptible of being augmented 
 in proportion to the necessities of the State; 650 
 
 N 
 
178 NAPOLEON 
 
 million francs (;^26,cxdo,ooo) are sufficient for me at 
 this moment, but I wish to have the power to augment 
 the revenue in an instant by 100,000,000 (;^4,ooo,ooo) 
 in the event of a war breaking out. I possess resources, 
 however, which my successors will not be able to 
 command, and I must think of them as well as my- 
 self" ' His system of indirect taxation soon became 
 very burdensome ; and he afterwards allowed that les 
 droits riunis rendered him highly unpopular. It was, 
 however, the high rates, not the principle of the taxes 
 that was odious. France was never more protectionist 
 at heart than during the Consulate and Empire. 
 Manufacturers welcomed the almost prohibitive mea- 
 sures of the Continental System. 
 
 Certainly that System, especially in and after the 
 year 18 10, imposed terrible losses on Great Britain; 
 and, as the exchange was 30 per cent, against her in 
 monetary transactions. Napoleon expected a speedy 
 collapse of credit at London. By all possible means 
 he sought to encourage his Allies to persevere in the 
 struggle so as to break the maritime yoke of England ; 
 and by harping skilfully on this theme he succeeded 
 in imposing for a time the fiscal decrees of the latter 
 part of 1 8 10, which brought terrible hardships on the 
 vassal States, especially those of the North of Europe. 
 As Mollien says, the most extraordinary episode of 
 Napoleon's career is his persistence in carrying out 
 this burdensome policy, so that one knows not whether 
 to wonder most at the audacity of the Emperor's com- 
 
 ' Pelet, ch. xxiii. See, too, " Mdms. de Gaudin, Due de 
 Gaete," I, ch. ii-v. 
 
THE EMPEROR 179 
 
 binations, or the resignation and submission with 
 which for a time they were accepted. The experiment 
 would of course have been impossible but for the pro- 
 found ignorance of Political Economy then prevalent 
 in nearly all circles. Napoleon doubtless expected 
 that the extension of national commerce within the 
 wide bounds of the French Empire would make up 
 for the loss of oversea commerce; but the event 
 signally falsified his hopes, and may be considered 
 the fundamental cause why Russia, Sweden, and most 
 of the Continental States successively turned against 
 him in 1812-13.^ 
 
 To the end of his days Napoleon remained a 
 " Mercantilist," witness his declaration to Gourgaud 
 at St. Helena on 19th September 18 17: " The English 
 are stupid. In their place I would have stipulated in 
 the last treaties that I alone should be able to sail 
 and trade in the seas of China and the (East) Indies. 
 It is absurd to leave Batavia to the Dutch and the 
 Isle of Bourbon to the French. . . . The Americans 
 ought no longer to be allowed to sail in the China 
 Sea. At present, when France no longer exists, the 
 English can with 30 sail-of-the-line blockade all the 
 coasts of America. . . . The United States are no- 
 thing; at present England can give the law to the 
 world, especially by withdrawing her troops from the 
 Continent . . . and remaining solely a Sea Power. 
 Then she would do what she liked." ^ We must be- 
 
 ^ For further details see my chapter on The Continental 
 System in the " Cambridge Modern History," vol. ix. 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," ii, 315. 
 
i8o NAPOLEON 
 
 ware of taking this statement too seriously. The 
 native vehemence of Napoleon often drove him further 
 than he intended. As Mollien says: "His ilan used 
 to carry him beyond the prescribed goal.'" The 
 prudent reader will allow almost as wide a margin to 
 Napoleon in his headlong moods as to Carlyle, when 
 that champion of sincerity and silence discoursed at 
 large upon Yankee-land, cant, Philistines, and respect- 
 ability which kept its gig. Nevertheless, it is fairly 
 clear that the Emperor's economic ideals were those 
 of the age of Louis XIV and of Colbert. He sought 
 to develop France and her vassal States by splendid 
 enterprises, the aim being to make his Empire a self- 
 sufficing unit, able to do without the sugar of the 
 West Indies, or the silks and dyes of the East, and 
 thus give the law to its rivals. So far as human 
 energy and perseverance could achieve the task, he 
 succeeded ; and important industries, notably that of 
 the sugar beet-root, attested the resourcefulness which 
 he evoked. Never has any man so vigorously com- 
 pelled a whole Continent to fall back upon itself 
 and develop its latent powers. He failed; but the 
 enterprise is invested with a Titanic grandeur, char- 
 acteristic of the man and of the age on which he set 
 his imprint. 
 
 Napoleon sought to regulate not only commerce, 
 
 industry, and the policy and mechanism of a great 
 
 \ Empire, but also to dictate the course of public opinion. 
 
 The task of guiding the French intellect after it had 
 
 ' Mollien, " Mdms.," iii, 315. 
 
THE EMPEROR i8i 
 
 attained to precocious maturity at the time of the 
 Revolution was perhaps not the least of his Herculean 
 toils. But we must remember that the French brain, 
 jaded by the excitements of that time, had submitted 
 to various regulations successively imposed by the 
 Convention and the Directory. Governmental control 
 of the Press was deemed necessary in order to steer 
 the ship of State safely between the Scylla of royalism 
 and the Charybdis of anarchy; so that Napoleon in- 
 herited a system highly favourable to the regime of 
 le juste milieu which he at first personified. From the 
 beginning of the Consulate he resolved strictly to 
 control the Press. By the decree of 17th January 
 1800, the three Consuls swept away as many as sixty 
 newspapers and allowed only thirteen to survive, sub- 
 ject to a censorship. No new journal could appear with- ' 
 out direct permission ; and from that time Bonaparte 
 ordered his librarian to keep a close watch on all 
 books, pamphlets, and placards.^ 
 
 His letters on the Press often reveal his mania for j 
 managing men and affairs. On 30th May 1805, he 
 writes to Fouch6 from Milan, respecting the first 
 rumours of Russian resentment at the changes in 
 North Italy : " The newspapers must not be permitted 
 to take a line favourable to Russia, to that corrupt, 
 weak, and silly Cabinet. At this moment, indeed, it is 
 showing some spirit, but more from a feeling that it 
 can do nothing, than from any other. A contrast must 
 be drawn with the shameful position of the English. 
 They must be compared to a besieged fortress. . . . 
 ' Welschinger, " La Censure, etc.," pp. 30 et seq. 
 
i82 NAPOLEON 
 
 Have caricatures made — an Englishman, purse in 
 hand, entreating the various Powers to take his 
 money. This is the real direction to give the whole 
 business! " In the following spring Napoleon reduces 
 the few remaining newspapers to the position of mouth- 
 piece of the Foreign Office. On 6th March 1806 he 
 writes to Talleyrand : " My intention is that the 
 political articles of the Moniteur shall be written by 
 the Foreign Office. And at the end of a month, after 
 seeing how they are done, I will forbid the other 
 Journals to talk politics except by copying the articles 
 of the Moniteur^ 
 
 Imagine, then, the sensation in the official world 
 when the following passage from the pen of Chateau- 
 briand appeared in the Mercure de France: "The 
 Muse has often depicted crimes, but in the language 
 of the poet there is something so fine that even crimes 
 are embellished by it. Only the historian can describe 
 them without weakening their horror. When amidst 
 abject silence, no sound is heard but the chain of the 
 slave and the voice of the informer ; when all tremble 
 before the tyrant and it is as dangerous to meet with 
 his favour as to merit disgrace, then appears the 
 historian, charged with the vengeance of the peoples. 
 In vain does Nero prosper; for Tacitus is already 
 born in the Empire." This daring passage appeared 
 on 4th July 1807, three days before the Treaty of 
 Tilsit. Chateaubriand states in his Memoirs that 
 Napoleon on reading the passage remarked : " Does 
 Chateaubriand think me a fool, who does not under- 
 stand him ? I will have him sabred on the steps of the 
 
THE EMPEROR 183 
 
 Tuilleries." For the present the Emperor put an extra 
 censor to watch that paper; and on 14th August, after 
 his return to France, wrote as follows : " Those who 
 have taken up the Bourbon cause, directly or indirectly, 
 should remember their Scripture history and what 
 David (Jehu is meant) did to the house of Ahab. This 
 observation applies also to Chateaubriand and his 
 clique." ' 
 
 On 2 1st May 1808, after the rising of the men of 
 Madrid against the French army of occupation, the 
 Emperor warns Fouchd that the Paris papers must 
 not say anything about that event except according 
 to the cue given by the official Moniteur; namely, 
 that only twenty-five Frenchmen perished, while the 
 Spaniards who lost their lives were "all sedition- 
 mongers or rioters of the lower class." On 26th July 
 1809 while at Schonbrunn he orders Fouch6 to depose 
 and imprison for one month the editor of the Gazette 
 de France for publishing an indiscreet article. He adds 
 by way of rebuke to Fouch6: " It really is as if the 
 police did not know how to read. They attend to 
 nothing." As for Napoleon, even while at Schonbrunn, 
 he attends to everything. No leading article escapes 
 his Argus eyes. On Sth February 18 10 he subjects 
 the French Press to even stricter supervision; and in 
 order to keep printing under control he limits the 
 number of printers in Paris to sixty, who are re- 
 quired to take an oath of obedience and good con- 
 duct. Finally in the autumn of 181 1 the last four 
 newspapers in Paris are absorbed by the Government; 
 ' Lecestre, " Lettres inddites de Nap.," i, 100. 
 
i84 NAPOLEON 
 
 and during three years the French Press virtually 
 ceases to exist. 
 
 Very characteristic was his treatment of Mme. de 
 Stael. There was a natural antipathy between them. 
 At first, it is true, she adored him ; but she soon swung 
 round to the opposite extreme, and in her " Considera- 
 tions " declared that she felt his nature to be that of 
 cold cutting steel, which numbed the wound it made. 
 He on his side disliked her as embodying his two pet 
 aversions, an enthusiastic idhlogue and an appallingly 
 eloquent woman. In was inevitable that, even during 
 the Consulate, he should put forty leagues between 
 him and that terrible tongue. After several vain efforts 
 to effect a truce, the gifted authoress ventured to reside 
 about forty leagues from Paris in order to supervise 
 the publication of de I' Allemagne. Having avoided 
 the least reference to politics either in France or 
 Germany, she hoped that the book would run the 
 gauntlet even of the law of 5 th February 18 10. At 
 first Napoleon was inclined to let it appear, suppress- 
 ing however the passage about the Duke of Brunswick 
 and " three fourths of the passages in which she exalts 
 England."^ But on second thoughts he condemned 
 the whole work; and his valet. Constant, states that 
 he threw it in the fire. Certain it is that he himself 
 ordered Savary to suppress the book, though now in 
 
 ' Lecestre, " Lettres inedites de Nap.," ii, 74, Napoleon to 
 Savary, 28th September 1810. M. Paul Gautier (" Mme. de 
 Stael et Napoleon," p. 256) has disproved the assertion of 
 Napoleon at Elba that Savary was responsible for the sup- 
 pression of the book. 
 
THE EMPEROR 185 
 
 print. Savary therefore informed her that it was 
 evident the air of France did not at all agree with 
 her: " And we are not yet reduced to seek models in 
 the people whom you admire. Your last work is not 
 at all French. I have stopped the printing of it." 
 Within a week she was to leave France. 
 
 This incident is typical of Napoleon's conduct to- 
 wards writers who maintained an independent attitude. 
 He required not only no opposition but an active 
 support, even in times when he was suppressing free- 
 dom of speech. Such a claim was repugnant to all 
 independent thinkers. No great writer will write to 
 order; and thus the Empire was adorned by no 
 literary productions of lasting merit, except those of 
 Chateaubriand and Mme. de Stael whom he drove into 
 opposition. Thought being stifled, the perennial ener- 
 gies of Frenchmen expressed themselves in military 
 exploits, architectural triumphs,and industrial develop- 
 ments. Never has a reaction towards the practical come 
 so swiftly. In the years 1789-93 France simmered with 
 new thoughts and heaved with political and social ex- 
 periments. The decade of the Napoleonic supremacy 
 saw her thought cowed, her multiform energies em- 
 bodied in a constitution, decrees, codes, and military 
 enterprises emanating from the will of one man.^ 
 
 ' In June 1789 Arthur Young noted that every hour there 
 appeared a new pamphlet from the shops of the Palais Royal. 
 " Thirteen came out to-day, sixteen yesterday, and ninety-two 
 last week ; . . . nineteen-twentieths of these productions are in 
 favour of liberty . . . and not the least step is taken by the 
 Court to restrain this extreme licentiousness of production." 
 A. Young, "Travels in France," p. 153 (Bohn edit.). 
 
i86 NAPOLEON 
 
 The suppression of freedom in the Press and in 
 Literature took place at a time when Napoleon was 
 absolute master of France and of Central Europe, and 
 when,toall appearance, his dynastywas firmly founded. 
 On his return from the Wagram campaign he prepared 
 to crown the imperial edifice by divorcing Josephine. 
 To put her away for not having borne him a child 
 seems a callous proceeding; but in that case State 
 policy determined his conduct and overpowered his 
 private feelings, which were still those of affection, if 
 not love, for his consort. All things considered, I think 
 he deserves less censure in this episode than has often 
 been bestowed on him. A great ruler must think first 
 of the stability of his State and the future of his 
 dynasty, which would be more assured in the person 
 of a son than a nephew. Further, his interests coun- 
 selled an alliance with one of the old dynasties. To- 
 wards her successor, Marie Louise of Austria, he 
 proved to be a fond and almost doting spouse; and 
 it is ever to his credit that at the time of the birth 
 of the long-wished-for heir, when there seemed a 
 danger that either the life of the mother or of the 
 babe should be sacrificed, he bade the physicians 
 assure that of the mother. Nothing in his career re- 
 dounds more to his credit than that decision. 
 
 As happened at every time of triumph (for the com- 
 ing of a son crowned his career) Napoleon drew tighter 
 the reins of power at home, and at the close of the 
 year 1 8 lo extended his Empire to the Baltic by annex- 
 ing N.W. Germany and the Free Cities of Hamburg 
 
THE EMPEROR 187 
 
 and Lubeck. The question now arises — Could he hold 
 together that overgrown realm, comprising all the lands 
 between the North Sea and the Roman Campagna? 
 Probably there was only one method, namely, by ruling 
 with extreme clemency and tact. A relaxation of the 
 oppressive decrees of the Continental System, of the 
 Press laws, and, if possible, of taxes, would have made 
 for content and stability. France and the world at large 
 needed rest and recreation. But there was something 
 in Napoleon's nature which scorned the thought of 
 rest. At this very time taxes, Press laws, the Conti- 
 nental System, became more burdensome than ever. 
 Further, as will appear in Lecture VII, Napoleon 
 refused either to pacify the Spaniards, or humour the 
 Czar, and chose to treat the captive Pope Pius VII, 
 with an indignity that alienated the support of devout 
 Catholics won over by the Concordat. 
 
 This febrile restlessness, this incapacity to let well 
 alone, has been ascribed to various causes. Some per- 
 sons refer it to the epileptic symptoms now and again 
 apparent in gasping breath and nervous collapse; 
 others allege a secret and insidious malady that 
 affected the whole organism and impaired the judge- 
 ment. On this subject we can only conjecture. Cer- 
 tain it is that at the time when the sun-god should 
 have unstrung his bow, he kept it tense, threatening 
 ahke London, Cadiz, Moscow. He lacked that easy 
 aloofness, which now and again has led great sovereigns 
 to shrug their shoulders and let the world go its way. 
 To his soldiers he would unbend, for at heart he was 
 always one of them ; and therefore they loved him to 
 
i88 NAPOLEON 
 
 the end. But civilians wanted repose, relaxation; and 
 these boons his unrelenting earnestness denied. 
 
 The gay nonchalance of the French nature was alien 
 to him. He had not that unfailing humour which led 
 Charles II, on his death-bed, to apologize to his cour- 
 tiers for being so unconscionably long in dying. Still 
 less would the Emperor have laughed at caricatures 
 aimed at him, as Frederick the Great once did when 
 riding down Unter den Linden. Approaching the 
 daub, he called out to his groom : " Hang it lower so 
 that they need not crane their necks to see it." And 
 he rode away amidst shouts of " Der K5nig soil leben." 
 Napoleon would probably have had the caricaturist 
 imprisoned and made a hero of him. For, with all his 
 fine qualities, he could not treat little episodes with 
 the airy grace of a humourist. On one occasion he 
 threatened Talleyrand that if he (Napoleon) died first, 
 Talleyrand should not survive. To which the Minister 
 replied : " Sire, the warning was not needed to make 
 me pray for long life for your Majesty." Here was 
 Napoleon's weak point. He had not that sense of 
 ironical detachment which bids a man pause, smile, 
 jest, dnd relax his grip. In the heyday of his power 
 he insisted on giving the mot d'ordre to the universe. 
 Britons and Spaniards, Russians and Germans, au- 
 thors, newspaper editors and printers, Pope and car- 
 dinals, had to fall in line. Finally, the world grew weary 
 of this regimentation, as the world will always weary 
 of those who take it too seriously. There is truth in 
 i Victor Hugo's verdict — " II g^nait Dieu." 
 
LECTURE VI 
 
 THE THINKER 
 
 " Sa Majeste ne croit que ce qui est."— Gourgaud, Journal, 
 i, p. 228. 
 
 IN venturing to discuss this difficult topic, I may 
 remind you of the suggestive remark of Aristotle 
 at the beginning of the " Ethics," that the statement 
 of a subject is adequate if it is made clear so far as 
 the subject matter permits.' Some such reservation is 
 especially needed when we seek to probe the thoughts 
 of a man of affairs. In such a case we must not expect 
 the clearness of outline which is possible in delineating 
 the thoughts of one who deals with the exact sciences. 
 Inquirers in those fields of knowledge are free from 
 the predilections or prejudices that cloud the ideas of 
 a man of affairs, for whom life is action and specula- 
 tive thought a by-product. 
 
 It is also far from easy to dissociate Napoleon from 
 the events of which he was so large a part. His imagina- 
 tion often soared aloft, but in his best days, say down to 
 1806, he kept it under the control of reason. Hisienti- 
 was tQwards-4:he-practica1 ; and it has heen well said.{ 
 of him that he thought facts, not words. Phrases and 
 
 ' Aristotle, " Nicom. Ethics," i, ch. iii, § i. 
 189 
 
igo NAPOLEON 
 
 catch-words, which had been the meat and drink of 
 France during the Revolution, were nought to him ; 
 and by this determined objectivity, this resolve to see 
 things as they were, he speedily dominated her; for 
 he came to the front at a time when her sons were 
 wearying of revolutionary notions. At midsummer 
 1795 Gouverneur Morris describes them as so tired of 
 the ceaseless confusion that monarchy in some form 
 was certain to ensue.^ Thus, popular feeling trended 
 strongly in the line of Bonaparte's mental development; 
 and the coincidence explains the course of subsequent 
 events. 
 
 After the spring of youth was past, he barred out 
 sentiment from his thoughts. Hia^style-of speech_and 
 of writing is clear, precise, vi^orouSj^ but,.. nearly 
 always curt and formless. His statements follow one 
 another in wonderful profusion. His letters rain facts ; 
 and the letters bespeak the man. He never allowed 
 fine speeches in the Council of State. What he wanted 
 was practical statements. In January 1 810 he thus cen- 
 sured a report of Champagny, his Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs : " The style is not sufficiently business- 
 like. What I want is hard reasoning, not picturesque- 
 ness." ^ A fit motto for the guidance of his officials 
 would have been — " No flowers — by command," 
 I Enamoured of clearness and precision, he always 
 t expected concise and definite answers from his aides- 
 I de-camp; and woe betide any one who could not give 
 them. In such a case it was best to manufacture facts, 
 
 ' " Dropmore Papers," iii, 88. 
 
 ' Lecestre, " Lettres inddites de Nap.," ii, 4. 
 
THE THINKER 191 
 
 and trust to luck to conceal the imposture. This im- 
 patience of anything like vagueness is often obvious i 
 in Napoleon's words and actions. To take an instance 
 from his letters. On 27th March 1808 he suddenly 
 offered the crown of Spain to his brother Louis, King 
 of Holland. After setting forth the advantages, he 
 said: "Reply to me categorically. If I name you 
 King of Spain, do you agree? Can I count on you? 
 Answer solely in these two phrases—' I have received 
 your letter of such a day. I reply yes ... or no.' " ' 
 So, too, during the Waterloo campaign, on the occa- 
 sion of the desertion of General Bourmont, Marshal 
 Ney, who had guaranteed the fidelity of that officer, 
 ventured to state that he had indeed thought Bour- 
 mont most devoted to Napoleon. The Emperor cut 
 him short with the words: " Allez, M. le Marechal: 
 ceux qui sont bleus sont bleus : ceux qui sont blancs 
 sont blancs." ^ 
 
 No less precise was his view of men and women. 
 In an age which had eagerly sought to level up the race 
 at large and to engrave the Rights of Man on every 
 heart, he suddenly appeared, regarding men, not as 
 representatives of a perfectible Humanity, but as 
 creatures possessed of certain aptitudes, customs, 
 prejudices, vices. Coming to the front at a time 
 when the heedless and convulsive forward moves of 
 the human brain had led to a fall of the inert trunk, 
 he saw the mistake, soothed the brain, set the body 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xvi, 501. 
 
 ^ Gourgaud, " Campagne de 1815," p. 37. See, too, " Rev. des 
 deux Mondes," 15th May 1912, for similar expressions. 
 
192 NAPOLEON 
 
 upright, and made it walk at a reasonable pace. He 
 believed the French people and the human race 
 to be incapable of progressing alone by their own 
 powers; and he always postulated control by the 
 ablest man of the age. Napoleon III, who had closely 
 studied the career of his uncle, raised this postulate to 
 the level of a universal truth when he wrote : " The 
 nature of democracy is to personify itself in a 
 man." ' 
 I From Napoleon, then, we must expect no inspiring 
 / thoughts as to the future of the human race. His main 
 / achievement was to clip the wings of idealism and to 
 { give effect to the utilitarian impulse set in motion by 
 Bentham. In regard to the internal policy of France 
 the Emperor may be termed a crowned Benthamite. 
 In his legislation he strikes the happy mean between 
 old French customs and new French impulses. His 
 I policy in its better days embodies the spirit of com- 
 I promise and gives it fixed and abiding expression. 
 ^ His thoughts on men and politics therefore take a 
 ''middle flight, strong and unwavering, near the earth, 
 land rarely soaring aloft. But they possess, what is 
 rare among the champions of compromise, unfailing 
 vigour. Too often the spirit of compromise embodies 
 itself in flabby creatures like Mr. Brooke in " Middle- 
 march," who always found that much was to be said 
 for both sides. In Napoleon the genius of compromise 
 shone forth radiant, forceful, triumphant. As a poli- 
 tical thinker he is the lineal descendant of Henri IV, 
 and Mirabeau. Take these words, uttered in August 
 ' L. Napoleon, " Les Id^es Napol&niennes," p. 27. 
 
THE THINKER 193 
 
 1800, as a clear statement of reasonable opportunism: 
 " My policy consists in governing men as the greatest 
 number wish to be governed. That, I think, is thei 
 way of recognizing the sovereignty of the people. By ' 
 becoming a Catholic I have ended the Vend^an War; 
 by becoming a Moslem I gained a footing in Egypt ; 
 by becoming Ultramontane I won oyer public opinion 
 in Italy. If I governed Jews, I would rebuild the 
 temple of Solomon. So, too, I will talk of liberty in 
 the free part of San Domingo; I will retain slavery in 
 the Isle of France (Mauritius), even in the unfree part 
 of San Domingo, always with the intention of limiting 
 and softening slavery where I retain it, and of restor- 
 ing order and introducing discipline where I maintain 
 liberty." ' 
 
 The passage is remarkable on several counts. Bona- 
 parte saw as clearly as Bentham the motives that 
 would determine a rational policy in the nineteenth 
 century. In place of royalism that relied on the 
 privileged classes, in place of Jacobinism upheld by 
 fanatics, he proposed to establish a government 
 grounded on the needs of the masses. Equally note- 
 worthy is the frankness of the statement. Bonaparte 
 does not hide the egotism which underlies his policy; 
 he is strong enough, and frank enough, to confess it 
 with almost cynical candour. He knows that only he ' 
 can guide the masses wisely or control them firmly,! 
 and he does not fear to say so. 
 
 As an example of keen insight into a political 
 
 ^ Roederer, "Journal," p. 16. 
 O 
 
194 NAPOLEON 
 
 problem and of an illuminating solution, take the 
 following utterance to the leaders of the Swiss Con- 
 federation in September 1802: 
 
 Switzerland differs from all other countries in the series 
 of catastrophes which have befallen her of late years, in her 
 geographical position, her different languages, her different 
 religions, and the extreme divergence of customs in heir 
 different Cantons. Nature herself has made your country 
 a Federation, and no wise man would wish to change it. 
 Circumstances and the spirit of past ages divided you into 
 sovereign and subject peoples; more recent circumstances 
 and the spirit of the present age, more in accord with justice 
 and reason, have established legal equality throughout your 
 land. Many of your Cantons have for centuries been abso- 
 lutely democratic. In others, certain families have obtained 
 an ascendancy, and divided the inhabitants into rulers and 
 subjects. The influence and spirit of surrounding countries, 
 Italy, Savoy, France, and Alsace, have essentially contributed 
 to this state of things in these last-named portions of your 
 land. The renunciation of all privileges is at once the 
 desire and the interest of your people. . . . 
 
 In your country nothing can be uniform; neither your 
 finances, nor your army, nor your administration. You have 
 never supported a regular, paid army; you cannot afford a 
 financial system on a large scale: you have never had per- 
 manent diplomatic agents at foreign Courts. Situated on 
 the height of the mountain ranges which separate France, 
 Germany, and Italy, you share some of the spirit of each of 
 these nations. The neutrality of your country, the prosperity 
 of your commerce, and a homely system of administration 
 are your only requisites. Such is the language which I have 
 consistently held to your countrymen when they have con- 
 sulted me on their affairs. It seems to me so reasonable, 
 
THE THINKER 195 
 
 that I hope it will require no extraordinary effort to convince 
 you of the good sense of my words.^ 
 
 Yet this practical sense was winged by imagination. 
 An illustration occurs in his treatment of the science 
 of history. To it, as we saw in Lecture II, he assigned 
 a very high place in education ; but he was dissatisfied 
 with the manner in which it was written. Probably 
 he disliked the ambling style of the literary historians, 
 whose exasperating vagueness induced Dr. Johnson 
 to class history as an inferior branch of literature. 
 The Emperor, ever keenly alive to unreality, wanted 
 to know facts and the sources whence they were 
 obtained. At St. Helena he declared his aims to have 
 been the revision of the annals of France from the 
 best authorities, especially those of the Foreign 
 Office, and the publication of the best manuscripts in 
 the Imperial Library, as a means of laying a solid 
 ground-work for the historical writings of the future. 
 So far as I know, this was one of the first proposals of 
 the kind; and it places him among the pioneers of 
 historical science. But this was not all. He saw that 
 the historian must have imagination. These are his 
 words : " It is accepted that a historian is a judge, who 
 is to be the organ of posterity ; and so many qualities, 
 so many perfections, are expected of him that it is 
 difficult to believe that a good history can be written 
 to order. What can be obtained to order from men of 
 well-balanced mind and a certain measure of talent 
 
 ' Thibaudeau, " Bonaparte and the Consulate," pp. 277-278 
 (Eng. edit.). 
 
196 NAPOLEON 
 
 are historical monographs, the results of laborious 
 research, containing authentic documents along with 
 critical observations tending to throw light on events. 
 If these researches, documents, and materials are 
 framed in a good narrative, a piece of work of this 
 sort will bear a considerable resemblance to history; 
 and yet its author would not be a historian in the 
 sense that we attach to the word." ^ Napoleon, then, 
 was fully alive to the limitations of mere editors of 
 historical documents. He saw the need of documen- 
 tary groundwork, but also of the gift of imagination 
 which alone can endow the narrative with life. 
 
 A man who sees quickly into the heart of a prob- 
 lem is often endowed with the power of trenchant 
 statement. Napoleon rarely made long speeches, un- 
 less we include his longer conversations in the Council 
 of State, which were too familiar and discursive to be 
 termed speeches ; " but when he sought to sum up a 
 question he did so with terseness and power. We 
 all know the incident, reported in the Bourrienne 
 Memoirs, of Napoleon's conversation on religion with 
 the savanis onboard V Orient when bound for Egypt; 
 how, after exhausting their armoury of atheistical 
 arguments, he pointed to the starry sky and said: 
 " Very ingenious, Messieurs; but who made all that? " 
 Coming from Bourrienne alone, the story would be 
 suspect; but Roederer gives it again, though in a 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xv, 97. 
 
 ' The Due de Broglie (" Mems.," i, 62) terms them incoherent, 
 trivial, and full of repetitions, utterly different in style from the 
 St. Helena dicUes, the authenticity of which he calls in question. 
 
THE THINKER 197 
 
 different setting. Equally incisive was Napoleon's 
 interposition during a discussion of Roederer as to 
 the need of the First Consul having an heir, whether 
 a son of his own or by adoption. Napoleon cut him 
 short by the words : " My natural heir is the French 
 people. It is my child. I have worked only for it." ' 
 A man who on the spur of the moment utters so \ 
 noble and inspiring a thought is born to rule, especially | 
 in a land which is governed by phrases. Contrast' 
 Napoleon with Louis XVI, who never by any chance 
 stumbled on a happy phrase; with Robespierre, tedi- 
 ous in speech and timorous in action ; with Sieyes, 
 clever only in print ; and you will see why he became 
 supreme over the uncultured soldiers and inefficient 
 talkers who appealed to separate parts of the brain of 
 France. He dominated the whole of it. 
 
 The most interesting mental problem of Napoleon's 
 career is his attitude towards destiny. If we may 
 judge by his frequent appeals to fate or to his star, he 
 was a fatalist; and his habit of crossing himself on 
 hearing exciting news seems to strengthen the sup- 
 position. But we must bewareof superficial judgements 
 in the case of so complex a nature and so intricate a 
 problem. The habit just referred to may have been 
 no more than a recurrence to the ways of childhood ; 
 and there is little or nothing in his acts and words 
 that implies an absolute trust in destiny. Indeed, it 
 is questionable whether any man, except perhaps a 
 few fakirs, has ever allowed himself to drift solely 
 
 Roederer, " Journal," p. 14. 
 
198 NAPOLEON 
 
 according to the decrees of fate ; and even fakirs take 
 care to perform their austerities where they will be 
 seen and will get bread. 
 
 Now, much as Napoleon indulged in talk about 
 his star, he refuted it by avowals made in times of 
 self- revelation ; witness these striking words to General 
 Gourgaud at St. Helena: " Bah! Man is always free: 
 always master of himself." ' Again, consider this fact, 
 that during the days of his power he frequently de- 
 clared that he did everything from calculation. Thus, 
 on 6th June 1806 he wrote to Joseph Bonaparte: " In 
 war one gains nothing except by calculation. Only 
 that which is profoundly thought out in all its details 
 produces any result."^ And in November 1813 he 
 thus analysed the motives of his conduct. " I leave 
 one place, I go to another, I leave St. Cloud, I go to 
 Moscow, not for my inclination, or for my friends, but 
 by mere dry calculation." ^ But he who relies solely 
 on reason and calculation cannot be a thorough 
 fatalist, at least not in the eastern sense; for he be- 
 lieves in the sufficiency of his own mind, not in the 
 supremacy of some controlling power outside him. 
 Further, if he acts in full confidence in the correctness 
 of his reasoning, his belief is not a mere philosophical 
 tenet, it is his inmost conviction, the guiding principle 
 of his life. 
 
 1 Gourgaud, ii, 128. See, too, Napoleon's long argument 
 against fatalism in Las Cases (" Memorial," vi, 302-304) which 
 seems to me decisive as to his disbelief. 
 
 '' " Nap. Corresp.," xii, 442. 
 
 ^ Roederer, " Journal," p. 323. 
 
THE THINKER 199 
 
 That, as it seems to me, was the case with Napoleon. 
 From the time of his first military achievement at Tou- 
 lon in 1793 confidence in himself is the chief trait of 
 his character. Nothing daunts him, not even adversity 
 such as befalls him a few months later. You will 
 remember the remarkable words written to Josephine 
 in April 1796, quoted in Lecture I. " Sometimes, 
 when casting my eyes on the ills which men might do 
 me, on the fate which destiny might have in store for 
 me, I have gazed stedfastly on the most incredible 
 misfortunes without a wrinkle on my brow, or a vestige 
 of surprise." He wrote those words shortly before his 
 first battle, at Montenotte. By degrees he discovered 
 his strength; and at St. Helena he confessed that the 
 success at Lodi strengthened his confidence and his 
 ambition. True, a month after Lodi we find him in a 
 moment of despondency writing : " Poor human beings 
 that we are, we can only observe Nature, not con- 
 quer her." ^ But no such sentence occurs in the later 
 letters of the man who defied Nature in Egypt, 
 Spain, and Russia. In truth, the Italian campaign 
 made him master of himself and therefore " master of 
 destiny." 
 
 Thenceforth he resolves to shape circumstances, not , 
 to be shaped by them. He believes that boldness,] 
 energy».prestige, determine eygnts,. During tjig^ long, 
 negotiations for peace with Austria in 1797 he writes 
 from Milan to Massena at the front: "You must not 
 give way to the Austrians in anything. Be the strongest 
 at all points, so that if there is the least quarrel or scuffle, 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," i, 378. 
 
200 NAPOLEON 
 
 they shall be beaten. Were it only a matter of fisti- 
 cuffs, the Austrian soldier must always get the worst 
 of it." ' This phrase explains much. It is the early 
 version of that later dictum — " Providence is on the 
 side of the big battalions." 
 
 In the East, naturally enough, he talked much about 
 destiny. But his world-compelling, nature-defying 
 energy has nothing in common with the fatalism of 
 the oriental, who smokes and meditates on nothing in 
 particular. The hero who looked on the British vic- 
 tory at the Nile as merely a temporary check, com- 
 pelling the French to do greater things than they had 
 intended, was no fatalist. He might rail at Fortune, 
 as he did at Boulogne in August 1805, when waiting 
 for Villeneuve to appear; but he reserved his most 
 exuberant epithets for the admiral. If he had really 
 believed that Fortune was the sole arbitress of events, 
 would he not have exhausted his rage against her, 
 and left Villeneuve alone? In truth, no great com- 
 mander is absolutely a fatalist. If he were, his army 
 would fall to pieces. The effort of Tolstoi to prove 
 that the Russian campaign of 181 2 was throughout de- 
 termined by destiny, in whose hands the commanders 
 were mere puppets, is highly interesting as a tour 
 de/orce,and as a revelation of that great thinker's philo- 
 sophy; but it can deceive no one who has thoroughly 
 studied Napoleon's character and career. The disas- 
 ter to the Grand Army was due in the last resort to 
 the Emperor's resolve to hold on to Moscow and 
 intimidate the Czar Alexander at all costs, even at 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," iii, 146. 
 
THE THINKER 201 
 
 the risk of a winter campaign or of what he termed 
 a strategic movement to winter quarters near Smo- 
 lensk.^ In a very limited sense, that awful episode is 
 a drama of destiny. But the determining force is the 
 determination of the chief actor, who acted then as 
 always from " mere dry calculation." He had braved 
 similar risks in Egypt, and in 1805 he longed to 
 brave them on the Boulogne flotilla. In those two 
 cases Nelson and Villeneuve foiled his efforts. At 
 Moscow he had his way, until winter was close upon 
 him and claimed her due. 
 
 In speaking so much about destiny and fortune, 
 what was Napoleon's aim? He did everything from 
 reasoning. What was the reasoning in this case? 
 Perhaps here, as at so many points, his early studies 
 will give us a clue. I think it highly probable that 
 he was influenced by the Greek notions of fortune 
 and destiny. He had read with deep interest Plut- 
 arch's " Lives " ; and many events there recorded 
 showed the influence of the idea of fortune upon the 
 Greeks and Romans. The career of Timoleon, as 
 described by Plutarch, is perhaps the most remark- 
 able instance of unchequered success ever recorded. 
 Though unskilled in strategy, he undertook to lead a 
 small Corinthian force for the liberation of Sicily 
 from the tyrant Dionysius and the Carthaginians. 
 In respect to material force the enterprise seemed 
 desperate; but the omens were highly favourable. 
 During the ceremonies at Corinth which preceded 
 his departure, a crown of victory, detached from some 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xxiv, 265. 
 
202 NAPOLEON 
 
 decorations, fell down upon his head; and a light as 
 from heaven guided his ships towards Rhegium. By- 
 skill and address he slipped across the strait, evading 
 the Carthaginian galleys. Victory crowned his daring 
 rush against their troops, whom he took unawares. 
 The Greek cities, startled by these signs of divine 
 favour, espoused his cause; and he succeeded in cap- 
 turing the citadel of Syracuse and Dionysius himself 
 A plot to murder Timoleon was foiled by an avenger 
 of blood striking down the very man who was about 
 to take the hero's life. All these events (says Plutarch) 
 " made the people reverence and protect Timoleon as 
 a sacred person sent by heaven to revenge and redeem 
 Sicily." He himself before the crowning battle against 
 the Carthaginians gave a happy turn to what seemed 
 an evil omen with a skill like that displayed by Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror at the landing in Pevensey Bay. 
 Finally, after giving liberty and just government to 
 Sicily, Timoleon thanked the gods for the favour 
 which they had vouchsafed, and erected a shrine in 
 his house to Good Fortune, ascribing all his successes 
 to her. Clearly these uninterrupted triumphs were in 
 large measure the outcome of the belief in the special 
 favour accorded to him by the gods. 
 
 Now, this story was well known to Napoleon. 
 Further, he, a child of the Mediterranean, brought up 
 among a primitive people, half hunters, half fisher- 
 men, realized the force of superstition. Perhaps at 
 one time he was imbued by it; for, as we have seen, 
 he retained the custom of crossing himself on the 
 receipt of good news. He early rejected revealed re- 
 
THE THINKER 203 
 
 ligion, but he retained his belief in good luck, much as > 
 Frederick the Great did.' He „knew that sold iers, 
 peasantspand- - m a ny o f a4ugh£r--StatiQ.n_asjygll,_wgyr.-. 
 shipped-geod fortune, the-shadoHJiLalLprirnitive cults. 
 It is thergfore highly probable that h is appeals to his 
 star, or foptunerOrdesliny^. were designed to enlist_on 
 his side. the crude but potent conceptions which have 
 always, counted for so much among the Mediterranean^ 
 peoples, nerving the Greeks to do more than their 
 best Sqi, Alexander the Great, Epaminondas," and 
 Timoleon. Some generals are- lucky,- others unlucky. 
 Napoleon determined to be among the lucky ones, 
 and set htmself to conquer Fortune by clairning that 
 she was--already on -his side. The device completely 
 succeeded^. so„comp|etelj indeed that this cool cal- 
 culator, this embodiment of hard dry reason, has TSeen 
 called the Man of Destiny, as though he sat up at 
 night viewing the stars and casting horoscopes. He 
 never did anything so foolish. If he sat up very late 
 it was in order to transact business, or to procure 
 the latest possible reports from his officers before 
 ordering the movements for the morrow.^ 
 
 I can find no well-authenticated incident of his 
 career which convicts him of downright superstition. 
 The most plausible story to that effect is one recorded 
 by Chaptal. It refers to the summons issued by Na- 
 poleon for the meeting of the Jews in a Sanhedrin 
 at Paris. While Napoleon, Chaptal, and others were 
 
 1 " Malmesbury Diaries," i, 124. 
 
 " Yorck von Wartenburg, "Napoleon as General," i, 283 
 (Eng. edit.). 
 
204 NAPOLEON 
 
 at dinner, the Emperor's uncle, Cardinal Fesch, en- 
 tered in consternation, and, in reply to Napoleon's 
 inquiries, made answer: " Do you want the end of the 
 world to come? " " Why? " retorted the Emperor. 
 " Do you not know that the Bible foretells the end 
 of the world when the Jews are recognized as con- 
 stituting a nation? " Chaptal and the guests were in- 
 clined to laugh; but the Emperor became serious, and 
 went out with Fesch to an ante-room, where he re- 
 mained conversing for an hour. Next day the San- 
 hedrin was dissolved.^ 
 
 Now, assuming the story to be true (and Chaptal 
 is a French memoir-writer), it does not necessarily 
 imply that Napoleon believed the end of the world 
 to depend on the assembly of the Jews in a San- 
 hedrin. It may mean no more than this: that he, as 
 being responsible for public opinion and public credit, 
 foresaw grave inconvenience if the Royalist /rondeurs 
 of the Boulevard St. Germain or the "bears" on the 
 Bourse spread the rumour that the end of all things 
 was at hand. For one thing, it would stop the pay- 
 ment of taxes and might cause a headlong fall in 
 stocks. We do not know the workings of the Em- 
 peror's mind on this question; but I suspect that 
 Fesch's silly story caused him very little concern 
 about the end of the world and very much concern 
 about a general repudiation of debt.' 
 
 ' Chaptal " Souvenirs," p. 243. 
 
 ' At St. Helena he once remarked to Gourgaud that he be- 
 lieved the terrible fire at the Schwarzenberg ball in Paris, in 
 which several persons perished, was of sinister augury for him, 
 
THE THINKER 205 
 
 The cleverest man about Napoleon was Talleyrand ; 
 and I think that he detected the unreality of the re- 
 ferences to the star. The great diplomatist let fall a 
 suggestive remark to Hyde de Neuville before his 
 interview with Bonaparte in 1799. Speaking of the 
 First Consul, Talleyrand said: "If he lasts one year, 
 he will go far. He is a man who believes that he is 
 the master of Fortune, a man whose astonishing con- 
 fidence in his star inspires in his partisans an equally 
 astonishing sense of security." ' " Master of For- 
 tune!" The two words are in direct contradiction.^ 
 DestinX-l§~.OP. longer destiny if you are master of it. j 
 Fortune, if you control her, ceases to be a goddess 
 dispensing her favours from on high ; she becomes a 
 Brocken-spectre, the projection of your own figure 
 upon fog. 
 
 For the mos t part Napoleon thought so clearly,ai id 
 incisi^cglyJthat_itJs_J^j[d^.Jo_Jhin^k jof^ a b lind 
 
 devotee of Fortune, or as deceived by the vague and 
 silly^talk about her. On one occasion he *^ore it 
 asunder by asserting that in the long run men meet 
 with their deserts, a statement which implies that 
 character determines events. As the Emperor often 
 
 and he was therefore well pleased when at the Battle of Dresden 
 Schwarzenberg was killed; for he said to himself, "Then the 
 fatality was for him, not for me." Now, the curious thing is that 
 Schwarzenberg did not perish at Dresden but lived on to invade 
 France in 1814. It was Moreau who was killed. Gourgaud re- 
 lates the story and adds the needed correction, but without com- 
 menting on the strange lapse of memory which prompted this 
 artificial outburst of fatalism. (Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 519.) 
 ' Hyde de Neuville, " Me'ms.," i, 273. 
 
2o6 NAPOLEON 
 
 spoke about controlling Fortune,' it is clear that he 
 saw through the fable which imposed on the multitude. 
 Why, then, did he use the language of the multitude? 
 Obviously, in order to impress it the more. The belief 
 that he was the favourite of Fortune was an asset of 
 priceless worth. In the field it was worth an army. 
 Wellington estimated the presence of Napoleon on a 
 battlefield as equalling a force of 40,000 men, because 
 " he suited a French army so exactly." ^ One might 
 add that the troops redoubled their energy, because 
 they saw the star of victory going before them when 
 the Emperor was at hand.' 
 
 Turning to the domain of literature, we note that 
 Napoleon's favourite poem was " Ossian," which he 
 read in the Italian translation of Cesarotti. At that 
 time Macpherson's poem had a considerable vogue, 
 which was perhaps due to the dispute whether it was 
 
 ' See instances ante, pp. 21, 57. 
 
 ^ Stanhope, " Conversations with Wellington," p. 9. 
 
 ^ The appeals to the star were not to be effective for ever. 
 General Mathieu Dumas mentioned to de Broglie a curious 
 incident which happened on a parade ground at Dresden during 
 the armistice of June — July 1813. Some French conscripts were 
 being severely rated by drill sergeants for their clumsiness, 
 when the Emperor came on the scene. In his annoyance at the 
 severity of a drill sergeant, he took a musket and sought to drill 
 the poor boys, but with no better result. At last, turning to 
 Dumas, who was looking on with dejected mien, he said : " You 
 do not beheve in miracles?" "Yes I do," repHed Dumas, "pro- 
 vided that I have time to make the sign of the cross." Where- 
 upon Napoleon at once broke off the conversation and returned 
 to his headquarters. De BrogHe, " M^ms.," i, 218 (Eng. edit,). 
 
THE THINKER 207 
 
 a Celtic legend or the poet's invention. Napoleon 
 took some interest in that question; and his nature 
 thrilled at the adventures and exploits of the Irish 
 hero, which lost none of their force and grandiosity 
 in the Italian translation. He often mentioned to 
 Englishmen his admiration of " Ossian." At Fon- 
 tainebleau in 18 14 he declared that there was some- 
 thing very warlike about that poetry. On H.M.S. 
 " Northumberland," when bound for St. Helena, he 
 showed Glover, the secretary, a copy of the poem and 
 asked him whether he had ever read it, remarking that 
 it was very fine in French. To Lady Malcolm at 
 St. Helena he said that the Italian version was far 
 better.^ We now deem those poems mere bombast ; 
 but an inflated style is not inappropriate to the sub- 
 ject, and it certainly pleased Napoleon. This reveals 
 his predilection in literature. He appreciated rhetor- 
 ical poetry ; and elevated sentiments, whether in verie 
 or prose, appealed to him. But he lacked the inmost 
 poetic sense. M. Guillois, a diligent and sympathetic 
 student of his writings, says he has discovered in 
 them only one sentence that can be called poetical. 
 It runs thus: "The spring is at last appearing, and 
 the leaves are beginning to sprout." " I think this 
 verdict one-sided and unfair. The passage in which 
 he described to Las Cases his early love for Mile. 
 Colombier at Valence, when they met at dawn and 
 
 • Sir N. Campbell, "Journal," p. 158. Lady Malcolm, "A 
 Diary of St. Helena," p. 21. 
 
 " " Nap. Corresp.," xx, 22 1 ; quoted by A. Guillois, " Napoleon " 
 (IS 
 
2o8 NAPOLEON 
 
 ate cherries together in her mother's orchard, is a 
 sweet httle idyll. Then, too, his early letters to 
 Josephine also rise to heights of passion which dwarf 
 mere questions of literary form. When deeply moved, 
 he gave forth to the world letters, speeches, proclama- 
 tions vibrating with feeling, instinct with a fiery elo- 
 quence. There is at times a poetry in prose which 
 surpasses that of verse; and Napoleon sometimes rose 
 to the heights in which both poetry and prose find 
 their source. 
 
 An intense nature cannot be intense at all points; 
 and Napoleon had his blind sides, namely, in regard 
 to music and the arts. His liking for music was 
 limited to simple little songs, such as those of Rous- 
 seau, which in youth he so much praised. As regards 
 painting and sculpture, Chaptal declared that Napo- 
 leon's sole test of merit was accuracy. On his visit 
 to David's studio to inspect the great painting of the 
 Coronation, he viewed it closely, but solely in regard 
 to the fidelity of the portraits. Further, he showed 
 Httle interest in the works of the great masters at the 
 Louvre ; and when he stopped in front of one of them 
 it was merely in order to ask, " Whose is that? " Simi- 
 larly, at Dresden in July 1807 he hurried through the 
 galleries at a pace obviously painful to the King of 
 Saxony, who could scarcely keep up with his pre- 
 occupied visitor.^ In architecture it was the gigantic 
 which most appealed to Napoleon. He said more 
 than once that the things which astonished him most 
 were the Pyramids and the stature of a giant named 
 ^ Chaptal, 269-272 ; " Lettres de Mme. Reinhard," p. 340. 
 
THE THINKER 209 
 
 Freon. To this peculiarity of the Emperor we may 
 ascribe the grandiosity of his chief monuments in 
 Paris — the Arc de Triomphe and the Vend6me column 
 — obviously inspired by the Arch of Constantine and 
 Trajan's column at Rome. 
 
 He who spends his time mainly in affairs of govern- 
 ment will fascinate a thinker, who views the world 
 mainly from the study. In fact, in many ways the 
 man of the study will gladly hail the man of action 
 as his superior. Certainly Goethe deemed it one of 
 the events of his life to converse with Napoleon, and 
 in 1 83 1 passed judgement on him to Eckermann as a 
 born ruler of the world, one of those who find happi- 
 ness only in command, one who, always himself, a 
 match for every situation, rested steadfast and secure 
 on his clear fixed will. It was natural that the great 
 poet should admire one who had helped to call a new 
 world into being. The author of " Faust " (Part I), 
 who had looked on, half in weariness, half in irony, at 
 the limitations that beset a German savant, must have 
 gazed with rapture at the transformation which came 
 over Western and Southern Germany at the behests 
 of her conqueror and organizer. The spread of equal 
 laws, religious toleration, and an enlightened polity 
 to States formerly penned up by jealous rulers and 
 graded in the old feudal strata, was an event of high 
 significance; and it is scarcely too much to compare 
 the dreary negations and futile subtleties of the old 
 life of Faust with the twilight of the pre- Revolutionary 
 times, and the many-sided activities of his second life 
 
 P 
 
210 NAPOLEON 
 
 with the larger day then dawning upon the Teutonic 
 realm of the new Charlemagne. 
 
 There are two accounts of the Emperor's interviews 
 with Goethe. One is by Talleyrand/ the other by the 
 poet himself They differ hopelessly in nearly every 
 particular, so that destructive critics could well main- 
 tain that Napoleon and Goethe never met. But 
 they did meet ; and the discrepancies of the two nar- 
 ratives are easily accounted for. Talleyrand described 
 the more personal and political details ; while Goethe 
 recorded what interested him. Especially noteworthy 
 in the poet's account is Napoleon's criticism of 
 Voltaire's " Mahomet," which Goethe had translated. 
 Napoleon censured it for giving an unworthy portrait 
 of the conqueror of the then known world. He also 
 expressed his disapproval of all dramas in which fate 
 played a part, summing up his censure in these self- 
 revealing words: "What do they mean by their fatal- 
 ism? Politics is fatalism." ^ 
 
 Napoleon's admiration for conciseness of thought 
 and style was so marked that it is difficult to account 
 for his approval of Goethe's " Sorrows of Werther," 
 which, it appears, he had read seven times. He 
 
 ' Talleyrand, " M^ms.," i, 432. 
 
 ' Strange to say " Mahomet " was played at Erfurt a few days 
 later, doubtless because of the many references which were ap- 
 plicable to Napoleon's own career, especially the lines (act i, 
 sc. 4) : 
 
 " Au nom de conqudrant et de triomphateur 
 II veut joindre le nom de pacificateur." 
 
 At this couplet Napoleon displayed visible signs of emotion, 
 and a sympathetic thrill went round the theatre. 
 
THE THINKER 211 
 
 pointed out an artistic blemish in the work, namely, 
 that Werther's suicidal mania proceeded not solely 
 from disappointed love but also from frustrated 
 ambition. Always enamoured of clearness and pre- 
 cision, he found the mixture of motives untrue to 
 nature, and Goethe agreed with him. The criticism 
 of the Emperor and the acquiescence of the author 
 are equally curious; for, as Lewes has pointed out, 
 the original of Werther {i.e. Jerusalem) committed 
 suicide owing to the double cause — a fact which 
 Goethe must have forgotten when he agreed with 
 Napoleon, not to mention the fact that, when revising 
 the work, he had simplified the cause of suicide in de- 
 ference to a somewhat similar criticism from Herder. 
 It is a signal triumph for Lewes that on this topic he 
 could set right Napoleon, Herder and Goethe, by a 
 triumphant appeal to fact. 
 
 During a conversation with Goethe at Weimar a 
 few days later the Emperor referred to Shakespeare 
 in the depreciatory terms that might be expected 
 from the admirer of Voltaire and " Ossian." In this 
 connection, too, he expressed his surprise that Goethe, 
 with his great intellect, did not like les genres tranches. 
 To this Goethe made no reply. Thereupon the Em- 
 peror discoursed suggestively on tragedy, and finally 
 urged Goethe to write a " Death of Caesar," but in a 
 grander style than that of Voltaire, so as to show 
 what vast schemes Caesar would have carried out had 
 his life been spared. Next came the suggestion that 
 the poet should leave Weimar and reside at Paris. 
 The invitation threw an illuminating light on the 
 
212 NAPOLEON 
 
 former; but the advancing years of the poet furnished 
 a sufficient reason for not proceeding to the French 
 capital, where assuredly he would have sunk to the 
 level of an imperial Poet Laureate. 
 
 During a ball held at Weimar Napoleon had an 
 animated discussion on Tacitus with the famous 
 litterateur, Wieland, leading up to it by the statement 
 that tragedy is a school for enlightened men, and in 
 some respects is superior to history. By this time a 
 group of thinking men had assembled in the corner 
 of the salon, and the Emperor proceeded as follows: 
 
 I assure you that the historian whom you are always 
 quoting, Tacitus, has never taught me anything. Do you 
 know any greater, yet often more unjust, detractor of man- 
 kind? To the simplest actions he assigns criminal motives. 
 He represents all the (Roman) Emperors as profound villains, 
 in order to win admiration for the genius which has unmasked 
 them. His " Annals " may justly be called an abstract of 
 the imperial records rather than a history of the Empire. 
 They tell of nothing but accusations, accused persons and 
 people opening their veins in the bath. He, who is ever 
 speaking of informers, is himself the greatest of them. And 
 what a style ! What unrelieved obscurity ! I am not a great 
 Latinist; but the obscurity of Tacitus is apparent in ten or 
 a dozen French or Italian translations that I have read. 
 Hence I conclude it is innate in him, a result of his genius, 
 as it is termed, as much as of his style, a trait inseparable 
 from his mode of expression only because it resides in his 
 mode of thinking. I have heard him praised for the fear 
 that he inspires in tyrants. He makes them fear the people; 
 and that is a misfortune for the people themselves. 
 
 Half apologetically Napoleon here broke off his 
 
THE THINKER 213 
 
 remarks and called attention to the excellence of the 
 Czar's dancing. The company was much more inter- 
 ested in the intellectual duel which was evidently at 
 hand. Encouraged by Napoleon's frankness, Wieland 
 deferentially took up the challenge and began by 
 pointing out that Tacitus denounced the Roman 
 Emperors, not to their degraded subjects alone, but 
 to mankind in all generations. Finally he expressed 
 a hope that men would probably be governed by 
 reason instead of by passion as heretofore. To this 
 the Emperor made answer: "That is what all our 
 philosophers say. But though I look for this strength 
 of reason, I nowhere see it." Wieland then boldly 
 observed that a sign of its growth was the increased 
 attention given to Tacitus, the greatest colourist of 
 antiquity, as Racine called him. The Roman Empire 
 was at that time ruled by monsters, whom Tacitus 
 chastised. Of necessity he had to confine himself to 
 the records of Rome, while Livy ranged at large with 
 her armies.' In Tacitus one sees the unhappy age in 
 which princes and peoples stood opposed, each trem- 
 bling in fear of the other. But when he comes to de- 
 scribe the reigns in which the Empire and Liberty 
 were reconciled, clearly he regards that as the greatest 
 of man's discoveries. 
 
 Here therewas a general buzz of applause. Napoleon 
 thereupon graciously remarked that the odds were 
 against him; but he deftly turned his enemy's flank by 
 the inquiry whether Wieland had not been in corre- 
 
 ^ Tacitus himself bewailed the narrow range of his themes 
 (" Annals," bk. iv, ch. xxxii). 
 
214 NAPOLEON 
 
 spondence with Johann von Miiller, the historian at 
 Berlin, who doubtless warned him of Napoleon's hos- 
 tility to Tacitus. To his own confusion and to the 
 amusement of the company, Wieland confessed that 
 this was so. Having thus regained the advantage, 
 Napoleon ended the discussion, affirming that Tacitus 
 did not reveal the inner causes of events, and left 
 unexplained their mysterious connections. In fine 
 Governments ought to be judged only according to 
 their environment.^ Thus the great man drew off, 
 dividing the honours of the debate with his courage- 
 ous antagonist. As usual, he respected and admired 
 a man who knew his own mind, and spoke it forth 
 clearly and strongly. To the end of his days he re- 
 tained his dislike of Tacitus. At St. Helena he re- 
 affirmed his thesis, first maintained before the Institute, 
 that Tacitus, though a fine colourist, did not explain 
 the motives influencing men's actions. His stories 
 against Tiberiu^ were absurd. And why should Nero 
 burn Rome, when he loved her so much.' ' No reason 
 was given for that act. The exile then laughed at the 
 notion that he disliked Tacitus for his opposition to 
 tyranny.' 
 
 1 Talleyrand, " Mdms.," i, 442-446. 
 
 ' See, too, Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 165; ii, 341. It is worth 
 noting that Tacitus leaves the question open whether the fire 
 was due to Nero or to chance. The story of Nero harping is 
 not in Tacitus, but in the far less reputable w^ter, Suetonius. 
 
 ' I cannot but think that this motive weighed with Napoleon. 
 He must have disliked the early chapters of the "Annals," de- 
 scribing the abrogation of the old Republican safeguards and 
 customs. See, too, the protest of Tacitus ("Annals," bk. iv, 
 
THE THINKER 21$ 
 
 At this point I gladly acknowledge the debt of 
 gratitude of all historical students to Napoleon for first 
 raising doubt as to the lifelikeness of the portrait of 
 Tiberius painted by Tacitus. Scholars now generally 
 admit that the gloom and horror of that picture are 
 overcharged ; and it is a signal proof of the acumen 
 of Napoleon that he was among the first to detect the 
 exaggeration. 
 
 The Emperor's religious beliefs form an entrancing 
 though difficult subject of inquiry. In the days of his 
 power, as behoved the author of the Concordat, he 
 was extremely reticent on this topic. Thus, Chaptal, 
 who knew him well, believed that he detected in him 
 the beginnings of unbelief; and others deemed him 
 a good Catholic because he occasionally went to mass, 
 and, while there, behaved with more decorum than 
 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette displayed in their 
 days of prosperity. This conduct is certainly to his 
 credit, and gained him the reputation of devoutness. 
 I confess I can find in his early writings, his letters, 
 and his more intimate confessions, few if any signs of 
 genuine religious feeling, still less of conviction. To 
 refer to his early works. — The reply to the Genevese 
 pastor who had reproached Rousseau for his attacks 
 on religion is a warm, almost fierce, defence of the 
 philosopher. Bonaparte took it for granted that 
 Catholicism ia antagonistic to the ideal polity of the 
 future; and he had not a good word to say on behalf 
 
 ch. xxxv) against the folly of seeking to stifle truth by the arbi- 
 trary proscription of a history. 
 
2i6 NAPOLEON 
 
 of Protestantism, because it impaired the unity of the 
 general will. He at that time deemed religion an anti- 
 social force, diverting men from the pursuit of liberty 
 in this world by holding out the prospect of compensa- 
 tion in the life to come. At a later period he valued 
 religion for the very reason for which he declaimed 
 against it in his Jacobinical days. 
 
 During his campaign in Italy, Bonaparte for a 
 time desired to overthrow the temporal power of the 
 Papacy ^ ; but he finally came to respect religion as an 
 immense power in the world ; and, as we saw in Lec- 
 ture III, in reviewing the policy of the Concordat, he 
 regarded it as of the utmost importance to utilize that 
 force on behalf of morality and order. He continued to 
 lay great stress upon the value of religion as a political 
 sedative. Not long after Austerlitz he sent to Paris a 
 stern reprimand to a learned man, Lalande by name, 
 who had spoken against religion at the Institute of 
 France. The Emperor declared that he must be in 
 his second childhood to utter opinions so absurd and 
 dangerous ; or else he was actuated by vanity and the 
 wish to be talked about; for atheism was " a principle 
 destructive of all social organization, as it takes from 
 man all his consolations and hopes." ^ Then again at 
 Erfurt in 1808 he thus bade farewell to the literary men 
 assembled to do him honour. " Sirs," he said, " philo- 
 sophers torment themselves by creating systems. In 
 vain will they find a better than that of Christianity 
 which, by reconciling man to himself, assures both 
 
 ' "Nap. Corresp.," iii, No. 1828 (26th May 1797). 
 ^ Ibid., xi, 472. 
 
THE THINKER 217 
 
 public order and the quiet of States. Your ideologues 
 destroy the age of illusions ; and for peoples, as for 
 individuals, the age of illusions is that of happiness." ' 
 Deferring to the next lecture the topic of Napoleon's 
 unworthy treatment of the Pope in the years 1807-14, 
 I ask your attention to a few of his statements at 
 St. Helena. By that time the cloak of policy and re- 
 serve had fallen away from him, and we detect his 
 real sentiments on religion. To General Gourgaud he 
 often unburdened himself with singular frankness. 
 Possibly at times he exaggerated his assertions, either 
 from native impetuosity or from a desire to tease the 
 young man, for instance, by the proposal to write a 
 history of the campaigns of Moses. Gourgaud seems 
 to have been a good Catholic, upholding the cause of 
 religion against the almost sceptical Bertrand, Las 
 Cases, and Montholon. To him, then, on more 
 than one occasion Napoleon declared that man was 
 solely of the earth; he was earthy matter, warmed by 
 the sun and combined with electric fluids. An ox, of 
 course, was nothing more than that; and man was 
 only a superior kind of ox, consisting of better or- 
 ganized materials. Possibly in the future there would 
 be on this earth beings superior to us. " Where [adds 
 Napoleon] is the soul of an infant or of a lunatic? The 
 soul follows the body. It grows in the child and decays 
 in the old man. . . . Nevertheless [he concludes] the 
 idea of a God is the simplest. Who has made all 
 that?"' 
 
 > Talleyrand, " M^ms.," i, 452. 
 
 " Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 297, 440; ii, 311, 409. 
 
2i8 NAPOLEON 
 
 On several occasions he declared that the morality 
 of the Christian religion was merely that of Socrates 
 and Plato. Sometimes he expressed doubts whether 
 Jesus Christ ever existed; and he declared emphatic- 
 ally his preference of Mohammedanism to Christianity 
 for the Eastern peoples. In Egypt the sheikhs had 
 embarrassed him much by asking him about theTrinity, 
 and insisting that we worshipped three Gods and 
 therefore were pagans. Besides, he continued, Moham- 
 med conquered half the known world in ten years, a 
 task which Christianity accomplished in three cen- 
 turies. Or, again, he declared his admiration for 
 Mohammed in declaring a holy war.^ Clearly this 
 preference was founded largely on military motives. 
 He seems to have considered that Christianity made 
 men afraid of death; and he once said to Gour- 
 gaud that if he had believed in a God who dealt 
 out retribution, he would have been afraid in war.' 
 Mohammedanism, on the contrary, was a fine fight- 
 ing creed. 
 
 At bottom, then, Napoleon viewed religion as a 
 political force, capable of rousing men to fiercely 
 aggressive activity, or of consolidating order after a 
 time of chaos, and at all times serving to console the 
 poor for the hardships of their lot. It mattered not 
 whether they understood religious services. On one 
 occasion he declared that Roman Catholicism was 
 better than Anglicanism, because in the former the 
 people did not understand what was sung at Vespers 
 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 454; ii, 78, 152, 272. 
 '^ Ibid., ii, 409. 
 
THE THINKER 219 
 
 and only looked on. It was better not to throw light 
 upon those things.^ 
 
 What, then, are we to say of the beautiful monologue, 
 first published in the year 1840, in which Napoleon is 
 made to contrast the evanescence of his Empire with 
 that of Christ? After long and learned arguments 
 against paganism and the systems of Lycurgus and 
 Confucius, the Emperor is reported as saying: " It is 
 not the same with Christ. Everything in him astonishes 
 me ; his spirit soars above mine, and his will confounds 
 me. Between him and every other person in the world 
 no comparison is possible. He is truly a being apart 
 from all. His ideas and his sentiments, the truth that 
 he announces, his manner of convincing one, are not 
 to be explained either by human organization or by 
 the nature of things. His birth and the history of his 
 life, the profundity of his dogma, which touches the 
 height of all difficulties and yet is their most admir- 
 able solution, his Gospel, the singularity of this 
 mysterious being, his apparition, his Empire, his 
 march across centuries and realms — all is to me a 
 prodigy, an unfathomable mystery that plunges me 
 in a reverie from which I cannot escape, a mystery 
 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 441. It is doubtful whether even 
 in youth he was devout. Madame Mfere at the time of the con- 
 clusion of the Concordat mentioned to Roederer a curious little 
 incident. Shortly before the first great religious ceremony, at 
 Easter 1802, she jokingly said to her son: "Ah! it will not be 
 necessary for me now to box your ears to make you go to high 
 mass." " No," replied Napoleon, " now it is for me to give you 
 one;" and he gave her a slight slap (Roederer, "Journal," 
 p. 112). 
 
220 NAPOLEON 
 
 that is under my eyes and endures, which I can neither 
 deny nor explain. I see nothing of the human in this. 
 . . . What an abyss of distance between my misery 
 and the eternal reign of Christ — preached, incensed, 
 loved, adored, living through all the world. Is that 
 death? Is it not rather life? Such is the death of 
 Christ. It is that of God." ' 
 
 The evidence supporting the authenticity of this 
 noble passage is of the slightest. The words appeared 
 in a work which was obviously designed to help on the 
 Bonapartist revival of the year 1840. It was issued 
 by the Chevalier de Beauterne, who is said to have 
 been inspired by CQunt Montholon, Napoleon's com- 
 panion at St. Helena. But Montholon, during the 
 exile, showed no attachment to religion any more 
 than Bertrand. Judging from suspicious facts con- 
 cerning the publication of de Beauterne's volume, the 
 opposition of the views there expressed to the opinions 
 undoubtedly uttered by Napoleon during his last 
 exile, and the striking differences of style, we may 
 pronounce this eloquent rhapsody a later invention.* 
 
 The following passage rests on better evidence, 
 and is altogether more life-like (8th June 18 16): 
 
 Everything proclaims the existence of a God: that is 
 beyond a doubt; but all our religions are clearly the out- 
 come of men. A man can swear to nothing that he will do 
 in his last moments; yet undoubtedly my belief is that I 
 shall die without a confessor; nevertheless there is one 
 
 ' De Beauterne, " Sentiment de Napoleon sur le Christian- 
 isme,'' ch. v. 
 ' For other proofs see Rose, "Napoleonic Studies," pp. 104-106 
 
THE THINKER 221 
 
 (pointing to one of us) who perhaps will confess me. 
 Assuredly I am far from being an atheist; yet I cannot 
 believe all that is taught contrary to reason, without being 
 dishonest and a hypocrite. Under the Empire, and par- 
 ticularly after the marriage with Marie Louise, very great 
 efforts were made to induce me to go to Notre Dame in full 
 state to receive the communion after the manner of our 
 kings. I refused absolutely. My faith was not strong enough 
 for it to be a benefit to me, and yet was too great to commit 
 a sacrilege in cold blood. ... To know whence I come, 
 what I am, whither I go, is beyond me; and yet all that is 
 a reality. I am the watch that exists but does not under- 
 stand itself. ... I can appear before God's tribunal; I can 
 await His judgment without fear. He will not detect in me 
 the idea of murder, poisoning, unjust or premeditated death 
 so common in careers like mine. I willed only the glory, 
 the power, the splendour of France. To that all my faculties, 
 my efforts, my time were given. That could not be a crime. 
 To me those efforts appeared a virtue.' 
 
 Here we notice a difference between this man of 
 action and others who allow the mysteries of life to 
 stunt their activity — backboneless creatures, for whom 
 the riddles of philosophy furnish an excuse to herd 
 with the most degraded followers of Epicurus. That 
 state of mind is seductively portrayed in the following 
 lines : 
 
 Into this universe, and why not knowing. 
 Nor whence, like water willy-nilly flowing ; 
 And out of it as wind along the waste, 
 I know not whither, willy-nilly, blowing. 
 
 Las Cases, " Memorial," iv, 160-163. 
 
222 NAPOLEON 
 
 Yesterday this day's madness did prepare ; 
 To-morrow's silence, triumph or despair : 
 Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why: 
 Drink ! for you know not why you go, nor where. 
 
 No! Napoleon rarely strayed for long into the land 
 of listless enchantment limned by Omar Khayyam. 
 He never made it his abode. His unfailing energy 
 saved him from that. Like Carlyle a generation later, i 
 he found that the best cure for baffling problems j 
 was, not to drift and drink, but to play the man and | 
 work. Whatever we may think of his creed, or lack 
 of creed, assuredly we admire the frankness and fear- 
 lessness with which he confronted the deep things of 
 life; and our sympathies go out to him, as, by the 
 help of reason alone, he struggles up the world's great 
 altar-stairs, uttering the questions that echo down the 
 ages: "What am I?" "Why am I here?" "Who 
 made all that?" 
 
LECTURE VII 
 THE WORLD-RULER 
 
 " Nous sommes maitres du monde." — NAPOLEON TO ROE- 
 DERER, 1st December 1800. 
 
 PROMINENT among the characteristics of the 
 ancient Romans was their love of the gigantic. It 
 informs alike their architecture and state policy, their 
 public works and games. The traveller who comes 
 from lands where labour is so dear as to necessitate 
 economy of effort gazes with wonder at the huge 
 amphitheatre of a comparatively small city like 
 Verona,' at the enormous baths and aqueducts of 
 Rome, and the " Villa " of Hadrian near Tivoli, con- 
 taining enough materials to build a town of average 
 size. To the Greeks beauty and symmetry were 
 everything; to the Romans they counted for little 
 unless combined with vastness. That characteristic 
 lived on in mediaeval Italy, and is responsible for the 
 huge palaces, the solid and lofty towers which made a 
 city a collection of fortresses, and the colossal churches 
 out of all proportion to the needs of the population. 
 The Roman ritual, literature and drama, in their 
 several spheres testify to the Italian love of grandiosity. 
 
 ' Napoleon wrote of it on 3rd June 1796: "Je viens de voir 
 I'amphith^atre : ce reste du peuple Romain est digne de lui . . . 
 Ici cent mille spectateurs sont assis." 
 
 223 
 
224 NAPOLEON 
 
 The youthful studies of Napoleon, as we have seen, 
 turned largely on the triumphs of ancient Rome. 
 That theme wrought itself into the fibre of his being. 
 Judge of his enthusiasm by the fact that he loved to 
 pore over Caesar's " Gallic War." A youth who finds 
 unfailing delight in that work must be a Roman at 
 heart; and he who early made Caesar his hero set 
 himself to be a greater than he. The glories of 
 ancient Rome were a constant challenge to his ac- 
 tivity. He sought to raise the Latin peoples from 
 their lethargy, and on their basis rear a fabric which 
 would equal, if not surpass, that of the Caesars. 
 
 The Roman strain in his nature impelled him in 
 1798 to the conquest of the Levant. In some respects 
 this is the most venturesome enterprise of his career. 
 While Central Europe and Italy chafed at the French 
 yoke, and the Union Jack waved triumphant at sea, 
 he proposed to seize Egypt and use it as a base for 
 that grander enterprise, the conquest of India. In one 
 important matter Bonaparte was far more daring than 
 Alexander the Great, who, before setting out for 
 Asia Minor, assured his communications with Europe 
 by coming to an understanding with Athens, thus 
 averting all risk of being cut off from his base of 
 supplies. But Bonaparte could not answer for the 
 British fleet. Doubtless it was this consideration 
 which led the historian, Thiers, to pronounce the 
 Egyptian enterprise of 1798 " the rashest attempt 
 that history records: rasher even than Moscow. It 
 contained the germ of Napoleon's subsequent life. 
 It showed his marvellous powers of combination 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 225 
 
 and execution, and the wildness with which his 
 imagination led him to despise moral and physical 
 obstacles." ^ 
 
 Such are the words of an admirer. They are none 
 too severe. After the battles of Cape St. Vincent 
 and Camperdown the British fleet ruled the seas. Its 
 withdrawal from the Mediterranean at the close of 
 1796 was a needed act of concentration which made 
 those victories possible. Afterwards the British 
 coasts were fairly safe, at least for a time; and it was 
 the height of rashness for the young Corsican to 
 assume that the Union Jack would not again wave in 
 the Mediterranean. The miscalculation ruined his 
 enterprise. After Nelson's victory at the Nile it was 
 vain to attempt the larger scheme of a march to the 
 Indus or to the Bosphorus. With his army cut off 
 from France, he might hold on to Egypt; he could 
 not possibly conquer the East. Yet still the dream 
 haunted him. Possibly he had not fully realized the 
 constricting effect of sea-power, which has been so 
 ably explained by Captain Mahan; but, after all, 
 that effect was well known by the rulers and generals 
 of the eighteenth century; and examples of it can 
 scarcely have escaped the ken of so diligent a student 
 of war as Bonaparte. Certainly after the siege of 
 Acre, when Sidney Smith captured his siege artillery 
 at sea and turned it against the French, its efficacy in 
 warfare could not be denied. 
 
 Nevertheless, he persisted down to his closing days, 
 in saying that the mud walls of Acre came between 
 ' N. Senior, "Conversations with Thiers, etc.," i, 198. 
 Q 
 
226 NAPOLEON 
 
 him and his destiny, the conquest of the East. Yet 
 he must have known that the Battle of the Nile, not 
 the repulse at Acre, was the turning-point of the 
 whole enterprise. Acre was one result of the naval 
 triumph; but there were other results — the non-arrival 
 of reinforcements from France, the rising courage of 
 the Moslems, the revolt of the Maltese, the dis- 
 couragement of his own little force, and the resolve 
 of the Sublime Porte to re-conquer Egypt. His 
 army, now hard stricken by the plague, was utterly 
 inadequate to conquer the East. Why, then, did he 
 continue to harp on Acre as the turning point of his 
 career? Two explanations may be suggested. Pos- 
 sibly he fastened his gaze too closely on what was, 
 after all, only one of the manifestations of sea-power, 
 the defence of Acre. Thus, several times at St. Helena 
 he told his companions that Acre was a great mis- 
 fortune. Once he blamed Kl^ber for cowardice in 
 refusing to make an assault; and again he asserted 
 that, if he had had four more twelve-pounders, he 
 would have taken the place ; or again, that if he could 
 have moved with a picked body of French on India, 
 he would have chased the British from it.' 
 
 The other explanation is this; that, while fully 
 realizing the cogency of sea-power, and the impossi- 
 bility of carrying out his wider schemes, he deemed 
 it advisable to fire the imagination of the Celts, both 
 then and at a later time, by holding forth to their gaze 
 the golden vision of the Empire of the East. True, 
 it was lost, but by a mere accident, at Acre. Therefore 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 52; ii, 185, 315. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 227 
 
 one day, under happier auspices, it could be realized. 
 The latter explanation I think the more reasonable. 
 It consorts with his keen intelligence and his know- 
 ledge of the hidden springs of human action. Make 
 men, especially Frenchmen, believe that they are on 
 the point of achieving! the greatest exploit since the 
 times of Alexander, and you double their energy. 
 Refer the temporary failure to a picturesque incident 
 like that of Acre, or to the plague, and you whet their 
 appetite for a greater effort. Man is an imaginative 
 being; and Napoleon, the great manipulator of men, 
 knew well that the crown of the Moguls, which he held 
 up before the French, would obliterate all memory of 
 loss, and be a perpetual challenge to further crusades. 
 His good fortune in eluding Nelson's cruisers off 
 Sicily and in reaching France at that crisis of her 
 destinies, the autumn of 1799, hid from the gaze of 
 Frenchmen the ruinous failure of the Egyptian ex- 
 pedition; and events during the next few years pre- 
 cluded him from a policy of adventure, and impelled 
 him to the most solid and enduring of his works, the 
 reorganization of France. But all this time vast 
 schemes crowd his brain. By skilful exchanges in 
 Italian domains he secures from Spain the reversion 
 to Louisiana, and hopes, from San Domingo as base, 
 to exploit that vast territory stretching as far as the 
 Spanish claims in California.^ He also projects a 
 French settlement of Central Australia ; ^ and it is 
 
 ^ E. L. Andrews, "Napoleon and America," 21-28. 
 ' For the Napoleonic map of Australia, issued in 1807, see 
 Rose, " Life of Napoleon," i, 382. 
 
228 NAPOLEON 
 
 probable that the tightening of his grip on the Dutch 
 Republic in 1 801-2 preluded an occupation of its 
 colonies, especially the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 After becoming First Consul for life, in August 
 1802, his prospects of gaining a world-empire were 
 very brilliant. In France and neighbouring States 
 his will was law. He annexed Piedmont and Elba. 
 Parma and Etruria were in effect under his control. 
 French mediation in Switzerland assured the sub- 
 jection of that land; and in Germany the series of 
 robberies of Church lands, known as the Seculariza- 
 tions, furnished Napoleon with an effective means of 
 enriching his henchmen and aggrandizing Bavaria 
 and Prussia at the expense of Austria. Thus was 
 fulfilled his prophecy expressed at Mombello in May 
 1797, that if the Germanic System did not exist, it 
 would be necessary to create it expressly for the 
 convenience of France.' Of the other Powers Russia 
 was quiescent during the flirtation of the young Czar 
 with Liberalism; while Great Britain, under the 
 somnolent sway of George HI and Addington, de- 
 clined in strength and prestige. The United States 
 were deeply agitated by the rumour of his expected 
 acquisition of Louisiana; but as yet they could take 
 no action against him. In a short time it even ap- 
 peared that by a further shuffle of the cards in Italy 
 he had the prospect of acquiring the Floridas. Fur- 
 ther, at the Peace of Amiens, he had recovered all the 
 French Colonies lost during the previous war. The 
 Dutch possessions were virtually under his sway. 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," iii, 74. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 229 
 
 Spain was his obedient vassal, and as yet showed 
 little or no resentment at changes which portended 
 the loss of Louisiana and Florida in return for paltry 
 and insecure gains to a Spanish Infanta in Italy. 
 India seemed likely to fall to him ; for his dealings 
 with the Mahrattas promised to range that formid- 
 able confederacy under the French tricolour and expel 
 the Union Jack. The re-conquest of Egypt presented 
 no difficulty. Sdbastiani's Report on the Levant, 
 published by Napoleon's order in the " Moniteur " of 
 30th January 1803, asserted that 6,000 French troops 
 would easily overrun that land. As for the Ionian 
 Isles, they longed to hoist the French tricolour. 
 
 It is well to remember these facts. In the year 1802 
 Napoleon had the world at his feet. As the Russian 
 Government was soon to point out, the French in the 
 last war lost as many battles as they gained ; but in 
 the interval of peace they succeeded in extending 
 their domination enormously.^ This was so. Napoleon 
 won as much by diplomacy as by war. The conclusion 
 of the Peace of Amiens by England and her acquies- 
 cence in subsequent events were calculated to en- 
 danger her existence, as that keen observer, Gouver- 
 neur Morris, clearly saw.' To resume; in 1802 Napo- 
 leon had the prospect of acquiring Louisiana, the 
 Floridas, Egypt, and parts of India and Australia, 
 together with the reversion to the Dutch Colonial 
 Empire, and possibly to that of Spain. His position 
 
 1 Garden, "Traitds," ix, 341. 
 
 ^ " Diary and Letters of G. Morris" (New York, 1888), vol. ii, 
 
 P- 445- 
 
230 NAPOLEON 
 
 after Tilsit in 1807 was splendid. But in my judge- 
 ment the situation in the year 1802 offered the best 
 chance of securing an almost universal dominion. 
 
 Probably he would have succeeded for a time, pro- 
 vided that he remained quiet until the French navy 
 was ready for action. Having at his disposal nearly 
 all the shipyards from Amsterdam to Genoa, he might 
 hope before long to challenge the naval supremacy of 
 England. Meanwhile prudence counselled reserve and 
 delay. She counselled in vain. The southern impetu- 
 osity of Napoleon's nature brooked no delay. S6bas- 
 tiani's Report, followed six weeks later by the despatch 
 of General Decaen's expedition to India, alarmed 
 the British Government' As a compensation to the 
 gains of France in the Mediterranean, it insisted on 
 retaining Malta. This Napoleon refused; and the 
 outcome was war (i8th May 1803). 
 
 A duel with England for the empire of the world 
 was perhaps inevitable; for the domination of the 
 East lay very near his heart ; and that alone involved 
 a life-and-death struggle with the British Empire. 
 But the outbreak of war came about two years too 
 soon for him. The secret instructions which he drew 
 up in the middle of January 1803 for the guidance of 
 General Decaen bade him enter into friendly relations 
 with all who sought to throw off the yoke of the 
 English, " the tyrants of India." The outbreak of war 
 in India by September 1804 is named as probable, 
 and as likely to involve the Dutch Republic. If out- 
 numbered at the outset, Decaen is to retire to 
 ' Mr. O. Browning, "England and Napoleon," p. 137. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 231 
 
 Mauritius or the Cape of Good Hope. If he plays his 
 part skilfully, he is led to hope for "the supreme 
 glory which hands down the memory of men beyond 
 the lapse of centuries." ' 
 
 That might have been the result had Napoleon 
 been content to play a waiting game until his navy 
 was strong. But this is the weak side of his character. 
 He could not play a waiting game. He was too eager 
 and self-willed. We can now I think, see what would 
 have been his best policy. He should have played 
 with England for a couple of years, until the superior 
 shipbuilding resources of France, Holland, North 
 Italy, and probably Spain, would tilt the balance 
 against her at sea. Diplomatic dalliance respecting 
 Malta, Lampedusa, and other questions was possible ; 
 for the timid Addington Cabinet did not want war, 
 except as ending a situation in which peace was more 
 dangerous than war. That you will see by carefully 
 perusing the despatches which passed between London 
 and Paris before the rupture." In the long run, as I 
 have said, a conflict was perhaps inevitable; but it 
 was bad policy for Napoleon not to patch matters up 
 for the present in order that he might strike with 
 greater effect in the near future. By holding to all his 
 demands, and rejecting England's claim for territorial 
 compensation, he led her to take the path which 
 proved to be the only path of safety, immediate war. 
 Even before matters came to a crisis he saw the 
 
 ' M. Dumas, "Prdcis des Evenements," xi, 189; " Mdms. et 
 Journaux du G6n. Decaen," vol. ii, pp. 250 f/ sey. 
 " Mr. O. Browning, op. at, passim. 
 
232 NAPOLEON 
 
 impossibility of retaining Louisiana. His decision to 
 sell that vast territory to the United States is of abid- 
 ing interest and importance. It ended the plans of 
 France to gain the upper hand in North America; 
 and it enabled the United States for a ludicrously 
 small sum (60,000,000 francs) to stretch their borders 
 as far as the Spanish territory in California. It further 
 brought about a strong fellow-feeling between the 
 United States and Napoleon. Viewing the affair from 
 his standpoint, which alone concerns us here, we may 
 say that he gained considerably by securing the good 
 will of the United States for the near future. Whether, 
 in the interests of the French race, he should not have 
 held on to Louisiana, is another question. He would 
 have had trouble with the United States, but, on the 
 other hand, France might perhaps have retained her 
 former possession; and, if peace had soon been re- 
 stored in Europe, she might even have colonized parts of 
 that great territory by her sons who were to perish 
 almost uselessly in Napoleon's campaigns. 
 
 All this is bound up with the question of peace or 
 war. By the close of 1802 Napoleon had to decide, 
 firstly, whether he would proceed with his oriental 
 plans, which involved war with England and, inci- 
 dentally, the sale of Louisiana ; or, secondly, whether 
 he would compromise matters with England in the 
 East, thereby assuring peace at least for a time, and 
 keeping his hold on the prairies of the West. He 
 made his choice; and, as we can now see, that choice 
 tended to war in the Old World and to the peaceful 
 progress of the United States. One word more on 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 233 
 
 this topic. Whatever we may think of the wisdom or 
 unwisdom of his choice, he did well not to hold on at 
 all points, I mean both in regard to Louisiana and 
 his oriental schemes. In the year 1802 his intellect 
 was keen enough, his judgement sound enough, to 
 foresee the consequences of offending both Great 
 Britain and the United States. We shall soon have 
 occasion to notice the hardening of his resolve by the 
 year 18 12 to persist in his demands at all quarters of 
 the political compass. 
 
 , The.gonsequencesof the rupture with England be- 
 f6re his-»avy-was-r~eaxiyj3££am£i^paxen£:aEXj--afa,Igar. 
 Meanwhile.x)iUaxiilJiis..aniisxaMoiijoL&JMaJ^^ 
 1805 brou gh t t n hir tkAae vy,i^lMQn .adudx-dtteiled 
 his energies. from Jhe3QiilQ^i£.Aatill2Ut.(xib&-aiiaies 
 of Austria...aJid~R«ssirbr- Hence Ulm and Austerlitz. 
 The autumn which saw the Union Jack successful at 
 sea witnessed the equally decisive triumphs of the 
 tricolour in Central Europe. He made little of 
 Trafalgar, and ordered that all the French cruisers 
 destined for a war against British commerce should sail 
 as formerly arranged.^ Probably he longed far more 
 for the humiliation of England than of Austria and 
 Russia. On the eve of Austerlitz he uttered the 
 memorable words: "This old Europe wearies me." 
 His chief aim was ships, colonies, a World-Empire.^ 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xi, 214-217, 374, 424. 
 
 ^ The many-sidedness of his schemes and the restlessness of 
 the man are illustrated by a curious fact. It appears that during 
 nearly ten years which elapsed from 1805 to 18 14 Napoleon was 
 absent from Paris or its neighbourhood more than seven years 
 
234 NAPOLEON 
 
 Trafalgar and Austerlitz altered the course of his 
 career. Trafalgar made impossible the rdle of Alex- 
 ander the Great; but Austerlitz placed in his hands 
 the sceptre of Charlemagne. Here was a glorious 
 sphere, and one for which his own character and the 
 tendency of the times uniquely fitted him. Had he 
 been content to give up the wider vision, the mastery 
 of the Orient, and to be satisfied with the organiza- 
 tion of the lands between the Elbe and the Pyrenees, 
 success would probably have crowned his efforts. 
 Western and Southern Germany were in a state of 
 chaos. Goethe and many other Germans looked on 
 Napoleon as the man predestined to summon their 
 long-divided countrymen to a larger unity, a more 
 beneficent activity. As the new Charlemagne, Napo- 
 leon appealed to the historic imagination of that 
 people, calling them away from the petty particularism 
 of their two hundred States and Free Cities to a cosmo- 
 politan life centring at Paris. In the years 1806-11 
 he swept away Imperial villages and knightly domains, 
 and in other ways remodelled the map of South and 
 , West Germany. For all important purposes the Rhenish 
 I Confederation formed one realm, in which Napoleon's 
 I will was supreme. Feudalism went by the board, and 
 f civic equality and religious toleration formed the basis 
 1 of a new polity in which peasants, burghers, and Jews 
 ^ saw the dawn of a brighter day. The working of the 
 new system showed some curious inequalities;' but 
 
 in all. Bondois, "Napoleon et la Soci^td de son Temps," p. 
 185. 
 
 1 Fisher, " Napoleonic Statesmanship : Germany," pp. 264- 
 267, 313, 329, 361, 368. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 235 
 
 on the whole Germany gained enormously in respect 
 of equality and facilities for extended trade. 
 
 Napoleon used every possible effort to conciliate 
 public opinion in Germany, witness these words to a 
 deputation of leading men from the new Kingdom of 
 Westphalia in August 1807; " Religion is an affair of 
 conscience, not of the State. Small States are no good. 
 You will have a great Kingdom, reaching perhaps to 
 Hamburg. The soldiers are to protect, not to quell 
 you. The nobility is not to count. He who distin- 
 guishes himself and shows merit is to be promoted. 
 Kings exist, not for themselves, but for the happiness 
 of their people." By all possible means he sought to 
 turn away the thoughts of Germans from Vienna and 
 Berlin towards Paris. To us that now seems a 
 chimerical enterprise. But in those years, when Ger- 
 man sentiment had scarcely awakened at the trumpet 
 calls of Fichte and Arndt, success was possible. Cosmo- 
 politan sentiment held sway at the Universities 
 and in literature, as appears in the earlier writings of 
 Fichte and Schiller. Not until after 1 806, and then only 
 by slow degrees, did German feeling turn away from 
 Paris and towards Berlin. Meanwhile Napoleon did 
 much to conciliate public opinion beyond the Rhine. 
 The Code Napoleon acted as a Gallicizing influence; 
 and its author sought to popularize the use of the 
 French language. On one occasion he visited the 
 lych of Mainz, walked into one of the upper classes 
 and examined the boys in Latin and Mathematics.' 
 
 ' Fisher, "Napoleonic Statesmanship: Germany," pp. 229, 
 364- 
 
236 NAPOLEON 
 
 In regard to commerce he opened up a new future 
 I both for Germany and Italy. As we saw, he planned 
 I the canal joining the Rhine and Rhone; and at Elba, 
 * early in 1815, he told Major Vivian that he had in- 
 tended to make one between the Rhine basin and the 
 Upper Danube; it would cost only 20,000,000 francs. 
 In the same interview he showed keen interest in the 
 roads leading over the passes between France and 
 Italy. When Vivian remarked that the road over the 
 Col di Tenda was bad, the Emperor at once replied 
 it was not his making. He asked whether his bridge 
 over the Rhone at Avignon was yet finished, and 
 I remarked on the expense of a fine road which he had 
 I begun from Wesel to Hamburg. He also inquired as 
 to the state of the road over the Simplon, an engineer- 
 ing feat of which he was very proud.^ Indeed, one of 
 the finest monuments to his memory is the great 
 tunnel or gallery of Gondo, with its commemorative 
 tablet, "Via Napoleone 1807-18 12." 
 
 Popular imagination always magnifies the exploits 
 of great men. It ascribes to Alfred the Great the 
 University of Oxford and trial by jury. As the French 
 proverb says, " on ne donne qu^aux riches!' There- 
 fore I was not surprised to hear from an hotel-keeper 
 r on Lake Maggiore, before whose door ran the Simplon- 
 I Milan road, that Napoleon made that road all the 
 
 ' Rose, " Pitt and Napoleon : Essays and Letters," p. 169. 
 Dr. Guyot, " Le Directoire et la Paix d'Europe" (ch. 14), has 
 shown that Bonaparte's resolve to control the Simplon Road 
 largely accounts for the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798. 
 It determined the annexation of Valais in 1 8 10. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 237 
 
 way from Paris to Milan. This curious exaggeratioJ 
 is not without significance. It is an unconsciou^ 
 tribute to the greatness of Napoleon. His personality 
 stirred the popular imagination as no one had stirred 
 it ; and therefore men take pleasure in assigning every- 
 thing to him. Legend never showered garlands of 
 bays haphazard on George HI or Louis XVUI. 
 
 Among the uncompleted plans of Napoleon for the 
 benefit of neighbouring peoples those respecting Rome 
 have a special interest. He loved Rome intensely. In 
 the year 1802, when Canova was making his bust he 
 talked incessantly about Rome, walking to and fro 
 the while, pouring forth his thoughts about the heroes 
 described by Livy, and then, anon, speaking bitterly 
 about the Rome of the Popes and enthusiastically 
 about the Rome of the Caesars. When the sculptor 
 mentioned Titus, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, he ex- 
 claimed, " Yes ! They were all great." Even the 
 gladiatorial games pleased him. At St. Helena he 
 said that they were the only form of tragedy fit for 
 the robust frames and steel-like nerves of the Romans. 
 He desired to restore Rome: to build new palaces, 
 new colleges, new canals, new roads. But, as was his 
 rule, he postponed these public works until he could 
 visit the Eternal City as its Emperor, and show to it 
 the little King of Rome. That dream haunted him 
 through the year 181 1. He planned the visit for 181 2, 
 the year of Moscow. 
 
 Why did this intelligent cosmopolitanism break 
 down? Partly, no doubt, because it was ahead of its 
 
238 NAPOLEON 
 
 time. The peoples, so it seems, have to work their 
 way to it through the intermediate stage in which we 
 now are, namely, nationalism. As Mazzini has well 
 said, nationality is the ladder reaching to the higher 
 level of cosmopolitanism. To leap from the crude 
 and chaotic conditions prevalent in Central Europe a 
 century ago to the state of universal brotherhood was 
 far too great an effort. Possibly nationalism will have 
 to exhaust itself by armaments before the higher ideal 
 attracts mankind with irresistible force. Certainly 
 Europe in 1806-11 was not ready for the formation 
 of a cosmopolitan Empire stretching from the Baltic 
 to the Mediterranean. Germans, Dutch, Swiss, French, 
 Italians and Spaniards could with difficulty be brought 
 together into a loose kind of federation, still less into 
 a system in which Napoleonic France figured as pre- 
 dominant partner. So soon as we formulate our ideas 
 clearly on this topic, we see its immense complexity. 
 The only condition on which the United States of 
 Europe could be formed was the entire passivity of 
 the federating peoples. But in 1806. those peoples 
 were not passive ; they were beginning to awake to a 
 conscious national life. The formation of a great com- 
 posite Empire, or even of a federation of States, is the 
 most difficult task, as you know from the early history 
 of the American Union. In America the conditions 
 favoured federation — community of race, language, 
 sentiment, and to some extent of interests. Yet for 
 several years the question of the Union wavered in 
 the balance; and, but for the tact and moderation of 
 your early statesmen, that Union would perhaps never 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 239 
 
 have come to pass. A comparison of Napoleon with 
 Jefferson, Hamilton or Washington, goes far towards 
 explaining his failure to keep very diverse peoples 
 under his sway. 
 
 The first_pX^QjiticaLviitu_^_Jn_jL^Jed^ 
 tact^ forbgaj'aacey,j>alien&e.«»^.apialeQa'&^4w.4»fe^was 
 not.rich in these Xliialities*« li was remarkable rather 
 for impetuosity. By tb& -year_j 806. he had becom e | 
 accustomed to h&SSjd&..M^y^sv&ryv^ie.^Qp'dr^.-^ 
 tune-Jia4rrSeiiiled_him._As .he_.SQjKClJd]ujL]^«eSayK_at 
 ^*'* Helena— " I must admit that I \yas _ spoiled ;.„!„ 
 always_gaye orders; from my birth power was mine ; 
 I rejected^ a master or a law."^ -IhaLJ.s„npt_the man 
 who -jdlLconciliate diverse .peoples. Further, the. 
 Continental System,___by which he sought to assure 
 the commer.cial rjiin of England, imposed very heavy 
 burdens on North Germany, Holland, Italy, and 
 other vassal States, so that what they gained by his 
 Code and..his engineering feats they lost iy that great 
 fiscal experiment and the resulting wars. By the year 
 1815 he had learnt wisdom. At that time he sincerely 
 desired to arrive at a compromise between the in- 
 terests of France and those of neighbouring States. 
 But in the intervening time he had aroused so much 
 distrust and hatred as to vitiate all such attempts. 
 At St. Helena, amidst the sobering influences of 
 adversity, he discerned the weak points of his career, 
 and laboured to slur them over by asserting that at 
 no point of his career could he have acted other- 
 wise, and that in Europe it was impossible to be a 
 1 Las Cases, " Memorial," vii, 45. 
 
240 NAPOLEON 
 
 Washington. True, but he might have been a peace- 
 ful First Consul, content with the splendid position 
 attained by the Peace of Amiens, and refraining 
 from the restless eastern policy and the annexa- 
 tion of Genoa which opened out new vistas of war 
 in 1803 and 1805 respectively. Moreover his claim 
 to have been working for a European federation 
 is vitiated by his assertion that he could attain 
 it only by a universal dictatorship, above all, by 
 triumphing at Moscow in 18 12.' Not by those 
 methods could Europe gain peace, fraternity and 
 federation. 
 '■ For, as we have seenj_iii.tJtie..days,j;)£Jits.4iQLiK^ 
 I relied mainly on external . control, ABsLJa^the last 
 ! resort on forcei, K he CQuld^nf^^oaviace«tlieJjermans 
 of the excellence of his.vJUile,.,he,Jwajild«cae£££jhem. 
 Hence such abominable acts as the summary execu- 
 tion of Palm, the Nuremberg bookseller, for the crime 
 of selling a patriotic pamphlet. This episode does not 
 stand alone. Writing at Warsaw early in 1 807 respect- 
 ing a rising near Cassel, he orders that the village 
 where it started should be burned, and thirty ring- 
 leaders shot, 200 or 300 others being sent as prisoners 
 to France. A little later he orders the execution of 
 sixty men.^ Again and again one finds similar mathe- 
 matical calculations as to the numbers who must be 
 shot, in order to repress local riots. On 3rd July 1809, 
 he commands the execution of six men at Nuremberg; 
 and on 28th January 1813, of the same number at a 
 
 ^ Las Cases, " Memorial," i, 467-469. 
 ' "Nap. Corresp.," xiv, 171, 213. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 241 
 
 place near Elberfeld.' On sth March 1813 he orders 
 Eugene, commanding the French troops at Berlin, to 
 burn down that city, if necessary, so as to make an 
 example." 
 
 These rigorous customs were also enforced in Italy. 
 In consequence his rule, which that oppressed and 
 divided people had formerly hailed as the guarantee ot 
 freedom and unity, now aroused general antipathy. The 
 enthusiastic Italian patriot, d'Azeglio, has described 
 in glowing terms the excitement of the men of Turin 
 at the news of Napoleon's disaster in Russia, their 
 astonishment that he could fail at any point, and their 
 infinite joy at the fall of "the vastest and most in- 
 vincible of tyrannies." True, that joy was soon to 
 vanish on the substitution of the weak yet exasper- 
 ating rule of Victor Emmanuel I — " Napoleon clad as 
 a Jesuit: the lance of Achilles in the hand of Thersites." 
 For it is the lot of mankind to stumble from one 
 blunder to another. But the testimony of d'Azeglio 
 and other Italian Liberals shows that the Napoleonic 
 regime had become insupportable even in the land 
 where formerly it was most beneficent.' 
 
 The new Charlemagne further committed the very 
 serious mistake of treating the Pope with unmerited 
 harshness. The First Consul, who in 180 1-2 arranged 
 with the Vatican that salutary compact, the Con- 
 cordat, was a very different man from the Emperor 
 Napoleon, who in and after 1807 sought to overbear 
 
 ' Lecestre, " Lettres inedites de Nap.,"i, 322; ii, 212. 
 = " Nap. Corresp.," xxv, 31. 
 ^ M. d'Azeglio, " I miei Ricordi," ch. viii. 
 R 
 
242 NAPOLEON 
 
 the conscientious scruples of the Pontiff. It is not easy 
 to account for the change; for surely the successor 
 of Caesar should have sought to retain the support of 
 the successor of Peter. But after the Treaty of Tilsit 
 (July 1807), which laid Europe at his feet, pride dic- 
 tated his policy. A fortnight after that compact he 
 fired off at Pius VII an extraordinary letter. As after- 
 wards appeared on more than one occasion, he was 
 never more in his element than when preaching to the 
 head of the Church on the virtue of unworldliness. 
 Taking as his text the words of Christ — " My king- 
 dom is not of this world," he bids the Pope ponder 
 on them. He declares that the Pontiff cannot surely 
 believe that God considers the rights of the throne as 
 less sacred than those of the papal tiara ; for kings ex- 
 isted long before Popes.' If Pius denounces Napoleon 
 to Christendom, the latter will treat him as Antichrist 
 sent to turn the world upside down, and will withdraw 
 his peoples from the Roman Communion. For ten 
 years the Vatican has been preaching rebellion. Does 
 the Pope mean to excommunicate him? — "Does he 
 think that the weapons will drop from the hands of 
 the French troops? Will he put daggers in the hands 
 of my peoples to assassinate me? " . . . " Does he take 
 me for Louis le Debonnaire? " . . . " The present Pope 
 is too powerful. Priests are not made to govern. Let 
 them imitate St. Peter, St. Paul, and the holy apostles, 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xv, 442-445. With Italian finesse he sends 
 the letter to Eugfene to forward to the Vatican with a covering 
 letter, stating that the letter was really private and not meant 
 to be shown to the Pope ! 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 243 
 
 who are worth more than the Juliuses, the Bonifaces, 
 the Gregories, the Laos. Jesus Christ declared that 
 His Kingdom is not of this world. Why will not the 
 Pope render to Caesar what is due to Caesar? Is he 
 greater on earth than Jesus Christ was? " — And so on. 
 The succession of short, sharp, imperious sentences 
 is truly Napoleonic. They recall the orders of the 
 parade ground. Or again they remind us of the 
 epithet applied to his style by one of his early 
 teachers, volcanic. Finally, be it remembered that 
 these were not empty threats. When the differences 
 between them became irreconcilable. Napoleon gave 
 a practical application to his homily on unworldliness 
 by dethroning the Pope and detaining him at Savona. 
 There early in the year 181 1, because Pius VII for- 
 bade the chapter of Florence to recognize Napoleon's 
 nominee to that archbishopric, Napoleon wrote a 
 furious letter to Prince Borghese, Governor of the 
 Transalpine Province, ordering him to press severely 
 on the Pontiff. 
 
 ... As I desire to protect my subjects from the rage 
 and fury of this ignorant and peevish old man, I hereby 
 order you to notify him, that he is forbidden to communicate 
 with any Church of mine, or any of my subjects, on pain of 
 the punishment consequent on his disobedience, and theirs. 
 You will remove all suspicious persons from the Pope's 
 household. You will leave only the number of persons 
 necessary to wait on him, and you will not permit any one 
 of any kind to visit him. You will take steps to increase 
 the garrison of Savona. You will take care to have all the 
 Pope's papers, books, and documents taken from him, and 
 
244 NAPOLEON 
 
 you will have them sent to Paris. If the Pope should in- 
 dulge in any extravagant behaviour, you will have him shut 
 up in the citadel of Savona, which you will have taken care 
 to provision, and furnish with all necessaries beforehand. . . . 
 The examination of the Pope's papers must be skilfully done. 
 You will leave him no paper, nor pens, nor ink, nor any 
 means of writing. You will give him a few French servants, 
 and you will remove the unsatisfactory ones. Besides this, 
 the people of his household can be forbidden to go out.' 
 
 Thereafter the Pope was removed to Fontainebleau 
 and treated with rigour. 
 
 During these years the new Charlemagne plunged 
 into enterprises which proved to be beyond even his 
 strength. Though it was surely enough to try to con- 
 trol the Continent, he in 1807 set on foot plans of al- 
 liance with Persia with a view to an eventual march 
 of a Franco-Russian army from the Persian Gulf to- 
 wards the Indus and Delhi. He sent General Gar- 
 dane on a mission to Teheran for that purpose.^ After 
 Tilsit he concerted with the Czar Alexander a scheme 
 for the partition of Turkey, leading up to further im- 
 mense changes in the Orient. He writes to Alex- 
 ander on 2nd February, that within a month after 
 framing their compact their united forces can be on 
 the Bosphorus. This will be but the beginning. If 
 England does not then submit — and she has shown 
 
 ' Lecestre, " Lettres in^dites de Nap.," ii, 102. 
 ' Gardane, "La Mission du G6n6ra\ Gardane," passim; 
 E. Driault, " La Politique orientale de Nap.," pp. 58-72, 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 245 
 
 no sign of submission — the two Empires will march 
 on the East. He adds these characteristic words: 
 
 On the I St May our troops can be in Asia, and at the 
 same time those of Your Majesty can be at Stockholm. 
 Then the English, threatened in the East, chased from the 
 Levant, will be crushed under the weight of events with 
 which the atmosphere will be charged. Your Majesty and I 
 would have preferred the sweets of peace and to pass our 
 lives in the midst of our vast Empires, occupied in invigor- 
 ating them and making them happy by the arts and the 
 benefits of our administration. The enemies of the world 
 (the English) will otherwise. We must be greater, in spite 
 of ourselves. It is a sign of wisdom and of policy to do 
 what Fate orders, and to go where the irresistible march of 
 events conducts us. Then this crowd of pygmies who refuse 
 to see that present events are such that we must seek their 
 parallel in history, not in eighteenth-century gazettes, will 
 give way and will follow the movement ordered by Your 
 Majesty and myself: and the Russian peoples will be happy 
 with the glory, wealth and fortune resulting from these great 
 events. In these few lines I express to Your Majesty my 
 entire soul. The work of Tilsit will regulate the destinies of 
 the world. 
 
 Is this the language of fatalism? Or is it the out- 
 pouring of a mighty soul, which sees in fatalism a 
 lever for moving the world? Note the words "to do 
 what Fate orders," followed by the phrase " the move- 
 ment ordered by your Majesty and myself." The latter 
 surely interprets the former. But, however we inter- 
 pret this appeal to Fate, we cannot but admire the 
 soaring imagination which outlines these vast pro- 
 jects, the Ossianic touches which commend them to 
 
246 NAPOLEON 
 
 the Czar, and the Herculean force which bends the 
 European fabric eastwards for their accomplishment. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was an error of judgement to set 
 about these mighty schemes while Europe still heaved 
 with war. The realm of the modern Charlemagne 
 needed time for consolidation. The most successful 
 rulers of the eighteenth century, Frederick the Great 
 and Catharine II of Russia, knew when it was time to 
 rest on their laurels; and by the cautious conservatism 
 of later life they succeeded in retaining the conquests 
 of their earlier days. Napoleon could not rest. At 
 that time (February 1808) his troops and those of his 
 ally, Spain, had occupied Portugal ; and already the 
 alluring thought was taking shape that he would de- 
 throne the Spanish Bourbons. As we saw in Lect- 
 ure I, he owed them a grudge for their conduct during 
 the Jena campaign; and he cherished the hope that, 
 as lord of Central and South America (then mainly 
 Spanish) and the wielder of the armed forces of Spain, 
 he would throw his sword decisively into the balance, 
 whether in the West or the East. For the present, as 
 his letters show, the East was his goal. But he in- 
 tended to use Spain and the bullion which she drained 
 from the West so as to help on the Oriental adventure. 
 This, as it seems to me, is the crowning reason for his 
 virtual annexation of Spain. Adapting Canning's 
 famous phrase, we may say that he called in Spain 
 and the New World to help him overturn the Old 
 World. 
 
 Five years of continual triumph have left their 
 mark on his character. At the close of 1802, as we 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 247 
 
 saw, he judged it imprudent to persevere with a for- 
 ward policy both in the Western and Eastern hemi- 
 spheres, and therefore sold Louisiana to the United 
 States in order to be free for the Eastern crusade. 
 Now, in the spring of 1808, he faces the consequences 
 of both enterprises. Master of Central and Southern 
 America, he must sooner or later arouse fears at 
 Washington. Ruler of most of the Orient, he must 
 awaken jealousy at St. Petersburg. But he recks not 
 of either. Still less does he foresee any resistance in 
 Spain itself Read his letters of the spring of 1808. 
 They are of deep interest. While pensioning off 
 Charles IV and his recalcitrant son, he bids Murat 
 and Junot, then at Madrid and Lisbon, to prepare all 
 the available Spanish and Portuguese men-of-war. 
 General Dupont is to hurry southward to Cadiz to 
 secure the five French men-of-war which had sought 
 refuge there after Trafalgar. At all the dockyards the 
 Spanish navy is to be resuscitated, the aim being to 
 use at least 28 sail-of-the-line for an Oriental expedi- 
 tion. He intends that his Toulon armada shall em- 
 bark 20,000 men in South Italy and sail to Egypt. As 
 for the Spaniards, they will rejoice at the activity in 
 their dockyards. England is too much harassed by 
 these threatened attacks to be able to send troops to 
 help Portugal; and he, Napoleon, will strike heavy 
 blows at the end of the season,' obviously at Turkey 
 and Egypt. Such are his thoughts in the middle of 
 May 1808, even after hearing full particulars of the 
 ^ " Nap. Corresp.," xvii, 76, 80, 83, 85, 109, 113, 116, 119, 122, 
 135, 143, i5o> 159, 163- 
 
248 NAPOLEON 
 
 desperate rising of the men of Madrid against the 
 French troops. He calls that an " alerte." In the 
 genuine letters of Napoleon there is not a sign that 
 he foresaw the Spanish national rising of May-June. 
 True, in the letter of 29th March 1808, which finds a 
 place in the official " Correspondence," he speaks as 
 a cautious philosopher, advising Murat to be very 
 careful how he treats the Spaniards, who are a young 
 people, full of enthusiasm and courage, unexhausted 
 by political passions. But that letter is almost certainly 
 a forgery concocted by Las Cases at St. Helena.' The 
 genuine letters of that period breathe an entirely differ- 
 ent spirit. 
 
 A few days before the rising in Madrid he writes to 
 Murat at that city, upbraiding him thus: " Your order 
 of the day to the troops about the Burgos riot is a 
 wretched thing. Good God ! where should we be if I 
 were to write four pages to the soldiers, to tell them 
 not to allow themselves to be disarmed, and to quote 
 the fact that a guard of fifteen men fired on the mob 
 as a trait of heroism? Frenchmen are too clever not 
 to laugh at such proclamations. You never learnt 
 that in my school." And he continues: "To bring 
 order into the city of Madrid 3,000 troops and 10 can- 
 non are needed. Three orders of the day like yours 
 would demoralize an army." ° Place this undoubtedly 
 genuine letter over against the St. Helena effusion, 
 
 ' The original is in Las Cases, " Memorial," iv, 246-254. See 
 proofs of the forgery given by Comte Murat in " Murat, Lieu- 
 tenant de I'Empereur en Espagne," pp. 145 et seq. 
 
 ^ Lecestre, "Lettres inedites de Nap.," i, 185. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 249 
 
 and the non-authenticity of the latter is evident. It 
 was concocted in order to screen Napoleon and blame 
 Murat for the Spanish rising. In all the other letters 
 of that time Napoleon treats the Spaniards as a neg- 
 ligible quantity. After their effervescence has died 
 down, they will send valued help to the expeditions 
 destined to effect the partition of the Turkish Empire 
 and the overthrow of the British power in India. 
 "England," so he writes on 17th May, "is in great 
 penury there, and the arrival of an expedition would 
 ruin the colony from top to bottom." As for the col- 
 umns of General Dupont, now on the march towards 
 Cadiz they are strong enough to go anywhere in 
 Spain.' 
 
 As a revelation of character and of the causes that 
 go to make history, Napo1pnn''uJ_ etters of April a nd 
 May-j«nS arp of iinpqiiql]f;d jpj-prpc;f Their length, 
 minuteness, and eagerness enable us to look right into 
 his brain. In those eight^three closely printed _2ages 
 may b e seen the develg Bimei]JLja£-^£ba-JCaQSt-.grandrnsi;^ . 
 designa_kfljQ^lLJii_jaiJtheiitic--history^ aad-th^^ 
 for th eir ultimate collapse. The grea t man planned 
 the acquisition of Spain as a prelude to the ^cojjau£gL- 
 of Sicily which, in itsturn,. would, Jielp-QnJ:lie.pa£tition 
 
 of the Turkish^ Empire ari^d_the conq^u£st_of^Egj2El;^ 
 And this wasjiot_an^_^A_povrerful_ex£e^tion^^ 
 sail for India; whije. light squ.ftdj'Qtis harried Briti^^^ 
 commerce ojn everysea... In the..-accomplishment of 
 these designs the Spanish navy held a prominent 
 place. It was to furnish at least 28 sail-of-the-line, 
 ^ "Nap. Corresp.," xvii, 122,' 149. 
 
2SO NAPOLEON 
 
 besides frigates_a.ixj_sni filler vessels; '^"^ Napnlpnn 
 intended that the naval resourc es of the coasts be- 
 tween the Texel and Genoa, should r everse tj ieyerdict 
 of Trafalgar, make thp MpHif-prranean a Vrp.j)ch ]a]<p., 
 and ensure the conguest of_the_East. 
 
 All rested on the^assi ]mjTtina ^t Lcoa | ^Baed support 
 from Sgajjii And if that land were judged from its 
 decadent Court and spiritless grandees, the conclusion 
 seemed inevitable. But Napoleon, who in his youth 
 thought solely of nations and nothing of Courts, had 
 now swung to the opposite extreme. He judged the 
 Spanish nation by its despicable monarch. Events 
 
 soon showed the mistake. Madjid— defied Murat's 
 
 whole force in_h£urs_o£des££j3is~fig]ltiuag. Dupont 
 did not march anywhere at will, he did not free the 
 five French warships at Cadiz, but was cooped up and 
 compelled to surrender with 22,800 men at Baylen in 
 Andalusia (22nd July). That was_by far the heavie st 
 blow yet dealt to Napoleon. For the present it ende d 
 his dreams of a World-Empire .aiMi-co».pell££tjyin to 
 turn against Spain the forces destined Jor the con- 
 quest of the Orient. He had hoped^ oon to partitio n 
 the Turkish .Empire,, overturn Brit ain.'.s_r_ule in th e 
 East, and assure her surrender. But ■. now, he had to 
 spend six ca.mpaignsjn fighting Spain and W elling- 
 ton. In a military sense he at firsFseemed sure of 
 success. In 1809 he crushed Austria, and the years 
 1 8 10- 1 1 saw him undisputed master, except in Por- 
 tugal and the corners of Spain. But so long as the 
 Peninsular War dragged on, he could not turn his un- 
 divided energies to the East. During the meeting at 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 251 
 
 Erfurt in September 1808 he failed to remove the 
 suspicions or fears of the Czar Alexander; and the 
 continuance of the Peninsular War encouraged that 
 potentate to withdraw from the Continental System 
 at the close of 181 1, a step which brought on the cam- 
 paign of 1 812. 1^^ 
 
 There again the rigidity of Napoleon's policy pro- 
 voked a conflict, the magnitude of which was out of 
 all proportion to its ostensible causes. Apart from the 
 fiscal question just stated, there was no very serious 
 dispute between the two Emperors. The partition of 
 the Turkish Empire had of course been postponed. 
 The Polish Question was susceptible of arrangement ; 
 and a German principality might have been found for 
 the Czar's brother-in-law, the Grand Duke of Olden- 
 burg, whom Napoleon had brusquely dethroned at 
 the close of 18 10. Moreover it was surely better to 
 ^^'9^^^':°™P'^°'^^^^^°n.J&£.i^°'^tin?ntaJLS;^,?jiLtalLer. 
 than risk all on a. campaign, in Russia \vliile a quartef.. 
 of a million of French troops were warring in Spain. 
 But Napoleon would not give way at any point, ^ 
 Rather than do so, he marshalled an army of more than 
 600,000 for the overthrow of Russia ; and it is a sign 
 of his power that of this immense host France furnished 
 scarcely the half; 1^2 is Napoleon's crusade. A 
 young German Jew described in words of fire the im- 
 pression left on his mind by the sight of the Emperor 
 looking on at his Guards as they filed out eastwards. 
 " For ever I see him high on horseback, the eternal 
 eyes set in the marble of that imperial visage, looking 
 on with the calm of destiny at his Guards as they 
 
252 NAPOLEON 
 
 march past. He was sending them then -ta-fe*ssta, 
 and the old Grenadiers.glanced up at himwtthi,fio.j;we- 
 some a devotion, so sympathetic an eaxnestaesSjjadtS 
 the pride of death: 
 
 " Te, Caesar, morituri salutant." ' 
 
 Those words of Heine help to explain the riddle of 
 a century ago. For it was a riddle even then ; and it 
 is doubly so to-day now that we know all the facts. 
 Not one of the many thousands of Germans, Italians, 
 Swiss, and Dutch who crossed the Niemen could have 
 said why they did so, except that Napoleon had given 
 the command. Some of them perhaps hoped to re- 
 establish the Continental System in order to break 
 down what was called England's maritime tyranny. 
 But by that time the Continental System was far 
 more burdensome than the British naval decrees 
 which were designed to defeat it. Every North Ger- 
 man knew that. Did they march to Moscow to com- 
 pel Russia once more to exclude British goods? That 
 was a futile effort, as many of them knew ; for no small 
 part of the overcoats worn by the Grand Army came 
 from Yorkshire. 
 
 A curious incident illustrative of character is told 
 by Count de Narbonne, Napoleon's envoy bearing 
 the ultimatum to the Czar. Alexander finally said to 
 Narbonne — " What does the Emperor want? Would 
 he force me to adopt measures that would ruin my 
 people? And, because I refuse, does he threaten me 
 with war, because he imagines that, after two or three 
 
 ^ Heine, " Englische Fragmente " (Wellington).- 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 253 
 
 battles, and the occupation of a few provinces or a 
 capital city, he will succeed in making me sue for a 
 peace, of which he will dictate the terms? He is mis- 
 taken." Then, taking a large map of his States, he 
 slowly unfolded it upon the table and continued — 
 " M. le Comte, I believe that Napoleon is the greatest 
 general in Europe, that his armies are the most war- 
 like, his lieutenants the most valiant and experienced. 
 But space is a barrier. If, after several defeats, I retire, 
 sweeping the inhabitants with me — if I abandon the 
 care of my defence to time, to the climate, to the 
 desert, perhaps / may have the last word to say on 
 the fate of the most formidable army of modern 
 times.' " ' Narbonne on his return reported these 
 words faithfully to Napoleon. Nevertheless, the Em- 
 peror marched to Moscow. 
 
 The dream of a World-Empire vanished at that 
 /city: hut even after losing nearly half a million of 
 men ui Russia, he refused to come to terms with 
 Austria during the armistice in the middle of the 
 Saxon Campaign pf,i8i3. Her demands were not 
 exorbitant" Napoleon would retain the Rhine frontier 
 and his possessions in Italy, but surrender the Illyrian 
 Provinces and his control over Germany. These 
 
 ^ " Mems. of Comte de Rambuteau " (Eng. edit.), pp. 67, 68. 
 All who knew Napoleon well foresaw utter ruin as the end of that 
 astonishing career. The Councillors of State must have seen 
 the handwriting on the wall, when he uttered to them these fate- 
 ful words: "I have achieved the greatest success known to 
 history. Well! In order that I may leave the throne to my 
 children, I must be master of all the capitals of Europe " {ibid., 
 P- 55)- 
 
254 NAPOLEON 
 
 terms were not excessive, in view of the French dis- 
 aster at Vittoria. Napoleon would still rule over a far 
 larger realm than Louis XIV. Again it fell to Count 
 Narbonne at Dresden to advise the Emperor to take 
 the prudent course and thereby secure the neutrality 
 of Austria. " Sire," he said, " France has given you 
 her last man and her last crown. You ha.v£_3a,Q00 
 men on horseback; but they ,..dfl-,nQt form a body of 
 real cavalry; your regiments.are filled wiA, conscripts, 
 brave but not inured to war, who may win a battle, 
 but cannot stand a reverse or^a rejtreat ^The first 
 check we experience will mean, ruin for France and 
 for you ; for now we have the whole of Europe against 
 us. A peace, though it were only a trace; would save 
 us. Conclude one, even if only for twp years. Durjng 
 that time you can consolidate all the elements of your 
 power : we shall be. able to iow^dTsunion 2siong;_our 
 enemies, and you will try your fortune^jgew. . . . 
 Peace- is_necessary; and it is my devotion, my loyalty 
 to your pers on, that m akes m e~ask IFon my knees .""^ 
 Caulaincourt and other devoted servants urged the 
 same arguments, but all-JxLno effect. As the young 
 de Broglie said of the Emperor — " The devil was in 
 him : he spared neither entreaties, promises, nor threats 
 [to Austria] even at the risk of hastening the denoue- 
 ment."^ It came speedily. Austria joined the Allies; 
 and the result was Leipzig and the loss of another great 
 army, uselessly engulfed in Germany. 
 
 As if the campaign in Germany were not enough, 
 
 ' Rambuteau, " M6ms.," pp. 92, 93. 
 ' Broglie, " Mdms." (Eng. edit.), i, 209. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 255 
 
 Napoleon clung on to Spain, or as much of it as his 
 troops could hold. At a later time he admitted his 
 folly in not recalling his troops from Spain at the 
 end of 1812, a step which would have released about 
 200,000 troops for service in Germany. Yet, even at 
 the close of 181 3 he did not definitely take that step; 
 and Marshal Suchet held on to Catalonia while 
 Napoleon was fighting for France herself in the plains 
 of Champagne. 
 
 There mu^t have been something in Napoleon's 
 nature-t:wfei6kr-d"&fied all thought of sutreSdSr ~or~ot 
 coj3yjttU3ai*e. An example, of thiaJnflexible tenacity 
 appeared in November 18 13, after his-EeturxL from^-the 
 Gernianjcampaign. Joseph Bonaparte, driven from 
 Spain after the disaster of Vittoria, was living in dis- 
 grace, almost as a prisoner, at Mortfontaine. Napoleon 
 employed Roederer as a go-between, and expressed 
 to him his disgust at the apathy and incompetence of 
 Joseph>jdiichJjadJielped-ixi_taia_ius.fQrtunea. in..tlie 
 Peninsuiar-declaring (as was largely, true) that if he 
 himself-haigoverqed Spain, things would have gone 
 very differently^; for Joseph was always thinking ab-out 
 women, or his houses, or his furniture. "As for me 
 (blazed forth Napoleon) I care little about St. Cloud 
 or the Tuileries. I should care little if they were burnt. 
 I count my houses as nothing, women as nothing, my 
 son as — a little. I leave one place, I go to another. I 
 leave St. Cloud, I go to Moscow, not for my own 
 wish, or for my friends, but merely by hard, dry 
 calc ulation. I have sacrificed thousands, hundreds of 
 thousands of men to make Joseph King of Spain. It 
 
256 NAPOLEON 
 
 is one of mj/ faults to have believed mji-Jarothers 
 necessary to assure my dynasty. Mj^-iynaaiji^ 
 aasured._witliQuL-tii.ein. It will Have been founded 
 amidst storms by the force of events. The_EflajJies&- 
 is enough to assure it.__ShieJias^jn££g,„,Md5daCL,aind 
 more policy than all of them. Jerome has, ruined-lDy 
 affairs_irL_G£Unany.^_,_To-day I would not give a hair 
 to have Joseph in Spain rather than Ferdinand. JXhe 
 Spaniards will always-be united to France for their 
 interest. Ferdinand will no j nore oppose me than 
 Joseph would."A. This gl.orijying of hard^ dry rea son- 
 ing is very curious; for in this -passagS.,,i![aEol^n 
 - bouftd5j[?oiB_,..Qa£~asmmptiQjLJt.Q,j!)lPt|tfr. Ne ver, a s- 
 suredly, has calculation been, jgoce. jfiil ile- in mi s- 
 calculations. , 
 
 It is extraordinary that so keen an historical 
 student as Napoleon should not have seen that he 
 could not figure both as Alexander the Great and 
 Charlemagne. The . domination-, of, Europe andjhe 
 conquest of the East ,were- .absolutely incompatible 
 tasks. That was the outstanding lesson of the rgign of 
 Louis XV. To war against the British in Bengal and 
 Ohio while combating Frederick the Great in Germany 
 was far beyond the capacity of Louis XV. Napoleon 
 could well attempt far more ; but it was madness for 
 him to seek to hold down Madrid, Naples, Berlin, and 
 to cow Austria and Russia, while also arranging for 
 the partition of Turkey and the conquest of India. 
 His policy could not be both European and Oriental. 
 The great colonizing peoples, from the time of Crete, 
 ' Roederer, " Journal," p. 323. 
 
THE WORLD-RULER 257 
 
 Tyre, Carthage and Athens, down to the days of 
 Venice, Portugal, Holland and Great Britain, have 
 mainly been content to play a secondary part on 
 land provided that they could be great at sea.' 
 Islanders have often achieved success as colonizers 
 because nature herself forbade any serious distrac- 
 tion of aim in continental wars. When Henry VIII 
 seemed likely to drag England again into profitless 
 wars in France, that clear-sighted historian. Lord 
 Herbert of Cherbury, uttered this warning: "Let us, 
 in God's name, leave off our attempts against the terra 
 firma. The natural situation of islands seems not to 
 consort with conquests in that kind. England alone 
 is a just Empire. Or, when we would enlarge our- 
 selves, let it be that way which, it seems, the eternal 
 Providence hath destined us, which is by sea. The 
 Indies are discovered, and vast treasure brought from 
 thence every day. Let us therefore bend our en- 
 deavours thitherward, and if the Spaniards and 
 Portuguese suffer us not to join with them, there will 
 yet be region enough for all to enjoy." That wise 
 economy of effort has made the fortune of the 
 British race. Whereas Powers like France and Spain, 
 whose position embroiled them in European affairs, 
 have been exhausted by the double effort of dominat- 
 ing the Continent and developing the new lands. 
 
 Napoleon had the most brilliant opportunity to 
 make France the chief World-Power; for the French 
 race was then at the height of its faculties and pres- 
 
 ' Herodotus (iii, 122) attributes first to Minos and Polycrates 
 in Crete the design to command tlie sea. 
 
 S 
 
258 NAPOLEON 
 
 tige, while other peoples were inert or badly organ- 
 ized. Even so he failed. His failiirt ^ ,|-e^^]] fed-Li ltimate1y 
 frorn_defects of character. " Ch aracter is destiny," said 
 Novalis; and the career of Napoleon proves the truth 
 of the saying. In his early_y ears the^^e ^^jnan gener- 
 ally kegLJlis-in3petuous^a*UM:e-uffl.der JJife._CQX)^^ of 
 reason. But, either because long_^a^__of_oy&g^Qtk 
 dul led hLs fnr^p^'^ight nr from some ,physical,caus£.Jiard 
 
 to specify, nr from thp pri^ff that- grnws with triumph^ 
 
 he gave the rein to his forceful impulses iri""ah'3~aTter 
 ' iSoT ^with the" results tha t we have seen. The passion 
 f for the grandiose became h1T"Besetting sin. He ne g- 
 lected favourable opportumties of coming to terms with 
 the least ~15iHer~pT his_ £Qf "' He hoped by force and 
 ability to shiver their Coalition ; and his blows only 
 hardened it. For^ by 1814 the, AlIie&Jutd--ea-use to dis- 
 trust his--wordi — aftd — their--expert£Qce_in_the two- 
 previous yearsbade-them -war -to- the <ieath -against a. 
 man who flung— to-±lie, void a million of men in the; 
 vain attempt to control all Europe. , 
 
LECTURE VIII 
 THE EXILE 
 
 " Je crois beaucoup aux pressentiments, moi ; et j'ai pour pres- 
 sentiment que je finirai complfetement mon entreprise, et que je 
 laisserai la France puissante et prospfere." — Napoleon to 
 
 ROEDERER. 
 
 THERE Js a considerable difference between 
 Napoleon at Elba and at St. Helena. At Elba 
 in, 18.14. he still had a good chance of regaining part 
 of Italy, or even France. It is true that he denied 
 this, and described himself as a dead man, occupied 
 solely with his house, his cows and his mules.^ But 
 his^ conduct was not exactly that of a placid farmer; 
 and there are other sayings which show him in a very 
 different light. At St. Helena he told Gourgaud that, 
 on leaving Fontainebleau for Elba he had no great 
 hope of ever returning. " But," he added, " the first 
 hope came to me when I saw in the newspapers that 
 at the banquet in the Hotel de Ville (at Paris) there 
 were present only the wives of nobles, and no officers 
 of the army." " Louis XVI 1 1 " (he continued), " should 
 have behaved reasonably, as the founder of the fifth 
 dynasty. Then he could say — ' I replace Napoleon 
 because he wanted to do too much.' And that is true? 
 because I have taken up too many things." ' 
 
 1 Neil Campbell, "Journal," p. 299. 
 " Gourgaud, " Journal," ii, 302. 
 259 
 
26o NAPOLEON 
 
 In this brief and incisive way did the Emperor ex- 
 plain his overthrow in the spring of 1814 and the 
 ridiculous collapse of the Bourbons a year later. Their 
 tactlessness in small things wounded French pride; 
 Napoleon argued acutely in counting on the resent- 
 ment of the uninvited Parisiennes. France had poured 
 forth her best blood for a hero: she now scorned the 
 antique pedantries of the gouty and unwarlike old 
 exile brought back by foreigners. 
 
 Then again Napoleon must have remembered the 
 advice of Narbonne at Dresden in 181 3, to make peace 
 betimes, even were it only for a year or two. The 
 advantages of such a step were still more obvious 
 after two more disastrous campaigns. In the spring 
 of 1 814 as many as 180,000 French prisoners came 
 back from Russia, Germany, Spain, England. They 
 came back to a small France. The Bourbons, not 
 Napoleon, signed away the Rhine Provinces, Italy, 
 Holland, Belgium. After his abdication at Fontaine- 
 bleau he remarked to Bausset on this subject — " I 
 abdicate and I yield nothing." He uttered these 
 words with imperial serenity, and Bausset thought 
 him singularly " calm, tranquil and decided." He 
 spoke quite naturally about Elba and took up a book 
 descriptive of the island, with the words: "The air 
 there is healthy, and the inhabitants are excellent: I 
 shall not be badly off." ' Bausset was astonished at 
 this preternatural calmness. I confess that I think it 
 was partly founded on hope in the future. He knew 
 the nullity of the Bourbons ; he foresaw their unpopu- 
 ' Bausset, " Cour de Napoleon," ch, xxxviii, 
 
THE EXILE 261 
 
 larity in ceding about one-third of the French Empire ; 
 and he must have seen in the return of a host of 
 veterans a means of restoring France to her former 
 position. Later on he declared that he had left Elba 
 too soon owing to a rumour that the Congress of 
 Vienna was dissolved.' But, if anything, he came 
 back a little too late, namely, after the Powers had 
 settled their disputes. 
 
 This element of hope invests his sojourn at Elba 
 with unique interest. The wounded lion soon begins 
 to prepare to spring at the over-confident captors. 
 At St. Helena he soon ceases to hope, unless there 
 is a revolution in England or throughout Europe. 
 Elba is a piquant comedy; St. Helena is a long- 
 drawn-out tragedy. During the voyage to Elba he 
 is by no means depressed ; he compliments Captain 
 Ussher, of H.M.S. Undaunted, on his ship and crew, 
 takes the keenest interest in all occurrences, remark- 
 ing on one occasion that if he had been a Minister of 
 England, he would have tried to make her the greatest 
 Power of the world. Similarly at Fontainebleau he 
 told Sir Neil Campbell that he admired the British 
 more than any nation." 
 
 During the voyage he spoke at length of his pre- 
 parations to invade England, estimating that from the 
 time of landing on British soil he would have been in 
 London in three days. When asked what he would 
 have done next, he said it was a difficult thing to 
 answer, for so spirited a people as the British would 
 
 ^ Gourgaud, "Journal," p. 323. 
 ' N. Campbell, "Journal," p. 159. 
 
262 NAPOLEON 
 
 not have succumbed even then. But he counted on 
 separating Ireland from England, and hoped that the 
 collapse of British commerce and credit w^ould compel 
 a surrender.^ At other times he said he relied on in- 
 surrections of Scottish and English Jacobins. In this 
 connection it is of interest to note that Major Vivian, 
 who visited Elba early in 1815, found the officers of 
 the Imperial Guard decidedly of opinion that the 
 expedition must have failed. ^ As usual, Napoleon 
 cherished hopes far beyond those of his followers. 
 
 At Elba Napoleon was generally in high spirits. 
 Colonel Sir Neil Campbell, who accompanied him to 
 the island as British commissioner, gives the following 
 life-like details: 
 
 Napoleon certainly regrets that he gave up the contest, 
 and has almost declared to me that, had he known the spirit 
 and power of Augereau's army, and that its exertions were 
 only paralysed by the defection of that Marshal, he would 
 have joined it, and carried the war into Italy. However, his 
 ties of esteem towards all his Marshals appear to have 
 diminished. A few days ago he described to me their re- 
 spective good and bad qualities. St. Cyr and Massdna 
 ranked highest in his list. He regretted that he had left his 
 Marshals unemployed (for they were tired of war), and had 
 not sought for younger chiefs among his other generals and 
 colonels: this, he said, was his ruin. I have never seen a 
 man in any situation of life with so much personal activity 
 and restless perseverance. He appears to take so much 
 pleasure in perpetual movement, and in seeing those who 
 
 ' "Napoleon's Last Voyages" (edit, of 1906), pp. 88-90, 100. 
 ' Rose, "Pitt and Napoleon: Essays and Letters," p. 176. 
 
THE EXILE 263 
 
 accompany him sink under atigue, as has fbeen the case on 
 several occasions when I have accompanied him. I do not 
 think it possible for him to sit down to study, on any pur- 
 suits of retirement, as proclaimed by him to be his intention, 
 so long as his state of health permits corporeal exercise. 
 After being yesterday on foot in the heat of the sun, from 
 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., visiting the frigates and transports, and 
 even going down to the hold among his horses, he rode on 
 horseback for three hours, as he told me afterwards, pour se 
 defatiguer\ These details show that if opportunities for war- 
 fare upon a great scale and for important objects do not 
 present themselves, he is likely to avail himself of any others, 
 in order to indulge this passion from mere recklessness. His 
 thoughts seem to dwell perpetually upon the operations of 
 war.' 
 
 Yet the activity of the Emperor found expression 
 in many ways. He planned roads, vineyards, and 
 new buildings, also a lazaretto in the harbour of 
 Porto Ferrajo, alleging that vessels would come there 
 for quarantine in preference to Leghorn, and so bring 
 money to the island. On the contrary all neighbour- 
 ing States refused to recognize the new institution 
 and prohibited intercourse with Elba. This he as- 
 cribed to jealousy, but found it desirable to give way. 
 He soon annexed the neighbouring islet, Pianosa, an 
 act which caused some concern. The new taxes which 
 he imposed provoked almost a rising ; whereupon he 
 ordered 100 of his Guards to live on his recalcitrant 
 subjects until they paid in full." On the other hand 
 Baron Peyrusse declares that Elba now experienced 
 
 ' Neil Campbell, " Journal," pp. 243, 244. 
 = Ibid., pp. 246-249. 
 
264 NAPOLEON 
 
 a time of wholly beneficent activity, and that all who 
 saw Napoleon were charmed with his kindliness.' 
 He was rightly indignant at the non-payment by 
 Louis XVIII of the sum stipulated by the Allies at 
 Fontainebleau, an act of meanness and folly; for it 
 gave Napoleon a good excuse for ending the Elba 
 experiment. He cut down the pay of his officials 
 and soldiers, and seemed greatly annoyed at having 
 to take these steps. It must not be supposed, how- 
 ever, that he was ever reduced to severe straits. 
 Peyrusse, who supervised the exchequer, shows clearly 
 that Napoleon took away to France a large sum of 
 money, leaving a little behind for the few troops who 
 remained.^ From those who paid visits to the Tuscan 
 coast the Emperor inquired eagerly as to the state 
 of public opinion in Italy and France; and to 
 Campbell on i6th September he said it was absurd for 
 Louis XVIII to imitate the British Constitution, as 
 there were not the materials in France for working it. 
 He then declaimed against the territorial sacrifices 
 demanded from France, especially those of the Nether- 
 lands and Luxemburg, which left her without defence 
 on the north. These are Napoleon's words: 
 
 While Prussia, Holland, Austria, and Russia were aggrand- 
 ised beyond all proportion on the Continent, and England 
 in the East and West Indies, France had lost all, even to the 
 pitiful island of St. Lucia. ^ He spoke as a spectator, without 
 
 ' Peyrusse, "Memorial," p. 253. - Ibid., pp. 370, 371. 
 
 ^ This was incorrect, for she regained nearly all her colonies 
 except Mauritius. 
 
THE EXILE 26s 
 
 any future hopes or present interest j for he had neither, 
 again insisting on his own nonentity; but it showed utter 
 ignorance of the French character and temper of the present 
 time. Their chief failings were pride and the love of glory, 
 and it was impossible for them to look forward with satis- 
 faction and feelings of tranquility, as was stated to be the 
 sincere wish of all the Allies, under such sacrifices. They 
 were conquered only by a great superiority of numbers but 
 not humiliated. The population of France had not suffered 
 to the extent that might be supposed, for he always spared 
 their lives, and exposed the Italians, and other foreigners. 
 These observations gradually led him to speak of his own 
 feats in war and the last campaign. He entered into the 
 details of many operations, in which he had repulsed the 
 enemy and gained advantages with numbers inferior beyond 
 comparison, and then went on to abuse Marshal Marmont, 
 to whose defection alone he ascribed his being obliged to 
 give up the contest.' 
 
 The tender side of the Emperor's nature showed 
 itself to his mistress, the Polish countess, Walewska. 
 The blond beauty had reluctantly given herself to 
 him at Warsavif in 1807, and had borne him a son. 
 Now, when Marie Louise so tamely forsook him, in 
 obedience to the commands of her father and the 
 enticements of Count Neipperg, Walewska came in 
 triumph, bringing their son, the future Minister of 
 Napoleon III. It having been rumoured that Marie 
 Louise was about to arrive, the sailors received the 
 newcomer in state. Napoleon chafed at her impru- 
 dence in accepting these honours — for he still hoped 
 to attract Marie Louise to his side; but he speedily 
 
 ' Neil Campbell, "Journal," pp. 300, 301. 
 
266 NAPOLEON 
 
 ■ succumbed to Walewska's charms.' The visit lasted 
 only two days, but it became known, and not un- 
 naturally increased the reluctance of Marie Louise to 
 proceed to Elba. Thus the mistress triumphed. It 
 was she, perhaps, almost as much as the Austrian 
 Emperor, who completed the disunion of Napoleon 
 and Marie Louise. Nothing, however, can excuse the 
 withholding from the Emperor of his son, the King 
 of Rome. Madame Mere and Pauline were at Elba 
 and could have brought him up. Napoleon rightly 
 felt indignant at his detention. Of Marie Louise her- 
 
 ' self he always spoke with warm consideration, even 
 after her connection with Neipperg became notorious. 
 During the winter of 1 8 14- 15 Napoleon became 
 more and more restless. On one occasion he re- 
 counted to Campbell in glowing terms the feats which 
 the French performed under his leadership. These-he 
 ascribed to his speeches, still more to his emphsftic 
 delivery. Raising himself on tip-toe and stretching 
 forth his right hand he shouted : " D^ployez les aigles " 
 — " Ddployez les aigles." At Marengo, he said, during 
 the rout he*rallied his forty remaining horsemen by 
 calling out : " Allons done ; en avant." Throughout 
 the whole interview Campbell noticed a certain wild- 
 ness in his air; and it is clear that, whatever he 
 might say about his political death, he was very much 
 alive. Jaunty hopefulness appeared in his treatment 
 of a disconsolate guardsman at Elba. Meeting him 
 early in 181 5 the Emperor jovially remarked : "Well, 
 
 ' P. Gruyer, "Napoleon, Roi de I'lle d'EIbe," pp. 147-157 i 
 N. Campbell, " Journal," p. 303. 
 
THE EXILE 267 
 
 grumbler, you're sick to death of this?" "No, Sire^ 
 but I'm not over fond of it." " You're wrong," came 
 the reply, " you must take the weather as it comes." 
 He gave him a Napoleon and went off jingling the 
 money in his fob and humming the air: 
 
 Ca ne durera pas toujours, 
 Ca ne durera pas toujours.' 
 
 The restless symptoms became very marked during 
 the months of December and January, the very period 
 when disputes at the Congress of Vienna nearly led to 
 war between the Allies. A mysterious stranger arrives ; 
 and after his interview with Napoleon the excitement^ 
 increases. Rumours fly about concerning plots to 
 assassinate the Emperor, or to seize him and deport 
 him to St. Helena. The Emperor is hard up for 
 aey, and reduces the pay of the Guards; yet he 
 le means to buy corn and clothing at the Italian 
 ports.^ 
 
 At last he slips away, and we know the result. The 
 personality of the great man overbears all opposition 
 in royalist Provence and conquers all hearts further 
 north. The tricolour flies from steepiiP to steeple, 
 
 ' Peyrusse, " Memorial," p. 254. Owing to his restlessness, 
 Campbell, during a visit to Florence, warned a French royalist, 
 Hyde de Neuville, of the danger of his escape in order to join 
 the malcontents of Italy or France. Campbell alone had no 
 means of preventing his escape ; and the blame afterwards 
 showered on him was perhaps excessive ; though certainly he 
 was too often absent from Elba to keep any effective watch. A 
 couple of French frigates were sent as a result of his warning. 
 
 ' Peyrusse, pp. 262-268; Grayer, pp. 176-179; "Nap. Cor- 
 resp.," xxxi, 32, et seq. 
 
268 NAPOLEON 
 
 and Napoleon, without firing a shot, enters the Tuil- 
 leries. 
 
 The events of the Hundred Days do not concern 
 us here. But it is of interest to recall Napoleon's later 
 declarations that, after his first disputes with the 
 Chamber of Deputies at Paris, he should have dis- 
 solved it. Many times he referred to this topic in 
 terms which show the impossibility of his accepting 
 constitutional rule. To take two of many instances. 
 He said to Gourgaud : " Deliberative Assemblies are 
 a terrible thing for a sovereign." And again : " I 
 ought not to have formed the Chambers. I should 
 have declared myself Dictator. But there was the 
 hope that the Allies, seeing me summon the Cham- 
 bers, would feel confidence in me. If I had been the 
 conqueror, I should have laughed at the Chambers." ' 
 His remarks about the need of the Rhine frontier 
 and Belgium for France also prove that, even after 
 Waterloo, he was determined not to give up pro- 
 vinces which he deemed necessary for her security.^ 
 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 82; ii, 323; so too i, 93, 103, 135, 
 149. Napoleon's irritation against the Liberals in the Chambers 
 led to him losing valuable time on the morning after Ligny, de- 
 claiming against their opposition. It was this which made 
 Grouchy too late in beginning the pursuit of the Prussians 
 (Houssaye, " Waterloo," p. 223). 
 
 " Napoleon hoped by ist October 1815 to have had 100,000 
 French troops ready, if peace lasted till then (" Nap. Corresp.," 
 xxxi, 144). Another regret which haunted him at St. Helena 
 was that, after Waterloo, he had acquiesced too soon in defeat. 
 He declared that, even after his second abdication, when all 
 others deemed his prospects hopeless, he might have put him- 
 self at the head of the troops south of the Loire and have 
 
THE EXILE 269 
 
 Holding these views, he could not possibly make 
 good his promises of the spring of 1815 to adopt a 
 peaceful policy. In March 1814 the European Powers 
 had bound themselves by the Treaty of Chaumont to 
 reduce France to her old territories as a guarantee 
 of peace. Now, Napoleon had always stood for a 
 greater France. Indeed, his nature bade him reject 
 the boundaries accepted by the Bourbons. They 
 might reign over a diminished realm. He would not 
 do so. War with the Powers was therefore inevitable 
 in 1815. 
 
 His abdication, his retirement to Rochefort, and 
 surrender to Captain Maitland of H.M.S. Bellerophon, 
 off that port, followed in quick succession. He had 
 desired to make his way to the United States, but 
 that was refused, because in March 1815 the Congress 
 of the Powers at Vienna had unanimously declared 
 him an outlaw; and they could not allow him to 
 depart to a country from which he could easily return 
 to Europe. To watch him in Elba was at least a 
 possibility. To restrain his actions in the United 
 States would have involved constant friction, perhaps 
 war. Imagination falters at the thought of what would 
 have happened had he come to America. His scintill- 
 ating genius would have captured all hearts in a 
 week. Probably he would have advised, and even 
 headed, an expedition for the conquest of Canada; 
 for in an interview with Major Vivian at Elba in the 
 
 battled for his son. Napoleon II. He uttered these remarkable 
 words: "History, perhaps, will reproach me with going off the 
 scene too easily" (Gourgaud, "Journal," ii, 322). 
 
270 NAPOLEON 
 
 previous January he prophesied that Canada would 
 soon fall to the United States;' and he had a tend- 
 ency to fulfil his own prophecies. Fancy pictures 
 him installed as President at Washington, in which 
 position he doubtless would have imparted to the 
 constitution the needful degree of fluidity. 
 
 At Rochefort there was another alternative — that 
 he should settle down in England as a country gentle- 
 man. That, you remember, was implied in his re- 
 quest to the Prince Regent in the famous " Themis- 
 tocles " letter. Its rejection has ever since been 
 hotly censured. If we take the standpoint of senti- 
 ment, unmitigated censure must fall on the Liverpool 
 Ministry for the decision respecting St. Helena. The 
 standpoint of expediency is somewhat different. Per- 
 haps we may personify those feelings and oppose 
 them in a short dialogue: 
 
 Sentiment. Napoleon, the greatest man of the age, came 
 as a guest, and you treated him as a prisoner. 
 
 Expediency. When he went on board the Bellerophon at 
 Rochefort, he knew perfectly well that England had con- 
 curred in the declaration of the Congress of Vienna, that he 
 was an outlaw. 
 
 Sent. Nevertheless, he had won the heart of France, and all 
 the world sympathized with him. For your own credit you 
 should have accorded to him generous hospitality. 
 
 Exp. A year earlier the Allies tried that plan at Elba, and 
 it failed. 
 
 Sent. Yes : because the stipulated stipend was not paid. 
 
 ' Rose, "Pitt and Napoleon: Essays and Letters," p. 174. 
 
THE EXILE 271 
 
 Exf. True: but that was the fault of Louis XVIII and 
 his Ministers alone. 
 
 Sent. Well ! why could you not behave generously to him 
 as your guest? 
 
 Exp. He was not a guest; in reality he was a prisoner. 
 At Rochefort he was between the devil and the deep sea; 
 and he and we knew it. 
 
 Sent. But he could have escaped on the chassemarde, or 
 else have fought his way out on the two French corvettes. 
 
 Exp. No: he and his companions carefully examined 
 the chances of escape seawards, and decided that they 
 were too risky. He had to surrender either to the French 
 Royalists or to the British warships; and he chose the latter 
 course. 
 
 Sent. As he came to you, you should have acted chival- 
 rously. His life was done, and he wanted merely to settle 
 down as a country gentleman in England. 
 
 Exp. No: he was only forty-six, and his conduct after 
 Waterloo and down to the end of June showed his desire to 
 fight to the very end. 
 
 Sent. In capturing him in that shabby way you covered 
 yourself with disgrace. 
 
 Exp. We did not capture him. His coming on board was 
 at his own discretion, and it was accompanied by no con- 
 ditions binding for the future. 
 
 Sent. Better another war than your ungenerous resolve to 
 shut him up in St. Helena. Generosity is on such an occa- 
 sion the highest prudence. 
 
 Exp. Be just to your own people before you are generous 
 to an enemy. After wars costing nearly ;^i, 000,000,000 we 
 had to prevent the recurrence of war at all costs. 
 
 Sent. But what cruelty to confine so great a man on that 
 detestable islet! 
 
 Exp. His greatness and his restlessness were the source 
 
272 NAPOLEON 
 
 of danger. We hoped that at St. Helena he could be de- 
 tained with less personal restraint than elsewhere. 
 
 And so the discussion might go on, as it will go 
 on, doubtless for ever, at the rate of about four books 
 a year. 
 
 It is indeed difficult to think of Napoleon settling 
 down quietly anywhere. His nature was too great, 
 his activity too strenuous, not to chafe at his entire 
 exclusion from political life. But the situation at 
 St. Helena soon became most irksome. His wife and 
 son were at Vienna. Few companions were allowed 
 to come with him ; and of these only Las Cases had 
 intellectual gifts. Worst of all, the Governor who 
 was finally sent out, Sir Hudson Lowe, was a some- 
 what narrow-minded and pedantic man, who had not 
 the tact to mitigate a hard situation. In himself 
 Lowe was kindly enough; there is conclusive evi- 
 dence to that effect; but obviously he was oppressed 
 by the weight of responsibility attaching to his office, 
 which was not made easier by the presence of repre- 
 sentatives of France, Russia, and Austria, to see that 
 he guarded Napoleon effectively. Napoleon was a 
 prisoner of all the Powers, not of England alone; and 
 those representatives were there to testify to the 
 fact. 
 
 The expression of Lowe's face was intelligent and 
 kindly; but the features were thin, and the com- 
 pressed lips bespoke a firm will and a quick temper. 
 The eyes were keen and restless. In fact, the coun- 
 tenance was that of a Cassias. Moreover, he had com- 
 manded a battalion of Corsican Royalists, itself a 
 
THE EXILE 273 
 
 cause of offence to Napoleon, who therefore came 
 with unfavourable impressions to their first interview. 
 He afterwards said to Admiral Malcolm : " He (Lowe) 
 has not the character of an Englishman. He is a 
 Prussian soldier. He is clever and cunning. He 
 writes well, and will make good statements to the 
 Government. His manners are so displeasing to me 
 that if he were to come to tell me that a frigate was 
 ready to take me to Frence, and I was at liberty to 
 go where I pleased, he could not give me pleasure." 
 Thereupon Malcolm spoke up in defence of Lowe, 
 and mentioned some of his civilities to the Longwood 
 household. To this Napoleon replied: "He cannot 
 please me. Call it enfantillage, or what you will — so 
 it is ; I can see that he is no general ; indeed he never 
 commanded anything but Corsican deserters.^ 
 
 This personal antipathy complicated a situation 
 which must in any case have been difficult. The 
 British Government, with more logicality than tact, 
 refused to accord to Napoleon the title of Emperor. 
 True it had denied to him that title; but after his fall 
 generosity demanded that this punctilio should cease. 
 Such, however, was not the decision of the Liverpool 
 Ministry; and the instructions of Earl Bathurst, 
 Secretary at War and for the Colonies, compelled 
 Lowe to refuse it to the illustrious exile. Perhaps a 
 man of higher connections and more tact than Lowe 
 would quietly have ignored the order. At any rate he 
 would not have withheld from Napoleon a book 
 merely because it was addressed to the Emperor, or 
 ' Lady Malcolm, " A Diary of St. Helena," pp. 37-39. 
 T 
 
274 NAPOLEON 
 
 have dissuaded the officers of the 20th Regiment from 
 accepting books presented by the Emperor with that 
 title inscribed. Such actions bespeak a pedantic 
 nature; but we must remember that in so responsible 
 a position a man's nerves are apt to wear thin in the 
 tropics. Malcolm afterwards pointed out to Napoleon 
 that Lowe's temper was too quick to be compatible 
 with cunning. On the whole the Governor restrained 
 his feelings fairly well during the few and trying inter- 
 views with the great exile. 
 
 The chief quarrel between Napoleon and Sir 
 Hudson Lowe was due to an act of Mme. Bertrand. 
 She had sent a sealed letter to the Marquis de 
 Montchenu, the French commissioner at St. Helena. 
 This was against the rules, as Lowe pointed out to 
 General Bertrand. He in his turn fired up and sent a 
 violent answer, which drew on him an official rebuke. 
 It is a signal instance of Lowe's tactlessness that, in 
 company with Admiral Malcolm, he called on Napo- 
 leon to complain of Bertrand's expressions. The com- 
 plaint, though made in guarded and courteous terms, 
 at once kindled Napoleon's anger ; he accused Lowe 
 of treating Bertrand like a corporal, of doing his duty 
 like a sentry, and of worrying all of them with re- 
 strictions and vexations as if they were Botany Bay 
 convicts. Malcolm, generally in favour with Napoleon, 
 tried to intervene, but the tide of wrath flowed on 
 Lowe kept his temper well under control ; but he who 
 had come to make a mild remonstrance, was now the 
 culprit. At last he told Napoleon that he pitied him 
 for so misunderstanding his (Lowe's) character, and 
 
THE EXILE 27S 
 
 for the rudeness of his manners, and wished him good 
 morning. Admiral Malcolm also retired.' Had Lowe 
 been a man of ordinary discernment, he would have 
 seen the folly of going in person to request Napoleon 
 to put a check on Bertrand. A letter would have 
 caused far less offence, especially as the Emperor had 
 taken a personal dislike to Lowe. This is a type of 
 the disputes that went on at St. Helena. Arising out 
 of petty causes, they were embittered by liverishness 
 or ennui. Gourgaud admits that the Governor sought 
 to lessen the discomforts of their lots. He gave to Las 
 Cases a cordial reception, and put his library at the 
 disposal of the Longwood household ; but Napoleon 
 himself intervened to stop all intercourse of this kind.^ 
 Whether from dislike of Lowe or from policy, he 
 kept his followers entirely aloof and in his own 
 society. To their credit they complied. It is a signal 
 proof of his magnetic power that he swayed their 
 being as absolutely as at the Tuileries. 
 
 On one occasion Napoleon's restlessness got the 
 better of his prudence. It was during a ride with 
 Gourgaud, early in January 1816. He called out that 
 Captain Poppleton, their escort, was too near, and 
 charged Bertrand to order him further back. Then, 
 on getting out of sight of the British officer, he ex- 
 claimed: " Gourgaud, gallop." They galloped wildly 
 and gave Poppleton the slip. Coming to a house in- 
 
 ' Lady Malcolm, "Diary," pp. 55-65, which corrects Gour- 
 gaud, "Journal," i, 237. Gourgaud was in bed at the time (i8th 
 August 181 6). 
 
 = Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 167, 168, 180, 184, 247. 
 
276 NAPOLEON 
 
 habited by Mrs. Pritchard, they dismounted and 
 found a place commanding a view of two valleys 
 leading to the sea. Napoleon told Gourgaud to give 
 the gardener and the slave in the garden a Napoleon 
 apiece ; and in the evening the two returned to Long- 
 wood, the Emperor declaring himself delighted by the 
 ride, and resolved to do the saine again. As Malcolm 
 rightly said, it was only a freak of fancy, a proof that 
 Napoleon's high spirits were far from spent. Never- 
 theless, it must have alarmed the officials, who kept 
 closer watch for the future. 
 
 In the summer of 1816 the British Government 
 heard rumours of a rescue expedition preparing at 
 Baltimore at the instance of a French officer named 
 Fournier; and this probably accounts for the stricter 
 regulations respecting the sentries near Longwood 
 which were enforced by Lowe in the month of Octo- 
 ber following.' This change completed the annoyance 
 of Napoleon, who thereafter remained almost entirely 
 at Longwood. Thenceforth his exile became very 
 irksome ; but, as he remarked to Gourgaud, by stay- 
 ing indoors he preserved his dignity, and perhaps in 
 a year he would be dead. In 18 17 the British Gov- 
 ernment received news of the preparation of two 
 expeditions for rescuing Napoleon, the former at 
 Philadelphia in July consisting of about 1,000 men; 
 the latter, of November 18 17, of small, swift sailing- 
 vessels, or possibly steamers. Nothing came of these 
 
 ' Rose, " Napoleonic Studies," pp. 327, 328. For the report of 
 a plan of rescue by a steamboat from Pernambuco see Gourgaud, 
 "Journal," ii, 454- 
 
THE EXILE 277 
 
 enterprises, except that the reports of them made the 
 British Government and Lowe more suspicious. 
 
 The time of exile was unspeakably dreary. Politics, 
 administration, war, were the breath of life to Napo- 
 leon; he who had made and unmade kings now 
 regulated the affairs of one household.^ That power- 
 ful brain, "which never found enough materials on 
 which to work,"^ now surveyed the jealousies of four 
 very mediocre Frenchmen. Ordinary men could have 
 lived there without much discomfort; but ordinary 
 men have tastes or hobbies which brighten the even- 
 ing of life. Art, music, literature, or, on a lower plane, 
 sport, the collection of curios, farming, gardening, the 
 care of animals — these open out a placid vista; and 
 he who sees it not fares ill. For him rest is mental 
 friction, and retirement mere boredom. Now, to Na- 
 poleon, fighting through the jungle was the chief joy 
 of life. He confessed to Jomini that he loved the ex- 
 citement of battles; and, after a dozen campaigns, a 
 man such as he rarely settles down to Boeotian calm. 
 His spirit ranged restlessly over France and Europe. 
 He cared neither for art nor music, nor the trifling 
 pursuits of the countryside. Discussions with Gour- 
 gaud on Waterloo, dictdes to Montholon on the events 
 of his career, studies on the art of war or more general 
 topics, occupied much of his time; but these subjects 
 
 ^ " His house now is very good, having been very much added 
 to, as there are about 46 rooms in it " (Captain Ross, in 
 " Napoleon and his Fellow Travellers," p. 63, by Mr. Clement 
 Shorter). 
 
 ^ M^neval, " Mdms.," i, 405. 
 
278 NAPOLEON 
 
 often aroused poignant regrets. On the whole, then, 
 reading of the French classics became his chief re- 
 creation. As we have seen, he admired les genres 
 tranches. Voltaire's tragedy, " Zaitre," was his favourite, 
 as was the case in his youth. He mentioned it with 
 ecstasy in the " Discours de Lyon" (1791); and at 
 Longwood he read it aloud so frequently as to need 
 often to pause and exclaim : " Mme. de Montholon, 
 vous dormez."' Finally she and Gourgaud resorted 
 to the device of hiding the book as the only means of 
 thwarting this importunate preference. 
 
 Fixity of purpose is no less remarkable in Napo- 
 leon's tastes than in his resolves. True, both the 
 sentimentalism and the levelling tendencies of Rous- 
 seau now repelled him ; and he seems at St. Helena 
 never to have read any of his works, except " La 
 Nouvelle H^lolse." The charm of style and of 
 expression pleased him greatly, but he objected 
 to the excess of the power of love there depicted, 
 apparently forgetting the frenzy of his first passion 
 for Josephine. " Love," said the Emperor, " ought to 
 be a pleasure and not a torment." According to Las 
 Cases, he finally pronounced that " love must be the 
 occupation of the idle man, the temporary distraction 
 of the warrior, and the chief peril of the sovereign." ^ 
 
 This conclusion may be that of Las Cases ; for it is 
 
 ' Lord Holland, " Foreign Reminiscences," p. 305. 
 
 " Las Cases, " Memorial," ii, 24. The occasion is different 
 from that described, very curtly, by Gourgaud (" Journal," ii, 66). 
 The two accounts are of interest as showing the inability of 
 Gourgaud, and the ability of Las Cases, to handle and adorn 
 literary themes, 
 
THE EXILE 279 
 
 stated with an art to which Napoleon rarely had re- 
 course; but this and similar pronouncements enable 
 us to realize his standpoint with regard to literature. 
 Style, apart from the qualities of force and direct- j 
 ness, appealed little to him ; but he took pleasure in 
 branching off from strictly literary topics to a dis- 
 cussion of the human emotions and interests involved 
 in the plot. There is a spice of truth in Goethe's 
 cruel phrase, that Napoleon had studied the tragic 
 drama " with the attention of a criminal judge " ; but 
 even Goethe admitted that his criticisms were keen 
 and original, and we could wish that we had more of 
 them. A survey of the chief works of the French 
 stage by the exile would be of priceless interest. 
 Unfortunately we have only fragmentary criticisms, 
 chiefly from the pen of Las Cases, who often dressed 
 them up in the fashion most acceptable to Frenchmen. 
 For instance, though " Zaire " is known to have been 
 Napoleon's favourite drama. Las Cases does not once 
 mention it. On the other hand, he describes Napo- 
 leon's rapture at the noble qualities of Corneille and 
 Racine; he also descants on his depreciation of Vol- 
 taire as full of bombast and tinsel, always false, 
 ignorant alike of men and affairs, and of the truth 
 and grandeur of the passions.^ It is impossible to 
 reconcile this with the Emperor's fondness for "Zaire," 
 the " Othello " of the French drama. Elsewhere Las 
 Cases describes Napoleon's critiques on Voltaire's 
 " Mahomet " and " Brutus," and mentions the surprise 
 of the Longwood household when he pronounced the 
 ' Las Cases, " Memorial," ii, 304. 
 
28o NAPOLEON 
 
 recognition scene in the " Oedipe " as the finest in the 
 French theatre. In the Greek drama he admired most 
 of all the " Agamemnon " of Aeschylus, and next the 
 " CEdipus Rex " of Sophocles.^ The choice bespeaks 
 his love for the grand and terrible. 
 
 The extent and variety of Napoleon's writings at 
 St. Helena are very remarkable, and sufficiently 
 disprove the assertion that his mind had decayed 
 by the year 1815. His political judgement and 
 tact had declined; not the mental faculties. I can 
 notice only one or two of the St. Helena writings. 
 One of the most curious of them is a critique on 
 Book H of Vergil's "Aeneid." Napoleon remarks 
 that, fine as is the style, the facts are far otherwise; 
 and he proceeds to criticise them in the most matter- 
 of-fact way. The episode of the wooden horse offends 
 him. Why should the Trojans send a vessel to see 
 whether the Greeks really had sailed away, when they 
 could see the roadstead from the towers of Troy? 
 How could so clever a man as Ulysses, together with 
 other chiefs, shut themselves up in a wooden horse, 
 thus placing themselves entirely at the mercy of their 
 foes in Troy? And even if the horse held only a 
 hundred warriors, its weight would be so great as to 
 prevent it being dragged from the sea-shore, over two 
 rivers, and a passage in the walls, in one day. Then, 
 again (says Napoleon), the episode of Sinon is absurd, 
 though artfully described, and is not relieved by the 
 beautiful incident of Laocoon. Further, the horse 
 cannot have been opened until i a.m., and the de- 
 ' Las Cases, " Memorial," iii, 102, 391 ; vii, 147. 
 
THE EXILE 281 
 
 struction of Troy takes place before sunrise, i.e., in 
 three or four hours, which is monstrous; for Troy- 
 could not be destroyed in less than a fortnight.' And 
 so on. The whole critique is excellent reading, as an 
 application of modern tactics and geometrical reason- 
 ing to an epic founded on legend. Incidentally, it 
 affords additional proof of what I have termed the 
 hardening of Napoleon's brain. In youth he gave 
 free rein to sentiment and imagination. But intense 
 absorption in public affairs had stunted these gifts; 
 so that even in the perusal of novels the chief point 
 of interest is the expenditure of the hero, and how he 
 manages to live on so much a year. Napoleon delights 
 when he can convict the novelist of unreasonable 
 optimism on money affairs. 
 
 Another proof of this " bronzing over " of the heart 
 (to use his own expressive phrase) appears in a little 
 essay on suicide written in August 1820. You re- 
 member his sentimental effusion on that subject, 
 written in 1787 (see Lecture I), in which he lets his 
 brooding melancholy draw him on to thoughts of 
 self-destruction. Poor, solitary, an alien at heart to 
 France, and yet despising the Corsicans for their sub- 
 jection to France, he dallies with the notion of self- 
 murder, and yet breaks away from it, we know not 
 why. Now, thirty years later, he examines the topic 
 coolly, critically, as appears in the following sentences : 
 "... Has a man the right to kill himself? Yes, if his 
 death does no harm to anyone, and his life is an evil 
 for himself When is life an evil for man.? When it 
 ' "Nap. Corresp.," xxxi, 491. 
 
282 NAPOLEON 
 
 offers him only sufferings and pains. But, as suffer- 
 ings and pains are changing every moment, there is 
 no moment in life when a man has the right to kill 
 himself. The moment would only be at hand at the 
 time of death, since then alone would it be proved 
 that his life was only a tissue of evils and suffer- 
 ings. . . ." ' The essay probably belongs to a time 
 previous to the first signs of cancer, which carried him 
 off nine months later. But, even when the stabbing 
 pains came fast, the illustrious sufferer never sought 
 to quicken his end. At an earlier time he said to 
 Gourgaud that suicide was the act of a coward;^ and 
 by his consistent courage and resolve to live out his 
 life to the end he set his seal to the bravery which 
 had battled through a hundred fights. 
 
 A subject in which his keen intellect worked with 
 sympathetic insight was the future of Italy. His ex- 
 perience of the renewed energy of that people and 
 the shrewd geographical instincts which nearly always 
 guided him found expression in these remarkable 
 statements : " Italy isolated in its natural limits, se- 
 parated by the sea and by very high mountains from 
 the rest of Europe, seems called to form a great and 
 powerful nation." Then, after naming the sources of 
 weakness of Italy and the difficulty of choosing any 
 one site which satisfies every requisite of a capital, he 
 sums up decisively in the words: "Thus, although 
 Rome does not possess all the desirable character- 
 istics, she is, undoubtedly, the capital which the 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xxxi, 485. 
 '^ Gourgaud, "Journal," ii, 66. 
 
THE EXILE 283 
 
 Italians will one day choose."' This is the most 
 remarkable prophecy of his life. 
 
 The time spent at St. Helena was by no means 
 one of bodily privation. In accordance with the pro- 
 posal of the Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, the British 
 Government granted the yearly sum of ;^ 10,000, not 
 ;£'8,ooo as was at first suggested ; and that sum suf- 
 ficed to maintain the household in comfort, if not in 
 luxury. Napoleon was never a gourmand; and in the 
 lifelike and convincing notes left by Gourgaud there 
 is not a word as to any deficiency of food or wine. 
 Further, a recently published letter of Lowe to the 
 purveyor, Ibbetson, shows the extreme care taken by 
 both of them to provide a good menu at Longwood.^ 
 In the productions of Las Cases, O'Meara, and Mon- 
 tholon, written with the purpose of arousing a Bona- 
 partist feeling in Europe, much stress is laid on actual 
 privations; but their statements are false. The dis- 
 comforts were of a mental order. 
 
 The world still hangs with intense interest on the 
 details of the exile at St. Helena; for greatness re- 
 duced to narrow limits is a moving spectacle; and 
 the tragedy at times is chequered by almost comic 
 interludes, especially when the disputes between Mes- 
 dames Bertrand and Montholon, or Gourgaud and 
 Las Cases become acute. The career of Napoleon, 
 
 ' " Nap. Corresp.," xxix, 75, 77- 
 
 ^ See the article by Mr. A. M. Broadley in the " Century 
 Magazine " for April 1912. It seems certain that the restraints 
 put on Napoleon were less rigorous than those which he in- 
 flicted on the Pope in 1811-13. 
 
284 NAPOLEON 
 
 formerly so boundless as almost to defy presentment, 
 now becomes intensely human. Perhaps the quarrels 
 amused him. Certainly they broke the monotony of 
 life at Longwood in a way not wholly disagreeable to 
 that wearied group. In any case the scenes were in- 
 evitable. All the jealousies, which make a Court a 
 veritable cockpit, were there pent up in one or two 
 houses, and become food for laughter, sometimes for 
 tears. 
 
 Naturally enough, the two ladies are the cause of 
 the first rounds. Mme. Bertrand, wife of the Grand 
 Marshal, was daugher of an Irish general, Dillon by 
 name, who perished in the Revolution. She was also 
 in part of Creole extraction; and her attractive, 
 pleasure-loving character made her the centre of a gay 
 set in Paris.' She had sought to prevent General 
 Bertrand from coming, and for this purpose made a 
 show of throwing herself overboard in Plymouth 
 Sound. During the voyage she oscillated sharply be- 
 tween deep dejection and shrill complaints. Neither 
 mood made much impression on Napoleon, who re- 
 garded these occasions as natural to her, and as calling 
 for the exercise of conjugal authority. Bertrand did 
 not play the man enough to please Napoleon. He 
 was a melancholy-looking man, but a kind husband 
 and father, inclined to humour his wife. At St. Helena 
 he defended her occasional visits to Jamestown for 
 the mild dissipation of shopping, even when they in- 
 volved absence from the Emperor's dinner-table. 
 This annoyed Napoleon, who declared that his house 
 
 ' Lady Malcolm, "A Diary of St. Helena" (1899), p. 18. 
 
THE EXILE 285 
 
 was not to be treated like an inn, and that the Ber- 
 trands must either come always or not at all. At this 
 and similar remarks they took offence and for a time 
 absented themselves.' Bertrand complained bitterly 
 to Gourgaud of Napoleon's treatment of them, adding 
 that at Elba they found out his egotism. He on his 
 side disliked Mme. Bertrand's wayward whims and 
 moods, unredeemed by any appreciable gifts of in- 
 tellect. Hence, though there were times when he 
 showed them favour and benignity, the thought of 
 past friction never quite vanished. On one occasion 
 they remarked to Gourgaud that the Emperor's self- 
 ishness was the cause of his lack of friends, indeed, of 
 his exile.^ 
 
 The quarrels with the Bertrands gave to the Mon- 
 tholons the chance of asserting themselves with effect. 
 Montholon was inferior to Bertrand in military rank, 
 but he excelled him in social and mental gifts. His 
 wife also surpassed Mme. Bertrand in tact and cul- 
 ture. Both of them were assiduous courtiers; and 
 Montholon will always be remembered for his devotion 
 in spreading the Napoleonic cult in France. At St. 
 Helena he did not always please his master. On the 
 plea that ghosts (that is, possible murderers) stole 
 around Longwood at night, he requested the British 
 sentries to come in nearer to guard the house. Gour- 
 gaud, waking up perchance, thought he heard a ghost. 
 He arose quickly, looked out of the window and dis- 
 covered a sentry. He went to the door and found 
 another there. The story, whether true or not, is too 
 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 109, 152. = Ibid., i, 223. 
 
286 NAPOLEON 
 
 good not to be told to the Emperor, who fires up 
 against Montholon. " He must have a base soul (says 
 Napoleon) to desire to become our gaoler. If this 
 goes on, there will be sentries in my bedroom. Why 
 pretend that there is danger? If there is, one of the 
 French ofificers will lie at the door; but for God's sake 
 don't defend me by British sentries." Montholon 
 then loses his temper, and there is a scene, which 
 Napoleon ends by telling him to be off and leave him 
 quiet. 
 
 The Montholons are not always at peace. On one 
 occasion they fall out owing to Montholon's chastise- 
 ment of their little girl. The mother fires up, calls 
 him an executioner, and rushes to lay her complaint 
 before Napoleon. He jokes at her, and she returns 
 baffled.^ How singular that even a family quarrel 
 must be referred to the Emperor ! 
 
 For a brief space Gourgaud's star is in the ascend- 
 ant, while that of the Montholons wanes. But Gour- 
 gaud has not the brains to keep in favour long. A 
 glance at his physiognomy explains the man. The 
 narrow, low forehead is almost that of a sparrow. He 
 is puffed up with the recollection of saving Napoleon's 
 life early in the campaign of 1814, and sometimes 
 ventures to harp on this theme, even adding expres- 
 sions of surprise that the Emperor prefers " that little 
 Jesuit," Las Cases. This is too much for Napoleon, 
 who on such occasions snubs Gourgaud, or else tells 
 him he has a good heart but a very poor head; it is 
 natural that a man of Las Cases' age should suit him 
 ' Gourgaud, " Journal," ii, 66. 
 
THE EXILE 287 
 
 better. This Gourgaud cannot understand. In his 
 view, Las Cases lacks both brains and knowledge ; he 
 is by nature an intriguer, and has come with Napo- 
 leon to St. Helena merely in order to write anecdotes 
 about him. Worst of all, he has never fought a battle.' 
 Sometimes Napoleon ends these discussions by 
 giving Gourgaud (" Gorgotto " he playfully calls him) 
 a friendly slap on the cheek or a pinch of the ear. Or 
 else he concludes by saying that they are all equal, 
 and ought to live as brothers. That is Napoleon at 
 his best, and, as Bertrand reminds the pining, peevish 
 youth. Napoleon always returns to a kindly mood.^ 
 A man who, even in exile, can be the cause of these 
 frantic jealousies, and can allay them by an appeal to 
 the better feelings of his followers, must have been a 
 king of men. 
 
 The tedium of exile was not relieved by the 
 mental gifts of these ill-assorted companions. With 
 the exception of Las Cases, none of them had either 
 intellectual or conversational powers. A Polish soldier, 
 Piontowski by name, who had been at Elba and now 
 came on to St. Helena as equerry, saw something of 
 the Longwood circle, and was depressed by its dull- 
 ness. The courtiers for their part thought him a spy, 
 and Gourgaud claimed to have exposed his inaccurate 
 account of himself.' Nevertheless the following letter, 
 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," i, 223, 316. Gourgaud (i, 530) ascribed 
 " Warden's Letters " to Las Cases. 
 
 ' Ibid., i, 227, 234. 
 
 ' See Mr. G. L. de St. M. Watson's work, "A Polish Exile 
 with Napoleon" (1912), for new and interesting material on 
 Piontowski, and an exposure of the attacks of Gourgaud. 
 
288 NAPOLEON 
 
 written by Piontowski at Paris to M. Aim6 Martin on 
 22nd December 1828, deserves quotation. It is in 
 reply to a request to publish his Memoirs. Piontowski 
 refuses, in terms highly creditable to him : 
 
 What I could say is too odious ; for his (Napoleon's) true 
 position could not be described without entering into details 
 too scandalous as to all the annoyances he had to undergo 
 and which made him more impracticable than during the 
 Empire. I should have to unveil the persons who formed 
 his household at Longwood. Either I should be thought a 
 calumniator, or a false idea would be formed of Napoleon 
 and of his choice of men. Perhaps it would be believed that 
 he was fallen so far as to be unable to find men of merit de- 
 voted enough to share his fate, and this would be a mistake 
 in every respect. For it ought to be known that he counted 
 surely on going to America to live as a private person, and 
 there, after the storm, surround himself with true friends, of 
 whom he could not at that time deprive the party of his son. 
 The poison of the most refined flattery had spoilt him; and 
 courtiers had become a kind of necessity in his position. 
 He also needed men who belonged to a family with a dis- 
 tinguished name, which had influence in France. Montholon 
 is an adopted son, and it is said, a natural son, of Semonville.' 
 The Emperor therefore had to take him despite his personal 
 nullity. 
 
 In writing frankly I should have to disclose in all its 
 nudity the imperial family, which has done him more 
 harm than all his enemies. . . . Having, then, little or 
 nothing that is good to say, it is better to be silent: but, as 
 I much count on rescuing from errors and unjust preposses- 
 sions a man of your excellent heart and brilliant intellect, to 
 
 ' Napoleon said so (Las Cases, " Memorial," iv, 255). 
 
THE EXILE 289 
 
 whom I am attached by friendship and gratitude, I will from 
 time to time write to you notes which will depict for you 
 that great man in his private life, and by traits which will be 
 suited to reveal the man, his heart, his justice, his constant 
 desire to do good, and to redress the wrongs which he had 
 unwillingly committed; that all this mass of Memoirs, largely 
 false, where one sees only the author of the work, his false 
 judgments and the desire to make them interesting, so as to 
 make the utmost possible out of them; often also [with] the 
 design of harming others or at least of raising himself at 
 their expense. I have never had any other motive than ad- 
 miration, or any other ambition than that of serving him to 
 the utmost. . . ." ^ 
 
 In regard to the future, Napoleon's exile was by no 
 means fruitless. There it was that he uttered words 
 still treasured for their grandeur: " Our situation here 
 may have its attractions. The Universe is looking at 
 us. We remain the martyrs of an eternal cause. 
 Millions of men weep for us; the Fatherland sighs; 
 and Glory is in mourning. We struggle here against 
 the oppression of the gods, and the longings of the 
 nations are for us. My real sufferings are not here. If 
 I considered only myself, perhaps I should have cause 
 for gladness. Misfortune also is marked by heroism 
 and glory. Adversity was wanting to my career. If 
 I had died on the throne amidst the clouds of my own 
 omnipotence, I should have remained a problem for 
 many men. To-day, thanks to my misfortune, they 
 can judge of me naked as I am." " Las Cases often 
 
 1 From Mr. A. M. Broadley's MSS. 
 ^ Las Cases, " Memorial," i, ad fin. 
 U 
 
290 NAPOLEON 
 
 dresses up Napoleon's thoughts, concealing their 
 strength under pretty arts. But those words ring 
 true. Las Cases could not have expressed them with 
 that superb incisiveness which is the charm of Napo- 
 leon's oratory. The appeal struck home. Napoleon 
 the exile reigned more potently in the thoughts of 
 men than he did when lord of 50,000,000 subjects. 
 Like Mary Queen of Scots after her downfall, the 
 vanquished conquered ; for he now appealed to the 
 emotions of pity and sympathy, which on the whole 
 are of more lasting potency than fear. 
 
 The personality of Napoleon abounds in contra- 
 dictions. Dowered with the passions of the south, he 
 yet had the cool and calculating instincts character- 
 istic of the northern peoples. By turns he was mild 
 and stern, placable and unforgiving, generous but 
 egotistical, far-seeing yet short-sighted. On every event 
 and problem he concentrated a bewildering variety of 
 powers, so that in every case we must ask what set of 
 faculties led him to this and not that conclusion, 
 Moreover, at the end of the inquiry we are baffled by 
 the crowning paradox, that he, the greatest warrior and 
 organizer of all time, left France weaker and his 
 enemies stronger than before his appearance in the 
 arena. 
 
 It is easier to explain his rise than his fall. Alike 
 by genius and self-culture he inevitably became the 
 leader of the Latin peoples, who then supremely 
 needed a great organizer. He summed up in his own 
 person much that was best in their past. Love of 
 
THE EXILE 291 
 
 order, a veritable passion for organization, and deep 
 respect for the glories of Rome and the traditions of 
 France, constituted him the champion of experience 
 against Jacobinical innovators, who, as Catharine II 
 wittily said, worked on the human skin as if it were 
 parchment. Yet his training in France and Corsica, 
 his espousal of the most practical tenets of the revolu- 
 tionary creed, brought him abreast of the times; so 
 that the union of past and present in his nature 
 enabled him to end the Revolution and re-establish 
 monarchy on a new and firmer basis. Having brought 
 about a beneficent compromise in France, he proposed 
 to call the other Latin peoples to a more active exist- 
 ence; and, but for the fateful blunder in Spain, he 
 might have opened, a startling chapter in European 
 history. At that point, however, he parted company 
 with fair play and justice; and the rest of his career 
 was but a portentous display of activity misapplied. 
 One nation after another found his sway intolerable ; 
 and his resolve to maintain it at all points was un- 
 doubtedly the main cause of his overthrow. The 
 assertion that his fall was due to the jealousy of old 
 dynasties for z. parvenu is too superficial to call for 
 notice. He had several opportunities for coming to a 
 compromise with the Powers satisfactory both to 
 France and himself; but he let them slip. 
 
 In the domain of fact all this is fairly clear. But 
 from our standpoint, that of character, it is diffi- 
 cult to explain how a man of his mental acuteness 
 lost those opportunities. At St. Helena he admitted 
 that the failure to make peace during the Congress of 
 
292 NAPOLEON 
 
 Chitillon (March 1814) was une lourde sottise. Yet 
 along with that confession he expressed a fervent wish 
 that he was once more in France ; for with the levies 
 of 1816, 1817, to hand he would have 100 regiments 
 of infantry, and with them he would do much.' That 
 the wish should come side by side with the confession 
 argues a nature in which impulse bears sway over the 
 judgement. 
 
 By degrees the passion for the grandiose had over- 
 mastered the calculating faculties which in early life 
 generally held ambition in leash. After the cam- 
 paigns of Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland, he seems to 
 have lost his mental balance. The same powers were 
 there, even to excess, but the sound judgement which 
 co-ordinated them no longer exercised a sovereign 
 control. His work of orderly reconstruction during the 
 Consulate was the outcome of statesmanlike qualities 
 of the highest order; but most of his later enter- 
 prises betray a disordered imagination, a will on 
 which reason has little hold, a persistence worthy of 
 the heroic age, but useless in awakened Europe. The 
 civic work will endure; the military quests came to 
 naught even in his own day. Nevertheless as the ele- 
 mental in man appeals to our love of romance, the 
 personality of Napoleon will ever be a challenge to 
 more strenuous activity, to greater concentration of 
 purpose, to a defiance of the impossible. Mankind 
 moves along lines far other than those which he finally 
 laid down ; but it will not cease to acclaim the hero 
 who broke up the old world, enlarged the bounds of 
 ' Gourgaud, " Journal," ii, 346. 
 
THE EXILE 293 
 
 activity, and set a high standard of achievement for 
 future ages. 
 
 It is futile to attempt to sum up Napoleon in any- 
 one category. Attempts have been made to do so, 
 but with indifferent success. Passing over the panegyric 
 of the amiable Abbott, we may glance at four of them. 
 Emerson, in an essay more acute than convincing, 
 points out that Napoleon is an embodiment of the 
 middle-class qualities then coming to the fore. But, 
 half way through the thesis, he seems to feel that the 
 great Corsican does not well fit into the niche of a 
 Stock Exchange, and thereafter represents him as a 
 villain of melodrama. More elaborate and artful, but 
 scarcely more satisfactory, is Taine's embroidery on 
 the theme that Napoleon is a revival of the Italian 
 condottiere. Sorel, with wonderful ability and thor- 
 oughness, sought to exhibit him as the champion of a 
 great France, the protagonist of her demand for the 
 " natural boundaries." Even this sums up only one 
 aspect of his statecraft, and in my judgement fails to 
 account for his fall. M. L^vy has striven to depict 
 his hero as an exemplary bourgeois, always intent on 
 the preservation of peace, but driven to war by the 
 successive provocations of all the Powers. The theme 
 is at best very one-sided ; and it often conflicts with 
 the written and spoken statements of Napoleon him- 
 self I think that he would have been the first to 
 reject the portrait as a prosaic caricature. 
 
 Surely there is only one man of faculties sufficiently 
 varied and forceful to challenge comparison with 
 Napoleon. The figure of Julius Caesar dominates the 
 
294 NAPOLEON 
 
 \ Roman world as that of the great Corsican over- 
 ( shadows the age of the French Revolution. Both 
 men lived in cataclysmic periods, when the old order 
 was passing away and new ideas called for recogni- 
 tion. In their several ways they succeeded in linking 
 on the new to the old, and in perpetuating the prin- 
 ciple of monarchy; for in both of them the longing 
 for a wider and more intelligent polity was tempered 
 by respect for all that bore the stamp of ancient use 
 and sage tradition. Therefore, though innovators in 
 youth, they became more and more conservative in 
 manhood. Ambition doubtless played its part in the 
 transformation of character which led up to auto- 
 cracy. Wars of adventure further strengthened that 
 trend ; but each of them made good the claim of the 
 foremost man to guide the drifting masses, and ably 
 adapted imperial rule to the needs of the time. In 
 some respects, I think, Caesar is a greater man than 
 Napoleon. He began the serious part of life full late; 
 yet both in war and statecraft he easily established an 
 unquestioned supremacy which nothing but murder 
 could end. He led the way both by developing new 
 and trenchant principles of strategy, and by adapting 
 the almost stereotyped polity of Rome to the needs 
 of a fast-growing Empire. Further, his clemency and 
 tact won the affection of the conquered peoples whom 
 he brought under the Roman sway; and he left be- 
 hind him a State both greater and stronger than 
 before his accession to ofifice. Finally, his unpar- 
 alleled triumphs both at home and abroad neither 
 blinded his vision nor hardened his temper. These 
 
THE EXILE 295 
 
 imperial powers were harmonized and humanized by 
 an ahuost unfailing clemency ; and, had he lived out 
 his life, he would assuredly have continued to grace a 
 stupendous career with the flowers of courtesy and 
 kindliness. 
 
 In this respect Napoleon suffers by comparison. 
 There is something portentous, almost terrifying, 
 about the Corsican. His temper is often more Ossianic 
 than Caesarean. After gaining the imperial title, he 
 adopted more and more a forceful policy, which alien- 
 ated the vassal States. By " the Spanish blunder " of 
 1808 he lost that peninsula, and thereafter the North 
 Germans were held down chiefly by fear. During 
 the time of exile he saw the mistake. There is an 
 undertone of self-reproach in his panegyric on Alex- 
 ander the Great : " WJiat I like in Alexander isj^not 
 his cara^aaigrLS,,., which... we .carmot. understan^i, %«t-fe*s— 
 political- methods. _ At ..thirty.-.three-., years af age he 
 leaves^ a well-established. Empirey«hida^iis».gSJlgrals _ 
 partition.- He"had-4he..iu±. of jEoaking himself ifelgYed^ 
 by the- peoples he conquered.'^ Yes,. that was the 
 sign^.of the highest statesmanship. Napoleon felt that 
 he lacked that supreme gift Beyond the Pyrenees 
 and tb& Rhine he had aroused more, hatred than lav,e. 
 
 Not iliatjhe^was. deficient in -los£abk.-qiialitiesj,£ar 
 fCQm_ it. He. showed them to his family and his 
 nearestjriends. But his conception of statecraft be- 
 came increasinglyJiarjl^-andy while-he-seowfeed-public 
 opinion, his self-confidence grew until it obsessed his 
 
 r ' i.,ii iiii.iiii.MiiinmwBii»ff— ° - - --—.-... — . ^^, ,__ 
 
 whole being. It is no paradox to assert that the 
 ' Gourgaud, "Journal," ii, 435. 
 
296 NAPOLEON 
 
 excess of his good fortune during the ti me of ripenin g 
 manhood was his greatest misfortune. If both^t 
 Paris and in his early -^ampa%-H«v~h&Jjad~JiieLjadlii 
 firm and able opposition,. he migbi,,liave_eluded_that 
 curse of uninterrupted triumph^nfktuation. Little 
 by little he came under its spell, until, after the 
 Austrian marriage, he steeled himself against counsel, 
 and pushed every enterprise to, .the bitter end. JThen 
 came the blows of adversity; but they fell, on a nature 
 too hardened to profit by thern. In a world which his 
 energies had awakened to full consciousness such a 
 career could not achieve lasting success. Providence 
 uses such men while tney serve its mysterious designs 
 for the uplifting of the race. It casts them aside when 
 their renovating work is accomplished. Napoleon saw 
 not when that time had come. He struggled on to- 
 wards the Indies, Cadiz and Moscow as though the 
 new age of nationality had, not dawned ; .and, therefore 
 he ended his days at St. Helena. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ABOUKIR, defeat at, 116. 
 Abrant^s, Ducliesse d' [Ma- 
 dame Junot], "Memoirs," 8k. 
 
 Acre, Repulse at, 226. 
 
 Addington, 228, 231. 
 
 yEschylus, " Agamemnon," 280. 
 
 Ajaccio, 5, 43. 
 
 Alexander, Czar, 33, 92, 200, 244, 
 251, 252. 
 
 Alexander the Great, 12, 203, 224, 
 227. 
 
 Alexandria, 72. 
 
 Alsace, 194. 
 
 Amiens, Peace of, 228, 240. 
 
 Amsterdam, 230. 
 
 Ancona, 61. 
 
 Andalusia, 250. 
 
 Andigne, d', 151. 
 
 Andrews, E. L., "Napoleon and 
 America," 227. 
 
 Antommarchi, 66. 
 
 Arc de Triomphe, 209. 
 
 Aristotle, " Nicomachean Ethics," 
 189. 
 
 Amdt, 23s. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 62. 
 
 Aspern, Battle of, 73, 74, 109. 
 
 Athens, 14, 146, 147, 224. 
 
 Augsburg, 88. 
 
 Aulard, Prof., 24«., iign. 
 
 Austerlitz, Battle of, 91, 142. 163, 
 167, 233. 234. 292. 
 
 Australia, Napoleonic Map of, 127. 
 
 Austria, 51, 60, 76, 79, 80, 83, 87, 
 100, 103, 115, 125, 148, i86, 199, 
 228, 233, 250, 253, 254, 256, 264, 
 272. 
 
 Auxonne, 13, 38, 42, 44, 45. 
 
 Avignon, 51, 236. 
 
 Azeglio, d', 241. 
 
 Bagration, 95. 
 
 Barclay, General, 100. 
 
 Bastia (capital of Corsica), 43. 
 
 Bathurst, Earl, 273. 
 
 Bausset, "Cour de Napoleon," 10, 
 
 260. 
 Bavaria, 80, 82, 87, 228. 
 Baylen, defeat at, 30, 161, 250. 
 Beauharnais, Josephine de, wife of 
 
 Napoleon, 2Q seq,, 199, 208. 
 Beauterne, de, "Sentiment de Na- 
 poleon sur le Christianisme," 220. 
 Belgium, 172, 260, 268. 
 Bentham, 192, 193. 
 Berlier (The Jurist), 133. 
 Berlin, 104, 157, 214, 235, 241, 
 
 250. 
 Bernadotte, Marshal, 84, 92, 94, 95, 
 
 120. 
 Berthier, Marshal, 86, 88, 89, 90, 
 
 91, 158. 
 Bertrand, General and Madame, 
 
 217, 274, 283, 285, 287. 
 Bessieres, Marshal, 95, 105, 150, 161. 
 Blucher, Marshal, 69, 75, 104, 105. 
 
 297 
 
298 
 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 Bohemia, 88, 89, 91, 103. 
 
 Bonaparte, Caroline, 9, 27. 
 
 Bonaparte, Charles Marie de, 7. 
 
 Bonaparte, Elisa, 9, 27. 
 
 Bonaparte, Jerome, 9, 27, 159, 256. 
 
 Bonaparte, Joseph, 9, 26, 27, 98, 
 198, 255, 256. 
 
 Bonaparte, Josephine. See Beau- 
 harnais, Josephine de. 
 
 Bonaparte, Louis, 27, 56, 191. 
 
 Bonaparte, Lucien, 9, 26. 
 
 Bonaparte, Marie Louise. See Marie 
 Louise of Austria. 
 
 Bonaparte, Napoleon, Corsican in- 
 fluence on, 2 seq., birth, 5; fam- 
 ily character, 6 seq., Greek an- 
 cestry, 8k. ; education: (a)Brienne 
 monks, 13; (b) Ecole Militaire, 
 Paris, 13; student of History, 31 
 seq.; constitution of La Calotte 
 Club, 14 ; melancholy of, 15 ; first 
 love affair, 17 ; love affairs, 1 7- 1 9; 
 flight from Corsica, 18; in prison, 
 18; incident with Madame Thur- 
 reau, 19 ; Josephine de Beauhar- 
 nais, 20 ; on falling in love, 22 ; 
 Countess Walewska, 23; cheats 
 at cards, 26; family affairs, 27; 
 impetuosity and treachery, 29; 
 knowledge of mathematics, 34 ; 
 proposed book on Corsica, 
 37 ; adventure tales, 37 ; " Dis- 
 cours de Lyon," 37; Essay of 
 1786, 39; a Jacobin, 41; at Val- 
 ence, 4 1 ; at Auxonne, 42 ; " Sum- 
 mary of Report on French Fin- 
 ance," 42; life in Corsica, 43-45; 
 thesis on "Happiness," 45; 
 " Republic or Monarchy," 47 ; 
 arrival at Provence, 50 ; " Le 
 Souper de Beaucaire," 50; Brig- 
 
 adier-general, 53; Prison at (i). 
 Fort Carre, 55; (2) Antibes, 56; 
 chase of the Chouans, 56; Paris, 
 58 ; seizure of Egypt, 62 ; character 
 of, 18, 30, 63-65 ; First Con- 
 sul, 64; Rousseau and Napoleon, 
 influence on France, 64-65 ; 
 " Notes on the Art of War," 66; 
 defeat at Aspern — Essling, 73; 
 various triumphs, 73 ; strategy, 
 75-91 ; tactics, 87-96 ; dicta on 
 war, 96-97 ; Peninsular War, 98; 
 marriage with Marie Louise, 100; 
 end of military career, 107-109; 
 comparison with Wellington, 
 107-111 ; intelligent despotism, 
 \12seq. ; government of Milan, 
 113; Egypt, 116-119; Local Go- 
 vernment in France, 122 ; and 
 the Church, 125-129; Legion of 
 Honour, 131; treaty with Rome, 
 131; speech on Civilians, 132; 
 First Consul for Life, 134, 228; 
 Codes, 137-139; education, 139; 
 Emperor, 150 ; Napoleonic Em- 
 pire, 156 ; devotion to, 158 ; Pub- 
 lic Works, 169-176 ; fear of hungry 
 people, 172; financier, 177-180; 
 mercantilist, 179; public opinion, 
 180; divorce of Josephine, 186; 
 Marie Louise, 186 ; annexes N.W. 
 Germany, Hamburg, and Liibeck, 
 186; excitability, 186-188; and 
 Bentham, 193; speech to Swiss 
 Confederation, 194; Plistory, 195; 
 attitude to destiny, 197-206; and 
 Jews, 200; Literature, 206-208; 
 Music and Arts, 208 ; Monologue 
 onChristianity,2i9; Romanchar- 
 acteristics, 223 seq.; Conquest of 
 Levant, 224 ; Conquest of India, 
 
INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 224; examples of cruelty, 240 ; alli- 
 ance with Persia, 244; sojourn at 
 Elba, 259; St. Helena, 261; Napo- 
 leon's Last Voyages, 262 ; to go to 
 St.Helena,27o-273;literary tastes, 
 278; grant from British Govern- 
 ment, 283 ; final summing up, 
 290-296. See also Destiny, His- 
 tory, Public Works, Religion, 
 Strategy, Suicide, Tactics. 
 
 Bonaparte, Pauline, 9, 27, 28, 266. 
 
 Bondois, " Napoleon et la Societe 
 de son temps," 233 n. 
 
 Bonnal, General, 91. 
 
 Bordeaux, 51. 
 
 Borghese, Prince, 243. 
 
 Boswell, James, "Account of Cor- 
 sica," 4, 5, 24 ; on Paoli, 44. 
 
 Boulogne, 30, 34, 80, 82, 83, 150, 
 161, 170, 200, 201, 233. 
 
 Bourgogne, Sergeant, 158. 
 
 Bourmont, General, 191. 
 
 Bourrienne, " Memoires," 196. 
 
 Brest, 170, 171- 
 
 Brienne, 13, 37, 140. 
 
 Broadley, A. M., Napoleon MSS., 
 283, 289. 
 
 Broglie, Due de, " Memoires," 196, 
 206 n. 
 
 Broglie, de, jun,, 254. 
 
 Browning, Oscar, 230, 231. 
 
 Bruix, Admiral, 30. 
 
 Brumaire, a town, 127. 
 
 Briinn, 92, 93. 
 
 Brunswick-Oels, Duke of, 74. 
 
 Bulow, 105. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 36, 145. 
 
 Buttafoco, Count, 45. 
 
 Cadiz, 98, 158, 161, 187, 247, 249, 
 250, 292. 
 
 Caen, 51. 
 
 Caesar, Augustus, 12. 
 
 Caesar, Julius, 12, 13, 25, 229, 293. 
 
 Cairo, Revolt, 117. 
 
 Calotte, La, a club, constitution 
 
 for, 14. 
 Cambaceres, 152, 154. 
 Cambronne, General, 162. 
 Campbell, Sir Neil, "Journal," 
 
 207, 259, 262, 266. 
 Camperdown, Battle of, 225. 
 Canning, 246. 
 Canova, 237. 
 
 Cantillon, French officer, 1 1 . 
 Cape St. Vincent, Battle of, 225. 
 Carlyle, 180. 
 Carnot, 50, 150. 
 Carrousel Arch, 175. 
 Carteaux, 53. 
 Cassel, 240. 
 
 Castiglione, Manoeuvres at, 9. 
 Catalonia, 255. 
 
 Catharine H of Russia, 246, 291. 
 Caulaincourt, 29, 254. 
 Champagny, 155, 190. 
 Chappe, Claude, inventor of Sema- 
 phore Telegraph, 170. 
 Chaptal, 58, 156, 168, 172, 203, 
 
 208, 215. 
 Charles, Archduke, 69, 73, 74. 80, 
 
 82, 88, 89, 90, 91, 100. 
 Charles IV, 247. 
 Chateaubriand, 182, 185. 
 Chatham, Earl of, 35. 
 Chatillon, 57. 
 
 Chatillon, Congress of, 29, 292. 
 Chaumont, Treaty of, 269. 
 Chenier, 124. 
 Cherbourg, 170. 
 Clarke, Minister of War, 161. 
 Code of Civil Procedure, 139. 
 
300 
 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 Code Civile, 136 seq. 
 Code of Criminal Procedure, 139. 
 "Code Napoleon," 137; women, 
 137-138; divorce, 138; bequest, 
 
 138. Z3S- 
 Colbert, 171, 180. 
 Colin, " I'Education militaire de 
 
 Napoleon," S3, S6, 7° «• 
 Cologne, 170. 
 Colombier, Mile., 17, 207. 
 Colonies of France, 227-233, 260. 
 Concordat, The, 125-131, 216, 241. 
 Condorcet, 140. 
 Confuciiis, 219. 
 Coni, 76, 79. 
 
 Constant, Benjamin, 124, 184. 
 Constantine, Grand Duke, 95. 
 Constantinople, 30. 
 Contrat Social, Le, 37, 38, 39, 40, 
 
 41, 48, 49. 5°. 5S> 63: 64, 113- 
 Corday, Charlotte, 24. 
 Corfu, 61. 
 Cormenin, "Du Conseil d'Etat," 
 
 166. 
 Corneille, 162. 
 Corps Legislatif, 124. 
 Corsica, 2-6, 36, 37, 43, 49, 50, 51, 
 
 56. 63, 137- 
 Corsicans, character of, 2 seq. 
 Council of State, 124, 166. 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 36. 
 
 Danton, 35. 
 Daru, 175. 
 Daunou, 124. 
 David, the Painter, 208. 
 Davout, 88, 89, 92, 94, 95, 160. 
 Decaen, General, 230, 231. 
 Decrfe, Admiral, 99, 161. 
 Dego, Battle of, 76. 
 
 Dennewitz, Battle of, 104. 
 Destiny or Fate (Napoleon), 57, 
 
 197-206. 
 Dietfurt, 84. 
 Dillon, General, 284. 
 Dionysius, 201. 
 Donauworth, 88, 89. 
 Draco, 146. 
 Dresden, 99, 103, 104, 164, 2o6«., 
 
 208, 254, 260. 
 Dresden, Battle of, 205 n. 
 Driault, G., "La Politique orientate 
 
 de Napoleon," 244. 
 Droits reunis, 178. 
 Dumas, General Mathieu, 132, 
 
 206 K., 231. 
 Dumont, 121. 
 Dupont, General, 161, 162, 247, 
 
 249, 250. 
 Duroc, Grand-Marshal, 175. 
 Duval, Alexandre, 164. 
 
 Eckermann, 209. 
 Eckmiihl, Battle of, 87. / 
 
 Education, 139-144. i 
 
 Egypt, 22, 29, 62, 63, 72, 114, 117, 
 
 1 18, 129, 193, 196, 199, 201, 218, 
 
 224, 225, 226, 229, 247, 249; 
 
 Institute of, 116. 
 Elba, 28, 55, 177, 228, 236, 259, 
 
 260, 262, 263, 266, 267, 269, 270, 
 
 285, 287. 
 Elberfeld, 241. 
 Elchingen, Battle of, 85. 
 Emerson, ' ' Representative Men " 
 
 (Napoleon), 23. 
 Enghien, Due d', 11, 130. 
 England. See Great Britain. 
 Epaminondas, 203. 
 Epicurus, 221. 
 Erfurt, 33, 104, 210 K., 216, 251. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ,-~ 301 
 
 Erlon, d', 105. 
 
 Ermenonville, 64. 
 
 Eugene, Prince, 170, 225, 241. 
 
 Etruria, 228. 
 
 Exmouth, Lord, 3. 
 
 Eylau, Battle of, 160. 
 
 Feraud, 57. 
 
 Ferdinand, Archduke, 80, 82, gS, 
 256. 
 
 Fesch, Cardinal, 44, 204. 
 
 Fezensac, Due de, 158. 
 
 Fichte, 235. 
 
 Fisher, " Napoleonic Statesman- 
 ship—Germany," 234, 235. 
 
 Florence, 267. 
 
 Fontaine, an architect, 175. 
 
 Fouche, Minister of Police, 154, 
 181, 183. 
 
 Foumier, an officer, 276. 
 
 France, 11-12, 25, 34, 42, 68, 69, 
 98, 99, 103, 108, 114, 119, 121, 
 123, 126, 127, 129, 131, 134, 13s, 
 142-14S, 147, 149, 151, 156, 160, 
 165-177, 180-187, 190, 192-197. 
 205, 216, 225-232, 236, 238-240, 
 254, 255, 259, 260, 261, 264, 
 265, 267-273, 277, 281, 285, 288, 
 290-296. 
 
 Frate, Nicola, 10. 
 
 Frederick William of Prussia, 33, 
 98, 246. 
 
 Freon, a giant, 209. 
 
 Freron, 53. 
 
 Friedland, Campaign of, 292. 
 
 Ganteaume, Admiral, 72. 
 Gardane, General, "La Mission du 
 
 G^n^ral Gardane," 244. 
 Garden, "Traites," 229. 
 
 Gaudin, de, Due de Gaete, 
 "Mems., 178 n. 
 
 Gauthey, a contractor, 174. \ 
 
 "Gazette de France," 183. 
 
 Genoa, 8, 55, 80, 230, 233, 240, 
 250; decrees of, 4. 
 
 George III, 228. 
 
 Germany, 27, 103, 139, 177, 184, 
 186, 194, 228, 234,235,236, 239, 
 253, 254, 255,- 256, 260. 
 
 Girardin, "Journal," 26, 64. 
 
 Glover, J. R., "Napoleon Corres- 
 pondence," 207. 
 
 Gneisenau, a strategist, 104. 
 
 Goethe, 33, 209, 210, 234; "Sor- 
 rows of Werther," 279. 
 
 Gourgaud, General, 12, 22, 33, 
 179, 189, 198, 204, 214, 217, 226, 
 259, 261, 268, 275, 277, 278, 282, 
 283, 2S5, 286, 287, 292. 
 
 Great Britain, 30, 44, 67, 79, 80, 
 99, 108, 125, 128, 132, 148, 171, 
 177-179, 184, 200, 228, 230-233, 
 239, 244, 247, 249, 250, 260-264, 
 270-272. 
 
 Greece, 2, 14, 36, 146. 
 
 Grenoble, 51. 
 
 " Grognards, Las," 68. 
 
 Grouchy, Marshal, 106. 
 
 Gruyer, P., "Napoleon Roi de I'lle 
 d'Elbe," 266, 267. 
 
 Guillois, 207. 
 
 Guyot, Dr., 236. 
 
 Hamburg, 103, 186, 235. 
 
 Haussmann, Baron, 176. 
 
 Hauterive, the Archivist, 155. 
 
 Heine, 251. 
 
 Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, 257. 
 
 Herder, 2U. 
 
 Herodotus, 257. 
 
302 
 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 History, Napoleon on, 13, 45, 47, 
 112-113, 195. 
 
 Hofer, 73. 
 
 Hohenlohe, 162. 
 
 Holland, 191, 231, 239, 260, 264. 
 
 Holland, Lord, "Foreign Reminis- 
 cences," 278. 
 
 Hood, Admiral, 51 «., 53. 
 
 Hortense, Queen, 164. 
 
 Houssaye, "Waterloo," 107. 
 
 Hiiningen, 171- 
 
 Hyde de Neuville, iji, 205, 267. 
 
 Imperial Nobility, order of, 134. 
 
 India, 30, 224, 229, 230, 249, 
 256. 
 
 Ingolstadt, 84, 88, 89. 
 
 Isle of France (Mauritius), 193. 
 
 Italy, 2, 22, 23, 27, 36, 37, 54, 55, 
 56, 57, 60, 67, 73, 76, 80, 84, 
 104, 114, 115, 125, 139, ISO, 170, 
 177, 181, 193, 194, 216, 223, 224, 
 228, 229, 231, 236, 239, 247, 253, 
 259, 260, 262, 264, 267, 282. 
 
 Jena, campaign of, 11, 104, 108, 
 
 152, 246, 292. 
 Jews, the, 203. 
 Jomini, ' ' Precis de 1' Art de Guerre, " 
 
 75»., 88, 94, 102, 277. 
 Jourdan, Marshal, 102. 
 Juges de Paix, 123. 
 Junot, 10, 56, 247. 
 Junot, Madame (Duchess d'Ab- 
 
 rantes), 8 «. , 56' 
 
 Kellermann, Marshal, 106. 
 Klattau, 93. 
 Kleber, 118, 226. 
 Krieg, General, 71. 
 Kutusoff, General, 94, 95. 
 
 Lafayette, 34, 149. 
 
 Lalande, 216. 
 
 Lampedusa, 231. 
 
 Landshut, 88, 89, 91. 
 
 Lannes, Marshal, 73, 83, 95. 
 
 Lanzac de Laborie, 176. 
 
 Las Cases, ' ' Mi^morial, " 1 7, 19, 1 S7, 
 207, 217, 221, 239, 240, 248, 
 272, 275, 278, 280, 283, 286, 287, 
 289. 
 
 Lauriston, General, 67. 
 
 Lavalette, Postmaster-General, 34; 
 " Mems.," 171. 
 
 Lecestre and Brotonne, " Corre- 
 spondance de Napoleon (with ad- 
 ditions)," I, 4H., 16, 30, 61, 115, 
 142, 183, 184, 190, 196, 198, 199, 
 200, 201, 207, 228, 233, 240, 242, 
 244, 247, 248, 249, 267, 282. 
 
 Leghorn, 263. 
 
 Legion of Honour, 131. 
 
 Legislature, divisions of French, 
 124. 
 
 Leipzig, 104, 254. 
 
 Lejeune, 88. 
 
 Levant, conquest of, 224. 
 
 Lewes, George Henry, 211. 
 
 Liechtenstein, 94. 
 
 Ligny, 105. 
 
 Lille, 171. 
 
 Lisbon, 247. 
 
 Liverpool Ministry, 270, 273. 
 
 Livy, 213. 
 
 Lobau Island, 73. 
 
 London, 121, 178, 187, 231, 261. 
 
 Louis XVIII of France, 259, 
 264. 
 
 Lowe, Sir Hudson, 2^2 seg. 
 
 Liibeck, 187. 
 
 Luxembourg, 264. 
 
 Lycurgus, 113, 219. 
 
INDEX 
 
 303 
 
 "Lyon, Discours de," 37. 
 Lyons, 51, 171, 172, 176, 177. 
 
 Macdonald, Marshal, 150. 
 
 Mack, General, 80, 82, 84, 85, 
 
 162. 
 Macpherson, " Ossian," 206. 
 Madrid, 27, 98, 99, no, 247, 248, 
 
 250, 236. 
 Magon, 31. 
 Mahan, Captain, 225. 
 Maillebois, Marshal de, 78. 
 Maine, 170, 235. 
 Maitland, Captain, 269. 
 Malcolm, Admiral, 273. 
 Malcolm, Lady, "A Diary of St. 
 
 Helena," 145, 207, 284. 
 Malmaison, 127, 128, 173. 
 Malmesbury, "Diaries," 203. 
 Malojaloslavitz, lOI. 
 Malta, 114, 118, 230, 231. 
 Mantua, 76, 79. 
 Marbot, 96. 
 Marcus Aurelius, 237. 
 Marengo, Battle of, 109, 125, 148, 
 
 266. 
 Marie Louise of Austria, 157, 186, 
 
 265. 
 Marmont, Marshal, 56, 84, 86, 104, 
 
 109, 265. 
 Marseilles, 51, 52, 53. 
 Martiniana, Cardinal, 125. 
 Massena, Marshal, 89, 199, 262. 
 Masson, " Napoleon Inconnu," 7 «., 
 
 14, 16, 37, 46, 49. SI. 
 Mauritius (Isle of France), 193, 
 
 231. 
 Mazzini, 16, 238. 
 Meaux, 170. 
 
 Medina da Rio Seco, battle of, 161. 
 Melzi, 48. 
 
 Memmingen, 80, 85. 
 
 Meneval, 156, 157, 158. 
 
 Menou, General, n8. 
 
 "Mercure de France," 182. 
 
 Metternich, "Memoirs," 11,12, 27. 
 
 Metz, 150. 
 
 Milan, 76, 115, 116, 170, 171, 181, 
 
 i99> 237. 
 Milton, 156. 
 Minims, The, 140. 
 Miot de Melito, 48. 
 Mirabeau, 35, 121, 126, 148. 
 Modena, 21. 
 Mohammed, 218. 
 Mollien, 152, 153, 154, 167, 178, 
 
 180. 
 "Moniteur," 182, 183,229. 
 Montbrun, General, 31. 
 Montchenu, Marquis de, 274. 
 Montenotte, Battle of, 199. 
 Montholm, 217, 285, 286. 
 Montholon, Madame de, 278, 283. 
 Montmirail, Battle of, 90. 
 Montpellier, 51, 52, 53. 
 Moravia, 104. 
 Moreau, 120, 150. 
 Morris, Gouverneur, " Dropmore 
 
 papers," 190; "Diary and Let- 
 ters of, 229. 
 Mortfontaine, 255. 
 Moscow, 98, 99, 100, loi, no, 150, 
 
 158, 187, 198, 201, 224, 237, 240, 
 
 252, 253, 255, 296. 
 Miiller, Johann von, 214. 
 Munich, 83«., 88. 
 Murat, Marshal, 31, 84, II7»., 
 
 247, 248, 250. 
 
 Nancy, 163. 
 
 Napier, "Peninsular War," 108, 
 109. 
 
304 
 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 Naples, 171. 
 Napoleon III, 176, 192. 
 Narbonne, Count de, 252, 253, 254, 
 
 260. 
 Navigation Act, 177. 
 Necker, 43. 
 Neipperg, Count, 265. 
 Nelson, Horatio, 72, 79, 99, 100, 
 
 201, 225, 227. 
 Nero, 214. 
 Neuburg, 84. 
 Ney, Marshal, 75, 83, 85, 104, 106, 
 
 191. 
 Nice, 54. 
 
 Nile, Battle of, 72, 225, 226. 
 Nimes, 52, 53. 
 Niv6se, affair of, 125. 
 Noerdlingen, 86. 
 
 Notables of the Nation, 131, 134. 
 Novalis, 258. 
 Nuremberg, 240. 
 
 Odolebon, Colonel von, 79, 103. 
 Oldenburg, Grand Duke of, 251. 
 Omar Khayyam, 222. 
 O'Meara, 283. 
 Organic Articles, 131. 
 Orleans, 172. 
 Owen, Robert, 140. 
 
 Palm, a Nuremberg bookseller, 240. 
 
 Palma, 228. 
 
 Paoli, 4, 5, 7, 16, 37, 44, 45, SI, 
 
 54- 
 
 Papacy, 216. 
 
 Paradisi, 148. 
 
 Paris, 18, 19, 21, 22, 27, 34, 37, 43, 
 49. 50. S5. 56, 57, 58, 59. 78. 82, 
 88, 99, 115, 118, 121, 122, 123, 
 129, 130, 140, 163, 170, 171, 172, 
 173. 174. 176. 183. 184,203, 204, 
 
 209, 211, 216, 231, 234, 23s, 237, 
 244, 259, 268, 284, 288, 296. 
 
 Pasquier, Prefect of Police, 99, 1 12, 
 148, 153- 
 
 Paterson, Miss, 159. 
 
 Paul I, of Russia, 32. 
 
 Pelet de la Lozere, " Napoleon in 
 Council," 29, 130, 135, 138, 143, 
 178. 
 
 Peninsular War, 98. 
 
 Perman, Mme., 57. 
 
 Pestalozzi, 140. 
 
 Peyrusse, Baron, 263, 264, 267. 
 
 Pezay, 78. 
 
 Piedmont, 76. 
 
 Pierron on "Napoleon's Strategy," 
 78 «. 
 
 Pietra Santa Family, 66. 
 
 Piontowski, a Polish soldier, 287. 
 
 Pitt, the elder, 34. 
 
 Pius VII, Pope, 125-130, 216, 
 241 seq, 
 
 Plato, 14, 46, 218. 
 
 Plutarch, "Lives," 201. 
 
 Poppleton, Captain, 275. 
 
 Porto Ferrajo, 263. 
 
 Portugal, 246, 247, 250. 
 
 Pritchard, Mrs., 276. 
 
 Privy Council, 135, 166. 
 
 Prussia, 69, 100, 104, io8, 152, 
 228, 264. 
 
 Public opinion, 180. 
 
 Public works: roads, 169; canals, 
 171, 236; aqueducts, 172; Tri- 
 umphal Arch, 175; beautification 
 of Paris, 176; bridges, 176. 
 
 Racine, 213. 
 
 Rambuteau, Comte de, "Mems.," 
 253- 
 
INDEX 
 
 30s 
 
 Ramolina, Letizia, mother of Napo- 
 leon, 8, 25. 
 Ratisbon, 84, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93. 
 Raynal, on "The Two Indies," 14, 
 
 45- 
 
 Religion, Napoleon's, 39-41, 46, 
 127, 128, 193, 196, 202, 215- 
 222. 
 
 Rhegium, 202. 
 
 Rivoli, 104. 
 
 Robespierre, 49, 63, 197. 
 
 Robespierre, Augustin, 54. 
 
 Rochefort, 269, 270, 271. 
 
 Roederer, "Journal," H2, 120, 127, 
 132, 136, 148, 150, 172, 193, 196, 
 198, 223, 2SS, 259. 
 
 Roland, Madame, 24. 
 
 Rome, 12, 28, 58, 62, 127, 130, 
 131, 142, 168, 169, 209, 213, 214, 
 223, 224, 237, 282, 291, 294. 
 
 Ropes, John Codman, 23, io6. 
 
 Rose, J. Holland : " Napoleonic 
 Studies," 118, 276; "Pitt and 
 Napoleon, " 106, 236, 262 ; " Life 
 of Napoleon," 227. 
 
 Rousseau, on Corsica, 3; defence 
 of Napoleon, 37, 39, 64-65; "Le 
 Devin du Village," 38 ; " Emile," 
 140 ; songs of, 208 ; " La Nou- 
 velle Heloise," 278. See also Con- 
 trat Social, Le. 
 
 Rousseau, F., " Kleber et Menou," 
 118. 
 
 Roustan, 40. 
 
 Ruel, 128, 129. 
 
 Russia, 32, 80, 99, 100, loi, 102, 
 179, 181, 199, 228, 233, 241, 251, 
 252, 253, 256, 260, 264, 272. 
 
 St. Cloud, 83, 198, 255. 
 St. Cyr, Marshal, 104, 262. 
 
 St. Cyr, College of, 142. 
 
 St. Helena, i, 12, 16, 17, 22, 23, 
 33, 66, 80, 106, 139, 145, 147, 
 151. 157, 179, 195. 196, 198,199- 
 204, 207, 214, 217, 220, 226, 237, 
 239, 248, 270-296. 
 
 St. Just, 49. 
 
 St. Petersburg, 99, 100, lOI, 247. 
 
 Salamanca, battle of, 109. 
 
 Saliceti, 54, 57. 
 
 Saone, river, 42. 
 
 Sardinia, 79. 
 
 Savary, 184. 
 
 Savona, 76, 79, 131, 243, 244. 
 
 Savoy, 194. 
 
 Saxony, King of, 208. 
 
 Scharnhorst, 98. 
 
 Schill, 74. 
 
 Schiller, 235. 
 
 Schbnbrunn, 183. 
 
 School at St. Denis, 167. 
 
 Sebastiani, " Report on the Le- 
 vant," 229, 230. 
 
 Secularizations, 228. 
 
 Segur, " Histoires et Memoires," 
 
 go- 
 Semaphore telegraph, 82, 171. 
 Senate, 124. 
 Senior, W., "Conversations with 
 
 Thiers," 99, 225. 
 Seurre, 42. 
 Shakespeare, 2H. 
 Shorter, Clement, "Napoleon and 
 
 his Fellow-Travellers," 277. 
 Sicily, 201, 202, 249. 
 Siey^s, Abbe, constitution of, 119, 
 
 122, 124, 131, 197- 
 Silesia, 103. 
 
 Smith, Sir Sidney, 99, 225. 
 Smolensk, 100, 201. 
 Sockelnitz, 95. 
 
3o6 
 
 NAPOLEON 
 
 Socrates, 218. 
 
 Solon, 146. 
 
 Sophocles, "GEdipus Rex," 280. 
 
 Soult, Marshal, 85, 92, 94, 95. 
 
 Spain, 30, SI, 69, 99, lOl, 102, 
 
 161, 191, 199, 227, 229, 231, 246, 
 
 247, 249, 250, 251, 255, 256, 260, 
 
 291. 
 Sparta, 14, no. 
 Stael, Madame de, 24, 164, 165, 
 
 184. 
 Stein, 98. 
 Stockholm, 245. 
 Strassburg, 170, 172. 
 Strategy, Napoleon's, 70, 75-91 ; 
 
 First Campaign, 75-80; at Ulm, 
 
 80, 85. 
 Suchet, Marshal, 255. 
 Suicide, monologue on, 15, 281. 
 Swabia, 78, 82, 83, 84, 104. 
 Sweden, 179. 
 Switzerland, 194, 228. 
 Syria, 30, 63. 
 
 Tacitus, 33, 58, 212. 
 
 Tactics, Napoleon's, 67, 75 ; use of 
 
 cavalry, 84, 87-96; near Ratis- 
 
 bon, 87; Austerlitz, 91. 
 Talleyrand, 149, 154, 182, 205; 
 
 Napoleon'sinterview with Goethe, 
 
 210, 214, 217. 
 Tallien, 72. 
 Telnitz, 95. 
 Thibaudeau, "Bonaparte and the 
 
 Consulate," 124, 128, 137, 141, 
 
 195- 
 Thi^bault, 68, 71, 150. 
 Thiers, 83, 224. 
 Thurreau, Madame, 19. 
 Tiberius, 58, 214. 
 
 Tilsit, Treaty of, 107, 154, 166, 
 
 182, 230, 244, 245. 
 Timoleon, 201, 203. 
 Titus, 237. 
 Tivoli, 223. 
 Tolstoi, L., 200. 
 Torres Vedras, 98. 
 Tortona, 21. 
 Toulon, 51 »., 53, 56, 69, 170, 
 
 247. 
 Trafalgar, battle of, 233, 234, 247, 
 
 250. 
 Trajan, 237. 
 
 Tribunate, 124, 134, i66. 
 Tronchet, the Jurist, 136. 
 Truguet, Admiral, 150. 
 Turin, 170, 241. 
 Turkey, 62, 244, 247, 256. 
 Tuscany, 8 k., 69. 
 Tyrol, 85, 86. 
 
 Ulm, 80, 82, 84, 85, 86, 104, 108, 
 
 233- 
 University of France, 142. 
 Ussher (Captain), Sir Thomas, 261. 
 
 Valence, 13, 15, 17, 38, 41, 45, 
 207. 
 
 Valladolid, 109. 
 
 Vandal, "I'Avteement de Bona- 
 parte," 122; " Napoleon et Alex- 
 andre," 164. 
 
 Vandamme, General, 103, 164. 
 
 Vendean Campaign, 18. 
 
 Vendetta, 4. 
 
 VendSme Column, 209. 
 
 Venice, 15, 61. 
 
 Vergil, "Aeneid," i, 280. 
 
 Verona, 223. 
 
 Victor Emmanuel I, 241. 
 
INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 Vienna, 69, 73, 90, 91, 92, 93, 235, 
 
 272. 
 Vienna, Congress of, 261, 267, 269, 
 
 Villeneuve, Admiral, 67, 72, 161, 
 
 200, 201. 
 Vilna, 31, 158. 
 Vittoria, 109, no, 254, 255. 
 Vivian, Major, 236, 262, 269. 
 Voltaire: "Mahomet," 210, 279; 
 
 "Zaire," 278, 279; "Brutus," 
 
 279; "CEdipe,"28o. 
 
 Wagram, battle of, 74, 98, 149, 
 
 186. 
 Walewska, Countess, 23, 265. 
 Warsaw, 240. 
 Waterloo Campaign, 67, 104-107, 
 
 no, 271. 
 
 Watson, G. L. de St. M., "A 
 
 Polish Exile with Napoleon," 
 
 287. 
 Weimar, 2ii, 212. 
 Wellington, Duke of, 11, 68, 69, 
 
 102, 105, 107-111, 250. 
 Welschinger, "La Censure, etc.," 
 
 181. 
 Westphalia, 235. 
 Weyrother, 93. 
 Whitworth, Lord, and Napoleon, 
 
 32. 
 Wieland, 33, 212. 
 Williams, W. T. ," State of France, " 
 
 163. 
 
 Yverdun, 140. 
 
 Yorck von Wartenburg, "Napoleon 
 
 as General," 203. 
 Young, Arthur, 185 «. 
 
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