Books: Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V9
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Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne >> Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V9
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Smuggling on a small scale was punished with death, whilst the Government
themselves carried it on extensively. The same cause filled the Treasury
with money, and the prisons with victims:
The custom-house laws of this period, which waged open war against
rhubarb, and armed the coasts of the Continent against the introduction
of senna, did not save the Continental system from destruction. Ridicule
attended the installation of the odious prevotal courts. The president
of the Prevotal Court at Hamburg, who was a Frenchman, delivered an
address, in which he endeavoured to prove that in the time of the
Ptolemies there had existed extraordinary fiscal tribunals, and that it
was to those Egypt owed her prosperity. Terror was thus introduced by
the most absurd folly. The ordinary customhouse officers, formerly so
much abhorred in Hamburg, declared with reason that they would soon be
regretted, and than the difference between them and the prevotal courts
would soon be felt. Bonaparte's counsellors led him to commit the folly
of requiring that a ship which had obtained a licence should export
merchandise equivalent to that of the colonial produce to be imported
under the authority of the licence. What was the consequence? The
speculators bought at a low price old stores of silk-which change of
fashion had made completely unsaleable, and as those articles were
prohibited in England they were thrown into the sea without their loss
being felt. The profits of the speculation made ample amends for the
sacrifice. The Continental system was worthy only of the ages of
ignorance and barbarism, and had it been admissible in theory, was
impracticable in application.
--[Sydney Smith was struck with the, ridiculous side of the war of
tariffs: "We are told that the Continent is to be reconquered by the
want of rhubarb and plums." (Essays of Sydney Smith, p. 533, edition
of 1861).]--
It cannot be sufficiently stigmatised. They were not the friends of the
Emperor who recommended a system calculated to rouse the indignation of
Europe, and which could not fail to create reaction. To tyrannize over
the human species, and to exact uniform admiration and submission, is to
require an impossibility. It would seem that fate, which had still some
splendid triumphs in store for Bonaparte, intended to prepare beforehand
the causes which were to deprive him of all his triumphs at once, and
plunge him into reverses even greater than the good fortune which had
favoured his elevation.
The prohibition of trade, the habitual severity in the execution of this
odious system, made it operate like a Continental impost. I will give a
proof of this, and I state nothing but what came under my own
observation. The fiscal regulations were very rigidly enforced at
Hamburg, and along the two lines of Cuxhaven and Travemunde. M. Eudel,
the director of that department, performed his duty with zeal and
disinterestedness. I feel gratified in rendering him this tribute.
Enormous quantities of English merchandise and colonial produce were
accumulated at Holstein, where they almost all arrived by way of Kiel and
Hudsum, and were smuggled over the line at the expense of a premium of 33
and 40 per cent. Convinced of this fact by a thousand proofs, and weary
of the vexations of the preventive system, I took upon myself to lay my
opinions on the subject before the Emperor. He had given me permission
to write to him personally, without any intermediate agency, upon
everything that I might consider essential to his service. I sent an
extraordinary courier to Fontainebleau, where he then was, and in my
despatch I informed him that, notwithstanding his preventive guard, every
prohibited article was smuggled in because the profits on the sale in
Germany, Poland, Italy, and even France, into which the contrabrand goods
found their way, were too considerable not to induce persons to incur all
risks to obtain them. I advised him, at the very time he was about to
unite the Hanse Towns to the French Empire, to permit merchandise to be
imported subject to a duty of 33 per cent., which was about equal to the
amount of the premium for insurance. The Emperor adopted my advice
without hesitation, and in 1811 the regulation produced a revenue of
upwards of 60,000,000 francs in Hamburg alone.
This system, however, embroiled us with Sweden and Russia, who could not
endure that Napoleon should enact a strict blockade from them, whilst he
was himself distributing licences in abundance. Bernadotte, on his way
to Sweden, passed through Hamburg in October 1810. He stayed with me
three days, during which time he scarcely saw any person but myself. He
asked my opinion as to what he should do in regard to the Continental
system. I did not hesitate to declare to him, not as a French Minister,
but as a private individual to his friend, that in his place, at the head
of a poor nation, which could only subsist by the exchange of its
territorial productions with England, I would open my ports, and give the
Swedes gratuitously that general licence which Bonaparte sold in detail
to intrigue and cupidity.
The Berlin decree could not fail to cause a reaction against the
Emperor's fortune by raising up whole nations against him. The hurling
of twenty kings from their thrones would have excited less hatred than
this contempt for the wants of nations. This profound ignorance of the
maxims of political economy caused general privation and misery, which in
their turn occasioned general hostility. The system could only succeed
in the impossible event of all the powers of Europe honestly endeavouring
to carry it into effect. A single free port would have destroyed it.
In order to ensure its complete success it was necessary to conquer and
occupy all countries, and never to evacuate them. As a means of ruining
England it was contemptible. It was necessary that all Europe should be
compelled by force of arms to join this absurd coalition, and that the
same force should be constantly employed to maintain it. Was this
possible? The captain "rapporteur" of a court-martial allowed a poor
peasant to escape the punishment due to the offence of having bought a
loaf of sugar beyond the custom-house barrier. This officer was some
time afterwards at a dinner given by Marshal Davoust; the latter said to
him, "You have a very scrupulous conscience, sir; go to headquarters and
you will find an order there for you." This order sent him eighty
leagues from Hamburg. It is necessary to have witnessed, as I have, the
numberless vexations and miseries occasioned by the unfortunate
Continental system to understand the mischief its authors did in Europe,
and how much that mischief contributed to Napoleon's fall.
--[The so-called Continental system was framed by Napoleon in
revenge for the English very- extended system of blockades, after
Trafalgar had put it out of his power to attempt to keep the seas.
By these decrees all ports occupied by the French were closed to the
English, and all English goods were to be destroyed wherever found
in any country occupied by the French. All States under French
influence had to adopt this system. It must be remembered that
Napoleon eventually held or enforced his system on all the
coastlines of Europe, except that of Spain and Turkey; but as
Bourrienne shows the plan of giving licences to break his own system
was too lucrative to be resisted by him, or, still more, by his
officers. For the working of the system in the occupied lands,
Laffite the banker told Savary it was a grand idea, but
impracticable (Savary, tome v. p. 110). The Emperor Alexander is
reported to have said, after visiting England in 1814, that he
believed the system would have reduced England if it had lasted
another year. The English, who claimed the right of blockading any
coast with but little regard to the effectiveness of the blockade,
retaliated by orders in Council, the chief of which are dated 7th
January 1807, and 11th November 1807, by which no ships of any power
were allowed to trade between any French ports, or the ports of any
country closed to England. Whatever the real merits of the system,
and although it was the cause of war between the United States and
England, its execution did most to damage France and Napoleon, and
to band all Europe against it. It is curious that even in 1831 a
treaty had to be made to settle the claims of the United States on
France for unjust seizures under these decrees.
CHAPTER X.
1806-1807.
New system of war--Winter quarters--The Emperor's Proclamation--
Necessity of marching to meet the Russians--Distress in the Hanse
Towns--Order for 50,000 cloaks--Seizure of Russian corn and timber--
Murat's entrance into Warsaw--Re-establishment of Poland--Duroc's
accident- M. de Talleyrand's carriage stopped by the mud--Napoleon's
power of rousing the spirit of his troops--His mode of dictating--
The Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin--His visits to Hamburg--The Duke of
Weimar--His letter and present--Journey of the Hereditary Prince of
Denmark to Paris--Batter, the English spy--Traveling clerks--Louis
Bonaparte and the Berlin decree--Creation of the Kingdom of Saxony--
Veneration of Germany for the King of Saxony--The Emperor's
uncertainty respecting Poland--Fetes and reviews at Warsaw--The
French Government at the Emperor's head quarters--Ministerial
portfolios sent to Warsaw.--Military preparations during the month
of January--Difference of our situation daring the campaigns of
Vienna and Prussia--News received and sent--Conduct of the Cabinet
of Austria similar to that of the Cabinet of Berlin--Battle of
Eylau--Unjust accusation against Bernadotte--Death of General
d'Hautpoult--Te Deum chanted by the Russians--Gardanne's mission to
Persia
Bonaparte was not only beyond all comparison the greatest captain of
modern times, but he may be said to have wrought a complete change in the
art of war. Before his time the most able generals regulated the
fighting season by the almanac. It was customary in Europe to brave the
cannon's mouth only from the first fine days of spring to the last fine
days of autumn; and the months of rain, snow, and frost were passed in
what were called winter quarters. Pichegru, in Holland, had set the
example of indifference to temperature. At Austerlitz, too, Bonaparte
had braved the severity of winter; this answered his purpose well, and he
adopted the same course in 1806. His military genius and activity seemed
to increase, and, proud of his troops, he determined to commence a winter
campaign in a climate more rigorous than any in which he had yet fought.
The men, chained to his destiny, were now required to brave the northern
blast, as they had formerly braved the vertical sun of Egypt. Napoleon,
who, above all generals, was remarkable for the choice of his fields of
battle, did not wish to wait tranquilly until the Russian army, which was
advancing towards Germany, should come to measure its strength with him
in the plains of conquered Prussia; he resolved to march to meet it, and
to reach it before it should arose the Vistula; but before he left Berlin
to explore and conqueror, Poland and the confines of Russia; he addressed
a proclamation to his troops, in which he stated all that had hitherto
been achieved by the French army, and at the same time announced his
future intentions. It was especially advisable that he should march
forward, for, had he waited until the Russians had passed the Vistula,
there could probably have been no winter campaign, and he would have been
obliged either to take up miserable winter quarters between the Vistula
and the Oder, or to recross the Oder to combat the enemy in Prussia.
Napoleon's military genius and indefatigable activity served him
admirably on this occasion, and the proclamation just alluded to, which
was dated from Berlin before his departure from Charlottenburg; proves
that he did not act fortuitously, as he frequently did, but that his
calculations were well-made.
--[Before leaving the capital of Prussia Bonaparte stole from the
monument, of Frederick the Great his sword and military orders. He
also plundered the galleries of Berlin and Potsdam of their best
pictures and statues, thus continuing the system he had began is
Italy. All those things he sent to Paris as trophies of victory and
glory.--Editor of as 1836 edition.]
A rapid and immense impulse given to great masses of men by the, will of
a single individual may produce transient lustre and dazzle the eyes of
the multitude; but when, at a distance from the theatre of glory, we flee
only the melancholy results which have been produced. The genius of
conquest can only be regarded as the genius of destruction. What a sad
picture was often presented to my eyes! I was continually doomed to hear
complaints of the general distress, and to execute orders which augmented
the immense sacrifices already made by the city of Hamburg. Thus, for
example, the Emperor desired me to furnish him with 50,000 cloaks which I
immediately did. I felt the importance of such an order with the
approach of winter, and in a climate--the rigour of which our troops had
not yet encountered. I also received orders to seize at Lubeck (Which
town, as I have already stated, had been alternately taken and retaken
try Blucher and Bernadotte) 400,000 lasts of corn,--[A last weighs 2000
kilogrammes]-- and to send them to Magdeburg. This corn belonged to
Russia. Marshal Mortier, too, had seized some timber for building, which
also belonged to Russia; and which was estimated at 1,400,000 francs.
Meanwhile our troops continued to advance with such rapidity that before
the end of November Murat arrived at Warsaw, at the head of the advanced
guard of the Grand Army, of which, he had the command. The Emperor's
headquarters, were then at Posen, and, he received deputations from all
parts soliciting the re-establishment and independence of the Kingdom of
Poland.
Rapp informed me that after receiving the deputation from Warsaw the
Emperor said to him, "I love the Poles; their enthusiastic character
pleases me; I should like to make them independent, but that is a
difficult matter. Austria, Russia, and Prussia have all had a slice of
the cake; when the match is once kindled who knows where, the
conflagration may stop? My first duty, is towards France, which I must
not sacrifice to Poland; we must refer this matter to the sovereign of
all things--Time, he will presently show us what we must do." Had
Sulkowsky lived Napoleon might have recollected what he had said to him
in Egypt, and, in all probability he would have raised up a power, the
dismemberment of which; towards the close of the last century, began to
overturn the political equilibrium which had subsisted in Europe since
the peace of Westphalia in 1648.
It was at the headquarters at Posen that Duroc rejoined the Emperor after
his mission to the King of Prussia. His carriage overturned on the way,
and he had the misfortune to break his collar-bone. All the letters I
received were nothing but a succession of complaints on the bad state of
the roads. Our troops were absolutely fighting in mud, and it was with
extreme difficulty that the artillery and caissons of the army could be
moved along. M. de Talleyrand had been summoned to headquarters by the
Emperor, in the expectation of treating for peace, and I was informed
that his carriage stuck in the mud and he was detained on his journey for
twelve hours. A soldier having asked one of the persons in M. de
Talleyrand's suite who the traveller was, was informed that he was the
Minister for Foreign Affairs. "Ah! bah!" said the soldier, "why does he
come with his diplomacy to such a devil of a country as this?"
The Emperor entered Warsaw on the 1st of January 1807. Most of the
reports which he had received previous to his entrance had concurred in
describing the dissatisfaction of the troops, who for some time had had
to contend with bad roads, bad weather, and all aorta of privations.'
Bonaparte said to the generals who informed him that the enthusiasm of
his troops had been succeeded by dejection and discontent, "Does their
spirit fail them when they come in sight of the enemy?"--"No, Sire."--
"I knew it; my troops are always the same." Then turning to Rapp he
said, "I must rouse them;" and he dictated the following proclamation:
SOLDIERS--It is a year this very hour since you were on the field of
Austerlitz, where the Russian battalions fled in disorder, or
surrendered up their arms to their conquerors. Next day proposals,
of peace were talked of; but they were deceptive. No sooner had the
Russians escaped, by perhaps, blamable generosity from the disasters
of the third coalition than they contrived a fourth. But the ally
on whose tactics they founded their principal hope was no more. His
capital, his fortresses; his magazines; his arsenals, 280 flags, and
700 field-pieces have fallen into our power. The Oder, the Wartha,
the deserts of Poland, and the inclemency of the season have not for
a moment retarded your progress. You have braved all; surmounted
all; every obstacle has fled at your approach. The Russians have in
vain endeavoured to defend the capital of ancient and illustrious
Poland. The French eagle hovers over the Vistula. The brave and
unfortunate Poles, on beholding you, fancied they saw the legions of
Sobieski, returning from their memorable expedition.
Soldiers, we will not lay down our arms until a general peace has
secured the power of our allies and restored to us our colonies and
our freedom of trade. We have gained on the Elbe and the Oder,
Pondicherry, our Indian establishments, the Cape of Good Hope, and
the Spanish colonies. Why should the Russians have the right of
opposing destiny and thwarting our just designs? They and we are
still the soldiers who fought at Austerlitz.
Rapp thus describes the entrance of the French into Warsaw, and adds a
few anecdotes connected with that event:
"At length we entered the Polish capital. The King of Naples had
preceded us, and had driven the Russians from the city. Napoleon
was received with enthusiasm. The Poles thought that the moment of
their regeneration had arrived, and that their wishes were
fulfilled. It would be difficult to describe the joy thus evinced,
and the respect with which they treated us. The French troops,
however, were not quite so well pleased; they manifested the
greatest repugnance to crossing the Vistula. The idea of want and
bad weather had inspired them with the greatest aversion to Poland,
and they were inexhaustible, in their jokes on the country.
When Bonaparte dictated his proclamations--and how many have I not
written from his dictation!--he was for the moment inspired, and he
evinced all the excitement which distinguishes the Italian improvisatori.
To follow him it was necessary to write with inconceivable rapidity. When
I have read over to him what he has dictated I have often known him to
smile triumphantly at the effect which he expected any particular phrase
would produce. In general his proclamations turned on three distinct
points--(1) Praising his soldiers for what they had done; (2) pointing
out to them what they had yet to do; and (3) abusing his enemies. The
proclamation to which I have just now alluded was circulated profusely
through Germany, and it is impossible to conceive the effect it produced.
on the whole army. The corps stationed in the rear burned too pass, by
forced marches, the space which still separated them from headquarters;
and those who were nearer the Emperor forgot their fatigues and
privations and were only anxious to encounter the enemy. They frequently
could not understand what Napoleon said in these proclamations; but no
matter for that, they would have followed him cheerfully barefooted and
without provisions. Such was the enthusiasm, or rather the fanaticism,
which Napoleon could inspire among his troops when he thought proper to
rouse them, as he termed it.
When, on a former occasion, I spoke of the Duke of, Mecklenburg-Schwerin
and his family, I forgot a circumstance respecting my intercourse with
him which now occurs to my memory. When, on his expulsion from his
States, after the battle of Jena, he took refuge in Altona, he requested,
through the medium of his Minister at Hamburg, Count von Plessen, that I
would give him permission occasionally to visit that city. This
permission I granted without hesitation; but the Duke observed no
precaution in his visits, and I made some friendly observations to him on
the subject. I knew the object of his visits. It was a secret
connection in Hamburg; but in consequence of my observations he removed
the lady to Altona, and assured me that he adopted that determination to
avoid committing me. He afterwards came very seldom to Hamburg; but as
we were on the best understanding with Denmark I frequently saw his
daughter, and son-in-law, who used to visit me at a house I had in
Holstein, near Altona.
There I likewise saw, almost every day, the Duke of Weimar, an excellent
old man. I had the advantage of being on such terms of intimacy with him
that my house was in some measure his. He also had lost his States. I
was so happy as to contribute to their restitution, for my situation
enabled me to exercise some influence on the political indulgences or
severities of the Government. I entertained a sincere regard for the
Duke of Weimar, and I greatly regretted his departure. No sooner had he
arrived in Berlin than he wrote me a letter of, thanks, to which he added
the present of a diamond, in token of his grateful remembrance of me.
The Duke of Mecklenburg was not so fortunate as the Duke of Weimar, in
spite of his alliance with the reigning family of Denmark. He was
obliged to remain at Altona until the July following, for his States were
restored only by the Treaty of Tilsit. As soon as it was known that the
Emperor had returns to Paris the Duke's son, the Hereditary Prince,
visited me in Hamburg, and asked me whether I thought he could present
himself to the Emperor, for the purpose of expressing his own and his
father's gratitude. He was a very well-educated young man. He set out,
accompanied by M. Oertzen and Baron von Brandstaten. Some time
afterwards I saw his name in the Moniteur, in one of the lists of
presentations to Napoleon, the collection of which, during the Empire,
might be regarded as a general register of the nobility of Europe.
It is commonly said that we may accustom ourselves to anything, but to me
this remark is subject to an exception; for, in spite of the necessity to
which I was reduced of employing spies, I never could surmount the
disgust I felt at them, especially when I saw men destined to fill a
respectable rank in society degrade themselves to that infamous
profession. It is impossible to conceive the artifices to which these
men resort to gain the confidence of those whom they wish to betray. Of
this the following example just now occurs to my mind.
One of those wretches who are employed in certain circumstances, and by
all parties, came to offer his services to me. His name was Butler, and
he had been sent from England to the Continent as a spy upon the French
Government. He immediately came to me, complaining of pretended enemies
and unjust treatment. He told me he had the greatest wish to serve the
Emperor, and that he would make any sacrifice to prove his fidelity.
The real motive of his change of party was, as it is with all such men,
merely the hope of a higher reward. Most extraordinary were the schemes
he adopted to prevent his old employers from suspecting that he was
serving new ones. To me he continually repeated how happy he was to be
revenged on his enemies in London. He asked me to allow him to go to
Paris to be examined by the Minister of Police. The better to keep up
the deception he requested that on his arrival in Paris he might be
confined in the Temple, and that there might be inserted in the French
journals an announcement in the following terms:
"John Butler, commonly called Count Butler, has just been arrested
and sent to Paris under a good escort by the French Minister at
Hamburg."
At the expiration of a few weeks Butler, having received his
instruction's, set out for London, but by way of precaution he said it
would be well to publish in the journals another announcement; which was
as follows:
"John Butler, who has been arrested in Hamburg as an English agent,
and conveyed to Paris, is ordered to quit France and the territories
occupied by the French armies and their allies, and not to appear
there again until the general peace.
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