Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815 Volume II Part 7

"They dare to proscribe you personally: you, sire, who, so many times master of their capitals, had generously confirmed them on their tottering thrones! This hatred of our enemies adds to our love of you: were they to proscribe the most insignificant of our citizens, it would be our duty, to defend him with the same energy; he would be, like you, under the aegis of the laws and power of France.

"We are threatened with an invasion; yet, confined within frontiers, which nature did not impose on us; and which victory, and even peace, had extended, long before your reign; we have not overstepped this narrow boundary, out of regard to treaties, which you did not sign, yet have offered to respect.

"Do they demand only guarantees? They have them in our inst.i.tutions; and in the will of the French people, henceforward united with yours.

"Are they not afraid of reminding us of times, of a state of things, but lately so different, and which may again return?

"It would not be the first time, that we have vanquished Europe in arms against us.

"It is to the French nation, that they dare refuse a second time, in the nineteenth century; in the face of the civilised world, those sacred, imprescriptible rights, which the smallest tribe never claimed in vain at the tribunal of history and justice.

"Because France resolves to be France, must it be degraded, torn to pieces, dismembered and is the fate of Poland reserved for us? Vainly would they conceal their fatal intentions, under the appearance of the sole design of separating you from us, to give us to masters, with whom we have no longer any thing in common, and who can no longer understand us.

"The three branches of the legislature are about to enter into a state of activity: one sentiment will animate them. Confiding in the promises of your Majesty, we resign to you, we resign to our representatives and to the chamber of peers, the care of revising, consolidating, and perfecting in concert, without precipitancy, without concussion, maturely, and with wisdom, our const.i.tutional system, and the inst.i.tutions that must guaranty it.

"And if, however, we be compelled to fight, let one sole voice resound from every heart. Let us march against the enemy, that would treat us as the lowest of nations. Let us all press around the throne, on which is seated the father and chief of the people and of the army.

"Sire, nothing is impossible: nothing shall be spared, to ensure our honour and independence, possessions dearer than life: every thing shall be attempted, every thing done, to repel an ignominious yoke. We say it to the nations, may their rulers hear us! if they accept your offers of peace, the French people will expect from your strong, liberal, and paternal government, motives of consolation for the sacrifices, which the peace has cost them: but if they leave us no other alternative, than war or disgrace, the whole nation is for war; it is ready to absolve you from the offers, perhaps too moderate, that you have made, in order to spare Europe fresh convulsions. Every Frenchman is a soldier: victory will follow your eagles; and our enemies, who have reckoned on a division, will soon regret their having provoked us."

This speech being ended, the result of the votes[21] was proclaimed, and the acceptance of the const.i.tutional act.

[Footnote 21:

Votes, Affirmative 1,288,357 Negative 4,207 Armies, Affirmative 222,000 Negative 320 Navy, Affirmative 22,000 Negative 275

Eleven departments did not send their registers in time.

A great number of soldiers, unable to write their names, did not vote; and the registers of fourteen regiments did not arrive, till the votes had been summed up.]

The Emperor then, turning toward the electors, said:

"Gentlemen, electors of the colleges of departments and circles;

"Gentlemen, deputies of the armies by sea and land to the _Champ de Mai_:

"Emperor, consul, soldier, I hold every thing from the people. In prosperity, in adversity; on the field of battle, in the council chamber; on the throne, and in exile; France has been the sole and constant object of my thoughts, and of my actions.

"Like the King of Athens, I sacrificed myself for my people, in the hope of seeing the promise realized, that had been given, to preserve to France its natural integrity, its honours, and its rights.

"Indignation at seeing these sacred rights, acquired by five and twenty years of victory, disregarded, and lost for ever; the cry raised by, French honour disgraced; and the wishes of the nation; have brought me back to the throne, which is dear to me, because it is the palladium of the independence, the honour, and the rights of the people.

"Frenchmen, from the public joy, amid which I traversed the different provinces of the empire, to arrive at my capital, I could not but reckon on a long peace; for nations are bound by the treaties concluded with their governments, be these what they may.

"My thoughts were then turned wholly on the means of establishing our liberty by a const.i.tution conformable to the will and the interests of the people. I convened the _Champ de Mai_.

"It was not long before I learned, that the princes, who have disregarded all principles, and wounded the opinions and dearest interests of so many nations, resolved to make war on us. They purpose, to enlarge the kingdom of the Netherlands, to give it for barriers all our strong places on the North, and to reconcile the differences, which still keep them at variance, by dividing among them Lorraine and Alsace.

"It was necessary, to prepare for war.

"However, before incurring personally the dangers of battle, my first care necessarily was, to consult the nation without delay. The people has accepted the act I have laid before it.

"Frenchmen, when we have repelled these unjust aggressions, and Europe is convinced of what is due to the rights and independence of twenty-eight millions of Frenchmen, a solemn law, made according to the forms willed by the const.i.tutional act, shall combine the different arrangements of our const.i.tutions, that are at present scattered.

"Frenchmen, you are about to return to your departments. Tell the citizens, that the present circ.u.mstances are important! That with union, energy, and perseverance, we shall rise victorious from this struggle of a great people against its oppressors; that generations to come will severely scrutinize our conduct; and that a nation has lost every thing, when it has lost its independence. Tell them, that the foreign kings, whom I raised to a throne, or who are indebted to me for the preservation of their crowns; all of whom, in the days of my prosperity, courted my alliance, and the protection of the French people; now direct their blows against my person. Did I not see, that it is our country at which they really aim, I would place at their mercy this life, against which they appear so exasperated. But tell the citizens also, that, as long as the French retain for me those sentiments of affection, of which they have given me so many testimonies, this rage of our enemies will prove impotent.

"Frenchmen, my will is that of the people: my rights are its rights; my honour, my glory, my happiness, can be no others than the honour, the glory, and the happiness of France."

These words of Napoleon, p.r.o.nounced with a strong and emphatic voice, produced the most lively sensation. A cry of "Long live the Emperor!"

resounded in an instant throughout the immense s.p.a.ce of the Champ de Mars, and was repeated from one to another in the places around.

The Emperor, after having sworn on the Gospels, to observe, and cause to be observed, the const.i.tutions of the empire, made the archchancellor proclaim the oath of fealty of the French people, represented by the electors. This oath was spontaneously repeated by thousands and thousands of voices.

The ministers of war and of the navy, in the name of the armies by land and sea, and at the head of their deputations; the minister of the interior, in the name of the national guards of France, and at the head of the electors; the staff of the imperial guard, and that of the national guard; afterwards advanced to take the oath, and receive from the hands of the Emperor the eagles intended for them.

This ceremony ended, the troops, making about fifty thousand men, filed off before Napoleon and the festival concluded, as it had commenced, amid the acclamations of the people, the soldiers, and the majority of the electors: but to the discontent of a certain number of them, who complained, and with reason, that the Emperor had subst.i.tuted a steril distribution of colours, instead of the grand national congress, which he had convened.

The parties too, that already began to pullulate, were not better satisfied with the issue of the _Champ de Mai_.

The old revolutionists would have wished Napoleon, to have abolished the empire, and re-established a republic.

The partisans of the regency reproached him for not having proclaimed Napoleon II.

And the liberals maintained, that he ought to have laid down the crown, and left to the sovereign nation the right of restoring it to him, or offering it to the most worthy.

Were these different pretensions well founded? No.

The re-establishment of the republic would have ruined France.

The abdication in favour of Napoleon II. would not have saved it. The allies had explained their intentions at Bale: they would not have laid down their arms, till the Emperor had consented, to deliver himself up. "A circ.u.mstance, that, being to a prince the greatest of misfortunes, can never form a condition of peace[22]?"

[Footnote 22: Montesquieu. Greatness and Decline of the Romans.]

As to the latter proposition, I confess, that Napoleon, if on the 21st of March, or the 12th of April[23], he had returned into the hands of the French the sceptre, which he had just torn from those of the Bourbons, would have stamped a character completely heroic on the revolution of the 20th of March. He would have disconcerted the foreign powers, augmented his popularity, centuplicated his forces: but on the first of June it was too late: the additional act had appeared.

[Footnote 23: The day on which the Act of Congress appeared.]

Unhappily for himself, therefore, Napoleon could do nothing better at the _Champ de Mai_, than what he did: namely, to endeavour to conceal the emptiness of the day under the pomp of a religious and military solemnity, calculated to move the heart, and strengthen by fresh bands the union, already subsisting between him, the people, and the army.

The Emperor had not been able to deliver with his own hands to the electors the eagles of their departments. It had not been concealed from him, that some among them appeared dissatisfied; and he wished to attempt to dissipate their ill-humour, and revive their zeal. Ten thousand persons were a.s.sembled in the vast galleries of the Louvre; on one side were seen the deputies and electors of the nation; on the other, its glorious defenders. The eagle of each department, and that of each deputation from the armies, were placed at the head of groups of citizens or warriors; and nothing could exhibit a more animated, and more impressive picture, than this confused a.s.sembly of Frenchmen, of all the orders of the state, crowding mutually around the standards and the hero, that were to conduct them to victory and to peace.

The Emperor was polite, affectionate, amiable: with infinite art he accommodated his manners to every body, and almost every body was enchanted with him. He was convinced of the mischief he had done himself by the additional act: and, in order to regain the good opinion of the public, he repeated to satiety, to the representatives and electors, that he would employ himself in concurrence with the two chambers, to collect together those provisions of the const.i.tutional laws, that were not abrogated, and form the whole into one sole const.i.tution, that should become the fundamental law of the nation.

This retraction was the consequence of the remonstrances of his ministers, and particularly of M. Carnot. "Sire," he was incessantly repeating to him, "do not strive, I conjure you, against public opinion. Your additional act has displeased the nation. Promise it, that you will modify it, and render it conformable to its wishes. I repeat to you, Sire, I have never deceived you; your safety and ours depend on your deference to the national will. This is not all, Sire; the French are become a free people. The appellation of 'subject,'

which you are continually giving them, wounds and humbles them. Call them citizens, or your children. Neither suffer your ministers, your marshals, your great officers, to be called '_monseigneur_:' there is no _seigneur_ in a country, where equality forms the basis of the laws; there are none but citizens."

The Emperor, however, did not see the opening of the chambers approach, without a certain degree of apprehension. His intention was, frankly to submit to the principles and consequences of a representative government; in the first place, because he wished to reign, and was convinced, that he could not retain the throne, unless he governed as the nation demanded.