The Life of Napoleon I Part 65

[Footnote 234: Castlereagh's "Letters and Despatches," Second Series, vol. i., pp. 56 and 69; Dumas' "Evenements," ix. 91.]

[Footnote 235: Memoire of Francis II. to Cobenzl (March 31st, 1801), in Beer, "Die Orientalische Politik Oesterreichs," Appendix.]

[Footnote 236: "Memoirs," vol. i., ch. xiii.]

[Footnote 237: Ulmann's "Russisch-Preussische Politik, 1801-1806," pp.

10-12.]

[Footnote 238: Warren reported (December 10th, 1802) that Vorontzoff warned him to be very careful as to the giving up of Malta; and, on January 19th, Czartoryski told him that "the Emperor wished the English to keep Malta." Bonaparte had put in a claim for the Morea to indemnify the Bourbons and the House of Savoy. ("F.O.," Russia, No.

51.)]

[Footnote 239: Browning's "England and Napoleon," pp. 88-91.]

[Footnote 240: "F.O.," France, No. 72.]

[Footnote 241: We were undertaking that mediation. Lord Elgin's despatch from Constantinople, January 15th, 1803, states that he had induced the Porte to allow the Mamelukes to hold the province of a.s.souan. (Turkey, No. 38.)]

[Footnote 242: Papers presented to Parliament on May 18th, 1803. I pa.s.s over the insults to General Stuart, as Sebastiani on February 2nd recanted to Lord Whitworth everything he had said, or had been made to say, on that topic, and mentioned Stuart "in terms of great esteem."

According to Meneval ("Mems.," vol i., ch. iii.), Jaubert, who had been with Sebastiani, saw a proof of the report, as printed for the "Moniteur," and advised the omission of the most irritating pa.s.sages; but Maret dared not take the responsibility for making such omissions.

Lucien Bonaparte ("Mems.," vol. ii., ch. ix.) has another version--less credible, I think--that Napoleon himself dictated the final draft of the report to Sebastiani; and when the latter showed some hesitation, the First Consul muttered, as the most irritating pa.s.sages were read out: "Parbleu, nous verrons si ceci--si cela--ne decidera pas John Bull a guerroyer." Joseph was much distressed about it, and exclaimed: "Ah, mon pauvre traite d'Amiens! Il ne tient plus qu'a un fil."]

[Footnote 243: So Adams's "Hist, of the U.S.," vol. ii., pp. 12-21.]

[Footnote 244: Miot de Melito, "Mems.," vol. i, ch. xv., quotes the words of Joseph Bonaparte to him: "Let him [Napoleon] once more drench Europe with blood in a war that he could have avoided, and which, but for the outrageous mission on which he sent his Sebastiani, would never have occurred."

Talleyrand laboured hard to persuade Lord Whitworth that Sebastiani's mission was "solely commercial": Napoleon, in his long conversation with our amba.s.sador, "did not affect to attribute it to commercial motives only," but represented it as necessitated by our infraction of the Treaty of Amiens. This excuse is as insincere as the former. The instructions to Sebastiani were drawn up on September 5th, 1802, when the British Ministry was about to fulfil the terms of the treaty relative to Malta and was vainly pressing Russia and Prussia for the guarantee of its independence]

[Footnote 245: Despatch of February 21st.]

[Footnote 246: "View of the State of the Republic," read to the Corps Legislatif on February 21st, 1803.]

[Footnote 247: Papers presented to Parliament May 18th, 1803. See too Pitt's speech, May 23rd, 1803.]

[Footnote 248: See Russell's proclamation of July 22nd to the men of Antrim that "he doubted not but the French were then fighting in Scotland." ("Ann. Reg.," 1803, p. 246.) This doc.u.ment is ignored by Plowden ("Hist. of Ireland, 1801-1810").]

[Footnote249: Despatch of March 14th, 1803. Compare it with the very mild version in Napoleon's "Corresp.," No. 6636.]

[Footnote 250: Lord Hawkesbury to General Andreossy, March 10th.]

[Footnote 251: Lord Hawkesbury to Lord Whitworth, April 4th, 1803.]

[Footnote 252: Despatches of April 11th and 18th, 1803.]

[Footnote 253: Whitworth to Hawkesbury, April 23rd.]

[Footnote 254: Czartoryski ("Mems.," vol. i., ch. xiii.) calls him "an excellent admiral but an indifferent diplomatist--a perfect representative of the nullity and incapacity of the Addington Ministry which had appointed him. The English Government was seldom happy in its amba.s.sadors." So Earl Minto's "Letters," vol. iii., p. 279.]

[Footnote 255: See Lord Malmesbury's "Diaries" (vol. iv., p. 253) as to the bad results of Whitworth's delay.]

[Footnote 256: Note of May 12th, 1803: see "England and Napoleon," p.

249.]

[Footnote 257: "Corresp.," vol. viii., No. 6743.]

[Footnote 258: See Romilly's letter to Dumont, May 31st, 1803 ("Memoirs," vol. i.).]

[Footnote 259: "Lettres inedites de Talleyrand," November 3rd, 1802.

In his letter of May 3rd, 1803, to Lord Whitworth, M. Huber reports Fouche's outspoken warning in the Senate to Bonaparte: "Vous etes vous-meme, ainsi que nous, un resultat de la revolution, et la guerre remet tout en probleme. On vous flatte en vous faisant compter sur les principes revolutionnaires des autres nations: _le resultat de notre revolution les a aneantis partout._"]

[Footnote 260: A copy of this letter, with the detailed proposals, is in our Foreign Office archives (Russia, No. 52).]

[Footnote 261: Bourgeois, "Manuel de Politique Etrangere," vol. ii., p. 243.]

[Footnote 262: See Castlereagh's "Letters and Despatches," Second Series, vol. i., pp. 75-82, as to the need of conciliating public opinion, even by accepting Corfu as a set-off for Malta, provided a durable peace could thus be secured.]

[Footnote 263: "Lettres inedites de Talleyrand," August 21st, 1803.]

[Footnote 264: Garden, "Traites," vol. viii., p. 191.]

[Footnote 265: Holland was required to furnish 16,000 troops and maintain 18,000 French, to provide 10 ships of war and 350 gunboats.]

[Footnote 266: "Corresp.," May 23rd, 1803.]

[Footnote 267: Nelson's letters of July 2nd. See too Mahan's "Life of Nelson," vol. ii., pp. 180-188, and Napoleon's letters of November 24th, 1803, encouraging the Mamelukes to look to France.]

[Footnote 268: "Foreign Office Records," Sicily and Naples, No. 55, July 25th.]

[Footnote 269: Letter of July 28th, 1803.]

[Footnote 270: "Nap. Corresp.," August 23rd, 1803, and Oncken, ch. v.]

[Footnote 271: "Corresp.," vol. viii., No. 6627.]

[Footnote 272: Lefebvre, "Cabinets de l'Europe," ch. viii.; "Nap.

Corresp.," vol. viii., Nos. 6979, 6985, 7007, 7098, 7113.]

[Footnote 273: The French and Dutch ships in commission were: ships of the line, 48; frigates, 37; corvettes, 22; gun-brigs, etc., 124; flotilla, 2,115. (See "Mems. of the Earl of St. Vincent," vol. ii., p.

218.)]

[Footnote 274: Pellew's "Life of Lord Sidmouth," vol. ii., p. 239.]

[Footnote 275: Stanhope's "Life of Pitt," vol. iv., p. 213.]

[Footnote 276: Roederer, " OEuvres," vol. iii., p. 348; Meneval, vol.

i., ch. iv.]

[Footnote 277: Lucien ("Mems.," vol. iii., pp. 315-320) says at Malmaison; but Napoleon's "Correspondance" shows that it was at St.

Cloud. Ma.s.son (" Nap. et sa Famille," ch. xii.) throws doubt on the story.]