The Life of Napoleon I Part 72

Second Part, vol. ii., p. 193.]

[Footnote 203: Vandal, vol. i., p. 307.]

[Footnote 204: Sklower, "L'Entrevue de Napoleon avec Goethe"; Mrs.

Austin's "Germany from 1760 to 1814"; Oncken, bk. vii., ch. i. For Napoleon's dispute with Wieland about Tacitus see Talleyrand, "Mems.,"

vol. i., pt. 5. When the Emperors' carriages were ready for departure, Talleyrand whispered to Alexander: "Ah! si Votre Majeste pouvait se tromper de voiture."]

[Footnote 205: "F.O.," Russia, No. 74, despatch of December 9th, 1808.

On January 14th, 1809, Canning signed a treaty of alliance with the Spanish people, both sides agreeing never to make peace with Napoleon except by common consent. It was signed when the Spanish cause seemed desperate; but it was religiously observed.]

[Footnote 206: Madelin's "Fouche," vol. ii., p. 80; Pasquier, vol. i., pp. 353-360.]

[Footnote 207: Seeley, "Life and Times of Stein," vol. ii., p. 316; Hausser, vol. iii., p. 219 (4th edition).]

[Footnote 208: Our F.O. Records show that we wanted to help Austria; but a long delay was caused by George III.'s insisting that she should make peace with us first. Canning meanwhile sent 250,000 in silver bars to Trieste. But in his note of April 20th he a.s.sured the Court of Vienna that our treasury had been "nearly exhausted" by the drain of the Peninsular War. (Austria, No. 90.)]

[Footnote 209: For the campaign see the memoirs of Macdonald, Marbot, Lejeune, Pelet and Marmont. The last (vol. iii., p. 216) says that, had the Austrians pressed home their final attacks at Aspern, a disaster was inevitable; or had Charles later on cut the French communications near Vienna, the same result must have followed. But the investigations of military historians leave no doubt that the Austrian troops were too exhausted by their heroic exertions, and their supplies of ammunition too much depleted, to warrant any risky moves for several days; and by that time reinforcements had reached Napoleon. See too Angelis' "Der Erz-Herzog Karl."]

[Footnote 210: Thoumas, "Le Marechal Lannes," pp. 205, 323 _et seq._ Desvernois ("Mems.," ch. xii.) notes that after Austerlitz none of Napoleon's wars had the approval of France.]

[Footnote 211: For the Walcheren expedition see Alison, vol. viii.; James, vol. iv.; as also for Gambier's failure at Rochefort. The letters of Sir Byam Martin, then cruising off Danzig, show how our officers wished to give timely aid to Schill ("Navy Records," vol.

xii.).]

[Footnote 212: Captain Boothby's "A Prisoner of France," ch. iii.]

[Footnote 213: For Charles's desire to sue for peace after the first battles on the Upper Danube, see Hausser, vol. iii., p. 341; also, after Wagram, _ib._, pp. 412-413.]

[Footnote 214: Napier, bk. viii., chs. ii. and iii. In the App. of vol. iii. of "Wellington's Despatches" is Napoleon's criticism on the movements of Joseph and the French marshals. He blames them for their want of _ensemble_, and for the precipitate attack which Victor advised at Talavera. He concluded: "As long as you attack good troops like the English in good positions, without reconnoitring them, you will lead men to death _en pure perte_."]

[Footnote 215: An Austrian envoy had been urging prompt.i.tude at Downing Street. On June 1st he wrote to Canning: "The prompt.i.tude of the enemy has always been the key to his success. A long experience has proved this to the world, which seems. .h.i.therto not to have profited by this knowledge." On July 29th Canning acknowledged the receipt of the Austrian ratification of peace with us, "accompanied by the afflicting intelligence of the armistice concluded on the 12th instant between the Austrian and French armies."

Napoleon at St. Helena said to Montholon that, had 6,000 British troops pushed rapidly up the banks of the Scheldt on the day that the expedition reached Flushing, they could easily have taken Antwerp, which was then very weakly held. See, too, other opinions quoted by Alison, ch. lx.]

[Footnote 216: Beer, p. 441.]

[Footnote 217: Vandal, vol. ii., p. 161; Metternich, vol. i., p. 114.]

[Footnote 218: Letter of February 10th, 1810, quoted by Lanfrey. See, too, the "Mems." of Prince Eugene, vol. vi., p. 277.]

[Footnote 219: "Memoirs," vol. ii., p. 365 (Eng. ed.).]

[Footnote 220: Bausset, "Mems.," ch. xix.]

[Footnote 221: Mme. de Remusat, "Mems.," ch. xxvii.]

[Footnote 222: Tatischeff, "Alexandre et Napoleon," p. 519.

Welschinger, "Le Divorce de Napoleon," ch. ii.; he also examines the alleged irregularities of the religious marriage with Josephine; Fesch and most impartial authorities brushed them aside as a flimsy excuse.]

[Footnote 223: Metternich's despatch of December 25th, 1809, in his "Mems.," vol. ii., -- 150. The first hints were dropped by him to Laborde on November 29th (Vandal, vol. ii., pp. 204, 543): they reached Napoleon's ears about December 15th. For the influence of these marriage negotiations in preparing for Napoleon's rupture with the Czar, see chap, x.x.xii. of this work.]

[Footnote 224: "Conversations with the Duke of Wellington," p. 9. The disobedience of Ney and Soult did much to ruin Ma.s.sena's campaign, and he lost the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro mainly through that of Bessieres. Still, as he failed to satisfy Napoleon's maxim, "Succeed: I judge men only by results," he was disgraced.]

[Footnote 225: Decree of February 5th, 1810. See Welschinger, "La Censure sous le premier Empire," p. 31. For the seizure of Madame de Stael's "Allemagne" and her exile, see her preface to "Dix Annees d'Exil."]

[Footnote 226: Mollien, "Mems.," vol. iii., p. 183.]

[Footnote 227: Fouche retired to Italy, and finally settled at Aix.

His place at the Ministry of Police was taken by Savary, Duc de Rovigo. See Madelin's "Fouche," chap. xx.]

[Footnote 228: Porter, "Progress of the Nation," p. 388.]

[Footnote 229: Letters of August 6th, 7th, 29th. The United States had just repealed their Non-Intercourse Act of 1807. For their relations with Napoleon and England, see Channing's "The United States of America," chs. vi. and vii.; also the Anglo-American correspondence in Cobbett's "Register for 1809 and 1810."]

[Footnote 230: Mollien, "Mems." vol. i., p. 316.]

[Footnote 231: Tooke, "Hist. of Prices," vol. i., p. 311; Mollien, vol. iii., pp. 135, 289; Pasquier, vol. i., p. 295; Chaptal, p. 275.]

[Footnote 232: Letter of August 6th, 1810, to Eugene.]

[Footnote 233: "Progress of the Nation," p. 148.]

[Footnote 234: So Mollien, vol. iii., p. 135: "One knows that his powerful imagination was fertile in illusions: as soon as they had seduced him, he sought with a kind of good faith to enhance their prestige, and he succeeded easily in persuading many others of what he had convinced himself. He braved business difficulties as he braved dangers in war."] [Footnote 235: Miot de Melito, vol. ii., ch. xv. For some favourable symptoms in French industry, see Lumbroso, pp.

165-226, and Chaptal, p. 287. They have been credited to the Continental System; but surely they resulted from the internal free trade and intelligent administration which France had enjoyed since the Revolution.]

[Footnote 236: "Nap. Corresp.," May 8th, 1811.]

[Footnote 237: Goethe published the first part of "Faust," _in full_, early in 1808.]

[Footnote 238: Baur, "Stein und Perthes," p. 85.]

[Footnote 239: Lavalette, "Mems.," ch. xxv.]

[Footnote 240: Letters of October 10th and 13th, 1810, and January 1st, 1811.]

[Footnote 241: Letter of September 17th, 1810.]

[Footnote 242: Letter of March 8th, 1811. For a fuller treatment of the commercial struggle between Great Britain and Napoleon see my articles, "Napoleon and British Commerce" and "Britain's Food Supply during the French War," in a volume ent.i.tled "Napoleonic Studies"

(George Bell and Sons, 1904).]

[Footnote 243: Czartoryski, "Mems.," vol. ii., ch. xvii. At this time he was taken back to the Czar's favour, and was bidden to hope for the re-establishment of Poland by the Czar as soon as Napoleon made a blunder.]

[Footnote 244: Tatischeff, p. 526; Vandal, vol. ii., ch. vii.]

[Footnote 245: "Corresp.," No. 16178; Vandal, vol. ii., ch. vii. The _expose_ of December 1st, 1809, had affirmed that Napoleon did not intend to re-establish Poland. But this did not satisfy Alexander.]

[Footnote 246: Letters of October 23rd and December 2nd, 1810.]

[Footnote 247: Vandal, vol. ii., p. 529.]