Memoirs of Napoleon - Volume 14 , livre ebook

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. - [By the Editor of the 1836 edition]-

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819949114
Langue	English

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MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 14.
By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE
His Private Secretary
CHAPTER VII.
— [By the Editor of the 1836edition] —
1815.
Napoleon at Paris— Political manoeuvres— The meetingof the Champ- de-Mai— Napoleon, the Liberals, and the moderateConstitutionalists — His love of arbitrary power as strong as ever—Paris during the Cent Jours— Preparations for his last campaign—The Emperor leaves Paris to join the army— State of Brussels—Proclamation of Napoleon to the Belgians— Effective strength of theFrench and Allied armies — The Emperor's proclamation to the Frencharmy.
Napoleon was scarcely reseated on his throne when hefound he could not resume that absolute power he had possessedbefore his abdication at Fontainebleau. He was obliged to submit tothe curb of a representative government, but we may well believethat he only yielded, with a mental reservation that as soon asvictory should return to his standards and his army be reorganisedhe would send the representatives of the people back to theirdepartments, and make himself as absolute as he had ever been. Histemporary submission was indeed obligatory.
The Republicans and Constitutionalists who hadassisted, or not opposed his return, with Carnot, Fouche, BenjaminConstant, and his own brother Lucien (a lover of constitutionalliberty) at their head, would support him only on condition of hisreigning as a constitutional sovereign; he therefore proclaimed aconstitution under the title of “Acte additionnel aux Constitutionsde l'Empire, ” which greatly resembled the charter granted by LouisXVIII. the year before. An hereditary Chamber of Peers was to beappointed by the Emperor, a Chamber of Representatives chosen bythe Electoral Colleges, to be renewed every five years, by whichall taxes were to be voted, ministers were to be responsible,judges irremovable, the right of petition was acknowledged, andproperty was declared inviolable. Lastly, the French nation wasmade to declare that they would never recall the Bourbons.
Even before reaching Paris, and while resting on hisjourney from Elba at Lyons, the second city in France, and theancient capital of the Franks, Napoleon arranged his ministry, andissued sundry decrees, which show how little his mind was preparedfor proceeding according to the majority of votes in representativeassemblies.
Cambaceres was named Minister of Justice, FoucheMinister of Police (a boon to the Revolutionists), Davoustappointed Minister of War. Decrees upon decrees were issued with arapidity which showed how laboriously Bonaparte had employed thosestudious hours at Elba which he was supposed to have dedicated tothe composition of his Memoirs. They were couched in the name of“Napoleon, by the grace of God, Emperor of France, ” and were datedon the 13th of March, although not promulgated until the 21st ofthat month. The first of these decrees abrogated all changes in thecourts of justice and tribunals which had taken place during theabsence of Napoleon. The second banished anew all emigrants who hadreturned to France before 1814 without proper authority, anddisplaced all officers belonging to the class of emigrantsintroduced into the army by the King. The third suppressed theOrder of St. Louis, the white flag, cockade, and other Royalemblems, and restored the tri-coloured banner and the Imperialsymbols of Bonaparte's authority. The same decree abolished theSwiss Guard and the Household troops of the King. The fourthsequestered the effects of the Bourbons. A similar Ordinancesequestered the restored property of emigrant families.
The fifth decree of Lyons suppressed the ancientnobility and feudal titles, and formally confirmed proprietors ofnational domains in their possessions. (This decree was veryacceptable to the majority of Frenchmen). The sixth declaredsentence of exile against all emigrants not erased by Napoleon fromthe list previously to the accession of the Bourbons, to which wasadded confiscation of their property. The seventh restored theLegion of Honour in every respect as it had existed under theEmperor; uniting to its funds the confiscated revenues of theBourbon order of St. Louis. The eighth and last decree was the mostimportant of all. Under pretence that emigrants who had borne armsagainst France had been introduced into the Chamber of Peers, andthat the Chamber of Deputies had already sat for the legal time, itdissolved both Chambers, and convoked the Electoral Colleges of theEmpire, in order that they might hold, in the ensuing month of May,an extraordinary assembly— the Champ-de-Mai.
This National Convocation, for which Napoleonclaimed a precedent in the history of the ancient Franks, was tohave two objects: first, to make such alterations and reforms inthe Constitution of the Empire as circumstances should renderadvisable; secondly, to assist at the coronation of the EmpressMaria Louisa. Her presence, and that of her son, was spoken of assomething that admitted of no doubt, though Bonaparte knew therewas little hope of their return from Vienna. These variousenactments were well calculated to serve Napoleon's cause. Theyflattered the army, and at the same time stimulated theirresentment against the emigrants, by insinuating that they had beensacrificed by Louis to the interest of his followers. They held outto the Republicans a prospect of confiscation, proscription, and,revolution of government, while, the Imperialists were gratifiedwith a view of ample funds for pensions, offices, and honorarydecorations. To proprietors of the national domains security waspromised, to the Parisians the grand spectacle of the Champ-de-Mai,and to. France peace and tranquillity, since the arrival of theEmpress and her son, confidently asserted to be at hand, was takenas a pledge of the friendship of Austria.
Napoleon at the same time endeavoured to makehimself popular with the common people— the, mob of the FaubourgSt. Antoine and other obscure quarters of Paris. On the firstevening of his return, as he walked round the glittering circle metto welcome him, in the State apartments of the Tuileries, he keptrepeating, “Gentlemen, it is to the poor and disinterested mass ofthe people that I owe everything; it is they who have brought meback to the capita. It is the poor subaltern officers and commonsoldiers that have done all this. I owe everything to the commonpeople and the ranks of the army. Remember that! I owe everythingto the army and the people! ” Some time after he took occasionalrides through the Faubourg St. Antoine, but the demonstrations ofthe mob gave him little pleasure, and, it was easy to detect asneer in his addresses to them. He had some slight intercourse withthe men of the Revolution— the fierce, bloodthirsty Jacobins— buteven now he could not conceal his abhorrence of them, and, be itsaid to his honour, he had as little to do with them aspossible.
When Napoleon, departed for the summer campaign hetook care beforehand to leave large sums of money for the'federes'; in the hands of the devoted Real; under whose managementthe mob was placed. These sums were to be distributed atappropriate seasons, to make the people cry in the streets ofParis, “Napoleon or death. ” He also left in the hands of Davoust awritten authority for the publication of his bulletins, manyclauses of which were written long before the battles were foughtthat they were to describe. He gave to the same Marshal a plan ofhis campaign, which he had arranged for the defensive. This was notconfided to him without an injunction of the strictest secrecy, butit is said that Davoust communicated the plan to Fouche.Considering Davoust's character this is very unlikely, but if so,it is far from improbable that Fouche communicated the plan to theAllies with whom, and more particularly with Prince Metternich, heis well known to have been corresponding at the time.
Shortly after the Emperor's arrival in ParisBenjamin Constant, a moderate and candid man, was deputed by theconstitutional party to ascertain Napoleon's sentiments andintentions. Constant was a lover of constitutional liberty, and anold opponent of Napoleon, whose headlong career of despotism, cutout by the sword, he had vainly endeavoured to check by theeloquence of his pen.
The interview took place at the Tuileries. TheEmperor, as was his wont, began the conversation, and kept itnearly all to himself during the rest of the audience. He did notaffect to disguise either his past actions or presentdispositions.
“The nation, ” he said, “has had a respite of twelveyears from every kind of political agitation, and for one year hasenjoyed a respite from war. This double repose has created acraving after activity. It requires, or fancies it requires, aTribune and popular assemblies. It did not always require them. Thepeople threw themselves at my feet when I took the reins ofgovernment You ought to recollect this, who made a trial ofopposition. Where was your support— your strength? Nowhere. Iassumed less authority than I was invited to assume. Now all ischanged. A feeble government, opposed to the national interests,has given to these interests the habit of standing on the defensiveand evading authority. The taste for constitutions, for debates,for harangues, appears to have revived. Nevertheless it is but theminority that wishes all this, be assured. The people, or if youlike the phrase better; the multitude, wish only for me. You wouldsay so if you had only seen this multitude pressing eagerly on mysteps, rushing down from the tops of the mountains, calling on me,seeking me out, saluting me. On my way from Cannes hither I havenot conquered— I have administered. I am not only (as has beenpretended) the Emperor of the soldiers; I am that of the peasantsof the plebeians of France. Accordingly, in spite of all that hashappened, you see the people come back to me. There is sympathybetween us. It is not as with the privileged classes. The noblessehave been in