Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 7 | Page 4

sample the author's ideas before
making an entire meal of them. D.W.]

MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 7.
By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE

His Private Secretary
Edited by R. W. Phipps Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
1891
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER XIX.
to
CHAPTER XXVI.
1803-1804

CHAPTER XIX.
1803.
Mr. Pitt--Motive of his going out of office--Error of the English
Government--Pretended regard for the Bourbons--Violation of the
treaty of Amiens--Reciprocal accusations--Malta--Lord Whitworth's
departure--Rome and Carthage--Secret satisfaction of Bonaparte--
Message to the Senate, the Legislative Body, and the Tribunate-- The
King of England's renunciation of the title of King of France--
Complaints of the English Government--French agents in British ports
--Views of France upon Turkey--Observation made by Bonaparte to the
Legislative Body--Its false interpretation--Conquest of Hanover-- The
Duke of Cambridge caricatured--The King of England and the Elector
of Hanover--First address to the clergy--Use of the word
"Monsieur"--The Republican weeks and months.
One of the circumstances which foretold the brief duration of the peace
of Amiens was, that Mr. Pitt was out of office at the time of its
conclusion. I mentioned this to Bonaparte, and I immediately perceived
by his hasty "What do you say?" that my observation had been
heard--but not liked. It did not, however, require any extraordinary
shrewdness to see the true motive of Mr. Pitt's retirement. That
distinguished statesman conceived that a truce under the name of a
peace was indispensable for England; but, intending to resume the war
with France more fiercely than ever, he for a while retired from office,
and left to others the task of arranging the peace; but his intention was

to mark his return to the ministry by the renewal of the implacable
hatred he had vowed against France. Still, I have always thought that
the conclusion of peace, however necessary to England, was an error of
the Cabinet of London. England alone had never before acknowledged
any of the governments which had risen up in France since the
Revolution; and as the past could not be blotted out, a future war,
however successful to England, could not take from Bonaparte's
Government the immense weight it had acquired by an interval of
peace. Besides, by the mere fact of the conclusion of the treaty England
proved to all Europe that the restoration of the Bourbons was merely a
pretext, and she defaced that page of her history which might have
shown that she was actuated by nobler and more generous sentiments
than mere hatred of France. It is very certain that the condescension of
England in treating with the First Consul had the effect of rallying
round him a great many partisans of the Bourbons, whose hopes
entirely depended on the continuance of war between Great Britain and
France. This opened the eyes of the greater number, namely, those who
could not see below the surface, and were not previously aware that the
demonstrations of friendship so liberally made to the Bourbons by the
European Cabinets, and especially by England, were merely false
pretences, assumed for the purpose of disguising, beneath the
semblance of honourable motives, their wish to injure France, and to
oppose her rapidly increasing power.
When the misunderstanding took place, France and England might
have mutually reproached each other, but justice was apparently on the
side of France. It was evident that England, by refusing to evacuate
Malta, was guilty of a palpable infraction of the treaty of Amiens, while
England could only institute against France what in the French law
language is called a suit or process of tendency. But it must be
confessed that this tendency on the part of France to augment her
territory was very evident, for the Consular decrees made conquests
more promptly than the sword. The union of Piedmont with France had
changed the state of Europe. This union, it is true, was effected
previously to the treaty of Amiens; but it was not so with the states of
Parma and Piacenza, Bonaparte having by his sole authority constituted
himself the heir of the Grand Duke, recently deceased. It may therefore

be easily imagined how great was England's uneasiness at the internal
prosperity of France and the insatiable ambition of her ruler; but it is no
less certain that, with respect to Malta, England acted with decidedly
bad faith; and this bad faith appeared in its worst light from the
following circumstance:-- It had been stipulated that England should
withdraw her troops from Malta three months after the signing of the
treaty, yet more than a year had elapsed, and the troops were still there.
The order of Malta was to be restored as it formerly was; that is to say,
it was to be a sovereign and independent order, under the protection of
the Holy See. The three Cabinets of Vienna, Berlin, and St.