The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era CONTEXTS

ebate about the French Revolution, which was to open English eyes to the possibility of political Dchange in their own country, began shortly after the 14 July 1789 storming of the Bastille (during which a Parisian crowd swarmed the prison in search of ammunition, freeing seven prisoners and killing the governor in the process). The revolution forced English men and women to re-examine their most basic societal tenets: their system of government and their handling of issues such as individual civil rights and liberties, rights of inheritance, and sufferance. Discussion of the Revolution triggered a massive increase in the production of written materials. On the pages of novels, periodicals, sermons, chapbooks, handbills, song sheets and poetry, English writers debated their new relationship with France and its implications for issues of social and political reform at home. On 4 November 1789, moral philosopher, mathematician, and dissenting preacher Richard Price delivered a sermon venerating the French Revolution and equating it with England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688–89, the bloodless revolution in which James II was replaced by William III and Mary II (a key moment in the evolution of constitutional monarchy in Britain). “Struggle no longer against increasing light and liberality,” he warned. “Restore to mankind their rights; and consent to the correction of abuses, before they and you are destroyed together.” Such views became more and more widespread over the course of the next few months. On 14 July 1790, Parisians gathered near the ruins of the Bastille to celebrate the revolution’s first anniversary, and there was celebrating in Britain too; according to the London Times, the anniversary gathering represented “a magnificent association of FREE MEN, emancipated from the shackles of despotism within so short a space of time.” The newspaper declared the revolution “a Phenomenon on which surrounding empires look with admiration.” Such feelings ran counter to age-old habit; since 1688, the English had tended to think of themselves as progressive guardians of liberty, and had thought of the French as intolerant and slavish in their Catholicism. To many in Britain, however, English attitudes did not seem to have changed. Rather, the French revolution merely represented their long-overdue and much-needed Glorious Revolution. To be sure, English support for the ideals of the French Revolution was far from being universal. The most important expression of early opposition to those ideals was that of politician and writer Edmund Burke, whose Reflections on the Revolution in France was published on 1 November 1790. Burke had strongly supported the American revolution fifteen years earlier as representing an ordered and constitutionally-based response to tyranny, and he surprised many with his vigorous condemna- tion of the French revolution as undermining the foundations of constitutional monarchy. In Burke’s view, the suggestion of Price and others that a monarch owes his lawful authority solely “to the choice of the people” was either “nonsense, and therefore neither true nor false, or it affirms a most unfounded, dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional position.” Burke’s long essay came to be regarded as a classic statement of conservative principles, and one of the works written in answer to it, Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, as a classic expression of 2 Contexts

Enlightenment principles of human liberty. The voice of Paine, an expatriate Englishman who had moved to America in 1774, was joined in Britain by voices such as those of William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, and other prominent reformers who were later labeled “Jacobins.” Condemning Burke’s allegiance to “canonized forefathers,” Wollstonecraft accused him of clinging to an ideology of inherited rights: “any personal present convenience should prevent a struggle for the most estimable advantages. This is sound reasoning,” she quipped, “in the mouth of the rich and short-sighted.” In 1792, a Republic was declared in France, and the Revolution’s violence escalated. In May, the English government, fearing rebellion on its own soil, vowed to eradicate “wicked and seditious writings”; shortly thereafter, it banned Paine’s Rights of Man (Part II). In August, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were marched out of the Palace of the Tuileries and placed under house arrest—and an increasing number of English began to feel alienated from their French neighbors. Within the conservative English imagination, the French were becoming savages, choosing anarchy over liberty. Even some reformers began to reconsider their view of the Revolution, although they continued to lobby in England for universal suffrage, electoral reform, and the natural rights of citizens. In late 1792, Maximilien Robespierre and his Committee for Public Safety took control of Paris and brutally demonstrated their intolerance for any enemy of the republic. The Committee put Louis XVI on trial, and the King and Queen soon joined the list of beheaded aristocrats, clergy, and counter-revolutionary suspects. The English anti-Jacobin movement gathered momentum as citizens expressed horror at these “un-English” acts. By this time other European nations had been considering intervention in France for more than two years. In April 1792, France declared war on Austria; after the execution of the King in early 1793, other countries (Britain included) joined to form the “First Coalition” against France. Over the next several years, the French government remained in a state of turmoil, but French forces held their own against their various enemies, with a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte playing an increasingly important military role. In 1799, Bonaparte seized power, and, for the next fifteen years, the powerfully enigmatic Corsican dominated the European stage. For some in England, the French by that time had lost their way. In William Wordsworth’s view, the oppressed had, in a few short years, “become Oppressors in their turn,” and had “changed a war of self-defence / For one of conquest, losing sight of all / which they had struggled for.” Yet, as Godwin noted, all “the great points embraced by the revolution remain entire: hereditary government is gone; hereditary nobility is extinguished; the hierarchy of the Gallican church is no more; the feudal rights, the oppressive immunities of a mighty aristocracy, are banished never to return.” The English parliament spent much time in debate over the new French leader, unable to determine whether he was Jacobin or despot, republican or monarchist. Napoleon patronized the arts and supported industry. He centralized education, modernized France’s infrastructure, and banished the feudal system. His Napoleonic Code advocated trial by jury and other much-needed reforms of the legal system. Yet he ruled like a monarch—a monarch of no legitimate lineage—and was often accused of military atrocities. “Bonaparte has made me anti-Gallican,” the poet Robert Southey declared, despairing of the future of the Jacobin movement. In a later letter, however, Southey called Bonaparte “the greatest man that events have called into action since Alexander of Macedon.” Such ambivalence toward Napoleon was common. Had Napoleon destroyed the revolution, or saved the revolution from itself? What of its republican ideals? Some thought them entirely lost, but others were more sanguine—and the debate continued for years. Radical journalist William Cobbett, for example, argued in an 1812 article in his Weekly Political Register that the revolution had “created, totally created, a middle-class in society; and, though one man has the executive government in his hands, the society is essentially republican.” In 1802, Bonaparte was made First Consul, and two years later he crowned himself Emperor of France, in effect reinstating monarchical rule. For most of the following decade, France remained at The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 3

war with England and the rest of Europe, with Napoleon’s forces largely successful on land (most notably in their great defeat of Russia and Austria at Austerlitz in 1805) and the British retaining the supremacy at sea that Horatio Nelson established with his decisive victory at Trafalgar (also in 1805). In hopes of ensuring an heir to the throne, Bonaparte divorced his wife of fourteen years, Joséphine de Beauharnais, and in 1810 he married Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, Marie Antoinette’s grand niece. (William Wordsworth, recognizing the irony in Napoleon’s new bond to enemies of the revolution, likened the coronation to a dog returning to its vomit.) Within two years of his second marriage, military reversals began to threaten Napoleon’s rule. His catastrophic Russian campaign in 1813 cost hundreds of thousands of French soldiers their lives. Later that year, his forces severely depleted, Bonaparte refused the peace terms of a coalition force that included England, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and a number of the German states. A coalition army marched into Paris shortly thereafter, and Bonaparte was forced into exile. Napoleon was detained less than a year on the island of Elba. By March of 1815, he had returned to France. Capitalizing on growing resentment against the restored Louis XVIII, he rebuilt his army, thus beginning what has become known as the Hundred Days (the period of time between Napoleon’s return and Louis XVIII’s restoration as king, following Napoleon’s failed Waterloo campaign). Battles against the forces of a revived coalition ensued, ending in the brutal battle of Waterloo, Napoleon’s final defeat. After his surrender, Napoleon spent the last six months of his life on a small island in the South Atlantic, St. Helena. Among the English, faith in Britain rather than France as the bastion of liberty was firmly re-established. The Edinburgh Review expressed in 1815 the sentiments of many in its assertion that England could “claim the proud distinction of having kept alive the sacred flame of liberty and the spirit of national independence, when the chill of general apprehension, and the rushing whirlwind of conquest, had apparently extinguished them for ever, in the other nations of the earth.” zzz from Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolu- our forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity; tion in France (1790) as an estate specially belonging to the people of this kingdom, without any reference whatever to any other A political writer and politician, Edmund Burke more general or prior right. By this means our constitu- (1730–97) wrote the Reflections as a rebuttal to tion preserves a unity in so great a diversity of its parts. Price’s Discourse on the Love of Our Country. Burke’s We have an inheritable crown; an inheritable peerage2; conservative critique of the revolution was published and a House of Commons3 and a people inheriting two years before Louis XVI was executed, and it set privileges, franchises, and liberties, from a long line of the tone for the loyalist side of England’s revolution ancestors. debate. This policy appears to me to be the result of pro- found reflection; or rather the happy effect of following ou will observe, that from Magna Charta to the 1 nature, which is wisdom without reflection, and above YDeclaration of Right, it has been the uniform it. A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a policy of our constitution to claim and assert our selfish temper, and confined views. People will not look liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Besides, the people of England well know that 1 Magna Charta England’s Great Charter of 1215 was a precedent- setting document that limited the power of King John; Declaration 2 of Right Brought about by the Glorious Revolution, this bill peerage Nobility. increased the power of Parliament and is fundamental to English 3 House of Commons Lower house of Parliament, to which repre- constitutional law. sentatives from various districts are elected. 4 Contexts

the idea of inheritance furnishes a sure principle of acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the conservation, and a sure principle of transmission; spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, without at all excluding a principle of improvement. It is tempered with an awful gravity. This idea of a liberal leaves acquisition free; but it secures what it acquires. descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native Whatever advantages are obtained by a state proceeding dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost on these maxims, are locked fast as in a sort of family inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the settlement; grasped as in a kind of mortmain1 for ever. first acquirers of any distinction. By this means our By a constitutional policy, working after the pattern of liberty becomes a noble freedom. It carries an imposing nature, we receive, we hold, we transmit our govern- and majestic aspect. It has a pedigree and illustrating ment and our privileges, in the same manner in which ancestors. It has its bearings and its ensigns armorial. It we enjoy and transmit our property and our lives. The has its gallery of portraits; its monumental inscriptions; institutions of policy, the goods of fortune, the gifts of its records, evidences, and titles. We procure reverence providence, are handed down to us, and from us, in the to our civil institutions on the principle upon which same course and order. Our political system is placed in nature teaches us to revere individual men; on account a just correspondence and symmetry with the order of of their age, and on account of those from whom they the world, and with the mode of existence decreed to a are descended. All your sophisters cannot produce permanent body composed of transitory parts; wherein, anything better adapted to preserve a rational and manly by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding freedom than the course that we have pursued, who together the great mysterious incorporation of the have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or breasts rather than our inventions, for the great conser- middle-aged, or young, but, in a condition of unchange- vatories and magazines of our rights and privileges.… able constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of History will record, that on the morning of the 6th perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression. Thus, of October, 1789, the King and Queen of France, after by preserving the method of nature in the conduct of a day of confusion, alarm, dismay, and slaughter, lay the state, in what we improve, we are never wholly new; down, under the pledged security of public faith, to in what we retain, we are never wholly obsolete. By indulge nature in a few hours of respite, and troubled, adhering in this manner and on those principles to our melancholy repose. From this sleep the Queen was first forefathers, we are guided not by the superstition of startled by the voice of the sentinel at her door, who antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy. In cried out to her to save herself by flight—that this was this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of the last proof of fidelity he could give—that they were polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the upon him, and he was dead. Instantly he was cut down. constitution of our country with our dearest domestic A band of cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with his ties; adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of blood, rushed into the chamber of the Queen, and our family affections; keeping inseparable, and cherish- pierced with a hundred strokes of bayonets and poniards ing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually the bed, from whence this persecuted woman had but reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, just time to fly almost naked, and, through ways un- and our altars. known to the murderers, had escaped to seek refuge at Through the same plan of a conformity to nature in the feet of a king and husband, not secure of his own our artificial institutions, and by calling in the aid of her life for a moment. unerring and powerful instincts, to fortify the fallible This King, to say no more of him, and this Queen, and feeble contrivances of our reason, we have derived and their infant children (who once would have been several other, and those no small benefits, from consid- the pride and hope of a great and generous people), were ering our liberties in the light of an inheritance. Always then forced to abandon the sanctuary of the most splendid palace in the world, which they left swimming 1 mortmain Legal term for the perpetual tenure of land by a in blood, polluted by massacre, and strewed with corporation (often ecclesiastical). The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 5

scattered limbs and mutilated carcases. Thence they to continue the instructor, and not aspired to be the were conducted into the capital of their kingdom. Two master! Along with its natural protectors and guardians, had been selected from the unprovoked, unresisted, learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down promiscuous slaughter, which was made of the gentle- under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.2 … men of birth and family who composed the King’s body guard. These two gentlemen, with all the parade of an execution of justice, were cruelly and publicly dragged from Thomas Paine, Rights of Man (1791 and to the block, and beheaded in the great court of the 1792) palace. Their heads were stuck upon spears, and led the procession; whilst the royal captives who followed in the Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was indicted for treason train were slowly moved along, amidst the horrid yells, because of his unflinching reformist reply to Burke’s and shrilling screams, and frantic dances, and infamous Reflections on the Revolution in France. After fleeing contumelies, and all the unutterable abominations of to France, he was imprisoned for not supporting the furies of hell, in the abused shape of the vilest of Louis XVI’s execution. He was spared the guillotine, women. After they had been made to taste, drop by and spent the rest of his years in America. drop, more than the bitterness of death, in the slow torture of a journey of twelve miles, protracted to six here is scarcely an epithet of abuse to be found in hours, they were, under a guard, composed of those very Tthe English language, with which Mr. Burke has soldiers who had thus conducted them through this not loaded the French Nation and the National Assem- famous triumph, lodged in one of the old palaces of bly. Every thing which rancour, prejudice, ignorance, or Paris, now converted into a bastile for kings. knowledge, could suggest, are poured forth in the Is this a triumph to be consecrated at altars? to be copious fury of near four hundred pages. In the strain, commemorated with grateful thanksgiving? to be and on the plan Mr. Burke was writing, he might have offered to the divine humanity with fervent prayer and written on to as many thousands. When the tongue or enthusiastic ejaculation?… the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, We are but too apt to consider things in the state in and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.… which we find them, without sufficiently adverting to As Mr. Burke occasionally applies the poison drawn the causes by which they have been produced, and from his horrid principles, not only to the English possibly may be upheld. Nothing is more certain, than nation, but to the French Revolution and the National that our manners, our civilization, and all the good Assembly, and charges that august, illuminated and things which are connected with manners and with illuminating body of men with the epithet of usurpers, civilization, have, in this European world of ours, I shall, sans ceremonie, place another system of principles depended for ages upon two principles; and were indeed in opposition to his. the result of both combined; I mean the spirit of a The English Parliament of 1688 did a certain thing, gentleman, and the spirit of religion. The nobility and which, for themselves and their constituents, they had the clergy, the one by profession, the other by patron- a right to do, and which it appeared right should be age, kept learning in existence, even in the midst of arms done: But, in addition to this right, which they pos- and confusions, and whilst governments were rather in sessed by delegation, they set up another right by assump- their causes, than formed. Learning paid back what it tion, that of binding and controlling posterity to the end received to nobility and to priesthood; and paid it with of time. The case, therefore, divides itself into two parts; usury,1 by enlarging their ideas, and by furnishing their the right which they possessed by delegation, and the minds. Happy if they had all continued to know their 2 swinish multitude This became one of Burke’s most infamous and indissoluble union, and their proper place! Happy if frequently-cited comments. Though Burke is probably here referring learning, not debauched by ambition, had been satisfied to a particular faction of extremists, and not to average citizens, many reformers took this comment as proof of arrogance among the 1 usury Interest, especially at an exorbitantly high rate. conservatives. 6 Contexts

right which they set up by assumption. The first is It was not against Louis the XVIth, but against the admitted; but, with respect to the second, I reply— despotic principles of the government, that the nation There never did, there never will, and there never revolted. These principles had not their origin in him, can exist a parliament, or any description of men, or any but in the original establishment, many centuries back generation of men, in any country, possessed of the … Perhaps no man, bred up in the stile of an absolute right or the power of binding and controlling posterity King, ever possessed a heart so little disposed to the to the “end of time,” or of commanding forever how the exercise of that species of power as the present King of world shall be governed, or who shall govern it; and France. But the principles of the government itself still therefore, all such clauses, acts, or declarations, by which remained the same. The Monarch and the Monarchy the makers of them attempt to do what they have were distinct and separate things; and it was against the neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to established despotism of the latter, and not against the execute, are in themselves null and void. Every age and person or principles of the former, that the revolt generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as commenced, and the revolution has been carried. the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity … When despotism has established itself for ages in and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the a country, as in France, it is not in the person of the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.… It is the King only that it resides. It has the appearance of being living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated. so in show, and in nominal authority; but it is not so in When man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease practice, and in fact. It has its standard every-where. with him; and having no longer any participation in the Every office and department has its despotism, founded concerns of this world, he has no longer any authority in upon custom and usage. Every place has its Bastile, and directing who shall be its governors, or how its govern- every Bastile its despot. The original hereditary despo- ment shall be organized, or how administered.… tism, resident in the person of the King, divides and While I am writing this, there are accidentally before subdivides itself into a thousand shapes and forms, till at me some proposals for a declaration of rights by the last the whole of it is acted by deputation. This was the Marquis de la Fayette1 (I ask his pardon for using his case in France; and against this species of despotism, former address, and do it only for distinction’s sake) to proceeding on through an endless labyrinth of office, till the National Assembly, on the 11th of July 1789, three the source of it is scarcely perceptible, there is no mode days before the taking of the Bastile; and I cannot but of redress. It strengthens itself by assuming the appear- remark with astonishment how opposite the sources are ance of duty, and tyrannises under the pretense of from which that Gentleman and Mr. Burke draw their obeying.… principles. Instead of referring to musty records and As to the tragic paintings, by which Mr. Burke has mouldy parchments to prove that the rights of the living outraged his own imagination, and seeks to work upon are lost, “renounced and abdicated forever,” by those that of his readers, they are very well calculated for who are now no more, as Mr. Burke has done, M. de la theatrical representation, where facts are manufactured Fayette applies to the living world, and emphatically for the sake of show, and accommodated to produce, says, “Call to mind the sentiments which Nature has through the weakness of sympathy, a weeping effect. engraved in the heart of every citizen, and which take a But Mr. Burke should recollect that he is writing new force when they are solemnly recognized by history, and not plays; and that his readers will expect all:—For a nation to love liberty, it is sufficient that she truth, and not the spouting rant of high-toned exclama- knows it; and to be free, it is sufficient that she wills tion.… it.”… Not one glance of compassion, not one commiserat- ing reflection, that I can find throughout his whole book, has he bestowed on those who lingered out the 1 Marquis de la Fayette Vice president of the National Assembly. most wretched of lives, a life without hope, in the most La Fayette composed the initial draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 7

ous and hostile aggravations of the enemies of the Revolution.… The mind can hardly picture to itself a more tremen- dous scene than what the city of Paris exhibited at the time of taking the Bastile, and for two days before and after, nor conceive the possibility of its quieting so soon. At a distance, this transaction has appeared only as an act of heroism, standing on itself; and the close political connection it had with the Revolution is lost in the brilliancy of the achievement. But we are to consider it as the strength of the parties, brought man to man, and contending for the issue. The Bastile was to be either the prize or the prison of the assailants. The downfall of it included the idea of the downfall of Despotism.… That the Bastile was attacked with an enthusiasm of heroism, such only as the highest animation of liberty could inspire, and carried in the space of a few hours, is an event which the world is fully possessed of. I am not undertaking a detail of the attack; but bringing into view the conspiracy against the nation which provoked it, and which fell with the Bastile. The prison to which the new ministry were dooming the National Assembly, in addition to its being the high altar and castle of despotism, became the proper object to begin with. This “THE RIGHTS OF MAN;—or—TOMMY PAINE, enterprise broke up the new ministry, who began now the little American Taylor, taking the Measure of the to fly from the ruin they had prepared for others…. CROWN, for a new Pair of Revolution-Breeches.” During the latter part of the time in which this Humbly dedicated to the Jacobine Clubs of France & confusion was acting, the King and Queen were in England!!! by Common Sense (1791). This anti- public at the balcony, and neither of them concealed for Jacobin caricature suggests that Thomas Paine, who safety’s sake, as Mr. Burke insinuates. Matters being was once a tailor, is no match for the enormous thus appeased, and tranquillity restored, a general legacy of the English monarchy. acclamation broke forth, of Le Roi à Paris—Le Roi à Paris—The King to Paris. It was the shout of peace, and miserable of prisons. … His hero or his heroine must be immediately accepted on the part of the King. By this a tragedy-victim expiring in show, and not the real measure, the King and his family reached Paris in the prisoner of misery, sliding into death in the silence of a evening, and were congratulated on their arrival by Mr. dungeon. Bailley, the Mayor of Paris, in the name of the citi- As Mr. Burke has passed over the whole transaction zens.… of the Bastile (and his silence is nothing in his favour), The French constitution says, There shall be no titles; and has entertained his readers with reflections on and, of consequence, all that class of equivocal genera- supposed facts distorted into real falsehoods, I will give, tion, which in some countries is called “aristocracy” and since he has not, some account of the circumstances in others “nobility” is done away, and the peer1 is exalted which preceded that transaction. They will serve to into MAN.… show, that less mischief could scarcely have accompa- nied such an event, when considered with the treacher- 1 peer Member of the hereditary nobility. 8 Contexts

The Contrast, by Thomas Rowlandson, after a drawing by Lord George Murray (1792).

It is, properly, from the elevated mind of France that ground. The old one has fallen through. It must now the folly of titles has fallen. It has outgrown the baby- take the substantial ground of character, instead of the clothes of Count and Duke, and breeched itself in chimerical ground of titles; and they have brought their manhood. France has not levelled; it has exalted. It has titles to the altar, and made of them a burnt-offering to put down the dwarf, to set up the man. The puny-ism Reason. of a senseless word like Duke, or Count, or Earl, has If no mischief had annexed itself to the folly of titles, ceased to please. Even those who possessed them have they would not have been worth a serious and formal disowned the gibberish; and, as they outgrew the rickets, destruction, such as the National Assembly have decreed have despised the rattle. The genuine mind of man, them; and this makes it necessary to enquire farther into thirsting for its native home, society, contemns the the nature and character of aristocracy.… gewgaws1 that separate him from it. Titles are like circles Nothing can appear more contradictory, than the drawn by the magician’s wand, to contract the sphere of principle on which the old governments began, and the man’s felicity. He lived immured within the Bastile of condition to which society, civilization, and commerce, a word, and surveys at a distance the envied life of are capable of carrying mankind. Government, on the man.… old system, is an assumption of power, for the The patriots of France have discovered, in good aggrandisement of itself; on the new, a delegation of time, that rank and dignity in society must take a new power, for the common benefit of society. The former supports itself by keeping up a system of war; the latter 1 gewgaws Gaudy baubles. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 9

promotes a system of peace, as the true means of enrich- Secondly, It is proper to observe, that even in this ing a nation. The one encourages national prejudices; sense of our country, that love of it which is our duty, the other promotes universal society, as the means of does not imply any conviction of the superior value of universal commerce. The one measures its prosperity, by it to other countries, or any particular preference of its the quantity of revenue it extorts; the other proves its laws and constitution of government. … All our attach- excellence, by the small quantity of taxes it requires.… ments should be accompanied, as far as possible, with Never did so great an opportunity offer itself to right opinions.—We are too apt to confine wisdom and England, and to all Europe, as is produced by the two virtue within the circle of our own acquaintance and Revolutions of America and France. By the former, party. Our friends, our country, and in short every thing freedom has a national champion in the Western world; related to us, we are disposed to overvalue. A wise man and by the latter, in Europe. When another nation shall will guard himself against this delusion. He will study to join France, despotism and bad government will scarcely think of all things as they are, and not suffer any partial dare to appear. To use a trite expression, the iron is affections to blind his understanding.… becoming hot all over Europe. The insulted German and Thirdly, It is proper I should desire you particularly the enslaved Spaniard, the Russ and the Pole, are begin- to distinguish between the love of our country and that ning to think. The present age will hereafter merit to be spirit of rivalship and ambition which has been common called the Age of Reason, and the present generation will among nations.—What has the love of their country appear to the future as the Adam of a new world. hitherto been among mankind? What has it been but a love of domination; a desire of conquest, and a thirst for grandeur and glory, by extending territory, and enslav- from Richard Price, A Discourse on the Love of Our ing surrounding countries? What has it been but a blind Country, Delivered on Nov. 4, 1789, at the and narrow principle, producing in every country a Meeting-House in the Old Jewry, to the Society for contempt of other countries, and forming men into Commemorating the Revolution in Great Britain combinations and factions against their common rights and liberties? … As most of the evils which have taken Richard Price (1723–91) was a well-known Dissent- place in private life, and among individuals, have been ing preacher, mathematician, and political thinker. occasioned by the desire of private interest overcoming This sermon initiated England’s debate about the the public affections; so most of the evils which have French Revolution by likening it to England’s taken place among bodies of men have been occasioned Glorious Revolution of 1688. by the desire of their own interest overcoming the principle of universal benevolence: and leading them to he love of our country has in all times been a attack one another’s territories, to encroach on one Tsubject of warm commendations; and it is certainly another’s rights, and to endeavour to build their own a noble passion; but, like all other passions, it requires advancement on the degradation of all within the reach regulation and direction. There are mistakes and preju- of their power.… dices by which, in this instance, we are in particular … I have just observed, that there is a submission danger of being misled. I will briefly mention some of due to the executive officers of government, which is these to you, and observe, our duty; but you must not forget what I have also First, That by our country is meant, in this case, not observed, that it must not be a blind and slavish submis- the soil or the spot of earth on which we happen to have sion.… [T]he tendency of every government is to been born; not the forests and fields, but that commu- despotism; and in this the best constituted governments nity of which we are members; or that body of compan- must end, if the people are not vigilant, ready to take ions and friends and kindred who are associated with us alarms, and determined to resist abuses as soon as they under the same constitution of government, protected begin.… This vigilance, therefore, it is our duty to by the same laws, and bound together by the same civil maintain. Whenever it is withdrawn, and a people cease polity. 10 Contexts

to reason about their rights and to be awake to en- What an eventful period is this! I am thankful that croachments, they are in danger of being enslaved, and I have lived to it.… I have lived to see a diffusion of their servants will soon become their masters. knowledge, which has undermined superstition and … We have, therefore, on this occasion, peculiar error—I have lived to see the rights of men better reasons for thanksgiving—But let us remember that we understood than ever; and nations panting for liberty, ought not to satisfy ourselves with thanksgivings.… Let which seemed to have lost the idea of it. I have lived to us, in particular, take care not to forget the principles of see THIRTY MILLIONS of people, indignant and resolute, the Revolution.1.… spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with an First; The right to liberty of conscience in religious irresistible voice; their king led in triumph, and an matters. arbitrary monarch surrendering himself to his subjects. Secondly; The right to resist power when abused. —After sharing in the benefits of one Revolution, I have And, been spared to be a witness to two other Revolutions, Thirdly; The right to choose our own governors; to both glorious.2—And now, methinks, I see the ardour cashier them for misconduct; and to frame a govern- for liberty catching and spreading; a general amendment ment for ourselves.… beginning in human affairs; the dominion of kings I would farther direct you to remember, that though changed for the dominion of laws, and the dominion of the Revolution was a great work, it was by no means a priests giving way to the dominion of reason and perfect work; and that all was not then gained which conscience. was necessary to put the kingdom in the secure and Be encouraged, all ye friends of freedom, and writers complete possession of the blessings of liberty.… in its defence!… Behold kingdoms, admonished by you, But the most important instance of the imperfect starting from sleep, breaking their fetters, and claiming state in which the Revolution left our constitution, is justice from their oppressors! Behold, the light you have the INEQUALITY OF OUR REPRESENTATION.… When struck out, after setting AMERICA free, reflected to the representation is partial, a kingdom possesses liberty FRANCE, and there kindled into a blaze that lays despo- only partially … but if not only extremely partial, but tism in ashes, and warms and illuminates EUROPE! corruptly chosen, and under corrupt influence after Tremble all ye oppressors of the world! Take warn- being chosen, it becomes a nuisance, and produces the ing all ye supporters of slavish governments, and slavish worst of all forms of government—a government by hierarchies! Call no more (absurdly and wickedly) corruption.… We are, at present, I hope, at a great REFORMATION, innovation. You cannot now hold the distance from it. But it cannot be pretended that there world in darkness. Struggle no longer against increasing are no advances towards it, or that there is no reason for light and liberality. Restore to mankind their rights; and apprehension and alarm. consent to the correction of abuses, before they and you The inadequateness of our representation has long are destroyed together. been a subject of complaint. But all attention to it seems now lost, and the probability is, that this inattention will continue, and that nothing will be done towards gaining Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Letter to Charles Heath for us this essential blessing, till some great calamity (1794) again alarms our fears, or till some great abuse of power again provokes our resentment; or, perhaps, till the Romantic poets Robert Southey (1774–1843) and acquisition of a pure and equal representation by other Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), inspired by countries … kindles our shame…. the social and political idealism manifested across the channel, planned an English utopian settlement (or “Pantisocracy,” as they called it) in Pennsylvania

1 Revolution England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688, which ended the reign of King James II and limited the monarch’s power under 2 After sharing … both glorious Price refers first to the Glorious a constitutional monarchy. Revolution, then to the American and French revolutions. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 11

in 1794—a plan that Coleridge outlines below in his letter habits of sedentary study or academic indolence, have to Charles Heath. The following poems by Coleridge and not acquired their full tone and strength, intend to learn Southey demonstrate the profound sense of hope and the theory and practice of agriculture and carpentry, optimism typical of English radicals in the 1790s. This hope according as situation and circumstances make one or was to fade as both men became disillusioned with the the other convenient. revolution later in their lives. Your fellow Citizen, S.T. Coleridge Jesus College, Cambridge. 29th August, 1794

Sir, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Pantisocracy (1794) our brother has introduced my name to you; I shall Ytherefore offer no apology for this letter. A small but o more my visionary soul shall dwell liberalized party have formed a scheme of emigration on NOn joys that were; no more endure to weigh the principles of an abolition of individual property. Of The shame and anguish of the evil day, their political creed, and the arguments by which they Wisely forgetful! O’er the ocean swell support and elucidate it, they are preparing a few 5 Sublime of Hope, I seek the cottag’d dell copies—not as meaning to publish them, but for private Where Virtue calm with careless step may stray, distribution. In this work they will have endeavoured to And dancing to the moonlight roundelay, prove the exclusive justice of the system and its practica- The wizard Passions weave an holy spell. bility; nor will they have omitted to sketch out the code Eyes that have ach’d with Sorrow! Ye shall weep of contracts necessary for the internal regulation of the 10 Tears of doubt-mingled joy, like theirs who start society; all of which will of course be submitted to the From Precipices of distemper’d sleep, improvements and approbation of each component On which the fierce-eyed Fiends their revels keep, member. As soon as the work is printed, one or more And see the rising Sun, and feel it dart copies shall be transmitted to you. Of the characters of New rays of pleasance trembling to the heart. the individuals who compose the party, I find it embar- rassing to speak; yet, vanity apart, I may assert with truth, that they have each a sufficient strength of head Robert Southey, On the Prospect of Establishing a to make the virtues of the heart respectable; and that Pantisocracy in America (1794) they are all highly charged with that enthusiasm which results from strong perceptions of moral rectitude, called hilst pale Anxiety, corrosive Care, into life and action by ardent feelings. With regard to WThe tear of Woe, the gloom of sad Despair, pecuniary matters it is found necessary, if twelve men And deepen’d Anguish generous bosoms rend;— with their families emigrate on this system, that 2000£ Whilst patriot souls their country’s fate lament; should be the aggregate of their contributions; but infer 5 Whilst mad with rage demoniac, foul intent, not from hence that each man’s quota is to be settled Embattled legions Despots vainly send with the littleness of arithmetical accuracy. No; all will To arrest the immortal mind’s expanding ray strain every nerve, and then I trust the surplus money of Of, everlasting Truth;—I other climes some will supply the deficiencies of others. The minu- Where dawns, with hope serene, a brighter day tiae of topographical information we are daily endea- 10 Than e’er saw Albion° in her happiest times, England vouring to acquire; at present our plan is, to settle at a With mental eye exulting now explore, distance, but at a convenient distance, from Cooper’s And soon with kindred minds shall haste to enjoy Town on the banks of the Susquehannah. This, how- (Free from the ills which here our peace destroy) ever, will be the object of future investigation. For the Content and Bliss on Transatlantic shore. time of emigration we have fixed on next March. In the from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Once a Jacobin course of the winter those of us whose bodies, from 12 Contexts

Always a Jacobin (1802) when he despairs of the cause, he will yet wish that it had been successful. And even when private interests Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s recantation of revolution- have warped his public character, his convictions will ary ideals was one of the most dramatic of the remain, and his wishes often rise up in rebellion against Romantic poets. As more and more people were his outward actions and public avowals. Thus inter- executed, the euphoric tone of Coleridge’s Destruc- preted, the assertion, “Once a Jacobin always a Jacobin,” tion of the Bastille gave way to a blunt statement of is so favourable a representation of human nature, that disavowal: “We were never, at any period of our life, we are willing, too willing perhaps, to admit it even converts to the system of French politics,” he without proof. There is yet a third class of Anti-Jaco- claimed. “Once a Jacobin Always a Jacobin” was bins, and of this class we profess ourselves to be, who use published in London’s Morning Post. the word Jacobin as they use the word, Whig, and both words only for want of better; who confess that Jacobin his charitable adage was at one time fashionable in is too often a word of vague abuse, but believe, that the ministerial circles; and Mr. Pitt1 himself, in one T there are certain definite ideas, hitherto not expressed in of his most powerful speeches, gave it every advantage any single word, which may be attached to this word; that is derivable from stately diction. What he thus and who in consequence uniformly use the word, condescended to decorate, it were well if he had at- Jacobin, with certain definite ideas attached to it, those tempted to prove. But no! he found it a blank assertion, ideas, and no other. A Jacobin, in our sense of the term, and a blank assertion he suffered it to remain. What is is one who believes, and is disposed to act on the belief, a Jacobin? Perhaps the best answer to this question that all, or the greater part of, the happiness or misery, would be, that it is a term of abuse, the convenient virtue or vice, of mankind, depends on forms of govern- watchword of a faction.… ment; who admits no form of government as either But though we should find it difficult to determine good or rightful, which does not flow directly and what a Jacobin is, we may however easily conjecture formally from the persons governed; who,—considering what the different sects of Anti-Jacobins have meant by life, health, moral and intellectual improvement, and the word. The base and venal creatures, and the blind liberty both of person and conscience, as blessings which and furious bigots, of the late ministry, comprehended governments are bound as far as possible to increase and under that word all who from whatever cause opposed secure to every inhabitant, whether he has or has not the late war, and the late ministry, and whom they hate any fixed property, and moreover as blessings of infi- for this opposition with such mortal hatred, as is usual nitely greater value to each individual than the preserva- with bigots alarmed, and detected culprits. “Once a tion of property can be to any individual,—does conse- Jacobin always a Jacobin,” signifies no more in the minds quently and consistently hold that every inhabitant who of these men, than “such a one is a man, whom I shall has attained that age of reason, has a natural and inalien- .” With other men, honest and less never cease to hate able right to an equal share of power in the choice of the violent Anti-Jacobins, the word implies a man, whose governors. In other words, the Jacobins affirm that no affections have been warmly and deeply interested in the legislature can be rightful or good, which did not cause of general freedom, who has hoped all good and proceed from universal suffrage. In the power, and honourable things both of, and for, mankind. In this under the control, of a legislature so chosen, he places all sense of the word Jacobin, the adage would affirm that and every thing, with the exception of the natural rights no man can ever become altogether an apostate to of man, and the means appointed for the preservation liberty, who has at any time been sincerely and fervently and exercise of these rights, by a direct vote of the attached to it. His hopes will burn like the Greek fire, nation itself—that is to say, by a constitution. Finally, hard to be extinguished, and easily rekindling. Even the Jacobin deems it both justifiable and expedient to effect these requisite changes in faulty governments, by 1 Mr. Pitt Tory prime minister William Pitt, who governed from absolute revolutions, and considers no violences as 1783 until 1801. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 13

properly rebellious or criminal, which are the means of two acts of parliament which are justifiable only upon giving to a nation the power of declaring and enforcing Jacobin principles. These are the ideas which we attach its sovereign will. In brief, therefore, a Jacobin’s creed is to the word Jacobin; and no other single word expresses this: 1. A government is the organ, by which form and them. Not republican; Milton2 was a pure republican, publicity are given to the sovereign will of the people; and yet his notions of government were highly aristo- and by which that will is enforced and exercised. 2. A cratic; Brutus was a republican, but he perished in government is likewise the instrument and means of consequence of having killed the Jacobin, Caesar. purifying and regulating the national will by its public Neither does Demagogue express that which we have discussions, and by direct institutions for the comforts detailed; not yet Democrat. The former word implies and instruction of the people. 3. Every native of a simply a mode of conduct, and has no reference to country has an equal right to that quantity of property, principles; and the latter does of necessity convey no which is necessary for the sustenance of his life and more than that a man prefers in any country a form of health. 4. All property beyond this, not being itself a government, without monarchy or aristocracy, which in right, can confer no right. Superior wisdom, with any country he may do, and yet be no Jacobin, and superior virtue, would indeed confer a right of superior which in some countries he can do without any im- power; but who is to decide on the possession? Not the peachment of good sense or honesty: for instance, in the person himself, who makes the claim: and if the people, purely pastoral and agricultural districts of Switzerland, then the right is given, and not inherent. Votes, there- where there is no other property but that of land and fore, cannot be weighed in this way, and they must not be cattle, and that property very nearly equalized. Whoever weighed in any other way. Nothing therefore remains builds a government on personal and natural rights is so possible, but that they must be numbered. No form of far a Jacobin. Whoever builds on social rights, that is, electing representatives is rightful, but that of universal hereditary rank, property, and long prescription, is an suffrage. Every individual has a right to elect, and a Anti-Jacobin, even though he should nevertheless be a capability of being elected. 5. The legislature has an republican, or even a democrat. absolute power over all other property, but that of article 3: unless the people shall have declared otherwise in the constitution. 6. All governments not constituted on Thomas Spence, “The Rights of Man for Me: A these principles are unjust governments. 7. The people Song” (1795) have a right to overturn them, in whatever way it is possible, and any means necessary to this end become, Thomas Spence (1750–1814) wrote the following ipso facto,1 right means. 8. It is the right and duty of song while confined in Newgate prison on charges each individual, living under that government, as far as of high treason. This song, like many of its day, in him lies, to impel and enable the people to exercise served to express the radical ideology of English these rights. —The man who subscribes to all these Jacobins. Often sung in pubs during reform meet- articles is a complete Jacobin; to many, but not to all of ings, Spence’s verses articulated defiance toward the political status quo and advocated natural rights for them, a Semi-Jacobin, and the man who subscribes to all British males. (Even among the radicals, it was any one article (excepting the second, which the Jacobin relatively rare to find an advocate of full rights for professes only in common with every other political sect women.) “The Rights of Man for Me” appeared in not directly an advocate of despotism), may be fairly Thomas Spence’s weekly publication, Pig’s Meat. said to have a shade of Jacobinism in his character. If we The title of the one-penny weekly captures the are not greatly deceived we could point out more than central conflict of Jacobins and loyalists with an one or two celebrated Anti-Jacobins, who are not ironic nod to conservative Edward Burke’s reference slightly infected with some of the worst symptoms of the madness against which they are raving; and one or 2 Milton English poet John Milton (1608–74), who wrote several pamphlets in support of Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth 1 ipso facto Latin: by that very fact. government. 14 Contexts

to “a swinish multitude” in his Reflections on the Revolution from George Walker, The Vagabond (1799) in France. George Walker’s The Vagabond rails against Jacob- (Tune: Maid of the Mill) inism by satirizing England’s radical movement and its attendant mob violence. Riots were a staple of here are twenty fine schemes held up by the great, English culture in Walker’s day, and although TTo deceive silly souls, d’ye see? attacked by anti-Jacobin writers as rabid revolution- And render them passive for pure conscience sake, aries, rioters were often organized by the govern- And mould them to fell tyranny; ment to intimidate reformists. Anti-Jacobin novels such as The Vagabond argue for conservative social 5 Yet for all their fine arts with their priests in their aid, Their threats and their deep policy, stability achieved through Christian values, monar- chism, and noblesse oblige. I’ll laugh them to scorn, while loudly I sing, The Rights of Man boys for me. from The Preface This world for the poor they say never was made, he following work is written with a desire of plac- 10 Their portion in the heav’ns be, ing, in a practical light, some of the prominent And say that they envy them their happy lot, T absurdities of many self-important reformers of man- So certain’s their felicity;1 kind, who, having heated their imaginations, sit down But thank them for naught, if the heav’ns they could let, to write political romances, which never were, and never Few joys here the poor would e’er see, will be practical; but which, coming into the hands of 15 For rents they must toil and for taxes to boot, persons as little acquainted with human nature, the The Rights of Man then for me. history of mankind, and the proofs of religious authen- ticity, as themselves, hurry away the mind from com- Then cheer up all you who have long been oppressed, mon life into dreams of ideal felicity; or, by breaking Aspire unto sweet liberty; every moral tie (while they declaim about morals), turn No fetters were formed for a nation to bind, loose their disciples upon the world, to root up and 20 That had the brave wish to be free: overthrow every thing which has received the sanction To Gallia° then look and blush at your chains, France of ages, and been held sacred by men of real genius and And shake off all vile slavery, erudition. And let each man sing, till loud echoes ring, Nothing is more easy, if we leave human nature and The Rights of Man boys for me. commonplace reason out of the question, than to write a system of jurisprudence, a perfect republic, a body of 25 As for me though in prison I oft’ have been cast, political justice, or a catalogue of rights: but a close Because I would dare to be free, attention to any of these works will readily bring for- And though in black Newgate I now pen this song, ward glaring and palpable contradictions. What are the My theme I’ve not altered you see; various classes of mankind to think, when these men not In jail or abroad whatever betide, only contradict themselves, but every one has a system 30 My struggles for freedom shall be, Whate’er fate bring, I will think, speak and sing, widely opposite to the other, agreeing only that every The Rights of Man boys for me! regular order and institution, religious, moral, and political, is worn out in this age of reason, and must be destroyed.… Can we wonder at the prevailance of adultery, when doctrines such as these men hold out in fascinating 1 And say … felicity William Paley (1743–1805), theologian and language, are tolerated? Can we wonder at the vices and moralist, notoriously made this rather disingenuous argument in his crimes of a neighbouring people? Or, can we wonder Reasons for Contentment (1792). The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 15

that the generality of shallow-thinking men, embrace rected them to restrain the carnage. “Yes, doubtless,” and support them with ardour? replied the General-in-Chief, with great warmth, “as to Many of the modern reformists, amongst the most women, children, and old men—all the peaceable forward, Mr. Pain,1 asserts that there is no such exis- inhabitants; but not with respect to armed soldiers. It tence as a British Constitution. Let those men and their was your duty to die rather than bring these unfortunate adherents peruse De Lolme2 on that subject; let all who creatures to me. What do you want me to do with are repining at their lot read that excellent work, and them?” These words were pronounced in the most angry they will perceive the singular blessings they enjoy, tone. which, because they are familiar, are despised; and let us The prisoners were then ordered to sit down, and not act like men in health, who undermine their consti- were placed, without any order, in front of the tents, tution by excess, till sickness teaches them the inestima- their hands tied behind their backs. A sombre determi- ble value of what they have unthinkingly and irreparably nation was depicted in their countenances. We gave destroyed. them a little biscuit and bread, squeezed out of the already scanty supply for the army. On the first day of their arrival a council of war was from Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Mem- held in the tent of the General-in-Chief, to determine oirs of Napoleon Bonaparte (1836) what course should be pursued with respect to them. The council deliberated a long time without coming to Written by Bonaparte’s private secretary, Louis any decision. Auvelet de Bourrienne (1769–1834), this memoir On the evening of the following day the daily gives an intimate glimpse of daily life with the reports of the generals of division came in. They spoke French emperor. of nothing but the insufficiency of the rations, the complaints of the soldiers—of their murmurs and from Chapter 18: 1799 discontent at seeing their bread given to enemies who had been withdrawn from their vengeance, inasmuch as … I was walking with General Bonaparte, in front of his a decree of death, in conformity with the laws of war, tent, when he beheld this mass of men approaching, and had been passed on Jaffa.3 All these reports were alarm- before he even saw his aides de camp he said to me, in a ing, and especially that of General Bon, in which no tone of profound sorrow, “What do they wish me to do reserve was made. He spoke of nothing less than the fear with these men? Have I food for them?—ships to of a revolt, which would be justified by the serious convey them to Egypt or France? Why, in the devil’s nature of the case. name, have they served me thus?” After their arrival, and The council assembled again. All the generals of the explanations which the General-in-Chief demanded division were summoned to attend, and for several hours and listened to with anger, Eugène and Croisier received together they discussed, under separate questions, what the most severe reprimand for their conduct. But the measures might be adopted, with the most sincere desire deed was done. Four thousand men were there. It was to discover and execute one which would save the lives necessary to decide upon their fate. The two aides de of these unfortunate prisoners. camp observed that they had found themselves alone in (1.) Should they be sent into Egypt? Could it be the midst of numerous enemies, and that he had di- done? To do so, it would be necessary to send with them a numerous escort, which would too much weaken our 1 Mr. Paine British political radical and pamphleteer Thomas Paine (1737–1809), author of Rights of Man (1791–92) little army in the enemy’s country. How, besides, could they and the escort be supported till they reached Cairo, 2 De Lolme Jean Louis de Lolme (1740–1806), a Swiss jurist who, after settling in England, wrote the Constitution de l’Angleterre (The Constitution of England), published in 1771, which favorably 3 Jaffa Now incorporated into Tel Aviv, Jaffa was part of Syria compared English constitutional law with that of other countries. during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign. 16 Contexts

having no provisions to give them on setting out, and stated, separate the Egyptians from the other prisoners. their route being through a hostile territory, which we There were no Egyptians. had exhausted, which presented no fresh resources, and Many of the unfortunate creatures composing the through which we, perhaps, might have to return. smaller division, which was fired on close to the sea- (2.) Should they be embarked? coast, at some distance from the other column, suc- Where were the ships?—Where could they be ceeded in swimming to some reefs of rocks out of the found? All our telescopes, directed over the sea, could reach of musket-shot. The soldiers rested their muskets not descry a single friendly sail. Bonaparte, I affirm, on the sand, and, to induce the prisoners to return, would have regarded such an event as a real favour of employed the Egyptian signs of reconciliation in use in fortune. It was, and I am glad to have to say it, this sole the country. They came back; but as they advanced they idea, this sole hope, which made him brave, for three were killed, and disappeared among the waves. days, the murmurs of his army. But in vain was help I confine myself to these details of this act of dread- looked for seaward. It did not come. ful necessity, of which I was an eye-witness. Others, (3.) Should the prisoners be set at liberty? who, like myself, saw it, have fortunately spared me the They would then instantly proceed to St. Jean recital of the sanguinary result. This atrocious scene, d’Acre to reinforce the pasha,1 or else, throwing them- when I think of it, still makes me shudder, as it did on selves into the mountains of Nablous, would greatly the day I beheld it; and I would wish it were possible for annoy our rear and right flank, and deal out death to us, me to forget it, rather than be compelled to describe it. as a recompense for the life we had given them. There All the horrors imagination can conceive, relative to that could be no doubt of this. What is a Christian dog to a day of blood, would fall short of the reality.… Turk? It would even have been a religious and meritori- ous act in the eye of the Prophet. from Chapter 22: 1799 (4.) Could they be incorporated, disarmed, with our soldiers in the ranks? … Determined to repair in all haste to Paris, Bonaparte Here again the question of food presented itself in had left Fréjus on the afternoon of the day of our all its force. Next came to be considered the danger of landing. He himself had despatched the courier to Sens having such comrades while marching through an to inform my mother of his intended visit to her; and it enemy’s country. What might happen in the event of a was not until he got to Lyons that he determined to take battle before St. Jean d’Acre? Could we even tell what the Bourbonnais road. His reason for doing so will might occur during the march? And, finally, what must presently be seen. All along the road, at Aix, at Lyons, in be done with them when under the ramparts of that every town and village, he was received, as at Fréjus, town, if we should be able to take them there? The same with the most rapturous demonstrations of joy. Only embarrassments with respect to the questions of provi- those who witnessed his triumphal journey can form any sions and security would then recur with increased notion of it; and it required no great discernment to force. foresee something like the 18th Brumaire.2 The third day arrived without its being possible, The provinces, a prey to anarchy and civil war, were anxiously as it was desired, to come to any conclusion continually threatened with foreign invasion. Almost all favourable to the preservation of these unfortunate men. the south presented the melancholy spectacle of one vast The murmurs in the camp grew louder—the evil went arena of conflicting factions. The nation groaned on increasing—remedy appeared impossible—the beneath the yoke of tyrannical laws; despotism was danger was real and imminent. systematically established; the law of hostages struck a The order for shooting the prisoners was given and blow at personal liberty, and forced loans menaced every executed on the 10th of March. We did not, as has been 2 18th Brumaire The date (according to the French Republican 1 pasha Highest title accorded to military commander or governor calendar) of Bonaparte’s coup d’état, during which the five-member in the Ottoman Empire. Directory was overthrown: 9 November 1799. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 17

man’s property. The generality of the citizens had abject slavery. declared themselves against a pentarchy devoid of Among the schemes which Bonaparte was inces- power, justice, and morality, and which had become the santly revolving in his mind may undoubtedly be ranked sport of faction and intrigue. Disorder was general; but the project of attaining the head of the French Govern- in the provinces abuses were felt more sensibly than ment; but it would be a mistake to suppose that on his elsewhere. In great cities it was found more easy to elude return from Egypt he had formed any fixed plan. There the hand of despotism and oppression. was something vague in his ambitious aspirations; and A change so earnestly wished for could not fail to be he was, if I may so express myself, fond of building realised, and to be received with transport. The majority those imaginary edifices called castles in the air. The of the French people longed to be relieved from the current of events was in accordance with his wishes; and situation in which they then stood. There were two it may truly be said that the whole French nation dangers to cope with—anarchy and the Bourbons. Every smoothed for Bonaparte the road which led to power. one felt the urgent and indispensable necessity of Certainly the unanimous plaudits and universal joy concentrating the power of the Government in a single which accompanied him along a journey of more than hand; at the same time maintaining those institutions 200 leagues must have induced him to regard as a which the spirit of the age demanded, and which national mission that step which was at first prompted France, after having so dearly purchased, was now about merely by his wish of meddling with the affairs of the to lose. The country looked for a man who was capable Republic. of restoring her to tranquillity; but as yet no such man This spontaneous burst of popular feeling, unor- had appeared. A soldier of fortune presented himself, dered and unpaid for, loudly proclaimed the grievances covered with glory; he had planted the standard of of the people, and their hope that the man of victory France on the Capitol and on the Pyramids. The whole would become their deliverer. The general enthusiasm world acknowledged his superior talent; his character, excited by the return of the conqueror of Egypt de- his courage, and his victories had raised him to the very lighted him to a degree which I cannot express, and was, highest rank. His great works, his gallant actions, his as he has often assured me, a powerful stimulus in speeches, and his proclamations ever since he had risen urging him to the object to which the wishes of France to eminence left no doubt of his wish to secure happi- seemed to direct him. ness and freedom to France, his adopted country.1 At Among people of all classes and opinions an 18th that critical moment the necessity of a temporary Brumaire was desired and expected. Many royalists even dictatorship, which sometimes secures the safety of a believed that a change would prove favourable to the state, banished all reflections on the consequences of King. So ready are we to persuade ourselves of the reality such a power, and nobody seemed to think glory of what we wish. incompatible with personal liberty. All eyes were there- As soon as it was suspected that Bonaparte would fore directed on the General, whose past conduct accept the power offered him, an outcry was raised guaranteed his capability of defending the Republic about a conspiracy against the Republic, and measures abroad, and liberty at home,—on the General whom his were sought for preserving it. But necessity, and indeed, flatterers, and indeed some of his sincere friends, styled, it must be confessed, the general feeling of the people, “the hero of liberal ideas,” the title to which he aspired. consigned the execution of those measures to him who Under every point of view, therefore, he was natu- was to subvert the Republic. On his return to Paris rally chosen as the chief of a generous nation, confiding Bonaparte spoke and acted like a man who felt his own to him her destiny, in preference to a troop of mean and power; he cared neither for flattery, dinners, nor fanatical hypocrites, who, under the names of republi- balls,—his mind took a higher flight.… canism and liberty, had reduced France to the most

1 his adopted country Napoleon was born in the town of Ajaccio, in Corsica. 18 Contexts

from Chapter 28: 1800 witness present. He would then say the harshest things, and level blows against which few could bear up. But he [Bonaparte] did not esteem mankind, whom, indeed, he never gave way to those violent ebullitions of rage until despised more and more in proportion as he became he acquired undoubted proofs of the misconduct of acquainted with them. In him this unfavourable opin- those against whom they were directed. In scenes of this ion of human nature was justified by many glaring sort I have frequently observed that the presence of a examples of baseness, and he used frequently to repeat, third person seemed to give him confidence. Conse- “There are two levers for moving men—interest and quently, in a tête-à-tête interview, anyone who knew his fear.” What respect, indeed, could Bonaparte entertain character, and who could maintain sufficient coolness for the applicants to the treasury of the opera? Into this and firmness, was sure to get the better of him. He told treasury the gaming-houses paid a considerable sum, his friends at St. Helena2 that he admitted a third person part of which went to cover the expenses of that magnif- on such occasions only that the blow might resound the icent theatre. The rest was distributed in secret gratu- farther. That was not his real motive, or the better way ities, which were paid on orders signed by Duroc.1 would have been to perform the scene in public. He had Individuals of very different characters were often seen other reasons. I observed that he did not like a tête-à- entering the little door in the Rue Rameau. The lady tête; and when he expected anyone, he would say to me who was for a while the favourite of the General-in-Chief beforehand, “Bourrienne, you may remain”; and when in Egypt, and whose husband was maliciously sent back anyone was announced whom he did not expect, as a by the English, was a frequent visitor to the treasury. On minister or a general, if I rose to retire he would say in one occasion would be seen assembled there a distin- a half-whisper, “Stay where you are.” Certainly this was guished scholar and an actor, a celebrated orator and a not done with the design of getting what he said re- musician; on another, the treasurer would have payments ported abroad; for it belonged neither to my character to make to a priest, a courtesan, and a cardinal. nor my duty to gossip about what I had heard. Besides, One of Bonaparte’s greatest misfortunes was, that he it may be presumed that the few who were admitted as neither believed in friendship nor felt the necessity of witnesses to the conferences of Napoleon were aware of loving. How often have I heard him say, “Friendship is the consequences attending indiscreet disclosures under but a name; I love nobody. I do not even love my a Government which was made acquainted with all that brothers. Perhaps Joseph, a little, from habit and be- was said and done. cause he is my elder; and Duroc, I love him too. But Bonaparte entertained a profound dislike of the why? Because his character pleases me. He is stern and sanguinary men of the Revolution, and especially of the resolute; and I really believe the fellow never shed a tear. regicides. He felt, as a painful burden, the obligation of For my part, I know very well that I have no true dissembling towards them. He spoke to me in terms of friends. As long as I continue what I am, I may have as horror of those whom he called the assassins of Louis many pretended friends as I please. Leave sensibility to XVI, and he was annoyed at the necessity of employing women; it is their business. But men should be firm in them and treating them with apparent respect. How heart and in purpose, or they should have nothing to do many times has he not said to Cambacérès,3 pinching with war or government.” him by the ear, to soften, by that habitual familiarity, In his social relations Bonaparte’s temper was bad; the bitterness of the remark, “My dear fellow, your case but his fits of ill-humour passed away like a cloud, and is clear; if ever the Bourbons come back you will be spent themselves in words. His violent language and hanged.” A forced smile would then relax the livid bitter imprecations were frequently premeditated. When he was going to reprimand anyone he liked to have a 2 St. Helena Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena, a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean, in 1815. 1 Duroc Bonaparte’s advisor and aide de camp, Géraud Duroc 3 Cambacérès Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès (1753–1824), (1772–1813). Duroc later became grand marshal of the Tuileries Second Consul under Bonaparte; he was known as a moderate palace. republican. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 19

countenance of Cambacérès, and was usually the only of about seventy sail of the Line,2 besides frigates etc. reply of the Second Consul, who, however, on one They were to proceed directly and sweep the English occasion said in my hearing, “Come, come, have done Channel … and to push directly for London, where I with this joking.” … calculated to arrive in four days. During the march, I would have made my army observe the most exemplary discipline, marauding or otherwise injuring or insulting from Barry Edmund O’Meara, Letter to Sir Hudson the inhabitants would have been punished with instant Lowe (1817) Death. I would have published a proclamation (which I would have had ready) declaring that we were only This letter to the governor of St. Helena was written come as friends to the English nation, to render them by the first of Bonaparte’s personal physicians. An free and to relieve them from an obnoxious and despoti- Irish naval surgeon, O’Meara (1786–1836) was the cal Aristocracy, whose object was to keep them eternally subject of great controversy in England during at war in order to enrich themselves and their families at Napoleon’s second exile. O’Meara, who had become the expense of the blood of the people. Arrived at too friendly with Bonaparte for the comfort of the London I would have proclaimed a Republic (I was First English government, charged Lowe with mistreating Consul then, said he), Liberty, Equality, Sovereignty of the emperor. Following his expulsion from the navy, the people, abolished the Monarchical Government, the O’Meara was accused of everything from neglect nobility and the House of Peers,3 the House of Com- and betrayal to fabrication and espionage. mons I would have retained with a great reform, the property of the nobles I would have declared to be Longwood forfeited and to be divided amongst the people, amongst 28 January 1817 the partizans of the Revolution, a general equality and Dear Sir division of property.… he following conversation which took place yester- I replied, “that perhaps if he effected a landing with Tday between General Bonaparte and myself may 200,000 men he might succeed in taking London, but probably not be uninteresting to you. that I was convinced his army would be ultimately Finding him in a tolerable good humour and destroyed. That such was the National Spirit of the apparently ready to communicate, I took an opportunity English, their jealousy and their hatred of the French of asking him whether he ever had really intended to yoke, that it would operate like an electric shock invade England? and if so, what were his plans? and also amongst all ranks. That however some might be discon- whether he thought he would be successful? He replied tented and in opposition to the government, yet still (without hesitation) “It was my firm intention to invade that all parties would unite in expelling and annihilating England and to head the expedition myself. My plan the French. That the fear of being made a French was, to dispatch two squadrons to the West Indies (he province, or even more of being humbled by France, did not say from what ports). There they were to meet would have been sufficient to induce every Englishman and unite at a specified place and instead of waiting to arm and rally round the Constitution. That in a few there, after showing themselves amongst the Islands, weeks, he would have had 500,000 Infantry and 50 or they were to proceed back again to Europe with all 60,000 cavalry to oppose him. That perhaps at first he dispatch. They were to raise the blockade of Ferrol1 and would have been successful in two or three pitched take the fleet out of it. They were then to proceed to battles if the English generals had been foolish enough Brest and in like manner to release and join the squad- to meet him, but that his army would have been de- ron there. By these means I would have had a squadron 2 sail of the Line Powerful warships used in a battle line, usually 1 blockade of Ferrol In 1805, the English and French navies with two or more decks. engaged in a series of blockades and pursuits, one of which centered 3 House of Peers House of Lords. Membership in this British house around the Spanish port of Ferrol. of parliament was inherited. 20 Contexts

stroyed piecemeal and finally annihilated.” Such sir was the conversation which I have thought He replied, “It is more than you or I or Pitt could sufficiently interesting to communicate to you and say, whether I could have been successful or not. I which, I hope, will not prove unacceptable. considered all you have said, but I calculated also the I have the honour to remain, dear sir, with great effect the possession of a great and rich capital, of the respect, your must humble servant, Bank and all the money, the ships in the river Chatman, Barry O’Meara. perhaps Portsmouth, would have had, together with the effect also the proclamation which I would have pub- lished.… For I would cautiously have avoided saying from Madame (Germaine) de Staël, Considerations anything about annexing England to France; on the of the Principal Events of the French Revolution contrary, I would have declared that we came only as (1818) friends to expel a flagitious and tyrannical aristocracy and to restore the rights of the people. That when we Daughter of Louis XVI’s finance minister, Germaine had done that, we would depart as friends.… I would de Staël (1766–1817, née Necker) became a promi- also have stirred up an insurrection in Ireland at the nent figure among Paris’s political and philosophical same time in order to divide and distract your govern- thinkers. Her hopes that Bonaparte would deliver ment’s exertions. Afterwards I would have acted accord- the liberty and republicanism promised by the ing to circumstance. According to my strength. If I revolution were dashed when Napoleon crowned himself emperor. Bonaparte could not reconcile found myself strong enough I would have annexed himself to de Staël’s influence on his city, and England to France, if not, and it is probably doubtful banished her temporarily from Paris. In the excerpt whether I would have been able to do it, or not, I would below, de Staël describes Bonaparte’s consolidation have established a government as would be most conso- of power following his seizure of France in 1799 and nant to my views.… his rise to the status of “First Consul” in 1802. I replied “that the inhabitants would have burnt London sooner than have let them take it.” He an- from Chapter 4: The Advance of Bonaparte’s swered: “No, no, I do not believe that. You are too rich, Absolute Power London is too rich and you are too fond of money to do that. A nation does not so easy burn a capital. Look at … It was particularly advantageous to Bonaparte’s the French. How often have the Parisians sworn to bury power that he had to manage only a mass. All individual themselves under the ruins of the capital sooner than let existence was annihilated by ten years of disorder, and it fall into the hands of the enemies of France and yet nothing sways people like military success; it takes great twice they have let it be taken quietly.” … power of reason to combat this tendency instead of He said: “I believe that there is a great deal more profiting from it. No one in France could consider his national spirit in England than in France, but still I do position secure. Men of all classes, ruined or enriched, not believe that you would have burnt the capital. If banished or rewarded, found themselves one by one indeed, you had had some weeks’ time to remove your equally, so to speak, in the hands of power. Bonaparte, riches, then indeed it might have been possible, but who always moved between two opposed interests, took consider that you would not have had time to organize very good care not to put an end to these anxieties by any plan of doing so, I would have been at the gates in fixed laws that might let everyone know his rights. To few days. … one man he returned his property, while another he I tell you, Mr. Doctor,” continued he, “that there is stripped of his forever. The First Consul reserved to a great deal to be said on both sides, and I do not know himself the power of determining, under any pretext, but I might have succeeded. Having the capital, the the fate of everything and everyone. capital,” repeated he, “in my hands would have had Those Frenchmen who sought to resist the ever- wonderful effect.” increasing power of the First Consul had to invoke The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 21

liberty to struggle against him successfully. But at this as has since been seen, in order to return to their prac- word the aristocrats and the enemies of the Revolution tices as courtiers, and others hoping that the First cried “Jacobinism,” thus supporting the tyranny for Consul would restore the former dynasty. People knew which they later sought to blame their adversaries. that I strongly opposed the form of government Napo- The many newspapers in France were soon subjected leon was following and preparing, and the advocates of to the most rigorous but cleverly devised censorship. For arbitrary power, according to their custom, described as it was not a question of commanding silence from a anti-social those opinions that tended to raise the nation given to meaningless loquacity, as the Romans dignity of people. If some emigrés who returned under had needed circuses. So Bonaparte established that Bonaparte’s rule were reminded of the fury with which prattling tyranny from which he later derived so much they then blamed the friends of liberty, who consistently benefit. All the press repeated the same thing each day, supported but one system, they might learn tolerance in without any one being allowed to contradict them. Just looking back upon their errors. as regular troops are a greater threat than militias to the I was the first woman Bonaparte exiled, but he soon independence of nations, so hired writers make public banished many others of various opinions. Since opinion much more depraved than it would be if people women, on the one hand, could in no way further his communicated only by speech and thus based their political schemes, and since, on the other hand, they judgments only upon facts. were less susceptible than men to the fears and hopes Great power cannot be achieved except by taking that power dispensed, they irritated him like so many advantage of the tendency of the age. So Bonaparte rebels, and he took pleasure in saying offensive and studied well the spirit of his. There had been, among the vulgar things to them. He hated the spirit of chivalry as leading men of the eighteenth century in France, a much as he sought pomp—a bad choice among the old superb enthusiasm for the principles that support the customs. He retained, also, from his early ways during happiness and dignity of mankind, but under the shelter the Revolution, a certain Jacobin antipathy for the of this great oak grew poisonous plants, selfishness and brilliant society of Paris, over which women exerted irony; and Bonaparte could cleverly use these baneful much influence. He feared their wit, which, it must be inclinations. He held up all beautiful things to ridi- admitted, is particularly characteristic of Frenchwomen. cule.… Bonaparte wanted me to praise him in my writings, not, certainly, that an additional eulogy would have been from Chapter 8: On Exile noticed in the fumes of incense surrounding him, but it annoyed him that I was the only writer the French knew … I sensed more quickly than others—and I pride who had published under his rule without making any myself on it—Bonaparte’s tyrannical character and mention of his majestic existence. And he ended by intentions. The true friends of liberty are in this respect suppressing my book on Germany with incredible fury. guided by an instinct that does not deceive them. But Until then my misfortune had consisted only in my my position, at the outset of the Consulate, was made removal from Paris, but after that I was forbidden all more painful by the fact that respectable society in travel, and I was threatened with prison for the rest of my France thought it saw in Bonaparte the man who had days. The contagious nature of exile, an invention worthy saved them from anarchy or Jacobinism. They therefore of the Roman emperors, was the most bitter aggravation vigorously condemned the spirit of opposition I dis- of this penalty. Those who came to see the exiles exposed played toward him. themselves to exile in turn. Most of the Frenchmen I I still remember one of the drawing-room tortures, knew avoided me like the plague. This seemed comic to if I may put it this way, that French aristocrats can, me when I did not suffer too much from it. Like travelers when it suits them, so expertly inflict upon those who in quarantine who maliciously throw their handkerchiefs do not share their opinions. A large part of the old at passers-by to make them share the annoyance of nobility came around to supporting Bonaparte—some, confinement, when I happened to run into a man from 22 Contexts

Bonaparte’s court in the streets of Geneva I was tempted Many people like to argue that Bonaparte would still to terrify him with my courtesies. be emperor if he had not attempted the expeditions against Spain or Russia. This opinion pleases the sup- from Chapter 19: Intoxication of Power; porters of despotism, who insist that so fine a govern- Bonaparte’s Reverses and Abdication ment could not be overthrown by the very nature of things but only by an accident. I have already said, what rom the moment the Allies passed the Rhine and observation of France will confirm, that Bonaparte Fentered France it seemed to me that the prayers of needed war to establish and maintain absolute power. A the friends of France must undergo a complete change. great nation would not have supported the dull and I was then in London, and one of the English Cabinet degrading burden of despotism if military glory had not Ministers asked me what I wished for. I ventured to ceaselessly moved or exalted the public spirit. He was a reply that my desire was to see Bonaparte victorious and man destined to the virtues of Washington or the slain. The English had enough greatness of soul to make conquests of Attila.5 But it was easier to reach the ends it unnecessary for me to conceal this French sentiment of the civilized world than to stop the progress of from them. Yet I was to learn, in the midst of the human reason, and French public opinion would soon transports of joy with which the city of the conquerors have accomplished what Allied arms brought about. reverberated, that Paris was in the power of the Allies. In the various remarks I have just put together on At that moment I felt there was no longer a France: I Bonaparte, I have avoided his private life, with which I believed Burke’s prediction1 realized and that where am not acquainted and which is irrelevant to the inter- France had existed we should see only an abyss. The ests of France. I have not offered a single shady detail of Emperor Alexander,2 the Allies, and the constitutional his past, for the slanders showered upon him seem to me principles adopted through the wisdom of Louis XVIII even more vile than the adulations. I trust I have evalu- banished this gloomy presentiment. ated him as all public men should be—in accordance There was, nevertheless, something of grandeur in with what they have done for the prosperity, enlighten- Napoleon’s farewell to his troops and to their eagles,3 so ment, and morality of nations. The persecutions Bona- long victorious. His last campaign had been long and parte made me undergo have not, I can honestly state, skillful: in short, the fatal magic that bound France’s affected my opinion of him. On the contrary, it was military glory to him was not yet destroyed. Thus the necessary for me rather to resist the sort of trepidation conference at Paris4 must be blamed for having made his caused by a man of extraordinary talent and ominous return possible. The representatives of Europe ought to destiny. I should even have rather willingly let myself be admit this error frankly; it is unfair to blame the French tempted by the satisfaction that courageous people find nation for it. It was certainly with no evil intention that in defending the underdog and by the pleasure in thus the ministers of the foreign kingdoms permitted a taking a stand in greater contrast to the writers and danger that threatened all of Europe to hover above the orators who, yesterday prostrate before him, now throne of Louis XVIII. But why do not those who ceaselessly abuse him—while, I suppose, carefully suspended this sword admit their responsibility for the checking the height of the rocks that confine him. But evil it caused? one cannot be silent on Bonaparte even in his misfor- tune, because his political doctrine still rules in the minds of his enemies as well as his partisans. For, of the 1 Burke’s prediction Edmund Burke often stated that France would entire heritage of his terrible power there remains to be ruined by the Revolution. 2 Emperor Alexander Alexander I of Russia (1777–1825).

3 eagles Bonaparte’s troops sported the symbol of an eagle on their 5 Washington George Washington (1732–99), first President of the flagstaffs. United States; Attila King of the Huns (445–53) who is remem- 4 conference at Paris Meeting of Allies, April 1814, at which bered for his great military conquests and his supposed brutality in Napoleon was offered terms of surrender. battle. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 23

liberty was that a despot should join their ranks— should, so to speak, place himself at their head—and that the enemies of every liberal idea should have a pretext for confusing popular violence with the evils of despotism and thus make tyranny appear to be the result of liberty itself. The consequence of this fatal association has been that the French have been hated by the sover- eigns for seeking to be free and by the nations for not knowing how to be free.

from The Corsican: A Diary of Napoleon’s Life in his Own Words (1910)

Paris, January 1, 1798

aris has a short memory. If I remain longer doing Pnothing, I am lost. In this great Babylon one reputa- tion quickly succeeds another. After I have been seen three times at the theatre, I shall not be looked at again; I shall therefore not go very frequently.

Paris, January 29, 1798

The Devil’s Darling, by Thomas Rowlandson (1814). I will not remain here; there is nothing to be done. They English satirists often associated Napoleon with demons will listen to nothing. I realize that if I stay my reputa- and other supernatural forces. Here he is seen as the Devil tion will soon be gone. All things fade here, and my incarnate. reputation is almost forgotten; this little Europe affords too slight a scope; I must go to the Orient; all great mankind nothing but the baneful knowledge of a few reputations have been won there. If the success of an more secrets in the art of tyranny. expedition to England should prove doubtful, as I fear, the army of England will become the army of the East, from Chapter 13: Bonaparte’s Return and I shall go to Egypt. The Orient awaits a man! … Enlightened men could see in Bonaparte nothing but a despot, but by a rather fatal conjunction of circum- Milan, June 17, 1800 stances this despot was presented to the nation as the defender of its rights. All the benefits achieved by the I have just reached Milan, somewhat fatigued. Revolution, which France will never willingly give up, Some Hungarian grenadiers1 and German prisoners were threatened by the endless rashness of the party that passing by, who had already been prisoners in the wants to repeat the conquest of Frenchmen, as if they were still Gauls. And that part of the nation that most feared the return of the Old Regime thought they saw 1 grenadiers Originally, soldiers belonging to the regiment in Bonaparte a way to save themselves from it. The most responsible for throwing grenades. In the eighteenth century the fatal association that could overwhelm the friends of term came to denote the finest soldiers of a regiment, who were formed into a company. 24 Contexts

campaigns of 1796 and 1797, recognized the First It is just like in my case, sprung from the lower ranks of Consul. Many began to shout, with apparent enthusi- society I became an emperor, because circumstances, asm: “Vive Bonaparte!” opinion, were with me. What a thing is imagination! Here are men who don’t know me, who have never seen me, but who only knew of me, and they are moved by my presence, they Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Feelings of a Republican on would do anything for me! And this same incident arises the Fall of Bonaparte” (1816) in all centuries and in all countries! Such is fanaticism! Yes, imagination rules the world. The defect of our HATED thee, fallen tyrant! I did groan modern institutions is that they do not speak to the I To think that a most unambitious slave, imagination. By that alone can man be governed; Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the grave without it he is but a brute. Of Liberty. Thou mightst have built thy throne 5 Where it had stood even now: thou didst prefer Saint Helena, March 3, 1817 A frail and bloody pomp which time has swept In fragments towards oblivion. Massacre, In spite of all the libels, I have no fear whatever about For this I prayed, would on thy sleep have crept, my fame. Posterity will do me justice. The truth will be Treason and Slavery, Rapine, Fear, and Lust, known; and the good I have done will be compared with 10 And stifled thee, their minister. I know the faults I have committed. I am not uneasy as to the Too late, since thou and France are in the dust, result. Had I succeeded, I would have died with the That Virtue owns a more eternal foe reputation of the greatest man that ever existed. As it is, Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, Legal Crime, although I have failed, I shall be considered as an And bloody Faith, the foulest birth of time. extraordinary man: my elevation was unparalleled, because unaccompanied by crime. I have fought fifty pitched battles, almost all of which I have won. I have from Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Hallam’s framed and carried into effect a code of laws that will Constitutional History” (1828) bear my name to the most distant posterity. I raised myself from nothing to be the most powerful monarch Lord Macaulay (1800–59) was a poet, historian, and in the world. Europe was at my feet. I have always been Whig politician whose disillusionment with Bona- of opinion that the sovereignty lay in the people. In fact, parte stemmed from the emperor’s betrayal of the imperial government was a kind of republic. Called republican ideals. In his extensive historical writings to the head of it by the voice of the nation, my maxim about Napoleon, Macaulay recognized that the was, la carrière est ouverte aux talent1 without distinction revolutionary period, densely layered as it was with a full spectrum of mutating political philosophies, of birth or fortune, and this system of equality is the had left the national character of France completely reason that your oligarchy hates me so much. transformed. In the excerpt below, taken from a review of Saint Helena, August 28, 1817 Henry Hallum’s The Constitutional History of England that was printed in the Edinburgh Review, Jesus was hanged, like so many fanatics who posed as a Macaulay’s ambivalence regarding Napoleon be- prophet, a messiah; there were several every year. What comes evident as he compares Bonaparte to Oliver is certain is that at that epoch opinion was setting Cromwell. Cromwell led the Parliamentary army to towards a single God, and those who first preached the military victory over the forces loyal to Charles I, doctrine were well received: circumstances made for it. who was in turn executed in 1649. England was declared a Commonwealth, and Cromwell served as 1 la carrière… talent French: the career path of the talented is Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658. unlimited. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era 25

Charles II, the heir of the executed Charles I, was restored restore; the republicans of France set themselves to to power in 1660. destroy. In England, the principles of the common law had never been disturbed, and most even of its forms … Parents of tyranny, heirs of freedom, kings among had been held sacred. In France, the law and its minis- citizens, citizens among kings, they unite in themselves ters had been swept away together. In France, therefore, the characteristics of the system which springs from legislation necessarily became the first business of the them, and those of the system from which they have first settled government which rose on the ruins of the sprung. Their reigns shine with a double light, the last old system.… and dearest rays of departing freedom mingled with the Mr. Hallam truly says that, though it is impossible first and brightest glories of empire in its dawn. The to rank Cromwell with Napoleon as a general, yet “his high qualities of such a prince lend to despotism itself a exploits were as much above the level of his contempo- charm drawn from the liberty under which they were raries, and more the effects of an original uneducated formed, and which they have destroyed. He resembles capacity.” Bonaparte was trained in the best military an European who settles within the Tropics, and carries schools; the army which he led to Italy was one of the thither the strength and the energetic habits acquired in finest that ever existed. Cromwell passed his youth and regions more propitious to the constitution. He differs the prime of his manhood in a civil situation. He never as widely from princes nursed in the purple of imperial looked on war till he was more than forty years old. He cradles, as the companions of Gama1 from their dwarfish had first to form himself, and then to form his troops. and imbecile progeny which, born in a climate unfa- Out of raw levies3 he created an army, the bravest and vourable to its growth and beauty, degenerates more and the best disciplined, the most orderly in peace, and the more, at every descent, from the qualities of the original most terrible in war, that Europe had seen. He called conquerors. this body into existence. He led it to conquest. He never In this class three men stand preeminent, Caesar,2 fought a battle without gaining it. He never gained a Cromwell, and Bonaparte. The highest place in this battle without annihilating the force opposed to him. remarkable triumvirate belongs undoubtedly to Caesar. Yet his victories were not the highest glory of his mili- He united the talents of Bonaparte to those of Crom- tary system. The respect which his troops paid to well; and he possessed also, what neither Cromwell nor property, their attachment to the laws and religion of Bonaparte possessed, learning, taste, wit, eloquence, the their country, their submission to the civil power, their sentiments and the manners of an accomplished gentle- temperance, their intelligence, their industry, are man. without parallel. It was after the Restoration that the Between Cromwell and Napoleon Mr. Hallam has spirit which their great leader had infused into them was instituted a parallel.… In this parallel, however, and most signally displayed. At the command of the estab- indeed throughout his work, we think that he hardly lished government, an established government which gives Cromwell fair measure. “Cromwell,” says he, “far had no means of enforcing obedience, fifty thousand unlike his antitype, never showed any signs of a legisla- soldiers whose backs no enemy had ever seen, either in tive mind, or any desire to place his renown on that domestic or in continental war, laid down their arms, noblest basis, the amelioration of social institutions.” and retired into the mass of the people, thenceforward The difference in this respect, we conceive, was not in to be distinguished only by superior diligence, sobriety, the character of the men, but in the character of the and regularity in the pursuits of peace, from the other revolutions by means of which they rose to power. The members of the community which they had saved. civil war in England had been undertaken to defend and In the general spirit and character of his administra- tion, we think Cromwell far superior to Napoleon. “In 1 Gama Vasco da Gama, fifteenth-century Portuguese explorer civil government,” says Mr. Hallam, “there can be no known for his voyages to India. adequate parallel between one who had sucked only the 2 Caesar Roman statesman and general Julius Caesar (c. 100–44 BCE). 3 levies Men enrolled in military service. 26 Contexts

dregs of a besotted fanaticism, and one to whom the fatalism. They did not preserve him from the inebria- stores of reason and philosophy were open.” These tion of prosperity, or restrain him from indecent queru- expressions, it seems to us, convey the highest eulogium lousness in adversity. On the other hand, the fanaticism on our great countryman. Reason and philosophy did of Cromwell never urged him on impracticable under- not teach the conqueror of Europe to command his takings, or confused his perception of the public good. passions, or to pursue, as a first object, the happiness of Our countryman, inferior to Bonaparte in invention, his people. They did not prevent him from risking his was far superior to him in wisdom.… Cromwell was fame and his power in a frantic contest against the emphatically a man. He possessed, in an eminent principles of human nature and the laws of the physical degree, that masculine and full-grown robustness of world, against the rage of the winter and the liberty of mind, that equally diffused intellectual health, which, if the sea. They did not exempt him from the influence of our national partiality does not mislead us, has pecu- that most pernicious of superstitions, a presumptuous liarly characterised the great men of England.