Part 6 (1/2)
At Mentz no Prince or Minister fawned more assiduously upon Bonaparte than this hero of chivalry It could not escape notice, but need not have alarreat man, as was the case The prefect of the palace was ordered to give authentic infor Edelsheim's moral and political character He applied to the police coned a declaration affirerous of all imbecile creatures that ever entered the Cabinet of a Prince; that he had never drawn a sword, worn a dagger, or fired a pistol in his life; that the inquiries about his real character were sneered at in every part of the Electorate, as nowhere they allowed him common sense, much less a character; all blamed his presumption, but none defended his capacity
After the perusal of this report, Bonaparte asked Talleyrand: ”What can Edelsheim mean by his troublesome assiduities? Does he want any indemnities, or does he wish me to make him a German Prince? Can he have the iislator, or a Senator in France, or that I shall give hi,” answered the Minister; ”did not Your Majesty condescend to notice at the last fete that this eclipsed moon was encompassed in a firmanent of stars You would, Sire, make him the happiest of ion of Honour”
”Does he want nothing else?” said Napoleon, as if relieved at once of an oppressive burden ”Write to ion of Honour, Lacepede, to send him a patent, and do you inform him of this favour”
It is reported at Carlsruhe, the capital of Baden, that Baron Edelsheim has composed his own epitaph, in which he clairavate of Baden was elevated into an Electorate!!!
LETTER XIX
PARIS, August, 1805
MY LORD:--The sensation that the arrival of the Pope in this country caused a the lower classes of people cannot be expressed, and if expressed, would not be believed I a theirtheir faith, this journey has shaken bothto our religious notions, as you must know, the Roman pontiff is the vicar of Christ, and infallible; he can never err The atheists of the National Convention and the Theophilanthropists of the Directory not only denied his demi-divinity, but transfor to tear the veil of superstition, annihilated all belief in a God The ignorant part of our nation, which, as everywhere else, constitutes thethe ihty the passions ofguilt, and afterwards of His existence in not exter, however, the want of consolation in their misfortunes here, and hope of a reward hereafter for un the restoration of Christianity; and by this political act Bonaparte gained more adherents than by all his victories he had procured adood and his bad qualities, his talents and his crimes, are too recent and too notorious to require description
Should he continue successful, and be attended by fortune to his grave, future ages reat man; but by his contemporaries it will always be doubtful whether mankind has not suffered more from his ambition and cruelties than benefited by his services Had he satisfied hiistrate of a Coed that a monarchical Government alone was suitable to the spirit of this country, had he recalled our legiti, he would have occupied a principal, if not the first, place in the history of France,--a place much more exalted than he can ever expect to fill as an Emperor of the French Let his prosperity be ever so uninterrupted, he cannot beestee contereatest and most enoriven to him who, to preserve an authority unlawfully acquired, asssociates in his guilt a Supreme Pontiff, whom the multitude is accustomed to reverence as the representative of their God, but who, by this act of scandal and sacrilege, descends to a level with the most culpable of es, where sincerity is more frequent than corruption, and where hypocrites are as little known as infidels, these remarks made by the people:
”Can the real vicar of Christ, by his inauguration, coiti as a sacred donation what belongs to another; and what he has no power, no authority, to dispose of? Can Pius VII confer on Napoleon the First what belongs to Louis XVIII? Would Jesus Christ, if upon earth, have acted thus? Would his immediate successors, the Apostles, not have preferred the suffering of martyrdom to the commission of any injury? If the present Roman pontiff acts differently from what his Master and predecessors would have done, can he be the vicar of our Saviour?”
These and many similar reflections the common people have made, and make yet The step froht up in the Ro Pius VII to be the vicar of Christ, will soon remember the precepts of atheists and freethinkers, and believe that Christ is not the Son of God, and that God is only the invention of fear
The fact is, that by the Pope's perforious as well as a political revolution was effected; and the usurper in pohatever his creed may be, will hereafter, without much difficulty, force it on his slaves You may, perhaps, object that Pius VII, in his official account to the Sacred College of his journey to France, speaks with enthusiasm of the Catholicism of the French people But did not the Goddess of Reason, did not Robespierre as a high priest of a Suprehly of their sectaries? Read the Moniteur of 1793 and 1794, and you will be convinced of the truth of this assertion They, like the Pope, spoke of what they saw, and they, like him, did not see an individual as not instructed how to perforive satisfaction to him whom he was to please, and to those who employed him As you have attended to the history of our Revolution, you have found it in great part a cruel masquerade, where none but the unfortunate Louis XVI
appeared in his native and natural character and without a n, and a kind of calmness and tranquillity pervades his address and ant The crowds that he must have been accustomed to see since his present elevation have not lessened a ti troubled hiislative Body, Tribunate, National Institute, Tribunals, etc, that teased him on every occasion
He never was suspected of any vices, but all his virtues are negative; and his best quality is, not to do good, but to prevent evil His piety is sincere and unaffected, and it is not difficult to perceive that he has been more accustomed to address his God than to converse with men He is nowhere so well in his place as before the altar; when is of Providence on his audience he speaks with confidence, as to a friend to whom his purity is known, and who is accustomed to listen favourably to his prayers He is zealous but not fanatical, but equally superstitious as devout His closet was croith relics, rosaries, etc, but there he passed generally eight hours of the twenty-four upon his knees in prayer and meditation He often inflicted on himself mortifications, observed fast-days, and kept his voith religious strictness
None of the promises made him by Cardinal Fesch, in the name of Napoleon the First, were perforeneral pacification He was prona, Ferrara, and Ravenna; the ancient supremacy and pecuniary contributions of the Gallican Church, and the restoration of certain religious orders, both in France and Italy; but notwithstanding his own representations, and the activity of his Cardinal, Caprara, nothing was decided, though nothing was refused
By some means or other he was made perfectly acquainted with the crimes and vices of most of our public functionaries Talleyrand was surprised when Cardinal Caprara explained to him the reason why the Pope refused to admit some persons to his presence, and why he wished others even not to be of the party when he accepted the invitations of Bonaparte and his wife to their private societies Many are, however, of opinion that Talleyrand, frohtened and confirmed His Holiness's aversion This was at least once the case with regard to De Lalande When Duroc inquired the cause of the Pope's displeasure against this astronoreeable to the Emperor were His Holiness to per hi would always be welcome to approach his person; that he pitied the errors and prayed for the conversion of this savant, but was neither displeased nor offended with him Talleyrand, when infor misinterpreted his master's communications; and this prelate, in his turn, censured our Minister's bad arded in France as the first astronoh priest of atheists; he is said to be the author of a shockingly blasphee no God” He implored the ferocious Robespierre to honour the heavens by bestowing, on a new planet pretended to be discovered, his ci-devant Christian-naratulation to Bonaparte, on the occasion of his present elevation, he also i himself Jesus Christ the First, Emperor of the French, instead of Napoleon the First But it was not his known i with his presence a Christian pontiff In the surace, De Lalande was at the head of those who imputed to his treachery, corruptions, and machinations all the evils France then suffered, both from external enemies and internal factions If Talleyrand has justly been reproached for soon forgetting good offices and services done him, nobody ever denied that he has the best recollection in the world of offences or attacks, and that he is as revengeful as unforgiving
The only one of our great men who, was the Senator and Minister of Police, Fouche As His Holiness was not so particular with regard to other persons who, like Fouche, were both apostate priests and regicide subjects, the following is reported to be the cause of his aversion and obduracy:
In November, 1793, the remains of a wretch of the name of Challiers--justly called, for his atrocities, the Murat of Lyons--were ordered by Fouche, then a representative of the people in that city, to be produced and publicly worshi+pped; and, under his particular auspices, a grand fete was performed to the memory of this republican martyr, who had been executed as an assassin As part of this impious cere on his head a mitre, and the volumes of Holy Writ tied to his tail, paraded the streets The remains of Challiers were then burnt, and the ashes distributed a his adorers; while the books were also consumed, and the ashes scattered in the wind Fouche proposed, after giving the ass some water to drink in a sacred chalice, to ter all the prisoners, a to seven thousand five hundred; but a sudden storm prevented the execution of this diabolical proposition, and dispersed the sacrilegious congregation
LETTER XX
PARIS, August, 1805