Part 15 (1/2)

This certainly is a new method to populate our colonies with capitalists

LETTER III

PARIS, Septeold to our Governenerals, to its co to the boasts of Talleyrand, and the avowal of Berthier, we have drawn from it within two years more wealth than has been paid in contributions to the Electors of Hanover for this century past, and more than half a century of peace can restore to that unfortunate country It is reported here that each person employed in a situation to land (a naiven here to Hanover in courtesy to Bonaparte) was laid under contribution, and expected to make certain douceurs to Madame Bonaparte; and it is said that she has received from Mortier three hundred thousand livres, and from Bernadotte two hundred and fifty thousand livres, besides other large suents in the Electorate

General Mortier is one of the few favourite officers of Bonaparte who have distinguished theru and Moreau, without ever serving under him Edward Adolph Casimer Mortier is the son of a shopkeeper, and was born at Cambray in 1768 He was a shopman with his father until 1791, when he obtained a commission, first as a lieutenant of carabiniers, and afterwards as captain of the first battalion of volunteers of the Departht of an enemy was on the 30th of April, 1792, near Quievrain, where he had a horse killed under him He was present in the battles of Je At the battle of Houdscoote he distinguished hieneral

He ounded at the battle of Fleures, and again at the passage of the Rhine, in 1795, under General Moreau During 1796 and 1797 he continued to serve in Germany, but in 1798 and 1799 he headed a division in Switzerland from which Bonaparte recalled him in 1800, to command the troops in the capital and its environs His address to Bonaparte, announcing the votes of the troops under hi the consulate for life and the elevation to the Imperial throne, contain such mean and abject flattery that, for a true soldier, it e to pronounce them than to brave the fire of a hundred cannons; but these very addresses, contemptible as their contents are, procured him the Field-ing in antechambers would be better rewarded than his services in the field I was not present when Mortier spoke so shamefully, but I have heard from persons itnessed this farce, that he had his eyes fixed on the ground the whole ti, and I grant that I am so; but what shall I do, torreat, and to riot a the wealthy? Have compassion on my weakness, or, if you have not, I will console myself with the idea that my meanness is only of the duration of half an hour, while its recompense-my rank-will be perhter of the landlord of the Belle Sauvage inn at Coblentz, as pregnant by hiuest of her father She is pretty, but not handsoe of her husband's complaisance to console herself both for his absence and infidelities When she was delivered of her last child, Mortier positively declared that he had not slept with her for twelve months, and the babe has, indeed, less resemblance to hireat splendour; the Emperor and the Empress were the sponsors, and it was christened by Cardinal Fesch

Bonaparte presented Madame Mortier on this occasion with a diamond necklace valued at one hundred and fifty thousand livres

During his different can in Hanover, he has collected property to the amount of seven millions of livres, laid out in estates and lands He is considered by other generals as a brave captain, but an indifferent chief; and a our fashi+onables and our courtiers he is held up as athree mistresses only

There was no truth in the report that his recall frorace; on the contrary, it was a new proof of Bonaparte's confidence and attachment He was recalled to take the command of the artillery of Bonaparte's, household troops the e, and Moreau were arrested, and when the Iainst this innovation was at that time expected than experienced

Bernadotte, who succeeded Mortier in the command of our army in Hanover, is a man of a different stamp His father was a chair-man, and he was born at Paris in 1763 In 1779 he enlisted in the regiment called La Vieille Harine, where the Revolution found hiiment was then quartered at Toulon, and the eed hients His activity soon destroyed all discipline, and the troops, instead of attending to their military duty, followed hi arrested and ordered to be tried for his mutinous, scandalous behaviour, an insurrection liberated hiht In April, 1790, he headed the banditti who murdered the Governor of the Fort St Jean at Marseilles, and who afterwards occasioned the Civil War in Coin, where he served under Jourdan, known by the name of Coup-tell, or cut-throat, who made him a colonel and his aide-de-caade, in the arns of 1795 and 1796, he served under another Jourdan, the general, withoutthe cause of all the disasters of the last can, by the coust, 1796 His division was ordered to Italy in 1797, where, against the laws of nations, he arrested M d' Antraigues, as attached to the Russian legation When the Russian A this injustice, and this violation of the rights of privileged persons, he replied: ”There is no question here of any other right or justice than the right and justice of power, and I aues is our enemy; were he victorious, he would cause us all to be shot I repeat, I aest, 'et nous verrons'”

After the Peace of Campo Formio, Bernadotte was sent as an Ambassador to the Court of Vienna, acco procured the liberty of Austrian patriots, whose lives, forfeit to the law, the lenity of the Cabinet of Vienna had spared, he thought that he ; and, therefore, on the anniversary day of the fete for the levy en masse of the inhabitants of the capital, he insulted the feelings of the loyal, and excited the discontented to rebellion, by placing over the door and in the s of his house the tri-coloured flag This outrage the E Bernadotte's house was invaded, his furniture broken to pieces, and he was forced to save himself at the house of the Spanish Ambassador As a satisfaction for this attack, provoked by his own insolence, he demanded the iut, and threatened, in case of refusal, to leave Vienna, which he did on the next day So disgraceful was his conduct regarded, even by the Directory, that this event made but little impression, and no alteration in the continuance of their intercourse with the Austrian Government

In 1799, he was for some weeks a Minister of the war department, from which his incapacity caused him to be dismissed When Bonaparte intended to seize the reins of State, he consulted Bernadotte, who spoke as an implacable Jacobin until a douceur of three hundred thousand livres--calmed him a little, and convinced hiovernovernments In 1801, he was made the commander-in-chief in the Western Departainst the inhabitants, who still chouans and royalists

With Augereau and Massena, Bernadotte is a istrates of the free and neutral city of Nure him, under pain of military execution, within twenty-four hours, two millions of livres With much difficulty this sum was collected The day after he had received it, he insisted upon another sum to the sa in case of disobedience to give the city up to a general pillage by his troops Fortunately, a column of Austrians advanced and delivered them from the execution of his threats The troops under him were, both in Italy and in Germany, the terror of the inhabitants, and when defeated were, froe and murder, hunted like wild beasts Bernadotte has by these means within ten years become master of a fortune of ten millions of livres

Many have considered Bernadotte a revolutionary fanatic, but they are in the wrong Money engaged him in the cause of the Revolution, where the first crimes he had perpetrated fixed him The many massacres under Jourdan the cut-throat, coin, no doubt display a uinary character A lady, however, in whose house in La Vendee he was quartered six e from his conversation, he is not naturally cruel, but that his iibbets which he knows that his crimes have merited, and that, therefore, when he stabs others, he thinks it co him Were he sure of impunity, he would, perhaps, show hurand officer of the Legion of Honour, but a knight of the Royal Prussian Order of the Black Eagle

LETTER IV

PARIS, Septee of the remark of Voltaire, in his ”Life of Louis XIV,” that this Prince owedto a list shown islative corps and a director of literary pensions, even in your country and in Ireland he has nine literary pensioners Though the names of your principal authors and men of letters are not unknown to me, I have never read nor heard of any of those I saw in the list, except two or three as editors of so and scurrilous party pamphlets I made this observation to Fontanes, who replied that thesethe last peace, been very useful, and would be still more so after another pacification; and that Bonaparte reater talents He granted also that land, nity of their character than those of Gerht over He added that, as soon as the war ceased, he should cross the Channel on a literary mission, from which he hoped to derive more success than froo by Fievee

To these s, devoted to Bonaparte, he certainly is very liberal Soislators; others he has appointed his Ministers in foreign countries, and on those to whoreater pensions than any forn of this country allowed to a Corneille, a Racine, a Boileau, a Voltaire, a De Crebillon, a D' Alembert, a Marmontel, and other heroes of our literature and honours to our nation This liberality is often carried too far, and throay upon worthless subjects, whose very flattery displays absence of taste and genius, as well as ofthe coronation of Napoleon the First in two hundred of the ested lines that ever ritten, containing neither ned a place in the administration of the forest department, worth twelve thousand livres in the year--besides a present, in ready money, of one hundred napoleons d'or Another poetaster, Barre, who has served and sung the chiefs of all former factions, received, for an ode of forty lines on Bonaparte's birthday, an office at Milan, worth twenty thousand livres in the year--and one hundred napoleons d'or for his travelling expenses

The suents for dedications to hireater than those fixed for regular literary pensions Instead of discouraging these foolish and ienuity, necessity, or intrusion, lay on his vanity, he rather encourages them

His name is, therefore, found in more dedications published within these last five years than those of all other Sovereign Princes in Europe taken together for the last century In a man whose name, unfortunately for humanity, must always live in history, it is a childish and unpardonable weakness to pay so profusely for the short and uncertain immortality which some dull or obscure scribbler or poetaster confers on hi the last Christmas holidays I dined at Madame Remisatu's, in company with Duroc The question turned upon literary productions and the comparative n authors ”As to the merits or the quality,” said Duroc, ”I will not take upon e, as I profess myself totally incompetent; but as to their size and quantity I have tolerably good information, and it will not, therefore, be very improper in me to deliver my opinion I am convinced that the German and Italian authors arereasons: I suppose, from what I have witnessed and experienced for some years past, that of every book or publication printed in France, Italy, and Germany, each tenth is dedicated to the Emperor Now, since last Christmas ninety-six German and seventy-one Italian authors have inscribed their works to His Majesty, and been rewarded for it; while during the same period only sixty-six Frenchn”

Forall the numerous hordes of authors who have been paid, recoed by Bonaparte, none have experienced his munificence more than the Italian Spanicetti and the Gerical table in which he proved that the Bonaparte faration froo, were allied to the most ancient Tuscany families, even to that of the House of Medicis; and as this house has given two queens to the Bourbons when Sovereigns of France, the Bonapartes are, therefore, relatives of the Bourbons; and the sceptre of the French Eh in a more worthy branch Spanicetti received one thousand louis--in gold, a pension of six thousand livres--for life, and the place of a chef du bureau in the dohteen thousand livres yearly

Ritterstein, a Bavarian genealogist, proved the pedigree of the Bonapartes as far back as the first crusades, and that the name of the friend of Richard Coeur de Lion was not Blondel, but Bonaparte; that he exchanged the latter for the forenet fauished by its intere and incorporation with the House of Stuart, and that, therefore, Napoleon Bonaparte is not only related to ht to the throne of Great Britain than George the Third, being descended from the male branch of the Stuarts; while this Prince is only descended from the female branch of the same royal house Ritterstein was presented with a snuff-box with Bonaparte's portrait set with diamonds, valued at twelve thousand livres, and received twenty-four thousand livres ready ether with a pension of nine thousand livres--in the year, until he could be better provided for He was, besides, noion of Honour It cannot be denied but that Bonaparte rewards like a real Emperor

But artists as well as authors obtain froement, and experience the same liberality In our different museums we, therefore, already, see and ad the different actions, scenes, and achievements of Bonaparte's public life It is true they are not all highly finished or well composed or delineated, but they all strike the spectators more or less with surprise or admiration; and it is with us, as, I suppose, with you, and everywhere else, the e or real connoisseur, hundreds pass, who stare, gape, are charmed, and inspire thousands of their acquaintance, friends, and neighbours with their own satisfaction Believe e, his contemporaries, and, I fear, even posterity