Part 20 (2/2)

In 1796, when commander-in-chief, Bonaparte made Junot his aide-de-caypt There, as well as in Italy, he fought bravely, but had no particular opportunity of distinguishi+ng hiht with him to Europe in 1799, but returned first to France in 1801, when he was noeneral of division and coned last year to General Murat

His despotic and cruel behaviour while coretted Fouche lost in him, indeed, an able support, but none of us here ever experienced from him justice, much less protection As with all other of ourwas obtained fro any har his usual vexatious oppressions, he had conferred benefits He wasof street robbers and housebreakers, who, in the winter of 1803, infested this capital, and hen finally discovered, were screened from justice and suffered to escape punishment

I will tell you what I personally have seen of hi to enter the roo-tables are kept, I observed hi eneral, and as playing with rouleaux of louis d'or, supposed to contain fifty each, at Rouge et Noir As long as he lost, which he did several tiave another from his pocket At last he hen he asked the bankers to look at their loss, and count theit, they found it contained one hundred bank-notes of one thousand livres each--folded in a manner to resemble the form and size of louis d'or The bankers refused to pay, and applied to the coht to do so, after so ed by the person who now required such an unusual sum in such an unusual iven, Junot interfered, asking the bankers whether they kneho he was Upon their answering in the negative, he said: ”I am General Junot, the commander of Paris, and this officer who has won thehim this instant, if you do not wish to have your bank confiscated and your persons arrested” They refused to part with money which they protested was not their own, and most of the individuals present joined theether a set of scoundrels and sharpers,”

interrupted Junot; ”your business shall soon be done”

So saying, he seized all the - a tall and strong ht in the guard, whom he ordered, as their chief, to carry to prison sixteen persons he pointed out Fortunately, I was not of the number--I say fortunately, for I have heard that most of them remained in prison six months before this delicate affair was cleared up and settled In the meantime, Junot not only pocketed all the money he pretended was due to his aide-de-camp, but the whole sum contained in the bank, which was double that amount It was believed by every one present that this was an affair arranged between hie the bank What a coeneral, and what an Ambassador!

Fitte, the secretary of our Eal, was formerly an Abbe, and must be well remembered in your country, where he passed sorant, but was, in fact, a spy of Talleyrand I a your Ministers out of a sum of money by some plausible schemes he proposed to theerousthe time of Robespierre he is said to have caused the er sister; the former he denounced to appropriate to himself his wealth, and the latter he accused of fanaticism, because she refused to cohabit with hireat friendshi+p of Talleyrand

'Qualis rex, talis grex'

LETTER XIX

PARIS, September, 1805

MY LORD:--In soer and trouble, remained neutral, were punished as traitors or treated as enemies When, by our Revolution, civilized society and the European Commonwealth were menaced with a total overthrow, had each ht, and subjected to the saht, perhaps, have been less wealthy, but the whole community would have been more happy and reat error in the powerful league of 1793 to admit any neutrality at all; every Government that did not combat rebellion should have been considered and treated as its ally The er, when hands are wanted to preserve the vessel fro, deserves to be thrown overboard, to be sed up by the waves and to perish the first Had all other nations been united and unaniainst the monster, Jacobinism, we should not have heard of either Jacobin directors, Jacobin consuls, or a Jacobin Eard to a temporary profit, they entered into a truce with a revolutionary volcano, which, sooner or later, will consume them all; for I am afraid it is now too late for all human poith all human means, to preserve any State, any Governration Switzerland, Venice, Geneva, Genoa, and Tuscany have already gathered the poisoned fruits of their neutrality

Let but Bonaparte establish hier, and you will see the neutral Hanse Towns, neutral Prussia, and neutral Dene, and destruction, and the independence of the nations in the North will be buried in the rubbish of the liberties of the people of the South of Europe

These ideas have frequently occurred to ents pronounce, and their dupes repeat: ”Oh! the wise Government of Denmark!

Oh, what a wise statesman the Danish Minister, Count von Bernstorff!” I do not deny that the late Count von Bernstorff was a great politician; but I assert, also, that his was a greatness ular times than for periods of unusual political convulsion Like your Pitt, the Russian Woronzow, and the Austrian Colloredo, he was too honest to judge soundly and to act rightly, according to the present situation of affairs He adhered too much to the old routine, and did not perceive the immense difference between the Government of a revolutionary ruler and the Government of a Louis XIII or a Louis XIV I am certain, had he still been alive, he would have repented of his errors, and tried to have repaired them

His son, the present Danish Minister, follows his father's plans, and adheres, in 1805, to a system laid down by him in 1795; while the alterations that have occurred within these ten years have more affected the real and relative power and weakness of States than all the revolutions which have been produced by the insurrections, wars, and pacifications of the two preceding centuries He has even gone farther, in some parts of his administration, than his father ever intended

Without re the political TRUTH, that a weak State which courts the alliance of a powerful neighbour always beco to becoe the connections of Denotten the obligations of the Cabinet of Copenhagen to the Cabinet of St

Petersburg, and the interested policy of the House of Brandenburgh That, on the contrary, Russia has always been a generous ally of Den state of the Danish do of the last century evinces Its distance and geographical position prevent all encroach feared or atteainst the rivalry of Sweden and ambition of Prussia

The Prince Royal of Denhtened, and would rule with more true policy and lustre were he to follow seldomer the advice of his counsellors, and oftener the dictates of his own mind

Count von Schimmelood and moral characters; but I fear that their united capacity taken together will not fill up the vacancy left in the Danish Cabinet by the death of its late Prime Minister I have been personally acquainted with them all three, but I draw my conclusions froe Had the late Count von Bernstorff held the raph in the Moniteur would never have disbanded a Danish aruers have been endured who preached neutrality, after witnessing repeated violation of the law of nations, not on the remote banks of the Rhine, but on the Danish frontiers, on the Danish territory, on the banks of the Elbe

It certainly was no compliment to His Danish Majesty when our Governen, a man ed his education and information to the Conde branch of the Bourbons, and who afterwards audaciously and sacrilegiously read the sentence of death on the chief of that fa, Louis XVI It can neither be called dignity nor prudence in the Cabinet of Denicide to serve as a point of rally to sedition and innovation; to be the official propagator of revolutionary doctrines, and an official protector of all proselytes and sectaries of this anti-social faith

Before the Revolution a secretary to the Prince of Conde, Grouvelle was trusted and rewarded by His Serene Highness, and in return betrayed his confidence, and repaid benefactions and generosity with calued to seek safety in eainst the assassins of successful rebellion When the national seals were put on the estates of the Prince, he appropriated to hihness's library, but a part of his plate Even the wardrobe and the cellar were laid under contributions by this doenius and acquired experience, Grouvelle unites impudence and immorality; and those on whom he fixes for his prey are, therefore, easily duped, and irremediably undone He has furnished disciples to all factions, and to all sects, assassins to the revolutionary tribunals, as well as victiuillotine; sans-culottes to Robespierre, Septembrizers to Marat, republicans to the Directory, spies to Talleyrand, and slaves to Bonaparte, who, in 1800, noraced hihien had rather been secretly poisoned in Baden than publicly condemned and privately executed in France

Our present Minister at the Court of Copenhagen, D' Aguesseau, has no virtues to boast of, but also no crimes to blush for With inferior capacity, he is only considered by Talleyrand as an inferior intriguer, employed in a country ruled by an inferior policy, neither feared nor esteeiers the elder, is our real and confidential firebrand in the North, co those materials of combustion which Grouvelle and others of our incendiaries have lighted and illuminated in Holstein, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway