XIII. outrage against the majesty of the throne? Would he leave on CHAP. the throne a prince who could not withdraw himself from the yoke of England? In that case, France must constantly keep a 1808. powerful army on foot in Spain. Would he reinstate Charles IV.? September. This could not be effected without overcoming a great resistance, and shedding French blood. And should that blood, of which France was prodigal for her own interests, be shed for a foreign king, whose fate was of no consequence to her? Lastly, would he abandon the Spanish nation to themselves, and while England was sowing the seeds of trouble and of anarchy, leave this new prey for England to devour? This was not to be thought of. The Emperor, therefore, occupied, of necessity, with the regeneration of Spain, in a manner useful to that kingdom and to France, ought neither to re-establish the dethroned king, nor to leave his son upon the throne; for in either case it would be delivering her to the English. Policy advised, and justice authorized him to provide for the security of the empire, and to save Spain from the influence of England. port. Thus was the principle, that whatever is profitable is right, Second reopenly proclaimed by the French government,.. a principle which the very thief, on his career to the gallows, dares not avow to himself. The other report from the same minister was of four months later date, though the former had plainly not been written Sept. 1. till it was thought expedient to publish it: for the Tyrant needed no adviser in his conduct at Bayonne; and if his usurpation had been passively submitted to by the Spaniards, Spain would have been represented as the brave and faithful ally of France, and the new dynasty exhibited as the reward of her loyalty, which was now to be the means of curbing her hostile disposition. This second report began by proposing to the Emperor that he should communicate to the Senate the treaties which had placed the crown of Spain in his hands, and the constitution, which, CHAP. under his auspices, and enlightened by his advice, the Junta at XIII. Bayonne, after free and mature deliberation, had adopted, for 1808. the glory of the Spanish name, and the prosperity of Spain September. and its colonies. He had interfered with Spain, it said, as a Report of the war minister. 66 mediator; but his persuasive means, and his measures of wise and humane policy, had not been successful. Individual interests, foreign intrigues, and the influence of foreign corruption had prevailed. The disturbances in Spain were occasioned by English gold. Would, then, his Majesty permit England to say, Spain is one of my provinces! My flag, driven from the Baltic, the North sea, the Levant, and even from the shores of Persia, rules in the ports of France?" No, never! To prevent so much disgrace and misfortune, two millions of brave men were ready to scale the Pyrenees, and chase the English from the peninsula. If the French fought for the liberty of the seas, they must begin by wresting Spain from the influence of the tyrant of the ocean. If they fought for peace, they could not obtain it till they had driven the enemies of peace from Spain. If they fought for honour, they must promptly inflict vengeance for the outrages committed against the French name in Spain. The probability of meeting the English at last, of fighting them man to man, of making them feel the evils of war themselves,.. evils of which they were ignorant, having only caused them by their gold, was represented as no small advantage. They will be beaten, said M. Champagny, destroyed, dispersed, or, at least, they will make haste to fly, as they did at Toulon, at the Helder, at Dunkirk, in Sweden,.. wherever the French armies have been able to find them! But their expulsion from Spain would be the ruin of their cause; it would exhaust their means, and annihilate their last hope. In this contest the wishes of all Europe would be with France! These reports, with the two mock treaties of Bayonne, were XIII. laid before the Senate, and, at the same time, a report of the CHAP. war-minister was presented. France, it was said, had never possessed more numerous or better appointed armies, neither 1808. were they ever better kept up, or better provisioned. Never- September. theless, the events which had taken place in Spain had occasioned a pretty considerable loss, in consequence of an operation, not less inconceivable than painful, of the division under General Dupont. His Majesty had notified his resolution of assembling more than 200,000 men beyond the Pyrenees, without weakening either the armies in Germany or that in Dalmatia. A levy of 80,000 was therefore indispensable, and these could only be taken from the four classes of the conscription of the years 1806, 7, 8, and 9, which, exclusive of the men who had married within those years, might furnish 600,000. In levying 80,000, only one conscript out of seven would be called out, and the vacancies in the armies would thus be filled up with soldiers of 21, 22, and 23 years of age, that is, with men fit to undergo the fatigues of war. "It is true, Sire," said the war minister, "that the custom observed of late years might, to a certain degree, induce a part of your subjects to consider themselves released from the duty of the conscription, as soon as they had furnished the contingent required for the year; and, under this point of view, what I propose might appear to require from your people a sacrifice. But, Sire, there is no one but knows, that, by the words of the law, your Majesty would be authorised to call to your standard the whole of the conscription, not only of the last four years, but even of the antecedent years: and even were there question of a real sacrifice, what sacrifice is it that your Majesty has not a right to expect from the love of your subjects? Who among us is ignorant that your Majesty wholly sacrifices yourself for the happiness of France, and that upon the speedy accomplishment of your high designs depend the repose of the XIII. September. CHAP. world, the future safety, and the re-establishment of a maritime peace, without which France can never enjoy tranquillity? In 1808. proposing to your Majesty to declare, that henceforth no retrospective call shall take an antecedent conscription, I only participate, Sire, in your paternal wishes. I think it expedient, at the same time, to propose to your Majesty to order out the conscription of the year 1810, determining the amount of it, from the present instant, at 80,000 men.. to furnish the means, as occasion may require, of forming camps of reserve, and of protecting the coast in the spring time. This conscription would be raised only under the apprehension of a war with other powers, nor would it be called out before the month of January next." Thus, then, it appeared that those persons who had escaped from the conscriptions of four years were again to stand the hazard of this dreadful lottery, and that of the unmarried men, between the ages of 21 and 23, one in seven was to be sent to the armies! . . and this draught upon the morality, the happiness, the vital strength, the flesh and blood of the French people.. was required, because their Corsican master had thought proper to appoint his brother to be king of Spain! The promise that no retrospective conscription should again be called for, shows plainly what the feelings of the nation were at such a measure, when Buonaparte thought it necessary to soothe them, by declaring, that it was not to be repeated. This was not all: one year's conscription had already been anticipated, another year was to be levied in advance, and 80,000 men, whose services, by these baleful laws, were not due till 1810, were now to be called Suspicion forth. This was necessary, the report said, because England of Austria. and Austria were increasing their armies; and it was an evil inseparable from the present state of Europe, that France must increase hers in the same proportion. A suspicion of the in of the views tentions of Austria was now intimated. Its armaments, the war CHAP. XIII. minister declared, had often excited his solicitude. He had been told by the minister for foreign affairs, that the best under- 1808. standing prevailed with the court of Vienna; but though it did September. not belong to his department to dive into the views and interests of states, and explore the tortuous labyrinths of politics, it was his duty to neglect nothing for preserving to the French armies, at all points, that just superiority which they ought to possess. The plan which he had proposed would give the army of Spain 200,000 men, without weakening the other armies; and the conscription of 1810 would increase the armies of Germany, of the North, and of Italy, by more than 80,000. From such a force what could be expected but the speedy re-establishment of tranquillity in Spain, of a maritime peace, and of that general tranquillity which was the object of the Emperor's wishes? Much blood would be spared, because so great a number of men would be ready to shed it... Here the tyrant's principle is right: and grievously was that parsimony of strength on the part of his mightiest enemy to be lamented, which, by never sending a force sufficient to insure its object, so often wasted what it sent. from Buo the Senate. A message from Buonaparte accompanied these reports, Message when they were laid before the Senate. He mentioned his firm naparte to alliance with Russia, and said, that he had no doubts of the Sept. 4. peace of the continent, but that he ought not to rely upon the false calculations and errors of other courts; and since his neighbours increased their armies, it was a duty incumbent upon him to increase his he therefore imposed fresh sacrifices upon his people, which were necessary to secure them from heavier, and to lead them to the grand result of a general peace. "I am determined," said he, "to carry on the war with Spain with the utmost activity, and to destroy the VOL. I. 4 s |