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 LETTER 
 
 GENIUS AND DISPOSITIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FRENCH GOVERNMENT, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A VIEW OF THE TAXATION OF THE FRENCH 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 BY AN AMERICAN 
 
 Recently returned from Europe. 
 
 ** Heareux, toates les fois que je mddite snr les gouvememensj de 
 " tronver toujours dans mes recherches, de nouv^es raisons d'aimer 
 " celui de men pays." Rovsseaul C<^ntract Social. 
 
 '' £i; otuvoi apt;®' af».vua^ai «rE^( mttrfm 
 
 1h. fj,.. 243, 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA PRINTED. 
 
 LONDON REPRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, 
 REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1810.
 
 J. M'Crcery, Printer, 
 Elai k-Hoise-Court, Loudon.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The following pages were written amid a 
 variety of pursuits in the course of the last 
 two months. They are now given with some 
 precipitation to the public, in consequence of 
 a belief, that, if destined to be at all useful, 
 they may be particularly so at this momenlt. 
 It was originally intended to insert the name 
 of the gentleman to whom they are addressed, 
 and who enjoj^s, both here and abroad, the 
 highest reputation as a statesman and an au- 
 thor. Considerations of a private nature 
 have induced the writer to relinquish this 
 plan, but he has still thought proper to retain 
 the form of a letter, which exacts a less scru- 
 pulous adherence to method than any other 
 shape, into which his ideas could have been 
 thrown. He disclaims all party feelings or 
 views, and is animated solely by a wish to 
 promote the cause of truth. The sketch
 
 IV 
 
 which he has drawn of the French finances, 
 is collected from original documents of un- 
 questionable authority, and, together with 
 many of the topics in relation to the state of 
 England, upon which he has merely touched, 
 forms but the outline of a much larger work 
 which he now has in a state of forwardness. In 
 the publication of these pages, he derives no 
 small confidence from the habitual attention 
 which he has given to political studies, and 
 from the frequent intercourse which he en- 
 joyed, during a long residence abroad, with 
 miany of the most enlightened statesmen of 
 Europe. These advantages greatly facilitated 
 the attainment of correct information, and in 
 the opinion of those particularly who are ac- 
 quainted with the extent of the last, cannot 
 fail to add weight to his theory, and to stamp 
 a character of peculiar authenticity on the 
 facts which he has occasion to introduce in 
 the progi'ess of this inquiry. 
 
 Philadelphia, December % 1809.
 
 A LETTER, 
 
 &C. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 In the course of the conversations which wc 
 have held since my return from Europe, you 
 have often had the goodness to express a wish 
 to see my views of the actual condition of 
 France, and of the genius of her government, 
 presented with more detail and method than 
 the nature of our verbal intercourse would 
 admit. The encouragement I derive from 
 your favourable opinion, and the desire which 
 I "have always felt of being useful to our coun- 
 try, have, at length, determined me to under- 
 take this investigation, from which I have 
 been hitherto diverted by a multitude of do- 
 mestic avocations. 
 
 A
 
 2 
 
 If I had not known how few of the sound 
 political tracts of Europe are in circulation 
 here, and how little we are in the habit of 
 reasoning from geiKJ"4t views, I should have 
 been surprised to find opinions in vogue, which 
 have been lung since abandoned even by that 
 description of European politicians whose sym- 
 pathies were once so powerfully attracted to 
 the success of French policy both external 
 and domestic. Were our own errors merely 
 speculative, and not of essential importanqe 
 to our vital interests, we might view them'> if 
 not with an eye of indifference, at leasts with- 
 out feelings of dismay ; but, it is our misfor- 
 tune (hat the character of our internal admini- 
 stration, of our moral habits and of our foreign 
 relations, — that our laws and liberties depend; 
 in a great degree, upon a proper undtfstand- 
 ing of the genius and dispositions of the French 
 government. Our destinies appear to me no 
 otherwise ambiguous, than as they rest upon 
 the sentiments which I wish to see universally 
 predominant, — of cordial detestation for the 
 profligacy, and of timely resistance to the ma- 
 chinations of a power, which, circumscribed
 
 by no law, and checked by no scruple, medi- 
 tates the subjugation of this, as well as of 
 every other country. 
 
 There are, I know, many among us, whose 
 predilections for French alliance, no calcula- 
 tion of consequences may be effectual to sub- 
 due, — but I am well satisfied, that we have a 
 great majority, who need but a just sense of 
 the character and effects of French despotism, 
 to be induced to unite in opposing whatever 
 attempts may be made, either by treachery or 
 violence, to yoke us to the car of the common 
 enemy of mankind. The well-intentioned part 
 of our citizens should be taught to under- 
 stand, that it beloiigs to the nature, as it is the 
 systematic plan, of the government of France, 
 to grasp at universal dominion ; that the evils 
 which this gigantic despotism entails upon 
 France herself are no less galling, than those 
 to which the conquered territories are subject ; 
 that every where the luxuries of the rich, and 
 the necessaries of the poor are alike assailed ; 
 that we not only share with the British in the 
 hatred which is cherished against them by the
 
 Cabinet of St. Cloud, but are equally marked 
 out for destruction. The details which I have 
 to offer will serve to establish these positions. 
 1 shall commence by an inquiry into the first. 
 
 All the writers* who have discussed the 
 state of Europe before the French revolution, 
 concur in representing France as better fitted 
 than any other power for the attainment of 
 universal empire. Her geographical position, 
 the numbers, the compactness, and the martial 
 character of her population, the ambitious 
 projects and restless intrigue of her rulers, 
 furnished her eminently with the moral and 
 physical energies for this purpose. The his- 
 tory of the continental politics of the last cen- 
 tury; the correspondence between the foreign 
 ministers of France and their court, and the 
 domestic annals of that court towards the close 
 of the last reign, must convince every reflecting 
 reader, that the French politicians of the day 
 
 • See Hume's Essay on Balance of Power — Boling- 
 broke's Sketch of the State of Europe, vol. vii — Ancillon's 
 Tableau des Revolutions Politiques <ie I'Europe ; and the 
 French writers universally.
 
 were profoundly sensible of their advantages, 
 and eagerly sought an opportunity of exerting 
 them for the establishment of an unlimited con- 
 trol over the continent*" The obstacles to the 
 accomplibhment of this end before the revolu- 
 tion, are to be discovered — m the civil institu- 
 tions, in certain established habits, and in the 
 limited forms of government, of which France 
 then partook with the rest of Europe. The ba- 
 lance of power, which for three centuries, pre- 
 vented tlie destruction of any one independent 
 state by violent means, and exhibited, before 
 the dismemberment of Poland, nineteen dis- 
 tinct powers of the most unequal strength, is 
 to be ascribed, not to the moderation or to 
 the jealousy of the four great rivals, but to 
 what may be termed, an equilibrium of weak- 
 ness in their miliiarj/ constitutions. 
 
 It was computed by the most celebrated 
 
 * I refer particularly to the " Politique de tous let 
 Cabinets,'' on this subject. See in that work — ** Lcs Con« 
 jecturcs Raisonnees de Favier, sur la Situation actuelle 
 de la France, dans le Systeme Politique de rEurope."— 
 ** La nation," says he, " a regne jadis sur toute TEurop* 
 connue." &c.
 
 writers on political arithmetic, that no state 
 could maintain at one time, without absolute 
 ruin, more than the one hundredth part of its 
 military population in arms. This arose from 
 various causes: — ist, The necessity of propor- 
 tioning the military force, the great instru- 
 ment of dominion, not merely to the numerical 
 population, but to that which remained after 
 every deduction in favour of the agriculture, 
 the commerce, the manufactures, the luxuries 
 and the aristocratic distinctions of nations, of 
 whose governments it was the chief interest 
 and the fundamental policy to cultivate the 
 arts of peace. 2d, The maxim universally a- 
 dopted, and strictly true under the former 
 circumstances of Europe — that money consti- 
 tuted the sinews of war. The extent of the 
 levies and the duration of hostilities in the 
 former wars of the continent depended upon 
 the financial resources of the belligerents. In 
 every country the system of finance was more 
 or less regular and equitable, and the monarch 
 unaided by the expedients of violence and 
 ffaud, tovvbich the revolutionary government* 
 of France had recourse, was compelled to ac-
 
 commodate his military efforts to the poverty 
 of his exchequer. The idea of supporting ar- 
 mies upon the territories of an' enemy appears 
 B€ver to have been entertained, and could 
 not have been carried intoeflfect; as no one 
 power had a decided superiority over the rest, 
 such as the French now enjoy, in general tac- 
 tics and numbers, and in the education and 
 character of their troops. This state of things 
 precluded the possibility of continuing for 
 any length of time the momentum necessary 
 for permanent conquest. Nations of husband- 
 men, of artificers and manufacturers, were ut- 
 terly incapable of pursuing a regular plan, or 
 of furnishing the means for the attainment of 
 universal empire ; nor could armies, drawn 
 from looms and forges, acquire the spirit or 
 the discipline to qualify them for becoming 
 the masters of the woridi 
 
 In conjunction with these causes^ the pur- 
 suits of commerce, also, which becameso va- 
 rious and complicated after the discoveries of 
 Columbus, conspired to keep the leading pow- 
 ers within their proper sphere, and to prevent
 
 the exertion of those means by which France 
 has since been enabled to shatter the strenoth 
 and to crush the independence of the conti- 
 nent. This tragical catastrophe, of which half 
 the evils have not as yet been disclosed, was, 
 moreover, retarded by the mode in which the 
 French armies, together with those of all the 
 continental powers, were recruited. It was 
 obvious to every reader of ancient history, that 
 the conquering nations of old could never have 
 achieved their purpose, without a regular code 
 of military education, and unless their go- 
 vernments had been invested with an unlimit- 
 ed command over the population of the terri- 
 tories subject to their authority. The system 
 of voluntary levies is wholly incompatible with 
 a plan of boundless aggrandisement, and it 
 was therefore General Jourdan exultingly de- 
 clared to the Convention, when they enacted 
 the tyrannical law of the requisition — '* that 
 "the moment they pronounced the compulsory 
 ** levy en masse to be permanent, they decreed 
 ** the power of the republic to be imperishable." 
 
 Such were the shackles by which France wa*
 
 fettered until the period of her revolution, and 
 from which she was released by that extraor* 
 dinarv event. IMr. Burke ascribes it, in some 
 measure, to an impatience on the part of hef 
 politicians to see themselves engaged without 
 impediment in the career of conquest*. It iS, 
 however, unnecessary for us to investigate the 
 causes to which the first eruptions of the revo* 
 lutionary volcano are to be traced; but, in 
 order to understand the character of the im- 
 perial government, it may be useful to ex* 
 amine what were the facilities with which sht 
 was furnished for the subjugation of the con* 
 tinent by the destruction of her monarchy and 
 of her old institutions. Whenever I review 
 this topic, to me it is no longer a subject of 
 astonishment that the nations of the conti- 
 nait were found so brittle ; and that Prance 
 has effectuated nearly as nmch within a few 
 years, as the Romans were able to accomplish 
 in as many centuries. 
 
 By the revolution her relative situation wa* 
 * Rogickk P«a€«, p» 159, 1^3, 171, 179* 
 
 B
 
 10 
 
 totally changed. One of its first effects was 
 the destruction of all those interests by which 
 the old government, in common with tiie rest 
 of Europe, was influenced and checked. While 
 the other states of the continent continued to 
 revolve in the orbits in which their maxims and 
 habits retained them — -France was loosened, as 
 it were, from the political firmament, and 
 prepared to pursue any direction, or to receive 
 any impulse, which her new rulers might 
 choose to give. In the decomposition of the 
 original mass, materials were found for the 
 construction of a new system, retaining 
 the invigorating elements of the old, but 
 shaped from the models of antiquity, and en- 
 dued with a distempered energy more formi- 
 dable than any degree of strength of which the 
 constitution of the latter was at any time sus- 
 ceptible. It was predicted, many years be- 
 fore, by a writer who had diligently studied 
 the military establishments of modern Europe, 
 ^' that the continent would be speedily en- 
 *' slaved should a nation, with the resources 
 " of France, break through the forms and 
 *' trammels of the civil constitutions of the
 
 11 
 
 "period; shake off fiscal solicitudes by a 
 ** general bankruptcy ; turn her attention ex- 
 " clusively to military affairs ; and' organize 
 ** a regular plan of universal empire*." Such 
 precisely was the position of France^ when, 
 after the first years of the revolution^, she had 
 formed an immense military force, and the 
 course of events had lodged an omnipotent 
 authority in the hands of a body of enthusi- 
 astic and ambitious theorists, who completely 
 realized this view of things, and whom ex- 
 
 * Guibert. Essai de Tactique. Sir James Steuart has 
 a curious passage on this subject. He supposes a case 
 precisely similar, and concludes with the following re- 
 marks : " I ask, what combination, among the modern 
 European princes, would carry on a successful war against 
 such a people ? What article would be wanting to their sub- 
 sistence ? And what country would defend themselves 
 against the attack of such an enemy? Such a system 
 of political economy, I readily grant, is not likely to takci 
 place : but, if ever it did, would it not effectually dash 
 to pieces the whole fabric of trade and industry which 
 has been forming for so many years? and would it not 
 quickly oblige every other naticm to adopt as far as possible, 
 a similar conduct from a principle of self-preservation ?'' 
 {Political Econ. B. 2. C. 13.)
 
 12 
 
 perictjce soon taught the truth of gi maxim af 
 Livy, so well confirmed by the events of the 
 present time, — that in war there are but three 
 essential requisites, '* good soldiers, good 
 *' ol^cers, and good fortune." 
 
 Whoever attends to the progress of the 
 French power, must be satisfied that it is not 
 the work of chance; but, iu a great degree, 
 the result of a deliberate project for the sub^ 
 jugatioii of flyrope, framed and acted upon 
 even before the reign of the Directory. The 
 conclusions which an attentive consideration 
 of this subject had led me to adopt, were 
 sanctioned by the acknowledgment of all the. 
 actors in the scene of the revolution, with 
 whom I had occasion to converse in Paris. They 
 drew from the history of the commonwealths 
 of antiquity those arts of fraud and menace, 
 of violence and seduction, by which the latter 
 were enabled to beguile the weakness, to en- 
 snare the cupidity, to confound the judg- 
 ment, and to overpower the fortitude of 
 mankind. The archives of the Assyrian 
 and Macedonian, of the Greek and Roman
 
 IS 
 
 conquests, were and still are diligently 
 searched, for precedents in the art of combin- 
 ing cunning with force. The inveterate habits 
 of intrigue — the vanity and ductihty, which 
 have always marked the national ciiaracter— 
 are all confederated for one grand and success- 
 ful experiment, — that of trying, whether the 
 master-springs of human conduct are not at 
 all times the same : whether, with a deep 
 knowledge of the temper of the age, with a 
 congenial spirit and augmented means, the 
 same principles and measures, skilfully adapted 
 to cirtumstances, will not give the same results. 
 
 The world has seen with how strong: and 
 steady an impetus, they have urged the accom- 
 plishment of their views — and with what over- 
 whelming rapidity of execution, they have de- 
 molished the public law and the liberties of Eu- 
 rope. In the boldness with which theyconceiv- 
 ed, in the vigour with which they have perpe- 
 trated, their criminal enterprises — in the splen- 
 dor and variety of their military achievements, 
 — in the evils which they have inflicted upon 
 themismabievictims of their power— they have
 
 14 
 
 tar exceeded all the examples furnished by the 
 records of antiquity. Combining the subtlety 
 of tlie Roman senate and the ferocity of the 
 Goth, the wildest passions with the most deli- 
 berate perfidy — discarding both in their do- 
 mestic administration and their foreign policy, 
 the feelings of nature, the obligations of con- 
 science, the ties of friendship, the sense of ho- 
 nor, — they drenched France as well as the rest 
 of the continent in tears and blood, and have 
 left not even the consols tion of hope to those 
 who examine attentively the present condition 
 of Europe. The works of Livy and Sallust, and 
 the commentaries of Machiavel and Montes- 
 quieu, discover the closest parallel between 
 the French and Roman conquerors— in the 
 structure of their military system, in the pro- 
 gress of their armS; and in the tenor of their 
 deportment towards allies and enemies. 1 have 
 been powerfully struck with this simihtude, 
 but I should do injustice to the memory of 
 the Roman republic, if 1 instituted a compari- 
 son as to the character of the instruments, by 
 whom their conquests were achieved. The 
 ruffian horde now preying upon the carcase of
 
 15 
 
 Europe, bears no more analogy lo the , " so-* 
 ** lemn and sacred militia" of the Romans,* 
 than the Convention bore to that body which 
 Cicero has ventured to denominate, " the tem- 
 " pie of sanctity, and the refuge of all na- 
 " tlons."t 
 
 To me it has always appeared that the 
 French, from the first dawnings of their revo- 
 lution, were more favorably situated than the 
 Romans for the attainment of universal em- 
 pire. The obstacles in the way of the latter 
 were more formidable and vanquished with 
 more difficulty. In the first stages of their 
 progress, they had to contend against nations 
 who possessed military and civil institutions 
 superior to their own, and whom they over- 
 came only by adopting the excellencies of all. 
 In the extension of their empire beyond the 
 limits of Italy, they encountered, even from 
 
 * Solemnis et sacra Ronianorum militia. (Livy.) 
 
 t (Senatus) Templum Sancitatis, caput urbis, ara 8o- 
 ciorum, portus omnium gentium. (Cicero.)
 
 16 
 
 the barbaiians, a vigorous and persevering 
 resistance, inspired by the love of freedom, 
 animated by the most determined hate, and 
 supported by the most perfect unanimity. A 
 barbarous mihtia, such as that which the Ger- 
 mans, the Thracians, and the Scythians op- 
 posed to the progress of their conquerors, is 
 pronounced by Dr. Smith in his Wealth of 
 Nations, to be more capable of defence, than 
 the standing armies of modern times, consider- 
 ed in their relation to the institutions of the 
 period at which he wrote. 
 
 The French republic, " cradled in war," en* 
 joyed, ab origine, an irresistible superiority 
 over the nations of the continent. The latter 
 had to contend, at the same time, against 
 external attack, and against tlie danger of 
 internal commotion, arising from the diffa- 
 sion of jacobinism. Those of the south were 
 at the mercy of the first invader. Their 
 armies wanted both the courage which sup- 
 plies the place of discipline, and the discipline 
 which compensates for the absence of courage. 
 The states of Germany and of the North
 
 f7 
 
 never appreciated duly the cliaracter or the 
 perils of the new war in which they found 
 themselves engaged. It was no longer a 
 contest about " the hoisting or lowering of 
 a sail," or about "little carvings and par- 
 titions;'' to be waged with irresolute and im- 
 provident councils, and to be terminated by 
 timid and shuffling negotiation. As modern 
 Europe had never known an universal do- 
 minion, they could not imagine a possibility 
 of the conception or of the execution of such 
 a plan. A certain association of ideas had be- 
 come habitual, and was viewed with too much 
 favour to be broken upon the faith of any pre- 
 diction. To form, what the new state of 
 things required, — new combinations, — by 
 which all their hereditary prejudices and use- 
 ful antipathies, and the whole scheme of nor- 
 thern policy, were to be at once exploded, 
 was an effort which the gigantic strides of 
 their enemy have not as yet sufficed to extort. 
 The power of the republic was at first despised 
 as a mere phantasmagoriaf and at length re- 
 garded with sentiments of despondency and 
 dismay, which enfeebled every exertion. 
 
 C
 
 x$ 
 
 Nothing, indeed, but a total revolution in 
 the internal constitutions of the other states 
 could have prepared them to meet France on 
 equal terms, — with a military system yield- 
 ing an inexhaustible supply of men, and a 
 code of principles alike destructive to their 
 domestic interests and to the general prospe- 
 rity of Europe. 
 
 Throughout all the changes of government 
 which France has undergone, there has been 
 an unbroken continuity of views and charac- 
 ter. The power of Bonaparte is the mere off- 
 spring of the genius and necessities of the re- 
 public. He assumed the reins of authority at 
 a crisis when it was necessary to commit them 
 to a single hand, and under circumstances 
 which admitted of no other rule than that of 
 an enterprising military chief I have been told 
 by some of those who planned the revolution 
 of the 18th Brumairey that the consular power
 
 19 
 
 was first tenderetl toMoreau; but that, on 
 the uuej'pected SLTrW-dl of Bonaparte from Egypt, 
 the former designated him as a more suitable 
 instrument for their purpose. It is not to the 
 character and talents alone of the present ruler* 
 however well adapted to his station, that we 
 are to ascribe tlie career which France has run 
 since his accession. I insist the more on this 
 consideration, because it leads to important 
 conclusions. "The swing and impulse" were 
 already given. He did but move in concert 
 with the regular march, and can scarcely 
 be said to have outstripped the inherent alac- 
 rity of the system which he was selected to ad- 
 minister. He has, indeed, adjusted all the 
 parts, — strengthened the springs,— and mono- 
 polized the government, of this colossal en- 
 gine of conquest, with a degree of skill and 
 energy like that with which the Jupiter of 
 the fable is said to have usurped and wielded 
 the empire of Saturn. But he and his imme- 
 diate predecessors were conquerors from neces- 
 sity as well as from choice. To disband the 
 armies would have been an act of political 
 suicide, and was in itself utterly impossible.
 
 8^ 
 
 It was no less impossible to maintain them 
 within the limits of the Fiench territory. Ex- 
 clusive of other considerations, the state of 
 their finances presented an insuperable obsta- 
 cle to the latter alternative. The regular re- 
 ceipts of the treasury were altogether insuffi- 
 cient for the expense. They had irretrievably 
 deprived themselves of the resources of cre- 
 dit and of paper circulation ; and although, 
 according to an idea of Mr. Burke, a savage 
 and disorderly people will suffer a robbery 
 with more patience than an impost, the expedi- 
 ents of violence could not have been available 
 in a country completely rilinetl and exhausted. 
 It is easy to show, from the representations of 
 their own financiers, that no device of fiscal 
 alchymy would have furnished the means of 
 supporting the armies in the interior, — and that 
 foreign plunder was, therefore, a necessary re- 
 source. It will be seen, from what I shall state 
 hereafter on the subject of the finances of the 
 empire, that the same connexion continues to 
 subsist between them and the military system.
 
 21 
 
 '* A prince," says Machiavel, "should have 
 no other design, nor thought, nor study, than 
 war." The extraordinary being who now go- 
 verns France, is compelled to adlitre to this 
 maxim, — not only by the efficacy othabit and 
 preddection, but from a consciousness that 
 he cannot otherwise preserve his dominion. 
 As the supremacy of the French poM erdt^pends 
 upon the military organization of the empire, 
 — the existence of an emperor hangs upon 
 the support of the armies. With Bonaparie, 
 therefore, every measure of internal aciuiinls- 
 tration is but collateral to the muiu object. 
 To be beloved in the interior is not his aim, 
 and unfortunately not his chief int-rtst. He 
 knows that in a monarchy, from which the 
 principle of honour is banished, the tie ni' (;bh- 
 gation is miserably weak, unless strengthened 
 by the apprehensions of fear. At this mmntnt 
 the only measure of authority throu^;li<)utt*i-:e 
 whole empire, is force. In the course of nty 
 remarks, I was in no respect more astonished 
 than in observing, how completely the revo-
 
 S2 
 
 lution has extinguished every principle of civil 
 subordination. 
 
 The superiority of privileges, the lustre 
 of titles, and the substantial fruits of con- 
 quest, are chiefly lavished on the generals; 
 but still he has not forgotten another princi- 
 ple of Machiavel, — that men of influence and 
 intrigue are to be conciliated by benefits, 
 whatever may be the degree of oppression 
 exercised over the mass of the people. The 
 civil dignitaries, therefore, are not without 
 an ample provision, — although he has cau- 
 tiously abstained from investing them with 
 such hereditary or corporate immunities as 
 might restrain, while tliey would conduce to 
 secure, the authority of the Sovereign. His 
 personal character is well suited to the diflfi- 
 culties of his* station. His military renown 
 has an effulgence brighter than that of any of 
 his gtnerals, and has acquired for him the 
 entire confidence of the soldiery. He has no 
 scandalous undisguised vices, or periodical 
 weaknesses, calculated to diminish with the 
 armies the force of his reputation, or to
 
 23 
 
 counteract the ascendancy of liis genius.* The 
 restless activity of his ambition, the com- 
 prehensive boldness of his plans, and the un- 
 interrupted succession of great enterprises in 
 which he is engaged, serve to remove domes- 
 tic perils, in adding to the strength and majesty 
 of the throne. No leisure is given for machi 
 nations in the interior, — no scope for ambi- 
 tious projects among the leaders of tlie army. 
 His subjects are kept in constant admiration 
 and suspense. Splendid achievements and 
 
 ♦ I must be understood here as alluding to his military 
 character. In every other respi'ct there is as little mural 
 as there is political prudery about one, who combines ma- 
 ny of the worst, and apparcnlFy opposite qualities of our 
 nature — 
 
 cui tristia bella 
 IrfE que, insidiceque, et crimina noxia cordi. 
 His ** splendid wickedness," however, appears to have 
 overpowered and dazzled the imaginatior.s of men, and 
 rather to have conciliated favour than ral>*('d abhorn-nce. 
 We may suspect that even with rfptibluans^ the lustre of the 
 imperial throne has not lost all its etficacy in '* shadowing'^ 
 crimes — 
 
 e tu ben sai que I'oa.bra 
 D'un trono e grande per copiir deliiti.
 
 u 
 
 undistinguishing pillage constitute the neces- 
 ary policy, as well as the natural and favour- 
 ite pursiiit of *'the modern Charlemagiie." 
 
 Throughout all France, th^e' lit) te of military 
 preparation drowns every other indication of 
 activity — and the thirst of Conqui^St^ Appears 
 to supersede ever}' other desire. In the capi- 
 tal> all the faculties of thought and action 
 which either individuals or public bodies can 
 furnish in aid of the general design, are ap- 
 plied and disciplined with a regular and effec- 
 tive subser^'iency, which to me was ti^uly as- 
 tonishing. I found on all sides, an unity of 
 views, — an activity in planning and systema- 
 tizing the devices of ambition, — an eagerness 
 for the issue, and a sanguine assurance of 
 success,— almost incredible, and more like 
 the effects of revolutionary frenzy, than those 
 of a concert between the insatiable ambition 
 of an audacious tyrant and the active talents 
 and natural propensities of a body of tremb" 
 ling slaves. From the commencement of the 
 revolution particularly, emissaries have been 
 scattered over Europe in order to study and
 
 25 
 
 delineate its geographical face. The harvest 
 of their labours, now deposited in Paris, has 
 furnished the imperial government with a 
 knowledge of the lerritory of the other pow- 
 ers, much more minute and accurate than 
 that which the latter themselves possess. 
 The Deput de la Guerre occupies, unremit- 
 tingly, several hundred clerks in tracing maps 
 and collecting topographical details, to mi- 
 nister to the military purposes of the govern- 
 ment. All the great estates of Spain were 
 marked and parcelled out long before the last 
 invasion of that country, — and it is not too 
 much to affirm, that those of EnMand are 
 equally well known and already partitioned. 
 
 The idea of unlimited sway is studiously 
 kept before the public mind, — and the future 
 empire of France over the nations of the earth, 
 exultingly proclaimed, in all the songs of the 
 theatres and. in public discourses of every de- 
 scription. Even the gaunt and ragged beings, 
 who prowl about the streets and infest the 
 night-cellars of Paris; — the famished outcasts, 
 — many of whom are men of decent exterior 
 
 D
 
 26 
 
 and advanced age, beggared by the revolution, 
 — who haunt the Boicoelards and pubUc gar- 
 dens, in order to enjoy, under the rays of the 
 sun, that enlivening warmth which their po- 
 verty denies them at home, — and who, by their 
 wan and melancholy aspect, excite the horror 
 and compassion of a stranger — all appear to 
 forget, for a moment, their own miseries, in 
 anticipating the brilliant destinies of the em- 
 pire, and contemplating Paris, in prospective, 
 as the metropolis of the world. The inhabi- 
 tants of the country and of the provincial 
 cities, — whose condition the war renders mi- 
 serable beyond description, and who secretly 
 invoke the bitterest curses on their rulers, — 
 are, nevertheless, (for such is the character 
 of this extraordinary people) not without their 
 share in the general avidity for power ; and, 
 when the sense of their wretchedness does not 
 press too strongly upon them, can even con- 
 sent to view the extension of the national in- 
 fluence and renown in the light of a personal 
 benefit. 
 
 The French emperor appears to me to have
 
 27 
 
 formed a just estimate of the nature and ex- 
 tent of his power in his foreign, — as well as in 
 his domestic relations. While his armies, the 
 irresistible instruments of his will;, remain en- 
 tire, he is satisfied that the standard of revolt 
 cannot be successfully raised either abroad or 
 at home. He disregards, therefore, the mere 
 murmurs of discontent, and is careless about 
 the individual distress or the general calami- 
 ties to which the execution of his plans may 
 lead. As long as he retains the troops at his 
 devotion, and waves his victorious banners 
 over the strongest parts of Europe, — he sees 
 that no combination can be formed against 
 him, which he may not instantaneously dis- 
 solve. "History proves," says Mably, ''that 
 ** when once a nation becomes greatly supe- 
 ** rior to its enemies in strength, it is possible 
 ** for it to be detested by the whole world 
 " and yet successful in its enterprizes." The 
 reader has but to consult the pages of Poly- 
 bius and the declamations of Gicero * to 
 
 * Difficile est dictu, quanto in odio simus apud externs 
 nationes propter eorunij quos ad eos per hos annos cum
 
 28 
 
 learn what were the calamities to which the 
 Romans subjected the territories brought un- 
 der their yoke, and in what detestation they 
 were general!}' held. Insurrections were con- 
 stantly bursting forth in the distant pro- 
 vinces, — but served only to rivet the adaman- 
 tine chains of the conquered, and to open 
 fresh sources of plunder to the conquerors. 
 It is these that Machiavel counsels a military 
 usurper to provoke, in order ** to strengthen 
 *' his own greatness and to obtain colorable 
 *' pretexts for rapine.'* Partial risings in 
 
 imperio mihimus, injurias ac libidines. Quod enim sanum 
 putatis in illis tcrris nostris magistratibus religiosum, quam 
 civitalcm sanctam, quam domum satis clausam ac munitaro 
 fuisse ? (Pro leg. Manil. cap. 22. art. 65) Lugent omncs 
 provinciae: queruntur omnes libori populi, regna denique 
 jam omnia de nostris cupiditatibus et injuriis expostulaijt : 
 locus intra oceanum jam nuUus est neque tarn longinquus, 
 neque tam reconditus, quo, non, per haec tempora, nos. 
 trorum hc.minum libido, iniquitaj^que pervaserit (in Verr. 
 Action. 2. lib. 3. cap. 89.)— See also, Polybius, 9th B. 
 for an account ot the exactions of Rome. And, Livy, J, 
 vjii. xi. & X. 
 
 * Princ. cap. xx,
 
 29 
 
 Italy or in the North of Germany will but 
 contribute in this way to the plans of Bona- 
 parte. The tumultuary defence of the Spa- 
 niards, and the swaggering of the Portu- 
 guese, will be scarcely more formidable, lie 
 strikes at the centre or heart of the adverse 
 power, and is sure that the extremities will 
 speedily yield. He knows generally, that a 
 monarch, whose power puts him beyond the 
 dread of invasion, has it in his election when 
 to wage war or to make peace, — and that the 
 final success of a nation like France is secured 
 by the relation, (which an established system 
 draws closer every day) between her military 
 organization and her social and political con- 
 stitution. I shall now proceed to pass in 
 review his conduct towards Spain and the 
 Northern powers, in order to make the true 
 spirit of his government the more apparent. 
 The ideas which I shall submit to you relative 
 to the weakness of those powers, will serve 
 to confirm my position — that the continent is 
 not sinking under the ascendant of his niili-
 
 3d 
 
 tary genius alone, but under the colossal 
 weight of the empire which he wields. 
 
 Of all the usurpations which history re- 
 cords, there is none more odious for syste- 
 matic perfidy in the plan, or more shocking 
 for uncoloured violence in the execution, than 
 that which we have recently witnessed in the 
 case of Spain. There was so awful a warning 
 in this event, — it was calculated to impart so 
 irresistible a conviction of the true character 
 and views of the French government, — that it 
 is, at first, not easy to conceive, how it could 
 have failed to light into a flame every spark 
 of feeling or energy which remained to the 
 nations of the earth. But the usurper knew 
 too well the force of that potent spell in 
 which he has bound Europe to be deterred 
 by this apprehension. He was equally well 
 apprized of the resources and disposition of 
 the people he was about to attack ; and if his 
 attempt has not as yet fully succeeded, it is 
 not on account of a misapprehension of con- 
 sequences on his part.
 
 31 
 
 More than two years ago, during my resi- 
 dence in Paris, I had occasion to know that 
 this plan was in agitation. It was a common 
 topic of conversation, that the Bourbons were 
 to be dethroned in that country, and a Bona- 
 parte introduced in their stead. This specu- 
 lation was usually accompanied by a prophecy 
 concerning the inevitable fall of Austria. 
 All this, too, at a moment, when both na- 
 tions were in alliance with France, — when 
 Spain, which Mr. Burke, in the time of the 
 Directory, denominated a fief of regicide, 
 was to be considered, in every political calcu- 
 lation, as a part of the resources of France. 
 This trait alone is sufficient to evince the pro- 
 fligacy of her politicians, and the sense which 
 they entertain of the character of their go- 
 vernment. They spoke of the necessity of 
 regenerating Spain, as the Roman historians, 
 who lived under Caligula and Domitian, speak 
 "with compassionate indignation of the slavery 
 in which the Barbarians were held ! For 
 three years previous to the seizure of the royal 
 family, Spain was deluged witli French emis- 
 saries, commissioned to prepare the minds of
 
 5g 
 
 the people for the event — and with French 
 engineers and draughtsmen, who were open^ 
 ly engaged in mapping the face of the coun* 
 try, in examining the strong holds, and in 
 exploring the locaHty and amount of the spoil 
 which they expected to seize. 
 
 Beauharnais, the elder brother of the first 
 husband of the Empress, was then sent as mi- 
 nister to Madrid, in order to prepare the de- 
 velopment of the plan. I had some ac- 
 quaintance with this gentleman, and was ena- 
 bled to observe the great anxiety which his 
 government displayed on the subject of his 
 mission. For more than a month he was con- 
 stantly on the eve of departure, but was de- 
 layed from week to week on account of the 
 new deliberations and arrangements which 
 daily occurred. Beauharnais, although in- 
 trepid and positive, is of a mild and humane 
 character, and was surnamed the injiexible, at 
 the commencement of the revolution, in 
 consequence of his steady adherence to the 
 royal cause. He was either found too scru- 
 pulous for his station, or recoiled altogether 
 from a co-operation in the crime ; and as I
 
 33 
 
 have since understood, was soon superseded 
 by a more remorseless agent. The original 
 plan was, to transport the royal family of 
 Spain to South America, and to seize upon 
 the crown as a derelict. This scheme, upon 
 the advantages of which it would be needless 
 to expatiate, was to be accomplished, as cir- 
 cumstances must dictate, either with or with- 
 out the assistance of the British. The consent 
 of Charles and his queen was obtained, but 
 the opposition of Ferdinand and his counsel- 
 lors intercepted their flight, and excited 
 among the populace, to whom their intention 
 was disclosed, the alarm which led to the first 
 commotions at Aranjuez. The immense force 
 which Bonaparte introduced, clearly proves, 
 that he foresaw the possibility of the subse- 
 quent convulsions throughout Spain, and had 
 made every provision against them which 
 prudence could suggest. If the detention of 
 Ferdinand, when lured into his toils by the 
 blandishments of pretended friendship, show^s 
 that there are no refinements of dissimulation 
 or artifices of perfidy of which he is not 
 capable, — the massacre of three hundred in- 
 
 E
 
 34 
 
 flocent victims, whom Murat, the day after 
 thp tumult of the *2d of May, caused to be 
 grouped together and shot by his soldiery, in 
 the principal square of Madrid, equally de- 
 mon-trates, that there is no excess of barba- 
 rity, however atrocious, from which he would 
 shrink in the prosecution of his views.* 
 
 We must not suppose that Bonaparte was 
 prompted to invade Spain, solely by the fever- 
 ish restlessness of his spirit, and the desire of 
 aggrandizing his family. He was guided by 
 other powerful incitements, of which the most 
 prominent were these : 1st, To gratify that 
 unextinsuishable hate which he cherishes a- 
 
 * I had this fact from an eye-witness, one of the first 
 deputies from Spain to the government of England. Don 
 Andres de la Vega, to whom I allude, merited the most 
 implicit faith, and conciliated, by his genius and his love 
 of country, the highest respect from all those who knew 
 him. He was a lawyer of Asturias before the present 
 struggle in Spain, and deserved the eulogium which Cicero 
 passes upon Quintus Scevola — that he was the, most elo- 
 quent of the learned, and the most learned of the eloquent. 
 *' Juris peiitorumeloqucntissimus — eloquentium juris peri- 
 ''^ tissiraus."
 
 3^ 
 
 p-ainst the whole race of the Bourbons. — 2d, 
 To collect an immediate and considerable 
 booty, and thus to provide a new fund for the 
 supply of liis officers and soldiers* — 3d, To 
 obtain more con. plete possession of the naval 
 means which Spain could furnish, for the 
 promotion of his designs on England. Al- 
 though he might have preferred the unmolest- 
 ed occupation of her government and re- 
 sources, the chance of resistance was not to 
 be regretted, according to his scheme of ag- 
 gression. Had the people crouched to receive 
 the oppressive dominion of their invaders, even 
 the shadow of a pretext would have been 
 
 * Sir Francis d'lvernois, speaking of the employment 
 given to the French armies by the Directory, in his "His- 
 torical Survey," has the following passage, " Perhaps they 
 will order them to Madrid before they attempt a passage 
 over the Danube ; but still the respite cannot be long. 
 Were the plan executed as soon as the Republican armies 
 had circumscribed the king of Spain within his American 
 possessions, they would be the better able to cope with the 
 whole of Germany. Ii is with the plate of the Churches of 
 Toledo that they would make themselves masters of the 
 mines of Kremnitz and the Uartz.
 
 S6 
 
 wanting for that system of confiscation, of 
 robbery, and of proscription which he may 
 now pursue, under colour of chastising' rebel- 
 lion. In the true spirit of a rapacious tyrant, 
 he would willingly have made the criminal in 
 order to punish the crime. The foundations 
 of his throne may be more immoveably laid 
 in the blood, than in the tame submission of 
 the Spaniards. No mind will be found to 
 stand erect, after the wretched experience of 
 this struggle, in the midst of those horrible 
 ruins which his triumph will leave, — ^^and 
 which, by the terror they must inspire, will 
 break down whatever elasticity of spirit may- 
 yet endure, either in Spain or in the other 
 cpuntries dependent on his nod. 
 
 Spain, when crushed by the weight of his 
 arms, will, conformably to his menace, be 
 treated as a conquered country, and declared 
 the legitimate prey of the great nation, — to 
 whose lenity she will be said to have forfeited 
 all title, by obstinately resisting the accom- 
 phshment of his benevolent views. The de- 
 nunciation already hurled against the opulent
 
 37 
 
 grandees, and the division of their estates 
 among his officers, are but the first steps in 
 that career of regeneration, which Spain, 
 so foohshly reUictant, is to run under the 
 mild and wholesome sway of her philanthro- 
 pic invaders. I have seen among us, men of 
 no mean understanding, who view the aboh- 
 tion of the Inquisition and the suppression of 
 the convents, as resulting from that hatred 
 for tyranny and superstition by which Bona- 
 parte has always been marked ; and who, if 
 they had lived iu the reign of Henry the 
 Eighth, would no doubt have given him credit 
 for the same motive, when he abohshed the 
 religious foundations of his kingdom, and 
 emptied their wealth into the royal coffers. 
 The modern champion of religious and poli- 
 tical freedom has, however, done more, — and, 
 in an article of the constitution allotted to 
 Spain, has substituted for the Inquisition, a 
 police, in almost all respects similar to that 
 of Paris, and hatched under the same incuba- 
 tion. 
 
 During my residence in England, my atten- 
 tion was earnestly drawn to whatever was said
 
 38 
 
 or written on the subject of Spain ; particu- 
 larly after the commencement of the present 
 contest. I enjoyed frequent opportunities of 
 conversing with many of the most intelligent 
 officers who embarked on the first expedition, 
 and with several who visited that country for 
 the purpose of ascertaining the true grounds 
 upon which the pubhc expectation was to 
 rest. The result of all my inquiries fortified 
 me in the conclusion to which the character 
 of the invader naturally led — that he had 
 formed but too just an estimate of the weak- 
 ness and languor of the Spaniards. Two 
 centuries ago, the House of Austria left Spain 
 in a state of inconceivable wretchedness and 
 decay. Under the two first monarchs of the 
 Bourbon race, Philip the Fifth and Ferdinand, 
 some little progress was made in resuscitating 
 this once powerful nation. During the last 
 reign the degree of improDement, although 
 small, justified a belief, that she might, with- 
 out any general convulsion or the total abolition 
 of the old government, be raised to the level of 
 the other commonwealths of Europe. But 
 still Spain was an inert mass, a nerveless 
 countrv, as Mr. Burke denominated her : of
 
 39 
 
 all others the most disorderly in her civil, the 
 weakest in her military constitution — without 
 the use, hut suffering the extreme ahuse cf a 
 nobility ; with inveterate habits of submission 
 to the most enffcblins: excesses of religious 
 and political tyranny. Her population was 
 on the decrease. Her regular army, at the 
 period of Bonaparte's invasion, scarcely a- 
 mounted ro forty thousand effective men, and 
 she was altogether destitute of a system for 
 the production of a national force of any 
 other description. The only element of re- 
 sistance which remained, the sole principle of 
 animation, was that deeply rooted hatred to 
 their enemy, which pervaded almost all or- 
 ders of men, and of which the French go- 
 vernment was fully aware.* Combined with 
 other impulses, this no doubt has great effi- 
 cacy ; but the experience of mankind too 
 clearly evincesi that it is not a motive of ac- 
 
 * Favier, in his " Conjectures Raisonnees,*' contained 
 in the *' Politique de tous les Cabinets," commences a 
 chapter on the subject of Spain in this way, '* De la 
 haine nationale. contre les Francois," and dwells with great 
 indignation on the ^^ blind and stupid hatred*' entertained 
 so umversally by the Spaniards against his countrymen.
 
 40 
 
 tion, or a bond of union, sufficiently perma- 
 nent and potent, to bear up an oppressed na- 
 tion against a great disparity of strength and 
 skill. 
 
 When the British forces marched into 
 Spain, they found, what such considerations as 
 these might have taught them to expect; here 
 and there tumultuary assemblages, but no 
 appearance whatever of regular military move- 
 ments ; and so far were they from discovering 
 a disposition in the people to co-operate in the 
 task of their own deliverance, that they ex- 
 perienced ill their retreat greater inconveni- 
 ence from the hostility of the "Spanish pea- 
 santry than from the pursuit of the foe. The 
 letters of Sir John Moore, and the represen- 
 tations of the English travellers, who ex- 
 amined the state of the country are precisely 
 of the same tenor. An effervescence was air 
 most every where excited, but was allowed 
 to evaporate in empty boast and menaces. 
 Treachery and fear marked the conduct of the 
 higher classes ; who, by their example disarmed 
 the passions, while they counteracted the efforts 
 of the multitude. The juntas were almost uni-
 
 versally bodies of inactive, illiterate, formal- 
 izing men ; without the magnanimity to con- 
 ceive, or the courage to execute, any prompt, 
 comprehensive and hardy plan of operations. 
 Great credit is unquestionably due to the 
 defence of Saragossa, arid to the spirit mani- 
 fested by some few of the privileged orders, 
 and by most of the professional men. But 
 I think it must be apparent, upon an atten- 
 tive survey of the history of this struggle,— 
 tliat the exertions of the Spaniards were by 
 no means commensurate with the extent of 
 their physical resources, nor such as would 
 for any time have frustrated the designs of 
 Bonaparte, had not the Austrian war inter- 
 posed to break the force of his attack. 
 The English ministry committed errors in 
 their mode of co-operation, of which they 
 must now heartily repent. In attempting to 
 rouse the moral energies of the country, they 
 made their appeal to the prejudices of slavery 
 and fanaticism, — when, in such a cause,/' the 
 soul of freedom*" and a deep steady feeling of 
 
 • " Slaves that once conceive the glowing thought 
 
 '* Of Freedom, in that hope itself possess 
 
 " All that the contest calls for ; spirit, strength, 
 
 " The 
 
 F
 
 i2 
 
 self-interest in the minds of the people, were 
 the only auxiliaries fitted to supply the ab- 
 sence of skill and discipline. Instead of send- 
 ing their armies to meet the invader at the 
 bottom of the Pyrenees, they dispatched them 
 to a distant theatre of action; — not to the 
 centre of ihe danger, but to the circumference, 
 where nothing finally decisive could be 
 effected, even with the most complete suc- 
 cess. They had before their eyes a long 
 succession of similar events to teach the neces- 
 sity of vigorous and unhesitating exertion. 
 It required neither the hind of Sertorius nor 
 the nymph of Scipio to instruct them in what 
 manner the war was to be conducted by their 
 antagonist. 
 
 In commenting thus on what I suppose to 
 have been the errors of the British cabinet, I 
 would not be understood as intending to im- 
 
 " The scotn of danger and united hearts, 
 '* The surest presage of the good they seek." 
 
 COWPEII.
 
 43 
 
 peach their motives. I was in England at the 
 commencement of the Spanish struggle, and 
 witnessed the progress of puhlic sentiment on 
 this suhject, — not only in the capital, hut in 
 almost every pai t of the country. Never did 
 any nation exhibit a more sublime and edify- 
 ing spectacle, or an elevation of character 
 so perfectly co-ordinate with the lofty ena- 
 nence on which she was placed by this unex- 
 pected event. Whatever calculations of in- 
 terest may have been indulged in the coun- 
 cils of the ministry, — and with them, they 
 were, 1 helieve altogether secondary, — none 
 were to be discovered in the spontaneous 
 soaring and eager compassion of the mass of 
 the nation. Indignation at the unparalleled 
 wrongs, — sympathy for the the cruel suffer- 
 ings of the Spaniards, — alone animated every 
 class of this generous and high-minded peo- 
 ple, and called forth an enthusiasm not less 
 ardent, than if they themselves had been the 
 victims. Queen Elizabeth and her subjects 
 did not feel or display a more lively re- 
 sentment, when the courts of Erance and 
 Spain conspired at Bayonne to assail her do-
 
 44 
 
 minions and subvert her throne, than did the 
 English of the present day, at the similar 
 projects concerted in the same city against 
 Spain, — so long the willing instrument of the 
 schemes projected forlheirown destruction. 
 
 On the arrival of the first deputies from 
 Asturias, the country was thrown into an ab- 
 solute delirium of hope and joy, — not on 
 account of any advantages which might ac- 
 crue to England from the incipient struggle, 
 — but because from the deepest obscurity of 
 the gloom that overspread the continent, a 
 ray of light had broke forth, which promised 
 to illuminate the whole political horizon ; — 
 and because a prospect was at length afforded 
 of avenging the rights of justice and hu- 
 manity, on the very theatre where they had 
 been most shamefully violated and kbused. In 
 the whole course of this national emotion, 
 there was something cheering and ennobling 
 for those who still value the dignity of our 
 species, and eminently consolitary for one like 
 myself, who, having seen but the present 
 state of mankind, might have regarded the
 
 45 
 
 ■oasee which history records, of the heroic de- 
 votion of states, as mere fabulous declamation, 
 or admired the models which sh:; presents, 
 only in the light of a philosophical romance. 
 
 There are various instances in the annals of 
 the world, of nations oppressed either by 
 foreign or domestic foes, claiming relief from 
 the magnanimity of a powerful people ; and 
 in those of England herself, the most re- 
 markable, perhaps, are to be found : — When 
 Elizabeth, called upon to assert the laws of 
 justice, and with subjects clamorous for the 
 gratuitous interference of her power, exerted 
 it to secure the independence of Holland, and 
 to rescue the Netherlands from the desolating 
 tyranny of the dukeof Alva*: — When William, 
 become the sole refuge of the north of Europe 
 and seconded by the generous sympathies 
 and enlarged wisdom of his people, frustrated 
 the ambitious projects of France, and render- 
 
 • See the eloquent passage of Bolingbrcke on the con- 
 duct of Elizabeth, in this iubtance, lOih vol. Political 
 Works, Letter 13th.
 
 46 
 
 ed England, according to the expression of 
 Mr. Burke, the arbitress of Europe, and the 
 tutelary angel of the human race. But what- 
 ever may have been her elevation at those pe- 
 riods, the attitude in which she stood, when 
 Spain first implored succour from her gener- 
 osity, was infinitely more grand and imposing, 
 than any in which her own annals or those 
 of the world exhibit any nation whatever. 
 The nature of the contest which she has so 
 long waged — the melancholy condition of the 
 continent* — The relation in which Spain be- 
 
 * ** Where, sunk by many a wound, heroic states 
 ** Mourn in the dust, and tremble at the frown 
 ** Of hard ambition : where the gen'rous band 
 *' Of youths who fought for freedom and their sires, 
 " Lie side by bide in blood : where brutal force 
 ** Usurps the throne of justice, turns the pomp 
 " Of guardian power, the majtsty of rule, 
 ** The sword, the laurel, and the purple robe, 
 " To poor dishonest pageants, to adorn 
 " A robber's walk, and glitter in the eyes 
 ** Of such as bow ibe knee." 
 
 Akenside, who drew this picture from his imagination, 
 little thought that it would be su soon realized. The con« 
 duct of his countrymen with regard to Spain, would alone 
 enable them to apply to themselves aaother passage of
 
 47 
 
 fore stood in her regard — the cruel wrongs 
 and the miserable weakness of the suppliants 
 — the importance of the ends to be achieved 
 by the successful exertion of her strength — 
 all gave an interest to this conjuncture, which 
 no posture of human affairs, or vicissitude of 
 fortune, was ever before calculated to inspire. 
 Both the government and the people corres- 
 ponded, by the exuberance of their succours, 
 to the liberal and disinterested zeal, with 
 which they embraced the Spanish cause, 
 and completed a picture, upon which man- 
 kind will hereafter love to dwell. I saw the 
 effect which it produced upon the deputies, 
 who were welcomed as if they had been deli- 
 verers — not suppliants. They frequently shed 
 
 the Poet, in relation to those whose souls can repine at 
 this •* big distress :" 
 
 *' The dregs corrupt 
 ** Of barbarous ages, that Circcan draught' 
 " Of servitude and folly, have not yet, 
 " (Biess'd be th' eternal Ruler of the world !) 
 *' Yet have not so diihonour'd and deform'd 
 ** The native judgment of the human soul, 
 •* Nor so defaced the image of her Sire.^
 
 48 
 
 tears of gratitude and joy, and appeared to 
 be more overpowered by the nature of their 
 reception, than by the contemplation of that 
 unrivalled scene of pubhc and individual fe- 
 licity, — that vigor and independence of mind, 
 — and those moral and political institutions, — 
 which place England so far above every 
 other European country in the scale of ex- 
 cellence. 
 
 The fate of Spain w^s defeirred by the un- 
 expected resolution of Austria to risk andtlier 
 contest in order to preserve her existence. I 
 say unexpected ; — because it could not ^laye 
 belonged to the plans of Bonaparte to attack 
 the one, until the other was subdued. The 
 plunder and additional reputation of strength 
 to be drawn from the acquisition of Spain, 
 were to facilitate the destruction of the Aus- 
 trian monarchy, and the prosecution of his 
 designs on the north. It was utterly impos- 
 sible forithe Austrian cabinet to have remained 
 ignorant of his views. They were disclosed 
 after the peace of Tilsit without reserve. The
 
 49 
 
 ^declarations of implacable hostility were uni- 
 form and positive, — and the demands upon 
 Austria, «uch as we have seen them stated in 
 her last manifesto, of a nature to render the ul- 
 terior plan altogether unequivocal.* By that 
 sort of infatuation on the subject of France, 
 which in almost every country has operated 
 like the spells of sorcery, the people of Ger- 
 many, however, were not sensible of the dan- 
 
 * Cevallos relates, that in an interview between himself 
 and the Emperor of France at Bayonne, the latter fre- 
 quently interrogated him concerning the length of time 
 which might be necessary for theentire subjugation of Spain. 
 On being told that three months would be sufficient, he dis- 
 played considerable emotion ; and, striking his forehead, 
 exclaimed — That it would do, cs he had an account toseU 
 tie with Austria. This exclamation hf^ repeated several 
 times. It is also said, that a letter written by the king of 
 Westphalia to some one of his old associates of Guadaloupe^ 
 was, about a twelvemonth ago, seized by the British on 
 board of a French vessel, boud to that island : in which 
 letter it was stated that Jerome expected to be made king 
 of Austria within a short period. One may justly apply to 
 flW the members of this family the verses of Claudian: 
 
 His neque per dubium pendet Fortuna favorera, 
 
 Nee novit mutare vices ; sed fixus ia omnes 
 
 Cognatos precedit honos. 
 
 Consul. Oli/b. Sr Prob. 1. 10. 
 
 G
 
 50 
 
 gcr with which they were threatened, nor 
 awakened to a just view of the evils which 
 that danger, when reahsed, would entail upon 
 them. It may be collected from the procla- 
 mations of the Austrian government, that a 
 deplorable apathy prevailed among the people, 
 at the commencement of the late contest. — 
 The want of a proper correspondence on their 
 part, long embarrassed the efforts of their ru» 
 lers ; but a conviction — resulting from the 
 clearest proof — of the ruin with which they 
 were menaced, at length drove the latter to 
 the necessity of labouring assiduously to es- 
 tablish a military system, similar to that which 
 had so materially contributed to the superi* 
 ority of their enemies. The activity of their 
 preparations alarmed the jealousy of the Frenqh 
 government, and forms the ground of the 
 complaints urged by Clmmpagtiy in his corres- 
 pondence with the Austrian minister Metier- 
 tiich, and of his peremptory and insulting de- 
 mand of the relinquishment of the new plan 
 of military organization. The whole of this 
 correspondence is exceedingly curious, and 
 warrants the conclusion, — that the French
 
 51 
 
 emperor might have continued the war in Spain 
 uncliisturbed, if he had been wiUing to over- 
 look the preparations of Austria. But it was 
 essentially necessary for him to arrest the pro- 
 gress of a system, which would have placed 
 her power more upon a level with his own ; 
 and, when matured, might have opposed se- 
 rious impediments to the execution of his ge- 
 neral plans. Spain was, therefore* abandoned 
 for the moment, and Austria reduced to the 
 alternative, either of depriving herself of all 
 means of defence, or of engaging in an im- 
 mediate struggle for her existence. 
 
 Those who are inclined to dispute the pro- 
 ject of universal conquest ascribed to France, 
 — and her ambitious views on Austria,— argue 
 from the seeming moderation displayed by 
 Bonaparte in his last war with that power; 
 when her capital was in his hands, and the 
 monarchy appeared altogether at his mercy. 
 That moderation, however, may be easily re- 
 conciled with his plans ; and was in fact.
 
 calculated to promote them. It was the com- 
 mon policy of his prototypes of antiquity, 
 when similarly circumstanced. They often 
 found it useful to weaken their enemies so far 
 as to have nothing to fear from them ; but 
 carefully abstained from afflicting all the pos- 
 sible evil in their power. They paved the way 
 for future and entire conquest, and thought 
 it unwise to provoke, too suddenly, the resis- 
 tance of despair, and the vicissitudes of for- 
 tune. The appearance of moderation lessen- 
 ed the odium and the alarms, which Bona- 
 parte's immense accession of strength by the 
 treaty of Presburg, was fitted to excite in the 
 Russian and Prussian cabinets. His views upon 
 the north were not altogether ripe for execu- 
 tion ; and those powers were, therefore, to be 
 lulled into inaction by the hope of his forbear- 
 ance, — upon which they have always ap- 
 peared more to rely, than upon their means 
 of defence. 
 
 I have always been of opinion, that the de- 
 struction of Prussia was a sure presage of the 
 hostilities meditated against both Austria and
 
 53 
 
 Russia. Prussia stood in the centre of the 
 North. No balance could be preserved in 
 that quarter without such an intermediate 
 power. She was a barrier on all sides against 
 violent usurpation, and in the meridian of her 
 strength, was the bulwark of the west of Eu- 
 rope. She protected France from any ambi- 
 tious designs which Russia might have for- 
 med, — antl served as a constant check upon 
 Austria. It was the uniform policy of the 
 court of Versailles, guided by this view of 
 things, to sustain her cause and to court her 
 alliance, as a fundamental security against 
 any inordinate increase of strength on the 
 part of their formidable neighbour.* Their 
 
 * See particularly on this head, a Memoire of M. dc 
 Vergennes, contained in the 2d vol. of the Politique de tous 
 les Cabinets, dated March, one thousand seven hundred and 
 eighty four — ** S'il falloit opter," says this statesman, " en» 
 ** tre la conversation de la maison des Bourbons en Italic, 
 *' et celle de la puissance Prussienne en Allemagne, ii n*y 
 '• auroit pas k hesiter entre I'abandon des premiers et le 
 *' maintien de I'autre, quoiqne le royaume de Naples, dans 
 '* les mains de I'erapereur, lui donneroit des avantages d« 
 **■ de plus d'un genre, &c.'*
 
 54 
 
 successors were well acquainted with this 
 whole scheme of relations, and would have 
 adhered to it, if it had been their intention to 
 tolerate any equipoise or independence in the 
 North. But other views required an opposite 
 course of proceeding. Wnile Prussia remained 
 entire, Russia and Austria could not have be6ri 
 easily brought under the yoke ; and on the 
 other hand, it may, I think, be easily seen, 
 that Prussia would not have been destroyed, 
 if the fall of the other powers had not been 
 contemplated as an event of no distant occur* 
 rence. 
 
 It is true, that there were motives, scarcely 
 less urgent than those springing out of the 
 general plan of conquest, to precipitate the 
 attack on Prussia. Gentz, who is placed at 
 the head of the political writers of the con- 
 tinent, has declared, in his answer to d'Hau- 
 terive, that nothing but the union of Austria 
 and Prussia could arrest the career of France, 
 and save the other states of Europe.* The 
 French government was well aware of thi* 
 
 * See State of Europe, p. 240.
 
 55 
 
 reasonino- — and the cabinets of Berlin and 
 Vienna began to see the necessity of an ap- 
 proximation. France then felt the expedi-- 
 ency of dealing an immediate blow, in order 
 to dissipate the strength of Prussia, before 
 Austria, after lier recent disasters, could col- 
 lect the means or summon up the resolution to 
 co-operate in a plan of mutual defence, which 
 the course of events pointed out as the only 
 available resource for both nations. It is also 
 true, that when Bonaparte compelled Prussia 
 to engage in the war which terminated in 
 her utter ruin, the power of France had in- 
 creased, and that of Austria had dwindled in 
 such a degree, that a counterpoise was no lon- 
 ger wanting to the influence or pretentions of 
 the latter- But whatever may he the supe- 
 riority of strength with which France is en- 
 dued, her subtle and ambitious ruler would 
 never have removed Prussia, — the principal 
 obstacle to the creation of an overrulins: in- 
 fluence in the North,-^nor would he have 
 occupied, at sucli a distance from the seat of 
 his empire, the doubtful allegiance of West- 
 phalia, if he had not meditated an early at- 
 tempt upon the neighbouring powers. These
 
 56 
 
 measures, which, on this supposition, tended 
 to facilitate their destruction, would have re- 
 dounded to his prejudice, if this sequel bad 
 not been projected. To have left Austria and 
 Russia at peace for a length of time sufficient 
 to heal their wounds, with the scope for am- 
 bitious designs, and the means of aggrandize- 
 ment which the extinction of Prussia afforded 
 them, — would have endangered the power of 
 France more than any merely possible union 
 between the courts of Berlin and Vienna.* 
 
 The growing power of Russia kindled, even 
 before the revolution, an incurable jealousy in 
 the cabinet, and among the speculative poli- 
 ticians of France. The close connexion of 
 the former with England, — the exclusion of 
 France from all share in the negociations 
 with the Divan, — the contest for influence 
 between the two powers at the courts of Stock- 
 holm and Warsaw, — served to inflame this 
 jealousy, and to produce the most hostile 
 feelings on the side of France. To estrange 
 
 • Gentz is of opinion that such a union was not possible, 
 p. 241, State of Europe.
 
 57 
 
 the house of Lorraine from Russia — 
 " to throw back the latter into her vast 
 deserts" — to excUule her altogether from an 
 interference in the affairs of Europe, was the 
 favourite system of the statesmen of the old 
 regime ;'* and it will be found, upon reflection, 
 that their successors can scarcely be animated 
 by more favourable dispositions. So much 
 stress is usually placed on tlie strength of 
 Russia as a counterpoise to the power of 
 France, that I shall beg leave to add a few re- 
 marks on this subject. 
 
 • '* On ne peut pas disconvenir que le systeme general 
 de politique dont M. le Prince de Conti ffit I'auteur, n'eut 
 ete fait conformement aux veil tables principes, et selon 
 les interets de la France. II consisloit h garder en Europe 
 I'equilibre etabli par les traites de Westphalie — a lier, par 
 un autre traite perpetuel, la Turquie, la Pologne, la Su^de 
 et la Prusse, sous la mediation et cnsuite avec I'accession de 
 la France ; et enfin a separcr par ce tnoyen la maison 
 d^Autriche avec la Russie, en rejettaut cette dernier e dans 
 ses vastes deserts, et la releguanty pour ainsi dire^ hurs des 
 limites de I'Europe." — *' Memoire du compte de Broglie — • 
 Politique de tous les Cabinets." — See also another memoire 
 from the same, dated sixteenth of February, one thousand 
 «even hundred and seventy five. — Politique de tous les Cabi- 
 nets. 
 
 H
 
 58 
 
 All my jnquiries, during my residence 
 abroad, concerning the true character and 
 amount of the Russian means of warfare, led 
 me to the conclusion that they are generally 
 much overrated. Her maritime resources can 
 be but of little service in her struggles with 
 France — and, in fact, are scarcely sufficient 
 to give her any reputation for strength on the 
 ocean. A nation possessing no distant colo- 
 nies, labouring under a scarcity of good sai- 
 lors, without considerable fisheries, and with 
 no extent of coast to familiarize the natives 
 to the dangers of the ocean, cannot easily 
 create a navy, calculated to render her formi- 
 dable to the great maritime states of Europe, 
 The rapid advances of Russia since the reign 
 of Peter the Great, her victories over the 
 Turks, owing, however, to the ignorance 
 and pusillanimity of the Ottoman generals, 
 and to the insubordination of their troops; 
 her gigantic projects of ambition, and the 
 vast compass of her territory, (in reality, a 
 source of weakness,) have dazzled the eyes 
 of mankind, and produced most extravagant
 
 &9 
 
 hyperboles with regard to h^Tviilitary andpe- 
 cuniary resources. 
 
 Upon these resources alone she must rely in 
 her competition with France; and I am well 
 convinced that they will prove insufficient for 
 her rescue. I have read, with some atten- 
 tion, the opinions of those who wrote upon 
 the state of her finances and the character of 
 her levies before the French revolution ; and 
 when I consider the difficulties which the 
 Russian government had to overcome with 
 regard to both, I am quite astonished at the 
 efforts it then made, although I believe them 
 to be greatly exaggerated.* Catherine la- 
 boured to spread an illusion on this subject, 
 by the boldness and splendor of her under- 
 takings ; but they seldom required more than 
 one or two campaigns; and with all the aids 
 of absolute power, she was unable to collect 
 
 * See on the subject of the resources of Russia *' Poli- 
 liique de tous les Cabinets — Conji^ctures Raisonnees de Fa- 
 Tier, Art. cinq de la Russie'' — also '' Coxe's Travels in the 
 North," those of " Professor Pallas in Russia"— Tooke's 
 History,'* &c.
 
 60 
 
 a revenue equal to that of the secondary order 
 of slates in Europe. Her armies were diawn 
 from the interior of the empire, and formed 
 by means of slow and operose levies. In 
 weakening the inland population, they exert- 
 ed a most pernicious influence over the general 
 prosperity of a country, which, of all others 
 most imperiously exacts the strictest econo- 
 my of the blood, and the steadiest appHca- 
 tion of the agricultural labour, of its inhabi- 
 tants. The military strength of Russia was 
 impaired by the frequency of seditions among 
 the soldiery, of court conspiracies, and of 
 popular commotions ; evils to which the Rus- 
 sian government is still exposed, and which 
 must always impede the execution of any re- 
 gular plan of warfare. 
 
 The natural progress of her strength, the 
 extension of her commerce, the diffusion 
 of the arts of civilized life, and an improved 
 system of internal administration within the 
 last thirty years, hav^e undoubtedly placed 
 her under more favorable circumstances, and 
 greatly augmented her resources. But when-
 
 m 
 
 contrasted with those of France there is still 
 an irremediable deficiency. Her financial 
 means bear no proportion in the comparison. 
 Independently of the positive fact, her infe- 
 riority, in this respect, might be understood 
 from a calculation admitted by most writers 
 on political arithmetic : that a thousand in- 
 habitants, collected within a square league, 
 will, when compared with five hundred, 
 spread over the same surface, sustain much 
 more than double the amount of taxes, and 
 cost much less trouble and expence in the 
 collection of them. The product of private 
 industry and of national revenue, with no 
 difference even of soil or climate, is, within 
 a given space, uniformly in a ratio, much 
 greater than that of the population. I state 
 this principle, however, chiefly with a view 
 to illustrate the difficulties to which Russia. 
 must be subject in relation to the concerns of 
 her treasury. The amount of her revenue is 
 but of little importance in an investigation of 
 her ability to cope with France. The impos- 
 sibility, under which she labours, of repairing 
 with promptitude any severe losses of men.
 
 tss 
 
 her want of good officers, and the defects of 
 her military organization, are the most dis- 
 couraging points of comparison. 
 
 War, as waged by her enemy, is not now 
 principally a question of finance, but of the 
 resources of population. The strength of a 
 state opposed to France, must be estimated by 
 the sum of its population, divided by the 
 extent of its territory, and by the facility 
 with which its institutions enable the govern- 
 ment to wield that population. The first 
 branch of this estimate is so far correct, that 
 many writers compute, that a population of 
 six millions, concentrated within a small 
 space, is equal to one of twenty-four, diffused 
 over a large surface. Ic is eminently true as 
 it relates to the military operations of a coun- 
 try, waging a defensive war. Whoever re- 
 flects on the sparse character of the Russian 
 population, and considers that the Russian 
 government is under the necessity of main- 
 taining a standing army at home, in order to 
 preserve domestic tranquillity, will easily 
 understand the appHcation of the foregoing 
 remarks, and must be satisfied that, although
 
 63 
 
 England might furnish pecuniary supplies, 
 Russia, after a few severe defeats, would he 
 deficient in the nurnher of her troops. 
 
 The distance of Russia will not serve to 
 protect her, when the intermediate powers 
 are subdued. France will then press upon 
 her frontier, with all the accession of num- 
 bers, of treasure, and of influence, which she 
 must derive from an unlimited sway over the 
 adjacent territories. The acquisition of Fin- 
 land, of Gallicia, or of whatever portion of 
 Turkey may be now promised, to gratify 
 the blind ambition of Alexander, will be no 
 addition to his strength, and will only con- 
 duce, by enlarging his boundaries, to mul- 
 tiply his embarrassments, when the Swedes, 
 the Poles, the Turks, the Persians, and the 
 Chinese, who border on his immense empire, 
 will be all set in motion to second the attack 
 of his implacable enemy. During the last 
 struggle of Russia, it was certainly in the 
 contemplation of Bonaparte to erect a king-r 
 dom of Poland, under his immediate influence, 
 in order to promote his designs on the norths
 
 64 
 
 Murat, now monarch of Naples, was to have 
 wielded the new sceptre. lu the evening of 
 the day on which the victory of Friedland 
 was announced at Paris, the princess Murat, 
 at a numerous assemhly held in her palace, 
 was saluted queen of Poland by the public 
 functionaries present. The reluctance of the 
 Poles, and the acquiescence of Alexander in 
 the creation of the kingdom of Westphalia, 
 prevented the accomplishment of this plan. 
 ,It is rather curious that a similar one was 
 formed by the French cabinet in 1745. A 
 deputation of Polish noblemen was sent from 
 Warsaw at that period, to tender to thaprincc 
 of Conti the wishes of the country, for his 
 eventual election to the crown.* 
 
 The hasty submissions of Alexander at 
 Tilsit, and all the events of the war which 
 terminated in the ignominious peace of that 
 name, tend to confirm the ideas 1 have sug- 
 gested in the last page. The representations 
 of the British officers who accompanied the 
 
 * Politique de tous les Cabinets — Lettre du comptc de 
 Broglie k Louis XVI. torn. 1.
 
 &5 
 
 Russian armies, particularly of Lord Hutche- 
 son, go to prove that the Russians were, at 
 no time, in a condition to contend success- 
 fully with the French force. They wanted 
 numbers, officers, a spirit of union in the 
 generals, and a well-regulated commissariat — 
 a department in which they are miserably de- 
 ficient. So wretched was the preparation for 
 this sanguinary struggle, that the Russian- 
 troops, on their own borders, suffered more 
 than their assailants from the inclemency of 
 the season and the scarcity of provisions. 
 The most sagacious and experienced of the 
 officers whom I have cited, saw from the be- 
 ginning no chance of success but in the ca- 
 sualties of fortune, the unassisted skill of Ben- 
 ningsen, and the courageous, hardy, obedi- 
 ent, persevering character of the Russian sol- 
 diery. They never saw grounds for a belief, 
 that the resources of the Russian government 
 would enable it to withstand the shock of 
 more than one severe campaign. 
 
 The divisions in the Russian cabinet, and 
 the preponderance of a French faction at St, 
 
 I
 
 66 
 
 Petersburg, which now sways the national 
 councils, constitute another and great source 
 of weakness. The French partisans have 
 subdued the spirit of Alexander, by an expo- 
 sition of the impotency of his means, and 
 debauched his principles, by specious state- 
 ments of the benefits he is to derive from 
 Freuch alliance. It was asserted by the pre- 
 sent opposition in England, that the estrange- 
 ment of the Russian monarch from British 
 politics, was owing to the horror which he 
 had conceived at the expedition against Co- 
 penhagen. But the testimony of Lord Leve- 
 son Gower proved, undeniably, that the 
 rupture was decided upon previous to that 
 event ; and was induced by the terror which 
 the French arms had inspired, and the cor* 
 rupt expectations with which Bonaj>arte had 
 pampered the imagination of Alexander. The 
 iniquitous war which the latter has waged 
 since that period against Sweden, and his co- 
 operation with Bonaparte in the late at- 
 tack upon Austria, furnish strong evidence 
 of a conscience by no means so scrupulous 
 as the hypothesis of the opposition would 
 imply.
 
 67 
 
 You may easily infer, my dear sir, from 
 the opinions which I have thus ventured to 
 suhmit to you, that I clierish no hopes for 
 the safety of the continent. I cannot consent 
 to reason from loose probabilities and remote 
 contingencies, and I see no other foundation 
 upon which hope can rest. My conclusions 
 are drawn from a view of tlie fundamental 
 means and permanent relations of France, 
 and not from a consideration of the character 
 of her ruler.* Gents, in his *' Fragment on 
 the Balance of Power," enumerates three 
 traits in the present constitution of France, 
 which, according to his idea, must render 
 her irresistible : — 1st. The unlimited form of 
 her government. — 2(1. The decisive influence 
 of the military character over the whole sys- 
 tem, — And, 3d. the occasional and success- 
 ful employment of revolutionary instruments 
 and means. Add to these the tederal strength 
 which she has acquired by the extension of 
 her limits ; the torpor which seizes almost 
 every nation even at the name pf France ; 
 
 * See Geau, Sute of Europe, p. 235.
 
 68 
 
 the subtilty of Iier statesmen ; and the skill 
 of her commanders ; and it will be at once 
 apparent that she may bid defiance to the 
 united efforts of Europe, if by any possibility 
 they could be united. 
 
 The elements of union, however, are irre- 
 coverably gone. By the destruction of Prus- 
 sia, and the recent disasters of Austria, the 
 North is broken into too many fragments, 
 ever to be again consolidated. It is not Rus- 
 sia, such as I have described her, that can 
 breathe a vivyfying and elastic spirit into this 
 disjointed mass. She stands alone in tHe 
 midst of ruins, with all the ramparts over- 
 thrown which ministered to her own security. 
 Holland can never be what she was. — Swit- 
 zerland, that remained free, by a kind of 
 prescription, under the old system, is now 
 but " an entrenched camp" of France, and 
 must, from her geographical position, con- 
 tinue enslaved. — Germany is open on all sides. 
 The French armies march at once, and with- 
 out impediment, into the heart of the German 
 dominions. The cession of the Rhine districts
 
 6^ 
 
 to the masters of Flanders, of Holland, of 
 Switzerland, and of the Tyrol, left, thence- 
 forward, no chance of safety for Austria, or 
 of independence for the north of Europe. 
 The Archduke Charles may fight a successful 
 battle, but the fate of his unhappy country 
 will depend, not on the issue of a single en- 
 counter, or of a .single campaign : it hangs 
 upon the competency of the Austrian power 
 to withstand the whole weight of the resources 
 of the French empire. Under this point of 
 view, her affairs never appeared to me other 
 than desperate from the commencement of 
 her last struggle.* 
 
 * It is impossible to contemplate the final dissolution 
 of Austria without lively emotion: — dashed, as she is, 
 from off her '* wide ambitious base," on which she had 
 stood firm and respected for so many centuries, by an 
 enemy more relentless than those *' sons of spoil," who, 
 to use the language of the poet Collins, broke into a thous. 
 and fragments the *' Giant Statue" of Rome. ; No empire 
 which has as yet sunk under the blows of France, has 
 fallen with a sound so ominous and fearful for Europe. 
 And when we consider the power and security of the Aus. 
 Urian monarchy but a few years ago, the world has nevery
 
 70 
 
 This mode of reasoning leads mc also to 
 despair of the success of the Spanish contest. 
 The subjugatit>n of Spain was not rashly re- 
 solved, nor will it be irresolutely executed. 
 Austria will be too much crippled to suspend 
 a second time the progress of the invader. 
 There is no politician so sanguine as to ima- 
 gine that the English alone will wrest the 
 prey fnim bis talons, unless they can infuse 
 into the Spaniaids another spirit, and call 
 forth other energies, than those which have 
 been hitbert© displayed. Could the contest 
 be protracted for any length of time, there 
 would arise, peihaps, some great leader to 
 unite, organize, and direct the means of the 
 country, — whose *' strong divinity of soul* 
 tnight restore the fortunes of his nation, and 
 
 \\ 
 
 ri^rhaps, been presented with a more awful lesson on what 
 Rfr. Burke denominates ** the tremendous instability of 
 jbuman grandeur.'* 
 
 Eheu! quam brevibus pereunt ingcntia fatis! 
 Injperium tanto quassiluin sanguine, tanto 
 Scrvatum, quod mille ducum pepcrSre labores. 
 Prodilor unus,.....angusto tempore vertit. 
 
 Clauoian, InRuf. cap. S.
 
 71 
 
 avenoe the fall of those who now shed their 
 
 o 
 
 blood ill its defence. 
 
 Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor. 
 
 But, when we consider the character of the 
 enemy, tliis hope vanishes, together with the 
 whole train of visionary encouragements, 
 which the field of conjecture will always fur- 
 nish to those who vehemently desire the ac- 
 complishment of a particular end. 
 
 Should the life of the invader be suddenly 
 destroyed, the fate which he now meditates 
 for Spain might be averted; but she would 
 soon relapse into the same species of vassal' 
 age to France, under which she has hitherto 
 groaned. This event might, indeed, plunge 
 France herself into a civil war, but would 
 not, according to my view of the basis of her 
 power, alter the destinies of the continent 
 A civil war would employ but a portion of 
 the French force ; and as far as my observa- 
 tion, when at Paris, enables me to judge, 
 would not endure long enough to afford time
 
 72 
 
 for the formation of a general and efficacious 
 league without. The struggle would termi- 
 minate in the establishment of a mihtary chief, 
 with the same views as the present, and 
 armed with equal power over a people, whose 
 military propensities, whose licentious habits, 
 and whose servile spirit, would only be height- 
 ened by the state of disorder and insubordi- 
 nation into which they would be thrown. 
 They would become, if possible, still more 
 formidable to Europe than they are at this 
 moment. During the domestic contentions 
 of Rome, and the civil wars of Italy, the bu- 
 siness of conquest was pursued M'ith more ra- 
 pid success, than at any other period of their 
 history. There is a passage in the Grandeur 
 et Decadencey* of Montesquieu, in reference 
 to this subject, which I shall quote as the 
 best illustration of my opinions : — " It should 
 ** be remarked,** says he, " that during the 
 " civil wars, which lasted for so long a time, 
 '* the foreign influence of Rome was con- 
 ** stantly ©n the increase. Under MaiiuSj^ 
 
 • Chap. XI. '
 
 73 
 
 " Sylla, Pompey, Caesar, Anthony, and Au« 
 " giistus, Rome, become more terrible every 
 " day, consummated the ruin of the surviving 
 " kings. There is no state which so seriously 
 " menaces the world with conquest, as one 
 " which is afflicted with the miseries of civil 
 ** war. Everyman^ the noble, the citizen, the 
 *' artificer, the labourer, becomes a soldier, and 
 " when peace unites their strength, such a state 
 *' possesses great advantages over the rest who 
 " have citizens alone. In civil wars, moreover, 
 '* great men are formed ; because in times 
 " of confusion, those who possess merit make 
 ** their way and rise to their proper level ; 
 " whereas in other periods, the subordination 
 *' which must exist, counteracts they buoy- 
 '* ancy of superior minds. Let us pass from 
 *• the example of the Romans to more recent 
 " instances. The French were never so for- 
 '* midable without, as after the quarrels of the 
 ** houses of Burgundy and of Orleans ; after 
 " the troubles of the League; after the civil 
 " wars of the mi?writy of Louis XII L and of 
 " that of Louis XIV. England was never so 
 " much respected as under Cromwell, after 
 
 K
 
 T4 
 
 '* the civil wars of the long parliament. The 
 •' Germans never acquired a full superiority 
 *' over the Turks, but after their civil wars. 
 "The Spaniards under Philip the Fifth, after 
 *' the civil wars of the succession, manifested 
 " a vigour in Sicily, which astonished all 
 " Europe — and we see Persia, at this mo- 
 " ment, rise from the ashes of a civil war, 
 ** and humble the Turks/' 
 
 At the accession of Bonaparte to the go- 
 vernment of France, that country exhibited 
 in its interior a picture of misery and ruin, 
 which had scarcely any parallel in the history 
 of the world. To be satisfied of the truth of 
 this position, we need only refer to the re- 
 ports of the prefects, and to the discourses 
 of the public functionaries, which have since 
 been published under the authority of the new 
 government itself. The tempest of the revo- 
 lution had swept away all those artificial insti- 
 tutions and branches of domestic economy, 
 which experience has shown to be aloiie sub-
 
 75 
 
 stantially nutritive to a state, and conducive 
 to the best interests of man, both in his so- 
 cial and political relations. The present ruler 
 inherited from his predecessors no other re- 
 sources, organized into a system, or suscepti- 
 ble of ready application, than those which 
 have since enabled him to roll the tide of 
 calamity over the countries of the continent, 
 without healing the miseries of his own The 
 only efficacious remedy for the wounds of 
 France, was peace. It was alone calculated 
 to produce a new system of morals and man- 
 ners, and to establish the only true basis of 
 public and private prosperity, — an industrious 
 population, enjoying an easy subsistence. 
 
 Much is said about the progress of the new 
 rulers in the promotion of these objects, not- 
 withstanding the extensive and sanguinary 
 wars in which they have been constantly en- 
 gaged. You, my dear sir, who are so pro- 
 foundly versed in matters of legislation, 
 would not even after the most positive testi- 
 mony in the affirmative, readily conceive, 
 how a government, occupied with schemes
 
 76 
 
 of foreign conquest and personal aggrandize- 
 ment, could have succeeded, within a very 
 few years, in removing even common disor- 
 ders of internal administration, in a country 
 of so vast an extent as France. You will not 
 therefore easily credit what is so often as- 
 serted, — that she has been raised from the 
 profoundest depths of all possible wretched- 
 ness to a condition not only superior to her 
 former lot under the Bourbons, but better 
 than tliat of any other state of Europe. Or 
 all the irregular phenomena recorded in his- 
 tory, this would be the most wonderful. The 
 reflection of a moment must serve to convince 
 you, that the assertion is entitled to no cre- 
 dit whatever. But as the mistakes of the 
 public are not so easily corrected, and on this 
 subject lead to others of greater importance, 
 I propose to indulge in some details relative 
 to the internal state of the empire, as it fell 
 under my observation less than two years 
 ago. My statement will conduct to very 
 opposite conclusions. Despotism has worn 
 the same aspect whenever and wherever it 
 has appeared.
 
 If 
 
 Those who are in the habit of declaiming 
 on the comparative beatitude of France under 
 the new dynasty, lay much stress on fancied 
 mitigations and improvements in the system 
 of finance. It is to this branch of their do- 
 mestic economy that I mean to solicit your 
 attention particularly. 1 have touched in a 
 former page on the relation which subsists 
 between the military character and the finan- 
 cial resources of the French government. The 
 present inquiry will serve to illustrate that 
 topic, and cannot be without some general 
 interest. 
 
 The disorders of the revenue constituted a 
 principal theme of invective, with the dema- 
 gogues who subverted the old government. 
 A deficit, by no means considerable, was in- 
 cessantly represented as an evil from which 
 no relief could be obtained, but in a new 
 order of things. The ministers of Louis the 
 sixteenth applied themselves, with assiduity 
 and skill, to the reformation of this depart- 
 ment; and if suffered to prosecute their la- 
 bours, would have left no rational ground of
 
 complaint to the nation. For the truth of 
 this assertion, I appeal to the invaluable work 
 of Necker on the finances, whose statements 
 I shall have occasion to compare with those 
 of the present administration of France. 
 Much was done by the Constituent Assembly 
 in abolishing the most obnoxious branches, 
 and in purifying the remaining sources of the 
 revenue. During the revolution, there never 
 existed even the shadow of a regular system, 
 notwithstanding all that was said and written 
 on this subject. For a period of six years, 
 the receipts of the treasury amounted annu- 
 ally, according to Ramel, only to fifteen mil- 
 lions sterling. The same writer emphatically 
 states, that he does not dare to calculate how 
 much was expended. The revolutionary go- 
 vernments supported themselves and the ar- 
 mies, not merely, like chevaliers d'industrie, 
 by trick and fraud, — but like highwaymen, 
 by open violence and robbery. No subject 
 presents more curious and astonishing details, 
 than the history of the expedients and^ sacri- 
 fices by which the pecuniary wants of jtj^c 
 republic were supphed, and of the deplor-
 
 79 
 
 able confusion and distress which they occa- 
 sioned.* Their influence over the public 
 morals was scarcely less disastrous than their 
 operation upon the sources of private and 
 public wealth. 
 
 On the establishment of the consular o-o- 
 vernment, the restoration of order to the 
 finances, and an alleviation of the public bur- 
 dens, were declared to be among the most 
 immediate objects of its solicitude. A sys- 
 tem soon arose under its auspices, — invested 
 with every possible solemnity of form, and 
 ushered in with the utmost liberality of pro- 
 mise. While the new rulers ostentatiously 
 announced, — what they knew could not be 
 fulfilled, — the reduction of the public ex- 
 penses for the first year, — they were careful 
 to shake off the only restraint which re- 
 mained upon the executive, in the manage- 
 ment of the revenue. The legislative bodies 
 had previously exacted from the heads of 
 departments, a statement of their probable 
 expenditure during the year,— and after mak- 
 
 * I refer the reader on this subject to Ramel— *' His. 
 <les Fin. de la Republique."
 
 80 
 
 ing the amount given in, the subject of pub- 
 h'c discussion,* they themselves appropriated 
 the sums, which they tliought necessary for 
 each. After some serious opposition from 
 the members of the tribunate, the executive 
 wrested this prerogative from them, and 
 caused the whole mass of the public treasure 
 to be placed entirely at its own disposal. f 
 
 • " In the progress of despotism," says Dr. Smith, ** the 
 '' authority of the executive power gradually absorbs that 
 ** of every other power in the state, and assumes to itself the 
 *' management of every branch of revenue, which is des- 
 " tined for any public purpose." 
 
 (Wealth of Nat. b. 5. c. 1.) 
 f *' The right of imposing taxes," says Sir James Steuart, 
 " appears no where almost to have been essentially attached 
 ** to royalty- This right I take to be the least equivocal 
 ** characteristic of an absolute and unlimited power. I 
 ** know of no Christian monarchy (except, perhaps, Rus- 
 ** sia) where either the consent of the states, or the appro- 
 *' bation and concurrence of some political body within the 
 *' state, has not been requisite to make the imposition of 
 " taxes constitutional." (Pol. Econ. b. 11. c. 23.) See 
 Keeker, Admin, des Fin. ch. 2, for some very able reflec- 
 tions on the utility of public discussion with regard to taxes; 
 and the just compliments which he pays to the British na- 
 tion on that and almost every other topic, connected witR 
 their financial system.
 
 81 
 
 In order, however, to soften this usurpation, 
 the minister of finance was instructed to exhi- 
 bit annually a budget, like that of the English 
 ministry, with a distinct specification of the re- 
 ceipts and disbursements. This mummery is 
 still continued, and is regularly accompanied by 
 the most glowing pictures of past and future 
 improvements ; upon which no reliance what- 
 ever is placed, by any well informed member 
 of the community. To preserve appearances, 
 however, they have been compelled to double 
 the ostensible amount of the receipts, which 
 they originally declared to be adequate to all 
 the necessities of the state. The people are de- 
 prived of all means of knowing the real amount 
 either of the receipts or disbursements, — as no 
 public scrutiny is suffered. You may thus at 
 once conjecture, what must be, with regard to 
 taxation, the state of a country, where a mili- 
 tary exec«tive enjoys an unlimited control over 
 the estimate, the collection, and the expendi- 
 ture, of the revenue, — where there exists no 
 public organ for complaint or remonstrance, — 
 no voice or influence of public opinion, — no 
 
 L
 
 83 
 
 idea of distributive justice, — and no protectio«i 
 for the citizen, against the usurpations of exe- 
 cutive authority. 
 
 Montesquieu has remarked, that under a des- 
 potic government, the branches of revenue can- 
 not be numerous, on account of the violence 
 and injustice of which such a government is 
 necessarily productive.* He adds, that they 
 must also be plain and simple; because the laws 
 on this subject, if numerous, would be violated 
 by power; and, if ambiguous, perverted by sub- 
 tlety, in such a degree, as to embitter, beyond 
 all endurance, the miseries of the contributors, 
 by placing their fortunes at the mercy of the 
 collectors. He refers, in this instance, — as well 
 as in most others, wherein he speaks of the pro- 
 perties of despotic governments,: — to such as 
 those of Turkey and China ; and not to a mili- 
 tary rule, like that which now governs France. 
 Mad he lived in our time, he would have 
 seen, in the case of his own unhappy country- 
 
 * Esprit des Lois, liv. xiii. ch. xIt.
 
 8S 
 
 men, by whom the spirit of his immortal ^ork 
 has been most shamefully dishonoured, a com- 
 bination of evils, which he scarcely believed 
 possible. He would have acknowledged, that 
 even what he calls extreme servitude, may be 
 augmented; — and that a people may be subject 
 cd at once to the double oppression of military 
 and fiscal tyranny. He would have seen the art 
 of oppressing a people by schemes of taxation, 
 Vart de travailler les fieufiles en finance, carried 
 to the utmost pitch of perfection, under a mili- 
 tary despotism. 
 
 I have carefully collated the list of objects 
 taxed in England, particularly those which fall 
 under the excise, with the catalogue of France ; 
 and have found, that the French government 
 has omitted none, which, by any possibility, 
 could be rendered productive. In England, they 
 have studiously avoided the imposition of such 
 taxes as might clog the industry, or trench too 
 far upon the necessities, of the people. In 
 France, these considerations appear to have hac^
 
 94 
 
 fio weight; while at the same time, the propor- 
 tions observed in England, for the alleviation 
 of the lower classes, are there wholly disre- 
 garded.* No comparison can be instituted, as 
 to the moderation and lenity, with which the 
 numerous and complicated taxes of both coun- 
 tries are levied. 
 
 1 shall now proceed to examine — 1st, The 
 principal sources of the actual revenue ot 
 France; 2d, The system established for the 
 administration and collection of that revenue ; 
 Sd, The amount of the receipts and disburse- 
 ments. 
 
 * The income tax in England does not fall upon those 
 whose incomes are less than fifty pounds sterling, per 
 annum. From that sura, up to two hundred pounds ster- 
 ling, there is a progressive or ascending scale of per cent- 
 age — similar to that of Athens. For the articles apprais- 
 ed in France, in order to ascertain the amount of private 
 revenue, I refer to a curious body of instructions, issued 
 to the appraisers and collectors in the year eighteen htm- 
 4red and two, by the minister of finance, and costaineil^ 
 
 his report for that year.
 
 85 
 
 The French rulers have adopted the usual 
 distinction of direct and indirect taxes ; — a dis- 
 tinction of some importance in the formation 
 of a budget and in the regulation of financial 
 accounts. Under the head of direct taxes, they 
 comprise — the land tax, — the impost upon mov- 
 ables, divided into the personal, mobiliary, and 
 sumptuary tax, — the tax on doors and windows 
 — and on the wages of industry, entitled le droit 
 des jiatentes. Under the denomination of indi- 
 rect taxes they include — the stamp duties and 
 those on registration and on legal proceedings, 
 the customs, — the excise, — and all the numerous 
 branches of casual revenue, which must exist 
 in so extensive an empire. The direct taxes 
 are estimated at the commencement of the year; 
 and a specific sum is allotted from this fanA 
 by the legislative bodies, at the suggestion oi 
 the executive The nature of the indirect taxes 
 precludes an anticipated valuation. The ma- 
 nagement of them is committed to various ad- 
 ministrations, styled " the Administrations of 
 the Customs, the Post-oiEce, &:c." and ac- 
 countable to the minister of finance. Th^
 
 86 
 
 direct taxes fall under his immediate supervi- 
 sion. 
 
 The latter are assessed upon the empire ac- 
 eording to tables of distribution, which are 
 annexed to the law specifying their amount. 
 These tables are constructed from a view of 
 the population, — the territorial extent, — and 
 the supposed wealth of each department. The 
 prefects and the general councils allot a quota 
 to each district within their jurisdiction, — the 
 sub-prefects to each arrondiss emeriti — and the 
 mayors, of whom there is one for each com,' 
 mune or sub-division, apportion their contin- 
 gent among the inhabitants of the commune. 
 The name of each individual inhabitant, and 
 an estimate of his property, are inscribed upon 
 a list, which, together with the genera] allot- 
 ments, forms what is denominated the cadastre 
 — or revenue roll. The general government, 
 in determining the contingents of the depart- 
 ments, is supposed to be guided by the amount 
 of taxes which each paid to the old govern- 
 ment ;— by the reports of the prefects, relative
 
 SI 
 
 to the ability and dispositions of the territories 
 within their jurisdiction ; — and by general cal- 
 culations, with regard to the sources of public 
 wealth. The subordinate allotments are sup- 
 posed to depend on similar considerations,— 
 of a character less vague indeed, — but more 
 arbitrary, and more open to the influence of 
 partiality and to obscure vexations. 
 
 The " contribution fonciere," or land tax, 
 which has superseded the former taille and 
 vingiiemeSf must be understood not only in its 
 usual acceptation, but as a charge on income. 
 The maxiinum at which it is fixed by law — is 
 one fifth of the net income of the subject, 
 upon a general estimate of the whole product 
 of the French territory. Untenanted mansions 
 are exempted from contribution, in conse- 
 quence of the double character which this tax 
 assumes. — The personal contribution embraces 
 every article which falls within the list of the 
 assessed taxes in England — and which the 
 epithet can imply. Horses, dogs, servants, vehi- 
 cles, utensils, the rent of dwellings, stock of
 
 88 
 
 every description, &c. — are all included in one 
 or other of three branches, — the personal, 
 mobiliary, and sumptuary taxes, which I have 
 mentioned above. An impost on gateways, 
 chimneys, &c. is added to that on doors and 
 windows. The charges on these articles are 
 all of the heaviest kind. 
 
 Under the old government a tax was paid 
 for the privilege of exercising trades and pro- 
 fessions, and upon the emoluments and trans- 
 fers of public offices. This tax, which bore the 
 names of maitrise, jiirandes^ and droH de marc 
 d'or, was abolished by the Convention, but 
 revived by the Legislative Body, — and is still 
 continued under the denomination of droit de 
 patenUs. The municipal officers now prepare 
 for the government, lists of those, who exer- 
 cise within the sphere of their jurisdiction, any 
 trade or profession, or are engaged in the lu- 
 crative pursuits of industry. The tax which the 
 latter are called upon to pay is either fixed by a 
 tariff or levied at the rate of one tenth of the 
 rent of the houses, shops, &c. which they oc-
 
 89 
 
 cupy*. The trades and professions are divi- 
 ded into classes. Some of tliem, such as those 
 of bankers, brokers, kc. pay a fixed impost. 
 The contributions of the rest varies according 
 to the population of the cities in which they 
 reside. This droit des jiatentes, which unites tlie 
 character of a capitation tax with that of an 
 impost on the wages of industry, is one of the 
 most important and productive branches of the 
 revenue. Nearly eighteen hundred thousand 
 
 * In 1789 certain duties were imposed in England on 
 inhabited houses according to the rent paid for them, or 
 shops in them. — The tax . fell, as in France, upon the 
 tenant and the shopkeeper. — The measure was thought 
 so oppressive that it was soon repealed. — The comment 
 of Sir John Sinclair, on this subject, is particularly strong 
 — " This miserable instance," says he, " of ministerial 
 " obstinacy and ignorance being at last repealed, with 
 " the concurrence of the person who proposed it, it 
 " seems unnecessary to dwell upon that want of principle 
 " by which it was so preeminently distinguished. — To 
 " think of assessing a tax, not according to the rent 
 " which one receives, but to the rent that one must 
 " pay, is the height of cruelty and injustice; or taxing, 
 " as has been well observed, not the chance of profit, 
 " but the certainty of loss, — namely, the perpetual and 
 "unavoidable debt for a shop and house." (History of 
 the Revenue, vol, 2d, p. 152.) 
 
 M
 
 m 
 
 heads of families are subject to it. The public 
 functionaries paid by the treasury enjoy an ex- 
 emption, — while it presses upon those, — the 
 profits of whose personal industry are at all 
 tim.es precarious — and frequently insufficient 
 for the support of their families. I" 
 
 A thorough development of the operation 
 of the direct taxes would require more space 
 than the limits of this letter will allow. — I shall, 
 however, indulge in a few remiarks — in order 
 to afford a clearer insight into this subject. 
 The inherent evils of the income and personal 
 taxes are aggravated by the most oppressive 
 inequalities in the assessment. These inequali- 
 ties are necessarily incident to the system. — 
 For the distribution to be in any degree equi- 
 table, — it is necessary not only that the general 
 uUotments for the departments, but that those 
 of the prefects and the municipalities, — as well 
 as their reports, — should be founded upon the 
 most accurate and impartial calculation. — The 
 
 f See Sir James Steuart, b. 5. ch. 4-. — with respect to 
 the effects of such a tax as this on the wages of industry.
 
 91 
 
 individual is not only at the mercy of his par- 
 ticular assessor, but is exposed to suffer from 
 the errors of his municipality,— of the admini- 
 stration of his department, and of the govern- 
 ment at Paris. 
 
 The data upon which the government pro- 
 ceeds, in assessing the taxes upon the depart- 
 ments, — are obviously erroneous. — What a de- 
 partment may have paid to the old government 
 furnishes no proof of its ability at this moment, 
 on account of the total obstruction of many 
 channels of wealth— and of the revolutions in 
 the possession and value of property.— Under 
 the old regime — the value of real property was 
 estimated at twenty and twenty-five years' pur- 
 chase ; — at this time it is not more than twelve 
 or fifteen in many departments. — This diflfer- 
 ence is owing to a want of confidence in the 
 stability of the government; — to the high 
 rates of interest;— to the duties on registration 
 and transfers ;— and to an apprehension of those 
 violent expedients to wliich an arbitrary go-
 
 9^ 
 
 vernment msy have recourse, in order to re- 
 lieve its necessities. 
 
 The other basis — that of population — is 
 equally insufficient to insure a just distribution. 
 Montesquieu remarks — '* that a numerous 
 *'^ population, is frequently one of the principal 
 " causes why a government will demand but 
 " light taxes ; — because the necessities of the 
 " individual m.ay leave but little for those of 
 " the state." The general impoverishment 
 produced by the revolution, and the inequality 
 of its ravasres, should make this the rule of the 
 French government, — not only in the allot- 
 ment of the quotas of the departments, — but 
 in determining the amiOunt of taxes for the 
 whole empire. The superiority of the popula- 
 tion of France over that of England, so far from 
 alleviating the com^parative burdens of the for- 
 mer,- would only serve to aggravate them — 
 even on the supposition that the resources and 
 imposts of both countries were the same. I 
 shall pursue this idea hereafter.
 
 93 
 
 The system adopted for ascertaining the com- 
 parative resources of the districts, is equally unsa- 
 tisfactory. The personal interests of the munici- 
 palities, — the ignorance of the assessorsj— and 
 the enmities which still survive the feuds of the 
 revolution, — have given rise to the most gross 
 and pernicious inaccuracies in their reports.* — 
 In England the land-tax is assessed upon each 
 district, and has therefore become unequal, ac- 
 cording to the various degrees of improvement 
 in different parts of the country; but the valua- 
 tion by which the lands are rated is fixed and 
 
 * The minister of France holds the following language 
 on this subject-—" I had provisionally occupied myself 
 *' in collecting information relative to the taxable pro- 
 " perty of the departments, in order to propose some 
 " improvements in the distribution, — if I could succeed 
 *' in obtaining information upon whi h reliance could be 
 ** placed. — I must say that I have had occasion to remark 
 " the most obvious inaccuracy in almost all the details 
 " which have been given' me. This inaccuracy is such 
 " that if I were to calculate from these details, the whole 
 " territorial revenue of tlie republic, which even before 
 *' our acquisition of territory had been uniformly valued 
 ** at 1200 millions of francs, would be now rated only at 
 *' 850 millions, although the territory has been augment- 
 *' ed in the proportion of one fifth," &c — Budget ISOl.
 
 94 
 
 has redounded greatly to the advantage of the 
 landlord.* — The fluctuating annual valuation, 
 uhich takes place in France is productive of 
 the worst consequences to the subject. — The 
 proprietor can never improve his estate without 
 apprehending a correspondent increase of taxes, 
 and as the quota of the district must be dis- 
 charged, those who do improve, pay, not only 
 in proportion to the increased value of their 
 own estates, but to the diminution which may 
 occur in the incomes of others. — When the 
 sums collected fall short of the contingent pre- 
 scribed by the government, the deficiency is 
 supplied by second and third distributions. 
 
 This variable land-tax united to the imposts 
 on every species of income, and every emolu- 
 
 * See on the subject of a variable land-tax, — Dr. 
 Smith, b. 5. ch. 11. Wealth of Nat. and a copious dis- 
 sertation on the difference between the French* and 
 English land-tax in the year 1770, — in Sir J. Steuart's 
 Political Economy, b. 5. ch. 11. — Both these writers 
 have discussed with their wonted ability, and in great de- 
 tail, the French system of taxation at the periods at 
 which they wrote. Their discussions serve materially 
 to elucidate the present system.
 
 95 
 
 ment of industry — and on stock of every de. 
 scription, — gives rise annually to a most mi- 
 nute and vexatious scrutiny into the fortunes 
 and gains of individuals.* This scrutiny places 
 them altogether at the mercy of the multitude 
 of revenue officers, whose tyrannical practices 
 are overlooked from political views. These 
 abuses greatly enhance the evils resulting from 
 the original inequality in the assessment, and 
 have wrung from the individuals and general 
 councils, an uninterrupted succession of bitter 
 remonstrances and complaints which the govern- 
 ment has been compelled to notice. To sup- 
 port the assertions which a diligent perusal of 
 tliese remonstrances and my own inquiries 
 
 * Dr. Smith is of opinion, " that an inquisition into 
 ** every man's private affairs, and an inquisition which, 
 *' in order to accommodate the tax to them, watched over 
 " all the fluctuations of his fortune, would be a source of 
 " such continual and endless vexation as no 'people could 
 " support." W. of Nat.b. 5. c. 2. p. 111. The French 
 people have, however, learned to bear much more. I re- 
 fer also on this subject to some judicious observations of 
 Mr. Gallatin, in his * Sketch of the Finances of the Uni- 
 ted States," p 163, 4.
 
 96 
 
 while in France — entitle me to make, I shall 
 quote the language of the minister of finance 
 in a report addressed to the Emperor on this 
 subject in one thousand eight hundred and se- 
 ven. The tenor of all the public documents is 
 the same. " The formation of the new registers,'* 
 says the minister of finance ',' has led to the 
 " discovery of the abuses of the former distri- 
 *' bution. While some proprietors paid in one 
 **• thousand eight hundred and six, the fourth, 
 " the third, and even a moiety and more of their 
 " incomes, others were taxed at the rate of 
 " the one-twentieth, one^fiftieth, and one-hun- 
 " dredth part only. These inequalities would 
 " have remained for ever unknown, if the pre- 
 " paration of the new lists had not enabled us 
 " to discover them. In effect, — what a pernl- 
 " cious influence has not this bad distribution 
 *' over the existence of families. The evil is less 
 " felt in the great cities, where individuals are 
 " generally more at their ease — but let a person 
 " go into the country and then say, whether it 
 " is a matter of indifference to the father of a 
 *' family, enjoying for instance an income of
 
 97 
 
 " one thousand francs, to be taxed at the rate 
 " of one half or even of one-eighth, or in any 
 ** such proportion of such an income,'* &c.* 
 
 The magnitude of these evils and the serious 
 discontents resulting from them, rendered it in- 
 dispensable for the government to attempt 
 some plan of reformation. Two separate under- 
 takings have been commenced for this pur- 
 pose, — neither of which yields any promise of 
 success or alleviation. One is a complete sur- 
 vey of all the lands and taxable property of the 
 empire, — the other— a partial operation of the 
 same kind upon nineteen hundred communes or 
 subdivisions of districts, selected by lot from 
 various parts of the territory, — and destined to 
 furnish a criterion for determining the cor tin* 
 gents of the remainder. The last was begun in 
 one thousand eight hundred and four, but has 
 not advanced very rapidly. In one thousand 
 eight hundred and eight, not more than one 
 hundred districts had been surveyed— and in 
 
 * Budget, one thousand eight hundred and seven. 
 
 N
 
 98 
 
 them— the task was executed In the most slo- 
 venly and inaccurate manner.. . [ r,no 1^ .*• 
 
 Tt must be superfluous to remark that this 
 plan, if completed, would be inadequate to the 
 object. Its insufficiency will be best explained 
 in the words of the minister of financ;e himself, 
 who holds the following language to the Empe? 
 ror on the subject, in his report of one thousand 
 eight hundred and six. ^' But I ought to re^ 
 '' mark to you, sire, that all the prefects in their 
 " repotjsitq me on this.head, concur ^n thinking 
 -" that the deductions, from this, system woul4 
 ^' be too uncertain and hypothetical to afford 
 •** good grounds for a. new distribution of the 
 " public ' burdens, and would lead to, well 
 *' founded* complaints, from every department, 
 " whose contingent niight be raised in conse- 
 ** quence of it. How, indeed, can we flatter our- 
 " selves with the prospect of ascertaining from 
 " the valuation of one thousand nine hundred 
 '' districts, the real revenue of the fifty thou* 
 *' sand others, which constitute the territory of 
 " the empire. There can be no proof of the
 
 99 
 
 " correctness of a calc-jlatlon, founded on so 
 *' loose an analogy. \ cannot, therefore, biit 
 ** ccincide'altogether with the prefects." 
 
 ' This plan 'is, nevertheless, persisted in. at no 
 inconsiderable expence for the country. "The 
 experience, however, of its insufficiency, and 
 of the new mischiefs to which it gives rise, has 
 induced the government to dwell particularly 
 in their " fniancial reports, on the complete re- 
 lief which the general survey is to afford. This 
 magnificent scheme, — like most of the other 
 projects of internal reform, with which the 
 French rulers labour to delude the credulity, 
 and to appease the murmurs of their subjects, — 
 has made but slow progresji, and according to 
 their ov/n improbable statement, cannot be per- 
 fected, nor rendered practically useful, until the 
 year one thousand eight hundred and fifteen. 
 Whoever considers the immense extent of the 
 French territory, must at once perceive that no 
 definite term can, with any degree of plausibi- 
 lity, be assigned, for the accomplishment of an 
 undertaking so laborious and expensive, as the
 
 100 
 
 survey and valuation of the whole.* Since the 
 year one thousand eight hundred and three, an 
 additional million of dollars has been annually 
 imposed upon the people, under the pretence 
 of defraying the expences which have been 
 already incurred. It is announced also that 
 schools have been instituted in Paris, and in 
 the departments, and courses of practical geo- 
 metry opened, in order to form surveyors for 
 the business of admeasurement. Much, un- 
 doubtedly will be promised, and but little per- 
 formed. While the French rulers continue to 
 receive the amount of their demands on the 
 people, — to establish an equitable assessment 
 will be as remote from their inclination, as it is 
 beyond their power in the midst of the soli- 
 citudes and claims of an extensive war. The 
 disorders which now prevail, are, in fact, con- 
 sidered as useful, under various points of view. 
 They gratify the cupidity and tyrannical spirit 
 of the useful adherents of the government ;— 
 
 * Dr. Smith remarks that the project of a general sur» 
 vey of France has been undertaken about once every cen- 
 tury by the French statesmen.
 
 101 
 
 they enable the public authorities to exercise a 
 formidable system of intimidation over oimox-' 
 ious districts — and they afford important facili- 
 ties for supplying by irregular means, the wants 
 of the imperial exchequer. 
 
 In England, the inequalities of the land-tax 
 ^rc softened, by the paternal vigilance of a go- 
 vernment which has no private interests to gra- 
 tify, and by the equitable moderation of the 
 revenue officers, who have no revolutionary en- 
 mities to indulge,— and neither the temptation 
 rior the power to commit excesses. The cir- 
 cumstinces of the two countries create, more- 
 over, a difference on this head, which it may be 
 useful to observe, as illustrative of their relative 
 position with regard to taxes in general. Since 
 the time of William and Mary, when the land- 
 tax was assessed in England, rents have been 
 continually augmenting, and the increase in 
 the value of property has outstripped all cal- 
 culation. The land-tax, therefore, subducts but 
 a small proportion — even from the superfluous 
 income of the rich, — and scarcely touches the
 
 102 
 
 lower orders, who, generally speaking, enjoy 
 in abundance t'he necessaries of life, whatever 
 ipay be. the mass" of the public burdens* The 
 sariiebbservatioii cannot be extended to France, 
 where so many multitudes are limited to a bare 
 subsistence, and where the equality of .fortunes 
 produced by the revolution, aggravates the 
 pressure of. an income-tax of the proportion of 
 oue fifth— because it trenches more upon the^ 
 supposed superfluity of the proprietor, when, 
 estates are generally smalL The best coro-. 
 ment, however^ upon the foregoing remarks, is- 
 to be found in a passage of Montesquieu. **^ Iii, 
 *' the taxing of lands,^' says he, " it is customary 
 " XO make lists or registers, in which the difFer- 
 " ent classes of estates are inserted;, but it is 
 " very difficult to find people to frame them^ 
 " who are not interested in committing mis- 
 *' takes. Here then are two sorts of injustice— 
 " that of the man and that of the thing. But if, 
 " in general, the tax be not exorbitant, and the 
 " people continue to have plenty of necessaries, 
 " thcfxe particular acts of injustice will do but 
 "little harm. On the contrari)^ if the iieopk
 
 103 
 
 ** enjorj only just what is necessarij for subsist- 
 " Bnce, the least dhjiroliort'ion ivill he gf the 
 " greatest CQnseque?icc. If some subjects Jo 
 " not pay enough, tlie mischief is not ' great— 
 ** their convenience and .ease redound alw.iys 
 *' to the public -advantage :— but if many pay 
 *' too much, all: parties siiiier. Their ruin is a 
 " public misfortune,*'* 
 
 There is another provision on thesuhject of 
 the contribution fancier e, which should not' pass 
 unnoticed. When it was fixsd:^ the fate o£ 
 five per cent, on income, the privilege of peti- 
 doning for relief, was given to those who fbund 
 themselves burthened- beyond thaTpropoiiion. 
 But the remedy was, at first, impracticable;- iriv- 
 conseq"uence of the formalities fequired in the-- 
 application, — and was at length rendered alto- 
 gether illusory by a law of the Directory. • vT/^c^ 
 priviieg? ivas revived by the cmsular gd'ver'n-' 
 ment^ and still coJitinucs — with this clause'^ iww- 
 €V£r^^ — that no relief is to be obtained, but uhon 
 
 * Esp. des Lois, liv. xiji. ch. vii.-
 
 104 
 
 condiiio72^ thai the fiarty aggrieved^ shall fioint 
 out some estate within his district^ which has 
 been ufiderratedy in order that the treasuri/ may 
 he indcmnijied. Ihc individual is thus con- 
 demned to appear in tlie invidious light of an 
 informer in order to obtain justice, — and ex. 
 poses himself to the animosities which such a 
 character is calculated to excite. Such a con- 
 dition as this, if the government believed it 
 would be accepted, presupposes a corrupt and 
 degraded people, — and may serve to exempli* 
 fy the style and spirit of that legislation, which— 
 before it consents that an acknowledged wrong 
 shall be redressed,- — exacts a treacherous and 
 disgraceful violation of all the common chari- 
 ties and sympathies of life. It is without a 
 precedent in the annals of domestic administra- 
 tion, and may also be adduced to show with 
 what inflexible rigour the claims of the treasury 
 fire enforced. 
 
 The indirect taxes of France embrace, as I 
 havebeforje mentioned, the duties of excise, — 
 tiiose on legal proceedings, — on the transfer o(
 
 105 
 
 j)ropcrty, — on registration, and various other 
 branches of revenue, which I shall enumerate 
 in their order. 
 
 The tax on registration, is one of the most 
 important and lucrative sources of income to 
 the government. It has superseded the Controle 
 of the old regime, which was the subject of so 
 much popular clamour, and a favourite theme 
 of declamation with the Econ&mists, The neW 
 duty, infinitely more oppressive than the old, 
 is levied upon all public or private instruments 
 of writing, — on all judicial and notarial acts of 
 every description,-^on all changes and transfers 
 of property, whether by gift, sale, or inherit- 
 ance, — even on copies and extracts, made from 
 the parish registers, and the bills of mortality. 
 The stamps (the duties on which are scarcely 
 less onerous than those of England) extend to 
 as great a variety of objects — and are pr<:^por' 
 tioned — to the value of the paper, or of the 
 manufacture — or to the amoun of the sums 
 connected with the writings, &€. on which 
 they fall. Separate offices are established m 
 
 O
 
 106 
 
 every district of the empire, for the enrolling 
 of mortgages, upon which a heavy tax is im- 
 posed, proportioned, generally, to the amount 
 of the property mortgaged. 
 
 The duties on registration are either detUr' 
 ininate or profiortional-^ according to the subject- 
 nna'.f-?r. They are determinate, — upon all 
 such instruments, as those of procuration — of 
 partnership — of divorce — of "♦■t2chrnents — up- 
 on prcc,?f verbdux, 6lc. but vary from one to 
 five per cent, upon obligations, &c. and trans- 
 fers of property by lease, sale, exchange, or 
 other modes of alienation. Four per cent, is 
 levied upon the sale of real property; five upon 
 inheritances in the collateral brancli.* It was 
 calculated, by the minister of fiLance, in the 
 year eighteen hundred and three, that the capi- 
 tal value of the real property of France, was, at 
 least, thirty milliards of francs :t — that, accord- 
 
 * See Dr. Smith, Wealth of Nat. b. 5. c. 2. p. 125., pa 
 the subject of taxes on inheritance. 
 
 ^ Ramel, Ad. dea Finances, p. 19L
 
 107 
 
 ing to the usua probabilltes of human life, the 
 changes of property, occasioned by death, 
 ^^ould affect about one-thirtieth of that capital, 
 annually, — and that the duty, therefore, upon 
 inheritances, at one per cent, only, must yield 
 ten millions of francs. There is also a tax rais- 
 ed upon public sales of movables. None can 
 take place without previous declaration of the 
 nature and period of the sale, from the regular 
 officers, vi^ho also draw up a proces verbal of 
 the result by which the tax is estimated. The 
 duties on registration include also what are 
 entitled les droits de greffe^ or imposts upon the 
 institution of suits, upon exemplifications and 
 copies of records, upon the receipt of bail, &c. 
 All interlocutory decrees or judgments, orders 
 of court, writs of execution, &c. are equally 
 subject to a tax. It is stated, by the former mi- 
 nister of finance, Ramel, that the duties on re- 
 gistration might be made to yield one hundred 
 millions of francs to the exchequer, " by a pro- 
 *' per extension of the tariff and particularly 
 ^' when the low price of property ^ and the stag- 
 *^ nation of business y could be corrected.** Ihere
 
 108 
 
 is an addition of one per cent, to these duties^ 
 under the denomination of a war-tax, [subven- 
 tion de guerre.) 
 
 The duties on registration, and particularly 
 those on law proceedings, have produced the 
 effects which might naturally have been ex- 
 pected. Register offices abound in every part of 
 the empire, and the courts of justice, — more 
 desirous of conciliating the favour of govern, 
 ment,— by replenishing the treasury. — than of 
 facilitating , the attainment of legal rights — by 
 diminishing the cost of the pursuit,— have mul- 
 tiplied judicial acts to a most pernicious extent. 
 These duties fall upon the suitors, and sensibly 
 depreciate, — for both parties, — the value of the 
 object in dispute. They ronstitute one of the 
 principal items of the expences of litigation, — 
 and greatly enhance the evils which have, at all 
 times, accompanied, — and, at this moment, par- 
 ticularly detorm, the administration of justice 
 in France, In Engtand, the crown derives no 
 revenue from the registration of deeds or writ- 
 ings of any description. It entails no other ex-
 
 109 
 
 pense than the fees to the officers, seldom more 
 than a reasonable recompense for their labour. 
 I cannot better illustrate the wisdom of this 
 policy, than by quoting the language of Dr. 
 Smith, on this subject. His sentiments will 
 serve to convey a just idea of the operation of 
 these duties in France. " Taxes,** says this 
 great writer, " upon the sale of land, fall alto- 
 " gether upon the seller. He is almost always 
 " under the necessity of selling, and must, 
 ^' therefore, take such a price as he can get. 
 *' The buyer is scarcely ever under the neces- 
 ^^ sityj and will, therefore, only give such a 
 <« price as he likes. He considers what the land 
 " will cost him in tax and price together. The 
 ** more he is obliged to pay in the way of tax 
 ^* the less he vdll be disposed to give in the way 
 ^' of price. Such taxes, therefore, fall always 
 ^' upon a necessitous person j and must, there- 
 " fore, be frequently very cruel and oppressive. 
 " Taxes on the sale of old houses, of ground 
 f* rents, &c. fall altogether on the seller: those 
 ^* on bonds and contracts for borrowed money, 
 f * altogether on the borrower. All taxes upon
 
 110 
 
 " the transference of property of every kind, «o 
 " far as they diminibh the cnpltai value of that 
 *' property, tend to diminish the funds destined 
 " for the maintenance of product ive labour. 
 " Those are all, more or less, unthrifty taxes, 
 *' that increase the revenue of the sovereign, 
 " which seldom maintains any but unproduc- 
 ** tive labourers, at the expense of the capital 
 " of the people, which maintains none but pro- 
 *' ductive. Such taxes, even when they are prO' 
 ** portioned to the value of the property trans- 
 " ferred, are still unequal : the frequency of 
 *' transfers not being always equal in property 
 '* of equal value.*'* 
 
 Under the old government, the national fo- 
 rests embraced three millions of arpents, or 
 acres, and gave about twelve miJlions of francs 
 to the royal treasury. The annexation of all 
 the forests, formally held by the corporate bo- 
 dies and the emigrants, to those of the state, 
 and great acquisitions of the same kind in Bel"= 
 
 ♦ Wealth of Natiou*, b. 5. ch 2. p. 128.
 
 ill 
 
 gium and on the left bank of the Rhine, have 
 augmented the number of acres to nearly five 
 millions. They constitute a fruitful source of 
 revenue, and yielded in one thousand eight 
 hundred and six, something more than seventy 
 millions of francs, according to the budget for 
 that year. All forests above three hundred 
 acres have been added to the national domains 
 and declared inalienable. In the year one thou* 
 sand eight hundred, the national forests were 
 thenceforward exempted by bw from the land^ 
 tax. They employ more than eight thousand 
 persons, consisting of conservators, inspectors^ 
 guards, surveyors, kc. No individual proprie* 
 tor of wood-land can cut down his timber o^ 
 clear his land under a heavy penalty, without 
 making six months previously a declaration of 
 his intention to one of the conservators, whose 
 report determines the government either to 
 grant or refuse permission to that eifect.* 
 This regulation gives the government a virtual 
 monopoly of the sale of wood throughout th^ 
 empire. 
 
 * The tamt kw existed under the «ld regime*
 
 112 
 
 According to Ramel, the sale of national db= 
 tnains — conbisting chiefly of the confiscated 
 property of emigrants^— produced in the course 
 of the revolution, about one hiindred millions 
 sterling, and contributed materially to defray 
 the expenses df the republic. The movables,^ — 
 according to the same writer, — yielded ten mil- 
 lions sterling. In one thousand eight hundred 
 and two, there remained — for sdlfe— 4n th6 old 
 territory alone, — domain^ of a capital value of 
 seventeen millions sterling. Oh the left bank of 
 the Rhine, of the value of about six millions ; 
 and to these sums, was to be added — another of 
 three millions for arrears, in the year one thou- 
 sand eight hundred, five millions of francs vi/ef e 
 collected from the sale of national domain^ 
 conquered in Holland. All the crov/n and pub- 
 lic lands of Spain will undergo the same fate. 
 Domains of the capital value of forty- three mil- 
 lions of francs, — situated principally on the left 
 baiJs: of the Rhine, — were bestowed on the se* 
 nate and the legion of honour at the commence- 
 tnent of the imperial government, — but have 
 sl*ce been receded: — z part, about twenty
 
 113 
 
 nine millions to contractots on account of the 
 treasury, and the remainder to the sinking 
 fund — in consideration of annuities on that 
 fund. According to the budget of one thousand 
 eight hundred and seven, the annual produce of 
 the property of this nature, still in the hands of 
 the government, — and altogether distinct from 
 the national forests, am.ounted to something 
 more than four milhons. The government also 
 draws a revenue from game-licenses, and 
 from licenses to fish in the navigable rivers, of 
 which in this respect it has assumed the sove- 
 reignty. 
 
 To persons conversant with the principles of 
 political economy, the evils arising from the cir- 
 cumstance of such immense tracts being in the 
 hands of the executive authority must be at 
 once apparent. In the hands particularly of such 
 a government as that of France, the manage* 
 ment of so extensive a property is a source 
 of oppression, — and robs the great body of the 
 people of the additional revenue which it would 
 yield, if left to the more productive care of in-* 
 P
 
 dividual interest. A proposition founded oA 
 considerations of public utility, was made to the 
 national assembly for the sale of the forests, — 
 but has never been agitated since. I shall quote 
 the authority of Dr. Smith, vi^hose general rea^ 
 soning on this subject deserves to be read with 
 attention, and whose opinions are eminently 
 just when applied to a country so populous as 
 France. " The revenue which, in any civilized 
 ** monarchy, the crown derives from the crown 
 " lands, though it appears to cost nothing to 
 '• individuals, in reality costs mor6 to the so- 
 *' ciety than any other equal revenue which the 
 *' crown enjoys. It would, in all cases, be for 
 " the interest of society to replace this re- 
 " venue to the crown, by some other equal re- 
 " venue, and to divide the lands among the peo- 
 *' pie, which could not Well be done better per- 
 ** haps, than by exposing them to public sale. 
 <' Lands for the purposes of pleasure and mag* 
 ^ nilicence seem to be the only lands which in 
 *' a great and civilized monarchy, ought to be^- 
 "long to the crown, &c."* 
 
 * Wealth of Nations— b. 5. c. 2. p. 80-
 
 115 
 
 The gross produce of the public lotteries of 
 France, is estimated at about twenty millions 
 of francs. The receivers are entitled to five pes 
 cent, on what they collect, — which deduction, 
 united to the expenses of the establishment, 
 leaves about twelve millions for the exche- 
 quer. The lottery offices are spread through- 
 out all the cities of the empire, under the direc- 
 tion of the administrators and inspectors ap- 
 pointed by the government. The drawings 
 take place twice a week at Paris, and as often 
 at Bourdeaux, Brussels, Lyons, and Strasbourg,, 
 5is to afford one every other day. The principle 
 of the lotteries, which it would be now both 
 tedious and irrelevant to explain, is, as may 
 be easily imagined, highly favourable to the 
 government. It was the desire of Necker that 
 those of the old regime should be abolished. 
 He reprobates them in his work on the finances, 
 as repugnant to all moral ideas; particularly 
 when the profits accrue to the sovereign. Such, 
 1 think, should be the wish and feeling of eve- 
 ry government studious of public morals, aiid
 
 116 
 
 eminently the policy of the present rulers of 
 France,' — if it came within the sphere of their- 
 views, to correct the vices of the heart. 
 
 • The rapid destruction and creation of for- 
 tunes, — the fate of the paper currency, — and 
 the impoverishment of all classes, during the 
 revolution, — have given. — ^^in that country, — -' 
 tenfold activity to the spirit of gambling, which 
 naturally belongs to a sanguine people. It may 
 be truly said to rage in the metropolis, and 
 exhibits there, under the most disgusting and 
 frightful aspect, all the miseries and disorders 
 which usually follow in the train of licen- 
 tious adventure and criminal indulgence. The 
 tickets of the lottery pass from the hands of 
 the factors — at a considerable advance, — into 
 those of the lower orders, whom the tumults 
 of civil commotion and the absence of religious 
 instruction, have estranged from the love and 
 the habit of regular industry. — They circulate 
 widely also, — among the class of abandoned 
 profligates, — of persons without employment^ 
 ks gens desKu-vris, — and of decent but neces-
 
 117 
 
 sitous Individuals-^wlth whom Paris abounds 
 beyond any other capital in the world. I have- 
 heard it asserted by an intelligent person en-; 
 gaged in the administration of the lotteries,^ — -. 
 that they occasioned in Paris more than one 
 hundred suicides in the course of the year. 
 
 This may be an exaggerated estimate — but 
 it will serve to illustrate the extent of the 
 wretchedness and depravity to which they lead.' 
 —The numerous gambling tables of the capi- 
 tal — all of which are licensed, — and some farm- 
 ed out by the government — concur in inflam- 
 ing the thirst of irregular gain ; — in vitiating 
 the morals and deranging the habits, o£ 
 private life. — I know not that any spectacle, 
 among the varieties of vice and misery, w^hich 
 I had occasion to contemplate in Europe^ 
 struck me with more horror than the gamblina 
 orgies of the Palais Royal, where apartments of 
 
 immense extent are at all hours of the niorht 
 
 filled with persons of both sexes, indiscrimi- 
 nately engaged in games of the merest hazard, 
 V ... 
 
 —and exhibiting, by their gestures and phy-
 
 118 
 
 siognomy, — all the keen anguish and the tu- 
 multuous agitation which the extremes of des- 
 pair and elation can produce. Mixed with de- 
 signing sharpers, — with spies of the police^— 
 with famished mendicants and intemperate, 
 prostitutes, they form altogether a group which 
 might have served as a model to the pictures 
 of Dante's Inferno,* and than which nothing 
 more disgusting is to be found in the delinea- 
 tions of the pencil or in the fictions of poetiq 
 fancy. 
 
 The imperial post-office yielded in the year 
 1 807, about seven millions of francs net reve- 
 nue. — ^The gross produce was estimated at 
 twenty five millions. — ^The necessity of main- 
 taining post-ofEces near the armies, is assigned 
 as the cause why so small a portion of the re- 
 
 * It naturally recals to the mind the verses of the 
 third Canto, 
 
 Genti dolorose, orribih* favelle 
 
 Anime triste, sospiri, pianti 
 
 Parole di dolore, accent! d'ira 
 
 Yoci alte e fioche, et suon di man con elle, &«.
 
 119 
 
 ccipts was emptied into the treasury. It is ssta* 
 ted by the minister of finance that the gra- 
 tuitous services rendered to the government 
 and the constituted authorities,— would,— if 
 paid for at the common standard, — produce 
 about twelve millions. — I must remark gene- 
 rally, that the functions which belong to this 
 establishment, are executed with great regu- 
 larity and despatch. The discipline of that 
 branch of it, which is charged with the supply 
 of postnhorses for the convenience of travellers^ 
 is excellent and deserves to be imitated.* But 
 under a political point of view, the whole is 
 rendered a most formidable engine of despo* 
 tism. All the post-offices of the empire, and 
 those of the countries subject to French influ- 
 ence, are rendered instrumental to the most 
 arbitrary purposes of the domestic police and 
 of the foreign policy of Bonaparte. — No papers 
 of any description, — whether printed or manu* 
 script^ — are suffered to reach their destination, 
 if not perfectly conformable to his views. — 
 
 * See livre des poiUs*
 
 12D 
 
 No communication can be held throu2:h thlS 
 chunnel without being subject to governmental 
 inspection. Through the agency of the numS' 
 rous functionaries of this establishment, and of 
 the inn keepers, — with whom they are in close 
 correspondence,^ — a minute supervision is ex- 
 ercised over travellers in every part of the em- 
 pire, of whom scarcely an individual can pass 
 Unnoticed or unknown, I was credibly inform- 
 ed in Paris that more than thirly clerks ar^ 
 unremittingly employed in opening and copy- 
 ing the letters which ate received in the post^ 
 office of that capital. The provincial post* 
 offices are similarly constituted. These bureaux 
 de secret^ as they are denominated, existed un- 
 der the old government --but in a more limited 
 extent. The Count de Broglie in a letter to 
 Louis the Sixteenth, contained in the " Poli- 
 tique de tous les Cabinets," states that in his 
 time twelve clerks were occupied in the same 
 way in Paris under the direction of a confiden- 
 tial person, who, with them, formed a distinct
 
 121 
 
 department in the office.* The abuses whick 
 he ascribes to this horrid inquisition, are such 
 as tend to destroy all confidence and spirit in 
 individuals — and to disorder the whole frame 
 of society. The character of the present go- 
 vernment, and the state of morals in France, 
 at this moment, do not authorise the hope, — 
 that the extension of this system has been ac- 
 companied by aiiy mitigation, either in the 
 number or atrocity of the evils, of which the 
 Count de Broglie complains. 
 
 In 1805, the net produce of the customs 
 was stated in the budget at forty- one millions 
 of francs. The minister in his report of ISO't 
 has put down the receipts of the preceding 
 year at sixty millions, — in which, however, he 
 includes about fifteen millions raised from the 
 
 *P; 15. voL 1. " On a, de tres-ancienne date, etabli a 
 " I'hotel des postes un bureau de secret. M. D'Ogny 
 *' en est aujourd'hui le chef, et a une douzaine des 
 ** commis sous lui, pour ouvrir toutes les lettres, ou du 
 ** moins oelles qu'on suspecte, et en tirer promptenjent^ 
 ** des copies od des extraits," &c. 
 
 Q
 
 122 
 
 salt-tax,— -with the collection of which the ad- 
 ministration of the customs was charged.— A 
 large portion of the remainder consisted of the 
 produce of goods seized from smugglers,— and 
 of English merchandize confiscated in the ter- 
 ritories occupied by the French armies. — The 
 minister boasts, manifestly, however, in a tone 
 of forced exultation, " that the circumstances 
 " of the war had not proved favourable to the 
 " British trade with the continent, — and that 
 " the commerce of France had been enriched 
 " by the losses sustained by her rival." — He 
 adds, — that a line of French custom-house 
 officers had been established from Cuxhaven 
 to Travemunde in order to prevent the intro- 
 duction of English merchandize by the fron- 
 tiers of Holstein. — At this moment, the pro- 
 duce of the customs must be drawn almost 
 exclusively from the smuggling trade and the 
 forfeiture of goods of British manufacture. It 
 will, however, be thought necessary for some 
 time that a large item under this head should 
 be introduced into the budget, — ^compounded 
 of these or any other ingredients, however
 
 123 
 
 oxtraneous, — in order to conceal the amount 
 Oi the loss consequent on the total privation oi' 
 external trade. ■ 
 
 The scignorago on coin p'-oduced, in the year 
 eighteen hundred and seven, about four hun- 
 dred thousand francs. The whole amount of 
 the hew coinage, at that period, was about three" 
 hundred and sixty millions of francs. There has 
 been some improvement in the machinery of 
 the mint — but a material adulteration, particu- 
 larly in the gold coin, although the new laws 
 on this head prescribe the standard of the old 
 regime. A tax, under the title of ^rw7 de ga- 
 rmilie, is raised upon all articles of gold and 
 silver, fabricated by Jewellers, &c. — upon 
 which the government imprints a stamp. The 
 amount of specie, exi. ting in France before 
 the revolution, was estimated by Necker at 
 13,200,000,000 francs. Peuchet supposes it to 
 have amounted, in the year eighteen hundred 
 and seven within the limits of the old territoiy, 
 to 1,850,000,000. The diminution, however, 
 must have been much more considerable tlian
 
 124 
 
 this wTiter is willing to allow. To be satisfied 
 of this, it is only necessary to reflect on the va- 
 rious causes which conspired to drain off the 
 specie, in the course of the revolution: — such 
 as — ^the vast amount of coin paid to the armies 
 abroad — the operation of the paper currency- — 
 the subtraction of capital by emigrants and 
 others — and the great balance of trade, which 
 has been uniformly against France, during the 
 present and the last war, and which in the 
 year eighteen hundred and one, amounted to 
 1 1 2,659,000 francs. Much of the specie which 
 remains is locked out of circulation in conse- 
 quence of the character of the small proprie* 
 tors, among whom the great estates have been 
 divided. This idea may be best explained in 
 the language of Peuchet, a statistical writer of 
 France, who cannot be suspected of exaggera 
 tion, and whose testimony will throw additiona 
 light on the numerous evils which have sprung 
 from the equalization of property in his coun- 
 try. " It is not merely necessary," says he, 
 " that the specie should be abundant; it should 
 ^* also be current : for, if it be locked out of
 
 125 
 
 "** circulation, by distrust, avarice, or a lirnited 
 ** consumjition^ it might as well not exist. This 
 *' last cause of stagnation has been very sensi- 
 •• bly felt, since the alienation of the great 
 " landed estates to the old residents of ttie 
 " country. From being mere farmers and te- 
 *' nants, they have become the proprietors of 
 *' an income of more than three hundred mil- 
 " lions of francs ; and spend not the third part 
 *' of what the former possessors of the soil dis- 
 " bursed in the consumption of the products of 
 *' national industry. Hence, have resulted, a 
 *' void in the profits of industry, and a want of 
 " money in commercial transactions ; which 
 ** are confined to mere signatures for the most 
 " part, and which never can regain their 
 '* former solidity and extent, as long as the ter- 
 *' ritorial income is not more liberally expend- 
 "ed in the great cities. This inconvenience 
 " may not be felt in a commercial country like 
 " England ; but in France, whose chief wealth 
 *' is in the product of the soil, from the mo- 
 " ment that the monied income remains stag ^ 
 " nant in the hands of those who do not pro*
 
 126 
 
 " mote that consumption, which nourishes in- 
 '' dustry and manutactures, - the latter must 
 ** languish, and cannot revive, until the chil- 
 *' d/en of the present proprietors establish 
 " themselves and expend their incomes, in the 
 ** great cities." (Statistique de la France, 1807, 
 p. 470.) 
 
 The government enjoys a monopoly of pow- 
 der and ' saltpetre, and e::ercises an exclusive, 
 privilege in the fabrication and sale of snuff and 
 salt, in the departments beyond the Alps. 
 They have laid a general tax on salt, — more 
 productive than the famous gabelic, — and 
 scarcely less burdensome, although they are at 
 great pains to inculcate the utiHty of the ex- 
 change. The duty is levied upon its fabrication 
 at the salt-marshes, and farmed out to an ad- 
 ministration or regie. The retail sale is left un- 
 incumbered in the interior of the empire. In 
 this difference the principal advantage ascribed 
 to it over the gabelle is said to consist. The 
 price of the commodity is, however, higher 
 than at any antecedent period ; and I am much
 
 J27 
 
 inclined to adopt the opinion which Neckei 
 suggests on this subject, "• that the collection 
 " of the revenue on salt, sold in an exclusive 
 " but regular manner, is not more burdensome 
 " to the people, than the collection of a propor- 
 *' tionate impost levied at the salt-marshes.*'* 
 In order to render this duty, which has been 
 particularly offensive to the nation the more 
 acceptable, it was stated to be in lieu of, — and 
 destined to the same purpose as, the tolls 
 previcusly collected on the high roads. 
 
 These tolls yielded about fifteen millions of 
 francs annually, whjich the government pro- 
 fessed to devote to the improvement of the 
 roads, causeways, &c. They gave rise to such 
 gross peculation, and became so universally the 
 subject of complaint, that it was at length found 
 necessary to abolish the whole system of turn- 
 pikes. The tax on salt was introduced in its 
 stead. It was stated, in the year eighteen hun- 
 dred and six, by the minister of finance, that 
 
 * Admin, des Finances, c. 1. vol. 2.
 
 128 
 
 more than Airty-five millions of francs were 
 annually requisite for the reparation of the roads 
 and public works. According to the budget, 
 the whole expenditure of the minister of the in- 
 terior does not exceed this sum — and it is, 
 therefore, easy to conceive, that but a small 
 portion of it is allotted to that purpose, as for the 
 roads, &c., they fall exclusively within his 
 province. 
 
 The state of the roads by no means corre- 
 sponds with the pompous reports of the govern- 
 ment. Before the revolution, the cross roads 
 were much neglected, and declared to be, in. 
 many places, absolutely impassable. While 
 these, — as it may easily be imagined, — under, 
 went no improvement in the course of the re- 
 volution, the great post roads and the naviga- 
 ble canals, sustained incalculable injury. The 
 new government has attended to them princi- 
 pally with a view to facilitate the march of the 
 troops — and not in order to promote the con- 
 venience and domestic indiistry of the people. 
 The great roads, therefore, leading to the frou-^
 
 129 
 
 tiers of Spain and Italy, and in the direction 
 ©f ihe Rhine and of the Netherlands, — the 
 military highways, as they may be styled,— 
 have been carefully repaired, — while thoSe of 
 the Atlantic departments are still in the worst 
 order imaginable.* Vast sums have been ex- 
 pended In the construction of an admirable 
 road over the Simplon,-^and 1 similar one will, 
 no doubt, be undertaken over some one of th6 
 Pyrenees* It was a maxim of the Romans, that 
 no country could be said to be thoroughly sub- 
 dued, untill it was rendered completely per- 
 
 * The testlmdny of the mlnisti^r of finance will havw 
 iome weight on this subject. His report for the year 
 eighteen hundred and five, contains the following address 
 to the emperor: " Dans cette France, objet de tant d« 
 ^* jalousies, votre majeste voit par-tOut encore des ruines 
 *' & reparer: des landes arides a couvrir d'habitations et 
 '* de treupeaux: des marais qu'il faut rendre a la culture 
 ** et a salubrite: des ports qu'il faut ouvrir ou recreuser; 
 ** des departemens entiers qiCil Jauty par des commimica- 
 ** tiohs attacker &u reste de V empire. Si la guerre se pro* 
 ** longe, que ne peut pas sentir que votre majeste est de- 
 ** tournee de ses vues les plus cheres : qu*elle sacrifie a 
 •* la n6cessite, a I'honneur, ce premier sentiment de la 
 *• nation, Its inter its ie sa plus veritable gloirCt'^ &Cr 
 
 R
 
 ISO 
 
 vious to the conquerors. Great expences have 
 also been incurred in embellishing the capital, 
 in order to feed the vanity of the monarch, 
 and to increase the lustre of his reign. Large 
 sums are expended on the public theatres, 
 which are invested with an unrivalled degree 
 of splendour, and in the encouragement of 
 such of the arts as contribute to the decoration 
 of the imperial palaces, and to the commemo- 
 ration of " the sublime virtues and patriotic 
 labours" of the Emperor. But a traveller has 
 occasion to observe every where, that works 
 of real utility are altogether secondary in the 
 consideration of the government. A tax, pro- 
 ducing about six millions of francs, is levied 
 Upon the internal navigation of the empire, and 
 operates greatly to the prejudice of the inland 
 trade. It is the opinion of Dr. Smith, that all 
 public works, — such as roads and canals, for 
 the convenience of the inhabitants of a coun- 
 try, or for the benefit of their imland trade,— 
 are better maintained by a local revenue, un- 
 der the management of a local administration, 
 than by the general revenue of the state,
 
 131 
 
 which must be at the disposal of the executiv^e 
 authority This position, which is true in al- 
 most all cases, is eminently so with regard to 
 France under her present circumstances. 
 
 The duties of excise and those on public 
 carriages, playing-cards, &c. are denominated 
 the united duties — les droits reunis. They yield 
 a net revenue of about sixty millions of francs, 
 and draw altogether from the people about one 
 hundred millions. The tax upon tobacco in 
 leaf, and upon the fabrication of snuff, pro- 
 duces twenty millions. The licences sold to dis- 
 tillers, and the duties imposed on every species 
 of distillation, — such as that of grain, cherries, 
 he. and on breweries, yield also a considerable 
 sum. The minute attention given to these 
 sources of revenue, may be evidenced by a re- 
 mark of the minister of finance in his report on 
 this subject for the year one thousand eight 
 hundred and five. He states that his majesty 
 had decided that farmers, who distilled merely 
 for the purpose of obtaining the malt necessary
 
 132 
 
 for the support of their cattle, — might claim aa 
 alleviation of the tax — " etaient susceptibles de 
 Ifl faveur d'un abonnementy Jt is subjoined that 
 the monarch had generously enacted— that the 
 small- beer, la petite-bierre^ used by the lower 
 classes of his subjects, should be privileged 
 from the usual duty. It is impossible to ima- 
 gine any beverage more meagre or cheap than 
 this;— but still the exemption is announced as 
 I convincing proof of his imperial majesty's 
 tenderness towards the poorer orders I* 
 
 The fiscal provisions on the subject of wines 
 and spirituous liquors of every description, de- 
 serve to be noticed. An inventory is drawn up 
 by the revenue officers, of all the wines, — - 
 cider— perry — beer — brandy, &c. made within 
 their jurisdiction. According to an estimate 
 founded upon this inventory, a duty is levied in 
 the first instance,- — which in the budget of one 
 thou&md eight hundred and seven, is stated to 
 have produced near seven millions of francs. 
 
 * Budget 1805, p. 29.
 
 133 
 
 Twenty per cent, moreover is exacted on every 
 sale of these articles in the gross. No such sale 
 can takeplace,nor can they be removed froni one 
 place to another, without a previous declaration 
 of the buyer or seller, who' obtains on paying 
 the duty, a permit or discharge from the reve- 
 nue-officer. When the latter has reason to sup- 
 pose that a false statement has been made with 
 regard to the value of the article, he may re- 
 tain it, at the price stated, by paying in cash 
 and one-fifth in addition. Ten per cent, is de- 
 manded 071 every retail sale, and a declaration 
 is required from all retailers of the quantity and 
 species of the liquors in their possession. They 
 are to suffer the visits and examination of the 
 excisemen, whenever it may be deemed neces- 
 sary. Any contravention of the laws on this 
 subject is punished by a confiscation of the ar- 
 ticle seized, and a fine of one hundred francs. 
 Menaces of extreme rigour are at the same time 
 held out against those who are delinquent in 
 paying the duties. (Loi sur les finances, 1 806.)
 
 134 
 
 Independently of the taxes which I have enu- 
 merated under the denomination of direct and 
 indirect, there are various other oppressive im- 
 posts, which should not be overlooked. The 
 new coin entitled z franc — is divided into one 
 hundred parts called centimes — and under the 
 name of additional centimes, {centimes addi- 
 tionels) a certain per centage is levied upon the 
 whole amount of the direct taxes for various 
 purposes, — one of which is the supply of the 
 deficit which may occur in the collection of 
 those taxes. The government exacts, also, a 
 large per centage on this fund under the title of 
 a war-tax. The councils of the departments and 
 of the communes, are authorised to levy a simi- 
 lar contribution, for the purpose of defraying 
 local charges of every description ; — for the sup- 
 port of the judiciary establishment and all its 
 appendages — of the provincial bureaux — of pri- 
 sons, hospitals, &c. I shall state the amount of 
 this per centage in several instances, in order to 
 convey an idea oi the vast addition which it 
 makes to the public burdens.
 
 .. J35 • 
 
 Ramel calculates* that the additional cen- 
 times levied in the year one thousand eight 
 hundred, amounted to forty-three and a half 
 per cent, on the total of the direct taxes. In the 
 year one thousand eight hundred and seven, 
 the government imposed an additional duty, on 
 account of the war, of ten per cent, on the land- 
 tax — ten per cent, on the window-tax — fifteen 
 per cent, on the droit des jiatenies, S:c. The gene- 
 ral councils were authorised to levy sixteen per 
 cent, on all the direct taxes for the purposes 
 mentioned above: — one and a half per cent, for 
 the expences of the general survey — four per 
 cent, for the reparation of the public buildings, 
 roads, &c. The councils of the communes were 
 also empowered to raise a considerable per cent- 
 age in order to defray the expenses of their par- 
 ticular subdivisions. The latter present an an- 
 nual budget to the minister of the interior, — 
 and, as well as the general councils, act under 
 his directions in the imposition of the local 
 charges. In one thousand eight hundred and 
 
 * Admin, des Fin. p. 92,
 
 %ight, the cduncils of the departments were au- 
 thorised to raise seventeen per cent, on the dl* 
 rect taxes for general purposes : — and five pef 
 cent, for the Improvement of the roads, bridges, 
 &c. The councils of the communes vi'ere in- 
 vested w^ith the privilege of collecting duties 
 according to the rates of the preceding yeari 
 within their particulai^ jurisdictions. Ten per 
 cent, was also imposed upon the income of all 
 foal property ;— OSTENSIBLY, for the purpose 
 of rebuilding and repairing places of worship— 
 for the reparation of the ecclesiastical semina- 
 ries — and for the purcha5;e of dwellings for the 
 ministers of religion — both catholic and pro- 
 testant. 
 
 The am.ount of the additional centimes col- 
 lected for the discharge of expences of a gene- 
 ral nature,-^such as those of public instruction 
 and of the administration of justice, is received 
 . by i/ie treasury, and appropriated to the avow- 
 ed object or not) according to the discretion dr 
 the necessities of the executive. The remaindeiT 
 is retained in the hands of the public authori-
 
 1S7 
 
 tie.1 of tlie departments, who are responsible 
 to the treasury for its application. Peuchet,* in 
 statinor the sum which this branch of revenue 
 yields to the exchequer, acknowledf^es that a 
 tnuch more ccmida'ahle one remains behind with 
 the provincial administrations. The minister of 
 the treasury, in his report for one thousand eight 
 hundred and seven, estimates the amount re- 
 ceived by his department at fifty millions t 
 \\'e may venture to alfirm that about double 
 this amount was reserved in the hands of the 
 provincial authorities for local purposes. The 
 councils may, at any time, propose to the go- 
 vernment -such an additional percentage, as the 
 domestic interests of their departments seem 
 to require. The government may, also, at any- 
 period, bij a special law, impose an additional 
 tax of this sort, either conformably to a propo- 
 sition of the councils, or according to exigen- 
 cies of Stat'.; produced by the war, or other un- 
 expected causes.\ Additional centimes have al- 
 
 * Statistique de la France, p. 519. 
 f Etat A. 
 
 X Loi sur les finances, — Budget, 1807, p. 122. 
 S
 
 138 
 
 so been levied upon the indirect taxes, under 
 the name of a war-tax. 
 
 Under the title of octrois de bienfaisance, du- 
 ties are levied upon provisions of every de- 
 scription, carried into the cities of France. The 
 product of these duties is received by the local 
 authorities, and applied to municipal pur- 
 poses, — the chief of which is the improvement 
 of hospitals, prisons, he. It is on this account 
 that they are qualified as duties of charity. In 
 the management of this fund, the municipal of- 
 ficers are subject to the authority of the minis- 
 ter of finance, without whose permission no- 
 thing can be disbursed by the receiver, — in 
 districts, — the revenue of which exceeds twen- 
 ty thousand francs. Ten per cent, is levied 
 upon the net produce of these duties for what is 
 termed the fiain de soufie des troup.es, a contri- 
 bution for the subsistence of the troops in the 
 neighbourhood of the cities resembling the 
 Annona Militaris of the Romans.
 
 139 
 
 Before the revolution, the administration of 
 the finances was committdd to the sole care of a 
 director or controller general. It is now divided 
 into two distinct departments under the manage- 
 ment of different ministers, — the one entitled 
 the minister of the treasury, the other the mini- 
 ster of the finances. The latter superintends the 
 execution of the laws, relative to the assessment 
 and collection of the taxes, — regulates all the 
 estabhshments, such as the post-office, the cus- 
 toms, &c. which yield a revenue to the exche- 
 quer, — and issues orders for the public payments 
 which are made by the treasury. He is supposed 
 to act only by virtue, either of a general law, 
 of an arrets of the executive — or of a jiiandat 
 or order from a minister. The treasury is the 
 central point of all receipts and disbursements. 
 The minister of this department is charged 
 with the verification of the Sums received and 
 paid over to him by the collectors, — with all 
 public payments when warranted by an order 
 from the minister of finance — and with the 
 guardianship of the grand livre or book- of in- 
 scriptions for xhe public debt.
 
 140 
 
 Both ministers exhibit annually a separate 
 budget, prefaced by an exposition of the state of 
 their respective departments. The report of the 
 minister of finance is accompanied by an eluci- 
 dation of its various items, and a general sur- 
 vey of the financial resources of the empire. 
 Their accounts are subject to the revision of a 
 conunitfee^ consisting of seven members, ap- 
 pointed by the conservative senate, vi'ho bear 
 the name of the committee of national account- 
 ability — compfabilite nationale. An exposition 
 of the amount of the revenue and expenditure 
 is submitted every month to the Emperor, ivho 
 allots to each dejiartment of state, the sii??i which 
 the supposed ivcnits of the defiarlment require. 
 It was solemnly decreed in one thousand eight 
 hundred 4ind five, by a senatus consultum, that 
 the budget should receive the insa of the arch - 
 chancellor as an important formality ! As the 
 revenue cannot be realized within the year, 
 tlie accounts are left open and stated in the 
 bud^^et of the following year under the title of 
 exercises. These open accounts, which are re- 
 peated for three or four years, considcraUy in-
 
 141 
 
 crease both the volume and the intricacy of the 
 budgets. 
 
 In the pompous addresses of the two minis- 
 ters to the emperor, much stress is laid on the 
 utility accruing to the public from these re- 
 ports — on the magnanimity displayed by the 
 government in the publication of them — and 
 on the satisfaction which the community must 
 draw from the knowledge they afford of the 
 just and wise application of the public treasure. 
 Jt will not therefore be irrelevant to my general 
 purpose, to indulge in a few remarks on this 
 subject, before 1 proceed to explain the manner 
 in which the revenue is collected. 
 
 I scarcely need suggest that these reports 
 are prepared under the immediate inspection of 
 the Emperor — and by those who are the mere 
 slaves of his will. They are subject to no legis- 
 lative scrutiny whatever, and are exhibited to 
 the deliberative assemblies as a proof of impe- 
 rial condescension. Notwithstanding the boast 
 with regard to the notoriety given them, they
 
 142 
 
 are presented only in part to the public, in the 
 columns of the Moniteur. The full reports 
 are reserved for the functionaries of the two de- 
 partments, with the exception of a few copies for 
 the members of the legislative bodies. In con- 
 gratulating the Emperor on the improvements 
 which he had made in the machine* of the trea- 
 sury, the minister mentions in terms of lively- 
 satisfaction, the circumstance of his having ren- 
 dered its movements so s'unple and free, — that 
 his departm.ent was at length relieved from the 
 necessity of entrusting foreign agents, agens 
 etr angers, with the disc^-^rge of its first duties 
 and the secret of its most important operations.! 
 By foreign agents he means persons not em- 
 ployed in the treasury office. This language 
 needs no comment. 
 
 The public, in fact, could derive no advan- 
 tage from the free circulation of these documents, 
 if they were suifered to go abroad. Each re- 
 
 * Robespierre entitled the Convention, his Machine 
 ^ Decrets. The term is well chosen by the minister of the 
 treasury. 
 
 f Report, 1807. Preface.
 
 143 
 
 port occupies about one hundred and forty 
 quarto pages, and is studiously couched in a 
 language almost unintelligible even to those 
 who are most familiar with the phraseology 
 and details of fiscal calculation.* The series 
 of reports, denominated the general accounts, 
 " Lcs compies gencraux du ires or fiiiblic et de 
 " r administration des finances ^^ which I have 
 now before me, abound with the grossest con- 
 tradictions. To detect them, requires a mi- 
 nute investigation and thorough comprehension 
 
 * Such for instance as the following phrase — " Votre 
 " majeste a mis un terme a cette multiplicite de comptes 
 " d'exercises concurremment ouverts qui sous le pretexte 
 " de conserver a chaque creancier la specialite du gage 
 " promis, inquietait tous les creanciers par I'eventualite de 
 " la realization de ce gage," &c. — Or as follows — " chaque 
 " fait de comptabilite est necessairement complexe ; car 
 " il constate un acte qui, s'il degage Ihin, engage neces- 
 " sairement un autre. Ainsi, chaque fait met en rapport 
 " necessaire et en opposition deux interets.— /e credit de 
 " I'un et le debit de I'autre — C'est dans cette observation 
 " exacte du double intevet qui characterize chaque fait, 
 «' et dans cette opposition des deux interets que la compt- 
 " abilite en partie double a pris, avec sa denomination, la 
 " garantie de son ex^ictitude et I'element du controle effi- 
 
 « cace qu'elle emploie," &c. (Ministere du Tresor 
 
 budget, 1807.
 
 144 
 
 of the entire reports, which few can under- 
 stand who have not enjoyed particular aids. 
 The vanity, however, of different ministers, 
 who have succeeded each other, has prompted 
 them to indulge in obscure hints relative to the 
 abuse? which existed under their predecessors 
 — and their eagerness to exhibit the sagacity 
 and vigilance of the Emperor in the strongest 
 light, has betrayed them into an occasional 
 disclosure of the enormous evils which the 
 budget of every consecutive year has reprodu- 
 ced and extinguished. 1 he prosperity of the 
 present and the future is always without alloy. 
 It is from their lamentations over the past and 
 from m.uch personal inquiry and observation, 
 during my residence in Paris, that I have de- 
 rived a knowledge of the abuses which 1 hayg 
 undertaken to suggest. 
 
 I must also remark of the budgets, that until 
 the year 1806, they present nearly an exact 
 arithmetical equality of the receipts and dis- 
 bursements. The minister of the treasury, 
 however, in his report of 18(.7, felicitates the
 
 145 
 
 Emperor, on having discovered that this perfect 
 equation, — the complete symmetry which was 
 thought to argue so wonderful a degree of or- 
 der and foresight, proved too much : — that it 
 could be no other than a fortuitous result at 
 all times and was of no real utility, &:c. There 
 is moreover, something curious, in the gloss, 
 which, — in the report of the preceding year, 
 — is put upon the accumulation of all the pub- 
 lic funds in one common recipient — the trea- 
 sury, — and on the arbitrary application of those 
 funds to general purposes. The rejection or 
 disregard of all specific appropriations by gene- 
 ral law, would, in every other country, be con- 
 sidered as fatal to public liberty, and necessa- 
 rily productive of the most mischievous dis- 
 orders. But in France these viremens as they 
 are styled, — the appropriation, for instance, 
 of the capital of the sinking fund tt> the wants 
 of the war ministry, with a supposed intention 
 of reimbursing that fund, — are quahfied as 
 reciprocal loans, calculated to facilitate the 
 public service and to promote the circulation, 
 ctf specie ! I must add on the subject of these 
 
 T
 
 146 
 
 reports that I have conversed much with intel- 
 ligent members cf the treasury in Paris, and 
 have never known one, who did not consider 
 them, as a mere stalkinghorse for the mal- 
 versation of the government. They are at the 
 same time rendered subservient to the views 
 of the Emperor, in securing the adherence of 
 the subordinate agents, whom this semblance 
 of order would enable him the more easily to 
 destroy by accusations of irregularity and cor- 
 ruption. 
 
 Every village and commune of France has a 
 collector or tax-gatherer, who pays over the 
 amount of his receipts to a treasurer called a 
 fiariicular receiver — of whom there is one for 
 every district. There is also a receiver- general ^ 
 for each defiartment, into whose hands the par- 
 ticular receivers convey the sums drawn from 
 the collectors, and who communicate immedi- 
 ately with the treasury. They are all under the 
 active superintendence of an administration, 
 entitled the direction of the taxes, — direction des
 
 147 
 
 contributions. This administration consists of a 
 director-general — of inspectors, verificators, 
 controllers, SiC. and of various other functiona- 
 ries — whose province it is — to watch over the 
 receivers and tax-gatherers, and to regulate 
 and expedite the collection of the taxes In 
 1805, the number of chief officers, emjiloijes en 
 chef, belonging to the direction of the taxes, 
 amounted throughout the empire, without in- 
 cluding Piedmont, to 1044? — 254 controlkrs of 
 the first class, 588 of the second, &c. The ad- 
 ministrations for the collection of the indirect 
 taxes, employ likewise an immense multitude 
 of directors, sub -directors, inspectors, sub- 
 inspectors, clerks, verificators, visitors, con- 
 trollers, receivers, excisemen, firefLosts and 
 simfiles emfdoijcs, hussicrs^ regisseurs, &c. — 
 These, together with the agents employed in 
 the collection of the direct-taxes, are all no- 
 minated by the Emperor, and form a host of 
 unproductive labourers, —of spies and petty 
 tyrants, who, — while they devour the sub- 
 stance of the people, promote, as a ciomestic
 
 148 
 
 inquisition, the political as well as the fiscal 
 despotism of their patrons. 
 
 The tax-gatherers, (les fiercefiteurs) are en- 
 titled to ji'ue fier cent, on all they collect — and 
 the receivers to the same per centage oi), what- 
 ev^er is emptied into their chest The agents 
 of the different regies, upon which the col- 
 lection of the indirect taxes devolves, are 
 recompensed in the same way. This mode of 
 payment, — by allowing the revenue officers a 
 certain proportion of their receipts, — has been 
 selected in order to quicken their zeal, and to 
 secure their fidelity. The budgets state merely 
 the net firoduce of the taxes^ after a deduction 
 of these discounts and of all the exjienses of col- 
 lection. The latter are, therefore, to be consi- 
 dered as additional charges upon the people— 
 of no small amount. 
 
 Under the old monarchy, according to 
 Necker, the expenses of collection, amounted 
 to fifty-eight millions of iivres, — lot per cent.
 
 149 
 
 on the totality of the taxes paid by the people.* 
 Peuchet, after acknowledging that there are 
 no positive data, upofi ivhich such a calculation 
 could be juade in France at this moment^ ac- 
 knowledges, however, that the expenses of 
 collection on the land-tax alone, could not 
 have been lower, in 1803, than 164 per cent. 
 The charges of the same kind on the other 
 taxes are still more considerable according to 
 the statements of the minister of finance. I 
 should calculate them at twenty per cent, at 
 least, taking into consideration solely the in- 
 crease in the number of the revenue officers 
 and the high poundage to which they are enti- 
 tled..! 
 
 Necker conjectures that, in his time the ad- 
 ditions made to the burdens of the people by 
 
 * Admin, des Fin. ch. 3. tome i. 
 
 •}• Statistique, p. 524-. 
 
 X According to Su John Sinclair (History of the Re- 
 venue, vol. Sd, p. 109) — the expense of collecting the 
 land tax in England in 1788, was only three per cent.— 
 and the whole revenue was then collected at an expense 
 of seven and a half per cent. (vol. 2d, p. 162.) The 
 proportion is very little higher at this moment.
 
 15a 
 
 the expenses of lawsuits, writs and seizures, 
 incident to delinquency with regard to the pay- 
 ment of the taxes, — amounted to about seven 
 million five hundred thousand livres. Tae 
 minister of finance in his report of 1806, states 
 that these expenses, which are called frais de 
 fioursuitCy bore a mean proportion of tit. to the 
 amount of the direct taxes. In some depart- 
 ments, the ratio was -ir and still higher. It 
 should be noticed that this is the cost incurred 
 by the government in enforcing payment of 
 the direct taxes and must be attended by much 
 heavier losses to the unfortunate delinquents. 
 The injuries sustained by the people, from 
 judicial sales and seizures — costs of litigation 
 and obscure vexations, which Dr. Smith so 
 often and so emphatically declares to be equi- 
 valent to expense, and from the fines super- 
 added to the confiscation and sale of movables, 
 cannot, — with respect to the collection of the 
 indirect taxes, — ^be susceptible of any certain 
 valuation, but must evidently be much more 
 considerable now than under the old regime, 
 — when all the channels of domestic prosperity
 
 151 
 
 were open to the nation, and the characteristic 
 severities of arbitrary power mitigated and 
 tempered by the influence of public opinion 
 and of the social virtues. 
 
 In the time of Necker, the farmers general — 
 the general and particular-receivers, and all the 
 subalterns in the service of the treasury, advan- 
 ced sums to the government as securities for 
 tlie faithful discharge of their trust. For these 
 securities, they were paid an interest of five per 
 cent, and in some cases, of seven. The present 
 government has adopted the same system with 
 regard to the new receivers and collectors, who 
 now deposit, individually, in the exchequer, a 
 sum i?i cash, — under the title of cautionneinent 
 or pledge, — equal to the one-twelfth of all the 
 public money which passes through their hands. 
 The minister of finance very properly denomi- 
 nates these securities — a loan — -and of no small 
 magnitude, as they amounted, according to 
 the budget of one thousand eight hundred and 
 five, to eighry-five millions of francs. No plau- 
 sible objection could be raised against this plan,
 
 152 
 
 if it' were confined merely to the agents of the 
 treasury in order to prevent insolvency or pecu- 
 lation on their part, but it has been extended, 
 in a most arbitrary manner, to other classes of 
 persons, and converted into an expedient for 
 the creation of a new fund applicable to the 
 general expenses of the state. 
 
 All bankers, lawyers, notaries, brokers, ju- 
 dicial oiEcers, butchers, &c. — and, in general, 
 all persons exercising responsible trades and 
 professions, are compelled to deposit similar 
 securities in cash, — according to a graduated 
 scale. I was informed by a notary of the second 
 order in Paris — that he had beei> called upon to 
 advance thirty thousand francs, about six thou- 
 sand dollars, as a cautionnetnenty before he 
 could obtain permission to act in his profession- 
 al capacity. Since the enactment of the law, ad- 
 ditions, under the name of supplementary secu- 
 rities, have been made every year to the origi- 
 nal demand, and new offices* created, in order 
 
 * « Vingt nouvelles places d'agens de change," says 
 the budget of 1807, " ont donne— 1,000,000 francs."
 
 153 
 
 augment this fund, so that it has hitherto 
 worn the aspect of a permanent branch of reve- 
 nue. The law provides that the sums thus 
 deposited, are to be refunded on tlie death or 
 resignation of the parties, — but as their suc- 
 cessors renew them, no portion of them is in 
 fact withdrawn from the treasury. The who!« 
 sum which this system has yielded, must be 
 considerably more than one hundred millions of 
 francs. 
 
 Tlie interest assigned to tlie contributors, 
 was originally five and six per cent.; but in one 
 thousand eight hundred and eight, it was redu- 
 ced to four and five per cent. Even this, incon' 
 siderable as it is, when compared with the usual 
 rates in France, is not regularly discharged. 
 The payment of it was charged on the caisse 
 d\i7im-tiss£?ncnt^ or sinking fund, — on the na- 
 ture of Vv'hich I shall touch in a subsequent 
 page. The caisse d'a?nortissement, however, has 
 been uniform.ly devoted to the general expenses 
 of the state. The specific objects of the fund 
 haye been either wholly disregarded, or only 
 
 V
 
 154 
 
 partially gratified. In one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and six, it was decreed that it should, 
 for thai, as well as for the succeeding year, — 
 be indemnified for the sums which it was en- 
 titled to claim from the treasury for the dis- 
 charge of the national debt, and the payment of 
 the interest of the secu) ities, by a delegation or 
 cession to its use of national domains — valued 
 at twenty years' fiurchase* This proceeding 
 was equivalent to a breach of faith ; and, like 
 the whole system of jobbing in national do- 
 mains, of a most pernicious tendency with re- 
 gard to public mcrals. It must be also super- 
 fluous to suggest that these securities are, in 
 i^iCX., forced /^^(Xwj', disguised under another name, 
 the suppression of which is so often proclaimed 
 by the minister of finance as one of the most 
 important of the reforms produced by the new 
 organization of his department. They operate, 
 at the same time, as a strong tie upon the loyal- 
 ty of the contributors of every description, — 
 who are well satisfied that both principal and 
 
 '» Budget, 1807, p. 9.
 
 155 
 
 interest would vanish on the dissolution of the 
 present government. 
 
 The general receivers draw bills on them 
 elves, at the commencement of the year, in fa- 
 vour of the government, — payable the fifteenth 
 of every month, — for the whole amount of the 
 direct taxes, and bills at sight, for the amount 
 of such of the indirect taxes as are paid over to 
 them. The particular receivers draw in the same 
 manner in favour of the general receivers, bills 
 payable fifteen days before tliose of the latter 
 fall due. The collectors pursue the same course 
 with regard to the particular receivers. The 
 bills at sight are distributed among the pay- 
 masters for the public service. The rest are 
 negotiated by the treasury. The sinking-fund 
 is charged with the payment of such as are pro- 
 tested. The loss sustained by the government 
 in negotiating the paper emitted on account of 
 thedirect taxes, although every motive conspires 
 to induce a regular payment on the part of the 
 receivers, may be alleged as a criterion of the 
 state of public credit in France. It was fifteen
 
 156 
 
 millions of francs in one tliousand eight hun- 
 dred and two — eighteen millions in one thou- 
 sand eight hundred and four — and sixteen mil- 
 lions in one thousand eight hundred and six. 
 The minister of finance in his report for one 
 thousand eight hundred and seven, complains, 
 that he was compelled, in the comimencement of 
 the preceding year, to negotiate the bills of the 
 receivers at a discount of one and one-sixteenth 
 per month. He assigns causes for this enormous 
 discount which are scmewhat curious when 
 contrasted with the flattering representations of 
 the budget of one thousand eight hundred and 
 six. 'Ihey are conveyed in the following com - 
 plim.ent to the emperor, " It belonged to your 
 '* majesty alone, ivhcn the treasury etcperitnced 
 " a dif.dt cj one hundred millkiu^ m:d the re- 
 ^' schnts cf pvblic credit seeined to be et^hahst- 
 " ed, tc correct these disorders at once, and to 
 '* enable your miinister to moderate the dis- 
 ** count when the wants of the treasury exacted 
 *' a more abundant emission of paper." In a 
 preceding report he animadverts severely on 
 the abuses practised in the negctialion of the
 
 157 
 
 bills, by stock-jobbers and others, who were 
 disposed to fatten on the necessities of the state. 
 
 The caisse d'amortissement, or sinking 
 fund, was originally formed from the capital 
 of the securities of the receivers, and the 
 ostensible purpose of its creation, was the 
 discharge of the interest of those securities. 
 Upon the cession of national domains to its 
 use, and the extortion of supplementary se- 
 curities, — the government thought proper to 
 announce that the reduction of the national 
 debt would come " within the sphere of its ac- 
 tivity.*' In this respect only, it bears an affini- 
 ty to the fund of the same name in England, 
 which is destined to produce such important 
 benefits to that country, and constantly serves 
 as a rich fund of credit. The caisse d'amor- 
 tissement enjoys no such advantage — and as I 
 have before observed, has been uniformly de- 
 flected from its ostensible purposes. It is con- 
 verted into a mere expedient for the supply of 
 the immediate wants of the government, and 
 has contributed rather to augment than to di-
 
 158 
 
 minish the amount of the public debt, as may 
 be seen from the reports of the minister of fi. 
 nance himself,* The substitution of national 
 domains for the regular proceeds of the fund 
 is, in fact, tantamount to an insolvency for it, 
 and makes it subservient to new violations of 
 public faith. The holders of the tiers consolides, 
 were authorised to tender them in payment for 
 the national domains ceded to the fund, and it 
 was by the acquisition of this stock, that it was 
 to reduce the national debt. Such in fact, would 
 have been the effect of this operation, although 
 attended by considerable loss, if the govern- 
 ment did not lay violent hands upon the stock 
 when obtained, as well as upon every resource 
 of the fund. 
 
 My limits will not permit me to undertake a 
 particular investigation concerning the security 
 of public faith at this mioment in France j — a 
 subject on which the ministers of the new go- 
 vernment dwell with great apparent complacen- 
 
 *See Budgetof 1807, under the head of Caiwerf' Amor- 
 iissement.
 
 159 
 
 cy, In all their official reports. I shall, however, 
 venture to offer a few details, — the result of my 
 own observation, — which may serve to evince 
 the sense, which these gentlemen entertain, of 
 the true elements of public credit. During my 
 residence in Paris, motives of friendship to- 
 wards an individual in whose concerns I took 
 a lively interest, induced me to attend to the 
 progress oi" a large claim which he was then 
 prosecuting on the ministry of the marine. This 
 circumstance led me to frequent the bureaux — 
 and gave me an opportunity of obtaining an 
 experimentalknowledge of the manner in which 
 business is transacted in that department. The 
 claim had ,)een pending for some years, and 
 v/as founded upon bills of exchange, drawn on 
 the office of the marine by the French charge 
 des affaires in this country, in consequence of 
 contracts into which he had entered here, and 
 which were regularly fulfilled by the claimant. 
 According to the general principles of justice 
 and to the usages which other governments 
 have thought it, on all occasions, indispen- 
 sably necessary to follow — in order to preserve
 
 160 
 
 their credit abroad, these bills were not open 
 to contravention or discussion, and should 
 have been paid conformably to their tenor. 
 The bills however were not merely rejected, 
 but the contracts themselves, which the charge 
 des affaires^ had been specifically empowered 
 to make, — were rescinded, and the creditor 
 was called upon to substantiate his claim, by 
 original documents and minute vouchers, — ex- 
 isting in this country, — and not to be procur- 
 ed without great diiliculty and delay- Such, as 
 I have reason to know, has been the uniform 
 course of proceeding in this department, except 
 in cases where it was necessary to support a 
 temporary credit, in order to seciiVe the com- 
 pletion of contracts, only in a course of exe- 
 cution. 
 
 From the fate of the abovementioned claim, 
 I discovered that all demands not liquidated or 
 admitted within the year, were thrown into 
 what is termed the i?7T/(?r^, or classed under the 
 arrears of the department ; and that, how- 
 ever sacred the nature of the debt,— payment
 
 161 
 
 could be expected only in the mode which I 
 shall proceed to explain. I have before stated 
 that the Emperor makes a monthly allotment of 
 funds to the departments of state, according 
 to the conception which he may form of the 
 urgency of their wants, — or of the importance 
 of sustaining the credit, and promoting the 
 service of a particular department. Although 
 the expenditure of the ministry of the marine 
 has been actually immense — the appropria- 
 tions to this branch of the public service, 
 which is altogether of secondary importance 
 in his scheme of policy, have been uniformly 
 insufficient for the current charges of the year. 
 The arrears, therefore, created in order to di- 
 minish these charges, — in violation of every 
 maxim of justice, and even of prudence, if 
 the preservation of public credit were an ob- 
 ject,- — are in fact left unpaid : — but it was no- 
 minally provided that they should be discharg- 
 ed with the bons, or paper of the sinking fund: 
 — thus converting the principle of the debt in 
 arrear into an annuity of six per cent, which 
 during my residence in Paris, could not be 
 
 X
 
 162 
 
 disposed of in the market, — but at an enor- 
 mous loss. 
 
 As these arrears do not make part of the na- 
 tional debt properly so called, this alienation of 
 the paper of the sinking fund, is, as you may 
 observe, a strange irregularity. The whole pro- 
 ceeding would, indeed, amount to a periodical 
 bankruptcy for the department, even if the 
 paper or six per cents, were actually applied to 
 the discharge of its arrears. But the appropri- 
 ation depends upon the will of the Emperor, 
 which is not always favourable — and again — 
 upon the discretion of the minister of the ma- 
 rine, who finds it more convenient to render 
 his resource when granted, instrumental to 
 his relief from the exigencies of the moment. 
 These causes have operated to prevent the 
 payment of the claim to which I have particu- 
 larly alluded, — although it has long since been 
 officially acknowledged or liquidated. Upon a 
 representation of the case to the minister of the 
 marine, the reason assigned both in his verbal 
 aind written replies for a delay so fatal to the
 
 163 
 
 creditor, has uniformly been, — that the Empe- 
 ror had made no allotment for the payment of 
 his arrears — that is to say, — that he wanted 
 funds for the fulfilment of his engagements. An 
 extraordinary plea this for the head of a prin- 
 cipal department of state, — under a monarch, 
 whose ministers so ostentatiously proclaim on 
 all occasions the inviolability of his faith and 
 the exuberance of his resources ! The solemn 
 hypocrisy, and grave, systematic falsehood 
 of their official documents ; — this prostitution 
 of the c^r^wom'a/ of government, which should 
 be as hallowed as the rites of the altar, or of 
 the judgment seat — exhibits, according to my 
 mind, something still more profligate in the 
 conception, and dangerous in the example — 
 than the flagitious but open doctrines, and the 
 relentless but undissemhled violence of their 
 revolutionary predecessors. 
 
 By the sacrifice of one half of such claims it 
 is possible to dispose of them to the secret 
 agents of the minister, or of the chief clerks of 
 the department, who then secure full payment 
 for themselves — to the neglect and injury of
 
 164 
 
 such creditors as are unwilling to accede to 
 this wretched compromise. The chief clerks 
 scarcely hesitate to hold a direct communica- 
 tion with the victims of their rapacity, and 
 openly support establishments, the expenses of 
 which, as they far exceed the amount of their 
 salaries, are obviously defrayed from the pro- 
 fits of this species of robbery. Exclusive of 
 their emissaries, — numbers of hungry sharpers 
 hang about the public offices and crowd the 
 stock exchanges, — watching the fallen counte- 
 nance of the repulsed creditor; and prepared, 
 — when fatigue and disappointment drive him 
 to despair, — to speculate upon his miseries, — 
 either by the purchase of his claim, — or by the 
 extortion of money under the pretext of brib- 
 ing influence in his favour. One whom circum- 
 stances have not brought into contact, as it 
 were, with this iniquitous traffic, cannot easily 
 imagine to what an extent it is pursued, — and 
 what a scene of dark, mysterious, profligate in- 
 trigue is unfolded to the view on a near inspec- 
 tion. There is connected with this subject, ano- 
 ther kind of exhibition, — in its eflect not dissi-
 
 165 
 
 milar to the most tragical lorms of the drama^ 
 which a person habituated by the institutions 
 of his country to ideas of justice and equality, 
 cannot readily forget. I mean the public audi- 
 ence of the minister of the marine for the pur- 
 pose of receiving petitions and remonstrances, 
 held once every month. I attended this meet- 
 ing several times, and witnessed a spectacle of 
 wretchedness and brutality not often parallel- 
 ed. The contrast between the splendid cos- 
 tume of the minister, and of his attendants — ■ 
 and the squalid appearance of the trembling 
 suppliants about him was not more striking — 
 than the savage insensibility and vulgar inso- 
 lence with which he stifled the tale of their dis- 
 tresses. Sometimes, however, despair breaks 
 through all considerations of power and rank, 
 and on two or three occasions, when I was 
 present, gave rise to bitter reproaches and to 
 bold expostulation, calculated to develop more 
 fully the systematic injustice of this depart- 
 ment. These bursts are never suffered to pass 
 with impunity, but no degree of coercion can 
 at all times restrain the impetuous feelings of
 
 166 
 
 our nature, vvhen goaded by the fear of want 
 and exasperated by the oppression of tyrants, 
 who — in the case of their own subjects, — 
 scarcely deign to employ a pretence to varnish 
 over their excesses. 
 
 Their bad faith has been productive of the 
 consequences which may always be expected, 
 when the same course is pursued. This poli- 
 cy is at all times, not that of economy, but of 
 extreme prodigality. The French rulers, 
 whatever may be their power, are unable to 
 obtain supplies at home — but by sacrifices 
 equivalent to the risk which is incurred by 
 contracting with them. Their credit abroad 
 may be estimated by the fact which is so well 
 known to us all, that no intelligent merchant 
 in this country can be induced by any consi- 
 deration, to make advances in their favour, or 
 to accept a bill on their treasury, from their 
 highest accredited agent. 
 
 I shall now proceed to lay before you my 
 estimate of the permanent revenue of the go-
 
 167 
 
 vernment, and of the burdens imposed upon 
 the people of France. My calculations will 
 be drawn from the acknowledgments of the 
 minister of the treasury, — and supported by 
 conjectures, in which, those who reflect on 
 the preceding details, will readily acquiesce. 
 
 In the budget of one thousand eio;ht hun- 
 dred and six, the sums paid over to the treasu- 
 ry by the receivers, are stated at eight hundred 
 and seventy-seven millions, one hundred and 
 eighty-three thousand, five hundred and eigh- 
 ty-one francs.* Besides these, a considerable 
 amount is deposited separately by the admini- 
 strations of the indirect taxes, and received 
 from other quarters. The addition of this 
 amount makes, according to the budget, one 
 thousand one hundred and thirty-three mil- 
 lions, two hundred and thirty-three thousand, 
 six hundred and ninety-one francs,t — for the 
 whole receipts of the treasury at Paris during 
 one thousand eight hundred and six. In this 
 sum, however, are included about one hundred 
 
 * P. 5. Etat. A. t P. 63 Etat. FF.
 
 168 
 
 millions on account of arrears for the preceding 
 :^^^ exercises.'* This amount is, at the same time, 
 'inearly balanced by that of such part of the taxes 
 for one thousand eight hundred and six, as 
 could not be collected within that year. I shall 
 adopt at a low calculation the sum of one thou- 
 sand and fifty millions of francs as the net reve- 
 nue of one thousand eight hundred and six. 
 
 In order to ascertain the whole amount of the 
 burdens laid upon the people, which must, iu 
 every country, exceed the net revenue, — we 
 must add various items to this sum of one thou- 
 sand and fifty millions. 1st, The expense^'of 
 collection, which, if they reached fifty-eight 
 millions under the old monarch, cannot at pre- 
 sent fall short of one hundred and fifty millions, 
 including the illegal exactions of the revenue 
 officers. Sd, The taxes paid for local and de- 
 partmental expenses amounting to at least one 
 hundred millions ;-— it being obviously the po- 
 licy of the government to throw as heavy a load 
 on the municipalities as possible. 3d, Another
 
 169 
 
 one hundred millions for disbursements of a 
 miscellaneous nature, such as the injuries sus* 
 tained l)y judicial seizures, &c. Under thii 
 head I include the sums actually received into 
 the treasury, — but suppressed in the budget 
 for the convenience of the government. I have 
 heard this surplus alone estimated by an intel- 
 ligent member of tlie treasury department, at 
 more than one hundred millions. The savings 
 expended by the middling classes on their chil- 
 dren> who are with the armies, in order to ren- 
 der their situation more comfortable, nay be 
 considered as a heavy taxation. The sums paid 
 to substitutes are to be viewed in the samtt 
 light. A conscript who obtains asubstitutepayi 
 not only a gratuity to the latter, but anindem* 
 nity to the government. In the year one thou* 
 sand eight hundred, the indemnities yielded 
 twelve milliims of francs. The difticulty which 
 exists at this moment, of obtaining proxies, has 
 curtailed this branch of revenue^ but has, at 
 the same lime, aggravated the most grievous 
 of all impositions,— that of personal service. 
 Reasouing from the above data, I ithall not
 
 170 
 
 hesitate to compute the whole amoant of the 
 puhlic burdens of France at one thousand two 
 hundred milHons of francs — nearly slvty mil- 
 lions sterling — and 1 am well satisfied that this 
 estimate is much below the real amount. 
 
 The minister of the treasury, in stating the 
 sums paid over to his department by the re- 
 ceivers during three months of one thousand 
 eight hundred and five, and the whole of one 
 thousand eight hundred and six, at nine hun- 
 dred and eighty-six millions of francs, calcu- 
 lates the expenses of that period at nine hun- 
 dred and thirty-two milHons— leaving a small 
 balance in favour of the treasury. It is not easy 
 to reconcile the existence, even of this balance, 
 with an acknowledged defalcation of one hun- 
 dred millions n the beginning of one thousand 
 eight hundred and six — and it should be re- 
 marked, moreover, that it is entirely forgotten 
 in the estimate of the ways and means of the 
 following year. I have had from persons in Pa- 
 ri?, who enjoy ae^ess to the most correct in- 
 formation, positive evidence, that the nominal,
 
 in 
 
 falls far short of the real expenditure. Inde- 
 pendently of this testimony, there are con- 
 siderations arising- out of a view of the de- 
 tailed statement of the minister of the trea- 
 sury on this head which would leave the same 
 conviction on my mind. 
 
 In one thousand eight hundred, the sum 
 demanded by the minister of police for the 
 service of his department, included one million 
 two hundred thousand francs ?oy secret e:rpenses 
 alone. It is not probable that he requires less 
 at this moment for the same purpose ; but in 
 the budget of one thousand eight hundred 
 and seven, the totality of his expenses is put 
 down at eight hundred and eighty-one thousand 
 francs only ! In the year one thousand eight 
 hundred, the minister of war also, called for 
 four hundred and thirty-six millions when his 
 establishment was less considerable than at 
 present, and the harvest of foreign contribu- 
 tions still more abundant. His expenses for 
 one thousand eight hundred and six are stated 
 at two hundred and ninetv-three millions — a
 
 i7« 
 
 sum whic.h, Jjwrs no proportion to t,he neal 
 amount.**-.,^ f; . -oii^v^ " 
 
 ^Jtis, not a little curious to remark, that in 
 the time of the Directory, when the wants of 
 the several departments of state were sub* 
 mitted to the legislative bodies, the sum 
 demanded by the departments collectively, 
 was no less than nine hundred and twelve 
 millions of francs. The consuls, on their ac- 
 cession to power, pompously announced their 
 intention of reducing this amount, for the 
 following year, to four hundred and fifteen 
 millions. It was understood, however, that 
 they calculated upon foreign contributions to 
 supply the deficiencies which might occur. 
 Ramel observes, that it was thought by some 
 " that it would be more prudent to rely upon 
 ''permanent and settled imposts, on account 
 ** of the possibility of a reverse of fortune, and 
 " because a dependence upon such adventi- 
 " tious aids, might generate the thirst of con- 
 *' quest. The government, however, believed 
 " that the proofs which they had given of
 
 175 
 
 "their pacific intentions,' authorized them tir 
 " overlook these considerations, &c."* ' 
 
 The disbursements of the departhient t)f 
 foreign affairs are stated at sometliing more 
 than seven milHonsfor the year eighteen hun- 
 dred and six. In the time af Necker, they 
 amounted to fourteen. Those who have attend- 
 ed to the history of the foreign policy 6f the 
 present ruler, will not he disposed to admit 
 that the cost of the foreign office is less now 
 than it was in the year seventeen hundred 
 and eighty-nine. The appropriation made for 
 the expenses of the imperial household, dur- 
 ing the last year, was twenty-eight millions 
 of francs: somewhat more than eleven hun- 
 dred thousand pounds sterling. In this sum, 
 tliree millions are included for the use of the 
 princes. The expenses of the former court 
 amounted to thirty-one millions of livres. The 
 additional magnificence of the present est^ 
 bhshment, — the multitude of imperial palaces 
 
 • P. 85, Hist, des Fin:
 
 174 
 
 and parks. — and the liberal gratifications ap- 
 plied to conciliate the zeal, and to reward the 
 services, indispensable for the consolidation of 
 anew throne, — would alone warrant the con- 
 clusion that the imperial household is a much 
 heavierchargeon the nation, than the court of 
 the Bourbons ever could have been. Whoever 
 has witnessed the prodigality and rapacity of 
 the princesand retainers of the new court, will 
 not hesitate to believe that at least fifty millions 
 are required for this branch of expenditure. 
 
 The whole amount of the burdens of the 
 people of France, before the revolution, was 
 not, according to the calculation of Necker, 
 more than five hundred and eighty-five mil- 
 lions of livres. In the enumeration, which this 
 writer makes, of the source of public power and 
 wealth, at that period, he includes — an in- 
 dustrious population of twenty-six millions, — 
 flourishing manufactures, of the most lucrative 
 kind, — opulent colonies, the annual products 
 of which, imported into France, yielded not 
 less than one hundred and twenty milHons of
 
 175 
 
 Tivres, — a balance ot' trade, estimated at seven- 
 ty millions, — an annual increase of forty mil- 
 lions in the current specie, the whole a-iiount 
 of which nearly equalled that of all the other 
 states of Europe collectively,* These advan- 
 tages relieved the people, by furnishing the 
 means of supporting their burdens. In every 
 question of this kind, it is not merely the 
 amount of the contributions paid to govern- 
 ment, but the ability also to discharge them, 
 which must be considered. Under the former 
 government of France, taxes could not be ar- 
 bitrarily imposed. The parliaments exercised 
 a control over the court on this subject, — fre- 
 quently intercepted the will of the monarch, — 
 and finally defeated all the financial j)lans of 
 the last ministers of Louis the Sixteenth. 
 
 Let now the extent of the former burdens 
 of France, be compared with those of the 
 present day : — with fourteen hundred millions 
 of francs levied upon a people deprived, in 
 
 ♦ Adrain : ties Fia : toI. 3d, p, 407,
 
 176 
 
 a great degree, of commerce and manufac- 
 tures, the two most productive branches of 
 income, and the springs whicli feed agricul- 
 ture; — whom a long succession of foreign 
 and domestic wars has impoverished beyond 
 measure, while it has deranged tlieir habits 
 of industry, and corrupted their morals : — 
 whose internal consumption is greatly dimi- 
 nished ; — much of whose specie is locked out 
 of circulation : — whose government, equally 
 rapacious and prodigal, is subject to no re- 
 straint whatever in the imposition of taxes, 
 and possesses at the same time the means of 
 enforcing the collection of such as necessity 
 or caprice may dictate. 
 
 Those who will beat the trouble of exam- 
 ining the various sources of revenue under the 
 old government, will find that not one has been 
 overlooked by the new rulers. The twentieths, 
 the droits il* aide, or excise on wines and bran- 
 dies, the gahille and the disme^ — from the sup- 
 pression of whi jh so much benefit was antici- 
 pated by the Constituent Assembly^ — have all
 
 177 
 
 been revived under different names, but with 
 an operation still more oppressive. If the cor- 
 'vies, — the evils of which were so much exag- 
 gerated by the eneiuies of the old government, 
 — no longer exist, — the labour to which the 
 refractory conscripts are condemned on the high 
 roads is at least an equivalent. The farmers- 
 general who enjoyed but too large a share of 
 the profits of the exchequer under the old 
 monarchy, were models of disinterestedness 
 and frugality in comparison with the army 
 contractors and court-bankers of the present 
 day. The luxury of the former was productive 
 and elegant. It nourished the fine arts and the 
 useful manufactures: — it displayed itself in the 
 munificent patronage of men of science and of 
 letters: — it contributed toadvance the progress 
 of national literature; to promote the refine- 
 ments of polished intercourse — and thus to 
 uphold the solid glory and to multiply the 
 social honours of the French name. 
 
 The luxury of those whom the fortune of 
 war and the wants of the armies have enriched 
 
 2
 
 178 
 
 is equally devoid of taste and generosity. It 
 is that of robbers, who observe neither order 
 nor p'Oportion in the dissipation of their for- 
 tunes ; — \s ho either squander with undistin- 
 guishing profusion or hoard with sordid par- 
 simoay, the wealth which is suddenly and 
 precariously acquired. While the treasure of 
 the f)eople is let out through innumerable 
 orifices, it does not return to the proper ab- 
 sorbcfits, — nor perform the course which makes 
 taxation a benefit in regular and civil monar- 
 chies. The fruits of rapine in France are con- 
 sumed in pampering the sensual appetites and 
 gratifying the worst propensities of our nature. 
 They circulate among the class of men who 
 minister to the vices and passions of the great 
 and increase the corruption by which they 
 live.* 
 
 * This distinction with regard to the different characters 
 which luxury. may assume, is happily explained by Sir 
 James Steuart in his Political Economy — vol. 1. b. 2. eh* 
 22 — See also on this head — Necker, Adminis : dei? Fin : 
 —p. 111. vol. 3d.
 
 179 
 
 In England the great hereditary and acquir- 
 ed fortunes pervade and replenish the whole 
 capillary system of the state. By means of a 
 diffusive circulation, they quicken the emula- 
 tion and reward the labours of every branch of 
 industry. They are expended in the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil and in the production of the 
 solid materials of national wealth: — in the erec- 
 tion and endowment of charitable institutions 
 and public monuments, which foster the moral 
 qualities and elevate the character. Tlie spirit 
 of beneficence and of patriotism which distin- 
 guishes the opulent individuals of that coun- 
 try, — and of which the same class in France 
 is wholly destitute, — returns to the needy the 
 sums which they contribute to the exchequer, 
 and corrects the inequalities of the divisions 
 of property. 
 
 The traveller in England has occa ion to 
 remark, — in all the departments of labour,—- 
 the beneficial influence of the example of the 
 upper classes, and of that luxury which has for 
 its object the productive toil and ingenuity of
 
 man. The qiiick and equable transmission of 
 wealth in the body politic i^ compared by a 
 great writer* to the motion and agency of tbe 
 blood, as it centers in the heart, and is thrown 
 out by new pulsations. The aptitude of thi^U- 
 lustration is particularly striking in his 0i\vn 
 country, where the rapid circulation of wealth, 
 — the regular vibratio^i of demarj^d and labour, 
 and the spirit of industry, animate th^ who^le 
 frame of society with an elasticity and vigour^ 
 such as belong to the |iuman frame in itj^ 
 highest state of perfection. A, peculiarly maSj- 
 culine character, ^nd the utmost energy qf 
 feeling are communicated toallordei^s^qf meni,^ 
 —by the abundance which p,reya,^is so, univ^rr 
 sally, — the cpnsciousness of eqiual rights, —r 
 the fullness of pjower ai,i;d fame to which t-tic 
 nation has attained, — and the beajUty ^nd 
 robustness of the specieis under a climate highly 
 favo,vi,i"al)le to the a,^ima,l ^cp,ijiqmy. T^^e dig- 
 nity o;f the i;ich is, without inso^nce,— l^he. 
 subordination of the popr without sei:vility. 
 Tt^ei^ f^^edom is well guarde4 k^^ ^^PPh ti?lfe 
 * Sir James Steuart* , ,
 
 18V 
 
 dangers of popular licentiousness, and from 
 tlie encroachments of authority. — Their na- 
 tional pride leads to national ssympatliy, 
 and is built upon the most legitimate of all 
 foundations — a sense of preeminent merit and 
 a bo('y of illustrious annals. 
 
 Whatever may be the representations of 
 those who, with little knowledge of facts, 
 and still less soundness or impartiality of judg-^ 
 Hient, — affect to deplore the condition of Eng- 
 land, —^it is nevertheless, true, that there does 
 not exist and never has existed elsewhere, — so 
 beautiful and perfect a naodel of public and 
 private prosperity;— so magnificent, and at the 
 same time, so soHd a fabric of social happiness 
 and national grandeiir. I pay this just tri bute 
 of admiration with the more pleasure, as it is 
 tjQ me in the light of an atonement tor the- 
 Qrrors and prejudices, under which 1 labouued^ 
 Qn thjs subject, betibre i enjoyed the advantage 
 of a perscMial experience, A residence of nearlvf 
 tw.9 yeaT;s iu that GOM.rrtry,-^dun:)g wliicb 
 period, I visited and studied almost ev<:iy part. 
 ot" it^-^with no ot/jei view oiipujsuiti tliau tiiat
 
 182 
 
 of obtaining correct information, and I may 
 add, with previous studies well fitted to pro- 
 mote my object, — convinced me that I had 
 been egregiously deceived. 
 
 I saw no instances of individual oppres- 
 sion, and scarcely any individual misery but 
 that which belongs, under any circumstances 
 of our being, to the infirmity of all human 
 institutions. — I witnessed no symptom of de- 
 clining trade or of general discontent. On the 
 contrary — I found there every indication of a 
 state engaged in a rapid career of advancement. 
 I found the art and spirit of commercial indus- 
 try at their acme; — a metropolis opulent and 
 liberal beyond example : — a cheerful peasan- 
 try, well fed and commodiously lodged, — an 
 ardent attachment to the constitution in all 
 classes, and a full reliance on the national 
 resources. — I found the utmost activity in 
 agricultural and manufacturing labours ; — in 
 the construction of works of embellishment 
 and utility ;• — in enlarging and beautifying the 
 provincial cities. — I heard but few well found- 
 ed complaints of the amount, — and none con-
 
 183 
 
 cerning the collection, of the taxes. The 
 demands of the state create no impediment to 
 consumption or discouragement to industry. 
 I could discover no instance in which they 
 have operated to the serious distress or ruin of 
 individuals. 
 
 The riots at Manchester, which were here 
 invested almost with the horrors of civil war, 
 were scarcely noticed in London, and occa- 
 sioned, I will venture to assert, not one 
 moment of serious uneasiness either to the 
 government, or to any part of the population 
 of England beyond the immediate theatre of 
 the alarm. Manufacturing employments ne- 
 cessarily lead to some degree of individual 
 wretchedness, and the fluctuations of trade, 
 to a temporary languor in particular branches 
 of work. Numerous associations of labourers 
 suffering partially from these causes, may be 
 easily roused to gusts of sedition, either by 
 the excitement of their mutual complaints or 
 the arts of factious demagogues. There is 
 among the populace of every country a rank
 
 184 
 
 luxuriance in this respect, which no authori- 
 ty however beneficent — no position however 
 fortunate, and no general spirit of obedience 
 however cheerful, — can at ^11 limes represi. 
 The disturbances at Manchester were quelled 
 without an effusion of blood ; and the ring- 
 leaders arraigned and punished in the common 
 course of law,— without a movement of ex- 
 pression in their favour on the part of the mab. 
 The whole storm, which was here supposed to 
 threaten the most serious consequences, was 
 almost as harmless in its effects, and left as 
 few traces behind, as the war of the elements 
 raised by the wand of Prospero, or the thunder 
 and lightning of Saddlers- Wells. Tumalts of 
 this kind in a country having so Complicated a 
 system of industry, are to be considered as 
 arising from the distemperature of a particular 
 atmosphere and season, and when so easily al- 
 layed, — as indicative of the souttd and health- 
 ful vigour of the political constitution. Nat 
 long, both before and after the period of the 
 outrages of which I speak, I surveyed atten- 
 tively most of the manufacturing establisli-
 
 185 
 
 ments and saw every reason to conclude that, 
 — collectively taken, — they never were in a 
 more flourishing condition, nor their tenants 
 more loyally disposed. 
 
 The agriculture of England is confessedly- 
 superior to that of any other part of the world, 
 and the condition of those who areemrao-edin 
 the cultivation of the soil, incontestably prefer- 
 able to that of the same class in any other sec- 
 tion of Europe. An inexhaustible source of 
 admiration and delight is found in the unrival- 
 led beauty, as well as richness and. fruitful- 
 nessof their husbandry ; the effects of which are 
 heightened by the magnificent parks and noble 
 mansions of the opulent proprietors : by pictur- 
 esque gardens npon the largest scale, and dis- 
 posed with the most exquisite taste : and by go- 
 thic remains no less admirable in their structure 
 than venerable for their antiquity.* The neat 
 
 * The animated description which Thomson gives 
 of England in his beautiful poem oi Liberty exhibits not 
 only the eloquence of enthusiasm, but the strictness of 
 historical truth : " Her 
 
 2 A
 
 ]86 
 
 cottage, the substantial farm-house, the splen- 
 did villa, are constantly rising to the sight, sur- 
 rounded by the most choice and poetical attri- 
 butes of the landscape. The painter is there 
 but a mere copyist. A picture of as much neat- 
 ness, softness, and elegance, is exposed to the 
 eye, as can be given to the imagination, by the 
 
 " Her hearty fruits the band of freedom own, 
 " And warm with culture, her thick clustering fields 
 *' Prolific teem. Etc nal verdure crowns 
 " Her meads; her gardens smile eternal spring. 
 *' She rears to freedom an undaunted race, 
 .*' Compatriot, zealous, hospitable, kind. 
 '* She, whitening o'er her downs, diffusive, pours 
 " Unnumbered flocks : She weaves the fleecy robe 
 " That wraps the nations : She, to lusty droves, 
 " The richest pasture spreads, and hers, deep wave 
 " Autumnal seas of pleasing plenty round. 
 " These her delights. 
 
 " Enlivening these, add cities full 
 *'* Of wealth, of Irade, of cheerful toiling crowds; 
 '* Add thriving towns ; add villages and farms, 
 " Innumerous sowed along the lively vale, 
 ** Where bold unrivalled peasants happy dwell ; 
 " Add ancient seats with venerable oaks 
 *' Embosom'd high, while kindred floods below 
 ** Wind through the mead ; and those of modern band 
 « More pompous, add, that splendid shine afar, &c.
 
 187 
 
 finest etching, or the most mellowed drawing. 
 The vision is not more delightfully recreated 
 by the rural scenery, than the moral sense is 
 gratified, and the understanding elevated by 
 the institutions of this great country. The 
 first and continued exclamation of an Ameri- 
 can who contemplates them with unbiassed 
 judgment is — 
 
 Salve magna Parens, frugum saturnia tellus 
 Magna virum. 
 
 It appears something not less than impious 
 to desire the ruin of this people, when you 
 view the height to which they have carried 
 the comforts, the knowledge, and the virtue of 
 our species : the extent and number of their 
 foundations of charity ; their skill in the me- 
 chanic arts, by the improvement of which 
 alone, they have conferred inestimable benefits 
 on mankind ; the masculine morality, the lofty 
 sense of independence, the sober and rational 
 piety which are found in all classes ; their im- 
 partial, decorous and able administration of a 
 code of laws, than which none more just and
 
 188 
 
 perfect has ever been in operation : — their se- 
 minaries of education yielding more sohd and 
 profitable instruction than any other whatever : 
 their eminence in literature and science — the 
 urbanity and learning of their privileged or- 
 ders, — their deliberative assemblies, illustra- 
 ted by so many profound statesmen, and bril- 
 liant orators. It is worse than ingratitude in us 
 not to sympathize with them in their present 
 struggle, when we recollect that it is from 
 them we derive the principal merit of our own 
 character — the best of our own institutions-^ 
 the sources of our highest enjoyments — and 
 the light of freedom itself, which, if they 
 should be destroyed, will not long shed its radi- 
 ance coer this country. 
 
 The state of France, as it fell under my ob- 
 servation in one thousand eight hundred and 
 seven, exhibited quite another perspective. — 
 Combined with the evils which I have already 
 had occasion to notice, various other causes 
 conspired to heighten the national calamity.— 
 The extinction of all public spirit, and of the
 
 189 
 
 influence of public opinion, — the depopulation 
 and decay of the great towns, — the decline of 
 ag'riculture and manufactures, — the stagnation 
 of internal trade, — the stern dominion of a mi- 
 litary police, — incessantly checked the exulta- 
 tion, natural to the mind, on viewing the pro- 
 fusion of bounties, with which the hand of Pro- 
 vidence has gifted this fine region. The pres- 
 sure of the taxes was aggravated by the most 
 oppressive rigours in the collection. The pea- 
 sant or farmer Nvho was delinquent in paying 
 his taxes, had a file of soldiers, under the name 
 of garnisers, quartered upon him, who consu- 
 med the fruits of his industry, as a compensa- 
 tion for the loss sustained by the stale. The 
 grape, in numberless instances, was permitted 
 to rot on the vine, in consequence of the ina- 
 bility of the proprietor either to dispose of his 
 wine when made, or to discharge the imposts 
 levied upon every stage of the process of mak- 
 ing it. I was credibly informed that families 
 were frequently compelled to relinquish their 
 separate establishments, and to associate in
 
 190 
 
 their dofiiestic economy, in order to lighten, 
 by dividing the burden of the taxes. 
 
 The effects of the loss of external trade were 
 every where visible : — in the commercial cities 
 half deserted, and reduced to a state of inac- 
 tion and gloom truly deplorable: — in the inland 
 towns, in which the populace is eminently 
 wretched, and where I saw not one indication 
 of improvement, but on the contrary, num- 
 bers of edifices falling to ruins : — on the high 
 roads, where the infrequency of vehicles and 
 travellers denoted but too strongly the decrease 
 of internal consumption, and the languor of in- 
 ternal trade ; and among the inhabitants of the 
 Country, — particularly of the south,— whose 
 poverty is extreme, in consequence of the ex- 
 orbitant taxes, and of the want of an outlet 
 for their surplus produce. In one thousand 
 eight hundred and seven the number of men- 
 dicants in the inland towns was almost incredi- 
 ble. The condition of the peasantry, as to their 
 food, clothing and habitations, bore no com- 
 parison with the state of the same class in 
 England.
 
 191 
 
 The conscription, while it has chased war 
 from the confines, lias, nevertheless, carried 
 the keenest pangs and many of the worst evils 
 which war entails, into the bosom of every 
 dwelling of the empire. It has vitiated the agri^ 
 cultural manners of France, the purity and vi- 
 vacity of which were so much the delight of 
 the traveller before the revolution. The feudal 
 vassalage never exerted an influence half as pei> 
 nicious, over the spirit and satisfactions of the 
 lower classes. The anarchy of the revolution 
 relaxed the springs of industry, and, in de-* 
 stroying the influence, banished the consola- 
 tions of religion. The present government has 
 neither strengthened the one, nor restored the 
 other; and by the example of an habitual 
 violation of all law, has extinguished every 
 trace of respect for the civil authority. 
 
 The abolition of the feudal tenures was a eir^ 
 cumstance highly favourable to the agriculture 
 of France, and would have contributed materia 
 ally to its advancement, had not the genius of 
 the present government counteracted its ten-
 
 192 
 
 dcncy. The first spring of industry is the cer- 
 tainty of enjoying its fruits. Capital is essential 
 to the prosperity of agriculture in France : but 
 the few capitalists Avho remain in the provincial 
 cities and in the country, are too prudent to ex- 
 pend their wealth in the cultivation of large 
 estates, which may beat any moment, wrested 
 from them, by a new revolution, or by the ra- 
 pacity of their rulers. The great proprietors, as 
 has been already mentioned, are few in number. 
 They, together with the monied men, reside 
 chiefly in the metropolis, and are wholly inat- 
 tentive to agricultural pursuits. Their fortunes 
 flow from them through channels which con- 
 vey but little aliment to the labours of the far- 
 mer. I scarcely remarked a single landholder of 
 any consequence, engaged in tilling on a large 
 and prospective plan, or even applying his sur- 
 plus income to the embellishment of his grounds. 
 From these and various other causes, agricul- 
 ture languishes in almost every part of the em- 
 pire. In one thousand eight hundred and seven, 
 the fields were principally cultivated by wo- 
 men : — the long succession of wars having
 
 193 
 swept away that male population, which, under 
 the auspices of a pacific government, would 
 now have been the instrument of an unequalled 
 production of the best fruits of the earth.* Bo- 
 
 * Peuchet, in speaking of the influence of the revolution' 
 on the agriculture of France, enumerates, among the causes 
 which have operated prejudicially, the di7mnution of the re- 
 tadxe male population in several departments, owing partly to 
 thehavo c made by the armies — (les ravages excrces par les 
 armeesj *' et la guerre, qui enleve contimiellement dcs bras 
 " aux travaux et des chefs jeunes et actifs qui sont le soutien, 
 '* et I'espoir desfaynilles." " Cest Men plus" he adds, " dans 
 " les fahriques, les comptoirs, les sciences, les arts qui exigent 
 " des etudes, que se font sentir les suites des levees militaires: 
 " suites morales qui troitbleiit le bonheur des families, le repos 
 ** de la societe, et les motifs de se former un etat." (Statis- 
 " tique de la France, p. 279.) These sentiments so hazard- 
 ous for the writer, seem to be wrung from him by an over- 
 powering sense of the public calamity. Although the mili' 
 tarif population of France, is greatly diminished, it appear? 
 certain that the Numerical has been on the increase. This 
 effect is traced by their statistical writers, to the early mar- 
 riages occasioned by the military requisitions before the 
 year ninety-eight — to the astonishing number of natural 
 children, even now in the cities in the proportion of one- 
 sixth of the legitimate births, — to the suppression of con-e- 
 vents, — to the naval supremacy of the British, which pre- 
 vents emigration by sea, and retains at home their mari? 
 
 2B
 
 194 
 
 naparte pursues to the utmost possiWe extent, 
 a policy reconi mended by all military experi- 
 ence ; — that of drawing his supplies of men from 
 the agricultural class.* The few of his victims 
 who return, indolent in habits and dissolute in 
 morals, are wholly disqualified for the plough, 
 and only serv€ to spread the contagion of the 
 vices which they contract in the camp. 
 
 When the connexion between foreign trade 
 and manufactures is considered, it may be easi- 
 ly understood that those of France are in a 
 much less flourishing state than before the revo- 
 lution. Lyons, alone, of all the manufacturing 
 cities, displays some considerable activity, but 
 even there, a great disparity is remarked be- 
 tween her present andformer condition. In the 
 year one thousand^ seven hundred and eighty- 
 time population, — to the extinction of the monkish orders, 
 and to a prodigious diminution in the number of male do- 
 mestics. Tliis seeming paradox is satisfactorily explained 
 by Malthus, in the chapters which he has dedicated to an 
 examination of " The Checks to Population in France," 
 and " among the Romans." See Essay on Population, 
 b. 1st. ch. 14, and b. 2d. ch. 6th. 
 
 * See on this subject, Machiavelli, Art de la Guerra. 
 lib, cap, 6,
 
 19S 
 eight, the number of workmen employed in 
 that city was fifty-eight thousand five hundred, 
 and the number of looms was estimated at four- 
 teen thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven. 
 In one thousand eight hundred and one, there 
 were but seven thousand looms and many of 
 them were unemployed.* Since that period 
 there has been an alternate rise and depression, 
 but no material increase. The causes of the 
 slow progress of the manufactures lie deep in. 
 the whok system of the imperial government, 
 and cannot l^e removed until a settled foreign 
 market is opened, — until the conveniences for 
 inland trade are multiplied, and until domestic 
 consumption is increased, by the encourage- 
 ment of every branch of industry. The disease 
 is not topical, but symptomatic — aiid not to 
 be remedied by the mere distribution of premi- 
 ums for the best specimens in the arts — or the 
 creation of societies for their encouragemeuLf 
 
 * Peuchet Statisque, p. 4- IS. 
 
 t The government has established in Paris a biennial 
 exhibition of specimen* from all the manufactures of the 
 empire. In one thousand eight hundred and six, the 
 Champ de Mars an.d one of the public edifices in tb€ neigh-
 
 196 
 I have noticed among intelligent person^ 
 both in this country and in England, a belief, 
 that the burden of the taxes is more oppressive 
 in the latter than France. The details which I 
 have already given are sufficient to refute this 
 error, — but it may not be improper to suggest 
 a £e\v additional remarks on this subject. In 
 England the mass of national wealth is much 
 
 bourhood, were allotted to the manufacturers, who were 
 permitted to dispose of their specimens, after the public 
 curiosity was gratified. Premiums were distributed ac" 
 cording to the decision of a certain oiumber of judges ap- 
 pointed to decide on the merit of their work. The display 
 was gorgeous, but by no means indicative of the prosperity 
 of the manufactures. Several of the manufacturers, whom 
 I complimented on the beauty of their workmanship, re- 
 plied that it was in fact but a proof of their misery, as it 
 denoted the -^ant of a more profitable occupation. They 
 added, that a state of peace, by giving them constant em- 
 ployment, would have prevented them from bringing arti- 
 cles of mere luxury to the degree of perfection which I so 
 much admired. I could not but remark at this exhibition 
 the spirit of adulation which was visible on all sides. Like- 
 nesses of Bonaparte and the Imperial family were to be 
 found in almost every pcfesible material, even in Brusselslace ? 
 
 "AKgos svT at fAiu Kuret, SfC, 
 
 ©J. p, 322.
 
 197 
 
 greater than in France. The annual amount of 
 the taxable means of the former beyond those 
 of France may be estimated at sixty millions 
 sterling. The public revenue is between sixty 
 and seventy millions. A large portion of it is 
 expended in the discharge of a national debt 
 to native creditors, who pay back largely to the 
 exchequer; and the whole is rapidly restored 
 to domestic circulation. Even on the supposi- 
 tion, that the amount of taxable income were 
 equal in both countries, the difference of popu- 
 lation, and the greater inequality of fortunes iu 
 England, would create a more considerable 
 mass of superfluous wealth in the hands of in- 
 dividuals — and might yet leave untouched an 
 ample provision of necessaries with the people. 
 The surplus of taxable means in England 
 above those of France, may then be considered 
 as superfluous wealth. But it is an admitted 
 principle in experimental finance — that the li- 
 mits of taxation on superfluities are almost in- 
 definite. The amount which may be levied up- 
 on them increases in a geometrical ratio with 
 their mass. It is more easy for a nation to
 
 1^8 
 
 ytekl fifty millions from one hundred of super- 
 fluous wealth than ten from fifty, &c. 
 
 Sir Francis D'lvernoES,. observes — In his 
 ** Historical Survey,"* where this topic is well 
 explained, " that it is owing to the taxable 
 *' income of the English nation having trebled 
 " within the last century, that under George 
 *^ III. they are able to pay ten times as much 
 " in taxes, and yet have greater means of en- 
 " joyment, — than in the time of William IIL 
 ** who levied only one tenth of the present 
 " amount of taxes, cm an income equal to on« 
 " tlrirdof that of the present day." It may be 
 easily seen from what I have stated, that the 
 distribution of tlie taxable means of France 
 among a itianerous population, only serves to 
 fender the burden of the taxes more oppres- 
 sive, as it leaves, on that account but a 
 smaller fund of superfluous wealth. The 
 eqnal division of property as I have before sug- 
 gested, aggravates this evil, — while it sensibly 
 
 * P. 259.
 
 1.99 
 
 affects the agriculture of th€ coimlry, — the 
 great source of the national wealth. Sir James 
 Steuart* and Arthur Young hoth complain of 
 the number of smaill (proprietors as an impedi- 
 ment to the pro^i-ess of agriculture before the 
 revolution. The increase of this class, who 
 are unable to farm with a view to future or 
 distant advantage, has materially diminished 
 the suj^lus product of the soil, — -and conse- 
 quently the means of satisfying the demands 
 of the treasury. 
 
 The people of England have to congratulate 
 themselves not only upon their ability to sus- 
 tain their present burdens, but upon the am- 
 ple resources whicli are open to them for futu- 
 rity. A nation whose commercial prosperity 
 is so high, may count upon a constant accu- 
 mulation of capital, which will enable her to 
 meet any extiaordinary emergencies with ex- 
 traordinary supplies. But in consequence of 
 the admirable organization of her financial 
 
 * Political Economy, «rol, i. b» i. ch» 1 4,
 
 200 
 
 system, scarcely any emergency can occur, 
 in the regular course of events, which will 
 call for a considerable addition to her burdens. 
 On this subject I refer to the plan of finance 
 submitted to the house of commons by Lord 
 Henry Petty, when chancellor of the exche- 
 quer, and which we have both read with so 
 much satisfaction. This exposition of the ac- 
 tual and future means of England is calculat- 
 ed to infuse the fullest confidence into the na- 
 tion, and does infinite credit to the great par- 
 liamentary and financial talents of that distin- 
 guished nobleman. It unfolds a mass of re- 
 sources, not depending upon precarious cir- 
 cumstances, but the stable and permanent 
 fruits of wisdom, order and industry, — which 
 satisfactorily refutes the representations of 
 those, who, either too indolent to examine, or 
 too prejudiced to believe the extent of the 
 wealth and energies of the British, — antici- 
 pate the ruin of England from the continued 
 and aggravated pressure of taxation. 
 
 The statement of Lord Henry Petty proves
 
 201 
 
 undeniably, — that as long as the British go- 
 vernment continues to exercise even ordinary 
 judgment and foresight, the means of continu- 
 ing the war must superabound : — that until the 
 year eighteen hundred and eleven, the con- 
 test may be maintained without the imposition 
 of new burdens : — for the ten years immediately 
 following, by the imposition of such only as 
 will be required to provide interests for small 
 supplementary loans : — for the ten succeeding 
 years, without the imposition of any new taxes 
 whatever. According to the same statement, 
 the fixed course adopted for the gradual re- 
 demption of the public debt will be eminently 
 successful. The sinking fund, — in an improv- 
 ed state and guarded against any partial ope- 
 ration, — must answer all the purposes of its 
 creation. Every view of the future justifies 
 the supposition of the orator, that this fund, 
 which was in 1807, but 8,335,000/. sterling, 
 will," — at the close of the first period of ten 
 years mentioned above, amount to 22,720,000 /. 
 sterling. These calculations are founded upon 
 
 the experience of the past, — upon the pre- 
 
 2 c
 
 202 
 
 sumption of means for the future, which the 
 country has aheady furnished; — upon causes 
 abeady ascertained to be sure and steady in 
 their operation. I am well satisfied that the 
 British government will be seconded in the 
 application of these resources by the inflexible 
 courage and patriotic spirit of the people. 
 There is scarcely a person of intelligence in 
 England, who does not concur, at this mo- 
 ment, in the opinion expressed in this plan, — 
 " that chimerical notions may be formed, 
 " and eager hopes entertained, — but no man 
 " arguing upon rational principles can come to 
 " any conclusion, as to the period at which 
 " peace may be restored." These hopes and 
 notions have now disappeared from the serious 
 reasonings of those who were formerly most 
 sanguine with regard to this event. They are 
 convinced that they have to contend with a foe 
 equally insatiable and implacable; from whose 
 very existence the lust of plunder, the vanity 
 of conquest, and the thirst of blood are al- 
 together inseparable : — but they are also well 
 assured, that their subjugation will never be
 
 203 
 
 effected by the failure of their pecuniary re- 
 sources or the decline of their courage. 
 
 The interior of the French empire affords' 
 no promise of the possibility of collecting here- 
 after a more abundant revenue, than that which 
 is now wrung from the people. The pressure of 
 their actual burdens obstructs the growth of 
 future resources, and nothing can be expect- 
 ed from the spontaneous generosity, or mag- 
 nanimous patriotism, of the subjects of a mili- 
 tary despot. Gentz, who had attentively stu- 
 died the financial system of the imperial govern- 
 ment of France, speaks of it, in the year eighteen 
 hundred and six, as " a machine wound up to 
 " such a pitch as almost to make its springs 
 '^ crack." I am well satisfied, from my own 
 observation, of the accuracy of this opinion. 
 The French people are absolutely saturated 
 with taxes. Their means would be altogether 
 inadequate to the entire support of the immense 
 armies in the pay of the government. The pub- 
 lic expences are more than equal to the revenue 
 which is drawn from the interior of the empire.
 
 204. 
 
 Foreign booty, therefore, as I have before sug- 
 gested, is a necessary resource, in order to ena- 
 ble the government to support the armies with 
 which its own existence is indissolubly con- 
 nected. This consideration opens an important 
 yi€w of the character of the imperial govern- 
 ment, — and, at the same time, a most discou- 
 raging prospect for the continent— when we 
 consider the force of the principles upon which 
 the French military system is established. No 
 peace can be expected, until France herself 
 can yjeld a revenue to the imperial exchequer, 
 sufficient both for the maintenance of her 
 armies, and the charges of her vast domestic 
 establishment; or until whatever spoil yet re- 
 mains on the continent, shall be either forcibly 
 ravished or tamely surrendered, Her rulers 
 must, of necessity, wrest from the nations 
 abroad that food for the troops which cannot 
 be found at home. They will march over the 
 continent, striking down, with a gigantic arm, 
 whatever opposes itself to the gratification of 
 their wants, — exhausting the resources of the 
 present, and defeatino- the hopes of the future,
 
 205 
 — trampling under foot the liberties, the insti- 
 tutions, and the enjoyments, of every country, 
 tlirough which they pass, or in which they 
 may be stationed. The continent of Europe 
 appears to me to be threatened with calamities 
 not less disastrous than those whicli accompa- 
 nied the last agonies of the Roman power. It 
 was the boast of the Hun Attila, that " no gt^ass 
 "efc/' greiv' where his foot once trod. It is 
 the passion of the ferocious conqueror of the 
 present day, that no generous or independent 
 feeling shall flourish within the baleful glare of 
 his sceptre. The fruits of industry constitute his 
 natural prey, as well as the riches of nature and 
 the most venerable fabrics of human policy.— 
 
 Metuenda colonis 
 Fertilitas. Laribus pellit, detrudit avitis 
 Finibus, aiit aufert vivis aut occupat boeres, 
 Congestae cumulantur cpes — orbi<q : rapinas 
 Accipit una domus, populiservire coacti, &c. 
 
 Claudian in Ruf; lib. 2, /. 191, 
 
 The French rulers, so far from encouraging 
 that kind of industry which promotes the ease
 
 206 
 
 and wealth of the lower classes, must regulate 
 their administration b\' principles of a tenden- 
 cy directly opposite. Wealth will give power 
 wherever it is lodged. To throw any share of 
 power into the hands of the people is adverse 
 to the fundamental policy of Bonaparte. A 
 wealthy populace, grown strong by the pursuits 
 of trade and industry, broke their chains two 
 centuries ago, and demolished the feudal sys- 
 tem. The swelling of the middle classes, fi-om 
 the same cause, beyond their proper size, as 
 Mr. Burke has expressed it, contributed mate- 
 rially to the subversion of the old government 
 of France. Hereditary subordination, without 
 an equality of rights, could not long endure, 
 when the relative position of the different 
 classes of the community was entirely changed. 
 Arbitrary dependence among individuals, or 
 absolute despotism in a government, is incom- 
 patible with the regular accumulation of 
 wealth, by industrious pursuits, in the hands 
 of the lower orders. The sense of pecuniary 
 independence, produces energy of character, 
 and an impatience of servitude. A bold and
 
 207 
 jealous people have it in their power, and 
 rarely want the inclination, to break down 
 the barriers of privilege, — and to shake off 
 tlie yoke of an arbitrary sovereign. 
 
 Bonaparte has not overlooked the lessons 
 which the experience of the two last centuries 
 teaches on this subject. He is sensible, that the 
 constitution of his government could not long- 
 subsist unless the lower classes were retained 
 in a state of impoverishment. The imposition 
 of taxes, to the utmost extent of their abiHty, 
 is useful to work this effect, which the equal 
 division of property contributes also to pro- 
 mote. The more oppressive the weight and 
 the more vexatious the collection of the taxes, 
 the greater will be the misery and the more 
 servile the spirit of the people. His armies 
 will be more easily recruited, and the vexations 
 of a military despotism encounter less resist- 
 ance, from an abject and necessitous popula- 
 tion. France, enjoying so great a variety of cli- 
 mate, and such fertility of soil, may always, 
 with a small degree of domestic industry, fur-
 
 nish what will be sufficient for the splendourof 
 the imperial court, and the expenses of inter- 
 nal administration. Foreign contributions will 
 maintain his armies and reward his generals 
 and favourites, — who form the immediate vas- 
 salage, and the strong ramparts of the crown. 
 It is his policy, moreover, to create, at the ex- 
 pense of the lower classes, a monied interest 
 near the throne, with whom he deposits, for the 
 possible exigencies of the future, that fund of 
 wealth, which, as I have before observed, he 
 cannot, by the encouragement of industry, 
 suffer to accumulate in the hands of the people, 
 without forming a power dangerous, and a 
 spirit repugnant, to the genius of his system. 
 
 If it be the object ofthepresent ruler of France 
 to establish a permanent despotism at home 
 and an universal empire abroad, he will aim at 
 the most absolute simplicity in his institutions. 
 All must converge to one point ; — the creation 
 of a military spirit and military means. If 
 he permitted the state to thrive by the conse- 
 quences of industry — his domestic power
 
 209 
 
 would be endangered, — or its character un- 
 dergo a radical change. He would render the 
 mechanism of his administration so complex 
 as to divide his strength and attention, and 
 thus to frustrate his scheme of foreign con- 
 quest. The view which I have taken of the 
 situation of the French republic at the com- 
 mencement of the revolution, may serve to 
 render the ideas I now suggest, the more intel- 
 ligible. The simple forms of policy, such as 
 the Lacedemonian and Roman, which, — by 
 proscribing all branches of industry, — created 
 the desire as well as the necessity of incessant 
 war, — are by far the most firm and lasting. 
 Tlie same character of permanence has distin- 
 guished the oriental despotism of the present 
 day, which tolerate no such industrious pur- 
 suits as might enrich the mass of the people. 
 
 These considerations are urged principally 
 with a view to elucidate a topic of the highest 
 importance to this country. — I mean the deter- 
 mined hostility of Bonaparte to commerce under 
 any shape. He is both from policy and temper, 
 2 D
 
 210 
 
 an enemy to the whole modern system of pub- 
 lic economy, of which trade is the leading fea- 
 ture. This inference — to which his character 
 as a conqueror and a military despot naturally 
 leads, — is confirmed by the scope of all his 
 actions, aud the tenor of all his discourses. 
 Trade is the nutriment of every branch of 
 industry, the consequences of which, as I 
 have stated above, are so opposite to the 
 genius and view of the French government. 
 To the influence of commerce we owe that 
 mild revolution, which banished the fierceness 
 the turbulence, the darkness and the *'iron 
 slavery" of the feudal times, and substitut- 
 ed the social virtues — the lights of science — 
 the liberal feelings and the gentle subordination 
 of freedom.* The modern aspect of the con- 
 tinent upon which the philosophic eye was 
 accustomed to dwell with so much delight, 
 
 * See on this subject Mr. Burke's first letter on the Re- 
 gicide Peace. — Gibben, Dec. and Fall, concluding chapter 
 6th vol. — and particularly the admirable dissertation 
 which Dr. Robertson has prefixed to his History of 
 Charles V.
 
 211 
 
 must be sensibly altered, before it can remain 
 quiescent under the yoke of a single power. 
 In France, particularly, the minds of men 
 must be moulded to other habits and enjoy- 
 ments, and turned to other objects of admira- 
 tion and desire, than those which are insepa- 
 rable from the pursuits of trade, — before they 
 can be properly qualified to retain the Tast 
 dominion which they are now fighting to 
 acquire. 
 
 It is but natural tliat a being who delights 
 in war and rapine, — whose sole passion is mi- 
 litary fame, — and who recognizes no other 
 system of government than an austere and 
 jealous tyranny,* — should hate the commer- 
 cial character. The pursuits of commerce lead 
 to the cultivation of the arts of peace, and to 
 habits of> liberal and useful research. They 
 tend to soften and refine the manners, and to 
 
 * See his celebrated letter to the Prince of Austurias 
 — wherein he declares that the people of every country 
 must hate their government, and can only be retained in 
 their allegiance by the influence of fear.
 
 212 
 
 promote the virtues of humanity. They en- 
 large the understanding, and fortify the moral 
 qualities. They generate a spirit of tolerance, 
 and form a solid character of clear, sagacious 
 sense, destructive to the frivolity and to the 
 prejudices, without which despotism cannot 
 exist. All these effects — which are more or 
 less visible in the history of every commercial 
 nation, — militate directly against the personal 
 character, the domestic power and the foreign 
 policy of Bonaparte. The pursuits of trade 
 entail another consequence still more offensive. 
 They invariably produce a spirit of indepen- 
 dence, and a warm attachment to civil liberty. 
 The habits of activity to which they lead, — ^^the 
 latitude of converse with mankind, the oppor- 
 tunities of comparison and the means of 
 enjoyment which they afford, — quicken the 
 perception of injustice and strengthen the love 
 of freedom coeval with the mind. I have had 
 occasion- to observe among the body of mer- 
 chants every where — particularly in England 
 and in this country, — a jealousy with regard 
 to natural rights, — an hatred for oppres-
 
 213 
 
 sion — a love of order, — and a sound and tem- 
 perate judgment on questions of government, 
 --more remarkable, I think, than in any other 
 description of men collectively taken. It may 
 be asserted that no government purely arbi- 
 trar}'^ can ever be established or long endure, 
 in a country where commerce is tolerated, or 
 protected upon a large and liberal plan. 
 
 The British are detested by Bonaparte, not 
 merely as political enemies, but as a commer- 
 cial people. Under the pretence of contending 
 for the liberty of the seas — he aims his blows 
 at the spirit of commerce and at the admira- 
 ble constitution which it strengthens and de- 
 fends. In waging war against the commerce 
 of England it is not merely her destruction 
 that he meditates. He is almost as forcibly im- 
 pelled by his desire to extinguish the whole 
 trading economy of the world, which, without 
 England, — the spring and soul of the system, 
 — must soon disappear.* In sealing up so 
 
 * See Gentz — State of Europe, p. 342, 34-3, &c. for the 
 character and utility of England as the principal mem-
 
 214 
 
 industriously the ports of the continent, he has 
 it in view not merely to diminish the profits of 
 
 ber of the commercial world, — His observations relative to 
 her manufactures, may be read with profit by an American 
 politician. Some of them deserve to be quoted: " It is 
 "every man's interest, which no one will mistake (if left to 
 *' himself) to purchase articles of merchandise at a lower 
 "price in another country, rather than pay dearer for the 
 *' same productions at home ; and the advantage is im- 
 "mensewhen he can procure them at once better and 
 " cheaper fr-m a foreigner than from his own countrymen. 
 " The gains of all the individuals constitute the advantage 
 " of the whole community. The true interest of a nation 
 " is always to supply its several wants by the smallest pos- 
 " sible expense of labour and capital. The greater its eco- 
 " nomy in these respects the more wants will it be able to 
 '* satisfy, and the greater will be the surplus to be applied 
 "in augmentation of its positive wealth, and towards the 
 " furtherance of its productive powers. When the foreign 
 " commerce of a nation is governed by these principles 
 ** (and they are its only groundwork in the natural course 
 *' of things), it is always beneficial and productive. Th« 
 " interest of particular classes may sometimes be at variance 
 " with them ; but the advantage of the whole (even of the 
 " individuals of those vfcry classes, when considered as a 
 •* part of the general mass) is inseparably connected with 
 " them. Manufacturers and tradesmen, and statesmen who
 
 215 
 
 British trade, but to prevent the revival of that 
 spirit which springs from commercial inter- 
 course, and the introduction, — through pam- 
 phlets and newspapers — of feeUngs and princi- 
 pleSj — the currency of which would obstruct 
 the execution of his plans. There would be 
 more danger to the extension and perpetuity 
 of his poiver from the moral and physical 
 energies which an active commerce might pro- 
 duce, — than from the fiercest resentment to 
 
 '* listen to them, may continue to imagine that a nation is 
 *' impoverished by receiving the manufactures of another ; 
 " but unprejudiced sense will suspect (and a true know- 
 " ledge of the sources of general wealth will confirm it) 
 " that every branch of trade, be it where it will, if produc- 
 " ed by an actual improvement of human industry, is 
 " beneficial to every nation concerned, — as well to the pur- 
 " chasers as to the sellers. Manufacturers and tradesmen, 
 " and statesmen influenced by them, first raised the present 
 "clamour about the dependence of Europe and the ascen- 
 " dant of British industry; the political enemies of England 
 " eagerly took advantage of a clamour so welcome to them ; 
 " what the former had only termed dependence, the latter 
 " inveighed against as an intolerable yoke ; what those only 
 " deplored as a lamentable error, these writers described as 
 " the last degree of weakness and abasement." &c.
 
 -216 
 
 which the continent can be roused against 
 him by the miseries incident to the privation 
 of trade. 
 
 In all the official acts of the French govern- 
 ment on thesubject of commerce, thereismuch 
 parade about the interest which it excites in the 
 mind of the imperial ruler. The assurances of 
 his unremitting solicitude are loud and solemn, 
 just in the degree that they are insincere and 
 unproductive. In order to wear the semblance 
 of sincerity, he has caused a commercial code 
 to be framed, which embraces the usual topics 
 of commercial legislation. The provisions of 
 this code descend to the most minute details, 
 and are in many parts highly objectionable. 
 They are, however, chiefly drawn from the or- 
 donnance of one thousand six hundred and 
 sixty-eight, and have the merit of a better me- 
 thod, and greater perspicuity. The preliminary 
 discourses of the orators of the government 
 are somewhat remarkable, inasmuch as they 
 betray the same pruriency of dominion, which 
 shows itself in all their proceedings, and give
 
 i217 
 
 some ominous hints to those, who rely upon 
 the agency of the French government in vindi- 
 cating the liberty of the seas. The commer- 
 cial code is announced as destined "^ to enjoy 
 *' an universal influence, and to become the 
 " maritime law of Europe." It is to be confer- 
 red, togetkei" with the whole Napoleon code^ as 
 a benefit on the allies and neighbours of 
 France, — and to be the " common mrispru- 
 •* dence of all the nations, whosi- interest at- 
 " taches them to the French system of federa- 
 " tion and ailiance."* This annunciation of the 
 generous intentions of the Emperor, is accom- 
 panied by bitter invectives against the tyrants of 
 
 * " II est enfin d'une haute importance que le code de 
 " commerce de I'Empire Francois soit redige dans des 
 " principes qui lui preparent une influence universelle." 
 " — Le travail d'une loi nouvelle destinee a donner le code 
 " commercial a l' Europe." " Lemonde, I'Empire Franqois 
 " du tnoins — devra au genie vengeur du droit des gensj 
 " le bienfait d'un acte de navigation, que des ministres 
 " san pudeur ne feront plus dcchirer par un peuple de 
 *' pirates. La France aura un code, qu'elle pourra, corume 
 " le Code Napoleon, donner comifle un bientait \ ses 
 " voisins, a ses alliis, &c. Le Code que vous aurea adopte 
 " deviendra le droit commun de I'Europe, &c.'* 
 
 1 E
 
 218 
 
 the ocean, who are stigmatized as a nation of 
 pirates, instigated by a shameless ministry, to 
 usurp the right of legislating for the world ! 
 
 The people of France cannot, however, mis- 
 take the real dispositions of their government 
 with regard to commerce. The miserable rem- 
 nant which survived in one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and seven, was daily loaded with new im- 
 posts and restrictions, which deranged the cal- 
 culations, and consumed the profits of the mer- 
 chant. The latter was not deluded by the pro- 
 mise that commerce was to be free and favour- 
 ed, when peace should be restored. He was 
 rendered but too sensible of the temper of his 
 rulers by the contempt in which they openly 
 held his profession. Every remonstrance or so- 
 licitation made to the government, by the indi- 
 vidual or his class, was rfepelled with a degree 
 of contumely, which was a sufficient indication 
 of the feelings wliich trade in general excited. 
 Notwithstanding the tenor of the official decla- 
 rations of the government, the imperial ruler 
 has been unable, in several instances, to refrain
 
 '219 
 
 from expressing the hatred and contempt whict) 
 he feels for trade. He told a deputation of mer- 
 chants at Hamburgh that he detested com- 
 merce and al! its concerns. He has held the 
 same language to his own subjects on various 
 occasions. I know not how it is possible to 
 misconceive either his natural antipathies, or his 
 systematic policy on tliis head. We have seen 
 him laboriously engaged for the last two years, 
 in excluding commerce from his own ports, 
 and sealing up hermetically every other within 
 the reach of his influence. When he attempted 
 by a mode apparently so ridiculous as the Berlin 
 decree, to excommunicate the British from the 
 pale of nations, the impoverishment of their 
 trade was not, I am well convinced, his chief ob- 
 ject. The decree was enacted with a view to 
 induce measures of retaliation on the part of 
 Great Britain, and thus to provide the physical 
 means which he wanted for destroying the com- 
 merce of the continent.
 
 220 
 
 ^t)unng a residence of ten months in Pari$ 
 I was naturally prompted to investigate with 
 particular diligence, the dispositions of the 
 French government towards our own country. 
 I w^as much in the society, and enjoyed the 
 confid^^nce of persons, whose contiguity to the 
 throne, and whose political stations and con- 
 nexions, opened to them all the avenues of cor- 
 rect information. Situated as they are, a dis- 
 closure of the private facts and motives upon 
 which their opinions were grounded, would be 
 an undertaking of great delicacy, and might 
 be productive of some hazard to meritorious 
 individuals. I shall, however, say as much on 
 this important topic as prudence will allow, 
 and as my own personal observation enables 
 me to state. Whoever has resided in the French 
 metropolis, and studied the character of the 
 French rulers for any length of time, must 
 know that their antipathies and views arc not 
 to be collected from their official communica- 
 tions, until their plans are ripe for execution. 
 The unpremeditated or cursory language of in-
 
 dividuals in office, tlie tenor of private discourses 
 from persons of authority, and the composition 
 and general policy of the government when at- 
 tentively considered, are the surest criterions for 
 the judgment. 
 
 Since the commencement of the revolution, 
 the dispositions of the French government liave 
 been at no time favourable to this country. We 
 can all recollect the conduct of the Directory — 
 and should also remember that many of the 
 men who then swayed the American politics of 
 France, now form a part of her national coun- 
 cils. Nothing, certainly, has since occurred to 
 allay the enmity and contempt which were then 
 so openly displayed. On the contrary, circum- 
 stances have intervened, of a tendency directly 
 the reverse. The chief of these are — Ist, The 
 increased animosity of the French rulers against 
 the British, with whom we are, in this respect, 
 constantly identified, notwithstanding our ef- 
 forts to convince the world that neither our 
 mental affinities nor our elective affections war-
 
 goo 
 
 rant the association. 2d, The irritation excit- 
 ed in the mind of the Emperor of France by 
 the resistance of the people of this country, to 
 his plan of leaguing them with himself in his 
 war against England. The importance of this 
 object must be apparent. The disappoint- 
 ment, therefore, was particularly calculated 
 to inflame his anger. Nothing, — I am well 
 convinced,— but the liope that this end might 
 be finally accompHshed, either by the fears of 
 our cabinet — or the infatuation of the British 
 ministry,-— has restrained him from coming 
 to an open rupture with us, — The forma- 
 tion of an imperial government in France 
 was but ill fated to conciliate benevolence 
 towards a country enjoying popular institu- 
 tions. The imperial despot proclaims and mani- 
 fests, on all occasions, his contempt and de- 
 testation for republics. He has assailed and 
 beaten them down wherever they came within 
 the range of his power ; not incidentally, but 
 directly, and with all the zeal of fanaticism. 
 His aversion is not that which may naturally
 
 2«3 
 
 arise out of opposite forms of government, but 
 it is a malignant hatred to the spirit of liberty: 
 — an abhorrence of the example of a free go- 
 vernment: — a sort of missionary fury, which 
 would banish the adverse creed — not only from 
 the immediate theatre of his own dogmas, 
 but from the face of the earth. After having, 
 in Europe, contracted the reign of indepen- 
 dence to the narrow span of England — he can- 
 not bear to see it diffused over this hemisphere. 
 There should be, in governments, a political, 
 as tht^re is, in animals, --a natural instinct to 
 know an enemy:— a political, as well as natu- 
 ral self-love, to sharpen our discernment, and 
 to deter us from drawing close to a power 
 which sheds an influence as fatal to republics^ 
 as that of the Upas tree to animal life. We 
 should intuitively shun the one with as much 
 care as the traveller avoids the other. We can- 
 not mistake this man for our friend, and as we 
 consider our popular institutions as the first of 
 blessings, we should deprecate his alliance as 
 the most formidable of evils. For us, as well as
 
 for every other country, either opulent or free, 
 the danger is the same. 
 
 Terrarum fatale malumj fulrnenq ; quod omnei 
 Percuteret pariter populos, et sidus iniquutn 
 Gentibus *. 
 
 The inferences which I drew from the above 
 general considerations, were early confirmed in 
 my mind, during my residence in Paris, by the 
 most positive testimony. I heard, from every 
 man both in and out of office, who had any inti- 
 mate connexion with the government, the same 
 language of contempt and menace on the sub- 
 ject of the United States. The peculiar phraseo- 
 logy was — " that we were a nation of fraudu- 
 '* lent shopkeepers, — British in prejudices and 
 *' predilections, and equally objects of aversion 
 *^ to the Emperor, who had taken a fixed deter- 
 " mination to bring us to reason in due time. " 
 It was universally understood, that our slug- 
 gishness in acceding to all his wishes j — the 
 bold strictures, in which we sometimes in- 
 
 * Lucan, lib. ix.
 
 225 
 
 4ulge, concerning his character aii4 conduct — 
 and the pature of our institutions j — were in- 
 expiable offences, —and to be finally retributed 
 by the full weight of his resentment. The Bri- 
 tish he hates, — and dreads, — and respects. The 
 people of this country he detests and despises. 
 He detests us as the progeny of the British — 
 and as the citizens of a free government. He 
 despises us as a body of traders, — according to 
 his view, — without national fame or national 
 character J — without military strength or mili- 
 tary virtues. 
 
 If we had thrown ourselves into his arms, he 
 might have respected us more for some deci- 
 sion of character, — but he would not have hated 
 us less. Our labours to steer a middle course 
 rr— to moderate his violence by humble remon- 
 strances and benevolent professions, — to entice 
 from him the alms of an oppressed and preca- 
 rious refuse of trade, — have only conduced to 
 heighten his disdain and to embolden his inso- 
 lence. We have squandered, — and do squan- 
 der unavailingly, — our fund of submission. 
 2f
 
 256 
 
 Every act of humiliation is not merely super- 
 fluous — but absolutely prejudicial. There is no 
 extravagance of disgrace, which could render 
 him placable. A war with England might soften 
 his tone for some time, but, as we have seen 
 exemphfied in the case of Austria and Prus- 
 sia,-*— and sliall soon see proved in that of Rus- 
 sia, — it would not produce an oblivion of past 
 disgusts, — nor contract his immeasurable am- 
 bition, — nor extirpate his deeply-rooted hosti- 
 liiy to trade and to popular institutions. When 
 an attempt was to be made, to plunge us into 
 the same abyss of ruin, which we had been 
 assisting him to prepaie for others, we 
 should, as in the instance of Prussia, be scorn- 
 fully reproached and relentlessly punished for 
 our original neutrahty — for the symptoms of 
 discontent or indignation, which ue might 
 have shown under the yoke of his own galling 
 amity — for our very treachery to the cause we 
 had abandoned in his favour, and which, as we 
 should be told, our base fears alone prompted us 
 to betray.
 
 2S7 
 
 Such is the view which was taken of the pri- 
 vate feeling of. Bonaparte by persons whos^ 
 opinions on the subject, bore the highest au- 
 thority. My own observation led me to the 
 same conclusions. We must not suppose that 
 we are overlooked or forgotten in the midst of 
 the storm of tumultuous passions and the vast 
 interests in which he is engaged. We are fol- 
 lowed with an acute and malignant eye through 
 all our manifestations of feeling and the wind- 
 ings of our cautious pohcy. — I have occasion to 
 know that our gazettes are diligently searched 
 at the instigation of the Emperor himself, and 
 such parts as relate to his character and views, 
 extracted and submitted to his inspection. The 
 invectives, with which many of them abound, 
 are read with the bitterest resentment, and uni- 
 formly with denunciations of vengeance. They 
 are interpreted by him as the expression of the 
 national sentiment, and are so represented by the 
 French emissaries who have been, and those who 
 still are among us. 
 
 Some of our politicians derive consoktion 
 from the belief that his principal minister, who
 
 2€8 
 
 resided for some time in this country, will ex- 
 ert his iniiuence to soften the prejudices of his 
 master, — particularly on the subject of trade. 
 Should the minister be actually so disposed, 
 there is but little probability of the success of 
 his endeavours. General Armstrong, however, 
 has said enough to show the futility of this 
 hope, when he states, in his correspondence, 
 that Talleyrand was well inclined to the revival 
 of trade ; but that the Emperor would listen to 
 no such proposition. The fact, indeed, is, that 
 Talleyrand is not more amicably disposed than 
 his master*, and if it were in his power, would 
 
 * Talleyrand, in his memoir on our commercial rela- 
 tions with England, holds the following language on the 
 'subject of commerce. /' The spirit of commerce which 
 ** renders man tolerant from indifference, renders him 
 " also selfish from avidity. A people particularly whose 
 " morals have been impaired by long commotions, should 
 " be drawn by wise institutions towards agriculture : 
 " for commerce keeps the passions of men in a state of 
 " effervescence, and agriculture calms them." There is 
 another opinion expressed by this writer in his work, which 
 he must find it somewhat difficult to reconcile with the 
 doctrines which he must now officially maintain. " The 
 *' necessaiy tendency of a free constitution is to establish 
 " order both within and without ^br the interest of the hu- 
 *' man race. _ The necessary and unremitting tendency of 
 " Jan arbitriiry" governmeht is so to regulate bvery thing
 
 ^29 
 
 exercise no influence favourable to this country. 
 It is, moreover, a matter of notoriety in the best 
 informed circles of Paris, that this minister en- 
 joys no such ascendant over the mind of Bona- 
 parte as is generally supposed both here and in 
 England. The latter projects and dictates his 
 own measures. 11.^ poverns in the cabinet as he 
 
 O 
 
 rules in the camp, 'i he conception and outlines 
 of his great undertakings originate with himself. 
 The subordinate or instrumental parts are allot- 
 ted to his assistants. There is no minister in 
 his train who can ever persuade him, that the ad- 
 vancement of commerce will contribute to the 
 security of his despotism at home, or to the pro- 
 longation of his empire over the continent. 
 The question of trade must be of less than pa- 
 rochial insignificance when compared with his 
 views of aggrandizement, and is only seriously 
 ^considered — inasmuch as it is opposed to the 
 ■nature of the dominion which he wishes to es- 
 tabhsh. Talleyrand, however subtle and pro- 
 found, is of a timorous character, and if his 
 
 . " infernal and .external as to promote the personal interest 
 
 *" of those whogovern. From this opposition of character 
 
 '• it is undeniable, that they cannot for any length of time 
 
 ■"'employ the same means, since they differ so widely in 
 
 " th«ir object."
 
 230 
 
 mind could not embrace the u hole compass, or 
 recognise die remote efficacy of the plans of his 
 principal — or were not stimulated by a propor- 
 tionable desire of power, he would, neverthe- 
 less, submit without a murmur, to the lofty 
 genius, or to the inveterate prejudices which 
 he feels himself unable to control. He knows 
 there are few enmities in the mind of the Em- 
 peror stronger than those which the latter che- 
 rishes against the character and neutrality of 
 the United States*. 
 
 The modes by which we are to be assailed 
 are various, and involve dangers of the first 
 magnitude. Louisiana is the corner stone of 
 the hostile policy of France. The proneness 
 of a French population to French dominion, 
 is counted upon as a sure guarantee of the suc- 
 cess of the attempts which will be made to 
 sever that territory from the United States. 
 
 * In an imperial audience which took place at Paris in 
 October l£07, somewhat similar to the celebrated one 
 with Lord Whitworth, Bonaparte after declaring in an 
 impassioned tone to the Austrian minister that he had 
 sworn the destruction of England and would accomplish it, 
 declared with the same emphasis to the Portuguese am- 
 bassador, that thenceforward he would trample under foot 
 all the principles of neutrality.
 
 231 
 
 The information which 1 obtained at Paris 
 fully convinced me of the bad faith of the 
 French government in making this cession, 
 and of its intendon to resume possession by 
 force when an opportunity shall offer. Since 
 the period of the purchase, emissaries have 
 gone at different times from this country to 
 France, in order to represent to the French 
 government the advantages it would derive 
 from regaining and holding Louisiana as a co- 
 lony. Memorials to the same effect have also 
 been presented within the same interval, by 
 persons now domicihated in Paris, but who 
 formerly resided in that territory. These me- 
 morials were graciously received and are re- 
 served for a favourable conjuncture. I had this 
 fact from two of the writers, who laid much 
 stress on the dispositions of the inhabitants, and 
 on the facility with which those dispositions 
 might, hi/ secret agency, be ripened into incur- 
 able disaffection to their new rulers. They con- 
 tended, and with some degree of plausibility, 
 that the qualities and feelings peculiar to the 
 members of a British commonwealth, could ne- 
 ver be harmoniously blended with those which 
 belong to persons of French and Spanish ori-
 
 232 
 
 gin,— habituated soleiy to the forjiis of French 
 and Spanish dominion. 
 
 The Floridas would have been long since 
 yielded to the liberal offers, and to the earnest 
 entreaties of our cabinet, if they were not neces-^ 
 sary to the ulterior views of the French ruler 
 on Louisiana. It certainly never was his intea- 
 tion to relinquish them, although he conde- 
 scended to amuse the American cabinet with a 
 long protracted negotiation on this point. The 
 politicians of Paris predicted without hesita- 
 tion, when this question was first agitated there, 
 that the offers of this country never would be 
 accepted. They reasoned upon the supposition 
 that their Emperor felt too sensibly the import- 
 ance of retaining a post in the neighbourhood 
 of Louisiana, which might faciliiate either the 
 forcible occupation of that territory, or the to- 
 tal estrangement of the inhabitants from their 
 present allegiance, by the arts of intrigue and 
 corruption. You will observe that 1 speak of 
 Louisiana as the property of France, although 
 it ostensibly belonged to Spain. I must remark, 
 moreover, that an American minister treating 
 for a possession of Spain with the French go-
 
 233 
 
 vernment at Paris, exhibited rather a curious 
 spectacle. There was an itinerant diplomacy 
 in this business — first to Madrid and thence to 
 the French metropolis at the command of Bona- 
 parte. If the American cabinet were disposed 
 as this moment to purchase the island of Cuba 
 from the patriots, they would find it rather ex- 
 traordinary, and perhaps somewhat insulting, 
 if the British government were to exact that the 
 negotiation should be conducted with the office 
 of foreign affairs in London, and were to arro- 
 gate to itself the right of rejecting the applica- 
 tion. The negotiation at Paris for the Floridas 
 was, throughout, a series of humiliation for the 
 United States; and if the true history of it 
 could be disclosed, would afford a clear insight 
 into the views of France. I need not dwell 
 upon the evils to which this country would be ex- 
 posed from the establishment of a French power 
 an our borders. 
 
 While the British navy remains entire, we 
 have not much to apprehend from the bayonet 
 of the French rulers. But there is another spe- 
 cies of hostility, preliminary to open violence, 
 
 2 G
 
 234 
 
 and scarcely less efficacious In the end — which 
 they are now indefatigably waging against this 
 country. They are, In fact, at war with us to the 
 utmost extent of theii" means of annoyance. 
 What the sword fails to reach may be almost 
 as destructively assailed by the subtle poison 
 of corrupt doctrines, by domestic intrigue, by 
 the diffusion of falsehood, and by the arts of 
 intimidation. The world has not more to dread 
 from their comprehensive scheme of military 
 usurpation, than from the coextensive system of 
 seduction and espionage which they prosecute 
 with a view either to supersede the necessity, 
 or to insure the success of conquest by arms. 
 Upon the model of their domestic pohcy in this 
 respect, they have established a secret inquisi- 
 tion into the manageable vices and prejudices, 
 into the vulnerable points as well as the strong 
 holds of every country obnoxious to their am- 
 bition. As they station a spy in every duelling 
 of the French empire- they plant traitors every 
 where abroad, to corrupt by bribes, to delude 
 by promises, to overawe by menaces, to Inflame 
 the passions, and to exasperate the leading an- 
 tipathies of every people. As they maintain
 
 23d 
 
 by their domestic police an Intestine war In 
 France herself, by their foreign missions they 
 sow every where abroad the seeds of division 
 and discontent ; they foment the animosities of 
 faction, and prepare the train for that explosion, 
 which, by disuniting and dissipating the single 
 as well as federative strength of a nation, lays 
 her completely at their mercy. They shake 
 the minds of men by terror ; and if the influ- 
 ence of the imagination, either panic-struck, 
 or seduced, should be aided by a credulous tem- 
 per and a correspondent bias of prejudice, they 
 make sure of their victims. 
 
 In their own dominions, the " grim Molock" 
 of the police renders every moment of life a 
 succession of slavery *, The private actions, al- 
 
 * The writer of the article *' Espionage" in the " Ency- 
 clop^die Methodique," give's the subsequent revolting pic- 
 ture, derived from his own experience. — " Scarcely," says 
 he, *' had the revolution broken out at Paris, when the es- 
 " pionage of the police was thought to be at an end. I 
 *' found myelf stationed as a chief clerk in one of the of- 
 " fices of this department. I thought that a people who 
 " had just shaken off the yoke of despotism, would not
 
 Q36 
 
 most the recondite thoughts of every indivi- 
 dual : the domestic errors and weaknesses and 
 disquietudes, the confidential endearments and 
 communications of every family, are exposed to 
 the malignant curiosity of the vilest of merce- 
 naries, and to the sinister interpretation of the 
 most suspicious and unfeeling of all tribunals. 
 By means equally profligate they exercise a su- 
 pervision over other countries, and improve to 
 their advantage whatever principles of corrup- 
 
 " solicit the re-establishment of a political inquisition, and 
 '* that they would regard the system of espionage and of 
 *' arbitrary imprisonment as evils of the first magnitude. 
 " But what was my surprise, when I saw men, who had 
 '* been most clamorous in their opposition to despotism, 
 *' come to solicit the employment of spies j when I found 
 " a stupid public calling upon me to seize the person, or 
 " to discover the residence of this and the other Individual ; 
 " when parents were seen coming to require the iraprison- 
 *' ment of their children ; when I found it impossible to 
 *' make them understand that this illegal mode of proceed- 
 *^ ing was contrary to all reason, and dangerous to liberty 
 ** and to morals ? Liberty appeared of little value, when 
 " compared with a pecuniary interest or the gratification 
 *' of private revenge. Such is the actual state of things, 
 " and both the public and the government appear to be 
 " favourably disposed towards espionage of every descrip- 
 *' tion." (Encyclopedic, Jurisprud. torn, x.)
 
 237 
 
 tion and disunion may be interwoven with their 
 social or political constitutions. Their agents 
 never loiter in the discharge of their functions 
 or sleep on their watch. No means or instru- 
 ments, however contemptible in appearance, 
 are neglected in the prosecution of their plans. 
 It is notorious that even the foreigners em- 
 ployed in the theatres and opera houses of Eu- 
 rope to minister to the public amusement, are 
 marshalled in the service of the French govern- 
 ment, for the purpose either of collecting in- 
 formation themselves, or of facilitating the 
 labours of more intelligent agents. I'he ga- 
 zettes of every part of the continent are de- 
 bauched by largesses, or driven by force to 
 war against humanity by propagating the mis- 
 representations of this horrible despotism*. 
 
 * During the peace of 1 S02, an attempt was made to 
 enlist the principal Gazettes of England in the same cause. 
 A person of the name of Fievee, who has since officiated as 
 editor of the Journal de I'Empire, was deputed to that 
 country on what he himself boastingly styled un voyage de 
 corruption. He returned, however, witliout having suc- 
 ceeded in his mission, and vented his own spleen as well 
 as tliat of his government, in a libellous book on the British 
 nation
 
 238 
 
 This foreign police was projected under the 
 old regime. During the reign of Jacobinism 
 the number of its agents was multiplied and its 
 activity greatly increased. Those means which 
 under the Bourbons, were employed to guard 
 France against the plots of her rivals, and by 
 the Jacobins to subvert all governments, are 
 now under the military despotism of Bonaparte, 
 levelled, upon an enlarged plan and with more 
 active industry, against the liberties and mo- 
 rals of every people. That we ourselves are vi- 
 gorously assailed, no reflecting man, as it ap- 
 pears to me, can for a moment doubt. Inacces- 
 sible as we are at this moment to any other 
 mode of aggression, this engine of subjection 
 is urged against us with redoubled force and 
 adroitness. In this way we are perhaps more 
 vulnerable than any other people. There is 
 none whose public councils may be more easi- 
 ly converted into mischievous cabals, or whose 
 party feuds may be more quickly inflamed into 
 the worst disorders of faction. The simplicity 
 and purity of character by which we are, I 
 think, when viewed in the aggregate, so ad-
 
 239 
 
 vantageously distinguished above the nations 
 of Europe, is almost as favourable to the de- 
 signs of France as the corruption or venality 
 of her neighbours. A backwardness to suspect 
 treachery may entail all the consequences of a 
 
 willingness to abet it. 
 
 One who has had an opportunity of observ- 
 ing the workings of French influence else- 
 where, cannot possibly mistake the source 
 from which the politics of some of our own ga- 
 zettes are drawn. The most unwearied indus- 
 try in disseminating falsehoods on the subject 
 of Great Britain — a watchful alacrity to make 
 even her most innocent or laudable acts the 
 subject of clamour ; a steady laborious vindica- 
 tion of all the measures of France, and a system 
 of denunciation against those who pursue an 
 opposite course, are the distinguishing features 
 of the venal presses of Europe, and the symp- 
 toms by which those of our own country may 
 be known. The distance at which we are placed 
 from the immediate range of the power of 
 France, opens to her emissaries here a wide
 
 240 
 
 field for invention and exaggeration. What is 
 by them wickedly fabricated, is innocently be- 
 lieved and propagated by the multitude of well 
 meaning persons, whose antipathies against En- 
 gland bhnd them, both to the atrocious charac- 
 ter and to the hostile designs of our real and 
 most formidable enemy. Independently of other 
 considerations connected with our general wel- 
 fare, I sincerely deprecate the influence which 
 the habit of approving the measures of France, 
 may have over the moral and political charac- 
 ter of this country. *' Opinions," says Mr. 
 Burke, " as they sometimes follovi^, so they fre- 
 *' quently guide and direct the affections." 
 We cannot long love the principles to which 
 we profess to be devoted, while we accustom 
 ourselves to rejoice at the triumph of such as 
 are fundamentally oppofite. The habit of con- 
 templating with satisfaction the victorious ca- 
 reer of inordinate ambition and unexampled 
 tyranny, must deprave the mind, and whatever 
 may be our professions, cannot fail to weaken 
 our attachment not only to the cause of vir- 
 tue, but to the constitutions of freedom.
 
 241 
 
 I have thus, my dear sir, gone through the 
 topics which I had' undertaken to discuss. 
 Some of them merit a much more ample inves- 
 tigation, and could have been supported by 
 facts of a still more convincing nature. The 
 publication of the^e facts, however, would have 
 been an unwarrantable breach of confidence, — 
 and I have wanted leisure to arrange all the 
 arguments which might have been adduced to 
 support my conclusions. Enough, I think, 
 has been said to produce the conviction that 
 the French Emperor meditates the ruin of this 
 country, and is not to be propitiated by any 
 concessions. It is upon this conviction that I 
 rely as an antidote to whatever rash inferences 
 might be drawn from the persuasion that he 
 must finally triumph over the continent. There 
 are, moreover, other considerations tending to 
 counteract such inferences, upon which I shall 
 touch slightly before I conclude — and which 
 it is my intention to investigate more fully 
 hereafter. The first arises from the position, 
 that the French rulers are characteristically 
 and systematically enemies to commerce in 
 
 2 H
 
 242 
 
 any form. They are now preparing the op- 
 portunity which they will hereafter improve — 
 to extinguish the spirit of trade wherever their 
 dominion can be established. When they are 
 finally victorious over the continent, we shall 
 be the more rigidly excluded and virulently 
 persecuted, in order to gratify their implaca- 
 ble hatred against a commercial and republi- 
 can people. If we had seen the French Em- 
 peror conciliated in any one instance by the 
 final submission of a nation which had once 
 resisted his will, we might, with some degree of 
 reason, look for a refuge in his mercy, although 
 no people, with the exception of the British, 
 are so much the objects of his aversion, and 
 none whatever has so strongly excited his con' 
 tempt. But there is nothing rational or even 
 plausible in this mere reversionary hope, when 
 we contemplate the examples which stare us 
 in the face, — of nations mercilessly beaten to 
 the ground, and rapaciously plundered, — which 
 had acquired — by every sacrifice of honour and 
 strength, — the fairest titles to his generosity and 
 his compassion.
 
 us 
 
 The maritime means of England lead also 
 to some serious reflections connected with the 
 interests of his country. Whatever may be the 
 fate of the continent, the British cannot fall. 
 The character of the population of England, — 
 the abundance of her pecuniary resources — 
 and eminently her navy, the great buttress of 
 her strength — preclude almost the possibility 
 of her overthrow. Tiie danger of invasion, if 
 not altogether illusory, is extremely doubtful 
 and remote. If the continent is to be over- 
 come, it is better that the delusion of hope 
 should be at once dispelled from the minds of 
 the British.* They will then reserve for a more 
 
 * " With regard," says Mr. Burke, in his Regicide 
 Peace, " to a general state of things, growing out of events 
 " and causes already known in the gross, there is no piety 
 "■ in the fraud that covers its true nature, because nothing 
 *' but erroneous resolutions can be the result of false repre- 
 " sentations. Those measures which in common distress 
 " might be available, — in greater, are no better than play- 
 " ing with the evil. That the effort may bear a proportion 
 " to the exigence, it is fit it should be known ; known in 
 " its quality, in its extent, and in all the circumstances 
 " which attend it/' &c.
 
 244 
 
 succe«':ful cause at home the blood and trea- 
 sure v»'hich they fruitlessly expend in operations 
 abroad. Their attention will be wholly directed 
 to their own defence, for which their means 
 are abundantly sufficient — and to the develop- 
 ment of those means. Tliey may be cast down 
 for the moment; but it should be remembered, 
 that the dejection of a great nation never leads 
 to nerveless despair. The prospect of imminent 
 danger tends rather to unite the virtue and to 
 cement the strength than to embitter the factions 
 of a free and magnanimous people. 
 
 Should we unite with France, we can expect 
 no trade in any event. But on the supposition 
 that Bonaparte should be disposed to open his 
 ports to us hereafter, of what advantage would 
 be this indulgence, if the English are our ene- 
 mies, and remain the masters of the seas ? We 
 should then be deprived not only of the lucra- 
 tive, and almost necessary trade which, before 
 the present misunderstanding, we enjoyed with 
 England and her possessions, but of the im- 
 mense maiket which may be opened to us in 
 South America by a wise and liberal policy on
 
 245 
 
 both sides, As I believe the dispositions of the 
 present ministry of Great Britain to be by no 
 means friendly to this country, I would not 
 counsel a ne otiation with them at this mo- 
 menr, if i did not conceive t]?at we shall be soon 
 driven to the alternative of a war with one or 
 the other belligerent. L'ut as France will have 
 no neutrality, and as a union with England is 
 our only safeguard against the machinations of 
 France, that union should be attempted now, — 
 and may be effected almost in spite of the Bri- 
 tish ministry. Lord Grenville declared in the 
 house of lords on the fifteenth of last February, 
 that the ruin of England would be entailed by 
 an unjust war with the United States, as he 
 considered the moral virtue of his country to be 
 of no less importance than its physical force. 
 The nation may not reas )n fiom the same en- 
 larged view of things, but they will adopt nearly 
 the same conclusion, — and no ministry would 
 dare to resist the pubHc sentiment on this head, 
 should we come forward, honestly and manfully, 
 to demand an accommodation. My own ob- 
 servation, however, enables me to state, that 
 the people of England will not acquiesce in the
 
 1246 
 
 total relinquishtnent of the right of impress- 
 ment, or feel any concern in the discussion of 
 mere speculative points — whether they belong 
 ro colonial trade or to diplomatic etiquette. In 
 the present condition of the world, such ques- 
 tions dwindle into absolute insignificance, when 
 contrasted with the momentous interests which 
 should occupy the attention of both countries. 
 Our mutual and sole object at this moment 
 should be the preservation of the institutions 
 favourable to commerce and liberty, which 
 have hitherto escaped the common enemy. 
 Who, in the midst of a storm at sea, would 
 abandon the helm, and commit the vessel to 
 chance, because certain points could hot be 
 adjusted about the enjoyment of a birth in the 
 cabin? It is time to consult convenience when 
 the dangers are past which threaten existence. 
 There is no man, if he were invested with suit- 
 able powers, better fitted to establish the friend- 
 ship of the two countries upon a solid and last- 
 ing basis, than the gentleman who is now our 
 representative in London. His talents and his 
 accomplishments eminently qualify him for the 
 station which he occupies, — and are seconded
 
 247 
 
 by the most enlightened and indefatigable zeal 
 for the true interests of his country. I bear this 
 spontaneous testimony from a more intimate 
 knowledge of his character, and of the circum- 
 stances under which lie has been placed, than 
 can be possessed by those who have passed 
 erroneous judgments on some parts of his offi- 
 cial conduct. No one of his predecessors in 
 the same office has surpassed him in acquire- 
 ments, in genius or in manners, or maintained 
 a more elevated rank among the distinguished 
 personages by whom he is surrounded. 
 
 Almost any state would be preferable to that 
 in which we now are. To stand thus trembling 
 and hesitating on the slippery verge of a war; 
 to langui-ih on in impotence and contempt ; to 
 be incessantly tossed about at the mercy of every 
 event, is of all conditions that which most 
 directly tends to palsy the spirit, and to destroy 
 the confidence of a nation. Of all the evils 
 which could befal a people situated as we are, 
 the worst would be a government without any 
 fixed principles or plan. No description of ru- 
 lers would be as pernicious as that tribe of vul-
 
 1248 
 
 gar politicians, whose measures are governed 
 or dictated by accident; whose schemes are 
 perpetually fluctuating ; who live, according to 
 an expression of Bolingbroke, from day to day, 
 and from hour to hour, agitated by every blast 
 of wind, and borne away by every currenr. The 
 statesmen to whom our destinies are now in- 
 trusted, should be guided by consideations of 
 a paramount nature to those which bear upon 
 the mere temporary interests of trade. There 
 are certain maxims of high and genuine state 
 policy, as there are of superior economy, by 
 which they may more effectually serve this 
 country, than by giving us the commerce of 
 the world, if such means must be employed to 
 obtain it, as " a diplomacy of humiliation," 
 and a connivance at the usurpations of the 
 most savage and rapacious, the most profligate 
 and sanguinary of all the despotisms which 
 have ever dishonoured" and afflicted the human 
 race. We are an infant nation, and should 
 set an example of virtue to our posterity. It 
 will be a more valuable inheritance than any 
 accumulation of wealth, which, without such 
 an example, they would want energy to de-
 
 249 
 
 fend. It behoves the government of this coun- 
 try to form a national character for us, — to 
 cultivate and to mature in the people, gerie- 
 rous and magnanimous feelings, — passions of 
 a dignified and durable nature, excited and 
 maintained under the influence of conscience 
 and honour. 
 
 The consciousness of having made sacrifices 
 to promote the cause of justice and humanity 
 abroad, would inspire us with more enthusiasm 
 to preserve, and give us more strength to 
 guard our unrivalled institutions, than any in- 
 crease of physical means derived from an ig- 
 nominious and humiliating neutrality. Na- 
 tions have been successfully carried through 
 arduous struggles by the recollection of the 
 achievements of their ancestors. The energy 
 caught from the example of the latter has 
 vanquished difficulties, which, without this 
 aid, would have proved insurmountable. The 
 British owe to the glorious sacrifices of their 
 progenitors in favour of their constitution and 
 of the liberties of Europe, much of that force 
 of character, of that " vehement and sustained 
 2 I
 
 250 
 
 spirit of fortitude," which will contribute, no 
 less than their material resources, to render 
 them invincible in the present struggle. There 
 is scarcely more efficiency in fleets and armies 
 than in that exaltation of sentiment which pre- 
 fers the chance of ruin to the certainty of dis- 
 grace. 
 
 A union with France, if not even ruinous in 
 its immediate consequences, would be an inde- 
 lible stain on our annals. Our descendants 
 would turn with disgust from the page which 
 might record so monstrous and unnatural an 
 alliance, I know not, indeed, how an American 
 will feel one century hence, when, in investi- 
 gating the history of the late invasion of Spain, 
 he shall inquire, what, on that occasion, was 
 the conduct of his ancestors, the only republi- 
 can people then on earth, and who claim al- 
 most an exclusive privilege to hate and to de- 
 nounce, every act of ruffian violence, and every 
 form of arbitrary power. It certainly will not 
 kindle a glow of emulation in his mind, when 
 he shall be told, that of this unparalleled crime, 
 an oblique notice was once taken by our ad-
 
 251 
 
 ministration : that the people of this country 
 seemed to rejoice at the triumph of the inva- 
 der, and frowned on the efforts of his victims. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson had it in his power when all the 
 horrors of this usurpation were first unfolded, 
 to consolidate the public virtue, and perhaps, 
 to fix for ever the destinies of this country. 
 He could, indeed, have found justifiable causes 
 of war in the insults and injuries which we 
 ourselves had received from France, but he 
 should have availed himself of this event to 
 hallow the contest in which sooner or later we 
 must be engaged, and to call up a force of 
 generous resolution, which, while it armed us 
 with power, would have purified and invigor- 
 ated our attachment to republican institutions. 
 By entering in the name of a free people, his 
 solemn and indignant protest against this fatal 
 precedent of outrage, he would at once have 
 buoyed up the people here, to a similar eleva- 
 tion of sentiment, and by throwing himself 
 entirely on their magnanimity, could have 
 wanted no better tenure for his place. Our 
 present rulers, if they act upon a large and
 
 i6i 
 
 jirbspective view of our true inteiCe^t^, may re- 
 trieve the character of this country. They 
 vt^ill, I am quite sure, be seconded by an entire 
 correspondence of feeling not only on our part, 
 but in the people of England, whatever may 
 be the narrow policy or the illiberal prejudices 
 of the British ministry. It is from our rulers, 
 however, that we expect, and perhaps only 
 from them that we can receive the proper im- ' 
 pulse. — " Whenever," says Gentz, '*a real 
 " interest commands, every national antipa- 
 " thy, though existing from the earliest times, 
 " if it only rests upon prejudice, must yield to 
 *' more urgent motives ; and so it doubtless 
 " will, when the guidance of nations is in- 
 " trusted to the wise and great ; to men who 
 *' are above all narrow views, and superior to 
 " all little passions. The deliberate and de- 
 " cided measures of a truly enlightened go- 
 " vernment, intent upon important objects, 
 *' break through the fetters of popular opi- 
 '* nion 5 are supported by the wise, and carry 
 " the weak irresistibly along." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J, M'Creery, Printer, 
 Black-Uorse-Court, London.
 
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