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Page 12
From all parts the merchants received orders to buy Austrian stock, in
which an extraordinary rise immediately took place. Napoleon's marriage
with Maria Louisa was hailed with enthusiastic and general joy. The
event was regarded as the guarantee of a long peace, and it was hoped
there would be a lasting cessation of the disasters created by the
rivalry of France and Austria. The correspondence I received showed that
these sentiments were general in the interior of France, and in different
countries of Europe; and, in spite of the presentiments I had always had
of the return of the Bourbons to France, I now began to think that event
problematic, or at least very remote.
About the beginning of the year 1810 commenced the differences between
Napoleon and his brother Louis, which, as I have already stated, ended in
a complete rupture. Napoleon's object was to make himself master of the
navigation of the Scheldt which Louis wished should remain free, and
hence ensued the union of Holland with the French Empire. Holland was
the first province of the Grand Empire which Napoleon took the new
Empress to visit. This visit took place almost immediately after the
marriage. Napoleon first proceeded to Compiegne, where he remained a
week. He next set out for St. Quentin, and inspected the canal. The
Empress Maria Louisa then joined him, and they both proceeded to Belgium.
At Antwerp the Emperor inspected all the works which he had ordered, and
to the execution of which he attached great importance. He returned by
way of Ostend, Lille, and Normandy to St. Cloud, where he arrived on the
1st of June 1810. He there learned from my correspondence that the Hanse
Towns-refused to advance money for the pay of the French troops. The men
were absolutely destitute. I declared that it was urgent to put an end
to this state of things. The Hanse towns had been reduced from opulence
to misery by taxation and exactions, and were no longer able to provide
the funds.
During this year Napoleon, in a fit of madness, issued a decree which I
cannot characterise by any other epithet than infernal. I allude to the
decree for burning all the English merchandise in France, Holland, the
Grand Duchy of Berg, the Hanse Towns; in short, in all places subject to
the disastrous dominion of Napoleon. In the interior of France no idea
could possibly be formed of the desolation caused by this measure in
countries which existed by commerce; and what a spectacle was it to, the,
destitute inhabitants of those countries to witness the destruction of
property which, had it been distributed, would have assuaged their
misery!
Among the emigrants whom I was ordered to watch was M. de Vergennes, who
had always remained at or near Hamburg Since April 1808. I informed the
Minister that M. de Vergennes had presented himself to me at this time.
I even remember that M. de Vergennes gave me a letter from M. de Remusat,
the First Chamberlain of the Emperor. M. de Remusat strongly recommended
to me his connection, who was called by matters of importance to Hamburg.
Residence in this town was, however, too expensive, and he decided to
live at Neumuhl, a little village on the Elbe, rather to the west of
Altona. There he lived quietly in retirement with an opera dancer named
Mademoiselle Ledoux, with whom he had become acquainted in Paris, and
whom he had brought with him. He seemed much taken with her. His manner
of living did not denote large means.
One duty with which I was entrusted, and to which great importance was
attached, was the application and execution of the disastrous Continental
system in the north. In my correspondence I did not conceal the
dissatisfaction which this ruinous measure excited, and the Emperor's
eyes were at length opened on the subject by the following circumstance.
In spite of the sincerity with which the Danish Government professed to
enforce the Continental system, Holstein contained a great quantity of
colonial produce; and, notwithstanding the measures of severity, it was
necessary that that merchandise should find a market somewhere. The
smugglers often succeeded in introducing it into Germany, and the whole
would probably soon have passed the custom-house limits. All things
considered, I thought it advisable to make the best of an evil that could
not be avoided. I therefore proposed that the colonial produce then in
Holstein, and which had been imported before the date of the King's edict
for its prohibition, should be allowed to enter Hamburg on the payment of
30, and on some articles 40, per cent. This duty was to be collected at
the custom-house, and was to be confined entirely to articles consumed in
Germany. The colonial produce in Altona, Glnckstadt, Husum, and other
towns of Holstein, lead been estimated, at about 30,000,000 francs, and
the duty would amount to 10,000,000 or 12,000,000. The adoption of the
plan I proposed would naturally put a stop to smuggling; for it could not
be doubted that the merchants would give 30 or 33 per cent for the right
of carrying on a lawful trade rather than give 40 per cent. to the
smugglers, with the chance of seizure.
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