History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815

1807.

CHAP. tion of the Emperor. Ten great canals, destined to unite the principal rivers of France to each other, were set on foot. They joined the Scheldt and the Meuse; the Meuse and the Rhine; the Rhine, the Saone, and the Rhone; the Scheldt and the Somme; the Somme, the Oise, and the Seine; the Seine, the Saone, and the Rhone; the Seine and the Loire; the Loire and the Cher; the north sea and the Mediterranean. By this means a vast internal network of canals was spread over France, uniting its most distant provinces, and affording an outlet in every direction for its produce. Extensive chains of locks were constructed under the special directions of the Emperor, to surmount the summit levels in the interior of the country, which were soon executed with that skill which has deservedly made the French engineers the admiration of the world. Indescribable was his anxiety to hasten these great works. "If we do not use diligence," said he, "not three of these canals will be finished before we are in our grave. Wars and the reign of fools will succeed, and these noble undertakings will remain unfinished. I wish to make the glory of my reign consist in changing the face of the empire. The execution of great improvements is as indispensable to the interest of my people as to my own satisfaction."1

1 Thiers, viii. 126.

62.

count of the

the minister

rior.

Aug. 16.

And these works undertaken and executed under the Striking ac imperial government, were really such as to justify the public works enthusiastic admiration of a people even less passionately of France by devoted than the French to public splendour. They were of the inte thus noticed in the report of the minister of the interior in August 1807, when Napoleon met the Chambers after his return from Tilsit; and after making every allowance for the exaggerated style of such state papers, much remains to attract the admiration of succeeding ages, and demonstrate the great objects to which, in domestic administration, the ambition of the Emperor was directed. "Thirteen thousand leagues of public roads have been kept in order or repaired; the two greatest works under

taken for centuries, the roads of Mont Cenis and of the CHAP. Simplon, have, after six years of labour, been completed. The road from Spain to Italy is in progress: the Apen- 1807. nines are the theatre of a series of works which will unite Piedmont to the shores of the Mediterranean, and complete the union of Liguria to France: eighteen rivers have seen their navigation improved or prolonged beyond hitherto impassable barriers, by means of locks, dykes, or towing-paths: four bridges have been erected during the last campaign ten others are in rapid progress: ten canals, almost all commenced during the present reign, are in full activity. Nor do the maritime harbours offer fewer prodigies. Antwerp, so recently insignificant, has become the centre of our great maritime preparations; for the first time that part of the Scheldt sees vessels of seventy-four and eighty guns floating on its bosom fourteen ships of the line are on the stocks within its walls; many are finished, and have descended to Flushing: that harbour has seen its docks deepened, its entrance improved, and it is already capable of containing a squadron: at Dunkirk and Calais, piers have been constructed; at Cherbourg two vast breakwaters erected; at Rochefort and Marseilles equally important maritime improvements are in progress.

63.

turing and

"The existence of our cotton manufactures being secured, investigations are in progress for the discovery Manufac of places suited to the culture of that important article: industrial the improvement of the linen fabrics has been the object works, &c. of constant solicitude. Veterinary schools have been established, and already fill the army and the fields with skilled practitioners: a code is preparing for the regulation of commerce: the School of Arts and Mechanics at Compiègne flourishes, and has been transferred to Chalons: others on a similar plan are in the course of formation: Italy opens an extensive mart for our industry: the war, changed into a contest for commercial independence, has become the greatest stimulant to French industry every

CHAP.

1807.

64.

in Paris

and elsewhere.

one of our conquests, while it is a market closed to England, is a new encouragement afforded to French enterprise. Nor has the capital of this great empire been neglected; it is the Emperor's wish that that illustrious city, become the first in the universe, should befit by its splendour so glorious a destiny.

"At one extremity of Paris a bridge has been comGreat works pleted, to which victory has given the name of Austerlitz; at another, a second is commencing, to which Jena will afford a still more glorious appellation; the Louvre advances to its completion, marking, in its matured progress, through centuries, the successive ages of Francis I., of Henry IV., of Louis XIV., restored to life by the voice of Napoleon. Fountains without number flow night and day in all parts of the city, testifying even to the humblest classes the care which the Emperor bestows on their most trifling accommodation. Two triumphal arches are already erected, or founded, one in the centre of the palace inhabited by the Genius of Victory; the other at the extremity of the most beautiful avenue of the finest city in the world. The Tomb of Desaix has been erected on the summit of the Alps, whose rugged precipices are not less startled at the monument of our perfection in the arts, than they were at the passage of the artillery drawn by the arms of valour. The fine arts in France are occupied almost entirely in tracing on marble or canvass the glorious exploits of our armies: while the mind of the Emperor, ever meditating fresh triumphs, has selected for his antagonist the Demon of Ignorance; and, by the establishment of twelve colleges for the study of law, and gratuitous schools for the teaching of medicine in all the principal cities of the empire, has laid the foundation of the extension of general knowledge in the most essential subjects of public instruction." Magnificent as these undertakings were, they formed but a part of what was contemplated by Napoleon. "We must never forget," said he," the cry of the peasants when vexed by subaltern

agents,

Ah! if the King but knew it!'

1807.

Believe me, CHAP. I have good reasons for not slumbering on my seat. I know the French people: they will fully appreciate my long anxieties: I owe such to the efforts which I demand of them. Nothing but my vigilant superintendence can 1 Bign. vi. retain so many subalterns in their duty. That surveil- 402, 407; lance must be incessant; it must extend to the minutest Moniteur, details. I fear neither fatigue nor long journeys; they 1807. always give me things to see."

vii. 105.

Aug. 16,

lirium which

When the French people saw this magnificent announce- 65. ment of internal improvement, contemporaneous with the General deofficial promulgation of the treaty of Tilsit, the conquest it produced. of Prussia, the restoration of the grand-duchy of Warsaw, and the erection of the kingdom of Westphalia, it is not surprising that they were dazzled by the brilliancy of the spectacle, and yielded to the pleasing illusion that the Revolution, nursed in violence and baptised in blood, was to sink to rest amidst a blaze of unprecedented glory. But the querulous discontent and substantial oppression of other nations might even then have taught them that this splendid fabric rested on a dangerous foundation, and that the system was not likely to be durable which impoverished all others to enrich one favoured state. And a sagacious observer of this long and glowing enumeration of the internal projects of the Emperor, could hardly have avoided the inference, that the government had now drawn to itself the patronage and direction of domestic improvement of every description; that the very magnitude and universality of public undertakings proved that private enterprise had sunk into the dust; and that, reversing the whole principles of the Revolution, the welfare of society had come to depend on the point of the pyramid. The finances of France, in an especial manner, occupied the attention of the Emperor; and the talent of his sub- Finances jects, adapted beyond any other people in Europe to under the organisation and accuracy in matters of detail, brought empire. that important branch of administration to an extraor

66.

of France

1807.

CHAP. dinary degree of perfection. The system of accounts by
L. double entry, so well known to merchants, was intro-
duced into every department of the finances, and secured
a degree of precision hitherto unknown in the public
service. At the same time, a new court, entitled the
Cour des Comptes" was established, with M. Marbois
for its president, specially destined to audit all the public
accounts. The official exposition set forth by his ministers,
notwithstanding the care taken to envelop it in mystery,
by concealing the enormous amount of foreign contribu-
tions annually exhibited an excess of expenditure above
income. **
But no reliance can be placed on these state-
ments as a true picture of the financial condition of the
empire, when ten or fifteen millions sterling were annually
drawn from foreign nations by contributions or subsidies,
which did not appear in the yearly budgets; and all
the armies quartered beyond the frontiers of the empire,
whether in Germany, Italy, or the Spanish peninsula,
were systematically and invariably maintained and paid
at the exclusive expense of the inhabitants of the states
they were quartered in. It is sufficient to observe, there-
fore, that as long as the empire of Napoleon endured
over foreign nations, no want of money was ever expe-