Anon - The Court and Camp of Buonaparte

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Text originally published in 1829 under the same title.

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The Court and Camp of Bounaparte

By Anon

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I N the following compilation, drawn up by way of Appendix to the Life of Buonaparte contained in the first two Numbers of the Family Library, the reader will find a few incidents, and perhaps characters, treated in a spirit somewhat different from that of the above-named Biography. The present writer might be content to observe, that probably no two minds will ever arrive at the very same conclusions upon every point embraced in the stormy career of Napoleon and his Lieutenants; but he believes that, in most of the instances alluded to, his statements will be found in accordance with the very able, interesting, and trustworthy memoirs of M. de Bourrienne of which only one volume had appeared, when the publication of the Family Library commenced. The second volume of Colonel Napiers masterly History of the Peninsular War, and the clear and spirited Annals of those campaigns, by the Author of Cyril Thornton, have also appeared since that time; and both have, of course, furnished new details of many important transactions.

Chelsea, Nov. 1829.

I F the immediate relatives of Napoleon possessed no other claim to our notice than that of their talents or services, they should have no place in the present collection. In ordinary circumstances not one of them would have risen above the sphere of mediocrity, and most of them would have remained below it. It is only as the instrumentsthough the weak and inefficient instrumentsof their brother, that history will deign to grant them a niche in her temple.

JOSEPH, the eldest of the brothers, was born at Ajaccio, January 7 th , 1768. He studied at the university of Pisa, and was designed for the law; but the invasion of Corsica by the English, in 1793, compelled the whole family to seek refuge in France. At that time their fortunes were at a low ebb, and their prospects not much better. The all-decisive success of Napoleon, however, was at hand.

When the Child of Destiny seized the imperial sceptre, Joseph was laden with honours both military and civil. He seems, indeed, to have been sincerely devoted to his brother, and to have been esteemed in return. When Napoleon entered on the campaign of 1805, he was entrusted with the presidency of the Senate, and with the direction of government. These marks of confidence were but the precursors of a much higher dignity. An imperial decree announced that the king of Naples had ceased to reign, and Joseph was placed at the head of the army destined to invade that kingdom. Though little resistance could be expected from perhaps the most cowardly people in Europe, he was accompanied by two able lieutenants, Massna and Gouvion St. Cyr. The weak Ferdinand fled, the worthless soldiery disbanded themselves, and the rabble, delighted with a changeno matter of what sortwelcomed the approach of the French with every demonstration of joy. The country was conquered with scarcely any loss of blood, and the vacant crown conferred upon Joseph.

If he had little ability, he had probably also little taste, for the duties of royalty. Plain in his attire, and still plainer in his manners, he was strongly attached to the enjoyments of domestic lifethe only sphere for which nature had qualified him. Whether he accepted the glittering gift with much satisfaction, is doubtful. He clearly saw, that, without the constant aid of his brother, he should be unable to maintain himself on the throne; and he knew enough of that brothers character to feel assured that he should never be more than the vassal of France.

The government of the new kingor let us rather say of Napoleons creatures who governed himwas a compound of good and evil. He made some important alterations in the constitution, and introduced as many elements of that of France as the people could bear. He suppressed the monastic orders, appropriated the revenues to his own use, abolished feudal rights, and made many other changes injurious to the higher and favourable to the lower classes. He would, perhaps, have become popularindeed, any government, after that of the contemptible dynasty which had fled, was likely to be hailed as a blessinghad not his own necessities, and still more the exactions of the emperor, compelled him to levy oppressive contributions on his subjects; while some defects in his personal character exposed him to their ridicule. Too feeble to exert any moral force, he was the passive instrument of Napoleons most unpopular measures; too idle to trouble himself with the affairs of his kingdom, he abandoned the reins to a set of needy and profligate ministers. The only occasions in which he shewed anything like activity, were in upholding the pageantry of royalty, and in swelling the notes of revelry.

In 1808, from the peaceful enjoyment of the Neapolitan crown, Joseph was called to a more brilliant, but also more thorny destiny in Spain. He knew that the fierce Spaniard was somewhat more difficult to manage than the slavish Neapolitan, and he had the good sense to refuse the proffered dignity; but his inclinations were not thought worth consulting, and he was forced to pass the Pyrenees. His reign at Madrid was not, as far as depended on himself, much unlike what it had been at Naples; the passive agent of his brothers will, he was neither oppressive nor cruel in his own character: the same idleness, the same incapacity, the same habits of dissipation, the same nullity, in short, rendered him with his new and high-minded subjects an object rather of ridicule than of hatred. The military defence of his kingdom was entrusted to lieutenants who oftener despised than obeyed his commands. He was, indeed, the most shadowy of monarchs. One portion of the country was in everlasting insurrection; another was possessed by a powerful foreign enemy, so that his authority extended no farther than the space actually occupied by the French legions. Even there it was merely nominal; the real power was invested first with the emperor, next with the marshals. Finding the sceptre too heavy for his feeble hands, Joseph more than once prayed to be relieved from the unwelcome load. Even the little authority he had was of all things the most insecure. Twice was he compelled to abandon the capital; and twice he returned, not so much to inflict, as to witness the infliction of, a severe vengeance on the partisans of Ferdinand: the third time he fled never to return. He was closely pursued by the enemy, against whom he made a stand at Vittoria; but there he sustained a most decisive defeat; his treasures, sceptre, crown remained in possession of the victors,a fate which was near happening to himself. He reached Bayonne in a state of utter destitutiona just reward for his retention of an usurped crown, which he had worn in opposition to the will of the nation.