Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Volume 07

Chapter XIX: 1803

Mr. Pitt—Motive of his going out of office—Error of the English
Government—Pretended regard for the Bourbons—Violation of the
treaty of Amiens—Reciprocal accusations—Malta—Lord Whitworth's
departure—Rome and Carthage—Secret satisfaction of Bonaparte—
Message to the Senate, the Legislative Body, and the Tribunate—
The King of England's renunciation of the title of King of France—
Complaints of the English Government—French agents in British ports
—Views of France upon Turkey—Observation made by Bonaparte to the
Legislative Body—Its false interpretation—Conquest of Hanover—
The Duke of Cambridge caricatured—The King of England and the
Elector of Hanover—First address to the clergy—Use of the word
"Monsieur"—The Republican weeks and months.

One of the circumstances which foretold the brief duration of the peace of Amiens was, that Mr. Pitt was out of office at the time of its conclusion. I mentioned this to Bonaparte, and I immediately perceived by his hasty "What do you say?" that my observation had been heard—but not liked. It did not, however, require any extraordinary shrewdness to see the true motive of Mr. Pitt's retirement. That distinguished statesman conceived that a truce under the name of a peace was indispensable for England; but, intending to resume the war with France more fiercely than ever, he for a while retired from office, and left to others the task of arranging the peace; but his intention was to mark his return to the ministry by the renewal of the implacable hatred he had vowed against France. Still, I have always thought that the conclusion of peace, however necessary to England, was an error of the Cabinet of London. England alone had never before acknowledged any of the governments which had risen up in France since the Revolution; and as the past could not be blotted out, a future war, however successful to England, could not take from Bonaparte's Government the immense weight it had acquired by an interval of peace. Besides, by the mere fact of the conclusion of the treaty England proved to all Europe that the restoration of the Bourbons was merely a pretext, and she defaced that page of her history which might have shown that she was actuated by nobler and more generous sentiments than mere hatred of France. It is very certain that the condescension of England in treating with the First Consul had the effect of rallying round him a great many partisans of the Bourbons, whose hopes entirely depended on the continuance of war between Great Britain and France. This opened the eyes of the greater number, namely, those who could not see below the surface, and were not previously aware that the demonstrations of friendship so liberally made to the Bourbons by the European Cabinets, and especially by England, were merely false pretences, assumed for the purpose of disguising, beneath the semblance of honourable motives, their wish to injure France, and to oppose her rapidly increasing power.