“No doubt,” said the Emperor, “your idea would have pleased me. I should have taken it up, submitted it to the consideration of a committee, and brought it to a result.”
He said that he very much regretted his not having had time, during his stay in Egypt, to accomplish something of this sort. He had troops suited in every respect to brave the dangers of the desert. He had received presents from the Queen of Darfour, and had sent her some in return. Had he remained longer, he intended to have carried to a great extent our geographical investigations in the northern district of Africa, and that too by the simplest means, merely by placing in each caravan some intelligent officers, for whom he would have procured hostages.
The conversation then turned on the marine department. The Emperor entered very deeply into the subject. He could not say that he was satisfied with Decrès; and he even thought that the confidence he reposed in him was not altogether irreproachable. The difficulty of finding persons better qualified maintained him in his post; for, after all, the Emperor said, Decrès was the best he could find. Ganteaume was merely a sailor, and destitute of every other talent. Cafarelli, he said, had forfeited his good opinion, because he had been informed that his wife intrigued in political affairs, which he regarded as an unpardonable offence. Missiessi was not a man to be depended on; for his family had been one of those who surrendered Toulon. The Emperor had, for a moment, cast his eye on Emériau; but, on consideration, he did not think that he possessed adequate capabilities. He had asked himself whether T...... might not have filled the post; but he decided that he was not qualified for it. He was a good man of business, it is true; but he had plunged very deeply into the affairs of the revolution; and what had confirmed the Emperor in his disapproval of him was that he had subsequently seen some of his private letters, by which it was evident that he still adhered to his old jacobinical sentiments.
“I had,” observed the Emperor, “rendered the duties of all my ministerial posts so easy that almost any one was capable of discharging them, if he possessed only fidelity, zeal, and activity. I must however except the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which it was frequently necessary to exercise a ready talent for persuasion. In fact,” continued he, “in the marine department but little was required, and Decrès was perhaps, after all, the best man I could have found. He possessed authority; and he discharged the business of his office scrupulously and honestly. He was endowed with a good share of understanding, but this was evinced only in his conversation and private conduct. He never conceived any plan of his own, and was incapable of executing the ideas of others on a grand scale; he could walk, but he could never be made to run. He ought to have passed one-half of his time in the sea-ports, or on board the exercising squadrons. He would have lost none of my favour by so doing. But, as a courtier, he was afraid to quit his portfolio. This shews how little he knew me. He would not have been the less protected by removing from my Court: his absence would have been a powerful circumstance in his favour.”