It has been the fashion, in England, to term Napoleon a “Corsican usurper.” We should have recollected Paoli before we _reproached_ him for being a _Corsican_, and we should have recurred to _our own_ annals and our great King William, who dethroned his _father_, before we called Napoleon a _usurper_. _He_ mounted a throne which had long been vacant; the decapitation of Louis, in which he _could_ have had no concern, had completely overwhelmed the dynasty of Bourbon, and Napoleon in a day re-established that monarchical form of government which _we_ had, with so much expense of blood and treasure, been for many years unsuccessfully attempting to restore. I cannot avoid repeating this pointed example of _our own inconsistency_. We actually made peace and concluded treaties with Napoleon Bonaparte when he was acting as a _republican_ (the very species of government against which we had so long combated); and we refused to listen to his most pacific demonstrations when he became a monarch![46]
Another observation I cannot but make on this subject.—As events have turned out, Napoleon only sat down on the throne of France to _keep it for the Bourbons_. Had he remained a republican, as when we acknowledged and made peace with him, the names of the whole family of Louis would still have appeared on the pension list of England.
This has I confess been a sad digression: but when I call to mind that last scene of Bonaparte’s splendour, I cannot altogether separate from it the prior portion of his history and that of Europe. I have mentioned that about the centre of the _cortége_ the emperor and his court appeared. It was the custom in France for every person of a certain rank to keep a sort of state-coach gaudily gilded and painted, and, in addition to the footmen, a chasseur to mount behind, dressed _en grande toilette_, with huge mustaches, immense feathers in his hat, and a large sabre depending from a broad-laced belt, which crossed his shoulder:—he was generally a muscular, fine-looking man, and always indicated rank and affluence in his master. Napoleon liked this state to be preserved by all his ministers, &c. He obliged every man in office to appear at court and in public according to the station he held; and instances were not wanting where the emperor, having discovered that an officer of rank had not pecuniary means to purchase a coach of ceremony, had made him a present of a very fine one. He repeatedly paid the debts of several of his marshals and generals, when he thought their incomes somewhat inadequate; and a case has been mentioned, where a high officer of his household had not money to purchase jewels for his wife, of Napoleon ordering a set to be presented to her with an injunction to wear them at court.