The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-05
Nv.

III u CnapLoT on Tue lmDeTlai NllnlSIers, inc
writer of these notes expresses the opinion that
1t was the great misfortune of Napoleon, when
on the throne, to exhibit three Of the weaknesses
OF Louis XIV. He carried his love for court
pomp to the verge Of puerility. He took block
heads for Ministers and If he did not imagine
he could make men of them, as Louis did in
the case of Chamillard, he at least believed that,
whatever the stupidity OF the reports submitted
to him, he would know how to unravel them
and get at the core Of an affair. After all, too,
Louis XIV. loved men Of talent. Napoleon did
not love them; he sent away Lucien and Car.
not, truly superior men, who possessed the very
qualities in which he was lacking. When tho
pestiferous air OF the court had altogether cor.
rupted Napoleon and had exalted his ~self-love
into a kind of disease, he sent away Talleyrand
and Fouch6 and replaced them with'the dulless
of his flatterers. In a word, according to
Stendhal, there were two causes Of the EN-
peror's ruin: First, tho liking which he
evinced from the date OF his coronation for
men OF mediocre parts; secondly, the COM
bination OF an Emperor's functions with those of
a Commander.in-Chief. The whole of the night
which preceded the memorable retreat from
Leipsic was taken up with the civil functions
of the Emperor; he busted himself in debating
orders for Spain and not the details of the next
days movement, which consequently were dis
orderly.
The Emperor ultimately reached the point of
believing that he could unravel the most
tangled affair In twenty minutes. You wOul1
see hin, says Stendhal, making efforts of atten-
ton that were incredible, and for any other man
impossible, in the struggle to comprehend a
prolix, disorderly report made by a Ounce who
knew nothing of the business. He used to say
of Count Cessac, one OF his Ministers. "he is an
old woman" nevertheless he kept him in office.
He believed that he knew everything about
everything and that he no longer needed any
thing but photographers of his own ideas. The
great advancement of the Duke of Bassano
came from his having OWNED in a certain af-
fair the Empcror's thought before the latter
| had expressed it. Stendhal points out that
such was not the part which Sully played Mt
the side of Henri ". nor would such be tho part
played by any honest man at the side OF any
sovereign, much less a sovereign whose ON
nivorous activity wished to define by imperial
decree even the expenditure of fifty francs.
Under Napoleon the Ministers killed them
selves with work, but 1t was work unenliRht-
ened by any ideas Of their own. To be well re-
ceiyed by the Emperor, 1t was always needful
to reply TO the question with which he hap
pened 10 be busted at the moment when they
came in-for example. What is the exact
value of the furniture In all my military hospi-
talsi' The Minister who did not reply In
Stantly and fully, like a man who had been
occupied with nothing else the whole day long,
was overwhelmed with reproaches, though as
regards other things he might have the knowl.
edge and insight Of the Duke of Otranto.
When Napoleon learned that Cretet, this best
Minister Of the Interior that he ever had, was
about to succumb to a mortal malady, Moth.
ing could be moro fitting" said he, "A man
whom l make a Minister ought not to be able
to discharge the simplest natural function at
the end of four years. That would mean honor
and everlasting fortune for his family" The
poor Ministers were reduced almost to idiocy
by the NRpOleonic regime. Stendhal recalls
that the ostimable Count Degean was forced
one day to plead for mercy. lie WAS engaged in
calculating the expenses of a war, and became
80 drunk with figures and stimate that he
was obliged to interrupt his master and to tell
him that he no longer understood a word. An
other Minister fell into q deep sleep. with his
head sunk on his notebook. while the En-
pcror was talking. lie did not wake up for a
quarter Of an hour; yet his head was one of
tho strongest.