The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1907-06-06
A Frank "Reminiscences.


It has been said that at Tilsft the
car and Napoleon divided the mastery
of Europe between themselves. Napo-
leon seems to have been overjoyed at
the friendly alliance he made with the
car. He wrote at the time to his
brother Joseph, eve lived as intimate
friends This is not the language of
boaster, but Of a man promoted and
tends to show that Napoleon felt that
he had reached his goal by an alliance
with the Russian autocrat. 81 found
myself debating laws, having emperors
and kings pay me court" he afterward
said. On the other hand this versatile
Corsican sometimes laughed in his
sleeve at the ''emperors and kings he
had hobnobbed with at Tilsit In talks
with Napoleon at St. Helena one of the
chroniclers records this frank remi-
niscence: =.
'When," said Napoleon, IT was at Tilsft
with the Emperor Alexander and the king
of Prussia, I was the most ignorant of the
three in military affairs These two SOW
ereigns, especially the king of Prussia,
were completely au fait as to the number
Jacket. how many behind and the manner
in which the skirts ought to be cut. Not
a tailor In the army knew better than
King Frederick how many measufns of
cloth it took to make jacket. In fact"
continued he, laughing, II was nobody in
comparison with them. They continually
tormented me about matters belonging to
tailors, of which was entirely ignorant,
although. In order not to affront them, I
answered just as grave1y as if the fate OF
an army depended upon the cut of a
jacket. When I went to see the king of
Prussia, instead Of library found that
he had large room. like an arsenal, fur
nished with shelves and pegs, on which
were hung fifty or sixty jackets of differ
ent patterns Every day he changed his
fashion and put on a different one. He
attached moro Importance to this than
was necessary for the salvation of king
DOM"
Three treaties resulted from Fried
land-one between France and Russia,
published at the time; one between
France and Prussia, also made public,
and third long kept secret, between
Russia and France. This last was
practically an offensive and defensive
alliance of the two powers against
England, Austria and Turkey. A remz
nant of his realm was left to the Prus-
sian king out of regard for the wishes
of Alexander. Napoleon was blamed
by the liberals Of Europe for not re-
constituting the kingdom Of Poland.
Instead of that he created the grand
duchy of Warsaw in favor of his old
ally, the king of Saxony, whose prede-
cessors had reigned in Poland. At
home he was blamed for not crossing
the Niemen after Friedland and push
ing his conquest farther east; also for
putting too much trust in Alexander,
who later turned upon him. He was
also blamed for leaving Prussia either
too strong or too weak. Prussia strong
and allied with France would have
been a buffer between France and
Russia; weak, Prussia would never
have troubled France again for cen
tury. Echoing the trend of criticism in
European capitals at the time of Napo-
Icons fall, Baron Meneval, long close
to Napoleon, says in his memoirs, TT
needed the disaster at Moscow qS12)
and Leipsic GS13) to overthrow the
beautiful monument to Napoleon's
glory" created by the victory at Fried,
land in. 1907