022 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



tions,%vas connected with sensations 

 too profound and too general not to 

 have occupied the undivided atten- 

 tion of all classes in the state ; on 

 the approach, after the accomi)lish- 

 mcnt of tiiis great internal event, 

 ■which has just secured for ever tiie 

 destinies of France, in consecrating 

 by the suffrages of men, and by the 

 voice of heaven, all that we have ac- 

 quired in glory, in grandeur, and in - 

 dependence, it was genorallj'^, and 

 as it were by one coninion impres- 

 sion, felt, that the interest of all 

 other events was weakened and di- 

 minished ; and even the thoughts of 

 the war, in tlie bosom of a nation 

 owing so much to its victories seemed 

 to disappear. Every thing is ac 

 complishcd ; the empire is founded, 

 and in resuming his attention to ex- 

 terior concerns, and in recalling tlic 

 spirit of the nation to the interests 

 of tiie war, the first sentiment of the 

 emperor has been to raise himself 

 above every passion, and to justify 

 the exalted destiny which providence 

 reserves for him, by shewing liimself 

 inaccessible to hatred, ambition, or 

 revenge. If there exist the men, 

 •who have conceived the project of 

 combating us with the arms of crimes, 

 who have to the utmost of tlieir 

 power, realised this cruel thought, 

 who have hired assassins, and who, 

 even at this very moment, pension 

 our enemies ; it is over these identi- 

 cal passions that the emperor wished 

 to triumph. The more natural and 

 common it was to feel a lively re- 

 sentment against personal attacks, 

 tlic more was he senbible that it was 

 that part of a great mind to be proof 

 against it. This determination is 

 noble ; but it dlfiers widely from 

 ordinary rules ; and on so rare an 

 occasion, I ought to forget for a mo- 

 ment the principles of propriety, 



which would prevent me, iu other 

 instances, from offending by my 

 praises tlie sovereia:n, whose minis- 

 ter I have the hononr to be. In the 

 present instance, I cannot explain 

 those measures, the generosity of 

 whi(.h supposes an insensibility to 

 the common laws of prudence, with- 

 out justifying them; and with- 

 out intending it, my justification is 

 our eulogiuni. — The emperor has 

 made t!ie Crst overtures to a govern- 

 ment, which has been guilty of ag- 

 gression, which has manifested M'ith- 

 out motive and without disguise, 

 sentiments of inveterate hatred to- 

 wards him and towards us. In order 

 to comprehend adeijuately such an 

 instance of moderation, wc must re- 

 sort to the remembrance of the past, 

 and follow the progress of an august 

 sovereign through the whole extent 

 of his noble career. Have not such 

 men, as have studied liis character, 

 discovered in the bold llight, in the 

 vigorous and constant execution of 

 all his enterprises, a stock of calm- 

 ness and of prudence which regu- 

 lated them, a check that prevented 

 every abuse ; in a word, a burst of 

 justice and humanity, incessantly 

 tending to moderate the effects, and 

 to accelerate the term of necessary 

 acts of violence? Thus, after a suc- 

 cession of advantages gained on the 

 banks of the Drave, far from suffer- 

 ing himself to be led on by the hopes 

 with which the most beuntiful for- 

 tune seemed disposed to intoxicate 

 him, he calculated, that it was more 

 advantageous for France, and for 

 her enemies, that he should act tem- 

 perately. To the great attractions 

 of glory, he opposed the grand in- 

 terest of humanity. Ucwassensi-^ 

 ble to the cries of those victims, who 

 were to be, without delay, sacrificed 

 irj the last actions of an implacable 



w^r, 



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