The Life of Napoleon I | Page 2

striven to embody the results of this search in the present volumes
as far as was compatible with limits of space and with the narrative
form at which, in my judgment, history ought always to aim.
On the whole, British policy comes out the better the more fully it is
known. Though often feeble and vacillating, it finally attained to
firmness and dignity; and Ministers closed the cycle of war with acts of
magnanimity towards the French people which are studiously ignored
by those who bid us shed tears over the martyrdom of St. Helena.
Nevertheless, the splendour of the finale must not blind us to the
flaccid eccentricities that made British statesmanship the laughing
stock of Europe in 1801-3, 1806-7, and 1809. Indeed, it is questionable
whether the renewal of war between England and Napoleon in 1803
was due more to his innate forcefulness or to the contempt which he
felt for the Addington Cabinet. When one also remembers our
extraordinary blunders in the war of the Third Coalition, it seems a
miracle that the British Empire survived that life and death struggle
against a man of superhuman genius who was determined to effect its
overthrow. I have called special attention to the extent and pertinacity
of Napoleon's schemes for the foundation of a French Colonial Empire
in India, Egypt, South Africa, and Australia; and there can be no doubt
that the events of the years 1803-13 determined, not only the destinies
of Europe and Napoleon, but the general trend of the world's
colonization.

As it has been necessary to condense the story of Napoleon's life in
some parts, I have chosen to treat with special brevity the years
1809-11, which may be called the constans aetas of his career, in order
to have more space for the decisive events that followed; but even in
these less eventful years I have striven to show how his Continental
System was setting at work mighty economic forces that made for his
overthrow, so that after the débâcle of 1812 it came to be a struggle of
Napoleon and France contra mundum.
While not neglecting the personal details of the great man's life, I have
dwelt mainly on his public career. Apart from his brilliant
conversations, his private life has few features of abiding interest,
perhaps because he early tired of the shallowness of Josephine and the
Corsican angularity of his brothers and sisters. But the cause also lay in
his own disposition. He once said to M. Gallois: "Je n'aime pas
beaucoup les femmes, ni le jeu--enfin rien: je suis tout à fait un être
politique." In dealing with him as a warrior and statesman, and in
sparing my readers details as to his bolting his food, sleeping at
concerts, and indulging in amours where for him there was no glamour
of romance, I am laying stress on what interested him most--in a word,
I am taking him at his best.
I could not have accomplished this task, even in the present inadequate
way, but for the help generously accorded from many quarters. My
heartfelt thanks are due to Lord Acton, Regius Professor of Modern
History in the University of Cambridge, for advice of the highest
importance; to Mr. Hubert Hall of the Public Record Office, for
guidance in my researches there; to Baron Lumbroso of Rome, editor
of the "Bibliografia ragionata dell' Epoca Napoleonica," for hints on
Italian and other affairs; to Dr. Luckwaldt, Privat Docent of the
University of Bonn, and author of "Oesterreich und die Anfänge des
Befreiungs-Krieges," for his very scholarly revision of the chapters on
German affairs; to Mr. F.H.E. Cunliffe, M.A., Fellow of All Souls'
College, Oxford, for valuable advice on the campaigns of 1800, 1805,
and 1806; to Professor Caudrillier of Grenoble, author of "Pichegru,"
for information respecting the royalist plot; and to Messrs. J.E. Morris,
M.A., and E.L.S. Horsburgh, B.A., for detailed communications

concerning Waterloo, The nieces of the late Professor Westwood of
Oxford most kindly allowed the facsimile of the new Napoleon letter,
printed opposite p. 156 of vol. i., to be made from the original in their
possession; and Miss Lowe courteously placed at my disposal the
papers of her father relating to the years 1813-15, as well as to the St.
Helena period. I wish here to record my grateful obligations for all
these friendly courtesies, which have given value to the book, besides
saving me from many of the pitfalls with which the subject abounds.
That I have escaped them altogether is not to be imagined; but I can
honestly say, in the words of the late Bishop of London, that "I have
tried to write true history."
J.H.R.
[NOTE.--The references to Napoleon's "Correspondence" in the notes
are to the official French edition, published under the auspices of
Napoleon III. The