Note 112 — Chapter III · OCCUPATION OF FRENCH FORTRESSES.

Ibid. , xi. 478, 570, 579; and xii. 77. “The measure” (the occupation) “has succeeded beyond our most sanguine expectations. Not only are there no complaints, but I really believe that the common people of the Departments occupied, particularly those occupied by us, are delighted to have the troops, and the money spent among them. But not so the gentry, particularly the Royalists; not so those employed by the Government, and even the Ministers themselves.... All this would be of little importance in the decision of the question of reduction, if the King’s Government possessed any real authority and strength, and if the people of the country were not of a character easily disturbed and irritated, and led to acts of violence and outrage whenever they find weakness. I believe that although we, the English, behave better than others, we are on that account the worst treated. There are constant broils between individuals of the middling and better classes, and Officers of the army, particularly at Valenciennes. We can get no justice from the authorities of the country—indeed, that is a general complaint in each of the contingents; and in more than one instance it has happened that a mob has collected with impunity upon the occasion of an assault upon or broil with an Officer” (The Duke of Wellington to Viscount Castlereagh, Cambrai, Dec. 11, 1816: ibid., xi. 572).