Note 7 — MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, EXILE, AND CONVERSATIONS, OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. (continued 3)

So important a determination, as that of the future abandonment of Italy, thus pronounced for the first time, and in a manner so indifferent, without the development of any object, or the support of any proof, would be, I confess, entitled to no higher consideration, than the assertions that are so frequently hazarded and excused in the warmth of conversation. But time and intimacy have taught me that every declaration made by Napoleon, under such circumstances, carried along with it its full, whole, and literal meaning. I have always found this to be the case whenever I have had the means of verification. I make this observation, lest the reader should also be led to doubt, too hastily, without obtaining, or, at least, without seeking for proof.

I now find, for example, in vol. i. of Napoleon’s Memoirs, dictated to Count Montholon, so complete and satisfactory a confirmation of the remark which I collected from the Emperor’s conversation at St. Helena, that I cannot refrain from transcribing it.

The passage is as follows:—

“It was Napoleon’s desire to create anew the Italian Nation, and to re-unite the Venetians, Milanese, Piedmontese, Genoese, Tuscans, Parmesans, Modenese, Romans, Neapolitans, Sicilians, and Sardinians, in one independent nation, bounded by the Alps and the Adriatic, the Ionian, and the Mediterranean seas: such was the immortal trophy he was raising to his glory! This great and powerful kingdom would have been, by land, a check to the House of Austria; whilst, by sea, its fleets, combined with those of Toulon, would have ruled the Mediterranean, and protected the old course of trade to India, by the Red Sea and Suez. Rome, the capital of this state, was the eternal city; covered by the three barriers of the Alps, the Po, and the Apennines; nearer than any other to the three great Islands. But Napoleon had many obstacles to surmount. He said, at the Consultum of Lyons, It will take me twenty years to re-establish the Italian Nation.

“There were three impediments to this grand design; first, the possessions of Foreign Powers in Italy; secondly, the influence of locality; and, thirdly, the residence of the Popes at Rome.

“Scarcely ten years had elapsed, from the date of the Consultum of Lyons, before the first obstacle was entirely removed. Foreign Powers no longer possessed any portion of Italy; which was entirely under the immediate influence of the Emperor. The destruction of the Republic of Venice, the deposition of the King of Sardinia and of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the annexation of Saint Peter’s patrimony to the Empire, had set aside the second obstacle. As founders, who have to transform several guns of small calibre into one forty-eight pounder, first throw them all into the furnace to reduce them to a state of fusion, so the small States had been united to Austria and France, that they might be reduced to an elementary state, freed from their old recollections and pretensions, and thus prepared for re-casting. The Venetians having been annexed to the Austrian Monarchy, had for several years experienced the bitterness of subjection to the Germans. When these people should have been restored to an Italian Government, they would have cared little whether their city was to be the capital of Italy, or whether their government was to be more or less aristocratic. A similar change would have taken place in Piedmont, Genoa, and Rome, which had all been disorganized by the change of the French Empire.

“There were now no Venetians, Piedmontese, or Tuscans: the inhabitants of the whole Peninsula were only Italians. All was prepared for forming the great Italian Nation. The Grand Duchy of Berg was vacant for the dynasty which, for the time, occupied the throne of Naples. The Emperor impatiently awaited the birth of a second son, to crown him King of Italy; and to proclaim the independence of the beautiful Peninsula, under the Regency of Prince Eugene.”