The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire 1793-1812, Vol II

Parl. Debates, vol. xxi. p. 1050; xxiii. p. 540.

431

Cobbett's Parl. Debates, vol. xxi. pp. 1056, 1117.

432

The decree was also shrouded in secrecy, and its existence denied in the Moniteur (Cobbett's Pol. Register, xviii. p. 701). Napoleon wrote to the viceroy of Italy, Aug. 6, 1810: "You will receive a decree which I have just issued to regulate duties on colonial produce.... It is to be executed in Italy; it is secret and to be kept in your hands. You will therefore give orders in pursuance of this decree only by ministerial letters." (Corr., vol. xxi. p. 28.)

433

Thiers, Cons. et Empire, Book xxxviii. pp. 181-189.

434

Monthly Magazine, Feb. 1811, vol. xxxi. p. 67.

435

Corr. de Nap., vol. xxi. p. 58.

436

Corr. de Nap., vol. xxi. p. 224.

437

Ibid., p. 268.

438

Ibid., p. 77.

439

Ibid., pp. 70, 71.

440

Ibid., pp. 61, 62.

441

Cobbett's Pol. Register, vol. xviii. pp. 704, 722.

442

At Bordeaux licensed vessels were known to take on board wines and brandies for the British army in Portugal. (Mémoires du duc de Rovigo, vol. v. p. 60.)

443

Bourrienne, Mémoires, vol. viii. p. 261.

444

Mémoires du duc de Rovigo, vol. v. p. 66.

445

Mémoires de Bourrienne, vol. ix. p. 60.

446

Porter's Progress of the Nation, sect. iii. p. 205. In 1815, after Napoleon's overthrow, the price fell to £34.

447

Tooke's Hist. of Prices, vol. i. p. 354.

448

Souvenirs du duc de Vicence, vol. i. p. 88.

449

Both Monroe and Pinkney, while ministers in London, informed the United States government that the extreme measures taken were popular. (Am. State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 188, 206.)

450

Letter on the Genius and Disposition of the French Government; by an American lately returned from Europe, pp. 189-192. Baltimore, 1810. See also Metternich's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 476, for the unhappiness of France.

451

Mémoires du due de Raguse, vol. iii. p. 423. Marmont adds: "This was a powerful help to French industry during that time of suffering and misery."

452

Tooke's History of Prices, vol. i. p. 311.

453

In like manner, vessels with British licenses frequently slipped into French ports, especially with naval stores from the Baltic.

454

"There was not a Dutchman," says M. Thiers, "who had not lost fifty per cent by foreign loans." (Cons. et Empire (Forbes's trans.), xii. 47.)

455