ion of Bonaparte; others to blame him for offering to resign these
two places, as if the Cape and Malta could be put in competition with the
title of Emperor, the foundation of the Kingdom of Italy, the acquisition
of Genoa and of all the Venetian States, the dethronement of the King of
Naples and the gift of his kingdom to Joseph, and finally, the new
partition of Germany. These transactions, of which Bonaparte said not a
word, and from which he certainly had no intention of departing, were all
long after the treaty of Amiens.

Every day brought with it fresh proofs of insatiable ambition. In fact,
Napoleon longed to obtain possession of the Hanse Towns. I was, however,
in the first place, merely charged to make overtures to the Senates of
each of these towns, and to point out the advantages they would derive
from the protection of Napoleon in exchange for the small sacrifice of
6,000,000 francs in his favour. I had on this subject numerous
conferences with the magistrates: they thought the sum too great,
representing, to me that the city was not so rich as formerly, because
their commerce had been much curtailed by the war; in short, the Senate
declared that, with the utmost goodwill, their circumstances would not
permit them to accept the "generous proposal" of the Emperor.

I was myself, indeed, at a loss to conceive how the absurdity of
employing me to make such a proposition was overlooked, for I had, really
no advantage to offer in return to the Hanse Towns. Against whom did
Bonaparte propose to protect them? The truth is, Napoleon then wished to
seize these towns by direct aggression, which, however, he was not able
to accomplish until four years afterwards.

During five years I witnessed the commercial importance of these cities,
and especially of Hamburg. Its geographical situation, on a great river
navigable by large vessels to the city, thirty leagues from the mouth of
the Elbe; the complete independence it enjoyed; its municipal regulations
and paternal government, were a few amongst the many causes which had
raised Hamburg to its enviable height of prosperity. What, in fact, was
the population of these remnants of the grand Hanseatic League of the
Middle Ages? The population of Hamburg when I was there amounted to
90,000, and that of its small surrounding territory to 25,000. Bremen
had 36,000 inhabitants, and 9000 in its territory; the city of Lubeck,
which is smaller and its territory a little more exte