inental
system. I did not hesitate to declare to him, not as a French Minister,
but as a private individual to his friend, that in his place, at the head
of a poor nation, which could only subsist by the exchange of its
territorial productions with England, I would open my ports, and give the
Swedes gratuitously that general licence which Bonaparte sold in detail
to intrigue and cupidity.

The Berlin decree could not fail to cause a reaction against the
Emperor's fortune by raising up whole nations against him. The hurling
of twenty kings from their thrones would have excited less hatred than
this contempt for the wants of nations. This profound ignorance of the
maxims of political economy caused general privation and misery, which in
their turn occasioned general hostility. The system could only succeed
in the impossible event of all the powers of Europe honestly endeavouring
to carry it into effect. A single free port would have destroyed it.
In order to ensure its complete success it was necessary to conquer and
occupy all countries, and never to evacuate them. As a means of ruining
England it was contemptible. It was necessary that all Europe should be
compelled by force of arms to join this absurd coalition, and that the
same force should be constantly employed to maintain it. Was this
possible? The captain "rapporteur" of a court-martial allowed a poor
peasant to escape the punishment due to the offence of having bought a
loaf of sugar beyond the custom-house barrier. This officer was some
time afterwards at a dinner given by Marshal Davoust; the latter said to
him, "You have a very scrupulous conscience, sir; go to headquarters and
you will find an order there for you." This order sent him eighty
leagues from Hamburg. It is necessary to have witnessed, as I have, the
numberless vexations and miseries occasioned by the unfortunate
Continental system to understand the mischief its authors did in Europe,
and how much that mischief contributed to Napoleon's fall.

--[The so-called Continental system was framed by Napoleon in
revenge for the English very extended system of blockades, after
Trafalgar had put it out of his power to attempt to keep the seas.
By these decrees all ports occupied by the French were closed to the
English, and all English goods were to be destroyed wherever found
in any country occupied by the French. All States under French
influence had to adopt this system. It must be