or four battles; very good, I will
lose them. But we are ever courageous, ever booted and spurred, and we
shall succeed. Before ten years have expired I shall have beaten
England. No state of Europe will any longer have intercourse with her.
It is my customhouses which do the greatest harm to the English. Her
blockade has injured herself the most by teaching us how to get on
without her products, her sugar, her indigo. A few years longer, and
we shall be thoroughly accustomed to it. I shall soon have enough
beet-root sugar to supply all Europe; for your manufactures there is
an open market in France, Italy, Naples, and Germany. At the close he
added words to this effect: The Bank of France is full of silver,
while that of England has not a white sou [five francs]. Since 1806 I
have taken over a milliard francs in contributions. I alone have
money. Austria is already bankrupt, and Russia and England will be.
There exist three versions of this famous allocution. In one of them
are the words: "I showed mercy to the Emperor of Russia at Tilsit in
return for promises of help; but if those promises are not kept, I
will go, if need be, to Riga, to Moscow, to St. Petersburg."

Three points of the utmost significance demand attention in this, a
typical deliverance of the "imperator," uttered at the flood-tide of
imperial success: two of them, both negative, are ominous; the third
is positive and plain. There is no reference to the financial
condition of France, or to the ecclesiastical situation. Russia was
openly threatened. The boast of wealth referred to Napoleon's own
"extraordinary domain." About this time Metternich reported to his
government that France was the richest country in Europe, but that her
treasury was empty. The budget of 1811 had nine hundred millions on
the credit side, but it had also nine hundred and fifty-four millions
on the debit. The previous year had required five hundred and ten
millions for army and navy, the present required six hundred and fifty
millions. It was a fixed principle of the Emperor to make each
generation pay its own expenses. The only source of supply he could
find was an increase of the indirect taxes and the institution of a
state monopoly in tobacco. His remedy would have been adequate but for
two causes--the drought of the ensuing summer and Russia's hostile
attitude in regard to French silks and wines. The year 1811 closed
with a deficit of forty-eight millions. This fact had a