Part 2. Part 1 is here.
This is the conclusion of the letter written by Napoleon’s son, Napoleon François, to the King of France, Louis-Philippe, a few short months before the imprisoned-in-a-palace young man ended up dead in 1832.
Charles X
Napoleon François writes:
[Cruel Charles X!] what has my homeland done to deserve its children to be slaughtered? During your reign, did the French, even while complaining about your injustices, stop honoring you? Flowers strewn under your feet, festive celebrations, triumphal arches, your subjects scurrying away your horses to carry themselves the carriage that you occupied. .. O my French, what were you doing? But you don't know .. ! And you, Charles X, ungrateful and perfidious, while you were receiving these tributes from their generous hearts, you were meditating with a Jesuit smile, the horrible project of assassinating them! … Charles X, the murderer of my homeland, stay far from me!
But perhaps, in exile, left to himself, this being feels disturbances from his past crimes. Alas no, his fanatical heart Is too ruptured to ever rise to this equilibrium of conscience. When vice has taken over a soul, it governs it with a scepter of iron, and does not give in to repentance.
If the formerly hunted traitor could not forgive the France that justly expelled him from its bosom, how could it resist its typical passion, that of tormenting the French? Also in its secret intrigues with partisans still in France, throwing into this beautiful country the germs of discord between between its citizens.
Miserable people on the take paid with lavish amounts of gold by Charles X who maintained this disorder by planned and coordinated riots, invoking a dynasty, the republic, and my name.
Some workers even, pressed by misery, had the weakness to take part in these disturbances, not imagining that they worsened by this behavior their sad position.
This disunion paralyses industry, agriculture and commerce, and a great number of those involved in this, misunderstand the true cause of their misfortune, they were recklessly attracted to an illusory kingdom of freedom
But, oh you, if you had no books, merchants who lacked debit, cultivators who thwart taxation, remember that freedom can only make you happy, that liberty, like wisdom, is a gift from heaven and it can be obtained with great sacrifices, but when definitively obtained, it compensates a hundredfold for what has been sacrificed.
And you, partisans of Charles X, what do you want? This cruel king? but save yourselves, my dear ones, this is not perjury, he has irretrievably lost the confidence of the French, and severed the only link which attaches one to the nation. And then who likes a traitor such as him? One associated with his crimes.
Do you want the Duke of Bordeaux? but you know that a nation which is sovereign, pushes anyone away except its own.
The law applies to us both, and both of us owe an entire obedience to the law. But I say in the event of a claim, which one, would I or him be entitled to the throne of France?
First, this child, even if he were legitimate, would only come from a dynasty imposed on the French, and I am the son of a sovereign elevated by the people. Consequently, I would not be the heir to the crown before him?
And you, the Republicans, who are friends of the people, if the experience of the French Republic has not yet dried up your wishes, if the dungeons teeming with victims, if the scaffolds would be continuously operated, if the human blood spilled day and night in great floods, so much horror that the republic would bring, did not affect your reason, remember at least the great citizen, Lafayette.
This great apostle of freedom, did he not tell you that the constitutional monarchy is the best kind of republic? And you, who invoke my name, if on the one hand you attached some value to my person, consider however that I am unaccustomed to govern because of my youth.
Metternich
Metternich took care to wrap my mind in a deep ignorance on how to reign. I never removed my sword from its scabbard, and if one did not give me the capacity to command, even a simple regiment, how would I be able to govern a people?
Napoleon, it is true, was a great captain and gifted with a first rate genius, but, since I am his son, does it follow that I must resemble him? Besides, how many new troubles agitate France. What a doubling of fury on the part of the foreign powers would there be, if ever I were so guilty as to bend to your wishes!
Ah my dear friends, are you thinking? No, no, I’d rather die than cause, for myself alone, the least pain in our country!
France needs an experienced, loyal, prudent, peaceful and warlike king, if necessary. These high qualities reside in Louis-Philppe. So attach yourself to keep, to assist, even in the peril of your days, such a precious sovereign, because at the moment this prince would cease to reign, it would be bad for France, and I would die from sorrow.
Carlists, Bonapartists, republicans, I ask you if you love the country, it might be an insult to you, but the current malaise of France comes from your crazy attempts, it’s the truth. By your intrigues, by your disorder, you trouble the peace of the country, which creates a lack of confidence amongst the citizenry, which results in the decline of industry and commerce.
Foreign kings who would like to destroy your freedoms and decimate France, do you think you are not helping them? In addition, you are only a small part of the nation, and would it be fair for a few lonely men to believe that they are more enlightened than the people on the interests of the country.
As for your opinions, the very divergence between them attests to their falsity. Ah my fellow citizens, rally yourselves, I conjure you in the name of the fatherland, and in your own interest, rally all of you ardently under the national flag of Louis-Philippe. Then trust will be reborn more intimately than ever and prosperity will take on a more and more brilliant hue, then your freedoms will be inviolable.
It remains for me, Sire, to express to you one last regret. Born in Paris, March 20, 1811, I belonged to the class of 1831, which Your Majesty would undoubtedly want to be sweet for me.
Sire, to be able to find myself in the midst of the brave Parisians, among my dear fellow citizens, to be with them. This patriotic duty, to snatch from the ballot box the first number, and then fly to glory for the defense of my homeland and its king! But the law, the interest and the tranquility of the France oppose it, and a good citizen must above all respect the law, the well-being and the rest of his or her country.
Sire, heaven which directs the destinies of France, gave to this great nation in the person of Your Majesty a pledge assured of its love. After the glorious days of July, France, without leaders, left to itself, was going to be necessarily prey to civil war, fleeing from parties and still at first of invasion and undoubtedly decimated by foreign kings, she set her eyes on Your Majesty put in your hands her destinies and the care of her happiness.
Free of ambition, independent, happy in his private life and the care of his family and especially free of the enormous weight of the crown, Your Majesty seeing the metropolis in danger, did not hesitate to make the sacrifice of his happiness, and to take charge of the throne.
Your Majesty restored balance within the country and respect outside of it. To produce this, the means could have been peace or war. War! Nothing is easier. Blood and money pay for everything.
But peace, above all, with despots, jealous of French liberties! Ah! what talent, what prudence, what skill, what care and constancy is not necessary to preserve it, to maintain it!
But peace was the first need of France and you have heroically maintained it with honor.
Your Majesty has been careful to avert French bloodshed, to promote the economy, you’ve been protective of commerce and culture. Your Majesty has done this while supporting always the national honor.
The peace has helped the people which has renovated commerce and industry to new heights. This has saved the civilized world from the sight of Europe strewn with dead bodies, and of cities covered with widows and orphans claiming with loud cries that all this could have been avoided.
But if despite Your Majesty’s care to maintain the peace, an unjust aggression from the outside forced her to war, then the whole of France would rise all armed, as if by magic, and led to glory by the warriors of Jemmapes and de Valmy, tumbling over his enemies like lightning, as they leave with them only the fiery traces of their affrontery.
It is in these feelings and this confidence, Sire, that I never cease to form the most ardent wishes for the happiness of France, and for the prosperity of the reign of your dynasty, and that I have the honor of according the admiration due in you as the hero of peace,
SIRE, OF YOUR MAJESTY,
The obedient and affectionate servant,
FR. NAP.
Vienna (Austria), 15 February, 1832
Napoleon François
Partie 2. La partie 1 est ici.
C’est la conclusion de la lettre écrite par le fils de Napoléon, Napoléon François à l’actuel roi de France, Louis Philippe, quelques mois avant sa mort en 1832.
