Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1831 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES IN FRANCE--SPECULATIONS OF OUVRARD--INJUSTICE OF THE EMPEROR -- TRANSACTIONS AT HAMBURG ASSASSINS--PRESENCE OF MIND OVERTURES TO MR FOX -- HIS GENEROUS CONDUCT--ELEVATION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY -- WAR WITH PRUSSIA -- ITS RESULTS -- BATTLE OF JENA--DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. While the Emperor might naturally have expected that his brilliant success would rouse the public mind in France, he learned that a general alarm was spreading, the bank assailed, and its notes at five per cent discount. At the same time, in Hamburg, the paper money of France had reached twenty-two per cent below par. The public funds were falling; and the condition of this grand thermometer of public opinion had a corresponding effect upon the imperial temper. An immense financial enterprise of the famous M. Ouvrard was the proximate cause of the embarrassments of 1805. To this speculation the treasury had lent itself; and, had the original scheme been followed out, under the management and rigid probity of the projector, there can be no question that it would have proved advantageous to Spain, and ultimately to France. I knew M. Ouvrard well: the majority of the facts now to be related, passed under my own eyes; and, in 1808, during a visit to Hamburg, he himself informed me of the details of his gigantic operations. Though a bankrupt in 1806, before the 18th Brumaire, he had realized sixty millions, (; 2,500,000) on which he owed not a single franc. This celebrated financier, the astonishing variations in his fortune, the activity of his life, and the immense undertakings in which it was passed, have excited general attention. Upon these a judgment is not to be hastily formed; for the son of a paper...