I am more far-sighted than other sovereigns, and I want to take this opportunity to settle this old quarrel with England. Such circumstances will never arise again. What seems to hurt only me today will hurt other sovereigns a little later. Habit and passion are against me. Prejudice, on the one hand, and predilection, on the other, blind cabinets. After a few years of a bad peace, nations and their sovereigns would feel what they are missing. I'm the only one who sees it today, because the others want to close their eyes.
England's power, as it is now, rests solely on the monopoly she exercises over other nations, and can only be sustained by it. Why should she alone make the profits that so many millions of other individuals can make with her? The proof that she alone exploits what belongs to others is that she lives only by her customs and trade, and that her population cannot consume everything that pays her duties. So why should what others consume pay duty to London customs? If I had the weakness to give in on certain points in order to make a bad peace, before four years the continent would blame me. But there would be no time to change it. The seas would be covered with our riches, and England, which would have taken advantage of this truce to regain its breath and fill its coffers, would confiscate everything, if we were only to show temper before the cries of commerce had awakened certain cabinets. Ten years of war, of discomfort, of misfortune, three or four coalitions formed and destroyed would perhaps not bring us back to the point ой we are today. Posterity, which will judge impartially, will decide between Rome and Carthage. Her judgment will be in favor of France. She fights now, no matter what anyone says, only in the general interest. So it is right that the banners of the continent should join with our own. France fights today only for the most sacred rights of nations, while England defends only the privileges she has arrogated to herself.
If a truce of three or four years were possible," the Emperor told me, "Europe would soon feel the rival influence of this power, an enemy to trade, and the onerous weight of its monopoly. We would soon see Germany's wishes calling for the prohibitive system we now follow with such repugnance, and demanding vengeance from this government, the enemy of all foreign industry, from this commercial colossus which can only exist at the expense of others, since it can only pay the interest on its loans, its subsidies and meet its expenses through the monopoly it exercises over other nations. By then, it will be too late. Europe will no longer be in the situation it is in today. The rest we will have enjoyed will make sacrifices more painful. On compromised capital entrusted to peace and, for not all lose, it will have to resign to suffer. I seized the only favorable moment. I did what a wise and far-sighted policy dictated. Si j'avais agi autrement, la postérité et l'histoire m en feraient un éternel reproche.
It is, in fact," said the Emperor, "for the dearest interests of Europe that I am now fighting and that I am demanding so many sacrifices from France. I have the foresight of a wise politician, whereas the other sovereigns have only the blindness of fear, and a fear without foundation. They seem to fear that the ne power of France, while this France can only defend the commercial freedoms of Europe.
Europe does not see its real dangers; it is attentive only to the inconvenience imposed on it by naval warfare; it would seem that the whole policy of this poor Europe, that all its interests lie in the price of a barrel of sugar. It's pitiful. But here we are. On ne crie que contre la France, on ne wants to see its armies, as if if England was not everywhere and well more menacing. Heligoland, Gibraltar, Tarifa, Malta, are they not English citadels that threaten the trade of all the powers, more than Danzig threatens Russia? However, if I let make Europe, it would deliver to England. As soon as tomorrow, she would give him Corfu, Madeira, as she already has the Cap. However, rocks Malta, England already dominates Turkey, consequently sea Noire and Russia. At Gibraltar, she holds the gateway to the Mediterranean. If she were to emparer Corfou, she would have a foot in Greece and would be mistress of the gulf. This positionève the eyes, and yet Austria does not want, no more than Russia, see the dangers that lead her. La jalousie de la France est plus forte que la reason; on ne veut avoir aucune prévoyance. If it weren't for me, the cabinets would recognize England's supremacy tomorrow. When all the guarantees of trade are subject to the pleasure of the London cabinet, when we are reduced to eating only the sugar of its merchants, wearing only the stockings and fabrics of its factories, Petersburg, Vienna and Berlin will notice the English monopoly. Until then, we'll turn a blind eye to the fact that I'm defending the interests of all. This is obvious to people of good faith, but who is of good faith? The politics and blindness of Europe are pitiful .
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