A SELECTION FROM THE LETTERS AND DESPATCHES OF THE FIRST NAPOLEON. I With Explanatory Notes. BY CAPTAIN THE HON. D. A. BINGHAM, AUTHOR OF MARRIAGES OF THE BONAPARTES." IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED. 1884. PREFACE. IN the selections which we have made from the voluminous Correspondence of Napoleon we have confined ourselves to letters of general interest and such documents as throw light upon the character of one of the most wonderful men ever born. Much has already been written about Napoleon; but people still write about Cæsar. The marvellous career of both captains furnishes an almost inexhaustible mine for the student of history. Both left behind them something more than the names of their victories, something more solid than their material conquests. As we find the portrait of Cæsar in his Commentaries, so we find the portrait of Napoleon in his Correspondence. We fancy that the selections we have made will give a fair insight into the character and genius of the man who, succeeding the Revolution, re-established order in France and swept like a hurricane over the rest of Europe, destroying in his passage a great deal that was rotten. Voltaire says that the highwayman was succeeded by the conqueror, and the rapacity of Napoleon, |