Napoleonic Literature
The Court and Camp of Buonaparte
The Ministers:  Clarke

The father of Henri-Jacques-Guillaume Clarke -- born at Landrecies, October 17th, 1765 -- was an Irish adventurer, of nowise distinguished birth, colonel in the French army. From his infancy he was designed for the army; and received his education at the military school of Paris. In 1784 he was captain; and in 1792 we find him colonel of a cavalry regiment. How he rose to that rank is not very clear -- certainly not by his merit. His regiment would have been wholly destroyed on more than one occasion, had not his inferiors in command saved it from the consequences of his incapacity. In 1793 he was made general of brigade; but he had not long blundered through the duties of his new post, before he was imprisoned as a noble. He was soon released, however, and away he hurried to Paris, to procure if possible his restoration, or at least some equivalent advantage. He introduced himself to Carnot, to whom he hoped to recommend himself by the fury of his revolutionary opinions. He breathed nothing but flames and death against all who did not support égalité and the souveraineté du peuple. What other chance had he of succeeding? Fight he could not; so that nothing remained except his tongue to aid his views. That instrument he used to such purpose, that Carnot gently chid him for his violence, exhorting him to combine a little discretion with his zeal. But something must be done for citizen Clarke, the most honest of republicans: he was accordingly placed over the Board of Topography. As his only object was to live in harmony with "the powers that be," and as he readily sacrificed his own opinions -- if he had any -- to those of his superiors in station, he agreed very well with the ferocious Committee of Public Safety. If a storm approached him, he threw himself down until it had blown over. The Directory arose: he discovered, for the first time, that the form of government had been too democratic, and disgraced itself by too many excesses. France would, however, be an elysium under five of her ablest and most virtuous citizens. Again his suppleness had success: not only were the profits of his post secured to him, but he was sent on a secret mission to Vienna, and on his return entrusted with another as secret, and much more important -- that of acting the spy upon Buonaparte.

That ambitious chief had, from the very first, caused some uneasiness in the minds of the Directors. Might he not already be plotting to overturn the existing government, and place himself in the vacant seat? He must be narrowly watched. Clarke repaired to Milan, under the pretext of negociating for the liberty of La Fayette and others, whom Austria had imprisoned; and Buonaparte at once pierced the character of the spy. It required very few words to render this most supple of creatures as devoted to himself as he had ever been to the Directory. Whatever instructions Clarke received from Paris, he showed to the general; and his answers were for the most part dictated by the other. What could better serve the Corsican's views than this exhibition of imbecility, ingratitude, jealousy, and meditated revenge, on the part of the Directory? But the l8th Fructidor arrived; Carnot was disgraced, and Clarke had no longer a protector. He was recalled; he refused to leave Italy until the peace of Campo-Formio, nor did he then return to Paris until the command had been repeated. He doubtless suspected that his treachery to his employers was known, and naturally feared the consequences. He reached the capital, was disgraced, but, contrary to his expectations perhaps, escaped imprisonment.

After the 18th Brumaire, the friend successively of the Jacobins, the Montagnards, the Thermidorians, and the Directors, became the slave of the Consuls. He was not only re-established in his sinecure place at the board, but was employed in several important missions. It may easily be supposed that under the imperial sway he was not less fortunate. Under the Directory he had been made general of division; now he was made councillor of state, secretary to the imperial cabinet for the marine and war departments, &c.; but his new functions did not prevent him from filling other temporary offices. The emperor was too well acquainted with his imbecility and even cowardice as a soldier, to employ him in the field; but he was not the less entrusted with some important military commands. In 1805 he governed Vienna, and afterwards Erfurth and Berlin. In the latter city his conduct is said to have been distinguished no less for brutality than for rapacity. The enormous contributions which he levied on the inhabitants, no inconsiderable portion of which found its way into his own coffers, have covered him with odium, but his behaviour to the Prussian royal family has consigned him to everlasting execration. The beautiful and unfortunate queen is said to have suffered much personal insolence at his hands.

After the peace of Tilsit he reached his highest elevation, being appointed minister of war. For this office Clarke had little capacity, but he had other qualifications not less acceptable: he never disputed the emperor's will, but did his utmost to anticipate it; and he professed the most implacable hatred against the English government. On one occasion, too, he rendered a signal service to Napoleon by calling out the National Guards, and sending them, with Bernadotte at their head, to oppose the British forces at Flushing. The praise, indeed, of so prompt and vigorous a measure must be divided with one or two other ministers, especially with Fouché, but he alone was rewarded. The grand cordon of the Legion of Honour, and the ducal title of Feltre, almost. turned his head. He began to fancy that he was somebody, and for the first time in his life he was heard to speak of his ancestors. Unlike most other natives of the country whence his origin was drawn, he was not satisfied with deducing his descent from some line of Milesian kinglets: the vain upstart gave himself out as a true scion of the Plantagenets! Napoleon laughed at this pitiful folly, and one day confounded him in the midst of a brilliant circle by saying, "Why did you not acquaint me with your rights to the English throne? We must assert them!" The silly boaster was from that moment silent.

While Napoleon was absent in Russia, the conspiracy of Mallet completely bewildered the never very clear brains of Clarke. He could not foresee it, nor could he repress it when it burst forth; but when the emperor's more vigorous servants had dissipated all apprehension from it, he was active enough in the work of punishment. This coward was, as cowards usually are, cruel; and his over zeal in this work of bloodshed lost him the favour of Napoleon.

This cunning calculator -- cunning in what related his own interests, but stupid in every other thing -- attentively watched the decline of his benefactor's fortunes. When intelligence of a reverse arrived, he refrained from the sight of the empress-regent; whenever the French arms were victorious, he rushed into her presence to display his enthusiasm. When all doubt was at an end, he did not see why he should be more faithful than others: he acknowledged Louis, and in return was ranked among the new peers. In changing masters, he changed not principles -- under Napoleon he had been a ready support of despotism; under Louis he consistently observed in the chamber of peers, "the king, and the law are the same thing: what the one wills, so wills the other." When, in 1815, Napoleon disembarked, he was at some loss how to act; the king displaced Soult from the ministry of war, and gave him the portfolio; but this tie would have been of no avail had he not foreseen the second downfall of the usurper. Could any one doubt the result when Talleyrand continued faithful to the royal interests? Clarke deliberated no longer, but followed Louis to Ghent.

After the second restoration, this duke of Feltre again received the portfolio of war; and grievous to the army proved his administration. In 1817 he was dismissed, but then he was made a marshal of France, and appointed governor of the fifteenth military division at Rouen. But he did not long enjoy his new honours: he died in 1818, leaving behind him a large fortune, and a most despicable reputation.

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