Opinions of Napoleon the First on Russia and Poland Expressed at St. Helena, with Their Adaptation to the Present War

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Chapman and Hall, 1855 - Europe - 19 pages
 

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Page 1 - Russia is the more formidable, because she can never disarm. In Russia, once a soldier, always a soldier. Barbarians, who, one may say, have no country, and to whom every country is better than the one which gave them birth.
Page 2 - In the natural course of things, in a few years Turkey must fall to Russia. The greatest part of her population are Greeks, who, you may say, are Russians. The Powers it would injure, and who could oppose it, are England, France, Prussia, and Austria. Now as to Austria, it will be very easy for Russia to engage her assistance by giving her Servia and other provinces bordering on the Austrian dominion reaching near to Constantinople.
Page 6 - If Prussia casts in its lot with the Muscovites, it cannot complain if it undergoes the fate which it itself imposed on Saxony when its sovereign adhered to Napoleon in 1814. But to cement the league which is to achieve this mighty deliverance, the cause of independence must be severed from that of democracy; Poland must be restored by an effort of united Europe, not by arming one section of it against the other. Its partition was the sin of the sovereigns alone, and restitution must be made or retribution...
Page 2 - Once mistress of Constantinople, Russia gets all the commerce of the Mediterranean, becomes a great naval power, and God knows what may happen.
Page 2 - France, it was indifferent to them what women they violated, old or young were alike to them, as any were preferable to those they had left behind. Moreover the Russians are poor, and it is necessary for them to conquer. When I am dead and gone, my memory will be esteemed, and I shall be revered in consequence of having foreseen, and endeavoured to put a stop to, that which will yet take place. It will be revered when the barbarians of the north will possess Europe, which would not have happened,...
Page 2 - Alexander practised towards me was to gain my consent to effect this object. I would not consent, foreseeing that the equilibrium of Europe would be destroyed. In the natural course of things, in a few years Turkey must fall to Russia. The greatest part of her population are Greeks, who you may say are Russians.
Page 2 - I see into futurity further than others ; and I wanted to establish a barrier against those barbarians, by reestablishing the kingdom of Poland, and putting Poniatowski at the head of it as king. But your imbeciles of ministers would not consent.
Page 6 - ... of revolution is spoliation, not restitution. To restore Poland is not to introduce new ways, but to return to the old ones. In the courage and heroism of the Sarmatian race is to be found the real and the only effective barrier against the encroachments of the Muscovite : in their indelible feeling of nationality, the provision made by Providence for its resurrection, like the phoenix from its ashes. Such a barrier is not to be found in Turkey. England and France may fight their own battle in...

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