ed debauchee, who is known
only by his crimes and who is the enemy of Russia; a Stein, driven from
his country like an outcast, a miscreant with a price on his head; a
Bennigsen, who, it is said, has some military talent, of which I know
nothing, but whose hands are steeped in blood?[12100].... Let him
surround himself with the Russians and I will say nothing.... Have you
no Russian gentlemen among you who are certainly more attached to
him than these mercenaries? Does he imagine that they are fond of him
personally? Let him put Armfeld in command in Finland and I have nothing
to say; but to have him about his person, for shame!.... What a
superb perspective opened out to the Emperor Alexander at Tilsit, and
especially at Erfurt!.... He has spoilt the finest reign Russia ever
saw.... How can he admit to his society such men as a Stein, an Armfeld,
a Vinzingerode? Say to the Emperor Alexander, that as he gathers around
him my personal enemies it means a desire to insult me personally,
and, consequently, that I must do the same to him. I will drive all his
Baden, Wurtemburg, and Weimar relations out of Germany. Let him provide
a refuge for them in Russia!"

Note what he means by--personal insult[12101], how he intends to avenge
himself by reprisals of the worst kind, to what excess he carries his
interference, how he enters the cabinets of foreign sovereigns, forcibly
entering and breaking, to drive out their councilors and control their
meetings: like the Roman senate with an Antiochus or a Prusias, like an
English Resident with the King of Oude or of Lahore. With others as at
home, he cannot help but act as a master. The aspiration for universal
dominion is in his very nature; it may be modified, kept in check, but
never can it be completely stifled."[12102]

It declares itself on the organization of the Consulate. It explains
why the peace of Amiens could not last; apart from the diplomatic
discussions and behind his alleged grievances, his character, his
exactions, his avowed plans, and the use he intends making of his
forces form the real and true causes of the rupture. In comprehensible
sometimes even in explicit terms, he tells the English: Expel the
Bourbons from your island and close the mouths of your journalists. If
this is against your constitution so much the worse for it, or so much
the worse for you. "There are general principles of international law
to which the (special) laws of states must give way."[12