103] Change your
fundamental laws. Suppress the freedom of the press and the right
of asylum on your soil, the same as I have done. "I have a very poor
opinion of a government which is not strong enough to interdict
things objectionable to foreign governments."[12104] As to mine, my
interference with my neighbors, my late acquisitions of territory, that
does not concern you: "I suppose that you want to talk about Piedmont
and Switzerland? These are trifles"[12105] "Europe recognizes that
Holland, Italy, and Switzerland are at the disposition of France.[12106]
On the other hand, Spain submits to me and through her I hold Portugal.
Thus, from Amsterdam to Bordeaux, from Lisbon to Cadiz and Genoa, from
Leghorn to Naples and to Tarentum, I can close every port to you; no
treaty of commerce between us. Any treaty that I might grant to you
would be trifling: for each million of merchandise that you would send
into France a million of French merchandise would be exported;[12107]
in other words, you would be subject to an open or concealed continental
blockade, which would cause you as much distress in peace as if you
were at war." My eyes are nevertheless fixed on Egypt; "six thousand
Frenchmen would now suffice to re-conquer it";[12108] forcibly, or
otherwise, I shall return there; opportunities will not be lacking, and
I shall be on the watch for them; "sooner or later she will belong to
France, either through the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, or through
some arrangement with the Porte."[12109] Evacuate Malta so that the
Mediterranean may become a French lake; I must rule on sea as on land,
and dispose of the Orient as of the Occident. In sum, "with my France,
England must naturally end in becoming simply an appendix: nature has
made her one of our islands, the same as Oleron or Corsica."[12110]
Naturally, with such a perspective before them, the English keep Malta
and recommence the war. He has anticipated such an occurrence, and his
resolution is taken; at a glance, he perceives and measures the
path this will open to him; with his usual clear-sightedness he has
comprehended, and he announces that the English resistance "forces him
to conquer Europe...." [12111]--"The First Consul is only thirty-three
and has thus far destroyed only the second-class governments. Who knows
how much time he will require to again change the face of Europe and
resurrect the Western Roman Empire?"

To subjugate the Continent in order to fo