"It was a time when people seemed to think that they did not need to have any esteem for talent and when war, and war alone, seemed to be the prime mover of all affairs." If Talleyrand had been at all correct in his assessment of the lot of the diplomatic corps during the Empire, there would be almost no reason to look into the history of Napoleon's diplomats, and this paper would rather quickly draw to a close. It is clear that, in the imperial saga, ambassadors did not play as important a role as the marshals, secretaries de légation did not arouse the same interest as the grognards, and agents diplomatiques were not to fare as well as the demi-soldes. However, Napoleon's Europe cannot be understood without considering his diplomacy, nor can the history of the First Empire be understood without considering the Ministère des Relations extérieures.
The following episode, which was recounted by Artaud de Montor and which took place in Paris in 1811, ought to be enough to stimulate interest in the subject.
The Ministre de la Police showed the Emperor that plots were continually being hatched in the foreign embassies of Paris, themselves protected by the privilege to immunity from prosecution – a state sometimes erroneously known as extraterritoriality. Infuriated by this impediment to the proper functioning of his police, Napoleon decided that it was unacceptable that he could not, when necessary, enter an embassy and flush out the conspirators. He ordered a conseiller d'État to draft a report proving the uselessness, indeed the danger, of diplomatic immunity; and a decree putting an end to it was to be prepared. However, the day before the date fixed for discussion in the conseil, news of the report reached the director of the Archives du Ministère des Relations extérieures, the Comte d'Hauterive. He immediately set to work. After firstly giving instructions to the director of the Imprimerie Nationale to ready his workers for an all-night job, d'Hauterive then penned a counter-argument, demonstrating that such diplomatic immunities were deeply-rooted. In his report, he highlighted the venerable tradition going back as far as the Romans, describing where true civilisation and the path to true enlightenment lay. He concluded that a sovereign's honour required him to respect the inviolable rights of men…"
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