The year 1808 was fertile in remarkable events. Occupied as I was with
my own duties, I yet employed my leisure hours in observing the course of
those great acts by which Bonaparte seemed determined to mark every day
of his life. At the commencement of 1808 I received one of the first
copies of the Code of Commerce, promulgated on the 1st of January by the
Emperor's order. This code appeared to me an act of mockery; at least it
was extraordinary to publish a code respecting a subject which it was the
effect of all the Imperial decrees to destroy. What trade could possibly
exist under the Continental system, and the ruinous severity of the
customs? The line was already extended widely enough when, by a
'Senatus-consulte', it was still further widened. The Emperor, to whom
all the Continent submitted, had recourse to no other formality for the
purpose of annexing to the Empire the towns of Kehl, Cassel near Mayence,
Wesel, and Flushing, with the territories depending on them.

--[A resolution of the senate, or a "Senatus-consulte" was the means
invented by Napoleon for altering the imperial Constitutions, and
even the extent of the Empire. By one of these, dated 21st January
1808, the towns of Kehl, Cassel, and Wesel, with Flushing, all
already seized, were definitely united to France. The loss of
Wesel, which belonged to Murat's Grand Duchy of Berg, was a very
sore point with Murat.]--

These conquests, gained by decrees and senatorial decisions, had at least
the advantage of being effected without bloodshed. All these things were
carefully communicated to me by the Ministers with whom I corresponded,
for my situation at Hamburg had acquired such importance that it was
necessary I should know everything.

At this period I observed among the news which I received from different