Page:The Great problems of British statesmanship.djvu/55

Rh India prepared or discussed in the time of Napoleon were inspired not by Paul the First and Alexander the First, but by the great Corsican, that Alexander desired to acquire Constantinople chiefly owing to Napoleon's incitement, that the joint Franco-Russian expedition against India was sheer and deliberate humbug to frighten the English. In the words of the great historian Vandal, the author of the best book on Napoleon and Alexander the First:

The documents given clearly establish that Napoleon neither intended to give Constantinople to Russia, nor to attack England in India, that on the contrary he wanted Constantinople for France, and that he attached greater value to Egypt than to Constantinople. In his instructions to Caulaincourt, Napoleon confessed that his plans could be carried out only if he ruled the sea, that a premature movement on Constantinople would result in England occupying Egypt, the most valuable part of the Turkish empire. Napoleon might conceivably have given to Russia Constantinople for a time, but he would have done so only with the object of involving Russia in trouble with England. According to Villemain, he said: 'J'ai voulu refouler amicalement la Russie en Asie; je lui ai offert Constantinople.' Commenting on these words, Vandal tells us that, in danghng the bait of Constantinople before Russia, Napoleon merely aimed at involving that country in a life-and-death struggle with England.

Eather by his threats of attacking India in company with Russia overland than by any actual attempt at carrying out that mad adventure, did Napoleon create