It Was, Of Course, A Very Busy Year For Those Responsible To Their
Illustrious Master For The Administration Of Departments.
With a great
naval war on hand, with plots frequently being formed or feared, with the
wheels and levers
Of diplomacy to watch and manipulate, with immense
changes in the machinery of Government going forward, and with the
obligation of satisfying the exacting demands of a chief who was often in
a rage, and always tremendously energetic, the ministers of France were
not likely to have much enthusiasm to spare for maps and charts, large
collections of dead birds, insects, beasts, fishes, butterflies, and
plants, specimens of rocks and quantities of shells.
It is likely enough that absorption in more insistent affairs rather than
a hostile feeling explains the reluctance of the French Government to
authorise the publication of an official history of the voyage when such
a project was first submitted. Freycinet and his colleagues learnt "with
astonishment" that the authorities were unfavourable. "It was," he wrote,
"as if the miseries that we had endured, and to which a great number of
our companions had fallen victims, could be regarded as forming a
legitimate ground of reproach against us." It is more reasonable to
suppose that pressure of other business prevented Napoleon's ministers
from devoting much consideration to the subject. Men who have endured
hazards and hardships, and who return home after a long absence expecting
to be welcomed with acclaim, are disposed to feel snubbed and sore when
they find people not inclined to pay much attention to them.
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