Source Publications

The collection of original documents which must always remain the principal source for the history of the Napoleonic age is Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, published on the initiative of Napoleon III in two parallel editions, both in thirtytwo volumes, which are quite identical as to contents (Paris, 1858-69 and 1870, respectively). To facilitate the use of either edition, Napoleon's letters are referred to by number in the preceding pages. In the first fifteen volumes of the Correspondance practically everything of interest has been included; but after that a selection was made out of regard to the prestige of the empire, a selection which applied especially to the letters written to Napoleon III's father, King Louis of Holland. This has led to a number of collections, among which the collection issued by Lecestre in two volumes, Lettres inédites de Napoléon Ier (Paris, 1897), would seem to be the only one offering anything of importance for the history of the Continental System. That collection includes certain of the most characteristic letters of Napoleon, but the general impression created through them is too one-sided and violent owing to their being compressed into two small volumes.

Besides these must be mentioned the well-known work of Martens, Nouveau recueil de traités, which in its first part, for 1808-14 (Göttingen, 1817), contains a fairly abundant collection of the various blockade decrees. Of perhaps greater value, however, are the documents collected in different parts of the original Recueil, including earlier declarations and instructions which are less accessible. The American official publication, American State Papers (Foreign), vol. III, is also supposed to contain a collection of the most important laws and regulations of all the belligerents governing neutral trade.