At Hamburg a Government Committee was formed, consisting of the Prince of Eekmuhl as President, Comte de Chaban, Councillor of State, who superintended the departments of the Interior and Finance, and of M. Faure, Councillor of State, who was appointed to form and regulate the Courts of Law.  I had sometimes met M. de Chaban at Malmaison.  He was distantly related to Josephine, and had formerly been an officer in the French Guards.  He was compelled to emigrate, having been subjected to every species of persecution during the Revolution.

M. de Chaban was among the first of the emigrants who returned to France after the 18th Brumaire.  He was at first made Sub-Prefect of Vendome, but on the union of Tuscany with France Napoleon created him a member of the Junta appointed to regulate the affairs of Tuscany.  He next became Prefect of Coblentz and Brussels, was made a Count by Bonaparte, and was afterwards chosen a member of the Government Committee at Hamburg.  M. de Chaban was a man of upright principles, and he discharged his various functions in a way that commanded esteem and attachment.

—­[I recollect an anecdote which but too well depicts those disastrous times.  The Comte de Chaban, being obliged to cross France during the Reign of Terror, was compelled to assume a, disguise.  He accordingly provided himself with a smockfrock; a cart and horses, and a load of corn.  In this manner he journeyed from place to place till he reached the frontiers.  He stopped at Rochambeau, in the Vendomais, where he was recognised by the Marshal de Rochambeau, who to guard against exciting any suspicion among- his servants, treated him as if he had really been a carman and said to him, “You may dine in the kitchen.”—­Bourrienne.]—­

The Hanseatic Towns, united to the Grand Empire professedly for their welfare, soon felt the blessings of the new organisation of a regenerating Government.  They were at once presented with; the stamp-duty, registration, the lottery, the droits reunis, the tax on cards, and the ‘octroi’.  This prodigality of presents caused, as we may be sure, the most lively gratitude; a tax for military quarters and for warlike supplies was imposed, but this did not relieve any one from laving not only officers and soldiers; but even all the chiefs of the administration and their officials billeted on them:  The refineries, breweries, and manufactures of all sorts were suppressed.  The cash chests of the Admiralty, of the charity houses, of the manufactures, of the savings-banks, of the working classes, the funds of the prisons, the relief meant for the infirm, the chests of the refuges, orphanages; and of the hospitals, were all seized.