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THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE, VOLUME 5
THE MODERN REGIME, VOLUME 1 [NAPOLEON]
by Hippolyte A. Taine
Contents:
PREFACE
BOOK FIRST. Napoleon Bonaparte.
Chapter I. Historical Importance of his Character and Genius.
Chapter II. His Ideas, Passions and Intelligence.
BOOK SECOND. Formation and Character of the New State.
Chapter I. The Institution of Government.
Chapter II. Use and Abuse of Government Services.
Chapter III. The New Government Organization.
BOOK THIRD. Object and Merits of the System.
Chapter I. Recovery of Social Order.
Chapter II. Taxation and Conscription.
Chapter III. Ambition and Self-esteem.
BOOK FOURTH. Defect and Effects of the System.
Chapter I. Local Society.
Chapter II. Local society since 1830.
*****
PREFACE
The following third and last part of the Origins of Contemporary France
is to consist of two volumes. After the present volume, the second is
to treat of the Church, the School and the Family, describe the modern
milieu and note the facilities and obstacles which a society like our
own encounters in this new milieu: here, the past and the present meet,
and the work already done is continued by the work which is going on
under our eyes.--The undertaking is hazardous and more difficult than
with the two preceding parts. For the Ancient Régime and the Revolution
are henceforth complete and finished periods; we have seen the end
of both and are thus able to comprehend their entire course. On the
contrary, the end of the ulterior period is still wanting; the great
institutions which date from the Consulate and the Empire, either
consolidation or dissolution, have not yet reached their historic term:
since 1800, the social order of things, notwithstanding eight changes
of political form, has remained almost intact. Our children or
grandchildren will know whether it will finally succeed or miscarry;
witnesses of the denouement, they will have fuller light by which to
judge of the entire drama. Thus far four acts only have been played;
of the fifth act, we have simply a presentiment.--On the other hand, by
dint of living under this social system, we have become accustomed to
it; it no longer excites our wonder; however artificial it may be
it seems to us natural. We can scarcely conceive of another that is
healthier; and what is much worse, it is repugnant to us to do so. For,
such a conception would soon lead to comparisons and hence to a judgment
and, on many points, to an unfavorable judgment, one which would be a
censure, not only of our institutions but of ourselves. The machine
of the year VIII,[1101] applied to us for three generations, has
permanently shaped and fixed us as we are, for better or for worse. If,
for a century, it sustains us, it represses us for a century. We
have contracted the infirmities it imports--stoppage of development,
instability of internal balance, disorders of the intellect and of
the will, fixed ideas and ideas that are false. These ideas are ours;
therefore we hold on to them, or, rather, they have taken hold of us.
To get rid of them, to impose the necessary recoil on our mind, to
transport us to a distance and place us at a critical point of view,
where we can study ourselves, our ideas and our institutions as
scientific objects, requires a great effort on our part, many
precautions, and long reflection.--Hence, the delays of this study; the
reader will pardon them on considering that an ordinary opinion, caught
on the wing, on such a subject, does not suffice. In any event, when one
presents an opinion on such a subject one is bound to believe it. I
can believe in my own only when it has become precise and seems to me
proven.
Menthon Saint-Bernard, September, 1890.
*****
BOOK FIRST. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF HIS CHARACTER AND GENIUS.
If you want to comprehend a building, you have to imagine the
circumstances, I mean the difficulties and the means, the kind and
quality of its available materials, the moment, the opportunity, and
the urgency of the demand for it. But, still more important, we must
consider the genius and taste of the architect, especially whether he
is the proprietor, whether he built it to live in himself, and, once
installed in it, whether he took pains to adapt it to how own way of
living, to his own necessities, to his own use.--Such is the social
edifice erected by Napoleon Bonaparte, its architect, proprietor, and
principal occupant from 1799 to 1814. It is he who has made modern
France; never was an individual character so profoundly stamped on any
collective work, so that, to comprehend the work, we must first study
the character of the Man.[1102]
I. Napoleon's Past and Personality.
He is of another race and another century.--Origin of his
paternal family.--Transplanted to Corsica.--His maternal
family.--Laetitia Ramolino.--Persistence of Corsican
souvenirs in Napoleon's mind.--His youthful sentiments
regarding Corsica and France.--Indications found in his
early compositions and in his style.--Current monarchical or
democratic ideas have no hold on him.--His impressions of
the 20th of June and 10th of August after the 31st of May.
--His associations with Robespierre and Barras without
committing himself.--His sentiments and the side he takes
Vendémiaire 13th.--The great Condottière.--His character and
conduct in Italy.--Description of him morally and physically
in 1798.--The early and sudden ascendancy which he exerts.
Analogous in spirit and character to his Italian ancestors
of the XVth century.
Disproportionate in all things, but, stranger still, he is not only
out of the common run, but there is no standard of measurement for him;
through his temperament, instincts, faculties, imagination, passions,
and moral constitution he seems cast in a special mould, composed of
another metal than that which enters into the composition of his fellows
and contemporaries. Evidently he is not a Frenchman, nor a man of the
eighteenth century; he belongs to another race and another epoch.[1103]
We detect in him, at the first glance, the foreigner, the Italian,[1104]
and something more, apart and beyond these, surpassing all similitude
or analogy.-Italian he was through blood and lineage; first, through
his paternal family, which is Tuscan,[1105] and which we can follow
down from the twelfth century, at Florence, then at San Miniato; next
at Sarzana, a small, backward, remote town in the state of Genoa, where,
from father to son, it vegetates obscurely in provincial isolation,
through a long line of notaries and municipal syndics. "My origin,"
says Napoleon himself,[1106] "has made all Italians regard me as a
compatriot.... When the question of the marriage of my sister Pauline
with Prince Borghése came up there was but one voice in Rome and in
Tuscany, in that family, and with all its connections: 'It will
do,' said all of them, 'it's amongst ourselves, it is one of our own
families...'" When the Pope later hesitated about coming to Paris to
crown Napoleon, "the Italian party in the Conclave prevailed against
the Austrian party by supporting political arguments with the following
slight tribute to national amour propre: 'After all we are imposing
an Italian family on the barbarians, to govern them. We are revenging
ourselves on the Gauls.'" Significant words, which will one day throw
light upon the depths of the Italian nature, the eldest daughter of
modern civilization, imbued with her right of primogeniture, persisting
in her grudge against the transalpines, the rancorous inheritor of Roman
pride and of antique patriotism.[1107]
From Sarzana, a Bonaparte emigrates to Corsica, where he establishes
himself and lives after 1529. The following year Florence is taken and
subjugated for good. Henceforth, in Tuscany, under Alexander de Medici,
then under Cosmo I. and his successors, in all Italy under Spanish rule,
municipal independence, private feuds, the great exploits of political
adventures and successful usurpations, the system of ephemeral
principalities, based on force and fraud, all give way to permanent
repression, monarchical discipline, external order, and a certain
species of public tranquility. Thus, just at the time when the energy
and ambition, the vigorous and free sap of the Middle Ages begins to
run down and then dry up in the shriveled trunk,[1108] a small detached
branch takes root in an island, not less Italian but almost barbarous,
amidst institutions, customs, and passions belonging to the primitive
medieval epoch,[1109] and in a social atmosphere sufficiently rude for
the maintenance of all its vigor and harshness.--Grafted, moreover, by
frequent marriages, on the wild stock of the island, Napoleon, on the
maternal side, through his grandmother and mother, is wholly indigenous.
His grandmother, a Pietra-Santa, belonged to Sarténe,[1110] a Corsican
canton par excellence where, in 1800, hereditary vendettas still
maintained the system of the eleventh century; where the permanent
strife of inimical families was suspended only by truces; where, in many
villages, nobody stirred out of doors except in armed bodies, and
where the houses were crenellated like fortresses. His mother, Laetitia
Ramolini, from whom, in character and in will, he derived much more than
from his father,[1111] is a primitive soul on which Civilization
has taken no hold. She is simple, all of a piece, unsuited to the
refinements, charms, and graces of a worldly life; indifferent to
comforts, without literary culture, as parsimonious as any peasant
woman, but as energetic as the leader of a band. She is powerful,
physically and spiritually, accustomed to danger, ready in desperate
resolutions. She is, in short, a "rural Cornelia," who conceived and
gave birth to her son amidst the risks of battle and of defeat, in the
thickest of the French invasion, amidst mountain rides on horseback,
nocturnal surprises, and volleys of musketry.[1112]
"Losses, privations, and fatigue," says Napoleon, "she endured all and
braved all. Hers was a man's head on a woman's shoulders."
Thus fashioned and brought into the world, he felt that, from first to
the last, he was of his people and country.
"Everything was better there," said he, at Saint Helena,[1113] "even the
very smell of the soil, which he could have detected with his eyes shut;
nowhere had he found the same thing. He imagined himself there again
in early infancy, and lived over again the days of his youth, amidst
precipices, traversing lofty peaks, deep valleys, and narrow defiles,
enjoying the honors and pleasures of hospitality, "treated everywhere
as a brother and compatriot," without any accident or insult ever
suggesting to him that his confidence was not well grounded." At
Bocognano,[1114] where his mother, pregnant with him, had taken
refuge, "where hatred and vengeance extended to the seventh degree of
relationship, and where the dowry of a young girl was estimated by the
number of her Cousins, I was feasted and made welcome, and everybody
would have died for me." Forced to become a Frenchman, transplanted
to France, educated at the expense of the king in a French school, he
became rigid in his insular patriotism, and loudly extolled Paoli, the
liberator, against whom his relations had declared themselves. "Paoli,"
said he, at the dinner table,[1115]" was a great man. He loved his
country. My father was his adjutant, and never will I forgive him
for having aided in the union of Corsica with France. He should have
followed her fortunes and have succumbed only with her." Throughout his
youth he is at heart anti-French, morose, "bitter, liking very few and
very little liked, brooding over resentment," like a vanquished man,
always moody and compelled to work against the grain. At Brienne, he
keeps aloof from his comrades, takes no part in their sports, shuts
himself in the library, and opens himself up only to Bourrienne
in explosions of hatred: "I will do you Frenchmen all the harm I
can!"--"Corsican by nation and character," wrote his professor of
history in the Military Academy, "he will go far if circumstances
favor him."[1116]--Leaving the Academy, and in garrison at Valence and
Auxonne, he remains always hostile, denationalized; his old bitterness
returns, and, addressing his letters to Paoli, he says: "I was born when
our country perished. Thirty thousand Frenchmen vomited on our shores,
drowning the throne of liberty in floods of blood--such was the odious
spectacle on which my eyes first opened! The groans of the dying, the
shrieks of the oppressed, tears of despair, surrounded my cradle from
my birth... I will blacken those who betrayed the common cause with
the brush of infamy.... vile, sordid souls corrupted by gain!"[1117]
A little later, his letter to Buttafuoco, deputy in the Constituent
Assembly and principal agent in the annexation to France, is one long
strain of renewed, concentrated hatred, which, after at first trying
to restrain it within the bounds of cold sarcasm, ends in boiling over,
like red-hot lava, in a torrent of scorching invective.--From the age of
fifteen, at the Academy and afterwards in his regiment, he finds refuge
in imagination in the past of his island;[1118] he recounts its history,
his mind dwells upon it for many years, and he dedicates his work to
Paoli. Unable to get it published, he abridges it, and dedicates the
abridgment to Abbé Raynal, recapitulating in a strained style, with
warm, vibrating sympathy, the annals of his small community, its revolts
and deliverances, its heroic and sanguinary outbreaks, its public
and domestic tragedies, ambuscades, betrayals, revenges, loves,
and murders,--in short, a history similar to that of the Scottish
highlanders, while the style, still more than the sympathies, denotes
the foreigner. Undoubtedly, in this work, as in other youthful writings,
he follows as well as he can the authors in vogue--Rousseau, and
especially Raynal; he gives a schoolboy imitation of their tirades,
their sentimental declamation, and their humanitarian grandiloquence.
But these borrowed clothes, which incommode him, do not fit him;
they are too tight, and the cloth is too fine; they require too much
circumspection in walking; he does not know how to put them on, and they
rip at every seam. Not only has he never learned how to spell, but he
does not know the true meaning, connections, and relations of words,
the propriety or impropriety of phrases, the exact significance
of imagery;[1119] he strides on impetuously athwart a pell-mell of
incongruities, incoherencies, Italianisms, and barbarisms, undoubtedly
stumbling along through awkwardness and inexperience, but also through
excess of ardor and of heat;[1120] his jerking, eruptive thought,
overcharged with passion, indicates the depth and temperature of its
source. Already, at the Academy, the professor of belles-lettres[1121]
notes down that "in the strange and incorrect grandeur of his
amplifications he seems to see granite fused in a volcano." However
original in mind and in sensibility, ill-adapted as he is to the society
around him, different from his comrades, it is clear beforehand that the
current ideas which take such hold on them will obtain no hold on him.
Of the two dominant and opposite ideas which clash with each other,
it might be supposed that he would lean either to one or to the other,
although accepting neither.--Pensioner of the king, who supported him at
Brienne, and afterwards in the Military Academy; who also supported his
sister at Saint-Cyr; who, for twenty years, is the benefactor of his
family; to whom, at this very time, he addresses entreating or grateful
letters over his mother's signature--he does not regard him as his born
general; it does not enter his mind to take sides and draw his sword in
his patron's behalf;' in vain is he a gentleman, to whom, d'Hozier
has certified; reared in a school of noble cadets, he has no noble or
monarchical traditions.[1122]--Poor and tormented by ambition, a reader
of Rousseau, patronized by Raynal, and tacking together sentences of
philosophic fustian about equality, if he speaks the jargon of the day,
it is without any belief in it. The phrases in vogue form a decent,
academical drapery for his ideas, or serve him as a red cap for the
club; he is not bewildered by democratic illusions, and entertains no
other feeling than disgust for the revolution and the sovereignty of
the populace.--At Paris, in April,1792, when the struggle between the
monarchists and the revolutionaries is at its height, he tries to find
"some successful speculation,"[1123] and thinks he will hire and sublet
houses at a profit. On the 20th of June he witnesses, only as a matter
of curiosity, the invasion of the Tuileries, and, on seeing the king at
a window place the red cap on his head, exclaims, so as to be heard,"
Che Caglione!" Immediately after this: "How could they let that rabble
enter! Mow down four or five hundred of them with cannons and the rest
would run away." On August 10, when the tocsin sounds, he regards the
people and the king with equal contempt; he rushes to a friend's house
on the Carrousel and there, still as a looker-on, views at his ease all
the occurrences of the day.[1124] Finally, the chateau is forced and he
strolls through the Tuileries, looks in at the neighboring cafés, and
that is all: he is not disposed to take sides, he has no Jacobin or
royalist inclination. His features, even, are so calm "as to provoke
many hostile and distrustful stares, as someone who is unknown and
suspicious."--Similarly, after the 31st of May and the 2nd of June,
his "Souper de Beaucaire" shows that if he condemns the departmental
insurrection it is mainly because he deems it futile: on the side of
the insurgents, a defeated army, no position tenable, no cavalry, raw
artillerymen, Marseilles reduced to its own troops, full of hostile
sans-culottes and so besieged, taken and pillaged. Chances are against
it: "Let the impoverished regions, the inhabitants of Vivaris, of the
Cevennes, of Corsica, fight to the last extremity, but if you lose a
battle and the fruit of a thousand years of fatigue, hardship, economy,
and happiness become the soldier's prey."[1125] Here was something
with which the Girondists could be converted!--None of the political or
social convictions which then exercised such control over men's minds
have any hold on him. Before the 9th of Thermidor he seemed to be a
"republican montagnard," and we follow him for months in Provence, "the
favorite and confidential adviser of young Robespierre," "admirer"
of the elder Robespierre,[1126] intimate at Nice with Charlotte
Robespierre. After the 9th of Thermidor has passed, he frees himself
with bombast from this compromising friendship: "I thought him sincere,"
says he of the younger Robespierre, in a letter intended to be shown,
"but were he my father and had aimed at tyranny, I would have stabbed
him myself." On returning to Paris, after having knocked at several
doors, he takes Barras for a patron. Barras, the most brazen of the
corrupt, Barras, who has overthrown and contrived the death of his two
former protectors.[1127] Among the contending parties and fanaticisms
which succeed each other he keeps cool and free to dispose of himself as
he pleases, indifferent to every cause and concerning himself only
with his own interests.--On the evening of the 12th of Vendémiaire,
on leaving the Feydeau theatre, and noticing the preparations of the
sectionists,[1128] he said to Junot:
"Ah, if the sections put me in command, I would guarantee to place them
in the Tuileries in two hours and have all those Convention rascals
driven out!"
Five hours later, summoned by Barras and the Conventionalists, he takes
"three minutes" to make up his mind, and, instead of "blowing up the
representatives," he mows down the Parisians. Like a good condottière,
he does not commit himself, considers the first that offers and then
the one who offers the most, only to back out afterwards, and finally,
seizing the opportunity, to grab everything.--He will more and
more become a true condottière, that is to say, leader of a band,
increasingly independent, pretending to submit under the pretext of
the public good, looking out only for his own interest, self-centered,
general on his own account and for his own advantage in his Italian
campaign before and after the 18th of Fructidor.[1129] He is, however,
a condottière of the first class, already aspiring to the loftiest
summits, "with no stopping-place but the throne or the scaffold,"[1130]
"determined[1131] to master France, and through France Europe. Without
distraction, sleeping only three hours during the night," he plays
with ideas, men, religions, and governments, exploiting people with
incomparable dexterity and brutality. He is, in the choice of means
as of ends, a superior artist, inexhaustible in glamour, seductions,
corruption, and intimidation, fascinating, and yet more terrible than
any wild beast suddenly released among a herd of browsing cattle. The
expression is not too strong and was uttered by an eye-witness, almost
at this very date, a friend and a competent diplomat: "You know that,
while I am very fond of the dear general, I call him to myself the
little tiger, so as to properly characterize his figure, tenacity, and
courage, the rapidity of his movements, and all that he has in him which
maybe fairly regarded in that sense."[1132]
At this very date, previous to official adulation and the adoption of
a recognized type, we see him face to face in two portraits drawn from
life, one physical, by a truthful painter, Guérin, and the other moral,
by a superior woman, Madame de Staël, who to the best European culture
added tact and worldly perspicacity. Both portraits agree so perfectly
that each seems to interpret and complete the other. "I saw him for the
first time,"[1133] says Madame de Staël, "on his return to France after
the treaty of Campo-Formio. After recovering from the first excitement
of admiration there succeeded to this a decided sentiment of fear." And
yet, "at this time he had no power, for it was even then supposed that
the Directory looked upon him with a good deal of suspicion." People
regarded him sympathetically, and were even prepossessed in his favor;
"thus the fear he inspired was simply due to the singular effect of his
person on almost all who approached him. I had met men worthy of respect
and had likewise met men of ferocious character; but nothing in the
impression which Bonaparte produced on me reminded me of either. I soon
found, in the various opportunities I had of meeting him during his stay
in Paris, that his character was not to be described in terms commonly
employed; he was neither mild nor violent, nor gentle nor cruel, like
certain personages one happens to know. A being like him, wholly unlike
anybody else, could neither feel nor excite sympathy; he was both
more and less than a man; his figure, intellect, and language bore the
imprint of a foreign nationality.. .. far from being reassured on seeing
Bonaparte oftener, he intimidated me more and more every day. I had a
confused impression that he was not to be influenced by any emotion of
sympathy or affection. He regards a human being as a fact, an object,
and not as a fellow-creature. He neither hates nor loves, he exists for
himself alone; the rest of humanity are so many ciphers. The force of
his will consists in the imperturbable calculation of his egoism. He is
a skillful player who has the human species for an antagonist, and
whom he proposes to checkmate... Every time that I heard him talk I
was struck with his superiority; it bore no resemblance to that of men
informed and cultivated through study and social intercourse, such as
we find in France and England. His conversation indicated the tact
of circumstances, like that of the hunter in pursuit of his prey. His
spirit seemed a cold, keen sword-blade, which freezes while it wounds.
I felt a profound irony in his mind, which nothing great or beautiful
could escape, not even his own fame, for he despised the nation whose
suffrages he sought... "--"With him, everything was means or aims;
spontaneity, whether for good or for evil, was entirely absent."
No law, no ideal and abstract rule, existed for him;
"he examined things only with reference to their immediate usefulness; a
general principle was repugnant to him, either as so much nonsense or as
an enemy."
Now, if we contemplate Guérin's portrait,[1134] we see a spare body,
whose narrow shoulders under the uniform wrinkled by sudden movements,
the neck swathed in its high twisted cravat, the temples covered by
long, smooth, straight hair, exposing only the mask, the hard features
intensified through strong contrasts of light and shade, the cheeks
hollow up to the inner angle of the eye, the projecting cheek-bones, the
massive, protuberant jaw, the sinuous, mobile lips, pressed together as
if attentive, the large, clear eyes, deeply sunk under the broad, arched
eyebrows, the fixed, oblique look, as penetrating as a rapier, and the
two creases which extend from the base of the nose to the brow, as if
in a frown of suppressed anger and determined will. Add to this the
accounts of his contemporaries[1135] who saw or heard the curt accent or
the sharp, abrupt gesture, the interrogating, imperious, absolute tone
of voice, and we comprehend how, the moment they accosted him, they felt
the dominating hand which seizes them, presses them down, holds them
firmly and never relaxes its grasp.
Already, at the receptions of the Directory, when conversing with men,
or even with ladies, he puts questions "which prove the superiority
of the questioner to those who have to answer them."[1136] "Are you
married?" says he to this one, and "How many children have you?"to
another. To that one, "When did you come here?" or, again, "When are you
going away? He places himself in front of a French lady, well-known for
her beauty and wit and the vivacity of her opinions, "like the stiffest
of German generals, and says: 'Madame, I don't like women who meddle
with politics!'" Equality, ease, familiarity and companionship, vanish
at his approach. Eighteen months before this, on his appointment as
commander-in-chief of the army in Italy, Admiral Decrès, who had known
him well at Paris,[1137] learns that he is to pass through Toulon: "I at
once propose to my comrades to introduce them, venturing to do so on my
acquaintance with him in Paris. Full of eagerness and joy, I start off.
The door opens and I am about to press forwards," he afterwards wrote,
"when the attitude, the look, and the tone of voice suffice to arrest
me. And yet there was nothing offensive about him; still, this was
enough. I never tried after that to overstep the line thus imposed on
me." A few days later, at Albenga,[1138] certain generals of division,
and among them Augereau, a vulgar, heroic old soldier, vain of his tall
figure and courage, arrive at headquarters, not well disposed toward the
little parvenu sent out to them from Paris. Recalling the description of
him which had been given to them, Augereau is abusive and insubordinate
beforehand: one of Barras' favorites, the Vendémiaire general, a street
general, "not yet tried out on the field of battle,[1139] hasn't a
friend, considered a loner because he is the only one who can thinks for
himself, looking peaky, said to be a mathematician and a dreamer!" They
enter, and Bonaparte keeps them waiting. At last he appears, with his
sword and belt on, explains the disposition of the forces, gives them
his orders, and dismisses them. Augereau has remained silent; It is only
when he gets out of doors does he recover himself and fall back on his
accustomed oaths. He admits to Massena that "that little bastard of a
general frightened him." He cannot "comprehend the ascendancy which made
him feel crushed right away."[1140]
Extraordinary and superior, made for command[1141] and for conquest,
singular and of an unique species, is the feeling of all his
contemporaries. Those who are most familiar with the histories of other
nations, Madame de Staël and, after her, Stendhal, go back to the
right sources to comprehend him, to the "petty Italian tyrants of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries," to Castruccio-Castracani, to the
Braccio of Mantua, to the Piccinino, the Malatestas of Rimini, and
the Sforzas of Milan. In their opinion, however, it is only a chance
analogy, a psychological resemblance. Really, however, and)historically
it is a positive relationship. He is a descendant of the great Italians,
the men of action of the year 1400, the military adventurers, usurpers,
and founders of governments lasting their life-time. He inherits in
direct affiliation their blood and inward organization, mental and
moral.[1142] A bud, collected in their forest, before the age of
refinement, impoverishment, and decay, has been transported into a
similar and remote nursery, where a tragic and militant régime is
permanently established. There the primitive germ is preserved intact
and transmitted from one generation to another, renewed and invigorated
by interbreeding. Finally, at the last stage of its growth, it springs
out of the ground and develops magnificently, blooming the same as ever,
and producing the same fruit as on the original stem. Modern cultivation
and French gardening have pruned away but very few of its branches and
blunted a few of its thorns: its original texture, inmost substance,
and spontaneous development have not changed. The soil of France and of
Europe, however, broken up by revolutionary tempests, is more favorable
to its roots than the worn-out fields of the Middle Ages and there it
grows by itself, without being subject, like its Italian ancestors, to
rivalry with its own species; nothing checks the growth; it may absorb
all the juices of the ground, all the air and sunshine of the region,
and become the Colossus which the ancient plants, equally deep-rooted
and certainly as absorbent, but born in a less friable soil and more
crowded together, could not provide.
II. The Leader and Statesman
Intelligence during the Italian Renaissance and at the
present day.--Integrity of Bonaparte's mental machinery.
--Flexibility, force, and tenacity of his attention.--Another
difference between Napoleon's intellect and that of his
contemporaries.--He thinks objects and not words.--His
antipathy to Ideology.--Little or no literary or
philosophical education.--Self-taught through direct
observation and technical instruction.--His fondness for
details.--His inward vision of physical objects and places.
--His mental portrayal of positions, distances, and
quantities.
"The human plant," said Alfieri, "is in no country born more vigorous
than in Italy"; and never, in Italy, was it so vigorous as from 1300 to
1500, from the contemporaries of Dante down to those of Michael
Angelo, Caesar Borgia, Julius II., and Macchiavelli.[1143] The first
distinguishing mark of a man of those times is the soundness of his
mental instrument. Nowadays, after three hundred years of service,
ours has lost somewhat of its moral fiber, sharpness, and versatility:
usually the compulsory specialization has caused it to become lop-sided
making it unfit for other purposes. What's more, the increase in
ready-made ideas and clichés and acquired methods incrusts it and
reduces its scope to a sort of routine. Finally, it is exhausted by
an excess of intellectual activity and diminished by the continuity of
sedentary habits. It is just the opposite with those impulsive minds
of uncorrupted blood and of a new stock.--Roederer, a competent and
independent judge, who, at the beginning of the consular government,
sees Bonaparte daily at the meetings of the Council of State, and who
notes down every evening the impressions of the day, is carried away
with admiration:[1144]
"Punctual at every sitting, prolonging the session five or six hours,
discussing before and afterwards the subjects brought forward, always
returning to two questions, 'Can that be justified?[1145]' 'Is that
useful?' examining each question in itself, in these two respects, after
having subjected it to a most exact and sharp analysis; next, consulting
the best authorities, the pasts, experience, and obtaining information
about bygone jurisprudence, the laws of Louis XIV. and of Frederick the
Great.... Never did the council adjourn without its members knowing more
than the day before; if not through knowledge derived from him, at least
through the researches he obliged them to make. Never did the members
of the Senate and the Legislative Corps, or of the tribunals, pay their
respects to him without being rewarded for their homage by valuable
instructions. He cannot be surrounded by public men without being the
statesman, all forming for him a council of state."
"What characterizes him above them all," is not alone the penetration
and universality of his comprehension, but likewise and especially "the
force, flexibility, and constancy of his attention. He can work eighteen
hours at a stretch, on one or on several subjects. I never saw him
tired. I never found his mind lacking in inspiration, even when weary
in body, nor when violently exercised, nor when angry. I never saw him
diverted from one matter by another, turning from that under discussion
to one he had just finished or was about to take up. The news, good
or bad, he received from Egypt, did not divert his mind from the civil
code, nor the civil code from the combinations which the safety of Egypt
required. Never did a man more wholly devote himself to the work in
hand, nor better devote his time to what he had to do. Never did a mind
more inflexibly set aside the occupation or thought which did not come
at the right day or hour, never was one more ardent in seeking it, more
alert in its pursuit, more capable of fixing it when the time came to
take it up."
He himself said later on:[1146]
"Various subjects and affairs are stowed away in my brain as in a chest
of drawers. When I want to take up any special business I shut one
drawer and open another. None of them ever get mixed, and never does
this incommode me or fatigue me. If I feel sleepy I shut all the drawers
and go to sleep."
Never has brain so disciplined and under such control been seen, one so
ready at all times for any task, so capable of immediate and absolute
concentration. Its flexibility[1147] is wonderful, "in the instant
application of every faculty and energy, and bringing them all to bear
at once on any object that concerns him, on a mite as well as on an
elephant, on any given individual as well as on an enemy's army. ...
When specially occupied, other things do not exist for him; it is a sort
of chase from which nothing diverts him." And this hot pursuit, which
nothing arrests save capture, this tenacious hunt, this headlong course
by one to whom the goal is never other than a fresh starting-point, is
the spontaneous gait, the natural, even pace which his mind prefers.
"I am always at work," says he to Roederer.[1148] "I meditate a great
deal. If I seem always equal to the occasion, ready to face what
comes, it is because I have thought the matter over a long time before
undertaking it. I have anticipated whatever might happen. It is no
spirit which suddenly reveals to me what I ought to do or say in any
unlooked-for circumstance, but my own reflection, my own meditation. ...
I work all the time, at dinner, in the theatre. I wake up at night in
order to resume my work. I got up last night at two o'clock. I stretched
myself on my couch before the fire to examine the army reports sent to
me by the Minister of War. I found twenty mistakes in them, and made
notes which I have this morning sent to the minister, who is now engaged
with his clerks in rectifying them."--
His associates weaken and sink under the burden imposed on them and
which he supports without feeling the weight. When Consul,[1149] "he
sometimes presides at special meetings of the section of the interior
from ten o'clock in the evening until five o'clock in the morning..
.. Often, at Saint-Cloud, he keeps the counselors of state from nine
o'clock in the morning until five in the evening, with fifteen minutes'
intermission, and seems no more fatigued at the close of the session
than when it began." During the night sessions "many of the members
succumb through weariness, while the Minister of War falls asleep";
he gives them a shake and wakes them up, "Come, come, citizens, let us
bestir ourselves, it is only two o'clock and we must earn the money
the French people pay us." Consul or Emperor,[1150] "he demands of each
minister an account of the smallest details: It is not rare to see
them leaving the council room overcome with fatigue, due to the long
interrogatories to which he has subjected them; he appears not to have
noticed, and talks about the day's work simply as a relaxation which has
scarcely given his mind exercise." And what is worse, "it often happens
that on returning home they find a dozen of his letters requiring
immediate response, for which the whole night scarcely suffices." The
quantity of facts he is able to retain and store away, the quantity of
ideas he elaborates and produces, seems to surpass human capacity, and
this insatiable, inexhaustible, unmovable brain thus keeps on working
uninterruptedly for thirty years.
Through another result of the same mental organization, Napoleon's brain
is never unproductive; that's today our great danger.--During the past
three hundred years we have more and more lost sight of the exact and
direct meaning of things. Subject to the constraints of a conservative,
complex, and extended educational system we study
* the symbols of objects rather than on the objects themselves;
* instead of the ground itself, a map of it;
* instead of animals struggling for existence,[1151] nomenclatures and
classifications, or, at best, stuffed specimens displayed in a museum;
* instead of persons who feel and act, statistics, codes, histories,
literatures, and philosophies;
in short, printed words. Even worse, abstract terms, which from century
to century have become more abstract and therefore further removed
from experience, more difficult to understand, less adaptable and more
deceptive, especially in all that relates to human life and society.
Here, due to the growth of government, to the multiplication of
services, to the entanglement of interests, the object, indefinitely
enlarged and complex, now eludes our grasp. Our vague, incomplete,
incorrect idea of it badly corresponds with it, or does not correspond
at all. In nine minds out of ten, or perhaps ninety-nine out of a
hundred, it is but little more than a word. The others, if they desire
some significant indication of what society actually is beyond the
teachings of books, require ten or fifteen years of close observation
and study to re-think the phrases with which these have filled their
memory, to interpret them anew, to make clear their meaning, to get at
and verify their sense, to substitute for the more or less empty and
indefinite term the fullness and precision of a personal impression. We
have seen how ideas of Society, State, Government, Sovereignty, Rights,
Liberty, the most important of all ideas, were, at the close of the
eighteenth century, curtailed and falsified; how, in most minds, simple
verbal reasoning combined them together in dogmas and axioms; what an
offspring these metaphysical simulacra gave birth to, how many lifeless
and grotesque abortions, how many monstrous and destructive chimeras.
There is no place for any of these fanciful dreams in the mind of
Bonaparte; they cannot arise in it, nor find access to it; his aversion
to the unsubstantial phantoms of political abstraction extends beyond
disdain, even to disgust.[1152] That which was then called ideology, is
his particular bugbear; he loathes it not alone through calculation,
but still more through an instinctive demand for what is real, as a
practical man and statesman, always keeping in mind, like the great
Catherine, "that he is operating, not on paper, but on the human hide,
which is ticklish." Every idea entertained by him had its origin in
his personal observation, and he used his own personal observations to
control them.
If books are useful to him it is to suggest questions, which he never
answers but through his own experience. He has read only a little, and
hastily;[1153] his classical education is rudimentary; in the way of
Latin, he remained in the lower class. The instruction he got at the
Military Academy as well as at Brienne was below mediocrity, while,
after Brienne, it is stated that "for the languages and belles-lettres,
he had no taste." Next to this, the literature of elegance and
refinement, the philosophy of the closet and drawing-room, with which
his contemporaries are imbued, glided over his intellect as over a hard
rock. None but mathematical truths and positive notions about geography
and history found their way into his mind and deeply impressed it.
Everything else, as with his predecessors of the fifteenth century,
comes to him through the original, direct action of his faculties in
contact with men and things, through his prompt and sure tact, his
indefatigable and minute attention, his indefinitely repeated and
rectified divinations during long hours of solitude and silence.
Practice, and not speculation, is the source of his instruction, the
same as with a mechanic brought up amongst machinery.
"There is nothing relating to warfare that I cannot make myself. If
nobody knows how to make gunpowder, I do. I can construct gun-carriages.
If cannon must be cast, I will see that it is done properly. If tactical
details must be taught, I will teach them."[1154]
This is why he is competent right from the beginning, general in the
artillery, major-general, diplomatist, financier and administrator of
all kinds. Thanks to this fertile apprenticeship, beginning with the
Consulate, he shows officials and veteran ministers who send in their
reports to him what to do.
"I am a more experienced administrator than they,[1155] when one has
been obliged to extract from his brains the ways and means with which to
feed, maintain, control, and move with the same spirit and will two or
three hundred thousand men, a long distance from their country, one has
soon discovered the secrets of administration."
In each of the human machines he builds and manipulates, he perceives
right away all the parts, each in its proper place and function, the
motors, the transmissions, the wheels, the composite action, the speed
which ensues, the final result, the complete effect, the net product.
Never is he content with a superficial and summary inspection; he
penetrates into obscure corners and to the lowest depths "through
the technical precision of his questions," with the lucidity of
a specialist, and in this way, borrowing an expression from the
philosophers, with him the concept should be adequate to its
purpose.[1156]
Hence his eagerness for details, for these form the body and substance
of the concept; the hand that has not grasped these, or lets them go,
retains only the shell, an envelope. With respect to these his curiosity
is "insatiable."[1157] In each ministerial department he knows more than
the ministers, and in each bureau he knows as much as the clerks. "On
his table[1158] lie reports of the positions of his forces on land and
on water. He has furnished the plans of these, and fresh ones are issued
every month"; such is the daily reading he likes best.
"I have my reports on positions always at hand; my memory for an
Alexandrine is not good, but I never forget a syllable of my reports on
positions. I shall find them in my room this evening, and I shall not go
to bed until I have read them."
He always knows "his position" on land and at sea better than is known
in the War and Navy departments; better even than his staff-officers the
number, size, and qualities of his ships in or out of port, the present
and future state of vessels under construction, the composition and
strength of their crews, the formation, organization, staff of officers,
material, stations, and enlistments, past and to come, of each army
corps and of each regiment. It is the same in the financial and
diplomatic services, in every branch of the administration, laic or
ecclesiastical, in the physical order and in the moral order. His
topographical memory and his geographical conception of countries,
places, ground, and obstacles culminate in an inward vision which he
evokes at will, and which, years afterwards, revives as fresh as on the
first day. His calculation of distances, marches, and maneuvers is so
rigid a mathematical operation that, frequently, at a distance of two
or four hundred leagues,[1159] his military foresight, calculated two
or four months ahead, turns out correct, almost on the day named, and
precisely on the spot designated.[1160] Add to this one other faculty,
and the rarest of all. For, if things turn out as he foresaw they would,
it is because, as with great chess-players, he has accurately measured
not alone the mechanical moves of the pieces, but the character and
talent of his adversary, "sounded his draft of water," and divined his
probable mistakes. He has added the calculation of physical quantities
and probabilities to the calculation of moral quantities and
probabilities, thus showing himself as great a psychologist as he is an
accomplished strategist. In fact, no one has surpassed him in the art
of judging the condition and motives of an individual or of a group of
people, the real motives, permanent or temporary, which drive or curb
men in general or this or that man in particular, the incentives to be
employed, the kind and degree of pressure to be employed. This central
faculty rules all the others, and in the art of mastering Man his genius
is found supreme.
III. His acute Understanding of Others.
His psychological faculty and way of getting at the thought
and feeling of others.--His self-analysis.--How he imagines
a general situation by selecting a particular case,
imagining the invisible interior by deducting from the
visible exterior.--Originality and superiority of his style
and discourse.--His adaptation of these to his hearers and
to circumstances.--His notation and calculation of
serviceable motives.
No faculty is more precious for a political engineer; for the forces he
acts upon are never other than human passions. But how, except
through divination, can these passions, which grow out of the deepest
sentiments, be reached? How, save by conjecture, can forces be estimated
which seem to defy all measurement? On this dark and uncertain ground,
where one has to grope one's way, Napoleon moves with almost absolute
certainty; he moves promptly. First of all, he studies himself; indeed,
to find one's way into another's soul requires, preliminarily, that one
should dive deep into one's own.[1161]
"I have always delighted in analysis," said he, one day, "and should I
ever fall seriously in love I would take my sentiment to pieces. Why and
How are such important questions one cannot put them to one's self too
often."
"It is certain," writes an observer, "that he, of all men, is the one
who has most meditated on the why which controls human actions."
His method, that of the experimental sciences, consists in testing every
hypothesis or deduction by some positive fact, observed by him under
definite conditions; a physical force being ascertained and accurately
measured through the deviation of a needle, or through the rise and
fall of a fluid, this or that invisible moral force can likewise be
ascertained and approximately measured through some emotional sign, some
decisive manifestation, consisting of a certain word, tone, or gesture.
It is these words, tones, and gestures which he dwells on; he detects
inward sentiments by the outward expression; he figures to himself
the internal by the external, by some facial appearance, some telling
attitude, some brief and topical scene, by such specimen and shortcuts,
so well chosen and detailed that they provide a summary of the
innumerable series of analogous cases. In this way, the vague, fleeting
object is suddenly arrested, brought to bear, and then gauged and
weighed, like some impalpable gas collected and kept in a graduated
transparent glass tube.--Accordingly, at the Council of State, while the
others, either jurists or administrators, see abstractions, articles of
the law and precedents, he sees people as they are--the Frenchman, the
Italian, the German; that of the peasant, the workman, the bourgeois,
the noble, the returned émigré,[1162] the soldier, the officer and the
functionary--everywhere the individual man as he is, the man who plows,
manufactures, fights, marries, brings forth children, toils, enjoys
himself, and dies.--Nothing is more striking than the contrast between
the dull, grave arguments advanced by the wise official editor, and
Napoleon's own words caught on the wing, at the moment, vibrating and
teeming with illustrations and imagery.[1163] Apropos of divorce, the
principle of which he wishes to maintain:
"Consult, now, national manners and customs. Adultery is no phenomenon;
it is common enough--une affaire de canapé... There must be some curb on
women who commit adultery for trinkets, poetry, Apollo, and the muses,
etc."
But if divorce be allowed for incompatibility of temper you undermine
marriage; the fragility of the bond will be apparent the moment the
obligation is contracted;
"it is just as if a man said to himself, 'I am going to marry until I
feel different.'"
Nullity of marriage must not be too often allowed; once a marriage is
made it is a serious matter to undo it.
"Suppose that, in marrying my cousin just arrived from the Indies, I wed
an adventuress. She bears me children, and I then discover she is not my
cousin--is that marriage valid? Does not public morality demand that it
should be so considered? There has been a mutual exchange of hearts, of
transpiration."
On the right of children to be supported and fed although of age, he
says:
"Will you allow a father to drive a girl of fifteen out of his house? A
father worth 60,000 francs a year might say to his son, 'You are stout
and fat; go and turn plowman.' The children of a rich father, or of one
in good circumstances, are always entitled to the paternal porridge.
Strike out their right to be fed, and you compel children to murder
their parents."
As to adoption:
"You regard this as law-makers and not as statesmen. It is not a civil
contract nor a judicial contract. The analysis (of the jurist) leads
to vicious results. Man is governed by imagination only; without
imagination he is a brute. It is not for five cents a day, simply to
distinguish himself, that a man consents to be killed; if you want to
electrify him touch his heart. A notary, who is paid a fee of twelve
francs for his services, cannot do that. It requires some other process,
a legislative act. Adoption, what is that? An imitation by which society
tries to counterfeit nature. It is a new kind of sacrament.... Society
ordains that the bones and blood of one being shall be changed into the
bones and blood of another. It is the greatest of all legal acts.
It gives the sentiments of a son to one who never had them, and
reciprocally those of a parent. Where ought this to originate? From on
high, like a clap of thunder!"
All his expressions are bright flashes one after another.[1164] Nobody,
since Voltaire and Galiani, has launched forth such a profusion of them;
on society, laws, government, France and the French, some penetrate and
explain, like those of Montesquieu, as if with a flash of lightening.
He does not hammer them out laboriously, but they burst forth, the
outpourings of his intellect, its natural, involuntary, constant action.
And what adds to their value is that, outside of councils and private
conversations, he abstains from them, employing them only in the service
of thought; at other times he subordinates them to the end he has in
view, which is always their practical effect. Ordinarily, he writes and
speaks in a different language, in a language suited to his audience;
he dispenses with the oddities, the irregular improvisations and
imagination, the outbursts of genius and inspiration. He retains and
uses merely those which are intended to impress the personage whom he
wishes to dazzle with a great idea of himself, such as Pius VII., or the
Emperor Alexander. In this case, his conversational tone is that of
a caressing, expansive, amiable familiarity; he is then before the
footlights, and when he acts he can play all parts, tragedy or comedy,
with the same life and spirit whether he fulminates, insinuates, or
even affects simplicity. When he is with his generals, ministers, and
principal performers, he falls back on the concise, positive, technical
business style; any other would be harmful. The keen mind only reveals
itself through the brevity and imperious strength and rudeness of
the accent. For his armies and the common run of men, he has his
proclamations and bulletins, that is to say, sonorous phrases
composed for effect, a statement of facts purposely simplified and
falsified,[1165] in short, an excellent effervescent wine, good for
exciting enthusiasm, and an equally excellent narcotic for maintaining
credulity,[1166] a sort of popular mixture to be distributed just at
the proper time, and whose ingredients are so well proportioned that
the public drinks it with delight, and becomes at once intoxicated.--His
style on every occasion, whether affected or spontaneous, shows his
wonderful knowledge of the masses and of individuals; except in two or
three cases, on one exalted domain, of which he always remains ignorant,
he has ever hit the mark, applying the appropriate lever, giving just
the push, weight, and degree of impulsion which best accomplishes his
purpose. A series of brief, accurate memoranda, corrected daily, enables
him to frame for himself a sort of psychological tablet whereon he notes
down and sums up, in almost numerical valuation, the mental and moral
dispositions, characters, faculties, passions, and aptitudes, the strong
or weak points, of the innumerable human beings, near or remote, on whom
he operates.
IV. His Wonderful Memory.
His Three Atlases.--Their scale and completeness.
Let us try for a moment to show the range and contents of this
intellect; we may have to go back to Caesar to his equal; but, for lack
of documents, we have nothing of Caesar but general features--a summary
outline. Of Napoleon we have, besides the perfect outline, the features
in detail. Read his correspondence, day by day, then chapter by
chapter;[1167] for example, in 1806, after the battle of Austerlitz, or,
still better, in 1809, after his return from Spain, up to the peace of
Vienna; whatever our technical shortcomings may be, we shall find that
his mind, in its comprehensiveness and amplitude, largely surpasses all
known or even credible proportions.
He has mentally within him three principal atlases, always at hand, each
composed of "about twenty note-books," each distinct and each regularly
posted up.--
1. The first one is military, forming a vast collection of topographical
charts as minute as those of an general staff, with detailed plans of
every stronghold, also specific indications and the local distribution
of all forces on sea and on land--crews, regiments, batteries, arsenals,
storehouses, present and future resources in supplies of men, horses,
vehicles, arms, munitions, food, and clothing.
2. The second, which is civil, resembles the heavy, thick volumes
published every year, in which we now read the state of the budget, and
comprehend, first, the innumerable items of ordinary and extraordinary
receipt and expenditure, internal taxes, foreign contributions,
the products of the domains in France and out of France, the fiscal
services, pensions, public works, and the rest; next, all administrative
statistics, the hierarchy of functions and of functionaries, senators,
deputies, ministers, prefects, bishops, professors, judges, and those
under their orders, each where he resides, with his rank, jurisdiction,
and salary.
3. The third is a vast biographical and moral dictionary, in which, as
in the pigeon-holes of the Chief of Police, each notable personage and
local group, each professional or social body, and even each population,
has its label, along with a brief note on its situation, needs, and
antecedents, and, therefore, its demonstrated character, eventual
disposition, and probable conduct. Each label, card, or strip of paper
has its summary; all these partial summaries, methodically classified,
terminate in totals, and the totals of the three atlases, combined
together, thus furnish their possessor with an estimate of his
disposable forces.
Now, in 1809, however full these atlases, they are clearly imprinted on
Napoleon's mind he knows not only the total and the partial summaries,
but also the slightest details; he reads them readily and at every hour;
he comprehends in a mass, and in all particulars, the various nations he
governs directly, or through some one else; that is to say, 60,000,000
men, the different countries he has conquered or overrun, consisting of
70,000 square leagues[1168]. At first, France increased by the addition
of Belgium and Piedmont; next Spain, from which he is just returned,
and where he has placed his brother Joseph; southern Italy, where, after
Joseph, he has placed Murat; central Italy, where he occupies Rome;
northern Italy, where Eugène is his delegate; Dalmatia and Istria, which
he has joined to his empire; Austria, which he invades for the second
time; the Confederation of the Rhine, which he has made and which
he directs; Westphalia and Holland, where his brothers are only his
lieutenants; Prussia, which he has subdued and mutilated and which he
oppresses, and the strongholds of which he still retains; and, add
a last mental tableau, that which represents the northern seas, the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean, all the fleets of the continent at sea
and in port from Dantzic to Flessingen and Bayonne, from Cadiz to Toulon
and Gaëta, from Tarentum to Venice, Corfu, and Constantinople.[1169]--On
the psychological and moral atlas, besides a primitive gap which he will
never fill up, because this is a characteristic trait, there are some
estimates which are wrong, especially with regard to the Pope and to
Catholic conscience. In like manner he rates the energy of national
sentiment in Spain and Germany too low. He rates too high his own
prestige in France and in the countries annexed to her, the balance of
confidence and zeal on which he may rely. But these errors are rather
the product of his will than of his intelligence, he recognizes them at
intervals; if he has illusions it is because he fabricates them; left
to himself his good sense would rest infallible, it is only his passions
which blurred the lucidity of his intellect.--As to the other two
atlases, the topographical and the military, they are as complete and as
exact as ever; No matter how much the realities they contain will swell
and daily become ever more complex, they continue to correspond to it in
their fullness and precision, trait for trait.
V. His Imagination and its Excesses.
His constructive imagination.--His projects and dreams.
--Manifestation of the master faculty and its excesses.
But this multitude of information and observations form only the
smallest portion of the mental population swarming in this immense
brain; for, on his idea of the real, germinate and swarm his concepts of
the possible; without these concepts there would be no way to handle and
transform things, and that he did handle and transform them we all know.
Before acting, he has decided on his plan, and if this plan is adopted,
it is one among several others,[1170] after examining, comparing,
and giving it the preference; he has accordingly thought over all the
others. Behind each combination adopted by him we detect those he has
rejected; there are dozens of them behind each of his decisions, each
maneuver effected, each treaty signed, each decree promulgated, each
order issued, and I venture to say, behind almost every improvised
action or word spoken. For calculation enters into everything he does,
even into his apparent expansiveness, also into his outbursts when in
earnest; if he gives way to these, it is on purpose, foreseeing the
effect, with a view to intimidate or to dazzle. He turns everything in
others as well as in himself to account--his passion, his vehemence, his
weaknesses, his talkativeness, he exploits it all for the advancement
of the edifice he is constructing.[1171] Certainly among his diverse
faculties, however great, that of the constructive imagination is
the most powerful. At the very beginning we feel its heat and boiling
intensity beneath the coolness and rigidity of his technical and
positive instructions.
"When I plan a battle," said he to Roederer, "no man is more spineless
than I am. I over exaggerate to myself all the dangers and all the evils
that are possible under the circumstances. I am in a state of truly
painful agitation. But this does not prevent me from appearing quite
composed to people around me; I am like a woman giving birth to a
child.[1172]
Passionately, in the throes of the creator, he is thus absorbed with
his coming creation; he already anticipates and enjoys living in his
imaginary edifice. "General," said Madame de Clermont-Tonnerre to him,
one day, "you are building behind a scaffolding which you will take
down when you have done with it." "Yes, Madame, that's it,"
replied Bonaparte; "you are right. I am always living two years in
advance."[1173] His response came with "incredible vivacity," as if a
sudden inspiration, that of a soul stirred in its innermost fiber.--Here
as well, the power, the speed, fertility, play, and abundance of his
thought seem unlimited. What he has accomplished is astonishing, but
what he has undertaken is more so; and whatever he may have undertaken
is far surpassed by what he has imagined. However vigorous his practical
faculty, his poetical faculty is stronger; it is even too vigorous for
a statesman; its grandeur is exaggerated into enormity, and its enormity
degenerates into madness. In Italy, after the 18th of Fructidor, he said
to Bourrienne:
"Europe is a molehill; never have there been great empires and
great revolutions, except in the Orient, with its 600,000,000
inhabitants."[1174]
The following year at Saint-Jean d'Acre, on the eve of the last assault,
he added
"If I succeed I shall find in the town the pasha's treasure and arms
for 300,000 men. I stir up and arm all Syria.... I march on Damascus
and Aleppo; as I advance in the country my army will increase with the
discontented. I proclaim to the people the abolition of slavery, and
of the tyrannical government of the pashas. I reach Constantinople with
armed masses. I overthrow the Turkish Empire; I found in the East a new
and grand empire, which fixes my place with posterity, and perhaps I
return to Paris by the way of Adrianople, or by Vienna, after having
annihilated the house of Austria." [1175]
Become consul, and then emperor, he often referred to this happy period,
when, "rid of the restraints of a troublesome civilization," he could
imagine at will and construct at pleasure.[1176]
"I created a religion; I saw myself on the road to Asia, mounted on an
elephant, with a turban on my head, and in my hand a new Koran, which I
composed to suit myself."
Confined to Europe, he thinks, after 1804, that he will reorganize
Charlemagne's empire.
"The French Empire will become the mother country of other
sovereignties... I mean that every king in Europe shall build a grand
palace at Paris for his own use; on the coronation of the Emperor of
the French these kings will come and occupy it; they will grace
this imposing ceremony with their presence, and honor it with their
salutations."[1177] The Pope will come; he came to the first one; he
must necessarily return to Paris, and fix himself there permanently.
Where could the Holy See be better off than in the new capital of
Christianity, under Napoleon, heir to Charlemagne, and temporal
sovereign of the Sovereign Pontiff? Through the temporal the emperor
will control the spiritual,[1178] and through the Pope, consciences."
In November, 1811, unusually excited, he says to De Pradt:
"In five years I shall be master of the world; only Russia will remain,
but I will crush her.[1179]... Paris will extend out to St. Cloud."
To render Paris the physical capital of Europe is, through his own
confession, "one of his constant dreams."
"At times," he says,[1180]"I would like to see her a city of two, three,
four millions of inhabitants, something fabulous, colossal, unknown down
to our day, and its public establishments adequate to its population....
Archimedes proposed to lift the world if he could be allowed to place
his lever; for myself, I would have changed it wherever I could have
been allowed to exercise my energy, perseverance, and budgets."
At all events, he believes so; for however lofty and badly supported
the next story of his structure may be, he has always ready a new
story, loftier and more unsteady, to put above it. A few months before
launching himself, with all Europe at his back, against Russia, he said
to Narbonne:[1181]
"After all, my dear sir, this long road is the road to India. Alexander
started as far off as Moscow to reach the Ganges; this has occurred
to me since St. Jean d'Acre.... To reach England to-day I need the
extremity of Europe, from which to take Asia in the rear.... Suppose
Moscow taken, Russia subdued, the czar reconciled, or dead through some
court conspiracy, perhaps another and dependent throne, and tell me
whether it is not possible for a French army, with its auxiliaries,
setting out from Tiflis, to get as far as the Ganges, where it needs
only a thrust of the French sword to bring down the whole of that grand
commercial scaffolding throughout India. It would be the most gigantic
expedition, I admit, but practicable in the nineteenth century. Through
it France, at one stroke, would secure the independence of the West and
the freedom of the seas."
While uttering this his eyes shone with strange brilliancy, and he
accumulates subjects, weighing obstacles, means, and chances: the
inspiration is under full headway, and he gives himself up to it. The
master faculty finds itself suddenly free, and it takes flight; the
artist,[1182] locked up in politics, has escaped from his sheath; he is
creating out of the ideal and the impossible. We take him for what
he is, a posthumous brother of Dante and Michael Angelo. In the clear
outlines of his vision, in the intensity, coherency, and inward logic
of his dreams, in the profundity of his meditations, in the superhuman
grandeur of his conceptions, he is, indeed, their fellow and their
equal. His genius is of the same stature and the same structure; he is
one of the three sovereign minds of the Italian Renaissance. Only, while
the first two operated on paper and on marble, the latter operates on
the living being, on the sensitive and suffering flesh of humanity.
*****
[Footnote 1101: Reforms introduced by Napoleon after his coup d'état 9
Nov. 1799. (SR.)]
[Footnote 1102: The main authority is, of course, the "correspondance
de l'Empereur Napoléon I.," in thirty-two-volumes. This correspondance,
unfortunately, is still incomplete, while, after the sixth volume, it
must not be forgotten that much of it has been purposely stricken out.
"In general," say the editors (XVI., p.4), "we have been governed simply
by this plain rule, that we were required to publish only what the
Emperor himself would have given to the public had he survived himself,
and, anticipating the verdict of time, exposed to posterity his own
personality and system."--The savant who has the most carefully examined
this correspondence, entire in the French archives, estimates that it
comprises about 80,000 pieces, of which 30,000 have been published in
the collection referred to; passages in 20,000 of the others have been
stricken out on account of previous publication, and about 30,000 more,
through considerations of propriety or policy. For example, but little
more than one-half of the letters from Napoleon to Bigot de Préameneu
on ecclesiastical matters have been published; many of these omitted
letters, all important and characteristic, may be found in "L'Église
romaine et le Premier Empire," by M. d'Haussonville. The above-mentioned
savant estimates the number of important letters not yet published at
2,000.]
[Footnote 1103: "Mémorial de Sainte Héléne," by Las Casas (May 29,
1816).--"In Corsica, Paoli, on a horseback excursion, explained
the positions to him, the places where liberty found resistance or
triumphed. Estimating the character of Napoleon by what he saw of it
through personal observation, Paoli said to him, "Oh, Napoleon, there
is nothing modern in you, you belong wholly to Plutarch!"--Antonomarchi,
"Mémoires," Oct. 25, 1819. The same account, slightly different, is
there given: "Oh. Napoleon," said Paoli to me, "you do not belong to
this century; you talk like one of Plutarch's characters. Courage, you
will take flight yet!"]
[Footnote 1104: De Ségur, "Histoire et Mémoires," I., 150. (Narrative by
Pontécoulant, member of the committee in the war, June, 1795.) "Boissy
d'Anglas told him that he had seen the evening before a little Italian,
pale, slender, and puny, but singularly audacious in his views and
in the vigor of his expressions.--The next day, Bonaparte calls on
Pontécou1ant, Attitude rigid through a morbid pride, poor exterior,
long visage, hollow and bronzed.... He is just from the army and talks
like one who knows what he is talking about."]
[Footnote 1105: Coston, "Biographie des premières années de Napoléon
Buonaparte," 2 vols. (1840), passim.--Yung, "Bonaparte et son Temps,"
I., 300, 302. (Pièces généalogiques.)--King Joseph, "Mémoires," I., 109,
111. (On the various branches and distinguished men of the Bonaparte
family.)--Miot de Melito, "Mémoires," II., 30. (Documents on the
Bonaparte family, collected on the spot by the author in 1801.)]
[Footnote 1106: "Mémorial," May 6, 1816.--Miot de Melito, II., 30. (On
the Bonapartes of San Miniato): "The last offshoot of this branch was a
canon then still living in this same town of San Miniato, and visited by
Bonaparte in the year IV, when he came to Florence."]
[Footnote 1107: "Correspondance de l'Empereur Napoléon I." (Letter of
Bonaparte, Sept.29, 1797, in relation to Italy): "A people at bottom
inimical to the French through the prejudices, character, and customs of
centuries."]
[Footnote 1108: Miot de Melito, I., 126, (1796): "Florence, for two
centuries and a half, had lost that antique energy which, in the stormy
times of the Republic, distinguished this city. Indolence was the
dominant spirit of all classes.. . Almost everywhere I saw only men
lulled to rest by the charms of the most exquisite climate, occupied
solely with the details of a monotonous existence, and tranquilly
vegetating under its beneficent sky."--(On Milan, in 1796, cf. Stendhal,
introduction to the "Chartreuse de Parme.")]
[Footnote 1109: "Miot de Melito," I., 131: "Having just left one of the
most civilized cities in Italy, it was not without some emotion that I
found myself suddenly transported to a country (Corsica) which, in
its savage aspect, its rugged mountains, and its inhabitants uniformly
dressed in coarse brown cloth, contrasted so strongly with the rich and
smiling landscape of Tuscany, and with the comfort, I should almost
say elegance, of costume worn by the happy cultivators of that fertile
soil."]
[Footnote 1110: Miot de Melito, II., 30: "Of a not very important family
of Sartène."--II., 143. (On the canton of Sartène and the Vendettas of
1796).--Coston, I., 4: "The family of Madame Laetitia, sprung from the
counts of Cotalto, came originally from Italy."]
[Footnote 1111: His father, Charles Bonaparte, weak and even frivolous,
"too fond of pleasure to care about his children," and to see to his
affairs, tolerably learned and an indifferent head of a family, died at
the age of thirty-nine of a cancer in the stomach, which seems to be the
only bequest he made to his son Napoleon.--His mother, on the contrary,
serious, authoritative, the true head of a family, was, said Napoleon,
"hard in her affections she punished and rewarded without distinction,
good or bad; she made us all feel it."--On becoming head of the
household, "she was too parsimonious-even ridiculously so. This was due
to excess of foresight on her part; she had known want, and her terrible
sufferings were never out of her mind.... Paoli had tried persuasion
with her before resorting to force... . Madame replied heroically, as a
Cornelia would have done.... From 12 to 15,000 peasants poured down from
the mountains of Ajaccio; our house was pillaged and burnt, our vines
destroyed, and our flocks. ... In other respects, this woman, from whom
it would have been so difficult to extract five francs, would have given
up everything to secure my return from Elba, and after Waterloo she
offered me all she possessed to restore my affairs." (" Mémorial," May
29, 1816, and "Mémoires d'Antonomarchi," Nov. 18, 1819.--On the ideas
and ways of Bonaparte's mother, read her "Conversation" in "Journal
et Mémoires," vol. IV., by Stanislas Girardin.) Duchesse d'Abrantès,"
Mémoires," II., 318, 369. "Avaricious out of all reason except on a few
grave occasions.... No knowledge whatever of the usages of society....
very ignorant, not alone of our literature, but of her own."--Stendhal,
"Vie de Napoleon": "The character of her son is to be explained by the
perfectly Italian character of Madame Laetitia."]
[Footnote 1112: The French conquest is effected by armed force between
July 30, 1768, and May 22, 1769. The Bonaparte family submitted May 23,
1769, and Napoleon was born on the following 15th of August.]
[Footnote 1113: Antonomarchi, "Mémoires," October 4, 1819. "Mémorial,"
May 29, 1816.]
[Footnote 1114: "Miot de Melito," II., 33: "The day I arrived at Bocognano
two men lost their lives through private vengeance. About eight years
before this one of the inhabitants of the canton had killed a neighbor,
the father of two children.... On reaching the age of sixteen or
seventeen years these children left the country in order to dog the
steps of the murderer, who kept on the watch, not daring to go far from
his village.... Finding him playing cards under a tree, they fired at
and killed him, and besides this accidentally shot another man who was
asleep a few paces off. The relatives on both sides pronounced the act
justifiable and according to rule." Ibid., I., 143: "On reaching Bastia
from Ajaccio the two principal families of the place, the Peraldi
and the Visuldi, fired at each other, in disputing over the honor of
entertaining me."]
[Footnote 1115: Bourrienne, "Mémoires," I., 18, 19.]
[Footnote 1116: De Ségur, "Histoire et Mémoires," I,, 74.]
[Footnote 1117: Yung, I., 195. (Letter of Bonaparte to Paoli, June 12,
1789); I., 250 (Letter of Bonaparte to Buttafuoco, January 23 1790).]
[Footnote 1118: Yung, I., 107 (Letter of Napoleon to his father, Sept.
12, 1784); I., 163 (Letter of Napoleon to Abbé Raynal, July, 1786); I.,
197 (Letter of Napoleon to Paoli, June 12, 1789). The three letters on
the history of Corsica are dedicated to Abbé Raynal in a letter of June
24, 1790, and may be found in Yung, I., 434.]
[Footnote 1119: Read especially his essay "On the Truths and Sentiments
most important to inculcate on Men for their Welfare" (a subject
proposed by the Academy of Lyons in 1790). "Some bold men driven by
genius.. .. Perfection grows out of reason as fruit out of a tree....
Reason's eyes guard man from the precipice of the passions... The
spectacle of the strength of virtue was what the Lacedaemonians
principally felt.... Must men then be lucky in the means by which they
are led on to happiness?.... My rights (to property) are renewed along
with my transpiration, circulate in my blood, are written on my nerves,
on my heart.... Proclaim to the rich--your wealth is your misfortune,
withdrawn within the latitude of your senses.... Let the enemies of
nature at thy voice keep silence and swallow their rabid serpents'
tongues.... The wretched shun the society of men, the tapestry of gayety
turns to mourning.... Such, gentlemen, are the Sentiments which, in
animal relations, mankind should have taught it for its welfare."]
[Footnote 1120: Yung, I., 252 (Letter to Buttafuoco). "Dripping with the
blood of his brethren, sullied by every species of crime, he presents
himself with confidence under his vest of a general, the sole reward of
his criminalities."--I., 192 (Letter to the Corsican Intendant, April 2,
1879). "Cultivation is what ruins us"--See various manuscript letters,
copied by Yung, for innumerable and gross mistakes in French.--Miot de
Melito, I., 84 (July, 1796). "He spoke curtly and, at this time, very
incorrectly."--Madame de Rémusat, I., 104. "Whatever language he
spoke it never seemed familiar to him; he appeared to force himself
in expressing his ideas."--Notes par le Comte Chaptal (unpublished),
councillor of state and afterwards minister of the interior under
the Consulate: "At this time, Bonaparte did not blush at the slight
knowledge of administrative details which he possessed; he asked a good
many questions and demanded definitions and the meaning of the commonest
words in use. As it very often happened with him not to clearly
comprehend words which he heard for the first time, he always repeated
these afterwards as he understood them; for example, he constantly
used section for session, armistice for amnesty, fulminating point for
culminating point, rentes voyagères for 'rentes viagères,' etc."]
[Footnote 1121: De Ségur, I., 174]
[Footnote 1122: Cf. the "Mémoires" of Marshal Marmont, I., 15, for the
ordinary sentiments of the young nobility. "In 1792 I had a sentiment
for the person of the king, difficult to define, of which I recovered
the trace, and to some extent the power, twenty-two years later; a
sentiment of devotion almost religious in character, an innate respect
as if due to a being of a superior order. The word King then possessed a
magic, a force, which nothing had changed in pure and honest breasts....
This religion of royalty still existed in the mass of the nation,, and
especially amongst the well-born, who, sufficiently remote from power,
were rather struck with its brilliancy than with its imperfections....
This love became a sort of worship."]
[Footnote 1123: Bourrienne, "Mémoires," I. 27.--Ségur, I. 445. In 1795,
at Paris, Bonaparte, being out of military employment, enters upon
several commercial speculations, amongst which is a bookstore, which
does not succeed. (Stated by Sebastiani and many others.)]
[Footnote 1124: "Mémorial," Aug. 3, 1816.]
[Footnote 1125: Bourrienne, I., 171. (Original text of the "Souper de
Beaucaire.")]
[Footnote 1126: Yung, II., 430, 431. (Words of Charlotte Robespierre.)
Bonaparte as a souvenir of his acquaintance with her, granted her a
pension, under the consulate, of 3600 francs.--Ibid. (Letter of Tilly,
chargé d'affaires at Genoa, to Buchot, commissioner of foreign affairs.)
Cf. in the "Mémorial," Napoleon's favorable judgment of Robespierre.]
[Footnote 1127: Yung, II., 455. (Letter from Bonaparte to Tilly, Aug.
7, 1794.) Ibid., III., 120. (Memoirs of Lucien.) "Barras takes care of
Josephine's dowry, which is the command of the army in Italy." Ibid.,
II., 477. (Grading of general officers, notes by Schérer on Bonaparte.)
"He knows all about artillery, but is rather too ambitious, and too
intriguing for promotion."]
[Footnote 1128: De Ségur, I., 162.--La Fayette, "Mémoires," II., 215.
"Mémorial" (note dictated by Napoleon). He states the reasons for and
against, and adds, speaking of himself: "These sentiments, twenty-five
years of age, confidence in his strength, his destiny, determined him."
Bourrienne, I., 51: "It is certain that he has always bemoaned that day;
he has often said to me that he would give years of his life to efface
that page of his history."]
[Footnote 1129: "Mémorial," I., Sept 6, 1815. "It is only after Lodi
that the idea came to me that I might, after all, become a decisive
actor on our political stage. Then the first spark of lofty ambition
gleamed out." On his aim and conduct in the Italian campaign of
Sybel, "Histoire de l'Europe pendant la Révolution Française" (Dosquet
translation), vol. IV., books II. and III., especially pp.182, 199, 334,
335, 406, 420, 475, 489.]
[Footnote 1130: Yung, III., 213. (Letter of M. de Sucy, August 4,
1797.)]
[Footnote 1131: Ibid., III., 214. (Report of d'Entraigues to M. de
Mowikinoff, Sept., 1797.) "If there was any king in France which was not
himself, he would like to have been his creator, with his rights at the
end of his sword, this sword never to be parted with, so that he might
plunge it in the king's bosom if he ever ceased to be submissive to
him."--Miot de Melito, I., 154. (Bonaparte to Montebello, before Miot
and Melzi, June, 1797.) Ibid, I., 184. (Bonaparte to Miot, Nov. 18,
1797, at Turin.)]
[Footnote 1132: D'Haussonville, "L'Église Romaine et la Premier Empire,"
I., 405. (Words of M. Cacault, signer of the Treaty of Tolentino,
and French Secretary of Legation at Rome, at the commencement of
negotiations for the Concordat.) M. Cacaut says that he used this
expression, "After the scenes of Tolentino and of Leghorn, and
the fright of Manfredini, and Matéi threatened, and so many other
vivacities."]
[Footnote 1133: Madame de Staël, "Considérations sur la Révolution
Française," 3rd part, ch. XXVI., and 4th part, ch. XVIII.]
[Footnote 1134: Portrait of Bonaparte in the "Cabinet des Etampes,"
"drawn by Guérin, engraved by Fiesinger, deposited in the National
Library, Vendémiaire 29, year VII."]
[Footnote 1135: Madame de Rémusat, "Mémoires," I., 104.--Miot de Melito,
I., 84.]
[Footnote 1136: Madame de Staël, "Considerations," etc., 3rd part, ch.
XXV.--Madame de Rémusat, II., 77.]
[Footnote 1137: Stendhal, "Mémoires sur Napoléon," narration of Admiral
Decrès.--Same narration in the "Mémorial."]
[Footnote 1138: De Ségur, I., 193.]
[Footnote 1139: Roederer, "Oeuvres complétes," II., 560. (Conversations
with General Lasalle in 1809, and Lasalle's judgment on the débuts of
Napoleon).]
[Footnote 1140: Another instance of this commanding influence is found
in the case of General Vandamme, an old revolutionary soldier still more
brutal and energetic than Augereau. In 1815, Vandamme said to Marshal
d'Ornano, one day, on ascending the staircase of the Tuileries
together: "My dear fellow, that devil of a man (speaking of the Emperor)
fascinates me in a way I cannot account for. I, who don't fear either
God or the devil, when I approach him I tremble like a child. He would
make me dash through the eye of a needle into the fire!" ("Le Général
Vandamme," by du Casse, II., 385).]
[Footnote 1141: Roederer, III., 356. (Napoleon himself says, February
11, 1809): "I, military! I am so, because I was born so; it is my habit,
my very existence. Wherever I have been I have always had command. I
commanded at twenty-three, at the siege of Toulon; I commanded at Paris
in Vendémiaire; I won over the soldiers in Italy the moment I presented
myself. I was born for that."]
[Footnote 1142: Observe the various features of the same mental and
moral structure among different members of the family. (Speaking of his
brothers and sisters in the "Memorial" Napoleon says): "What family
as numerous presents such a splendid group?"--"Souvenirs", by PASQUIER
(Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France, in VI volumes, Librarie
Plon, Paris 1893. Vol. I. p. 400. (This author, a young magistrate under
Louis XVI., a high functionary under the Empire, an important political
personage under the restoration and the July monarchy, is probably the
best informed and most judicious of eye-witnesses during the first half
of our century.): "Their vices and virtues surpass ordinary proportions
and have a physiognomy of their own. But what especially distinguishes
them is a stubborn will, and inflexible resolution.... All possessed
the instinct of their greatness." They readily accepted "the highest
positions; they even got to believing that their elevation was
inevitable.... Nothing in the incredible good fortune of Joseph
astonished him; often in January, 1814, I heard him say over and over
again that if his brother had not meddled with his affairs after the
second entry into Madrid, he would still be on the throne of Spain.
As to determined obstinacy we have only to refer to the resignation
of Louis, the retirement of Lucien, and the resistances of Fesch; they
alone could stem the will of Napoleon and sometimes break a lance with
him.--Passion, sensuality, the habit of considering themselves outside
of rules, and self-confidence combined with talent, super abound
among the women, as in the fifteenth century. Elisa, in Tuscany, had
a vigorous brain, was high spirited and a genuine sovereign,
notwithstanding the disorders of her private life, in which even
appearances were not sufficiently maintained." Caroline at Naples,
"without being more scrupulous than her sisters," better observed the
proprieties; none of the others so much resembled the Emperor; "with
her, all tastes succumbed to ambition"; it was she who advised and
prevailed upon her husband, Murat, to desert Napoleon in 1814. As to
Pauline, the most beautiful woman of her epoch, "no wife, since that
of the Emperor Claude, surpassed her in the use she dared make of her
charms; nothing could stop her, not even a malady attributed to the
strain of this life-style and for which we have so often seen her
borne in a litter."--Jerome, "in spite of the uncommon boldness of his
debaucheries, maintained his ascendancy over his wife to the last."--On
the "pressing efforts and attempts" of Joseph on Maria Louise in 1814,
Chancelier Pasquier, after Savary's papers and the evidence of M. de
Saint-Aignan, gives extraordinary details.--"Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon,
346, by the count Chaptal: "Every member of this numerous family
(Jérôme, Louis, Joseph, the Bonaparte sisters) mounted thrones as if
they had recovered so much property."]
[Footnote 1143: Burkhardt, "Die Renaissance in Italien,"
passim.--Stendhal, "Histoire de la peinture en Italie"(introduction),
and" Rome, Naples, et Florence," passim.--"Notes par le Comte Chaptal":
When these notes are published, many details will be found in them in
support of the judgment expressed in this and the following chapters.
The psychology of Napoleon as here given is largely confirmed by them.]
[Footnote 1144: Roederer, III, 380 (1802).]
[Footnote 1145: Napoleon uses the French word just which means both
fair, justifiable, pertinent, correct, and in music true.]
[Footnote 1146: "Mémorial."]
[Footnote 1147: De Pradt, "Histoire de l'Ambassade dans la grande-duché
de Varsovie en 1812," preface, p. X, and 5.]
[Footnote 1148: Roederer, III., 544 (February 24, 1809). Cf. Meneval,
"Napoléon et Marie-Louise, souvenirs historiques," I., 210-213.]
[Footnote 1149: Pelet de la Lozère," Opinions de Napoléon au conseil
d'état," p.8.--Roederer, III., 380.]
[Footnote 1150: Mollien, "Mémoires," I., 379; II., 230.--Roederer,
III., 434. "He is at the head of all things. He governs, administrates,
negotiates, works eighteen hours a day, with the clearest and best
organized head; he has governed more in three years than kings in
a hundred years."--Lavalette, "Mémoires," II., 75. (The words of
Napoleon's secretary on Napoleon's labor in Paris, after Leipsic) "He
retires at eleven, but gets up at three o'clock in the morning, and
until the evening there is not a moment he does not devote to work.
It is time this stopped, for he will be used up, and myself before he
is."--Gaudin, Duc de Gaëte, "Mémoires," III. (supplement), p.75. Account
of an evening in which, from eight o'clock to three in the morning,
Napoleon examines with Gaudin his general budget, during seven
consecutive hours, without stopping a minute.--Sir Neil Campbell,
"Napoléon at Fontainebleau and at Elbe," p.243. "Journal de Sir Neil
Campbell a' l'ile d'Elbe": I never saw any man, in any station in life,
so personally active and so persistent in his activity. He seems to
take pleasure in perpetual motion and in seeing those who accompany
him completely tired out, which frequently happened in my case when I
accompanied him.. . Yesterday, after having been on his legs from eight
in the morning to three in the afternoon, visiting the frigates and
transports, even to going down to the lower compartments among the
horses, he rode on horseback for three hours, and, as he afterwards said
to me, to rest himself."]
[Footnote 1151: The starting-point of the great discoveries of Darwin is
the physical, detailed description he made in his study of animals and
plants, as living; during the whole course of life, through so many
difficulties and subject to a fierce competition. This study is wholly
lacking in the ordinary zoologist or botanist, whose mind is busy only
with anatomical preparations or collections of plants. In every science,
the difficulty lies in describing in a nutshell, using significant
examples, the real object, just as it exists before us, and its
true history. Claude Bernard one day remarked to me, "We shall know
physiology when we are able to follow step by step a molecule of carbon
or azote in the body of a dog, give its history, and describe its
passage from its entrance to its exit."]
[Footnote 1152: Thibaudeau, "Mémoires sur le Consulat," 204. (Apropos of
the tribunate): "They consist of a dozen or fifteen metaphysicians who
ought to be flung into the water; they crawl all over me like vermin."]
[Footnote 1153: Madame de Rémusat, I., 115: "He is really ignorant,
having read very little and always hastily."--Stendhal, "Mémoires sur
Napoleon": "His education was very defective....He knew nothing of the
great principles discovered within the past one hundred years," and
just those which concern man or society. "For example, he had not read
Montesquieu as this writer ought to be read, that is to say, in a way to
accept or decidedly reject each of the thirty-one books of the 'Esprit
des lois.' He had not thus read Bayle's Dictionary nor the Essay on the
Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. This ignorance of the Emperor's was not
perceptible in conversation, and first, because he led in conversation,
and next because with Italian finesse no question put by him,
or careless supposition thrown out, ever betrayed that
ignorance."--Bourrienne. I., 19, 21: At Brienne, "unfortunately for us,
the monks to whom the education of youth was confided knew nothing, and
were too poor to pay good foreign teachers.... It is inconceivable
how any capable man ever graduated from this educational
institution."--Yung, I., 125 (Notes made by him on Bonaparte, when
he left the Military Academy): "Very fond of the abstract sciences,
indifferent to others, well grounded in mathematics and geography."]
[Footnote 1154: Roederer, III., 544 (March 6, 1809), 26, 563 (Jan. 23,
1811, and Nov. 12, 1813).]
[Footnote 1155: Mollien, I., 348 (a short time before the rupture of the
peace of Amiens), III., 16: "It was at the end of January, 1809, that he
wanted a full report of the financial situation on the 31st of December,
1808 .... This report was to be ready in two days."--III., 34: "A
complete balance sheet of the public treasury for the first six months
of 1812 was under Napoleon's eyes at Witebsk, the 11th of August, eleven
days after the close of these first six months. What is truly wonderful
is, that amidst so many different occupations and preoccupations.... he
could preserve such an accurate run of the proceedings and methods of
the administrative branches about which he wanted to know at any moment.
Nobody had any excuse for not answering him, for each was questioned in
his own terms; it is that singular aptitude of the head of the State,
and the technical precision of his questions, which alone explains how
he could maintain such a remarkable ensemble in an administrative system
of which the smallest threads centered in himself."]
[Footnote 1156: 200 years after the death of Napoleon Sir Alfred Ayer
thus writes in "LANGUAGE, TRUTH AND LOGIC": 'Actually, we shall see that
the only test to which a form of scientific procedure which satisfies
the necessary condition of self-consistency is subject, is the test of
its success in practice. We are entitled to have faith in our procedure
just so long as it does the work it is designed to do--that is, enables
us to predict future experience, and so to control our environment.'
And on the Purpose of Inquiry: 'The traditional disputes of philosophers
are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The
surest way to end them is to establish beyond question what should be
the purpose and the method of philosophical inquiry.' (SR.)]
[Footnote 1157: An expression of Mollien.]
[Footnote 1158: Meneval, I., 210, 213.--Roederer, III., 537, 545
(February and March, 1889): Words of Napoleon: "At this moment it was
nearly midnight."--Ibid., IV., 55 (November, 1809). Read the admirable
examination of Roederer by Napoleon on the Kingdom of Naples. His
queries form a vast systematic and concise network, embracing the entire
subject, leaving no physical or moral data, no useful circumstance not
seized upon.--Ségur, II., 231: M. De Ségur, ordered to inspect every
part of the coast-line, had sent in his report: "'I have seen
your reports,' said the First Consul to me, 'and they are exact.
Nevertheless, you forgot at Osten two cannon out of the four.'--And
he pointed out the place, 'a roadway behind the town.' I went out
overwhelmed with astonishment that among thousands of cannon distributed
among the mounted batteries or light artillery on the coast, two pieces
should not have escaped his recollection."--"Correspondance," letter to
King Joseph, August 6, 1806: "The admirable condition of my armies is
due to this, that I give attention to them every day for an hour or two,
and, when the monthly reports come in, to the state of my troops and
fleets, all forming about twenty large volumes. I leave every other
occupation to read them over in detail, to see what difference there
is between one month and another. I take more pleasure in reading those
than any young girl does in a novel."--Cadet de Gassicourt, "Voyage en
Autriche"(1809). On his reviews at Schoenbrunn and his verification of
the contents of a pontoon-wagon, taken as an example.]
[Footnote 1159: One ancient French league equals app. 4 km. (SR.)]
[Footnote 1160: Bourrienne, II., 116; IV., 238: "He had not a good
memory for proper names, words, and dates, but it was prodigious for
facts and localities. I remember that, on the way from Paris to Toulon,
he called my attention to ten places suitable for giving battle.... It
was a souvenir of his youthful travels, and he described to me the lay
of the ground, designating the positions he would have taken even before
we were on the spot." March 17, 1800, puncturing a card with a pin,
he shows Bourrienne the place where he intends to beat Mélas, at San
Juliano. "Four months after this I found myself at San Juliano with his
portfolio and dispatches, and, that very evening, at Torre-di-Gafolo, a
league off, I wrote the bulletin of the battle under his dictation" (of
Marengo).--De Ségur, II., 30 (Narrative of M. Daru to M. De Ségur Aug.
13, 1805, at the headquarters of La Manche, Napoleon dictates to M. Daru
the complete plan of the campaign against Austria): "Order of marches,
their duration, places of convergence or meeting of the columns, attacks
in full force, the various movements and mistakes of the enemy, all,
in this rapid dictation, was foreseen two months beforehand and at a
distance of two hundred leagues.... The battle-field, the victories, and
even the very days on which we were to enter Munich and Vienna were
then announced and written down as it all turned out.... Daru saw these
oracles fulfilled on the designated days up to our entry into Munich; if
there were any differences of time and not of results between Munich
and Vienna, they were all in our favor."--M. de La Vallette, "Mémoires,"
II., p. 35. (He was postmaster-general): "It often happened to me that
I was not as certain as he was of distances and of many details in my
administration on which he was able to set me straight."--On returning
from the camp at Bologna, Napoleon encounters a squad of soldiers who
had got lost, asks what regiment they belong to, calculates the day they
left, the road they took, what distance they should have marched.
and then tells them, "You will find your battalion at such a halting
place."--At this time, "the army numbered 200,000 men."]
[Footnote 1161: Madame de Rémusat, I., 103, 268.]
[Footnote 1162: Thibaudeau, p.25, I (on the Jacobin survivors):
"They are nothing but common artisans, painters, etc., with lively
imaginations, a little better instructed than the people, living amongst
the people and exercising influence over them."--Madame de Rémusat,
I., 271 (on the royalist party): "It is very easy to deceive that party
because its starting-point is not what it is, but what it would like to
have."--I., 337: "The Bourbons will never see anything except through
the Oeil de Boeuf."--Thibaudeau, p.46: "Insurrections and emigrations
are skin diseases; terrorism is an internal malady." Ibid., 75: "What
now keeps the spirit of the army up is the idea soldiers have that they
occupy the places of former nobles."]
[Footnote 1163: Thibaudeau, pp.419 to 452. (Both texts are given
in separate columns.) And passim, for instance, p.84, the following
portrayal of the decadal system of worship under the Republic: "It was
imagined that citizens could be got together in churches, to freeze
with cold and hear, read, and study laws, in which there was already but
little fun for those who executed them." Another example of the way
in which his ideas expressed themselves through imagery (Pelet de la
Lozère, p. 242): "I am not satisfied with the customs regulations on
the Alps. They show no life. We don't hear the rattle of crown pieces
pouring into the public treasury." To appreciate the vividness of
Napoleon's expressions and thought the reader must consult, especially,
the five or six long conversations, noted on the very evening of the day
they occurred by Roederer; the two or three conversations likewise noted
by Miot de Melito; the scenes narrated by Beugnot; the notes of Pelet de
la Lozère and by Stanislas de Girardin, and nearly the entire volume by
Thibaudeau.]
[Footnote 1164: Pelet de la Lozère, 63, 64. (On the physiological
differences between the English and the French.)--Madame de Rémusat, I.,
273, 392: "You, Frenchmen, are not in earnest about anything, except,
perhaps, equality, and even here you would gladly give this up if you
were sure of being the foremost.... The hope of advancement in the world
should be cherished by everybody.... Keep your vanity always alive The
severity of the republican government would have worried you to death.
What started the Revolution? Vanity. What will end it? Vanity, again.
Liberty is merely a pretext."--III., 153 "Liberty is the craving of a
small and privileged class by nature, with faculties superior to the
common run of men; this class, therefore, may be put under
restraint with impunity; equality, on the contrary, catches the
multitude."--Thibaudeau, 99: "What do I care for the opinions and cackle
of the drawing-room? I never heed it. I pay attention only to what rude
peasants say." His estimates of certain situations are masterpieces of
picturesque concision. "Why did I stop and sign the preliminaries of
Leoben? Because I played vingt-et-un and was satisfied with twenty." His
insight into (dramatic) character is that of the most sagacious critic.
"The 'Mahomet' of Voltaire is neither a prophet nor an Arab, only an
impostor graduated out of the École Polytechnique."--"Madame de Genlis
tries to define virtue as if she were the discoverer of it."--(On Madame
de Staël): "This woman teaches people to think who never took to it, or
have forgotten how."--(On Chateaubriand, one of whose relations had just
been shot): "He will write a few pathetic pages and read them aloud in
the faubourg Saint-Germain; pretty women will shed tears, and that
will console him."--(On Abbé Delille): "He is wit in its dotage."--(On
Pasquier and Molé): "I make the most of one, and made the
other."--Madame de Rémusat, II., 389, 391, 394, 399, 402; III., 67.]
[Footnote 1165: Bourrienne, II., 281, 342: "It pained me to write
official statements under his dictation, of which each was an
imposture." He always answered: "My dear sir, you are a simpleton--you
understand nothing!"--Madame de Rémusat, II., 205, 209.]
[Footnote 1166: See especially the campaign bulletins for 1807, so
insulting to the king and queen of Prussia, but, owing to that fact,
so well calculated to excite the contemptuous laughter and jeers of the
soldiers.]
[Footnote 1167: In "La Correspondance de Napoleon," published in
thirty-two volumes, the letters are arranged under dates.--In his
'"Correspondance avec Eugène, vice-roi d'Italie," they are arranged
under chapters; also with Joseph, King of Naples and afterwards King of
Spain. It is easy to select other chapters not less instructive: one on
foreign affairs (letters to M. de Champagny, M de Talleyrand, and M.
de Bassano); another on the finances (letters to M. Gaudin and to M.
Mollien); another on the navy (letters to Admiral Decrès); another on
military administration (letters to General Clarke); another on the
affairs of the Church (letters to M. Portalis and to M. Bigot de
Préameneu); another on the Police (letters to Fouché), etc.--Finally, by
dividing and distributing his letters according as they relate to this
or that grand enterprise, especially to this or that military campaign,
a third classification could be made.--In this way we can form a concept
of the vastness of his positive knowledge, also of the scope of his
intellect and talents. Cf. especially the following letters to Prince
Eugène, June II, 1806 (on the supplies and expenses of the Italian
army); June 1st and 18th, 1806 (on the occupation of Dalmatia, and on
the military situation, offensive and defensive). To Gen. Dejean, April
28, 1806 (on the war supplies); June 27, 1806 (on the fortifications
of Peschiera) July 20, 1806 (on the fortifications of Wesel and of
Juliers).--"Mes souvenirs sur Napoleon", p. 353 by the Count Chaptal:
"One day, the Emperor said to me that he would like to organize a
military school at Fontainebleau; he then explained to me the principal
features of the establishment, and ordered me to draw up the necessary
articles and bring them to him the next day. I worked all night and they
were ready at the appointed hour. He read them over and pronounced them
correct, but not complete. He bade me take a seat and then dictated to
me for two or three hours a plan which consisted of five hundred and
seventeen articles. Nothing more perfect, in my opinion, ever issued
from a man's brain.--At another time, the Empress Josephine was to
take the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle, and the Emperor summoned me.
'The Empress,' said he, 'is to leave to-morrow morning. She is a
good-natured, easy-going woman and must have her route and behavior
marked out for her. Write it down.' He then dictated instructions to me
on twenty-one large sheets of paper, in which everything she was to say
and to do was designated, even the questions and replies she was to make
to the authorities on the way."]
[Footnote 1168: One French league equals approximately 4 km. 70,000
square leagues then equal 1,120,000 km.2, or 400,000 square miles or 11%
of the United States but 5 times the size of Great Britain. (SR.)]
[Footnote 1169: Cf. in the "Correspondance" the letters dated at
Schoenbrunn near Vienna, during August and September, 1809, and
especially: the great number of letters and orders relating to the
English expeditions to Walcheren; the letters to chief-judge Régnier and
to the arch-chancellor Cambacérès on expropriations for public benefit
(Aug. 21, Sept. 7 and 29); the letters and orders to M. de Champagny
to treat with Austria (Aug. 19, and Sept. 10, 15, 18, 22, and 23);
the letters to Admirable Decrès, to despatch naval expeditions to the
colonies (Aug.17 and Sept. 26); the letter to Mollien on the budget of
expenditure (Aug. 8); the letter to Clarke on the statement of guns
in store throughout the empire (Sept. 14). Other letters, ordering the
preparation of two treatises on military art (Oct. 1), two works on
the history and encroachments of the Holy See (Oct. 3), prohibiting
conferences at Saint-Sulpice (Sept. 15), and forbidding priests to
preach outside the churches (Sept. 24).--From Schoenbrunn, he watches
the details of public works in France and Italy; for instance, the
letters to M. le Montalivet (Sept.30), to send an auditor post to Parma,
to have a dyke repaired at once, and (Oct. 8) to hasten the building of
several bridges and quays at Lyons.]
[Footnote 1170: He says himself; "I always transpose my theme in many
ways."]
[Footnote 1171: Madame de Rémusat, I., 117, 120. "1 heard M. de
Talleyrand exclaim one day, some what out of humor, 'This devil of a
man misleads you in all directions. Even his passions escape you, for he
finds some way to counterfeit them, although they really exist.'"--For
example, immediately prior to the violent confrontation with Lord
Whitworth, which was to put an end to the treaty of Amiens, he was
chatting and amusing himself with the women and the infant Napoleon, his
nephew, in the gayest and most unconcerned manner: "He is suddenly told
that the company had assembled. His countenance changes like that of
an actor when the scene shifts. He seems to turn pale at will and his
features contract"; he rises, steps up precipitately to the English
ambassador, and fulminates for two hours before two hundred persons.
(Hansard's Parliamentary History, vol. XXVI, dispatches of Lord
Whitworth, pp. 1798, 1302, 1310.)--"He often observes that the
politician should calculate every advantage that could be gained by his
defects." One day, after an explosion he says to Abbé de Pradt: "You
thought me angry! you are mistaken. Anger with me never mounts higher
than here (pointing to his neck)."]
[Footnote 1172: Roederer, III. (The first days of Brumaire, year VIII.)]
[Footnote 1173: Bourrienne, III., 114.]
[Footnote 1174: Bourrienne, II., 228. (Conversation with Bourrienne in
the park at Passeriano.)]
[Footnote 1175: Ibid., II., 331. (Written down by Bourrienne the same
evening.)]
[Footnote 1176: Madame de Rémusat, I., 274.--De Ségur, II., 459.
(Napoleon's own words on the eve of the battle of Austerlitz): "Yes, if
I had taken Acre, I would have assumed the turban, I would have put the
army in loose breeches; I would no longer have exposed it, except at the
last extremity; I would have made it my sacred battalion, my immortals.
It is with Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians that I would have ended the war
against the Turks. Instead of one battle in Moravia I would have gained
a battle of Issus; I would have made myself emperor of the East,
and returned to Paris by the way of Constantinople."--De Pradt, p.19
(Napoleon's own words at Mayence, September, 1804): "Since two hundred
years there is nothing more to do in Europe; it is only in the East that
things can be carried out on a grand scale."]
[Footnote 1177: Madame de Rémusat, I., 407.--Miot de Melito, II., 214
(a few weeks after his coronation): "There will be no repose in Europe
until it is under one head, under an Emperor, whose officers would be
kings, who would distribute kingdoms to his lieutenants, who would make
one of them King of Italy, another King of Bavaria, here a landmann of
Switzerland, and here a stadtholder of Holland, etc."]
[Footnote 1178: "Correspondance de Napoleon I.," vol. XXX., 550, 558.
(Memoirs dictated by Napoleon at Saint Hélène.)--Miot de Melito, II.,
290.--D'Hausonvillc, "l'Église Romaine et le Premier Empire, passim.--
Mémorial." "Paris would become the capital of the Christian world, and
I would have governed the religious world as well as the political
world."]
[Footnote 1179: De Pradt, 23.]
[Footnote 1180: "Mémoires et Mémorial." "It was essential that Paris
should become the unique capital, not to be compared with other
capitals. The masterpieces of science and of art, the museums, all that
had illustrated past centuries, were to be collected there. Napoleon
regretted that he could not transport St. Peter's to Paris; the meanness
of Notre Dame dissatisfied him."]
[Footnote 1181: Villemain, "Souvenir contemporaines," I., 175.
Napoleon's statement to M. de Narbonne early in March, 1812, and
repeated by him to Villemain an hour afterwards. The wording is at
second hand and merely a very good imitation, while the ideas are
substantially Napoleon's. Cf. his fantasies about Italy and the
Mediterranean, equally exaggerated ("Correspondence," XXX., 548), and an
admirable improvisation on Spain and the colonies at Bayonne.--De Pradt.
"Mémoires sur les revolutions d'Espagne," p.130: "Therefore Napoleon
talked, or rather poetised; he Ossianized for a long time... like a man
full of a sentiment which oppressed him, in an animated, picturesque
style, and with the impetuosity, imagery, and originality which were
familiar to him,... on the vast throne of Mexico and Peru, on the
greatness of the sovereigns who should possess them.. .. and on the
results which these great foundations would have on the universe. I had
often heard him, but under no circumstances had I ever heard him develop
such a wealth and compass of imagination. Whether it was the richness of
his subject, or whether his faculties had become excited by the scene he
conjured up, and all the chords of the instrument vibrated at once, he
was sublime."]
[Footnote 1182: Roederer, III., 541 (February 2, 1809): "I love power.
But I love it as an artist.... I love it as a musician loves his violin,
for the tones, chords, and harmonies he can get out of it."]
CHAPTER II. HIS IDEAS, PASSIONS AND INTELLIGENCE.
I. Intense Passions.
Personality and character during the Italian Renaissance and
during the present time.--Intensity of the passions in
Bonaparte.--His excessive touchiness.--His immediate
violence.--His impatience, rapidity, and need of talking.
--His temperament, tension, and faults.
On taking a near view of the contemporaries of Dante and Michael
Angelo, we find that they differ from us more in character than in
intellect.[1201] With us, three hundred years of police and of courts
of justice, of social discipline and peaceful habits, of hereditary
civilization, have diminished the force and violence of the passions
natural to Man. In Italy, in the Renaissance epoch, they were still
intact; human emotions at that time were keener and more profound than
at the present day; the appetites were ardent and more unbridled; man's
will was more impetuous and more tenacious; whatever motive inspired,
whether pride, ambition, jealousy, hatred, love, envy, or sensuality,
the inward spring strained with an energy and relaxed with a violence
that has now disappeared. All these energies reappear in this great
survivor of the fifteenth century; in him the play of the nervous
machine is the same as with his Italian ancestors; never was there, even
with the Malatestas and the Borgias, a more sensitive and more impulsive
intellect, one capable of such electric shocks and explosions, in which
the roar and flashes of tempest lasted longer and of which the effects
were more irresistible. In his mind no idea remains speculative and
pure; none is a simple transcript of the real, or a simple picture
of the possible; each is an internal eruption, which suddenly and
spontaneously spends itself in action; each darts forth to its goal and
would reach it without stopping were it not kept back and restrained
by force[1202] Sometimes, the eruption is so sudden, that the restraint
does not come soon enough. One day, in Egypt,[1203] on entertaining
a number of French ladies at dinner, he has one of them, who was
very pretty and whose husband he had just sent off to France, placed
alongside of him; suddenly, as if accidentally, he overturns a pitcher
of water on her, and, under the pretence of enabling her to rearrange
her wet dress, he leads her into another room where he remains with her
a long time, too long, while the other guests seated at the table wait
quietly and exchange glances. Another day, at Paris, toward the epoch
of the Concordat,[1204] he says to Senator Volney: "France wants a
religion." Volney replies in a frank, sententious way, "France wants the
Bourbons." Whereupon he gives Volney a kick in the stomach and he falls
unconscious; on being moved to a friend's house, he remains there ill in
bed for several days.--No man is more irritable, so soon in a passion;
and all the more because he purposely gives way to his irritation; for,
doing this just at the right moment, and especially before witnesses,
it strikes terror; it enables him to extort concessions and maintain
obedience. His explosions of anger, half-calculated, half-involuntary,
serve him quite as much as they relieve him, in public as well as in
private, with strangers as with intimates, before constituted bodies,
with the Pope, with cardinals, with ambassadors, with Talleyrand, with
Beugnot, with anybody that comes along,[1205] whenever he wishes to set
an example or "keep the people around him on the alert." The public and
the army regard him as impassible; but, apart from the battles in which
he wears a mask of bronze, apart from the official ceremonies in which
he assumes a necessarily dignified air, impression and expression with
him are almost always confounded, the inward overflowing in the outward,
the action, like a blow, getting the better of him. At Saint Cloud,
caught by Josephine in the arms of another woman, he runs after
the unlucky interrupter in such a way that "she barely has time to
escape";[1206] and again, that evening, keeping up his fury so as to
put her down completely, "he treats her in the most outrageous manner,
smashing every piece of furniture that comes in his way." A little
before the Empire, Talleyrand, a great mystifier, tells Berthier that
the First Consul wanted to assume the title of king. Berthier, in eager
haste, crosses the drawing-room full of company, accosts the master of
the house and, with a beaming smile, "congratulates him."[1207] At the
word king, Bonaparte's eyes flash. Grasping Berthier by the throat, he
pushes him back against the wall, exclaiming, "You fool! who told you
to come here and stir up my bile in this way? Another time don't come
on such errands."--Such is the first impulse, the instinctive action,
to pounce on people and seize them by the throat; we divine under each
sentence, and on every page he writes, out-bursts and assaults of this
description, the physiognomy and intonation of a man who rushes forward
and knocks people down. Accordingly, when dictating in his cabinet, "he
strides up and down the room," and, "if excited," which is often the
case, "his language consists of violent imprecations, and even of oaths,
which are suppressed in what is written."[1208] But these are not
always suppressed, for those who have seen the original minutes of his
correspondence on ecclesiastical affairs find dozens of them, the b...,
the p... and the swearwords of the coarsest kind.[1209]
Never was there such impatient touchiness. "When dressing himself,[1210]
he throws on the floor or into the fire any part of his attire which
does not suit him.... On gala-days and on grand ceremonial occasions
his valets are obliged to agree together when they shall seize the
right moment to put some thing on him... He tears off or breaks whatever
causes him the slightest discomfort, while the poor valet who has been
the means of it meets with a violent and positive proof of his anger. No
thought was ever more carried away by its own speed. "His handwriting,
when he tries to write, "is a mass of disconnected and undecipherable
signs;[1211] the words lack one-half of their letters." On reading it
over himself, he cannot tell what it means. At last, he becomes almost
incapable of producing a handwritten letter, while his signature is a
mere scrawl. He accordingly dictates, but so fast that his secretaries
can scarcely keep pace with him: on their first attempt the perspiration
flows freely and they succeed in noting down only the half of what he
says. Bourrienne, de Meneval, and Maret invent a stenography of their
own, for he never repeats any of his phrases; so much the worse for
the pen if it lags behind, and so much the better if a volley of
exclamations or of oaths gives it a chance to catch up.--Never did
speech flow and overflow in such torrents, often without either
discretion or prudence, even when the outburst is neither useful nor
creditable the reason is that both spirit and intellect are charged to
excess subject to this inward pressure the improvisator and polemic,
under full headway,[1212] take the place of the man of business and the
statesman.
"With him," says a good observer,[1213] "talking is a prime necessity,
and, assuredly, among the prerogatives of high rank, he ranks first that
of speaking without interruption."
Even at the Council of State he allows himself to run on, forgetting the
business on hand; he starts off right and left with some digression
or demonstration, some invective or other, for two or three hours at
a stretch,[1214] insisting over and over again, bent on convincing or
prevailing, and ending in demanding of the others if he is not right,
"and, in this case, never failing to find that all have yielded to the
force of his arguments." On reflection, he knows the value of an assent
thus obtained, and, pointing to his chair, he observes:
"It must be admitted that it is easy to be brilliant when one is in that
seat!"
Nevertheless he has enjoyed his intellectual exercise and given way to
his passion, which controls him far more than he controls it.
"My nerves are very irritable," he said of himself, "and when in this
state were my pulse not always regular I should risk going crazy."[1215]
The tension of accumulated impressions is often too great, and it ends
in a physical break-down. Strangely enough in so great a warrior and
with such a statesman, "it is not infrequent, when excited, to see him
shed tears." He who has looked upon thousands of dying men, and who
has had thousands of men slaughtered, "sobs," after Wagram and after
Bautzen,[1216] at the couch of a dying comrade. "I saw him," says his
valet, "weep while eating his breakfast, after coming from Marshal
Lannes's bedside; big tears rolled down his cheeks and fell on his
plate." It is not alone the physical sensation, the sight of a bleeding,
mangled body, which thus moves him acutely and deeply; for a word, a
simple idea, stings and penetrates almost as far. Before the emotion of
Dandolo, who pleads for Venice his country, which is sold to Austria, he
is agitated and his eyes moisten.[1217] Speaking of the capitulation
of Baylen, at a full meeting of the Council of State,[1218] his voice
trembles, and "he gives way to his grief, his eyes even filling with
tears." In 1806, setting out for the army and on taking leave of
Josephine, he has a nervous attack which is so severe as to bring on
vomiting.[1219] "We had to make him sit down," says an eye-witness, "and
swallow some orange water; he shed tears, and this lasted a quarter
of an hour." The same nervous and stomachic crisis came on in 1808, on
deciding on the divorce; he tosses about a whole night, and laments like
a woman; he melts, and embraces Josephine; he is weaker than she is:
"My poor Josephine, I can never leave you!" Folding her in his arms, he
declares that she shall not quit him; he abandons himself wholly to the
sensation of the moment; she must undress at once, sleep alongside of
him, and he weeps over her; "literally," she says, "he soaked the bed
with his tears."--Evidently, in such an organism, however powerful
the superimposed regulator, there is a risk of the equilibrium being
destroyed. He is aware of this, for he knows himself well; he is afraid
of his own nervous sensibility, the same as of an easily frightened
horse; at critical moments, at Berezina, he refuses to receive the bad
news which might excite this, and, on the informer's insisting on it,
he asks him again,[1220] "Why, sir, do you want to disturb
me?"--Nevertheless, in spite of his precautions, he is twice taken
unawares, at times when the peril was alarming and of a new kind; he, so
clear headed and so cool under fire, the boldest of military heroes
and the most audacious of political adventurers, quails twice in a
parliamentary storm and again in a popular crisis. On the 18th of
Brumaire, in the Corps Législatif, "he turned pale, trembled, and seemed
to lose his head at the shouts of outlawry.... they had to drag
him out.... they even thought for a moment that he was going to
faint."[1221] After the abdication at Fontainebleau, on encountering the
rage and imprecations which greeted him in Provence, he seemed for
some days to be morally shattered; the animal instincts assert their
supremacy; he is afraid and makes no attempt at concealment.[1222] After
borrowing the uniform of an Austrian colonel, the helmet of a Prussian
quartermaster, and the cloak of the Russian quartermaster, he still
considers that he is not sufficiently disguised. In the inn at Calade,
"he starts and changes color at the slightest noise"; the commissaries,
who repeatedly enter his room, "find him always in tears." "He wearies
them with his anxieties and irresolution"; he says that the French
government would like to have him assassinated on the road, refuses to
eat for fear of poison, and thinks that he might escape by jumping out
of the window. And yet he gives vent to his feelings and lets his
tongue run on about himself without stopping, concerning his past, his
character, unreservedly, indelicately, trivially; like a cynic and one
who is half-crazy; his ideas run loose and crowd each other like the
anarchical gatherings of a tumultuous mob; he does not recover his
mastery of them until he reaches Fréjus, the end of his journey, where
he feels himself safe and protected from any highway assault; then only
do they return within ordinary limits and fall back in regular line
under the control of the sovereign intellect which, after sinking for
a time, revives and resumes its ascendancy.--There is nothing in him
so extraordinary as this almost perpetual domination of the lucid,
calculating reason; his willpower is still more formidable than his
intelligence; before it can obtain the mastery of others it must be
master at home. To measure its power, it does not suffice to note its
fascinations; to enumerate the millions of souls it captivates, to
estimate the vastness of the obstacles it overcomes: we must again, and
especially, represent to ourselves the energy and depth of the passions
it keeps in check and urges on like a team of prancing, rearing
horses--it is the driver who, bracing his arms, constantly restrains the
almost ungovernable steeds, who controls their excitement, who regulates
their bounds, who takes advantage even of their viciousness to guide his
noisy vehicle over precipices as it rushes on with thundering speed.
If the pure ideas of the reasoning brain thus maintain their daily
supremacy it is due to the vital flow which nourishes them; their roots
are deep in his heart and temperament, and those roots which give them
their vigorous sap constitute a primordial instinct more powerful than
intellect, more powerful even than his will, the instinct which leads
him to center everything on himself, in other words egoism.[1223]
II. Will and Egoism.
Bonaparte's dominant passion.--His lucid, calculating mind.
--Source and power of the Will.--Early evidences of an
active, absorbing egoism.--His education derived from the
lessons of things.--In Corsica.--In France during the
Revolution.--In Italy.--In Egypt.--His idea of Society and
of Right.--Maturing after the 18th of Brumaire.--His idea of
Man.--It conforms to his character
It is egoism, not a passive, but an active and intrusive egoism,
proportional to the energy and extension of his faculties developed
by his education and circumstances, exaggerated by his success and
his omnipotence to such a degree that a monstrous colossal I has been
erected in society. It expands unceasingly the circle of a tenacious and
rapacious grasp, which regards all resistance as offensive, which all
independence annoys, and which, on the boundless domain it assigns to
itself, is intolerant of anybody that does not become either an appendix
or a tool.--The germ of this absorbing personality is already apparent
in the youth and even in the infant.
"Character: dominating, imperious, and stubborn,"
says the record at Brienne.[1224] And the notes of the Military Academy
add;[1225]
"Extremely inclined to egoism,"--"proud, ambitious, aspiring in all
directions, fond of solitude,"
undoubtedly because he is not master in a group of equals and is ill at
ease when he cannot rule.
"I lived apart from my comrades," he says at a later date.[1226]--"I had
selected a little corner in the playgrounds, where I used to go and sit
down and indulge my fancies. When my comrades were disposed to drive me
out of this corner I defended it with all my might. My instinct already
told me that my will should prevail against other wills, and that
whatever pleased me ought to belong to me."
Referring to his early years under the paternal roof at Corsica, he
depicts himself as a little mischievous savage, rebelling against
every sort of restraint, and without any conscience.[1227] "I respected
nothing and feared nobody; I beat one and scratched another; I made
everybody afraid of me. I beat my brother Joseph; I bit him and
complained of him almost before he knew what he was about." A clever
trick, and one which he was not slow to repeat. His talent for
improvising useful falsehoods is innate; later on, at maturity, he
is proud of this; he makes it the index and measure of "political
superiority," and "delights in calling to mind one of his uncles who,
in his infancy, prognosticated to him that he would govern the world
because he was fond of lying."[1228]
Remark this observation of the uncles--it sums up the experiences of a
man of his time and of his country; it is what social life in Corsica
inculcated; morals and manners there adapted themselves to each other
through an unfailing connection. The moral law, indeed, is such because
similar customs prevail in all countries and at all times where the
police is powerless, where justice cannot be obtained, where public
interests are in the hands of whoever can lay hold of them, where
private warfare is pitiless and not repressed, where every man goes
armed, where every sort of weapon is fair, and where dissimulation,
fraud, and trickery, as well as gun or poniard, are allowed, which
was the case in Corsica in the eighteenth century, as in Italy in the
fifteenth century.--Hence the early impressions of Bonaparte similar to
those of the Borgias and of Macchiavelli; hence, in his case, that first
stratum of half-thought which, later on, serves as the basis of complete
thought; hence, the whole foundation of his future mental edifice and of
the conceptions he subsequently entertains of human society. Afterwards,
on leaving the French schools and every time he returns to them and
spends any time in them, the same impressions, often renewed, intensify
in his mind the same final conclusion. In this country, report the
French commissioners,[1229] "the people have no idea of principle in the
abstract," nor of social interest or justice. "Justice does not exist;
one hundred and thirty assassinations have occurred in ten years....
The institution of juries has deprived the country of all the means for
punishing crime; never do the strongest proofs, the clearest evidence,
lead a jury composed of men of the same party, or of the same family
as the accused, to convict him; and, if the accused is of the opposite
party, the juries likewise acquit him, so as not to incur the risk of
revenge, slow perhaps but always sure."--"Public spirit is unknown."
There is no social body, except any number of small parties hostile to
each other.... One is not a Corsican without belonging to some family,
and consequently attached to some party; he who would serve none, would
be detested by all.... All the leaders have the same end in view, that
of getting money no matter by what means, and their first care is to
surround themselves with creatures entirely devoted to them and to whom
they give all the offices.... The elections are held under arms, and
all with violence.... The victorious party uses its authority to avenge
itself on their opponents, and multiplies vexations and outrages... .
The leaders form aristocratic leagues with each other.... and mutually
tolerate abuses. They impose no assessment or collection (of taxes) to
curry favor with electors through party spirit and relationships....
Customs-duties serve simply to compensate friends and relatives....
Salaries never reach those for whom they are intended. The rural
districts are uninhabitable for lack of security. The peasants carry
guns even when at the plow. One cannot take a step without an escort; a
detachment of five or six men is often sent to carry a letter from one
post-office to another."
Interpret this general statement by the thousands of facts of which it
is the summary; imagine these little daily occurrences narrated with all
their material accompaniments, and with sympathetic or angry comments
by interested neighbors, and we have the moral lessons taught to young
Bonaparte.[1230] At table, the child has listened to the conversation of
his elders, and at a word uttered, for instance, by his uncle, or at
a physiognomic expression, a sign of approbation, a shrug of the
shoulders, he has divined that the ordinary march of society is not that
of peace but of war; he sees by what ruses one maintains one's-self,
by what acts of violence one makes ones way, by what sort of help one
mounts upward. Left to himself the rest of the day, to the nurse Ilaria,
or to Saveria the housekeeper, or to the common people amongst whom
he strays at will, he listens to the conversation of sailors or of
shepherds assembled on the public square, and their simple exclamations,
their frank admiration of well-planned ambuscades and lucky surprises,
impress more profoundly on him, often repeated with so much energy,
the lessons which he has already learned at home. These are the lessons
taught by things. At this tender age they sink deep, especially when
the disposition is favorable, and in this case the heart sanctions
them beforehand, because education finds its confederate in instinct.
Accordingly, at the outbreak of the Revolution, on revisiting Corsica,
he takes life at once as he finds it there, a combat with any sort of
weapon, and, on this small arena, he acts unscrupulously, going farther
than anybody.[1231] If he respects justice and law, it is only in
words, and even here ironically; in his eyes, law is a term of the code,
justice a book term, while might makes right.
A second blow of the coining-press gives another impression of the same
stamp on this character already so decided, while French anarchy forces
maxims into the mind of the young man, already traced in the child's
mind by Corsican anarchy; the lessons of things provided by a society
going to pieces are the same as those of a society which is not yet
formed.--His sharp eyes, at a very early period, see through the
flourish of theory and the parade of phrases; they detect the real
foundation of the Revolution, namely, the sovereignty of unbridled
passions and the conquest of the majority by the minority; conquering or
conquered, a choice must be made between these two extreme conditions;
there is no middle course. After the 9th of Thermidor, the last
veils are torn away, and the instincts of license and domination, the
ambitions of individuals, fully display themselves. There is no concern
for public interests or for the rights of the people; it is clear that
the rulers form a band, that France is their prey, and that they intend
to hold on to it for and against everybody, by every possible means,
including bayonets. Under this civil régime, a clean sweep of the broom
at the center makes it necessary to be on the side of numbers.--In the
armies, especially in the army of Italy, republican faith and patriotic
abnegation, since the territory became free, have given way to natural
appetites and military passions.[1232] Barefoot, in rags, with four
ounces of bread a day, paid in assignats which are not accepted in the
markets, both officers and men desire above all things to be relieved
of their misery; "the poor fellows, after three years of longing on
the summits of the Alps, reach the promised land, and want to enjoy
it."[1233] Another spur consists in the pride which is stimulated by
the imagination and by success; add to this the necessity for finding
an outlet for their energy, the steam and high pressure of youth; nearly
all are very young men, who regard life, in Gallic or French fashion, as
a party of pleasure and as a duel. But to feel brave and to prove that
one is so, to face bullets for amusement and defiantly, to abandon a
successful adventure for a battle and a battle for a ball, to enjoy
ones-self and take risks to excess, without dissimulating, and with
no other object than the sensation of the moment,[1234] to revel in
excitement through emulation and danger, is no longer self-devotion,
but giving one's-self up to one's fancies; and, for all who are not
harebrained, to give one's-self up to one's fancies means to make one's
way, obtain promotion, pillage so as to become rich, like Massena,
and conquer so as to become powerful, like Bonaparte.--All this is
understood between the general and his army from the very first,[1235]
and, after one year's experience, the understanding is perfect. One
moral is derived from their common acts, vague in the army, precise in
the general; what the army only half sees, he sees clearly; if he urges
his comrades on, it is because they follow their own inclination. He
simply has a start on them, and is quicker to make up his mind that the
world is a grand banquet, free to the first-comer, but at which, to be
well served, one must have long arms, be the first to get helped, and
let the rest take what is left.
So natural does this seem to him, he says so openly and to men who are
not his intimates; to Miot, a diplomat, and to Melzi a foreigner:
"Do you suppose, says he to them,[1236] after the preliminaries of
Leoben, "that to make great men out of Directory lawyers, the Carnots'
and the Barras, I triumph in Italy? Do you suppose also that it is for
the establishment of a republic? What an idea! A republic of thirty
million men! With our customs, our vices, how is that possible? It is
a delusion which the French are infatuated with and which will vanish
along with so many others. What they want is glory, the gratification of
vanity--they know nothing about liberty. Look at the army! Our successes
just obtained, our triumphs have already brought out the true character
of the French soldier. I am all for him. Let the Directory deprive me of
the command and it will see if it is master. The nation needs a chief,
one who is famous though his exploits, and not theories of government,
phrases and speeches by ideologists, which Frenchmen do not
comprehend.... As to your country, Monsieur de Melzi, it has still
fewer elements of republicanism than France, and much less ceremony is
essential with it than with any other... In other respects, I have
no idea of coming to terms so promptly with Austria. It is not for my
interest to make peace. You see what I am, what I can do in Italy. If
peace is brought about, if I am no longer at the head of this army which
has become attached to me, I must give up this power, this high position
I have reached, and go and pay court to lawyers in the Luxembourg. I
should not like to quit Italy for France except to play a part there
similar to that which I play here, and the time for that has not yet
come--the pear is not ripe."
To wait until the pear is ripe, but not to allow anybody else to gather
it, is the true motive of his political fealty and of his Jacobin
proclamations: "A party in favor of the Bourbons is raising its head;
I have no desire to help it along. One of these days I shall weaken the
republican party, but I shall do it for my own advantage and not for
that of the old dynasty. Meanwhile, it is necessary to march with the
Republicans," along with the worst, and' the scoundrels about to purge
the Five Hundred, the Ancients, and the Directory itself, and then
re-establish in France the Reign of Terror.--In effect, he contributes
to the 18th of Fructidor, and, the blow struck, he explains very clearly
why he took part in it:
"Do not believe[1237] I did it in conformity with the ideas entertained
by those with whom I acted. I did--not want a return of the Bourbons,
and especially if brought back by Moreau's army and by Pichegru...
Finally, I will not take the part of Monk, I will not play it, and I
will not have others play it.... As for myself, my dear Miot, I declare
to you that I can no longer obey; I have tasted command and I cannot
give it up. My mind is made up. If I cannot be master I will leave
France."
There is no middle course for him between the two alter natives. On
returning to Paris he thinks of "overthrowing the Directory,[1238]
dissolving the councils and of making himself dictator"; but, having
satisfied himself that there was but little chance of succeeding, "he
postpones his design" and falls back on the second course. "This is the
only motive of his expedition into Egypt."[1239]--That, in the actual
condition of France and of Europe, the expedition is opposed to public
interests, that France deprives itself of its best army and offers
its best fleet to almost certain destruction, is of little consequence
provided, in this vast and gratuitous adventure, Bonaparte finds the
employment he wants, a large field of action and famous victories which,
like the blasts of a trumpet, will swell beyond the seas and renew his
prestige: in his eyes, the fleet, the army, France, and humanity exist
only for him and are created only for his service.--If, in confirmation
of this persuasion, another lesson in things is still necessary, it will
be furnished by Egypt. Here, absolute sovereign, free of any restraint,
contending with an inferior order of humanity, he acts the sultan and
accustoms himself to playing the part.[1240] His last scruples towards
the human species disappear; "I became disgusted with Rousseau"; he
is to say, later on, "After seeing the Orient: the savage man is a
dog,"[1241] and, in the civilized man, the savage is just beneath the
skin; if the intellect has become somewhat polished, there is no change
in his instincts. A master is as necessary to one as to the other--a
magician who subjugates his imagination, disciplines him, keeps him from
biting without occasion, ties him up, cares for him, and takes him out
hunting. He is born to obey, does not deserve any better lot, and has no
other right.
Become consul and afterward emperor, he applies the theory on a grand
scale, and, in his hands, experience daily furnishes fresh verifications
of the theory. At his first nod the French prostrate themselves
obediently, and there remain, as in a natural position; the lower class,
the peasants and the soldiers, with animal fidelity, and the
upper class, the dignitaries and the functionaries, with Byzantine
servility.--The republicans, on their side, make no resistance; on
the contrary, among these he has found his best governing
instruments--senators, deputies, state councilors, judges, and
administrators of every grade.[1242] He has at once detected behind
their sermonizing on liberty and equality, their despotic instincts,
their craving for command, for leadership, even as subordinates; and,
in addition to this, with most of them, the appetite for money or for
sensual pleasures. The difference between the delegate of the Committee
of Public Safety and the minister, prefect, or subprefect under the
Empire is small; it is the same person in two costumes: at first in the
carmagnole, and later in the embroidered coat. If a rude, poor puritan,
like Cambon or Baudot, refuses to don the official uniform, if two
or three Jacobin generals, like Lecourbe and Delmas, grumble at the
coronation parade, Napoleon, who knows their mental grasp, regards them
as ignoramuses, limited to and rigid inside a fixed idea.--As to the
cultivated and intelligent liberals of 1789, he consigns them with a
word to the place where they belong; they are "ideologists"; in other
words, their pretended knowledge is mere drawing-room prejudice and the
imagination of the study. "Lafayette is a political ninny," the eternal
"dupe of men and of things."[1243] With Lafayette and some others, one
embarrassing detail remains namely:
* impartiality and generosity,
* constant care for the common good,
* respect for others,
* the authority of conscience,
* loyalty,
* and good faith.
In short, noble and pure motives.
Napoleon does not accept the denial thus given to his theory; when
he talks with people, he questions their moral nobleness. "General
Dumas,"[1244] said he, abruptly, to Mathieu Dumas, "you were one of the
imbeciles who believed in liberty?" "Yes, sire, and I was and am still
one of that class." "And you, like the rest, took part in the Revolution
through ambition?" "No, sire, I should have calculated badly, for I am
now precisely where I stood in 1790."
"You were not sufficiently aware of the motives which prompted you; you
cannot be different from other people; it is all personal interest. Now,
take Massena. He has glory and honors enough; but he is not content.
He wants to be a prince, like Murat and like Bernadotte. He would
risk being shot to-morrow to be a prince. That is the incentive of
Frenchmen."--
His system is based on this. The most competent witnesses, and those who
were most familiar with him certify to his fixed idea on this point.
"His opinions on men," writes M. de Metternich,[1245] "centered on one
idea, which, unfortunately for him, had acquired in his mind the force
of an axiom; he was persuaded that no man who was induced to appear on
the public stage, or who was merely engaged in the active pursuits
of life, governed himself, or was governed, otherwise than by his
interest."
According to him, Man is held through his egoistic passions, fear,
cupidity, sensuality, self-esteem, and emulation; these are the
mainsprings when he is not under excitement, when he reasons. Moreover,
it is not difficult to turn the brain of man; for he is imaginative,
credulous, and subject to being carried away; stimulate his pride or
vanity, provide him with an extreme and false opinion of himself and
of his fellow-men, and you can start him off head downward wherever you
please.[1246]--None of these motives is entitled to much respect,
and beings thus fashioned form the natural material for an absolute
government, the mass of clay awaiting the potter's hand to shape it. If
parts of this mass are obdurate, the potter has only to crush and pound
them and mix them thoroughly.
Such is the final conception on which Napoleon has anchored himself,
and into which he sinks deeper and deeper, no matter how directly
and violently he may be contradicted by palpable facts. Nothing will
dislodge him; neither the stubborn energy of the English, nor the
inflexible gentleness of the Pope, nor the declared insurrection of the
Spaniards, nor the mute insurrection of the Germans, nor the resistance
of Catholic consciences, nor the gradual disaffection of the French; the
reason is, that his conception is imposed on him by his character;[1247]
he sees man as he needs to see him.
III. Napoleon's Dominant Passion: Power.
His mastery of the will of others.--Degree of submission
required by him.--His mode of appreciating others and of
profiting by them.--Tone of command and of conversation.
We at last confront his dominant passion, the inward abyss into which
instinct, education, reflection, and theory have plunged him, and which
is to engulf the proud edifice of his fortune--I mean, his ambition. It
is the prime motor of his soul and the permanent substance of his will,
so profound that he no longer distinguishes between it and himself, and
of which he is sometimes unconscious.
"I," said he to Roederer,[1248] "I have no ambition," and then,
recollecting himself, he adds, with his ordinary lucidity, "or, if I
have any, it is so natural to me, so innate, so intimately associated
with my existence, that it is like the blood which flows in my veins and
the atmosphere I breathe."--
Still more profoundly, he likens it to that unconscious, savage, and
irresistible emotion which vibrates the soul from one end to the other,
to this universal thrill moving all living beings, animal or moral, to
those keen and terrible tremors which we call the passion of love.
"I have but one passion,[1249] one mistress, and that is France. I sleep
with her. She has never been false to me. She lavishes her blood and
treasures on me. If I need 500,000 men, she gives them to me."
Let no one come between him and her. Let Joseph, in relation to
the coronation, abstain from claiming his place, even secondary and
prospective, in the new empire; let him not put forth his fraternal
rights.[1250] "It is to wound me in the most tender spot." This he does,
and, "Nothing can efface that from my souvenirs. It is as if he had told
an impassioned lover that he had slept with his mistress, or merely that
he hoped to succeed with her. My mistress is power. I have worked too
hard to obtain her, to let her be ravished from me, or even suffer
anybody to covet her." This ambition, as avid as it is jealous, which
becomes exasperated at the very idea of a rival, feels hampered by the
mere idea of setting a limit to it; however vast the acquired power,
he would like to have it still more vast; on quitting the most copious
banquet, he still remains insatiate. On the day after the coronation he
said to Decrés:[1251]
"I come too late, there is no longer anything great to accomplish.
I admit that my career is brilliant and that I have made my way
successfully. But what a difference alongside of antiquity! Take
Alexander! After having conquered Asia, and proclaimed himself to the
people as the son of Jupiter, with the exception of Olympias, who knew
what all this meant, and Aristotle, and a few Athenian pedants, the
entire Orient believed him. Very well, should I now declare that I was
the son of God Almighty, and proclaim that I am going to worship him
under this title, every market woman would hoot at me as I walked along
the streets. People nowadays know too much. Nothing is left to do."
And yet, even on this secluded, elevated domain, and which twenty
centuries of civilization keeps inaccessible, he still encroaches, and
to the utmost, in a roundabout way, by laying his hand on the Church,
and next on the Pope; here, as elsewhere, he takes all he can get.
Nothing in his eyes, is more natural; he has a right to it, because he
is the only capable one.
"My Italian people[1252] must know me well enough not to forget
that there is more in my little finger than in all their brains put
together."
Alongside of him, they are children, "minors," the French also, and
likewise the rest of mankind. A diplomat, who often saw him and studied
him under all as aspects, sums up his character in one conclusive
phrase:
"He considered himself an isolated being in this world, made to govern
and direct all minds as he pleased."[1253]
Hence, whoever has anything to do with him, must abandon his
independence and become his tool of government.
"That terrible man," often exclaimed Decrés[1254] "has subjugated us
all! He holds all our imaginations in his hands, now of steel and now
of velvet, but whether one or the other during the day nobody knows, and
there is no way to escape from them whatever they seize on they never
let go!"
Independence of any kind, even eventual and merely possible, puts him in
a bad mood; intellectual or moral superiority is of this order, and he
gradually gets rid of it;[1255] toward the end he no longer tolerates
alongside of him any but subject or captive spirits. His principal
servants are machines or fanatics, a devout worshipper, like Maret, a
gendarme, like Savary,[1256] ready to do his bidding. From the outset,
he has reduced his ministers to the condition of clerks; for he is
administrator as well as ruler, and in each department he watches
details as closely as the entire mass. Accordingly, he requires simply
for head of departments active pen pushers, mute executors, docile and
special hands, no need for honest and independent advisers.
"I should not know what to do with them," he said, "if they were not to
a certain extent mediocre in mind and character."
As to his generals, he admits himself that "he likes to award fame only
to those who cannot stand it." In any event, "he must be sole master in
making or unmaking reputations," according to his personal requirements.
Too brilliant a soldier would become too important; a subordinate should
never be tempted to be less submissive. To this end he studies what he
will omit in his bulletins, what alterations and what changes shall be
made in them.
"It is convenient to keep silent about certain victories, or to convert
the defeat of this or that marshal into a success. Sometimes a general
learns by a bulletin of an action that he was never in and of a speech
that he never made."
If he complains, he is notified to keep still, or by way of recompense
he is allowed to pillage, levy contributions, and enrich himself. On
becoming duke or hereditary prince, with half a million or a million
of revenue from his estate, he is not less held in subjection, for the
creator has taken precautions against his own creations.
"There are men,"[1257] he said, "who I have made independent, but I know
well where to find them and keep them from being ungrateful."
In effect, if he has endowed them magnificently it is with domains
assigned to them in conquered countries, which insures their fortune
being his fortune. Besides, in order that they may not enjoy any
pecuniary stability, he expressly encourages them and all his grand
dignitaries to make extravagant outlays; thus, through their financial
embarrassments be holds them in a leash. "We have seen most of his
marshals, constantly pressed by their creditors, come to him for
assistance, which he has given as he fancied, or as he found it for his
interest to attach some one to him."[1258]
Thus, beyond the universal ascendancy which his power and genius have
conferred on him, he craves a personal, supplementary, and irresistible
hold on everybody. Consequently,[1259] "he carefully cultivates all the
bad passions.... he is glad to find the bad side in a man, so as to get
him in his power"; the thirst for money in Savary, the Jacobin defects
of Fouché, the vanity and sensuality of Cambacérès, the careless
cynicism and "the easy immorality" of Talleyrand, the "dry bluntness"
of Duroc, the courtier-like insipidity of Maret, "the silliness" of
Berthier; he brings this out, diverts himself with it, and profits by
it. "Where he sees no vice, he encourages weaknesses, and, in default
of anything better, he provokes fear, so that he may be ever and
continually the strongest.. ..He dreads ties of affection, and strives
to alienate people from each other.... He sells his favors only by
arousing anxiety; he thinks that the best way to attach individuals
to him is to compromise them, and often, even, to ruin them in public
opinion."--"If Caulaincourt is compromised," said he, after the murder
of the Duc d'Enghien, "it is no great matter, he will serve me all the
better."
Once that the creature is in his clutches, let him not imagine that
he can escape or withhold anything of his own accord; all that he has
belongs to him. Zeal and success in the performance of duty, punctual
obedience within limits previously designated, is not enough; behind the
functionary he claims the man. "All that may well be," he replies, to
whatever may be said in praise of him,[1260] "but he does not belong to
me as I would like." It is devotion which he exacts, and, by devotion,
he means the irrevocable and complete surrender "of the entire person,
in all his sentiments and opinions." According to him, writes a witness,
"one must abandon every old habit, even the most trifling, and be
governed by one thought alone, that of his will and interests."[1261]
For greater security, his servitors ought to extinguish in themselves
the critical sense. "What he fears the most is that, close to him or far
off, the faculty of judging should be applied or even preserved."
"His idea is a marble groove," out of which no mind should
diverge.[1262] Especially as no two minds could think of diverging
at the same time, and on the same side, their concurrence, even when
passive, their common understanding, even if kept to themselves, their
whispers, almost inaudible, constitute a league, a faction, and, if they
are functionaries, "a conspiracy." On his return from Spain he declares,
with a terrible explosion of wrath and threats,[1263] "that the
ministers and high dignitaries whom he has created must stop expressing
their opinions and thoughts freely, that they cannot be otherwise than
his organs, that treason has already begun when they begin to doubt,
and that it is under full headway when, from doubt, they proceed
to dissent." If, against his constant encroachments, they strive to
preserve a last refuge, if they refuse to abandon their conscience
to him, their faith as Catholics or their honor as honest men, he is
surprised and gets irritated. In reply to the Bishop of Ghent, who, in
the most respectful manner, excuses himself for not taking a second
oath that is against his conscience, he rudely turns his back, and
says, "Very well, sir, your conscience is a blockhead!"[1264] Portalis,
director of the publishing office,[1265] having received a papal
brief from his cousin, the Abbé d'Astros, respected a confidential
communication; he simply recommended his cousin to keep this document
secret, and declared that, if it were made public, he would prohibit
its circulation; by way of extra precaution he notified the prefect
of police. But he did not specially denounce his cousin, have the man
arrested and the document seized. On the strength of this, the Emperor,
in full council of state, apostrophizes him to his face, and, "with one
of those looks which go straight through one,"[1266] declares that he
has committed "the vilest of perfidies"; he bestows on him for half an
hour a hailstorm of reproaches and insults, and then orders him out of
the room as if a lackey who had been guilty of a theft. Whether he
keeps within his function or not, the functionary must be content to do
whatever is demanded of him, and readily anticipate every commission. If
his scruples arrest him, if he alleges personal obligations, if he had
rather not fail in delicacy, or even in common loyalty, he incurs the
risk of offending or losing the favor of the master, which is the case
with M. de Rémusat,[1267] who is unwilling to become his spy, reporter,
and denunciator for the Faubourg Saint-Germain, who does not offer, at
Vienna, to pump out of Madame d'André the address of her husband so
that M. d'André may be taken and immediately shot. Savary, who was
the negotiator for his being given up, kept constantly telling M. de
Rémusat, "You are going against your interest--I must say that I do
not comprehend you!" And yet Savary, himself minister of the police,
executor of most important services, head manager of the murder of the
Duc d'Enghien and of the ambuscade at Bayonne, counterfeiter of Austrian
bank-notes for the campaign of 1809 and of Russian banknotes for that
of 1812,[1268] Savary ends in getting weary; he is charged with too many
dirty jobs; however hardened his conscience it has a tender spot; he
discovers at last that he has scruples. It is with great repugnance
that, in February, 1814, he executes the order to have a small infernal
machine prepared, moving by clock-work, so as to blow up the Bourbons on
their return into France.[1269] "Ah," said he, giving himself a blow on
the forehead, "it must be admitted that the Emperor is sometimes hard to
serve!"
If he exacts so much from the human creature, it is because, in playing
the game he has to play, he must absorb everything; in the situation in
which he has placed himself, caution is unnecessary. "Is a statesman,"
said he, "made to have feeling? Is he not wholly an eccentric
personage, always alone by himself, he on one side and the world on the
other?"[1270]
In this duel without truce or mercy, people interest him only whilst
they are useful to him; their value depends on what he can make out of
them; his sole business is to squeeze them, to extract to the last drop
whatever is available in them.
"I find very little satisfaction in useless sentiments," said he
again,[1271] "and Berthier is so mediocre that I do not know why I waste
my time on him. And yet when I am not set against him, I am not sure
that I do not like him."
He goes no further. According to him, this indifference is necessary in
a statesman. The glass he looks through is that of his own
policy;[1272] he must take care that it does not magnify or diminish
objects.--Therefore, outside of explosions of nervous sensibility,
"he has no consideration for men other than that of a foreman for his
workmen,"[1273] or, more precisely, for his tools; once the tool is worn
out, little does he care whether it rusts away in a corner or is cast
aside on a heap of scrap-iron. "Portalis, Minister of Justice,[1274]
enters his room one day with a downcast look and his eyes filled with
tears. 'What's the matter with you, Portalis?' inquired Napoleon, 'are
you ill? 'No, sire, but very wretched. The poor Archbishop of Tours, my
old schoolmate...' 'Eh, well, what has happened to him?' 'Alas, sire, he
has just died.' 'What do I care? he was no longer good for anything.'"
Owning and making the most of men and of things, of bodies and of souls,
using and abusing them at discretion, even to exhaustion, without being
responsible to any one, he reaches that point after a few years where he
can say as glibly and more despotically than Louis XIV. himself,
"My armies, my fleets, my cardinals, my councils, my senate, my
populations, my empire."[1275]
Addressing army corps about to rush into battle:
"Soldiers, I need your lives, and you owe them to me."
He says to General Dorsenne and to the grenadiers of the guard:[1276]
"I hear that you complain that you want to return to Paris, to your
mistresses. Undeceive yourselves. I shall keep you under arms until you
are eighty. You were born to the bivouac, and you shall die there."
How he treats his brothers and relations who have become kings; how he
reins them in; how he applies the spur and the whip and makes them trot
and jump fences and ditches, may be found in his correspondence; every
stray impulse to take the lead, even when justified by an unforeseen
urgency and with the most evident good intention, is suppressed as a
deviation, is arrested with a brusque roughness which strains the loins
and weakens the knees of the delinquent. The amiable Prince Eugene, so
obedient and so loyal,[1277] is thus warned:
"If you want orders or advice from His Majesty in the alteration of
the ceiling of your room you should wait till you get them; were Milan
burning and you asked orders for putting out the fire, you should let
Milan burn until you got them... His Majesty is displeased, and very
much displeased, with you; you must never attempt to do his work. Never
does he like this, and he will never forgive it."
This enables us to judge of his tone with subalterns. The French
battalions are refused admission into certain places in Holland:[1278]
"Announce to the King of Holland, that if his ministers have acted on
their own responsibility, I will have them arrested and all their heads
cut off."
He says to M. de Ségur, member of the Academy commission which had just
approved M. de Chateaubriand's discourse:[1279]
"You, and M. de Fontaines, as state councillor and grand master, I ought
to put in Vincennes.... Tell the second class of the Institute that
I will have no political subjects treated at its meetings.....If it
disobeys, I will break it up like a bad club.
Even when not angry or scolding,[1280] when the claws are drawn in,
one feels the clutch. He says to Beugnot, whom he has just berated,
scandalously and unjustly,--conscious of having done him injustice and
with a view to produce an effect on the bystanders,--
"Well, you great imbecile, you have got back your brains?"
On this, Beugnot, tall as a drum-major, bows very low, while the smaller
man, raising his hand, seizes him by the ear, "a heady mark of favor,"
says Beugnot, a sign of familiarity and of returning good humor. And
better yet, the master deigns to lecture Beugnot on his personal tastes,
on his regrets, on his wish to return to France: What would he like? To
be his minister in Paris? "Judging by what he saw of me the other day I
should not be there very long; I might die of worry before the end
of the month." He has already killed Portalis, Cretet, and almost
Treilhard, even though he had led a hard life: he could no longer
urinate, nor the others either. The same thing would have happened to
Beignot, if not worse....
"Stay here.... after which you will be old, or rather we all shall be
old, and I will send you to the Senate to drivel at your ease."
Evidently,[1281] the nearer one is to his person the more disagreeable
life becomes.[1282] "Admirably served, promptly obeyed to the minute, he
still delights in keeping everybody around him in terror concerning the
details of all that goes on in his palace." Has any difficult task been
accomplished? He expresses no thanks, never or scarcely ever praises,
and, which happens but once, in the case of M. de Champagny, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, who is praised for having finished the treaty of Vienna
in one night, and with unexpected advantages;[1283] this time, the
Emperor has thought aloud, is taken by surprise; "ordinarily, he
manifests approbation only by his silence."--When M. de Rémusat, prefect
of the palace, has arranged "one of those magnificent fêtes in which
all the arts minister to his enjoyment," economically, correctly, with
splendor and success, his wife never asks her husband[1284] if the
Emperor is satisfied, but whether he has scolded more or less.
"His leading general principle, which he applies in every way, in great
things as well as in small ones, is that a man's zeal depends upon his
anxiety."
How insupportable the constraint he exercises, with what crushing weight
his absolutism bears down on the most tried devotion and on the most
pliable characters, with what excess he tramples on and wounds the best
dispositions, up to what point he represses and stifles the respiration
of the human being, he knows as well as anybody. He was heard to say,
"The lucky man is he who hides away from me in the depths of some
province."
And, another day, having asked M. de Ségur what people would say of
him after his death, the latter enlarged on the regrets which would
be universally expressed. "Not at all," replied the Emperor; and then,
drawing in his breath in a significant manner indicative of universal
relief, he replied,
"They'll say, 'Whew!'"[1285]
IV. His Bad Manners.
His bearings in Society.--His deportment toward Women.--His
disdain of Politeness.
There are very few monarchs, even absolute, who persistently, and
from morning to night, maintain a despotic attitude. Generally, and
especially in France, the sovereign makes two divisions of his time, one
for business and the other for social duties, and, in the latter case,
while always head of the State, he is also head of his house: for he
welcomes visitors, entertains his guests, and, that his guests may not
be robots, he tries to put them at their ease.--That was the case with
Louis XIV.[1286]--polite to everybody, always affable with men, and
sometimes gracious, always courteous with women, and some times gallant,
carefully avoiding brusqueness, ostentation, and sarcasms, never
allowing himself to use an offensive word, never making people feel
their inferiority and dependence, but, on the contrary, encouraging them
to express opinions, and even to converse, tolerating in conversation
a semblance of equality, smiling at a repartee, playfully telling a
story--such was his drawing-room constitution. The drawing-room as well
as every human society needs one, and a liberal one; otherwise life dies
out. Accordingly, the observance of this constitution in by-gone society
is known by the phrase savoir-vivre, and, more rigidly than anybody
else, Louis XIV. submitted himself to this code of proprieties.
Traditionally, and through education, he had consideration for others,
at least for the people around him; his courtiers becoming his guests
without ceasing to be his subjects.
There is nothing of this sort with Napoleon. He preserves nothing of the
etiquette he borrows from the old court but its rigid discipline and
its pompous parade. "The ceremonial system," says an eyewitness, "was
carried out as if it had been regulated by the tap of a drum; everything
was done, in a certain sense, 'double-quick.'[1287]... This air of
precipitation, this constant anxiety which it inspires," puts an end
to all comfort, all ease, all entertainment, all agreeable intercourse;
there is no common bond but that of command and obedience. "The few
individuals he singles out, Savary, Duroc, Maret, keep silent and simply
transmit orders.... We did not appear to them, in doing what we were
ordered to do, and we did not appear to ourselves, other than veritable
machines, all resembling, or but little short of it, the elegant gilded
arm-chairs with which the palaces of Saint-Cloud and the Tuileries had
just been embellished."
For a machine to work well it is important that the machinist should
overhaul it frequently, which this one never fails to do, especially
after a long absence. Whilst he is on his way from Tilsit, "everybody
anxiously examines his conscience to ascertain what he has done that
this rigid master will find fault with on his return. Whether spouse,
family, or grand dignitary, each is more or less disturbed; while
the Empress, who knows him better than any one, naively says, 'As
the Emperor is so happy it is certain that he will do a deal of
scolding!'"[1288] Actually, he has scarcely arrived when he gives a rude
and vigorous wrench of the bolt; and then, "satisfied at having excited
terror all around, he appears to have forgotten what has passed and
resumes the usual tenor of his life." "Through calculation as well as
from taste,[1289] he never ceases to be a monarch"; hence, "a mute,
frigid court.... more dismal than dignified; every face wears an
expression of uneasiness... a silence both dull and constrained."
At Fontainebleau, "amidst splendors and pleasures," there is no real
enjoyment nor anything agreeable, not even for himself. "I pity
you," said M. de Talleyrand to M. de Rémusat, "you have to amuse the
unamusable." At the theatre he is abstracted or yawns. Applause is
prohibited; the court, sitting out "the file of eternal tragedies,
is mortally bored.... the young ladies fall asleep, people leave the
theatre, gloomy and discontented."--There is the same constraint in the
drawing-room. "He did not know how to appear at ease, and I believe that
he never wanted anybody else to be so, afraid of the slightest approach
to familiarity, and inspiring each with a fear of saying something
offensive to his neighbor before witnesses.... During the quadrille,
he moves around amongst the rows of ladies, addressing them with
some trifling or disagreeable remark," and never does he accost them
otherwise than "awkwardly and ill at his ease." At bottom, he distrusts
them and is ill-disposed toward them.[1290] It is because "the
power they have acquired in society seems to him an intolerable
usurpation.--"Never did he utter to a woman a graceful or even a
well-turned compliment, although the effort to find one was often
apparent on his face and in the tone of his voice.... He talks to them
only of their toilet, of which he declares himself a severe and minute
judge, and on which he indulges in not very delicate jests; or again, on
the number of their children, demanding of them in rude language whether
they nurse them themselves; or again, lecturing them on their social
relations."[1291] Hence, "there is not one who does not rejoice when he
moves off."[1292] He would often amuse himself by putting them out of
countenance, scandalizing and bantering them to their faces, driving
them into a corner the same as a colonel worries his canteen women.
"Yes, ladies, you furnish the good people of the Faubourg Saint-Germain
with something to talk about. It is said, Madame A..., that you are
intimate with Monsieur B..., and you Madame C...., with Monsieur D." On
any intrigue chancing to appear in the police reports, "he loses no time
in informing the husband of what is going on."--He is no less indiscreet
in relation to his own affairs;[1293] when it is over he divulges the
fact and gives the name; furthermore, he informs Josephine in detail
and will not listen to any reproach: "I have a right to answer all your
objections with an eternal I!"
This term, indeed, answers to everything, and he explains it by adding:
"I stand apart from other men. I accept nobody's conditions," nor any
species of obligation, no code whatever, not even the common code
of outward civility, which, diminishing or dissimulating primitive
brutality, allows men to associate together without clashing. He does
not comprehend it, and he repudiates it. "I have little liking,"[1294]
he says, "for that vague, leveling word propriety (convenances), which
you people fling out every chance you get. It is an invention of fools
who want to pass for clever men; a kind of social muzzle which annoys
the strong and is useful only to the mediocre... Ah, good taste! Another
classic expression which I do not accept." "It is your personal enemy";
says Talleyrand to him, one day, "if you could have shot it away with
bullets, it would have disappeared long ago!"--It is because good taste
is the highest attainment of civilization, the innermost vestment
which drapes human nudity, which best fits the person, the last garment
retained after the others have been cast off, and which delicate tissue
continues to hamper Napoleon; he throws it off instinctively, because
it interferes with his natural behavior, with the uncurbed, dominating,
savage ways of the vanquisher who knocks down his adversary and treats
him as he pleases.
V. His Policy.
His tone and bearing towards Sovereigns.--His Policy.--His
means and ends.--After Sovereigns he sets populations
against him.--Final opinion of Europe.
Such behavior render social intercourse impossible, especially among the
independent and armed personages known as nations or States. This is why
they are outlawed in politics and in diplomacy and every head of a State
or representative of a country, carefully and on principle, abstains
from them, at least with those on his own level. He is bound to treat
these as his equals, humor them, and, accordingly, not to give way
to the irritation of the moment or to personal feeling; in short, to
exercise self-control and measure his words. To this is due the tone of
manifestos, protocols, dispatches, and other public documents the formal
language of legations, so cold, dry, and elaborated, those expressions
purposely attenuated and smoothed down, those long phrases apparently
spun out mechanically and always after the same pattern, a sort of soft
wadding or international buffer interposed between contestants to lessen
the shocks of collision. The reciprocal irritations between States are
already too great; there are ever too many unavoidable and regrettable
encounters, too many causes of conflict, the consequences of which are
too serious; it is unnecessary to add to the wounds of interest the
wounds of imagination and of pride; and above all, it is unnecessary to
amplify these without reason, at the risk of increasing the obstacles of
to-day and the resentments of to-morrow.--With Napoleon it is just the
opposite: his attitude, even at peaceful interviews, remains aggressive
and militant; purposely or in-voluntarily, he raises his hand and the
blow is felt to be coming, while, in the meantime, he insults. In his
correspondence with sovereigns, in his official proclamations, in his
deliberations with ambassadors, and even at public audiences,[1295] he
provokes, threatens, and defies.[1296] He treats his adversary with a
lofty air, insults him often to his face, and charges him with the most
disgraceful imputations.[1297] He divulges the secrets of his private
life, of his closet, and of his bed; he defames or calumniates his
ministers, his court, and his wife;[1298] he purposely stabs him in the
most sensitive part. He tells one that he is a dupe, a betrayed husband;
another that he is an abettor of assassination; he assumes the air of a
judge condemning a criminal, or the tone of a superior reprimanding an
inferior, or, at best, that of a teacher taking a scholar to task. With
a smile of pity, he points out mistakes, weak points, and incapacity,
and shows him beforehand that he must be defeated. On receiving the
envoy of the Emperor Alexander at Wilna,[1299] be says to him:
"Russia does not want this war; none of the European powers are in favor
of it; England herself does not want it, for she foresees the harm it
will do to Russia, and even, perhaps, the greatest... I know as well
as yourself, and perhaps even better, how many troops you have. Your
infantry in all amounts to 120,000 men and your cavalry to about 60,000
or 70,000; I have three times as many.... The Emperor Alexander is badly
advised. How can he tolerate such vile people around him--an Armfeld, an
intriguing, depraved, rascally fellow, a ruined debauchee, who is known
only by his crimes and who is the enemy of Russia; a Stein, driven from
his country like an outcast, a miscreant with a price on his head; a
Bennigsen, who, it is said, has some military talent, of which I know
nothing, but whose hands are steeped in blood?[12100].... Let him
surround himself with the Russians and I will say nothing.... Have you
no Russian gentlemen among you who are certainly more attached to
him than these mercenaries? Does he imagine that they are fond of him
personally? Let him put Armfeld in command in Finland and I have nothing
to say; but to have him about his person, for shame!.... What a
superb perspective opened out to the Emperor Alexander at Tilsit, and
especially at Erfurt!.... He has spoilt the finest reign Russia ever
saw.... How can he admit to his society such men as a Stein, an Armfeld,
a Vinzingerode? Say to the Emperor Alexander, that as he gathers around
him my personal enemies it means a desire to insult me personally,
and, consequently, that I must do the same to him. I will drive all his
Baden, Wurtemburg, and Weimar relations out of Germany. Let him provide
a refuge for them in Russia!"
Note what he means by--personal insult[12101], how he intends to avenge
himself by reprisals of the worst kind, to what excess he carries his
interference, how he enters the cabinets of foreign sovereigns, forcibly
entering and breaking, to drive out their councilors and control their
meetings: like the Roman senate with an Antiochus or a Prusias, like an
English Resident with the King of Oude or of Lahore. With others as at
home, he cannot help but act as a master. The aspiration for universal
dominion is in his very nature; it may be modified, kept in check, but
never can it be completely stifled."[12102]
It declares itself on the organization of the Consulate. It explains
why the peace of Amiens could not last; apart from the diplomatic
discussions and behind his alleged grievances, his character, his
exactions, his avowed plans, and the use he intends making of his
forces form the real and true causes of the rupture. In comprehensible
sometimes even in explicit terms, he tells the English: Expel the
Bourbons from your island and close the mouths of your journalists. If
this is against your constitution so much the worse for it, or so much
the worse for you. "There are general principles of international law
to which the (special) laws of states must give way."[12103] Change your
fundamental laws. Suppress the freedom of the press and the right
of asylum on your soil, the same as I have done. "I have a very poor
opinion of a government which is not strong enough to interdict
things objectionable to foreign governments."[12104] As to mine, my
interference with my neighbors, my late acquisitions of territory, that
does not concern you: "I suppose that you want to talk about Piedmont
and Switzerland? These are trifles"[12105] "Europe recognizes that
Holland, Italy, and Switzerland are at the disposition of France.[12106]
On the other hand, Spain submits to me and through her I hold Portugal.
Thus, from Amsterdam to Bordeaux, from Lisbon to Cadiz and Genoa, from
Leghorn to Naples and to Tarentum, I can close every port to you; no
treaty of commerce between us. Any treaty that I might grant to you
would be trifling: for each million of merchandise that you would send
into France a million of French merchandise would be exported;[12107]
in other words, you would be subject to an open or concealed continental
blockade, which would cause you as much distress in peace as if you
were at war." My eyes are nevertheless fixed on Egypt; "six thousand
Frenchmen would now suffice to re-conquer it";[12108] forcibly, or
otherwise, I shall return there; opportunities will not be lacking, and
I shall be on the watch for them; "sooner or later she will belong to
France, either through the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, or through
some arrangement with the Porte."[12109] Evacuate Malta so that the
Mediterranean may become a French lake; I must rule on sea as on land,
and dispose of the Orient as of the Occident. In sum, "with my France,
England must naturally end in becoming simply an appendix: nature has
made her one of our islands, the same as Oleron or Corsica."[12110]
Naturally, with such a perspective before them, the English keep Malta
and recommence the war. He has anticipated such an occurrence, and his
resolution is taken; at a glance, he perceives and measures the
path this will open to him; with his usual clear-sightedness he has
comprehended, and he announces that the English resistance "forces him
to conquer Europe...." [12111]--"The First Consul is only thirty-three
and has thus far destroyed only the second-class governments. Who knows
how much time he will require to again change the face of Europe and
resurrect the Western Roman Empire?"
To subjugate the Continent in order to form a coalition against England,
such, henceforth, are his means, which are as violent as the end in
view, while the means, like the end, are given by his character. Too
imperious and too impatient to wait or to manage others, he is
incapable of yielding to their will except through constraint, and his
collaborators are to him nothing more than subjects under the name
of allies.--Later, at St. Helena, with his indestructible imaginative
energy and power of illusion, he plays on the public with his
humanitarian illusions.[12112] But, as he himself avows, the
accomplishment of his retrospective dream required beforehand the
entire submission of all Europe; a liberal sovereign and pacificator,
"a crowned Washington, yes," he used to say, "but I could not reasonably
attain this point, except through a universal dictatorship, which I
aimed at."[12113] In vain does common sense demonstrate to him that such
an enterprise inevitably rallies the Continent to the side of England,
and that his means divert him from the end. In vain is it repeatedly
represented to him that he needs one sure great ally on the
Continent;[12114] that to obtain this he must conciliate Austria; that
he must not drive her to despair, but rather win her over and compensate
her on the side of the Orient; place her in permanent conflict with
Russia, and attach her to the new French Empire by a community of vital
interests. In vain does he, after Tilsit, make a bargain of this kind
with Russia. This bargain cannot hold, because in this arrangement
Napoleon, as usual with him, always encroaching, threatening, and
attacking, wants to reduce Alexander to the role of a subordinate and
a dupe.[12115] No clear-sighted witness can doubt this. In 1809,
a diplomat writes: "The French system, which is now triumphant, is
directed against the whole body of great states,"[12116] not alone
against England, Prussia, and Austria, but against Russia, against
every power capable of maintaining its independence; for, if she
remains independent, she may become hostile, and as a precautionary step
Napoleon crushes in her a probable enemy.
All the more so because this course once entered upon he cannot stop;
at the same time his character and the situation in which he has
placed himself impels him on while his past hurries him along to his
future.[12117] At the moment of the rupture of the treaty of Amiens he
is already so strong and so aggressive that his neighbors are obliged,
for their own security, to form an alliance with England; this leads him
to break down all the old monarchies that are still intact, to conquer
Naples, to mutilate Austria the first time, to dismember and cut up
Prussia, to mutilate Austria the second time, to manufacture kingdoms
for his brothers at Naples, in Holland and in Westphalia.--At this same
date, all the ports of his empire are closed against the English, which
leads him to close against them all the ports of the Continent, to
organize against them the continental blockade, to proclaim against them
an European crusade, to prevent the neutrality of sovereigns like
the Pope, of lukewarm subalterns like his brother Louis, of doubtful
collaborators or inadequate, like the Braganzas of Portugal and the
Bourbons of Spain, and therefore to get hold of Portugal, Spain, the
Pontifical States, and Holland, and next of the Hanseatic towns and the
duchy of Oldenburg, to extending along the entire coast, from the
mouths of the Cattaro and Trieste to Hamburg and Dantzic, his cordon of
military chiefs, prefects, and custom-houses, a sort of net of which he
draws the meshes tighter and tighter every day, even stifling not alone
his home consumer, but the producer and the merchant.[12118]--And all
this sometimes by a simple decree, with no other alleged motive than
his interest, his convenience, or his pleasure,[12119] brusquely
and arbitrarily, in violation of international law, humanity, and
hospitality. It would take volumes to describe his abuses of power, the
tissue of brutalities and knaveries,[12120] the oppression of the ally
and despoiling of the vanquished, the military brigandage exercised over
populations in time of war, and by the systematic exactions practiced on
them in times of peace.[12121]
Accordingly, after 1808, these populations rise against him. He has so
deeply injured them in their interests, and hurt their feelings to such
an extent,[12122] he has so trodden them down, ransomed, and forced them
into his service. He has destroyed, apart from French lives, so many
Spanish, Italian, Austrian, Prussian, Swiss, Bavarian, Saxon, and Dutch
lives, he has slain so many men as enemies, he has enlisted such numbers
at home, and slain so many under his own banners as auxiliaries, that
nations are still more hostile to him than sovereigns. Unquestionably,
nobody can live together with such a character; his genius is too vast,
too baneful, and all the more because it is so vast. War will last as
long as he reigns; it is in vain to reduce him, to confine him at home,
to drive him back within the ancient frontiers of France; no barrier
will restrain him; no treaty will bind him; peace with him will never
be other than a truce; he will use it simply to recover himself, and, as
soon as he has done this, he will begin again;[12123] he is in his
very essence anti-social. The mind of Europe in this respect is made up
definitely and unshakably. One petty detail alone shows how unanimous
and profound this conviction was. On the 7th of March the news reached
Vienna that he had escaped from the island of Elba, without its being
yet known where he would land. M. de Metternich[12124] brings the news
to the Emperor of Austria before eight o'clock in the morning, who says
to him, "Lose no time in finding the King of Prussia and the Emperor of
Russia, and tell them that I am ready to order my army to march at once
for France." At a quarter past eight M. de Metternich is with the Czar,
and at half-past eight, with the King of Prussia; both of them reply
instantly in the same manner. "At nine o'clock," says M. de Metternich,
"I was back. At ten o'clock aids flew in every direction countermanding
army orders.... Thus was war declared in less than an hour."
VI. Fundamental Defaults of his System.
Inward principle of his outward deportment.--He subordinates
the State to him instead of subordinating himself to the
State.--Effect of this.--His work merely a life-interest.
--It is ephemeral.--Injurious.--The number of lives it cost.
--The mutilation of France.--Vice of construction in his
European edifice.--Analogous vice in his French edifice.
Other heads of states have similarly passed their lives in doing
violence to mankind; but it was for something that was likely to last,
and for a national interest. What they deemed the public good was not
a phantom of the brain, a chimerical poem due to a caprice of the
imagination, to personal passions, to their own peculiar ambition and
pride. Outside of themselves and the coinage of their brain a real and
substantial object of prime importance existed, namely, the State,
the great body of society, the vast organism which lasts indefinitely
through the long series of interlinked and responsible generations. If
they drew blood from the passing generation it was for the benefit of
coming generations, to preserve them from civil war or from foreign
domination.[12125] They have acted generally like able surgeons, if
not through virtue, at least through dynastic sentiment and family
traditions; having practiced from father to son, they had acquired the
professional conscience; their first and only aim was the safety and
health of their patient. It is for this reason that they have not
recklessly undertaken extravagant, bloody, and over-risky operations;
rarely have they given way to temptation through a desire to display
their skill, through the need of dazzling and astonishing the world,
through the novelty, keenness, and success of their saws and scalpels.
They felt that a longer and superior existence to their own was imposed
upon them; they looked beyond them-selves as far as their sight would
reach, and so took measures that the State after them might do without
them, live on intact, remain independent, vigorous, and respected
athwart the vicissitudes of European conflict and the uncertain problems
of coming history. Such, under the ancient régime, was what were called
reasons of state; these had prevailed in the councils of princes for
eight hundred years; along with unavoidable failures and after temporary
deviations, these had become for the time being and remained the
preponderating motive. Undoubtedly they excused or authorized many
breaches of faith, many outrages, and, to come to the word, many crimes;
but, in the political order of things, especially in the management of
external affairs, they furnished a governing and a salutary principle.
Under its constant influence thirty monarchs had labored, and it is thus
that, province after province, they had solidly and enduringly built up
France, by ways and means beyond the reach of individuals but available
to the heads of States.
Now, this principle is lacking with their improvised successor. On the
throne as in the camp, whether general, consul, or emperor, he remains
the military adventurer, and cares only for his own advancement. Owing
to the great defect in the education of both conscience and sentiments,
instead of subordinating himself to the State, he subordinates the State
to him; he does not look beyond his own brief physical existence to the
nation which is to survive him. Consequently, he sacrifices the future
to the present, and his work is not to be enduring. After him the
deluge! Little does he care who utters this terrible phrase; and worse
still, he earnestly wishes, from the bottom of his heart that everybody
should utter it.
"My brother," said Joseph, in 1803,[12126] "desires that the necessity
of his existence should be so strongly felt, and the benefit of
this considered so great, that nobody could look beyond it without
shuddering. He knows, and he feels it, that he reigns through this idea
rather than through force or gratitude. If to-morrow, or on any day, it
could be said, 'Here is a tranquil, established order of things, here
is a known successor; Bonaparte might die without fear of change or
disturbance,' my brother would no longer think himself secure.... Such
is the principle which governs him."
In vain do years glide by, never does he think of putting France in
a way to subsist without him; on the contrary, he jeopardizes lasting
acquisitions by exaggerated annexations, and it is evident from the very
first day that the Empire will end with the Emperor. In 1805, the five
per cents being at eighty francs, his Minister of the Finances, Gaudin,
observes to him that this is a reasonable rate.[12127] "No complaint
can now be made, since these funds are an annuity on Your Majesty's
life."--"What do you mean by that?"--"I mean that the Empire has become
so great as to be ungovernable without you."--"If my successor is a fool
so much the worse for him!"--"Yes, but so much the worse for France!"
Two years later, M. de Metternich, by way of a political summing
up, expresses his general opinion: "It is remarkable that Napoleon,
constantly disturbing and modifying the relations of all Europe, has
not yet taken a single step toward ensuring the maintenance of his
successors."[12128] In 1809, adds the same diplomat:[12129] "His death
will be the signal for a new and frightful upheaval; so many divided
elements all tend to combine. Deposed sovereigns will be recalled by
former subjects; new princes will have new crowns to defend. A veritable
civil war will rage for half a century over the vast empire of the
continent the day when the arms of iron which held the reins are
turned into dust." In 1811, "everybody is convinced[12130] that on
the disappearance of Napoleon, the master in whose hands all power is
concentrated, the first inevitable consequence will be a revolution."
At home, in France, at this same date, his own servitors begin to
comprehend that his empire is not merely a life-interest and will not
last after he is gone, but that the Empire is ephemeral and will not
last during his life; for he is constantly raising his edifice higher
and higher, while all that his building gains in elevation
it loses in stability. "The Emperor is crazy," said Decrees to
Marmont,[12131]"completely crazy. He will ruin us all, numerous as we
are, and all will end in some frightful catastrophe." In effect, he is
pushing France on to the abyss, forcibly and by deceiving her, through a
breach of trust which willfully, and by his fault, grows worse and worse
just as his own interests, as he comprehends these, diverge from those
of the public from year to year.
At the treaty of Luneville and before the rupture of the peace of
Amiens,[12132] this variance was already considerable. It becomes
manifest at the treaty of Presbourg and still more evident at the treaty
of Tilsit. It is glaring in 1808, after the deposition of the Spanish
Bourbons; it becomes scandalous and monstrous in 1812, when the war with
Russia took place. Napoleon himself admits that this war is against
the interests of France and yet he undertakes it.[12133] Later, at St.
Helena, he falls into a melting mood over "the French people whom he
loved so dearly."[12134] The truth is, he loves it as a rider loves his
horse; as he makes it rear and prance and show off its paces, when he
flatters and caresses it; it is not for the advantage of the animal but
for his own purposes, on account of its usefulness to him; to be spurred
on until exhausted, to jump ditches growing wider and wider, and leap
fences growing higher and higher; one ditch more, and still another
fence, the last obstacle which seems to be the last, succeeded by
others, while, in any event, the horse remains forcibly and for ever,
what it already is, namely, a beast of burden and broken down.--For, on
this Russian expedition, instead of frightful disasters, let us imagine
a brilliant success, a victory at Smolensk equal to that of Friedland,
a treaty of Moscow more advantageous than that of Tilsit, and the
Czar brought to heel. As a result the Czar is probably strangled or
dethroned, a patriotic insurrection will take place in Russia as in
Spain, two lasting wars, at the two extremities of the Continent,
against religious fanaticism, more irreconcilable than positive
interests, and against a scattered barbarism more indomitable than a
concentrated civilization. At best, a European empire secretly mined
by European resistance; an exterior France forcibly superposed on
the enslaved Continent;[12135] French residents and commanders at
St. Petersburg and Riga as at Dantzic, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Lisbon,
Barcelona, and Trieste. Every able-bodied Frenchman that can be employed
from Cadiz to Moscow in maintaining and administering the conquest. All
the able-bodied youth annually seized by the conscription, and, if
they have escaped this, seized again by decrees.[12136] The entire male
population thus devoted to works of constraint, nothing else in prospect
for either the cultivated or the uncultivated, no military or civil
career other than a prolonged guard duty, threatened and threatening,
as soldier, customs-inspector, or gendarme, as prefect, sub-prefect, or
commissioner of police, that is to say, as subaltern henchman and bully
restraining subjects and raising contributions, confiscating and burning
merchandise, seizing grumblers, and making the refractory toe the
mark.[12137] In 1810, one hundred and sixty thousand of the refractory
were already condemned by name, and, moreover, penalties were imposed
on their families to the amount of one hundred and seventy millions
of francs In 1811 and 1812 the roving columns which tracked fugitives
gathered sixty thousand of them, and drove them along the coast from the
Adour to the Niemen; on reaching the frontier, they were en-rolled in
the grand army; but they desert the very first month, they and their
chained companions, at the rate of four or five thousand a day.[12138]
Should England be conquered, garrisons would have to be maintained
there, and of soldiers equally zealous. Such is the dark future which
this system opens to the French, even with the best of good luck. It
turns out that the luck is bad, and at the end of 1812 the grand army is
freezing in the snow; Napoleon's horse has let him tumble. Fortunately,
the animal has simply foundered; "His Majesty's health was never
better";[12139] nothing has happened to the rider; he gets up on his
legs, and what concerns him at this moment is not the sufferings of his
broken-down steed, but his own mishap; his reputation as a horseman is
compromised; the effect on the public, the hooting of the audience, is
what troubles him, the comedy of a perilous leap, announced with such a
flourish of trumpets and ending in such a disgraceful fall. On reaching
Warsaw[12140] he says to himself, ten times over:
"There is only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous."
The following year, at Dresden, he exposes still more foolishly, openly,
and nakedly his master passion, the motives which determine him, the
immensity and ferocity of his pitiless pride.
"What do they want of me?" said he to M. de Metternich.[12141] "Do they
want me to dishonor myself? Never! I can die, but never will I yield an
inch of territory! Your sovereigns, born to the throne, may be beaten
twenty times over and yet return to their capitals: I cannot do this,
because I am a parvenu soldier. My domination will not survive the day
when I shall have ceased to be strong, and, consequently, feared."
In effect, his despotism in France is founded on his European
omnipotence; if he does not remain master of the Continent," he must
settle with the corps législatif.[12142] Rather than descend to an
inferior position, rather than be a constitutional monarch, controlled
by parliamentary chambers, he plays double or quits, and will risk
losing everything.
"I have seen your soldiers," says Metternich to him, "they are children.
When this army of boys is gone, what will you do then?"
At these words, which touch his heart, he grows pale, his features
contract, and his rage overcomes him; like a wounded man who has made a
false step and exposes himself, he says violently to Metternich:
"You are not a soldier You do not know the impulses of a soldier's
breast! I have grown up on the battle-field, and a man like me does not
give a damn for the lives of a million men!"[12143]
His imperial pipe-dreams has devoured many more. Between 1804 and 1815
he has had slaughtered 1,700,000 Frenchmen, born within the boundaries
of ancient France,[12144] to which must be added, probably, 2,000,000
men born outside of these limits, and slain for him, under the title of
allies, or slain by him under the title of enemies. All that the poor,
enthusiastic, and credulous Gauls have gained by entrusting their public
welfare to him is two invasions; all that he bequeaths to them as a
reward for their devotion, after this prodigious waste of their blood
and the blood of others, is a France shorn of fifteen departments
acquired by the republic, deprived of Savoy, of the left bank of the
Rhine and of Belgium, despoiled of the northeast angle by which it
completed its boundaries, fortified its most vulnerable point, and,
using the words of Vauban, "made its field square," separated from
4,000,000 new Frenchmen which it had assimilated after twenty years of
life in common, and, worse still, thrown back within the frontiers
of 1789, alone, diminished in the midst of its aggrandized neighbors,
suspected by all Europe, and lastingly surrounded by a threatening
circle of distrust and rancor.
Such is the political work of Napoleon, the work of egoism served
by genius. In his European structure as in his French structure this
sovereign egoism has introduced a vice of construction. This fundamental
vice is manifest at the outset in the European edifice, and, at the
expiration of fifteen years, it brings about a sudden downfall: in the
French edifice it is equally serious but not so apparent; only at the
end of half a century, or even a whole century, is it to be made clearly
visible; but its gradual and slow effects will be equally pernicious and
they are no less sure.
*****
[Footnote 1201: See my "Philosophy of Art" for texts and facts, Part
II., ch. VI.--Other analogies, which are too long for development here,
may be found, especially in all that concerns the imagination and
love. "He was disposed to accept the marvelous, presentiments, and even
certain mysterious communications between beings.... I have seen him
excited by the rustling of the wind, speak enthusiastically of the roar
of the sea, and sometimes inclined to believe in nocturnal apparitions;
in short, leaning to certain superstitions." (Madame de Rémusat, I.,
102, and III., 164.)--Meneval (III., 114) notes his "crossing himself
involuntarily on the occurrence of some great danger, on the discovery
of some important fact." During the consulate, in the evening, in a
circle of ladies, he sometimes improvised and declaimed tragic "tales,"
Italian fashion, quite worthy of the story-tellers of the XVth and XVIth
centuries. (Bourrienne, VI., 387, gives one of his improvisations.
Cf. Madame de Rémusat, I., 102.)--As to love, his letters to Josephine
during the Italian campaign form one of the best examples of Italian
passion and "in most piquant contrast with the temperate and graceful
elegance of his predecessor M. de Beauharnais." (Madame de Rémusat,
I., 143).--His other amours, simply physical, are too difficult to deal
with; I have gathered some details orally on this subject which are
almost from first hands and perfectly authentic. It is sufficient to
cite one text already published: "According to Josephine, he had no
moral principle whatever; did he not seduce his sisters one after the
other? "--"I am not a man like other men, he said of himself, "and moral
laws and those of propriety do not apply to me." (Madame de Rémusat, I.,
204, 206.)--Note again (II., 350) his proposals to Corvisart.--Such are
everywhere the sentiments, customs, and morality of the great Italian
personages of about the year 1500.]
[Footnote 1202: De Pradt, "Histoire de l'ambassade dans le grand-duché
de Varsovie," p.96. "with the Emperor, desire springs out of his
imagination; his idea becomes passion the moment it comes into his
head."]
[Footnote 1203: Bourrienne, II., 298.--De Ségur, I., 426.]
[Footnote 1204: Bodin, "Recherches sur l'Anjou," II., 325.--"Souvenirs
d'un nonagénaire," by Besnard.--Sainte-Beuve, "Causeries du Lundi,"
article on Volney.--Miot de Melito, I., 297. He wanted to adopt Louis's
son, and make him King of Italy. Louis refused, alleging that this
marked favor would give new life to the reports spread about at one time
in relation to this child." Thereupon, Napoleon, exasperated, "seized
Prince Louis by the waist and pushed him violently out of the room."--"
Mémorial," Oct.10, 1816. Napoleon relates that at the last conference
of Campo-Fermio, to put an end to the resistance of the Austrian
plenipotentiary, he suddenly arose, seized a set of porcelain on a stand
near him and dashed it to the floor, exclaiming, "Thus will I shatter
your monarchy before a month is over!" (Bourrienne questions this
story.)]
[Footnote 1205: Varnhagen von Ense, "Ausgewahlte Schriften," III.,
77 (Public reception of July 22, 1810). Napoleon first speaks to
the Austrian Ambassador and next to the Russian Ambassador with a
constrained air, forcing himself to be polite, in which he cannot
persist. "Treating with I do not know what unknown personage, he
interrogated him, reprimanded him, threatened him, and kept him for a
sufficiently long time in a state of painful dismay. Those who stood
near by and who could not help feeling a dismayed, stated later that
there had been nothing to provoke such fury, that the Emperor had only
sought an opportunity to vent his ill-humor; that he did it purposely
on some poor devil so as to inspire fear in others and to put down in
advance any tendency to opposition. Cf. Beugnot, "Mémoires," I., 380,
386, 387.--This mixture of anger and calculation likewise explains his
conduct at Sainte Helena with Sir Hudson Lowe, his unbridled diatribes
and insults bestowed on the governor like so many slaps in the face. (W.
Forsyth, "History of the Captivity of Napoleon at Saint Helena, from the
letters and journals of Sir Hudson Lowe," III., 306.)]
[Footnote 1206: Madame de Rémusat, II., 46.]
[Footnote 1207: "Les Cahiers de Coignat." 191. "At Posen, already, I saw
him mount his horse in such a fury as to land on the other side and then
give his groom a cut of the whip."]
[Footnote 1208: Madame de Rémusat, I., 222.]
[Footnote 1209: Especially the letters addressed to Cardinal Consalvi
and to the Préfet of Montenotte (I am indebted to M. d'Haussonville for
this information).--Besides, he is lavish of the same expressions in
conversation. On a tour through Normandy, he sends for the bishop of
Séez and thus publicly addresses him: "Instead of merging the parties,
you distinguish between constitutionalists and non-constitutionalists.
Miserable fool! You are a poor subject,--hand in your resignation
at once!"--To the grand-vicars he says, "Which of you governs your
bishop--who is at best a fool?"--As M. Legallois is pointed out to
him, who had of late been absent. "Fuck, where were you then?" "With
my family." "With a bishop who is merely a damned fool, why are you so
often away, etc.?" (D'Haussonville,VI., 176, and Roederer, vol. III.)]
[Footnote 1210: Madame de Rémusat--I., 101; II., 338.]
[Footnote 1211: Ibid., I., 224.--M. de Meneval, I., 112, 347; III.,
120: "On account of the extraordinary event of his marriage, he sent a
handwritten letter to his future father-in-law (the Emperor of Austria).
It was a grand affair for him. Finally, after a great effort,
he succeeded in penning a letter that was readable."--Meneval,
nevertheless, was obliged "to correct the defective letters without
letting the corrections be too plainly seen."]
[Footnote 1212: For example, at Bayonne and at Warsaw (De Pradt); the
outrageous and never-to-be forgotten scene which, on his return
from Spain, occurred with Talleyrand--("Souvenirs", by PASQUIER
Etienne-Dennis, duc, Chancelier de France. Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.
I., 357);--The gratuitous insult of M. de Metternich, in 1813, the
last word of their interview ("Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie,"
I., 230).--Cf. his not less gratuitous and hazardous confidential
communications to Miot de Melito, in 1797, and his five conversations
with Sir Hudson Lowe, immediately recorded by a witness, Major
Gorrequer. (W. Forsyth, I.,147, 161, 200.)]
[Footnote 1213: De Pradt, preface X]
[Footnote 1214: Pelet de la Lozére, p. 7.--Mollien, "Mémoires," II.,
222.--"Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 66, 69.]
[Footnote 1215: "Madame de Rémusat," I., 121: I have it from Corvisart
that the pulsations of his arteries are fewer than is usual with men.
He never experienced what is commonly called giddiness." With him, the
nervous apparatus is perfect in all its functions, incomparable for
receiving, recording, registering, combining, and reflecting, but other
organs suffer a reaction and are very sensitive." (De Ségur, VI., 15 and
16, note of Drs. Yvan and Mestivier, his physicians.) "To preserve
the equilibrium it was necessary with him that the skin should always
fulfill its functions; as soon as the tissues were affected by any moral
or atmospheric cause.... irritation, cough, ischuria." Hence his need of
frequent prolonged and very hot baths. "The spasm was generally shared
by the stomach and the bladder. If in the stomach, he had a nervous
cough which exhausted his moral and physical energies." Such was the
case between the eve of the battle of Moscow and the morning after his
entry into Moscow: "a constant dry cough, difficult and intermittent
breathing; the pulse sluggish, weak, and irregular; the urine thick and
sedimentary, drop by drop and painful; the lower part of the legs and
the feet extremely oedematous." Already, in 1806, at Warsaw, "after
violent convulsions in the stomach," he declared to the Count de Loban,
"that he bore within him the germs of a premature death, and that he
would die of the same disease as his father's." (De Ségur, VI., 82.)
After the victory of Dresden, having eaten a ragout containing garlic,
he is seized with such violent gripings as to make him think he was
poisoned, and he makes a retrograde movement, which causes the loss of
Vandamme's division, and, consequently, the ruin of 1813. "Souvenirs",
by Pasquier, Etienne-Dennis, duc, chancelier de France. Librarie Plon,
Paris 1893, (narrative of Daru, an eye-witness.)--This susceptibility of
the nerves and stomach is hereditary with him and shows itself in
early youth. "One day, at Brienne, obliged to drop on his knees, as
a punishment, on the sill of the refectory, he is seized with sudden
vomiting and a violent nervous attack." De Segur, I., 71.--It is well
known that he died of a cancer in the stomach, like his father Charles
Bonaparte. His grandfather Joseph Bonaparte, his uncle Fesch, his
brother Lucien, and his sister Caroline died of the same, or of an
analogous disease.]
[Footnote 1216: Meneval, I., 269. Constant, "Mémoires," V., 62. De
Ségur, VI., 114, 117.]
[Footnote 1217: Marshal Marmont, "Mémoires," I., 306. Bourrienne, II.,
119: "When off the political field he was sensitive, kind, open to
pity."]
[Footnote 1218: Pelet de la Lozére, p.7. De Champagny, "Souvenirs,"
p.103. At first, the emotion was much stronger. "He had the fatal
news for nearly three hours; he had given vent to his despair alone by
himself. He summoned me.... plaintive cries involuntarily escaped him."]
[Footnote 1219: Madame de Rémusat, I., 121, 342; II., 50; III., 61, 294,
312.]
[Footnote 1220: De Ségur, V., 348.]
[Footnote 1221: Yung, II., 329, 331. (Narrated by Lucien, and report to
Louis XVIII.)]
[Footnote 1222: "Nouvelle relation de l'Itinéraire de Napoléon, de
Fontainebleau à l'Ile de l'Elbe," by Count Waldberg-Truchsees, Prussian
commissioner (1885), pp.22, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32, 34, 37.--The violent
scenes, probably, of the abdication and the attempt at Fontainebleau to
poison himself had already disturbed his balance. On reaching Elba, he
says to the Austrian commissioner, Koller, "As to you, my dear general,
I have let you see my bare rump."--Cf. in "Madame de Rémusat," I., 108,
one of his confessions to Talleyrand: he crudely points out in himself
the distance between natural instinct and studied courage.--Here and
elsewhere, we obtain a glimpse of the actor and even of the Italian
buffoon; M. de Pradt called him "Jupiter Scapin." Read his reflections
before M. de Pradt, on his return from Russia, in which he appears in
the light of a comedian who, having played badly and failed in his
part, retires behind the scenes, runs down the piece, and criticize the
imperfections of the audience. (De Pradt, p.219.)]
[Footnote 1223: The reader may find his comprehension of the author's
meaning strengthened by the following translation of a passage from his
essay on Jouffroy (Philosophes classiques du XIXth Siécle," 3rd ed.):
"What is a man, master of himself? He is one who, dying with thirst,
refrains from swallowing a cooling draft, merely moistening his lips:
who insulted in public, remains calm in calculating his most appropriate
revenge; who in battle, his nerves excited by a charge, plans a
difficult maneuver, thinks it out, and writes it down with a lead-pencil
while balls are whistling around him, and sends it to his colonels. In
other words, it is a man in whom the deliberate and abstract idea of
the greatest good is stronger than all other ideas and sensations. The
conception of the greatest good once attained, every dislike, every
species of indolence, every fear, every seduction, every agitation, are
found weak. The tendency which arise from the idea of the greatest good
constantly dominates all others and determines all actions." TR.]
[Footnote 1224: Bourrienne, I. 21.]
[Footnote 1225: Yung, 1., 125.]
[Footnote 1226: Madame de Rémusat, I., 267.--Yung, II., 109. On his
return to Corsica he takes upon himself the government of the whole
family. "Nobody could discuss with him, says his brother Lucien; he
took offence at the slightest observation and got in a passion at the
slightest resistance. Joseph (the eldest) dared not even reply to his
brother."]
[Footnote 1227: Mémorial, August 27-31, 1815.]
[Footnote 1228: "Madame de Rémusat," I., 105.--Never was there an abler
and more persevering sophist, more persuasive, more eloquent, in order
to make it appear that he was right. Hence his dictations at St.
Helena; his proclamations, messages, and diplomatic correspondence; his
ascendancy in talking as great as through his arms, over his subject and
over his adversaries; also his posthumous ascendancy over posterity.
He is as great a lawyer as he is a captain and administrator. The
peculiarity of this disposition is never submitting to truth, but always
to speak or write with reference to an audience, to plead a cause.
Through this talent one creates phantoms which dupe the audience; on the
other hand, as the author himself forms part of the audience, he ends in
not along leading others into error but likewise himself, which is the
case with Napoleon.]
[Footnote 1229: Yung, II., 111. (Report by Volney, Corsican
commissioner, 1791.--II., 287.) (Mémorial, giving a true account of the
political and military state of Corsica in December, 1790.)--II.,
270. (Dispatch of the representative Lacombe Saint-Michel, Sept.
10, 1793.)--Miot de Melito I.,131, and following pages. (He is peace
commissioner in Corsica in 1797 and 1801.)]
[Footnote 1230: Miot de Melito, II., 2. "The partisans of the First
consul's family... regarded me simply as the instrument of their
passions, of use only to rid them of their enemies, so as to center all
favors on their protégés."]
[Footnote 1231: Yung., I., 220. (Manifest of October--31, 1789.)--I.,
265. (Loan on the seminary funds obtained by force, June 23, 1790.)--I.,
267, 269. (Arrest of M. de la Jaille and other officers; plan for taking
the citadel of Ajaccio.)--II., 115. (letter to Paoli, February 17,
1792.) "Laws are like the statues of certain divinities--veiled
on certain occasions."--II., 125. (Election of Bonaparte as
lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of volunteers, April 1, 1792.)
The evening before he had Murati, one of the three departmental
commissioners, carried off by an armed band from the house of the
Peraldi, his adversaries, where he lodged. Murati, seized unawares, is
brought back by force and locked up in Bonaparte's house, who gravely
says to him "I wanted you to be free, entirely at liberty; you were not
so with the Peraldi."--His Corsican biographer (Nasica, "Mémoires sur la
jeunesse et l'enfance de Napoléon,") considers this a very praiseworthy
action]
[Footnote 1232: Cf. on this point, the Memoirs of Marshal Marmont,
I., 180, 196; the Memoirs of Stendhal, on Napoleon; the Report of
d'Antraigues (Yung, III., 170, 171); the "Mercure Britannique" of
Mallet-Dupan, and the first chapter of "La Chartreuse de Parme," by
Stendhal.]
[Footnote 1233: "Correspondance de Napoléon," I. (Letter of Napoleon
to the Directory, April 26, 1796.)--Proclamation of the same date: "You
have made forced marches barefoot, bivouacked without brandy, and often
without bread."]
[Footnote 1234: Stendhal, "Vie de Napoléon," p. 151. "The commonest
officers were crazy with delight at having white linen and fine new
boots. All were fond of music; many walked a league in the rain to
secure a seat in the La Scala Theatre.... In the sad plight in which the
army found itself before Castiglione and Arcole, everybody, except the
knowing officers, was disposed to attempt the impossible so as not to
quit Italy."--"Marmont," I., 296: "We were all of us very young,...
all aglow with strength and health, and enthusiastic for glory.... This
variety of our occupations and pleasures, this excessive employment
of body and mind gave value to existence, and made time pass with
extraordinary rapidity."]
[Footnote 1235: "Correspondance de Napoléon," I. Proclamation of March
27, 1796: "Soldiers, you are naked and poorly fed. The government is
vastly indebted to you; it has nothing to give you.... I am going to
lead you to the most fertile plains in the world; rich provinces, large
cities will be in your power; you will then obtain honor, glory, and
wealth."--Proclamation of April 26, 1796:--"Friends, I guarantee that
conquest to you!"--Cf. in Marmont's memoirs the way in which Bonaparte
plays the part of tempter in offering Marmont, who refuses, an
opportunity to rob a treasury chest.]
[Footnote 1236: Miot de Melito, I., 154. (June, 1797, in the gardens of
Montebello.) "Such are substantially the most remarkable expressions in
this long discourse which I have recorded and preserved."]
[Footnote 1237: Miot de Melito, I. 184. (Conversation with Bonaparte,
November 18, 1797, at Turin.) "I remained an hour with the general
tête-à-tête. I shall relate the conversation exactly as it occurred,
according to my notes, made at the time."]
[Footnote 1238: Mathieu Dumas, "Mémoires," III., 156. "It is certain
that he thought of it from this moment and seriously studied the
obstacles, means, and chances of success." (Mathieu Dumas cites the
testimony of Desaix, who was engaged in the enterprise): "It seems that
all was ready, when Bonaparte judged that things were not yet ripe, nor
the means sufficient."--Hence his departure. "He wanted to get out of
the way of the rule and caprices of these contemptible dictators,
while the latter wanted to get rid of him because his military fame and
influence in the army were obnoxious to them."]
[Footnote 1239: Larevellière-Lepaux (one of the five directors on duty),
"Mémoires," II., 340. "All that is truly grand in this enterprise, as
well as all that is bold and extravagant, either in its conception or
execution, belongs wholly to Bonaparte. The idea of it never occurred to
the Directory nor to any of its members.... His ambition and his pride
could not endure the alternative of no longer being prominent or of
accepting a post which, however eminent, would have always subjected him
to the orders of the Directory."]
[Footnote 1240: Madame de Rémusat, I., 142. "Josephine laid great stress
on the Egyptian expedition as the cause of his change of temper and of
the daily despotism which made her suffer so much."--"Mes souvenirs sur
Napoleon," 325 by the count Chaptal. (Bonaparte's own words to the poet
Lemercier who might have accompanied him to the Middle East and there
would have learned many things about human nature): "You would have
seen a country where the sovereign takes no account of the lives of
his subjects, and where the subject himself takes no account of his own
life. You would have got rid of your philanthropic 'notions."]
[Footnote 1241: Roederer, III., 461 (Jan. 12, 1803)]
[Footnote 1242: Cf. "The Revolution," Vol. p. 773. (Note I., on the
situation, in 1806, of the Conventionalists who had survived the
revolution.) For instance, Fouché is minister; Jeanbon-Saint-André,
prefect; Drouet (de Varennes), sub-prefect; Chépy (of Grenoble),
commissary-general of the police at Brest; 131 regicides are
functionaries, among whom we find twenty one prefects and forty-two
magistrates.--Occasionally, a chance document that has been preserved
allows one to catch "the man in the act." ("Bulletins hebdomadaires
de la censure, 1810 and 1814," published by M. Thurot, in the Revue
Critique, 1871): "Seizure of 240 copies of an indecent work printed for
account of M. Palloy, the author. This Palloy enjoyed some celebrity
during the Revolution, being one of the famous patriots of the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine. The constituent Assembly had conceded to him the
ownership of the site of the Bastille, of which he distributed its
stones among all the communes. He is a bon vivant, who took it into his
head to write out in a very bad style the filthy story of his amours
with a prostitute of the Palais-Royal. He was quite willing that the
book should be seized on condition that he might retain a few copies
of his jovial production. He professes high admiration for, and strong
attachment to His Majesty's person, and expresses his sentiments
piquantly, in the style of 1789."]
[Footnote 1243: "Mémorial," June 12, 1816.]
[Footnote 1244: Mathieu Dumas, III., 363 (July 4, 1809, a few days
before Wagram).--Madame de Rémusat," I., 105: "I have never heard him
express any admiration or comprehension of a noble action."--I., 179:
On Augustus's clemency and his saying, "Let us be friends, Cinna," the
following is his interpretation of it: "I understand this action simply
as the feint of a tyrant, and approve as calculation what I find puerile
as sentiment."--"Notes par le Comte Chaptal": "He believed neither
in virtue nor in probity, often calling these two words nothing
but abstractions; this is what rendered him so distrustful and so
immoral.... He never experienced a generous sentiment; this is why he
was so cold in company, and why he never had a friend. He regarded men
as so much counterfeit coin or as mere instruments."]
[Footnote 1245: M. de Metternich, "Mémoires," I., 241.--"Madame de
Rémusat," I., 93: "That man has been so harmful (si assommateur de
toute vertu...) to all virtue."--Madame de Staël, "Considerations sur la
Revolution Française," 4th part, ch. 18. (Napoleon's conduct with M. de
Melzi, to destroy him in public opinion in Milan, in 1805.)]
[Footnote 1246: Madame de Rémusat, I., 106; II., 247, 336: "His means
for governing man were all derived from those which tend to debase him.
... He tolerated virtue only when he could cover it with ridicule."]
[Footnote 1247: Nearly all his false calculations are due to this
defect, combined with an excess of constructive imagination.--Cf. De
Pradt, p.94: "The Emperor is all system, all illusion, as one cannot
fail to be when one is all imagination. Whoever has watched his course
has noticed his creating for himself an imaginary Spain, an imaginary
Catholicism, an imaginary England, an imaginary financial state, an
imaginary noblesse, and still more an imaginary France, and, in late
times, an imaginary congress."]
[Footnote 1248: Roederer, III., 495. (March 8, 1804.)]
[Footnote 1249: Ibid., III., 537 (February 11, 1809.)]
[Footnote 1250: Roederer, III., 514. (November 4, 1804.)]
[Footnote 1251: Marmont, II., 242.]
[Footnote 1252: "Correspondance de Napoléon," I. (Letter to Prince
Eugéne, April 14, 1806.)]
[Footnote 1253: M. de Metternich, I., 284.]
[Footnote 1254: Mollien, III., 427.]
[Footnote 1255: "Notes par le Comte Chaptal": During the Consulate, "his
opinion not being yet formed on many points, he allowed discussion
and it was then possible to enlighten him and enforce an opinion once
expressed in his presence. But, from the moment that he possessed
ideas of his own, either true or false, on administrative subjects,
he consulted no one;... he treated everybody who differed from him in
opinion contemptuously, tried to make them appear ridiculous, and often
exclaimed, giving his forehead a slap, that here was an instrument far
more useful than the counsels of men who were commonly supposed to be
instructed and experienced... For four years, he sought to gather around
him the able men of both parties. After this, the choice of his agents
began to be indifferent to him. Regarding himself as strong enough to
rule and carry on the administration himself, the talents and character
of those who stood in his way were discarded. What he wanted was valets
and not councillors... The ministers were simply head-clerks of the
bureaus. The Council of State served only to give form to the decrees
emanating from him; he ruled even in petty details. Everybody around him
was timid and passive; his will was regarded as that of an oracle and
executed without reflection.... Self-isolated from other men, having
concentrated in his own hands all powers and all action, thoroughly
convinced that another's light and experience could be of no use to him,
he thought that arms and hands were all that he required."]
[Footnote 1256: "Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc),
chancelier de France. In VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. Vol I.
chap. IX. and X. pp. 225-268. (Admirable portraiture of his principal
agents, Cambacérès, Talleyrand, Maret, Cretet, Real, etc.) Lacuée,
director of the conscription, is a perfect type of the imperial
functionary. Having received the broad ribbon of the Legion d'Honneur,
he exclaimed, at the height of his enthusiasm: "what will not France
become under such a man? To what degree of happiness and glory will it
not ascend, always provided the conscription furnishes him with 200,000
men a year! And, indeed, that will not be difficult, considering the
extent of the empire."--And likewise with Merlin de Douai: "I never
knew a man less endowed with the sentiment of the just and the unjust;
everything seems to him right and good, as the consequences of a
legal text. He was even endowed with a kind of satanic smile which
involuntarily rose to his lips... every time the opportunity occurred,
when, in applying his odious science, he reached the conclusion that
severity is necessary or some condemnation." The same with Defermon, in
fiscal matters]
[Footnote 1257: Madame de Rémusat, II., 278; II., 175.]
[Footnote 1258: Ibid., III., 275, II., 45. (Apropos of Savary, his most
intimate agent.): "He is a man who must be constantly corrupted."]
[Footnote 1259: Ibid., I., 109; II., 247; III., 366.]
[Footnote 1260: "Madame de Rémusat," II., 142, 167, 245. (Napoleon's own
words.) "If I ordered Savary to rid himself of his wife and children, I
am sure he would not hesitate."--Marmont, II., 194: "We were at Vienna
in 1809. Davoust said, speaking of his own and Maret's devotion: "If
the Emperor should say to us both, 'My political interests require the
destruction of Paris without any one escaping,' Maret would keep the
secret, I am sure; but nevertheless he could not help letting it be
known by getting his own family out. I, rather than reveal it I would
leave my wife and children there." (These are bravado expressions, wordy
exaggerations, but significant.)]
[Footnote 1261: Madame de Rémusat, II., 379.]
[Footnote 1262: "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 230. (Words
of Maret, at Dresden, in 1813; he probably repeats one of Napoleon's
figures.)]
[Footnote 1263: Mollien, II., 9.]
[Footnote 1264: D'Haussonville, "L'Église Romaine et le premier
Empire,"VI., 190, and passim.]
[Footnote 1265: Ibid., III., 460-473.--Cf. on the same scene,
"Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Chancelier de France.
(He was both witness and actor.)]
[Footnote 1266: An expression of Cambacérès. M. de Lavalette, II., 154.]
[Footnote 1267: Madame de Rémusat, III. 184]
[Footnote 1268: "Souvenirs", by Pasquier, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.-,
I., 521. Details of the manufacture of counterfeit money, by order of
Savary, in an isolated building on the plain of Montrouge.--Metternich,
II., 358. (Words of Napoleon to M. de Metternich): "I had 300 millions
of banknotes of the Bank of Vienna all ready and was going to flood
you with them." Ibid., Correspondence of M. de Metternich with M. de
Champagny on this subject (June, 1810).]
[Footnote 1269: "Souvenirs", by Pasquier, Librarie Plon, Paris
1893.--Vol. II. p. 196.]
[Footnote 1270: Madame de Rémusat, II., 335.]
[Footnote 1271: Madame de Rémusat, I., 231.]
[Footnote 1272: Ibid., 335.]
[Footnote 1273: M. de Metternich, I., 284. "One of those to whom he
seemed the most attached was Duroc. 'He loves me the same as a dog loves
his master,' is the phrase he made use of in speaking of him to me. He
compared Berthier's sentiment for his person to that of a child's nurse.
Far from being opposed to his theory of the motives influencing men
these sentiments were its natural consequence whenever he came across
sentiments to which he could not apply the theory of calculation based
on cold interest, he sought the cause of it in a kind of instinct."]
[Footnote 1274: Beugnot, "Mémoires," II., 59.]
[Footnote 1275: "Mémorial." "If I had returned victorious from Moscow,
I would have brought the Pope not to regret temporal power: I would have
converted him into an idol... I would have directed the religious world
as well as the political world... My councils would have represented
Christianity, and the Pope would have only been president of them."]
[Footnote 1276: De Ségur, III., 312. (In Spain, 1809.)]
[Footnote 1277: "Mémoires du Prince Eugène." (Letters of Napoleon,
August, 1806.)]
[Footnote 1278: Letter of Napoleon to Fouché, March 3, 1810. (Left out
in the "Correspondance de Napoléon I.," and published by M. Thiers in
"Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire," XII., p. 115.)]
[Footnote 1279: De Ségur, III., 459.]
[Footnote 1280: Words of Napoleon to Marmont, who, after three months in
the hospital, returns to him in Spain with a broken arm and his hand in
a black sling: "You hold on to that rag then?" Sainte-Beuve, who loves
the truth as it really is, quotes the words as they came, which Marmont
dared not reproduce. (Causeries du Lundi, VI., 16.)--"Souvenirs",
by Pasquier, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893: "M. de Champagny having been
dismissed and replaced, a courageous friend defended him and insisted on
his merit: "You are right," said the Emperor, "he had some when I took
him; but by cramming him too full, I have made him stupid."]
[Footnote 1281: Beugnot, I., 456, 464]
[Footnote 1282: Mme. de Rémusat, II., 272.]
[Footnote 1283: M. de Champagny, "Souvenirs," 117.]
[Footnote 1284: Madame de Rémusat, I., 125.]
[Footnote 1285: De Ségur, III., 456.]
[Footnote 1286: "The Ancient Regime," p. 125.--"æuvres de Louis XIV.,"
191: "If there is any peculiar characteristic of this monarchy, it is
the free and easy access of the subjects to the king; it an egalité de
justice between both, and which, so to say, maintains both in a genial
and honest companionship, in spite of the almost infinite distance in
birth, rank, and power. This agreeable society, which enables persons
of the Court to associate familiarly with us, impresses them and charms
them more than one can tell."]
[Footnote 1287: Madame de Rémusat, II., 32, 39.]
[Footnote 1288: Madame de Rémusat, III., 169.]
[Footnote 1289: Ibid., II., 32, 223, 240, 259; III., 169.]
[Footnote 1290: Ibid., I., 112, II., 77.]
[Footnote 1291: M. de Metternich, I., 286.--"It would be difficult
to imagine any greater awkwardness than that of Napoleon in a
drawing-room.--Varnhagen von Ense, "Ausgewählte Schriften," III., 177.
(Audience of July 10, 1810): "I never heard a harsher voice, one so
inflexible. When he smiled, it was only with the mouth and a portion
of the cheeks; the brow and eyes remained immovably sombre,... This
compound of a smile with seriousness had in it something terrible and
frightful."--On one occasion, at St. Cloud, Varnhagen heard him exclaim
over and over again, twenty times, before a group of ladies, "How hot!"]
[Footnote 1292: Mme. de Rémusat, II., 77, 169.--Thibaudeau, "Mémoires
sur le Consulat," p. 18: "He sometimes pays them left-handed compliments
on their toilet or adventures, which was his way of censuring
morals."--"Mes souvenirs sur Napoléon," 322 by le Comte Chaptal: "At a
fête, in the Hôtel de Ville, he exclaimed to Madame----, who had just
given her name to him: 'Good God, they told me you were pretty!' To some
old persons: 'You haven't long to live! To another lady: 'It is a fine
time for you, now your husband is on his campaigns!' In general, the
tone of Bonaparte was that of an ill-bred lieutenant. He often invited
a dozen or fifteen persons to dinner and rose from the table before the
soup was finished... The court was a regular galley where each rowed
according to command."]
[Footnote 1293: Madame de Rémusat, I., 114, 122, 206; II., 110, 112.]
[Footnote 1294: Ibid., I., 277.]
[Footnote 1295: "Hansard's Parliamentary History," vol. XXXVI.,.310.
Lord Whitworth's dispatch to Lord Hawkesbury, March 14, 1803, and
account of the scene with Napoleon. "All this took place loud enough for
the two hundred persons present to hear it."--Lord Whitworth (dispatch
of March 17) complains of this to Talleyrand and informs him that he
shall discontinue his visits to the Tuileries unless he is assured that
similar scenes shall not occur again.--Lord Hawkesbury approves of this
(dispatch of March 27), and declares that the proceeding is improper and
offensive to the King of England.--Similar scenes, the same conceit and
intemperate language, with M. de Metternich, at Paris, in 1809, also at
Dresden, in 1813: again with Prince Korsakof, at Paris, in 1812; with
M. de Balachof, at Wilna, in 1812, and with Prince Cardito, at Milan, in
1805.]
[Footnote 1296: Before the rupture of the peace of Amiens ("Moniteur,"
Aug. 8, 1802): The French government is now more firmly established than
the English government."--("Moniteur" Sept.10, 1802): "What a difference
between a people which conquers for love of glory and a people of
traders who happen to become conquerors!"--("Moniteur," Feb. 20, 1803):
"The government declares with a just pride that England cannot now
contend against France."--Campaign of 1805, 9th bulletin, words of
Napoleon in the presence of Mack's staff: "I recommend my brother the
Emperor of Germany to make peace as quick as he can! Now is the time
to remember that all empires come to an end; the idea that an end might
come to the house of Lorraine ought to alarm him."--Letter to the Queen
of Naples, January 2, 1805: "Let your Majesty listen to what I predict.
On the first war breaking out, of which she might be the cause, she and
her children will have ceased to reign; her children would go wandering
about among the different countries of Europe begging help from their
relations."]
[Footnote 1297: 37th bulletin, announcing the march of an army on Naples
"to punish the Queen's treachery and cast from the throne that criminal
woman, who, with such shamelessness, has violated all that men hold
sacred."--Proclamation of May 13, 1809: "Vienna, which the princes of
the house of Lorraine have abandoned, not as honorable soldiers yielding
to circumstances and the chances of war, but as perjurers pursued
by remorse.... In flying from Vienna their adieus to its inhabitants
consisted of murder and fire. Like Medea, they have sacrificed their
children with their own hands."--13th bulletin: "The rage of the house
of Lorraine against the city of Vienna,"]
[Footnote 1298: Letter to the King of Spain, Sept. 18, 1803, and a note
to the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, on the Prince de la Paix:
"This favorite, who has succeeded by the most criminal ways to a degree
unheard of in the annals of history.... Let Your Majesty put away a
man who, maintaining in his rank the low passions of his character, has
lived wholly on his vices."--After the battle of Jéna, 9th, 17th,
18th, and 19th bulletins, comparison of the Queen of Prussia with Lady
Hamilton, open and repeated insinuations, imputing to her an intrigue
with the Emperor Alexander. "Everybody admits that the Queen of Prussia
is the author of the evils the Prussian nation suffers. This is heard
everywhere. How changed she is since that fatal interview with the
Emperor Alexander!... The portrait of the Emperor Alexander, presented
to her by the Prince, was found in the apartment of the Queen at
Potsdam."]
[Footnote 1299: "La Guerre patriotique" (1812-1815), according to the
letters of contemporaries, by Doubravine (in Russian). The Report of the
Russian envoy, M. de Balachof, is in French,]
[Footnote 12100: An allusion to the murder of Paul I.]
[Footnote 12101: Stanislas de Girardin, "Mémoires," III., 249.
(Reception of Nivôse 12, year X.) The First consul addresses the Senate:
"Citizens, I warn you that I regard the nomination of Daunou to the
senate as a personal insult, and you know that I have never put up with
one."--"Correspondance de Napoleon I." (Letter of Sept.23, 1809, to M.
de Champagny): "The Emperor Francis insulted me in writing to me that I
cede nothing to him, when, out of consideration for him, I have reduced
my demands nearly one-half." (Instead of 2,750,000 Austrian subjects
he demanded only 1,600,000.)--Roederer, III., 377 (Jan.24, 1801): "The
French people must put up with my defects if they find I am of service
to them; it is my fault that I cannot endure insults."]
[Footnote 12102: M. de Metternich, II., 378. (Letter to the Emperor of
Austria, July 28, 1810.)]
[Footnote 12103: Note presented by the French ambassador, Otto, Aug. 17,
1802.]
[Footnote 12104: Stanislas Girardin, III., 296. (Words of the First
consul, Floreal 24, year XI.): "I had proposed to the British minister,
for several months, to make an arrangement by which a law should be
passed in France and in England prohibiting newspapers and the members
of the government from expressing either good or ill of foreign
governments. He never would consent to it."--St. Girardin: "He could
not."--Bonaparte: "Why?"--St. Girardin: "Because an agreement of that
sort would have been opposed to the fundamental law of the country."
Bonaparte: "I have a poor opinion," etc.]
[Footnote 12105: Hansard, vol. XXXVI., p.1298. (Dispatch of Lord
Whitworth, Feb.21, 1803, conversation with the First consul at the
Tuileries.)--Seeley, 'A Short History of Napoleon the First." "Trifles
is a softened expression, Lord Whitworth adds in a parenthesis which has
never been printed; "the expression he made use of is too insignificant
and too low to have a place in a dispatch or anywhere else, save in the
mouth of a hack-driver."]
[Footnote 12106: Lanfrey, "Histoire de Napoléon," II., 482. (Words
of the First consul to the Swiss delegates, conference of January 29,
1803.)]
[Footnote 12107: Sir Neil Campbell, "Napoleon at Fontainebleau and
Elba," p.201. (The words of Napoleon to Sir Neil Campbell and to the
other commissioners.)--The Mémorial de Sainte Helene mentions the
same plan in almost identical terms.--Pelet de la Lozère, "Opinions de
Napoléon au conseil d'état," p.238 (session of March 4, 1806): "Within
forty-eight hours after peace with England, I shall interdict foreign
commodities and promulgate a navigation act forbidding any other than
French vessels entering our ports, built of French timber, and with the
crews two-thirds French. Even coal and English 'milords' shall land only
under the French flag."--Ibid., 32.]
[Footnote 12108: Moniteur, January 30, 1803 (Sebastiani).]
[Footnote 12109: Hansard, vol. XXXVI., p.1298. (Lord Whitworth's
dispatch, Feb.21, 1803, the First Consul's words to Lord Whitworth.)]
[Footnote 12110: "Memorial." (Napoleon's own words, March 24, 1806.)]
[Footnote 12111: Lanfrey, II., 476. (Note to Otto, October 23,
1802.)--Thiers,VI., 249.]
[Footnote 12112: Letter to Clarke, Minister of War, Jan. 18, 1814. "If,
at Leipsic, I had had 30,000 cannon balls to fire off on the evening of
the 18th, I should to-day be master of the world."]
[Footnote 12113: "Memorial," Nov. 30, 1815.]
[Footnote 12114: Lanfrey, III.,--399. Letters of Talleyrand, October 11
and 27, 1805, and memorandum addressed to Napoleon.]
[Footnote 12115: At the council held in relation to the future marriage
of Napoleon, Cambacérès vainly supported an alliance with the Russians.
The following week, he says to M. Pasquier: "When one has only one good
reason to give and it cannot possibly be given, it is natural that one
should be beaten..., You will see that it is so good that one phrase
suffices to make its force fully understood. I am deeply convinced that
in two years we shall have a war with that of two powers whose daughter
the Emperor does not marry. Now a war with Austria does not cause me
any uneasiness, and I tremble at a war with Russia. The consequences are
incalculable." "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie
Plon, Paris 1893. Vol I., p 293, p 378.).]
[Footnote 12116: M. de Metternich, II., 305. (Letter to the Emperor
of Austria, Aug.10, 1809.)--Ibid. 403.. (Letter of Jan.11, 1811.) "My
appreciation of Napoleon's plans and projects, at bottom, has never
varied. The monstrous purpose of the complete subjection of the
continent under one head was, and is still, his object."]
[Footnote 12117: "Correspondance de Napoleon I." (Letter to the King
of Wurtemberg, April 2, 1814): "The war will take place in spite of him
(the Emperor Alexander), in spite of me, in spite of the interests of
France and those of Russia. Having already seen this so often, it is my
past experience which enables me to unveil the future,"]
[Footnote 12118: Mollien, III., 135, 190.--In 1810 "prices have
increased 400% on sugar, and 100 % on cotton and dye stuffs."--"More
than 20,000 custom-house officers were employed on the frontier against
more than 100,000 smugglers, in constant activity and favored by the
population."--"Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie
Plon, Paris 1893.-, I., 387.--There were licenses for importing colonial
products, but on condition of exporting a proportionate quantity of
French manufactures; now, England refused to receive them. Consequently,
"not being allowed to bring these articles back to France, they were
thrown overboard."--"They began at first by devoting the refuse of
manufactures to this trade, and then ended by manufacturing articles
without other destination; for example, at Lyons, taffetas and satins."]
[Footnote 12119: Proclamation of Dec.27, 1805: "The Naples dynasty has
ceased to reign. Its existence is incompatible with the repose of Europe
and the honor of my crown."--Message to the Senate, Dec. 10, 1810:
"Fresh guarantees having become necessary, the annexation to the Empire
of the mouths of the Escaut, the Meuse, the Rhine, the Ems, the Weser,
and the Elbe, seemed to me to be the first and most important.... The
annexation of the Valais is an anticipated result of the vast works I
have undertaken for the past ten years in that section of the Alps."]
[Footnote 12120: We are familiar with the Spanish affair. His treatment
of Portugal is anterior and of same order.-" Correspondance." (Letter to
Junot, Oct.31, 1807):--'I have already informed you, that in authorizing
you to enter as an auxiliary, it was to enable you to possess
yourself of the (Portuguese) fleet, but my mind was made up to take
Portugal."--(Letter to Junot, Dec. 23, 1807): "Disarm the country. Send
all the Portuguese troops to France.... I want them out of the country.
Have all princes, ministers, and other men who serve as rallying points,
sent to France."--(Decree of Dec. 23, 1807): "An extra contribution
of 100 million francs shall be imposed on the kingdom of Portugal, to
redeem all property, of whatever denomination, belonging to private
parties... All property belonging to the Queen of Portugal, to the
prince-regent, and to princes in appanage;.... all the possessions of
the nobles who have followed the king, on his abandoning the country,
and who had not returned to the kingdom before February 1, shall be put
under sequestration."--Cf. M. d'Haussonville, "L'Église Romaine et le
premier Empire," 5 vols. (especially the last volume). No other work
enables one to see into Napoleon's object and proceedings better nor
more closely.]
[Footnote 12121: "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," p.143. (As a
specimen of steps taken in time of war, see the register of Marshal
Bessières' orders, commandant at Valladolid from April 11 to July 15,
1811.)--"Correspondance du Roi Jérome," letter of Jerome to Napoleon,
Dec. 5, 1811. (Showing the situation of a vanquished people in times of
peace): "If war should break out, all countries between the Rhine and
the Oder will become the center of a vast and active insurrection. The
mighty cause of this dangerous movement is not merely hatred of the
French, and impatience of a foreign yoke, but rather in the misfortunes
of the day, in the total ruin of all classes, in over-taxation,
consisting of war levies, the maintenance of troops, soldiers traversing
the country, and every sort of constantly renewed vexation.... At
Hanover, Magdebourg, and in the principal towns of my kingdom, owners of
property are abandoning their dwellings and vainly trying to dispose
of them at the lowest prices.... Misery everywhere presses on families;
capital is exhausted; the noble, the peasant, the bourgeois, are crushed
with debt and want.... The despair of populations no longer having
anything to lose, because all has been taken away, is to be feared."--De
Pradt, p.73. (Specimen of military proceedings in allied countries.) At
Wolburch, in the Bishop of Cujavie's chateau, "I found his secretary,
canon of Cujavie, decorated with the ribbon and cross of his order, who
showed me his jaw, broken by the vigorous blows administered to him the
previous evening by General Count Vandamme, because he had refused to
serve Tokay wine, imperiously demanded by the general; he was told that
the King of Westphalia had lodged in the castle the day before, and had
carted away all this wine."]
[Footnote 12122: Fievée, "Correspondance et relations avec Bonaparte,
de 1802 à 1813," III., 82. (Dec. 1811), (On the populations annexed
or conquered): "There is no hesitation in depriving them of their
patrimony, their language, their legislatures, in disturbing all their
habits, and that without any warrant but throwing a bulletin des lois at
their heads (inapplicable).... How could they be expected to recognize
this, or even become resigned to it?... Is it possible not to feel that
one no longer has a country, that one is under constraint, wounded in
feeling and humiliated?... Prussia, and a large part of Germany, has
been so impoverished that there is more to gain by taking a pitchfork to
kill a man than to stir up a pile of manure."]
[Footnote 12123: "Correspondance," letter to King Joseph, Feb. 18, 1814.
"If I had signed the treaty reducing France to its ancient limits,
I should have gone to war two years after"--Marmont, V., 133 (1813):
"Napoleon, in the last years of his reign, always preferred to lose all
rather than to yield anything."]
[Footnote 12124: M. de Metternich, II., 205.]
[Footnote 12125: Words of Richelieu on his death-bed: "Behold my judge,"
said he, pointing to the Host, "the judge who will soon pronounce his
verdict. I pray that he will condemn me, if, during my ministry, I
have proposed to myself aught else than the good of religion and of the
State."]
[Footnote 12126: Miot de Melito, "Mémoires,"II., 48, 152.]
[Footnote 12127: "Souvenirs," by Gaudin, duc de Gaëte (3rd vol. of the
"Mémoires," p.67).]
[Footnote 12128: M. de Metternich, II., 120. (Letter to Stadion, July
26, 1807.)]
[Footnote 12129: Ibid., II., 291. (Letter of April 11, 1809.)]
[Footnote 12130: Ibid., II., 400. (Letter of Jan.17, 1811.) In lucid
moments, Napoleon takes the same view. Cf. Pelet de la Lozère, "Opinions
de Napoleon au conseil d'etat," p. 15: "That will last as long as I do.
After me, however, my son will deem himself fortunate if he has 40,000
francs a year."--(De Ségur, "Histoire et Mémoires," III., 155.): "How
often at this time (1811) was he heard to foretell that the weight of
his empire would crush his heir!" "Poor child," said he, regarding the
King of Rome, "what an entanglement I shall leave to you!" From the
beginning he frequently passed judgment on himself and foresaw the
effect of his action in history." On reaching the isle of Poplars, the
First Consul stopped at Rousseau's grave, and said: 'It would have, been
better for the repose of France, if that man had never existed.' 'And
why, citizen Consul?' 'He is the man who made the French revolution.'
'It seems to me that you need not complain of the French revolution!'
'well, the future must decide whether it would not have been better for
the repose of the whole world if neither myself nor Rousseau had ever
lived.' He then resumed his promenade in a revery."--Stanislas
Girardin; "Journal et Mémoires," III., Visit of the French Consul to
Ermenonville.]
[Footnote 12131: Marmont, "Mémoires," III., 337. (On returning from
Wagram.)]
[Footnote 12132: On this initial discord, cf. Armand Lefèvre, "Histoire
des Cabinets de l'Europe," vol.VI.]
[Footnote 12133: "Correspondance de Napoléon I." (Letter to the King of
Wurtemberg, April 2, 1811.)]
[Footnote 12134: Testament of April 25, 1821 "It is my desire that my
remains rest on the banks of the Seine, amidst that French people I have
so dearly loved."]
[Footnote 12135: "Correspondance de Napoleon I.", XXII., 119. (Note by
Napoleon, April, 1811.) "There will always be at Hamburg, Bremen,
and Lubeck from 8000 to 10,000 Frenchmen, either as employees or as
gendarmes, in the custom-houses and warehouses."]
[Footnote 12136: "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc),
Librarie Plon, Paris 1893.-, II., 88, and following pages: "During the
year 1813, from Jan. 1 to Oct. 7, 840,000 men had already been drafted
from imperial France and they had to be furnished."--Other decrees
in December, placing at the disposition of the government 300,000
conscripts for the years 1806 to 1814 inclusive.--Another decree in
November organizing 140,000 men of the national guard in cohorts,
intended for the defense of strongholds.--In all, 1,300,000 men summoned
in one year. "Never has any nation been thus asked to let itself be
voluntarily led in a mass to the slaughterhouse.--Ibid., II., 59.
Senatus-consulte, and order of council for raising 10,000 young men,
exempt or redeemed from conscription, as the prefects might choose,
arbitrarily, from amongst the highest classes in society. The purpose
was plainly "to secure hostages in every family of doubtful loyalty.
No measure created for Napoleon more irreconcilable enemies."--Cf.
De Ségur, II., 34. (He was charged with organizing and commanding
a division of young men.) Many were sons of Vendéans or of
Conventionalists, some torn from their wives the day after their
marriage, or from the bedside of a wife in her confinement, of a dying
father, or of a sick son; "some looked so feeble that they seemed
dying." One half perished in the campaign of 1814.--"Correspondance,"
letter to Clarke, Minister of War, Oct.23, 1813 (in relation to the new
levies): "I rely on 100,000 refractory conscripts."]
[Footnote 12137: "Archives nationales," A F.,VI., 1297. (Documents 206
to 210.) (Report to the Emperor by Count Dumas, April 10, 1810.) Besides
the 170 millions of penalties 1,675,457 francs of penalty were inflicted
on 2335 individuals, "abettors or accomplices."--Ibid., A F.,VI., 1051.
(Report of Gen. Lacoste on the department of Haute-Loire, Oct. 13,
1808.) "He always calculated in this department on the desertion of
one-half of the conscripts. In most of the cantons the gendarmes traffic
with the conscription shamefully; certain conscripts pension them to
show them favors."--Ibid., A F.,VI., 1052. (Report by Pelet, Jan. 12,
1812.) "The operation of the conscription has improved (in the Herault);
the contingents of 1811 have been furnished. There remained 1800
refractory, or deserters of the previous classes; 1600 have been
arrested or made to surrender by the flying column; 200 have still to be
pursued." Faber,--"Notice (1807) sur l'intérieur de la France," p. 141:
"Desertion, especially on the frontiers, is occasionally frightful; 80
deserters out of 160 have sometimes been arrested."--Ibid., p.149: It
has been stated in the public journals that in 1801 the court in session
at Lille had condemned 135 refractory out of the annual conscription,
and that which holds its sittings at Ghent had condemned 70. Now, 200
conscripts form the maximum of what an arrondissement in a department
could furnish."--Ibid, p.145. "France resembles a vast house of
detention where everybody is suspicious of his neighbor, where each
avoids the other... One often sees a young man with a gendarme at his
heels oftentimes, on looking closely, this young man's hands are found
tied, or he is handcuffed."--Mathieu Dumas, III., 507 (After the battle
of Dresden, in the Dresden hospitals): "I observed, with sorrow, that
many of these men were slightly wounded: most of them, young conscripts
just arrived in the army, had not been wounded by the enemy's fire,
but they had mutilated each other's feet and hands. Antecedents of this
kind, of equally bad augury, had already been remarked in the campaign
of 1809."]
[Footnote 12138: De Ségur, III., 474.--Thiers, XIV., 159. (One month
after crossing the Niemen one hundred and fifty thousand men had dropped
out of the ranks.)]
[Footnote 12139: Bulletin 29 (December 3, 1812).]
[Footnote 12140: "De Pradt, Histoire de l'Ambassade de Varsovie," p.219.]
[Footnote 12141: M. de Metternich, I., 147.--Fain, "Manuscript," of
1813, II., 26. (Napoleon's address to his generals.) "What we want is a
complete triumph. To abandon this or that province is not the question;
our political superiority and our existence depend on it. "--II., 41,
42. (Words of Napoleon to Metternich.) "And it is my father-in-law who
favors such a project! And he sends you! In what attitude does he wish
to place me before the French people? He is strangely deluded if he
thinks that a mutilated throne can offer an asylum to his daughter and
grandson.... Ah, Metternich, how much has England given you to make you
play this part against me?" (This last phrase, omitted in Metternich's
narrative, is a characteristic trait; Napoleon at this decisive moment,
remains insulting and aggressive, gratuitously and even to his own
destruction.)]
[Footnote 12142: "Souvenirs du feu duc de Broglie," I., 235.]
[Footnote 12143: Ibid., I., 230. Some days before Napoleon had said to
M. de Narbonne, who told me that very evening: "After all, what has this
(the Russian campaign) cost me? 300,000 men, among whom, again, were
a good many Germans."--"Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc,
Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. II. 110. (Apropos of the Frankfurt basis, and
accepted by Napoleon when too late.) "What characterizes this mistake
is that it was committed much more against the interests of France
than against his own.... He sacrificed her to the perplexities of his
personal situation, to the mauvaise honte of his own ambition, to the
difficulty he finds in standing alone to a certain extent before a
nation which had done everything for him and which could justly reproach
him with having sacrificed so much treasure and spilled so much blood on
enterprises proved to have been foolish and impracticable."]
[Footnote 12144: Leonce de Lavergne, "Economie rurale de la France,"
P.40. (According to the former director of the conscription under the
Empire.)]
BOOK SECOND. FORMATION AND CHARACTER OF THE NEW STATE.
CHAPTER I. THE INSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT
I. The Institution of Government.
Conditions on which the public power can act.--Two points
forgotten by the authors of the preceding constitutions.--
Difficulty of the undertaking and poor quality of the
available materials.
Every human society requires government, that is to say an authority. No
other machinery is more useful. But a machinery is useful only if it
is adapted to its purpose; if not it will not work, or may even work
contrary to its purpose. Hence, during its construction, one must first
of all consider the magnitude of the work it has to do as well as the
quality of the materials one has at one's disposal. It is very important
to know beforehand whether it will lift 100 or of 100,000 kilograms,
whether the pieces fitted together will be of iron or of steel, of
sound or of unsound timber.--But the legislators had not taken that into
consideration during the last ten years. They had set themselves up as
theoreticians, and likewise as optimists, without looking at the things,
or else imagining the them as they wished to have them. In the national
assemblies, as well as with the public, the task was deemed easy and
simple, whereas it was extraordinary and immense; for the matter in
hand consisted in effecting a social revolution and in carrying on an
European war. The materials were supposed to be excellent, as manageable
as they were substantial, while, in fact, they were very poor, being
both refractory and brittle, for these human materials consisted of
the Frenchmen of 1789 and of the following years; that is to say,
of exceedingly sensitive men doing each other all possible harm,
inexperienced in political business, Utopians, impatient, intractable,
and overexcited. Calculations had been made on these prodigiously false
data; consequently, although the calculations were very exact, the
results obtained were found absurd. Relying on these data, the machine
had been planned, and all its parts been adjusted, assembled, and
balanced. That is why the machine, irreproachable in theory, remained
unsuccessful in practice: the better it appeared on paper the quicker it
broke down when set up on the ground.
II. Default of previous government.
The consequences of the years 1789 to 1799.--Insubordination
of the local powers, conflict of the central powers,
suppression of liberal institutions, and the establishment
of an unstable despotism.--Evil-doing of the government thus
formed.
A capital defect at once declared itself in the two principal
compositions, in the working gear of the superposed powers and in the
balance of the motor powers.--In the first place, the hold given to the
central government on its local subordinates was evidently too feeble;
with no right to appoint these, it could not select them as it pleased,
according to the requirements of the service. Department, district,
canton, and commune administrators, civil and criminal judges,
assessors, appraisers, and collectors of taxes, officers of the
national-guard and even of the gendarmerie, police-commissioners,
and other agents who had to enforce laws on the spot, were nearly all
recruited elsewhere: either in popular assemblies or provided ready-made
by elected bodies.[2101] They were for it merely borrowed instruments;
thus originating, they escaped its control; it could not make them work
as it wanted them to work. On most occasions they would shirk their
duties; at other times, on receiving orders, they would stand inert;
or, again, they would act outside of or beyond their special function,
either going too far or acting in a contrary sense; never did they act
with moderation and precision, with coherence and consequence. For this
reason any desire of the government to do its job proved unsuccessful.
Its legal subordinates--incapable, timid, lukewarm, unmanageable, or
even hostile--obeyed badly, did not obey at all, or willfully disobeyed.
The blade of the executive instrument, loose in the handle, glanced or
broke off when the thrust had to be made.
In the second place, never could the two or three motor forces thrusting
the handle act in harmony, owing to the clashing of so many of them; one
always ended in breaking down the other. The Constituent Assembly
had set aside the King, the Legislative Assembly had deposed him, the
Convention had decapitated him. Afterward each fraction of the sovereign
body in the Convention had proscribed the other; the Montagnards had
guillotined the Girondists, and the Thermidorians had guillotined
the Montagnards. Later, under the Constitution of the year III, the
Fructidorians had banished the Constitutionalists, the Directory had
purged the Councils, and the Councils had purged the Directory.--Not
only did the democratic and parliamentary institution fail in its work
and break down on trial, but, again, through its own action, it became
transformed into its opposite. In a year or two a coup d'état in Paris
took place; a faction seized the central power and converted it into
an absolute power in the hands of five or six ringleaders. The new
government at once re-forged the executive instrument for its own
advantage and refastened the blade firmly on the handle; in the
provinces it dismissed those elected by the people and deprived the
governed of the right to choose their own rulers; henceforth, through
its proconsuls on mission, or through its resident commissioners, it
alone appointed, superintended, and regulated on the spot all local
authorities.[2102]
Thus the liberal constitution, at its close, gave birth to a centralized
despotism, and this was the worst of its species, at once formless and
monstrous; for it was born out of a civil crime, while the government
which used it had no support but a band of bigoted fanatics or political
adventurers; without any legal authority over the nation, or any moral
hold on the army, detested, threatened, discordant, exposed to the
resistance of its own upholders, to the treachery of its own members,
and living only from day to day, it could maintain itself only through a
brutal absolutism and permanent terror, while the public power of which
the first care is the protection of property, consciences, and lives,
became in its hands the worst of persecutors, robbers, and murderers.
III. In 1799, the undertaking more difficult and the materials worse.
Twice in succession had the experiment been tried, the monarchical
constitution of 1791, and the republican constitution of 1795; twice in
succession had the same events followed the same course to attain the
same end; twice in succession had the theoretical, cunningly-devised
machine for universal protection changed into an efficient and brutal
machine for universal oppression. It is evident that if the same machine
were started the third time under analogous conditions, one might expect
to see it work in the same manner; that is to say, contrary to its
purpose.
Now, in 1799, the conditions were analogous, and even worse, for the
work which the machine had to do was not less, while the human materials
available for its construction were not so good.--Externally, the
country was constantly at war with Europe; peace could not be secured
except by great military effort, and peace was as difficult to preserve
as to win. The European equilibrium had been too greatly disturbed;
neighboring or rival States had suffered too much; the rancor and
distrust provoked by the invading revolutionary republic were too
active; these would have lasted a long time against pacified France even
after she had concluded reasonable treaties. Even should she abandon a
policy of propaganda and interference, return brilliant acquisitions,
cease the domination of protectorates, and abandon the disguised
annexation of Italy, Holland, and Switzerland, the nation was still
bound to keep watch under arms. A government able to concentrate all its
forces--that is to say, placed above and beyond all dispute and promptly
obeyed-was indispensable, if only to remain intact and complete, to keep
Belgium and the frontier of the Rhine.--Likewise internally, and for no
other purpose than to restore civil order; for here, too, the
outrages of the Revolution had been too great. There had been too
much spoliation, too many imprisonments, exiles, and murders, too many
violations of every kind, too many invasions of the rights of property
and of persons, public and private. It was so much more difficult
* To insure respect for persons and all private and public possessions;
* to restrain at once both Royalists and Jacobins;
* to restore 140,000 émigrés to their country and yet satisfy 1,200,000
possessors of national property;
* to give back to 25,000,000 of orthodox Catholics the right, faculty,
and means for worshipping, and yet not allow the schismatic clergy to be
maltreated;
* to bring face to face in the same commune the dispossessed seigneur
and the peasant holders of his domain;
* to compel the delegates of the Committee of Public Safety and their
victims, the shooters and the shot of Vendémiaire, the Fructidorians and
the Fructidorized, the Whites and the Blues of La Vendée and Brittany,
to live in peace side by side,
because the future laborers in this immense work, from the village
mayor to the state-senator and state-councilor, had borne a part in
the Revolution, either in effecting it or under subjection to
it--Monarchists, Feuillantists, Girondists, Montagnards, Thermidorians,
moderate Jacobins or desperate Jacobins, all oppressed in turn and
disappointed in their calculations. Their passions, under this régime,
had become embittered; each brought personal bias and resentment into
the performance of his duties; to prevent him from being unjust and
mischievous demanded a tightened curb.[2103] All sense of conviction,
under this régime, had died out; no body would serve gratis as in
1789;[2104] nobody would work without pay; disinterestedness had lost
all charm; ostentatious zeal seemed hypocrisy; genuine zeal seemed
self-dupery; each looked out for himself and not for the community;
public spirit had yielded to indifference, to egotism, and to the need
of security, of enjoyment, and of self-advancement. Human materials,
deteriorated by the Revolution, were less than ever suited to providing
citizens--they simply furnished functionaries. With such wheels combined
together according to formula current between 1791 and 1795, the
requisite work could not possibly be done. As a consequence, definitely
and for a long time, any use of the two great liberal mechanisms were
doomed. So long as the wheels remained of such poor quality and the
task so hard, both the election of local powers and the division of the
central power had to be abandoned.
IV. Motives for suppressing the election of local powers.
Motives for suppressing the election of local powers.--The
Electors.--Their egoism and partiality.--The Elected.--Their
inertia, corruption, and disobedience.
All were agreed on the first point. If any still doubted, they had only
to open their eyes, fix them on the local authorities, watch them
as soon as born, and follow them throughout the exercise of their
functions.--Naturally, in filling each office, the electors had chosen
a man of their own species and caliber; their fixed and dominant
disposition was accordingly well known; they were indifferent to public
matters and therefore their candidate was as indifferent as themselves.
Had they shown too great a concern for the nation this would have
prevented their election; the State to them was a troublesome moralist
and remote creditor. Their candidate must choose between them and this
intruder, side with them against it, and not act as a pedagogue in its
name or as bailiff on its behalf. When power is born on the spot and
conferred to-day by constituents who are to submit to it to-morrow as
subordinates, they do not put the whip in the hands of one who will
flog them; they demand sentiments of him in conformity with their
inclinations; in any event they will not tolerate in him the opposite
ones. From the beginning, this resemblance between them and him is
great, and it goes on increasing from day to day because the creature is
always in the hands of his creators; subject to their daily pressure, he
at last becomes as they are; after a certain period they have shaped him
in their image.--Thus the candidate-elect, from the start or very soon
after, became a confederate with his electors. At one time, and this
occurred frequently, especially in the towns, he had been elected by a
violent sectarian minority; he then subordinated general interests
to the interests of a clique. At another, and especially in the rural
districts, he had been elected by an ignorant and brutal majority, when
he accordingly subordinated general interests to those of a village.--If
he chanced to be conscientious and somewhat intelligent and was anxious
to do his duty, he could not; he felt himself weak and was felt to be
weak;[2105] both authority and the means for exercising it were wanting
in him. He had not the force which a power above communicates to its
delegates below; nobody saw behind him the government and the army; his
only resource was a national-guard, which either shirked or refused to
do its duty, and which often did not exist at all.--On the contrary, he
could prevaricate, pillage, and persecute for his own advantage and
that of his clique with impunity; for there was no restraint on him from
above; the Paris Jacobins would not be disposed to alienate the Jacobins
of the province; they were partisans and allies, and the government
had few others; it was bound to retain them, to let them intrigue and
embezzle at will.
Suppose an extensive domain of which the steward is appointed, not by
the absent owner, but by his tenants, debtors, farmers, and dependents:
the reader may imagine whether rents will be paid and debts collected,
whether road-taxes will be worked out, what care will be taken of the
property, what its annual income will be to the owner, how abuses of
commission and omission will be multiplied indefinitely, how great the
disorder will be, the neglect, the waste, the fraud, the injustice, and
the license.--The same in France,[2106] and for the same reason:
* every public service disorganized, destroyed, or perverted;
* no justice, no police;
* authorities abstaining from prosecution, magistrates not daring to
condemn, a gendarmerie which receives no orders or which stands still;
* rural marauding become a habit;
* roving bands of brigands in forty-five departments;
* mail wagons and coaches stopped and pillaged even up to the environs
of Paris;
* highways broken up and rendered impassable;
* open smuggling, customs yielding nothing, national forests devastated,
the public treasury empty,[2107] its revenues intercepted and expended
before being deposited, taxes decreed and not collected;
* everywhere arbitrary assessments of real and personal estate, no less
wicked exemptions than overcharges;
* in many places no list prepared for tax assessments,
* communes which here and there, under pretext of defending the republic
against neighboring consumers, exempt themselves from both tax and
conscription;
* conscripts to whom their mayor gives false certificates of infirmity
and marriage, who do not turn out when ordered out, who desert by
hundreds on the way to headquarters, who form mobs and use guns in
defending themselves against the troops,--such were the fruits of the
system.
The government could not constrain rural majorities with the officials
chosen by the selfish and inept rural majorities. Neither could it
repress the urban minorities with agents elected by the same partial
and corrupt urban minorities. Hands are necessary, and hands as firm as
tenacious, to seize conscripts by the collar, to rummage the pockets
of taxpayers, and the State did not have such hands. They were required
right away, if only to prepare and provide for urgent needs. If the
western departments had to be subdued and tranquilized, relief furnished
to Massena besieged in Genoa, Mélas prevented from invading Provence,
Moreau's army transported over the Rhine, the first thing was to restore
to the central government the appointment of local authorities.
V. Reasons for centralization.
Reasons for placing the executive central power in one
hand.--Sieyès' chimerical combinations.--Bonaparte's
objections.
On this second point, the evidence was scarcely less.--And clearly, the
moment the local powers owed their appointment to the central powers, it
is plain that the central executive power, on which they depend, should
be unique. For, this great team of functionaries, driven from aloft,
could not have aloft several distinct drivers; being several and
distinct, the drivers would each pull his own way, while the horses,
pulling in opposite directions, would do nothing but prance. In this
respect the combinations of Sieyès do not bear examination. A mere
theorist and charged with preparing the plan of a new constitution,
he had reasoned as if the drivers on the box were not men, but robots:
perched above all, a grand-elector, a show sovereign, with two places
to dispose of and always passive, except to appoint or revoke two active
sovereigns, the two governing consuls. One, a peace-consul, appointing
all civil officers, and the other a war-consul, making all military and
diplomatic appointments; each with his own ministers, his own council of
state, his own court of judicature. All these functionaries, ministers,
consuls, and the grand-elector himself, were revocable at the will of
a senate which from day to day could absorb them, that is to say,
make them senators with a salary of 30,000 francs and an embroidered
dress-coat.[2108] Sieyès evidently had not taken into account either the
work to be done or the men who would have to do it, while Bonaparte,
who was doing the work at this very time, who understood men and who
understood himself, at once put his finger on the weak spot of this
complex mechanism, so badly adjusted and so frail. Two consuls,[2109]
"one controlling the ministers of justice, of the interior, of the
police, of the treasury, and the other the ministers of war, of the
navy, and of foreign affairs." The conflict between them is certain;
look at them facing each other, subject to contrary influences and
suggestions: around the former "only judges, administrators, financiers,
and men in long robes," and round the latter "only epaulets and men of
the sword." Certainly "one will need money and recruits for his army
which the other will not grant."--And it is not your grand-elector who
will make them agree. "If he conforms strictly to the functions which
you assign to him he will be the mere ghost, the fleshless phantom of
a roi fainéant. Do you know any man vile enough to take part in such
contrivances? How can you imagine any man of talent or at all honorable
contentedly playing the part of a hog fattening himself on a few
millions?"--And all the more because if he wants to abandon his part
the door stands open. "Were I the grand-elector I would say to the
war-consul and to the peace-consul on appointing them, If you put in a
minister or sign a bill I don't like I'll put you out." Thus does the
grand-elector become an active, absolute monarch.
"But," you may say, "the senate in its turn will absorb the
grand-elector."--"The remedy is worse than the disease; nobody,
according to this plan, has any guarantees," and each, therefore, will
try to secure them to himself, the grand-elector against the senate,
the consuls against the grand-elector, and the senate against the
grand-elector and consuls combined, each uneasy, alarmed, threatened,
threatening, and usurping to protect himself; these are the wheels
which work the wrong way, in a machine constantly getting out of order,
stopping, and finally breaking down entirely.
Thereupon, and as Bonaparte, moreover, was already master, all the
executive powers were reduced to one, and this power was vested in
him.[2110] In reality, "to humor republican opinion"[2111] they gave him
two associates with the same title as his own; but they were appointed
only for show, simply as consulting, inferior, and docile registrars,
with no rights save that of signing their names after his and putting
their signatures to the procès verbal declaring his orders; he alone
commanded, "he alone had the say, he alone appointed to all offices," so
that they were already subjects as he alone was already the sovereign.
VI. Irreconcilable divisions.
Difficulty of organizing a legislative power.--Fraudulent
and violent elections for ten years.--Spirit and diffusion
of hatred against the men and dogmas of the Revolution.
--Probable composition of a freely elected Assembly.--Its two
irreconcilable divisions.--Sentiments of the army.
--Proximity and probable meaning of a new coup d'État.
It remained to frame a legislative power as a counterpoise to this
executive power, so concentrated and so strong.--In organized and
tolerably sound communities this point is reached through an elective
parliament which represents the public will; it represents this because
it is a copy, a faithful reduction of that will on a small scale; it
is so organized as to present a loyal and proportionate expression of
diverse controlling opinions. In this case, the electoral selection has
worked well; one superior right, that of election, has been respected,
or, in other words, the passions excited have not proved too strong,
which is owing to the most important interests not having proved too
divergent.--Unfortunately, in France, rent asunder and discordant, all
the most important interests were in sharp antagonism; the passions
brought into play, consequently, were furious; no right was respected,
and least of all that of election; hence the electoral test worked
badly, and no elected parliament was or could be a veritable expression
of the public will. Since 1791, the elections, violated and deserted,
had brought intruders only to the legislative benches, under the name of
mandatories. These were endured for lack of better; but nobody had any
confidence in them, and nobody showed them any deference. People knew
how they had been elected and how little their title was worth. Through
inertness, fear, or disgust, the great majority of electors had not
voted, while the voters at the polls fought among themselves, the
strongest or least scrupulous expelling or constraining the rest. During
the last three years of the Directory the electoral assembly was often
divided; each faction elected its own deputy and protested against
the election of the other. The government then chose between the two
candidates elected, arbitrarily and always with barefaced partiality;
and again, if but one candidate was elected, and that one an adversary,
his election was invalidated. In sum, for nine years, the legislative
body, imposed on the nation by a faction, was scarcely more legitimate
than the executive power, another usurper, and which, later on, filled
up or purged its ranks. Any remedy for this defect in the electoral
machine was impossible; it was due to its internal structure, to the
very quality of its materials. At this date, even under an impartial and
strong government, the machine could not have answered its purpose,
that of deriving from the nation a body of sober-minded and respected
delegates, providing France with a parliament capable of playing its own
part, or any part whatever, in the conduct of public business.
For, suppose
* that the new governors show uncommon loyalty, energy, and vigilance,
remarkable political abnegation and administrative omnipresence,
* that the factions are contained without suppression of free speech,
* the central powers neutral yet active,
* no official candidature,
* no pressure from above,
* no constraint from below,
* the police-commissioners respectful and gendarmes protecting the
entrance to every electoral assembly,
* all proceedings regular, no disturbance inside, voting perfectly free,
the electors numerous, five or six millions of Frenchmen gathered at the
polls,
and guess what choice they will make.
After Fructidor, there is a renewal of religious persecution and of
excessive civil oppression; the brutality and unworthiness of the rulers
have doubled and diffused hatred against the men and the ideas of the
Revolution.--In Belgium, recently annexed, the regular and secular
clergy had just been proscribed in a mass,[2112] and a great rural
insurrection had broken out. The uprising had spread from the Waes
country and the ancient seignory of Malines, around Louvain as far as
Tirlemont, and afterward to Brussels, to Campine, to South Brabant, to
Flanders, to Luxembourg, in the Ardennes, and even to the frontiers of
Liège; many villages had to be burned, and many of their inhabitants
killed, and the survivors keep this in mind. In the twelve western
departments,[2113] at the beginning of the year 1800, the royalists were
masters of nearly the whole country and had control of forty thousand
armed men in regimental order; undoubtedly these were to be overcome
and disarmed, but they were not to be deprived of their opinions, as
of their guns.--In the month of August, 1799,[2114] sixteen thousand
insurgents in Haute Garonne and the six neighboring departments, led by
Count de Paulo, had unfurled the royal white flag; one of the cantons,
Cadours, "had risen almost entirely;" a certain town, Muret, sent
all its able-bodied men. They had penetrated even to the outskirts of
Toulouse, and several engagements, including a pitched battle, were
necessary to subdue them. On one occasion, at Montréjean, 2000 were
slain or drowned. The peasants fought with fury, "a fury that bordered
on frenzy;" "some were heard to exclaim with their last breath, 'Vive
le Roi!' and others were cut to pieces rather than shout, 'Vive la
République!'"--From Marseilles to Lyons the revolt lasted five years
on both banks of the Rhône, under the form of brigandage; the royalist
bands, increased by refractory conscripts and favored by the inhabitants
whom they spared, killed or pillaged the agents of the republic and
the buyers of national possessions.[2115] There were thus, in more
than thirty departments, intermittent and scattered Vendées. In all the
Catholic departments there was a latent Vendée. Had the elections been
free during this state of exasperation it is probable that one-half
of France would have voted for men of the ancient régime--Catholics,
Royalists, or, at least, the Monarchists of 1790.
Let the reader imagine facing this party, in the same chamber, about
an equal number of representatives elected by the other party; the only
ones it could select, its notables, that is to say, the survivors of
preceding assemblies, probably Constitutionalists of the year IV and
the year V, Conventionalists of the Plain and of the Feuillants of 1792,
from Lafayette and Dumolard to Daunou, Thibaudeau and Grégoire, among
them Girondists and a few Montagnards, Barère,[2116] with others, all of
them wedded to the theory the same as their adversaries to traditions.
To one who is familiar with the two groups, behold two inimical
doctrines confronting each other; two irreconcilable systems of opinions
and passions, two contradictory modes of conceiving sovereignty, law,
society, the State, property, religion, the Church, the ancient régime,
the Revolution, the present and the past; it is civil war transferred
from the nation to the parliament. Certainly the Right would like to see
the First Consul a Monck, which would lead to his becoming a Cromwell;
for his power depends entirely on his credit with the army, then the
sovereign force; at this date the army is still republican, at least in
feeling if not intelligently, imbued with Jacobin prejudices, attached
to revolutionary interests, and hence blindly hostile to aristocrats,
kings, and priests.[2117] At the first threat of a monarchical
and Catholic restoration it will demand of him an eighteenth
Fructidor[2118]; otherwise, some Jacobin general, Jourdan, Bernadotte,
or Augereau, will make one without him, against him, and they fall back
into the rut from which they wished to escape, into the fatal circle of
revolutions and coups d'état.
VII. Establishment of a new Dictatorship.
The electoral and legislative combinations of Sieyès.
--Bonaparte's use of them.--Paralysis and submission of the
three legislative bodies.--The Senate as the ruler's tool.
--Senatus-consultes and Plebiscites.--Final establishment of
the Dictatorship.--Its dangers and necessity.--Public power
now able to do its work.
Sieyès comprehended this: he detects on the horizon the two specters
which, for ten years, have haunted all the governments of France, legal
anarchy and unstable despotism; he has found a magic formula with which
to exorcise these two phantoms; henceforth "power is to come from above
and confidence from below."[2119]--Consequently, the new constitutional
act withdraws from the nation the right to elect its deputies; it will
simply elect candidates to the deputation and through three degrees of
election, one above the other; thus, it is to take part in the choice
of its candidates only through "an illusory and metaphysical
participation."[2120] The right of the electors of the first degree is
wholly reduced to designating one-tenth among themselves; the right
of those of the second degree is also reduced to designating one-tenth
among themselves; the right of those of the third degree is finally
reduced to designating one-tenth of their number, about six thousand
candidates. On this list, the government itself, by right and by way of
increasing the number, inscribes its own high functionaries; evidently,
on such a long list, it will have no difficulty in finding men who,
as simple tools, will be devoted to it. Through another excess of
precaution, the government, on its sole authority, in the absence of any
list, alone names the first legislature. Last of all, it is careful to
attach handsome salaries to these legislative offices, 10,000 f., 15,000
f., and 30,000 f. a year; parties canvass with it for these places the
very first day, the future depositaries of legislative power being, to
begin with, solicitors of the antechamber.--To render their docility
complete, there is a dismemberment of this legislative power in
advance; it is divided among three bodies, born feeble and passive by
institution. Neither of these has any initiative; their deliberations
are confined to laws proposed by the government. Each possesses only a
fragment of function; the "Tribunat" discusses without passing laws, the
"Corps Législatif" decrees without discussion, the conservative"
Sénat" is to maintain this general paralysis. "What do you want?" said
Bonaparte to Lafayette.[2121] "Sieyès everywhere put nothing but ghosts,
the ghost of a legislative power, the ghost of a judiciary, the ghost
of a government. Something substantial had to be put in their place. Ma
foi, I put it there," in the executive power.
There it is, completely in his hands; other authorities to him are
merely for show or as instruments.[2122] The mutes of the Corps
Législatif come annually to Paris to keep silent for four months;
one day he will forget to convoke them, and nobody will remark their
absence.--As to the Tribunat, which talks too much, he will at first
reduce its words to a minimum "by putting it on the diet of laws;"
afterward, through the interposition of the senate, which designates
retiring members, he gets rid of troublesome babblers; finally, and
always through the interposition of the senate, titular interpreter,
guardian, and reformer of the constitution, he ventilates and then
suppresses the Tribunat itself.--The senate is the grand instrument
by which he reigns; he commands it to furnish the senatus-consultes of
which he has need. Through this comedy played by him above, and through
another complementary comedy which he plays below, the plebiscite, he
transforms his ten-year consulate into a consulate for life, and then
into an empire, that is to say, into a permanent, legal, full, and
perfect dictatorship. In this way the nation is handed over to the
absolutism of a man who, being a man, cannot fail to think of his own
interest before all others. It remains to be seen how far and for how
long a time this interest, as he comprehends it, or imagines it, will
accord with the interest of the public. All the better for France should
this accord prove complete and permanent; all the worse for France
should it prove partial and temporary. It is a terrible risk, but
inevitable. There is no escape from anarchy except through despotism,
with the chance of encountering in one man, at first a savior and then a
destroyer, with the certainty of henceforth belonging to an unknown will
fashioned by genius and good sense, or by imagination and egoism, in
a soul fiery and disturbed by the temptations of absolute power, by
success and universal adulation, in a despot responsible to no one but
himself, in a conqueror condemned by the impulses of conquest to regard
himself and the world under a light growing falser and falser.
Such are the bitter fruits of social dissolution: the authority of the
state will either perish or become perverted; each uses it for his
own purposes, and nobody is disposed to entrust it to an external
arbitrator, and the usurpers who seize it only remain trustee on
condition that they abuse it; when it works in their hands it is only to
work against its office. It must be accepted when, for want of better or
fear of worse, through a final usurpation, it falls into the only hands
able to restore it, organize it, and apply it at last to the service of
the public.
*****
[Footnote 2101: "The Revolution," P.193 and following pages, also p.224
and following pages. The provisions of the constitution of the year
III, somewhat less anarchical, are analogous; those of the "Mountain"
constitution (year II) are so anarchical that nobody thought of
enforcing them.]
[Footnote 2102: "The Revolution," vol. III., pp.446, 450, 476.]
[Footnote 2103: Sauzay, "Histoire de la persecution révolutionnaire dans
le département du Doubs," X., 472 (Speech of Briot to the five-hundred,
Aug.29, 1799): "The country seeks in vain for its children; it finds the
chouans, the Jacobins, the moderates, and the constitutionalists of
'91 and '93, clubbists, the amnestied, fanatics, scissionists and
antiscissionists; in vain does it call for republicans."]
[Footnote 2104: "The Revolution," III., 427, 474.--Rocquain, "L'état de
la France au 18 Brumaire," 360, 362: "Inertia or absence of the national
agents. .. It would be painful to think that a lack of salary was one of
the causes of the difficulty in establishing municipal administrations.
In 1790, 1791, and 1792, we found our fellow-citizens emulously striving
after these gratuitous offices and even proud of the disinterestedness
which the law prescribed." (Report of the Directory, end of 1795.)
After this date public spirit is extinguished, stifled by the Reign
of Terror.--Ibid., 368, 369: "Deplorable indifference for public
offices.... Out of seven town officials appointed in the commune of
Laval, only one accepted, and that one the least capable. It is the same
in the other communes."--Ibid., 380 (Report of the year VII): "General
decline of public spirit."--Ibid., 287 (Report by Lacuée, on the
1st military division, Aisne, Eure-et-Loire, Loiret, Oise, Seine,
Seine-et-Marne, (year IX): "Public spirit is dying out and is even
gone."]
[Footnote 2105: Rocquain, Ibid., p.27 (Report of François de Nantes, on
the 8th military division,Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Basses-Alpes,
and Alpes-Maratimes, year IX): "Witnesses, in some communes, did not
dare furnish testimony, and, in all, the justices of the peace were
afraid of making enemies and of not being re-elected. It was the same
with the town officials charged with prosecutions and whom their quality
as elected and temporary officials always rendered timid."--Ibid., 48:
"All the customs-directors complained of the partiality of the courts. I
have myself examined several cases in which the courts of Marseilles
and Toulon decided against the plain text the law and with criminal
partiality.--Archives nationales, series F7, Reports "on the situation,
on the spirit of the public," in many hundreds of towns, cantons, and
departments, from the year III to the year VIII and after.]
[Footnote 2106: Cf. "The Revolution," III., book IX., ch. I.--Rocquain,
passim.--Schmidt, "Tableaux de la Révolution française," III., parts 9
and 10.--Archives nationales, F7, 3250 (Letter of the commissioner of
the executive directory, Fructidor 23, year VII): "Armed mobs on the
road between Saint-Omer and Arras have dared fire on the diligences and
rescue from the gendarmerie the drawn conscripts."--Ibid., F7, 6565.
Only on Seine-inferiure, of which the following are some of the reports
of the gendarmerie for one year.--Messidor, year VII, seditious mobs of
conscripts and others in the cantons of Motteville and Doudeville.
"What shows the perverted spirit of the communes of Gremonville and of
Héronville is that none of the inhabitants will make any declaration,
while it is impossible that they should not have been in the rebels'
secrets."--Similar mobs in the communes of Guerville, Millebose,and
in the forest of Eu: "It is stated that they have leaders, and that
drilling goes on under their orders.--Vendémiarie 27, year VIII.)
"Twenty-five armed brigands or drafted men in the cantons of Réauté
and Bolbec have put farmers to ransom."--(Nivôse 12~ year VIII.) In the
canton of Cuny another band of brigands do the same thing.--(Germinal
14, year VIII.) Twelve brigands stop the diligence between Neufchatel
and Rouen; a few days after, the diligence between Rouen and Paris is
stopped and three of the escort are killed.--Analogous scenes and mobs
in the other departments.]
[Footnote 2107: "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie
Plon, Paris 1893. I., 260. Under the Directory," one day, in order to
dispatch a special courier, the receipts of the Opera had to be taken
because they were in coin. Another day, it was on the point of sending
every gold piece in the musée of medals to be melted down (worth in the
crucible from 5000 to 6000 francs)."]
[Footnote 2108: "Théorie constitutionnelle de Sieyès." (Extract from
unpublished memoirs by Boulay de la Meurthe.) Paris, 1866, Renouard.]
[Footnote 2109: "Correspondance de Napoleon 1er," XXX.. 345.
("Mémoires.")--"Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène"]
[Footnote 2110: "Extrait des Mémoires" de Boulay de la Meurthe, p.50.
(Words of Bonaparte to Roederer about Sieyès, who raised objections and
wanted to retire.) "If Sieyès goes into the country, draw up for me at
once the plan of a constitution. I will summon the primary assemblies
in a week and make them accept it after discharging the (Constituant)
committees."]
[Footnote 2111: "Correspondance de Napoléon ler" XXX., 345, 346.
("Mémoires.") "Circumstances were such as to still make it necessary to
disguise the unique magistracy of the president."]
[Footnote 2112: The Revolution," III., 458, 417.--"Mercure
britannique," nos. for November 1798 and January 1799. (Letters from
Belgium.)--"More than 300 millions have been seized by force in these
desolated provinces; there is not a landowner whose fortune has not
been ruined, or sequestrated, or fatally sapped by forced levies and the
flood of taxes which followed these, by robberies of movable property
and the bankruptcy due to France having discredited claims on the
emperor and on the governments, in short through confiscation."--The
insurrection breaks out, as in Vendée, on account of the conscription;
the war-cry of the insurgents is, "Better die here than elsewhere."]
[Footnote 2113: De Martel, "Les Historiens fantaisistes," part 2 (on the
Pacification of the West, according to reports of the royalist leaders
and of the republican generals).]
[Footnote 2114: Archives nationales, F7, 3218. (Summary of dispatches
arranged according to dates.-Letters of Adjutant-General Vicose,
Fructidor 3, year VII.--Letters of Lamagdelaine, commissioner of the
executive Directory, Thermidor 26 and Fructidor 3, year VII.)--"The
rascals who led the people astray had promised them, in the King's name,
that they should not be called on for further taxes, that the conscripts
and requisitionnaires should not leave, and, finally, that they should
have the priests they wanted."--Near Montréjean "the carnage
was frightful, nearly 2000 men slain or drowned and 1000
prisoners."--(Letter of M. Alquier to the first consul, Pluviôse 18,
year VIII.) "The insurrection of Thermidor caused the loss of 3000
cultivators.--(Letters of the department administrators and of the
government commissioners, Nivôse 25 and 27, Pluviôse 13, 15, 25, 27, and
30, year VIII.)--The insurrection is prolonged through a vast number of
isolated outrages, with sabers or guns, against republican functionaries
and partisans, justices of the peace, mayors, etc. In the commune of
Balbèze, fifty conscripts, armed deserters with their knapsacks, impose
requisitions,give balls on Sunday, and make patriots give up their arms.
Elsewhere, this or that known patriot is assaulted in his house by a
band of ten or a dozen young folks who make him pay a ransom, shout
"Vive le Roi!" etc.--Cf. "Histoire de I' insurrection royaliste de l'an
VII," by B. Lavigne, 1887.]
[Footnote 2115: Archives nationales, F7, 3273 (Letter of the
commissioner of the executive Directory, Vaucluse, Fructidor 6, year
VII.): "Eighty armed royalists have carried off, near the forest of
Suze, the cash-box of the collector, Bouchet, in the name of Louis
XVIII. These rascals, it must be noted, did not take any of the money
belonging to the collector himself."--(Ibid., Thermidor 3, year VII.)
"On looking around among our communes I find all of them under the
control of royalist or town-councillors. That is the spirit of the
peasants generally.... Public spirit it so perverted, so opposed to the
constitutional regime, that a miracle only will bring them within the
pale of freedom."--Ibid., F7, 3199. (Similar documents on the department
of Bouches-du-Rhône.) Outrages continue here far down into
the consulate, in spite of the vigor and multitude of military
executions.--(Letter of the sub-prefect of Tarascon, Germinal 15, year
IX.) "In the commune of Eyragues, yesterday, at eight o'clock, a band of
masked brigands surrounded the mayor's house, while some of them entered
it and shot this public functionary without anybody daring to render
him any assistance.... Three-quarters of the inhabitants of Eyragues
are royalists."--In series F7, 7152 and those following may be found
an enumeration of political crimes classified by department and by the
month, especially for Messidor, year VII.]
[Footnote 2116: Barère, representative of Hautes Pyrénées, had preserved
a good deal of credit in this remote department, especially in the
district of Argeles, with populations which knew nothing about the
"Mountain." In 1805, the electors presented him as a candidate for the
legislative body and the senate; in 1815, they elected him deputy.]
[Footnote 2117: "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc),
chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. I.,
158. At the time the concordat was under consideration the aversion to
"priest rule" was very great in the army; there were secret meetings
held against it. Many of the superior officers took part in them, and
even some of the leading generals. Moreau was aware of them although he
did not attend them. In one of these gatherings, things were carried far
enough to resolve upon the assassination of the first consul. A certain
Donnadieu, then of a low rank in the army, offered to strike the blow.
General Oudinot, who was present, informed Davoust, and Donnadieu,
imprisoned in the Temple, made revelations. Measures were at once taken
to scatter the conspirators, who were all sent away more or less farther
off; some were arrested and others exiled, among them General Mounier,
who had commanded one of Desaix's brigades at Marengo. General Lecourbe
was also one of the conspirators.]
[Footnote 2118: On the 18th Fructidor Napoléon used grape-shot and
artillery to sweep the royalists off the streets of Paris. (SR.)]
[Footnote 2119: "Extrait des Mémoires de Boulay de la Meurthe," p.10.]
[Footnote 2120: Napoleon's words. ("Correspondance," XXX., 343, memoirs
dictated at Saint Helena.)]
[Footnote 2121: Lafayette, "Mémoires," II., 192.]
[Footnote 2122: Pelet de la Lozère, "Opinions de Napoléon au conseil
d'état," p. 63 "The senate is mistaken if it thinks it possesses
a national and representative chamber. It is merely a constituted
authority emanating from the government like the others."--Ibid., P.147:
"It must not be in the power of a legislative body to impede government
by refusing taxes; once the taxes are established they should be levied
by simple decrees. The court of cassation regards my decrees as laws;
otherwise, there would be no government." (January 9, 1808.)--Ibid., p.
147:" If I ever had any fear of the senate I had only to put fifty young
state-councillors into it." (December 1, 1803.)--Ibid., p.150: "If an
opposition should spring up in the legislative corps I would fall
back on the senate to prorogue, change it, or break it up." (March 29,
1806.)--Ibid., p.151: "Sixty legislators go out every year which one
does not know what to do with; those who do not get places go and
grumble in the departments. I should like to have old land-owners
married, in a certain sense, to the state through their family or
profession, attached by some tie to the commonwealth. Such men would
come to Paris annually, converse with the emperor in his own circle, and
be contented with this little bit of vanity relieving the monotony
of their existence." (Same date.)--Cf. Thibaudeau, "Mémoires sur le
Consulat," ch. XIII., and M. de Metternich, "Mémoires," I., 120 (Words
of Napoleon at Dresden, in the spring of 1812): "I shall give the senate
and the council of state a new organization. The former will take the
place of the upper chamber, the latter that of the chamber of deputies.
I shall continue to appoint the senators; I shall have the state
councillors elected one-third at a time on triple lists; the rest I will
appoint. Here will the budget be prepared and the laws elaborated."--We
see the corps législatif, docile as it is, still worrying him, and very
justly; he foresaw the session of 1813.]
CHAPTER II. PUBLIC POWER
I. Principal service rendered by the public power.
Principal service rendered by the public power.--It is an
instrumentality.--A common law for every instrumentality.
--Mechanical instruments.--Physiological instruments.--Social
instruments.--The perfection of an instrument increases with
the convergence of its effects.
What is the service which the public power renders to the public?--The
principal one is the protection of the community against the foreigner,
and of private individuals against each other.--Evidently, to do this,
it must in all cases be provided with indispensable means, namely:
diplomats, an army, a fleet, arsenals, civil and criminal courts,
prisons, a police, taxation and tax-collectors, a hierarchy of agents
and local supervisors, who, each in his place and attending to
his special duty, will co-operate in securing the desired
effect.--Evidently, again, to apply all these instruments, the
public power must have, according to the case, this or that form or
constitution, this or that degree of impulse and energy: according to
the nature and gravity of external or internal danger, it is proper that
it should be concentrated or divided, emancipated from control or under
control, authoritative or liberal. No indignation need be cherished
beforehand against its mechanism. Strictly speaking, it is a vast piece
appliance in the human community, such as a machine in a factory or such
as organ in the human body. If this organ is the only on that can carry
out the task, let us accept it and its structure: whoever wants the end
wants the means. All we can ask is that the means shall be adapted to
the end; in other terms, that the myriad of large or small local or
central pieces shall be determined, adjusted, and coordinated in view of
the final and total effect to which they co-operate nearly or remotely.
But, whether simple or compound, every engine which does any work
is subject to one condition; the better it is suited to any distinct
purpose the less it is suited to other purposes; as its perfection
increases, so does its application become limited.--Accordingly, if
there are two distinct instruments applied to two distinct objects,
the more perfect they are, each of its kind, the more do their domains
become circumscribed and opposed to each other; as one of them becomes
more capable of doing its own work it becomes more incapable of doing
the work of the other; finally, neither can take the place of the
other, and this is true whatever the instrument may be, mechanical,
physiological, or social.
At the very lowest grade of human industry the savage possesses but one
tool; with his cutting or pointed bit of stone he kills, breaks, splits,
bores, saws, and carves; the instrument suffices, in the main, for all
sorts of services. After this come the lance, the hatchet, the hammer,
the punch, the saw, the knife, each adapted to a distinct purpose and
less efficacious outside of that purpose: one cannot saw well with a
knife, and one cuts badly with a saw. Later, highly-perfected engines
appear, and, wholly special, the sewing-machine and the typewriter:
it is impossible to sew with the typewriter or write with the
sewing-machine.--In like manner, when at the lowest round of the organic
ladder the animal is simply a shapeless jelly, homogeneous and viscous,
all parts of it are equally suited to all functions; the amoebae,
indifferently and by all the cells of its body, can walk, seize,
swallow, digest, breathe, and circulate all its fluids, expel its waste,
and propagate its species. A little higher up, in fresh-water polyp, the
internal sac which digests and the outer skin which serves to envelop
it can, if absolutely necessary, change their functions; if you turn the
animal inside out like a glove it continues to live; its skin, become
internal, fulfills the office of a stomach; its stomach, become
external, fulfills the office of an envelope. But, the higher we ascend,
the more do the organs, complicated by the division and subdivision of
labor, diverge, each to its own side, and refuse to take each other's
place. The heart, with the mammal, is only good for impelling the blood,
while the lungs only furnish the blood with oxygen; one cannot possibly
do the work of the other; between the two domains the special structure
of the former and the special structure of the latter interpose an
impassable barrier.--In like manner, finally, at the very bottom of the
social scale--lower down than the Andamans and the Fuegians--we find a
primitive stage of humanity in which society consists wholly of a herd.
In this herd there is no distinct association in view of a distinct
purpose; there is not even a family--no permanent tie between male and
female; there is simply a contact of the sexes. Gradually, in this
herd of individuals, all equal and all alike, particular groups define
themselves, take shape, and separate: we see appearing more and more
precise relationships, more and more distinct habitations, more and
more hereditary homesteads, fishing, hunting, and war groups, and
small workshops; if the people is a conquering people, castes establish
themselves. At length, we find in this expanded and solidly-organized
social body provinces, communes, churches, hospitals, schools, corporate
bodies and associations of every species and dimension, temporary or
permanent, voluntary or involuntary, in brief, a multitude of social
engines constructed out of human beings who, on account of personal
interest, habit, and constraint, or through inclination, conscience,
and generosity, co-operate according to a public or tacit statute in
effecting in the material or spiritual order of things this or that
determinate undertaking. In France, to-day, there are, besides the
State, eighty-six departments, thirty-six thousand communes, four church
bodies, forty thousand parishes, seven or eight millions of families,
millions of agricultural, industrial, and commercial establishments,
hundreds of institutions of science and art, thousands of educational
and charitable institutions, benevolent and mutual-aid societies, and
others for business or for pleasure by tens and hundreds and thousands,
in short, innumerable associations of every kind, each with a purpose
of its own, and, like a tool or a special organ, carrying out a distinct
work.
Now, each of these associations so far as it is a tool or an organ is
subject to the same law; the better it is in one direction, the more
mediocre it is in other directions; its special competency constitutes
its general incompetence. This is why, among developed nations, no
specialized organization can replace another in a satisfactory manner.
"An academy of painting which should also be a bank would, in all
probability, exhibit very bad pictures and discount very bad bills. A
gas company which should also be a kindergarten would, we expect, light
the streets poorly and teach the children badly." [2201] And the
reason is that an instrument, whatever it may be, a mechanical tool, or
physiological organ, or human association, is always a system of pieces
whose effects converge to a given end; it matters little whether the
pieces are bits of wood and metal, as in the tool, cells and fibers,
as in the organ, souls and understandings, as in the association;
the essential thing is the convergence of their effects; for the more
convergent these effects, the more efficient is the instrument in the
realization of its end. But, through this convergence, it takes one
direction exclusively and cannot take any other; it cannot operate at
once in two different senses; it cannot possibly turn to the right and
at the same time turn to the left. If any social instrument devised
for a special service is made to act additionally for another, it will
perform its own office badly as well the one it usurps. Of the two works
executed by it, the first injures the second and the second injures the
first one. The end, ordinarily, is the sacrifice of one to the other,
and, most frequently, the failure of both.
II. Abusive Government Intervention.
Application of this law to the public power.--General effect
of its intervention.
Let us follow out the effects of this law when it is the public power
which, beyond its principal and peculiar task, undertakes a different
task and puts itself in the place of corporate bodies to do their
work; when the State, not content with protecting the community and
individuals against external or internal oppression, takes upon itself
additionally the government of churches, education, or charity, the
direction of art, science, and of commercial, agricultural, municipal,
or domestic affairs.--Undoubtedly, it can intervene in all corporate
bodies other than itself; it has both the right and the duty to
interfere; it is bound to do this through its very office as defender
of persons and property, to repress in these bodies spoliation and
oppression, to compel in them the observance of the primordial statute,
charter, or contract, to maintain in the them rights of each member
fixed by this statute, to decide according to this statute all conflicts
which may arise between administrators and the administrated, between
directors and stockholders, between pastors and parishioners, between
deceased founders and their living successors. In doing this, it affords
them its tribunals, its constables, and its gendarmes, and it affords
these to them only with full consent after having looking into and
accepted the statute. This, too, is one of the obligations of its
office: its mandate hinders it from placing the public power at the
service of despoiling and oppressive enterprises; it is interdicted from
authorizing a contract for prostitution or slavery, and above all, for
the best of reasons, a society for brigandage and insurrections, an
armed league, or ready to arm itself, against the community, or a part
of the community, or against itself.--But, between this legitimate
intervention which enables it to maintain rights, and the abusive
interference by which it usurps rights, the limit is visible and it
oversteps this limit when, to its function of justiciary, it adds a
second, that of governing or supporting another corporation. In this
case two series of abuses unfold themselves; on the one side, the State
acts contrary to its primary office, and, on the other, it discharges
the duties of its superadded office badly.[2202]
III. The State attacks persons and property.
It acts against its function. Its encroachments are attacks
on persons and property.
For, in the first place, to govern another corporate body, for example
the Church, the State at one time appoints its ecclesiastical heads, as
under the old monarchy after the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction by
the Concordat of 1516; at another, as with the Constituent Assembly in
1791, without appointing its heads, it invents a new mode of appointment
by imposing on the Church a discipline contrary to its spirit and even
to its dogmas. Sometimes it goes further still and reduces a special
body into a mere administrative branch, transforming its heads into
revocable functionaries whose acts it orders and directs; such under
the Empire as well as under the Restoration, were the mayor and
common-councilors in a commune, and the professors and head-masters of
the University. One step more and the invasion is complete: naturally,
either through ambition or precaution, or through theory or prejudice,
on undertaking a new service it is tempted to reserve to itself or
delegate its monopoly. Before 1789 there existed one of these monopolies
to the advantage of the Catholic Church, through the interdiction of
other cults, also another to the advantage of each corporation of "Arts
et Métiers," through the interdiction of free labor; after 1800, there
existed one for the benefit of the University through all sorts of
shackles and constraints imposed on the establishment and maintenance
of private schools.--Now, through each of these constraints the State
encroaches on the domain of the individual; the more extended its
encroachments the more does it prey upon and reduce the circle of
spontaneous initiation and of independent action, which constitute the
true life of the individual; if, in conformity with the Jacobin program,
it pushes its interference to the end, it absorbs in itself all other
lives;[2203] henceforth, the community consists only of automata
maneuvered from above, infinitely small residues of men, passive,
mutilated, and, so to say, dead souls; the State, instituted to preserve
persons, has reduced them to nonentities.
The effect is the same with property when the State supports other
organizations than its own. For, to maintain these, it has no other
funds than those of the taxpayers; consequently, using its collectors,
it takes the money out of their pockets; all, indiscriminately,
willingly or not, pay supplementary taxes for supplementary services,
whether this service benefits them or is repugnant to them. If I am a
Protestant in a Catholic State, or a Catholic in a Protestant State, I
pay for religion which seems wrong to me and for a Church which seems
to me mischievous. If I am a skeptic, a free-thinker, indifferent or
hostile to positive religions in France, I pay to-day for the support of
four cults which I regard as useless or pernicious. If I am a provincial
or a peasant, I pay for maintaining an "Opéra" which I never attend and
for a "Sèvres" and "Gobelins" of which I never see a vase or a piece of
tapestry.--In times of tranquility the extortion is covered up, but
in troubled times it is nakedly apparent. Under the revolutionary
government, bands of collectors armed with pikes made raids on villages
as in conquered countries;[2204] the farmer, collared and kept down by
blows from the butt end of a musket, sees his grain taken from his barn
and his cattle from their stable; "all scampered off on the road to
the town;" while around Paris, within a radius of forty leagues, the
departments fasted in order that the capital might be fed. With gentler
formalities, under a regular government, a similar extortion occurs when
the State, employing a respectable collector in uniform, takes from our
purse a crown too much for an office outside of its competency. If,
as with the Jacobin State, it claims all offices, it empties the purse
entirely; instituted for the conservation of property, it confiscates
the whole of it.--Thus, with property, as with persons, when the state
proposes to itself another purpose than the preservation of these, not
only does it overstep its mandate but it acts contrary to its mandate.
IV. Abuse of State powers.
It badly fills the office of the bodies it supplant.--Cases
in which it usurps their powers and refuses to be their
substitute.--Cases in which it violates or profits by their
mechanism.--In all cases it is bad or mediocre substitute.
--Reasons derived from its structure compared with that of
other bodies.
Let us consider the other series of abuses, and the way in which the
State performs the service of the corporate bodies it supplants.
In the first place there is a chance that, sooner or later, it will
shirk this work, for this new service is more or less costly, and,
sooner or later, it seems too costly.--Undoubtedly the State has
promised to defray expenses; sometimes even, like the Constituent and
Legislative assemblies, the revenues for this having been confiscated,
it has to furnish an equivalent; it is bound by contract to make good
the local or special sources of revenue which it has appropriated
or dried up, to furnish in exchange a supply of water from the grand
central reservoir, the public treasury.--But if water becomes low in
this reservoir, if the taxes in arrears stop the regular supply, if
a war happens to open a large breach in it, if the prodigality and
incapacity of the rulers, multiply its fissures and leaks, then there is
no money on hand for accessory and secondary services. The State, which
has adopted this service drops it: we have seen under the Convention
and the Directory how, having taken the property of all corporations,
provinces, and communes, of institutions of education, art, and science,
of churches, hospitals, and asylums, it performed their functions; how,
after having been a despoiler and a robber, it became insolvent and
bankrupt; how its usurpation and bankruptcy ruined and then destroyed
all other services; how, through the double effect of its intervention
and desertion, it annihilated in France education, worship, and charity;
why the streets in the towns were no longer lighted nor swept; why, in
the provinces, roads went to decay, and dikes crumbled; why schools
and churches stood empty or were closed; why, in the asylum and in
the hospital, foundlings died for lack of milk, the infirm for lack
of clothing and food, and the sick for lack of broth, medicines, and
beds.[2205]
In the second place, even when the State respects a service or provides
the means for it, there is a chance that it will pervert this simply
because it comes under its direction.--When rulers lay their hands on an
institution it is almost always for the purpose of making something
out of it for their own advantage and to its detriment: they render
everything subordinate to their interests or theories, they put some
essential piece or wheel out of shape or place; they derange its action
and put the mechanism out of order; they make use of it as a
fiscal, electoral, or doctrinal engine, as a reigning or sectarian
instrument.--Such, in the eighteenth century, was the ecclesiastical
staff with which we are familiar,[2206] court bishops, drawing-room
abbés imposed from above on their diocese or their abbey, non-residents,
charged with functions which they do not fulfill, largely-paid idlers,
parasites of the Church, and, besides all this, worldly, gallant, often
unbelievers, strange leaders of a Christian clergy and which, one would
say, were expressly selected to undermine Catholic faith in the minds
of their flocks, or monastic discipline in their convents.--Such,
in 1791,[2207] is the new constitutional clergy, schismatic,
excommunicated, interlopers, imposed on the orthodox majority to say
masses which they deem sacrilegious and to administer sacraments which
they refuse to accept.
In the last place, even when the rulers do not subordinate the interests
of the institution to their passions, to their theories, or to their own
interests, even when they avoid mutilating it and changing its
nature, even when they loyally fulfill, as well as they know how,
the supererogatory (distributive) mandate which they have adjudged to
themselves, they infallibly fulfill it badly, at least worse than the
special and spontaneous bodies for which they substitute themselves,
for the structure of these bodies and the structure of the state are
different.--Unique of its kind, alone wielding the sword, acting from
above and afar by authority and constraints, the State acts over the
entire territory through uniform laws, through imperative and minute
regulations, by a hierarchy of obedient functionaries, which it
maintains under strict instructions. Hence, it is not adapted to
business which, to be well done, needs springs and processes of another
species. Its springs, wholly exterior, are insufficient, too weak to
support and push undertakings which require an internal motor like
private interest, local patriotism, family affections, scientific
curiosity, charitable instincts, and religious faith. Its wholly
mechanical processes, too rigid and too limited, cannot urge on
enterprises which demand of whoever undertakes them delicate and safe
handling, supple manipulation, appreciation of circumstances, ready
adaptation of means to ends, constant contrivance, the initiative, and
perfect independence. On this account the State is a poor head of a
family, a poor commercial or agricultural leader, a bad distributor of
labor and of subsistence, a bad regulator of production, exchanges, and
consumption, a mediocre administrator of the province and the commune,
an undiscerning philanthropist, an incompetent director of the fine
arts, of science, of instruction, and of worship.[2208] In all these
offices its action is either dilatory or bungling, according to routine
or oppressive, always expensive, of little effect and feeble in returns,
and always beyond or apart from the real wants it pretends to satisfy.
The reason is that it starts from too high a point therefore extending
over too vast a field. Transmitted by hierarchical procedures, it lags
along in formalism, and loses itself in "red-tape." On attaining its
end and object it applies the same program to all territories alike
a program devised beforehand in the Cabinet, all of a piece, without
experimental groping and the necessary corrections;
* a program which, calculated approximately according to the average and
the customary, is not exactly suited to any particular case;
* a program which imposes its fixed uniformity on things instead of
adjusting itself to its diversity and change;
* a sort of model coat, obligatory in pattern and stuff, which the
government dispatches by thousands from the center to the provinces, to
be worn, willingly or not, by figures of all sizes and at all seasons.
V. Final Results of Abusive Government Intervention
Other consequences.--Suppressed or stunted bodies cease to
grow.--Individuals become socially and politically
incapable.--The hands into which public power then falls.
--Impoverishment and degradation of the social body.
And much worse. Not only does the State do the work badly on a domain
not its own, roughly, at greater cost, and with smaller yield than
spontaneous organizations, but, again, through the legal monopoly which
it deems its prerogative, or through its unfair competition, it kills
and paralyzes these natural organizations or prevents their birth; and
hence so many precious organs, which, absorbed, curbed or abandoned, are
lost to the great social body.--And still worse, if this system lasts,
and continues to crush them out, the human community loses the faculty
of reproducing them; entirely extirpated, they do not grow again;
even their germ has perished. Individuals no longer know how to form
associations, how to co-operate under their own impulses, through their
own initiative, free of outside and superior constraint, all together
and for a long time in view of a definite purpose, according to regular
forms under freely-chosen chiefs, frankly accepted and faithfully
followed. Mutual confidence, respect for the law, loyalty, voluntary
subordination, foresight, moderation, patience, perseverance, practical
good sense, every disposition of head and heart, with which no
association of any kind is efficacious or even viable, have died out
for lack of exercise. Henceforth spontaneous, pacific, and fruitful
co-operation, as practiced by a free people, is unattainable; men
have arrived at social incapacity and, consequently, at political
incapacity.--In fact they no longer choose their own constitution or
their own rulers; they put with these, willingly or not, according as
accident or usurpation furnishes them: now the public power belongs
to the man, the faction, or the party sufficiently unscrupulous,
sufficiently daring, sufficiently violent, to seize and hold on to it
by force, to make the most of it as an egotist or charlatan, aided by
parades and prestige, along with bravura songs and the usual din of
ready-made phrases on the rights of Man and the public salvation.--This
central power itself has in its hands no body who might give it an
impetus and inspiration, it rules only over an impoverished, inert,
or languid social body, solely capable of intermittent spasms or of
artificial rigidity according to order, an organism deprived of its
secondary organs, simplified to excess, of an inferior or degraded
kind, a people no longer anything but an arithmetical sum of separate,
unconnected units, in brief, human dust or mud.--This is what the
interference of the State leads to.
There are laws in the social and moral world as in the physiological
and physical world; we may misunderstand them, but we cannot elude them;
they operate now against us, now for us, as we please, but always
alike and without heeding us; it is for us to heed them; for the two
conditions they couple together are inseparable; the moment the first
appears the second inevitably follows.
*****
[Footnote 2201: Macaulay, "Essays: Gladstone on Church and State."--This
principle, of capital importance and of remarkable fecundity, may be
called the principle of specialties. Adam Smith fist applied it to
machines and to workmen. Macaulay extended it to human associations.
Milne-Edwards applied it to the entire series of animal organs. Herbert
Spencer largely develops it in connection with physiological organs
and human societies in his "Principles of Biology" and "Principles of
Sociology." I have attempted here to show the three parallel branches
of its consequences, and, again, their common root, a constitutive and
primordial property inherent in every instrumentality.]
[Footnote 2202: Cf. "The Revolution," III., book VI., ch. 2 The
encroachments of the State and their effect on individuals is there
treated. Here, the question is their effects on corporations. Read, on
the same subject, "Gladstone on Church and State," by Macaulay, and "The
Man versus the State," by Herbert Spencer, two essays in which the close
reasoning and abundance of illustrations are admirable.]
[Footnote 2203: "The Revolution," III, 346. (Laffont II. p 258.)]
[Footnote 2204: Ibid., III. 284 Laff. 213.]
[Footnote 2205: "The Revolution," III., 353, 416. (Laffont II. notes pp
262 and 305 to 308.)]
[Footnote 2206: "The Ancient Régime," 64, 65, 76, 77, 120, 121, 292.
(Laffont I. pp. 52-53, 60-61, 92 to 94, 218 to 219.)]
[Footnote 2207: "The Revolution," I., 177 and following pages. (Laffont
I, pp. 438 to 445.)]
[Footnote 2208: The essays of Herbert Spencer furnish examples for
England under the title of "Over-legislation and Representative
government." Examples for France may be found in "Liberté du Travail,"
by Charles Dunoyer (1845). This work anticipates most of the ideas of
Herbert Spencer, lacking only the physiological "illustrations."]
CHAPTER III. THE NEW GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION.
I. Precedents of the new organization.
Precedents of the new organization.--In practical
operation.--Anterior usurpations of the public power.
--Spontaneous bodies under the Ancient Regime and during the
Revolution.--Ruin and discredit of their supports.--The
central power their sole surviving dependence.
Unfortunately, in France at the end of the eighteenth century the bent
was taken and the wrong bent. For three centuries and more the public
power had increasingly violated and discredited spontaneous bodies:
Sometimes it had mutilated them and decapitated them; for example, it
had suppressed provincial governments (états) over three-quarters of the
territory, in all the electoral districts; nothing remained of the old
province but its name and an administrative circumscription.
Sometimes, without mutilating the corporate body it had upset and
deformed it, or dislocated and disjointed it.--So that in the
towns, through changes made in old democratic constitutions, through
restrictions put upon electoral rights and repeated sales of municipal
offices,[2301] it had handed over municipal authority to a narrow
oligarchy of bourgeois families, privileged at the expense of the
taxpayer, half separated from the main body of the public, disliked
by the lower classes, and no longer supported by the confidence or
deference of the community. And in the parish and in the rural canton,
it had taken away from the noble his office of resident protector
and hereditary patron, reducing him to the odious position of a mere
creditor, and, if he were a man of the court, to the yet worse position
of an absentee creditor.[2302]--So that in the parish and in the
rural canton, it had taken away from the noble his office of resident
protector and hereditary patron, reducing him to the odious position of
a mere creditor, and, if he were a man of the court, to the yet worse
position of an absentee creditor.[2303] Thus, as to the clergy, it had
almost separated the head from the trunk by superposing (through
the concordat) a staff of gentleman prelates, rich, ostentatious,
unemployed, and skeptical, upon an army of plain, poor, laborious, and
believing curates.[2304]
Finally, it had, through a protection as untimely as it was aggressive,
sometimes conferred on the corporation oppressive privileges which
rendered it offensive and mischievous, or else fossilized in an obsolete
form which paralyzed its action or corrupted its service. Such was
the case with the corporations of crafts and industries to which, in
consideration of financial aid, it had conceded monopolies onerous to
the consumer and a clog on industrial enterprises. Such was the case
with the Catholic Church to which, every five years, it granted, in
exchange for its voluntary gift (of money), cruel favors or obnoxious
prerogatives, the prolonged persecution of Protestants, the censorship
of intellectual speculation, and the right of controlling schools and
education.[2305] Such was the case with the universities benumbed by
routine; with latest provincial "Ètats," constituted in 1789, as in
1489. Such was the case with noble families subjected by law to the
antique system of substitutions and of primogeniture, that is to say,
to social constraint which, devised long ago for private as well as for
public interest in order to secure the transmission of local patronage
and political power. This system, however, became useless and
corrupting, fecund in pernicious vanities,[2306] in detestable
calculations, domestic tyrannies, forced vocations, and private
bickering, from the time when the nobles, become frequenters of the
court, had lost political power and renounced local patronage.
Thus deprived of, or diverted from, their purpose, the corporate bodies
had become unrecognizable under the crust of the abuses which disfigured
them. Nobody, except a Montesquieu, could comprehend why they should
exist; on the approach of the Revolution, they seemed, not organs, but
outgrowths, deformities, and, so to say, superannuated monstrosities.
Their historical and natural roots, their living germs far below the
surface, their social necessity, their fundamental utility, their
possible usefulness, were no longer visible. Only their present
inconvenience was felt; people suffered by their friction and burden;
their lack of harmony and incoherence created dissatisfaction; annoyance
due to their degeneracy were attributed to radical defects; they were
judged to be naturally unsound and were condemned, in principle, because
of the deviations and laws which the public power had imposed on their
development.
Suddenly, the public power, which had produced the evil by its
intervention, pretended to remove it by a still greater intervention: in
1789 it again intruded itself on corporate bodies, not to reform them,
not restore each to its proper channel, not to confine each with proper
limits, but to destroy them outright. Through a radical, universal, and
extraordinary amputation, the like of which is not mentioned in history,
with the rashness of the theorist and the brutality of the butcher, the
legislator extirpated them all, as far as he could, even including the
family, while his fury extended beyond the present into the future.
To legal abolition and total confiscation, he added the systematic
hostility of his preventive laws, together with a fresh obstacle in
the shape of his new constructions; during three successive
legislatures[2307] he provided against their future regeneration,
against the permanent instincts and necessities which might one day
resuscitate stable families, distinct provinces, and an orthodox church,
against artistic, industrial, financial, charitable, and educational
corporations, against every spontaneous and organized group, and against
every collective, local, or special enterprise. In place of these he
installed synthetic bodies or institutions:
* a Church without believers,
* schools without pupils,
* hospitals without incomes,
* a geometrical hierarchy of improvised powers in the commune, district,
and department,
all badly organized, badly adjusted, out of gear at the start,
overwhelmed with political functions, as incapable of performing
their proper duties as their supplementary duties, and, from the very
beginning, either powerless or mischievous.[2308] Changes repeatedly
marred by arbitrariness from above or from below, set aside or perverted
now by the mob and again by the government, inert in the country,
oppressive in the towns, we have seen the state into which they had
fallen at the end of the Directory; how, instead of a refuge for
liberty, they had become haunts of tyranny or sinks of egoism; why, in
1800, they were as much decried as their predecessors in 1788, why their
two successive props, the old one and the most recent, historic custom
and popular election, were now discredited and no longer resorted
to.--After the disastrous experience of the monarchy and the still worse
experience of the republic, another prop had to be sought for; but only
one remained, that of the central power, the only one visible and
which seemed substantial; in default of others they had recourse to
this.[2309] In any event, no protestation, even secret and moral, any
longer prevented the State from attaching other corporate bodies to
itself, in order to use them for its own purposes as instruments or
appendages.
II. Doctrines of Government.
The theory.--Agreement of speculative ideas with practical
necessities.--Public rights under the Ancient Regime.--The
King's three original rights.--Labors of the jurists in
extending royal prerogatives.--Historical impediments.--The
primitive or ulterior limits of royal power.--The
philosophic and revolutionary principle of popular
sovereignty.--Unlimited extension of State power.
--Application to spontaneous bodies.--Convergence of ancient
and new doctrines.--Corporations considered as creations of
the public power.--Centralization through the universal
intervention of the State.
The theory here agreed with the need, and not alone the recent theory,
but again the ancient theory. Long before 1789, public right had
elevated the prerogative of centralized power into a dogma and
exaggerated it beyond measure.
There are three titles under which this power was conferred.--Feudal
seignior, and suzerain, that is to say, commander-in-chief of the great
resident army whose willing forces had served to reconstruct society in
the ninth century, the King, through the remotest of his origins--that
is to say, through the immemorial confusion of sovereignty with
property--was the owner of France, the same as an individual owns his
private domain.[2310]--Married, moreover, to the Church since the first
Capets, consecrated and crowned at Rheims, anointed by God like a second
David,[2311] not only was he believed to be authorized from on high,
like other monarchs, but, from Louis le Gros, and especially after the
time of saint Louis, he appeared as the delegate from on high, invested
with a laic sacerdotalism, clothed with moral power, minister of eternal
justice, redresser of wrongs, protector of the weak, benefactor of the
humble--in short, "His Most Christian Majesty."--At length, after the
thirteenth century, the recent discovery and diligent study of the
ancient codes of Justinian had shown in his person the successor of
the Caesars of Rome and of the Emperors of Constantinople. According
to these codes the people in a body had transferred its rights to the
prince; now, in antique cities, all rights were vested in the community,
and the individual had none;[2312] accordingly, through this transfer,
all rights, public or private, passed into the hands of the prince;
henceforth he could exercise them as he pleased, under no restriction
and no control. He was above the law, since he made it; his powers were
illimitable and his decision absolute.[2313]
On this triple frame the jurists, like State spiders, had, from Philippe
le Bel down, spun their web, and the instinctive concordance of their
hereditary efforts had attached all its threads to the omnipotence of
the King.--Being jurisconsults--that is to say, logicians--they were
obliged to deduce, and their minds naturally recurred to the unique
and rigid principle to which they might attach their arguments.--As
advocates and councilors of the crown they espoused the case of their
client and, through professional zeal, derived or forced precedents and
texts to his advantage.--By virtue of being administrators and judges
the grandeur of their master constituted their grandeur, and personal
interest counseled them to expand a prerogative in which, through
delegation, they took part.--Hence, during four centuries, they had spun
the tissue of "regalian rights," the great net in the meshes of which,
since Louis XIV., all lives found themselves caught.[2314]
Nevertheless, however tightly spun was the web, there were openings
in it, or, at least, very weak spots.--And first, of the consequences
flowing from these three principles in their hands, two of them had
hindered the third from unwinding its skein to the end: owing to the
fact that the King was formerly Count de Paris and Abbot of St. Denis,
he could not become a veritable Augustus, an authentic Diocletian: his
two French titles limited his Roman title. Without regard to the laws,
so-called fundamental, which imposed his heir on him beforehand, also
the entire line of his successive heirs, the tutor, male or female,
of his minor heir, and which, if he derogated from immemorial usage,
annulled his will like that of a private individual, his quality of
suzerain and that of Most Christian, were for him a double impediment.
As hereditary general of the feudal army he was bound to consider and
respect the hereditary officers of the same army, his old peers and
companions in arms--that is to say, the nobles. As outside bishop, he
owed to the Church not alone his spiritual orthodoxy, but, again, his
temporal esteem, his active zeal, and the aid furnished him by his
secular arm. Hence, in applied right, the numerous privileges of the
nobles and the Church, so many immunities and even liberties, so
many remains of antique local independence, and even of antique local
sovereignty,[2315] so many prerogatives, honorific or serviceable,
maintained by the law and by the tribunals. On this side, the meshes of
the monarchical netting had not been well knit or remained loose;
and the same elsewhere, with openings more or less wide, in the five
provincial governments (états), in the Pyrenees districts, in Alsace, at
Strasbourg, but especially in Languedoc and in Brittany, where the
pact of incorporation, through a sort of bilateral contract, associated
together on the same parchment and under the same seal the franchises of
the province and the sovereignty of the King.
Add to these original lacunae the hole made by the Prince himself in his
net already woven: he had with his own hand torn away its meshes, and
by thousands. Extravagant to excess and always needy, he converted
everything into money, even his own rights, and, in the military order,
in the civil order, in commerce and in industry, in the administration,
in the judicature, and in the finances. From one end of the territory to
the other, he had sold innumerable offices, imposts, dignities,
honors, monopolies, exemptions, survivorships, expectancies--in brief,
privileges which, once conferred for a money consideration, became legal
property,[2316] often hereditary and transmissible by the individual or
the corporation which had paid for them. In this way the King alienated
a portion of his royalty for the benefit of the buyer. Now, in 1789, he
had alienated a great many of these portions; accordingly, his present
authority was everywhere restricted by the use he had previously made of
it.--Sovereignty, thus, in his hands had suffered from the double effect
of its historic origins and its historic exercise; the public power had
not become, or had ceased to be, omnipotence. On the one hand it had not
reached its plenitude, and on the other hand it had deprived itself of a
portion of its own completeness.
The philosophers wished to find a solution for this double weakness,
innate and acquired They had therefore transported sovereignty out of
history into the ideal and abstract world, with an imaginary city of
mankind reduced to the minimum of a human being Here men, infinitely
simplified, all alike, equal, separate from their surroundings and from
their past, veritable puppets, were all lifting their hands in common
rectangular motion to vote unanimously for the contrat social. In this
contract "all classes are reduced to one,[2317] the complete surrender
of each associate, with all his rights, to the community, each giving
himself up entirely, just as he actually is, himself and all his forces,
of which whatever he possesses forms a part," each becoming with respect
to himself and every act of his private life a delegate of the State, a
responsible clerk, in short, a functionary, a functionary of the people,
henceforth the unique, the absolute, and the universal sovereign. A
terrible principle, proclaimed and applied for ten years, below by
the mob and above by the government! Popular opinion had adopted
it; accordingly the passage from the sovereignty of the King to the
sovereignty of the people was easy, smooth,[2318] and to the novice in
reasoning, the old-fashioned taxable and workable subject, to whom the
principle conferred a portion of the sovereignty, the temptation was too
great.
At once, according to their custom, the jurists put themselves at
the service of the new reign. And no dogma was better suited their to
authoritative instinct; no axiom furnished them so convenient a fulcrum
on which to set up and turn their logical wheel. This wheel, which they
had latterly managed with care and caution under the ancient Régime, had
suddenly in their hands turned with frightful speed and effect in order
to convert the rigid, universal, and applied laws, the intermittent
processes, the theoretical pretensions, and the worst precedents of the
monarchy into practice. This meant
* the use of extraordinary commissions,
* accusations of lésé majesté,
* the suppression of legal formalities,
* the persecution of religious beliefs and of personal opinions,
* the right of condemning publications and of coercing thought,
* the right of instruction and education,
* the rights of pre-emption, of requisition, of confiscation, and of
proscription,
in short, pure and perfect arbitrariness. The result is visible in the
deeds of Treilhard, of Berlier, of Merlin de Douai, of Cambacérès, in
those of the Constituant and Legislative Assemblies, in the Convention,
under the Directory, in their Jacobin zeal or hypocrisy, in their talent
for combining despotic tradition with tyrannical innovation, in their
professional skill in fabricating on all occasions a snare of plausible
arguments with which to properly strangle the individual, their
adversary, to the profit of the State, their eternal master.
In effect, not only had they almost strangled their adversary, but
likewise, through an aftereffect, their master: France which, after
fourteen months of suffocation, was approaching physical suicide.[2319]
Such success, too great, had obliged them to stop; they had abandoned
one-half of their destructive creed, retaining only the other half, the
effect of which, less imminent, was less apparent. If they no longer
dared paralyze individual acts in the man, they persisted in paralyzing
in the individual all collective acts.--There must be no special
associations in general society; no corporations within the State,
especially no spontaneous bodies endowed with the initiative,
proprietary and permanent: such is Article II. of the Revolutionary
Creed, and the direct consequence of the previous one which posits
axiomatically the sovereignty of the people and the omnipotence of the
State. Rousseau,[2320] inventor of the first, had like-wise enunciated
the second; the constituent assembly had solemnly decreed it and applied
it on a grand scale,[2321] and successive assemblies had applied it on
a still grander scale;[2322] it was a faith with the Jacobins, and,
besides, in conformity with the spirit of Roman imperial right and with
the leading maxim of French monarchical right. On this point the three
known jurisprudential systems were in accord, while their convergence
brought together around the same table the jurists of the three
doctrines in a common task, ex-parliamentarians and ex-members of the
Committee of Public Safety, former pro-scribers and the proscribed, the
purveyors of Sinamari with Treilhard and Merlin de Douai, returned from
Guiana, alongside of Simeon, Portalis, and Barbé-Marbois. There was
nobody in this conclave to maintain the rights of spontaneous bodies;
the theory, on all three sides, no matter from whom it proceeded,
refused to recognize them for what they are originally and essentially,
that is to say, distinct organisms equally natural with the State,
equally indispensable in their way, and, therefore, as legitimate as
itself; it allowed them only a life on trust, derived from above and
from the center. But, since the State created them, it might and ought
to treat them as its creatures, keep them indefinitely under its thumb,
use them for its purposes, act through them as through other agencies,
and transform their chiefs into functionaries of the central power.
III. Brilliant Statesman and Administrator.
The Organizer.--Influence of Napoleon's character and mind
on his internal and French system.--Exigencies of his
external and European rôle.--Suppression of all centers of
combination and concord.--Extension of the public domain and
what it embraces.--Reasons for maintaining the private
domain.--The part of the individual.--His reserved
enclosure.--Outlets for him beyond that.--His talents are
enlisted in the service of public power.--Special aptitude
and temporary vigor, lack of balance, and doubtful future of
the social body thus formed.
A new France, not the chimerical, communistic, equalized, and Spartan
France of Robespierre and Saint-Just, but a possible real, durable, and
yet leveled and uniform France, logically struck out at one blow, all
of a piece, according to one general principle, a France, centralized,
administrative, and, save the petty egoistic play of individuals,
managed in one entire body from top to bottom,--in short, the France
which Richelieu and Louis XIV. had longed for, which Mirabeau after 1790
had foreseen,[2323] is now the work which the theories of the monarchy
and of the Revolution had prepared, and toward which the final
concurrence of events, that is to say, "the alliance of philosophy and
the saber," led the sovereign hands of the First Consul.
Accordingly, considering his well-known character, the promptitude, the
activity, the reach, the universality, and the cast of his intellect, he
could not have proposed to himself a different work nor reduced himself
to a lower standard. His need of governing and of administrating was too
great; his capacity for governing and administrating was too great:
his was an exacting genius.--Moreover, for the outward task that he
undertook he required internally, not only undisputed possession of all
executive and legislative powers, not only perfect obedience from all
legal authorities, but, again, the annihilation of all moral authority
but his own, that is to say, the silence of public opinion and the
isolation of each individual, and therefore the abolition, preventive
and systematic, of any religious, ecclesiastic, pedagogic, charitable,
literary, departmental, or communal initiative that might, now or in the
future gather men against him or alongside of him. Like a good general
he secures his rear. At strife with all Europe, he so arranges it as
not to allow in the France he drags along after him refractory souls or
bodies which might form platoons in his rear. Consequently, and through
precaution, he suppresses in advance all eventual rallying points or
centers of combination Henceforth, every wire which can stir up and
bring a company of men together for the same object terminates in his
hands; he holds in his firm grasp all these combined wires, guards them
with jealous care, in order to strain them to the utmost. Let no one
attempt to loosen them, and, above all, let no one entertain a thought
of getting hold of them; they belong to him and to him alone, and
compose the public domain, which is his domain proper.
But, alongside of his proper domain, he recognizes another in which he
himself assigns a limit to the complete absorption of all wills by his
own; he does not admit, of course in his own interest, that the public
power, at least in the civil order of things and in common practice,
should be illimitable nor, especially, arbitrary.[2324]--This is due
to his not being an utopian or a theorist, like his predecessors of the
Convention, but a perspicacious statesman, who is in the habit of
using his own eyes. He sees things directly, in themselves; he does not
imagine them through book formulae or party phrases, by a process of
verbal reasoning, employing the gratuitous suppositions of humanitarian
optimism or the dogmatic prejudices of Jacobin nonsense. He sees Man
just as he is, not Man in himself, an abstract citizen, the philosophic
puppet of the Contrat Social, but the real individual, the entire living
man, with his profound instincts, his tenacious necessities, which,
whether tolerated or not by legislation, still subsist and operate
infallibly, and which the legislator must take into consideration if he
wants to turn them to account.--This individual, a civilized European
and a modern Frenchman, constituted as he is by several centuries
of tolerable police discipline, of respected rights and hereditary
property, must have a private domain, an enclosed area, large or small,
which belongs and is reserved to him personally, to which the public
power interdicts access and before which it mounts guard to prevent
other individuals from intruding on it. Otherwise his condition seems
intolerable to him; he is no longer disposed to exert himself, to set
his wits to work, or to enter upon any enterprise. Let us be careful not
to snap or loosen this powerful and precious spring of action; let him
continue to work, to produce, to economize, if only that he may be in
a condition to pay taxes; let him continue to marry, to bring forth and
raise up sons, if only to serve the conscription. Let us ease his mind
with regard to his enclosure;[2325] let him exercise full proprietorship
over it and enjoy it exclusively; let him feel himself at home in his
own house in perpetuity, safe from any intrusion, protected by the
code and by the courts, not alone against his enemies, but against the
administration itself. Let him in this well-defined, circumscribed abode
be free to turn round and range as he pleases, free to browse at will,
and, if he chooses, to consume all his hay himself. It is not essential
that his meadows should be very extensive: most men live with their nose
to the ground; very few look beyond a very narrow circle; men are not
much troubled by being penned up; the egoism and urgent needs of daily
life are already for them ready-made limits: within these natural
barriers they ask for nothing but to be allowed to graze in security.
Let us give them this assurance and leave them free to consult their
own welfare.--As to the rest, in very small number, more or less
imaginative, energetic, and ardent, there is, outside the enclosure, an
issue expressly provided for them: the new administrative and military
professions offer an outlet to their ambition and to their vanity which,
from the start, keeps on expanding until, suddenly, the first Consul
points to an infinite perspective on the horizon.[2326] According to an
expression attributed to him, henceforth,
"the field is open to all talents,"
and hence all talents, gathered into the central current and
precipitated headlong through competition, swell with their inflow the
immensity of the public power.
This done, the principal features of modern France are traced; a tool
of a new and strange type arises, defines itself, and issues forth,
its structure determining its destiny. It consists of a social body
organized by a despot and for a despot, calculated for the use of one
man, excellent for action under the impulsion of a unique will, with a
superior intelligence, admirable so long as this intelligence remains
lucid and this will remains healthy. It is adapted to a military life
and not to civil life, and therefore badly balanced, hampered (géné) in
its development, exposed to periodical crises, condemned to precocious
debility, but viable for a long time, and, for the present robust, alone
able to bear the weight of the new reign and to furnish for fifteen
successive years the crushing labor, the conquering obedience, the
superhuman, murderous, insensate effort which its master exacts.
IV. Napoleon's barracks.
General aspect and characteristics of the new State.
--Contrast between its structure and that of other
contemporary or pre-existing States.--The plurality,
complexity, and irregularity of ancient France.--The unity,
simplicity, and regularity of modern France.--To what class
of works it belongs.--It is the modern masterpiece of the
classic spirit in the political and social order of things.
Let us take a nearer view of the master's idea and of the way in which,
at this moment, he figures to himself the society which is assuming
new shape in his hands. All the leading features of the plan are fixed
beforehand in his mind: they are already deeply graven on it through his
education and through his instinct. By virtue of this instinct, which
is despotic, by virtue of this education, which is classic and Latin,
he conceives human associations not in the modern fashion, Germanic and
Christian, as a concert of initiations starting from below, but in the
antique fashion, pagan and Roman, as a hierarchy of authorities imposed
from above. He puts his own spirit into his civil institutions, the
military spirit; consequently, he constructs a huge barracks wherein,
to begin with, he lodges thirty million, men, women, and children, and,
later on, forty-two million, all the way from Hamburg to Rome.
The edifice is, of course, superb and of a new style. On comparing it
with other societies in surrounding Europe, and particularly France as
she was previous to 1789, the contrast is striking.--Everywhere else the
social edifice is a composition of many distinct structures--provinces,
cities, seignories, churches, universities, and corporations. Each has
begun by being a more or less isolated block of buildings where, on
an enclosed area, a population has lived apart. Little by little the
barriers have given way; either they have been broken in or have tumbled
down of their own accord; passages have been made between one and the
other and new additions have been put up; at last, these scattered
buildings have all become connected and soldered on as annexes to the
central pile. But they combine with it only through a visible and
clumsy juxtaposition, through incomplete and bizarre communications: the
vestiges of their former independence are still apparent athwart their
actual dependence. Each still rests on its own primitive and appropriate
foundations; its grand lines subsist; its main work is often almost
intact. In France, on the eve of 1789, it is easily recognized what she
formerly was; for example, it is clear that Languedoc and Brittany were
once sovereign States, Strasbourg a sovereign town, the Bishop of Mende
and the Abbess of Remiremont, sovereign princes;[2327] every seignior,
laic, or ecclesiastic, was so in his own domain, and he still possessed
some remnants of public power. In brief, we see thousands of states
within the State, absorbed, but not assimilated, each with its own
statutes, its own legal customs, its own civil law, its own weights
and measures; several with special privileges and immunities; some with
their own jurisdiction and their own peculiar administration, with their
own imposts and tariffs like so many more or less dismantled fortresses,
but whose old feudal, municipal, or provincial walls still rose lofty
and thick on the soil comprehended within the national enclosure.
Nothing could be more irregular than this total aggregate thus formed;
it is not really an entire whole, but an agglomeration. No plan, good or
bad, has been followed out; the architecture is of ten different styles
and of ten different epochs. That of the dioceses is Roman and of
the fourth century; that of the seignories is Gothic and of the ninth
century; one structure dates from the Capetians, another from the
Valois, and each bears the character of its date. Because each has been
built for itself and with no regard to the others, adapted to an urgent
service according to the exigencies or requirements of time, place, and
circumstance; afterward, when circumstances changed, it had to adapt
itself to other services, and this constantly from century to century,
under Philippe le Bel, under Louis XI., under Francis I., under
Richelieu, under Louis XIV., through constant revision which never
consists of entire destruction, through a series of partial demolitions
and of partial reconstructions, in such a way as to maintain itself,
during the transformation, in conciliating, well or ill, new demands and
rooted habits, in reconciling the work of the passing generation with
the works of generations gone before.--The central seignory itself is
merely a donjon of the tenth century, a military tower of which the
enclosure has extended so as to embrace the entire territory, and of
which the other buildings, more or less incorporated with it, have
become prolongations.--A similar medley of constructions--disfigured by
such mutilations, adjuncts, and patches, a pell-mell so complicated
with such incongruous bits and fragments--can be comprehended only by
antiquaries and historians; ordinary spectators--the public--pronounce
it absurd; it finds no favor with that class of reasoners who, in social
architecture as in physical architecture, repudiate disorder, posit
theories, deduce consequences, and require that every work shall proceed
from the application of a simple idea.
And worse still, not only is good taste offended but, again, good
sense often murmurs. Practically, the edifice fails in its object, for,
erected for men to dwell in, it is in many places scarcely habitable.
Because it endures it is found superannuated, ill-adapted to prevailing
customs; it formerly suited, and still suits, the feudal, scattered, and
militant way of living; hence it no longer suits the unity and repose
of modern life. New-born rights obtain no place in it alongside of
established rights; it is either not sufficiently transformed or it
has been transformed in an opposite sense, in such a way as to be
inconvenient or unhealthy, badly accommodating people who are useful and
giving good accommodations to useless people, costing too much to
keep up and causing discomfort and discontent to nearly all its
occupants.--In France, in particular, the best apartments, especially
that of the King, are for a century past too high and too large, too
sumptuous and too expensive. Since Louis XIV. these have imperceptibly
ceased to be government and business bureaus; they have become in
their disposition, decoration, and furnishing, saloons for pomp and
conversation, the occupants of which, for lack of other employment,
delight in discussing architecture and in tracing plans on paper for an
imaginary edifice in which everybody will find himself comfortable. Now,
underneath these, everybody finds himself uncomfortable, the bourgeoisie
in its small scanty lodgings on the ground-floor and the people in their
holes in the cellar, which are low and damp, wherein light and air never
penetrate. Innumerable vagabonds and vagrants are still worse off, for,
with no shelter or fireside, they sleep under the stars, and as they
are without anything to care for, they are disposed to pull everything
down.--Under the double pressure of insurrection and theory the
demolition begins, while the fury of destruction goes on increasing
until nothing is left of the razed edifice but the soil it stood on.
The new one rises on this cleared ground and, historically as well as
structurally, it differs from all the others.--In less than ten years
it springs up and is finished according to a plan which, from the first
day, is definite and complete. It forms one unique, vast, monumental
block, in which all branches of the service are lodged under one roof;
in addition to the national and general services belonging to the public
power, we find here others also, local and special, which do not belong
to it, such as worship, education, charity, fine arts, literature,
departmental and communal interests, each installed in a distinct
compartment. All the compartments are ordered and arranged alike,
forming a circle around the magnificent central apartment, with which
each is in communication by a bell; as soon as the bell rings and the
sound spreads from division to sub-division, the entire service, from
the chief clerk down to the lowest employee, is instantly in motion;
in this respect the arrangement, as regards despatch, co-ordination,
exactitude, and working facilities, is admirable.[2328]
On the other hand, its advantages and attractions for employees and
aspirants of every kind and degree are not mediocre. There is no
separation between the stories, no insurmountable barrier or enclosure
between large and small apartments; all, from the least to the finest,
from the outside as well as from the inside, have free access.
Spacious entrances around the exterior terminate in broad, well-lighted
staircases open to the public; everybody can clamber up that pleases,
and to mount these one must clamber; from top to bottom there is no
other communication than that which they present. There is no concealed
and privileged passage, no private stairway or false door; glancing
along the whole rectilinear, uniform flight, we behold the innumerable
body of clerks, functionaries, supernumeraries, and postulants, an
entire multitude, ranged tier beyond tier and attentive; nobody advances
except at the word and in his turn.--Nowhere in Europe are human lives
so well regulated, within lines of demarcation so universal, so simple,
and so satisfactory to the eye and to logic: the edifice in which
Frenchmen are henceforth to move and act is regular from top to bottom,
in its entirety as well as in its details, outside as well as inside;
its stories, one above the other, are adjusted with exact symmetry;
its juxtaposed masses form pendants and counterpoise; all its lines
and forms, every dimension and proportion, all its props and buttresses
combine, through their mutual dependencies, to compose a harmony and
to maintain an equilibrium. In this respect the structure is classic,
belonging to the same family of productions which the same spirit,
guided by the same method, had produced in Europe for the previous one
hundred and fifty years.[2329] Its analogues, in the physical order
of things, are the architectural productions of Mansard, Le Notre, and
their successors, from the structures and gardens of Versailles down to
and embracing the Madeleine and the Rue de Rivoli. In the intellectual
order, its analogues consist of the literary forms of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, the superb oratorical prose and correct,
eloquent poetry, especially epics and tragedies, including those still
manufactured according to rule about the year 1810. It corresponds
to these and forms their pendant in the political and social order
of things, because it emanates from the same deliberate purpose. Four
constitutions, in the same style, preceded it; but these were good only
on paper, while this one stands firm on the ground. For the first time
in modern history we see a society due to ratiocination and, at the
same time, substantial; the new France, under these two heads, is the
masterpiece of the classic spirit.
V. Modeled after Rome.
Its analogue in the antique world.--The Roman State from
Diocletian to Constantine.--Causes and bearing of this
analogy.--Survival of the Roman idea in Napoleon's mind.
--The new Empire of the West.
Nevertheless, if we go back in time, beyond modern times, beyond the
Middle Ages, as far as the antique world, we encounter during the Roman
emperors Diocletian's and Constantine's era another monument whose
architecture, equally regular, is developed on a still grander scale:
back then we are in the natal atmosphere and stand on the natal soil of
the classic spirit.--At this time, the human material, more reduced
and better prepared than in France, existed similarly in the requisite
condition. At this date, we likewise see at work the prearranging
reasoning-faculty
* which simplifies in order to deduce,
* which leaves out historic customs and local diversities,
* which considers the basic human being,
* which treats individuals as units and the people as totals,
* which forcibly applies its general outlines to all special lives, and
* which glories in constituting, legislating, and administering by rule
according to the measurements of square and compass.
At this date, in effect, the turn of mind, the talent, the ways of the
Roman architect, his object, his resources and his means of execution,
are already those of his French successor; the conditions around him
in the Roman world are equivalent; behind him in Roman history the
precedents, ancient and recent, are almost the same.
In the first place,[2330] there is, since emperor Augustus, the absolute
monarchy, and, since the Antonines, administrative centralization the
result of which is that
* all the old national and municipal communities are broken up or
crushed out,
* all collective existences chilled or extinguished,
* local patriotism slowly worn away,
* an increasing diminution of individual initiative,
and, under the invasive interference, direction, and providence of the
State, one hundred millions of men become more and more passive and
separated from each other.[2331]
And as a result, in full enjoyment of peace and internal prosperity
under the appearances of union, force, and health, latent feebleness,
and, as in France on the approach of 1789, a coming dissolution.
There is next, as after 1789 in France, the total collapse, not from
below and among the people, but from above and through the army, a worse
collapse than in France, prolonged for fifty years of anarchy, civil
wars, local usurpations, ephemeral tyrannies, urban seditions, rural
jacqueries, brigandage, famines, and invasions along the whole frontier,
with such a ruin of agriculture and other useful activities, with such
a diminution of public and private capital, with such a destruction of
human lives that, in twenty years, the number of the population seems
to have diminished one half.[2332] There is, finally, as after 1799, in
France, the re-establishment of order brought about more slowly, but by
the same means, the army and a dictatorship, in the rude hands of three
or four great military parvenus, Pannonians or Dalmatians, Bonapartes
of Sirmium or of Scutari, they too, of a new race or of intact energy,
adventurers and children of their own deeds, the last Diocletian, like
Napoleon, a restorer and an innovator. Around them, as around
Napoleon, to aid them in their civil undertakings, is a crowd of expert
administrators and eminent jurisconsults, all practitioners, statesmen,
and businessmen, and yet men of culture, logicians, and philosophers.
They were imbued with the double governmental and humanitarian view,
which for three centuries Greek speculation and Roman practice had
introduced into minds and imaginations. This view, at once leveling and
authoritative, tending to exaggerate the attributes of the State and the
supreme power of the prince,[2333] was nevertheless inclined
* to put natural right in the place of positive law,[2334]
* to preferring equity and logic to antiquity and to custom,
* to reinstate the dignity of man among the qualities of mankind,
* to enhance the condition of the slave, of the provincial, of the
debtor, of the bastard, of woman, of the child, and
* to recover for the human community all its inferior members, foreign
or degraded, which the ancient constitution of the family and of the
city had excluded from it.
Therefore Napoleon could find the outlines of his construction in
the political, legislative, and judicial organizations extending from
Diocletian to Constantine, and beyond these down to Theodosius. At the
base, popular sovereignty;[2335] the powers of the people delegated
unconditionally to one man. This omnipotence conferred, theoretically or
apparently, through the free choice of citizens, but really through the
will of the army. No protection against the Prince's arbitrary edict,
except a no less arbitrary rescript from the same hand. His successor
designated, adopted, and qualified by himself. A senate for show, a
council of state for administration; all local powers conferred from
above; cities under tutelage. All subjects endowed with the showy
title of citizen, and all citizens reduced to the humble condition of
taxpayers and of people under control. An administration of a hundred
thousand officials taking all services into its hands, comprising public
instruction, public succor, and public supplies of food, together
with systems of worship. This was at first pagan cults, and after
Constantine, the Christian cult. All these services were classified,
ranked, co-coordinated, carefully defined in such a way as not to
encroach on each other, and carefully combined in such a way as to
complete each other. An immense hierarchy of transferable functionaries
was kept at work from above on one hundred and eighty square leagues of
territory; thirty populations of different race and language-Syrians,
Egyptians, Numidians, Spaniards, Gauls, Britons, Germans, Greeks,
Italians--subject to the same uniform Régime. The territory was divided
like a checker-board, on arithmetical and geometrical principles, into
one hundred or one hundred and twenty small provinces; old nations or
States dismembered and purposely cut up so as to put an end forever to
natural, spontaneous, and viable groups. A minute and verified census
taking place every fifteen years to correctly assign land taxes. An
official and universal language; a State system of worship, and, very
soon, a Church and State orthodoxy. A systematic code of laws, full
and precise, admirable for the rule of private life, a sort of moral
geometry in which the theorems, rigorously linked together, are attached
to the definitions and axioms of abstract justice. A scale of grades,
one above the other, which everybody may ascend from the first to the
last; titles of nobility more and more advanced, suited to more and more
advanced functions; spectabiles, illustres, clarissimi, perfectissimi,
analogous to Napoleon's Barons, Counts, Dukes, and Princes. A programme
of promotion once exhibiting, and on which are still seen, common
soldiers, peasants, a shepherd, a barbarian, the son of a cultivator
(colon), the grandson of a slave, mounting gradually upward to the
highest dignities, becoming patrician, Count, Duke, commander of the
cavalry, Cæsar, Augustus, and donning the imperial purple, enthroned
amid the most sumptuous magnificence and the most elaborate ceremonial
prostrations, a being called God during his lifetime, and after
death adored as a divinity, and dead or alive, a complete divinity on
earth.[2336]
So colossal an edifice, so admirably adjusted, so mathematical, could
not wholly perish; its hewn stones were too massive, too nicely squared;
too exactly fitted, and the demolisher's hammer could not reach down
to its deepest foundations.--This one, through its shaping and its
structure, through its history and its duration, resembles the stone
edifices which the same people at the same epoch elevated on the same
soil, the aqueducts, amphitheatres, and triumphal arches, the Coliseum,
the baths of Diocletian and of Caracalla.
The medieval man, using their intact foundations and their shattered
fragments, built here and there, haphazard, according to the necessities
of the moment, planting his Gothic towers between Corinthian columns
against the panels of walls still standing.[2337] But, under his
incoherent masonry, he observed the beautiful forms, the precious
marbles, the architectural combinations, the symmetrical taste of an
anterior and superior art; he felt that his own work was rude. The new
world, to all thinking minds, was miserable compared with the old one;
its languages seemed a patois (crude dialect), its literature mere
stammering or driveling, its law a mass of abuses or a mere routine, its
feudality anarchy, and its social arrangements, disorder.--In vain had
the medieval man striven to escape through all issues, by the temporal
road and by the spiritual road, by the universal and absolute monarchy
of the German Cesars, and by the universal and absolute monarchy of the
Roman pontiffs. At the end of the fifteenth century the Emperor still
possessed the golden globe, the golden crown, the scepter of Charlemagne
and of Otho the Great, but, after the death of Frederick II., he was
nothing more than a majesty for show; the Pope still wore the tiara,
still held the pastoral staff and the keys of Gregory VII. and of
Innocent III., but, after the death of Boniface VIII., he was nothing
more than a majesty of the Church. Both abortive restorations had merely
added ruins to ruins, while the phantom of the ancient empire alone
remained erect amid so many fragments. Grand in its outlines and
decorations, it stood there, august, dazzling, in a halo, the unique
masterpiece of art and of reason, as the ideal form of human society.
For ten centuries this specter haunted the medieval epoch, and nowhere
to such an extent as in Italy.[2338]
It reappears the last time in 1800, starting up in and taking firm hold
of the magnificent, benighted imagination of the great Italian,[2339] to
whom the opportunity afforded the means for executing the grand Italian
dream of the Middle Ages; it is according to this retrospective vision
that the Diocletian of Ajaccio, the Constantine of the Concordat, the
Justinian of the Civil Code, the Theodosius of the Tuileries and of St.
Cloud reconstructed France.
This does not mean that he copies--he restores; his conception is not
plagiarism, but a case of atavism; it comes to him through the nature
of his intellect and through racial traditions. In the way of social
and political conceptions, as in literature and in art, his spontaneous
taste is ultra-classic. We detect this in his mode of comprehending the
history of France; State historians, "encouraged by the police," must
make it to order; they must trace it "from the end of Louis XIV. to
the year VIII," and their object must be to show how superior the new
architecture is to the old one.[2340] "The constant disturbance of the
finances must be noted, the chaos of the provincial assemblies,... the
pretensions of the parliaments, the lack of energy and order in the
administration, that parti-colored France with no unity of laws or of
administration, being rather a union of twenty kingdoms than one single
State, so that one breathes on reaching the epoch in which people enjoy
the benefits of the unity of the laws, of the administration, and of the
territory." In effect, he breathes; in thus passing from the former to
the latter spectacle, he finds real intellectual pleasure; his eyes,
offended with Gothic disorder, turn with relief and satisfaction to
majestic simplicity and classic regularity; his eyes are those of a
Latin architect brought up in the "École de Rome."
This is so true that, outside of this style, he admits of no other.
Societies of a different type seem to him absurd. He misconceives their
local propriety and the historical reasons for their existence. He takes
no account of their solidity. He is going to dash himself against
Spain and against Russia, and he has no comprehension whatever of
England.[2341]--This is so true that, wherever he places his hand he
applies his own social system; he imposes on annexed territories and
on vassal[2342] countries the same uniform arrangements, his
own administrative hierarchy, his own territorial divisions and
sub-divisions, his own conscription, his civil code, his constitutional
and ecclesiastical system, his university, his system of equality
and promotion, the entire French system, and, as far as possible, the
language, literature, drama, and even the spirit of his France,--in
brief, civilization as he conceives it, so that conquest becomes
propaganda, and, as with his predecessors, the Cesars of Rome, he
sometimes really fancies that the establishment of his universal
monarchy is a great benefit to Europe.
*****
[Footnote 2301: De Tocqueville, "L'Ancien régime et la Revolution." p.
64 and following pages, also p.354 and following pages.--"The Ancient
Régime," p. 368.]
[Footnote 2302: "The Revolution," I., book I., especially pp. 16, 17,
55, 61, 62-65. (Laffont I., 326, 354, 357 to 360.)]
[Footnote 2303: "The Ancient Regime," pp.--36-59. (Laff. I. pp. 33-48.)]
[Footnote 2304: Ibid., pp. 72-77. (Laff. I. pp. 59 to 61.)]
[Footnote 2305: Ibid., pp. 78-82. (Laff. I. pp. 50-52)]
[Footnote 2306: Cf. Frédéric Masson, "Le Marquis de Grignan," vol. I.]
[Footnote 2307: "The Revolution," I., p. 161 and following pages; II.,
book VI., ch. I., especially p. 80 and following pages. (Laffont I. 428
to 444, 632 and II 67 to 69.)]
[Footnote 2308: Ibid., I., P.193 and following pages, and p.226 and
following pages.(Ed. Laffont. I. 449 to 452, 473 to 481.)]
[Footnote 2309: "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc),
chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. I.,
148 (in relation to the institution prefects and sub-prefects): "The
perceptible good resulting from this change was the satisfaction arising
from being delivered in one day from a herd of insignificant men, mostly
without any merit or shadow of capacity and to who the administration
of department and arrondissement had been surrendered for the past ten
years. As nearly all of them sprung from the lowest ranks in society,
they were only the more disposed to make the weight of their authority
felt."]
[Footnote 2310: Guyot, "Répertoire de jurisprudence" (1785), article
King: "It is a maxim of feudal law that the veritable ownership of
lands, the domain, directum dominium, is vested in the dominant seignior
or suzerain. The domain in use, belonging to the vassal or tenant,
affords him really no right except to its produce."]
[Footnote 2311: Luchaire," Histoire des institutions monarchiques de
la France sous les premiers Capétiens," I., 28, 46. (Texts of Henry I.,
Philip I., Louis VI., and Louis VII.) "A divine minister."--(Kings are)
"servants of the kingdom of God."--"Gird on the ecclesiastical sword
for the punishment of the wicked."--"Kings and priests alone, by
ecclesiastical ordination, are made sacred by the anointing of holy
oils."]
[Footnote 2312: "The Revolution," III., p.94. (Laffont II, p. 75)]
[Footnote 2313: Janssen, "L'Allemagne à la fin du moyen âge" (French
translation), I., 457. (On the introduction of Roman law into
Germany.)--Declaration of the jurists at the Diet of Roncaglia: "Quod
principi placuit, legis habet vigorem."--Edict of Frederick I., 1165:
"Vestigia praedecessorum suorum, divorum imperatorum, magni Constantini
scilicet et Justiniani et Valentini,... sacras eorum leges,...
divina oracula.... Quodcumque imperator constituerit, vel cognoscens
decreverit, vel edicto praeceperit, legem esse constat."--Frederick II.:
"Princeps legibus solutus est."--Louis of Bavaria: "Nos qui sumus supra
jus."]
[Footnote 2314: Guyot, ibid., article Régales. "The great 'régales,'
majora regalia, are those which belong to the King, jure singulari et
proprio, and which are incommunicable to another, considering that
they cannot be divorced from the scepter, being the attributes of
sovereignty, such as... the making of laws, the interpretation or
change of these, the last appeal from the decisions of magistrates, the
creation of offices, the declaration of war or of peace,... the coining
of money, the augmentation of titles or of values, the imposition of
taxes on the subjects,... the exemption of certain persons from
these, the award of pardon for crimes,... the creation of nobles, the
foundation of universities,... the assembling of the états-généraux or
provinciaux, etc."--Bossuet, "Politique tirée de l'Écriture sainte": The
entire state exists in the person of the prince."--Louis XIV., "æuvres,"
I., 50 (to his son): "You should be aware that kings can naturally
dispose fully and freely of all possessions belonging as well to persons
of the church as to laymen, to make use of at all times with wise
economy, that is to say, according to the general requirements of their
government."--Sorel, "L'Europe et la Révolution française," I., 231
(Letter of the "intendant" Foucault): "It is an illusion, which cannot
proceed from anything but blind preoccupation, that of making any
distinction between obligations of conscience and the obedience which is
due to the King."]
[Footnote 2315: "The Ancient Régime," p.9 and following
pages.--"Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de le Marck," II., 74
(Note by Mirabeau, July 3, 1790): "Previous to the present revolution,
royal authority was incomplete: the king was compelled to humor his
nobles, to treat with the parliaments,, to be prodigal of favors to the
court."]
[Footnote 2316: "The Revolution," III., p.318. (Laff.II. p. 237-238).--"
The Ancient Régime," p. 10 (Laff. I. 25n.) Speech by the Chancellor
Séguier, 1775: "Our kings have themselves declared that they are
fortunately powerless to attack property."]
[Footnote 2317: Rousseau's text in the "Contrat Social."--On the meaning
and effect of this principle cf "The Revolution," I., 217 and following
pages, and III., book VI., ch. I. Laff. 182-186 et II. 47 to 74).]
[Footnote 2318: The opinion, or rather the resignation which confers
omnipotence on the central power, goes back to the second half of the
fifteenth century, after the Hundred Years' war, and is due to that war;
the omnipotence of the king was then the only refuge against the English
invaders, and the ravages of the Écorcheurs.--Cf. Fortescue, "In
leges Angliæ," and" "The Difference between an Absolute and a Limited
Monarchy" (end of the fifteenth century), on the difference at this date
between the English and the French government.--The same decision is
found in the dispatches of the Venetian ambassadors of this date: "In
France everything is based on the will of the king. Nobody, whatever
might be his conscientious scruples, would dare express an opinion
opposed to his. The French respect their king to such an extent that
they would not only sacrifice their property for him, but again their
souls." (Janssen, "L'Allemagne à la fin du moyen âge. I. 484.)--As to
the passage of the monarchical to the democratic idea, we see it plainly
in the following quotations from Restif de la Bretonne: "I entertained
no doubt that the king could legally oblige any man to give me his wife
or his daughter, and everybody in my village (Sacy in Burgundy) thought
so too." ("Monsieur Nicolas," I., 443.)--In relation to the September
massacres: "No, I do not pity them, those fanatical priests... When a
community or its majority wants anything, it is right. The minority is
always culpable, even when right morally. Common sense is that is needed
to appreciate that truth. It is indisputable that the nation has the
power to sacrifice even an innocent person." ("Nuits de Paris," XVth,
p.377.)]
[Footnote 2319: "The Revolution," III., 393. (Laff. II. p. 291)]
[Footnote 2320: "Contrat Social," book 1st, ch. III.: "It is accordingly
essential that, for the enunciation of the general will, no special
organization should exist in the State, and that the opinion of each
citizen should accord with that. Such was the unique and sublime law of
the great Lycurgus."]
[Footnote 2321: "The Revolution," I., 170. (Laff. I. 433.)]
[Footnote 2322: Ibid., II., 93; III., 78-82. (Laff. I. p. 632 and II.
pp. 65-68.)]
[Footnote 2323: "Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de la
Marck,"II., 74 (Letter of Mirabeau to the King, July 3, 1790): "Compare
the new state of things with the ancient régime.... One portion of
the acts of the national assembly (and that the largest) is evidently
favorable to monarchical government. Is it to have nothing, then, to
have no parliaments, no provincial governments, no privileged classes,
no clerical bodies, no nobility? The idea of forming one body
of citizens would have pleased Richelieu: this equalized surface
facilitates the exercise of power. Many years of absolute rule could
not have done so much for royal authority as this one year of
revolution."--Sainte-Beuve, "Port-Royal," V., 25 (M. Harlay conversing
with the supérieure of Port-Royal): "People are constantly talking about
Port-Royal, about these Port-Royal gentlemen: the King dislikes whatever
excites talk. Only lately he caused M. Arnaud to be informed that he did
not approve of the meetings at his house; that there is no objection to
his seeing all sorts of people indifferently like everybody else, but
why should certain persons always be found in his rooms and such an
intimate association among these gentlemen?... The King does not
want any rallying point; a headless assemblage in a State is always
dangerous."--Ibid., p.33: "The reputation of this establishment was too
great. People were anxious to put their children in it. Persons of
rank sent theirs there. Everybody expressed satisfaction with it. This
provided it with friends who joined those of the establishment and who
together formed a platoon against the State. The King would not consent
to this: he regarded such unions as dangerous in a State."]
[Footnote 2324: "Napoleon Ire et ses lois civiles," by Honoré Pérouse,
280: Words of Napoleon: "I have for a long time given a great deal of
thought and calculation to the re-establishment of the social edifice.
I am to-day obliged to watch over the maintenance of public liberty. I
have no idea of the French people becoming serfs."--"The prefects
are wrong in straining their authority."--"The repose and freedom of
citizens should not depend on the exaggeration or arbitrariness of a
mere administrator."--"Let authority be felt by the people as little as
possible and not bear down on them needlessly."--(Letters of January 15,
1806, March 6, 1807, January 12, 1809, to Fouché, and of March 6, 1807,
to Regnault.)--Thibaudeau, "Mémoires sur le Consulat," P. 178 (Words
of the first consul before the council of state): "True civil liberty
depends on the security of property. In no country can the rate of the
tax-payer be changed every year. A man with 3000 francs income does
not know how much he will have left to live on the following year; his
entire income may be absorbed by the assessment on it... A mere clerk,
with a dash of his pen, may overcharge you thousands of francs...
Nothing has ever been done in France in behalf of real estate. Whoever
has a good law passed on the cadastre (official valuation of all the
land in France) will deserve a statue."]
[Footnote 2325: Honoré Pérouse, Ibid, 274 (Speech of Napoleon to the
council of state on the law on mines):" "Myself, with many armies at
my disposition, I could not take possession of any one's field, for the
violation of the right of property in one case would be violating it
in all. The secret is to have mines become actual property, and
hence sacred in fact and by law."--Ibid., 279:" "What is the right of
property? It is not only the right of using but, again, of abusing it.
... One must always keep in mind the advantage of owning property.
The best protection to the owner of property is the interest of the
individual; one may always rely on his activity.... A government makes
a great mistake in trying to be too paternal; liberty and property are
both ruined by over-solicitude."--"If the government prescribes the
way in which property shall be used it no longer exists.".--Ibid.,
284 (Letters of Aug.21 and Sept. 7, 1809, on expropriations by public
authority): "It is indispensable that the courts should supervise,
stop expropriation, receive complaints of and guarantee property-owners
against the enterprises of our prefects, our prefecture councils and
all other agents.... Expropriation is a judicial proceeding.... I cannot
conceive how France can have proprietors if anybody can be deprived of
his field simply by an administrative decision."--In relation to the
ownership of mines, to the cadastre, to expropriation, and to the
portion of property which a man might bequeath, Napoleon was more
liberal than his jurists. Madame de Staël, "Dix années d'exil," ch.
XVIII. (Napoleon conversing with the tribune Gallois): "Liberty
consists of a good civil code, while modern nations care for nothing
but property."--"Correspondance," letter to Fouché, Jan. 15, 1805. (This
letter gives a good summary of his ideas on government.) "In France,
whatever is not forbidden is allowed, and nothing can be forbidden
except by the laws, by the courts, or police measures in all matters
relating to public order and morality."]
[Footnote 2326: Roederer, "æuvres complètes," III., 339 (Speech by the
First Consul, October 21, 1800): "Rank, now, is a recompense for every
faithful service--the great advantage of equality, which has converted
20,000 lieutenancies, formerly useless in relation to emulation,
into the legitimate ambition and honorable reward of 400,000
soldiers."--Lafayette, "Mémoires," V., 350: "Under Napoleon, the
soldiers said, he has been promoted King of Naples, of Holland, of
Sweden, or of Spain, as formerly it was said that a than had been
promoted sergeant in this or that company."]
[Footnote 2327: "The Ancient Régime," book I., ch.2, the Structure of
Society, especially pp.19-21. (Laff. I. p. 21-22)]
[Footnote 2328: Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène"--Napoleon, speaking of
his imperial organization, said that he had made the most compact
government, one with the quickest circulation and the most nervous
energy, that ever existed. And, he remarked, nothing but this would
have answered in overcoming the immense difficulties around us, and
for effecting the wonderful things we accomplished. The organization of
prefectures, their action, their results, were admirable and prodigious.
The same impulsion affected at the same time more than forty millions of
men, and, aided by centers of local activity, the action was as rapid at
every extremity as at the heart."]
[Footnote 2329: "The Ancient Régime," book III., chs. 2 and 3. (Laff. I,
pp. 139 to 151 and pp. 153 to 172.)]
[Footnote 2330: Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chs. I,
2, 3, and 13.--Duruy, "Histoire des Romains" (illustrated edition),
tenth period, chs. 82, 83, 84, and 85; twelfth period, chs. 95 and
99; fourteenth period, ch. 104.--(The reader will find in these two
excellent works the texts and monuments indicated to which it is
necessary to resort for a direct and satisfactory impression.)]
[Footnote 2331: See in Plutarch (Principles of Political Government) the
situation of a Greek city under the Antonines.]
[Footnote 2332: Gibbon, ch. 10.--Duruy, ch. 95. (Decrease of the
population of Alexandria under Gallien, according to the registers of
the alimentary institution, letter of the bishop Dionysius.)]
[Footnote 2333: "Digest," I., 4, I.: "Quod principi placuit legis habet
vigorem, utpote, cum lege regia, quæ de imperio ejus lata est, populus
ei et in eum omne suum imperium et potestatem conferat. Quodcumque
igitur imperator per epistolam et subscriptionem statuit, vel cognoscens
decrevit, vel de plano interlocutus est, vel edicto præcepit, legis
habet vigorem." (Extracts from Ulpian.)--Gaius, Institutes, I., 5: "Quod
imperator constituit, non dubium est quin id vicem legis obtineat, quum
ipse imperator per legem imperium obtineat."]
[Footnote 2334: "Digest," I, 2. (Extracts from Ulpian): "Jus est a
justitia appellatum; nam, ut eleganter Celsus definit, jus est ars boni
et æqui. Cujus merito quis nos sacerdotes appellat: justitiam
namque colimus, et boni et æqui notitiam profitemur, æquum ab iniquo
separantes, licitum ab illicito discernentes,... veram, nisi fallor,
philosophiam, non simulatam affectantes.... Juris præcepta sunt hæc:
honeste vivere, alterum non lædere, suum cuique tribuere."--cf. Duruy,
12th period, ch. 87.]
[Footnote 2335: Cf., on this immemorial principle of the entire body of
Roman public law, cf. Fustel de Coulanges, "Histoire des institutions
politiques et privées de l'ancienne France," vol. I., book II., ch. I,
p.66 and following pages.]
[Footnote 2336: Read the "Notitia dignitatum tam civilium quam
militarium in partibus orientis et occidentis." It is the imperial
almanac for the beginning of the fifth century. There are eleven
ministers at the centre, each with his bureaux, divisions, subdivisions
and squads of superposed functionaries,]
[Footnote 2337: Cf. Piranesi's engravings.]
[Footnote 2338: Cf., among other clues see Dante's: "De Monarchia".]
[Footnote 2339: We can trace in Napoleon's brain and date the formation
of this leading idea. At first, it is simply a classic reminiscence,
as with his contemporaries; but suddenly it takes a turn and has an
environment in his mind which is lacking in theirs, and which prevents
the idea from remaining a purely literary phrase. From the beginning
he speaks of Rome in the fashion of a Rienzi. (Proclamation of May
20, 1796.) "We are the friends of every people, and especially of the
Brutuses, the Scipios, and of the great men whom we have chosen as
models. To re-establish the Capitol, to place there with honor the
statues of heroes who render it famous, to arouse the Roman people
benumbed by centuries of slavery, such will be the fruit of our
victories."--Fifteen months afterwards, on becoming master of Italy,
his historic meditations turn into positive ambition henceforth, the
possession of Italy and of the Mediterranean is to be with him a central
and preponderant idea. (Letter to the Directory, Aug. 16, 1797, and
correspondence on the subject of Corsica, Sardinia, Naples, and Genoa;
letters to the pasha of Scutari, to the Maniotes, etc.) "The islands of
Corfu, Zante, and Cephalonia are of more interest to us than all Italy
put together.... The Turkish empire is daily tottering; the possession
of these islands will enable us to support it as long as possible, or to
take our portion of it. The time is not remote when we shall feel that,
for the real destruction of England, we must get possession of Egypt."
Formerly, the Mediterranean was a Roman lake; it must become a French
lake. (Cf. "Souvenirs d'un Sexagénaire," by Arnault, vol. IV., p.102,
on his dream, in 1798, of making Paris a colossal Rome.)--At this
same date, his conception of the State is fixed and wholly Roman.
(Conversations with Miot, June 1797, and letter to Talleyrand, Sep. 19,
1797.) "I do not see but one thing in fifty years well defined, and
that is the sovereignty of the people.... The organization of the French
nation is still only sketched out....The power of the government,
with the full latitude I give to it, should be considered as really
representing the nation." In this government, "the legislative power,
without rank in the republic, deaf and blind to all around it, would
not be ambitious and would no longer inundate us with a thousand chance
laws, worthless on account of their absurdity." It is evident that
he describes in anticipation his future senate and legislative
corps.--Repeatedly, the following year, and during the expedition into
Egypt, he presents the Romans as an example to his soldiers, and views
himself as a successor to Scipio and Cæsar.--(Proclamation of June 22,
1798.): "Be as tolerant to the ceremonies enjoined by the Koran as you
are for the religion of Moses and Jesus. The Roman legions protected all
religions."--(Proclamation of May 10, 1798.) "The Roman legions that you
have often imitated but not yet equaled fought Carthage in turn on this
wall and in the vicinity of Zama."--Carthage at this time is England:
his hatred of this community of merchants which destroys his fleet at
Aboukir, which forces him to raise the siege of Saint-Jean d'Acre, which
holds on to Malta, which robs him of his substance, his patrimony, his
Mediterranean, is that of a Roman consul against Carthage; it leads him
to conquer all western Europe against her and to "resuscitate the empire
of the Occident." (Note to Otto, his ambassador at London, Oct.. 23,
1802.)--Emperor of the French, king of Italy, master of Rome, suzerain
of the Pope, protector of the confederation of the Rhine, he succeeds
the German emperors, the titularies of the Holy Roman Empire which
has just ended in 1806; he is accordingly the heir of Charlemagne
and, through Charlemagne, the heir of the ancient Cæsars.--In fact, he
reproduces the work of the ancient Cæsars by analogies of imagination,
situation and character, but in a different Europe, and where this
posthumous reproduction can be only an anachronism.]
[Footnote 2340: "Correspondance," note for M. Cretet, minister of the
interior, April 12, 1808.]
[Footnote 2341: Metternich, "Mémoires," I., 107 (Conversations with
Napoleon,, 1810): "I was surprised to find that this man, so wonderfully
endowed, had such completely false ideas concerning England, its vital
forces and intellectual progress. He would not admit any ideas
contrary to his own, and sought to explain these by prejudices which
he condemned."--Cf. Forsyth, "History of the Captivity of Napoleon
at Saint-Helena," III., 306, (False calculations of Napoleon at
Saint-Helena based on his ignorance of the English parliamentary
system,) and Stanislas Girardin, III., 296, (Words of the First Consul,
Floreal 24, year XI, quoted above.)]
[Footnote 2342: Cf., amongst other documents, his letter to Jerome, King
of Westphalia, October 15, 1807, and the constitution he gives to that
kingdom on that date, and especially titles 4 to 12: "The welfare of
your people concerns me, not only through the influence it may exercise
on your fame and my own, but likewise from the point of view of the
general European system.... Individuals who have talent and are not
noble must enjoy equal consideration and employment from you. ... Let
every species of serfage and of intermediary lien between the sovereign
and the lowest class of people be abolished. The benefits of the code
Napoleon, the publicity of proceedings, the establishment of juries,
will form so many distinctive characteristics of your monarchy."--His
leading object is the suppression of feudalism, that is to say, of
the great families and old historic authorities. He relies for this
especially on his civil code: "That is the great advantage of the
code;... it is what has induced me to preach a civil code and made me
decide on establishing it." (Letter to Joseph, King of Naples, June 5,
1806.)--"The code Napoleon is adopted throughout Italy. Florence has
it, and Rome will soon have it." (Letter to Joachim, King of the Two
Sicilies, Nov. 27, 1808.)--"My intention is to have the Hanseatic towns
adopt the code Napoleon and be governed by it from and after the 1st of
January."--The same with Dantzic: "Insinuate gently and not by
writing to the King of Bavaria, the Prince-primate, the grand-dukes of
Hesse-Darmstadt and of Baden, that the civil code should be established
in their states by suppressing all customary law and confining
themselves wholly to the code Napoleon." (Letter to M. de Champagny,
Oct. 31, 1807.)--"The Romans gave their laws to their allies. Why
should not France have its laws adopted in Holland?... It is equally
essential that you should adopt the French monetary system." (Letter to
Louis, King of Holland, Nov. 13, 1807.)--To the Spaniards: "Your nephews
will honor me as their regenerator." (Allocution addressed to Madrid
Dec. 9, 1808.)--"Spain must be French. The country must be French and
the government must be French." (Roederer, III., 529, 536, words of
Napoleon, Feb. 11, 1809.)--In short, following the example of Rome,
which had Latinized the entire Mediterranean coast, he wanted to render
all western Europe French. The object was, as he declared, "to establish
and consecrate at last the empire of reason and the full exercise, the
complete enjoyment of every human faculty." (Mémorial.)]
BOOK THIRD. OBJECT AND MERITS OF THE SYSTEM.
CHAPTER I. RECOVERY OF SOCIAL ORDER.
I. Rule as the mass want to be ruled.
How Napoleon comprehends the sovereignty of the people.--His
maxim on the will of the majority and on the office of
government.--Two groups of prominent and obvious desires in
1799.
However clear and energetic his artistic convictions may be, his mind
is absorbed by the preoccupations of the ruler: It is not enough for him
that his edifice should be monumental, symmetrical, and beautiful. As he
lives in it and derives the greatest benefit from it, he wants first
of all that it should be fit to live in, habitable for Frenchmen of
the year 1800. Consequently, he takes into account the habits and
dispositions of his tenants, the pressing and permanent wants. But these
needs must not be theoretic and vague, but verified and defined; for he
is as accurate as he is shrewd, and deals only with positive facts.
"My political system," says he to the Council of State,[3101] "is
to rule men as the mass want to be ruled... By constituting myself a
Catholic I put an end to the war in La Vendée; by turning into a Moslem
I established myself in Egypt: by turning ultramontane[3102] I gained
over the priests in Italy. Were I to govern a population of Jews, I
would restore the temple of Solomon. I shall speak just in this fashion
about liberty in the free part of St. Domingo; I shall confirm slavery
in the Ile-de-France and even in the slave section of St. Domingo, with
the reservation of diminishing and limiting slavery where I maintain
it, and of restoring order and keeping up discipline where I maintain
freedom. I think that is the way to recognize the sovereignty of the
people."
"Now, in France, at this epoch, there are two groups of preponderant
desires which evidently outweigh all others, one dating back the past
ten years, and the other for a century or more: the question is how to
satisfy these, and the sagacious constructor, who estimates them
for what they are worth, combines to this end the proportions, plan,
arrangement, and entire interior economy of his edifice.
II. The Revolution Ends.
Necessities dating from the Revolution.--Lack of security
for Persons, Property, and Consciences.--Requisite
conditions for the establishment of order.--End of Civil
war, Brigandage, and Anarchy.--Universal relief and final
security.
The first of these two needs is urgent, almost physical. For the last
ten years, the government has not done its duty, or has ruled in a
contrary sense. By turns or at the same time its impotence and injustice
have been deplorable. It has committed or allowed too many outrages
on persons, property, and consciences. All in all the Revolution did
nothing else, and it is time that this should stop. Safety and security
for consciences, property, and persons is the loud and unanimous outcry
vibrating in all hears.[3103]--To calm things down, many novelties are
required: To start with, the political and administrative concentration
just described, a centralization of all powers in one hand, local powers
conferred by the central power, and, to exercise this supreme power
a resolute chief, equal in intelligence to his high position. Next, a
regularly paid army,[3104] carefully equipped, properly clothed and
fed, strictly disciplined and therefore obedient and able to do its duty
without wavering or faltering, like any other instrument of precision.
An active police force and gendarmerie kept on a tight rein.
Administrators independent of those under their jurisdiction, and
judges independent of those due to be tried. All appointed, maintained,
watched, and restrained from above, as impartial as possible,
sufficiently competent, and, in their official spheres, capable
functionaries. Finally, freedom of worship, and, accordingly, a treaty
with Rome and the restoration of the Catholic Church, that is to say, a
legal recognition of the orthodox hierarchy and of the only clergy which
the faithful may accept as legitimate, in other words, the institution
of bishops by the Pope, and of priests by the bishops.
This done, the rest is easily accomplished. A well-led army corps
marches along and tramples out the embers of the conflagration now
kindling in the West, while religious toleration extinguishes the
smoldering fires of popular insurrection. Henceforth, there is an end
to civil war.[3105] Regiments ready to act in harmony with the
military commissions[3106] purge the South and the valley of the Rhône;
thenceforth, there are no more roving bands in the rural districts,
while brigandage on a grand scale, constantly repressed, ceases, and
after this, that on a small scale. No more chouans, chauffeurs, or
barbets;[3107] The mail-coach travels without a guard, and the highways
are safe.[3108] There is longer any class or category of citizens
oppressed or excluded from the common law, the latest Jacobin decrees
and the forced loan have been at once revoked: noble or plebeian,
ecclesiastic or layman, rich or poor, former émigré or former terrorist,
every man, whatever his past, his condition, or his opinions, now enjoys
his private property and his legal rights; he has no longer to fear the
violence of the opposite party; he may relay on the protection of the
authorities,[3109] and on the equity of the magistrates.[3110] So long
as he respects the law he can go to bed at night and sleep tranquilly
with the certainty of awaking in freedom on the morrow, and with the
certainty of doing as he pleases the entire day; with the privilege of
working, buying, selling, thinking, amusing himself,[3111] going and
coming at his pleasure, and especially of going to mass or of staying
away if he chooses. No more jacqueries either rural or urban, no more
proscriptions or persecutions and legal or illegal spoliations, no
more intestine and social wars waged with pikes or by decrees, no more
conquests and confiscations made by Frenchmen against each other. With
universal and unutterable relief people emerge from the barbarous and
anarchical régime which reduced them to living from one day to another,
and return to the pacific and regular régime which permits them to count
on the morrow and make provision for it. After ten years of harassing
subjection to the incoherent absolutism of unstable despotism, here,
for the first time, they find a rational and stable government, or, at
least, a reasonable, tolerable, and fixed degree of it. The First
Consul is carrying out his declarations and he has declared that "The
Revolution has ended."[3112]
III. Return of the Emigrés.
Lasting effect of revolutionary laws.--Condition of the
Émigrés.--Progressive and final amnesty.--They return.--They
recover a portion of their possessions.--Many of them enter
the new hierarchy.--Indemnities for them incomplete.
The main thing now is to dress the severe wounds it has made and which
are still bleeding, with as little torture as possible, for it has cut
down to the quick, and its amputations, whether foolish or outrageous,
have left sharp pains or mute suffering in the social organism.
One hundred and ninety-two thousand names have been inscribed on the
list of émigrés[3113] the terms of the law, every émigré is civilly
dead, and his possessions have become the property of the Republic;" if
he dared return to France, the same law condemned him to death; there
could be no appeal, petition, or respite; it sufficed to prove identity
and the squad of executioners was at once ordered out. Now, at the
beginning of the Consulate, this murderous law is still in force;
summary proceedings are always applicable,[3114] and one hundred
and forty-six thousand names still appear on the mortuary list. This
constitutes a loss to France of 146,000 Frenchmen, and not those of
the least importance--gentlemen, army and navy officers, members of
parliaments, priests, prominent men of all classes, conscientious
Catholics, liberals of 1789, Feuillantists of the Legislative assembly,
and Constitutionalists of the years III and V. Worse still, through
their poverty or hostility abroad, they are a discredit or even a danger
for France, as formerly with the Protestants driven out of the country
by Louis XIV.[3115]--To these 146,000 exiled Frenchmen add 200,000
or 300,000 others, residents, but semi-proscribed:[3116] First, those
nearly related and allied to each émigré, excluded by the law from
"every legislative, administrative, municipal and judicial function,"
and even deprived of the elective vote. Next, all former nobles or
ennobled, deprived by the law of their status as Frenchmen and obliged
to re-naturalize themselves according to the formalities.
It is, accordingly, almost the entire elite of old France which
is wanting in the new France, like a limb violently wrenched and
half-detached by the unskillful and brutal scalpel of the revolutionary
"sawbones"; for both the organ and the body are not only living, but
they are still feverish and extremely sensitive; it is important to
avoid too great irritation; inflammation of any kind would be dangerous.
A skilful surgeon, therefore, must mark the places for the stitches, not
force the junctures, but anticipate and prepare for the final healing
process, and await the gradual and slow results of vital effort and
spontaneous renewal. Above all he must not alarm the patient. The First
Consul is far from doing this; on the contrary his expressions are all
encouraging. Let the patient keep quiet, there shall be no re-stitching,
the wound shall not be touched. The constitution solemnly declares that
the French people shall never allow the return of the émigrés,[3117]
and, on this point, the hands of future legislators are already tied
fast; it prohibits any exception being added to the old ones.--But,
first, by virtue of the same constitution, every Frenchman not an émigré
or banished has the right to vote, to be elected, to exercise every
species of public function; consequently, twelve days later,[3118] a
mere order of the Council of State restores civil and political rights
to former nobles and the ennobled, to the kinsmen and relations of
émigrés, to all who have been dubbed émigrés of the interior and whom
Jacobin intolerance had excluded, if not from the territory, at least
from the civic body: here are 200,000 or 300,000 Frenchmen already
brought back into political communion if not to the soil.--They had
succumbed to the coup-d'état of Fructidor; naturally, the leading
fugitives or those transported, suffering under the same coup-d'état,
were restored to political rights along with them and thus to the
territory--Carnot, Barthélémy, Lafont-Ladébat, Siméon, Poissy d'Anglas,
Mathieu Dumas, in all thirty-nine, designated by name;[3119] very soon
after. Through a simple extension of the same resolution, others of the
Fructidor victims, a crowd of priests huddled together and pining
away on the Ile-de-Ré, the most unfortunate and most inoffensive of
all.[3120]--Two months later, a law declares that the list of émigrés
is definitely closed;[3121] a resolution orders immediate investigation
into the claims of those who are to be struck off the list; a second
resolution strikes off the first founders of the new order of things,
the members of the National Assembly "who voted for the establishment
of equality and the abolition of nobility;" and, day after day, new
erasures succeed each other, all specific and by name, under cover of
toleration, pardon, and exception:[3122] on the 19th of October 1800,
there are already 1200 of them. Bonaparte, at this date, had gained the
battle of Marengo; the surgical restorer feels that his hands are
more free; he can operate on a larger scale and take in whole bodies
collectively. On the 20th of October 1800, a resolution strikes off
entire categories from the list, all whose condemnation is too grossly
unjust or malicious,[3123] at first, minors under sixteen and the wives
of émigrés; next, farmers, artisans, workmen, journeymen and servants
with their wives and children and at last 18,000 ecclesiastics who,
banished by law, left the country only in obedience to the law. Besides
these, "all individuals inscribed collectively and without individual
denomination," those already struck off, but provisionally, by local
administrations; also still other classes. Moreover, a good many
emigrants, yet standing on the lists, steal back one by one into France,
and the government tolerates them.[3124] Finally, eighteen months later,
after the peace of Amiens and the Concord at,[3125] a sénatus-consulte
ends the great operation; an amnesty relieves all who are not yet
struck off, except the declared leaders of the militant emigration, its
notables, and who are not to exceed one thousand; the rest may come back
and enjoy their civic rights; only, they must promise "loyalty to the
government established under the constitution and not maintain directly
or indirectly any connection or correspondence with the enemies of the
State." On this condition the doors of France are thrown open to them
and they return in crowds.
But their bodily presence is not of itself sufficient; it is moreover
essential that they should not be absent in feeling, as strangers and
merely domiciliated in the new society. Were these mutilated fragments
of old France, these human shreds put back in their old places, simply
attached or placed in juxtaposition to modern France, they would prove
useless, troublesome and even mischievous. Let us strive, then, to have
them grafted on afresh through adherence or complete fusion; and first,
to effect this, they must not be allowed to die of inanition; they
must take root physically and be able to live. In private life, how
can former proprietors, the noblesse, the parliamentarians, the upper
bourgeoisie, support themselves, especially those without a profession
or pursuit, and who, before 1789, maintained themselves, not by their
labor, but by their income? Once at home, they can no longer earn their
living as they did abroad; they can no longer give lessons in French, in
dancing, or in fencing.--There is no doubt but that the sénatus-consulte
which amnesties them restores to them a part of their unsold
possessions;[3126] but most of these are sold and, on the other hand,
the First Consul, who is not disposed to re-establish large fortunes for
royalists,[3127] retains and maintains the largest portion of what they
have been despoiled of in the national domain: all woods and forests of
300 arpents[3128] and over, their stock and property rights in the
great canals, and their personal property already devoted to the public
service. The effective restitution is therefore only moderate; the
émigrés who return recover but little more than one-twentieth of their
patrimony, one hundred millions[3129] out of more than two milliards.
Observe, besides, that by virtue even of the law and as admitted by the
First Consul,[3130] this alms is badly distributed; the most needy and
the greatest number remain empty-handed, consisting of the lesser and
medium class of rural proprietors, especially of country gentlemen
whose domain, worth less than 50,000 francs, brings in only 2000 or 3000
francs income;[3131] a domain of this size came within reach of a great
many purses, and hence found purchasers more readily and with greater
facility than a large holding; the State was almost always the seller,
and thenceforth the old proprietor could make no further claim or
pretension.--Thus, for many of the émigrés, "the sénatus-consulte of the
year X is simply a permit to starve to death in France "and,[3132] four
years later,[3133] Napoleon himself estimates that "40,000 are without
the means of subsistence." They manage to keep life and soul together
and nothing more;[3134] many, taken in and cared for by their friends
or relations, are supported as guests or parasites, somewhat through
compassion and again on humanitarian grounds. One recovers his silver
plate, buried in a cellar; another finds notes payable to bearer,
forgotten in an old chest. Sometimes, the purchaser of a piece of
property, an honest man, gives it back at the price he paid for it,
or even gratis, if, during the time he had held it, he had derived
sufficient profit from it. Occasionally, when the adjudication happens
to have been fraudulent, or the sale too irregular, and subject to legal
proceedings, the dishonest purchaser does not refuse a compromise.
But these cases are rare, and the evicted owner, if he desires to dine
regularly, will wisely seek a small remunerative position and serve
as clerk, book-keeper or accountant. M. des Echerolles, formerly a
brigadier-general, keeps the office of the new line of diligences at
Lyons, and earns 1200 francs a year. M. de Puymaigre, who, in 1789, was
worth two millions, becomes a contrôleur des droits réunis at Briey with
a salary of 2400 francs.--In every branch of the new administration
a royalist is welcome to apply for a post;[3135] however slightly
recommended, he obtains the place. Sometimes he even receives one
without having asked for it; M. de Vitrolles[3136] thus becomes, in
spite of himself, inspector of the imperial sheepfolds; this fixes his
position and makes it appear as if he had given in his adhesion to the
government.--Naturally, the great political recruiter singles out the
tallest and most imposing subjects, that is to say, belonging to the
first families of the ancient monarchy, and, like one who knows his
business, he brings to bear every means, constraint and seduction,
threats and cajoleries, supplies in ready money, promises of promotion
with the influence of a uniform and gold-lace embroidery.[3137] It
matters little whether the enlistment is voluntary or extorted; the
moment a man becomes a functionary and is enrolled in the hierarchy, he
loses the best portion of his independence; once a dignitary and placed
at the top of the hierarchy, he gives his entire individuality up, for
henceforth he lives under the eye of the master, feels the daily and
direct pressure of the terrible hand which grasps him, and he forcibly
becomes a mere tool.[3138] These historic names, moreover, contribute to
the embellishment of the reign. Napoleon hauls in a good many of them,
and the most illustrious among the old noblesse, of the court of the
robe and of the sword. He can enumerate among his magistrates, M.
Pasquier, M. Séguier, M. Molé; among his prelates, M. de Boisgelin,
M. du Barral, M. du Belley, M. de Roquelaure, M. de Broglie; among his
military officers, M. de Fézensac, M. de Ségur, M. de Mortemart, M.
de Narbonne;[3139] among the dignitaries of his palace, chaplains,
chamberlains and ladies of honor--the Rohan, Croy, Chevreuse,
Montmorency, Chabot, Montesquiou, Noailles, Brancas, Gontaut, Grammont,
Beauvau, Saint-Aignan, Montalembert, Haussonville, Choiseul-Praslin,
Mercy d'Argenteau, Aubusson de la Feuillade, and many others, recorded
in the imperial almanac as formerly in the royal almanac.
But they are only with him nominally and in the almanac. Except
certain individuals, M. de las Cases and M. Philippe de Ségur, who gave
themselves up body and soul, even to following him to Saint Helena, to
glorifying, admiring and loving him beyond the grave, the others are
submissive conscripts and who remain more or less refractory spirits. He
does nothing to win them over. His court is not, like the old court, a
conversational ball-room, but a hall of inspection, the most sumptuous
apartment in his vast barracks; the civil parade is a continuation of
the military parade; one finds one's self constrained, stiff, mute and
uncomfortable.[3140]
He does not know how to entertain as the head of his household, how
to welcome guests and be gracious or even polite to his pretended
courtiers; he himself declares that[3141] "they go two years without
speaking to him, and six months without seeing him; he does not like
them, their conversation displeases him." When he addresses them it is
to browbeat them; his familiarities with their wives are those of the
gendarme or the pedagogue, while the little attentions he inflicts upon
them are indecorous criticisms or compliments in bad taste. They know
that they are spied upon in their own homes and responsible for whatever
is said there; "the upper police is constantly hovering over all
drawing-rooms."[3142] For every word uttered in privacy, for any lack of
compliance, every individual, man or woman, runs the risk of exile or
of being relegated to the interior at a distance of forty leagues.[3143]
And the same with the resident gentry in the provinces; they are obliged
to pay court to the prefect, to be on good terms with him, or at least
attend his receptions; it is important that their cards should be seen
on his mantel piece.[3144] Otherwise, let them take heed, for it is he
who reports on their conduct to the minister Fouché or to Savary who
replaced him. In vain do they live circumspectly and confine themselves
to a private life; a refusal to accept an office is unpardonable; there
is a grudge against them if they do not employ their local influence in
behalf of the reign.[3145] Accordingly, they are, under the empire as
under the republic, in law as in fact, in the provinces as well as at
Paris, privileged persons the wrong way, a suspicious class under
a special surveillance" and subject to exceptional rigor.[3146] In
1808,[3147] Napoleon orders Fouché "to draw up ... among the old and
wealthy families who are not in the system... a list of ten in each
department, and of fifty for Paris," of which the sons from sixteen to
eighteen years of age shall be forced to enter Saint-Cyr and from thence
go into the army as second lieutenants. In 1813, still "in the highest
classes of society," and arbitrarily selected by the prefects, he takes
ten thousand other persons, exempt or redeemed from the conscription,
even the married, even fathers of families, who, under the title of
guards of honor, become soldiers, at first to be slaughtered in his
service, and next, and in the mean time, to answer for the fidelity
of their relatives. It is the old law of hostages, a resumption of the
worst proceedings of the Directory for his account and aggravated for
his profit.--Decidedly, the imperial Régime, for the old royalists,
resembles too much the Jacobin régime; they are about as repugnant to
one as to the other, and their aversion naturally extends to the whole
of the new society.--As they comprehend it, they are more or less robbed
and oppressed for a quarter of a century. In order that their hostility
may cease, the indemnity of 1825 is essential, fifty years of gradual
adaptation, the slow elimination of two or three generations of fathers
and the slow elimination of two or three generations of sons.
Nothing is so difficult as the reparation of great social wrongs.
In this case the incomplete reparation did not prove sufficient; the
treatment which began with gentleness ended with violence, and, as a
whole, the operation only half succeeded.
IV. Education and Medical Care.
Confiscation of collective fortunes.--Ruin of the Hospitals
and Schools.
Other wounds are not less deep, and their cure is not less urgent;
for they cause suffering, not only to one class, but to the whole
people--that vast majority which the government strives to satisfy.
Along with the property of the émigrés, the Revolution has confiscated
that of all local or special societies, ecclesiastic or laic, of
churches and congregations, universities and academies, schools and
colleges, asylums and hospitals, and even the property of the communes.
All these fortunes have been swallowed up by the public treasury, which
is a bottomless pit, and are gone forever.--Consequently, all services
thus maintained, especially charitable institutions, public worship and
education, die or languish for lack of sustenance; the State, which has
no money for itself, has none for them. And what is worse, it hinders
private parties from taking them in charge; being Jacobin, that is to
say intolerant and partisan, it has proscribed worship, driven nuns out
of the hospitals, closed Christian schools, and, with its vast power,
it prevents others from carrying out at their own expense the social
enterprises which it no longer cares for.
And yet the needs for which this work provides have never been so
great nor so imperative. In ten years,[3148] the number of foundlings
increased from 23,000 to 62,000; it is, as the reports state, a deluge:
there are 1097 instead of 400 in Aisne, 1500 in Lot-et-Garonne, 2035 in
la Manche, 2043 in Bouches-du-Rhône, 2673 in Calvados. From 3000 to
4000 beggars are enumerated in each department and about 300,000 in all
France.[3149] As to the sick, the infirm, the mutilated, unable to earn
their living, it suffices, for an idea of their multitude, to consider
the régime to which the political doctors have just subjected France,
the Régime of fasting and bloodletting. Two millions of Frenchmen have
marched under the national flag, and eight hundred thousand have died
under it;[3150] among the survivors, how many cripples, how many with
one arm and with wooden legs! All Frenchmen have eaten dog-bread for
three years and often have not had enough of that to live on; over
a million have died of starvation and poverty; all the wealthy and
well-to-do Frenchmen have been ruined and have lived in constant fear
of the guillotine; four hundred thousand have wasted away in prisons;
of the survivors, how many shattered constitutions, how many bodies and
brains disordered by an excess of suffering and anxiety, by physical and
moral wear and tear![3151]
Now, in 1800, assistance is lacking for this crowd of civil and military
invalids, the charitable establishments being no longer in a condition
to furnish it. Under the Constituent Assembly, through the suppression
of ecclesiastical property and the abolition of octrois, a large portion
of their revenue had been cut off, that assigned to them out of octrois
and the tithes. Under the Legislative Assembly and the Convention,
through the dispersion and persecution of nuns and monks, they were
deprived of a body of able male and female volunteer servants who,
instituted for centuries, gave their labor without stint. Under the
Convention, all their possessions, the real-estate and the debts due
them, had been confiscated;[3152] and, in the restitution to them of the
remainder at the end of three years, a portion of their real-estate is
found to have been sold, while their claims, settled by assignats or
converted into state securities, had died out or dwindled to such an
extent that, in 1800, after the final bankruptcy of the assignats and
of the state debt, the ancient patrimony of the poor is two-thirds or
one-half reduced.[3153] It is for this reason that the eight hundred
charitable institutions which, in 1789, had one hundred thousand or
one hundred and ten thousand occupants, could not support more than
one-third or one-half of them; on the other hand, it may be estimated
that the number of applicants tripled; from which it follows that, in
1800, there is less than one bed in the hospitals and asylums for six
children, either sick or infirm.
V. Old and New.
Complaints of the Poor, of Parents, and of Believers.
--Contrast between old and new educational facilities.
--Clandestine instruction.--Jacobin teachers.
Under this wail of the wretched who vainly appeal for help, for nursing
and for beds, another moan is heard, not so loud, but more extensive,
that of parents unable to educate their children, boys or girls, and
give them any species of instruction either primary or secondary.
Previous to the Revolution "small schools" were innumerable: in
Normandy, Picardy, Artois, French Flanders, Lorraine and Alsace, in the
Ile-de-France, in Burgundy and Franche-Comté, in the Dombes, Dauphiny
and Lyonnais, in the Comtat, in the Cévennes and in Béarn,[3154] almost
as many schools could be counted as there were parishes, in all probably
twenty or twenty-five thousand for the thirty-seven thousand parishes
in France, and all frequented and serviceable; for, in 1789, forty-seven
men out of a hundred, and twenty-six girls or women out of a hundred,
could read and write or, at least, sign their names.[3155]--And these
schools cost the treasury nothing, next to nothing to the tax-payer, and
very little to parents. In many places, the congregations, supported
by their own property, furnished male or female teachers,--Frères de la
Doctrine Chrétienne, Frères de Saint-Antoine, Ursulines, Visitandines,
Filles de la Charité, Sæurs de Saint-Charles, Sæurs de la Providence,
Sæurs de la Sagesse, Sæurs de Notre-Dame de la Croix, Vatelottes,
Miramiones, Manettes du Tiers Ordre, and many others. Elsewhere, the
curate of the parish was obliged through a parish regulation to teach
himself, or to see that his vicar taught. A very large number of
factories or of communes had received legacies for maintaining a school;
the instructor often enjoyed, through an endowment, a métayer farm or a
piece of ground; he was generally provided with a lodging; if he was a
layman he was exempt, besides, from the most onerous taxes; as sexton,
beadle, chorister or bell-ringer, he had small perquisites; finally,
he was paid for each child four or five sous[3156] a month; sometimes,
especially in poor districts, he taught only from All Saints' day down
to the spring, and followed another occupation during the summer. In
short, his salary and his comfort were about those of a rural vicar or
of a suitably paid curate.
Higher education (éducation secondaire) was provided for in the same
manner, and still better by local and private enterprise. More than one
hundred and eight establishments furnished it completely, and more than
four hundred and fifty-four partially.[3157] Like the others, and
not less liberally than the smaller schools, these were supported
by endowments, some of which were very ample and even magnificent;
a certain upper school in the provinces, Rodez,[3158] possessed
twenty-seven thousand livres income, and one in Paris, Louis-le-Grand,
an income of four hundred and fifty thousand livres, each of these,
large or small, having its own distinct endowment, in real property,
lands and houses, and in revenues on privileges derived from the
hotel-de-ville, the octroi and from transportation lines.--And, in
each of them, the scholarships, or half-scholarships, were numerous-six
hundred alone in Louis-le-Grand. In total, out of the seventy-two
thousand scholars in the kingdom, there were forty thousand for whom a
high-school education was gratuitous or half-gratuitous; nowadays, it is
less than five thousand out of seventy-nine thousand.[3159] The reason
why is that, before 1789, the revenues were not only large, but
the expenses were small. The salary of a head-master, teacher, or
assistant-teacher was not large, say four hundred and fifty, six
hundred, nine hundred, or twelve hundred livres per annum at most, just
enough for a single man to live on; in effect, most of the teachers were
priests or monks, Benedictines, regular canons, Oratorians, the latter
alone officiating in thirty colleges. Not subject to the expenses and
necessities which a family imposes, they were abstemious through
piety, or at least through discipline, habit, and respect for persons;
frequently, the statutes of the school obliged them to live in
common,[3160] which was much cheaper than living apart.--The same
economical accord is found with all the wheels, in the arrangement and
working of the entire system. A family, even a rural one, never lived
far away from a high-school, for there were high-schools in nearly all
the small towns, seven or eight in each department, fifteen in Ain,
seventeen in Aisne.[3161] The child or youth, from eight to eighteen,
had not to endure the solitude and promiscuity of a civil barracks; he
remained within reach of his parents. If they were too poor to pay the
three hundred francs board required by the school, they placed their son
in a respectable family, in that of some artisan or acquaintance in the
town; there, with three or four others, he was lodged, had his washing
done, was cared for and watched, had a seat at the family table and by
the fireside, and was provided with light; every week, he received from
the country his supply of bread and other provisions; the mistress of
the house cooked for him and mended his clothes, the whole for two or
three livres a month.[3162]--Thus do institutions flourish that arise
spontaneously on the spot; they adapt themselves to circumstances,
conform to necessities, utilize resources and afford the maximum of
returns for the minimum of expense.
This great organization disappears entirely, bodily and with all its
possessions, like a ship that sinks beneath the waves. The teachers
are dismissed, exiled, transported, and proscribed; its property is
confiscated, sold and destroyed, and the remainder in the hands of the
State is not restored and again applied to its former service. Public
education, worse treated than public charity, does not recover a
shred of its former endowment. Consequently, in the last years of the
Directory, and even early in the Consulate,[3163] there is scarcely any
instruction given in France; in fact, for the past eight or nine years
it has ceased,[3164] or become private and clandestine. Here and there,
a few returned priests, in spite of the intolerant law and with the
connivance of the local authorities, also a few scattered nuns, teach
in a contraband fashion a few small groups of Catholic children; five or
six little girls around a disguised Ursuline nun spell out the alphabet
in a back room;[3165] a priest without tonsure or cassock secretly
receives in the evening two or three youths whom he makes translate the
De Viris.--During the intervals, indeed, of the Reign of Terror, before
the 13th of Vendémiaire and the 18th of Fructidor, sundry schools spring
up again like tufts of grass in a mowed pasture-ground, but only in
certain spots and meagerly; moreover, as soon as the Jacobin returns to
power he stubbornly stamps them out;[3166] he wants to have teaching all
to himself.--Now the institution by which the State pretends to replace
the old and free establishments makes a figure only on paper. One école
centrale in each department is installed or decreed, making eighty eight
on the territory of ancient France; this hardly supplies the place of
the eight or nine hundred high-schools (collèges), especially as these
new schools are hardly viable, being in ruin at the very start,[3167]
poorly maintained, badly furnished, with no preparatory schools nor
adjacent boarding-houses,[3168] the programme of studies being badly
arranged and parents suspicious of the spirit of the studies.[3169]
Thus, there is little or no attendance at most of the courses of
lectures; only those on mathematics are followed, particularly on
drawing, and especially mechanical and geometrical drawing, probably
by the future surveyors and engineers of roads and bridges, by building
contractors and a few aspirants to the École Polytechnique. As to
the other courses, on literature, history, and the moral sciences, as
comprehended by the Republic and imposed by it, these obtain not over a
thousand auditors in all France; instead of 72,000 pupils, only 7000 or
8000 seek superior education, while six out of seven, instead of
seeking self-culture, simply prepare themselves for some practical
pursuit.[3170]
It is much worse with primary instruction. This task is given to the
local authorities. But, as they have no money, they generally shirk this
duty, and, if they do set up a school, are unable to maintain it.[3171]
On the other hand, as instruction must be laic and Jacobin, "almost
everywhere,"[3172] the teacher is an outcast layman, a fallen Jacobin,
some old, starving party member, unemployed, foul-mouthed and of
ill-repute. Families, naturally, refuse to trust their children with
him; even when honorable, they avoid him; and the reason is that, in
1800, Jacobin and scoundrel have become synonymous terms. Henceforth,
parents desire that their children should learn to read in the catechism
and not in the declaration of rights:[3173] as they view it, the old
manual formed polite and civilized youths and respectful sons; the
new one forms only insolent rascals and precocious, slovenly
blackguards.[3174] Consequently, the few primary schools in which the
Republic has placed its people and imposed its educational system remain
three-quarters empty; in vain does she close the doors of those in
which other masters teach with other books; fathers persist in their
repugnance and distaste; they prefer for their sons utter ignorance
to unsound instruction.[3175]--A secular establishment, created and
provided for by twenty generations of benefactors, gave gratis, or at
a much lower rate, the first crumbs of intellectual food to more
than 1,200,000 children.[3176] It was demolished; in its place, a few
improvised and wretched barracks distributed here and there a small
ration of moldy and indigestible bread. Thereupon, one long, low murmur,
a long time suppressed, breaks out and keeps on increasing, that of
parents whose children are condemned to go hungry; in any event, they
demand that their sons and daughters be no longer forced, under penalty
of fasting, to consume the patent flour of the State, that is to say
a nauseous, unsatisfactory, badly-kneaded, badly-baked paste which, on
trial, proves offensive to the palate and ruinous to the stomach.
VI. Religion
The Spirit and Ministrations of Catholicism.--How the
Revolution develops a sense of this.
Another plaint is heard, deeper and more universal, that of all souls
in which regret for their established church and forms of worship still
subsists or is revived.
In every religious system discipline and rites depend upon faith, for it
is faith alone which suggests or prescribes these; they are the outcome
and expansion of this; it attains its ends through these, and manifests
itself by them; they are the exterior of which it is the interior; thus,
let these be attacked and it is in distress; the living, palpitating
flesh suffers through the sensitive skin.--In Catholicism, this skin
is more sensitive than elsewhere, for it clings to the flesh, not alone
through ordinary adhesiveness, the effect of adaptation and custom,
but again through a special organic attachment, consisting of dogmatic
doctrine; theology, in its articles of belief, has here set up
the absolute necessity of the sacraments and of the priesthood;
consequently, between the superficial and central divisions of religion
the union is complete. The Catholic sacraments, therefore, are not
merely symbols; they possess in themselves "an efficacious power,
a sanctifying virtue." "That which they represent, they really work
out."[3177] If I am denied access to them, I am cut off from the
fountains to which my soul resorts to drink in grace, pardon, purity,
health and salvation. If my children cannot be regularly baptized, they
are not Christians; if extreme unction cannot be administered to my
dying mother, she sets out on the long journey without the viaticum; if
I am married by the mayor only, my wife and I live in concubinage; if
I cannot confess my sins, I am not absolved from them, and my burdened
conscience seeks in vain for the helping hand which will ease the too
heavy load; if I cannot perform my Easter duties, my spiritual life is a
failure; the supreme and sublime act by which it perfects itself through
the mystic union of my body and soul with the body, soul, and divinity
of Jesus Christ, is wanting.--Now, none of these sacraments are valid if
they have not been conferred by a priest, one who bears the stamp of
a superior, unique, ineffaceable character, through a final sacrament
consisting of ordination and which is conferred only on certain
conditions; among other conditions, it is essential that this priest
should have been ordained by a bishop; among other conditions, it is
essential that this bishop[3178] should have been installed by the Pope.
Consequently, without the Pope there are no bishops; without bishops
no priests; without priests no sacraments; without the sacraments no
salvation. The ecclesiastical institution is therefore indispensable
to the believer. The canonical priesthood, the canonical hierarchy is
necessary to him for the exercise of his faith.--He must have yet more,
if fervent and animated with true old Christian sentiment, ascetic and
mystic, which separates the soul from this world and ever maintains it
in the presence of God. Several things are requisite to this end:
* First, vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, that is to say, the
steady and voluntary repression of the most powerful animal instinct and
of the strongest worldly appetites;
* Next, unceasing prayer, especially prayer in common, where the emotion
of the prostrate soul increases through the emotion of the souls that
surround it; in the same degree, active piety, meaning by this the doing
of good works, education and charity, especially the accomplishment of
repulsive tasks, such as attending the sick, the infirm, the incurable,
idiots, maniacs and repentant prostitutes;
* Finally, the strict daily rule which, a sort of rigorous and minute
countersign, enjoining and compelling the repetition of the same acts
at the same hours, renders habit the auxiliary of will, adds mechanical
enthusiasm to a serious determination, and ends in making the task easy.
Hence, communities of men and of women, congregations and convents,
these likewise, the same as the sacraments, the priesthood and the
hierarchy, form a body along with belief and thus constitute the
inseparable organs of faith.
Before 1789, the ignorant or indifferent Catholic, the peasant at his
plow, the artisan at his work-bench, the good wife attending to her
household, were unconscious of this innermost suture. Thanks to the
Revolution, they have acquired the sentiment of it and even the physical
sensation. They had never asked themselves in what respect orthodoxy
differed from schism, nor how positive religion was opposed to natural
religion; it is the civil organization of the clergy which has led
them to distinguish the difference between the unsworn curé and the
interloper, between the right mass and the wrong mass; it is the
prohibition of the mass which has led them to comprehend its importance;
it is the revolutionary government which has transformed them into
theologians and canonists.[3179] Compelled, under the Reign of Terror,
to sing and dance before the goddess Reason, and next, in the temple of
the "Étre Supreme," subjected, under the Directory, to the new-fangled
republican calendar, and to the insipidity of the decade festivals,
they have measured, with their own eyes, the distance which separates
a present, personal, incarnate deity, redeemer and savior, from a deity
without form or substance, or, in any event, absent; a living, revealed,
and time-honored religion, and an abstract, manufactured, improvised
religion; their spontaneous worship, which is an act of faith, and a
worship imposed on them which is only frigid parade; their priest, in
a surplice, sworn to continence, delegated from on high to open out to
them the infinite perspectives of heaven or hell beyond the grave, and
the republican substitute, officiating in a municipal scarf, Peter or
Paul, a lay-man like themselves, more or less married and convivialist,
sent from Paris to preach a course of Jacobin morality.[3180]--Their
attachment to their clergy, to the entire body regular and secular, is
due to this contrast. Previously, they were not always well-disposed to
it; the peasantry, nowhere, were content to pay tithes, and the artisan,
as well as the peasant, regarded the idle, well-endowed, meditative
monks as but little more than so many fat drones. The man of the people
in France, by virtue of being a Gaul, has a dry, limited imagination;
he is not inclined to veneration, but is rather mocking, critical and
insubordinate at the powers above him, with a hereditary undertone of
distrust and envy at every man who wears a cloth suit and who eats and
drinks without doing manual labor.--At this time, his clergy do not
excite his envy, but his pity; monks and nuns, cure's and prelates,
roofless, without bread, imprisoned, transported, guillotined, or, at
best, fugitives, hunted down and more unfortunate than wild beasts--it
is he who, during the persecutions of the years II, IV and VI, harbors
them, conceals them, lodges them and feeds them. He sees them suffering
for their faith, which is his faith, and, before their constancy, equal
to that of the legendary martyrs, his indifference changes into respect
and next into zeal. From the year IV,[3181] the orthodox priests have
again recovered their place and ascendancy in his soul which the creed
assigns to them; they have again become his serviceable guides, his
accepted directors, the only warranted interpreters of Christian truth,
the only authorized dispensers and ministers of divine grace. He attends
their mass immediately on their return and will put up with no other.
Brutalized as he may be, or indifferent and dull, and his mind filled
with nothing but animal concerns, he needs them;[3182] he misses their
solemnities, the great festivals, the Sunday; and this privation is a
periodical want both for eyes and ears; he misses the ceremonial, the
lights, the chants, the ringing of the bells, the morning and evening
Angelus.--Thus, whether he knows it or not, his heart and senses are
Catholic[3183] and he demands the old church back again. Before the
Revolution, this church lived on its own revenues; 70,000 priests,
37,000 nuns, 23,000 monks, supported by endowments, cost the State
nothing, and scarcely anything to the tax-payer; at any rate, they cost
nothing to the actual, existing tax-payer not even the tithes, for,
established many centuries ago, the tithes were a tax on the soil, not
on the owner in possession, nor on the farmer who tilled the ground, who
has purchased or hired it with this tax deducted. In any case, the real
property of the Church belonged to it, without prejudice to anybody,
through the strongest legal and most legitimate of property titles,
the last will and testament of thousands of the dead, its founders and
benefactors. All is taken from it, even the houses of prayer which,
in their use, disposition and architecture, were, in the most manifest
manner, Christian works and ecclesiastical objects, 38,000 parsonages,
4000 convents, over 40,000 parochial churches, cathedrals and chapels.
Every morning, the man or woman of the people, in whom the need of
worship has revived, passes in front of one of these buildings robbed of
its cult; these declare aloud to them through their form and name what
they have been and what they should be to-day. This voice is heard
by incredulous philosophers and former Conventionalists;[3184] all
Catholics hear it, and out of thirty-five millions of Frenchmen,[3185]
thirty-two millions are Catholics.
VII. The Confiscated Property.
Reasons for the concordat.--Napoleon's economical
organization of the Church institution.--A good bargainer.
--Compromise with the old state of things.
How withstand such a just complaint, the universal complaint of the
destitute, of relatives, and of believers?--The fundamental difficulty
reappears, the nearly insurmountable dilemma into which the Revolution
has plunged every steady government, that is to say the lasting effect
of revolutionary confiscations and the conflict which sets two rights to
the same property against each other, the right of the despoiled owner
and the right of the owner in possession. This time, again the fault is
on the side of the State, which has converted itself from a policeman
into a brigand and violently appropriated to itself the fortune of the
hospitals, schools, and churches; the State must return this in money or
in kind. In kind, it is no longer able; everything has passed out of
its hands; it has alienated what it could, and now holds on only to the
leavings. In money, nothing more can be done; it is itself ruined,
has just become bankrupt, lives on expedients from day to day and has
neither funds nor credit. Nobody dreams of taking back property that is
sold; nothing is more opposed to the spirit of the new Régime: not only
would this be a robbery as before, since its buyers have paid for it and
got their receipts, but again, in disputing their title the government
would invalidate its own. For its authority is derived from the same
source as their property: it is established on the same principle as
their rights of possession and by virtue of the same accomplished facts
* because things are as they are and could not be different,
* because ten years of revolution and eight years of war bear down on
the present with too heavy a weight,
* because too many and too deep interests are involved and enlisted on
the same side,
* because the interests of twelve hundred thousand purchasers are
incorporated with those of the thirty thousand officers to whom
the Revolution has provided a rank, along with that of all the new
functionaries and dignitaries, including the First Consul himself, who,
in this universal transposition of fortunes and ranks, is the greatest
of parvenus and who must maintain the others if he wants to be
maintained by them.
Naturally, he protects everybody, through calculation as well as
sympathy, in the civil as in the military order of things, particularly
the new property-owners, especially the smaller and the average ones,
his best clients, attached to his reign and to his person through love
of property, the strongest passion of the ordinary man, and through love
of the soil, the strongest passion of the peasant.[3186] Their loyalty
depends on their security, and consequently he is lavish of guarantees.
In his constitution of the year VIII,[3187] he declares in the name
of the French nation that after a legally consummated sale of national
property, whatever its origin, the legitimate purchaser cannot be
divested of it." Through the institution of the Legion of Honor he
obliges each member "to swear, on his honor, to devote himself to the
conservation of property sanctioned by the laws of the republic."[3188]
According to the terms of the imperial constitution[3189] "he swears"
himself "to respect and to enforce respect for the irrevocability of the
sale of national possessions."
Unfortunately, a cannon-ball on the battle-field, an infernal machine
in the street, an illness at home, may carry off the guarantor and the
guarantees.[3190] On the other hand, confiscated goods preserve their
original taint. Rarely is the purchaser regarded favorably in his
commune; the bargain he has made excites envy; he is not alone in his
enjoyment of it, but the rest suffer from it. Formerly, this or that
field of which he reaps the produce, this or that domain of which he
enjoys the rental, once provided for the parsonage, the asylum and
the school; now the school, the asylum and the parsonage die through
inanition for his advantage; he fattens on their fasting. In his own
house, his wife and mother often look melancholy, especially during
Easter week; if he is old, or becomes ill, his conscience disturbs him;
this conscience, through habit and heredity, is Catholic: he craves
absolution at the last moment at the priest's hands, and says to himself
that, at the last moment, he may not probably be absolved.[3191] In
other respects, he would find it difficult to satisfy himself that
his legal property is legitimate property; for, not only is it not so
rightfully before the tribunal of conscience, but again it is not so
in fact on the market; the figures, in this particular, are convincing,
daily and notorious. A patrimonial domain which brings in 3000 francs
finds a purchaser at 100,000 francs; alongside of this a national domain
which brings in just as much, finds a purchaser only at 60,000 francs;
after several sales and resale, the depreciation continues and 40 % of
the value of the confiscated property is lost.[3192] A low, indistinct
murmur is heard, and reverberates from sale to sale, the muttering of
private probity protesting against public probity, declaring to the
new proprietor that his title is defective; it lacks one clause and a
capital one, that of the surrender and cession, the formal renunciation,
the authentic withdrawal of the former owner. The State, the first
seller, owes this voucher to the purchasers; let it procure this and
negotiate accordingly; let it apply for this to the rightful party, to
the owners whom it has dispossessed, to the immemorial and legitimate
authorities, I mean to the ancient corporations. These have been
dissolved by revolutionary law and have no longer a representative who
can sign for them. Nevertheless, in spite of revolutionary law, one of
these corporations, with more vitality than the rest, still subsists
with its proper, if not legal, representative, its regular and
undisputed chief. This chief is qualified and authorized to bind the
body; for, institutionally, he is supreme, and the conscience of all
its members is in his hand. His signature is of the highest value; it
is very important to obtain this, and the First Consul concludes the
Concordat with the Pope.
By this Concordat, the Pope "declares that neither himself nor his
successors shall in any manner disturb the purchasers of alienated
ecclesiastical property, and that the ownership of the said property,
the rights and revenues derived there from, shall consequently remain
in commutable in their hands or in those of their assigns."[3193]
Henceforth the possession of this property is no longer a sin; at
least, it is not condemned by the spiritual authority, by that external
conscience which, in Catholic countries, governs the inward conscience
and often supplies its place; the Church, the moral head, removes with
its own hands the moral scruple, the last small stone, troublesome
and dangerous, which, lying underneath the cornerstone of lay society,
breaks the level of the entire structure and compromises the equilibrium
of the new government.--In exchange, the State endows the Church. By
the same Concordat, and by the decrees which follow it, "the
government[3194] ensures a suitable salary to bishops and cure's,"
15,000 francs to each archbishop, 10,000 francs to each bishop, 1500
francs to each curé of the first class and 1000 francs to each curé of
the second class,[3195] also, later on,[3196] a maximum of 500 francs
and a minimum of 300 francs to each assistant-priest or vicar. "If
circumstances require it,[3197] the conseils-généraux of the large
communes may grant to prelates or to curés an increase of salary out of
their rural possessions or octrois." In all cases, archbishops, bishops,
curés and priests shall be lodged, or receive a lodging indemnity. So
much for the support of persons.-As to real property,[3198] "all the
metropolitan churches, cathedrals, parochial buildings and others, not
alienated, and needed for the purposes of worship, shall be subject to
the disposition of the bishops."--The parsonages and gardens attached
to these, not alienated, shall be given up to the curés and
assistant-priests."--"The possessions of the fabriques,[3199] not
alienated, as well as the rentals they enjoyed, and which have not been
transferred, shall be restored to their original purpose.--As to the
outlay and expenditure for worship,[31100] for the parochial center or
cathedral, if its revenue is not sufficient, this shall receive aid
from its commune or from its department; besides, "an assessment of 10
%.[31101] shall be laid on the revenues of all the real estate of
the communes, such as houses, woods, and rural possessions, for the
formation of a common fund of subsidy," a general sum with which to
provide for "acquisitions, reconstructions or repairs of churches,...
seminaries and parsonages." Moreover,[31102] the government allows
"the French Catholics to make endowments, if so disposed, in favor of
churches.. . for the support of ministers and the exercise of worship,"
that is to say to bequeath or make gifts to the fabriques or
seminaries; in fine, it exempts seminarists, the future cure's, from the
conscription.
It also exempts the "Ignorantins," or brethren of the Christian schools,
who are the instructors of the common people. With respect to these and
in relation to every other Catholic institution, it follows the same
utilitarian principle, the fundamental maxim of laic and practical good
sense: when religious vocations make their appearance and serve the
public, it welcomes and makes use of them; it grants them facilities,
dispensations and favors, its protection, its donations, or at least
its tolerance. Not only does it turn their zeal to account, but it
authorizes their association.[31103] Numerous societies of men or of
women again spring up with the assent of the public authorities--the
"Ignorantins," the "Filles de la Charité," the "Seurs Hospitalières,"
the "Sæurs de Saint-Thomas," the "Sæurs de Saint-Charles," the "Sæurs
Vatelottes." The Council of State accepts and approves of their
statutes, vows, hierarchy, and internal regulations. They again
become proprietors; they may accept donations and legacies. The
State frequently makes presents to them. In 1808,[31104] thirty-one
communities of Sisters of Charity, and mostly educational, thus obtain
the buildings and furniture they ask for, in full possession and
gratuitously. The State, also, frequently supports them;[31105] it
repeatedly decides that in this asylum, or in that school, the "sisters"
designated by the ancient foundation shall resume their work and be
paid out of the income of the asylum or school. Better still, and
notwithstanding threatening decrees,[31106] Napoleon, between 1804 and
1814, allows fifty-four communities to arise and exist, outside of the
congregations authorized by him, which do not submit their statutes to
him and which dispense with his permission to exist; he lets them live
and does not disturb them; he judges[31107] "that there is every sort
of character and imagination, that eccentricities even should not be
repressed when they do no harm," that, for certain people, an ascetic
life in common is the only refuge; if that is all they desire they
should not be disturbed, and it is easy to feign ignorance of them; but
let them remain quiet and be sufficient unto themselves!--Such is the
new growth of the regular clergy alongside of the secular clergy, the
two main branches of the Catholic trunk. Owing to the help, or to the
authorization, or to the connivance of the State, inside or outside of
its limitations, both clerical bodies, legally or in reality, recover a
civil existence, and thus obtain, or at least nearly so, their physical
maintenance.[31108]
And nothing more. Nobody, better than Napoleon, knows how to make a good
bargain, that is to say, to give a little in order to gain a great
deal. In this treaty with the Church he tightens his purse-strings and
especially avoids parting with his ready money. Six hundred and fifty
thousand francs for fifty bishops and ten archbishops, a little more
than four million francs for the three or four thousand cantonal curés,
in all five million francs per annum, is all that the State promises to
the new clergy. Later on,[31109] he takes it on himself to pay those
who officiate in the branch chapels; nevertheless, in 1807, the entire
appropriation for public worship costs the State only twelve million
francs a year;[31110] the rest, as a rule, and especially the salaries
of the forty thousand assistant-priests and vicars, must be provided
by the fabriques and the communes.[31111] Let the clergy benefit by
occasional contributions;[31112] let it appeal to the piety of believers
for its monstrances, chalices, albs and chasubles, for decorations
and the other expenses of worship; they are not prohibited from being
liberal to it, not only during the services, on making collections, but
in their houses, within closed doors, from hand to hand. Moreover,
they have the right of making gifts or bequests before a notary, of
establishing foundations in favor of seminaries and churches; the
foundation, after verification and approval by the Council of State,
becomes operative; only,[31113] it must consist of state securities,
because, in this shape, it helps maintain their value and the credit of
the government; in no case must it be composed of real estate;[31114]
should the clergy become land-owners it would enjoy too much local
influence. No bishop, no curé must feel himself independent; he must be
and always remain a mere functionary, a hired workman for whom the
State provides work in a shop with a roof overhead, a suitable and
indispensable atelier, in other words, the house of prayer well known in
each parish as "one of the edifices formerly assigned to worship."
This edifice is not restored to the Christian community, nor to
its representatives; it is simply "placed at the disposition of the
bishop."[31115] The State retains the ownership of it, or transfers this
to the communes; it concedes to the clergy merely the right of using
it, and, in that, loses but little. Parish and cathedral churches in its
hands are, for the most part, dead capital, nearly useless and almost
valueless; through their structure, they are not fitted for civil
offices; it does not know what to do with them except to make barns of
them; if it sells them it is to demolishers for their value as building
material, and then at great scandal. Among the parsonages and
gardens that have been surrendered, several have become communal
property,[31116] and, in this case, it is not the State which loses its
title but the commune which is deprived of its investment. In short, in
the matter of available real estate, land or buildings, from which the
State might derive a rent, that which it sets off from its domain and
hands over to the clergy is of very little account. As to military
service, it makes no greater concessions. Neither the Concordat nor
the organic articles stipulate any exemption for the clergy; the
dispensation granted is simply a favor; this is provisional for the
seminarians and only becomes permanent under ordination; now, the
government fixes the number of the ordained, and it keeps this down as
much as possible;[31117] for the diocese of Grenoble, it allows only
eight in seven years.[31118] In this way, it not only saves conscripts,
but again, for lack of young priests, it forces the bishops to appoint
old priests, even constitutionalists, nearly all pensioners on the
treasury, and which either relieves the treasury of a pension or
the commune of a subsidy.[31119]--Thus, in the reconstruction of the
ecclesiastical fortune the State spares itself and the portion it
contributes remains very small: it furnishes scarcely more than
the plan, a few corner and foundation stones and the permission
or injunction to build; the rest concerns the communes and private
individuals. They must exert themselves, continue and complete it, by
order or spontaneously and under its permanent direction.
VIII. Public Education.
State appropriations very small.--Toleration of educational
institutions.--The interest of the public in them invited.
--The University.--Its monopoly.--Practically, his
restrictions and conditions are effective.--Satisfaction
given to the first group of requirements.
Invariably the government proceeds in the same manner with the
reorganization of the other two collective fortunes.--As regards the
charitable institutions, under the Directory, the asylums and hospitals
had their unsold property restored to them, and in the place of what had
been sold they were promised national property of equal value.[31120]
But this was a complicated operation; things had dragged along in the
universal disorder and, to carry it out, the First Consul reduced and
simplified it. He at once sets aside a portion of the national domain,
several distinct morsels in each district or department, amounting
in all to four millions of annual income derived from productive
real-estate,[31121] which he distributes among the asylums, pro rata,
according to their losses. He assigns to them, moreover, all the rents,
in money or in kind, due for foundations to parishes, curés, fabriques
and corporations; finally, "he applies to their wants" various
outstanding claims, all national domains which have been usurped by
individuals or communes and which may be subsequently recovered, "all
rentals be-longing to the Republic, the recognition and payment of which
have been interrupted."[31122] In short, he rummages every corner and
picks out the scraps which may help them along; then, resuming and
extending another undertaking of the Directory, he assigns to them,
not merely in Paris, but in many other towns, a portion of the product
derived from theatres and octrois.[31123]--Having thus increased their
income, he applies himself to diminishing their expenses. On the one
hand, he gives them back their special servants, those who cost the
least and work the best, I mean the Sisters of Charity. On the other
hand, he binds them down rigidly to exact accounts; he subjects them
to strict supervision; he selects for them competent and suitable
administrators; he stops, here as everywhere else, waste and peculation.
Henceforth, the public reservoir to which the poor come to quench their
thirst is repaired and cleaned; the water remains pure and no longer
oozes out; private charity may therefore pour into it its fresh streams
with full security; on this side, they flow in naturally, and, at this
moment, with more force than usual, for, in the reservoir, half-emptied
by revolutionary confiscations, the level is always low.
There remain the institutions for instruction. With respect to these,
the restoration seems more difficult, for their ancient endowment is
almost entirely wasted; the government has nothing to give back but
dilapidated buildings, a few scattered investments formerly intended
for the maintenance of a college scholarship,[31124] or for a village
schoolhouse. And to whom should these be returned since the college and
the schoolhouse no longer exist?--Fortunately, instruction is an article
of such necessity that a father almost always tries to procure it for
his children; even if poor, he is willing to pay for it, if not too
dear; only, he wants that which pleases him in kind and in quality and,
therefore, from a particular source, bearing this or that factory stamp
or label. If you want him to buy it do not drive the purveyors of it
from the market who enjoy his confidence and who sell it cheaply; on the
contrary, welcome them and allow them to display their wares. This is
the first step, an act of toleration; the conseils-généraux demand
it and the government yields.[31125] It permits the return of the
Ignorantin brethren, allows them to teach and authorizes the towns to
employ them; later on, it graduates them at its University: in 1810,
they already possess 41 schoolhouses and 8400 pupils.[31126] Still more
liberally, it authorizes and favors female educational congregations;
down to the end of the empire and afterwards, nuns are about the only
instructors of young girls, especially in primary education.--Owing to
the same toleration, the upper schools are likewise reorganized, and
not less spontaneously, through the initiative of private individuals,
communes, bishops, colleges or pensionnats, at Reims, Fontainebleau,
Metz, Évreux, Sorrèze, Juilly, La Fléche and elsewhere small seminaries
in all the dioceses. Offer and demand have come together; instructors
meet the children half-way, and education begins on all sides.[31127]
Thought can now be given to its endowment, and the State invites
everybody, the communes as well as private persons, to the undertaking.
It is on their liberality that it relies for replacing the ancient
foundations; it solicits gifts and legacies in favor of new
establishments, and it promises "to surround these donations with the
most invariable respect."[31128] Meanwhile, and as a precautionary
measure, it assigns to each its eventual duty;[31129] if the commune
establishes a primary school for itself, it must provide the tutor with
a lodging and the parents must compensate him; if the commune founds a
college or accepts a lycée, it must pay for the annual support of the
building,[31130] while the pupils, either day-scholars or boarders, pay
accordingly. In this way, the heavy expenses are already met, and the
State, the general-manager of the service, furnishes simply a very small
quota; and this quota, mediocre as a rule, is found almost null in fact,
for its main largess consists in 6400 scholarships which it establishes
and engages to support; but it confers only about 3000 of them,[31131]
and it distributes nearly all of these among the children of its
military or civilian employees This way a son's scholarship becomes
additional pay or an increased salary for the father; thus, the 2
millions which the State seems, under this head, to assign to the lycées
are actually gratifications which it distributes among its functionaries
and officials: it takes back with one hand what it be-stows with the
other.--Having put this in place, it establishes the University. It is
not at its own expense, however, but at the expense of others, at the
expense of private persons and parents, of the communes, and above all
at the expense of rival schools and private boarding-schools, of the
free institutions, and all this in favor of the University monopoly
which subjects these to special taxation as ingenious as it is
multifarious.[31132] A private individual obtaining diploma to open on
a boarding school must pay from 200 to 300 francs to the University;
likewise, every person obtaining a diploma to open an institution shall
pay from 400 to 600 francs to the University; likewise every person
obtaining permission to lecture on law or medicine.[31133] Every
student, boarder, half-boarder or day-scholar in any school,
institution, seminary, college or lycée, must pay to the University
one-twentieth of the sum which the establishment to which he belongs
demands of each of its pupils. In the higher schools, in the faculties
of law, medicine, science and literature, the students pay entrance and
examination fees and for diplomas, so that the day comes when superior
instruction provides for its expenditures out of its receipts and even
shows on its budget a net surplus of profit. The new University, with
its expenses thus defrayed, will support itself alone; accordingly, all
that the State really grants to it, as a veritable gift, in ready cash,
is 400,000 francs annual income on the public ledger, a little less than
the donation of one single college, Louis-le-Grand, in 1789.[31134]
It may even be said that it is exactly the fortune of the old college
which, after being made use of in many ways, turned aside and with other
mischance, becomes the patrimony of the new University.[31135] From
high-school to University, the State has effected the transfer. Such is
its generosity. This is especially apparent in connection with primary
instruction; in 1812, for the first time, it allows 25,000 francs for
this purpose, of which only 4,500 are received.[31136]
Such is the final liquidation of the great collective fortunes. A
settlement of accounts, an express or tacit bargain, intervenes between
the State and all institutions for instruction, worship and charity. It
has taken from the poor, from the young and from believers, 5 milliards
of capital and 270 millions of revenue;[31137] it gives back to them, in
public income and treasury interest, about 17 millions per annum. As it
has the might and makes the law it has no difficulty in obtaining or in
giving itself its own discharge; it is a bankrupt who, having spent his
creditors money, bestows on these 6%. of their claim by way of alms.
Naturally, it takes the opportunity to bring them under its strict and
permanent dependence, in adding other claims to those with which the
old monarchy had already burdened the corporations that administered
collective fortunes. Napoleon increases the weight of these chains and
screws them tighter. Not only does he take it upon himself to impose
order, probity, and economy on the administrators, but, again, he
appoints them, dismisses them, and prescribes or authorizes each of
their acts. He puts words in their mouths; he wants to be the great
bishop, the universal genius, the sole tutor and professor, in short,
the dictator of opinion, the creator and director of every political,
social and moral idea throughout his empire.--With what rigidity and
pertinacious intent, with what variety and convergence of means, with
what plenitude and certainty of execution, with what detriment and with
what danger, present and to come, for corporations, for the public, for
the State, for himself, we shall see presently; he himself, living and
reigning, is to realize this. For his interference, pushed to extremes,
is to end in encountering resistance in a body which he considers as
his own creature, the Church: here, forgetting that she has roots of her
own, deep down and out of his reach, he carries off the Pope, holds
him captive, sends cardinals into the interior, (Page 198/504)imprisons
bishops, banishes priests, and incorporates seminarians in his
regiments.[31138] He decrees the closing of all small seminaries,[31139]
alienates forever the Catholic clergy like the royalist nobility,
precisely at the same moment and through the same absolutism, through
the same abuse of power, through the same recurrence to revolutionary
tradition, to Jacobin infatuation and brutality, even to the frustration
of his Concordat of 1802 as with his amnesty of 1802, even to
compromising his capital work of the attempted reconciliation and
reunion of old France with the new France. His work, nevertheless,
although incomplete, even interrupted and marred by himself, remains
substantial and salutary. The three grand machines which the Revolution
had demolished with so little foresight, and which he had reconstructed
at so little cost, are in working order, and, with deviations or
shortcomings in result, they render to the public the required services,
each its own, worship, charity and instruction. Full toleration and
legal protection to the three leading Christian cults, and even to
Judaism, would of itself already satisfy the most sensitive of religious
demands; owing to the donation furnished by the State and communes and
by private individuals, the necessary complement is not wanting.
The Catholic community, in particular, the most numerous of all,
exercises and celebrates its system of worship in conformity with
its faith, according to ecclesiastical canons under its own orthodox
hierarchy; in each parish, or within reach of each parish, dwells one
authorized priest who administers valid sacraments; in his stole he says
mass publicly in a consecrated edifice, plainly decorated at first but
gradually beautified; not less publicly, various congregations of monks
and nuns, the former in black robes and the "sisters in wimples and
white caps, serve in the schools and asylums.