1799–1804
Constitution of the Year VIII.—The Consulate—The Council of
State—The Tribunate—The Legislative Body—The Senate—Internal
Policy of the Consulate—General Reconciliation—The
Code Civil—Ministers of the Consulate—Foreign Policy
of the Consulate—Russia—Prussia—The Pope—Campaign of
Marengo—Campaign of Hohenlinden—Winter Campaign of Moreau
and Macdonald—The Treaty of Lunéville—Arrangements in
Italy—Policy and Murder of the Emperor Paul of Russia—The
Neutral League of the North—Battle of Copenhagen—War
between Spain and Portugal—Treaty of Badajoz—Campaign
of 1801 in Egypt—Peace of Amiens between England and
France—Reconstitution of Germany—Secularisation of
the German ecclesiastical dominions—Reconstitution of
Switzerland—Concordat between the Pope and Bonaparte—Internal
Organisation of France under the Consulate—The new
Departments—Annexation of Piedmont—The Préfectures—System of
National Education—Constitutional Changes in France—Bonaparte
First Consul for life—Recommencement of War between
England and France—Causes—Position of Affairs on the
Continent—Plot of Pichegru and Cadoudal—Execution of the Duc
d’Enghien—Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French—Francis II.
resigns the title of Holy Roman Emperor for that of Emperor
of Austria.
[Sidenote: The Constitution of the Year VIII.]
The revolution of the 18th of Brumaire had placed supreme power in the
hands of Bonaparte; that power was speedily legalised and defined in
the Constitution of the Year VIII. The chief political problem was once
more how to regulate the relation between the legislative and executive
authorities. The Constitution of 1791, and still more that of 1793, had
entirely subordinated the executive to the legislative authority; the
Constitution of the Year III. (1795) had endeavoured to co-ordinate
them; the Constitution of the Year VIII. (1799) entirely subordinated
the legislative to the executive. It fell once more to Sieyès, one
of the principal authors of the Constitutions of 1791 and 1795, as
Second Provisional Consul, to define the new arrangements. His attempt
at co-ordinating the two powers in the State in 1795 had failed in its
operation: as was inevitable, the two authorities declined to preserve
their legal relations to each other. On the 18th of Fructidor, Year V.
(4th September 1797), the executive in the form of the Directory had
usurped and partially destroyed the power of the Legislature, and on
the 30th of Prairial, Year VII. (18th of June 1799) the Legislature had
acted in the same way towards the executive. By the Constitution of the
Year VIII., therefore, the executive power was frankly acknowledged to
be supreme. In its details it was entirely the work of Sieyès, though
his main idea—the appointment of a Grand Elector who should nominate
to fill all offices, but should exercise no power—was rejected by
Bonaparte. The new Constitution was soon ready; it was submitted to the
primary assemblies of the people on the 14th December 1799, and was
accepted by them by 3,011,107 votes against 1567, and was officially
proclaimed on the 24th of December.
[Sidenote: The Consulate.]
The key-stone of the new Constitution was the Consulate. There were
to be three Consuls nominated for ten years, but these officials
were not to be equal in authority, as had been the case with the
Directors. On the contrary, the First Consul was to be perpetual
president and perpetual representative of the governing triumvirate.
All administrative power was placed in his hands, and the Second and
Third Consuls were little more than his chief assistants. The Consuls
acting together nominated the Ministers, and also the Council of State,
which was intended to be at the same time an administrative tribunal of
appeal, and the originating source in matters of legislation.
[Sidenote: The Legislature.]
In the work of legislation the Council of State was supplemented by the
Tribunate and the Legislative Body. All laws prepared by the Council
of State were first submitted to the Tribunate, which was composed
of one hundred members. The Tribunate could neither reject nor amend
a law, but decided whether to support or oppose the project before
the Legislative Body. The Legislative Body consisted of three hundred
deputies chosen by certain electoral assemblies formed by a complicated
scheme out of the taxpayers of the departments. By this scheme, after
three series of elections, what was termed a ‘National List’ was drawn
up. From this national list the Senate chose the members both of the
Legislative Body and the Tribunate. The Legislative Body alone voted
the taxes. In legislative matters it played the part of a national
jury, listening to the arguments for or against brought forward by
the Tribunate on every project prepared by the Council of State, and
deciding in every case without discussion. The Legislative Body alone
could give a project of the Council of State the character of a law.
The Senate was composed of eighty members nominated for life by the
Consuls. Its duties were to choose the members of the Tribunate and
Legislative Body from the National List, and to decide whether any
law or measure of the government was contrary to the Constitution. If
it decided that such law or measure was unconstitutional it had the
authority to annul it.
[Sidenote: Internal Policy of the Consulate.]
[Sidenote: The Code Napoléon.]
The Consulate was composed of Bonaparte as First Consul, with
Cambacérès and Le Brun, both famous jurists, as his associates. Their
policy was one of general reconciliation. The individuals deported
after the revolution of the 18th of Fructidor were allowed to return
to France if they had not, like Pichegru, become declared royalists.
They were even taken into favour; while Carnot was appointed Minister
of War, Portalis and Barbé-Marbois were nominated to the Council of
State. The lists of emigration were closed; no longer could persons be
declared to have emigrated on mere suspicion, and the First Consul, as
an administrative measure, annulled the decrees excluding relations of
_émigrés_ and former nobles from filling executive offices. More than
150,000 _émigrés_ were also allowed to return, mostly priests, who were
no longer regarded as rebels, and who, whether they had taken the oath
to observe the Civil Constitution of the Clergy or not, were allowed
to resume their sacred functions on simply promising to obey the new
Constitution of the State. The Consulate did even more than this for
the cause of religion; many churches which had been appropriated
for civil purposes were restored to their original uses. Brigandage
was sternly put down, and Bonaparte, at last, pacified La Vendée by
negotiating a treaty of amnesty with the remaining Vendéan leaders at
Montluçon, on the 17th of January 1800. A special effort was made to
put the finances in order, and Gaudin, who held office as Minister of
the Finances throughout the Consulate and the Empire, first proved
his extraordinary powers. His financial reforms may be roughly summed
up by the mention of his two most important measures. The decrees of
the Directory in favour of forced loans from the rich, which had been
arbitrarily and unfairly carried out, were abrogated and replaced by
a general income tax of twenty-five per cent. This established some
justice in the collection, which partly compensated for the heaviness
of the tax. The second measure was the appointment of receivers-general
of taxes in every department. These men had to give heavy security, and
were allowed a fair measure of profit in the form of a percentage on
what they collected. They were strictly supervised, and the scandalous
dilapidations which had signalised the period of the Directory were
made impossible for the future. Further, in order to secure the support
of the capitalists, the Bank of France was founded under the guarantee
of the State. Finally, the First Consul decided to carry into effect
the projects of the legal reformers of the Constituent Assembly and the
Convention. Their labours had made possible the formation of a uniform
code of law for France. Bonaparte appointed a Commission, consisting of
Tronchet, Portalis, and Bigot de Préameneu, to examine the labours of
their predecessors, and with their help to draw up the admirable civil
code, which was afterwards known as the Code Napoléon.
[Sidenote: The Ministry.]
In no respect was the administrative ability of the Consuls better
manifested than in the selection they made of their ministers. It has
already been noticed that Gaudin, the greatest financier of France, was
appointed Minister of the Finances. Talleyrand and Fouché once more
took possession of the portfolios of Foreign Affairs and of Police,
which they held for many years. Their first Minister of the Marine,
Forfait, did not remain long in office, but his successor, Decrès,
held that post from 1801 till 1814. The same may be said with regard
to the Ministry of Justice. Abrial, the first occupant of this post,
gave way to Regnier in 1802, but he likewise remained in office till
1814. The Ministries of War and of the Interior were more difficult to
fill; Carnot soon resented the tone of Bonaparte, and was succeeded
by Berthier, afterwards Prince of Neufchâtel, who had been Chief of
the Staff to Bonaparte in Italy. La Place, the great astronomer, had
been appointed Minister of the Interior by the Provisional Government
in November 1799. He did not show himself very efficient, and was
succeeded by Lucien Bonaparte, the First Consul’s ablest brother, in
the following month. He too failed to carry out the wishes of the
Consuls, and was succeeded in 1800 by one of the most distinguished
administrators of the period, Chaptal.
[Sidenote: The External Policy of the Consulate.]
Of foreign affairs Bonaparte, as First Consul, assumed the entire
management; in internal matters he laid down the main principles
indeed, but he allowed his colleagues some share in the government.
He found France once more at war, as she had been before the Treaty
of Campo-Formio, with Austria and England. But another redoubtable
enemy had been added in Russia. Fortunately for France, for reasons
which have already been indicated, the Emperor Paul was profoundly
dissatisfied with his allies. From an unreasoning hatred for France,
the Russian Emperor had now altered his sentiments to one of profound
admiration for the person of the First Consul. Bonaparte was soon
notified of this disposition at the Court of St. Petersburg. He sent
his most intimate friend, Duroc, on a special mission to Russia, and
the idea was already suggested that Russia and France ought to be the
arbiters of Europe. He offered to recognise Paul not only as Grand
Master of the Knights of Malta, but as the sovereign of that island,
and promised in every way to forward Russian interests. In return,
Paul, with his usual exaggeration, declared Bonaparte to be his
dearest friend, surrounded himself with his portraits, drank publicly
to his health, and ordered Louis XVIII. to leave Mittau. The Russian
ambassador in Paris, Kolichev, on behalf of his master, proposed that
Bonaparte should take the title of King of France, and make the crown
hereditary in his family. Next in importance to the commencement of
good relations with Russia, was the First Consul’s effort to make the
King of Prussia his declared ally. For this purpose he sent Duroc also
to Berlin. But Frederick William III. was a different type of monarch
from the Emperor Paul; he could not so readily alter his policy.
Personally, he too admired the First Consul, and regarded him as the
restorer of order and as a monarch in embryo; but, in spite of his
admiration, he refused to comply with the wishes of Bonaparte, as he
had rejected the propositions of the Directory, and insisted on the
maintenance of his consistent attitude of strict neutrality. The last
point to be noticed in the foreign policy of Bonaparte was his attitude
towards the Pope. He not only allowed the body of Pope Pius VI. to be
removed from Valence to be buried at Rome, but he recognised the new
Pope, Pius VII., although he had been elected at Venice under Austrian
influence: he even offered to restore him to his temporal dominion at
Rome, and promised to enter into negotiations with him with regard to
the re-establishment of the Catholic Church in France.
[Sidenote: The Campaign of Marengo. 1800.]
With the two great enemies of France, Austria and England, the First
Consul had no desire to treat. Though unable to strike at England,
owing to the weakness of the French navy, he could yet attack the
Austrians in two quarters. Two powerful armies were prepared, the
one the Army of the Danube, which was placed under the command of
Moreau, and the other the Army of the Interior, soon to become famous
as the Second Army of Italy. Of all the conquests in Italy made by
the French in 1796 and 1797, only Genoa remained in their possession.
Masséna, fresh from his victories in Switzerland, had taken command of
the besieged army. His defence is one of the most famous in history,
and does no less honour to the general than his victory at Zurich.
Bonaparte desired to relieve Genoa; and he resolved not to advance
along the coast, as he had done in 1796, but by crossing the Alps, and
descending upon Piedmont, to cut off the Austrian army occupying that
province.
In the month of May Bonaparte crossed the Great Saint Bernard Pass at
the head of 40,000 men, and fell at once on the Austrian flank. He was
too late to relieve Genoa, which surrendered on the 4th of June, when
but few of the soldiers were still able to stand, but he was in time to
close the retreat of the Austrians upon Lombardy. On the 9th June 1800
General Lannes defeated the Austrian advanced guard at Montebello, and
Bonaparte then barred the road from Alessandria to Piacenza. General
Melas, though not yet joined by the troops which had taken Genoa,
had a larger army than Bonaparte; on June 14 he forced his way out
of Alessandria, and drove back the French columns which occupied the
village of Marengo. The battle was practically lost by the French, when
Desaix, who had been detached to the left with 6000 men, fell upon
the Austrian flank. Desaix was killed, but the vigour of his attack
practically cut the Austrian army in two. The dragoons of Kellermann
completed the victory, and General Melas signed the Convention of
Alessandria, by which he surrendered Genoa, Piedmont, and the Milanese
to the French, and promised to withdraw the Austrian garrisons from all
cities to the west of the Mincio. Bonaparte then attended a _Te Deum_
sung in honour of his victory in the cathedral of Milan, and returned
to Paris, leaving the Army of Grisons, under the command of General
Macdonald, to follow up the Austrians.
[Sidenote: Campaign of Hohenlinden.]
While Bonaparte was winning the battle of Marengo, and reconquering
Italy by a single blow, Moreau was again face to face with his old
opponent, the Archduke Charles. The French advance was very slow.
Fierce battles were fought at Engen, Mœskirchen, and Biberach in May
1800, and by the close of the summer Moreau had his headquarters at
Augsburg, and his advanced guard at Munich. The slowness of Moreau’s
progress dissatisfied the First Consul, as did the want of success
of the Archduke Charles dissatisfy the court of Vienna. Augereau was
sent with 20,000 men to the assistance of Moreau, who was ordered, in
spite of the severity of the winter, to continue his advance; and the
Archduke John was appointed to succeed his brother, and ordered to take
the offensive. The crowning event of this winter campaign was the great
victory of Hohenlinden, which was won by Moreau on the 3d of December
1800. The Austrians lost the whole of their baggage and artillery and
12,000 prisoners.
[Sidenote: The Winter Campaign of 1800.]
The First Consul from Paris ordered Moreau and Macdonald to advance
into the home districts of the House of Austria. Moreau accordingly
pushed along the Inn, the Salz, the Traun, and the Ens, driving the
disorganised and discouraged Austrians before him until he was within
twenty leagues of Vienna. Macdonald, at the same time, crossed the
Splügen Pass in spite of the avalanches, and penetrated into the
Tyrol, thus turning the Austrian forces on the Mincio and the Adige.
On arriving at Trent, Macdonald turned to the right and was joined by
Brune, who had occupied the territory of Venice, and the united French
army marched upon Vienna. Under these circumstances, with Italy lost,
and Vienna threatened from two quarters, the Emperor Francis sued for
peace, which was concluded at Lunéville on the 9th of February 1801.
[Sidenote: The Treaty of Lunéville. Feb. 9, 1801.]
The Treaty of Lunéville was more important from its destruction of the
old Holy Roman Empire than as the treaty of peace between France and
Austria. From the latter point of view the Emperor Francis once more,
as in the Treaty of Campo-Formio, recognised the Rhine as the limit
of France. In Italy the Cisalpine Republic was once more constituted
with the Adige as its frontier, Modena was to be compensated with the
Breisgau, and Venice was again left to the House of Austria. Tuscany
was taken from its Austrian Grand Duke, and erected into a kingdom of
Etruria in favour of the Prince of Parma, a relative of the King of
Spain, and Piedmont was annexed to France; but the King of the Two
Sicilies was allowed to retain his dominions, and the Pope was restored
to all his possessions except the Legations of Bologna and Ferrara.
The Cisalpine Republic was reorganised, and granted a Constitution on
the model of that of the Year VIII., in which Bonaparte was appointed
First Consul. The Ligurian Republic was maintained, with the alteration
that its Doge was nominated by France instead of being elected. The
result of the new arrangements in Northern Italy was that both France
and Austria had a foothold by their occupation of Piedmont and Venice,
with the Cisalpine Republic as a buffer between them. The principle
of secularising the German bishoprics was also again recognised in
the Treaty of Lunéville, and the actual manner in which it should be
carried out was referred to a special commission, whose conclusions
were not adopted till 1803. The principal result of the treaty in
Austria was the retirement of the minister Thugut, who was succeeded
as State Chancellor by Count Louis Cobenzl, the diplomatist, who had
negotiated the treaties both of Campo-Formio and of Lunéville.
[Sidenote: Murder of the Emperor Paul. 23d March 1801.]
The admiration of the Emperor Paul for Bonaparte increased daily, and
it was the Russian Czar, not the French First Consul, who proposed an
invasion of India across Asia, in order to strike a blow at the English
power in the East. Indeed, the English had taken the place of the
French in the mind of Paul, who, not satisfied with forming once again
the Neutral League of the North, determined to send his best troops
against them. The Emperor’s proposition was that one expedition should
consist of 35,000 Frenchmen and 35,000 Russians, under the command of
Masséna. This column was to go down the Danube, and then up the Don to
a point whence it would be but a short march to the Volga. It was then
to proceed down the Volga to Astrakhan, thence across the Caspian Sea
to Astrabad, and then to march by Herat and Kandahar to the Punjab.
Another column was to move by Khiva and Bokhara, and to invade India
by the north of Afghanistan. These grandiose plans were not entirely
accepted by Bonaparte, and the death of the Emperor prevented an
attempt being made to see if they were practicable. The madness of Paul
had steadily increased during his short reign. His nobility disapproved
heartily of his war policy, both against France and later against
England; his adoption of the Neutral League and its policy had done
much to ruin the wealthy nobles of Northern Russia by forbidding the
exportation of Russian commodities on English ships. To the discontent
of the nobility, of the politicians, and of the capitalists must be
added the fears of the courtiers. Even the heir to the throne, his
eldest son Alexander, perceived that the rule of the maniac could not
be borne much longer. It is hardly necessary to particularise all the
causes of his unpopularity; it is enough to say that his behaviour
was that of a madman. Certain courtiers, of whom the leaders were
Count Pahlen, a Livonian nobleman; Benningsen, a Hanoverian general;
Plato Zubov, the last favourite of the Empress Catherine, and his
brother Nicholas, and the Prince Jachvill, determined to put an end
to the tyranny of the Czar. In the night of the 23d of March 1801
he was attacked by these conspirators and ordered to sign an act of
abdication; he refused; the lamp went out, and the Emperor was struck
down and strangled by an unknown hand among his assailants.
[Sidenote: The Neutral League of the North. 1800–1.]
When Bonaparte first entered office he recognised that England was
a more formidable, because a less approachable, enemy than Austria.
Knowing that the French navy was unable to meet the English, he hoped
to counterbalance the maritime preponderance of England by a league
against her commerce. Owing to the long period of war, nothing was to
be gained by solemn decrees forbidding the importation of goods into
France, it was necessary to strike through the neutral nations. The
three great commercial seats of English trade were the Levant, the
Baltic, and Portugal. The failure of the expedition to Egypt proved
that it was impossible to destroy the English trade in the Levant, and
Bonaparte therefore resolved to strike in the other two directions.
Acting mainly through the Emperor Paul, the Armed Neutrality of the
North, or the Neutral League of 1780, was re-established between
the Baltic powers of Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark. The real
intention of Paul and of Bonaparte was to exclude English commerce
entirely from the Baltic; but for the second time the Baltic powers
nominally made themselves the guarantors of the rights of neutrals.
They protested against the right assumed by England to search neutral
ships, and to confiscate as contraband of war all the goods of
belligerent powers found in them, and also against the prohibition
against neutral ships trading between different enemies’ ports. The
Emperor Paul, like the Empress Catherine twenty years before, made
himself the patron of the Neutral League.
[Sidenote: Battle of Copenhagen. 2d April 1801.]
The English government naturally refused to accede to the demands of
the Neutral League, and when the Baltic was closed to them an English
fleet was ordered to force the blockade. This fleet was placed under
the command of Sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson as second in command. On
the 30th of March 1801 the fleet sailed down the Sound, in spite of the
Danish batteries at Elsinore, and on the 2d of April Copenhagen was
bombarded and a large part of the Danish fleet destroyed. This victory,
and still more the death of the Emperor Paul, caused the dissolution
of the Neutral League of the North, and Bonaparte had to adjourn for
some years his schemes for the annihilation of English commerce.
[Sidenote: Spain and Portugal. 1800–1.]
[Sidenote: Treaty of Badajoz.]
In the Iberian peninsula the designs of Bonaparte against English trade
were more successful. Spain still remained the ally of France in spite
of the sufferings that alliance had brought upon her, but Portugal had
hitherto continued the faithful friend of England. Through Portugal
English goods entered Spain and the south of France, and Bonaparte
resolved to put an end to the neutrality of Portugal. For this purpose,
in the year 1800, he despatched his ablest brother, Lucien Bonaparte,
as ambassador to Madrid, with orders to negotiate with the Prince
Regent of Portugal. The terms offered were that the Portuguese ports
were to be closed to English trade, that special commercial advantages
were to be given to French merchants, that French Guiana was to
be extended to the river Amazon, and that a portion of Portuguese
territory was to be ceded to Spain until Trinidad and Minorca were
recovered by the latter power. The Prince Regent of Portugal rejected
these hard terms; Spain declared war in the beginning of 1801, and
22,000 veteran French soldiers, under the command of General Leclerc,
Bonaparte’s brother-in-law, were sent to the assistance of Spain.
The campaign was a very short one. The French troops never came into
action; but the Portuguese were twice defeated in pitched battles, and
lost some of their fortresses. The Prince Regent sued for peace, and a
treaty was signed between Spain and Portugal at Badajoz on the 6th of
June 1801. By this treaty the city and district of Olivenza were ceded
to Spain, and, by a subsequent arrangement, the limits of French Guiana
were extended to the river Amazon. Bonaparte was much disgusted with
these treaties, and especially with the continued refusal of Portugal
to close her ports to English commerce, and it was many months before
he consented to ratify them. England refused to recognise Portugal as
an enemy; but an English force occupied the island of Madeira, and the
East India Company’s troops garrisoned Goa.
[Sidenote: Campaign in Egypt. 1800–1.]
When Bonaparte left Egypt he was unable, owing to the stringency of
the blockade maintained by the English fleet, to take more than a few
companions with him. Kléber, who, as has been said, succeeded him
in the command of the French army, soon found himself confronted by
a powerful Turkish and Mameluke army. This army he defeated at the
battle of Heliopolis on the 20th of March 1800, after which success
Egypt again submitted to French rule. On the 14th of June 1800, the
very day on which his former comrade Desaix met a soldier’s death at
the battle of Marengo, Kléber was assassinated by a Muhammadan fanatic
in Cairo. Menou, the new French general in Egypt, was in every way
Kléber’s inferior, and concentrated the French troops in the two cities
of Cairo and Alexandria. Isolated entirely from the mother country, and
unable to receive reinforcements or ammunition, the English government
regarded the French in Egypt as an easy prey. On the 19th of March 1801
a powerful English army disembarked at Aboukir, under the command of
Sir Ralph Abercromby, and defeated the French before Alexandria two
days later in a pitched battle, in which Abercromby was killed. Siege
was then laid to Alexandria and Cairo, and both cities surrendered to
the English general, Lord Hutchinson, before the arrival of a division
from India, which, under the command of Sir David Baird, had sailed up
the Red Sea, marched across the Soudan desert, and descended the Nile
to Cairo in boats. As a result of these operations, a convention was
signed between the French and English generals in Egypt on the 2d of
September 1801, by which the French garrisons evacuated all remaining
posts, and were conveyed to France in English ships.
[Sidenote: The Peace of Amiens. 25th March 1802.]
Though neither Bonaparte nor the leaders of English political opinion
believed it possible for a permanent peace to be agreed to in the
interests of their respective countries, the outcry of both the
English and the French people against the prolonged war made it
necessary for their rulers to conclude some kind of a truce. Pitt had
in 1801 gone out of office, and his successor Addington, afterwards
Lord Sidmouth, declared in favour of a peace policy. The treaty, which
is known as the Peace of Amiens, was really nothing more than a truce.
Only a very general agreement was come to, and many essential points
were left undecided. Both nations needed a rest, and neither government
looked upon the Peace of Amiens as affording a permanent solution of
their differences. Many loopholes were left, which were certain to
afford pretexts for renewing the war to both contracting powers, and of
these the most notable was the question of the possession of Malta.
[Sidenote: The Reconstitution of Germany.]
Far more important than the temporary Peace of Amiens was the
reconstitution of Germany, which was finally accepted by the Diet at
Ratisbon on the 25th of February 1803. The Holy Roman Empire which
had lasted so many centuries ceased to exist. The ancient division
of the Empire into circles was abolished, and the three colleges
which formed the Diet were profoundly affected. Instead of the eight
electors, three ecclesiastical and five lay, that formerly existed,
ten electors, one ecclesiastical and nine lay, were created. The
Archbishops of Cologne and Trèves, whose states being on the left bank
of the Rhine were absorbed into France, lost their electoral dignity.
The Archbishop-Elector of Mayence was retained as Arch-Chancellor of
the Empire, and he received as his dominions the Bishopric of Ratisbon,
the Principality of Aschaffenburg, and the County of Wetzlar. The
nine lay electors were the five princes who had formerly enjoyed the
dignity, namely, the Electors of Bohemia, Brandenburg, Saxony, Bavaria,
and Hanover, and four new Electors, the Margrave of Baden, the Duke
of Würtemburg, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and the Grand Duke
Ferdinand, brother of the Emperor, and former Grand Duke of Tuscany,
who was appointed Elector of Salzburg. By this new arrangement, and
by the abolition of two-thirds of the ecclesiastical electorate, the
majority in the College of Electors passed from the Catholics to the
Protestants. In the College of Princes there was the same result, for
by the secularisation of the Catholic bishoprics the majority passed to
the Protestant rulers. More sweeping still was the alteration in the
third College—that of the Free Cities. Instead of fifty-two constituent
members of this College only six were retained, and their maintenance
was due to the intervention of France. These six cities were Augsburg,
Bremen, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Nuremberg. By these
changes the constitution of the Empire was entirely altered; but still
more notable was the change in the position of the various princes in
Germany, for the tendency of the secularisation of the ecclesiastical
states was to diminish the number of ruling princes and to increase the
extent of their dominions.
[Sidenote: The Secularisations in Germany.]
The great war with France had shown the weakness of the Empire as an
organisation, and had also proved the advantages to the inhabitants
of the existence of large and powerful states. It was, therefore,
the already existing kingdoms which received the greatest addition
of territory under the new arrangements. Nominally, the secularised
bishoprics were intended to compensate those German princes whose
territories on the left bank of the Rhine had been ceded to France;
practically, the powerful states only were increased. Austria, whose
new possession of Venice in place of the Milanese had been reaffirmed
by the Treaty of Lunéville, only acquired in Germany the Bishoprics of
Brixen and Trent, but two Austrian princes received independent states,
namely, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand, who, as has been said,
was given the Archbishopric of Salzburg, with the title of Elector,
and the Duke of Modena, who received the Breisgau. Nevertheless, the
power of Austria was greatly weakened, for under the old arrangement
the ecclesiastical electors and the Catholic bishops had always been
partisans of Austria. Prussia was the country which profited the
most, though she had suffered the least in the war against France. In
exchange for part of the Duchy of Cleves, the Duchy of Guelders, and
the County of Moers, Prussia received the large and wealthy Bishoprics
of Hildesheim, Paderborn, Erfurt, and part of Münster, together with
a number of abbeys, of which the largest were Herford, Quedlinburg,
Elten, Essen, and Werden, and several free cities. Hanover received
the Bishopric of Osnabrück, to which the King of England, as Elector
of Hanover, had previously possessed the alternate nomination. Bavaria
was made into a powerful and concentrated state. In exchange for the
Palatinate, the Duchy of Deux-Ponts (Zweibrücken), the Principalities
of Juliers, Simmern and Lautern, she received the Bishoprics of
Würtzburg, Bamberg, Augsburg, Freisingen, and part of Passau, together
with a large number of abbeys and free cities. Baden received the
portion of the Bishoprics of Spires, Strasbourg, and Basle, situated
on the right bank of the Rhine, the Bishopric of Constance, the
cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, and many abbeys and free cities.
Finally, the Duchy of Würtemburg, in exchange for the Principality
of Montbéliard, received abbeys and free towns, which increased its
population by a hundred thousand inhabitants. It is not necessary to
describe the various accessions granted to the Princes of Hesse-Cassel,
Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau, and the rest; but, it may be noted that the
Prince of Orange, the former Stadtholder of Holland, received the
Bishopric of Fulda. These changes remodelled Germany, and in the result
were most prejudicial to France; for instead of there existing a series
of buffers in the shape of small and weak states, France was brought
almost directly into contact with Prussia and Austria.
[Sidenote: The Reconstitution of Switzerland.]
At the same time that the ancient federal Holy Roman Empire was
reconstituted, the ancient federal Republic of Switzerland was likewise
reorganised. The reasons which had induced the Directory to intervene
in Swiss affairs still existed; the revolutionary party which opposed
the federal idea, and desired to form a united Switzerland, remained
in direct opposition to the supporters of the former government of the
cantons. It was essentially the question of government which divided
the two parties, and there was no suggestion of restoring the feudal
system, or the privileges of certain towns and certain cantons over
others. The breath of the French Revolution had swept away political
inequalities as completely in Switzerland as in France. Soon after the
Treaty of Amiens, Bonaparte withdrew the French troops from the new
Helvetic Republic. Civil war, as he expected, recommenced, and the
Helvetic Government was driven from Berne by the federalists. Bonaparte
therefore despatched an army to restore order, and summoned the
leading Swiss statesmen to Paris. To them he propounded a new scheme
of federal government, which was accepted, and the Act of Mediation,
which was promulgated on the 19th of February 1803, established the
new Constitution, and recognised the First Consul as Mediator. By
the Act of Mediation Switzerland was divided into nineteen cantons,
each of which had its own local government and special laws and
taxes. The thirteen old cantons were maintained; six of them were
democratic—Appenzell, Glarus, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Uri, and Zug;
seven were oligarchical—Basle, Berne, Friburg, Lucerne, Schaffhausen,
Soleure, and Zürich. The six new cantons added by Bonaparte comprised
five territories which had formerly been subject; the Pays de Vaud
and Aargau were made independent of Berne; Thurgau was separated from
Schaffhausen, and Ticino from Uri and Unterwalden, and the canton of
Saint-Gall was formed out of certain districts formerly belonging to
Appenzell, Glarus, and Schwyz; finally, the Grisons, which had hitherto
been an independent mountain republic, was declared a canton of
Switzerland. Geneva had some years before been added to France as the
Department of the Leman, and the Valais was now declared independent—a
preliminary step to its ultimate annexation by France. The Federal
Diet was to consist of twenty-five deputies, two from the six largest
cantons, Aargau, Berne, the Grisons, Saint-Gall, the Pays de Vaud,
and Zurich, and one from each of the others. The Diet was to meet
every year in the capital of a different canton, and the Landamman
of that canton was for that year the President of the Confederation.
The Federal Act once more declared the entire abolition of feudalism,
and of all privileges of birth, etc., and forbade for the future all
internal customs duties. Bonaparte proclaimed that he would not allow
the interference of any other power in Switzerland, and took the title
of Mediator of the Confederation of Switzerland.
[Sidenote: The Concordat. 1801–2.]
It has already been stated that Bonaparte desired to stand well with
the Catholic Church, and had recognised the advantages of a state
religion. One of his most important measures during the Consulate was
to put an end to the schism which had lasted since the promulgation
of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790, with the assistance
of the Pope, Pius VII. All the bishops elected under the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy, and most of those who had emigrated, sooner
than take the oath of allegiance to it, resigned, and the leaders of
both sections were nominated and instituted to different dioceses.
A new circumscription of sees was agreed to, and France was divided
into fifty bishoprics and ten archbishoprics. It was agreed by the
Concordat, which was signed between the Pope and the First Consul on
the 15th of July 1801, and solemnly proclaimed on the 18th of April
1802, after being sanctioned by the Legislative Body, that the First
Consul should nominate all bishops, and the Pope should institute.
The government of the Consulate recognised the Catholic, Apostolic
and Roman religion as that of the majority of the French people, and
ordained that its public worship should be carried on freely so long as
the police regulations were observed. All ecclesiastics were to swear
fidelity to the government, which promised to pay a suitable salary to
all bishops and curés. In return, the Pope promised that neither he
nor his successors would lay any claim to the ecclesiastical estates
which had been alienated, and that all such property should be held the
indisputable possession of its purchaser.
[Sidenote: Internal Organisation.]
[Sidenote: The Prefectures.]
The recognition of the frontier of the Rhine by the Treaty of Lunéville
and the Diet of Ratisbon largely increased the territory of France.
The First Consul proceeded to organise the additions on the bases
laid down by the Constituent Assembly, Convention, and Directory.
Belgium was divided into nine departments. The Rhenish territories,
including the Palatinate, the Diocese of Trèves, etc., were divided
into four departments, of which the headquarters were Aix-la-Chapelle,
Coblentz, Mayence, and Trèves. Further south, the Department of the
Mont-Terrible, which had been formed by the Convention out of the
Republic of Mulhouse and the District of Porentruy, was merged into the
Department of the Haut-Rhin, and the Principality of Montbéliard was
united to the Department of the Doubs. The Republic of Geneva, as has
been said, formed the Department of the Leman. Savoy was constituted
as the Department of Mont-Blanc, and the County of Nice that of the
Alpes-Maritimes. These were the recognised limits of France in 1801,
and were defensible on geographical grounds; but, on the 11th of
September 1802, Bonaparte went further, and declared the union of
Piedmont with France. Instead of being amalgamated with the Cisalpine
Republic, Piedmont was divided into six departments, and the island
of Elba was detached from Tuscany and declared, like Corsica, to be a
French island. At the head of each department a Préfet was appointed,
to take the place of the national agents maintained by the Directory.
At the head of each subdivision, now called an arrondissement instead
of a district, was placed a Sous-Préfet, also nominated by the supreme
executive, and at the head of each commune was the Maire, who was also
nominated and not elected. Préfets, Sous-Préfets, and Maires were
assisted by nominated councils in administrative matters, and appeals
from their decisions lay to the Council of State.
[Sidenote: Education.]
Just as Bonaparte had built up the new Code of Law on the bases laid
by the Legislative Committee of the Convention, so, too, he made use
of the labours of its Committee of Public Instruction to establish
a scheme of national education. In every commune which could afford
the expense, he maintained the primary school established by the
Convention; but he feared to burden the National Treasury with the
expense of schools in the poorer communes, and preferred to leave their
establishment to local endeavour. In secondary education, he suppressed
the central schools of the Convention, and replaced them by twenty-nine
lycées, specially intended for the education of the middle classes. For
higher education, he founded ten schools of law and six of medicine;
he improved the Polytechnic School, and started a school of mechanics,
which became later the famous École des Arts et Métiers. The key-stone
of the whole educational system, the foundation of the University, was,
however, not laid till some years later.
[Sidenote: Constitutional Changes.]
The great administrative reforms of Bonaparte made him as popular among
all classes of the population as his victories had made him in the
army. Not only in France, but throughout Europe, he was looked upon as
the restorer of order and good government. This sentiment appeared most
vividly at the time when a plot against his life was discovered on the
24th of September 1800. This plot, which is known as the Conspiracy
of the Infernal Machine, is said to have been the work of the Jacobin
party; the explosion took place in the Rue Sainte-Nicaise, too late
to do him any harm, but it was used as a pretext to exile the most
vigorous republicans. So great was his popularity, that rumours were
already heard of making him monarch. The first step in this direction
was taken in 1802, when the Council of State proposed that the primary
assemblies should be summoned to decide whether Bonaparte should not be
made First Consul for life. In May 1802 this proposal was laid before
the people, and was carried by more than 3,500,000 votes to 8000. Some
slight changes were made at the same time, of which the most important
were that the First Consul was enabled to nominate his successor, that
the lists of candidates for public functions were replaced by electoral
colleges appointed for life, and that the Senate was given the right to
dissolve the Tribunate and the Legislative Body.
[Sidenote: Bonaparte’s Colonial Policy.]
The First Consul clearly understood that the Peace of Amiens was not
likely to last, and that war would soon break out again with England.
He knew that England derived much of her influence from her navy and
her colonies; he therefore spared no efforts to restore the French
navy, and to make France once more a colonial power. His first essays
in this direction were to obtain Louisiana from Spain in exchange for
the kingdom of Etruria, formed in Italy for Prince Louis of Parma, and
the extension of the limits of French Guiana to the Amazon extorted
from Portugal. But his main project was to restore the French power
in the West Indies. Guadeloupe and Martinique and the French Antilles
had been restored to France by the Treaty of Amiens, and the First
Consul resolved to make them the starting-point for the reconquest of
San Domingo. This island had, as a result of the policy of Sonthonax
and Polverel, the proconsuls of the Convention, been entirely lost
to France; the planters and other whites had fled; and the revolted
slaves and mulattoes were masters of the island. Toussaint Louverture,
the leader of the negroes, refused to hold any communications with
Bonaparte, and the First Consul therefore, as soon as the Peace of
Amiens had opened the sea, sent an expedition of 20,000 men against
him, commanded by his brother-in-law, General Leclerc. The island
was reconquered by May 1802; but the victorious army was practically
destroyed by yellow fever. Toussaint Louverture was taken prisoner and
sent to France: but nevertheless, as soon as war with England again
broke out, and the arrival of reinforcements was prevented by English
cruisers, the negroes rose afresh under new leaders and destroyed the
remnant of the garrison. It may be added that the French Antilles were
recaptured by the English in 1809 and 1810.
[Sidenote: Recommencement of the War between England and France. 18th
May 1803.]
It has been said that the Treaty of Amiens was practically only a
truce, and that many points of interest to the two nations were left
undecided. Of these the most important regarded Malta. The English
ministry positively refused to surrender this island to the Knights
of Saint John, under the protectorate of the Emperor Alexander,
which would leave it at the mercy of France. Bonaparte demanded the
evacuation of Malta with much insistance as one of the conditions of
the Treaty of Amiens; but the English government in reply pointed to
the annexation of Elba, Parma and Piacenza, and Piedmont, and the
interference in Switzerland, as also being breaches of the treaty. The
First Consul was also very exasperated at the personal attacks made on
him in the irresponsible English press. He failed to understand that
by the English law the government could not prevent the publication
of libels against him, and regarded their refusal to punish the
libellers as personal insults to himself. The French ambassador in
London prosecuted Peltier, the chief libeller, before the Court of
King’s Bench. He was brilliantly defended by Sir J. Mackintosh, and
only ordered to pay a small fine. A public subscription was raised to
pay his fine and costs, and the First Consul regarded this as adding
a further insult to the injuries he had received. In truth, both
governments felt that war was inevitable, and in May 1803 the rupture
was complete. The English navy began to seize the French trading
vessels, and the First Consul, as a reprisal, arrested all the English
travellers he could find in France, and ordered Mortier to occupy
Hanover.
[Sidenote: Position of Foreign Affairs.]
The First Consul entered upon a fresh war with England with a light
heart, for he believed that she would be unable to obtain any allies.
Austria was exhausted by the terrible wars she had undergone, and the
State Chancellor, Cobenzl, held that she needed time to recuperate.
Prussia persisted in her attitude of strict neutrality; Haugwitz was
dismissed from the Secretaryship of State for Foreign Affairs as
being too French in his sympathies, after the occupation of Hanover,
and was succeeded by Hardenberg, the maker of the Treaty of Basle.
Spain was Bonaparte’s faithful and hopeful ally; and Russia, the
most formidable of the continental powers, inclined to his side. The
attitude of the Emperor Alexander at this period was of the greatest
importance. Educated by a Swiss publicist who sincerely loved France,
La Harpe, the Emperor of Russia was inclined to admire the results of
the French Revolution and the French people. His sentiments for the
person of Bonaparte were nearly as full of enthusiastic admiration as
those of his father, the Emperor Paul. He made the French ambassadors
at St. Petersburg, Duroc and Caulaincourt, his personal friends, and
wrote letters to Bonaparte expressing his feelings. But the Emperor’s
relatives, especially his mother, with his ministers and his courtiers,
were opposed to France and in favour of a close alliance with England,
or at the very least of the maintenance of strict neutrality. England
practically commanded the Russian trade, and war with England meant
the loss of the only market for Russian raw material, the consequent
impoverishment of the Russian people, and the ruin of the Russian
capitalists. Nevertheless the Emperor Alexander was an autocrat, and
Bonaparte counted upon his friendship even though he could not secure
his alliance.
[Sidenote: The Plot of Pichegru and Cadoudal.]
On the outbreak of war the numerous French exiles in England offered
their services to the English Government. It is significant of the
change which had come over the state of affairs that, instead of
endeavouring to raise a counter-revolution, they proposed to attack the
person of the First Consul. The leaders of the new plot were Pichegru,
now a declared royalist and partisan of the Bourbons, and Georges
Cadoudal, the celebrated Chouan leader. Both had the audacity to go to
Paris and to enter into relations with General Moreau. Moreau, though
he resented the lofty position of Bonaparte and refused to serve him,
would be no party to an assassination, more especially an assassination
which would restore the Bourbons, and Cadoudal and Pichegru had to
act with the assistance of certain French noblemen and some former
Chouans. A plot was formed to murder the First Consul on the road
from Malmaison to Paris, but it was discovered by the French police,
and Bonaparte in terror ordered the gates of Paris to be closed as in
the most terrible days of the Revolution, and proclaimed the pain of
death against all who sheltered the conspirators. After some daring
adventures the leaders were seized; Georges Cadoudal was executed;
Pichegru was strangled in prison; and Moreau, who was condemned to two
years’ imprisonment, was allowed to go into exile in the United States.
The French noblemen implicated were treated with more leniency, and the
lives of their two chiefs, Armand de Polignac and Charles de Rivière,
were spared.
[Sidenote: Execution of the Duc d’Enghien. 21st March 1804.]
The discovery of this plot against his life, which was undoubtedly
fostered by the Bourbon princes, made the First Consul determined to
wreak his vengeance against that unfortunate family. Being unable to
seize the persons of the pretender, Louis XVIII., and his brother, the
Comte d’Artois, who resided in England, he carried off a young Bourbon
prince, the eldest son of the Prince de Condé, who was quite innocent
of the conspiracy of Pichegru. The Duc d’Enghien was at this time
living at Ettenheim in the Grand Duchy of Baden. He was arrested there
by French soldiers, contrary to all international law, and taken to
Vincennes. He was at once tried by a military commission as an _émigré_
who had borne arms against France, and was condemned to death. The
sentence was immediately carried out in spite of the demands of the
young prince for an interview with the First Consul. This execution was
a great political mistake. Bonaparte expected that it would terrify
the Bourbon princes, but it reacted to his own prejudice. The Court
of Saint-Petersburg went into mourning; the King of Prussia, who had
at last almost resolved to make an alliance with France, began to
negotiate with Russia; the royal family of Austria looked upon the
execution as a pendant to that of Marie Antoinette; and the English
Government made use of the horror caused by it to endeavour to form a
fresh coalition against France.
[Sidenote: Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French. 18th May 1804.]
[Sidenote: Francis II. becomes Emperor of Austria.]
Directly after this tragedy, which proved that Bonaparte was
practically an absolute monarch, he decided to take upon himself the
rank of Emperor of the French. The Senate offered this title to the
First Consul at Saint-Cloud on the 18th of May 1804, and the people
ratified it by a majority of more than 3,500,000 votes. By the _senatus
consultum_ which made him Emperor the office was made hereditary to
his direct descendants. As he had no children he was given the power
to adopt, a power which it was undoubtedly expected would be used in
favour of his step-son, Eugène de Beauharnais. A few months after the
Corsican soldier of fortune was declared Emperor of the French, the
last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II., resolved to rid himself of what
was now but an empty title. The new Constitution of the Holy Roman
Empire had destroyed the imperial authority by depriving it of the
votes of the ecclesiastical members in the Diet, and increasing or
consolidating the dominions of the principal German states. Francis
II. acknowledged the new order of things. On the 11th of August 1804,
he erected the Austrian dominions into an hereditary empire, and on
the 7th of December following, five days after the coronation of
Bonaparte as the Emperor Napoleon by the Pope at Paris, the last Holy
Roman Emperor proclaimed himself Emperor of Austria under the title of
Francis I. This then was the result of fifteen years of revolution, the
disappearance of the ancient figure-head of Europe, and the creation of
a new Empire founded on the power of the sword.