OPPOSITION TO THE CENTRALIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT—GENERAL PROSPERITY
The centralization of France in Napoleon’s hands was not to be allowed
to go on without interference. Jacobinism, republicanism, royalism, were
deeply-rooted sentiments, and it was not long before they began to
struggle for expression.
Early in the Consulate, plots of many descriptions were unearthed. The
most serious before 1803 was that known as the “Opera Plot,” or “Plot of
the 3d Nivôse” (December 24, 1800), when a bomb was placed in the
street, to be exploded as the First Consul’s carriage passed. By an
accident he was saved, and, in spite of the shock, went on to the opera.
Madame Junot, who was there, gives a graphic description of the way the
news was received by the house:
“The first thirty measures of the oratorio were scarcely played,
when a strong explosion like a cannon was heard.
“‘What does that mean?’ exclaimed Junot with emotion. He opened the
door of the _loge_ and looked into the corridor.... ‘It is strange;
how can they be firing cannon at this hour?’ And then ‘I should have
known it. Give me my hat; I am going to find out what it is....’
“At this moment the _loge_ of the First Consul opened, and he
himself appeared with Generals Lannes, Lauriston, Berthier, and
Duroc. Smiling, he saluted the immense crowd, which mingled cries
like those of love with its applause. Madame Bonaparte followed him
in a few seconds....
“Junot was going to enter the _loge_ to see for himself the serene
air of the First Consul that I had just remarked, when Duroc came up
to us with troubled face.
“‘The First Consul has just escaped death,’ he said quickly to
Junot. ‘Go down and see him; he wants to talk to you.’ ... But a
dull sound commenced to spread from parterre to orchestra, from
orchestra to amphitheatre, and thence to the _loges_.
“‘The First Consul has just been attacked in the Rue Saint Nicaise,’
it was whispered. Soon the truth was circulated in the _salle_; at
the same instant, and as by an electric shock, one and the same
acclamation arose, one and the same look enveloped Napoleon, as if
in a protecting love.
“What agitation preceded the explosion of national anger which was
represented in that first quarter of an hour, by that crowd whose
fury for so black an attack could not be expressed by words! Women
sobbed aloud, men shivered with indignation. Whatever the banner
they followed, they were united heart and arm in this case to show
that differences of opinion did not bring with them differences in
understanding honor.”
It was such attempts, and suspicion of like ones, that led to the
extension of the police service. One of the ablest and craftiest men of
the Revolution became Napoleon’s head of police in the Consulate,
Fouché. A consummate actor and skilful flatterer, hampered by no
conscience other than the duty of keeping in place, he acted a curious
and entertaining part. Detective work was for him a game which he played
with intense relish. He was a veritable amateur of plots, and never
gayer than when tracing them.
Napoleon admired Fouché, but he did not trust him, and, to offset him,
formed a private police to spy on his work. He never succeeded in
finding anyone sufficiently fine to match the chief, who several times
was malicious enough to contrive plots himself, to excite and mislead
the private agents.
The system of espionage went so far that letters were regularly opened.
It was commonly said that those who did not want their letters read, did
not send them by post; and though it was hardly necessary, as in the
Revolution, to send them in pies, in coat-linings, or hat-crowns, yet
care and prudence had to be exercised in handling all political letters.
It was difficult to get officials for the post-office who could be
relied on to intercept the proper letters; and in 1802, the
Postmaster-General, Monsieur Bernard, the father of the beautiful Madame
Récamier, was found to be concealing an active royalist correspondence,
and to be permitting the circulation of a quantity of seditious
pamphlets. His arrest and imprisonment made a great commotion in his
daughter’s circle, which was one of social and intellectual importance.
Through the intercessions of Bernadotte, Monsieur Bernard was pardoned
by Napoleon. The _cabinet noir_, as the department of the post-office
which did this work was called, was in existence when Napoleon came to
the Consulate, and he rather restricted than increased its operations.
It has never been entirely given up, as many an inoffensive foreigner in
France can testify.
The theatre and press were also subjected to a strict censorship. In
1800 the number of newspapers in Paris was reduced to twelve; and in
three years there were but eight left, with a total subscription list of
eighteen thousand six hundred and thirty. Napoleon’s contempt for
journalists and editors equalled that he had for lawyers, whom he called
a “heap of babblers and revolutionists.” Neither class could, in his
judgment, be allowed to go free.
[Illustration:
“THE GENERAL OF THE GRAND ARMY.”
This pencil portrait by David is nothing but a rapid sketch, but its
iconographic interest is undeniable. David doubtless executed this
design towards the end of 1797, after Bonaparte’s return from Italy.
It belongs to Monsieur Cheramy, a Paris lawyer.—A. D.]
The _salons_ were watched, and it is certain that those whose _habitués_
criticised Napoleon freely were reported. One serious rupture resulted
from the supervision of the _salons_, that with Madame de Staël. She had
been an ardent admirer of Napoleon in the beginning of the Consulate,
and Bourrienne tells several amusing stories of the disgust Napoleon
showed at the letters of admiration and sentiment which she wrote him
even so far back as the Italian campaign. If the secretary is to be
believed, Madame de Staël told Napoleon, in one of these letters, that
they were certainly created for each other, that it was an error in
human institutions that the mild and tranquil Josephine was united to
his fate, that nature evidently had intended for a hero such as he, her
own soul of fire. Napoleon tore the letter to pieces, and he took pains
thereafter to announce with great bluntness to Madame de Staël, whenever
he met her, his own notions of women, which certainly were anything but
“modern.”
As the centralization of the government increased, Madame de Staël and
her friends criticized Napoleon more freely and sharply than they would
have done, no doubt, had she not been incensed by his personal attitude
towards her. This hostility increased until, in 1803, the First Consul
ordered her out of France. “The arrival of this woman, like that of a
bird of omen, has always been the signal for some trouble,” he said in
giving the order. “It is not my intention to allow her to remain in
France.”
In 1807 this order was repeated, and many of Madame de Staël’s friends
were included in the proscription:
“I have written to the Minister of Police to send Madame de Staël to
Geneva. This woman continues her trade of intriguer. She went near
Paris in spite of my orders. She is a veritable plague. Speak
seriously to the Minister, for I shall be obliged to have her seized
by the _gendarmerie_. Keep an eye upon Benjamin Constant; if he
meddles with anything I shall send him to his wife at Brunswick. I
will not tolerate this clique.”
But when one compares the policy of restriction during the Consulate
with what it had been under the old _régime_ and during the Revolution,
it certainly was far in advance in liberty, discretion, and humanity.
The republican government to-day, in its repression of anarchy, and
socialism has acted with less wisdom and less respect for freedom of
thought than Napoleon did at this period of his career; and that, too,
in circumstances less complicated and critical. If there were still dull
rumors of discontent, a _cabinet noir_, a restricted press, a censorship
over the theatre, proscriptions, even imprisonments and executions, on
the whole France was happy.
“Not only did the interior wheels of the machine commence to run
smoothly,” says the Duchesse d’Abrantès, “but the arts themselves, that
most peaceful part of the interior administration, gave striking proofs
of the returning prosperity of France. The exposition at the _Salon_
that year (1800) was remarkably fine. Guérin, David, Gérard, Girodet, a
crowd of great talents, spurred on by the emulation which always awakes
the fire of genius, produced works which must some time place our school
at a high rank.”
The art treasures of Europe were pouring into France. Under the
direction of Denon, that indefatigable _dilettante_ and student, who had
collected in the expedition in Egypt more entertaining material than the
whole Institute, and had written a report of it which will always be
preferred to the “Great Work,” the galleries of Paris were reorganized
and opened two days of the week to the people. Napoleon inaugurated this
practice himself. Not only was Paris supplied with galleries; those
department museums which to-day surprise and delight the tourist in
France were then created at Angers, Antwerp, Autun, Bordeaux, Brussels,
Caen, Dijon, Geneva, Grenoble, Le Mans, Lille, Lyons, Mayence,
Marseilles, Montpellier, Nancy, Nantes, Rennes, Rouen, Strasburg,
Toulouse, and Tours. The _prix de Rome_, for which there had been no
money in the treasury for some time, was reëstablished.
Every effort was made to stimulate scientific research. The case of
Volta is one to the point. In 1801 Bonaparte called the eminent
physicist to Paris to repeat his experiments before the Institute. He
proposed that a medal should be given him, with a sum of money, and in
his honor he established a prize of sixty thousand francs, to be awarded
to any one who should make a discovery similar in value to Volta’s.[1]
An American—Robert Fulton—was about the same time encouraged by the
First Consul. Fulton was experimenting with his submarine torpedo and
diving boat, and for four years had been living in Paris and besieging
the Directory to grant him attention and funds. Napoleon took the matter
up as soon as Fulton brought it to him, ordered a commission appointed
to look into the invention, and a grant of ten thousand francs for the
necessary experiments.
The Institute was reorganized, and to encourage science and the arts he
founded, in 1804, twenty-two prizes, nine of which were of ten thousand
francs each, and thirteen of five thousand francs each. They were to be
awarded every ten years by the emperor himself, on the 18th Brumaire.
The first distribution of these prizes was to have taken place in 1809,
but the judges could not agree on the laureates; and before a conclusion
was reached, the empire had fallen.
[Illustration:
BONAPARTE AS GENERAL, CONSUL, MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE.
These busts are in Sèvres biscuit. The first, which is much superior
to the other two, is attributed to Boizot. The manufactory of Sèvres
produced many such busts, especially in the consular period, and
Bonaparte, anxious to see his face everywhere, encouraged the
production and diffusion of them. I have before me an official
document which shows that from the commencement of the year VI. to
the end of the year IX. the factory produced more than four hundred
busts and thirteen hundred medallions of Bonaparte.—A. D.]
In literature and in music, as in art and science, there was a renewal
of activity. A circle of poets and writers gathered about the First
Consul. Paisiello was summoned to Paris to direct the opera and
conservatory of music. There was a revival of dignity and taste in
strong contrast to the license and carelessness of the Revolution. The
_incroyable_ passed away. The Greek costume disappeared from the street.
Men and women began again to dress, to act, to talk, according to
conventional forms. Society recovered its systematic ways of doing
things, and soon few signs of the general dissolution which had
prevailed for ten years were to be seen.
Once more the traveller crossed France in peace; peasant and laborer
went undisturbed about their work, and slept without fear. Again the
people danced in the fields and “sang their songs as they had in the
days before the Revolution.” “France has nothing to ask from Heaven,”
said Regnault de Saint Jean d’Angély, “but that the sun may continue to
shine, the rain to fall on our fields, and the earth to render the seed
fruitful.”
[Illustration:
NAPOLEON IN 1803.
Painted by A. Gérard in 1803. Engraved by Richomme in 1835.]
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Footnote 1:
The Volta prize has been awarded only three or four times. An award of
particular interest to Americans was that made in 1880 to Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. The amount of
the prize was a little less than ten thousand dollars. Dr. Bell, being
already in affluent circumstances, upon receiving this prize, set it
apart to be used for the benefit of the deaf, in whose welfare he had
for many years taken a great interest. He invested it in another
invention of his, which proved to be very profitable, so that the fund
came to amount to one hundred thousand dollars. This he termed the
Volta Fund. Some of this fund has been applied by Dr. Bell to the
organization of the Volta Bureau, which collects all valuable
information that can be obtained with reference to not only deaf-mutes
as a class, but to deaf-mutes individually. Twenty-five thousand
dollars has been given to the Association for the Promotion of
Teaching Speech to the Deaf. Napoleon is thus indirectly the founder
of one of the most interesting and valuable present undertakings of
the country.