_Internal Government of France--General Attachment to the Chief
Consul--Plot to remove him by Assassination--Defeated--Vain
hopes of the Royalists, that Napoleon would restore the
Bourbons--Infernal Machine--It fails--Suspicion first falls on
the Republicans--The actual Conspirators executed--Use made by
Buonaparte of the Conspiracy to consolidate Despotism--System of
Police--Fouché--His Skill, Influence, and Power--Apprehension
entertained by the Chief Consul of the effects of
Literature--Persecution of Madame de Staël--The Concordat--Plan
for a general System of Jurisprudence--Amnesty granted to the
Emigrants--Plans of Public Education--Hopes of a General Peace._
[Sidenote: INTERNAL GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE.]
We return to the internal government of France under the chief consul.
The events subsequent to the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, seemed to
work a miraculous change on the French nation. The superior talents of
Napoleon, with the policy exercised by Talleyrand and Fouché, and the
other statesmen of ability whom he had called into administration, and
who desired at all events to put an end to further revolutionary
movements--but, above all, the victory of Marengo, had at once created
and attached to the person of the chief consul an immense party, which
might be said to comprehend all those, who, being neither decided
Royalists nor determined Republicans, were indifferent about the form of
the government, so they found ease and protection while living under
it.[590]
But, on the other hand, the heads of the two factions continued to
exist; and, as the power of the first consul became at once more
absolute and more consolidated, it grew doubly hateful and formidable to
them. His political existence was a total obstruction to the systems of
both parties, and yet one which it was impossible to remove. There was
no national council left, in which the authority of the first consul
could be disputed, or his measures impeached. The strength of his
military power bid defiance alike to popular commotions, if the
Democrats had yet possessed the means of exerting them, and to the
scattered bands of the Royalist insurgents. What chance remained for
ridding themselves of the autocrat, in whom the Republicans saw a
dictator, the Royalists an usurper? None, save that, being mortal,
Napoleon was subject to be taken off by assassination.
[Sidenote: PLOT TO ASSASSINATE THE FIRST CONSUL.]
The Democrats were naturally the first to meditate an enterprise of this
nature. The right of taking off a tyrant was, according to their creed,
as proper to any private citizen as to those who opposed him armed in
the field. The act of Harmodius and Aristogiton--the noble deed of
Brutus and his associates--were consecrated in history, and esteemed so
congenial to the nature of a free constitution, that the Convention, on
the motion of Jean de Brie,[591] had at one time determined to raise a
legion of assassins, armed with poniards, who should devote themselves
to the pious task of exterminating all foreign princes, statesmen, and
ministers--in short, all who were accounted the foes of freedom, without
pity or distinction. In a party entertaining such principles, there
could be no scruple on the score of morality; and where they had been so
lately professed by thousands, it seemed natural that, amid the
multitude, they must have made a deep impression on some enthusiastic
and gloomy disposition, which might be easily provoked to act upon them.
[Sidenote: Oct. 10.]
It is no wonder, therefore, that some obscure Jacobins should have early
nourished the purpose of assassinating Napoleon, as the enemy of his
country's freedom, and the destroyer of her liberties; but it is
singular, that most of the conspirators against his person were
Italians. Arena, brother of the deputy[592] who was said to have aimed a
dagger at Buonaparte in the Council of Five Hundred, was at the head of
the conspiracy. He was a Corsican.[593] With him, Ceracchi[594] and
Diana, two Italian refugees; a painter called Topino-Lebrun;[595] and
two or three enthusiasts of low condition, formed a plot for the purpose
of assassinating the chief consul at the Opera-house. Their intention
was detected by the police; Ceracchi and Diana were arrested in the
lobby,[596] armed, it was said, and prepared for the attempt, and
Napoleon was congratulated by most of the constituted authorities upon
having escaped a great danger.[597]
Crassous, president of the Tribunate, made a singular speech on the
occasion, which would almost bear a double interpretation. "There had
been so many conspiracies," he said, "at so many different periods, and
under so many different pretexts, which had never been followed up
either by inquiry or punishment, that a great number of good citizens
had become sceptical on the subject of their existence. This incredulity
was dangerous," he argued; "it was time it should be ended." With this
view, Monsieur Crassous recommended, that the persons guilty on the
present occasion should be prosecuted and punished with all the
solemnity and rigour of the laws.
Buonaparte replied, with military indifference, that he had been in no
real danger. "The contemptible wretches," he said, in something like a
renewal of his Egyptian vein, "had no power to commit the crime they
meditated. Besides the assistance of the whole audience, I had with me a
piquet of my brave guard, from whom the wretches could not have borne a
look."[598] So ended this singular discourse; and it is remarkable that
neither were the circumstances of the plot made public, nor the
conspirators punished, till the more memorable attempt on Napoleon's
life by the Royalists.
[Sidenote: THE ROYALISTS.]
The Royalists, as a party, had far more interest with Buonaparte than
the Democrats. The former approved of the principles and form of his
government,--it was only necessary for their conversion, that they
should learn to endure his person; whereas the Jacobins being equally
averse to the office to which he aspired, to his power, and to himself,
there were no hopes of their being brought to tolerate either the
monarch or the man. Of the latter, therefore, Napoleon entertained equal
dislike and distrust; while, from obvious causes, his feelings towards
the former were in some measure friendly.
The Royalists, too, for some time entertained a good opinion of
Buonaparte, and conceived that he intended, in his own time and in his
own way, to act in behalf of the exiled royal family. The enthusiastic
of the party were at a loss to conceive that the throne of France should
be again erected, and that any one but a Bourbon should dare to ascend
it. It seemed to them impossible that the monarchy should revive without
the restoration of the legitimate monarch, and they could not believe
that a Corsican soldier of fortune would meditate an usurpation, or that
France would be for a moment tolerant of his pretensions. The word
liberty had, indeed, misled the people of France for a time, but, that
illusion being dissipated, their natural love to the royal race would
return like a reviving spring, and again run in its old channel.
So general was the belief among this class, that Buonaparte meditated
the restoration of the Bourbons, that several agents of the family made
their way so far as to sound his own mind upon the subject. Louis
himself, afterwards XVIII., addressed to the first consul a letter of
the following tenor:--"You cannot achieve the happiness of France
without my restoration, any more than I can ascend the throne which is
my right, without your co-operation. Hasten then to complete the good
work, which none but you can accomplish, and name the rewards which you
claim for your friends."[599]
Buonaparte answered the letter with cold civility. He esteemed the
person, he said, and pitied the misfortunes, of his Royal Highness the
Comte de Provence, and should be glad to assist him, did an opportunity
permit. But as his royal highness could not be restored to France, save
at the expense of an hundred thousand lives, it was an enterprise in
which he, Buonaparte, must decline to aid him.[600]
A less direct, and more artful course, is said to have been attempted,
by the mission of the Duchesse de Guiche, one of the most beautiful and
pleasing women of the time, who, obtaining permission to come to Paris
under pretext of her private affairs, was introduced at the Tuileries,
and delighted Josephine with the elegance of her manners.[601] Napoleon
did not escape the fascination but the instant she touched on the
subject of politics, the interesting duchesse received an order to quit
Paris.
As soon as the Royalists discovered, by the failure of these and similar
applications, as well as by the gradual tendency of Buonaparte's
measures, that the restoration of the Bourbons was the thing farthest
from his purpose, their disappointment exasperated them against the
audacious individual, whose single person seemed now the only obstacle
to that event. Monarchical power was restored, in spirit at least, if
not in form; was it to be endured, the more zealous followers of the
Bourbons demanded of each other, that it should become the prize of a
military usurper? This party, as well as that of the Jacobins, contained
doubtless many adherents, whom the enthusiasm of their political
principles disposed to serve their cause, even at the expense of great
crimes. The sentiments of the princes of the royal family upon such a
subject, were becoming their high ranks.[602] They were resolved to
combat Buonaparte's pretensions with open force, such as befitted their
pretensions as head of the chivalry of France, but to leave to Jacobins
the schemes of private assassination. Still there must have been many,
among those characters which are found during the miseries and crimes of
civil war, who conceived that the assassination of the chief consul
would be received as good service when accomplished, although it might
not be authorised beforehand. Nay, there may have been partisans zealous
enough to take the crime and punishment on themselves, without looking
farther than the advantage which their party would receive by the
action.
[Sidenote: THE INFERNAL MACHINE.]
A horrible invention, first hatched, it is said, by the Jacobins,[603]
was adopted by certain Royalists of a low description, remarkable as
actors in the wars of the Chouans, of whom the leaders were named Carbon
and St. Regent. It was a machine consisting of a barrel of gunpowder,
placed on a cart to which it was strongly secured, and charged with
grape-shot so disposed around the barrel, as to be dispersed in every
direction by the explosion. The fire was to be communicated by a slow
match. It was the purpose of the conspirators, undeterred by the
indiscriminate slaughter which such a discharge must occasion, to place
the machine in the street through which the first consul was to go to
the opera, having contrived that it should explode, exactly as his
carriage should pass the spot; and, strange to say, this stratagem,
which seemed as uncertain as it was atrocious, was within a
hair's-breadth of success.
On the evening of the 24th December, 1800, Buonaparte has informed us,
that though he himself felt a strong desire to remain at home, his wife
and one or two intimate friends insisted that he should go to the opera.
He was slumbering under a canopy when they awaked him. One brought his
hat, another his sword. He was in a manner forced into his carriage,
where he again slumbered and was dreaming of the danger which he had
escaped in an attempt to pass the river Tagliamento some years before.
On a sudden he awaked amidst thunder and flame.[604]
The cart bearing the engine, which was placed in the street St. Nicaise,
intercepted the progress of the chief consul's coach, which passed it
with some difficulty. St. Regent had fired the match at the appointed
instant; but the coachman, who chanced to be somewhat intoxicated,
driving unusually fast, the carriage had passed the machine two seconds
before the explosion took place; and that almost imperceptible fraction
of time was enough to save the life which was aimed at. The explosion
was terrible. Two or three houses were greatly damaged--twenty persons
killed, and about fifty-three wounded; among the latter was the
incendiary St. Regent. The report was heard several leagues from Paris.
Buonaparte instantly exclaimed to Lannes and Bessières, who were in the
carriage, "We are blown up!" The attendants would have stopped the
coach, but with more presence of mind he commanded them to drive on, and
arrived in safety at the opera;[605] his coachman during the whole time
never discovering what had happened, but conceiving the consul had only
received a salute of artillery.[606]
A public officer, escaped from such a peril, became an object of yet
deeper interest than formerly to the citizens in general; and the
reception of the consul at the opera, and elsewhere, was more
enthusiastic than ever. Relief was ostentatiously distributed amongst
the wounded, and the relatives of the slain; and every one, shocked with
the wild atrocity of such a reckless plot, became, while they execrated
the perpetrators, attached in proportion to the object of their cruelty.
A disappointed conspiracy always adds strength to the government against
which it is directed; and Buonaparte did not fail to push this advantage
to the uttermost.
Notwithstanding that the infernal machine (for so it was not
unappropriately termed) had in fact been managed by the hands of
Royalists, the first suspicion fell on the Republicans; and Buonaparte
took the opportunity, before the public were undeceived on the subject,
of dealing that party a blow, from the effects of which they did not
recover during his reign. An arbitrary decree of the Senate was asked
and readily obtained for the transportation beyond seas of nearly one
hundred and thirty of the chiefs of the broken faction of the Jacobins,
among whom were several names which belonged to the celebrated Reign of
Terror, and had figured in the rolls of the National Convention. These
men were so generally hated, as connected with the atrocious scenes
during the reign of Robespierre, that the unpopularity of their
characters excused the irregularity of the proceedings against them, and
their fate was viewed with complacency by many, and with indifference by
all. In the end, the first consul became so persuaded of the political
insignificance of these relics of Jacobinism, (who, in fact, were as
harmless as the fragments of a bombshell after its explosion,) that the
decree of deportation was never enforced against them; and Felix
Lepelletier, Chaudieu, Talot, and their companions, were allowed to live
obscurely in France, watched closely by the police, and under the
condition that they should not venture to approach Paris.[607]
The actual conspirators were proceeded against with severity. Chevalier
and Veycer, Jacobins, said to have constructed the original model of the
infernal machine, were tried before a military commission, condemned to
be shot, and suffered death accordingly.
Arena, Ceracchi, Topino-Lebrun, and Demerville, were tried before the
ordinary court of criminal judicature, and condemned by the voice of a
jury; although there was little evidence against them, save that of
their accomplice Harel, by whom they had been betrayed. They also were
executed.
At a later period, Carbon and St. Regent, Royalists, the agents in the
actual attempt of 24th December, were also tried, condemned, and put to
death. Some persons tried for the same offence were acquitted; and
justice seems to have been distributed with an impartiality unusual in
France since the Revolution.
But Buonaparte did not design that the consequences of these plots
should end with the deaths of the wretches engaged in them. It afforded
an opportunity not to be neglected to advance his principal object,
which was the erection of France into a despotic kingdom, and the
possessing himself of uncontrolled power over the lives, properties,
thoughts, and opinions, of those who were born his fellow-subjects, and
of whom the very meanest but lately boasted himself his equal. He has
himself expressed his purpose respecting the Constitution of the year
Eight, or Consular Government, in words dictated to General Gourgaud:--
"The ideas of Napoleon were fixed; but the aid of time and events were
necessary for their realization. The organization of the Consulate had
presented nothing in contradiction to them; it taught unanimity, and
that was the first step. This point gained, Napoleon was quite
indifferent as to the form and denominations of the several constituted
bodies. He was a stranger to the Revolution. It was natural that the
will of these men, who had followed it through all its phases, should
prevail in questions as difficult as they were abstract. The wisest plan
was to go on from day to day--by the polar star by which Napoleon meant
to guide the Revolution to the haven he desired."[608]
If there is any thing obscure in this passage, it received but too
luminous a commentary from the course of Buonaparte's actions; all of
which tend to show that he embraced the Consular government as a mere
temporary arrangement, calculated to prepare the minds of the French
nation for his ulterior views of ambition, as young colts are ridden
with a light bridle until they are taught by degrees to endure the curb
and bit, or as water-fowl taken in a decoy are first introduced within a
wider circuit of nets, in order to their being gradually brought within
that strict enclosure where they are made absolute prisoners. He tells
us in plain terms, he let the revolutionary sages take their own way in
arranging the constitution; determined, without regarding the rules they
laid down on the chart, to steer his course by one fixed point to one
desired haven. That polar star was his own selfish interest--that haven
was despotic power. What he considered as most for his own interest, he
was determined to consider as the government most suited for France
also. Perhaps he may have persuaded himself that he was actually serving
his country as well as himself; and, indeed, justly considered, he was
in both instances equally grievously mistaken.
[Sidenote: SPECIAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL.]
With the views which he entertained, the chief consul regarded the
conspiracies against his life as affording a pretext for extending his
power too favourable to be neglected. These repeated attacks on the Head
of the state made it desirable that some mode should be introduced of
trying such offences, briefer and more arbitrary than the slow forms
required by ordinary jurisprudence. The prompt and speedy justice to be
expected from a tribunal freed from the ordinary restraint of
formalities and justice, was stated to be more necessary on account of
the state of the public roads, infested by bands called Chauffeurs, who
stopped the public carriages, intercepted the communications of
commerce, and became so formidable, that no public coach was permitted
to leave Paris without a military guard of at least four soldiers on the
roof. This was used as a strong additional reason for constituting a
special court of judicature.
Buonaparte could be at no loss for models of such an institution. As
hero of the Revolution, he had succeeded to the whole arsenal of
revolutionary weapons forged in the name of Liberty, to oppress the
dearest rights of humanity. He had but to select that which best suited
him, and to mould it to the temper of the times. The country which had
so long endured the Revolutionary Tribunal, was not likely to wince
under any less stern judicature.
The court which Government now proposed to establish, was to consist of
eight members thus qualified. 1. The president and two judges of the
ordinary criminal tribunal. 2. Three military men, bearing at least the
rank of a captain. 3. Two citizens, to be suggested by Government, who
should be selected from such as were by the constitution qualified to
act as judges. Thus five out of eight judges were directly named by the
Government for the occasion. The court was to decide without jury,
without appeal, and without revision of any kind. As a boon to the
accused, the court were to have at least six members present, and there
was to be no casting vote; so that the party would have his acquittal,
unless six members out of eight, or four members out of six, should
unite in finding him guilty; whereas in other courts, a bare majority is
sufficient for condemnation.
With this poor boon to public opinion, the special Commission Court was
to be the jurisdiction before whom armed insurgents, conspirators, and
in general men guilty of crimes against the social compact, were to
undergo their trial.
The counsellor of state, Portalis, laid this plan before the Legislative
Body, by whom it was, according to constitutional form, referred to the
consideration of the Tribunate. It was in this body, the only existing
branch of the constitution where was preserved some shadow of popular
forms and of free debate, that those who continued to entertain free
sentiments could have any opportunity of expressing them. Benjamin
Constant, Daunon, Chenier, and others, the gleanings as it were of the
liberal party, made an honourable but unavailing defence against this
invasion of the constitution, studying at the same time to express their
opposition in language and by arguments least likely to give offence to
the Government. To the honour of the Tribunate, which was the frail but
sole remaining barrier of liberty, the project had nearly made
shipwreck, and was only passed by a small majority of forty-nine over
forty-one. In the Legislative Body there was also a strong
minority.[609] It seemed as if the friends of liberty, however deprived
of direct popular representation, and of all the means of influencing
public opinion, were yet determined to maintain an opposition to the
first consul, somewhat on the plan of that of England.
Another law, passed at this time, must have had a cooling effect on the
zeal of some of these patriots. It was announced that there were a set
of persons, who were to be regarded rather as public enemies than as
criminals, and who ought to be provided against rather by anticipating
and defeating their schemes than by punishing their offences. These
consisted of Republicans, Royalists, or any others entertaining, or
supposed to entertain, opinions inimical to the present state of
affairs; and the law now passed entitled the government to treat them as
suspected persons, and as such, to banish them from Paris or from
France. Thus was the chief consul invested with full power over the
personal liberty of every person whom he chose to consider as the enemy
of his government.
Buonaparte was enabled to avail himself to the uttermost of the powers
which he had thus extracted from the constitutional bodies, by the
frightful agency of the police. This institution may, even in its
mildest form, be regarded as a necessary evil; for although, while great
cities continue to afford obscure retreats for vice and crime of every
description, there must be men, whose profession it is to discover and
bring criminals to justice, as while there are vermin in the animal
world, there must be kites and carrion-crows to diminish their number;
yet, as the excellence of these guardians of the public depends in a
great measure on their familiarity with the arts, haunts, and practices
of culprits, they cannot be expected to feel the same horror for crimes,
or criminals, which is common to other men. On the contrary, they have a
sympathy with them of the same kind which hunters entertain for the game
which is the object of their pursuit. Besides, as much of their business
is carried on by the medium of spies, they must be able to personate the
manners and opinions of those whom they detect; and are frequently
induced, by their own interest, to direct, encourage, nay suggest
crimes, that they may obtain the reward due for conviction of the
offenders.
Applied to state offences, the agency of such persons, though sometimes
unavoidable, is yet more frightfully dangerous. Moral delinquencies can
be hardly with any probability attributed to worthy or innocent persons;
but there is no character so pure, that he who bears it may not be
supposed capable of entertaining false and exaggerated opinions in
politics, and, as such, become the victim of treachery and delation. In
France, a prey to so many factions, the power of the police had become
overwhelming; indeed, the very existence of the government seemed in
some measure dependent upon the accuracy of their intelligence; and for
this purpose their numbers had been enlarged, and their discipline
perfected, under the administration of the sagacious and crafty Fouché.
This remarkable person had been an outrageous Jacobin, and dipped deep
in the horrors of the revolutionary government[610]--an adherent of
Barras, and a partaker in the venality and peculation which
characterised that period. He was, therefore, totally without principle;
but his nature was not of that last degree of depravity, which delights
in evil for its own sake, and his good sense told him, that an
unnecessary crime was a political blunder. The lenity with which he
exercised his terrible office, when left in any degree to his own
discretion, while it never prevented his implicit execution of
Buonaparte's commands, made the abominable system over which he presided
to a certain extent endurable; and thus even his good qualities, while
they relieved individual suffering, were of disservice to his country,
by reconciling her to bondage.
[Sidenote: THE HAUTE POLICE.]
The _haute police_, as it is called by the French, meaning that
department which applies to politics and state affairs, had been
unaccountably neglected by the ministers of Louis XVI., and was much
disorganized by the consequences of the Revolution. The demagogues of
the Convention had little need of a regular system of the kind. Every
affiliated club of Jacobins supplied them with spies, and with
instruments of their pleasure. The Directory stood in a different
situation. They had no general party of their own, and maintained their
authority, by balancing the Moderates and Democrats against each other.
They, therefore, were more dependent upon the police than their
predecessors, and they intrusted Fouché with the superintendence. It was
then that, destroying, or rather superseding, the separate offices where
the agents of the police pretended to a certain independence of acting,
he brought the whole system to concentrate within his own cabinet. By
combining the reports of his agents, and of the various individuals with
whom under various pretexts he maintained correspondence, the minister
of police arrived at so accurate a knowledge of the purpose,
disposition, adherents, and tools of the different parties in France,
that he could anticipate their mode of acting upon all occasions that
were likely to occur, knew what measures were likely to be proposed, and
by whom they were to be supported; and when any particular accident took
place, was able, from his previous general information, to assign it to
the real cause, and the true actors.
An unlimited system of espial, and that stretching through society in
all its ramifications, was necessary to the perfection of this system,
which had not arrived to its utmost height, till Napoleon ascended the
throne. Still, before his reign, it existed all through France,
controlling the most confidential expressions of opinion on public
affairs, and, like some mephitic vapour, stifling the breath though it
was invisible to the eye, and, by its mysterious terrors, putting a
stop to all discussion of public measures, which was not in the tone of
implicit approbation.
The expense of maintaining this establishment was immense; for Fouché
comprehended amongst his spies and informers, persons whom no ordinary
gratuity would have moved to act such a part. But this expense was
provided for by the large sums which the minister of police received for
the toleration yielded to brothels, gambling-houses, and other places of
profligacy, to whom he granted licenses, in consideration of their
observing certain regulations. His system of espial was also extended,
by the information which was collected in these haunts of debauchery;
and thus the vices of the capital were made to support the means by
which it was subjected to a despotic government. His autobiography
contains a boast, that the private secretary of the chief consul was his
pensioner,[611] and that the lavish profusion of Josephine made even her
willing to exchange intelligence concerning the chief consul's views and
plans.[612] Thus was Fouché not only a spy upon the people in behalf of
Buonaparte, but a spy also on Buonaparte himself.
Indeed, the power of the director of this terrible enginery was so
great, as to excite the suspicion of Napoleon, who endeavoured to
counterbalance it by dividing the department of police into four
distinct offices. There were established, 1st, The military police of
the palace, over which Duroc, the grand master of the household,
presided. 2d, The police maintained by the inspector of the gendarmes.
3d, That exercised over the city of Paris by the prefect. 4th, The
general police, which still remained under the control of Fouché. Thus,
the first consul received every day four reports of police, and esteemed
himself secure of learning, through some one of them, information which
the others might have an interest in concealing.[613]
The agents of these different bodies were frequently unknown to each
other; and it often happened, that when, in the exercise of their
office, they were about to arrest some individual who had incurred
suspicion, they found him protected against them, by his connexion with
other bureaux of police. The system was, therefore, as complicated as it
was oppressive and unjust; but we shall have such frequent opportunity
to refer to the subject, that we need here only repeat, that, with
reference to his real interest, it was unfortunate for Buonaparte that
he found at his disposal so ready a weapon of despotism as the organized
police, wielded by a hand so experienced as that of Fouché.
[Sidenote: THE POLICE.]
It was the duty of the police to watch the progress of public opinion,
whether it was expressed in general society, and confidential
communication, or by the medium of the press. Buonaparte entertained a
feverish apprehension of the effects of literature on the general mind,
and in doing so acknowledged the weak points in his government. The
public journals were under the daily and constant superintendence of the
police, and their editors were summoned before Fouché when any thing was
inserted which could be considered as disrespectful to his authority.
Threats and promises were liberally employed on such occasions, and such
journalists as proved refractory, were soon made to feel that the former
were no vain menaces. The suppression of the offensive newspaper was
often accompanied by the banishment or imprisonment of the editor. The
same measure was dealt to authors, booksellers, and publishers,
respecting whom the jealousy of Buonaparte amounted to a species of
disease.[614]
No one can be surprised that an absolute government should be disposed
to usurp the total management of the daily press, and such other
branches of literature as are immediately connected with politics; but
the interference of Buonaparte's police went much farther, and
frequently required from those authors who wrote only on general topics,
some express recognisance of his authority. The ancient Christians would
not attend the theatre, because it was necessary that, previous to
enjoying the beauties of the scene, they should sacrifice some grains of
incense to the false deity, supposed to preside over the place. In like
manner, men of generous minds in France were often obliged to suppress
works on subjects the most alien to politics, because they could not
easily obtain a road to the public unless they consented to recognise
the right of the individual who had usurped the supreme authority, and
extinguished the liberties of his country. The circumstances which
subjected Madame de Staël to a long persecution by the police of
Buonaparte, may be quoted as originating in this busy desire, of
connecting his government with the publications of all persons of
genius.
We have been already led to notice, that there existed no cordiality
betwixt Buonaparte and the gifted daughter of Necker. Their characters
were far from suited to each other. She had manifestly regarded the
first consul as a subject of close and curious observation, and
Buonaparte loved not that any one should make him the subject of minute
scrutiny. Madame de Staël was the centre also of a distinguished circle
of society in France, several of whom were engaged to support the cause
of liberty; and the resolution of a few members of the Tribunate, to
make some efforts to check the advance of Buonaparte to arbitrary power,
was supposed to be taken in her saloon, and under her encouragement. For
this she was only banished from Paris.[615] But when she was about to
publish her excellent and spirited book on German manners and
literature, in which, unhappily, there was no mention of the French
nation, or its supreme chief, Madame de Staël's work was seized by the
police, and she was favoured with a line from Savary, acquainting her
that the air of France did not suit her health, and inviting her to
leave it with all convenient speed.[616] While in exile from Paris,
which she accounted her country, the worthy Prefect of Geneva suggested
a mode by which she might regain favour. An ode on the birth of the King
of Rome was recommended as the means of conciliation. Madame de Staël
answered, she should limit herself to wishing him a good nurse; and
became exposed to new rigours, even extending to the friends who
ventured to visit her in her exile. So general was the French influence
all over Europe, that to shelter herself from the persecutions by which
she was everywhere followed, she was at length obliged to escape to
England, by the remote way of Russia. Chenier, author of the Hymn of the
Marseillois, though formerly the panegyrist of General Buonaparte,
became, with other literary persons who did not bend low enough to his
new dignity, objects of persecution to the first consul. The childish
pertinacity with which Napoleon followed up such unreasonable piques,
belongs indeed, chiefly, to the history of the Emperor, but it showed
its blossoms earlier. The power of indulging such petty passions, goes,
in a great measure, to foster and encourage their progress; and in the
case of Buonaparte, this power, great in itself, was increased by the
dangerous facilities which the police offered, for gratifying the
spleen, or the revenge, of the offended sovereign.
[Sidenote: THE CONCORDAT.]
Another support of a very different kind, and grounded on the most
opposite principles, was afforded to the rising power of Napoleon,
through the re-establishment of religion in France, by his treaty with
the Pope, called the Concordat. Two great steps had been taken towards
this important point, by the edict opening the churches, and renewing
the exercise of the Christian religion, and by the restoration of the
Pope to his temporal dominions after the battle of Marengo. The further
objects to be attained were the sanction of the first consul's
government by the Pontiff on the one hand, and, on the other, the
re-establishment of the rights of the Church in France, so far as should
be found consistent with the new order of things.
This important treaty was managed by Joseph Buonaparte, who, with three
colleagues, held conferences for that purpose with the plenipotentiaries
of the Pope. The ratifications were exchanged on the 18th of September
1801; and when they were published, it was singular to behold how
submissively the once proud See of Rome lay prostrated before the power
of Buonaparte, and how absolutely he must have dictated all the terms of
the treaty. Every article innovated on some of those rights and claims,
which the Church of Rome had for ages asserted as the unalienable
privileges of her infallible head.
I. It was provided, that the Catholic religion should be freely
exercised in France, acknowledged as the national faith, and its service
openly practised, subject to such regulations of police as the French
Government should judge necessary. II. The Pope, in concert with the
French Government, was to make a new division of dioceses, and to
require of the existing bishops even the resignation of their sees,
should that be found necessary to complete the new arrangement. III. The
sees which should become vacant by such resignation, or by deprivation,
in case a voluntary abdication was refused, as also all future
vacancies, were to be filled up by the Pope, on nominations proceeding
from the French Government. IV. The new bishops were to take an oath of
fidelity to the Government, and to observe a ritual, in which there were
to be especial forms of prayer for the consuls. V. The church-livings
were to undergo a new division, and the bishops were to nominate to
them, but only such persons as should be approved by the Government. VI.
The Government was to make suitable provision for the national clergy,
while the Pope expressly renounced all right competent to him and his
successors, to challenge or dispute the sales of church property which
had been made since the Revolution.[617]
Such was the celebrated compact, by which Pius VII. surrendered to a
soldier, whose name was five or six years before unheard of in Europe,
those high claims to supremacy in spiritual affairs, which his
predecessors had maintained for so many ages against the whole
potentates of Europe. A puritan might have said of the power seated on
the Seven Hills--"Babylon is fallen,--it is fallen that great city!" The
more rigid Catholics were of the same opinion. The Concordat, they
alleged, showed rather the abasement of the Roman hierarchy than the
re-erection of the Gallic Church.
The proceedings against the existing bishops of France, most of whom
were of course emigrants, were also but little edifying. Acting upon the
article of the Concordat already noticed, and caused, as the letter[618]
itself states, "by the exigencies of the times, which exercises its
violence even on us," the Pope required of each of these reverend
persons, by an especial mandate, to accede to the compact, by
surrendering his see, as therein provided. The order was peremptory in
its terms, and an answer was demanded within fifteen days. The purpose
of this haste was to prevent consultation or combination, and to place
before each bishop, individually, the choice of compliance, thereby
gaining a right to be provided for in the new hierarchy; or of refusal,
in which case the Pope would be obliged to declare the see vacant, in
conformity to his engagement with Buonaparte.
The bishops in general declined compliance with a request, which, on the
part of the Pope, was evidently made by compulsion. They offered to lay
their resignation at his Holiness's feet, so soon as they should be
assured that there was regular canonical provision made for filling up
their sees; but they declined, by any voluntary act of theirs, to give
countenance to the surrender of the rights of the Church implied in the
Concordat, and preferred exile and poverty to any provision which they
might obtain, by consenting to compromise the privileges of the
hierarchy. These proceedings greatly increased the unpopularity of the
Concordat among the more zealous Catholics.
Others of that faith there were, who, though they considered the new
system as very imperfect, yet thought it might have the effect of
preserving in France some sense of the Christian religion, which, under
the total disuse of public worship, stood a chance of being entirely
extinguished in the minds of the rising generation. They remembered,
that though the Jews in the days of Esdras shed tears of natural sorrow
when they beheld the inferiority of the second Temple, yet Providence
had sanctioned its erection, under the warrant, and by permission, of an
unbelieving task-master. They granted, that the countenance shown by
Buonaparte to the religious establishment, was entirely from motives of
self-interest; but still they hoped that God, who works his own will by
the selfish passions of individuals, was now using those of the first
consul to recall some sense of religion to France; and they anticipated
that religion, as the best friend of all that is good and graceful in
humanity, was likely, in course of time, to bring back and encourage a
sense of rational liberty.
The revolutionary part of France beheld the Concordat with very
different eyes. The Christian religion was, as to the Jews and Greeks of
old, a stumbling-block to the Jacobins, and foolishness to the
philosophers. It was a system which they had attacked with a zeal even
as eager as that which they had directed against monarchical
institutions; and in the restoration of the altar, they foresaw the
re-erection of the throne. Buonaparte defended himself among the
philosophers, by comparing his Concordat to a sort of vaccination of
religion, which, by introducing a slighter kind into the system of the
state, would gradually prepare for its entire extinction.[619]
In the meantime, he proceeded to renew the ancient league betwixt the
church and crown, with as much solemnity as possible. Portalis[620] was
created minister of religion, a new office, for managing the affairs of
the Church. He had deserved this preferment, by a learned and
argumentative speech to the Legislative Body, in which he proved to the
French statesmen, (what in other countries is seldom considered as
matter of doubt,) that the exercise of religion is congenial to human
nature, and worthy of being cherished and protected by the state. The
Concordat was inaugurated at Notre Dame, [April 1802,] with the utmost
magnificence. Buonaparte attended in person, with all the badges and
pomp of royalty, and in the style resembling as nearly as possible that
of the former Kings of France. The Archbishop of Aix was appointed to
preach upon the occasion, being the very individual prelate who had
delivered the sermon upon the coronation of Louis XVI. Some address, it
was said, was employed to procure the attendance of the old republican
generals. They were invited by Berthier to breakfast, and thence carried
to the first consul's levee; after which it became impossible for them
to decline attending him to the church of Notre Dame.[621] As he
returned from the ceremony, surrounded by these military functionaries,
Buonaparte remarked with complacency, that the former order of things
was fast returning. One of his generals boldly answered,--"Yes!--all
returns--excepting the two millions of Frenchmen, who have died to
procure the proscription of the very system now in the act of being
restored."[622]
It is said that Buonaparte, when he found the Pope and the clergy less
tractable than he desired, regretted having taken the step of
re-establishing religion, and termed the Concordat the greatest error of
his reign. But such observations could only escape him in a moment of
pique or provocation. He well knew the advantage which a government must
derive from a national church, which recognises them in its ritual; and
at Saint Helena, he himself at once acknowledged the advantage of his
compact with the Pope as a measure of state, and his indifference to it
in a religious point of view. "I never regretted the Concordat," he
said. "I must have had either that or some thing equivalent. Had the
Pope never before existed, he should have been made for the
occasion."[623]
The first consul took care, accordingly, to make his full advantage of
the Concordat, by introducing his own name as much as possible into the
catechism of the Church, which, in other respects, was that drawn up by
Bossuet. To honour Napoleon, the catechumen was taught, was the same as
to honour and serve God himself--to oppose his will, was to incur the
penalty of eternal damnation.[624]
In civil affairs, Buonaparte equally exerted his talents, in connecting
the safety and interests of the nation with his own aggrandisement. He
had already laughed at the idea of a free constitution. "The only free
constitution necessary," he said, "or useful, was a good civil code;"
not considering, or choosing to have it considered, that the best system
of laws, when held by no better guarantee than the pleasure of an
arbitrary prince and his council of state, is as insecure as the
situation of a pearl suspended by a single hair. Let us do justice to
Napoleon, however, by acknowledging, that he encountered with manly
firmness the gigantic labour of forming a code of institutions, which,
supplying the immense variety of provincial laws that existed in the
different departments of France, and suppressing the partial and
temporary regulations made in the various political crises of the
Revolution, were designed to be the basis of a uniform national system.
For this purpose, an order of the consuls convoked Messrs. Portalis,
Tronchet,[625] Bigot de Préameneu,[626] and Maleville,[627]
juris-consults of the highest character, and associated them with the
Minister of Justice, Cambacérès, in the task of adjusting and reporting
a plan for a general system of jurisprudence. The progress and
termination of this great work will be hereafter noticed. The chief
consul himself took an active part in the deliberations.
An ordinance, eminently well qualified to heal the civil wounds of
France, next manifested the talents of Buonaparte, and, as men hoped,
his moderation. This was the general amnesty granted to the emigrants. A
decree of the Senate, 26th April, 1802, permitted the return of these
unfortunate persons to France, providing they did so, and took the oath
of fidelity to Government, within a certain period. There were, however,
five classes of exceptions, containing such as seemed too deeply and
strongly pledged to the house of Bourbon, ever to reconcile themselves
to the government of Buonaparte. Such were, 1st, Those who had been
chiefs of bodies of armed royalists;--2d, Who had held rank in the
armies of the allies; 3d, Who had belonged to the household of the
princes of the blood;--4th, Who had been agents or encouragers of
foreign or domestic war;--5th, The generals and admirals, together with
the representatives of the people, who had been guilty of treason
against the Republic, together with the prelates, who declined to resign
their sees in terms of the Concordat. It was at the same time declared,
that not more than five hundred in all should be excepted from the
amnesty. Buonaparte truly judged, that the mass of emigrants, thus
winnowed and purified from all who had been leaders, exhausted in
fortune and wearied out by exile, would in general be grateful for
permission to return to France, and passive, nay, contented and attached
subjects of his dominion; and the event in a great measure, if not
fully, justified his expectations. Such part of their property as had
not been sold, was directed to be restored to them;[628] but they were
subjected to the special superintendence of the police for the space of
ten years after their return.[629]
[Sidenote: PUBLIC EDUCATION.]
With similar and most laudable attention to the duties of his high
office, Buonaparte founded plans of education,[630] and particularly,
with Mongé's assistance, established the Polytechnic school, which has
produced so many men of talent. He inquired anxiously into abuses, and
was particularly active in correcting those which had crept into the
prisons during the Revolution, where great tyranny was exercised by
monopoly of provisions, and otherwise.[631] In amending such evils,
Buonaparte, though not of kingly birth, showed a mind worthy of the rank
to which he had ascended. It is only to be regretted, that in what
interfered with his personal wishes or interest, he uniformly failed to
manifest the sound and correct views, which on abstract questions he
could form so clearly.
Other schemes of a public character were held out as occupying the
attention of the chief consul. Like Augustus, whose situation his own in
some measure resembled, Napoleon endeavoured, by the magnificence of his
projects for the improvement of the state, to withdraw attention from
his inroads upon public freedom. The inland navigation of Languedoc was
to be completed, and a canal, joining the river Yonne to the Saonne, was
to connect the south part of the Republic so completely with the north,
as to establish a communication by water between Marseilles and
Amsterdam. Bridges were also to be built, roads to be laid out and
improved, museums founded in the principal towns of France, and many
other public labours undertaken, on a scale which should put to shame
even the boasted days of Louis XIV. Buonaparte knew the French nation
well, and was aware that he should best reconcile them to his
government, by indulging his own genius for bold and magnificent
undertakings, whether of a military or a civil character.
But although these splendid proposals filled the public ear, and
flattered the national pride of France, commerce continued to languish,
under the effects of a constant blockade, provisions became dear, and
discontent against the Consulate began to gain ground over the
favourable sentiments which had hailed its commencement. The effectual
cure for these heart-burnings was only to be found in a general peace;
and a variety of circumstances, some of them of a character very
unpleasing to the first consul, seemed gradually preparing for this
desirable event.
FOOTNOTES:
[589] "Paul had been promised Malta, the moment it was taken possession
of, and accordingly he was in great haste to get himself nominated
Grand-Master. But when Malta had fallen, the English ministers denied
that they had promised it to him. It is confidently stated, that Paul
felt so indignant, that seizing the despatch, in full council, he ran
his sword through it, and ordered it to be sent back in that condition,
by way of answer."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. v., p. 174.
[590] "The first consul restored order to all the branches of the
administration, and probity in the dealings of private individuals with
the government. He caused a strict examination to be made of the
accounts of all persons presenting themselves as creditors of the state,
and took a detailed cognizance of all the frauds and peculations to
which the public purse had been a prey during the administration of the
Directory. He had had some misgivings on the subject previously to his
coming to power; but he was soon convinced that he had not suspected one
half of the disorder which actually existed. Accordingly, from that
moment he never could feel either esteem for or confidence in certain
individuals, notwithstanding their great wealth. He often said, that he
thought better of a highwayman, who at least exposes his life, than he
did of those leeches, who carry off every thing without running any
risk."--SAVARY, tom. i., p. 192.
[591] August 26, 1792. See Biographie Moderne, tom. i., p. 338; and
Montgaillard, tom. iii., p. 115.
[592] See _ante_, p. 272.
[593] In 1797, Arena was appointed one of the deputies from Corsica to
the Council of Five Hundred.
[594] Giuseppe Ceracchi was born at Rome in 1760. He was a sculptor, had
been a pupil of Canova, and had modelled the bust of Napoleon.--"When he
entered into the plot, he endeavoured to procure another sitting, under
pretence of making an essential improvement on the bust. Fortunately, at
that time, the consul had not a single moment's leisure; and thinking
that want was the real cause of the urgent solicitations of the
sculptor, he sent him six thousand francs."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom.
iii., p. 10.
[595] Topino-Lebrun, an historical painter, and pupil of David was born
at Marseilles in 1769.
[596] "The first consul's box was in the first tier in front; his access
to it was by the public entrance. In this attempt originated the idea of
a private entrance."--SAVARY, tom. i., p. 229.
[597] "An individual named Harel, one of the accomplices, in the hope of
large remuneration, made some disclosures to Bourrienne, secretary of
the first consul. Harel being brought forward, corroborated his first
information, and designated the conspirators."--FOUCHÉ, tom. i., p.
170.--"After dinner, Buonaparte threw a great-coat over his little green
uniform, and got into his carriage, accompanied by Duroc and myself. He
arrived and entered his box without interruption. In about half an hour
he desired me to go into the corridor, and observe what passed. Scarcely
had I left the box, when, hearing a great noise, I learned that a number
of persons had been arrested. I returned to inform the first consul, and
we drove instantly back to the Tuileries."--BOURRIENNE.
[598] Mémoires de Fouché, tom. i., p. 172.
[599] "The letter was forwarded to the Consul Lebrun, through the Abbé
de Montesquiou. Lebrun was reprimanded for having received a letter from
the king through an underhand channel."--FOUCHÉ, tom. i., p. 155.
[600] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 271; O'Meara's Napoleon in Exile, vol. i.,
p. 480; Fouché, tom. i., p. 154.
[601] "The duchess breakfasted with Josephine at Malmaison; and the
conversation turning on London, the emigrants, and the French princes,
Madame de Guiche mentioned, that as she happened, a few days before, to
be at the house of the Count d'Artois, she had heard some persons ask
the prince what he intended to do for the first consul in the event of
his restoring the Bourbons; and that the prince had replied, 'I would
immediately make him constable of the kingdom, and every thing else he
might choose. But even that would not be enough: we would raise on the
Carrousel a lofty and magnificent column, surmounted with a statue of
Buonaparte crowning the Bourbons.' As soon as the first consul entered,
Josephine eagerly repeated to him the circumstance which the duchess had
related. 'And did you not reply,' said her husband, 'that the corpse of
the first consul would have made the pedestal of the column?' The
duchess received orders that very night to quit Paris."--LAS CASES, tom.
i., p. 272.
[602] The opinions of the royal family were nobly expressed in a letter
written by the Prince of Condé to the Comte d'Artois, at a later period,
24th January, 1802, which will be hereafter quoted at length.--S.
[603] It is said in the Memoirs of Fouché, (vol. i., p. 180,) that the
infernal machine was the invention originally of a Jacobin named
Chevalier, assisted by Veycer, one of the same party; that they even
made an experiment of its power, by exploding an engine of the kind
behind the Convent de la Saltpétrière; that this circumstance drew on
them the attention of the police, and that they were arrested. It does
not appear by what means the Royalists became privy to the Jacobin plot,
nor is the story in all its parts very probable; yet it would seem it
must be partly true, since the attempt by means of the infernal machine
was at first charged upon the Jacobins, in consequence of Chevalier's
being known to have had some scheme in agitation, to be executed by
similar means in the course of the previous year.--S.
[604] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 374.
[605] "I was in the house when the first consul arrived. On entering his
box, as usual, he took the front seat; and as all eyes were fixed upon
him, he affected the greatest calm."--BOURRIENNE.
[606] Las Cases, tom. i., p. 374; Fouché, tom. i., p. 184; Savary, tom.
i., p. 227.
[607] Montgaillard, tom. v., p. 414; Fouché, tom. i., p. 191.
[608] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 154.
[609] Montgaillard, tom. v., p. 422; Fouché, tom. i., p. 196.
[610] See _ante_, p. 296, and vol. i., pp. 304, 305, notes.
[611] "Bourrienne offered to inform me exactly of all the proceedings of
Buonaparte for 25,000 francs per month. The proposal was accepted, and,
on my side, I had reason to be satisfied with his dexterity and
accuracy. This personage was replete with ability and talent, but his
greediness of gain very shortly caused his disgrace."--FOUCHÉ, tom. i.,
p. 163.
[612] "Josephine, in conformity to our conditions, cemented by a
thousand francs per day, instructed me in all that passed in the
interior of the castle."--FOUCHÉ, tom. i., p. 154.
[613] Fouché, tom. i., p. 165.
[614] "How," exclaims Fouché, "could I possibly reform the state, while
the press had too much liberty? I therefore determined upon a decisive
blow. At one stroke I suppressed eleven popular journals. I caused their
presses to be seized, and arrested their editors, whom I accused of
sowing dissension among the citizens, of blasting private character,
misrepresenting motives, reanimating factions, and rekindling
animosities."--_Mémoires_, tom. i., p. 81.
[615] Considerations sur la Révolution Française, tom. ii., p. 301.
[616] "Madame de Staël had not been banished; but she was ordered to a
distance from the capital. She has, no doubt, been told, that Napoleon
had, of his own accord, ordered her banishment; but this was by no means
the case. I know in what manner the circumstance originated, and can
safely assert, that when he forced her from her attachment to the world,
and ordered her to retire into the country, he only yielded to the
repeated entreaties, and the unfavourable reports made to him; for, it
must be acknowledged, that he paid far too much deference to her notions
of self-consequence, and to her work on Germany. She assumed the right
to advise, foresee, and control, in matters in which the Emperor felt
himself fully qualified to act upon his own judgment. To get rid of the
annoyance, he sent her to distribute her advice at a distance from
him."--SAVARY, tom. iii., p. 4.
[617] For a copy of the treaty, see Annual Register, vol. xliii., p.
302.
[618] The Pope's Brief to the Archbishops and Bishops of France. See
Annual Register, vol. xliii., p. 308.
[619] "One day he assured the prelates, that, in his opinion, there was
no religion but the Catholic, which was truly founded on ancient
tradition; and on this subject he usually displayed to them some
erudition acquired the day before; then, when he was with the
philosophers, he said to Cabanis, 'Do you know what this Concordat is
which I have just signed? It is the vaccination of religion, and in
fifty years there will be none in France.'"--MAD. DE STAËL, tom. ii., p.
275.
[620] Jean-Etienne-Marie Portalis was born at Beausset in 1746. He died
at Paris in 1807. A posthumous treatise, "Sur l'Usage et l'Abus de
l'Esprit Philosophique, pendant le 18^e Siècle," was published in 1820,
by his son.
[621] Fouché, tom. i., p. 225.
[622] Mad. de Staël, tom. ii., p. 278; Montgaillard, tom. v., p.
443.--"On the way from the Tuileries to Notre Dame, Lannes and Augereau
wished to get out of the carriage on finding that they were to be
carried to mass; and would have done so, had not an order from
Buonaparte prevented them. They went then to Notre Dame; but on the
morrow, when the consul asked Augereau how he liked the ceremony, he
replied, 'Oh, all was very fine; there only wanted the million of men
who devoted themselves to death, in order to destroy what we are now
establishing.' Buonaparte was much irritated at this
observation."--BOURRIENNE.
[623] Montholon, tom. i., p. 121.
[624] "The Concordat was necessary to religion, to the Republic, to
government: the temples were shut up, the priests were persecuted. The
Concordat rebuilt the altars, put an end to disorders, commanded the
faithful to pray for the republic, and dissipated all the scruples of
the purchasers of national domains."--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. i., p.
120.
[625] Tronchet was a lawyer of great celebrity, and was one of Louis
Sixteenth's counsel. See _ante_, vol. i., p. 243. He died in 1806, and
was buried in the Pantheon.
[626] Bigot de Préameneu was born in Brittany about the year 1750. In
1808, he succeeded Portalis as minister of public worship, but was
removed from office on the restoration of the Bourbons. He died at Paris
in 1825.
[627] Jacques de Maleville was born at Domme in 1741. In 1804-5, he
published "Analyse raisonnée de la Discussion du Code Civile au
Conseil-d'état." He was created a peer by Louis XVIII. in 1814, and died
in 1825.
[628] "At one time I intended to form a mass or a _syndicate_ of all the
unsold property of the emigrants, and on their return, to distribute it
in certain proportions among them. But when I came to grant property to
individuals, I soon found that I was creating too many wealthy men, and
that they repaid my favours with insolence."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_,
tom. iii., p. 213.
[629] Fouché, tom. i., p. 226; Montgaillard, tom. v., p. 464.
[630] "One of my grand objects was to render education accessible to
every one. I caused every institution to be formed upon a plan which
offered instruction to the public, either gratis, or at a rate so
moderate, as not to be beyond the means of the peasant. The museums were
thrown open to the _canaille_. My _canaille_ would have become the best
educated in the world. All my exertions were directed to illuminate the
mass of the nation, instead of brutifying them by ignorance and
superstition."--NAPOLEON, _O'Meara_, vol. ii., p. 385.
[631] "At the time of my downfall, the state prisons contained two
hundred and fifty individuals, and I found nine thousand in them, when I
became consul."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. v., p. 56.