The eighteenth century went out with the French Directory, and the
nineteenth came in with the Consulate. The coincidence of dates is not
exact by a year and a month and twenty-one days. But history does not
pay much attention to almanacs. In general our century arose with the
French Consulate. The Consulate was the most conspicuous political
fact of Europe in the year 1801; and the Consulate came in with
_Brumaire_.
"Brumaire" is one of the extraordinary names invented by the
French Revolutionists. The word, according to Carlyle, means
_Fogarious_--that is, Fog month. In the French Republican calendar,
devised by the astronomer Romme, in 1792, Brumaire began on the
twenty-second day of October and ended on the twentieth day of
November. It remained for Brumaire, and the eighteenth day of
Brumaire, of the year VIII, to extinguish the plural executive which
the French democrats had created under the name of a _Directory_, and
to substitute therefor the One Man that was coming.
The Directory was a Council of Five. It was a sort of five-headed
presidency; and each head was the head of a Jacobin. One of the heads
was called Barras. One was called Carnot. Another was called
Barthelemy. Another was Roger Ducos; another was the Abbé Sieyes. That
was the greatest head of them all. The heads were much mixed, though
the body was one. In such a body cross counsels were always uppermost,
and there was a want of decision and force in the government.
This condition of the Executive Department led to the deplorable
reverses which overtook the French armies during the absence of
General Bonaparte in Egypt. Thiers says that the Directorial Republic
exhibited at this time a scene of distressing confusion. He adds: "The
Directory gave up guillotining; it only transported. It ceased to
force people to take assignats upon pain of death; but it paid nobody.
Our soldiers, without arms and without bread, were beaten instead of
being victorious."
The ambition of Napoleon found in this situation a fitting
opportunity. The legislative branch of the government consisted of a
Senate, or Council of Ancients, and a Council of Five Hundred. The
latter constituted the popular branch. Of this body Lucien Bonaparte,
brother of the general, was president. Hardly had Napoleon arrived in
the capital on his return from Egypt when a conspiracy was formed by
him with Sieyes, Lucien and others of revolutionary disposition, to do
away by a _coup_ with the too democratic system, and to replace it
with a stronger and more centralized order. The Council of Ancients
was to be brought around by the influence of Sieyes. To Lucien
Bonaparte the more difficult task was assigned of controlling and
revolutionizing the Assembly. As for Napoleon, Sieyes procured for him
the command of the military forces of Paris; and by another decree the
sittings of the two legislative bodies were transferred to St. Cloud.
The eighteenth Brumaire of the Year VIII, corresponding to the ninth
of November, 1799, was fixed as the day for the revolution. By that
date soldiers to the number of 10,000 men had been collected in the
gardens of the Tuileries. There they were reviewed by General
Bonaparte and the leading officers of his command. He read to the
soldiers the decree which had just been issued under the authority of
the Council of the Ancients. This included the order for the removal
of the legislative body to St. Cloud, and for his own command. He was
entrusted with the execution of the order of the Council, and all of
the military forces in Paris were put at his disposal. In these hours
of the day there were all manner of preparation. That a conspiracy
existed was manifest to everybody. That General Bonaparte was reaching
for the supreme authority could hardly be doubted. His secretary thus
writes of him on the morning of the great day.
"I was with him a little before seven o'clock on the morning of the
eighteenth Brumaire, and, on my arrival, I found a great number of
generals and officers assembled. I entered Bonaparte's chamber, and
found him already up--a thing rather unusual with him. At this moment
he was as calm as on the approach of a battle. In a few moments Joseph
and Bernadotte arrived. I was surprised to see Bernadotte in plain
clothes, and I stepped up to him and said in a low voice: 'General,
everyone here except you and I is in uniform.' 'Why should I be in
uniform?' said he. Bonaparte, turning quickly to him, said: 'How is
this? You are not in uniform.' 'I never am on a morning when I am not
on duty,' replied Bernadotte. 'You will be on duty presently,' said
the general!"
To Napoleon the crisis was an epoch of fate. The first thing was to be
the resignation of Sieyes, Barras and Ducos, which--coming suddenly on
the appointed morning--broke up the Directory. Bonaparte then put out
his hand as commander of the troops. Too late the Republicans of the
Council of Five Hundred felt the earthquake swelling under their feet.
Napoleon appeared at the bar of the Assembly, and attempted a rambling
and incoherent justification for what was going on. A motion was made
to outlaw him; but the soldiers rushed in, and the refractory members
were seized and expelled. A few who were in the revolution remained,
and to the number of fifty voted a decree making Sieyes, Bonaparte and
Ducos provisional _Consuls_, thus conferring on them the supreme
executive power of the State. By nightfall the business was
accomplished, and the man of Ajaccio slept in the palace of the
Tuileries. He had said to his secretary, Bourriene, on that morning,
"We shall sleep to-night in the Tuileries--or in prison."
The new order was immediately made organic. There could be no question
when Three Consuls were appointed and Bonaparte one of the number,
which of the three would be _First_ Consul. He would be that himself;
the other two might be the ciphers which should make his unit 100. The
new system was defined as the "Provisionary Consulate;" but this form
was only transitional. The managers of the _coup_ went rapidly forward
to make it permanent. The Constitution of the Year III gave place
quickly to the Constitution of the Year VIII, which provided for an
executive government, under the name of the CONSULATE. Nominally the
Consulate was to be an executive committee of three, but really an
executive committee of _one_--with two associates. The three men
chosen were Napoleon Bonaparte, Jean Jacques Cambaceres and Charles
Francois Lebrun. On Christmas day, 1799, Napoleon was made FIRST
CONSUL; and that signified the beginning of a new order, destined to
endure for sixteen and a half years, and to end at Waterloo. The old
century was dying and the new was ready to arise out of its ashes.