at least preserve liberty and equality.' He then talked of conspiracies, and of danger to the republic. Several members insisted on the General revealing these conspiracies, and explaining these dangers. Bonaparte, after some hesitation, named Moulins and Barras, who he said had proposed to him to take the lead in the conspiracy. This increased the vociferation among the members: The General must explain himself-every thing must be told before all France.' But he had nothing to reveal. He spoke of a party in the Council of Five Hundred which wanted to re-establish the Convention and the reign of terror. His sentences became incoherent, he was confused, but at last he said, 'If any orator, paid by foreigners, attempts to put me out of the pale of the law, let him beware! I shall appeal to my brave companions, whose caps I perceive at the entrance of this hall.' Bourienne and Berthier now advised him to withdraw, and they came out together, when Bonaparte was received with acclamations by the military assembled before the palace.

No

The Council of Five Hundred had also assembled. The president, Lucien Bonaparte, read aloud the resignation of Barras, which had been forwarded by the Council of Elders. Some of the leaders then proposed to repeat the oath of fidelity to the Constitution, which was carried by acclamation. dictator, no new Cromwell!' resounded through the hall. Augereau, who was present, went out and told Bonaparte what was passing in the council. You have placed yourself in a pretty situation.'-'Augereau,' replied Bonaparte, 'remember Arcole; things appeared still worse there at one time. Keep quiet, and in half an hour you will see.' He then entered the Council of the Five Hundred, accompanied by four grenadiers. The soldiers remained at the entrance; he advanced towards the middle of the hall, uncovered. He was received with loud and indignant vociferations. We will have no dictator, no soldiers in the sanctuary of the laws. Let him be outlawed! he is a traitor!' Bonaparte attempted to speak, but his voice was drowned in the general clamour. He was confused, and seemed uncertain what to do. Several members crowded around him; a cry of Let us save our General!' was heard coming from the door of the hall, and a party of grenadiers rushed in, placed Bonaparte in the midst of them, and brought him out of the hall. One of the grenadiers had his coat torn in struggling with a deputy; but the story of the daggers drawn against Bonaparte appears to be unfounded. Lucien, after the departure of his brother, attempted, in vain, to pacify the council. A motion was made to outlaw General Bonaparte. Lucien refused to put it to the vote, saying, 'I cannot outlaw my own brother,' and he deposited the insignia of president, and left the chair. He then asked to be heard in his brother's defence, but he was not listened to. At this moment a party of grenadiers sent by Napoleon entered the hall. Lucien put himself in the midst of them, and they marched out. He found the military already exasperated at the treatment their general had received. Lucien mounted on horseback, and in a loud voice cried out to them, that factious men, armed with daggers, and in the pay of England, had interrupted by violence the deliberations of the Council of Five Hundred, and that he, in his quality of president of that assembly, requested them to employ force against the disturbers. 'I proclaim that the assembly of the Five Hundred is dissolved.' This decided the business. The soldiers felt no scruples in obeying the orders of the president. Murat entered the hall of the Council at the head of a detachment of grenadiers with fixed bayonets. He summoned the deputies to disperse, but was answered by loud vociferations, execrations, and shouts of "The Republic for ever!' The drums were then ordered to beat, and the soldiers to clear the hall. They levelled their muskets, and advanced to the charge. Many of the deputies jumped out of the windows; others went out quietly by the door. In a few minutes the hall was entirely cleared. In this affair the military were the instruments, and Lucien the chief director. It is well here to quote the words of Lucien, who, after a lapse of thirty-five years, filled with strange vicissi

tudes, has lately reverted to the subject in a pamphlet in answer to General Lamarque's Memoirs. We were convinced that the immense majority of the French would approve our proceedings, but our audacity did not wait for the legal manifestation of the wishes of France, and for this we hesitated. The conqueror of so many battles was for a moment confused, not as it has been absurdly asserted through weakness, but because he was going to usurp a right which he had not then,the right of dissolving the legislature; we hesitated because we had in view the scaffold and the stigma of traitors, which would have been our lot had we failed, without having time to take the votes of the nation upon our bold attempt. If Napoleon wavered a moment, he soon conquered his hesitation; we braved the scaffold, and all France gave us a bill of indemnity by raising my brother to the consulate, and afterwards (unluckily perhaps) to the empire.' (Réponse de Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino, aux Mémoires du Général Lamarque, London, 1835.) And in another place he says, that the appeal of the councils to the constitution was an inconsistency, as that constitution had been already violated by themselves on the 18th Fructidor (1797). On that day the legality of the councils was lost; the inviolability of the Council of Five Hundred could only have continued as long as that assembly kept within the pale of the constitution. Beyond this there is no more legality for any one of the branches of the legislature.' One might go further back than the 18th Fructidor, and question the legality of the 13th Vendemiaire, in which Bonaparte had acted a conspicuous part. But to talk of legality in France, after the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy in 1792, would be merely a waste of time.

On the night of the same day (19th Brumaire) the elders again assembled, and agreed that a provisional executive of three consuls should be appointed. The initiative however belonging to the other council, Lucien assembled a small minority, some say only thirty members, out of Five Hundred, who on that night passed several resolutions, by one of which it was stated that there was no longer a directory. By another, a list of the more ardent republican members was drawn up, who were declared to have forfeited their seats in consequence of their violence and their crimes. By another, three provisional consuls were appointed, Sieyes, Ducos, and Bonaparte. At one o'clock in the morning Bonaparte took the oath before the council. At three o'clock the two councils adjourned for three months, after appointing a commission to revise the constitution.

Everything was now quiet at St. Cloud, and Bonaparte returned to Paris with Bourienne. After quieting the anxiety of his wife, he told Bourienne that he thought he had spoken some nonsense while before the councils. I had rather speak to soldiers than to lawyers. These fellows really put me out of countenance; I have not the habit of speaking before large assemblies. But the habit will come by and by.' On the evening of the following day, Bonaparte took up his residence in the Luxembourg, the palace of the ex-directors.

The fall of the Directorial Government was not a subject of regret with the great majority of the French people, who had neither respect for it nor any confidence in it. The profligacy and dishonesty of that government were notorious.

At the first sitting of the three consuls Sieyes having said something about a president, Ducos immediately replied, 'The General takes the chair of course.' Bonaparte began to state his views on the various branches of the administration, and he supported them in a firm authoritative tone. Ducos assented, and from that moment Sieyes perceived that his influence was at an end: he told his friends that they had given themselves a master. The three consuls, in conjunction with the commission appointed by the councils, framed a new constitution, which was called the constitution of the year VIII. The outline, with regard to the legislative power, was taken from a plan of Sieyes. It consisted of three consuls, of a senate called conservative, composed of eighty members appointed for life and enjoying a considerable salary, of a legislative body of

300 members, one-fifth of whom was to be renewed every year, and of a tribunate of 100 members, one-fifth to be renewed every year. The consuls, or rather the first or chief consul (for the other two were appointed by him and acted only as his advisers and assistants, but could not oppose his decisions), proposed the laws, the tribunate discussed them in public, and either approved of or rejected them; if it approved, it made a report accordingly to the legislative body, which voted by ballot on the project of law without discussing it. If the proposed law obtained a majority of votes, the senate registered it, and the consuls, in their quality of executive, promulgated it. The sittings of the senate were secret; those of the legislative body were dumb; the tribunate was therefore the only deliberative assembly in the state, but it had not the power of originating laws. The members of the tribunate were appointed by the senate out of lists of candidates made out by the electoral colleges. The senate filled its own vacancies from a triple list of candidates,—one proposed by the chief consul, one by the tribunate, and one by the legislative body. As for the legislative body, the members were selected by the senate out of lists of candidates furnished by the electoral colleges of the departments. The people therefore had no direct election of their representatives. This was the essential anomaly in Sieyes's plan of a constitution styled republican. The three consuls were appointed for ten years, and were re-eligible: the first or chief consul had the power of appointing to all public offices, and of proposing all public measures, such as war or peace: he commanded the forces, and superintended both the internal and foreign departments of the state. The granting of these vast powers met with some opposition in the commission, but Bonaparte sternly overcame them by declaring that if they attempted to weaken the power of the executive, he would have nothing more to do in the business, that he was already first consul, and hinted that a civil war might be the result of further opposition. The commission accordingly yielded to his views. In fact, most men were tired of revolutions, and they felt the necessity of a strong executive in order to re-establish order and internal security.

Bonaparte being thus confirmed in his office of first consul, had the right of naming the other two; he offered Sieyes one of the places, but Sieyes declined the offer. He accepted the place of senator, with the yearly salary of 25,000 francs, and the domain of Crosne, in the park of Versailles, belonging to the state. Bonaparte appointed Cambacères and Lebrun second and third consuls. They, together with Sieyes and Ducos, appointed the majority of the members of the senate, who themselves appointed the remainder. The senate next named the 100 tribunes and the 300 members of the legislative body, and thus the whole legislature was filled up at once under the plea of urgency, as there was no time to wait for the list of candidates to be named by the departments. The constitution was submitted to the people in every commune, and registers were opened for this purpose at the offices of the various local authorities: 3,012,569 voters were registered, out of which number 1562 rejected, and 3,011,007 accepted the new constitution, which was then solemnly proclaimed on the 24th December, 1799. Although the number of favourable voters did not constitute anything like one-half of the French citizens above twenty-one years of age, yet as all had had the power of registering their votes, it was considered that those who did not choose to do so, either did not care about the matter, or tacitly approved of the new form of government. The number of favourable votes on this occasion was much greater than that in favour of the former constitutions of 1792 and of the year III. Bonaparte did not altogether approve of Sieyes's constitution, although he had greatly modified it by strengthening the executive. Napoleon,' thus he spoke afterwards of himself at St. Helena, was convinced that France could only exist as a monarchy: but the French people being more desirous of equality than of liberty, and the very principle of the revolution being established in the equalization of all classes, there was of necessity a complete abolition of

the aristocracy. If it was difficult to construct a republic on a solid basis without an aristocracy, the difficulty of establishing a monarchy was much greater. To form a constitution in a country without any kind of aristocracy would be as vain as to attempt to navigate in one element only. The French revolution undertook to solve a problem as difficult as the direction of a balloon. . . . The ideas of Napoleon were fixed, but the aid of time and events was necessary for their realization. The organization of the consulate 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 forms and denominations of the several constituted bodies: he was a stranger to the revolution; it was natural that the will of those 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 without deviating from one fixed point, the polar star by which Napoleon meant to guide the revolution to the haven he desired.' (Memoirs of Napoleon, dictated to Gourgaud, vol. i.) This furnishes a clue to Bonaparte's subsequent policy with regard to the internal administration of France. Towards the end of January, 1800, Bonaparte removed from the palace of the Luxembourg to the Tuileries. Of his public entrance into that royal residence amidst the acclamations of the multitude, Madame de Staël has given a striking account.

The finances were left by the Directory in a wretched state: the treasury was empty, and forced loans arbitrarily assessed had been the chief resource of the government. Gaudin, the new minister appointed by Bonaparte, repealed the odious system, for which he substituted 25 per cent. additional upon all taxes. Confidence being thus restored, the merchants and bankers of Paris supplied a loan of twelve millions, the taxes were paid without difficulty, the sales of national domains were resumed, and money was no longer wanting for the expenses of the state. Cambacères continued to be minister of justice. About 20,000 priests who had been banished or imprisoned were allowed to return, or were set at liberty on taking the oath of fidelity to the established government. All persons arrested on mere suspicion, or for their opinions, were set free.

The subordinate situations under government were filled with men from all parties, chosen for their fitness. We are creating a new era,' said Bonaparte; of the past we must remember only the good, and forget the evil. Times, habits of business, and experience, have formed many able men, and medified many characters.' Agreeably to this principle, Fouché was retained as minister of police. Berthier was made minister at war instead of Dubois Crancé, the minister of the Directory, who could give no returns of the different corps, and who answered all questions by saying-We neither pay, nor victual, nor clothe the army; it subsists and clothes itself by requisitions on the inhabitants.'

The churches which had been closed by the Convention were re-opened, and Christian worship was performed all over France. The Sabbath was again recognized as a day of rest, the law of the Decades was repealed, and the computation by weeks was resumed. The festival of the 21st of January, being the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI., was discontinued. The oath of hatred to royalty was suppressed as useless, now that the republic was firmly established, and as being an obstacle to the good understanding between France and the other powers.

France was still at war with Austria, England, and the Porte. Bonaparte sent Duroc on a mission to Berlin, by which he confirmed Prussia in its neutrality. The Emperor Paul of Russia had withdrawn from the confederation after the battle of Zürich, 25th September, 1799, in which Massena gained a victory over the Russian army. Bonaparte now wrote a letter to the king of England, expressing a wish for peace between the two nations. Lord Grenville, secretary of state for foreign affairs, returned an evasive answer, expressing doubts as to the stability of the present government of France,

an uncertainty which would affect the security of the negotiations; but disclaiming at the same time any claim to prescribe to France what shall be the form of her government, or in whose hands she shall vest the authority necessary for conducting the affairs of a great and powerful nation. His Majesty looks only to the security of his own dominions and those of his allies, and to the general safety of Europe. Whenever he shall judge that such security can in any manner be attained, His Majesty will eagerly embrace the opportunity to concert with his allies the means of immediate and general pacification. Unhappily no such security hitherto exists; no sufficient evidence of the principles by which the new government of France will be directed, no reasonable grounds by which to judge of its stability.' This correspondence was the subject of animated debates in the British Parliament.

Bonaparte had made the overture in compliance with the general wish for peace, but he says himself that he was not sorry it was rejected, and that the answer from London filled him with secret satisfaction, as war was necessary to maintain energy and union in the state, which was ill organized, as well as his own influence over the imaginations of the people.' Bonaparte at the same time entered into negotiations with the principal Vendean chiefs, offering a complete amnesty for the past, and at the same time he sent troops to La Vendée to put down any further resistance. The royalist party had gained considerable strength; owing to the weak and immoral policy of the Directory, many officers of the republic, both civil and military, had entered into correspondence with it, because, as they confessed to Bonaparte, they preferred any thing to anarchy, and the return of the reign of terror. But the temperate and yet firm policy of the first consul effected a great alteration in public opinion. The Vendeans themselves were affected by it. The principal of them, Chatillon, D'Autichamp, the Abbé Bernier, Bourmont, and others, made their peace with the government by the treaty of Montluçon in January, 1800. Georges capitulated to General Brune, and the Vendean war was at an end.

Bonaparte now turned all his attention to the war against Austria. He gave to Moreau the command of the army of the Rhine, and himself assumed the direction of that of Italy. Massena was shut up in Genoa, and the Austrians under General Melas occupied Piedmont and the Genoese territory as far as the French frontiers. Bonaparte made a demonstration of assembling an army of reserve at Dijon, in Burgundy, which was composed of a few thousand men, chiefly conscripts or old invalids. The Austrians, lulled into security, continued their operations against Genoa and towards Nice, while Bonaparte secretly directed a number of regiments from the interior of France to assemble in Switzerland on the banks of the Lake of Geneva. He himself repaired to Lausanne on the 13th of May, and marched, with about 36,000 men and forty pieces of cannon, up the Great St. Bernard, which had till then been considered impracticable for the passage of an army, and especially for artillery. The cannons were dismounted, put into hollow trunks of trees, and dragged by the soldiers; the carriages were taken to pieces, and carried on mules. The French army descended to Aosta, turned the fort of Bard, and found itself in the plains of Lombardy, in the rear of Melas' Austrian army. Bonaparte entered Milan on the 2nd of June, without any opposition, and was there joined by other divisions which had passed by the Simplon and the St. Gothard. He now marched to meet Melas, who had hastily assembled his army near Alessandria. Passing the Po at Piacenza he drove back Melas' advanced guard at Casteggio near Voghera, and took a position in the plain of Marengo, on the right bank of the river Bormida in front of Alessandria. On the 14th of June Melas crossed the Bormida in three columns, and attacked the French. The Austrians carried the village of Marengo, and drove the French back upon that of San Giuliano, which was attacked by a column of 5000 Hungarian grenadiers. At four o'clock in the afternoon the battle seemed lost to the French, who were retiring on all points, and in considerable disorder, when De

saix arriving with a fresh division attacked the advancing column, while the younger Kellerman with a body of heavy horse charged it in flank. The column was broken, and General Zach, the Austrian second in command, and his staff, were taken prisoners. The commander-in-chief, Melas, an old and gallant officer, exhausted with fatigue, and thinking the battle won, had just left the field and returned to Alessandria. The other French divisions now advanced, and a panic spread among the Austrians, who, after fighting hard all day, had thought themselves sure of victory: they fled in confusion towards the Bormida, many being trampled down by their own cavalry, which partook of the general disorder. The Austrian official report stated their loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners at 9069 men, and 1423 horses. The French stated their own loss at 4000 only, and that of the Austrians at 12,000. But the loss of the French must have been greater. Desaix was shot through the breast in the charge; he fell from his horse, and telling those around him not to say anything to his men, he expired. He and Kellerman turned the fate of the battle. An armistice was concluded on the 16th of June between the two armies, by which Melas was allowed to withdraw his troops to the line of Mantua and the Mincio, the French keeping Lombardy as far as the river Oglio. Melas, on his side, gave up Piedmont and the Genoese territory with all their fortresses, including Genoa and Alessandria, to the French.

Bonaparte having established provisional governments at Milan, Turin, and Genoa, returned to Paris, where he arrived on the 3rd of July, and was received with the greatest enthusiasm. The battle of Marengo had wonderfully consolidated his power, and increased his influence over the opinion of the French. Negotiations for peace took place between Austria and France; Austria however refused to treat without England, and Bonaparte demanded an armistice by sea as a preliminary to the negotiations with England. Malta and Egypt were then on the point of surrendering to the English, and Bonaparte wished to send reinforcements to those countries during the naval armistice. But the armistice was refused by England, and hostilities were resumed by sea and by land. Moreau defeated the Austrians commanded by the Archduke John, in the great battle of Hohenlinden, and advanced towards Vienna. The French in Italy also drove the Austrians beyond the Adige and the Brenta. (For all this war of 1800 see Précis des Evénemens Militaires, par Mathieu Dumas.)

Austria was now obliged to make a separate peace. The treaty of Luneville, of the 9th of February, 1801, was arranged by the two plenipotentiaries, Count Cobentzel and Joseph Bonaparte, and was mainly grounded on that of Campoformio. Austria retained the Venetian territories, but Tuscany was taken away from the Grand Duke Ferdinand, and bestowed upon Louis, son of the Duke of Parma, who had married a princess of Spain. Through the mediation of the Emperor Paul of Russia, with whom Bonaparte was now on very friendly terms, the king of Naples also obtained peace. The new pope, Pius VII., was likewise acknowledged by Bonaparte, and left in full possession of his territories, except the legations which had been annexed to the Cisalpine republic. In the course of the same year negotiations were begun with England, where Mr. Addington had succeeded Mr. Pitt as prime minister: Egypt and Malta having surrendered to the English, the chief obstacles to peace were removed. The preliminaries of peace were signed at Paris on the 10th of October, 1801, and the definitive treaty was signed at Amiens, on the 27th of March, 1802. The principal conditions were, that Malta should be restored to the Knights of St. John, and that the forts should be occupied by a Neapolitan garrison. The independence of the Cisalpine, Batavian, Helvetic, and Ligurian republics was guaranteed. Egypt was restored to the Sultan, the Cape of Good Hope to Holland, and the French West India Islands to France. England retained the island of Ceylon.

Bonaparte had shown at this period an earnest desire for peace, which France stood greatly in need of. Both royalists and republicans were dissatisfied with his dictatorship. Joseph Arena, a Corsican and brother of Bartolomeo Arena of the Council of Five Hundred, who had warmly opposed Bonaparte on the 19th Brumaire, Ceracchi and Diana, Italian refugees, and several other violent republicans, formed a conspiracy against Bonaparte's life; but they were discovered and imprisoned. Soon after a fresh conspiracy of the royalists, some say of the royalists and Jacobins united, was near terminating the life of the first consul. As Bonaparte was passing in his carriage through the Rue Nicaise on his way to the Opera, on the 24th of December, 1800, a tremendous explosion of several barrels of gunpowder in a waggon, that was drawn up on one side of the street, destroyed several houses and killed many persons. Bonaparte's carriage had just passed, owing to the furious driving of the coachman, who was half intoxicated, and who made his way through all obstacles that had been purposely placed on the road. The police discovered the conspirators, who were fanatical royalists connected with the Chouans in the west of France. They were tried and executed. At the same time Arena, and his republican friends, who had been already found guilty, although, it was said, upon evidence not quite conclusive, were brought out of their confinement and executed. By a Senatus Consultum (for such the decrees of the Senate were styled) 130 known leaders of the old Jacobin party, several of whom had participated in the atrocities of the reign of terror, were ordered to be transported beyond the seas. Bonaparte expressed his determination to put down both Jacobins and Bourbonists. A law passed the legislative body empowering the executive to banish from Paris, and even from France, persons who should express opinions inimical to the present government. By another law, which passed the Tribunate by a majority of only eight, and was afterwards sanctioned by the legislative body, special criminal courts were established to try all persons accused of treason against the state. The secret police was now organised by Fouché with the greatest care, and numerous informers from all classes were taken into pay. Besides the general police, there was a military police, and another police establishment under Bonaparte himself, in his own household.

In April, 1801, a general amnesty was granted to all emigrants who chose to return to France and take the oath of fidelity to the government within a certain period. From this amnesty about 500 were excepted, including those who had been at the head of armed bodies of royalists, those who belonged to the household of the Bourbon princes, those French officers who had been guilty of treason, and those who had held rank in foreign armies against France. The property of the returned emigrants which had not been sold, was restored to them. Another conciliatory measure was the concordat concluded between Joseph Bonaparte and Cardinal Consalvi, which was signed by Pius VII. in September, 1801. The pope made several concessions seldom if ever granted by his predecessors. He suppressed many bishoprics, he sanctioned the sale of church property which had taken place, he superseded all bishops who had refused the oath to the republic, and he agreed that the first consul should appoint the bishops, subject to the approbation of the pontiff, who was to bestow upon them the canonical institution. The bishops, in concert with the government, were to make a new distribution of the parishes of their respective dioceses, and the incumbents appointed by them were to be approved by the civil authorities. The bishops, as well as the incumbents, were to take the oath of fidelity to the government, with the clause as to revealing any plots which they might hear of against the state. With these conditions it was proclaimed, on the part of the French government, that the Roman Catholic religion was that of the majority of Frenchmen; that its worship should be free, public,

and protected by the authorities, but under such regulations as the civil power should think proper to prescribe for the sake of public tranquillity; that the clergy should be provided for by the state; and that the cathedrals and parish churches should be restored to them. The total abolition of convents was also confirmed. This concordat was not agreed to by the pope without some scruples, nor without much opposition from several of the theologians and canonists of the court of Rome. (Compendio Storico su Pio VII., Milan, 1824; and also Botta, Sturia d'Italia del 1789 al 1814.) On Easter Sunday, 1802, the concordat was published at Paris, together with a decree containing regulations upon matters of discipline, which were so worded as to make them appear part of the text of the original concordat. The regulations were that no bull, brief, or decision from Rome should be acknowledged in France without the previous approbation of the government; that no nuncio or apostolic commissioner should appear in France, and no council be held, without a similar consent; appeals against abuses of discipline were to be laid before the council of state; professors of seminaries were to subscribe to the four articles of the Gallican Church of 1682; no priest was to be ordained unless he was twenty-five years of age, and had an income of at least 300 francs; and lastly, that the grand vicars of the respective dioceses should exercise the episcopal authority after the demise of the bishop, and until the election of his successor, instead of vicars elected ad hoc by the respective chapters, as prescribed by the Council of Trent. This last article was most disliked by the court of Rome, as it affected the spiritual jurisdiction of the church. The pope made remonstrances, to which Bonaparte turned a deaf ear. Regulations concerning the discipline of the Protestant churches in France were issued at the same time with those concerning the Roman Catholic church. The Protestant ministers were also paid by the state.

On the occasion of the solemn promulgation of the concordat in the cathedral of Nôtre Dame the Archbishop of Aix officiated, and Bonaparte attended in full state. The old generals of the republic had been invited by Berthier in the morning to attend the levee of the first consul, who took them unawares with him to Nôtre Dame. Bonaparte said at St. Helena that he never repented of having signed the concordat: that it was a great political measure; that it gave him influence over the pope, and through him over a great part of the world, and especially over Italy, and that he might one day have ended by directing the pope's councils altogether. Had there been no pope,' he added, 'one ought to have been made for the occasion.' (Gourgaud and Las Cases. See also a copy of the concordat in the appendix to Montholon's Memoirs, vol. i.)

Bonaparte established an order of knighthood both for military men and civilians, which he called the Legion of Honour. This measure met with considerable opposition in the tribunate. At the first renewal of one-fifth of the members of that body, the senate contrived to eject the most decided members of the opposition.

IN January, 1802, Bonaparte convoked at Lyon the members of the provisional government of the Cisalpine republic, together with deputations of the bishops, of the courts of justice, of the universities and academies, of the several towns and departments, and the national guards, of the regular army, and of the chambers of commerce. The number of deputies amounted to about 500, out of whom a commission of thirty members was selected, which made a report to the first consul of France on the actual state of the Cisalpine republic. The report stated that, owing to the heterogeneous parts of which that republic was composed, there was a want of confidence among them; that the republic was in a state of infancy, which required for some time to come the tutelary support of France: and it ended by requesting that the first consul would assume the chief direction of its affairs. Bonaparte repaired to the hall of the deputies, and delivered a speech which was an echo of the report: he agreed with all its conclusions, and confirmed them in more positive language. He told them that they should still be protected by the strong arm of the first nation in Europe, and that, as he found no one among them who had sufficient claims to the chief magistracy, he was willing to assume the direction of their affairs, with the title of President of the Italian Republic, and to retain it as long as circumstances should require.' The new constitution of the Italian republic was then proclaimed. Three electoral colleges-1. of proprietors; 2. of the learned; 3. of the merchants-represented the nation, and appointed the members of the legislature and the judges of the upper courts. The legislative body of seventy-five members voted without discussion on the projects of law which were presented to it by the executive. There were two councils, under the names of Consulta of State and Legislative Council, which examined the projects of law proposed by the president, the treaties with foreign states, &c. The principal difference between this constitution and that of France was in the composition of the electoral colleges, they being selected in Italy by classes, and in France by communes and departments, without distinction of classes; and also that in Italy there was no tribunate to discuss the projects of law proposed by the executive. But in both countries the election of members of the legislature was not made by the body of the people: in both, the executive power had the exclusive right of proposing laws; in both the government was monarchical, under republican names, and tempered by constitutional forms. The president's office was for ten years, and he was re-eligible. He appointed to all civil and military offices, transacted all diplomatic affairs, &c. Bonaparte appointed Melzi d'Eril as vice-president, to reside at Milan in his absence. This choice was generally approved of. He also gave a new constitution to the Ligurian or Genoese republic, similar to that of the Italian republic; he did not, however, assume the chief magistracy himself, but he placed a native doge at the head of the state.

On the 2nd of August, 1802, Bonaparte was proclaimed consul for life by a decree of the senate, which was sanctioned by the votes of the people in the departments to the number of three millions and a half. A few days after, another Senatus Consultum appeared, which altered the formation of the electoral bodies, reduced the tribunate to fifty members, and prepared the way in fact for absolute power. The Mémoires sur

No. 4.

le Consulat by Thibaudeau explain the intrigues that took place at the time.

The

Switzerland was at this time distracted by civil war. French troops had evacuated the country after the peace of Amiens, but the spirit of dissension among the different cantons remained. Bonaparte called to Paris deputations from every part of Switzerland, and, after listening to their various claims, he told them that he would mediate among them: he rejected the schemes of unity and uniformity, saying that nature itself had made Switzerland for a federal country; that the old forest cantons, the democracies of the Alps, being the cradle of Helvetic liberty, still formed the chief claim of Switzerland to the sympathies of Europe. Destroy those free primitive commonwealths, the monument of five centuries,' he added, and you destroy your historical associations, you become a mere common people, liable to be swamped in the whirlpool of European politics.' The new Helvetic federation was formed of nineteen cantons on the principle of equal rights between towns and the country: the respective constitutions varied according to localities. The general diets of the confederation were re-established. The neutrality of Switzerland was recognised; no foreign troops were to touch its territory; but the Swiss were to maintain a body of 16,000 men in the service of France, as they formerly did under the old monarchy. Bonaparte assumed the title of Mediator of the Helvetic League. He retained however Geneva and the bishopric of Basle, which had been seized by the Directory, and he separated the Valais, which he afterwards added to France. To the end of his reign Bonaparte respected the boundaries of Switzerland, as settled by the act of mediation; that country and the little state of San Marino were the only republics in Europe whose independence he maintained.

In the year 1800 Bonaparte had directed a commission of lawyers of the first eminence in France, under the presidency of Cambacères, to frame a code of laws for the kingdom. The commission consisted of Tronchet, president of the Court of Cassation, Bigot de Préameneu, Portalis, and Malleville. The first code which was framed, and of which a projet was printed early in 1801, was sent to the different courts of justice in France for their observations and suggestions. The observations and suggestions were also printed, and the whole was then laid before the section of legislation of the Council of State, consisting of Boulay, Berlier, Emmery, Portalis, Roederer, Real, and Thibaudeau. Bonaparte and Cambacères, his colleague in the consulship, took an active part in the debate. The various heads of the code were successively discussed, and then laid before the Tribunate, where some of the provisions met with considerable opposition. At length the code passed both the Tribunate and the legislative body, and was promulgated in 1804 as the Civil Code of France, Code Civil des Français.' When Napoleon became emperor, the name was changed to that of Code Napoleon, by which it is still often designated, though it is now styled by its original name of Code Civil. A Code de Procédure Civile, a Code de Commerce, Code d'Instruction Criminelle, and Code Pénal were afterwards compiled and promulgated under Bonaparte's administration. To these was subsequently added a Code Forestier, or regulations concerning the forests, which was promulgated under Charles X. in 1827. All these codes are sometimes designated by the name of Les Six Codes.' A Code de la Conscrip

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