L. 1807. of the private revenue of the Emperor; and we have the CHAP. authority of Napoleon himself for the assertion, that the treasure thus accumulated, in hard specie, in the vaults of the Tuileries, amounted, at the opening of the Russian war in 1812, to the enormous and unprecedented sum of four hundred million francs, or above sixteen millions iv. 115. sterling.1 * 1 Las Cas. 32. to Paris. July 27. The return of Napoleon to Paris, after the glorious termination of the Polish campaign, diffused a universal Universal enchantment. Never, since the commencement of the joy at NapoRevolution, had the triumph of their arms been so glorious, and never had the French people such universal cause for exultation. No commercial crisis had brought the treasury to the brink of ruin, as at the close of the campaign of Austerlitz; no gloomy presentiments of a future desperate war in the north, as at Jena, alloyed the buoyancy of their present transports. The public funds had risen to an unparalleled degree. The 5 per cents, which were at 42 on Napoleon's seizure of power in 1797, and which his regular government soon raised to 60, and the victory of Austerlitz to 70, now reached the unprecedented height of 93. Public confidence was restored as if by enchantment. The great contest appeared to be over the forces of the south and the north had been brought into collision, and the latter had been discomfited; the strength of Russia, instead of an inveterate antagonist, had been converted into the firmest support of the French empire; and, emerging from all The accounts and details of this immense treasure were all entered in a little book kept by the Emperor's private treasurer, and no part of them appeared in the public accounts of the nation or the armies. The greater part of it was drawn out and applied to the necessities of the state during the disasters of 1813 and 1814; and in this resource is to be found one great cause of the stand made by him against the forces of combined Europe in those memorable years. As the expenses of the state always exceeded the income under Napoleon's government, and the contributions levied by the armies, how vast soever, were all absorbed in the cost of their maintenance, the secret fund must have been chiefly, if not entirely, realised from the sale of licenses, and its great amount furnishes an index to the extent to which that traffic was carried.— See LAS CASES, iv. 115. L. 1807. CHAP. the gloom and darkness of a Polish winter, the star of Napoleon again appeared resplendent in the zenith. His standards had been advanced in triumph to the Niemen ; the strength of Prussia was to all appearance irrevocably broken; Austria had been throughout overawed, Russia at last defeated. No power of the Continent seemed to be longer capable of withstanding the French Emperor; for the forces of Sweden, far removed from the theatre of European strife, would soon, it was foreseen, be compelled to yield to the domineering influence of Alexander. England alone maintained, with unconquerable resolution, the maritime contest: but the very greatness of the triumphs of the two hostile powers on their 1 Sav. iii, respective elements, precluded, to all appearance, the 138, Montg. possibility of their being brought into collision; and, like land and sea monsters, the lords of the earth and the deep regarded each other with fruitless rage and impotent fury.1 vi. 273. Bign. vi. 400. Thiers, viii. 7. 33. adulation of So unprecedented a series of triumphs might have Slavish turned the heads of a nation less passionately devoted the orators than the French to military glory, and it will excuse in the Se- much in the way of flourishing declamation. But the Chamber of oratorical effusions of the public bodies in France went nate and Deputies. beyond every allowable limit. Theirs was not the exultation of freemen, but the adulation of slaves; and the classical scholar recognised with pain, in their studied flowers, the well-known language of Byzantine servitude. Already it had become evident that the passions of the Revolution, withdrawn from their original objects, had become wholly centred on military aggrandisement; and that the generous glow of freedom, chilled by suffering or extinguished by disappointment, was wholly absorbed in selfish ambition-the grave in every age of durable liberty. "We cannot adequately praise your Majesty," said Lacépède, the president of the senate; "your glory is too dazzling those only who are placed at the distance of posterity can appreciate its immense elevation." "The L. 1807. only éloge worthy of the Emperor," said the president of CHAP. the Court of Cassation, "is the simple narrative of his reign; the most unadorned recital of what he has wished, thought, and executed, of their effects, past, present, and to come." "The conception," said Count de Fabre, a senator, "which the mother of Napoleon received in 1 Montg. vi. her bosom, could only have flowed from Divine inspir- 275. ation.”1 in honour of Army. Shortly after the return of the Emperor, a military 34. spectacle of the most animating and imposing kind took Great fête place in the French capital. The Imperial Guard made the Grand its entry in state into Paris, amidst an enthusiasm and Nov. 25. transport which can hardly be imagined by any but those who were eye-witnesses to the vehemence of the military ardour which in France had succeeded to the passions of the Revolution. A triumphal arch was erected on the road to Mayence, at a considerable distance from Paris, from which, to the capital, the way was thronged by innumerable spectators. In brilliant order and proud array the Guard marched through a double file of soldiers, by the Porte St Martin to the Tuileries, where they defiled under the new triumphal arch, in the Place Carrousel, opened for the first time on that day. There they deposited their eagles in the Palace-they piled their arms, and then passed through the gardens of the Tuileries to the Champs Elysées, when they sat down to a repast laid with ten thousand covers. The animating strains of the military bands, which made the air resound along the whole length of this magnificent procession; the majestic aspect of the soldiers, who were almost all picked men, bronzed by service, undaunted in aspect; the admirable discipline which they preserved, and the recollection. of their recent glorious exploits, with the renown of which the world was filled, thrilled every heart with transport. In the evening the theatres were all opened gratis; universal delirium prevailed. At the same time, gratuities of a more substantial and durable kind were 1807. CHAP. bestowed on the soldiers. All arrears, besides free gifts L. to the amount of 18,000,000 francs (£720,000) were paid in cash to the army, of which the wounded obtained a triple share, and pensions from five hundred francs (£20) and upwards were permanently settled on them, which, in the case of the officers, rose in some cases to 10,000 francs (£400) a-year. It was spectacles of this heart-stirring kind, intermingled with the astonishing external triumphs which he achieved, and the desirable benefits he conferred on his followers, which gave Napoleon his magical influence over the French people, and make them still look back to his reign, notwithstanding the numberless calamities with which it was at last attended, as a brilliant spot in existence, the recollection of which obliterates all the remembrance of later times, and fixes every eye by a glow of almost insupportable brightness.1 1 Thib. vi. 247, 248. Thiers, viii. 141, 142. 35. sion of the Napoleon, seeing his advantage, took the favourable Suppres opportunity which this burst of enthusiastic feeling afforded, to eradicate the last remnants of popular institutions from the constitution. In the speech which he addressed to the legislative body on his return from Poland, he announced his intention "of simplifying and bringing to perfection the national institutions." It soon appeared what was in contemplation: the "simplifying" consisted in the destruction of the only remaining relic of popular power; the "bringing to perfection," in vesting the whole powers of legislation in a council of state, presided over by the Emperor, and composed entirely of persons paid by government, and appointed by himself. It has been already mentioned, that by the existing constitution three public bodies were required to concur in the formation of the laws: the council of state, the members of which were richly endowed, and all appointed by 3 Montg. vi. the Emperor; the tribunate, in which the laws were discussed and approved of, and the members of which, though also in the receipt of salaries from government, were to a certain degree dependent on popular election ;3 8 Ante, c. 29, $$ 54-56. 277. Pelet, 150, 151. Bign. vi. 398. 2 L. 1807. and the legislative body, which, without enjoying the CHAP. privilege of debate, listened in silence to the pleadings of the orators appointed by the council of state, for the measures proposed by government, and those of the tribunate, either for or against their adoption. Napoleon But, notwithstanding the influence of the Emperor over 36. a legislature thus in a great part appointed, and wholly Reasons of paid by himself, the debates in the tribunate occasionally for that step. assumed a freedom which displeased him; and while he was willing to allow any latitude in argument to the discussions in the council of state, addressed to himself or his confidential advisers, he could not tolerate public harangues in another assembly, calculated to arouse extraneous or controlling influence, or revive in any form the passions of the Revolution. For these reasons, he resolved on the entire suppression of the tribunate, which, having been already reduced from a hundred to fifty members, and stripped by imperial influence of its most distinguished orators, had lost much of its consideration; and on the raising of the age requisite for admission into the legislative body from thirty to forty years, a period of life when it might be presumed that much of the fervour for political innovation would be extinguished. The previous discussion on the laws proposed by government, which alone enjoyed the power of bringing them forward, was appointed to take place in three commissions, chosen from the legislative body by the Emperor; but their debates were not to be made public. Thus was a final blow given to popular influence in France, and the authority of the executive rendered absolute in the legislative, as it had long been in the other departments of government, just eighteen years after that influence had been established, amidst such universal transports, by the Constituent Assembly.* Knowing well the selfishness of * The project of extinguishing the tribunate had been long entertained by Napoleon. In the council of state, on 1st December 1803, he said—" Before many years have elapsed, it will probably be advisable to unite the tribunate to the legislative body, by transferring its powers to committees of the latter |