Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
of the State. The opposition to this measure was very great, and all the
power of the First Consul, the force of his arguments, and the immense
influence of his position, could procure him no more than 14 votes
out of 24. The same feeling was displayed at the Tribunate; where the
measure only passed by a vote of 56 to 38. The balance was about the
same in the Legislative Body, where the votes were 166 to 110. It
follows, then, that out of the 394 voters in those three separate bodies
a majority only of 78 was obtained. Surprised at so feeble a majority,
the First Consul said in the evening, "Ah! I see very clearly the
prejudices are still too strong. You were right; I should have waited.
It was not a thing of such urgency. But then, it must be owned, the
speakers for the measure defended it badly. The strong minority has not
judged me fairly."-- "Be calm," rejoined I: "without doubt it would have
been better to wait; but the thing is done, and you will soon find that
the taste for these distinctions is not near gone by. It is a taste
which belongs to the nature of man. You may expect some extraordinary
circumstances from this creation--you will soon see them."
In April 1802 the First Consul left no stone unturned to get himself
declared Consul for life. It is perhaps at this epoch of his career
that he most brought into play those principles of duplicity and
dissimulation which are commonly called Machiavellian. Never were
trickery, falsehood, cunning, and affected moderation put into play with
more talent or success.
In the month of March hereditary succession and a dynasty were in
everybody's mouths. Lucien was the most violent propagator of these
ideas, and he pursued his vocation of apostle with constancy and
address. It has already been mentioned that, by his brother's
confession; he published in 1800 a pamphlet enforcing the same ideas;
which work Bonaparte afterwards condemned as a premature development of
his projects. M. de Talleyrand, whose ideas could not be otherwise than
favourable to the monarchical form of government, was ready to enter
into explanations with the Cabinets of Europe on the subject. The words
which now constantly resounded in every ear were "stability and order,"
under cloak of which the downfall of the people's right was to be
concealed. At the same time Bonaparte, with the view of disparaging the
real friends of constitutional liberty, always called them ideologues,
--[I have classed all these people under the denomination of
Ideologues, which, besides, is what specially and literally fits
them,--searchers after ideas (ideas generally empty). They have
been made more ridiculous than even I expected by this application,
a correct one, of the term ideologue to them. The phrase has been
successful, I believe, because it was mine (Napoleon in Iung's
Lucien, tome ii. p, 293). Napoleon welcomed every attack on this
description of sage. Much pleased with a discourse by Royer
Collard, he said to Talleyrand, "Do you know, Monsieur is Grand
Electeur, that a new and serious philosophy is rising in my
university, which may do us great honour and disembarrass us
completely of the ideologues, slaying them on the spot by
reasoning?" It is with something of the same satisfaction that
Renan, writing of 1898, says that the finer dreams had been
disastrous when brought into the domain of facts, and that human
concerns only began to improve when the ideologues ceased to meddle
with them (Souvenirs, p. 122).]--
or terrorists. Madame Bonaparte opposed with fortitude the influence
of counsels which she believed fatal to her husband. He indeed spoke
rarely, and seldom confidentially, with her on politics or public
affairs. "Mind your distaff or your needle," was with him a common
phrase. The individuals who applied themselves with most perseverance
in support of the hereditary question were Lucien, Roederer, Regnault
de St. Jean d'Angély, and Fontanel. Their efforts were aided by the
conclusion of peace with England, which, by re-establishing general
tranquillity for a time, afforded the First Consul an opportunity of
forwarding any plan.
While the First Consul aspired to the throne of France, his brothers,
especially Lucien, affected a ridiculous pride and pretension. Take an
almost incredible example of which I was witness. On Sunday, the 9th of
May, Lucien came to see Madame Bonaparte, who said to him, "Why did you
not come to dinner last Monday?"--"Because there was no place marked for
me: the brothers of Napoleon ought to have the first place after him."--
"What am I to understand by that?" answered Madame Bonaparte. "If you
are the brother of Bonaparte, recollect what you were. At my house all
places are the same. Eugène world never have committed such a folly."
--[On such points there was constant trouble with the Bonapartist
family, as will be seen in Madame de Rémusat's Memoirs. For an
instance, in 1812, where Joseph insisted on his mother taking
precedence of Josephine at a dinner in his house, when Napoleon
settled the matter by seizing Josephine's arm and leading her in
first, to the consternation of the party. But Napoleon, right in
this case, had his own ideas on such points, The place of the
Princess Elisa, the eldest of his sisters, had been put below that
of Caroline, Queen of Naples. Elisa was then only princess of
Lucca. The Emperor suddenly rose, and by a shift to the right
placed the Princess Elisa above the Queen. 'Now,' said he, 'do not
forget that in the imperial family I am the only King.' (Iung's
Lucien, tome ii. p. 251), This rule he seems to have adhered to,
for when he and his brothers went in the same carriage to the Champ
de Mai in 1815, Jerome, titular King of Westphalia, had to take the
front seat, while his elder brother, Lucien, only bearing the Roman
title of Prince de Canino, sat on one of the seats of honour
alongside Napoleon. Jerome was disgusted, and grumbled at a King
having to give way to a mere Roman Prince, See Iung's Lucien, tome
ii. p, 190.]--
At this period, when the Consulate for life was only in embryo,
flattering counsels poured in from all quarters, and tended to encourage
the First Consul in his design of grasping at absolute power.
Liberty rejected an unlimited power, and set bounds to the means he
wished and had to employ in order to gratify his excessive love of
war and conquest. "The present state of things, this Consulate of ten
years," said he to me, does not satisfy me; "I consider it calculated to
excite unceasing troubles." On the 7th of July 1801, he observed, "The
question whether France will be a Republic is still doubtful: it will
be decided in five or six years." It was clear that he thought this too
long a term. Whether he regarded France as his property, or considered
himself as the people's delegate and the defender of their rights, I am
convinced the First Consul wished the welfare of France; but then that
welfare was in his mind inseparable from absolute power. It was with
pain I saw him following this course. The friends of liberty, those who
sincerely wished to maintain a Government constitutionally free, allowed
themselves to be prevailed upon to consent to an extension of ten years
of power beyond the ten years originally granted by the constitution.
They made this sacrifice to glory and to that power which was its
consequence; and they were far from thinking they were lending their
support to shameless intrigues. They were firm, but for the moment only,
and the nomination for life was rejected by the Senate, who voted only
ten years more power to Bonaparte, who saw the vision of his ambition
again adjourned.
The First Consul dissembled his displeasure with that profound art
which, when he could not do otherwise, he exercised to an extreme
degree. To a message of the Senate on the subject of that nomination
he returned a calm but evasive and equivocating answer, in which,
nourishing his favourite hope of obtaining more from the people than
from the Senate, he declared with hypocritical humility, "That he would
submit to this new sacrifice if the wish of the people demanded what the
Senate authorised." Such was the homage he paid to the sovereignty of
the people, which was soon to be trampled under his feet!
An extraordinary convocation of the Council of State took place on
Monday, the 10th of May. A communication was made to them, not merely
of the Senate's consultation, but also of the First Consul's adroit
and insidious reply. The Council regarded the first merely as a
notification, and proceeded to consider on what question the people
should be consulted. Not satisfied with granting to the First Consul
ten years of prerogative, the Council thought it best to strike the iron
while it was hot, and not to stop short in the middle of so pleasing a
work. In fine, they decided that the following question should be put to
the people: "Shall the First Consul be appointed for life, and shall he
have the power of nominating his successor?" The reports of the police
had besides much influence on the result of this discussion, for they
one and all declared that the whole of Paris demanded a Consul for
life, with the right of naming a successor. The decisions on these two
questions were carried as it were by storm. The appointment for life
passed unanimously, and the right of naming the successor by a majority.
The First Consul, however, formally declared that he condemned this
second measure, which had not originated with himself. On receiving the
decision of the Council of State the First Consul, to mask his plan for
attaining absolute power, thought it advisable to appear to reject a
part of what was offered him. He therefore cancelled that clause which
proposed to give him the power of appointing a successor, and which had
been carried by a small majority.
CHAPTER X.
1802.
General Bernadotte pacifies La vendee and suppresses a mutiny at
Tours--Bonaparte's injustice towards him--A premeditated scene--
Advice given to Bernadotte, and Bonaparte disappointed--The First
Consul's residence at St. Cloud--His rehearsals for the Empire--
His contempt of mankind--Mr. Fox and Bonaparte--Information of plans
of assassination--A military dinner given by Bonaparte--Moreau not
of the party--Effect of the 'Senates-consultes' on the Consulate for
life--Journey to Plombieres--Previous scene between Lucien and
Josephine--Theatrical representations at Neuilly and Malmaison--
Loss of a watch, and honesty rewarded--Canova at St. Cloud--
Bonaparte's reluctance to stand for a model.
Having arrived at nearly the middle of the career which I have
undertaken to trace, before I advance farther I must go back for a few
moments, as I have already frequently done, in order to introduce
some circumstances which escaped my recollection, or which I purposely
reserved, that I might place them amongst facts analogous to them: Thus,
for instance, I have only referred in passing to a man who, since become
a monarch, has not ceased to honour me with his friendship, as will be
seen in the course of my Memoirs, since the part we have seen him play
in the events of the 18th Brumaire. This man, whom the inexplicable
combination of events has raised to a throne for the happiness of the
people he is called to govern, is Bernadotte.
It was evident that Bernadotte must necessarily fall into a kind of
disgrace for not having supported Bonaparte's projects at the period of
the overthrow of the Directory. The First Consul, however, did not dare
to avenge himself openly; but he watched for every opportunity to remove
Bernadotte from his presence, to place him in difficult situations,