paying them he regarded as a just restitution to himself; and all the sums which were struck off from their accounts he regarded as so much deducted from a theft. The less a Minister paid out of his budget the more Bonaparte was pleased with him; and this ruinous system of economy can alone explain the credit which Decrès so long enjoyed at the expense of the French navy.

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God, I have found him, and I shall make him a severe example." Again, a few years later, in a letter to his brother he says, "I send you a copy of the decree requiring the sums of which the Treasury has been robbed to be repaid. Masséna and S― have stolen 6,400,000 francs. They shall repay to the last farthing! Let Masséna be advised to return the 6,000,000. To do so quickly is his only salvation! If he does not I shall send a military commission of inquiry to Padua, for such robbery is intolerable. To suffer soldiers to starve and be unpaid, and to pretend that the sums destined for their use were a present to himself from the province, is too impudent! Such conduct would make it impossible to carry on a war. Let S be watched. The details of their plunderings are incredible. I learnt them from the Austrians who themselves are ashamed of them. They allowed corn to go to Venice. The evil is intolerable. I will soon find a remedy. I order Ardent to be arrested. He is an agent of S- If he should be at Naples have him arrested and sent under a good escort to Paris. You have seen that Flachat has been condemned to a year's imprisonment in irons, and that his transactions have been declared void?" (Napoleon to Joseph, March 12, 1806.-Du Casse, tome ii. p. 101).

The evil handed down from the Revolutionary times was too widespread to be stopped by all the efforts of Napoleon, directed though they were against the highest as well as the lowest officials. When Davoust took the command at Hamburg he reported to the Emperor that a large part of the contributions raised in the times of his predecessor had not reached the public exchequer, and Meneval (tome iii. p. 265) attributes much of the discontent felt towards the Emperor in the last years of his reign to the energy with which he pressed the pursuit of these and similar misdeeds. Bourrienne himself was believed to have received large sums from Hamburg (see Meneval in the passage just referred to, and Puymaigre, p. 135), as well as

Brune.

Daru told Meneval that a marshal had appropriated 200,000 out of 300,000 francs raised from Erfurth, letting his ordonnateur take the rest. The unfortunate ordonnateur had to pay up the whole sum, as nothing was recovered from the marshal. Bernadotte appears to have been the culprit ("The marshal... since raised to a rank placing him above all jurisdiction"). One of the worst instances in Spain was that of Marshal L--, concerning which reference may be made to the Memoirs of Madame d'Abrantès, English edition of 1882, vol. iii. p. 214.

To quote again from the Emperor's letters to his brother: "I am well pleased with my affairs here; it gave me great trouble to bring them into order, and to force a dozen rogues, at whose head is Ouvrard, to refund. Barbé-Marbois has been duped just as the Cardinal de Rohan was duped in the affair of the necklace, with the difference that in this case more than 90,000,000 were in question. I had made up my mind to have them shot without trial! Thank God, I have been repaid! This has

1 The Swas probably Salicetti.

1800.

BONAPARTE ON RELIGION.

327

On the subject of religion Bonaparte's ideas were very vague. "My reason," said he, "makes me incredulous respecting many things; but the impressions of my childhood and early youth throw me into uncertainty." He was very fond of talking of religion. In Italy, in Egypt, and on board the Orient and the Muiron, I have known him to take part in very animated conversations on this subject. He readily yielded up all that was proved against religion as the work of men and time but he would not hear of materialism. I recollect that one fine night, when he was on deck with some persons who were arguing in favour of materialism, Bonaparte raised his hand to heaven and, pointing to the stars, said, "You may talk as long as you please, gentlemen, but who made all that ?" The perpetuity of a name in the memory of man was to him the immortality of the soul. He was perfectly tolerant towards every variety of religious faith.'

Among Bonaparte's singular habits was that of seating himself on any table which happened to be of a suitable height for him. He would often sit on mine, resting his left arm on my right shoulder, and swinging his left leg, which did not reach the ground; and while he dictated to me he would jolt the table so that I could scarcely write.

put me somewhat out of humour, and I tell you about it that you may see how dishonest men are. You are now at the head of a great army, and will soon be at that of a great administration, and ought to be aware of this. Roguery has been the cause of all the misfortunes of France" (Napoleon to Joseph, February 7, 1806.Du Casse, tome ii. p. 55).

Nothing could exceed the severity with which Napoleon pursued such acts when known to him. He made it almost a personal affair, as will be seen from the foregoing instances, and the difficulty with which Bourrienne persuaded him not to try, years after the act, a man who had committed peculation in Italy.

While on this topic a pleasing contrast will be found in the instances of Marshal Mortier, who left Hanover a poorer man than when he entered upon its administration, and Marshal Suchet, who received from the Spanish under his rule a public recognition of the honesty and justice of his administration in Valencia and Arragon.

1 Policy induced Bonaparte to re-establish religious worship in France, which he thought would be a powerful aid to the consolidation of his power; but he would never consent to the persecution of other religions. He wished to influence man. kind in temporal things, but not in points of belief.-Bourrienne,

Bonaparte had a great dislike to reconsider any decision, even when it was acknowledged to be unjust. In little as well as in great things he evinced his repugnance to retrograde. An instance of this occurred in the affair of General Latour-Foissac. The First Consul felt how much he had wronged that general; but he wished some time to elapse before he repaired his error. His heart and his conduct were at variance; but his feelings were overcome by what he conceived to be political necessity. Bonaparte was never known to say, "I have done wrong: his usual observation was, "I begin to think there is something wrong."

In spite of this sort of feeling, which was more worthy of an ill-humoured philosopher than the head of a government, Bonaparte was neither malignant nor vindictive. I cannot certainly defend him against all the reproaches which he incurred through the imperious law of war and cruel necessity; but I may say that he has often been unjustly accused. None but those who are blinded by fury will call him a Nero or a Caligula. I think I have avowed his faults with sufficient candour to entitle me to credit when I speak in his commendation; and I declare that, out of the field of battle, Bonaparte had a kind and feeling heart. He was very fond of children, a trait which seldom distinguishes a bad man. In the relations of private life to call him amiable would not be using too strong a word, and he was very indulgent to the weakness of human nature. The contrary opinion is too firmly fixed in some minds for me to hope to root it out. I shall, I fear, have contradictors, but I address myself to those who look for truth. To judge impartially we must take into account the influence which time and circumstances exercise on men ; and distinguish between the different characters of the Collegian, the General, the Consul, and the Emperor.

1800.

329

CHAPTER XXIX.

1800.

Bonaparte's laws-Suppression of the festival of the 21st of January— Official visits-The Temple-Louis XVI. and Sir Sidney SmithPeculation during the Directory-Loan raised-Modest budget-The Consul and the Member of the Institute-The figure of the RepublicDuroc's missions-The King of Prussia-The Emperor AlexanderGeneral Latour-Foissac-Arbitrary decree-Company of players for Egypt-Singular ideas respecting literary property-The preparatory Consulate-The journals-Sabres and muskets of honour-The First Consul and his Comrade-The bust of Brutus-Statues in the gallery of the Tuileries-Sections of the Council of State-Costumes of public functionaries-Masquerades-The opera-balls-Recall of the exiles.

Ir is not my purpose to say much about the laws, decrees, and Sénatus-Consultes, which the First Consul either passed, or caused to be passed, after his accession to power. What were they all, with the exception of the Civil Code? The legislative reveries of the different men who have from time to time ruled France form an immense labyrinth, in which chicanery bewilders reason and common sense; and they would long since have been buried in oblivion had they not occasionally served to authorise injustice. I cannot, however, pass over unnoticed the happy effect produced in Paris, and throughout the whole of France, by some of the first decisions of the Consuls. Perhaps none but those who witnessed the state of society during the reign of Terror can fully appreciate the satisfaction which the first steps towards the restoration of social order produced in the breasts of all honest men. The Directory, more base and not less perverse than the

Convention, had retained the horrible 21st of January among the festivals of the Republic. One of Bonaparte's first ideas on attaining the possession of power was to abolish this; but such was the ascendency of the abettors of the fearful event that he could not venture on a straightforward course. He and his two colleagues, who were Siéyès and Roger Ducos, signed, on the 5th Nivôse, a decree, setting forth that in future the only festivals to be celebrated by the Republic were the 1st Vendémiaire and the 14th of July, intending by this means to consecrate provisionally the recollection of the foundation of the Republic and of liberty.

All was calculation with Bonaparte. To produce effect was his highest gratification. Thus he let slip no opportunity of saying or doing things which were calculated to dazzle the multitude. While at the Luxembourg, he went sometimes accompanied by his aides de camp and sometimes by a Minister, to pay certain official visits. I did not accompany him on these occasions; but almost always either on his return, after dinner, or in the evening, he related to me what he had done and said. He congratulated himself on having paid a visit to Daubenton, at the Jardin des Plantes, and talked with great self-complacency of the distinguished way in which he had treated the contemporary of Buffon.

On the 24th Brumaire he visited the prisons. He liked to make these visits unexpectedly, and to take the governors of the different public establishments by surprise; so that, having no time to make their preparations, he might see things as they really were. I was in his cabinet when he returned, for I had a great deal of business to go through in his absence. As he entered he exclaimed, "What brutes these Directors are! To what a state they have brought our public establishments! But, stay a little! I will put all in order. The prisons are in a shockingly unwholesome state, and the prisoners miser