64] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



yet to be tried. It is certainly a 

 very extraordinary and curious ex- 

 periment. It appears to wear cer- 

 tain prominent features both of an- 

 cient and modern times. Consuls, 

 senates, tribunes, municipalitieSjand 

 other particulars, carry back our 

 views to Roman history. Trial by 

 jury and political representation 

 belong to modern Europe. 



The particular period of the Ro- 

 man history that the legislators ap- 

 pear to have had more especially 

 under their eye, is that of Augustus 

 Ciesar ; between whose situation, 

 circumstances, and conduct, and 

 those of the French consul, the 

 readers of history cannot fail to dis- 

 cover several striking parallels. 



The new constitution was pre- 

 sented to the acceptance of the 

 French citizens, whether in their 

 respective communes or the armies. 

 In each commune, and in each re- 

 giment there was opened a book 

 for acceptance or non-acceptance : 

 the constitution was almost univer- 

 sally acquiesced in, not with alacrity 

 and enthusiasm, but from a weari- 

 ness and painful recollection of the 

 times of the other constitutions. In 

 a few weeks the registers were re- 

 turned, and the constitution was 

 found to have been accepted by an 

 immense majority of the people. 



Mean while, the consuls, pre- 

 suming, with reason on the speedy 

 acceptance of the constitution, took 

 possession of the government, of 

 which they gave official notice to 

 the conservative senate, on the 

 twenty-seventh of December, 1 799- 



Abbe Sieyes retired from the 

 consulate to the conservative senate. 

 The legislative commissions, were 

 instructed not only to make an offer 

 to him, but to pass a law for com- 

 pelling the abbe to accept the estate 

 of Crosne, a national domain, of 



Goo/, sterling a year. This act of 

 national gratitude was generally un- 

 derstood to be a contrivance of 

 Buonaparte's for lowering, and in- 

 deed humbling Sieyes in the eyes of 

 the French nation. The decree 

 for compelling the abbe to accept 

 the estate, without convincing any 

 one that compulsion was at all ne- 

 cessary, only served to call it more 

 to recollection that the abbe had 

 degraded himself in accepting what 

 an elevated and generous spirit i 

 would not have accepted, and could ^ 

 not be compelled to do it ; since it 

 was in his power, on the very next 

 day, if he had chosen, to have 

 given it back to the nation, if not 

 directlj^ yet in a thousand forms of 

 public benefit which so fertile a 

 genius could be at no loss to devise. 

 Besides tliis domain, abbe Sieyes 

 enjoyed his office of senator for life, 

 with the pension annexed as above 

 stated. The ex-consul Ducos, 

 whose only merit was said to be 

 that he prevented the other two 

 consuls from jostling one another, 

 was rewarded with a similar ap- 

 pointment. Buonaparte, with kingly 

 power, was the first grand consul 

 for the period of ten years, at the 

 expiration of which he might be 

 re-elected. Cambaceres, a lawyer, 

 who like other lawyers, had been 

 an organ to all parties, was ap- 

 pointed second consul for the same 

 term ; and Lebrun, a man of busi- 

 ness, a poet, and who had been an 

 avowed loyalist, was appointed I 

 third consul for the period of five j 

 years. Gaudin was appointed mi- \ 

 nister of finance, and Reinhard of 

 foreign relations ; but he was in a 

 few weeks succeeded by Talleyrand. 

 It has already been mentioned that 

 Berthier was minister at war, and 

 Fouche of police. The residence of 

 thefirst consul was in the palace of the 



