STATE PAPERS. 



6S9 



the most striking manner. All the 

 armies have seen themselves at once 

 separated from their generals, all 

 the military corps from their chiefs ; 

 the superior tribunals, deprived of 

 their first magistrates ; the public 

 ministry, of its first organs ; the 

 churches of their principal pastors ; 

 the towns, the countries, simulta- 

 neously quitted by every one who 

 has power and inlluence over men's 

 minds ; the people every where 

 abandoned to their genius ; and the 

 people have every where shown 

 themselves desirous of order and of 

 the laws. — At the same moment the 

 sovereign pontiff travelled through 

 Franco. From the banks of the 

 Po to the borders of the Seine, he 

 has every where been the object of 

 a religious homage rendered him by 

 that immense majority, who, faith- 

 ful to the ancient doctrine, see a 

 common father and the centre of the 

 common belief in him whom all 

 Europe reveres as a sovereign, raised 

 to the throne by his piety and his 

 virtues. — A plot laid by an impla- 

 cable government, was going to re- 

 plunge France into t\^e abyss of 

 civil wars and of anarchy. At the 

 discovery of that horrible plot, all 

 France was moved ; itujuietudes, ill 

 laid asleep, were again awakened, 

 and in every miud was at once found 

 anew, principles which have been 

 those of all wise men, and which 

 were constantly ours before error 

 and weakness had alienated men's 

 minds, and guilty intrigues had mis- 

 led their opinions. The nation had 

 experienced that power divided, was 

 without accord and without strength ; 

 it had been made sensible that iii- 

 trusted for a time, it was only pre- 

 carious, and permitted neither long 

 labours nor long thoughts ; (hat in- 

 trusted for the life of a 

 Vol. XLVI. 



it grew weat with him, and left 

 after him only chances of discord 

 and of anarchy ; it was convinced in 

 fine that there was safety, for gredf 

 nations, only iu hereditary power ; 

 that it alone secured their political 

 life, and eiiibraced in its duration, 

 generations and ages. — The senate 

 was, as it should be, the organ of 

 the common inquietude. Soon burst 

 forth that wish to see the power 

 hereditary which dwelt in all hearts 

 truly French ; it was proclaimed by 

 the electoral colleges, by the armies, 

 the council of state, magistrates, the 

 most enlightened men were consulted, 

 and their answer was unanimous. — 

 The necessity of hereditary power 

 in a state so vast as France, had 

 been long since perceived by the 

 first consul. In vain had he resisted 

 the force of principles, in vain had 

 he tried to establish a system of 

 election which might perpetuate 

 public authority, and transmit it 

 Avithout danger and without trou- 

 bles. — Public inquietudes, the hopes 

 of our enemies, accused his work. 

 His death was to be the ruin of his 

 labours. It w as till this term that fo- 

 reign jealousy, and the spirit of dis- 

 cord and anarchy waited for us. 

 Reason, sentiment, experience dic- 

 tated equally to all Frenchmen that 

 there was no certain transmission of 

 power but that which was efll'ected 

 without interval, that there was no 

 tranquil succession but that which 

 was regulated by the laws of nature. 

 — When such motives supported 

 such |)ressing wishes, the determi- 

 nation of the first consul could not 

 be d(jubtful. He resolved then to 

 accept for himself and lor two of his 

 brothers aftrr him, the load which 

 was imposed on him by the necessity 

 of circumstancis. — From his medi- 

 tations ripened by conferences with 

 Yy tilt 



