GENERxVL HISTORY 



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of their sovereign and his throne. 

 " When (said he) I undertook the 

 regeneration of France, I entreated 

 of Providence a determinate num- 

 ber of years. Destruction is the 

 work of a moment ; but to rebuild 

 requires the aid of time. The ral- 

 lying cry of our fathers was, The 

 king is dead — long live the king. 

 These few words comprehend the 

 principal advantages of the monar- 

 chy." This was a manifest intima- 

 tion of the necessity of supporting 

 an hereditary succession in the new 

 dynasty. The council of state being 

 next introduced to pay their hom- 

 age, the Count Defermon, minister 

 of the finances, pronounced a 

 speech, in which he touched upon 

 the delicate topic of the late con- 

 spiracy, planned, he says, " by a 

 maniac, who, for a previous of- 

 fence, had deserved a punishment 

 which his Majesty had been so ge- 

 nerous as to remit." Napoleon's 

 answer contains a sentence which 

 might become our warmest op- 

 posers of theoretical principles of 

 government. " It is to that ideal 

 system, to those dark metaphysics 

 which, in pursuing with subtlety the 



search after first causes, seek to 

 found upon their basis the legisla- 

 tion of nations, instead of accom- 

 modating laws to the knowledge of 

 the human heart, and to the lessons 

 of history, that we must attribute 

 all the misfortunes which our fa- 

 voured France has experienced." 

 He makes the same allusion to the 

 necessity of courage in a magistrate 

 that was contained in his reply to 

 the senate, and reminds the coun- 

 cil of the examples of the presi- 

 dents Harlay and Mole in the time 

 of the League. 



Notwithstanding these public 

 exhibitions of loyalty, it is affirmed 

 in private accounts, that on the ar- 

 rival of intelligence, which could 

 not be suppressed, of the disastrous 

 condition in which Napoleon had 

 left his army, many symptoms 

 broke out of popular discontent 

 and indignation. Nothing, how- 

 ever, occurred which indicated any 

 serious danger to his authority ; 

 and the year closed with the most 

 ostentatious declarations of a reso- 

 lution to persist in the same politi- 

 cal plans, and with confident pre- 

 sages of final success. 



CHAPTER 



