004 



BONAPARTE. 



On the 24th of December, 1800, another conspiracy 

 produced the explosion of tin- infernal machine, on 

 which occasion Bonaparte narrowly escaped. The 

 authors of tin- latter plot were Sainl-Ucgcnt, ( arhon, 

 and Linioelun, daman-, and correspondents of George 

 Cadoudul. Another plot for his assassination by the 

 republicans Metget and Chevalier was discovered ; 

 and several other similar conspiracies were frustrated 

 by the vigilance of the police. Arena, Ceracchi, and 

 their accomplices, were executed January 31. Seventy 

 others, accused of being concerned in the affair of the 

 infernal machine, were transported to Africa, of whom 

 Lefranc, Suunois,and Vauversin, obtained permission 

 to return to France during Napoleon's reign, and the 

 eighteen survivors in that of Louis XV1I1. At that 

 time, when a mistaken policy led to the publication of 

 the most absurd libels against France, but chiefly 

 against t lie first consul, it was asserted that most of these 

 conspiracies were contrived by the government itself, 

 for Uie puqtose of striking its enemies with terror by 

 the execution of the beguiled conspirators. Without 

 referring to Napoleon's character, such charges can 

 be made only by people unacquainted with politics. 

 A long established and vicious government might, 

 perhaps, resort to such execrable means; but, as 

 Fouche justly observed, " A new government always 

 dates from the discovery of the last conspiracy, which 

 unsettles whatever had already been settled." To 

 invent such conspiracies would have been as impolitic 

 as criminal. 



As soon as general Bonaparte had seized the 

 reins of government, he directed his attention parti- 

 cularly to the formation and completion of the code 

 of laws, for which steps had already been taken un- 

 der previous governments of the revolution. Bona- 

 parte personally took part in the debates on the 

 various laws which were to constitute the code ; and, 

 throughout his life, he considered the code as one of 

 his chief claims to distinction. (For more particulars, 

 see the article Codes, les Cinq.) 



September 3, 1800, a treaty of peace and commerce 

 was concluded with the United States of North 

 America. Moreau's victories now compelled Aus- 

 tria to accede to a peace without the concurrence of 

 England. After protracted negotiations between Jo- 

 seph Bonaparte and the count Cobentzl, a treaty was 

 concluded at Lunfiville, February 9, 1801, such, said 

 the first consul, as the French people had wished. 

 (For the details of this peace, see Luneville.) March 

 28, followed the peace with the king of the Two Si- 

 cilies ; July 15, a concordate with the pope ; August 

 24, a separate treaty with Bavaria; August 29, 

 another with the Batavian republic ; September 29, 

 the peace of Madrid with Portugal ; and, October 1, 

 preliminaries of peace, at London, with Great Bri- 

 tain; finally, October 8, peace with Russia, and, 

 October 9, preliminaries with the Porte. The cele- 

 bration of the general peace at Paris, November 9 

 (the anniversary of the eighteenth of Brumaire), was 

 splendid, and the people gave Bonaparte the title of 

 pacificator. He doubly deserved this title when he 

 turned his attention to domestic improvement of all 

 kinds ; to the promotion of arts, sciences, and educa- 

 tion, of commerce and manufactures; to the restora- 

 tion of the navy, and the maintenance of the colonies. 



November 1801 , a large French and Spanish fleet 

 had sailed from Brest and Rochefort, with an army 

 of 20,000 men, under the command of general Le- 

 clerc, brother-in-law to the first consul, for St Domin- 

 go, to restore the French authority in that island. 

 This expedition (in which a noble army, so often 

 victorious under Moreau, and the other troops after- 

 wards sent out, were swept away by fever, within a 

 few months) is only one of a series of unsuccessful 

 naval expeditions in which Bonaparte was engaged. 



Sixty thousand whiles perished in St Domingo. (See 

 Jltiyti.) January 8, 1802, the first consul repaired to 

 Lyons, accompanied by his consular guard, in order 

 to arrange the affairs of the Cisalpine republic, which 

 took the name of the Italian repUliic, and of which 

 he became president January 26, 1802. A definitive 

 peace was finally concluded with England at Amiens, 

 .March 26, 1802 (for the particulars of which 

 sliiiifus). The celebration of this peace was solem- 

 nized, April 28, in Notre Dame, from which event 

 we may date the re-establishment of the Catholic 

 worship. The joy of the nation was excessive, and 

 the first consul could therefore the more easily ac- 

 complish a bold measure, which, under other circum- 

 stances, would have met with much resistance we 

 mean the elimination, as it was styled, of many mem- 

 bers of the tribunate. 



In May, a senatus-consulte added ten years to the 

 term of Bonaparte's consulship. A law of amnesty, 

 which granted the emigrants permission to return, was 

 now passed; also a law for establishing the legion ot 

 honour, which met with considerable opposition in 

 the tribunate, and one for the restoration of negro 

 slavery. There can be no doubt that Bonaparte 

 aimed at the crown even anterior to this period. 

 And here we must say a few words respecting Napo- 

 leon's assumption and exercise of power. The great 

 questions which the historian will have to decide, in 

 forming a judgment of Napoleon, seem to us to be, 

 first, wnether he was right in taking for granted that 

 a republic in France was impracticable; secondly, 

 whether the situation of France actually required that 

 development of the military spirit, which Napoleon 

 so completely effected, and which, in modern repre- 

 sentative governments, is almost always diametrically 

 opposed to that civic spirit which is the only sure 

 basis of liberty, particularly in a nation peculiarly 

 sensible to military glory ; and, thirdly, whether 

 Napoleon was obliged to concentrate the whole go- 

 vernment in himself, and carry the system of con- 

 straint through all the ramifications of the social 

 system, depriving men of that free action, without 

 which all constitutional forms, oaths, and declarations, 

 are void, and, with which liberty may exist, in a 

 considerable degree, even unprotected by such forms. 

 This latter question is particularly important, as 

 touching, not merely the rights of Napoleon's con- 

 temporaries, but the future fitness of the people for 

 the enjoyment of civil liberty. If it was not neces- 

 sary to stimulate the military spirit to such a degree 

 as to overbalance greatly the other springs in the 

 social system, and if it was not necessary for Napoleon 

 to concentrate the whole activity of the government 

 in his own person then he is responsible, not only 

 for the various sufferings of his contemporaries spring- 

 ing therefrom, but as one of the chief causes of the 

 protracted and painful struggle for a free government, 

 which has gone on in France ever since his downfall, 

 and will yet long continue, by preventing the growtr 

 of the calm civic spirit, without which liberty is im. 

 possible. Civil liberty the great aim of modern 

 civilization has never begun with the military glory 

 of numberless victorious legions. But if this growth 

 of the military spirit was necessary, that is to say, it 

 Napoleon could not prevent it in the existing circum- 

 stances ; and if it was even advisable to promote it, in 

 order to prevent the greater evil of the loss of na- 

 tional independence ; and if the concentration of the 

 whole government in himself was required to avert in- 

 ternal dissensions, and all the miseries following from 

 them, insecurity of justice, property, and person 

 then the necessity is to be deplored, not the individual 

 to be condemned. A proper estimate of Napoleon's 

 character depends upon the settlement of these points, 

 which will require great study, comprehensiveness of 



