BONAPARTE. 



607 



July 15, 1804, the legion of honour was solemnly 

 consecrated in the church of the Invalides. The 

 ceremony was performed with much pomp, and was 

 calculated to extinguish the recollections of the for- 

 mer kingdom, by substituting a new and imperial 

 pomp, yet accompanied by strong marks of a popular 

 character, growing out of the principle on which the 

 new empire was founded. This celebration has been 

 several times described ; for instance, in Bourrienne. 

 The cardinal legate celebrated the mass. Aug. 15, 

 his birth-day, Napoleon appeared in the camp of 

 Boulogne, and on the next day distributed the cross 

 of the legion of honour, after the legionaries had 

 taken the oath in the presence of 80,000 men. 



Before Napoleon left Boulogne, he founded prizes 

 for the promotion of science and industry, agriculture 

 included, to be distributed every ten years by the 

 hand of the emperor ; but in the great events which 

 took place afterwards, this institution was forgotten. 

 He then went with the empress to Brussels, Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, and Mayence. All the German princes 

 immediately acknowledged the emperor ; the Ger- 

 man emperor only making the condition that the 

 French emperor should recognise him as hereditary 

 emperor of Austria. Britain, Sweden, and Russia, 

 only, refused at first to acknowledge Napoleon. The 

 pope, who, since the times of Pepin the Short, had 

 never anointed and crowned a sovereign but at Rome, 

 consented to go to Paris to be present at the corona- 

 tion of Napoleon, which took place December 2, 

 1804, after the senate had set forth the result of the 

 votes for and against a hereditary emperor, Decem- 

 ber 1. It appeared from 60,000 lists, kept for the 

 purpose, in 108 departments, that out of three millions 

 five hundred and seventy-four thousand eight hundred 

 and ninety-eight voters, only two thousand five hun- 

 dred and sixty-nine votes were against the elevation 

 of Napoleon to the throne. 



In the mean time, the fleet of Boulogne had been 

 often exposed to the most ingenious and repeated 

 attacks by fire-ships of all kinds, which, however, by 

 the judicious measures of admiral Bruix, were almost 

 entirely frustrated. Soon after, Bruix died. The 

 death of this eminent officer was so much the more 

 felt, as he would have been of great service in the 

 naval war which threatened France, and which, in 

 the case of Spain, had already begun, by the arbitrary 

 capture, on the part of the British, of four royal re- 

 gister-ships coming from the Plata, though Spain 

 was entirely disposed for peace. Though the sena- 

 tus-consulte declared only Joseph and Louis princes, 

 yet the sisters of the emperor were soon treated as 

 imperial princesses, which had an effect upon the sta- 

 tion of their husbands. Murat, husband of Napoleon's 

 youngest sister, and Eugene Beauharnais were made 

 princes : the former was also made grand-admiral of 

 the empire, the latter arch-chancellor of the state. 



Soon after, an event happened which seems to be 

 the first indication that Napoleon intended to make a 

 marked difference between the French state and the 

 French empire an idea which soon developed itself 

 rapidly. Napoleon's eldest sister, Eliza, who had 

 been married, since 1797, to general Bacciocchi, re- 

 ceived from the emperor the principality of Piombino, 

 for her and her male descendants, but with this con- 

 dition, that the hereditary prince should not have a 

 right to ascend the throne before he had received the 



I'MUppe, roi des Franfoi*, envers Richard man ami, et 

 won fidele vassal : Moi Richard, roi des Anglais, envers 

 Philippe, man seigneur et man ami. Philip IV. of France 

 (12851314) calls himself, in bis famous letter to pope 

 Boniface, roi des Franfois. (See it, e.g., in Chateaubri 

 and's Etudes vol. iii. p. 331.) Even the sovereign of Prussia 

 in called, in Latin, always rex Borussorum ; and the Ro- 

 mans frequently used the same form, as rex Romanorum 

 Macedonum. 



nvestiture from the emperor of the French. The 

 jrince of Piombino entered, besides, into many obli- 

 rations for this fief. In the beginning of 1805, Na- 

 joleou wrote, with his own hand, a letter to George 

 til., offering to conclude peace, for the welfare ot 

 Europe. George III. had just then experienced a 

 return of his mental disorder ; so that lord Mulgrave, 

 then secretary of state, wrote an answer to the French 

 minister of foreign affairs, under date of January 14, 

 stating that the king could not accept the proffer 

 without consulting his allies ; and containing great 

 praise of the emperor of Russia, which indicated that 

 this power was inclined to join the enemies of France. 

 Napoleon may now have first determined to banish 

 all regard for the balance of power supported by 

 Britain, and to adopt the idea of a federative sys- 

 tem, in which France should have a preponderating 

 influence. January 12, a treaty was concluded with 

 Spain, which put five vessels of the line and 5000 

 men at the emperor's disposal. 



The emperor of the French could not well remain 

 the president of the Italian republic. Deputies from 

 the latter came to offer him the crown of Italy, which 

 he accepted, in order to place it upon a younger 

 head, as soon as the state of the nations would allow 

 it. He had in vain requested his brother Joseph to 

 accept the crown of Lombardy. This was on March 

 17; and from that day he called himself emperor of 

 the French and king of Italy. The reason for his 

 using the name of the country, in the second title, 

 instead of that of the people, as in the first, is, that 

 he considered his relations to France proper, and 

 other countries under his sway essentially different. 

 His authority over the latter was a matter of tempo- 

 rary expediency ; but his relation to France he deem- 

 ed firm, and therefore his title, as French sovereign, 

 was made to express precisely his authority. May 

 26, he crowned himself with the iron crown in the 

 cathedral at Milan, pronouncing these words, whilst 

 he took the crown from the altar : Dieu me la donne ; 

 gave a gut la towche (God has given it to me ; woe to 

 him who touches it) words which became the. device 

 of the order of the iron crown, established after the 

 coronation. The oath which Napoleon took was si- 

 milar to that which he had taken in France. June 

 7, Eugene Beauharnais was appointed viceroy of 

 Italy, and the Ligurian republic was incorporated 

 with France, after the vote of the people to that effect 

 had been obtained. With Genoa, also Parma, Pia- 

 cenza, and Guastalla, were added to France. The 

 Po and Sesia were declared to be the border be- 

 tween France and the kingdom of Italy. The re- 

 public of Lucca was given as a principality to Felix 

 Bacciocchi. Before Napoleon left Italy, the convents 

 were abolished, with the exception of the charitable 

 orders, or those which devoted themselves to instruc- 

 tion, and a few others, in order not to do too much at 

 once; and several other salutary regulations were 

 made. 



Notwithstanding the benefits which his policy con- 

 ferred on the country, these changes were considered 

 as violations of the law of nations, and the incorpora- 

 tion of Genoa with the empire became the pretext for 

 a war long resolved upon. April, 11, 1805, a treaty 

 was concluded between Russia and Britain, by which 

 they engaged to use the most effective means to form 

 a general coalition against France. An army of 

 500,000 men was to force this empire to restore the 

 balance of power in Europe. Britain engaged, 

 besides furnishing troops, to pay 1,250,000 pounds 

 sterling annual subsidies for every 100,000 men fur- 

 nished oy her allies. The various treaties between Rus- 

 sia, Austria, Britain, Sweden, &c., for this purpose, 

 should be read, as they contain many important par- 

 ticulars. The French government eveu published 



