PARIS. 
513 
grateful to him for preferving ? Shall we replace the 
pride and heroifm of the tnafculine republican virtues, 
by ridiculous vanity and vile adulation ? Shall freedom 
then be ffiown to man, that he may never enjoy it ? Per¬ 
petually prefented to him, is it a fruit which he may never 
reach ? Has our common nature been fo much a ilepmo- 
ther as to make the moll prefling of all our wants that 
one which we mult never gratify ?—No! — I will not con¬ 
tent to regard this greated good, fo univerfaliy prized 
above all others, except as one without which all others 
are mere illufions. My heart tells me that liberty is prac¬ 
ticable, and that a free government is more eafy and 
more liable than the gloomy llillnefs of defpotifm.” 
When the tribunate was fuppreffed, in i 8 o 5 , Carnot 
once more returned to private life, and all intercourfe 
with Napoleon was at an end. Eight years were now 
fpent in the purfuit of his favourite dudies, and in the 
fociety of his family, and thofe friends who dared to 
brave the difpleafure of the emperor by occafionally vifit- 
ing him. But, when the fortunes of Napoleon were on 
the wane, preferring even the government of the exifting 
tyrant to the horrors of a new revolution, he again 
offered his fervices, (Jan. 1814..) and fpoke to him in a 
language fo firm and frank as to aftound all the fervile in- 
llruments of his unbridled ambition. The letter is Ihort, 
and is a model for an honeft fubjeft to his fovereign.—> 
“ Sire ! So long as victory crowned your eagles, I kept my- 
felf to my lludies in the clofet, and employed myfelf in 
the education of my children. Now that Ihe appears to 
abandon them, and that you have need of devotion, I 
liallen to oiler my fervices. Do not difdain them, though 
they are thofe of an old foldier, above fixty years of age. 
He can rally round your eagles many Frenchmen, unde¬ 
cided as to the part which they ought to take. It is yet 
time, fire, to obtain an honourable peace, and to regain 
the love of the people, which you have loll. Carnot.” 
In forwarding this letter, Carnot faid to a friend, to 
whom he (bowed it, that it would either fend him to the 
Chateau de Vincennes, or give him a mark of the empe¬ 
ror’s confidence which would be aufpicious to the return 
of moderation and freedom for France. Napoleon was 
pleafed with this noble fincerity; and, though he could 
not immediately bring himfelf to receive his former Iturdy 
monitor as his confidential miniller, intrufted him with 
the defence of Antwerp. Carnot foon rendered the town 
impregnable, and continued to hold it until the complete 
re-eftablifhment of Louis, when he furrendered it to him, 
and adhered to the conllitutional charter. Louis offered 
him a place of honour and confidence ; but, perceiving, 
or fancying that he perceived, a determination in the court 
to break the conditions on which the royal family was re- 
llored, he declined all connexion with the Bourbons. 
Such a man mull be an acquifition to any government, 
and particularly to a government fo unfettled and preca¬ 
rious as was Napoleon’s at this time. 
It could not have been Carnot who advifed that ill- 
judged decree which Napoleon iffued on the nth of April, 
(though dated at Lyons fo far back as the 12th of March,) 
excepting, from the general amnelty which he then pub- 
lilhed, fome of the moll diftinguifhed characters in France, 
whofe property was declared to be fequellrated, who were 
to be brought to trial, and, in cafe of condemnation, to 
fuffer the penalties of the criminal code. The following 
are the names of the thirteen profcribed individuals: 
Lynch, mayor of Bourdeaux ; Baron Vitrolles, appointed 
Louis's commilfioner in the iouthern provinces, and de¬ 
tained under arrell atTouloufe; Marmont due de Ra- 
gula; Talleyrand prince deBenevent, (then at Vienna;) 
the Abbe de Montefquiou, de la Roche Jacquelin, Alexis 
de Noailles, Sollhene de la Rochefoucault, Bourrienne, 
Bellart, Comte de Bournonville, Comte de Jaucourt, and 
Augereau due de Dalberg. 
Monf. Chaboulon gives the following account of the 
noble and upright behaviour of General Bertrand upon 
this occalion. “It was I,” fays M. Chaboulon, “who 
wrote this decree, from the dictation of the emperor. 
When I had finilhed it, he ordered me to go and get it 
figned by count Bertrand, who had counterfigned the 
decrees of Lyons. I went to the marlhal. He read the 
decree, and returned it to me, faying, ‘ I will never fign 
it: this is not what the emperor promifed us : they who 
ad.vife him to take fuch meafures are his bitterell ene¬ 
mies : I will fpeak to him about it.’ I related this firm 
and courageous anfwer to Napoleon, word for word. He 
ordered me to return to the grand marlhal, to endeavour 
to overcome his repugnance, and, if he Hill perfilted, to 
bring him to him. Count Bertrand inllantly followed 
me into the emperor’s clofet. ‘ I am allonilhed,’ faid 
Napoleon to him, in a dry tone, ‘that you make fuch 
difficulties about it to me. The feverity I wifh to difplay 
is neceffary for the good of the Hate.’—‘ I do not think fo, 
fire.’—‘ I do, I tell you ; and it is my bufinefs alone to 
judge of it. I did not alk your advice, but your figna- 
ture, which is only a matter of form, and cannot in any 
way compromife you.’—‘ Sire, a miniller, who counterfigns 
the aft of a fovereign, is morally refponfible for that aft; 
and I Ihould think myfelf wanting in rny duty to your 
majelly, and perhaps to myfelf, if I were weak enough 
to fet my hand to fuch meafures. If your majelly choofe 
to reign by the laws, you have no right arbitrarily to 
pronounce, by a Ample decree, fentence of death, and for¬ 
feiture of property, againll your fubjefts. If you choofe 
to aft as a dictator, and to have no law but your own 
will, you have no need of the addition of my fignature. 
Your majelly has declared, by your proclamations, that 
you would grant a general amnejly. I counterfigned 
them moll cordially: and I will not counterfign the 
decree that revokes them.’—‘But you well know, I 
always told you that I never would pardon Marmont, 
Talleyrand, and Augereau ; and that I promifed only to 
overlook what had paffed fince my abdication. I began 
with being indulgent, even to weaknefs; and the royal- 
ids, inftead of appreciating my moderation, haveabufed 
it: they beflir themfelves, they confpire, and I ought and 
will bring them to their fenfes. I had rather have my 
blows fall on traitors than on men who are milled. Be- 
fides, all thofe who are on the lid, Augereau excepted, 
are out of France, or in concealment. I lhall not feek 
for them : my intention is to terrify them more than 
harm them. You fee therefore,’ continued the emperor, 
foftening his voice, ‘you have not rightly confidered the 
bufinefs: fign this for me, my dear Bertrand : you mud.’ 
—* I cannot, fire. I requed your majedy’s permiffion to 
fubmit my obfervations to you in 'Writing.’—* All that 
my dear fir, will make us lofe time : you are flartied, I 
affure you, without any reafon: fign, I tell you; I re¬ 
qued you ; you will do me pleafure.’—‘ Permit me, fire, 
to wait till your majelly has feen my obfervations.’ The 
marlhal went away, and delivered to Napoleon a datement 
of his reafons. It did not alter his refolution; it only- 
determined him to give it a legal form : perfuaded, how¬ 
ever, that Bertrand would dill adhere to his former opi¬ 
nion, the decree in its altered ffiape was not prefented to 
him: and it appeared without being counterfigned.” 
Napoleon, however, was capable of better things. 
Three days after his public entry into Paris, he removed 
every redriftion which the Bourbons had laid on the li¬ 
berty of the prefs, and difmified the cenfcrs, to whom 
every pamphlet, and every article in all the journals, was 
fubmitted previous to its publication. This decree ex¬ 
cited equal furprife and fatisfaftion. If the freedom of 
the prefs was fincerely accorded, the dictatorial power 
with which Napoleon was now neceffarily inverted found 
in that a full and fufficient counterpoife. The utmort 
licenfe was given to political difcuffion. Compofitions 
which cenfured mod freely the meafures cf government, 
and the charafters of which it was compofed, and whofe 
evident object was to excite difconter.t and to prepare 
for reaftion, were circulated without reflraint. Thejuf- 
tificatory memorial of Marmont duke of Ragufa, con¬ 
taining 
