525 
PARIS. 
ill a carriage drawn by eight horfes, amid difcharges of 
artillery. He was accompanied by his brothers Jofeph, 
Lucien, and Jerome, who were dreffed in Roman coftume. 
The emperor was preceded by the commandant of Paris, 
heralds, minifters of ftate, grand officers, &c. On arri¬ 
ving at the Champ de Mars, the troops, which amounted 
to about 50,000 men, were drawn up in order of battle, 
and the proceffion palled between the lines. Napoleon 
took his place on the throne about one o’clock, when he 
was faluted by prolonged Ihouts from the multitude 
which occupied the vail inclofure of the Champ de Mars. 
The eleftors fat under the rotunda, and the grand na¬ 
tional authorities occupied fome tribunes in front of it. 
The officers of the crown were behind Napoleon; his 
minifters furrounded him; and the generals were on 
either fide. Mafs was then celebrated by the archbilhop 
of Tours, aflifted by cardinal Bayanne and four other 
bilhops. When mafs was concluded, the members of 
the central deputation of the eleftoral colleges advanced 
to the foot of the throne, the fteps of which they afcended 
in order to have a nearer view of the emperor, .and to be 
better feen by him. They were about 500 in number. 
They were prefented tohistnajefty by the arch-chancellor. 
One of the members of the deputation (M. Duboys 
d’Angers, eleftor and reprefentative for the department 
of the Maine and Loire) pronounced, with a loud and 
animated voice, the following addrefs, in the name of the 
French people: 
“ Sire ; The French people had decreed you the crown, 
which you abdicated without its confent; its fuffrages 
now impofe upon you the duty of refuming it. A new 
contradt has been formed between the nation and your 
majefty. AfTembled from all quarters of the empire 
around the tables of the law, upon which we have juft 
infcribed the will of the people, that will which is the 
only legitimate fource of power, it is impoffible for us 
not to repeat the cry of France, of which we are the im¬ 
mediate organs, not to declare, in the prefence of Europe, 
to the auguft chief of the nation, what it expedts of him, 
and what he ought to expedt of it. Our words fhall be 
grave as the circumftances which infpire them. What 
are the defigns of the league of allied kings, with thofe 
warlike preparations with which they terrify Europe and 
afflidt humanity ? By what aft, by what violation, have 
we provoked their vengeance, occafioned theiraggreflion ? 
Have we, fince the peace, endeavoured to give laws to 
them ? We with only to make and to follow fuch as are 
adapted to our manners. We will not have for our head 
him whom our enemies choofe for us, and we will have 
him to whom they are averfe. They prefume to profcribe 
you perfonally—you, fire, who, though fo often mafter of 
their capitals, had generoufly re-eftabliflied them on their 
tottering thrones ! This hatred of ourenemiesftrengthens 
our attachment to you. Were the meaneftof our citizens 
profcribed, we ought to defend him with the fame energy : 
he would be, like you, under the aegis of the law, and of 
the power of France. We are threatened with an invafion ! 
and yet, ftiut up within frontiers which nature has not 
given us, which long before your reign viftory and peace 
itfelf had extended, we have not paffed thofe narrow 
bounds, out of refpedl for treaties which you have not 
figned, but which you have offered to refpedl. 
“Do they afk for guarantees? Thefe are to be found 
in all our inftitutions, and in the will of the French 
people henceforth united with your’s. Ought they not 
to be afraid of reminding us of very different times, and 
a very different ftate of things, which, however, might 
once more recur ? It would not be the firft time that we 
fhould have conquered Europe armed againft us. It is to 
the French nation that they dare deny a fecond time, in 
the nineteenth century, in the face of the civilized world, 
thofe facred imprefcriptible rights which the fmalleft tribe 
never claimed in vain at the tribunal of juftice and of 
hiftory ! Becaufe France is determined to be France, 
tnuft (he be degraded, torn, difmembered ; and is the fate 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1262. 
of Poland referved for us ? In vain would they cloak 
fatal defigns under the malk of the foie intention of fiepa- 
rating you from us, in order to give us mafters with 
whom we have nothing in common, whom we do not 
underftand, and who cannot underftand us ; who feem 
to belong neither to the age nor to the nation, which re¬ 
ceived them for a moment into its bofom only to behold 
its mod generous citizens profcribed and degraded by 
them. What each of us had, for twenty-five years, con- 
fidered as titles of glory, as fervices worthy of reward, 
was to them a caufeof profcription, a feal of reprobation. 
A million of funftionaries,of magiftrates who, for twenty- 
five years, have followed the fame maxims, and from 
among whom we have juft chofen our reprefentatives ; 
500,000 warriors, our llrength and our glory ; fix millions 
of landed proprietors inverted by the revolution ; a (till 
greater number of enlightened citizens, who make a de¬ 
liberate profeffion of thofe ideas which have grown up 
among us into political dogmas ; all thefe worthy French¬ 
men were not the Frenchmen of the Bourbons; they 
wiftied to reign only by a handful of privileged perfons, 
punifhed or pardoned for twenty-five years pall. Opinion 
itfelf, that facred property of man, they perfecuted, per¬ 
fected even in the peaceable fanftuary of letters and arts. 
“ Sire, a throne erefted for a moment by foreign arms, 
and environed with incurable errors, has crumbled to 
pieces in an inftant before you, becaufe you bring back 
to us from retirement, fruitful in grand ideas to great 
men only, all the traces of our real glory, and all the 
hopes of our real profperity. How mull your triumphal 
march from Cannes to Paris have opened all eyes ? In 
the hiftory of all nations, and of all ages, is there a fcene 
more national, more heroic, more importing? Is not this 
triumph, which has not coll a drop of blood, fufficient to 
undeceive our enemies ? Do they wifti for more bloody 
ones ? Sire, you may expeft from us every thing that 
an heroic founder has a right to expeft from a nation 
faithful, energetic, generous, not to be fliaken in its 
principles, invariable in the objeft of its efforts, inde¬ 
pendence abroad and liberty at home. The three branches 
of the legifiature are on the eve of operation. One fenti- 
ment alone will animate them. Confiding in the pro- 
mifes of your majefty, we commit to it, we commit to 
our reprefentatives, and to the chamber of peers, the 
care of revifing, confolidating, and perfefting, our con- 
ftitutional fyftem, and the inftitutions which are to fe- 
cure it. 
“ Sire, nothing is impoffible ; nothing will be fpared 
to fecure honour and independence, thofe benefits more 
dear than life. Every thing will be attempted, every 
thing will be done, to repel an ignominious yoke. We 
fay it to nations—-may their chiefs hear us ! If they ac¬ 
cept your offers of peace, the French people will expeft 
from your adminiftration, ftrong, liberal, and paternal, 
motives to confole it for the facrifices which peace has 
coll us : but, if they wi 11 leave us only a choice between 
war and (hame, the whole nation rifes entire for war; it 
is ready to extricate you from the offers, perhaps too mo¬ 
derate, which you have made to fpare Europe a new con- 
vuliion. Every Frenchman is a foldier. Viftory will 
attend your eagles; and our enemies, who reckon upon 
our divifions, will foon regret having provoked us.” 
At the conclufion of this Addrefs, the whole Champ de 
Mars refounded with cries of “ Vive la Nation ! Vive 
l’Empereur!” At this moment the arch-chancellor pro¬ 
claimed, that the Additional Aft to the Conftitution of 
the Empire had been accepted almoft unanimoufiy. The 
herald then declared, in the name of the Emperor, that 
the Aft was accepted by the French People. Napoleon 
then, feating himfelf on another throne, which was in the 
centre and overlooked the affembly, fpoke in the follow¬ 
ing terms : 
“ Gentlemen Eleftors of the Colleges of the Depart¬ 
ments and Diftrifts ; Gentlemen Deputies of the Army 
and Navy, at the Champ de Mai;—Emperor, Conful, or 
C S Soldier, 
