well satisfied with the first fruits of Bonaparte's labours in the war office, that they revoked the order appointing him to command the artillery of the army of the west (22) and, by a special decree, attached him, until further orders, to the department of war, with his rank of general of artillery, and charged him with the special duty of directing the active operations of the forces. This station which he held until October, was important and pleasing, as it ascertained his proper rank, gave scope to the exercise of his talents, and enabled him, though he could not command the army of Italy in person, to guide its movements, and light its way to success. In November, general Scherer, who superseded Kellermann, attacked and defeated the Austrians at Loano, cut off their communication with the British fleet, reestablished his own with Genoa, and retrieved that command of the coast and of the Alps, which the skill and enterprise of Bonaparte had gained, and the incompetence of Kellermann had lost. It has been asserted, and with some probability that, in the interval of eight days, which elapsed between his conference with Aubry and his restoration to suitable employment, Bonaparte conceived for a moment the design of obtaining authority from the government to offer his services, as general of artillery, to the Grand Signior, who was at that time disposed to enter into the European war as an ally of France. It was natural that his imagination, all passionate for glory, when forbid the heroic fields of Italy, should spread its classical wings, for the shores of the Hellespont. And the idea once implanted in a mind so rich and ardent, might well shoot forth into a luxuriance of brilliant details and illustrious fortune. The likelihood that he did conceive and entertain this spirited project, is strengthened by the fervid activity of his intellect and habits. For, as the youthful reader will do well to observe, from his entrance at the school of Brienne, in 1779, to the moment which our narrative has now reached, comprehending the entire season of boyish folly and juvenile effervescence, his exertion of mind and body appears to have been strenuous, voluntary, and unintermitting. Against all probability, it has been pretended that, during his residence in Paris on this occasion, he languished in professional destitution and personal poverty; a friendless object of casual pity and uncertain assistance. As his resignation was not accepted, he was never deprived of his commission; and his pay as 78 THE LIFE OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. [CHAP. IV.] a general officer, independently of other resources, renders it certain that he could not have been exposed to greater inconveniences of this sort than such as were common to men of his rank. To suppose that, in a season of general scarcity, and under the pressure of a depreciated currency, he was exempt from ordinary discomforts, would be to form an hypothesis at variance with his admitted superiority to all mercenary considerations. In the French revolution, as in the American, few that were honest were rich. But from Bonaparte's prudent habits and simple tastes, incessant application to duty, and long absence from the capital, it may be safely inferred that in this crisis of national difficulty, he was subjected personally to but slight annoyance. For, although it appears that he sold his carriage and a set of books soon after his arrival in the metropolis, it is certain that, about the same time, he placed his brother Louis at a provincial military school, and at his own expense maintained him there. His time was chiefly devoted to official duty and professional studies; his hours of recreation to the society of his early friends, and the entertainments of the theatre. Private circles felt the energy of his language; public men, the scrutiny of his look. His conversation was remarked as picturesque and original. His demeanour, which was generally sedate, sometimes indicated intense meditation. For he looked into himself, and lingered to contemplate the glorious inspirations of his genius; as a beauty gazes with secret pride on the reflection of those charms which are to delight, she feels, and to subdue mankind. CHAPTER V. From October 1795 to March 1796. The convention adopt the constitution of the year III-Its principal provisions-Likely to be acceptable to the nation-The additional acts engrafted on it excite dissatisfaction-Wisdom of those acts-Combined opposition of the royalists and jacobins-The people of Paris stirred up to opposition-They vote for accepting the constitution and for rejecting the actsA majority of the nation and the armies give their suffrages for bothResistance and insurrection of the sections of Paris-Violence of the section Lepelletier-Measures of the convention-General Menou commander in chief of the army of the interior-He attemps to disperse an armed body of insurgents-Hesitates and fails-Danger of the crisis-Bonaparte an accidental witness of Menou's miscarriage-Repairs to the gallery of the convention-Agitation of that assembly-His conference with the executive committee-Protests against being fettered by commissaries of the convention—Is appointed by the committee to command the troops—Barras made nominal commander in chief-Bonaparte's prompt and judicious measures-Gets possession of the cannon and occupies the bridges-Danican, commander in chief of the insurgents, summons the convention to dismiss their troops-Bonaparte furnishes the members with arms— Movement of the insurgent leader Lafond, upon Pont-Neuf- Cartaux abandons that post, and falls back to the Louvre-The insurgents close in and fire upon the Tuileries-Bonaparte orders his troops to act-Spirit and success of his operations-Courage and repulse of Lafond-The insurgents defeated at all points-Humanity of Bonaparte-The insurrection quelled-Exultation of the convention-Meanness of Barras-The appointment of Bonaparte, as commander of the army of the interior, confirmed by the convention-Their moderation-Trial and danger of Menou -Saved by the influence of Bonaparte-Bonaparte disarms the national guard, and executes other unwelcome but salutary measures - Scarcity in Paris-Discontent of the populace-Anecdote-Recomposes the legislative guard for the new government—Organises a legion of police, and a guard for the directory-Becomes acquainted with Madame Beauharnais and her son-Interesting interview-The Italian frontier again in danger In the summer of 1795, while General Bonaparte was employed in the war department at Paris, the Convention discussed and adopted the constitution of the year III. By this plan of government, which was a manifest improvement on the one it was intended to supersede, the executive power of France, under certain limitations, was lodged in a directory of five members; the judicial power in a body of elective magistrates, whose sentence, in criminal cases, were to be founded on the verdicts of juries; and the legislative power, in two houses, the upper, or council of ancients, consisting of two hundred and fifty members, and the lower, consisting of twice that number, and called the council of five hundred. The legislative bodies were to appoint the members of the directory, and to reappoint one out of the five every year, and were themselves to be chosen by electors delegated for that purpose by the people in their primary assemblies. One third of each council was to be elected annually, so that the entire legislature was to be triennially renewed by the popular will, and the entire directory quinquennially, by the will of the legislature. There was not only a proper separation of the great branches of power in the state, and an approved subdivision of the legislative branch, but an approximation to unity in the executive, and to independence in the judicial departments. The advantage of a single executive magistrate, like the President of the United States, was not overlooked in the deliberations of the Convention; but a long line of paternal princes had created such a natural horror of monarchical power, that a nearer approach to unity than five, had it been proposed by the Convention, would have been repelled by their constituents (1). Although, in this form of government, there was much to recommend it to the nation, it was modified by two supplementary decrees or additional acts, which, after an animated debate, the Convention thought fit to adopt, and which exposed their work and themselves to mischievous misrepresentation and violent resistance. By these decrees, the one engrafted as an unavoidable sanction (2) on the other, and both made inseparable parts of the constitution, the delegated choice of the people was to be so restricted, on the first occasion, as to compose two thirds of the new legislature of members of the existing Convention (3). So that, by this constitution, five hundred members of the assembly which framed it were to enter, by privilege, into the composition of the legislature which it proposed to create, while two hundred. and fifty members, only, were to be drawn, by right of election, from the nation at large. Whatever might be the motives of prudence, or prospects of advantage, by which; this arrangement was dictated, it could scarcely be expected to escape exceptions, even from a constituency united in political concord. The people, it was true, in their primary assemblies, might reject both the constitution and the additional acts incorporated with it. But the necessity of a better organized government than the rule of a popular assembly, in which all the authority of the state, in spite of theory and experience, was accumulated, was generally felt and acknowledged. In this state of things, when the heaving of recent convulsions, and the pressure of foreign war, rendered hesitation in domestic councils critically dangerous, to submit to the nation a form of government which, desirable in itself, was clogged with offensive. conditions, was a proceeding tending to place the prejudices of the people directly in the way of their judgment. But a faithful physician offers to the lips of his patient the salutary draught, although it may disgust his taste and nauseate his stomach. This natural irritation of public feeling it was the business of the existing parties to increase. The jacobins were smarting under the severity of the thermidoriens, while the royalists had profited by their indulgence. These were grown bold; those desperate. Both parties saw, in the tranquil vigour of public affairs, likely to follow the adoption of the new constitution, the defeat of their hopes and projects. Thus, while their opinions differed, their interests coincided and their passions combined, and they readily cooperated in reprobating the additional acts, and opposing the adoption of the constitution, as well as in exciting resistance to it after it was accepted and proclaimed. The jacobins adhering to their theories, and the royalists speculating on the accidents of domestic confusion and foreign aid, insisted, with VOL. I. 6 |