Unwilling, however, as he may be to grant that there are any spots in the character of his hero's government, the Prince is, nevertheless, obliged to allow that such existed; that the Emperor's manner of rule was a little more abrupt and dictatorial than might possibly be agreeable.For this the Prince has always an answer ready--it is the same poor one that Napoleon uttered a million of times to his companions in exile--the excuse of necessity.He WOULD have been very liberal, but that the people were not fit for it; or that the cursed war prevented him--or any other reason why.His first duty, however, says his apologist, was to form a general union of Frenchmen, and he set about his plan in this wise:--"Let us not forget, that all which Napoleon undertook, in order to create a general fusion, he performed without renouncing the principles of the revolution.He recalled the emigres, without touching upon the law by which their goods had been confiscated and sold as public property.He reestablished the Catholic religion at the same time that he proclaimed the liberty of conscience, and endowed equally the ministers of all sects.He caused himself to be consecrated by the Sovereign Pontiff, without conceding to the Pope's demand any of the liberties of the Gallican church.He married a daughter of the Emperor of Austria, without abandoning any of the rights of France to the conquests she had made.He reestablished noble titles, without attaching to them any privileges or prerogatives, and these titles were conferred on all ranks, on all services, on all professions.Under the empire all idea of caste was destroyed; no man ever thought of vaunting his pedigree--no man ever was asked how he was born, but what he had done.
"The first quality of a people which aspires to liberal government, is respect to the law.Now, a law has no other power than lies in the interest which each citizen has to defend or to contravene it.
In order to make a people respect the law, it was necessary that it should be executed in the interest of all, and should consecrate the principle of equality in all its extension.It was necessary to restore the prestige with which the Government had been formerly invested, and to make the principles of the revolution take root in the public manners.At the commencement of a new society, it is the legislator who makes or corrects the manners; later, it is the manners which make the law, or preserve it from age to age intact."Some of these fusions are amusing.No man in the empire was asked how he was born, but what he had done; and, accordingly, as a man's actions were sufficient to illustrate him, the Emperor took care to make a host of new title-bearers, princes, dukes, barons, and what not, whose rank has descended to their children.He married a princess of Austria; but, for all that, did not abandon his conquests--perhaps not actually; but he abandoned his allies, and, eventually, his whole kingdom.Who does not recollect his answer to the Poles, at the commencement of the Russian campaign? But for Napoleon's imperial father-in-law, Poland would have been a kingdom, and his race, perhaps, imperial still.Why was he to fetch this princess out of Austria to make heirs for his throne?
Why did not the man of the people marry a girl of the people? Why must he have a Pope to crown him--half a dozen kings for brothers, and a bevy of aides-de-camp dressed out like so many mountebanks from Astley's, with dukes' coronets, and grand blue velvet marshals' batons? We have repeatedly his words for it.He wanted to create an aristocracy--another acknowledgment on his part of the Republican dilemma--another apology for the revolutionary blunder.
To keep the republic within bounds, a despotism is necessary; to rally round the despotism, an aristocracy must be created; and for what have we been laboring all this while? for what have bastiles been battered down, and king's heads hurled, as a gage of battle, in the face of armed Europe? To have a Duke of Otranto instead of a Duke de la Tremouille, and Emperor Stork in place of King Log.Olame conclusion! Is the blessed revolution which is prophesied for us in England only to end in establishing a Prince Fergus O'Connor, or a Cardinal Wade, or a Duke Daniel Whittle Harvey? Great as those patriots are, we love them better under their simple family names, and scorn titles and coronets.
At present, in France, the delicate matter of titles seems to be better arranged, any gentleman, since the Revolution, being free to adopt any one he may fix upon; and it appears that the Crown no longer confers any patents of nobility, but contents itself with saying, as in the case of M.de Pontois, the other day, "Le Roi trouve convenable that you take the title of," &c.
