nucleus of the senate and choose the majority among its full complement of sixty members, the minority being thereafter chosen by co-optation. To the senate, thus chosen “from above,” was allotted the important task of supervising the constitution, and of selecting, from among the notabilities of the nation, the members of the Corps Législatif and the Tribunate. These two bodies nominally formed the legislature, the Tribunate merely discussing the bills sent to it by an important body, the Council of State; while the Corps Législatif, sitting in silence, heard them defended by councillors of state and criticized by members of the Tribunate; thereupon it passed or rejected such proposals by secret voting. Thus, the initiative in law-making lay with the Council of State; but, as its members were all chosen by the First Consul, it is clear that that important duty was vested really in him. The executive powers were placed almost entirely in his hands, as will be seen by the terms of article 41 which defined his functions:“ The First Consul promulgates the laws; he appoints and dismisses at will the members of the Council of State, the ministers, the ambassadors and other leading agents serving abroad, the officers of the army and navy, the members of local administrative bodies and the commissioners of government attached to the tribunals. He names all the judges for criminal and civil cases, other than the juges de paix (magistrates) and the judges of the Cour de cassation, without having the power to discharge them.”—As for the second and third consuls, their functions were almost entirely consultative and formal, their opposition being recorded, but having no further significance against the fiat of the First Consul. Bonaparte’s powers were subsequently extended in the years 1802, 1804 and 1807; but it is clear that autocracy was practically established by his own action in the secret commission of 1799. The new constitution was promulgated on the 15th of December 1799 and in a plebiscite held during January 1800 it received the support of 3,011,007 voters, only 1562 persons voting against it. The fact that the three new consuls had entered upon office and set the constitutional machinery in motion fully six weeks before the completion of the plébiscite, detracts somewhat from the impressiveness of the vox populi on that occasion.
Bonaparte selected his ministers with much skill. They were Talleyrand, Foreign Affairs; Berthier, War; Abrial, Justice; Lucien Bonaparte, Interior; Gaudin, Finance; Forfait, Navy and Colonies. Maret became secretary of state to the consuls. Bonaparte’s selection gave general satisfaction, as also did the personnel of the Council of State (divided into five sections for the chief spheres of government) and of the other organs of state. Many of the furious Terrorists now became quiet and active councillors or administrators, the First Consul adopting the plan of multiplying “places,” of overwhelming all officials with work, and of busying the watch-dogs of the Jacobinical party by “ throwing them bones to gnaw."
In our survey of the career of Napoleon, we have now reached the time of the Consulate (November 1799–May 1804), which marks the zenith of his mental powers and creative activity. Externally, and in a personal sense, the period falls into two parts. The former of these extends to August 1802, when the powers of the First Consul, which had been decreed for ten years, were prolonged to the duration of his life. But in another and wider sense the Consulate has a well-defined unity; it is the time when France gained most of her institutions and the essentials of her machinery of government.
The reader is referred to the article France (Law and Institutions) for the information respecting the various codes dating from this period, and to the article Concordat for the famous measure whereby Napoleon re-established official relations between the state and the church in France. More pressing even than that question was the regulation of local government. Bonaparte’s action in this matter was so characteristic as to deserve close attention. Undoubtedly the question was one of great importance; for local affairs had fallen into chaos. The aim of the constituent assembly in its departmental system (1789–1790) had been to vest local affairs ultimately in councils elected by universal suffrage, alike in the department and in the three smaller areas within it. These councils and the executive officers dependent on them soon proved to be unable to manage even local affairs efficiently, while they were very lax in the collection of the national taxes unwisely entrusted to them. Lack of central control over the virtually independent communes (over forty thousand in number) led to a sharp rebound under the Convention, when all matters of importance were disposed of by commissioners appointed by that body. The relations between national and local authorities fluctuated considerably during the Directory; and it is noteworthy that the constitution of December 1799 placed local administration merely under the control of ministers at Paris. Everything, therefore, portended a change in this sphere, but few persons expected a change so drastic as that which Bonaparte now brought about in the measure of 28 Pluviôse, year VIII. (16th of February 1800). Certainly no measure marked more clearly the abandonment of democratic ideals. The powers formerly vested in elective bodies were now to be wielded by prefects and sub-prefects, nominated by the First Consul and responsible to him. The elective councils for the department and for the arrondissement (a new area which replaced the “districts” of the year 1795) continued to exist, but they sat only for a fortnight in the year and had to deal mainly with the assessment of taxes For their respective areas. They might be consulted by the prefect or sub-prefect; but they had no hold over him. The municipal councils had slightly larger powers, relating to loans, octrois, &c. But the chief municipal officer, the mayor, was chosen by the prefect. The police of all towns containing more than 100,000 inhabitants was controlled by the central government.
It is significant that Bonaparte proposed this bill (drafted in the Council of State) to the Tribunate and the Corps Législatif on the very day on which it was first certainly known that France had accepted the new constitution. The opposition in the Tribunate was sharp, but was paralysed by the knowledge of the fact just named and by the lack of a free press. The bill passed there by 71 votes to 25; and in the Corps Législatif by 217 to 68. The acquiescence of these bodies in the transition to despotic methods predisposed the public to a similar attitude of mind. At first the sharpness of the change was not fully apparent owing to the tactful choice of prefects made by the First Consul; but before long their very extensive powers were seen to form an important part of the new machinery of autocracy. In this connexion we may note that the disturbances, mainly royalist but sometimes Jacobinical, in several districts of France enabled Bonaparte to propose the establishment in the troubled districts of special tribunals for the trial of all offences tending to disturb the general peace. Here again the Tribunate offered a vehement opposition to the measure, and in spite of official pressure passed the bill only by a majority of eight. Becoming law on 18 Pluviôse, year IX. (6th of February 1801), it enabled the government to supersede the ordinary judicial machinery for political offences in no fewer than thirty-two departments.
Bonaparte signalized his tenure of power by no very important developments in the sphere of elementary education. This was left to the local authorities, and led to little result. The more advanced schools, known as écoles centrales, were reconstituted either as écoles secondaires or as lycées by the law of the 30th of April 1802. The former of these were designed for the completion of the training of the most promising pupils in the communal elementary schools, and were left to local control or even to management by private individuals. Far more important, however, were the lycées, where an excellent education was imparted, semi-military in form and under the control of government. It gained valuable powers of patronage by founding 6400 exhibitions (bourses) in connexion with the lycées; 2400 of which were reserved for the sons of soldiers and government officials. The same centralizing tendency is strongly marked in the organization of the university of France, the general principle of which was set forth in May 1806, while the details were arranged by that of March the 17th, 1808. It was designed to control all the educational institutions of France, both public and private; and it did so with two exceptions, the Museum and the Collège de France. The discipline was strict. Fidelity to the emperor and to the teaching of the Roman Catholic doctrine formed part of the aims of this comprehensive corporation. Its officers were required to obey “the statutes of the teaching body, which have for their object uniformity of instruction, and which tend to form for the state citizens attached to their religion, their prince, their country and their family.” These words sufficiently illustrate the essentially political character of the institution. Its organization was completed by the decree of the 15th of November 1811. Napoleon’s ideas on the education of girls may be judged by this extract from his speech at the Council of State on the 1st of March 1806: “I do not think that we need trouble ourselves with any plan of instruction for young females: they cannot be better brought up than by their mothers. Public education is not suitable for them, because they are never called upon to act in public. Manners are all in all to them, and marriage is all they look to.”
Returning to the period of the Consulate, we notice the founding of an institution which also had its complete development during the Empire, namely, the Legion of Honour (19th of May 1802). Napoleon intended it as a protest against the spirit of equality which pervaded revolutionary thought. In one respect the new institution marked an enormous advance on titles of nobility, which had been granted nearly always for warlike exploits, or merely
as a mark of the favour of the sovereign. The First Consul, on the
