When the commonalty are so obsequious, any title can be taken by the one necessary man.  Napoleon at first affected to doubt whether the title of Stadtholder would not be more seemly than that of Emperor; and in one of the many conferences held on this topic, Miot de Melito advocated the retention of the term Consul for its grand republican simplicity.  But it was soon seen that the term Emperor was the only one which satisfied Napoleon’s ambition and French love of splendour.  Accordingly a senatus consultum of May 18th, 1804, formally decreed to him the title of Emperor of the French.  As for his former colleagues, Cambaceres and Lebrun, they were stultified with the titles of Arch-chancellor and Arch-treasurer of the Empire:  his brother Joseph received the title of Grand Elector, borrowed from the Holy Roman Empire, and oddly applied to an hereditary empire where the chief had been appointed:  Louis was dubbed Constable:  two other grand dignities, those of Arch-chancellor of State and High Admiral, were not as yet filled, but were reserved for Napoleon’s relatives by marriage, Eugene Beauharnais and Murat.  These six grand dignitaries of the new Empire were to be irresponsible and irremovable, and, along with the Emperor, they formed the Grand Council of the Empire.

On lesser individuals the rays of the imperial diadem cast a fainter glow.  Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Fesch, became Grand Almoner; Berthier, Grand Master of the Hounds; Talleyrand, Grand Chamberlain; Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Palace; and Caulaincourt, Master of the Horse, the acceptance of which title seemed to the world to convict him of full complicity in the schemes for the murder of the Duc d’Enghien.  For the rest, the Emperor’s mother was to be styled Madame Mere; his sisters became Imperial Highnesses, with their several establishments of ladies-in-waiting; and Paris fluttered with excitement at each successive step upwards of expectant nobles, regicides, generals, and stockjobbers towards the central galaxy of the Corsican family, which, ten years before, had subsisted on the alms of the Republic one and indivisible.

It remained to gain over the army.  The means used were profuse, in proportion as the task was arduous.  The following generals were distinguished as Marshals of the Empire (May 19th):  Berthier, Murat, Massena, Augereau, Lannes, Jourdan, Ney, Soult, Brune, Davoust, Bessieres, Moncey, Mortier, and Bernadotte; two marshal’s batons were held in reserve as a reward for future service, and four aged generals, Lefebvre, Serrurier, Perignon, and Kellerman (the hero of Valmy), received the title of honorary marshals.  In one of his conversations with Roederer, the Emperor frankly avowed his reasons for showering these honours on his military chiefs; it was in order to assure the imperial dignity to himself; for how could they object to this, when they themselves received honours so lofty?[308] The confession affords a curious instance of Napoleon’s