rabble.  It was then that you saw the fury of Marius, the proscriptions of Sylla, and afterwards of the emperors.  In like manner Brutus is talked of as the enemy of tyrants:  he was an aristocrat, who stabbed Caesar, because Caesar wished to lower the authority of the noble senate.  You talk of child’s rattles—­be it so:  it is with such rattles that men are led.  I would not say that to the multitude; but in a council of statesmen one may speak the truth.  I do not believe that the French people love liberty and equality.  Their character has not been changed in ten years:  they are still what their ancestors, the Gauls, were—­vain and light.  They are susceptible but of one sentiment—­honour.  It is right to afford nourishment to this sentiment:  and to allow of distinctions.  Observe how the people bow before the decorations of foreigners.  Voltaire calls the common soldiers Alexanders at five sous a day.  He was right:  it is just so.  Do you imagine that you can make men fight by reasoning?  Never.  You must bribe them with glory, distinctions, rewards.  To come to the point:  during ten years there has been a talk of institutions.  Where are they?  All has been overturned:  our business is to build up.  There is a government with certain powers:  as to all the rest of the nation what is it but grains of sand?  Before the Republic can be definitely established, we must, as a foundation, cast some blocks of granite on the soil of France.  In fine, it is agreed that we have need of some kind of institutions.  If this Legion of Honour is not approved, let some other be suggested.  I do not pretend that it alone will save the state; but it will do its part.”  Such were the words of Napoleon when the scheme was in preparation.  Many years afterwards, in his exile at St. Helena, he thus spoke of his Order.  “It was the reversion of every one who was an honour to his country, stood at the head of his profession, and contributed to the national prosperity and glory.  Some were dissatisfied because the decoration was alike for officers and soldiers; others because it was given to civil and military merit indiscriminately.  But if ever it cease to be the recompense of the brave private, or be confined to soldiers alone, it will cease to be the Legion of Honour.”

On the 15th of May, 1802, the Legion of Honour was formally instituted; large national domains were set apart for its maintenance; and crosses (each of which entitled the bearer to certain precedence and a pension) widely distributed among the soldiery, and among citizens of almost all professions.