Denmark, against the commerce of England being speedily afterwards formed, the decrees of Berlin—­still further strengthened by other decrees, issued by Napoleon on the 7th December, 1806, at Milan—­were in fact announced as part and parcel of the universal law of the continent.  Alexander of Russia marched a large army into Finland, and took possession of that great Swedish province—­the promised booty of Tilsit.  His fleet in the Mediterranean gained a signal victory over the Turks, and terms of amity between the courts of St. Petersburg and Constantinople were at length arranged under the mediation or dictation of Napoleon.  Everything seemed to point to a state of universal tranquillity or submission throughout the continent, and to a steady devotion of all the resources of the European monarchies to the service of the French Emperor and the destruction of his last and greatest enemy.

That enemy was ere long, in consequence of a new and unforeseen explosion of guilty ambition, to possess the means of rekindling the continental war, of distracting the alliances of Napoleon, and ultimately of ruining the power which, for the present, appeared irresistible.  But a short interval of tranquillity ensued:  and we may avail ourselves of the opportunity to recur for a moment to the internal administration of French affairs under the Imperial Government, as now finally organised.

Buonaparte, shortly after the peace of Tilsit, abolished the Tribunate; and there remained, as the last shadows of assemblies having any political influence, the Legislative Senate and the Council of State.  The former of these bodies was early reduced to a mere instrument for recording the imperial decrees; the latter consisted of such persons as Napoleon chose to invest for the time with the privilege of being summoned to the palace, when it pleased him to hear the opinions of others as to measures originating in his own mind, or suggested to him by his ministers.  He appears to have, on many occasions, permitted these counsellors to speak their sentiments frankly and fully, although differing from himself; but there were looks and gestures which sufficiently indicated the limits of this toleration, and which persons, owing their lucrative appointment to his mere pleasure, and liable to lose it at his nod, were not likely to transgress.  They spoke openly and honestly only on topics in which their master’s feelings were not much concerned.

His favourite saying during the continuance of his power was, “I am the State;” and in the exile of St. Helena he constantly talked of himself as having been, from necessity, the Dictator of France.  In effect no despotism within many degrees so complete and rigid was every before established in a civilised and Christian country.  The whole territory was divided into prefectures—­each prefect being appointed by Napoleon—­carefully selected for a province with which he had no domestic relations—­largely