Everything was to be created.  Bonaparte had with him almost the whole of the army, and on the soldiers he could rely.  But the military force was no longer sufficient for him.  Wishing to possess a great civil power established by legal forms, he immediately set about the composition of a Senate and Tribunate; a Council of State and a new legislative body, and, finally, a new Constitution.

—­[The Constitution of the year VIII. was presented an the 18th of December 1799 (22d Frimaire, year VIII.), and accepted by the people on the 7th of February 1800 (18th Pluviose, year VIII.).  It established a Consular Government, composed of Bonaparte, First Consul, appointed for ten years; Cambaceres, Second Consol, also for ten Years; and Lebrun, Third Consul appointed for five years.  It established a conservative Senate, a legislative body of 800 members, and a Tribunate composed of 100 members.  The establishment of the Council of State took place on the 29th of December 1799.  The installation of the new legislative body and the Tribunate was fixed for the 1st of January 1800.—­Bourrienne.  Lanfrey (tome i. p. 329) sees this Constitution foreshadowed in that proposed by Napoleon in 1797 for the Cisalpine Republic.]—­

As Bonaparte had not time to make himself acquainted with the persons by whom he was about to be surrounded; he requested from the most distinguished men of the period, well acquainted with France and the Revolution, notes respecting the individuals worthy and capable of entering the Senate, the Tribunate, and the Council of State.  From the manner in which all these notes were drawn up it was evident that the writers of them studied to make their recommendation correspond with what they conceived to be Bonaparte’s views, and that they imagined he participated in the opinions which were at that time popular.  Accordingly they stated, as grounds for preferring particular candidates, their patriotism, their republicanism, and their having had seats in preceding assemblies.

Of all qualities, that which most influenced the choice of the First Consul was inflexible integrity; and it is but just to say that in this particular he was rarely deceived.  He sought earnestly for talent; and although he did not like the men of the Revolution, he was convinced that he could not do without them.  He had conceived an extreme aversion for mediocrity, and generally rejected a man of that character when recommended to him; but if he had known such a man long, he yielded to the influence of habit, dreading nothing so much as change, or, as he was accustomed to say himself, new faces.’

     —­[Napoleon loved only men with strong passions and great weakness;
     he judged the most opposite qualities in men by these defects
     (Metternich, tome iii. p.589)]—­