In spite of this sort of feeling, which was more worthy of an ill-humoured philosopher than the head of a government, Bonaparte was neither malignant nor vindictive.  I cannot certainly defend him against all the reproaches which he incurred through the imperious law of war and cruel necessity; but I may say that he has often been unjustly accused.  None but those who are blinded by fury will call him a Nero or a Caligula.  I think I have avowed his faults with sufficient candour to entitle me to credit when I speak in his commendation; and I declare that, out of the field of battle, Bonaparte had a kind and feeling heart.  He was very fond of children, a trait which seldom distinguishes a bad man.  In the relations of private life to call him amiable would not be using too strong a word, and he was very indulgent to the weakness of human nature.  The contrary opinion is too firmly fixed in some minds for me to hope to root it out.  I shall, I fear, have contradictors, but I address myself to those who look for truth.  To judge impartially we must take into account the influence which time and circumstances exercise on men; and distinguish between the different characters of the Collegian, the General, the Consul, and the Emperor.

CHAPTER XXIX.

1800.

Bonaparte’s laws—­Suppression of the festival of the 21st of January—­Officials visits—­The Temple—­Louis XVI. and Sir Sidney Smith—­Peculation during the Directory—­Loan raised—­Modest budget —­The Consul and the Member of the Institute—­The figure of the Republic—­Duroc’s missions—­The King of Prussia—­The Emperor Alesander—­General Latour-Foisac—­Arbitrary decree—­Company of players for Egypt—­Singular ideas respecting literary property—­ The preparatory Consulate—­The journals—­Sabres and muskets of honour—­The First Consul and his Comrade—­The bust of Brutus—­ Statues in the gallery of the Tuileries—­Sections of the Council of State—­Costumes of public functionaries—­Masquerades—­The opera-balls—­Recall of the exiles.

It is not my purpose to say much about the laws, decrees, and ‘Senatus-Consultes’, which the First Consul either passed, or caused to be passed, after his accession to power, what were they all, with the exception of the Civil Code?  The legislative reveries of the different men who have from time to time ruled France form an immense labyrinth, in which chicanery bewilders reason and common sense; and they would long since have been buried in oblivion had they not occasionally served to authorise injustice.  I cannot, however, pass over unnoticed the happy effect produced in Paris, and throughout the whole of France, by some of the first decisions of the Consuls.  Perhaps none but those who witnessed the state of society during the reign of Terror can fully appreciate the satisfaction which the first steps towards the restoration of social order produced in the breasts of all honest men.  The Directory, more base and