I must here notice the fulfilment of a remark Bonaparte often made, use of to me during the Consulate.  “You shall see, Bourrienne,” he would say, “what use I will make of the priests.”

War being declared, the First Consul, in imitation of the most Christian kings of olden times, recommended the success of his arms to the prayers of the faithful through the medium of the clergy.  To this end he addressed a circular letter, written in royal style, to the Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops of France.

It was as follows: 

Monsieur—­The motives of the present war are known throughout Europe.  The bad faith of the King of England, who has violated his treaties by refusing to restore Malta to the order of St. John of Jerusalem, and attacked our merchant vessels without a previous declaration of war, together with the necessity of a just defence, forced us to have recourse to arms.  I therefore wish you to order prayers to be offered up, in order to obtain the benediction of Heaven on our enterprises.  The proofs I have received of your zeal for the public service give me an assurance of your readiness to conform with my wishes.

   Given at St. Cloud, 18 Prairial, an XI. (7th June 1803).

(Signed) Bonaparte.

This letter was remarkable in more than one respect.  It astonished most of his old brothers-in-arms, who turned it into ridicule; observing that Bonaparte needed no praying to enable him to conquer Italy twice over.  The First Consul, however, let them laugh on, and steadily followed the line he had traced out.  His letter was admirably calculated to please the Court of Rome, which he wished should consider him in the light of another elder son of the Church.  The letter was, moreover, remarkable for the use of the word “Monsieur,” which the First Consul now employed for the first time in an act destined for publicity.  This circumstance would seem to indicate that he considered Republican designations incompatible with the forms due to the clergy:  the clergy were especially interested in the restoration of monarchy.  It may, perhaps, be thought that I dwell too much on trifles; but I lived long enough in Bonaparte’s confidence to know the importance he attached to trifles.  The First Consul restored the old names of the days of the week, while he allowed the names of the months, as set down in the Republican calendar, to remain.  He commenced by ordering the Moniteur to be dated “Saturday,” such a day of “Messidor.”  “See,” said he one day, “was there ever such an inconsistency?  We shall be laughed at!  But I will do away with the Messidor.  I will efface all the inventions of the Jacobins.”

The clergy did not disappoint the expectations of the First Consul.  They owed him much already, and hoped for still more from him.  The letter to the Bishops, etc., was the signal for a number of circulars full of eulogies on Bonaparte.