What I have just said respecting the First Consul’s visit to the Pritanee reminds me of a very extraordinary circumstance which arose out of it.  Among the pupils at the Pritanee there was a son of General Miackzinski, who died fighting under the banners of the Republic.  Young Miackzinski was then sixteen or seventeen years of age.  He soon quitted the college, entered the army as a volunteer, and was one of a corps reviewed by Bonaparte, in the plain of Sablons.  He was pointed out to the First Consul, who said to him.  “I knew your father.  Follow his example, and in six months you shall be an officer.”  Six months elapsed, and Miackzinski wrote to the First Consul, reminding him of his promise.  No answer was returned, and the young man then wrote a second letter as follows: 

You desired me to prove myself worthy of my father; I have done so.  You promised that I should be an officer in six months; seven have elapsed since that promise was made.  When you receive this letter I shall be no more.  I cannot live under a Government the head of which breaks his word.

Poor Miackzinski kept his word but, too faithfully.  After writing the above letter to the First Consul he retired to his chamber and blew out his brains with a pistol.  A few days after this tragical event Miackzinski’s commission was transmitted to his corps, for Bonaparte had not forgotten him.  A delay in the War Office had caused the death of this promising young man Bonaparte was much affected at the circumstance, and he said to me, “These Poles have such refined notions of honour....  Poor Sulkowski, I am sure, would have done the same.”

At the commencement of the Consulate it was gratifying, to see how actively Bonaparte was seconded in the execution of plans for the social regeneration of France all seemed animated with new life, and every one strove to do good as if it were a matter of competition.

Every circumstance concurred to favour the good intentions of the First Consul.  Vaccination, which, perhaps, has saved as many lives as war has sacrificed, was introduced into France by M. d Liancourt; and Bonaparte, immediately appreciating the ’value of such a discovery, gave it his decided approbation.  At the same time a council of Prizes was established, and the old members of the Constituent Assembly were invited to return to France.  It was for their sake and that of the Royalists that the First Consul recalled them, but it was to please the Jacobins, whom he was endeavouring to conciliate, that their return was subject to restrictions.  At first the invitation to return to France extended only to those who could prove that they had voted in favour of the abolition of nobility.  The lists of emigrants were closed, and committees were appointed to investigate their claims to the privilege of returning.