in ministerial arrangements.  It was rumoured in Paris that the number of the ministers was to be reduced to three, and that Lucien, Joseph, and M. de Talleyrand were to divide among them the different portfolios.  Lucien helped to circulate these reports, and this increased the First Consul’s dissatisfaction at his conduct.  The letters from Madrid, which were filled with complaints against him, together with some scandalous adventures, known in Paris, such as his running away with the wife of a ‘limonadier’, exceedingly annoyed Bonaparte, who found his own family more difficult to govern than France.

France, indeed, yielded with admirable facility to the yoke which, the First Consul wished to impose on her.  How artfully did he undo all that the Revolution had done, never neglecting any means of attaining his object!  He loved to compare the opinions of those whom he called the Jacobins with the opinions of the men of 1789; and even them he found too liberal.  He felt the ridicule which was attached to the mute character of the Legislative Body, which he called his deaf and dumb assembly.  But as that ridicule was favourable to him he took care to preserve the assembly as it was, and to turn it into ridicule whenever he spoke of it.  In general, Bonaparte’s judgment must not be confounded with his actions.  His accurate mind enabled him to appreciate all that was good; but the necessity of his situation enabled him to judge with equal shrewdness what was useful to himself.

What I have just said of the Senate affords me an opportunity of correcting an error which has frequently been circulated in the chit-chat of Paris.  It has erroneously been said of some persons that they refused to become members of the Senate, and among the number have been mentioned M. Ducis, M. de La Fayette, and the Marechal de Rochambeau.  The truth is, that no such refusals were ever made.  The following fact, however, may have contributed to raise these reports and give them credibility.  Bonaparte used frequently to say to persons in his salon and in his cabinet; “You should be a Senator—­a man like you should be a Senator.”  But these complimentary words did not amount to a nomination.  To enter the Senate certain legal forms were to be observed.  It was necessary to be presented by the Senate, and after that presentation no one ever refused to become a member of the body, to which Bonaparte gave additional importance by the creation of “Senatoreries.”—­[Districts presided over by a Senator.]—­This creation took place in the beginning of 1803.

CHAPTER XV

1802.