PLOTS AGAINST His life. 635 in France, Holland, Belgium, Western Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In France it repealed a chaos of laws and decrees and welded the old legislation which was worth retaining with the new improvements of the revolutionary epoch."1 Had Napoleon done nothing else save to give this Code to Europe, he would have conferred an inestimable benefit upon mankind. In imitation of Augustus he encouraged men of letters and science, and attached many to his person and government by a royal liberality in the bestowal of titles and honors. He established schools and colleges, and endowed libraries, museums, and art galleries. He instituted what was called the Legion of Honor, to take the place of the feudal orders which the Revolution had swept away, and restored titles of distinction, thus creating a sort of new aristocracy. Agriculture, manufactures, and all the industrial arts also received a share of his fostering attention. Napoleon's capacity for work was simply enormous. His mind acted with almost preternatural energy and quickness. Four or five hours a day sufficed him for sleep: thus he was able to gain time for the accomplishment of labors so varied and prodigious. Napoleon made Consul for Life (1802). As a reward for his vast services to France, and also in order that his magnificent schemes of reform and improvement might be pursued without fear of interruption, Napoleon was now, by a vote of the people, made Consul for Life, with the right to name his successor (August, 1802). Thus he moved a step nearer the coveted dignity of the Imperial title. Plots against his Life. The year following the conferring of these new powers and dignities upon Napoleon, a plot was laid for his assassination, in which three of his generals, Cadoudal, Pichegru, and Moreau, were implicated. It seems also that members of the English government abetted the conspiracy. The plot was discovered, and the chiefs concerned in it were executed or banished. The Duke of Enghien, the last prince of the House of Condé, in whose interest it was suspected the conspiracy was 1 Ropes, The First Napoleon, p. 91. laid, was seized at Ettenheim, carried to Vincennes, and there shot, virtually without trial. No act of Napoleon has been more severely censured than this, for the young prince was very generally regarded as innocent of any participation in the plot. Napoleon proclaimed Emperor (1804). The above conspiracy, and the increased activity of the enemies of the First Consul, caused the French people to resolve to increase his power, and secure his safety and the stability of his government, by placing him upon a throne. Napoleon, while seeming to resign himself to the popular movement, really incited and directed it. decree conferring upon him the title of Emperor having been submitted to the people for approval, was ratified by an almost unanimous vote, less than three thousand persons opposing the measure.1 The coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre Dame, on the 2d of December, 1804; the Pope, Pius VII., having been invited from Rome to take part in the ceremonies. The presence of the Pope was desired by Napoleon, because it was his design to have himself regarded not as the successor of the Bourbons, but as the successor of Charlemagne and the Cæsars, and it had always been thought necessary, by many at least, that the candidate for the Imperial dignity should be consecrated to his office by the Roman Pontiff. The Pope poured upon the head of the kneeling Emperor the holy oil, and invested him with the Imperial sceptre; but when he would have placed the crown upon his head, Napoleon checked him, and taking the diadem from the Pope crowned himself with his own hands. This was to symbolize that the temporal power was paramount to the spiritual. Surrounding Republics changed into Kingdoms. Thus was the First French Republic metamorphosed into an unveiled Empire. We may be sure that the cluster of republics which during the Revolution sprang up around the great original, will speedily undergo a like transformation; for Napoleon was right when he said that a revolution in France is sure to be followed by 1 The actual figures were 3,572,329 affirmative and 2,569 negative votes. THE WARS OF NAPOLEON. 637 a revolution throughout Europe. As France, a republic, would make all states republics, so France, a monarchy, would make all nations monarchies. Within five years from the time that the government of France assumed an imperial form, all the surrounding republics raised up by the revolutionary ideas and armies of France, had been transformed into monarchies dependent upon France, or had become a component part of the French Empire. Thus the Cisalpine or Italian Republic was changed into a Kingdom, and Napoleon, crowning himself at Milan with the iron crown of the Lombards, assumed the government of the state, with the title of King of Italy (May 26, 1805). The Ligurian Republic, embracing Genoa and a portion of Sardinia, was made a part of France; while the Batavian Republic was changed into the Kingdom of Holland, and given by Napoleon to his brother Louis (June, 1806). Thus was the political work of the Revolution undone. Political liberty was taken away; the people were not yet ready for self-government. Equality was left. The Wars of Napoleon. It will not be supposed that the powers of Europe were looking quietly on while France was thus metamorphosing herself and all the neighboring countries. The colossal power which the soldier of fortune was building up was a menace to all Europe. The Empire was more dreaded than the Republic, because it was a military despotism, and as such an instrument of irresistible power in the hands of a man of such genius and resources as Napoleon. Coalition after coalition, always headed by England, who had sworn a Punic hatred to the Napoleonic Empire, -was formed by the monarchies of Europe against the "usurper," with the object of pressing France back within her original boundaries and setting up again the subverted throne of the Bourbons. - From the coronation of Napoleon in 1804 until his final downfall in 1815, the tremendous struggle went on almost without intermission. It was the war of the giants. Millions of men were mustered under the standard of France and the opposing ensigns of the allied monarchies. Europe was shaken from end to end |