given such ready support to Bonaparte, should in 1814 have
pronounced his abdication at Fontainebleau.

The preparations for the Coronation proved very advantageous to the
trading classes of Paris. Great numbers of foreigners and people from
the provinces visited the capital, and the return of luxury and the
revival of old customs gave occupation to a variety of tradespeople who
could get no employment under the Directory or Consulate, such as
saddlers, carriage-makers, lacemen, embroiderers, and others. By these
positive interests were created more partisans of the Empire than by
opinion and reflection; and it is but just to say that trade had not been
so active for a dozen years before. The Imperial crown jewels were
exhibited to the public at Biennais the jeweller's. The crown was of a
light form, and, with its leaves of gold, it less resembled the crown of
France than the antique crown of the Caesars. These things were
afterwards placed in the public treasury, together with the imperial
insignia of Charlemagne, which Bonaparte had ordered to be brought from
Aix-la-Chapelle. But while Bonaparte was thus priding himself in his
crown and his imagined resemblance to Charlemagne, Mr. Pitt, lately
recalled to the Ministry, was concluding at Stockholm a treaty with
Sweden, and agreeing to pay a subsidy to that power to enable it to
maintain hostilities against France. This treaty was concluded on the 3d
of December, the day after the Coronation.

--[The details of the preparation for the Coronation caused many
stormy scenes between Napoleon and his family. The Princesses, his
sisters and sisters-in-law, were especially shocked at having to
carry the train of the Imperial mantle of Josephine, and even when
Josephine was actually moving from the altar to the throne the
Princesses evinced their reluctance so plainly that Josephine could
not advance and an altercation took place which had to be stopped by
Napoleon himself. Joseph was quite willing himself give up
appearing in a mantle with a train, but he wished to prevent his
wife bearing the mantle of the Empress; and he opposed his brother
on so many points that Napoleon ended by calling on him to either
give up his position and retire from all politics, or else to fully
accept the imperial regime. How the economical Camberceres used up
the ermine he could not wear will be seen in Junot tome iii. p.
196. Josephine herself was i