ublic affairs was entrusted
after the _coup d'etat_ of Vendemiaire 1795; but, as before, his powers
of judgment and of tactful debating soon carried him to the front in the
council of Five Hundred. The moderation of his views brought him into
opposition to the Directors after the _coup d'etat_ of Fructidor
(September 1797), and for a time he retired into private life. Owing,
however, to the influence of Sieyes, he became minister of justice in
July 1799. He gave a guarded support to Bonaparte and Sieyes in their
enterprise of overthrowing the Directory (_coup d'etat_ of Brumaire
1799).

After a short interval Cambaceres was, by the constitution of December
1799, appointed second consul of France--a position which he owed
largely to his vast legal knowledge and to the conviction which Sieyes
entertained of his value as a manipulator of public assemblies. It is
impossible here to describe in detail his relations to Napoleon, and the
part which he played in the drawing up of the Civil Code, later on
called the Code Napoleon. It must suffice to say that the skilful
intervention of Cambaceres helped very materially to ensure to Napoleon
the consulship for life (August 1, 1802); but the second consul is known
to have disapproved of some of the events which followed, notably the
execution of the duc d'Enghien, the rupture with England, and the
proclamation of the Empire (May 19, 1804). This last occurrence ended
his title of second consul; it was replaced by that of arch-chancellor
of the Empire. To him was decreed the presidence of the Senate in
perpetuity. He also became a prince of the Empire and received in 1808
the title duke of Parma. Apart from the important part which he took in
helping to co-ordinate and draft the Civil Code, Cambaceres did the
state good service in many directions, notably by seeking to curb the
impetuosity of the emperor, and to prevent enterprises so fatal as the
intervention in Spanish affairs (1808) and the invasion of Russia (1812)
proved to be. At the close of the campaign of 1814 he shared with Joseph
Bonaparte the responsibility for some of the actions which zealous
Bonapartists have deemed injurious to the fortunes of the emperor. In
1815, during the Hundred Days, he took up his duties reluctantly at the
bidding of Napoleon; and after the second downfall of his master, he
felt the brunt of royalist vengeance, being for a time exiled from
France. A decree of 13th May 1818 restored him to his