e from below.
Perhaps this device was necessary to set in motion Sieyes' system of
wheels within wheels; for the Senate, which was to elect the Grand
Elector, by whom the executive officers were indirectly to be chosen,
was in part self-sufficient: the Consuls named the first members, who
then co-opted, that is, chose the new members. Some impulse from
without was also needed to give the constitution life; and this
impulse was now to come. Where Sieyes had only contrived wheels,
checks, regulator, break, and safety-valve, there now rushed in an
imperious will which not only simplified the parts but supplied an
irresistible motive power.

The complexity of much of the mechanism, especially that relating to
popular election and the legislature, entirely suited Bonaparte. But,
while approving the triple winnowing, to which Sieyes subjected the
results of manhood suffrage, and the subordination of the legislative
to the executive authority,[132] the general expressed his entire
disapproval of the limitations of the Grand Elector's powers. The name
was anti-republican: let it be changed to First Consul. And whereas
Sieyes condemned his grand functionary to the repose of a _roi
faineant_, Bonaparte secured to him practically all the powers
assigned by Sieyes to the Consuls for Peace and for War. Lastly,
Bonaparte protested against the right of absorbing him being given to
the Senate. Here also he was successful; and thus a delicately poised
bureaucracy was turned into an almost unlimited dictatorship.

This metamorphosis may well excite wonder. But, in truth, Sieyes and
his colleagues were too weary and sceptical to oppose the one
"intensely practical man." To Bonaparte's trenchant reasons and
incisive tones the theorist could only reply by a scornful silence
broken by a few bitter retorts. To the irresistible power of the
general he could only oppose the subtlety of a student. And, indeed,
who can picture Bonaparte, the greatest warrior of the age, delegating
the control of all warlike operations to a Consul for War while
Austrian cannon were thundering in the county of Nice and British
cruisers were insulting the French coasts? It was inevitable that the
reposeful Grand Elector should be transformed into the omnipotent
First Consul, and that these powers should be wielded by Bonaparte
himself.[133]

The extent of the First Consul's powers, as finally settled by the
joint commission, was as follows. He had the direct and