aw. Therefore we must make a body which
shall organize the manner of deliberations of these three branches.
The Tribunate ought to be divided into five sections. The
discussion of laws will take place secretly in each section: one
might even introduce a discussion between these sections and those
of the Council of State. Only the reporter will speak publicly.
Then things will go on reasonably."

Having delivered this opinion, _ex cathedra_, he departed (January
7th, 1802) for Lyons, there to be invested with supreme authority in
the reconstituted Cisalpine, or as it was now termed, Italian
Republic[177]

Returning at the close of the month, radiant with the lustre of this
new dignity, he was able to bend the Tribunate and the _Corps
Legislatif_ to his will. The renewal of their membership by one-fifth
served as the opportunity for subjecting them to the more pliable
Senate. This august body of highly-paid members holding office for
life had the right of nominating the new members; but hitherto the
retiring members had been singled out by lot. Roederer, acting on a
hint of the time-serving Second Consul, now proposed in the Council
of State that the retiring members of those Chambers should
thenceforth be appointed by the Senate, and not by lot; for the
principle of the lot, he quaintly urged, was hostile to the right of
election which belonged to the Senate. Against such conscious
sophistry all the bolts of logic were harmless. The question was left
undecided, in order that the Senate might forthwith declare in favour
of its own right to determine every year not only the elections to,
but the exclusions from, the Tribunate and the _Corps Legislatif_. A
_senatus consultant_ of March legalized this monstrous innovation,
which led to the exclusion from the Tribunate of zealous republicans
like Benjamin Constant, Isnard, Ganilh, Daunou, and Chenier. The
infusion of the senatorial nominees served to complete the nullity of
these bodies; and the Tribunate, the lineal descendant of the terrible
Convention, was gagged and bound within eight years of the stilling of
Danton's mighty voice.

In days when civic zeal was the strength of the French Republic, the
mere suggestion of such a violation of liberty would have cost the
speaker his life. But since the rise of Bonaparte, civic sentiments
had yielded place to the military spirit and to boundless pride in the
nation's glory. Whenever republica