ally in himself alone, and by means of which, he doubted not, it
would be easy to neutralise all other influences.

The metaphysical Abbe proposed a scheme by far too delicately
complicated for the tear and wear of human business and human passions.
The absurdity, even of the parts which Napoleon consented to adopt,
became apparent to all when the machine was set in motion. The two most
prominent and peculiar devices--namely, that of placing at the head of
the state a sort of mock sovereign, destitute of any effective power,
and capable at any time of being degraded by the vote of a single
legislative body, under the title of GRAND ELECTOR; and secondly, that
of committing the real executive power to two separate consuls, one for
war and one for peace, nominally the inferiors of the Elector, but in
influence necessarily quite above him, and almost as necessarily the
rivals and enemies of each other; these ingenious twins were strangled
in the birth by Napoleon's shrewd practical sense. "Who," said he,
"would accept an office, the only duties of which were to fatten like a
pig, on so many millions a year? And your two consuls--the one
surrounded with churchmen, lawyers, and civilians--the other with
soldiers and diplomatists--on what footing would be their intercourse?
the one demanding money and recruits, the other refusing the supplies? A
government, made up of such heterogeneous and discordant materials,
would be the shadow of a state." He added two words, which at once
decided the main question; "I, for one, would never be your Grand
Elector."

The constitution actually announced by proclamation on the 14th of
December, 1799, presents the following principal features. I. The male
citizens who are of age, and who pay taxes, in every _commune_ shall
choose a tenth of their number to be the notables of the commune; and
out of those notables the officers of the commune shall be appointed.
II. The notables of the communes constituting a _department_, shall
choose, in like manner, the tenth of their number to be the notables of
the department; and out of these the officers of the department shall be
appointed. III. The notables of all the departments shall, in the same
way, choose the tenth of their number to be notables of France; and out
of these the public functionaries of _The State_ shall be chosen. IV.
Three assemblies shall be composed of persons chosen from the notables
of France, viz.--1. The _Conservative Senate