efore, likely to labour in his own department, communicating little
with his colleagues, and looking continually to the one hand that had
invested him with his share of power. It was in vain that one party
objected to the weathercock politics of Talleyrand. "Be it so," answered
the Chief Consul: "but he is the ablest minister for foreign affairs in
our choice, and it shall be my care that he exerts his abilities."
Carnot, in like manner, was objected to as a firm republican.
"Republican or not," answered Napoleon, "he is one of the last Frenchmen
that would wish to see France dismembered. Let us avail ourselves of his
unrivalled talents in the war department, while he is willing to place
them at our command." All parties equally cried out against the
falsehood, duplicity, and, in fact, avowed profligacy of Fouche.
"Fouche," said Buonaparte, "and Fouche alone, is able to conduct the
ministry of the police: he alone has a perfect knowledge of all the
factions and intrigues which have been spreading misery through France.
We cannot create men: we must take such as we find; and it is easier to
modify by circumstances the feelings and conduct of an able servant,
than to supply his place." Thus did he systematically make use of
whatever was willing to be useful--counting on the ambition of one man,
the integrity of a second, and the avarice of a third, with equal
confidence; and justified, for the present time (which was all he was
anxious about) by the results of each of the experiments in question.

It is impossible to refuse the praise of consummate prudence and skill
to these, and indeed, to all the arrangements of Buonaparte, at this
great crisis of his history. The secret of his whole scheme is unfolded
in his own memorable words to Sieyes: "We are creating a new era,--of
the past we must forget the bad, and remember only the good." From the
day when the consular government was formed, a new epoch was to date.
Submit to that government, and no man need fear that his former acts,
far less opinions, should prove any obstacle to his security--nay, to
his advancement. Henceforth the regicide might dismiss all dread of
Bourbon revenge; the purchaser of forfeited property of being sacrificed
to the returning nobles; provided only they chose to sink their theories
and submit. To the royalist, on the other hand, Buonaparte held out the
prospect, not indeed of Bourbon restoration, but of the re-establishment
of a monarchical form