dance of some of the
revolutionary generals of the true republican race. Berthier had invited
a large party of them long beforehand to breakfast: he carried them from
thence to the levee of the Chief Consul, and they found it impossible
not to join in the procession. Buonaparte asked one of these persons,
after the ceremony was over, what he thought of it? "It was a true
_Capucinade_" was the answer. To another of these, whom he thought less
sincere, he said with a smile, "Things, you see, are returning to the
old order." "Yes," the veteran replied, "all returns--all but the two
millions of Frenchmen who have died for the sake of destroying the very
system which you are now rebuilding." These officers are said to have
paid dearly for their uncourtly language. Moreau was not to be tampered
with by Berthier. The Chief Consul personally invited him to be present
at the _Te Deum_ in Notre Dame, to attend afterwards at the consecration
of some colours, and, lastly, to dine at the Tuileries. Moreau answered,
"I accept the last part of your invitation."

A third great measure, adopted about the same period, was received with
unqualified applause. This was the establishment of a national system of
education, the necessity of which had been much felt, since the old
universities and schools under the management of the clergy had been
broken up amidst the first violence of the Revolution. The Polytechnic
School, established under the direction of Monge, dates from this epoch;
and furnished France, in the sequel, with a long train of eminent men
for every department of the public service.

It was now also that the Chief Consul commenced the great task of
providing France with an uniform code of laws. He himself took
constantly an earnest share in the deliberations of the jurists, who
were employed in this gigantic undertaking; and astonished them by the
admirable observations which his native sagacity suggested, in relation
to matters commonly considered as wholly out of the reach of
unprofessional persons. But of the new code we shall have occasion to
speak hereafter.

Buonaparte at this period devised, and began to put into execution,
innumerable public works of the highest utility. The inland navigation
of Languedoc was to be made complete: a great canal between the Yonne
and the Saonne was begun, for the purpose of creating a perfect water
communication quite across the republican dominion--from Marseilles to
Amsterdam. Numb