at the Emperor's manner of
rule was a little more abrupt and dictatorial than might possibly be
agreeable. For this the Prince has always an answer ready--it is the
same poor one that Napoleon uttered a million of times to his companions
in exile--the excuse of necessity. He WOULD have been very liberal, but
that the people were not fit for it; or that the cursed war prevented
him--or any other reason why. His first duty, however, says his
apologist, was to form a general union of Frenchmen, and he set about
his plan in this wise:--

"Let us not forget, that all which Napoleon undertook, in order to
create a general fusion, he performed without renouncing the principles
of the revolution. He recalled the emigres, without touching upon
the law by which their goods had been confiscated and sold as public
property. He reestablished the Catholic religion at the same time
that he proclaimed the liberty of conscience, and endowed equally the
ministers of all sects. He caused himself to be consecrated by the
Sovereign Pontiff, without conceding to the Pope's demand any of the
liberties of the Gallican church. He married a daughter of the Emperor
of Austria, without abandoning any of the rights of France to the
conquests she had made. He reestablished noble titles, without attaching
to them any privileges or prerogatives, and these titles were conferred
on all ranks, on all services, on all professions. Under the empire
all idea of caste was destroyed; no man ever thought of vaunting his
pedigree--no man ever was asked how he was born, but what he had done.

"The first quality of a people which aspires to liberal government,
is respect to the law. Now, a law has no other power than lies in the
interest which each citizen has to defend or to contravene it. In order
to make a people respect the law, it was necessary that it should be
executed in the interest of all, and should consecrate the principle of
equality in all its extension. It was necessary to restore the prestige
with which the Government had been formerly invested, and to make the
principles of the revolution take root in the public manners. At
the commencement of a new society, it is the legislator who makes or
corrects the manners; later, it is the manners which make the law, or
preserve it from age to age intact."

Some of these fusions are amusing. No man in the empire was asked how
he was born, but what he had done; and, accordingly, as a man's actions
were s