his house; that there is no objection to
his seeing all sorts of people indifferently like everybody else, but
why should certain persons always be found in his rooms and such an
intimate association among these gentlemen?... The King does not
want any rallying point; a headless assemblage in a State is always
dangerous."--Ibid., p.33: "The reputation of this establishment was too
great. People were anxious to put their children in it. Persons of
rank sent theirs there. Everybody expressed satisfaction with it. This
provided it with friends who joined those of the establishment and who
together formed a platoon against the State. The King would not consent
to this: he regarded such unions as dangerous in a State."]

[Footnote 2324: "Napoleon Ire et ses lois civiles," by Honore Perouse,
280: Words of Napoleon: "I have for a long time given a great deal of
thought and calculation to the re-establishment of the social edifice.
I am to-day obliged to watch over the maintenance of public liberty. I
have no idea of the French people becoming serfs."--"The prefects
are wrong in straining their authority."--"The repose and freedom of
citizens should not depend on the exaggeration or arbitrariness of a
mere administrator."--"Let authority be felt by the people as little as
possible and not bear down on them needlessly."--(Letters of January 15,
1806, March 6, 1807, January 12, 1809, to Fouche, and of March 6, 1807,
to Regnault.)--Thibaudeau, "Memoires sur le Consulat," P. 178 (Words
of the first consul before the council of state): "True civil liberty
depends on the security of property. In no country can the rate of the
tax-payer be changed every year. A man with 3000 francs income does
not know how much he will have left to live on the following year; his
entire income may be absorbed by the assessment on it... A mere clerk,
with a dash of his pen, may overcharge you thousands of francs...
Nothing has ever been done in France in behalf of real estate. Whoever
has a good law passed on the cadastre (official valuation of all the
land in France) will deserve a statue."]

[Footnote 2325: Honore Perouse, Ibid, 274 (Speech of Napoleon to the
council of state on the law on mines):" "Myself, with many armies at
my disposition, I could not take possession of any one's field, for the
violation of the right of property in one case would be violating it
in all. The secret is to have mines become actual property, and
hence sacred in fact