id in consolidating the First
Consul's power by affording him leisure to engage in measures of internal
prosperity.

The Council of State, of which Bonaparte had made me a member, but which
my other occupations did not allow me to attend, was the soul of the
Consular Government. Bonaparte felt much interest in the discussions of
that body, because it was composed of the most eminent men in the
different branches of administration; and though the majority evinced a
ready compliance with his wishes, yet that disposition was often far from
being unanimous. In the Council of State the projects of the Government
were discussed from the first with freedom and sincerity, and when once
adopted they were transmitted to the Tribunate, and to the Legislative
Body. This latter body might be considered as a supreme Legislative
Tribunal, before which the Tribunes pleaded as the advocates of the
people, and the Councillors of State, whose business it was to support
the law projects, as the advocates of the Government. This will at once
explain the cause of the First Consul's animosity towards the Tribunate,
and will show to what the Constitution was reduced when that body was
dissolved by a sudden and arbitrary decision.

During the Consulate the Council of State was not only a body politic
collectively, but each individual member might be invested with special
power; as, for example, when the First Consul sent Councillors of State
on missions to each of the military divisions where there was a Court of
Appeal, the instructions given them by the First Consul were extensive,
and might be said to be unlimited. They were directed to examine all the
branches of the administration, so that their reports collected and
compared together presented a perfect description of the state of France.
But this measure, though excellent in itself, proved fatal to the State.
The reports never conveyed the truth to the First Consul, or at least if
they did, it was in such a disguised form as to be scarcely recognisable;
for the Councillors well knew that the best way to pay their court to
Bonaparte was not to describe public feeling as it really was, but as he
wished it to be. Thus the reports of the councillors of State only
furnished fresh arguments in favour of his ambition.

I must, however, observe that in the discussions of the Council of State
Bonaparte was not at all averse to the free expression of opinion. He,
indeed, often encouraged it; for