s, Barras, the
Bourbons, and Bonaparte--Observations respecting Josephine.

Voltaire says that it is very well to kiss the feet of Popes provided
their hands are tied. Notwithstanding the slight estimation in which
Bonaparte held Voltaire, he probably, without being aware of this
irreverent satire, put it into practice. The Court of Rome gave him the
opportunity of doing so shortly after his Coronation. The Pope, or
rather the Cardinals, his advisers' conceiving that so great an instance
of complaisance as the journey of His Holiness to Paris ought not to go
for nothing; demanded a compensation, which, had they been better
acquainted with Bonaparte's character and policy, they would never have
dreamed of soliciting. The Holy see demanded the restitution of Avignon,
Bologna, and some parts of the Italian territory which had formerly been
subject to the Pope's dominion. It may be imagined how such demands were
received by Napoleon, particularly after he had obtained all he wanted
from the Pope. It was, it must be confessed, a great mistake of the
Court of Rome, whose policy is usually so artful and adroit, not to make
this demand till after the Coronation. Had it been made the condition of
the Pope's journey to France perhaps Bonaparte would have consented to
give up, not Avignon, certainly, but the Italian territories, with the
intention of taking them back again. Be this as it may, these tardy
claims, which were peremptorily rejected, created an extreme coolness
between Napoleon and Pius VII. The public did not immediately perceive
it, but there is in the public an instinct of reason which the most able
politicians never can impose upon; and all eyes were opened when it was
known that the Pope, after having crowned Napoleon as Emperor of France,
refused to crown him as sovereign of the regenerated kingdom of Italy.

Napoleon left Paris on the 1st of April to take possession of the Iron
Crown at Milan. The Pope remained some time longer in the French
capital. The prolonged presence of His Holiness was not without its
influence on the religious feelings of the people, so great was the
respect inspired by the benign countenance and mild manners of the Pope.
When the period of his persecutions arrived it would have been well for
Bonaparte had Pius VII. never been seen in Paris, for it was impossible
to view in any other light than as a victim the man whose truly evangelic
meekness had been duly appreciated.

Bonaparte