inisters. Toward the end of the
discussion, Napoleon suggested the idea of not submitting this
constitution to public debate, but presenting it only as an additional
act to the preceding constitutions. This idea was combated
unanimously. M. Benjamin Constant, the Duke Decres, the Duke of
Otranto, the Duke of Vicenza, &c. &c., remonstrated with the Emperor,
that this was not what he had promised France; that a new constitution
was expected from him, purged from the despotic acts of the senate;
and that he must fulfil the expectations of the nation, or prepare to
lose its confidence for ever.

The Emperor promised to reflect on it: but, after having weighed in
his sagacity the observations, that had been submitted to him, he
persisted in his scheme; and the next day the additional act appeared
in the Moniteur in the following form:

ADDITIONAL ACT.

Paris, April the 24th.

Napoleon, by the grace of God and the constitutions, Emperor of the
French, to all present and to come, health.

Since we were called, fifteen years ago, by the wishes of France, to
the government of the empire, we have sought to bring to perfection,
at different periods, the forms of the constitution, according to the
wants and desires of the nation, and profiting by the lessons of
experience.

Thus the constitution of the empire has been formed by a series of
acts, which have been invested with the acceptance of the people. We
had then for our object, to organize a grand European federal system,
which we had adopted as conformable to the spirit of the age, and
favourable to the progress of civilization. To effect its completion,
and give it all the extension and stability, of which it is
susceptible, we had adjourned the establishment of several domestic
institutions, more particularly designed to protect the liberty of the
citizens. Our object is nothing more henceforward, than to increase
the prosperity of France by the confirmation of public liberty; whence
results the necessity of several important modifications of the
constitution, the decrees of the senate, and other acts, by which this
empire is governed.

For these reasons, willing, on the one hand, to retain whatever is
good and salutary of the past, and on the other to render the
constitution of our empire conformable in every respect to the wishes
and wants of the nation, as well as to that state of peace, which we
are desirous of mainta