Registers were made to receive votes for the empire, like those
which had been opened for the consulship for life; even all those
who did not sign, were, as in the former instance, reckoned as
voting for; and the small number of individuals who thought proper
to write no, were dismissed from their employments. M. de Lafayette,
the constant friend of liberty, again exhibited an invariable
resistance; he had the greater merit, because already in this
country of bravery, they no longer knew how to estimate courage. It
is quite necessary to make this distinction, as we see the divinity
of fear reign in France over the most intrepid warriors. Bonaparte
would not even subject himself to the law of hereditary monarchy,
but reserved the power of adopting and choosing his successor in the
manner of the East. As he had then no children, he wished not to
give his own family the least right; and at the very moment of his
elevating them to ranks to which assuredly they had no pretensions,
he subjected them to his will by profoundly combined decrees, which
entwined the new thrones with chains.
The fourteenth of July was again celebrated this year, (1804)
because it was said the empire consecrated all the benefits of the
revolution. Bonaparte had said that storms had strengthened the
roots of government; he pretended that the throne would guarantee
liberty: he repeated in all manner of ways, that Europe would be
tranquillized by the re-establishment of monarchy in the government
of France.
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