point of experiencing a new shock; the authority appeared to be in the hands of the demagogue party, but the public opinion was far from being in their favour; and this state of things could not exist long. It was under these circumstances that Bonaparte conceived and quickly executed the project of his return to Europe. He assembled with great secrecy those who he intended should return with him, traversed the Mediterranean without obstacles, landed at Fréjus, on the 9th of October, 1799, with a small number of officers of his staff, and went without delay to Paris, where the directory received him, on the 16th of the same month. His presence at Paris in some degree suspended every dissension, and all parties appeared to unite to welcome him, and to expect from him alone the termination of all the intrigues then going on.

It was under these circumstances that the events of the 19th of Brumaire were preparing, Bonaparte, aware of what was passing, awaited the result in his own house, surround ed by a number of staff-officers. When he was informed that the decree which was to transfer the legislative body to St. Cloud was passed, and that the execution of it was intrusted to him, he immediately went to the bar with all his retinue. The decree was read to him, and he pronounced a discourse which was heard in the midst of some tun:ult. The president of the council of ancients then announced that the order of the day would take place on the morrow, at St. Cloud, at noon, and the assembly was broken up amidst the cries of "Long live the republic!" Boniparte devoted the remainder of that day and the morning of the next to securing the success of his enterprize; he reviewed the troops which were asse...bled in the Tuileries, had several conferences with the com. mittees of inspectors, and forgot nothing to render the directors, attached to the opposition, unable to

injure him. On the 19th of Brumaire,
the legislative body being assembled
at St. Cloud, general Bonaparte, ac-
companied by some grenadiers, pre-
sented himself, bare-headed and un-
at med, in the council of 500, at which
his brother Lucian presided.
His
presence did not excite the less tumult
on that account. Some representatives
of the demagogue party pressed round
him, and se.med to threaten him;
but general Lefevre suddenly appeared,
followed by several grenadiers, and im-
mediately extricated him. Bonaparte
then went to the antients, where be
made a long extempore speech, after
which the council of 500 was dissolved
by the armed force which entered the
hall. A voice cried out: " And the
constitution !" " The constitution!"
replied Bonaparte, "you violated it
on the 18th of Fructidor, year 5,
(4th of September, 1797.) on the
228 of Floreal, &c. it has long ceased
to exist; and continuing, he unfolded
the necessity of pursuing the measures
determined on to save France from
anarchy. After the dispersion of the
council of 500, a part of its members
united again, and, in concert with
the council of ancients, declared those
deputies excluded from the legislative
body, who had made themselves re-
ma kable for their opposition to this
event. The resignation of the director
Barras has been received; he congra
tulated France on the fate which
Bonaparte was preparing for it, and
separated from his colleagues Gohier
and Moulin. Immediately a new pro-
vi-ional government was formed, at
the head of which were placed Bona-
parte, Sieyes, and Roger Ducus,
under the titles of fi st, second, and
third consul, and on the 24th of
Frimaire (15th of December follow-
ing,) the new constitution was pub-
lished. In the begining of the sare
month, the measures of deportation
taken at first. against several distin-
guished individuals in the Jacobin
party, were recalled. As soon as the
reins of government were in the handı

consul, rapidly driven, was already. sheltered from this terrible machine when it burst, and the extraordinary quickness of his coachman had thus deceived the expectations of the conspirators. This crime, at first attri

of general Bonaparte. his first care was to offer peace to England and to the other powers; but his proposals were rejected. His measures for internal pacification were more successful, and the Vendée, which had made a new explosion, was not long in lay-buted to the Jacobins, determined the ing down its arms. Bonaparte then deportation of a great number of them; employed himself only with putting some days after, however, several France in a condition to make her Chouans were arrested, who were also enemies repent of having prolonged accused of it; and many proofs havthe miseries of war; and the astonish- ing concurred against them, the courts ing passage of Mount St. Bernard, condesaued four of them to the punish which was crowned by the victory of ment of death. At the same time Marengo, soon secured the peace of Bonaparte was labouring without in the continent in the most glorious termission for a general peace; already manner. The first consul, after having had a treaty been concluded with the That re-established the Cisalpine republic, United States of America. past through Lyons, where the where the with Austria was at last signed at people, in their enthusiasm, would Luneville, on the 20th of Pluviose, draw his carriage themselves. Return- year 9, (9th of February, 1811,) and ing to Paris, he was received there in secured to France the preservation of the same manner, on the 13th of a part of her conquests; Russia and Messidor, year S, (2d of July, 1800,) the Ottoman Porte also ceased to be in the midst of the public acclamatious. her enemies, and England was not The greatest tranquillity seemed to be long in following their example.enjoyed in the interior, but hatred was Peace was concluded at Amiens with far from being stifled; and as the this power, on the 25th of March, fate of France appeared to be attached 1802. It was also in the month of to the life of the first consul, it should Germinal that the convention between have been foreseen that all the efforts the republic and the pope, ratified on of hatred and envy would be directed the 26th Thermidor, year 9, (15th of against his person. On the 10th of July, 1801,) was adopted by the October, 1800, several individuals, legislative body, and re-established the accused of such a project, were ar- catholic religion, which was declared rested at the opera, and Aréna, Cè- by this compact to be that of the goracchi, Demerville, and Topineau- vernment, and the majority of the It still remained to Lebrun, having been summoned before French nation. the courts as chiefs of this conspiracy, restore peace to families, by recalling were condemned to death. unhappy fugitives into their bosom : a decree granted an amnesty to emigrants, and authorized them to return to France. In the interval between the peace of Luneville and that of Amiens, passed another important event, which is the result of the jour ney of the first consul to Lyon, where he was proclaimed president of the Italian republic, by the assen.bly which had been convened there. this same period the department of the Seine had presented to him the U 2 plan

On the 34 of Nivose following (24th of December) his happy star, which had saved him from so many dangers, again preserved him from the most imminent perhaps that he ever encountered. When he was going to the opera a cart like that of the wa ter carriers, but full of fire-works, exploded almost at the moment in which he was passing, and scattered terror and death through the whole neigh bourhood. The carriage of the first

At

plan of a triumphal portico on the
state of the Grand-Chatelet. To
this offer he replied: "I accept with
gratitude the offer of the monument
that you wish to erect to me; let the
place remain planned, but let us leave
to future ages the care of construct-
ing it, if they ratify the good opinion
which you have of me." Whilst
peace was concluding with England,
Bonaparte was employing himself to
reconcile the colonies to the system of
government which was unfolding it
self in the metropolis. In conse-
quence he wrote a flattering letter to
Toussaint Louverture who governed
at St. Domingo, to persuade him to
submit to general Leclerc ; and prais-
ing his past conduct, to which he
attributed the restoration of the co-
lony, he informed him that all resis-
tance would be useless. An army of
40,000 men was transported into that
island by a formidable squadron. On
the 18th of April, 1802, which was
Easter-Sunday, the government re-
solved to make public profession of
their submission to the catholic reli-
gion, and the three consuls went to
the metropolitan church, accompani-
ed by the diplomatic bodies, the state
counsellors, and the ministers. They
were received at the entrance of the
church by the archbishop of Paris and
his clergy: the cardinal legate offi.
ciated himself; and after the gospel,
the new prelates took their oath be-
tween the hands of the first consul.
In the month of May following, the
project of the legion of honour was
sanctioned by the legislative body.
About the same period, the tribunate
having voted a national recompence
to the pacificator of France, the con-
solar senate prolonged the duration
of his consul.hip for ten years. To
this testimony of the public gratitude
Bonaparte answered, that the wish of
the people having invested him with
the supreme magistracy, he should
not think himself sure of its confi-
dence, if the act which was to retain

him in it were not sanctioned by their suffrage. Ia consequence, the French people were consulted on this question: "shall Napoleon Bonaparte be consul, for life?" An affirmative answer having been solemnly published, Bonaparte was proclaimed first consul for life. In consequence of this new arrangement, Bonaparte and the two other consuls went, on the 21st of August, to the palace of the Luxembourg, and opened the first session of the senate, at which the organic de cree called upon them to preside. At the end of the republican year, 21st of September, he showed himself at the exhibition of the productions of French industry at the Louvre, visit el the picture gallery, and ordered the finest pieces to be bought for him. Two days after, he distribute at the Taileries the medals decreed to different manufacturers and artists who had distinguished themselves in these exhibitions. It was nearly at the same time that the immense works, which have given so beautiful an ap pearance to the capital, began by bis orders. At this period, Switzerland was agitated, and the partisans of the ancient constitution appeared on the point of triumphing over the govern ment formed under the auspices of the French republic. Bonaparte thought it concerned the national honour to interfere in this contest, and addressed to them a proclamation, by which he enjoined the different parties to lay down their arms, and to send deputies to Paris to termi nate their dissensions; he offered them his meditation, as the only method which Providence had reserved to them to prevent them from slaught ering one another, and declared the he would maintain it by force of arms. Already the Valaisans, pacifi ed, proclaimed hun the resturer of their independence. All the parties which divided Helvetia soon accepted the meditation of France, and it was not long before peace was restored

amb

renewed by the enemies of France,
excited fears for her destiny, which
was attached to the life of a single
man, and produced a determination.
to restore hereditary government, with
the greatest part of the forms of the
ancient monarchy. In May 1804
then, the tribunate expressed its wish
that Napoleon Bonaparte should be
declared hereditary emperor of the
French, and this proposal was sancti-
oned by a decree of the 18th of the
same month. He was consequently
c.owned in the church of Notre Dame,
in Paris, on the 24 of December,
1804. by his holiness Pius VII. who
came from Rome for this great cere-
mony. On the 18th of March,
1805, he was proclaimed king of
Italy, and on the 26th of May ful-
lowing, received at Milan the ancient
iron crown of the Lombard kings.-
returning from his new kingdom, he
went to Genoa, where the union of
that country with France was pro-
claimed. Then after having staid
some days at Paris, he went again to
visit the camp at Boulogne, in order
to hasten the immense preparations for
invasion, which had been forming for
two years, and there, elevated on his
throne, in the midst of a camp of
100,000 mer, he distributed to the
bravest of his army the decorations of
the legion of honor. It was thence
that the threatening posture of Aus-
tria; and its invasion of the states of
Bavaria, allied to France, forced the
emperor Napoleon to direct his prin
cipal forces towards that country. In
less than a month the French army
transported itself from the shores of
the ocean to those of the Danube,
and the Austrian army, under the or-
ders of general Mack, surprised by
this rapidity, and cut off on the right
from Memmingen, had only time to
take refuge in the town of Ulm,
where, after some slight contests,
17,000 men yielded themselves up
prisoners. Another body, which en-
deavoured to open itself a passage thro'
Franconie, under the orders of gene.

among them. Whilst these foreign
cares were employing him, he also
turned his attention to the situation of
an important department, that of
the Seine-Inferieure, which he went
through in November, 1802. His
journey to Rouen was celebrated by
great rejoicings. On his return he
stopped on the field of battle of Ivry,
caused the position of the armies to
be pointed out to him, and command-
ed the restoration of the monument
in honour of Henry IV. which had
been destroyed during the revolution.
At the beginning of 1803, the le-
gislative body dec end that the coin
should bear the eiligy of Bonaparte,
first consul. In April of the same
year, the declaration of war with Eng-
land replanged Europe into the mise-
ries which could scarcely have been
forgotten in a year's peace. A short
time after the rupture with England,
Bonaparte made an excursion to the
coasts, to accelerate the maritime pre-
parations; and thence traversed ́an-
cient Belgium and the departments of
the Rhine, where he received on his
way the homage and the testimonies
of gratitude of the people. On his
return to Paris, while he was devoting
himself to the details of administration,
two ancient Chouans, arrested in the
middle of the cpital, and on the
point of being conducted to death,
declared that they formed part of a
numerous band, which had come from
England, under the orders of Georges,
of Cadoudal, and of the ex general
Pichegru. to attempt the life of the
first cousul From the information which
they gave, the police arrested several of
their accomplices, and finally the two
gentrals. General Moreau was also
accused of having had a share in this
plot; and being summoned before the
criminal court of the Seine, he was
condemned to two years imprisonment,
which was shortly after changed into
banishment. Pichegru destroyed him-
self in his prison, and Georges, with
eleven of his accomplices, lost his head
on the scaffold. These plots, so often

ral Wernek, being pursued by prince to place on the new throne of Italy Murat, was taken and dispersed, and one of the families of Europe, rean army of 80,000 men was anni- moved by the late events. This was hilated in less than a fortnight. It rejected with indignation, and the cannot be doubted that this memora emperor Napo eon being resolved to ble event was owing to the activity fight, employed himself till the next and the warlike genius of the emperor day in preparing his army, either by of the French, as much as to the panic energetic harangues, or by the most with which his name struck his ene skilful dispositions. At day-break then, mies. Immediately after he went into the allies having had the imprudence Bavaria, and after having defeated in to march in a column upon the flank several encounters the remains of the of the French army, were soon Austrian force joined to some Russian broken and driven into marshes, where corps, he was in less than a month their artillery remained in the power of under the walls of Vienna, at the the French, without having been able head of 200,000 men, and entered to come into play. that capital on the 11th of Novem ber, 1805. This powerful army soon established a communication with that of Italy, which, on its part, had also obtained important advantages under the command of marshal Massena. The emperor Napoleon did not stay at Vienna; and after some battles

with the Russian general Kutusow,
he seized the fortress of Brunn,
traversed Moravia, and obliged the
emperor of Germany to send negoti-
ators to him. The wreck of the
Austrian army, joined to two Russian
armies that had hastened to their
assistance, and excited by the pre-
sence of the two emperors of Russia
and Germany, now for a short time
belived themselves on the point of
overwhelming the French army, which
was at two hundred leagues distance
from its frontiers; and without wait-

ing
for the third Russian army, which
was three days march from Olmutz,
the combined forces presented them
selves before the French army in an
immense line. The emperor Napoleon
appeared at fist to dread the result
of the battle which was offered him,
and commanded a retreat to the plains
of Austerlitz, where, having remark
ed a very advantageous position, he
awaited his enemies with confidence.
Ca the 1st of December, 1805,
prince Dolgorucki, sent to him by the
emperor of Russia, proposed to him

The victory was not for a single moment undecided, and the imperial guard of Russia having advanced to repair these first losses, was immedi ately overthrown by the imperial guard of France. The allies, obliged to take refuge under the walls of Olmutz, no longer thought of any thing but separating their cause, and the empe ror of Germany the very next day shewed the most decided intention of making peace on any conditions, whatever they might be. He had an inter view at the advanced posts with the emperor Napoleon; and the treaty of Presburg soon after put an end to this short and glorious campaign. cis II. ceded to the conqueror the Venetian states, the Brisgaw, the country of Saltzbourg, Dalmatia, and the Tirol. The electors of Wurtem burg and Bavaria, allies of France, were acknowledged kings, and united to their states the greatest part of those which had just been gained from Aus tria.

Fran

The court of Berlin, which during these great events had seemed to pursue an indecisive line of conduct, soon also yielded to France the county of Neufchatel, a part of its possessions in Westphalia, and especially the towa of Wesel, which was given to prince Joachim Murat, brother-in law to the emperor Napoleon, as well as the sur rounding countries, erected by his

majesty