napoleon as statesman and lawgiver—the finances—the industries—the public works
“now we must rebuild, and, moreover, we must rebuild solidly,” said napoleon to his brother lucien the day after the coup d’état which had overthrown the directory and made him the temporary dictator of france.
the first necessity was a new constitution. in ten years three constitutions had been framed and adopted, and now the third had, like its predecessors, been declared worthless. at napoleon’s side was a man who had the draft of a constitution ready in his pocket. it had been promised him that, if he would aid in the 18th brumaire, this instrument should be adopted. this man was the abbé sieyès. he had been a prominent member of the constituent assembly, but, curiously enough, his fame there had been founded more on his silence and the air of mystery in which he enveloped himself than on anything he had done. the superstitious veneration which he had won, saved him even during the terror, and he was accustomed to say laconically, when asked what he did in that period, “i lived.”
it was he who, when napoleon was still in egypt, had seen the necessity of a military dictatorship, and had urged the directory to order napoleon home to help him reorganize the government—an order which was never received.
soon after the 18th brumaire, sieyès presented his constitution. 106no more bungling and bizarre instrument for conducting the affairs of a nation was ever devised. warned by the experience of the past ten years, he abandoned the ideas of 1789, and declared that the power must come from above, the confidence from below. his system of voting took the suffrage from the people; his legislative body was composed of three sections, each of which was practically powerless. all the force of the government was centered in a senate of aged men. the grand elector, as the figurehead which crowned the edifice was called, did nothing but live at versailles and draw a princely salary.
napoleon saw at once the weak points of the structure, but he saw how it could be re-arranged to serve a dictator. he demanded that the senate be stripped of its power, and that the grand elector be replaced by a first consul, to whom the executive force should be confided. sieyès consented, and napoleon was named first consul.
the whole machinery of the government was now centered in one man. “the state, it was i,” said napoleon at st. helena. the new constitution was founded on principles the very opposite of those for which the revolution had been made, but it was the only hope there was of dragging france from the slough of anarchy and despair into which she had fallen.
napoleon undertook the work of reconstruction which awaited him, with courage, energy, and amazing audacity. he was forced to deal at once with all departments of the nation’s life—with the finances, the industries, the émigrés, the church, public education, the codification of the laws.
the first question was one of money. the country was literally bankrupt in 1799. the treasury was empty, and the government practised all sorts of makeshifts to get money to pay those bills which could not be put off. one day, having to send out a special courier, it was obliged to 107give him the receipts of the opera to pay his expenses. and, again, it was in such a tight pinch that it was on the point of sending the gold coin in the cabinet of medals to the mint to be melted. loans could not be negotiated; government paper was worthless; stocks were down to the lowest. one of the worst features of the situation was the condition of the taxes. the assessments were as arbitrary as before the revolution, and they were collected with greater difficulty.
to select an honest, capable, and well known financier was napoleon’s first act. the choice he made was wise—a monsieur gaudin, afterward the duke de ga?te, a quiet man, who had the confidence of the people. under his management credit was restored, the government was able to make the loans necessary, and the department of finance was reorganized in a thorough fashion. napoleon’s gratitude to monsieur gaudin was lasting. once when asked to change him for a more brilliant man, he said:
“i fully acknowledge all your protégé is worth; but it might easily happen that, with all his intelligence, he would give me nothing but fresh water, whilst with my good gaudin i can always rely on having good crown pieces.”
the famous bank of france dates from this time. it was founded under napoleon’s personal direction, and he never ceased to watch over it jealously.
most important of all the financial measures was the reorganization of the system of taxation. the first consul insisted that the taxes must meet the whole expense of the nation, save war, which must pay for itself; and he so ordered affairs that never, after his administration was fairly begun, was a deficit known or a loan made. this was done, too, without the people feeling the burden of taxation. indeed, that burden was so much lighter under his administration that it had been under the old régime, that peasant and workman, in most cases, probably did not know they were being taxed.
108
“buonaparte.”
fiesinger, engraver, after guérin. published “29 vendémiaire, l’an vii.” (1799). it is of this portrait that taine writes: “look now at this portrait by guérin, this lean body, these narrow shoulders in their uniform creased by his brusque motions, this neck enveloped in a high wrinkled cravat, these temples concealed by long hair falling straight over them, nothing to be seen but the face; these hard features made prominent by strong contrasts of light and shade; these cheeks as hollow as the interior angle of the eye; these prominent cheek-bones; this massive protruding chin; these curving, mobile, attentive lips; these great, clear eyes deeply set under the overarching eyebrows; this fixed, incomprehensible look, sharp as a sword; these two straight wrinkles which cross the forehead from the base of the nose like a furrow of continual anger and inflexible will.”
109“before 1789,” says taine, “out of one hundred francs of net revenue, the workman gave fourteen to his seignor, fourteen to the clergy, fifty-three to the state, and kept only eighteen or nineteen for himself. since 1800, from one hundred francs income he pays nothing to the seignor or the church, and he pays to the state, the department, and the commune but twenty-one francs, leaving seventy-nine in his pocket.” and such was the method and care with which this system was administered, that the state received more than twice as much as it had before. the enormous sums which the police and tax-collectors had appropriated now went to the state. here is but one example of numbers which show how minutely napoleon guarded this part of the finances. it is found in a letter to fouché, the chief of police:
“what happens at bordeaux happens at turin, at spa, at marseilles, etc. the police commissioners derive immense profits from the gaming-tables. my intention is that the towns shall reap the benefit of the tables. i shall employ the two hundred thousand francs paid by the tables of bordeaux in building a bridge or a canal....”
a great improvement was that the taxes became fixed and regular. napoleon wished that each man should know what he had to pay out each year. “true civil liberty depends on the safety of property,” he told his council of state. “there is none in a country where the rate of taxation is changed every year. a man who has three thousand francs income does not know how much he will have to live on the next year. his whole substance may be swallowed up by the taxes.”
nearly the whole revenue came from indirect taxes applied to a great number of articles. in case of a war which did not pay its way, napoleon proposed to raise each of 110these a few centimes. the nation would surely prefer this, to paying it to the russians or austrians. when possible the taxes were reduced. “better leave the money in the hands of the citizens than lock it up in a cellar, as they do in prussia.”
he was cautious that extra taxes should not come on the very poor, if it could be avoided. a suggestion to charge the vegetable and fish sellers for their stalls came before him. “the public square, like water, ought to be free. it is quite enough that we tax salt and wine.... it would become the city of paris much more to think of restoring the corn market.”
an important part of his financial policy was the rigid economy which was insisted on in all departments. if a thing was bought, it must be worth what was paid for it. if a man held a position, he must do its duties. neither purchases nor positions could be made unless reasonable and useful. this was in direct opposition to the old régime, of which waste, idleness, and parasites were the chief characteristics. the saving in expenditure was almost incredible. a trip to fontainebleau, which cost louis xvi. four hundred thousand dollars, napoleon would make, in no less state, for thirty thousand dollars.
the expenses of the civil household, which amounted to five million dollars under the old régime, were now cut down to six hundred thousand dollars, though the elegance was no less.
a master who gave such strict attention to the prosperity of his kingdom would not, of course, overlook its industries. in fact, they were one of napoleon’s chief cares. his policy was one of protection. he would have france make everything she wanted, and sell to her neighbors, but never buy from them. to simulate the manufactories, which in 1799 were as nearly bankrupt as the public treasury, he 111visited the factories himself to learn their needs. he gave liberal orders, and urged, even commanded, his associates to do the same. at one time, anxious to aid the batiste factories of flanders, he tried to force josephine to give up cotton goods and to set the fashion in favor of the batistes; but she made such an outcry that he was obliged to abandon the idea. for the same reason he wrote to his sister eliza: “i beg that you will allow your court to wear nothing but silks and cambrics, and that you will exclude all cottons and muslins, in order to favor french industry.”
frequently he would take goods on consignment, to help a struggling factory. rather than allow a manufactory to be idle, he would advance a large sum of money, and a quantity of its products would be put under government control. after the battle of eylau, napoleon sent one million six hundred thousand francs to paris, to be used in this way.
to introduce cotton-making into the country was one of his chief industrial ambitions. at the beginning of the century it was printed in all the factories of france, but nothing more. he proposed to the council of state to prohibit the importation of cotton thread and the woven goods. there was a strong opposition, but he carried his point.
“as a result,” said napoleon to las cases complacently, “we possess the three branches, to the immense advantage of our population and to the detriment and sorrow of the english; which proves that, in administration as in war, one must exercise character.... i occupied myself no less in encouraging silks. as emperor, and king of italy, i counted one hundred and twenty millions of income from the silk harvest.”
in a similar way he encouraged agriculture; especially was he anxious that france should raise all her own articles of diet. he had berthollet look into maple and turnip sugar, and he did at last succeed in persuading the people to use beet sugar; though he never convinced them that swiss tea equalled chinese, or that chicory was as good as coffee.
112
bonaparte, first consul.
one of the best portraits of the first consul—the truest of all, perhaps. unlike bouillon, van brée, géhotte, isabey, boilly painted him in his real aspect, without any striving after the ideal. this is really the determined little corsican, tormented by ambition and a thirst for conquest. this fine portrait has been admirably etched by duplessis-bertaux.—a. d.
113the works he insisted should be carried on in regard to roads and public buildings were of great importance. there was need that something be done.
“it is impossible to conceive, if one had not been a witness of it before and after the 18th brumaire [said the chancellor pasquier], of the widespread ruin wrought by the revolution.... there were hardly two or three main roads [in france] in a fit condition for traffic; not a single one was there, perhaps, wherein was not found some obstacle that could not be surmounted without peril. with regard to the ways of internal communication, they had been indefinitely suspended. the navigation of rivers and canals was no longer feasible.
“in all directions, public buildings, and those monuments which represent the splendor of the state, were falling into decay. it must fain be admitted that if the work of destruction had been prodigious, that of restoration was no less so. everything was taken hold of at one and the same time, and everything progressed with a like rapidity. not only was it resolved to restore all that required restoring in various parts of the country, in all parts of the public service, but new, grand, beautiful and useful works were decided upon, and many were brought to a happy termination. this certainly constitutes one of the most brilliant sides of the consular and imperial régime.”
in paris alone vast improvements were made. napoleon began the rue de rivoli, built the wing connecting the tuileries and the louvre, erected the triumphal arch of the carrousel, the arc de triomphe at the head of the champs elysées, the column vend?me, the madeleine, began the bourse, built the pont d’austerlitz, and ordered, commenced, or finished, a number of minor works of great importance to the city. the markets interested him particularly. “give all possible care to the construction of the markets and to their healthfulness, and to the beauty of the halle-aux-blés and of the halle-aux-vins. the people, too, must have their louvre.”
the works undertaken outside of paris in france, and in 114the countries under her rule in the time that napoleon was in power were of a variety and extent which would be incredible, if every traveller in europe did not have the evidence of them still before his eyes. the mere enumeration of these works and of the industrial achievements of napoleon, made by las cases, reads like a fairy story. “you wish to know the treasures of napoleon? they are immense, it is true, but they are all exposed to light. they are the noble harbors of antwerp and flushing, which are capable of containing the largest fleets, and of protecting them against the ice from the sea; the hydraulic works at dunkirk, havre, and nice; the immense harbor of cherbourg; the maritime works at venice; the beautiful roads from antwerp to amsterdam, from mayence to metz, from bordeaux to bayonne; the passes of the simplon, of mont cenis, of mount genèvre, of the corniche, which open a communication through the alps in four different directions, and which exceed in grandeur, in boldness, and in skill of execution, all the works of the romans (in that alone you will find eight hundred millions); the roads from the pyrenees to the alps, from parma to spezia, from savona to piedmont; the bridges of jena, austerlitz, des arts, sèvres, tours, roanne, lyons, turin; of the isère, of the durance, of bordeaux, of rouen, etc.; the canal which connects the rhine with the rhone by the doubs, and thus unites the north sea with the mediterranean; the canal which joins the scheldt with the somme, and thus joins paris and amsterdam; the canal which unites the rance to the vilaine; the canal of arles; that of pavia, and the canal of the rhine; the draining of the marshes of bourgoin, of the cotentin, of rochefort; the rebuilding of the greater part of the churches destroyed by the revolution; the building of others: the institution of numerous establishments of 115industry for the suppression of mendicity; the gallery at the louvre; the construction of public warehouses, of the bank, of the canal of the ourcq; the distribution of water in the city of paris; the numerous drains, the quays, the embellishments, and the monuments of that large capital; the works for the embellishment of rome; the re?stablishment of the manufactures of lyons; the creation of many hundreds of manufactories of cotton, for spinning and for weaving, which employ several millions of workmen; funds accumulated to establish upwards of four hundred manufactories of sugar from beet-root, for the consumption of part of france, and which would have furnished sugar at the same price as the west indies, if they had continued to receive encouragement for only four years longer; the substitution of woad for indigo, which would have been at last brought to a state of perfection in france, and obtained as good and as cheap as the indigo from the colonies; numerous manufactories for all kinds of objects of art, etc.; fifty millions expended in repairing and beautifying the palaces belonging to the crown; sixty millions in furniture for the palaces belonging to the crown in france, in holland, at turin, and at rome; sixty millions of diamonds for the crown, all purchased with napoleon’s money; the regent (the only diamond that was left belonging to the former diamonds of the crown) withdrawn from the hands of the jews at berlin, in whose hands it had been left as a pledge for three millions. the napoleon museum, valued at upwards of four hundred millions, filled with objects legitimately acquired, either by moneys or by treaties of peace known to the whole world, by virtue of which the chefs-d’oeuvres, it contains were given in lieu of territory or of contributions. several millions amassed to be applied to the encouragement of agriculture, which is the paramount consideration for the interest of france; the introduction into france of merino sheep, etc. these form a treasure of several thousand millions which will endure for ages.”
116
medallion of bonaparte
the following inscription, written in french, by dutertre, the official painter of the principal personages in the egyptian expedition, appears on the reverse side of this medallion, which frames one of the most precious gems of napoleonic iconography. “i, dutertre, made this drawing of the general-in-chief from nature, on board the vessel ‘l’orient,’ during the crossing of the expedition to egypt in the year vii. (sic) of the republic.” a short time ago the drawing came into the possession of the versailles museum.
117napoleon himself looked on these achievements as his most enduring monument. “the allied powers cannot take from me hereafter,” he told o’meara, “the great public works i have executed, the roads which i made over the alps, and the seas which i have united. they cannot place their feet to improve where mine have not been before. they cannot take from me the code of laws which i formed, and which will go down to posterity.”
118
moreau, about 1801.
engraved by elizabeth g. berhan, after guérin.
