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BOOK XIV. men each, were commanded to be immediately equipped for service, making a grand total of CHAP. VIII. 2,255,040 solliers. Had he been able to have called into action this immense body, and to have instilled a sufficient portion of enthusiasın into their ranks, Bonaparte might have bid defiance to the world. But scarcely a tenth part were ever enrolled, and only a few battalions opposed any effectual resistance to the invaders.

The old soldiers, however, crowded to the imperial standard, and a brave and numerous army was soon placed at his disposal, with which he might expect at least to open the campaign with eclat; and he indulged the hope that some brilliant action at the commencement of the contest might excite the enthusiasm of the French, or disconcert, or disunite, the allies.

Justly alarmed at the confederation which threatened him, he was anxious to increase his disposable force." I must have an immediate levy of 300,000 men," said he one day to Carnot. "The thing is impossible," was the reply. "But are not the conscript laws in existence?" "Yes, but they will no longer be obeyed as formerly." -"What! am I not still emperor ?"-"Yes, sire! but with restrictions and limits." Napoleon broke out into one of his paroxysms of rage and quitted the council.

Numerous workmen were employed in fortifying the heights of Montmartre, Chaumont, and Mesnil-Montant, in the neighbourhood of Paris. Orders were issued to inspect and complete the fortifications of every garrison-town. Soissons, Laon, Lafère, Saint-Quentin, Guise, ChâteauThierry, Vitry, and Langres were placed in a respectable state of defence. Chalons, Rheims, Dijon, the Vosges, Jura, and Argonne, already strong by nature, were rendered nearly impregnable. Many hundred workmen were daily employed in the fortifications of Lyons, and no effort was spared to oppose every obstacle to the progress of the invader. Every defile was guarded;-fortifications were erected at the heads of the bridges;-batteries crowned the summit of every mountain, and the din of preparation sounded from the northern frontier to the Mediterranean sea. On his first landing in France, Napoleon had pledged himself to give the French a constitution agreeable to their wishes, and favorable to their liberties. He now hastened to redeem his pledge. Inclination and necessity equally prompted this measure. He appointed a commission to draw up the form of a constitution to be submitted to the choice of the nation. Bishop Gregoire, well known for his attachment to rational liberty, and Benjamin Constant, who had lately and so boldly spoken his sentiments of the emperor, and so stre nuously opposed his cause, were members of this commission.

This document, which was published on the 23d of April, contains, under the several heads, all the provisions for establishing a free representative government, similar to that of England, which it obviously bad in view; and though it never took place, the record of it is so far valu able as affording a view of what was thought necessary to satisfy the expectations of the party which then possessed the principal political influ ence, and to whose views Bonaparte would probably have been obliged to conform, had he been unable to re-establish a military despotism.

Act additional to the Constitutions of the
Empire.

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

Since we were called, fifteen years ago, to the government of the state by the wishes of France, we endeavoured, at various times, to improve the constitutional forms, according to the wants and desires of the nation, and profiting by the lessons of experience. The constitutions of the empire were thus formed of a series of acts which were sanctioned by the acceptance of the people. It was then our object to organise a grand federa tive European system, which we had adopted as conformable to the spirit of the age, and favorable to the progress of civilization. In order to attain its completion, and to give it all the extent and stability of which it was susceptible, we postponed the establishment of many internal institutions, more particularly destined to protect the liberty of the citizens. Henceforward our only object is to increase the prosperity of France, by the confirmation of public liberty. From this results the necessity of various important modifications of the constitutions, the senatus consulta, and other acts which govern this empire. For these causes, wishing, on the one hand, to retain of the past what was good and salutary, and, on the other, to render the constitutions of our em pire in every thing conformable to the national wishes and wants, as well as to the state of peace which we desire to maintain with Europe, we have resolved to propose to the people a series of arrangements tending to modify and improve its constitutional acts, to strengthen the rights of citizens by every guarantee, to give the representa tive system its whole extension, to invest the intermediate bodies with the desirable respectability and power,-in one word, to combine the highest degree of political liberty and individual security, with the force and centrilization necessary causing the independence of the French people to be respected by foreigners, and necessary to the dignity of our crown. In consequence, the following articles, forming an act supplemen.

for

TITLE III.-OF TAXATION.

34. The general direct tax, whether on land or moveables, is voted only for one year: indirect taxes may be voted for several years. In case of the dissolution of the chamber of representatives, the taxes voted in the preceding session are continued till the next meeting of the chamber.

35. No tax, direct or indirect, in money or kind, can be levied, no loan contracted, no inscription in the great book of the public debt can be made, no domain alienated or sold, no levy of men for the army ordered, no portion of territory exchanged, but in virtue of a law.

36. No proposition of tax, loan, or levy of men, can be made but to the chamber of representatives.

37. Before the same chamber must be laid, in the first instance, 1. The general budget of the state, containing a view of the receipts, and the proposal of the funds assigned for the year, to each department of service: 2. The account of the receipts and expenses of the year, or of preceding years.

TITLE IV. OF MINISTERS, AND OF RESPONSIBILITY.

38. All the acts of government must be countersigned by a minister in office.

39. The ministers are responsible for acts of government signed by them, as well as for the execution of the laws.

40. They may be accused by the chamber

of representatives, and are tried by that of

peers.

41. Every minister, every commandant of armed force, by land or sea, may be accused by the chamber of representatives, and tried by that of peers, for having compromised the safety or honor of the nation.

42. The chamber of peers, in that case, exercises a discretional power, either in classing the offence or mitigating the punishment.

43. Before placing a minister in accusation, the chamber of representatives must declare that there is ground for examining the charge.

44. This declaration can only be made on the report of a committee of sixty, drawn by lot. This committee must make its report in ten days,

or sooner, after its nomination.

45. When the chamber declares there is ground for inquiry, it may call the minister before them to demand explanations, at least within ten days after the report of the committee.

46. In no other case can ministers in office be summoned or ordered by the chambers.

47. When the chamber of representatives has declared that there is ground for inquiry against a minister, a new committee of sixty, drawn by lot, is formed, who are to make a new report on the placing in accusation. This committee makes its report ten days after its appointment.

48. The placing in accusation is not to be decided till ten days after the report is read and distributed. 49. The accusation being pronounced, the chamber appoints five of its member to prosecute the charge before the peers.

50. The seventy-fifth article of the constitutional act of the 22d Frimaire, year 8, importing that the agents of government can only be prosecuted in virtue of a decision of the council of state, shall be modified by a law.

TITLE V.-OF THE JUDICIAL POWER.

51. The emperor appoints all judges. They are irremoveable, and for life, from the moment of their appointment; but the nomination of jus tices of peace, and judges of commerce, shall take place as formerly.

The existing judges, appointed by the emperor, in terms of the senatus consultum of the 12th Oct. 1807, and whom he shall think proper to retain, shall receive provisions for life before the 1st of January next.

52. The institution of juries is maintained. 53. The discussions on criminal trials shall be public.

54. Military offences alone shall be tried by military tribunals.

55. All other offences, even those committed by military men, are within the jurisdiction of civil tribunals.

56. All the crimes and offences which were appropriated for trial to the high imperial court, and of which this act does not reserve the trial to the chamber of peers, shall be brought before the ordinary tribunals.

57. The emperor has the right of pardon, even in correctional cases, and of granting amnesties.

58. Interpretations of laws demanded by the court of a cassation shall be given in the form of a law.

TITLE VI.-RIGHTS OF CITIZENS.

59. Frenchmen are equal in the eye of the law, whether for contribution to taxes and public burdens, or for admission to civil or military employments.

60. No one, under any pretext, can be withdrawn from the judges assigned to him by law.

61. No one can be prosecuted, arrested, detained, or exiled, but in cases provided for by law, and according to the prescribed forms.

62. Liberty of worship is guaranteed to all. 63. All property possessed or acquired in virtue of the laws, and all debts of the state, are inviolable.

64. Every citizen has a right to print and publish his thoughts, on signing them, without any previous censorship, liable at the same time, after publication, to legal responsibility, by trial by jury, even where there is ground only for the application of a correctional penalty.

65. The right of petitioning is secured to all the citizens. Every petition is individual. Petitions may be addressed either to the government or to the two chambers; nevertheless, even the latter must also be entitled "To the emperor.' They shall be presented to the chambers under the guarantee of a member who recommends the petition. They are publicly read, and if the chambers take them into consideration, they are laid before the emperor by the president.

66. No fortress, no portion of territory, can be declared in a state of siege, but in case of invasion by a foreign force, or of civil broils. In the former case the declaration is made by an act of the government. In the latter it can only be done by the law. However, should the two chambers not then be sitting, the act of the government, declaring the state of siege must be converted into a plan of law within a fortnight after the meeting of the chambers.

67. The French people moreover declare, that in the delegation which it has made and makes. of its powers, it has not meant, and does not mean, to give a right to propose the reinstatement of the Bourbons, or any prince of that family on the throne, even in case of the extinction of the imperial dynasty; nor the right of re-establishing either the ancient feudal

A

A table subjoined contains the number of representatives to be returned by each of the eightyseven departments, which are subdivided into 368 arrondissements. The number of the representatives appointed by the colleges of the departments vary from one to six for each department. The arrondissements, of which there are from three to six, each return one representative. The total number of representatives from the colleges of the departments being 238, and from the arrondissements being 368, gives a total of 606, to which, however, is to be added twenty-three representatives of the commercial and manufacturing interests, which makes in all 629 representatives for all France.

This additional act was offered to the acceptance or rejection of the French people. Every Frenchman of mature age was invited to inscribe his vote for or against it, in registers which were opened in every town and district. These votes were to be collected and the grand result published at the Champ de Mai, which was convened on the 26th of May.

The Champ de Mai, or Champ de Mars, is a large expanse in front of the military-school, bor

dered on both sides with double avenues of trees which extend from the school almost to the banks of the Seine. It was appropriated, like the Campus Martius at Rome, to the reviews of troops, and to horse and foot races on public festivals.

It did not, however, derive its name from any imitation of the Roman Campus Martius. In the early periods of the French monarchy, the general assemblies of the nation were held in this place. The objects of the meeting were to frame new laws, to submit the complaints of the people to the royal ear, to compose differences among the barons, and to review the forces of the kingdom. It was denominated the Champ de Mars, because the assembly took place in the month of March. In the middle of the eighth century, Pepin transferred it to the month of May, as a milder and more convenient season. After this it was called either the Champ de Mars or the Champ de Mai. Under the second race of kings, similar meetings were held both in the beginning of the year, and in August or September. Under the third race they gradually changed their character, and assumed

1815.

1815.

One circumstance attending the promulgation of the additional act gave great and just offence to every moderate and reasonable man. The army and navy were invited to deliberate on it, and transmit their approval or dissent.

In every state which boasts the slightest portion of liberty a deliberative voice has been jealously withheld from the military. The duty of the army is to defend the country from invasion, and to obey the commands of the executive power. Its very character renders it dangerous and fatal to freedom, to permit it to have a voice in the legislative deliberations of, the country.

This novel compliment now paid to the army was the result of the difficult circumstances in which Napoleon was placed. His whole dependance was on the attachment and devotion of his soldiers. His fate was in their hands; and by their aid alone could he avert the destruction which threatened to overwhelm him. Yet even on this ground his conduct was not justifiable. It was an unnecessary violation of every constitutional principle. His troops would not have claimed a privilege, to which in no country had the army ever been entitled; and the gratuitous offer of it excited in the mind of every rational man the most painful suspicions, and prepared the way for alienation and disgust.

Three days before this, Bonaparte had published a decree, by which extraordinary commissioners were sent to all the military divisions, who were to abrogate the functions of mayors, adjuncts, members of municipal-councils, officers and commandants of national-guards, and sub-pre

fects, and were to renew them provisionally on the recommendation of the prefects. They were also to renovate the councils-general of department and of district; and they were to transmit to the minister of the interior all the nominations which they should make. They were further authorized to replace provisionally all the functionaries of the boards of public administration, who should be absent from their posts, or unable to fill them. The object of this decree to place all local authority in the hands of persons devoted to the new order of things is apparent.

The arrival of Lucien Bonaparte at this time was of infinite advantage to Napoleon. Lucien had been a sturdy republican. His talents were uni versally acknowledged, and his courageous oppo. sition to the former tyranny of Napoleon was fresh in the memory of all. The reconciliation of the brothers was therefore regarded as a pledge of the sincerity of Bonaparte, and the triumph of liberty.

The motive for Lucien's return is somewhat difficult to appreciate. It had been universally acknowledged that he rivalled, and even excelled, Napoleon in the powers of his mind; and the noble resistance which he had made to the ty ranny of his brother had raised him high in the public estimation. He had nobly refused to co operate in the plans of Napoleon, as soon as he was convinced that his ultimate object was not the welfare of France and the triumph of liberty, but the gratification of his own inordinate ambition. He refused, although he was tempted by a crown; and retiring from public life, he passed many years happily employed in the education of his family, and the cultivation of literature and the arts.

he issued the following declaration. In this will be seen the early avowal of the determination of the allies to re-seat the Bourbons on the throne.