Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 7 | Page 7

as follows:
MONSIEUR--The motives of the present war are known throughout
Europe. The bad faith of the King of England, who has violated his
treaties by refusing to restore Malta to the order of St. John of
Jerusalem, and attacked our merchant vessels without a previous
declaration of war, together with the necessity of a just defence, forced
us to have recourse to arms. I therefore wish you to order prayers to be
offered up, in order to obtain the benediction of Heaven on our
enterprises. The proofs I have received of your zeal for the public
service give me an assurance of your readiness to conform with my
wishes.
Given at St. Cloud, 18 Prairial, an XI. (7th June 1803).
(Signed) BONAPARTE.
This letter was remarkable in more than one respect. It astonished most
of his old brothers-in-arms, who turned it into ridicule; observing that
Bonaparte needed no praying to enable him to conquer Italy twice over.
The First Consul, however, let them laugh on, and steadily followed the
line he had traced out. His letter was admirably calculated to please the
Court of Rome, which he wished should consider him in the light of
another elder son of the Church. The letter was, moreover, remarkable
for the use of the word "Monsieur," which the First Consul now

employed for the first time in an act destined for publicity. This
circumstance would seem to indicate that he considered Republican
designations incompatible with the forms due to the clergy: the clergy
were especially interested in the restoration of monarchy. It may,
perhaps, be thought that I dwell too much on trifles; but I lived long
enough in Bonaparte's confidence to know the importance he attached
to trifles. The First Consul restored the old names of the days of the
week, while he allowed the names of the months, as set down in the
Republican calendar, to remain. He commenced by ordering the
Moniteur to be dated "Saturday," such a day of "Messidor." "See," said
he one day, "was there ever such an inconsistency? We shall be
laughed at! But I will do away with the Messidor. I will efface all the
inventions of the Jacobins."
The clergy did not disappoint the expectations of the First Consul. They
owed him much already, and hoped for still more from him. The letter
to the Bishops, etc., was the signal for a number of circulars full of
eulogies on Bonaparte.
These compliments were far from displeasing to the First Consul, who
had no objection to flattery though he despised those who meanly made
themselves the medium of conveying it to him. Duroc once told me that
they had all great difficulty in preserving their gravity when the cure of
a parish in Abbeville addressed Bonaparte one day while he was on his
journey to the coast. "Religion," said the worthy cure, with pompous
solemnity, "owes to you all that it is, we owe to you all that we are; and
I, too, owe to you all that I am."
--[Not so fulsome as some of the terms used a year later when
Napoleon was made Emperor. "I am what I am," was placed over a seat
prepared for the Emperor. One phrase, "God made Napoleon and then
rested," drew from Narbonne the sneer that it would have been better if
the Deity had rested sooner. "Bonaparte," says Joseph de Maistre, "has
had himself described in his papers as the 'Messenger of God.' Nothing
more true. Bonaparte comes straight from heaven, like a thunderbolt."
(Saints-Benve, Caureries, tome iv. p. 203.)]

CHAPTER XX.
1803.
Presentation of Prince Borghese to Bonaparte--Departure for Belgium
Revival of a royal custom--The swans of Amiens--Change of formula
in the acts of Government--Company of performers in Bonaparte's
suite--Revival of old customs--Division of the institute into four
classes--Science and literature--Bonaparte's hatred of literary men
--Ducis--Bernardin de Saint-Pierre--Chenier and Lemercier--
Explanation of Bonaparte's aversion to literature--Lalande and his
dictionary--Education in the hands of Government--M. de Roquelaure,
Archbishop of Malines.
In the month of April 1803 Prince Borghese, who was destined one day
to become Bonaparte's brother-in-law by marrying the widow of
Leclerc, was introduced to the First Consul by Cardinal Caprara.
About the end of June Bonaparte proceeded, with Josephine, on his
journey to Belgium and the seaboard departments. Many curious
circumstances were connected with this journey, of which I was
informed by Duroc after the First Consul's return. Bonaparte left Paris
on the 24th of June, and although it was not for upwards of a year
afterwards that his brow was encircled with the imperial-diadem,
everything connected with the journey had an imperial air. It was
formerly the custom, when the Kings of France entered the ancient
capital of Picardy, for the town of Amiens to offer them in homage
some beautiful swans. Care