Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century | Page 2

nineteenth came in with the Consulate. The coincidence of dates is not
exact by a year and a month and twenty-one days. But history does not
pay much attention to almanacs. In general our century arose with the
French Consulate. The Consulate was the most conspicuous political
fact of Europe in the year 1801; and the Consulate came in with
Brumaire.
"Brumaire" is one of the extraordinary names invented by the French
Revolutionists. The word, according to Carlyle, means
_Fogarious_--that is, Fog month. In the French Republican calendar,
devised by the astronomer Romme, in 1792, Brumaire began on the
twenty-second day of October and ended on the twentieth day of
November. It remained for Brumaire, and the eighteenth day of
Brumaire, of the year VIII, to extinguish the plural executive which the
French democrats had created under the name of a Directory, and to
substitute therefor the One Man that was coming.
The Directory was a Council of Five. It was a sort of five-headed
presidency; and each head was the head of a Jacobin. One of the heads
was called Barras. One was called Carnot. Another was called
Barthelemy. Another was Roger Ducos; another was the Abbé Sieyes.
That was the greatest head of them all. The heads were much mixed,
though the body was one. In such a body cross counsels were always
uppermost, and there was a want of decision and force in the
government.
This condition of the Executive Department led to the deplorable
reverses which overtook the French armies during the absence of
General Bonaparte in Egypt. Thiers says that the Directorial Republic
exhibited at this time a scene of distressing confusion. He adds: "The
Directory gave up guillotining; it only transported. It ceased to force
people to take assignats upon pain of death; but it paid nobody. Our
soldiers, without arms and without bread, were beaten instead of being
victorious."
The ambition of Napoleon found in this situation a fitting opportunity.
The legislative branch of the government consisted of a Senate, or
Council of Ancients, and a Council of Five Hundred. The latter
constituted the popular branch. Of this body Lucien Bonaparte, brother
of the general, was president. Hardly had Napoleon arrived in the

capital on his return from Egypt when a conspiracy was formed by him
with Sieyes, Lucien and others of revolutionary disposition, to do away
by a coup with the too democratic system, and to replace it with a
stronger and more centralized order. The Council of Ancients was to be
brought around by the influence of Sieyes. To Lucien Bonaparte the
more difficult task was assigned of controlling and revolutionizing the
Assembly. As for Napoleon, Sieyes procured for him the command of
the military forces of Paris; and by another decree the sittings of the
two legislative bodies were transferred to St. Cloud.
The eighteenth Brumaire of the Year VIII, corresponding to the ninth
of November, 1799, was fixed as the day for the revolution. By that
date soldiers to the number of 10,000 men had been collected in the
gardens of the Tuileries. There they were reviewed by General
Bonaparte and the leading officers of his command. He read to the
soldiers the decree which had just been issued under the authority of
the Council of the Ancients. This included the order for the removal of
the legislative body to St. Cloud, and for his own command. He was
entrusted with the execution of the order of the Council, and all of the
military forces in Paris were put at his disposal. In these hours of the
day there were all manner of preparation. That a conspiracy existed was
manifest to everybody. That General Bonaparte was reaching for the
supreme authority could hardly be doubted. His secretary thus writes of
him on the morning of the great day.
"I was with him a little before seven o'clock on the morning of the
eighteenth Brumaire, and, on my arrival, I found a great number of
generals and officers assembled. I entered Bonaparte's chamber, and
found him already up--a thing rather unusual with him. At this moment
he was as calm as on the approach of a battle. In a few moments Joseph
and Bernadotte arrived. I was surprised to see Bernadotte in plain
clothes, and I stepped up to him and said in a low voice: 'General,
everyone here except you and I is in uniform.' 'Why should I be in
uniform?' said he. Bonaparte, turning quickly to him, said: 'How is this?
You are not in uniform.' 'I never am on a morning when I am not on
duty,' replied Bernadotte. 'You will be on duty presently,' said the
general!"
To Napoleon the crisis was an epoch of fate. The first thing was to be
the resignation of Sieyes, Barras