Worlds Best Histories - France, vol 7 | Page 4

you have?" said the First Consul to La Fayette. "Sieyès
has put nothing but shadows everywhere; the shadow of legislative
power, the shadow of judicial power, the shadow of government; some
part of the substance was necessary. Faith! I have put it there." The
very preamble of the Constitution affirmed the radical change brought
about in the direction of affairs. "The powers instituted to-day will be
strong and lasting, such as they ought to be in order to guarantee the
rights of citizens and the interests of the State. Citizens, the Revolution
is fixed upon the same principles which began it. It is finished!"
It was not the apotheosis, but the end of the Revolution that the authors
of the Constitution of the year VIII. arrogantly announced. In the first
impulse of a great spirit brought face to face with a difficult task,
Bonaparte conceived the thought of terminating the war like the
Revolution, and of re-establishing, at least for some time, the peace he
needed in order to govern France. Disdainful of the ordinary forms of
diplomacy, he wrote directly to George III., as he had formerly written
to the Archduke Charles (18th December, 1799).
"Called by the will of the French nation to be first magistrate, I deem it
expedient on entering upon my charge to communicate directly with
your Majesty.
"Must the war which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters of
the globe, be eternal? Is there no other means of arriving at a mutual

understanding?
"How can the most enlightened nations of Europe, powerful and strong
beyond what their security and independence require, sacrifice the
interest of commerce, the prosperity of their people, and the happiness
of families, to ideas of vainglory?
"These sentiments cannot be foreign to the heart of your Majesty, who
governs a free nation with the sole aim of rendering it happy.
"Your Majesty will see in these overtures only my sincere desire to
contribute effectively, for the second time, to a general pacification by
a prompt procedure, full of confidence and divested of those forms
which, necessary perhaps, in order to disguise the dependence of feeble
States, only reveal between strong States a mutual desire to deceive
each other.
"France and England, by the abuse of their power, may for a long time
yet retard its termination; but I dare to say that every civilized nation is
interested in the close of a war which embraces the whole world."
At the same time, and in nearly the same terms, Bonaparte wrote to the
Emperor Francis. He had treated formerly with this sovereign, and
would not perhaps have found him inflexible; but Pitt did not believe
the Revolution finished, and had no confidence in a man who had just
seized with a victorious hand the direction of the destinies of France. A
frigidly polite letter, addressed by Lord Granville to Talleyrand, the
minister of foreign affairs, repelled the advances of the First Consul.
The English then prepared a new armament intended to second the
attempts which the royalists were at that time renewing in the west. In
enumerating the causes of European mistrust with regard to France,
Lord Granville added, "The best guarantee, the most natural guarantee,
for the reality and the permanence of the pacific intentions of the
French government, would be the restoration of that royal dynasty
which has maintained for so many ages the internal prosperity of
France, and which has made it regarded with respect and consideration
abroad. Such an event would clear away all the obstacles which hinder
negotiations for peace, it would ensure to France the tranquil

possession of her ancient territory, and it would give to all the nations
of Europe that security which they are compelled to seek at present by
other means."
During the violent debate raised in Parliament by the pacific
propositions of the First Consul, Pitt based all his arguments upon the
instability and insecurity of a treaty of peace with the French
Revolution, whatever might be the name of its chief rulers. "When was
it discovered that the dangers of Jacobinism cease to exist?" he cried.
"When was it discovered that the Jacobinism of Robespierre, of Barère,
of the five directors, of the triumvirate, has all of a sudden disappeared
because it is concentrated in a single man, raised and nurtured in its
bosom, covered with glory under its auspices, and who has been at
once the offspring and the champion of all its atrocities?... It is because
I love peace sincerely that I cannot content myself with a vain word; it
is because I love peace sincerely that I cannot sacrifice it by seizing the
shadow when the reality is not within my reach. Cur igitur pacem nolo?
Quia infida est, quia periculosa, quia esse non potest!"
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