Part 43 (2/2)
[Sidenote: The Reforms of Napoleon.]
Napoleon returned to his capital to reconstruct society, which was entirely disorganized. It was his object to restore the inst.i.tutions of religion, law, commerce, and education. He did not attempt to give const.i.tutional freedom. This was impracticable; but he did desire to bring order out of confusion. One night, going to the theatre, he narrowly escaped death by the explosion of an ”infernal machine.” He attributed the design of a.s.sa.s.sination to the Jacobins, and forthwith transported one hundred and thirty of them, more as a statesman than as a judge. He was determined to break up that obnoxious party, and the design against his life furnished the pretence. Shortly after, he inst.i.tuted the Legion of Honor, an order of merit which was designed to restore gradually the gradation in the ranks of society. He was violently opposed, but he carried his measures through the Council of State; and this inst.i.tution, which at length numbered two thousand persons, civil and military, became both popular and useful. He then restored the external inst.i.tution of religion, and ten archbishops and fifty bishops administered the affairs of the Gallican Church. The restoration of the Sunday, with its customary observances, was hailed by the peasantry with undisguised delight, and was a pleasing sight to the nations of Europe. He then contemplated the complete restoration of all the unalienated national property to the original proprietors, but was forced to abandon the design. A general amnesty, was also proclaimed to emigrants, by which one hundred thousand people returned, not to enjoy their possessions, but to recover a part of them, and breathe the air of their native land. At last, he resolved to make himself first consul for life, and seat his family on a monarchical throne. He was opposed by the Council of State; but he appealed to the people, and three million three hundred and sixty-eight thousand two hundred and nine, out of three million five hundred and fifty-seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-five electors, voted for his elevation.
[Sidenote: The Code Napoleon.]
The ”_Code Napoleon_” then occupied his attention, indisputably the greatest monument of his reign, and the most beneficial event of his age. All cla.s.ses and parties have praised the wisdom of this great compilation, which produced more salutary changes than had been effected by all the early revolutionists. Amid these great undertakings of the consul, the internal prosperity of France was constantly increasing, and education, art, and science received an immense impulse. Every thing seemed to smile upon Bonaparte, and all appeared reconciled to the great power which he exercised.
But there were some of his generals who were attached to republican principles, and viewed with ill-suppressed jealousy the rapid strides he was making to imperial power. Moreau, the victor at Hohenlinden, was at the head of these, and, in conjunction with Fouche, who had been turned out of his office on account of the immense power which it gave him, formed a conspiracy of republicans and royalists to overturn the consular throne. But Fouche revealed the plot to Bonaparte, who restored him to power, and Generals Moreau and Pichegru, the Duke d'Enghien, and other ill.u.s.trious persons were arrested. The duke himself was innocent of the conspiracy, but was sacrificed to the jealousy of Bonaparte, who wished to remove from the eyes of the people this ill.u.s.trious scion of the Bourbon family, the only member of it he feared. This act was one of the most cruel and unjustifiable, and therefore, impolitic, which Bonaparte ever committed. ”It was worse than a crime,” said Talleyrand; ”it was a blunder.” His murder again lighted the flames of continental war, and from it may be dated the commencement of that train of events which ultimately hurled Napoleon from the imperial throne.
That possession was what his heart now coveted, and he therefore seized what he desired, and what he had power to retain. On the 18th of May, 1804, Napoleon was declared Emperor of the French, and an overwhelming majority of the electoral votes of France confirmed him in his usurpation of the throne of Hugh Capet.
His first step, as emperor, was the creation of eighteen marshals, all memorable in the annals of military glory--Berthier, Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Ma.s.sena, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davoust, Bessieres, Kellermann, Lefebvre, Perignon, and Serrurier. The individual lives of these military heroes cannot here be alluded to.
Early in the year 1805, the great powers of England, Austria, and Russia entered into a coalition to reduce France to its ancient limits, and humble the despot who had usurped the throne. Enormous preparations were made by all the belligerent states, and four hundred thousand men were furnished by the allies for active service; a force not, however, much larger than Napoleon raised to prosecute his scheme of universal dominion.
[Sidenote: Meditated Invasion of England.]
Among other designs, he meditated the invasion of England itself, and a.s.sembled for that purpose one of the most splendid armies which had been collected since the days of the Roman legions. It amounted to one hundred and fourteen thousand men, four hundred and thirty-two pieces of cannon, and fourteen thousand six hundred and fifty-four horses.
Ample transports were provided to convey this immense army to the sh.o.r.es of England. But the English government took corresponding means of defence, having fathomed the designs of the enemy, who had succeeded in securing the cooperation of Spain. This great design of Napoleon was defeated by the vigilance of the English, and the number of British s.h.i.+ps which defended the coasts--the ”wooden walls” which preserved England from a most imminent and dreaded danger.
[Sidenote: Battle of Austerlitz.]
Frustrated in the attempt to invade Great Britain, Napoleon instantly conceived the plan of the campaign of Austerlitz, and without delay gave orders for the march of his different armies to the banks of the Danube. The army of England on the sh.o.r.es of the Channel, the forces in Holland, and the troops in Hanover were formed into seven corps, under the command of as many marshals, comprising altogether one hundred and ninety thousand men, while the troops of his allies in Italy and Germany amounted to nearly seventy thousand more. Eighty thousand new conscripts were also raised, and all of these were designed for the approaching conflict with the Austrians.
But before the different armies could meet together in Germany, Nelson had gained the great and ever-memorable victory of Trafalgar, (October 23,) on the coast of Spain, by which the naval power of France and Spain was so crippled and weakened, that England remained, during the continuance of the war, sovereign mistress of the ocean. Nothing could exceed the transports of exultation which pervaded the British empire on the news of this great naval victory--perhaps the greatest in the annals of war. And all that national grat.i.tude could prompt was done in honor of Nelson. The remains of the fallen victor were buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, over which a magnificent monument was erected.
His brother, who inherited his t.i.tle, was made an earl, with a grant of six thousand pounds a year, and an estate worth one hundred thousand pounds. Admiral Collingwood, the second in command, was raised to the peerage, with a grant of two thousand pounds yearly. But the thoughts of the nation were directed to the departed hero, and countless and weeping mult.i.tudes followed him to the grave; and his memory has ever since been consecrated in the hearts of his countrymen, who regard him, and with justice, as the greatest naval commander whom any nation or age has produced.
Early in October, the forces of Napoleon were marshalled on the plains of Germany, and the Austrians, under the Archduke Charles, acted on the defensive. Napoleon advanced rapidly on Vienna, seized the bridge which led from it to the northern provinces of the empire, pa.s.sed through the city, and established his head-quarters at Schoenbrunn. On the 1st of December was fought the celebrated battle of Austerlitz, the most glorious of all Napoleon's battles, and in which his military genius shone with the greatest l.u.s.tre, and which decided the campaign.
Negotiations with Austria, dictated by the irresistible power of the French emperor, were soon concluded at Presburg, (27th December,) by which that ancient state was completely humbled. The dethronement of the King of Naples followed, and the power of Napoleon was consolidated on the continent of Europe.
The defeat of Austerlitz was a great blow to the allied powers, and the health and spirits of Pitt sunk under the disastrous intelligence.
A devouring fever seized his brain, and delirium quenched the fire of his genius. He died on the 23d of January, 1806, at the age of forty-seven, with the exclamation, ”Alas, my country!” after having n.o.bly guided the British bark in the most stormy times his nation had witnessed since the age of Cromwell. He was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey, and died in debt, after having the control, for so many years, of the treasury of England. Mr. Fox did not long survive his more ill.u.s.trious rival, but departed from the scene of conflict and of glory the 13th of September.
[Sidenote: Battle of Jena.]
The humiliation of Prussia succeeded that of Austria. The battle of Jena, the 14th of October, prostrated, in a single day, the strength of the Prussian monarchy, and did what the united armies of Austria, Russia, and France could not accomplish by the Seven Years' War.
Napoleon followed up his victories by bold and decisive measures, invested Magdeburg, which was soon abandoned, entered Berlin in triumph, and levied enormous contributions on the kingdom, to the amount of one hundred and fifty-nine millions of francs. In less than seven weeks, three hundred and fifty standards, four thousand pieces of cannon, and eighty thousand prisoners were taken; while only fifteen thousand, out of one hundred and twenty thousand men, were able to follow the standards of the conquered king to the banks of the Vistula. Alarm, as well as despondency, now seized all the nations of Europe. All the coalitions which had been made to suppress a revolutionary state had failed, and the proudest monarchs of Christendom were suppliant at the feet of Napoleon.
The unfortunate Frederic William sued for peace; but such hard conditions were imposed by the haughty conqueror at Berlin, that the King of Prussia prepared for further resistance, especially in view of the fact that the Russians were coming to his a.s.sistance At Berlin, Napoleon issued his celebrated decrees against British commerce, which, however, flourished in spite of them.
[Sidenote: Napoleon Aggrandizes France.]
Napoleon then advanced into Poland to meet the Russian armies, and at Eylau, on the 8th of February, 1807, was fought a b.l.o.o.d.y battle, in which fifty thousand men perished. It was indecisive, but had the effect of checking the progress of the French armies. But Napoleon ordered new conscriptions, and made unusual exertions, so that he soon had two hundred and eighty thousand men between the Vistula and Memel.
New successes attended the French armies, which resulted in a peace with Russia, at Tilsit, on the river Niemen, at which place Napoleon had a personal interview with the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia. By this treaty, (7th July,) Poland was erected into a separate princ.i.p.ality, and the general changes which Napoleon had made in Europe were ratified by the two monarchs. Soon after, Napoleon, having subdued resistance on the continent of Europe, returned to his capital. He was now at the height of his fame and power, but on an elevation so high that his head became giddy. Moreover, his elevation, at the expense of Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Russia, to say nothing of inferior powers, excited the envy and the hatred of all over whom he had triumphed, and prepared the way for new intrigues and coalitions.
Napoleon after the peace of Tilsit, devoted all his energies to the preservation of his power and to the improvement of his country, and expected of his numerous subjects the most implicit obedience to his will. He looked upon himself as having received a commission from Heaven to rule and to reign as absolute monarch of a vast empire, as a being upon whom the fate of France depended. The watchwords ”liberty,”
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