Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of NapoleonVarious
History
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
Various
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
--[Among them was the following, under the title of "General
Observations": "In choosing among the men who were members of the
Constituent Assembly it is necessary to be on guard against the
Orleans' party, which is not altogether a chimera, and may one day
or other prove dangerous.
"There is no doubt that the partisans of that family are intriguing
secretly; and among many other proofs of this fact the following is
a striking one: the journal called the 'Aristargue', which
undisguisedly supports royalism, is conducted by a man of the name
of Voidel, one of the hottest patriots of the Revolution. He was
for several months president of the committee of inquiry which
caused the Marquis de Favras to be arrested and hanged, and gave so
much uneasiness to the Court. There was no one in the Constituent
Assembly more hateful to the Court than Voidel, so much on account
of his violence as for his connection with the Duke of Orleans,
whose advocate and counsel he was. When the Duke of Orleans was
arrested, Voidel, braving the fury of the revolutionary tribunals,
had the courage to defend him, and placarded all the walls of Paris
with an apology for the Duke and his two sons. This man, writing
now in favour of royalism, can have no other object than to advance
a member of the Orleans family to the throne."--Bourrienne.]--
At the commencement of the First Consul's administration, though he
always consulted the notes he had collected, he yet received with
attention the recommendations of persons with whom he was well
acquainted; but it was not safe for them to recommend a rogue or a fool.
The men whom he most disliked were those whom he called babblers, who are
continually prating of everything and on everything. He often
said,--"I want more head and less tongue." What he thought of the
regicides will be seen farther on, but at first the more a man had given
a gage to the Revolution, the more he considered him as offering a
guarantee against the return of the former order of things. Besides,
Bonaparte was not the man to attend to any consideration when once his
policy was concerned.
As I have said a few pages back, on taking the government into his own
hands Bonaparte knew so little of the Revolution and of the men engaged
in civil employments that it was indispensably necessary for him to
collect information from every quarter respecting men and things. But
when the conflicting passions of the moment became more calm and the
spirit of party more prudent, and when order had been, by his severe
investigations, introduced where hitherto unbridled confusion had
reigned, he became gradually more scrupulous in granting places, whether
arising from newly-created offices, or from those changes which the
different departments often experienced. He then said to me,
"Bourrienne, I give up your department to you. Name whom you please for
the appointments; but remember you must be responsible to me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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