"I had no need to listen to the entire report to guess that the brokers had converted to their own use more than sixty millions," said Napoleon to his new minister; "the money must be recovered." The debts of the brokers to the public treasury were still more considerable: Mollien had to find the proof and ward off in a great measure the dangers resulting to the treasury from this fatal association with a company of speculators. Two years later the emperor placed Barbé Marbois at the head of the Court of Accounts which he had just founded. He did not admit the want of repose or a wish for retirement. For a moment Mollien had hesitated to accept the post imposed upon him by his master. He was director of the _caisse d'amortissement_ (bank for redemption of rents), and was satisfied with his place. "You cannot refuse a ministry," said the emperor, suddenly, "this evening you will take the oath." Count Mollien introduced important improvements into the management of the finances. The foundation of the bank of service, in current account with the receivers-general, book- keeping by double entry, formerly brought into France by Law, but which had not been established at the treasury, the publication of annual balance sheets, such were the improvements accomplished at that time by the minister of the treasury. The public works had not been neglected in this whirlwind of affairs which circled round Napoleon. He had ordered vast contracts in road and canal- making; in the intervals of leisure which he devoted to France and the home government, he conceived the idea of monuments destined to immortalize his glory and to fix in the spirit of the people the remembrance of the past, on which the new master of France, set much value. He repaired the basilica of St. Denis, built sepulchral chapels, and instituted a chapter composed of former bishops. He finished the Pantheon, restored to public worship under the old name of Sainte- Geneviève, ordered the construction of the arcs de triomphe (triumphal arches) of the Carrousel and l'Etoile, and the erection of the column in the Place Vendôme. He also decreed two new bridges over the Seine, those of Austerlitz and Jena. The termination of the Louvre, the construction of the Bourse, the erection of a temple consecrated to the memory of the exploits of the great army and which became the church of the Madeleine, were also decreed. In the great range of his thoughts, which constantly advanced before his epoch and the resources at his disposal, Napoleon prepared an enormous task for the governments succeeding him. All have laboriously contributed to the completion of the works which he had conceived.