THE

NAPOLEON ANECDOTES.

CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH PRIESTHOOD.

BUONAPARTE resolved to raise the old and fallen church to support his own new dynasty. The restoration of Catholicism was proclaimed in 1801, at the cathedral of Paris, and a code of faith made out and imposed by an act of the legislature. The new bishops accepted, with acclamation, an imperial catechism reported to have been dictated by Buonaparte himself, and (says the ex-bishop of Blois, in his work on the Gallican church), " Rédigée exprès en faveur d'un individu et de sa famille, catéchisme à l'usage de toutes les Eglises de l'Empire de France." "Catechism for the use of all the churches of the French empire, compiled expresssly in favour of an individual and his family."

A new concordat was signed between the military chief Buonaparte and his dependant, the pontiff. Benefices were to be given; sees raised; wealth was again to circulate among a long impoverished clergy;

VOL. V.

B

and no epithet was deemed too adulatory, no eulɔgium too flattering for this new Constantine! who, having upset the thrones of Europe, set up the throne of St. Peter. Even those of the dignified emigrant clergy of France who had held synods in London* to stamp the emperor with epithets of re

*This council of eminent clergy was held in the house of Monsieur Dillon, ex-bishop of Narbonne; and from this "close divan" issued many bulls against Buonaparte. Even the pope was threatened with excommunication by an exbishop, who declared in a letter addressed to his holiness, that he had disposed of the church of France, without consulting those whom the Holy Ghost had established to govern it." In time, however, the most furious of these bull fulminators against the "Usurper" became softened, and consented to return to France, and accept of benefices and bishopricks under the new regime. Foremost of these placable priests was the Abbe Boisgelin, who, preaching at his chapel in King-street, Portman-square, exclaimed with enthusiasm to a congregation of old emigrant gentry," Plutot mourir, que de violer le pact de la religion et de la monarchie." "Let us sooner die than violate the pact of religion and of monarchy." Permitted, however, to return to France, he forgot "le pact" under a cardinal's hat, which he obtained through the "Usurper's" favour, who, on his return, made him archbishop of Tours. Another of these faithful doctors, who had exclaimed in his " Defense de l'ordre social," " Qu'on place sur le trone de France celui que la loi appelle, lui seul n'a pas besoin d'election pour regner, il est elu depuis neuf cent ans." "Let them place on the throne of France him whom the law calls, he alone has no need of election to reign; he has been elected these nine hundred years." Thus preached the Abbe Du Voisin till he was allowed to return to France, when, forgetting the election of nine hundred years standing of his legitimate king, he accepted a mitre from the hands of the "Usurper," and was made Bishop of Nantz. No sooner, however, had "L'Envoye du Tres Haut" felt the touch of adversity, than the Boisgelin, the Du Voisin of the new times, laid aside the catechism of Cyrus, and changed their sobriquets of "Le nouveau Charlemagne" for "Le Despot du Jour" while they set forth to recover the "Ampoule Sacre" with which St, Remis consecrated Clovis, and to anoint him who had been "elected nine hundred years buck."

probation, and to fulminate bulls against his usurpation, now came forward to assist at his coronation, to confer his apotheosis, and to lavish on him the epithets of "celui qui ouvert les Temples, et relève les Autels!-L'Envoye du Très Haut!-l'homme de sa droit-le Cyrus-le Constantin--le Theodore -le Charlemagne du tems actuel." "He who opens the temples, and restores the altars!-The messenger of the Almighty!—the man of his right hand -the Cyrus-the Constantine-the Theodore-the Charlemagne of the present age." Such were the technical formulas bestowed on the "despot" in all the episcopal mandemens, and in the concordat itself, by those "bishops, priests, and deacons," who sang Te Deums in Notre Dame and St. Denis for the victories of the "Usurper!"

DISCOVERY OF FOUCHE'S TREACHERY.

"THE cause of the removal of M. Fouché, whom I succeeded as minister of police, on the 3d of June, 1810," says General Savary, "was as follows: He was disgraced by the emperor for having conducted an intrigue, tending to give him credit with the public for establishing a peace with England: and it so happened that in consequence of interfering in what did not concern him, and employing agents about . the Marquis of Wellesley, then foreign minister in England, he overthrew, by his intrigues, an actual negotiation which was otherwise likely to terminate favourably. This negotiation had been authorised by the emperor, and had been opened through the means of a Dutch house, which had sent one of the partners to London, who was doing

very well there, when the steps taken by the agent of Fouché gave rise to suspicion. It was M. Fagan, an old officer of the Irish brigade in the French service, who was employed by M. Fouché in this affair, and to him I am indebted for the account of this mission. The Marquis of Wellesley found, in what was said to him on one side by the agent of M. Fouché, and on the other by the person with whom he was first in treaty, an incoherence which naturally excited some suspicion, and not being able to unravel the affair, and ignorant in which of the two to place confidence, he broke off with both of them, and gave orders for their quitting the country. The emperor, who could not conjecture the reason of so abrupt a conclusion, and one so different from what he had hoped for, had the matter investigated, and soon learned that M. Fouché had been negotiating on his own part, and had consequently substituted an intrigue in lieu of an actual treaty. He was likewise informed that M. Ouvrard had been the agent of M. Fouché in England. The emperor immediately ordered his arrest unknown to the minister Fouché, because if he had instructed him with it, he would not have failed putting him on his guard: whereas, the emperor was desirous to interrogate him before he could have any communication with M. Fouché, consequently an order was immediately forwarded to me from St. Cloud (I was in Paris) to arrest Ouvrard and to conduct him to Vincennes privately; and it was enjoined me to do so before the return of M. Fouché, who was then (it being Wednesday) with the council of ministers at St. Cloud."

BUONAPARTE'S STYLE OF CONVERSATION.

OF Buonaparte's style of conversation, M. Le Mercier, an early friend of the emperor's, observed, that when he was obliged to make conversation, it was neither marked by sallies, nor originality; that to talk, for talking sake, was to him the most insup. portable ennui. But when something struck with force on his imagination, when some latent passion was unexpectedly touched on, some chord of favourite association accidentally awakened, then, all was force, energy, and originality; there was something irresistibly fascinating in every thing he uttered. He had a powerful imagination, and of a romantic cast; he was fond of heroic poetry, and particularly attached to historical tragedy, a subject on which he spoke well, and loved to speak much.

It has been frequently said in France, by those who knew Buonaparte through all the strange vicissitudes of his most checquered life, that he was 66 un charmant causeur ;" and extremely interesting and amusing in intimate and familiar conversation. "I have often written under his dictation," said a man of great celebrity and talent; "I have frequently been startled by his idiom and turn of phrase, and even ventured to tell him that it was not French. But when I attempted to change or improve, I found I only enfeebled; and that his bad French was powerful language. He dictated with great rapidity; wrote frequently for the journals; and was the author of the greater part of his own manifestoes and bulletins to the army."