As Napoleon beheld the melancholy procession of the wounded, after the battle of Marengo, he exclaimed, "We can but regret not being wounded like these unhappy men, that we might share their sufferings."

1801. When a treaty of peace was concluded with England, Cambacères said, "Now we must make a treaty of commerce, and remove all subjects of dispute between the two countries."

Napoleon replied, "Not so fast! The political peace is made; so much the better. Let us enjoy it. As to a commercial peace, we will make one if we can. But at no price will I sacrifice French industry. I remember the misery of 1786."

"The old privileged classes and the foreign cabinets," said Napoleon, "hate me worse than they did Robespierre."

"My religion is very simple," Napoleon said to Monge one day. "I look at this universe, so vast, so complex, so magnificent, and I say to myself that it cannot be the result of chance, but the work, however intended, of an unknown omnipotent being, as superior to man as the universe is superior to the finest machines of human invention. Search the philosophers, and you will not find a stronger or more decisive argument. But this truth is too succinct for man. He wishes to know respecting himself and respecting his future destiny, a crowd of secrets which the universe does not disclose. Allow religion to inform him of that which he feels the need of knowing, and respect her disclosures."

Once Napoleon remarked, "What render me most hostile to the establishment of the Catholic worship,

are the numerous festivals formally observed. A saint's day is a day of idleness, and I do not wish for that. People must labour in order to live. I shall consent to four holidays during the year, but no more. If the gentlemen from Rome are not satisfied with that, they may take their departure."

"The French people must be allured back to religion, not shocked," Napoleon replied to the Pope's legate, who was strenuously urging some of the most arrogant assumptions of the Papal Church. "To declare the Catholic religion the religion of the state is impossible. It is contrary to the ideas prevalent in France, and will never be admitted. In place of this declaration we can only substitute the avowal of the fact that the Catholic religion is the religion of the majority of Frenchmen. But there must be perfect freedom of opinion. The amalgamation of wise and honest men of all parties is the principle of my government. I must apply that principle to the Church as well as to the State. It is the only way of putting an end to the troubles of France, and I shall persist in it undeviatingly."

1802. "France needs nothing so much to promote her regeneration," said the First Consul, as good mo

thers."

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"Rewards are not to be conferred upon soldiers alone," said Napoleon; "all sorts of merits are brothers. The courage of the president of the Convention resisting the populace should be compared with the courage of Kleber mounting to the assault of Acre. It is right that civil as well as military virtues should have their

reward; intelligence has rights before force. Force, without intelligence, is nothing."

In answer to the deputation that met to pass a eulogium upon Napoleon's splendid achievements, he replied as follows:

"I receive with sincere gratitude the wish expressed by the Tribunate. I desire no other glory than that of having completely performed the task imposed upon me. I seek no reward but the affection of my fellow citizens. I shall be satisfied if they are convinced that my greatest misfortunes will always be the evils they may experience; that life is only dear to me as long as I can render services to my country; and that death will have no bitterness for me, if my last looks can see the happiness of the Republic as firmly secured as its glory."

1804. A young English sailor who had escaped from a prison in the interior of France, had succeeded in reaching the coast near Boulogne. Here he made a little skiff, miserably frail, of the branches and bark of trees. This bark he intended to cross the Channel in.

“Did you really intend," Napoleon said, “to brave the terrors of the ocean in so frail a skiff?"

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Yes," said the young man, "with your permission I will embark immediately."

"Have you a sweetheart at home," asked Napoleon, “that you are so desirous to go to your country again?” 'No,” replied the lad, “but I wish to see my mother, who is aged, poor, and infirm."

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Napoleon's heart was touched. "You shall see her," he answered, "and give her this purse of gold from me. She can be no common woman to have brought up so good a son."

When Napoleon pardoned Polignac, at his wife's earnest entreaties, he said to her:

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I am surprised at finding Armand Polignac, my old school-companion, plotting against my life. I will, however, grant his pardon to the tears of his wife. I only hope that this act of weakness on my part may not encourage fresh acts of imprudence. Those princes, madame, are most deeply culpable who thus compromise the lives of their faithful servants, without partaking their perils."

Bourrienne, conversing with Napoleon one day, remarked that he thought it impossible for him to become recognized among the old reigning families of Europe.

"If it comes to that," Napoleon answered, "I will dethrone them all, and then I shall be the oldest reigning sovereign."

When Napoleon accepted the title of emperor, he briefly replied in the following terms:

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'Everything which can contribute to the weal of the country is essentially connected with my happiness. I accept the title which you believe to be useful to the glory of the nation. I submit to the people the sanction of the law of hereditary succession. I hope that France will never repent the honours with which she shall invest my family. At all events, my spirit will no longer be with my posterity on that day when it shall cease to merit the love and confidence of the Grand Nation."

"Off! off with these confounded trappings," Napoleon exclaimed after his coronation, throwing mantle

and robe into various corners of the room. "I never passed such tedious hours before."

1805. As the Emperor and Empress were crossing, Napoleon alighted and proceeded some distance on foot, when he met a peasant woman.

"Where are you going in such haste this morning?" he asked.

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"To see the Emperor," she replied. They tell me the Emperor is to pass this way."

"And why do you wish to see him," said Napoleon, "what have you done but exchange one tyrant for another? You have had the Bourbons, now you have Napoleon."

"No matter," answered the woman; "Napoleon is our king; but the Bourbons were the kings of the nobles."

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'This," said Napoleon, when he related the anecdote; "this comprehends the whole matter.”

On one occasion a soldier of the consular guard committed suicide from a disappointment in love. Napoleon issued the following order of the day :

"The grenadier Gobain has committed suicide from love. He was in other respects an excellent soldier. This is the second incident of the kind within a month. The First Consul directs it to be inserted in the orderbook of the guard, that a soldier ought to know how to vanquish the pangs and melancholy of the passions; that there is as much true courage in bearing up against mental sufferings with constancy, as in remaining firm on the wall of a battery. To yield ourselves to grief without resistance, or to kill ourselves to escape affliction, is to abandon the field of battle before the victory is gained."