living soul, directed him to inquire the price of such articles at
several shops in Paris, and to order a dozen as for himself. They were
one-third less dear than those furnished to the palace. The emperor,
inferring that the same advantage had been taken in the other articles,
struck a third off the whole charge, and directed the tradesman to be
informed that it was done at his express command, because on
_inspection_, he had himself discovered the charges to be by one-third
too exorbitant. When afterward, in the height of his glory, he visited
Caen, with the Empress Maria Louisa, and a train of crowned heads and
princes, his old friend, M. Mechin, the Prefect, aware of his taste for
detail, waited upon him with five statistical tables of the expenditure,
revenue, prices, produce, and commerce of the department. "C'est bon,"
said he, when he received them the evening of his arrival, "vous et moi
nous ferons bien de l'esprit sur tout cela demain au Conseil."
Accordingly, he astonished all the leading proprietors of the department
at the meeting next day, by his minute knowledge of the prices of good
and bad cider, and of the produce and other circumstances of the various
districts of the department. Even the royalist gentry were impressed
with a respect for his person, which gratitude for the restitution of
their lands had failed to inspire, and which, it must be acknowledged,
the first, faint hope of vengeance against their enemies entirely
obliterated in almost every member of that intolerant faction.

Other princes have shown an equal fondness for minute details with
Napoleon, but here is the difference. The use they made of their
knowledge was to torment their inferiors and weary their company: the
purpose to which Napoleon applied it was to confine the expenses of the
state to the objects and interests of the community.

NAPOLEON'S POWERS OF MEMORY.

His powers of application and memory seemed almost preternatural. There
was scarcely a man in France, and none in employment, with whose private
history, characters, and qualifications, he was not acquainted. He had,
when emperor, notes and tables, which he called the moral statistics of
his empire. He revised and corrected them by ministerial reports,
private conversation, and correspondence. He received all letters
himself, and what seems incredible, he read and recollected all that he
received. He slept little, and was never idle one instant when awake.
When he