ways
reside among them, and that the latter was merely ambitious of an
honorary title. Bonaparte said to them himself in his usual emphatic
manner, "Cisalpines, I shall preserve only the great idea of your
interests." But the great idea meant the complete power. The day
after this election, they were seriously occupied in making a
constitution, as if any one could exist by the side of this iron
hand. The nation was divided into three classes; the possidenti, the
dotti, and the commerrianti. The landholders, to be taxed; the
literary men, to be silenced; and the merchants, to have all the
ports shut against them. These sounding words in Italian are even
better adapted to the purposes of quackery than the corresponding
French.

Bonaparte had changed the name of Cisalpine republic into that of
Italian republic, thereby giving Europe an anticipation of his
future conquests in the rest of Italy. Such a step was every thing
but pacific, and yet it did not prevent the signature of the treaty
of Amiens; so much did Europe, and even England itself, then desire
peace! I was at the English ambassador's at the moment of his
receiving the terms of this treaty. He read them aloud to the
persons who were dining with him, and it is impossible for me to
express the astonishment I felt at every article. England restored
all her conquests; she restored Malta, of which it had been said,
when it was taken by the French, that if there had been nobody in
the fortress, they would never have been able to enter it. In short,
she gave up every thing, and without compensation, to a power which
she had constantly beaten at sea. What an extraordinary effect of
the passion for peace! And yet this man, who had so miraculously
obtained such advantages, had not the patience to make use of them
for a few years, to put the French navy in a state to meet that of
England, Scarcely had the treaty of Amiens been signed, when
Napoleon, by a senatus-consultum, annexed Piedmont to France. During
the twelve months the peace lasted, everyday was marked by some new
proclamation, provoking to a breach of the treaty. The motives of
this conduct it is easy to penetrate; Bonaparte wished to dazzle the
French nation, now by unexpected treaties of peace, at other times
by wars which would make him necessary to it. He believed that a
period of disturbance was favourable to usurpation. The newspapers,
which were instructed to boast of the advantages of peace in the
spri