is fixed and wholly Roman.
(Conversations with Miot, June 1797, and letter to Talleyrand, Sep. 19,
1797.) "I do not see but one thing in fifty years well defined, and
that is the sovereignty of the people.... The organization of the French
nation is still only sketched out....The power of the government,
with the full latitude I give to it, should be considered as really
representing the nation." In this government, "the legislative power,
without rank in the republic, deaf and blind to all around it, would
not be ambitious and would no longer inundate us with a thousand chance
laws, worthless on account of their absurdity." It is evident that
he describes in anticipation his future senate and legislative
corps.--Repeatedly, the following year, and during the expedition into
Egypt, he presents the Romans as an example to his soldiers, and views
himself as a successor to Scipio and Caesar.--(Proclamation of June 22,
1798.): "Be as tolerant to the ceremonies enjoined by the Koran as you
are for the religion of Moses and Jesus. The Roman legions protected all
religions."--(Proclamation of May 10, 1798.) "The Roman legions that you
have often imitated but not yet equaled fought Carthage in turn on this
wall and in the vicinity of Zama."--Carthage at this time is England:
his hatred of this community of merchants which destroys his fleet at
Aboukir, which forces him to raise the siege of Saint-Jean d'Acre, which
holds on to Malta, which robs him of his substance, his patrimony, his
Mediterranean, is that of a Roman consul against Carthage; it leads him
to conquer all western Europe against her and to "resuscitate the empire
of the Occident." (Note to Otto, his ambassador at London, Oct.. 23,
1802.)--Emperor of the French, king of Italy, master of Rome, suzerain
of the Pope, protector of the confederation of the Rhine, he succeeds
the German emperors, the titularies of the Holy Roman Empire which
has just ended in 1806; he is accordingly the heir of Charlemagne
and, through Charlemagne, the heir of the ancient Caesars.--In fact, he
reproduces the work of the ancient Caesars by analogies of imagination,
situation and character, but in a different Europe, and where this
posthumous reproduction can be only an anachronism.]

[Footnote 2340: "Correspondance," note for M. Cretet, minister of the
interior, April 12, 1808.]

[Footnote 2341: Metternich, "Memoires," I., 107 (Conversations with
Napoleon,, 1810): "I was surprised to fin