he face.--Is it unnatural that they should
favour him whose government enriches them?

To the shadows of nobility, to the ghost of aristocracy which had
re-appeared under the King, no power or influence can be
attributed,--they dared not think, and could not act.

The better classes of the inhabitants of the cities, whether the traders
and manufacturers, or the bourgeoise of France, are those who were the
most decided enemies of Bonaparte: but let us look how their arm is
weakened and palsied by the situation of their property.--They have many
of them purchased the lands of the emigrants at very low prices, and, in
many instances, from persons who could only bestow possession without
legal tenure.--These feel uneasy in their new possessions; they dread
the ascendancy which the nobility might still obtain under their lawful
Sovereign: Napoleon came proclaiming to them that he would maintain them
in their properties. Nor were all the traders and manufacturers his
enemies.--He encouraged the trade of Lyons, for example, of Paris, of
Rouen, and other interior towns, and he pitted these interior towns
against the sea-ports of Bourdeaux, Marseilles, &c. Thus, even with
commercial men, he had some friends.--And here, in mentioning Paris, I
must observe, that the most slavish deference is paid by the whole of
France to the opinions, as well as the fashions, which prevail at the
capital. From the encouragement which he offered to its interior trade,
from the grand works which he was constantly carrying on, affording
labour to the idle rabble; from the magnificent _spectacles_ supplied by
his reviews, fetes, and festivities, and most of all, from the
celebrated system of gulling and stage-trick, practised by his police,
and through the medium of the press--From all these circumstances, it
arises, that Napoleon was no where so much beloved as at Paris; and
Napoleon took good care that Paris afforded to all France an example
such as he would wish them to follow.--It is difficult to say why the
French should tamely follow the example of their despot; but they forgot
that he was a despot, and they were not singular as a nation in
following the example _of their chief_, though, perhaps, they carried
their obedience to a more slavish pitch than any other people.--"En
France (says Mons. Montesquieu) il en est des manieres et de la facon de
vivre, comme des modes, les Francais changent des meurs selon l'age de
leur Roi,--Le Monarque pou