ity; the first principle of justice is public
safety ... Every day has its evil, every circumstance its law, every man
his own nature; mine is not that of an angel. When peace is made, we
shall see." On another occasion, on this same question of preparing the
Additional Act, and with reference to the institution of an hereditary
peerage, he yielded to the excursive rapidity of his mind, taking the
subject by turns under different aspects, and giving unlimited vent to
contradictory observations and opinions. "Hereditary peerage," said he,
"is opposed to the present state of public opinion; it will wound the
pride of the army, deceive the expectations of the partisans of
equality, and raise against myself a thousand individual claims. Where
do you wish me to look for the elements of that aristocracy which the
peerage demands?... Nevertheless a constitution without an aristocracy
resembles a balloon lost in the air. A ship is guided because there are
two powers which balance each other; the helm finds a fulcrum. But a
balloon is the sport of a single power; it has no fulcrum. The wind
carries it where it will, and control is impossible."

When the question of principle was decided, and the nomination of his
hereditary house of peers came under consideration, Napoleon was anxious
to include many names from amongst the old Royalists; but after mature
reflection, he renounced this idea, "not," says Benjamin Constant,
"without regret," and exclaimed, "We must have them sooner or later; but
memories are too recent. Let us wait until after the battle--they will
be with me if I prove the strongest."

He would thus willingly have deferred all questions, and have done
nothing until he came back a conqueror; but with the Restoration liberty
once more re-entered France, and he himself had again woke up the
Revolution. He found himself in conflict with these two forces,
constrained to tolerate, and endeavouring to make use of them, until the
moment should arrive when he might conquer both.

He had no sooner adopted all the pledges of liberty that the Additional
Act borrowed from the Charter, than he found he had still to deal with
another ardent desire, another article of faith, of the Liberals, still
more repugnant to his nature. They demanded an entirely new
constitution, which should confer on him the Imperial crown by the will
of the nation, and on the conditions which that will prescribed. This
was, in fact, an attempt to remod