y rent for. With
those exceptions he was willing to restore almost all that was possessed
by the State and had not been sold.

The First Consul, as soon as he had finished this plan of a decree,
convoked a Grand Council to submit it to their consideration. I was in
an adjoining room to that in which they met, and as the deliberations
were carried on with great warmth, the members talking very loudly,
sometimes even vociferating, I heard all that passed. The revolutionary
party rejected all propositions of restitution. They were willing to
call back their victims, but they would not part with the spoil.

When the First Consul returned to his cabinet, dissatisfied with the ill
success of his project, I took the liberty of saying to him, "you cannot
but perceive, General, that your object has been defeated, and your
project unsuccessful. The refusal to restore to the emigrants all that
the State possesses takes from the recall all its generosity and dignity
of character. I wonder how you could yield to such an unreasonable and
selfish opposition."--"The revolutionary party," replied he, "had the
majority in the Council. What could I do? Am I strong enough to
overcome all those obstacles?"--"General, you can revive the question
again, and oppose the party you speak of."--"That would be difficult," he
said; "they still have a high hand in these matters. Time is required.
However, nothing is definitively arranged. We shall see what can be
done." The 'Senatus-consulte', published on the 6th Floreal, year X.
(26th of April 1802), a fortnight after the above conversation took
place, is well known. Bonaparte was then obliged to yield to the
revolutionary party, or he would have adhered to his first proposition.

--[The Senatus-consulte retained the woods and forests of the
emigrants, and made their recall an "amnesty." In the end this
retention of the forests was used by Napoleon with great dexterity
as a means of placing them under personal obligation to him for
restoring this species of property. See Thiers tome iii, p. 458,
livre xiv.]--

Napoleon referred to this matter at St. Helena. He himself says that he
"would have been able" (he should have said that he wished) to grant
everything, that for a moment he thought of doing so, and that it was a
mistake not to do so. "This limitation on my part," he adds, "destroyed
all the good effect of the return of the emigrants. The mistake was the
greater since I