Royalist opinion; and he saw clearly that the numerous erasures
from the emigrant list had necessarily increased dissatisfaction among
the Royalists, since the property of the emigrants had not been restored
to its old possessors, even in those cases in which it had not been sold.
It was the fashion in a certain class to ridicule the unpolished manners
of the great men of the Republic compared with the manners of the
nobility of the old Court. The wives of certain generals had several
times committed themselves by their awkwardness. In many circles there
was an affectation of treating with contempt what are called the
parvenus; those people who, to use M. de Talleyrand's expression, do not
know how to walk upon a carpet. All this gave rise to complaints against
the Faubourg St. Germain; while, on the other hand, Bonaparte's brothers
spared no endeavours to irritate him against everything that was
calculated to revive the recollection of the Bourbons.

Such were Bonaparte's feelings, and such was the state of society during
the year 1802. The fear of the Bourbons must indeed have had a powerful
influence on the First Consul before he could have been induced to take a
step which may justly be regarded as the most inconsiderate of his whole
life. After suffering seven months to elapse without answering the first
letter of Louis XVIII., after at length answering his second letter in
the tone of a King addressing a subject, he went so far as to write to
Louis, proposing that he should renounce the throne of his ancestors in
his, Bonaparte's, favour, and offering him as a reward for this
renunciation a principality in Italy, or a considerable revenue for
himself and his family.

--[Napoleon seems to have always known, as with Cromwell and the
Stuarts, that if his dynasty failed the Bourbons must succeed him.
"I remember," says Metternich, "Napoleon said to me, 'Do you know
why Louis XVIII. is not now sitting opposite to you? It is only
because it is I who am sitting here. No other person could maintain
his position; and if ever I disappear in consequence of a
catastrophe no one but a Bourbon could sit here.'" (Metternich, tome
i. p. 248). Farther, he said to Metternich, "The King overthrown,
the Republic was master of the soil of France. It is that which I
have replaced. The old throne of France is buried under its
rubbish. I had to found a new one. The Bourbons could not reign
over this