departments. Many curious circumstances were
connected with this journey, of which I was informed by Duroc after the
First Consul's return. Bonaparte left Paris on the 24th of June, and
although it was not for upwards of a year afterwards that his brow was
encircled with the imperial-diadem, everything connected with the journey
had an imperial air. It was formerly the custom, when the Kings of
France entered the ancient capital of Picardy, for the town of Amiens to
offer them in homage some beautiful swans. Care was taken to revive this
custom, which pleased Bonaparte greatly, because it was treating him like
a King. The swans were accepted, and sent to Paris to be placed in the
basin of the Tuileries, in order to show the Parisians the royal homage
which the First Consul received when absent from the capital.

It was also during this journey that Bonaparte began to date his decrees
from the places through which he passed. He had hitherto left a great
number of signatures in Paris, in order that he might be present, as it
were, even during his absence, by the acts of his Government. Hitherto
public acts had been signed in the name of the Consuls of the Republic.
Instead of this formula, he substituted the name of the Government of the
Republic. By means of this variation, unimportant as it might appear,
the Government was always in the place where the First Consul happened to
be. The two other Consuls were now mere nullities, even in appearance.
The decrees of the Government, which Cambaceres signed during the
campaign of Marengo, were now issued from all the towns of France and
Belgium which the First Consul visited during his six weeks' journey.
Having thus centred the sole authority of the Republic in himself, the
performers of the theatre of the Republic became, by a natural
consequence, his; and it was quite natural that they should travel in his
suite, to entertain the inhabitants of the towns in which he stopped by
their performances. But this was not all. He encouraged the renewal of
a host of ancient customs. He sanctioned the revival of the festival of
Joan of Arc at Orleans, and he divided the Institute into four classes,
with the intention of recalling the recollection of the old academies,
the names of which, however, he rejected, in spite of the wishes and
intrigues of Suard and the Abby Morellet, who had gained over Lucien upon
this point.

However, the First Consul did not give to the classes of the In