Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/509

 F U C H 477 any one else ; and it was chiefly owing to his well-chosen measures of repression, his ready and dexterous use of expedients, his almost omniscient faculty of detection, and his just appreciation of political contingencies, that at this critical period of France s history the reign of anarchy was averted. Recognizing the necessity of a new political departure, he suppressed the Jacobin clubs and newspapers, and was concerned in instigating the beginning of a reaction towards monarchical principles. Though he failed to effect an understanding between Barras and Napoleon, he resolved rather to desert his patron than to share his overthrow, and exerted all his powers of management and finesse to bring the coup d etat of the 18th Brumaire to a successful termination. Besides taking an important though carefully guarded share in the preliminary negotiations, he suspended in the name of the directory the twelve municipalities of Paris, tranquillized the citizens by posting on the walls re assuring intimations, and took the precaution of shutting the gates of Paris to prevent the fugitive deputies from re- entering the city. Under the consulate, Fouche, notwithstanding the op position of Sieyes, was continued minister of police, partly because he was to be dreaded as an opponent, and partly because no one else could bear comparison with him in fitness for the office. Its duties he discharged, not only with unequalled tact and discretion, but with a justice and mildness rendered possible only by his perfect confidence in his superior cunning. At the same time there was necessarily attached to it a very great irre sponsible power, and far from neglecting to make undue use of this he took care to lend an additional appearance of necessity and value to his services by a continual supply of political fomentations. If his audacity and assumption aroused the jealousy of Napoleon, his cool impenetrability no less disconcerted him, and matters were not improved by the ludicrous blunders of the secret police which Napoleon had the folly to employ, in order both to test his minister s fidelity and render him less indispensable. Actuated therefore most probably by a regard to his own position, Fouch6 endeavoured to prevent a too rapid aban donment of the lines of republicanism, and deprecated as imprudent the means that were being used towards the establishment of a monarchical government. Such advices doubtless increased Napoleon s irritation and distrust, and on becoming consul for life in 1802 he determined to rid himself of the galling fetters of his minister s ascendency. He did this, however, with great caution and respect ; and while he suppressed the office as no longer necessary, he conferred on Fouche the dignity of a senator, and presented him with half the police reserve funds. The association of the functions of the old office with those of the ministry of justice did not prove a happy arrangement ; and Fouch6 by maintaining for his own purposes the same system of espionage as formerly, was able, by revealing the Georges conspiracy to reassert his influence in the affairs of state. Divining Napoleon s secret wishes and intentions, he now took every opportunity to press upon him the advisability of immediately assuming the monarchical crown, and applied himself to the furtherance of this object with an ostentatious zeal that was doubtless meant to suggest that he was almost the sole agent in determining events towards that end. And indeed lie might, after Napoleon, justly claim the chief merit of that great political change, for at any rate the smoothness with which it was accom plished was greatly due to Fouchd s skilful management. After Napoleon s coronation Fouche was therefore re installed in his old office, 4th July 1804, uniting with its functions those of the ministry of the interior. In this position he took a very prominent part in the rule of France under Napoleon, and to some extent rivalled his master in influence ; for if the empire gained glory by Napoleon s achievements, it owed its internal harmony to Fouche&quot;, who had for a time the entire direction of its administration. On the revival of the titles of nobility he was created duke of Otranto, and it appeared as if his tenure of office were indissolubly connected with the empire s stability. The bond between him and the emperor was, however, solely one of interest, and the very antipodes of one of affection and mutual esteem. His imperturbable self-control, his connexion with the old republicans, the obscurity and mystery in which he shrouded his intentions, and his power of secret strategy gained him almost a kind of mastery over the arbitrary spirit of Napoleon, but it was a mastery borne both with impatience and with resentment. Apart from this, his cold and vulgar ambition and his cynical contempt for all unsubstantial glory irritated the sensitive egoism of Napoleon, whose magnificent projects he often pierced with shafts of truth that were too painfully effective, and whom he somewhat imprudently tormented with warnings as to the necessity of limiting his designs of conquest. When matters were in this critical condition, they were brought to a crisis by a proclamation of Fouche calling on France then threatened by the English inva sion to prove that Napoleon s presence was not necessary to scatter his enemies. The proclamation was effectual ; but on Napoleon s return to Paris Fouchd was deprived of the ministry of the interior. Shortly afterwards he sent an agent to England to carry on negotiations with the English Government, in ignorance that Napoleon had sent another for the same purpose ; and the English minister, suspecting a trick, declined all further negotiations. This mischance completed Fouche s disgrace ; he ceased to be minister of police, 3d June 1810; and to secure his absence from France, he was appointed governor of Rome. While delaying his departure he was requested to deliver up the autograph letters of Napoleon and other Government documents in his possession ; and his answer that they were all destroyed was deemed so little satisfactory that he found it expedient to go into voluntary exile. On deliver ing up the papers the destruction of which he had asserted, he was afterwards permitted to return to his estate at Pont- Carr6 ; but in 1813 Napoleon judged it prudent to appoint him governor of Illyria, after which he was sent to Rome to watch the movements of Murat. Being recalled to France some time before the entrance of the allies into Paris, he in anticipation of events came to an understanding with Talleyrand, and becoming one of the principal members of the provisional Government, proposed that a deputation should be sent to the Comte d Artois, brother of Louis XVIII. He afterwards wrote letters to the king recom mending the adoption of certain measures fitted to reconcile the opponents of the Bourbon dynasty, and on the 25th April addressed a letter to Napoleon at Elba, advising him, instead of making an effort to remount the throne of France, to seek a sphere for his ambition in America, &quot; where his genius would be admired without being feared.&quot; On the news of Napoleon s escape from Elba the Govern ment of Louis offered Fouche&quot; the portfolio of police, but he declined it on the ground that the Government could no longer hold its position. Next day he was ordered to be arrested, but deluding by a clever stratagem the officers sent for that purpose, he escaped to the hotel of Hortense Beauharnais, and received on the following day his old office from the hands of Napoleon. He now determined merely to prepare for Napoleon s downfall, which he saw to be imminent ; and besides securing the confidence of both patriots and royalists, he opened a communication with the allies. After the battle of Waterloo it was therefore to him that all eyes turned for guidance ; and, becoming the head of the provisional