Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/651

 THE EMPIRE.] 4. flame whenever the breath of a royal whisper fans the embers. In restoring tho Catholic clergy and the ancient nobles to France, Bonaparte affirmed a principle hostile to tho revolution, necessary for a despotism. He must havo classes of society &quot; intermediate,&quot; as he said, &quot; between the people and the powers &quot;; &quot; to settle the bases of the Republic, one must throw on tho sand some masses of granite,&quot; an apt illustration of tho way in which this despot of an iron will determined to crush all liberty in France. Unfortunately for him his heavy &quot;masses of granite&quot; after all, while they crushed the people, formed but an insecure foundation i- for himself. The same motive led him to reorganize educa- of tion and to establish the university in his hands a mere 1 creature of power, a machine to turn out public officers, and to centralize and unify all education in France; public schools or li/cees throughout France were all dependent on this central university. Education, as is always the way under a despot, took a mathematical and scientific bias ; moral sciences and history found no place ; theology was left for the clergy in their seminaries ; the dead languages held a secondary position. To this new organization France owes, in large part, her unpractical ignorance of modern languages, geography, political economy ; she has not yet entirely shaken off the load thus imposed on her shoulders. Next, tho institution of the Legion of Honour was the of beginning of a new aristocracy, and was meant to supply r - another blank in the new hierarchy of this growing military despotism. Finally, the First Consul constructed a new con- n- stitution, that of the year X., which strengthened his own &quot; position, and weakened still further all the elements of re publican and constitutional opposition. It was adopted with obsequious unanimity (4th August 1802). During this period the influence of the First Consul was also domin ant across a large part of Europe : the four republics rested on him, and were much modified at his demand ; the lesser states of Germany allowed him to interfere in their affairs ; he was able to overcome, at least for a while, the suspicion and ill-will of Russia. On the seas also his activity was felt : he was anxious to restore the colonial power of France, shattered by the war ; he interfered in the affairs of Hayti, and hoped also to recover his influence over Egypt and the Mediterranean. England, seeing her special province of the seas thus invaded, and never very well pleased with Bona parte and the peace of Amiens, declared war against France in the spring of 1803. Bonaparte at once occupied on the one hand Hanover, on the other Naples, made friendly overtures to the United States, and threatened the English shores with invasion. Europe was divided into two hostile camps, and a great and stubborn war impended. Russia at once sided with Eng land ; the court of Vienna, though unable at once to go to war, warmly sympathized with the opposition to France ; Prussia held aloof; England also seconded the underground resistance of the old royalists in France. This was the period of the conspiracy which led to the seizure by Bona parte of the duke of Enghien, a seizure on the soil of Baden, excusable on no plea of international law or sudden necessity, his military and violent mockery of a trial, and his per emptory execution. Moreau, whom the First Consul was glad to be rid of, for he alone could be a rival in the affec tions of the army, was exiled to the United States; Pichegru committed suicide in prison; a handful of others were executed ; and the First Consul, taking advantage of the excitement and indignation of all France, had himself pro claimed Emperor of the French (18th May 1804). A new constitution, of imperial texture, was woven for the occasion. Hereditary succession was affirmed; six great dignitaries, with high sounding imperial titles and no power, were established ; the military splendours of the marshalate 615 reappeared; the council of state and the senate were charged 1805-6. with all legislative functions; the older bodies, the tribunate and the legislative body, were a mere appendage; and thus began the imperial age. VI. THE EMPIRE. Imperialism is an overlordship over nations. It is more impe- than this ; it is, strictly speaking, the representation of both rialism. the empire of old Rome and the Holy Roman Empire, with all the high claims involved therein. In this sense, im perialism claims temporal lordship over all the earth, and rears its head side by side with the papacy, which asserts a spiritual headship as wide and as complete. The full theory of neither has ever been realized ; and as time has gone on, both ideas have grown weaker, and pale images of both have sprung up. As the world has become wider, it has become clear that neither theprinciple of nationality nor that of independence of thought was compatible with either empire or papacy. And, as time has gone on, the imperial name itself has undergone large modifications. We have seen an empress of India, an emperor of Austria, an emperor of China, an emperor of Mexico, all names com pletely wide of the true imperial idea. And the title of &quot; Empereur des Fra^ais,&quot; which Bonaparte now assumed, with acclamation of France, carried in itself a reversal of old ideas, for it affirmed a personal lordship, based on the sovereignty of the people, as expressed by a plebiscite. Be this as it may be, the power was real, and was wielded with iron will and unscrupulous genius. The strength of England on the seas soon compelled The third Napoleon to make his chief attack on Austria, while Eng- coalition, land and Russia once more drew together against him. In 1805 his grand army penetrated into the valley of the Danube, took Ulm, and in spite of the king of Prussia s accession to the coalition, pushed on as far as to Vienna. Napoleon occupied all the upper and middle Danube valley, and then marched northwards in pursuit of the emperor Francis of Austria, who had fled into Moravia. On the 2d of December 1805 he won the great battle of Austerlitz, which for the time reduced the allies to impotence. Peace followed at Presburg (26th December 1805) between p ea ce of France and Austria, by which that ancient power was Presburg. parted out among its neighbours. Two months before this the decisive battle of Trafalgar Battle had finally disposed of the remaining naval force of France of Tra- and Spain (21st October 1805), and, leaving England in fal s ar - complete security, enabled her to continue without fear her task of obstinate resistance, at the very moment when France seemed to have completely triumphed over the united hostility of continental Europe. The emperor at once, characteristically guided by his love Napo- of grand conceptions and far-reaching combinations, set loon s himself to surround France with a great system of &quot; federa- ^ onfe - tive states of the empire,&quot; in &quot; three compact nations of ^^ Italians, Germans, Spaniards.&quot; But if he overrated his own Rhine, constructive genius, he underrated the obstinacy of his enemies, and soon found himself met by a fourth coalition, against which he proposed to build up the Confederacy of the Rhine, and to restore the dependence of the lesser German princes on France, and so to carry out the ideas of Henry IV., of Richelieu and Mazarin. War, however, broke out in a different quarter. The restoration by France of Hanover to England, a part of the series of negotiations which followed the peace of Presburg and the death of Pitt, roused the utmost anger in Prussia, and led to new com- War binations, as a consequence of which the king of Prussia, with without waiting for help from England or Russia, rushed on war (September 1806). The battlo of Jena (14th October 1806) and Auerstadt completely overthrew the