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 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE that slavery was reestablished in Guadeloupe, and the slave trade reopened. Toussaint Lou- vorture, an able and courageous Haytian negro, who had made himself the leader of his strug- gling countrymen, was seized during a truce, and carried to France, where he died in prison. Napoleon availed himself of this interval to perfect the administration of the interior affairs of his country. A general amnesty allowed all the French emigrants to return home ; a new order of knighthood known as the legion of honor was established, and the constitution of the Cisalpine republic was perfected. On Aug. 2, 1802, Bonaparte was proclaimed con- sul for life by a decree of the senate, which was confirmed by a popular sanction of some 3,000,000 votes. A ienatiu consultum, issued a few days after, reconstructing the electoral bodies and reducing the tribunate to 50 mem- bers, indicated, however, that he was not yet satisfied with the dignity to which he had been raised. Many persons saw in the movement a cautious step toward a still more absolute power. It is to this period that the greatest of Napoleon's services to France belongs. The civil code, which has ever since been the law of the nation, was then digested and arranged by a commission of eminent lawyers and civil- ians, under the presidency of Cambacdres. The various branches of public instruction also attracted his attention; and the lyceum, the college of France, the polytechnic and other military schools, were organized on the most liberal scale. But the perfection of the cen- tralization begun by the revolutionary assem- blies, which reduced the provincial administra- tion of France to one uniform plan, having its head at Paris, and completely abrogating the old communal liberty and independence, was a more questionable reform. Nor were his efforts to restore the religious harmony of France, by renewing the ancient privileges of the Catholic priests, as happily conceived as many of his political improvements. In fact, like nearly all organizers and reformers, Napo- leon undertook too much, and in the exaggera- tion of his own powers fell into many mistakes. Yet, in considering the epoch of the consulate, it is impossible not to derive from it a high admiration of the scope and versatility of Napoleon's genius, and a general sympathy with his public aims. But already his head w.i-; giddy with success, and in the midst of the great labors of 1802 ho coveted the imperial diadem. Disturbances in Switzerland in the beginning of 1802 caused Napoleon to resort to an armed mediation in its affairs; in August of the same year the island of Elba was united to France; on Sept. 11 the in- corporation of Piedmont took place, and in Oc- tober that of the duchy of Parma. England professed to see in these events an infringe- ment of the treaty of Amiens, and in a short time there was an open resumption of hostil- ities. On March 21, 1803, a senatus consultum placed 120,000 conscripts at Napoleon's com- mand, while England made no less active pre- parations. On May 18 England declared war against France, and laid an embargo upon all French vessels in her ports. France retaliated by a decree that all Englishmen, of whatever condition, found on her territory, should be detained as prisoners of war; and Gen. Mor- tier was sent to occupy the electorate of Han- over, as belonging to Great Britain. In the mean time, the police of Paris professed to have discovered a conspiracy against the life of the first consul, in which Pichegru, returned from exile in Guiana, Georges Cadoudal, a Chouan chief, and Gen. Moreau were said to be concerned. These were arrested, and sus- picions of complicity attaching to the duke d'Enghien, son of the duke do Bourbon and grandson of the prince de Conde, the neutral territory of the grand duchy of Baden was in- vaded in order to effect his seizure. He was taken during the night of March 15, 1804, con- veyed to the citadel of Strasburg, and thence, under escort, to the castle of Vincennes. A military court, consisting of seven, was hastily summoned there by the first consul, by which the duke was tried and found guilty of the charges of hearing arms against France, of offering his services to England, of conspiring with emigrants on the frontiers, and being an accomplice of the Paris conspirators. Ho was sentenced to death, and executed the next morning, March 21, between 4 and 5 o'clock. On April 6 Pichegru was found dead in his prison. At a later period Georges Cadoudal and others were executed, while some of their confederates were reprieved, and Moreau was banished. It was in the midst of these sinister events that a motion was made in the tribunate by one Cur6e that Napoleon be made emperor of the French, with the right of succession to his family. Carnot spoke against the mo- tion with much patriotic fervor, but it was carried by a large majority. On submission of the question to the votes of the people, an apparent popular sanction was given to the deed, and on May 18 Napoleon assumed the imperial title. He requested the pope to per- form the ceremony of his coronation. Pius VII., after consulting with his cardinals, came to Paris for that purpose in November. On Dec. 2 the " soldier of fortune," as he had been sometimes called, was consecrated at the altar of Notre Dame, "the high and mighty Napo- leon I., emperor of the French." Being em- peror, he proceeded to surround himself with all the splendors and gauds supposed to be es- sential to the dignity. He created a new no- bility with sounding titles ; he opened a bril- liant court ; he restored the etiquette of royalty, and in a thousand other ways sought to dazzlo weak minds by ostentation and parade. The changes which had taken place in France ren- dered changes in the Italian governments ne- cessary, and from republics they were trans- formed into a kingdom. Napoleon went to Milan, where on May 26, 1805, he was anointed