World's Best Histories Part 12

"There must, therefore, be at ecouen a director, an intelligent man, of middle age and good morals. The pupils must each day say regular prayers, hear ma.s.s, and receive lessons on the catechism. This part of their education must be most carefully attended to.

"The pupils must then also be taught arithmetic, writing, and the principles of their mother tongue, so that they know orthography. They must be taught a little geography and history, but be careful not to teach them Latin or any foreign tongue. To the eldest may be taught a little botany, or a slight course of physics or natural history, and even that may have a bad effect. They must be limited in physics to what is necessary to prevent gross ignorance or stupid superst.i.tion, and must keep to facts, without reasonings which tend directly or indirectly to first causes.

"It will afterwards be considered if it would be useful to give to those who attain to a certain cla.s.s a sum for their clothing. They might by that get accustomed to economy, to calculate the value of things, and to keep their own accounts. But, in general, they must all be occupied during three fourths of the day in manual work; they ought to know how to make stockings, chemises, embroidery--in fact, all kinds of women's work. These young girls ought to be considered as if they belonged to families who have in the provinces from fifteen to eighteen thousand francs a year, and be treated accordingly. You will therefore understand that hand-work in the household should not be indifferent to them.

"I do not know if it is possible to teach them some little of medicine and pharmacy, at least of that kind of medicine which is within the reach of a nurse. It would be well also if they knew a little part of the kitchen occupied by medicinal herbs. I wish that a young girl, quitting ecouen to take her place at the head of a small household, should know how to cut out her dresses, mend her husband's clothes, make her baby-linen, and procure little comforts for her family by the means usually employed in a provincial household; nurse her husband and children when ill, and know on these points, because it has been early inculcated on her, all that nurses have learnt by habit. All this is so simple and trivial as scarcely to require reflection. As to dress, it ought to be uniform and of common material, but well made. I think that on that head the present female costume leaves nothing to be desired. The arms, however, must of course be covered, and other modifications adopted which modesty and the conditions of health require.

"As to the food, it cannot be too simple; soup, boiled beef, and a little _entree_; there is no need for more.

"I do not dare, as at Fontainebleau, order the pupils to do their own cooking; I should have too many people against me; but they may be allowed to prepare their dessert, and what is given to them either for lunch or for holidays. I will dispense with their cooking, but not with their making their own bread. The advantage of all this is, that they will be exercised in all they may be called on to do, and find the natural employment of their time in practical and useful things.

"If I am told that the establishment will not be very fas.h.i.+onable, I reply that this is what I desire, because it is my opinion that of all educations the best is that of mothers; because my intention is princ.i.p.ally to a.s.sist those young girls who have lost their mothers, and whose relations are poor. To sum up all, if the members of the Legion of Honor who are rich disdain to put their daughters at ecouen, if those who are poor desire that they shall be received, and if these young persona; returning to their provinces, enjoy there the reputation of good women, I shall have completely attained my end, and I am certain that the establishment will acquire a high and genuine reputation.

"In this matter we must go to the verge of ridicule. I do not bring up either dressmakers, or waiting-women, or housekeepers, but women for modest and poor households. The mother, in a poor household, is the housekeeper of the family."

The spirit of the age and the fascinations of luxury in an agitated epoch were too strong for the determined and reasoned will of the legislator.

The houses of the Legion of Honor were not destined to become the best schools for the mothers of families "in modest and poor households."

Napoleon had well judged the superior influence of daily example when he said, "My opinion is, that the best education is that of mothers." The wisest and most far-seeing rules know not how to replace it. Religion cannot be taught by order, like sewing or cooking. The great lesson of daily virtue and devotion will ever remain the lot of mothers.

The delicate question of female education carried the mark of the Emperor Napoleon's genius for organization. He had also sought to reduce to rules the encouragement that power owed to genius. Since the year 1805, he had inst.i.tuted prizes every ten years, intended to recompense the authors of the best works on the physical sciences, mathematics, history, the author of the best theatrical piece, the best opera, the best poem, the best painters and sculptors; "so that," according to the preamble of the decree, "France may not only preserve the superiority she has acquired in science, literature, and the arts, but that the age which commences may surpa.s.s those which have preceded it."

It would be an arrogant pretension for the nineteenth century to a.s.sert its superiority over its ill.u.s.trious predecessors, the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century, in all that concerns literature or art. However, we have had the good fortune and the honor to be witnesses of a wonderful display of creative genius in France in all branches of literature and art; we have seen orators, poets, artists who could take rank with the most ill.u.s.trious chiefs of the ancient schools; all this splendor, all this national and peaceful glory, has only taken root in regular liberty and const.i.tutional order. The troubles of the French Revolution, the violent and continual emotions of the war, above all the rule of an arbitrary will, which opened or shut at pleasure both lips and printing-presses, had not been propitious to the expansion of human thought under the reign of the Emperor Napoleon. Those who possessed a spark of the admirable gift of genius, preserved at the same time in their hearts that pa.s.sion for liberty which necessarily ranked them among the enemies or suspected persons. At the height of his supreme power, Napoleon could never suffer independence either of thought or speech. He long persecuted Benjamin Constant after he had taken his place among the members of the Tribunate; and he manifested a persecuting aversion towards Madame de Stael, which betrayed that littleness of character often lying hid under a greatness of mind and views. When I turn over the table of contents of that immense correspondence of Napoleon which reveals the entire man in spite of the prudence of the editors, I find continually the name of Madame de Stael, joined to rigorous measures of spiteful epithets.

"I write to the Minister of Police to finish with that mad Madame de Stael," he wrote on the 20th April, 1807, to the Count Regnault St. Jean d'Angely, who had apologized for his correspondence with the ill.u.s.trious outlaw. "She is not to be suffered to leave Geneva, unless she wishes to go to a foreign country to write libels. Every day I obtain new proofs that no one can be worse than that women, enemy of the government and of France, without which she cannot live;" and several days previously he wrote to Fouche, "When I occupy myself with Madame de Stael, it is because I have the facts before me. That woman is a true bird of bad omen; she believes the tempest already arrived, and delights in intrigues and follies. Let her go to her Lake Leman. Have not the Genevans done us harm enough?"

Inspired from other sources than Madame de Stael was, but as ardent in his opposition to the sovereign master of the destinies of France, Chateaubriand supported, like her, the flag of an independent spirit and of genius against the arbitrary will of one man. He manifested this in a brilliant manner. Already famous by the publication of his _Genius of Christianity_, he was then writing in the _Mercure_. "Eighteen months before the publication of the _Martyrs_," says M. Guizot, in his memoirs, "in August, 1807, I stopped several days in Switzerland, when going to visit my mother at Nimes, and in the eager confidence of youth, as curious to see celebrated persons as I was unknown myself, I wrote to Madame de Stael to ask for the honor of an interview. She invited me to dinner at Ouchy, near Lausanne, where she then resided. I was seated by her side, and having come from Paris she questioned me on all pa.s.sing there, what people were saying, what occupied the public and the salons. I spoke of an article by Chateaubriand in the _Mercure_, which attracted attention at the moment of my leaving. One sentence had particularly struck me, and I quoted it word for word, for it was fixed in my memory: 'When in the abject silence the only sound heard is the chain of the slave, and the voice of the informer, when all tremble before the tyrant, and it is as dangerous to incur his favor as to merit his displeasure, it seems to be the historian's duty to avenge the people. The prosperity of Nero is in vain, Tacitus is already born in the empire, he grows up unknown by the ashes of Germanicus, and already a just providence has delivered to an obscure child the glory of the master of the world.' My accent was doubtless impressive and full of emotion, for I was impressed and moved myself. Madame de Stael seized me quickly by the arm, saying, 'I am sure that you would act tragedy admirably; stop with us and take a part in _Andromaque_.' That was her hobby and amus.e.m.e.nt of the moment.

"I resisted her kindly suggestion, and the conversation came back to Chateaubriand and his article, which was much admired, and caused some anxiety. There was reason to admire it, for the pa.s.sage was truly eloquent; and also cause for anxiety, for the _Mercure_ was suppressed precisely because of that pa.s.sage. Thus the Emperor Napoleon, conqueror of Europe, and absolute master of France, thought that he could not suffer it to be said that his future historian would perhaps be born under his reign, and felt himself obliged to take the honor of Nero under his protection. It was scarcely worth while to be such a great man to have such fears to show, or such clients to protect."

If the emperor pursued with anger the spirit of opposition in the salons, which he endeavored ceaselessly to rally around him, and if, above all, he feared their glorious representatives, Madame de Stael and Chateaubriand, he watched still more harshly the newspapers and the journalists. His revolutionary origin, and the early habits of his mind had rendered him hostile to that liberty of the press which flourished under the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, withered away under the Legislative a.s.sembly, and expired during the Terror in a sea of blood. When Daunou wished to insert the liberty of the press in the const.i.tution of the year VIII., he encountered great opposition on the part of former Jacobins. They and their friends had secured the right of saying always what they chose, and knew the means of preserving what they had acquired at the price of many ma.s.sacres; the liberty their adversaries demanded appeared to them dangerous and unjust. Such has always been in the main the revolutionary idea, and the Emperor Napoleon had not forgotten this theory and this arbitrary practice. However, he also knew what might be the influence of the periodical press, and he endeavored to submit to the discipline of his will the small number of newspapers which existed under his reign. "Stir yourself up a little more to sustain public opinion," he wrote to Fouche, on the 28th April, 1805. "Print several articles, cleverly written, to deny the march of the Russians, the interview of the Emperor of Russia with the Emperor of Austria, and those ridiculous reports, phantoms born of the English fog and spleen. Say to the editors, that if they continue in their present tone I will pay them off; tell them that I do not judge them hardly for the bad things they have said, but for the little good they have said. When they represent France vacillating on the point of being attacked, I judge that they are neither Frenchmen nor worthy to write under my reign. It is all very well to say that they only give their bulletins; they have been told what these bulletins are; and since they must give false news, why not give them in favor of the public credit and tranquillity?"

The _Journal des Debats_, in the first rank of the periodical press, under the intelligent direction of the Bertins, had already been favored with a special inspector, whose duty was to superintend its editing, and to whom the proprietors of the paper were forced to pay 12,000 francs a year.

Fouche had menaced the other papers with this measure of discipline, by ordering them to "put into quarantine all news disagreeable or disadvantageous to France." This patriotic prudence did not long suffice for the master. "Let Fievee know that I am very dissatisfied with the manner in which he edits his paper," he wrote, on the 6th March, 1808. "It is ridiculous that, contrary to the rules of good sense, he still continues to believe all that the German papers say to frighten us about the Russians. It is ridiculous to say that they put 500,000 men in the field, when, for the coalition itself, Russia only furnished 100,000 men, while Austria furnished 300,000. It is my intention that he should only speak of the Russians to humiliate them, to enfeeble their forces, to prove how their trashy reputation in military matters, and the praises of their armies, are without foundation." And the same day to Talleyrand: "It is my intention that the political articles in the _Moniteur_ should be guided by the foreign relations. And after seeing how they are done for a month, I shall prohibit the other papers talking politics, otherwise than by copying the articles of the _Moniteur_."

We have known the dangers and the formidable effects of an unlimited liberty of the press. Never was it more licentious than when just recovered from a system arbitrarily oppressive. The fire which appears to be extinct smoulders under the ashes, to shortly break out with new fury.

The thirty-three years of const.i.tutional regime which France had enjoyed, powerfully contributed to the moderation of men's acts, and even their words, at the time of the revolution of 1848. The outburst of invectives and anger which saluted the fall of the Emperor Napoleon, had been slowly acc.u.mulated during the long silence imposed under his reign.

Arbitrary and despotic will succeeds in creating silence, but not in breaking it at a given time, and in a specified direction. In vain did Napoleon inst.i.tute prizes every ten years; in vain did he demand from the several cla.s.ses of the Inst.i.tute reports on the progress of human thought since 1789. Literary genius remained deaf to his voice, and the real talent of several poets of a secondary order, Delille, Esmenard, Millevoye, Chenedolle, was not sufficient to triumph over the intellectual apathy which seemed to envelope the people he governed. "When I entered the world, in 1807," said Guizot, "chaos had reigned for a long time; the excitement of 1789 had entirely disappeared; and society, being completely occupied in settling itself, thought no more of the character of its amus.e.m.e.nts; the spectacles of force had replaced for it the aspirations towards liberty. In the midst of the general reaction, the faithful heirs of the literary salons of the eighteenth century remained the only strangers in them. The mistakes and disasters of the Revolution had not made the survivors of that brilliant generation abjure their ideas and desires; they remained sincerely liberal, but without pressing demands, and with the reserve of those who have succeeded little and suffered much in their endeavors after reform and government. They held fast to the liberty of speech, but did not aspire to power; they detested, and sharply criticised, despotism, but without doing anything to repress or overturn it. It was an opposition made by enlightened and independent spectators, who had no chance and no desire to interfere as actors."

Thus it was that the la.s.situde of the superior cla.s.ses, decimated and ruined by the French revolution and the Terror, inspired by the splendid and triumphant military despotism, contributed together to keep the public mind in a weak and supine state, which the sound of the cannon alone interrupted. I am wrong; the great men, naturalists or mathematicians, who had sprung up, either young or already ripe, in the era of the French revolution--Laplace, La Grange, Cuvier--upheld, in the order of their studies, that scientific superiority of France which has not always kept pace with literary genius, but which has never ceased to adorn our country. The personal tastes of the emperor served and encouraged the learned men, even when their opinions had remained more independent than suited him. He sometimes reproached Monge, his companion during the campaign of Egypt, that he had remained in his heart attached to the Republic. "Well, but!" said the great geometrician, gayly, "your Majesty turned so short!"

Napoleon had certainly _turned short_, and he expected France to follow him in the rapid evolution of his thought. Jealous of his right to march in the van and show the way to all, he indicated to dramatic authors the draft of their theatrical pieces, and to painters the subject of their paintings. "Why," he wrote to Fouche, "should you not engage M. Raynouard to make a tragedy on the transition from the first to the second race?

Instead of being a tyrant, his successor would be the saviour of the nation. It is in pieces of that kind that the theatre is new, for under the old regime they would not have been permitted." On the other hand, and by an unconscious return to that fear of the house of Bourbon which he always instinctively felt, Napoleon opposed the representation of a tragedy of Henry IV. "That period is not so remote but that it may awake the pa.s.sions. The scene should be more ancient."

The pa.s.sions sometimes awake easily, at points where no threatening or danger appeared. Immediately after the consecration and the Concordat, what could be more natural or simple than a wish to draw up a catechism for the use of all the schools? The organic articles had declared that there would be only one liturgy and one catechism for all the churches of France. At first the court of Rome made no difficulty. The Abbe Emery, Superior of St. Sulpice, gave an excellent piece of advice to Portalis, the Minister of Religion. "If I were in the emperor's place," said he, "I should take purely and simply the catechism of Bossuet, and thus avoid an immense responsibility." Napoleon had a liking for Bossuet's genius and doctrine, and the idea pleased him. The new catechism intended to form the minds and hearts of coming generations was placed under the patronage of Bossuet, "that celebrated prelate, whose science, talents, and genius have served the Church and honored the nation," said Portalis in his report.

"The justice which all the bishops of Christendom had rendered to the memory of this great man, is to us a sufficient guarantee of his accuracy and authority. The work of the compilers of the new catechism is in reality but a second copy of Bossuet's work."

The great bishop would certainly have felt some difficulty in recognizing certain pages of the work so prudently presented under his aegis. Strictly faithful to the spirit of the Gospel as to the supreme equality of all men in the presence of G.o.d, whatever might occasionally have been his consideration for the wishes of Louis XIV., Bossuet, when expounding the fourth commandment, the respect and submission due by children to their parents, was satisfied with adding,--"What else is commanded to us by the fourth commandment? To respect all superiors, pastors, kings, magistrates, and others."

The submission of the subjects of Louis XIV. was known to him, and therefore that exposition was enough in his time. Portalis was of opinion that immediately after the French Revolution the principles of respect and obedience ought to be more exactly defined. "The point is," he wrote to Napoleon, on the 13th February, 1806, "to attach the conscience of the people to your Majesty's august person, by whose government and victories the safety and happiness of France are secured. To recommend subjects generally to submit to their sovereign would not, in the present hypothesis, direct that submission towards its proper end. I therefore thought it necessary to make a clear explanation, and apply the precept in a precise manner to your Majesty. That will prevent any ambiguity, by fixing men's hearts and minds upon him who alone can and really ought to fix their minds and hearts."

Napoleon readily coincided with the pious officiousness of his Minister of Religion, and undertook to draw up himself the question and answer in the new catechism. "Is submission to the government of France a dogma of the Church? Yes; Scripture teaches us that he who resists the powers resists the order of G.o.d; yes, the Church imposes upon us more special duties towards the government of France, the protector of religion and the Church; she commands us to love it, cherish it, and he ready for all sacrifices in its service." The theologians, whom Portalis said he always distrusted, pointed out that, the Church being universal, her dogmas could not inculcate respect for a particular government. It was therefore drawn up afresh, and was so extended that the commentary on the fourth commandment became longer than the exposition of the principle itself. I wish to give here the actual text as a curious doc.u.ment of the spirit of the time.

LESSON VII--_Continuation of the Fourth Commandment_.

_Question._ What are the duties of Christians with reference to the princes by whom they are governed; and what are our special duties towards Napoleon I., our emperor?

_Answer._ Christians owe to the princes by whom they are governed, and we owe specially to Napoleon I., our emperor, love, respect, obedience, fidelity, military service, the tribute ordered for the preservation and defence of the empire and his throne; we also owe him fervent prayers for his health and for the temporal prosperity of the State.

_Q._ Why are we bound to perform all those duties towards our emperor?

_A._ First, because G.o.d, who creates empires, and distributes them according to His will, by loading our emperor with gifts, both in peace and in war, has established him as our sovereign. Secondly, because our Lord Jesus Christ, as well by His teaching as His example, has taught us Himself what we owe to our sovereign: at His birth His parents were obeying an edict of Caesar Augustus; He paid the prescribed tribute-money; and just as He has ordered us to render to G.o.d the things that are G.o.d's, He has also ordered us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.

_Q._ Are there no special motives which strengthen our attachment to Napoleon I., our emperor?

_A._ Yes; for it is he whom G.o.d has stirred up, during difficult circ.u.mstances, to restore the public wors.h.i.+p and holy religion of our fathers and be its protector. He has brought back and preserved public order by his profound and active wisdom; he defends the State by his powerful arm; he became the Lord's anointed by the consecration which he has received from the sovereign pontiff, head of the Church universal.

_Q._ What ought we to think of those who fail in their duty towards our emperor?

_A._ According to the apostle Paul they resist the order established by G.o.d Himself, and render themselves worthy of eternal d.a.m.nation.

_Q._ Are those duties which we owe towards our emperor equally binding upon us with regard to his legitimate successors in the order established by the const.i.tution of the Empire?

_A._ Yes, certainly: for we read in the Holy Scripture that G.o.d, Lord of heaven and earth, by a disposition of His supreme will, and by His providence, gives empires not only to one person individually, but also to his family.

_Q._ What are our obligations towards our magistrates?

_A._ We ought to honor them, respect them, and obey them, because they are the depositaries of our emperor's authority.

The catechism was revised and corrected by a theological commission, by Portalis, by the emperor, and by the cardinal legate himself, in spite of a formal prohibition which he had received from Rome. "It does not belong to the secular power to choose or prescribe to the bishops the catechism which it may prefer," wrote Cardinal Consalvi on the 18th August, 1805.

"His Imperial Majesty has surely no intention of arrogating a faculty which G.o.d trusts exclusively to the Church and Vicar of Jesus Christ."

Caprara had kept the Secretary of State's despatch sealed, and when at last the text of the catechism appeared, in 1806, it had received his approbation. By an article in the _Journal de l'Empire_ of the 5th May, 1806, the court of Rome learnt that a catechism was soon to be published, uniform and obligatory for all the dioceses of France, with the official approbation of the cardinal legate. A despatch of Cardinal Consalvi, expressing to Caprara the astonishment and displeasure of the sovereign pontiff, remained secret and without effect. The influence of the court of Rome upon their envoy failed before the seductive power, mixed with fear, which Napoleon had exercised upon Cardinal Caprara since his arrival. The French bishops were not less troubled than the Pope. "Has the emperor the right to meddle in those matters?" wrote Aviau, Bishop of Bordeaux, to one of his friends; "who has given him the mission? To him the things of earth, to us the things of heaven. Soon, if we let him, he will lay hands on the censer, and perhaps afterwards wish to ascend the altar."

One modification only was granted, on the demands of the bishops supported by Cardinal Fesch. In contempt of Bossuet and his teaching, the standing doctrine of Catholicism, "Out of the Church there is no safety," had been omitted in the new catechism. That phrase being restored, the catechism, invested with the approbation of the legate, was published in the beginning of August, 1808. Placed in the alternative of contradicting or recalling Caprara, the court of Rome prudently remained silent.

Differences of opinion were now acc.u.mulating between the Pope and the emperor--between the spiritual authority, which still preserved some pretensions to independence, and the arbitrary will of the conqueror, resolved to govern the world, Rome included. We at last reach the moment when the excess of arrogance was about to provoke the effect of contrary wills. We shall now see the Pope captive, the Spanish people in insurrection, the climate and deserts of Russia leagued together against the tyrannical master of Europe. England had never accepted the yoke; and she had everywhere seconded resistance. For the future, it was not alone by sea, nor by the a.s.sistance of subsidies, that she entered the lists; Sir Arthur Wellesley was now in his turn to join in the struggle.

A last act of the absolute will of the Emperor Napoleon signalized that period of the interior government of France which preceded the war in Spain and the campaigns in Germany and Russia. It was the suppression pure and simple, by a "senatus-consulte," of the "Tribunate" formerly inst.i.tuted with so much pomp, and which had gradually fallen into insignificance, owing to the successive changes it had undergone, and to the secrecy imposed on its deliberations. The absolute power could support neither contradiction nor even the appearance of discussion, however moderate it might be. The lively remembrance, however, of an eloquent and daring opposition was still a.s.sociated with the name of the Tribunate.

Some honored names had survived the great silence. "The abolition of the Tribunate will be less a change than an improvement in our inst.i.tutions,"

said M. Boulay de la Meurthe in his report, "because, since the const.i.tution of the empire the Tribunate only appears useless, out of place, not in harmony with the times." The Legislative Body formed a place of refuge to the members of the Tribunate who were in exercise: they took their places as a right among its ranks, where they were no more heard of, annihilated by the servitude that reigned around them. Their admission into the Legislative Body had, however, been graced by an appearance of liberality: the right of discussion was restored to that a.s.sembly.

M. de Fontanes took care beforehand to indicate what spirit was to preside at their discussions. "These precincts, which have wondered at their silence, and whose silence is now at an end, will not hear the noisy tempests of popular harangues. May the tribune be without storms, and may the only applause be at the triumphs of reason. Above all, may truth appear there with courage, but with wisdom, and may she s.h.i.+ne there with all her light! A great prince must love her brightness. She alone is worthy of him, why should he be afraid of her? The more he is looked at, the more he rises; the more he is judged, the more is he admired." By the mouth of Carrion-Nisas, the Tribunate thanked the emperor for having discharged it from its functions. "We believe," said they, "that we have not so much arrived at the end of our career, as attained the object of all our efforts, and the recompense of our devotion." Being now certain of the docility of the great bodies of State, and no longer uneasy about that of the magistracy, all the obnoxious members having been weeded out by his orders, the Emperor Napoleon could turn his thoughts abroad. The question was how to place King Joseph on the throne of Spain.

CHAPTER XI.

GLORY AND ILLUSIONS. SPAIN AND AUSTRIA.