13th, Lyons:
I took sixty-nine hours to get to Lyons; from Lyons to Paris everything is covered with snow. I arrived at nine o'clock at night, and have every reason to be satisfied with the marks of attachment that the people of Lyons are giving me, and of the activity I find in their workshops, and in their minds, to restore the prosperity of the chief manufacturing city of the Republic.

14th. The cold here is excessive. I am spending my mornings, from six till twelve, receiving the prefects and notables of the neighbouring departments. In conferences of this sort one has to talk at length. To-night the City gives a concert and a ball; I am starting in an hour.

My satisfaction with all I see of the people of Lyons and of southern France continues.

16th. It is very fine but very cold. The internal improvement of the Republic is very apparent since two years ago. Lyons must have increased its population by 20,000 people in 1800 and 1801. All the manufacturers of St. Etienne and of Annonay with whom I talked reported that their works were in full swing. On the 18th I shall review six demi-brigades of the army of the West.

18th. (To the Consul Cambacérès.) Your letter of the 15th has posted me on the debates in the Senate. I trust that you will not fail to have the twenty and sixty undesirable members in our constitutional bodies promptly removed. The will of the Nation is that this Government shall not be hindered in its beneficent work, and that the Head of Medusa shall not be permitted to appear again in our assemblies. The conduct of Sieyès at this juncture shows conclusively that after taking a hand in the destruction of every constitution since 1791, he wants to have a go at this one. It is very curious that he can't see the folly of it. He ought to be glad to burn a candle at Notre Dame for having so happily and unexpectedly come through. But the older I get the more clearly I perceive that a man must accomplish his destiny!

The cold is less intense.

21st. I went for an hour to the ball given to my wife by the Commerce (of Lyons); it was very fine.

25th. Held a parade to-day, place Bellecour. The weather was splendid, the sun as in Floréal. The generals who were in Lyons thought it proper to give a grand ball to-night, for my wife; I shall look in for half an hour.

February 19th, Paris:
If by ill luck peace should not be maintained, what could be undertaken?

(To Fouché.) As the reëstablishment of peace with the Powers gives me time to pay special attention to the police, I want to be posted in the smallest details, and to work with you at least once, sometimes twice a day, when necessary. The most convenient hours for me are in the morning at eleven and at night at eleven.

April 9th. (To Portalis.) The intention of the First Consul is to present each archbishop and bishop, at his consecration, with a cross, a crozier, and a mitre. You will therefore arrange to have these articles ready in time, and bought as cheaply as possible.

12th. Note the insolence of the priests who, in the division of authority with what they call the temporal power, reserve for themselves the dominion of the mind, of the noble part of man, and have the pretension of leaving me dominion over the body. They keep the soul and throw me the carcase!

There will be no stable political conditions until we have a teaching body acting on fixed principles. So long as men are not taught from childhood whether to be republican or monarchist, Catholic or freethinking, the state will not be a nation.

May 4th. In every country force bows to the civilian virtues. The bayonets fall before the priest who speaks in the name of religion, and before the man of science. I foretold that a military government would never take in France unless the nation were degraded by fifty years of ignorance. Every attempt would fail, and their authors would be the first victims. It is not as a general that I govern, but because the nation believes that I have civilian qualities that make me fit for governing, otherwise the government could not maintain itself. I knew what I was about when, as a general, I assumed the title of Member of the Institute; my meaning was clear even to the last drummer of the army.

We cannot argue on the analogy of the dark ages. We are thirty millions of men held together by enlightenment, property, and commerce; three or four hundred thousand soldiers are nothing in such a mass. The soldiers themselves are the children of the citizens. The army is the nation.

The distinctive mark of the soldier is that all his desires are despotic; that of the civilian is that he submits everything to discussion, to truth, to reason.

7th. The bishops who have not yet taken the oath will take it Sunday next in the chapel of the First Consul. This chapel shall be arranged in the First Consul's study. The Archbishop of Paris will consecrate it at ten; at eleven he will say mass. The bishops will take the oath after the gospel has been read.

9th. The Consulate renewed for ten years.

Senators: The testimonial of your esteem contained in your debate of the 8th will remain forever engraved in my heart. My reputation and my happiness would seem to have marked as the term of my public life a moment when the peace of the world has been attained. But the glory and the interests of the private citizen must be subdued when the interest of the State and the good opinion of the public call on him. You have decided that I owe a new sacrifice to the people; I will make it.

12th, Saint Cloud:
Gobain, a grenadier, has committed suicide because of a love affair; he was, however, a good soldier. This is the second incident of this nature in the regiment within a month. The First Consul directs that there shall be inserted in the Guard's orders: That a soldier must overcome grief and the melancholy of love; that there is as much courage in supporting with firmness the afflictions of the soul as there is in standing steady under the grape of a battery of guns. To give one's self up to grief without resistance, to kill one's self to escape it, is to abandon the battlefield defeated.

14th, Paris:
By virtue of clause 87 of the Constitution concerning military rewards, and to recompense distinction and service among civilians, a Legion of Honour shall be instituted.
 

Where is the republic, ancient or modern, that has not granted honours? Call them trifles if you like, but it is by trifles that men are influenced. I would not utter such a sentiment as this in public, but here, among statesmen and thinkers, things should be spoken of as they are. In my opinion the French do not care for liberty and equality; they have but one sentiment, that of honour. Therefore that sentiment must he gratified; they must be given distinctions. Do you suppose you can persuade men to fight by a process of analysis? Never; that process is valid only for the man of science in his study. The soldier demands glory, distinction, rewards.

August 6th. The Minister of the Interior is directed, apart from the Simplon, to build roads over the Mont Cenis, and the Mont Genèvre, and to improve the one over the Pass of Tenda.

(To Jerome.) I have received your letter, Mr. Midshipman. I am anxious to hear that you are aboard your corvette, on the high seas, which you must make your road to glory. I am willing you should die young, but not if you live ingloriously, useless to your country, without leaving a trace of your existence, for that is not to have lived.

7th. We must bear in mind to help the trade of Nice; for instance, Piedmont can get its sugar, coffee, and other colonial produce through Nice, and in the same way soap and every other article that Marseilles and our manufactories can supply.

(To Talleyrand.) Let me know within twenty-four hours of its reception the contents of every dispatch from an ambassador or minister plenipotentiary. At the time I was opening the bag of the ministry of foreign affairs I realized that you received official reports on matters that I have often tried to get knowledge of by indirect means.

13th. (To Fouché.) Keep all English papers out of France, and in particular prevent their circulating in public places and reading-rooms.

15th. (To Talleyrand.) Citoyen Lannes, Minister of the Republic at Lisbon, was wrong in leaving that city. He has broken every rule, every form, failed in the first duty of a public official, which is not to leave his post without the positive order of his Government. The French Minister has been rude to the Court of Lisbon by employing dictatorial manners, and by going away without leave. He must be recalled.

October 18th, Saint Cloud:
Secret instructions for the Ambassador at Constantinople: The intentions of the Government are that the Ambassador at Constantinople should regain, by all possible means, the supremacy that France enjoyed in that capital during 200 years. The Ambassador has the finest Embassy. He must constantly keep on a higher level than the ambassadors of other nations, be surrounded by a numerous suite, and be seen in public only with great display.

Our trade must be protected in every way. Whenever public attention is drawn to the French Ambassador, care must be taken never to shock local customs and manners, but it must be shown, on the contrary, that we respect them.

Lastly, the Ambassador is expected to secure precise information for the ministers on the various pashaliks. We must even get posted about Persia.

22d. The vicar of St. Roch, in a moment of bad judgment, has declined to hold a service for Mlle. Chameroi, or even to open his church for her (funeral). The Archbishop of Paris has ordered the vicar of St. Roch into retirement for three months so that he may be reminded that Jesus Christ commanded that we should pray even for our enemies, and so that meditation may recall him to a sense of his duties and that he may realize that all the superstitious practices that degraded religion by their stupidity have been proscribed by the Concordat and by the law of the 18th of Germinal.
 

The priests are no longer to be feared in our time; they lost all their power on the day when their supremacy in science passed to the layman.
 

Every two years there shall be executed for and at the expense of the Government four historical pictures and two statues. The pictures shall measure five metres by four, and shall be purchased for 10,000 francs. The statues shall be two metres high, and shall be purchased for 15,000 francs. The Government will supply the marble.

28th. The relations between France and England are the treaty of Amiens, all the treaty of Amiens, nothing but the treaty of Amiens!
 

All the evils, all the plagues that afflict mankind come from London.

31st, Rouen:
(To the Consul Cambacérès.) It is five in the afternoon. I got on horseback at eight this morning to inspect the heights about Rouen. The Archbishop, who is much loved and esteemed, was obliging enough to say mass for us; but he gave us neither holy water nor a sermon. We shall make up to-morrow, which is All Saints' day. I have just received the officials, and have had to talk much and long. I am very pleased with the sentiments of the country.

November 2d, Rouen:
I was present yesterday at a fête given me by the city. There was a very large and fine company. To-morrow night I shall be at a fête given by the Commerce of Rouen. Thursday there will be a parade. I shall see the market Friday, market day. I shall start for Havre immediately, reaching there Saturday or Sunday. I shall return by Dieppe and by Beauvais, where I will stop the night.

(To Joseph Bonaparte.) My compliments to Madame Joseph. She gets such handsome daughters that we must be consoled at her not presenting you with a fine boy.

I am as pleased with Rouen as I was with Lyons. The city's demonstrations have touched me. Everything one sees here is fine and does one good. I really love this beautiful, excellent Normandy; it is the real France.

(To Cardinal Fesch.) You must delay no longer and proceed to your archbishopric. Do not forget that in the station to which you are called you will be the focus of all eyes. Be strict in your morals and hold yourself as you should, and devote yourself exclusively to the duties of your office.

3d, Elbeuf:
This morning at eight o'clock I started for a visit to Elbeuf, which is nothing but one great factory. I found everything in good shape. Its prosperity has increased by a third since 1788.

4th. I have held a parade which was very good. I was delighted with the appearance of the troops.

6th. I arrived at Havre at six o'clock this evening. I was surrounded by throngs of people all the way and had to make frequent stops. It would be difficult to realize the manner in which I am received. In every village, at the church doors, the priests under their canopies, surrounded by many people, sing hymns and throw incense. The illumination of Havre was very striking. I am several days behind on my journey, but it is not easy to do otherwise.

10th, Dieppe:
I arrived at Dieppe last night. The city was very tastefully illuminated, but owing to petty municipal pride I am lodged in a wretched house in which all the chimneys smoke.

I passed through Fécamp and St. Valéry. As the road from Havre to Dieppe is only a crossroad, our carriages were often brought to a walk, which enabled the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages to follow me all the way; so we held frequent conversations.

26th, Saint Cloud:
(To Laplace.) I thank you for your dedication, which I accept with great pleasure, and I hope that when future generations are reading La Mécanique Céleste, they will not forget the esteem and friendship I felt for the author.

December 4th. Citoyen Duroc may inform citoyen Beauvoisin that he may send me all the numbers he has of the Ambigu, and also the pamphlet of Ivernois. He may instruct him to make up a sheet on all he has seen in England, in which he can state what he knows about Pichegru and Willot, and about the obscure life of the royal princes. As I intend having it printed, he can aim at Pitt, Grenville, Wyndham, and the Court. Let him know that when this is done he is to return to England. He must find pretexts for inspecting the coast from the Thames to beyond Plymouth, the bay of Bristol, Edinburgh, and the coasts of Scotland.

28th. (To Talleyrand.) Please inform Lord Whitworth how surprised and annoyed I am to learn that the Count d'Artois, wearing the star of the Order of a monarchy that England no longer recognises, should have reviewed a regiment; that we have long kept silence; but that it touches our dignity, and we venture to say the honour of the British Government; that the princes should be expelled from England, or at all events, if hospitality is to be extended to them, that they should not be permitted to wear the Orders of a monarchy England no longer recognises. It is a perpetual insult to the French people, and the time has come for quiet in Europe. It really looks as though there were not a peace between the two countries, but only a truce, and the English Government is entirely to blame.

30th. My power proceeds from my reputation, and my reputation from the victories I have won. My power would fall if I were not to support it with more glory and more victories. Conquest has made me what I am; only conquest can maintain me.

Friendship is only a word; I love nobody; no, not even my brothers. Perhaps Joseph a little; even then it's a matter of habit, it's because he is my elder.--Duroc? Ah, yes, I love him; but why? His character attracts me: he is cool, dry, severe; and Duroc never sheds tears. As for me, you don't suppose I care; I know perfectly well I have no real friends. As long as I remain what I am, I shall have as many as I need so far as the appearance goes. Let the women whimper, that's their business, but for me, give me no sentiment. A man must be firm, have a stout heart, or else leave on one side war and government.