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The Life, Exile and Conversations with Napoleon. Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases
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isbn 4064066393885
Автор произведения Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases
Жанр Документальная литература
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OCCUPATIONS OF THE DAY.—COUNCIL OF STATE.—DISGRACE
OF PORTALIS.—DISSOLUTION OF THE LEGISLATIVE
BODY, IN 1813.—THE SENATE.
November 1st—4th. Our days now passed away in the same uniformity as those which we spent on board the vessel. The Emperor summoned me to breakfast with him about ten or eleven o’clock. That meal being concluded, after half an hour’s conversation, I read to him what he had dictated the evening before, and he renewed his dictations. The Emperor discontinued his practice of dressing as soon as he rose, and walking before breakfast, which had broken up his day too much, and rendered it too long. He never dressed now till about four o’clock. He then walked out, to give the servants an opportunity of making his bed, and cleaning his room. We walked in the garden, which he particularly liked, on account of its solitude. I had the little arbour covered with a canvass, and ordered a table and chairs to be placed in it; and the Emperor henceforward chose this spot for dictating to such of the gentlemen as came from the town for that purpose.
In front of Mr. Balcombe’s house there was a walk bordered by some trees. It was here that the two English soldiers had posted themselves for the purpose of watching us. They were, however, at length removed, by desire of Mr. Balcombe, who felt offended at the circumstance on his own account. Nevertheless, they still continued for some time to move about, so as to get a sight of the Emperor; either attracted by curiosity, or acting in obedience to their orders. At length they entirely disappeared, and the Emperor gradually took possession of this lower walk. This was quite an acquisition to his domain; and he walked here every day before dinner. The two young ladies, with their mother, joined him in this walk, and told him the news. He sometimes returned to the garden after dinner, when the weather permitted; he was then enabled to spend the evening without paying a visit to his neighbours, which he never did when he could avoid it, nor ever till he was satisfied that no stranger was there, which I always ascertained previously, by peeping through the window.
In one of his walks, the Emperor conversed much on the subject of the Senate, the Legislative Body, and particularly the Council of State. The latter, he said, had been of considerable service to him during the whole course of his administration. I will here note down some remarks relative to the Council of State, the more readily, as it was very little understood at the time in the drawing-rooms of Paris; and as it does not now exist on the same footing as formerly, I shall insert, as I proceed, a few lines on its mechanism and prerogatives.
“The Council of State,” said the Emperor, “was generally composed of well-informed, skilful, and honest men. Fermont and Boulay, for example, were certainly of this class. Notwithstanding the immense law-suits which they conducted, and the vast emoluments they enjoyed, I should not be surprised to learn that they are not now in very flourishing circumstances.” The Emperor employed the councillors of state individually in every case, and with advantage. As a whole, they were his real council—his mind in deliberation, as the ministers were his mind in execution. At the Council of State were prepared the laws which the Emperor presented to the Legislative Body, a circumstance which rendered it altogether one of the elements of the legislative power. In the Council, the Emperor’s decrees and his rules of public administration were drawn up; and there the plans of his ministers were examined, discussed, and corrected.
The Council of State received appeals and pronounced finally on all administrative judgments; and incidentally on those of all other tribunals, even those of the Court of Cassation. There were examined complaints against the ministers, and appeals from the Emperor to the Emperor better informed. Thus the Council of State, at which the Emperor uniformly presided, being frequently in direct opposition to the ministers, or occupied in reforming their acts and errors, naturally became the point of refuge for persons or interests aggrieved by any authority whatever. All who were ever present at the meetings of the council must know with what zeal the cause of the citizens was there defended. A committee of the Council of State received all the petitions of the Empire, and laid before the Sovereign those which deserved his attention.
With the exception of lawyers and persons employed in the administration, it is surprising how far the rest of society were ignorant of our political legislation. No one had a correct idea of the Council of State, of the Legislative Body, or of the Senate. It was received, for example, as an established fact, that the Legislative Body, like an assembly of mutes, passively adopted, without the least opposition, all the laws which were presented to it; that which belonged to the nature and excellence of the institution was attributed to its complaisance and servility.
The laws which were prepared in the Council of State were presented by commissioners, chosen from that council, to a committee of the Legislative Body appointed to receive them; they were there amicably discussed, and were often quietly referred back to the Council of State to receive some modifications. When the two deputations could not come to an understanding, they proceeded to hold regular conferences, under the presidency of the Arch-chancellor or the Arch-treasurer; so that, before these laws reached the Legislative Body, they had already received the assent of the two opposite parties. If any difference existed, it was discussed by the two committees, in the presence of the whole of the Legislative Body, performing the functions of a jury; which, as soon as its members had become sufficiently acquainted with the facts, pronounced its decision by a secret scrutiny. Thus every individual had an opportunity of freely giving his opinion, as it was impossible to know whether he had put in a black or a white ball. “No plan,” said the Emperor, “could have been better calculated to correct our national effervescence and our inexperience in matters of political liberty.”
The Emperor asked me whether I thought discussion perfectly free in the Council of State, or whether his presence did not impose a restraint on the deliberations? I reminded him of a very long debate, during which he had remained throughout singular in his opinion, and had at last been obliged to yield. He immediately recollected the circumstance. “Oh, yes,” said he, “that must have been in the case of a woman of Amsterdam, who had been tried for her life and acquitted three several times by the Imperial Courts, but against whom a fresh trial was demanded in the Court of Cassation.” The Emperor hoped that this happy concurrence of the law might have exhausted its severity in favour of the prisoner; that this lucky fatality of circumstances might have turned to her advantage. It was urged in reply that he possessed the beneficent power of bestowing pardon; but that the law was inflexible, and must take its course. The debate was a very long one. M. Muraire spoke a great deal, and very much to the point; he persuaded every one except the Emperor, who still remained singular in his opinion, and at length yielded, with these remarkable words:—“Gentlemen, the decision goes by the majority here, I remain single, and must yield; but I declare, in my conscience, that I yield only to forms. You have reduced me to silence, but by no means convinced me.”
So little was the nature of the Council of State understood by people in general that it was believed no one dared utter a word in that assembly in opposition to the Emperor’s opinion. Thus I very much surprised many persons when I related the fact that, one day, during a very animated debate, the Emperor, having been interrupted three times in giving his opinion, turned towards the individual who had rather rudely cut him short, and said in a sharp tone: “I have not yet done; I beg you will allow me to continue. I believe every one here has a right to deliver his opinion.”