The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 19
when the subjects are most exposed to oppression, banishment of its members from Paris; but notis also the crisis inwhich they have the best chance withstanding this temporary Victory, he is said to
of recovering their political rights. have predicted that his successor might not come off
It is in vain that the constitution of a despotic from the renewed contest so successfully.
government endeavours, in its forms, to guard against Louis XVI., with the plain well-meaning honesty
the dangers of such conjunctures, by vesting in the which marked his character, restored the parliasovereign the most complete and unbounded right ments to their constitutional powers immediately on
to the property of his subjects. This doctrine, how- his accession to the throne, having the generosity to
ever ample is theory, cannot in practice be carried regard their resistance to his grandfather as a merit
beyond certain bounds, without producing either rather than an offence. In the meanwhile, the
privy conspiracy or open insurrection, being the revenue of the kingdom had fallen into a most disviolent symptoms of the outraged feelings and ex- astrous condition. The continued and renewed
hausted patience of the subject, which in absolute expense of unsuccessful wars, the supplying the
monarchies supply the want of all regular political demands of a luxurious court, the gratifying hungry
checks upon the power of the crown. Whenever courtiers, and enriching needy favourites, had octhe point of human sufferance is exceeded, the des- casioned large deficits upon the public income of
pot must propitiate the wrath of an insurgent people each successive year. The ministers, meanwhile,
with the head of his minister, or he may tremble for anxious to provide for the passing moment of their
his own.* own administration, were satisfied to put off the evil
In constitutions of a less determined despotical day by borrowving money at heavy interest, and leascharacter, there almost always arises some power ing out, in security of these loans, the various sources
of check or control, however anomalous, which ba- of revenue to the farmers-general. On their part,
lances or counteracts the arbitrary exactions of the these financiers used the government as bankrupt
sovereign, instead of the actual resistance of the prodigals are treated by usurious money-brokers,
subjects, as at Fez or Constantinople. This was who, feeding their extravagance with the one hand,
the case in France. with the other wring out of their ruined fortunes the
No constitution could have been more absolute most unreasonable recompense for their advances.
in theory than that of France, for two hundred years By a long succession of these ruinous loans, and
past, in the matter of finance; but yet in practice the various rights granted to guarantee them, the
there existed a power of control in the parliaments, whole finances of France appear to have fallen into
and particularly in that of Paris. These courts, total confusion, and presented an inextricable chaos
though strictly speaking they were constituted only to those who endeavoured to bring them into order.
for the administration of justice, had forced them- The farmers-general, therefore, however obnoxious
selves, orbeen forced by circumstances, into a cer- to the people, who considered with justice that
tain degree of political power, which they exercised their overgrown fortunes were nourished by the lifein control of the crown, in the imposition of new blood of the community, continued to be essentially
taxes. It was agreed on all hands, that the royal edicts, necessary to the state, the expenses of which they
enforcing such new impositions, must be registered alone could find means of defraying;-thus support..
by the parliaments; but while the ministers held ing the government, although Mirabeau said with
the act of registering such edicts to be a deed purely truth, it was only in the sense in which a rope supministerial, and the discharge of a function imposed ports a hanged man.
by their official duty, the magistrates insisted, on Louis XVI., frilly sensible of the disastrous state
the other hand, that they possessed the power of of the public revenue, did all he could to contrive a
deliberating and remonstrating, nay, of refusing to remedy. He limited his personal expenses, and those
register the royal edicts, and that, unless so regis- of his household, with a rigour which approached
tered, these warrants had no borce or effect. The to parsimony, and dimmed the necessary splendour
parliaments exercised this powver of control on va- of the throne. He abolished many pensions, and
rions occasions; and as theirinterference was always by doing so not only disobliged those who were deon behalf of the subject, the practice, however ano- prived of the instant enjoyment of those gratuities,
malous, was sanctioned by public opinion; and, in but lost the attachment of the much more numerous
the absence of all otherrepresentatives of the people, class of expectants, who served the court in the
France naturally looked up to the magistrates as the hope of obtaining similar gratifications in their turn.*
protectors of her rights, and as the only power which Louis XV. had the arts if not the virtues of f monarch.
could offer even the semblance of resistance to the He asked one of his ministers what he supposed might be
arbitrary increase of the burthens of the state. These the price of the carriage in which they were sitting. The
functionaries cannot be charged with carelessness minister, making a great allowance for the monarch's
or cowardice in the discharge of their duty; and as paying en prince, yet guessed within two-thirds less than
taxes increased and became at the samle time less the real sum. When the king natned the actual price, the
productive, the opposition of the parliaments be- statesman exclaimed, but the monarch cut him short. "Do
came more formidable. Louis XV. endeavoured to not attempt," he said, "to reform the expenses of my
break their spirit by suppression of their court, and household. There are too many, and too great men, who
have their share in that extortion, and to make a reform+ When Bonaparte expressed much regret and anxiety ation would give too much discontent. No minister can
on account of the assassination of the Emperor Paul, he attempt it with success or with safety." This is the picture
was comforted by Fouche with words to the following effect; of the waste attending a despotic government-the cup
-" Que voulez-vots? c'est ttn mode de destituttiont propre c which is filled to the very brim cannot be lifted to the lips,e pays-d!' without wasting the contents.