‘M. de Calonne states that in England the enthusiasm for Bonaparte is not only general, but carried to an extent which it is difficult to conceive. The Court and the city, the capital and the provinces, all classes of citizens, from ministers to artisans, are agreed to publish his praises and vie in chanting his victories and the lustre of his rule.’[122]
Yet Phillips’s Practical Guide during a Journey from London to Paris, the first book of its kind, had said:—
‘We shall only express our wish that the great man who has done so much for France and mankind may moderate his ambition and make the illustrious Washington his political model.’
Englishmen anxious to see republican forms and manners were satirically recommended by the Times, December 1, 1802, to lose no time in visiting Paris, or the whole ancient system of the court, with all its formalities and regulations, would arrive before them. ‘The ladies of the old court,’ it added,—
‘are in great request in the circle of Madame Bonaparte, and several of the most pronounced royalists among the emigrants are already bien acclimatés at the Thuilleries. In the gardens of this palace, no persons are admitted to walk in the Jacobin costume. Cocked hats are indispensable to all who would not be turned out by the sentries. The high ton and extravagance of dress are generally restored, and the fashions at least are as Anti-Jacobin as possible. Tu and Toi, and Citoyen, which for some time have been banished to the Faux-bourghs and the Offices, are totally out of use in addressing the Consul or Ministers, and would pass for the grossness of disaffection at Court. In short, everything is returning rapidly to that gaiety, splendour, and urbanity, which is the characteristic of the nation. It was the ingenious expression of a distinguished lady a few nights since at the Thuilleries—that “she saw the whole of the ancient monarchy excepting the Bourbons!”’
This reminds us of Victor Hugo’s well-known couplet:—
‘Ce siècle avait deux ans, Rome remplaçait Sparte,
Dejâ Napoléon perçait sous Bonaparte.’
A letter from an officer published in the same journal on the 9th February 1803 says:—
‘Nothing can be more wretched or discontented than all descriptions of people; all ruined except a few upstarts, who are immediately self-interested in the present system. It is completely a military government, and the country is kept quiet by the bayonet alone:—taxed at half their income, and more taxes to be laid on.