1. THE CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE (1799-1815).
THE VEILED MILITARY DESPOTISM.—After the overthrow of the Directorial government, a new constitution—the fourth since the year 1789—was prepared, and having been submitted to the approval of the people, was heartily indorsed. This new instrument vested the executive power in three consuls, elected for a term of ten years, the first of whom really exercised all the authority of the Board. Napoleon, of course, became the First Consul.
The other functions of the government were carried on by a Council of State, a Tribunate, a Legislature, and a Senate. But the members of all these bodies were appointed either directly or indirectly by the consuls, so that the entire government was actually in their hands, or, rather, in the hands of the First Consul. France was still called a republic, but it was such a republic as Rome was under Julius Cæsar or Augustus. The republican names and forms merely veiled a government as absolute and personal as that of Louis XIV.,—in a word, a military despotism.
WARS OF THE FIRST CONSUL.—Neither Austria nor England would acknowledge the government of the First Consul as legitimate. In their view he was simply an upstart, a fortunate usurper. The throne of France belonged, by virtue of divine right, to the House of Bourbon.
Napoleon mustered his soldiers. His plan was to deal Austria, his worst continental enemy, a double blow. A large army was collected on the Rhine, for an invasion of Germany. This was intrusted to Moreau. Another, intended to operate against the Austrians in Italy, was gathered at the foot of the Alps. Napoleon himself assumed command of this latter force.
In the spring of the year 1800 Napoleon made his memorable passage of the Alps, and astonished the Austrian generals by suddenly appearing, with an army of 40,000 men, on the plains of Italy. Upon the renowned field of Marengo the Austrian army, which outnumbered that of the French three to one, was completely overwhelmed, and Italy lay for a second time at the feet of Napoleon (June 14, 1800).
But at the moment Italy was regained, Egypt was lost. On the very day of the battle of Marengo, Kleber, whom Napoleon had left in charge of the army in Egypt, was assassinated by a Turkish fanatic, and shortly afterwards the entire French force was obliged to surrender to the English.
The French reverses in Egypt, however, were soon made up by fresh victories in Europe. A few months after the battle of Marengo, Moreau gained a decisive victory over the Austrians at Hohenlinden, which opened the way to Vienna. The Emperor Francis II. was now constrained to sign a treaty of peace at Luneville, in which he allowed the Rhine to be made the eastern frontier of France (February, 1801). The emperor also recognized the Cisalpine, Ligurian, Helvetian, and Batavian republics. The following year England was also glad to sign a peace at Amiens (March, 1802).
HIS WORKS OF PEACE: THE CODE NAPOLEON.—Having wrung from both England and Austria an acknowledgment of his government, Napoleon was now free to devote his amazing energies to the reform and improvement of the internal affairs of France. So at this time were begun by him those great works of various character which were continued through all the fifteen years of his supremacy. His great military road over the Alps by the Simplon Pass, surpasses in bold engineering the most difficult of the Roman roads, while many of his architectural works are the pride of France at the present day.
[Illustration: CENTRAL EUROPE 1801]