In the meantime, he has kept the three keys of the three engines in his own cabinet, in his own hands, for himself alone; henceforth, it is he who distributes throughout the building, on each story and in every room, light, air and heat. If he does not distribute the same quantity as before he at least distributes whatever is necessary; the tenants can, at last, breathe comfortably, see clearly and not shiver;after ten years of suffocation, darkness and cold they are too well satisfied to wrangle with the proprietor, discuss his ways, and dispute over the monopoly by which he has constituted himself the arbitrator of their wants. - The same thing is done in the material order of things, in relation to the highways, dikes, canals, and structures useful to the people: here also he repairs or creates through the same despotic initiative,* with the same economy,[146]
* the same apportionment of expense,[147]
* the same spontaneous or forced aid to those interested, * the same practical efficiency.[148]
Summing it up and if we take things as a whole, and if we offset the worse with the better, it may be said that the French people have recovered the possessions they had been missing since 1789:
* internal peace, * public tranquility, * administrative regularity, * impartial justice, * a strict police, * security of persons, property and consciences, * liberty in private life, * enjoyment of one's native land, and, on leaving it, the privilege of coming back;* the satisfactory endowment, gratuitous celebration and full exercise of worship;* schools and instruction for the young;* beds, nursing and assistance for the sick, the indigent and for foundlings;* the maintenance of roads and public buildings.
So that of the two groups of cravings which troubled men in 1800, the first one, that which dated from the Revolution, has, towards 1808 or 1810, obtained reasonable satisfaction.
______________________________________________________________________Notes:
[1] Roederer, III., 334 (August 6, 1800).
[2] The word means "what is beyond the Alps" but refers to a number of doctrines favoring the Pope's absolute authority. (SR.)[3] Stanislas Girardin, "Mémoires," I., 273 (22 Thermidor, year X):
"The only craving, the only sentiment in France, disturbed for so many years, is repose. Whatever secures this will gain its assent. Its inhabitants, accustomed to take an active part in all political questions, now seem to take no interest in them." - Roederer, III., 484 (Report on the Sénatorerie of Caen, Dec. 1, 1803): "The people of the rural districts, busy with its new affairs, . . . are perfectly submissive, because they now find security for persons and property. .
. . They show no enthusiasm for the monarch, but are full of respect for and trust in a gendarme; they stop and salute him on passing him on the roads."[4] Rocquam, "l'état de la France au 18 Brumaire." (Report by Barbé-Marbois, p. 72, 81.) Cash-boxes broken open and exclamations by the officers "Money and fortune belong to the brave. Let us help ourselves. Our accounts will be settled at the cannon's mouth." - "The subordinates," adds Barbé-Marbois, "fully aware of their superior's drafts on the public treasury, stipulate for their share of the booty; accustomed to exacting contributions from outside enemies they are not averse to treating as conquered enemies the departments they were called upon to defend."[5] Ibid. (Reports of Barbe-Marbois and Fourcroy while on their missions in the 12th and 13th military divisions, year IX., p.158, on the tranquility of La Vendée.) "I could have gone anywhere without an escort. During my stay in some of the villages I was not disturbed by any fear or suspicion whatever. . . . The tranquility they now enjoy and the cessation of persecutions keep them from insurrection."[6] Archives nationales, F7,3273 (Reports by Gen. Ferino, Pluvi?se, year IX, with a table of verdicts by the military commission since Floreal, year VIII.) The commission mentions 53 assassinations, 3rapes, 44 pillagings of houses, by brigands in Vaucluse, Dr?me, and the Lower Alps; 66 brigands taken in the act are shot, 87 after condemnation, and 6, who are wounded, die in the hospital. - Rocquain, ibid., p. 17, (Reports of Fran?ais, from Nantes, on his mission in the 8th military division.) "The South may be considered as purged by the destruction of about 200 brigands who have been shot. There remains only three or four bands of 7 or S men each."[7] Three classes of insurrectionary peasants or marauders. - Tr.
[8] Archives Nationales, F7, 7152 (on the prolongation of brigandage).