One of the most remarkable feats of the Consulate, from the psychological point of view, was the restoration of religious peace.France was far more divided by religious disagreement than by political differences.The systematic destruction of a portion of the Vendee had almost completely terminated the struggle by force of arms, but without pacifying men's minds.As only one man, and he the head of Christianity, could assist in this pacification, Bonaparte did not hesitate to treat with him.
His concordat was the work of a real psychologist, who knew that moral forces do not use violence, and the great danger of persecuting such.While conciliating the clergy he contrived to place them under his own domination.The bishops were to be appointed and remunerated by the State, so that he would still be master.
The religious policy of Napoleon had a bearing which escapes our modern Jacobins.Blinded by their narrow fanaticism, they do not understand that to detach the Church from the Government is to create a state within the State, so that they are liable to find themselves opposed by a formidable caste, directed by a master outside France, and necessarily hostile to France.To give one's enemies a liberty they did not possess is extremely dangerous.
Never would Napoleon, nor any of the sovereigns who preceded him, have consented to make the clergy independent of the State, as they have become to-day.
The difficulties of Bonaparte the First Consul were far greater than those he had to surmount after his coronation.Only a profound knowledge of men enabled him to triumph over them.The future master was far from being the master as yet.Many departments were still in insurrection.Brigandage persisted, and the Midi was ravaged by the struggles of partisans.
Bonaparte, as Consul, had to conciliate and handle Talleyrand, Fouche, and a number of generals who thought themselves his equal.Even his brothers conspired against his power.Napoleon, as Emperor, had no hostile party to face, but as Consul he had to combat all the parties and to hold the balance equal among them.This must indeed have been a difficult task, since during the last century very few Governments have succeeded in accomplishing it.
The success of such an undertaking demanded an extremely subtle mixture of finesse, firmness, and diplomacy.Not feeling himself powerful enough as yet, Bonaparte the Consul made a rule, according to his own expression, ``of governing men as the greater number wish to be governed.'' As Emperor he often managed to govern them according to his own ideal.
We have travelled a long way since the time when historians, in their singular blindness, and great poets, who possessed more talent than psychology, would hold forth in indignant accents against the coup d'etat of Brumaire.What profound illusions underlay the assertion that ``France lay fair in Messidor's great sun''! And other illusions no less profound underlay such verdicts as that of Victor Hugo concerning this period.We have seen that the ``Crime of Brumaire'' had as an enthusiastic accomplice, not only the Government itself but the whole of France, which it delivered from anarchy.
One may wonder how intelligent men could so misjudge a period of history which is nevertheless so clear.It was doubtless because they saw events through their own convictions, and we know what transformations the truth may suffer for the man who is imprisoned in the valleys of belief.The most luminous facts are obscured, and the history of events is the history of his dreams.
The psychologist who desires to understand the period which we have so briefly sketched can only do so if, being attached to no party, he stands clear of the passions which are the soul of parties.He will never dream of recriminating a past which was dictated by such imperious necessities.Certainly Napoleon has cost France dear: his epic was terminated by two invasions, and there was yet to be a third, whose consequences are felt even to-day, when the prestige which he exerted even from the tomb set upon the throne the inheritor of his name.
All these events are narrowly connected in their origin.They represent the price of that capital phenomenon in the evolution of a people, a change of ideal.Man can never make the attempt to break suddenly with his ancestors without profoundly affecting the course of his own history.
