Interior, in which important office he imparted new energy to all the
manufacturing establishments of France, as well as founded many public
schools upon improved systems of education. In 1804 he was dismissed
from the Ministry for his refusing to sanction a report stating sugar
from beet-root to be superior to that from the cane.[4]

[4] This was twenty-eight years since. A writer in an English
journal observed three years since, "it is difficult to conceive
that one half of the sugar consumed in Great Britain, or in all
Europe, will not, in a few years, be home-made beet-root sugar."
In France the manufacture of sugar from beet-root, like that of
saltpetre, was dictated by necessity, the former through the
capture of the French colonies by Great Britain, during the late
war. It is now an important manufacture in that country, as well
as a branch of domestic economy, the sugar being made by
housewives, and requiring not more skill or trouble than
cheese-making or brewing.

Chaptal now retired from political life, and established a chemical
manufactory in the neighbourhood of Paris; but he was soon after chosen
a member of the Conservative Senate, and made grand officer of the
Legion of Honour. In 1806, he was present at the placing of the trophied
column in the Place Vendome, to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz.
Chaptal was soon after made a Count, and received the grand cross of the
Legion of Honour.

In 1813, when the Allies began to approach the French frontiers, Chaptal
was dispatched to support the falling power of Napoleon; he failed to do
so; and when the Austrians approached the capital, he retired to
Clermont, but after the taking of Paris he hastened to the city. He was