ambition receded before him like a boundless horizon. On the 1st of
December; the day on which the Senate presented to the Emperor the result
of the votes for hereditary succession, Francois de Neufchateau delivered
an address to him, in which there was no want of adulatory expressions.
As President of the Senate he had had some practice in that style of
speechmaking; and he only substituted the eulogy of the Monarchical
Government for that of the Republican Government 'a sempre bene', as the
Italians say.

If I wished to make comparisons I could here indulge in some curious
ones. Is it not extraordinary that Fontainebleau should have witnessed,
at the interval of nearly ten years, Napoleon's first interview with the
Pope, and his last farewell to his army, and that the Senate, who had
previously given such ready support to Bonaparte, should in 1814 have
pronounced his abdication at Fontainebleau.

The preparations for the Coronation proved very advantageous to the
trading classes of Paris. Great numbers of foreigners and people from
the provinces visited the capital, and the return of luxury and the
revival of old customs gave occupation to a variety of tradespeople who
could get no employment under the Directory or Consulate, such as
saddlers, carriage-makers, lacemen, embroiderers, and others. By these
positive interests were created more partisans of the Empire than by
opinion and reflection; and it is but just to say that trade had not been
so active for a dozen years before. The Imperial crown jewels were
exhibited to the public at Biennais the jeweller's. The crown was of a
light form, and, with its leaves of gold, it less resembled the crown of
France than the antique crown of the Caesars. These things were
afterwards placed in the public treasury, together with the imperial
insignia of Charlemagne, which Bonaparte had ordered to be brought from