Much more absolute and
centralizing was the successor to Mirabeau's popularity, and to much
more than his predominance in France. Indeed, a man of Napoleon's stamp
almost ceases to have a private speech and opinion. He is so largely
receptive, and is so placed, that he comes to be a bureau for all the
intelligence, wit, and power, of the age and country. He gains the
battle; he makes the code; he makes the system of weights and measures;
he levels the Alps; he builds the road. All distinguished engineers,
savants, statists, report to him; so likewise do all good heads in
every kind; he adopts the best measures, sets his stamp on them, and
not these alone, but on every happy and memorable expression. Every
sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves
reading, as it is the sense of France.
Bonaparte was the idol of common men, because he had in transcendent
degree the qualities and powers of common men. There is a certain
satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we
get rid of cant and hypocrisy. Bonaparte wrought, in common with that
great class he represented, for power and wealth,--but Bonaparte,
specially, without any scruple as to the means.
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