According to J.M Thompson, Napoleon never believed in parliamentary government. He believed that a state should be governed like an army by a strong centralized government. Three consuls were established and according to Stuart Miller ‘Napoleon manipulated his way towards sole, unlimited executive power’pg20. He was able to gain the title of first consul which meant that he alone would control ministers, introduce legislation and decide foreign policy. So, there was no compromise and Napoleon had the last word. According to Stuart Miller, The Constitution of year VIII verified the rights of property and individual liberty. Citizens were now free to purchase land. According to Georges Lefebvre, this was conceived in the interest of the bourgeoisie as it was concerned primarily with consecrating and sanctifying the rights of property which it regarded as a natural right, anterior to society, absolute and belonging to the individual and it gave the possessor the title to ownership. Napoleon suppressed independent political activity and no organized opposition was permitted. According to J.M Thompson, literary men, editors and theatrical managers were subject to a continual and harassing censorship. In this way, freedom of expression was forbidden. By and arrêté of January 17th 1800, he suppressed sixty political journals and prohibited the publication of any more. By the end of that year, only nine remained. At the same time, the non-political journals that were encouraged by the government increased from twenty-two to thirty-eight and their subscribers from 4000 to 7000. Censoring the daily press however was not enough for Napoleon. He was afraid that any publication might endanger his regime. As a result, he relied on the Minister of Police and his ‘Librarian’ to read and analyze all the books, papers, plays, lectures and posters that appeared in Paris and to send in weekly or daily reports. He also required individual publishers to submit two copies of every book to the ‘bureau central de la police’ before publication. By February 1810, he required publishers to have a licence and subscribe to an oath. According to Derrick Murphy et al, booksellers, publishers and editors all faced grim punishment if they attempted to slip unapproved material past the censor. According to J.M Thompson ‘The senatorial committee that protected the liberty of the press now had nothing to do, for there was no more liberty to protect’pg201. Napoleon also made use of spies and informants. This prevented opposition and aided in denying critics an audience. An intentional attempt was made to ensure that the right messages about the government and Napoleon got full publicity in all media.
Napoleon established several financial reforms as well. In terms of equality, he introduced a fair system of taxation through centralization of the administrative department. There were no longer any tax exemptions for the wealthy. He got rid of some of the taxes that the peasants were previously forced to pay. He reconfirmed the abolition of the notion of meritocracy. Estates, privileges and local liberties no longer existed. According to Stuart Miller, Napoleon used the large amount of bourgeois beneficiaries of the French revolution and the older nobility to form the new hierarchy. By establishing the Order of the Legion of Honour he reintroduced titles and honours. By 1814, it already had 32000 members 95% of whom were soldiers. In 1804 and 1806 he established princedoms and ducal grand fiefs. Barons and chevaliers came in 1808. Additionally, titles were used to reward military and civilian service. The term to describe this was rehierarchisation as it was almost similar to the monarchy that previously existed. Napoleon also abolished feudalism however, with the increasing resemblance of the Napoleonic regime to an absolute monarchy, fears were raised of its reintroduction. In terms of liberty, Stuart Miller states that Napoleon’s ideas on economies were old fashioned. In the later war years, Napoleon turned mostly to market restrictions. The continental system was expanded. This was a self blockade of British goods. As a result of this, French traders were unable to choose who they wanted to trade with. Miller goes on to state that “The dominance and protection of French planters meant that it was very much a ‘one-way common market’ which would never produce an integrated European economy”pg25. Furthermore, the export of corn was firmly restricted. So, in a sense, protectionism was never abolished and free trade was never established. According to Georges Lefebvre, the law of 22 Germinal, Year XI (April 12, 1803) renewed the ban on workers’ associations, and on the following December 1st, a decree forced workers to carry a passbook supplied by the local authorities. Without it, it was forbidden to employ them. This passbook also limited workers freedom of movement. It is evident that the code ignored the principle of juridical equality by discriminating against wage earners.
With regard to those who possessed nothing, the code kept silent. Proclaiming the freedom of labour and the equality of citizens before the law, it in fact deserted the wage earners. Also, the criminal and penal codes that were issued in 1808 and 1810 re-established harsh penalties such as branding and mutilation. In 1810, imprisonment without trial was introduced. Additionally, the slave system which had been abolished during the revolution, was reintroduced by Napoleon.
Napoleon also established several religious reforms. In terms of equality, Napoleon tolerated all religions – including the Jews. However, his attitude towards the Jews was not a positive one. According to J.M Thompson, Napoleon associated the ‘charity’ of the New Testament with Catholicism and the ‘cruelty’ of the Old Testament with Judaism. He shared the common Catholic dislike of the Jews. On July 26th 1806, 24 deputies of Jewish communities met in St. John’s chapel. There they were faced by a questionnaire dealing with the relations between Jews and Christians, their obligations as French citizen, the organization of their community and the practise of usury. Eventually, they were accepted on November 28th. Napoleon gave specific rules and regulations dealing with the relations between Jews and Christians, the government of the Jewish community, together with various limitations to their freedom of business, especially money lending. The Jews were obligated to pay taxes and to provide recruits for the army. In terms of liberty, Napoleon established the concordat – a treaty between the state and the Pope. This stated several things. One was that the state would pay the clergy a salary and make appointments to senior positions such as bishops and archbishops. Also, the position of the Pope as head of the Catholic church was agreed and recognized. The clergy was obligated to obey the state and promised an oath to do so. The church would not attempt to regain lands that were confiscated by the revolution. The church helped Napoleon to spread the virtues of obedience and loyalty to the state. According to Stuart Miller, Napoleon realised the value of organized religion in helping to maintain social order; ‘The people must have a religion and that religion must be in the hands of the government ’pg23. In other words, the church became Napoleon’s instrument for social reform. The clergy became Napoleon’s moral prefects. In a way, the church had no liberty – their actions and movements were restricted by the state. Stuart Miller also states that Napoleons attempt to control the church through ‘prefects in purple’ and ‘mayors in black’ failed. The bishops sided with Pope Pius when he was annexed in 1809 and became a French prisoner. They refused to agree to the option of investiture by French metropolitans.
Napoleon’s civil code – The code Napoleon, which was completed in 1834 dealt mostly with family laws. With regard to equality, Georges Lefebvre states that Napoleon was intent on strengthening the authority of the father or husband. The old paternal authority within the family was restored and women’s rights were restricted. Fathers had absolute power in the household. According to Stuart Miller, Napoleon once stated that ‘women should stick to knitting’. The male also had control over property. He would administer his wife’s property – she had little or no control over it. Women did not have the same rights and opportunities as men – they were unequal. Napoleon also wanted that illegitimate children be deprived of their heritage unless they had been legally recognised. The father could also imprison his children for six months on the strength of his word alone. He retained divorce because he was opposed to it. Women were also deprived of an education. According to Georges Lefebvre, he attached no importance to the education of women. However, schools were established for the males. His idea of education was that it should be in keeping with the established social order and the authoritarian nature of the regime. Apart from the church, education was Napoleon’s other means of enforcing social reform. The lycées were mainly provided for sons of military officers and government officials. They were designed to train the future military and civil leaders of France. According to J.M Thompson, many of them received free education because it was a charity that Napoleon liked to exercise. It earned him easy gratitude and provided cheap recruits for the public service. 6400 scholarships were provided for the lycées. 2400 were awarded to sons of military officials while 4000 were provided for the best pupils in the secondary school. In terms of equality, he had little interest in educating the poor as he believed that it was socially and politically inconvenient. While the sons of the bourgeoisie enjoyed the benefits of a free education, sons of poor men were unable to receive one. He believed that as servants or leaders in the economic life of the nation, there would no longer be a ferment of unrest. There were clerical secondary schools that were established by the church. Georges Lefebvre states that he was eventually driven toward the establishment of a government monopoly over all forms of public instruction.
Another factor which robbed the French of their liberty was the Conscription. In August 1793, all strong unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25 were drafted into the army. In 1798 the Conscription law was passed. It stated that all men from a certain age must be subject to a military draft – should the need arise. This caused discomfort among the French however it gradually became accepted.
Napoleon immediately got rid of any obstacles that stood in his way. For example, free speech wouldn’t have been forbidden if Napoleon did not believe that it might threaten him. He refused to follow policies that might threaten his power or position. For this reason, in many instances, he ignored the revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality. However, if a revolutionary principle would benefit or aid him, he had no difficulty in maintaining it. He disregarded free trade, liberty to participate in politics, freedom of speech and introduced a system of meritocracy very similar to what existed prior to the French Revolution. He introduced systems which further denied the French their liberty; The Conscription, Concordat and the Continental System. According to Alan Woods, Napoleon gave evidence of an inclination to destroy equality and to divide French society into a politically and socially privileged bourgeois class and a subordinate working-class. Instead of his reforms maintaining the revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality, they further destroyed them.
Bibliography
1) Lefebvre Georges, Napoleon, 1969, Colombia University Press, Great Britain, ………..London
2) Matthews Andrew, Revolution and Reaction Europe 1789-1849, 2001,Cambridge ………..University Press, United Kingdom, England
3) Miller Stuart, Mastering Modern European History ,1997, Palgrave, United ………..Kingdom, Hampshire
4) Murphy Derrick et al, Europe 1760-1871, 2000, Harper Collins Publishers LTD, ………..United Kingdom, England
5) Thompson J.M, Napoleon Bonaparte , 1969, Basil Blackwell and Mott LTD, ………..Oxford, London
6) Woods Alan, ‘”The Rise and Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte”
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