On the 8th November, 1799, he appears and takes his seat, and that very evening he goes to work, makes his selections among the competitors and gives them their commissions.

He is a military chieftain and has installed himself; consequently he is not dependent on a parliamentary majority, and any insurrection or gathering of a mob is at once rendered abortive by his troops before it is born.

Street sovereignty is at an end; Parisians are long to remember the 13th of Vendemaire and the way General Bonaparte shot them down on the steps of Saint-Roch.

All his precautions against them are taken the first day and against all agitators whatever, against all opponents disposed to dispute his jurisdiction.

His arm-chair as first Consul and afterwards his throne as Emperor are firmly fixed; nobody but himself can undermine them; he is seated definitively and will stay there.