Something substantial had to be put in their place.

Ma foi, I put it there," in the executive power.
There it is, completely in his hands; other authorities to him are merely for show or as instruments.[2122] The mutes of the Corps Legislatif come annually to Paris to keep silent for four months; one day he will forget to convoke them, and nobody will remark their absence .-- As to the Tribunat, which talks too much, he will at first reduce its words to a minimum "by putting it on the diet of laws;" afterward, through the interposition of the senate, which designates retiring members, he gets rid of troublesome babblers; finally, and always through the interposition of the senate, titular interpreter, guardian, and reformer of the constitution, he ventilates and then suppresses the Tribunat itself .-- The senate is the grand instrument by which he reigns; he commands it to furnish the senatus-consultes of which he has need.

Through this comedy played by him above, and through another complementary comedy which he plays below, the plebiscite, he transforms his ten-year consulate into a consulate for life, and then into an empire, that is to say, into a permanent, legal, full, and perfect dictatorship.

In this way the nation is handed over to the absolutism of a man who, being a man, cannot fail to think of his own interest before all others.

It remains to be seen how far and for how long a time this interest, as he comprehends it, or imagines it, will accord with the interest of the public.