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Bulletin - Bulletin  
        
   
      
    BOOK OF THE MONTH
Seven Ages of Paris: Portrait of a City

Alistair Horne, author of How far is it to Austerlitz? and Napoleon, 1805-1815, brings us his vision of Paris in seven key periods, including both the First and Second Empires. Paris eternelle!

The IT curse!
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TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
4 October, 1802 (12 Vendémiaire, An XI), the Consuls passed a bill creating a paid Garde municipale (Municipal Guard) of 2154 infantrymen and 180 mounted troops for the City of Paris, set under the authority of army officers designated by the First Consul. The infantry was divided up into two regiments, one charged with the surveillance of the city gates and ports, the other overseeing the city's interior. "Entrance requirements: aged between 30 and 45, taller than 1 metre 651 milimetres (or 5 feet 1 inch), active in at least five campaigns in the war for liberty, bearer of a military discharge in good order, bearer of a paper certifying a correct life and good morals, able to read and write, prepared to sign up for 10 years service in the said guard. " (Titre I. - art. VI)
Some examples of salaries: an infantry Chef de bataillon was to earn 6,000 francs and a cavalry Chef d'escadron 7,000 francs; an infantry quarter-master was to earn 1,800 francs, a cavalry quarter-master 2,500 francs; a lieutenant and sub-lieutenant in the infantry, 1,800 francs and 1,500 francs respectively, the same ranks in the cavalry, 2,500 and 2,200 respectively; finally, an infantry soldier was to earn 500 francs, a cavalryman 1,200 (as a benchmark: a worker of the time earned about 600 francs a year, a Prefect earned 15,000).
 
4 October, 1802 (12 Vendémiaire, An XI), the Consuls passed a bill combining the Artillery school in Châlons with the école du génie (engineers' academy) in Metz, creating the Metz Engineers and Artillery School, Metz itself being a military city par excellence. The lectures were to begin on 1 Nivôse every year, for 100 pupils, in other words 70 for artillery and 30 for the cavalry. The course was to last two years: manoeuvres, driving horse trains, cartography, the art of attack and defence of fortified places, army administration and accounting, barracks and troops. Every year, from 10 Fructidor to the following 15 Vendémiaire, there were to be exercises in which students would set siege to different faces of the fortified town of Metz.
Le Moniteur universel, 25 Vendémiaire, An XI.
 
10 October, 1802 (18 Vendémiaire, An XI), Napoléon-Charles, the first son of Louis and Hortense was born. Initially Napoleon thought that this birth would sove his dynastic problems, given that his own marriage to Josephine looked unlikely to produce offspring.
The announcement of the birth was given a very formal treatment in Le Moniteur universel of 20 Vendémiaire : "Madame Louis Bonaparte gave birth birth to a boy, 18 Vendémiaire, at 9 o'clock in the evening."

 
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks

Historian and Web editor


  
      THIS WEEK:

Snippets
Napoleon causes political upset in Italy


Just published
- Warrior Nation: Images of War in British Popular Culture, 1850-2000, by Michael Paris

 
What's on
- TV: Napoleone, RAI I (Italy)
- Conference: Napoleonic association, UK
- Exhibition: Nelson & Emma, Personal Pots and Lasting Mementos
- Exhibition: Seat of Empire
- Study day: 6th Annual French Presence symposium, South Africa  

The monthly titles
- Book of the Month: Seven Ages of Paris: Portrait of a City, by Alistair Horne
- This month's picture, The revolt in Cairo, 21 October 1798, by Girodet
- Article of the Month, Waterloo - Bias, Assumptions, and Perspectives, by Douglas Allan
- In the Collectors Corner, The Roi de Rome's cradle
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