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TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
14 April, 1802 (24 Germinal, An X), Chateaubriand published his book Le Génie du christianisme and dedicated it to Bonaparte: "Increased by your victories, France placed its hope in you, from the moment you made religion the foundation of the state and your prosperities."
On economic geography
A report on "Commerce extérieur et de la Navigation de la République Française pendant l'an 9, et Prises maritimes" ('Foreign commerce and the shipping of the French Republic during An IX, and Prizes of War'), was published in the Le Moniteur of 24 Germinal, An X (14 April, 1802). It also presented the "European powers" with which France had commercial relations:
Friendly powers: Spain, the Batavian Republic, (imports and exports); neutral powers: such as Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, the Hanseatic towns, the United States of America (sic!) (imports and exports); belligerent powers: such as the Levant, Sardinia, Portugal, Naples and Sicily, Tuscany, the imperial states [i.e., Austria), Russia, and the States of Germany (imports and exports), Britain (for exports only); allied powers: Liguria and Switzerland (imports and exports).
Imports from French colonies: coffee, sugar, cotton, ivory, indigo, Senegal rubber and coton cloth. These imports are to the value of 2,077,200 francs, whilst at the same time, exports to the colonies of manufactured goods are worth 208,000 francs.
Le Moniteur, 24 Germinal, An X
17 April, 1802 (27 Germinal, An X), General Bonaparte, First Consul, officially ratified the Peace of Amiens.
Le Moniteur, 28 Germinal, An X
18 April, 1802 (28 Germinal, An X): official promulgation of the Concordat
On that Easter day, at six o'clock in the morning, a thirty-gun salvo was fired, followed by by a ten-gun salvo every hour until midday.
At eight o'clock, the Paris prefect - accompanied by twelve mayors and their seconds in command, some police commissioners, officers of the peace, officers from the local army and gendarmerie headquarters - solemnly proclaimed the Concordat in all the neighbourhoods of Paris. The cortege was preceded by several detachments of cavalry, gendarmerie and dragoons, led by a corps of trumpets.
At Notre-Dame, the public attempted to enter the church as early as possible so as to get a seat in the organ loft, the nave and the choir; from 11 o'clock to midday there arrived in succession clergy, the cardinal legate Caprara, the assistant prelates, the French prelates, amongst whom the Archbishop of Paris, followed by the civil, military and judicial authorities. After them came the diplomatic corp and the ministers. The Consuls finally arrived at noon to be welcomed by the Archbishop who sprinkled them with holy water and censed them. The mass was celebrated by Cardinal legate Caprara, and the bishop swore allegiance to the First Consul. Hortense de Beauharnais, who had very recently become Madame Louis Bonaparte, participated in taking the collection. The ceremony ended with a Te Deum by Giovanni Paisiello, with double choir and two orchestras conducted by Méhul and Cherubini.
Le Journal de Paris, Le Journal des Débats, La Gazette de France and Le Publiciste, 29 Germinal, An X.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Journal News
Contents of The Defender, British Military and Volunteer Study group, Napoleonic Association
Snippets
- Stolen archives returned to France
- Web site for the journal La Revue Napoleon
- Remarkable website exhibition of caricatures
- Lord Nelson's unpublished love letters
Agenda
- Commemoration: Commemorative mass for Napoleon
- Conference: Art and literature of the Second Empire, Durham, UK
- Study Day: Napoleon, the myth and the man, De Paul University, Chicago, USA
- Study Day: Wallace Collection - Redcoats!
The monthly titles: in April,
- Book of the Month: 'The Napoleonic Wars' by Todd Fisher
- This month's picture, 'The Dream' by Edouard Detaille
- in Biographies, a biography of Camille de Tournon, prefect of Rome
- In the Collectors Corner, the statuette caricature Ratapoil
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