Until the middle of the year 1801 the erasures from the emigrant list had
always been proposed by the Minister of Police. The First Consul having
been informed that intrigue and even bribery had been employed to obtain
them, determined that in future erasures should be part of the business
of his cabinet. But other affairs took up his attention, and a dozen or
fifteen erasures a week were the most that were made. After Te Deum had
been chanted at Malmaison for the Concordat and the peace, I took
advantage of that moment of general joy to propose to Bonaparte the
return of the whole body of emigrants. "You have," said I in a half-
joking way, "reconciled Frenchmen to God--now reconcile them to each
other. There have never been any real emigrants, only absentees; and the
proof of this is, that erasures from the list have always been, and will
always be, made daily." He immediately seized the idea. "We shall see,"
said he; "but I must except a thousand persons belonging to high
families, especially those who are or have been connected with royalty or
the Court."

I said in the Chamber of Deputies, and I feel pleasure in repeating here,
that the plan of the 'Senatus-consults', which Bonaparte dictated to me,
excepted from restitution only such mansions as were used for public
establishments. These he would neither surrender nor pay rent for. With
those exceptions he was willing to restore almost all that was possessed
by the State and had not been sold.

The First Consul, as soon as he had finished this plan of a decree,
convoked a Grand Council to submit it to their consideration. I was in
an adjoining room to that in which they met, and as the deliberations
were carried on with great warmth, the members talking very loudly,
sometimes even vociferating, I heard all that passed. The revolutionary
party rejected all propositions of restitution. They were willing to