not long in receiving the reward which he expected from this step. In
fact, ten days after the publication of the protest, the Emperor
announced to Regnier the re-establishment of the Ministry of General
Police.

The formula, I Pray God to have you in His holy keeping, with which the
letter to Regnier closed, was another step of Napoleon in the knowledge
of ancient usages, with which he was not sufficiently familiar when he
wrote Cambaceres on the day succeeding his elevation to the Imperial
throne; at the same time it must be confessed that this formula assorted
awkwardly with the month of "Messidor," and the "twelfth year of the
Republic!"

The errors which Regnier had committed in the affair of Georges were the
cause which determined Bonaparte to re-establish the Ministry of Police,
and to bestow it on a man who had created a belief in the necessity of
that measure, by a monstrous accumulation of plots and intrigues. I am
also certain that the Emperor was swayed by the probability of a war
breaking out, which would force him to leave France; and that he
considered Fouche as the most proper person to maintain the public
tranquillity during his absence, and detect any cabala that might be
formed in favour of the Bourbons.

At this period, when Bonaparte had given the finishing blow to the
Republic, which had only been a shadow since the 19th Brumaire, it was
not difficult to foresee that the Bourbons would one day remount the
throne of their ancestors; and this presentiment was not, perhaps,
without its influence in rendering the majority greater in favour of the
foundation of the Empire than for the establishment of a Consulate for
life. The reestablishment of the throne was a most important step in