Consul. 3,577,259 "Yeas" had agreed to the Consulate for life. Rather more
than 800 "Noes" alone represented the opposition. La Fayette refused his
assent; he wrote upon the registry of votes, "I should not know how to
vote for such a magistracy, inasmuch as political liberty will not be
guaranteed."

The feeble and insufficient guarantees of political liberty were about to
undergo fresh restrictions. In receiving from the Senate the return of the
votes, the First Consul said, "The life of a citizen is for his country.
The French people wish mine to be entirely consecrated to it; I obey its
will. In giving me a new pledge--a permanent pledge of its confidence, it
imposes upon me the duty of basing the legal system on far-seeing
institutions." A Senatus Consultum, reforming the Constitution of the year
VIII., substituted for the lists of notables, the formation of Cantonal
Colleges, Colleges of Arrondissements, and Colleges of Departments, the
members of which, few in number, and appointed for life by the cantonal
assemblies, were to nominate candidates for selection by the executive
authority. The Tribunate was limited to fifty members; the Council of
State saw its importance diminished by the formation of a Privy Council.
The number of senators was fixed at eighty, but the First Consul was left
at liberty to add forty members at his pleasure. This assurance of the
docility of the Assembly was not sufficient. The Senate was invested with
the right of interpreting the constitution, of suspending it when
necessary, or of dissolving the Tribunate and the Corps Legislatif; but it
might not adopt any measure without the initiative of the government. The
First Consul reserved for himself the right of pardon and the duty of
naming his successor. This last clause was forced on him by reasons of
State policy, but he deferred it for a long time. His mind could only be
satisfied with the principle of hereditary succession, and he had no
children. Madame Bonaparte feared a divorce, the principle of which had