First Phase

1. The Absolution214
2. The Diligence215
3. Scrutiny of the Vote.—A Reminder
   of Principles.—Facts217
4. Who Really Voted for M. Bonaparte229
5. Concession232
6. The Moral Side of the Question234
7. An Explanation for M. Bonaparte's Benefit238
8. Axioms244
9. Wherein M. Bonaparte Has Deceived Himself246

BOOK VII
The Absolution: Second Phase: The Oath

1. For an Oath, an Oath and a Half251
2. Difference in Price255
3. Oaths of Scientific and Literary Men258
4. Curiosities of the Business261
5. The 5th of April, 1852266
6. Everywhere the Oath272

BOOK VIII
Progress Contained in the Coup D'État

1. The Quantum of Good Contained in Evil275
2. The Four Institutions That Stand Opposed to the Republic280
3. Slow Movement of Normal Progress282
4. What an Assembly Would Have Done285
5. What Providence Has Done289
6. What the Ministers, Army, Magistracy, and Clergy Have Done291
7. The Form of the Government of God292

CONCLUSION—PART FIRST
Pettiness of the Master—Abjectness of the Situation

1.   293
2.   298
3.   301

CONCLUSION—PART SECOND
Faith and Affliction

1.   315
2.   323

NAPOLEON THE LITTLE

BOOK I

I

December 20, 1848

On Thursday, December 20, 1848, the Constituent Assembly, being in session, surrounded at that moment by an imposing display of troops, heard the report of the Representative Waldeck-Rousseau, read on behalf of the committee which had been appointed to scrutinize the votes in the election of President of the Republic; a report in which general attention had marked this phrase, which embodied its whole idea: "It is the seal of its inviolable authority which the nation, by this admirable application of the fundamental law, itself affixes on the Constitution, to render it sacred and inviolable." Amid the profound silence of the nine hundred representatives, of whom almost the entire number was assembled, the President of the National Constituent Assembly, Armaud Marrast, rose and said:—

"In the name of the French people,

"Whereas Citizen Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, born at Paris, fulfils the conditions of eligibility prescribed by Article 44 of the Constitution;

"Whereas in the ballot cast throughout the extent of the territory of the Republic, for the election of President, he has received an absolute majority of votes;

"By virtue of Articles 47 and 48 of the Constitution, the National Assembly proclaims him President of the Republic from this present day until the second Sunday in May, 1852."

There was a general movement on all the benches, and in the galleries filled with the public; the President of the Constituent Assembly added: