NAPOLEON I (Emperor of France, 1804-1821). Letter signed ('Napoleon') to Monsieur Kellermann, St. Cloud, '8 Germinal an XIII' [29 March 1805] , giving instructions for a highly confidential task, ordering him to spend three months in his sénatorerie , and to visit all its departments, ostensibly to appraise the situation, nature and worth of its assets, but in fact to obtain information for the government and to send a report every eight days, enjoining total secrecy in his mission, 'le secret doit être inviolable. Si elle était connue toutes les lumières vous fuiraient, les hommes honnêtes s'interdiraient toute communication avec vous et vous ne rapporterez que les dénonciations de l'intrigue et de la malveillance', 3½ pages, folio (small repair at centre fold, small ink blots, slight spotting), tipped on guards in early 20th-century red morocco gilt binding. Kellermann is to report on officials and clerics and to identify men of influence, 'Quels sont ... les hommes qui marquent par leur caractère, par leur fortune, par leur opinion, par leur ascendant sur le peuple; à quel ordre de gens ils appartiennent'. He must discover the attitudes of different groups to the government, the church and taxation, and find out about deserters, the state of the police, and of crime, education, agriculture, harvests, the condition of the roads, and the raising of horses and livestock. François-Christophe Kellermann (1735-1820), father of General Kellermann, the victor of Marengo, was appointed by Napoleon successively Senator, Marshal of France and Duke of Valmy. Instructions in similar terms were dispatched to all senators in March 1805, in a campaign to tighten the Imperial authority in the provinces. Two years earlier, as First Consul, Napoleon had bestowed sénatoreries upon the members of the Senate. These comprised a life interest in lands, with a house and an income of 20,000 - 25,000 francs, thus making the Senate the most important of the state assemblies. The granting of the sénatoreries , each being an administrative division, was a first step towards the creation of a new nobility, deriving its position from the central government.
NAPOLEON I (Emperor of France, 1804-1821). Letter signed ('Napoleon') to Monsieur Kellermann, St. Cloud, '8 Germinal an XIII' [29 March 1805] , giving instructions for a highly confidential task, ordering him to spend three months in his sénatorerie , and to visit all its departments, ostensibly to appraise the situation, nature and worth of its assets, but in fact to obtain information for the government and to send a report every eight days, enjoining total secrecy in his mission, 'le secret doit être inviolable. Si elle était connue toutes les lumières vous fuiraient, les hommes honnêtes s'interdiraient toute communication avec vous et vous ne rapporterez que les dénonciations de l'intrigue et de la malveillance', 3½ pages, folio (small repair at centre fold, small ink blots, slight spotting), tipped on guards in early 20th-century red morocco gilt binding. Kellermann is to report on officials and clerics and to identify men of influence, 'Quels sont ... les hommes qui marquent par leur caractère, par leur fortune, par leur opinion, par leur ascendant sur le peuple; à quel ordre de gens ils appartiennent'. He must discover the attitudes of different groups to the government, the church and taxation, and find out about deserters, the state of the police, and of crime, education, agriculture, harvests, the condition of the roads, and the raising of horses and livestock. François-Christophe Kellermann (1735-1820), father of General Kellermann, the victor of Marengo, was appointed by Napoleon successively Senator, Marshal of France and Duke of Valmy. Instructions in similar terms were dispatched to all senators in March 1805, in a campaign to tighten the Imperial authority in the provinces. Two years earlier, as First Consul, Napoleon had bestowed sénatoreries upon the members of the Senate. These comprised a life interest in lands, with a house and an income of 20,000 - 25,000 francs, thus making the Senate the most important of the state assemblies. The granting of the sénatoreries , each being an administrative division, was a first step towards the creation of a new nobility, deriving its position from the central government.
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