_Si parvis
componere magna recibit_, we may admit that the rise of Nash and that of
Napoleon were owing to similar causes. The French emperor found France
in a state of disorder, with which sensible people were growing more and
more disgusted; he offered to restore order and propriety; the French
hailed him, and gladly submitted to his early decrees; then, when he had
got them into the habit of obedience, he could make what laws he liked,
and use his power without fear of opposition. The Bath emperor followed
the same course, and it may be asked whether it does not demand as great
an amount of courage, assurance, perseverance, and administrative power
to subdue several hundreds of English ladies and gentlemen as to rise
supreme above some millions of French republicans. Yet Nash experienced
less opposition than Napoleon; Nash reigned longer, and had no infernal
machine prepared to blow him up.
Everybody was delighted with the improvements in the Pump-room, the
balls, the promenades, the chairmen--the _Rouge_ ruffians of the mimic
kingdom--whom he reduced to submission, and therefore nobody complained
when Emperor Nash went further, and made war upon the white aprons of
the ladies and the boots of the gentlemen.
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