Although Georgiana detested Talleyrand, he had said one thing right: the old nobility remembered everything, yet learned nothing.
They had no real concept of the rule of law. Even after reaching America, they had not changed at all; instead, they had led the American president astray.
Human greed was endless. Once people had a great deal, they wanted more. The purpose of law was to remind the greedy that certain things could not be done, not to be seen as an obstacle to be altered again and again to suit one's desires.
In the past, Louis XV had expelled all the judges of the Parlement of Paris in order to reform the tax system, allowing Maupeou to carry out the reforms. That was the executive infringing upon the judiciary. If the reforms went well, there would naturally be nothing to say. But if they went badly, public resentment would boil over. After Louis XV died, Louis XVI had Maupeou killed to vent the people's fury. He had thought this would win him the people's love.
Even after obtaining nearly half the land America possessed today, Thomas Jefferson was still unhappy. That was because Du Pont had used land as bait to make him violate the United States Constitution. Americans in the early days of the nation really were idealistic. No wonder they had turned and walked away upon hearing that the Directory's diplomats were demanding bribes.
Georgiana had once divided a dictator's powers into wartime and peacetime states through her own understanding. At the time, she had not read Sieyès's useless constitution.
That constitution had also been a gift from Julian Ouvrard. Whatever his purpose had been, she could see that Napoleon was not the sort of man who craved comfort and pleasure. He wanted his talents to have an