Brother Joseph was seated on the Bourbon throne of the Two
Sicilies. The Cisalpine Republic became the kingdom of Italy with
Napoleon as king, and Eugene Beauharnais, his stepson, as viceroy. Both
Piedmont and Genoa were incorporated into the French Empire.
[Sidenote: Censorship of the Press and Activity of the Secret Police]
[Sidenote: The Eventual Absolutism of Napoleon]
The Consulate, as has been explained, was characterized by a policy of
peace. Sweeping reforms had been accomplished in internal affairs so
that France was consolidated and the vast majority of her citizens
became devoted supporters of the emperor. What adverse criticism
Frenchmen might have directed against the empire was stifled by the
activity of a splendidly organized secret police and by a rigorous
censorship of the press. So complete was Napoleon's control of the
state that the decisive naval defeat of Trafalgar was not mentioned by
a single French newspaper until after the fall of the empire. By
degrees the imperial despotism of the Corsican adventurer became as
rigid as the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons.
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