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8 January – The salaries of clergy cease to be seized. – 23 January – Napoleon Bonaparte leaves the palace of St. Cloud to the Tuileries, left four months earlier. – 26 January – Lucien Bonaparte becomes a member of the Institute, appointed by his brother.
19
February – Switzerland concludes with France a treaty
of defensive alliance. – 20
February – Napoleon Bonaparte says: The Government
says with justifiable pride: only England can not now fight against France.
– 26
February – By consular decree, each French cardinal receives
45,000 Francs for his installation costs. An additional annual salary of
30,000 Francs is also granted. – 28
February – The First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte inspects,
on horseback, works of the Ourcq channel.
10 March – Regulation of the practice of Medicine. – 13 March – Napoleon Bonaparte asks the Minister of Marine how to do the most damage possible to the English trade in the event of a maritime war. – 16 March – Organization of Notaries. – 18 March – King George III of England calls for credits in Parliamen. He has to face French preparations for war. – 28 March – The new French currency will display the head of the First Consul. The value of the Franc is fixed to five grams of silver.
1st
April – The names of saints and personages of ancient
history become, from that date, the only accepted ones as given names for
Public Record Office. – 8
April – Departmental Coucils get the right to vote a salary
increase for archbishops and bishops in their dioceses, if circumstances
so require.
– 9
April – Establishment of the sixteen first auditors at
the State Council. Their salary is two thousand Francs a year. – 11
April – Establishment of Pharmacy schools (there are six).
– 12
April – A law regulates the operation of factories and
workshops. It prohibits coalitions of workers and establishes the protection
of trademarks. – 13
April – Napoleon Bonaparte returns to settle in Saint-Cloud.
– 14
April – The Bank of France obtains the exclusive privilege
of issuing banknotes, for fifteen years. – 16
April – The levying of sixty thousand conscripts is included
in legislation. – 30
April – Sale of Louisiana to the United States of America.
Price: 80 million Francs, of which 20 million are deducted as compensation
to Americans affected by maritime operations.
3rd May – Resumption of Pierre Corneille's Polyeucte at the French Theater, following an express order of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. – 7 May – The wages of Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Ambassador of France to Rome, are determined by his nephew to 150,000 Francs plus 100,000 Francs for expenses. – 12 May – Treaty of Amiens is broken. The British Ambassador leaves Paris. – 13 May – The British government expresses its willingness to keep Malta for ten years. He claims also that the French evacuate Holland. – 16 May – Rupture between France and England. – 17 May – An embargo is imposed by the British government on the French ships and the Netherlands' ones. England seizes more than 1,200 vessels and 200 million of goods. – 20 May – The First Consul announces, in a message to the Senate, the Legislative body and the Tribunes, the war with England. – 22 May – Order is given to arrest all Englishmen being in France. – 23 May – Declaration of war by England. – 28 May – One hundred twenty-eight companies of Coast Guard gunners are created. – 30 May – Soldiers on leave are ordered to join without delay their regiments.
10 June – The regulation of high-schools is established by decree. – 13 June – From that day, in the countries gathered to France, all public acts will be written in French. – 14 June – French army is organized for the proposed invasion of Britain, and is named Armée d'Angleterre. – 20 June – The introduction into the French ports of food and goods arriving from British colonies or England is prohibited. – 22 June – The success of the war against England is the subject of public prayers. – 24 June – First Consul begins a tour of inspection in Northern France and Belgium.
19 August – The offer of mediation from Russia faces the refusal of England. – 21 August – Georges Cadoudal and some other Chouans, led by an English ship, clandestinely land at Biville cliff, in Normandy. – 31 August – The students are exempted from conscription.
10
September – The extraordinary works of bridges and causeways,
digging and repair of canals, draining of swamps receive an allocation of
fifteen million Francs. – 20
September – From First Consul to Jean-Antoine Chaptal,
Minister of Interior: I am, citizen Minister, dissatisfied with the
city of Paris. The budget of this city for the year XI is not yet finalized
while year is over [the year XI ended on 23rd September 1803]. My intention
is that these delays cease.
– 24
September – Napoleon Bonaparte, wearing National Guard
uniform, attends a concert for the Feast of the founding of the Republic.
– 27
September – By consular decree: To ensure freedom
of the press, no publisher can sell a book before it is presented to a board
of review.
1st
October – (8 Vendemiaire Year XII) Napoleon Bonaparte
decides that there will be erected, in Paris, at the center of the
Place Vendome, a column like the one erected in Rome in honor of Trajan
... surmounted by a pedestal supporting the statue of Charlemagne
.
– 5
October – A company of interpreters is created. It is
intended to be used in the army for the invasion of Britain. – 11
October – Bonaparte himself writes an instruction for
the crews of landing craft. – 12
October – Eleven military depots are created in order
to detain conscripts convicted of refractory. – 14
October – The bust of Jean Bart is installed in the City
Hall of Dunkirk. – 15
October – Expulsion of Madame de Staël. – 23
October – The First Consul gives audience to Dr. Guillotin
who introduces him, on behalf of the Central Committee of vaccinia, a report
on this new mode of inoculation.
3rd
November – Napoleon Bonaparte visits the fleet set up
in Boulogne and inspects the troops. – 18
November – Back in St. Cloud. – 21
November – Installing the Tuileries for the winter season.
– 23
November – The British prisoners of war must be locked
at Verdun if they are civilians, in the citadels of Charlemont and Valenciennes
if they are soldiers or sailors. – 24
November – Bonaparte to Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord: I am pressed for money: 16 million Francs are due on 1st Vendemiaire
[24 September]. I would like the Minister of the Treasury to extricate 16
million Francs of letters of exchange on Spanish Treasury... Letters would
be accepted or would not... If they were not, it would be a natural subject
of dispute with Spain, whether on the contrary, they are, they will be settled
within eight days, and from that moment we have the money arrived in Paris
before the end of Frimaire [22 December].
– 25
November – Forty students from the military school of
Fontainebleau over the age of eighteen shall be appointed second lieutenants
in advance. Sixty students from Saint-Cyr Prytaneum with the age of sixteen
shall be appointed quartermaster. – 29
November – Bonaparte to minister Chaptal: I desire
a song for the invasion of England ... I know it has been presented several
comedies of fact, it should make a choice for them to play in different
theaters of Paris, and especially to the camps of Boulogne, Bruges and other
places where the army stays.
1st
December – Establishment of Workers' booklet. – 2nd
December – Order is given to condemn to death the leaders
of rebel conscripts department of Maine-et-Loire, Vendee and Deux-Sevres.
– 12
December – Napoleon Bonaparte asks for information on
political opinions, abilities, wealth and probity of candidates for Senate
and Legislature, so I can intervene
, says he, whenever
it is presented people with bad principles and little regarded.
– 20
December – The Legislative body loses the right to appoint
its chairman. – 24
December – The Academy of Arts of New York elects Bonaparte
as a member. – 25
December – Charles Nodier is interrogated at police headquarters
and taken to the Force jailhouse. He is the author of the libel La Napoleone
and had written to the First Consul to denounce himself. – 30
December – Bonaparte visits again Boulogne, inspecting
the fleet and visiting new harbours Ambleteuse and Wimereux.