The whole territory was divided into prefectures--each prefect being appointed by Napoleon--carefully selected for a province with which he had no domestic relations--largely paid--and entrusted with such a complete delegation of power that, in Napoleon's own language, each was in his department an _Empereur a petit pied_.

Each of these officers had under his entire control inferior local magistrates, holding power from him as he did from the Emperor: each had his instructions direct from Paris; each was bound by every motive of interest to serve, to the utmost of his ability, the government from which all things were derived, to be hoped for, and to be dreaded.

Wherever the Emperor was, in the midst of his hottest campaigns, he examined the details of administration at home more closely than, perhaps, any other sovereign of half so great an empire did during the profoundest peace.

It was said of him that his dearest amusement, when he had nothing else to do, was to solve problems in algebra or geometry.

He carried this passion into every department of affairs; and having, with his own eye, detected some errors of importance in the public accounts, shortly after his administration began, there prevailed thenceforth in all the financial records of the state such clearness and accuracy as are not often exemplified in those of a large private fortune.