The arbitrary Commission Courts of Napoleon interfered with nothing but offences, real or alleged, against his authority.
The Clergy were, as we have seen, appointed universally under the direction of Government: they were also its direct stipendiaries; hence nothing could be more complete than their subjection to its pleasure.
Education became a part of the regular business of the state; all the schools and colleges being placed under the immediate care of one of Napoleon's ministers--all prizes and bursaries bestowed by the government--and the whole system so arranged, that it was hardly possible for any youth who exhibited remarkable talents to avoid the temptations to a military career, which on every side surrounded him.
The chief distinctions and emoluments were everywhere reserved for those who excelled in accomplishments likely to be serviceable in war: and the _Lyceums_, or schools set expressly apart for military students, were invested with numberless attractions, scarcely to be resisted by a young imagination.

The army, as it was the sole basis of Napoleon's power, was also at all times the primary object of his thoughts.

Every institution of the state was subservient and administered to it, and none more efficaciously than the imperial system of education.
The ranks of the army, however, were filled during the whole reign of Napoleon by _compulsion_.

The conscription law of 1798 acquired under him the character of a settled and regular part of the national system; and its oppressive influence was such as never before exhausted, through a long term of years, the best energies of a great and civilised people.
Every male in France, under the age of twenty-five, was liable to be called on to serve in the ranks; and the regulations as to the procuring of substitutes were so narrow, that young men of the best families were continually forced to comply, in their own persons, with the stern requisition.

The first conscription list for the year included all under the age of twenty-one; and the result of the ballot within this class amounted to nearly 80,000 names.