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THE HISTORY
OF
NAPOLEON Ill.
EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.
INCLUDING A BRIEF
NARRATIVE OF ALL THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS WHICH HAVE
OCCURRED IN EUROPE SINCE THE FALL OF NAPOLEON I.
UNTIL THE PRESENT TIME.
BY
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT,
AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF NAPOLEON I.," "THE FRENCH REVOLUTION,"
"THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA," ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
BOSTON:
B. B. RUSSELL, PUBLISHER, 55 CORNHILL.
CINCINNATI: WHITE, CORBIN, BOUVE, & CO.
SAN FRANCISCO: H. H. BANCROFT & CO.
1868.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
B. B. RUSSELL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts
GEO. C. RANf 8& AVERY,
ELECTROTYPERS AND PRINTERS,
3 CORNHILL, BOSTON.




ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. A FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON III...   Frontispiece.
II. A PORTRAIT OF THE FATHER OF THE EMPEROR, - Louis BONAPARTE, KING
OF HOLLAND.22
III. A PORTRAIT OF THE MOTHER OF THE EMPEROR,-HORTENSE, THE DAUGHTER OF JOSEPHINE,-WITH LOUIS NAPOLEON, EIGHT YEARS OF AGE,
STANDING AT HER SIDE.33
IV. THE CHf&TEAU OF ARENEMBERG, THE BEAUTIFUL RESIDENCE OF QUEEN
HORTENSE DURING THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF LOUIS NAPOLEON.  133
V. THE CASTLE OF HAM, WHERE THE PRINCE WAS IMPRISONED FOR SIX YEARS,  184
VI. THE CHATEAU OF FONTAINEBLEAU, THE FAVORITE RURAL RESIDENCE OF
THE EMPEROR                                                        367
VII. THE PALACE OF THE TUILERIES, THE CITY RESIDENCE OF THE EMPEROR  -  504
VIII. THE IMPERIAL FAMILY, CONSISTING OF THE EMPEROR, THE EMPRESS EUGpNIE,
AND THE YOUNG PRINCE IMPERIAL.574
IX. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE PALACE OF THE GREAT EXPOSITION ~   ~.  668
8








PREFACE.
N  writing the history of the establishment of the French
j^j/l   Empire under Napoleon I., and its overthrow by the allied
11   I:(  dynasties of Europe, the author spent four years of severe
labor.  Fully aware that the judgment of America upon
these themes had been formed mainly from the representations of the Tory writers Qf England, and that Napoleon had been
denounced as a tyrant and a usurper by nearly the uncontradicted voice
of English literature, the writer felt the necessity of scrupulous exactness
in every stalment.  He visited England and the Continent to collect the
works of all the leading writers upon the subject. He endeavored carefully and impartially to examine upon every point the opinions of the
different parties. Few books have been more severely assailed; and yet
the writer is not aware that a single error of statement has yet been
pointed out, calling for correction.
In now writing the history of the restoration of the empire under Napoleon III., the writer has been equally laborious in investigation, and conscientious in statement.  From the commencement of the restored empire, in
1852, until the present time, he has carefully studied all its movements.
Twice he has visited France to observe the practical operations of the
government.  He has conversed with distinguished French gentlemen of
the different political and religious parties, and has carefully listened to the
observations of intelligent foreigners from the differqpt nationalities of
Europe and America residing in Paris.  He has also collected from London and Paris every book and pamphlet he could find upon the subject
of the empire, whether from the pen of friend or foe. Thus furnished, he
has written this book with as honest and earnest a desire to present the
truth as it is possible for him to possess. It has been his great aim that
every*statement should be so accurate as to stand the test of the severest
scrutiny.
Being himself a republican, he is not in danger of being biassed in favor
of imperial forms. Being a Protestant clergyman, he is not liable to look
with too favorable an eye upon the Roman-Catholic religion. The theme
5




6                              PREFACE.
upon which he writes is one of the grandest in the annals of time.  The
career of Napoleon III. presents one of the most eventful scenes, and perhaps the closing scene, in the sublime drama of the French Revolution; and
that drama has agitated the minds and the hearts of men as they never
were agitated before.
The Revolution of 1789, sweeping away in blood and flame the throne
of the ancient kings; the republic, with, its convulsions, its anarchy, its
reign of terror, over whose woes even angels might weep; the empire of
Napoleon I., dazzling the world with its power and glory; the alliance of
all the dynasties of Europe to crush that republican empire; the long and
bloody struggle; the overthrow of Napoleon; the restoration of the throne
of the Bourbons by foreign armies; the expulsion of Charles X.; the rise
and fall of the throne of Louis Philippe; the transient republic; the recall
of the exiled Bonapartes; the election to the presidency of Louis Napoleon; the coup d'e6tat; the restored empire; the brilliant reign of Napoleon
III.; his internal policy; his foreign policy; the Roman question; the
Crimean campaign; the Mexican invasion,; the liberation of Italy; the
re-organization of Germany, - such are the subjects which are involved
in the career of Napoleon III.  No secular scenes more momentous can
employ the pen.
These subjects are so intimately blended with men's most firmly cher-'ished principles of politics and religion, that it is not to be supposed that
any writer can frankly and boldly discuss them, however candid and modest
he may be, without exciting the angry passions of some, at least, of those
who differ from him.  The frailty of humanity is such, that diversity of
opinion upon historical facts is often regarded as a crime, meriting the
sternest reprobation; and he who undertakes the arduous task of writing
upon such exciting themes should examine himself to ascertain if he can
maintain that perfect honesty which historic truth demands, and if lie can
serenely bear the contumely which he must inevitably encounter.
It has been the great aim  of the writer, not to make this book merely
the expression of his personal opinions, but a faithful record of historic
facts. The reader'is here presented with a brief narrative of those great
events in France which preceded and ushered in the restored empire;
and, though no intelligent man will probably question these statements,
the writer has judged that the importance of the subject demanded that he
should give documentary proof of them all.
He has also, with great care, presented to the reader a report of the
speeches, an examination of the writings, and an account of the deeds, of
Napoleon III.  There can be no question whatever that these words have
been spoken, that these sentiments have been written, that these actions
have been performed, as here related. In all the varied incidents of the
emperor's wonderful career,- in his youth, his early manhood, and while




PREFACE.                                7
seated upon the imperial throne, - the writer has been careful to substantiate
every statement by unquestionable authority.
It is saddening to reflect, but the whole history of the world attests the
fact, that no man of commanding powers can energetically endeavor to do
good without being fiercely assailed, not merely by bad men, but by
good men, by sincere philanthropists, by those who are willing to labor and
suffer and to make the greatest sacrifices for the welfare of humanity. A
sovereign who is placed by popular choice at the head of a nation of forty
millions of people, and such a nation as the French, - long agitated by the
struggles of antagonistic parties, and situated in the midst of powerful monarchies, strongly armed, ambitious and encroaching, - merits a generous
and charitable construction of his actions.
Perhaps no man has been more unscrupulously assailed than Napoleon
III.  There is scarcely a crime of which he has not been accused.  All
the epithets in the vocabulary of vituperation have been exhausted in
application to him; and yet you may search all his multiplied addresses
and his voluminous writings in vain to find one angry word in reply.  He
is always the refined and courteous gentleman. The instincts of his nature
seem to render it impossible for him ever to lay aside the calm  cogency of
argument, to grasp the weapons of vulgar abuse.
It is a remarkable fact that Napoleon III. occupies a space in the journals
of Christendom, larger, probably, than that of all the other sovereigns of
earth united.  One can scarcely take up a newspaper, in Europe or America, which does not contain some allusion to the Emperor of the French;
and the writer submits the question, whether there is not found in this
narrative a more reasonable explanation of the fact than in the popular
rumors which are floating in the air.
The same institutions are manifestly not adapted to all countries and to
all peoples, whatever their tastes, their habits, and their surroundings.
England loves her monarchy; America loves her republic; France loves
her empire.  Nothing is more certain than that the people of neither of
these nations wish to exchange their government for that of either of the
others. Each of these governments has its merits, and each its defects.
Nations as well as individuals may be courteous.  It is neither in good
taste, nor is it politic, that any one nation should assume that it is the
celestial empire, and that all others are outside barbarians.'America,
France, and England are all-powerful nations, —powerful in intellect, in
culture, in wealth, in arts, in arms.  It is surely the teaching of wisdom
that they should respect each other, and that they should regard with
courtesy the institutions under which each has risen to greatness.
It will be said that this history is a romance. It is a romance of more
thrilling interest than almost any creation of fiction.  It is the romance of
real life, not merely founded on fact, but in which every statement is




8                             PREFACE.
confirmed by indisputable authority.  In view of the proof upon every
page, it is scarcely conceivable that any one should deny that this is a
truthful representation of what the Emperor Napoleon III. has written
and said and done.
From this record individuals will draw different inferences, in accordance
with their political views and their preconceived opinions. Still the writer
- cheered by the conviction that the majority of his countrymen seek only
for truth; that there is not a statement in this volume which is not sustained
by documentary proof; and that, when the passions of the present hour
shall have passed away, this record will be sustained by the verdict of posterity-calmly submits the work to that stormy sea of criticism upon which
it is sure to be buffeted.
In the illustrations, the reader is presented with as accurate a likeness
as art can give of the emperor in his prime; a portrait of his father, -
Louis, King of Holland; a portrait of Queen Hortense, his mother, and
the young Louis Napoleon, a child about seven years of age, at her side.
No one can fail to remark the very striking resemblance between the father
and the child. We have also the imperial family - the emperor, the
empress, and the prince imperial — in the quietude of home; the Chateau
of Arenemberg, in whose retirement the emperor spent most of the years
of his early youth; the Castle of Ham, where he languished in captivity
for six years; the Palace of the Tuileries, the city residence of the
emperor, as seen from the court of the Louvre; the Palace of Fontainebleau, the favorite country retreat of the royal family; and a bird's-eye
view of the Great Exposition, in its central buildings and surroundings.
The fidelity of the likenesses may be relied upon. The portraits are
taken from  paintings in the private collection of the emperor at the
Tuileries. The engravings have been executed by the best artists in Paris.
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., July, 1868.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER  I.
THE PARENTAGE OF LOUIS NAPOLEON.
Early Life of Josephine.- Marriage of Josephine and Viscount Beauharnais. - Life in
Paris.- Separation. - Josephine and Hortense in Martinique. - Return to Paris.Sufferings there. - Marriage of Josephine with General Bonaparte. - Love. - Disappointment of Hortense; of Louis Bonaparte. - The Unhappy Marriage. - Death
of the First-born. -Birth of Louis Napoleon.- Anecdotes of the Empire.- Early
Developments of Character....                                         17
CHAPTER  II.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
Abdication of Napoleon. - His Prediction. - The Allies in Paris. - Their Fear of the Bonaparte Name. -Expulsion of Hortense and her Sons. -Wanderings and Persecutions.
- Residence at Lake Constance. - Studies of Louis Napoleon. - Purchase of Arenemberg. - Anecdotes. - Cultured Society. - The Reconciliation. - Military Taste of the
Young Prince. - Visits to Rome. - The Princess Pauline. - Calumnious Reports. -
Petition of Pauline......32
CHAPTER  III.
THE TREATIES OF 1815, AND THE ATTEMPTS TO OVERTHROW THEM.
Invasion of France. - Congress of Vienna. - Anecdote. - Parcelling out of Italy. - Plans
of Napoleon I. - Carbonari. - Insurrection in Italy. - The Insurrection crushed by
the Austrians. - Louis XVIII.: his Character. - The Countess de Cala. - Expulsion
of Charles X. -Battles and Diplomacy. -Abdication of the King in Favor of the
Duke de Bordeaux as Henry V. -Flight of the Royal Family. — Assassination of
the Duke de Berri. -Strife of Parties. -Interview of Chateaubriand with the Orleans
Family.- Speech of Chateaubriand. - Anecdote. - Enthronement of Louis Philippe. 42
CHAPTER IV.
UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.
Excitement caused by the Overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty. - The Napoleonic Princes
join the Italian Insurgents.- Letter of Louis Napoleon to the Pope.- Death of Napoleon Louis. - Letter from Prof. S. F. B. Morse. - Perils of Louis Napoleon. - Devotion
of his Mother. - Their Flight.- Incognito Entrance to France. - Visit to England. -
Return to Arenemberg. - " Political Reveries." - Madame Recamier. - Chateaubriand.
- Death of General Lamarque. - Republican Insurrection..                      62
2                                                   9




10                                    CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
THE ADVENTURES OF THE DUCHESS DE BERRI.
Claims of the Legitimists.- Narrative of the Assassination of the Duke de Berri.- Noble
Conduct of the Duchess de Berri.- The Dying Scene. - Birth of the Duke de Bordeaux. -Efforts of the Duchess to reclaim the Crown for her Son.-Her Romantic
Adventures. - Disappointments and Persistence. - Her Capture and Imprisonment. -
Deplorable Development. - Moral Ruin of the Duchess. -Death of the Duke of Reichstadt. - His Attractive Character and Melancholy History. -Decree of the Senate of
France creating the Napoleonic Dynasty.- Its Ratification by the People. -Response
of Napoleon...82
CHAPTER  VI.
LIFE AT ARENEMBERG, AND NAPOLEONIC SYMPATHIES.
Views of Lafayette; of M. Carrel; of Chateaubriand. -The Poles desire Nouis Napoleon
for their King. - His Reply. - Retirement at Arenemberg. - Studies. - " Considerations, Political and Military, upon Switzerland." - Opinions of the Press.- Extracts.
- Letters to the Poet Belmontet.- Letter from Queen Hortense. -The Prince offered
the Croyn of Portugal.- His Reply. - Mode of Life at Arenemberg. - "Manual of
Artillery." - The Liberal Party look to Louis Napoleon. -French Sympathy for Napoleon I. - Honors conferred upon his Memory. - Plan for restoring the Empire. -
Colonel Vaudrey..............93
CHAPTER VII.
STRASBURG.
Letter to his Mother.-Leaves Arenemberg.-Incidents at Strasburg.-Speeches and
Proclamations.- Success.- Reverses.- The Capture.- His Expression of his Feelings.- Anxiety for his Companions. -Disregard of Himself.- Taken to Paris. 
Condemned Untried. - Fears of the Government.- Transported to America. - Scenes
on the Voyage........106
CHAPTER  VIII.
EXILE  AND  STUDIES.
Life in America. - Return to Europe. - False Report. - Return to Arenemberg. - Death
of Queen Hortense. - Studious Habits of the Prince.-" Political Reveries." - The
Dynasties demand his Expulsion. - Heroism of the Swiss Government. - Retirement to
England. - Noble Conduct. - Studious Life in London. -" Idles Napoleoniennes." -
Extracts from the Work.   125
CHAPTER  IX.
PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.
"'Les Idees Napoleoniennes." - Habits of Louis Napoleon.- Testimony of Acquaintances.
- Views of Government. - Severe Studies. - Unpopularity of Louis Philippe. - Attempts at Assassination. - The Napoleonic Idea. - Fieschi.- Narrow Escape of the
Royal Family. - Secret Societies. - Virulence of the Press. - Inauguration of the
Arc de l'Etoile. - Seclusion of the King. - Napoleonic Sympathies. - The Emperor's
Statue restored to the Column in the Place Vendome. -Letter from Joseph Bonaparte.
- The Bourbon Law of Proscription.- Justification for the Efforts of the Prince.Death of Charles X. - Socialist Insurrection.- M. Thiers Prime Minister. - Demand
for the Remains of Napoleon. - Preparation for their Removal... 147




CONTENTS.                                         11
CHAPTER X.
BOULOGNE.
"The City of Edinburgh" steams to Boulogne.- The Landing and the Struggle.- Narrow Escape of the Prince from Death. - The Capture. - Letter from the Father of
Louis Napoleon. - Confinement in the Conciergerie. - Visit from  Chateaubriand. -
Habits of Study. - The Trial. - The Defence of the Prince.- Interesting Incident. -
Sentenced to Perpetual Captivity.- Fortitude of the Prince..                   166
CHAPTER XI.
THE NEPHEW AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.
Description of Ham. - Devotion of the Friends of the Prince. - Prison-Life. - Manifestations of Sympathy. - The Arms of Napoleon I. -Demand for the Remains of the
Emperor. - Their Removal from  St. Helena. -Their Arrival in France.- Funeral
Solemnities. - Testimony of Napier. - Apostrophe of Louis Napoleon. - Correspondence and Remonstrance....184
CHAPTER XII.
PRISON-LABORS.
Sympathy for the Prince.- Letter to M. Barrot. - Guizot's History of the French Revolution. -Historical Fragments. - Letter from Chateaubriand. - Invariable Courtesy of
the Prince. - Policy of the Stuarts, - Profound Political Views. - Increasing Sympathy for the Captive. - Thoughts of Amnesty. - Letter from the Prince. - His Political 
Principles and Conduct... 202
CHAPTER  XIII.,POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.
Analysis of the Sugar-Question. - Letter from Beranger. - Testimony of Renault. - Letter to Viscount Chateaubriand. -Letter from Sismondi. - Life of Charlemagne. -
Political Articles. - Attack upon Napoleon I. by Lamartine. — Response of Louis
Napoleon........ 217
CHAPTER XIV.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HAM.
Rhetorical Skill. - "Project of Law upon the Recruitment of the Army." - " The Prussian
Organization." —" Military Necessities of France." -" Mathematical Studies of Napoleon." - Anecdotes of the Emperor.-  Philosophic Views.- "The Extinction of
Pauperism." - Character of the Treatise. - Testimony of Beranger. - " The Past and
Future of Artillery." -" The Canal of Nicaragua." - Interesting Correspondence. 235
CHAPTER XV.
FAMILY REMINISCENCES.
The Death of Joseph Bonaparte. - Sketch of his Career. - Anecdote of Napoleon. - Petitions for the Release of the Prince. - Sickness of his Father, King Louis. - His Dying
Plea to see his Son. - Efforts of the Prince to visit his Dying Father. - Correspondence. - Measures of the Government.- Public Dissatisfaction...250




12                                   CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ESCAPE FROM HAM.
Plans for Escape. - Devotion of Dr. Conneau and the Valet Thelin. - Rumors of Approaching Release. - The Plan adopted. - Difficulties and Embarrassments. - Details
of the Event. -Wonderful Success.... 263
CHAPTER XVII.
EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.
Heroism of Dr. Conneau. - Governmental Persecution.- Death of King Louis. -Funeral
Honors. —Letters from Prince Louis Napoleon.- His Character in Exile. -Testimony of Walter Savage Landor. - The Duke of Wellington. - Testimony of " The
Journal du Loriet." - Treatise upon the Canal of Nicaragua. - Noble Sentiments. 274
CHAPTER  XVIII.
THE OVERTHROW OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.
Childhood and Youth of Louis Philippe. -Execution of the Duke of Orleans. - Flight of
the Family. - The Return of Louis Philippe with the Bourbons. - His Elevation to the
Throne. - Unpopularity. - The Banquets. - Their Prohibition. - Indignation and Insurrection of the People.- Triumph of the Insurgents. - Flight of the King. - Heroism of the Duchess of Orleans.- Her Perils and Final Escape... 288
CHAPTER XIX.
THE REPUBLIC.
The Two Provisional Governments.- Their Union.- Stormy Debates and Emeutes. —
Alarming Rumors. - Anecdotes. - The National Workshops. - Weakness of the Republican Party. - The National Assembly. - Anecdotes of Lamartine. - The Assembly dispersed by the Mob.- Louis Napoleon visits Paris.- Returns to London.- Letter to the Assembly. - Chosen Deputy by Four Departments. - Excited Discussion. -
Received to the Assembly....                                                 311
CHAPTER XX.
STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.
Address to the Electors. - Letter to the President of the Assembly. - Agitation in the Assembly.- The Debate.- Louis Napoleon declines his Election. -Discontent of the
People.- Disorder in the Government. - Closing the Workshops. - Anecdote. - Terrible Excitement. - Dictatorship of Cavaignac.   The Four-Days' Battle...334
CHAPTER  XXI.
REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.
Louis Napoleon a Representative. - His Speech. - Attacks upon him. - Debate upon the
Constitution. - Election by the People.- Prudence of Louis Napoleon. - Speeches in
the Assembly. - Candidate for the Presidency. - His Popularity with the Masses. -
Address to the Electors..- Triumphant Election..... 350
CHAPTER  XXII.
THE ROMAN QUESTION.
Character of the New Constitution.- Feelings in the Rural Districts.- Antagonism of the
Assembly to the President.- Instigations to Civil War. —Letter to Prince Napoleon.
- Excitement of the Revolutionary Spirit. - Insurrection in Rome. -Assassination
of M. Rossi. - Flight of the Pope. - French Intervention. - Its Necessity. - Capture
of Rome.- Socialist Insurrection in Paris. - Confirmed Strength of the Government. 369




CONTENTS.                                       13
CHAPTER  XXIII.
THE WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.
Speech at Chartres, at Amiens, Angers, Nantes. - Sketch of Bonchamp. - Speech at Rouen.
- The Workmen at Elbeuf. -Incident at Fixin. - Speech at Epernay. - Affairs.at
Rome. - Letter to the President of the Assembly.- Refugees in Paris. —Universal
Suffrage suspended.- Socialist Triumph.- Speech of Thiers.- Salary of the President. - Combination against him. - His Imperturbable Serenity... 388
CHAPTER XXIV.
DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.
Speech at the Opening of the Assembly.- Petitions for the Revision of the Constitution. -
Assumptions of Changarnier. - His Removal from Command. - Excitement in the
Assembly. - Salary of the President curtailed. - Conciliatory Spirit of the President.
- The Speech at Dijon. - Conflict upon the Question of Universal Suffrage. - Speech
at Poitiers; at Chatellerault. - Doctrines of the Socialists. - Opening' of the Session in
1851. - Coalition against the President. --  is Untroubled Spirit.- Conspiracy for
his Ruin............... 411
CHAPTER XXV.
THE  COUP D',TAT.
The only Measures Louis Napoleon could adopt. —Last Meeting of the Assembly. -Levee
at the Elysee. —Testimony of Hon. S. G. Goodrich. -The Decisive Step.-The
Proclamations. - The Arrests. - Changarnier, Cavaignac, Thiers, Lamoriciere, Bedeau,
Charras, La Grange, Roger, Baze. - The Insurrection. -Narrative of Hon. S. G. Goodrich.- The Discomfiture of the Insurgents. - Proclamation of St. Arnaud... 431
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE RATIFICATION OF THE COUP D'ETAT.
Remark of the Emperor. - Socialist Insurrections. - Proclamation of the President. - Remarkable Pamphlet. -Note from M. Roth. - Testimony of the " Gazette de Munich;"
of "The Washington Union." - The Vote of the 20th December.- Its Result. - Address by M. Baroche.- Response by the President.- Arduous Task to be performed.
— Preamble to the Constitution.- The Constitution...456
CHAPTER XXVII.
ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES.
Internal Improvements. - Wealth of Louis Philippe. - Confiscation. - Ancient Law of
France. —Energy of the President. -His Clemency. —Respect for the Sabbath.Almoners of Last Prayers.- Censorship of the Press. -Address to the Legislative
Corps. -Efforts of the Socialists, of the Legitimists, of the Orleanists.- Spirit of the
European Journals. -Blessing the Eagles. - Embarrassment of Foreign Courts.Visit to Strasburg. - Splendid Fete Ball in the Marche des Innocents. - Uncontested
Election...............     474
CHAPTER  XXVIII.
THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.
Prosperous State of France.- Desire for the Restoration of the Empire.- The Communes.
- The Arrondissements. - The Municipal Councils. - Tour to the Southern Departments. -Brilliant Reception. — Addresses. - Attempt at Assassination. - Courage of
the President. - Algeria. - Abd-el-Kader. - Reception in Paris. - Restoration of the
Empire. -Vote of the Senate. - Ratification by the People.  Address of the Emperor. - Great Unanimity. - The Results.....494




14                                   CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR, AND THE CARES OF EMPIRE.
The Countess de Teba. - Her Birth, Education, and Character. - Announcement of the
Imperial Marriage.- The Imposing Ceremonies.- Prosperity of France.- Alarm in
England. - Counsel of Napoleon I. - Scenes at St. Helena. - Spirit of Napoleon III.
- Speech at the Opening of the Legislative Session. - Deputation of English Tradesmen. - Causes of the Emperor's Popularity. - Confidence of the People in him. - Inundations. - Internal Improvements. - The Famine. — Addresses to the Legislature.
-Fete at Boulogne.......512
CHAPTER XXX.
THE EASTERN QUESTION.
Rise of the Turkish Power. - Conquest of Greece. - Peril of Christendom.- Rise of Russia. - Her Territory, Population, Military Power. - Poland. - Moldavia and Wallachia.
- Circassia. - The Dardanelles. - The Bosphorus. - Geogaphy of those Regions. -
Russian Ambition. - Grecian Revolt. - Count Capo d'Istria. - King Otho. - Battle
of Navarino. -Anxiety of England. -Remarkable Sayings of Napoleon I.- Visit of
Nicholas to the Court of Queen Victoria.- Probable Results..              524
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE  CRIMEAN WAR.
Question of the Shrines.- Measures of the French Government.- Arrogance of Russia. -
The Ultimatum of the Czar. -Its Rejection.- Cordial Co-operation of France and
England. -Efforts of the French Emperor for Peace.- The Vienna Note. -Letter
from Napoleon to Nicholas. - Embarrassments of Austria and Prussia. - Diplomatic
Relations suspended. - War declared. - Addresses of Napoleon. - Sinope. - Expedition to the Crimea. -Battle of Alma. —Despatches of Marshal St. Arnaud.-His
Death.- Grief of the Emperor. - His Letter to the Marchioness..... 534
CHAPTER  XXXII.
A  CONQUERED  PEACE.
Battle of Inkerman. - Co-operation of the Allies. - The Emperor's Address to the Legislative Corps. -The Imperial Visit to England. - Views expressed by "The London
Times." - The Return to France. - Attempt at Assassination. - The Visit of Victoria
to France.- Address to the Legislative Corps. -Last Scenes at Sevastopol.- Rejoicings in Paris. - Birth of the Prince Imperial. - Congratulations and Responses. - The
Treaty of Peace. - Genius of Napoleon III. - The Conspiracy of Orsini. - Opening
the Boulevard of Sevastopol.- Inauguration of the Works at Cherbourg. - Speech at
Rennes.............                                                             554
CHAPTER  XXXIII.
MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.
Effect of the French Revolution of 1848.- The Uprising in Italy.- The Battle of Novara.
-Austrian Influence in Italy. -Speech of Napoleon III. to the Legislative Corps.Sympathy between Napoleon III. and Victor Emanuel- Austrian Invasion of Sardinia. -- Prompt Action of France. - Proclamations of the Emperor. - His Journey to
Sardinia.- Enthusiastic Reception. - The Battles of Magenta and Solferino. - Intervention of England and Prussia. - Necessity of relinquishing the Liberation of Italy. 568




CONTENTS.                                       15
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.
The Peril of Austria. - Threatened Intervention of the Great Powers. - Reasons for the
Peace of Villafranca. - Interview between the two Emperors. - Napoleon's Address
to his Army. - His Return to France. - Address to the Great Bodies of the State. -
The Banquet at the Louvre. - Perplexities of the Italian Question. - Plan of a Confederation. — Opposition of the Pope. —The Vote for Italian Unity. -Additional
Embarrassments.- Napoleon's Letter to Victor Emanuel.- His Letter to the Pope. -
Agitation throughout Europe. - Inflexibility of the Papal Government. - Vast Difficulties of the Italian Question......585
CHAPTER XXXV.
MESSAGES AND DIPLOMACY.
Address to the Legislative Corps.-Deputation from  Savoy. —Expedition to Syria. -
Journey to Algiers. - Opening of the Legislative Corps. - Inauguration of the
" Boulevard Malesherbes." - Letter on the Affairs of Italy. - Inauguration of the
"Boulevard Prince Eugene." - Address to the Legislative Corps. - Discourse upon
the World's Exposition at London. - Letter upon Algeria..                   600
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE'LIBERATION OF VENETIA.
State of the Italian Question.- The Sympathies of France. -Letter of Napoleon III. to
the Sovereigns of Europe; - Speech to the Legislative Corps. - Rejection by England.
-Response of the Continental Sovereigns.- Schleswig and Holstein.- Plans of Bismark. - Diplomatic Measures. - Alarm of England. - Napoleon's Reply to the Proposition for a Congress. - The War. - Its Results. - Venetia liberated. - The Roman
Question..      611
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE MEXICAN  QUESTION.
Revolutions in Mexico. - The American Expedition. - The Alliance of Spain, France,
and England. - Object of the Alliance. - The Squadron at Vera Cruz. - Disappointment of the Allies. - Discordant Views. - Withdrawal of England and Spain. -Peril
of the French Troops. - Repulse at Puebla. - Struggles and Victories. - Triumphal
Entry to the City of Mexico. - The Empire established. - The Archduke Maximilian
chosen Emperor. - The Delegation at Miramar.....626
CHAPTER  XXXVIII.
MAXIMILIAN AND HIS THRONE.
Character of Maximilian.- Character of Carlota. — Departure from  Trieste.- Words
of Adieu. - Arrival in Mexico. - Enthusiastic Greeting. - Triumphal Journey to the
Capital. - Administrative Measures. - Apparent Popularity of the Empire. - Hostility of the United States. - Departure of Carlota for Europe. - Her Insanity.. 643
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE OVERTHROW OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.
Gathering Gloom. - Guerillas. - Insanity of Carlota. - Menacing Attitude of the United
States. - Withdrawal of French Troops. - Proclamation of Marshal, Bazaine. - Statement of Napoleon III. - Heroic Resolve of Maximilian. -His Call for a Congress. -
Besieged in Queretaro. - Treachery of Lopez. - Capture of the Emperor. - Scenes
in Prison. - Trial. - Execution.- The Results in Mexico.... 654




16                                   CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XL.
THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRE.
The International Exposition. - The Royal Guests. - Influence of the Exposition. - The
Emperor's Address to the Commissioners. - Letter to the Minister of the Interior. -
Aims of the Emperor. - His " Life of Julius Caesar." - The Prosperity of France. -
Freedom of Debate. - Decree of Jan. 19, 1867.- Efforts to create Stable Institutions.
- The Constitutions of England, America, and France. - Prosperity of France under
the Empire........                                                              668
INDEX.........679




LIFE OF NAPOLEON II.
CHAPTER I.
THE PARENTAGE OF LOUIS NAPOLEON.
Early Life of Josephine. - Marriage of Josephine and Viscount Beauharnais. - Life in Paris. -
Separation. - Josephine and Hortense in*IMartinique. - Return to Paris. - Sufferings there.
-Marriage of Josephine with General Bonaparte. - Love. - Disappointment of Hortense;
of Louis Bonaparte. - The Unhappy Marriage. - Death of the First-born. - Birth of Louis
Napoleon. -Anecdotes of the Empire. - Early Developments of Character.
N the year 1775, there was residing upon Martinique, one of the
West-India Islands, a very beautiful girl, fifteen years of age,
by the name of Josephine Rose Tascher. She was an orphan,
and had been adopted by her uncle, a wealthy planter, who,'-I E    being the owner of several well-conducted plantations, was
living in baronial profusion and splendor.  A  young French
nobleman, Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais, visited the island at that time
to take possession of several valuable estates which had fallen to him by inheritance, adjoining the plantations of Josephine's uncle, M. Renaudin.
The viscount was?'very hospitably entertained by M. Renaudin, and was so
attracted by the vivacity, grace, and loveliness of Josephine, and also by the
fact that their union would unite several of the most valuable estates upon
the island, that he offered her his hand in marriage. Josephine, with much
reluctance, for her heart was elsewhere, accepted the offer, being overcome
by the persuasions of her uncle and aint. It was necessary for Viscount
Beauharnais to return immediately to France.  Airangements were made for
Josephine to follow in the course of a few months, to visit a relative in Paris,
where the nuptials were to be consummated.
The artless yet beautiful and fascinating Creole girl, immediately upon her
arrival in Paris, was introduced to the most brilliant society of the metropolis, and became the object of general admiration.  Her husband, proud of
her beauty and accomplishments, presented -her to the court; and she won
the especial regards of the queen, Marie Antoinette.
But French philosophy had then undermined all the foundations of religion.  The marriage-tie had lost its sanctity, and was regarded merely as a
partnership, which was to be formed and dissolved at pleasure. Beauharnais,
8                                                17




18                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
a gay man of the world, surrendered himself, unrestrained, to the dominion
of these principles. The life of Josephine became shrouded in gloom. Her
husband, though ever acknowledging her virtues and attractions, lavished
upon his guilty favorites the attentions due only to her. At length, bitter
alienation sprang up between husband and wife. Josephine,; having received
wounds too deep to be healed, took her little daughter Hortense, and, worldweary, heayt-crushed, returned to ler uncle's home in Martinique.
She had then also a son, Eugene, whom her husband had taken from her,
and sent to a boarding-school in France. With tears she implored M. Beauharnais to allow her to take Eugene with her also.  He flatly refused.
Josephine remained three years with her child Hortense in Martinique.  At
length, M. Beauharnais, weary of a life of sin and shame, and never able to
forget the virtues of his injured wife, wrote to her with expressions of the
deepest regret for the past, and implored her to return. Josephine confessed
to her friends that the wounds she had received were so severe, that, were it
not for the love she bore Eugene, she could not go back; but that she should
much prefer to spend the remainder of her days in the seclusion of her native
island.
A mother's love, however, triumphed; and taking with her Hortense, then
a beautiful child of ten years of age, she embarked for France.
The French Revolution was now approaching the most stormy period of
its career. Josephine had scarcely returned to Paris ere the Reign of Terror
commenced. Viscount Beauharnais, though he had espoused the popular
cause, was, for the crime of being a noble, dragged to prison. Josephine,
in the enduitnce of anguish which no pen can describe, made every effort to
obtain the release of her husband. Instead of being successful, she was
arrested herself.  At an early hour in the morning, when Hortense and
Eugene were asleep, the officers of the revolutionary tribunal seized her.
Without awaking the children, she bent over them  with flooded eyes and a
bursting heart, and imprinted upon their brows a farewell kiss. Hortense, a
very affectionate child, though still asleep, threw her arms around her mother's neck, and, speaking in her dreams, said, 
" Come to bed, mother. Fear nothing. They shall not take you away this
night. I have prayed to God for you."
The children were left in utter destitution. They had a distant relative
residing near Versailles. Eugene lql Hortense there, where they were kindly
received. Viscount Beauharnais was imprisoned in the Luxembourg; Josephine, in the Convent of the Carmelites.  M. Beauharnais was soon brought
before the military tribunal, and condemned as an aristocrat; and his head
fell beneath the slide of the guillotine. Josephine was arraigned before the
same tribunal.  She was accused of the crime of being the wife of a noble,
and the friend of Marie Antoinette.  She was consequently doomed to die,
and was to be led to the Conciergerie, and thence to her execution. The day
before she Was to be conducted to the scaffold, there was a new revolution:
Robespierre was guillotined, and Josephine was liberated.
She emerged from, her prison into the crowded streets of Paris a widow,
friendless and penniless. Her husband's property had been confiscated, and




HIS PARENTAGE.                             19
nearly all her friends had perished.  She soon found her children. The
Reign of Terror still continued. Young girls and boys were guillotined.
The threat of Marat ever rang in her ears, "We must exterminate all the
whelps of aristocracy."  Hoping to conceal her children among the masses
of the people, and impelled also by the pressure of poverty, she apprenticed
her son to a house-carpenter; while Hortense was placed in the shop of a
seamstress.
Josephine possessed such endowments of intelligence, grace, and beauty,
that she would, under any circumstances, create enthusiastic friends. A lady
of wealth invited her, with Hortense, to'her house, and charitably supplied
all their wants. Influential friends gathered around her; and through, their
aid, after long efforts, she succeeded in regaining a portion of her husband's
confiscated estates. Thus provided with a fiugal competence, she obtained a
home of her own, with Eugene and Hortense by her side.  With rigid
economy, Josephine was enabled to keep up an appearance of elegance; and
her family associated with the most refined society of the metropolis.
There was then a young man in Paris, twenty-three years old, of foreign
name, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was beginning to attract attention. He had
performed some brilliant exploits at the siege of Toulon, and had very energetically quelled an insurrection in the streets of Paris. To prevent another
insurrection, he had received orders from the Convention to disarm tlhe populace. The sword of Viscount Beauharnais was thus taken from the family.
Eugene Beauharnais, an exceedingly intelligent and graceful boy of about
twelve years, obtained access to General Bonaparte, and so touchingly pleaded
for the restoration of the sword of his father as to interest the young general
deeply. His kind treatment of the child so moved the heart of Josephine,
that she called the next day to express her thanks. General Bonaparte was
even more impressed by the grace and loveliness of the mother than he had
been by the artlessness of the child.
The result was, that on the 6th of March, 1796, Josephine became the bride
of General Bonaparte, and Hortense and Eugene became the step-children of
the man whose renown was soon to fill the world. Hortense developed into
one of the most beautiful and fascinating of women.  The Duchess of
Abrantes, who often met her in the saloons of her imperial father, says,"She was fiesh as a rose; and, though her fair complexion was not relieved
by much color, she had enough to produce that freshness and bloom which
was her chief beauty. A profusion of light hair played in silken locks around
her soft and penetrating blue eyes. The delicate roundness of her slender
figure was set off by the elegant carriage of her head.
"But what formed the chief attraction of Hortense was the grace and
suavity of her manners. She was gay, gentle, amiable. She had wit, which,
without the smallest ill temper, had just mischievousness enough to be
amusing. She drew excellently, sang harmoniously, and performed admirably in comedy. In the year 1800, she was a charming young girl.  She
afterwards became one of the most amiable princesses of Europe. I b -ve
seen many, both in their own courts and in Paris; but I never knew one wvho
had any pretension to equal talents. Her brother loved her tenderly.  N'po



20                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
leon regarded her as his child. It is only in that country, so fertile in the
inventions of scandal, that so foolish an accusation could have been imagined
as that any feeling less pure'than paternal affection actuated his conduct
towards her. The vile calumny met with the contempt it merited."
Upon this subject we.may also quote the testimony of Bourrienne, who
had been the private secretary of the emperor, but who became a partisan of
the Bourbons, and, under the influence of their patronage, wrote a history of
Napoleon. In this memoir he says, —
"Napoleon never cherished for HIortense any feeling but a real paternal
tenderness.  He loved her, after his marriage with her mother, as he would
havesloved his own child. For three years at least, I was witness to all their
most private actions.  I declare that I never saw any thing which could
furnish the least ground for suspicion, or the slightest trace of culpable intimacy. This calumny must be classed with those which malice delights to
take with the character of men who become celebrated; calumnies which are
adopted lightly and without reflection. I freely declare, that, did I retain the
slightest doubt with regard to this odious charge, I would avow it; but it is
not true. Napoleon is no more: let his memory be accompanied only by
that, be it good or bad, which really took place. Let not this reproach be
made against him by the impartial historian. I must say in conclusion, on
this delicate subject, that Napoleon's principles were rigid in the extreme;
and that any fault of the nature charged neither entered his mind, nor was
in accordance with his morals or his taste."
The Emperor Napoleon had four brothers and three sisters. Joseph was
the eldest of the family; then came Napoleon; after him  were Lucien,
Louis, and Jerome. The sisters were Eliza, Pauline, and Caroline.  Louis
Bonaparte, a man of superior intellectual powers, but of remarkably pensive
character and sensitive nature, became strongly attached to Emilie Beauharnais, a daughter of the Marquis de Beauharnais, who was an older brother of
Viscount Beauharnais, the former husband of Josephine, and the father of
Hortense. The marquis was a strong advocate of the Bourbons, and had
joined the emigrants in their flight from France. He left his daughter, however, at the school of Madame Campan, under the care of his sister-in-law
Josephine. Hortense also attended* the same school. Under these circumstances, Louis Bonaparte formed a passionate attachment for Emilie. This
attachment to the daughter of one of the old nobles, and an emigrant, caused
Napoleon, who was then General Bonaparte, and who was preparing for the
expedition to Egypt, much solicitude. It might expose him to suspicion. A
naval officer, who was a friend of the rising young general, said to Louis,
"Do you know that a marriage of this description might be highly injurious
to your brother, and render him an object of suspicion to the government,
and that, too, at a moment when he is setting out on a hazardous expedition?"
General Bonaparte, not being aware of the depth and fervor of his brother's
passion,was so impressed with the inexpediency of the connection, that he sent
Louis on a mission to Toulon, and kept him busy there until they both sailed
on the expedition to Egypt.  Emilie Beauharnais, not long after this, was




HIS PARENTAGE.                             21
married to General Lavalette. With men of reflective, pensive temperament,
love is an all-engrossing, all-devouring passion:  The blow which fell upon the
heart of Louis Bonaparte was fatal. He never recovered from it.
None of the honors which his brother subsequently lavished upon him'could assuage the grief which ever gnawed at his heart. With gentle and
attracti.ve manners, loving repose, and shrinking from power, he discharged
with singular fidelity, but with a joyless heart, all the duties imposed upon
him., He became President of the Electoral College of Po, Grand Constable,
Governor-General of Piedmont, Governor-General of the Army of Paris,
and finally King of Holland. In all the virtues of private life, he was one
qf the most exemplary of men; and, in public life, the most bitter foes of
the Napoleonic dynasty give Louis Bonaparte credit for ability and conscientiousness.
Hortense had formed a strong attachment for Duroc, one of the young and
gallant soldiers of the republic, who afterwards became Duke of Friuli, and
Grand Marshal of the Palace. This match was also broken off, and Hortense
was weary of the world.
Bourrienne, in his memoirs of Napoleon, says that Josephine remarked to
him one day, 
"This projected marriage with Duroc leaves me without any support. Daroc, independent of Boiiaparte's friendship, is nothing. He has neither fortune,
rank, nor even reputation. He can afford me no protection against the enmity
of the brothers. I must have some more certain reliance for the future. My
husband loves Louis very much. If I can succeed in uniting my daughter to
him, he will prove a strong counterpoise to the calumnies and persecutions of
my brothers-in-law."
These remarks were repeated to Napoleon. He replied, "Josephine labors
in vain. Duroc and Hortense love each other, and they shall be married. I
am attached to Duroc. He is well born. I have given Caroline to Murat,
and Pauline to Le Clerc: I can as well give Hortense to Duroc. He is as
good as the others. He is general of division. Besides, I have other views
for Louis."
But Josephine was influenced, in the desire to unite Hortense and Louis, by
the strongest motives which could actuate the Human mind. Napoleon was
now First Consul, and, under that title, was, in reality, the most powerful sovereign in Europe. Visions of still grander power were rising before him.
Josephine knew how deep was his regret that he had no child bearing his
name to whom he could transmit his sceptre. Busy tongues had alreacdy informed her that many were urging upon him that an heir was essential to the'
repose of France. She had been assured thatiher divorce fipm Napoleon had
been represented to him as one of the stern necessities of state. Agitated by
these terrible fears, she indulged the hope, that could she succeed in uniting
Hortense with Louis Bonaparte, should Hortense give birth to a son, Napoleon
would recognize him as his heir.  Bearing the name of Bonaparte, with the
blood of the Bonapartes circulating in his veins, and being the son of Hortense, whom Napoleon loved as a daughter, with the fondest parental affec



22                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
tion she fondly imagined that the child would satisfy Napoleon's yearnings
and the apparent necessities of France, and that thus the terrible divorce
might be averted.
Hortense, broken-hearted and despairing, yielded to the almost agonizing
importunities of her mother. Louis also, feeling that there was no longer any
happiness in the world for him, sadly submitted to his fate. Under such circumstances, the union was formed between Hortense Beauharnais and Louis
Bonaparte, the parents of the present Emperor of France.
Constant, the valet de chambre of Napoleon I., in his memoirs, recounting
this marriage, says, "The two spouses, Louis and his bride, were very sad.
Hortense wept bitterly during the ceremony, and her tears were not dried
afterwards. She was far from seeking the notice of her husband, who, on his
side, was too proud to pursue her with his attentions. The good Josephine
did every thing in her power to bring them  together.  Conscious that the
union, which had commenced so unhappily, was her work, she wished to reconcile her own private interest, or that which appeared to her as such, with
the happiness of her daughter; but her efforts, as her counsel and her prayers,
availed nothing.' I have seen, a hundred times, Madame Louis Bonaparte seek the solitude
of her apartment and the bosom of a friend, there to shed her tears. She
would often escape fiom him in the midst of the saloon of the First Consul,
where one saw with chagrin this young woman, formerly glittering in beauty,
and who had so gracefully performed the honors of the palace, dispensing
with etiquette, retire into a corner or into the embrasure of a window with
some one of her intimate friends, sadly to confide her griefs. During this
interview, from which she would return with her eyes red and flooded, her
husband would remain, pensive and silent, at the end of the saloon."
Louis Bonaparte writes with his own pen, in his dirge-like memoirs, " Never
was there a more gloomy wedding. Never had husband and wife a stronger
presentiment of a forced, an ill-suited marriage. Before the ceremony, during
the benediction, and ever afterwards, we both and equally felt that we were
not suited to each other."
The first child, the fruit of this marriage, was born in 1803, and received the
name of Napoleon Charles. Both Napoleon and Josephine were rendered exceedingly happy by his birth. He was a very beautiful child, and developed
brilliancy of intellect, and nobility of character, which won the admiration of
all. Napoleon loved the child most tenderly, and was ever fond of forgetting
the cares of state in caressing the little one; and, having decided to constitute
him his heir, all thoughts of the divorce were abandoned. In one of Josephine's letters to Hortense, dated Aix la Chapelle, Sept. 8, 1804, she writes
in reference to this child, -
"The news you give me of little Napoleon affords me very great pleasure.
The emperor has read your letter. He ha, at times, appeared to me wounded
in not hearing from you. He would not accuse your heart if he knew you as
well as I do. But appearances are against you. Since he may suppose that
you neglect him, do not lose a moment to repair the wrongs which are not intentional. Say to him that it is through discretion that you have not written




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HIS PARENTAGE.                             23
to him; that your heart suffers from that law which even respect dictates; that,
having always manifested towards you the goodness and the tenderness of a
father, it will ever be to you a happiness to offer to him the homage of your
gratitude. Bonaparte loves you as if you were his own child; and this greatly
increases my attachment for him."
Early in the spring of 1807, on the 5th of May, this child, upon whom were
centred so many hopes, and who was then entering his fifth year, was taken
sick of the croup, and died.' It was a dreadful blow to Josephine. Napoleon
was then far away, just after the battle of Eylau, in a winter encampment,
with his army upon the banks of the Vistula. The melancholy tidings reached
him at his headquarters, which consisted of a cheerless stable, at a place called
Osterode. In silence he buried his face in his hands, and for a long time
seemed lost in, painful musings. The following letters, which he wrote at the
time to Josephine and Hortense, reveal, in some degree, his feelings. On the
14th of May, he wrote to Josephine, -
"I can appreciate the grief which the death of poor Napoleon has caused
you. You can understand the anguisl which I experience. I could wish that
I were with you, that you might become moderate and discreet in your grief.
You *have had the happiness of never losing any children. But it is one of
the conditions and sorrows attached to suffering humanity. Let me hear that
you have become reasonable and tranquil. Adieu, my love."
To Hortense he wrote, a few days after, "My daughter, every thing which
reaches me from the Hague informs me that you are unreasonable. I-owever
legitimate may be your grief, it should have its bounds. Do not impair your
health.  Seek consolation. Know that life is strewed with so many dangers,
and may be the source of so many calamities, that death is by no means the
greatest of evils.        Your affectionate father,         NAPOLEON."
Again he wrote to Josephine, a few days after, on the 24th of May, "I have
received your letter from Lucken. I see with pain that your grief is still unabated, and that Iortense is not yet with you. She is unreasonable, and
merits not to be loved, since she loves only her children. Strive to calm yourself, and give me no more pain. For every irremediable evil we must find consolation. Adieu, my love.        Wholly thine,              NAPOLEON."
On the 2d of June, he wrote to IHortense in the following terms of tender
reproach: "My daughter, you have not written me one word in your wellfounded and great grief. You have forgotten every thing, as if you had no
other loss to endure. I am informed that you no longer love; that you are
indifferenta to every thing. I perceive it by your silence. This is not right,
Hortense. It is not what you promised me. Your child was every thing to
you. Your mother and I- are we nothing, then? Had I been at Malmaison,
I should have shared your anguish; but I should have also wished that you
would restore yourself to your best friends. Adieu, my daughter. Be cheerful. We must learn resignation. Cherish your health, that you may be able
to fulfil all your duties. My wife is very sad in view of your condition. Do
not add to her anguish.       Your affectionate father,     NAPOLEON."
At the time of the death of this child, Louis Bonaparte, the husband of
Hortense, had been King of Holland about one year, and was residing with




24                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Queen Hortense at the Hague.  Another son had been born to them on the
11th of October, 1804, to whom they had given the nam6 of Napoleon Louis.
The anguish of Hortense was so great, that she seemed to have lost all love
for this her surviving child. In a letter which Napoleon wrote her on the
16th of June, he says, -
" My daughter, your griefs touch my heart; but I could wish that you would
summon more fortitude.  To live is to suffer; and the sincere man struggles
incessantly to gain the victory over himself.  I do not love to see you unjust
towards the little Napoleon Louis and towards all your friends.  Your mother
and I cherish the hope to be more in your heart than we are.  I am well, and
I love you intensely.  Adieu, my daughter.  I embrace you with my whole
heart. - NAPOLEON."
Again Josephine wrote; and I quote these letters the more freely, to show
that the palace as well as the cottage has its shbre of griefs.  "Your letter
has affected me deeply, my dear daughter.  I see how profound and unvarying is your grief; and I perceive it still more sensibly by the anguish which
I experience myself.  We have lost that, which, in every respect, was most
worthy to be loved.  My tears flow  as on the first day.  Our grief is too
well founded for reason to be able to cause it to cease: nevertheless, my dear
Hortense, we shouldl moderate it.
"You are not alone in the world.  There still remain to you a husband,
an interesting child, and a mother whose tender love you well know; and
you have too muclh sensibility to regard all that with coldness and indifference."
The death of little Napoleon took -place, as we have mentioned, in May,
18.07. It was in the midst of such maternal griefs as these that Charles
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the third son of Louis and Hortense, was born on
the 20th of April, 1808.  This child, usually called Louis Napoleon, and who
is now the Emperor of the French, is the subject of this memoih.  His mother Hortense, Queen of Holland, was, at the time of his birth, in Paris.  Napoleon was then  at the summit of his brilliant career, surrounded with
imperial splendor, and all Europe prostrate before him.  The birth of the
young prince was welcomed by explosions of artillery all along the lines of
the army, from  Hamburg to Rome, and from  the Pyrenees to the Danube.
In the following strain, Josephine congratulates her daughter upon the birth
of this child.  The letter is dated at Bordeaux, on the 23d of April.*
"I am, my dear Hortense, in an excess of joy.  The tidings of your happy
cccouchement were brought to me yesterday by M. de Villeneuve.  I felt
my heart beat the moment I saw him  enter; but I cherished the hope that
* The Moniteur of April 21 thus announces this event: "Yesterday, at one o'clock, her
Majesty the Queen of Holland was safely delivered of a prince. In conformity with Art. 40
of-the Act of the Constitution of 28, Floreal year 12, M. the Chancellor of the Empire attested the birth, and wrote immediately tq the emperor, the empress, and the King of Holland,
to communicate the intelligence. At five o'clock in the evening, the act of birth was received by
the arch-chancellor, assisted by his Eminence Reynault de St. Jean d'Angely, minister of state,
and state secretary of the imperial family. In the absence of the emperor, the new-born prince
has not yet received his name.  This will be provided for by an ulterior act, according to the
orders of his Majesty."




HIS PARENTAGE.                               25
he had only good tidings to bring me, and my presentiments did not deceive
me.  I know that Napoleon Louis will console himself in not having a sister,
and that he already loves very much his brother. Embrace them both for
me."
These two children of Hortense and Louis Bonaparte were regarded by
Napoleon and Josephine with the greatest interest. By a decree of the
Senate, which was submitted to the acceptation of the French people, and
which was adopted by 3,521,675 votes, there being but 2,579 in opposition,
they were declared the heirs to the imperial throne, should Napoleon, and
his elder brother Joseph, die without children.*
When we read the redord of the anguish of Queen Hortense, in view of
the death of her eldest child; when we remember that he died in May, 1807,
and that Louis Napoleon was born not quite one year after, in April, 1808,
it seems to be a sufficient reply to the charge that Hortense was, during those
months, living in guilty pleasure. It is, of course, impossible to prove that a
charge of the nature to which we here refer is not true; but the circumstances seem to render such an accusation almost impossible. No mother,
weeping In anguish over the death of her first-born, could be thus living.
The Berkeley Men, in their admirable work upon " The Napoleon Dynasty,"
say, " We have found  nothing in our investigations upon this subject
to justify even a suspicion against the morals or integrity of Louis or Hortense; and we here dismiss the subject with the remark, that there is more
cause for sympathy with the parties to this unhappy union than of censure
for their conduct." t
The union was indeed a very unhappy one.  There were no congenial
sympathies between husband and wife. The grief-stricken mother, secluding
herself from all society, in her anguish almost forgetting her surviving child,
had gone to Paris that she might be near Josephine in the hour of woman's
greatest trial. After the birth of Louis Napoleon, she felt but little disposition to return to her husband; and the estrangement between them increased,
until it resulted in final separation.
Napoleon, at St. Helena, referring to this painful subject, said, "Louis had
been spoiled by reading the works of Rousseau.  He contrived to agree with
his wife only for a few months. There were faults on both sides. On the
one hand, Louis was too teasing in his temper; and, on the other, Hortense
was too volatile. Hortense,.the virtuous, the devoted, the generous Hortense,
was not entirely faultless in her conduct towards her husband. This I must
acknowledge in spite of all the affection I bore her, and the sincere attachment I am sure she entertained for me. Though Louis' whimsical humors
were, in all probability, sufficiently teasing, yet he loved Hortense. In such a
case, a woman should learn to subdue her own temper, and endeavor to
return her husband's attachment.
"Perhaps an excuse might be found for the caprice of Lquis' disposition
in the deplorable state of his health, the age at which it became deranged,
* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., Empereur des Frangais, par MM. Gallix et Guy,
p. 17.
t Napoleon Dynasty, by the Berkeley Men, p. 44.
4




26                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
and the horrible circumstances which led to that derangement, and which
must have had a considerable influence upon his mind. He was at the point
of death on the occasion, and has ever since been subject to the most cruel
infirmities.  He is almost paralytic on one side."
Louis Bonaparte the father, in his melancholy memoirs, alludes to these
slanders with which Hortense had been assailed, and repels with contempt
and indignation every insinuation against the purity of her character.  In
his peculiar state of mind, one would think, that, if there had been the shadow
of an occasion for jealousy, he would have detected it, especially as he needed
justification for the separation between himself and wife.,
In one of Josephine's letters to Hortense, she writes, in reference to this
alienation, " Why show to Louis this repugnance? Instead of rendering him
more ungracious still, by caprice, by inequality of character, why do you not
rather make efforts to surmount your indifference?  But you will say he is
not amiable: if not in your eyes amiable, he may appearso to others. As for
myself, I imagine that I behold him as he is, - more loving, doubtless, than
lovable; but this is a great and rare quality. He is generous, benevolent,
feeling, and, above all, an excellent father. If you so willed, he wotld prove
a good husband.
"His melancholy, his love of retirement, injure him in your esteem. For
these, I ask you, is he to blame?  Is he obliged to conform his nature to circumstances?  Who could have predicted to him his fortune? But, according
to you, he has not even the courage to bear that fortune. This, I believe, is an
error; but he certainly wants the strength.  With his ascetic inclinations, his
invincible desire for retirement and study, he finds himself misplaced in the
elevated rank to which he has attained.
" You desire that he should imitate his brother: give him, first of all, the
same temperament.  You have not failed to remark that almost our entire
existence depends upon our health, and that upon our digestion: let poor
Louis digest better, and you would find him more amiable.  Take pity on a
man who has to lament that he possesses what would constitute another's
happiness. Before condemning him, think of others, who, like him, have
groaned beneath the burden of their greatness, and bathed with their tears
that diadem which they had believed had never been destined for their
trow."
The emperor ever manifested the deepest interest in the two children of
Louis and Hortense. Even after his divorce fiom Josephine and the birth
of the son of Maria Louisa, aware of the uncertainty of the life of his own
child, he still carefully cherished these children. Hortense now spent much
of her time in Paris, occupying, it is said, the hotel No. 17, Rue Lafitte, now
the residence of one of the Rothschilds.  On one occasion, wlen little Louis
Napoleon was but a year old, Napoleon being absent on a campaign in Germany, Hortense, without consulting him, took her two children with her to
the baths of Baden.  They were thus exposed to the pexil, as two acknowledged French princes, of being seized by the Austrians, and held as hostages.
The emperor immediately wrote to her from Ebersdorf, under date of May
28, 1809,



HIS PARENTAGE.                              27
"My daughter, I am much displeased (tres necontent) that you should
have left France without my permission, and particularly that you should
have taken my nephews from France.  Since you are at the waters of Baden,
remarin there; but, in one hour after the reception of this letter,'send
my  two  nephews to  Strasbourg, near to  the  empress.   They  ought
never to leave France.  It is the first time that I have had occasion to
be dissatisfied with you; but you ought not to dispose of my nephews without
my permission. You ought to perceive the mischievous effect which that
may produce. Since the waters of Baden are beneficial to you, you can
remain there some days; but I repeat to you, do not delay for a moment
sending my nephews to Strasbourg.  Should the empress go to the waters of
Plombiebres, they can accompany her there; but they ought never to cross
the Bridge of Strasbourg." *
The confidential correspondence of Josephine renders it evident that
the younger child, Louis Napoleon, the subject of this memoir, was the favorite, certainly, of Josephine. This was, perhaps, the result of his being more
with his grandmother than was his older brother. Louis Napoleon, even
as a child, seemed to have inherited some of the sadness which had cast its
gloom over his parental home.  He was the son of a grief-stricken mother.
The silent, thoughtful, pensive temperament has ever remarkably predominated in his character; and yet with this pensive mood there was united an
affectionateness of disposition which ever endeared him greatly to his friends.
When the emperor was at home, he was very fond of having the two
princes near him: he took great pleasure in sharing in their games, and in
watching their intellectual, social, and moral developments.  It was quite his
custom to have them with him  at his meals, when he endeavored, for a few
moments, to get entire relief from the cares of state. They had a little table
placed by his side. He would question them in reference to their lessons, and
teach them such sentiments as he wished to impress upon their minds.t
Hortense was in wretched health, and in a state of extreme mental dejection.  She was often absent at the springs, leaving her younger son with
Josephine, while the elder was with his father. In June, 1813, Hortense was
at Aix in Savoy:'the two children were with Josephine at Malmaison. Louis
Napoleon was then five years of age. For some unexplained reason, he was
called in the family by the endearing epithet of little " Oi  ui, Oui," -- " Yes, Yes."
On the 11th of June, Josephine wrote to Hortense, "I am  delighted to
have the children with me. They are charming. I must tell you of a beautiful response of little Oui Oui. He was reading to the Abbe Bertrand a fable
upon the subject of metamorphosis.  Being called upon to explain the meaning of the word, he said,' I wish I could change myself into a little bird. I
would then fly away at the hour of your lesson; but I would come back when
M. Haze, my German teacher, arrives.' -' But, prince,' responded the abbe,'it
is not very polite for you to say that to me.' -' Oh!' replied Oui Oui,' what I
said was only for the lesson, not for the man.' Do you not think, with me,
* Lettres de Napoleon et Josephine, tom. ii. p. 293.
t Histoire complete de Napoleon III., Empereur des Frangais, p. 18.




28                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
that this repartee was tres spirituelle? It was not possible for him to extricate
himself with more delicacy and gracefulness."
Again Josephine wrote to Hortense, a few days after, on the 29th, "M. de
Turpin has brought me your letter, my dear daughter. I see, with pain, bow
sad and melancholy you still are. Take courage, my dear Hortense. I hope
that happiness will yet be your lot. You have passed through many trials.
Have not all persons their griefs? The only difference is in the greater or
less fortitude of soul with which one supports them. Your children mourn
over your sorrows.  Every thing announces in them  an excellent character, and a strong attachment for you. The more I see of them, the more I
love them. Nevertheless I do not spoil them. Feel easy on their account.
We follow exactly what you have prescribed for their regimen and their
studies. When they have done. well during the week, I invite them to breakfast and dine with me on the sabbath."
Josephine wrote to Hortense on the 6th of August, 1813, —
"I see with pleasure that you have not forgotten the years of youi childhood, and you are very kind to your mother in recalling them to her. I did
right in making happy two children so good and so affectionate, and they have
since abundantly recompensed me for it. Your children will do the same for
you, my dear Hortense. Their hearts resemble yours.
"The little Oui Oui is always gallant and amiable to me. Two days age,
in seeing Madame Tascher leave us, who went to join her husband at the
springs, he said to Madame Boucheporn, -
"'Madame Tascher must love her husband very much indeed to be willing
to leave my grandmamma to go to him.'
"Do you not think that was charming?  On the same day, he went to walk
in the woods of Butard. As soon as he was on the grand avenue, he threw
his hat into the air, shouting,'Oh, how I love beautiful Nature!' Not a day
passes in which some one is not amused by his amiability. The children animate all around me. Judge if you have not rendered me happy in leaving
them with me."
It is said that Madamc   de Stael, who was fond of dazzling all by the display
of the brilliance of her conversational powers, had a chance interview with
the young prince, and overwhelmed him with her questions. le replied with
great calmness, and judgment beyond his age. After she had gone, the child
turned to Madame Boubers, saying, "That lady is a great question-monger. I
wonder, now, if that is what people call genius." *
But days of darkness and gloom began to lower over the empire of Napoleon.  All Europe was armed against him, and the majestic fabric of
power which he had reared was crumbled to the dust. These gathering disasters roused all the heroism of Hortense. Indignantly she remonstrated with
Maria Louisa against the weakness she displayed in so readily abandoning her
husband and Paris. The allied armies were marching upon the metropolis:
the thunders of their artillery could already be heard in the streets of the
city. All who could escape were flying in dismay.
* Life of Louis Napoleon, by J. A. St. John, p. 50.




HIS PARENTAGE.                                29
"I shall remain in Paris," exclaimed Hortense to Regnault, colonel of the
National Guard. " I will share with the Parisians all their fortunes, be they
good or bad. I wish that I were the mother of the King of Rome: I would
inspire all around me with the energy I could exhibit.  Unfortunately, I cannot fill the place of the empress; but I do not doubt that the emperor is executing Wanceuvres which will soon conduct him hither.  Paris must hold out;
and, if the National Guard is willing to defend it, tell them that I pledge myself to remain here with my sons." *
After the surrender of the city, and when all hope was gone, Hortense was
urged by her husband to retire with the children, lest they should be seized
by the enemy as hostages.  She retired to Navarre, where she took refuge.
with Josephine.'Soon, however, receiving assurances of protection from the
Emptor Alexander, she returned again to Paris with her sons. After the
departure of Napoleon for Elba, she resided at Malmaison most of the time
with her mother and the two children.  In May, 1814, while Napoleon was at
Elba, Josephine died at Malmaison in the arms of her daughter.  The giief
of Hortense was agonizing. Of Josephine it has been truly said, " She never
caused the shedding of a single tear."  Nine months after the death of Josephine, in March, 1815, Napoleon returned from  Elba. Maria Louisa and her
child were prisoners in Austria.
Hortense was in Paris to welcome the emperor.  " Sire," said she, "I had
a strong presentiment that you would return; and I waited for you here."
The two young princes were immediately presented to him; and he received
them with the warmest affection.  IHortense was invested with the honor of
presiding at the imperial palace.  The first official act of Napoleon was characteristic of his whole career..Though the Council of State immediately issued a decree, stating that the
nation, by nearly four million of votes, had conferred upon Napoleon the imperial dignity, and made it hereditary in his family; that foreigners had forced
the Bourbons upon France; that Napoleon had abdicated to save France from
the effusion of blood, but that this abdication was not in accordance with the
will of the people, and could not destroy the solemn contract which had been
formed between the nation and the emperor; and that Napoleon, in re-ascending
the throne to which the people had raised him, had only re-established the most
sacred rights of the nation, returning to reign by the only principle of legitimacy which France had recognized and sanctioned for the past twenty-five
years, - notwithstanding this very decisive decree, Napoleon was so anxious
to avoid even the appearance of usurpation, that he insisted that the question
of his re-election'should be submitted to the suffrages of the French people.
The vote was taken in all the departments of France. Napoleon was chosen
* In reference to the invasion of France by the allies, Alison says, " Never had such an inundation of armed men poured over a single country. Eight hundred thousand warriors, in the
highest state of discipline and equipment, had already entered; and the stream still continued to
flow on, without any visible abatement. The eastern provinces could no longer maintain the
armed multitude: already they extended over the central parts of the country, and were even
approaching those which were washed by the Atlantic wave."




30                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
to the chief magistracy by a majority of more than a million of votes over all
other parties.
On the 1st of June, 1815, there was an exceedingly imposing ceremony in
the Field of Mars for the re-inauguration of the re-elected Emperor of Frarfie.
Napoleon ascended an elevated platform, dressed in imperial robes, with his
two nephews, Napoleon Louis and Louis Napoleon, at his side. The Archbishop of Rouen reconsecrated the eagles restored to the banners, and implored upon their cause the blessing of the God of armies. An address was
then read to the emperor from the electors of Paris, containing the following
words:"Sire, —The French people had conferred upon you the crown, and you
have laid it down without their consent. Their suffrages -low impose upon
you the duty of resuming it. What does the league of allied kings require?
how have we given cause for their aggression? We do not wish for the chief
they would impose upon us, and we wish for the one they do not like. We
are threatened by invasion. Sire, nothing shall be spared to maintain our
honor and independence. Every thing shall be done to repel an ignominious
yoke. Sire, a throne built up by foreign armies has crumbled in an instant
before you, because you have brought to us from retirement all the pathways
of true glory, all the hopes of our real prosperity."
A shout of applause from the attendant thousands followed the utterance.
of these words, which shout is represented by those who heard it as appalling in its sublimity. In Napoleon's brief reply, he said, -
"Emperor, consul, soldier, I owe every thing to the people. In prosperity
and in adversity, on the field of battle, in council, on the throne, in exile,
France has been the sole and constant object of my thoughts and actions."
Then, turning to the soldiers, he threw off the imperial mantle, and appeared before them in that simple costume of every-day life with which all
were familiar.  Another shout burst from their lips which seemed to rend
the skies.
"Soldiers of the land and sea forces," said he, "I confide to you the imperial eagle, with the national colors. You swear to defend it at the price of
your blood against the enemies of your country."
A prolonged roar, like the voice of echoing thunders, swept along the lines
as they repeated, "We swear it, we swear it! "
As these ceremonies proceeded, cries of "Vive l'Empereur" filled the air;
and a scene of enthusiasm was witnessed which left an ever-during impression even upon the most phlegmatic minds. " No one," writes Savary, "could
fail to remark, that never did the French people, at any period of the Revolution, seem more disposed to defend their liberty and their independence."
The two young princes, as we have said, stood by the side of the emperor on this occasion. He presented them separately to the deputations of
the people and of the army; as those, in the direct line of inheritance, upon
whom the future interests of France might depend.*  Louis Napoleon was
then seven years of age. This scene must have produced a profound impression upon his reflective, sensitive nature.
* Iistoire complbte de Napoleon III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 19.




HIS PARENTAGE.                             31
But again the allied armies were on the march for Paris, in columns amounting to nearly a million of men.  Napoleon, by incredible exertions, raised
a band of a hundred and twenty thousand men, and prepared to cross the
frontier to assail them by surprise on their unsuspicious march. The evening
before he was to leave Paris for that fatal campaign which resulted in the disaster at Waterloo, he was in his cabinet conversing with Marshal Soult.
Suddenly little Louis Napoleon opened the door,'and came silently creeping into the apartment. His features were swollen with an expression of the
profoundest grief, which he seemed to be struggling in vain to repress. Tremblingly he approached the emperor, threw himself upon his knees, and, burying
his face in his hands, burst into a flood of tears.
"What is the matter, Louis?" said the emperor. "Why havb you interrupted me? and why do you weep so?"
The young prince was so overcome with grief, that, for some moments,
he could not utter a syllable. At last, in words interrupted with sobs, he
said,"Sire, my governess has just told me that you are going away to the war.
Oh, db not go! do not go!".The emperor was much moved by this affectionate solicitude manifested by
the child, and, passing his hand through the clustering ringlets of the boy's
hair, said'" My child,' this is not the first time that I have been to the war. Why are
you so affliQted? Do not fear for me. I shall soon come back again."
"0 my dear uncle!" exclaimed little Louis, again weeping convulsively,
" these wicked allies wish to kill you. Let me go with you, my uncle; let me
go with you."
The emperor made no reply, but, taking the child upon his.knee, pressed
him to his heart with much manifest emotion. Then, calling Hortense, he'
said to her, "Take away my nephew, Hortense, and severely reprimand his
governess, who, by her inconsiderate words, has so deeply excited his sensibilities."  Then, after a few affectionate words addressed to the young prince,
he was about to hand him to his mother; when, perceiving that Marshal Soult
was much moved by the scene, he said to him, "Embrace the child, marshal:
he has a warm heart and a noble soul. Perhaps he is to be the hope of my
race" *
* Histoire du Prince Louis Napoldon sur des Documents particuliers et authentiques, par
B. Renault, p. 70.




CHAPTER II.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
Abdication of Napoleon. - His Prediction. - The Allies in Paris. - Their Fear of the Bonaparte Name. —Expulsion of Hortense and her Sons.  Wanderings and Persecutions.Residence at Lake Constance.- Studies of Louis Napoleon.- Purchase of Arenemberg. -
Anecdotes. - Cultured Spciety. - The Reconciliation. - Military Taste of the Young Prince.
-Visits to Rome. - The Princess Pauline. - Calumnious Reports. - Petition of Pauline.
/FTER  the  terrible  tragedy  of Waterloo, Napoleon  again.  t met Hortense  at Malmaison.  "She  restrained  her ovwn
tears," writes Baron Fleury, "reminding us, with tle wisdom
of a philosopher and the sweetness of an angel, that we
ought to surmount our sorrows and regrets, and submit with
docility to the decrees of Providence."
Napoleof again abdicated, but in favor of his son. A provisional government was established in Paris. Plenipotentiaries were chosen to hasten to
the headquarters of the allies, and sue for peace. A  committee was sent
by the provisional government to inform Napoleon of the instructions given to
the envoys. The basis of the negotiation intrusted to these commissioners
was the integrity of the French territory, the exclusion of the Bourbons, and
the recognition of Napoleon II. The emperor replied to them, -
"The allies are too deeply interested in imposing the Bourbons upon you
to nominate my son. He will yet reign over France; but his time has not
yet arrived."
This prediction, in its spirit, has been fulfilled. The heir of Napoleon, by
the right of universal suffrage, is now upon the re-established imperial throne.
Hortense, emulating her noble mother, endeavored to conceal her tears, and,
though with a bursting heart, did every thing in her power to solace her
afflicted father.  On the 30th of June, Napoleon bade her farewell, never to
see her again.  Little did he then imagine that the dismal rock of St.
Helena was to be his prison and his tomb.  It is said that the child Louis
Napoleon, as his uncle bade him good-by, was almost frantic with grief  He
clung screaming to the emperor, and was at last taken away by force." *
Shortly after the allies entered Paris, Hortense became so much alarmed
for the safety of her sons, in consequence of the bitterness displayed by the
conquerors, that she concealed them  for a time in an old shop, which was
* The Public and Private History of Napoleon III., by Samuel Smucker, LL.D., p. 33.
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CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.                             33
owned by one of her friends, on the Boulevard Montmartre. Every one
bearing the Bonaparte name was exposed to obloquy. At length, Hortense
received an order from the allies to leave Paris within two hours. In the
evening of the 19th of July, the grief-stricken mother, with her children,
under the conduct of Count de Voyna, left Paris for Switzerland.  It was
her intention to take refuge in a country-seat which she owned in the
vicinity of Geneva. Her husband, after a reign as King of Holland of a
little over four years, had abdicated in July, 1810. He was now a melancholy
wanderer, separated from his family, seeking health, living as a recluse, and
devoting himself very sedulously to literary pursuits.
On the evening of her departure from  Paris, Hortense wrote, "I have
been obliged to quit Paris, having been positively expelled from it by the
allied armies. So greatly am I, a feeble woman with her two children, dreaded,
that the enemies' troops are posted all along our route, as they say, to protect
our passage, but, in reality, to insure our departure."
The Bourbons, well knowing how general and eager, in France, was the
desire for the restoration of the empire, while rejoicing that England had
chained Napoleon to the rock of St. Helena with links which could. not be
broken, trembled at the thought of having Queen Hortense, with the two
young princes, so near to France as Switzerland. She had scarcely entered
upon her residence there, with the title of the Duchess of St. Leu, ere the
French minister entered such a remonstrance to the Swiss Government, that
she was ordered to leave the territory.  She then went to Aix, in Savoy,
where, in the days of her prosperity, she had established a hospital. Here, by
a decision of the Parisian courts, she was compelled to surrender her elder
son, Napoleon Louis, to his father; while she retained the younger, Louis
Napoleon, with her. The separation was a terrible trial, not only to Hortense,
but also to the two brothers. The parting is said to have been very affecting;
Louis Napoleon throwing his arms around the neck of his brother, and weeping as though his heart would break. Napoleon the elder was a bold, resolute, high-spirited lad; while Louis, more like lis father, was reserved, retiring, pensive, and reflective. The thoughtful boy, thus deprived of the
companionship of his brother, turned, with all the full flow of his affectionate
nature, to his mother.*
Soon the Sardinian Government found it not expedient to retain within'its
borders a family whose name was so much feared by the Bourbons, then
reigning in France; and Hortense, thus persecuted, was compelled to seek
another home. Having, after much difficulty, obtained permission to pass
through Switzerland, she directed her steps to Constance, in the Grand
Duchy of Baden.
A cousin of Hortense, Stephanie Beauharnais, had married the Grand Duke
of Baden. Hortense hoped that her cousin would allow herself and child
to reside in the duchy.  She therefore, accompanied by her son, his tutor the
* In the separation which had taken place between Hortense and Louis, the father claimed
the children. There was an appeal to the courts. The judgment gave the eldest son to the
father.
6




34                      LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
Abbe Bertrand, Mademoiselle Cochelet her reader, and a single servant, left
Aix; and after encountering many obstacles on her journey, from the jealousy
and fear of the French and Swiss authorities, she reached the city of
Constance.
Here, to her great disappointment and grief, she immediately received information, that, however anxious the grand duke and duchess might be to
afford her hospitable shelter, they were under the control of higher powers,
and they must, therefore, request her to leave the duchy without delay.
The cold winds of November were sweeping over those northern latitudes.
Hortense, fatherless and motherless, estranged from  her husband, bereft of
one of her children, an exile, in very feeble health, persecuted by all the
powers of Europe, knew  not where to go or what to do.   France had
banished her; Switzerland, in obedience to Bourbon command, had driven her
from  its territory; Savoy had refused to receive her; and now  Baden,
which seemed to be her last hope, for there her cousins reigned, shut its door
in her face, and ordered her immediately to depart.
Thus assailed by misfortune, she wrote an imploring letter to her cousins
the Duke and Duchess of Baden, stating'the feebleness of her health, the
severity of the weather, her utter friendlessness, and begging permission to
remain only to the ensuing spring.
In reply, she received a private letter from the grand duchess, her cousin
Stephanie, assuring her of her sympathy, of the gladness with which she
would openly cherish her if she dared to do so; and saying, in conclusion,
"Have patience, and do not be uneasy. Perhaps all will be right by spring.
By that time, passions will have calmed, and many things will have been forgotten."
Comforted by these private assurances, she rented a small house upon the
western shore of the beautiful Lake of Constance, where, for several months,
she remained unmolested.  Her private fortune was ample. Her brother
Eugene, whom  she loved most tenderly, had married the daughter of the
King of Bavaria;. and he, also in the enjoyment of abundant means, took up
his abode near his sister.
In this obscure home, comforted by the caresses of her youngest child and
cheered by the frequent companionship of her beloved brother, she gradually
regained tranquillity; and her health became greatly improved. The scenery
around the lake was very romantic. Illustrious personages, who, during the
glories of the empire, had filled the world with their renown, frequently
visited her and Prince Eugene.  She devoted herself assiduously to the
education of her son; never allowing him to forget the name he bore, or the
political principles which his uncle had proclaimied upon the banners of
the empire throughout the continent of Europe.  Eagerly this thoughtful,
solitary child must have listened to the conversation of the generals and statesmen, who, in the saloons of his mother, recalled the glories of the empire.
Hortense was intellectually a very superior woman; and her natural powers
had been expanded and trained by the most careful culture. Her literary
attainments were very considerable, and her musical accomplishments were of
the highest order. It was at this time that she composed that celebrated




CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.                              35
French air called "The Knight-Errant," or "Partant pour la Syrie le jeune et
beau Dunois."  She excelled in drawing and painting.  With a.very retentive memory, all the brilliant scenes of the past were fresh in her mind, and
all the incidents of the days of her prosperity were ever at her command;
and her modest mansion became the seat of elegance and hospitality.
Lady Blessington gives the following description of Queen Hortense:
"Though prepared to meet in Hortense Bonaparte, Ex-Queen of Holland, a
woman possessed of no ordinary powers of captivation, she has, I confess, far
exceeded my expectations.  I have seen her frequently, and spent two hours
"yesterday in her society. Never did' time fly away with greater rapidity than
while listening to her conversation, and hearing her sing those charming little
French romances written and composed by herself, which, though I had
always admired them, never previously struck me as being so expressive and
graceful as tlhy now proved to be.
"I know not that I ever encountered a person with so fine a tact, or so
quick an apprehension, as the Duchess of St. Leu. These give her the power
of rapidly forming an appreciation of those with whom  she comes in contact,
and of suiting the subjects of conversation to their tastes and comprehensions.
Thus with the grave she is serious; with the lively, gay; and, with the scientific, she only permits just a sufficient extent of her savoir to be revealed, to
encourage the development of theirs.
"She is, in fact,'all things to all men,' without, at the same time, losing a
single portion of her own natural character, -a peculiarity of which seems to
be the desire, as well as the power, of sending all away, who approach her,
satisfied with themselves, and delighted with her. Yet there is no  unworthy
concession of opinions made, or tacit acquaintance yielded, to conciliate
popularity.  She assents to or dissents from the sentiments of others with a
mildness and good sense that gratifies those with whom  she coincides, or
disarms those from whom she differs."
The opening spring of 1816 found Queen Hortense, and her son Louis
Napoleon, who was then eight years of age, still residing in their secluded
home upon the shores of the Lake of Constance.  She then made a visit to
her brother Eugene, who was residing at one of the country-seats of his
father-in-law, the King of Bavaria. The summer she passed at a very retired
watering-place called the baths of Geiss, among the mountains of Appensell.
Her son was here her constant and'almost only companion: her whole attention was devoted to his education.  She taught him  drawing and dancing
herself, and every Saturday spent much of the day in reviewing his studies
during the week. The Abbe Bertrand was still his private tutor.  Subsequently, Ml. Lebas, professor at the Athenmeum at Paris, became his instructor
in the classics. IHe thus enjoyed every advantage which a child could enjoy
for laying the foundation of a solid and liberal education.
The summer passed rapidly away. But the Bourbons, who had been
placed upon the throne of France, and who were still sustained there by
foreign armies, could not rest in peace while one of the heirs of the great
emperor, who had been placed upon the throne by the divine right of the
almost unanimnous voice of the French people, was so near to the territory of




36                       LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
France. Louis, though but a child of eight years, bore the charmed name of
Napoleon,-a name which could, almost at any moment, rouse the masses
of the French people to frenzy.
The alarm  of the Bourbons was so great, that the Grand Duke of Baden,
early in the year 1817, received peremptory orders from the allies, that he
must immediately expel Hoitense and her child from his dominions.
In the extreme north-eastern borders of Switzerland, on the southern shores
of the Lake of Constance, there is the little canton of Thurgovia. Hortense
had occasionally, in her drives, entered the canton, and had observed and
admired a very beautiful estate called Arenemberg, which. commanded an
extensive view of the Lake of Constance, here spreading out into almost the
grandeur of the ocean, with towering mountains near Iy. The althorities of
this renote canton consented that she should take refuge there.  She therefore purchased the estate for sixty thousand francs. This beautiful retreat
became the home of Hortense until she died. It is still, we believe, in the
possession of her illustrious son. Had Hortense known the career whiclh was
to be opened before her child, she could not more assiduously have devoted
herself to prepare him for it by all appropriate physical, moral, and intellectual training.
He learned fencing, riding, swimming.  In all these manly exercises he
became a proficient. It is said that he often spent hours in the lake, sporting
among its waves. He studied the ancient classics and modern languages, polite literature, and the exact sciences. Here, in the seclusion of Arenemberg,
he laid the foundation of that education which now classes him among the
most accomplished men of the day. It is said that he speaks French, English,
Italian, and German with almost equal fluency. There are few men tb be
found who are more conversant with all branches of knowledge.?
Iis older brother, Napoleon Louis, was then with his father in Florence.
Louis Napoleon was alone with his mother in the picturesque solitude of
Arenemberg. As his mother had ample pecuniary means, she was enabled to
furnish her son with all the private tutors he needecl. Many anecdotes are
related illustrative of his character in these early years.
His mother one day censured him for giving away something of which she
had made him a present. His characteristic reply was, " Mother, I am certain
that you wished to cause me pleasure by the present; and I have now had a
twofold pleasure, -first in receiving the gift from you, and then in giving it
to another."
The young prirtce was very fond of a lad, the son of a miller, who resided
not far from the chateau. He frequently went to play with this boy at the
mill.  One day, Mademoiselle Cochelet, who was his mother's reader, saw
young Louis returning from the mill in very singular plight. IIe was in his
shirt-sleeves, and was walking home, evidently trying to avoid observation,
barefooted in the melting snow and mud. He hoped to reach his room
unobserved; but, upon being detected, it appeared, that, while he was playing
* Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, sur des Documents particuliers et authentiqucs, par
B. Renault, p. 70.




CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.                           37
at the entrance to the garden, he had seen a family go by whose poverty and
misery so oppressed him, that he took off his shoes and put them upon the
feet of one of the children, and gave his coat to another," because," as he said,
"he had not any money to give them."
In these early years, Louis Napoleon developed a decided taste for military
studies. There was a regiment garrisoned at Constance, which he often visited, and where he was ever received, under the title of Duke de St. Leu, with
distinction. By order of the federal government of Switzerland, the young
Swiss soldiers met every year in camp at Thun, in the canton of Berne; the
officers to be instructed in engineering and artillery practice, and the troops
to perform grand military manceuvres under the direction of General Dufour,
one of the most distinguished soldiers of the empire.
Young Louis Napoleon gained ready admission to the camp. There he
bivouacked with the soldiers, partook of their rations, and shared in all their
privations and hardships. He often endured the severest fatigue; marching
weary miles, regardless of the weather, with a compass in his hand, and
a knapsack on his back; sometimes even dragging a truck over mountains
and glaciers, through forests and swamps. "My son," wrote Hortense at this
time, " is still occupied in making, with his fellow-students, military excursions
in the mountains.  They travel On foot from ten to twelve leagues a day,'knapsack on back; and at night sleep under a tent at the base of some
glacier."
While the young prince was receiving this physical and intellectual training, his mother never lost an opportunity to instil into his mind those political
principles and moral precepts which she had imbibed from the emperor, who
was then languishing upon the rock of St. Helena. Young Louis remembered
his uncle vividly, and loved him passionately. I-e was told that his uncle was
the chosen emperor of the French people; that an army of a million of foreigners - combined from despotisms who hated Napoleon, because he was the
friend of the masses of the people -had seized him, torn him from France,
and imprisoned him upon a rock in the ocean, leaving him there to die miserably; that nearly all the people of France mourned the loss of Napoleon,
and longed for his return; that his brother and himself were the heirs of the
great emperor; and that the time might yet come when the French people
would be strong enough to rise again, and drive from France the kingls which
foreigners had imposed upon them, and re-establish the empire, and place one
of the heirs of Napoleon upon the throne.
It is not difficult to conceive how vivid an impression these reiterated instructions must have produced upon the sensitive mind of the young prince.
He seemed even then to have imbibed the idea that he was destined to the
throne of France. It is certain that this thought gradually grew to a conviction, so deeply seated that it became part of his very nature. In the darkest
hours of his subsequent career, and in the gloomiest depths of his many griefs,
this faith never forsook him..
In the year 1818, there was a partial reconciliation between Hortense and
her husband; and the two brothers, their children, enjoyed each other's




38                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
society for several months, after having been separated nearly three years.*
They met subsequently, not unfrequently, at Florence, at Rome, and in Arenemberg.  His judicious mother felt it now  to be desirable that her son
should enjoy the advantages of a more public education, and of association
with young men of his age and rank.  She therefore went to Augsburg in
Bavaria, where she entered her two sons in the celebrated gymnasium  or college of that city.t  It will be remembered that her brother Eugene had married a daughter of laximilian, King of Bavaria.  Hortense took a house, since
called Pappenheem  Palace, in Holy-cross Street.  Prince Napoleoi, at the
close of tlhe first year, ranked as twenty-fourth in a class of fifty-six students.
It is said that his rank would have been higher if he had then been more conversant with the German language.  He, however, made rapid progress in the
language, so that he was soon able to express himself in it fluently and correctly.  His favorite studies were history, philosophy, and mathematics.  He
is represented to have been popular with his fellow-students, though he was
naturally retiring and reticent.
Many years after this, on the 2d of September, 1862, there was a general
gathering at Augsburg of the graduates of the gymnasium-four hundred and
fifty in number — in honor of their clncda mater.  Louis Napoleon was then
Emperor of France.  He sent to his ex-school-fellows, in token of his remembrance, five hundred bottles of champagne, and five thousand fiancs ($1,000)
to be distributed among the poor at Augsburg.  The following letter accompanied the gift:ST. CLOUD, Aug. 30, 1862.
MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT,-I have heard with the greatest interest of the
assemblage of the former scholars of the Augsburg Gymnasium, who wish to
celebrate by a banquet the memory of former student-years passed  together;
and I wish, as an ex-pupil, to take part, at least in thought, at this pleasant
festival.
I have never forgotten the  time which I spent in Germany, where  my
mother found a noble hospitality, and I enjoyed the first benefits of education.
Exile offers melancholy though useful experiences.  It teaches us to become
better acquainted with foreign nations, to estimate their good qualities at the,t  The King of Iolland, Louis, after his abdication in 1810, retired into Styrio. When Austria declared war ag-ainst France, he left that province, and sought an asylum  at Lausanne in
Switzerland. There, in the midst of the great distractions which divided Europe, the philosophic
king' had no other ambition but to live obscurely in the bosom of his fiiendship. In 1814, when
all Europe rose against Napoleon, he retired to Rome. Appointed peer of France in 1815, he
took his scat in the Chamber as prince imperial. After the calamity of Waterloo, new domestic
griefs assailed him.
"The annoyances of a legal process, into which he entered against Queen Hortense his wife
to obtain his oldest son, inspired him with such disgust for the world, that from that moment,
wandering listlessly, the sport of fortune, in SWitzerland, in Germany, in Italy, tarrying for
a time wherever he could find shelter from the political storms of Europe, uttering at each halting-place cries of anguish from a heart ulcerated, wounded in its affections, he lived modre than
ever solitary and isolated under the name of Count of St. Leu." — Histoire Politique et Populaire da Prince Louis Nacpoleon, sa Vie, ses Actes, et ses Ecrits, par Eumile Marco Saint-Hilaire,
tom. iii. p. 72.
t Napoleon III. and his Court, by a Retired Diplomatist, p. 15.%




CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.                             39
right value; and, if we are afterwards so fortunate as to tread the soil of our
native land, we still retain the most friendly recollections of the regions in
which the years of youth were passed. Your meeting affords me the opportunity to express these my feelings to you. Receive them as proof of my
hearty sympathy, and the esteem with which I am your well-disposed
NAPOLEON.*
On one occasion, Louis Napoleon was visiting his aunt, the Grand Duchess
of Baden. He was taking a walk upon the banks of the Rhine with his aunt,
his two cousins, the Princesses Josephine and Maria, and several members of
the court. The conversation turned upon the gallantry of gentlemen in olden
time. The Princess Maria, a very spirited, vivacious girl, extolled in the highest terms the chivalry of those ancient days when the knight took for his
motto, "God, my king, and my lady;" and insisted that the gentlemen of modern times had sadly degenerated. Louis Napoleon, with great ardor, espoused
the other side of the question, affirming that the modern gentleman had no
less of true chivalric devotion than the knight-errant of past ages. "In all
time," said he, "this devotion has never been wanting to a lady who was
worthy of inspiring it."
Just as he had uttered these words, a wintry gust- for it was winter -
tore from the head-dress of his cousin Maria a flower, and swept it into the
river. "There!" said the vivacious princess, pointing to the flower as it was
borne rapidly down the swift and dark current of the stream: "what an excellent opportunity that would have been for an ancient knight! "
"Ah, my cousin! " said Napoleon, "it is a challenge, is it?  Very well: I
accept it."
Immediately he plunged, dressed as he was, into the water.  The river was
swollen by the melting snows into a turbid flood. The grand duchess and
the whole party were thrown into the greatest consternation as they saw the
gallant young prince swept down the stream. They ran along the banks,
shouting, in their terror, for help. But Napoleon, being a remarkable swimmer, regained the flower, and, clambering up the bank, presented it with a
bow to Maria, saying, " Here is the flower, my fair cousin; but I entreat you,"
he added, laughing, as he pointed to his dripping clothes, " for the future, to
forget your knights of old." t
In consequence of the partial reconciliation which had happily taken place
betyeen Hortense and her husband, the two young princes were now frequently together.  Hortense spent her summers in Arenemberg, and her
winters in Rome, where her husband resided. At Rome, her residence was
the centre of the most brilliant and polished society of the city. Young
Louis Napoleon here saw the most distinguished men from  all lands, olcd
friends of the empire, who never permitted him to forget the noble name he
bore. Pauline Bonaparte, whom Canova pronounced to be the most peerless
model of beauty, in form and features, to be found in Europe, and who had
* Napoleon III. and his Court, by a Retired Diplomatist, p. 18.
I Ilistoire complete de Napoleon III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 24,




40                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
married the Prince Borghese, also resided in the immediate vicinity; and
Hortense and her son spent much of their time with her.
Prince Borghese, a descendant of one of the most ancient and proud of
Italian families, was the inheritor of great wealth. He enjoyed from his own
estates an ahnual income of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In
addition to this, he received a dowry with his young wife of two million
five hundred thousand dollars. The marriage of Pauline, who was then the
young widow of General Le Clerc, with Prince Borghese, was considered as
one of the most brilliant alliances which had ever taken place in Europe. The
lot of Pauline was a very remarkable one. She had wealth, rank, beauty, health,
brilliant intellect, and was endowed with almost every accomplishment. The
prince had, in the vicinity of Rome, one of the most magnificent villas in the
world. Such was the home which the young Prince Louis Napoleon enjoyed
with his mother when they were in Rome.
In reference to the reports which have been so extensively circulated
injurious to the reputation of Pauline, the Berkeley Men say, " No satisfactory
evidence has ever been adduced, in any quarter, that Pauline was not a
virtuous woman. Those who were mainly instrumental in originating and
circulating these slanders at the time about her were the very persons who
had endeavored to load the name of Josephine with obloquy." *
Sir Walter Scott, in reply to an infamous story started by Fouche respecting Pauline and her imperial brother, says, "The gross and guilty enormities
of the ancient Roman emperors do not belong to the character of Bonaparte,
though foul aspersions have been cast upon him by those who were willing
to represent him as in all respects a counterpart of Tiberius and Caligula."
Pauline loved her brother Napoleon with devotion which has, perhaps,
never been surpassed. Upon his downfall, she placed at his disposal all her
fortune and her private jewels. She followed him to Elba; and when the
captive was dying at St. Helena, without a relative permitted to be near him
to close his eyes, she wrote to the British'Government, -
"' The malady by which the emperoi is attacked will prove mortal at St.
Helena. In the name of all the members of the family, I ask for a change of
climate. If so reasonable a request be denied, it will be a sentence of death
pronounced on him; in which case, I beg permission to depart for St. Helena,
to join my brother, and receive his parting breath. I know that the moments
of his life are numbered; and I should eternally reproach myself if I did not
use all the means in my power to assuage the sufferings of his last hours,.and
prove my devotion to him."
The government refused to remove Napoleon, but granted Pauline's request to go to St. Helena. The permission, however, came too late: Napoleon was already dead.
In the villa of Pauline, young Prince Louis Napoleon was not likely to
have the enthusiasm abated with which his mother had taught him to regard
his uncle. Pauline was the idol of the brilliant circles which were gathered
in her magnificent saloons. The old generals of the empire, the statesmen
* The Napoleon Dynasty, by the Berkeley Men, p. 477.




CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.                            41
and the scholars of those.days of renown, were always welcomed to the more
than regal hospitality of her home. Louis Napoleon silently listened to their
conversation as they recounted the achievements of his uncle; and, as he
mused, the fire burned.
Thus the period of youth passed away. The year 1830 came. Louis Napoleon was then twenty-two years of age. In July of that year, as he was
at Rome with his mother, the exciting tidings reached them, that the French
people had again risen, and driven out the Bourbons. All Italy was instantly
thrown into a tumult of insurrection. Before describing the scenes which
ensued, we must turn back a few leaves of the pages of history.
6




CHAPTER III.
THE TREATIES OF 1815, AND  THE ATTEMPTS TO  OVERTHROW  THEM.
Invasion of France. - Congress of Vienna.-Anecdote.- Parcelling out of Italy.- Plans of
Napoleon I. - Carbonari. - Insurrection in Italy. - The Insurrection crushed by the Austrians. - Louis XVIII.: his.haracter. - The Countess de Cala. - Expulsion of Charles
X. - Battles and Diplomacy. - Abdication of the King in Favor of the Duke de Bordeaux
as Henry V. -Flight of the Royal Family. - Assassination of the Duke de Berri. - Strife of
Parties. - Interview of Chateaubriand with the Orleans Family. - Speech of Chateaubriand.
- Anecdote. - Enthronement of Louis Philippe.
LIEN, in the year 1815, the empire of the first Napoleon was
demolished by more than a millin        of foreign bayonets, and
the Bourbons were forced  upon  France, the allies, having
garrisoned all the fortresses of the subjugated kingdlomn  with
foreign troops,* assembled an army of one hundred and sixty
thousand Russians upon the Plains of Chalons.  At the signal
of a gun, three cheers were given by this multitudinous throng.  It was the
despot's shout of victory, defiant and exultant; probably the most awful roar
of human voices ever heard upon earth: the thunders of that cry reverberated
through France, and fell upon the ear of the enslaved nation as the knell of a
hopeless doom.
Alison, speaking of this event, says, "Even at this distance of time, those
cheers sound, as it were, fresh in the ears of those who heard them.  Their
sublimity, like the roar of the ocean when near, and gradually melting away
in the distance, was altogether overpowering.  A  general salute was then
given by a rolling fire along the lines, from  right to left: the Russians then
broke from their lines into grand columns of regiments, and marched past the
sovereigns in splendid array.' Well, Charles,' said the Duke of Wellington to
Sir Charles Stuart, now Marquis of Londonderry,'you and I never saw such
a sight before, and never shall again.'" t
The allied sovereigns, having thus crushed thb  empire, with its principle,
so obnoxious to them, of equal rights for all men, met in congress at Vienna
to divide Europe between them: it was their great object so to re-organize
the Continent as to render it impossible for the people again to rise in.advo* Les Traites de 1815; Texte des Traites et Conventions Diplomatiques de 1814, 1815, et
1818; entre la France et des Puissance Allies, Paris. A. Bourdilliat et Cie., 6diteurs, p. 125.
t Alison, vol. iv. p. 545..
42




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                          43
cacy of those popular rights which had been so widely proclaimed upon the
banners of the empire.
This congress, taking its name from the year of its session, which was
mainly 1815, was composed of a motley, discordant, contentious assemblage, held together but by the single bQn'd of a common hatred of those
principles of equal rights for all which Napoleon had so grandly maintained
in France, and which the masses of the people in all the nations of Europe
were so eagerly coveting.  This assembly of kings constituted the most
formidable conspiracy against the rights of humanity of which we have any
record. Truly does " The British Quarterly " say, —
"The treaties of Vienna in 1815, though the most desperate efforts have
been made by the English diplomatists to embalm them  as monuments of
political wisdom, should be got under ground with all possible despatch; for
no compacts so worthless, so wicked, so utterly subversive of the rights of
humanity, are to be found in the annals of nations."
The following incident illustrates the principles which reigned in this congress. Metternich, its presiding officer, gave a banquet. At the table, the
conversation turned upon those principles of popular equality, for the advocacy of which Napoleon was then entering upon the long agony of St. Helena.
After dinner, Lord Castlereagh and Metternich stepped out upon a balcony
which commanded an extensive view of the surrounding country. Metternich
pointed to the peasants-men, women, and girls -toiling in the fields, and said,
"Behold, my lord, the true philosophy of society! - gentlemen in the parlor,
laborers in the field, and an impassable gulf between them."
There were personally present at the Congress of Vienna the emperors of
Austria And Russia, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg,
and a large number of grand dukes and princes.  The Pope was represented
by Cardinal Consalvi. Great Britain intrusted her interests to Lord Castlereagh, the Duke of Wellington, and Lords Cathcart, Clancarty, and Stuart.
The Bourbons of France were represented by Talleyrand and others. Aletternich, the Austrian minister, presided over the deliberations. Mlost of the
questions were decided by the five great powers, - England, Austria, Russia,
Prussia, and the Bourbons of France. In some cases, the minor powers —
Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, and Sardinia — were permitted to take
part in the deliberations.
We can refer to but a few of the measures of this congress as a specimen
of the rest. The kingdoms of Italy which Napoleon had aided the Italians
to establish, with freedom of conscience and equal rights for all, were overthrown, and the old and loathsome regimes of civil and religious despotisms
were re-inaugurated.
"The Encyclopemdia Americana," in a very able article upon Italy, says, " If
the downfall of Napoleon is regretted in any quarter of the world, it is in
Italy. This country had become destitute of every element of national life:
its commerce was fettered by numerous political divisions, its administration
poisoned and vitiated to a degree of which none can have an idea but an eyewitness; the cultivation of the ground impoverished by the heavy rents which
they had to pay to the land-holders; science enslaved by the sway of the




44                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
clergy; the noblemen, distrusted by the foreign governments, and not admitted
to offices of importance, had lost energy and activity: in fact, hardly any thing
could be said to flourish, with the exception of music, and, to a certain degree,
other fine arts.
"Under Napoleon, every thing was changed. Italian armies were created,
which gave birth to a sense of military honor amnong the people.  The
organization of the judicial tribunals was improved, and justice much better
administered.  Industry was awakened and encouraged. Schools received
new  attention, and the sciences were concentrated in large and effective
learned societies. In short, a new life was awakened; and no Italian or German who wishes well to his country can read, without deep interest, the
passage in Las Casas''Memorial' in which Napoleon's views on those two
countries are given. His prophecy that Italy will one clay be united, we hope
will be fulfilled. Union has been the ardent wish of Italians for centuries,
and the want of it is the great cause of the suffering of this beautiful and
unfortunate country."
The following is the passage recorded by Las Casas, to which the above
writer refers: " One of my great plans," said the emperor, "was the rejoining,
the concentration, of those same geographical nations which have been disunited and parcelled out by revolution and policy. There are dispersed in
Europe upwards of thirty millions of French, fifteen millions of Spaniards,
fifteen millions of Italians, and thirty millions of Germans; and it was my
intention to incorporate these several peoples, each into one nation. It would
have been a noble thing to have advanced into posterity with such a train,
and attended by the blessings of future ages. I felt myself worthy of this
glory.
" After this summary simplification, it would have been possible to indulge
the chimera of the beau-ideal of civilization.  In this state of things, there
would have been some chance of establishing in every country a unity of
codes, of principles, of opinions, of sentiments, views, and interests. Then,
perhaps, by the help of the universal diffusion of knowledge, one might have
thought of attempting in the great European family the application of the
American Congress'or the Amphyctions of Greece. What a perspective of
power, grandeur, happiness, and prosperity, would thus have appeared!
"The concentration of thirty or forty millions of Frenchmen was completed and perfected; that of fifteen millions of Spaniards was nearly
accomplished.  Three or four years would have restored the Spaniards to
profound peace and brilliant prosperity. They would have become a compact
nation, and I should have well deserved their gratitude; for I should have
saved them from the tyranny by which they are now oppressed, and the
terrible agitations that await them.
" With regard to the fifteen millions of Italians, their concentration was
already far advanced: it only wanted maturity.  The people were daily
becoming more firmly established in the unity of principles and legislation,
and also in the unity of thought and feeling,-that certain and infallible
cement of human concentration. The union of Piedmont to France, and the
junction of Parma, Tuscany, and Rome, were, in my mind, only temporary




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                         45
measures, intended merely to guarantee and promote the national education
of the Italians.
"All the south of Europe would soon have been rendered compact in point
of locality, views, opinions, sentiments, and interests. In this state of things,
what would have been the weight of all the nations of the north?  What
human efforts could have broken through so strong a barrier? The concentration of the Germans must have been effected more gradually, and therefore I had done no more than simplify their monstrous complication. How
happens it that no German prince has yet formed a just notion of the spirit
of his nation, and turned it to good account?   Certainly, if Heaven had
made me a prince of Germany, amid the critical events of our times, I should
infallibly have governed the thirty millions of Germans combined.
"At all events, this concentration will be brought about sooner'or later by
the very force of events. The impulse is given; and I think, that, since my
fall and the-destruction of my system, no grand equilibrium can possibly be
established in Europe, except by the concentration and confederation of the
principal nations.  The sovereign, who, in the first great conflict, shall
sincerely embrace the cause of the people, will find himself at the head of
all Europe, and may attempt whatever he pleases."
Such was the condition of Italy, and such the plans of Napoleon, at the
time of his downfall. As the Italians had, for a short time, enjoyed the blessings of a government instituted for the benefit of the masses of the people,
it was well known that they would be restive under the tyranny re-imposed
upon them.  Italy was therefore cut up by the allies at Vienna into fragments, and so parcelled out as to render any rising of the people almost
impossible.
The Emperor of Austria received the territory of Venetia, and the whole
of Lombardy as far westward as the Ticino. These two provinces, containing
over seventeen thousand square miles and above five millions of inhabitants,
he organized into a monarchy, which he called the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. This realm the Emperor of Austria governed through one of the
Austrian dukes, who was constituted viceroy at Milan. From the people,
thus enslaved, Austria extorted an annual revenue of one hundred and seventy
million livres, - about thirty-four million dollars.
The little province of Modena, which was about as large as the State of
Delaware, was reconstituted into a duchy, and was conferred upon one of the
nephews of the Austrian emperor.  The duchy contained a population of
about five hundred thousand, and afforded a revenue of one million five
hundred thousand dollars.
Parma was also re-organized into a duchy of about the same size and population as Modena. Its government and revenues were conferred upon Maria
Louisa, the daughter of Francis I., who had been either voluntarily or involuntarily separated from Napoleon, her husband, and carried back to her parental
home. The grand duchy of Tuscany, being a thousand square miles larger
than the State of Massachusetts, with a population of one and a half millions
and a revenue of five millions, was given to the Austrian emperor's son,
Ferdinand. The States of the Church, consisting of nineteen departments,




46                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
with a total area of seventeen thousand square miles, being about twice as
large as the State of New Jersey, with a population of about three millions,
were restored to the temporal dominion of the Pope.
From the lower part of Italy the kingdom  of Naples was cut off, containing about forty-two thousand square miles, being about the size of the State
of Louisiana, and given back to that hoary debauchee, Ferdinand, who had
married a daughter of the Austrian emperor, and who was as merciless and
contemptible a tyrant as ever sat upon a throne.
Sardinia, on the extreme western frontier of Italy, and bordering upon
France, was a realm about two hundred miles long and two hundred and
forty broad. It contained a population of four and a half millions. Its annual revenue has been nearly thirty millions of dollars. This little kingdom,
with the adldition of Piedmont, Savoy, and the provinces of Genoa, was assigned to Victor Emanuel I., who had for some time possessed, as his liliputian realm, simply the Island of Sardinia.
Thus it will be seen that the whole of Italy, with the exception of Sardinia,
was surrendered to Austria, and was virtually cut up into provinces of the
Austrian Empire. Every privilege which the Italian people had gained in the
line of popular rights was taken from them;'and they were delivered, bound
hand and foot, to their old masters.
Five years passed away, during which the discontent of the Italian people
rapidly increased. In Naples, which, under the beneficent reign of Joseph
Bonaparte and Murat, had enjoyed the Code Napoleon, Ferdinand re-instituted
all the tyranny of the old regime. - The taxes were increased. All the public
works which the French had planned were neglected, and many which they
had executed were permitted to fall into decay. The education of the people
was entirely abandoned; for the funds which had been appropriated for that
object were needed to supply the voluptuousness of the court.
In defiance of dungeons and death, the murmurs of the Italian people gradually became so loud, that it was manifest to all observers that troubles were
at hand. A secret society was organized, or rather revived, called the Carbonari. The object of this society was to liberate Italy fiom Austrian sway,
and to establish a monarchy, with a constitution which would insure civil and
religious liberty. This society spread with such unprecedented rapidity, that
it is said, that in the month of March, 1820, six hundred and fifty thousand
members were admitted. Louis Napoleon and his brother both enrolled their
names on the list of this secret and formidable association, though we do not
know the precise date of their membership. Nearly the whole genius, intelligence, and patriotism of Italy were to be found in the ranks of the Carbonari.*
This powerful organization had its branches all over Europe. "It is now
known," says Alison, "by the best of all evidence,-the admission of their ablest
and best-informed partisans,  that, during the whole restoration, the Liberal
party were engaged in one vast conspiracy for the overthrow of the elder
branch of the house of Bourbon."t The most renowned leaders of this party,
* See Encyclopaedia Americana, art. "Carbonari."
t Alison, vol. ii. p. 183.




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                           47
such as General Lafayette, B. Constant, N. Manuel, were enlisted in this effort.
Louis Blanc informs us that the Carbonari, in a very short space of time, spread
through all the quarters of Paris. It invaded all the schools. A penetrating
fire seemed to circulate through the veins of the young men. Every one kept
his secret. Every one proved himself a devotee. The duties of the Carbonari were to have a musket and fifty cartridges, and to be ready to devote themselves, with blind obedience, to the orders of their unknown chief. There
was, at that time, a parliamentary committee to which Lafayette  belonged.
Lafayette joined the Carbonari, and many of his colleagues followed him.
Such vigorous measures were adopted by this secret society, that, in the last
months of the year 1821, all things were prepared for insurrections in nine of
the most important cities of France. The basis of a constitution was drawn
up. A provisional government was organized of five directors, with Lafayette
at their head. This attempt, however, at a revolution, was a failure.*
In Italy, the ins*rection burst forth at Avalino, about fifty miles west of
Naples, in the month of July, 1820. The soldiers at that post promptly fraternized with the insurgent people. The emeute spread like wildfire, and the
court at Naples was plunged into consternation, The students, the professional men, the whole intelligent class, and nearly entire regiments of native
soldiers, rallied to the cry of " The Constitution! "  The king, in his terror,
yielded, and took an Qath, sanctioned by all the solemnities of religion, to
adopt and maintain a free constitution founded upon the principles of the
Code Napoleon.
The success of this movement in the kingdom  of Naples roused the people
in the Papal States. Nearly the whole population sprang to arms. They were,
however, mercilessly shot down by the well-trained troops; and the movement
was drowned in blood.
In Sardinia, the insurrection was still more serious. This little kingdom was
directly on the eastern border of France. A large portion of its territory had
been attached to the empire under Napoleon. Very many of the people were
thoroughly imbued with those popular political principles which Napoleon lhad
infused into all the governments of Europe over which he had obtained an
influence.
In Sardinia, as in France, and as in other portions of Italy, the most influential part of the community, including the educated classes, the officers of
the army, and the merchants, were members of the Carbonari.  The standard
of rebellion against the aristocratic institutions which the treaties of 1815 had
imposed upon them was first raised by the students in the small town of Ardennes. The whole of the little kingdom was immediately thrown into commotion. There seemed to be entire unianimity in the resolve to throw off the
yoke of absolutism, and to establish a constitutional monarchy. In Turin, the
capital, the insurrection was so general and formidable, and the cry rang so
menacingly, through the streets, "Death to the Austrians! " that the Austrian
troops which had been left to garrison the city precipitately retired.  The
Italian tricolor, green, red, and blue, was hoisted on the ramparts of the citadel in the midst of a scene of indescribable tumult and enthusiasm.
* Louis Blanc. Histoire de Dix Ans du iRegne do Louis Philippe, i. pp. 97-99.




48                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
In this emergency, the King of Sardinia held a long conference with his
cabinet and.the princes of the royal family, which continued through the
whole night. IIe was greatly embarrassed, for he was powerless to resist
the unanimous demands of the people; but, before the allies had allowed him
to assume the crown of Sardinia, they extorted from him an oath of fidelity
to the political principles which they advocated. To grant the constitution
was inevitable war, not only with Austria, but with all the despotic powers
which were banded together in the Holy Alliance to prevent the people from
asserting their rights.
In this dilemma, the king decided to abdicate. He transmitted the crown
to his brother, Charles Felix, who was then at Modena. Charles Albert, Prince
of Carigan; was appointed regent. The abdicated king, with the royal family
and a large escort, left Turin for Nice. The new government immediately
adopted the constitution which the people were so impetuously demanding.
Thus both Naples and Sardinia had broken from the treaties of 1815, anl
were instituting governments which contained the germs, at least, of civil and
religious liberty.  This, however, was but the commencement of the arduous
work which they had undertaken. Russia, Austria, and Prussia had signed
in Paris, in September, 1815, a treaty of what they called a Holy Alliance, in
which they mutually pledged the whole power of their military organization
to crush any uprisings of the people in favor of liberty, — an alliance which
Lord Brougham truly stigmatized as "nothing but a convehtion for the enslaving of mankind under the mask of piety and religion." *
Austria immediately appealed to Russia and Prussia to aid in quelling the
popular movement in Italy. Nearly the whole military force of Austria was
instantly in motion, crowding by forced marches, through the defiles of the
Tyrol, upon the plains of doomed Italy. The Prussian artny followed behind.
In their rear came pressing on one hundred thousand Russian troops. In the
words of the treaty, "The three allied sovereigns, regarding themselves but as
delegates appointed by Providence to govern three branches of the same family,-to wit, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, —will render to each other, on
every occasion and under all circumstances, assistance, aid, and succor."
The storm, resistless as the avalanche, fell first upon Naples. The treacherous King Ferdinand, who had reluctantly granted the constitution, fled from
his kingdom, joined the Austrian army, and came back in the rear of its batteries. A few sanguinary and hopeless conflicts terminated the strife. The
banners of liberty were trampled in the dust, the constitution torn to shreds,
and all the leading patriots were sent to the galleys, or shot or hanged. Fortytwo thousand Austrian troops, including seven thousand cavalry, were placed
in the fortresses of the reconquered kingdom to hold the people in subjection.
And now the "Holy Allies" directed the march of their armies to Sardinia
to settle the account with that unhappy realm. What could Sardinia do to
resist Austria, Russia, and Prussia united? Not the shadow of a hope remained.  The Austrians, in overpowering pumbers, took possession of the
realm. The new king, Charles Felix, joined them  at Novara, aided them in
* Les Traites de 1815, A. Boudilliat et Cie., tditeurs, p. 107. Paris,q1859.




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                           49
recapturing the Piedmont fortresses, and, at the head of their columns, made
his public entrance into Turin. The popular cause was as effectually crushed
in Sardinia as in the kingdom of Naples, and the old authority of absolutism
re-established. Confiscations and executions followed mercilessly. Austrian
detachments were placed in all the principal fortresses. The Sardinians were
compelled to support these foreign troops at an expense of a hundred thousand dollars a month, and thirteen thousand rations daily.
Thus terminated the first efforts of the Italians, in the years 1820 and 1821,
to throw off the yoke imposed upon them  by the treaties of 1815. At this
time, Louis Napoleon was but twelve years of age. Busily engaged in his
studies at Arenemberg, he could take no part in the strife; though it is very
certain that the sympathies of the thoughtful child were with the patriot Italians, who were so heroically struggling to regain the popular rights of which
the allies had deprived them. Ten years more passed away, while France and
all Europe were held in the chains imposed, by the Congress of Vienna.
Upon the overthrow of Napoleon, the allies had placed Louis XVIII. upon
the throne of France. The proud nation felt indignant and disgraced in having a king imposed upon them  by foreigners; but allied Europe had conquered France, and submission was inevitable.
"Although the age and infirmities of the king," says Alison, "prevented him
fiom becoming the slave of the passions which had disgraced so many of his
race, and his disposition had always made him more inclined to the pleasures
of the table than to those of love, yet he was by no means insensible to female charms, and was extremely fond of the conversation of elegant and wellinformed women. He piqued himself, though neither young nor handsome,
upon his power of rendering himself agreeable to them in the way which he
alone desired, which was within the limits of Platonic attachment.
" He had a remarkable facility in expressing himself, both verbally and in
writing, in elegant and complimentary language towards them.  He spent
several hours every dcay in this refined species of trifling; and prided himself
as much on the turn of his flattery in notes to ladies, as on the charter which
was to give liberty to France, and peace to Europe. Aware of this disposition on the part of the sovereign, the Royalists, in whose saloons such a person was most likely to be found, had for a long time been on the lookout for
some lady attached t ttheir principles, who might win the confidence of Louis,
and insensibly insinuate her ideas on politics in the midst of the complimentary trifling or unreserved confidence of the boudoir. Such a person was
found in a young and beautiful woman then in Paris, who united a graceful
exterior to great powers of conversation, and' an entire command of diplomatic tact and address; and to her influence the future policy of his reign is
in a. great degree to be traced."
This fascinating woman, Madame la Comtesse du Cayla, had been the
school-companion of Hortense, under Madame Campan.  She was now separated from her husband, in consequence of total want of congeniality of feel* For a more minute account of these scenes, to which we here can only briefly allude, see
Alison's History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, vol. i.
7




50                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
ing, and was residing, as a friend, in the family of the Prince of Conde. By
stratagem, she was introduced to the king. He was instantly dazzled by her
grace and beauty.  So admirably did she perform her part, that she obtained
the entire ascendency over the mind of the weak old man, whose obesity was.
such, that he had to be wheeled about his room  in. a chair.  Several hours
every day she spent in the presence of the monarch, who seemed ever uneasy
when she was out of his sight.  By this secret influence the king was governed, and the destinies of France controlled.  Such was the man in whose
hands the allies had placed the sceptre which the French people, by the voice
of universal suffrage, had intrusted to Napoleon.  In 1824, Louis XVIII.
died; and his brother, the Count d'Artois, with the title of Charles X., assumed
the crown. The French could not forget that he belonged to that Bourbon
family whom they had already twice driven from the throne.
The year 1830 had now come. Fifteen years had passed away since the
allied armies of Europe had  overthrown the empire, and restored  the
monarchy of the old riegime. During all these fifteen years, the people of
France had been growing increasingly restive under the galling yoke imposed
upon them.  Charles X., alarmed by the prevalence of liberal ideas, appointed
a ministry, every individual of which was a known opponent of liberal principles, and was especially obnoxious to the French people.  The press ventured
to utter loud and bitter remonstrances.  The king, by the advice of these
obnoxious ministers, issued a decree prohibiting the publication of any journals or pamphlets but such as were authorized by the goyernment.  Alison,
quoting from Lamartine, gives the following account of the scene witnessed
when the ordinances were signed containing this decree. It was the 25th of
July, 1830.
*" The ministers were deeply impressed with the step which was about to
be taken: every countenance was grave and serious. Reflection had added
to their anxiety, but had not taken away their courage. Prince Polignac,
after reading the preamble and the ordinances, presented them  to the king
to signi. Charles turned pale.  He hesitated some time before taking the
irrevocable step. At length, after casting his eyes to heaven, he exclaimed,'The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that it is impossible to do
otherwise than I do.' With these words, he signed the ordinances.  The
ministers all countersigned them  in silence: despair was painted on every
visage. None really hoped any thing fiom the step; but all felt it was a duty
to take it. Theydcid so with t.he resignation of martyrs, not with the spirit of
conquerors."
The ministry were acting insanely, but not blindly. The preamble of this
coup d'e'tat shows that the government was not unaware of the wide extension of liberal opinions in France, and that violent resistance was to be anticipated. Prince Polignac, who was, for the occasion, both prime minister and
minister at war, had in Paris an armed force of only 11,550 men; and of these,
in a contest with the people, he could only rely upon the Royal Guard, but four
thousand six hundred strong. But Paris, in insurrection, could furnish two
* Lamartine, Hist. de la Restauration, vi. 290; Lettres de Madame du Cayla, pp. 39, 94.




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                          51
hundred thousand fighting men. Not only many of these were familiar with
arms, but there was a disbanded National Guard, consisting of forty thousand,
who still retained their weapons of war.  In every town in France also, the
masses of the people were unrelentingly hostile to the Bourbon government.
Marshal Marmont, who was extremely unpopular in consequence of the part
he had taken in the capitulation of Paris in 1814, was placed in command of
the royal troops.
On the morning of the 26th of July, the obnoxious ordinances were issued
in the "MIoniteur," and were also conspicuously placarded upon the walls of
Paris. The excitement instantly created was intense. Crowds gathered at
all the corners with anxious and agitated couptenances. As the ordinances
were repeated from mouth to mouth all through the long hours of the beautiful July day, the gathering tumult and indignation indicated to every
observant eye that a storm  was approaching.  The leading statesmen, and
editors of journals, and writers on the Opposition side, met to deliberate upon
what was to be done.  Thus passed the day. As night approached, the
tumult increased.  Cries of " Down with the Bourbons! " " Death t6 the ministry! " resounded through the gloom. The lamps lighting the city were extinguished.  The pavements were torn up, carts overturned, and furniture
thrown from the windows to construct barricades in the streets.  Arms and
ammunition were obtained, and military companies hastily organized. Crowds
of students from the military schools swept the streets, shouting the Marsellaise Hymn, thousands swelling the chorus, -
"To arms, to arms, ye brave!
The avenging sword unsheathe:
March on, march on! all hearts resolved
On liberty or death."
The next morning, the 27th, Paris presented the spectacle of a camp. The
whole distance of the Boulevards, from the Place de la Bastille to theMadeleine, was thronged with excited multitudes, many of whom were armed. The
alarm-bells were ringing, the tricolored flag was unfurled, and it was manifest
that somewhere there was an intellectual head, -a power organizing and
directing the majestic movement. In fact, the leaders of the Liberal party,
thirty in number, most of them  members of the Chamber of Deputies, and
many of them bearing the most distinguished names in France, weWe secretly
assembled in anxious deliberation.  The sound of discharges of musketry
were heard in the streets. The people and the royal troops were in various
places coming into collision. The strife grew more general and desperate as
night approached, the people everywhere in their frantic strength and overpowering numbers gaining the advantage.
As the king's troops, infantry and cavalry, endeavored to clear the streets,
wherever they encountered the barricades they were assailed by a murderous fire from the windows and roofs of the adjacent houses. Another night
came, the night of the 27th. Both parties in ".;'ice gathered their strength
for the renewal of the strife on the morrow.




52                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The morning of the 28th ushered in a clay of terror and of blood. The
royal troops, already compelled to act on the defensive, were concentred at
the Tuileries. From all directions, through all the avenues, the mighty mass
of an insurgent population rolled on to the point of attack. From the towers
of Notre Dame, from the Hotel de Ville, from the spires of twenty churches,
the tricolor banner was floating in the air. Then ensued scenes of tumult
and of carnage which cannot be described: everywhere the people were
becoming stronger, the king's forces weaker. A Provisional Government was
established by the leaders of the insurgents.
Again night closed upon the dreadful scene. The king and the royal family
were at St. Cloud, a few miles out from Paris. With his spy-glass, the king
could see the tricolor, the symbol of successful rebellion, floating frorm the
summit of Notre Dame. It was a sleepless and melancholy night to the royal
family. Each hour seemed to toll the knell of the Bourbon dynasty.
On the morning of the 29th, General Marmont found himself in the Carrousel with but five thousand effective men and eight guns. Many of his troops
had passed over to the people. An army of one hundred thousand combatants, well. armed, and many well disciplined, were crowding upon him.
Lafayette, Guizot, Thiers, were counselling and aiding in the movement.
The National Guard was re-established, and Lafayette appointed its commander-in-chief. The king and his ministers were declared to be the enemies of the nation. The battle was brief, desperate, bloody: the Louvre was
stormed. The royal troops were driven pell-mell out of the Carrousel, through
the Tuileries, into the garden, and thence into the Champs Elysees, from which
they slowly retreated toward St. Cloud. General MIarmont gallopedcacross the
Bois de Boulogne, and informed the king of the discomfiture, the evacuation,
and the retreat. The Bourbon dynasty, which had been forced upon France
by the allied sovereigns at the expense of millions of money and of lives,
was again overthrown. The Provisional Government, established at the Hotel
de Ville, issued a proclamation, declaring that " Charles X. has ceased to
reign in France."
The. king and court fled to Rambouillet, where they arrived at midnight in
the deepest dejection, accompanied by twelve thousand of the Royal Guard,
who had been assembled from various posts for their escort. Here the king
issued a decree, abdicating the throne in favor of his grandson, the Duke of
Bordeaux, who was to be recognized under the title of Henry V. But it was
now too late even for this compromise. As the proclamation was made known
to the inflamed multitude, with one voice they cried, " It is not for Henry
V. that we have fought. Down with the Bourbons!"
The king was soon informed that eighty thousand men had issued from
Paris, and were on the march to attack him. Orders were immediately
issued for the departure of the court for Cherbourg, where the royal family
would embark to take refuge in Engladl. The next morning, the long corteye of carriages, escorted by a small body of the National Guard, was winding its mournful way through the remote provinces of the kingdom to find in
foreign lands a refuge and'a grave. The journey occupied twelve days.
Though the revolution which had proved so triumphant in Paris had spread




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                          53
throughout the whole of France, still the generous people, when they witnessed the utter discomfiture of their fallen monarch, manifested no disposition,
by arrest or insult, to add to his anguish.
The tricolored flag was floating from every turret, proclaiming that the
Bourbon power was at an end in France. The royal ftmily darkened the
windows of their carriages, and in silence and tears continued their flight
until they reached Cherbourg: there the king dismissed his faithful guard
with words broken by sobs, and with the court embarked to take refuge in
the ancient palace of Holyrood, in Scotland, which had been kindly offered to
them by the British Government.
Though the king had fled from France, he had by no means relinquished
the idea that his grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux, in whose favor he had
abdicated, was yet to regain the crown. This young prince was then ten
years of age. As the king took leave of his guard, and received from them
their banners, he said, "These standards which I now take, this child will one
day restore to you."
As this prince, notwithstanding his thirty-seven years of exile, is still regarded by the old Bourbon party as the legitimate sovereign of France, under
the title of Henry V.; as his mother soon made an heroic and desperate
endeavor to regain the crown for him; and as there is a party in France,
embracing all the advocates of the old regine, who are watching for the opportunity when they may raise the banner of what they call legitimacy, and
place Henry V. upon the throne, - it may be well here to give a brief account
of the nature of his claim.
Louis XVIII. had no son to whom he could bequeath his crown: consequently, by natural descent, it passed to his only brother, Charles, the Count
d'Artois. The count had two sons, the Duke d'Angouleme and the Duke de
Berri. The oldest son, the Duke d'Angouleme, had married the only danghter of Louis XVI. They had no children, and the duke was now fifty-five
years of age. The second son, the Duke de Berri, had married the Princess
Caroline of Naples. Their two first children died in infancy; their third was
a daughter Mary, afterwards Duchess of Parma. As, by the salic law, females
could-.not reign in France, the direct Bourbon line would become extinct by
the death of the Dukes of Angouleme and of Berri, unless the Duchess of
Berri should give birth to a son: consequently all the Legitimists were
exceedingly anxious for this event.
In February, 1820, as the duke was leaving the theatre in company with
the duchess, an assassin plunged a poniard to the hilt in his side, and he
almost immediately expired.  The blow was directed at the heir of the monarchy, as the only one from whom the continuance of the direct line of succession could be hoped. It so happened, however, that the duchess was then
enceinte. On the 20th of September, 1820, seven months after the death of
hler husband, she was delivered of a son, who was christened Henry, Duke of
Boirdeaux. The Royalists welcomed the birth of this child with every demonstration of joy. It was in his favor that Charles X. abdicated. The Duchess
de Berri and her child accompanied the fallen monarch to his retreat in Scotland.  The Duke d'Angouleme had waived his rights in favor of his nephew,




54                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
to whom Charles X. had bequeathed his throne. Thus whatever rights there
might be in legitimnacy pertained to. the young Duke of Bordeaux: the
Legitimists have, consequently, ever since regarded him as their lawful sovereign, Henry V.
We must now roturn to Paris. The crown of France was drifting away
upon the billows of revolution, and there were three parties endeavoring to
seize it.  These parties were just then so equally balanced in power, that it
was difficult to say which would gain the ascendency. The Republicans were
perhaps the most prominent. The populace in Paris were i;eady to espouse
that cause; but they had no efficient leader: and the more wealthy and educated classes, entertaining a vivid recollection of the past reigns of anarchy
and terror in France, dreaded the re-establishment of a form of government
for which they felt that France was quite unprepared. The rural peasantry
were also, almost to a man, opposed to a republic.
The Napoleonist or Imperial party existed in smothered embers, which,
though they might at any moment burst into a flame, still, at that moment,
had scarcely any perceptible life. The remains of the renowned emperor had,
for ten years, been mouldering beneath the sod at Longwood. All the members of the Bonaparte family had, for fifteen years, been banished from  the
soil of France, aidl were nearly forgotten. The only son of the emperor, the
Duke de Reichstadt, was pining away in consumption, soon to die,- a prisoner, held by golden chains, in the palaces of Austria. He was then the immediate and direct heir to whatever rights Napoleon could transmit as emperor of France, enthroned by universal suffrage. There was no one to rally and
lead the Imperialists, and the hour for the restoration of the empire had manifestly not yet come.
Should the young Duke of Bordeaux die, the direct branch of the Bourbon
line would become extinct. In that event, the crown would pass to the Duke
of Orleans, Louis Philippe, who was at the head of the collateral branch of
the family. He was a man of ability, of wide experience in the school of
misfortune, of much social excellence, and with strong tendencies to liberal
political opinions. In addition to all this, he was possessed of immense estates,
being the richest man in France. As the life of a frail child of ten years alone
stood between the Duke of Orleans and the crown, a considerable party had,
for some time, been adhering to him.
The Duke of Orleans was on the ground: his friends were all ready for
action: the exigencies of the case would admit of no delay. Lafayette, Guizot, Thiers, and all the rich bankers of Paris, earnestly espoused his cause, as
the most effectual remedy for impending anarchy. For a long time, the scales
of fortune hung equally poised. The Republican leaders were at the' Htel de
Ville. The able men who were striving to secure the ascendency of the Duke
of Orleans were privately gathered in the parlor of the most wealthy banker
of Paris, 1. Lafitte. Two young men, M. Ladvocat and M. Dum6ulin, were
making a movement for organizing a party to proclaim the empire.  Had
there been  at that hour, an heir of the emperor in Paris to have unfurled
the eagles, it is probable that the great mass of the people would have rallied
around that banner with enthusiasm; but for fifteen years, under the Bour



THE TREATIES OF 1815.                             55
bon reign, no member of the imperial family had been permitted to enter
France.
Still, so great was the fear, on the part of the Orleanists, of any Napoleonic
movement, that M. Thiers and M. Mignet, two prominent Orleanists, persuaded
M. Ladvocat to desist from the attempt. The other, M. Dumoulin, being less
pliant, was lure~d into an apartment of the Hotel de Ville for consultation.
Ite was seized, disarmed, and made a prisoner.  "Thus the great name of
Napoleon," says Alison, "that name which had so lately resounded through
the world, and was still worshipped in secret by so many hearts, was scarcely
heard in those eventful cays." *
There were, probably, more efforts made by individuals to bring forward
the name and the claims of the heir to the empire than is now  known.
Unsuccessful efforts are soon forgotten.  The son of Napoleon I., bearing the
title of the Duke of Reichstadt, the immediate heir of whatever rights his
father could transmit as the elected.Emperor of France, was then, in reality,
a captive at Vienna, the colonel of an Austrian regiment, prohibited, under
penalty of death, from entering France.
The Baron de Glandives, Governof of the Tuileries, had an interview with
M. Lafitte, in which the wealthy banker urged him to give his support to the
Duke of Orleans.
"The Duke of Orleans!" exclaimed the baron indignantly: "what are his
titles to the crown?  That boy whom  Vienna has educated can at least
invoke the memory of his father's glory.  All Imst admit that Napoleon has
written his annals in letters of fire upon the hearts of men. But what
prestige surrounds the Duke of Orleans?  Who knows his history?  How
few are there who have even heard his name!"
Very many who were in heart Napoleonists, discouraged by the fact that
they had no leader in France around whom  they could rally, divided; and
some joined the Republicans, and others the Orleanists.  Consequently, the
great struggle of intrigue, which for a time, it was' feared, would lead to
bloodshed and to almost hopeless anarchy, was between these two parties.t
It is generally admitted, that, could the young Duke of Reichstadt have
made his appearance at that time in Paris, he would have been, beyond all
question, placed upon the throne.
Anxiety sat upon every countenance. Talleyrand, Chateaubriand, and other
distinguished members of the old Bourbon party, made earnest efforts in
behalf of the young Duke of Bordeaux.  Their plan was to constitute the
Duke of Orleans Lieutenant-General of France during the minority of the
son of the Duchess de Berri.  A few peers cherishing these views had met
at the palace of the Luxembourg. Chateaubriand, addressing them in a strain
of poetic enthusiasm, exclaimed, —
"Let us protest in favor of the ancient monarchy!  If need be, let us leave
* For a minute account of this great political struggle, see Alison's History of Europe from
the Fall of Napoleon I. to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, vol. ii. p. 398. A still more minute
account may be found in the history of these eventful days by Louis Blanc.
t Louis Blanc. Dix Ans de Louis Philippe, i. 298.




56                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Paris; but, wherever we may be driven, let us save the king, and surrender
ourselves to the trust of a courageous fidelity. If the question comes to the
salvation of legitimacy, give me a pen and two months, and I will restore the
throne."
The Duke of Orleans, anxious to purchase the powerful support of Chateaubriand, had offered him either the mission to Rome, or the situation of minister of foreign affairs, whichever he might choose. Chateaubriand, in his
"Memoires d'outre Tombe," has given the following very graphic account of
his interview at that time with the Duke and Duchess of Orleans and the
Princess Adelaide in the chateau of the Duke of Orleans: 
"Madame the Duchess of Orleans invited me to take a seat near to her,
and immediately said to me,' Ah! Monsieur de Chateaubriand, we are very
unhappy. If all the parties would unite, we might perhaps yet be saved.'
"'Madame,' I replied,'nothing is so easy. Charles X. and Monsieur the
Dauphin have abdicated. Henri V. is now king. Monseigneur the Duke of
Orleans is lieutenant-general of the realm: let hiri be regent during the
minority of Henri V.; and all is right.'."'But, Monsieur de Chateaubriand, the people are very much excited. We
shall fall into anarchy.'
"'Madame,' I replied;'may I be permitted to ask of you what is the intention of Monsieur the Duke of Orleans?  Will he accept the crown if it is
offered to him?'
" The two princesses hesitated to reply. Madame the Duchess of Orleans,
after a moment of silence, replied,'Think, Monsieur de Chateaubriand, of the
evils which may befall us. It is necessary that all good people should co-operate to save us from the republic. At Rome, Monsieur de Chateaubriand, you
could render signal services; or even here, if you do not wish to leave
France.'
"' Madame is not ignorant,' I replied,' of my devotion to the young king
and to his mother."' Ah! Monsieur de Chateaubriand, they have treated you so very kindly!'
"'Your Royal Highness,' I replied' would not wish that I should give the
lie to my whole life, - que je cdmentisse toute ma vie.'
"'Ah! Monsieur de Chateaubriand, you do not know my niece. She is so
trifling! Poor Caroline! But I will send to call the Duke of Orleans. He
can persuade you better than I.'
"The princess gave her orders; and, in about a quarter of an hour, Louis
Philippe came in. He was badly dressed, and had the air of extreme fatigue.'Madame the Duchess of Orleans,' he said,'must have told you how unhappy we are.' And immediately he commenced an idyl (une idylle) upon the
happiness which he enjoyed in the country; upon the life of tranquillity, in
entire accordance with his tastes, which he passed, surrounded by his children. I seized the moment of posture between two strophes (cl'une pose
entre cleux strophes), in my turn, respectfully to crowd in a word (prendre la
parole), and to repeat very nearly what I had just said to the princesses.
"' Ah!' he exclaimed,' that was my desire.  How satisfied I should be in
becoming the tutor and guardian of that child! I agree with you entirely,




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                         57
Monsieur de Chateaubriand. To take the Duke of Bordeaux would certainly
be the best thing that could be done: I fear only that events may be more
strong than we.'
"'More strong than we, my lord?' I replied.'Are you not esteemed by all
the powers?  Let us go and join Henri V. Call around you, outside of Paris,
the Chambers and the army. At the first tidings of your departure, all this
effervescence will cease, and they will seek shelter under your enlightened
and protective power.'
"While I was speaking, I closely observed Louis Philippe. My advice
placed him ill at his ease. I read, written upon his face, the desire to be
king.
"'Monsieur de Chateaubriand,' said he to me, without looking at me,'the
thing is more difficult than you imagine. It cannot be accomplished. You do
not know what peril we are in. A furious band can drive the Chambers to the
worst excesses, and we have no defence. Believe me, that I alone restrain the
menacing crowd. If the Royalist party is not massacred, it will owe its life
to my efforts.'
"' My lord,' I replied,'I have seen some massacres. Those who have passed
through the Revolution are inured to war: th8 gray mustaches are not terrified by objects which frighten the conscripts.'
" Madame the Duchess of Orleans desired to see me again.
"' I pray that madame,' I replied,' will excuse the vivacity of my words. I
am penetrated with her kindness; I shall ever retain a profound and grateful
remembrance of it: but she will not wish me to dishonor myself. Pity me,
madame; pity me.'
"She rose, and, leaving the room, said,'I do not pity you, Monsieur de
Chateaubriand; I do not pity you!'" *
The extreme branch of the Republican party, the ardent Jacobins, held their
stormy meeting at the Restaurateur Lointiers, in the Rue St. Honore. They
were ripe for any audacious measures. Heated with the fever of battle, and
still grasping their weapons almost convulsively, they were ready again to face
death rather than lose the results which they had sought in the struggle. The
Orleanists sent their most influential antl popular men -the poet Beranger,
with others   to win them over to the Orleans side. But these efforts were in
vain. One of the Orleanist orators narrowly escaped death from a pistol-shot
which wounded him in the cheek,-the emphatic response of some ardent
Republican to his arguments. At length the Republicans sent a deputation,
with an address containing the following words, to a body which had organized itself at the IHotel de Ville with the title of the Provisional Government:
"The people yesterday reconquered their rights at the price of their blood.
The most precious of these rights is that of choosing their form of government. It is necessary to take care that no proclamation should be issued
which designates the form of government which may be chosen. A provis* Chateaubriand, Memoires d'outre Tombe, vol. ix. p. 352.
8




58                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
ional representation of the nation exists. Let it continue till the wishes of the
majority of Frenchmen are known." *
An armed band of a hundred students of the ] cole Polytechnique escorted
a deputation which they had appointed to the Hotel de Ville, to order the
President of the Provisional Government to sign a proclamation which they
had prepared. M. Maguin refused. "What! " said the young man who led
the deputation, "do you recoil? Nothing is so dangerous in revolutions as to
recoil. I will have you shot!"
" Shot! " exclained M. Maguin indignantly. "Shoot a member of the Provisional Government!"
"Sir," replied the young man, leading him to the window, and pointing to
his comrades below, "there are men, who, if ordered by me to shoot God
Almighty, would do it."  M. Maguin in silence signed the proclamation.t
Lafayette and Thiers were men of great ability and influence, and endowed
with consummate skill to guide affairs in such a crisis. Lafayette, especially,
had the confidence of the liberal party to such a degree that very many of
them were willing, almost without question, to follow his lead. The vast
wealth of the Duke of Orleans and of his friends placed at the disposal of the
Orleanist party any amount of, money they might need. The Chamber of
Deputies was assembled; and, as a first step, they voted to confer upon the
Duke of Orleans the office of Lieutenant-General of France. The excitement
of the contending parties was so intense, that it was much feared that the
duke would be assassinated. At eleven o'clock at night, the duke in disguise,
and accompanied by but two friends, also in disguise, left his rural retreat at
Neuilly, and set out on foot for his princely residence in Paris, - the Palais
Royal. He was summoned to Paris by the following resolution from a few
members of the Chamber, who had met, and with much difficulty had obtained
the passage of the resolve —
" The deputies at present at Paris conceive that it is essential to pray his
Royal Highness, the Duke of Orleans, to come immediately to Paris, to exercise the functions of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and to' express the
universal wish that the tricolor flag should be resumed." $
At eight o'clock the next morning,.a deputation called upon the duke at the
Palais Royal to make him the formal offer of his appointment and to receive
his acceptance. It is said, that with the greatest reluctance, and even with
fear and trembling, the duke accepted the perilous position. In the following
proclamation, he announced the fact to the Parisian populace:"INHABITANTS OF PARIS, -The deputies of France at this moment assembled at Paris have expressed a wish that I should repair to that capital to
exercise the function of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. I have not hesitated to share your danger, to place myself in the midst of that heroic lopulation, and to make every effort to preserve you fromn civil war and anarchy.
On entering the city of Paris, I bore with pride those glorious colors which
you have resumed, and which I myself have long borne. The Chambers are
* Moniteur, July 31, 1830.  t Louis Blanc, i. 324.  t Louis Blanc, i. 333.




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                          59
about to assemble. They will consider the means of assuring the reign of the
laws and the maintenance of the rights of the nation. A charter shall henceforth be a reality.                      "Louis PHILIPPE D'OPLEANS." *
This proclamation was not at all satisfactory to many members of the
Liberal party. The remonstrances in the streets were loud and threatening;
and it was manifest to all, that, unless the government of the duke were
immediately established, the experiment of a republic would be inevitable.
A procession was formed to conduct the duke from the Palais Royal to the
Hotel de Ville. It was greeted with but few acclamations fiom the crowds
which filled the streets.  When the procession approached the Place de
Greve, an immense throng was found filling the square. The Republicans had
assembled there in great numbers, prepared to give the duke a hostile reception. Murmurs full of menace rose from the excited multitude; many had
loaded fire-arms; and it was seriously apprehended that the duke might be
assassinated on the spot. Benjamin Constant and Berangei, earnest friends
of the popular cause, exerted themselves to the utmost to restrain the passions
of the people.
"He is a Bourbon!" exclaimed General Lobau: "I am  not for him more
than for the rest." t
To obviate this feeling, which was general and strong, the Orleans committee had placarded tall over Paris a proclamation containing the surprising
assertion, considering that the historians Mignet and Thiers were members
of that committee, "Le Due d'Orleans n'est pas un Bourbon; c'est un Valois," - "The Duke of Orleans is not a Bourbon; he is a Valois."
The agitation in the crowd boded an approaching storm. The duke rode
on horseback: he was silent, apparently calm, but deadly pale. A loud rolling of drums announced his ascent to the top of the stairs, where Lafayette
met him. After some brief ceremony, Lafayette led the prince out upon a
balcony of the window, and there, in token of his confidence and support,
embraced him in the presence of the assembled thousands. It was upon this
occasion that the marquis is said to have remarked to the duke, -
"You know that I am a Republican, and that I regard the Constitution of
the United States as the most perfect that has ever existed."
"I think as you do," replied Louis Philippe.  "It is impossible to have
passed two years in the United States, as I have done, and not be of that
opinion. But do you think, that, in the present state of France, a republican
government can be adopted?"
" No," said Lafayette: " that which is necessary for France now is a throne
surrounded by republican institutions: all must be republican."
The ever-variable multitude raised shouts of applause. There was still a
disaffected fraction of the Republican party left, headed by impetuous leaders.
To win over those leaders, an interview was hppointed between them  and the
Duke of Orleans. "If you should become king," said M. Boinvilliers, the
chairman of the Republican deputation, " what are your ideas upon the treaties
of 1815?"
* Moniteur, Aug. 1, 1830.        t Louis Blanc, i. 355.




60                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"I am  no partisan," the duke replied, "of the treaties of 1815; but we
must avoid irritating foreign powers."
" What is your opinion of the peerage?"
"In hereditary aristocracy," answered the duke, "it is the best basis of
society; but; if the hereditary peerage cannot maintain itself, I am not the
man who will endow it. I was once a Republican; but I have lived to be convinced that it is inapplicable to such a country as France." *
The two parties separated, more alienated than ever. The Republicans
now made great efforts to get up another insurrection: bands of Democratic
young men in a state of intense excitement patrolled the streets, calling upon
the people again to rise to protect their endangered rights, and not to suffer
a Bourbon king again to be imposed upon them by a clique of intriguers at
Lafitte's, without any regard to the wishes of the nation. But all these efforts
were in vain: the Republican party had neither wealth nor leaders. The
more quiet portion of the populace still retained a painful remembrance of
past scenes of anarchy and blood; and all who had station to peril, or wealth
to be endangered, were anxious for the speedy organization of almost any
form of government which would save France from the horrors of civil war.
The majority in the Chamber of Deputies and also in that of Peers was now
in favor of Louis Philippe. Still, in both Chambers, there was violent opposition: the ablest speech made upon the occasion was that of Chateaubriand
in advocacy of the legitimacy of the old regime.
"A king," said Chateaubriand, "named by the Chambers or elected by the
people, will ever be a novelty in France. I.sppose they wish liberty, - above
all, the liberty of the press, by which and for which they have gained so
astonishing a victory. Well, every new monarchy, sooner or later, will be
obliged to gag that liberty.  Was Napoleon himself able to admit it?
Daughter of our misfortunes and slave of our glory, the liberty of the press
cannot live in safety but under a government which has struck its roots deep
into the hearts of men.
" A republic is still more impracticable. In the existing state of our morals,
and in our relations with the adjoining gates, such a government is out of
the question, The first difficulty would be to bring the French to any
unanimous opinion upon the subject. W t rit hat ve the people of Paris to
impose a government by their vote on the people of Marseilles?  What right
have they to constrain any other town to receive the rulers which they have
chosen, or the form of government which they have adopted? Shall we have
one republic, or twenty republics? a federal union, or a commonwealth one
and indivisible?
"Do you really suppose, that, with your manners and ideas, any president,
let him be as grave or authoritative as can be figured, will be able for any
length of time to nVaintain his authority, except by force?  Must he not soon
be reduced to the necessity of making himself a despot, or resigning? If he
have recourse to coercive measures, the republic will become odious at home;
if he give it full license abroad, it will become the object of terror, and bring
* Louis Blanc, i. 359.




THE TREATIES OF 1815.                          61
Europe to our gates. A representative republic may perhaps be the destined
future of the world; but its time has not yet arrived.
"Charles X. and his son are cdthroned, or have abdicated, as you have heard;
but the throne is not thereby vacant: after them  a child is called to the
succession, and who will venture to condemn his innocence?  What blbod
cries for justice? No one will venture to say his father has shed it. The
orphan he has left, educated in the schools of the country, in the ideas of.the
Constitution, and abreast of his age, might become a king with all the requirements of the future. It is to the guardian of his youth that you may commit
the oath by which he is to reign. Arrived at majority, he will renew that
oath in his own person: that combination removes every obstacle, reconciles
every advantage, and perhaps may save France from the convulsions which
attend too frequenfly violent changes in the state.
"I know, that, in removing that child, it is said you establish the principle of
the sovereignty of the people. Vain illusion! which proves, that, in the march
of intellect, our old democrats have not made greater advances than the partisans of royalty. -It were easy to show that men may be as free and freer
under a monarchy than a republic, were this the time or the place to deliver a
lecture on political philosophy. After all I have said, done, and written for
the Bourbons, I should be the basest of the human race if I denied them, when,
for the third and last time, they are directing their steps toward exile." *
At last, the vote was taken.  France contained between thirty and forty
millions of inhabitants. Less than one hundred men in the city of Paris, with no
delegated authority to do so, undertook to decide upon a form of government
and to choose a king for these millions. A few peers voted with Chateaubriand; but the result was, that, by a majority of eighty-nine to ten, the crown
was offered to Louis Philippe. The brief ceremony of reading to him the
Constitution, and presenting the crown, took place in the Chamber of Deputies.
"I accept," said Louis Philippe, " without restriction or reserve, the clauses
and engagements which that declaration contains, and the title of King of the
French which it confers upon me."
Thus was the Revolution of 1830 consummated, and the throne of Louis
Philippe constructed.  "And thus," says Alison, "did a small minority, not
exceeding a third of either Chamber, at the dictation of a clique in the antechambers of the Duke of Orleans, dispose of the crown to a stranger to the
legitimate line, without either consulting the nation, or knowing what form of
government it desired." t
* Moniteur, Aug, 3, 1830.         t Alison, ii. 403.




CHAPTER IV.
UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.
Excitement caused by the Overthrow of the. Bourbon Dynasty. - The Napoleonic Princes join
the Italian Insurgents.- Letter of Louis Napoleot to the Pope.- Death of Napoleon Louis.
-Letter to the Pope.- Letter from Prof. S.. B. Morse. -Peril of Louis Napoleon.- Devotion of his Mother. - Their Flight. - Incognito Entrance to France. - Visit to England.
- Return to Arenemberg. - " Political Reveries." - Madame Recamier. - Chateaubriand.
- Death of General Lamarque. - Republican Insurrection.
T-IE  overthrow  of the old Bourbon regime, and tte establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the new dynasty of
Orleans, was at first regarded as a decided step in the direction
of liberal principles.  This success in France excited the hopes
of the Liberal party all over Europe.  Every throne beganl to
tremble. In Italy, especially, the commotion was almost universal.  In Milan, in the Papal States, in Modena and Parma, the people were
roused to the most intense excitement.
In December, 1830, several members of the Bonaparte family held a secret
meeting in Rome.  Madame Letitia, the mother of the family, her brother
Cardinal Fesch, Jerome Bonaparte, Pauline, and Hortense with her two sons,
attended the meetimg.  The eldest of the two princes, Napoleon Louis, then
twenty-six years of age, had married his cousin, the second daughter of Joseph
Bonaparte. The meeting took place five months after the expulsion of Charles
X. from France, and the accession of Louis Philippe to the throne by the very
questionable title of an appointment by a few leading men in Paris.
What transpired at this gathering is not known; but all Italy then was in
a feverish state of excitement. A  knowledge of the meeting came to the
authorities of the Pontifical Government, and Louis Napoleon was ordered
immediately to leave the Ecclesiastical States.  Disregarding this command,
he was arrested, and conveyed to the frontiers under the Descort of a mounted
guard, and was compelled to leave the Papal dominions.   He, immediately
repaired to Florence, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where his
elder brother then resided with his father.  Just as he arrived in that city, the
insurrection broke out there.  The patriots appealed to the young princes to
lend to their cause the influence of their potent name and the aid of their
swords. With enthusiasm, they both joined the insurgents struggling for the
* The Napoleon Dynasty, p. 534.
62




UNSUCCESSFUL INSURtECTIONS.                          63
liberation of Italy from the Austrian yoke.  In allusion to this event, Louis
Napoleon thus wrote to his mother: -
"Your afectionate heart will understand our determination. We have contracted engagements which we cannot break. Can we remain deaf to the
voice of the unfortunate who call to us?  We bear a name which obliges us
to listen."
There was, however, but little chance of success. Austria, strong in herself, was almost invincible in the pledged support of the Holy Alliance.
France could afford Italy ni  aid; for Louis Philippe, in order to obtain recognition by the monarchies of Europe, had pledged himself to respect the
treaties of 1815, and to suppress any propagandism of the revolutionary spirit.
Gen. Athalin was despatched to St. Petersburg with a letter from Louis Philippe to the Emperor Nicholas.
"But before he arrived," says Alison, "the way had been prepared by the
secret despatches of Pozzo di Borgo from Paris, who gave the most favorable
account of the conservative disposition and determined acts of Louis Philippe,
-the. last barrier against the flood of democracy which threatened to deluge
Europe. The French envoy met, accordingly, with a cordial reception at St.
Petersburg; and though the emperor avoided any express recognition of the
revolutionary principle of the right of. the people to change their governors,
yet he accepted Louis Philippe as a necessary compromise, and the best thing,
which, under existing circumstances, could be admitted."'
This was the state of feeling with all the European cabinets.  Louis Philippe caused himself to be regarded by them as arresting the revolution, and
preventing the restoration of the popular empire in France, or the establishment of a republic.
The insurrection in Italy, however, had but little chance of success. Aus-'tria was at hand with her highly-disciplined army, ready to crush the insurgents. If more strength were needed, the holy allies - Prussia and Russiawere ready to move with their reserves. But the young men of Italy were
sanguine, inexperienced, rash. Prince Louis Napoleon, then twenty-two years
of age, urged that their only hope of success lay in prompt and desperate
action, immediately assuming the offensive.  His views, however, were not
sustained by other leaders. They wasted precious hours in preparing to act
on the defensive. The Austrians rapidly gathered -in overwhelming strength.
In one or two minor conflicts, the patriots were victorious; but soon they were
compelled to retreat before superior numbers.  The elder brother, Napoleon
Louis, on this retreat was taken sick from the exhaustion of the campaign,
and died at Forli on the 27th of March, 1831.
Jerome Bonaparte Was then at Rome. Not believing it possible for the
insurrection to succeed against the power of Austria, since France had voted
not to intervene, he had sent his secretary, Baron Stoelting, to endeavor to
recall his nephews. Louis Napoleon wrote two letters, one to his uncle, and
the other to the pope, which he sent to Rome by the baron. The letter to his
uncle was as follows:
* History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I. to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, vol. ii.
p. 405.




64                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"TERNI, Saturday, 1831.
" MY DEAR UNCLE, — I must not describe to you our position here: it is
honorable. The person you have sent, M. Stoelting, will tell you many things,
undoubtedly, which will re-assure you, and enable you to see matters in their
true light. He has done every thing in his power to induce us to return; but
we cannot do so. I entreat you to re-assure my parents. Believe, my dear
uncle, in my strong attachment.           Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
"P. S. - I have advised M. Stoelting to return Wo Rome. I have given him
a letter to the holy father. Moderation and respect for religion animate all.
I have so many things to do, so many things to think of, that I pray you to
excuse me if my letter is so short. I fully recognize that your attachment for
us has induced you to send M. Stoelting to us (to whom I have spoken very
frankly); and I thank you for it, my dear uncle. I hope, indeed, that M.
Stoelting will bring me back a response."
The letter to the pope, Gregory XVI., was as follows:"VERY HOLY FATHER, —M. the Baron of Stoelting, who has brought to
me at Terni a letter from my uncle, Prince Jerome of Montfort, will inform
your Holiness of the true situation of things here.  HIe has told me that you
were grieved to learn that we were in the midst of those who have revolted
against the temporal power of the court of Rome. I take the liberty to write
a word to your Holiness, to open to him my heart, and to enable him to hear
language to which he is not accustomed; for I am sure that the true state fof
things is concealed from him.  Since I have found myself in the midst of the
revolted States, I have been able to assure myself of the feeling which animates all hearts. The people desire laws and a national representation; they
desire to be on a level with the other rations of Europe, -to be equal to the
epoch.
" They fear anarchy, and it will not appear; for every one, even to the humblest workman, is fully persuaded that there is no more happiness for men
under the reign of anarchy than under the reign of despotism  and of oppression. If all the sovereign pontiffs had been animated with the evangelical
spirit which they assure me would have guided your Holiness if he had been
elected in a tranquil period, the people, less oppressed, less suffering, would not,
perhaps, have been united with those enlightened parties, who, for a long time,
have cast eyes of envy upon the condition of France and England.
"Religion is everywhere respected. The priests, the monks even, have nothing to fear; and every thing advances with order, calmness, and good faith.
No robbery, no assassination, has been committed. The Romagnols, especially, are intoxicated with liberty. They arrived this evening at Terni; and I
render them this justice, - that, in the cries which they continually raise, there
is never one against the person of the chief of religion. This is due to the
chiefs, who are everywhere men the most highly esteemed, and who, on all
occasions, express their attachment for religion with as much force as their
desire for a change in the temporal government.




UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                         65' The kindness of your Holiness to my family constrains me to inform him,
and I can assure him upon my honor, that the forces organized, which are
advancing upon Rome, are invincible. The chiefs and the soldiers are well
appointed; but they are far from wishing to do any thing which is dishonorable. I shall be too happy if your Holiness will deign to reply to me.
"It is very bold in me, since I am nothing, to dare to write to your Holiness.
But I hope to be useful to him. It is the manifest and decided wish that the
temporal power should be separated from the spiritual. But your Holiness is
beloved; and it is generally believed that your Holiness would consent to
remain at Rome, with his riches, his Swiss, the Vatican, and permit a provisional government to be formed for temporal affairs. I declare the truth, upon
my oath; and I entreat your Holiness to believe that I have no ambitious
view. My heart could not remain insensible in view of the people, in view
of the prisoners released from Civita Castellana, who were everywhere embraced and covered with tears of joy. The unhappy creatures! Many of them
almost died of joy, so much were they enfeebled, so much have they been
maltreated. But that was not under the pontificate of your Holiness.
"It only remains for me to assure your Holiness that all my efforts are directed
towards the general good. I know not what reports have been made to your
Holiness: but I can give the assurance that I have heard nearly all the
young people say, even the least moderate, that, if Gregory XVI. would
renounce the temporal sovereignty, they would adore him; that they would
themselves become the most firm supporters of a religion purified by a great
pope, and which has for its foundation the book the most liberal which exists,
the divine gospel.                   "Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE." *
Our cTistinguished fellow-countryman, Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, has
kindly furnished the following interesting personal reminiscences of these
days: —
"'Galignani's Messenger' of Dec. 13, 1866, contains the following extract
from'The London Times:''The Italians have been often unjust to the
Emperor of the French. They have been hard of belief, impatient, uncharitable. They may henceforth feel better disposed to do him justice. They
must acknowledge in him  their greatest, most unwearied, most generous
benefactor. Whatever he may have been to other nations, and to the French
themselves, to the Italians the emperor has always, at heart, been that Louis
Napoleon who took up arms for Italy, and against the temporal power, five
and thirty years ago. It seems as if some vow made by the bedside of his
brother, dying in his arms at Forli at that juncture, swayed Napoleon's mind
through life, and bade him go firmly, however slowly, to his goal. In all other
measures, in any other home or foreign policy, the emperor had friends and
opponents. Of any other good or evil that he may have done, others may
share the praise or blame; but the Italian game was played by him singlehanded, and the game is won. Throughout all France, in the emperor's
* Le Gouvernement Temporel des Papes, Juge par la Diplomatie Francaise, pp. 151, 152.
9




66                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III..cabinet, at his court, in his household, Italy had only one friend, -a friend in
need, and a friend indeed.' *
"The above extract," writes ]rofessor Morse, "from a fair-minded article in'The London Times,' brought fresh to my mind incidents connected with
my own travels in Italy, at the time when his Imperial Majesty Napoleon III.
took up arms for Italian unity thirty-five years ago.
" It was in the spring of 1831 that I left Rome for Florence, in the midst
of the attempted Italian revolution of that year.  My companions, besidces
two English gentlemen, were two Americans, - Lieutenant Williams of the
army, afterwards an aide to General Scott, and killed at Monterey in our
war with Mexico; and Mr. Cranch, son of Judge Cranch of Washington.
Both of them, as well as I, had been students of art in Rome.
" The day we left Rome was an exciting and eventful one to us.  In the
morning, we were at the headquarters of the Papal army at Civita Castellana;
and in the evening, having passed over the interval between the two armies,
we arrived at the headquarters of the Bolognese or Revolutionary army at
Terni.  We arrived at dark at the post-house, which was the headquarters
of General Cercognani, who, being apprised that a party of Americans had
arrived from Rome, invited us to share the accommodations of the post-house
with him and iis staff.
" While at supper, the general introduced to us a courteous gentleman as
the Baron Stettin; who, speaking English fluently, and having travelled extensively in the United States, made our evening pass very pleasantly. After
conversing on a great variety of subjects, he said to me, 
"'You are, perhaps, surprised to find me here at the headquarters of a
revolutionary general.'
"I replied, that, knowing his antecedents, there was certainly some mystery
in the fact.
"' Well,' said he,'I will frankly tell you why I am  here.  The two sons of
the late King of Holland, Louis Bonaparte, are here; and their fiiends, anxious
lest they should compromise their position, have sent me to persuade them to
return.'
"I, of course, manifested the surprise I felt in  common with my companions.  We could not but applaud the devotion and daring of the noble
young men for a cause that appealed so strongly to all our sympathies for the
long-oppressed Italians, and we could not but secretly hope that our courteous
friend the baron might not be successful in his mission.
"So strongly were our sympathies aroused in favor of the Italian uprising,
* M. Thiers was bitterly opposed to the sympathy which Louis Napoleon ever manifested for
struggling Italy. In his celebrated speech before the corps legislative on the 18th of March, 1867,
he said,"As for me, when distinguished Italians have spoken to me of unity, I have said to them,' No,
no, never! For my part, I will never consent to it.' And if, at the time when that' question
came up, I had had the honor to hold in my hands the affairs of France, I would not have consented to it. I will say to you even, that upon that question, pardon me for being personal, the
friendship, very ardent and sincere, which existed between Monsieur Cavour and me, has been
interrupted." - Moniteur, March 16, 1867.




IUNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                         67
that our enthusiastic military companion, Lieutenant Williams, proposed to
leave us to pursue our journey to Florence alone, while he offered his services
to the commanding general; and it was with difficulty that he was reasoned
out of his determination, so suddenly formed from  the impulse of a brave
and generous heart.
" We left in the morning; and, on our arrival in Florence, we found that our
intercourse at the headquarters at Terni had compromised us with the
authorities, and we were peremptorily ordered to quit Florence in twenty-four
hours. After much vexatious negotiation through our consul, we were found
to be harmless artists, intent on study and the arts of peace, and not on
revolution; and we were then permitted to stay some months under close
surveillance. It is needless to say that this attempt at revolution very
speedily succumbed to the overwhelming force of Austrian intervention.
"While in Florence, passing one day by the Church of the Trinity, I was
attracted by the funeral decorations of the exterior of the church, and, entering, found a lofty and splendid catafalco, upon which were the mortal remains
of some distinguished person.  On inquiry, I learned that the funeral
solemnities were in honor of one of the noble brothers, the young Bonapartes. The other lives to see his earliest efforts for oppressed Italy, then
baffled, at length crowned with success, and he himself occupying the most
brilliant throne of Europe, justly admlired for his largeness of soul, and the
unsurpassed wisdom of his prosperous administration."
The spirit which animated the Italians at this time is exhibited in the following spirited address from the revolutionary party at Bologna to the inhabitants of Lombardy:'"Fellow-citizens of Lombardy, follow the example of
France. Imitate the patriots of Central Italy. Break the shameful chains
with which the Holy Alliance has bound you. We were slaves, and miserable,
under the despotism of the priests; but our oppressors were at least Italians.
You are the slaves of foreigners, who enrich themselves with your spoils, and
who every day render you more wretched. The day in which you rise against
them, forty thousand of our compatriots will march to aid you to crush the
Austrians. Do not delay. There is peril in hesitation. Display your courage,
fellow-citizens, and despotism will fly from our beautiful country. Our country, our liberty, our national independence, before all!"
Hortense, hearing of the peril of her sons retreating before the Austrians,
and also of the dangerous sickness of the elder, hastened with a mother's love
to their aid. She met on the way General Amandi, the minister of war of the
Italian Provisional Government, who said to her, 
"Your Majesty has indeed reason to be proud of being the mother of two
such sons.' Their whole conduct under these sad circumstances has been
a series of noble and courageous actions, and history will remember it."
The patriots, pursued by the Austrians, had retreated to Ancona, on the
shores of the Adriatic. There the mother met her only surviving child.
He was also sick with a burning fever. The Austrians were now gathering
up prisoners from the routed and disorganized army, and mercilessly shooting
them. Hortense was in an agony of terror. The Austrians were soon in possession of Ancona. Eagerly they sought for the prince who bore the name




68                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
which despots have ever feared. They had set a price upon his head. But
his mother succeeded in eluding all their vigilance, and caused the story to be
circulated that he had escaped by water and taken refuge in Greece.
"One evening," she writes in her memoirs, "a frail skiff spread sail, and no
one doubted that it conveyed my son."
While the Austrian police, deceived by this stratagem, believed that the
young prince had crossed the Adriatic to the shores of Illyria, Louis Napoleon, flushed with fever, and emaciated from grief and toil, in the costume of
a footman, mounted behind the carriage of his mother, and protected by an
English passport, succeeded in crossing the whole breadth of Italy, and in
reaching Pisa on the eastern shore.*
There was no place on the Continent to which Hortense could retire in
safety with her son, now implicated in a revolutionary rising against Austrian
despotism. The young prince had thus rashly thrown down the gantlet to
the dynasties, and had drawn the eyes of all Europe upon him as the advocate of those principles which his uncle, Napoleon I., had maintained, and
which all dynastic Europe had combined to crush.
By a law of the Bourbons, enacted in 1816, the entrance into French territory of any member of the imperial family was prohibited, under penalty of
death.t But a revolution in France had now banished the elder branch of the
Bourbons; and one renouncing the name of Bourbon, and taking that of Orleans, sat upon the throne. Napoleon I., when in power, had been very generous to the Orleans family.  He had allowed the mother and the aunt of the
Duke of Orleans to remain in France, and had settled upon them an annuity
of six hundred thousand francs ($100,000).)    Queen Hortense had also, in the
days of her prosperity, conferred upon the family many favors.  She therefore resolved, notwithstanding the decree of banishment, to throw herself
upon the generosity of Louis Philippe. In her " Memoires," Queen Hortense,
speaking of these sad and eventful hours, says, —
"At length, I arrived at the barrier of Paris. I experienced a sort of selflove in exhibiting to my son, by its most beautiful entrance, that capital of
which he could probably retain but a feeble recollection. I ordered the postilion to take us through the Boulevards to the Rue de la Paix, and to stop at
the first hotel. Chance conducted us to the Hotel d'Hollande. I occupied
a small apartment on the third floor, du premier, first above the entresol.
From there I could see the Boulevard and the column in the Place Vendome.
I experienced a sort of saddened pleasure in my isolation in beholding once
more that city which I was about to leave, perhaps forever, without speaking
to a person, and without being distracted by the impression which that view
made upon me."
Thus, after fifteen years of exile, Louis Napoleon returned to Paris a fugitive, proscribed, and in disguise,- the young prince whose birth in that very
city had been announced by salvos of artillery throughout the vast extent of
* See La Vie du Nouveau Cesar, par Pierre Vesinier, p. 21.
t The Early Life of Louis Napoleon. London, p. 17.
t Napoleon Dynasty, p. 539.




UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                          69
the empire, from Hamburg to Rome, from  the Pyrenees to the Danube.*
The prince and his mother had travelled incognito, and had taken the greatest care to conceal their names. Louis Napoleon was'still sick, suffering from
a burning fever. A few days of repose and careful nursing seemed to be absolutely necessary. Hortense, accordingly, immediately wrote a letter to Louis
Philippe, informing him of her arrival in Paris with her son, and throwing
herself upon his protection. She knew that he was aware of the very great
favors which his mother and his aunt had received from her in the clays of
their poverty and proscription.t
At the same time, Louis Napoleon, overjoyed to find himself once more in
his own country and in his native city, wrote a letter to the king, entreating
that he might be permitted to enter the French army as a simple soldier.
Louis Philippe was greatly embarrassed. IHe was by no means firmly seated
upon his throne. Any favor shown to the Boriapartes would excite the displeasure of the dynasties surrounding him. The friends of the Duke of Bordeaux were loudly calling Louis Philippe a usurper, and were plotting under
the name of legitimacy - that magic word among the dynasties - to restore
the crown to the child whom they regarded as the only lawful sovereign of
France. Should Louis Philippe give any indication of a movement towards
liberal principles, he would bring all the moral influence, and perhaps even the
physical power, of the monarchies of Europe against him.
The heirs of the old Bourbon dynasty claimed the throne by that " divine
right of legitimacy" which was almost universally recognized throughout
Europe. The heirs of Napoleon claimed the throne by what they deemed
the diviner right of universal suffrage. Louis Philippe could fall back upon
neither of these claims.  His only title to the crown consisted in the fact that
a few scores of men in Paris, in an hour of tumult and consternation, had very
adroitly slipped the sceptre into his hands, without any authority from the
nation so to do. Thus unstably seated upon his throne, Louis Philippe could
not consult the impulses of his heart, but was compelled to listen to the less
generous dictates of prudence.  He did not venture to call personally upon
the queen, but sent Casimir Perier president of the council, to see her.
" Sir," said Queen Hortense to Perier as he entered her apartment, "I am a
mother. My only means of saving my son was to come to France.  I know
very well that I have transgressed a law. I am well aware of the risk we run.
You have a right to cause our arrest. It would be just."
"Just?" responded the minister: "no. Legal? yes."  In consideration of
the health of the young prince, the king consented, upon condition that they
would preserve the strictest incognito, that they might remain in the city one
week. The king also granted Queen Hortense an audience. He spoke to her
of his own exile and that of his family as having weighed so heavily upon his
heart. "I have experienced," said he, " all the griefs of exile, and it is not in
* Histoire clu Prince Napoleon, par B. Renault, p. 75.
I See the Letters of thb Duchesg of Orleans and the Duchess of Bourbon to Queen Hortense. - Histeire du Prince Napoleon sur des Documents particuliers et authelntiques, par B. Renault,
p. 77.




70                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
accordance with my wishes that yours has not yet ceased."  Hortense was also
permitted to see the queen and the king's sister.  Thus there were but four
persons in France who were aware that Hortense was in Paris.  The king was
so extreme in his caution, that no one was permitted, but himself and his
minister, to know of the presence of the young prince, though his wife and
sister were aware that Queen Hortense was in the city. It was feared, and
justly feared, as subsequent events have proved, that his name would rouse all
Paris. o
While Louis Napoleon and his mother were at the Hotel Hollande, the 5th
of May came, the anniversary of the death of the Emperor at St. Helena. In
honor of his memory, large crowds gathered, as ever on that occasion, in the
Place Vendome, surrounding the column'with their homage, and covering
the railing with wreaths of immortelles and other flowers. From his window,
Louis Napoleon must have gazed with a throbbing heart upon this scene.
The king and his minister became alarmed.  Should the populace get an intimation that an heir of Napoleon was in the city, no one could predict what
the consequences might be. The anxiety of the king became so great, that
Queen Hortense was informed that she must immediately leave France, notwithstanding the continued sickness of her son.*
The command was imperative.  The sick prince was placed in a carriage,
and they took their departure for England, that only safe asylum in Europe
for all political refugees.  This was the first visit of Louis Napoleon to England. He was then a young prince, twenty-three years of age, highly educated, endowed with  all manly accomplishments, moderately wealthy, and
bearing an ancestral n-ame whose renown had filled the world. He devotec
himself with unremitting assiduity to the study of the practical operations of
the institutions of England, and to the progress that great nation had made
in all the wide fields of science and art.  Thoughtful, retiring, pensive, and
unusually mature, from  the discipline of adversity through which he had
passed and the intellectual and cultured society with which he ever had
associated, he treasured up in his mind the knowledge he was acquiring; even
then cherishing the conviction that the day would yet come when he could
render that knowledge valuable to his own country.
In England, Queen Hortense and her son were the guests of the Duke of
Bedford at Woburn Abbey.  They were treated with great consideration by
the most illustrious men of all ranks and parties.  Several months were thus
spent very pleasantly and profitably, though they were both in much uncertainty respecting their future movements.  While in this state of perplexity,
Louis Napoleon was one day much gratified by receiving from the authorities
of the canton of Thurgovia a document conferring upon him the rights of citizenslip. The paper bore the date of April 30, 1832, and stated as a reason for
* For the above narrative, we are mainly indebted to the volume of J. B. Fellens on the Political and Private Life.of Louis Napoleon. The Duke d'Aumale, in his Letter upon the History
of France, gives quite a different account, stating that the sickness of Louis Napoleon was feigned,
and that he was then in secret conference with the principal chiefs of the Republican party, and
that his presence was known to all the ministers. - See La Vie du Nouveau Cesar, par Pierre
Vesinier, p. 25.




UNSUCCESSFUL INSUIRRECTIONS.                               71
this honor the many favors which the canton had received fiom Queen Hortense, who was known in her residence at Arenemberg by the title of the
Duchess of St. Leu.*
The prince in his reply thanked them  for the honor of being madce "the
citizen of a free nation;" and, in the name of his mother and himself, expressed
gratitude for the courtesy and kindness with which they had ever been treated.
He also sent them, as a further testimonial of his esteem, two six-pounders,
with complete trains and equipage; and he founded a fiee school in the village
of Sallenstein.t
This kindly feeling expressed by the Swiss induced them  both to return to
their beautiful and loved retreat at Arenemberg.  But it was not easy to get
there.  They could not enter France without violating the decree of banishment, which exposed them to the penalty of death.  Italy was closed against
them. Hortense applied for permission to pass through Belgium and Brussels;
but this was forbidden her.  the Belgian throne was then vacant; and it was
feared that ththe people might rally at the magic name of Napoleon, and place
their crown upon the brow of the young prince.  At length, Louis Philippe
granted them  permission to pass through the northern part of France, provided that the queen should go disguised under the title of the Baroness of
Arenemberg, and that they both should pledge themselves not to enter Paris.+
On this journey they visited Josephine's tomb at Ruel, where I-ortense'now
sleeps, by her mother's side, beneath a beautiful marble monument reared to
her memory by her grateful son.
Upon their return to their calm retreat amidst themountains of Switzerland, and on the shores of the Lake of Constance, Louis Napoleon passed a
few months of tranquil enjoyment, with a heart which warmly appreciated the
spirit of repose which surrounded him.  From his father, perhaps, he had inherited a fondness for meditation and study.  Though naturally a recluse in
his habits, he necessarily saw much society; for his mother's home was the
abode of affluence and a resort for illustrious travellers.  He pondered in his
hours of solitude the memory of his uncle the great Emperor, and his grand
deeds, which had now become mellowed by time.  He studied his history and
his works with a silent enthusiasm which absorbed lis whole sensitive nature.
The illustrious men of the day, who were continually visiting the chateau at
Arenemberg, kept him well informed respecting not only all that was openly
transpiring in Europe, but also of the secrets of courts.
* The announcement was made in the following terms: " We, the President of the Council
of the Cantorfof Thurgovia, declare that the Commune of Sallenstein, having offered the right
of communal citizenship to his Highness Prince Louis Napoleon out of gratitude for the numerous favors conferred upon the canton by the family of the Duchess of St. Leu since her
residence in Arenemberg, and the Grand Council having afterwards, by its unanimous vote of the
14th of April, sanctioned this award, and decreed unanimously to his Highness the right of honorary burghership of the canton, with the desire of proving how highly it honors the generous
character of this family, and how highly it appreciates the preference they have shown for the
canton, declares that his Highness Prince Louis Napoleon, son of the Duke and Duchess of St.
Leu, is acknowledged as a citizen of the Canton of Thurgovia."
f The Public and Private History of Napoleon III., by Samuel M. Smucker, LL.D., p. 44.
$ La Vie du Nouveau Cesar, par Pierre Vesinier, p. 27.




72                      LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
It was now 1832. Louis Napoleon was twenty-four years of age. In these
hours of calm, he wrote and published a pamphlet entitled " Political Reveries."
The following extracts from this work will show what were then his views
upon the subject of government: -
"The more there is in a country of intelligence, the more men there are
capable of commanding others, the more republican the institutions should
be.  The first wants of a country are independence, liberty, stability, the
supremacy of merit, and competence equally diffused. The best government
is that in which every abuse of power can be always corrected; in which,
without social commotion, without effusion of blood, both the laws and the
chief of the State can be changed: for one generation has no right to impose
its laws upon future generations.
" In order that independence may be secured, it is necessary that the government should be strong; and, that it may be strong, it must have the confidence of the people, so that it can have a numerous and well-disciplined
army without exciting fears of tyranny on the part of the people, and so
that it can arm all the nation without fear of seeing the government overthrown.
"In order to be free, which is but a consequence of independence, it is
necessary that all the people, without distinction, should concur in the elections of the representatives of the nation: it is necessary that the masses,
who cannot be corrupted, and who never flatter or dissemble, should be the
constant source from which all power emanates.
"In order that competence should be diffused through all classes, it is not
only necessary that the taxes should be moderate, but that the government
should have an aspect of stability, which will tranquillize the citizens, and give
them assurance for the future.
"The government will be stable when the institutions are not exclusive;
that is to say, when, not favoring any class, they are tolerant of all, and
especially are in harmony with the needs and desires of the majority of the
nation.  Then merit will be the only reason for promotion; services' rendered the country, the only cause for reward.
"From these opinions which I advance, it will be seen that my principles
are entirely republican. Indeed, what can be more attractive than to dream
of the empire of virtue, the development of our faculties, the progress of
civilization? If, in my project of a constitution, I prefer the monarchical form,
it is because I think that government better suited to France, since it gives
stronger guaranties for tranquillity, power, and liberty.
"If the Rhine were an ocean, if virtue-were always the only moving power,
if merit alone secured promotion, then I should wish for a republic pure and
simple. But, surrounded as we are.by powerful enemies who have at their
command thousands of soldiers who can re-enact among us the irruptions of
the barbarians, I think that a republic would not be able to repel foreign
invasion and to suppress civil agitations without having recourse to rigorous
measures which would endanger liberty.
"I wish for a government which can secure all the advantages of a republic without involving its inconveniences; in a word,'a government which




UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                        73
shall be strong without despotism, free without anarchy, independent without
conquests.
"The following are the fundamental principles of such a constitution:
The three powers of the State should be the people, the legislative corps, and
the emperor. The people should have the elective power and the power of
sanction; the legislative corps should have the deliberative power; the
emperor, the executive power.
"The country will be happy so long as there is harmony among these three
powers; that is to say, when the opposition, which must ever exist in a free
State, shall be but as the discord in music, which promotes the combined
harmony.
"Harmony between the government and the governed can only exist in
two ways,- when the people permit themselves to be governed by a single
will, and when the chief governs in accordance with the wishes of the people.
In the first case, it is despotism; in the second, it is liberty. The tranquillity
of the one is the silence of the tomb: the tranquillity of the other is the
serenity of an unclouded sky.
"The power will be always obliged to reign after the desires of the people,
since the two Chambers will be immediately chosen by the people. There
will no longer be any distinction of rank or fortune; for each citizen will concur equally in the election of the deputies. There will no longer be any
aristocracy of birth or aristocracy of wealth: there will be only that of merit.
The only condition in order to be an elector, or eligible to office, will be age,
- a difference which relates only to capacity, since this is only developed with
years.
",The second Chamber reposes upon the same basis. One can be a senator
only when one has rendered eminent service to the country. Thus the
nation will be represented by two Chambers: the one will be composed of
men whom the people will have judged most worthy to discuss its interests,
the other of those whom the nation will have recognized as having merited
well of the country.
"The sovereignty of the people is guaranteed, because, at the accession of
each new emperor, the sanction of the people will be demanded. If he refuse,
the two Chambers will proposeanother sovereign. The people not having the
right of election, but only that of approbation, the law will not present
the inconveniences of an elective royalty, a constant source of dissensions:
it will be, on the contrary, a surety against political explosions.
"I flatter myself that these ideas are more or less in harmony with those
professed by the most energetic party in France. That grand portion of the
nation is composed of the patriots; and the patriots of the present day are
mostly Republicans. But although each one may have a beau-icdeal of government, believing this or that form most suitable for France, nevertheless it
is a consequence of the principles of liberty to recognize, that, above all
private convictions, there is a supreme judge, which is the people. It is for
the people to decide its lot, to bring all parties into accord, to prevent civil
war, to proclaim loudly and freely its supreme will.
" This is the point upon which all good Frenchmen should meet, to what10




74                      LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
ever party they belong, - all those who wish for the happiness of their country,
and not merely for the triumph of their own doctrines. Let those Carlists
who do not make common cause with the traitors and the enemies of France,
but who follow the generous ideas of Chateaubriand; let those Orleanists
who are not associated with the murdeerers of Poland, of Italy, and of the
French patriots; let all the Republicans and Napoleonists, - unite before the
altar of their country to await the decision of the people. Then we shall
present to Europe the imposing spectacle of a grand people organizing
itself without excess, which marches to liberty without disorder." *
Such were the views which Louis Napoleon promulgated at this time.
"It must be conceded," says Smucker, "that the constitution proposed by
Louis Napoleon in 1832 has been retained by him, in its leading ideas,
through all his subsequent career, until it became, in a great measure, realized
by the memorable events of 1852."
In " The Memoirs of Madame Recamier," we find the following account of a
visit which she made with Chateaubriand at this time to the Chateau of Arenemberg. "In August, 1832, Madame Recamier decided to make a trip to
Switzerland, where she was to meet M. de Chateaubriand, who was already
wandering in the mountains. She went to Constance.
"The Chateau d'Arenemberg, where the Duchesse de St. Leu passed her
summers, and which she had bought and put in order, overlooks Lake Constance. It was impossible for Madame Recamier not to give a few cldays to
this kind and amiable person, especially in her forlorn and isolated position.
The duchess, too, had lost, the year previous, her eldest son Napoleon, who
died in Italy.
"When M. de Chateaubriand joined Madame Recamier at Constancej he
was invited to dine with her at the castle. IIortense received him with the
most gracious kindness, and read to him some extracts from her own memoirs.
The establishment at Arenemberg was elegant, and on a large though not
ostentatious scale. Hortense's rnanners in her own house were simple and
affectionate: she talked too much, perhaps, about her faste for a life of retirement, love of Nature, and aversion to greatness, to be wholly believed. After
all these protestations, her visitors could not perceive without surprise the
care the duchess and her household took to treat Prince Louis like a sovereign. He had precedence of every one.
" The prince, polite, accomplished, and taciturn, appeared to Madame Recamier to be a very different person from his elder brother whom she had known
in Rome, young, generous, and enthusiastic. The prince sketched for her in
sepia a view of Lake Constance, overlooked by the Chateau of Arenemberg..
In the foreground, a shepherd, leaning against a tree, is watching his flock, and
playing on the flute.   This design, pleasantly associated with Madame
Recamier's visit, is now historically interesting.  Fo. the last ten years, the
signature of the author has been affixed to very different things." t
It will be remembered that upon the overthrow of Charles X., in 1830,
* CEuvres de Napoleon III., tom. premier, p. 371.
t Memoirs and Correspondence of Madame Recamier, p. 346.




UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                        75
there were four parties striving to seize the crown then drifting upon the
waves of revolution. First the Legitimists claimed it for the young Duke de
Bordeaux, as not only the legitimate heir whose claim was recognized by allied
Europe, but as the one in whose favor Charles X. had abdicated. The Orleans
party sought it for Louis Philippe upon the plea that political necessity pointed
to him as the only one who could rescue France from anarchy. I-e alone,
it was said, by his royal blood and his supposed republican principles, could so
far unite Legitimists and Republicans as to save the nation from civil war.
"' The Republicans," says Alison, "it is well known, held the thread of a vast
conspiracy, which extended over tle whole country, embraced a considerable
part of the army, and even some of the guard, and was headed by'men of the
greatest talent and most revered names in France."*   The Napoleonists
claimed the throne for the heir of Napoleon, basing theiP claim upon the fact
that the nation by universal suffrage had established the empire in the person
of Napoleon and his heirs. According to this claim, the crown of Napoleon
would first descend to Napoleon's only son, the Duke of Reichstadt, then (in
1830) a young man of nineteen years, virtually a prisoner, prohibited under
the penalty of death from  entering France, and pining away amidst the
palaces of Austria, soon to die. Should he die without heirs, the crown would
then pass to the brow of Napoleon's elder brother Joseph. As he had no son,
his death would transmit the crown to the next younger brother, Louis
Bonaparte. Upoil his death, the crown would pass, first to his eldest son
Napoleon Louis; and then, should lie die without male issue, to Prince Louis
Napoleon, who is now enthroned at the Tuileries. Thus there were four lives
then (in 1830) intervening between Louis Napoleon and the crown.
Six years before the overthrow of Charles X., when, in 1824, Lafayette
made his triumphant journey through our country, he visited Joseph Bonaparte at his beautiful residence in Bordentown, N.J.  On that occasion,
Joseph says that Lafayette expressed to him his regret at the part he had
taken in 1815 in effecting the restoration of the Bourbons.
" The Bourbon dynasty," said Lafayette, " cannot last: it too openly wounds
the national feeling. In France, we are all persuaded that the son of the
Emperor alone can represent all the interests of the Revolution. Place two
millions at the disposal of our committee in Paris, and I promise you that
with this sum, in two years, Napoleon II. will be on the throne of France." t
When Joseph Bonaparte received the tidings of the expulsion of Charles
X. and the enthronement of the Duke of Orleans, not by the suffrages of the
nation, but by the adroit management of a few influential men in Paris, he
addressed to the Chamber of Deputies a protest in favor of Napoleon II., his
nephew in Austria. In this document he says, —
"There are no legitimate governments in the world save those acknowledged by the nation,- the nation which creates and destroys them according
to its requirements. To the people alone belong these rights. The Bonaparte
* Alison, vol. ii. p. 183.- See also Histoire de Dix Ans du Regne de Louis Philippe, par
Louis Blanc, tom. i. pp. 96-99.
t The Napoleon Dynasty, p. 391.




76                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
family have been elected by three million five hundred thousand votes.  If
the nation finds it for its interest to make another choice, it has both the
power and the right to do so; but the nation alone.  Napoleon II. was proclaimed in 1815 by the Chamber of Deputies, who recognized in him  a right
conferred by the nation. Nevertheless, the nation is mistress: it rests with
her to reject or confirm  the titles she has bestowed according to her good
pleasure."
Louis Philippe had scarcely taken his seat upon the throne ere he found
himself surrounded  by extreme embarrassments.  Legitimists, Republicans,
Napoleonists, all alike disputed his title to the crown. To conciliate the
surrounding dynasties, he was compelled to avow  principles and to adopt
measures exceedingly obnoxious to that spirit of republican equality and of
equal rights which the empire had so generally diffused throughout France.
The first serious efforts to thrust him from his throne were made almost simultaneously, though without concert, by the Republicans in Paris and by t4he
Legitimists in the south of France. The funeral of General Lamarque presented
an opportunity for the outbreak in Paris.*  This distinguished man was one of
the generals of the empire: Napoleon, upon his death-bed at St. Helena, had
spoken of him in the highest terips of commendation.  In the tribune, Lamarque had proved one of the most eloquent speakers upon the popular side.
In preparation for the outbreak, orders were given by the popular committees
for an,, immense gathering of the people at the funeral. Arms were secretly
distributed to those who could be trusted.  Leaders were appointed, each with
his particular part assigned.  The procession was to move from the house of
the deceased, through the Rue St. Honore, to the Madeleine, and thence through
the Boulevards to the Place of the Bastille, where the remains were to be
received, to be conveyed to their sepulture in the south of France.
It was the 5th  of June, 1832.  A magnificent car, decorated with tricolor
flags and immortelles, bore the remains.  Nearly all the members of the
Chamber of Deputies were there.  The Republican societies contributed their
immense numbers.  The whole vast population of Paris seemed to be gatlered along the line of march.  Banners with revolutionary devices floated
in the air. All countenances wore an expression of expectancy or of anxiety.
* In the following terms, Sir Archibald Alison speaks of the popular discontent with the
government of Louis Philippe at this time:"The Republican party had long been in a state of the utmost discontent, in consequence of
the entire failure of their hopes from the results of the revolution of July, and the clear evidence
which was now afforded that they'had only revolted to fix chains about their necks incomparably
heavier than those which were around them under the former government of Polignac and his
priests. The Democratic press was unanimous in ascribing the whole to the tyrannical government of Louis Philippe. So far did the Opposition proceed, that a meeting of all the Opposition
was held at Lafitte's, in which it was agreed to make an appeal to the nation; in other words, to
commence an insurrection. A committee was appointed, consisting of M. de Lafayette, M. Odillon Barrot, M. Manguin, and other Liberal deputies, to draw up an address to the nation. But
before it could be prepared, or the requisite organization made for effecting a general insurrection,
an event took place which brought on the crisis, and precipitated matters sooner than the leaders
of the movement had intended. This was the death of General Lamarque, which took place on
the 1st of June, 1832." - History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the Accession of Louis
Napoleon, vol. iii. p. 24.




UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                         77
The government, conscious of the peril with which it was menaced, had
assembled in Paris, in addition to two thousand municipal guards, eighteen
thousand infantry of the line, four thousand cavalry, and eighty pieces of cannon. There were also, besides these, over thirty thousand troops in the
immediate vicinity, which could be called in at any hour. The government
had about sixty thousand men and a hundred and twenty pieces of cannon.
Many of these troops, however, could not be relied upon. The insurgents
had a hundred thousand, many of them veteran soldiers, or members of the
National Guard.*
At ten o'clock in the morning, the procession set out.  So great was the
excitement and tumult at this early hour, that it was immediately evident to
every observer that serious convulsions were at hand. As the head of the
procession approached the Place Vendome, it was turned from its originally
contemplated course, through the Rue St. Honore, and guided up the Rue de
la Paix, so as to pass under the Column of Austerlitz. Cries of " Vive la Republique" began now to rise, sweeping along the streets, ever gathering
volume, and spreading excitement through the countless masses. There were
occasional acts of violence as prominent friends of Louis Philippe were encountered. At the corner of the Rue du Temple, the pupils of the Polytechnic School, a hundred and fifty in number, joined the procession with shouts
of "Vive la Liberte! "  This gave a new impulse to the rising storm; and the
air was filled with shouts of" Vive la Republique! "  A bas Louis Philippe! "
"Vive Lafayette!"
The four corners of the pall were borne by Marshal Clausel, General Lafayette, M. Lafitte, and M. Mauguin. When the procession arrived at a point
near the Bridge of Austerlitz where the body was to be received that it might
be taken to its place of burial, funeral-orations were pronounced by General
Uminski, a Polish refugee, and by M. 3auguin, one of the most distinguished
of the French Liberal party. These orations, like Mark Antony's speech over
the body of Caesar, though cautiously worded, were admirably adapted to
rouse to the highest pitch the passions of the already excited multitude.
"Lamarque," said Uminski, "you were the worthy representative of the
people. You were ours. You belonged to the human race. All people who
love freedom will shed tears at your tomb. In raising your noble voice for
Poland, you served the cause of all nations as well as France. You served
the cause of liberty,-that of the interests dearest to humanity. You defended
it against the Holy Alliance, which grew up on the tomb of Poland, and
which will never cease to threaten the liberties of the world till the crime
which cemented it shall have been effaced by the resurrection of its unfortunate victim." t
As the body was borne away, the crowd was left in a state of indescribable
excitement, and all eager for action; General Lafayette called for his carriage.
He was urged to repair immediately to the IHtel de. Ville, and to establish a
provisional government. The multitude unharnessed the horses, and began to
* Sir Archibald Alison, vol. iii. p. 75.
t Louis Blanc, iii. 296, 297.




78                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
draw him, with shouts of triumph, through the streets, now choked by the
prodigious throng. Just then the cry arose, " The dragoons! " and a mounted
squadron of cuirassiers, with their glittering breastplates, appeared, endeavoring to force their passage through the dense array, and to disperse the enormous gathering.
Blood began to flow, as the troops were assailed with every missile which
fury could minister. For a few moments, they fought desperately, and endeavored to hew their passage through the dense and surging multitude with the
sword; but the mass was so compact, that the efforts of the troops were unavailing, and they were finally compelled to retreat. And now the insurrection
burst forth in all its terrible sublimity. "To the Barricades! " was the cry.
The Boulevards, from the Bridge of Austerlitz to the Rue Montmartre, were
crowded with the tumultuous multitude. Barricades were instantly thrown
up in all the narrow streets leading to this immense rendezvous. Thus, in an
hour, about one-third of the metropolis became, as it were, the citadel of the
insurgents, with all its approaches guarded.
The king and his council, greatly alarmed, were in session at the Tuileries.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the intelligence was received that the conflict
had commenced, and that the aspect of affairs was serious in the extreme.
Orders were immediately despatched for all the troops within thirty miles of
Paris to hasten to the capital. Night came with universal tumult and terror.
The alarm-drum was beat in all the streets. The soldiers and the insurgent
citizens were flocking to their several rallying-points. Fifty thousand troops
of the line and fifty thousand of the National Guard were marching to their
appointed positions. The populace were throwing up barricades, and seizing
important posts, and arming themselves. The government could place but
little reliance upon the National Guard, as it was manifest that large numbers
of them were in sympathy with the people.
General Lafayette, M. Lafitte, and others, who but a few months before had
been prominent in placing Louis Philippe on the throne, but who were now
dissatisfied with his manifest subservience to the principles of the old regime,
were in session during the night, in the mansion of M. Lafitte, discussing the
situation of affairs.* To secure success in such an enterprise, there must always
be some imperial, controlling mind to guide the blind masses. In this case,
this essential element of success was wanting. There was no definite plan,
no comprehensive and co-operative action, no leader to whom the multitude
could look with confidence to conduct them to victory. General Lafayette had
sufficient prestige and popularity to give him, in the hearts of the people, that
position; but notwithstanding his life-long devotion to popular rights, and all
his heroic virtues, he was not a man of sufficient nerve and promptness of
action to be a reliable guide in such troubled hours. The leaders separated
without coming to any decision, save to wait the progress and development
of events.
During the night, there were several sanguinary conflicts between the people
and the troops, in most of which the populace proved victorious. With won* Alison, vol. iii. p. 77.




UNSUCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                        79
derful facility, these tumultuous masses seemed to organize themselves into an
army, and to intrench themselves in those strategic positions which they had
selected, probably guided by the old'generals of the empire. Their headquarters were at the Porte St. Martin, and their intrenchments were vigorously
pushed out on both sides of the river; so that a large part of the city was
under their control. But the important points of the Tuileries, the Louvre,
and the Hotel de Ville, were held by the royal troops.
By ten o'clock on the morning of the 6th, Marshal Soult, who was in command of the king's forces, found himself at the head of a body of eighty thousand men, six thousand of whom were cavalry, with one hundred and twenty
pieces of artillery. Immnense as this force was, it was none too much for the
occasion. The triumphant people were steadily advancing from street to
street towards the centre of the city, fortifying every street as they advanced.
Consternation was manifest in every face at the Tuileries; and there can be no
question, that, had General Lafayette then openly placed himself at the head of
the insurgents, many of the troops would have followed him, and the throne
of the citizen-king would have crumbled to the dust. But, even amidst the
excitements of these fearful hours, many of the more thoughtful were asking
themselves, " To what will all this lead? What government will take the place
of the monarchy we are destroying? Is noi the throne of Louis Philippe, with
all its aristocratic tendencies, safer for France than the anarchy with which we
are menaced, or a return to the Reign of Terror?"
It was now clear that nothing could save the monarcly but the most bold
and energetic measures. To secure the soldiers of the National Guard from
defection, they were intermingled with the troops of the line. It is in vain
to attempt to describe the terrible conflict which ensued. Thirty thousand
royal troops marched along the Boulevards; thirty thousand moved along the
banks of the Seine. The two bodies were to meet at the Bridge of Austerlitz,
hoping to sweep away between them every barricade, and to crush out all
opposition.
The houses of Paris are all of stone, generally five or six stories in height;
and each one becomes thus, in hours of revolution, a citadel. These houses
were filled with musketeers, who kept up a deadly fire upon the approaching
columns.  But disciplined valor prevailed..Steadily the troops advanced,
clearing the streets with grape-shot, sweeping away the barricades, and holding firmly every position which they gained. The courage and desperation
were equal on both sides. Perhaps the severest conflict took place at the
Cloister of St. Meri. The position was very strong, and it was held by the
insurgents with the most determined heroism.
"The tocsin," says Alison, "incessantly sounded from the summit of the
Church of St. Meri to call the Republicans to the decisive point; and they were
not wanting to the appeal. Young men, children of twelve years of age, old
men tottering on the verge of the grave, flocked to the scene of danger, and
stood side by side with the manly combatants. Never had there been, in the
long annals of revolutionary conflicts, such universal enthusiasm and determined resolution on the part of the Republicans."
In the first attempt to-storm this post, the royal troops were met by so




80                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
deadly a fire from the barricade in the street and from  the windows, that the
whole column recoiled, and fled back to the river in disorder. Then Marshal
Soult brought up several pieces of his heaviest artillery, and endeavored to
batter down the obstructions. Having thus prepared the way, he sent forward a column to storm the works, while he threw shells over their heads to
clear the space beyond. The troops rushed upon the barricade in an impetuous charge, and succeeded in taking it, though with heavy loss. The
defenders of the barricade retreated into the adjoining houses, where they
fought with desperation until nearly every man was bayoneted or shot.
Quarter was neither given nor asked. In the fury of the hour, deeds of
ferocity were enacted which disgraced humanity.
The contest was now closed. The Republican insurrection was crushed,bloodily crushed. Of the king's troops, seventy-three were reported as killed,
and three hundred and forty-four wounded. The loss of the insurgents can
never be known, as the dead and wounded were generally conveyed away by
their friends. There were, however, ninety-three dead bodies left upon the
pavements and in the houses, and two hundred and ninety-one severely
wounded. Fifteen hundred were also made prisoners.*
On the morning of the 6th, it had seemed so probable that the insurrection
would prove an entire success, that the leaders of the Liberal or Republican
party met at the wealthy banker's, M. Lafitte's, to deliberate upon the dethronement of the king and upon the new government which was to be
instituted.  But when the unexpected display of troops proved that the
revolt was hopeless, and the thunders of heavy artillery proclaimed that the
cloister of St. Meri was being stormed, " they quietly," says Alison, "slipped
over to the other side, and sought only to mitigate the victors' wrath."  A
deputation was appointed to call upon the king, congratulate him uzpon his
victory, and to implore him to temper justice with mercy in the moment of
triumph.
The king replied indignantly, "Who is responsible for the blood which has
been shed?  The miserable wretches who took advantage of the funeral of
General Lamarque to attack the government by open force. The cannon you
have heard has demolished the barricades of St. Meri. The revolt is terminated. I do not know why you should suppose that violent measures are to
be adopted; but, rely upon it, they are loudly called for. I know that the
press is constantly endeavoring to destroy me; but it is by the aid of falsehood. I ask you, Is there any person, of whom you have ever heard, against
whom a greater torrent of calumny has been poured forth than against myself? " t
They separated with increased exasperation on both sides.  The next
morning a decree appeared in "Le Moniteur," declaring Paris in a state of
siege; superseding, in all cases connected with the insurrection, the ordinary
tribunals, and substituting courts-martial; and the police were sent to break
to pieces all the printing-presses belonging to the Opposition, whether Car* Moniteur, June 7, 1832.
t Louis Blanc. Dix Ans de Louis Philippe, vol. iii. 318.




UNS UCCESSFUL INSURRECTIONS.                           81
lists, Napoleonists, or Republicans. These measures excited the utmost inclignation; but a triumphant army, maddened by its wounds, yet flushed with
victory, overawed the convulsed metropolis.  The government regarded this
movement as a combined attempt of the Republicans and Legitimists; and
thus Garnier Pages the Democrat, and MI. de Chateaubriand the B3ourbonist,
found themselves arrested as accomplices in the same rebellion. It is certain that the Legitimists were at the same time endeavoring to overthrow the
throne of Louis Philippe; but how far there was co-operation between these
two opposite parties, it is difficult to say. M. de Chateaubriand wrote fromn
his prison on the 10th of June, 1832, to M. Bertin, editor of "Le Journal des
Debats," that he had refused to take the oath of allegiance to Louis Plhilippe
for two reasons: first, that his government was not founded upon legitimnate
succession from the ancient monarchy; and, second, that it was not founded
upon popular sovereignty.  It was but a few weeks after this, in August, that
Chateaubriand visited Louis Napoleon at Arenemberg, and read "The Political Reveries," from which we have made extracts, and in which Louis Napoleon states that the voice of the people is the legitim:ate foundation of all
government.  "The Political Reveries," it is stated in "The Works of Napoleon III.," were submitted to Chateaubriand; and that illustrious writer nmade
his observations, which, unfortunately, are lost.  One of his suggestions was,
that the word nation should be substituted for that of people.*
The prosecutions of those engaged in the uprising were pursued with great
severity. "The number of the prosecutions," says Alison, "exceeded any
thing previously witnessed, not merely in French but in European history.
The rstrictions so much complained of during the Restoration were as nothing compared to it.  From the accession of Louis Philippe to the 1st of October, 1832, a period of little more than two years, there occurred in France 281
seizures of journals, and 251 judgments on them. No less than 81 journals
had been condemned, of which 41 were in Paris alone.  The total number of
months of imprisonment inflicted on editors of journals during this period
was 1,226; and the amount of fines levied, 347,550 fiancs (880,000). This is
perhaps the hottest warfare, without the aid of the censorship, ever yet waged,
during so short a period, against the liberty of the press.  The system  of
Louis Philippe was, to bring in cessant prosecutions against the parties responsible for journals, without caring much whether they were successful or not,
hoping that he should wear them out by the trouble and expense of conducting their defences." t
Thus terminated the Republican attempt to overthrow the throne of the
citizen-king.  In the next chapter we shall describe the still more heroic, but
equally unsuccessful, efforts of the Legitimist or Carlist party, seeking to
restore the old Boulbon throne in the person of the child, the Duke de
Bordeaux.
* CEuvres de Napoleon III., tom. i. p. 373.
t History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, vol. iii.
p. 82.
11




CHAPTER V.
THE ADVENTURES OF THE DUCHESS DE BERRI
Claims of the Legitimists. - Narrative of the Assassination of the Duke de Berri. - Noble Conduct of the Duchess de Berri. - The Dying Scene. - Birth of the D)uke de Bordeaux. -
Efforts of the Duchess to reclaim the Crown for her Son.- iHer Romantic Adventures. -
Disappointments and Persistence. - Her Capture and Imprisonment. -  )eplorable Development. - Moral Ruin of the Duchess. - Death of the Duke of Rtichstadt. - His Attractive
Character and Melancholy History. -Decree of the Senate of' France creating the Napoleonic Dynasty.- Its Ratification by the People. - Response of Napoleon.
T will be remembered that Charles X. with his family had taken
refuge, through the kindness of the British Government, at
Holyrood House, in Edinburgh.  The Legitimists considered
y        the  )uke of Bordeaux, subsequently called Count de Chambord, the son of the Duchess de Berri, as their king; giving him
the title of Henry V. For many months, an active poltion of
this party had been plotting the restoration of the throne to their "legitimate
sovereign."  The conspiracy had spread widely among the Loyalists of Western and Southern France.  The duchess herself —young, beautiful, and fiscinating, and imbued with a love of adventure which led her to enjoy peril and
hardship -was to lead the enterprise, and thus throw herself upon the gallantry of those whom she regarded as the subjects of her son.
We have alluded to the death of the Duke de Berri by the hand of an
assassin.  The romantic career of the widowed duchess renders it proper here
more minutely to detail the events of her earlier history. The Duke de Berri
was the second of the two sons of the Count d'Artois, subsequently Charles
X.  As the elder son, the Duke d'Angouleme, was childless, the only hope for
the direct succession of the royal line was in the Duke de Berri.  He was a
man in whom the animal nature was very strongly developed; short in stature,
with broad shoulders and unattractive features.  Indulging in all princely
luxuries, his intellectual culture had been much neglected.  His kindness of
heart, however, which was revealed in the sweetness of his smile and in great
cordiality of manners, associated with an inexhaustible fund of small talk,
uttered in courteous and complimentary phrases, rendered him  a universal
favorite.
On the 28th of March, 1816, it was announced to both of the French Chambers that the Duke de Berri was about to marry Caroline Mary, eldest daughter of the heir to the crown of Naples. The announcement created genetl
82




ADVENTURES OF THE DUCHESS DE BERBI.                         83
joy. The Chambers, as an expression of their satisfaction, voted him a gift
of one million five hundred thousand francs ($300,000).
The generous nature of the prince is manifested in his consenting to accept
the gift, only in consideration of permission to consecrate the whole of it
to the relief of the poor suffering from  famine in the departments.  This
promise he religiously performed. The marriage proved a happy one. Both
parties w.ere affectionate in disposition, and each was tenderly attached to the
other.  Caroline, sylph-like in figure, beautiful in person, and graceful in manners, won all hearts. Four years passed away. Two children were born, -
one of them a son, the other a daughter.  Both died in infancy.  A third
child proved to be a daughter. There was great anxiety throughout France.
Should not a prince be born, and should there thus be a failure in the direct
line of succession, insurrection and civil war might occur.
On the 13th of February, 1820, the Duke de Berri, with the duchess,
attended the opera. The duchess (who was then enceinte), in the interval
between two of the pieces, left her own box, with the duke, to visit the Duke
and Duchess of Orleans, who were in a neighboring box. Upon returning,
she was accidentally struck in the side by the door of a box which was suddenly thrown open.  Apprehensive that the shock might be injurious to her
in her delicate state, she expressed a wish to return home. The Duke de
Berri led her out, and handed her into her carriage. "Adieu," said she, with
a loving smile, to her husband: "we shall soon meet again.'
As the duke was returning from the carriage to the opera, an assassin by
the name of Louvel, who had been watching for him, and who was concealed
in the shade of a projecting wall, rushed forward, and, with his left arm seizing
the duke by the shoulder, with his right hand plunged a poniard to its hilt in
his side. Thedeed was instantaneous; and, in the darkness, the assassin fled.
The duke felt only a violent blow. Bringing his hand to the spot, he found
the dagger still sticking in his side. He exclaimed, "I am assassinated! I am
dead! I have the poniard! That man has killed me!" So sudden had the
action been, that the carriage of the duchess was but just beginning to move,
and she heard the dying cry of her husband.  With a piercing shriek, she
called upon the servant to stop. Before the steps were down, she leaped fiom
the carriage, and clasped her husband in her arms. He had just drawn out
the dagger, and was covered with the blood which was gushing from the
wound.
"I am dead!" said the duke: "send for a priest.  Come, dearest, let me die
in your arms."
The duke was taken to an adjoining room, and medical attendants soon
arrived. He was informed that the assassin was arrested.  "Alas!" he said,
"how cruel it is to die by the hand of a Frenchman! "  Some one expressed
to the duchess the hope that the wound might not prove mortal.
"INo," said the dying duke:'I am not deceived. The poniard, I can assure
you, has entered to the hilt. Caroline, are you there?" -"Yes," she replied;
" and I will never leave you."
The Bishop of Chartres, confessor of Charles X., arrived, and had a few
moments of private conversation writh the dying man. The duke called for




84                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
his infant daughter. She was brought to him asleep; for it was near the hour
of midnight. "Poor child!" he exclaimed, placing his hand upon her head.
"may you be less unfortunate than the rest of your family! "
M. Boujon, the domestic physician of the duke, endeavored to restore circulation by sucking the wound. "What are you doing?" exclaimed the duke:
"for God's sake, stop! Perhaps the poniard was poisoned!"  The chief surgeon, Dupuytren, resolved to try, as a last resource, to open and enlarge the
wound, that the blood, which was beginning to impede respiration, might flow
externally. The duke, his hand already clammy with the damp of death,
clasped that of the duchess as he bore the painful operation. When it was
over, he said, —
" Spare me further pain."  Then, tenderly caressing his beloved and lovely
wife, he said, "Caroline, take care of yourself for the sake of our infant
which you bear in your bosom."
The Duke and Duchess of Orleans were present from  the moment the
wounded prince had been brought into the room. His father, his older brother
the Duke d'Angouleme, and the rest of the royal family, soon arrived.
"VWho is the man who has killed me?" the duke inquired in the feeble
accents of approaching death. "I wish I could see him to inquire into his
motives.  Perhaps it is some one whom  I have unconsciously offended.
Would that I might live long enough to ask the king to pardon him! Promise me, my father, promise me, my brother, to ask of the king the life of that
man."
The increasing difficulty of respiration indicated that the dying moment
was at hand. In a low tone of voice, a few words were interchanged between
the duke and the duchess; and soon two illegitimate children, who were born
to him in London when the family were all in exile, were brought in.  It
seems that he had ever recognized these children, and- that they had been
under the fostering care both of himself and his lawful spouse. As they knelt,
sobbing, at his side, he embraced them  affectionately, and, turning to the
duchess, said, -
"I know you sufficiently, Caroline, to be assured that you will take care,
after me, of these orphans."
In silent, pathetic response, she took her own child from the arms of its
nurse, and, drawing to her these innocent but unfortunate little ones, said to
them, "Kiss your sister."
The dying man was manifestly consoled by this noble act. He then confessed to the Bishop of Chartres, and received absolution; fervently exclaiming at several of the responses, "My God, pardon me, and pardon him who
has taken my life!"
Soon the king, Louis XVIII., arrived. "My uncle," said the dying man,
"give me your hand, that I may kiss it for the last time. I entreat you," he
said, pressing his hand, "in the name of my death, to spare the life of that
man."
"You are not so ill as you suppose," Louis replied. "We will speak of this
again."
"Ah! " sadly exclaimed the dying prince, "you do not say yes. The par



ADVENTURES OF THE DUCHESS DE BERRI.                      85
don of that man would have softened my last moments, if at least I could
depart with the assurance that his blood would not flow after my death."
He had scarcely uttered these words ere he sank away and died.* The body
of the prince was laid in state for several days at the Louvre. It was then
conveyed, with all the possible accompaniments of funereal pomp, to the vaults
consecrated to the remains of the kings of France at St. Denis. Louvel the
assassin, an atheist, inflamed by the desire to gain notoriety by killing a king,
made no denial of his guilt. He was executed, and upon the scaffold exhibited the brutal indifference which was to be anticipated from so fanatical
a wretch.
We have previously mentioned the birth of the expected child, and the
abdication of the king, his grandfather, in his favor. Eleven years had now
passed since the assassination of the duke. In the month of iMarch, 1831,
nine months after the scenes of insurrection in Paris which we have recorded
at the close of the last chapter, the heroic duchess set out in disguise upon
her perilous adventure. The king, her father-in-law, had given his consent,
though, it is said, quite reluctantly; and had constituted her, during the
minority of her son, regent of the kingdom she was expecting to conquer.
Passing through Germany, she crossed the Alps, and safely reached Naples,
her parental home. At the time of her marriage, fifteen years before, she was
the daughter of the heir to the Neapolitan throne; and her father was now
King of Naples. Here she hoped to find her claims supported; but Austria
and the other European dynasties had decided not to make another attempt
to restore the Bourbons. The Neapolitan kingdom could make no movement
without the permission of Austria.
Disappointed in these hopes, the duchess repaired to the petty Duchy of
Mara, at whose liliputian and powerless court she was very cordially received.
Several cavaliers, inspired by enthusiastic courage and chivalric gallantry,
here devoted themselves to her cause; while a few women of the highest
rank lent her the encouragement of their smiles and sanguine hopes. Her
partisans in France also wrote to her in the most flattering terms, - truly of
the dissatisfaction of the country with the government of Louis Philippe,
truly of the eagerness of her partisans to rally around her unfurled banner;
but falsely, very falsely, of the number of those partisans, and of their moral
and material strength.
Deceived by these illusions, the duchess gave orders for the general rising
of her fiiends in the south of France, where the numbers of Legitimists were
most numerous, and where the conspiracy in her behalf had the most extensive ramifications. Several military companies, amounting to a few thousand
men, had been secretly organized and armed; and spirited proclamations were
prepared to rouse the peasantry to engage in so gallant an adventure. All
things being thus made ready, the duchess with a few attendants embarked
on board the steamer " Carlo Alberto," and steered for Marseilles, where her
friends were waiting to receive her. It was midnight when this little band
entered the harbor of their destination. The preconcerted signal of a couple
* Dernier Moments du Due de Berri, 31-41.




86                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
of lanterns suspended from  the rigging brought out a boat to convey the
duchess to the land.  It was a dark and tempestuous night, and the little
boat rocked violently on the stormy sea. Four gentlemen, dressed as fishermen, accompanied the duchess to the shore, where she landed at two o'clock
among some wild, slippery, precipitous cli'fs, which none but the most intrepid
smugglers ventured to ascend.
Two thousand of her partisans were assembled to receive her at their appointed place of rendezvous, on the highest spot in the city. With shouts
of" Vive Henri Cinqz!" the excited band soon took possession of that whole
quarter of the town. When the morning dawned, and the duchess, to her
unspeakable delight, saw the white banner of the Bourbons waving from the
spire of St. Laurient, she deluded herself with the hope that her great enterprise was moving rapidly to a triumphant conclusion.
The alarm-bells were sounding loudly from  the steeples. The excited,
bewildered multitudes were running to and fro in all directions. But, unfortunately for the success of the enterprise, the constituted authorities had
received intelligence of the contemplated landing, and had made vigorous
arrangements for the emergence.  The strength of all the important posts
had been doubled; and ere long a bayonet-charge by the regular troops
dispersed the bands of the insurgents, and captured several of their prominent leaders. The duchess, though an enchanting, adventurous, and utterly
fearless woman, was not a Maria Theresa; and she had no ability to head
and guide an army.  At one o'clock in the afternoon, her leaders were captured, the crowd of her partisans was dispersed, and the white flag of the
Bourbons was replaced on the steeple of St. Laurient by the tricolor, then
the recognized symbol of Orleans power.*
But the heroic woman escaped capture.  Still determined in her enterprise,
she rejected the entreaties of her fiiends, that she should re-embark in her
steamer, and take refuge with the Bourbons of Spain. Perhaps she was
strengthened in her resolve by the conviction that her relative Louis Philippe,
with whom  she was intimately acquainted, would not deal very harshly with
her should she fall into his hands. She felt that she could reproach him with
having robbed her child of his crown, and that he could not censure her very
severely for attempting to regain it. Indeed, Louis Philippe had already issued
orders, that, should the duchess be captured by any of his cruisers, they should
convey her to Naples, and deliver her up to her parents. In this humanity
there was an aspect of contempt, which must have stung the pride of this
spirited woman.
To all the entreaties of her friends she replied, "I am in France now, and
in France I will remain." Disguised as a peasant-boy, and accompanied by no
one but Marshal Bourmont, she set out on foot to walk across France through
fields and by-paths, a distance of more than four hundred miles, to the department of La Vendee, where the Bourbon party was in its greatest strength.
The first night, they lost their way in the woods. Utterly overcome by
exhaustion, the duchess sank down at the foot of a tree and fell asleep, while
her faithful attendant stood sentinel at her side.t
* Louis Blanc, tomn. iii. p. 264.  t Louis Blanc, iii. p. 274.




ADVENTURES OF THE DUCHESS DE BERRI.                         87
This is not-the place to describe the wonderful adventures of the Duchess
de Berri on that long journey.  There is nothing in the pages of romnance
more wild and strange.  She slept in sheds, encountered a thousand hairbreadth escapes, and with great sagacity eluded the numerous bands who were
scouring the country in quest of her. At one time, in an emergency, she
threw herself upon the protection of a Republican; boldly entering his house,
and saying, "I am the Duchess de Berri.  AVill you give me shelter?"  I-e
did not betray her. After such a journey of fifty days, she reached on the
17th of May the Chateau of Plassac, near Saintes, in La Vendee, where a general risingo of her followers was appointed for the 24th. Nearly all the Vendean
chiefs were then awaiting the summons. On the 21st of May, the duchess,
still in the costume of a young peasant, presenting the aspect of a remarkably
graceful and beautiful boy, and taking the name Little Peter, repaired on
horseback to an appointed rendezvous at MIeslier.
To her bitter disappointment, she found but few of her followers there
assembled; and those few, instead of meeting her with enthusiasm, represented
the attempt as hopeless. Passionately, and with fervor of eloquence which was
ever at her command, she entreated them not to abandon her; representing the
hardships she had endured and the risks she had run. A rising was at last
agreed upon; but it was by no means general or enthusiastic, or even hopeful.
A few conflicts took'"place, in which the peasants fought with the greatest
valor; but the royal troops were concentrated there in great numbers, and the
insurgent bands rapidly melted away. All parties alike condemn the ferocity
and barbarism with which the soldiers of the king consummated their victory.
Savages have been rarely found more merciless.
Still the Duchess de Berri, through her own intrepidity and sagacity and
the devotion of her Royalist friends, succeeded in effecting her escape. Led
by a single guide, she wandered through the woods, often sleeping upon the
ground, and sometimes carried on the shoulders of her attendant through
marshes up to his waist in water.
"On one occasion," says Alison, "when the pursuit was hottest, she found
shelter in a ditch covered with bushes, while the soldiers in pursuit of her
searched in vain, and probed with their bayonets every thicket in the wood
with which it was environed. The variety, the fatigue, the dangers, of her life
had inexpressible charms for a person of her ardent and romantic disposition.
She often said,'Don't speak to me of suffering: I was never so happy at
Naples or Paris as now.'"
More than once, disguised as a peasant-girl, with heavy wooden shoes on
her little feet, she entered towns occupied by hostile troops, and conversed
gayly with the gendarmes by whom the gates were guarded. All her hopes of
success, however, were soon at an end. The government forces were so strong
and vigilant, that she found' it impossible to rally her friends.  But even this
great disappointment she seemed to bear with wonderful cheerfulness: The
coasts of France were so carefully guarded to prevent her escape, that she
decided to seek concealment for a time in the city of Nantes, where she had
but few adherents, and where, consequently, her presence would scarcely be
suspected.- She entered the city disguised as a peasant-girl, and accompanied
~"'  """"''''""J   "                 ZD




88                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
by one female companion. A  few Royalists, at the risk of their own lives,
afforded her an asylum.*
For some months she thus remained concealed, eluding all the efforts of the
government to find her. She still kept up a correspondence with her adherents, and issued orders as Regent of France. She even wrote to the queen,
imploring her clemency in behalf of those of her followers who had been arrested and brought to trial.
"Whatever may be the consequences," she wrote, "in which I may be involved from the position in which I am placed for fulfilling my duties as a
mother, I shall never implore your interposition for me; but I cannot refrain
from pleading for those brave men who have so honorably devoted themselves
to the cause of my son. I implore, then, my aunt, whose kindness of heart
and piety are well known to me, to employ all her influence in obtaining
interest in their favor. Notwithstanding the difference in our situations, a
volcano is under your feet, madame; and you know it. God alone knows
what he destines for us; and perhaps the day may yet come when you will
thank me for reposing confidence in your kindness, and for furnishing you
with an opportunity for manifesting it in behalf of my unfortunate fiiends.
Believe in my gratitude. I wish you much happiness, madame.  But I have
too good an opinion of you to think it possible that you can be happy in your
present situation.                                 "MARxIE CAROLINE." t
At last the duchess was betrayed by a Jew, who, pretending devoted loyalty, had unfortunately acquired the confidence of his victim. Persuading
somme of the Royalists that he had important despatches which could be intrusted only to the hands of her Royal Highness, he succeeded in obtaining
the appointment for an interview. He then informed the police of the place
of meeting.
It was the 6th of November.  The princess had scarcely crossed the
threshold of the house designated for the meeting, ere it was surrounded by
troops. The police entered with their pistols in their hands. Escape was impossible. There was, however, a hiding-place very adroitly constructed in an
angle of the room behind the chimney-piece. The duchess, with three female
companions, slipped into this little nook, which was scarcely capable of containing them.  The officers searched the house from  basement to attic in
vain. In the mean time, the princess and her companions were suffering excruciatingly. They could obtain fresh air only through a small aperture but
three inches in diameter, to which each in turn applied her mouth; and thus
they barely escaped suffocation.
The gendarmes, fully assured that the object of their search must be
somewhere in the house, took quiet possession of the room  in which the
duchess was concealed, and, as night approached, kindled a fire in the grate,
which, by converting the space behind into a heated oven, added terribly to
sufferings already almost insupportable. At length, after having endured sixteen hours of torture, the duchess came out from her concealment, to the
astonishment of the gendarmes, who were seated in the room, and said
* Louis Blanc, vol. iii. pp. 283, 284.  t Ibid., vol. iii. p. 379.




ADVENTURES OF THE DUCHESS DE BERRI.                         89
to them  almost gayly, referring to the ancient martyr roasted upon a gridiron, -
" Gentlemen, you have made war on me a lc St. Laurent. I have nothing
to reproach myself with. I have only discharged the duty of a mother to
gain the inheritance of her son." *
The captive was treated with the respect which was deemed due to her
rank, and was first conducted to the Castle of Nantes.  From this place, after
an interval of two days, she was lecd, with several ladies who adhered to her
fortunes, to a brig, which conveyed her to the Castle of Blaye. The baggage
of the duchess consisted simply of a few articles tied in a handkerchief. Here,
under circumstances which one would have supposed must have crushed the
strongest spirit, she bore her captivity with cheerfulness, and even with gayety.
A doom more to be dreaded than dungeon or scaffold was slowly descending
upon her, - the doom of the derision of all Europe.
Louis Philippe had become possessed of the information that the duchess
was enceinte. With cold, calculating, cruel policy, he held her firmly in his
grasp, until, when time brought about its natural result, the secret, so humiliating, so crushing, should be revealed to the world. Iad she been liberated
or permitted to escape, she might in some retreat, aided by the solicitude of
friends, have shielded her name from disgrace; and through her abounding
energy she might again renew her attempt to regain the crown for her son.
It surely was not magnanimous; but it was deemed politic that the duchess
should not be permitted to escape irretrievable disgrace, but that her name
should be so blasted as to render her forever after powerless.
A feeble attempt the duchess made to shield her name in sending the following announcement, on the 22d of February, to the cabinet at the Tuileries: "Although I have had motives the most weighty to keep my marriage
secret, I think it a duty which I owe to myself and my children to declare
that I was married secretly during my sojourn in Italy."
On the 10th of May she gave birth to a daughter, whose father was declared
to be the Count Campo Franco, one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber of
the King of the Two Sicilies. The object of the government was now gained.
The duchess was hopelessly disgraced. No one would again venture to advocate her cause.  She was accordingly, with her babe, shipped to Naples, to be
heard of' no more.  Thus terminated the Legitimist endeavor to overthrow
the throne of Louis Philippe.
The failure of the Duchess de Berri was soon followed by another event of
the greatest political moment. The Duke of Reichstadt, the only son of Napoleon and of Maria Louisa, and consequently the direct heir of whatever
rights Napoleon could transmit, died at Schoenbrunn, near Vienna, on the 22d
of July, 1832, at the age of twenty-one years. There is no contradiction in
the testimony which ascribes to this young man a character remarkable for its
amiability, intelligence, and attractiveness. Born to the highest of earthly
destinies, he early appreciated the magnitude of his fall, and wept bitterly
over the doom of his father, dying amidst the cruel glooms of St. Helena.
* Memoires de la Duchesse de Berri, pp. 87-90.
12




90                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Upon the overthrow of Napoleon, this child, then but about five years of
age, was taken by his grandfather, the Emperor of Austria, to Vienna. Here
he was tenderly treated and carefully educated. Though efforts were made
to keep from him as much as possible the wonderful history of his father, still
he retained a vivid recollection of the scenes of his infancy, and of the catastrophe, so tumultuous and sublime, which accompanied the downfall of the
empire.
"When he reached," says Alison, "the years of adolescence, and read the
story of the immortal hero whose blood ran in his veins, much of his father's
spirit re-appeared in his character, despite all the prudence and caution of his
Austrian educator.  He had already received a regiment from his grandfather, and had worn the Austrian uniform. But his heart was with the
French; and his youthful cheek fired with enthusiasm when he read the accounts of their glorious achievements when led by his father's genius." *
The young prince early manifested a decided partiality for military science;
and it was the judgment of'those who knew him best that he developed decided ability in this line. His constitution was naturally delicate; and his
painful musings over the past, the present, and to him, an exiled prince, the
gloomy future, probably aided in fostering that insidious pulmonary disease
which shortened his days.
Early in the year 1831, the symptoms of disease became so manifest as
greatly to alarm his friends. He was accordingly removed from Vienna to
the quiet rural retreat of the Palace of Schoenbrunn. The opening spring of
the year found him sinking; and he became so weak, that he could enjoy the
fresh air only by being drawn in a garden-chair over the smooth walks of the
pleasure-grounds of the palace.
The last sad hour which all alike must meet the prince had now reached.
Tall, graceful, gentle, almost celestial in beauty, he prepared to die.  In
accordance with the custom  of the imperial family, he, his mother, and his
weeping relatives, were dressed in white as for a bridal-day. The sacrament
of the Lord's Supper was administered to him, and he fell asleep with a smile
still lingering upon his cheek after it was cold in death. His remains were
interred in the family vault of the house of Hapsburg, in the convent of the
Capuchins at Vienna. Thus passed away the direct heir of the empire of
Napoleon. A brief Latin inscription upon a modest tombstone records the
exalted birth of the prince, his gentle, graceful life, and his untimely end.t
The decrees of the Senate, enacted on the 18th of May, 1804, conferring
the crown upon Napoleon I. and his heirs, were as follows:" The imperial dignity is hereditary in the descendants, direct, natural, and
legitimate, of Napoleon Bonaparte, from male to male, by order'of primogeniture, and to the perpetual exclusion of females and their descendants.
"Napoleon Bonaparte may adopt the children or grandchildren of his
brothers, provided that they shall have attained the age of eighteen years.
"In default of heirs natural and legitimate, or of an heir adopted by Napoleon Bonaparte, the imperial dignity is devolved and deferred to Joseph
* Alison's History of Europe, vol. iii. 92.  t Moniteur, July 30, 1832.




ADVENTURES OF THE DUCHESS DE BERRI.                      91
Bonaparte and his descendants natural and legitimate, by order of primogeniture, from male to male, to the perpetual exclusion of women and their
descendants.
"In default of Joseph and of his descendants male, the imperial dignity is
devolved and deferred to Louis Bonaparte and to his descendants natural and
legitimate, by order of primogeniture, and from male to male, to the exclusion
of women and their descendants."
These decrees were presented to the people, to be sanctioned or rejected by
them by the voice of universal suffrage.  There were 3,524,254 votes cast.
Of these, 3,521,675 were in the affirmative, and but 2,579 in the negative.
"History," says Alison, "has recorded no example of so unanimous an
approbation of the foundation of a dynasty; no instance of a nation so joyfully taking refuge in the stillness of despotism." *  Such is the admission of
an historian, who, with his strong aristocratic proclivities, regarded the tyranny
of the Bourbons as liberty; and the democratic empire, with equal rights for
all upon its banner, as deslpotism.
When the result of this vote was announced by the Senate and the Tribunate to Napoleon, he replied, "I ascend the throne, where I have been placed
by the unanimous voice of the people, the Senate, and the army, with a heart
penetrated with the splendid destinies of a people, whom, in the midst of
camps, I first saluted with the title of'great.' From my youth upwards, my
thoughts have been entirely occupied with their glory; and I now feel no
pleasure nor pain but in the happiness or misfortune of my people. My
descendcnts will long sustcin this throne. In the camps they will be the first
soldiers of the army, sacrificing their lives for the defence of their country.
As its first magistrates, they will never forget that contempt for the laws and
the overthrow of the social edifice are never occasioned but by the weakness
and the vacillation of princes. You senators, whose counsel and aid have
never been wanting in the most difficult circumstances, will transmit your
spirit to your successors. Remain ever, as you now are, the firmest bulwarks
and the chief counsellors of the throne, so necessary to the happiness of this
vast empire."
The coronation took place the next day, Dec. 2, 1804, in the Cathedral of
Notre Dame, with splendor which had never before been surpassed. It was
the coronation of the Republican emperor. The assumption was, that France
in all its interior institutions was a republic, but with its supreme executive
invested with imperial dignity and power to protect that republic from foes
at home and foes abroad. The oath, consequently, which the emperor took,
was in these words -
"I swear to maintain the integrity of the territory of the republic; to
respect and cause to be respected the laws of the Concordat and the liberty
of worship; to respect and cause to be respected equality of rights, political
and civil liberty, and the irrevocability of the sale of the national domains;
to impose no tax but by legal authority; to maintain the institution of the
Legion of Honor; and to govern with no other views but to the interest, the
happiness, and the glory of the French people."
* Alison's History of Europe, vol. ii. p. 236.




92                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The next day, the eagle-surmounted banners which were thenceforth to
form the standards of the army were presented to the colonels of all the regiments in Paris, and to deputations from those which were absent. The imposing ceremony took place in the Champ de Mars. The emperor and empress
sat upon a throne in the middle of the plain. At a signal, the troops closed
their ranks, and were gathered in dense masses round the throne.  The emperor, who was dressed in the uniform  of a soldier of the guard, rose and
said,"Soldiers, there are your standards. These eagles will serve as your rallying-point.  They will ever be seen where your emperor shall deem them
necessary for the defence of his throne and of his people." *
Such were the foundations of the Republican empire of France.  The
death of the Duke of Reichstadt now brought Prince Louis Napoleon one
step nearer to the throne in the line of succession marked out by the Senate,
and ratified by the almost unanimous voice of the French people.
* Precis des tvenements militaires, 1799-1807, par General Mathieu, tom. xi. pp. 77, 78.




CHAPTER VI.
LIFE AT ARENEMBERG, AND NAPOLEONIC SYMPATHIES.
Views of Lafayette; of M. Carrel; of Chateaubriand. -The Poles desire Louis Napoleon for
their King. - His Reply. - Retirement at Arenemberg. - Studies. -" Considerations, Political and Military, upon Switzerland." - Opinions of the Press. - Extracts. - Letters to
the Poet Belmontet. - Letter from Queen Hortense. - The Prince offered the Crown of Portugal. - His Reply. - Mode of Life at Arenemberr. - "Manual of Artillery." - The Liberal Party look to Louis Napoleon. - French Sympathy for Napoleon I. - Honors conferred
upon his Memory. - Plan for restoring the Empire. - Colonel Vaudrey.
ROM  the cay of the death of the Duke of Reichstadt, the eyes
of all who desired the restoration of the empire were directed
to the young Prince Louis Napoleon.  I'e was now the sole
heir to the imperial sceptre, after his uncle Joseph and his own
sick and dying father. Many of the most prominent of the
Liberal party were in communication with the prince, and Lafayette had held several interviews with him.  The hopes which Lafayette,
as we have seen in his interview with Joseph Bonaparte, reposed on Napoleon's son, he now transferred to the nephew.  Bitterly disappointed in Louis
Philippe, whom he had so signally helped to place upon the throne, Lafayette
hoped for the establishment of his long-desired republic, under the aegis of the
heir of the emperor.*
This distinguished advocate of popular rights had ever avowed himself a
Republican in principle: still he affirmed that France needed monarchical
forms. Under republican forms, there may exist utter despotism; and, under
monarchical institutions, the spirit of liberty and equality may have free scope.
The Emperor Napoleon I., the unwavering defender of equal rights for all men,
was ever fond of calling his empire the Imperial Republic.  By all dynastic
Europe, it was regarded as the foe of. aristocratic privilege; and as such, by
the allied despots it was assailed and destroyed.  The regard with which the
Liberal party began then to contemplate Louis Napoleon may be seen in the
following sentiments expressed by Al. Carrel, the distinguished editor of
"The Paris National: ""The name borne by Louis Napoleon is the greatest existing in modern
times: it is the only one capable of strongly exciting the sympathies of the
French people. If the prince is able to comprehend the true interests of
* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 48.
93




94                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
France, if he can forget his rights of imperial legitimacy, and only remember
the sovereignty of the people, he may one day be called upon to play a great
part."
Even the Viscount Chateaubriand, with whom  legitimacy was a religious
principle, but who had visited Louis Napoleon at Arenemberg, and for whom
he seems to have formed quite a strong attachment, wrote to him, 
"You know that my young king* is in Scotland; and, so long as he lives,
there can be for me no other sovereign in France.  But if God in his impenetrable designs should reject the race of St. Louis, and if this election of
Louis Philippe, which the country has never sanctioned, were referred back to
the people, and if the habits of the nation should render us unfit for a republic, then, prince, there is no name which better accords with the glory of
France than your own." t
In the year 1831, there was an insurrection in Poland.  That unhappy nation made a frantic  endeavor to throw  off the yoke which the allies had
imposed upon it.  The leaders in this movement at once turned their eyes
to Louis Napoleon, as one whose name would invest their cause with dignity;
and offered himi  the crown of Poland as the reward of his services.  The
letter which they wrote him was signed by General Cruirewicz, Count Plater,
and many others of the Polish patriots.  It was dated Aug. 28, 1831, and
contained the following sentiments:" To whom  could the direction of our enterprise be better confided than
to the nephew  of the greatest captain of not only our own age, but of all
others?  A young Bonaparte, appearing on our plains with the tricolor flag
in his hand, would produce a moral effect, the consequences of which are
incalculable.  Come then, young hero, hope of our country, confide to the
crowds to whom your name is known the fortunes of Ctesar, or, more precious
still, the destinies of liberty.  You will win the gratitude of your brothers
in arms, and the admiration of the universe." +
Louis Napoleon declined the throne thus offered him; stating as a reason,
"I belong, first of all, to France.  Besides, I should serve the holy cause of
Poland more effectually by fighting by your side as a volunteer."
In accordance with these views, he set out to join the Polish patriots. I-e
had not advanced far upon his journey, when he received tidings of the capture of Warsaw, which destroyed all their hopes of success. He consequently
returned to the retirement of Arenemberg, and consecrated himself anew to
those political and military studies which had so long and so intensely
engrossed his attention.~  Two or three years passed away,- years of compar* The Duke of Bordeaux, Henri V.
t MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 49.
$ Hist. comp. de Nap. III., p. 30.
~ "It was then thought that France would make an immediate and powerful intervention in
favor of Poland. Louis 2Napoleon feared, that, if he accepted, the cabinet of the Tuilerics might
take umbrage at the eminent position assigned him by the old friends of his uncle, the most
faithfal and fraternal auxiliaries of our country. That he might not compromise their cause by
furnishing the pretext for an abandonment, unfortunately already resolved upon, and perhaps
also that he might rest at the door of such events as might arise from the great deceptions of
1830, he responded by a refusal." - Histoire cld Prince Naptolon, sur des Documents particuliers et
authezttiques, par B. Renault.




LIFE AT ARENEMBERG.                                   95
ative solitude and intense intellectual toil.  He published during this period
several pamphlets upon the state of Europe, which developed his own political
views. Among others there was one which attracted much attention, entitled
"Considerations, Political and Military, upon Switzerland."
No one can read this treatise without assenting to the remark of the
distinguished editor of the "Paris Nationale," who says, "The writings of
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte give evidence of a clear head and a noble character.
They contain profound views, which denote severe study, and a grand intelligence of modern times."
Longfellow  has beautifully said, in words which  are  familiar to  every
reader, 
"The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night."
Never was the truth  of this maxim  more fully verified than in the life
of Prince Louis Napoleon.  His career has not been the sudden blaze of
the meteor, but the steadily increasing light of the ascending sun.
"In Louis Napoleon's career," says Alison, " from first to last, literary and
political, there are decided proofs of that fixity of ideas and moral resolution
which are the characteristics of greatness, and the heralds either of success or
ruin in the world."
Again: speaking of his literary labors during these his early years, Alison
says, "He persisted in his projects with that determined perseverance which
so often works out its own destiny, and, by never despairing of fortune, at last
conquers it. He commenced the composition of works calculated to enlist the
public sympathies in his favor by uniting the Democratic and Imperial parties
under the same banner, and holding it out as the only one which could restore
liberty and glory to France. These works are very remarkable for the reflection
and thought which they exhibit; and they were singularly calculated to attain
their object, from the skilful combination which they present of much that was
real with every thing which could be figured that was alluring in the maxims
of the Imperial Government." *
A  few  quotations from  the work  entitled "Considerations, Military and
Political, upon Switzerland," will show  its general spirit:t"The enemies of popular suffrage will tell you that the elective system has
always caused trouble: at Rome it divided the republic between Marius and
* Alison's History of Europe from the Fall of Nap. I. to the Accession of Lonis Napoleon,
iii. 210.
f The authors of the Biographie des Hommes du Jour, speaking of the Considerations politiques et militaires sur la Suisse,,say,
" This book announced great talent as a thinker and a writer. It caused a great sensation
both in the diplomatic and military worlds. ~ In one portion of the work, all the constitutions of
the diffCrnct cantons were examined, described, and analyzed with a sagacity quite surprising in
so young an author. It showed the comprehensive glance and the enlightened reason of the
already ripe statesman. Lofty views abounded in it. Switzerland was particularly struck. She
applauded it with warmth; for she saw in this little book the elements of a better republican
organization for the future."




96                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON IiI.
Sylla, between Cmsar and Pompey; Germany has been in flames, on account
of the election of her emperors; Christianity has been troubled in the choice
of her popes; we have seen three apostles of St. Peter disputing his heritage;
Poland has been stained with blood in the choice of her kings; while in
France the hereditary system  has, during a period of three hundred years,
surmounted all dissensions.
"Others respond,'The elective system  governed Rome for four hundred
and fifty years; and Rome was the queen of the world, the focus of civilization.  The hereditary system  did not prevent revolutions which once chased
out the Wasa, twice the Stuarts, and three times the Bourbons. If the hereditary system  has prevented wars of elections like those of Poland and those
of Germany, it has substituted wars of succession like the Red Rose and the
White Rose, the war for the throne of Spain, that of Maria Theresa; and
besides, this principle, often oppressive, has given birth to the only legitimate
wars, that is to say, the wars for independence.'  *
" The word'republic' is not a designation of principles: it is but a form of
government.  It is not a principle, because it does not always guarantee
liberty and equality.  Republic in its general acceptation signifies only the
government of many.  For have we not seen till now, in almost all the
republics, the people submitting to a tyrannical aristocracy, to revolting privilege? In Italy the republics were despotisms. The laws of Venice were written
in blood. And while a republic, wise and democratic, may be the best of governments, a tyrannical republic is the worst of all; for it is more easy to throw
off the yoke of one than that of many." t
The treatise from which we have selected the above extracts was published
in July, 1833, when Louis Napoleon was twenty-five years of age.  In "The
Project of a Constitution," published a few months earlier, he expresses the
following' views: -
"The right to utter one's thoughts and opinions, whether through the press
or in any other way, the right to assemble peaceably, and the free exercise of
worship, should never be interdicted.  Every act exercised against a man
without the authority and the forms w-hich the law prescribes is arbitrary and
tyrannical: it is an act of violence which one has a right to repel by force.
Public charity is a sacred debt.  Society owes subsistence to unfortunate citizens, either in procuring for them work, or in supplying the means of subsistence to those who are no longer able to labor."
To his friend the poet Belmontet, Louis Napoleon wrote in May, 1833,
"My portrait, then, has given you pleasure. I am  touched to hear it. Look
at it often, and think, in seeing it, that it is that of a man who will enter into
n6 transaction with any enemy of France; who will ever devote himself to
the cause of liberty, without once looking back; and who will remain constantly faithful to the duties of his name, the honor of his country, and the
affection of his brave friends." +
Two years later, writing to the same friend, he says, " Still far from  my
(Euvres de Napoleon III., tom. deuxieme, pp. 330, 331.  f Idem, p. 331.
t Histoire complete de Napoleon III., p. 32.




LIFE AT AEENEMBERG.                            97
country, and deprived of all that can render life dear to a manly heart, I yet
endeavor to retain my courage in spite of fate, and find my only consolation
in hard study. Adieu! Sometimes think of all the bitter thoughts which must
fill my mind when I contrast the past glories of France with her present condition and hopeless future. It needs no little courage to press on alone, as one
can, towards the goal which one's heart has vowed to reach.  Nevertheless,
I must not despair, the honor of France has so many elements of vitality
in it." *
After another year of unremitted toil in his study, he writes to the same
fiiend, "My life has been until now marked only by profound griefs and stifled
wishes. The blood of Napoleon rebels (se revolte) in my veins in not being
able to flow for the national glory. Until the present time, there has been
nothing remarkable in my life, excepting my birth. The sun of glory shone
upon my cradle. Alas! that is all. But who can complain when the emperor
has suffered so much?  Faith in the future (Ia confimnce dctns le sort) - such
is my only hope; the sword of the emperor.my only stay; a glorious death
for France my ambition. Adieu! Think of the poor exiles whose eyes are
ever turned towards the beloved shores of France; and believe that my
heart will never cease to beat at the sound of country, honor, patriotism, and
devotion."
The following letter firom Hortense shows how deeply she sympathized in
the trials of her son. It was cdated "Arenemberg, Dec. 10, 1834," and was
also addressed to their fiiend the poet Belmontet: —
"The state of my affairs obliges me to remain during the winter in my
mountain-home, exposed to all its winds. But what is this compared with
the dreadful sufferings which the emperor endured upon the rock of St.
Helena? I would not complain, if my son, at his age, did not find himself
deprived of all society, and completely isolated, without any diversion but the
laborious pursuits to which he is devoted. His courage and strength of soul
equal his sad and painful destiny. What a generous nature! What a good
and noble young man! I am proud to be his mother, and I should admire
him if I were not so. I rejoice as much in the nobleness of his character as
I grieve at being unable to render his life more happy. He was born for
better things: he is worthy of them. We contemplate passing a couple of
months at Geneva. There he will at least hear the French language spoken.
That will be an agreeable change for him. The mother-tongue! -is it not
almost one's country? " t
While devoted to study in the solitudes of Arenemberg, interrupted only
by such visits as he received from the illustrious men who not unfrequently
became the guests of his mother at the chateau, his cousin -the Duke of Leuchtenberg, son of his uncle Eugene, and husband of Donna Maria, Queen of
Portugal- died. The plan was then formed by the Liberal party in Portugal
to marry their young queen to Louis Napoleon, whose name and published
opinions they considered a guaranty of his devotion to the popular cause.
* Histoire complete de Napoldon III., p. 32.
t Histoire de la Famille Bonaparte, par M. Camille Leynadier.
13




98                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The prince rejected the offer, as he had previously rejected that of the Polish
chiefs. The following letter he wrote upon this occasion, dated at Arenernberg the 14th of December, 1835: 
"Several journals have announced the intelligence of my departure for
Portugal as a pretender to the hand of Queen Donna Maria.  However
flattering for me may be the idea of a union with a young queen, beautiful
and virtuous, widow of a cousin whom I tenderly loved, still it is my duty to
refute such a report, as no step of mine, that I am  aware of, could give rise
to it.
"I may even add, that, notwithstanding the strong interest attached to the
destinies of a people who have just recovered their independence, I should
refuse the honor of sharing the throne of Portugal, if by chance any persons
should direct their eyes to me.
"The noble conduct of my father, who abdicated in 1810 because he could
not reconcile the interests of France with those of Holland, has not escaped
my recollection.  My father has proved by his grand example how much
one's country is to be preferred to a foreign throne.  I feel, indeed, that,
habituated from childhood to love my country above all things, I can prefer
nothing to the interests of France.
"Persuaded that the great name which I bear will not be always a ground
for exclusion in the eyes of my fellow-countrymen, since it reminds them  of
fifteen years of glory, I wait calmly in a free and hospitable country until
the nation shall recall into its own bosom those who were exiled in 1815 by
twelvie hlundred thousand foreigners.  This hope of one day serving France
as a citizen and a soldier strengthens and consoles me in my retirement, and
in my eyes is worth all the thrones in the world."
The young prince still remained in Arenemberg, engaged in studious labors,
and closely watching all the signs of the times.  He manifested great interest
in the Polish refigees, many of whom visited him; and he was ever ready to
assist them generously with his purse. He sent to the Polish committee at
Berne a valuable casket which had once been owned by Napoleon I., that it
might be sold by lottery, and the proceeds devoted to relieving the wants of
the exiles. The grateful reply which was returned to him  contained the
following, sentence: -
"Five hundred Polish refugees, grateful for his generous solicitude, have
the honor to        t to p ese nt thei sentiments of the most profound regard to the
illustrious descendant of the Emperor Naploleon." 
The castle of Hortense was elegantly furnished with all the appliances of
enjoyment and luxury; but the prince seems never to have had a taste for
ease or splendor.  All his life long, he has emphatically belonged to the
" working-party."  When seated on the imperial throne, one most intimately
acquainted with his habits said to the writer, " There are no two men in Paris
who do as much work each day as does the emperor."
At Arenemberg he had a rude pavilion erected at a short distance from the
walls of the chateau, and almost beneath the shadows of the surrounding
forest, which he used as his study and his laboratory, and where he spent in
* The Public and Private History of Napoleon III., by Samuel M. Smucker, LL.D., p. 47.




LIFE AT ARENEMBERG.                               99
retirement most of his hours.  There was no carpet upon the floor; there was
not even an arm-chair in the room.  Here he was surrounded with books,
charts, philosophical instruments, and fire-arms of every description.  He
adopted almost the rigor of a military life; frequently taking his fiugal meals
in his apartment, and devoting almost unbroken days to laborious study. For
exercise, he spent an hour each morning upon horseback, exploring the wild
mountain-paths.  As the result of these months of seclusion and toil, lie
published in December, 1835,-he being then twenty-seven years of age,
-"A Manual of Artillery for the Use of Artillery Officers of the Helvetic
Republic."
The author of "Letters from London " gives the following account of the
mode of life of the young prince at Arenemberg at that time: "From his
tenderest youth, he despised the habits of an effeminate life. Although his
mother allowed him  a considerable sum  for his amusements, these were the
last things he thought of.  All his money was spent in acts of beneficence, in
founding schools or houses of refuge, extending the circle of his studies, in
printing his military or political works, or in making scientific experiments.
His mode of life was always frugal, and rather rude.
"At Arenemberg it was quite military.  His room  (situated, not in the
castle, but in a small pavilion beside it) offered none of the grandeur or
elegance so prevalent in Hortense's apartments.  It was, in truth, a regular
soldier's tent. Neither carpet nor arm-chair appeared there; nothing that
could indulge the body; nothing but books of science, and arms of all kinds.
As for 1timself, he was on horseback at break of day, and, before any one
had risen in the castle, had ridden several leagues.  He then went to work in
his cabinet.  Accustomed to military exercises, as good a rider as could be
seen, he never let a day pass without devoting some hours to sword and lance
practice, and the use of infantry arms, which he managed with extraordinary
rapidity'and address."
"The Manual of Artillery" added much to his literary and scientific celebrity.  It gave abundant evidence of industry, research, and great intellectual
ability. It proved, beyond all dispute, that while many other European princes
were wasting their lives in indolence, folly, and dissipation, Louis Napoleon
was consecrating his great energies and his commanding intellect to the purposes of a high and noble ambition.  The wide range of his studies may be
inferred from  the following summary of the contents of this volume: The
introduction contained an historical survey of the invention of cannon, and of
improvements in their construction.  The body of the work consisted of three
divisions,   field-artillery, siege-artillery, and the construction of cannon.  It
embraced also a treatise upon the management of cannon on the march and in
action; upon the theory of initial velocities, and the pointing and direction of
guns; upon the science of fortification, both of attack and defence; the manufacture of gunpowder, and the casting of cannon.*
* The Spectatenr Militaire of 1836, speaking of this work, says, "In looking over this book,
it is impossible not to be struck with the laborious industry of which it is the fruit. Of
this we can get an idea by the list of authors —French, German, and English-that he has consulted. When we consider how much studly and perseverance must have been employed to suc



100                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
His previous political works had excited much public sympathy in his
favor. In those treatises, he had very successfully attempted to unite the Republican and Imperial party under the same banner, representing that united
party as the one which was essential to the interests of France.  Every day,
the government of Louis Philippe was growing more unpopular.  Innumerable secret societies were organized to endeavor to overthrow his throne. Very
many of the Liberal or Republican party were turning their eyes to Louis Napoleon as the only hope for France.  One of the leading Republicans wrote
to the prince from Paris as follows:"The life of the king is daily threatened.  If one of these attempts should
succeed, we should be exposed to the most serious convulsions; for there is no
longer in France any party which can lead the others, nor any man who can
inspire general confidence.  In this position, prince, we have turned our eyes
to you. The great name which you bear, your opinions, your character, every
thing, induces us to see in you a point of rallying for the popular cause. Hold1
yourself ready for action; and, when the.time shall come, your fiiends will
not fail you." *
It was not without reason that the Liberal party in France began to repose
their hopes in Prince Louis Napoleon.  In all of his writings he had proved
himself the able advocate of popular liberty, proclaiming his faith in universal
suffl'age, and declaring the will of the people to be the only true foundation
of government.  He had avowed himself the firm fiiend of republican principles; while at the same time he had expressed his conviction, that, in the present situation of France, monarchical forms were essential to the welfare of
the nation.
It was upon these principles that the empire of the first Napoleon was
founded, — a government, not, like the old monarchy, conducted for the benefit of a pampered class of nobles, but for the whole mass of the people.  Several important Parisian journals began now to venture to recall to the recollections of the people the glories of the empire.  Louis Philippe found it
impossible to resist the rising enthusiasm. He therefore endeavored to avail
himself of its influence by assuming to take the lead as the fiiend a   ad amirer
of the great emperor. Not two months after the Bourbon dynasty gave place
to the Orleans family on the throne, a petition was presented to the Chamber
of Deputies, requesting that the remains of the Emperor Napoleon might be
claimed of the British Government, and restored to France.  In a speech
which 31. Mortigny made upon this occasion, he said, —
"Napoleon re-established order and tranquillity in our country. He led our
armies to victory.  His sublime genius put an end to anarchy.  His military
glory made the French name respected throughout the whole world, and his
name will ever be pronounced with emotion and veneration."
This petition was followed by many others; and, notwithstanding all the
ceed in producing only the literary part —for even the illustrations scattered through the work
are from the author's own designs —of a book that requires such profound and varied attainments, and when we remember that this author was born on the steps of a throne, we cannot help
being seized with admiration for the man who thus bravely meets the shocks of adversity."' Vie de Louis Napoleon, tom. i. p. 22.




LIFE AT ARENEMBERG.                            101
secret endeavors of the government to repress it, a flame of enthusiasm was
enkindled in the hearts of the people in behalf of the memory of the emperor,
which burned brighter and clearer every day.
When the all-conquering allies were in subjugated Paris, they insultingly
dragged from the column in the Place Vendome the statue of Napoleon.
Apparently with one voice, France now demanded its restoration.  In accordance with a national decree, in the year 1833, the statue of Napoleon was
replaced upon its magnificent shaft with great pomp, and amidst the universal
acclamations of France. The following words were at that time inscribed
upon the column: —
"Monument reared to the glory of the grand army by Napoleon the Great.
Commenced the 15th of August, 1806; finished the 15th of August, 1810.
The 28th of July, 1833, anniversary of the Revolution of July, and the year
three of the reign of Louis Philippe I., the statue of Napoleon has been replaced upon the column of the Grand Army."
On the 1st of Augusta 1834, a statue of Napoleon was placed in the courtyard of the Royal IHtel des Invalides, accompanied by ceremonies so imposing as to bring nearly all Paris together. Six weeks after this, on the 14th of
September, the Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in France,
rendered homage to the most profound legislator France has ever known by
suspending in the Council Chamber a portrait of Napoleon, representing the
emperor pointing to the immortal Code Napoleon.
While France was thus honoring the memory of Napoleon with a fervor of
devotion such as no other monarch ever secured before, there was a law of the
Bourbons, as yet unrepealed, by which every member of the Bonaparte family
was expelled from  France, and prohibited fromn  crossing her frontiers under
penalty of death. Louis Napoleon, in his retreat at Arenemberg, watched
these events, and cherished the full assurance that the hour was drawing nigh
when the people of France would welcome the return of the heir of the
emperor.
The colossal statue of the emperor on the column in the Place Vendorme
seemed to be almost an object of Parisian idolatry. Day after day, for some
time after its erection, immense crowds gathered in the Place, garlanding the
railing with wreaths of imnzortelles, and manifesting such enthusiasm  aind
excitement as greatly to arouse the fears of the government. At last, the
measure was adopted of dispersing the multitude by showers of water fiom
the fire-engines.*
The completion also of the gigantic Arc de l'Etoile, which stands at the
head of the superb avenue of the Champs Elysees, was another and a perpetual reminder to the Parisians of that great man, who, notwithstanding that,
during nearly the whole period of his reign, all Europe was combined to crush
him, had accomplished more for Paris and for France than any if not all of
her preceding sovereigns.
The emperor, in his will, had touchingly said,"It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the
midst of the French people whonA I have loved so well."
* Alison, chap. xxv. 55.




102                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
All over France, voices began to be heard, responding earnestly, affectionately, enthusiastically, to this request, and calling for the removal of his
remains from St. Helena to Paris.  The situation of Louis Philippe was perplexing in the extreme.  Any attempt to resist this flood of popular sentiment would surely cause him to be overwhelmed.  By yielding to it, he would
certainly swell that tide of excitement and enthusiasm in favor of the restoration of the empire before which his unstable throne was already tottering.
In the mean time, the government of Louis Philippe had but few supporters, save in the army.  He had often deemed it necessary to resort to very
despotic measures, as a defence from the assaults which were made upon him.
He had ever incurred the leproach of being an exceedingly avaricious man,
ignobly devoted to the enriching of himself and family.  He also manifested
the utmost solicitude to strengthen his throne by marrying his sons and
daughters to the members of the surrounding dynasties.  But the people of
France regarded these dynasties with hatred, as the banded despots who had
robbed them  of the empire, and of Napoleon, their elected sovereign; who
had forced upon them the Bourbons; and who had bound them, hand and foot,
by the infamous treaties of 1815.*
The Republicans had already made their effort - which we have described
- to overthrow the throne of Louis Philippe, and had met with a bloody and
a crushing repulse.  The Legitimists, under the Duchess de Berri, had made
their attempt.  This enterprise, so heroically commenced, also passed away in
a shout of derision.  It was represented to Louis Napoleon by his own judgment, and by the voice of his numerous friends in France, that the hour had
come in which it was wise for him to attempt to rescue France froml the sway
of the Orleans branch of the Bourbon dynasty, and, restoring to the nation
the right of universal suffrage, to re-establish the popular principles, if not
the precise forms, of the first empire.
Among the devoted fiiends who had rallied around Louis Napoleon was
Colonel Vaudrey, who was in command of the fourth regiment of artillery,
which was in garrison at Strasburg.  It so happened that this was the same
regiment in command of which Napoleon I. so brilliantly commenced his
career at the siege of Toulon, and the same which received him with so much
enthusiasm  at Grenoble, on his return from  Elba, and escorted him  on his
triumphant march to Paris.  Vaudrey was an eloquent, fascinating man, who
had great influence over his troops.  It was not doubted that these troops
" The popular feeling in reference to the government of Louis Philippe may be inferred from
the following extract from "The Public and Private History of Napoleon III.," by Samuel
Smucker, LL.D. -
"From 1830 till 1848, the whole reign of Louis Philippe was a continued attempt on his part,
by intriguing, evading, manceuvring, and lying, to perform as little as was possible of all the
solemn promises and sonorous professions with which he ascended the throne. The most sordid,
grovelling, perfidious, and disgraceful reign which has ever occurred during the whole progress
of French history, taking all things calmly into consideration, was the reign of Louis Philippe.
Its symbol should have been, and should forever continue to be, a full money-bag surrounded by
a chain."
This is too severe; but it truly represents the feelings with which large multitudes in France
were animated.




LIFE AT ARENEMBEEG.                                103
would  enthusiastically rally around the heir of the emperor, bearing his
name, and presenting to them  that banner of the empire beneath which
they had marched to so many victories.  In one of the interviews which
Louis Napoleon held with Colonel Vaudrey at Baden, the prince said to
him, -
"The days of prejudice are past.  The prestige of divine right has vanished from  France with the old feudal institutions.  A  new era has colnmenced.  Henceforth the people are called to the fiee development of their
faculties.  But in this general impulse, impressed by modern civilization, what
can regulate the movement?  What can preserve the nation from the dangers
of its own activity?  What government will be sufficiently strong to assure
to the country the enjoyment of public liberty without agitations, without
disorders?  It is necessary for a free people that they should have a government of immense moral force.  And this moral force - where can it be found,
if not in the right and the will of all (le dcoit et Ict voloznt cte tous)?  So long
as a general vote has not sanctioned a government, no matter what that government may be, it is not built upon a solid foundation: adverse factions will
constantly agitate society; while institutions ratified by the voice of the
nation will lead to the abolition of parties, and will annihilate individual
resistances.
"A revolution is neither legitimate nor excusable, except when it is made
in the interests of the majority of the nation.  One may be sure that this is
the motive which influences him when he makes use of moral influences only
to attain his ends.  If the government have committed so many faults as to
render a revolution desirable for the nation, if the Napoleonic cause have left
sufficiently deep reme mbrances in French hearts, it will be enough for me
merely to present myself before the soldiers and the people, recalling to their
memory their recent griefs and past glory, for them  to flock around my
standard.
"If I succeed in winning over a regiment, if the soldiers to whom  I am
unknown are roused by the sight of the imperial eagle, then all the chances
will be mine: my cause will be morally gained, even if secondary obstacles
rise to prevent its success.  It is my aim to present a popular flag, - the most
popular, the most glorious, of all, -  which shall serve as a rallying-point for
the generous and the patriotic of all parties; to restore to France her dignity
without universal war, her liberty without license, her stability without
despotism. To arrive at such a result, what must be done?  One must receive
from the people alone all his power and all his rights." 
Colonel Vaudrey had a high reputation for bravery.  I-He had almost unlimited influence over his soldiers, and was exceedingly popular with the
citizens of Strasburg, in consequence of the cordiality of his manners and
his devotion to the memory of the Emperor Napoleon.t  At this time he was
H Iistoire complete de Napoleon III., par iMMI. Gallix et Guy, p. 31.
t Colonel Vaudrey graduated at the Polytechnic School at Metz, as lieutenant of artillery, in
the year 1806. He took part in nearly all the campaigns of the empire. At the battle of Waterloo, being then twenty-eight years of age, he commanded a battery of twenty-eight pieces of




104                       LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
not only colonel of the fourth regiment, but was also in command of all the
artillery garrisoned at Strasburg. It was not doubted that his example and
influence would secure the co-operation, not only of the troops, but of the
population of the city generally.
Another efficient co-operator in the movement, who has since attained much
distinction, was M. Fialin, Viscount of Persigny.  He was of the same age
with Louis Napoleon, and had enjoyed both a collegiate and a military education.  Upon the overthrow of the throne of Charles X., he desired the establishment of a republic, and was exceedingly dissatisfied that Louis Philippe
should have been placed upon the throne by a small clique in Paris.  He
established a journal,-" L'Occident Fran9ais," —which advocated the restoration of the empire; but it failed from want of funds. Having read the
political pamphlets which Louis Napoleon had issued, he became deeply impressed with the genius and the liberal opinions of their author, and repaired
to Arenemberg to seek an interview  with the prince.  Fortified with two
letters of introduction, — one from a veteran general of the empire, and
another from the distinguished poet M. Belmontet, -he presented himself at
the chateau of Hortense, and became at once one of the most efficient and
active agents in the scenes which soon were opened.
The plan finally adopted was for Louis Napoleon suddenly to make his
appearance in Strasburg, with the object of rallying the garrison and the
citizens by the prestige of his name and the ascendency of his daring, and
then to advance upon Paris.  It was believed that the troops, -the National
Guard, which it was well known could be relied on, —the citizens, and the
peasants of the surrounding  country, roused by the sight of the eaglesurmounted banners of the empire borne by the heir of Napoleon, would
rally around him, and that thus the marvel of Napoleon's march from Cannes
to Paris would be repeated.  If the plan succeeded, it would prove a moral
revolution, as in the case of Napoleon's return from Elba, without the necessity
of exercising violence, and without the shedding of blood.
"Authentic evidence exists," says Alison, "that this conspiracy had such
extensive ramifications in France, that it was very near succeeding; and that
the throne of the citizen-king depended on the fidelity of a few companies in
the garrison at Strasburg." *
The garrison in the city consisted of between eight and ten thousand men.
artillery. The following anecdote is related, as characteristic of his enthusiastic and chivalric
character:Two evenings before Prince Napoleon set out on his hazardous expedition, he said in an interview with the colonel, " We are about to engage in a perilous enterprise. Both of us may be
killed. You are not rich. I do not wish that your children should have occasion to reproach
me, if you are lost, not only with the death of their father, but with the condition of poverty
into which that death may plunge them. Here are two contracts for ten thousand francs of rent
each, which will secure the future of your family. Take them: my mother will honor these
drafts which I draw upon her."
Colonel Vaudrey took the contracts, and immediately tore them in pieces, saying proudly,
"Prince, I give you my blood; my life belongs to you: but I can neither sell the one nor the
other." - Histoire complete de Napoleon III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 53.
* Alison, vol. iii. p. 210.




LIFE AT ARENEMBERG.                           105
There was also an immense arsenal in the place, from which Napoleon's followers
could be armed, should a show of power be deemed advisable. The citizens
of Strasburg had ever been the warm friends of the empire. These considerations rendered this stronghold peculiarly appropriate as the base of operations
for such a movement as Louis Napoleon contemplated.  In addition to this,
the march to Paris, by the way of Alsace, Lorraine, and Champagne, led
through those provinces in which the people retained the most lively remembrance of the glories of the empire, and where they were most exasperated
against the Bourbons in consequence of the outrages those provinces had
suffered from the march of the allies. Four times, in going and returning,
these locust legions of despotism had swept over their fields.
14




CHAPTER VII.
STRASBURG.
Letter to his Mother. -Leaves Arenemberg. -Incidents at Strasburg. - Speeches and Proclamations. - Success. - Reverses. -The Capture. - His Expression of his Feelings. - Anxiety
for his Companions. -Disregard of Himself.- Taken to Paris.- Condemned Untried.Fears of the Government. - Transported to America. - Scenes on the Voyage.
OUIS  NAPOLEON, in  a letter to  his mother, has given a
minute account of the attempt at Strasburg.  The accuracy
of that account is fully substantiated by the facts wHich were
elicited  at the subsequent trials.  In the introduction to his
carefully-written nal;rative, he says, —
"MY MOTHER, -- To give you a detailed recital of my misfortunes is to
renew your sorrows and mine; and yet it is a consolation to us both that
you should be informed of all the impressions which I have experienced and
of all the emotions which have agitated me since the end of October.  You
know under what pretext I left Arenemberg; but you do not know what was
then passing in my heart. Strong in my conviction, which made me regard
the Napoleon cause as the only national cause in France, as the only civilizing
cause in Europe; proud of the nobleness and purity of my intentions,- I was
fully determined to raise the imperial eagle, or to fall a victim to my political
faith.
"I set out, travelling in my carriage on the same road which I had taken
three months before when going from Urkirch to Baden: every thing around
me was the same; but what a difference in the emotions with which I was
animated! I was then cheerful and serene as the day which shone upon me:
now, sad and reflective, my spirit takes the hue of the cold and dreary weather
we are experiencing. I shall be asked, what could induce me to abandon a
happy existence in order to incur the risks of a hazardous enterprise.  I shall
reply, that a secret voice drew me on, and that for nothing in the world should
I have been willing to postpone to another period an attempt which seemed
to me to present so many chances of success.
"And that which is most painful of all for me to think of is, that, now that
reality has taken the place of supposition, I am firm in the belief, that, if I had
followed the plan which I at first traced out, instead of being now under the
equator, I should have been in my own country. Of what importance to me
106




STRASBURG.                              107
are those vulgar cries which call me insane because I have not succeeded, and
which would have exaggerated my merit if I had triumphed? I take upon
myself all the responsibility of the event; for I have acted fiom my own conviction, and not from impulse. Alas! were I the only victim, I should have
nothing to deplore. I have found in my friends boundless devotion, and I
have not a single reproach to make to any one."
On the 25th of October, the prince bade his mother adieu. She probably
had some suspicions that he was embarking in an important enterprise; for she
embraced him with much emotion, urged him.to be prudent, and slipped upon
his finger the marriage-ring which the Emperor Napoleon had given to her
mother Josephine, saying, "If you incur any danger, let that be your talisman." 
He travelled in his private carriage; and on the 27th reached Lahr, a small
village in the duchy of Baden, within about twenty miles of Strasburg. In
consequence of the breakage of one of the axles of his carriage, he was
detained here for several hours. The next morning, the 28th, he left Lahr,
and by a circuitous route, which led through Friburg, Neubrisach, and Colmar,
reached Strasburg at eleven o'clock in the evening. He took a small chamber
which hii friends had engaged for him in the Rue de la Fontaine, but sent his
carriage to the Hotel de la Fleur.
The next morning, Colonel Vaudrey called; and Louis Napoleon submitted
to him the plan of operation which he had drawn up. What that plan was, we
are not informed.  It appears from Louis Napoleon's letter to his mother that
he afterwards regretted that he had not followed it. It seems, however, that
Colonel Vaudrey did not just approve of it. He said, -
" There is no occasion here for a conflict of arms. Your cause is too French
and too pure to sully it by spilling the blood of Frenchmen. There is but one
mode of action worthy of you, because it will avoid all collision. When you
are at the head of my regiment, we will march together to General Voirol's,
an old soldier who will not be able to resist the sight of you and of the imperial eagle when he knows that the garrison follows you."
The prince fell in with the views of Colonel Vaudrey, and all things were
arranged for the next morning. A house had been engaged in the Rue des
Orphelins, one of the streets near the Barracks of Austerlitz, where all were to
meet, and proceed to the barrack-yard as soon as the regiment of artillery
should be assembled.
At eleven o'clock in the evening of the 29th, one of the friends of Louis
Napoleon called at his room in the Rue de la Fontaine to conduct him to the
general rendezvous. It was necessary to traverse nearly the whole length of
the town. It was a beautiful night; and the streets were almost as light as
day, illumined by the rays of a cloudless moon.
"The silence," said Louis Napoleon in his letter to his mother, "reigning
around, made a deep impression upon me. By what would this calm  be
replaced on the morrow?  And yet, I remarked to my companion, there will
be no disturbance if I am successful; since it is, above all, to avoid the disorder
* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., p. 54.




108                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
so often accompanying popular movements that I wish to commence this
enterprise with the army.  But what confidence, what profound conviction of
the nobleness of a cause, must be felt, to confront the danger we are about to
brave, as well as the public opinion which will reproach us if we fail! Nevertheless, I take God to witness that it is not to gratify a personal ambition, but
because I believe that I have a mission to fulfil, that I risk what is dearer to
me than life, -the esteem of my fellow-citizens."
On arriving at the appointed rendezvous in the Rue des Orphelins, quite a
collection of Louis Napoleon's friends were found in two apartments on the
ground-floor of a house. The prince expressed his gratitude to his friends for
the devotion which they were manifesting in his cause, and assured them that
hereafter they should share together in good as well as in ill fortune.
The following brief address which he made to his friends on this occasion,
several of whom he now probably met for the first time, very distinctly unfolds his views: -
" Gentlemen, you know all the griefs of the nation in reference to the government of the 9th of August: bIt you know, also, that there is no party now
existing sufficiently strong to overthrow that government; no one sufficiently
powerful to unite the French people, even should it succeed in grasping the
sceptre. This feebleness of the government, as also this feebleness of parties,
results from the fact that each represents the interests of but a single class in
society.  Some rely upon the clergy and the nobility, others upon the wealthy
aristocracy, and others upon the common people (proletaires) alone.
"In this state of things, there is but one flag which can rally all parties,
because it is the flag of France, and not that of a faction: it is the eagle of
the empire. Under that banner, which recalls so many glorious memories,
there is no class expelled.  It represents the interests and the rights of all
The Emperor Napoleon held his power from the French people. Four times
his authority received the sanction of a popular vote. In the year 1804,
hereditary succession in the family of the emperor was established by four
millions of votes.  Since then, the people have not been consulted.
" As the eldest of the nephews of Napoleon, I can consider myself as the
representative of popular election: I will not say of the empire, because,
during the lapse of twenty years, the ideas and the necessities of France may
have changed. But a principle can never be annulled by facts: it can only be
by another principle. But it is not the twelve hundred thousand foreigners
of 1815, it is not the Chamber of two hundred and twenty-one individuals of
1830, which can render null the principle of election of 1804.
"The Napoleonic system consists in advancing civilization without discord
and without excess; in giving impulse to ideas; in developing all material
interests; in consolidating power, and making it respectable; in instructing the
masses in the cultivation of all their intellectual faculties; in fine, in re-uniting
around the altar of the country Frenchmen of all parties, and in inspiring
them with motives of honor and of glory.
"Let us restore their rights to the people, the eagle to our flag, stability to
our institutions.  The princes of divine rights find many who are willing to
die for them in the endeavor to re-establish abuses and privileges; and shall




STRASBURG.                               109
I - whose name represents the glory, honor, and rights of the people - shall I
die, then, alone in exile?'No!' my brave companions in misfortune have
replied to me:'you shall not die alone; we will die with you, or we will conquer together in the cause of the people of France."' *
Frequent reference is made in these pages to the eagles of France.  The
Gallic cock, in the days of the Bourbons, crowned the French banners. In
the year 1804, Napoleon was chosen Emperor of France.  Out of 3,574,898
votes, but 2,569 were in the negative. The coronation took place in the Cathedral of Notre Dame on the 2d of December. The next day, there was a
very magnificent military display in the Champ de Mars. The colonels of all
the regiments in Paris, and deputations from  all the absent regiments, were
there to receive the eagles, which were thenceforward to constitute the standards of the army.
In the middle of that magnificent parade-ground, in front of the lcole
Militaire, a throne was erected. Napoleon, with the Empress Josephine by
his side, sat upon it. He had laid aside the Inperial robes with which he had
been invested the day before, and appeared in the simple uniform of a colonel
of the guard. The troops, many thousands in number, closed their ranks, until
they were grouped in dense masses around the throne. The emperor,.rising
firom his seat, and pointing to the banners which were ready to be distributed,
said in a loud voice, which reached almost every ear, -
"Soldiers, these are your standards.  Those eagles will serve as your
rallying-point. They will ever be seen where your emperor shall deem them
necessary for the defence of his throne and of his people." t
Upon the downfall of Napoleon, the Bourbons discarded the eagle, and
restored the Gallic cock. Among the group of officers who surrounded Louis
Napoleon at Strasburg, one bore a flag surmounted with the eagle. It was
the flag, which, under the empire, had belonged to the seventh regiment of
the line. "The eagle of Labedoyere!" some one cried out; and each one
pressed the banner to his heart with deep emotion. It has been denied that
this was the identical eagle which had become so memorable in the history
of the empire.
Colonel Labedoyere was a young man of f   fine figure and elegant manners,
descended from a respectable family, and whose heart ever throbbed warmly
in remembrance of the glories of the empire. Upon the abdication of Napoleon, and his retirement to Elba, he was in command of the seventh regiment
of the line, stationed at Grenoble. He fraternized with his troops in the enthusiasm with which one and all were swept away at the sight of the returning
emperor. Drawing an eagle from his pocket, he placed it upon the banner,
and embraced it in the presence of all his soldiers, who, in a state of the wildest excitement, with shouts of joy gathered around Napoleon, crying, "Vive
l'Empereur!"  Napoleon honored the young soldier with his most flattering
regard.
After Waterloo and the exile to St. Helena, Labedoyere was arrested, tried,
* L'Histoire cdu nouveau Cesar, Strasburg et Boulogne, par M. Vesinier, pp. 49, 50.
t Precis des vTenements militaires, 1799-1807, par Gdneral Mathieu Dumas, vol. xi. p. 77.




110                     LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
and condemned to death for treason. In the touching speech which he made
to his judges, he said, 
" If my life only were at stake, I would not detain you a moment. It is my
profession to be ready to die. But a wife the model of every virtue, a son as
yet in the cradle, will one day demand of me an account of my actions. The
name I leave them is their inheritance: I am bound to leave it to them unfortunate, but not disgraced. I may have deceived myself as to the real interests
of France.  Misled by the recollections of camps, or the illusions of honor, I
may have mistaken my own chimeras for the voice of my country; but the
greatness of the sacrifices which I made in breaking all the strongest bonds
of rank and family, prove, at least, that no unworthy or personal motive has
influenced my actions. I deny nothing: I plead only guiltless to having conspired.  When I received the command of my regiment, I had not a thought
that the emperor could ever return to France." *
It is said that the judges shed tears when' they condemned the noble young
man to death. His young wife threwherself at the feet of Louis XVIII.
as he was descending the great stair of the Tuileries to enter his carriage.
In a' voice broken and frantic with grief, she cried out, "'Pardon, sire!
pardon!"
The king was not a hard-hearted man. With deep emotion he replied,
"."Madam, I know your sentiments, and those of your family, for my house.
I deeply regret being obliged to refuse such faithful servants. If your husband had offended me alone, his pardon would have been already given; but
I owe satisfaction to France, on which he has induced the scourge of rebellion
and war. My duty as a king ties my hands. I can only pray for the soul of
him whom justice has condemned, and assure you of my protection to yourself and child."
The suppliant fell in a swoon at his feet, and was conveyed away, apparently lifeless, by her friends. The king entered his carriage, and proceeded
on his pleasure-drive. The mother of Colonel Labedoyere, dressed in the
deepest mourning, was waiting for his return; but the attendants of the palace had received the strictest injunctions not to allow her to enter the royal
presence. When the king alighted from  his carriage, returning from  his
drive, he only heard the shrieks of the poor mother as the officials tore her
away.
WThen led out to execution, Labedoyere found upon the spot a faithful
friend and companion-in-arms, M. Cesar de Nervaux, who had come to sustain
him with sympathy in his last moments.  Silently they pressed each other's
hands.  The soldiers took their station opposite a wall. Labedoyere, after
whispering a few words to the accompanying priest, - probably the last message of love to his wife,- calmly took his place in the middle of the intervening space between the soldiers and the wall. Refusing to have his eyes
bandaged, he looked steadfastly at the muskets levelled at his breast, and in a
distinct voice said, "Fire, my friends!"  He instantly fell dead, pierced by
nine balls. As the smoke passed away, the priest approached, steeped his
* Le Moniteur, Aug. 20, 1815.




STRASBURG.                                   111
handkerchief in the blood flowing from his breast, and bore it to his wife, -
the last sad relic of a husband's love.@
Such was the significance of the phrase, " The eagle of Labedoyere."  As
we have before mentioned, Colonel Vaudrey was in command of the same
regiment which Labedoyere had commanded, which had received the emperor
with so much enthusiasm at Grenoble, and in command of which regiment the
emperor had commenced his brilliant career at Toulon.t
All the friends of the prince who were assembled in the house of the Rue
des Orphelins were in full uniform.  Louis Napoleon wore the uniform of an
artillery-officer, -  a blue coat, with collar and trimmings of red.  He wore the
epaulets of a colonel, the badges of the Legion of Honor. His chapeau was
of the model then established in the army, and he was armed with a sabre of
the heavy cavalry.The hours of the October night, as they waited for the dawn of the morning,
seemed very long.  The prince passed the time in writing the proclamations,
which were to be distributed, and which he had not been willing to have
printed for fear of some indiscretion. The first proclamation to the French
people contained the following appeals: " Frenchmen, you are betrayed: your
political interests, your commercial interests, your glory, are sold to the foreigner. In 1830, a new government was imposed on France without consulting
either the people of Paris, the inhabitants of the provinces, or the French
army.  All that has been done without your concurrence is unlawful.  A
national congress, elected by the whole of the citizens, has alone the right of
choosing what is best for France.  Proud of my popular origin, strong in the
four millions of votes which decreed me an heir to the' throne, I present myself
before you as a representative of the sovereignty of the people.
"It is time, that, amidst this chaos of contending parties, a national voice
should make itself heard.  Can you not see that the men who now rule our
destinies are still the traitors of 1814 and 1815, the executioners of Marshal
Ney? All their aim is to please the Holy Alliance. For this they have abandoned the people who were our allies.. Frenchmen, let the remembrance of
the great man who did so much for the glory and prosperity of your country
arouse you.
"Confiding in the justice of my cause, I present myself before you, -  the
testament of the Emperor Napoleon in one hand, his sword of Austerlitz in
* Alison. History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I. to the Accession df Louis Napoleon, vol. i. p. 78.
t "The first of the persons who were arrested and forced upon the government for trial
was Colonel Labedoyere. This ardent and gallant young man, whose defection at Grenoble
first opened the gates of France, and whose subsequent fate has made his name imperishable
in history, was connected with several of the first families of the court, but had been involved in
the meshes of the Napoleonist conspiracy by the influence of Queen Hortense, whose saloons
in Paris, under the name of the Duchess of St. Leu, were the chief rendezvous of the imperial
party. Being in command of the seventh regiment at Grenoble, the first fortified town between
Cannes and Paris, his defection was of the highest importance to Napoleon; and it was mainly
from knowing that he might be relied on that the emperor had chosen the mountain-road
which lay through that town." - History of Europe since the Fall of Napoleon 1. Alison, vol. i. p. 77.
t Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Renault, p. 83.




112                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the other. Faithful to the maxims of the emperor, I know no other interests
than yours, no other glory than that of being useful to France and humanity.
Without hatred, without malice, free from the spirit of party, I invite to the
eagles of the emperor all those who feel that a French heart beats in their
bosoms.
"I have devoted my existence to the accomplishment of a grand mission.
From the rock of St. Helena, a ray of the setting sun has passed into my soul.
I shall know how to guard this sacred flame; I shall know how to conquer, or
to die for the cause of the people. Men of 1789, men of the 20th of March,
1815, men of 1830, arouse yourselves! Behold by whom you are governed!
belhold the eagle, emblem of glory, symbol of liberty, and choose!
"Vive la France!              " NAPOLEON." 
"It was arranged," writes Louis Napoleon in his letter to his mother, " that
we should remain in that house until the colonel gave me notice to repair to
the barrack-yard. We counted the hours, the minutes, the seconds. Six o'clock
in the morning was the moment indicated. How difficult it is to express what
one feels under such circumstances! In one second, one lives more than ordinarily in ten years. To live is to make use of our organs, our senses, our
faculties; of all those parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. And in these critical moments our faculties, our sentiments, our
organs, exalted to the highest degree, are concentrated on one idea. It is the
hour which is to decide our whole future destiny. One is strong when he is
able to say,'To-morrow I shall be the liberator of my country, or I shall be
dead;' and greatly is he to be pitied when circumstances have been such that
he can be neither one nor the other."
Notwithstanding all the precautions which had been taken to maintain
silence, the noise unavoidably made by so large a gathering awoke the occupants of the chambers immediately above. They were heard to rise, and open
their windows. It was then about five o'clock in the morning. The adventurers redoubled their prudence; and those who had been alarmed, seeing no
movement in the street below, retired again to their beds.
At last, the clock on the tower of the great cathedral struck the hour of six.
The moon had gone down, and it was dark in the streets. " Never before,"
writes the prince, " did the striking of a clock make my heart beat so violently.
But a moment after, the trumpet fiom the barracks made it throb more wildly.
The great moment drew neal. Somewhat of a tumult began to make itself
heard in the streets. Soldiers passed, shouting; and horsemen galloped at full
speed before our windows. I sent an officer to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. Were the authorities of the place informed of our projects?  Were
we discovered? He soon returned to inform me that the noise proceeded from
the soldiers, whom the colonel had despatched to fetch their horses, which
were outside of the barracks."
A  few  more minutes passed, when a messenger came and informed the
* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., p. 56. Also Histoire de la Pr6sidence du Prince Louis
Napoldon Bonaparte, par Lespes, i. 24, 27.




STRASBUIG.                               113
prince that Colonel Vaudrey was ready for him.  He hastened into the street.
M. Parquin, in the uniform of a brigadier-general, and a chief of a battalion
bearing the eagle-surmounted banner, were by his side. A dozen officers followed behind.
General Parquin was one of the most intimate friends of Louis Napoleon.
He had married Mademoiselle Cochelet, the reader of Queen IIortense at
Arenemberg; and had purchased the ChI^teau of Wolfberg, but a few minutes'
walk fiom the one inhabited by Hortense and her son.  He had been appointed
an officer in the municipal guard under Louis Philippe, but for some reason
decided not to wear the uniform or fulfil the functions of that office.  Being
rich, he retired to his chateau in Switzerland, where he became one of the
most intimate fiiends and devoted followers of the present Emperor of France.
Upon his trial, when reproached with having broken his oath to Louis Philippe,
he replied, —
"Thirty-three years ago, as a citizen and a soldier, I took the oath of fidelity
to Napoleon and his dynasty. I am not like that grand diplomatist Tallevrand, who has taken thirteen oaths. The day in which the nephew of Napoleon came to remind me of the oath which I had given to his uncle, I
considered myself pledged; and I devoted myself to him, body and soul. It
was on the 4th of December, 1804, that I took the oath of fidelity to the emperor and his dynasty;.and I feel bound to keep it." 1
Such, in general, were the feelings of the little enthusiastic band now
assembled around the prince.  They did not consider that they were conspirators, endeavoring to overthrow a legitimate government in the interests
of a pretender, but that they were patriots, heroically struggling to rescue
France from a government imposed upon it by fraud, and to restore to the
French people the right to choose a government for themselves.
It was'but a short distance from the house in the Rue des Orphelins to the
Barracks of Austerlitz.  The route was soon traversed; and the prince, with
his companions, entered the barracks.  The regiment was drawn up in line
of battle in the court-yard, within the railing.  On the lawn, there were forty
artillerymen upon horseback.
"My mother," exclaims Louis Napoleon in his letter, "imagine the happiness which I experienced at that moment! After twenty years of exile, again
I touched the sacred soil of my country, and found myself with Frenchmen
whom the recollection of the emperor was again to electrify."
Colonel Vaudrey stood alone in the middle of the court. He was a man
of majestic figure; and there was something truly sublime in his aspect at
this hour fiaught with such momentous issues. As the prince approached
him, he drew his sword, and, turning to his soldiers, presented to them  the
heir of Napoleon, saying, -
"Soldiers of the fourth regiment of a:tillery, a great revolution has this moment begun. You see here before you the nephew of the Emperor Napoleon.
He has come to reconquer the rights of the people.  The people can rely
upon him. It is around him  that all who love the glory and the liberty of
* L'Histoire du nouveau Cesar, par P. Vesinier, p. 27.
15




114                      LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
France should group themselves.  Soldiers, you will feel, as does your chief,
all the grandeur of the enterprise which you are about to attempt, all the
sacredness of the cause which you are about to defend.  Soldiers, can the
nephew of the Emperor Napoleon rely upon your fidelity?"
These words were followed by a general and apparently unanimous shout
fiom the troops of "Vive Napoleon! " Vive l'Empereur!' The prince then
stepped forward, and with a motion of his hand indicated that he wished to
speak.  There was immediate and profound silence. Then in a clear voice,
and with every word distinctly pronounced, he said, —
" Soldiers, resolved to conquer or to die for the glory and the liberty of the
French people, it is' to you first that I have wished to present myself, because
between you and me exist grand recollections.  It is in your regiment that
the emperor, my uncle, served as captain; it is with you that he became illustrious at the siege of Toulon; and it is your brave regiment again that opened
the gates of Grenoble for him on his return from Elba.  Soldiers, new destinies are in store for you. To you is accorded the glory of commencing a
grand enterprise; to you the honor of being the first to salute the eagle of
Austerlitz and of Waglram."
Then, taking the eagle from the hands of one of the officers standing by,
he presented the banner to the troops, saying, -
"Soldiers, behold the symbol of the glory of France, destined also to become the emblem of liberty! For fifteen years, it led our fathers to victory.
It has glittered on every field of battle; it has traversed all the capitals of
Europe.  Soldiers, will you not rally around this standard, which I confide to
your honor and to your courage?  Will you not march with me against the
traitors and oppressors of our country, to the cry of'Vive la France!''Vive
la Liberte!'?"
No language can describe the prodigious effect produced by this short
harangue. The troops were roused to the wildest excitement.  They waved
their sabres in the air; and shout followed shout for a long time, without intermission. "It was," says a French historian, "a sublime scene, -sublime in its
self-sacrifice and courage.  Oh wonderfull power of generous emotions and
glorious memories! A veteran soldier of the empire presents to his troops
the nephew of Napoleon, and that alone is sufficient to make these soldiers
at that moment more than men; to elevate them  to the race of heroes.
Magnificent spectacle! which moved the prince even to tears, and which is
worthy, of being perpetuated upon canvas by the greatest of artists." *
Colonel Vaudrey, the hero of many battles, and whose face had never
grown pale before the fire of the enemy, stood by, his eyes dimmed with
tears of joy.  As soon as the excitement had somewhat subsided, each man
set out on his appointed mission; while the troops commenced their march,
with a band of music at their headl  Count Persigny went to arrest the
prefet or governor of Strasburg. M. Lombard, surgeon of the military hospitals, was sent to have the proclamations printed. Andre de Schaller, one
of the lieutenants of the garrison, hastened to secure the persons of the gen* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., Empereur des Francais, par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 60.




STRASBURG.                                 115
eral of the brigade and the colonel of the third regiment of artillery.  Lieutenant Petri took possession of the telegraph.  M. Laity Armand, a young
lieutenant, twenty-seven years of age, proceeded to the barracks of the pontoniers to announce the tidings to them  and to enlist their co-operation.
He subsequently attained considerable distinction.  At his trial he said,"On the 25th of July, I was informed of the projects of the prince.  I
inquired if his intentions were democratic and republican; for I am a Democrat and a Republican. Upon receiving an affirmative response, I took the
oath to follow him; and I have never failed to keep my oath." *
And now the regiment, with the prince at its head, accompanied by Colonel
Vaudrey and the chief of the squadron of artillery, commenced its march
towards the headquarters of General Voirol, who was in command at that
station. It was necessary to traverse several streets; and, notwithstanding
the early hour, a large number of the inhabitants of Strasburg, attracted by
the unusual movement, had joined the cortege, and, as they began to learn the
object of the enterprise, manifested the most lively sympathy in its success.
Crowds gathered around the prince.  Many reverentially kissed the eagle,
which was borne by Lieutenant Querelles.  All seemed to yield to an irresistible charm.  When the column passed the barracks of the gendarmes,
all the troops at the post presented arms, shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" When
it reached the mansion of General Voirol, the guard presented arms, opened
the doors of the hotel, and united their voices with the shouts of the accompanying troops.t
"All along the route," says Louis Napoleon, "I received the most unequivocal signs of the sympathy of the population.  I had only to contend against
the vehemence of the marks of interest which were showered upon me. The
variety of the cries which welcomed me showed that there was no party
which did not sympathize with my heart." *
The prince entered and ascended the stairs, followed by Colonel Vaudrey,
MT. Parquin, and two other officers.  General Voirol was in bed; but, hastily
summoned by one of his servants, he had barely time to rise, and partially
dress himself, when the prince and his followers entered his apartment.  As
he had been an ancient officer of the empire, and had ever proudly cherished
the memory of Napoleon, it was hoped, that, when he saw the enthusiasm with
which the troops were inspired, he, like Marshal Ney and Colonel Labedoyere,
would renounce his new masters, and turn back to his old allegiance; but perhaps he had too vivid a recollection of the fate of these men to be willing to
follow in their footsteps. ~
Louis Napoleon advanced towards General Voirol, and presented him  his
hand, saying, -
"General, I come to you as a friend. I should be. grieved to raise our
ancient tricolor without the assistance of a brave soldier like you.  The garrison is in my favor: decide, and follow me."
* L'I-Iistoire du nouveau Cesar, par M. V~sinier, p. 30.
t I-listoire complete de Napoleon III., p. 60.
t (Euvres de Napoleon III., p. 74.
~ See Histoire complete de Napoldon, p. 61;4and L'Histoire du nouveau Cesar, p. 67.




116                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
General Voirol replied, "Prince, you have been deceived. The army knows
its duty, as I will immediately prove to you."  Then, turning to Colonel Vaudrey, he directed him to give certain orders to the garrison.  "The garrison
is no longer under your command," replied the colonel. "You are our prisonel."
The prince and his fiiends then withdrew, giving orders that a file of men
should be left to guard the general.  The captive officer endeavored to recall
the soldiers around -him  to obedience.  They responded only with incessant
cries of " Vive l'Empereur! "  As the party left the hotel, it was greeted with
renewed acclamations fiom the soldiers and the populace in the street.  Still
it was a bitter disappointment to the prince that General Voirol had turned
so coldly from the eagle.
"This first check," he writes to his mother, "greatly affected me.  I was
not prepared for it, convinced as I had been that the first sight of the eagle
would awake, in the general, recollections of ancient glory, and lead him  to
join us."
Resuming their march, they directed tlheir steps to the barracks of Finckmatt, which were occupied by the forty-sixth regiment of infantry of the line.
It was thought that this regiment would eagerly join in the movement.  In
approaching  the barracks, they left the main street, and marched through a
narrow passage-way which led to it through the Faubourg de Pierre.  These
barracks consist of a large building, erected in a place from which there is no
outlet save the narrow entrance.  The space in front of the building is too
contracted for even a regiment to be drawn up in line of battle: indeed, the
street, or rather lane, by which it was approached, was so narrow, that only
four men could march abreast.  Alison thus testifies to the success of the
enterprise thus far:"Every thing seemed to smile upon the audacious conspirators.  All the
authorities had been surprised by them, and were either in custody, or shut
up in their houses.  One entire regiment, and detachments of others, had
already declared in their favor; and the inhabitants, roused from  their slumbers by the loud shouts at that early hour, looked fearfully out of their houses,
and, when they saw what was going on, offered up ardent prayers for the suCcess of the enterprise.  The third regiment of artillery joined the insurgents.
The entire pontoon-corps followed the examiple. Cries of'Vive l'Empereur!'
were heard on all sides.  The throne of Louis Philippe hung by a thread.  It
required only one other regiment to declare in his favor, and the whole garrison of Strasburg would have followed the example; and Louis Napoleon's
march to Paris would have been as bloodless and triumphant as that of his
immortal predecessor fiom Cannes had been." *
By some misunderstanding, a portion of the regiment had not followed the
assigned direction: the prince, consequently, found himself in fiont of the
barracks with only four hundred men for an escort. The soldiers of the fortysixth regiment were in their rooms, engaged in their morning work.  The
History of Europe since the Fall of Napoleon I., vol. iii. pp. 211, 212. In proof of the correctness of these statements, Alison refers to Annual History, xix. 245; Louis Blanc, v. 133, 134;
Capefigue, Histoire de la Restauration, ix. 150-154.




STRASBURG.                                 117
commotion attending th6 approach of the cortege caused them  all to crowd
to the windows.  A  few rushed out and gathered around the prince, who
briefly addressed them.  The ardor which animated his companions immediately spread to all the rest.  There were fraternization and shouts of "Vive
l'Empereur!"  All seemed to be swept along by one general flood of syimpathy and enthusiasm. But suddenly the scene was changed.  The colonel
of the regiment, M. Taillandier, who had great influence with his men, hearing what was passing, hastened into the yard, and assailed the prince in the
most violent language of abuse, declaring him  to be an impostor.  He was
joined by Lieutenant Plegnier, both of whom assured the bewildered troops
that they were shamefully imposed upon.  In loud and angry tones they
said, -
"The man before you is not the nephew of the emperor.  He is a base
deceiver. HEe is the nephew of Colonel Vaudrey. We know him well. This
is a plot in favor of Charles X."
A scene of great confusion ensued.  Other officers arrived. The impression spread that they had been deceived; that they were being betrayed by
a mere adventurer. In the midst of the noise and tumult, no one could be
heard.  The prince gave orders for his party to withdraw from  the narrow
enclosure where they were so unfortunately hemmed in; but suddenly the
iron gate of the court-yard was closed, and escape became impossible.
Louis Napoleon ordered the arrest of the officers.  Their soldiers rescued
them.  Then Ealme a scene of indescribable tumult.  The space was so contracted, that each one was lost in the crowd.  The people who had scaled
the walls threw  stones at the military.  The cannoneers wished to open a
passage out with their guns; but the prince prevented them, for he saw
that it would cause the death of many.  The colonel was by turns captured
by the infantry, and rescued by his own men.  Louis Napoleon was himself
on the point of being slain by a number of men who turned their bayonets
against him.  He was parrying their thrusts with his sabre, trying to calm
them  at the same time, when the cannoneers rescued him, and placed him
in the middle of themselves.  He then endeavored to nmke his way, acconmpanied by several under-officers, towards the mounted artillery, in order to
gain possession of a horse. All the infantry followed.  I-e found himself
hemmed in between the horses and the wall, without being able to move.
Then the soldiers, coming up on all sides, seized him, and conducted him
to the guard-house.
Here the prince found his friend, General Parquin, also a prisoner.  The
two captives pressed each other's hands; and the general said with a calm and
resigned air, "Prince, we shall be shot; but it will be a noble death."-"Yes,"
Louis Napoleon replied: " we have fallen in a grand and noble enterprise."
Soon after that, General Voirol entered, and said, "Prince, you have found
CnEvres de Napoleon III., tomn. ii. p. 77. Le Moniteur of Nov. 2,1836, contains a despatch
from General Voirol, containing the statement, "In one minute, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and
those who had taken part with him were arrested; and the decorations which they wore were torn
from them by the soldiers of the forty-sixth."




.118                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
but one traitor in the French army."-" Say rather; general," was the reply,
"that I have found a Labedoy6ee." *
In'the testimony rendered by Colonel Taillandier in the subsequent trial,
he gives the following account of the arrest of Colonel Vaudrey:   It was
found very difficult to arrest the colonel, as he was defended by his soldiers
with the utmost determination.' Surrender!' I said to him, seizing him  by
the collar;'surrender, or you are dead!'-'I will not surrender,' he replied.
Then an idea occurred to me. I called for silence, and said to the colonel,'It is not possible for you to escape. It is believed throughout the city that
this movement has been made in favor of Charles X.; and everybody is furious against you.' Whether the colonel believed me or not, he at once surrendered, and sent away his soldiers." t
Carriages soon came and conveyed the captives to the new prison of Strasburg.  In the minute account of these events which Louis Napoleon subsequently wrote to his mother, he says, in reference to the emotions which he
then experienced, —
"Behold me, then, between four walls with barred windows, in the abode
of criminals.  Ah! those who know what it is to pass in a moment from  the
excess of happiness caused by the noblest illusions to the excess of misery,
where there is no longer any room  for hope, and to leap this immense gulf
without an instant's preparation, -  those alone can comprehend what was
passing in my heart." t
The reader may be interested in seeing the account given by Sir Archibalc
Alison of this memorable scene, since it is well known that he is not at all in
sympathy with the Napoleonic cause:"A cry got up that the prince was not the real nephew of the emperor, but
a nephew of Colonel Vaudrey, who had been dressed up to personate him;
and a lieutenant named Plegnier rushed out of the ranks to arrest him. A
pistol-shot would probably then have decided the struggle, and placed the
prince on the throne of France; but it was not discharged, and the enterprise proved abortive.  Plegnier was seized by the few artillery-men whq had
accompanied the prince into the barrack-yard, and he had the generosity
to order his release.  The former no sooner recovered his fieedom  than he
returned to the charge, and some of his company ran forward to support him.
"A  scuffle ensued, in which the artillery-men, few in nul ber, were overpowered by the troops of the line; and both the prince and Colonel Vaudrey
were made prisoners, and shut up in separate apartments in the barracks.
The arrest of the chiefs, as is usual in such cases, proved fatal to the enterprise.  The other troops which had revolted, deprived of their leaders, and
without orders, knew not w'hat to do or whom  to obey. Distrust soon succeeded to uncertainty: and, when the news spread that the prince and Colonel
Vaudrey had been arrested, they became desperate; and, dispersing, every one
* When Louis Napoleon, by the almost unanimous vote of France, was placed in power, he
appointed Colonel Vaudrey governor of the H6tel des Invalices.
t Le Moniteur du 15 Janvier, 1837.
( CEuvres de Napoleon III., tom. ii. p. 77.




STRASBURG.                                    119
sought to conceal his defection by regaiining his quarters as speedily as possible.  By nine o'clock, all was over.  An empire had been all but lost and won
dluring a scuffle in a barrack-yard of Strasburg." 
In the prison, all the captives were brought together.  M3. Querelles, pressing the hand of Louis Napoleon, said in a loud voice, " Prince, notwithstanding our defeat, I am  still proud of what we have clone."  The first thought
of Louis Napoleon was of his mother.  He immediately wrote to her the
following letter:"MY DEAR MOTHER,-You must have been very anxious in receiving   no
tidingls firom nme,   you who believed me to be with my cousin.  But t)our
inquietude will be redoublecl when you learn that I have made an attempt at
Strasburg, which has fliled.  I am in- prison with several other cfficers.. It is
for them onily that I sufrer.  As foir mlyself; inl co1mm.cleing' suc ll   ente1 ltprise,
I was prepared1 tobr every thing.  Do not weep, my mother.  I lam  the victiml
of a noble cause, -  of a cause entirely French.  Hereafter, justice will be
rendered me, and I shall be commiserated.
"Yesterday morning I presented. myself befoie the fourth artillery, and was
received with cries of' Vive l'Empereur!'  For a time, all went well.  The
forty-sixth resisted.  We were captured in the court-yard of their barracks.
Happily no French blood was shed.  This consoles me in my calamity.
Courage, my mother!  I shall know  how  to support, even to the end, the
honor of the name I bear.  Adieu!  Do not uselessly mourn my lot.  Life is
but a little thing.  Honor and'France arc every ting to me.  I embrace you.
with my whole heart.  Your tender and respect-tul son,
"Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
"STRASBURG, Nov. 1, 1836."
The prince was soon subjected to an examination.  He appeared calm  and
resigned.  To the question, what had induced him to act as he had done, he
replied, -
" My political opinions, and my desire to return to my country, from which
I had been exiled by an invasion of foreigners. In 1830, I asked to be treated
as a simple citizen.  They treated me as a pretender.  Well, I have. acted as
a pretender." t
"Did you wish," it was asked, "to establish a military government?"
"I wished," the prince replied, "to  establish  a government founded on
popular election."
"What would you have done had you been victorious?" was the next
question.
"I would have assembled a national congress," was the reply.  He then
* History of Europe since the Fall of Napoleon I., vol. iii. p. 212.
t By a decree of the Bourbons enacted the 14th of January, 1816, all members of the Bonaparte ftmily were forever banished from France. Louis Philippe re-affirmed this decree in an
ordinance of the 11th of April; 1832. According to this, "Le territoire de la France etait interdit a perpetuitd aux ascendants et descendants de Napoleon, a ses oncles et tantes, a ses neuveux
et nieces, a scs freres et sceurs, et a leurs maris." - L'Histoire du nouveau Cesar, p. 78.




120                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
declared that he had been,the sole organizer of the expedition, th1t he had
influenced others to join him, and that upon his head alone should all the
consequences fall.
"Upon being conducted back to prison," Louis Napoleon wrote, "I flung
myself on the bed prepared for me; and, in spite of my griefs, slumber, which
softens the pains and soothes the sorrows of the soul, came to calm my senses.
It is not the couch of misfortune that Sleep shuns: it is only fiom that of
remorse she flies. But frightful was the awakening. I seemed to have been
suffering from a horrible nightmare. It was the fate of my companions which
gave me the most anxiety and grief."
He wrote to General Voirol, saying that a sense of honor should constrain
the general to intercede in behalf of Colonel Vaudrey, as it was Colonel Vaudrey's attachment for General Voirol, and his desire to shield him from harm,
which had caused plans to be relinquished which would probably have led to
success. He closed the letter by saying, that as he himself was responsible for
the enterprise, and he alone was to be feared by the government, he prayed
that the rigor of the law, whatever it might be, might fall upon his head alone,
and that his companions might be spared.
General Voirol immediately came to see the prince in his prison, and appeared not only very friendly, but even affectionate.  He took the hand of
his captive, and said to him almost tenderly, -
"Prince, when I was your prisoner, I could find only words of severity to
speak to you: now that you are mine, I have only words of consolation to
offer."
At length some military officers came and took Louis Napoleon and Colonel
Vaudrey from the prison of Strasburg, and conveyed them to the citadel,
where they found much more comfortable imprisonment. Did this act imply
sympathy on the part of the officers in their behalf? or did it imply that the
government, not willing to submit them to the jurisdiction of the civil tribunals, designed to bring them under the harsher rigor of military law?  It
seems that the sympathies of the inhabitants of Strasburg, both of the citizens and the soldiers, were in favor of the prince.  It was only by deceiving
the soldiers with the false assertion, that he was an impostor acting in the
interests of Charles X., that his victorious career was arrested. It was generally supposed that it would be impossible to get a judgment against him from
the civil tribunals. Influenced by friendly feelings, the civil power immediately reclaimed the captives. In twenty-four hours, they were taken back to
the prison.
Both the jailer and the governor of the prison, while faithful to their duties
as government officers, did every thing in their power to alleviate the condition of the captives; but there was a certain M. Lebel, who had been sent
from Paris to watch over them. This man, wishing to show his authority,
took froml the prince his watch, forbade him to open the windows to get fresh
air, and even ordered the shutters to be closed to shut out the light of day.
On the evening of the 9th of November, some officers called, and informed
the prince that he was to be transferred to another prison. They led him down
into the court-yard, and there he found General Voirol and the governor of




STRASBURG.                                121
Strasburg waiting for him.  They hurried himi into a carriage and drove off,
without informing him where they were going.  The prince implored that he
might be left with his companions in misfortune; but his entreaties were disregarded. When they arrived at the mansion of the prefect or governor, two
post-carriages were found in waiting.  Louis Napoleon was placed in one,
with two officers by his side: in the other, four armed officers were placed as
a guard.
They then set out for Paris. The prince in his letter expresses the poignant
grief he felt in being thus separated from his fellow-prisoners.  The two ofilcers, however, who accompanied hiim in the carriage, -- M. Ctynat, commandant of the gendarmery of the Seine, and Lieutenant Thibanlet, - had been
officers of the empire, and were intimate friends of MI. Parquin. They treated
their prisoner with the utmost respect and kindness; so that the prince could
almost cherish the illusion that he was on a pleasure-jaunt with fiiends.
Driving post, without any delay, they arrived in Paris at two o'clock in the
morning of the 11th, and drove directly to the hotel of the prefecture of
police.  The prince was received by the prefect, M. Delessert, with great
kindness, and was informed that his mother had been to Paris to intercede
with the king in his behalf; that the government hdcl decided to send him in
a French frigate to the United States; and that in two hours he would set
out for the seaport Lorient, where he was to be embarked.
The prince renewed his remonstrances, declaring that he had a right to a
trial, and to be judged by the laws of the country; that he wished to share
the fate of his companions in misfortune; that, in thus expelling him fiom the
country without a trial, he was deprived of the opportunity of testifying in
favor of his associates, and' could have no opportunity of frankly expressing
to France his intentions and his political views. He declared that his presence at the trial of his fiiends was indispensable, since his testimony alone
could enlighten the conscience of the jury, and enable them  to form  a just
judgment.
To all this M. Delessert responded, that, in sending him out of the country
without judgment or trial, the government was only treating him  as it had
previously treated the Duchess de Berri.  The prince replied, "Whatever
may have been your treatment of the Duchess de Berri, justice is for all
alike, for princes as well as for other citizens. I am  either innocent or guilty.
If guilty, it is for a jury to condemn me: if innocent, it is for a jury to
acquit me."
But all these pleas were in vain.  The course of the government was
decided upon.  Louis Philippe well knew that the prince would make the
prisoner's stand a tribune fiom which he would speak to all France.  That
announcement of the claims of the empire the government wished, above all
things else, to avoid.  It was in his own interest that Louis Philippe suspended the action of the law, and not in that of the prince.
The prince, however, wrote an earnest letter to the king in behalf of his
associates, and another to the eminent counsellor, M. Odillon Barrot, soliciting him to undertake the defence of the accused, and indicating the line of
16




122                           LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
argument to be used.*   Alison, speaking of this banishment of the prince
without trial, says," The course of events soon demonstrated that the government had  acted
not less wisely than humanely in adopting this course towards this formidable
competitor; and that any attempt to bring him  to trial would have produced
such a convulsion as would, in all probability, have overturned the throne." t
After a delay in Paris of but two hours (for it would have been dangerous
to let the people of Paris know  that the heir of the emperor was in the city)
the prince was again placed in his carriage at four o'clock in the morning, and,
accompanied by the same guard, set out for Lorient. +
On the 6th of January, the parties implicated with the prince in the revolt
at Strasburg were brought to trial.  In all, there were seven.  The evidence
was perfectly clear; for they had been taken  in open rebellion  against the
government.  So strong, however, was the popular feeling in favor of Louis
Napoleon, that it was evident from  the commencement of the trial that a
conviction  would  be impossible.  During the trial, the  popular excitement
increased every  hour; andc finally they were all acquitted, amidst universal
applause. ~
The prince was hurried  along without any delay, until, on  the  14th, he
reached Lorient.  Here he was confined in the citadel for ten  days, waiting
for the fiigate to be ready to sail.  The authorities of the place called upon
him  daily, and treated  him  with the utmost consideration; and spoke continually of their attachment to the memory of the emperor.  I-s travelling
companions, Cuynat and  Thibaulet, who still continued with him, lavished
* CEuvres de Napoleon III., tom. deuxieme, p. 82; Histoire complete de Napoleon III., par
MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 67.
t History of Europe since the Fall of Napoleon I., vol. iii. p. 212.
t Prince Louis Napoleon, who acted most generously and honorably in this whole affair, was
extremely desirous to have shared the trial and fate of the other conspirators at Strasburg, instead of being sent to America.  He composed, during the few days he was in prison at Strasburg, a speech in his own defence, intended for the jury, which concluded with these remarkable
words':" I wished to effect the revolution through the army; because that offered more chances of success; and also to avoid those disorders so frequent in social changes. I was greatly deceived in
the execution of my project; but that conferred less honor upon some old soldiers, who, in again
seeing the eagle, have not felt their hearts to beat in their bosoms.  They have spoken of new
oaths, forgetting that it was the presence of twelve hundred thousand foreigners which released
them fiom  that which they had already taken. But a principle destroyed by force can be reestablished by force.  I believe that I have a mission.to fulfil: I shall know how to attend to my
part till the end (je saurais garder mon role jusqu'a la fin)."-Alison: History of Europe since t1ie
Fall of aVpoleon I., p. 213.
~ " The government were extremely disconcerted by this acquittal, the more especially as the 
evidence, especially against the military, was so decisive; and their conviction before a courtmartial would have been certain." - Alison's History of Europe, vol. iii. p. 213.
"The attempt at Strasburg was productive of important results.  France knew little of the
prince.  Since the death of the Duke of Reichstadt, there were few, excepting those specially
occupied with politics, who were aware that there still remained an heir of the emperor.  Strasburg made him  known to all the world. Everybody learned that there remained a legitimate
claimant to the imperial succession, and that that claimant had perilled his life to restore to his
country its sovcreignty." —iistoire complete cle Napoleo? III., p. 69.




STRASBURG.                            123
kindnesses upon him, "so that," writes the prince, "I could almost have believed myself in the midst of my own friends; and the thought that they
were in an antagonistic position to mine gave me much pain."
After a long delay from unfavorable winds, a steamer, on the 21st of November, towed the frigate out into the roadstead. The drawbridge of the
citadel was lowered; and the prince, accompanied by a number of officers, and
passing through a file of soldiers who kept back the crowd which had gathered
to gaze upon the illustrious captive, was conducted to a boat, and rowed out
to the ship. There he took a courteous leave of his friends, ascended the
ladder, and soon, with a saddened heart, saw the shores of France disappear
beneath the horizon.
The captain, Henri de Villeneuve, an excellent man, treated his distinguished passenger with every attention. The best stateroom was assigned to
him.  The captain's son was on board, and two other passengers, — one a
young man of twenty-six years, of eccentric character, but of no inconsiderable scientific attainments, who was going to the New World to make some
experiments in electricity; and the other an ancient librarian of Don Pedro,
who retained the stately manners of the old court.'The captain had received sealed orders, whiQh he did not open until he had
been out nearly a fortnight. It was then ascertained that he was to sail
directly for Rio Janeiro, in South America, where he was to remain long
enough to lay in the necessary store of provisions; and then he was to proceed to New York. The prince was not to be allowed to land at Rio. On
the 14th of December, when in sight of the Canary Isles, he wrote as follows
to his mother:"Every man carries within him a world composed of all that which he has
seen and loved, and to which he continually returns, even when wandering in
a strange land. I do not know which is the more painful, - the memory of
misfortunes which have assailed us,' or of happy days which are gone forever. We have passed through winter, and are again in summer. The tradewinds have succeeded the tempests, which allows me to pass the greater part
of the time on deck.  Seated upon the poop, I reflect upon that which has
happened to'me, and think of you and of Arenemberg.
" The charm of places consists in the affections of which they have been
the home. Two months ago, I had no wish but never to return to Switzerland again; but now, if I yielded to my impressions, I should have no other
desire than to find myself again in my little chamber in that beautiful country,
where it seems to me that I ought to have been so happy. Do not accuse me
of weakness in thus expressing to you all my feelings. One can regret that
which he has lost without repenting of that which he has done."
On the 1st of January, 1837, he wrote the following tender letter to his
mother:"MY DEAR MAMMA (JIla chere liaman), - It is the first day of the year.
I am fifteen hundred leagues from  you, in another hemisphere. Happily,
thought can traverse all this splace in less than a second. I fancy myself beside you, expressing my regret for all the uneasiness which I have caused you,




124                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
and repeating my assurances of love and gratitude.  This morning, the officers came in a body to wish me a happy new year; nor was I insensible to
the attention. At half-past four, we were seated at the dinner-table. As we
are in seventeen degrees of longitude west of Constance, it was then seven
o'clock at Arenemberg, and you were probably also dining.  I drank, in
thought, to your health and happiness: you, perhaps, did the same for me;
at least, I pleased myself by fancying so. I thought, also, of my companions
in misfortune. Alas! I think of them  continually.  I lhave thought that
they were more unhappy than I; and that idea makes me more unhappy
than they. Present my affectionate regards to good Madame Salvage, to the
young ladies, to that poor little Claire, to M. Cottrau, and to Arsene."
On the 10th of January he wrote as follows: -
" We have just arrived at Rio Janeiro. The cobp d'ceil of the harbor is
magnificent. To-morrow I will make a sketch of it. I hope this letter will
reach you soon. Do not think of coming to join me. I do not yet know
where I shall take up my abode. Perhaps I shall find more inducements to
live in South America. Labor, to which the uncertainty of my circumstances
will now subject me to obtain for myself a position, will be the only consolation I shall enjoy.  Adieu, my mother! Remember me to our old servafts,
and to our friends of Thurgovia and of Constance.
"Your affectionate and respectful son,
" LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."




CHAPTER VIII.
EXILE  AND  STUDIES.
Life in America. —Return to Europe. —False Report.-Return to Arenemberg. -Death of
Queen Hortense. -Studious Habits of the Prince.- Political Reveries. -The Dynasties
demand his Expulsion.-Heroism of the Swiss Government. -Retirement to England.Noble Conduct. - Studious Life in London. - " Ides Napoldoniennes." - Extracts from the
~Work.
FTER  a short tarry at Rio Janeiro, the ship again set sail; and
i   on the 30th of March, 1837, the prince was landed at Norfolk,
f    Va.  He was now free; and he soon proceeded to New York.
Here he devoted himself with great energy to the study of
American institutions; for it was still his almost unswerving
belief that he was destined to be the sovereign of France.  He
was especially interested in the actual state of the arts and sciences, in the
progress of inventions, in our system  of education  and  our penitentiary
institutions.  There were at that time some very curious experiments being
made in the development of electro-magnetism.  He visited the rooms where
these experiments were going on, in company with several of our most distinguished  citizens.  The importance which these experiments assumed in
his mind may be inferred from  the fact, that immediately after his accession
to power in France, as one of the first acts of his government, he offered a
magnificent premium  for any improvement, in any part of the world, in the
electro-magnet.*
There have been conflicting accounts with regard to the conduct of the
prince while in the United States.  He has been described as dissipated, frequenting disreputable society, and as involving himself in debts which are left
yet unpaid.  No one can read the'foregoing narrative, and believe that the
prince-  a thoughtful, sorrowing man, who was conscious that imperial blood
flowed in his veins, and who felt that an unseen, resistless power was leading
him, through clouds and darkness, to the throne of France -  could possibly
take pleasure in the companionship of low and vulgar men.t
* The Napoleon Dynasty, by the Berkeley Men, p. 557.
t "Louis Napoleon was not at that time poor: IIortense, like the rest of the Bonaparte family,
had well provided for a reverse of fortune. Besides, it was not Louis Napoleon's habit to seek
low associates; nor was he fond of low, noisy dissipation.  More especially, he was in no way
addicted to intemperance. Rumor, therefore,-in spreading these reports, has probably mistaken
one cousin for another, and attributed to the emperor the freaks of his cousin Pierre Bonaparte,
who was twice in the United States." -Italy and the War of 1859, )y Julie de Miaryerittes, p. 76.
125




126                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
An article published in "The Home Journal" a few years ago, from  a
writer whose reliability was indorsed by the editors, gives a very pleasing
account of the habits of the prince while here:"So much mere scandal," says "The Home Journal," "concerning the character of Louis Napoleon during his brief residence in this city in the year
1837, has been presented through the press to the public, that we are glad
of an opportunity to give it, from  authentic sources, distinct and emphatic
refutation.
"The fact is, {hat few enjoyed the acquaintance of Prince Louis when
among us at the period referred to, and but a small number of those remain
to speak of him. A naturally reserved disposition, enhanced by the circumstances of his exile, made him averse to general society. He was, however,
an object of peculiar regard and interest wherever presented. He is remembered as a quiet, melancholy man, winning esteem rather by the unaffected
modesty of his demeanor than by eclat of lineage or the romantic incidents
which had befallen him.  Where best known, he was most endeared. His
personal character was above reproach.  In the words of a distinguished
writer who well knew him  at that day,'So unostentatious was his deportment, so correct, so pure, his life, that even the ripple of scandal cannot plausibly appear upon its surface.'
" We have inquired of those who entertained him  as their guest, of those
who tended at his sick-bed, of the artist who painted his miniature, of his
lady friends (and he was known to some who yet adorn society), of politicians, clergymen, editors, gentlemen of leisure, —in fact, of every source
whence reliable information could be obtained, -and we have gathered but
accumulated testimonials to his intrinsic worth and fair fame.
" His career was unobtrusive, and affords scarce any incident wherewith to
illustrate it. Firm faith in destiny - a ruling star that would some day lead
him to the throne of France —was his striking peculiarity. He often avowed
it, and always with confidence. Allusion to his attempt at Strasburg evidently
annoyed him. It was at that time the great event of his life: it was the
cause of his then unfortunate exile, and had been the source to him of much
misrepresentation and injustice.
" To-day he is, by the voice of millions, Emperor of the French. The same
-man who quietly drove a pair of horses up Broadway every afternoon was
seen by me, surrounded by a brilliant staff, reviewing thousands of troops in
the Champ de Mars in Paris.
"I remember well a dinner-party was given to him at Delmonico's by a set
of young men, some of whom were then figures in the political world, and
Hlave since become conspicuous. At the dinner, Louis Napoleon was seated
next to a prominent Democrat, when the conversation turned on the subject
of politics.  In reply to a remark, made in badinage, that the Democratic
party in every country was made up of the uneducated and restless spirits of
the nation, this gentleman answered, that, from the time of Cassar to the
present day, the most accomplished men, and men of the highest intellect,
were, in every country, the leaders of the popular party.
"This observation attracted, the attention of Louis Napoleon, who instantly




EXILE AND STUDIES.                            127
turned to the speaker, and inquired if he had ever seen the remark that Cmsar
was the head of the Democratic party of Rome. The gentleman said that he
had not.
"'My uncle, the emperor,' added Louis Napoleon,' made the same remark
which you have made. With your permission, I will send you a book, in which
you may take some interest, relating to Caesar.' That book was sent, with this
written in the prince's own hand writing on one of the pages:'A JMonsietur:
souvenir de ict part de Pe. Napoleon Louis Boncaparte.' The book is entitled'Precis des Guerres de Cesar, par Napoleon, ecrit par MI. Marchand, a F'le
Sainte Helene, sous la Dictee de l'Empereur.' "
Professor Samuel F. B. Morse has kindly furnished me with the following
narrative of an interview he chanced to have with the prince at that time:"In the year 1837, I was one of a club of gentlemen in Newv York who
were associated for social and informal intellectual converse, which held
weekly meetings at each other's houses in rotation. Most of these distinguished men are now deceased. The club consisted of such men as Chancellor Kent, Albert Gallatin, Peter Augustus Jay, Dr. (afterwards Bishop)
Wainwright, the president and professors of Columbia College, the chancellor
and professors of the New-York City University, &c.
"Among the rules of the club was one permitting any member to introduce
to the meeting distinguished strangers visiting the city.  At one of the reunions of the club, the place of meeting was at Chancellor Kent's. On assembling, the chancellor introduced us to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a young
man, pale, contemplative, and somewhat reserved. This reserve we generally
attributed to a supposed imperfect acquaintance with our language.
"At supper, he sat on the right of the chancellor, at the head of the table.
lMr. Gallatin was opposite the chancellor, at the foot of the table; and I was
on his right. In the course of the evening, when the conversation was general, I drew the attention of Mr. Gallatin to the stranger; observing that I did
not trace any resemblance in his features to his world-renowned uncle, yet
that his forehead indicated great intellect.
"'Yes,' replied Mr. Gallatin, touching his own forehead with his finger:'there is a great deal in that head of his; but he has a strange fancy.  Can
you believe it? he has the impression that he will one cay be Emperor of the
French! Can you conceive of any thing more absurd?'
"Certainly at that period, even to the sagacious mind of Mr. Gallatin, such
an idea would naturally seem too improbable to be entertained for a moment;
but in the light of later events, and the actual state of things at present, does
not the fact show, that, even in his darkest hour, there was in this extraordinary man that unabated faith in his future which was a harbinger of success,
— a faith which pierced the dark clouds that enshrouded him, and realized to
him in marvellous, prophetic vision that which we see at this day and hour
fully accomplished?"
Louis Napoleon had been in New York less than a month when he received
the following sad letter from his mother, whom he loved with tenderness
rarely surpassed, and whose health was rapidly failing under her accumulated
sorrows. The letter was dated at Arenemberg, April 3, 1837: —




128                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"MY DEAR SoN,-I am about to submit to an operation which has become
absolutely necessary. If it is not successful, I send you by this letter my
benediction. We shall meet again - shall we not?- in a better world, where
may you come to join me as late as possible. In leaving this world, I have
but one regret: it is to leave you and your affectionate tenderness,-the
greatest charm  of my existence here. It will be a consolation to you, my
dear child, to reflect that by your attentions you have rendered your mother
as happy as it was possible for her, in her circumstances, to be.  Think thit
a loving and a watchful eye still rests on the dear ones we leave behind, and
that we shall surely meet again. Cling to this sweet idea: it is too necessary not to be true. I press you to my heart, my dear son. I am very calm
and resigned, and I hope still that we' shall again meet in this world. The
will of God be done.
"Your affectionate mother,
" HORTENSE."
This letter induced the prince to make arrangements immediately to set
out for Europe, that he might hasten to the bedside of his dying mother.
The writer of the article in "The Home Journal," from which we have quoteld,
says, -
"I have before me the card which he left before he departed: LZe Prince
Ncpoleon Louis Bonc2cparte, P. P. C. On a bright sunny day I met him on
the Battery, a short time before leaving.  We walked together up and down
the Battery, looking out upon the beautiful day. We were waiting for the hour
of departure of the little steam-tug which was to convey passengers to the
packet. In this interview, I remarked that I feared he would not be permitted
to pass into Switzerland; that he would be compelled to return to the United
States.
"I-e remarked that he never expected to return here; that he would never
be satisfied until he was at the head of the French nation; that the emperor
always looked upon him  as his favorite nephew,-as the one likely to fill his
place upon the throne of France; that the place was his of right; and he
spoke of it as his destiny. When I saw him in the   Yysee, I reminded him
of his prophecy. He merely smiled; but it was the smile of conscious power.
Little did I dream that I should see it fulfilled. I looked upon him as a taciturn, unhappy man, of moderate abilities. Thiers called him'the man that
never speaks.' Time has shown him quick in invention, full of courage, energetic to a wonderful degree, and of the highest intellect.
"I have been told that he is a fatalist; that he does not believe that he
shall die a quiet death, but that he will be cut off suddenly, but that his hour
has not yet come.
"The true secret of Louis Napoleon's success is not understood in this
country. France has been rent asunder by factions. That most dreaded is
the one which wars against property and against religion. Napoleon presents
himself as the champion of order and of religion.  He sends troops to Rome
to support the Pope as the head of a religion sacred in the eyes of the French
people. I-e banishes the men engaged in spreading doctrines calculated to




EXILE AND STUDIES.                            129
unhinge society. He presents himself to the people as the representative of
popular sovereignty. A throne sustained by the voice of the people contrasts
powerfully with the divine right claimed by the Emperors of Austria and
Russia, or even by the Queen of England."
It has been so confidently asserted that Prince Louis Napoleon, whilein
this country, was a man of dissipated habits, and it is so important that the
truth should be ascertained upon this question, that we invite the attention
of the reader to the following letter from the Rev. Charles S. Stewart, chaplain in the United-States navy, - a gentleman whose name is honored in two
hemispheres. The letter was written in 1856, and was addressed to the editors of "The National Intelligencer," in Washington, D.C.
"GENTLETMEN, -   y attention has been called to an article in your journal
of the 23d ultimo, in which my name is introduced in connection with the
sojourn in this city, in 1837, of the present Emperor of the French; and
statements and opinions of mine in regard to the character he sustained here
placed in antagonism to a prevailing impression on the subject. The publicity
thus given to me, as a defender of the reputation of this gentleman at that
period, must be my apology for this communication, and for the request, that,
in justice to the personage most concerned,'The National Intelligencer' may
become the channel of a brief rehearsal of the opportunities I had of correct
knowledge in the case, and of the belief, based upon them, which I entertain.
" Louis Napoleon, after having been a prisoner of state for some months on
board a French man-of-war, was set at liberty on the shores of Norfolk in
the early spring of 1837. IIe came immediately to New York, as the point
at which he could be put most speedily in communication with his fiiends in
Europe. Either on the day, or the day but one, after his arrival, I was led to
call upon him, not as the bearer of an illustrious name, or the inheritor of an
imperial title, but as a stranger and an exile, without a personal friend in the
country, or a letter of introduction.  I was the more readily induced to this
from representations made to me by a near relative - in'whose family he had
already passed an evening    of the deep interest his appearance and whole
manner had excited in those who then met him.
"The call was reciprocated with a promptness and cordiality I had not
anticipated, and, in a very brief period, led to an intercourse which was
almost daily for some two months, and which ended only when we parted
from each other off Sandy Hook on board the packet which returned him  to
Europe.  The association was not that of hours only, but of days, and on
one occasion, at least, of days in succession; and was characterized by a freedom of conversation on a great variety of topics, that could scarce fail, under
the ingenuousness and frankness of his manner, to put me in possession
of his views, principles, and feelings upon most points that give insight to
character.'
"I never heard a sentiment from him, and never witnessed a feeling, that
could detract from his honor and purity as a man, or his dignity as a prince.
On the contrary, I often had occasion to admire the lofty thought and exalted
conceptions which seemed most to occupy his mind. His favorite topics when
17




130                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
we were alone were his uncle the emperor, his mother, and others of his immecdiate family in whom he had been deeply interested; his own relations to
France by birth and imperial registry; the inducements which led to the
attenmpted revolution at Strasburg, the causes of its failure, and his chiet support under the mortification of the result, -' the will of God,' to use his own
words,'through a direct interposition of his providence.  The time lha(d not
yet come.'
"l-Ie seemed ever to feel that his personal destiny was indissolubly linked
with France, or, as his mother Hortense expressed it in her will,'to know
his position;' and the enthusiasm with which at times he gave utterance to
his aspirations for the prosperity, the happiness, and the honor of hig country,
and to the high purposes which he designed to accomplish for her as a ruler,
amounted, in words, voice, and manner, to positive eloquence.  Had I taken
notes of some of these conversations, they would be considered now, when
his visions of power and earthly glory are realized, scarcely less epigrammatic
and elevated in thought, or, as related to himself, less prophetic, than many
which have been recorded from the lips of the exile of'St. Helena.
"I-e was winning in the invariableness of his amiability, often playful in
spirits and manner, and warm in his affections. IHe was a most fondly-att.ached
son, and seemed to idolize his mother.  When speaking of her, the intonations of his voice and his whole manner were often as gentle and feminine as
those of a woman. It had been his purpose to spend a year in making the
tour of the United States, that he micght have a better knowledge of our
institutions, and observe for himself the practical workings of our political
system. With this expectation, he consulted me and others as to the arrangenent of the route of travel, so as to visit the different sections of the Union
at the most desirable seasons; but his plans were suddenly changed by intelligence of the serious illness of Queen  Iortense, or, as then styled, the Duchess
of St. Leu, at her castle in Switzerland.
" I was dining with him the day the letter conveying this information was
received. Recognizing the writing on the envelope as it was handed to him
at the table, he hastily broke the seal, and had scarce glanced over half a page
before he exclaimed,'My mother is ill! I must see her!  Instead of a tour
of the States, I shall take the next packet for England. I will apply for passports for the Continent at every embassy in London, and, if unsuccessful, will
make my way to her without them.' This he did, and reached Arenemberg
in time to console by his presence the dying hours of the ex-queen, and to
receive in his bosom her last sigh.
"After such opportunities of knowing much of the mind and heart and
general character of Louis Napoleon, it was with great surprise that I for the
first time read in a distant part of the world, when he had become an emperor, representations in the public journals of his life in New York, and in
New  Orleans too,'though he was never there, which would induce a belief
that he had been while here little better than a vagabond, -low in his associations, intemperate in his indulgences, and dissipated in his habits.  In both
eating and drinking, he was, as far as I observed, abstemious rather than selfindulgent.  I repeatedly breakfasted, dined, and supped in his company; and




EXILE AND STUDIES.                            131
never knew him to partake of any thing stronger in drink than the light wiles
of France and Germany, and of these in great moderation.
"I have been with him early and late, unexpectedly as well as by appointment, and never saw reason for the slightest suspicion of any irregularity in
his habits.  It has been said, notwithstanding, tlat his character was so notorious, that he was not received in society, and made no respectable acquaintances.  If, during his brief stay in the city at a period of the year when
general entertainments are not usual, he was not met in the self-constituted
beaz  moncle of the metropolis, it was from his own choice.  WVithin the week
of his arrival, cards and invitations were left for him at his hotel. As a reason
for declining to accept the last, he told me he had no wish to appear in what
is called society, but added,' There are, however, individual residents in New
York, whose acquaintance I should be happy to make. Mr. Washington Irving
is one. I have read his works, and admire him  both as a writer and a man;
and would take great pleasure in meeting him.  Chancellor Kent is another.
I have studied his "Commentaries," think highly-of them, and regard him as
the first of your jurists.  I would be happy to know him personally.'
"He did make the acquaintance both of Mr. Irving and the chancellor, and
enjoyed the hospitality of one at Sunnyside, and the other at his residence in
town. He saw some of the best French society of the city; and, familiar
with the historic names of New York, he availed himself of the proffered
civilities of such families as the Hamiltons, the Clintons, the Livingstons, and
others of that position.  It is not true, therefore, that he was not received in
society, and had no acquaintances of respectability.  He visited in some of
our first families in social position, and was entertained by some of our most
distinguished citizens.
"It is said that he was without means, and lived on loans which he never
repaid. This is simply absurd. I am under the impression that his private
fortune was then unimpaired, and beyond the reach of the French Government: but, if this were not the case, his mother's wealth was ample; and his
drafts upon her for any amount would have been promptly honored. I doubt
not that funds were waiting his arrival, or, if not, were readily at his command.
"Louis Napoleon may have had some associations, in New York of which I
am  ignorant; and he, like Dickens and other distinguished foreigners, may
have carried his observations, under the protection of the police, to scenes in
which I would not have accompanied him. If he did, I never heard of it,
and have now no reason to suppose such was the fact; but that he was an
habitue, as has been plublicly reported, of drinkilg-saloons and oyster-cellars,
gambling-houses and places of worse repute, I do not believe. I can recall
to my recollection no young man of the world whom I have ever met, who,
in what seemed an habitual elevation of mind and an invariable dignity of
bearing, would have been less at home than he in such associations.
"There was, however, in New York, at the same time and for about the
same period, a Prince Bonaparte, who was, I have reason to think, of a very
different character.  His antecedents in Europe had not been favorable, and
his reputation here was not good. He, too, was in exile, but not for a political offence.  He may not have been received in society, and may have had




132                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
low associations. I met him, but, from  this impression, formed no acquaintance with him.  For the same reason, the intercourse between him  and his
cousin was infrequent and formal.  All that has been said and published of
the onp may be true of the other; and in the search for reminiscences of the
sojourn in New York of Louis Napoleon, on his elevation to a throne fifteen
years afterwards, it is not difficult to believe that those ignorant of the presence here at the same time of two persons of the same name and same title
may have confounded the acts and character of the one with the other. This,
I doubt not, is the fact; and that, however general and firmly established the
impression to the contrary may be, the reproach of a disreputable life here
does not justly attach itself to him who is now confessedly the most able, the
most fortunate, and the most remarkable sovereign in Europe.
"C. S. STEWIVAT, U.S.N."
Louis Napoleon took ship for London: there he learned, to his great indignation, that the French Government had announced, or had permitted it to be
diplomatically announced, - and that without contradiction, - that the prince
had pledged himself not to return to Europe for ten years.*  Could the government thus hold him up to the world as a perjured man, who had violated
his parole, the taint upon.his honor would blight all his future hopes.  Energetically, Louis Napoleon denounced the falsehood of this declaration.
As France was prohibited to him, and as most of the dynasties of Europe
were in deadly hostility to his endeavors to revive the empire, it was through
great difficulties that he succeeded at last in reaching Arenemberg.  I-Ie
arrived there just in time to receive the dying benediction of his beloved
mother, and to close her eyes in death.
lIortense was the worthy child of Josephine.  She won the love of all who
approached her.  A few moments before she died, she assembled all the members of the family in her chamber.  The-y gathered around her bed, bathed in
tears.  She took each one by the hand, and uttered a few words of affectionate
adieu.  Her son, her devoted physician, Dr. Conneau, and the ladies of her
household, were kneeling by the bedside.  Her mind had previously been
wandering; and in delirious dreams her spirit was again with the emperor,
sympathizing with him in the terrible disasters of his fall.  But now that lucid
interval which so often precedes the moment of death had come.  "I have
never," she said, "done a wrong to any one.  God will have mercy upon me."
Then, making a last effort to embrace her son, her spirit gently passed away
into eternity.t
Her son, with his own hand, closed her eyes.  Then, crushed with anguish,
he sank almost insensible upon his knees by her bedside, burying his face in
his hands.  He was indeed left alone in the world, without mother, brother, or
sister.  His father, a victim  of the deepest dejection, the consequence of
bodily diseases which preyed upon the mind, could afford but little solace to
his heart-broken child.: Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, sur des Documents particuliers et authentiques, par
lB. Renault, p. 102.
t Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Renault, p. 103.








)..
___                      4
4
:'(&.




EXILE AND  STUDIES.                                    133
It was the dyin(g wish of Queen Hortense that she might be buried by the.side of Josephine, in the church of Ruel, near Malmaison, in  France.  This
dying wish her grateful son was enabled to gratify.  Poor victim  of re-actions
and of civil discords! -~the gatesof France, like those of heaven, could only
be opened to her after she was dead.*   The church at Ruel, which Louis Napoleon has renovated, and the beautiful mausoleum  which he has reared to
the memory of I-ortense, alike testify to the virtues of the mother and the son.t
Weary of the desolating storms which, one after another, the prince seemed
doomed to encounter, he now fixed himself at Arenemberg in  almost entire
solitude, seeking solace in his grief by intense devotion to study. Ever since
the affair at Strasburg, the government of France and all the enemies of the
Napoleonic empire had endeavored to cast ridicule and infamy upon the name
of the prince.  They had caricatured the enterprise by the most false and
distorted accounts.  These narratives were generally received  as true, and
thus the reputation of the prince was sadly discredited.
Count Persigny, who, it will be remembered, was one of the prominent actors in the movement, and who had retired to London, published a pamphlet
there in refutation of these slanders, and giving a plain statement of the whole
matter.  Througlh the vigilance of the government, but few copies of this work
found their way into France.  Under these circumstances, MI. Laity, the intimate friend of Louis Napoleon, and who was also a co-operator in the enterprise, ventured to publish ain edition of the pamphlet in Paris, in 3May, 1838,
under the title of "Prince Napoleon at Strasburg."   The government was so
alarmIed by the appearance of this pamphlet, that the author was immediately
arrested, and brought before the Court of Peers, on accusation of an attempt
against the safety of the state.
The trial excited great interest. It was known that Lieutenant Laity was
an intimate friend of the prince. It was not doubted that he had been favored
with the assistance of the prince in preparing the pamphlet. Ten thousand
copies had been struck off, and distributed gratuitously. Still, the zeal of the
friends of the heir of the emperor was such, that the police, with all its vigilance, was able to seize but four hundred and six copies.  Just before the trial
came on, Louis Napoleon wrote to his friend the following letter, evidently
intended for the public eye:
"MY DEAR LAITY, -  You are, then, to appear before the Court of Peers
because you have had the generous devotion to reproduce the details of my
enterprise in order to justify my intentions, and to repel the accusations of
* Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Rednault, p. 103.
t "Louis Napoleon's love for his mother had in it a tenderness and devotion even beyond that
of a son. She had been his instructor and companion; and, from the hour of her change of position, she had manifested great and noble qualities, which the frivolity and prosperity of a court
might forever have left unrevealed. Hortense was a woman to be loved and revered; and, even
at this distance of years, Napoleon's love for his mother has suffered no change. He has striven
in all ways to associate her with his present high fortune. He has made an air of her compositinn,'Partant pour la Syric,' the national air of France. The ship which bore him from Marseilles to Qenoa on his Italian expedition is called La Reine Hortense, after his mother." -Italy
and thte iVc-r of 1859, par Julie de lllar(rittes, p. 77.




S134                        LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
which I have been the object.  I do not comprehend why the government
thinks it so important to prevent the publication of your book. You know,
t~at, in authorizing you to publish it, my only object was to repel the base
c~alumnies with which the organs of the ministry overwhelmed me durin  the
five months I was in prison or on the ocean.  It concerned my own honor,
and that of my friends, to prove that it was not a mad impulse that had brought
me to Strasburg in 1836.
as I would fain believe, a spirit of justice animates the Court of Peers;
if it is independent of the executive power, as the Constitution requires it to
be, -  then thhere is no ypossibility that it can condemn you; for -  Itoo
often repeat it -your pamphlet is not a new instigation to revolt, but only
the simple and true explanation of a fact which has been distorted.  I have
n-othing else in the world to rest upon but public opinion; nothing to sustain
me but the esteem of my fellow-citizens.  If it is not allowed to me and to
my friends to defend ourselves against unjust calumnies, I shall consider my
fate the most cruel that can be conceived.
" You know my friendship for you well enough to comprehend how I am
pained at the idea of your being the victim of your devotedness; but I also
know, that, with your noble character, you suffer with resignation for a popular cause. People will ask you, - as already some journals do, -'Where is
the Napoleon party?' Answer: The party is nowhere; but the ccase is everywhere. The party is nowhere, because my friends are not yet mustered; but
the cause hias partisans everywhere, -  from the artisan's workshop to the king's
council-chamber, from the soldier's barrack to the palace of the Marshal of
France.
"Republicans, Moderates, Legitimists, all who desire a strong government,
a real liberty, and an imposing attitude on the part of authority, -all these, I
say, are Napoleonists, whether they acknowledge it or not. For the imperial
system is not a false imitation of the English or American constitutions, but the
oovernmental form of the principles of the Revolution,   order in democracy,
equality before the law, recompense for merit: in short, it is a colossal pyramid, with broad basis and exalted summit.
"You can say, that, in authorizing you to publish this pamphlet, my aim
has not been to trouble the present tranquillity of France, nor to excite the
hardly-extinguished flames of passions, but to show myself to my fellow-citizens such as I am, and not such as interested animosity has represented me.
But if; some day, parties overthrow the present power (the example of the
last fifty years permits such a supposition), and if, accustomed as they have
been for twenty-three years to despise authority, they sap all the bases of the
social edifice, then, perhaps, the name of Napoleon would prove an anchor of
safety for all that is generous and really patriotic in France.
" Adieu, my dear Laity. I would still have some hopes of justice if the
interests of the moment were not the only principle of parties."
It was manifest, from the remarkable, almost prophetic statement at the
close of this letter, that Louis Napoleon still anticipated the overthrow, at
no distant period, of the Orleans dynasty, and the restoration of the empire.




EXILE AND  STUDIES.                                    135
The defence of Lieutenant Laity was conducted with  great ability.  All
France listened.  If Strasburcg could be called the first step of Louis Napoleon towards the throne, the trial of Laity, in proclaiming to France the principles which inspired the heir to the empire, was surely the second.
M. LIa-City was condemned to an imprisonment of five years, to a fine of ten
thousand francs (twvo thousand dollars), and to be subject to the surveillance
of the police for the remainder of his life.  The devotion of this young man
to the cause of the empire, and the severity of the punishment,-  tearing him
from his young-r wife and his beautiful cha'teau, to be immured in the cell of a
prison, -  excited much sympathy.  A  rich inhabitant of Lyons, who had formerly been a general of the empire, and who chanced to be then on his dyingbed, touched with the heroic character of the young man, bequeathed to him
his whole estate, consisting of twenty thousand francs a year.*
So greatly Gdid the government of Louis Philippe dread the influence of
the prince, that they demanded of the Swiss Government his expulsion from
their territory.  "This demand," says Alison, "was warmly  supported by
Prince Metterniclh on the part of Austria.  The demand was resisted  by the
whole stren(gth of the united Republican and Napoleonist parties in Europe,
and excited the warmest and most acrimonious debates in the Swiss Assembly, where the loudest declamations were heard  against this'unheard-of
stretch of tyrannic power.'." t
A  long negotiation ensued.  The Swiss declared that they would sooner
perish with arms in their bands than submit to swch humiliating dictation
from  foreign powers.  At a gathering of several of the cantons at Reiden, it
was resolved unanimously," That we repel, as an attempt upon the honor, the liberty, and the independence of the Swiss people, all intervention of foreign diplomacy in the
affairs of this country; and that we are determined to consecrate our property and our lives to the maintenance of those precious rights which we
have inherited from our ancestors; and that any other conduct would be
shameful." 4
At length M. Thiers, the French minister, sent a despatch in behalf of his
government to the Swiss Government, stating that, if the demands of France
and Austria were not instantly complied with by the expulsion of Louis Napoleon, their ministers would be withdrawn, all frkindly intercourse suspended,
all the avenues to Switzerland should be blockaded to prevent any intercourse
between Switzerland and the rest of Europe, and the expense of the blockade.should be levied on the Swiss territories. This demand and threat were presented to the president of the Swiss Directory by the Duke de Montebello,
the French minister, in the night of the 6th of August, 1838, and created, of
course, a profound sensation. ~
* Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, President de la Republique, par B. Rdnault, p. 104.
f History of Europe since the Fall of Napoleon I., vol. iii. p. 232.
t Declaration des Cantons de la Suisse, Sept. 17, 1836.
~ Louis Blanc, v. 74-90.
"It is a matter of public notoriety that Arenemberg is the centre of intrigues which the government of the king has the right and the duty no longer to tolerate. Vainly does Louis NapoIcon deny this. The writings, so many of which ho has published in Germany and in France,




136                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"The Liberal journals," says Alison, "everywhere exclaimed in the loudest
manner against what they  termed  this  shameful violation  of the law  of
nations; and were particularly vehement against M. Thiers,'the child of
Revolution, whose impious hands would strangle his own mother."'
But Switzerland had adopted Louis Napoleon as a citizen by conferring
upon him the honorary title of a citizen of Thurgovia. The pride of the
little republic was roused: the Diet was convoked; and, notwithstanding the
hopelessness of a conflict against such powerful foes, the assembled cantons
heroically refused to yield their independence.  The Count of Montebello
then  announced that Switzerland would be placed under a strict blockade.
A corps of the French army was set in motion towards the Jura Mountains.
The ambassadors of foreign powers advised Switzerland to yield; but, on the
contrary, the hardy republic assembled a force of twenty thousand men, and
prepared for a vigorous resistance.*
"But the man," say MM. Gallix and Guy, "who would not allow a single
drop'of French blood to be shed in the streets of Strasburg  even to insure
the triumph of his cause, would not suffer himself to be the occasion of a
conflict between France, his native country, and Switzerland, which had so
cordially received him into her bosom. Louis Napoleon, therefore, to put an
end to these debates, decided of his own free will to take his departure, and
addressed the following letter to the President of the Council of the Canton
of Thurgovia.  It was dated Arenemberg, Sept. 22, 1838:
"MoNsiEuR LE LANDAMANN, -  When the note of the Duke of Montebello was addressed to the Diet, I was by no means disposed to submit to the
demands of the French Government: for it was important for me to prove,
by my refusal to leave, that I had returned to Switzerland without violating
any engagement; that I had a right to reside there; and that I could find
there aid and protection.
"During the last two months, Switzerland has shown, by her energetic
protests, and now by the decisions of her great councils which are at this
and the one which the Court of Peers has recently condemned (Laity), to which it is proved that
he had himself contributed, and which he had distributed, testify sufficiently that his return to
Arenemberg had not only for its object to render the last duties to his dying mother, but as well
to renew the projects which it is demonstrated to-day that he has never renounced. Switzerland
is too loval and faithful an ally to permit that Louis Bonaparte should call himself at the same
time one of her citizens and also a pretender to the throne of France." -Due cle Montebello ti
Gouverneenat de la Suisse.
H Iistoire complete de Napoldon III., p. 74; also Ilistoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par
B. Rednault, p. 105.
"The Grand Council of Thurgovia did not show itself more favorable than the Diet to the
pretensions of the French ambassador. Then the Duke of Montebello announced to Switzerland an hermetic blockade. At the same time, some troops advanced. General Aymar, commanding at Lyons, gave the order to the artillery of his division to hold itself in readiness to march.
During these warlike preparations, the ambassadors of foreign powers, supporting with their
influence the demand of the Duke of Montebello, urged the Swiss to submit; saying, that, if they
resisted, they would be abandoned to the vengeance of France. In that dire extremity, the Helvetic Government commenced putting itself in a state for resistance."-Histoire complete de
Napoleon III., p. 74.




EXILE AND  STUDIES.                                    137
time assembled, that she was ready to make the greatest sacrifices in order to
maintain her dignity and her rights. She has known how to do her duty as
an independent nation. I shall know how to do mine, and to remain faithful
to the voice of honor. They may persecute, but they can never degrade me.
"cThe French Government having declared that the refusal of the Diet to
comply with its demand would be the  signal of a conflagration to which
Switzerland might fall a victim, nothing remains for me but to quit a country
where my presence is on the one side the subject of unjust pretensions, and
on the other may be the cause of equally great misfortunes.
"I beg you, therefore, Monsieur Le Landaiann, to announce to the Federal
Directory that I shall take my departure as soon as there can be obtained
from the ambassadors of the different powers the passports which are necessary to enable me to seek some spot where I shall find a secure asylum.
"In thuis voluntarily leaving the only country in Europe in which I have
found support and protection, in separating myself from  places endeared to
me by so many recollections, I hope to prove to the Swiss people that I was
worthy of the many marks of esteem and affection which they have lavished
upon me.
"I shall never forget the conduct of the cantons which have so courageously
declared themselves in my favor; and the remembrance of the generous protection  accorded  me by the  Canton  of Thurgovia will, above all, remain
engraven on my heart.
"I trust that this separation will not prove eternal, and that a day will
come when I shall be enabled, without compromising the interests of two
nations which ought to remain friends, to return to the asylum which twenty
years of sojourn and of acquired rights has made almost a second country
for me.
"Have the goodness, M. Landamann, to express my sentiments of gratitude
to the Councils; and believe me that the thought of saving Switzerland from
great troubles can alone alleviate the regret which I feel in quitting its soil.
"Receive, &c.,                         "Louis NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE."*
The French army corps advancing towards Switzerland were making war
upon this one man, as, fifteen years before, all the allied dynasties of Europe
made war against his uncle.t  Upon the departure of tfte prince, the French
* There is, perhaps, nothing which more conclusively shows the dread with which dynastic
Europe regarded the popular name of Napoleon than the fact that all these monarchies were
thrown into agitation by the presence of this quiet, reticent young man in his solitary home
on the shores of Lake Constance.
"In the course of the deliberations before the Diet of the Swiss Confederacy, it appeared that
the note of the Frenich ambassador had been followed by a despatch from the French minister
of foreign affairs, Count Mole, insisting in a formal and menacing manner upon its execution;
that the ministers of Austria, of Baden, of Russia, were disposed to support that exorbitant pretension; and, in fine, that this note, before having been presented to the Helvetic Government,
had been presented to all the courts, and had obtained their assent."~- Histoire politiqrpe et popalaire dic  Prince Louis Napoleon, sa Vie, ses Actes, et ses Ecrits, par Emaile Marco le St. Hilaire,
tonm. troisie'rme, p. 135.
t "The allied powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napolion is the sole obstacle to the re18




138                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
army also withdrew. The prince proceeded to England, the eyes of all Europe
being now directed to him as an antagonist of the government of Louis Philippe, so dreaded that France, and Austria combined their armies to drive him
from  the Continent.   This must have been a proud  hour to the prince,
making it certain that his name was invested with influence in France, which
before this he could only have imagined that it possessed.  le could now no
longer doubt, that, were he but once to get a footing upon his native soil, the
French people, in vast numbers, would rally around him.
He took up his residence in London at Carton Terrace, still with the one
great idea that he was destined to occupy the throne of France engrossing
his mind.  It was now  September, 1838.  Louis Napoleon was thirty years
of age: his character was formed.  In  the seclusion of Arenemberg, and
devoted to study, he had acquired the habits of a retiring, earnest, thoughtful man.  We see the development of that character in his letters and in his
life in America. His high birth as the son of the King of Holland and presumptive heir to the throne of France must have exerted a powerful influence in promoting self-respect.  His enemies were interested in blasting his
reputation in every possible way.  With their poisoned arrows they have
darkened the air.
Two of the ablest of the biographers of Louis Napoleon, M. Gallix and
M. Guy, in the following terms speak of the life upon which he entered, or
rather which he still continued to pursue, in England:
"Upon his arrival in London, the young prince, for whom  the dissipations
and frivolities of aristocratic life had never possessed any charm, resumed the
laborious habits which had rendered him remarkable in Switzerland. For a
long time, he had been studying and endeavoring to master all those profound
political views of the imperial period developed by the vast genius of Napoleon, both in his various writings at St. Helena, and in his laws and institutions, which still remain in vigor. From these assiduous and intense studies
of the prince upon that grand epoch, there appeared in 1839, in London, a
book which was a veritable" event in Europe."
It has been well said that never do you find a truly great man in whose
nature the element of pensiveness does not predominate. The sublimest and
saddest of all tragedies is the history of humanity. A pensive strain pervades all the writings of Louis Napoleon. In the preface to his work entitled " Idees Napoleoniennes," he says, -
"If the destiny which presaged my birth had not been changed by events,
nephew of the emperor, I should have been one of the defenders of his throne,
one of the propagators of his ideas; I should have bad the glory of being one
of the pillars of his edifice, or of dying in one of the squares of his guard,
fighting for France.  The emperor is no more; but his spirit is not dead.
establishment of peace in Europe, the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he is
ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even life itself, for the good of the country,
inseparable from the rights of his son, of the regency of the empress, and of the maintenance
of the laws of the empire." - Abdication at Fontainebeau, April 4, 1814.
Histoire complhte de Napoleon III., p. 145.




EXILE AND  STUDIES.                                  139
Deprived of the opportunity of defending his protecting power with the sword,
I can at least try to defend his memory with the pen.  To enlighten opinion
by searching for the thought, that presided over his lofty conceptions, to recall
to men's minids the memory of his vast projects, -  this is a task which still gratifies my heart, and consoles me for exile."
The first chapter of this work is upon " Governments in General." In the
following words, he enters upon his subject:~
"Are all the revolutionis which have agitated the peoples, all the efforts of
great men, warriors, or legislators, to result in nothing?  Are we to be moving
constantly in a vicious circle, where intelligence succeeds ignorance; and barbarism, civilization?  Far from us be a thought so afflicting.  The sacred fire
which animates us must conduct to a result worthy of the divine power which
inspires it.  The amelioration of society incessantly progresses, notwithstandc
inug all obstacles.
"'The human race,' says Pascal,'is a man who never dies, and who is always advanching towards perfection.'  Sublime image of truth and of profoundness -  the hum an race never dies,; but yet it experiences all the maladies
to which man is subject.
" Go~vernments have been established to aid society to overcome the obstacles
which impede its progress.  Their form  necessarily varies, according to the
nature of the evils which they are called to cure, according to the epoch and
the people over whom  they have to reign.  Their task never has been, and
never will be, easy, because the two contrary elemenits of which our existence
is composed demand the employment of different measures.  In respect to
our divine essence, we need only liberty and labor: in respect to our mortal
nature, we need, to conduct us, a guide and a stay.
"In unfolding before our eyes the tableau of history, we see there ever
these two grand phenomena, -  on the one side a constant system, which
obeys a regular progression, which advances without ever retracing its steps:
it is progress. Upon the other side, on the contrary, we see only flexibility
and change: they are forms of government."
In the following terms, he speaks of the governments of the United States
and of Russia, - the one a free republic, the other an unlimited absolutism,
and yet each apparently well fulfilling its function: -
"I say it with regret, that I see to-day but two governments which well
fulfil their providential mission. These are the two colossi at the ends of the
world; the one,at the extremity of the new, the other at the extremity of
the old.*
"Providence has confided to the United States the duty of peopling, and
gaining to civilization, all that immense territory which extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the north pole to the equator. The government,
which is only, thus far, a simple administration, has had, until the present time,
but to practise the old adage, Let things alone, to favor this irresistible
instinct which impels the people of America to the West.
* In a note, the prince adds, " I do not mean to say by this that all the other governments
of Europe are bad. I wish only to say, that, at the present moment, there is no other which is at
the height of so grand a mission."




140                          LIFE OF NAPOLEON.III.
"In Russia, it is to the imperial dynasty that is due all the progress, which,
for a century and a half, has been drawing that vast empire out of barbarism.
The imperial power has to struggle against the old prejudices of our old Europe. It is necessary that it should centralize as much as possible, in the hands
of 6one single man, the forces. of the state, that it may destroy all those abuses
which perpetuate themselves beneath the shelter of communal and feudal
privileges.  The East can only receive from  absolute power the ameliorations
it waits for."
Jn the second chapter, the prince treats of the great mission of the emperor;
declares that liberty can only follow in the same footsteps with religion; speaks
of the re-establishment of Christianity by Napoleon, and of the principles by
which the emperor should be judged.
"The birth of liberty," he writes, "is painful. The fabric reared by ages
cannot be destroyed without terrible convulsions. The year 1793 followed
closely upon the year 1791; and one saw ruins upon ruins, transformations
upon transformations, until Napoleon appeared.  He disentangled that chaos,
separated truths firom passions, and the elements of success from the germs of
death.
"Napoleon, arriving upon the scene of action, became the testamentary
executor of the Revolution.  In dying unvanquished, the Revolution said to
him,'Establish upon solid bases the results of my efforts; re-unite divided
France; repel feudat Europ)e leagued against me; heal my wounds; enlighten
the nations; be for Europe what I have been for France; and never abandon the sacred cause of the French people, but make that cause to triumph by
all the means which genius can create and which humanity can approve.'
"There are vulgar minds, who, jealous of the superiority of merit, wish to
revenge themselves by attributing to it their own paltry passions. Thus, instead of comprehending that a great man can only be influenced by grand
conceptions, they say,' Napoleon made himself emperor through personal ambition. He surrounded himself with the illustrious names of the old re'gime
to satisfy his vanity. He lavished the treasures of France and her purest
blood to aggrandize his own power, and to set his brothers on thrones; and
at last he married 0an archduchess of Austria that he might have a true princess for his bride.''1Have I, then,' exclaimed Napoleon at St. Helena,' reigned'over pygmies in intelligence, that they have so little understood me?'
"Let his spirit be consoled. The people long since have rendered him justice.  Every day that, passes by, revealing as it does some misery which he
has cured, some evil which he has extirpated, sufficiently explains his noble
projects; and his great thoughts are like light-houses, which, in the midst of
storms and darkness, show us the way to a harbor of security."
In the third chapter, Louis Napoleon treats of the internal government of
France which  was introduced by the emperor.  This chapter briefly yet
comprehensively details the general principles of the imperial government;
the fusion of equality, order, and justice; the administrative organization;
the judiciary; the finances; the establishment of benevolent institutions; the
communes, agriculture, industry, commerce, public instruction; the army;
political organization, fundamental principles, accusations of despotism, and
the reply to these accusations.




EXILE AND  STUDIES.                                 141
"It was because the emperor," writes the prince, "was the representative
of the true ideas of his age, that he so easily acquired such an immense ascendency.  Having always a single object before his eyes, he employed, conforming to circumstances, means the most prompt to attain that end.  What
was that end?  Liberty, -  yes, liberty; and the more one studies the history
of Napoleon, the more he will become convinced of that truth.
"For liberty is like a river.  If it is to bring abundance, and not desolation,
we must dig it a wide and deep channel.  If in its regular and majestic course
it remains within its natural limits, the countries which it waters blesses its
passage; but, if it come like a torrent which bursts its banks, it is regarded as
the most terrible of evils.  Then it excites universal hatred; and men are
seen in their infatuation to recoil from liberty, because it destroys, as if they
would banish fire because it burns, and water because it drowns.
"'Liberty,' some one says,'was not assured by the imperial laws.'  It is
true that its name was not placed at the head of all the laws; but every law
of the empire was preparing for liberty the reign peaceable and sure.
" When in a country there are parties inflamed against each other, and violent hatred exists, it is necessary that those pvaties should disappear, and that
those hatreds should be appeased, before liberty can be possible.
"When, in a country democratized as was France, the principle of equal
rilghts is not generally recognized, it is necessary that that principle should be
introduced into all the laws before liberty can be possible.
" When there is neither public spirit, nor religion, nor political faith, it is
necessary to recreate at least one of these three before liberty can be possible.
" \When repeated changes of the constitution have destroyed the respect
due to law, it is necessary to form  again respect for law  before liberty can be
possible.
"When the government, whatever may be its form, has neither force nor
prestige; when order exists neither in the administration nor in the state, 
it is necessary to re-establish order before liberty can be possible.
"In fine, when a nation is at war with its neighbors, and when it contains
within its own borders those who are co-operating with the enemy, it is necessary to conquer those foes, and to make them. allies, before liberty can be
possible."
In a few graphic words, the prince describes the chaotic condition of France
when  Napoleon  returned from  Egypt, the  eagerness with which  he was
received by the'French people, the order and prosperity which he immediately established; and then he gives an enumeration of the enactments of the
emperor by which these results were attained:
" He revoked the laws which deprived the relatives of emigrants and of the
former nobles of the exercise of their political rights; he repealed the law of
forced loans; he abolished the law of hosta.ges;   he recalled the journalists
* "The Directory had usurped dictatorial powers, and had become as despotic a government
as was ever known. By one decree, a forced loan of twenty-four millions of dollars was levied
upon the opulent classes. Assuming that the relatives of the emigrants were the cause of all
disorders, a law was pasted that all known to have been connected with the ancient regime should




142                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
condemned to exile; he opened the gates of France to more than one hundred thousand emigrants; he pacified La Vendee; he declared in the Council
of State,'I will not serve any party; I am national; I will avail myself of
the services of all those, of whatever party, who will advance with me.' The
clergy -were divided into antagonistic parties, -  the friends of the Revolution
and the refractory priests: the emperor restored the clergy to fraternity. The
republic of letters was divided between the new Institute and the ancient
Academy: the emperor blended the acaclimiciens with the Institute, and the
savants were at peace, uniting their efforts to instruct the nation. There were
old titles to which were attached souvenirs of glory: Napoleon allied ancient
France with the new  in blending hereditary titles with those modern ones
which were acquired by services.  The Jews formed a nation in a nation:
the emperor convoked the grand sanhedrim; their laws were reformed; and
the barriers which separated them  from  the rest of the nation disappeared.
He re-established the Catholic religion, at the same time declaring liberty of
conscience, and granting equal remuneration to ministers of all forms of worship.  TUnder the empire, every idea of caste was destroyed.  No person
thought of boastincg of his parchlnents.  The question was asked, What has
a man done? never, Of whom was he born?"
Thus the prince gave a luminous account of the political principles of the
Napoleonic empire, showing that under that centralization which Napoleon
regretted, but which the assailment of the empire by all dynastic Europe rendered necessary, the government consecrated all its energies to promoting
the prosperity of the masses of the people.  The long and glowing catalogue
which Ihe gives of what Napoleon accomplished for France is a record such as
no other monarch can show.
Our space will not allow us to transcribe this chapter; but no impartial
reader can peruse it without the deep conviction that Napoleon I. merits the
mausoleum which a grateful nation has reare.d to his memory beneath the
dome of the Invalidces.
"The government of Napoleon," he writes, "did not commit the fault, so
common wvith many others, of separating the interests of the soul from  the
body, rejecting the first as chimeras, and admitting the second only as realities.' Napoleon, on the contrary, in giving an impulse to all noble sentiments,
in showing that merit and virtue conduct to opulence and honor, proved to
the people that the best emotions of the heart are the graceful drapery of
material interests widely diffused; the same as Christian morals are sublime,
because, like the civil law, they constitute the safest guide which we can follow, and the best counsellor of our private interests.*
"The administrative organization under the empire had, like most of the
institutions of that epoch, a momentary object to accomplish, and a more
remote end to attain. Centralization was then the only means of constituting
France, of establishing a stable regime, and of forming a compact state capahbe seized as hostages; and that four should be transported for every assassination that was committed in the district, and that their property should be liable for all acts of robbery." - Alison's
History of Europe, vol. iv. p. 567.
* Ides "Napoldonicnnes, p. 37.




EXILE AND STUDIES..                             143
ble of resisting Europe, and of supporting afterwards liberty.  The excess of
centralization under the empire should not be considered as a system, definite
and final, but rather as a means." *
"The public works which the emperor executed upon so grand a scale were
not only one of the causes of the interior prosperity of France, but they
favored even great social progress. These works, in multiplying communications, produced three signal advantages: the first was the employment of all
the idle hands; and thus it was the solace of the poorer classes: the second
was the encouragement of agriculture, industry, and commerce; the creation
of new roads and canals augmented the value of the lands, and facilitated the
transportation of all products: the third was the destruction of the spirit of
locality, and the removal of the barriers which separate not only the provinces
of a state, but different nations, by facilitating all the intercourse of men with
each other, and in strengthening the ties which ought to unite them.  The
system of Napoleon consisted of constructing by the State a great number
of important works; and, as these were finished, they were sold, and the proceeds were devoted to the execution of other enterprises.  It is important to
remark, that, notwithstanding war, the emperor expended in twelve years
over two hundred millions of dollars (one billion five million francs) in public
works; and the man who had such treasures at his disposal, and who distributed one hundred and forty millions of dollars in endowments, never had any
private property." t
"Public instruction participated in the impulse given by the chief of the
State to all The branches of the administration.'None but those,' said the
emperor,' who wish to deceive the people, and to rule for their own profit, can
wish to retain the people in ignorance; for the more the people are educated,
the more there will be who will be convinced of the necessity of the laws, of
the need of defending them, and the more society will be established, happy,
and prosperous."' +
" The principles which guided the emperor in the choice of public functionaries were far more rational than those which are in vogue at the present day.
When he appointed the chief of an administration, he did not consult the
political shades of the man, but his capacity to discharge the duties of that
office. Thus, instead of searching into the political antecedents of the ministers whom he employed, he only inquired respecting their special qualifications. Chaptal, the celebrated chemist, is charged to open hew  avenues of
industry; the savant Denon is appointed director of the Museum of Arts;
Mollien is made minister of the treasury.  That the finances were so prosperous under the empire is greatly owing to the fact that Gaudin, Duke de Gaete,
entered the ministry of finances under the consulate, and did not leave the
post until 1814.
"It can be truly said of the imperial system, that its base was democratic,
since all its powers came from the people; while its organization was hierarchical, since there were in society different degrees to stimulate all capacities.
The arena was open to forty millions of people: merit alone distinguished
them." ~
* Idees Napoleoniennes, p. 38.   t Idem, p. 62.   ~ Idem, p. 62.   ~ Idem, p. 90.




144                       LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
There are many other passages of this eloquent chapter which we would
gladly transcribe; but our limited space forbids. In the next chapter, the
fourth, the prince takes up the foreign relations of France under the empire.
There is here unfolded the foreign policy of the emperor, the blessings lie
conferred upon  other nations, -  Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Westphalia,
Poland, -  and his designs for Spain.
"The more the secrets of diplomacy are developed, the more one is convinced of the truth that Napoleon was led step by step, by the force of events,
to that gigantic power which was created by war, and which war destroyed.
He was not the aggressor; on the contrary, he was incessantly obliged to
repel the coalitions of Europe.  If at times he appeared to anticipate the
projects of his enemies, it is because in the initiative lies the guaranty of
success." *
"Let us rapidly glance through  that grand drama which commenced at
Arcola, and which was terminated at Waterloo, and we shall see that Napoleon appears as one of those extraordinary beings whom  Providence creates
to be the majestic instrument of its impenetrable designs; and whose mission
is so traced out in advance, that an invisible force seems to compel them to
accomplish it." t
In a few  pages a very graphic sketch is given of this wonderful career,
which sketch is closed with the following words: 11
"Waterloo! -here every French voice falters, and there is room  only for
tears, -tears for the conquered, tears for the conqueror, who will regret,
sooner or later, having overthrown the only man who had become the mediator between two hostile ages.
" All our wars came from  England.  England would never listen to any
proposition for peace. In the year 1800, the emperor wrote to the King of
England,' The war which has now for eight years ravaged the four quarters
o'f the globe -must it be eternal? is there no way of putting an end to it?
How is it that two nations, the most enlightened in Europe, more powerful
than is necessary for their safety and independence, can sacrifice to ideas of
vain grandeur the interests of commerce, internal prosperity, and the happiness of families? How is it that they do not perceive that peace is the first
of necessities as the first of glories?
"In the year 1805, the emperor addressed to the same sovereign the following words:'The world is sufficiently large for our two nations to live in it;
and reason has sufficient power to conciliate all difficulties, if there be on the
one side and the other but the disposition. Peace is the wish of my heart;
but war has not been injurious to my glory. I conjure your Majesty not to
refuse yourself the happiness of giving peace.'
"In 1808, Napoleon united himself with Alexander in the endeavor to induce the British cabinet to consent to ideas of conciliation." ]
The sixth chapter speaks of the causes of the fall of the emperor.  "It is a
consolation," he writes, " for those who feel the blood of the great man flowing
in their veins, to think of the regrets which accompanied his loss. It is a grand
Idees Napolkonieines, p. 110.       t Idem, p. 111.        i Idem.




EXILE AND STUDIES.                              145
and elevating thought, that it took all the efforts of combined Europe to tear
Napoleon from this France which he had rendered so great. It was not the
French people in their wrath' who sapped his throne: there were required
twice twelve hundred thousand foreigners to break the imperial sceptre. It
is a noble funeral for a sovereign where a weeping country and glory in
mourning accompany him to his last abode." *
The seventh and last chapter, entitled the Conclusion, closes with the following words: -
"The period of the empire was a mortal war against the old European system.  The old system triumphed.  But, notwithstanding the fall of Napoleon,
Napoleonian ideas have germinated in all directions.  The conquerors themselves have adopted the ideas of the conquered, and the nations are exhausting
themselves in efforts to restore what Napoleon had established among them.
"In France, there is the incessant demand, under other names and other
forms, for the realization of the ideas of t-he emperor.  If any grand work is
executed, it is generally but some project of the emperor which is carried out.
Every act of power, every proposition of the Chambers, must place itself
under the shield of Napoleon to be popular.
"Italy, Poland, have sought to recover that national organization which
Napoleon gave them.
"Spain sheds freely the blood of her children to re-establish those institutions which the decrees of Bayonne in 1808 guaranteed to her.
"In London, also, a re-action has taken place; and one has seen the majorgeneral of the French army at Waterloo feted by the English people equally
with the conqueror.
"Belgium  in 1830 manifested eagerly its desire to become what it was
under the empire.
"3any countries in Germany demand the laws which Napoleon had given
them.
"The Swiss cantons, with a common accord, prefer, to the compact which
now binds them, the act of mediation of 1803.
"In fine, we have seen, even in a democratic republic at Berne, the districts
which had formerly belonged to France reclaiming in 1838, of the Bernese
Government, the imperial laws of which the incorporation with that republic
has deprived them since 1815.
" Who, then, we may ask, are the truly great statesmen? - those who found
a system which fails, notwithstanding all their power? or those who found a
system which survives their defeat, and springs anew from their ashes?
"The Napoleonian ideas have the character of ideas which regulate the
movement of society, since they advance of their own force, though deprived
of their author.  It is no longer necessary to reconstruct the system of the
emperor: it reconstructs itself.  Sovereigns and people all aid to re-establish
it, because each sees in it a guaranty of order, of peace, and of prosperity.
"Where else shall we to-day find the man who places his impress upon the
world through the respect due to the superiority of his conceptions?
* Idees, Napoldoniennes, p. 146.
19




146                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"Let us repeat, then, in conclusion, that the Napoleonian idea is not an idea
of war, but a social, industrial, commercial, humanitarian idea. If to some
men it seems always surrounded with the thunders of combat, it is because it
was indeed too long enveloped in the smoke of cannon and the dust of battles;
but now the clouds are dissipated, and we see through the glory of arms a
civil glory more grand and more durable.
"Let the ashes of the emperor repose in peace.  His memory becomes
grander every day.  Each wave that breaks upon the rock of St. Helena
brings with the breeze to Europe a homage to his memory, a regret to his
remains; and the echo of Longwood repeats over his tomb,'TTHE NATIONS,
FREE, WILL LABOR EVERYWHERE TO RECONSTRUCT THY WORK."''
* "The' Idees Napoloniennes' excited the highest degree of interest. At Paris, four editions
were published. The work was translated into all the languages of Europe. All agreed in
recognizing in their author a mind of rare speculative ability, a man of good faith, and a statesman whose merits and defects had at least the advantage of not belonging to any of the schools
which had thus far brought misfortune to France. This publication, in directing the general
attention to the nephew of the emperor, in pointing him out to the consideration of his fellowcitizens, produced all the effect which could then be produced; for France was not then ripe for
any man or for any event; and, in consequence of the grand deception of 1830, it was more than
ever distrustful of change." - Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Renault, p. 144.
*




CHAPTER IX.
PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.
Les Idees Napolioniennes. - Habits of Louis Napoleon. - Testimony of Acquaintances. - Views
of Government. - Severe Studies. - Unpopularity of Louis Philippe.- Attempts at Assassination. - The Napoleonic Idea. - Fieschi. - Narrow Escape of the Royal Family. - Secret
Societies. - Virulence of the Press. - Inauguration of the Arc de l'Etoile. - Seclusion of
the King.~ -Napoleonic Sympathies. - The Emperor's Statue restored to the Column in the
Place Venddme. - Letter from Joseph Bonaparte.- The Bourbon Law of Proscription.Justification for the Efforts of the Prince. -Death of Charles X. - Socialist Insurrection. -
M. Thiers Prime Minister. - Demand for the Remains of Napoleon. - Preparation for their
Removal.
HE remarkable work entitled "Les Idees Napoleoniennes " could
not have been written in the leisure hours of an idle man of
pleasure.  Every page indicates extensive reading, profound
research, and deep meditation.  It treats of the highest and
most difficult themes which can engross human attention. It
requires that the mind should be disciplined by many years of
patient study to enable it to present in such lucid order the highest intellectual achievements of the statesman and the philosopher.
The French Government was at this time very anxious to propitiate the
Liberal party, and in this endeavor was continually adopting measures which
gave new life and zeal to those who were in favor of restoring the imperial
dynasty. An annual pension was voted by the Chambers, of twenty-five thousand dollars, to Caroline Bonaparte, the widow of Murat. Monuments were
continually being erected in different parts of the kingdom to perpetuate the
memory of the achievements of Napoleon.
"The press," says Alison, "cautiously but assiduously inculcated the same
ideas; and the very remarkable work of Prince Louis,'Les Idees Napoleoniennes, in a skilful manner favored them by representing the incessant wars,
which were the chief reproach against his memory (the emperor's), as a temporary and painful effort to secure that general and lasting peace which was
the grand object of his desire.
"Napoleon," it was said, "was always the friend of peace; he was the protector of commerce and industry: it was for tlis he waged war with England,
the eternal oppressor of both.  He was the civilizer of the world, the most
pacific and liberal sovereign that ever reigned.  It was for the interests of
real freedom  that be suppressed the Tribunate, its worst enemy, and chased
147




148                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the deputies who had betrayed it out of the windows of St. Cloud.  If he
went to Moscow, it was that he might conquer the peace of the world in the
Kremlin.  If he sacrificed millions of soldiers, it was because peace could be
purchased at no lower price."
"These ideas," says Alison, "were not only sedulously inculcated in'Le
Capitole,' a journal specially devoted to the Napoleon interests, but in several
other publications in France and foreign States.  The report was carefully
circulated in secret, and therefore the more readily believed, that Prince Napoleon was in reality supported by Austria, Russia, and Great Britain: and
in a pamphlet published at this time, which made considerable sensation, it
was openly' asserted that the existing government was incapable of providing
for the security, prosperity, and glory of France; and that the Napoleon
dynasty alone was equal to its requirements." 
Those who were acquainted with Louis Napoleon, this solitary, reticent
young man, at this period of his life, when he was residing an exile in England, describe him  as an earnest, toilsome student.  At the early hour of six
in the morning, he was almost invariably in his cabinet, where he worked
uninterruptedly until noon.  He then took his breakfast, which seldom  occupied more than ten minutes.  After this repast, he read the journals, carefully
taking notes of whatever was most important in the news or politics of the
clay. At two o'clock, his friends understood that he was ready to receive
visitors.  At four o'clock, he devoted an hour to his own private affiirs; and,
mounting his horse at five, took a ride in the park.  At seven o'clock, he
dined; and generally found an hour or two in the evening to continue his
studies.
"As to his tastes and habits, they are those of a man who appreciates life
only on its serious side.  He does not value luxury for its own sake.  In the
morning, he is dressed for the day.  Of all his household he wears the plainest
clothes, th oues, gh t here is always about his dress a certain military elegance."
The same writer from whom we have quoted the last sentence, the author
of the " Letters friom London," thus describes the appearance of the prince at
this time: -
" He is of middle size, of an agreeable countenance, and has a military air.
To personal advantages he adds the more seductive distinction of manners
simple, natural, and fall of good taste and ease. At first sight, I was struck
with his resemblance.to Prince Eugene, and the Empress Josephine his grandmother; but I did not remark a like resemblance to the emperor.  But by
attentively observing the essential features, that is, those not depending on
more or less fulness or more or less beard, wxe soon discover that the Napoleonic type is reproduced with astonishing fidelity.
"It is, in fact, the same lofty forehead, broad and straight; the same nose,
of fine proportions; the same gray eyes, though the expression is milder; it
is particularly the same contour and inclination of the head. The latter, especially when the prince turns, is so full of the Napoleonic air as to make a
soldier of the Old Guard thrill at the sight.  The distinguishing expression of
* Alison, vol. iii. p. 240.




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                            149
the features of the young prince is that of nobleness and gravity; and yet, far
from being harsh, his countenance, on the contrary, breathes a sentiment of
mildness and benevolence. But what excites the greatest interest is that
indefinable tinge of melancholy and thoughtfulness observable in the slightest
movement, and revealing the noble sufferings of exile.
"But from this portrait you must not figure to yourself one of those elegant
young men, those Adonises of romance, who excite the admiration of the'
drawing-room. There is nothing of effeminacy in the young Xapoleon.  The
dark shadows of his countenanice indicate an energetic nature. HIis assured
look, his glance, at once quick and thoughtful, every thing about him, points
out one of those exceptional natures, one of those great souls, that live by
meditating on great things, and that alone are capable of accomplishing them."
Sir Archibald Alison testifies as follows to the character and habits of the
prince, while in England, at this time:
"The idea of a destiny, and his having a mission to perform, was throughout
a fixed one in Louis Napoleon's mind. No disasters shook his confidence in
his star, or his belief in the ultimate fulfilment of his destiny. This is well
known to all who were intimate with him  in this country after le returned
froin America in 1837.
"Among other noble houses the hospitality of which he shared was that
of the Duke of Montrose, at Buchanan, near Loebhlomond, and the Duke of
Hamilton, at Brodick Castle, in the Island of Arran.  His manner in both
was, in general, grave and taciturn. He was wrapped in the contemplation of
the future, and indifferent to the present.
"In 1839, the present Earl of WV, then Lord B, came to visit
tthe author, after having been some days with Louis Napoleon at Buchanan
Ho-use. One of the first things he said was, -
"' Only think of that young man Louis Napoleon! Nothing can persuade
him that he is not to be Emperor of France. The Strasburg affair has not in
the least shaken him. He is thinking constantly of what lie is to do when he
is on the throne.'
"The Duke of N           also said to the author in 1854,' Several years ago,
before the Revolution of 1848, I met Louis Napoleon often at Brodick Castle,
in Arran. We frequently went out to shoot together. Neither cared much
for the sport; and we soon sat down on a heathery brow of Goatfell, and
began to speak seriously.  He always opened these conferences by discoursing
on what he would do when Emperor of France. Among other things, he
said lie would obtain a grant from the Chambers to drain the niarshes of the
Bries, which, you know, once fully cultivated, became flooded when the inhabitants, who were chiefly Protestants, left the country on the Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes; and, what is very curious, I see in the newspapers of tlhe
day that lie has got a grant of two millions of francs fromn the Chambers to
begin the draining,of those very marshes.'
"All that belongs to Louis Napoleon is now public pioperty; and those
noble persons will forgive the author if lie endeavors to rescue from  oblivion
anecdotes so eminently illustrative of the fixity of jpo7pose, which is the most
remarkable feature in that very eminent man's character.  This idea of a




150                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON  III.
destiny, of a star, or a mission, which are only different words for the same
thlino, will be found to have a fixed belief in most men who attain to ultimate
greatness.  Whether it is that the disposition of mind which leads to such a
belief works out its own accomplishment by the energy and perseverance
which it infuses into the character, and which enables its possessor to rise
superior to all the storms of fate, or that Providence darkly reveals to the
chosen instruments of great things,'the vessels of honor' to which the working-out of its purposes in human affairs is intrusted, enough of the future to
secure its accomplishment, will forever remain a mystery in this world." *
The Countess of Blessington was then in the prime of her sad yet brilliant
career.  Her saloons at Gore House were the resort of the most polished and
intellectual society of England; and distinguished visitors from  all palrts of
the Continent were gathered at her receptions.  Iacly Blessington had met
Queen I-ortense and Louis Napoleon in Italy, and was exceedingly attached
to the queen.  Louis Napoleon was always a welcome guest at these re-unions.
Here he became the intimate friend of Count d'Orsay, one of the most attractive of men in his warmth of heart and genial address, and one of the most
conspicuous in genius and varied intellectual accomplishments.  Here he also
frequently met the Earl of Eglinton; and he attended the celebrated tournament at Eglinton Castle, where he distinguished himself by his skill in horsemanship.
"The intimacy with Lord Eglinton continued after the marriage of the earl;
and Louis Napoleon was fiequently invited to stay at the castle.  The impression that he made on Lady Eglinton and her visitors was that of a quiet,
gentlemanly, inoffensive young man, who contributed nothing either to the
conversation or amusement of the company.  He was skilful at all physical
exercises, but very still and silent in a drawing-room; and certainly left no
impression of possessing great powers of mind, or extraordinary capacities of
any kind.  When the ladies withdrew fiom  the table, he was in the habit
of leaving; and usually proceeded to the nursery, where he had impressed
the three young daughters of the countess by a former marriage witl a great
idea of his talents in all baby plays, such as ball, blind-man's-buff, &c-.; but
more especially they remembered his extraordinary genius in making rabbits
and shadows on the wall." t
At this time, the pPince established a journal which he intended to issue
monthly, as the vehicle through which he cduld convey to the public, and
particularly to the French people, his political views.  The journal was called
"The Napoleonist Idea."   One number only appeared, in consequence of
H Iistory of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I., vol. iii. p. 213.
"To an American gentleman of high character, who conversed with him at this time, he
undisguisedly made known his intention to seize the first moment of fortune to overthrow the
government of Louis Philippe, and aid in the establishment of a republic in France.' That
time too, sir,' he said,' is as sure to come as the ashes of Napoleon are one day to repose on the
banks of the Seine.' In fact, and probably without his knowledge, negotiations were then pending between England and France for the removal of the body of the emperor to the Invalides,"
- Xapoleon,Dyasty, by the Berkeley elie, p. 564.
t Italy and the War of 1859, by Julie de Marguerittes, p. 79.




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                           151
events soon to be narrated. This Napoleonist idea, which he attempted to
elucidate in all his writings, consisted, as we have seen, of a democratic or
republican administration under monarchical or imperial forms.  IIe contended,
that, in the present state of Europe, France, surrounded by hostile dynasties,
could not successfully resist her powerful foes abroad, and at the same time
control struggling parties of Bourbonists and Orleanists and Socialists at home,
with a republican form of government like that so magnificently successful
in the United States of America.
On the other hand, he argued that the French people were too enlightened,
too determined in their love of liberty, long to tolerate the despotism of
the old feudal regime, -a government, which, neglecting the interests of the
masses of the people, seeks only to favor the rich and the noble. I-le contended tlat the imperial revpublic of Napoleon I., whom his foes had stigmatized as "the child and the champion of democracy," was just the government
which the French nation needed and desired; that the French people had established such a government by'nearly four millions of votes; that it had proved
a magnificent success, notwithstanding all despotic Europe was arrayed against
it; and that at last it was only by the advance of " twice twelve hundred thousand " foreign bayonets that this government for the peo)ple was overthrown,
and the old feudal despotism re-established.
And he argued, with confidence which exposed him to ridicule, but which
subsequent facts have proved to the whole world to be true, that, just so soon
as the question could be submitted to the universcal suffrage of the French people, they would by acclaim re-establish the empire. At all events, and whatever
might be their choice, he contended that it was the Napoleonist idea that the
question should be submitted to the decision of the French people by the
voice of universal suffrage; that they, and they alone, had a right to choose
for themselves what form of government they would adopt. It was for them
to decide whether they would have for their sovereigln   a Bourbon, an Orleans,
or a Bonaparte, - whether they would have an empire, a kingdom, or a republic. There can be no peace in France, was his constant assertion, until the
people, by universcal sffrage, are permitted to select their government for
themselves.
While the prince was thus occupied with these severe studies, and finding
recreation in the most polished and the most illustrious circles of English
society, France continued to be agitated with tumults and insurrections. The
billows of popular discontent incessantly dashed against the throne of Louis
Philippe.
Lafayette had contributed more than any other man in placing Louis Philippe upon the throne. As a reward, he had been appointed commander-inchief of' the National Guards of France.  With his great popularity, this
placed in his hands a weapon, with which, if he pleased, he could demolish
the throne which he had so essentially aided in constructing.  The general
d iscontent with the new government was manifest from the incessant appeals
with which Lafayette was beset by deputations from the National Gua:crd in
Paris and from  the provinces.  He did not repel these deputations, but
received them in a fiiendly way. As if conscious of his power, he said,~



152                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"We must let the government go on, appreciate it, judge it.  The people,
in the last resort, always remain sovereign; and nothing is more easy than to
undo what is done."*
Louis Philippe was informed of all this, and he trembled.  Lafayette reviewed sixty thousand of the National Guard of Paris. iA was a magnificent
spectacle; but it said to the king, "You are in the power of the man who
has such an army at his command."   Lafayette was diinissed, the king
"cloaking the dismissal under the pretext of appointing him  honorary commander of the Guard;" but no one was deceived.
M. de Lafayette, while in command of these troops, taking advantage of
the influence which his position gave him, and acting as the organ of the
Liberal party, had made three demands of the king: the first was, that he
should dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, the majority of whom were hostile
to republican ideas; secondly, that all persons paying direct taxes should be
admitted to the suffrage; and, thirdly, that the peers should be elected, and
that the peerage should be for life only. 
"Thus the dictator," says Alison, "the head of the National, which might
now  be called the Pretorian  Guard, demanded what, in France, where
there were four millions of persons ipaying direct taxes, was equivalent to
universal suffrage, and the abolition of the peerage, whether hereditary or for
life, and the substitution of an elective senate in its room.. This was certainly
the realization of his favorite dream  of a'monarchy surrounded witlf republican institutions.'" t
The struggles of the various parties to gain the ascendency, were daily
growing more violent, and the position of the king more embarrassing.  Guizot, the prime minister of Louis Philippe,-says that force and corruption were
the means by which the government was maintained; and lie adds that this
was rendered indispensable by absolute and overbearing necessity. $
The king deemed it essential to keep sixty thousand regular troops in the
capital or its immediate vicinity; and strong bodies of military were continually patrolling the streets.  Large numbers of arrests were made daily.  The
old Jacobinical spirit of the Revolution of 1789 began to manifest itself portentously in journals established to advocate socialistic principles.  The most
violent appeals were made to the passions of the public.  " The Paiis Tribune," the organ of this party, in its issue of Aug. 20, 1833, says,
"Yesterday evening, twenty-eight persons accused of seditious practices
were arrested and sent to prison by the agents of the police.  Never did
tyranny advance with such rapid strides as it is doing at the present moment
in France. It is in vain to say that it was Napoleon, or the Restoration, or
Louis Philippe, who extinguished freedom  in France. It was the overthrow
of Robespierre which was the fatal stroke. We have never since known what
liberty was: we have lived only under a succession of tyrants.  Impressed
with these ideas, a band of patriots have commenced the republication of the
speeches of Robespierre, St. Just, and Mlarat, which will be rendered accessi* Alison's History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I., vol. ii. p. 408.
t Alison, vol. vi. p. 422.                                Idem, vol. iii. p. 89.




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                            153
ble to the very humblest of the people by the moderate price of a sous a
number, at which it is sold. They will find every thing that philosophy could
discern, or intelligence reveal, or humanity desire, or learning enforce, in their
incomparable pobductions."
In the next day's issue, we find the following: "Yesterday, eighteen more
persons accused of seditious practices were sent to prison.  I-low long will
the citizens of Paris permit a despotism to exist among them  to which there
has been nothing comparable since the days of Napoleon?  T4he tyranny of
the rich over the poor is the real plague which infests society, - the eternal
source of oppression, in comparison with which all others are as dust in the
balance.  What have we gained by the Revolution?  Merely the substitution
of the Chaussee d'Antin for the Faubourg St. Germaine; an aristocracy of
bankers for one of nobles.  What have the people gained by the change?
Are they better fed or clothed or lodged than before?  What is it to them
that their oppressors are no longer dukes or counts?  Tyranny can come fiom
the bureau as well as from the palace.  There will be no real regeneration to
France till a more equal distribution of property strikes at the root of all the
calamities of the time."
The Napoleonist idea was as antagonistic to this agrarianism of the Socialists as it was to the despotism of the old regime.  In July of 1835 there was
a very magnificent celebration of the Revolution which had driven the' Bourbons fiom the throne, and placed the crown upon the brow of Louis Philippe.
The National Guards were drawn up upon the Boulevards, extending fiom
the Madeleine to the Place of the Bastille.  The king, accompanied by his
three sons, the Dukes of Orleans, Nemours, and Joinville, and attended by a
splendid sta-f, rode along the line, receiving frequent acclamations from  the
troops and the immense crowd of spectators.
Just as the royal corte'e arrived opposite the gate of the Jardin Turc, there
was heard a loud report, like that of a number of petards exploding simultaneously; and in an instant a large void appeared in the street, as if the
thunderbolts of battle had suddenly burst in the midst of the throng.  The
pavements were strewn with wounded men and horses, the dying and the
dead.  A puff of smoke from  a neighboring chamber-window guided the
police to the haunt of the assassin. The "infernal machine," which had killed
outright eleven persons, and grievously wounded twenty-nine, consisted of
twenty-four musket-barrels, so arranged as to go off all at once, and to enfilade
the royal corteye as it passed along the street at the distance of but a few
feet from the muzzles of this murderous weapon.  The miserable assassin was
reckless of the lives of others thronging the streets, could he but effect the
death of all the members of the royal household.
The barrels were heavily loaded, -  each one filled with bullets,- the train
laid; and the assassin sat at his post, watching the arrival of the king.  As
soon as the party was directly in fiont of the muzzles, he fired the train. The
explosion instantly followed, causing the awful massacre to which we have
referred; and yet by an apparent *miracle, while the street was all around
instantly strewn with the mutilated and the dead, the king and his, sons, in
the very middle of the carnage, scarcely received harm.
20
f




154   LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The wretch had so heavily loaded the machine, that six of the barrels burst
from the violence of the explosion; and it so happened that those six barrels
were the ones which most directly ranged the royal group. But for that
occurrence, it would seem impossible that the king could have escaped: as it
was, one ball grazed his forehead; another wounded the horse he rode, on the
shoulder; and the horses of both the Duke of Nemours and the Prince de
Joinville were struck.  Thus miraculously the royal family were preserved.
Among the eleven killed there were Marshal Mortier, General Lachasse de
Verigny, and Colonel Raffe.  Five generals, two colonels, nine officers and
grenadiers of the National Guard, and thirteen spectators, were among the
wounded.  Several of the wounded afterwards died.
The assassin, Joseph Fieschi, a vagabond of all crimes, was severely wounded
himself by the explosion: still he succeeded, though covered with blood, in
letting himself down by a rope from  his chamber-window in the rear. He
was pursued and captured. It did not appear that he had many accomplices.
Two others, belonging, like himself, to the most degraded class in Paris, were
arrested; and the three were guillotined the 19th of February, 1836.*
This frightful crime for a time greatly diminished the unpopularity of the
king.  He, with his sons, behaved with great coolness on the occasion, continuing the review; and they were received with enthusiastic applause. Funeral services were held in the churches of all France in memory of the dead;
and Te Deums were offered for those who had been so wonderfully preserved.
The burial-scene was attended with great magnificence, presenting one of
the most imposing exhibitions of funeral-pomp Paris had ever witnessed.
The procession, forming at the Church of St. Paul in the Rue St. Antoine,
traversed the whole circuit of the Boulevards, and, crossing the Place and
Bridge de la Concorde, consigned the dead to their last resting-place at the
Church of the Invalides.  Troops in dense array lined the streets for the
whole distance. All Paris was assembled to witness the pageant.  Fourteen
hearses conveyed the dead. A young girl of sixteen was among the slain.
The hearse which bore her body came first, surrounded by a group of maidens
in white. Next came the body of a married woman, who was also among
the slain. A train of matrons, also in white, accompanied her hearse.  Then
came six coffins of soldiers, with the epaulet of the National Guard upon
each. The war-horse of each officer was led behind his hearse. The funeralcar of Marshal Mortier came last. It was a magnificent structure, decorated
in the highest style of art. The processiqn was closed by the most illustrious
dignitaries of France, not only of those residing in Paris, but by deputations
from the provinces.
The solemnity of the occasion, the grandeur of the funeral-cars, the waving
plumes, the requiems breathed from so many bands upon the still air, the military display, and the throng of spectators, which, silent and motionless, gazed
upon the spectacle, presented a scene never to be forgotten by those who
witnessed it. At the Church of the Invalides, the king and his sons, with the
Archbishop of Paris and the clergy, awaited the procession. The exercises
there were conducted with the most imposing ceremonies of the church.t
Moniteur, Feb. 20, 1836.         t Ibid., Aug. 6, 1835.




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                            155
This terrible event impressed the government with the importance of adopting some more vigorous measures against secret political societies and the
licentiousness of the press. M. de Broylie, then the prime minister of Louis
Philippe, macle the following remarks in the debate which ensued, forcibly
showing the demoralized social condition of France at that time: 
"Men.have been found who knew the king only by the execrable falsehoods
of the press, and who, on the faith of that press, have come to regard the
king as so execrable, that they deemed it a meritorious work to destroy him,
even though, in doing so, they might annihilate at the same time hundreds
of men, women, and children.  Read the revolutionary journals since that
event; see what intensity of hatred they reveal in their bosoms; with what
complacency do they calculate that a few feet, a few inches, more, and a whole
dynasty was destroyed!
"Every party, every interest, loses by the unbridled license of the press
which now prevails.  Is it not a fact, imprinted in characters of blood in our
streets, that under the fire of a hostile press, under the ceaseless action of
barbarous theories and atrocious calumnies, there has been formed in the
lower strata of society -there where meet gross passions with violent intelligences, neither of which can endure restraint- a militia of men capable
of undertaking any thing, at once fanatical and perverse, ready at any moment for revolt, and, where political parricide finds arms, with weapons in
their hands, at all times ready for insurrection?
"Revolt is the enemy which the glorious Revolution of July bore in its
bosom. We have combated it under all forms, in all fields. It began by
raising in front of the tribune rival tribunes, from whence it might dictate its
insolent determinations and sanguinary caprices. We have demolished these
factious tribunes; we have shut up the clubs: for the first time, we have muzzled the monster.
"' Upon this it descended into the streets.  You have seen it hurtle against
the gates of the king's palace with bared arms, shouting, vociferating, and
hoping to domineer over all by fbar. We have met it face to face, with the
law in our hand; we have dispersed its assemblages; we have made it re-enter
its den.
"Next it organized itself in secret societies, in permanent conspiracies, in
living plots.  With the law in our hands, we have dissolved the anarchical
societies, arrested their chiefs, scattered their bravoes. After having rpeatedly given us battle, it has been as often defeated; dragged by the heels
through the streets, despite its clamor, to receive due chastisement at the
hands of justice.
" Now it has fled to its last refuge.  It has sought an asylum in the factious
press. It has sought to intrench itself behind the sacred right of discussion,
which the charter.has guaranteed to all Frenchmen. It is there, that, like the
wretch who poisoned the waters of a populous city, it poisons every day the
fountains of human intelligence, the channels through which truth should circulate; and pours its venom into all minds. We propose to attack it in its last
asylum, to tear from its visage its last mask." *
* Moniteur, Aug. 18, 1835,




156                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The other party, however, replied by a furious denunciation of the acts of
the government, as creating universal discontent.  "The people have gained
nothing," said they, "but a change of masters.  The Orleans throne is as
despotic as that of the Bourbon.  We have seen Paris in a state of siege,
political writers incarcerated, private correspondence seized and published,
and association, by which alone the weak can protect themselves against the
strong, denounced as a crime.  We have been stripped of all our liberties:
we can neither act, write, or think freely, without being denounced as criminals.  The licentiousness of the press cannot be remedied by attempts to
annihilate its freedom. It must be put in the wrong by having the measures
of government so salutary as to defy its assaults.  Without a free press, liberty is impossible.  We must patiently bear its excesses, and conquer them
by doing right." *
Louis Philippe seems to have been pursued by assassins during the whole
of his reign.  Not many months after the attempt of Fiescli, as the king was
going in state to the legislative body, accompanied by his two sons, two assassins -  Boirier and Meunier-  discharged their pistols into his carriage, but,
fbrtunately, without effect.  These desperate men were apparently willing to
sacrifice their own lives if they could but take that of the king.  They were
arrested, and sentenced to imprisonment for life; which sentence was subsequently commuted to ten years' banishment. It was hoped that this extraordinary leniency would mitigate in some degree the ferocity with which the
king was assailed.t
At six o'clock in the evening of the 25th of June, the king, with the queen
and his sister Madame Adelaide, was driving out of the courtyard of the
Tuileries, when a man, reckless of the guard, rushed to the open window of
the carriage, and discharged his pistol apparently directly in the face of the
king. The ball passed just over his head, and lodged in the roof of the vehicle. The wretch was instantly seized, with the pistol still, smoking in his hand.
As he was being led to the Conciergerie, he replied to the question why he
had attempted the crime, 
"I wished to kill the king because he is the enemy of the people. My only
regret is that I did not succeed in doing so."
In a few days, he was brought to trial before the Court of Peers.  The
wretch, whose name was Alibaud, assumed the heroic attitude of a martyr
who was dying in a holy cause.  Defiantly he avowed his crinie, and gloried
in it.
" Since the king," said he, "put Paris in a state of siege, since he massacred
the citizens in the streets and at the cloister of St. iMeri,.I have determined
to kill him.  His reign is infamous, -a reign of blood: I was resolved to put
an end ta it."
The same malignity and stoicism  he manifested on the scaffold.  He had
but just uttered the words, "I die for liberty, for the people, and for the extinction of the monarchy," when the axe fell, and he passed into the great
mystery of death. +
Mloniteur, Aug. 13, 14, 15, 1835.  t Royale Ordonnance, Moniteur, May 8, 1837.
i Ann. Hist., xix. 201, 202, as quoted by Alison.




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                            157
It would require a volume to describe the insurrections against the throne
of Louis Philippe, the conspiracies which were organized, and the assassinations which were attempted.  The king could scarcely step out of his palace
without the danger of being shot at.  On the 23d of July, 1836, the extraordinary announcement appeared in "The Moniteur," the government organ,
that it was no longer safe for the king to leave the Tuileries, his life was so
endangered by assassins; and that, consequently, the king would not review
the troops the next day, as he had contemplated doing, in commemoration of
the last of the glorious days of July, 1830, which had placed the king upon
his throne.
There had been arranged for this day a celebration of very unusual magnificence.  The king, in his endeavor to associate with his oWn name the fame
of Napoleon and the glories of the empire (which fame and glory the people
would never allow to be forgotten), had appointed the same day for the unveiling and the inauguration of Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe de l'Rtoile, which
had just been completed at an expense of ten millions of francs (two million
dollars).
One of the innumerable works which Napoleon I. constructed or commenced
for the glory of Paris was the Are de l'gtoile, which now rises in such colossal
splenlor at the entrance of the most superb avenue in the world,    that of the
Champs f[lysees. The foundation of this magnificent structure was laid by
Napoleon in the year 1806, in commemoration of the victories which the
armies of the empire had gained over the allied powers of Europe.  But
finally the allies succeeded.  They trampled down their great foe. Leading
back the Bourbons to France in the rear of their batteries, they reconstructed
the throne of the old reyime, and replaced. the Bourbons upon it, protecting
them there by one hundred and fifty thousand foreign bayonets.  The Bourbons, of course, felt no disposition to complete that Arc de Triomphe de
l'Etoile which only immortalized the name and the achievements of their
great democratic adversary, who was still the idol of France.
But the Revolution of July, in driving again the elder branch of the
Bourbons fiom  the throne, had unloosed the tongues of the people.  They
demanded the completion of the monument.  The only safety for Louis
Philippe was to appear to take the lead in the movement.  He did so.  But
it is difficult to deceive popular instincts.  The monument was completed.
The day of its unveiling to the admiring million and a half of people who
thronged the streets of Paris had arrived.  And yet the king did not dare to
have any celebration.  A prisoner in his palace, he scarcely ventured to show
himself at one of its windows, lest a pistol should be discharged at him.
"The most sinister rumors," says Alison, " were immediately in circulation:
one, that the ceremony had been remonstrated against by the diplomatic body
as likely to awaken dangerous recollections; another, that a hostile demonstration against the government, from  the National Guard, was apprehended.
The government hastened, by articles in'The Moniteur,' to put a negative
upon these surmises, by confessing, what was the simple truth, that this measure was dictated solely by a necessary regard for the king's safety, and a
knowledge of the numerous conspiracies on foot against him.
*




158                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"Thenceforward  the monarch remained a prisoner ot state in his own
palace.  No review took place on the 29th.  The Arc de Triomphe was unveiled without any ceremony, and the celebration of the Revolution of July
sank into an unmeaning ceremonial that excited no attention.  This change
produced a most melancholy impression. It was at once a confession, in the
face of Europe, of the extreme unpopularity of the reigning dynasty, and of
the inability of its mighty army and vast police to defend the life of its chief.'The soil,' says the French annalist,'was so sown with assassins, that there
was no safety for the monarch but within the walls of his palace."' *
Never was a monarch placed in a more embarrassing situation than was
Louis Philippe.  He was a Bourbon, an emigrant, and a foe of the empire.
He had returned to France with the Bourbons, in the rear of the batteries of
the allies.  A  few shrewd gentlemen in Paris had very adroitly placed him
upon the throne, without consulting the voice of the people.  They had done
this by proclaiming, first, that he was not a Bourbon; t and, secondly, that
he was the representative of the political principle of " a monarchy surrounded
by republican institutions."  Both of these statements were false.  Still, many
of those who were most influential in placing Louis Philippe upon the throne
cherished the hope that he would adopt this Napoleonist idea of government;
and that, reigning in the interests of the masses of the people, he would
secure popular support.
But it was immediately manifest to Louis Philippe, that should he, like
Napoleon, espouse the cause of the people, he would rouse anew the hostility
of the dynasties, -  those dynasties which had already deluged Europe in
blood in their efforts to drive the "child and the champion of democracy"
from  the throne.  Should he, on the other hand, to secure dynastic favor,
continue the principles of the old regime, and rule in the interests of exclusive
privilege, he would rouse the same popular antagonism  which had already
three times driven the Bourbons fiom the throne.
In this dilemma, it was impossible to please both of these antagonistic parties.  The king's sympathies, from his birth, education, and all his associations,
were with the dynasties rather than with the people.  He leaned, consequently,
towards them.  He attempted to unite his children with them  in matrimonial
alliances. +  He sent confidential deputations to their courts, "who gave the
History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I. to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, by
Sir Archibald Alison, vol. iii. p. 206.
t That ancestor of Louis Philippe who was the founder of the house of Orleans was the only
brother of Louis XIV. - See Encyc. Am., art. " Orleans."
"There remained the difficult task of reconciling the people to any government in which a
Bourbon bore a part. To obviate the unfavorable impression thus produced, the Orleans committee prepared and placarded all over Paris a proclamation, - not a little surprising, considering
that M. Mignet and M. Thiers were members of it, -' Le Due d'Orleans n'est pas un Bourbon;
c'est un Valois,' -a memorable assertion to be made by historians of a lineal descendant of
Henry IV. and of the brother of Louis XIV." - Alison, vol. ii. p. 406., Several efforts were made to obtain a royal bride for Louis Philippe's eldest son, the Duke
of Orleans, a very attractive and a very nobleyoung man; but these haughty courts turned contemptuously from such an alliance. " It was deemed," says Alison, " a fortunate move when the
son of the citizen-king obtained the daughter of a third-rate German prince. The vision of a




PRINCE LOUIS IN  LONDON.                                  159
most favorable account of the conservative disposition and determined acts of
Louis Philippe, the last barrier against the flood of democracy which threatened to deluge Europe."*
While he thus represented himself abroad as the friend of those dynasties
which had crushed Napoleon, he was compelled to represent himself at home
as the friend of the emperor, as the admirer of his political principles, and as
the supporter of all those popular rights which Napoleon had so magnificently
maintained.  But this part was performed so faintly, with so many misgivings,
that he never gained popular confidence.  The dynasties were much less
dissatisfied with his teachings than were the people.t
It was a great source of embarrassment to Louis Philippe that the people
were continually clamoring for honors to be paid to the memory of Napoleon.
And yet-the universally acknowledged heir of the emperor was an exile, within
a few hours of France, and not permitted to touch its soil with his foot.  He
was demanding, in tones to which  all Europe was compelled to listen, that
the French people should enjoy the privilege of choosing their own rulers. It
was morally certain, that, should that right be conferred, the people would
re-establish the empire, and choose its heir for their sovereign.  Every thing
which was done in recognition  of the splendor of the imperial reign fanned
the flames of this enthusiasm.  Any attempt to repress the popular movement
in this direction increased the unpopularity of a reign which was never one
of the people's choice. t
In the early part of Louis Philippe's reign, several journals were established
which more or less openly advocated the claims of Napoleon II., the Duke of
Reichstadt, who was then living.  Among these journals were the "Courier
des Electeurs," "The Tribune," and "The Revolution of 1830."
"This public feeling," say Gallix and Guy, "was further shown by numerous
Prussian or an Austrian princess, the daughter of the Archduke Charles, or of the royal house
of Brandenburg, had melted into thin air; and the young prince, with every amiable and attractive
quality, underwent the penalty of his father's doubtful title to the throne." -Alison, vol. iii. p. 215.
Alison, vol. ii. p. 405.
T "T'wo unities faced each other, -Napoleon Bonaparte and Europe Absolutist. The one
represented human right; the other, what was called divine right.
"The principle represented by the first is a social renovation in men and things: it is a new
world, with liberty, equality, an equal share of sunshine, for all. Upon its banner it bears the
device,'Every thing by the people and for the people.'
" The principle represented by the other is the old world, with its old abuses, its odious privileges, its arbitrary exactions, its sanguinary atrocities; and for a device it bears this iniquitous
adage,'Our fathers have been wolves, and we wish to remain what Qur fathers were.'
"A deadly struggle arose between these two unities, Napoleon and Europe Absolutist. Napoleon fell, and with him the principle of which he was the emblem." - Histoire politiqite et poptlaire du Prince Louis'Napoleon, par tmlile MIarco de St. Hilaire, tom. troisieme, p. 82.
$ "Louis Philippe had a very difficult game to play, and he long played it with success; but
no human ability could, with the disposition of the people, permanently maintain the government
of the country. He owed his elevation to revolution. Hardly was he seated on his throne, when
he felt the necessity, in deeds, if not in words, of disclaiming his origin. His whole reign was a
continued and perilous conflict with the power which had created him; and at length he sank in
the struggle. Political influence - in other words, corruption - was the only means left of carrying on the government; and that state engine was worked with great industry, and, for a time,
with great success." - History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I. Alison, vol. i. p. 5.




160                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
conspiracies, in one of wlich General Lafayette, the founder of the Orleans
dynasty, but already cruelly disenchanted of his dreams of July, was himself
engaged.  We allude to the conspiracy of Juba and Miranboli. Juba was a
Pole, and Miranboli an Italian, behind whom  high political personages concealed themselves.  Many members of the two Chambers were mixed up in
this affair, and several garrisonshad also been won over. The intention was
to proclaim the Duke of Reichstadt emperor in one of the fortified towns on
the northern frontier, and to carry him off from  Austria, and conduct him  to
France." *
It was on the 28th of July, 1833, as we have before mentioned, that the
government restored to the Column VendOme the statue of Napoleon.  This
was a reluctant concession to public sentiment, under the guise of cordial
approval; but the people were not deceived.  They gave Louis Philippe no
thanks.  They knew that it was a right which they had wrested fronm him,
and one which he iiever would have granted had he not been compelled to do
so; and as the statue was placed upon its magnificent pedestal, and the millions of Paris greeted it with that voice of acclaim which fell heavily upon
the ear of every court in Europe, the people smiled bitterly, to think, that, by
a law of relentless proscription, every man, woman, or child, in the remotest
degree related to that emperor, was exiled from  France, and thus exiled
simply because these individuals were the connections of that illustrious man
upon wvhom France was lavishing her highest honors.t
The inauguration took place with great pomp on the 28th of July.  "The
Tribune" journal having manifested its surprise in not "seeing a single member of the Bonaparte family shaking the dust of exile from  his feet, and
coming in the broad light of July, claiming a just reparation," Joseph Bonaparte wrote fiom London to the editor a letter containing the following sentiments: 
" I have read in your journal of July 29 the article in which you give an
account of the solemnity which took place on the 28th, at the foot of the
Column of Austerlitz, upon the inauguration of the statue of the Emperor
Napoleon.  You attribute the absence of his brothers to very strange sentiments.  Are you ignorant, then, that an iniquitous law, dictated by the enemies of France to the elder branch of the Bourbons, excluded these brothers,
out of hatred to the name of Napoleon?  Would you wish, that, in defiance
of a law which the national majesty has not yet repealed, we should bear the
brands of discord into our country at the moment when it re-erects the statue
of our brother?  Ought we to despair of national justice?'Every thin.q for
the nation' was the motto of our brother: it shall be ours also.
"Instead of speaking as a hostile journal would have done, in casting the
blame upon patriots proscribed, who wander over the world the victims of
the enemies of their country, would it not have exhibited more of courage and
of justice on your part, sir, to recall to the electors of France that Napoleon
has a mother who languishes upon a foreign soil, without it being possible for
her children to speak to her a last adieu?  She shares with three generations
* IIistoire de Napoleon III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 47.  t Idem, p. 57.




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                              161
of her kindred, including sixty French, the rigors of an exile of twenty
years.  They are guilty of no other crime than that of being the relatives of
a man whose statue is re-erected by the national decree. The name of Napoleon will never be the banner of civil discord.  Twice he withdrew from
France, that he might not be the pretext for the infliction of calamities upon
his country.  Such are the doctrines which Napoleon has bequeathed to his
family. It is because the French people know well that his pretended despotism was put a dictatorship rendered necessary by the war which his enemies
waged against him, that his memory remains popular.  Foreigners dragged
I  down his statue: the French have re-erected it.  Is it just, is it honorable, for
France, that his family should still be condemned to endure the anguish of'
exile, and to hear even his ancient enemies reproach the French with the
injustice of their proscription?" *
This law of proscription to which Joseph Bonaparte refers was enacted by
the elder branch of the Bourbons, under the dictation of the allies, the 12th
of January, 1816. It was confirmed by the government of Louis Philippe
* the 24th of August, 1830, and re-affirmed on the 10th -of April, 1832.t It was
definitely abolished on the 10th of October, 1848, as we shall hereafter see.
This law, to which we have before referred, was as follows: "The ascendants and descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte, his uncles and his aunts, his
nephews and his nieces, his brothers, their wives and their descendants, his
sisters and their husbands, are excluded from the realm forever (cc perpe'tztte'),
and are required to depart without the delay of a month, under the penalty
imposed by Article 91 of the penal code, - death.
"They shall not be permitted to enjoy in France any civil right; to possess
here any property, title, pensions granted to them  by gratuitous titles; and
they shall be obliged to sell, without the delay of six months, all the property, of every kind, which they possess by title for services rendered (a titre
onerezx)."
This law, enacted by the elder branch of the Bourbons, was the penalty
with which they wished to proscribe the Bonaparte family as the representative of that national sovereignty, which, reigning with Napoleon, had been
dethroned with him; and when the younger branch of the family of Bourbon,
the House of Orleans, re-enacted this decree, it was a warning to all coming
time of the penalty under which any one could accept of a crown fiom  the
hands of the sovereign people.
Louis Napoleon found himself thus expelled from  his native land, no.t by
the voice of the people, who revered and loved his name, but by the Bourbons, who, in antagonism  to the popular will in the first enthronement, and
without its consent in the second, had grasped the reins of power.  He had
* Histoire politique et populaire du Prince Louis Napoleon, sa Vie, ses Actes, et ses Ecrits,
par Emile Marco de Saint-Hilaire, tom. troisieme, p. 104.
t " The original crime which had made the Bonapartes the pariahs of Europe absolutiste was
the having been the choice of a free people. They had expiated in exile the elevation of a great
man,'sprung from the people, to a throne erected by the people. It was the rancor of legitimacy
by (divie right pursuing legitimacy by human right in each member of a family whose elevation
had been the brilliant expression of that human right." -Idem, p. 161.
21




162                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
written to Louis Philippe, imploring permission to return to his native country
as a good citizen, and to enlist as a soldier in her armies.  He was denied the
privilege. He tlen endeavored at Strasburg to make an appeal to his countrymen.  Who shall severely blame himl?  He was seized, and, untried and uncondemned, with piratic violence, without any semblance of law, was shipped
across the ocean to Rio Janeiro, and thence to New York.  He returned to
Arenemberg to close the eyes of his dying mother; and there, when he was
weeping over her grave, a heart-crushed man, Louis Philippe sentt corps of
his army to drive him from the continent of Europe.  And who can censure
him  for a war of aggression  to  defend  himself against such  assailment?
Strasburg and Boulogne — they are the battle-fields of a single man against
a dynasty.  That man was defeated, simply because he could not bring forward his corps de reserve,-  the sovereignty of the people.  The time came
when he could bring forward that reserve: then he triumphed.
In November of 1836, Charles X. died.  Since his dethronement, he had
lived as a wealthy, private gentleman, in much retirement.  After the attempt
of the Duchesse de Berri in favor of her son the Duke of Bordeaux, of which
we have spoken, the British Government, at the solicitation of Louis Philippe,
requested the king and his family to withdraw from  the British Islands.*   He.ccordingly withdrew, with his numerous household, to Prague in Bohemia.
Here he passed several years of a very harmless and quiet life, until he died,
in the seventy-ninth year of his age.t
Among the many secret societies formed by parties antagonistic to  the
government, there was one, organized by the Socialists, very menacing in its
character, styled "La Societe des Families."  Its members took an oath of
eternal hatred to all kings, all aristocrats, and all oppressors of humanity.
The fundamentralli principles of this society were the abolition of every distinction of wealth or rank: all possessions were to be equally divided; and no
one was to be permitted to hold more property than another. 
The police had obtained some clew to this dangerous association.  It had
enrolled in its ranks, in preparation'for'revolt, more than a thousand intrepid
and desperate men.  Tley were thoroughly drilled for action, with established
depots of ammunition, and arrangements for arming.  To  baffle the police,
* Alison's History of Europe since the Fall of Napoleon I., vol. iii. p. 209.
t Alison, referring to Lamartine's History of the Restauration as his authority, says of Charles
X., "~No captain in his guards managed his charger with more skill and address, or exhibited in
greater perfection the noble art of horsemanship; no courtier in his saloons was more perfect in
all the graces which dignify manners, and cause the inequalities of rank to be forgotten in.,the
courtesy with which their distinctions are thrown aside. He had little reflection; and had never
thought seriously on any subject save religion, with the truths of which he was deeply impressed.
"He was princely courtesy personified. None could withstand the fascinations of his manner.
His bitterest enemies yielded to its influence, or were drawn by its seductions into at least a tempory acquiescence in his designs. He was exceedingly fond of the chase, and rivalled any of his
royal ancestors in the passion for hunting; but with him it was not a recreation to amuse his
mind amidst more serious cares, but, as with the Spanish and Neapolitan princes of the house of
Bourbon, a serious occupation, which absorbed both the time and strength that should have
been devoted to affairs of state. A still more dangerous weakness was the blind subm'ission,
which increased with his advancing years, that he yielded to the Roman-Catholic priesthood." -
History of Europe, vol. iii. p. 209.
/




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                        163
the name of the society was changed to the " Societe des Saisons."  Armand
Barbes, a young man of good family, utterly fearless, and possessed of* great
energy of body and of mind, led this band. At any moment he could summon a thousand armed men to his side, each one of whom was minutely
instructed in the part which he was to enact in constituting himself one of
the nuclei of a socialistic insurrection.*
On the 12th of May, 1839, the long-prepared-for struggle commenced. The
insurgents, at a preconcerted signal, grasped their arms, and rapidly traversing
the streets, singing the Marseillaise, and shouting, "Vive la Republique!"
seized the Palace of Justice, where they established a portion of their band
as in an impregnable citadel; and then, by a sudden rush, crossed the river,
and took possession of the Hotel de Ville. The band, gathering strength and
numbers with success, pressed forward in search of new conquests, throwing
up barricades at several points. At length the National Guard came down
upon them  in all its strength, surrounded them, and shot them down merciessly. The multitude fled in dismay; but many of these desperate men
fought to the last, singing, even with their dying breath, the Marseillaise.
Barbes, blackened with powder, and crimsoned with blood fiom his wounds,
was captured, tried, and condemned to death. This sentence, through the
intercession of his powerful fiiends, was finally commuted to inprisonment
for life. He was eventually liberated from prison; and we shall hear of him
again, plunging anew into those stormy scenes so congenial to his reckless
and impassioned nature. Though nothing could be more foreign fiom the
political views proclaimed by Louis Napoleon than those avowed by these
adventurers, he was accused of being implicated in the insurrection.   Ie 
repelled the charge in the following brief letter to the editor of " The London
Times:""SIR, -I observe in your Paris correspondence that an attempt is made to
cast upon me hbe responsibility of the late insurrection. I rely on your kindness to refute the accusation in the most formal manner. The news of the
sanguinary scenes which have just taken place have equally surprised and
afflicted me. If I were the soul of a conspiracy, I should also be the leader
of it in the day of danger. I should not deny it after a defeat."
When M. Thiers became prime minister of Louis Philippe,t he desired to
rescue the government from the extreme unpopularity into which it laad fallen,
by throwing around it some of the splendor of Napoleon's fame. His statue
had already been replaced upon the column in the Place Vend6me. The
magnificent Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile had been completed, awakening anew
the love and admiration of the people for the extraordinary man whose genius
it commemorated. And now M. Thiers counselled Louis Philippe to take
another step in the same direction, and to demand of the British Government
the mortal remains of Napoleon, that they might be removed fiomn  beneath
the weeping-willow of St. Helena, and be consigned to glorious burial beneath the dome of the Invalides, in the midst of the people "whom he had
loved so well."
* Histoire des Societes secretes, pp. 36-41.
t President of the Council, and Minister of Foreign Affairs.




164                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
At first, Louis Philippe feebly resisted; but soon he yielded, hoping that
the measure might reflect upon him some of the splendor of a great name.*
The announcement of this intention sent an indescribable thrill of enthusiasm
throughout France. We are told that the entire people of France, fiom one
extremity of the country to the other, clapped their hands, and raised a shout
of joy. It would seem as though the emperor himself were about to burst
from his tomb again to return to his beloved France. In the following official
note, England acceded to the request of the French Government. The note
was fiom  Lord Palmerston, and was addressed to the British minister in
Paris: 
"MY LORD, - The government of her Majesty, having taken into consideration the authorization demanded of it by the French Government to transfer
the ashes of the Emperor Napoleon from St. Helena to France, you can say
to M. Thiers, that the government of her Majesty will do itself a pleasure in
acceding to that demand.
"The government of her Majesty hopes that the readiness with which it
responds to this demand will be considered in France as a proof of the desire
of her Majesty to efface even the last trace of those animosities, which, during
the life of the emperor, had impelled the two nations to war. The government of her MaIjesty loves to believe that such sentiments, if they still continue, will be buried forever in the tomb destined to receive the mortal remains
of Napoleon.  The government of her Majesty will co-operate with that of
France in the measures necessary to effect the translation." t
On the 12th of May, the French ministry made the following communication
to the Chamber of Deputies:"GENTLEMEN, - The king has ordered his Royal Highness the Prince de
Joinville to proceed with his fiigate to the Island of St. Helena to receive
the mortal remains of the Emperor Napoleon. We come to ask of you the
means to receive them worthily upon the soil of France, and to erect for
Napoleon his last tomb. The government, anxious to accomplish a great
national duty, has addressed itself to England. It has demanded of her the
precious deposit which fortune had surrendered into her hands. The frigate,
charged with the mortal remains of Napoleon, will present itself on its return
at the mouth of the Seine. Another vessel will convey them to Paris., They
will be deposited in the Invalides.  A solemn ceremony, a grand religious.and military pomp, will inaugurate the tomb which is to receive them forever.
"It is important, gentlemen, to the majesty of such a commemoration, that
this august sepulture should not be in a public place, in the midst of a noisy
and inattentive crowd. It is proper that it should be in a silent and sacred
spot, which can be visited with awe by those who respect glory and genius,
grandeur and misfortune. He was emperor and king. He was the legitimate
sovereign of our country. With such a title he could be interred at St. Denis.
But Napoleon must not have the ordinary sepulture of kings. He must still
reign and command in the building in which the soldiers of the country
repose, and to which all who may be called upon to defend it will go to draw
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 83.      t Moniteur, Aug. 12, 1840.
4f




PRINCE LOUIS IN LONDON.                       165
their inspirations. His sword will be placed upon his tomb. Under the dome,
in the midst of the temple consecrated by religion to the God of armies, art
will raise a tomb worthy, if possible, of the name which is to be engraven
upon it. This monument must be of simple beauty, but of noble form, and
have that aspect of solidity and firmness which appears to defy the action of
time. The monument of Napoleon must be as imperishable as his fame.
Henceforward, France, and France alone, will possess all that remains of
Napoleon. His tomb, like his renown, will belong only to his country."
This appeal was received with bursts of applause. The sum necessary to
meet the expenses of the occasion was immediately voted, and two armed
ships were despatched to St. Helena. General Gourgaud, General Bertrand,
and Count Las Casas, who had been companions of the emperor's captivity,
accompanied the expedition.
*1




CHAPTER X.
BOULOGNE.
"The City of Edinburgh" steams to Boulogne. - The Landing and the Struggle. -Narrow
Escape of the Prince from Death. - The Capture. - Letter from the Father of Louis Napoleon. - Confinement in the Conciergerie. - Visit from Chateaubriand. - Habits of Study. -
The Trial. - The Defence of the Prince. - Interesting Incident. - Sentenced to Perpetual
Captivity. - Fortitude of the Prince.
HE little squadron was now on its way to St. Helena. All the
popular sympathies in France were aroused, and the love and
enthusiasm  with which the masses regarded Napoleon were
awakened in the most extraordinary degree. In this state of
affairs, it seemed to Louis Napoleon and to his fiiends that
could he but get a foothold in France, where he could proclaim
himself the heir of the emperor, and unfurl the banners of the empire, the
whole nation, from its known attachment to the principles of the Napoleonic
government, would rally around him, and thus a bloodless and peaceable revolution would be effected.
It so happened, that, at this time, the same regiments which had been so
favorably disposed towards Louis Napoleon at Strasburg were stationed at
Boulogne, on the French coast, but a few hours' sail from London. In that
city, where Napoleon I. had gathered his majestic army in preparation for the
invasion of England, the memory of the emperor was enthusiastically cherished. Louis Napoleon therefore decided to make another attempt by simply
throwing himself upon the protection of the troops and the people of Boulogne. As he placed all his reliance upon the sympathies of the community,
and wished to avoid the horrors of a civil war, he took with him only friends
enough, as Napoleon I. expressed it, to save himself, when landing, from being
taken by the collar by the police. He accordingly chartered a small steamer,
"The City of Edinburgh," and with about sixty companions, few if any of
whom, as it appeared in the subsequent trial, were aware of the enterprise in
which they had embarked, steamed down the Thames. Most of them had
supposed that they were on a pleasure-excursion; and they were out at sea
before they were informed of the destination of the steamer. The prince had
placed on board arms, uniforms, and several horses. The discontent which prevailed in France had surrounded him with followers who were ready to devote
their lives to his service.*
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 86.
166




BOULOGNE.                               167
Among those on board were Count Persigny, one of the actors in the
attempt at Strasburg; Count Montholon, the renowned companion of Napoleon I. at St. Helena; Dr. Conneau, the physician of Queen Hortense; and
several others of distinction. When the prince assembled them upon deck,
and informed them of the enterprise upon which he had invited theml to
accompany him, they all responded to his appeal with the utmost enthusiasm.
The time was not lost on board the steamer: it was employecl in bringing
out, and apportioning to each man, according to his rank, the uniform whlich
had been provided; in distributing arims; and in reading the proclamations,
ordinances, and decrees which the prince had prepared. Among the effects
embarked were about four hundred thousand francs, in notes of the Bank of
England, and in gold and silver, belonging to Louis Napoleon, and obtained,
according to his declaration, from the sale of a part of the property which he
had received in inheritance from his mother.*
About one o'clock on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 6, the little steamer
came to anchor a short distance from Boulogne, a mile from the shore. An
officer of the custom-house, named Audinet, observed the steamer as it cast
anchor, and, seeing a boat full of passengers soon leave the ship, hastened to
the spot where it was evidently to land. As the boat approached the shore,
he hailed the crew, and was informed in reply that they were soldiers of the
fortieth of the line; that they were proceeding fiom Dunkirk to Cherbourg,
but were compelled to land in consequence of the breaking of one of their
wheels. As they were all dressed in the uniform of the fortieth, no suspicion
was excited.
There were fifteen persons in the boat. As soon as they had landed, they
seized the custom-house officer and two assistants who were with him, and
held them as captives, that they might not give the alarm. The boat then
returned to the steamer, and in three successive trips landed all the passengers. In the mean time, five other custom-house officers, who were going their
rounds, were arrrested. The place of landing was on the beach, about a mile
from Boulogne.  While these scenes were transpiring, four men came fiom
the city who had evidently been in the secret of the movement.  They were
very cordially greeted, and, receiving the uniform of officers, immediately
invested themselves with it.
The detachment now consisted of about thirty men,' dressed as privates in
the uniform  of the fortieth of the line, and thirty wearing the insignia of
officers of various ranks. They formed in military order, and commenced
their march towards Boulogne, taking with them the custom-house officers.
Count Montholon had informed these officers that Prince Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte was at the head of the party; that Boulogne would receive him
enthusiastically; and that he would soon be proclaimed emperor by the
nation. As they entered the gate of the city by the Grancclze,ue, Count
Montholon and Lieutenant Parquin accompanied the prince at the head of
the column. They now all commenced shouting, " Vive l'Empereur! " directing their steps towards the barracks occupied by a portion of the forty-second
* Cour des Pairs, Rapport fait a la Cour, par M. Persil P. Vesinier, p. 213.




s-&   ~ 
168                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
regiment of the line.  Lieutenant Aladenize, one of the officers of the regiment, who was devoted to the cause of Louis Napoleon, was waiting for him
at the barracks.  Immediately upon the arrival of the prince, the rappel was
beaten, the officers and soldiers crowded down from their chambers into the
courtyard, and a scene of the wildest enthusiasm ensued. The prince stood
by the side of the tricolor standard, which was surmounted by the imperial
eagle, and, as'soon as he could command silence, read in the light of the early
morning, to the little band gathered around him, the following proclamation:"Soldiers, France is made to command, and yet she obeys. You are the
elite of the people, and you are treated like a vile herd. You are made to
protect the national honor, and it is against your brothers that they turn your
arms. Those who rule you wish to degrade the noble profession of the soldier. You are indignant; and you have asked,'What have become of the
eagles of Arcola, of Austerlitz, and of Jena?' Those eagles? - here they are.
I restore them to you.  Take them again.  With them you shall have glory,
honor, fortune, and that which is more than all the rest,- the gratitude and
esteem of your fellow-citizens.
"Soldiers, your acclamations, when I presented myself to you at Strasburg,
have not left my memory.  I have not forgotten the regrets which you manifested at my cefeat. Between you and me there are indissoluble ties. We
have the same hatreds and the same loves, the same interests and the same
enemies.
"Soldiers, the grand shade of the Emperor Napoleon speaks to you by my
voice. Hasten, while it traverses the ocean,.to send away, traitors and oppressors. Show him upon his arrival that you are the worthy sons of the Grand
Army, and that you have resumed those sacred emblems which for forty years
have made the enemies of France tremble, among whom are those who are
governing you to-day."
The reading of this proclamation caused another outburst of acclaim. The
soldiers, in the heat of their enthusiasm, took the prince upon their shoulders,
and bore him in triumph around the yard. The beating of the rappel and the
cheers of the soldiery drew a large crowd to the barracks; and the civil population re-echoed the acclaim which burst from the lips of the troops. The
following proclamation, which had previously been printed, was distributed in
great profusion among the crowd:"Inhabitants of the departments of Pas de Calais and of Boulogne, followed by a little band of brave men, I have landed on French soil, fiom which
an unjust law had banished me. Do not apprehend any temerity. I come to
assure the destinies of France, not to compromise them.  I have powerful
fiiends abroad as well as here, who have promised me their support. The
signal is given: and soon all France, and Paris especially, shall rise en mcasse
to trample under foot ten years of falsehood and ignominy; for all the cities
and villages are to bring the government to an account for the private interests it has abandoned, the general interests it has betrayed.
"See your ports almost deserted, your ships rotting on the shore! Look at
your industrious artisans, without food to nourish their children, because government has not had the courage to protect your commerce! Look at this,




BOULOGNE.                                 C9
and cry out with me,'Traitors, disappear! the Napoleonic spirit, which thinks
only of the happiness of the people, is advancing to confound you!'
"Inhabitants of the Pas de Calais, do not fear that the ties which attach
you to your neighbors beyond the sea shall be broken. The mortal remains
of the emperor and the imperial eagle return from exile only with sentiments
of love and reconciliation. Two great nations should understand each other;
and the glorious pillar which boldly advances into the sea shall become an
atoning monument of all our past hatreds.
" City of Boulogne, which Napoleon loved so much, you are about to be the
first link in a chain that is to unite all civilized nations. Your glory shall be
imperishable; and France will decree offerings of thanks to those generous
men who were the first to salute with their acclamations the standard of
Auster'litz.
"Inhabitants of Boulogne, come to me, and have confidence in the providential mission bequeathed to me by the martyr of St. Helena. From the top
of the pillar of the great army,* the genius of the emperor watches us, and
favors our efforts, because they have but one object, —the happiness of
France."
There was a third proclamation prepared for the inhabitants of France generally. It contained the following sentiments:"Frenchmen, the ashes of the emperor should return only to regenerated
France.  The shade of a great man should not be profaned by impure and
hypocritical homage.  Glory and liberty should stand at the side of the coffin
of Napoleon. Traitors to their country should disappear. There is in France,
to-day, but violence on the one side, and lawlessness on the other. I wish to
re-establish order and liberty. I wish, in gathering around me all the interests
of the country, without exception, and in supporting myself by the suffiages
of the masses, to erect an imperishable edifice. I wish to give France true
alliances and a solid peace, and not to plunge her into the hazards of a general war. Frenchmen, I see before me a brilliant future for our country. I
perceive behind me the shade of the emperor, which presses me forward. I
shall not stop until I have regained the sword of Austerlitz, replaced the
eagles upon our banners, and restored to the people their rights."
Events have surely proved that this was not an empty boast. The sword
of Austerlitz has been regained at Solferino, the eagles have been restored to
the banners of France; and the re-establishment of the empire, in the person
of Louis Napoleon and his heirs, by nearly eight million of votes, is the best
evidence which can be given that the French people are of the opinion, that,
under the empire, their rights are restored to them.
Every thing thus far had been exceedingly propitious. Just at this moment, the commanding officer of the garrison, Colonel Puygellier, made his
appearance, having been drawn to the spot by the general commotion. He
was a man of commanding character; and his soldiers, accustomed to a high
~ A magnificent column dedicated to Napoleon I. by the grand army collected here in 1805,
but which columntwas not completed until 1821, stands on an eminence nearly a mile from the
city. The column is crowned by a gallery, surmounted by a dome; and is one hundred and sixtyfour feet high.
22




170                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
state of discipline, were very much under his influence.  With great energy
he denounced the prince and his confederates, and ordered the men to go back
to their quarters. The troops were dismayed, and became irresolute.  Still
many seemed disposed to adhere to the prince; and a scene of great confusion
ensued. Louis Napoleon then approached Colonel Puygellier, and said to him,
"I am Prince Louis: join our cause, and you shall have whatever you desire."
The colonel replied, "Prince Louis or not, I do not know you. Your predecessor struck down legitimacy, and it is wrong for you to attempt to restore
it. Leave the barracks! " * There was now such a scene of clamor and tumult,
that the colonel strove in vain to make himself heard. No one obeyed his
orders. There were many indications that the troops would join the princet
The colonel cried out, "You may kill me; but I will do my duty."  He then
approached Louis Napoleon in a menacing manner, and commanded him
immediately to leave the barracks, saying, "If you do not go at once, I shall
use force; and it will be so much the worse for you if you compel me to acts
of violence."
In the struggle which ensued, the prince, being jostled and crowded, drew
fiom his pocket a pistol, which was discharged, wounding a grenadier. In the
trial which subsequently took place, he gave the following account of this
untoward event:
"As every thing depended upon the success of the appeal to the two companies in the barracks, seeing my enterprise about to fail, I was seized with a
sort of despair: and, as I will conceal nothing, I took a pistol, with the intention of delivering myself from the captain; and, before I wished to fire, the
ball was discharged, wounding a grenadier, as I have since been informed. I
can only regret having wounded a French soldier." t
Colonel Puygellier was now beginning to regain his ascendency over the men,
and the National Guards were rapidly assembling. The prince and his adherents, baffled in their efforts, began to retire before superior numbers. Lieutenant Aladenize, fearing a scene of carnage, cried out, -
"Do not resist. The prince forbids you to use your arms. Respect the
officers; spare the soldiers. Let there be no bloodshed."
Louis Napoleon summoned his adherents around him, and, leaving the barracks, commenced his march towards the upper town, hoping to rally the citizens en masse to his support. It is said, in the confused accounts which are
given of these stormy scenes, that they found the gates closed against them,
and that they tried in vain, with hatchets, to cut their way through. Military
opposition was now effectually organized, and retreat became necessary. The
party withdrew in some disorder as far as the column of Napoleon I. of which
we have spoken. Here the little band made a stand. One of their number
ascended to the top, and unfurled the eagle-surmounted banner; while the
group below greeted it with shouts of "Vive l'Empereur!"
But the troops of the line and the National Guards were advancing in great
force to surround the insurgents; the soldiers being impelled by habits of mili* Rapport du Capitaine Puygellier du 6 aout, 1840.
t Cour des Pairs; Audience du 15 septembre, 1840; rapport del M. Persil.




BOUrLOGNE.                              171
tary discipline to obey their officers, even in opposition to their own instincts.
The friends of the prince urged him to retreat in haste to the boat; but, in
the bitterness of his disappointment, he chose rather to perish.
"No," said he: "I will not leave France again. I prefer to die at the foot
of the column." * 
Helwished to receive the fire of the troops without returning it, but his
friends surrounded him, and almost by force bore him along toward the shore.
There was a large boat high and dry upon the beach. Straining every nerve,
they succeeded in running it into the water. It was immediately filled with
men,- the prince among the rest, —and pushed from the shore. The soldiers were now at the water's edge. The party in the boat were ordered by
an officer on the shore to come back. As they did not heed the command, a
volley of bullets was discharged into the midst of them, killing some, and
wounding others. The prince was struck by three balls, two of which pierced
his clothes, and one slightly wounded him in the arm.t  This storm of bullets
caused such a commotion, that the boat was capsized, and all were thrown into
the sea. The troops now fired upon them mercilessly as they were struggling
in the water, and many were killed. The prince endeavored to swim to the
steamer. Boats were sent in pursuit, and the prince. and all the rest were
captured.
An English gentleman at that time residing in Boulogne, led by the tumult, had run to the shore where the fugitives were struggling in the waves
and were being shot at by the troops.  He saw a soldier taking deliberate aim
at one of the party who was half suffocated in the water but a few yards from
him. He rushed upon the man, knocked up his gun, and, with an Englishman's indignation at so cowardly a murder, asked the fellow what he meant
by attempting to shoot one thus helpless and unarmed. The soldier tuined
upon him with oaths and imprecations. But the Englishman, muscular and
fearless, was the stronger of the two; and the drowning man was rescued. It
proved to be the prince. The writer received the above narrative from the
lips of a responsible gentleman who was for many years the familiar acquaintance of the one thus instrumental in saving this valuable life. How slender
are the chances upon which often seem to be suspended the most momentous destinies!
The steamer "City of Edinburgh" was also captured.  It was found to
contain two handsome carriages, ten horses, a tame eagle, over one hundred
thousand dollars in gold and silver pieces, and a thousand muskets.   The
steamer had been chartered of a London company: and the captain said that
the only directions which he had received were, "We do not know where you
are to go; but, wherever you are directed, proceed at once. Prepare to receive
fifty or sixty passengers." The steamer had been chartered avowedly to take
a party of gentlemen on an excursion down the channel and along the southern coast of England. Such are the facts of this enterprise, as developed on
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 91.
t IHistoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, sur des Documents particuliers et authentiques, p. 113,
i Le Journal la Boulonaise du 12 aofit, 1840.




172                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
the trial, and as very graphically and impartially summed up by M. Persil, in
his presentation of the case, in behalf of the government and against the
accused, before the Court of Peers.*
The tidings of this new attempt upon the throne of Louis Philippe created
a profound sensation throughout France and Europe.  Immiediately all those
in Paris suspected of Bonapartist sympathies were arrested.t  The prince was
conveyed to the Chateau of Boulogne.  The next day, under the escort of a
detachment of the municipal guard, he was sent rapidly to Ham, to be transported Irom  there to Paris.  The prince was deeply moved in being thus
separated from  his companions.  With emotions painfully excited, he took
leave of that renowned and abiding fiiend of his house, Count Montholon. +
On the 8th of August, at half-past six in the evening, he was conveyed
through Amiens.  An immense crowd had assembled to see him.  He was
silent and dejected, and, by burying himself in his carriage, seemed to seek
to avoid observation.  Here, as all aloig the road, he received the most decisive indications of sympathy and regret. In all the garrisoned towns through
which he passed, the soldiers, in silent and saddened groups, gathered around
his carriage, feeling that it was no time for acclaim, but manifesting in subdued tones of condolence the strength of their affection for the captive as the
heir of the emperor, and the bitterness of their regret at the failure of the
enterprise.
The prince was not long detained at Ham.  He was soon taken again under
the escort of the National Guard, and conveyed rapidly to Paris.  It seems
that the government feared that there might be a popular attempt to rescue
him; for the colonel of the guard took a seat by his side in the carriage, with
loaded pistols, and informed the prince that he was ordered to blow out his
brains (bruilercit la cervelle) should he make any attempt to escape. ~
At Paris he was imprisoned in the Conciergerie, in those gloomy cells which
had been hallowed by the sufferings of Marie Antoinette, and from  which
Marshal Ney had been led to execution. I  The result of the legal process at
Strasburg taught the government that it was not safe to submit the question
to the decision of a jury.  It was decided, therefore, to subject him  and his
companions to the jurisdiction of the Court of Peers in Paris.
Chateaubriand was one of the first who entered the doors of the Concier* See rapport fait a la cour*par M. Persil, lun des commissaires, charge de l'instruction du
proces defe6r a la cour des Pairs par ordonnance royale du 9 aofut, 1840.
t "Ainsi se denoua cette entreprise. Cette seconde tentative pour remettre la nation en possession d'elle meme, echoua comme la premiere. Ce ne fut encore cette fois; si nous pouvons
nous exprimer ainsi, qu'une autre carte de visite envoyee a l'adresse de la France par le neveu
de l'empereur. La France la redut et la garda religieusement." —M I. Gallix et Guy, p. 92.
i Colonne de Boulogne du 9 aoft, 1840.
~ Louis Napoleon and the Bonapartes, by Henry de Puy.
II MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 93.
"The monarchy, the republic, the empire, - all these phases of recent history,- have paid
theil tribute of illustrations to these dismal abodes; but the genius of the place claimed a last
honor. It has obtained it. The nephew of the emperor has also sojourned in the Conciergerie;
and, according to the expression of M. de Chateaubriand, the prison holds him, -him also,recalling' the grandeurs which have formerly inhabited it." -Ilistoire du Prince Louis N:cpo.
leon, sur des Documents particuliers et authentiques, par MI. Re&ault.




BOULOGNE.                                      173
gerie to visit the imprisoned prince. He entered his cell, though not with
words of approval, still with expressions of kindness and sympathy which
touched the heart of the. captive.*   In this celebrated prison, whose walls
have echoed  to so many almost unearthly groans of woe, the prince was
placed in the same cell, which, but a few months before, had been occupied
by the assassin Fieschi.t  As in exile, so in prison, the prince sought to appease the anguish of his mind by intense application to study.  He translated "The Ideal" of Schiller, an ode breathing those sentiments which must
at that time have agitated deeply his own heart.  Those poetically inclined
may be interested to see how the German ode appears translated under these
circumstances into French by the crushed captive. I will give the first two
stanzas:
1.
"   temps heureux de ma jeunesse! veux tu done me quitter sans retour?
Veux tu t'enfuir sans pitie avec tes joies et tes douleurs, avec tes sublime illusions?  Rien ne peut-il done t'arreter dans ta fuite perfide?  Tes flots, vont ils
inevitable se perdre dans l'eternite?
2.
"Les astres brilliants qui eclairerent mon matin dans la vie ont perdre leur
eclat; l'icldal qui gonflait mon cceur, ivre d'esperance, s'est enfui.  Elle est
aneantie, cette douce croyance en des etres crees par mon imagination.  Ces
reves, si beaux, si divers, ils sont tombes en proie a la triste realite." 
* Memoirs of Madame Recamier.
t The father of Louis Napoleon, upon hearing of the arrest of his son, and his consignment
to the dungeon of the assassin Fieschi, wrote the following letter to the editor of the journal "Le
Commerce: ""FLORENCE, Aug. 24, 1840.
"MONSIEUR, -Permit me to entreat you to receive the following declaration. I know that
it is unusual thus to make an appeal to the public; but when a father, afflicted, aged, sick, and
exiled, can in no other way come to the rescue of his unhappy son, such a measure cannot but
meet the approval of every one who has the heart of a father.
" Convinced that my son is the victim of an infamous intrigue, and that he is seduced by vile
flatterers, false friends, and perhaps by treacherous counsels, I cannot keep silence.
"I declare, then, that my son Louis Napoleon has fallen into a frightful snare, into a terrible
ambuscade. I declare, moreover, with a sacred horror, that the injury which has been inflicted
upon my son by imprisoning him in the cell of an infamous assassin is a monstrous cruelty,anti-FranaCise, -an outrage as vile as it is treacherous.
" As a father profoundly afflicted, as a Frenchman tried by thirty years of exile, as the brother,
and, if I may venture so to say, the pupil, of him whose statues France re-erects, I commend
my son, deluded and betrayed, to the mercy of his judges, and of all those who have the heart
of a Frenchman and of a father.                               "Louis DE SAINT LEU."
1.
T TRANSLATION.-" 0 happy hours of my youth! will you leave me, then, without return?
Will you fly away pitilessly, with your joys and your griefs, with your sublime illusions? Can
nothing, then, arrest you in your cruel flight?  Your waves-must they inevitably lose themselves in eternity?
2.
"The brilliant stars which illumined the morning of my life have lost their splendor. The
ideal which inspired my heart, intoxicated with hope, has fled. Those sweet hopes, in beings
the creations of my imagination, are gone forever. Those dreams, so beautiful, so varied, - they
have given place to sad realities."




174                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
As we have before said, it was not deemed safe to intrust the trial of the
prince to an ordinary jury, for the jury would be sure to acquit him, as in the
Strasburg affair; and it was not easy to find any tribunal in which there were
not many who were in strong sympathy with the empire which Louis Napoleon was endeavoring to re-establish.  On the 16th of September, he was
brought before some commissioners to.be interrogated in reference to his trial.
This commission consisted of Marshal Gerard and the Dukes Decazes and
Pasquier.  Of these, Gerard was one of the favorite officers of the emperor;
Decazes was the former secretary of the King of Holland, the father of the
prince; and the Duke of Pasquier had been auditor in the council of state
under the empire, master of requests, director-general of bridges and roads,
and prefect of police.* In entering upon each of these offices, the Duke of
Pasquier had taken the oath of fidelity to the emperor and his dynasty.
The report of accusation was drawn up by M. Persil.  The following sentences will give some idea of its spirit: " What may we not believe of those
men, who, by a surprise of Boulogne with a few officers for the most part
retired, with a few nameless men unknown to France, and with thirty soldiers
disguised as domestics, or domestics disguised as soldiers, have conceived the
idea of seizing on the country, and establishing, in the name of the people
and of liberty, under the segis of a renown placed at too lofty a height for
any other to succeed it, the copy of a government which enabled us, it is
true, to collect an ample harvest of glory, but which never entitled itself to
our gratitude for any ardent love of liberty or equality, or for any profound
respect for the rights of citizens?
"-Different times, different wants. What might have been good, what might
have been demanded by inexorablenecessity, in the first years of the nineteenth century, when interior dissensions and the weight of the mightiest war
ever sustained overwhelmed our country, would be considered to-day an intolerable anachronism.  Civilization is advancing; and her progress should be
enlightened by liberty, by respect for the rights of all, and by institutions that
render arbitrariness and despotism impbssible."
The trial took place on'Monday, Sept. 28, before the Court of Peers, consisting of over one hundred and fifty members.  There could be no doubt
that very many of these men, like the members of the Commission of Inquiry,
were more or less in sympathy, from  their past antecedents, with the prince.
The government organs had accordingly exerted all their influence, says a
French writer, morally to kill Louis Napoleon by the arm  of ridicule (tuer
moralement Louis Ncpole'on avec l'arme C&d  ridicule). It consequently became important for the prince, in his defence, that he might rescue his character fiom contempt, to prove that he had not been guilty of a fool-hardy enterprise.  He was therefore highly gratified when he learned that he was to be
permitted to utter his defence before a tribunal o    imposing, that  his words
could scarcely fail to reach almost every ear in France.t
* L'Histoire du Nouveau Cesar, par M. Vesinier, p. 169.
t " Ve do not think that the court has ever been more numerously attended in any other
trial. One hundred and sixty-seven peers take part in the deliberations."-L'Univers du 30
septembre, 1840.




BOULOGNE.                                175
In the  xamination of* witnesses, all the facts which we have above stated
were proved, and none denied.  The Frenclf journal "L'Univers," in describing the scene, says, -
"The prince Louis Bonaparte is a young man of thirty-two years, of moderate height.  He is far from having, either in his figure, his features, or his
voice, any expression whatever which announces a man capable of recommencing the role of a Napoleon. Before responding to the questions of the
president, he commenced reading a profession of his political faith, in which
he placed himself in the position, not of one accused, but of one conquered.
" When one contemplates, in the presence of the imposing tribunal of peers,
this confused mass of young men and of old men grouped around a chief of
thirty years, and who does not appear to be more than twenty-five years, of
age, he is impressed with a sense of profound compassion.  Willingly, were
it not that blood has been shed and the peace of the country compromised,
we could implore the pity of the court for these gray heads and fair-haired
youths whom the renown of a great name has led astray." 
In the trial, the whole of Louis Napoleon's previous career was investigated. It was affirmed that all his political writings tended to overthrow the
government of Louis Philippe.  Much stress was laid upon a statement in
the pamphlet of M. Laity, -for which pamphlet it will be remembered that
the writer was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, -that "the acquittal
of the accused of Strasburg was a proof of the sympathy of the people for
the Napoleonic cause."
It appeared, from the papers which were captured on board "The City of
Edinburgh," that though the prince had not consulted others respecting his
plans, or even confided to them his intentions, he had arranged every movement
with the most extraordinary minuteness. In his own mind, he had marked out
the duty of every man, and had provided for every emergency. The thinking was all done.  He had only to act with promptness and vigor in executing
his plan. He had become, as it were, his own servant; having received commands which he clearly understood, and which he was implicitly to obey,directions varying simply with varying events.
Upon the supposition that Boulogne, its neighboring garrisons, an-l entire
France, would rise to hail the re-establishment of the empire, as the French
people had greeted Napoleon upon his return fiom  Elba, the most careful
arrangements had been made immediately to organize the regiments, the population, the militia, and the government itself. Written orders in blank designated those who were to be charged with receiving objects indispensable
for the army, - such as horses, saddles, bridles, &c. Others were assigned to
important civil and military commands. Nothing was overlooked.t
The procureur-gezneral, in concluding his argument against the accused, referred particularly to the part which each one of the prominent actors had
taken in the enterprise.
"Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte," said he, " is the creator and soul of
* L'Univers, septembre, 1840.
t Rapport fait a la court par M. Persil, audience 15 septembre, 1840.




176                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the attempt.  It was he who would principally profit by it, since, after overthrowing the royal power, h'e would naturally put himself in its place. Sincere disinterestedness, true grandeur of soul, according to him, influenced his
patriotic aggression. Touched by the sufferings pf the people, as he says, he
devoted himself to rescue them from the tyranny of a government which corrupted the glory of France and sacrificed her material interests. Having succeeded, it was his intention to leave to the nation the choice of its government.
" But may we not be permitted to believe that this pretended moderation,
this feigned respect for the popular will, was only an adroit means of concealing his insane pretensions? Has he not given the proof in presenting himself
in the name of the French people, and in declaring in the same name that
the Bourbon dynasty of Orleans had ceased to reign, that the Chamber of
Peers and the Chamber of Deputies were dissolved? *  Does it not result
from his pretensions to the imperial inheritance? By what right could he
allow himself to be saluted with the cry of' Vive l'Empereur'?
"Louis Bonaparte has no more sought to conceal his intentions than the
deeds by which they have been manifested.  Being invited by Monsieur the
Chancellor to declare if he avowed the intention, so clearly expressed in
the proclamations, decrees, and orders distributed by him  at Boulogne, to
overthrow the government established in France by the charter of 1830, he
replied,' Yes, certainly.'
" His acts have been in entire harmony with his intention.  It was he who
hired the steamer upon which he placed his friends, his servants, and his
equipage.  He had previously procured uniforms and arms.  It was lie who
provided for all the expenses, and who, for the execution of his projects, supplied a sum of nearly four hundred thousand francs (eighty thousand dollars)
in gold or bank-bills.
"We have nothing to say to magnify the charges which weigh upon the
principal person inculpated.  We wish it were in our power to present some
circumstances which could, at least in part, extenuate them; but none present
themselves to us."
After the procureur-gelneral had finished his address, in which he referred
minutely to the part which each of the prominent ones among the accused
had taken in the enterprise, Louis Napoleon obtained permission to speak,
and expressed himself in the following terms:
"For the first time in my life, I am at last permitted to lift up my voice in
France, and to speak freely to Frenchmen.  An occasion is offered me to explain to my fellow-citizens my conduct, my intentions, my projects,- what I
think, what I wish.  Without pride, as without weakness, if I recall, the rights
deposited by the nation in the hands of my family, it is solely to explain the
duties which these rights have imposed upon us all.
* One of the decrets found among the papers of the prince contains the following articles:
"The Prince Napoleon, in the name of the French people, decrees as follows: The dynasty of
the Bourbons of Orleans has ceased to reign. The French people are restored to their rights.
The Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies are dissolved. A national congress will
be convoked upon the arrival of Prince Napoleon in Paris."




BOULOGNE.                                177
"Fifty years ago, the principle of the sovereignty of the people was consecrated in France by the most powerful revolution which ever occurred in the
world. Never has the national will been proclaimed so solemnly, or been
established by suffrages so numerous and so free, as on the occasion of adopting the constitution of the empire.
"The nation has never revoked that great act of its sovereignty; and the
emperor has said,'All that has been done without its authority is illegal.' Do
not, therefore, allow yourselves to believe, that, surrendering myself to the
impulses of personal ambition, I have attempted to force a restoration of the
imperial government upon France. I have been taught higher lessons; I have
lived under nobler examples. I am  the son of a king, who, without regret,
descended fiom his throne when he no longer thought it possible to reconcile
with the interests of France the interests of the people whom he had been
called upon to govern.
"The emperor, my uncle, preferred abdicating the empire to accepting by
treaty the restricted frontiers, which could not but expose France to the insults and menaces which foreign nations permit themselves to indulge in today. I have not lived a single day forgetful of these lessons. The unmerited
arid cruel proscription, which for twenty-five years has been clogging my
existence, from  the foot of the throne where I was born to the prison which
I have just left, has been as powerless to irritate as to subdue my heart. It
has not been able to estrange me for a single day from the dignity, the glory,
or the interests of France. M3y conduct, my coivictions, explain themselves.
"When, in 1830, the people reconquered their sovereignty, I had thought
that the day after the conquest would be as loyal as the conquest itself, and
that the destinies of France were fixed forever. But the country has had the
sad experience of the last ten years.  I thought, therefore, that the vote of
four millions of citizens, which had elevated my family to supreme power,
imposed upon me the duty of at least mnaking Ca  appceal to the nation, acnd of
inquiring what was its will.  I even thought, ifin the midst of the national
congress which I intended to call, any pretensions could make themselves
heard, I should have the right to re-awaken the glorious recollections of the
empire; to speak of the elder brother of the emperor, and of that virtuous
man, who, before me, is his worthy heir; * and to place in contrast this France
of to-day, enfeebled, passed over in silence at the congress of kings, with the
France of those times, so strong at home, so powerful and respected abroad.
To the question,'Republic or monarchy, empire or kingdom?' the nation
would have responded.  Upon its free decision depend the end of our sorrows
and the termination of our dissensions.
"As to my enterprise, I repeat it, I have had no accomplices. Alone I have
resolved all. No person has known beforehand my projects, my resources, my
hopes. If I am culpable towards any one, it is towards my fiiends.  However, let them not accuse me of having trifled lightly with courage and devotion such as theirs. They will easily comprehend the motives of honor and
* Allusion is here made to the uncle of the prince, Joseph Bonaparte; and to Louis Bonaparte, the father of Louis Napoleon; both of whom were then living.
23




178                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
prudence which did not permit me to reveal, even to them, how well founded
and strong were my reasons to expect success.
"A  last word, gentlemen.  I represent before you a principle, a cause, a
defeat.  The principle is the sovereignty of the people; the cause, that of
the empire; the defeat, Waterloo.  The principle, you have recognized it;
the cause, you have served it; the defeat, you have wished to avenge it.
"Representative of a political cause, I cannot accept as the judge of my
intentions and my acts a political tribunal.  Your forms impose on no one.
In the struggle now commencing, there can be but the victor and the vanquished.  If you are of the victorious party, I ha{ve no justice to expect of
you; and I do not wish generosity." *
When in the examination the prince was asked, "Do you recognize these
proclamations, this decree, this order of the day?" he replied, "I do: I wrote
them  all myself."  His greatest care seemed to be to exonerate those who
had followed him, and to take upon himself the whole responsibility of the
enterprise.
Upon being asked how he procured so many uniforms, his answer was, "I
had requested these gentleen - pretending that I was going to a ball -  to
bring their uniforms with them; and most of them did so, without suspicion."
It will be remembered that a soldier was wounded by a pistol-shot.  After
the deposition of this man -  Joseph Geoffrey -  had been presented, the
prince was asked if he had any observation to make.  His reply was, " I have
nothing to say, but that I deeply regret having wounded a French soldier, even
by chance; and that I am very happy that the accident has not been attended
by more serious consequences."
M. Franck Carrn, procureur-ged'erai, in his long and eloquent argument
against the accused, said, " What can be the utility of words, or the necessity
of discussion?  Nothing has been denied, either of the facts which constitute
the attempt, or of the part which each one has taken in the enterprise.  The
intention, the end, the means, every thing has been avowed.
"When an effort has been made to substitute another government for that
of the country; when ambition, so high that it aspires to nothing less than
sovereign power, manifests itself by formal acts; when men menace with a
new revolution the land already furrowed by so many revolutions, -is it sufficient, before such a court as this, to state the material circumstances of the
attempt, and to provoke against its authors merited punishment?  Is it not
necessary to search into the motives which inspired the aggression; into the
grounds of support for pretensions so vast; into the influences and the means
at the disposal of men influenced by such vain hopes? t
* " These words, delivered in a clear voice, with an undaunted air, produced a visible sensation
on the assembly. In fact, of the men called upon to judge the nephew of the emperor, the
greater number were either old companions in arms of Napoleon, or old members of his household." - Life of Napoleon III., Enperor of the French, by Ecdward Roth.
t In the course of his argument, the procuraer-general alluded to the attempt at Strasburg,
and said, that, on that occasion, the prince had been "vanquished without debate, pardoned without conditions (parclonne sans conditions)."  To this the prince subsequently referred, in refntation of the charge that he had given his word of honor never to return from America if the
government would give him exile instead of imprisonment.




'BOULOGNE.                                179
"As for us, gentlemen, the more ardent the admiration with which we
cherish in our heart the memory of the Emperor Napoleon, the more need
have we to remember our character as a magistrate, that we may maintain
impartiality of judgment in presence of this puerile ambition, which has twice
compromised that grand name in these hair-brained enterprises.
" Have they not already felt in their consciences that they could nowhere
find a judge more indignant and more severe than Napoleon himself would
be, if the report of these attempts without wisdom, this temerity without
grandeur, these defeats without combats, could ascend to his ear?
" They imagine that the grandeur of the empire and the glory of the emperor were as a patrimony for the family of Napoleon; and the worship of
the nation of these immortal souvenirs transforms itself, in their view, into a
popular wish which calls that family to reign.
"The emperor could not bequeath the sceptre to any one. It fell from his
powerful hand before his destinies were accomplished. His glory is the inheritance of France; and the real representative of the empire, in her eyes, is not
you, nor the obscure friends whose homages surround you; but it is the genius
of the emperor, still living in our laws; it is the men, who, cherishing his traditions, and at the head of our armies and in our councils, are the honor of
our country, and the bulwarks of that royalty that France has founded with
her own hands."
In conclusion, M. Carre said, "We have been severe towards you, Prince
Louis. Our mission and your crime made such to be our duty; but we can
never forget that you were born near a throne, and that you have been educated in exile, where we cannot forbid hope from  consoling misfortune, and
where the sorrows of the past are sweetened by illusions of the future."
Prince Louis had engaged for his defence M. Berryer, one of the most distinguished orators in France.  The following brief extracts from his speech
will show its character and its power:"The procureur-genetral has said,' This is a melancholy trial, - one deeply
to be regretted.' I, too, as I contemplate the grave contest, cannot but feel
mournful emotions agitating my heart.  How unhappy must that country be,
where, within a few years, so many successive and violent revolutions, overthrowing, one after another, the laws which we have proclaimed, established,
and sworn to defend, have produced in our minds so painful an uncertainty
with regard to our duties! Within the life of a single man we have had a
republic, an empire, a restoration, and a royalty of the 9th of August. This
ready acceptation of govenrnments, so opposite in their principles, so rapidly
dashing each other to pieces, - does it not vastly weaken the strength of
conscience, the dignity of man, the majesty of law?  What a blow is struck
at the dignity of Justice, gentlemen, when she is called upon to-day to condemn as a crime that which yesterday she urged as a duty!
" Prince Louis Napoleon has come to contest the sovereignty with the house
of Orleans. He has entered France to claim the rights of sovereignty for his
own family. Hle hlas done so with the same title, and in accordance with the
same political principle, which justified our present king, upon whose brow.you have placed the crown of France.




180                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"At the adoption of the constitution of the empire in 1804, four million
of votes declared that France recognized the inheritance in the descendants
of Napoleon, or in the descendants of his brother Joseph, or, these failing, in
the descendants of his brother Louis.  There is his title.
"Is the establishment of the empire a phantom, gentlemen? is it an illusion?  Yet what it has done has reached throughout the world; and its effects
are felt not only in France, but among all the nations of Europe.  No: this
establishment of the empire is no dream. Are we willing to avow that those
dynasties, founded, established, sworn to, in the name of the national sovereignty, are to last no longer than the life of a single man?  You attack the
very guaranties of the power which you yourselves wish to defend, if you disregard the right, founded by its consecration, far more imposing than that of
1830; for the entire nation was called upon for its vote.
"The empire fell; and then the political doctrine of popclar sovereignty,
upon which the empire was founded, also fell. But you have restored this
principle; you have reconstituted this popular sovereignty, on which the hereditary claims of the imperial family are based. The heir is before you. You
are about to judge him. In a country where all the powers are in abeyance
to the principle of national sovereignty, do you mean to judge him without
questioning the country? As long as a drop of blood is transmitted in this
family, so long shall the claim of inheritance, grounded on the political principle of France, be transmitted too.
"The tomb of the emperor is about to be opened. His ashes are to be
transferred to Paris, where his arms are to be deposited in triumph over his
grave. You wish to judge and condemn the attempt of Louis Napoleon. Do
you not appreciate the influence which such manifestations must produce upon
the mind of the young prince?
"This necessity of re-animating in our hearts, in France, the recollections
of the empire, and these Napoleonic sympathies, have been so great, that during
the reign of the prince,* who in former times had desired to bear arms against
the forces of the empire, and to war against him whom he stigmatized as the
Corsican usurper, the ministry have been compelled to say,'NXcpoleon was the
legitimncte sovereign of the country.'
"And you are not willing that this young man, - rash, blind, presumptuous
if you please, but still with a heart that has blood in it, with a soul which has
been transmitted to him,    without counting his resources, should have said
to himself,"' This name which they re-echo belongs to me. Be it mine to bear it living over these boundaries!  There it will awaken confidence of'victories;
elsewhere, terror of defeats. These arms are mine.  Can you dispute a soldier's inheritance?'
"I dQ not think that the claims in the name of which the project was undertaken can possibly fall before the disdainful expressions of the procureurgeneral.  You remark on the weakness of the means, the poverty of the
enterprise, the ridiculousness of any hopes of success. Well, if success is
* Louis Philippe.




BOULOGNE.                                181
every thing, I ask of you, the first men in the State, one question. Between
the judge and the accused there is always an inevitable eternal arbitrator.
Now, in the presence of this arbitrator, in the face of the country that shall
hear your sentence, regardless of the feebleness of the means, with nothing
but the rights of the case, the law, the constitution, before your eyes, with
your hands upon your hearts, standing before your God and in the presence
of us who know you, I ask you, can you say, -
"' If Louis Ncpoleon had succeeded, if his pretended right had triumpihed,
I would still have denied it; I would have refused all share in his power;
I would still have disregarded and rejected him'?
"I accept this eternal arbitrator.  Whoever there may be among you, that,
before his God and before his country, will say to me,'If he had succeeded
I would have denied his right,'- such a one I am willing to accept as a judge."
There probably never before was a trial in which there occurred so many
scenes of dramatic interest. When M. Berryer sat down, Count Montholon,
who had immortalized his name by his fidelity to the emperor, - obtaining permission to share with him his exile at St. Helena,- rose, and offered the following few words as his defence -
"Gentlemen, my own private affairs called me to England.  There I met
Prince Napoleon. He often confided to me his views upon the condition of
France, his plan of endeavoring to call a national congress, his hopes of one
day restoring to France the political institutions which the emperor had so
gloriously founded. All his suggestions indicated an ardent love of France,
a noble pride in the great name he bore; and I found in him a living memorial of all the long meditations of St. Helena.
"But he never spoke to me positively of his intended enterprises, of his
preparations for an expedition into France. When on board the steamer,
supposing we were going to Ostend, I learned our destination from the prince,
I certainly might have made some remonstrating remarks; but it was too late.
I would not leave the emperor's nephew: I would not abandon him  on the
coast of France.
"I received the last sigh of Napoleon: I closed his eyes. That explains
my conduct. It is without regret that I find myself to-day accused of having taken a resolution, of which the good opinion I entertain of human nature
persuades me that each of you, gentlemen, would also have been capable."
M. Ferdinand Barrot was associated with M. Berryer in the defence. In
pleading the cause of his client, Commandant Parquin, whom our readers will
remember as one of the most devoted fiiends of Louis Napoleon, - having
married  Mademoiselle Cochelet, the reader of Queen Hortense, - and who
had also taken an active part in the affair at Strasburg, M. Barrot said, -
"In the year 1813, the emperor held a review. A young cavalry lieutenant
presented himself in front of a regiment of infantry. Three times the emperor passed before him, sweeping him with that glance he knew so well how to
give. At last the young lieutenant took courage, and, advancing, said,"'Sire, I am twenty-five years old, and have been eleven years in the service, and have passed through eleven campaigns.  I have received twelve
wounds.  That well deserves a cross: I ask it now; it is my due.'




182                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" The emperor replied,' Of course it is; and I must not be in your debt any
longer.' And with his own hands he fastened the Cross of the Legion of
Honor on the breast of the young lieutenant.  That lieutenant was Parquin.
"I will mention one fact in this glorious life. Before Leipsic, in October,
1814, one of our marshals was engaged with a host of enemies.  Its life was
in danger.  Captain Parquin charged the enemy at the head of a few soldiers,
and rescued a marshal of France.  That marshal is now seated among you.
If I name him, it is not that I would trouble his conscience by recalling a favor
rendered. No, gentlemen: if I pronounce his name here, it is to give you to
understand that it has fallen to the lot of Parquin to save the life of one of
the greatest celebrities of our time, - Lieutenant Marshal Oudinot, the Duke
of Reggio.  Pardon me if I shelter under the glory of his name the misfortune of an old soldier."
Marshal Oudinot rose, and said, "The statement is true."  Commandant
Parquin, then addressing the court, remarked, while every eye was fixed upon
him, "Gentlemen, I had promised an illustrious princess, expiring in exile,
never to quit her son in the difficult position which fate had assigned to him.
This explains my second appearance before the tribunals of justice. I have
fulfilled this pious duty. And if, frdm the heights of heaven, to which her
kindness, her virtue, and her piety must have brought her, Queen.1-ortense
looks down here, and sees with sorrow her son arraigned before you, I shall,
I trust, be also seen sharing the misfortunes of him who has honored me with
so many years of his fiiendship, and to whom I am bound by all the devotedness of which I am capable."
31. Fialin, Count de Persigni, said briefly, " Gentlemen, it is seven years
since profound studies on the grand consular and imperial era, as contrasted in
my mind with the present era, won my utmost admiration for Napoleonic
ideas. This admiration explains my devotion to the illustrious race personifying these ideas, which, as I was convinced, promised glory, liberty, and greatness to my country. I did not hesitate to become the soldier of one man, of
one fallily.
"But it would require a voice more eloquent and more worthy than mine
to make the Napoleonic idea understood here, to outroll its magnificent
grandeur. It is not the part of a humble soldier to make himself the apostle
of this idea before so illustrious an auditory; but it is his part, as it is that
of every citizen, only to weep and groan under the misfortunes which have
overthrown its sway. Be it his part, as it is that of every soldier, to shed
bitter tears over the vast calamity of Waterloo! "
AM. Barillon was the council for the defence of Count Persigni. In the
powerful speech which he made we find the following eloquent passage:
"The expeditions of Prince Louis Napoleon may be differently interpreted,
differently judged.  Some may see in them the signs of thoughtless impulse,
others the expression of a firm  and persevering character; but what is
incontestable is his possession of eminent qualities, of which we ourselves
can speak as credible witnesses, -we who met him  for the first time within
the walls of a prison, in one of those great trials for which the political man
is not always prepared.




BOULOGNE.                               1S3
"What is incontestable is the immense, irresistible ascendency which he
exercises over all who approach him; the secret attraction which draws and
retains; the cordiality which does not compromise dignity, and which commands affection as well as respect. To these qualities add the familiar look',
which was one of the great powers of Napoleon; and to this portrait add the
name of Napoleon himself, surrounding a living head like an aureola, - and you
would have the secret of this devotedness, entire, absolute, blind, and, I would
say, almost superstitious, which chains all the accused to the destinies of the
prince, and which was the only banner of the Boulogne expedition."
Dr. Conneau was one of the captives.  He had formerly been the highlyesteemed family physician of Queen Ilortense, and had attended her upon
her dying bed. M. Barillon made the following touching allusion to this
event:
"The dying princess had written in her will this phrase, which will forever
associate her faithful physician with the existence of the young prince, -'I
desire that my son should keep always Dr. Conneau near to him.' This
dying wish, gentlemen, has been religiously observed; for on' that unhappy
bench you see Dr. Conneau seated beside the son of his benefactress."
The court took three days for deliberation. The sentence was then pronounced. The prince was condemned to be imprisoned for life in some
French fortress.  Count Montholon, Commandant Parquin, Lombard, and
MI. de Persigni, were doomed to twenty years' imprisonment; others to ten, five,
and two. Dr. Conneau was sentenced to five years. When the prince was
informed, in his cell, of the sentence, he remarked, without any manifestation
of emotion, "I shall at least have the consolation of dying on the soil of
France."  When, subsequently, the sentence was more formally read to him
by the clerk, as the words "perpetual imprisonment" were pronounced, he
calmly observed, " Formerly it was said that the word'impossible' was not
French. I suspect that it is so with the word'perpetual' now."
There were fifty-three prisoners brought to trial.  Of these, thirty-three
were set at liberty, and twenty received sentence with the prince.




CHAPTER XI.
THE NEPHEW  AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.
Description of Ham. -Devotion of the Friends of the Prince. - Prison-Life. - Manifestations
of Sympathy. - The Arms of Napoleon I. - Demand for the Remains of the Emperor. -
Their Removal from St. Helena. - Their Arrival in France. - Funeral Solemnities. - Testimony of Napier. - Apostrophe of Louis Napoleon. - Correspondence and Remonstrance.
HE sentence of the Court of Peers, consigning the prince to
imprisonment for life, was read to him in his cell at four o'clock
in the afternoon of the 6th of October, 1840. Louis Napoleon
was theh thirty-two years of age.  At midnight he was led
from the Conciergerie, and placed in a carriage, to be conveyed
to the Castle of Ham, which had been selected as his living
tomb. He was not allowed to take leave of any of his companions; and his
removal was conducted with the utmost secrecy, to prevent any popular
demonstration. His two devoted fiiends, Count Montholon and Dr. Conneau, implored so earnestly that they might be permitted to share the captivity of the prince by being confined in the same fortress, that the government granted their request.
The Fortress of Ham is situated in a small town of the same name, about
ninety miles north-east of Paris. It stands in the centre of an extensive,
treeless plain, much resembling the vast prairies of our own country. The
main part of this gloomy castle was built about four hundred years ago,
though there are portions of the wall which have witnessed the lapse of more
than a thousand years. The fortress consists of a quadrangle, surrounded by
massive walls, with round towers at each of the angles. One of these towers
is one hundred feet in diameter, with walls thirty feet thick; and it rises to
the height of a hundred feet. The dark and sombre pile, buttered by the
storms of centuries, reminds the beholder forcibly of the days of feudal
tyranny and power. There is but one entrance; which is by a gate in the
north-eastern wall, which is strongly protected.
In the interior of the enclosure there are two low, dilapidated brick buildings, serving as barracks for the garrison, which consisted of four hundred men.
Sixty of these were constantly on duty, carefully guarding the exterior as
well as the interior of the fortress. The end of one of the brick buildings
was used as a states-prison. It contained one or two wretched rooms, low
and damp, separated from the wall of the fortress but by a few feet. There
184




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THE NEPHEW  AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.   185
was, consequently, but little circulation of air; and but few rays of light could
enter the dismal apartments.
In addition to the military guard, there was a large number of doorkeepers,
turnkeys, and other subordinates, to whom the care of the person of the prince
was particularly intrusted. The commandant of the fortress, M. Demarle,
was a very kind-hearted, gentlemanly man, who treated the captive prince
with the highest personal regard; but who, in strict obedience to orders, took
such precautions to secure his prisoner as to render his escape apparently
impossible.
The apartments assigned to the prince were in a deplorable condition of
decay.  The ceiling was cracked and dropping. The doors and windows,
rickety with age, could not be closed so as to exclude the severity of the
weather. Mouldy paper hung in tatters upon the' walls. The floor was
paved with brick, which, by the ravages of time and beneath the foot-falls of
misery, had become uneven and broken.  Seven francs a day, or one dollar
and forty cents, were allowed for the food and other needful expenses of the
prisoner.
Such was the abode to which the favorite nephew of the Emperor Napoleon
was consigned, and from which, according to the sentence of his judges, he was
never to emerge till his body should be borne out to its burial. His crime
was the attempt to overthrow, by c revolution, a government which had
been imposed on the French people without the consent of the people; cnd to
restore to them the privilege of choosing, by universal suffrage, any form  of
government which they might prefer.  No impartial man will deny this statement. But from the same facts different judgments are formed.  Some will
say, that, in this attempt to overthrow by violence the government then
actually existing in France, Louis Napoleon committed a great crim'e, and
deserved the severest punishment; others will say that this attempt was
heroic, and merited the gratitude of the French people. Alas for the infirmity of human judgment! There are millions of the wisest and the best
arrayed on either side of this question.
It is an interesting fact, illustrative of the amiable character and personal
attractions of the prince, that his valet, Thelin, who had served him for several years, who had accompanied him  on his expedition, but who had been
acquitted by the court, implored permission to accompany his young master
to his prison. This faithful old servant, in childhood, had been a page in the
service of the Empress Josephine. After the marriage of Hortense, he was
transferred to her household, and inspired her with so much confidence, that
he was placed at the head of the domestic establishment of the Queen of
Holland. He gave so many proofs of devoted attachment to her service, as
to receive from her many testimonials of the esteem with which she regarded
him. Hortense, upon her death-bed, expressed the desire that Thelin would
always remain in the service of her son. This wish he religiously fulfilled.
At Arenemberg, at London, at Strasburg, at Boulogne, in the cells of the
Conciergerie, and beneath the gloomy wall of the Fortress of Ham, Thelin was
found, consecrating his life, with never-abating zeal, to the service of the
24




186                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
kindest of masters. The prince gave him the title of friend; and never was
that title better merited.*
The Countess of Montholon also implored and obtained permission to share
the captivity of her husband. Thus there was a small household who became
the companions of the prince in the wretched rooms of the prison, enduring
with lhim the weary hours of prison life. Louis Napoleon, with Dr. Conneau
and his faithful valet Charles Thelin, occupied one end of the brick building
of which we have spoken: the Count and Countess of Montholon had apartments in another quarter.
The evening before the prince left the Conciergerie for Ham, he wrote the
following note to NI. Berryer, who had so eloquently advocated his cause: —
" MY DEAR MONSIEUR BERRYER, -I will not quit my prison in Paris without renewing to you all my thanks for the noble services which you have rendered me. As soon as I learned that I was about to be brought for trial before
the Court of Peers, I had the idea of asking you to undertake my defence,
because I knew that your independence of character placed you above all the
petty influence of parties, and that your heart was ever open to the claim of
misfortune, as your spirit was able to comprehend  v           thoht, every grat thought, every
noble sentiment. I chose you out of esteem. Now I take leave of you with
sentiments of gratitude and friendship.
"  know not what fate may have in reserve for me. I know not if I shall
ever be in a position to prove to you my gratitude.  I know not even if you
would consent to receive any proofs of it.  But whatever may be our respective positions, apart from politics and their painful obligations, we can
always entertain feelings of esteem and fiiendship for one another. And I
declare to you, that, if my trial had no other result than to obtain for me your
friendship; I should consider myself immensely the gainer by it, and should
not complain of my fate.
"Adieu, my dear Monsieur Berryer! Receive the assurance of my sentiments of esteem and gratitude.          "Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
The days, weeks, months, of dismal captivity now passed sadly away.
There is something truly sublime in that fortitude of soul which enables a man
serenely to bear up against the greatest calamities time can bring upon him.
As usual, the prince sought consolation in study. For six years, in the strictest seclusion, he devoted his hours to unremitting intellectual toil. He was
ever tasking his energies upon the profoundest topics which can engross human
attention. Already a thorough student, with a mind disciplined to the closest
application, fond of severe thought, familiar with the languages of France,
Italy, Germany, and England, there were open to his researches the philosophy
and the science of the world.  Well does Alison say in allusion to these
events, -
"Many a man who has ultimately risen to greatness has traced it to the fortunate calamities which, for a season, chained him to thought and study and
* Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Renault, p. 127.




THE NEPHEW  AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.   187
reflection.  Prince Louis was no exception to this rule; and mucl  of the
splendor of his future career may be traced to an event, which, for the present
seemed to have blasted his hopes." *
He was permitted to correspond with his friends; though all the letters
which he sent or received were read by the commandant of the fortress.  He
also Wrote many articles for the journals, which were, however, subject to the
same supervision. Occasionally, he succeeded in sending out a communication
secretly.  The prince immediately entered upon the methodical arrangement
of his time. He rose at an early hour, and studied until ten o'clock. He then
breakfasted; and after breakfast walked half an hour, for exercise, on the parapet of the fortress.  There was allotted to him here a small space of ground,
one hundred feet long and about sixty broad, up and down which he could
pace, watched by numerous sentinels, and with a guard at his side accompanying every step. Sometimes he devoted his attention to the cultivation of a
few flowers, for which he had found a little soil along the ramparts.  He then
returned to his room, and employed himself; until dinner-time, in correspondence and reading and other literary labors.  Dinner was at a late hour; after
which the evening was spent in conversation with his companions in captivity,
and often in a game of whist.t
If any of the friends of the prince desired admission to the castle to visit
him, it was necessary first to make application to the Minister of the Interior,
fiom whom  a permit could be obtained only with great difficulty.  Having
secured this, notwithstanding the signature of the minister, it was necessary
to present itoto the commissary of police of the village of Ham.  This officer
was expressly required to practise the utmost vigilance in permitting any one
to visit the illustrious captive. The Fortress of Ham, the village, and all the
routes leading there, were occupied by government spies, watchful to detect
any suspicious movement; as it was feared that there might be a popular
uprising for the liberation of the prince.
Indeed, but a few months after the gates of the fortress closed upon its captive, the alarm was given that two thousand workmen, from the plain of St.
Denis, had conspired to march to Ham to rescue the nephew of the emperor.
Quite a panic was created.  All the gendarmery of the immediate neighborhood were summoned to the spot.  Squadrons of cavalry came clattering
down from  Amiens; artillery w"as rushed over the road from La Fere; thousands of troops were put in motion; while the prince, all unconscious of the
tumult which this false alarm had created around the castle-walls, was quietly
pursuing his silent and solitary studies, and cultivating his flowers. +
A  month after his imprisonment, the prince wrote the following letter to
the distinguished advocate who had been the special counsel of Count Montholon at the trial. It was dated Nov. 21, 1840:* Alison, iii. 251.
t " It was amusing to see the brave and stern Cerberus who guarded with great severity and
rigor every outlet of the castle during the day, after having locked up every body and every thing
for the night, put his keys in his pocket, throw off his fierce visage, repair to the apartment of
the prince, and spend the evening with him in the most cordial and friendly companionship."
t Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. R6nault, p. 131.




r
188                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" MY DEAR MONSIEUR FERDINAND BARROT, — I avail myself of this opportunity to solicit you to obtain the insertion, in some journal, of the accompanying letter which General Montholon has written. I should like to have it
published about a week before the reception of the ashes of the emperor, and
that no one should know that it came from this place. If you reply to this,
please make no allusion to having received this letter, for I send it by secret
conveyance; and all the letters which I write or receive are read.
"I cannot congratulate myself upon my situation here.  Nevertheless, I
should be willing to be in a still more deplorable condition, if that could promote the sympathy of my fellow-countrymen, and serve my cause, which I
believe to be that of popular interests and of European civilization.
" I know that they wish to send me to America, because my presence here
disquiets them. In the army, especially, there is much sympathy for me. But,
as my transportation to America would be an illegality, I hope that my fiiends
will protest against it."
When the question was decided in France to demand of England the
remains of the Emperor, Louis Napoleon was an exile in London. General
Bertrand had received of the dying emperor his arms, consisting of the sword
he wore at Austerlitz, two pair of pistols of rich workmanship, the sword he
wore at the Champ de MIai, a sabre which had belonged to Sobieski, and a
poniard formerly given by the Pope to the Grand Master of Malta. These
relics General Bertrand was directed by the dying father to convey to his son
the Duke of Reichstadt.  It is said that the death of the duke prevented
the fulfilment of this sacred mission. Joseph Bonaparte and Louis Napoleon
wished, at the time of the removal of the ashes of the emperor, to make a present of these arms to the French nation.
General Bertrand was therefore authorized by them to convey the weapons
to the Governor of the Invalides, that they might be deposited in that national
edifice, or in some other public monument, as the Column of Vendome. But
Louis Philippe was very unwilling that the family of the emperor should take
any part in the grand national drama which was about to be enacted. Iie
therefore, by some diplomatic ingenuity, succeeded in inducing General Bertrand to deliver the arms to him. This conduct called out two very energetic
protests,- one from King Joseph, and the other from Prince Louis Napoleon.
The latter we here give in full: -
" PROTEST OF PRINCE LOUIS NAPOLEON UPON THE SUBJECT OF THE ARMS
OF THE EMPEROR.
"I associate myself with all the intensity of my soul in the protest of my
uncle Joseph. General Bertrand, in delivering the arms of my family to King
Louis Philippe, has been the victim of a strange illusion.
"The sword of Austerlitz ought not to be in hostile hands. It is necessary
that it should yet be brandished in the day of danger for the glory of France.
Let them deprive us of our country; let them retain our property; let them
show themselves generous only to the dead: we shall know how to suffer
without complaining, so long as our honor is not attacked. But to give to
one who rejoices over Waterloo (un heureuzx cde Waterloo) the arms of the




THE NEPHEW  AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALID ES.   189
vanquished is to betray the most sacred duties: it is to force the oppressed to
say to the oppressors,' Restore to us that which you have usurped.'"
On the 2d of December, 1840, but a few weeks after Louis Napoleon had
entered the Castle of Ham  under sentence of perpetual imprisonment, the
two funeral frigates which had been sent to St. Helena, and which brought
back the remains of the emperor, entered the harbor of Cherbourg.  As this
event is so intimately connected with the restoration of the empire, it deserves
minute mention.  The writer         tusts that he may be excused for describing it
in terms essentially the same as those which he has used on another occasion.
The two ships sailed from France on the 14th of September, and cast anchor
in the harbor of St. Helena on the 8th of October.  They were received with
friendly salutes from the forts, and also fiom  the English ships of war which
were in the roadstead awaiting the approach of the French vessels.  The 15th
of October was the anniversary of the arrival of the august prisoner at this
dreary rock. This day was appointed for the exhumation of his remains.
Precisely at midnight, the British royal engineers, under direction of the
Governor-General of St. Helena, and in presence of the French and English
commissioners, commenced their work.
After nine hours of uninterrupted labor, the earth was dug from  the vault,
the solid masonry removed, and the heavy slab which covered the internal
sarcophagus was lifted by means of a crane.  Prayers were then offered; and,
with uncovered heads, the coffin was carefully raised, and conveyed to a tent
which had been prepared for its reception. With religious awe, the three
coffins of mahogany, lead, and tin, were opened; and, upon carefully lifting a
white satin veil, the body of the emperor was exposed to view.  The remains
had been so effectually protected from dampnds and the air, that, to the surprise of all, the features were so little changed, that they were instantly recognized by all who had known the emperor.*  His military dress exhibited but
slight decay; and he seemed to repose in marble beauty, as if he were asleep.
The emotion experienced by all was deep and unutterable.  Many burst into
tears.  The hallowed remains were exposed to the external air less than two
minutes, when the coffins were again closed and soldered with the utmost care.
They were then placed in the massive ebony sarcophagus which was brought
from Paris, and which was also protected by a strong box of oak.
In the mean time, clouds darkened the sky, the rain fell in torrents, dense
sheets of mist enveloped the crags in almost midnight gloom, and a dismal
tempest wailed its dirges over the gloomy rock.  Minute-guns from  the forts,
and from the ships in the harbor, blended their thunders with the sublime
requiem of the ocean and of the sky.  Still, nearly all the inhabitants of St.
Helena, regardless of the deluging storm, were at the grave, and followed in
the procession from the tomb to the ships.  The funeral-car was drawn by
* "The solitary tomb under the willow-tree was opened, the winding-sheet rolled back with
pious care, and the features of the immortal hero exposed to the view of the entranced spectators. So perfectly had the body been embalmed, that the features were undecayed, the countenance serene, even a smile on the lips, and his dress the same (since immortalized in statuary)
as when he stood on the fields of Austerlitz or Jena." - Alison, vol. iii. p. 251.




190                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
four horses, each led by a groom; while eight officers walked by the side of
the hearse.
All the naval, military, and civil authorities of the island accompanied the
remains, with crape on the left arm; and by the express invitation of the
governor, who was the successor of Sir Hudson Lowe, all the gentlemen of
the island were invited to attend in mourning. The whole military force of
St. Helena, consisting of the regular soldiers and the militia, was also called
out to honor those marvellous obsequies, in which repentant England surrendered Napoleon to France.  As the vast procession wound slowly round
among the rocks, the most soul-subduing dirges of martial bands blended
with the solemn booming of minute-guns and with the roar of the elements.
The streets of Jamestown were shrouded in crape; the yards of the shipping
apeak, and all their flags at half-mast. Napoleon had gone down into the
tomb, denounced by dynastic Europe as a usurper: he emerged from it, after
the slumber of twenty years, acknowledged    an emperor.
At the quay where the English lines terminated, the Prince de Joinville
had assembled around him the French officers, all in deep mourning. As the
car approached, they stood in reverential silence, with heads uncovered. The
car stopped within a few paces of the mourning group. The Governor-General
of St. Helena then advanced, and, in the name of the British Government,
surrendered to France the remains of the emperor.
The coffin was then received beneath the folds of the French flag, exciting
emotions in the bosoms of all present such as cannot be described. From that
moment, the same honors which Napoleon, as emperor, had received while
living, were paid to his remains. Banners were unfurled, and salutes were
fired, as the coffin was conveyed in a cutter, accompanied by a retinue of
boats, to the ship. It was recved on board between two ranks of officers
under arms, and was then placed in a consecrated chapel, constructed for the
purpose, and illuminated with waxen lights. A  guard of sixty men, commanded by the oldest lieutenant, rendered to the remains imperial honors.
The ladies of'St. Helena had offered, as a homage to the memory of the
emperor, a rich banner embroidered with their own hands.  This graceful
token was suspended in the chapel. The affecting scenes of the day were
closed by the appropriate observance of those religious rites which the serious
spirit of the emperor had so deeply revered.
The ships immediately spread sail; and on the 2d of December, the
anniversary of the great victory of Austerlitz, they entered the harbor of
Cherbourg in France.
Three ships of war "- The Austerlitz," "The Friedland," and "The Tilsit "immediately encircled, with protecting embrace, the ship which bore the sacred
relics.  All the forts and batteries, and all the ships of war, fired a salute of
twenty-one guns each. The coffin was then transferred to the steamship
"Normandy," which had been, at great expense and with exquisite taste, prepared for the occasion. A magnificent chapel had been constructed upon the
deck of the steamer, in which chapel the coffin of solid ebony, elaborately
carved in the shape of one of the ancient sarcophagi, was placed, but so
raised as to be conspicuous to all the thousands who would crowd the banks
of the Seine as the funeral cortege ascended to Paris.




THE NEPHEW AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.  191
One single word, NAPOLEON, in letters of gold, was placed upon the face of
this massive and polished sarcophagus. A pall of black velvet, sprinkled with
bees of gold, and bordered with a broad band of ermine, partially draped the
coffin. At each corner was the imperial eagle, embroidered in gold. A very
imposing effect was produced by the number of wax lights and flambeaux,
which, by day and by night, threw  a flood of light upon the sarcophagus.
The imperial crown, which the suffrages of France had placed upon the brow
of the emperor, rested, veiled with crape, at the headc of the coffin. An
armed sentry was stationed in each corner of the open chapel.  At the head
of the coffin stood an ecclesiastic in full canonicals.  Several general officers
were grouped near him.  The Prince de Joinville, son  of the king, Louis
Philippe, stood alone at the foot of the coffin.
Thus the cortege approached the city of Havre.  Watchful eyes had discerned its coming  when  it appeared but as a speck in the blue of the
horizon.  The whole city was instantly in commotion.  Minute-guns were
fired, bells were tolled, dirges from martial bands filled the air.  All business
was suspended.  Every sound was hushed, but the appropriate voices of grief,
as the majestic funeral-ship glided to its appointed station.
At this place, arrangements were made to transfer the remains to a smaller
steamer, by which they were to be conveyed up the River Seine, one hundred
miles, to Paris.  The taste and the wealth of France were lavished in the
attempt to invest the occasion with all possible solemnity and grandeur.
The steamer "Parisian" led the way, filled with the high dignitaries of the
kingdom.  Then followed a second fiigate, with the crew of the ship which
had brought the remains from  St. Helena.  After this came the funeral-barge
with the sacred ashes.   It was richly draped in  mourning, with  the sarcophagus so elevated that every eye could see it.  Ten other steamers composed the unparalleled funeral-train.*
On the morning of the 10th of December, just as the sun was rising in a
cloudless sky, this imposing flotilla of thirteen funeral-barges, saluted by tolling bells, and booming guns, and soul-stirring requiems, left its moorings, and
commenced'the ascent of the river.  The back country on either side for
thirty miles was nearly depopulated, as men, women, and children crowded to
the banks of the stream  in homage to the memory of the man who had so
wonderfully enthroned himself in their hearts.   The Prefect of the Lower
Seine had issued the following proclamation to the inhabitants:* "A man, a reign, a system of government, if they no longer exist, are to be judged by the
permanence of the regret caused by their disappearance. The empire, such as Napoleon instituted it, was then the form of government best adapted to the French nation; since many years
have already passed, during which the French people have been inconsolable for its loss. The
inhabitants of the country, the workmen in the cities, all deplore it; all feel, that, could the
emperor but have attained that peace which was so obstinately refused him, his genius would
have given the most ample satisfaction to all their wants. All recognize in him the most true,
the most just, the most intelligent, and the grandest friend of the cause of the people; and, in
their opinion, it was for them and for all France a fatality that he did not live to give in usefui
realizations the complement of his ismperial thoughts." - Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, President de la Republique, par B. Renault, p. 259.




192                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" FELLOW-CITIZENS, - the department of the Lower Seine will be first traversed by the funeral cortege, proceeding, under the direction of his Royal Highness the Prince de Joinville, towards the capital of the kingdom, where
memorable solemnities are to be enacted in the presence of the great bodies
of the State, and illustrated by all the prodigies of art. There is no event in
history which presents itself with such a character of grandeur as that which
accompanies the removal of the remains of the Emperor Napoleon.
"When the vessel containing those venerated ashes shall advance slowly
along the river, you will receive it with that religious feeling and those deep
emotions which are ever produced by the recollection of the misfortunes of the
country, its triumphs and its glory. You will render the last honors to that great
man with the calmness and dignity becoming a population which has so often
experienced the benefit of his protecting power and of his special solicitude."
As the cortege glided slowly along, an innumerable multitude gazed in
silence, but with tearful eyes, upon the sublime spectacle. Every battery
uttered its salute. From  the turret of every village church the knell was
tolled; and there was not a peasant's hut passed on the route which did not
exhibit some testimonial of respect and love. The city of Rouen, containing
one hundred thousand inhabitants, is situated half way between Havre and
Paris.  The sagacious policy of the emperor had contributed much to its
prosperity, and had rendered it one of the chief commercial and manufacturing cities of the realm. " Paris, Rouen, and Havre," said he, " shall form one
great city, of which the Seine shall be the main street."  Such were the
objects of his ambition. The Mayor of Rouen, preparing for the reception,
issued the following proclamation to the inhabitants of the city:
"BELOVED  FELLOW-CITIZENS,- After twenty-five years of exile in a
foreign land, Napoleon is at last restored to us. A French prince, the worthy
son of our citizen king, brings back to France what remains of the great
emperor. In a few days, these glorious ashes will rest in peace under the
national safeguard of his glory and the remains of his invincible phalanxes.
A few moments only are allowed to salute the coffin of the hero who caused
the French name to be respected throughout the world: let us employ them
in solemnly manifesting the sympathies which are in the hearts of a population over whom the emperor once extended his powerful and protecting hand.
Let us unite with a religious feeling in the triumphal funeral reserved to him
by the city where his glory and genius are stamped with immortal grandeur."
From  the adjoining country, more than one hundred and fifty thousand
inhabitants had flocked to Rouen. Both banks of the river were richly
decorated; and long galleries had been constructed, draped in costly silks, for
the accommodation of the countless throng. Many pyramids were erected,
covered with purple satin, and spangled with golden tears.
Upon the base of these pyramids were inscribed the names of the principal battles of the empire.  A  triumphal arch,.of majestic proportions,
covered also with silk, and brilliantly decorated with bees of gold, spanned




THE NEPHEW  AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.   193
the stream.  Twenty thousand yards of silk were used in this structure, and
thirty-six thousand bees.  Two ships of honor, imposingly decorated and
covered with the flags of all nations, were so stationed that the funeral-procession of steamers might pass between them.  The bridges of Rouen were
embellished with the highest decorations of art; and fiom  every steeple and
turret, and from almost every window, of the city, tricolor banners were floating in the breeze.
Before mid-day, all the inhabitants of the city and its environs were assembled, -  cuirassiers, judges and advocates, ecclesiastics, the National Guard
with drooping banners draped in mourning, students, members of the Legion
of Honor, retired officers, the veteran and wounded soldiers of the old armies,of the empire, fifteen hundred in number, —all at their appointed stations.
As these veterans, torn and battered by the storms of war, traversed the
streets in long military array, many of them  in extreme old age, and all of
them bearing in their hands crowns of immortelles and laurel, marching with
reversed arms and to the mournful music of the muffled drum, their eyes
moistened with tears, and their faces flushed with inexpressible emotion, they
were greeted with that fervor of enthusiasm which bursts from the soul when
moved to its profoundest depths.
Just at noon of a serene and brilliant day, the funeral-procession of steamers made its appearance, moving noiselessly and majestically along the mirrored
surface of the river.  A peal of artillery from ships, batteries, and the cannon
of the National Guard, announced its approach.  The speed of the boats was
sleckened, that the spectators might have a better opportunity to witness the
imposing pageant.  On reaching the suspension-bridge over which rose the
triumphal arch, the imperial barge paused for a while; and the veterans, defiling
along, cast their crowns of flowers at the foot of the coffin, while with trembling voices they shouted, " Vive l'Enpereur! "
The barge passed under the arch, and took its station in the centre of a
circle, surrounded by the remainder of the steamers.  The archbishop read
the burial-service, accompanied by the tolling of bells, the boom  of cannon,
and requiems from the bands.  Immediately after this act of homage to the
dead, a salute from the shore announced that the ceremony would henceforth
assume a triumphal character. It was now to be understood that the emperor
had returned to his grateful people, and was to be received as if still living.
The bells rang out tleir merriest peals; all the bands played national airs;
the troops presented arms; the artillery-men of the National Guard fired one
hundred and one rounds: and though all eyes were dimmed with tears, and
all voices were tremulous with emotion, the clangor of bells, the thunder of
artillery, and the peal of trumpets, were drowned in the shouts of "Vive
l'Empereur!"  It was the acclaim  of an enfranchished people assuming the
final triumph of popular suffrage in the re-enthronement of the monarch of
the people's choice.
The same evening, the procession moved on towards the excited, throbbing, expectant metropolis. The banks of the Seine, from Havre to Paris, are
thickly strewn with cities and villages.  As the flotilla passed along, it was
continually receiving every possible demonstration of attachment to Napo25




194                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
leon, and of national rejoicing at the recovery of his remains. The shores
were lined with spectators, and the inhabitants of every district did all in
their power to invest the scene with splendor. Thousands flocked from Paris
to witness a spectacle so impressive and sublime.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th, the flotilla arrived at Courbevoie, a small village about four miles from Paris. Here the remains were to
be transferred from the steamer to the shore. A vast multitude from the metropolis andc its environs thronged the village to witness the imposing pageant.
A colossal statue of the beloved Josephine stood upon the shore to greet her
returning husband. At the head of the quay, an immense column was raised,
one hundred and fifty feet high, surmounted by a globe six feet in diameter,
and crowned with an eagle glittering in gold. Upon the base of the bolumn
were inscribed the memorable words, -
"It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the
midst of the French people whom I have loved so well."
A Grecian temple, one hundred feet high, was constructed at the termination
of the wharf, under which the body was to lie in state until transferred to the
funeral-car. Richly-decorated tripods, twenty feet high, emitted volumes of
flame, produciug a very impressive effect. Here Sergeant Hubert, who for
nineteen years had kept watch at the solitary grave of Napoleon at St. Helena,
landed. All the old generals of the empire immediately gathered around him
with cordial embraces, and he was received by the people with deep emotion.
During the night, all the vessels of the flotilla were brilliantly illuminated.
The next morning, as the sun burst forth from the clouds, thousands of lips
exclaimed simultaneously, "It is the sun of Austerlitz!"  For a week, multitudes, not only from the distant cities of France, but from all parts of Europe,
had been arriving to witness this spectacle of unrivalled sublimity.' For a
distance of nearly four miles from the esplanade of the Invalides, along the
Quay d'Orsay, the Bridge of Concorde, the Champs Elysees, the Avenue of
Neuilly, the Bridge of Neuilly, to the Village of Courbevoie, the way was
lined with a countless throng of spectators, and crowded with an indescribable opulence of embellishments.
The excitement of the war-worn veterans of the Invalides amounted almost
to. delirium. The whole National Guard of Paris was drawn out to escort the
remains. The Polish emigrants, many of them men of high distinction, sent
a deputation, earnestly requesting permission to assist in the funeral-ceremonies of the only monarch who had ever expressed sympathy in their cause.
Louis Philippe and all the members of the royal family, and the members
of the Chamber of Deputies and the House of Peers, were gathered beneath
the dome of the Invalides to render homage to the returning emperor. The
embellishments in Paris along the path of the procession surpassed every
thing which had been attempted before. The Arc de Triomphe, at the head
of the Avenue des Champs Elysees, was decorated with most imposing grandeur. A colossal image of the emperor stood upon its summit, looking serenely
down upon his own marvellous triumph. The statue was surrounded by those
banners and eagles which his victories had rendered immortal.
The view from the Are de Triomphe, down the Avenue of the Champs
flysees, was imposing in the extreme. Each side was lined with lofty columns,




THE NEPHEW  AT HA3M; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.   195
surmounted by gilt eagles, and decorated with tricolor flags. Colossal statues,
triumphal arches, immense vases blazing with variegated flames, and the assemblage of a countless multitude of spectators, presented a spectacle never to be
forgotten.
The imperial car was composed of five distinct parts,    the basement, the
pedestal, the Caryatides, the shield, and the cenotaph.  The basement rested
on four massive gilt wheels. This basement, which was twenty-five feet long
and six feet high, and all the rich ornaments with which it was profusely embellished, were covered with fiosted gold.  Upon this basement stood groups
of cherubs seven feet high, supporting a pedestal eighteen feet long, covered
with burnished gold. This pedestal, elevated thirteen feet fiom the ground,
was constructed with a heavy cornice richly ornamented. It was hung in
purple velvet, falling in graceful drapery to the ground, embroidered with
gold, and spotted with bees.  Upon this elevated pedestal stood fourteen
Caryatides, - antique figures larger than life, and entirely covered with gold,
— supporting with their heads and hands an immense shield of solid gold.
This shield was of oval form, eighteen feet in length, and was richly decorated with all appropriate ornaments. Upon the top of this shield, neayly
fifty feet from the ground, was placed the cenotaph, an exact copy of Napopoleon's coffin. It was slightly veiled with purple crape embroidered with
golden bees.  On the cenotaph, upon a velvet cushion, were placed the sceptre, the sword of justice, the imperial crown in gold and embellished with
precious stones. Such is a general description of this funeral-car, the most
sumptuous that was probably ever constructed.
The car was drawn by sixteen black horses, harnessed four abreast. These
steeds were profusely caparisoned in cloth of gold. White plumes adorned
their heads and necks. Sixteen grooms, wearing the imperial livery, led the
horses.
At half-past nine o'clock in the morning, after prayers had been read over
the body, twenty-four seamen raised the coffin on their shoulders, and, following the procession of the clergy, conveyed it fiom the ship to the Grecian
temple.  There it was deposited for a short time, when the clergy again
chanted prayers. The seamen then again took up their precious load, and
conveyed it to the triumphal car. It was placed in the interior of the vehicle, its apparent place being occupied by the cenotaph upon the summit of
the shield.
As the car commenced its solemn movement, the sun and moon were both
shining, gilding with extraordinary splendor this sublime scene. No language
can describe the enthusiasm  inspired as the car passed slowly along, surrounded by the five hundred sailors who had accompanied the remains from
St. Helena, and preceded and followed by the most imposing military array
which the kingdom of France could furnish. More than a million of people
were assembled along the line of march to welcome back the emperor. All
the bells were tolling; and, blending with the music of innumerable bands
and the booming of minute-guns, there were heard sweeping along the lines,
fiom ten thousand tongues, like the roar of many waters, the thrilling strains
of the Marsellaist Hymn.




196                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The Church of the Invalides was transformed almost into a fairy palace.
The walls were draped with violet velvet studded with golden stars, and
bordered with heavy gold fiinge.  The eight columns which support the
dome were covered with velvet studded with golden bees.  Beneath its
lofty dome, where the tomb of Napoleon was to be erected, —a tomb which
would cost millions of money, and which would require the labor of years,
-a magnificent cenotaph was reared in the form  of a temple superbly
gilded.
This temple was pronounced by all judges to be one of the happiest efforts
of decorative art.  Here the remains of the emperor were, for a season, to
repose.  Thirty-six thousand spectators were seated on immense platformls on
the esplanade of the Invalides.  Six thousand spectators thronged the seats
of the spacious portico.  In the interior of the church were assembled the
clergy, the members of the two Chambers of Deputies and of Peers, and all
the members of the royal family, and others of the most distinguished personages of France and of Europe.  As the coffin, preceded by the Prince de
Joilville, was borne along the nave upon the shoulders of thirty-two of Napoleon's Old Guard, the whole audience rose, and bowed in homage to the
mighty d(ead. Louis Philippe, surrounded by the great officers of state, then
stepped foirward to receive the remains.
"Sire," said the Prince de Joinville, "I present to you the body of the
Emperor Napoleon."
"I receive it," said the king, "in the name of France."  Then taking from
the hand of Marshal Soult the sword of Napoleon, and presenting it to General Bertrand, he said, "General, I charge you to place this glorious sword of
the emperor upon his coffin."
Thle king then returned to his throne, the coffin was placed in the catafalque, and the last wish of Napoleon was gratified. The funeral-mass was
then celebrated.  The King of France sat upon one side of the altar, accompanied by the queen and all the princes and princesses of the royal family.
The ministers and the marshals of the kingdom, the Archbishop of Paris with
his assistant bishops and clergy, and all the prominent civil and military
authorities of France, gathered reverentially around the mausoleum  in this
sublime act of a nation's love and gratitude.  As the soleimn  strains of
Mozart's Requiem, performed by three hundred musicians, floated through tle
air, every heart was intensely moved.  Thus ended a ceremony, which, in all
the elements of moral sublimity, has had on earth no parallel.
"Finally," says Alison, "the coffin, amidst entrancing 1melody, was lowered
into the grave, when every eye in the vast assembly was wet with tears, and
the bones of Napoleon'finally reposed on the banks of the Seine, amidst the
people whom he had loved so well.' Such was the excitement produced by this
heart-stirring spectacle, that it seriously shook the government, and revealed
the depths of the abyss on the edge of which they stood when Prince Louis
made his descent at Boulogne.  Not only in the countless miultitudes lwhich
issued fiom  the fauboturgs, but in some battalions of'tle National Guard,
were heard the cries of'Vive l'Empereur!'  No one exclaimed,'Vive




THE NEPHEW AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.  197
le Roi!'  One only thought, the recollections of the empire, absorbed every
mind." *
While the remains of the emperor were being thus received, Prince Louis
Napoleon, the favorite nephew of the emperor, the heir of whatever political
rights the  emperor could transmit, the grandson  of Josephine, was il the
prison of Ham.  The emotions with which he listened to the recital of the
reception which had swept France with flames of enthusiasm  may in some
degree be conceived from the following address, or rhapsody, which he penned
in his prison, and which was widely circulated in the journals of France:"TO THE MANES OF THE EMPEROR.                        "CITADEL OF HAM, Dec. 15, 1840.
"  ire, -  You return to your capital, and the people in multitudes hail your
return; but I, fiom  the  depths of my dungeon, can discern but a ray of that
sun which shines upon your obsequies.
"Be not displeased with your family because they are not there to receive
you.  Your exile and your misfortunes have ceased with your life; but ours
continue still.
"You have died upon a rock, far from  your country and your kindred: thel
hand of a son has not closed your eyes. Even to-day, no relative will follow
your bier.
"MIontholon, whom  you loved the most among your faithful companions,
has rendered you the service of a son.  He remains faithful to your thought,
* History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I. to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, vol.
iii. p. 253.
Napoleon I. has been so traduced, that many wonder why France should cling,so affectionately to his memory. But even his enemies were at times constrained to do justice to his name.
Witness the following extracts from "The History of the Peninsular War," by Colonel Napier,
a British officer who fought against Napoleon under the Duke of Wellington:"Napoleon was warred against, not, as they pretended, because he was a tyrant and a usurper,
for he was neither; but because he was the powerful and successful enemy of aristocratic privilege." -   apier, vol. iv. p. 260.
" Self had no place in his policy, save as his personal glory was identified with France and her
prosperity. Never before did the world see a man soaring so high, and devoid of all selfish
ambition." - Ibid., vol. iv. p. 331.
" Napoleon's powerwas supported in France by that deep sense of his goodness as a sovereign,
and that admiration for his genius, which pervaded the poorer and middle classes of the people;
by the love which they bore towards him, and still bear for his memory, because he cherished the
principles of a just equality.  They loved him also for his incessant activity in the public service,
for his freedom from all private vices, and because his public works, wondrous for their number,
their utility and grandeur, never stood still.  To France he gave noble institutions, a comparatively just code of laws, and glory unmatched since the days of the Romans." - Ibid., vol.
iv. p. 228.
"The troops idolized Napoleon. Well they might. And to assert that their attachment commenced only when they became-soldiers is to acknowledge that his excellent qualities and greatness of mind turned hatred into devotion the moment he was approached. But Napoleon never
was hated by the people of France. He was their own creation; and they loved him so as monarch never was loved before." - Ibid., vol. iv. p. 229.
" Napoleon's ambition was for the greatness and prosperity of France, for the regeneration of
Europe, for the stability of the system which he had formed with that end; never for himself
personally. And hence it is that the multitudes of many nations instinctively revere his
memory."-Ibid., vol. iv. p. 358.




N- -
198                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
to your last' wishes: he has brought to me your last words: he is in prison
with me.
" A French vessel conducted by a noble young man went to claim your
ashes; but it is in vain you would seek upon the deck any one of your kin:
your family was not there.
"In landing upon the soil of France, an electric shock was felt. You raised
yourself in your coffin; your eyes, for a moment, re-opened; the tricolor flag
floated upon the shore: but your eagle was not there,
"The people press, as in other times, upon your passage; they salute you
with their naclamations as if you were living: but the great men of the day,
in rendering you homage, in suppressed voice say,'Godgracnt that ke may not
awake'
"You have at length again seen those French (ces Francncais) whom you
loved so well; you have returned into that France which you have rendered
so great: but the foreigner hlas left traces there which all the pomp of your
return does not efface.
"See that young army! they are the sons of your veterans; they venerate
you, for you are their glory: but it is said to them,' Fold your arms!'
"Sire, the people, they are the good material which covers our beautiful
country; but these men whom you have made so great and who were so
small a-h, sire, do not regret them!
"They have denied your gospel, your ideas, your glory, your blood: when
I have spoken to them of your cause, they have said to us,'We do not
understand it.'
"Let them say, let them do: of what consequence to the rolling car are the
grains of sand crushed beneath the wheels?  They have vainly said that you
were a meteor which leaves no traces; they have vainly denied your civil
glory: they will not disinherit us.
" Sire, the 15th of December is a great cay for France and for me. From
the midst of your sumptuous cortege, disdaining the homage of many around,
you have for an instant cast your eyes upon my gloomy abode; and, remembering the caresses which you lavished upon my infancy, you have said to me,'Thou suffei'est for me, fiiend: I am satisfied with thee.'"
It will be remembered that the prince, while in London, was a fiequent
visitor at Gore Ilouse, the residence of the Countess of Blessington. Here
he met, in the brilliant receptions of the countess, the most distinguished men
for genius and learning fiom  many lands. In the year 1828, the countess
made the acquaintance of Queen Hortense in Italy, and became her intimate
friend.  Louis Napoleon was thn in his twentieth year; and Lady Blessington
says that she never witnessed more tender and devoted attachment than that
which existed between Hortense and her son. In one of her letters, speaking
of the prince, she writes, -
"I-e is a fine, high-spirited youth, admirably educated and finely accomplished, uniting to the gallant bearing of a soldier all the politeness of alpreux
chevalier.  But how could he be otherwise, brought up by such a mother'?
* (Euvres de Napoleon III., tomn. premier, pp. 435-439.




THE NEPHEW  AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.   199
Prince Louis Bonaparte is beloved and esteemed by all who know hilni; and
is said to resemble  his uncle, Prince Eugene Beauharnais, no less in person
than in mind, possessing his generous nature, personal courage, and high sense
of honor." *
In reply to a letter from Lady Blessington, Louis Napoleon, on the 13th
of January, about three months after he had entered his prison, wrote to her
as follows:"MY LADY, - I have only to-day received your letter of the 1st of January,
because, being in English, it had to be sent to the minister at Paris to be
read. I am very sensible of your kind remembrance; and it is with regret
that I find that your letters hitherto have not reached me. I have only
received fromr Gore House one letter, - from Count d'Orsay, - which I immediately replied to whilst at the Conciergerie.  I very much regret it should
have been intercepted; because in it I expressed all the gratitude I felt for
the interest he took in my misfortunes.
"I will not give you an account of all I have suffered. Your poetic soul
aiid your noble heart have already divined all the cruel circumstances of a
position where defence has limits impassable; and justification, compulsory
reserve.  Under such circumstances, the only consolation for all. the calamities and rigors of fate is to hear from the depths of one's heart in absolving
voice: it is to receive testilonials of sympathy fiom  those rare beings
(natures exceptionelle), who, like you, madam, are distinguished fiom the crowd
by the elevation of their sentiments, by the independence of their character,
and wllo do not depend in their affections and their judgment upon the
caprices of fortune and the dispensations of fate.
"I have been for the last three months in the Fortress of Ham with General Monthoolon and Dr. Conneau. All conmmunication'with the exterior is
forbidden.  No one, as yet, has been able to obtain permission to come and
see me.  I will send you one of these days a view of the citadel, which I
copied fromn a small lithograph; for you may be well aware that I know nothing of the fortress as seen from without.
"Mvy thoughts often go back to the spot in which you dwell; and I recall
with pleasure the moments which I have passed in your amiable society,
which Count d'Orsay still embellishes with his spirited and open-hearted
gayety (sa spirituelleet franche gaicte).  Nevertheless, I have no desire to go
from the spot where I am; for here I am in my place.  With the name I bear,
I must be in the seclusion of a dungeon or in the brightness of power.
"If you will deign, madam, to write to me occasionally of the details of
society in London, you will confer upon me a great pleasure."
The captivity of the prince was every day exciting more attention, and
creating deeper and wider-spread sympathy.  The liberal press took every
occasion to represent him  as the symbol of social renovation.  HIe was regarced by the ruling powers in France very much as his illustrious uncle
had been regarded by the allies, who held him  so firmly at St. Helena.  The
* Madden's Memoirs of Lady Blessington; also MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 104.




200                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
treatment to which the prince was subjected was very upnecessarily rigorous.  Count 3]ontholon wrote from the prison, 
"I am  afflicted for the honor of my country, when I reflect that the
emperor was not so badly treated by the English, in an English prison, as is
his nephew by the French, in a French prison." *
The captive prince could not be insensible to the importance of keeping
his name as much as possible before the public. To be buried in silence in
a living tomb, and thus forgotten, would be fltal to all his hopes. After the
imprisonment of three-quarters of a year, he wrote the following protest to
the French Government. In this important paper, as in all his other writings,
it will be perceived that he takes the ground that he has been vanquished by
an antagonistic political party, and that he is held by that party as a captive. The protest, which was dated Citadel of Ham, May 22, 1841, was as
follows:"During the nine months which I have passed in the hands of the French
Government, I have patiently submitted to indignities of every kind. I do
not wish, however,.to keep silence any longer, which would seem  like an
assent to the oppressive measures of which I am the object.
" My position ought to be considered under two points of view; the one
moral, the other legal. As to the first, the government, which has recognized
the legitimacy of the chief of my family, is bound to recognize me as a
prince, and to treat me as such.
"Policy has rights which I do not dispute. Let the government act towards
me as towards an enemy, let it deprive me of the means of injuring it, and I
will not complain; but, at the same time, its conduct will be inconsistent if
it treats me as an ordinary prisoner,- me, the son of a king, nephew of an
emperor, and allied to all the sovereigns of Europe.
"When I thus appeal to foreign alliances, I am not ignorant that they have
never patronized the vanquished, and that misfortune breaks all bonds. But
the French Government ought to recognize the principle which has made me
what I am; f6r it is by this that it exists itself. The sovereignty of the people
made my un'cle an emperor, my father a king, and has made me a French
prince by my birth. Have I not, then, a right to the respect and the regards
of all those for whom the voice of a great people, glory, and misfortune are
any thing?
If, for the first time in my life, I support myself by the accident which
presided at my birth, it is because pride is fitting to my present condition,
and that I have purchased the favors of fortune at the price of twenty-seven
years of suffering and sorrow., "IIn respect to my legal position, the Court of Peers has created for me an
exceptional penalty.
"In condemning me to perpetual imprisonment, it has only legalized the
decree of destiny, which desired that I should become a prisoner of war. It
has endeavored to soften policy by humanity in inflicting upon me punish.
ment the least severe for the longest possible time.
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 106.




THE NEPHEW  AT HAM; THE UNCLE AT THE INVALIDES.   201
"But, in the execution, the government has gone beyond the intentions
which I love to attribute to my judges. Accustomed from  my youth to a
simple life, I do not complain of the inconvenient mediocrity in which I am
placed; but that of which I do complain is being made the victim  of vexatious measures by no means necessary to my safe keeping.
"During the first months of my captivity, every kind of communication
fi'om without was forbidden, and within I was kept in most rigorous confinement: since that, several persons have been permitted to visit me. These
restrictive measures within can no longer have an object; and yet it is when
they have become useless that they are more rigorously enforced.
"All the provisions for the supply of my daily wants are subjected to the
most rigid scrutiny.
"The attentions of my only and faithful servant, who has been permitted
to follow me, are trammelled by obstacles of every description.
"Such a system of terror has been established in the garrison and among
the oficials in the castle, that none dare to raise their eyes to me; and it
requires here much courage for one to be simply polite.
" How can it be otherwise, when a look is considered as a crime, and when
those who wish to softe'n the rigors of my position, without failing in their
duty, are threatened with being denounced to the authorities, and with losing
their places?  In the midst of this France, which the chief of my family has
rendered so great, I am treated like one excommunicated in the thirteenth
century.  Every one flies at my approach, and all seem  to fear my touch as
if my breath even were contagious.
" This insulting inquisition, which pursues me even into my chamber, which
follows my footsteps when I breathe the fiesh air in a corner of the fort, is
not limited to my person alone, but is extended even to my thoughts. The
effusions of my heart, in the letters which I address to my family, are subjected to the most severe control; and, if any one writes to me in terms too
sympatletic, the letter is confiscated, and the author is denounced to the
government.
"  a'y an infinity of details, too long to enumerate, it appears that pains are
taken at every moment of the day to make me sensible of my captivity, and
to cry incessantly in my ears,' Vae victis!'*
"It is important to call to mind that none of the measures which I have
pointed out were put in force against the ministers of Charles X., whose
dilapidated chambers I now occupy.  And yet these ministers were not born
on the steps of a throne, and they were not condemned to simple imprisonment: their sentence implied a more severe treatment than mine; and, in fine,
they (lid not represent a cause which is an object of veneration in France.
"The treatment, then; which I endure, is entirely unjust, illegal, and inhuman.
"If it be supposed that such measures will subdue me, it is a mistake. It
is not outrage, but kindness, which subjugates the hearts of those who know
how to suffer.                           "LouIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
* Woe to the vanquished!
26




CHAPTER XII.
PRISON-LABORS.
Sympathy for the Prince. - Letter to M. Barrot. - Guizot's History of the French Revolution. -
Historical Fragments. - Letter from Chateaubriand: - Invariable Courtesy of the Prince. -
Policy of the Stuarts. - Profound Political Views. - Increasing Sympathy for the Captive.
-Thoughts of Amnesty. -Letter from the Prince.- His Political Principles and Conduct.
IHE prince, in his captivity, found not a few consolations fiom
the sympathy so frequently manifested by those around him.
The dignity of his character, and that native kindness of heart
which he had inherited from his mother, won the respect and the
affection of all within the walls of the fortress.  There was no
one in the environs of the chateau, stricken with calamity, who
cdtlcl appeal to his liberality in vain.  Thus a resistless influence went forth
from him, even through the walls of his prison, which caused his name everywhere to be spoken of, in the region around, with veneration  approaching
idolatry.  The government endeavored, but in vain, to stifle the expression
of these feelings.
The soldiers of the garrison would fiequently approach his windows, ancl
cry, in suppressed voice, "Vive l'Empereur!"  When walking upon the ramparts, the sentinels would watch their opportunity, when, unobserved, they
could present arms to him in token of homage.  The halls and chambers of
the fortress were often found covered with inscriptions written by the sotliels,
expressive of their enthusiasm  in behalf of their illustrious captive.  These
were carefully efficed every morning by order of the prison authorities, only
to appear again the next day.  Those detected in these acts were punished
by being sent to the guard-house; for the government regarded these demonstrations of respect and affection as partial acknowledgments of the claims
of the prince.  Still the soldiers would brave this punishment, which they
often incurred.*
Troops were fiequently passing thrdugh the village of Ham.  Whenever a
regiment entered the town, they showed the most cdcisive marks of interest
in the captive.  Not being permitted to enter the fortress, they would watch
in groups for the appearance of the prince on the ramparts for his daily walk.
As soon as he appeared, he would be greeted with waving of caps and loud
acclaim.  These demonstrations were repeated as often as any new regiment
~* Iistoire complete de Napoleon III., Empereur des Franlais, p. 112.
202




PRISON-LABORS.                               203
arrived.  There was a literary institution in the village of Ham, the teacher
of which wished to inspire his pupils to diligence by the distribution of prizes.
He said,"There is not in the whole department of the Somme so notable a personage
as Prince Louis Napoleon.  Great and small —all are talking of him. I am
about to distribute prizes to my scholars.  Why should I not request him  to
accord some token of approbation to the one he judges most deserving of it?
It will be an encouragement to the whole school." *
He accordingly made a request to this purport to the prince.  In reply,
Louis Napoleon sent him several medals, some of which had been struck off
to commemorate the late return of the emperor: others were in honor of his
victories.  These prizes were, of course, sought for with the utmost avidity.
Several other teachers in the vicinity, hearing of the success of the measure,
also made application to the prince, with a similar result.  These demonstrations of interest in behalf of the prisoner reached the ears of the government,
and caused so much disquietude, that an inspector was sent from  Amiens to
warn the teachers that they were guilty of an offence against the safety of the
State, and that a continuation of the practice would bring clown upon them
condign punishment.  It was also found necessary to make very frequent
changes of the troops in garrison at the fort, in consequence of the sympathy
with which all those were inspired who were brought in contact with the
prisoner.t
The prince, resigning himself to his lot, made such a distribution of his
time as to leave as little leisure as possible for painful thought.  He wrote to
M. Barrot,
"I keep myself occupied, so that I forget my prison and my fetters.  Happiness consists far more-in imagination than in reality; and as I bear within
me an imaginary world, peopled with hopes and recolleotions, I feel myself as
strong in solitude as in a crowd."
Politics, science, history, and military art, in turn, alike engrossed his studies.
He published a pamphlet upon "Fulminating, Priming, and Gun-Carriages.".
This was followed by a treatise entitled "Historical Fragments."  IM. Guizot,
in his "IHistory of the Englishl  Revolution," had endeavored to establish a
parallel between the Revolution of 1688, which placed William  III. on the
throne of England, and that of 1830, which placed Louis Philippe upon the
throne of France.  This, consequently, represented Louis Napoleon as guilty
of a great crime in endeavoring to subvert a throne so well established.  In
reply, the prince published his " Historical Fragments," in a pamphlet of about
one hundred pages.  It was dated "Citadel of Ham, May 10, 1841."  This
was about nine months after the commencement of his imprisonment.  In
the preface to this remarkable work, the prince says, —
"In giving publicity to this extract from  my historical studies, I yield to a
desire to repel unjust attacks by the simple expose of my convictions and my
thoughts.  I am not unaware that silence becomes the unfortunate.  Never* The Early Life of Louis Napoleon, collected from Authentic Records, p. 134.
f Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, sur des Documents particuliers et authentiques, p. 136.




204                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
theless, when the victors abuse their victory in avenging themselves as if
suffering a defeat, - calling to their aid calumny and deception, those arms
of feebleness and of fear,- resistance becomes a duty, and silence would be
cowardice.
"Far be it from  me to recommence a controversy in which the passions
contend with greater success than reason.  It is sufficient for me, in order to
satisfy my honor, to prove, that, if"I have embarked audaciously upon a stormy
sea, it was not without having meditated profoundly upon the causes and the
effects of revolutions; upon the'perils of success, as well as upon the abysses
of shipwreck.
"Whilst at Paris the mortal remains of the emperor are deified, I, his
nephew, am buried alive in a narrow enclosure; but I smile at the inconsistency of men, and I thank I-eaven for having given me as a refuge, after all
my cruel experiences, a prison on the soil of France.  Sustained by an ardent
faith and a pure conscience, I envelop myself in my misfortune with resignation; and I console myself in the present in seeing the future of my enemies
written in ineffaceable characters in the history of all peoples."
No one can read this treatise without being impressed with the serious
thought and the political wisdom which it indicates. A few extracts will give
the reader an idea of its style, and of the principles which it avows:"England, in 1649, was agitated by a great revolution   the head of a king
fell upon the scaffold. The republic was proclaimed: it lasted eleven years.
"In 1660, the son of the beheaded king was brought back in triumph to
London.  Charles II. reigned a quarter of a century; but he left, in 1685, to
his brother, an unsettled power, which James II. could sustain only for three
ears.
"In fine, in 1688, a new revolution established itself as mediator between all
the parties which for forty-eight years had divided England.
"In France, also, we have had a revolution which overthrew the ancient
regime,-a scaffold, a republic, an empire, a restoration, and a new revolution;
but will the year 1830, like the year 1688, be regarded by future generations
as the commencement of a new  era of glory and of liberty?  Such is the
question which interests us.
"The life of a people is composed of complete dramas and of isolated acts.
When one embraces in their entireness the events of the drama, one discovers
the reason for all the facts, the connection of all the ideas, the cause of all
the changes; but, if we consider only the individual acts, these grand social
convulsions appear but as the effect of chance and of human inconsistency.
"In bringing together the detached periods of the history of Great Britain,
without regarding their philosophical connection, we see the English people
adoring the absolute power of Elizabeth, and overthrowing the less arbitrary
power of Charles I.  We see them revolting against that prince for the illegal imposition of certain taxes, and then allowing themselves to be taxed and
governed without control and without right (croit) * by the Long Parliament
* "5We say without right, because neither the Long Parliament nor Cromwell made their
power legitimate by a free election." —NLote by the Prince.




PRISON-LABORS.                               205
of Cromwell. One sees them, in fine, of their own free will abjuring the Revolution at the feet of Charles II., only a little later to curs,, his reign, and overthrow his brother.
" How many contradictions seem to be contained in this superficial glance
at facts! And yet, if we embrace in one general view all the historic drama
which commenced at the sixteenth century, and the denoi'ment of which did
not take Iplace until the end of the seventeenth, we shall see that the English
nation has always wished the same thing; and that she did not rest until she
had obtained the object of her desires, the end of her wishes.  Since the sixteenth century, the English have sought to obtain,"First, and before all, the consolidation of their religious reform, which represented, with tlem, all national interests.
"Secondly, the preponderance of their marine, and, consequently, the aggrandizement of their influence upon the Continent.
"Thirdly, the entire use of their liberties.
"Elizabeth assured the triumph of the cause of Protestantism; she augmented the national glory: her memory was blessed.  The republic and
Cromwell concealed, beneath the shelter of national dignity, their despotic
and exclusive views: they passed away.  The Stuarts equally counteracted
the three grand wishes of the majority of the English: they fell.  William
III. alone assured at the same time religion, glory, and the liberties of his
country: he consolidated his work.
"Thlus, then, it is not chance which rules the destinies of nations; it is not
an unforeseen accident which overthrows or maintains thrones: there is
a general cause which governs events; and facts depend logically one upon
another.
"A government can often, with impunity, violate law, and even liberty; but,
if it do not place itself fiankly at the head of the great interests of civilization, it will have but an ephemeral existence: and the simple philosophical
reason which is the cause of its death is called fatality when one does not
wish to give the true reason.
"There was required for England nearly a century of the struggles of society against the bad passions of power, and of power against the bad passions
of society, to construct that immense British edifice which we have hated,
which we have sought to overthrow, but which it is impossible for us not to
admire.
"As for England, without any doubt, with her antecedents and her organization, the Revolution of 1688 was, at the end of the seventeenth century,
the sincere expression of n:ational verity, and William III. its true representative.  The proof is, that this Revolution has given to England, even to this
day, a hundred and fifty-three years of prosperity, grandeur, and liberty.
"The Revolution of July, 1830,  will it give to France the same advantages?  Tlhe future will resolve that question.  As for us, without wishing to
penetrate the secrets of Providence, let us content ourselves in examining the
causes and the effects of these grand political dramas, and in seeking through
the history of the past for some consolation for our calamities, some hope for
our country."




206                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The second chapter of this treatise contains a brilliant resumie of the character and the reign of James II. and of William  III.  It is replete with eloquent passages, which we should be glad to transfer to our pages did space
permit.  In speaking of the conflict between the Papacy and Protestantism,
bhe says,"In recording the principal facts of the Revolution in England, one born a
Catholic feels a natural reluctance to treat those men with contempt who
maintained that religion in Great Britain; but, in examnining things closely,
wre see that it is just to condemn those, who, by blind zeal and inconsiderate
conduct, compromised and rendered unpopular in England the true doctrine
of Christ in making it the question of a party and the instrument of party
passions.  Their conduct ought to be censured; for never had the Catholic
religion found a situation as favorable as in England to reign by the purity of
its principles and its moral influence. Persecuted by the royal power, it should
have followed the example of the aristocracy, and avenged its wrongs in
placing itself at the head of the national liberties.
"Its position thus to act was admirable; for it was independent of the temporal power, recognizing for its chief only the head of the Universal Church;
while the English held their religious rights and powers from the chief of the
state.  But the Catholic clergy, blinded by worldly interests, were ruined by
allying themselves to the oppressors of the people, instead of joining themselves to the oppressed.  Every enlightened mind saw so clearly that the
Stuarts were ruiining the cause of religion, that Pope Innocent III. loudly
expressed his discontent at the imprudent conduct of James II.; and the cardinals of Rome said playfully,'James II. ought to be excommunicated as
a man who is about to destroy the little of Catholicism which remains in
England.'
"It is no less worthy of notice that the Prince of Orange, chief of the
Protestant league, united in his favor, against a Catholic sovereign, the Pope,
Spain, and the Emperor of Glermany. That proves that one will ally himself
with a cause nobly and boldly advocated, while one will desert even a beloved
cause when it is sustained by folly and cowardice.
"England was about to perish. So much blood shed for liberty, so many
generous efforts to assure the progress of civilization, - could it be that they
should all come to nothing but despotism and shame? One would think such
a result impossible, without being able to divine from what direction safety
was to come; but it was not long before help appeared.
"There was in Holland a man, who, at the age of twenty-two years, had
saved his country against the united forces of France and England; against
armies conducted by the Turennes, the Condes, the Luxembourgs, the Vanbans; and who had saved it by the energies' of his own spirit. When all the
world had despaired of the safety of the United Provinces, he alone, relying
upon the support of the people, replied to the foreign ambassadors who offered
him a humiliating peace,
"' I will defend my country to the last breath, and I will die in the last
intrenchment.'
"William, Prince of Orange, found'imself in Europe the chief of the




PIftSON-LABORS.                            207
Protestant League. He had, then, a double title to the admiration of the English,-his character and his religion.  Since his marriage with the oldest
daughter of James II., then Duke of York, he had occupied himself earnestly
with the interests of Great Britain.  The facts which were passing daily
before his eyes announced to him loudly his duty, and that England was
waiting for him. Penetrated by that profound conviction which impels to
the grandest deeds, he resolved to make a descent upon England, and to
deliver the people from the yoke which oppressed them.
" What were, under circumstances so momentous, the reasons which decided
him to engage in an enterprise so perilous for his glory if he had not succeeded?'Personal ambition,' those exclaim who ever wish to degrade grand
achievements, in attributing to men only vulgar sentiments and sordid passions. No! they are lofty thoughts which preside over grand actions. William might say to himself, 
"'I represent upon the Continent the Protestant cause, which supports
itself upon liberty. That cause enlists the majority of the English nation.
Oppressed, I will go to its defence. At the head of a few troops, I will cross
the Channel in defiance of the fleets of Louis XIV., and I will present myself to England as a liberator. The revolution which I will effect by means
of my army will have this advantage, - that, without endangering the repose
of the country, the national will will be able to manifest itself fieely; for I
shall have sufficient force to restrain all those bad passions which are ever
surging in political convulsions. I will overthrow a government while preserving intact the prestige of authority. I will establish liberty without disorder, and power without violence. To justify my initiative and my personal
intervention in a conflict so momentous, I present to some my hereditary
right, to others my principles, to all the common interests of Protestantism,
and the necessity of opposing the aggrandizement of France: but I will
accept of nothing.but by the fiee vote of the people; for one can never impose hisvishes or his person upon a great nation.'
" Such were the ideas which guided William. All the actions of his life
were applications of these principles."
We cannot refrain fiom  quoting a few paragraphs more of this interesting.and instructive narrative, finding as we do in almost every sentence the utterance of those political principles which have guided the life of Napoleon III.,
and which are the foundations of his power: -
"On the 10th of October, 1688, the Prince of Orange published a manifesto
which contained the enumeration of the principal abuses of the government
of James. From it the proof was evident that James II. had sold to the foreigner the honor and the interests of England, and that he wished to destroy
the laws and the religion of the country.
"The prince presented himself as summoned by a great number of the
clergy, of the nobility, and by the wishes of the people.  He assumed that
the rights of his wife, and his own rights, imposed upon him the obligation to
watch over the safety of the constitution and of religion.  His only intention
was to repair the wrongs which had been inflicted upon them, and to place




208                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the nation in a condition to do itself justice.  To accomplish that, it was
needful that there should be a free parliament, formed, not after the new charter, which had deprived the cities and the villages of their rights, but after
the ancient statutes and usages; for he had not come as a conqueror, but only
that he might second the national will.
"Rarely do great enterprises succeed in the first attempt.  It may be said
that they must always, at first, struggle against obstacles of every kind. WVilliam, after having embarked his army at the Textl, on the 30th of October 
was assailed by a fiightful tempest, which dispersed his flotilla, and ingulfed
the principal resources upon which he had relied.  But nothing could subvert
his perseverance. Ie re-embarked on the 12th of November, and on the 15th
landed at Torbay, upon the soil of England. His standard bore these words,
inspiring to every English heart:"'I will maintain the Protestant religion and the liberties of England.'
"He kept his word. James, upon learning of the debarkation of William,
opened his eyes, revoked a part of the unjust and arbitrary measures lwhich
he had caused to be executed, and disavowed his alliance with Louis XIV.;
but the day had come in which these concessions were only the signal of distress, and in which kings recognize their errors only to expiate them.
"The Prince of Orange arrived in London without encountering obstacles.
The most distinguished families had terrible accounts to demand of James;
the nation, weighty griefs to avenge; and the army could not remain faithful
to a government which had made common cause with the enemies of the
country.  The rallying-cry of the English people was,'A  free pacriament;
no popery, no slavery.'
" The Prince of Orange has succeeded. Will he abuse his triumph, and the
enthusiasm of the people for their liberator?  William  did not come to take
a crown by assault: he came to consolidate the destinies of England.  M2oreover, he overthrew the principle of hereditary right, regarded as inviolable
and sacred. It was not possible for him to combat that sentiment but by
another principle, —that of the sovereignty of the people.  One cn nnot
replace a right acquired and recognized but by another right lawfully acquired and lawfully recognized.
"There were not wanting counsellors who advised him to seize the reins of
power by the right of conquest, as William the Conqueror had done; doubtless forgetting that six hundred years of civilization had placed power in the
national will much more than in the sword. Others also urged him to seize
the crown, in representing to him the dangers of anarchy,    that complaisan:
phantom which serves always as an excuse for tyranny.  William remained
immovable: he did not wish to usurp. 
"The peers and the bishops present in the capital were assembled at Westminster, and had formed a kind of provisional government. They presented
an address, urging him immediately to seize the reins of government.  But to
accept power from the hands of the aristocracy alone, even temporarily, was
not in accordance with the views of William.  He immediately assemnbled all
the members of the two last parliaments held under Charles II., because those
parliaments alone were esteem 3d free; the Chamber of Commons of James




PRISON-LABORS.                           4209
having been elected under the rule of the law which violated the freedom of
elections. He joined to them the lord-mayor, the aldermen, and fifty members of the municipality of London; and, after having united them with the
upper house, he led them to take the most energetic measures to convoke a'free parliament.'
"After having deliberated, the two Chambers met together at St. James,
and entreated the Prince of Orange to accept the government until the convocation of a national assembly. William, thus authorized by all those who
could, in the first moments, represent the nation in a manner the most legal,
charged himself provisionally with the civil and military administration of the
realm, and sent in all directions circular letters, calling for elections to be conducted conformably to the ancient statutes and usages. The troops were
removed from all the points where the elections were to take place. The
grandest order reigned there, as did also the grandest liberty. On the 2d of
February, the Parliament, which took the name of the Convention, assembled
to decide legally the destinies of England.
"In this assembly, all the fundamental questions were freely agitated and
thoroughly discussed. It was adopted as a fundamental principle, that there
existed an original contract between the king and the people; that James II.
had violated that contract, and that the throne was vacant; and that William
and Mary should be chosen King and Queen of Great Britamn, while the administration should be conferred on the prince alone.
"During these grave deliberations, which continued for nearly a month, the
Prince of Orange had preserved an entire neutrality. Considering it his only
duty to maintain order, he had even repressed a petition borne in tumult to
Parliament, although it was in his own favor. Full of reserve and dignity, he
remained impassive in the midst of agitating passions, and entered into no
intrigue, either with the electors or with the members of Parliament. He was
even reproached for his cold and distant manners towards those from whom
he could hope for support; but the great soul of William disdained popularity
acquired by baseness.
" He broke silence only at the end of the deliberations, and announced, that,
if power were not conferred upon him in accordance with his views and his
conscience, he would return to Holland, and leave the Convention to arrange
its affairs itself; preferring, he said, a private life to a condition which would
embarrass him with immense difficulties in depriving him of the necessary
means of being of service to the country.  Sublime declaration of a man of
heart, who did not wish to reign from the love of supreme power, but to
accomplish a mission, and to give triumph to a cause!
"The Convention did not regard it as its duty to limit its work to the choice
of a new king. It joined to the act of the recognition of William a declaration of rights of the English nation, in which all the guaranties which the
nation had claimed in latter years were sanctioned, the royal prerogative
reduced to just limits, and more clearly defined than ever.
"The Prince of Orange acted towards Scotland as towards England. He
convoked a convention in a manner the most favorable for liberty of votes.
This convention conferred upon him the crown, without forgetting to pro27




210                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON IIT.
clnima at the s.ime time the rights of the people. As to Ireland, it was in a
state of revolt against England: he went himself to subdue it.
"Williamn became the legitimate sovereign of the country, because he was
chosen by the fiee suffrage of an assembly; which assembly had been freely
chosen for that object by the nation.  What measures did he adopt to consolidate his throne, - he who, independently of the' embarrassments whiclh a
new government always encounters, was besieged by dangers without number
inherent in the circumstances of the epoch?  AWhat means did he employ to
surmount so many difficulties?  One only; and it sufficed for him.  It was
to remain faithful to the cause of the revolution which had called him, and
to make it triumph in the interior by his justice, and in the exterior by his
courage.
"Let us admire in William his skill in uniting the independence an1l  firmness of a chief with the flexibility of a constitutional king. He yielded every
thing nwhich he could surrender without dishonor, and he held firmly to all
that which lie believed to be essential to the velfare of the country which had
confided to him its destinies.
"The chief of proud Albion was no longer, like Charles II., the vassal of
France: he became one of the arbiters of the fate of Europe; and at the
south as at the north, in the east as in the west, nothing was done without
consulting him.
"The bad disposition of Parliament did not frighten William.  I-e supported himnself upon the people, and knew, that, in awaking national sentiments,
he would sweep away the obstacles which opposed his support of the allies
and of tice grand interests of his country upon the Continent. Public opinion
was not d:low in expressing itself.'We do not wish,' said the English people
in the famous petition of Kent,'to be the slaves of parliaments, any more
than of kings.' William  dissolved the Chambers; and when he convoked
them  anew, on the 13th of December, 1701, he opened the session by a discourse in which he developed all the broadness and nationality of his policy.
"I-e called upon them  to sustain him  in his views, to assure the public
credit, to occupy themselves with the condition of the poor, to encourage
commerce, and to ameliorate the public manners.  He entreated them  not to
aid their common enemy in abandoning upon the Continent the results of all
their efforts. He urged them  to seize the occasion of assuring the preponderance of England in placing themselves in Europe at the head of Protestantism.  In fine, he made an appeal to all the sentiments of honor of the
nation.
"The appeal was not made in vain.  The Chamber of Communes voted
subsidies with unanimity.  The Chamber of Lords showed the same enthusiasm; and the discourse of William was purchased by the people, and firamed
in their cottages, as the most faithful picture of the conquests and the policy
of the Revolution. It was the political testament of William, who died a few
months after, March 8, 1702, but who left life with the internal satisfaction
which a great man experiences who has secured the prosperity, the liberty,
and the grandeur of his country." *
* CEuvres de Napoleon III., tom. premier.




PBISON-LABORS.                              211
Our readers cannot fail to perceive that there is but little resemblance
between these procedures of the Prince of Orange and the course pursued by
Louis Philippe.  Indeed, the contrast between the two is but too striking.
When Louis Napoleon wrote these pages, he was a captive in the Castle of
Ham, doomed to perpetual imprisonment.  But it is manifest that he subsequently copied very closely the example of the Prince of Orange, in his own
elevation, by popular suffrage, to the empire of France.  The French read
these avowals of the political creed of the heir of Napoleon.  It is not strange
that they should have elected him as their sovereign.
Bitterly as Napoleox III. has been assailed, and often in epithets certainly
not selected from the vocabulary of refined and polished life, one may search
in vain the voluminous writings of the emperor to find a harsh expression in
return.  He never allows himself a style of address which would be unbecoming in the most refined society.  Napoleon I., speaking of the coarseness
which often dishonors men of real ability and honesty, saic of one such, "It
is his misfortune more than his fault.  His swaddling-clothes were neither
fine nor clean."  The grandson of Josephine and the child of Hortense could
not but be a gentle man.
Louis Philippe had assumed the throne of France in disregard of popular
suffrage; he had confirmed a decree banishing Prince Louis, and all the ascendants and descendants of the emperor, from France; he had marshalled an army
to drive the prince fiom his secluded home at Arenemberg in Switzerland, and
from the continent of Europe.  An eminent writer, M. Guizot, comes forward
to represent Louis Philippe-as the William of Orange of France. Here, surely,
was some provocation.  Most persons will admire the serenity, the cignity,
the courtesy, of the reply by the imprisoned prince: 
"We have retraced," writes the captive of Ham, "the principal events in
the life of William.  This is sufficient to show how different they are fiom
the facts now transpiring in France under our eyes.  The policy of 1830 is
not the policy of 1688: it is entirely opposed to it.  It is not the system of
William III., but the system of the Stuarts, which, in France, has been taken
as a model.  To prove tlis, let us analyze the causes of the events which agitated England during a period of sixty-three years.
"In retracing this period, so full of interest, of the history of Great Britain,
we shall see how the social evils from 1640 to 1609 are ana!logous to ours in
their st:uggles and their passions; and we shall be led to this sad conclusion,
-that the eleven years which have passed in France since 1830 resemble
those epochs which introduce revolutions, rather than those which end them.
"As it is not a dramatic comparison which we seek, but rather a philosophical one, we think it reasonable to bring together those epochs which are
similar to each other in the ideas which govern society, and by the spirit which
guides power, although the principal events may not be the samle. Of what
consequence is it that the fiames are different,if the pictures we conmpare
have the same colors, and represent the same subjects?"
The two chapters on " The Policy of the Stuarts " are replete with sound
political wisdom, expressed in the most chaste and lucid style.  The whole is
peirvded with'that spirit of charity which is inspired by a recognition of the
frailties, of human nature.




212                "    LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
"Charles I.," he writes, "expiated cruelly his father's faults and his own;
but how  many reasons to excuse his errors!  Educated in the principles
of absolute authority, the example of the kings who preceded him  must
have perverted his judgment, and have led him to regard the just complafints
of the people as factious declamations, and the convulsions of disordered(
society as vulgar seditions.
"The origin of power influences its whole duration.  This William  III.,
who, destitute of the rights of legitimacy, renounced all connection with the
preceding reigns; who, by his character and his noble exploits, had become
the chief of his cause and of the Revolution; who, by a fiee election, had
acquired an incontestable right, - planted deeply in the British soil the bases of
his power.
"The Stuarts had courage, ability, perseverance; but they employed these
qualities in opposing the necessities of the people.  They resisted where they
should have yielded, and yielded where resistance was a duty. They had
perseverance in their hatred, never in their-affection. They were ever wanting
in that virtue which alone can save in the hour of extreme peril, - the impulse of the heart. One can govern society which is tranquil and well regulated with the gifts of the mind alone; but when violence has replaced
right, and the methodic march of civilization has been interrupted, a sovereign can only regain the path which he has lost by taking those grand and
sudden resolutions which the heart alone inspires.
"Here below, all men are more or less actors; but each one chooses his
theatre and his audience, and consecrates all his efforts to obtain the suffrage
of the public he has chosen. The Stuarts were ambitious only to obtain the
praises of a faction and of a foreign sovereign.  William, on the contrary,
placed his glory in meriting the approbation of posterity.
"The example of these unfortunate kings proves, that, when a government
combats the ideas and wishes of a nation, it produces always results opposed
to its projects. The Stuarts wished to re-establish Catholicism: they ruined
it for centuries in England. They wished to elevate royalty: they compromised it. They wished to assure order; and they brought only confusion
upon confusion. It is, then, true to say,
"The greatest enemy of religion is he who wishes to impose it; the greatest enemy of royalty is he who degrades it; the greatest enemy of repose is
he who renders a revolution necessary."
There is probably no reader who will fail to perceive the direct and pungent bearing of the following passages upon the throne of Louis Philippe:"Let us consider, in fine, what would have been the result if the Prince
of Orange, after having dethroned James II. and broken the hereditary principle, had accepted the crown from the last parliament of James II.; and, instead of convoking a national convention, —a free expression of the popular
will,- had held his authority only from  a spurious assembly which had no
right to confer it upon him.
"Suppose that, instead of tearing up the treaties of the Stuarts, lie had implored, as they did, the support and sympathy of foreign powers.
"Suppose that, instead of sustaining, arms in hand, the cause of Pyotestantism upon the Continent, he had abandoned it.




PRISON-LABORS.                                  213'"Suppose that, instead of avenging all the affronts which England had
received, he had retained in London a permanent army more numerous than
the troops of James II., to intimidate Parliament, and to subject it to foreign
humiliations.
"Suppose, in fine, that, instead of assuring the cause of the Revolution of
1688, he had betrayed it; that, instead of elevating the English name, he had
debased it; that, instead of alleviating the burdcens of the people, he had
crushed them  with heavier taxes, without augmenting either their glory, their
commerce, or their industry; that he had restrained liberty without securing
public order': surely a new  revolution would  have become  an  imperious
necessity.
" Let us say, in conclusion, as the result of the study of the epochs which
we have reviewed, that principles are evolved, clear, precise, and applicable to
all countries.  The example of the Stuarts proves that foreign support is
always powerless to save governments which the nation does not adopt; and
the history of England says loudly to kings, -
"'March at the head of the ideas of your age, these ideas will follow  you
and sustain you;
"'Mlarch behind them, they will drag you;
"'March against them, they will overwhelm you."'
The prince sent a copy of this treatise to Chateaubriand.  In reply, he
received the following letter, dated June 16, 1841: —
"PRICE, — In the midst of your misfortunes, you have studied, with as
much sagacity as power, the causes of a revolution, which, in modern Europe,
has opened the way to the calamities of monarchy.* Your love of liberty,
your courage, and your sufferings, would give you every claim in my eyes,
only that, to be worthy of your esteem, I must remain as faithful to the misfortunes of Henry V. as I am to the glory of Napoleon.
"Allow me, prince, to thank you for the extreme honor you have done me
in quoting my name in your fine work.  This precious testimony of your
recollection penetrates me with the most lively gratitude."
The protest of the prince against the inhumanity of his treatment had created much sympathy in his behalf; and the government appropriated one
hundred and forty dollars (!) for the repairing of his dilapidated rooms.  His
* Chateaubriand was entirely devoted to the principle of legitimacy in the transmission of
crowns. He therefore regarded the example of William III., in overthrowing that principle, and
assuming the crown by the right of popular suffrage, as " opening the way to the calamities of
monarchy."  It was by popular suffrage that the empire was created under Napoleon I.: it was
by popular suffrage that it was restored under Napoleon III.
" I am not," said Napoleon I. to Benjamin Constant, " the emperor of the soldiers merely, as
has been affirmed: I am the emperor of the peasants, of the common people of France. As you
see, the people rally around me. Tlhre is sympathy between us, because I am fiom the people;
and the popular fibre responds to my own. Between the'people and me there is the same nature.
They regard me as their support, their savior. I am the man of the people. I have recognized
their sovereignty. I must listen to their will." - Miner'e Fran2aise, 94me licre, torn. Sne, limle
Lettre sur les Cent Jours, par lI. Benjamin Constant.




214                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
political writings were also attracting very considerable attention.  He had
converted the Chateau of Ham into a philosophic retreat, from which he was
addressing, in such strains as we have above recorded, a magnificent audience
of nearly forty millions of Frenchmen.  The government became much embarrassed to know what course to pursue.  The retaining in the glooms of a
prison a young prince, the heir of the great emperor whose memory all France
was adoring with enthusiasni which earth never before had seen equalled,
tended to attract to the prince the profoundest sympathies of the nation.
Under these circumstances, as the months rolled on and the excitement deepened, a pardon was talked of.  Louis Napoleon heard of it.  He wrote to a
friend, a French editor, the following letter, which was widely circulated in
the journals, which, with more or less openness, were advocating his cause:* —
"You tell me that they talk a good deal in Paris about an anunesty; and
you inquire of me what are the impressions produced upon me by that news.
I reply frankly to your question.
"If to-morrow the door of my prison were opened to me, and I were told,'You are free; come and seat yourself as a citizen among the hearths of your
native country; France no longer repudiates any of. her children:' ah! then,
indeed, a lively feeling of joy would seize my soul.  But if, on the contrary,
they were to come to offer me an exchange of my present condition for that
of exile, I should refuse such a proposition, because it would be, in my view,
an aggravation of punishment.  I prefer being a captive on the soil of France
to being a free man in a foreign land.
"Moreover, I know the value of an amnesty granted by the existing authorities.  Seven years ago, after the affair of Strasburg, they came one night, and
snatched me away fiom the tribunals of justice, in spite of my protestations,
and without giving me time to pack up the most necessary articles of apparel.
Thus was I carried two thousand leagues away from  Europe.  After detaining me for some tithe at Rio Janeiro, they took me eventually to the United
States.
"Receiving at New  York the news of the serious indisposition of my
mother, I returned to England.  On arriving there, what was my astonishment to find all the ports of the Continent closed against me, through the
exertions of the French Government! and what was my indignation on learning, that, in order to prevent me from  going to close the eyes of a dying
mother, they had spread abroad, during my absence, the calumniy, so often
repeated and so often denied, that I had promised not to return to Europe!
* "The sympathies of the masses were always with the Bonapartes. Their prayers were
always for that family, wrhose banishment by the men in power —for whom they cherished a
supreme antipathy - they could never pardon. In the powerlessness to manifest the sentiments
of love, admiration, and gratitude, which they cherished in the depths of their hearts, honorable
citizens, to whom indifference under such circumstances seemed a crime, made themselves the
interpreters of the popular will by demanding that the sentence of exile against the relatives of
the emperor should be revoked. Every year since 1832, sid even before, these petitions were
debated in the Chambers; but the government was firmly resolved to pay no regard to the public wishes for the recall of the imperial family." - Histoire d, Prince Louis' Nlapoleon, pcr B.
Renaelt, p. 259.




PRISON-LABORS.                              215
"Deceiving the police authorities of the German States, I succeeded in
making my way into Switzerland, and assisted at a spectacle the most agonizing it is possible for the heart of a son to contemplate.  Scarcely was the
corpse of my mother deposited in its coffin, when the French Government
wanted to have me expselled fiom the hospitable soil in which I had become a
citizen and a proprietor. The Swiss people stood by their rights, and protected me. Nevertheless, wishing to avoid innumerable complications, and
perhaps a collision, I voluntarily quitted-not, however, without bitter regret
-the scenes where my mother, during twenty years, had preserved her French
penctes, and where I had grown to manhood; where, in short, I had so many
friends, that I sometimes almost believed that I was in my own country.
"Such were the results, as far as I was concerned, of the violent amnesty
forced upon me by the government.  Do you think that I can wish to experience a second amnesty at their hands?  Banished for twenty-five years, twice
betrayed by fate, I have experienced all the vicissitudes and sorrows of this
life; and, having got the better of the illusions of youth, I find in the native
air I breathe, in study, in the seclusion of a prison, a charm which I have not
experienced when I participated in the enjoyments of foreign countries, where,
when being vanquished, I had to drink out of the same cup with the conqueror of Waterloo. In a word, I should repeat, supposing that the occasion
presented itself to me, that which I declared before the Court of Peers:' I
will not accept of any generosity; because I know how much it costs.'"
This letter produced great excitement.  The editor of "Le Loiriet" asked
the prince publicly, through his journal, under what title he would be willing
to be received into the great French family, if the doors of his prison were to
be thrown open to him, and. the decree of exile, to which all his family had
been condemned, were revoked.  To this he replied from  his prison, under
date of Oct. 21, 1843,"Sir, I reply without hesitation to the friendly question which you address
to me in your number of the 18th instant. I have never believed, and I never
can believe, that France is the property (clpaanctge) of any man or any family.
I have never pretended to any other rights than those of a French citizen;
and I never shall have any other desire than to see the whole people, legally
convened, choosing freely the form of government which they might think
best to have.
"A member of a family which owes its elevation to the suffiages of the
nation, I should belie my origin, my nature, and, what is more, I should do
violence to common sense, if I did not admit the sovereignty of the people
as the fundamental-basis of all political organization.  My previous actions
and declarations are in accordance with this opinion.  If I have not been
understood, it is because we do not seek to explain defeats: we only condemn
them.
"It is true that I claimed to be in the foremost rank; but that was to be
one in the breach. I had a high ambition; but it was one which might be
loudly avowed: it was the ambition to assemble round my plebeian name all




216                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the friends of national sovereignty, -all those who wished for glory and liberty.
If I have been mistaken, is it for democratic opinions to blame me? is it for
France to punish me? Believe me, sir, that, whatever be the fate which the
future may have in reserve for me, it shall never be said of me, that, in exile
or captivity,'I have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing."'
Malice will indulge in all sorts of reckless affirmations and denials; but it
will be conceded by every intelligent and candid man that the principles
avowed in this letter were scrupulously carried into execution so soon as
power was placed in the hands of the prince. The universal suffrage which
had'been wrested from France, and which he restored to the nation by the
coup d'etat, is the broad and deep foundation upon which the people of France
reared the throne of the empire; and the foes of Napoleon III. recognize full
well that that throne can be overturned only by first destroying that principle
of po2pular sffrage upon which it stands.




CHAPTER XIII.
POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.
Analysis of the Sugar-Question. - Letter from Beranger. - Testimony of Renault. - Letter
to Viscount Chateaubriand. - Letter from Sismondi. - Life of Charlemagne. - Political
Articles. - Attack upon Napoleon I. by Lamartine. - Response of Louis Napoleon.
ITH  unremitted diligence, the prince continued to devote his
hours to study. The next work which came from his pen was
entitled "Analysis of the Sugar-Question."  It was published
l   in 1842. At that time, the subject was in debate by the French
Government, whether they should encourage by duties the
cultivation of native sugar from  the beet-root.  It was objected, that, by so doing, the interests of commerce, and the prosperity of the
West-India colonies, where sugar was raised from  the cane, were endangered. Thus it became a question involving very important considerations
of political economy. The admirable treatise of Louis Napoleon is almost
exhaustive of the subject, both in a scientific and a political,point of view.
It developed the breadth of his studies, and added much to the reputation he
was so rapidly acquiring as a scholar, a writer, and a statesman.
" The question is a vast and a complex one.  The author enters into it extensively.  He examines it in all its details,'as a chemist, as a practical man,
as an economist. He regards it from every point of view. He has an eye
on the interest of the metropolis, on that of the colonies, on that of the producers, on that of the consumers, on that of the treasury." *
The charm  of genius pervades all the productions of Louis Napoleon.
Whenever he speaks, he is listened to. Whatever he writes is read. The
sugar-manufacturers in France were so much interested in this treatise, that
they purchased several thousand copies for distribution to the members of the
government and other influential parties.  We shall give a few extracts fiom
the work, which will convey to the reader a general idea of its character,
and of the influence, which, indirectly, it was calculated to exert upon the
prospects of the writer. In his preface, which was dated Fort of Ham,
August, 1842, the prince remarks," So much has already been said and written upon the advantages and disadvantages of the native manufacture of sugar, that, at first thought, it would
appear that the subject was exhausted.  Still, as most of the men who have
* Life of Napoleon III. by Edward Roth, p. 219.
28                                            217




218                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
raised their voice for or against that branch of industry were directly interested in the question, they may be reproached with having exhibited too
much partiality in the exhibition of their subject, too much passion in the
defence of their cause; and Montesquieu has said,'Pass^pn may cause one to
feel, but never to see.'
"I do not pretend to have moved without guides towards the issue of a
labyrinth where so many interests -donflict; but J hope to have analyzed, and
presented in its true light, a question which the partisans of freedom  of
commerce have allowed themselves to misrepresent and obscure.  I think
that I have been impartial.  The prosperity of the colonies is not less dear
to my heart than the development of home-industry.  And if, on the one
side, the manufacture of sugar has a right to all my sympathies as an imperial
creation, on the other side I cannot forget that my grandmother, the Empress
Josephine, was born in one of those islands from which we hear to-day complaints against the competition of the products of the metropolis.  Moreover,
whatever gratification I may experience in defending the creations of the
emperor, my veneration for the chief of my family will never induce me to
support that which my reason rejects as injurious to the general interests of
my country. If I thought the invention of Achard * contrary to tlhe wellbeing of the greatest number, I should assail it, notwithstanding its imperial
origin. I am  a citizen before being a Bonaparte (je suis citoyevz cvlcmt d'etre
Boncapate).
"Though my present position is unfavorable for a work which requires
extended researches, and fiequent communications with men versed in industrial questions, I have been able to procure all the documents published by
the government.  My arguments may be attacked; but no one can assail the
authenticity ofn my statistics.  However imperfect this treatise may be, if it
contribute to throw light upon the discussion, to gain any voices to the cause
of an industry which I regard as a fiuitful source of prosperity for France,
I shall thank Heaven for having permitted me, even in captivity, to be useful
to my country, as I give thanks every day for being permitted to retnain on
the soil of France which I love, and which I am  not willing to quit at any
price,- not even for liberty."
The first chapter is historical, giving not only a very lucid and instructive
account of the " State of the Question," but presenting it, and yet justly, in
a way which reflected great honor upon the empire,- that empire which the
prince fully believed that he should live to see re-established by the universal
suffrages of the French nation.
"The struggle of England against the French Revolution," he writes,
"had for its result the loss of our colonies and the ruin of our maritime
commerce.  Our loss was the more sensibly felt, since the war cut us off fiomn
commodities of the first necessity, -  such as sugar and coffee; and from products important for industry, - such as cotton, indlgo, and cochineal.
"The war swept over both the sea and the land.  Aboukir, Trafalgar,
closed the sea against our valor and our commerce.  Then the chief of the
* Achard was regarded as the discoverer of the extraction of sugar from the beet-root.




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.                   219
French Government took one of those resolutions which a great man alone
can conceive and accomplish.  He sought to transport the colonies into
Europe, in charging science to find in our climates equivalents for the
products of the tropics. The enterprise appeared impossible.  It succeeded
completely. The commodity the most important of the West Indies, sugar,
has become a French product.
"By the decree of the 18th of March, 1811, the emperor ordered that
thirty-two  thousandc  hectares (about sixty-five thousand  acres) should be
appropriated to the culture of the beet-root; and he placed a million of
francs (about two hundred thousand dollars) at the disposal of the minister
of the interior to encourage that industry, as also for the culture of pastel,
which was to replace indigo. Not only did the emperor reward efforts in
these branches of industry by pecuniary compensations, but he paid them in
another coin quite French, -in honor. On the 2d of January, 1812, M. Benjamin Delessert received the cross,of the Legion of Honor as a reward for
the success he had attained in the manufacture of sugar.
"Still Parisian sarcasms assailed the new discovery; and men cwho always
doubt of the unknown smiled at this new conception of genius.  But, while
Paris turned the beet-root into ridicule, the English regarded the enterprise
with serious apprehension, and adopted all the measures in their power to
strangle it in its infancy.'The Journal of the Empire,' of the 11th of
April, 1811, contains the following article: —
"'An important fact which the celebrated Prussian chemist has published
proves how much the English are disquieted by the measures adopted by the
emperor to provide a substitute for the sugar which is manufactured from
cane. Under the veil of an anonymous communication, there have been
offered to IM. Achard, first, in the year 1800, the sum of fifty thousand crowns,
then, in 1802, another of two hundred thousand, if he would publish a work
in which he would' avow that his enthusiasm  had misled him; that his experiments, upon a larger scale, had demonstrated the futility of his first
attempts;- and that he had at length come to the very unwelcome conviction, that sugar from  the beet-root could never take the place of that from
the cane.  The honor andsthe disinterestedness which ever marked the
character of M. Achard, as well as the clainis of truth, constrained him  to
reject these insulting offers.'
"This attempt not succeeding, the English had recourse to another expedient.  They induced  the  celebrated  chemist, Sir Humphry Davy, in a'Treatise upon Agricultural Chemistry,' published in 1815, to state that the
beet-root furnished a bitter sugar; forcing him thus to sacrifice hiis conscience
as a philosopher to his patriotism as a citizen.*
"Indeed, the interests of England were opposed to sugar becoming a Continental production.  Seated between Europe and America, Great Britain
wished to be the entrepot for the merchandise of the world.  Her innumerable ships performed the principal part of the work of transportation: she
* This fact is narrated in the pamphlet of M. Matthieu of Dombasle, upon Sugar from the
Beet-Root, p. 9. - Note by Louis Napoleoz.




220                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
desired to promote the exchange of the natural products of each country in
such a way as to give them, in return, her manufactured productions.  Thus,
in general, every new Continental industry proved to England a double loss:
it supplied the place of her fabrics, and diminished her maritime transports.
"In 1815, it seemed that the Napoleonic edifice must crumble to ruins
with the emperor; but its base was planted too deeply in the foundations
of the French soil. Its grand creations remained standing. The Code Napoleon, the organization of justice, of finances, of the army, of the administration, of public instruction, resisted the shock. The discovery of sugar
from the beet-root also survived."
In the succeeding pages, the author grapples with the most profound questions of political economy.  Whoever may dispute his conclusions, no one
can deny the scientific knowledge and the power of reasoning which the
treatise displays on every page. We can quote only a few of those passages
which incidentally.throw light upon the political and humanitarian views
cherished by the writer. In his chapter upon "Industrial Interests and the
Character of Modern Industry," the prince writes,"Agriculture is the first element in the prosperity of a country, because it.reposes upon those immutable interests which create a healthy, vigorous, and
virtuous rural population.  Manufactures too often repose upon ephemeral
bases; and though, in certain connections, t           l   intlienc  they develop intelligence, they
have the defect of creating a sickly population, with those physical infirmities
caused by unhealthy work in places deprived of air, and those moral defects
resulting from  misery, and from  the crowding-together of men in narrow
spaces.
"The manufacture of native sugar, far from participating in these faults, reunites in itself, on the contrary, all the advantages of agriculture and of manufactures; and even, in our opinion, it resolves, if not completely, at least in a
great part, one of the most important problems of the present day, - the
welfare of the working-classes. A few words will suffice to develop our idea.
"Formerly there was, properly speaking, but a single kind of property,the land. But a small number of men possessed it. The nobles had seized
it. But the progress of civilization gave birth to another kind of property,
-manufactures,  more dangerous than the other, because it could be more
easily monopolized.
"However tyrannical might be the yoke imposed by the landed proprietor,
however vexatious might be the tithes and the servitude, the feudal lord could
never completely sequester to his profit that earth upon which his vassals
breathed, walked, slept, and where, at least, the sun came to solace their
misery.
"But manufactures need neither light nor space. In a square of a few
hundred yards above or below the soil, the manufacturer has a people entirely
enslaved. If his speculations fail, or if he have completed his fortune, he
dismisses his workmen; and they, without shelter, without bread, feel immediately the earth, that common mother, sinking beneath their feet.
"The manufacturer has no need, like the feudal lord, to place battlements
upon his castle; to traverse, armed from head to foot, his vast domains, that




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.                 221
he may maintain obedience and chastise his subjects.  He shuts the door of
his workshops, and the fate of many hundred persons is at his mercy.
"Territorial aristocracy has been vanquished in France.  Powder has blown
up their donjons, and revolution has said to the people, -
"' This earth which you trample beneath your feet, which you moisten with
your sweat, which, without you, would remain uncultivated, - take it: I give
it to you.'
"The people have divided it, and it has only become more fruitful. But
how can one combat the oppression of a property which is neither seizable nor
divisible?  Does any one tell the people to attack the machines?  Each
aggressor would retire with only a Jew pounds of iron.  That would be useless
and criminal violence. Manufacture, being an indispensable element in the
riches of nations, should be extended in its action, while it should be limited
in its oppressive effects. It is necessary to encourage its endeavors, and to
protect at the same time the hands which it employs.
"Great Britain, that queen of industry, employs in four or five principal
cities thousands of workmen.  So long as the products of their labor circulate
freely, so long as the manufacturers prosper, the workmen do not suffer; but
when any event whatever disturbs credit, closes the outlets, or whenever th'e
production exceeds the demand, immediately entire populations, as we see an
example to-day, are a prey to all the anguish of misery and to all the horrors
of famine. The soil, we repeat it, literally vanishes under their feet. They
have neither fire nor place nor bread.
" Switzerland presents a different aspect. That little country, which is buried
in the midst of Europe, surrounded by custom-houses, inhales and exhales
upon her soil the importations and exportations of her industry, and has
attained a prodigious degree of commercial activity.  Her products contend
in all parts of the world with those of Great Britain.
"Switzerland feels, then, as all the others, the crises which suspend, temporarily, the products of her manufactures.  But the working population is never
reduced to perish of hunger. Behold the reason why.
"Manufacturing interests in Switzerland are expanded through the country,
instead of being exclusively collected in the cities.  They are disseminated
over the whole surface of the republic; fixing themselves wherever the flow of
a stream, a road, a lake, favors their establishment.  The consequence of that
system has been to accustom the agricultural classes to pass alternately from
the labor of the fields to that of the manufactories. In Switzerland, even in
the cities, they are the inhabitants of the country who come in the morning
to the workshops, and who return in the evening to their villages.  They
also, undoubtedly, suffer when a calamity befalls their industry; but they find
in the fields refuge and occupation.
"Now, in France, the manufacture of sugar fiom  the beet-root produces
this happy effect. It retains the workmen in the country, and occupies them
in the worst months of the year. It diffuses through the agricultural class the
best method of culture; initiates that class in industrial science, and in the
practice of the chemical and mechanic arts. It scatters the centres of work,
instead of concentrating them upon one point. It favors, consequently, the




222.LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
principles upon which the happy organization of societies and the security of
governments repose; for to create competence is to assure order."
In the same comprehensive and philosophic strain, the prince discusses
"The Maritime and Commercial Interests," " The Interests 6f the Treasury,"
" The Interests of the Consumers." Under this latter head, we find the following lucid statement:"The advocates of unlimited liberty of commerce have admitted as a principle this axiom,'To each country its natural p roduct.' Now, the beet-root,
containing but ten per cent of saccharine matter, while sugar-cane contains
twenty-one per cent, they pitilessly proscribe.  But it is an important fact,
that a hectare (about two acres) planted with beet-roots will produce, on
an average, from fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred kilograms * of brown
sugar; while a hectare planted with sugar-cane produces in our colonies only
fourteen hundred kilograms.  Thus, upon an equal surface, a hectare of
beet-roots gives one hundred kilograms more than if it were planted in
cane.
"England has realized the dream  of certain modern economists.  She
surpasses all other nations in the cheapness of her manufactured products.
But this advantage, if it be one, has only been obtained at the expense of her
working-classes.  The low price of merchandise depends upon the low price
of labor; and the low price of labor is the misery of the people.  It appears
firom a recent publication, that during the last years, while English industry
has tripled its productions, the sum employed to pay the workmen has diminished one-third.
"If in France the partisans of free trade dared to put in practice their
deadly theories, France would lose in richness a value of at least four thousand
millions of francs; two millions of workmen would be thrown out of'employment; and our commerce would be deprived  ff the benefit which it derives
from  the immense quantity of raw material which is imported to feed our
manufactories.
"The history of the birth of all industries in France, the example of all
people, the precepts, in fine, of all eminent men who have appeared at the
head of governments, are agreed upon this point,- that the industries existing in a country ought to be protected so long as they need protection."
A statistical table is here given containing an " enumeration of the principal
industries which are dependent upon the protective system; which, undler the
empire of that system, are developed and perfected to such a degree as to be
able some future day to contend against foreign products, but which would
be completely ruined if free entrance were now given to English, Belgian,
Swiss, German, and Italian products."
"It is important to consider what are the interests which are most essential
for the general prosperity of France.  The Emperor Napoleon has made the
following classification, which shows the bases upon which the political economy of France should be founded:"'Agriculture is the foundation and the strength of the prosperity of a
country.
* A kilogram is two pounds, three ounces.




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.                   223
"'Manufactures constitute the competence, the happiness, of the population.
"' Foreign commerce is the superabundance, the useful employment, of the
two others.
"'This last is made for the two others, not the two others Tor it' The
interests of these three essential bases are divergent, and often opposed.'
"This classification, so clear, indicates what is, for France, the importance
of the interests which attach themselves to the three grand elements of the
prosperity of peoples. Agriculture and mnufactures being the two causes
of vitality, while foreign commerce is but the effect, a wise government ought
never to sacrifice the greater interests of the first to the secondary interests
of the last.
"It must, then, be admitted in principle, that the manufacture of sugar from
the beet-root - a source of riches for agriculture and manufactures -  ought
nof to be sacrificed to a commercial interest; especially it ought not to be to
a fiscal interest.  For, in violating these principles, a country is subjected to
the fate of Spain, which has fallen from the empire of the world, because it
has abandoned its agriculture and its manufactures for its commerce.  One
would thus sink France to the rank of the American States, where agriculture
is in its infancy; where manufactures are nothing; and where foreign commerce is the only source of ricles, custom-house duties the only revenue for
the treasury."
The chapter upon "Duties, and the Future Prospects of Agriculture and
MIanufactures,"  contains many passages which we would gladly quote did
space permit. In the commencement of this chapter the prince writes, 
" To create manufactures, there are necessary the science which invents, the
intelligence which applies, the capital which establishes, and the duties which
protect, until the complete development.  It is by the happy effect of such
measures thalt England has arrived at a prodigious degree of industrial activity. France is equally indebted to this system  for the greater part of her
manufactures; for it is in urging science to discoveries by high premiums,
in supplying the want of capital by considerable advances, in checking the
introduction of foreign products by prohibitive duties, that Napoleon gave to
Fraree tle spinning of cotton, the manufacture of cassimere, of madder, and
of pastel. He gave the impulse to the discovery of the spinning of flax by
machinery, and infused inmense vigor into forges, and into the weaving of
the tissues of silk and cotton.
"The manufacture of sugar fiom the beet-root, which equally owed its life
to this protective system, was rapidly developed; and at the end of the Restoration it required but a few years more of exemption from taxes to arrive at
that last degree of perfection which would enable it to contend, unaided, with
the production of the tropics."
In this chapter, the prince gives a minute account of the process by which
the manufactu'e of beet-root sugar is conducted.  Chapter four is upon
"The Legality of Imposts."  The fifth chapter is devoted to the considera* It is to be rememberccl that this was written in 1842.




224                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
tion of "The Alliance of Diverse Interests."  It opens with the following
words:
"The results presented in the preceding chapters prove, -as it seems to us,
even to demonstration, that the manufacture of native sugar oughit to be
maintained and protected as one of the noblest of the industrial conquests
which the genius of the Emperor Napoleon gave to France.  But it is also
the requirement of justice that the government should seek the means of
protecting the. colonial interests; being careful not to forget the general
interests of consumers..:
"Since 1830, the government has shown itself, upon this question, either
very culpable or very incompetent, - culpable, if it has wished, as we believe,
to arrive, by crooked ways and exaggerated accusations, at the suppression of
the beet-root; incompetent, if such has not been the result at which it has
aimed.
" Indeed, in every country, to govern is to conduct; and if, in a free country,
a government is unable to decide for itself all questions, its duty consists, at
least, in stating them clearly. Upon the enunciation of a problem, often
depends its correct or false solution.
"The ministers, in demanding artlessly (nctiveneent) of the general council
of agriculture, of manufactures, and of commerce, if it were expedient or not
to destroy the manufacture of sugar from the beet-root, committed a great
imprudence; for they awoke passions hostile to the native production; and
the doubt thus expressed respecting its preservation showed  clearly the
possibility of a complete suppression.
" In provoking the discussion of interested parties face to face, they made
no progress toward the solution of the question; for it was clear that each
one would demand the ruin of his rival, without occupying himself with the
general interests of France.  If, on the contrary, the government had pronounced energetically against every project for destroying the manufacture,
and, this first principle being thus established, if it had devised measures for
reconciling rival interests, there can be no doubt that now, for a long time,
the two industries would have lived together in peace under the fostering care
of protective laws.
"Let us suppose, for instance, that the government should submit to-lmorrow to the same councils the question, whether it were expedient to suppress
the spinning of flax by machinery in the interests of the consumers of commerce and of the marine: it would rouse against that important branch of
industry a fiightful storm. For there is every reason to suppose that the
merchants of the seaports would hasten complacently to enumerate, as they
have done to-day in reference to sugar, how much they would gain in tonnage
and in the exchange of merchandise by the importation of the thread and the
fabrics of foreign flax.
"The great art of government is to consult all the capabilities, in indicating
to them the end to be attained and the route to be pursued; for, without this,
we have much noise without effect, much labor without results.  Never before
has there been in France somuch knowledge and intelligence called into
action, and calculated to promote the, public well-being. Never before has so




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.               225
little been accomplished. It is because there is no harmony of action, no
direction, no system; and society, full of ideas without facts, and of facts
without thought, surrenders itself to theories without applications, and to
applications without connection and without scope.
"And here is the place for an essential remark: nothing, in our opinion, can
replace, especially for the prosperity of material interests, the council of state
as it was organized under the empire. For to secure good, special laws, it is
necessary that men skilful and impartial, unembarrassed by politics, and
standing upon neutral ground, should employ themselves, after thorough discussion, to infuse into the law.s by the side of scientific theory the results of
practice and experience.
"Under the empire, the Council of State, composed of the most enlightened
men, and divided into special sections, was charged to draw up and to discuss
the projects of laws before submitting them to the approbation of the Chambers. As the machines of war and of industry, before being delivered to the
public, undergo in the Workshops the proofs which art recognizes as necessary;
so, under the empire, the laws, before being launched into the political world,
were weighed, analyzed, discussed, without the spirit of party, without passion,
without haste, by the most competent men in France.
" To-day, on the contrary, all the laws spring immature from the portfolios
of the ministers, and are criticised or parcelled out by a commission, the members of which are often strangers to the questions submitted to them; shaping
the law in accordance with their desire to strengthen or to overthrow a minister, and according as the interests of the locality which they represent are
favorable or opposed to the general interests."
The sixth and last chapter contains aresurzme or summing-up of all the facts
brought forward and the principles advocated in the preceding chapters. It
would be difficult to find anywhere, in so small a compass as in this treatise on
the sugar-question, the arguments in favor of protection so fully and so forcibly
presented. The extracts which we have given from this able work are here
reproduced simply to show the political opinions and governmental views
cherished by the prince, and how deeply he had meditated upon the profoundest themes of political economy. The well-informed reader will immediately
recall to mind how minutely and successfully the above-given principles of
the captive prince have been carried out in the government of the Emperor
Napoleon III.
From the- few extracts which we have given, the reader will gain but an
imperfect idea of the rhetorical beauty and the logical force of the work.
We cannot refrain from quoting a few of the closing paragraphs:"This abandonment of all system, this confusion of all the notions of
justice and of injustice, come from the contempt into which have fallen the
eternal principles upon which are founded the life and the wealth of nations.
They have wished to divide that which is indivisible, placing on one side
material interests, and on the other the moral wants of the nation: as if the
effect could be separated from the cause; as if the body could direct itself
and prosper without the soul which governs it.
"For a people, honor, for an individual, the morality of the gospel, is always
29




226                          LIFE OF NAPOLEON  III.
the best guide and the best counsellor in the midst of all the embarrassments
and perils of life.  Let no one, then, separate honor fiom  material interests;
let no one build false systems of commercial prosperity upon the ruins of a
flourishing national industry.  Let us not forget this maxim  of Montesquieu,
—'Injustice and cowardice are bad managers.'
"As to native industry, let her raise her head: her enemies will hesitate to
give her the last blow.  The Chambers, we hope, will shelter her with their
protective votes, and this daughter of the empire will be restored to life, if,
instead  of abasing herself, and seeking  charity, she proudly demands her
rights, and responds to her adversaries.
"' Respect me; for I enrich the soil; I fertilize the lands, which, without me,
would remain uncultivated; I give employment to the hands, which, without
me, would remain idle; in fine, I solve one of the grandest of the problems
of modern society, -  I organize and ennoble labor.' *
A copy of this work was sent by the prince to the illustrious poet Beranger,
the poet of the democracy of France.  He returned  the following reply,
dated Oct. 14, 1842: —
"PRINCE,-The person who has presented me with the phmphlet which
you have done me the honor to send to my address assures me that you will
not find  it disagreeable to receive directly the  thanks which  I owe you.
I hasten, then, prince, to express the satisfaction which I have enjoyed in
reading your works.  They have particularly filled me with admiration for
your courage in devoting the long hours of your captivity to such useful
labors.
"The pamphlet on the sugar-question  has given me the greatest surprise.
I can perfectly appreciate your historical studies, and the just reflections they
suggest; but I cannot conceive, prince, how  you have fathomed a subject
purely industrial and financial.  You have, to my idea, completely elucidated
this question of opposing interests, on every point, except, perhaps, if you
will permit me to say so, on that of the consumer, who has always been a
little neglected by the great ones of this world.
"May you one day, prince, be in a position to consecrate to our common
country the fruits of the knowledge which you have already acquired, and
which  you shall still acquire! and until you, and all the members of your
illustrious family, are restored, as is on y just, to the rights of a French citizen, believe in the ardent wishes I eltertain  to see a termination of your
* "Works the least extended are often the most substantial.' The Analysis of the Question
of. Sugars,' although contained in one hundred and forty pages, created a deep sensation in the
community, which o:ccupied itself with the great interests of the country, and contributed to
correct the opinion which some had formed o; the prince by listening to hostile insinuations.
He was no longer judged from the failures oi Strasburg and Boulogne; and those who had
been least disposed to pardon these two atteml ts were obliged to admit that the conspirator,
whose temerity they had ridiculed, was not only a man of courage, but also a man of sincerity,
of reflection, and of high capacity. It would be impossible to display mor6 knowledge, to show
more logic, more opportunely to avail one's self of a capital fact of industry, either of the theme
discussed, or of correlative themes, th.i was done by Louis Napoleon in this argument for
native sugar." - Histoire du Prince Louis LATCpoleon, par B. Renault, p. 110.




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.                 227
captivity, assured as I am  that you would devote yourself henceforth to
literary and scientific labors, which must add a new  ray to the splendid
aureola of the name you bear.                               "BERAXGER."
The prince was at this time contemplating another important work, more
exclusively literary and historical. It will be remembered that very friendly
relations existed between the prince and the celebrated writer, Chateaubriand.
Though the renowned author of the " Genius of Christianity " was an earnest
Legitimist, and ever avowed his devotion to the young Duke of Bordeaux,
he did not hesitate openly to avow his recognition of the abilities and the
virtues of Louis Napoleon. The following letter from the prince to Chateaubriand, dated Citadel of Ham, June 28, 1842, will explain itself: -
"CITADEL OF HAM, June 28, 1842.
"SIR VISCOUNT,    Some twelve years ago, while walking one day outside
the Porta Pia at Rome, I followed silently the ambassador of Charles X..; regretting that frigid politics prevented me from  testifying to the illustrious
author of the'Genius of Christianity' all my admiration for him. I was far
from thinking then that the power which he represented would very soon
be overthrown; that the tricolor would be as hostile to my family as the
white flag; and that the noble representative of an inimical court would be,
in a few years, the only eminent man who would come to give me in my
imprisonment marks of sympathy.
"If these reminiscences recall the vicissitudes of human affairs, they prove
also that lofty sentiments always remain the same.  In every position in
your life, you have, Sir Viscount, incessantly sought to console the unhappy;
and certainly you have inspired, even in men most opposed to your opinions,
a sincere admiration for the great writer, and a profound esteem  for the
politician.
"I need not tell you, Sir Viscount, how your letter has touched me; and I
would have expressed my gratitude sooner, had I not received several visits
that have taken up all my time.
"In order to occupy my leisure hours, I propose to undertake a large work,
about which I shall venture, in future, to ask you some advice. I want to
write the history of Charlemagne, and show the influence that this great
man exercised on the destiny of the world during his life and after his death.
When I shall have collected all the necessary materials, I hope, that, if I submit to you some questions, I shall not trespass upon your extreme kindness.
"Receive, Sir Viscount, the assurance of my high esteem and distinguished
consideration.                          " NAPOLEON LouIS  BONAPARTE."
The prince also wrote to the distinguished historian, Sismondi, soliciting
information respecting the best sources to be consulted.  In his reply, Sismondi says,"M3Y PINCE, -I have been profoundly touched, as well as flattered, by
the letter which your Imperial Highness has done me the honor to write
to me.  I feared, that, from the course which I pursued in our council in




228                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
1838, I had entirely forfeited your friendship.   I perceive, indeed, thati
I differ essentially from  your Highness in politics,-as to the democratic
principle, which you admit in all its rigor, while I seek liberty in harmony
between the diverse elements of society; as to the development you would
give to the military instincts, while all my thoughts are for peace; as to the
happy results which you'expect from  violent revolutions, while the maintenance of the existing order appears to me the most desirable. But I have
some hope that you will admit with candor these differences of opinion,
since these opinions of yours, being carried out into action, have involved
your Imperial Highness in such calamities.
"Permit me to-day to congratulate you, my prince, upon the energy of
character with which you have turned to study, to seek those consolations
which it is so abundantly able to give.  The name of Napoleon has been
for a long time united with that of Charlemagne; and, separated by the
distance of a thousand years, the two restorers of the empire are frequently
conlpared.
"I wish that it were in my power to aid your Imperial Highness in your researches; but the documents upon that reign are not numerous: they have
all been collected, all published, a long time ago."
After giving a very graphic sketch of the times of Charlemagne, Sismondi
closes his letter, saying, " Condescend, prince, to retain for me that friendship
of which you give me such flattering assurances, and believe me, with respect,
to be of your Imperial Highness the very humble servant,
"J. C. L. DE3 SISMONDI."
But the history of Charlemagne remained among the unexecuted plans.
Questions of immediate interest demanded attention.  The prince, in the
gloom of his prison, through his pen, was becoming a power in Europe; and
with his intense intellectual activity, his commanding mental powers, and the
sympathy which his imprisonment excited, it is hardly too much to say that
he could not have been placed in more favorable circumstances to secure the
restoration of the empire.  He wrote many political articles for the journals,
all of which were very skilfully adapted to secure the end at which he aimed.
These articles were widely read, and, by his friends at least, greatly admired.
The following list of topics will show the range of his studies and of his
thoughts.  "Upon the Electoral System."  "Exile."  "The Conservative
Party."  "Upon Individual Liberty in England."  "Upon the Military Organization in France."  "Union is Strength: the Teaching  of History."
"Mathematical Studies of Napoleon."  "The Slave-Trade: the Philanthropists and the Right of Search."  " Opinion of the Emperor upon the Connection of France with the European Powers."  "The  Opposition."  "Our
Colonies in the Pacific Ocean."  "Peace or War."  "Ameliorations to be
introduced into our Manners and our Parliamentary Habits."  "The Clergy
and the State."  "Ancient History always New."  "The Nobles," &c.
* Sismondi was in favor of expelliffg Louis Napoleon from Switzerland, in obedience to the
dictation of the government of Louis Philippe; that thus war with France might be avoided.




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.                 229
However dry, apparently, the theme, the vigorous pen of the prince always
invested it with freshness and charms. He published about this time quite an
important treatise, entitled "Reflections upon the Recruitment of the'Army."
His views upon this subject were very cordially received, and were universally
recognized as the work of an able man thoroughly familiar with his subject.
The poet Lamartine made a severe attack upon the memory of the Emperor Napoleon I., in a letter addressed to M. Chapius de Montlaville. It would
be difficult to find from the most envenomed foes of the emperor a more malicious assault.  We can present our readers with but a few paragraphs fromn
the answer of the prince, - paragraphs which will probably be read with peculiar interest, since they strikingly illustrate the subsequent action of the
writer.  After quoting a long passage, in which, with terrible severity and
great dramatic skill, the poet sums up his crushing accusations, the prince
writeS, -
"In reading this passage, in which the best-known facts of contemporaneous history are openly distorted, one can scarcely believe that these lines could
flow fiom the pen of the illustrious deputy of Macon, particularly when one
hears him  solemnly declare in the same letter that it is in the presence of
truth alone that one should place himself in writing history for the use of the
people. Let us examine, and see if Monsieur de Lamartine has remained
faithful to this maxim.
"I do not defend the principle of the revolution of the 18th Brumnaire,* nor
the violent manner in which it was effected. An insurrection against an established power can only be a necessity; never an example which one can convert
into a principle.  The 18th Brumaire was a flagrant violation of the constitution of the year three. But it must also be admitted that this constitution had already been three times audaciously violated,- on the 18th Fructidor, when the government attacked the independence of the legislative corps
in condemning its members to banishment without judgment; on the 30th
Prairial, when the legislative corps assailed the independence of the government; and on the 22d Floreal, when, by a sacrilegious decree, the government
and the legislative corps made an attempt upon the sovereignty of the people
in annulling the elections made by them.
"The important question to be solved is, whether the 18th Brumaire did or
did not save the republic. To ascertain that fact, it is sufficient to consider
what was the condition of the country before this event, and what after.
"Monsieur de Lamartine is the first writer who has dared to siay, that, under
the Directory,' the revolutionary movement had ceased to be convulsive, that
it might be creative.'  It is, on the contrary, a matter of public notoriety
that the Directory had preserved of the convention only its hatreds, without
inheriting either its truths or its energy. France was perishingo through  corruption and disorder.  Society had at its head contractors and speculators;
men with neither conscience nor patriotism.  The generals of the army, as
Championet at Naples, and Brune in Italy, perceiving themselves stronger
* It was at this time that Napoleon overthrew the Directory, and established the Consular
Government the 9th of November, 1799.




230                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
than the civil power, no longer obeyed it, and imprisoned its commissioners,
Others conspired with the chiefs of the Chouans, and betrayed the republic.
Credit was gone, the treasury empty; the funds had fallen to eleven francs;
the resources of the country were wasted under a venal administration; the
most fiightful brigandage infested France; the West was always in insurrection; Italy had been lost; and, notwithstanding the victory of Zurich, the
ancient ecgimne, strong through our faults, our intesttine dissensions, and the
feebleness of our government, advanced menacingly at'the head of foreign
coalitions.
"Liberty, instead of beginning to re-act through itself, as M. de Lamartine
said, was a word devoid of all meaning; for the only laws in vigor were those
of exclusion and proscription. There were a hundred and forty-five thousand Frenchmen in exile.  The former members of the Convention were
excluded from all employments; the writer whose words tended to an attack
upon the existing form of government was exposed to the penalty of death;
the law of hostages, which destroyed the security of two hundred thousand
families, was maintained in all its rigor; the priests, whether refractory, or
whether they had taken the oath, alike groaned in prison or in exile; the
law of forced loans produced the most deadly effects upon property; the national domains had ceased to find purchasers; and the resources of the public
revenue were exhausted: such was the spirit, such was the liberty, which
reigned at that unhappy epoch.
"General Bonaparte landed at Frejus.' And France,' says M. de Cormenin,'affrighted' from without and disquieted from within, runs eagerly to a man
whose hands are full of power, and says to him, " Save me! "'
" The people violate the laws of quarantine in order that they may bring
him  more quickly to the land, exclaiming,'We had rather have the plague
than invasion!' And the first consul was hardly in power ere he re-established
order in the moral as in the physical world; appeased dissensions; re-united all
the republicans against the common enemy, —the ancient regimee; created
regularity in the finances, in the courts of justice, in the administration; and
brought into submission to his command the discontented army.  He laid the
foundations of equality in establishing the civil code, -' a legislative monument,' says M. Cormenin,'the most durable of any in modern times, through
the solidity of its materials; the most magnificent in the simplicity of its
divisions; and with the most of unity through the fusion of all the systems
of common and of statute law.'
"By his central organization, he secured French unity and nationality; by
the Concordat, he reconciled the clergy, re-established religion, proclaimed
freedom of worship, and confirmed the principal results of the revolution by
inducing the Pope to sanction the distribution of the ecclesiastical property.
The first consul closed all the wounds of the country; opened the prisons,
where nine thousand political prisoners were groaning; and permitted the
proscribed to return.
"Having no need, like the Directory, of soldiers to maintain tranquillity in
Paris, he sent them  to the frontiers, reconquered Italy, obtained peace, and
obliged all the sovereigns of Europe to recognize the French Republic and its




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WPITINGS.                 231
glorious representative.  Such were the consequences of the 18th Brumaire.
The consulate saved the republic and the future of the revolution fiom utter
ruin. That fact all the conscientious Republicans, such as Carnot, lThibaudeau,
Cormenin, and Carrel, have recognized. To say the contrary is to deny proof.
The consulate has remained for all true patriots the purest emblem  of the
revolution, one of the noblest pages of our history.
"If to-day there exist a sincere and national opinion which has taken for
its mission to recall republican forms, it is because tlhre is still a great number
of intelligent minds wh6 mourn the loss of that creative and organizing government, composed of two elective chambers, of a council of state, and of a
responsible chief with two millions of the civil list. They regret that administration, honest, economical, which, with a budget of seven hundred millions,
diffused prosperity everywhere; in fine, they regret that policy, powerful and
proud, which rendered us the first nation in the world.
"Another grief.' Napoleon stifled everywhere in Europe the love and the
pacific expansion of French ideas.' But, when General Bonaparte took the
direction of affairs, the republic was at war with all Europe. Foreign nations,
without exception, were all exasperated against France.' The lmagnificent
truths proclaimed by our national assemblies had been obscured by so many
passions, that they were unrecognized.  Where, then, existed the'pacific
expansion' of which M. de Limartine speaks?  It was Napoleon, on the
contrary, who arrested those passions, and caused the principles of the French
Revolution to triumph all over Europe. It was he who transplanted to
Poland, to Italy, to Germany, to Spain, to Switzerland, the ideas and the civilizing laws of France.
"Who does not know that in Germany, by a stroke of the pen, he caused
two hundred and forty-three petty feudal states to disappear? that from the
Vistula to the Rhine he destroyed serfdom, the abuses of feudalism, and introduced there the French civil code, the publicity of trial by jury in criminal
cases, eradicated the hatreds of religion, and established there freedom of
worship?  Who does not know that in Poland, in Italy, he cieated powerful
germs of nationality, elevated the character of national tribunes, and diffused
all the benefits of enlightened government?  Who does not know that in
Switzerland he pacified the cantons, and gave them a federal compact, the loss
of which is to this day the object of their regret?  Who does not know that
in Spain even he destroyed the Inquisition, feudalism, and consecrated all his
efforts to the establishment of a constitution more liberal, and a government
more enlightened, than any of those which we have seen during the twentyeight years since?."'The result of the empire,' says the illustrious writer whom I refute with
regret,'is Europe twice in Paris; is England realizing, without a rival, the
universal monarchy of the seas; is in France reason, liberty, and the masses
indefinitely retarded by that period of glory.'
"Thin is true in the sense that these disastrous results have happened, not
from  the triumph, but from  the fall, of the emperor. Weep, then, with us,
with France, with the peoples, over the reverse of our arms!  For if they
had been always victorious, even to the end, England had been humbled,




232                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the  European  oligarchy vanquished, the  nationality of the neighboring
nations resuscitated, and liberty established in Europe.
"I do not systematically defend all the institutions of the empire, nor all
the actions of the emperor: I explain them. I regret the creation of a
nobility, which, from the day of the fall of its chief, has forgotten its plebeian
origin to make common cause with the oppressors. I regret certain acts of
useless violence to maintain a power founded upon the will of the people.
But that which I -maintain is, that, of all the governments which preceded or
which have followed the consulate and the empire, not one has, even during;
peace, accomplished one thousandth part of that for the prosperity of France
which the emperor accomplished during war.
"Open the magnificent work of M. de Cormenin upon centralization, and
you will read this remarkable  passage:'The departmental division of
France, the legislative codification, the financial accountability, the interior
administration, the army discipline, the organized police, the national unity,
excite the envy and the admiration of Europe.' Very well, except the division of territory, all these creations are the work of the emperor.
"Let M. de Lamartine have the goodness to recall the organic laws of
the empire, and he will see, that, notwithstanding their defects, the senate
with its elected members, the legislative corps with its salaried representatives, the electoral colleges, and the canton assemblies, had a base more
democratic than the Chambers of to-day. Let him  study the organization
of the imperial council of state, composed of distinguished men from  all the
most important departments of business, and then let him  say if he believes
in the charters of 1814, or in those of 1830 with their spurious aristocracy,
with their hastily-constructed laws, voted at a sitting, and clogged with contradictory amendments, -if he believes, I repeat, that thus it will be possible to continue the immortal work of the civil code, and to anchor profoundly, in France, respect for law.
"Let him  consult the report to the king, of M. Villemain, upon public
instruction, andclhe will see that the emperor, who organized primary andc
secondary instruction, and who created then the university, had, in 1812,
more lyceums and colleges, and more pupils in these establishments, than
they had in France in 1840.
"Let him  consult the criminal statistics, and he will see, that, since the
empire, crime has advanced in ever-increasing progression.
"Let him consult the interests of the working-classes, and he will be convinced that wages under the empire were double what they are to-day; that
they have neither developed nor improved the institution for skilful workmen; in fine, that they have destroyed the asylums for the poor without replacing them by other establishments.
"Let him cast his eyes over the official documents gathered by the captain
of the ship' Laignel,' and he will see that the emperor, notwithstanding the
disasters of Aboukir and Trafalgar, notwithstanding the Continental wars,
had in ten years reconstructed three hundred ships of the line; while, since
1814 to 1842, the Restoration and the present government have built entirely
only four.




POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND HISTORICAL WRITINGS.                 233
"Let him  enumerate all the marshes drained, all the canals dug, all the
harbors deepened, all the roads opened, all the monuments erected, and the
manufactures established, during fourteen years of war; and let him compare
these results with those obtained in twenty-eight years of peace, with a
budget of above six hundred, millions a year.
"In fine, even the state-prisons were established under a system  more
humane, more legal, less arbitrary, than the prisons of the Restoration, than
the prisons of Doullens and of Mont St. Michael of the present regime.
Under the Restoration, political prisoners were mingled with the galleyslaves: to-day they can enter their complaints only before the inspectors or
the prefects, - men too dependent to dare to undertake the defence of the
enemies of the government.  Under the empire, the state-prisons were
visited by councillors of state in special missions, public functionaries occupying the highest positions next to the ministers, and who, by their political character, could, without fear, promote the interests of justice and humanity.
"Let a philosopher, a conscientious man, such as I am  happy to believe
Monsieur Lamartine to be, examine impartially the acts of Napoleon, and he
will render him justice as the first organizer of French democracy, as the
most earnest promoter of civilization.
" Napoleon had his faults and his passions; but that which will eternally
distinguish him  from  other sovereigns in the eyes of the masses is that he
was the king of the people, while others were the kings of the nobles and of
the privileged classes.
"As a citizen, as a man devoted to the liberties of my country, I make a
great distinction between the consulate and the empire: as a philosopher,
I do not make any, because, consul or emperor, the mission of Napoleon was
always the same.  Consul, he established in France the principal beneficial
results of the revolution; emperor, he spread throughout all Europe these
same results. His mission, at first purely French, then became as wide as
humanity.
"I cannot comprehend how a man, who accepts the magnificent position of
the advocate of democratic interests, can remain insensible to the prodigies
which were born of the struggle of all the European aristocracies against
the representative of the revolution. How can he be inexorable in view of the
errors of the emperor, pitiless in regarding his reverses? - he whose harmonious voice has always accents of compassion for the misfortunes, and excuses'for the faults, of the Bourbons! How is it that Monsieur de Lamartine has
regret and tears for the violences of Minister Polignac, and yet his eye can
remain dry, and his words bitter, at the spectacle of our eagles falling at
Waterloo, and our plebeian emperor dying at St. Helena?
"It is in the name of historic verity, the most sacred thing in the world
next to religion, that Monsieur de Lamartine has addressed to you his letter.
It is equally in the name of that same historic verity that I address to you
mine.  Public opinion, that queen of the universe, will judge which of us two
has presented under its true aspect the epoch of the consulate and of the
empire.
80




234                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"I avail myself, with pleasure, of this occasion to  express to  you, sir, the
high esteem  with which I regard you; and I pray you to receive the assurance of my distinguishe.d sentiments.
"NAPOLEON LOUIS BONAPARTE." *
* "It has, no doubt, been already noticed that the prince signed himself indifferently,'Louis
Napoleon,' or'Napoleon Louis.' At the elections, however, which took place after the revolution of February, 1848, this disorder in the prefixes having occasioned some confusion, he decided on finally adopting the signature of Louis Napoleon, by which he is best known." -Life
of Napoleon III. by Edward Roth.




CHAPTER XIV.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HAM.
Rhetorical Skill.-" Project of Law upon the Recruitment of the Army." - The Prussian Organization. - Military Necessities of France. - "Mathematical Studies of Napoleon."Anecdotes of the Emperor. - Philosophic Views. -" The Extinction of Pauperism." -
Character df the Treatise. - Testimony of Bdranger. - The Past and Future of Artillery.
- " The Canal of Nicarauga." - Interesting Correspondence.
E have spoken of the peculiar charm of freshness and originality
with which the prince was able to invest apparently the dryest
subject.  Endowed by nature with powers of the first order,
which had been disciplined by the most assiduous training, and
with a mind stored with information gleaned from the science,
philosophy, and literature of the three most intellectual nations
of the globe, he threw  around whatever theme he touched the combined
radiance of learning and of genius.  The extracts which we have already
given from his writings elucidate this statement.  In further illustration, let
us introduce a few passages from his work entitled "Project of Law upon the
Recruitment of the Army."  The theme, important as it is, surely does not
promise much of interest to the general reader.  We must also premise that
it is, perhaps, never possible in a translation to preserve the full spirit of the
original..
"One of the reproaches," writes the prince, "the most severe which can be
addressed to a government, - a reproach which every day ought, if we have
an opposition truly national, to ring in its ears, - is not to have profited by
twelve years of peace to organize militarily the country in such a manner that
France should have never to fear an invasion.
"Since 1830, the budgets of war have risen to the immense sum of more
than three milliards and a half; * and when, in 1840, rumors of war came'to
alarm men in power, they avowed openly in the tribune that France was not
ready: for the infantry needed officers; the cavalry, horses; the artillery and
the fortified places, supplies; and the entire army, a reserve: that is to say,
during twelve years we have expended more than three thousand millions, without securing sufficient supplies or any good military organization.
"It is not sufficient to-day that a nation should have a few hundred cavaliers barbed in steel, or a few thousand conclottiere and mercenaries, to maintain
* 3,500,000,000 francs, equal to 700,000,000 dollars.
235




236                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
its rank and its independence: it needs millions of armed men; for, when war
bursts forth, the nations dash against each other in a mass; and, once engaged
in the struggle, it is the genius of the chief and the bravery of the troops
which decide the victory. But it is the organization alone which resists in reverses, and saves the country.' A nation,' the emperor has said,' never wants
men, even after the most disastrous wars; but it frequently wants soldiers.'
"This maxim is for us of the highest importance. It ought to be engraved
upon every mind. Our political role, our isolation, our position as a people,
impose upon us the duty to organize our forces, not to march anew to conquer
the world, but to make ourselves forever secure from all invasion. Let us
profit, then, by our own misfortunes, and from the example of foreign nations.
"In 1792, there was a people in Europe which lived only on its military
reputation. Having had at their head a great man who had covered himself
with glory, and having triumphed in many battles over the Austrians, the
Russians, and the French, they placed all their security in their past history.
Frederick was no more; but the Prussian army had still at its head some of
his celebrated generals. Confident in the talent of their chiefs and in the
prestige of the past, this nation plunged proudly into battles. But in the first
marches a few French battalions put them  to flight, and the lieutenants of
Frederick bit the dust; and, when the French Republic produced a man who
surpassed the Prussian hero by all the difference which there was in the
impulses which had elevated them, Prussia was lost in a single battle.
"But the Prussians knew how to profit b.y their reverses; and, in order to
prevent that another Jena should come to destroy in a day their country,
they established among themselves the noblest military organization which
has ever existed among civilized nations.
" Well, we also, we, live upon our past glory.  We have at our head the
old generals of the emperor; but the terrible example of Waterloo has not
profited us. WVe are without defence.
"We urge the comparison to prove that we are not here considering a law
of details, but a question of principle, a question of existence. The problem
to be resolved is this:
"To resist a coalition, France needs an immense army composed of disciplined men; more, it needs that that army should still be able to re-organize
itself with disciplined men in case of a first reverse.  Now, since there is no
state which can, without exhaustion, maintain constantly in service hundreds
of thousands of men, it is necessary to have recourse to a system which may
offer the greatest possible advantages in time of war, without occasioning too
heavy burdens in time of peace.
"Such is the problem; and consequently, thus stated, the question grows in
magnitude.
" Indeed, if the military oiganization of a people need not always conform
itself to the nature of that people, to its political position, to its social state,
it would require but little time to decide upon the best means of having a,good army; for the question would limit itself to the endeavor to raise the
largest possible number of soldiers, and to keep them under the flag for the
longest possible time.  For the man who has remained six years in a regiment,




PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HAM.                     237
as in France, is better disciplined than he who has been there but three years,
as in Prussia; but he whose engagement lasts ten years, as in England, or
twenty years, as in Austria and in Russia, will be a much better soldier still.
The question is political rather than military."
We regret that our space will not permit us to copy the whole of this valuable paper, every page of which is full of interest and instruction. A few
sentences more only will we quote:" Montesquieu has remarked, that that which contributed most to render the
Romans masters of the world was, that, having fdught successively against all
the nations, they always renounced their own usages as soon as they found
others which were better. Without pretending to the empire of the world,
let us follow their example; and let us take from foreign nations all which
can, with advantage, be adapted to our manners; but let us, on the contrary,
repel with energy those things which are opposed to our nature and'our
needs.
" The great art consists in choice. Thus, instead of attempting to introduce
into France the aristocratic constitution of England, we could wish that our
statesmen would adopt from Great Britain the institutions which protect
individual liberty; which develop the spirit of association, and form the spirit
of law. We could wish that they would import fiom Germany her system
of public instruction, of municipal and military organization."
After minutely describing his plan for arming the nation, and the expense
the prince continues:"France would then have for two hundred and thirty-nine million francs a
million and a half of disciplined men; for it is important to observe that these
fifteen hundred thousand men would have all either passed four years under the
flag, or have manceuvred during seven years, twice a year, with the troops of
the line. And this military force would be the more imposing, since a telegraphic order would suffice to put these whole fifteen hundred thousand men
under arms, ready to march, and almost without any extraordinary expense.
"To-day, on the contrary, France expends, with supplementary credits,
nearly four hundred millions for her army; and exclusive of the effective force
of thirty thousand men necessary for Algeria, the fourteen thousand gendarmes, the veterans, the garrison of Paris and of Lyons, it has not two
hundred thousand men to defend our frontiers; while, upon the line of the
Rhine alone, more than five hundred thousand men could be marshalled
against us in fifteen days.
"Now, we ask all candid men, Is it not time to profit by this season of peace
to put France in a state to resist invasion? and is not a system analogous to
that which we have proposed the best which can be adopted? — a system
which the emperor himself suggested to the council of state when he wr6te,'Pursue, then, the organization of the National Guard; let each citizen know
his post in time of need; let M. Cambaceres, for instance, be prepared to seize
a musket if danger require it; and then you will have truly a nation of solid
masonry which can defy the ages and mlen.' " 
* (Euvres de Napoleon III., tom. iii. pp. 301-a23, first published in the Progres du Pasde-Calais, mai, 1843.




238                      LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
One more example we will give, mainly to show the rhetorical ability with
which the prince invested, with the charm of eloquence, themes apparently the
most forbidding. The intelligent reader will also observe, that, upon whatever
subject he writes, every thought is directly or indirectly brought to bear
upon the one great object of his ambition, -the restoration to France of the
democratic principles of the empire of Napoleon. The celebrated philosopher, M. Arago, had made inquiries of the prisoner of IIam, through his
colleague in the municipal council of Paris, respecting "The Mathematical
Studies of Napoleon."  The prince replied in the following letter to M.
Thayer, dated Sept. 6, 1842:"MY DEAR MONSIEUR THAYER, —The letter you have written me has
afforded me much pleasure; for it is a long time since I.have heard from you.
I shall be very happy to be of any service to the celebrated savant of whom
you have spoken to me, in furnishing him with new details upon the mathematical studies of the emperor: but, unfortunately, I know but little upon
the subject; and General Montholon, whose memory I have interrogated, can
recall but few important facts. Nevertheless, I will give you my ideas and my
personal recollections. You can make such use of them as you may wish.
"It is certain that the emperor was distinguished at the school at Brienne
by his application to mathematics. He had studied them  in Bezout, and
* Bezout remained his favorite author. He Ras never forgotten the fiiends of
his youth. His taste for the exact sciences it is easy to explain. That which
distinguishes, I think, great men, that which inspires their ambition, that
which renders them absolute in their wishes, is the love of truth. Thus the
emperor, in his youth, preferred to other sciences those which always give
results incontestable, and uninfluenced by trickery and unfairness; but his
mind, entirely practical, had, fiom the beginning, retained, above all, that pdrtion of mathematics which was available to solve all the problems of general
use.
"In science, as in politics, he rejected theories or principles in which he
saw no immediate application; and it is perhaps for that reason that he preferred the practical genius of Monge to the transcendent genius of Laplace.
He certainly highly esteemed the latter; but he did not like that a philosopher should always shut himself up within himself, and should be approachable only by the initiated. To promote the advancement of science was
doubtless a great merit; but to diffuse science among the people was, in his
eyes, a much greater merit still. Therefore how greatly would he have appreciated'your illustrious colleague, M. Arago, who possesses in so eminent
a degree those two faculties so difficult to be united in the same man, - to be
the grand priest of Science, and to know how to initiate the common people
into her mysteries!
"The emperor had an astonishing memory for numbers; and he never
forgot the numbers expressing the products of the different elements of our
civil and military organization. My mother has frequently mentioned having
seen the emperor calculate before her the most complicated movements of
his troops; remembering the posiion of each corps, the relative position of




~PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HAM.                     239
the forces to each other, the number of the regiments, and the time which
each one would require to traverse a given distance.
"You know, perhaps, that on one occasion, while verifying the accounts of
the treasury, in which was recorded the passage of troops through Paris, he
affirmed, in contradiction to the statement of the administration, that the
Thirty-second Regiment had never passed through Paris. Inquiry was made,
and it was founds that it had only gone to St. Denis; but, as that city hal.
no military paymaster, the sum which had been furnished to the regiment
had been credited to the account of Paris.
"In judging only superficially, one would say that this facility of calculation, and this surprising memory, indicated a mind arithmetical rather than
mathematical. But, in analyzing, one perceives that that which appears to us
as t simple proportion is indeed the result of high combinations. The banker,
who seeks the product of a simple or compound interest, only performs the
ciphering of a schoolboy: but he who introduces into his combinations as
the unknown quantities of an equation all the physical and moral causes
which support life, which assist to move or to conquer an army; he who calculates how far a grand word, which. penetrates to the soul of his soldiers,
can multiply their force; and who fixes their number according to the sympathies or the repulsions which the flag of French democracy must expect
to encounter among foreign peoples, - surely he is more than an arithmetician: he resolves the grandest problems of transcendent mathematics; for
at the end of his calculations are to be found, as the result, glory, nationality,
civilization.
"Frequently the emperor interested himself in the house-keeping expenses
of his family. One day, probably pre-occupied by some question of finance, he
stepped forward to my mother, in the presence of a large company, and said
aloud, -
"'Hortense, how much do you spend for your kitchen, and how much for
your stable?'
"'Sire,' she replied,'I do not remember.'
"' Well,' he added,'you are a simpleton.  One can always, with a few
figures, retain the memory of one's expenses. In every house well regulated,
there is expended not more than one-quarter of the income for the kitchen,
and one-fifth for the stable.'
"At another time, reducing to a formula rules for our conduct, he said,'In every thing which one undertakes, it is necessary to give two-thirds to
reason, and one-third to chance. Augment the first fraction, you will be
pusillanimous; augment the second, you will be rash.'
"At St. Helena, his soul imbitterec  with so many chagrins, he wished to
divert himself by occupying his mind with subjects which would not recall
painful memories: then he revelled among figures as a poet dreams in verse.
Sometimes he planned, as General Montholon has informed me, new constructions for military bridges, and calculated their powers of resistance;
sometimes he compared the rapidity of his strategic movements with the
movements of the ancient generals; sometimes he verified upon paper if it
would be possible that an army corps should intrench itself every niglht as




240                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the Roman legions did, and in that event he calculated the amount of excavation and of embankment it would be possible to execute in so short a
time. In fine, he occasionally occupied himself with statistics, and sought
the solution of a problem, which, under his reign, had intensely interested him,
-the extinction of mendicity.
" To recapitulate: the emperor had thoroughly studied mathematics, and
placed that science above all others.  Nevertheless, being a man of synthesis
rather than a man of analysis, he only occupied himself with problems of
direct application.  He said that drawing and the exact sciences gave
accuracy to the mind; that drawing taught one to see, and mathematics
taught one to think. He believed, nevertheless, that it was important not
to overtask the brain of the young, or to fatigue the mind by the study of
analysis too profound.
"Permit me to close by a general philosophic view. Great men have
always a great influence upon the generations which follow them, although
that influence may be frequently denied and combated. It is thus that the
influence of Charlemagne made itself felt through many ages; and, even to
the present day, the education of the young obeys the impulse given by that
great man. At the epoch in which Christianity arose among the barbarians
outside of the Roman Empire, the Church was the light'of science, the hope
of civilization. By it alone was it possible to soften the manners and control
the conduct of men of arms.
"Charlemagne availed himself of the prestige of the Church, recalled it to
the severity of its principles, and gave it a grand preponderance. To gain
access to the Church, which then held possession both at Constantinople and
at Rome, it was necessary to understand Latin and Greek. These two
languages were then the base of all science; the necessary road which one
must traverse in order to pass from ignorance to knowledge, from barbarism
to civilization.
" Now, though our social state has entirely changed during a thousand years,
though the gates of science have been broken open by the laity, it was still,
until within fifty years, the ecclesiastical method which was followed in
education: and it required a revolution like that of 1789, and a man like Napoleon, to elevate above the dead languages the physical and mathematical
sciences, which ought to be the aim of our present society; for they form
workers instead of creating idlers.
"In politics, as in education, to replacce the edifice of Charlemagne - such
was the mission of the emperor; but time failed him in that as in every thing
else. And is it not inconceivable, that, at the present day, there should be
required an examination in Latin to enter the polytechnic and military
schools? Latin in the nineteenth century to learn to construct ships of war
or fortified places! - Latin, to learn to throw cannon-balls, or to apply to the
arts chemical and mechanical sciences!
"It is in making such comparisons that one acquires the sad conviction, that
even enlightened minds are often the slaves of prejudice and of routine.
Habits the most futile and useless have wide-spreading roots in the past;
and though, at first view, it would seem that a breath would destroy them,
they often resist the convulsions of society and the efforts of a great man.




PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HIAM.                      241
"If this letter does not entirely respond to the letters which you have
addressed to me, you will, nevertheless, see in it, I hope, the wish to do something which may be agreeable to you and to M. Arago, whose scientific genius
no one can admire moie than I do. Have the kindness to remember me to
Madame Thayer and to the Duke of Padua, and believe in my sentiments of
high esteem and friendship.           "Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE." *
The pen of the prince was never idle.  Scarcely has he written a page
which is not worthy of preservation.  His collected works fill eleven volumes,
- two in folio, three in quarto, and six in royal octavo. We have hardly
space even to allude to many of these writings. They nearly all bear directly
upon questions of great practical interest.  In the quotations we have made,
we have been guided by the endeavor to introduce the reader to the mind
of the prince, to his political views, to his social and moral instincts. One of
the most important works which he published from  his prison in Ham was
upon "The Extinction of Pauperism."  It was published in May, 1844.  In
his preface, he says, -
"I ought to say a word in explanation of the title of this pamphlet. It
may be said, as a literary man of much merit has already remarked to me,
that the words,' Extinction of Pauperism,' do not well express a writing which
has for its single aim  the welfare of the working-class. It is true that there
is a great difference between the misery which arises from  the unnatural
stagnation of labor and that pauperism  which is often the result of vice.
Yet it may be affirmed that tle one is the immediate consequence of the
other; for to diffuse through the working-classes, which are the most numterous, comfort, instruction, and morality, is to extirpate pauperism either entirely, or, at least, in great part.
"Thus to propose measures capable of initiating the masses into all the
benefits of civilization is to dry up the sources of ignorance, vice, and misery.
I think that I may, therefore, without too much boldness, preserve for my
work the title of' The Extinction of Pauperism.' I submit my reflections to
the public, in the hope, that, developed and put in practice, they will be useful for the solace of humanity. It is natural for the unfortunate to think of
those who suffer." 
The first chapter is thus introduced: " The riches of a country depend upon
the prosperity of agriculture and of industry; upon the development of commerce, interior and exterior; upon the just and equitable division of the public
revenues. There is not one of these elements of material prosperity which
may not be underminedin France by defects in our social condition. All men
of independent minds acknowledge this. They differ only as-to the remedies
to be applied.' "AGRICULTURE.
"It is evident that the extreme division of properties tends to the ruin of
agriculture; and yet the re-establishment of the law of primogeniture, which
maintained the large estates, and favored agriculture upon a large scale, is an
* Progres du Pas-de-Calais, 6 decembre, 1842.
81




242                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
impossibility. We must even congratulate ourselves in a political point of
view that it is so.
" INDUSTRY.*
"This source of wealth has at the present time neither rule noor ganization
nor aim. It is a machine which works without a regulator: it regards but
little the motive-force which it employs.  Crushing equally beneath its wheels
men and materials, it depopulates the rural districts, crowds the population
into narrow spaces without air, weakens the mind as well as the body, and
then casts out into the streets, when it can no longer make use of them, men
who have sacrificed, to enrich her, their strength, their youth, their existence. a
A true Saturn of labor, Industry devours her children, and lives only by their'death.
" Must we, to repair these defects, place her under a yoke of iron? wrest
from her that liberty which is her life? kill her, in a word, because' she kills,
without taking account of the immense benefits she confers?  But it is necessary to do something: for society is not a fictitious being; it is a body of
flesh and bones, which can prosper only when all the parts which compose it
are in a state of perfect health. A remedy is required for the evils of industry: the general good of the country, the voice of humanity, the interests
even of the government, imperiously demand it.
"INTERIOR COMMERCE.
"Interior Commerce suffers, because Industry, producing too much in comparison with the small remuneration she returns to Labor, and Agriculture not
iprducing enough, the nation finds itself composed of producers who cannot
sell, and of consumers who cannot buy. And the want of equilibrium of the
situation constrains the government here, as in England, to go even to China
to seek some thousands of consumers in the presence of millions of French
or of English who are destitute of every thing; and who, if they were able to
purchase food and clothing, would create a commercial movement far more
considerable than the most advantageous treaties.
EXTERIORt COMMIIERCE.
"The causes which paralyze our exportation from  France are too nearly
allied to politics for us to speak of them  here. Let it suffice us to sny that
the quantity of merchandise which a country exports is always in direct proportion to the number of bullets which she can send to her enemies when her
honor and her dignity demand it. The events which have recently passed in
China are a proof of this truth. Let us now speak of taxes.
"IMPOST.
"France is one of the most heavily taxed countries of Europe.  She would,
perhaps, be the richest country, were the public fortune distributed in a more
equitable manner. The raising of taxes may be compared to the action of
the sun, which draws up the vapors from the earth, to distribute them  again
* L'Industrie. - By this word, the French convey the idea which we would convey by the two
words "trades" and "manufactures."




PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HAM.                     243
in the form of rain, over all those places which have need of water, that they
may be fruitful and productive.  When this restitution operates regularly,
fertility ensues; but when the sky, in its wrath, pours down the absorbed
vapors in storms, in waterspouts, in tempests, the germs of production are
destroyed, and sterility is the result, because it gives to some places far too
much, and to others not enough. Still, whatever may have been the action of
the atmosphere, beneficial or hurtful, it is almost always, at the end of the
year, the same quantity of water which has been taken up and given back.
The distribution alone makes, then, the difference. Equitable and regular, it
creates abundance; lavish and partial, it causes dearth.
"It is the same in the effects of a good or a bad administration. If the
sums raised each year from the generality of the inhabitants are employed for
unproductive purposes, -as in creating useless appointments, erecting sterile
monuments, in maintaining in the midst of profound peace an army more
expensive than that which conquered at Austerlitz, -the tax, in that case, becomes an insupportable burden; it exhausts the country; it absorbs without
returning.  But if, on the contrary, these resources are employed to create
new elements of production, to establish the equilibrium of riches, to destroy
misery in promoting and organizing labor, to cure, in fine, the evils which
Civilization brings with her, then, certainly, the tax becomes, as was once said
by a minister at the tribune, the best investment for the public.
"It is, then, in the budget that we must seek the first support for every system which has for its aim the relief of the working-class.  Savings-banks are,
doubtless, useful for the class of workmen who are in easy circumstances:
they furnish them the means of making an advantageous investment of the
small sums which their economy can save. But for the numerous class which
has no superfluity, and consequently no means of saving, that system is entirely useless. To attempt to alleviate the miseries of men who have nothing
to live upon, in proposing to them to lay aside every year something of that
which they have not, is derision or absurdity.
"NWhat is, then, to be done?  This is our reply. Our law for the equal
division of landed estates ruins agriculture. We must remedy this evil by an
association, which, employing all the unoccupied hands, re-creates large estates
and extended culture without any injury to our political principle.
"Manufacturing interests (lindustrie) continually call men into the cities,
and enervate them.  WV  must recall into the country the overplus of the
cities, and renovate their minds and their bodies by the fresh air.
"The working-classes possess nothing: we must make them landholders.
They have no fortune but their hands: we must give to these hands employment useful for all. They are as a tribe of Helots in the midst of a tribe of
Sybarites: we must give them a place in society, and attach their interests
to the soil. They are now without organization, and without ties; without
rights, and without a future: we must give them rights and a future by raising them to self-respect through association, education, and good order."
We can only give very briefly the plan which the prince proposes and
minutely elucidates for the accomplishment of these important results. He




244                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
says, that, for the promotion of a project so worthy of the democratic and
enlightened spirit of the present age, there is necessary, —first, a law;
secondly, the wise investment of funds taken from the budget; and, thirdly,
organization.  He states, that in France, according to official statistics, there
are about twenty million acres of uncultivated land which are almost profitless.  IIe proposes that the government should assign these lands to the
WYorkmen's Association, to be cultivated by agricultural colonies; and that the
state should furnish the necessary funds, which, he says, would prove a " magnificent investment."  The most minute and careful calculations are made to
show the mode of operation and the wisdom of the measure. No impartial
man can read these pages without admiring the spirit of wisdom and humanity
displayed upon every page, without being convinced that the writer has at
heart the welfare of the people.
" The masses, without organization," he writes, "are nothing; organized,
they are every thing. Without organization, they can neither speak, nor make
themselves understood; they can neither hear, nor receive a common impression. On the one hand, the voice of twenty millions of men scattered over a
vast territory is lost in echo; on the other hand, there is no voice sufficiently
powerful and persuasive to carry from a central point to the consciences of
twenty milllions of men the always severe doctrines of power, without recog
nized intermediums.
"To-day the reign of castes is ended.  One can only govern by the masses.
It is necessary, then, to organize them, that they may give expression to their
wishes; and to discipline them, that they may be directed and enlightened as
to their true interests.  To govern -is no longer to dominate over the people
by force and violence: it is to conduct them towards a better future in making an appeal to their reason and their hearts.  But since the masses have
need to be instructed and rendered morally better, and since, in its turn,
authority needs to be restrained and enlightened respecting the interests of
the greatest number, it is above all things necessary that there should be in
society two movements equally powerful, - an action of government upon
the masses, and a re-action of the masses upon government.
"Guided by these considerations, we would wish to create, between the
workmen and those who employ them, an intermediate class, invested with
rights legally recognized, and chosen by the totality of the workmen. We
would have the workmen every year choose these representatives, or middlemen, one for every ten.  Good conduct should be the only condition of
eligibility. Every head of a manufactory or a farm should be obliged by law,
whenever he employed as many as ten workmen, to have a middle-man to
direct them, and to give him a salary twice as much as he pays the common
laborers.
"These middle-men would fill, in the working-class, the same office which
the sub-officers fill in the army. They form  the first degree in the social
hierarchy; stimulating the laudable ambition of all, and presenting to them  a
recompense easily to be obtained."
Chapter three treats of agricultural associations, and chapter four contains
the estimated expenses and receipts of such establishments. According to




PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVF  OF HAM.                             245
his calculations, by an immediate expenditure of about sixty million dollars 
by the government, these agricultural associations would  in twenty-three
years clear a net profit of one hundred and sixty million dollars, and two
hundred thousand  families would have been supported.  France would be
enriched by twelve millions of new cattle, and the government would receive
a revenue of seven million dollars from the ground-rent alone of the improved
property.
In the concluding chapter, he writes, "All men who feel themselves animated by a sincere love for their fellow-creatures desire that justice should
at length be done to the working-classes, which still seem deprived of all the
advantages which civilization procures.  Our project gives them  every thing
which elevates the condition of man, -  competence, education, good order,
and to each the possibility of raising himself by merit and skill. Our organization tends to nothing  less than to render at the end of a few  years the
poorest class of to-day the richest association in all France.'
"That is a grand and holy mission, well worthy of exciting the ambition
of men, which consists in the endeavor to appease hatreds, to heal wounds,
to soothe the sufferings of humanity, by uniting the citizens of the same
country in a common interest, and in accelerating a future which civilization
must sooner or hlter introduce.
"Two centuries ago, Fontaine uttered this sentence, too often true, and yet
so sad, so destructive of all society, of all order, of all sacred authority:'Itell
you in plain terms, -  our enemy, he is our nzaster.'  To-day the object of
all enlightened governments should be to devote its efforts to hasten the
period when men may say, -
"' The triumph of Christianity has destroyed slavery; the triump2h of the 
French- Revolution has put can end to se9fcdon m; the triumph of d(emoccratic
ideas has caused the extinction of pczauperism.'" *
This treatise, like the others from the pen of the captive prince, was widely
circulated, eagerly read, and warmly commended.  The expression of sympathy for the sufferings of the masses touched the popular heart in France,
and led tle people to regard Louis Napoleon as the heir of the principles as
well as of the great name of their beloved  emperor.   They regarded his
attempts at Strasburg and Boulogne as attempts to  come to their rescue.
The most accomplished scholars in France admitted the great ability which
the prince displayed in these writings, as will be evident from  the following
letter from  the poet Be3ranger.  It was dated June 30, 1844, and was in
acknowledgment of the  reception of a copy  of his pamphlet upon "The
Extinction of Pauperism." t
CEuvres de Napolon III., tom. deuxieme, pp. 107-125.
t "At Boulogne and Strasburg, the prince had proved how faithfllly he had followed the
first part'of his uncle's motto,'All by the people.' At Ham, he showed, by this pamphlet on'The Extinction of Pauperism,' that he equally understood the second part of the device,'All
for the people.' This worl, the result of long meditation on the lot of the working-classes,
after dwelling on the means of increasing the agricultural wealth of the country, suggests a
plan for the organization of labor, having for its object the employment of unoccupied hands.
No greater proof-can be given of the consistency and truth of his character, of the agreement




246                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
(" PRINCE, — I have the honor to thank you for sending me your work.
It deserves the admiration of all the friends of humanity.  The idea to
which you give utterance in this too short pamphlet is one of the best calculated to ameliorate the condition of the industrial and laboring classes.
It is not my part, prince, to judge of the accuracy of the calculations by
which you maintain it; but I can fully appreciate the~i value. I have too
often indulged in dreams which had the same objects in view as your generous intentions, not to do so. By a good fortune, of which I am very proud,
my fireside Utopias singularly approach those projects which you develop so
clearly, and support by such unanswerable arguments.
"It is less through vanity, prince, that I here allude to my speculations,
than to show you the satisfaction that your work was calculated to afford me.
It is noble in you, in the midst of the tediums and sufferings of captivity, to
interest yourself thus, prince, with that portion of your fellow-countrymen
whose evils are so numerous and menacing. It is the best means, and the
worthiest of the name you bear, to prove the injustice of those statesmen
who hesitate so long in restoring you to your liberty and your native land.
With the best wishes that you may soon recover both, receive, prince, the
assurance of my sentiments of high consideration. I have the honor, prince
to be your very humble servant,                              " BiRANGER."
The  next work upon which the studious captive entered was entitled
"The Past and Future of Artillery."  It was his intention to complete it in
five large volumes, accompanied with numerous illustrations from  his own
pencil. lie was engaged upon this theme when other subjects of more immediate and pressing importance called off his attention.  The diligence
with which he must have devoted himself to this work may be inferred from
the fact, that what he then wrote now fills the fourth volume of the emperor's
writings, - a royal octavo volume of four hundred and twenty-four pages. It
is sufficient to say that it is a work which no man could write who was not
thoroughly conversant both with the teachings of history and the deductions of science.  "It is a remarkable production," say Gallix and Guy,
"and is regarded by men conversant with the subject as one of the most
perfect works upon the theme of which it treats." * 
We now come to a work of very great political importance, entitled "The
Canal of Nicaragua; or, A Project for the Junction of the Atlantic anll
Pacific Oceans by Means of a Canal."  It is not improbable that it was the
writing of this work which turned his attention to Mexico, and which impressed him so deeply with the importance of the construction of the canal
for the commerce of the world as to lead him  to the endeavor to establish
a stable government in tumultuous and anarchic Mexico, under whose protection moneyed men would venture to employ their capital in so ipagnificent an enterprise.
of deeds with words, than the manner in which, since his accession to the throne, he has carried
out these ideas, and the great decrease of mendicity in consequence." - The Early Life of Lozis
Napoleon, collected from Authentic Records. London: p. 134.
* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., p. 117.




PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HAM.              *      247
It appears that the fame of the prisoner of IIam for science and for farreaching views had reached Central America, where many Europeans were
residing. Several persons of distinction wrote to him,.through a French
geitleman established at Jamaica, to induce him to solicit permission to leave
his prison, and go to America, where they said that the prince would be received with enthusiasm, and where he could engage in enterprises worthy of
his name and of his active energies.
It was well known that the French Government was very much embarrassed by the presence of its formidable adversary in France; that the
public sympathy was daily becoming stronger in his favor; that the liberal
party were more and more regarding his name as their rallying-cry; and that
Louis Philippe and his fiiends would be only too happy to throw open the
gates of Ham, if the captive would but leave France, and expend his tireless
energies upon the other side of the ocean.
But the prince did not wish to leave France. Hie still clung with strange
tenacity to the belief that he was destined by Providence to sit upon the
throne of his native land, and that it was to be his privilege to consecrate
the high abilities which he was conscious that God had given to him  to the
promotion of the wealth and power and happiness of his own countrymen.
IHe therefore declined the invitation. Still, touched by the marks of sympathy
which had come to him from such a distance, and whibh had even penetrated
the glooms of a prison to reach him, he entered into a correspondence with the
gentlemen who had so earnestly applied for his services.  Enclosed within
the walls of the fortress, the feet of the prince could traverse a space of but a
few yards. But the spirit cannot be chained. When the body is immured in a
cell, the mind will launch forth, perhaps with more vigorous wing, to traverse
the expanse, and to contemplate those achievements, which only the most
perfect liberty can execute.
It so happened that just at this time the prince received a visit from an
officer of the French marine, wh  wwas upon the point of sailing for Central
America.  He engaged this officer to make some investigations upon the
possibility of cutting a canal, navigable for ships, which should connect the
Atlantic and the Pacific through the Lakes of Nicaragua and Leon. By a
singular coincidence, just at this time, when Louis Napoleon was earnestly
investigating the question of the best route for a ship-canal to connect the
two oceans, the French Government sent an engineer, M. Garella, to draw
the plans and to prepare the estimates for a canal across the Isthmus of
Panama.
In the year 1844, the States of Guatimala, San Salvador, and Honduras,
sent M. Castellon as minister plenipotentiary to the court of Louis Philippe,
to implore for those States the protection of the French Government, and
to offer to France,in return, signal commercial advantages. The French
Government did not accept the overtures of M. Castellon; and he consequently then solicited permission to visit the prisoner of Ham.  This
request was granted; and M. Castellon had an interview with the prince, in
the course of which he discoursed at length upon the importance and the
possibility of a junction of the two oceans; and earnestly entreated the prince




248                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
to repair to Central America to place himself at the head of so majestic
an enterprise.  His efforts, however, were unavailing; and he subsequently
entered into an arrangement with a company in Belgium.
A  few  months passed away, when the report was widely circulated that
the French Government was about to grant a decree of amnesty to the captive prince. This led Louis Napoleon to think very seriously of America,
and to weigh in his mind the grand project which had so recently been
submitted to him, and the. execution of which would confer such honor upon
his name.
M. Castellon, during his visit at Ham, had perceived that the prince was
quite familiar with all the points connected with the project in question, and
that he fully comprehended the vast benefits which would be conferred upon
the States of Central America by the contemplated canal. IHe therefore entreated him to write out for publication his thoughts upon the subject. In
response to this request, the prince addressed a letter to M. Castellon, containing his views upon this great enterprise of world-wide importance, and
stating, that, if he should be set at liberty, he had decided to cross to America,
and embark in the undertaking.
M. Castellon, having  received  this communication, translated it into
Spanish.  It was eagerly read, and produced so deep an impression in
Central America, that i]mmediately a large number of the most distinguished
inhabitants addressed a petition to their government, praying that the execution of the projected canal might be confided exclusively to Prince Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte. In consequence of this action, M. Castellon wrote to
the prince the following letter, dated Leon de Nicaragua, Dec. 6, 1845: --
"PRINCE, -I have received with the greatest pleasure the letter of your
Highness, dated Aug. 12, which brings to me the expression of your esteem
and friendship, with which I feel highly honored. You have joined to it the
development of your ideas relative to the canal at Nicaragua, viewed in the
light which seems to me best calculated to promote the prosperity of Central
America. You at the same time acquaint me that you are far more disposed
than when I first paid you a visit at Ham to come to this country, in order
to advance by your presence and exertions the execution of this great work,
— sufficient of itself to satisfy the most noble ambition; and that you are
ready to accept the direction without any other view than that of accomplishing a task worthy of the great name you bear.
" When I went to France as minister plenipotentiary, I was very desirous,
before my departure from Europe, of visiting you at Ham. I aspired to the
honor of seeing you, not only on account of the popularity which invested
your name throughout the world, but because I had myself witnessed in your
native country the high esteem which was attacheclto your character, and the
sympathy which your misfortunes inspired.
"I admired, prince, your resignation, and your love for that France where
you are imprisoned; but I had a secret joy in seeing your spirit exalt itself
* CEures de Napoleon III., tom. iv.: Le Canal de Nicaragua; ou, Projet de Jonction des
Oceans Atlantique et Pacifique au Moyen d'un Canal. Introduction,




PRINCIPLES OF THE CAPTIVE OF HAM.                       249
in view of the immense work which my country was about to undertake, and
which would. so effectually promote the progress of civilization. Tie intentions which you have announced, and the notes added to your letter, have
excited here the liveliest enthusiasm, with which is blended the profoundest
gratitude.
"I am happy to inform your Highness that the government of this State,
fully convinced that the true way of raising the capital necessary for this enterprise is to place it under the patronage of a name, independent, like yours, in
fortune and position, and which, in securing the confidence of the two worlds,
will dispel all fear of foreign domination, -that this government relies upon
your Highness as the only person who can fulfil these diverse conditions.  Your
Highness, brought up in a republic, has shown by your noble behavior in
Switzerland to what extent a free people may rely on your self-denial. And
we feel convinced that if your uncle, the great Napoleon, has rendered himself
immortal by his victories, your Highness may acquire among us an equal
glory by works of peace, which cause only tears of gratitude to flow. From
the day in which you shall place your foot upon our soil, a new era of prosperity will commence for its inhabitants.' If we do not send you immediately the necessary powers for the commencement of these great works, it will be in consequence of the absence of the
Legislative Chambers, whose intervention is necessary for the examination of
a treaty, signed by me the last year with Monsieur the Count of Hompesoh, President of the Belgian Colonization Company. That treaty not having been as
favorably received as I had expected, it is more than probable that the goverlment will be authorized to address itself to you, and will be able thus to
satisfy the national will. It seems resolved to send me to you with the necessary instructions to enable your Highness and myself to come to an understanding upon the subject.
"Another cause of delay is the recent popular outbreak in the country.
But as the number of malecontentsis very small, and the government has the
support of public opinion, I think that this revolution will soon be appeased,
and that the ensuing calm will permit us to give to our grand enterprise the
most energetic impulse.  The government is convinced that the construction
of the canal, in giving employment to all the unoccupied hands, will be a new
means of pacification and prosperity for a people so long a time harassed by
the horrors of civil war.
"I pray your highness to receive, &c.
" FRANC CASTELLON." 
* This letter will be found in the Works of Napoleon III., vol. ii. p. 467.
32




CHAPTER XV.
FAMILY.REMINISCENCES.
The Death of Joseph Bonaparte. - Sketch of his Career. - Anecdote of Napoleon. - Petitions
for the Release of the Prince. - Sickness of his Father, King Louis. - His Dying Plea to see
his Son. - Efforts of the Prince to visit his Dying Father. - Correspondence. - Measures of
the Government. - Public Dissatisfaction.
HILE these great plans were under consideration, it was generally understood that the imprisoned prince had but to suggest to the government his readiness to retire to America, no
more to return to France, and his prison-doors would be instantly thrown wide open.  Joseph Bonaparte was the first
heir to the empire.  This man, who had worn two crowns, the
eldest brother of the emperor, and his most intimate friend, died at Florence,
the 28th July, 1844, after a long and painful illness.  The universal press
of Europe spoke of the departed in terms of respect and regret. IHe was
one of the most amiable and virtuous of men; and died in a foreign land, at
the close of twenty-nine years of exile from his native country.
The death of Joseph Bonaparte brought Louis Napoleon, according to the
laws pf hereditary descent, one step nearer to the imperial throne.  There
was now but one person between the young prince and the crown; and that
was his ownfather, Louis Bonaparte, then aged, sick, and dying. Louis Philippe,
occupying a throne which was based neither upon hereditary right nor popular
suffrage, was increasingly unpopular; and it was manifest to all thoughtful
observers that there must soon be another revolution in France. The captive
of Ham, by his pen, was ever keeping his name before the public; and his
democratic ideas were daily inspiring the Liberal party with more confidence
in his ability and in his political principles. The Fortress of Ham had become
the tribune from  which the prince was continually addressing his listening
countrymen; and his name had become such a power, that it was manifestly inexpedient for him to withdraw from Europe in view of the approaching crisis, even though, by so doing, he should escape from a prison whose
glooms were beginning to weigh heavily upon his soul.
Upon the death of Joseph Bonaparte, there immediately appeared from the
pen of the prince a beautiful tribute to his memory.  We can quote but a few
passages fiom this work.  They will be read with interest, as indicating the
views entertained by the writer respecting the duties of a sovereign.
250
~




FAMILY REMINISCENCES.                         251
"Shortly after the campaign of Austerlitz," writes the prince, "Joseph was
placed at the head of an army which was to make the conquest of the kingdom
of Naples, and to expel the English and the Russians, who there upheld the
cruel and tyrannical regime of Caroline. Forty thousand Frenchnen advanced, and soon the enemy were put to rout at Capua, at San Firenzo, at
Lago Negro, at Campo Tenese; and the brother of the emperor ascended the
ancient throne of the house ofAnjou.
"Surely the conquest of the kingdom of Naples, and the regeneration of
that part of Europe, are events the importance of which disappear before
Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena. But it is the duty of impartial history to
render to each one the justice which is his due, not judging of the merits of the
actor from the grandeur of the theatre upon which he performs.
"Joseph profited by his transient authority to plant deeply, in that corner
of Europe, those institutions, those French ideas, those principles of equality,
which have survived his fall. He undertook the difficult task of diffusing
through the country, debased by the most cruel despotism, the light of 1789.
Twice he traversed all the provinces of his realm, inquiring in each locality
respecting the wants of its inhabitants, striving to banish that crushing misery
of the people, which, in so fine a climate, contrasted so conspicuously with the
beauties of Nature. And it is to him that we owe the diminution and the commencing civilization of that numerous class at Naples called the lazzaroni.
I-Ie employed them in labor in the fields and on the roads; and it was through
them that the beautiful passage of Capo di Monte was opened.
"Plans were drawn up for executing the ancient project of uniting, by a
canal, the waters of the Ionian and the Tyrian Seas. And thus, while the
emperor, in the midst of his gigantic labors, formed the plan to deepen the bed
of the Seine, and to make Paris a seaport, his brothers imitated outside of
France the same civilizing example. For while Joseph, at the extremity
of the Italian peninsula, labored to realize an idea which dated from the Romans, Prince Eugene commenced deepening the bed of the Po, -a work of
the greatest utility for Upper Italy, and which, according to the design, was
to be finished in 1830. On the other hand, King Louis, in. Holland, was preparing to drain the Lake of Haarlem.
"As soon as Joseph found himself at the head of a government, he surrounded himself, after the example of his brother, with a council of state,
composed of the most distinguished men, whom he divided into special sections. It was by this united assembly that all plans were discussed by men
of the greatest ability: by them all the important changes were made in the
finances, the administration, the courts of justice. The taxes were impartially
distributed; the law was proclaimed equal for all; and the judiciary was
placed in the hands of the most upright and independent men.
"By his conciliatory spirit, and by the creation of a national guard, Joseph
brought to an end that brigandage which had long infested the country. By
his sagacious measures, he destroyed feudal rights, through the intervention of
the nobles themselves; he suppressed convents by the personal intervention
of the clergy; and he prepared the future of a new and enlightened generation by establishing a great. number of civil and military schools, many of




202                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III
which exist to the present day. In fine, he opened a grand road even to
Reggio; he brought under cultivation a large part of the territory called
Tavoliere di Puglia; he moved back the custom-houses to the frontiers; he
commenced the embellishments of the capital; and, at the end of the short
space of two years, this country, lately barbaric, was pacified, regenerated,
enriched, by the persevering efforts of a worthy son of our revolution.
"But it was needful that the oldest brother of the emperor should llave a
task more arduous to fulfil. His cares could not be bounded by the kingdom
of Naples when Europe was in flames, and when the old thrones were crumbling, one after another, before the thunderings of our artillery. It was not
without regret that Joseph left the charming shores of Capri and of Ischia to
submit himself to his brother in 1808 at Bayonne.  It required a combination
of imperious circumstances to force him to accept the crown of Spain. But
the emperor had informed him that Charles IV. had declared his unwililingness
to return to Spain without the prince of peace, who was the object of popular
hatred;' that Ferdinand was a man without merit, and faithless, who could not
be trusted; and, besides, that the example of a son dethroning his father was
a spectacle too revolting to be exhibited to Europe; that, in fine, the Junta
assembled at Bayonne regarded his acceptance as the only means of escaping
from their difficulties.  Joseph accepted, not from  ambition, but through a
sense of duty.
"The first congratulations which the new king received were fiom  Ferdinand, -from  the very man whose throne he was occupying; a convincing
proof of the worthlessness of him  whom  he had replaced.  Strong in the
support of all the Spaniards assembled at Bayonne, Joseph thought that the
Spanish soil was as prepared as that of Naples for thorough regeneration.
Faithful to his antecedents, wishing to employ only persuasion and gentleness
to establish his authority, he requested his brother to withdraw all the French
troops from Spain, that he might obtain the suffrages of the nation without the
presence of foreign troops, and trusting to the success of a loyal appeal made
to the chivalric character of the Spanish people.
" If the course of events rendered this result impossible, we must at least
admit that it was not wanting in grandeur; and that it was not the love of
power alone which inspired the ambition of Joseph, but the desire to promote
the happiness of Spain. As at Naples, he began to gather around him the
most distinguished men, and to replace all the abuses of the ancient rgcime
by institutions modelled from those of France. But neither the elevated spirit
of Joseph, nor the valor of our troops, could conquer Spanish fanaticism,
excited against us by the hatred of the monks, and sustained by the armies
of England.  The mission of Joseph, which was in entire accord with the
goodness of his heart and the philosophical cast of his ideas, was entirely
pacific.  Events forced him to be only a soldier. Although lie was wanting
neither in courage, nor in that decision of character so essential in the midst
of the critical events of war, he could not always impress upon the movements
of the different corps of the army that unity of action so necessary to success,
because there was no one but the emperor capable of repressing that jealousy
among the marshals which often caused the failure of the wisest combinations.




FAMILY PEMINISCENCES.                           253
"Nevertheless, Joseph accomplished all the good which it was possible to
accomplish in the short interval which the cares of war left to him; and all
his efforts tended especially to avoid the efflsion of blood, and to receive the
crown from the fiee consent of the Spanish people.  With this end in view,,he issued a solenin  eclaration, through which he summoned a central congress
at Grenada to decide this simple question,"'hall we, or shall we not, accept the king and the constitution offered by
the Congress of _Bayonne?'
"If the nation accepted, at the gathering of this national asserbly, Joseph
promised the withdrawal of the French troops, and his entire submission to
the will of the nation legally expressed. But what are intentions the most
pure, in the midst of events which dash onward, and passions roused to firezy?
Stakes planted in the path of a rushing torrent. The fury of the flood sweeps
them away. History alone collects them."
After describing briefly the events which speedily ensued, he writes, "Joseph saw clearly that his plans of pacification could not be realized; and he
wrote then to his brother the following letter, which depicts completely the
honorable character of the man: 
"'MADRID, AMarch 23, 1812.'"' SIRE, - When, a year ago, I asked the advice of your Majesty, before
my return to Spain, you induced me to return: therefore I am here. You had
the kindness to say to me that I could at any time leave the country, if the
hopes we had conceived should not be realized. In that case, your Majesty
assured me an asylum in the southern part of the empire, between which and
Morfontaine I could divide my residence.
"' Sire, events have deceived my hopes. I have not done any good, and I
have no longer the hope of doing any. I entreat, therefore, permission of
your 3Majesty to allow me to restore to his hands the right to the crown of
Spain, which he condescended to transmit to me four years ago. In accepting
the crown of this country, I have never had any other object in view than the
happiness of this vast monarchy. It has not been in my power to accomplish
it. I entreat your Majesty to receive me as one of his subjects, and to be
assured that he will have no one to serve him more faithfully than the friend
whom Nature has given to him.                                 "' JOSEPH."'
This beautiful memorial from the pen of the prince, which from beginning to
end is full of historic interest, occupies forty-five pages in the second Volume
of " Les (Euvres de Napoleon III."  A few of the closing paragraphs we must
*    quote, not merely in view of their inherent interest, but as containing a striking exhibition of the general opinions and social affections of the writer.  It
can hardly be necessary to apologize for the copiousness of these quotations,
since the object of this biography is to make the reader acquainted with the
whole character of that extraordinary man who now occupies the throne of
France, with his intellectual abilities, his political views, his moral sentiments; and this can in no way be so unexceptionably done as in producing
appropriate selections from the varied effusions of his pen: —




254                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"Until 1840, Josepli retained all his force, all his energy, all the brilliant
faculties of his soul; but he had then an attack of paralysis, from which he
never entirely recovered. In the last years of his life; the misfortunes of his
family alone seemed to occupy his mind. He often gave expression to the
grief with which he was afflicted by the captivity of his nephew upon the soil
of France, and his sense of injustice that France should leave those men to
die in exile who had so faithfully served her.
"Having Queen Julia by his side, who was always an angel of consolation,
and whose devotion never failed, and attended by his brothers Louis and
Jerome, whom he loved tenderly, he gently sank away. And, as a just man,
he would have seen the approach of death without regret, if the phantom  of
exile had not come, even in his last moments, to lacerate his heart and to
imbitter his final adieus. Joseph died the 28th of July, at nine o'clock in the
morning; hnd the news of his death was a subject of poignant grief, not only
to his family, but to all those who had known and loved him. And upon this
subject there is one very painful reflection: it is that an absence of twentynine years from his native country had naturally diminished the number of
those in France who were attached to his person, while it had continually
augmented the number of those, who, in foreign lands, had been able to
appreciate his noble qualities.  So that, (sad effect of exile!) though at Paris a
general sentiment of regret was manifested, it is, perhaps, at Florence, in the
United States, and at London, that the most sincere tears have been shed at
the death of the brother of Napoleon.
" That which appears to us as one of the principal merits of Joseph is that
he remained always, even to his last hour, a true patriot of 1789.  The
struggle of the people against the ancient regime had profoundly impressed his
soul. Under the purple, as under the cloak of exile, the man had remained
ever the same, -the resolute adversary of all oppression, of all aristocratic
privilege, of all abuse, the impassioned advocate of the equality and the
liberty of the peoples.
" Joseph, like all actors who have retired from the scene, like all who have
ha'd a long past and have a short future, loved to recall the events which he
had witnessed; and the incidents which he charmingly recounted moved the
soul by their touching simplicity or by their exciting interest.  He recalled
with pleasure the plebeian orign  and the humble circumstances of that family
which had counted so many kings among its members.  One day he mentioned that his brother Louis- for whom he had cherished fromn his infancy
all the cares and tenderness of a father -was about to leave Marseilles to
prosecute his studies in Paris.  Joseph accompanied him to the diligence,
and, at the moment of taking leave of him, perceived that it was cold, and
that his brother: had no cloak.  Then, not having the means to purchase him
one, and not wishing to expose his brother to the severity of the weather, he.
took off his own cloak, and wrapped it around Louis just as the coach was
departing. This incident, which they mutually recalled when they were both
kings, remained always engraved on their hearts as a tender souvenir of their
unvarying affection.
"When Joseph, as minister plenipotentiary of the French Republic, was




FAMILY REMINISCENCES.                           255
journeying with his colleagues towards Amiens, in 1802, to conclude a peace
with England, they were much occupied, he said, during the route, respecting"
the ceremonial to be observed when they should meet the English diplomatists. In the interests of their mission, they were anxious not to fail in
any of the proprieties of etiquette. Being, however, representatives of a
Republican State, they did not wish to show too much forwardness in their
attentions (prevenance) to the grand English lords who had come to treat
with them. The French commissioners were therefore much embarrassed in
deciding whose duty it was to make the first visit.  Quite inexperienced, they
were not aware that foreign diplomatists always conceal the inflexibility of
their policy under the suppleness of forms.  Thus they were very soon
extricated from  their embarrassments; for, to their great astonishment, they
found, immediately upon their arrival at Amiens, Lord Cornwallis, who was
waiting for them at the door of his hotel, and who, without any ceremony
whatever, himself opened the door of their carriage, and cordially grasped
them by the hand.
"King Joseph related many other interesting anecdotes, which will be
found in his memoirs.  We will lifit ourselves to repeating after him a saying
of the emperor, which is the more interesting, since it explains, in a manner,
wwhy the men who have governed us since 1830, notwithstanding their personal distinction, have accomplished nothing. The emperor said one day to
his brother Joseph, 
"'T      has very great abilities. Is it not so? Very well! Do you know,
Joseph, why he never accomplishes any thing great?  It is because great
thoughts never come but from the heart; and T-  has no heart.'
"Although kindness and gentleness were the foundation of the character'of Joseph, he was often violently agitated when one touched any of those
sympathetic chords whose vibration recalled to his heart the misfortunes of
his brother or those of his country. There were two subjects which he could
never allude to with calmness,- St. Helena, and the policy of the French
Government since 1830. The heart-rending remembrance of the anguish of
his brother invariably caused a burst of indignant words fiom his lips; tears
flooded his eyes: and the feeble policy of the French Government since
1830 - a policy so ungenerous towards the Bonaparte family- r6used emotions of anger which could not easily be appeased.
"We have passed rapidly in review the principal incidents in the life of
King Joseph. It is evident, that, if his participation in the events which
have illustrated the republic and the empire were obscured by the immense
figure of his brother, it is because every thing appears small by the side of a
giant. For if to-day there lived among us a man, who as deputy, diplomatist, citizen, or soldier, was constantly distinguished by his patriotism  and his
brilliant qualities; if that man could boast of his oratorical triumphs, and of
treaties which he had concluded advantageously for the interests of France;
if that man had refused a crown because the conditions which it imposed
upon him wounded his conscience; * if that man had conquered a kingdom,
* "The crown of Lombardy was offered to Joseph, who refused it because the emperor had
imposed upon him, as the conditions, that he should renounce his rights to the throne which




256                       LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
gained battles, and had carried to two thrones the light of French ideas;
if, in fine, in prosperous as in adverse fortune, he had always remained faithful to his oaths, to his country, to his friends,-that man, we say, would
occupy the highest position in public esteem; statues would be erected to
his memory; and civic crowns would adorn his whitened locks.
"Now, that man lately lived with all these glories, with all these honorable
antecedents.  Nevertheless, upon his brow we see only the imprint of misfortune.  His country has recompensed his noble services by an exile of
twenty-nine years.
"We mourn  over this without being  astonished.  There are but two
parties in France,-the conquerors and the conquered of Waterloo.  The
conquerors are in power, and all that is national feels the crushing weight of
defeat.
"At a period in which all patriotic and generous sentiments are condemned
as crimes; at a period when our flag is continually falling back before foreign
demands; when, to adduce but one fact, the Grand Cross of the Legion of
Honor is given to the Duke of Baylen, a man who compelled our troops to
pass under the Caudine Forks,* and who -sent twenty thousand Frenchmen
to die in English hulks,-at such a period, it is natural and consistent even
that the relatives of Napoleon should languish in prisons or die in exile."
Still the months of imprisonment lingered slowly and sadly away.  The
prince received. a letter from  M. de Montenegro, minister of foreign affairs,
officially conferring upon him all the powers necessary to organize a company
in Europe for the construction of the Nicaragua Canal, and informing him
that the government of Nicaragua had resolved to give to their great work,
which was destined to open a new era to the commerce of the world, the
name of the "Canal Napoleon of Nicaragua."  In  consequence of these
governmental acts, M. de Marcoletta, chccrge dc'cifaires from  Nicaragua,
visited Ham, in accordance with the instructions which he had received from
his government, to sign with the prince a treaty conferring upon him  fall
powers for the accomplishment of the object in view.
During the course of these negotiations, the friends of the prince were
making active but fiuitless exertions in Paris to effect his release.  Still he
seems to have retained his fortitude unshaken.  After five years of exile, he
wrote, -
"Years roll by with disheartening monotony.  It is only in the promptings
of my conscience and my heart that I find strength to stand up against this
atmosphere of lead which surrounds and suffocates me. But I still believe,
with absolute confidence, that a better future is approaching." t
the emperor had just founded, and that he should pay annually a tribute to France." - (avres
de Napoleon III., tom. ii. p. 419.
* Farcc Cacdinlce, a mountain-pass near Naples. A Roman army, three hundred and
twenty-one years before Christ, was captured in this defile by the Samnites. They were all
compelled to pass under the yoke, like slaves.
t "In the year 1844, very numerous petitions were sent to the Chambers, praying that the
law of banishment against the Bonaparte family might be abrogated, and that the prison



FAMILY REMINISCENCES.                                257
About the middle of August, 1845, the father of Louis Napoleon, then
fast sinking  into the grave beneath the burdens of age and sorrow, was
extremely anxious to see his only surviving son before he died.  He sent a
confidential agent to Paris, with a touching appeal to  the government that
in his old age, his sickness, his exile, his utter isolation, his only child might
be permitted to come to him to receive his last breath, and close his eyes in
death.  Marshal Soult, one of the renowned generals of the empire, was
then president of the council; M. Guizot, minister of foreign affairs; and
3M. Duchatel, minister of the interior.  Weeks passed away, and no answer
could be obtained.  At last, the prince, his heart bleeding in view of the
anguish of his dying father, wrote as follows to the minister of the interior.
The letter was dated Fortress of Ham, Dec. 25, 1845.
"SI, — My father, whose age and infirmities require the attention of a
son, has asked the government that I may be allowed to join him.  TIis application has met with no response. The government, I am told, requires a
formal guaranty  from  me.   Under such  circumstances, my determination
cannot be doubtful.  I ought to be ready to do every thing in my power
compatible with my honor,- that I may offer to my father those consolations
to which he has so many claims.
"I now, therefore, declare to you, sir, that, if the French Government consent to permit me to go to Florence to discharge a sacred  duty, I promise
upon my honor to return and place myself at the disposal of the government
as soon as it shall express a desire that I shall do so.
"Accept the assurance of my high esteem.
"NAPOLEON LOUIS BONAPARTE."
This letter was transmitted  to the minister through  the hands of M.
Poggioli, the confidential agent whom  King Louis had sent to Paris with
his application.  Several days passed before Poggioli could get any response.
At length, upon presenting himself at the house of the minister, he received
this curt reply:"Send this answer to the prince," said M. Duchatel: "His request cannot
be acceded to, for it is contrary to law; because it would be granting a full
and free pardon without the king having the merit of it."
M. Poggioli suggested to M. Duchatel, that, as the prince had written to
him directly, it would seem proper that he should receive a direct and official
limits of Prince Louis Napoleon might be extended to embrace the village of Ham and its
vicinity. One of the deputies, M. Boulay de la Meurthe, speaking upon this subject, said,"' GENTLEMEN, -I am the courtier of no one; not even of misfortune most nobly supported. I have already said that I deplored the attempts of Prince Louis. But I am convinced, that if he had not been urged on by the baleful counsels of exile, if he had been in
France, he never would have conceived such a thought. I am led to this opinion by the grave
studies, the severe labors, to which he has devoted himself in his captivity; by the response
which he gave to those who offered to open the doors of his prison upon condition that he
would return to exile. " I prefer," he said, "a prison in France, to exile in a foreign land.""
- Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Penault, p. 260.
33




258                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
answer. Upon this, M. Duchatel wrote to the commander of the Fortress of
Ham, the jailer of the captive, saying to him, 
"Be good enough to inform the prince from me, that I have laid his request before the council, and that the council has not thought it within its
power to grant it. This provisional liberation would be a disguised pardon;
and, whatever may be the rank of those condemned, pardon can only issue
from the clemency of the king."
Under these circumstances, the prince decided to write directly to Louis
Philippe.  His letter, which was dated  the 14th January, 1846, was as
follows:
"SIRE, -It is not without a lively emotion that I approach your Majesty,
and ask, as a favor, permission to quit France, even for a very short time.
For five years I have found, in breathing the air of my native country, ample
compensation for the torments of captivity; but my father is now aged and
infirm, and calls for all my attention and care. He has applied to persons
known for their attachment to your Majesty in order to obtain my liberation;
and it is my duty to do every thing which depends upon me to meet his
desires.
"The council of ministers not having felt itself competent to accede to the
request which I made to be allowed to go to Florence, pledging myself to
return and again become a prisoner as soon as the government might desire
me to do so, I approach your Majesty with confidence, to make an appeal to
your feelings of humanity, and to renew my request, by submitting to your
high and generous intervention.
"Your Majesty, I am convinced, will appreciate a step, which, beforehand,
engages my gratitude; and affected by the isolated position, in a foreign
land, of a man who upon a throne gained the esteem  of Europe, you will
accede to the wishes, of my father and myself.
"I beg your Majesty to receive the expression of my profound respect,
" NAPOLEON Louis BONAPARTE."
This letter was presented to Louis Philippe by a son of Marshal Ney.
According to his report, the king seemed very kindly disposed; for, even
before breaking the seal, he remarked that he thought that the guaranties
which the prince had previously offered were sufficient. But no letter could
leave the fortress which had not been previously read by the commandant.
HTe took a copy, and, with the consent of the prince, sent it to the ministers.
They took the matter into very grave deliberation; and, on the 25th of
January, M. Duchatel replied, that, "the council having deliberated upon that
copy, the result of the deliberation was, that it was necessary, before the king
could exercise his clemency, that the act of grace should be merited, and that
it should be frankly acknowledged." *
Thus the government sought to humble and degrade the prisoner by com* For all the facts here stated, see Histoire du Prince Louis Vapolcon, sur des Documents
particuliers et authentiques, par B. Rehnault.




FAMILY REMINISCENCES.                        259
pelling him to avow himself a criminal, and, as such, to implore forgiveness.
The knowledge of this course pursued by the government excited the strong
disapprobation of many influential persons, who could by no means be regarded as the partisans of the prince. Many members of the Chamber of
Deputies, without distinction of party, remonstrated strongly against it,Messrs. de Vatry and de Lascazes, who were friends of the reigning dynasty,
as well as MM. Arago, Lamartine, and Odillon Barrot, who were in the
Opposition. A. Thiers, the illustrious historian of the empire, and an ex-minister of Louis Philippe, wrote from the Chamber of Deputies to the prince as
follows:"The desire to embrace a dying father, accompanied by the promise to
return to your prison at the first requisition of the minister of the interior,
ought to have been gratified. It seems to me that such a measure could
have been adopted without endangering the position of the ministry.  I
regret, prince, that I cannot render you any service in this matter. I have no
influence with the government. Whenever there shall be an occasion in
which it may be possible for me to solace your misfortunes, I shall be happy
to give proofs of my sympathy with the glorious name you bear. Receive,
prince, the homage of my respect.                       "A. THIERs." X
The government was evidently not a little disturbed by the reproaches
which it was drawing down upon itself, and by the rapidly-increasing sympathy for the captive.  The question of his continued imprisonment was
daily becoming more embarrassing. Under these circumstances, the minister
of the interior, summoning to his aid M. Odillon Barrot, drew up a paper in
the form of a petition to the king, and sent it to the prince, with the assurance, that, if he would sign that paper, he could at once be liberated. The
paper was taken to the prince by M. Poggioli. He read it, but unhesitatingly
refused to attach to it his signature; saying,"I shall die in nrison, if rigors so unexampled condemn me to it; but
nothing shall induce me to degrade my character.  My father, moreover,
who has always adopted for his motto,' Do your duty, whatever may happen,'
- my father, I am sure, would regard my liberty as too dearly purchased at
the expense of my dignity and of the respect which I owe to my name."
The next day he sent to Odillon Barrot, by the hands of I. Poggioli, the
following response, dated Feb. 2, 1846:"SI,- Before replying to the letter which you have been good enough to
address to me, allow me to thank you, as well as your political friends, for
the interest you have shown, and the spontaneous steps which you have
thought it consistent with your duty to take in order to lighten the weight
of my misfortunes. Be assured that my gratitude will never be wanting to
those generous men, who, in such painful circumstances, have extended
towards me a friendly hand.
"I now ought to inform you why I do not consider it my duty to sign
* Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, President de la Republique, par B. Renault.




260                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the letter of which you have sent me a copy. The brave man who finds
himself alone, facing adversity in the presence of enemies interested in depreciating his character, ought to avoid all subterfuge, all equivocation, and
takle all his measures with the greatest frankness. Like Caesar's wife, he
must not even be suspected. Should I sign the letter which you and many
other deputies have recommended me to sign, I should, in fact, ask pardon
without having the magnanimity to avow that I do so. I should take shelter
behind the request of my father, like the coward who hides behind a tree
to escape the enemy's fire. I consider such conduct unworthy of me. If I
thought it consistent with my condition and honor simply and purely to
invoke the royal clemency, I should write to the king,' Sire, I ask pardon.'
" But such is not my intention. For six years I have endured, without
complaining, an imprisonment which is one of the natural consequences of
my attacks against the government; and I shall endure it for ten years
longer, if necessary, without accusing either my destiny or the men who
inflict it. I suffer; but I say to myself every day,'I am in France; I have
preserved my honor unstained.'
"I live without enjoyments, but also without remorse; and every evening
I fall asleep in peace. No steps would have been taken by me to disturb
the calm of my conscience and the repose of my life, had not my father
signified an earnest desire to have me near him  during his last days. My
duty as a son roused me from my resignation; and I decided upon a measure,
all the gravity of which I weighed, but which was marked by that frankness
and honesty which I desire should characterize all my actions.
"I wrote to the head of the State, -to him who alone had the legal right
to change my position. I asked of him to be allowed to go and see my
father. I spoke to him of goodness, of humanity, of gratitude; for I did not
hesitate to call things by their right names. The king appeared satisfied
with my letter, and. said to the worthy son of Marshal Ney, who had the
kindness to place my letter in his hands, that the guaranty which I offered
was sufficient. But he has, as yet, given no intimation of his decision. His
ministers, on the contrary, founding their resolution on a copy of my letter
to the king, which I had sent them from deference, taking advantage of my
position and their own, caused an answer to be transmitted to me which
showed only great contempt for misfortune. Under the blow of such a
refusal, and still unacquainted with the king's decision, it is my duty to
abstain from taking any step; and, above all, not to subscribe to a request
for pardon under the disguise of filial duty.
"I still maintain all that I said in my letter to the king, because the sentiments which I there expressed were deeply felt, and were such as appeared
suitable to my position; but I shall not advance a line farther. The path of
honor is narrow and slippery, and there is but a handbreadth between the
firm ground and the abyss.
" Moreover, believe me, sir, that, should I sign the letter in question, more
exacting demands would be made. On the 25th of December, I wrote rather
a dry letter to the minister of the interior, requesting permission to visit my
father.  The reply was politely worded. On the 14th of January, I deter



FAMILY REMINIISCENCES.                          261
mined on a very serious step. I wrote a letter to the king, in which I spared
no expression which I thought conducive to the success of my request. I
was answered with an impertinence. My position is clear and simple. I am
a captive; but I am consoled in breathing the air of my country.
"A sacred duty summons me to my father's side. I say to the government,
An imperious circumstance compels me to ask, as a favor, permission to leave
France. If you grant my request, you may depend on my gratitude; and it
will be of the more value, as your decision will bear the stamp of generosity:
for the gratitude of those who would consent to humiliate themselves in order
to obtain an advantage would be valueless.'
^        " ("Finally, I calmly await the decision of the king, - of that man, who, like
me, has lived through thirty years of misfortune. I rely on the support of
generous and independent men like you. I commit myself to destiny, and
prepare to resign myself to its decisions.
"Accept, sir, &c.                "NAPOLEON Louis BONAPARTE."
This letter was widely circulated, and was greatly applauded by his friends.
It gave another impulse to that sentiment of sympathy and enthusiasm  in
behalf of the prince, which was so resistlessly spreading through France.
Even Odillon Barrot, who had aided in drawing up the paper for the signature of the prince, in a public reply said, -
"Though lamenting the determination which you have taken, I cannot
blame the sentiment by which it is dictated. In such times as the present,
elevation and nobility of soul I meet with too seldom not to be ready to honor
them, even if carried a little too far."
Thirty of the most distinguished gentlemen, members of the Chamber of
Deputies, with M. Barrot at their head, sought and obtained an interview
with the king.  In the report of that interview, it is said that the king
expressed great dissatisfaction with the reply which his minister, Duchatel,
made to the prince, calling it " a jailer's answer."  Still Louis Philippe did
not venture to act without the consent of his ministers. A few weary weeks
passed away; when Odillon Barrot, on the 25th of February, wrote to the
prince that there was no longer any hope of his liberation. The king was not
strong enough to consult the dictates of his own judgment and heart in
opposition to the views of the ministry; and the ministry would not consent
even to his temporary release, unless he would humble himself by a confession
of crime and by imploring pardon.  His letter closed with the following
words: 
"It is with great pain that I inform you of this result. I had begged Valmy
to say to the king, that, if we had completely differed since 1830 in political
opinions, I hoped that at least we agreed in sentiments of humanity and
generosity. I now see that this is another of my Utopian ideas which I shall
be compelled to renounce." *
* In a debate upon the subject of granting the petition of the captive, M. Lherbette said in
the Chamber of Deputies, -
"The prince asks, as the only favor, permission to go and receive the last breath of his dying




262                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
It will be  remembered that the prince had neither mother, brother, nor
sister living.  His father only remained to him.  That father was aged, sick,
and dying.  His imploring cry to see his only surviving child ever rang in
the ears of the prince. There was no longer any hope that the petition of the
dying king would be listened to by those in power.  The prince then resolved
to resort to other means in the attempt to reach the couch where his father
was languishing.
father; engaging upon his honor and upon his written word that he will return to his prison.
One of two things is inevitable, - either he will violate his parole, which is improbable, or he will
respect it. On the first hypothesis, he will ruin himself forever; and you ought, in policy, to
furnish him with the opportunity to destroy himself. For how can you have any fear that the
man who has forfeited his honor can retain the least influence in France, - that classical land of
honor? In the second hypothesis, he will have been disarmed by the kindness you will have
shown him. You can thus have all the merit of conferring a favor without incurring any danger.
You have lost the opportunity. But he will not lose the opportunity to cause you to regret it, -
Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Reiault, p. 262.




CHAPTER XVI.
THE  ESCAPE  FROM  HAM.
Plans for Escape.- Devotion of Dr. Conneau and the Valet Thelin.- Rumors of Approaching Release. - The Plan adopted. -Difficulties and Embarrassments. -Details of the
Event. - Wonderful Success.
HE  only hope which now  remained to  the prisoner was to
effect his escape by stratagem. To make the attempt and to
fail would not only expose him to more rigorous imprisonment,
but would inflict upon him that which is much harder to bear, 
the derision of his enemies. Hie had endured his long captivity
with fortitude which had excited almost universal admiration.
Under very trying circumstances, he had proved that he possessed that physical courage which no ordinary material danger can daunt.  He was now to
encounter the most severe ordeal in exposing himself to the poisoned shafts
of ridicule and affected scorn.
We have previously described the precautions which had been adopted to
hold the captive so firmly, that escape would be impossible.  Still the prince
escaped. In all the narratives of such adventures, it would be difficult to find
one in which there has been displayed more self-possession, courage, and
sagacity. Dr. Conneau and Thelin - both of whom have been previously
introduced to our readers- were the assistants of the prince in this extraordinary adventure.  A minute narrative of the event, from  its first inception
to its successful accomplishment, was drawn up by one of the actors, to which
we are indebted for the narrative which we here give.*  After anxious deliberation, having decided to make the attempt, the next thing to be done was
to mature the plan. In the mean time, in order to induce the commandant of
the fortress to relax his diligence, it was necessary to instil into his mind the
belief that the prisoner was expecting an immediate amnesty. It was easy to
satisfy him, from the secret information which the prince had received from
his friends in Paris, that the ministry were contemplating as a popular measure, just before the approaching elections in June, the liberation of the
prince and of all those of his friends who were engaged in the attempt at
Boulogne.
* The account in full in the original French will be found in Histoire du Prince Napoleon,
par B. Renault, p. 209.
263




264                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
After hesitating between several plans, the prince adopted the most simple
one. This consisted of an endeavor to have some workmen brought into
the prison to make repairs: the prince was then to find an opportunity to
dress himself in the clothes of one of the workmen, and under that disguise
to effect his escape.  Here what is called chance wonderfully assisted the
prince; for while he was endeavoring to devise some pretext to call for
repairs, the commandant informed him  that the ministry had  decided,
in compliance with a request made a year before, to repair the staircase
and the corridors of the building, which the prince occupied with General
Montholon, Dr. Conneau, and Charles Thelin.
About a year before this, Dr. Conneau's period of five years' imprisonment
having nearly expired, the government had remitted the remainder of his
punishment. But the doctor, with characteristic devotion, had written to the
government, imploring permission still to share the captivity of the prince as
his physician.*  This request was granted.  The doctor was, however, now
free in his movements; and he and Charles Thelin could go in and out of the
fortress at pleasure, subject only to those military rules to which all the
garrison paid obedience.
Though one might naturally infer fiom the conduct of the prince, during
the five dreary years of his captivity which had now passed away, that he
had no intention to attempt an escape, and notwithstanding the rumors
of a general amnesty which were widely spread and generally credited, still
the commandant of the fortress, naturally suspicious, and fully conscious that
the escape of the prisoner would prove his own utter ruin, adopted precautions which his subalterns regarded as useless and even ridiculous.
Nightfall invariably brought an increase of vigilance. At ten o'clock, the
commandant, who habitually came to pass the evening with the prisoner,
never failed to assure himself that the guards were on duty at the bottom  of
the stairs. Then he retired, locking the outer door himself, and putting the
key in his pocket. Of the three keepers charged with the immediate surveillance of the prince, two were always stationed at the bottom  of the stairs.
The prince had observed, that, on certain days of the week, one of these
guards who went to get the public journal absented himself for a quarter of
an hour, leaving, during that short space of time, the guard of the post to
his comrade alone.
It was decided to select this as the moment in which to endeavor to pass
that one keeper. After that it would be necessary to pass the sentinels; but
this did not cause much anxiety.  From the commencement of his captivity,
the government had not entertained much fear that the prince could by any
artifice break away from his keepers, and escape through the massive walls
and ponderous gates of the fortress. The most they feared was, that, through
some popular outbreak of enthusiasm in behalf of the nephew of the emperor,
a troop of his partisans might suddenly appear, overpower the garrison, and
effect his release.  The strictest orders were therefore given that no one
should be permitted even to approach the fort. It was not the going-out
* Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 251.




THE ESCAPE FROM HAM.                            265
which was so much guarded against as the coming-in. Accordingly, the
sentinels were placed on the top of the ramparts, and outside of the walls, to
prevent surprise. The fort was not very large; and, with comparatively a
small number of sentinels, it was easy to watch all its approaches. It would
be impossible to go out without being seen; but still the sentries would not
be likely very carefully to scrutinize any one quietly walking out.
This, then, was the plan. Charles Thllin was to ask permission of the commandant to go to St. Quentin, as he had frequently done; and then, for this
ostensible purpose, he was to hire a carriage. As he was leaving the fortress
to obtain the carriage, the prince, disguised as a workman, was to go out with
him. This combination offered two advantages.  It enabled Thelin to attempt
to divert the attention of the guard fiom the pretended workman by playing
with Ham, the prince's dog, which was a great favorite with the garrison. It
also gave him the opportunity, in other ways, sagaciously to call the attention
of the guard to himself, to avoid the too strict scrutiny of the assumed
workman.
For eight days, the carpenters had been now engaged in their repairs; and
during all this time the captive had been carefully studying their ways, and
all the precautions which were adopted in their entering and leaving the fortress.  These precautions were very rigid. Whenever they entered through
the first gate of the chateau, they were obliged to defile one by one, and to
pass under the inspection of a sergeant and of a keeper especially appointed
for the service. The same minute inspection was observed when they went
out in the evening, the commandant himself being then always present. None
of these particulars escaped the prince and his fiiends. They observed also,
that, if any of the workmen stepped aside to any retired part of tie citadel,
they were always carefully watched. When, however, they went out of the
fort for the purpose of getting any tools or working materials, as they followed
the direct road across the grand court, under the windows of the commandant,
and in view of all the garrison, thus being in sight for a considerable distance,
they excited no distrust, and passed out of the gate and over the drawbridge
freely. It required great coolness and nerve to attempt to escape in that way;
but there was no other chance.
Seven o'clock in the morning was the hour fixed upon for the enterprise.
There were several reasons for the selection of this hour. The commandant,
all whose fears were for the evening, seldom  rose before eight o'clock. At
this hour, also, they might expect to find but one keeper at the bottom  of the
stairs; and, moreover, it was very important that they should reach Valenciennes, in their carriage, in season to take the four-o'clock train for Belgium.
The prince had not confided his project to General Montholon.  He did not
wish to compromise his friend's safety by making him a confidant in a plan,
in which, under the circumstances, he could render no essential aid. It would
have been difficult, however, to have concealed from the count the design,
had he not chanced then to be sick.
Every thing was ready by Saturday the 23d of May, the day and the hour
when, by the regular course of service, there would be but one sentinel at the
foot of the stairs; but, by what appeared a very unfortunate accident, the prince
34




266                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
received on that very day a visit from some friends who had known him in
England, and whom he had expected to see sooner. It therefore became
necessary to postpone the attempt until Monday the 25th. The consequences
of this delay might be very serious. They were not certain that the workmen
would return on Monday in as large a number as had been employed thus far;
and it was also certain that on Monday there would be two keepers at the
bottom of the stairs, instead of one. Calmly the prince bore the terrible disappointment; but, wishing to derive some advantage from a visit which seemed
so calamitous, he borrowed from his fiiends their courier's passport for Thelin,
his valet de chambre, who was about to take a journey. Thelin was thus in
regular travelling order. As to the prince, he had already procured through
a friend in Paris a passport; of which, however, he had not occasion to-make
any use.
Sunday passed slowly away; while the heaviest anxieties oppressed the
mind. The repairs being nearly finished, it was doubtful whether there was
enough work still to be done to bring back many workmen; but, in order to
add to the work, the thoughtful Thelin had asked for some shelves to be put
up in a small recess which was used as a cellar. 
The difficulty did not consist alone in passing under the eyes of sixty men
acting as guards and doorkeepers; but it was also necessary to avoid encountering the workmen themselves, who were moving in all directions, and were
constantly superintended by a contractor of the works and an officer of the
engineers. One can imagine the emotion of the prisoner when the decisive
moment arrived. There was but little encouragement to be found in reflecting upon past adventures. He had twice risked his life for a cause which he
had thought it his duty to attempt to revive, even at the price of the greatest sacrifices. Twice had these unfortunate attempts proved entire failures;
and those who worship success alone had overwhelmed him with their ridicule.
Should he fail again, would he not be universally regarded as a madman?
The sympathy which had been enlisted in his behalf by six years of suffering
heroically endured, the reputation he had gained by his writings, even the
cause which had inspired him to brave so many dangers, - all would be at
once forgotten. What a theme for ridicule and caricature would be furnished
to the wits of Europe, should he be detected and brought back in the soiled
and tattered dress of a workman! " Decidedly," they would say, " the prince
is a fool. No language can suitably describe such folly. He thought that he
would be able, in broad daylight, to pass without recognition before the eyes
of keepers who had watched him for six years; that he could achieve such an
adventure, notwithstanding the vigilance of sixty persons on guard; and that
then he could take a carriage held in waiting for him outside of the fortress,
by a valet cle chambre who was under the constant surveillance of the police."
" It was the extreme of madness and folly," the world would say. These were
hours of mental suffering such as few men have been called to encounter.
His highly intelligent and devoted friend, Dr. Conneau, was charged with
the diplomatic role,-to conceal the flight of the prince as long as possible
after his departure. The hour of hope and dread drew nigh. On Monday
morning the 25th, the prince, Dr. Conneau, and Charles Thelin, all three




THE ESCAPE FROM HAM.                           267
without shoes, that they might not make any noise, and concealed behind
the window-curtains, watched the court-yard, and impatiently awaited the
arrival of the workmen. As yet, all was silent in the court. The only
sounds to be heard were the steps of the sentinels pacing their rounds. By
a singular chance, the only soldier in the garrison whom  the prince had
especially wished to avoid was that morning placed as a guard at his door.
This man, who had for a long time been the special confidant of the commandant, had exercised the most rigid surveillance over the workmen, examining them with the greatest attention, making himself perfectly familiar
with their persons, and questioning them  upon all their movements. The
zeal of such an Argus as this was terrible. The prince was'the more annoyed
by his presence, since it was not probable that he would be relieved before
seven o'clock, and it was important to avoid meeting the three guards, who,
*  after that hour, would be at the wicket.
Happily, however, by a chance not less singular, the hour of mounting
guard had been changed, in consequence of a review on Sunday; and at six
o'clock the dreaded grenadier was removed. It had been arranged between
the prince and his two faithful friends that Thelin should entice the workmen and their two supervisors into the dining-room to offer them a morning
dram; after which he was to precede the prince down stairs, that he might
attract to himself the attention of the keepers. They had thought of endeavoring to entice one of these sentinels to leave his post for a few moments
on some pretext or other; but a circumstance had occurred which now rendered this impossible. On the previous evening, the commandant, not having
found them  exactly at their post, had enjoined it upon them, under penalty
of immediate punishment, that two of them, at least, should be always at the
wicket, so long as there were workmen in the prison.  This command was too
recent to be disobeyed.
The prince, on reaching the court-yard, was to continue his passage across
it, followed at a short distance by Thelin, who was to endeavor to divert the
attention of any one who might, by chance, meet the prince and address
him. At the usual hour, a little after five o'clock, the drawbridge was
lowered, and the workmen were introduced into the fortress. They entered
between two files of soldiers under arms. They were but few in number,
and were, for the most part, more neatly dressed than usual; perhaps on
account of its being Monday. The weather being fine, they had laid aside
their sabots, and were all barefooted. The masons and the painters came
first. The carpenters had not yet arrived; and it was in the disguise of one
of these that the prince was to make his escape. It was at first proposed
that the prince should lay aside his sabots, or wooden shoes, as no one else
was wearing them; but he renounced that idea, for those which had been
prepared for him, and which he could wear over his high-heeled boots, added
nearly four inches to his height, thus making a very important change in his
appearance.
To conceive of a plan, and to execute it, are very different things.  Here
the plan was very simple; but the great difficulty consisted in seizing with
resolution the propitious moment for rapidly descending the stairs, and pass



268                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
ing out of the door, while the workmen should be kept drinking, and while
the doctor and Thelin were engaged in distracting the attention of the gatekeepers from the vigilant watch which had been so strictly enjoined upon
them.  It was necessary, therefore, that every thing should be prepared
beforehand, that the favorable moment might not be lost. It was necessary
that the prince should be dressed in his disguise, and his mustaches shaven
off; and yet, should any thing occur to prevent his departure for that day,
the act of having cut off his mustaches would excite such suspicion in the
mind of his wary jailer as to frustrate his scheme entirely. The doctor,
therefore, entreated the prince to defer until the last moment an operation
so insignificant in itself, but which, in the present circumstances, was alarming,
as indicative of a settled purpose. Even in these fearful moments, the prince
could not refrain from smiling at the consternation depicted on the countenances of his two fiiends as the razor commenced this unusual operation.
During the hour which was still to elapse before the assigned moment for
leaving the prison, how many accidents might occur, how many circumstances might arise, which would compel them  to postpone the departure
until another day! From that moment the serious danger had commenced,
and with it a tumult of swelling emotions which cannot be described.
Though each heart throbbed violently, it was not with the palpitations of
cowardice. The prince was well aware that he was to pass by the bayonets
and to be exposed to the muskets of those who had orders instantly to shoot
down any prisoner who should attempt to escape. Even such a termination
of the attempt was now contemplated calmly by him and by his friends. It
seemed better thus to die than to continue to languish hopelessly in the
glooms of the prison. The only thing now to be dreaded was recapture,
and consignment to a more rigorous doom. The writer of the narrative to
whom we are indebted for this account says," The prince possessed a talisman, a sort of sacred amulet. It was a little
portfolio, containing two letters, - one fiom his mother, the other from the
Emperor Napoleon. He never parted with these precious pledges of a tender
and abiding love, and of the dearest recollections. The idea occurred to him,
that, should he be searched on the frontiers, he might be betrayed by these
papers. For a moment, h  hhesitated about taking them: but Dr. Conneau,
whom he consulted, appeared to approve of this sacred superstition of the
heart; and sentiment triumphed over the counsels of prudence. The prince
concealed religiously in his breast the two only relics which he then had
of the past grandeur of his noble family. The letter of the emperor was
addressed to Queen Hortense.  It contained the prophetic words, -
"'I hope that he will grow in greatness (grcancera), and render himself
worthy of the destinies which await him.'"
It was in speaking of the prince that the emperor thus expressed himself.
The preparations of the toilet were actively continued. He first put on a
dress resembling that of a travelling clerk or commercial courier. Over this
he passed a workman's blouse and a pair of well-worn trousers. A blue
apron tied in front, a wig of long, black hair, and an old cap, colnpleted the
costume. When he had greased his fee and blackened his hands, nothing
was wanting to complete the metamorphosis.




THE ESCAPE FROM HAM.                          269
The moment for action was now at hand. The prince seemed to have
perfect control of his feelings, and ate his breakfast as usual. It must have
been a moment of fearful mental tumult; for scarcely can one read the narrative without turning pale, and trembling with emotion. The repast was soon
terminated. He put on his wooden shoes, took a blackened clay tobaccopipe in his mouth; and, as he observed that many of the workmen in
coming or going carried long boards in or out, he loosened one of the long
shelves of his library, took it upon his shoulder, and prepared to set out with
this load, by means of which he hoped to be able to conceal at least one side
of his face.
At a quarter before seven o'clock, Thelin called all the workmen employed
upon the staircase into the dining-room, where Laplace, one of the employes
of the prison, who was also invited in, was charged to pour out the wine for
them to drink. This was the sure means of getting rid of him. This being
done, Thelin hastened to inform the prince that all was ready, and that there
was not a moment to be lost. Immediately Thelin descended the stairs, at
the bottom of which were two keepers, Dupin and Issale, and also a workman employed upon the balusters.  Thelin exchanged a few words with
Dupin, who bade him good-morning, and who, presuming, as he saw that he
had his overcoat upon his arm, that he was going to St. Quentin, wished him
a pleasant journey. To insure the safe passage of the prince, it was necessary to draw off the attention of at least one of these keepers. Thelin,
therefore, under pretext of having something of interest to communicate to
him, drew Issale towards the wicket, and placed himself in such a manner,
that the latter, in order to hear, was obliged to turn his back to the door.
At the moment in which the prince left his chamber, several workmen
were coming from the dining-room, which was situated at the other extremity of the corridor. The rencounter might have been perilous, had not
Dr. Conneau, with great presence of mind, called them  back with several
questions which his ready wit suggested; and not one of them observed the
prisoner, who slowly descended the stairs. On reaching the last steps, the
prince found himself face to face with the guard Dupin, who drew back to
avoid the plank, whose horizontal position did not permit him to see a profile
with which he was very familiar. The prince then passed through the
wicket, going behind Issale while Thelin held him  in close conversation.
Then he entered the court-yard. A journeyman locksmith, who had immediately followed him down stairs, hastened his steps as if about to speak
to him. The faithful and sagacious Thelin called to the man, and devised a
pretext for sending him up the stairs again.
On passing before the first sentinel, the prince accidentally dropped from
his mouth the pipe, which fell at the feet of the soldier. Without being
apparently in the least disconcerted, he stopped, and stooped to pick it up.
The soldier looked at him mechanically, and continued his monotonous walk.
It was almost a miracle, that, notwithstanding his disguise, the prisoner,
whose figure had been the principal study of all those whose mission it was
to watch over him, could avoid being recognized. At every step, he met
persons deeply interested in detecting him.  Near the sutler's shop, he




270                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
passed close to the officer of the guard, and a little farther on encountered
-an officer of engineers and a contractor of the works, who were busily engaged in examining some papers. The path he was compelled to follow led
him through a score of soldiers, who were basking in the sun before the
guard-house. The drummer looked with an insulting glance, proud of his
own official superiority, upon, apparently, the humble workman trudging
before him, with a plank upon his shoulders; but the sentinel did not appear to notice him.
The gate-keeper was standing before the door of his lodge, whence he
earnestly watched Thelin, who, in order to attract his attention, was playing noisily with Ham, the prince's dog, which, as we have mentioned, was
a great favorite with the garrison, and which he held by a leash. The sergeant, who was standing by the side of the wicket, looked steadily at the
prince; but the examination was interrupted by a sudden and apparently
accidental movement of the plank, which brought one of the extremities near
the face of the soldier, obliging him to turn quickly aside. He therefore
drew the bolt, and opened the door with his head averted. The prince
passed out; and Thelin, wishing the gate-keeper "good-day," in his turn
followed.
Between the two drawbridges, the prince saw coming directly towards
him, and on the side on which his face was not concealed by the plank, two
workmen, who, from the distance at which they still were, seemed examining
his appearance in a very disquieting manner; when, in a loud voice, they
expressed their astonishment in meeting in that place a carpenter with
whom  they were not acquainted.  Fearing lest their surprise might not
limit itself to this simple expression, and that they might seek an explanation,
the prince, pretending to be tired of carrying the plank on his right shoulder,
moved it to the left. Still the men seemed very curious to find out who he
was, and for an instant his heart sank in despair. Just then, when they were
almost at his side, and seemed ready to address him, he had the unspeakable
satisfaction of hearing one of them exclaim, " Oh, it is Berthoud! " Yes, it was
Berthoud for them; and the prince was saved. He owed to this inconceivable mistake his final escape from those walls in which he had been imprisoned
five years and nine months.
The prince was not acquainted with the town of Ham; but a map sketched
for him by Dr. Conneau served as a guide.  He took, without hesitation,
the path along the ramparts which would conduct him towards St. Quentin;
while Thelin went to get the cabriolot which he had engaged the preceding
evening.
We shall not attempt to describe the tumultuous emotion which must
have agitated the heart of the prince. The blue sky was above him, the
wide fields of beautiful France spread out around him: he was free. In that
thought there was rapture. But he was still surrounded by a thousand perils.
Behind him rose the gloomy towers of his prison; before him  there was
nothing but exile, - a doom to him almost worse than the glooms of captivity
fromr which he had escaped. He was alone in the world. His father, sinking
beneath the weight of care and sorrow, was sadly dying. His mother was




THE ESCAPE FROM HAM.                           271
already asleep in the tomb. He had no brother or sister to welcome him.
The government of one of the most powerful monarchies upon the globe was
pursuing him with deadly hostility. Hard must be the heart that does not
breathe the prayer, "May God help the captive! "
The prince hastened his steps, and, notwithstanding his clumsy wooden
shoes, soon arrived at St. Sulpice, a distance of two miles from the town.
There he waited for the carriage which Thelin was to bring to him. A rough
wooden cross stood in the burial-ground. The fugitive prostrated himself
before this symbol of human redemption, and from the depths of his heart
thanked the Ruler of all things, who had led him, as by the hand, through so
many dangers.
Soon the sound of an approaching carriage was heard. It was Thelin with
the cabriolet.  The prince was about to throw  aside his plank, when he
perceived another vehicle coming from St. Quentin. He therefore continued
his walk in order to give the carriage time to pass; and Thelin slackened his
pace with the same intent. At length the prince threw  away his plank,
which had been truly a plank of safety; took off his wooden shoes, and threw
them into the ditch; and, assuming his new character of coachman, seized the
reins, and drove rapidly towards St. Quentin. Immediately afterwards, the
two travellers saw a couple of mounted gendarmes, evidently from  Ham,
issue from the village of St. Sulpice, and follow them at full speed. It was a
momentary alarm, but did not last long; for soon the two cavaliers turned off,
taking the route to Peronne.
The five leagues which separate Ham from St. Quentin were rapidly passed
over. Thelin, at each change of horses, concealed his face with his handkerchief; but this did not prevent his being recognized by several persons, and
particularly by the president of the tribunal of St. Quentin, who was then on
his way to Ham. It is also said that a woman, who had often observed the
valet ce ciccambre of the prince, could not repress her surprise in seeing him
accompanied by a man so badly dressed. As they approached St. Quentin,
the prince took off the soiled trousers, the dirty blouse, and the workman's
cap, retaining only the wig.  He then put on a more respectable-looking
blouse which Thelin had prepared for him, and a braided cap. Soon after, he
alighted from the cabriolet to pass around the town of St. Quentin on foot,
through the fields, to gain the Cambray Road, where Thelin was to rejoin him
with fresh horses.
The master of the post-house in St. Quentin, M. Abric, was absent; but
Thelin, who knew Madame Abric very well, said to her, that having business
at Cambray, and desiring to return as soon as possible, he wished her to
provide him immediately with a carriage and horses: in the mean time, he
wished to leave his horse and carriage there. Madame Abric served him
with the greatest eagerness, furnishing him  with a light carriage of her
husband's.
The good woman pressed him to stay to breakfast. Finding, however, that
he was anxious to continue his journey, she helped him on his way. Thelin,
however, thinking that his master might by this time need refreshments,
having praised in the warmest terms the appearance of some cold pie upon




272                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the table, accepted a slice, which he carefully wrapped in paper, and which
soon furnished the prince with a breakfast, for which his long walk had
supplied him with a good appetite.
Thelin, nowithstanding his impatience and the obliging spirit of Madame
Abric, did not dare to hurry the post-people too much, lest he should excite
suspicions.  The prince, therefore, having already attained the Cambray Road,
and Thelin not appearing, began to be very anxious. He feared that the chaise
might have gone on while he was making his way around the town, and that
he was now left behind. Seeing a gentleman approaching in a carriage from
Cambray, he asked him if he had met a post-chaise. The gentleman, who
answered in the negative, chanced to be the procurator, or prosecuting attorney, of St. Quentin.
Taking a seat on the side of the road, the anxiety of the prince was every
moment increasing, when suddenly he heard a noise behind and very near
him.  He had scarcely turned round his head when his noble dog Ham
came bounding to greet him. By some singular instinct, he ran in advance
of the carriage, and thus announced to his master that Thelin was coming.
Soon the faithful valet appeared in a small carriage to which two good horses
were harnessed. The prince jumped in, and the rapid journey was resumed.
From this moment the fugitives had but little to fear. Notwithstanding the
distance traversed on foot, and the time lost in procuring the carriages, it was
not yet nine o'clock. And, even upon the supposition that the escape of the
prince had been discovered immediately after his departure, the authorities
must have lost some time in making a reconnoissance, in closely examining
the fortress, in writing despatches, and in sending the gendarmes in all directions. Even when the event was known, it was to Amiens and to Paris that
the first despatches were sent.
The voyagers, however, anxious to use all speed, unceasingly urged the
postilion to increase the pace of his horses. At last he became impatient, and
exclaimed angrily, " You torment me! " Still he did not fail to make the pavement smoke beneath the horses' feet. While they were changing horses at
the first relay, a horseman in the uniform  of a police-officer arrived at full
gallop. At first, they thought that it was a gendarme in pursuit of them.
They soon discovered, to their great relief, that he was but a sub-officer of the
National Guard. No other incident occurred until they reached Valenciennes,
which, thanks to the gratuities (pourboises) lavished on the postilion, they
reached by two o'clock. There only were their passports demanded. Thelin
showed his, which was that of an English courier.  The passport of the
prince was then not called for.
The train for Brussels did not leave until four o'clock. It seemed perilous
to wait two hours. The prince, therefore, wished still to take post-horses,
that he might gain the frontiers of Belgium; but, since the opening of the
railroad, this mode of travelling had been so seldom adopted, that the attempt
to travel in that way would certainly excite remark, and might lead to suspicion. It was therefore decided to wait patiently for the starting of the train.
Though there was now but little probability that the fugitives could be
overtaken, still Thelin, who was not without uneasiness, kept a close watch to




THE ESCAPE FROM HAM.                           273
see if any gendarmes should approach. Suddenly he heard himself called by
name; and, quite terrified, he turned round to see one of the gendarmes
from Ham, dressed in plain citizen's clothes. It was a fearful moment.  Still
the sagacious man assumed an unconcerned look, and, concealing all agitation,
exclaimed cordially, " Ah! is it you?  How did you come here? "-" Why, I
live here," was the reply. " I have quitted the gendarmery, and am employed
on the railroad."
Thelin was partly re-assured by this intelligence; and, on the ex-gendarme
making inquiries for his master, he answered in such a manner as to throw his
questioner quite off his guard, even if he were not what he pretended to be.
His great anxiety was to prevent the man from seeing the prince, lest he
should recognize him, and, of course, think it his duty to prevent his departure. At length, the signal was given for the moving of the train. The iron
horse, " whose sinews are steel, and whose provender is fire," swept them
along at the rate of forty miles an hour. The frontiers were passed; Brussels
was reached; the prince was in comparative safety. He immediately, for still
greater security, repaired to Ostend, and embarked for England. Upon that
hospitable island, which ever welcomes the political refugee, the prince found
friends and rest.  The drama of his captivity was closed; but again he
entered upon the almost equally tragic scene of exile.
35




CHAPTER  XVII.
EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.
Heroism of Dr. Conneau.-Governmental Persecution.-Death of King Louis. -Funeral
Honors. -Letters from Prince Louis Napoleon. - His Character in Exile. - Testimony of
Walter Savage Landor. - The Duke of Wellington. - Testimony of " The Journal cu Loiet." - Treatise upon the Canal of Nicaragua. - Noble Sentiments.
ELDOM  has there been a deed of greater heroism  performed
than that which was enacted by Dr. Conneau on this occasion.
It will be remembered that the term  of his imprisonment had
expired, and that he had solicited permission to remain and
share the captivity of the prince as his physician: he was thus
regarded as a member of the garrison, who could go in and out
at his leisure.  By aiding the captive in his escape, he had subjected himself
to a very severe penalty, - he knew not how severe.  Immediately after the
departure of the prince, and before his escape was known, Dr. Conneau might
probably, without any difficulty, have left the fortress, hurried across the
frontier, and joined in England the friend to whom he was so devoted.  But,
inspired by the noblest spirit of self-sacrifice, he resolved to remain behind,
that he might conceal by every adroit artifice, as long as possible, the escape,
so as the more effectually to secure for the prince the chance of reaching a
place of safety.  The doctor preferred to encounter all the terrors of the law
rather than fail in this.  He was very anxious to give the prince, if possible,
twenty-four hours in advance of his enemies.
The first thing he did was to send to the commandant of the fortress a
letter which the prince had left for the priest who was in the habit of performing mass in the fort.  This letter requested the priest to postpone his
visit until the next day, pleading, as an excuse, that he was indisposed.
It was about half-past eight when the servant delivered the letter, saying
that the prince was indisposed, and would not attend mass that day. " That
matters very little to me," said the commandant curtly. " Take the note to the
cure."
The doctor then placed a stuffed figure in the bed of the prince, covering
it up with clothes so as strongly to resemble a human form.  He closed the
door which led from the saloon into the bedroom, and kindled a fire to heat
some coffee for his patient; circulating the story that the prince was sick. For
reasons which we have stated, Count Montholon was not apprised of the
274
4>




EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.                         275
plan of escape. His astonishment may be conceived, when, soon after the
disappearance of the captive, and when as yet not one in the castle, save
the doctor, knew of his departure, the following confidential epistle was placed
in his hands: -
"MY DEAR GENERAL,   Believe how much I regret not being able to
shake you by the hand before I go; but it is impossible. My emotion would
betray the secret which it is so important for me to keep. I have taken
measures to insure your pension being regularly paid; but, as you may be in
need of money, I have left with Dr. Conneau two thousand francs ($400),
which he will give you. Thus your pension will be paid until the end of
September. Adieu, my dear general! Receive the assurance of my friendship.                                                         "L. N."
At nine o'clock, the ever wary and suspicious commandant came to the
saloon, and inquired for the prince.
" He is not quite well," said the doctor, "and does not wish to be seen. If
you have nothing particular to say, pray do not disturb him."
With characteristic caution the commandant peeped in at the door, and
perceiving, as he thought, the prince in bed, withdrew without suspicion.
The doctor had ordered of the apothecary medicine and an emetic. To lull
suspicion, it is said that he actually took the emetic himself, that the noise
of the vomiting might be heard and the contents of the stomach seen. About
one o'clock, the commandant returned, and inquired again for the prince.
Learning, however, from the doctor, that he had just taken a bath, and was
then enjoying a refreshing slumber, he again retired without disturbing him.
Feeling some slight uneasiness, he sent for Laplace, the man of all work, who
took care of the rooms of the captive, and asked him, in a careless air,
"Well, how goes the prince? "
"He is rather better," replied the man, whom the doctor had also completely deceived.
"What is he doing? " resumed the commandant.
"He is sleeping now," the man replied; "though, a little while ago, he was
in the saloon talking with the doctor."
From this precise statement, the commandant supposed that the man had
both'seen and talked with his prisoner. He consequently remained during
the rest of the day somewhat free from anxiety, and yet instinctively restless.
About seven o'clock in the evening, the commandant met Laplace again, and
inquired how the patient was. The servant replied that he did not know.
" When did you see him last? " the commandant asked.
The simple-minded, unsuspecting man replied, " I have not seen him since
six o'clock this morning."
The commandant was alarmed; and, hurrying to the saloon, inquired, with
an expression of much uneasiness, where the prince was.
"The prince is much better," was the doctor's evasive reply.
"His sickness need not prevent me fiom speaking to him," said the commandant. " I must speak to him," he added, in a tone which plainly indicated that all furtler dissimulation wa.s at an end.




276                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Upon this the doctor entered the room  where it was assumed that the
prince was sleeping, and pretended to call him.  There was no response.
With a light and careful tread he came back, making signs that his patient
was still asleep.
"Well," said the commandant, "he cannot sleep forever.  I shall wa'it until
he wakes;" and he took his seat in the saloon.  In the course of the conversation in which the doctor busily engaged him, he remarked that it was very
strange that Thelin had not yet returned.  The doctor made some ingenious
excuse for the absence of the valet; when the commandant, whose anxiety
was evidently increasing, rose from his seat, saying, " The prince has moved. >
he must be awake."  IIe stepped to.the door of the chamber, and listened
attentively; but no sound of breathing and no movement could be heard.
The doctor could with difficulty keep a serious face; but lie exclaimed
good-naturedly, " Oh, let him sleep on! "
The commandant approached the bed, and discovered the stuffed figure.
His consternation was justly great.  He had miet a calamity which boded
his own utter ruin.  Turning ashy pale, he cast a reproachful glance upon
the doctor, and inquired in tones which terror alone could inspire, "Has the
prince escaped?"
"Yes," was the reply.
"When did he go?"
"At seven o'clock this morning."
"Who were the persons on guard? "
"I do not know."
Not another word was exchanged.  The commandant hastily withdrew to
prosecute the most energetic measures to obtain traces of the fugitive.  His
wife, on hearing of the escape of the prince, fainted away.  Dr. Conneau was
immediately placed in close confinement.  All those who were suspected of
having, either through negligence or connivance, favored the escape, were
also locked up. Three days after, the commandant was summoned to Paris
to give an account of his conduct.  He was deposel from  command, and
placed under arrest. A judicial inquiry was ordered, and the public prosecutor was charged with a vigorous inquest of all the parties implicated.  The
trial took place on the 10th of July, and lasted three days. The principal
persons criminated were Dr. Conneau; Charles Thelin, who was absent; the
commandant of the fort, Demarle; the servant Laplace; and Dupin ald Issal6,
the keepers at the first wicket.  Dr. Conneau, upon being interrogated, gave
the following account of his past history:"I am forty-two years of age, and was born at Milan, of French parents,
my father being paymaster to the army. My profession is that of a surgeon,
having taken my degree at Rome and Florence.  My first visit to France was
in 1831, and my second in 1840. In the year 1820, I was private secretary
to King Louis Bonaparte, the father of Prince Louis Napoleon.  Some time
after, I went to Florence to walk the hospitals; after which I went to Rome,
where I completed my studies, and practised for three years.  Two circnlmstances obliged me to leave that city.
"One night, two of my friends who were implicated in a conspiracy camne




EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.                            277
to me for an asylum. I obtained refuge for them in a house with which I was
acquainted, and furnished them  with passports and money.  I conducted
them to Furmicino, and saw them  embark in a fishing-boat, which conveyed
them to a place of safety. This became known; and I-was already compromised by this simple fact, when a graver event completed the mischief.
" In a revolt in 1831, one of my friends received five stabs with a bayonet.
A decree of the Roman Government ordered all doctors, under penalty of ten
years at the galleys, to denounce all the wounded persons confided to their
care. In spite of this, I tended my friend until he was recovered, and then,
as I had myself been denounced, took to flight.
"At the time of the insurrection of' 1831, I formed one of the revolutionary staff at Ancona. Thence I proceeded to France, and wrote to Prince
Louis Napoleon to request him to furnish me with letters of recommendation. His only reply was to invite me to Arenemberg.  There I was loaded
with kindness by Queen Hortense, who even thought proper to remember
me in her will. She entreated me to remain with her son.  Such a request
was a command, and I have obeyed it."
He then gave a minute account of the circumstances of the escape as we
have already narrated them. He was condemned to three months' imprisonment. It would probably have been difficult to find in France, at that time,
a court which would very severely have punished.such an offence. Thelin,
who was beyond the reach of the law, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The others of the accused were acquitted.  Count Montholon, whose
devotion to the emperor at Saint Helena has embalmed his memory in every
noble heart, soon obtained pardon from the royal clemency. Tle died a few
years ago, leaving children who have inherited their father's virtues and his
devotion to the cause of' the empire. Thelin has been received by the prince
into the position of a friend, ever serving his sovereign with unabated affection;
and Dr. Conneau is at the present day the beloved and revered medical
attendant of his Majesty Napoleon III.
Meanwhile, the prince, as we have seen, had arrived in England.  iis one
all-engrossing desire was to reach his dying father. Though he seems still to
have remained firm in the belief that the baseless government of Louis Philippe
would be overturned, and that the French people would re-establish tlhe principles, if not the forms, of the empire, he apparently had relinquished all intentions of attempting to hasten that result.  His maxim had now become, "Learn
to labor and to wait."  He deemed it important to satisfy not only the French
Government, but also the English, that he no longer indulged in revolutionary
designs. He was now thirty-eight years of age. The ardor of youthful hopes
had vanished. Bereavement, disappointment, and long years of captivity, had
chastened his spirit, which was by nature silent, thoughtful, and pensive.
Hardly had the prince arrived on the soil of Great Britain, ere he  wrote to
Sir Robert Peel and to Lord Aberdeen, acquainting them with his intentions,
and explaining the reasons of his conduct.  Sir Robert Peel returned a cautious,
non-committal reply, simply acknowledging the receipt of his letter. Lord
Aberdeen, endowed with a more genial and hospitable spirit, and perhaps less
shackled by the trammels of diplomacy, wrote him a polite and cordial letter;




278                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
assuring him, that, after the explanations which he had given, his residence in
England could neither be unwelcome to the queen nor to her government.*
The. prince then wrote to the French ambassador at the court of Saint James,
MI. le Comte de St. Aulaire, whose former relations with his family seemed a
guaranty to him- of kindly sympathies. His letter, dated IMay 28, 1846, was
as follows:" MONsIEUR LE COMTE, -I wish frankly to declare to the man who was
my mother's friend, that, in leaving my prison, I was not instigated by any
desire of renewing against the French Government a struggle which has proved
so disastrous for me, but solely by the wish to return to my aged father.
"Before resorting to this extremity, I had used every means in my power
to obtain permission from the French Government to go to Florence. I offered
every guaranty compatible with  my honor. But, having beheld all my
requests rejected, I determined, as a last resource, to resort to an expedient
adopted under similar circumstances by the Duke de Nemours and the Duke
de Guise.
"I beg of you, Monsieur le Comte, to acquaint the government with my
pacific intentions; and I hope that this voluntary assurance on my part will
shorten the captivity of my friends who still remain in prison. Receive the
assurance of my sentiments.             "NAPOLEON Louis BONAPARTE."
The prince, however, found, to his great disappointment and grief, that the
French Government still held him in such dread, that they closed all the gates
of the Continent against him; so that he could not reach his father's dying bed.
When he presented himself at the Austrian embassy in London to obtain his
passport, the ambassador who represented at that time the Austrian Empire
and also the Grand Duchy of Tuscany gave him a direct and positive refisal.
"I cannot," he said, "neglect the regard which I owe to the French Government."
The prince then addressed a letter to the Grand Duke of Tuscany himself,
having no doubt that he would at once grant his request, and allow him to
visit his father in Florence. Indeed, the languishing king was quite revived
by the anticipation of soon folding in his arms his only child. Bitter was
the disappointment when the prince received a reply from the duke, stating
that he could not be permitted to enter Tuscany, even for twenty-four hours.
"I regret it," said Leopold; "but the influence of France obliges me to act
thlus." t
The government of Louis Philippe had sent an army-corps to drive Louis
Napoleon from his peaceful home at Arenemberg. And now the Grand Duke
of Tuscany was threatened with all the vengeance of the French Government,
should he permit the nephew of the Emperor Napoleon to visit the dying bed
of his own father, the brother of the emperor. The course thus pursued was
as impolitic as it was cruel. It excited powerfully in behalf of the prince,
* Histoire du Prince Napoleon, par B. Renault.
t Histoire complete de Napoleon III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 124.




EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.                                 279
who had already suffered so severely, the sympathies of every feeling heart.
The terrible disappointment was a fatal blow to the dying king. In his utter
isolation, he lingered a few weeks in the gloom  of the deepest despondency
until he died, on the 25th of July, 1846, at the age of sixty-eight.*
As we have mentioned, the Ex-King of Holland, during the latter years of his
life, took the title of the Count of St. Leu. In his will, which was opened the
day after his death, he expressed the wish that he might be buried at St. Leu
by the side of his second son, who had died in Italy in 1831.  He left sixty
thousand francs for a tomb to be erected there.  After deducting a few legacies to the poor, and a few tokens of remembrance to relatives, his son Louis
Napoleon was constituted his sole heir.  Though Louis Bonaparte, while living, could not be permitted to enter France, his lifeless remains were allowed
to mingle with the dust of his native land.t
Several months passed away ere the remains of the King of Holland were
consigned to their last resting-place in the tomb of St. Leu, in France.  His
son was not permitted by the French Government to be present at the funeral
solemnities; but nearly all the surviving officers, and many of the privates,
of the old imperial armies were assembled on the occasion, anxious to pay the
last earthly honors to'the brother of their venerated emperor.  The prince
wrote the following letter to Captain Lecomte, who commanded the Guard of
Honor on the occasion.  It was dated London, Oct. 4, 1847.
" SI, -The testimonies offered to the memory of my father on the 29th
of September have deeply affected me; and I was, above all things, touched,
on hearing that a large number of the ancient soldiers of the empire had
assisted at this pious ceremony. I come to-day to thank those glorious veterans of our army, through the medium  of their worthy leader, for the tribute
of homage they have bestowed on an ancient companion in arms.
"It is not the man whom chance and the fortunes of war made king for a
brief period whom you have honored with your regrets, but the old soldier of
the republican armies of Italy and Egypt, -  a man who remained but a short
time upon the throne, and who paid for a few years of glory by forty years of
exile, and died alone in a foreign land.  The sympathy which has attended
* "The singular severity with which Louis Philippe caused the rigors of diplomacy to intervene between the father and the son sullies still more his memory, since he forgets his own family obligations. The king was not ignorant, that in 1815 his mother had not vainly addressed
the generosity of the mother of Louis Napoleon; and that Queen Hortense had obtained from
the emperor at that epoch, for the Duchess-Dowager of Orleans, a pension of four hundred thousand francs ($100,000)." - Gallix et Guy, p. 125.
"This severe penalty proved clearly, that, in proscribing the Bonaparte family, they had
always wished to proscribe national sovereignty, which, having, reigned with Napoleon, had been
dethroned with him. Royalty quasi-legitimate, like legitimate royalty, had wished to warn all
who should come hereafter what it would cost to accept a crown from the hands of the sovereign
people." - Histoire politique et populaire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par Emile Marco de SaintHZilaire, tom. troisiemle, p. 165.
t One of the deputies, M. Cremieux, speaking of the banishment of the whole Bonaparte family, said, " The law of 1832 is not only unjust, but it is absurd; for the law proscribes the aunts of
the emperor, and he never had any." - Histoire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par B. Relaullt, p. 260.




280                       LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
his obsequies is something more than an act of homage: it is a reparation for
the past.
"Permit me, therefore, to thank you for your attendance.  Thus to express
to you my sentiments of gratitude is somewhat to mitigate the bitter grief
which I experience in not having an opportunity of kneeling before the tomb
of my family; and makes me forget, for a moment, that I am  condemned, as
it appears, to remain forever removed fiom the men whom I love the best, and
from objects most dear to me.  Receive, &c.
"NAPOLEON LouIS BONAPARTE.'?
A few cays after the arrival of the prince in London upon his escape from
Ham, he called upon his cousin the Duchess of Hamilton, then Lady Douglas.
It is said, we know not upon what authority, that the lady addressed him  in
the following reproachful words: -
"Well, you are free at last.  Will you now be quiet?  Will you lay aside
those fallacies which have cost you so dear, and the cruel delusion of those
dreams which have caused those who love you so much anxiety?"
The prince responded, "My dear cousin, I do not belong to myself: I
belong to my name and my country.  It is because my fortune has twice
betrayed me that my destiny is nearer its accomplishment.  I bide my time."*
The world-worn, weary exile lived in comparative obscurity in the neighborhood of London, endeavoring,, as usual; to divert his mind from  painful
reflections by intense devotion to study.  Responsible men who knew the
prince at that time, and who write over their own signatures, testify to the
respect with which he inspired them  by his character and his genius. The
works which came from  his pen during the year and a half he remained in
England prove beyond all controversy that he must have been a very close
student. The esteem in which he was held by some of the best minds in England may be inferred from the following letter, written soon after the prince
was chosen President of the French Republic.  It was from Walter Savage
Landor, " a brilliant scholar, a profound original thinker, and a highly independent and honorable man."  The letter was addressed to Lady Blessington,
under date of Jan. 9, 1849.
"Possibly you may have never seen the two articles which I enclose.  I
inserted in' The Examiner' another, deprecating the anxieties which a truly
patriotic, and, in my opinion, a singularly wise man was about to encounter
in accepting the presidency of France.  Necessity will compel him to assume
the imperial power, to which the voice of the army and the people will call
him.
" You know, who know not merely my writings but my heart, how little I
care for station.  I may therefore tell you safely, that I feel a great interest,
" In London, he found his old friends Count d'Orsay and Lady Blessington, who welcomed
him most cordially. In addition to these, he had the countenance and support of a great English
connection which his cousin the Princess Maria of Baden had formed by espousing the Marquis
of Douglas, eldest son of the Duke of Hamilton. To her more than to all others he is said to
have confided his projects and hopes." —Italy and the WVar of 1859, by Julie de 2Marguterittes,
p. 80.




EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.                                  281
a great anxiety, for the welfare of Louis Napoleon.  I told him, that, if he were
ever again in prison, I would visit him  there; but never, if he were upon a
throne, would I come near him.  He is the only man living who would adorn
one.  But thrones are my aversion and abhorrence.  France, I fear, can exist
in no other condition.  Her public men are greatly more able than ours; but
they have less integrity.  Every Frenchman is by nature an intriguer.  It
was not always so to the same extent; but nature  is modified, and  even
changed, by circumstances.  Even garden-statues take their form  from clay.
"May God protect the virtuous Louis Napoleon, and prolong in happiness
the days of my dear, kind friend, Lady Blessington!
" WALTER SAVAGE LANDO."
"P. S.-I wrote a short letter  to the president, and not of congratulation.
May he find many fiiends as disinterested and sincere! "*
Even the blunt Duke of Wellington wrote in reference to the same event
to the Count d'Orsay, under date of April 9, 1849, "I rejoice at the prosperity of France, and the success of the President of the Republic.  Every thing
tends towards the permanent tranquillity of Europe, which is necessary for the
happiness of all."t
In the extracts from the writings of the prince which we have already given,
the reader will see why the Liberal party in France, and in Europe generally,
should have regarded him  as, like his uncle, the representative of their cause.
In allading to a letter from  the prince, in which he had fully expressed the
sovereignty of the people as constituting the foundation  of all his political
faith, the "Journal du Loriet" remarks, -
"This letter bears testimony to the power of democratic principle.  It is an
example of high import,-  this spectacle of a man of royal blood; an heir to
the throne; a prince, young, proud, and intelligent, popular through the name
he bears and the glorious recollections he awakens; casting aside his monarchical prejudices, resigning the privileges of his race, and rendering a solemn
homage to the sovereignty of the people."
"We congratulate Prince Louis on the generous sentiments expressed in
his letter.  They are those of a man of noble heart and of elevated mind.
Whilst a member of the Napoleon family declares in the face of the world
that he admits the sovereignty of the people as the fundamental base of all
political organization, another candidate, the Duke of Bordeaux, disavows,
through an official organ, all those members of the Legitimist party who are
disposed to separate themselves from  the body upholding absolute doctrines,
* "Such testimonies as these, coming from such sources, give very slight countenance to the
reports we so often hear relating to the unprincely associations in which Louis Napoleon is
charged by his unscrupulous enemies to have been concerned, and to the wild pranks in which
he is said to have indulged. One fact is worth a thousand assertions. Could a gentleman of the
exalted genius and high social position of Walter Savage Landor have written such a letter as
we have given, of one whom he did not know by intimate acquaintance to be highly honorable
and upright in his conduct? "-Life of Napoleon III., by Edlcard Roth, p. 277.
t Ibid., p. 277.
36




282                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
and to side with the sentiments of the country. In the namie of those of
~whose ideas we are the organ, we address ourselves to Prince Louis Napoleon, and offer to him our sympathy. Prince Louis is more, in our eyes,
than a mere candidate: he is a fellow-citizen, a member of our party, a
soldier ready to fight beneath our flag." *
While the prince was in England, in addition to other literary labors upon
the most serious political questions, he wrote the very important work to
which we have before alluded, upon "The Canal of Nicaragua, or A Project
for the Junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by Means of a Canal."
A few quotations from this work will show the grandeur of the themes upon
which the prince was employing his mind, and the enlargement of view
under which he contemplated all the great interests of humanity. His first
chapter is upon "The Importance of the Geographical Position of Nicaragua,
and the General Course of the Canal."  The chapter opens with the following words -
"The junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by means of a canal
traversing the centre of the New World is a question whose importance cannot be doubted. This junction of the two oceans will have for its effect to
shorten by three thousand miles the distance which separates Europe from
the western shore of America and from  Oceanica; to render communications with China, Japan, New Zealand, and New Holland, rapid and easy, by
steamboat navigation; to increase immediately, to a prodigious degree, the
prosperity of the countries which such an enterprise will cause to be traversed each year by two or three thousand merchantmen; to open new
avenues for commerce, and new markets for European productions; to hasten,
in a word, by many ages, the progress of Christianity and. of civilization over
one-half of the globe.
"The enterprise in question presents itself under an aspect equally favorable to the interests of humanity in general and those of America in particular. This point admitted, it remains to consider under what conditions a
canal for ship navigation can contribute the most efficiently to the development of European commerce and to the prosperity of Central America. If
we prove that there is but a single route which at the same time satisfies
this double interest, that that route is the one which presents the fewest
difficulties and which requires the least expense, we shall have greatly simplified the problem.
"W7e can consider Central America as a grand isthmus, which separates
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and which extends from the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec to the Gulf of Darien.  It has about twelve hundred miles
of seacoast. Its surface extends over twenty-six thousand six hundred and
fifty square leagues; that is to say, it is almost equal in territory to France.
It has a population of three millions of inhabitants, descendants of the
ancient Spaniards and the aboriginal Indians.  Slavery does not exist among
them.
"The north of Central America belongs to Mexico; the south, to New
* The Early Life of Louis Napoleon. London, p. 165.




Iw
EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.                           283
Grenada: the intermediate region forms the Republic of Guatimala, which
in 1823 organized itself under a federal form, composed of five States,Costa Rico, Guatimala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and San Salvador.  These
States are at present independent each of the others; but, in their diplomatic
relations, Honduras, San Salvador, and Nicaragua act in concert. According to Thompson and Montgomery, vast extents of territory, advantageously
situated, enjoying an admirable climate and soil of wonderful fertility, are
still uninhabited and entirely uncultivated.  Immense forests are found there,
abounding in all varieties of timber. Such is the richness of the soil, that
each year three crops can be gathered of nearly all cereals, particularly of
maize, which produces from one hundred to five hundred for one. All the
productions of torrid and temperate climates thrive here. The temperature
is as varied as the aspect of the country. The coast and the lowlands near
the sea are exposed to tropical heats; while upon the plateaux, and in the
interior, perpetual springtime reigns. Fruits, like other productions of the
earth, succeed each other without interruption. In the plains and the valleys,
the soil is formed of alluvial matter to a depth of from five to six feet. It
is sufficiently rich to serve as dressing for lands less fertile.
"There are in this part of the American continent five principal points
which have been designated as suitable for the opening of a communication
between the two seas,- the first at the north of Central America, upon the
Mexican territory, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; the second across
the Isthmus of Nicaragua; the third across the Isthmus of Panama; and two
others by the way of the Gulf of Darien."
After discussing the claims of these several routes, he says, "There remain, then, but two projects worthy of being taken into serious consideration, - the cut by the Isthmus of Panama, and that by the River San Juan
and the Lakes of the State of Nicaragua.
"There are certain countries, which, by their geographical position, are
destined to a very prosperous future. Riches, power, all natural advantages,
meet there, provided that man does not neglect to take advantage of the
resources which Nature has placed at his disposal. The countries occupying
the most favorable positions are those placed upon the grand routes of commerce.  Behold how Tyre, Carthage, Constantinople, Venice, Genoa, Amsterdam, Liverpool, and London have attained to so high a degree of prosperity; rising from  the state of petty villages to the condition of grand
commercial cities, and presenting to the astonished nations the spectacle
of powerful states springing suddenly from lagoons and insalubrious marshes!
Venice, in particular, owes its wonderful grandeur to its geographical position, which made it for ages the entrepot of the commerce of Europe with
the Levant. It was only after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope had
opened to navigators a new route to the East that the prosperity of Venice
began to decrease. Nevertheless, such was its opulence, and consequently
its commercial influence, that it was able to contend successfully for three
centuries against the formidable competition which that discovery brought
against her.
"There exists another city, famous in history, which to-day is shorn of




284                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
its ancient- splendor, but whose admirable position is an object of attention
to all the great powers of Europe. They are agreed to endeavor to maintain there a government which appears to them to have less tendency than
any other to derive the advantages which Nature has lavished upon the position.  The geographical situation of Constantinople made that city the
queen of the Eastern World. Occupying a central point between Europe,
Asia, and Africa, it became the warehouse of the commerce of all these
countries, and acquired an immense preponderance over them.
"Seated  between  two seas which were like two  great lakes, whose
entrances she commanded, she could assemble there, safe from the attacks
of all other nations, the most formidable fleets, by the aid of which she could
make sure of her supremacy in the Mediterranean and in the Black  Sea.
Commanding the mouths of the Danube, which opened to her the route
to Germany, and also commanding at the same time the sources of the
Euphrates, which opened to her the route of the Indies, she could dictate
the laws of commerce to Greece, France, Italy, Spain, and Egypt.  Such was
the proud position of the ancient city of Constantine.  Such is its condition
no longer; because, according to the thought of Montesquieu, the re-establishmnent of an empire threatening the equilibrium  of Europe cannot enter
into the mind of the Turks.
"There exists in the New  W')rld a country as admirably situated as
Constantinople, and, we ought to add, even to this day uselessly occupied.
It is the State of Nicaragua.  As Constantinople is the centre of the Old
World, so is Leon, or rather Massaya, the centre of the New; and, if a canal
were cut across the tongue of land which separates its two lakes from  the
Pacific Ocean, it would command by its central position all the coasts of
Northern and of Southern America.  Like Constantinople, Massaya is placed
between two great natural harbors, where the largest fleets could ride in
safety, secure from all attack. Better still than Constantinople, Nicaragua
might become the necessary route for the great commerce of the world;
for it would be for the United States the shortest route to China and the
East Indies, and for England and the rest of Europe the shortest route to
New Holland, Polynesia, and all the western coasts of America.
"The State of Nicaragua seems, then, destined to an extraordinary degree
of prosperity and of grandeur. That which renders its position, indeed,
more advantageous than that of Constantinople is that the great maritime
powers of Europe will with pleasure, and not with jealousy, see it take a
rank among the nations not less favorable to its own individual interests
than to the commerce of the world.
"France, England, Holland, Russia, and the United States, have a grand
commercial interest in the establishment of a communication between the
two oceans.  But England has, more than any other power, a political
interest in the executipn of the project.  England cannot but rejoice to
see Central America become a flourishing and important State, which will
re-establish the equilibrium of power by creating in Spanish America a new
centre of industrial activity, sufficiently powerful to give birth to a grandl
sentiment of n-ationality, and to prevent, in sustaining Mexico, new encroachmients on the side of the north. 




EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.                            285
"England will see with satisfaction  the opening of a route which will
furnish her with more rapid communication with Oregon, China, and New
Holland.  She will find, indeed, that the progress of Central America will
have for an effect the revival of the languishing commerce of Jamaica and
the other English Antilles, and will arrest their decay. It is a happy coincidence, that the political and commercial prosperity    t    tt of the  Nicaragua
is in intimate accordance with the political interests of the nation which is in
possession of maritime preponderance.
"The proposed canal should not be a simple cut, designed only to open a
passage from  one sea to another for European products: it is particularly
important that it should mnake of Central America a maritime state, prospered
by the exchange of its interior products, and powerful in the extent of its
commerce.  With that object in view, it is important to adopt a route lwhich
presents in its course, and especially at its extremities, the best anchorage,
and which may be in communication with the largest number of rivers.
"If we could cross the territory of Central America by a canal, which,
commencing at San Juan de Nicaragua upon the Sea of the Antilles, should
terminate at Realejo upon the Pacific Ocean, the canal would perfectly meet
these required conditions; for Realejo is an excellent port, and San Juan offers
a good roadstead, sheltered from the north-east winds, - the only ones which
blow with violenca  upon that coast. There cannot be found, either at Pana-'
ma or at Chagres, or at any other point upon the coast, anchorage which can
be compared with it.
"But it is not enough that the canal should have two good ports at its
extremities: it must possess along its course a suite of natural basins serving
for docks, where a large number of ships can load and unload their cargoes
with promptitude and safety. At London, at Liverpool, at Venice, at Cherbourg, at Havre, at Antwerp, the different governments of Europe have,
during the last five'centuries, expended hundreds of millions to create artificial basins of a few hundred yards in dimensions; while there exist at Leon
and at Grenada two natural basins, which present upon a vast scale, without
expense or labor, that which we have obtained in Europe upon a small scale,
only at the expense of enormous toil and pecuniary sacrifice. It is in vain
that we seek at Panama, or at any other point higher up, a route in all
respects so advantageous.
"If it be wished that the canal should become a principal element in the
progress of Central America, it is important that it should traverse, not the
shortest route across the tongue of land, but that part of the country
the most densely inhabited, the most healthy, the most fertile, watered by
the largest number of rivers, that its activity may communicate itself to the
most distant points in the interior.  Now, a canal running from  San Juan to
Realejo would profit by the River San Juan, which receives many small
tributaries, three of which in particular are navigable by boats for a considerable distance into the interior.
"From the mouth of this river to the Pacific Ocean, the canal would run
in a direct line about two hundred and seventy-eight miles; diffusing along
its banks prosperity over a thousand miles of territory, if we have regard to




286                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the sinuosities of the lakes and the course of the interior rivers. Let one
imagine the almost miraculous effects which would be produced  by the
annual passage, across this beautiful country, of two or three thousand vessels
which should exchange their foreign productions with those of Central
America, and which would cause the circulation everywhere of activity and
wealth. One can figure to himself these shores, now solitary, crowded with
cities and villages; these lakes, to-day gloomy and silent, covered with ships;
these fields, now uncultivated, waving with harvests; these forests and mines
contributing their opulence; and these rivers, which flow into the lakes and
into the San Juan, bearing to the heart of the country all the benefits of
civilization."
The second chapter gives an account of the places through which the
Canal of Nicaragua would pass, and the length of its course. The chapter is
full of minute statements and accurate calculations, which we have not space
here to quote. The following are its opening sentences: —
" The proposed canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, commencing
at the port San Juan and terminating at the port of Realejo, would traverse,
first the River San Juan which, with its sinuosities, has a length, according to
n3. Baily, of ninety English miles, and of one hundred and four according to
the journal of M. Lawrence, assistant engineer on board the ship " Thunder,"
charged in the year 1840 with an exploring mission; second, the Lake of
Nicaragua, which is ninety geographical miles in length; third, the River
Tipitapa, twenty miles long, which unites the Lake of Nicaragua with that
of Leon; fourth, the Lake of Leon or of Managua, which is thirty-five miles
in length; and fifth, the isthmus, which separates the port of Leon from
Realejo, twenty-nine miles in breadth; making a total of two hundred and
seventy-eight miles. But we hasten to say, that, over all that route, it will
be necessary to excavate only for a distance of ninety-two miles."
The descriptions of these harbors, lakes, rivers; and plains, are given with
that charm of freshness and originality which pervades every theme touched
by the pen of the prince. Every statement is confirmed by convincing
authorities; and no point which can be of any material importance is overlooked.
The third chapter is upon " The Dimensions of the Canal."  It opens as
follows: "Before entering upon the calculation of the probable expense
of the canal, we will speak of the dimensions it should have; adopting the
figures proposed by M. Garilla in his work upon Panama, although the breadth
of forty-four metres,* given by him, may be a little more than is necessary.
The Caledonian Canal, the largest of all existing canals, has but thirty-six
and thirty-six one-hundredths metres in breadth at the water-line. But, to
render it more easy for towage by steam, we will adopt the sum of forty-four
metres. M. Garilla has calculated the dimensions of his canal so as to admit
of merchant-ships of twelve hundred tons."
* A French measure of length, equal to thirty-nine and thirty-seven one-hundredths English
inches.




EMPLOYMENT IN EXILE.                           287
The fourth chapter contains a "Calculation of the Expense of the Construction of the Canal."  Every item is here brought forward with the utmost
care; proving that the prince has as much skill as a practical engineer as he
has ability in devising magnificent schemes for the welfare of humanity.  The
fifth chapter is upon "The Probable Revenue of the Canal."  We will quote
but a few sentences, which close the chapter and the treatise:"The prosperity of Central America is connected with the best means of
civilization in general; and the best means of promoting the well-being of
humanity is to break down the barriers which separate men, races, and
nations. It is the course which is indicated to us by Christianity, and by the
efforts of those great men who have appeared at intervals upon the stage of
the world. The Christian religion teaches us that we all are brothers; and
that, in the eye of God, the slave is equal to his master; as are also the
Asiatic, the African, and the Indian equal to the European.
"'On the other hand, the great men of the earth have, by their wars,
blended together the different races; and have left behind them some of those
imperishable monuments, such as the levelling of mountains, the penetrating
of forests, the canalization of rivers, - monuments which, in facilitating comn
munications, tend to bring together and to unite individuals and peoples.
War and Commerce have civilized the world.  War has had its day. Commerce alone can now pursue its conquests. Let us open to her new routes.
Let us, from Europe, approach the tribes of Oceanica and of Australia, and
cause them to participate in the benefits of Christianity and of civilization.
"In order to secure the execution of this grand enterprise, we make an
appeal to all religious and intelligent men; for it is worthy of their zeal and
of their sympathies. We invoke the support of all statesmen; for all the
nations are interested in the establishment of new and easy communications
between the two hemispheres.  In fine, we address ourselves to capitalists,
because, in embarking in so glorious an enterprise, they have the certainty of
securing great pecuniary rewards."
While Louis Napoleon in London was devoting himself to these studies
and labors, suddenly the- astounding news reached him  that the throne of
Louis Philippe had crumbled; that the monarch, deserted by the whole
nation, was a fugitive; and that France, in a state of fearful excitement, rent
by diverse parties, was struggling for the establishment of a new government. The narrative of these exciting events must be reserved for the next
chapter.




CHAPTER XVIII.
THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.
Childhood and Youth of Louis Philippe. - Execution of the Duke of Orleans. - Flight of the
Family. -The Return of Louis Philippe with the Bourbons. —His Elevation to tle
Throne. - Unpopularity. - The Banquets. - Their Prohibition. - Indignation and Insurrection of the People.- Triumph of the Insurgents. -Flight of the King.- Heroism of
the Duchess of Orleans. - Her Peril and Final Escape.
HE history of Louis Philippe is so intimately blended with that
of Louis Napoleon; and the Orleans party, uniting with the
Bourbon party, is still so zealous in efforts to overthrow the
enlpire, and to re-establish the monarchy in the person of
the Count de Paris, the grandson and heir of Louis Philippe,
that a brief sketch of the life of that unfortunate monarch
will not, I trust, be deemed inappropriate.
Louis Philippe was born on the 6th of October, 1773, in the Palais Royal
in Paris, then the property and the princely residence of his father, the Duke
of Orleans, who was regarded as the richest man in Europe.  The duke had
imbibed those principles of French infidelity and philosophy which warranted
one to plunge, unrestrained, into every excess of sensual pleasure.  Having
unbounded wealth at his command, he became, perhaps, the most thorough
libertine in France.  But the mother of Louis Philippe was a woman of the
highest moral and religious excellence.  Silently, meekly, and patiently, like
thousands of others the martyrs of a husband's profligacy, she endured all
her wrongs until she found refuge in the grave.
Louis Philippe was her eldest child; and it was undoubtedly the influence
of his Christian mother which saved him from  that ruin in which so many
of his companions were whelmed.  The  celebrated  Madame de Genlis
superintended the education of his childhood and of his early youth. The
religious fidelity with which she fulfilled her trust may be inferred from  the
fact, that every evening, in her presence, he read from his journal the following questions, to each of which he returned an answer in writing: —
1. Have I this day fulfilled all my duties towards God my Creator, and
prayed to him with fervor and affection?
2. I-ave I listened with respect and attention to the instructions which
have been given me to-day with regard to my Christian duties?
288




1-. - =
OVERTHEROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                289
3. Have I fulfilled all my duties this day towards those I ought to love
most in the world, - my father and my mother?
4. Have I behaved with mildness and kindness towards my sister and my
brothers?
5. Have I been. docile, grateful, and attentive to mIy teachers?
6. Have I been perfectly sincere to-day, disobliging no one, and speaking
evil of no one?
7. Have I been as discreet, prudent, charitable, modest, and courageous as
may'be expected at my age 
8. I-ave I shown no proof of that effeminacy and weakness which are so
contemptible in a man?
9. Have I done all the good I could?
10. Have I shown all the marks of attention I ought to the persons,
present or absent, to whom -I owe kindness, respect, and affection?
After returning an answer to each of these questions, the young prince
repeated his prayers, and then retired. Under this discipline, he developed a
character of the purest morality, which he retained unstained through life.
In the midst of the tumult of the Revolution which in, his early years overwhelmed his family with reverses, consigning his father to the guillotine, he
at one time writes in his journal,
"O  my mother! how I bless you fVr having preserved me from  those
vices and misfortunes into'which so many young men fall, by inspiring me
with that sense of religion which has been my whole support!"
Louis Philippe was but sixteen years of age at the commencement of the
French Revolution. His intellectual training had been such, that he then
possessed unusual maturity of character, and was an active colonel in a
regiment of dragoons. At Valmy and Jemappes, uniler the generalship of
the veteran Dumunez, he fought heroically. Lamartine says of him, -
"Louis Philippe had no youth.  Education suppressed this age in the
pupils of Madame de Genlis.  Reflection, study, premeditation of every
thought and act, replaced nature by study, and instinct by will. At seventeen years of age, the young prince had the maturity of advanced years."
Being the oldest son, he was the legal heir to the almost boundless estates
and to the title of his father the Duke of Orleans. But when, during the
progress of the French Revolution, a decree was enacted by the Constituant
Assembly that this law of primogeniture should be annulled, that titles of
nobility should be abrogated, and that paternal estates should be equally
divided among the children, it is said that Louis Philippe embraced his
brother, exclaiming," It is a good law which lets brothers love each other without jealousy.
It only enjoins upon me what my heart had done before.  You all know
that Nature had created that law between us."
During that reign of terror which was ushered in by the Revolution, General Dumouriez conceived the idea of attempting to arrest its horrors by
elevating, through the agency of the army, Louis Philippe to the throne
from which Louis XVI. had just been hurled, and dragged to the guillotine.
37




290                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The effect of this was to direct the whole fury of the Revolutionary tribunal
against the Orleans family. The mother of Louis Philippe, his sister, and his
revered instructor Madame de Genlis, were exposed to the most cruel persecution.  His father, though he had ostentatiously and noisily joined the Revolutionary party, assuming the democratic title of 7Egclite, after a:  mock trial'
was condemned to death. He was a proud man; and he looked (dow\n upon
his judges with openly-avowed contempt.  The only favor he asked of themn
was that he might be led to his execution immediately, and without any
delay.  His request was granted; and in the eCve ning twilight he was taken
from the court-house to the scaffold.  An eye-witness, who took his station
in the Pue St. Honore, opposite the palace of the Duke of Orleans, that he
might observe with what emotions he would cast his last glances upon his
princely residence as he was carried by in the cart of the conldemned, thus
describes the scene: 
"The crowd was immense, and aggravated by its unjust reproaches and
insults the agony of the sufferer.  The fatal cart advanced at so slow a pace,
that it seemed as if they were endeavoring to prolong his torments.  There
were many other victims of Revolutionary cruelty in the same vehicle.  They
were all bent double, pale, and stupefied with horror.   Orleans alone, a
striking contrast, with hair powdered, and otherwise dressed with care, in the
fashion of the period, stood upright, his head elevated, his countenance full
of its natural color, with all the firmtess of innocence.
"The cart, for some reason, stopped for a few minutes before the gate of
the Palais Royal; and the duke ran his eyes over the building with the
tranquil air of a master, as if examining whether it required any additional
ornament or repair.  The courage of the intrepid man faltered not at the
place of execution.  TVhen the executioner took off his coat, lie calmly
observed to the assistants who were going to draw off his boots,'It is only
loss of time.  You will remove them more easily fiom the lifeless limbs.' In
a few minutes, he was no more.  Thus died in the prime of life - his fortysixth year -  the rash and imprudent though honest Philippe 1;galite, adding,
by his death, one to the long list of those who perished from  the effects of a
political whirlwind which they had contributed to raise."
Louis Philippe fled to Switzerland an emigrant, and penniless, with all the
immense property of his father confiscated.  In disguise, and under a feigned
name, to avoid the pursuit of revolutionary France, he wandered for many
months among the defiles of the Alps, and for nearly a year and a half
supported himself by teaching a village school. But his enemies sought for
him with so much persistence, that, to elude them, he set out on foot, with an
empty purse, to traverse the dreary regions of Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
and Lapland.  His mother at length succeeded in forwarding to him  some
funds; and he embarked for the New World.
In June, 1796, he landed upon the wharves of Philadelphia, and remained
in the United States and the West Indies for a period of nearly four years.
His younger brother accompanied him on this tour. This brother, on the 14th
of August, 1797, wrote fioim  Philadelphia the following letter to his sister
Adelaide in Paris: -




OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                    291
"I hope you received the letter which we wrote you fiom  Pittsbarg two
months ago. We were then in the midst of a great journey, which it took
us two months to aceolplish.  We travelled during that time a thousand
leagues, and always upon the same horses, except the last hundred leagues,
which we performed partly by water and partly on foot, partly on hired
horses, and partly by the stage-coach or public conveyance.  We have seen
many Indians, and we remained several days in their country. They received
us with great kindness; and our national character contributed not a little to
this reception, for they love the French. After them, we found the Falls of
Niagara, which I wrote you fiom Pittsburg we were about to visit, the most
interesting object upon our journey.  It is the most surprising and majestic
spectacle I have ever seen. I have taken a sketch of it; and I'intend to
paint a picture in water-colors fiom it, which my dear little sister will certainly see at our tender mother's.  But it is not yet commenced, and will
take me much time; for truly it is no small work.  To give you an idea of
the agreeable manner in which they travel in this country, I will tell you,
mny dear sister, that we passed fourteen nights in the woods, devoured by all
kinds of insects, after being wet to the bone, without being able to dry ourselves;.eating pork, and sometimes a little salt beef and corn-bread."
From America, Louis Philippe went to England, where he joined the surviving exiled members of the royal family, with whom  he was intimately
connected by blood relationship.  The King of Sicily, becoming interested
in his adventures, invited him to visit his court. Here he met the Princess
Amelia; and, a strong attachment immediately springing up between the
young people, they were soon united in marriage.
Upon the overthrow of Napoleon, he returned with the Bourbons to Paris
in the uniform  of a lieutenant-general of the Bourbon armies.  When Napoleon landed from  Elba, and commenced his triumphant march to Paris,
Louis Philippe again fled, with the Bourbons, to seek the aid of foreign
armies. After the terrible disaster of Waterloo, he again returned to Paris,
in the rear of the armies of the allies. His titles and his wealth were
restored to him.  Weary of the strife of parties and of the vicissitudes of
fortune, he studiously avoided all political complications, and devoted himself
to the. improvement of his vast possessions. He was thus living in opulence and dignity, when the new  storm  arose which drove Charles X.
from France, and which swept the Duke of Orleans upon the throne of the
Bourbons.  In a previous chapter, we have described the establishment of
the throne of Louis Philippe by the adroit management of a few influential
men in Paris, and have spoken of the ever-increasing discontent which --
in the form  of insurrections, conspiracies, and attempts at assassination -
was continually surging against his throne.
We must now proceed to the narrative of those stormy scenes through
which the throne of Louis Philippe was demolished, andc which forced tlhe house
of Orleans again to follow the house of Bourbon into exile.
There probably never was a monarch so unrelentingly and persistently
assailed as Louis Philippe. It at last became unsafe for hini to appear in the




292                            LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
streets on any day of public festivity; and, with all the precautions wtich he
could  adopt, he could not take a ride with his family in a carriage without
being made the target of some distant sharpshooter.  He thus obtained the
sobritueet of "the target-king."  It would require a volume to give the details
of the various insurrections, and attempts at assassination, during his reign.
Louis Philippe was one of the most correct of men in all the relations of
private life.  He had passed through very severe discipline in the school of
misfortune.  He was not a mlan of warm  and generous affections; was exceedingly greedy of wealth; and devoted himself with great singleness of aim  to
the promotion of the opulence and the grandeur of his family.  It is very certain that he was not in heart a corrupt or ill-designing man: yet power is
corrupting; and there certainly  is not too  much  severity  in the following
statement froml  "The North-American Review" of July, 1848: —
"During a reign in which his real authority and influence were immn ense, he
did little for his country, little for the moral and intellectual elevation of his
people, and nothing for the gradual improvement of the political institutions
of his kingdom; because his time and attention  were absorbed in seeking
splendid foreign alliances for his children, and  in manceuvring to maintain a
supple majority in the Chambers, and to keep those ministers at the head of
affairs who would second more heartily his private designs."
Public gatherings of the people to discuss political affairs had long been prohibited.  To  evade this prohibition, large dinner-parties, called "banquets,"
were introduced.  Instantly, they spread all over France.  The king's health
was always studiously omitted  in the toasts which were given; and, in the
after-dinner speeches, the government was often fiercely assailed.*
Arrangements were made for a mammoth banquet in Paris on the 2'2d of
February, 1848.  The Legitimists and the Liberal party, both of which were
broken up into sundry organizations, were united in opposition to the existing  government.  It was universally  understood  that the "banquet" was
intended merely as an opportunity for making a vigorous assault upon the gov* The severity with which the government was assailed at these banquets may be inferred
from the following extracts from a speech of Lamartine at a banquet at Macon:"If the government deceives the hopes which the country has placed in 1830, less in its nature
than in its name; if, in the pride of its constitutional elevation, it seeks to isolate itself; if it fails
entirely to incorporate itself with the spirit and legitimate interests of the masses; if it surrounds
itself by an electoral aristocracy instead of the entire people; if it distrusts the people organized
in the civic militia, and disarms them, by degrees, as a conquered enemy; if, without attempting
openly to violate the rights of the nation, it seeks to corrupt it, and to acquire under the name of
liberty a despotism so much the more dangerous that it has been purchased under the cloak of
freedom; if it has succeeded in making of a nation of citizens a vile band of beggars, who have
only inherited liberties purchased by the blood of their fathers to put them'up at auction to the
highest bidder; if it has caused France to blush for its public functionaries, and has allowed her
to descend, as we have seen in a recent trial, in the scale of corruption, till she has arrived at her
tragedies; if it has permitted the nation to be afflicted, humiliated, by the improbity of those in
authority, -if it has done all these things, that royalty will fall: rest assured of that.  It will not
slip in the blood it has shed, as did that of 1789; but it will fall into the snare which itself has
dug.  And, after having had the revolution of blood and the counter-revolution of glory, you will
have the revolution of public conscience, and that springing from contempt." - l1. de Lancena.
tine's Speech at Macon, Sept. 20, 1847.




OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                        293
ernment.  Seventeen hundred guests, of all the shades of Opposition, were
invited.  Two hundred deputies were to assemble in the Place de la Madeleine at twelve o'clock at noon.  Fifteen hundred other guests, consisting of
deputations from the colonies and from  the various schools of learning, were
to meet in the Place de la Concorde.  The two bodies were then to unite, and
march in procession to the spot appointed for the entertainmenlt.*  The
National Guard, ten thousand in number, in uniform, but unarmed, were to
line the route in double file along the magnificent avenue of the Champs
Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.
These gigantic preparations alarmed the government. An ancient law of
1790 was hunted up, which was interpreted as declaring such assemblages
illegal; and, by a decree of the government, the banquet was prohibited.
Special orders were issued to the commanders of the National Guard, forbidding the members of that body from being present, even as spectators.  Strong
men were at the head of the Opposition,-  such men as Thiers, Odillon Barrot,
and Ledru Rollin.  It was not, however, their intention to overthrow the government, but to introduce measures of reform.  Conscious of their popular
strength, they resolved to go on with their pacific demonstration, and continued th eir preparations accordingly.  As a sort of compromise with the government, it was publicly announced that but one toast should be given at the
banquet; and that was to be, "Reform and the Right of Meeting."  This was
to be introduced in a. short speech by Odillon Barrot, whom our readers will
recognize as one of the distinguished fiiends of Louis Napoleon.  After this,
all the guests, including the National Guard, were to separate, and proceed
quietly to their homes.
The banquet, as we have said, was to be held on Tuesday, the 22d of February, 1848. The prohibition of the government was known; and all Paris
was in a state of excitement to witness the result.  Marshal Soult was then
president of the council; M. Guizot, one of the most accomplished scholars
of France, was minister of foreign affairs; and M. Duchatel, whose correspondence with the captive prince has been presented to the reader, was minister of
the interior.
Government troops were now seen in large numbers marching into the city
from the neighboring garrisons.  Late on Monday evening, the 21st, the following proclamation by the government was posted very conspicuously in different parts of Paris:PARISIANS, - The government had interdicted the banquet of the twelfth
arrondissement.t  It kept within its right in doing this; being authorized by
the letter and the spirit of the law.  Nevertheless, in consequence of the dis" The spot selected for the banquet was a lonely, unfrequented street, - the Chemin de Versailles,- opening from the Champs Elys6es. There was here a large open space, enclosed by four
walls, over which, as over the Roman amphitheatres, it was proposed to stretch a huge canvascoveling, so as to convert it into an apartment capable of holding six thousand persons."Alison.
t Arrondissenmeet. -France is divided into cepartmeilts, these into arroedissements, these into
can;tons, and the latter into commutnes.




294                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
cussion which took place in the Chamber on this subject, thinking that the
Opposition was acting in good faith, it resolved to afford the opportunity of
submitting the question of the legality of banquets to the appreciation of
the tribunals and the High Court of Cassation.
"To do this, it had resolved to authorize for to-morrow the entrance into
the banquet-room; hoping that the persons present at the manifestation would
have the wisdom to retire at the first summons. But by the manifesto published this morning, calling the public to a demonstration, convoking the
National Guard, assigning them  a place ranked by the legions, and ranging
them in line, a government is raised in opposition to the real government, the
public power is usurped, and the charter openly violated.  These are acts
which the government cannot tolerate. In consequence, the banquet of the
twelfth arrondissement shall not take place. Parisians, remain deaf to every
excitement to disorder.  Do not, by tumultuous assemblages, afford grounds
for a repression which the governinent must deplore."
The government, haviong thus announced its intentions, acted with unaccustomed vigor.  Before morning, Paris was held by a military force of over one
hundred thousand men called in fiom neighboring garrisons, thoroughly armed,
and prepared for any emergency. Immediately, a meeting of the leaders of the
Opposition was held at the house of Odillon Barrot.  There it was decided to
yield to the determined action of the government, and to give up the banquet.
The Opposition was not prepared for an appeal to arms; and it was certain that
the attempted gathering would be dispersed by charges of cavalry.  On Tuesday morning, the aspect of Paris, to a practised eye, indicated a rising storm.
The streets were filled with the working-classes, and crowds were pouring in
from all the suburbs.  The students of Paris, a very numerous and excitable
class, were gathered in agitated groups, surging through the streets, shouting
" The Marseillaise."  Large crowds followed them, joining in the chorus, with
occasionally loud cries of "Down with the Ministry!"
By twelve o'clock, there was an Immlense gathering in the Place de la 3Madeleine, where the deputies had been invited to meet to proceed to the banquet.
It is often difficult to imagine under what impulse a passion-tossed crowd of
thousands is simultaneously moved.  As if by a common instinct, this tumultuous mass, filling the streets like a flood, commenced its resistless flow towards
the Chamber of Deputies, where that body was then in session.  The apparently motiveless mob swept along across the Place de la Concorde, over the
Pont Royal, and were breaking down the palisades of the Chamber of Deputies.  Just then, a regiment of dragoons came clattering down upon them;
and the unorganized multitude, having no leaders and no specific object, was
scattered in all directions, — along the quays, across the bridges, and into the
garden of the Tuileries. A regiment of infantry soon arrived, and took position to defend the bridge, and all other approaches to the Chamber of Deputies.
At thi  same time, the popule, instinctively anticipating a conflict, began
to erect barricades by tearing up the pavements, and seizing and overturning
carts and omnibuses. At some of these points, there was pretty severe fighting between the people and the police, aided by the troops.  Several gun



OVEEtTHROWn   OF T TH TRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                 295
smiths' shops were broken open and plundered.  Such were the public movements of the day, visible to all eyes, and of but little significance. There
were, however, private movements of the utmost importance, which were
veiled fiom general observation.  Secret societies and insurrectionary committees were hard at work devising plans for the effcient organization of the
forces at their command, and for intelligent, simultaneous~ and co-operative
action.
The police, called the Municipal Guard, had taken, during the day, many
prisoners.  They had been the victors in every strlggle; and during the
night, with the aid of the troops, they dem6lished, every barricade which the
insurgents had raised. Thus, apparently, the movement was quelled; but in
reality it had not yet begun. A mob, in the hands of sagacious men who
know how to wield cts terrible energies, is a weapon of fearful power; though
it often, in the  and, tramples beneath its bloody feet the leaders who have
summoned it into being, and who endeavor to control its action.
On Wednesday morning, the city of Paris presented the aspect of a hive
of bees thrown into sudden and intense commotion.  Every one believed
that something terrible was about to happen; nobody knew what. All the
workshops were closed, and their occupants thronged the pavements; all the
garrets and cellars had poured forth their contents; from the outskirts of
the city, and fiom the suburbs, countless thousands were diaiecting their steps
to the great centres of commotion. In every large city, there is a concealed
amount of barbarism, appalling in its power, which can scarcely be exceeded
in ferocity in any savage land. There is no more hideous spectacle upon earth
than the outburst of that barbarism in the midst of scenes of civilization and
refinement.
All the important points of the metropolis were occupied by the troops,
who had remained under arms during the night.  Still, at an early hour,
barricades were rising in several streets; very many of the populace were
armed; and the Boulevards and the Champs Elysees were densely filled with
the moving mass.  The government had ordered the National Guard, in
addition to the regular troops, to appear under arms, hoping by such an
immense display of force to prevent'any outbreak. Wherever there was any
appearance of a hostile gathering, or any attempt to construct a barricade,
the troops' immediately effected a' dispersion. The crowd, however, left one
place only to re-assemble in another. Everywhere shouts were heard, "Down
with Guizot! "  " Long live Reform!"
The National Guard, composed of what we should call the militia, taken
directly from the people, were, of course, very considerably in sympathy with
the disaffected masses. They had reluctantly and very leisurely obeyed the
summons which had called them  out to oppose the people. An immense
concourse had gathered at the Place des Petits Pbres. The third legion of
the National Guard had been stationed at this spot. A squadron of royal
cuirassiers was sent to disperse the assembly.  The guard drew up in line in
front of the insurgents, and, protecting them, presented their bayonets to the
regullar troops. As it was not deemed wise to provoke a contest, which must
necessarily be very bloody, between the' troops and the guard, and as such




296                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
an event would inevitably range the whole body of the guard on the side of
the insurgents, the cuirassiers were withdrawn. A  similar transaction soon
after took place in the Rue Lepelletier.  The people were much emboldened
by the presence of so potent an ally.
The king was greatly alarmed. He was sixty-five years of age; and his
nerves were much shattered by the incessant attempts at assassination to
which he had been for years exposed.  He had passed through many revolutions, had experienced all their terrors, and knew not whom to trust. Thougll
the commanders of the troops assured him that they had sufficient force in the
city to brush all opposition, and that the king had nothing to fear, his instincts
told him that the passions of the masses were so aroused, that they could not
be repressed without a sanguinary battle; and that the rational Guard would
be at least as likely to defend as to assail the populace, should there be a
serious appeal to arms.
It was two o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday when M. Duchatel
called upon the king with the alarming intelligence that the third legion of
the National Guard had declared in favor of the insurgents, and that every
moment affairs were assuming a more portentous aspect.  The king was
deeply agitated, and was entirely unprepared in mental resolution for that
decisive action which the occasion demanded. The state of his mind may
perhaps be inferred from the fact, that, at this eventful hour, he sent for his
wife, and his youngest son the Duke of Montpensier, to counsel him.
They'both earnestly urged that he should dismiss the obnoxious ministers,
and replace them by men who had the confidence of the people.  The king
very reluctantly listened to this advice, and sent for Messieurs Guizot and
Duchatel. The king expressed the deepest regret at the necessity in which
he found himself of dismissing his ministers, with whom  he was in perfect
sympathy. He even went so far as to say that he would rather abdicate
than be thus separated from  them.  At this the queen interrupted him,
remarking,
"What do you say, my dear?  You owe all your days to France.  You
cannot abdicate."
" True," replied the king sadly. " I am more to be pitied than my ministers. I cannot resign."  Then turning to M. Guizot, who had entered the
cabinet with M. Duchatel, he said, "Do you think, my dear president, that
the cabinet is in a condition to make head against the storm, and to triumph
over it?"
" Sire," M. Guizot replied, " when the king proposes such a question, lle himself answers it. The cabinet may be in a condition to gain the victory in the
streets; but it cannot conquer at the same time the royal family and the
crown.  To throw a doubt on its support in the Tuileries is to destroy it in
the exercise of power. The cabinet has no alternative but to retire."
The king was so much moved, that he shed tears. He was in entire sympathy with his cabinet; and it was with great grief that he took this compulsory leave of them. Both parties were alike affected. The queen, addressing
AM. Guizot and MI. Duchatel, said in a tremulous voice,-'You will always remain the friends of the king; you will supp6rt him."




OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PIIILPPE.                        297
The king added, "How happy you are! You cdepart with honor.  I remain
with shame." *
The Duke of Montpensier was urgent that the king should make a still
greater sacrifice.  He begged his father to send to the Chamber of Deputies,
then in session, a project for electoral reform, extending the very limited
suffrage, and also another project for parliamentary reform.t  But AM. Duchatel flatly refused to be the bearer to the Chamber of any such concession.:
M. Guizot, however, went to the Chamber with the announcement that the
king had decided upon the reconstruction of his cabinet.  This intelligence,
which sent dismay into the hearts of the ministerial party, was received with
shouts of triumph by the Opposition.  Officers were immediately sent through
Paris to inform the tumultuous people that the king had consented to form a
new ministry of liberal men; that the troops were ordered to retire to their
barracks; and that not another gunshot was to be fired.  The enthusiasm  of
a Parisian mob now  presented one of its most interesting displays.  The
people seemed to be semi-delirious with joy.  They sang and danced, and
hugged and kissed each other.  As the shades of evening  came on, the
Boulevards blazed with illuminations as on the receipt of the tidings of some
great victory.
The king had, in the mean time, sent for M3. Mole, one of the popular
leaders,' and, in the embrasure of one of the windows of the palace of the
Tuileries, was discussing with him  the formation of a new  cabinet, when
some of the orderly-officers, who had been sent with the announcement to
the populace, returned with the gratifying intelligence that the decision of
the king had given universal satisfaction, and that apparently there was no
more thought of insurrection.,
The Duchess of Orleans, the widow  of the king's eldest son who a. few
years before had met with a premature death by a fall from  his carriage, was
present with her little son the Count of Paris, who was then the direct heir
to the throne of Louis Philipje.  With much emotion, the mother threw her
arms around the child, and, pressing him  to her bosom, exclaimed, "Poor
child! your crown has indeed been compromised; but now Heaven has restored it to you."
But, by this time, the leaders of the secret societies and of the revolutionary clubs contemplated something more serious than a mere change of
ministers.  About seven o'clock in the evening, a large body of men, who
had been addressed in very impassioned strains by a speaker from  one of
the windows of " The National Journal," rushed tumultuously to the Boule* Lamartine, Histoire de la Revolution de 1848, i. pp. 85, 86. 
t " Louis Philippe had the misfortune to cherish a profound distrust of democracy. Although
by no means wanting in intelligence, he could never understand the strength confcrred on authority by the baptism of popular election. The enemy of universal suffrage, which he regarded
as an impracticable and absurd chimera, he was content to found his monarchy on the fragile
and easily-contested base of the two hundred and twenty-one voices of the Chamber of 1830." -
Early Life of Louis Napoleon. London: p. 155.
$ Memoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris, 5me tom., as quoted by Edward Roth.
38




298.           LIFE OF NAPOLEON  III.
vards.*  Other bodies soon joined them,-  all evidently guided toqa common
centre by some controlling intelligence. A crowd of idlers, lured by curiosity,
followed.  Many of these men had arms concealed beneath their dress; and
some of the companies marched with considerable military precision.
"A  man," says Lamartine, "about forty years of age, tall, thin, with hair
curled and falling on his shoulders, dressed in a white fiock well worn, and
stained with dirt, marched with a military step at their head.  His arms were
folded over lis chest, his head slightly bent forward with the air of one who
was about to face bullets deliberately, and to brave death with exultation.
In the eyes of this man, well known by the multitude, was concentrated
all the fire of the revolution.  The physiognomy was the living expression
of the'defiance of opposing force.  His lips, incessantly agitated as if by a
mental harangue, were pale and trembling.  We are told that his name was
Lagrange."
As these united  bodies, with  ever-increasing  numbers and  momentum,
swept silently along  upon their unknown mission, there was occasionally
heard the cry of "Down with Guizot! long live Reform!" blended here and
there with broken strains of" The Marsellaise."  When they reached the head
of the Rue de Choiseul, a detachment, composed mostly of workmen armed
with sabres and pikes, broke off, apparently without any orders, and took
possession of the street.  The more intelligent among the crowd  at once
perceived the object of this, and were satisfied that military sagacity of a
high order was effecting the combinations and controlling the movements.
The Hotel of Foreign Affairs, then the residence of M. Guizot, was near;
and this'detachment was to flank the hotel, while the head of the column
advanced upon it in front.
As we have mentioned, it was night, cloudy and clark.  The smoke and
the lurid gleam of the torches, the tramp of the multitude, and the unknown
terror, added emotions of sublimity to the sombre scene.  The populace of a
city of a million and a half of inhabitants were about to hurl themselves
recklessly, madly, upon  one hundred  thousand soldiers highly  disciplined,
and armed with the most deadly weapons of modern art.  The conflict was
to take place in the thronged streets of the city, in whose chambers were the
sick and the dying, helpless infancy, tottering age, and mothers and daughters
cowering with terror.  The boldest were appalled; and the intensity of the
excitement, even where there was no unmanly fear, caused many hearts to
throb and many cheeks to turn pale.
Tlhe leading column bore not the tricolor, the emblem  of liberty, equality,
* "Scarcely had it quitted the office of the National, when another column presented
itself at the same place, and halted at the command of their leader. They seem to have been
expected. A clapping of hands was heard within the house. A young man of slight. stature,
with a fiery eye, with lips agitated by enthusiasm, and hair dishevelled by the breath of
inspiration, mounted the inner wall of the window, and harangued the assembly. The spectators saw but the gestures, and heard but the sound of a voice, and some thrilling expressions
emphasized by lips of a southern contour. It was Marrast the editor, who )b3 turns delighted
as a wit, and hurled in thunder the sarcasms and indignation of a republican opposition." -
Lamnarti2e.




IJ  -
OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                      299
fraternity, but a blood-red flag, the symbol of determination which  death
alone could vanquish.  In fiont of the Hotel of Foreign Affairs there was a
battalion of the line drawn up in battle array, extending entirely across the
Boulevard, and presenting a rampart of bayonets to prevent the farther
advance of the menacing column. Here the column halted.  The insurgents
and the troops were face to face, almost near enough to grasp each othler in
the deadly struggle. The commander of these troops was on horseback il
front of his line. The flapping of the insurgent banner directly before the
eyes of his horse, and the waving of the torches, frightened the animal.  Ile
reared and plunged in the midst of the throng, and then, recoiling upon his
haunches, broke through  the military line, which opened to let himi  pass
to the rear. In the confusion of that moment, a musket was either intentionally or accidentally discharged by some one of the insurgents.  The
soldiers, who in the darkness had perhaps not fully understood the cause of
the retreat of their commander, hearing the shot, considered  themselves
attacked.  It was a moment of terrible excitement.  The whole line instantly
brought their muskets to their shoulders, and discharged a volley of bullets
into the dense throng but a few feet before them.  Every bullet fulfilled its
deadly mission, and spent itself in human flesh.  What imagination can paint
the scene?  Uncounted thousands were there,   desperadoes eager for the
fight; and men, women, and children, lured by curiosity.
The ground was instantly covered with the slain.  The pavementts were
slippery with blood.  Oaths and imprecations rose fiom  the maddened
insurgents, shrieks of terror from  the women and the children.  There was
immediate and tumultuous flight.  The weak stumbled and fell; the strong
trampled them to death beneath their feet.  The terrified throng broke into
the adjoining houses, rushed beneath the archways, and flooded the adjoining
streets.  The gleam  of the torches revealed the gory pavements; and the
heaps of the slain strewing in all directions that magnificent thoroughfare.
It is said that a very large majority of the multitude who thronged the
Boulevard that evening supposed they had met for a demonstration of joy,
in view of a change of ministry.  They were even disposed to be rather
friendly in their feelings towards the king for having so readily acceded to
their wishes. But this unfortunate accidental slaughter roused all Paris to a
flame of indignation which nothing could quench.  In the view of the people,
the ministers had avenged their fall by the most perfidious carnage; and,
above all others, the king limself; who had long been so unpopular, was held
responsible for this murderous firing upon the people.  The soldiers themselves were thrown into constern:ltion by the deed which they had so impulsively and so unwittingly committed.  No order to fire had been given.
The commander, hearing the report of the musket, which was perhaps aimed
at lim, and anticipating an immediate onset of the mob in overpowering
numbers to wrench the muskets from  his troops, had given the command
to fix bayonets, thus to repel the charge. No one can.severely blame the
soldiers for the act. It was the result of the darkness of the night, the confusion, the terror.
The bullets scarcely sped with greater swiftness than the news extended




300                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
through the city, that the troops were firing upon the citizens.  The organized bodies-  if we may so speak of them       of the insurgents, dispersed and
thrown into momentary confusion by the volley of bullets, soon re-assembled
at designated rallying-points.  It seemed almost as if they had made preparation for just this event; for large and peculiarly-constructed wagons were all
ready, upon which they arranged the bodies of the slain in such a manner
as most perfectly to  exhibit them.  Torches were attached  to  the carts,
which effectually illuminated tlhe ghastly spectacle.  These gory bodies were
displayed  with  much dramatic effect,-their wounds exposed, their arms
hanging over the sides of the carts, and the blood dripping upon the wheels.
This appalling procession commenced its movement through the principal
streets.  All Paris, awake, aroused, gathered to these points with hearts burning for vengeance.  A man stood upon one of these carriages, raising now and
then from the heap of corpses the lifeless body of a woman torn by a bullet.
Again he places her in her bloody bed. It was repeating with magnified effect
the scene of Mlark Antony over the body of Caesar.  The sight roused the
people to fury; and they dispersed in all directions, that they Ilighlt gather
their arms and return to deadly battle.
Louis Philippe had no past popularity to fall back upon.  Legitimacy had
not sanctioned him.  The people had  not chosen  him.  Legitimists  and
Republicans had  lon'g desired  to be rid of him.  The general voice had
accused him, and history re-echoes the cry, of having  reigned, not in the
interests of France, but for the benefit of his own family.  And now one
burning desire for vengeance fires all Paris.  Bands of armed men penetrate
all the lanes and remote sections of the city, knocking at every door, and
summoning every man and boy capable of bearing'arms to  take revenge.
It is midnight.  All over Paris the bells are. ringing the alarm.  The whole
population is in the streets.  All the gun-shops are emptied.  The pavements
are torn up by a thousand busy hands, and piled into barricades which horsemen  cannot clamber, and which neither cannon-ball nor shell can pierce.
In various parts of the city, random  musketry-firing is heard, and shouts as
of onset.
The king in his palace hears these appalling sounds through  the long
hours of the night, and his knees tremble beneath him.  He is the target~kiz.  For years, assassins have dogged his path; and now it seems as if all
Paris were thirsting for his blood.  He knows full well the calracter of a
Parisian mob; he knows the indignities to which himself and his wife and
his children may be exposed,    to be brained with clubs at their own firesides,
and their bodies dishonored by every insult.*
* " Unfortunately, the king, during the most critical period of his life, was deprived of the
intrepid counsellor who had, by her resolution and abilities, so often brought him in safety
through the most perilous crises of his fate. The Princess Adelaide, his sister, who had long
been in a declining state of health, expired at Paris on the 21st of January, 1848.  No
bereavement could at this moment have been more calamitous to the king.. To more than
masculine intrepidity and firmness she united the still rarer qualities of strong sagacity and
sound sense, with a practical knowledge of men, surprising in one born in so elevated ta phere.
Probably she owed it to the extraordinary vicissitudes of her own and her brother's career,




OVERTHROW OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.    301
M. Guizot was at this time at the residence of Ml. Duchatel, the minister
of the interior.  They were conversing with much anxiety when the brother
of M. Duchatel entered, almost breathless, and informed them that the troops
had fired upon the people; that the discharge was so fatal, that the pavements were absolutely strewn with the dead and the dying; that the Hotel
of Foreign Affairs, AI. Guizot's residence, was probably  already pillaged;
that the insurrection had assumed such magnitude, that it seemed to embrace
all Paris; and that fearful events were to be anticipated on the morrow.
These men were no longer ministers: they had already been publicly dismissed.  None had as yet been appointed  to  replace  them.  Should  the
insurrection  prove successfil, their own  lives hung upon a very  slender
thread.  They immediately repaired to the Tuileries, where they found the
king in his cabinet, with his son the Duke de Montpensier and other important personages.  Great anxiety was depicted on every countenance, and
there was no unity of counsel. The ex-ministers urged the immediate appointment of Marshal Buageaud, a very energetic but unpopular man, to  take
command of the army of Paris and of the National Guard. MIany of those
present vehemently opposed the appointment.   But the necessity  of the
measure was so insisted upon, that the king at length gave it his assent.  A
large body of the royal troops then garrisoning Paris was assembled in the
Place du Carrousel.   The marshal, accompanied by M. Duchatel and the
Duc de Nemnours, son of the king, proceeded immediately to inspect them.
At the close of the hurried review, the Duc de Nemours anxiously inquired
of the marshal what he thought of the morrow.
"MIonseigneur," M[arshal Bugeaud replied, "it will be rough; but it will be
ours.  I have never yet been beaten, and I am  not going to commence tomorrow.  Certainly it would have been better not to have lost so much time.
But no matter: I will answer for the result if I am  left alone.  It must not
be imagined that I can manage without bloodshed. Perhaps there will be.
much; for I begin with cannon;  But don't be uneasy. To-morrow evening,
the authority of the king and of the law shall le re-established." *
The king, in the mean time, had  sent for N. Thiers, the leader of the
Opposition, who consented to organize a new ministry, of which he should be
the head, if M. Odillon  Barrot, with whom  our readers are already acquainted, could be one of the members.  Louis Philippe, who was now in a
state of mind to assent to any thing, made no objection.  As M. Thiers had
which had brought her into contact with classes the most distant, changes the most surprising,
catastrophes the most terrible. It was mainly owing to her moral courage that the vacillation
was surmounted which led him so long to hesitate in accepting the proffered crown. Had she
lived two months longer, there would probably have been no exhibition of the irresolution
which caused him to lose it." - Alison, vol. viii. p. 235.
"M arshal Bugeaud's vigor and capacity were equal to the crisis, and soon gave a new
direction to affairs. Never was seen more clearly what a master-mind is. Instantly, as if by
enchantment, every thing was changed. Order succeeded to chaos, consecutive movement to
vacillating direction. Orders were despatched in every direction, the bearers of which, in the
obscurity of the night, were unobserved; and all reached their destination. By five in the
morning, the whole columns were in motion, and rapidly advancing to the important strategic
points assigned to them in the city." -Alison.




302                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
very energetically espoused the popular cause, he supposed that his name
would have much more influence with the people than proved to be the
case. In fact, M. Thiers was not, and fiom  the very structure of his mind
could not be, a popular man.  He possessed great abilities, and still greater
self-reliance, and was by nature an antagonist.  It is scarcely possible to
conceive of circumstances in which M. Thiers would not be in the Opposition,
- very ably and very conscientiously in the Opposition.  Seated by the side
of the king, he took a pen, and dashed off the following proclamation, apparently without the least shadow of doubt that it would restore the city to
contentment and order: 
"PARIS, Feb. 24, 1848.
"CITIZENS OF PARIS, - Orders are given everywhere to cease firing. We
have just received the command of the king to form  a ministry.  The
Chamber is to be dissolved.  An appeal is to be made to the country.:
General Lamoriciere is appointed Commander-in-chief of the National Guard
of Paris; MM. Thiers, Barrot, Duvergier d'Hauranne, are ministers.
" A. THIERS.
ODILLON BARROT.
GENERAL LAMORICI-E.
DUVERGIER DIHAURAXtNNE.
"Liberty, Order, and.Reform."
The king was deceived by the apparent security and confidence of M.
Thiers.  At four o'clock in the morning, with comparatively a light heart, he
retired to his bedch amber, sanguine in the hope that his immediate troubles
were at an end.  It was eleven o'clock the next forenoon, when in llis
morning-gown, and with a smiling countenance, he came down to the breakfast-table.  But appalling tidings met him  there.  He was informed that all
Paris was in a frenzy of insurrection; that the National Guard was everywhere fraternizing with the people; that the regular troops, disgusted with a
change of commanders and dbntradictory orders (for the proclamation of
Thiers paralyzed the arm of Bugeaud),* were refusing to act; and that the
proclamations of M. Thiers were contemptuously torn down, and trampled
under foot.  The aged king was struck silent with consternation.  There was
nothing for him to say; there was little he could do. Returning, however, to
his clamber, he dressed himself in the uniform  of the National Guard, and
soon came back to the royal cabinet, attended by his two sons, -the Duke
of Nemours and the Duke of Montpensier.
"Go," said the heroic queen to her trembling husband; " show yourself to
the discouraged troops, to the wavering National Guard.  I will come out
on the balcony with my grand-children and the princesses; and I will see you
die in a way worthy of yourself, of your throne, and your misfortunes."
The king descended the stairs with his attendants, passed through the
* "Had Marshb  Bugeaud been appointed dictator on the night of the 23d of February,
1848, instead of being subordinate to M. Thiers, beyond all doubt the Orleans family would
at this moment have been seated on the throne of France." -Alison...5




OVERTHROW OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.    303
court-yard, and proceeded to the Carrousel for a review of the troops.  The
queen and the princesses went out upon the balcony.  They could  see the
waving of sabres in  the  air, and could hear shouts, though they could not
distinguish  the words which were used.  They, however, cheered themselves
with the hope that the king was receiving an enthusiastic greeting.  The king
soon returned with despair in his heart and engraven  upon his features.  He
had been assailed with shouts from the National Guard of " Vive la Reforme!
a bas les Ministres!"
All in the apartment were now thrown into a state of the greatest consternation.  Even the soldiers on guard were so movec by sympathy, that their
eyes were flooded with tears.  Just then, as the firing of the insurgents was
drawing neaier, showing that the final struggle was close at hand, Emile
Girardin, one of the most radical of the  popular leaders, who had formerly
been a deputy, and who was then editor of the "Presse " newspaper, entered,
and firmly, but in respectful words, informeel the king that the time for forming a new ministry had passed; that the flood of insurrection, now resistless,
was sweeping away the throne itself.*   The king anxiously inquired what
was to be cone.
"Sire," Girardin replied, " within an hour, perhaps, there will be no such
thing as mionarchy in France.  The crisis admits of no third alternative.  The
king,must abdicate, or the monarchy is lost."
He then presented to the king a paper which he had himself drawn up,
announcing the abdication  of the king in favor of his little  grandson the
Count de Paris, and the appointment of the Duchess of Orleans, mother of
the count, regent during his minority; and granting a general amnesty.
The king hesitated; but just then  a prolonged rattle  of musLetry was
heard close at hand, indicating the still nearer approach of the mob to the
Tuileries.  The Duke de Montpensier, trembling for the life of his fhther,
entreated him to sign the abdication.  Scarcely any thing could be conceived
of by a husband and a father more dreadful than the irruption of a fienzied
mob into the palace.  The king retained a vivid recollection of those scenes
as witnessed in the days of Louis XVI., -  the insults, the dungeons, the guillotine.  Influenced, perhaps, by these considerations, rather than by personal
timidity, Louis Philippe took his pen, and wrote the followingo words --
"I abdicate in favor of the Count de Paris, my grandson;t and I trust that
he will be more fortunate than I."
* In a moment, like a demon suddenly unchained, the spirit of Revolution stalked abroad.
All who were in debt,,all who had any thing to gain by disturbance, the galley-slaves, the robbcrs, the burglars, the assassins, combined in one hideous meile.  Some hoped for rapine and
blood, others for disorder and confusion, all for selfish benefit fiom convulsion." — lison; vol.
viii. p. 239.
f The Duke of Orleans, the oldest son of the king, and father of the Count of Paris, was a
man of great nobility of character, liberal in his political principles, and a general favorite with
the people. Iis death was apparently one of those providential steps which led to the overthrow
of the Orleans dynasty. One morning, as he was about to take his departure from Paris to
assume command of his regiment, he invited a few of his friends to breakfast with him. In the
conviviality of the hour, he drank, perhaps, a glass of wine too much. TIe did not become
intoxicated (he was by no means a dissipated man); but he was probably exhilarated, and




304                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
It was hurriedly done.  It was not done with grace or dignity.  There was
no signature to the paper; no regency was appointed.  Under very similar
circumstances,.about eighteen years before, Charles X. had abdicated in favor
of his grandson, the Due de Bordeaux, now  generally called the Count de
Chambour.  Both of these children were fatherless; both were minors: and
in both cases it was understood that the mother should be regent during the
minority of the child.  With Louis Philippe, as with Charles X., the abdication came too late.  The tempest of insurrection was at its Ieight, and was
sweeping all before it with the blind fury of the ocean in a storm.  M. Girardin retired with the abdication; but it hlad no more effect upon the frenzied
multitude than the proclamation of Thiers.
The shouting of the mob drew nearer.  The rattling of musketry was more
continuous, indicating the approach of the armed multitude on all sides.
The king now thought only of escape.  He retired to his chamber, and, laying
aside his uniform, disguised himself in the dress of a citizen.  As he returned
to the cabinet, the queen accompanied him.  She was almost beside herself
with excitement and terror, exclaiming in touching tones, "Ah! the French
will see if it b9 easy to find so good a king.  They shall never find his like:
they shall regret him; but it will be too late."
The Duchess of Orleans was sitting by, witnessing the scene in silence. She
now saw that the king was planning his escape, and that no preparations had
been macde for her safety or that of lher children.  She arose, and approaching
the king, her father-in-law, said to him in a voice broken with anguish, -
"Are you going to leave me here alone, without parents, friends, or any one
to advise me?  What will become of me?"
The king replied sadly, but tenderly, " My dear Helen, the dynasty must
be saved, and the crown preserved to your son.  Remain here, then, for his
sake.  It is a sacrifice which you owe him."
Womanly timidity triumphed over queenly ambition.  She threw  lerself
at the feet of the king, and entreated permission to accompany him  in his
flight.  The king, however, remained firm, and withdrew  from  the cabinet
with the queen.
It was not an easy matter to escape.  The palace was surrounded by a
frantic mob, many of whom would have gloried, not merely in heaping all
indignities upon the royal family, but in taking their lives.  The Duke of
Nemours, who had adopted all the precautions in his power to secure the
safety of his parents, accompanied them.  They traversed on foot, happily
without being recognized, the broad central avenue of the garden of the Tuileries, passed the wicket of the Pont Tournant, and reached the foot of the
had lost a little of his mental balance, by a glass of wine too much. He entered his carriage:
the horses took fright, and ran. He leaped from his carriage: but for that extra glass, he would
have kept his seat. He fell, dashing his head against the stones of the pavement: but for that
extra glass, he would have alighted upon his feet. He was taken up senseless, carried into a beershop, and soon died. Had he been living in 1848, his popularity and energy would probably
have saved the monarchy. Thus it is not improbable that one glass of wine overthrew the
Orleans dynasty, caused the confiscation of their property of one hundred million dollars, and
sent the whole family into exile.




OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                   305
obelisk in the Place de la Concorde.  It was one o'clock in the afternoon. The
duke had arranged for the royal carriages to meet them there; but they were
not to be seen. They had probably been seized and torn to pieces by the
populace.
The royal fugitives were now in great peril. They were beginning to be
recognized, and the mob was increasing. Two very humble hackney-coaches
happened to be found near, disengageld. Into these the members of the royal
family were hastily thrust, but not before they had been rudely jostled by the
mob. The horses set off at a quick trot; and, as the precaution had been
adopted of sending as an escort a squadron of cuirassiers and a detachment
of cavalry, they were very soon out of the reach of any immediate personal
danger. Having escaped the perils of the city, the guard returned; and the
fugitives spent the first night at Dreux, one of the country-seats of the king.
The next day; in disguise, and under a feigned name, they drove as rapidly as
possible to Evreux, Where they were entertained in the royal forest by a
farmer who had no knowledge of the illustrious rank of the guests to whom
he was affording shelter.
The king was very much embarrassed for want of money. In the confusion
of his flight, he had left seventy thousand dollars in bank-notes on his bureau,
and he had with him but a very scanty supply. The next day they continued
their flight in a Berlin, drawn by two cart-horses. It was necessary to avoid
as much as possible the great highways of travel, lest they should be recognized, and taken back to Paris. At length, after many adventures and narrow
escapes, and after performing some of the journey on foot, the king and
queen reached Honfleur, where they embarked for Havre under the name of
Mr. and Mrs. Smith., From Havre, - still unknown,- they set sail for New
Iaven, on the southern coast of England, where they arrived on the 4th of
March. They then proceeded to a place of refuge which they had chosen in
Claremont, in the county of Kent.*
We must now  return  to  the Princess Helen, Duchess of Orleans,
whom we left with her children in one of the apartments of the Tuileries
stricken with bewilderment and anguish. The Duke of Nemours, lhaving
secured the escape of his parents, returned to the Tuileries. The scene of
tumult around the palace continued unabated. The mob had already broken
into the Palais Royal, and completely sacked it. In a moment, as it were,
the surging mass of degradation, poverty, and misery, broke in the door, and
flooded the halls and the saloons. Nothing, to them, was sacred. It was the
carnival of the demon of destruction. From  attic to cellar, every thing in
the palace was destroyed. Its pictures, statuary, furniture, works of art which
money couldlscarcely replace, were pierced with bayonets, cut with hatchets,
and thrown fiom the windows to be committed to the flames. In one short
half-hour, the work was done; and those magnificent apartments were strewed
with the ruins of their former splendor.
The mob, now with passions inflamed by success, were sweeping onwards
for the grander prize of the Palace of the Tuileries. The Princess Helen,
* Lamartine, Histoire de la Revolution, i. 243, &c. 
39
*




306                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
beneath a calm, gentle, unobtrusive exterior, concealed the heroism  of a
martyr.  The windows of the palace were rattling from  the explosions of
artillery in the Carrousel, when M. Dupin, the President of the Chamber of
Deputies, entered.
"What message have you for me?" the princess inquired.
"I am come to tell you," was the reply, "that perhaps the part of Maria
Theresa is reserved for you."
"Direct me," said she: "my life belongs to France and to my children."
" Let us, then, depart," said M. Dupin. " We have not a monient to lose.
Let us hasten to the Chamber of Deputies."
Just then, the Duke de Nemours came in. The duchess at once set out oh
foot to pass through the garden of the Tuileries, and across the bridge, to the
Chamber of Deputies.  Her brother-in-law, the Duke de Nemours, walked
one side of her: M. Dupin was upon the other. Her eldest son, the Count de
Paris, she led by the hand: the other child, the Duke de Chartres, was carried in the arms of an aide-de-camp.
They had scarcely left the palace when a party of the insurgents burst in.
The mob rushed through the saloons, destroying every trace of royalty.
The drapery which canopied the throne was torn into shreds, and formed into
cockades and scarfs, with which the mob decorated their persons. Having
done their will there, they set out tumultuously and noisily for the Chamber
of Deputies, following the footsteps of the duchess and her children.  In
the Chamber of Deputies, there was no harmony of counsel. All were in a
state of bewilderment.  It was known that the king had fled, that the
mob were in possession of Paris, and that there was no longer any government. M. Dupin ascended the tribune, and made a short, earnest speech,
advocating the claims of the Count de Paris as king, under the regency of
his mother.  There was momentary enthusiasm, indicating that this sentiment might be adopted by the assembly. Just then, Lamartine came in. He
ascended the tribune, and said, -
"There is but one way to save the people fiom  the danger which a
revolution in our present social state threatens instantly to introduce; and
that is to trust ourselves to the force of the people themselves, -to their
reason, their interests, their aims. It is a re2public which we require. Yes,
it is a republic which can alone save us from anarchy, civil war, foreign war,
spoliation, the scaffold, destruction of property, the overthrow of society,
the invasion of foreigners. The remedy is heroic.  I know  it. But there
are occasions, - such as those in which we live,- when the only safe policy
is that which is grand and audacious as the crisis itself."
There was a moment's pause, and M. Thiers entered. His countenance
expressed great consternation. IHe had been one of the most active of the
agents in demolishing the throne; and now he found not only that he had no
power to reconstruct another government, but, in his utter bewilderment,
he could not even propose any measures for the national organization.  In
tones expressive of great agitation, he said, " The tide is rising; " and again he
disappeared, lost in the tumultuous crowd. At such moments as these, one
feels the impotence of man: a power more. than human seems to sweep




OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                307
the current along, and to control its flow. The strongest men in France- were
then reeling beneath the blows which triumphant revolution was dealing.
Just then, the Duchess of Orleans entered the Chamber, leading her two sons
by the hand. The scene cannot be more graphically described than by the
pen of Lamartine, who was an eye-witness of it:"A respectful silence immediately ensued.- The deputies, in deep anxiety,
crowded around the august princess; and the strangers in the galleries leaned
over, hoping to catch some words which might fall from her lips. She was
dressed in mourning.  Her veil, partially raised, disclosed a countenance the
emotion and melancholy of which enhanced the charms of youth and beauty.
Her pale cheeks were marked by the tears of the widow, the anxieties of the
mother. No man could look on her countenance without being moved.
Every feeling of resentment against the monarchy faded away before the
spectacle. The blue eyes of the princess wandered over the hall as if to
implore aid, and were for a moment dazzled.
"Her slight and fragile form inclined before the sound of the applause
with which she was greeted. A slight blush -the mark of the revival of
hope in her bosom -tinged her cheeks. The smile of gratitude was already
on her lips. She felt that she was surrounded by friends. In her right hand
she held the young king in her left the Duke of Chartres, - children to
whom their own catastrophe was a spectacle. They were both dressed in a
short black vestment.  A white collar was turned clown the neck of each
on his dark dress, - living portraits of Vandyck, as if they had stepped out
of the canvas of the children of Charles I." *
The motion of M. Dupin, recognizing the abdication in favor of the
Count de Paris, and conferring the regency upon the Duchess of Orleans,
seemed to have been accepted by acclamation. But, when the vote was
called for,'the unanimity appeared to be by no means so great. Just then,
the doors were burst open, and in rushed the crowd, - the same tumultuous
band which had*sacked thee Palais Royal and the Tuileries, and which had
riotously followed the footsteps of the duchess and her children to the
Chamber of Deputies. They were armed with spike and muskets; and, like
an inundation, they flooded the hall. Their cry was for a republic. Those
of the deputies who were in favor of constructing a republic upon the ruins
of the monarchy were encouraged by their presence. In the midst of the
tumult which ensued, the princess endeavored to speak. In a tremulous
voice she said, 
"I have come with all I have dear in the world."  Here the confusion and
the uproar drowned her voice. It was painful for gallant men to advocate
from the tribune the demolition of the Orleans throne, and the establishment of a republic, in the presence of this lovely and grief-stricken princess
and her son.  It was also humiliating to discuss national affairs in the
presence of an armed mob, which had taken possession of the hall, and who
would be sure to wreak their vengeance upon any one who should venture
to utter sentiments in opposition to their own. Lamartine therefore rose, and
said,* Lamartine, Histoire de la Revolution de 1848, tom. i. p. 175.
*' P5.                                ~~~~~~~~~~<




308                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"MAr. President, I demand that the sitting should be suspended, from.
the double motive, on the one hand, of respect for the national representation; on the other, for the august princess whom we see before us."
The intelligent and heroic duchess was fully aware of the importance of
the crisis.' She hesitated to withdrlaw. And still her situation had now
become perilous in the extreme. Ferocious and threatening men were all
around her; and the confusion of the ever-surging mass was such, that her
fiiends - the Duke of Nemours, Marshal Oudinot, and other officers - pressed
her forward, for her protection, to a higher part of the hall, near the door001',
through which escape could perhaps be effected in case of necessity.  The
scene of confusion which ensued cannot well be described. Various attempts
were made to speak, and various propositions were offered, which could
scarcely be heard.  There was, however, a general call for a provisional
government to meet the emergency. This was, in fact, rejecting the regency
and the monarchy, and establishing a republic.  Lamartine took the lead in
this measure. While there was a momentary lull in the storm; he said, 
"I demand in the name of the public peace, of the blood which has been
shed, of the people famished in the midst of their glorious leaders, that you
should appoint a provisional government."
The mob hailed these words with deafening shouts of applause.  All the
members rose fiom their seats in great agitation. The president fled fiom
his chair.  There was no longer any appearance of an organized deliberative
body.  Some of the most audacious of the mob clambered over the benches,
and levelled their muskets at the head of the princess.  Her friends, terrorstricken for her life, gathered round her, and secured her escape fiom  the
hall.
Lamartine was still in the tribune. He proposed a list of names for the
Provisional Government. As the names were read, some were received with
shouts, others with hisses. All this was done under the menace and control
of the mob in the Chamber.  Seven members were at lengtl declared to be
chosen as constituting the Provisional Government.  These were Lamartine,
Marie, Ledru Rollin, Cremieux, Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, and  Garnier
Pages.
But there was, at the same time, another party at the HItel de Ville, not
disposed to recognize the authority of the Chamber of Deputies.  The deputies were chosen under the monarchy; but the band at the Hotel de Ville
assumed that they were the true representatives of the triumphant insurgents.
These men at the Hotel de Ville, in the midst of tumult still greater than that
which reigned in the Chamber of Deputies, chose their Provisional Government, consisting of men of the extreme radical wing of the Republican party.
They were Marrast, Flocon, Louis Blanc, and Albert.
Thus dangers were thickening. To avert, if possible, an appeal to arms,
the first Provisional Government voted an immediate adjournment across the
river to the Hotel de Ville. An immense and disorderly crowd followed
them. They foundcl   fearful tumult raging in and around this renowned
palace of the people.  The courts, all the avenues of approach, the halls, and
the saloons, were thronged to suffocation with the excited multitude, swaying




OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.                      309
to and fro, shouting, and often fighting, -" a living sea, madly heaving and
tossing about beneath the tempest of the revolution."
In the midst of such an uproar, no voice could be heard. Scarcely any
energy could force its way through such a crowd.  The members soon became
separated from  each other.  At length, however, by the aid of an efficient
police officer who was familiar with the building and its surroundings, the
two rival bodies were assembled in a small cabinet, protected by a guard.
Neither body would yield its claims, and neither was strong enough to eject
the other. Meanwhile the throng outside was howling for a government, and
declaring, that, unless one was speedily given them, they would sack the
building.
Night was approaching. A city containing a million and a half of inhabitants, and upon whose pavements was heard the tramp of three hundred thousand armed men, many of whom  were the most reckless desperadoes, was
without any government.  Under this pressure a compromise was effected,
which consisted essentially in the union of the men chosen by the two parties.
It was now dark; but the announcement of the establishment of a republic,
with the names of those who constituted the Provisional Government, in a
measure quieted the crowd, which began gradually to disperse. With the
intensity of earnestness which the occasion required, every man of the new
government devoted himself to his appointed mission; and in a few hours a
semblance of order was restored.
About midnight, a band more radically democratic than either of the two
wings of the party which had united in establishing the republic niade a
violent attack'upon the new government at the Hotel de Ville.  The assailants were, however, after a severe struggle, beaten off. In the morning, the
"Moniteur " announced to the city, and the telegraph announced to Europe,
that the Orleans throne had crumbled, and that a republic was established in
France.*
We must briefly return to the unhappy Duchess of Orleans.  Being rudely
jostled by the crowd, notwithstanding the exertions of her friends, she was
exposed to very great danger in escaping from  the Chamber of Deputies.
M. de Morney, subsequently minister of the interior under Napoleon III.,
was one of the most fearless and resolute in her defence. As the duchess
was closely veiled, and an immense multitude crowded the streets (fugitives
flying in every direction), as soon as she got a little distance from  the Chamber she was not recognized, and her peril was diminished.  Still the pressure
of the throng was so great, that, notwithstanding her almost frantic endeavors,
she was separated from her brother the Duke of Nemours, and from  both of
her sons.
* The Provisional Government, as arranged by this compromise at the Hotel de Ville, was as
follows: -
"President of the Council, M. Dupont de l'Eure; Foreign Affairs, M. de Lamartine; Interior, M. Ledru Rollin; Justice, M. Cremieux; Finance, M. Goudchaux; War, M. Bedeau;
Commerce, M. arie; Public Works, M. Bethmont; Marine, M. Arago; Public Instruction,
M. Carnot; Telegraph, M. Flocon; Police, M. Caussidiere; Mayor of Paris,. M. Garnier
Pagds." - Ann. flist., xxxi. 94; 95.




310                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The elder of her sons, the Count of Paris, chanced to be recognized by a
burly assassin, who snatched the child from his mother's arms, seized him by
the throat, and endeavored to strangle him. The terrified and gasping prince
was rescued by a brave National Guard, and was delivered to his mother,
who sobbed aloud as she embraced him.  But her other child had now
disappeared. He could be seen nowhere. In vain the Princess Helen called
for him. She was borne resistlessly along by the torrent, until her friends
almost forced her into a chamber for refuge. The poor child had been
thrown down, and trampled under the feet of the crowd.
At length, from the windows of her room, the duchess saw in the distance
her child, almost lifeless, in the arms of a friend who was bringing him to her.
Soon after, the Duke of Nemours joined her, having disguised himself in
citizen's dress. As soon as it was dark, they went out, and, engaging the first
stray carriage they met in the Champs tlysees, effected their escape from the
city; and after not a few perplexities, perils, and hardships, were re-united
with their friends in the family retreat at Claremont.




CHAPTER XIX.
THE REPUBLIC.
The Two Provisional Governments. - Their Union. - Stormy Debates and Efmeutes. -Alarming Rumors. -Anecdotes.- The National Workshops. —Weakness of the Republican
Party. - The National Assembly. - Anecdotes of Lamartine. - The Assembly dispersed
by the Mob.- Louis Napoleon visits Paris. -Returns to London.- Letter to the Assembly. - Chosen Deputy by Four Departments. - Excited Discussion. - Received to the Assembly.
HE throne of the Bourbons was established upon the basis of
the old feudal aristocracy. The throne of Louis Philippe had for
its sole foundation the suffrages of a few wealthy and influential
gentlemen in Paris.  France merely submitted to it for a time,
but with constant remonstrances.  Successful insurrection had.now, in the midst of confusion, terror, and blood, chosen thirteen men in Paris, to whom  this insurrection intrusted the momentous task
of organizing another government for thirty-five million'people, thirty-four
and a half million of whom had taken no part whatever in the insurrection.
This committee of thirteen, the birth of a tempestuous night, - which committee assumed the name of a Provisional Government,- had confessedly but a
trembling foundation upon which to stand.  The members had been chosen
by antagonistic wings of the Liberal party. They were almost fiercely hostile
to each other.  Some, like Lamartine, wished for a moderate republic; some,
like Ledru Rollin and Louis Blanc, desired a much more radically democratic
administration; while others wished to re-organize France upon the anti-Christian and socialistic theories advocated by the small but very active and discordant parties called Socialists and Communists.
It was openly avowed by this Provisional Government, that it was not safe
to submit the question of the re-organization of authority to the suffrages of
the French people; that they were so divided in opinion, that the discussion
of the subject would lead to civil war; and that, therefore, it was best for the
committee, supported by the insurrectionary strength of Paris, to arrogate to
themselves the right to construct the government upon such principles as
they themselves should approve.*
* "We have the conviction, that, had France been consulted at that moment, she would have
called Louis Napoleon. The dynasty of the yomnger branch of the Bourbons was irreparably
lost, as much by its cowardly retreat as by its political unpopularity. The elder branch was
311




312                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The Republicans throughout France were few in number, and were composed mainly of energetic and voluble men in Paris and other large cities.
M. Lucien de la Hodde, who was initiated into all the secrets of the clubs,
and who was perhaps better acquainted than any other man with the strength
of the Republican party, writes, in his " I-listoire des Societes secretes," " On
the whole, there might be fifteen or sixteen thousand Republicans in the department, and four thousand in Paris; a proportion so infinitely small, that it
is evident they never could have overturned a strong government."
The opposition to Louis Philippe was by no means confined to the Republicans.  The universal testimony seems to be that his government was inefficient and corrupt in the extreme.  The prince at Ham  often condemned
it, but never in terms so bitter as it was denounced by Lamartine and Thiers.
Alison writes in reference to the administration of Louis Philippe, -
" There is no time in which, by the consent of all parties, corruption was so
general both in the legislature and its constituents, public virtue in so little
esteem, selfish advantage so much the object of general pursuit, and in which
so unrelenting a war was carried on both against private liberty and the
independence of the press. These evils at length became so general, that
they caused the overthrow  of the middle-class legislature, and the citizen
king whom they had put on the throne." *
This change had not been effected without much destruction of property
and shedding of blood. Both the Palais Royal and the Tuileries had been
sacked.  The National Guard and the troops of the line prevented any
further devastations in the metropolis.  But, for some days, a wanton spirit of
destruction raged throughout the region around. It is said that every rai4way station within one hundred miles of Paris was burned. Most of the
bridges were torn down or set on fire; the rails were torn up, and scattered
about.  The beautiful Chateau of Neuilly- the favorite rural residence of
Louis Philippe -was plundered, set on fire, and nearly destroyed.  The magnificent Palace of Versailles, which had become a storehouse of paintings,
statuary, and all the most valuable creations of the fine arts, would have been
reduced to ashes but for the firm  attitude of the National Guard.  The
splendid palace of MI. Rothschild, near Suresne, was plundered of all its
treasure and burned to the ground by the infatuated mob, even when that
wealthy banker was placing as a gift, in the hands of the Provisional Government, the sum  of ten thousand dollars for the relief of those who had
been wounded in the engagements.t
The destruction of the bridges and the railroads had so impeded the transportation  of food to the capital, that Paris was in danger of starvation.
There were nearly a million and a half of hungry mouths pent up- in the
city; and food was fast disappearing. All labor was at a stand.  All the
workshops were closed; the whole population was in the streets; three
utterly impossible, as it long had been. As to the republic, after all that had passed during the
last three years, its most impassioned partisans agreed with us that the country was not ripe for
it; and that, surrendered to her own free will, she assuredly would not adopt it." - MMI1. Gallix
et Guy, Histoire complete de Napoleon III., p. t13.
* History of Europe.  Alison, vol. viii. p. 320.    t Ibid., p. 321.




THE REPUBLIC.                              313
hundred thousand armed insurgents were wandering listlessly about, beginning to feel the gnawings of hunger, and clamorously and menacingly calling
upon the government for bread.  For nine days, the band which sacked the
Tuileries held possession of the palace, consuming the food and the wines
which it contained.  The government at last induced them  to vacate the
palace by giving each man two francs a day for all the time he had occupied
the royal residence; by issuing the decree that they had deserved well of their
country; and by sending, at the same time, a force of armed men to take
charge of the massive pile.
The most exciting rumors were keeping the crowd in a state of continual
agitation.  Atone time, it was announced that the king was returning with a
very strong army. Again it was said, that, in the detached forts which commanded the city, furnaces were preparing red-hot shot to be rained down
upon the guilty metropolis which had expelled its king.  These rumors,
which inflamed the passions of the mob, and the famine which was beginning
its ravages upon the thousands who roamed the streets unemployed, created
a general sentiment of dread. One day, a boisterous and threatening multitude rushed upon the room where the Provisional Government was engaged
in its herculean task, and compelled them to pass a decree guaranteeing labor
for all the unemployed workmen, and the bestowment upon the combatants
of the barricades of a million of francs.
Encouraged by this success, soon after another throng came rushing on,
filling like ocean-tideg the Place de Greve, in fiont of the Hotel de Ville,
and all its approaches. With yells of menace, they demanded the adoption
of the blood-red flag, le drcqpeauc rouge, the symbol of popular violence
and of the reign of terror. There was no protection for the Provisional
Government.  Every member trembled in his chair.  At length Lamartine,
with courage which added much to his celebrity, stepped forth to face the infuriated insurgents. After much difficulty, he succeeded in gaining a hearing
and thus eloquently addressed them: —
"Yesterday you asked me to usurp, in the name of the people of Paris,
the rights of thirty-five millions df men, and to vote a republic absolutely,
instead of a republic founded on their consent.  To-day you demand the
clrctpecau rouge in room  of the (&drcpecza tricolor.  Citizens, neither I nor any
of the government will adopt the cdccpecat rouge.  We would rather adopt
the black flag, which is hoisted in a bombarded city to mark to the enemy
the hospital of the wounded, the refuge of suffering humanity.
"I will tell you in one word why I will oppose it with the whole force of
patriotic determination. It is, citizens, that the (7drapeau tricolor has mlade
the tour of the world, with the republic and the emlpire, with your liberties
and your glory; but the edrctlpetau rouge has made only the tour of' the
Champ de Mars, dragged in the blood of the citizens."
These  bold words produced a fearful commotion.  Some applauded;
others denounced with  the  most vehement epithets of rage.   Several
muskets were aimed at the intrepid speaker; but others, less murderous in
heart, knocked up the barrels. The friends of Lamartine, in the midst of
40




314                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the confusion, dragged him within the building. The government was entirely defenceless; for, in obedience to the dictation of the mob, the Municipal
Guard had been disbanded, and the troops of the line had been sent out of
the city. Under these circumstances, the idea occurred to the government,
desperate as it seemed, sagacious as it proved, to organize a body of defenders fiom the most determined of the men who had fought at the barricades. Fourteen thousand bayonets were thus mustered; and the body was
called the Garcle Mobile. They were paid twice as much as the regular
troops.  Proud of the service, rejoicing in their pay, and yielding to the
instinct of military discipline, they became quite valuable in preserving
order.
The government, having guaranteed employment and good wages to all
who were out of work, soon found itself overwhelmed by applicants. There
was stagnation in nearly all branches of business in consequence of the
unsettled state of the times. The unemployed from all the districts abroad
flocked into the cities; and the streets were filled with hungry and clamorous
loiterers. National workshops were established for them, and, they were paid
two francs (forty cents) a day. The first week, there were five thousand thus
employed in Paris; within a fortnight, there were thirty-six thousand; and,
soon after, over one hundred and seventeen thousand were thus supported'by
the government. All trades were crowded together; all were set to the
same employment; and this was, of necessity, generally the most humble kind
of work.
Ere long, there was no work to be found for them  to do.  The cteliers
nationauce  then became simply vast pacy-shops.  At last, there were but
two thousand at work, while there were one hundred and ten thousand receiving pay.*  The want of employment turned the rage of the people
against all foreigners who were engaged in any branch of industry. Thirty
thousand Englishmen were driven across the Channel. Famished, and in a
state of great destitution, they landed upon their own shores, conveying to
the minds of their countrymen not a very alluring idea of the workings of
the French Republic. It soon was found necessary to suspend cash payments; and the drain upon the treasury was met by an issue of paper bearing a forced circulation, but wisely limited in amount. The duties were
reduced. The direct taxes were increased in some cases ninety-five per cent.
France was filled with discontent, which uttered itself in the loudest and the
most indignant murmurs. The ship of state was drifting rapidly into the
breakers.
It was necessary immediately to call a National Assembly. It was convoked to meet on the 5th of March.  The Convention of 1793 was its
model, and the number of members was fixed at nine hundred.  There was
to be but one house, and that was to be chosen by universal suffrage. The
deputies were to receive twenty-five francs ($5) a day. But it soon appeared
that the inhabitants in the rural districts were bitterly opposed to the new
regime. The Republican party was confined to the large cities, and was not;
* Alison, vol. viii. p. 324.




THE REPUBLIC.                              315
strong even there.  The members of the Provisional Government, hoping to
be able, by pamphlets and addresses and other vigorous measures, to change
public sentiment in some degree in the departments, postponed the elections
to the 23d of April,. and the meeting of the Assembly to the 4th of May.
Four hundred agents were sent with an address, drawn up by Ledru Rollin,
to enlighten the rural districts. These men were carefully selected, and well
paid.
"The pedple," says Alison, " listened to their ardent harangues in favor of
the republic with distrust and indifference.  They could place no reliance
on the promises of a government which had begun its career by adding
nearly a half to their direct burdens, and bestowing it on an army of idle
workmen, paid for doing nothing at the cateliers nationaux." *
The circular of Ledru Rollin contained the following sentiments.  Some
of them are admirable; othefs excited apprehensions. " Citizen commissioners, that which constitutes the grandeur of a representative is that it
invests him  who becomes such with the absolute power to interpret and
translate the interests and the wishes of all. IIe would be unworthy to hold
it who should recoil before any of the consequences of the great principles of
liberty, equality, fraternity. Liberty consists in the exercise of all the faculties which we have received from  nature, governed by reason. Equality
means the participation of all the citizens in the social advantages, without
any other distinction but those arising from virtue and talent.  Fraternity is
the law of love, uniting men, and making men all one family.
" Thence follow the, abolition of every privilege; the division of taxes in
proportion to the fortune; a proportional and progressive tax on succession;
a magistracy freely elected by the people, with the most complete development of the jury system; military service borne alike by all; gratuitous and
equal education to all; the means of labor secured to all; the democratic
reconstitution of industry and  credit; voluntary association everywhere
substituted for the disordered passions of egoism.  And whoever is not
prepared to sacrifice his repose, his life, his future, to the triumph of these
ideas; whoever does not feel that ancient society has perished, and that we
must construct a new social edifice, -would prove only a lukewarm  and dangerous deputy. His influence would compromise the peace of France." t
At the same time, in co-operative endeavor to instruct and guide the
inhabitants of the rural districts in their new duties, M. Carnot, minister of
public instruction, issued a circular to the voters, containing the following: -
"The great error against which the inhabitants of our agricultural districts
must be guarded is this,- that, in order to be a representative, it is necessary
to enjoy the advantages of education or the gifts of fortune.  As far as
education is concerned, it is clear that an honest peasant, possessed of good
sense and experience, will represent the interests of his class in the National
Assembly infinitely better than a rich and educated citizen having no experience of rural life, or blinded by interests at variance with those of the bulk
of the peasantry. As to fortune, the remuneration which will be assigned
* Alison, vol. viii. p. 329.     t Moniteur, April 8, 1848.




316                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
to all the members of the Assembly will suffice for the maintenance of the
very poorest."
Such sentiments, which indicated an intention to place the interests of
France in the hands of the poorest and least intelligent portion of the population, excited great alarm with those who were called moderate or conservative Republicans.  A very serious schism arose, which every day grew wider.
Lamartine was at the head of the moderate party.  Ledru Rollin and Louis
Blanc led the radical section.  The radicals in the Provisional Government
were in the majority.  They determined to secure a majority in the Assembly.  Every prefect* who was not in their interest was dismissed, and his
office given to a thorough revolutionist.  There were one hundred and thirty
thousand offices at the disposal of the government.  These were all filled
with the partisans of the radical majority.  In the midst of these violent
efforts to secure for the Assembly a majority of the extreme Liberal party, the
government issued several very salutary decrees.  The penalty of death was
abolished in all purely political cases.  A circular was addressed to all the
monarchies of Europe, conciliatory in its tone, but containing the following
important announcements:"The proclamation of the French Republic is not an act of aggression
against any government known in the world. War is not a condition of the
French Republic.  It would accept, but does not seek to provoke it.  But
happy would France be if foreign powers should declare war against her,
and thus compel her to grow in power and glory.  The treaties of 1815 do
not exist in, right in the eyes of the French Republic.  But war does riot
necessarily follow from that declaration.  The territorial limits fixed by those
treaties are the basis, which, in point of fact, it is willing to take as the point
of departure in its external relations with other nations.
"But we say openly, if the hour of the reconstruction of some nationalities
oppressed in Europe or elsewhere has been sounded by Providence; if Switzerland, our faithful ally since the days of Francis I., is invaded or menaced
in consequence of the movement in her bosom, which promises to add additional strength to the league of democratic governments; if the independent
States of Italy are attacked, or obstacles thrown in the way of their internal
reforms, or an armed force intervene to prevent them  from  forming a league
among themseles for the security  of their independence, - France will
consider herself entitled to interfere with arms to protect the legitimate
efforts at reform and nationality in other peoples.
" She proclaims herself the intellectual and cordial ally of all rights, of all
movements, of all developments, in nations. which are desirous of living under
similar institutions.  She will commence no underhand propagandism  among
her neighbors.  She knows that no liberties are durable but those which
arise spontaneously among nations on their own soil. But she will exercise
by the light of her ideas, by the spectacle of order and peace which she will
present to the world, the only true and real proselytisn -- that of esteem and
* The prefects were superintendents or governors of the departments of France. They
directed the police establishments, and were invested with extensive powers of municipal regulation.




THE REPUBLIC.                                 817
sympathy.  This is not a declaration of war: it is the voice of Nature.  It is
not the herald of agitation to Europe: it is that of life."
Every day the evidence became more convincing and alarming, that the
rural population in France was not at all in sympathy with the Revolutionist
party in Paris.  Tie leade:s of that party felt that they had made a great
and perhaps a fatal mistake in allowing the appeal to go by universal sufzfrge
to the nation.  It was now too late to retrace that step. And yet it was
greatly to be feared that the voices of the millions by an overwhelming
majority would dismiss the radicals from  office, and reject the government
which they wished to establish.  Ominous threats were heard  from  the
departments, that the peaceful; order-loving millions who lived in the villages,
and cultivated the fields, were not disposed to submit to the dictation of a
Parisian mob.  Under these circumstances, the government sent another
circular to its army of agents, everywhere haranguing the people. This
address- which was in the form  of instructions to their agents -was also
from  the pen  of Ledru  Rollin.  The  following  extracts will show  its
spirit: * -
" The republican feelings require to be warmly excited; and for that purpose
political functions should be intrusted only to zealous and sympathetic men.
Everywhere the prefects and sub-prefects should be changed.  In some lesser
localities, the people petition to have them continued.  It is for you to make
them  understand that we cannot retain those in office who have served a
power whose every act was one of corruption.  You are invested with the
authority of the executive: the armed force is, therefore, under your orders.
You are authorized to require its service, direct its movements, and, in grave
cases, even to suspend its commanders.  You are entitled to demand from  all
magistrates an immediate concurrence.  If any one hesitates, let me know,
and he shall be immediately dismissed.  As to the irremovable magistracy,
watch carefully over them.  If any one evinces hostile dispositions, make use
of the right of dismissal which your sovereign power confers.  But, above all,
the elections are your great work.  It is on the composition  of the Assembly
that our destinies depend. Unless it is animated with the revolutionary
spirit, we are advancing straight to a civil war and anarchy." t
The socialists had for some time been preparing for a very imposing, persuasive, and menacing demonstration, to compel the government to adopt
measures for the "organization of labor," and for raising and equalizing the
rate of wages.  The democratic clubs, uninvited, decided to join  in the
* "It could hardly be conceived to what an extent the effo(rts of government were carried
during the critical period which intervened before the elections. Not content with sending down
one commissioner to each district, a second was soon after despatched to stimulate the efforts of the
first; and in many cases a third, to see what they both were doing. In some instances, as at
Bourges, as was afterwards judicially proved, a fourth was added, who set out with the principle,'The poor are in want of bread: we must take the plate'of the rich to furnish them with it.'
Not content with the authorized commissioners of government, a perfect army of agents was
despatched from the clubs over all France to join in the same work, all paid by funds secretly
provided by the minister of the interior." - Histoy of Europe. Alison, vol. viii. p. 336.
-t Moniteur, March 13, 1848.




318                        LIFE OF" NAPOLEON III.
demonstration, hoping to be able to convert all its potency to their own
advantage.  Lamartine, who was an eye-witness, thus describes the scene
presented by this emeute, which took place on the 17th of March:"Every minute the Provisional Government went to the balcony of the
Hotel de Ville, whence the column might be seen approaching.  At length
it made its appearance. The front of the body was composed of five or six
hundred of the elite of the clubs of Paris, marching in military order under
the guidance of their most renowned orators.  They advanced forty abreast,
with their hands held together after the fashion of a religious procession;
and around each group a long tricolor, or red scarf, was bound like a girdle.
In  front of each company were three men and a woman, who bore red
flags, -  the well-known  emblems of a bloody revolution.  Their appearance excited terror, and in some places indignation, in the mob which surrounded them.  Behind this organized procession of the clubs came thirty or
forty thousand workmen, grave in  aspect, decently clothed, saddened in
expression, who seemed oppressed by the calamities of their situation.  This
immense crowd inundated the whole Place de Greve, and extended from the
Hotel de Ville along the quays to the Champs ilysees.  By one o'clock, it
was evident that above one  hundred  and twenty thousand  men were
collected." *
Against this formidable demonstration the iron gate of the railing of the
Hotel de Ville was closed.  A  large deputation, however, was permitted to
enter. These ultra democrats demanded the postponement of the elections,
which they feared would go against them; the immediate relroval of all the
troops from Paris, and the obedience of the government to the voice of the
clubs; "in fine, the entire surrender of the government to the populace of
Paris, without any regard to the wishes of the remainder of France." t
With many threats, the orator of the mob, surrounded by eight hundred
supporters, demanded these concessions.  The terms were so humiliating to
the government, that, with one voice, they refused.  The angry altercation
lasted four hours. The deputation then retired with menaces.
And now the clubs renewed their activity, and resolved to accomplish by
force that which they had not been able to attain by demands and threats.
There were three parties of Republicans. Lamartine led the moderate Republicans; Ledru Rolling the Radicals; and then came a lower party still more
radical, headed by a resolute demagogue by the name of Blanqui.  The
"club of clubs" had chosen this man' as their agent, intending to overthrow
"' When I saw from the balcony of the Itotel de Ville the procession advancing,' says Louie
Blanc,'my eyes filled with tearg of joy.' Their approach brought to light the violent dissensions of the Provisional Government.  In the fulness of his heart at what seemed his
approaching triumph, Ledru Rollin said to his colleagues,'Do you know that your popularity
is as nothing to mine?' I have but to open that window, and call upon the people, and you
would every one of you be turned into the street. Do you wish me to try?' rising, and
moving to the window. Upon this,garnier Pagds walked up to him, drew a pistol from his
pocket, placed it at Ledru Rollin's breast, and said,'If you make one step towards that window,
it shall be your last.' Ledru Rollin paused a moment, and sat down."- Alison, vol. viii. p. 375,
quoting from Lamartine, ii. 208.
t Alison.




THE REPUBLIC.                               319
the government by mob violence, and introduce a dictatorship, with Blanqui *
and Ledru Rollin at its head. But, when the conspirators called upon Rollin
with the plan, he refused to enter into such a coalition, or to act in co-operation with Blanqui. At midnight the conspirators retired from their unsuccessful interview with Ledru Rollin, saying to him angrily, -
"Well, since you do not choose to go with us, you shall be thrown out of
the window  to-morrow  with the others.  Reflect on this.  We are in a
situation to make good our words." t
It was indeed an hour of peril. Ledru Rollin, after anxious deliberation,
repaired at daybreak to the residence of Lamartine.  The graphic pen of
the poet thus describes the scene:-                        +
"'In a few hours,' said Ledru Rollin,'we shall be attacked by one hundred thousand men. I have come to concert measures with you, as I know
your resolution, and that extremities do not disturb it.'
"'In that case,' said Lamartine,'there is not a minute to lose.  Set out
instantly, and summon the National Guard: your situation as minister of the
interior gives you a right to do so. I will hasten to gain the three battalions
of the Garde Mobile, who may be in a state fit for action.  I will shut myself up in the Hotel de Ville, and there await the first brunt of the assault.
One of two things must happen, - either the National Guard will refuse to
turn out, and in that case the Hotel de Ville will be carried, and I shall die
at my post; or the rappel and the fire of musketry will bring the National
Guard to the support of the government, attacked in my person at the Hotel
de Ville, and then the insurrection, placed between two fires, will be stifled
in blood, and the government delivered.  I am prepared for either result.'"
General Courtais refused to call out the National Guard; and Lamartine in
despair returned to the Hotel de Ville.  It so happened that General Changarnier, who had been appointed by Lamartine minister at Berlin, called
at the residence of Lamartine to receive his last instructions, when he was
informed by Madame Lamartine of the peril of her husband, and of the
critical posture of affairs at the Hotel de Ville. He immediately hastened
to the spot, and by his great sagacity.and energy organized such a defence,
that when the insurgents appeared, one hundred thousand strong, they found
that a bloody battle was before them should they attempt to carry out their
plans of violence.  They humbly presented their petition, the delegation
passing through files of soldiers, and then retired.
These commotions tended only to increase the bitterness between the
different factions of the Republican party.  The National Assembly met on
the 4th of May. The president, Dupont de l'Eure, opened the proceedings
with the following words: -
"You are about to form a new government on the sacred base of democ* Blanqui, a few years before, had been arrested, tried, and condemned to death as one of the
leaders in the conspiracy of May 12, 1839. The king commuted his sentence to imprisonment
for life in the state-prison of Mont St. Michael. The Provisional Government had set him free
with all other political prisoners.
t Rapport de la Commission d'Enquete, juillet 8, 1848.




320                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
racy, and to  give to France the only constitution  which suits it, —the
republican constitution.  Faithful to our origin and our convictions, we have
not forgotten to proclaim  the Republic in February.  To-day we inaugurate
the National Assembly by the only cry which should  rally it,'Vive  la
Republique! 
These words were cheered from  the galleries, and by a portion of the
Assembly; while the deputies from the country preserved an ominous silence.*
The meeting was held in a temporary wooden building erected in the courtyard of the Chamber of Deputies.  There was no room  in the old building
sufficiently capacious to accommodate an assembly of nine hundred members.
On the 5th, the Assembly chose its president; and the next cay the Provisional Government made a formal surrender of its authority to this august
body, which thus became the Government of France, and upon which now
devolved the task of a re-organization of the country.  An executive commission was first chosen, consisting of five members, the result of a coalition of
parties.  These men of discordant views were Arago, Garnier Pacres, 3Marie,
Lamartine, and Ledru Rollin.t  The Socialists were disappointed and indignant.  Their leaders, Louis Blanc, Albert, Blanqui, Barbes, and Raspail, were
ambitious men, fluent of speech, and full of zeal; and they all wished to be
prominent.
"The truth was now  apparent," says Alison, "even to the most obtuse
among the RPepublicans, that they were in a decided minority in the Assembly.
D)emocracy i;n France had been extinguished  by universal suffrage, —   a
strange result, wholly unexpected by the great majority of the Revolutionists; but by no means surprising, when the fact is recollected, that above ten
millions of landed proprietors existed in that country, most of whom were
inspired with the most mortal apprehensions of the Parisian Communists." \
Lamartine gives similar testimony.  "The republican sentiment," he says,
"is weak in France.  Such as it is, it is ill represented in Paris and the
departments by men who inspire horror and aversion to the Republic among
the rural population. ~
The Socialists and extreme Revolutionists declared that they would not
submit to a tyrant majority, and prepared for a demonstrtiaton.  There was
no force in the weak government to resist them.  The clubs of Paris called
out their bands.  Blanqui and Raspail took the lead. ] It was the 15th of
* "The centre and right remained nearly silent, and they formed the decided majority of the
Assembly. It was already evident that the majority of the Assembly, though neither royalist
nor re-actionary, was as moderate as a legislature elected under such circumstances could possibly
be. There was none of the enthusiasm of 1789 on this occasion. Then all was hope and confidence in the coming regeneration of society by the establishment of government on a popular
basis: now experience had chilled these hopes; and the general feeling was a desire to extricate
the country as quickly as possible from the dangers with which it was surrounded." - History
of Europe. Alison, vol. viii. p. 341.
t Motliteur, May 10, 1848.
$ History of Modern Europe.- Alison, vol. viii. p. 342.
~ Lamartine, ii. 405.
II "Some wanted the red flag and the Republic of'93. Then came the Communists of




THE REPUBLIC.                                 321
May.  One hundred thousand men met in fiont of the Mladleinhe; marched
unopposed acrloss the Pont de la Concorde; broke down the iron'riling in
front of the  Palais du  Corps Legislatif; demolished the  inner i'ailing;
burst open the closed doors, and with tumult and uproar rushed into the hall
of the Assembly, crowding with the compact surging mass all its approaches.
Lamariine raised his hands in agony, exclaiming, " All is lost! "  The deputies
fiom  the country gazed appalled upon this irruption of a Parisian mob, and
felt less disposition than ever to surrender the destinies of France to such
guardians.*
The scene of dismay, confusion, and uproar which ensued, no one can
imagine.  Barbes forced his way into the tribune, and demanded that a tax
of two hundred million dollars should be laid upon the rich for the aid of
the suffering poor; and that, if any man should give'orders to call out the
military, he should bh  declared a traitor to his country.  " You are wrong! "
shouted out one fiom  the mob.  "Two hours of pillage is what wve Twant."
"The true fiiends of the people," exclaimed Blanqui, " have been systematically excluded fiom  the Assembly and the Government."  The mob raised
upon their shoulders  one of the most loud-voiced and  violent of their
number, and bore him  to the tribune.  "In the name of the people," he
shouted in tones which rang through the hall, " whose voice the Assembly
has refused to hear, I declare the Assembly dissolved."   Hideous yells of
applause followed these words; a dozen men dragged the president violently
fiom his chalir; and the whole Assembly was dispersed.t
The mob then, in the same hall from which they had expelled the Assembly, proceeded  to organize a new  Provisional Government.  They chose
Cabet, Louis Blanc, Pierre Leroux, Raspail, Considerant Barbes, llanqui, and
Proudhon.  The majority of these were Socialists.  The new  government
thus organized adjourned to the t-otel de Ville.  The howling mob surged
after them  through the streets.  In  the  mean  time, a battalion  of the
National Guard was induced  to  come  to  the  rescue  of the  dispersed
Assembly.  With fixed bayonets at the Pcts de Charge, they crossed  the
Pont de la Concorde, and, driving out the loiterers of the mob who remained,
took possession of the hall of the Assembly.  They then drew back to the
H6tel de Ville, and brought forward four pieces of cannon to breach its
walls; when the Provisional Government and its insurgent creators fled in all
directions.  Three thousand of the insurgents, all armed, were made prisoners,
and were sent to Vincennes.
The Asselnbly now  brought in fiom  the country National Guards, who
could be relied upon, as they were strongly hostile to the Parisian  Socialists.
M. Cabet; then the Socialists of Louis Blanc; then those of M. Prondhon, proclaiming
property a robbery; then the different factions of Raspail, Barbes, Blanqui, &e.  It may be
imagined how greatly the divisions caused by the pride and ambition of the various leaders
weakened and brought discredit upon the Republican Governmont." - The Early Life of Louis
Napoleon, collected from Authentic Records. London, p. 173.
* Lamartine, vol. ii. pp. 422, 423.
t Louis Blanc. Pages d'listoire, 160-162.
41




322                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
General Ca;aignac, who had just returned from Algiers, was made minister
of war; niid the clubs were ordered to be closed.
Wheii the exciting drama which we are relating commenced (in February)
by the overthrow of the throne of Louis Philippe, Louis Napoleon, it will be
re!xembered, was in London.  Assuming that the revolution annulled the
1'aws of proscription which had been enacted against his fimily, he hastened
to Paris, accompanied by Dr. Conneau and a few other friends.  lie arrived
on the 27th, -  the day in which the Republic was solemnly announced in the
Place de la Bastille.*  Count Montholon, Persigny, Colonel Voisin, and others
of the enthusiastic friends of the prince, gathered around him.  Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of the emperor, and his son Prince Napoleon,
were then in Paris, living incognito.  These gentlemen formed the nucleus of
a Bonaparte party which was soon to triumph over all others.  The day after
the arrival of Prince Louis Napoleon, he wrote the following letter to the
Provisional Government.  It was dated Paris, Feb. 28, 1848.
"GENTLEMEN, -  The people of Paris having destroyed by its heroism  the
last vestiges of foreign invasion, I hasten fiomn exile to place myself under the
flag of the Republic which is just proclaimed.  WTith no other almbition than
that of serving my country, I come to announce my arrival to the members
of the Provisional Government, and to assure them  of my devotion to the
cause which they represent, as well as my sympathy for themselves.  Accept,
gentlemen, the assurance of my sentiments.
"Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
This letter created great alarm with those who had just come into power.
They were well aware of the almost boundless popularity of the name of
Napoleon.  The captivity of the prince had excited great sympathy in his
behalf; and his writings, which had been extensively circulated, had created
much admiration for his social character, and for his humane land political
opinions. At the same time, Jerome Bonaparte, who had commanded the
left wing of the French army at Waterloo in its attack upon Hougoumont,
wrote to the government as follows:"The nation has torn to pieces the treaties of 1815. The old soldier of
Waterloo, the last brother of Napoleon, returns at once to the bosom  of the
great family.  The season of the dynasties has passed away fiom  France.
The proscription-law which struck me is fallen with the last of the Bourbons.
I ask the government of the R.epublic to pass a decree declaring my proscription to be an insult to France, and to have disappeared with every thing else
which was imposed upon us by a foreign power.   "JEROM1E BONAPARTE."
* "Louis Napoleon, who was living quietly in England, where the police of Louis Philippe
watched him narrowly, immediately left after the revolution of February. He arrived at Boulogne in a paclket, which, by a singular chance, was moored alongside of another packet, which
was ready to sail for England with the family of Louis Philippe, who was going, in his turn, to
seek refuge on English soil." - Histoire politique et populaire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par Eminle
Marco de St. Hilaire, p. 169..




THE REPUBLIC.                                   323
This letter was posted upon all the walls of Paris, and was eagerlly read by
the excited people.  The son of Jerome Bonaparte, who is now 2nown as
Prince Napoleon, and Pierre Napoleon, the son of Lucien, also wr6ot6. letters
giving in their adhesion to the new government.  Thus the name of iTapoleon was rendered prominent,  tnd the reminiscences of the empire wev'e
brought vividly to  mind.  The government was greatly agitated.  Louis'
Napoleon was the heir of whatever rights the empire, established by universal
suffrage, could transmit.  Universal suffrage was to be restored.  There was
gleat danger that the people would rally round him, and that all the other
leaders would be eclipsed by the splendor of his popularity.  -There was an
earnest debate upon the subject.  Some were in favor of arresting him, and
sending him back to Ham.  Others were for re-enacting upon him the decree
of exile.  Others urged that any persecution of this kind against the nephew
of the emperor would only rouse the people more violently in  his favor.
Prince Louis Napoleon, perceiving the embarrassment in which the government was placed, adopted the wise resolution of returning to England for a
time, until matters should become more settled.  He announced this resolution to the government in the following letter, dated Feb. 29: -
" GENTLEMEN, -  After thirty-three years of exile and of persecution, I
thought that I had acquired the right of finding a home on the soil of my
country.  You deem  my presence in Paris at this moment a  subject of
embarrassment.  I withdraw, then, for a time.  You will see in this sacrifice
the purity of my intentions and of my patriotism.  Receive, gentlemen, the
assurance of my deep sympathy and esteem.
" LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTTE."
The prince, accordingly, returned to London.  His friends, however, including the other members of the Bonaparte family, remained behind to watch
over his interests.  M. de Persigny was, perhaps, the controlling mind in
these movements.*  The friends of Napoleon and of Napoleonjic ideas in
Paris were rallied  and organized.   They were numerous  and  influential,
Similar organizations were soon established in all the departments of France.
"It does not seem to have been the intention of this committee to prepare
an insurrection against the Pepublic, or to encourage resistance to its author —
ity.  Its object appears to have been to spread, multiply, organize, and finally
to  collect and bring  to  a focus the strength  of the Bonapartist opinion
throughout the country.  This opinion soon had an organ, which was not the
less useful for not being avowed.  The journal entitled "La Liberte'," having.
M "M. de Persigny possessed other qualities besides eloquence to render him a most elfcicent
organizer. He had that tenacity and perseverance which are indispensable in arranging matters
in times of difficulty. He possessed the art of establishing relations of sympathy and interest
between men of the same opinion. He found in the ardor of his political convictions an irresistible power of attraction and persuasion. He concealed under an impassive exterior, and ulnder
fornas coldly polite, the energy, resolution, and courage which he had employed exclusively in
forwarding the cause to which he had been devoted for the last sixteen years. In fine, - and
this gave him his greatest strength, -he had unshaken confidence in the destinies of Prince
Louis 7Napleon." - Lfe of Napoleon III., by Ecdarcd Roth, p. 339. 




I*                                          -
//
324                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON  III.
a daily circulation of more than one hundred thousand copies, dared sorme.
times to sfieak of the empire, and to sound the great name of Napoleon at a
/
time wisen thle vast field of the periodical press was furrowed in all directions
by tlhf  sharp pens of democracy, demagogism, arid socialism." *,  he witldrawal of Louis Napoleon fiom  Paris was magnanimous, and yet,t was eminently politic; for it is always politic to be magnanimous.  It added
/ to his repitation, and thus it exasperated those who were in dread of his.    popula:ity. A  project was formed to issue anew  a decree of banishment
against the whole Bonaparte family.
AWhile Louis Napoleon was in London, the great Chartist movement took
place, whiclc  threatened, by a mammoth demonstration in imitation of the
procedures in Paris, to overthrow  the British throne, and, in the tumult. of
revolution, to establish a republic.  The demands which the Chartists made
were reasonable.  They were, simply; 1. Annual parliaments; 2. Universal
suffrage; 3. Vote by ballot; 4. Equal electoral districts; 5. Paid imembers of
plarliament; 6. No property qualifications.t  But it was the intention, so it is
said, under the pretence of presenting this petition, to get up an immense
procession, break into the House of Commons, disperse the legislative body,
appoint a provisional government, and thus, in a popular tumult, to announce
a republic.  Vigorous eltorts were adopted by the government to meet tle
crisis.  One hundred and seventy thousand special constables were organized
in clifferent parts of the metropolis.  Louis Napoleon volunteered his services
to  assist in preserving  order, and faithfully discharged the duties he had
assumed. t
Prince Napoleon, with Jerome his father, and Pierre Bonaparte the son
of Lucien, had repaired to Corsica to take part in the elections.  The city of
Ajaccio gave them a magnificent reception.  A  letter from  that place, dated
the 13th of April, says, -
"Never since the landing  of the commander-in-chief of the  army  of
Egypt have we seen any thing approaching the enthusiasm, the tumultuous
joy, of our population, and the smiling, animated aspect of our city. Ajaccio,
proud of having given  birth  to the emperor, will receive our illustrious
guests under a long avenue of triumphal arches decorated with  national
emblems and allegorical inscriptions."
Three of the nephews of the emperor —Napoleon the son of Jerome,
Pierre the son of Lucien, and Lucien 3Murat the son of Caroline Bonaplarte
w- ere elected members of the Assembly.  Louis Napoleon, as we have said,
had retired to England.  With characteristic price of character, he refused to
a:llow his name to be presented as a candidate for the suffracges of the people,
* Life of Napoleon, by Edward Roth, p. 339.
A "Alison, vol. viii. p. 121.: "In one detachment, commanded by the Earl of Eglington, appeared as a private a man
bearing a name destined to fature immortality, - Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Many
officers of rank hastened to the Horse Guards to tender their services to their old chief in this
crisis, among whom was the Marquis of Londonderry, who, thoug'h in infirm health and
advanced years, was there at daybreak to bring the aid of a chivalrous heart and an experienced
eye to the service of his country."- History of Evropje, by Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 121.




THE REPUBLIC..325
until the Assembly had, by a formal vote, abrogated the decree of banishment by which the Bourbons had proscribed his family.
In the session of the Assembly on the 26th of May, M. Vignerte, in tlhe
heat of debate, allowed the expression to escape his lips, that the Bonapartes
who were already members of the Assembly were only provistonaciy admitted into that body.  Prince Napoleon, son of Jerome, immediately ascended
the tribune, and said, in tones which arrested every ear, -
"I had no intention to take any part in this discussion.  You can understand how painful it must be to have one's own person thus brought into
debate.  But there'was one word uttered by the previous speaker, citizen
Vignerte I believe, against which I remonstrate; and I will repel that word
with as much energy as the speaker has employed in uttering it.  It is the
word "provisionally."  There is here no provisionality for a French citizen.
I am a French citizen as well as citizen Vignerte himself, and by the same
title.  It is astonishing that a member of this Assembly should dare to say
that there was one of his colleagues who was provisionally in this body."
This warm  protest was received with a general burst of applause.  The
next day, on the 27th of May, I. Pietri, a deputy fiom  Corsica, presented a
petition, signed by twenty members of the Assembly, praying that the law
banishing the Bonaparte family should be repealed.  Several of these signers
were not what were called Napoleonists.  The measure was intended  as a
rebuke of the arrogant expressions of M. Vignerte to which we hbve alluded,
and  who was one of the most violent of the  extreme Republicans.  A
petition was also presented by the workmen of Vilette, asking that Prince
Louis Napoleon might be proclaimed consul: another petition  prayed that
he might be appointed colonel of the twelfth legion of the National Guard.
His name was everywhere heard in the streets; several journals appeared
advocating his claims;   all the Polish  refugees were warm  in his praises.
Thus his name speedily became prominent above all others.  The whole
nation was moved by it.t
Most of those who had expected, in the establishment of a republic, to
occupy its seats of emolument and power, were alarmed by the sudden uprising of so formidable an opponent, who was everywhere greeted by popular
acclaim.  On the 6th of June, there was another election of nmembers of the
Assembly to fill those vacancies which had been caused by irregularity iq the
voting or by non-election.  Though Louis Napoleon was in London, and had
declined allowing his name to  be used  as a candidate, his fiiends simultaneously, andc at the last hour, resolved to bring him  forward.  Sir Archibald
Alison writes, -
* "Besides the Napoleon Republicain, there successively appeared La ProvidleaJce; La France
Nouvelle, edited by M. Alexander Dumas; and La Liberte, whose editor, M5. Lepoitevin, was exdirector of the Clpito'e, a Nipoleonic journal founded in 1840.  It was ag)reed among his
friends not to speak of the empire, but only of the sovereignty of the people and of the Rlepublic. The pretended hereditary rights of Louis Napoleon were laid aside; and they claimed for
him the suffrage's of the people as the representative of order, safety, independence, and glory." -
L'fistoire du NVoueau Cesar,'Louis Napolen, Representanl et Presideat, pp. 10-16, par Pierre
Vleinier.
t Idem, p. 17.




326                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"Anofng other persons who were brought forward  as candidates was one
whose name spoke powerfully to every heart in France,   Louis NAPOLEON.
A  placard  recommending him  to the electors of Paris bore these ominous
words, -
"' Louis Napoleon only asks to be a representative of the people.  He has
not forgotten that Napoleon, before being the first magistrate  of France, was
its first citizen.' " *
Every effort was made by the  government to  repress  this enthusiasm.
False reports were put in circulation, the proclamations of his fiiends were
torn down, votes in his favor were declared void; and yet the popular instinct
was so strong, that its current could  not be stayed.  Four departments, by
immense majorities, chose Louis Napoleon to represent them  in the Assembly.
They were those of the Seine, the Yonne, the  Sarthe, and  the  Charente
Infcrieure.t
The government was as much  alarmed as the masses of the people were
gratified  by  this result.   The  streets  resounded  with  shouts  of, "Vive
Napoleon! " and not unfiequently was heard the cry, " Vive l'Empereur! " The
Executive Commision ventured upon the bold  measure  of issuing  an  order
for the arrest of the prince.  The order was dated Paris, 12th of June, 1848,
one o'clock at night.  It was as follows:" The ilfinister of the Interior to the Prefects andz  Sub-Prefects, -  By order
of the Commission  of Executive  Power, arrest Charles  Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte if he is in your department.  Transmit everywhere the necessary
orders." t
In the subsequent session  of the Assembly on that day, Lamartine  was
speaking; but the noise of drums, and the shouting in the streets, rendered
the  representatives  inattentive  to  his observations.   Suddenly  a rmember
dashes into the hall.  He is at once surrounded and eagerly questioned.
"Bonapartist rioters," he exclaims, "are assembled on the Place de la Con* History of Europe, by Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 345.
t " Several voids had been left in the Assembly by double or informal elections, which it now
became necessary to fill up. The time appointed for this purpose was June 3. Offers were
made to Louis Napoleon; but he declared that he would not accept them.  To return to France,
even as representative, he waited, he said, until his presence in his native land should not be
made a pretext'for disturbances and annoyances from the government. But, in spite of these
explicit refusals, his name was put on the electoral lists, and he was returned as the representative of four departments at once. That of the Seine was of this number; and in the city of
Paris, though his name was mentioned only the evening previous to the election, he received
eighty-four thousand four hundred and twenty votes." - Life of Najpoleon III, Einleror of the
French, k/ LEdward Roth, p. 243.
$ "The election of Louis Napoleon at once terrified the existing government.  They determined that he should not sit in the Assembly.  Orders were given for his arrest, should he lbe
found anywhere in the French territory.  It was asserted by his enemies in the Assembly, that
he was not a French citizen; that he was a pretender to the fallen throne; that the people had
no right to elect as a representative a man who was not a citizen, and who, by his imperial
aspirations, was necessarily a traitor to the Republic. Lamartine proposed a decree in the
Assembly re-asserting the law of 1832, banishing Louis Napoleon from the French territory." -
The Public and Private History of vjapoleon Ill., by Samuel lt. Smnucker, LL.D., p. 119.




THE REPUBLIC.                                327
corde.  A musket-shot has been fired at Clement Thomas, the commander of
the National Guards."
He was continuing his account, when Lamartine, still in the tribune, interrupted him, changed the subject of his own discourse, and thus addressed the
Assembl y:
"Citizens, a fatal occurrence has caused me to pause in my discourse.
While I was speaking of the restoration of order, a musket-shot-  several
mrusket-shots, it is said, have been fired.  One was aimed at the commander
of the National Guard; another at one of the brave officers of the army; and
a third has striuck, it is alleged, an officer of the National Guard.  These shots
were fired amidst cries of' Vive l'Empereur!'
" Citizens, while deploring with you the misfortune which has just occurred,
the government has taken the precaution of standing prepared, as far at least
as it can stand prepared, against events of this nature.  This very morning,
only an hour before we assembled here, we unanimously signed a declaration
which we proposed to read to you at the close of the sitting, but which
the  circumstance which has just transpired forces me to  read  to you
immediately."
-He then drew fiom  his pocket a paper, which he read to the Assembly,
proposing to renew against Louis Napoleon the old decree of banishment
enacted by the Bourbons against the whole Bonaparte family, and re-enacted
by Louis Philippe.*
In this paper it was' stated, that since a law was passed on the 12th of
January, 1816, exiling fiom the territory of France the members of the Bonaparte family, which law was re-enacted on the 16th of April, 1832; and considering, that, if that law has been abrogated by the admission. of three members of that family to a seat in the Assembly, such abrogation pertains to
them only as individuals, and does not extend to other members of the family; and considering that France wishes to found a republic without being
disturbed by pretensions which may form  factions in the state, and thus
foment, even involuntarily, civil war; and considering that Charles Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte has twice acted the part of a pretender in demanding a
republic with an emperor, -that is to say, a derisive republic (ztne r2epub;iq, e
avec qun ep)ereur,' c'est C cdire u2e republique clerisoire),- in the name of the
decree of the senate of the year twelve.; and considering that agitations
unfriendly to the popular republic which we wish to found, and endangering
the public peace, are already fomented in the name of Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte; and considering that these agitations -  symptoms of culpable intrigue - may acquire importance dangerous to the establishment of the
republic if they are permitted lthrough the indulgence, the negligence, or
the \Weakness of the government; and considering that the government
cannot escape the responsibility of the danger which threatens republican
institutions and the public peace, if it fail in the first of its duties by not
executing an existing law justified now more than ever, declares,* L'Bistoire du Nouveau C6sar Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Representant ct Presidcnt, par
I Vesinicr, p. 25.




828                         LMIE OF NAPOLEON III.
" That it will execute, so far as Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is
concerned, the law  of 1832, until the National Assembly shall otherwise
decide." *
The reading of this paper created intense excitement.  One after another
rushed to the tribune.  Some assailed, and others defended, the absent prince.
After a very stormy debate, the meetin. adjourned, postponing the firther
consideration of the subject until the next day.  It was then found out that
the report of a Napoleonic insurrection was incorrect.  But it was evident,
from the excitement which the debate had excited in the city, that the decree
of banishment, under the circumstances, would tend only to increase the
number and the devotion of the friends of Louis Napoleon.  The project was
the next day negatived by a vote of nearly two to one.t
The Executive Commission, being thus thwarted in its plan of consigning
Louis Napoleon to banishment, assumed a new  position  in  opposing  his
admission as a member of the Assembly.  This was a very unpopular and a
perilous movement.  It was regarded as an attack upon popular sovereignty.
Four departments, by immense majorities, had each chosen him as their representative.  The debate upon this question commenced on the 13th of June.
A few extracts fiom this debate will give one a vivid idea of the agitations of
that day.  The discussion arose upon the validity of the elections, which had
proved so favorable to Louis Napoleon.
1. dce GoscGe said, "A  few  days ago, I presented to  the Assembly a
proposition for the recall of the Bonaparte family, and for the abrogation of
the law of 1832.  I now ask that the vote upon that proposition may be
adjourned, but with an amendment which shall maintain proyisionally the
exclusion of Citizen Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, whose name has
become an arm for the factions.  I do not doubt that that citizen is a stranger
to these intrigues; but I also believe him  to be too good a citizen not to
comprehend that his presence, under existing circumstances, will be a peril
for the Republic."
M,.JTuls IcTvre: "I have the honor, in the name of your seventh conmmittee, to announce the conclusions which it has adopted relative to the election in Charente Infbrieure.  I hold the minutes which inform of that election,
and of the perfect regularity of the proceedings.  The Citizen Charles Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte has obtained the majority of the votes, and is entitled
to be proclaimee  representative of the people.  At the same time, the conmmnittee does not dissemble the difficulty which the name of tle person elected
raises.  It appears to us that it would be unworthy of a great nation to arrest
*  Histoire politique ct populaire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par Emile IeMarco do St. IHilaire,
tom. troisiele, p; 187.
t " The representatives, however, on returning- home after this stormy sitting, were surprised
to find that the hostile groups had nearly all vanished, and that the public tranquility seemed to
have been little if at all troubled. They were still more surprised that the musket-shots fired
at the commander of the National Guard and at the brave officers had dwindled down to a
mere pistol-shot, which, as Clement Thomas himself, commander of the National Guard, next
day declared in the tribune, had gone off, perhaps, by accident."- Life of Napoleon III., by
Edw:tard Roth, p. 350.




THE REPUBLIC.                                 329
itself before puerile fears; and we have declared with unanimity, one voice
only being wanting, in favor of the admission of the prince -  pardon me,
gentlernen,of the citizen -Louis Napoleon.  The motives which have influenced us are founded in legality as well as in policy.  As to legality, the
attitude of the government, thus far, has presented no indecision.  liave we
not heard 31. Crdinieux, the minister of justice and the organ of the Executive
Commission, declare that the law vwhich banished the Bonaparte family had
been virtually abrogatedl by the revolution of February?
"What do you demand against Louis Bonaparte?  I say that you demand
exceptional measures: for the position of'Louis Bonaparte is not that of a
pretender; it is that of an elect of the people.  If he has committed any
crime, if you have detected him  in any criminal correspondence, let it be
l:nown, and you shall find us with you.  Till then, do not attempt to make
us believe that the French Republic is so unstable, that it can be overthrown
by a breath of Citizen Bonaparte.  Gentlemen, the place for Citizen Bonaparte is in the midst of us.  lie should ascend that tribune.  Believe it,
gentlemen, were Citizen Bonaparte sufficiently insensate to renew the follies
of 1840, he would be instantly covered with contempt.
"It is necessary that Louis Bonaparte should come to this tribune; that lie
should trample beneath his feet that parody of an imperial mantle which
neither suits his stature nor the present epoch.  If you reject Citizen Louis
Bonaparte, you invest him with the leg1itimacy of the one hundred thousand
votes which he has received in the different colleges of' France."
3M. Bucher: "I am  the reporter of the tenth committee, -  of a decision
directly contrary to that which which has just been submitted to you.  We
have made a great distinction  between what passed befre. tlle meeting
of the Assembly and that which has passed since that meeting.  Before the
Assembly met, the Provisional Government had no occasion to make any
difference between citizens. But now, since the Republic has been proclaimed,
since a form of government has been adopted, the situation is not the same.
Your committee is of the opinion that it is no longer a citizen who presents
himself before you: it is a prince; it is a pretender.  Such is the particular
character of this election -  in some respects unexpected -  whicl you propose
to annul.
"It is evident, that, in the present state of the country, measures of precaution are required of us, if wTe would escape misfortunes, if' we would not compromise the (lestinies of the Republic.  Whatever may be said, it is a pretender
who presents himself before you, and whose election you propose to annul.
WVould you accept Henri V., or the Prince of Joinville, or the Duke of Nemours,
if they were chosen?  Beware! the Citizen Bonalparte will not come here as a
simple representative: he will come with acclamations such as those which we
beard yesterday. It was not only' Vive Bonaparte!' that they cried, but'Vive INapoleon III.!  Vive i'Empereur Napoleon!' I insist, in the name
of the tenth bureau, that the election be annulled."
I. Aymz air, reporter of the sixth bureau: " I report in favor of the admission of Citizen Bonaparte, for the same reasons which have been so lucidly
expressed by Citizen Jules Favre."
42




330                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
1. Vieillarcd, former tutor of Louis Napoleon: "I rise to fulfil a sacred
duty, -to defecnd one absent who is accused. For thirty years, I have been
acquainted with Prince Louis Bonaparte.  I have the honor to be his friend.
I affirm upon my honor, that he has been made a representative in spite of
(mcclyre) himself, as they have made him a pretender in spite of himself. His
election has not been, as is asserted, a conspiracy, but a spontaneous protest of
the population against the fatal souvenirs of 1815. Do you wish to know the
sentiments which animated him before his election?  If so, listen to a letter,
he wrote me last month, but which was never intended for publicity."
The following letter was then read in the midst of great tumult and multiplied interruptions:- 
"LONDON, May 11, 1848.
"MY DEAR M. VIEILLARD, —I have not yet answered the letter which you
addressed to me from St. Lo, because I was waiting your return to Paris, when
I would have an opportunity to explain my conduct.
" I have not wished to present myself as a candidate at the elections, because
I am convinced that my position in the Assembly would have been extremely
embarrassing. My name, my antecedents, have made of me, willing or unwilling, not a party chief, but a man upon whom the eyes of all the malecontents
are fixed. As long as French society shall remain unsettled, as long as the
constitution shall remain undecided, I feel that my position in France will be
to me extrenely difficult, and even dangerous. I have therefore taken the
firm resolution to holdc myself apart, and to resist all the charms which a residence in my own country can have for me.
"If IFrance has need of me, if my part were marked out, if, in short, I
thought I could be useful to my country, I should not hesitate to pass by these
secondary considerations to fulfil my duty: but, in the present circumstances,
I can do no good; at the most, I should be only an embarrassment.  On the
other hand, I have important personal interests to attend to in England.  I
shall wait here a few months longer, then,- until affairs in France assume a
calmer and more decided aspect.
"I do not know but you will blame me for this resolution; but, if you had
an idea of the number of ridiculous propositions which reach me even here,
you would easily understand how much more I should be a butt in Paris for
all sorts of intrigues.  I do not wish to meddle in any thing.  I desire to see
the lepublic become strong in wisdom and in right; and, in the mean tilme, I
find voluntary exile very agreeable, because I know that it is voluntary."
The reading of this letter created great excitement; and it was often interrupted by hisses and outcries.
MI. Iairclial said, "I am, as much as any other one, under the influence
of those grand souvenirs which attach themselves to the name of him whose
election is now contested; but my admiration does not go so far as to lead me
to sacrifice the interests of the country, of the Republic.  If the attitude of two
members of the Bonaparte family, their antecedents,.do not prevent their being
admitted into your number, is it the same to-day with Citizen Louis Bonaparte?
Has he not twice performed the part of a'pretender?  His name -is it not a




THE REPUBLIC.                                  331
banner, a fatal signal of ralliement?  It appears to me, then, that it is our
duty to avail ourselves of a law which has not been abrogated, that we may
erect a barrier against Louis Bonaparte.
"A letter has been read to you, in which the candidate elect expresses energetically his opinions.  I do not dcubt, in the least, the sincerity of his declarations; but I shall not the less persist to oppose his admission, that all pretexts may be taken from the factions.  To open the door to one pretender is
to secure an entrance for all the others.  Moreover, Louis Napoleon is not
eligible, since he has been naturalized in Switzerland."
31. Fresneau: "I have heard the cry,'Vive Napoleon!  Vive la Legion
d'Honneur!' and, for me, the significant cry,' Vive la Gloire Impeiaiale!' There
is no conspiracy; but I know full well that there is legitimate emotion.  And
beware! for this emotion is shared by the National Guard itself. There is no
conspiracy in Paris; there is none in the Departments: but I will not answer
for it that there shall not be emeutes, if you repel from  your body the heir of
CaIpoleon."
These last words created a great commotion.  The president interrupted
the speaker, saying, "I invite the orator to explain himself."
" The heir," exclaimed Fresneau, "of his name, and not of his rights.  I have
no fears of an e'meute to the cry of'Vive Louis Napoleon!' but I do fear one
to the cry of  Vive la Souverainete du Peuple!'
" The Citizen Louis Blanc, who, as he has just told us, demands the abrogation of the law of proscription against the Bourbons and the Orleanists, cannot,
without being illogical, oppose the application of the same law to a member of
the Bonaparte family.  I-e avows that the Republic has nothing to fear from
pretenders.'To fear for the Republic,' he says,'is to outrage it.  I love to
see pretenders near: it is more easy to measure them.' How can you fear that
the Citizen Louis Bonaparte should be able to resuscitate an order of things
which the powerful hand of the emperor was unable to establish?  The candidature with which we are menaced presents no serious cause for alarm.
But it is said that the Citizen Louis Bonaparte is to be feared as the future
President of the Republic.  There is a very simple way of avoiding that inconvenience.  Place at the head of your constitution the following article:"'In the Republic founded on the 24th of February, there shall not be any
president.' *
"The way to found a good republic is to organize labor.  I will not ask you,
if in view of the sovereignty of the people, Louis Bonaparte can be excluded
from  this Assembly, where you see three members of his family.   I limit
myself to saying, that, in my view, all laws of exclusion and proscription are
anti-republican.  The republican logic which does not admlit that a son can
wear a crown, for the single reason that his father lras worn one, -that republican logic cannot admit that a son should be punished for the crimes of which
his father may have been guilty.  Therefore I have voted loudly against the
T This proposition was followed by a general burst of laughter. P. Vesinicr, a Socialist, in
his narrative of these events, says sadly, "It is melancholy to reflect that the majority of the
Assembly did not think a republic possible without a president. It is that which explains the
misplaced and indecorous hilarity with which so reasonable a proposition was received."




332                       LIFE OF iAPOLEON III.
proscription of the Orleans family, though I have passed ten years of my life
in combating that balefil royalty. Yes: laws of exclusion, laws of perpetual
proscription, are essentially anti-republican."
3. Pascal Dupralz)t: "I demand the exclusion of Louis Napoleon in the
name of legality. You have not feared the name of Napoleon, because you
have introduced it here when it was not threatening; but now that name presents itself with the cortege of an rnPeuzte. In repelling the name of Bonaparte,
you wish to repel sedition. It is true that the empire is not possible; but a
bloody mockery of the empire is possible.  I vote for the exclusion."
31 Ledu & R olln, who was a member of the Executive Commission, then
took the tribune, and said, "The situation is too grave for the government to
be silent. It is said that we wish to violate the sovereignty of the people.  It
is very singular tlhat they who founded the sovereignty of the people in February should be accused of wishing to violate it.  The decree which we
demand may be only provisory, and of short continuance. Let the emzeute
retire, and to-morrow, perhaps, we will withdraw our decree.  We are, above
all, the depositaries of power; and we should make that power respected."
During the progress of this discussion, Louis Napoleon, who was kept
informed of all that transpired, wrote a letter to the Assembly fiom his retreat
in London. At first, the Assembly refused to receive this letter; and it was
published in the journals.
M31. _Boijecta  now ascended the tribune, and said, " It has been affirmed, that
while Louis Bonaparte is accused of exciting sedition in the streets, and that
Vwhile'many persons have denied, in his name, his participation in these tumults,
he himself does not deny it.  I reply to the second imputation, that it is true
that Louis Napoleon has not personally protested against these rumors, as he
has had no time to do so; but, as to the first accusation, I hold a letter which
the prince has addressed to the National Assembly itself, and which has this
morning appeared in many of the journals."  IIe then read the following letter:"CITIZEN REPRESENTATIVES, - I learn from the journals that it has been
proposed. in the bureau of the Assembly to maintain against me alone the
law of exile beneath which my family has languished since 1816.  I now
demand of the representatives of the people what I have done to merit such
a lpunishment.
"Is it because I have always publicly'declared, that, in my opinion,
France was not the possession either of a man, a falmily, or a party?  Is it
because, wishing to aid the triumph, without anarchy or license, of the
principle of the natiocnl sovereignty, swhich can alone put an end to our
dissensions, I have twice fallen a victim  to my hostility to a government
which y ou have overthrown?  Is it for having consented, through lieference
for the Provisional Government, to return to a foreign land, after having, at
the first tidings of the revolution, hastened to Paris?  Is it for having
refased!, through  disinterestedness, the proposition that was mace  me  of
offering myself as a candidate for the Assembly, resolved, as I was, not to
return. to France until the new constitution was established and the Republic
consolidated? 




THE REPUBLIC.                                  333
"The same reasons which caused me to take up arms against the government of Louis Philippe will make me, should  my services be accepted,
devote myself to the defence of the National Assembly, the result of
universal suffrage.  In the presence  of a king  elected  by two hundred
deputies, I might recollect that I was the heir to an empire founded on the
votes of four millions of Frenchmen.   In the presence of the national
sovereignty, I neither can nor will lay claim  to aught but my rights as a'
French citizen.  But these I unceasingly demand with the energy by which
an honest heart is inspired  in the consciousness of never having  proved
itself unworthy of its country."
After the reading of this letter, M. Jules Favre again ascended the tribune.
"As for me," he said, "I maintain that the law of 1832 has been abrogated
by the admission into this body of three members of the Bonaparte family.
You cannot have two weights and two measures.  I venture to say, that in
the convictions of all, even in those of the Executive Commission, this law
has been impliedly abrogated.  That which you demand of us to-day is to
introduce arbitrariness into the law.  They speak to you of manleuvres, of
attempts at seduction; but have you any proof, have you any indication,
that the prince has any thing whatever to do with that matter?  No: since
you have no proof, it is then a declaration of suspicion which you demand
of us.
" The Citizen Ledru Rollin has presented a consideration which moves me
profoundly.  lie menaces you with civil war if you do not exclude Citizen
Louis Napoleon fiom  France.  Ah! gentlemen, may not the reply be made
to us, that civil war is as imminent upon the contrary hypothesis?  As for
me, I fear it!
"It is said that the name of the prince serves as a banner to the factions.
Is it his fault?  Have we not recently seen names the most honorable -the
names of members-of the Executive Commission -inscribed upon the lists
of the Hotel de Ville, proclaiming the revolutionary government of Blanqui
and Barbes?"
There was now a general cry for the question.  The vote was taken; and
Louis Napoleon was declared entitled to his seat by a majority of more than
two-thirds.*
* " M. Jules Favre mentioned the word'prince,' which was like an electric shock to the
mountain, bringing down the thunder from above. In vain, M. Favre explained. M. Ledru
Rollin rolled backward and forward in his seat like a Quaker when the spirit is about to move
him. M. Flocon, who always did gesticulate, now gesticulated more furiously.  Lamartine
angrily devoured a pen.  Marie appeared, like a lawyer, to consider the words as part of a
client's case; and M. Arago turned a deaf.ear by reading a paper.  But the thunder had
rolled, and continued to roll. The debate was furious; but at length it terminated. In spite
of its being declared that Louis Napoleon aspired to the empire, his admission was carried by
at least two-thirds of the Assembly." — Italy and the War of 1859, by Jllie de lMarglrittes
p. 83.




CHAPTER XX.
STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.
Address to the Electors. - Letter to the President of the Assembly. - Agitation in the Assembly.
-The Debate. —Louis Napoleon declines his Election. -Discontent of the People.Disorder in the Government. - Closing the Workshops. - Anecdote. - Terrible Excitement. - Dictatorship of Cavaignac. -The Four-Days' Battle.
HE streets resounded with the cries of" Vive Napoleon!" as the
tidings spread that the Assembly had respected the sovereignty
of the people, and had voted his admission. Louis Napoleon
immediately wrote the following address to the electors who
had chosen him:"FELLOW-CITIZENS, -  Your votes fill me with gratitude.  This mark of
sympathy, the more flattering as I had not solicited it, comes to find me
regretting my inactivity at a time when our country has need of the united
efforts of all her children to extricate her fiom  her difficult position.  Your
confidence imposes duties upon me which I shall know how to fulfil.  Our
interests, our wishes, our sentiments, are the same.  A Parisian by birth, now
a representative of the people, I shall unite my efforts to those of my colleagues to re-establish order, credit, and industry; to assure external peace; to
consolidate democratic institutions; and to conciliate interests which are seemingly hostile, because they are mutually suspicious, and clash against each
other, instead of marching towards one common goal, - the prosperity and
greatness of the country.
"The people are fiee since the 24th of February.  They can now obtain
every thing without having recourse to brute violence.  Let us, then, rally
around the altar of our country, under the flag of the Republic; and let us
present to the world the grand spectacle of a people regenerating itself
without fury, without civil war, without anarchy.
"Receive, my dear fellow-citizens, the assurance of my devotion and of
my sympathies.                            " Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
Under the same date of London, June 14, 1848, he wrote as follows to the
President of the Assembly: —
"MONsIEUR  IJE PRESIDENT, — I was setting out for my post when I
learned that my election was made the pretext for deplorable troubles and
334




STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.                        335
fatal mistakes. I have not sought the honor of being a representative of the
people, because I was aware of the injurious suspicions which rested upon
me. Still less did I seek for power.  If the people impose duties upon me,
I shall know how to fulfil them.
"But I disavow all those who represent me as having ambitious intentions,
which I have not.  My name is a symbol of order, of nationality, of glory;
and it would be with the deepest grief that I should behold it serving to
augment the troubles and agitations of my country.  To avoid such a
misfortune, I prefer to remain in exile. I am ready to sacrifice every thing
for the happiness of France.
"Have the goodness, Mr. President, to communicate this letter to the
Assembly. I enclose you a copy of my letter of thanks to the electors.
Receive the assurance of my distinguished sentiments.
"Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
The reading of this letter created in the Assembly the most violent
tempest. We give the scene which ensued as described by the pen of
P. Vesinier:   "Agitation, indignation, and wrath were manifested in the
most stormy manner against the author.  General Cavaignac, minister of
war, indignant, ascended the tribune in the midst of the greatest,tumult, and
cried out, 
"'The emotion which agitates me permits me only to remark, that, in the
paper which has just been communicated to you, the word " republic " is not
pronounced. I submit that fact to the meditations of the entire Assembly.'
(Profound agitation.)
"The Assembly rose, and protested with cries of'Vive la Republique!'
M. de Lannac then rushed to the tribune, and exclaimed in the midst of universal emotion,"'It is a declaration of war which that imprudent young man makes
against the Republic.'  (Interruptions.' Yes, yes!'' No!' _Reclanmations.)
"Citizens Antony Thouret, Baune, and David d'Angers, called the attention
of the Assembly to this strange phrase,'If the people impose duties upon
me, I shall know how to fulfil them;' which words the president himself emphasized as he read them.'I propose to the Assembly,' said Citizen Antony
Ttouret,'a decree of accusation against Louis Bonaparte, and to declare
him a traitor to the country.' (' Yes, yes!')  Cries of' Vive la Republique!'
were now heard anew. The Assembly was greatly agitated.  In the midst
of the excitement, the president rose, and said,"' I have just received a menacing letter.  I order that the doors be closed,
that I may ascertain who is the author of this insolent letter.' After a moment's pause, during which the Assembly was greatly agitated, he added,'I
learn that this letter is from a miserable madman (fout). It is a pretended
pupil of the Polytechnic School who has signed this letter, and who has given
it to one of the attendants of the hall. Listen to its contents:
* P. Vesinier has written three volumes against Napoleon III., under the title of Nouveau
Cisar. He writes with malignity which is rarely equalled, vol. iii. p. 68.
I.




336                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON  III.
"*'" If youido not read the letter of thanks of Louis Bonaparte to the
electors, I will declare you a traitor to the country."
"'It is signed, Augustus Blum, vice-president of the  delegates of the
Luxembourg.'
"While the Assembly was a prey to this agitation, the popular masses which
surrounded it were not less excited, and raised numerous cries of' IDown with
the Representatives!  Vive Napoleon! Vive l'Empereur!'  A  large band
stationed near the Tuileries proposed to march upon the Assembly to overthrow it, and to proclaim Louis Bonaparte first consul.
"The storm," says P. Vesinier, " increased everywhere.  There was visible
that electricity whose rapid currents determine grand popular explosions, and
cause insurrections.  All the monarchical elements, Legitimacy, Orleanism,
Bonapartism, fermented in the Assembly and among the people, and prepared
the catastrophe which every one foresaw, which re-action provoked, which the
Republic, honest and moderate, allowed to organize, which sincere Republicans
deplored, and which the Socialists with ever-increasing anxiety saw  to be
approaching." 
In continuation of the description of the scene which was taking place in
the Assembly, Vesinier says that M. Jules Favre, who had contributed so
much to the admission of Louis Napoleon, was the first to confess his fault.' When I proposed," he said, "the admission of Citizen Louis Bonaparte,
I did not know the dispositions of thatprince in respect to the Republic.  I
demand  that the letter of Louis Bonaparte be sent to the keeper of the
seals."
General Clement Thomas, commander of the National Guard, then took
the tribune, and said, "I think it important that we should not leave this
place until we have adopted all needful measures of precaution.  To-morrow,
perhaps, you may have a battle.  It is necessary to declare every man a traitor
to his country who shall take up arms in the name of a despot."
To this strange appeal there was no response.  lM. Le Clerc then said, "I
propose that the firther consideration of this subject be* postponed until tomorrow.  I will answer for it that there will be no battle in the streets."  The
session was then adjourned.t
The next day, the 16th of June, the Assembly  again  met under great
excitement.  Just as they were on the point of resuming the discussion of
the previous day, the private secretary of Prince Louis Napoleon, M. Briffaut,
entered, having arrived fiom London, and placed in the hands of the president
another letter fiom the prince.  All listened in silence as it was read.  It was
as follows:
* L'Histoire du Nouveau Cesar, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Representant et Prdsident, par
P. Vesinier, p. 70.
t " The reading of this letter in that abominable legislative Babel, the Assembly, occasioned
a frightful commotion. An attempt was made to pass a vote of outlawry against the prince who
thus dared to write a letter to the Assembly, and never once name the word'republic.' There
is no knowing what the result might have been, had not the prince sent a letter with the utmost
haste from London, resigning his office as representative of the people." - The Public and Piivate History of Napoleon III., by Samuel M. Smtucker, LL.D.




STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.                       337
"LONDON, June 15, 1848.
"MONSIEUR LE PERSIDENT,    I was proud of having been elected representative of the people at Paris, and in three other departments.  This was,
in my eyes, an ample reparation for thirty years of exile and six years of
captivity. But the injurious suspicions which my election has excited, the
disorders of which it has been made the pretext, and the hostility of the
executive power, impose upon me the duty to decline an honor which is
supposed to have been obtained by intrigue.
"I desire the order and the permanence of a Republic, wise, grand, and
intelligent; and since, involuntarily, I favor disorder, I now place, not without extreme regret, my resignation in your hands.  I hope that soon tranquillity will return, and will permit me to re-enter France as the most simple
of her citizens, but also as one of the most devoted to the repose and the
prosperty of his country.
" Receive, &c.              "Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
This letter was received in silence. It was an unexpected movement; and
the enemies of Louis Napoleon scarcely knew how to meet it. The letter
was, however, placed in the hands of the minister of the interior, that he
might order a new election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
the prince.
Troubles were now rapidly thickening around the Assembly. There were
over one hundred thousand men enrolled in the national workshops, ready
for nmeutes and insurrections. There was but little work which the government could find for them  to do. They were idle, ragged, hungry, and clamorous for money. Intensely angry debates arose in the Assembly.  There
were various shades of Socialists and Communists in that body; and there
were others who were opposed to any plan of so re-organizing society as to
substitute in the place of individual labor large establishments created and
sustained by the government. We have not space here to give the animated
debate. The workmen in these national workshops, who were receiving but
the miserable pittance of a franc and a quarter (twenty-five cents) a lday, listened anxiously to the debate, and sent in their petitions and remonstrances.*
There was no harmony of counsel. Everywhere there was confusion and
dispute. The Executive Commission, divided in opinion, and unwilling to
assume the responsibility of any unpopular acts in face of the menaces of
the mob, threw  all the weight of affairs upon the Assembly. Lamartine,
whose poetic genius absorbed his practical wisdom, continued with the best
intentions to fatter all parties, to lavish promises which he was unable to
keep,,and to announce everyday new measures which he did not venture to
present to the Assembly, knowing that they would be rejected.  The government had also enrolled almost the whole population in the National Guard;
and the officers of this formidable military body were generally the prominent men in the workshops.t
* P. Vesinier, vol. iii. p. 96.
t L'Histoire do Napol6on III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 158.
43




338                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
On the 20th of June, a committee, of which M. Leon Faucher was chairman, reported to the Assembly that there were one hundred and twenty
thousand workmen who were then paid daily in the national workshops,
and that fifty thousand more were demanding to be admitted.  Victor IIugo
the novelist took the tribune, and said, -
"The national workshops were necessary when they were first established;
but it is now high time to remedy an evil of which the least inconvenience
is to squander uselessly the resources of the Republic. What have they
produced in the course of four months?  Nothing.  They have deprived the
hardy sons of toil of employment, given them  a distaste for labor, and
demoralized them to such a, degree, that they are no longer ashamed to beg
on the streets.  The monarchy has its idlers; the republic has its vagabonds.
God forbid that the enemies of the country should succeed in converting the
Parisian workmen, formerly so virtuous, into lazzaroni or pretorians! "
At length, it was tremblingly decreed that the workshops should be closed.
All the young men in them  between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five
were to be enrolled in the army.  All the other workmen who had flocked
into Paris from the country were to be sent back to their districts with their
wives and their children- by force if they would not go voluntarily.  Some
of these were to be employed in draining marshes and in cultivating wild
lands.  Those who were too young or too feeble to become soldiers, or to
work in the marshes, were to receive in their own parishes a pittance of
charity.t
The announcement of this decree created terrible excitement in the streets
of Paris.  The whole city was in commotion; and, as usual, preparations
were made for a gigantic ldemonstration, which would, perhaps, overawe the
Assembly, and force a retraction; or which might overthrow the government,
and introduce a new r6egime which would reconstruct the whole of France
upon the socialistic system of labor.
Daniel Stern, in his graphic "Histoire de la Revolution de 1848,"c gives the
following account of an interview  of a delegation of' workmen, led by
M. Pujol, with M. Marie, a member of the Executive Commission: --
"Citizen," said Pujol to M. Marie, " before the revolution of February ""Pardon," interrupted M. Marie, "you begin very far back. Remember that
I have no time to lose."
"Your time is not yours, citizen," said Pujol: "it belongs to the people of
whoml you are a representative."
" Citizen Pujol," said M. Marie with a threatening gesture, " we have
known you for a long time.  We have our eye upon you. This is not the
first time that we have met. You parleyed with me on the 15th of May,
after having, among the first, broken down the railing of the Assembly."
"Be it so," said Pujol; "but know, that, on the day in which I devoted
myself to the liberties of the people, I resolved never to recoil before any
menace.  You threaten me uselessly."
M. Marie, then turning to one of the delegates who accompanied Pujol,
said to him, -
* Monitcur, June 21, 1848.       f P. Vesinier, vol. iii. p. 102.




STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.                     339
"I cannot recognize as an organ of the people a man who has taken part
in the insurrection of the 15th of May.  You may speak. Unfold your
griefs. I will listen to you."
"No one shall speak here until I have spoken," Pujol added, extending
his arm between M. Marie and the delegates.
"No, no! " his companions exclaimed, assenting.
"Are you, then, the slaves of this man?" inquired M. Marie with indignation.
A  prolonged murmur was the reponse to these words; and Pujol exclaimed, "You insult the delegates of the people."
"Do you know," said M. Marie to him, seizing him  by the arm, "that
you speak to a member of the Executive Commission?"
"I know it," replied Pujol, disengaging his arm.  "But I also know that
you owe me respect; for, if you are a member of the Executive Commission,
I am myself a delegate of the people."
At that moment, several officers who were in the adjoining hall, hearing
the noise, entered, and in silence surrounded the delegates.
"Since you will not hear me," said Pajol to M. Marie as the officers
entered, "we will retire."
"Since you are here, speak," said M. Marie.
"Citizen representative," replied Pujol with much assurance, "before
the revolution of February, the people were in subjection to the deadly
influence of capital. To rescue themselves from servitude to their masters,
they erected barricades, and did not lay aside their arms until after they
had proclaimed the Republic, democratic and social, which ought forever to
rescue them  from  servitude.  To-day, these workmen perceive that they
have been shamefully deceived.  We wish to' say to you that they are
ready to make every sacrifice, even that of life, to maintain their liberties."
"I understand you," said M. Marie. "Very well, listen: if the workmen
refuse to leave Paris for the provinces, we will compel them by force; by
force, - do you understand?"
",By force," replied Pujol. "Very well: now we know that which we
wished to know."
"Ah! " responded Marie, " and what did you wish to know?"
"That the Executive  Commission," said Pujol, " has never sincerely
desired the orgcnization of labor. Adieu, citizen."
After his interview with M. Marie, Citizen Pujol, followed by the other
delegates, descended to the street, where several thousand workmen were
awaiting his return. Surrounded by the anxious crowd, he repaired to the
Place St. Sulpice; and, mounting upon the fountain, he recounted to them
very precisely his interview with MI. Marie. His companions verified the
accuracy of his statement. The narrative excited the greatest indignation.
The threat to employ force.to drive the workmen out of Paris roused murmurs deep and defiant.  Pujol dismissed the throng, requesting them to
meet him at six o'clock in the evening at the Place du Pantheon.
At six o'clock in the evening of Thursday, June 22, seven or eight
thousand men were assembled at the Pantheon.  Pujol soon made his
appearance, as usutl, in a workman's blouse, and thus addressed them: —




340                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"Citizens, you are about to give to France an example of your patriotism
and of your courage. Let us unite; and let the cry ring in the ears of our
persecutors,' Work and Bread!' If they are deaf to the voice of the people,
woe to them! Forward! "
The workmen, as by instinct, formed themselves into a column. Pujol led
them. They followed him in long procession down the Rue St. Jacques,
crossed the Seine, their numbers rapidly increasing as they advanced, and,
after traversing several streets, returned at eight o'clock to the Pantheon.
The crowd was now great, and many women had joined it. Pujol dismissed
them for the night with the following words:"My fiiends, I declare in the name of true Republicans that you have
merited well of your country. You have in 1830 and in 1848 shed your
blood to conquer your rights. You know how to make your rights respected.
But to-day you are betrayed. Treason must be extinguished in the blood of
our enemies.  It shall be so extinguished, I swear to you. Meet here again
to-morrow, at six o'clock in the morning." *
The crowd then silently dispersed. Early the next morning, about eight
thousand men were re-assembled upon the Place of the Pantheon, impatiently
awaiting the coming of Pujol. He, soon appeared, and, after contemplating
for a time the agitated mass, made a sign that he wished to speak. All
listened.
"Citizens, you have been faithful to my call. I thank you. You are to-day
the men of yesterday. Follow me."
The immense mass, under skilful guidance, immediately organized itself
in simple military order in obedience to their sagacious chieftain. They
marched with unfurled banners along the streets, increasing in numbers as
they'moved, until they reached the Place of the Bastille. There they surrounded the magnificent column of July.  Pujol mounted the pedestal.
"Heads uncovered!" he cried. Every hat was removed.
"Citizens," he added, " you are upon the tomb of the first martyrs of liberty.
Fall upon your knees!"  All obeyed, and silence as of the sepulchre reigned.
For a moment, Pujol surveyed the vast expanse of bowed heads before him;
and then turning his eyes to the base of the column, and addressing the dead
whose bones were mouldering there, he exclaimed in solemn tones, which
penetrated every ear and moved every heart, 
"Heroes of the Bastille! the heroes of the barricades have come to prostrate themselves at the foot of the column erected to your immortality. Like
you, they have made a revolution at the price of their blood; but their blood
has been fruitless. The revolution is to recommence.
"Friends, he continued," turning his eyes to the kneeling multitude, "our
cause is that of our fathers. They bore inscribed upon their banners these
words, -' Liberty, or Death.' Friends, repeat it,'Liberty, or Death.'"
Every voice uttered the spirited words with intensity which seemed to be
inspired by the deepest emotion. A young girl stepped forward, and presented him with a bouquet. He attached it to the staff of a flag. Then the
* L'Histoire de la Revolution de 1848, par Daniel Stern.




STORMY  DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.                       341
dictator, whose commands were so implicitly obeyed, ordered the march to
be resumed. He was dressed in a workman's blouse, and again took the
lead. The immense procession followed in solid column, — not a drunken,
riotous band, but a vast gathering of fathers and mothers, sons and daughters,
who were without work and without bread, who saw starvation staring them
in the face, and who had been deluded into the belief that it was the duty of
the government to provide them with employment and support. Silently
and solemnly the multitude moved on. Leaders all in blouses, and whose
authority was implicitly recognized by the multitude, guided every movement. The column reached the Boulevard, at the height of the Rue St.
Denis. Here there was a halt. The order was then given, "Aux Armes!
aux Barricades!"  All were immediately at work.  Skilful military engineers
traced out the lines of the barricades.  There was no hurry; there was
apparently no fear of interruption. Every thing was conducted with order
and precision. The commanders of the divisions in the national workshops
had many of them been generals in the army. Nearly all the workmen had
been well-drilled soldiers. Thus it was not a brainless mob which was
now sweeping the streets, but a disciplined army preparing for a revolution.
The officers were distinguished by a band of gold lace upon their caps.
They all wore blouses. A handkerchief tied around the waist served for a
girdle.
Barricades rose like magic. The tricolor flag floated over them.  Some
bore the device, "Labor, or Death."  Arms and ammunition were brought in
great quantities.  These barricades were constructed in various parts of the
city, on both sides of the river; and were scientifically connected, so as to
afford mutual support. Alison says,"The number of barricades had risen to the enormous and almost incredible figure of three thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, nearly all of
which were stoutly defended.  The great strongholds of the insurgents were
in the Clos St. Lazaire and the Faubourg St. Antoine; each of which was
defended by gigantic barricades constructed of stones, having all the solidity
of regular fortifications, and held by the most determined and fanatical
bands."
Nearly the whole population, men, women, and children, seemed to be
employed upon these barricades, which spread over about one-half of the city.
The government was apparently paralyzed. It knew not what to do. It had
no armed force upon which it could rely. General Cavaignac, then minister
at war, had but about twenty thousand men at his disposal, two thousand of
whom were cavalry. The genedrale was beat in the streets; but the National
Guard very feebly responded to the call. Many of the Guard, as well as
many members of the Guard Mobile, were seen in the ranks of the insurgents.
Cavaignac sent telegraphic despatches to all the garrisons w-lich were within
a few days' march of the scene of action, to forward their troops as rapidly as
possible to Paris. Tie waited patiently for their arrival, knowing well, that in
a conflict with the insurgents in the narrow streets of the metropolis, where
every house was a stone fortress, fiom whose windows even the women and
the children could take deliberate aim, the small force he had at his command




342'LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
would be speedily annihilated.  Perhaps he acted wisely.'But he has been
severely condemned for allowing the insurrection to grow to such mammoth
proportions before he assailed it with his concentrated  army, and swept it
away with a deluge of blood.  Lamartine sustained the policy of Cavaignac.
Addressing the other members of the Provisional Government, he said, 
"Do not deceive yourselves.  We do not advance. to a conflict with an
ezeute, but to a pitched battle with a confederacy of great factions.  If the
Republic is to be saved, it must have arms in its hands during the first years
of its existence; and its forces should be disposed, not only here, but over
the whole surface of the empire, in preparation for great wars, not only in
the  quarters of Paris, but in the  provinces, as in  the days of Cesar and
Pompey." *
The hours rolled on.  The insurgents were busy and uninterrupted.  Cavaignac was gathering in his hands the thunderbolts with which  he was to
demolish them.  As the troops came in on the 23d, he rapidly organized them
as for a regular campaign.  The army was divided into four columns, under
Generals Lamoriciere, Duvivier, Damesne, and Bedeau.  The insurgents were
also mainly concentrated at four commanding points, and were guided in all
their plans for attack and defence by men of experience and skill.t
The battle, or rather campaign, commenced on the evening of the 23d.  A
body of the National Guard attacked and took by storm  the barricade at the
Porte St. Martin.  Flushed by success, they marched along the Boulevard to
the Porte St. Denis.  Here  the resistance was desperate.  Several women
fought upon the barrier, and fell pierced  by balls.  The insurgents were,
however, oyerpowered, and the post was taken; but the insurgents rallied,
Lamartine, vol. ii. p. 473.
The views of the Socialists in regard to this conflict are presented as follows by P. Vesinier: " We will not here recount all the horrors of that sublime and heroic struggle of June,
1848, the most frightful and the most legitimate of insurrections, the most formidable and the
most just of social wars; which was brought on by the incapacity of the Provisional Government; the hlostility and the arbitrariness of the Executive Commission; inflamed by all the parties; provoked by the violent measures of M. Trdlat, minister of public works; by the imprudent
and menacing responses of M. MIarie; by the proposition of M. Fallaux, threatening the immediate dissolution of the national workshops, -no, we will not describe that strife which was
accepted in the last extremity by the populace, reduced to despair through the prospect of dying
by famine, and which was taken advantage of by those who wished to attain to power by wading
throughl the blood of the people, over piles of the dead, and through the smoking ruins of the
Republic." - Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Representant et President, par P. Teisinier, p. 115.
i "Civilians —of whom the great body of the Assembly was composed —could not be
brought to understand why the insurrection had been allowed to acquire such a head before it
was seriously attacked; and indignantly asked where were the twenty thousand regular troops
at his (Cavaignac's) disposal, when the half of Paris was occupied by the insurgents, and barricades in every direction were erected on the evening of the 23d of June. His assailants went
so far as to reproach him with being actuated with ambitious motives on that occasion, and
involving the capital in bloodshed and massacre in order to secure the conferring of dictatorial
power upon himself." - Alison, vol. viii. p. 359.
Such a charge merited the indignant reply of the old soldier, " Speak out boldly; for the general is before you. If you wish to denounce him as a mere ambitious villain, a traitor who has
cut a path to the dictatorship for himself across blood and ruins, speak now. Let there be no
false delicacy, no equivocation. It is not my ability which is at issue, but my honor."-c Idem,




STORMY DEBATES AND  INSURRECTIONS.                              343
and before midnight, fighting with reckless ferocity, recaptured both of the
barriers.  Affairs now looked very gloomy.  On the morning of Saturday, the
24th, the Assembly met.  From all quarters, tidings were brought to them of
the vast number of the insurgents, of their determination, and of the strength
of their positions.  It was well known that they had their partisans in the
Assembly.
Vesinier, the ardent advocate of a republic founded on socialistic principles,
and who writes in cordial sympathy with the insurgents, says, " The provocation and the cruelty came fi'om the men in power; from  those upon whom
their official position, their mission, their intelligence, their character, and
their education, imposed the greatest caution and the most circumspect moderation.  The torrents of blood which flowed in the fratricidal strife of June,
1848, must fall upon the heads of these provocators.  Impartial history should
stamp upon the brows of these men an indelible stigma of reprobation and
infamy.  Let posterity execrate their memory from generation to generation,
and pursue them with the boding cry,' Cains, what have you done wvith your
brothers?'"'   The Executive Commission, powerless and in consternation,
resigned;  and  the Assembly, as its only resource in the emergency, appointed General Cavaignac dictator, investing him  with uncontrolled authority.t
The most vigorous measures were promptly  adopted by this energetic
military chief.  His headquarters were at the H6tel de Ville.  The insurgents
were then preparing to attack that stronghold.  All the streets leading to it
swarmed with armed men.  Barricades were erected across the narrow thoroughfares to prevent the advance of cavalry, from  behind which streamed a
deadly fire of musketry.  The windows of the houses were filled with tirailleurs.  The battle was long, desperate, bloody.  Hour after hour it raged, and
the gutters ran  red with  blood.  The  insurgents were, however, slowly
repelled.  As they lost one barricade, they fell back to  another.  The fire
from  the windows upon the troops was incessant and deadly.  Cavaignac
brought up mortars, and threw bombs over the barricades and into the houses.
Many buildings were set o0  fire; and still they fought, brother against
brother, amidst flame and smoke and blood and death.  Each party believed
that it was contending for the right.  Alas for man!  Though the troops
gradually gained upon their foes, there were no decisive results.
In the mean time, another fearful strife was raging upon the left bank of the
* P. Vesinier, tom. iii. p. 111.
t "The inefficiency of the Executive Commission, and the distrust they had inspired in the
National Guard, having become painfully conspicuous, a motion was made, at noon on the 24th,
to confer absolute power on a dictator; and General Cavaignac was suggested, and approved
almost unanimously. Some hesitation having been expressed as to the mode of doing this, and
the authority to be conferred, M1. Bastide cut the discussion short with these words' If you
hesitate, in an hour the Hotel de Ville may be taken.'  The appointment was immediately
passed by acclamation; and such was the confidence which it inspired, that, in two hours after
it was known, twenty thousand additional men appeared in the ranks of the National Guard.
The Executive Commission, finding themselves thus superseded, resigned their appointments;
and absolute, uncontrolled authority was vested in the dictator." -Alison's History of rEurope,
vol. viii. p. 347.




344                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Seine, near the Jardin des Plantes.  General Lamoriciere was also engaged,
at the distance of a mile or more from that spot, in the Rue St. Maur. The
insurgents had here a barricade of such magnitude, and so defended by musketeers in and upon the houses, that for a long time it repelled all the attacks
which could be brought against it.  A piece of artillery was brought up: in
a few minutes, every man who attempted to work the gun was shot down by
the fire from the windows. Another gun was advanced, and with tlhe same
result. Bombs were then thrown in great numbers; and, while they were
exploding, a charge was made, and the barricade was carried with fearfull carnage. The exasperation was now so great, that there was no mercy shown on
either side. One shudders in reading the account of the inhumianities which
were perpetrated, and shrinks from recording them.
But this desperate valor, this carnage and misery, all seemed to avail nothing
on either side. The loss was about equal, the success balanced: the result
remained uncertain. A large body of the insurgents had taken possession of
the Pantheon and its surroundings. This majestic edifice furnished a fortress
from'which resolute and well-armed men could not easily be driven. General
Damesne pushed forward his heavy guns, and, after an hour's vigorous bombardment, battered a breach through its massive walls.  As the troops rushed
in, the insurgents fled, and rallied again behind a barricade in the Rue Clovis.
All efforts to drive them from this position failed.  Thus ended this sanguinary
day. The ins-urgents often regained one hour what they had lost in the preceding.
One barricade in the Rue Rochechourt was twelve feet high, built of solid
masonry, and flanked by another of nearly equal elevation at the corner of the
Rue Faubourg Poissoniere. To General Lamoriciere was assigned the task of
carrying this barrier. The battle raged here fearfully. Late in the eveningl,
when the ground was covered with the slain, the insurgents sullenly retired
from the barricade, which had then been breached by heavy guns; and they
left the post in the hands of their assailants.
The night was terrible.  Consternation, misery, and death held high carnival in the wretched metropolis. The opposing troops, not venturing' to abandon the posts which they held, hungry, thirsty, and overpowered with fatigue,
sank cown to sleep, facing and almost touching each other.  The wounded
were borne away to places of refuge.  The dead were hurried to their burial.
Active preparations were made on both sides for the resumption of the conflict
on the morrow.
Early in the morning of Sunday the 25th, the battle was commenced anew
at all points with accumulated ferocity and horror. General Brea, at the barrier of Fontainebleau, humanely hoping to stop the effusion of blood, decided
to send a flag of truce to the insurgents, to persuade them, if possible, to come
to some accommodation. Aware of the ferocity which the conflict had assumed,
he magnanimously went with the flag himself, accompanied by Capt. Mauguin,
his aide-de-camp. As soon as they were received within the lines of the insurgents, they were seized, and threatened with instant death unless General Brea
would send a written order to his troops to surrender their arms and ammunition, He refused. After being overwhelmed with insults, he was shot lown,




STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.                         345
and left for dead. His aide was also put to death; and his body was so shockingly mutilated, that the human form could scarcely be recognized.
After waiting some time for the return of the general, Colonel Thomas, who
was the second in command, ascertained his fate.  The soldiers, infuriated by this
treachery, made a charge which nothing could resist. At the point of the bayonet, they carried seven successive barricades.  General Brea was found still
breathing, though both arms and both legs had been cut off. Life was soon
extinct.  He was one of the noblest and most genial of men; as gentle and
humane as he was energetic and brave.  The officiating priest at his funeral
said in truthful eulogy,"The character of General Brea was less that of a military chief than of a
Christian.  The warrior was forgotten in the gentleness of his disposition, the
warmth of his heart, the sincerity of his love, the glow of his charity." 
Neither soldiers nor insurgents now, with a few exceptional cases, showed
any mercy to each other.  War has never witnessed more appalling deedsi of
cruelty.  The frightful narrative would fill a volume. All the day, the battle
raged with no abatement.  On the whole, the advantage was with the regular
troops: still, the insurgents remained in immense strength in the Faubourg
St. Antoine.  Their position here was strongly intrenched.  The salvation of
the government depended upon wresting this stronghold fiom their grasp.
With much military skill, the insurgents had closed every entrance to their
extensive fortress by barricades of enormous height and thickness, and so constructed as to be proof against any bombardment except that of the heaviest
siege-artillery. Armed men were also stationed at all the Vwindows of the stone
houses which lined the streets, ready to throw their bullets with deliberate aim,
and like the fall of hail, upon any foe who should appear.
Two columns marched fiom the Hotel de Ville upon the perilous enterprise.
One followed along the quays on the banks of the river; while the other moved
directly, by the Rue St. Antoine, on the Place of the Bastille. As soon as the
heads of these columns came within reach of the balls and bullets of the insurgents, they encountered the most desperate resistance.  The party advancing
by the Rue St. Antoine brought up artillery, and p:layed at point-blank range
upon the first barricade.  The fire from the windows was so accurate and deadly,
that tivce every man at the guns was shot down.  The bombardment of two
hours produced no perceptible effect upon the rampart. It was then carried
by a charge. Three other barricades were thus successively taken, though
with great loss on both sides.  The fifth barricade was of solid masonry constructed of square blocks of stone.  It was surmounted with embrasures like a
regular fortification. For two hours, it resisted bombardment and charges.
The pavements were covered with the slain. At length, the barricadte was
carried by the impetuous valor of the troops. The other column, advancing by
the quays, encountered even more stubborn resistance; and the path along
which they forced their way was stilewed with a still more dreadful carnage.
The troops had at length effected a junction at the Place of the Bastille, where
they prepared for a united attack upon the Faubourg St. Antoine.  It was now
* Moniteur, June 26, 1848.
44




346                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
evening.  The following interesting incident we give from the graphic pen of
Alison -
"Ere the attack commenced, a sublime instance of Christian heroism  and
devotion occurred, which shines forth like a heavenly glory in the midst of
these terrible scenes of carnage.  AMonseigneur Affre, Archbishop of Paris, horror-struck with the slaughter which for three days had been going on without
intermission, resolved to effect a reconciliation between the contending parties,
or perish in the attempt. Having obtained leave from General Cavaignac to
repair to the headquarters of the insurgents, he set out, dressed in lls pontifSca.l robes, having the cross in his hand, accompanied by two vicars (also in full
canonicals) and three intrepid members of the Assembly. Deeply affected by
this courageous act, which they well knew was almost certain death, the people,
as he walked through the streets, fell on their knees, and besought him  to
desist; but he persisted, saying,'It is any duty.  A good shepherd gives his
life for the sheep.'
"At seven in the evening, he arrived in the Place of the Bastille, where the
fire was extremely warm  on both sides.  It ceased on either side at the
august spectacle; and the archbishop, bearing the cross aloft, advanced with
his two vicars to the foot of the barricade.  A single attendant, bearing aloft
a green branch, the emblem  of peace, preceded the prelate.  The soldiers,
seeing him conle so close to those who had so often slain the bearers of flags
of truce, approached, in order to be able to give succor in case of need.
The insurgents, on their side, descended the barricade; and the redoubtable
combatants stood close to each other, exchanging looks of defiance.
"Suddenly, at this moment, a shot was heard.  Instantly the cry arose,'Treason, treason!' and the combatants, retreating on either side, began to
exchange shots with as much fury as ever.  Undismayed by the storm  of
balls which immediately flew over his head from  both quarters, the prelate
advanced slowly, attended by his vicars, to the summit of the barricade.
One of them had his hat pierced by three balls when ascending; but the
archbishop himsel, almost by a miracle, escaped while on the top.  le had
descended three steps on the other side, when he was pierced through the
loins by a shot from  a window. The insurgents, horror-struck, approached
him when he fell; stanched the wound, which at once was seen to be mortal;
and carried him to the neighboring hospital of Quatre Vingts.  When told
that he had only a few moments to live, lie said,' God be praised; and may
he accept my life as an expiation for my omissions during my episcopacy,
and as an offering for the salvation of this misguided people!' and with
these words he expired." *
The insurgents now sent proposals to General Cavaignac, that they would
capitulate on condition of an absolute and  unqualified  amnesty.   The
dictator demanded  unconditional surrender.   This was refused.  Niight
brought a cessation of the conflict, and enabled both parties to gather all
their strength for the renewal of the strife on the morrow. At daybreak on
Monday morning, the 26th, every man was at his post with unabated deter* Alison, vol. viii. p. 350.




STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.                           347
minati6n; and the tempest of war again burst forth with  all its horrors.
Ere long, the insurgents, to their great alarm, heard a loud cannonade in
their rear, which every moment drew  nearer.  General Lamoriciere had
forced his way through the Faubourg du Temple, and was advancing resistlessly upon his foes from  an unexpected and upon an unprotected  quarter.
General Cavaignac poured in upon the foe an immense shower of bombs;
and soon the flames of a wasting conflagration burst forth.  The horrors of
war had now reached their culminating point.  In the midst of the slmoke
and the flame, the roar of artillery, the rattle of musketry, the bursting of
shells, while the dying and the dead strewed the streets, the troops, with
loud outcries, in three columns rushed upon their foes, now driven into a
narrow space.  The advance was made along the Rue St. Antoine, the Rue
de Charenton, and the Rue de la Roquette.  There was one loud, long wail,
amidst convulsive struggles, and the insurrection was silent and motionless
in death.
It is impossible to ascertain with accuracy the loss on either side.  In the
numbers engaged, the parties were nol very unequally divided, as it is estimated that there were between forty and fifty thousand arrayed beneath
each of the hostile banners.*   The fight lasted four days.  Nearly four
thousand barricades were stormed.  Ten thousand bodies of the slain were
recognized and buried.  It is estimated that nearly as many more were
thrown by the insurgents into the Seine.  At the close of the conflict,
nearly fifteen thousand prisoners were taken, who were crowded almost to
suffocation in all the places of confinement in Paris.  Three thousand of
these unhappy creatures, the victims of misfortune and delusion rather than
of intentional crime, died of jail-fever.  The government was greatly perplexed what to do with the vast multitude who encumbered their hands.t
"The Assembly divided the prisoners into  two classes.  For the first,
who were most guilty, deportation to Cayenne or one of the other colonies
was at once adjudged.  The second were condemned to trcnsportcation;
which with them meant detention in the hulks, or in some maritime fortress
of the Republic.  Great numbers were sent to Belle-Isle and to the gloomy
dungeons of St. Michael on the coast of Normandy.  This terrible strife cost
France more lives than any of the battles of the empire.  The number of
generals who perished in it, or from  the wounds which they had received,
exceeded even those cut off at Borolino or Waterloo." 
We have no heart to describe the ferocity, the fiend-like cruelty, exhibited
by both parties in the exasperation of this bloody, fratricidal strife.  The
* Alison, vol. viii. p. 350.
" This was not an ordinary e6meute. The. uniformity of the attack, the rapid development
which it assumed, every thing, proved it. It was a veritable battle which the Radical Republic
(la republique extremle) waged against the Conservative Republic (la irplblhque mocdlree): in fine,
the Assembly was successively informed that the insurrection numbered forty thousand men;
that they had munitions, chiefs, generals, and a plan, which, in its strategic aspects, was wanting neither in boldness nor sagacity." - Histoire politique et polulaire da Prince Louis Napoleon,
par Emile Marco de Saint-Hilaire.
$ Alison's History of Europe, vol. viii. p. 351.




348                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
revolting narrative would but shock  the sensibilities of our readers. But,
in those awful hours, some pleasing incidents occurred which are worthy of
record.
The Marquis de la Forte, a man of majestic stature, was serving as a private
iu the National Guard.  By his side stood a short, slender, fragile boy, a
member of the Garde Mobile.  They were in front of a barricade, waiting
the order to take it by storm.  The boy had already attracted much attention
by his heroism.  A red flag floated defiantly from the top of the barricade.
"Great National Guard," said the little fellow, "shall we two take that
flag? "   "With all my heart," replied the marquis; and the  set out togeteer,
on the fall run, to climb the barricade.  They had clambered up about onethird of the pile, when the boy fell, pierced by a bullet through the leg.
"Alas! " he exclaimed, " great National Guard, I shall have no hand in the
taking of that flag."
"But you shall, though, little Garde Mobile," replied the generous marquis.
With these words, lhe caught up the boy under his left arm, and making his
way with his sword in his right, amidst a storm  of bullets, got so near the
summit of the barricade, that the boy was able to grasp the flag, which he
did, and waved it triumphantly over his head.  They then descended, the
marquis still carrying the wounded boy; and they reached their comrades in
safety.*
As, while this insurrection was raging in the streets of Paris, there was a
bloody revolt at Marseilles inspired by the same cause, and great agitation at
Rouen and Bordeaux, the National Assembly unanimously voted the continuance of the dictatorship to General Cavaignac, and prolonged the state
of siege in the metropolis.
The concourse of troops was so immense, that it was said that so many
troops had not appeared in the capital since it was invaded by the allied
armlies in  1815.  "Supported by this force," says Alison, "the  reality of
military government-  the only one practicable in the circumstances -  was
soon brought home to  the inhabitants.  The dictatorship was formally bestowed on General Cavaignac, with the title of President of the Council,
and the power to nominate his ministers.t  The powers of the dictator were
to last until a permanent president was elected either by the Assembly or
by the direct voice of the citizens." +
A committee was appointed on the 28th of June to investigate the causes
of the insurrection, and to report respecting the parties who were implicated.
It seemed to be proved that it was an effort made by the Socialist leaders to
get the control of the Republic.  MI. Proudhon could not deny that he was
* Lord Normandy: A Year of Revolution, vol. ii. p. 66.
t " The despotism of the dictator was an escape to France from the still more rigorous and
oppressive government with which they were threatened from the Socialists: for their principles
were, that property was the first and greatest of public robberies; and that'the only state of
society in which universal liberty was practicable was that of labor cnd families in common,
with the government for the sole director over all.' "- Alison, viii. 352, quoting from Proudhlon's
Conifessions cl'Xn R6Teoletionncire.
t Alison, vol. viii. p. 351.




STORMY DEBATES AND INSURRECTIONS.                          349
seen behind the barricades, though he excused himself by saying that he was
there "to admire the sublime horror of the cannonade."  Louis Blanc and
Caussidiere fled to London to avoid prosecution.*
The Assembly, under the protection of the dictatorship of General Cavaignac, engaged vigorously in forming a constitution. They voted, by a majority
of five hundred and twenty-nine to one hundred and forty, that Cavaignac
should continue to wield the dictatorial power until the discussions were terminated and the constitution was adopted.  The discussion commenced on the
2d of July, and continued until the 23d of October.
Notwithstanding Louis Napoleon had declined his election to the Assembly
by four departments, he was again chosen by the Department of Corsica. He
accordingly again sent a letter of resignation to the Assembly, dated London,
July 8, 1848. In this letter, he says, -
"Without renouncing the hope of one cay becoming the representative of
my country, I think it my duty to postpone my return to its bosom  until the
moment when my entrance into France cannot in any way serve as a pretext
to the enemies of the Republic. I wish my disinterestedness to prove the sincerity of my patriotism, and that those who accuse me of ambition may be
convinced of their error." t
The 17th of September was the time fixed for freshlelections in those departments which had not yet succeeded in choosing a representative.  The friends
of Louis Napoleon now urged him no longer to refuse to stand as a candidate.
In reply to a letter fiom General Piat upon this subject, he wrote from London
on the 28th of August,"You ask me, general, whether, in case of my being re-elected, I would accept
the office of representative of the people; and I unhesitatingly reply in the
affirmative.  Now that it has been proved beyond the possibility of doubt, that
my election in four departments, without including Corsica, was not the result
of any intrigue, and that I was innocent of all manifestations, all political
manoeuvres, I should believe myself wanting in my duty, did I not respond to
the summons of my fellow-citizens.
" My name can no longer be made the pretext for tumults and disorders.  I
long, therefore, to return to France, and take my seat beside those representatives of the people who wish to re-organize the Republic on a broad and solid
basis.  There is but one way of rendering the return of past governments
impossible; namely, by doing better than they did: since, as you know, general,
to replace a thing is the only means of really destroying it."
* "It is almost needless to add, that though active investigations were set on foot, and bitter
debates ensued in the Assembly when all was over, no Bonapartist influence was ever traceable
in the complicated plot. But Ledru Rollin was openly accused, and Louis Blanc only escaped
a warrant issued for his apprehension by his flying to England." -Life of Napoleon III.,
Emperor of the French, by Edward Roth, p. 363.
+ Early Life of Louis Napoleon, London, p. 176; also Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Representative and President, p. 262.




CHAPTER XXI.
REPRESENTATIVE  AND  PRESIDENT.
Louis Napoleon a Representative. - His Speech. - Attacks upon him. - Debate upon the Constitution. - Election by the People. - Prudence of Louis Napoleon. - Speeches in the Assembly. - Candidate for the Presidency. - His Popullarity with the Masses. - Address to the
Electors. - Triumphant Election.
5' N  the 17th of September, 1848, new  elections were held in the
five departments, each one of which had previously chosen Louis
Napoleon  as its  representative  in  the Assembly, burt lwhich
office he had declined.  Though he was still in London, it was
now  understood that he was willing to stand as a candidate.
He was immediately re-elected in each of these departments bly
increased majorities.  In Paris, he received 110,750 votes.  In the Department
of the Yonne, out of 108,077 voters, he received a majority of 42,056 votes.
The majorities were equally triumphant in the other departments.  It was
manifest that he was now  too strong for factious and arbitrary governmental
opposition.  Though the decree  for his arrest still remained unrecalled, he
arrived in Paris on the 24th, without assuming any incognito, and took lodgings in the Hotel de Rhin, on the Place Vendmc e.*
At two o'clock in the afternoon  of Sept. 26, Louis Napoleon, accompanied
by his two cousins, Napoleon  (son of Jerome) and Pierre  (son of Lucien),
entered the chamber of the National Assembly, and took his seat near his
friend and former tutor, M. Vieillard.  His entrance created intense excite* The emotions with which the enemies of Louis Napoleon regarded this new triumph may
be inferred froml the following expressions of the Socialist, P. Vcsinier: " These new successes
which his candidature obtained in many departments were not without causing the most lively
inquietude amnonog the Republicans; but, alas! they were compelled to submit to the consequences
of the blind and fatal prestige which the name of Napoleon exercised over the masses.  They
allowed themselves to be seduced by the glorious prestige of the name of Napoleon.  They placed
their hopes in the man whose name recalled to them the imperial legend which servile historians,
lying poets, the bell-ringers of praises, have for nearly half a century made to appear in their eyes
as a gauge of the prosperity, the happiness, and the glory of France.
"Louis Bonaparte,was for the people a brilliant unknown, having all the seductions of mystery; an oracle, which they invoked in their distress; a good spirit, whose aid they implored in
their misery, and from whom they expected every thing; who would lift them up from their
abasement, enfranchise them from their social servitude, and give them immortal glory and universal well-being." - Louis NVapoleoa Bon oaparte, Rcprescatcat et FPr6sident, par P. TVesiier, p. 273.
350




REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                         351
ment. His name had filled all France; yet few had seen him. French courtesy was for a time entirely at fault, swept away by the universal agitation.
There were whisperings along all the benches, accompanied by eager looks
towards the spot occupied by the prince. All in the galleries rose, and pressed
forward to catch a glimpse of the illustrious stranger. The excitement'and
movement were so general as to create a noise which drowned the voice of
nI. Barthe, who was then speaking at the tribune.  The president, M3. Marrast,
endeavored for some time, in vain, to restore silence. It was not until he
announced that he was about to present the verification of the last elections
that the Assembly came to order, and listened attentively; for this verification
related directly to the individual who had so greatly excited their curiosity.
M. Clement, reporter for the Department of the Yonne, announced that
Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, from one hundred and eight thousand and
seventy-seven voters, had obtained a majority of forty-two thousand and fiftysix votes, and that the operations had been regularly conducted. After a brief
debate, in which it was proposed that he should be provisionally admitted, his
full and unqualified admission was voted by a large majority. Louis Napoleon
then rose in his place tQ address the Assembly; but there was a general cry,
"To the tribune! - to the tribune! "  He was therefore constrained to leave his
seat, and to take his stand in the tribune, upon the platform.  He was of middle size, and appeared youthful. It was observed that an expression of melancholy, the result of a life of disappointment and bereavement, overspread his
features. His manners were, however, unembarrassed; and, in distinct and
deliberate utterance, he read the following declaration:"CITIZEN REPRESENTATIVES,- It is not permitted me to keep silence, after
the calumnies of which I have been the object. On the occasion of my first taking my seat among you, I feel it to be necessary frankly to avow the real sentiments and feelings by which I am and always have been animated.  After
thirty-three years of proscription and exile, I at last regain both my country,
and my rights as a citizen. The Republic has been the cause of this happiness.
Let the Republic, therefore, receive my oath of gratitude and devotion; and let
the generous compatriots by whose means I am now within these walls be certain that I shall strive to merit their suffrages by laboring with you for the
maintenance of tranquillity, - a country's first and greatest need, -and for
the development of those democratic institutions which the people have a
right to claim.
"Hitherto I have only been able to dedicate'to France the meditations of
captivity and exile. Now the same career is open to me as to yourselves.
Receive me into your ranks, my dear colleagues, with the same feelings of
affectionate confidence which I myself feel towards you. My conduct -always inspired by my duty, and animated with respect for the law- will prove,
in spite of those who have endeavored by traducing me to proscribe me again,
that no one here is more determined than I to devote himself to the defence
of order and to the consolidation of the Republic."
This discourse was received by some in fiigid silence; others shouted in
defiant tones, " Vive la Republique!"  The friends of the prince cheered him




352                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
warmly. It was very manifest that he was surrounded by enemies strong in
numbers and ability, and who were ever on the alert.  It was necessary for
him  to practise the greatest prudence and reserve. These qualities were
inherent in him, and their exercise cost him but little trouble.  The leaders
of the radical Republican party, and of the Bourbon and Orleanist 1)parties,
all dreaded him  alike; and even the leaclers of the moderate Republican
party feared him  as a rival candidate for the presidency of the Republic,
against whom they would contend in vain. Consequently, the leaders of all
the parties were ready to combine against him.
Thus he was the object of constant attacks in the Assembly, and from
hostile journals.  Strong in his popularity with the masses, he seemingly paid
no attention to these assaults. He declined taking any active part in the
debates, absenting himself from the Assembly save when some important
measure demanded his vote.  His absence was often angrily commented
upon. "And yet, when he did attend," it is said, "his presence, silent and
reserved, was felt to be a weight, as it were, on the debates; almost giving
them a character of personality." *
The debate upon the constitution was long, and was conducted on both
sides by the ablest men. Upon the all-important question, whether the legislature should consist of one General Assembly, or should be composed of two
bodies, as in England and America, the debate was very animated.  Lamartine, with his usual glow of eloquence,- and, may we be pardoned for saying,
with his usual want of practical sagacity? - advocated one Chamber.
"I have witnessed," said he, "the misfortunes and catastrophes which have
befallen a nation governed by one legislature; but I have seen the same
under a government resting on two; and I see no identity between the situation of the countries in which the latter form is established and that of our
country. The examples of Great Britain and America are not applicable.
Has France any aristocracy like England?  The considerations which led to
the adoption of a Senate in America are widely different from those which
have inspired the proposal for a second Chamber in this country. The Senate
thus represents the federal principle, which is the basis of their union, but
which is not so of a republic one and indivisible.
" How are the elections of the senators to be regulated?  Are they to be
chosen on account of their fortunes, or their age?  If so elected, would they
form an aristocracy in one sense of the word?  Would they not rather form
the representatives of the bankers?  They would not be the chevaliers of
the sword, but the chevaliers of the purse.  Menaced on all sides, society, as
at present, will for a long time be under the necessity of recurring to the protection of a dictator. In such a case, who is to elect him?  Is the choice to
be confided to the two Assemblies, almost certain, in that event, to be at variance with each other? or is it to be intrusted to the one, to the exclusion of
the other? "
"The project," said Odillon Barrot in rejoinder, "of establishing a single
Chamber, is one of the most insane, and fatal to democracy itself, which can
* Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 367.




REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                       353
enter into a human head. What is the cause of the universal uneasiness and
perturbation which prevail, and the general feeling in favor of a dictatorship?
It rests upon the opinion so often proved by experience, now generally admitted, that a democracy cannot regulate itself. All democracies have begun by
establishing one single legislative power; but experience soon taught them
that a balance was indispensable, and that a power responsible to none must
soon fall from its very weight if uncontrolled.  There is but one force in
France, - the democratic force. But does it follow fiom that circumstance
that that single force is to be altogether uncontrolled? Can democracy not
be tempered by democracy? and can we not discover in republican institutions
such a controlling power? During eighteen years, I have labored in vain to
consolidate this constitutional system  under the monarchy; but all those
efforts were rendered nugatory the moment Louis Philippe resolved to liberate himself from control, and to establish on the throne a system abhorred
by the country. What I failed to do to the monarchy, I now could wish to
render to the Republic. Pretenders are not to be feared. Democracy has no
enemy to fear but itself." *
The arguments of Lamartine prevailed. The Assembly, by a vote of five
hundred and thirty to two hundred and eighty-nine, decided in favor of one
Chamber. And now the question rose, how the President of the Republic
should be chosen. There was much diversity of opinion upon this point.
The two plans most earnestly debated were, whether the chief magistrate
should be chosen by the Assembly, or by a direct appeal to the people
through universal suffrage. Many earnestly advocated a choice by the Assembly. "Members," as De Tocqueville said, "had come to this sudden
change in their sentiments regarding universal suffrage, only from  fear of
seeing Louis Napoleon elected President of the Republic." t
"What a combination of qualities," said M. Leblond, "is required in a chief
magistrate at this time! -dignity to sustain the reputation of France abroad;
firmness, mingled with moderation, to restrain its passions within; the hand
which can at once protect liberty, and restrain its excesses; modesty and
disinterestedness, alike proof against the seductions and mortifications of
power.
" Can any thing be so insane, therefore, as to intrust the choice of such a
powerful and lasting magistrate, not to an Assembly whose members have
been selected for their eminence, and enlightened by their experience of public affairs, but to a huge body of general electors, the vast majority of whom
must necessarily be ignorant alike of the qualities required in a president, and
of those which distinguish the different candidates for that office?"
Lamartine supported a direct appeal to the people. It is perhaps ungenerously said of him, that he had so much confidence in his own popularity, that
he had no doubt that he would be the choice of the people if the election were
submitted to them.+ 
" If you desire," said he, " a President of the Republic, he must be named
* Moniteur, Sept. 28, 1848.  t Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 368.
X Alison, vol. viii. p. 356.
45




354                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
by the Republic.  Appointed by the Chamber, he would be never more than
its delegate.  Would he not, of necessity, be pledged to the majority which
elected him? -a majority, it may be, of only ten or twenty votes.  What a
phantom of authority would a president thus elected prove! What influence
could he have, either in asserting externally the dignity of France, or in
repressing within its internal factions?   Even supposing the people, impelled
by a general and irresistible  impulse, should fix their choice upon some
dangerous character, my decision would be the same.  The die is cast.  Let
God and the people declare the result.  We must leave something to Providence." *
The eloquent orator again carried his point.  By a great majority, it was
decided that the President of the Republic should be chosen by an appeal to
universal suffrage.f
The enemies of Louis Napoleon were very much disturbed by the vote of
the Assembly referring the choice of the president to the people.  "This
vote;" says P. Vesinier, "was a happy chance for Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
The numerous elections in which he had triumphed were a certain indication
of the success which awaited him  when the vote should be taken for the
presidency of the Republic.  Every sagacious and thoughtful politician fully
comprehended that. +  There still remained, however," continues Vesinier,
" one measure to be adopted to curb the ambition of Louis Napoleon, aild to
prevent his attaining  the presidency of the Republic.  Citizen Anthony
Thouret, seconded by M. de Ludre, proposed the following amendment: —
"No member of either of the families who have ever reigned over France
shall be competent to be elected either President or Vice-President of the
Republic."
This was on the 9th of October.  Louis Napoleon was present.  It was
obvious to the whole Assembly that this blow was aimed directly at him, as
much so as if he had been named in person.  With his accustomed quietude
and deliberation, he ascended the tribune.  Every eye was fixed upon him.
All listened, eager to catch his words.
" Citizen representatives," said he, "I have not risen to protest against
this proposed amendment.  I have found recompense enough in recovering
my rights as a citizen to prevent my now  cherishing any other ambition.
Neither am  I here for the purpose of exclaiming, in my own name, against
* Moniteur, Oct. 7, 1848.
t "In the final ditision on the subject, it was carried by a majority of three hundred and
ninety-one (the numbers being six hundred and two to two hundred and eleven), that the choice
should be referred to the people. This was equivalent to electing Louis Napoleon at once to
that high office, as it was perfectly understood that the great majority of the electors would
choose him for president." - Alison, vol. viii. p. 357.
t "Monsieur Lamartine on that day, by his baleful discourse, exercised a great influence
upon the majority of the Assembly, and contributed much to the vote which has decided that
the President of the Republic shall be chosen by the people. That which is inconceivable in the
conduct of M. Lamartine is, that all his life he has combated Bonapartism, and has often pointed
out its dangers." - Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Representant et President, par P. lVesinier, p. 294.
It seems to have been universally admitted, that, if the people were allowed to choose, Louis
Napoleon would be president.




REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                     355
the title of Pretender bestowed upon me. But it is in the name of three
hundred thousand electors, who have twice given me their suffrages, that I
disavow the terms which are so continually applied to me."
Short as was this speech, it was effective. The prince returned to his seat,
greeted with much applause.  His foes perceived that an attack of the
nature contemplated would probably give him only increased distinction
and popularity. M. Thouret satirically responded, 
"Citizen representatives, in presence of the three short words which you
have just heard, I comprehend the inutility of my amendment, and withdraw it." Still M. De Ludre urged the motion; but it was rejected by a large
majority. On the 11th of October, two days after this event, Louis Napoleon
had the pleasure of witnessing the repeal of the law by which his family had
been so long proscribed. The act was passed in the following words: —
"The sixth clause of the law of the 10th of April, 1832, relative to the
banishment of the Bonaparte family, is abrogated."
There was now another very insidious attempt made to ruin the reputation of the popular candidate, - an attack so bass as to excite general sympathy in behalf of one thus wantonly and unjustly assailed. It was extensively reported that Louis Napoleon and his friends were exciting the
populace to a new insurrection. The report became so general, and was so
sustained by agitations excited in the streets, that Louis Napoleon addressed
a private letter to M. Dufaure, minister of the interior, denying any participation or any sympathy in such lawless acts. At the same time, Prince
Napoleon, son of Jerome, inserted in several of the journals, under date
of Oct. 24, the following note:"Some well-informed persons having stated to the representative, Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte, that certain senseless individuals were laboring in the
dark to get up an enMeute in his name, with the evident intent of compromising
him in the eyes of men of order and of sincere Republicans, Louis Napoleon
has deemed it his duty to make M. Dufaure, minister of the interior, aware of
these reports. He has added, that he utterly repels all participation in acts so
utterly opposed to his political sentiments, and to the conduct which he has
pursued since the 24th of February."
This note gave rise to a very angry debate in the Assembly on the 25th.
Louis Napoleon was not present. The incessant assaults which were directed
against him led him to be frequently absent. His cousin, Prince Napoleon,
endeavored to speak in his defence. The Opposition attempted to cry him
down. The following is the report which was given in the journals of the
scene which ensued. As Prince Napoleon was ascending the tribune, some
one shouted out,"It is not your business to speak! The other must speak, - Louis Bonaparte."  Several members exclaimed, "He is absent."  Others vociferated,
"No, no; not you: the other."
For a quarter of an hour, Prince Napoleon struggled against these interruptions, amidst a scene of indescribable confusion, before he could be heard.
At last, silence being restored, he insisted that he had a right to speak, since
he was the author of the letter upon which they were commenting; and that




356                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the especial object of the letter was to prove that the Bonaparte family
never had any thing to do, and never would have any thing to do, with riots.
M. Clement Thomas then ascended the tribune, and assailed the absent
member in terms which led many to suppose that he wished to provoke him
to challenge to a duel.
"Gentlemen," said M. Thomas, "it is a failing of mine ever to wish to sift
things to the bottom. Perhaps this feature in my character will make its
appearance to-day. I must say that I am astonished, that, when a matter
personally concerning one member of this Assembly is brought before you,
it is another member who appears to answer for it."
A  Voice. "The other is absent."
Al. Thomas. "This is not the first time that I notice the absence of
representative Louis Bonaparte from this Assembly."
Several JMembers. " What is that to you?"
A Member. "This is scandalous."
X.'Thomas. "It is unnecessary for me to say that I speak here in no one's
name but my own.   Neither do I speak in behalf of any party in the
Assembly, or for the government. No one is responsible for my words: I
alone am responsible for them. Well, I repeat, that this is not the first time
that I remark the absence of M. Louis Bonaparte.
"And, when I say this, I know why I say it. You cannot deny that there
are certain members of this Assembly who are about to present themselves
to the country as candidates for very elevated and very important offices."
Here there arose another scene of great confusion.  There were loud
interruptions. Groups gathered in the passage to the tribune. The president
rang his bell, and called for order.  At length, silence was regained; and
Mi. Thomas added, -
"I say that several members of this Assembly are about to offer themselves
to the people. Well, it is not by seldom  attending your sittings, by abstaining from taking any part in your votes; it is not by avoiding to say from
whence we come, or whither we gd, or what we want, - that one can pretend
to gain the confidence of a great country like France. For my part, I distrust such tactics."
l;. Napoleon -Bonaparte. " Vote against them, then."
President Xicarrast.  "Monsieur Napoleon Bonaparte, if you interrupt
again, I shall call you to order."
Xl. Thomas. " Since M. Napoleon Bonaparte is so ready to answer for his
cousin, I will ask him if it is not true, that, at this very moment, agents are
canvassing the provinces for M. Louis Bonaparte?"
Several JMembers.  " Very well; and what of that?"
lM  Thomas. "I will ask him if it is not true, that in every department
they are presenting him to the least enlightened portion of the population?
And, if this be true, on what title does his cousin put forth his claims?"
l. Isambert. "On his title of citizen."
M. Napoleon Bonaparte.  "Are we here to discuss candidates for the
presidency? "
31M. Thomas. "M. Isambert tells me that every citizen has a right to




REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                        357
present himself to the suffrages of his country; but it seems to me that
pretensions of this nature should be supported by real titles."
A. Pierre Bonaparte.  "This is impertinent, sir!"
J.i Pietri.  "Totally unbecoming! Who made you judge of titles?". NXapoleon Bonaparte.  " We may be proscribed; but we must not be
insulted."
" M. Clement Thomas," says E. Roth, " seeing he has gone too far, leaves
the tribune amidst unmistakable marks of universal disapprobation. Perhaps
he wanted Louis Napoleon to send him a challenge."  "One would think,"
said a general on his way home after this scene, "that M. Clement Thomas
has sufficient confidence in his sword to rely upon it altogether for simplifying
the presidential election."
The next morning, Louis Napoleon repaired to the Assembly. After the
reading of the minutes, he ascended the tribune, and said,"The unpleasant incidents which occurred here yesterday relating to me
will not allow me to remain silent. I deeply regret to be again obliged to
speak of myself; for it is repugnant to my feelings to see personal questions
incessantly dragged before this Assembly at a time when the most important
interests of the country are at stake.
"I shall not now speak of my sentiments or of my opinions; these I
have already set before you; and no one, as yet, has had reason to doubt my
word. As to my parliamentary conduct, I will say, that, as I never permit
myself the liberty of bringing any of my colleagues to an account for the
course which he thinks proper to pursue, so, in like manner, I never recognize
in him the right to call me to account for mine. This account I owe only to
my constituents.
"Of what am I accused?  Of accepting from  the popular sentiment a
nomination after which I have not sought. Well, I accept this nomination
which does me so much honor. I accept it because successive elections, and
the unanimous decree of the Assembly against the proscription of my family,
authorize me to believe that France regards the name I bear to be serviceable for the consolidation of society.
" Those who accuse me of ambition little know my heart. If an imperative duty did not keep me here, if the sympathy of my fellow-citizens did not
console me for the violence of the attacks of some, and even for the impetuosity of the defence of others,* long since should I have regretted my exile.
"I am reproached for my silence. It is desired that I should exhibit great
talents, and make a brilliant appearance in this tribune. But it is given to
but few persons to bring eloquent words to the support of just and salutary
ideas. Is there only one way to serve one's country?  That which the
country needs above all things else is a government firm, intelligent, and
wise, which is more desirous to heal the evils of society than to avenge
* There probably never was a man more severely and unscrupulously assailed than the
present Emperor of the French has been. And it is worthy of record, that his speeches and his
voluminous published works may be searched in vain for an angry or discourteous word in
reply.




358                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
them. Often one can more effectually triumph by wise and prudent conduct,
than by bayonets, over theories not founded upon experience or reason.
" Citizen representatives, there are those who wish, I know, to strew my
path with pits and snares. I shall not fall into them. I shall follow the path
I have marked out;Without allowing myself to be disquieted or irritated. I
shall know how always to exhibit the serenity of the man who is resolved to
do his duty. It is my only desire to merit the esteem of the National Assembly and of all good men, and the confidence of that magnanimous people
who were treated so lightly here yesterday.
"-I therefore declare to those who wish to organize against me a system of
provocations, that henceforth I shall not reply to any summons (interpellation) or to any species of attack. I shall not reply to those who wish to
make me speak when I prefer to be silent. I shall remain immovable against
all attacks, impassible towards all calumnies." *
Several attempts were subsequently made in the tribune to goad Louis
Napoleon to a reply. He listened, however, silently, from  his seat, without
betraying any emotion. On the 4th of November, the new constitution was
adopted by a vote of seven hundred and thirty-nine against thirty. France
was weary of excitement; and the event was hot greeted, either in Paris or
in the communes of France, with any enthusiasm. The 10th of December
was the day appointed for the election of President of the Republic. There
were six candidates. The Socialists were split into three parties; and these
had severally nominated Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, who had fled to England, and Raspail, who was in the dungeons of Vincennes. The Moderates,
as they were called, were also divided into three parties. Lamartine was at
the head of one, General Cavaignac of another, and Louis Napoleon of the
third. It soon, however, became evident that the great struggle would be
between the last two. Upon this subject, Sir Archibald Alison presents the
following observations —
" Meanwhile the contest for the presidency was daily becoming more vehement between General Cavaignac and Louis Napoleon. Had it taken place
at an earlier period, before the nation had had practical experience of the
effects of revolutionary government, it is probable that the former might have
been the successful candidate; for he had many advantages' in his favor, - a
character long established for republican principles, undaunted resolution in
the suppression of anarchy, and the actual possession of supreme, unlimited
power, with all the patronage consequent upon its enjoyment.
"But, at this stage of the movement, the chances had turned against him.
His reign was inseparably connected in the minds, especially of the rural
electors, with the prolongation of the revolutionary regime, and with its
emeutes, its bankruptcies, and the total cessation of prosperous industry.'What they desired was a MoNAncH, who might terminate all these evils, and
restore the prosperity, which, ever since the convulsion of February, had been
unknown in France. This monarch they hoped to find in Louis Napoleon.
* The above is a literal translation of this important speech as given by MM. Gallix and
Guy, and also by M. Smile Marco de St. Hilaire.




REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                            359
The elder Bourbons were banished, the younger branch discredited: but
the Napoleon dynasty remained unstained by faction, undiscredited by folly;
and it was under the shelter of its illustrious name that the country could
alone hope to regain tranquillity. Beyond all doubt, the great majority of the
rural electors thought, that, in voting for Louis Napoleon, they were closing
the republican regime, and, in effect, enthroning an emperor." *
Both of the candidates issued addresses to the electors in avowal of their
political opinions.  The address of General Cavaignac was excellent, though
it did not contain much calling for special notice.  He earnestly advocated
the maintenance of political and social order, and avowed his faith in universal suffrage.  "Universal suffrage," said he, " is in itself the entire revolution.
Every other principle is but an emanation and corollary from it.  In the very
first rank of those consequences, you must consider that which places power
under the action and immediate control of the majority." t
All were eager to see the manifesto of Louis Napoleon. It was issued on
the 27th of November, and was as follows: -
" To   IY  FELLOW-CITIZENS, -  In  order to recall me from  exile, you
elected me a representative of the people.  On the eve.of the election of the
chief magistrate of the Republic, my name presents itself to you as a symbol
of order and security.  These testimonies of a confidence so honorable to me
are due, I am aware, much more to the name which I bear, than to myself,
who have, as yet, done nothing for my country.  But, the more the memory
of the emperor protects me and inspires your suffrages, the more I feel myself
called upon to make known to you my sentiments and my principles.  There
must be nothing equivocal between us.' I am not an ambitious man who dreams at one time of the empire and of
war, and at another of the application of subversive theories. Educated in
free countries and in the school of misfortune, I shall always remain faithful
to the duties which your suffrages and the will of the Assembly may impose
upon me.  If I am elected president, I shall not shrink from any danger, from
any sacrifice, to defend society, which has been so audaciously attacked.  I
shall devote myself wholly, without reserve, to the confirming of a republic
which has shown itself wise by its'laws, honest in its intentions, great and
powerful by its acts.  I pledge my honor to leave to my successor, at the end
of four years, the executive powers strengthened, liberty intact, and real
progress accomplished.
" Whatever may be the result of the election, I shall bow to the will of the
people.  And I pledge beforehand my co-operation with any strong  and
* Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 359.  t Moniteur, Nov. 10, 1848.
" General Cavaignac was a man fully worthy of the confidence of the nation.  He possessed great integrity and moderation of character. He was unambitious, virtuous, honorable.
He had held the dictatorial power with rare prudence and justice, and had freely resigned it at
the earliest possible period. He was amiable and conciliatory in his measurers. He nourished no
animosities, favored no factions, and sincerely loved liberty and his country. In addition to this,
he possessed great talents, both civil and military." - Public and Private History of Ncpoleon Ill.,
by Samuel AI. Smucker, LL.D., p. 124.




360                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
honest government which shall re-establish order in principles as well as in
things; which shall efficiently protect our religion, our families, and our properties, - the eternal bases of every social community; which shall attempt all
practical reforms, assuage animosities, reconcile parties, and thus permit a
country rendered uneasy by circumstances to count upon the morrow.
"To re-establish order is to restore confidence, to repair by means of
credit the temporary depreciation of resources, to restore the finances, and to
revive commerce.
" To protect religion and the rights of families is to insure the freedom of
public worship and education.
" To protect property is to maintain the inviolability of the fruits of every
man's labor: it is to guarantee the independence and security of possession,
the indispensable foundation of all civil liberties.
"As to the reforms which are possible, the following are those which appear
to me most urgent: —
" To adopt all those measures of economy, which, without occasioning disorder in the public service, will permit of a reduction of those taxes which press
most heavily upon a people.
"To encourage enterprises, which, while they develop agricultural wealth,
may, both in France and Algeria, give work to hands at present unoccupied.
"To provide for the relief of laborers in their old age by means of provident
institutions.
"To introduce into our industrial laws ameliorations which may tend, not
to ruin the rich for the gain of the poor, but to establish the well-being of each
upon the prosperity of all.
"To restrict within just limits the number of employments which shall
depend on the government, and which often convert a free people into a
nation of beggars.
" To avoid that deplorable tendency which leads the State to do that which
individuals may do as well, and better, for themselves.  The centralization of
interests and of enterprises is in the nature of despotism. The nature of the
republic rejects monopolies.
"'Finally, to protect the liberty of the press from the two excesses which
always endanger it, - that of arbitrary authority on the one hand, and its own
licentiousness on the other.
" With war, we can have no relief to our ills. Peace, then, would be the dearest object of my desire. France, at the time of her first revolution, was warlike
because others forced her to be so.  Threatened with invasion, she replied by
conquest. Now she is not threatened.  She is free to concentrate all her
resources to pacific measures of amelioration without abandoning a loyal and
a resolute policy. A great nation ought to be silent, or never to speak in vain.
"To have regard for the national dignity is to lhave regard for the army,
whose patriotism, so noble and disinterested, has been frequently neglected.
We ought, while we maintain the fundamental laws which are the strength of
our military organization, to alleviate, and not aggravate, the burden of the
conscription. We ought to take care of the present and future interests, not
only of the officers, but likewise of the non-commissioned officers and privates,




REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                           361
and prepare secure means of subsistence for men who have long served under
our colors.
"The Republic ought to be generous, and have faith in its future prospects.
And, for my part, I, who have suffered exile and captivity, appeal with all
my warmest aspirations to that day when the country may, without danger,
put a stop to all proscriptions, and efface the last traces of our civil discord.
"Such, my dear fellow-citizens, are the ideas which I should bring' to bear
upon the functions of government if you were to call me to the presidency of
the Republic.  The task is a difficult one, the mission immense; I know it:
but I should not despair of accomplishing it; inviting to my aid, without distinction of party, all men, who, by their high intelligence or their probity, have
recommended themselves to public esteem. Besides, when a man has the
honor to be at the head of the French nation, there is an infallible way to succeed; and that is to desire to do so." *
A fortnight was to elapse between the publication of this letter and the
election, which was to take place on the 10th of December. In the mean time,
the friends of all the parties, in Paris and in the departments, were very active
in the political campaign.
"Meanwhile," says Sir Archibald Alison, "General Cavaignac, supported by
his cabinet and all the official persons by whom he was surrounded, could not
be brought to perceive the truth as to the chances of his succeeding in the
election. He was not, however, without misgivings as to the result; and was
alternately sanguine in his hopes, and gloomy in his anticipations.  As the time
of the election approached, the anxiety of General Cavaignac and his friends
painfully increased, and the influence of government was used in the most
unsparing and unblushing way to secure his success; but it was all in vain." t
"The adversaries of Louis Napoleon," says Mr. Edward Roth in his candid
and able sketch of the life of Napoleon III., "were not idle. Ridicule, everywhere so powerful, is almost omnipotent in France.  Of this, the government
party were not sparing.  Pamphlets written by the cleverest writers, songs
composed by the most satirical poets and adapted to the most popular airs,
caricatures executed by the most ingenious artists, were distributed everywhere
almost gratuitously.  A favorite subject of sarcasm, upon which pen and pencil
rang an infinite number of changes, was the live eagle, which we remember
had been found in the English steamer after the unlucky attempt at Boulogne.
"It was in vain for the prince's fiiends to explain the presence of the
unhlppy bird by certifying that it had been brought on board by a domestic,
without orders, and unknown to everybody. The wits would not give' up
their fertile topic; but, of course, they did not always confine themselves to
such legitimate subjects for raillery.  Truth, justice, honor, and decency were
too often sacrificed in their unscrupulous attacks.  Of all participation, however,
in such scandalous outrages, it is with real pleasure that we unreservedly
* "This remarkable letter is well worthy of a place in general history, not only from its containing a complete abstract of the opinions and policy of the very eminent man who has since
played so memorable a part on the imperial throne, but because it bears in itself unmistakable
traces of his own thought and composition." - Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 36C1. t Ibid.
46




362                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
acquit the honorable General Cavaignac.'Gentlemen,' said he, one day, to
some of his phrtisans who had made a wrong use of his name,'if I am  never
to be elected President of the Republic, leave me, at least, the consolation of
possessing the esteem of honest men.' "
A committee appointed by the artisans of France presented an appeal to the
public, calling upon the working-classes to give their votes to the hIeir of the
emperor. The paper, probably, well expressed the popular sentiment in regard
to Prince Louis Napoleon. The appeal contained the following passages: —
"The birth of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte shall never be a blemish in our
eyes.  His consanguinity with the emperor is his first title to our friendship
and to the hopes which we repose in him.  It is in like manner with his name.
This name shall be always the most beloved, the most known, the most respected by the people.  It shall always be the most luminous, the most pure,
the most glorious name in our history. It is a name on which humanity, in
its magnificent future, shall pride itself. It is the name written in the heart
of France, - a universal name venerated by all nations, and which French
injustice alone would assail." t
The distinguished advocate, M. Ferdinand Barrot, sent a communication to
the "Siecle" in response to some articles which had appeared in that journal
against Louis Napoleon.  The following passages are extracted from  his
eloquent letter: -
"Exile and captivity have counselled study to the prince. For twenty
years, he has obeyed their hard teachings; and applying himself to researches
the most profound, to meditations the most severe, there are few questions
agitated at our tribunes, or in the press, of which he has not carefully sought
the solution.
"You speak of blind infatuation. The people have not infatuations sudden
and reasonless: their instincts are sure.  I have had my fears respecting
universal suffrage.  I confess it.  But I was wrong.  What I have seen since
the 24th of February- the good sense so perfect, the will so firm, of which
the people have given so many proofs - has established in me the new faith
which I now repose in universal suffrage.
"A name, it is said, -to make a name a title to the suffrages of the nation,
what insolence! Why should we not recognize the influence of a name?
How can we remove fiom the human mind that foible?  So long as a son
calls himself by the name of his father, so long as a brother takes the same
name as his brother, resign yourself to see perpetuated the heritage of
sympathies and repulsions. The name is not an illusion: it is a presumption
of nature.'The name! -it is the traditions of the family, the examples and
precepts of the fireside.
* Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 380.
t "As to Prince Louis Napoleon, it could not be denied that he was the favorite candidate of
the people, the masses, -particularly in the provinces. These simple, honest partisans of a nace
little cared whether they made him a president, a monarch, or an emperor, proviled they had the
pleasure of voting for him. This is not surprising. Even in this country, where the humblest
citizen can pretend to some political knowledge, we know what mighty influence was wielded by
the name of Jaclcson." —Lf of lTpoleon III., by EdCwacd R1oth, p. 379.




REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                            363
"It is that presumption  which  makes Louis Napoleon  Bonaparte so
prominent a candidate for the presidency.  What, then, does his name signify
in the eyes of those who rally around him? What does it signify for property?  What does it signify for commerce and industry?  What does it
signify for France?
"It signifies a national government, a fruitful organization, a powerful
administration.  It signifies capacities called into exercise without any spirit
of exclusion; ability honored, coteries rendered powerless.  It signifes wellordered society; industry and commerce revived, encouraged, and recompensed.*
"Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, you say, is the sign of a re-action against the
Republic.  You affect to fear the strength which the election will give him.
Yes: undoubtedly he will have behind him the masses, the population of the
rural districts, -that is to say, the element of order and of fruitfulness; the
working population, - that is to say, the labor and the strength of the country;
the soldiers, —that is to say, the nation watchful and armed.  Yes: he will
arrive at the presidency of the Republic saluted by the enthusiasm which
grand memories inspire.  Yes: he will have that power which is called
popularity,-a power which, for thirty  years, all our governments have
wanted.
"That which, in my view, is a powerful reason for deciding in favor of
Louis Napoleon, is that he has entered into no engagement with any party;
that he has not espoused any of our quarrels; that, in attaining power, he will
not have been led there by any coterie.  In fine, there is no person who can,
as well as he, found a government which is truly national; and I mean by
that a government, which, having for its end the repose, the prosperity, and
the grandeur of France, will call equally to the service of its great interests
the most eminent men of all parties, and which will rally around it all the
elements of action and of good influence which the nation can furnish.
"In fine, in my most profound conviction, the presidency of Louis Napoleon will be the most sure defence of our republican society, not only
against the attacks of demagogism, but still more against retrograde and
monarchical tendencies." t
At last, the long-looked-for day of election came. It was cloudless and
serene. The remark is often made in France, that the " sun of Austerlitz"
seems ever to shine upon Louis Napoleon.  There was no disorder at the
polls, either in the city or in the country.  General Cavaignac, who was still
invested with dictatorial power, secured an orderly and honest election.  In
the rural districts the unanimity was marvellous, and there was great enthusi* "At that time, it may be emphatically said that Louis Napoleon represented only a name;
but that name was deeply enshrined in the hearts of millions. It was a souvenir of former
scenes of national glory and grandeur, such as had no parallel in modern times. It was the
greatest and brightest name in history. It flattered the pride of France. It was a name
which must live forever. And he who had inherited this name had displayed at least a consciousness of his rights, a love of his native country, and an ardent desire to serve her." - The
Public and Private Life of Napoleon III., Emperor of the French, p. 125.
t Histoire complete de Napoleon III., Empereur des Francais, par MM. Gallix et Guy,
p. 181.




364                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON  III.
asm. Large parties marched to the polls with music and banners, often led by
the mayor of the village or the cure of the parish, and deposited their votes
unanimously for Louis Napoleon.  As the reports came pouring into Paris,
it was soon known that Louis Napoleon had entirely distanced all his competitors. Though it took some time before the returns could be officially
examined, the result was speedily placed beyond all doubt.*  A committee
of thirty of the members of the Assembly was appointed to count the votes.
On the 20th of December, the result was made officially known. M. Rousseau,
chairman of the committee, made the following report, which was listened
to by the Assembly amidst the most profound silence:"The Assembly has called on the people to select the citizen who is to be
the keystone of the republican arch. The nation has met, and has cast into the
ballot-box the testimony of her confidence. You are now about to invest
the man of her choice with the rights that belong to the truly popular dignity
of President of the Republic.  The voice of the people has spoken in  the
name of the entire country.  It is the sanction of their inviolable power.
"Let us beware of substituting, for the expression of the will of all, the
desires of some, and the regrets of others.  These regrets should now cease;
these divisions should be forgotten; and the zeal of all good citizens should
sustain and support him whom the nation has chosen.
"The sum  total of the votes cast for the President of the Republic is
7,468,251:Louis Napoleon has obtained...   5,562,834
M. Cavaignac,,..  1,469,166
M. Ledru Rollin,......                   377,236
M. Raspail,......                   37,106
M. de Lamartine,,..                             17,219
General Changarnier,,..                             4,690 t
"By the number of votes obtained, Citizen Louis Bonaparte, then, is the
elect of the French people.  The executive power is to be intrusted to him,
by you, without opposition, with calmness and dignity, as becomes a great
nation.  Nine months ago, the Republic proclaimed in this hall came forth
from the storms of the 24th of February.  To-day you impose on your work
the seal of public consecration."
General Cavaignac then ascended the tribune, and said, "Citizen representatives, I have the honor of informing the Assembly that the members of
the cabinet have just sent me their collective resignation.  I come forward,
* " To the insurrectionary leaders, who had been or who hoped to be elevated to greatness
by a continuance of the public disturbances, the result of the election of the president had been
a matter of the most unbounded astonishment and of extreme mortification. Nothing' could
bring them to see that the domination of the Parisian clubs wvas regarded with very different
eyes in the solitude of the fields from what it was in the streets of the metropolis. That State
is likely to stand the shock best which has the greatest number of independent rural freeholders.
Beyond all doubt, it was the multitude of these which was the main cause of the triumphant
return of Louis Napoleon for the president's chair."- Sir Archibald Aliso;l, vol. viii. p. 362.
t These are the numbers as given by Gallix and Guy. There is a slight difference in the
numbers as given by others.




rEPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                       305
in my turn, to surrender to the Assembly the powers with which it has invested me. You will understand, better than I can express, the sentiments
of gratitude which the recollection of the confidence placed in me by the
Assembly, and of its kindness towards me, will leave in my heart."
M. Armand Marrast, the President of the Assembly, then rose again, and
said, "In the name of the French people, whereas Citizen Charles Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Paris, possesses all the qualifications of eligibility required by the forty-fourth article of the Constitution; and whereas in
the election, open throughout the whole extent of the Republic, he has
received the absolute majority of votes; the National Assembly, by virtue
of the forty-seventh and forty-eighth articles of the Constitution, proclaims
him President of the French Republic from this day until the second Sunday
of May, 1852.
"I now invite the President of the Republic to ascend the tribune and
take the oath."
Louis Napoleon, who had entered the apartment while the report of the
election was being read, now slowly ascended the platform, and took his stand
in the tribune. The ribbon of a representative hung from his button-hole,
and the cordon of the Legion of Honor decorated his breast. M. Marrast
then administered the following oath: -
" In the presence of God, and before the French people represented by the
National Assembly, you swear to remain faithful to the Democratic Constitution."
" I swear it," said Louis Napoleon earnestly, holding up his right hand.
M. Marrast then somewhat marred the solemnity of the scene by adding, -
it is said obtrusively, 
" We take God and man to witness the oath which has just been taken.
It shall be inserted in the official report in the' Moniteur,' and published in
the form prescribed for the public acts."
The President of the Republic seemed not to hear these words, and, paying
no attention to conduct so little in harmony with the occasion, took from his
pocket a paper, and read the following brief inaugural address:" CITIZEN REPRESENTATIVES,- The suffrages of the nation, and the oath
which I have taken, command my future conduct.  MIy duty is marked out:
I shall fulfil it as a man of honor. I shall look upon those as enemies to the
country who attempt to change by illegal means what entire France has
established. Between you and me, citizen representatives, no real difference
can exist. Our wishes, our desires, are the same. I wish, like you, to reestablish society upon its foundations; to establish democratic institutions;
and to search out all the means of relieving the sufferings of this generous
and intelligent people, who have given me so conspicuous a proof of their
confidence.
" The majority which I have obtained not only fills me with gratitude, but
it will give to the new government a moral force, without which there can
be no authority. With peace and order, our country can rise, heal her wounds,
bring back her scattered children, and calm her passions.




366                           LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" Animated by this spirit of conciliation, I have called around me men of
honesty, capable, and devoted to the country; assured that, in spite of the
diversity of their original politics, they will with one accord unite with you
in the application of the constitution to the perfecting of the laws and the
glory of the Republic.
" The new  administration, in entering upon business, must thank its predecessor for the efforts which it has made to transmit the power intact, and to
maintain public tranquillity.  The conduct of the honorable General Cavaignac has been worthy of the loyalty of his character, and of that sentiment
of duty which is the first qualification of the head of a state.
"'We have, citizen representatives, a great mission to fulfil.  It is to found
a republic for the interests of all, and a government just, firm, and animated
with a sincere love of progress, without being either re-actionary or Utopian.
Let us be men of the country, not men of a party; and, with the assistance
of God, we shall at least accomplish useful, if we cannot succeed in achieving
great things."
This speech  was greeted  with  general applause.  The Prince President
then  descended from  the tribune, and, advancing to  the seat occupied by
General Cavaignac, shook him  cordially by the hand.*   General Changarnier
and General Lamoriciere, as a committee of the Assembly, accompanied him
to his carriage; and many other members of the Assembly, joining the cortege,
escorted him, passing between two lines of the National Guard to the Elysee
Palace,t which had been assigned as his residence.  " Never," says Sir Archibald Alison, "had the voice of a nation spoken out more decidedly than that
of France did on this occasion." 
There are two anecdotes recorded of Louis Napoleon  at this time, which
indicate forcibly two of the striking peculiarities of his character.  When,
* "Louis Napoleon descended from the tribune, went up to General Cavaignac, and offered
him his hand.  The general, for a few instants, hesitated to accept the pressure. All who had
just heard the speech of Louis Napoleon, pronounced in an accent so redolent of candor and
good faith, blamed the general for his hesitation." - Victor Iuglo.
t The Elysee Palace was built in 1718 by the Count of Evreux. Louis XV. purchased it
for Madame de Pompadour, and she occupied it with much splendor until her death in 1764.
The banker Beaujon purchased it, and afterwards sold it to Louis XVI. He named it the Ellysee
Bourbon. Under the Republic, it became national property; and was afterwards purchased by
Murat, who married Caroline Bonaparte.  The Emperor Napoleon returned to it after Waterloo,
and there he signed his final abdication. After the taking of Paris by the Allies, Wellington
and the Emperor Alexander occupied the palace. " It was the last residence," says Elmile Marco
de St. Hilaire, "of Napoleon, before leaving for his exile, where kings in their hatred imprisoned him; and it was the first habitation of that one of his heirs whom the suffrages of the
people called to power. Singular coincidence! Popular sovereignty in hatred of royalty, having delegated in 1848 its power to a Bonaparte, fixed his residence in the same place from which
leagued royalty, thirty-three years before, had driven a Bonaparte, in hatred of popular sovereignty."
A "All was consummated.  The name of Bonaparte, emerging from the electoral urn with
so imposing a majority, gave at last to France the first national government which it had had
since 1815; the only one which, since that time, could be called the legitimate child of popular
sovereignty." - listoire complete de Napoleon III., par IMM. Gallix et Guy, p. 185.








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REPRESENTATIVE AND PRESIDENT.                              367
after the affair of Strasbourg, Louis Philippe sent him in a frigate to the
United States, he placed his person under the care of a French military
officer of inferior grade, whose name was Rebillot.  That gentleman discharged the duties of his position with such marked delicacy, that Napoleon
never forgot it. Among the names of his first ministry occurs that of M.
Rebillot as Prifet cle Police.
The intelligent reader will remember the affecting leave which the Emperor
Napoleon 1. took of his Old Guard at the Palace of Fontainebleau, after his
abdication. The scene, as described in Abbott's " Life of Napoleon," was as
follows -
The morning of the 20th dawned. Napoleon had appointed mid-day as
the hour of his departure. He remained during the forenoon alone in his
cabinet. As the hour approached, the troops of the Imperial Guard were
drawn up in the court-yard of the palace to pay their last token of respect to
the exiled emperor. An immense concourse from  the surrounding country
had collected to witness the great event.  The commissioners of the allied
powers, the generals of his body-guard, and a few of the officers of the imperial household, assembled in mournful silence in the saloon before his cabinet.
General Bertrand, grand marshal of the palace, faithful to Napoleon until the
dying scene at St. Helena, announced the emperor.  Napoleon, with a serene
countenance and a tranquil air, came forth. The emotions excited in every
breast were too deep for utterance, and not a word disturbed the solemn
silence of tihe scene. As the emperor passed down the line of his friends,
bowing to the right and the left, they seized his hand, and bathed it with
their tears.
As he arrived at the landing of the grand staircase, he stood for a moment,
and looked around upon the guard drawn up in the court, and upon the innumerable multitude which thronged its surroundings. Every eye was fixed
on him. It was a funereal scene, over which was suspended the solemnity
of religious awe. The soldiers were suffocated with sorrow. Acclamations
in that hour would have been a mockery. The silence of the grave reigned
undisturbed.  Tears rolled down the furrowed cheeks of the warriors, and
their heads were bowed in unaffected grief. They envied the lot of the little
band who were allowed to depart as the companions of their beloved
chieftain.
Napoleon cast a tender and a grateful look over the battalions and the
squadrons who had ever proved so faithful to himself and to his cause. Before
descending into the court-yard, he hesitated for a moment, as if his fortitude
were forsaking him; but, immediately rallying his strength, lie approached the
soldiers. The drums commenced beating the accustomed salute. With a gesture, Napoleon arrested the martial tones. A breathless smllness prevailed.
With a -voice clear and firm, every articulation of which was heard in the
remotest rank, he said, -
"GENERALS, OFFICERS, AND SOLDIERS OF MIY OLD GUARD, -  I bid you
farewell. For five and twenty years, I have ever found you in the path of
honor and of glory. In these last days, as in the days of our prosperity, you
have never ceased to be models of fidelity and of courage. Europe has armed




368                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
against us. Still, with men such as you, our cause never could have been lost.
We could have maintained a civil war for years; but it would have rendered
our country unhappy. I have, therefore, sacrificed our interests to those of
France. I leave you; but do you, my friends, be faithful to the new sovereign
whom France has accepted.  The happiness of France was my only thought:
it shall ever be the object of my most fervent prayer. Grieve not for my lot: I
shall be happy so long as I know that you are so. If I have consented to outlive
myself, it is with the hope of still promoting your glory. I trust to write the
deeds we have achieved together. Adieu, my children! I would tht I could
press you all to my heart! Let me, at least, embrace your general and your
eagle."
Every eye was now bathed in tears; and, here and there, many a strong
bosom  was heaving with sobs.  At a signal from  Napoleon, General Petit,
who then commanded the Old Guard,-  a man of martial bearing, but of tender
feelings,   advanced, and stood between the ranks of the soldiers and their
emperor. Napoleon, with tears dimming his eyes, encircled the general in his
arms; while the veteran commander, entirely unmanned, sobbed aloud. All
hearts were melted, and a stifled moan was heard through all the ranks.
Again the emperor recovered himself, and said, "Bring me the eagle."  A
grenadier advanced, bearing one of the eagles of the regiment.  Napoleon
imprinted a kiss upon its silver beak; then pressed the eagle to his heart, and
said, in tremulous accents, -
"Dear eagle, may this last embrace vibrate forever in the hearts of all my
faithful soldiers! Farewell again, my old companions! - farewell!"
The outburst of universal grief could no longer be restrained. All were
alike overcome. Napoleon threw himself into his carriage, bowed his head,
and covered his eyes with both hands; and the carriage rolled away, bearing
the greatest and noblest son of France into exile.
Thirty-four years had since passed away. The remains of the emperor,
reclaimed from Saint Helena and greeted by a nation's love and gratitude,
were mouldering in that most sublime of all earthly mausoleums beneath the
dome of the Invalides. In homage to his memory, France, by nearly six millions of votes, had placed the sceptre of executive power in the hands of his
nephew.  The first military review under the Prince President was held on
the 24th of December. Louis Napoleon took his position at the entrance of
the Champs Llysees. After the National Guard had filed by him, the troops
of the line came on. At their head was a division of the Invalides. The
leader of this division was the same General Petit from whom  the emperor
had so affectionately parted. He was now  a venerable man of gray hairs.
Louis Napoleon left his staff, rode forward to the war-worn soldier, and with
a cordial grasp of the hand said to him, -
"General, the emperor embraced you at his last review: I am happy to press
your hand at my irst." *
* Italy and the War of 1859, by Julie de Marguerittes, p. 87.




CHAPTER XXII.
THE ROMAN QUESTION.
Character of the New Constitution. - Feelings in the Rural Districts. - Antagonism of the
Assembly to the President. - Instigations to Civil War. - Letter to Prince Napoleon. -
Excitement of the Revolutionary Spirit. - Insurrection in Rome. - Assassination of M.
Rossi. - Flight of the Pope. - French Intervention. - Its Necessity. - Capture of Rome. -
Socialist Insurrection in Paris. - Confirmed Strength of the Government.
~|  N  N0 man can be elevated to power without encountering assaults.
It is the inevitable doom  of greatness. There has never been
a President of the United States whose character and administration have not been attacked, even with ferocity. And. none
of these have been more malignantly and persistently assailed
than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; the two who,
perhaps, more than any others, merited, and now receive, the almost undivided
love of the nation and the homage of the world.  Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, though elected by so immense a majority to the chief magistracy of
France, was peculiarly exposed to hostile attacks. Rival candidates and their.
friends had been disappointed.  France was divided into parties intensely
inimical to each other.  These parties were led by men, generally, of much
ability, many of whom were eager to attain their ends even at the expense
of civil war.  There were Bourbonists, Orleanists, Imperialists, Socialists,
arrayed in rival bands, and Republicans and Democrats of varied shades of
political faith.
It was not possible, under these circumstances, for any degree of human
wisdom and integrity to pursue a course which would harmonize these irreconcilable parties, and secure general approval. Candid men will admit that
the President of the Republic, placed in circumstances of so much difficulty,
deserves generous treatment. A heavier burden was never placed upon any
man's shoulders than was placed upon his. If it appear, that, in the measures
he adopted, he was actuated by a sincere desire to promote the happiness of
France, the final verdict of the world will surely be in his favor.
In forming the constitution, the Assembly had retained nearly all power in
its own hands, conferring but little upon the president. The lines of distinction between the functions of different branches of the government were
very obscurely drawn. It was apprehended that the popularity of the name
of the Emperor Napoleon I. would secure the election of Louis Napoleon,
47                                             869




370                            LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
and many of the provisions of the constitution seem to have been dictated
through jealousy of him.  The president had no power to dissolve the Assembly, or to take personal command of the army, or to grant pardon, or to
issue a decree of amnesty, or to be re-elected until after an interval of four
years from  the expiration of his term  of office. l        le could do nothing without
the co-operation of the Assembly; and the majority of that contentious and
discordant body were so hostile to him, that it was in vain for him to attempt
to secure their co-operation.*
The feelings in the rural districts were very strong against the insurgent
populace of the metropolis, who seemed ever to assume that Paris was France.
At a public meeting in Lisle, one of the speakers gave utterance to the popular sentiment in saying, 
"It is unprecedented in history, that a few thousand turbulent adventurers,
ever ready for an insurrection, should have succeeded, on so many occasions,
in putting to hazard the destinies of a people so advanced in civilization  as
those of France.  We present to Europe the extraordinary spectacle of a
nation of thirty-five millions of men ever ready to take the yoke from twenty
or thirty thousand creators of revolutions, who descend into the streets of
Paris at a signal given by a few ambitious leaders, and treat France as a
conquered country.
" A  few months only have elapsed since we saw  a handful of misled men
taking  advantage  of the inertness of some, the connivance of others, the
terror of many, and the weakness of government; gain possession  of the
sanctuary of the national representation, and chase from it the representatives of the country. A unanimous resistance has now declared itself against
the Parisian tyranny: a violent desire to shake off its yoke has made itself
felt even by the central government. It is not a conspiracy, still less a
dream of a federative government: it is an open and deliberate movement
of the provinces of France, as the old provinces of Gaul were determined
that their interests should no longer be swallowed up in those of Rome." t
The antagonism between the president and the Assembly was soon developed.  The Assembly had been chosen to form  a constitution, and organize
the government.  Its work was done.  Still the members wished to retain
* "Louis Napoleon had to govern, by accidentally-republican institutions, a country not at
all republican. Did the Assembly assist him in this difficult task? On the contrary, pursuing
a system of jealousy and suspicion from the outset, it did every thing to thwart him. It could
not do otherwise. It consisted of Legitimists, Orleanists, Republicans of yesterday, Revolutionists, Re-actionaries, Socialists, Red Republicans, and Communists. It is not to be denied, at the
same time, that it contained some sincere men of generous minds and philosophical temperament,
who'from a peculiar course of studies, or from having witnessed Louis Philippe's government
constantly assailed, had seriously concluded that a republic was the only form  of government
that was possible in France, and the best suited to the progress of society. Had all the Assembly consisted of such men, we have no doubt the Republic would have still stood its ground, and
the president continued president, and nothing more. He would not have changed the form of
government; if for no other reason, simply because he could not. An Assembly of nine hundred
sincere Republicans would have argued the ability of a nation to govern itself," -Life of Napoleon III., by Edwcard Roth, p. 398.
f Ann. Hist. 1849, 73.




THE ROMAN QUESTION.                                       371
their power.  The country people were very much dissatisfied, and sent in
many petitions, that the  Constituant Assembly, having fulfilled  its function,
might be dissolved, and that a new  Legislative Assembly might be chosen.
The discbntent became so great, that the Assenibly was compelled to yield.
It accordingly voted, after a long and impassioned debate, its own dissolution,
to take place on the 19th of January, and a general election to take place on
the 4th of May for the new  Lecgislative Assembly.  This was considered a
triumph of Louis Napoleon and of the moderate party in the Assembly.  The
vote was carried by a majority of one; the numbers being four hundred and
sixteen  to four hundred  and fifteen.   The  Socialists  and the Legitimists
combined  against the president and the moderate Republicans who rallied
aro-uind him.   The Socialists had  supposed that the revolution  placed the
government in their hands.  The election of Louis Napoleon was regarded
as their signal defeat.  Accordingly, they immediately commenced a deadly
warfare against him.  In a. speech which M. Proudhon made on this occasion,
he said, -
" Louis Bonaparte once down, the counter-revolution is at an end.  It is
astonishing, that, for a month past, neither the Republicans in the Assembly
nor the Democratic 0press have been aware that that is the real state of the
matter.  Strike the idol; and, the faith being dishonored, the worship is at an
end.  Let the vote strike Louis Bona.parte, and it is done.  Have no fear of a
re-action: it has no force but in the noise it makes. An energetic vote, in five
minutes, will deliver you f~rom all your dangers." *
This was an appeal to civil war.  It was calling upon  the Assembly, to
whom  no such power had been intrusted; to annul the vote of the people,
reject the president of the popular choice, and usurp the government.j Every
day, the strife grew more bitter. The president found himself occupying a
post without power.  He could neither do good, nor prevent harm.  With
the overwhelming majority of the people in  France in his favor, the loud
talkers in the Assembly, the busy agitators in the clubs thwarted his endeavors. The Parisian press was very much under the control of these men. In
After the flight of Louis Blanc and Causidiere to London, " M. Proudhon," says Alison,
C stood forth as the leader of the Socialistic doctrines. He attacked all the institutions of society
in the most violent manner; denounced them as violations of the rights of man, and the prolific
fountain of every social suffering. He stigmatized God as I the enemy of society,' priests as
paid hypocrites,' property as robbery, government as usurpation. The termination of the publie career of this dangerous zealot was neither the crown of martyrdom nor the. sceptre of power.
It was an ignominious end. Brought before the Cows d'Assises on the 28th of March, 1849, he
was condemned to pay a fine of three thousand francs (six hundred dollars), and to be imprisoned
three years. He has not since been heard of in French history." -Sir Archibalci A1isom, vol. viii.
p. 354.
In the night of the 28th and the 29th, the chief of the agitators in Paris constituted
themselves permanent, after having sent the word of order to all their brothers and friends
in the departments. On the morning of the 29th they were to descend into the streets, dissolve
the Assembly, imprison Louis Napoleon and his friends, establish a Committee of Public Safety,
proclaim the right of work (ie droit cmu travail), substitute the red flag for the tricolor, and confiscate the liberty and the fortune of all suspected citizens, -that is, of all those who had but little
sympathy with the Socialistic republic. Never was insurrection organized upon a vaster scale,
or with more destructive projects." - MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 195.




372 I.LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the midst of these agitations, the new election came on for the Legislative
Assembly.  Sir Archibald Alison, who certainly was not biassed by any Napoleonic partisanship, gives the following account of public feeling and measures
at that time: -
"ad it been possible for Louis Napoleon to dispense with the Assembly
and govern of his own authority, he would probably have secured the suffrages of an immense majority of the people. But the nation was not, as yet,
sufficiently awakened from the illusions of the Revolution to render that
possible; and, as the government (the Provisional Government) had been
severely censured for interfering in the elections of the preceding year, it was
deemed advisable to abstain altogether from any attempt to influence them
on the present occasion. Thus the people were left without either leaders
or direction on the one side, and with both of the most efficient kind on the
other. Thus the parties were nearly equally divided in the new Assembly as
they had been in the old.
" The equally divided state of the returns, when announced in Paris, produced universal consternation. The disorders and miseries of the Revolution
were immediately anticipated, and the public funds sank seven per cent in
on~e day. An attempt was made to renew the intimidation of the Assembly
by a threatening mob, which surrounded its doors on the 28th of May, the
first day of meeting; but it was dispersed without difficulty by a body of
cavalry, which cleared the approach amidst frantic yells from the Jacobin
party." *
Quite a remarkable letter appeared at this time in the papers, from the
president, which attracted much comment.  Prince Napoleon, son of Jerome,
had been sent as ambassador to Spain. He was received with much attention on the way, and made some imprudent speeches, which were creating' a
great sensation. The president wrote to him as follows: -
tLYSPE NATIONAL, April 10, 1849.
"MY DEAR COUSIN, -It is said, that, on your way through Bordeaux, you.
made use of words capable of sowing dissension even among the best-intentioned. You are reported to have said that I did not follow my own inspirations, because I was ruled by the leaders of the re-actionary movement; that
I was impatient of the yoke, and wanted to shake it off; and that, in order
to assist me at the approaching elections, it was necessary to send to the
Chamber men hostile to my government, rather than those belonging to the
moderate party.
"Such an imputation, coming from  you, cannot but surprise me. You
should know me well enough to be aware that I never brook the ascendency
of any one; and that I struggle incessantly to govern for the interests of the
people, not for the interests of a party. I honor those men, who, by their
capacity and experience, can give me good counsels; but, if I receive daily
the most contradictory advice, I obey nothing but the impulses of my own
head and heart.
" Censure of my political conduct was, last of all, to be expected from you,
* Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 525.




THE   [OMA.N  QUESTIOr.                                 373
who found fault with my manifesto because it had received the entire sanction of the chiefs of the moderate party. This manifesto, from which I have
not deviated, still continues to be the conscientious expression of my sentiments.
My first duty was to reassure the country.  Well, confidence has been
increasing  during  the last four months.   Every  day has its  own  task.
Security first, reform afterwards.
"The approaching  elections, I entertain no  doubt, by strengthening the
Republic in order and'moderation, will hasten  the period  of all possible
reforms.  To bring all the old parties together, to reconcile them, to unite
them, should be the constant object of our exertions. Such is the mission
attached to the great name we bear; and it would prove a failure if it served
to divide, and. not to rally, the supporters of the government.
" Henceforward, then, I hope, my dear cousin, you will use every exertion
to enlighten the people regarding my real intentions, and to avoid furnishing
grounds, by inconsiderate expressions, for absurd calumnies, which go so far
as to assert that sordid self-interest alone rules fny conduct.  Nothing, repeat
it aloud, shall trouble the serenity of my judgment, or shake the strength of
ray resolution.
" Free from every moral constraint, I shall advance in the path of honor,
with my conscience for my guide; and when I shall retire from  power, if I
may be reproached for faults fatally inevitable, I shall at least have performed
what I sincerely consider my duty.
"Receive, my dear cousin, the assurance of my friendship.
"Louis NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE."
The overthrow  of the Bourbon power in France had excited the revolutionary spirit all over Europe. Crowds of refugees from all countries had
taken shelter in Rome. For some time, the city was in such commotion, that
it presented only an aspect of anarchy. The cardinals were so grossly insulted,
that they dared not appear in the streets. Count Rossi, a gentleman of much
distinction for his abilities, virtues, and high culture, was principal minister.
He had been French ambassador to Rome; and had so won the regards of
the liberal-minded pontiff, that he had elevated him to the important position
of prime minister in the Papal Government. The secret societies had determined upon his assassination, and had decided by lot who was to stirike the
fatal blow. The assassin had practised upon a wooden image, so that, with
unerring aim, he could pierce the great artery of the neck. The minister was
warned of his danger; a priest even violating the law of the confessional to
put him  on his guard.  Count Rossi replied, " If any one desires my blood,
there are plenty of opportunities for shedding it. I shall go on with my
duties as usual." *
"Count Rossi' had been exiled in 1818 from Bologna, where he was professor in the
university; chiefly, it is supposed, on account of his religious principles; for he was a Calvinist.'Rossi went to Geneva, where he married a daughter of M. Guizot, and, following his father-inlaw to Paris, attached himself to his fortunes. In France he rose to the highest dignity, and




374                           LIFE  OF NA*POLEON  III.
On the 15th of November, 1848, he went to the Chamber in his carriage.
The assassins lined the court as he entered, and received him  with a howl of
execration.  In a tumult they gathered around him.  The appointed dagger
pierced his neck, and he fell dead upon the pavement.  Though the deed was
done in the broad blaze of day, the assassin, concealed in the group of his
accomplices, walked off unmolested.*
The deputies in the Chamber being informed of the murder, and apprehending a similar fate from the mol?, fled in dismay.  The remaining ministers
of the pope also vanished.  So great was the terror of the hour, that that
one dagger-thrust seems to have annihilated the Roman Government.  The
revolutionary clubs met in the evening, and prepared to take advantage of
the consternation by forcing a revolutionary government upon the pope.  The
pontiflcial territory  consisted  of nineteen  States, covering  an  area' of over
seventeen thousand square miles, and embracing a population of above three
millions.  A few hundred adventurers in Rome, armed to the teeth and ready
for any outrage, assumed, without any authority, to impose the government
of their will ipon these millions.
The pontiff, Pins IX., formerly Cardinal Mastai, was, by the admission of
his enemies, a sincere, benevolent, honest man; earnestly seeking to introduce such reforms as would promote the best interests of his subjects.  No
one, probably, will  question  the  following  testimony  of  Sir Archibald
Alison: -
"The character of the pontiff, who at this critical juncture was called to
fill the chair of St. Peter, was peculiarly calculated to foster these principles
(liberal opinions) and encourage these hopes.  Mild and affectionate in disposition, averse to violence, having a horror of blood, he aspired only to make
himself loved; and he thought that all the objects of social reform  might be
attained by this blessed influence.  lie saw before him,'in bright perspective,
a pacific extirpation of abuses, unstained by blood, unmoistened by tears.t
" His information, both in regard to his own and neighboring countries, was
very considerable; and he vwas animated with a sincere desire to bring up
Italy, by pacific means, to a level with those countries which had recently so
much outstripped it in liberty, literature, and social progress.  Unfortunately,
was made a peer. Louis Philippe afterwards employed him  upon the difficult mission of
inducing the pope to assist him in the expulsion of the Jesuits; a mission for which Rossi's
superior talents, insinuating manners, and profound knowledge of the intrigues of the Papal
court, peculiarly fitted him. The Pope (Gregory XVI.), besides being exceedingly wroth at
the object of the embassy, was terribly shocked at the idea that the'most Christian king'
should send him a Calvinist ambassador. Rossi, however, succeeded in his mission." - Itldl
and the War of 1859, by Julie de Maqrguerittes, p. 269.'* Moniteur, Nov. 25, 1848.
t The pope, Gipvanni Mastai, was the second son of Count Mastai Ferretti. His parents
were quite opulent, and resided in the ancient town of Sinigallia, on the Adriatic; where
Giovanni was born the 13th of May, 1792. As his elder brother inherited the title and the
estate, Giovanni entered the army, and became a member of the Pope's Guard. At Rome, he
fell in love with a beautiful girl, named Chiara Colonna. She refused his addresses. His
chagrin was so great, that he renounced the world, and entered the church. He soon became
distinguished for his apostolic virtues, his gentleness,, and his unbounded charities.- Italy and
the  War of 1859, p. 266.




THE rOMAN  QUESTION.                                375
he wanted one quality which rendered all the rest of no avail, or rather rendered them  the instruments of evil. He was destitute of firmness, and, like
most ecclesiastics, had no practical acquaintance with mankind.
" He thought he would succeed in ruling men, and directing the social
movement which he saw was inevitable, by appealing only to the humane and
generous feelings; forgetting that the violent and selfish are incessantly acting,
and that, unless they are firmly restrained, the movement will soon be perverted to the objects of rapine and spoliation.  Experience soon taught him
this; and, iin consequence, he was forced into the arms of the other party,
became the opponent of progress, and acquired the character of vacillation
and inconsistency. Kind and benevolent, but weak and inexperienced, he
was the man of all others best fitted to inaugurate, and least to direct or
restrain, a revolution." *
One of the first acts of this benevolent pontiff as he commenced his reign
~an act which had rendered him very popular with the people-  was to issue.a decree of general amnesty   r all p)olitical offences.  There were fifteen hundred captives (some say three thousand) whose prison-doors were thus thrown
open. Many of these were persons, of high rank and accomplished education.
The transport of joy which this clemency inspired no words can describe.
The superb palace of the Quirinal, situated on one of the most beautifufil"eights
ofoe, is the favorite residence of the popes.  It is a gorgeous edifice, commandiing  a magnificent view  of the city, and embellished with  extensive
grounds, which are laid out in the most approved style of landscape gardening.
Crowds of the released captives and their friends hastened to the Quirinal
to express their gratitude to the holy father for his act of mercy. Twice in
the space of a few hours, the pope came out upon the balcony to give his
blessing to the grateful multitude, who crowded the court with their thanks
and homage. Night came, and it brought still a third crowd; and the square
of the Quirinal blazed with bonfires and torches. Again the venerable pontiff,
disregarding the rules of etiquette, came forth to pronounce his benediction
upon the people kneeling in tears of joy before him. The whole city was
brilliant with the light of a spontaneous illumination. This was on the 16th
of July, 1846.
Eighteen months passed away, and, on this very square of the Quirinal, a
crowd -of the fickle multitude surrounded the carriage of the pontiff with hootings. They mounted the steps with menaces and imprecations; while one
wretch leaped upon the box behind, and waved derisively a tricolor flag over
the head of the holy father.
On the 16th of November, the day after the assassination of Rossi, several
hundred desperadoes, members of secret societies, followed by an immense
concourse, marched to the Quirinal with a list of men designated by them,
whom  they demanded that the pope should appoint as his ministers. The
Swiss Guard, but one hundred in number, closed the gates of the palace
against them. The mob recoiled before a few shots thrown over their heads;
but soon the Civic Guard came up, several thousand strong, and opened fire
* History of Europe, vol. viii. p. 205.




376                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
upon the palace with musketry and cannon. The Swiss fought well; but the
gates'were soon blown down: and, a prelate being shot dead in the antechamber, the pope ordered the firing to cease.
The mob now sent in a delegation, with a list of ministers composed of the
most decided revolutionists, which  they ordered the pope to sign. He
resisted for some time; but the clamor was so great, and the menaces so
appalling, that he was compelled to yield. Loud shouts burst from the lips of
the crowd as they retired, exulting over their victory.
The sovereign was now a prisoner in his palace, and utterly powerless.  He
took no part in public affairs, and sought only an opportunity to escape. This
he accomplished through the assistance of the Bayarian minister, Count Spaur.
The count obtained passports for his wife and Pius IX., under the name of Dr.
Sumner Kann and lady from  Munich.  In this guise they entered the minister's carriage on the 24th, the count riding outside as their servant; and thus
they reached Gaeta, the first town on the Neapolitan frontier.
Rome was now left entirely in the hands of the revolutionists. The successful insurgents convened an assembly, dethroned-the pope, and proclaimed
a republic. The Prince of Canino, son of Lucien Bonaparte, - a very stanch
republican, -was chosen President of the Revolutionary Assembly.
These events occurred in November, 1848, a month before the election of Louis
Napoleon as President of the French Republic. The executive power of
France was then in the hands of General Cavaignac as dictator. All intelligent men saw that the Revolutionists in Rome were acting insanely; for it was
manifest that Austria would immediately send an army to re-establish the pope
and.crush the insurgents.  Count Rossi, the friend of reform, had, before the
outbreak, earnestly warned these fanatics of the danger which they were
incurring by rushing, in their weakness, into a war with Austria.
"What do you propose to yourselves," said he, " by your incessant provocations against Austria'? It is not threatening you. It confines itself to the
limits which the treaties have assigned. It is a war of independence which
you would invoke. Let us, then, calculate your forces. You have sixty thousand regular troops in Piedmont, and not a man more. You speak of the
enthusiasm of the Italian populations. I know them. Traverse them from
end to end: see if a heart beats, if a man moves, if an arm is ready to commence the fight. The Piedmontese once beaten, the Austrians may go from
Reggio to Calabria without meeting a single Italian.
" I understand you: you will apply to France. A fine result, truly, of the
war of independence, - to bring foreign armies again upon your soil! The Austrians and the French fighting on Italian soil! -is not that your eternal, your
lamentable history?  You would be independent. France is,o already.
France is not a corporal in the service of Italy. She makes war when and
for whom she pleases. She neither puts her standards nor her battalions at
the disposal of any one else." +
These violent men, reckless, and generally unintelligent, heeded not these
* Moniteur, Nov. 25, 1848.       t Italy and the War of 1859, p. 270.
t D'llausonville, vol. ii. p. 251.




THE ROMAN QUESTION.                                      377
warnings, and precipitated a revolution which it was certain that Austria had
the power and the disposition immediately to crush.  As we have mentioned,
Cavaignac was at this time Dictator of France.  Louis Napoleon was then a
member of the Chamber of Deputies.  Though generally silent and inactive,
he was very carefully studying the posture of affairs.  France was greatly
agitated by the untoward news from Rome.  It was certain that Austria would
immediately intervene, not to aid the Romans to establish a republic, but to
seat the pope again upon his throne; and then the pontiff, being under such
supreme obligation to the Austrians,.and holding his sceptre through the protection of their armies, would be compelled to govern under those principles
of absolutism  which Austria might dictate.  The papal power, morally the
greatest power in Europe, would thus be in entire subservience to the Empire
of Austria.  Franc, could not admit this; for all the physical and moral strength
of Italy would thus be arrayed against the principles of popular liberty which
were springing to life in France.*
To avert this peril, General Cavaignac, in virtue of his dictatorial powers,
immediately despatched three *steam-frigates to Civita Vecchia to take  the
holy father under the protection of France. It was a political movement
merely, that French, not Austrian, influence might dominate in the Peninsula.
The whole subject was debated in the French Chamber of Deputies with much
animation.  No particular line of policy had been marked out for the fiigates
to pursue, though they were authorized to convey the pope to France if he
would accept the hospitality of the French Republic.  The radical Republicans
hoped that the troops would give their influence to establish and maintain the
Republic; but the dynasties were watching France with a jealous and menacing eye. The more moderate party apprehended that this would be regarded
as an act of propagandism of revolutionary principles which would alarm all
the courts, and bring down upon France again, as in the days of Napoleon I.,
the horrors of a universal European coalition. In the debate upon this question, M. Barrot said, -
"If we allow Austria time to go to the Eternal City, it will be, in the first
place, a very serious injury to French influence in Italy: it will also insure
the re-establishment of absolutism at Rome, as in the time of Gregory XVI.
Let us, then, intervene ourselves, that the cabinet of Vienna may not acquire
an undue influence in Italy, and that we may prove a safeguard to Roman
liberty" t
* Protestants, generally, are not aware of the fervor of emotion with which the zealous members of the Roman-Catholic Church cling to their faith; and it is estimated that that coummunion
numbers in Europe about two hundred millions. The following sentiment from the Abbd J. H.
Mignon expresses the feelings of a vast multitude. The sovereign'of a Catholic country who
should ignore this sentiment would be insane.
"There is one name which my lips never pronounce but with profound veneration. It recalls
to me, in my mature years as in my more tender youth, the power and the goodness of Christ
visibly represented on earth; and the day in which that name shall fall upon my ear without
awakening in me filial respect, I shall believe that an impious thought has come to succeed in
the depths of my soul that pure faith which I have imbibed with my mother's milk. This name
is that of the pope." - Projet de Solution da la Question Roinaine, par I'Abbe J. HI. Mignon.
t MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 197.
48




378                       LIFE  OF NAPOLEO   III.
The action of General Cavaignac was approved by a majority vote of the
Assembly.  It was voted to intervene, while it was still not decided what character the intervention should assume. Many, however, strongly opposed a
movement so entirely undefined. At this vote, Louis Napoleon was not present.  He was censured for not committing hiaself for or against the measure.
It would seem  that he was in favor of intervention but was not willin  to
vote blindly, without knowing what course the troops were to pursue.   very
eye in France was watching his action.  This led him  to write the following
letter to the " Constitutionnel "" Mr. EDITOR,-  Understanding that my declining to vote on the question
relating to the Civita-Vecchia expedition has been made the subject of
remark, I think it my duty to declare, that, though altogether of the opinion
that all proper measures for effectually securing the liberty and authority of
the sovereign pontiff should be supported, I could not approve by my vote
of a military demonstration that to me seemed dangerous even for the sacred
interests it is intended to protect, and of a nature to compromise the fate of
Europe.                                 "Receive, &c.
"Louis N. BONAPARTE."
Many thought that they discerned in this letter a secret leaning towards
the Revolutionary party in Rome; and when it was afterwards learned that
the Prince of Canino, son of Lucien Bonaparte and cousin of Louis Napoleon,
was chosen President of the Revolutionary Roman National Assembly, Louis
Napoleon was openly accused of being in secret correspondence with him
for the purpose of revolutionizing all Italy. The friends of order were
alarmed. It was feared that Louis Napoleon would place himself at the head
of revolutionary propagandism, and that billows of insurreption and war
would sweep all Europe.
France was Catholic. Even in the cities, the overwhelming majority of
the people, and almost the whole population of the country, were devotedly
attached to their religious faith. The Revolutionists in Rome were generally,
not only hostile to Catholicism, but the foes of Christianity. Nothing could
be more obnoxious to the Catholics than to have the revered head of their
church treated with disrespect. Louis Napoleon was then a candidate for
the presidency. His enemies began to urge that he was the foe of the Catholic
faith, that he was in sympathy with the insurgents who had murdered Rossi
and stormed the Quirinal, and that he wished to dethrone and degrade the
holy father. Louis Napoleon, pressed by these rumors, wrote the following
letter to the pope's nuncio, then in Paris: 
"MOXSEIGNEUR), -I am  unwilling that you should give credence to the
reports tending to render me an accomplice of the Prince of Canino's conduct
at Rome. For a long time, I have had no intercourse with the eldest son of
Lucien Bonaparte; and I deplore with all my soul that he has not perceived
that the maintenance of the temporal sovereignty of the venerable head of




THE ROMAN QUESTION.                                      379
the Church, is intimately connected with the lustre of Catholicity as well as
with the liberty and independence of Italy.
Receive, monseigneur, the assurance of my high esteem.
" LOUIS N. BONAPARTE."
Soon after this, France, with almost undivided voice, placed her sceptre of
executive power in the hands of Louis Napoleon.  Never did one assume
government surrounded  with  greater difficulties and  perils at home  and
abroad.*  No intelligent and candid man  can contemplate the position, and
not admire the combined sagacity and firmness which rescued  the nation
from  its perils.  When the newly-elected president entered the Palace of the
lysee, the pope was a fu(gitive at Gaeta, in the kingdom  of Naples.  The
three French steamers sent by Cavaignac to Civita Vecchia had accomplished
nothing.  Austria was gathering her strength to march upon Rome, crush the
insurgents, and re-enthrone the pope.  The ambassadors of all foreign courts
still recognized the Pontifical Government, and were assembled at Gaeta
around the little court which the pontiff had gathered there.  The President
of the French Republic and the National Assembly deemed it necessary to
adopt some decisive course of action. *
The Army of the Alps was then under the command of Marshal Bugeaud.
A  detachment of this army, consisting at first of thirty-five hundred men, was
sent to Civita Vecchia under command of General Oudinot, son of the distinguished marshal of the same name under Napoleon  I.  The expedition
sailed from  Toulon on the 22d of April, 1849, and entered  the harbor of
Civita Vecchia on the 25th of the same month. Still the object of the expedition seems not to have been very clearly announced; though, doubtless, the
president had a very definite plan in his mind. There were at that time two
parties, in France, of those who favored the intervention: the one party was
in sympathy with the pope, and expected that the expedition would restore
him to his temporal power; the other party was in sympathy with the Revolutionists, and expected that the expedition would sustain them in their insurrection. Sir Archibald Alison says, -
"So completely had the Italian Liberals been misled by the diplomatic
interference of France, along with England, in their favor, that, when the
French'armament appeared off their shores, they never doubted that they
were coming as friends. Accordingly, they allowed the troops to land without opposition; and for some days the French and Roman soldiers mounted
*guard side by side." t
* "It was true that he had many a stormy element to encounter; had to pass all the quicksands
and shoals of Parisian capriciousness; to set upon and subdue the boisterous, bloody mountain;
to bring order out of the chaos of revolution; to quiet the minds of the people of France, and
re-assure them that there was sufficient stability, conservatism, and virtue in society to preserve
it. lie managed this so steadily as to elicit confidence, excite hope, and rally around himself
those who desired domestic peace, the preservation of property, and the protection of life. His
name, amid all the wild tumults of his two-years' presidency, loomed up as a landmark of safety, a breakwater against the angry waves of discord, a symbol of future solidity and rest." -
Italy and the War of 1859, p. 89. -
t History of Europe, vol. viii. p. 398.




380                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The troops disembarked on the 26th, and commenced their march towards
the capital.  General Oudinot issued the following proclamation 
" INHABITANTS OF THE ROMAN STATES,    A French army-corps has landed
upon your territory.  It is not its object to exercise an oppressive influence,
or to impose upon you a government not conformed to your wishes. The
corps comes only to preserve you from the greatest misfortunes, and to facilitate, if it can, the establishment of a regime equally separated from the abuses
forever destroyed by the illustrious Pis IX. and from  the anarchy of these
last times."
The Roman Revolutionary Assembly, after a long debate, decided that the
expedition imperilled their republic, and resolved to repel it by force. General Oudinot encountered unexpected resistance as he approached the walls
of Rome, and, after a pretty severe battle, was driven back with considerable
loss. The intelligence of this unexpected defeat excited varied emotions in
Paris.  The enemies of the government were overjoyed. Louis Napoleon
wrote the following letter of sympathy and encouragement to General Oudinot. It was dated Palace of the Elysee, May 8, 1849
"MY DEAR GENERAL, -The telegraphic intelligence announcing the unforeseen resistance you have met under the walls of Rome has given me
much pain. I had expected that the inhabitants of Rome, opening their eyes
to evident reason, would receive with joy an army that came amongst them
to accomplish a benevolent and disinterested mission.
" This has not been the case. Our soldiers have been received as enemies.
Our military honor is pledged. I shall not suffer it to be injured. You shall
have re-enforcements.  Tell your soldiers that I appreciate their Valor and
share in their trouble, and that they can always rely upon my support and
my gratitude.
"Receive, my dear general, the assurance of my high esteem.
"Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
In the first message of the President of the Republic, on the 6th of June,
the following'account is given by the president of the origin of this expedition, and its result until that time:
"At Rome, a revolution has been effected which has deeply moved the
Catholic and the liberal world. During the last two years, we have seen in
the holy see a pontiff who has taken the initiative in useful reforms, arid
whose name, repeated in hymns of gratitude from  one end of Italy to
another, was the symbol of liberty and the pledge of all hopes; when suddenly it was heard with astonishnient that that sovereign, lately the idol of
his people, had been constrained to fly furtively from his capitol.
"The acts of aggression which compelled Pius IX. to leave Rome appear
in  the eyes of Europe to be the work of a conspiracy rather than the
spontaneous movement of a people who could sot, in a moment, have passed




THE ROMAN QUESTION.                                     381
from  the most lively enthusiasm  to the most afflictive ingratitude.*   The
Catholic powers sent ambassadors to Gaeta to deliberate upon the important
interests of the papacy.   France was represented there.  She  listened to
all parties without taking  sides; but, after the  defeat. of Novara,t affairs
assumed a more decided aspect.  Austria, in concert with Naples, responding
to an  appeal from  the holy father, notified  the  French  Government that
these two powers had decided to march upon  Rome, to  re-establish there,
unconditionally, the authority of the pope.
"Beingo  thus obliged to  take some action, there were but three courses
which we could pursue, ~ either to oppose by arms all intervention  (and in
that case we should break with all Catholic Europe) for the sole interest of
the Roman'Republic, which we have not recognized; or to leave the three
coalesced  powers to re-establish at their pleasure, and unconditionally, the
papal authority.; or to exercise, of our own  accord, direct and independent
action.
"The government of the Republic adopted the latter course.  It seemed
to us easy to. satisfy the Romans, that, pressed on all sides, they had no chance
of safety but from us; that, if our presence had for its result the return of
Pius IX., that sovereign, faithful to himself, would take back with him reconciliation  and liberty; that we, being  once  at Rome, would guarantee the
integrity of the territory by taking away from  Austria all pretext for entering
Romagna.  W-e even hoped that our flag, planted without resistance in the
centre of Italy, would have extended its protective influence over the whole
of the Peninsula, to none of whose griefs can we ever be indifferent.
"The expedition to Civita Vecchia was then resolved upon in concert with
the National Assembly, which voted the necessary supplies. It had all the
chances for success. From information received from Rome, all agreed, that,
with the exception of a small number of men who had  seized upon power,
the population awaited our arrival with impatience. Simple reason taught us
that it must be so; for, between our intervention and that of the other powers,
the choice could not be doubtful.
"A concurrence of unfortunate circumstances has decided otherwise. Our
expeditionary corps, small in numbers, since serious resistance had not been
anticipated, disembarked at Civita Vecchia; and the government is instructed,
that if, on the same day, it could have arrived at Rome, the gates would have
been thrown open with joy.  But, while General Oudinot was notifying the
government at Rome of his arrival, Garibaldi entered there, at the head of
* "France was still a Catholic country; but, even if she were not, here was an act of injustice
too flagrant, and indeed too dangerous, to be overlooked. She saw a horde of adventurers, most
of them fugitives from the punishment their turbulent conduct had deserved, generously received
by one of the most benevolent sovereigns that ever existed, and then taking such advantage of
circumstances as to instigate his mercurial subjects to dethrone him, and establish a form of
government, of the name even of which they did not know the meaning." - Life of Napoleon III.,
by Edward Roth, p. 413.
f There is here allusion to the efforts of the Piedmontese to throw off the yoke of Austrian
domination. Their armies were crushed and annihilated by the Austrians in the terrible battle
of Novara, fought on the 23d of March, 1849.




LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
troops formed of refugees from all parts of Italy, and even from the rest of
Europe.  His presence, as may be imagined, increased suddenly the force
of the party of resistance.
"On the 30th of April, six thousand of our soldiers -presented themselves
before the walls of Rome.  They were received with cannon-shot.  Some
even, drawn into a snare, were taken prisoners.*  We all must mourn over
the blood shed on that sad day.  That unexpected conflict, without changing
th6 final accomplishment of our enterprise, has paralyzed our kind intentions,
and rendered vain the efforts of our negotiators."
The whole of this message is worthy of transcription; but our space forbids.
In conclusion, the president says, "I hope, gentlemen, that what I have said
will prove to you that my intentions are conformed to your own. You wish,
as do I, to labor for the happiness of the people who have. elected n^; for
the'lorv, for the prosperity, of our country.  You think, as do I, that the
best means of attaining these ends are, not violence and cunning  (ruse), but
firmness and justice.  France confides itself to the patriotism  of the members
of the Assembly.  She hopes that truth  revealed in broad day from  the
tr~i-h1   will confound falsehood and disarm  error.  The Executive power, on
its part, wil (0do its duty.
"I incite under the flag of the Republic, and upon the platform  of the
Constitution, all men devoted to the safety of the country.  I rely upon their
co-operation and upon their intelligence to enlighten me, upon my conscience
to conduct me, upon the protection of God to accomplish my mission."
The military pride of France was intensely wounded by the repulse which
her soldiers had encountered beneath the walls of Rome. With the exception of a few partisans who rejoiced over any discomfiture of the government, the nation was united in the sentiment, that the disgrace must be
obliterated by victory and the capture of Rome. General Oudinot repaired
to Palo, about three miles from  Civita Vecchia, to await re-enforce  ents.
These were immediately despatched in large numbers from  Toulon.  li the
course of a few weeks, he found his force strengthened by eight regiments of
infantry, one of cavalry, and a train of siege artillery.
The Neapolitans, composing in reality but a wing of the Austrian army,
consisting of nearly nine thousand men, infantry and cavalry, and fifty-two
guns, were now advancing upon Rome.  Their intervention was to rivet the
chains of absofutism  upon  Rome  and  Italy.   The  French  intervention
aimed  to secure for the Papal States, nuder the pope, liberal institutions
which should be in  accord with  those which France was endeavoring  to
establish.  At the same time, a Spanish force of six thousand men, auxiliary
to the Neapolitans, disembarked at Gaeta to assist in the restoration of his
Holiness.  France refused any co-operation with these forces, reserving the
occupation of Rome for her own troops.
"In this untoward affair, the French lost four officers and one hundred and eighty men
killed, eleven officers and four hundred men wounded, and eleven officers and five hundred and
sixty men made prisoners; while the entire loss on the side of the Romans was only three hun.
dred and twenty." - Ann. Hist. 1849, p. 623.




THE IROMAN QrUESTION.                                      383
The French  troops, stung by defeat, were panting for revenge, and  clamored to be led again against the foe by whom  they had been repelled.  The
executive powers of the Roman Republic were formally vested in three men,
called the triumvirate, -  Mazzini,* Annellini, and Saffi; the first a Lombard,
the other two Romans by birth.  The President of France, anxious to arrest
if possible the effusion of blood, and yet deeming it essential to the interests
of France that the Austrians should not be permitted to occupy Rome, and
thus attain the ascendency throughout the whole  of the Italian Peninsula,
sent M. Lefrege, a diplomatic agent, to urge upon this triumvirate the itmpossibility of their resisting Austria, should France withdraw; that French
protection would secure equal rigbts for all; that Austrian domination would
consign Italy to unrelenting  civil and  ecclesiastical absolutism.  But these
pacific endeavors were quite unavailing.
[1n.
The Revolutionary party in Rome had, in the mean time, adopted the most
vigorous measures for defence.  They had strengthened the walls, mounted
heavy artillery upon the ramparts, and reared  a very perfect series of barricades to defend the streets.  They hoped thus to be able to prolong  the contest until the autumn, when the malaria of the Campagna, a foe more deadly
than bullet or sword, would either destroy the besiegers, or put them  to flight.
There were twenty thousand armed men within the walls, with two hundred
pieces of artillery, and ample supplies of ammunition.t Early in June, General
Oudinot had twenty-eight thousand men  under his command, with  a train
of ninety pieces of artillery.
Hostilities were recommenced  on the 2d  of June.  The siege was vigorously conducted, and the defence was equally energetic. The French lost
not a few advantages in their anxiety to conduct the assault in such a way as
not to imperil the inestimable treasures of art and the stately monuments of
antiquity with which the city abounded.'For seventeen days and nights,
the conflict raged with great severity; and yet General Oudinot would not
* "Mazzini, who was at this time, in reality, Dictator in Rome, was one of those remarkable
men who arc painted by their friends as angels, and by their enemies as demons. He was born
in Genoa in 1809, the son of a distinguished mother. He studied for the law; but, imbibing
extreme democratic principles, devoted all his energies, through an incessant series of unsuccessful struggles, to their dissemination. He is considered a man of much intellectual ability,
an eloquent speaker and writer. His whole life has been spent in proclaiming his principles by
speech and pen, and in organizing revolutionary parties,. He was a man of singular purity of
character, loving retirement, study, and solitary walks by moonlight; and would ever reprove a
wanton jest or an indelicate allusion made in his presence. Though one may doubt the wisdom
of his movements, no one can reasonably question the sincerity of his self-consecration to what
he deemed the best interests of Italy." - The War in Italy in 1859, pp. 277-285.
t " The Eternal City alone presented an accessible rallying-point to the discomfited insurgents; and it was, in consequence, filled by them. It was under tfhi command of the most noted
leaders from all parts of Italy, - Mazzini, Garibaldi, and.Avezzana. The first brought to the cause
the aid of unbounded revolutionary enthusiasm, devout trust in human perfectibility, considerable powers of eloquence, and unscrupulous ambition; the second led under his standard all
the ardent spirits and refugees who had been expelled from Lombardy and Tuscany by the Austrian arms; while the third, who had come from Genoa with five hundred followers, and had
been created minister at war, imported the knowledge of command which he had acquired when
at the head of tha National Guard of Genoa." - History of Europe; by Sir Archibald Alison, vol.
viii. p. 398.




384                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
allow a single bomb to be thro>wn into the city. Mazzini and the Revolutionary party were consoling themselves with the hope that Ledru Rollin and the
Opposition in France would be able to incite an insurrection which would
overthrow  the French Government, and introduce a re'gime which would
favor the Roman Republic. In the despatches sent to General Oudinot by
the president, the minister of war wrote, -
" The president wishes that the monuments of Rome, which are' the admiration of all civilized people, should be honored and protected. Act so that
art and history may not have occasion to deplore the ravages inseparable from
a siege. If you are forced to carry the city by assault, remind your soldiers
that they are not at war with the inhabitants of Rome, but with their oppressors and their enemies. Burn more powder if necessary. Put off the capture
of the city a day or two to spare the blood of our brave soldiers."
On the 2d of July, a practicable breach was formed. At three o'clock in
the morning, an advance bastion was carried by assault, and Rome was at the
mercy of the conquerors. The white flag of surrender was hoisted on the
Castle of St. Angelo. The French entered the city, and immediately proclaimed the re-establishment of the papal authority under the protection of
France. The triumvirate fled at midnight with five thousand men, after
having issued the following proclamation: -
"RoMANs, - In the darkness of the night, by means of treason, the enemy
has set foot on the breach. Arise, ye people, in your might! Destroy him!
Fill the breach with his carcasses! Blast the enemy, the accursed of God,
who dare touch the sacred walls of Rome! While Oudinot resorts. to this
infamous act, France rises up, an'd recalls its troops from this'work of invasion.
One more effort, Romans, and your country is saved forever. Rome, by its
constancy, regenerates all Europe. In the name of your fathers, in the name
of your future hopes, arise, and give battle. Arise and conquer! One prayer
to the God of battles, one thought to your faithful brethren, one hand to your
arms! Every man becomes a hero. This day decides the fate of Rome and
of the Republic.                            "MAZZINI, ANNELLINI, SAFFI."
This was an eloquent though scarcely an appropriate utterance for leaders
on the rapid retreat. There was some ground for the assertion, that " France
rises up, and recalls her troops from  this invasion."  In the preamble to the
French Constitution which the Assembly had drawn up, it was declared, -
"The Republic respects all foreign nationalities in the same manner as she
expects her own to be respected. She undertakes no war with the idea of
personal aggrandizement, and will never employ her strength against the
liberty of any nation."
Those who hoped that the French army had marched to the protection of
the revolutionary government in Rome, and-not to its overthrow, were exceedingly indignant in view of the measures of the government, and appealed to
the above preamble as proof that the president had violated his trust. They
consequently, in accordance with French democratic custom, called upon the
mob of Paris to rise in insurrection, and obtain redress by a revolution. In




THE ROMAN  QUESTION.                                385
contemplation of this movement, the Socialists had constrained their candidates for election to the Assembly to subscribe a declaration containing the
following sentiments:Te Reputblic is above any majorities.  If the constitution is violated,
the representatives of the people should be the first to set an example of
armed resistance.  The employment of the forces of France against any
people is a crime, and a violation of the constitution.  France is bound to
give succor to every people combating."
The clubs and the radical newspapers reiterated this cry against the governmrent, denouncing it in the severest terms for its intervention in favor of the
pontiff, and striving to arouse the populace of Paris to a new  revolution.
The following, from a published speech in one of these clubs, will show the
spirit of the hour: -
"A contest-is commencing. It will be terrible. Treason is consummated.
They are about to assassinate the Roman Republic. We are entitled to say
so to a functionary who has betrayed the Republic; and Bonaparte is that
functionary.  Louis XVI. conspired, and  little time elapsed between the
return from Varennes and its expiation." *
The "1 Vraie Republique " addressed its readers in the following strain
"The Mountain will come to the tribune to proclaim the dethronement. High
treason has been committed.  The right of dethronement has arisen. To
oppose that right would be to teaiin pieces the constitution, destroy the
Republic, and abdicate by the very act the sovereignty of the people."
"The minister," exclaimed Ledru Rollin in the Assembly, "who ordered an
expedition to Rome, and who did not direct it to act for the interest of the
Roman Republic, shall henceforth bear a mark of blood on his forehead. The
constitution has been violated. We shall defend it by every means in our
power, - even with arms."
In accordance with these view4, M. Ledru Rollin presented to the Assembly, on the 10th of June, an act of accusation, signed by one hundred and
twenty-three of the members, against the president and his ministry. But
this very Assembly had voted to send the expedition to Rome, and had furnished it abundantly with supplies. The act of accusation was rejected by a
large majority. Ledru Rollin and his associates, doubtless, knew that it wivuld
be. The measure was intended merely as the first step to rouse the populace
to an insurrection. The conspirators, through the clubs and the radical journals, put all their machinery for rousing the mob in active operation. The
pensive, silent, indomitable president, in his cabinet at the Elysee, had his eye
constantly upon them. He soon satisfied France that the destinies of the
realm were no longer intrusted to a Louis Philippe or a Louis XVI.
On the morning of the 13th of June, an immense throng began to gather on
the Boulevard, near the Chateau d'Eau. All Paris understood what it meant,
and held its breath in suspense.  Who could tell when or how such a' conflagration would be extinguished?  The throng soon assumed the aspect of a
resistless insurrection. It was observed that the whole body of the Socialists
* Club Roisin, Faubourg St. Antoine, No. 169.
49




386                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III
of the Faubourg St. Antoine and of the Faubourg  St. Marceau were i  the
ranks.  As they marched along the Boulevards, towards the Chamber of Deputies, they shouted, " We are going to finish with Bonaparte and the National
Assembly! "'*
General Changarnier was in command of the armed force of Paris.  With
five regients, including infantry  and cavalry, he quietly, and almost unobserved, took his station in the Rue de Richelieu, which enters the Boulevard
at riht. angles.  When one-half of the column of insurgents had p
suddenly issued from his retreat, and falling perpendicularly upon the flank of
the column, without any difficulty, and without any struggle, cut it in two;
then wheeling to the right and left, with his forces rapidly accumulating from
his rear, he advanced in both directions at the pas d  charge.  Bayonets and
bullets were ready to be employed if it were needful; but it was not needful.
The insurgents fled in all directions like  sheep before hounds.   In  a  few
moments the streets were cleared, without firing a gun or shedding a drop of
blood. A shout of derisive laughter echoed along the streets of Paris as the
citizens rejoiced over this sudden and comical dispersion of the threatened
terror.t
M. Ledru Rollin and twenty-five of the most determined of his confederates,
who had met to organize a provisional government, took refuge in the Conservatoire  des Arts  et des Metiers, in  the  Rue  St. Martin.  As the troops
approached, the insurgents threw themselves out of the windows, and took to
flight; and Ledru Rollin succeeded in escaping to England..At four o'clock'in the afternoon, all was quiet. The president, accompanied
by his staff, rode along the whole length of the Boulevards. He was loudly
cheered by the people, who were rejoiced in being thus rescued from the terrible scenes of revolution. The following proclamation was the next morning
extensively placarded throughout Paris: -
"PROCLAMATION  OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE PEOPLE.
"ELYSEE, June 13, 1849.
"Some factious men dare again to raise the standard of revolt against a
government legitimate, since it is the product of universal suffrage. They
accuse me of having violated the constitution, -  me, who have endured for
six months, without being moved, their injuries, their calumnie~, their provocations. The majority of the Assembly is the object of their outrages. The
* "There were two manifestoes placarded throughout Paris by the leaders of the insurrection.
The first, which was signed by a hundred of the representatives who belonged to the Socialist
and extreme Democratic party, declared that the term of the president, of the ministry, and of a
majority of the Assembly, had been brought to an end by the Roman expedition.
The second was as follows:'The President of the Republic, and the ministers, are without
the pale of the constitution. That part of the 4ssembly which by voting has rendered itself their
accomplice is also without the pale of the constifution. National Guards, arise! Let the workshops be closed! Our brethren of the army, remember that you are citizens, and, as such, th~t
your first duty is to defend the constitution! Let the entire people rise!' "~Histoire politique et
popuoaire du Prince Louis Napoleon, par L.Emile Marco de St. Hilaire, p. 280.
t Moniteur, June 14, 1849.
\ Moniteur, June 15, 1849.




THE ROMAN QUESTION.                              387
accusation brought against me is only a pretext; and the proof is, that those
who attack me now pursued me with the same hatred, the same injustice,
when the people of Paris nominated me as their representative, and the people
of France as President of the Republic.
"This system of agitation maintains in the country uneasiness and mistrust,
which engender misery. It must cease. It is time that the good should be
re-assured, and that the wicked should tremble. The Republic has no enemies
more implacable than the men, who, perpetuating disorder, force us to change
France into a vast camp, and our projects for amelioration and progress into
preparations for conflict and defence.
"Elected by the nation, the cause which I defend is yours: it is that of
your families as of your property, that of the poor as of the rich, that of entire
civilization. I shall recoil before nothing in order to make it triumph.
" Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
This utter failure to force upon France extreme Socialistic and Democratic
principles so strengthened the arm of power, that it was enabled, with but
slight opposition, to suppress the revolutionary clubs, and so far to curb the
license of the press as to impose a penalty upon any endeavor to incite the
citizens to revolt, or to dissuade the soldiers from sustaining the established
government.




CHAPTER XXIII.
THE  WAR  OF THE  ASSEMBLY  AGAINST  THE  PRESIDENT.
Speech at Chartres, at Amiens, Angers, Nantes. - Sketch of Bonchamp. - Speech at Ronen. -
The lWorkman at Elbeuf. - Incident at Fixin. - Speech at LEpernay. - Affairs at Rome. 
Letter to the President of the Assembly. - Refugees in Paris. - Universal Suffrage suspended. - Socialist Triumph. - Speech of Thiers. - Salary of the President. - Combination
against him. -His Imperturbable Serenity.; BOUT a fortnight after the quelling of the Socialistic insurrection in Paris and in Lyons (where the conspirators had also
l   roused the populace, and instig'ated a bloody conflict), the presl ident took a short tour through some of the provinces.  His
strength lay in the millions-of the rural population, and he was
everywhere received with great enthusiasm. The brief speeches
which he made on these occasions, seldom  more than two minutes i ength,
were -models for such addresses.  At Chartres, Jhe said, on the 6th  of July,
1849,"I thank the mayor for the words which lie has uttered; and I offer a toast
to the city of Chartres, where I have received a welcome so kind and so cordial.  I am happy to visit this city, which recalls two grand epochs, two grand
souvenirs, of our history.  It was at Chartres that St. Bernard preached the
second crusade,-magnificent idea of the middle age,-which rescued France
from domestic broils, and elevated the cultivation of faith above material
interests.
"It was also at Chartres that Henry IV. was crowned.  It wa~ here that
he marked the close of ten years of civil war, in coming to demand of religion
to bless the return of peace and concord.  And to-clay it is still to faith and to
conciliation that it is necessary to appeal, -to faith, which sustains us, and enables us to bear all the afflictions of life; to conciliation, which augments our
strength, and leads us to hope for a happier fature.  I offer, then,' To Fdith,
to Conciliatin, to the City of chartres!'"
At Amiens, which was essentially a Legitimist town, he was greeted with
the warmest enthusiasm  by the population.  It was the 16th of July.  The
president said, -
"The flattering and enthusiastic welcome I receive touches me profoundly.
I have done so little for my country, that I am  at the same time gratified and
confused by this ovation. I attribute it, also, much more to my name than to
myself. France knew, in giving me her suffrages, that that name represented
388




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.    889
not only war and victory, but much more, -  order and peace.  The city of
Arniens, particularly, was convinced of this,-this city, which, in the midst of
a European conflagration, has seen within these walls, and even in the hall
where we are now assembled, the signing of that famous treaty, which, in 1802,
was designed to conciliate th. interests of the two most civilized nations in
the world.  The single idea of the peace of the empire will pass to posterity
under the,namne of the city of Amiens. It is, then, to tlhs remembrance that
I attribute a reception truly triumphal. You wish for peace, - but a glorious
peace, fertile in benefits at home and in influence abroad.' To Peace, to the
City of Amiens!'"
On the 22d of July, the prince  entered  the village of I-lam, in  whose
vicinity rose the gloomy walls of the castle where he had endured six years
of captivity. In response to the address of the mayor, he said, -
"I am profoundly moved by the affectionate reception with which  I have
been greeted by your fellow-citizens; but, believe me, I have nit come to
Ham  from  pride, but from  gratitude.  My heart impelled  me to thank the
inhabitants of this village and of its environs for all the marks of sympathy
which they unceasingly gave me during my misfortunes.
To-day, when, elected by entire France, I have become the legitimate
chief of this great nation, I cannot take prfde in a captivity which was
caused by an attack upon a regular government. When we see how revolutions the most just draw evils after them, we can scarcely appreciate the
audacity of having  wished to assume upon  one's self the responsibility of
a change.  I do not complain, then, of having expiated here, by an imprisonment of six years, my temerity against the laws of my country; and it is
with satisfaction, that, in these places in which I haive suffered, I propose to
you a toast in honor of the men who are determined, in spite of their convictions, to respect established institutions."
At Augers, on the same day, the president said, " In passing through your
city in the midst of the acelamations of the people, I have asked myself
what I have done to merit a reception so flattering, so enthusiastic. It is not
only because I am the nephew of the man who caused all our civil dissensions
to cease that you receive me with so much kindness: for I cannot do for you
what the emperor has done; I have neither his genius nor his power. But
your acclamations explain  themselves, since  I represent the  system   of
moderation and conciliation inaugurated by the Republic, - that system which
consists in implanting in France, not that savage liberty which permits each
one to do what he will, but that liberty of civilized people which permits
each one to do whatever may not be injurious to the interests of the community.  Under all re'gimes, there are, I know, oppressors and oppressed;
but, so long as I am President of the Republic, there shall be no oppressed
party.  There is nio  city  which  will comprehend  and  defend  with  more
devotion' than Angers this wise policy, which we wish to make triumphant."
* La politique imperiale Exposee par les Discours et Proclamations de 1'Empereur Napoleon III. depuis le 10 decembre, 1848, p. 30.




390                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
He  reached  Nantes on  the 30th of July, and, in the following  address,
responded to the welcome he received: "The journey I have made to come
here to you will remain'profoundly egraven in my heart; for it has been
fertile in remembrances and in hope.  I           t         without emotion  that I have
seen the majestic river, behind which the last glorious battalions of our grand
army took refuge.*  It is not without emotion  that I arrest my steps with
respect before the tomnb of Bonchamp. It is not without emotion, that to-day,
seated  in the  midst of you, I find  myself in presence of  the statue  of
Cambronne.t  All these remembrances, so nobly appreciated by you prove to
me, that, if fate had so willed, we might still be the great nation through our
arms.
" But there is to-day a glory equally grand: it is to oppose ourselves to all
civil war and to all foreign war, and to become great through our industry
and our commerce.  You see this forest of masts which languishes here in
your port.   It waits but assistance to  bear to  the ends of the earth the
products of our civilization. Let us be united; let us forget all causes of
dissension; let us be devoted  to order and to the grand  interests of our
country; and soon we shall again be the great nation by arts, by industry, and
by commerce.  The city of Nantes, which has received me so kindly to-day,
is deeply interested in this question; for it is destined, by its position, to
attain the highest degree of commercial prosperity."
The president, in this address, alludes to the tomb of Bonchamp. The
allusion merits special notice.  One of the saddest things in history is to see
the noblest of men in civil strife arrayed against each other, sincerely, conscientiously, even prayerfully, contending unto death, each believing that he
is struggling for God and the right.  This should surely teach us a lesson of
charity.
General Bonchamp  was one of  the most distinguished of the Royalist
leaders in the war of La Vendee. His character was so pure and elevated,
that It commanded universal reverence.  As he took leave of his young  and
weeping wife to place himself at the head of the troops in defence of the
king against the Repuablic, he said to her, ~
" Summon  to  your aid  all your courage; redouble your patience  and
resignation: you will have need for the exercise of all these virtues. We
must not deceive ourselves: we can look to no recompense in this world for
what we are to suffer. All it could offer would be beneath the purity of our
motives and the sanctity of our cause.  We must never expect human glory:.
civil strife affords none.  We shall see our houses burned; we shall be plunldered, proscribed, outraged, calumniated, perhaps massacred. Let us thank
God for enabling us to foresee the worst, since that presage, by doubling
the merit of our actions, will enable us to* anticipate the heavenly reward
* After the awful disaster of Waterloo, the fragment of the army, forty thousand strong,
under Marshal )avoust, pursued by nearly a million of the allies, took refuge behind the Loire.
t General Cambronne was one of the most distinguished soldiers of the empire. He was
called the first grenadier of France. At Waterloo, he was in command of the chasseurs of the
Imperial Guard, and gave the celebrated answer to the British proposal of capitulation, - " The
Guard dies: it does not surrender."




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.    391
which awaits those who are courageous in adversity and constant in suffering.
Let us raise our eyes and our thoughts to heaven: it is there that we shall
find a guide which cannot mislead, a force which cannot be shaken, an eternal
reward for transitory grief."
In the terrible battle of Cholet, on the 17th of October, 1793, General
Bonchamp was mortally wounded..  As his life was fast ebbing  away, he
seemed to be greatly sustained by the consolations of religion.  Two venerable ecclesiastics soothed his dying hours.
Yes," said' he, "I dare to hope for the divine mercy.  I have not acted
from pride, or the desire of a glory which perishes in eternity.  I have tried
only to overturn the rule of impiety and of blood. I have not been able to
restore the throne: but I have, at least, defended the cause of my God, my
king, and my country; and He has in mercy enabled me to pardon "-    Here
his voice fialtered; and in another moment his soul was with God.
The scenes of' horror which ensued as the victorious Republicans swept the
country with fire and with blood cannot here be described.  Neither age nor
sex was spared. Demons could scarcely have been more merciless. Doubtless
many of the officers wvould have arrested these horrors if they could.  Ma.dam~qe Bonbchamp was concealed flor several days in the thick foliage of an
oak-tree with her little girl, almost an infant.  "A  cough or a cry from  the
infant," says Sir Archibald Alison, "would have betrayed them  both; but
the little creature, though suffering under a painful malady, never uttered a
groan. Both nmother and child frequently slept in peace for hours, when the
bayonets of their pursuers were visible through the opening leaves. At night,
when the enemy were.asleep, the little children  of the cottagers brought
them provisions."
At last, she was arrested and imprisoned. "After a long captivity, her little
daughter, then but six years of age, was sent to the Revolutionary Tribunal,
with a petition in behalf of. her captive mother. The artless child entered
the presence of the judges, and presented the paper, saying, in lisping accents,
"I have come to ask a pardon  for my mamma."  Even these stern judges
were moved; and one of them, looking at the paper, and seeing the name of
Bonchamp, said, "Well, we will give you a pardon if you will sing one of
your best songs."  They knew how much she had cheered the prisoners by
her sweet singing.  With this, the child  commenced in a loud and very
charming voice to sing the words which she had heard from sixty thousand
men on the field of battle,
" Vive, vive ie Roi!
A bas la RWpublique."
The simplicity of the child disarmed the wrath  of the judges.  They
granted the pardon, after making some severe remarks upon the detestalle
education which the fanatical Royalists gave to their children.*  Louis Napoleon, the President of the Republic, visited the tomb of the Royalist martyr,
Bonchbamp, with emotion and veneration.
* Beauchamp's Hist. des Guerres de la Vendee, vol. ii. pp. 267, &c.




392                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
At Saumur, on the 31st of July, the president said, "Of all the cities which
I have visited since my departure from Paris, Saumur is not the largest; but
it is not the least important: for it is not only by its admirable position and
by its commerce that it is distinguished; but it is still more so by its patriotism. This sentiment is cherished by the celebrated school established within
its walls; for in this establishment, where such good officers are formed, one
not only learns how to mount a horse,but those habits of discipline, of order,
and of subordination, are acquired, which constitute the good soldier as well
as the good citizen.
"Here the military spirit still remains in all its force; and  may God be
praised that it is not likely to be extinguished! Never forget that this military spirit is, in times of crisis, the safeguard of the country. In the first
revolution, the emperor said, that while, in the interior, all parties destroyed
and dishonored each other reciprocally by their excesses, the national honor
took refuge in our armies.- Let us consecrate all our efforts, that we may
guard  intact, and  that we may  still  develop, that military spirit: for be
assured, that, if the products of the arts and the sciences merit our admiration,
there is something which merits it still more; and that is the;ligion of duty,
- fidelity to the flag."
The president arrived  at Tours on  the 1st of August.  In response to
the enthusiastic greeting  which  he there received  he said, "I ought first
to thank the city of Tours for the cordial welcome it has given me; but I
ought also to say that the acclamations of which I am  the object affect me
more than  they elate me.  I have too well known  misfortune not to be
sheltered  from. the enticements of prosperity.   I have not come to you
with  any mental reserve, but to show  myself as I am, and not* is calumny
represents me.
" It has been pretended, it is still pretended, in Paris, that the government
meditates a surprise similar to that of the 18th Brumaire. But are we now
in the same circumstances? Have foreign armies invaded our territory? Is
France torn by civil war? Are there eighty thousand families in exile'? Are
there a hundred thousand families outlawed by edicts regarding the suspected?
In short, is law without vigor, and authority without strength?  No: we are
not in a condition which requires such heroic remedies. In my eyes, France
can be compared to a ship, which, after having  been  tossed by tempests,
has at length found a harbor more or less favorable, but where it has cast
anchor.
"In such a case it is necessary to repair the ship, restore its ballast,
strengthen its masts and its sails, before again  encountering the perils of the
open sea.  Our laws may be more or less defective; but they are susceptible
of improvement.  Have faith, then, in the future, without dreaming of coups
d'etc(t or of insurrections.  Co'ups cl'tat have no pretext; insurrecticns have
no chance of success.  Scarcely can they comnnence ere they will be repressed. Have confidence in the National Assembly, and in your chief magistrates, the elect of the nation; and, above all, confide in the Supreme B,3inq
who is still the protector of France."




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.                          393
On the 11th of August, he reached Rouen.  His address there was as
follows: "The more I visit the principal cities of France, the more strong
is my conviction that all the elements of public prosperity are to be found in
the country.  What is it, then, which prevents to-day our prosperity from
developing itself and bearing its fruits?  Permit me to tell you.  It is because
it is the peculiarity of our epoch to suffer ourselves to be seduced by chimeras,
instead of attaching ourselves to reality.  Gentlemen, I said in my message,'The more obvious the evils of society are, the more certain spirits are
inclined to plunge into the mysticism of theories.'
"But what is the difficulty? It is not enough to say,'Adore that which
you have hitherto burned, and burn that which you have adored during so
many ages.' It is necessary to give society more of calmness and stability;
and,.as a man has said whom France esteems, and whom you all here love,M. Thiers, -' the true genius of our epoch consists in simple good sense.'
"It is particularly in this beautiful city of Rouen that good sense reigns.
I owe to it unanimity of suffrages on the 10th of December; for, gentlemen,
you have well judged in thinking that the nephew of the man who has done
so much to establish society upon its natural foundations could have no idea
of casting this society into the billows of theories.
"I am also, gentlemen, happy to be able to thank you for the one hundred
and eighty thousand votes which you have given me.  I am  happy to find
myself in this beautiful city of Rouen which contains within itself the germs
of so much wealth: and I have admired these hills, decorated with the
treasures of agriculture; I have admired this river, which bears afar all the
products of your industry.
" In fine, I have not been less impressed with the aspect of the statue of
the great Corneille.  Do you know what that proves to me?  It is that you
are not only devoted to the grand interests of commerce, but that you have
also admiration for all that is noble in letters, arts, and sciences." *
The addresses which were made to the president on this tour were so flattering, that he could entertain no doubt that the masses of the people were
cordially enlisted in his support.  At Rouen, the mayor, in allusion to the act
of Napoleon I. on the 18th Brumaire, when he overthrew the Directory and
established the Consulate, said, 
" In the name of the city of Rouen, whose industrious population owes so
much to Napoleon, I offer a toast to that great memory, which, on the 10th
of December, blazed out for us like a lighthouse in a storm:'To Napoleon;
to his nephew, who is also called to save France and civilization, and who
well justifies our best hopes.'"
At Elbeuf, a blouse-clad workman thus addressed the president in behalf
of his comrades: "Monsieur le President, you do not like long discourses,
and we operatives cannot make them: so your wishes and our ability square
wonderfully. Permit us, then, only to express in a few words how gratifying
* The above addresses will all be found in La politique imperiale Exposde par les Discours
et Proclamations de l'Empereur Napoldon III. depuis le 10 decembre, 1848, jusqu'en juillet,
1865.
50




394                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
your visit is to us, and to say that it fills us with joy. On the 10th of December, our shops were deserted, our sufferings were uncared for. The national
will places you at the head of the state; and this happy inspiration brings
back, together with order and confidence, the industrial activity which enables
us to live. Labor has already produced some improvement in our condition.
We thank you for this, and we trust in you for the future; for we'now that
our lot interests you, and deeply engages your attention. In return for what
vou have done, for what you will do, accept, Mr. President our profound
gratitude; and rely, we beg of you, on our hands and our hearts."
The Prince President, cordially grasping the hand of the honest workman,
replied, " I am much moved with the words with which you address me in the
name of the operatives of Elbeuf.  You do not deceive yourself in supposing
that the working-classes possess my deepest solicitude. My efforts shallo be
constantly directed to improve their condition."'
In the little village of Fixin, near Dijon, a veteran officer of the empireM. Noizot -  had reared a monument to the memory of the emperor. Louis
Napoleon visited tlie monument. M. Noizot inconsiderately availed himself of
the opportunity to solicit, of the Prince President, amnesty in favor of M.
Guinard, one of the condemned of the 13th of June.  The response of Louis
Napoleon shows his respect for the rights and prerogatives of that Assembly
which had proved itself so hostile to him.
"When I came," said the prince,   guided by a religious sentiment, to visit
the monument erected to the martyr of St. Helena, I wished to render homage to the respectful devotion which had conceived the project, and, above
all, to the thought which has placed the monument in the bosom  of this
Burgundy, where one saw, in 1814, so much heroism for the defence of the
emperor, or rather for the defence of the rights of the French people, -  of
the rights of all the peoples, of which he was, till the end, the faithful chainpion.
"I did not expect, I confess, that in such a place, and at such a moment,
there would be addressed to me a reproach. And what is it? -  a reproach on
the subject of an act which is asked of me, without considering that I am
interdicted by the constitution from  performing that act.  Is it not, then,
known that the prisoners whom a decree of the High Court has sent to Doul-,
lens can only be pardoned by a decree of the Assembly? And I, in regard to
them, -  as in regard to all, small and great, innocent or guiilty, -  have only a
role to perform: it is to assure, in the interests of society, the execution of the
law upon those whom it condemns, as I have sworn to assure its protection to
all the members of the nation.  Have I not faithfully kept my oath?  The
law-is it not sovereign and respected?  Do not, then, come and ask ime why
I have not done that which I cannot do without violating ray oath.  Let the
Assembly pronounce, and I shall be ready to execute and respect its decision." *
At Lpernay, the venerable Bishop of Chalons, in a voice trembling with
grateful emotion, exclaimed, "Blessed be yourself^ monseigneur! -  you who
take so much care of us, and who do such great things for us every day. The
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 238.




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.    395
recollection of these shall live forever; particularly that of the magnificent
expedition to Rome, of which you were the chief author, and which has filled
France and all the Christian world with joy."
Though the authority of Pius IX. was re-established in Rome, he did not
immediately return to the city.  The government was temporarily intrusted
to three cardinals. These ecclesiastics, strongly prejudiced in favor of old
usages, and indignant in view of the outrages which the Revolutionary party
had committed, began, regardless of the reforms which the good old pope had
inaugurated, to re-introduce the despotism  of the ancient regime.  As their
authority was sustained by the French army, the government of the French
Republic found itself placed in the unenviable position of uplholding a power
which was trampling upon popular rights.  The president, accordingly, wrote
the following  letter to Colonel Ney, his orderly-officer at Rome.  It was
dated at the Rlysee, Aug. 18, 1849.
" MY DEAR NEY, -The French Republic has not sent an army to Rome
to smother Italian liberty, but, on the contrary, to regulate it by defending it
from its own excesses, and to give it a solid basis by restoring to the pontifical
throne the prince who had boldly placed himself at the head of all useful reforms.
"I learn with pain that the intentions of the holy father, and our own action,
remain sterile in the presence of hostile passions and influences.  1As a basis
for the pope's return, there are those who wish for proscription and tyranny.
Say to General Rostolan, from me, that he is to allow no action to be performed under the shadow of the tricolor that could distort the nature of our
intervention. I thus sum up the re-establishment of the temporal power of
the pope: 
" General amnesty, secularization of the administration, Code Napoleon,
and liberal government.
"I was personally wounded, when reading the proclamation of the cardinals,
to see that there was no mention made of the name of France, or of the sufferings of our brave soldiers.
"Every insult inflicted on our flag or on our uniform  pierces me to the
heart; and I beseech you to have it known publicly, that, if France does not
sell her services, she wishes, at least, to get credit for her sacrifices and self-.
" When our armies made the tour of Europe, they left everywhere, as a trace
of their passage, the destruction of feudal abuses and the germs of liberty.
It shall not be said, that, in 1849, a French army culd have acted differently,
or produced other results.
"Tell the general to thank the army, in my name, for its noble conduct. I
am grieved to learn, that, even'physically, it has not been treated as it deserves... Nothing should be neglected to have our troops comfortably established. Receive, my dear Ney, the assurance of my sincere friendship.
" Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
This letter, though it was violently assailed by the old Legitimist party in
France, checked the abuses of the cardinals, and called forth action from the




396                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
pope, which in some degree. appeased the anxieties of the Republican president.
lNo one could doubt that the voice ofthe French people                  warmly in
favor of Louis Napoleon. The contending parties in the Assembly, each anxious to obtain the ascendency, were all convinced that their plans were hopeless, unless they could first get rid of so formidable a rival. They therefore
combined against him, endeavoring to thwart all his plans, and, so far as they
could, to expose him to obloquy. In the debate in which the president's letter to General Ney was severely denounced, General Cavaignac rose, and, with
magnanimity characteristic of the man, said,
"I hope that a year's reserve has given me the privilege of expressing
myself clearly without having my sentiments suspected.  Well, I declare it
freely, I have found, in the letter of the President ofthe Republic, sentiments
the most patriotic and the most worthy, I not only say of him who wrote
it, but also of the great nation which has chosen him  for her first magistrate.
I rlnder complete and respectful homage to the thought which has inspired
this letter."
In order to conciliate antagonistic parties, the president had formed his ministry of men entertaining very opposite opinions. The result was, that there
was no harmony of action.  The president, therefore, decided to form  a new
cabinet, selecting men of commanding business talent, regardless of all party
influences, but whose qualifications to fill the various departments to which
they were called could not be questioned. In announcing this measure, he
sent the following message to the President of the Assembly on the 31st of
October; 1849:~
"MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT, -  Under the grave circumstances in which we
find ourselves, the accord which ought to reign between the different powers
of the State can only be maintained by their entertaining mutual confidence,
and explaining themselves frankly to each other. To give an example of this
sincerity, I wish to inform  the Assembly of the reasons which have decided
me to change the ministry, and to separate myself from  men whose eminent
services I take pleasure in proclaiming, and to whom  I have pledged friend~ship and gratitude.
" In  order to strengthen the Republic, menaced  on so many sides by
anarchy, to secure order more efficiently than has been hitherto done,'to
maintain abroad the name of France at the height of her renown, men are
needed, who, animated by patriotic devotion, comprehend the necessity of a
direction single and firm, and of a policy clearly defined; who do not compromise power by any irresolution; who will be as much filled with the conviction of my peculiar responsibility as of their own; men of action as well
as of words.
" For nearly a year, I have given so many proofs of self-denial, that there
should be no misunderstanding of my intentions.  Without rancor against
any individual, or against any party, I have allowed men of the most diverse
opinions to arrive at power, but without obtaining the happy results which I
expected from that union. Instead of effecting a fusion of different shades of




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.    397
opinion, I arrive only at a neutralization  of forces.   Unity of views and
-intentions has been impeded, and the spirit of conciliation taken for feebleness.  Scarcely had. the  dangers of the street been  passed, when the old
lparties were again seen to elevate their flags, revive their rivalries, and alarm
the country by sowing disquietude.
"In  the midst of this  confusion, France, uneasy because  she  sees no
guidance, seeks the hand, the will, of the elect of the 10th of December.
But that will cannot be felt unless there be entire community of ideas, of
views, and of convictions, between the president and his ministers, and unless
the Assembly itself join in the national thought of which the election of the
executive ipower has been the expression.
"A  whole system triumphed on the 10th of December.  For the name of
Napoleon is a complete programme  in  itself.  It means, at home, order,
authority, religion, the welfare of the people; abroad, national dignity. It
is this policy, inaugurated by my election, which  I wish  to make triumph,
with the support of the Assembly and  that of the  people.  I wish to be
worthy of the confidence of the nation in maintaining the constitution to
which I have sworn.  I wish to inspire the country with such  confidence,
by my loyalty, my perseverance, and  my firmness, that affairs may resume
their course, and that all nm'ay have faith in the future.
The letter of a constitution has, without doubt, a great influence upon
the  destinies of a country; but the manner in which  it is executed has,
perhaps, still moie.  The duration of power contributes vastly to the stability
of things; but it is also by displaying ideas and principles that governments
can prevail, that society can be re-assured. Let us strengthen authority, then,
without disquieting true liberty. Let us calm apprehensions by boldly subduing evil passions, and by giving all noble instincts a useful direction. Let
us strengthen the religious principle without abandoning the conquests of the
revolution, and we shall save the country, notwithstanding the parties, the
ambitions, and even the imperfections, which our institutions may contain."
This message irritated exceedingly the Opposition. It was received with
applause by the country.*   The factions in the Assembly saw  clearly that
Louis Napoleon was every day growing stronger in the affections of the
people. They had tried calumny, and still the confidence of the masses in
their president remained undisturbed. They had tried insurrection in the
streets; but the president had scattered the insurgents in such a way as to
overwhelm them  with the ridicule of all France.  Party lines began  to  be
* "The impression made was very different in Paris and in the provinces. In the former,
after the first moments of stupor, the prevailing feeling was one of astonishment and indignation. The popular members of the Assembly could scarcely believe that it was seriously
intended to form  a government independent of their influence, and setting at nought their
eloquence. But, in the provinces, the impression was very different. They regarded it as an
attempt to emancipate the government from  the thraldom  of the clubs in the capitol, or the
despotism of an oligarchy of the Chamber; and loudly applauded it as the commencement of
the only government really suited to the circumstances of the country." - History of Europe,
Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 527.




398                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
more  distinctly  defined.   The moderate Republicans, and  many  of the
Orleans party, rallied around the president. Others of the Orleanists fused
with the Legitimists; and they, in union, co-operated with the extreme Republicans, Socialists and Communists of every grade, in persistent and implacable assaults upon the government. And still, notwithstanding all these
hinderances, even the few sagacious measures which the president was able to
carry were working out beneficial results. No one could deny the following
statements, made in one of the Parisian journals 
" A year ago, the State finances wdre gravely compromised. There was a
deficit of more than three hundred millions. Now, without loans, we can
show an exchequer which balances.
" A year ago, labor and commerce had ceased everywhere. Now factories
are in full.activity. The custom-houses have reported as favorably as in the
most prosperous years.  The actual augmentation  of the indirect revenue
over the year 1848 is seventy-seven million francs.
" A  year ago, the city of Paris alone gave support to nearly one hundred
thousand poor.  Now the number is reduced to ten thousand.
" A  year ago, the tolls of Paris had considerably diminished: the workmen
were withdrawing their deposits from the savings-banks, and pledging their
effects in the Mont de Piete. To-day the tolls are six millions more than last
year; deposits in the savings-banks are increased by twenty-five millions
eight hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand  francs; and, according  to  official
reports, the total value of effects released  from  the Mont le Piete is much
greater than that of the effects pledged.
"A  year ago, the  stocks were  at seventy.  To-day  they  are at ninetyOn the 10th of March, 1850, a new election in several departments was to
take place to fill about thirty vacancies in the Assembly.
The billows of the tempest which,  overthrew the throne of Louis Philippe
rolled with more or less of violence over all the kingdoms of Europe. A
vast multitude of refugees fled -from all these countries - Ireland, Bohemia,
Spain, Belgium, Italy, Poland, and all the German States -to Paris, as the
headquarters of insurrection for the whole world. These men were generally
ultra democrats, and reckless in the extreme. Having ruined their prospects
in their own country, they fled from the terrors of the law to the French
metropolis.   All their energies -  and they  were not feeble  men -  were
directed to constrain the government of France to adopt such principles as
to compel it to send the armies of the Republic throughout Europe on a
revolutionary crusade. The law of universal* suffrage was such, that these
* " The conduct of Louis Napoleon, as President of the Republic, had thus far disappointed
and surprised every faction in the State. His own partisans were delighted with the sagacity,
ability, and energy with which he administered the government.  The Bourbonists and
Orleanists, as well as the Red Republicans and Socialists, were astonished and offended by the
same cause. These parties now combined against the president in the Assembly, and endeavored, by their united opposition, to impede, embarrass, and even to crush, his measures.
They were determined to prevent him from winning greater popularity by obtaining greater
success." - Public and Private History of Napoleon III., by Samuel L. Smucker, LL.D., p. 144.




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.    399
men  could vote  without much  difficulty.  They  did  vote.  In  Paris, tJhe
candidates of the Moderate party were utterly defeated, and  the Socialists
signally triumphed.  The number of these aliens was estimated at between
forty  and  fifty  thousand.   They  were  alike  ready  to  vote  the  extreme
Socialist ticket, or to descend into the streets to throw  up barricades.  In
the rurald districts, the government candidates prevailed.*
The dainger of insurrection and anarchy was so great, that the president
convened a meeting, on the 14th of March, of the leaders of several of the
different parties, to consider what was to be done.  "I have assembled you,
gentlemen," said the president, 1"to assist me with your. intelligence and patriotism  in this crisis.  What think you, should  be done to avert the dangers
revealed by the progress of the Socialists?"
After a lonog  pause, M. Montalembert said, "In  the old assemblies of the
clergy, the youngest always spoke first. I will answer the question of the
prince with as much frankness as he has put it. In my opinion, we can only
escape from  the dangers with which  we are surrounded  by the president
employing as his ministers the chiefs of the majority. That is the most
decisive and significant answer whicll we can make to the provocation of the
enemies of society." t
"I am ready," the prince replied, "to follow the advice of M. Montalembert.
What say you, gentlemen?"
M. Thiers said rather obscurely, "The Republic is a young  maiden.  It
costs ine much  to marry her; but, if there is no other way of saving the
country, I am ready to do so."
"I am  entirely of an  opposite opinion," said the Duke of Broglie.  "The
union in one cabinet of the chiefs of the Legitimist party and of the old
ministers of Louis Philippe could afford no guaranty for union, strength, or
durability. It could be fruitful only in strife or discord."
Others expressed the same opinion.  There was no harmony of counsel;
and, as the- meeting was dissolved, it was manifest to the president at least,
if not to all the rest, that the divisions of parties were so wide and irreconcilable, that no efficient government could be formed except upon a basis
independent of them all. *
The triumph of the Socialists in Paris created such alarm as to drive the
Bourbonists, Orleanists, and the Moderate party, in the Assembly, into a transient union to effect a change in the electoral law. A law was passed, after
a very angry debate of four days, requiring, instead of six months' residence,
which was the existing law, a residence and registration of three years within
* Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 529; Moniteur, May 31, 1850.
t " The majority grouped themselves at first around Louis Napoleon against the minority
in the hopes of availing themselves of his presidency to the profit of aristocratic interests; but
when the monarchical party comprehended, that, having attained power, borne on the billows of
the popularity of the grandest name of modern times, as the living personification of democratic
interests, the nephew of the emperor would remain faithful to the cause of the people, they
resolved to wrest from him, by stratagem or by violence, an authority which menaced them in
their domination." -~ Fistoire d'un Coup d'Etat, par Mt. Paul Belouino, Introduction, p. 36.
t Hist. of Europe, Sir Archfbald Alison, viii. 529.




400                            LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  III.
the district, to entitle one to vote. A few exceptions were made in behalf
of soldiers in the army, and others in the employment of government. This
change not only cut off from the right of suffrage several hundred thousand
of the floating and vagrant population of the great cities, who were sure ever
to vote the most ultra democratic ticket, but it also excluded, as was estimated, three millions of voters in  the country,   laborers moving here and
there over the fields, and workmen ever passing from place to place in the
prosecution of their trades, nearly all of whom were the supporters of Louis
Napoleon.*
The president saw very clearly that the law had a double edge, and that
the keenest edge was turned against him.  "So iipressed was he with these
views," says Alison, "that he exerted  all his in   ence to prevent the bill
passing, and  yielded, at length, rather in deference to the opinion of others
than in consequence of his own convictions."   Not deeming it wise, then, to
interpose his veto, he qualified his approval of the measure by saying,
" I am willing that there should be a temporary suspension of the right of
universal suffrage.  In an urgent crisis, the law  can  suspenl a right; but it
can never abrogate or annul it.  Universal suffrage must be restored as soon
as circumstances permit." t
In the debate upon the subject of limiting the suffrage, M. Thiers made a
speech, which was greatly' applauded by the Royalist party in the Assembly,
but which was very distasteful to the masses of the French people.
"It is necessary," said M. Thiers, " to do every thing for the poor, except to
permit them to decide the great questions upon which depends the future of
the country; every thing for the poor, except allowing  them  to have any
share in the government of the poor.  Besides, those men whom  we have
excluded -  are they the poor?  N6: they are the vagabonds; they are those
stragglers and vagrants who merit the title the most branded in history,
the title of the multitude. I know that there are men'who do not like to
deprive themselves of the support of the multitule.  But moral legislators
should repel it. Republicans, good and true republicans, ought not to wish for
the aid of the vile multitude, which has destroyed all republics. I know how
tyrants agree with it; for they nourish it, caress it, and despise it. But republicans who would  cherish  or flatter the  multitude  are false  and  wicked
republicans.
"Do you not understand history?  Open history.'What does it teach us?
I will tell you.  History teaches us that it is the vile, the miserctble multitude,
that sold Roman liberty to the Casars for bread and circus-games, and then
murdered the emperors it had  chosen  for itself.  It is the multitude which
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 229.
"The object thus aimed at by the abolition of universal suffiage was twofold. It was
intended by the Bourbonists and the Orleanists to prevent the re-election of Louis Napoleon to
the presidency, and also to crush the growing power of the Socialists. The president knew full
well that the time for decisive action on his part had not yet arrived. He also knew that the
constant vacillation of public sentiment in France might, and probably would, reverse what had
just been decreed, before the lapse of any very long period of time." - Public and Private History of Napoleon III., by Samuel L. Smucker, LL.D., p. 144.




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.                             401
greeted with its acclaim the enthronement of Nero; which found G-alba too
severe; and which hesitated between the debauched Otho and the ignoble
Vitellius.
"It was tlat vile multitude which surrendered to the Medici the liberty of
Florence; which in Holland massacred the Witts, who most assuredly were
not the enemies of liberty.  It was the multitude, which, in France, ignominiously strangled Bailly, and which applauded that execution of the Girondins
which was but an abominable assassination; which shrieked with joy over
the merited punishment of Robespierre, but would as frantically applaud
yours or mine. It was, in fine, that vile multituce which submitted to a great
man because he understood it and could master it; which intoxicated him
with its adulations, drove him to despotism; and which in 1815 threw a rope
around the neck of his statue, and dragged it through the gutter."
Prince Napoleon, son of Jerome, immediately  demanded  permission to
speak, and with difficulty obtained the tribune.  "I could not restrain myself," said the prince, "when I heard M1. Thiers say.that it was the people "
No, no! " interrupted the friends of M. Thiers: " he did not say the people,
but the multitude."
"The people," continued Prince Napoleon, "that tied the rope around the
neck of the emperor's statue. I am astonished that the Honorable M. Thiers,
the distinguished historian, does not know that it was the royalists who did
that deed. It is on account of the name I bear that I defend the interests
of the people. I had rather be on the side of the conquered at Waterloo
than on that of the conquerors."
The vote restricting the right of suffrage was carried by a majority of
four hundred and thirty-three to two hundred and forty-one.  One oif these
excited debates led to a duel between M. Thiers and M. Bixio, which resulted
in a very curious reconciliation.   i. Bixio accused M. Thiers of saying that
the election of Louis Napoleon as president was a disgrace to France. M.
Thiers denied the accusation. 31. Bixio persisted. A duel was the result.
The two representatives met, pistols in hand. Twice they exchanged shots.
The seconds then interfered, and said that matters must stop there. It is
reported that MI. Bixio then said to M. Thiers, -
"It is possible that you may have forgotten. As for me, I remember.
therefore it is only a question of memory."
The adroit historian responded, "It is possible that you did not understand
me. As for me, I know what I meant.  So it is only a question of interpretation."
With honor thus satisfied, the two illustrious combatants separated quite
reconciled.*
The salary of the president, as fixed by the constitution, was six hundred
thousand cranes a year (one hundred and twenty thousand dollars).  The
salary, or civil list as it was called, of Charles X., was thirty millions of francs
(six  million dollars). Louis Philippe had fourteen millions of francs (tkwo
million six hundred thousand dollars), and also an immense personal fortune.
* Moniteur, May S1, 1856.
51




402                            LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
On the 5th of June, a bill was presented by the ministers to increase the
president's salary to three millions of francs (six hundred thousand dollars).
This demand furnished another battle-field, upon which the Opposition made a
stand. In the Assembly, in the clubs, in the Socialist journals, the war was
waged with  great ferocity.  The minister of finance, in  pressing the claim,
said,"When the Constituent Assembly appointed the salary ofthe president of
the Republic to be six hundred thousand francs a year, it reserved for the
Legislative Assembly the right of increasing this sum if it were considered
insufficient for the necessities *of the presidency, and for the benevolent and
charitable expenses attached to the first magistracy of the Republic. It is,
then, to supply an expenditure, which the habits and customs of our country
render a  duty, that the  government now  proposes to  the  Assembly  to
increase the salary of the president. The experience of more than a year
has proved its insufficiency. This insufficiency would degrade, both in our
own eyes and those of the stranger, the lofty position which the chief magistrate occupies. It would forcibly close his hands against the innumerable cases
of misfortune, which, from all parts of the country, continually address themselves to him as the personified benevolence of France. It would render
him powerless to do good."
In reply to a taunting article in the "   ationale," stating that the executive
had something  else to do besides "flinging the nation's money at the first
beggars that came in the way," the minister added,
"Do we wish to know  who are those beggars whom  the Socialist journals
treat with  such  contempt?   They  are  not only the old  soldiers of  the
empire,-veteran warriors who have shed their blood  on  every battle-field
in Europe; these are only a small part of the number: they are benevolent
and charitable societies, who solicit the president for aid to relieve abandoned
children  and  sick  tradesmen; they are  clergymen, who  go about seeking
assistance for decaying churches and impoverished dioceses; they are artists,
composers, men of letters, who ask the head of the State to subscribe to
their works, to their concerts, to their pictures, to their statues; they are
prefects, mayors, who think that they are honoring the president by asking
him  for his name among  the subscribers to monuments which  are to perpetuate the great recollections of our history; they are antiquated functionaries, widows, old  state servants, who want a morsel of bread.  This list,
lamentably  long, comprises pensioners of the  old  civil list, chevaliers of
St. Louis, and, lastly, many political offenders, and even a near relative of
Mazzini."
The conflict upon this question was long and bitter. At length, however,
the measure was carried by a small majority.  The vote stood three hundred
and fifty-four to three hundred and eight.*
* The salary of six hundred thousand francs, says Alison, " was obviously and scandalously
inadequate to support the situation in common decency. No sooner, however, was this proposal
[to increase the salary] broached, than the whole leaders in the Assembly coalesced against it;
and, although the press in the departments declared loudly in its favor, it was only by the
mediation of General Changarnier that the enlarged salary was voted." ~History of Europe,
by Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 530.




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.                                     403
Treating  of this subject, MM. Gallix and  Guy write, "Twelve hbmndrecI
thousand francs a year is one hundred thousand francs a month.  Now, we
ask of any candid man  if that is sufficient for the  chief of a  great nation
like France.  Of this one hundred thousand francs a month, we know, from
very  good  authority, that Louis  Napoleon  consecrated  more  than  forty
thousand to charity; and, in giving  that sum, he did  not respond to onequ~arter of the demands he would gladly have answered.
The prince, indeed, manifests liberality which has only been equalled  by
that of his grandmother, Josephine, and his mother, Hortense, and which has
no limits but those  of his resources.  There is but little wretchedness in
Paris wvith which  he is not familiar.   M. Ferdinand  Barrot has recently
related to us two touching traits of this delicate munificence.
One day, Louis Napoleon learned that a lieutenant of the guard at the
Plys~ee imposed upon himself many privations to solace his aged mother, to
whom  he sent, every month, half of his wages.  The prince  sent for the
officer, and said to him,'You are a good son, and must be a good  soldier.  I
know  the sacrifices you make, and it is my duty to  meet them   hereafter..
Permit me to pay the pension to your mother.'
"At another time it was a captain, who from  his emoluments defrayed the
expenses of his young brother at the School of St. Cyr.   Louis Napoleon
took the young pupil under his own charge.  WVe should never finish should
we endeavor to enumerate all the incidents of this kind which have been
related to us."*
On the 12th of August the Assembly adjourned, the majority of whose
members, in a coalition of the Legitimists, Orleanists, and Socialists, had
manifested such  persistent hostility to the president.  A  committee of permanence was appointed to watch the president during the vacation. It consisted of twenty-one of the leaders of the parties now coalesced against him.
There was no refuge for Louis Napoleon but to throw  himself upon  the
support of the provinces. If that failed him, he was powerless for good, and
his mission was at an end. The next day after the adjournment, the president
set out on a short tour through the southern provinces, probably to ascertain the state of public sentiment respecting himself. The Opposition had
left no means untried to render him obnoxious to all-whom they could reach
with their influence.  Notwithstanding the efforts of his political antagonists
to throw  obloquy upon his name, he met with a triumphant reception in every
place he entered.t Dijon gave him an enthusiastic greeting. At Lyons, on
* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., Empereur des Franais, par MM. Gallix et Guy,
p. 230..1 The truth of the following representation probably no one will question: " We cannot
describe his progress further than by saying, that, in spite of the efforts of the Socialists to
interrupt it, it was generally a triumphant procession from department to department. Besides
the old halo of the name that in many minds almost deified him, people by this time had seen
and acknowledged his own merits; his ability, at least, to maintain general tranquillity. For
more than a month now he put his hand on the heart of the country, and felt its pulsations.
He saw that France, taking but little interest in the personal ambitions of the Assembly, and
terrified at the spread of Socialism, was weary of suspense, and wished for permanent tranquillity at almost any sacrifice. Cries of' Vive Napoleon!' were far more frequently heard than




404                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
the 15th, he was received with a banquet at the Htel de Ville.  In response
to a congratulatory address from the mayor, the president said, with the
frankness and honesty which characterized all his utterances,
" Let the city of Lyons receive the sincere expression of my gratitude for
the sympathetic reception it has given me. But, believe me, I have not come
to these regions, where the emperor, my uncle, has left traces so profoun
merely to receive ovations or to hold reviews. The object of my journey is
by my presence to encourage  the good, to re-assure the doubting, and  to
judge for myself of the sentiments and wants of the country.  The task
which I have to accomplish requires your co-operation; and, in order to secure
that co-operation, I owe it to you to say what I am and what I wish.
"I am  not the representative of a party, but the representative  of two
great national manifestations, which in 1804, as in 1848, have wished to save,
by establishing order, the great principles of the French Revolution.  Proud
of my origin and of my flag, I shall remain faithful to them.  I shall be
entirely subject to the country, whatever she requires of me, whether renunciation or perseverance.
"Reports of a coup d'etat have perhaps reached you, gentlemen; but you
have not believed in them.  I thank you for it.  Surprises and usurpations
may be the dream  of parties who have not the support of the nation.  But
the elect of six millions of votes executes the will of the people: he does
not betray them. Patriotism, I repeat, may consist in renunciation as well
as in perseverance.
"Before a general danger, every personal ambition should disappear. In
such a case, patriotism is to be recognized as maternity was recognized ki a
celebrated judgment.  You remember the two women who claimed the same
child.  By what sign was the lve of the real mother discovered?  By the
renunciation of her rights to save a beloved object. Let the parties who love
France not forget this sublime lesson. I myself, if necessary, shall remember
it. But, on the other hand, should guilty pretensions revive, and threaten to
compromise the repose of France, I shall know how to reduce them to impotence by involdng the sovereignty of the people; for I recognize in no person
the right to call himself a representative of the people more than in myself."
These words were received with great applause. The next morning, in an
address to the president of the barristers-at-law, he said, -
"You know that I cannot remain long within your walls; and you have
conceived the idea of assembling around me as many representatives as possible of the different elements which contribute to the prosperity of Lyons. I
thank you for it; for I am happy on all occasions to place myself in contact
with the people who have elected me.
"In frequently meeting each other, we become acquainted with each other's
cries of' Vive la Pepublique!' The latter cry had by this time come to mean' Viv  la Rdpublique Rouge,!' and was hardly ever heard except from Socialist lips." - Lfe of Napoleon III., by
Edward Roth, p. 456.
* "It was a striking proof at once of his courage and of his wisdom that.he selected for his first
public demonstration a city so recently the theatre of a bloody Socialist revolt. It proved eminently successful." - Sir Archibald Alison.




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.                              405
sentiments and idecas; and this we learn to understand one another. In thus
meeting, many veils fall, and many prejudices are dissipated.  When at a distance, I could think the population of Lyons animated by that visionary spirit.which creates so many troubles, and to be almost in hostility against authority.
Here I find that population calm, industrious, sympathizing with the authority which I represent.  On your side, you perhaps expected to encounter in
ime a man greedy of honors and of power; and you see in the midst of you a
friend, a man entirely devoted to-his duty and to the great interests of the
country."
In another speech on the same day, at the inauguration of. a society for
mutual succor lby the weavers in silk, he warmly and beautifully commended
the object. IH-e took occasion to express his entire want of confidence in the
Utopian visions of the Socialists, and his cordial approval of a society which
would unite the rich and the poor together to alleviate human suffering.  "It
is then," said he, my firm intention to do every thing in my power to extend
throughout all France societies for mutual succor; for, in my judgment, these
institutions, once established everywhere, will be the best means, not in solving
insoluble problems, but to alleviate real suffering, and to stimulate equally probity in labor, and charity in opulence."
On the same day,J.if response to a very cordial address from  the president
of the Chamber of Commerce in Lyons, the president said,- 
"I thank- the commerce and the industry of Lyons for the felicitations which
they have addressedi to me; and I give my entire sympathy to the wishes
which they have expressed. To re-establish order and confidence, to maintain'
peace, to complete as rapidly as possible our great lines of railroads, to pro-,
tect our industry, to develop the exchange of our products by a commercial
system progressively liberal, - such has been, such will be, the constant aim
of my efforts.
"If decisive results have not been obtained, the fault, you know, is not with
my government.  But the more speedily our country returns to regular paths,
the more surely will its prosperity be renewed; for - it is well to repeat it -
material interests are never advanced but by the wise direction of moral interests. It is the soul which  guides the body.  That government deceives
itself strangely which bases its policy upon avarice, egotism, and fear."It is in protecting the diverse branches of public wealth; it is, in our foreign relations, in defending boldly our allies; it is in carrying high the flag of
France, -that one can procure for the agricultural, commercial, industrial country the greatest benefits: for that system will have honor for its base; and
honor is always the best guide.
"As I am now about to bid you adieu, permit m-e to recall the celebrated
words -no, I cheek myself: there would be too much pride on my part to
say to you, as did the emperor,'Lyonnese, I love you'-  but permit me to say
to you from the depths of my heart,' Lyonnese, love me.'" *
At Strasburg, on the 22d of August, the president said, -
* La Politique imperiale de FEmpereur Napoleon III., p. 70.




406                          LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" GENTLEMEN, -  Receive my thanks for the cordiality with which you have
welcomed me among you.  The best manner to fte me is to promise me as
you have just done, your support in the struggle now existing between visionary schemes and useful reforms. Before my departure, some wished to dissuade me from  my voyage into Alsace.  They said,'You will be unwelcome
there. That region, perverted by foreign emissaries, no longer recognizes the
noble words of honor and of patriotism which your name recalls, and which
name has made the hearts of its inhabitants to vibrate for forty years.  Slaves,
without knowing it, of the men who abuse their credulity, the Alsacians will
refuse to see in the elect of the nation the legitimate representative of all
rights and interests.'
"And I replied,' It is my duty to go wherever there are dangerous illusions
to dissipate, and good citizens to strengthen.  They calumniate old Alsace,
that land of glorious souvenirs and of patriotic sentiments! I shall fnd there
-I am sure of it -  hearts which will comprehend my mission and my devotion to the country. A few months, indeed, cannot transform a people deeply
imbued with the solid virtues of the soldier and the laborer into a people hostile to religion, to order, and to property.'
" Moreover, gentlemen, why  should  I be unwelcome?  Placed  by the
almost unanimous vote of France at the head of a power legally restrained,
but immense through the moral influence of its origin, have I been seduced
by the thought to attack a constitution, made moreover as no one is ignorant, in a great part against me?  No: I have respected, and I will respect,'the sovereignty of the people, even when its expression is false or hostile;
wand I have done this because the title which I covet the most of all is that
of an honest man.
"I am, then, happy, Strasburgians, in thinking that there is a community
of sentiments between you and me.  Like me, you wish to see our country
grand, strong, and respected. Like you, I wish that Alsace should resume
its ancient rank; becoming again that which it has been during so many
years, - one of the provinces the most renowned, choosing citizens the most
distinguished to represent her, and rendered illustrious by the most valiant
warriors."
The popularity of the president with the masses was every day increasing.
This led the Opposition in the Assembly to a closer union in their hostility,
and to the adoption of more determined and desperate measures.  As usual,
the plan was formed to resort to arms if the president refused obedience to
the will of the legislature. The Bourbonist, Orleanist, and Socialist leaders
made an appeal to General Changarnier, and gained him  to the coalition,
though  he had been formerly a warm  friend of Louis Napoleon.*   General
Changarnier was commander-in-chief of the whole military force in Paris.
His influence was so great, that he was regarded as a third power in the
State. Still he was considered an ambitious, impracticable man, often assuming authority to which he was not entitled. He had his headquarters at the
* History of Europe, Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 530.




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.    407
Tuileries, Upon the death of Louis Philippe, he was guilty of the indecorum
of appointing funeral-services in the chapel of the palace without consulting
the president. Louis Napoleon took no notice of the indiscretion; and, when
some of his friends complained of the incivility of the act, he replied, 
I shall never look on the prayers which the Church offers for the dead as
an act of political malevolence or opposition."
General Changarnier assumed  that the  supreme  control  of  the  army
belonged to him, independently of the jurisdiction of the minister of war.
There was a quarrel.  The president was appealed  to.  I-e sustained his
minister. It is said that this so exasperated the general, that he joined a
conspiracy to have Louis Napoleon  deposed by the Assembly, and taken to
the prison of Vincennes; while he, protected by his troops, was to take the
place of the president in the ]lysee.*
We have alluded to the death  of Louis Philippe.  lIe died  at Claremont,
in England, on the 26th of August, 1850. Just before his death, M. Thiers,
and several other prominent members of the Orleans party, hastened to his
bedside, there to decide upon the line of policy to be pursued in their
endeavors to overthrow the Republic. It will be remembered, that whatever
political rights Louis Philippe could transmit fell to his grandson, Count de
Paris, son of the Duke of Orleans, who was killed by being thrown from his
carriage.t
Bat the elder branch of the house of Bourbon regarded Louis Philippe as
a usurper. The legitimate heir to the crown, according to the doctrine of
divine right, was the grandson of Charles X., the son of the Duke de Berri,
who was assassinated as he was leaving the theatre. This young prince, at
this time, was known by the title of the Count de Chambord. The Legitimists, however, regarded him  as their king, ever addressing him  as Henry V.
He had taken up his residence at Wiesbaden, in Germany, where he established his little court; assuming that he was King of France, though temporarily defrauded of his crown.  Upon  the death of Louis Philippe, a large
number of Legitimists repaired. to the court of the Count de Chambord, and
formed what was called the Congress of Wiesbaden. Here they endeavored
to unite the two royalist sections into one compact body, in resistance to the
* "The chief members of the Committee of Permanence were to draw up an act accusing
the president of exceeding his powers, of attempting to change the form of government, and
usurping the sovereign authority. This act was to be handed to M. Dupin, the President of
the Assembly, who was also to sign it. It was then to be given to General Changarnier, who was
to arrest Louis Napoleon, and confine him in prison. The general was then to assume a dictatorship until the Assembly had approved of what had been done." - Public and Private History
of Napoleon III., by Samnuel L.  minuclcer, LL.D., p. 146.
t The feelings with which many of the supporters of Louis Philippe had regarded his government may be inferred from the following extract from a speech of M. Montalembert:
"The Honorable M. Thiers will permit me to say that we suffered shipwreck, he and I, in
February, 1348. We belonged to the crew when we sailed together in that splendid ship,'The
Constitutional Monarchy.' But the storm burst, the pilot was flung into the sea, the vessel
foundered, we were perishing, when Providence permitted him  and me to meet together again
on a rqft. I call the present government a roft. I do not know towards what shore it will bear
us; but I avow it, though I regret the vessel, I bless the raft."




408                             LIFE OF NAPOLEON III
new  government in France.  The attempt was a failure.  Both parties were
greedy of power. They could not agree in the division of the plunder. They
did, however, agree unitedly to assail the government, and overthrow it if
possible. They could then struggle between themselves for the spoils. Nearly
all the members of the permanent commission attended  one or the other of
these  treasonable  bodies.  Ere the Congress of Wiesbaden  adjourned, it
addressed  a circular to every man  in France supposed  to be of Legtimist
opinions. This letter was dated Aug. 30, 1850, and contained such sentiments as the following: *
"The Count de Chambord has declared  that he reserved  for himself the
direction of the general policy. To provide for sudden eventualities, and to
secure that complete unity of thought and action which alone can constitute
our strength, the count has named the men expressly appointed in France to
put his policy into execution.  He has formally condemned the system  of an
appeal to the people as implying the negative,f the great principle of hereditary monarchy.  HI-e repels in advance every proposition, which, suggesting
that thought, would modify those conditions of stability which are the essential character of our principle of legitimacy, and which should be regarded
as the only means of saving France from revolutionary convulsions." t
Fully to comprehend the significance of this movement, we must suppose
the governors of several of the States of our Union, many of the most prominent of the generals of the army, and a large number of the leading members
of Congress, to meet a grandson of George  I. in Canada in open  congress
there to mature their plans to overthrow our republic amd restore the old
monarchy.  They issue their circular, appoint their agents from   the most
wealthy and  influential men  in  the Union, and mature their plans of action. t
There was an important review  of the troops at Satory, near Versailles, on
the 16th of October. The occasion drew together an immense concourse of
spectators. Whenever the president met the troops, he was greeted with the
* "Here, then, were four great parties -the Legitimists, the Orleanists, the Bonapartists, and
the Socialists-all engaged in keen struggle for the aseendeucy. Where were the real Republicans? Nowhere. Who stood by the constitution?  Nobody. It was a good name to fight
under, and each party claimed it for itself; but no one seriously considered it any thing else
than a dead letter. In such a state of things, it is plain that nothing but the will of France, universally expressed, could decide a question that was every day becoming more difficult." - Life
of Niipookou III., by Edward Roth, p. 380.
tI This important letter is given in full by MM. Gallix and Guy, pp. 243-246.
f "We have seen in what manner many of the members of the Permanent Commission dofended the constitution; some at.Wiesbaden, others at Claremont. These were the men who
cried most loudly that the prince was violating, in the reviews, the constitution. At first, they
only complained of the cry,' Vive l'Empereur!' as if in this they ought to see any thing but
homage to the memory of a great man; as if, under the reign of Louis Philippe, it had not been
constantly tolerated, and even encouraged. Then they went farther, and included in the anathema all manifestations of sympathy addressed to the prince, - even the constitutional and legal
cry of'Vive le Pr6sident!' It was deemed perfectly just under Louis Philippe, under Charles
X., under Louis XVIII., that the army should cry,' Vive le Roi!I but it was deemed contrary
to military discipline, that, under the Republic, the cry should be heard of' Vive le President!
-  Histoire complete de Napoleon III., par 2111. Gallix et Gu. p. 246.




WAR OF THE ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.    409
greatest enthusiasm.  His presence seemed  to  revive the  memory  of the
emperor.  The shout would run along the lines, "Vive Napoleon!" and not
unfrequently there would be heard intermingtermiled the cry, " Vive l'Lmpereur! "
On this great occasion, it was observed, to the surprise of all, that three regiments of infantry, which came first, passed the president in perfect silence;
but when  the  cavalry  caime, consisting  of forty-eight squadrons, as they
defiled past on a quick  trot, they shouted with redoubled  enthusiasmi, " Vive
Napokleon! vive   Eminpereur! "   General Changarnier could  not conceal his
chagrin.  Upon investigation, it appeared that General Neumayer had strictly
forbidden his division from  greeting the president with any acclaimn  whatever.
It was supposed that a subordinate officer would not havb ventured upon
such  a  step without the direct orders, or at least the  concurrence, of his
superior officer.  Still there was no  evidence  against General Clanglarnier.
General Neumayer was dismissed from  office; but the president, not wishing
to punish him  too severely, gave him  another command  equally important.
These occurrences only added  to the popularity  of the president with the
aI'rm y.   General Changarnier, conscious  of his discomfiture, was mortally
incensed.   After brooding  over his chagrin  for several days, he issued a
decree, exceedingly impolitic under the circumstances, forbidding all the troops
under his coimmand from  uttering any cries whatever when under arms.  This
was universally  understood  to be an  open  declaration  of war against the
president.  The prohibition, so manifestly dictated by jealousy, only increased
the desire of the troops to shout " Vive Napoleon! " *
The situation  of the president was now  as embarrassing and painful as can
well be imagined. The masses of the people were with him. The leaders of
all the great parties, men of consummate ability, were leagued in deadly
hostility  against him.   The right of suffrage had  been  so  curtailed  as to
deprive the president, as it was estimated, of three millions of votes. To add
to his embarrassment, it was rumored through Paris, and the rumor was upon
everybody's lips, that a conspiracy was formed for his utter overthrow.
The Prince President was acquainted with all the plots against him, and
was kept informed of all the details of the contemplated movements. The
conspirators in their combination felt so strong, that they attempted but little
concealment.  The president was so calm  in his tone, so quiet in his manner,
* " General Changarnier was now  commander-in-chief of the National Guard and of the
Army of Paris.  I-To was a man of ability, but exceeding-ly ambitious and impracticable in his
character.  lie had assumed and almost attained the position and influence of a third power in
the State; and he claimed to be equal in importance to the president or the Assembly. The
Legitimists supported him  in his aims and measures, hoping thereby eventually to crush tho
president. lie was then secretly using his utmost endeavors to gain over the Army of Paris, and
to alienate it from the executive.~-Public and Private Lfif of Napolcon II., by Samuel il.
Smucker, LL.D., p. 146.
Oi the 2d of Ncvember, there appeared aun order signed by him  (Changarnicr), forbidding
the troops under his command to utter cries while under arms. So universally was this understood to be a declaration of war on his part against the presi(enit, that the journals in Changarnier's interest immediately announced his dismissal, accompanied by the statement that it was
not as yet executed because no minister could be found bold enough to attach his signature to
such an order." -History of Europe, Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 531.
52




410                        LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
and apparently so unagitated in view of his great peril, that they deemed
him deficient not only in energy, but in sagacity. They thought him a weak
man, who would stand meekly, and receive blows, with no spirit or strength
to strike back. Signally, in overwhelming and richly-merited defeat, they
were soon convinced of their error.
As General Changarnier, who was to be invested with the temporary dictatorship, was a strong Orleanist, it was supposed that he would set aside the
Legitimist claims of the Count de Chambord, and by military force reestablish
the throne of Louis Philippe in the person of the Count de Paris. M. Thiers
was commonly mentioned as the organizer of this conspiracy.
There is something sublime in the apparent unconcern, the serenity, with
which the Prince President contemplated all these maneuvres and plots, and
in the quiet, noiseless, but resistless energy with which he baffled and utterly
overwhelmed his foes.
It is recorded, that one day Count Mole hastened to the Plysee, and asked
to see the president.
"Prince," said he, "the Permanent Committee wishes to have you arrested.
Proposals have just now been made to me: but I rejected them with indignation; and I said, on retiring, that I would give you warning."
"I thank you, count," Louis Napoleon replied: " I expected no less from
you. But I was aware of all this before, and thought so little of these foolish
projects, that I have just now been walking through the Champs Llys6es.  If
they were really in earnest, they had a good opportunity."
"But," said Count Mole, surprised at this coolness, " there are men there
fully capable of executing this plot in the name of the Assembly."
"If they will attack me in the name of the Assembly," was the reply, "they
must not forget that I will defend myself in the name of France." *
Such was the posture of affairs when the Assembly resumed its session on
the 11th of November, 1850.
* Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 467.




CHAPTER XXIV.
DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.
Speech at the Opening of the Assembly. — Petitions for the Revision of the Constitution. 
Assumptions of Changarnier. - His Removal from Command. - Excitement in the Assembly.
- Salary of the President curtailed.:- Conciliatory Spirit of the President - The Speech at
Dijon. - Conflict upon the Question of Universal Suffrage. - Speech at Poitiers, at Chatellerault. - Doctrines of the Socialists. - Opening of the Session in 1851.- Coalition against
the President. - His Untroubled Spirit. - Conspiracy for his Ruin.
T the opening of the Assembly on the 12th of November, 1850,
the president delivered his annual message.  After a brief narrative of the internal condition and foreign relations of the
Republic, he said, in conclusion,
" Such, gentlemen, is a rapid exhibition of the situation of our
affairs. Notwithstanding the difficulty of circumstances, law
and authority have so far regained their empire, that no one henceforth can
believe in the success of violence. France desires, above all things repose.
Still agitated by the dangers which society has encountered, she rests a stranger to the quarrels of parties and of men, so mischievous in the presence of
the great interests which are at stake.
"As first magistrate of the Republic, I have been obliged to place myself in
connection with the clergy, the magistracy, the agriculturists, the manufacturers, the administration, the army; and I have seized every opportunity to
show them my gratitude for the support which they have given me.  If my
name and my efforts have succeeded in arousing the spirit of the army, of
which I alone, according to the terms of the constitution, have the power to
dispose, it is a service, I venture to say, which I have rendered to the country;
for I have always directed to the advantage of order my personal influence.
"It,is now permitted to every one, except myself, to desire the speedy
revision of our fundamental law. If the constitution contain imperfections
and dangers, you are at liberty to hold them up before the gaze of the country.
I alone, bound by my oath, keep within the strict limits which it has traced
out. The general councils have, in great numbers, expressed the wish for its
revision. This wish is addressed to the legislative power. As for me, the
elect of the people, amenable but to the people, I shall always conform to the
wishes of the people legally expressed.*
* "The following petition from the Central Committee of Paris, for the revision of the constitution, signed by MM. Turgot, Lebobe, Thayer, and other men of note, will give an idea of the
general character of them all: -
"'To MESSIEURS THE REPRESENTATIVES OF TIHE PEOPLE.
"'Messieurs, - Experience has demonstrated to France the vices of the constitution of 1848,
411




412                            LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"If in this session you vote the revision of the constitution, a constitutional
assembly will be formed to revise our fundamental law, and to reulat  the
lot of the executive power. If you do not vote it, the people in 1852 will,manifest solemnly the expression of their new wishes. But, whatever may be
the solutions of the future, let us understand each other, so that it may never
be left to pride, passion, or violence to decide the lot of a great nation.  Let
us inspire the people with the love of repose, by introducing calmness into our
deliberations; let us inspire them  with the religion of right, by never violating its dictates ourselves: then, rely upon it, the improvement in our political morals will compensate for the danger of institutions created in days of
distrust and uncertainty.
"Believe me, that with which I am now specially occupied is not to know
who will govern France in 1852: it is to employ the time at my disposal in
such a manner, that the transition, whatever it maybe, may take place without
tr6uble or agitation.   The employment which is noblest, and worthiest of a
generous soul, is, not to seek, when one is in power, by what expedients he can
retain himself there, but to seek incessantly for the means of consolidating, for
the benefit of all, those principles of authority and morality which are continually struggling with the passions of men and the instability of laws.
"I have loyally opened to you my heart. You will respond to my frankness
by your confidence, to my good intentions by your co-operation; and God will
do the rest."
In this message, alluding to the Roman question, the president said,
"Since my last message, our foreign policy has obtained in Italy a great
success.  Our arms have overthrown  at Rome that turbulent demagogism,
which, in all the Italian Peninsula, has compromised the cause of true liberty;
and our brave soldiers have had the distinguished honor to replace Pius IX.
upon thekthrone of St. Peter. The spirit of party will never be able to obscure
that memorable fact, which will ever constitute a glorious page for France.
The constant aim  of our efforts has been to encourage the liberal and philanthropic intentions of the holy father. The pontifical power continues to realize the promises contained in the motu proprio* of September, 1849."
This conciliatory address had but slight influence in appeasing the angry
passions of the Assembly.. Political rancor was raging with the utmost fierceness.  The prize for which the contending parties were struggling was the
hovernment of France, with all the honors and the wealth it could confer at
the disposal of the victors. Politicians engaged in such a battle are not exthe impossibilities and the perils which it contains. Its revision has become an imperious necessity. In the name of agriculture, of commerce, of manufactures; in the name of all suffering
interests; in the name of the public safety, - the undersigned appeal to your patriotic solicitude.
It belongs to them to point out the danger; it belongs to you to cause it to disappear. Full of
confidence in your high appreciation of the interests of the country, and of the means of safety
which the constitution has placed in your hands, the undersigned pray you to decide that the constitution shall be revised.'
"Petitions similar in spirit were sent to the Assembly, signed by two millions of Frenchmen."
- ~MMl. Gallix et Guy, p. 270.
* Of his own accord.




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.                                    413
pectedc to listen to reason.  The parties hostile to the president wera soon
agoaiin busy as ever ini thein machinations.
\\lWheni the constitution was formed, an article was introduced declaring that
no one should be a candidate for the presidency a second time until the expiration of four years after his term  of service.  Petitions now began to be sent
in to the Assembly from  the people in vast numbers, praying that the constitution might be revised, avowvedly for the purpose of repealing that provision.?
The leaders of the Opposition hesitated to undertake the insurrection and the
coutp (d'etctt which they were contemplating: for, by the constitution, the president lhad control of the army; and the army was devoted to his service, as
wNell as the'rural population.  Under these circumstances, General Changarnier, who was cin command of the whole military force in Paris, ventured to
issue instructions to the troops, forbidding them'-to obey any orders except
such as issued fronm  hinmself, and  declaring all other orders, from  whatever
source, "1 whether functionary, civil, political, or judiciary," to be null and void.t
This was, of course, an assumption of power, and a direct insult to the president, not to be overlooked.   Louis Napoleon, with his invariably serene and
imperturbable spirit, made courteous inquiry of the Assembly, if those instructions were given by order of the Assembly, or upon the personal responsibility
of the general-in-chief.  Though it was manifest that General Changarnier lad
acted in sympathy, with the body of xwhich le was a conspicuous member, still
he was compelled to assunme the responsibility of the gross usurpation.  The
reply lhe made, though not easily reconciled with the facts, was very adroit.
"I drew up those orders," said he, "to preserve the unity of command, and
in contemplation of a combat; but in no instruction of mine has the constitutional right of the Assembly to call out the troops been controverted, or their
right to delegate that power to the President of the Assembly."+
Seldom has on.e short sentence contained such fruitful seeds of tumult as the
words, "in contemplation of a combat."  No one dreamed that the presilenet
was designing to rouse the disorganized masses of Paris into an insurrection.
It must, therefore, be that the leaders of the Opposition were con'teinplating
such an act; and that, consequently,.they deemed it necessary to wrest the military from  the command of the president, lest he should bring it forward in
defence of the government.
The Assembly was flattered and gratified by the announcement that the
command of the army did not belong to the president, but to the Assembly;
and that that body could delegate the command to whom it would. ~
* "In a very urgent potition from the Municipal Council and the inhabitants of Nogent les
Vierges, we fiuud the following concluding sentence. A similar request accompanied very many
of the petitions.'Perhaps it is necessary that the undersigned should add here the expression of the desire
which they cherish,-to see p]o'onqedfor maony ye-ars the powers of the present president, whose glorious
name is still so miagical among thie uvnyliactrinmg and agricultu-ralpopulations.' "- ~MM. Gallix et Goy,
p. 271.
t Ann. Hist. 1851; Moniteur, Jan. 8, 1851.
} Moniteur, Jan. 8, 1851.
~'~The Assembly had been for some time trying to found its claims to the disposal of the army
on a peculiar explanation of the thirty-second article of the constitution, of which, being loosely




414                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
The minister of war, doubtless acting in entire sympathy with the president'(for the most friendly relations existed between them), immediately
resigned, saying in his letter,"Prince, there is no longer a minister of war; since the Assembly arrogates
to itself the right to command the army, and to give orders to all, -generals
and troops."
On the 9th of January, 1851, General Changarnier was informed that his
resignation would be accepted. It was a bold step for the president to take.
The Assembly had not supposed that he would dare to do it.  The dismissal
fell like a thunderbolt upon the astounded general and the Assembly. They
were both bewildered by the blow.  The army was now indisputably in the
hands of the president. To attempt opposition by force was in vain. The
sympathies of the army, as all knew, were with the president. Generals
Perrot and D'Hilliers, who took the place of General Changarnier,  the one
in command of the National Guard in Paris and the other of the regular
troops,- would deal very roughly with any insurrection which should show
itself in the streets.
" In the first transports of their indignation," says Alison, "the Assembly
spoke of ordering the formation of an army of fifty thousand men, and
placing them under the orders of General Changarnier. The extreme division of parties in the Assembly rendered it impossible to obtain a majority
for any decisive measure." * The hostile parties slightly qualified their revenge by passing a vote, that General Changarnier retained, unimpaired, the
confidence of the Assembly.  "The Assembly has lost its sword! " was the
exultant cry throughout the nation when it was announced that Changarnier
was dismissed.  It had, indeed, "lost its sword."   The president, in selfdefence, had wrested it from that body, and held it with a firm grasp.
The dismissed general proposed that he should receive the appointment
of General of the Army of the Assembly.   Chagrined that the Assembly
declined to adopt this insane revolutionary measure, he said, in the tumultuous and "angry debate which ensued, as a reason for the want of decisive
action, -
" The country is divided into five parties, - the Legitimists, the Orleanists,
the Moderate Republicans, the Demagogues, and, finally, those men  who
desire the imperial dictatorship."
M. Thiers made a very bitter speech, two hours long.  "There are," said
he, "but two powers in the State, -the President and the Assembly.  If the
Assembly yield now, there will be but one power. The form of the government will be changed. The word will be pronounced when he pleases: and
it is of but little moment when it comes; for the empire is made."
Lamartine magnanimously and eloquently defended the president, stating
that he had an incontestable right to do as he had done; that it was one of
worded, it seemed susceptible. It was, therefore, with great delight that it saw General Changarnier,'the third power in the state,' pronouncing so decidedly in favor of parliamentary sovereignty.~ - Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth.
* History of Europe, vol. viii. p. 532.




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.                                  415
the clearly-defined perogatives of the president to dismiss the officers of his
appointment.*
The Assembly, soon after this, discredited itself by a petty act of annoyance, which only added to the popularity of the president, and increased his
influence with  the people.  It will be remembered that the salary of the
chief of the State had, by a small majority of votes, been increased from  six
hundred thousand francs to three millions of francs a year.  The Assembly
refused to vote the increased appropriation, and reduced him  to his inadequate
salary of six hundred thousand francs.
The president uttered  no  complaint.   He sold  off  part of his horses,
diminished hi  establishment, and rigorously brought his expenses within his
diminished income.  The populara indignation was so great, in view  of this
treatment of the first magistrate of the Republic, that large subscriptions
were immediately started  among the humbler classes of the people, even
among the workmen of the Faubourg St. Antoine, to make up the deficiency.
The president added still more to his popularity by declining to receive the
proffered bounty.  The following notice was inserted in the "Moniteur: ""In consequence of the bill which has just passed, limiting the expenses
of representation, numerous subscriptions have been raised. It is a manifest
and imposing testimony of sympathy and approbation for the conduct of the
president.  IHe is profoundly touched by it, and  cordially thanks all those
who have entertained the thought; but he thinks it his duty to sacrifice to
the repose of the country his personal gratification. He knows that the
people will do him. justice; and that is sufficient for him. The president
declines, then, any subscription, however spontaneous and national may be-its
character."
Still anxious for harmony and co-operative action, the presklent sent in. a
very conciliatory message to the Assembly on the 24th of January, 1851. It
contained the following expressions: -
"The  union  of the two powers is indispensable to  the repose of  the
country; but, as the constitution has rendered them independent of each
other, the only condition of that union is reciprocal confidence. Penetrated
by this sentiment, I shall ever respect the rights of the Assembly in maintaining intact the prerogatives of power which I hold from the people.
"II order not to prolong painful difference, I have accepted, in accordance
with the recent vote of the Assembly, the resignation of a minister who has
given to the country and the cause of order the most brilliant pledges of his
devotion.   Wishing, however, to  form   again  a cabinet with  chances of
stability, I cannot select its elements from a majority born of exceptional
circumstances; and I see with regret that it is impossible for me to find a
"Meanwhile the president convened the leading members of the Assembly at the hlysee
Bourbon on the 8th of January; when' he declared his earnest desire to remain on good terms
with the legislature; offered to take his ministers from the majority; to abandon his enlarged
civil lists; in a word, to do every thing' they desired, except give up the right which the constitution gave him, -of dismissing an inferior officer.' There was no doubt that this was legally
within his power; and accordingly the conference broke up without any result."   History of
Europe, Sir Arcrlibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 532.




416                             LIFE OF NAPOLEON
combination   among the members of the minorty, notwithstanding  its importance.
"In  this conjuncture, and  after unavailing  endeavors, I have resolved to
form  a ministry of transition composed of capable men not bonging  to any
fraction of the Assembly, and who are resolved  to devote themselves to the
conduct of affairs without the prejudclices of party. Honorable men who
accept such a patriotic task will merit the gratitude of the country. France
desires, above  all things  else, repose;  aid  she  expects  of  those  whom
she has invested with  her confidence  conciliation  without feebleness, calm
steadfastness, and inflexibility in the right."
The  president formed  such  a ministry; but the  Assembly. remained  as
implacable as ever. Petitions for the revision of the constitution were now
greatly multiplied. "This step was loudly demanded, says Sir Archibald
Alison, "by all intelligent persons in the kingdom, from the proof which had
been affobrded of the impossibility of the public business being conducted
with the executive in a constant state of antagonism with the legislature,
and the latter so split up into irreconcilable parties, that no cabinet capable
of carrying on the government could be formed out of the majority."
Between the 5th  of May and the 31st of June, petitions for the revision
of the constitution  were  presented  to  the Assembly, signed  by  1,123,625
persons; and still they were coming. Nearly four hundred thousand of these
petitioners openly expressed the desire that the constitution should be so
alteredl, that the powers of the president might be prolonged. To accomplish
this measure, a vote  of  three-fourths of  the  house  was necessary.  The
Socialists boasted that the revision could never pass, as they were confident
-that they were strong enough in the Assembly to prevent it.
While the public mind was in this agitated state, and all France was contemplating  the future with  alarm, the president, with  many  others of the
government, accepted an invitation to assist, on the 1st of JunO, 1851, in the
inauguration  of a railroad  at Dijon.  On the journey, he was greeted with
great enthusiasm.   At  every  railroad-station, cries resounded  of  "Vive
Napoleon!" "Vive  l'Empereur!"   Ile made a speech  upon  thie  occasion
which attracted the attention of all Europe.  The French people commended
it warmly: the Assembly violently condemned it.
"I could wish," said he, "that those who  doubt of the future had  accompanied me through the populations of the Yonne and the Cote d'Or. They
*   The position of the president was daily becoming one of extreme difficulty and dangert
TPhe secret conspiracy against him, of which Changarnier was the head, acquired increased
bitterness and energy by the dismissal of that officer. The opposition to him in the Assembly
was becoming more and more determined.  Every day, the wheels of government wvere approaching- nearer to a dead-lock; and the responsibility of such a horrid crisis of anarchy and
ruin would be thrown by the concurrent voices of the factions on the president. But Lounis
Napoleon possessed tlhe confidence of the nation openly, and of the army secretly; and the
time was rapidly approaching, when he must either yield ignobly, and be crushed forever
beneath the endeavors of his imbittered foes, or he must save himself from  ruin by some great
act of desperate energy, resolution, and power, by which his enemies would be overthrown and
he be rescued, while at the same time he retained the esteem and the confidence of the nation." -
Public and Private History of Napoleon III., by Sanmel H. Smucker, LL.D., p. 149.




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.                                  417
wovuld have been re-assured in judging for themselves of the state of public
feeling.  They would have seen that neither intrigues nor attacks, nor passionate discussions of parties, ar  iln accordance with the sentiments and the
situation of the country.  France neither wishes for the return of the ancient
re~ginme,  nder whatever form it mnlbe disguised, nor for the trial of baleful
and impracticable Utopias.  It is because I am  the most natural adversary of
both the one and the other that France has placed her donfidence in me. If
it be not so, hov'can one explain this touching sympathy of the people with
me, resisting  visionary schemes, and  absolving  me  from  being the cause
of their sufferings?
"In fact, if my government has not been able to realize all the ameliorations which it has had in view, the reason must be assigned to the maneuvres
of factions, which paralyze the good  dispositions of assemblies, as well as
those of governments the most devoted to the public good. It is because
you have shared in those convictions that I have found here in patriotic
Burgundy a reception which is for me both approbation and encouragement.
" I avail myself of this banquet, as of a tribune, to  open  to my fellowcountrymen mlly whole heart.  A  new phase of our political life is commencing.  Froim  one end of France to the other, petitions are being  signed to
demand the revision of the constitution. I await with confidence the mainifestations of the country and the decisions of the Assembly, which can only
be actuated by the sole thought of the public good.
" Since I came into power, I have proved how much, in the presence of the
grave interests of society, I have disregarded that which only affects me personally. Attacks the most unjust and the most violent have not disturbed my
attitude of calmness. Whatever may be the duties which the country may
impose upon me, she will find me decided to follow her will; and believe
me, gentlemen, France shall not perish in my hands." *
All the enemies of Louis Napoleon were opposed to any revision of the
constitution.  " The revision of the constitution," said  Cavaignac frankly,
" would put the Republic in the balance against the Empire; but the Republic should not permit itself to be called in question." The fact was candidly
admitted, that the majority of the people of France might prefer the Empire;
and that, therefore, it was not safe to submit the question to their decision.
The discussion of this question commenced in the Assembly on the 14th of
July, and closed on the 20th.  There were seven hundred and twenty-four
members who voted.  A three-fourths vote required five hundred and fortythree votes to carry the measure. The vote against the revision was two hundred and seventy-eight, leaving but four hundred and forty-six in its favor.
Thus, though the majority in  the Assembly who voted for the bill was one
hundred and seventy-one, the bill was lost.t
* La politique imp6rialo Exposeo par les Discours et Proclamations de l'Ernpereur Napoleon
III., deplils le dix decembre, 1848, jusqu'en juillet, 1865.
t " It is remarkable, that in the minority, against the revision of the constitution, were to be
found the names of M. Thiers and M. Remusat; though there were not, probably, in all France,
two men more thoroughly convinced of the ruinous tendency of the existing institutions than
those political philosophers." - Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 533.
53




418                            LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  III.
As the constitution forbade the re-election of the president, the coalesced
minority of two hundred and seventy-eight in the Assembly hoped, that by
thwarting the wishes of the majority of theAssembly, and the general voice
of the nation  in  refusing  its revision, they had effectually excluded Louis
Napoleon from  being again a candidate.'The disquietude in the nation now
became very great.  The Republic had proved an utter failure.  There were
but few who even pretended to regard it with respect.  The struggling  actions, in anticipation of its speedy overthrow, were each waiting on.ly to establish its own supremacy upon the ruins.  The masses of the people, as no one
could deny, and as all admitted, were neither Orleanists, Bourbonists, Socialists, nor Republicans: they were Imperialists. They remembered with undying affection the empire of Napoleon I., its order and prosperity at home,
its dignity abroad; and earnestly they desired its restoration.
The president had continued true to his life-long convictions in favor of
universal suffrage. Upon this point he remained inflexible, ever affirming
that it was the right of the people, the whole people, to choose their own
institutions. The members of his cabinet were, however, so much alarmed
by the triumph of Socialistic principles in the great cities, that they thought
that the restoration of universal suffrage would be the ruin of France. The
president found himself upon this vital point irreconcilably at variance with
his cabinet. The ministry, consequently, resigned, and were succeeded by nev
men who were in sympathy with the president upon this democratic principle.
This was regarded as a public announcement to France of his devotion to
the law  of universal suffrage.*
The rejection of the revision of the constitution did by no means satisfy
the country. The agitation increased. Petitions, numerously signed, continued  to be poured in.  Out of eighty-six  departments of France, eighty, in
their general councils, expressed their strongest wishes for the measure.
Thus the political posture of affairs now  assumed the attitude of the people
of France and a minority  in  the Assembly in harmonious and sympathetic
action with the president, struggling for popular rights against the factions
in the Assembly and the clubs in the great cities.t
All the speeches which the president now made indicated the confidence
with which he was inspired, and the serenity with which he contemplated the
future, which to most minds seemed so menacing. On the 1st of July, 1851,
* Moniteur, Oct. 28, 1851.
t " The Assembly, instead of assisting the president to govern legally and constitutionally,
rendered such a course on his part almost impossible. For fear Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
might be their legal, constitutional president in 1852, they would not revise an impracticable
constitution, though implored to do so by two millions ofl petitioners, and by eighty out of
eighty-six departments of France. They persisted in refusing the right to vote to three millions
of French citizens, though it was by their votes that they themselves had obtained authority.
Carried away by the petulant wit of Victor Hugo, the sneering selfishness of Thiers, by their
own cankered prejudices, by every thing hbt common sense and a proper regard for the voice of
the nation at large, they entered into a conspiracy to seize the president on a charge of high
treason, and fling into prison, perhaps shoot, the very man on whose head the safety of France,
perhaps of Europe, was depending."- Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 490.




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.                               419
in a speech which the president made at Poitiers upon the opening of a, railroad, he said, -
" MONSIEUiR LE MAIRE, -  Be my  interpreter to  your fellow-citizens, to
thank them for their welcome, so enthusiastic and so cordial.  As do you, I
also contemplate the future of the country without fear; for its safety will
ever come  from  the will of the people freely expressed and  religiously
accepted.  Therefore I invoke with my  most ardent wishes the solemn
moment in which the powerful voice of the nation will dominate over the
oppositions, and bring into accord all rivalries; for it is very sad to see
revolutions agitate society, create ruins, and nevertheless ever to leave standing the same passions, the same exigencies, the same elements of trouble.
" When one traverses France, and beholds the rich variety of her soil, the
marvellous products of her industry; when one admires her rivers, her roads,
her canals, her railroads, her ports which two seas bathe,- one asks himself to
what degree of prosperity France may not attain, if durable tranquillity will
permit- its inhabitants to co-operate with all their energies for the general
good, instead of surrendering themselves to intestine discussions.
"When, in another point of -view, we reflect upon that territorial unity
which the persevering efforts of royalty have bequeathed to us; upon that
unity, political, judicial, administrative, and. commercial, which the revolution
has given us; when we contemplate the population, intelligent and laborious,
animated almost entirely by the same religioius faith, and speaking the same
language; the venerable, clergy teaching morals and virtue; the upright magistracy causing justice to be respected; the army, valiant and disciplined, faithful
to honor and duty; in fine, when we contemplate that crowd of eminent men
capable of guiding the government, capable of conferring renown upon political assemblies, and also upon those of the sciences and the arts, - we inquire
with anxiety what can be the causes which prevent this nation, already so
great, from  being still greater: and one is astonished that a nation which
contains so many elements of power and prosperity should expose itself so
frequently, to be plunged, of its own accord, into ruin.
"Is it because, as the emperor said,' Old institutions are destroyed, and the
new are not yet established'?  Whatever the cause may be, let us to-day do
our duty in preparing for France solid foundations.
"I love to address these words to you in a province renowned at all
epochs for its patriotism.  Let us not forget that your city  was, under
Charles VII., the centre of an heroic resistance; that it has been for a period
of fourteen years the refuge of nationality in invaded France. Let us hope
that it will be still one of the first to give the example of devotion to civilization and the country."
The variety, the harmony, and the aptitude of these brief speeches are very
striking. While the president was assailed in the most envenomed phrases
of vituperation and abuse, assailed in terms with which we are not willing
to soil these pages, we search his speeches in vain for a discourteous or an
undignified word.  On July 2, the day after the speech at Poitiers, he made
the following address at Chatellerault:~




420                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III
"Gentlemen, in thanking Monsieur the Mayor for the affectionate words
with which he has addressed me, I am not able to attribute to myself alone
the happy results for whlich he has so kindly given me credit. My conduct
for three years can be summed up in a few words. I have placed myself
resolutely at the head of the men of order of all parties; and I have found
in them  efficient and disinterested co-operation.  If there have been any
defections, I am ignorant of them; for I press forward without looking behind
me. In order to advance in such times as ours, one must have a motive and
an object.  My motive is love of country; my object is to cause religion
and reason to triumph over Utopian schemes; it is that truth should not
tremble before error.  That result will be obtained if throughout France we
follow the example of Chatellerault, and if we forge arms, not for the emeute
and for civil war, but to increase the force, the grandeur, and the independence of the nation."
The day for the next presidential election was now rapidly approaching.
By a provision of the constitution which the people had endeavored in vain
to have repealed, Louis Napoleon, the only man whom  the masses of the
people wished for, could not be a candidate.  There was a restless, dissatisfied
feeling throughout the country.  The Bourbon party brought forward the
name of M. de la Rochejacquelin: the Orleanists spoke of the Prince of
Joinville,-  one of the sons of' Louis Philippe. One wing of the Republican
party was in favor of General Cavaignac; another, of M. Carnot. The Socialists were divided between Ledru Rollin and Raspail.  The condition of
the country seemed, indeed, deplorable. There was much poverty and much
suffering.  Most thinking  men contemplated the future with the deepest
apprehension.
The Socialists were everywhere busy. The abject poor in the great cities
listened eagerly to their teachings. These fanatic men taught that the whole
structure of society should be overthrown, and constructed upon a new basis,
where there should be no private property, no separate families, no religion.
"In the new order of affairs, there should be no rich, no poor, no prohibitions,
no crimes, no prisons, no punishments, no wars, no religions; but all should
socially dwell together, fraternally united by holy equality. People had become perfectly frenzied on such Utopias as these.  They not only considered
them  realizable, but deemed themselves justified in going any lengths to
enforce them. Confiscation of property, and destruction of life, were regarded
as perfectly lawful means for such an end. "Vive la Guillotine! " was almost
as common a cry as "Vive la Re'publique!" *
Such was the state of the country when the last session of the Assembly
was opened  on the 4th of November, 1851. All Europe awaited with
interest the message of the President of the Republic. It was, as' ever, concise, brief, frank, and very comprehensive.
"GENTLEMEN. REPRESENTATIVES,-I come, as each year, to present to you
a summary account of the important facts which have occurred since the hist
message. Still, I think it a duty to pass over events, which, against my will,
* Life of Napoleon-III., by Edward Both, p. 489.




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.                                  421
have produced  certain  dissensions always regrettable.  The  public peace,
with the exception of a few partial agitations, has not been troubled; and,
even at many times when political difficulties were of a nature to weaken the
sentiment of security and to excite alarm, the country, by its peaceable attitude, has manifested confidence in the government, the evidence of which is
most precious.
"1 It would, however, be dangerous to indulge in illusions upon this appear-,-,ance of tranquillity.  A  vast demagogical conspiracy is now  organizing in
France and in Europe.  Secret societies are endeavoring  to  extend  their
ramifications even in the smallest communes.  Without being  able to agree
upon men or things, they have agreed to bring all the madness, the violence,
and the obduracy of parties to a focus in 1852, not to build up, but to overthrow.
"Your patriotism  and your courgage, with which I will endeavor to keep
pace, will save France, I cannot doubt, from  the perils with which she is
menaced.  But, to overcome these dangers, we must contemplate them  without fear as without exaggeration; and, while fully convinced that (thanks to
the force of the administration, the enlightened zeal of the magistrates, the
devotion of the army) France cannot perish, let us unitebur efforts to deprive
the spirit of evil of the hope of even a momentary success.
"The best means to attain this end have'always appeared to me to be the,application of that system  which consists on the one side in satisfying legitimate interests, and  on the other in  stifling at their  first. appearance the
slightest symptoms of an attack against religion, morality, or society. Thus
to procure labor by granting to companies our great lines of railroads, and to
use the money which the State shall obtain from these concessions to give
active impulse to other works in all the departments; to encourage institutions designed to secure agricultural or commercial credit; to aid by charitable institutions in the relief of all suffering, -  such has been, such ought still
to be, our first care. It is by following this course that we can most easily
resort to repression should it be found necessary."
In reference to foreign affairs, the president says, "We ought to congratulate ourselves upon our relations with foreign powers. From all parts, there
come to us assurances of the desire which is felt to see our difficulties peacefully settled. On our side, a loyal and sincere diplomacy is associated with
all those measures which can contribute to assure the repose and the peace.
of Europe.  The longer that peace is prolonged, the more intimate will be
the ties which will bind together the different nations. The vast and liberal
idea of Prince Albert has contributed to cement this union.  The English
people have received our fellow-countrymen with a noble cordiality; and this
rivalry of the industries of all the world, instead of fomenting jealousies, will
only increase reciprocal esteem among the nations." *
Referring to the Roman  question, the  president says, "At Rome, oui
* The president here refers to the great Fair established in the Crystal Palace, in London,
for the exhibition of the world's industry.




422                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
situation continues the same.  The holy father does not cease to show his
constant solicitude for the happiness of France and for the comfort of our
soldiers.  The work of organization of the Roman Government  rogresses
slowly. A Council of State is, however, established; and the municipal and
provincial councils, which are gradually being organized, will serve to form
a consulte to take part in  the administration of the finances.  Important
legislative reforms are in progress. In fine, measures are in active operation
for the creation of an army, which will render possible the withdrawal of the
foreign forces stationed in the States of the Church."
After briefly alluding to the relations of France with the other foreign
powers, the president enters upon  the great theme of his message, -  the
importance of restoring universal suffrage to the people of France.   Notwithstanding these satisfactory results," says the president, "a state of general uneasiness is daily increasing.  Everywhere employment grows slack,
suffering is multiplied, the various interests of industry are alarmed, and
anti-social hopes exult, as the weakened public authorities approach their
term.
" In such a state of things, the first object of the government should be to
seek the means of removing the dangers and securing the best chances of
safety.  My words on this subject in my last message, which I recall with
pride, were favorably received by the Assembly. I said to you, -
"'If in this session you vote the revision of the constitution, a constituent assembly will be formed to revise our fundamental laws, and to regulate the lot of the executive power. If you do not vote it, the people in 1852
will manifest solemnly the expression of their wishes. But, whatever may be
the solutions of the future, let us understand each other; so that it may never
be left to pride, passion, or violence, to decide the lot of a great nation.'
"To-day, the posture of affairs remains the same; and  my duty is not
changed. It is inflexibly to maintain order; it is to remove all cause of agitation; so that the resolutions which decide our lot may be conceived in tranquillity and  adopted in peace.  These resolutions can  emanate only from
national sovereignty, since they have all for their basis popular election. I
have asked myself, whether, inthe delirium of passions, the confusion of doctrines, the division of parties, - when every thing is combined to take from
morals, justice, authority, their last prestige, -we ought to leave unsettled,
incomplete, the only principle, which, in the midst of the general chaos, Providence has maintained for us to rally around.  When universal suffrage has
reconstructed the social edifice by substituting a right for a revolutionary fact,
is it wise in us any longer to narrow its base?   In fine, I have asked myself,
if, when new powers shall preside over the destinies of our country, it would
not be in advance to compromise their stability in leaving a pretext to question their origin and to deny their legitimacy.
"There could be no possible doubt upon this subject; and, without wishing
to separate myself for a single instant from the policy of order which I have
always followed, I have found myself obliged; much to my regret, to separate
myself from a ministry which had all my confidence and my esteem, that I
might choose another composed equally of men honorably known by their




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY  AND  TACTICS.                             423
conservative sentiments, but who were willing to admit the necessity of establishing universal suffrage on the broadest possible foundation.
There will, therefore, be presented to you the project of a law which restores to the principle all its fulness, in preserving from, the law of the 31st of
May that which redeems universal suffrage from impure elements, and renders
the application more moral and more regular.
The project has, then, nothing which can wound this Assembly; for, if I
think it useful to ask of the Assembly to-day the repeal of the law of the 31st
of May, I do not intend to deny the approbation which -I then gave to the
initiative taken by the minister who claimed, from  the chiefs of the majority
of whom that law was the work, the honor of presenting it. I recognize the
salutary effects which the law has produced. In recalling the circumstances
under which it was presented, it must be admitted that it was a political act
rather than an electoral law. It was truly a measure of public safety. And,
whenever the majority, shall propose to me energetic means to save tile country, it can rely upon my loyal and disinterested support; but measures adopted
for public safety have but a temporary continuance.
"The law of the 31st of May, in its application, has exceeded'the object
intended to be attained. No one foresaw the suppression of three millions of
electors, two-thirds of whom were peaceable inhabitants of the rural districts.
What is the result?  It is that this exclusion has served as a pretext to the
anarchic party, which cloaks its detestable designs by the appearance of
attempting to reconquer a right of which it has been deprived. Too infQrior
in numbers to seize upon society by its vote, it hopes, under favor of a general
emotion and in the decline of the powers, to introduce upon many portions of
France, at the same time, troubles which would speedily be repressed undoubtedly, but which would involve us in new complications.
"Independently of these perils, the law of the 31st of May presents grave
inconveniences.  I have never ceased to think that the day would come in
which it would be my duty to propose its abrogation.  Defective, indeed,
when it is applied to the election of an Assembly, it is still more so when the
election of a president is at stake; for if a residence of three years in the commune has appeared a guaranty of intelligence imposed upon the electors, that
they may know  the men who are to represent them, a residence so long
cannot be necessary to appreciate the candidate destined to govern France.
"Another grave objection is this, - the constitution requires, for the validity of the election of the president by the people, two millions, at least, of suffrages; and, if the candidate does not receive that number, the right of election is transferred to the Assembly. The constitution had then decided, that,
of ten millions of voters who were registered, one-fifth would suffice for the
validity of an election.
" To-day, the number of electors is reduced to seven millions. To require
two millions of them is to change the proportion, -that is to say, it is to
demand nearly one-third, instead of one-fifth; and thus, in a certain event, it
is in reality to take the election from the people, and give it to the Assembly.
It is, therefore, positively to change the conditions of eligibility of the President of the Republic.




424                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"In  fine, I call your attention to another, perhaps decisive reason.  The
re-establishment of universal suffrage upon its principal basis gives one chance
more to obtain the revision of the constitution. You have not forgotten why,
in the last session, the adversaries of this revision refused to give it their vote.
They supported  themselves upon this argument, which  they knew  how  to
render specious.
"'The constitution, they said,'being the work of an Assembly elected by
universal suffrage, cannot be amended by an Assembly the issue of restricted
suffrage.'
" Whether this may be a real motive, or only a pretext, it is well to set it
aside, and to be able to say to those who wish to bind the country to an
immovable constitution,"'Behold universal suffrage re-established! The majority of the Assembly,
supported by two millions of petitioners, by the largest number of the councils
of arronclissement, and almost unanimously by the councils-general, demand a
revision of the fundamental compact. Have you less confidence than we in
the expression of the popular will?'
" The question thus presents itself to all those who desire a pacific solution
of the difficulties of the day. The law of the 31st ofMay has its imperfections;
but, even were it perfect, should it not, nevertheless, be repealed if it resist
the revision of the constitution, that manifest wish of the country?
"It is objected, I am aware, that, on my part, these propositions are inspired
by personal interest. My conduct for the last three years ought to repel such
an allegation.  The welfare of the country, I repeat it, will always be the sole
motive of my actions.  I think it my duty to propose every means of conciliation, and to make every effort to bring about a pacific, regular, legal solution,
whatever may be the issue.
"Thus, then, gentlemen, the proposition which I make to you is neither a
tactic of party, nor an egotistical calculation, nor a sudden resolution: it is
the result of serious meditation and of profound conviction. I do not pretend that this measure will cause all the difficulties of the situation to disappear; but to each day its own task.
"To-day, to re-establish universal suffrage is to deprive civil war of its flag;
the Opposition, of its last argument. It will furnish France with the possibility of giving itself institutions which may insure its tranquillity.  It will give
to the future powers of the State that moral force which can only exist so
long as it reposes'on a consecrated principle, and on an authority which is
incontestable."
This message was listened to with profound attention.  Occasionally, when
the president was urging the repeal of the existing electoral law, the Opposition allowed themselves to express their disapprobation. The new minister
of the interior then presented a bill repealing the law, and declaring every
Frenchman an elector who was twenty-one years of age, and who had resided
in the same commune for a period of six months.  Criminals, and those who
had no domicile, were excluded. It was estimated that this change would
restore to the right of suffrage three millions of Frenchmen who were
deprived of that right by the law of the 31st of May.




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.                                  425
"The coalesced leaders of the parties in  opposition, conscious that the war
of diplomacy was approaching  a crisis which would inevitably result in an
appeal to arms, redoubled their inimical efforts.  The consideration of the
proposed law was postponed for eight days.  In the mean time, an attempt
was made to carry a motion, that the President of the Assembly, in the
name of the Assembly, had the exclusive right to the command of the army,
to fix its amount of force, and to issue orders to all officers, superior and
inferior.
"This proposal," says Alison, "was a flagrant violation of existing law; as
it went to take from the president the command of the armed force, expressly
conferred upon him, and him  alone, by the constitution.  It amounted to a
declaration of war against him; but gave him  the immense advantage for
which lie had long been looking, - of beginning the contest, not only with
the affections of the army and of the great majority of the people, but with
the legal right, on his side." *
This proposed law was to be read as an order of the day to the army, and
to be placarded in all the barracks of the Republic. It seems, however, that
this measure was so gross a violation of the law, that, after an angry debate
of three days, it was rejected.
In reference to the extreme anxiety which at this time pervaded the loyal
part of the Assembly and the whole of France, Sir Archibald Alison says, -
"A  gloomy silence now succeeded to the tumultuous cries which had hitherto disturbed the debate.  Terror froze every heart, and  detached crowds
from  the majority.  Many thought the proposal was the signal for a parliamentary coup d'etat.  All saw in it the commencement of a bloody civil war.
Under the influence of these feelings, the vote was called for.  On the vote
being taken, four hundred and eight voted against the proposal, and only
three hundred for it. It was observed that Generals Cavaignac, Lamoriciere,
and  Changarnier voted with  the quaestors [for the proposition].   All the
other military men, twenty-one in number, voted against them. M. Roucher
brought the decision of the Assembly to the president, who was in the Palace
of the Ulysee, ready, if the vote had been different, to mount on horseback.' It is better as it is!' cried he; and the preparations were immediately countermanded."
After a delay of eight days, the question came up respecting the repeal of
the restricted electoral law.  Notwithstanding  all the efforts of the governinent, and of every sincere friend of liberty, the bill was rejected by a majority of three votes.   Flushed  by  this victory, the coalesced factions now
brought forward a motion, adjudging the penalties of high treason upon any
one who should by his speech, or his writings, or in any other way whatever,
advocate the claims of any interdicted candidate.  Louis Napoleon was this
interdicted candidate.  It could easily be affirmed that his messages and
speeches tended to secure his election.  The plan was, immnediately to arrest
him  under this act, as guilty of high treason; to, throw him  into the dungeons
of Vincennes; to seize command of the army; and then - civil war with all
* History of Europe, Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 534.
54




426                            LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
its horrors. Thus every thing was prepared for the coup cl'tat of the factions
of the Assembly. The batteries were erected, the guns loaded; and success
seemed certain. But Louis Napoleon was not a Louis XVI., a Charles X., or
a Louis Philippe. Calmly, and with unshaken confidence in the sacredness
of his cause and in the support of the people, he made his preparations for
the inevitable conflict.
It was now manifest to all, that a revolution, a coup  ce'tat in some form,
must take place.  The country had very narrowly escaped  civil war.  The
peril was by no means averted; it was but for a moment postponed.*  In
this fearful emergency, the more considerate leaders of the rival parties held
a meeting to deliberate upon the threatening aspects of the hour. M. Thiers
is reported to have said," I am of opinion that the president should be reelected for ten years. It
will be a terrible day for Paris when that is proposed; but I feel that it is
just and indispensable, and I am willing to agree to it."
M. Mole and his friends thought that the Legislative Assembly should be
divided into two chambers, -  a Senate and a Lower House; that the president should be re-elected; and that vigorous measures should be adopted
against Socialism.t
All excepting the extreme radicals were agreed that a revision of the
constitution was indispensable; but the extreme radicals commanded more
than one-third of the votes, and thus could prevent any revision. The wheels
of government were thus clogged; the country was threatened with anarchy;
all its interests were suffering; and there was no legal way of escaping from
the accumulating difficulties.
Every thinking mind in the nation seemed agitated, excepting that of the
president.  Pensive, serene, firm, no one could  discern in him  the slightest
indications of uneasiness, or of any want of confidence in the future. Was
it his wonderful power of self-control which enabled him to conceal the
emotions which  disturbed his bosom?  Was it his faith  in destiny which
rendered him stoical? Was it his superior foresight which enabled him to
discern clearly the triumphant end to which he was approaching? These are
questions which the president alone can answer; and he has not seen fit as
yet to answer them.  The fact, however, remains, attested by all who knew
him, -  that when apparently exposed  to utter and  speedy ruin by  arrest,
imprisonment, and probably death, no one could perceive the slightest disturbance of the invariable tranquillity of his spirit.
On the 26th of November, the general officers of the army held a meeting
* "The great debate left the parties in a state of mutual exhaustion, and materially damaged
the coalition in the Assembly, which had hitherto been so hostile to the president, by showing,
that, in a crisis, a large part might be expected to leave it. The narrow escape which the
country had made from civil war, and the obvious risk of its soon recurring, had suggested to
thoughtful and reasonable men of all parties the necessity of a change in the constitution; and,
since the Assembly could not muster a majority sufficient to do this legally, the only recourse
was a coup d'etOt. This was evident to all, and all were prepared to act upon it. Tie only
question - and it was a most material one - was, to whose profit the coup was to be struck." -
Alison, vol. viii. p. 535.
t Cassagnac, Histoire de la Chute du Roi Louis Philippe, tom. ii. p. 132.




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY  AND  TACTICS.                              427
at the house of General IM~agnan to deliberate upon the appalling posture of
affairs.  Twenty-one attended.  General Magnan, who was general-in-chief;,
opened the meeting.  Feelingly he spoke of the perilous state of the country,
menaced on the one side by a reckless Socialistic democracy, and  on the
other by a coalition of factions in the Assembly, which effectually thwarted
all salutary governmental action. He announced - for it was a secret meeting -tthat in this dilemma            ih ntention  of the president, who had
been chosen by so many millions of the people, to make an appeal to the
whole mass of the people themselves to extricate the country from  the
difficulties in which it was involved.
Every one present, without an exception, recognized the necessity of this
act.  Each man expressed his assent.  They all then shook hands, and fraternally embraced, as they took an oath not to reveal what had transpired at the
meeting.  So well did they keep the secret, that it was not until five years
afterwards that it was revealed by General Cassagnac, with the consent of
the officers who were present.*
While the president was thus preparing for action, the coalesced factions
in the Assembly, forming a majority, were rapidly maturing their plans for his
destruction. "I It was proposed," says Alison, " to denounce the president, and
declare his powers terminated; commit him  to Vincennes, and subsequently
transport or lbanish him from France.  All civil and military officers refusing
their support to the Assembly were to be proceeded against according to law,
as guilty of treason; and this decree was to be publicly affixed in all the
barracks of the Republic.  This motion was remitted to a committee of
fifteen, consisting of the leaders of the three coalesced parties, by whom it
was, with  one dissenting voice, agreed to.  The motion once carried, the
command of the army was to be assumed, and the president lodged in Vincennes.  Those who agreed to this scheme were the leaders of the Legitimist,
Orleanist, Moderate, and Jacobin parties. The execution of the plan was
fixed for an early day; while, in the interior, the most entire secrecy was
enjoined upon the design." t
The president was kept informed of every movement of his enemies; and
relying upon the resources of his own mind, and apparently without taking
counsel of others, he made'silent, sagacious, and minute preparations, not
only to meet their machinations, but to anticipate them.
On the 25th of November, there was a grand celebration, in the Circus of
the Champs Rlysees, to distribute medals and crosses Qf the Legion of Honor
to those who had  gained  prizes at the Universal Exhibition in London.
There was assembled on the occasion a very brilliant gathering of all the
elite of Paris, amounting to nearly foCir thousand. The president, in his
speech, said, -
"Gentlemen, there are ceremonies, which, by the sentiments they inspire
and the reflections to which they give birth, are not vain spectacles.  I cannot repress emotion and pride, as a Frenchman, in seeing around me these
* Cassagnac, torn. ii. p. 391.
t History of Europe, by Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 535.




428                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
honorable men, who, at the price of so many efforts and  so many sacrifices
have maintained with eclat abroad the reputation of our trades, our arts,
our sciences.
"I have already rendered a just homage to the grand  thought which
presided at the Universal Exposition  of London; but, in the moment of
crowning your success by a national recompense, can I forget that so many
marvels of industry have been commenced in the din of the Jmete, and
achieved in the midst of a society incessantly agitated by fears of the present,
and menaces of the future?  In reflecting upon the obsacles which you have
had to overcome, I have said to myself, -
"'How great would this nation be if it could be eft to breathe at its ease,
and to live in peace and quietude!'
"Indeed, it is when credit has scarcely begun to revive; when an.trocious
idea impels incessantly the workman to exhaust even the sources of labor;
it is when madness, clothing itself with  t        mantle of philanthropy, diverts
the mind from useful occupations, and directs it to the most Ttopian speculations, -it is under these circumstances that you have shown to the world
products which it would seem  that durable repose alone would be able to
execute.
"In presence, then, of these unexpected results, I repeat,  -low grand republican France might be, if she were permitted to apply herself to useful
industry, and to reform her institutions, instead of being incessantly troubled
on the one hand. by demagogic ideas, and on the other by monarchical hallucinations!'
"Do these demagogic ideas proclaim  any truth?  No: they diffuse everywhere error and falsehood.  Disquietude precedes them; deception follows
them; and the resources employed for their repression are so much of loss
for the most pressing ameliorations and for the solace of misery.
"As to monarchic hallucinations, without presenting the same dangers,
they equally impede all progress, all serious employment.  One struggles,
instead of advancing.  Men are seen, who were formerly ardent advocates
of the prerogatives of royal authority, now earnestly striving to destroy that
power which is the issue of universal suffrage.  We see those who have
suffered most from revolutions, and who have most bemoaned them, provoking a new one, and that with the single object of escaping from  the national
will, and  of hindering  those  measures which  tend  to restore peace to
society.
"You  all,-the sons of that regenerated society which has destroyed
ancient privilege, and which proclaims as its fundamental principle civil and
political equality, - you will experience a just pride in being named Chevaliers
of the Order of the Legion of Honor. It is because that institution -like
all the others created at the epoch -is in harmony with the spirit of the age
and the ideas of the country.  Far from  serving, as do others, to render the
distinctions of society more marked, they efface those distinctions in placing
in the same position all merits, to whatever profession or to whatever rank
in society they appertain.
"Receive, then, these crosses of the Legion of Honor, which, according  to




DIPLOMATIC STRATEGY AND TACTICS.                               429
the grand idea of its founder, is to confer upon artistic skill as much honor as
uponf bravery, and upon bravery as much honor as upon science.
" Before separating, gentlemen, permit me to encourage you to new labors.
Uindertake them without fear.  They will prevent stagnation of business this
wvinter. Do not doubt the future.  Tranquillity will be maintained, whatever
may happen.  A government which supports itself upon the entire mass of
the nation, which has no other motive than the public good, and which that
ardent faith animates that guides one surely, even across a space where there
is no path traced out, -  that government, I say, will fulfil its mission; for it
unites in itself both the right that comes from the people and the might that
comes from.God."
It is impossible to read without admiration this calm, serene confidence
of Louis Napoleon  in  the result of the conflict into which his foes were
draogg~ing  him.  The president never used words which were not full of
meaning. Thoughtful minds pondered the phrase, "that government which
that ardent faith animates thatguides  one surely, even across a space where
there is 9no path markedI out."  What was this trackless space over which the
government was to conduct the nation?  But a few days before, the president
had addressed the officers of several regiments which had newly arrived in
Paris. These officers in a body had called upon the president at the Elysce,
accompanied by Generfall Moignan, commander-in-chief of the forces in Paris.
It was the 9th of November, 1851.  In that address, the president said,"Gentlemen, in receiving the officers of the different regiments of the
army which  succeed  each  other in  the garrison  of Paris, I congratulate
myself in seeing them animated by that military spirit which has constituted
our glory, and which to-day is our security.  I will not speak to you, then,
either of your duties oriof discipline.  Your duties you have always discharged with  Jonor, whether in Africa or upon the  soil of France; and
discipline you  have  always maintained  inviolate through  trials the most
difficult.
"I hope that these trials will not return. But if the gravity of circumstances bring them back, and oblige me to make an appeal to your devotion,
that devotion will not deceive me, I am  sure; because you know that I will
demand nothing which will not be in accord with my right, recognized by
the constitution, with  military honor, with  the interests of the country;
because, if ever the day of danger arrives, I shall not do as the governments
have done which have preceded me; and I shall not say to you,'March, and
I follow you!' butlI shall say to you,'I march; follow me!'"
The naticn was for the president, and against the Assembly.  lie knew it.
Everybody knew it. Though" a coalition'of bitterly hostile parties, composing
two-thirds of the Assembly, had declared against him, one-third, composed
of intelligent and honest men -of harmonious views, were devoted to his
cause. As it was manifest that a collision must immediately take place, - for
the majority of the Assembly had its arm already uplifted to strike a deadly.
blow, -  those members of the Assembly who were friends of the president
met on Sunday, Nov. 30, to deliberate upon the line of conduct they should




430                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
follow.  At that meeting, it was decided that the Prince President represented the principle of authority, and that the triumph of the factions in the
Assembly would prove but the signal of frightful catastrophes; and that,
therefore, they would rally around Prince Louis Napoleon so soon as the
conflict should burst forth. The moral force of France was with the president. He was regarded as the representative of ordcer and of well-regulated
society. The millions of France, with unanimity almost unparalleled in the
history of nations, gave their support to the president whom they had chosen.
The material support was also in cordial sympathy with the president.
The French army is renowned for its discipline, its obedience to the commands of its officers. In reluctant submission to authority, it guarded the
throne of Louis XVIII., of Charles X., of Louis Philippe; but now  the
army threw its whole heart into the defence of the government of Louis
Napoleon. Never, since the days of the first empire, had the heart of the
army throbbed with such enthusiasm..Thus was Louis Napoleon prepared
for the great and inevitable conflict with both the moral and the material
power of the nation sustaining him in cordial alliance.
"The president clearly perceived that the great crisis was approaching;
that the country, was becoming more and more agitated and uneasy; that all
the operations of government, by no fault of his, were impeded, confused
and inefficient; that his enemies were secretly preparing to consummate the
conspiracy against his authority, his liberty, and even against his life; that in
spme departments of France the desperate populace were marching through
the country, threatening pillage and conflagration; in a word, that both the
security and prosperity of France, as well as his own rescue from destruction,
demanded, that, at that moment, the last, decisive blow should be struck.
He now braced himself to the performance of the great deed; and never was
an act on which the future fate of millions depended executed with more
energy, sagacity, and resolution." t
* L'Histoire complete de Napoleon III., par MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 300.
I Public and Private History of Napoleon III., by Samuel M. Smucker, LL.D., p. 151.




CHAPTER XXV.
THE COUP D'i:TAT.
The only Measures Louis Napoleon could adopt. - Last Meeting of the Assembly. -- Levee at
the Elyse. - Testimony of Hon. S. G. Goodrich.- The Decisive Step. - The Proclamations. - The Arrests. - Changarnier, Cavaignac, Thiers, Lamoriciere, Bddeau, Charrs, La
Grange, Roger, Baze. -The Insurrection. - Narrative of Hon. S. G. Goodrich. -The Discomfiture of the Insurgents. - Proclamation of St. Arnaud.
coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon will be pronounced by history
to be the most brilliant and meritorious act of his life. Such
was the remark made to the writer by an eminent American
banker in Paris, who had resided there for the last twenty years,
and who personally witnessed the scenes of that sublime drama.
It is not easy to conceive how any candid man can read this
narrative, and not give his cordial assent to that statement; and yet, alas!
there are human prejudices so inveterate, that they will not yield to "demonstration strong as proof from holy writ."
There were but three possible courses for Louis Napoleon to pursue. One
was to abandon his post, and flee from France before a handful of Bourbonists,
Orleanists, and Socialists, and again to enter upon dreary years of exile. To
adopt this ignoble course, when he knew that the millions of France were rallying around him, and were earnestly and confidingly looking to him to rescue
them and the country from destruction; when he knew that the majority of
the nation in his favor was so very great, that he could, without difficulty, overcome his enemies, and maintain order in France, and secure her prosperity, -
would have displayed a cowardly spirit, which would certainly have exposed
him to the derision and contempt of the whole civilized world. Neither could
he doubt, that, by thus fleeing before his enemies, France would *be plunged
into all the horrors of anarchy and of civil war.
The second plan was to remain passively at his post, and allow the coalesced
factions in the Assembly to rob the people of the right of universal suffrage;
to exclude him from the candidateship for the presidency, notwithstanding the
almost unanimous wish of the nation for his re-election; to seize the control
of the army, and place it under officers of their own appointment; and to
arrest him unler the charge of high treason, and send him again into exile, or
to the dungeons of a prison, or to be shot by a military commission.  This
* Coup d'etat, - an extraordinary and violent measure taken by the government when the
State is, or is supposed to be, in danger.
431




432                            LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
also, he was well aware, would  leave France  in  a  state  of revolutionary
convulsion from  which it might not for ages emerge.
The third plan was boldly to meet his foes, disarm them, and then to say to
the army, " I call upon you to protect the people of France, the whole people,
until, through the voice of universal suffrage, the people shall decide what to
do in this great emergency.  I will tell them  what, in my judgment, seens
best to be done.  If they approve of that, and wish me to aid them  in (oing
it, I will aid them to the utmost of my power, through toil and peril, come
what may.  If the people, by the voice of universal suffrage, do not approve of
my plan, and choose to intrust their interests to the hands of another, I will
bow obedient to their wishes; for I recognize no sovereign in France but the
people."
This is what he did say. The people responded gratefully, approved of his
plan, and entreated him  to carry it out.  He was true to  iis word.  With
sagacity, energy, and boldness never surpassed, e rescued France from all
her perils; and, under his wise administration, France has now enjoyed for
sixteen years such a period of internal prosperity and of external dignity as
the nation has never enjoyed for an equal period of time during all the centurics which have passed away. Paris is, beyond all dispute, the best-governed
city in Europe.   All industries, are encouraged  and  prosperous in France
beyond any precedent.  Insurrections, barricades, and emeutes are unheard of.
Every man is at liberty to do whatever he pleases, except to injure his neighbor or to try to overthrow  the government.  The city of Paris has become,
under the fostering care of the emperor, the most beautiful and the most
attractive city on the globe. There can be no question, that deeds so heroic
and glorious will receive from the world the homage they merit.
The president confided his plans to but a few individuals. Still, the leadingmen of the military and of the police were apprised that a movement was in
progress which would require their efficient co-operation.
On Monday morning, Dec. 1, the Assembly met as usual.  The mrabebrs
were employed during the day in  discussing the project of a  railfoad  to
Lyons.  In the evening, the President of the Republic held his weekly reception at the Palace of the Elysee. He appeared as calm as usual, giving no
indication of any pre-occupation of mind, and entertaining his guests with his
customary cordiality.  When the company retired, several of his most distinguished friends-General St. Arnaud, M. le Comnte de Morny, M. de Maupas,
and M. de Boville -  remained behind, and retired with the president to his
cabinet.*
* Greguier de Cassagnac, vol. ii. Essentially the same account of the coup d'etat is given, in
point of fact, by all the writers upon that theme, - by Victor Hugo, in his very absurd work,
entitled "Napoleon the Little;" by V. Schoelcher, in his closely-printed volume of 469 pages,
entitled  Histoire des Crimes du dceux decembre," written with a pen dipped in gall; by M.
Paul Belouino and M. Amidie de Cesena, in their calm and friendly narrative, in a royal-octavo
volume of 490 pages, entitled "Histoire d'un Coup d'Etat (ddcembre, 1851), d'aprds les Documents auLbeitiques, les Pieces officielles, et les Renseignements intimes; " by Cassagnac, in his
candid volumes, "1Histoire de la Chute de Louis Philippe; " by MM. Gallix et Guy; and by Sir
Archibald Alison, in his',History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon I. to the Accession of
Napoleon ill."  There is but little dispute about the facts: the only difference is in the coloring
in which those facts are presented by friendly or hostile pens.




THE  COUP D'ETAT.                                     433
Here the final arrangements were made for decisive and immediate action.
M. de Morny was appointed minister of the interior.  He was to sign the warrant ordering the dissolution of the Assembly, and also warrants for the arrest
of all those leaders of the factions in tho Assembly and in the political clubs
who would be likely to incite the populace to resistance.  General St. Arnaud
was appointed minister of war, and was intrusted with the military operations.
M. de Boville was to superintend the difficult and delicate operation of having
all the proclamations immediately printed; and yet with such secrecy, that
their contents should not be divulged until the appointed hour. M. de Maupas was minister of police.  They all alike perilled their lives.  Every thing
being thus arranged for the decisive action, which was to commence between
five and six o'clock the next morning, the president affectionately shook hands
with each one, and said, " Now, gentlemen, take a little repose; and may God
protect France!"
The night passed over the gay metropolis as usual.  The morning of the 2d
of December dimly dawned.  It was the anniversary of the day of Austerlitz.
So sagaciously and minutely had the president arranged  every movement,
provided for every emerogency, anticipated every difficulty, that in one short
hour, without the firing of a gun, without the slightest noise or tumult, the
mighty enterprise was virtually,achieved.*
At the same moment, seventy-eight of the leaders of the Opposition in the
Assembly, and the head,agitators of the clubs, were quietly arrested, and conveyed through the dark and silent streets to prison.  Noiselessly, and without
attracting attention, strong bands of troops took possession of every important strategic point; thus guarding the city against any sudden insurrection.
An armed force had taken possession of the hall of the Assembly, so that that
body could not again meet. A vigilant police force was stationed in every
quarter, rendering it impossible that there could be any gathering to organize
resistance. Louis Napoleon arose, and breakfasted in the Palace of the lysee
as quietly as if nothing had happened. Thousands of shopkeepers and mechanics went to  their daily  employment without any  consciousness that
France, in one short hour, had passed through one of the most marvellous
revolutions in  the history of nations.  It was a sublime deed, and it was
sublimely performed.t
* The Hon. S. G. Goodrich, better known as Peter Parley, who was then United-States consul in Paris, gives, in his " Parisian Sights," the following account of the scenes of which he was
an eye-witness on this occasion: -
"It was the 2d of December of the year 1851. I had arisen at my usual hour, breakfasted,
read'Galiguani' and the'Constitutionnel,' my morning papers, without finding an item of
interest; and, as the morning was sombre, had prepared for a day of more than ordinary quiet.
Towards one o'clock, a French lady dropped in. She was somewhat excited, and I inquired the
reason.
"' What!' said she,' have you not heard the news?  There is a revolution. Paris is in a
state of siege. The troops are all in the streets. The National Assembly is dissolved. Most of
the members are imprisoned. The railroads are torn up to prevent the provinces from marching
upon the city. Louis Napoleon is emperor.' "
t " The coop d'Otat was an undertaking which would have appalled an intellect of ordinary
power. Now, for the first time, men began to realize the astounding force of character, the
impenetrable reserve, the far-reaching sagacity, of the president. He was no longer a dreamer,
55




434                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
But-now the sun arose; broad daylight came; and proclamations and decrees placarded upon the walls informed the Parisians of the change which had
been effected. The tidings flew as on the wings of the lightning through
the excitable metropolis. Some, with tears of gratitude, thanked God that
he had raised up a great man to rescue France from the perils with which
she was menaced; some, of more trivial nature laughed heartily, as though a
magnificent joke had been played, and made themselves merry over the fact,
that, in the deadly game which had been for some time in progress, the president had  quite outwitted the Assembly; others gnashed their teeth with
mortification and rage.
In the following brief decree, the president announced to France what he
had done, and what he intended to do. It was very plain. All could understand it.
" DECREE IN THE NAME OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE.
"The President of the Republic has decreed, -
" 1. That the National Assembly is dissolved.
" 2. Universal suffrage is re-established.  The law of Nay 31 is abrogated.
"3. The French nation is convoked in committee from the 14th of December to the 21st of December following.
" 5. The Council of State is dissolved.
" 6. The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution of the
present decree.
"Given at the Palace of the Plysee, Dec. 2, 1861.
"Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
" MINISTER OF THE INTERIoR, DE MORNY."
Then came the following appeal to the French people: 
" FRENCHMEN, ~- The. present state of things can last no longer. Every day
that passes aggravates the danger of the country.  The Assembly, which ought
to be the firmest support of order, has become the centre of plots. The patriotism of three hundred of its members has not been able to arrest its fatal tendencies. Instead of making laws for the general interest, it forges arms for
civil war. It attacks the power which I hold directly from the people. It
encourages all bad passions. It compromises the repose of France. I have
dissolved it; and I make the whole people the judge between it and myself.
"The constitution, as you know, was made with the object of weakening,
beforehand, the power which you were about to confide to me. Six millions
of votes were a signal protestation against it; and yet I have faithfully
respected it.  Provocations, calumnies, outrages, have found me impassible;
but now, when the fundamental compact is no longer respected even bv
those who incessantly invoke it, and since the men who have already overturned two monarchies wish to tie my hands that they may destroy the
Republic, it is my duty to baffle their perfidious projects, to maintain the
an enthusiast, a schemer, but a man of the utmost hardness of will, of iron tenacity of pnrpose,
of adamantine fixedness. All this tremendous strength and energy was interpenetrated by common sense, sound discretion, and well-regulated judgment." -Italy and the War of 1859, p. 93.




THE COUP D'ETAT.                                   435
Republic, and to save the country, iby invoking the solemn judgment of
th~e only sovereign whom I recognize in France,- the people.
I make, then, a loyal appeal'to the entire nation: and I say, if you wish
o continue this state of confusion, which degrades us and compromises our
futare, choose another in nmy place; for I no longer wish for a power which
is impotent for good, which renders me responsible for'acts which I cannot
pre vent, and which chains me to the helm when I see the ship rushing towards
the abyss. If, on the contrary, you still have confidence in me, give me the'mi-eans of accomplishing the great mission which I hold from you.
"This mission consists in closing the era of revolutions, in satisfying the
legitimate wants of the people, and in protecting them  against subversive
passions.  It consists, especially, in creating institutions which  can survive
men, and which will be foundations upon which one can build something
durable.  Persuaded that the instability of power and the preponderance of
a sin~gle'Assembly are the permanent causes of trouble and of discord, I
submit to your suffrages the following fundamental bases of a constitution
which the Assemblies will hereafter develop:
" 1. A responsible chief appointed for ten years.
2. Ministers dependent upon the executive power alone.
3. A council of state, composed of the most distinguished men, drafting
the laws, and sustaining them. in the discussion before the legislative body.
"4. A  legislative body, discussing  and  voting  the laws, appointed  by
universal suffrage, without scrutinizing the list, which violates the electoral
principle.
" 5. A second Assembly, composed of the most distinguished men of the
nation; a preponderating power, guardian of the fundamental compact and
of the public liberties.
" This system, created by the'first consul at the commencement of the
century, has already given to France repose and prosperity: it will guarantee
them still.  Such is my profound conviction.  If you share it, declare it by
your suffiages: if, on the contrary, you prefer a government without force,
monarchical or republican, borrowed from  I know not what chimerical past
or future, reply negatively.
"Thus, then, for the first time since 1804, you will vote with a knowledge
of the cause, knowing well for whom or for what. If I should not obtain the
majority of your suffrages, then I shall convoke the re-union of a new Assembly, and shall return to it the charge I have received from  you; but, if
you believe that the cause of which my name is the symbol -  that is, France
regenerated by the revolution of 1789, and organized by the emperor-is
still yours, proclaim it by consecrating the powers which I ask of you. Then
France and Europe will be preserved from  aharchy; obstacles will be removed; rivalries will have disappeared: for all will respect in the decision o{f
the people the decree of Providence.
"Given at the Palace of the Dlysee, the 2d of December, 1851.
"Louis NAPOLEON B'NAPAETE."
* "This magnificent address is an explanation of the motive of the decree which preceded it.
It establishes with convincing logic the necessity and the urgency of that decree. It ghows




436                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
Then followed the address to the army.  It was as follows:"PROCLAMATION  OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE ARMY.
SOLDIERS,-  Be proud of your mission.  You will save the country; for I
depend upon you, not to violate the laws, but to cause to be respected the
first law of the country, -the national sovereignty, of which I am. the
legitimate representative.
For a long time, you have suffered, as have I, from  the obstacles which
have opposed themselves both to the good I wished to do to you, and to the
demonstrations of your sympathy  in my favor.  These obstacles are cast
down.  The Assembly has endeavored  to seize the authority which I hold
from the nation. It has ceased to exist.
"I make a loyal appeal to the people and the army; and I say to them,
Either give me the means to secure your prosperity, or choose another in my
place. In 1830, as in 1848, you were treated as the vanquished party. After
blighting your heroic disinterestedness, they disdained to consult your sympathies and your wishes. And yet you are the elite of the nation. To-day, at
this solemn moment, I am resolved that the army shall be heard.,"Vote, then, freely as citizens; but, as soldiers, do not forget that passive
obedience to the orders of the chief of the government is the rigorous duty
of the- army, from the general to the private soldier. It is for me, responsible
for my actions to the people and to posterity, to take the measures which to
me seem indispensable for the public good.
"As for you, remain immovable in the rules of discipline and of honor.
Aid by your imposing attitude the country to manifest its will in tranquillity
and with  reflection.  Be ready to repress every attempt against the free
exercise of the sovereignty of the people.
"Soldiers, I do not speak  to you of the remembrances which  my name
recalls. They are engraven in your hearts. We are united by indissoluble
ties. Your history is mine. There is between us, in the past, a community
of glory and of misfortune: there will be between us, in the future, a com.mui1ity of sentiments and of resolutions for the repose and the grandeur of
France.
"Given at the Palace of the ilysee, the 2d of December, 1851.
"Louis NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE."
By eight o'clock in the morning, the news of what had transpired  had
circulated through  entire Paris.  Everybody was talking; everybody  was
profoundly excited: and yet through the day there was but little interrupFrance the abyss which it was necessary to avoid. But it does not limit itself to that. By the
side of the exposition of the evil, it shows the remedy. It points out the route to be followed.
And all is said with precision, clearness, and a loyalty of frankness, which does not leave
any point obscure, doubtful, or indefinite. The country sees from what it has escaped. It also
sees what it must do. The Prince President bridged the gulf over the ruins, and led France to
a glorious future of prosperity." - Histoire d'un Coup d'Etat, par Al. Paul Belolino, precedci've d'
Introduction et suivie d'une Conclusion sur les Causes et les Consequences (le cette Revolution, par M.
Avieudee de Cesena, p. 104.




THE COUP D'ETAT.                                 437
tion of the ordinary course of business.  An American merchant who was
making an extensive purchase of goods informed the writer, that, as he
called that morning at the wholesale establishment where he was transacting
his business, he said to the seller, ~
"You can afford to make some deduction from  the prices of yesterday.
You are in the midst of a revolution; and there is no knowing through what
scenes of anarchy and bloodshed you may be called to pass."
" No," the man replied with a peculiar air of satisfaction: " my goods have
risen in value. Thank God, we have now a strong government, and France
is safe!"
That was unquestionably the general sentiment which pervaded the business-class of the community.
But it is important to enter a little more fully into the details of this great
event. In point of order, the first thing to be done was to secure the printing of the proclamations under such circumstances that the secret could not
possibly be divulged until the great enterprise was accomplished.
As we have mentioned, M. de Beville, who was an orderly sergeant of the
president, and lieutenant-colonel on his staff, was intrusted with this duty.
The day before, lhe had informed the director of the national printing-office
that he wished his workmen to be in readiness at the office that night to
perfornm  some important work.  They were all there.  At twelve o'clock,
M. Beville arrived. His carriage was drawn under a shed, and the driver was
locked up in a room, where he was remunerated with refreshments and cigars.
Immediately a body of the police silently appeared, and guarded every possible avenue of egress. Sentinels were also stationed within, at the doors and
the windows, to make assurance doubly sure. The manuscript copies were
distributed among the workmen; an4 in a couple of hours the impressions
were struck off. The printers were then, while handsomely regaled, still kept
under the closest guard. The coachman was liberated, and again mounted
hlis box.  M. de Beville, accompanied by M. de St. George, the director
of the printing-office, taking the package of printed decrees and proclamations, drove to the head office of the police. It was half-past three in the
morning.  M.  I upas, the prefect of police, was waiting for them.  The
papers were given to a number of resolute and faithful men, and were soon
placarded all over Paris.
At the same hour, General Magnan, Commander-in-chief of the Army of
Paris, summoned through his subordinate officers the soldiers in the barracks. Noiselessly they were called one ^by one. There was no sound of
drum or trumpet. Silently they fell into the ranks. Before the day dawned,
three divisions of the army were so distributed as to occupy the Quay
d'Orsay, the Place du Carrousel, the Garden of the Tuileries, the Place de la
Concorde, and the Champs Llysees.  M. de Persigny led several detachments
through the silent streets to the hall of the National Assembly, and took possession of it and of the surrounding courts of the palace.
M. de Morny, at the same time, accompanied by two hundred and fifty
of the Chasseurs of Vincennes, repaired to the hotel of M. de Thorigny, who
had been minister of the interior, and presented him a letter fromthe presi



438                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEO   III.
dent, courteously thanking him for his faithful services, and informing him  of
the appointment of his successor.  M. de Morny immediately entered upon
the duties of his office, despatching by telegraph a circular transmitting
to the prefects of all the departments of France the decrees and proclamations of the president.
MI. de Maupas, the minister of police, summoned by secret and  trusty
messengers all his important subordinate officers to meet at his office at halfpast three o'clock in the morning.  As they assembled, they were conducted
in small groups to different rooms. One by one, they were then called into
the private cabinet of the minister., Here, briefly but fully, they were informed of what had been  done, and of what was still to be done.  They
were all in sympathy with the movement.  Each man zealously undertook
the mission intrusted to him.  A  small but amply sufficient police force was
thus sent to the house of every man who was to be arrested. A detachment
of troops was placed at various convenient points, ready to furnish immediate
assistance should it be needed'. The utmost care had been taken that the
wrong man should by no possibility be arrested.  Under various pretexts, all
who were to be arrested had been for many days carefully and constantly
watched by invisible agents. Thus the leader of each party of the police
knew perfectly, not only the man he was to arrest, but his place of residence,
the room  he occupied, and all its surroundings.
The agents of the police were directed to be at the door of each man to
be arrested at precisely five minutes after six o'clock. Every arrest was to
be made at the same moment.  With wonderful rapidity and punctuality,
the difficult and  delicate task  was accomplished.  As the commissioners
descended from the cabinet of the minister of police, they found carriages
at the door to convey each of them tQ his place of destination. In twenty
minutes after they began their work, it was all completed.  A  record of the
arrest of a few of the most prominent individuals, taken from the official
report, will give a very clear idea of the general procedure in all cases.
The arrest which was deemed most important was that of General Changarnier. He had been called " The Third Power in the State," " The Sword of
the Assembly." He was to be the future dictator. Botlh" Bourbonists and
Orleanists had united in him, each hoping that he would restore the monarchy
in favor of the candidate of their party.  It was apprehended that he -  a
very  resolute  military man-would  make fierce  resistance; and  it was
known that he was well armed.  He resided at No. 3, Rue du Faubourg St.
Honore.  Two very determined men -  M. Lerat, commissioner of police, and
Captain Baudinet, of the Republican Guards - were assigned the duty of
arresting him.
The wary general made his house his fortress. At five minutes before six
o'clock, the commissioners rang at his door.  The concierge refused to open
the massive portal. There was a grocer's shop, which the occupant was then
opening, in the same house.  While some onI was parleying with the concierge to prevent his giving the alarm, the rest of the party passed through
the shop, and by a back door entered the courtyard.   The concierge, from
his room, imnmediately rang a bell which was hung in the apartment of the




THE COUP D'IETAT.                               439
general.  At the head of the first flight of stairs, the commissioners, as they
ascended, found themselves faced by a servant of the general, who had in his
hand a key to the sleeping-apartment of his bmaster.  It was immediately
taken from him, and the door wvas opened. At the same instant, the door of
an inner room was opened by the general, who stood there astonished, barefooted, and in his night-shirt, with a loaded pistol in each hand.  At a bound,
Ml. Lerat clasped him in both arms, saying, 
"General, do not resist.  Your life is not menaced."
MI. Changarnier, seeing that resistance was hopeless, dropped his pistols, and
called upon his body-servant to dress him, saying with much coolness, -
"31. de Maupas is a gentleman.  Say to him  that I hope he will not
deprive me of my servant; for I cannot get along without him."
The request was immediately granted that his servant should be permitted
to accompany him. He was hurriedly dressed.  They descended to the carriage at the door. Two officers sat in the carriage, on the seat before him.
M. Lerat sat by his side. For some little time, as the carriage was driven
rapidly along the silent streets, not a word was uttered.  The general occasionally looked with apparent nervousness out of the windows, as if he
expected to see indications of disturbance.  Then, turning to M. Lerat, he
said, 
"Do you know what a narrow escape you have had?  In one second more,
you were a dead man.  I should have regretted it, however; for I see that
you have no arms, and only did your duty."
"If you had killed inme, general," M. Lerat replied, " yQu would only have
made a widow and four orphans to no purpose."
M. Changarnier was then informed, in answer to his question, that they
were taking him  to  the prison  called Mazas.  This is one of the most
admirable prisons, probably, in the world.  It is built upon the general principle of the Philadelphia Penitentiary, and is a model prison  in arrangement, neatness, and discipline.  It seems that it was some relief to the mind
of the captive to learn his destination; for he now quite frankly entered into
conversation.
"The president," said he, "makes himself unnecessary trouble.  He was
sure of his re-election.  When foreign powers make war upon him, he will be
glad to place me at the head of an army."
When they arrived at the prison, General Changarnier thanked 3. Lerat
for the consideration with which he had been treated. IHe was safely secured,
but received all the respect to which his rank and character seemed to entitle
him.*
General Cavaignac was a man of much nobility of character, and a brave
soldier.  He had won renown in Algiers, and also in the streets of Paris, in
quelling an insurrection.  Still he had defects of character, the mnost conspicuous of which, perhaps, was a nervous and irritable temperament, which at
times caused him to sacrifice his dignity of character. He resided in humble
ap)artments in the Rue du Helder.  When the commissary knocked at the
* Histoire d'un Coup d'Etat, par M. Paul Belouino, p. 75.




440                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
door of his apartment, he was asleep.  He, however, rose, and opened the
door.
" General," said the commissary, "you are my prisoner. All resistance is
useless. I am ordered to seize your person in virtue of a warrant which I
will read to you."
The general was exceedingly excited, and thrown quite off his balance. He
smote the table with his fist, and talked loudl and passionately. The officer
endeavored to calm him.  Soon the general recovered his self-possession, and
recognized the fact, that the commissary was but discharging his duty in
obeying the orders of his superiors. Perhaps more than ordinary allowance
should be made for the unseemly passion of the general, in consideration of
the fact, that, in two days, he was to have been married to the daughter of
a wealthy banker.
"Well," said the general, now quite tranquil, "send out your men, that I
may dress, and I will be ready in a few moments. And I have two requests
to make: one is, that I may be permitted to write a note to the lady to
whom I was to be married day after to-morrow; and the other is, that I may
go with you alone to my place of destination."
Both requests were granted.  In the carriage he inquired,  Where are
you taking me? "-" To Mazas," was the reply.  "Am  I the only person
arrested? "-" General, I am  not at liberty to answer that question."    ot
another word was spoken.  The general was led into the prison, and its iron
door closed upon him.
M. Thiers occupied an elegant residence in the Place St. George. Commissary Hubaut was charged with his arrest.  The distinguished historian
was sleeping profoundly when the commissary entered his bedroom.  The
noise awoke him.  He started up in his bed, lifting up his white cotton
nightcap, as he exclaimed with much apparent agitation, " What's the matter?"
" I have come to arrest you," said M. Hubaut.  "But you need not be
alarmed: your life is in no danger."
Soothed by this assurance, and speedily recovering his self-possession, he
began to argue the point with the commissioner.
"What do you intend to do??  said he. "Do you not know that I am  a
representative? You are violating the constitution."
The commissioner replied, "I do but obey the orders which have been
given to me. I cannot dispute with you the question of political right. I
obey the orders I now receive, as I obeyed your orders when you were minister of the interior."
",But this is a coup cl'etat which you are engaged in. Do you know that
you run the risk of losing your head upon the scaffold? What if I were to
blow out your brains?  Do you know the laws?  Do you know that you are
acting in direct opposition to the constitution?"
" I have no orders to enter into a dispute with you," M. Hubaut replied.
"Besides, your knowledge is far superior to mine. I do not believe that you
would be capable of the crime of attempting to kill me; but I have taken my
precautions, and could easily prevent you."




THE COUP D'ETAT.                                441
Still the philosophic ex-minister, whose health was feeble, and whose nervous
temperament was easily excited, manifested much alarm  when directed to
descend the stairs to the carriage. He talked incessantly, at times using persuasive and again threatening language to induce his captors to set him  at
liberty.  When he reached the. prison, he begged, in an assumed tone of
pleasantry, that he might have his coffee and milk very hot.  In the prison,
he received every attention. As his health was feeble, and as there vwas very
little fear of the scholarly historian heading an insurrection in the streets, he
was soon released.*
Genemral Lamoriciere was soundly asleep when his room was entered.  He
was probably not much surprised; for he had been plotting to do precisely
the same thing to Louis Napoleon.  He rose, without uttering a word, and
began to dress.  Soon, looking towards the chimney-piece, he asked the
officer what had become of the money he had placed there.
"Sir," said the commissary, " that language is insulting to me. Do you take
us for thieves?"
"How do I know that you are not? " asked the general coolly.
The commissary showed him his badge of office, and read the warrant for
his arrest. The general was then silent.  As they were descending the stairs
to the carriage, the commissary said to him,
"General, I have orders from  the prefect of police to treat you with all
possible consideration, and I wish to act with the greatest leniency.  I will
put you into a carriage alone with myself, if you pledge me your word of
honor that you will not attempt to escape."
"I promnise nothing," the general replied hastily.  "Do with me as you
please."
He was taken under guard.  When passing the Palace of the Legion of
Honor, the general thrust his head out of the carriage, and began calling upon
the soldiers standing around for a rescue.  The commissary instantly pulled
him  back, and closed the window, threatening him  with harsh measures
sh'ould lie attempt the same thing again.
"As you please," said the general sullenly.   When they reached the
prison, he became more calm.  He begged the commissary not to take his
arms, which were very valuable, and to send him  some cig'ars and " The History of the French Revolution."  His wishes were complied with.
General Bedeau, Vice-President of the Assembly, mltde violent resistance.
It was necessary to take him by the collar, and drag him  down the stairs to
the carriage; he struggling, and screaming,  -
"Treason!- to arms! I am the Vice-President of the National Assembly, and they have arrested me! "
Before resorting to force, the commissary had said to him, " I cannot comment on my warrant: I can only execute it.  You have risked your life,
general, in defence of the laws: do you think that I am  not willing to risk
mine in the execution of my orders?  Do riot compel me to use harsh
measures."
* Histoire d'un Coup d'etat, par M. Paul Belouino, p. 80.
66




442                          LIFE OF NAPOLEON  III.
1"1You must use force," General Bedeau replied. "I will not go unless I am
carried off. Now, I dare you to seize me by the collar as a malefactor, - me,
Vice-President of the Assembly  "
4"1Do you acknowledge that I have treated you in my missiQn  with all
possible consideration? " inquired the commissary.
"Yes, monsieur," the general replied.
H-e was then seized, and carried to the carriage, notwithstanding his violent
struggles.
Colonel Charras resided at No. 14, Rue du Faubourg, St. Honore, not far
from the residence of General Changarnier. It appears that he had suspected
some measure of the kind, and had publicly threatened that lie would blow
out the brains of any one who should, attempt to arrest him.  As he was a
passionate, fiery man, it was apprehended that he would only be taken with
difficulty and danger. It seemed, however, that reflection had taught him to
adopt the principle, that " the better part of valor is discretion."
His door was found firmly locked, and he refused to open it.  There was
no time to be lost; and, after a short parley, the officers commenced breaking
it down. Seeing that it would immediately be dashed in, he cried out, " Stop!
I will open the door." As the commissary with his assistants entered, and
read his warrant, the general listened quietly, and then said,
"I expected this.  I thought that it would have taken place two ays ago;
and I loaded my pistol under that conviction.  If you had come then tw
days ago, I should have blown out your brains; but my pistol is discharged."
He was very quietly conveyed to Mazas.*  M. La Grange was one of the
most active members of the extreme Democratic party.  His rooni-Avas found
well stocked with arms. He seemed to be much impressed with the energy
and skill which the president had displayed, and said several times, as he was
riding to his prison, "It is a bold game, but well played." As he entered the
prison, he met General Lamoriciere, and very frankly said to him, ~
"Well, general, we meant to have put that fellow here: instead of that,
he has put us here."
The above narrative will give the reader an idea of the general method of
procedure. One case more, however, is worthy of mention: it was that of
M. Roger.  He received the officers sent to arrest him  with a stateliness
of courtesy which reminded one of the days of the old nobility.
"Ah! gentlemen," said he with a smile, " so we have a coup d'etcat.  I knew
all about this two days ago.  My faith! this is decidedly superior to the
stupid part we were playing in the Assembly. Louis Napoleon will succeed:
that is incontestable. But, gentlemen, will you have the goodness to excuse
me for a moment while my servant shaves me and dresses my hair? In the
mean time, will you allow me to offer you some refreshments of cake and
wine? "
Such emergencies as these very distinctly develop differences of character.
M. Baze, one of the quaestors -of the Assembly, was thrown into a paroxysm
of rage.  He assailed the police with a torrent of vituperation, and was
* M. Belouino, p. 81.




THE COUP D'ETAT.                                   443
carried  in.their arms to  the  carriage, kicking, screaming, scratching, and
biting with frantic energy.
All the captives were treated with every consideration  consistent with
arrest and imprisonment.  The Mazas is a model prison, where there could
be no  other discomfort save that of confinement.   Colonel Thirion  had
accepted  the  mission  of taking charge of the prisoners.  As escape was
impossible, he had only to devote, his time to ministering to their comfort.
Under the circumstances, there was no wish to inflict upon them  punishment.
The only object was to hold them for a few days, that they might not be able
to excite insurrection in the streets, until the new order of things should be
established.  The prisoners, being thus all collected at the Mazas, were the
same day conveyed in carriages, under guard, to the Fortress of Ham.
Let us now  return to the Assembly.  The members were at that time
about eight hundred in number.  Rapidly the tidings reached them, individually, that their hall was occupied by troops, and that all the leaders of the
Opposition were arrested.  It will be remembered that about three hundred
of the deputies were in cordial sympathy with the president; and their feelings were consequently.in harmony with the coup cd'tat.*  The Opposition
was dispersed and bewildered by the blow: the deputies knew not at what
point to attempt to rally.  During the forenoon, about sixty of the members,
entering by an unguarded door, met in one of the committee-rooms of the
Palais Legislatif.  M. de Morny, being informed of this, ordered them  to
retire.  M. Dupin, President of the Assembly, was with this number.  His
arrest had not been ordered; and his subsequent course showed that he was
in heart, probably, in sympathy with the President of the Republic.  M. Dupin, addressing his associate deputies, said, -
"Gentlemen, it is very evident that the constitution has been violated.
The right is with us; but, as we are not the strongest, there is but one thing
for us to do: I invite you to retire.  I have the honor to wish you goodmorning."
Some of these deputies re-assembled at the residence of M. Daru, one of the
vice-presidents, passed a few resolutions, and dispersed.  The most important
gathering was that which was held about eleven o'clock, by two hundred deputies,- Bourbonists, Orleanists, and Red Republicans, - in the hall of the mayoralty of the tenth arrondissement,  They were bewildered, exciteA, tumultuous.
They were expecting every moment that- the soldiers would arrive to arrest
or disperse them.  Some urged the passilng of a protest; some called for
spirited decrees and legislative acts; some cried out that they had not a
moment to spend in protests or decrees, since they were in danger of immediate expulsion, and that the first thing to be done was to fix upon another
* "If two-thirds of the Assembly had declared against him, the other third, composed of
intelligent and honest men, was devoted to his cause. Already, on the 30th of November, two
hundred representatives, in anticipation of an approaching collision between the two powers, had
held a meeting to deliberate upon the course to be pursued in that event. They had decided,
that since the prince represented the principle of authority, and since the triumph of the Assembly would be but the signal of frightful catastrophes, they would range themselves on the side
of Louis Napoleon so soon as the struggle should commence." - MM. Gallic et Guy, p. 300.




444                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
place of ralliance, either in Paris or in some other city. Hurriedly, but with
great unanimity, they passed the following enactment:
"The National Assembly  decrees that Louis Napoleon  Bonaparte has
forfeited the Presidenicy of the Republic; and that, in consequence, the executive power in full right has passed to the National Assembly."
All was confusion. Many were speaking at the same time. Some were for
excluding spectators;'others were for admitting them. There was already a
company of soldiers drawn up before the door, who allowed any persons to go
in, but none to come out. This created alarm. Were they to be caught in a
trap? In the midst of this tempestuous scene, it was announced that the
troops were about entering the hall. An officer with armed men was ascending the stairs. The president shouted out, endeavoring to make himself
heard above the tumult," Not one word, gentlemen; not one word: absolute silence! This is more
than a request: permit me to say it is an absolute order. Remain in your
places: remember that entire Europe is looking upon you."
There was perfect silence. A sergeant entered, followed by a guard of a
dozen of the Chasseurs de Vincennes.*  The presidet, M. Vitet, advanced
to the door to meet them, and said," What do you wish?  We have met in accordance with the constitution."
A few words were interchanged, when  t commandant of the force entered
the hall.  The President of the Assembly addressing him  said
"The National Assembly is re-united here. It is in the name of the law
and of the constitution that we summon you to retire."
"I have orders to execute," was the reply; " and I shall not retire."
There was still, for some unexplained reason, a little delay in expelling the
members. Apparently not very definite orders had been given to meet that
case. The president returned to his chair. Two decrees were hastily passed:
one declared that the whole armed force in Paris, both the regular troops
and the National Guard, were at the disposal of the Assembly; the other
placed these troops under the command of General Oudinot, the same officer
who had conducted the expedition to Rome.
Just as this last vote was passed, it was announced that another officer of
the sixth battalion of the Chasseurs of Vincennes had arrived with new
orders., As he entered the room, General Oudinot approached him, saying,"We are here by virtue of the constitution.  The National Assembly has
appointed me commander-in-chief.  I am General Oudinot.  You must recognize my authority: you owe me obedience. If you resist my orders, you will
incur the most severe punishment. I order you to retire."
There were a few more words of altercation (the semblance of a little busi* "A conference of a few moments had taken place between the commander of the military
force and the commissaries of the police. Not knowing how to reconcile the orders which they
had reciprocally received, they judged it proper to refer the question to the military authority.
Captain Martinet, aide-de-camp of General Sahoul, who with his brigade occupied the Luxembourg, being present, went to the general-in-chief to obtain orders from him. It was during this
interval that the captain sent a sergeant and twelve men into the hall." -'I. Paol Belouiuo,
p. 116.




THE COUP D']ETAT.                             445
ness by the Assembly being still carried on), when two commissaries of police
entered the room; and, advancing to the chair of the president, one of them
said, " We have orders to cause this hall to be evacuated. In the position in
which we are placed, it is our duty to obey our superior officers."
There was still some remonstrance; when the leading commissary said,
"Our mission, gentlemen, is a painful one. We have not even full authority;
for at this moment it is the military force which is in power, and the
movement we now make is to prevent a conflict which we should regret.
"The prefect of police has directed us to come and invite you to retire.
But we have found here a considerable detachment of the Chasseurs of Vincennes, sent by the military authority, which has the sole right to act, since
Paris is in a state of siege.  The measure we adopt is one of kindness,
that we may avert a painful conflict. We do not pretend to judge respecting
the question of right; but I have the honor to inform  you that the military
authority has severe orders, and that it probably will execute them."
The president replied, "You know perfectly well, sir, that the invitation
you have now given us will produce no impression upon us whatever. We
shall yield only to force."
Just then another military officer arrived, with a written order in his hand.
He said, "Gentlemen, I am  a military officer. I have received an order
which it is my duty to execute. It is as follows: -
"' COMMANDANT,~-In obedience to the orders of the minister of war, you
will immediately take possession of the mayoralty house of the tenth arrondissement, and arrest, if necessary, the representatives who do not immediately
obey the injunction to disperse.           "'MAGNAN, General-in- Chief.'"
The president still refused to yield, declaring that the President of the
Republic had forfeited all his rights, and that there was no longer any legitimate power in France but that of the Assembly.
"I have received my orders," the officer replied, " and shall execute them.
In the name of the executive power, I summon you immediately to disperse."
"No, no!" was the reply throughout the Assembly. "There is no executive power. We shall yield only to force."
The commandant then issued an order, and immediately several chacsse-urs
entered the hall. They took by the collar the men upon the platform, and
led them to the head of the stairs; but the stairs were crowded with troops.
It took some little time to open a passage. All the representatives were
compelled to descend the stairs into the court, and were then marched
between files of soldiers to the barracks of the Quay d'Orsay. It was twenty
minutes after three when the doors of the barracks closed upon them. They
numbered two hundred and twenty.*
Here the captives were treated with the same consideration which had
marked their arrest. Many of them  were acquainted with the colonel in
charge at the barracks, and were invited to dinewith him. As they declined
* Histoire du 2d decembre, par M. Mayer.




446                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
the invitation, dinner was provided for them all from the neighboring restaurants. They were then conveyed in carriages to different prisons, - sixty-two
to Mazas, fifty-two to Mont Valerien, and one hundred and four to Vincennes.
Some of them  were taken at ten o'clock that evening; others at two o'clock
in the morning.  Preparations had been made at all these places to receive
them.  Those at Vincennes occupied the pleasant apartments of the Prince
of Montpensier.
It was the intention of the authorities not to arrest the representatives, but
simply to disperse them. After they were conveyed to the barracks, every
one was offered his liberty who would simply give his name. They made it
a point of honor to refuse this; and each one simply replied, "I am  a representative of the people." One of them, M. Dufaure, inquired of the commanding officer, " Can I be permitted to send a message to my family?
" Certainly," was the reply.  "You may go yourself, if you will only promise to return."
"I will give you my promise in writing."
"That is not necessary," the officer added.  "I have perfect confidence in
your word."
He went, and at four o'clock the next morning returned. All the prisoners,
as we have mentioned, had then been removed.  The guard refused to admit
him.  "But I promised  to return," said M. Dufaure  "and  what will the
country say of me? "
"It will say," was the reply, " that you preferred, instead  of remaining in
the street at four o'clock in the morning to return to yodr own home."
While these scenes were transpiring on the 2d of December, Louis Napoleon, at ten o'clock in the morning, mounted his horse at the Elysee, and
accompanied by his uncle, Jerome Bonaparte, General Magnan, and several
officers of his staff, took quite an extensive tour through the city.*  It was a
bold movement in that hour of excitement; for any reckless man could have
easily shot him from a window.  He rode through the Faubourg St. Honorc1
and, as he entered the Place de la Concorde, the troops assembled there
greeted him enthusiastically with shouts of " Vive l'Empereur! "  Traversing
the Garden of the Tuileries, he crossed the Seine by the Pont Nationail, and
reviewed the troops upon the other side of the river. He then rode to the
Invalides.  Everywhere on the route he was warmly greeted.t
Again, at half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, the president, at the head
of a numerous staff, traversed the line of the Boulevards, where he was received with the same enthusiasm which had welcomed him  in the morning.
Hle then reviewed the heavy cavalry which had come from Vincennes, and
which was stationed in the Champs Etlysees.  In the evening, the prince dined
with the diplomatic corps at the residence of M. Turgot, minister of foreign
affairs; and then, in the evening, the ~lysee was thrown open for a general
t "At noon, all was accomplished. The president, accompanied by the minister of war, the
commander-in-chief, the commanderof the National Guard, and a brilliant staff, rode through
Paris, and passed the troops, who were drawn up in all quarters, and were [was] everywhere
received with loud acclamations." - Alison, vol. viii. p. 536.
t MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 324.




THE  COUP D'ETAT.                                    447
reception.  The saloons of the palace were crowded with a brilliant assembly,
who lhad hastened to express their satisfaction in view  of the great change
which had been effected.  "All those," says M. Belouino, "who saw  Louis
Napoleon on that day, testify, that never had he appeared so tranquil, so perfectly master of himself.  His countenance-was radiant, and reflected the satisfaction which one experiences from having well fulfilled an important duty." *
The next morning, however, the third day of December, it was evident that
efforts were being made to rouse the populace to an appeal to insurrection.
The Opposition, though bewildered and partially disarmed, was still desperate.
Though it was manifest that the inhabitants of the city were not in sympathy
with the Assembly, the insurgents resolved to make a stand in the poorer
quarters of Paris, where the streets were narrow, and every house a fortress.
The plan was to distract and exhaust the troops by provoking them  to a conflict at various points.  Without much peril, the  insurgents could make a
short resistance, and one deadly to the troops, from  house-tops and windows
and from  behind barricades, and could then escape to some other point.
The secret societies were at work inflaming the populace, and organizing for
insurrection.  The Red Republicans were recovering from  their bewilderment,
and were everywhere busy circulating the wildest and most exciting reports,
and haranguing groups in the most inflammatory appeals.  Placards were furtively pasted upon the walls; such as the following:APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE.
"The constitution is intrusted to the protection and patriotism of the French
citizens.  Louis Napoleon  is outlawed.  The state  of  siege is abolished.
Universal suffrage is re-established.  Vive la Republique!  To arms!
"For the United Mountain.
"VICTOR HUGO."
"INHABITANTS OF PARIS, -  The National Guard and  the people  of the
departments are marching upon Paris to aid us to seize the traitor Louis
" For the representatives of the people.
"VICTOR HUGO, President.
SCHOELCdEr, Secretary."
In contravention of such movements and appeals, the prefect of police placarded a notice, stating that all gatherings in the streets were prohibited, and
that they would be dispersed by force; that seditious cries, public harangues,
and the placarding of political notices, without orders from the regular authorities, were interdicted.
* "Hitherto, the revolution had been entirely bloodless; and, as the telegraph had announced
the change of government to all France, it was hoped that it would continue to be of the same
peaceful character. The troops, in all thirty-five thousand combatants, under tried and experienced
generals devoted to the president, had shown themselves zealous in the cause, and had been so disposed on the night of the 1st and the whole of the 2d, as to render any popular rising, or attempt
at resistance, out of the question." - History of Europe, Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 536.




448                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
The following proclamation was posted widely throughout Paris 
"INHABITANTS OF PARIS,-  As do you, so do we, desire order and peace.
As are you, so are we, impatient to finish with this band of the factions which
since yesterday have raised the flag of insurrection. Everywhere our intrepid
army has overthrown them.  The people remain deaf to their instigations.
There are, nevertheless, measures which the public safety requires. The state
of siege is decreed. The moment has come to apply its rigorous consequences.
In accordance with the powers conferred  upon  us, we, Prefect of Police,
decree, -
"1. The passage of all carriages is interdicted, whether public or private.
There will be no exception but in favor of those which serve for the alimentation of Paris or for the conveyance of materials.
" 2. The stopping of pedestrians in the streets is forbidden, and the collection of groups will be instantly dispersed. Let the citizens remain peaceably
at home. There will be serious danger in. neglecting the observance of these
decrees.                                   "The Prefect of Police,
At the same time, General de St. Arnaud issued the following decree 
"The Minister of 5War decrees,
"1. That every individual, whatever may be his quality, who shall be found
in any re-union, club, or association, tending to organize any resistance whatever against the government, or to paralyze its action, will be considered as
an accomplice in the insurrection.
" 2. In consequence, he will be immediately arrested, and delivered to a
council of war, which will be in permanence.
"The Minister of War,
"DR  ST. ATNAUD.
"PARIS, Dec. 4,1851."
We cannot give the reader a more satisfactory account of the events of the
3d and the 4th than in the language of the Hon S. G. Goodrich, then UnitedStates consul in Paris.  Mr, Goodrich was familiar with the French language,
was extensively acquainted with the French population, and was an eye-witness of the scenes which he describes.  No one can question his skill as an
observer, or his ability, and his disposition to give an impartial record of facts.
We cannot conceive of any temptation he could have been undler to discolor
them.
" On  the 3d," writes Mr. Goodrich, "there was more excitement.  The
secret societies were at work; the Reds were recovering from their astonishment; ex-members of the National Assembly harangued the multitude, and
circulated addresses to arouse the people to resistance. The result was several barricades, which were speedily carried by the troops, with some loss on
both sides.  On the part of the government, the proclamations became more
stringent.  Carriages were forbidden to circulate, or the inhabitants to appear




THE  COUP D'eTAT.                                   449
in the streets. Those taken near any barricade with arms about them were
put to death.  In the evening, there were shouting, inflammatory speeches, the
rallying-cries of parties.  Immense human masses on  the Boulevards and
quays heaved to anC fro  in  silent anger.  Some said that the excitement
would spend itself in words; others, that Louis Napoleon would be killed
within forty-eight hours.*
" The next morning was the 4th. There was not much stirring. The shops
were generally closed.  I went to the Rue de Jeuneurs, where I had business.
This was before mid-day.  As I approached this street, I saw crowds running
through it, panic-struck; while the residents were barring their windows and
closing their doors. I asked the reason; but all were too much frightened to
speak intelligently.  Some thought the Faubourgs were rising, and others that
the troops were approaching: each added to the alarm of his neighbor. At
last, I learned that barricades were being erected at the Porte St. Denis, on
the Boulevard of that name.  Being  curious to see a barricade, I pushed
directly for the 4pot. On arrival, I found the work going bravely on. Four
were already commenced at different intervals in the Boulevard. Stagings
had been torn from unfinished houses, iron railings from the magnificent gateways, trees cut down, carts, carriages, and omnibuses triumphantly dragged
from hiding-places, amidst shoots of exultation, and added to the monster
piles.  The stout iron railing and massiv:e stone wall which protects the sidewalk from the street long resisted the efforts of destruction.  Crowbars and
the united strength of several hundred men at last brought it down. Pavements were torn up, and shaped into breastworks.t
" The barricades soon began to assume a formidable appearance, and, to any
force but artillery, were well-nigh impregnable. They were further strengthened by ropes which bound firmly together the disjointed parts. There were
not very many at work; but those who were labored like beavers, and eviclently knew their trade.  Blouses and broadcloth were about equally mixed.
Neither were there many spectators. All sorts of rumors were in circulation.
The army, it was said, had left Paris to defend the city against the troops
* "The insurrection developed itself extensively on the 3d; but nowhere did it venture upon
any serious action. The tactics thus adopted did not escape the penetration either of General
Magnan or of General de Morny. The latter general wrote,' The plan of the insurgents is to
fatigue the troops, hoping thus to have an easy time on the third day. It was thus on the 27th,
the 28th, and the 29th of July, and also on the 22d, 23d, and 24th of February. Let them not
have the 2d, 3d, and 4th of December with the same object in view. We must give our troops
repose, and not fatigue them uselessly. The police will spy out their projects. The troops will
act vigorously if the insurgents attempt to execute their plans. Incessant and exhausting
patrols will accomplish nothing: they will render the action of the troops less efficient on the
morrow. Let us not fall into the old errors.' "- Histoire d'un Coup d'Etat, par il. Paul Belouiuo, p. 182.
t "What was the flag of the insurgents? It was not one, but twenty. As many parties as there
were, so many flags were there. They had white, red, and black: each one had his own, and
endeavored to make it prevail. Bourbonists, Montaignards, Orleanists, quarrelled with each
other, and seemed already to have forgotten the friendship of a day. What would, then, have
happened on the morrow, if the cause of order had not triumphed, and France had fallen into
the hands of these parties, who were all struggling to exclude each other "- Histoire comnplete de
Napoleon III,
67




450                          LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  III.
coming in from the neighboring cities; such a regiment had revolted; the
National Guard were arming; in short, every species of tale to encourage and
exasperate the enemies of the president was circulated by agents of the political parties of the late Assembly.
"Having completed the barricades, the mob burst into the nearest guardhouse with wild shouts, sacked it, placed its flag on their most formidable fortification, and used the materials to further strengthen their quarters. The
small force usually there had been withdrawn, or it would have been massacred.  Sinister individuals in blouses, armed with cutlasses muskets and pistols,
began to appear: these acted as leaders. They broke into all the neighboring
shops, and searched the houses for arms.  When any were found, they marked
in chalk on the building,' Arms given: death to robbers!' From one of the
theatres they procured a few muskets and a drum.  These were bailed wJth
shouts of joy; and a party began beating the rappel through the adjacent
streets.
"The comments of the spectators varied.  Some said,'et the rascals go
ahead!  They wish to plunder and kill.  They will soon be taught a good
lesson.'  Others encouraged.  A  rough-looking fellow, armed with a musket,
who seemed to have authority, came up to me, and said,'If you are one of the
curious, you had better be off.'  I thought sotoo,as appearances began to
wear a serious aspect.  The houses overlooking the barricades were  taken
possession of, and garrisoned; sentinels were placed at the principal points;
the non-combatants were mostly gone, and few but fighters left.*
"I had been there less than two hours; yet so rapidly had the mob worked,
that all the streets opening on this vicinity were already fortified. I was
forced to climb three barricades, politely assisted over one by an armed lad in
a blouse before getting clear of their operations.  I found the Boulevard
below almost deserted. A brigade of infantry and artillery was just turning
the corner of the street, marching without music, slowly, towards the first
barricade. Before reaching it, they halted. One half of the artillery passed
in front, and was pointed towards the breastwork: the other was loaded with
grape, and pointed in the other direction. The few persons about saluted the
troops with'Vive la Republique!'
"The commanding officer ordered the Boulevard to be cleared. The troops
charged upon us, and we slipped out of the way by the side-streets. I then
walked  down the Rue Montmartre, where I saw  similar scenes.  Comiing
again  upon the Boulevard des Italiens, I found  the entire length  of the
Boulevard, from the spot I first left, filled with troops in order of battle. The
* At nine o'clock in the morning, the emeute had very decidedly chosen its field of battle. It
was the space comprised between the Boulevards and the Streets of the Temple, Rainbuteau, and
Montmartre. Barricades were erected in the Streets of the Temple, St. Martin, St. Denis, upon
the Boulevards bearing the same name, and in all the adjacent streets, - Transnonain, Beaubourg,
Volta, Philippeaux de Brdtagne, Montorgueil du Petit Carreau Bourbon, Villeneuve, Du Cadran,
&c. To construct these barricades, they seized upon carriages of every kind, which were
passing, and overturned them. They entered the houses, and threw from the windows the furniture. Cabriolets, omnibuses, furniture, every thing, was called into requisition." - ~MMi. Gallix et Guy, p. 353.




THE  COUP D'ETAT.                                    451
line extended into the Rue de la Paix. It was a stirring spectacle to witness
regiment after regiment of artillery, cavalry, and infantry, pass up this noble
avenue to take their places.  In the novelty and beauty of their array, I quite
lost sight of the fact that they were ordered out to slaughter those misguided
people I had so recently left. At one time they cleared the sidewalks, and
-allowed no one to approach their lines. The sentinels, however, from some
inexplicable cause, were shortly removed; and those of the populace who had
more curiosity than fear were allowed to pass along as far as the Boulevard
Bonne INSouvelle. This led to the melancholy slaughter of thirty-five individuals, and the wounding of a large number, soon after, on the Boulevard
Montmartre, just above where I was. Opposite me was the Seventh Lancers,
a fine corps recently arrived in Paris.
I stood talking with a friend, when, from  the upper end of the linethe discharge of cannon was heard, followed by a blaze of musketry and a general
charge. Suddenly there was a louder and nearer crash. The cavalry in front
of me wavered; and then, as if struck with panic, turned, and rushed in disorder down the street, making the ground tremble under their tread. What
could have occurred? The first supposition was, that the different regiments
had turned their arms upon each other; another, that the' Reds had proved
too strong for the troops. In a few minutes, the horsemen came charging
back, firing their pistols on all sides. Then came in quick succession the
order,' to sht all windows; to keep out of sight; to open the blinds' &c.
It seemed  an  unexpected  fire had been opened upon the soldiers from
some of the houses above, by which  they at first suffered so severely as  ato
cause a recoil. The roar of fire-arms was now tremendous. Mortars and cannon were directed, point-blank, against the suspicious houses, within a few
rods' distance, and fired. They were then carried by assault. Of the hairbreadth escapes of the inhabitants, and the general destruction of property, I
need not speak. The government afterwards footed all the bills for the last.
The firing  continued  for nearly an hour, and then receded to more distant
parts of the city.*
"The soldiers have been blamed for firing  on the unarmed.  Those who
fought at the barricades knew  the penalty of defeat.  The inhabitants had
been ordered not to appear in the streets. Those who suffered forgot the
danger in their curiosity. One gentleman met his death by standing at a dis* Very exaggerated reports were circulated respecting the numbers of the slain. " It is true,"
says Mr. Roth, " that the number of the victims of the coup cl'ctat, most of them innocent too, was
run up to two or three thousand; and it was confidently asserted that every prisoner arrested
during the day was shot at night on the Champs de Mars. No one now believes these falsehoodsl:
in fact, the number of slain altogether did not exceed two hundred and eighteen; and that of the
wounded, three hundred and eighty-four. Of these, the army had twenty-eight killed, and a
hundred and eighty-four wounded.
Nor was it even the genuine workmen that fought at the barricades. That class, as a body,
had little to do with the insurrection. It was on the weak, the fanatic, or tfe wicked of all
classes, that the doctrines of the secret societies, or the money of the Royalists, could exert most
influence. When the dead bodies were picked up, a majority was found to consist of recognized
malefactors, and well-dressed gentlemen wearing kid gloves." - Lfe of Napoleon III:, by Edward
Roth, p. 536.




452                            LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
tant corner, and looking at the troops with a spy-glass.  It was mistaken for
a musket; and he fell, pierced with several balls. Those who were killed on
the  Boulevard  Montmartre were non-combatants, but suffered  from  their
rashness.* The public feeling in such cases is ever severe on the soldier;
but, in extenuation, it should be remembered that his exposed position in a
street, fired upon from houses on both sides, is by no means calculated to
insure coolness and judgment.  His enemies are unseen; and he knows from
fatal experience that a Socialist gives no quarter. Several of his comrades
had been basely assassinated in the public ways. Numbers had already fallen
from the fire of his ambushed foes. In the heat of revenge, he believes every
citizen's coat to cover an assassin, and kills without pity.t
" In the evening, I again attempted to go up the Boulevards. Squadrons
of lancers were on guard, and brigades of infantry bivouacked on the sidewalks.  The public were permitted  to  go  as far as the Rue Lafitte, but
obliged to walk quickly, and not allowed to stop for an instant. Horsemen
with loaded pistols stood at each corner; and if there was the slightest hesitation, or if two individuals spoke to each other, they pointed them  directly
upon the delinquents, and ordered them to pass on. The cavalry, with their
lances in rest, charged repeatedly upon groups accidentally formed. These
charges were simply intended to intimidate, and prevent collections of people.
The French  rule is to  run  at the sight of a soldier.  There is more danger
from the panic of the crowd than from the military. I concluded an accident
was as likely to happen to me as to any one else; and returned home, fully
satisfied by what I had seen during the day that street-fighting in Paris is a
serious matter."
There is no battle which troops have more cause to dread than one with a
numerous and desperate foe in the streets of a great city. The houses of
Paris are of stone, many stories high. Each one constitutes a fortress, from
the tops and windows of which boys and men could take deliberate aim   at
the officers and soldiers who were without any protection. The insurgents
fought, sheltered in the houses, and behind the strong barricades, which were
so thoroughly constructed as to be quite impervious to bullets, and almost so
* " One word upon private calamities. Such catastrophes are inevitable in times of revolution. Surely we will not deny that there were innocent victims; but we must repeat, By what
right is the responsibility for this thrown upon the public authorities, - upon the force which
defends social order? Were not the citizens admonished? Did not the solicitude of the prefect
of police and of the minister of war post warnings upon every wall?  The curious, then, bad
no excuse. What right had those who called themselves inoffensive spectators to be grouped,
in the hour of battle, upon the Boulevards?  They were culpable in being there; for they
encouraged the insurgents, and impeded the action of the defenders of society; and, above
all, were they culpable for exposing their lives, which belonged to God, to their country, and to
their families." - ~1. Paul Belouino, p. 215.
t " The division that advanced along the Boulevards was fired at, out of the winTlows and
off the roofs of the houses, at three different points as they were marching on; and several
officers and privates were killed. The soldiers, indignant at what they considered an act of foul
treachery, fired repeatedly at the houses whence the shots had issued; and unable, in their fury,
to distinguish the innocent from the guilty, several unoffending people unfortunately lost their
lives." -~Lif of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 534.




THE  CO-UP D'ETAT.                                   453
to cannon-shot, and which could bid defiance to charges of cavalry. It is a
fearful test of the courae of a soldierto stand before a barricade in a narrow
street, and to be shot at by a numerous and unseen foe from the barricade in
front, and  from  behind  chimneys and  window-blinds in  flank  and  rear.
When fired upon from  a house, the only refuge for the soldiers was to rush
into that house, and clear it of its occupants.*
In the frenzy of the hour, wounded, bleeding, deafened by the roar of
battle and the cries of maddened men, this was often mercilessly done with
the bullet and the bayonet; and not unfrequently the innocent must have
suffered with the guilty.  The responsibility for such horrors rests with those
who provoke the strife.
The following is the official report of the conflict, given by the generalin-chief, Magnan: t " At mid-day of the 4th, I learned that the barricades
had  become formidable, and  that the insurgents were intrenched; but I
had decided not to make the attack until two o'clock. I knew the impatience
and the ardor of my troops; and I was sure of conquering the insurrection
in two hours, if the insurgents would venture openly upon the combat.
"Success has justified my expectation. The attack ordered for two o'clock
commenced by a converging movement of the divisions of Generals Carrelet
and Levasseur.  Immediately the Brigade Bourgon took position between
the Gates St. Denis and  St. Martin.  The Brigades Cotte and Canrobert
massed themselves upon the Boulevard des Italiens.  At the same time, General Dulac occupied the Point St. Eustache; and the brigade of cavalry
under General Reybell established itself in the Rue de la Paix.  General
Levasseur formed his columns to support the movements of the Division
Carrelet.
"At two o'clock in the afternoon, all these troops were put in motion at the
same time.  The Brigade Bourgon swept the Boulevard  as far as the Rue
du Temple, and descended that street to the Rue de Rambuteau; removing
all the barricades found on its passage. The Brigade Cotte engaged the foe
in the Rue St. Denis; while a battalion of the Fifteenth Light Artillery
penetrated the Rue Petit Carreau, already barricaded.
" General Canrobert, taking position at the Porte St. Martin, traversed the
street of the faubourg of that name, and the adjacent streets, which were
obstructed by strong barricades, but which the fifth battalion of Ch6lasseurs
* "The Socialists had long boasted that they had one hundred and thirty-seven thousand
men in Paris alone, who subscribed to their opinions, and were ready to support their principles.
An event occurred at this time which demonstrated that the estimate was far from being exaggerated. The Jacobins, ruined as a revolutionary party by the defeats of the 27th of June,
1848, and the 13th of June, 1849, had now thrown themselves into the arms of the working
class, and had become Socialists." - Sir Archibald Alison, vol. viii. p. 528.
t "General Magnan has been called brutal for the part he took in quelling the insurrection
and Louis Napoleon's stern determination has been stigmatized as heartless. Such epithets
seem hardly to be deserved. Tf an insurrection is to be put down at all, the sooner it is done
the better. Energy, that decides an affair at once, is plainly more merciful than -irresolution,
that keeps people fighting for years. Louis Napoleon has never shown any symptom of want
of feeling, even for his most implacable enemies. On the contrary, he has given many proofs
of a sensitive and compassionate disposition." - Life of Napoleon III., by Edward Roth, p. 534.




454                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
pied, under the orders of Commandant Levassor Sorval, removed with rare
intrepidity.   General Dulac launched  against the barricades of the Rue
Rambuteau and the adjacent streets columns formed of three battalions of
the fifty-first of the line, under Colonel de Lourmel, and of two other battalions, - one of the nineteenth of the line, and the other of the forty-third
supported by a battery of artillery.
"At the" same time, the Division Levasseur effected also its movement.
The Brigade Herbillon, marching from  tin two
columns; one of which, directed by General Levasseur in person, penetrated
to the centre of the insurrection, through the streets of the Temple of Rambuteau  and  St. Martin.   General Marulaz marched from  the Place of the
Bastille, and operated in the same way through the Rue St. Denis; throwing into the transverse streets a light column under the orders of Colonel de
la Motterouge. On his part, General Courtigis descended the gates of the
Faubourg  St. Antoine, swept the  faubourg, and took  upon  the Place of
the Bastille the position which General Marulaz had just left.
"These different operations were conducted under fire of the insurgents
with skill and ardor which could not leave success doubtful for a moment.
The barricades, attacked at first by cannon, were carried by the bayonet.
Every part of the  city extending between  the faubourg St. Antoine and
St. Martin, the Point St. Eustache and the Hotel de Ville, was traversed
in all directions by our columns of infantry, the barricades destroyed, the
insurgents dispersed and slain.
The scattered crowds which endeavored to re-form  upon the Boulevards
vwere charged by the cavalry of General Reybell, who encountered at the
height of the Rue Montmartre  a very  lively fusillade.   The insurgents,
attacked on all sides at the same time, disconcerted by the irresistible rush of
our troops and by that united movement which enveloped them as in a net
of steel, could accomplish nothing serious. At five o'clock in the evening,
the troops of the Division Carrelet came to resume their position upon the
Boulevard.   Thus the attack which commenced at two o'clock was terminated at five o'clock. The insurrection was vanquished upon the field of
battle which it had chosen." *
In the evening, General De St. Arnaud issued the following proclamation
to his troops -
"SOLDIERS, -  You have accomplished to-day a great act of your military
life. You have preserved the country from anarchy, from. pillage, and have
* It is not easy to ascertain with accuracy the numbers killed and wounded. MM. Gallix
et Guy say, "The army counted twenty-five men killed; the eieute had one hundred killed.
On the side of the army, the number of the wounded amounted to one hundred and eightyfour; on the side of the emeite, to two hundred."
M. Belouino states that the insurgents lost one hundred and sixteen killed, and about two
hundred wounded. The number of the soldiers killed and wounded he gives as above. The
comparatively small number is accounted for from the fact that insurgents fought from the
windows of the houses, and from behind the barricades. Their cause was unpopular, and they
fought with but little heart. The troops moved rapidly, and carried every thing with a rush.
Sir Archibald Alison says, " The conflict cost the lives of two hundred men, however, to the
conquerors, and a still larger number to the insurgents."




THE COUP D'ETAT.                              455
saved the Republic. You have proved yourselves to be that which you will
always be, - brave, devoted, and indefatigable. France admires you and
thanks you. The President of the Republic will never forget your devotion.
Victory could not be doubtful. The true people, the virtuous citizens, were
all with you. In a11 the garrisons of France, your companions in arms will
follow, should need be, your example.
"The Minister of War,
"DE ST. ARNAUD."
The coup  d'etat was accomplished.  It was essentially the work of a
single mind. All the agents were the willing instruments of that one commanding intelligence. All France - a nation of forty millions of inhabitants -was summoned to meet, within fourteen days, in the electoral
colleges, to pass judgment, by the voice of universal suffrage, upon the act.
Should France condemn, there could be no appeal from that decision; should
France approve, all the combined'efforts of the foes of the president would
prove impotent.




CHAPTER XXVI.
THE RATIFICATION  OF THE COUP D'ITAT.
Remark of the Emperor. - Socialist Insurrections. - Proclamation of the President. - BRemarkable Pamphlet. -Note from M. Roth. - Testimony of the " Gazette de Munich; " of " The
Washington Union." - The Vote of the 20th December.- Its Result. - Address by M.
Baroche. - Response by the President.- Arduous Task to be performed.- Preamble to the
Constitution. - The Constitution.
HIS is a sad world.  Crushed hopes and bleeding hearts are
i/^^~~,~*l everywhere. To multitudes of the human family, earthly existence cannot be deemed a blessing.  No form  of government
_I_-   |1has as yet been able to accomplish any thing more than to
alleviate human suffering.  Who can gauge the dimensions of
that woe which is to be found in every land? There have been
governments whose main  object it was to wrest the means of comfort
from the poor in order to minister to the luxury of the rich.  Whenever we
can see a government whose manifest end and aim  it is to  promote the
happiness of the great mass of the community, such a government merits
sympathy.
The present Emperor of France remarked to the writer, "It seems strange
to me that any intelligent man can speak of the government of France as a
tyranny, since it must be obvious that all its measures are intended only to
secure the tranquillity and the prosperity of the nation." It would seem that
the truth of this statement must be substantiated to every candid mind by
the words spoken, the measures adopted, and the results achieved, under the
restored empire.  Whatever doubt individuals may cherish respecting the
wisdom of this or that ordinance of the government, it can hardly be denied
that the end sought to be attained is human happiness.
In Paris, the coup d'etat had proved an entire success. A brief struggle,
and one comparatively bloodless, had quelled all signs of insurrection; and
the current of ordinary life flowed unimpeded through the streets. The
opposition to the president was mostly to be found in the large cities. Here
the Socialistic and Jacobin clubs were established; and here there could
always be found a large number of the restless, the miserable, and the desperate, who had nothing to lose by revolution End anarchy, but who were ever
eager for social convulsions.  When the news of the emeute in Paris reached
the large cities in the departments, there was an immediate and general rising
of the clubs. The horrid scenes of the first French Revolution were in many
cases re-enacted. Priests were beaten and killed: in many instances, they were
bound in front of the barricades, that their bodies might first receive the balls
456




THE  RATIFICATION  OF THE  COUP D'ITAT.                             457
fir ed by the soldiers.  The gendarmes were surrounded in their barracks, the
buildings set on fire, and the poor creatures perished in the flames.  Their
dead bodies were dragged in hideous revelry through the streets.  The chateaux of the nobles and the mansions of the wealthy were sacked and set on
fire, the mob shouting, " Down with the aristocrats! " " Down with the rich! " *
All were deemed rich who had any property.. Plunder, destruction, and
brutal violence, walked hand in hand.  At Manosque, in the department of
the Lower Alps, the Socialist 6meute, at first victorious, demanded of the
mayor of the comqmune the heads of three hundred  of the most influential
inhabitants, and permission to pillage the town, at discretion, for a period of
three hours.  This was their practical commentary upon the doctrine of a
community of goods.  In  many  cases, churches were  despoiled  of their
precious contents, and burned, public treasures seized, and women exposed to
every outrage.  Violence, pillage, conflagration, and  assassination were the
first acts of the insurrection. One can judge from this what would have been
the consequence had the insurgents triumphed.t.
These outrages, however, continued but for a short time. Troops were
speedily sent to the quarters in insurrection; and order was, ere long, effectually established throughout the whole of France.  "In a few days," says Sir
Archibald Alison, " all was over; and so firmly did the president feel his
government established, that he was enabled to release without any fiarther
proceedings all persons arrested on the occasion of the coutp d'etat." \   At the
close of one week, on  Monday the 8th, the president issued  the following
proclamation: 
"PROCLAMATION  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  REPUBLIC TO  THE  FRENCH
PEOPLE.
"FRENCHMEN, -  The  troubles  are  appeased.   Whatever may  be  the
decision of the people, society is saved. The first part of my task is accomplished. The appeal to the nation to terminate the strifes of parties could
not, I knew, expose public tranquillity to any serious risk.
" Why should the people revolt against me?  If I do not possess your
confidence, if your ideas have changed, it is not necessary to have recourse to
insurrection: it is enough to deposit a negative vote in the ballot-box. I
shall always respect the decree of the people.
" But, until the nation has spoken, I shall not shrink from  any effort, from
any sacrifice, to thwart the attempts of the factions. This task, besides, has
become easy to me.
* M. Paul Belouino gives a minute account of each one of these insurrections in the
chief towns of several of the departments. They were almost invariably incited by the Socialists, and were very desperate and brutal in their character. In several cases, they seized the
prominent men who were opposed to them, and bound them in front of their barricades; thus
making ramparts of their living bodies. We have not space to enter into these details.
t MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 373.
t Alison, vol. viii. p. 537. In confirmation of this statement, Alison quotes the "Moniteur,"
Dec. 5, 1851; Ann. list. 1851, 204-209; Cassagnac, Hist. de la Chute du Eoi Louis Philippe,
ii. 246-248; Lesseps, ii. 369-373.
68




458                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" On the one hand, we have seen how senseless it is to strive against an
army united by the ties of discipline, animated by the sentiment of military
honor, and by devotion to the country.
" On the other side, the calm attitude of the inhabitants of Paris, the reprobation with which they condemned the emeute, have witnessed with sufficient distinctness on which side the capital declared itself.
"In those populous quarters where insurrection formerly recruited itself so
readily among workmen ever ready to obey its impulses, anarchy has, this
time, only encountered a profound repugnance for its detestable excitations.
Let thanks for this be rendered to the intelligent and patriotic population of
Paris.  Let them be assured more and more, that it is my only ambition to
secure the repose and the prosperity of France.
"Given at the Palace of the ] lysee, the 8th of December, 1851.
"Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
A very able pamphlet appeared at this time upon the coup d'etat, which,
though without signature, attracted much attention.
"1. In our opinion," says the writer, "the  act of the 2d of December,
which constitutes a coup d'etat, is justified in its conception and its execution for the  four following reasons: first, evident utility to prevent the
Socialistic explosion, which was organizing for the month of May, 1852; second, the established impossibility of attaining that end in co-operation with
the Legislative Assembly; third, the absence of a majority in that Assembly, for the coalition  of diverse parties in  a common  negation is not a
majority which can act, -it can establish nothing; fourth, the national assent,
clearly manifested in petitions, and by the vote of the councils general, and
which the Assembly had resisted.
"2. A coup d'etat may be defined an act of power which the depositary
of the public force employs to destroy the actual order of things to substitute for it a new.  According to the maxim, Salus populi suprema lex esto
(" Let the safety of the people be the supreme law"), the coup d'etat, made, in
view of the general interest, to save the state, social order, and the community
from imminent peril, is legitimate.
" 3. The depositary of public force which  undertakes the coup l'de'tat.
assumes an immense responsibility. If it acts without good faith, in its own
personal interest, when society is not in danger, it is criminal, and exposes
itself to the just vengeance of the nation, surprised  and  oppressed, the
moment that nation shall recover the use of its forces.
"If it acted in good faith, but when there was not public peril, or any
necessity for the safety of society, it is responsible (there is here only moral
responsibility), but excusable. Such was the case in 1830.
"If it be entirely obvious, in the case above decided, of a legitimate coup
d'et at, not only is it excusable, but it only merely accomplishes its duty; for
every citizen, and, for a still stronger reason, every constituted power, ought
to do all which can be done- to save society.
"4. The great difficulty is to know  who shall judge, and how  he shall
judge, of the legitimacy of the coup l'de'tat.  This is completely and radically




THE RATIFICATION OF THE COUP D'ETAT.                         459
resolved if the author of the coup d'etat submits his act to the judgment of
the universality of the citizens. Then will disappear all debates upon the
validity of the approbation given by the great bodies of the state, bf the
tacit approbation resulting from silence, of the default of contestation, and
many others.
5. After the ratification emanating from  a universal vote, there remains
not merely the approval of the isolated act: the irregularities are covered.
The national judgment has pronounced upon the measure taken all together,
which absorbs the details. Everywhere it is known that a human work cannot be perfect, but that we can excuse, pardon, forget, the imperfections,
because of that which is essentially good.
6. The more immediately the national judgment follows the coup cetat,
the more it has of real and intrinsic authority; because other combinations
of interests and of parties have not had time to modify and alter more or
less profoundly the.primitive, spontaneous, and pure sentiment which has
been determined in the conscience of each one by the cozup d'etat.
"7. The question submitted to the judgment of the nation is to know if
the author of the coup d'etat has well comprehended and felt the interests
of society, and if there has been since then, and in consequence of the act,
sympathy between the nation and the depositary of the executive power.
"8. Such are, in our opinion, the principles, the maxims, adopted by true
publicists, founded upon right, and pointed out in history as determining
the characters of legitimate coups d'etat, which obtain the suffrages and
command the gratitude of nations.
"If these views are correct, and few will question them; if it be true that
a coup d'etat is legitimate when it has for its end, not a personal interest, but
the public interest, and when, besides, it is sanctioned by the public conscience, - never, assuredly, has history registered a coup d'ettat more legitimate
than that of the 2d of December." *
The "Gazette de Munich," commenting at that time upon the coup d'Jtat,
says, " It is certain that the vote of the 20th and the 21st of December will
be favorable to Prince Louis Napoleon.  The enthusiasm  which  reigns in
all classes of society is a guaranty in that respect. The vote will be a verdict
of the. French nation upon the political act of the 2d of December. All
classes are disposed to approve of the measures adopted towards the National
Assembly.
"For a long time, it was thought in France, and particularly in Germany,
that Louis Napoleon was distinguished only by the eclat of his name. That
opinion of the personal insufficiency of the president must be abandoned.
The manner in which he has prepared and executed the political act of the 2d
of December has proved to the nation in an incontestable manner that he
possesses high personal qualities, such as are ever found in powerful natures.
The orders were executed  punctually, and without hesitation.  All the
measures proved that there was at that moment at the head of France a man
who had the force to elevate himself to the rank of the chief of a great
nation; who proved that he knew how to conceive great plans, and to execute
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 380.




460                            LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
them with spirit and firmness; and who, by the fact, revealed his superiority
to all the other notabilities of France; in a word, that he was a sovereign
by nature." *
"The Washington  Union," with  equal explicitness, gives  utterance  to
similar views.  "The cotGp cl'etat," it says, "of the 2d  of December, is assuredly of a nature to give rise to the impression, at first glance, that he who
conceived and executed it had in view the realization of his own ambitious
plans rather than the welfare of the country; but a careful examination of
all the circumstances which have conducted Louis Napoleon to that decisive
step, and an impartial view of the manner in which he has thus far used the
power which he has seized, should considerably modify the unfavorable opinion which one at first forms of' the act.
"It seems to be universally admitted by the French and English press, that
the overthrow of the government established by the constitution had been
decided by the Assembly itself.   The deposition  of the  executive poweir
appointed by the universal suffrage of the nation would have been decreed
and executed on the 3d of December by a body which derived its existence
from the votes of a portion of the people only. This deposition, we say,
would. have been executed on the 3d, if, on the 2d, that body itself had not
been suppressed. It is manifest, then, upon reflection, that the president was
reduced to this alternative, -  to subordinate a power which he had received
from the whole people to a body created by the suffrages of only a part of
the people, or to do as he has done.
"Laying aside all personal considerations, whether of safety or of ambition,
he perceived himself to be under the necessity of seizing and retaining the
supreme power; or of laying it at the feet of a body strongly imbued with
monarchical predilections, and in which it was not possible to form a majority,
except to act against the Republic.
"Twenty-four hours of hesitation and of delay would have sufficed to show
one half of Paris arrayed in arms against the other; barricades constructed
in all the streets; blood flowing in torrents. And for what"? No one knew;
no one could tell: for it is impossible to conjecture what measure would have
been adopted if it had been the Assembly which had taken the initiative;
if victory had rested with an Assembly in which were found two parties for
the monarchy, one party for anarchy, and where there existed  a majority
against the Republic as it was then constituted.t
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 382.
t " In accordance with the above views, M. Roth says very forcibly,'If he [Louis Napoleon]
believed the constitution, from its glaring unfitness, to be an execration in the mouths of fourfifths of the community, which it was; if he believed that its continuance would only plunge
the country into a horrible suicidal contest, which, to judge fro'm the signs of the times, hardly
admits of the shadow of a doubt; if he thought himself able to spare the world the sin, tfle
horror, and the agony of such an impious war, and subsequent circumstances have shown that
he was not wrong i-n his calculations, - then, we say, idol as he already was of the vast majority
of the French people, heir as he was already by prescriptive right to the imperial throne, possessed as he already was of the sovereign authority, elected as he had been by six millions to
watch over the welfare of France, he was instigated, by every motive of honor, humanity, and
patriotism, to do exactly as he has done." - Life of Napoleon III., p. 492.




THE  RATIFICATION  OF THE  COUP D'~ITAT.                             461
"One cannot conceive of a situation more frightful than that which would
have been declared  if the president had quietly  awaited the development,
the organization, of the forces of the Assembly, and their march against him;
or if he had bowed to its decrees, and  surrendered  himself to its power.
Paris, France, would haxve been divided into five or six factions, each animated
by hatred against the others.  This would have been followed by a civil war
of frightful barbarity, which would  only have ceased when  one of the factions, exterminating  the others, should have  attained the supremacy after
horrible carnacge.  Then would have commenced the reign.of a terror worse
than that of the first revolution,   and that to end when?  No one can tell.
That is what would inevitably have taken  place if Napoleon had been less
prompt, less resolute, than he showed himself on the 2d of December.  We
cannot see how the president could have acted otherwise than he did, and
have remained faithful to his duty, tty, to his mission." *
The president had at first expressed the wish that all the citizens voting
should inscribe their names upon their vote, whether it were in the affirmative
or the negative; but when it was suggested that this might, in some degree,
interfere with the perfect independence of the ballot, he instantly yielded,
and gave orders for the secret vote.
The 20th  of December came,~ -the day in which  France throughout all
its departments, by the voice of universal suffrage, was to pronounce judgment
upon the coup de't at, ratifying or condemning.t  The Royalists, the Socialists,
the demagogues of all shades, affirmed that there would, be more nays than
yeas taken from  the urn.  They were struck with consternation when  the
reports came in, and it was found that nine-tenths of the nation gave their
approval of the measure.   Very many of the rural districts voted "Yes"
without a dissenting voice.  The enthusiasm  was so great, that, in a large
number of chses, the sick and the infirm  were conveyed in carriages and on
litters to the polls. In the commune of Vouges, where, of seventy-six registered electors, every 4vote was given in the affirmative, a workman in the
national powder-'magazine, who was nearly dying, was brought in a litter
by his comrades to the ballot-boxes.  After having  deposited his vote, he
said, "I could not have died in peace if I had not voted for him."
An old man of eighty-two years, wvho had been one of. the soldiers of the
first Napoleon, and who had been grievously wounded at St. Jean  d'Acre,
hobbled  along to place his vote in the urn.  Just as le was dropping his
vote, he staggered and  fell.  The bystanders lifted  him  up; but he was
dead.t
* This article, from the United-States " Washington Union," we retranslate from the French
of Messrs. Gallix and Guy, p. 384.
f " The appeal presented to the people was in the following words:'The French -people wills
the maintenance of the authority of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and delegates to him  the
powers necessary to frame a constitution on the basis proposed in his proclamation of the 2d
of December.' "- Life of Napoleon I., by Edward Roth, p. 511.
j. " Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is the necessary man. Without him, the war of factions would
rend France: combining to attack him, the parties would have immediately dashed against
each other after the common victory; and the country would have been the field of battle and




462                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
On the Od of December, the president had appointed a consulting committee composed of seventy members of the Assembly which he had just dissolved.
By a decree of the 14th of December, this committee was charged to receive
the general returns of the votes. On the 31st of December, at eight o'clock,
this committee repaired in a body to the flysee to make the official announcement to the president of the result of the election.  The vote had been taken
in the eighty-six departments of France, in Algiers, in the army, and in the
navy.
The whole number of votes given was                   8,116,773
In the affirmative....7,439,216
In the negative....640,737
Irregular....36,820
3I. Baroche, as chairman of this committee, having presented the report,
addressed the president as follows:"4MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT,-  In making appeal to the French people by
your proclamation of the 2d of December, you said,'I do not wish for authority which is powerless for good, and which chains me to the helm when I see
the vessel plunging into the abyss. If you have confidence in me, give me the
means of accomplishing the great mission which I hold from you.
"To this loyal appeal made to her conscience and her sovereignty, the
nation has responded by an immense acclamation,   by nearly seven million
four hundred and fift thousand suffrages. Yes, prince, France has confidence
in you; she has confidence in your courage, in your deep reason, in  your
love for her: and the testimony she has just given you is so much the more
glorious, as it is rendered after three years of a government whose wisdom
and patriotism she thus consecrates.
"Has the elect of the 10th of December, 1848, shown himself worthy of the
trust which the people imposed upon him?  Has he well comprehended the
mission which he then received? Let these questions be asked of the seven
million voices which have just confirmed the trust by adding to it a mission
still more great and glorious. Has ever the national will, in any country, or
at any time, been so solemnly manifested? Has ever a government obtained
such an approval, a base more wide, an origin more legitimate, and more
worthy of the respect of the peoples?
"Take possession, prince, of this power so glorious^  presented to you!
Use it to develop by wise institutions the fundamental basis which the people
themselves have consecrated by their votes. Re-establish in France the principle of authority, too much shaken for the last sixty years by our continual
agitations. Combat incessantly these anarchical passions, which assail even
the prize of contention. There was no party among them sufficiently strong to prevent the
anarchy of demagogism.
" What name could take the place of that of Napoleon? Is there any other one which could
avail more than his? However glorious any other name may be, there is none other which can
awaken those echoes of enthusiasm and popular affection which respond in France to the name
of the emperor." - M. Paul Belouino, p. 408.




THE EATIFICATION OF THE COUP D'ETAT.                                 463
the foundations of society. It is no longer mere odious theories which you
have to pursue and repress: they have manifested themselves in deeds, in
horrible, overt acts.
"Let France be delivered from  those men always ready for murder and pillage, -from those men, who, in the nineteenth century, transfuse horror into
civilization, and, by exciting the most gloomy recollections, seem to throw us
back five hundred years.
"Prince, on the 2d of December you took for your motto,' France regenerated by the Revolution of 1789, and organized by the emperor,'- that is to
say, a wise and well-regulated liberty; an authority strong, and respected by
all. May your wisdom and your patriotism realize this noble thought! Restore to this noble country, so full of life and of the future, the greatest of all
benefits, - order, stability, confidence.
You will thus save France, preserve entire Europe from  incalculable dangers, and add to the lustre of your name a new and imperishable glory."
To this address the prince made the following reply: -
GENTLEMEN, -France has responded to the loyal appeal which I had
made to her. She has comprehended that I departed from the legal only to
return to the right. More than seven million votes have absolved me, by
justifying an act which had no other object than to spare France, and perhaps
Europe, from  years of troubles and misfortunes.  I thank you for having authenticated officially how  entirely this manifestation has been national and
spontaneous.
"If I congratulate myself upon this immense adhesion, it is not through
pride, but because it gives me power to speak and act in a manner becoming
the chief of a great nation such as ours. I comprehend all the grandeur of my
new  mission.  I do not deceive myself respecting its grave difficulties: but
with an upright heart, with the co-operation of all good men, who, like you,
* Victor Hugo, in his venomous book, admits in the following angry words the strength
of the Napoleonic party -
" M. Bonaparte had for him the crowd of functionaries, the one million two hundred thousand
parasites of the budget, and their dependants and hangers-on; the corrupted, the compromised,
the adventurers, and, in their train, the bigots, -a very considerable party. He had for him
messieurs the cardinals, the canons, the cures, the vicars, the archdeacons, the deacons, and
the sub-dcacons; messieurs the prebendaries, the church-wardens, the sextons, the beadles; messieurs the church-door-openers and the'religious men.' Yes: we admit, without hesitation,
M. Bonaparte had for him all those bishops who cross themselves, like Vouillot and Montalembert, and all those religious men who pray in this wise, &c. These have really and incontestably
voted for M. Bonaparte, -first category, the functionary; second category, the noodle; third category, the Voltairean, proprietor, trader, man of religion. We know, - and we do not at all
desire to conceal it,~-that from the shopkeeper up to the banker, from the petty trader up to the
stockbroker, great numbers of the commercial and industrial men of France - that is to say,
great numbers of the men who comprehend what well-placed confidence is, what a deposit faithfully preserved is, what a key placed in safe hands is -have voted since the 2d of December for
M. Bonaparte." -~Napoleon the Little,!y Victor Hugo, pp. 175, 176.
It is said that the emperor, taking up this volume, simply remarked as he read the title, " Yes,
Napoleon the Little, by Victor Hugo the Great."




464                          LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
shall enlighten me with their intelligence, and sustain me with their patriotism; with the tried devotedness of our valiant army; in fine, with that protection which to-morrow I shall solemnly pray Heaven to grant me aain, -  I
hope to render myself worthy of the confidence which the people continue to
repose in me.
" I hope to assure the destinies of France in founding institutions which will
correspond at once with the democratic instincts of the nation, and with the
universally-expressed desire of having henceforward a strong and respected
government: in truth, to satisfy the demands of the moment by creating a
system which reconstitutes authority without injuring equality or closing any
channel of amelioration, is to lay the true foundations of the only edifice capable of sustaining hereafter the action of a wise and salutary liberty."
The next day, the vast Cathedral of Notre Dame was magnificently decorated to consecrate by religious ceremonies the great event of the election.
The Te Deunm  was chanted in the presence of a countless throng and with the
most imposing ceremonies modern art could arrange. Louis Napoleon kneeled
reverently before the altar in recognition of that Supreme Being who makes
and deposes sovereigns.  Having attained that "right which comes from man,"
he implored, to use his own expression, " the miht which comes from God."
" That which was grand and admirable in this festival was not the display
of military force, extending from the ]lysee to Notre Dame; it was not the
magnificent cortege of illustrious men which surrounded Napoleon, and which
was for him  as a crown ofall that France has most glorious in arts, science,
and war; it was not the gorgeous tapestry which decorated the venerable
cathedral and its surroundings; it was not those waves of harmony which
floated through the groined arches, nor the voice of cannon, that music of
battles, which thundered every moment in the air; it was not that dense
throng which Paris poured out from  all her quarters upon the Cite, that
floating ship which bears Notre Dame; it was not that concourse of all public
functionaries which our provinces sent in: such fites we have had at all
epochs. The kings, the republic, the empire, have had such. But that which
is grand and admirable is to see together, at the footstool of God who blesses
them, a grand people which has reconquered its sovereignty, and a prince to
whom  it has delegated it in the name of Him  who is the Lord of all in
heaven and upon earth.'For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty
from the Highest, who shall try your works and search out your councils."' *
A  government was now established in France whose foundations were laid
so deep and strong in the principle of universal suffrage, that no honest man
could  question its legitimacy; that is, no honest man who admitted the principle, that the people have a right to create and organize their own institutions.  The prince was invested with dictatorial power.  He'had saved the
Republic from passing over to either branch of the Bourbons or to any of the
diverse parties of Socialists and Communists.  He was authorized to re-organize
society, and to form a new constitution; taking for its model, indeed almost
* M. Paul Belouino, p. 416.




THE RATIFICATION  OF THE COUP D']TAT.                          465
exactly copying, the constitution under which the first Napoleon organized
the republican  empire. The task before him  was immense.  Perhaps a
heavier one was never imposed upon mortal man.  He had many abuses to
reform, many social and economical problems to resolve, many enterprises to
push forward, others to commence, and many useful innovations to introduce
into the decrees and the laws. France, weary of the incessant conflicts of
parties and of ever-impending perils, was eager for a strong government which
would give safety and repose. Those leading members of the Assembly and
of the clhubs whose influence was most to be feared in stirring up insurrections
were temporarily banished from  France.  This measure was a necessary
sequence of the coup d'e'tat.  Eigbhty-fo'r representatives were included in
these decrees of the 9th of January, 1852.* Those convicted of taking part
in the insurrection in the streets were transported to Algiers or Cayenne.
By the saime vote which had sanctioned the coup d'etat, and which had
conferred the presidency upon Louis Napoleon for an additional period of'
ten years, he was authorized to draw up a constitution upon principles which
he had very fully enunciated in his proclamation. On the 14th of January
this constitution was presented to the people, with a preamble from the pen of
the president explaining very fully its provisions.  Of course, there will be
diversities of judgment respecting the merits of this document: there can
be none, however respecting the explicitness with which its principles were
made clear to the popular mind. In this preamble, the president says,"1 Frenchmen, when, in my proclamation of the 2d'of December, I expressed
to you frankly what were, in my view, the vital conditions of power in France,
I had not the pretension, so common in our day, to substitute a personal
theory for the experience of ages. I have, on the contrary, sought out what
were, in the past, the best examples to follow, what men had given them, and
what had been the most beneficial results.
"I therefore thought it logical to prefer the precepts of genius to the
specious doctrines of men of abstract ideas. I have taken as a model those
political institutions, which already, at the commencement of this century,
nuder analogous circumstances, have re-established society when plunged into
disorder, and have elevated France to a high degree of prosperity and of
grandeur.
"I have taken as a model those institutions, which, instead of disappearing
at the first breath of popular agitations, have been overthrown only by entire
Europe coalesced against us.
"In a word, I have said to myself,' Since France for fifty years has made
no advances but in virtue of the organization, administrative, military, judicial,
religious, financial, of the Consulate and of the Empire, why should not we
also adopt the political institutions of that epoch?'  Created by the same
thought, they ought to carry with them the same character of nationality and
of practical utility.
" In fine, as I mentioned in my proclamation, our actual state of society
(it is essential to establish this) is not different from France regenerated by
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 412.
69




466                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
the Revolution  of  1789, and  organized  by the  emperor.  There remains
nothing of the ancient regiime but grand memories and grand benefits. All
whi<h hlad been then organized was destroyed by the Revolution; and all
that which has been organized since the Revolution, and which still exists, has
been by Napoleon.
1"1We have no  longer either provinces, or pays d'etcats, or parliaments,
or intendants, or farmers-general, or divers customs, or feudlal rights, or
privileged classes in exclusive possession of civil and military employments,
or different religious jurisdictions.   The Revolution, in  overthrol ing  so
many things incompatible with itself, established nothing positive. The first
consul alone re-established unity, the hierarchy, and the true principles of
government.  They are still in vigor.
"Our admirable financial system, the bank  of France, the establishment
of budgets, the exchequer, the organization of the police, and our military
regulations, date from that epoch. For fifty years, it is the Code Napoleon
which has regulated the interests of citizens between themselves; and it is
still the Concordat * which regulates the connection of the State with the
Church.
In fine, the greater part of the measures which concern  the progress of
manufactures, of commerce, of letters, of the sciences, of the arts, from the
regulations of the French theatre to those of the institute, and from those of
the institution of artisans to the creation of the L'egion of Honor, have been
fixed by the decrees of that time.
"It can therefore be affirmed, that the framework of our social edifice is the
work  of the  emperor; and  it has survived his fall and three revolutions.
Why should  not political institutions of the same origin  have  the same
chances of stability?
"My. conviction has been formed for a long time; and it is for that reason
that I have submitted to your judgment the principal bases of a constitution
modelled upon that of the year eight. Approved by you, they will become the
foundation of our political constitution. Let us examine the spirit of them.
"In our country, which has been a monarchy for eight hundred years, the
central power has always been  increasing.  Royalty has destroyed great
vassals.  Revolutions themselves have caused those obstacles to disappear
which oppose the rapid and uniform exercise of authority. In this country
of centralization, public opinion has incessantly referred to the chief of the
government the good as the evil.   Therefore, to write at the head of a
charter that the chief is irresponsible, is to speak falsely to public sentiment:
it is to wish to establish a fiction which has three times vanished in the
tumult of revolutions.
* " I hold it for certain, that in 1802 the Concordat, on the part of Napoleon, was an Ofct of
superior intelligence far more than of a despotic spirit, and for the Christian religion in France a
measure as salutary as it was necessary. After anarchy and revolutionary orgies, the solemn
recognition of Christianity by the State could alone give satisfaction to public sentiment, and
secure to Christian influence the dignity and the stability which it was needful that it should
recover." - Meditations sur l.'.tat actuel de la Religion Chrltienne, par 11. Guizot, p. 4.




THE RATIFICATION  OF THE COUP D'ETAT.                          467
"The present constitution proclaims, on the contrary, that the chief whom
you. have chosen is responsible to you; that he has always the right to
appeal to your sovereign judgment; in fine, that, in solemn circumstances, you
can perpetuate his power, or withdraw from it your confidence.
"Being responsible, his action must be free and unfettered.  From  that
arises the necessity that he should have ministers, the honored and powerful
auxiliaries of his thought, but who do not form a responsible council, composed of jointly responsible members, a daily obstacle to the individual impulse of the chief of the State, the expression of a policy emanating from
the Chambers, and consequently exposed to frequent changes which prevent
all consecutive policy, all application of a regular system.
Nevertheless, the higher the position a man occupies, the more independent he is, the greater the confidence which the people repose in him, the
more he has need of -able and conscientious advisers.  Hence the creation
of a.council of state, hereafter a true council of the government, the first
wheel of our new organization, -a re-union of practical men elaborating the
projects of laws in special commissions, discussing them with closed doors,
without oratorical ostentation, and then presenting them for the action of the
Legislafive Corps.
Thus the executive power is firee in its movements, enlightened in its
progress. What, now, will be the control exercised by the Assemblies?
A Chamber which takes the title of the Legislative Corps votes the laws
and the taxes. It is chosen by universal suffrage, without scrutiny of the
lists.  The people, choosing separately each candidate, can more easily appreciate the merit of each one of them.  The Chamber is composed of about
two hundred and sixty members.  There is there a first guaranty for calmness in deliberations; for too often, in assemblies, excitability and heat of
passions are seen to increase in consequence of the numbers.
"The report of the proceedings of this Chamber, which ought to instruct
the nation, is not, as heretofore, free to the party spirit of each journal. An
official publication drawn up under the care of the president of the Chamber
is alone permitted.
"The Legislative Corps discusses freely the proposed law, and adopts or
rejects it; but it does not introduce improvised amendments which derange
often the entire economy of a system and the entire character of the primitive project. For a still stronger reason, there is not permitted that parliamentary initiative which was the source of such grave abuses, and which
permitted each deputy to substitute himself continually for the government
in presenting projects the least studied, the least carefully weighed.
" The Chamber not being in the presence of the ministers, and the projects
of law being supported by orators from the Council of State, the time will not
be lost in vain questioniDgs, in frivolous accusations, in passionate conflicts,
the only object of which has been to overthrow the ministers in order to
replace them by others.
" Thus, then, the deliberations in the Legislative Corps will be independent: but the causes of sterile agitations will be suppressed; salutary deliberation will be brought lo bear upon every modification of the law.




468                           LIFE OF NAPOLEON IIL
"Another Assembly takes the name of the Senate.  It will be composed
of elements, which, in every country, create legitimate influences, - illustrious name, fortune, talents, and services rendered.  The Senate is no loner
like the Chamber of Peers, the pale reflection of the Chamber of Deputies,
simply repeating, after the interval of a few days, the same discussion in
another tone: it is the depository of the fundamental compact and  of the
liberties compatible with the constitution.  It is solely with respect to the
grand principles upon which our society reposes that it examines all the laws,
and  proposes new  ones to  the  executive power.  It intervenes either to
resolve every grave difficulty which can arise during the absence of the
Legislative Corps, or to explain the text of the constitution, and  to secure
that which may be necessary for its operation.  It has the right to annul
every arbitrary and illegal act; and, enjoying also that consideration which
attaches itself to a body exclusively occupied with the examination of grand
interests or the application of grand principles, it fills in the State the role,
independent, salutary, conservative, of the ancient parliaments.
" The Senate will not be, like the Chamber of Peers, transformed into a court
of justice. It will preserve its character of supreme moderator; for disfavor
always overtakes political bodies when the sanctuary of legislators becomes
a criminal tribunal. The impartiality of the judge is too frequently placed
in doubt; and it loses its prestige before the opinion which goes so far, sometimes, as to accuse it of being the instrument of passion or of hatred.
"A  high court of justice, chosen from  the high magistracy, having for jurors
members of the councils-general of all France, will alone repress the attempts
against the chief of the State and the public safety.
"The emperor said in the Council of State,'A  constitution is the work of
time: we cannot leave  too large scope for its emendations.'  Thus, in the
present constitution, there is nothing fixed but that which it is impossible to
leave uncertain. It has not enclosed in an insuperable circle the destinies of
a great people: it has left for changes sufficient scope, so that there may be,
in great crises, other means of safety than the disastrous expedient of revolutions.
" The Senate can, in concert with the Government, modify all that which is
not fundamental in the constitution; but as to modifications pertaining to
the primary bases, sanctioned by your sufflrages, they cannot become definitive
until they have, received your ratification.
" Thus the people always remain the masters of their destiny. Nothing
fundamental can be done without their will.  Such are the ideas, such are the
principles, of which you have authorized me to' make the application.  May
this constitution give to our country days of peace and prosperity!  May it
prevent the return of those internal conflicts in which victory, however legitimate it may be, is always dearly bought! May the sanction which you have
given to my efforts be blessed of Heaven! - then peace will be assured at
home  and  abroad, my  vows will be fulfilled, my  mission will be  accomplished."
* La politique impdriale Expos6e par les Discours et Proclamations de l'Empereur Napoleon
III., depuis ie 10 decembre, 1848, jusqu'en juillet, 1865, pp. 131-139.




THE RATIFICATION OF THE COUP D'eTAT.                         469
As the constitution, of which the above may be considered as the preamble,
was also from the pen of Loluis Napoleon, and as it contains the most distinct
thou(gh concise expression, not only of his political principles, but of the
governmental mechanism, which he deemed to be necessary for carrying them
into operation, it is important that it should be given here.  The American
statesman will be interested in comparing its provisions with those  of our
own constitution; for both professedly aim  at the same object,-  absolute
equality of political rights for all men, that all should be equal before the law.
CONSTITUTION,
MADE  IN VIRTUE OF THE  POWERS DELEGATED  BY THE FRENCH PEOPLE
TO LOUIS NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE  BY  THE VOTE  OF  THE
20TH AND 21ST DECEMBER, 1851.
"The President of the Republic, considering that the French people have
been called to pronounce upon the following resolution, -
"' The people wish for the maintenance of the authority of Louis Napoleon
Bon~aparrte, and give him  the powers necessary to form  a constitution after
the bases established in his proclamation of the 2d December;'
" Considering that the bases proposed for the acceptance of the people
w7ere, 
"1. A responsible chief chosen for ten years;
"2. Ministers dependent upon the executive power alone;
"3. A Council of State formed of men the most distinguished, preparing
the laws, and sustaining the discussion before the legislative body;
" 4. A legislative body, discussing and voting the laws, chosen by universal suffrage, without ballot for a list (scrutin dce liste), which falsifies the
election;
" 5. A  second Assembly, formed of all the illustrious of the country, a
balancing power, guardian of the fundamental compact, and of the public
liberties;
"Considering that the people have responded affirmatively by seven million
five hundred thousand votes, -
"Provides the constitution in the terms following:
"TITLE FIRST.
"Article 1. -The constitution recognizes, confirms, and guarantees the
grand principles proclaimed in 1789, and which are the base of the public
rights of the French.
"TITLE SECOND. - FORMS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC.
"Art. 2. - The government of the French Republic is confided for ten
vears to the Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, actual President of'the
Republic.
"Art. 3. - The President of the Republic governs by means of the Ministers, of the Council of State, of the Senate, and of the Legislative Corps.




470                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"Art. 4. - The legislative power exercises itself collectively through the
President of the Republic, the Senate, and the Legislative Corps.
" TITLE THIRD. -  OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC.
"Art. 5. - The President of the Republic is responsible to the French
people, to whom he has always the right to make an appeal.
"Art. 6.- The President of the Republic is the chief of the State.  He
commands the forces by land and by sea; declares war; makes treaties of
peace, of alliance, of commerce; appoints to all employment; makes the regulations and decrees necessary for the execution of the laws
"Art. 7. - Justice is rendered in his name.
" Art. 8.- He has alone the initiative of the laws.
"Art. 9. -He has the right to pardon.
"Art. 10.-  He sanctions and promulgates the laws and the decrees of the
Senate.
"Art. 11.-  He presents every year to the Senate and to the Legislative
Corps, by a message, the state of affairs of the Republic.
"Art. 12. - He has the right to declare the state of siege in one or more
departments, excepting that it is to be referred to the Senate with the least
possible delay. The consequences of a state of siege are regulated by law.
"Art. 13. -~The ministers are dependent only upon the chief of the State.
They are only responsible individually for that which relates to governmental
acts. There is no joint responsibility. They can be brought to trial only
before the Senate.
" Art. 14. - The ministers, the members of the Senate, of the Legislative
Corps, of the Council of State, of the officers of the land and sea forces, the
magistrates, and the public functionaries, take the following oath: -
"'I swear obedience to the constitution, and fidelity to the president.'
"Art. 15. -A  decree of the Senate fixes the sum  allowed annually to
the President of the Republic for the whole duration of his functions.
"Art. 16. -  Should the President of the Republic die before the expiration
of his term of office, the Senate convokes the nation to proceed to a new
election.
"Art. 17. -  The chief of the State has the right by a secret act, and
deposited in the archives of the Senate, to designate to the people the name
of the citizen whom he recommends, in the interests of France, to the confidence of the people and to its suffrages.
"Art. 18. -  Until the- election of the new President of the Republic, the
President of the Senate governs with the co-operation of the ministers in
office, who form themselves into a council of government, and deliberate
according to the majority of votes.
"TITLE FOURTH. -OF THE SENATE.
"Art. 19. -  The number of senators shall not exceed  a hundred  and
fifty. It is fixqd for the first year at eighty.
"Art. 20. -The Senate is composed, first, of the cardinals, the marshals,




THE RATIFICATION  OF THE COUP D'iTAT.                           471
the admirals; second, of the citizens whom the President of the Republic may
judge it best to elevate to the dignity of senator.
Art. 21. -The senators are irremovable, and are for life.
Art. 22. -  The functions of the senator are gratuitous.  Nevertheless, the
President of the Republic can grant to any of the senators, in view of
services rendered and their position of fortune, a personal endowment, which
shall not exceed thirty thousand francs (six thousand dollars) a year.
"Art. 28.-  The President and Vice-Presidents of the Senate are appointed
by the President of the Republic, and selected from  among the senators'
They are appointed for one year. The salary of the President of the Senate
is fixed by a decree.
"Art. 24. -The President of the Republic convokes and  prorogues the
Senate. He fixes the duration of its sessions by a decree.  The sessions of
the Senate are not public.
"Art. 25. -  The Senate is the guardian of the fundamental pact and of the
public liberties. No law can be promulgated without being submitted to the
Senate.
"Art. 26.- The Senate opposes the promulgation, first, of the laws which
are contrary or injurious to the constitution, religion, morals, liberty of worship, individual liberty, the equality of citizens before the law, the inviolability of property, and the principle of the irremovability of the magistracy;
second, of those which can compromise the defence of the territory.
Art. 27. -  The Senate regulates, by a decree, -
" 1. The constitution of the colonies and of Algiers.
"2. All that which has not been foreseen by the constitution, and which is
necessary for its operation.
"3. The significance of the articles of the constitution which are susceptible of different interpretations.
"Art. 28. -  The decrees of the Senate shall be submitted to the sanction
of the President of the Republic, and promulgated by him.
" Art. 29. -  The Senate maintains or annuls all acts which are. submitted to
it by the government as unconstitutional, or which are denounced, for the
same cause, by petitions from the citizens.
"Art. 30. - The Senate can, in a report addressed to the President of the
Republic, propose the bases of projects of law of great national interest.
"Art. 31.~ -It can equally propose modifications in the constitution. If the
proposition is adopted by the executive power, it becomes an enactment by a
decree of the Senate.
"C Art. 32. - Nevertheless, there shall be submitted to universal suffrage
every modification in the fundamental bases of the. constitution, - such as
those which have been stated in the proclamation of the 2d of December,
and adopted by the French people.
"Art. 33. - In case of the dissolution of the Legislative Corps, and until a
new convocation, the Senate, upon the proposition of the President of the
Republic, provides, by measures of urgency, all that is necessary for the
operations of the government.




472                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" TITLE FIFTH. - OF THE LEGISLATIVE CORPS.
"Art. 34.- The election has for its base the population.
"Art. 35.- There shall be one deputy in the Legislative Corps to thirtyfive thousand electors.
"Art. 36. -The deputies are chosen by universal suffrage, without ballot
for a list.
"Art. 37. - They do not receive any salary.
"Art. 38. -They are elected for six years.
"Art. 39. -The Legislative Corps discusses and votes projects of law and
taxes.
"Art. 40. -Any amendment adopted by the commission charged to examine a project of law will be sent, without discussion, to the Council of State,
by the President of the Legislative Corps. If the amendment is not adopted
by the Council of State, it will not be submitted to the deliberation of the
Legislative Corps.
"Art. 41. -The ordinary sessions of the Legislative Corps continue three
months. Its sessions are public; but the demand of five members suffices for
it to form itself into a secret committee.
" Art. 42. -The report of the sessions of the Legislative Corps by means
of the journals, or in any other way of publicity, will consist only in the
reproduction of the official report, prepared, at the close of each session,
under the superintendence of the President of the Legislative Corps.
~" Art. 43. - The President and the Vice-Presidents of the Legislative Corps
are appointed by the President of the Republic for one year. They are
chosen from among the deputies. The salary of the President of the Legislative Corps is fixed by a decree.
"Art. 44.- The ministers cannot be members of the Legislative Corps.
"Art. 45.- The right of petition is to be exercised towards the Senate.
No petition can be addressed to the Legislative Corps.
"Art. 46.-The President of the Republic convokes, adjourns, prorogues,
and dissolves the Legislative Corps. In case of dissolution, the President of
the Republic must convoke a new one without the delay of six months.
"TITLE SIXTH.-OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE.
"Art. 47.- The number of Councillors of State in ordinary service is from
forty to fifty.
" Art. 48. - The Councillors of State are appointed by the President of the
Republic, and are removable by him.
"Art. 49.- The Council of State is presided over by the President of the
Republic; and, in his absence, by the person whom he shall designate as VicePresident of the Council of State.
"Art. 50. -The Council of State is charged, under the direction of the
President of the Republic, to draw up projects of law and rules of public
administration, and to resolve the difficulties which may arise in matters of
administration.
"Art. 51. - It sustains, in the name of the government, the discussion of




THE RATIFICATION OF THE COUP D'ETAT.                       473
projects of law before the Senate and the Legislative Corps. The Councillors of State charged to speak in the name of the government are designated
by the President of the Republic.
"Art. 52. -The salary of each Councillor of State is twenty-five thousand
francs (five thousand dollars).
"Art. 53. -The ministers have rank, a sitting, and a deliberative voice, in
the Council of State.
"TITLE SEVENTH. -OF THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.
"Art. 54. -A  High Court of Justice judges, without appeal or proceedings in error, all persons who have been returned to that court accused of
crimes, attempts, or plots against the President of the Republic, and against
the safety, external or internal, of the State. It can only be held in virtue
of a decree from the President of the Republic.
"Art. 55.- A decree of the Senate will determine the organization of this
High Court.
" TITLE EIGHTH. - DISPOSITIONS, GENERAL AND TRANSITORY.
"Art. 56. -The dispositions, codes, laws, and rules existing, which are
not contrary to the present constitution, remain in force until they shall be
legally annulled.
"Art. 57. - A  law determines the municipal organization. The mayors
will be appointed by tte executive power; and they may be taken from
outside of the municipal council.
" Art. 58. - This constitution will be in force firom the date of the day in
which the grand bodies of the State which it organizes shall be constituted.
"The decrees issued by the President of the Republic from  the 2d of
December to that epoch will have the force of law.
"Given at the Palace of the Tuileries, the 14th of January, 1852.
" Louis NAPOLEON.' Examined and sealed with the great seal.
"Keeper of the seals, minister of justice,
"E. ROUHER." *
* CEuvres de Napoleon III., tom. troisieme, pp. 299-315.
60




CH APTER XXVII.
ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES.
Internal Improvements. - Wealth of Louis Philippe. - Confiscation. - Ancient Law of France.
- Energy of the President.- His Clemency.- Respect for the Sabbath.  Almoners of Last
Prayers. - Censorship of the Press. - Address to the Legislative Corps.  Efforts of the
Socialists, of the Legitimists, of the Orleanists. - Spirit of the European Journals.  Blessing
the Eagles. - Embarrassment of Foreign Courts. - Visit to Strasburg.  Splendid Fte
Ball in the Marche des Innocents.- Uncontested Election.
NE -of the first endeavors of the president was to provide for the
suffering poor, who; in large numbers, were in a state of destiX tution from entire want of employment. The disturbances of
the times had  been  so great, that capitalists had  feared  to
undertake  any important enterprises.  The president inmediately commenced a series of public works of universally acknowledged utility, where there could be no question  of the profitableness of the
investment, and which promptly relieved thousands of laborers from want.
Two and a half million francs (five hundred thousand dollars) were devoted
to improving the navigation of the Seine; a million and a half (three hundred
thousand dollars) were appropriated to deepening the channel of the Rhone;
half a million francs (a hundred thousand dollars) were expended upon the
harbor of Boulogne; and at various' other points, where there was suffering, money was liberally employed in  useful and  profitajble  undertakings.
Louis Napoleon has ever manifested, to an eminent degree, that practical
wisdom which enables him to expend money wisely.
With the masses of.the people, he was extremely popular; and, wherever he
appeared, he was greeted with enthusiasm.   Ever impressed with the idea
that Providence, who had guided him thus far along the path of his Wonderful
life, had an important mission for him to fulfil for France, and that Providence'would not allow him to fall until that mission was accomplished, he did not
deem it necessary to adopt any special measures of precaution for his personal
safety.  He mingled freely with the citizens, entered  the workshops of the
artisans, and carefully made himself acquainted with the domestic, social, and
sanitary condition of the working-classes.  His eye seemed to sweep France
with an imperial glance.  During long years of exile and imprisonment, hie
had studied minutely the geography of the realm, its physical structure, its
soil, its productions, its capabilities, and the impediments, physical, moral, and
political, in the way of its progress. And now that the millions had, as if
474




ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES.                                       475
influenced by a, supernatural power, placed the realm  in his hands, requesting
dence, to mould it, shape it, and organize
him, in the entireness of their confidence, to mould it, shape it, and  organize
it as he judged to be best for them, he had no  embarrassments in his own
mind to encounter; for he knew exactly what to do.
The Orleans party was still a formidable power. Louis Philippe was a man
of enormous wealth; and he had availed himself of all the influence which his
position as king gave him to increase the opulence of his family. Conscious
of the uncertainty of the tenure by vwhich he held his crown, he had invested
large sums in foreign lands that he might be prepared for dethronement and
exile. At the time of his'deposition, his property in France was estimated at
three hundred million francs (sixty million dollars).
This vast sum  of money enabled him, through. agents scattered all over the
realm, to operate energetically against the new government.  It was a weapon
of fearful power to leave in the hands of a conquered but still active and
determined foe.* TUnder these circumstances, the president, on the 2?d of
January, issued two decrees.  The first was as follows:The President of the Republic, considering that all the governments which
have succeeded each other have judged it indispensable to oblige the family
which have ceased to reign to sell the property, movable and immovable,
which it possessed in France;
"That thus, on the 1~2th  of January, 1816, Louis XVIII. constrained  the
members of. the family of the Emperor Napoleon to sell their personal property, without' the delay of six months; and that, on the 10th of April, 1832,
Louis Philippe did the same in respect to the princes of the elder branch of
the house of Bourbon; t
* Louis Blanc has given the following description of the condition of France under the reign
of Louis Philippe, the f' money-king:" "Whatever may have been the baseness of Rome under
the Ccesars, it was equalled by the corruption in France in the reign of Louis Philippe. Nothing
like it had been witnessed in history. The thirst for gold having gained possession of minds
agitated by impure desires, society terminated by sinking into a brutal' materialism. Talent,
energy, eloquence, genius, virtue itself, were devoted to no other end but the amassing of a fortune.
Every thing was brought to the market; suffrages counted by crowns.  They made, as in a
new species of bazaar, a scaffolding of venal consciences, where honor was bought and law sold.
" Thistfearful degradation of France was not the work of a day. Since 1830, the formula of
selfishness -'every one by himself and for himself' -had been adopted by the sovereign as the
maxim of States; and that maxim, alike hideous and fatal, had become the ruling principle of
government. It was the device of Louis Philippe, a prince gifted with moderation, knowledge,
tolerance, humanity, but sceptical, destitute of either nobility of heart or elevation of mind, the
most experienced corrupter of the hiuman race that ever appeared on earth." -Louis Blanc,
RIevolution dce 1848.
t " A  severe law, alike discreditable to the sovereign who proposed it and the Chamber
which adopted it, was soon after brought forward in France. This was one banishing the ex-kino,
Charles X., his descendants and their relations, forever from the French territory, and prohibiting
them from acquiring by any title, onerous or gratuitous, any property, or to enjoy any rent or
gratuity.
Such was the return, when he had the power, which Louis Philippe made to Charles X.
for the generous grant, which, on his accession to the throne, restored their whole estates in feesimple to the Orleans family. History has not preserved the record of a more flagrant and disgraceful act of ingratitude." - Alison's History of Europe, vol. vi. p. 434.




476                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"Considering that similar measures are ever essential to order and to the
public interests; that to-day, more than ever, high political considerations
imperiously demand the diminution of the influence which is given to the
house of Orleans by the possession of nearly three hundred millions of landed
estate in France; decrees,"Article 1. -  The members of the family of Orleans, their husbands, their
wives, their descendants, not being entitled to possess any personal or real
estate in France, will be required to sell all the property which belongs to
them throughout the extent of the Republic."
It was announced that this property was to be sold within a year from the
date of the decree; and that, if there were any such property the title of
which was disputed, it was to be sold within a year from  the time in which
the title was irrevocably fixed as belonging to the house of Orleans. The
price Qf the sales was to be remitted to the proprietors.*
Louis Philippe, upon his accession to the throne, had immediately proposed
a decree, banishing forever, from the territory of France, Charles X., his
relations and  their descendants, and  prohibiting  them   from  holding  any
property or to enjoy any rent or annuity in France. If the entire sales were
not effected within  six  months, the property was to  be  confiscated, and
reverted to the government.  This law  was passed in the Chambers by a
majority of two hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty-two, but was
so far amended as to allow a year for the sale of the effects.
There was a large portion of the property held by Louis Philippe, which,
by the laws of France, did not belong to him  personally, but to the crown.
This question gave rise to a very eager and protracted controversy. There
was a law of very ancient date, that the private possessions of a prince, upon
his accession- to the throne, became vested in the nation. So far back as
1590, Henry IV., upon receiving the crown, endeavored, by letters-patent, to
prevent the union of his private possessions with the national domain: but
the parliament of Paris, claiming the property, refused to register the letters;
and afterwards Henry IV., relinquishing his claim and revoking his letters,
applauded the parliament for its fidelity to duty.
This ancient law was re-enforced by a decree of Sept. 21, 1790, by a decree
of Nov. 8, 1814, and again by a decree of Jan. 15, 1825. Louis Philippe,
upon ascending the throne, endeavored to evade this fundamental law of the
realm  by bequeathing most of his property, reserving  to himself the income,
to his younger children, to the exclusion of his oldest son, who, as heir to the
* MM. Gallix and Guy, commenting upon this decree, say, "It is important here to observe,
that, right or wrona', the house of Orleans was banished from France by law. That, perhaps,
was severe; but policy required it: and it was not the policy of yesterday, but a policy of nearly
forty years' standing, which to-day struck the house of Orleans, but which before had stvuck
many others. In 1815, it was the family of Bonaparte which was proscribed; in 1832, it was
the family of Bonaparte, and at the same time the elder branch of the house of Bourbon, Louis
Napoleon followed in the track of the two dynasties which had preceded him. The measures
which he adopted against the sons of Louis Philippe had been taken by Louis Philippe against
him and his property." - Histoire complete de Napoleon III., p. 449.




ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES.                                     477
throne, would inherit the use of the crown-property and whatever possessions
his father continued to hold.  This act was pronounced to be illegal, since it
was not performed until after he was recognized as king, -  when the property
had ceased to be his oiwn.*  Louis Philippe. was, however, still left in possession
of a hundred million francs (twenty million dollars) to sustain his rank in a
foreiogn land; and the government continued to pay to the Duchess of Orleans
the annuity which had  been voted her, of three hundred  thousand francs
(sixty thousand dollars#).t
The large sum  of money secured by the government through  the acquisition of this property was immediately devoted to objects which would most
speedily bring  relief to  the suffering  people.   Ten  million  (two  million
dollars) were distributed to societies which  had been formed  for "mutual
assistance."   The sarnr   sum  was appropriated to  the improvement of the
lodgings in the great manufacturing cities.  An equal sum  was also appropriated to the establishment of institutions  for loans, under the most careful
regulations.   Five  million  francs were  set  apart  for the  relief of the
superannuated, of good  character, who through misfortune had become impoverished.  The remainder became a fund for the payment of an  annual
salary, varying from two hundred and fifty francs to-three thousand francs, to
those soldiers, privates and  officers, who, for meritorious conduct, had been
constituted members of the Legion of Honor.
The president himself, with no fondness for luxurious indulgence, living
frugally, dressing plainly, apparently had but one ambition,    to merit well of
his country by making France one of the most happy and honored of earthly
realms. He possessed to a remarkable degree the faculty which so eminently
distinguished Napoleon I., -of being able to grasp the most comprehensive
plans, and also to direct the minutest details. No other mani in France was
more intensely occupied  than  he.   His eye was everywhere.  His mind
guided all movemnents.  Silent, pensive, retiring, yet deeply impressed with
the grandeur of his mission, he caused  all France soon to feel the impulse
which his tireless energies were diffusing throughout the realm.   Probably
never before, save, perhaps, in the case of his world-renowned uncle, was there
an instance of a whole nation being so suddenly transformed by the genius
of a single mind.
So wonderful was this change, so  immediatelyr did  the nation  become
tranquillized in its repose upon the strong government which had been established, that, on^ the 29th of January, a circular was addressed by order of
the Prince President, through M. de Persigny, minister of the interior, to the
prefects of all the departments of France, containing the following sentiments. After stating that the insurrectionary movements which burst forth
* "The salary of Louis Philippe, as proposed by the ministers, was 18,535,500 francs
($3,707,100).  This was thirty-seven times as much as Napoleon had as first consul.  In
addition to this, the private property of the king, not blended with the property of the crown,
gave him an income of two million five hundred thousand francs a year (five hundred thousand
dollars). He had also four million francs a year (eight hundred thousand dollars) from lands
and forests; making a grand total of 25,035,500 francs,-equal to $5,007,100."-Louis
Blanc, iii. 149.
t Deuxieme Deret, le 22 janvier, 1852.




478                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III
in many places immediately after the 2d of December had rendered it necessary to resort to the most rigorous measures to secure the peace of the
country and the unrestricted exercise of universal suffrage, but that now the
government was so established, that it was in the power of the president to
exercise great lenity, the circular added,"If there existed among the insurgents persuasive and dangerous men
from whom it was important to disembarrass the country, there were others,
unfortunate workmen or inhabitants of the fields, who were dragged into the
revolt through their weakness or their ignorance.  Is it not sad to think that
these poor deluded people, who have been only the instruments in the hand
of others truly culpable, should be subjected to the rigors of prolonged  L
tention, and that their families, deprived of their support, should languish in
misery and tears?
"This consideration affects the Prince President and consequently he has
charged me to transmit to you the necessary powers immediately to release
from prison and restore to their families, whatever may be the state of the
proceedings commenced against them, all those arrested whom  you judge
to have been deluded, and whose liberation will not prove dangerous to
society."
This circular was followed by the appointment of commissioners (MM.
Bauchart, Canrobert, and Espinasse) to proceed to the departments where insurrection had manifested itself, with extraordinary powers, not to punish
the guilty, but, so far as the public safety would permit, to waive the penalties
of the law.
The simple enunciation of the decrees which followed one after another,
and which were so in accordance with public approval as to be easily carried
into immediate and vigorous operation, would occupy more space than our
limits would allow.  The cafes, cabarets, and other drinking-shops, had become very extensively places of demoralizing resort.  In France, as elsewhere, intemperance was  found  to be the mother of all vices.  Large
numbers of these shops were promptly closed; and only those were permitted
to remain open which were authorized by the government, and they were
placed under the careful surveillance of the police.
On ^the 15th of December, but one fortnight after the coup  d'etct  the
president issued a circular, through the minister of the interior, to the prefects
of the eighty-six departments, urging them  to exert all their influence to
promote the more sacred  observance of  Sunday.   In  this circular it is
said, -
"The repose of Sunday is one of the essential bases of that morality which
constitutes the force and the consolation of a nation. In contemplating this
subject only in view of material interests, this repose is necessary for the
health and the intellectual development of the working-classes. The man
who labors incessantly, and does not set apart any day for the accomplishment
of his duties and the improvement of his mind, sooner or later becomes a prey
to materialism; and  the sentiment of dignity  is weakened within  him,
together with his physical faculties.




ADMINISTRATIVE  MEASURES.                                479
" Too  often, moreover, the working-classes who are subjected.to labor on
Sunday seek to indemnify themselves by resting upon some other day of the
week,-a fatal habit, which, by the contempt of the most venerated traditions,
conducts insensibly to the ruin of families and to a dissolute life.
"1 The government does not pretend, in questions of this nature, to impose
any sort of violence upon the will of the citizens.  Each individual remains
free to obey the inspirations of his conscience; but the State, the administration, the commune, can present the example of respect for these principles.
It is in this sense, and under these limits, that I think it necessary to address
to you special instructions.
" Consequently I invite you to give such orders, that for the future, so far
as~it depends upon authority, public work shall cease on the Sabbath and on
h;olydays. You will be careful, that hereafter, when any enterprise is undertaken on account of the departments and the communes, there shall be inserted in the contract a formal clause which shall interdict the contractors
from exacting labor on the Sabbath and the holydays. It is important that
the provision be expressed so distinctly, that it shall not be a vain formula,
and susceptible of being, eluded. In fine, so far as those municipal regulations
are concerned, destined to prohibit, during the exercise of public worship,
gatherings in the ale-shops, songs, and other exterior demonstrations which
disturb those exercises, you will make use, with sage prudence and enlightened zeal, of your influence to diminish as much as possible those grievous
scandals which. are too often witnessed."
On the 21st of March, the "Moniteur " contained the following decree,
which will explain itself: -
"The President of the  Republic, considering that the number of the
members of the parochial clergy of Paris does not permit them to conduct
all the dead to the cemetery, and that thus many families, and especially those
who are indigent, are deprived of the last prayers of the Church;
" Considering that it is important promptly to remedy such a state of
things in a manner conformed to Christian charity; decrees, -
"Art. 1. - There shall be attached to each of the three chapels of the
Trinity, St. Ambrose, and St. James, in Paris, two vicars, who, under the title
of Almoners of Last Prayers, shall be specially and exclusively charged in
the cemaeteries of the north, of the south, and of the east, near which they shall
reside, to receive gratuitously, whenever the request shall be made, the bodies
which are not accompanied by the clergy; to conduct them  to the tomb;
and to recite over them the last prayers of the Church.
" Art. 2. -  The salary of these almoners shall be fixed at twelve hundred
francs."
On the 81st of December, a decree was issued containing the following
announcement: ~
" The President of the Republic, considering that the French Republic,
with  its new  form  sanctioned by the suffrages of' the people, can adopt




480                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
without umbrage the souvenirs of the Empire and the signs which recall
its glory;
"Considering that the national flag ought no longer to be deprived of that
renowned  emblem  which conducted our soldiers to the field of honor in a
hundred battles; decrees, -
"Art. 1. - The French eagle is re-established on the flag of the army.
"Art. 2.-  It is also re-established on the Cross of the Legion of Honor."
The most dangerous foes that the government had to fear were the slanders and the falsehoods uttered by the press. In all lands, even where the
press is most free, it is still under a certain degree of restraint; and its conductors are punished by fine and imprisonment for gross libels upon individuals.  To ruin  an honest man by maliciously proclaiming him  a knave is a
great individual wrong; and it cannot be tolerated under the plea of the
freedom of the press.
The French Government assumed the position that the government itself
was entitled to be regarded as an individual, whose reputation was of infinitely more consequence than that of any private person whatever.  It was
assumed that a just freedom of the press did not imply that that press could,
without fear of punishment, forge any falsehoods it pleases; could accuse
the government of robbing the national bank, of issuing outrageous decrees,
of employing assassins, of seeking to provoke insurrection from  the love of
slaughter, and of striving to inaugurate foreign wars to engross the attention
of a people whom it was seeking to enslave.  The millions of France were a
simple people.  The coalesced enemies of the government, though few  in
numbers, had the pens of mapy very unscrupulous and spirited writers at their
disposal; and they had any amount of wealth at their command to circulate
hostile pamphlets and journals.  They  could, without difficulty, flood all
France with the most atrocious calumnies, creating universal anxiety and
fear and despair. To say that the freedom of the press is of so sacred a
character, that the government had no right to check these outrages by forms
of law, is simply to say that the government should have abandoned the
attempt to rescue France from  anarchy, and should have retired from  the
field vanquished. It does not follow, that, because an unbridled press can in
some lands better be tolerated than in those lands attempt the greater
evil of a censorship, therefore this must be the case in all lands and under
all circumstances. France, in the peculiar situation in which it was then
placed,-just emerging from  a sea of revolutions, with imbittered and desperate parties at home, and surrounded with monarchies in heart hostile at
seeing the heir of the great emperor whom  they had combined to destroy
placed in power, - could not leave itself to be assailed by the caluminies of
its foes at their pleasure.
Even in the United States, where the freedom of the press is as unchecked
as anywhere else in the world, it was found necessary, during our civil war, to
impose restrictions upon that press. as stringent as any which the government
in France had adopted. The great strife in all time has been that between
power and liberty.  We must have power, to secure the public safety; we




ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES.                                    481
must have liberty, to secure individual progress. Just where to draw the
dividing-line must ever be a cifficult question to decide; and this line must
vary in accordance with the varying vicissitudes of nations. A rigid censorship of the press was established in France, with the concurrence of the president, his ministers, the Council of State, the Senate, and the Legislative Corps.
The people of France, -  and they surely are the best judges of their own
wants, - with great unanimity, gave their assent to this measure as essential
to the safety of the nation. It was simply the adoption of the principle, that
the press which forges falsehood against the govermnment is guilty of as great
a crime as when it libels an individual.  It is perilous to trammel the press
but there have been seasons in the life of most enlightened nations when it
has been found needful to place over it a vigilant guard.*
Early in February, the members of the Legislative Corps were chosen. The
same unanimity was manifested on this occasion as at the previous elections.
The government candidates were successful, almost without e
ceremony of the installation of the members took place at the Tuileries, in the
saloon of the marshals, on the 29th of March. The grandeur of the event
excited all Paris.  It is said that two hundred thousand men thronged the
Carrousel, the quay, the terrace on the bank of the river, the Place Louis XV.;
indeed, the whole  space  from   the  ]lysee  to  the  Tuileries.  There  were
present in the spacious saloon of the palace the elite of France and of Europe,
the members of the diplomatic corps, of the Council of State, of the Senate,
of the Legislative Corps, and other high functionaries. In the address of the
president, he gave utterance to the following sentiments: 
"MESSIEURS LES SENATEURS, MESSIEURS LES DEPUTES, -  The dictatorship which the people had confided to me ceases to-day. Affairs will now
resume their regular course. It is with real satisfaction that I here announce,
that the constitution now goes into operation; for it has been my constant
desire, not only to re-establish order, but to render it durable by conferring
upon France institutions appropriate to her wants.
" But a few months ago, you remember, the more I endeavored to confine
myself within the narrow limits of my privileges, the stronger was the attempt
to make those limits more narrow in order to deprive me of movement and
action. Often discouraged, -I confess it, - I had thought of abandoning a
power thus disputed: that which restrained me was, that I could see nothing
to succeed me but anarchy. Everywhere, indeed, passions were excited,, eager
to destroy, but powerless to lay the foundations of any thing.
* "In the Emperor Napoleon's last letter to his son, written upon his dying-bed at St. Helena,
he says,'Mi' son will be obliged to allow the liberty of the press. This is a necessity in the present day. In order to govern, it is not necessary to pursue a more or less perfect theory, but to
build with the materials which are under one's hands; to submit to necessities, and profit by them.
The liberty of the press ought to become, in the haaids of the government, a powerful auxiliary in
diffusing through all the most distant corners of the empire sound doctrines and good principles.
To leave it to itself would be to fall asleep upon the brink of a danger. On the conclusion of a
general peace, I would have instituted a directory of the press composed of the ablest men of the
country; and I would have diffused even to the most distant hamlet my ideas and my intentions.' "~Abbott's Life of Napoleon i, vol. ii. p. 639.
61




482                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"But when - thanks to the co-operation of a few courageous men, thanks
particularly to the energetic attitude of the army - all these perils were dissipated in a few hours, my first care was to demand of the people institutions.
For a long time, society has resembled a pyramid which has been overturned,
and which they have wished to make stand upon its apex. I have replaced it
upon its base.  Universal suffrage, the only source of right in such conjunctures, was immediately re-established; authority regained its ascendency; in
fine, France adopting the principal provisions of the constitution which I submitted to it, I was enabled to create political bodies whose influence and consideration will be great in proportion to the wisdom with which their functions
are exercised.
"Among political institutions, those only can have permanency which fix in
an equitable manner the limits within which each power is to confine itself.
There is no other way to arrive at a useful and beneficent application of
liberty. Examples of this are not far from us.
"Why, in 1814, has one seen with satisfaction, in spite of our reverses, the
parliamentary regiine inaugurated?  It is because the emperor   let us not
fear to avow  it-had been, in  consequence of the war, constrained to an
exercise of power too absolute.
"Why, on the contrary, in 1851, did France applaud at the fall of that same
parliamentary regime? It was because the Chambers had abused the influence
which  had  been given  to  them; and, wishing  to  rule unrestrained, they
compromised the general equilibrium.
"In fine, why is not France agitated in view of the restrictions now imposed
upon the liberty of the press and upon individual liberty? It is because the
one had degenerated into license; and that the other, instead of being the
orderly exercise of the right of each one, had by odious excesses menaced
the rights of all.
"This extreme danger, for democracies particularly, of seeing institutions
badly defined sacrificing, by turns, power or liberty, was perfectly appreciated
by our fathers a half-century ago, when, emerging from revolutionary torment,
and after the vain essay of every kind of regimnes, they proclaimed the constitution of the year 8, which has served for the model of that of 1852.
" Undoubtedly, these do not sanction all the liberties, to the abuses even
of which we were habituated; but they do sanction much that is real. The
day after revolutions, the first of guaranties for a people does not consist in
the free use o(f the tribune and of the press: it is in the right to choose the
government which is suited to it. Now, the French nation has given, perhaps
for the first time, to the world, the imposing spectacle of a great people
voting, in entire freedom, its form of government.
"Thus the chief of the State whom  you  have before you  is truly the
expression of the popular will.  And before me what do I see?  Two Chambers, -the one elected in virtue of the most liberal law which exists in the
"Les hommes sont trop impuissants pour assurer Favenir: les institutions seules fixent les
destinees des nations," (" Man is too powerless to insure the future: institutions alone determine
the destinies of nations "). -~Napoleon I.




ADMINISTRATIVE  MEASURES.                                 483
-%world; the other appointed by me, it is true, but also independent, because
it is irremovable.
"1 Around me you observe men of patriotism, of recognized merit, always
ready to support me with their counsels, and to enlighten me upon the wants
of the country.
" This constitution, which to-day is to be put in practice, is not, then, the
work. of a vain theory, or of despotism: it is the creation of experience and
of reason.  You will aid me, gentlemen, in consolidating it, in extending it,
in improving it.
"I shall make known to the Senate and to the Legislative Corps the state
of the Republic. They will see that everywhere confidence has been reestablished; that everywhere industry hats revived; and that, for the first time
after a great political change, the public fortune has increased, instead of
diminished.
"For four months, may government has been able to encourage many useful
enterprises, to recompense many services, to alleviate many sorrows, to elevate
even the position of the greater part of the principal functionaries; and all
without increasing the imposts, or deranging the provisions of the budget,
which we are happy to present to you balanced.
" Such facts, and the attitude of Europe, which has received with satisfaction. the chan~ges which have taken place, give us a just hope for security in
the future; for, if peace is guaranteed at home, it is equally so  abroad.
Foreign powers respect our independence; and we have every motive for
preserving with them  the most amicable relations.  So long as the honor of
France shall not be imperilled, the duty of the government will be carefully
to avoid every cause of perturbation in Europe, and to devote all our efforts
to our own interior ameliorations, which can alone secure competence for the
laboring-classes, and the prosperity of the country.
"And now, gentlemen, at this moment in which you associate yourselves
patriotically in my labors, I wish to tell you frankly what will be my conduct.
In seeing me re-establish the institutions and the souvenirs of the empire,
it has often been said that I wish to re-establish the empire itself. If such
were-my constant desire, that transformation would have been accomplished a
long time ago. Neither the means nor the occasion were wanting to me.
"Thus, in  1848, when six million suffrages elected me, in spite of the
Constituent Assembly, I was not ignorant that the simple refusal to acquiesce
in the constitution would give me the throne; but an elevation which would
necessarily introduce grave disorders could not seduce me.
" On the 13th of June, 1849, it had been equally easy for me to change the
form of government. I did not wish to do it.
"In fine, on the 2d of December, if personal considerations had outweighed
the important interests of the country, I should then have demanded of the
people, who would not have refused me, a pompous title.  I am  content with
that which I have.
" When, then, I take examples from the consulate and the empire, it is
because there especially I find them impressed with nationality and grandeur.
Resolved to-day, as heretofore, to do every, thing for France, nothing for




484                            LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  III.
myself, I shall not accept of any modification of the present state of thing's
unless I am constrained to it by evident necessity. Whence can that necessity arise?  Only from  the conduct of parties.  If they submit, there will be
no change: but if; by their senseless intrigues, they seek to sap the foundations of my government; if, in their blindness, they deny the legitimacy of
the result of popular election; if, in fine, they continue incessantly, by their
attacks, to put in question the future of the country,-then, but only then, it
will be reasonable to demand  of the people, in the name of the repose of
-France, a new title, which shall fix irrevocably upon my head the power
with which the people have invested me.
"But let us not occupy ourselves in advance with difficulties which are but
little probable. Let us preserve th'e Reiublic. It menaces no one. It can
inspire all with confidence.  Under its banner, I wish to inaugurate anew an
era of oblivion and of conciliation; and I call, without distinction, upon all
those who wish frankly to co-operate with me for the public good.
" Providence, which, until the present mtoment, has so visibly blessed my
efforts, will not leave its work unachieved; it will animate us with all its own
inspirations; it will give us the wisdom and the force necessary to consolidate
an order of things which will assure the happiness of our country and the
repose of Europe."
The Socialists and extreme Democrats, watched  by the police, and  unable
to operate in France through their secret societies, or to scatter their  ublications, or to harangue the multitude, established their headquarters in London
and  Brussels.  They  formed  a "Revolutionary League" of their partisans
from  all nations, and  sent their agents throughout Europe and America to
gather funds. They wrote books, distributed pamphlets, made speeches, and
with great energy, and often with very considerable ability, pushed their
measures to overturn by revolution  all the existing governments of Europe.
They were generally rash and impassioned men, of much physical vigor and
mental activity.  In  their gatherings, they had  refugees from  all countries.
The evils of which they complained were many and very great. They were
united to destroy, but not to build up. Some were Communists, some Socialists, some Republicans, some Democrats, some Atheists, who would make
war upon  every existing  institution.  They were united only in the desire
to overthrow the governments.  Then would come the battle among themselves as to the institutions which should rise upon the ruins.'
Joseph Mazzini, the ex-dictator of the Roman Republic, issued an address to the Comites
Propayandists throughout the Continent. It was dated London, March, 1852. He writes, -
"AWhat ought to be to-day the word bf order, the cry for the rallying of parties?  The response is very simple. It is all in one word,'action,'  action, - one, European, incessant, logical,
bold, of all, everywhere. The talkers have lost France.  They will lose Europe if a sacred
re-action does not operate against them in the bosom of the party. By force of talking of the
future, we have abandoned the present to the first-comer.  By force of substituting each his
little sect, his little system, his little organization of humanity, for the grand religion of democracy, for the common faith, for the association of forces to conquer the earth, we have thrown
disorganization into the ranks. The hour has come for speaking the truth, pure and clear, to
our friends. They have done all the injury possible to the most noble of causes. I accuse the




ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES.                                  485
The government which  had been  established  in France by nearly seven
and  a half million votes out of about eight million  was truly the 
government.  It was their creation.  They  rallied  around  it with enthusiasm.  There was, probably, never a more truly popular government upon
the globe. The action of the government was the action of the people; for
its officers were the ministers of the people, executing their will. It was the
voice of the people, of these seven  and  a half million  voters, which  said
that these agitators should not be permitted to attempt to undermine and
tumble into ruins institutions which had before been tried, which the people
had now deliberately re-established, and upon which.they believed that the
best interests of France were dependent. Thus the Jacobinical spirit, in all
its phases, was shorn of its power.
The Count de Charmbord, the heir of the Bourbon throne, renowned only
through the romantic career of his unhappy mother the Duchess de Berri,
had now grown to manhood.  His partisans were few; but they were conspicuous in rank, in influence with foreign courts, and were generally wealthy.
It was the earnest desire of the president to rally around him men of whatever party,'who would accept the situation of affairs, and honestly co-operate
with him in promoting the welfare of France.  The Count de Chambord and
his immediate advisers were apprehensive that this might be accomplished,
and that the aristocratic members of the old Bourbon party might be tempted
to lend their support to the republican principles upheld by Louis Napoleon.
They therefore held a conference at the court of the count, in Wiesbaden,
and issued a circular enjoining it upon the members of the Legitimist party
not to take the oath of allegiance to the Republic, not to accept any office
under it, and not in any way to lend it their countenance.*
This circular, which contained many severe and false reflections upon the
government, was not permitted to be distributed in France. It was published
extensively abroad; and its contents were, of course,-generally well known.t
Many, however, of the Legitimist party, disregarded its unpatriotic appeal,
and not only accepted but solicited places in the Legislative Corps and other
important official positions. This party had comparatively few adherents in
France; and the number was continually diminishing. Several of the northern courts manifested a kindly sympathy in its claims, but gave no indications
Socialists, the chiefs particularly, of having falsified, mutilated, contracted, the grand thhought, in
imprisoning it in absolute systems; which usurp at the same time the liberty of the individual,
the sovereignty of the.country, the continuity of progress, our law for all;" and so on through
a long document of recriminations.
* In a letter from M. Fernand de la Ferronnays, one of the most intimate confidants of the
Count de Chambord, and his private secretary, which letter was dated Frorhdorff, 19th May,
1852, in commenting upon the manifesto of the prince, who was styled by his partisans King
Henry V., it is written, -
The principle of legitimacy, by its fixity, can alone restore to France the guaranties which
it has lost. My lord demands, therefore, of his friends, that  iey should let alone the present
government (deloisscr le yeornermient actitl), and aid him to prepare for that grand and powerful union of the monarchical parties which can alone give us hopes for the future."
This letter is given in full by MM. Gallix and Guy, p. 531.
t Le Manifest de Wiesbaden.




486                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
of a disposition again to combine their armies to force the Bourbons upon
France.
The Orleanists took a very different course, and one far more sagacious, if
not more honorable, than  that which was enforced upon the Legitimists.
Orleanism  was perhaps an improvement upon Bourbonism: it was certainly
more modern, more in sympathy with the times. It rejected the doctrine of
legitimacy, of divine right to the crown, and based its authority upon the
votes of one or two  hundred  inflYential men.  For fifteen  years, all the
offices of emolument and honor in France had been at its disposal. Thus
its leaders were accustomed to power, and generally possessed large wealth.
The revolution had driven most of them  from  their seats; and it is natural
that they should have been anxious to regain their posts of honor and emolument.  They decided to reflect the colors and to speak the language of the
Republic, - to accept the situation of affairs as a temporary reality. They
would take the oath of allegiance, grasp all the important offices which they
could obtain, and then watch their opportunity. The British Government
was in cordial sympathy with Louis Philippe. He had purchased its favor
by many acts of submission.  Conscience-troubled, it feared that Waterloo
might be avenged. England was flooded with rumors of the design of Louis
Napoleon to land an  army of five hundred thousand men upon  her shores,
and to enact in the streets of London the drama which  British  troops had
performed in the streets of Paris. The alarm was great, and the whole population was gallantly rushing to arms. Thus the general feeling in the British
court and through the nation was hostile to Louis Napoleon, and favorable to
Louis Philippe.
To a considerable degree, the same feeling existed in Belgium. The first
wife of King Leopold was the lamented Princess Charlotte, only child of
George IV.   As a second wife, he had married one of the daughters of
Louis Philippe. His sympathies could not but have been with the expelled
dynasty.* The moral support thus afforded by the courts of England and
Belgium was of much value to the Orleanists. They were sanguine in their
hopes, that by gracefully yielding for a time to the Republic as a deplorable
necessity, and by getting possession of all the offices in their power, they
could gradually undermine the presidential chair, and replace the Orleans
throne.
There were several journals iii Belgium which opened their batteries with
* "As to King Leopold, he is son-in-law of Louis Philippe, brother-in-law of the princes of
Orleans. His tenderness for them is explained by the ties of relationship. Therefore, that he
should receive in his chateau at Laken, with great cordiality, the Duke de Montpensier and the
Prince de Joinville, that he gives at Wiesbaden a rendezvous for the Duchess of Orleans, affords
no occasion for reproach. Still more, that he admits to the court of Brussels Messrs. Creton,
Changarnier, Lamoriciere, tJirce persons well known for their intense hostility to Louis Napoleon:
that he affects to treat them with the most marked distinction, - may be regarded but as natural
sympathy for the friends of his family: but to permit the Belgian press to attack with impunity
the government of the 2d December; to leave it to hurl insult upon the brow of the elect of
France, -there was in this undeniably that which could not be explained by the necessities of
good-breeding, by the conventionalities of society.  There was here an entire forgetfulness
of the respect due to each other from the chiefs of nations." - MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 537.




ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES.                                   487
the  greatest vigor upon  Louis Napoleon.   The property of the'Orleans
family was still over twenty millions of dollars; and there were so many of
the wealthy and the powerful, all over Europe, personally interested in their
restoration, that any needful amount of money could be raised to secure the
advocacy of their claims.  These Belgian journals, the "Independence," the
"Observateur," the "rNation," and. the "Bulletin  Fran~ais," availed themselves of all the weapons known in political warfare to concentrate the contempt of Europe upon the government of universal suffrage in France,* and
especially upon the sovereign of popular choice. So successful were they for
a time in their gross misrepresentations, that even the Democratic press of
America joined in the hue and cry.
Two  of these journals, the " Independence "  and  the " Journal," were.government organs, and  were recognized  as such  at that epoch by the
Belgian cabinet.  One of the journals, the "Bulletin Franqais," was edited
by two distinguished Orleanists from Paris.
The English  press was almost equally  devoted  to  the interests of the
Orleans family, and was engaged with equal ardor in a Waterloo campaign
against the nephew of the emperor.  These assaults were continued, month
after month  and  year after year, with zeal which never abated.  Seldom
has a man been exposed to a warfare so deadly.  There is something truly
dreadful in the idea that one man, while placed in a situation so conspicuous
that almost every word he utters and every action he performs are open to
the world, should be exposed to. the scrutiny of enemies who can command
millions of money, who have the sympathies of most of the courts and
aristocracies of Europe, and who are stimulated, by every consideration of
personal interest, to strain every nerve of endeavor, and to resort to any
measures, however unscrupulous, to rfuin his character. These efforts were
not in vain. The general impression long prevailed among the masses, at
least in England and America, that the sovereign of France, chosen by seven
and a half million voters, was one of the worst and the weakest of men.t
Such was the ordeal through which Louis Napoleon was doomed to pass.
Sublimely has he endured it; magnificently has he come off the victor.
The vigilance of the government prevented these libels from being printed
or circulated  in France.  The  president aid his ministers consecrated all
their resources to the consolidation of the new institutions, and to the
revival of all the arts of industry.
It will be remembered that a decree had already been issued for the restoration of the eagles to the banners of France. The 10th of May was appointed for this solemn ceremony, which was to take place on the Champ de
Mars.  The morning sun rose so brilliant, that thousands exclaimed, " It is
the sun of Austerlitz! " For several days, the inhabitants from the distant
* "Princes, even during life, are a prey to the fury of libellers; and however great their
actions, and even their virtues, they come before the eyes of posterity only in the train of tyrants.
It is a misfortune attached to sovereign power, and no monarch can escape from it." - Napoleon
I., Conversation with Rev. Mr. Jones at St. ielena.
t If the reader is curious to witness a specimen of the spirit which animated these writers,
let him turn to the pages of " The Invasion of the Crimea," by Alexander William Kinglake.




488                        LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
departments had been flocking to Paris; and many strangers were lured from
foreign lands to witness the pageant, which was to be accompanied with all
the concomitants of religious and military pomp. The vast city was thronged
as it seldom had been thronged before. It was the writer's privilege to be
present on that occasion.  No language can describe the brilliance of the
scene.
Nearly sixty thousand soldiers, infantry, artillery, cavalry, were drawn up
upon that most magnificent parade-ground  of the world.  The polished
cuirasses, helmets, bayonets, and other arms, reflected dazzlingly the rays of
the sun. The roll of a thousand drums, the peal of cannon at regular intervals, and the flourish of trumpets filling the air with martial sounds added
an indescribable sublimity to the view spread before the eye. It is said that
the Colosseum at Rome would accommodate eighty thousand spectators; but
this vast amphitheatre was surrounded with seats, ascending tier above tier,
upon  which  it was estimated  that three hundred  thousand people were
gathered.
An altar resplendent with gold, and of magnificent proportions, was erected
near the centre of the field. At half-past eleven o'clock, the Archbishop of
Paris arrived, crowned with the mitre, and bearing a cross in his hand accompanied by the higher ecclesiastics, and preceded by nearly a thousand priests
in white surplices.  The archbishop ascended the altar: the clergy ranged
themselves around it.
At half-past twelve o'clock, salvos of artillery announced that the Prince
President had left the Tuileries, and was approaching the field.   ie soon
appeared, surrounded by a brilliant cortege of marshals, generals, and members
of his military household. In his suite there were several Arab chiefs, who
governed in Algeria in the name of Fiance.  Their picturesque and gorgeous
costume attracted much attention.
Louis Napoleon, in rapid review, galloped along the lines, greeted continually with enthusiastic acclaim. Hle then dismounted at the foot of the steps
of the throne, from which he was to distribute the eagle-surmounted flags.
All eyes of that countless throng were riveted upon him as the ceremony
continued. One after another, the 6hiefs of the corps ascended the platform,
and received the flags destined for their troops. When the distribution was
finished, the president pronounced the following discourse   ~
"SOLDIErs, -  The history of peoples is, in great part, the history of armies.
"Upon their success or their reverse depends the fate of civilization and of
the country.  Defeated, it is invasion or anarchy; victorious, it is glory or
order.
"Thus nations, as armies, regard with religious veneration those emblems
of military honor which sum up in themselves all the past of conflicts and of
triumphs.
"The Roman eagle, adopted by the Emperor Napoleon at the commencement of this century, was the most striking signification of the regeneration
and of the grandeur of France. It disappeared in our misfortunes. It ought
to return when France, raised from her defeats, mistress of herself, will no
longer seem to repudiate her own glory.




ADMINISTRATIVE  TMEASURES.                                489
Soldiers, take again, then, these eagles, not as a menace against others,
but as a symbol of our own independence; as the souvenir of an  heroic
epoch; as the sign of the nobleness of each regiment.
" Take again these eagles, which have so often conducted our fathers to
victory; and swear to die, if it be necessary, to defend them."
Immediately upon the close of this address, strains of sacred music filled
the air, of such sweetness, and in such volume, from the collected bands, as to
electrify every hearer.  The chiefs of the corps, holding the flags which they
had received, gathered around the altar; and the divine service commenced.
HighY  mass was solemnized with all the ceremonial splendor, both military and
ecclesiastical, with which it was possible to invest it.  The voice of cannon,
rolling its -echoes far and wide, proclaimed that the host was to be elevated.
Bursts of melody from martial bands expressed the universal homage; while
simultaneously, and with the most admirable precision, sixty thousand men
presented arms in military adoration of the consecrated wafer, which to the
Ronman Church is tTie emblem  of the Saviour of the world.  At th'e same
moment, the three hundred thousand spectators who surrounded the amphitheatre on the rising seats uncovered their heads, and reverently bowed.
The mass was terminated: cannon-peals resounded anew.  The archbishop
then commenced the benediction of the eagles.  In'the brief discourse which
he uttered, he said, -
"Peace is the design of war: it is the end towards which human society
advances, when it follows, in its regular course, priniciples of justice, and inspirations  from  on  high.   War is only legitimate when its endeavor is to
conquer and secure a peace.  Armies are, in the hands of God, powerful
instruments for pacification and public order.  Right has need of force to
make itself respected; but, in its turn, force has need of right, that it may'
move in the line of Providence.  Peace is, then, always the end; war sometimes the means, -means terrible, but necessary, alas! in consequence of the
passions which agitate the world."
The troops now defiled from the field, the crowd dispersed, and the imposing pageant was ended.  The rumor bad been circulated throughout Europe,
and had obtained general credence, that, upon the day of the restoration of
the eagles to the army, it was the intention of the president to restore the
empire.  It was understood that such was the universal wish of the army,
and  the general wish  of the French  people.  The idea was exceedingly
repugnant to the small minority in France belonging to the monarchical and
the Jacobinical factions.  It greatly weakened  their hopes of being able,
through annother revolution, to press their claims.
The Count de Chambord was at this time in Vienna.  It is not easy to
imagine the emotions with which he saw all France so eagerly tearing the
Gallic cock, the emblem  of Bourbon power, from  the national banners, and
replacing it by the eagle immortalized by the genius of Napoleon.  It seemed
like a direct and  very important step  towards the consolidation of the
government of the 2d of December by imperial dignity and forms.
The count had frequent interviews with the sovereigns of the North, -  of
62




490                         LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Russia, Prussia, and Austria; at least, such was the uncontradicted statement of the journals. Interviews of that nature are usually more or less
private; and it is not always easy to ascertain what views are urged. It is
said that the count pressed those courts with the very obvious and natural
plea, that the re-establishment of the empire in France would be an audacious
violation of the treaties of 1815; and that to permit the French people to
banish their legitimate king, and to confer the sovereignty upon one of their
own choice, was an injury to the principle of legitimacy throughout Europe,
and endangered every legitimate throne.  The air was full of rumors and of
menaces.  No  one knew  what to believe.   The London Morning Post"
of May, 1852, stated,"The sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, are willing to tolerate the
temporary presidency of the nephew of Napoleon; ut they will not tolerate
the transformation of that presidency into an empire, hereditary or for life."
These views were reiterated by the journals all over Europe. So much was
said, and with so much confidence, respecting what foreign kings would allow
the French people'to do in the regulation of their own internal affairs, that the
"Moniteur," the organ of the French Government on the 30th of May gave
the following dignified announcement, evidently from the mind, if not from the
pen, of Louis Napoleon:"Many foreign journals endeavor to accredit the rumor, that the powers of
the North, in the anticipation of certain eventualities, would be readyto renew
the coalition of 1815; and that they may have determined limits beyond which
it will not be permitted to France to modify her government. The rumor is
untrue.  The eventualities which are the pretext for it are very improbable.
Nothing indicates the necessity for any change whatever in our institutions.
France enjoys perfect repose.  The powers maintain  with  her the most
friendly relations. They have never had pretension less than now to thrust
themselves into our interior regimne. They know that France, in case of need,
will cause her own rights to be respected, as she respects those of other peoples; but her rights are not menaced or contested.  Let the vanquished
factions count, as in the past, upon foreign intervention to cause their pretensions to triumph against the national will. These ancient tactics will have no
other result than to render them still more obnoxious to the country."
As we have mentioned, there were all sorts of rumors. There were some
journals in cordial sympathy with the French people.  Even the governmental journals of Northern Europe not unfrequently contained articles very
friendly in their tone.  " The Journal" of Frankfort closed a very complimentary  article upon  the state  of affairs in  France with  the following
words: -
"Neither France nor European society finds itself in a condition to be able
to pass'from the energetic hands which have conquered the revolution and
annihilated anarchy.  The cabinets of the North are the first to recognize
the grand services which Louis Napoleon has rendered to the.order and the
tranquillity of the world."
The session of the Legislative Corps closed on the 28th of June. In the
president's farewell message, he said, -




ADMINISTRATIVE  MEASURES.                                 491,"In returning to your departments, be the faithful echoes of the sentiments
which reign here.  Say to your constituents, that at Paris, the heart.of
France, the revolutionary centre which diffuses in turn, over the world, light
or conflagration, you  have seen  an  immense people  applying  themselves
to cause all traces of revolutions to disappear, and devoting themselves joyfully to labor, feeling secure of the future. That people, which lately, in its
delirium, was impatient of all restraint, you have seen salute with acclamation the return of our eagles, - synmbols.of authority and of glory.
"At that imposing slpectacle, in which religion consecrated by her benedictions a grand nationalft3e, you have remarked the respectful attitude of the
people. You have seen that army so bold, which has saved the country,
elevate itself still higher in the esteem  of men in bending the knee with
reverence before the image of God, presented from the summit of the altar.
That signifies that there is in France a government animated by religious
faith, and by love for the public good, which reposes upon the people the
source of all power, upon the army the source of all force, upon religion
the source of all justice."
About the middle of July, the president went to Strasburg to celebrate
the completion of the railroad to that place. His journey was a continuous
ovation.  The population, from wide regions around, flocked to the depots to
catch,i glimpse of their elected sovereign, whose renown was fast filling the
world.  At Nancy, sixty thousand strangers were gathered.*  After passing
the night there, the prince continued the next day to Strasburg, where he
arrived at two o'clock in the afternoon. The whole city was on the alert to
greet him. Banners floated from the windows. All the houses of the streets
through which he passed were decorated with garlands of leaves and flowers.
Complimentary devices everywhere met his eye; and flocks of golden eagles
seemed to be just lighting, with wings still outspread, upon the trees and the
house-tops.  The air resounded  with  shouts of " Vive Napoleon! Vive
l'Empereur! "
In the centre of the* magnificent station at Strasburg an altar had been
erected, richly decorated, at the foot of which stood the Bishop of Strasburg,
accompanied by his clergy, all in their appropriate clerical dresses. On each
side of the vast space there was a double range of benches, upon which thousands of spectators were seated. The ladies all had bouquets in their hands.
As the prince passed, one of the ladies tossed to him her bouquet.  He picked
it up, and saluted her with a smile. Immediately, as by a concerted signal,
every bouquet felt at his feet.
Following this pleasing but extemporized incident, divine services were
commenced. After the performance of mass, four locomotives advanced in
front of the altar to receive the episcopal benediction. The Kings of Prussia
and of Wurtemberg, and the Grand Dukes of Baden and of Hesse, were
represented by their commissioners upon  this occasion.  One of the picturesque accessories of this brilliant solemnity consisted of a cortege villageois, consisting of one thousand cavaliers and eight hundred young girls,
* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 572.




492                          LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
all in the richest holiday costumes of their several communes. It took more
tha-n an hour for them to pass by the prince,-  the men on horseback, the girls
in their rustic chariots.  Each  car bore a motto like the following:  To
Louis Napoleon, Gratitude and Devotion."  "Welcome to Alsace!"  "Let
Him Assure an Unchanging Future for France."  " He Has Saved Us: We
Will Not Forget It."
The men, as they passed, uncovered their heads, and shouted, " Vive Napoleon!"  The girls rose in their carriages, repeated the same cry, and cast
their bouquets at the feet of the prince.*
Peculiar emotions must have agitated the bosom of Louis Napoleon as he
witnessed this scene.  Sixteen years before, in the year 1836, he had entered
Strasburg in the dark and alone, an exile, forbidden, under penalty of death
to place his foot upon the soil of France. In the gloom of night, with a Bow
trusty companions, he had groped his way through those streets, perilling his
life in warfare against a government which excluded him from his native land.
In the barracks of the Finkmatt he had been seized, and dragged to prison.
A captive, he had been hurried to Paris, and without condemnation, or even
trial, had been transported across the Atlantic. Now all France was rendering hitm homage. Strasburg was greeting him with a triumph such as she
had never before accorded to  any of the kings of Franibe.  The imperial
crown was virtually upon his brow; for he knew, and all the world knew, that
he had but to speak the word, and it was done.
His return to Paris was signalized with the same marks of enthusiasm
which had accompanied his journey to Strasburg. Hl           e entered the city on
the 23d of July. The troops were all under arms to give him a welcome
home. The 15th of August was the anniversary of the birth of Napoleon 1.
The occasion was celebrated with much splendor.   On that day, the eagles,
which  had  been  previously  restored  to the army, were restored  to the
National Guard; and a pardon was granted to twelve hundred persons, - of
those generally who had been condemned for political causes.
This anniversary was improved by the prince as an  occasion to give a
splendid ball to the market-women of Paris.   The peculiarly democratic
aspect of this measure provoked much comment.  The Market of the Innocents was converted into an immense ball-room. Three hundred chandeliers
supported thousands of candles. Several fountains were playing within the
hall to cool the heated air of mid-summer. Two orchestras of more than
two hundred  musicians, under the ablest leadership  Paris could  afford,
executed quadrilles and gallops. The hall was so admirably arranged and
ventilated, that very many thousand persons were able to move about and
dance freely until five o'clock in the morning.t
The Prince President intended and had promised to honor the fete with
his presence; but a sudden attack of sickness deprived him  of the opportunitv. He was, however, represented by the principal civil and military func* MM. Gallix et Guy, p. 592.
t MM. Gallix and Guy state that thirty thousand were present. The writer once attended
an entertainment given by the officers of the army to the president, in the Ecole Militaire, the
courtyard beinm overarched for the purpose, when the number of guests was stated to be -fifteen
thousand.




ADMINISThATIVE  MEASURES.                                 493
tionaries of the State.  Upon  this floor the  most humble  and  the most
illustrious nmet in  true fraternity, in transient oblivion of all the artificial
distinctions of life.
The  minister of the  interior, M. de Persigny, danced  with  Madame
Clement, a seller of vegetables.  General Magnan solicited the partnership
of Madanme Abotter, a fruit-merchant.  M. Rumnieu, chief of division, danced
with Madame Daniiel, a dealer in butter.  M. Pietri, prefect of police, led
through the mazes -of the cotillon Madame Glaise, a graceful and excellent
woman, who supplied  the market with  mushrooms.  MI. Collet Mevgret,
secretary-general of the prefecture  of police, danced  with  Mademoiselle
Bessin, merchant of salt provisions.
On the other hand, M. Lepage, first porter in the butter-market, danced
wvith Macdame the Countess of Persigny.  M. Wair, first porter in the meatauction  room, had for a partner Madame Ducos, wife of the minister of
marine.  M. Arnault, porter in  the butter-market, danced  with  Madame
Drouyn  de l'Huys, the wife of the minister for foreign  affairs.  M. Joly,
portedr in the vegetable-market, danced with Mademoiselle Magnan.
The French, even those in humble life, are proverbially polite. It is scarcely
necessary to say that there was not witnessed in that hall a single unrefined
act, or a breach of true courtesy.  There are those who will scorn such an
act of brotherly recognition.  Louis Napoleon is not one of them.
In  conmmenting upo-n this remarkable ball, Messrs. Gallix and  Guy say,' This fte has been turned. into ridicule, and condemned, by the spirit of
party.'What!' exclaim the grand lords of the regency and of legitimacy,'ministers and generals dance with merchants of fruits and vegetables?  This
is to abase power and to degrade authority.' We do not share in this disdainful view of the case.  In an aristocratic country, doubtless 4t might be
so; but not in a country as thoroughly impressed with the spirit' of democracy as is France.  Moreover, is that an innovation?  Under the ancient
monarchy, was not the Palace of Versailles seen, at certain days, to open its
folding-doors before the market-women?  Were not these wives of the people graciously admitted, under solemn circumstances, to present their cornplimients to the king?   The present government has only  followed  the
example given by the ancient governments."
It now became necessary to elect members for the general councils of the
arrondissements and the municipalities. The validity of the election required
that one-fourth at least of the registered electors should vote, and a simple
majority prevailed.  The day of election  came.  Scarcely anybody voted.
So little were the masses of the French people aware of the duties devolving
upon the citizens of a free nation, that they did not deem it of any importance to go to the polls.
"XWe have given," said the rural electors, "full powers to Louis Napoleon.
We have entire confidence in him.  Let him  do what he wishes.  It is not
necessary for us to tiouble ourselves about elections."
A new election was appointed. The electors were urged to do their duty;
and the offices of the councils-general were filled.




CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.
Prosperous State of France. -Desire for the Restoration of the Empire.- The Communes.The Arrondissements. - The Municipal Councils. - Tour to the Southern Departments. -
Brilliant Reception. - Addresses. - Attempt at Assassination. - Courage of the President. - Algeria. - Abd-el-Kader. - Reception in Paris. - Restoration of the Empire. - Vote
of the Senate. - Ratification by the People. - Address of the Emperor. - Great Unanimity.
- The Results.
HE first nine months of the reign of Louis Napoleon under the
new constitution were brilliant in results. France could not
but be grateful for the change wrought apparently by his
sagacity and energy. In looking back upon the perils from
which they had but just emerged, the French people recognized
their profound obligations to him who had thwarted the senseless projects of Socialism and Communism; who had rescued their religion
from  assaults which threatened its overthrow; who had re-established the
principle of authority, and had saved private property from the conflagration
and chaos of wide-sweeping revolution.
A few months had accomplished almost miraculous changes.  Wise decrees
had infused new life into all the branches of public prosperity. Agriculture,
commerce, industry, were revived. Institutions of credit to encourage and
assist the spirit of enterprise were established.  Nearly two thousand miles
of railroad had been chartered and commenced. Very many other public
works of vast national importance had been undertaken.  The completion of
the Palace of the Louvre, the extension of the Rue de Rivoli, and the construction of central markets, were in process of execution. The price for
labor had risen; and there was work for all. These facts were open to every
eye.  No prejudice or malignity could deny them.
But there were perils in the future.  In ten years, the president would
retire from  office; and France would then be again exposed to the conflict of
parties.  For five hundred years the realm had been under monarchical forms,
with but very transient exceptions. The masses of the people, unaccustomed
to self-government, simple, confiding, were disposed, in accordance with their
life-long habits, to leave the control of affairs with the ruler whom they had
chosen, and who was giving them  almost unprecedented prosperity. The
rural clergy, who had great influence over their flocks, stood in dread of the
infidelity which was openly avowed by so many of the active partisans of
494




THE EE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                               495
revolution.  The respect which the president had manifested for their Christian faith Won their hearts.
It is not surprising, that, under these circumstances, the thought of change
should have created general anxiety.  The wish for the re-establishment of
the empire, with its stable and permanent authority, very generally prevailed.
There was a territorial division in France, called the commu~ne, somewhat
analogous to our towns.  Over these, a body of men, chosen  by universal
suffrage, presided, called the Council-General. We alluded, at the close of
the last chapter, to the election of this body. These councils, elected by the
same voices which had chosen the president, were in perfect harmony with
the government.  They were convoked to meet in their several communes
on the 21st of August.  They all voted addresses to the government, expressive of their confidence in its administration, and of their earnest desire to
co-operate in every way to promote its objects.  Nearly all these addresses
contained the expression of the wish that the rule of the president might
be permanent.  In many cases, they asked that this permanency might be
secured by the re-establishment of the empire.  Brief quotations from a few
of these will exhibit the spirit of them all: 
" The Council-General of the Rhone offers the homage of its gratitude, of
its confidence, of its devotion, to the Prince President, who has saved France
by an act of dictatorship patriotic and necessary, and who is to regenerate
Franhce by a power strong in the triple legitimacy of a glorious descent, of
services rendered, and of a national accord whose unanimity is unexampled
in history."
From  the Gironde they wrote, "The first of our needs, prince, is stability
in the government.  There is necessity for a to-morrow in the grand operations of commerce, of industry, and of agriculture. It is only upon that condition that the country can reap the fruits of which your courage and your
wisdom have sown the seeds.
" To others than to us, prince, belongs the right to cause all instability to
cuase; to confer definitively upon France the institutions which her genius
and her customs require; and to destroy also all cause for future trouble and
agitation. But, if we cannot break over the barrier which the wisdom of the
law imposes upon our deliberations, we may be permitted at least to associate
ourselves with the wishes which are rising in all parts, and to hope that the
initiative and the patriotism of the Senate will assure the accomplishment of
tho'se wishes."
The Council-General of La Charente Inf6rieure wrote, "The inhabitants
of La Charente Inferieure await with confidence the moment in which they
may be permitted to concur in the realization of the thought which has dictated all its votes since the 10th of December, 1848, - t4e re-establishment of
the French Empire"
"The Council of Creuse expresses the wish that a modification of the
present institutions may render hereditary the power confided to Prince Louis
Napoleon, and may thus give to that power the stability without which there
cannot be for France either security or a future."
" The Council of the Pyrenees Hautes expresses the wish, that the Senate,




496                           LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
using the initiative which the constitution has intrusted to it, should propose
that the people re-establish the hereditary right of the imperial dynasty, in
the direct descent, legitimate and adoptive, of Prince Louis Napole6n Bonaparte."
It is said that all these councils-general, without exception, sent similar
addresses.  There  was another territorial division, called:rroncissCments,
somewhat corresponding with our counties.  Their internal affairs were regulated  by bodies called  Councils of Arrondissement.  These councils were
soon after convoked, and almost without exception followed the example of
the  communes in  expressing  their desire for the reestablishment of the
empire.  We will present but two as samples of the rest
The Council of Forcalquier: "The  eternal problem  of alliance between
liberty and authority can have no solution but in the Napoleonic idea. The
empire fell in 1815; but France wept over its loss. We, patriotic citizens,
and in heart and conscience the representatives of the arrondissement, implor
that the crown may become hereditary in the descendants of Louis Napoleon."
The Council of Bagneres: " Considering that the condition  essential to
the prosperity of a country is the stability of its government; that the constitution o~ January does not fully satisfy that condition; and that the ten
years which it gives us are but a truce, during which the parties are preparing
for new conflicts, always fatal to the country; that the popular acclamations
which  have everywhere greeted the triumphal journey of the chief of the
State are a decisive proof of the wishes of the people,   the Council expresses
the desire that the Senate, using the initiative which!article 31 of the Gonstitution confers upon it, should propose to the French people the re-establishment of the empire, hereditary in the person of Prince Louis Napoleon."
The municipal councils followed in the same track. I will give but three
examples -
"The Council Municipal of the city of Metz, recently elected, representing
the sentiments of its fellow-citizens, hastens, in  commencing  its labors, to
express to the Prince President its profound gratitude for the courageous act
of the 2d of December, which has saved social order.  The re-establishment
of public peace, and the revival of industry and of business, constrain the
council to desire the permanency and stability of a power sanctioned by the
suffrage' of the nation, and so necessary to the repose and the prosperity of
France."
The Municipal Cquncil of Alligny wrote, "Prince, you have not yet done
enough. Recent elections have demonstrated that anarchy, suppressed for a
moment, again audaciously raises its flag.  The secret societies tie anew the
threads which you have broken. Society is everywhere menaced anew. We
pray you, consequently, to finish the work which you have so gloriously coinmenced, well convinced that the supreme power which we wish  to place in
your hancls will be for France a certain pledge of peace, of order, and of
stability."
The Municipal Council of Rouen  wrote, " Monseigneur, if we are  able
to-day  to consecrate ourselves, in  the enjoyment of peace, to the mission
which  our fellow-citizens have intrusted to us; if we can  see around us




THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                                  497
calmness of the public mind, religion respected, the laws obeyed, credit multiplying labor, families assured in their most sacred interests, -it is to you that
we owe it all.
"1 At this time, when the public welfare is so generally developed, but for
you we should have seen society overthrown, and hostile parties in the midst
of its ruins, engaged in desperate combats.  Your genius and your courage
have rescued'the country from  a trial which could  not but have  been  a
catastrophe.
" Let the pact of social safety, formed half a century ago between the
French  people and  your,august uncle, continue with  you.  France, which
owes so much already to the unity and the force of your government, waits for
your wisdom  again to a~dvise, that the stability of supreme power may add
the guaranty of the future to the stability of the present." *
At this time, the president was preparing for a journey to the southern
departments, that lie mighot bring himself in contact with the people there,
and learn their wants.  The municipal councils of the large towns which
were upon his line of travel immediately voted large sums of money that
they might give a magnificent reception to the " Elect of the People," as he
was affectionately called.  Learning of this, the president caused the following article to be inserted in the   Moniteur " on the 28th of August: 
"In all the cities in  which  the Prin ce  Pr        esident will probably sojourn
during his journey to the south, the municipal councils have voted for his
reception considerable sums of money.  These are precious testimonials of
sympathy.  The president is deeply affected by them, and is happy to express his gratitude; but as the only object of the journey of the Chief of
the State is to put himself in contact with the people of those districts
which he has not yet been able to visit, to ascertain their interests, and to
confer with them upon all feasible ameliorations, he will see, only with regret,
fltes too sumptuous; and he will learn with satisfaction that a portion of the
* sums voted have been appropriated to the aid of the necessitous classes, and
applied to works of beneficence."
The prince left Paris on  the 14th  of September.  "How  can we," say
Gallix and G-uy, "~'recount that journey, which, undertaken for an  object of
public utility, was for him the occasion of a triumph incessant and unheard
of until that day'? Why should we not state that which is true? Napoleon L.,
himself, that glorious genius of whom France is so proud, was perhaps never
the object of ovations so ardent and so spontaneous.  It is because, without
douht, notwithstanding all the services rendered by that great man, notwithstanding the sad state to which the nation was reduced at the epoch of the
18th Brumaire, t~rance was not then  menaced with  a danger so great, so
* "We will not here cite the innumerable petitions through which entire communes, imitating
the example given by their local representatives, demanded explicitly the re-estallishment of the
empire. From all parts of the territory, addresses soliciting this change in the political state
of France, and covered by thousands of signatures, flooded the Senate, which alone, in accordance with the constitution, could effect amendments of this nature. This petitioning, by its
universality, recalled that which, in 1851, demanded in favor of Napoleon the revision of the
constitution of 1848."- MM. GalUix et Guy, p. 594.
63




498                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
manifest, with anarchy  so terrible, as the anarchy and the danger which
she saw ready to burst upon her on the 2d of December if a powerful hand
had not been found to save her." *
We cannot follow the Prince President upon this tour. The reader would
be fatigued with the continual repetition of brilliant fetes, of complimentary
addresses, of enthusiastic greetings. The inhabitants of the country abandoned their fields to crowd the cities through which the prince was to pass,
the heir of the great emperor, and who, in his own personseemed to have
conferred blessings upon France which eclipsed even those which she had
received from  the emperor himself.  Everywhere he was greeted with the
cry, "Vive Napoleon III.!" "Vive la Sauveurde la France!"  Vive'Empereur!"  The population rushed to see him from a distance of twenty, thirty,
forty leagues around.  From  want of rooms in the hotels, they bivouacked
in the streets.  It was not only the peasant who abandoned his labor in
the fields; it was also  the mechanic who left his workroom, and the merchant who left his shop.  All classes seemed to be alike moved. "In all
places,", say Gallix and Guy, "from that immense crowd but one cry was
uttered, as if the same heart beat in every breast,-'The Empire!''An
Emperor!''It is an Emperor that we need!' It was impossible for the
country to ratify in a more emphatic manner the addresses of its local representatives."
Louis Napoleon seems never to have taken any special care of his personal
safety.  I-e moved about at his ease, amidst all perils, as if conscious that he
bore a charmed life. In those districts most infested with Socialism, and
where the danger of assassination was not small, he presented himself alone
and without any guard in the midst of the crowd. At Lyons, for example,
there was an  armed  fbrce between  him  and the immense throng which
crowded the Place Bellecour. The prince made a sign for the soldiers to
open their ranks; and the throng rushed in, only to lavish upon him the most
touching testimonials of their devotion and respect.
In reply to an address at Nevers from M. Charles Dupin, President of the
Council-General, who reminded ^he prince of the unanimouis wish of the
council for the re-establishment of the empire, Louis Napoleon said, " In all
that relates to the general interests, I shall ever endeavor to be in advance
of public opinion; but I shall only follow  that opinion in matters which
seem to be personal to myself."
"On the 20th of September, the prince presided, in the city of Lyons, -at
the inauguration of an equestrian statue erected in honor of Napoleon 1.
Two hundred thousand spectators were present.  The prince made the
following address:~
"LYoNESE, -  Your city is ever associated with remarkable incidents in the
life of the emperor. You saluted him as consul when he went beyond the
mountains to gather new laurels; you saluted him as emperor, all-powerful;
and, after Europe had banished him to an island, you were again among the
first to greet him as emperor.
* Histoire complete de Napoleon III., p. 596.




THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                            499
So, to-day, your city is the first to raise to him  an  equestrian statue.
Th~at fact is significant. We do not raise equestrian statues but to sovereigns
who have reigned.  Therefore the governments which have preceded me
have always refused this homage, to one whose legitimacy they were unwilling to admit.
"'~And yet who could be imnore legitimate than the emperor, elected three
tirmes by the people, crowned by the chief of religion, recognized by all the
Continental powers of Europe, vwho united themselves to him  by political ties
and by the ties of blood?
"~The emperor was the mediator between two hostile ages.  He destroyed
the ancient regime by re-establishing every thing there was of good in that
r.egime. He destroyed the spirit of revolution by causing all the benefits of
revolution to triumph. And it is for this reason that those who have overthrown him  have much cause to deplore their triumph.  As for; those who
have defended him -  have I any occasion to recall how deeply they have
mourned his fall?
" So soon as the people were free to choose, they turned their eyes towards
the heir of Napoleon; and for that reason, from Paris to Lyons, upon every
point of my passage, the unanimous cry has risen, " Vive l'Empereur! "  But
that cry is, in my viewa souvenir vwhich touches my heart, more than a hope
which flatters my pride.' A faitlhful servant of the country, I shall ever have but one object; and
that is to reconstruct in this grand country, so upturned by many commotions
and many Utopian schemes, a peace founded upon conciliation for men, upon
the inflexibility of the principles of authority, of morals, of love for the laborious and suffering classes, of national dignity.
"We have scarcely emerged from  that period of crises, in which, the
notions of good and evil being confounded, the best minds were bewildered.,
Prudence and patriotism  require, that, under such circumstances, the nation
should recover itself before fixing its destinies.  And it is still difficult for
ine to know under what name I shall be able to render the best services.
" If the modest title of president could facilitate the mission which has been
confided to me, and before which mission I have not recoiled, it is not I who
desire, from personal interest, to change that title for that of emperor.
"Let us deposit then, upon this stone, our homage for a great man: it is at
the same time to honor the grory of France and the generous gratitude of the
people; it is also to establish the fidelity of the Lyonese by immortal souvenirs."
At Montpellier, the working-men celebrated his visit by a ball at the Manege.
As the prince entered the crowded hall, he was tumultuously greeted, as usual,
with shouts of "Vive Napoleon!"" "Vive l'Empereur!"  A few voices, however, were heard, manifestly less friendly, shouting, "Vive l'Amnestie!"  The
prince, apparently paying no attention to this last cry, took his seat upon
the platform placed to receive him, and soon took part in a quadrille. As he
was afterwards leaving the hall, the shouts of " Vive l'Emnpereur! " were redoubled; but again there was heard the blending of a few of the apparently
unfriendly cries. He stopped at the door, and made a sign that he wished to




500                            LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
speak.  Instant, almost breathless silence reigned  throughout the hall.  In
calm, unimpassioned tones, but with a voice so clear that ever  ear heard, he
said, -
" I hear cries which demand amnesty.  Amnesty is in my heart still more
than  upon  your lips.  If you  desire it, render yourselves worthy of it by
your wisdom  and your patriotism."
A  burst of enthusiastic acclaim  from  the crowd followed these words, which
developed not only kindness of heart, but firmness of character. On the 26th
of September, the. president, at Marseilles, laid the cornerstone of a cathedral.
His address was as follows: -
" GENTLEMEN, -  I am  happy that this special occasion permits me to leave
in this grand  city a trace of my passage, and that the laying of the cornerstone  of the  cathedral will be  associated with  my  presence among  you.
Everywhere indeed, where I can, I exert
relig'ious itleas, the most sublime  of all, since they guide in prosperity and
console in  adversity.  My government, I say it with  pride, is perhaps the
only one which  has sustained  religion  for itself.  It sustains it, not as a
political instrument, not to please a party, but solely through conviction, and
through love of the good which it inspires, as of the truths which it teaches.*
" Whenever you  enter this temple to  call for the protection  of Ieaven
upon the heads of those who are dear to you, upon the enterprises which you
have commenced, remember him  who has laid the first stone of this edifice
an  be assred, that, identifying himself with the fture of this great city, he
enters by the thought into your prayers and your hopes."
Perhaps the most important speech made upon this journey was that pronounced at Bordeaux.  A  banquet was given  in his honor by the Chamber
and the Tribunal of Commerce of that cky.  In  the congratulatory address
with which he was welcomed, the same wish was expressed, for the re-establishment of the empire, whbich had accompanied him from province to province, and from  city to city.  The prince responded in the following words:~
"GENTLEMEN, -The invitation of the Chamber and  of the Tribunal of
Commerce of Bordeaux, which I have gladly accepted, furnishes me with the
occasion to thank your grand city for its welcome so cordial, for its hospitality
so full of magnificence; and I am very happy also, towards the close of my
journey, to communicate to you the impressions which it has left upon me.
* "Napoleon, at St. Helena, the evening before he was to partake of the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, said with great solemnity to Count Montholon, -
"'in the midst of camps, I forgot religion. Upon the throne, surrounded by generals far
from devout, - yes, I will not deny it, -I had too much regard for public opinion, and far too
much timidity; and perhaps I did not dare to say aloud, " I am a believer." I said, " Religion is a
power, a political engine." But even then, if any one had questioned me directly, I should have
said, " Yes, I am a Christian:" and, if it had been necessary to confess my faith at the price of
martyrdom, I should have found all my firmness; yes, I sho-uld have endured it rather than deny
my religion. But, now that I am at St. Helena, why should I dissemble that which I believe
at the bottom of my heart? I desire the communion of the Lord's Supper, and to confess what
I believe.' " - A'bott's Life of Napoleon, vol. ii. p. 611.




THE BE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                                 501
The  object of my journey was, as you know, to become acquainted, by
personal observation, with our beautiful provinces 6f the south, and to search
into their wants. It has, however, given rise to results far more important.
Indeed, I say it with a frankness as far removed from pride as from  a false
modesty, that never has a people testified  in  a manner more direct, more
spontaneous, more unanimous, the wish to relieve itself of solicitude respecting the future, by consolidating in the same hand a power with which it is in
sympathy.  It is because it now  recognizes both  the deceitful hopes with
which it has been deluded and the dangers with which it has been menaced.
It knew, that, in 1852, society was rushing to ruin, because each party consoled
itself, in view of the general shipwreck, witk  the hope of planting its flag
upon the wreck which should  continue to float.  It affords me pleasure to
have saved the ship by unfurling solely the banner of France.
Disabused of absurd theories, the- people have acquired the conviction
th'at pretended reformers were only dreamers; for there was always inconsistency, disproportion, between their means and the results promised.
To-day, France surrounds me with her sympathies, because I am  not of
the family of ideologists.  To confer benefits upon the country, it is not necessary to apply new systems, but to give, first of all, confidence in the present,
security in the fiture. It is for this reason that France seems to wish for the
return of the empire.
"There is; nevertheless, a fear to which I ought to respond. Through a
spirit of distrust, some persons say,' The empire -it is war.'  As for me, I
say,' The empire - it is peace.'
"It is peace, for France desires it; and, when France desires peace, the
world is tranquil.  War is not waged for pleasure, but through necessity;
and at these epochs of transition, in which everywhere, by the side of many
elements of prpsperity, there germinate many causes of death, one can say
with truth,'Woe to him, who, the first, shall give to Europe the signal of a
collision the consequences of which will be incalculable!'
" I admit, however, that I have, like the emperor, many conquests to make.
I wish, like him, to conquer, by conciliation, the dissenting parties, and to bring
together into the channel of one popular stream those various branches which
are now lost without profit to any one. I wish to conquer by religion, by
morals' by competence, that part of the population still so numerous, which,
in a country of faith and of religion, scarcely knows the preceplts of Christ;
which;, in the bosom of a land the most fertile in the world, can scarcely
obtain from its products the first necessaries of life.
We have immense uncultivated territories to clear up, routes to open,
harbors to deepen, rivers to render navigable, canals to finish, our network of
railr-oads to complete.  We have, opposite Marseilles, a vast realm  to assimilate to France.* We have all our great ports of the west *to bring nearer to
*'In face of Marseilles, we have a vast realm to assimilate to France.' Such is the first
insph ation of Napoleon III. in respect to Algiers. By what means is this grand work of assimilation to be acccmpliisLcl? To this question I reply, By the acts emanating from the personal
iitiative of the emperor, by stable institutions, by grand public works, by a government strong
an d vnited." - L'A/kirie clerant l'EnperCur, par le Dr. A. Waraier, p. 76.




50 2                         LIFE  OF  NAPOLEON  III.
the American continent by the rapidity of the communications which we still
want.  We have everywhere, in fine, ruins to rebuild, false gods to dethrone,
truths to make to triumph.
"Thus do I comprehend'the empire. Such are the conquests which I meditate; and you all who surround me, who desire, like me, the welfare of the
country, -  you are my soldiers."
In  the above address, allusion is made to Algiers.  This semi-barbarous
region on the northern coast of Africa, embracing a territory about as large as
France, and with a roving population of about two millions, for many years
had been the scourge of Christendom. Piratic fleets from the Algerine ports
swept the Mediterranean, plundering, destroying, and extorting large ransom
for the prisoners they captured. Napoleon I. had designed to relieve the
world of this nest of pirates, to plant a French colony there, and to unite the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea by means of a canal. But the warfare which
combined Europe waged against him, by engrossing all his energies, prevented
the execution of this plan. One day, at St. Helena, the conversation turned
upon -an expedition which the British had sent, under Lord Exmouth, to punish these pirates.
"I think," said Napoleon to Dr. O'Meara, "that the expedition will succeed,
especially if the fleet takes and destroys as many of the Algerine ships as it
can, and then anchors opposite the town, and does not allow a single ship or
vessel, not eve~i a fishing-boat, to enter or go out. Continue that for a short
time, and the dey will submit; or else the populace will revolt and murder
him, and afterwards agree to any terms you like: but no treaty will be kept
by them.  It is a disgrace to the powers of Europe to allow so many nests of
robbers to exist.
" At Amiens, I proposed to your government to unite with me, either to
destroy entirely those nests of pirates, or at least to destroy their ships and
fortresses, and make themi cultivate the soil and abandon piracy; but your
ministers would not consent to it, owing to their mean jealousy of the Americans with whom the barbarians were at war." *
Not long after the restoration of the Bourbon Government, Charles X., who
was then reigning, decided upon an expedition to Algiers to compel the same
respect to be paid to the French flag which was paid to the British  flag.
With causes in abundance -for the war, the alleged cause was an insult received
by their consul, whom the dey was said to have struck with a fan. The En-.
glish Government was much alarmed when it learned that the French Govern* "It had long been a matter of reproach to the Christian powers, that the piratical States of
Barbary were still permitted, with impunity, to carry on their inhuman warfare against the
States of Europe; and that their prisons exhibited captives of every nation, who were detained
in hopeless slavery, and exposed to the most shocking barbarities. In one instance, fifty out of
three hundred prisoners died of harsh usage at Algiers on the very day of their arrival. Neither
age nor sex was spared. One Neapolitan lady of rank was rescued by the British in the thirteenth year of her captivity; having been carried off with her eight children, six of whom had
died in slavery. It was suspected that the British connived at these depredations, as their flag,
Neimg the only one which was respected, gained an advantage in navigating that inland sea." -
Sir ArchibaldAlisoo, History of Europe, vol. v. p. 44.




THE'RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                                503
ment was fitting out an expedition for Africa; and anxiously inquired, through
Lord Aberdeen, the object of the measure.  Polignac answered with spirit,
which intimated that lie regarded the question as an impertinence.
An expedition sailed from  Toulon in June, 1830.  It consisted of twentythree frigates, seventy smaller vessels of war, three hundred and seventyseven transports, and two hundred and thirty boats.  The combatants numbered thirty-seven thousand five hundred.  A landing was effected, a terrible
battle fought, and the city of Algiers captured. Algiers thus fell under French
dominion; an;d a colony, strongly supported by a military force, was established there.  Still a very desperate warfare was continued for many years by
the fierce natives in the interior, and the colony made but little progress.
The Algerine expedition was the first of a series of measures, under Charles
X., which were intended to revive the military spirit of the French nation.
The next movement was to be an advance of the French frontier to the
Rhine.  Chateaubriand avows in his Memoirs that this was the secret but
well-matured plan of the cabinet, and that it would have been executed had
he remained in office.
Upon Louis Philippe's accession to the throne of France, he did all in
his poweir to consolidate the French possessions in Algiers.  Still lie was
engaged in almost constant and deadly warfare with the interior tribes, who
were under the leadership of a renowvned warrior, Abd-el-Kader. At last, this
chief was reduced to such straits, that lie was compelled to surrender to
Generals Lamnorickiere and Cavaignac, but upon conditions that he should be
conveyed to Constantinople, Alexandria, or St. Jean d'Acre, and there set at
liberty.  The terms were agreed to, and were ratified by the son of Louis
Philippe, the Duke d'Aumale who was then governor-general of the province.
For fifteen years, Abd-el-Kader had made warfare against France; and his
captors, fearing to. set him  at liberty, where he could at any time return to
Algiers, took him, with dishonor which no language can too severely denounce,
to Toulon, with his wives, his children, and his servants, and imprisoned him
ini a castle in the interior of France. This was in 1847.
The throne of Louis Philippe soon afterwards fell.. The tumultuous republic succeeded it, followed by the dictatorship of Cavaignac, which gave place
to the presidency of Louis Napoleon, who found both of his hands tied by the
constitution  imposed  upon  him.  Abd-el-Kader was for a time forgotten.
Such a imiultitude of cares pressed upon Louis Napoleon immediately after the
coup  d'etat, that many important measures were necessarily delayed; but
now he turned his attention to the captive. In the following words, on the
16th of October, the president announced in the Chateau d'Amboise to the
distinguished prisoner that he was free: -
"AABD-EL-KADEr, -I come to announce to you that you are set at liberty.
You will be conducted to Bnrsa, in the estates of the sultan, as soon as the
necessary preparations can be. made; and you will receive there, from  the
Fren ch Governnment, treatminent worthy of your ancient rank.
"For a long time, you are aware, your captivity has caused me sincere regret; for it has incessantly reminded me that the government which preceded




504                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
me had not kept its engagements with.an unfortunate enemy: and nothing,
in my eyes, is more humiliating to the government of a great nation than to
be so unmindful of its strength as to fail to keep its promise. Generosity is
always the best counsellor; and I am convinced that your sojourn in Turkey
will not be injurious to the tranquillity of our African possessions.
"Your religion, as Qurs, teaches that we should submit to the decrees of
Providence.  Now, if France is mistress of Algiers, it is because God has
wished it.  The nation will never renounce that donquest.
"You have been the enemy of France: but I do not the less recognize
your courage, your character, your resignation under misfortune; and, for
this reason, I consider it an honor to terminate your captivity, having full
confidence in your parole."*
At Marseilles a very desperate measure was planned, attributed to the
Socialists, to assassinate the Prince President. An infernal machine was constructed upon the pattern of the one made by Fieschi, but far more deadly. It
consisted of more than a hundred musket-barrels placed in a room upon the
ground-floor of a house, so as to sweep the street with certain death to all
before it.  These guns were all to be discharged simultaneousl by ba fze, as
soon as the president with his cortege was in front of them. The carnage, had
the plan been accomplished, must have been dreadful, in the crowded streets
of a city on afre-day. Fortunately, the attempt was discovered, by the vigilance of the police, on the day before the prince passed by that window.
Louis Napoleon never seems to have beaen conscious of fear.  Hle is never
agitated; he never turns from his path; he knows full well that at any hour
a sharpshooter from  a distant window can pierce his heart; and quietly he
leaves himself in the hands of that Providence which has thus far guided him,
and which, lie believes, will continue to guide him to his destined end.
On the 15th of October, the Prince President returned to Paris from this
triumphal journey.  He entered the city about two o'clock in the afternoon.
His ministers, the high dignitaries, the Archbishop of Paris anid his clergy,
the principal public functionaries, and deputations from  all the constituted
bodies, met him  at the station of the Orleans Railroad.  There the prince,
mounted on horseback, and accompanied by a brilliant cortege of generals
and officers of his staff, passed through the Boulevards, and by the Place de la
Concorde, to the Tuileries. He was preceded and followed by his military
household, by the National Guard upon horseback, and by many regiments of
the army.
It was a magnificent tribute of welcome which Paris displayed that day.
The accounts of the reception with which the president had been greeted in
the provinces had been eagerly read; and the metropolis did not wish to be
eclipsed in its manifestations of enthusiasm for that sovereign of whom France
was increasingly proud. Everywhere along the line the prince traversed, ~
at the corner of every street, before every theatre, -  triumphal arches were
erected. Private houses were decorated with garlands, flags, and transparencies; all the places of business were closed; and apparently the whole popu* La Politique imp6riale de 1'Empereur Napoleon III., pp. 161, 162.




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THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                        505
lation of Paris thronged the pavements, and crowdecd the windows. It was a
serene and brilliant autumnal day. From  the Bastille to the Madeleine, the
soldiers of the regular army and the National Guard, with their rich uniforms
and gleaming arms, lined the avenue.
All the corporations, trades, industries, were represented by deputations.
Long processions from the suburbs, from  twenty different departments, appeared, led by their mayors and their clergy. The old soldiers of the empire
were honored with conspicuous positions as they came forward e.ager to honor
the nephew of their great captain.  Groups of young girls, robed in white, presented the prince baskets of flowers, and crowns of violets.  It was estimated
that two hundred thousand spectatcrs thronged the Boulevards.  As it were
in explanation of this magnificent spectacle, the municipal council addressed
the prince in the following words:"Prince, the Municipal Council of Paris with eagerness salutes your return.  It congratulates itself with you for the triumph which has marked
every step of this glorious journey.  If the most noble enjoyment, after that
of saving one's country, is to find that country grateful, what happiness must
fill your heart!  Everywhere you meet the acknowledgment of the service
rendered, everywhere the plaudits and the acclamations of the people.  Where
civil discord had sown despair and death, you have carried consolation, hope,
life.
" Pince, France, a few months ago, surrendered to you the supreme right to
form her laws. To-day, the voice of the people, after having consecrated the 2d
of December, demands that the power which has been confided to you should
be consolidated, and that its stability may be the guaranty for the fiture.
" The city of Paris is happy to associate itself with this wish; not in your
interest, prince, and to add to your glory, - there is no greater glory than to
have saved the country, — but in the interests of all, and in order that the
mobility of institutions should leave hereafter to the spirit of disorder neither
hope nor pretext.
"You have anticipated France when it was necessary to rescue her fiom
peril; but now, when France, guided by her souvenirs, inspired by her love,
opens to you a new path, follow it."
The prince responded, -
"I am the more happy, in view of the wishes which you express to me in
the name of the city of Paris, since the acclamations which I receive here are
the continuation of those of which I have been the object during my jourhey.
"If France desires the empire, it is because she thinks that that form  of
government better guarantees her grandeur and her future.  As for me, under
whatever title I may be permitted to serve her, I shall consecrate to that
service all I have of force, all I have of devotion."
The address of the council-communal of Paris was followed by twenty others
from the different bodies and corporations represented on the occasion, all
alike soliciting the restoration of the empire.*
* Histoire compiete de Napol6on III., par MM. Gallix et Gay, p. 640.
64




506                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"It became, then," say IMM. Gallix and Guy, " every day more evident, that
Paris, all entire, associated itself heart and soul in the wish universally and so
spontaneously uttered by the departments. Thus it was the totality of France
which demanded the re-establishment of the empire."
In accordance with this wish, expressed with such extraordinary unanimity,
the president, by a decree dated the 19th of October, convoked the Senate to
assemble on the 4th of November to decide upon the proposed modification in
the constitution. At noon of that day, this august body met in its hall of
session.  The President of the Republic addressed the members in the following message: 
"M ESSIEURS LES SENATEUIRS, -The nation loudly expresses its wish for
the re-establishment of the empire.  Confiding in"your patriotism and intelligence, I have convoked you to deliberate legally upon this grave question, and
to submit to you the care of regulating the new state of things. If you adopt
it, you will think, undoubtedly, as do I, that the constitution of 1852 ought to
be maintained; and then the modifications recognized as indispensable will
touch in nothing the fundamental bases.
"The changes proposed bear chiefly upon the form; and yet to take the
imperial symbol is foi France a matter of immense significance: indeed, in the
re-establishment of the empire, the people find a guaranty for their interests,
and a satisfaction for their just pride. The re-establishment guarantees their
interests in assuring the future, in closing the era of revolutions, and in consecrating again the conquests of'89: it satisfies the just pride of the people,
because establishing anew, with liberty and with mature reflection, that which
entire Europe thirty-seven years ago had overthrown by force of arms in the
midst of the disasters of the country.  The people nobly avenge their reverses
without making any victims, without menacing any independence, without
troubling the peace of the world.
"Nevertheless, I do not dissemble all that is formidable i1i accepting to-day,
and in placing upon one's head, the crown of Napoleon; but these apprehensions diminish at the thbught, that, representing by so many titles the cause
of the people and the national will, it will be the nation, which, in elevating
me to the throne, crowns itself." *
A decree of the Senate was prepared, and adopted on the 7th, with every
vote but one in its favor.  The decree consisted of eight articles.  The first
two were as follows: 
" SENATUS CONSULT.
"Article 1.- The imperial dignity is re-established. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is emperor, under the name of Napoleon III.
" Art. 2.- The imperial dignity is hereditary in the descendants, direct and
legitimate, of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, fiom male to male, by order of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of women and their descendants."
* La Politique imperiale de 1'Empereur Napoleon III., p. 162.




THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                       507
The remaining articles, exceptilg the last, regulated the order of succession
in the imperial household, and other questions of that nature.
The eighth and last article declared, -
"The following proposition shall be presented to the acceptance of the
French people: 
"The people wish for the re-establishment of the imperial dignity, in the
person of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, to be hereditary in his direct descendants,
legitimate or adoptive; and give to him the right to regulate the order of succession to the throne in. the Bonaparte family, as is provided for in the decree
of the Senate of the 7th of November, 1852."
Another decree convoked the people to meet at the polls, in their several
districts, on the 21st and 22d of November, to decide, by the voice of universal suffrage, whether they would adopt or reject the empire as thus re-established. The vote was to be taken by simply depositing Yes or No in the
ballot-box. At the same time, the president convoked a meeting of the
Legislative Corps for the 25th of November, two days after the ballot, to
take part in measures of such vast national moment, by counting the votes,
and announcing the result.
The Senate, having passed the above decrees, waited in a body, and in costume, upon Louis Napoleon at St. Cloud, to announce the result. It was the
7th of November. In response to the flattering address of the Senate, the
president replied, -
"I thank the Senate for the promptness with which it has responded to the
wishes of the country in deliberating upon the re-establishment of the empire,
and in enacting the decree of the Senate, which is to be submitted to the
acceptance of the people.
"When, forty-eight years ago, in this same palace, in this same hall, and
under similar circumstances, the Senate came to offer the crown to the chief
of my family, the emperor responded by these memorable words:"'My spirit will no longer be with my posterity when it shall cease to
merit the love and confidence of the great nation.'
"Now, to-day, that which most touches my heart is to think that the spirit
of the emperor is with me, that his thought guides me, that his shade protects me; since, by a solemn measure, you come, in the name of the French
people, to prove to me that I have merited the confidence of the country.
I have no need to tell you that my constant endeavor will be to work with
you for the grandeur and the prosperity of France."
These measures of the French people roused to the highest degree the
wrath of the Socialist and extreme Democratic factions. The French refugees
in London were divided into two hostile bands. Ledru Rollin led one, Louis
Blanc the other.  They both issued their manifestoes. Both alike denied
that the mafjority of the people of France had any right to choose their own
institutions if they should choose the empire. The first remonstrance from
the Ledru Rollin party was entitled, "Manifesto of the Revolutionary Committee of London."  It was so bitter in spirit, so rude, coarse, and vulgar in
its tone, and so unscrupulous in the epithets of abuse which it employed, that




508                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
it would afford the reader no pleasure to have it transcribed to these pages.
Its one, all-pervading cry was an appeal to the democracy of Europe to rise
with arms in their hands, and overturn every existing government for the
establishment of a universal republic.
The remonstrance from the Louis Blanc party was entitled, "Manifesto of
the Society of the Revolution to the People."  It was equally violent, passionate, and vituperative. A  third remonstrance, which also breathed threatenings and slaughter, and which vied with the other two in that species of
eloquence in which they both excelled, was headed,' Manifesto of the Proscribed Democratic Sobialists of France resident at Jersey."  Victor Hugo was
the first signer of this document, and it came apparently from his pen.
The fourth remonstrance was from Count de Chambord. It was a dignified
document, moderate in its tone, and though decided, yet gentlemanly in all
its utterances. A few extracts will show its spirit: —
"I am not sure," he wrote, "that I shall ever be permitted to return to my
country; but I am  very sure that my country will never have cause to
reproach me with a word or an act which can cause the least injury to her
prosperity or her repose.
"Frenchmen, you desire a monarchy. You have recognized that a monarchy alone can confer upon you, with a regular and stable government, that
security of all rights, that guaranty of all interests, and that permanent accord
of firm  authority and of a wise liberty, which establish and assure the happiness of nations. The true monarchy, the traditional monarchy, supported by
hereditary right and consecrated by time, can alone put you in possession of
these inestimable advantages, and enable you ever to enjoy them. The genius
and the glory of Napoleon have not been able to found any thing stable.
His name and his memory will still less be able to accomplish that end.
"We cannot re-establish security in disturbing the principle upon which
the throne reposes; and one cannot consolidate all rights in disregarding that
which is with us the necessary base of monarchic order.  The monarchy inl
France is the royal house of France, indissolubly united to the nation. My
fathers and yours have traversed the centuries, working in concert, according
to the customs and the needs of the times, for the development of our beautiful country. During fourteen hundred years, alone among all the peoples of
~Europe, the French have always had at their head princes of their nation and
of their blood. The history of my ancestors is the history of the progressive
grandeur of France.
"Whatever may be, for you or for me, the designs of God, I, the remaining
chief of the ancient race of your kings, the heir of that long succession of
monarchs, who, during so many centuries, have incessantly aggrandized and
caused to be respected the power and the fortune of France,   I owe it to my
family, to my country, to protest loudly against combinations deceitfil, and
full of danger.  I -maintain my right, which is the surest guaranty of yours;
and, calling God to witness, I declare to France and to the world, that, faithful to the laws of the realm  and to the traditions of my ancestors, I shall
preserve religiously, and to my last breath, the djepot of the hereditary mlonarciy, of which God has constituted mie the guard, and which is the only port




THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE.                               509
of safety, where, after so many -storms, this France, the object of our love,
can find at last repose and happiness.' *
There was in France, besides the old nobility, who, generation after generation, had been educated in these views of legitimacy and divine right, a small
class of highly-educated  and  influential men  and women  of imaginative
temperament, like Chateaubriand and Madame Recamier, with whom life was
but a poem, who, with enthusiasm, embraced these sentiments.  Even in republican America there will be found not a few hearts which will vibrate somewhat in sympathy with the appeal from the heir of the ancient kings.  This
sentiment was one of the elements against which Louis Napoleon  had to
contend in establishing the Republican Empire.
The Count de Paris, as representative of the Orleans claim, had the good
sense not to issue any manifesto.  It would be difficult to imagine any principle which could be brought forward in advocacy of the Orleans throne.  It
surely could claim  neither legitimacy nor popular suffrage.  A  few gentlemen
had reared it in Paris; and the nation had fought against it for fifteen years,
until they battered it down.
At last, the clay for the election arrived.  It was the third time within fbur
years that the name of Louis Napoleon had been presented for the suffrages
of the French nation.  One of the most fearful storms of wind and rain was
raging which ever swept the territory of France: still the enthusiasm was so
great, that the polls were  thronged.  The pride of France was roused to reestablish the empire of Napoleon, of which they  had been robbed  by the
combined dynasties of Europe.  The Legitimists, the Orleanists, the Republicans, the various bands of Socialists, were busy in opposition; but they constituted  a very  small portion  of the  roused  nation.  The  result was as
follows:The affirmative votes were...    7,864,180
The negative...                             253,145
The irregular........                          63,326
It has been  said that the vote was fraudulent.  There is no satisfactory
ground for such an accusation.  The events which preceded, and those which
followed, the election, prove incontestably that never before did a nation, with
such unanimity, choose its sovereign.
On  the 1st of December, the Legislative  Corps, having  counted  and
* Lest it should be thought that I have not justly spoken of the documents issued by the
Revolutionary Committee, I will, though with reluctance, quote a few sentences:
"Democracy must impose upon herself a few months of patience, and endurance before she
strikes the brigcjnd who disgraces our country. As soon as you learn that the infamous Louis
Napoleon has received his just chastisement, whatever may be the day or the hour, rush to your
rendezvous, and march together upon the cantons, the arrondissements, and the prefectures, that
you may surround with a circle of steel and lead all those wretches, who, in taking the oath,
have rendered themselves accomplices in the crimes of their master. Purge France of all the
brigands. Let not your heart or your arm fail you. In punishing the perverse, the people become the ministers of the justice of God. Louis Napoleon is outlawed. Louis Napoleon is
out of the pale of humanity (hors l'humanite). I)uring the ten months that malefactor has
reigned," &c. -  lMaeste du Coinile Revolutionnaire de Londres.




510                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
ratified the votes, repaired in a body to the Palace of St. Cloud, officially
to report the result.   All the members of the Senate, and councillors of
State, accompanied them.  The ceremony took place in the grand gallery of
Apollo.  A throne had been erected upon a platform, at the extremity of the
hall.  The emperor elect, accompanied by Prince Jerome, brother of Na.
poleon I., upon the rigbt, and Prince Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Jerome,
upon the left, entered the brilliantly-lighted hall at nine o'clock in the evening, and took his stand before the throne.  To the addresses then made to
him by the highest dignitaries of the realm, in presenting to him  the crown,
the prince responded, -
"GENTLEMEN,- Tahe new reign which you inaugurate to-day has not for
its origin, like many others in history, violence, conquest, or stratagem.  It is,
as you have said, the legal result of the will of the entire people, who consolidate in the midst of tranquillity that which it had founded in the midst
of agitations.
"But the more power gains in extent and in vital force, the more it has
need of men enlightened as those who surround me each day, of men independent as those whom  I address, to aid me with their counsels to bring
back my authority within just limits, if it.can ever pass them.
" I take to-day, with the crown, the name of Napoleon III., because the
logic of the people has already given it to me in their acclamations, because
the Sen:ate has proposed it legally, and because the entire nation has ratified
it.
"Is this, however, to say, that; in accepting the title, I fall into the error
with which that prince is reproached, who, returning from  exile, declared as
null, and as not having happened, every thing which had taken place during
his absence?  Far from me a similar delusion! Not only do I recognize the
governments which have preceded me, but I inherit, in a measure, the good or
the evil which they have done; for governments which succeed each other,
notwithstanding their different origins, are responsible for their predecessors.
"But the more I accept all that, which, for fifty years, history has transmitted to us with its inflexible authority, the less will it be permitted me to
pass in silence the glorious reign of the chief of my family, and the regular
title, though ephemeral, of his son, whom the Chambers proclaimed in the last
outburst of vanquished patriotism.
"Thus, then, the title of Napoleon III. is not one of those dynastic and
obsolete pretensions which seem an insult to good sense and to truth: it is
the homage rendered to a government which was legitimate, and to which
we owe the best pages of our modern history.  My reign does not date from
1815: it dates fiom  the moment in which you make known to me the
suffrages of the nation.*
* "Some regretted, it is true, to see Louis Napoleon take the title of Napoleon III.; but
that regret disappears upon a moment's reflection. We must not suppress facts. Iad not
France, before the present chief of the government, two sovereigns of the name of Napoleon? There was Napoleon I., and after his abdication, after the battle of Waterloo, his
son, whom the two Chambers proclaimed under the name of Napoleon II. But it is said




THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EZPInE.                            511
"Receive then  my thanks, gentlemen-deputies, for the eclct which  you
have given to the manifestation of the national will, in rendering it more
evident by your control, more imposing by your declaration.  I thank you
also, gentlemen-senators, for having desired to be the first to address to me
your felicitations, as you have been the first to give expression to (formuqler)
the popular will.
"Aid me, all, to establish upon this land, agitated by so many revolutions,
a stable government, which shall have for its basis religion, justice, honesty,
and love for the suffering classes.  Receive here the oath, that nothing shall
I count too dear to assure the prosperity of the country; and that, in maintaninig peace, I shall yield nothing- which can affect the honor or the dignity
of France."
The next day, the 2d of December, all Paris seemed to be flocking towards
the Champs Elysees.   The emperor" left the Palace of St. Cloud at noon.
He was on horseback, in the uniform  of a lieutenant-general, and decorated
with the grand cordon of the Legion of Honor.  He rode alone at a little
distance in advance of his cortege.  The magnificent avenue, from  the Porte
MIaillot to the Place de la Concorde, was lined on each side with the regular
troops and the National Guard.  One incessant shout of acclamations accompanied him all the way to the Palace of the Tuileries.  Those who witnessed
that spectacle of the outburst of a nation's enthusiasm  can never forget it.
Paris seemed delirious with joy.  In the evening, the whole city blazed with
illuminations.  The people of France had re-established the empire.
In 1848, Louis Napoleon had been chosen president by nearly five and a
half million votes; in 1851, the nation ratified the coutp d'(etat by nearly
seven and a half million suffrages, and conferred upon him the presidency for
an additional term  of ten years; and again, in 1852, the empire was re-established, and the imperial crown was placed upon the brow of Louis Napoleon,
by nearly eight millions of votes.  Fifteen years have since passed away,fiteen years of internal peace and unprecedented prosperity, -  and France
has never before occupied so proud a position as she now fills among the
nations of the earth; and it is not too much to say that there is not another
country upon the globe, where, during the last fifteen years, there has been
more of peace, of contentment, of general prosperity, of security of property,
of all social rights, and of life.
the King of Rome did not reign in fact. No matter: he reigned in right until the return from
Ghent. Iouis XVII. did not reign in fact: nevertheless, the Count de Lille, in assuming the
crown, called himself Louis XVIII. It is then evident that Louis Napoleon, in taking place
after his unfortunate cousin, obeyed history, and submitted to the empire of facts; and entire
Europe, within the space of three months, recognized the legitimacy of his new title, - Europe
without exception, from the Emperor of Russia to the Vicar of Christ; fiom England, who
refused to recognize Napoleon I., to the Bonrbon of Naples, relative of the Count de Chambord."
- M111. Gallix et Guy, p. 644.




CHAPTER XXIX.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE- EMPEROR, AND  THE CARES OF EMPIRE.
The Countess de Teba. - Her Birth, Education, and Character. -Announcement of the Impe
rial Marriage. - The Imposing Ceremonies. -Prosperity of France. -Alarm in England. -
Counsel of Napoleon I.- Scenes at St. Helena.- Spirit of Napoleon III. - Speech at the
Opening of the Legislative Session. -Deputation of English Tradesmen.- Causes of the
Emperor's Popularity. - Confidence of the People in him. - Inundations. - Internal Improvements. - The Famine.- Addresses to the Legislature. - Fte at Boulogne.
N  the city of Malaga, in Southern Spain, there was, half a century ago, in one of its streets called St. Juan de Dios, a stately
oE~0 o   t mansion, which was the favorite resort of all the most refined
and intellectual society of the city.  Mr. Kirkpatrick, a Scotch
gentleman, opulent, and engaged in extensive trade, occupied
the mansion.  It is said that he was at that time British consul
at the port of Malaga.  He had married a Spanish lady of position and accomplishments, -  Signora Francisca Gravisne.   Three daughters of remarkable
beauty and attractions —Maria, Carlotta, and Henriqueta — were the ornaments of their household.*
As all strangers of distinction were welcomed at their hospitable board,
and as the best native society of Malaga met in their drawing-rooms, the young
ladies enjoyed every advantage from the combined influence of English intelligence and Spanish grace; and the family, in its social attractions, stoodl at the
head of society in Malaga.  Of the three daughters, -  Maria, Carlotta, and
I-enriqueta, -the eldest, Maria, was described as a brunette developing the
richest style of Spanish beauty.  She was tall, of exquisitely moulded form,
with piercing black eyes, and very animated features.
Carlotta, the second daughter, blended more of the Saxon element in her
frame.  She was a blonde, with light hair, and a very pure, fair complexion;
and the connoisseurs in beauty disputed as to which of the two sisters had the
highest claims to personal loveliness.  The renown of the fimily wa:s such,
that it was considered a great distinction to obtain an introduction to their
salon.
A Spanish gentleman of noble birth, large fortune, and much celebrity for
his military achievements, -Cipriano  Palafox, Count de Teba, — married
* For most of the incidents in reference to the family of Mr. Kirkpatrick, I am indebted to a
volume, not reliable upon other points, entitled " Napoleon III. and his Court. By a Retired
Diplomatist. London: John Maxwell & Co."
512




3IARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR.                             513
Maria. Like many others of the most noble men in Spain, weary of the miserable government of the Spanish Bourbons, he had welcomed the efforts of Napoleon to rescue the Peninsula from the tyranny of the old  regie, and to infuse
into the government the principles of popular liberty to which the French
Revolution had given birth.  He had consequently fought in co-operation with
the French army; and he bore many wounds in attestation of his zeal and
bravery.
The marriage of Cipriano Palafox, Count de Teba, to Maria Kirkpatrick,
took place in 1819. Maria accompanied her husband to Miadrid, where she
was presented at court.  Her beauty and her brilliant mental endowments
rendered her a great favorite with the queen, Maria Christina; and she was
soon appointed to the most distinguished female office in the court, - that of
first lady of honor.
Carlotta, soon after this, married her cousin, an Englishman, the son of John
Kirkpatrick, her father's brother.  John Kirkpatrick was paymaster, ulnder the
Duke of Wellington, until the downfall of Napoleon.  I-e afterwards became
a banker in Paris.  The third daughter, Henriqueta, married a wealthy sugarplanter, Count Cabarras, the proprietor of a fine plantation near Velez Mfalaga.
Cipriano Palafox, in addition to his title of Count de Teba, inherited the
title and fortune of his elder brother, Count 2Montijo, who died as captaingeneral of Andalusia. Maria enjoyed but a few years of married life.  Cipriano soon died, leaving her enceizte.  On the 5th of May, 1826,o or, according
to some authorities, in 1824, she gave birth to a daughter, to whom she gave
the name of Eugenie.  The child was very beautiful and very attractive.  As
her mother was in the possession of a large fortune, and was a conspicuous
member of the Spanish court, which was celebrated for its splendor aind its
punctilios of etiquette, Eugenie enjoyed every advantage which any one could
possess for polished culture: fiom infancy, she was trained in the observance
of all courtly'forms.
Blending in her person the blood of the English and the Spanish races, she
is said to blend in her character the best qualities of both nations.  Her excellent mother secured for her a finished education.  As she matured, she developed extraordinary loveliness of person, brightness of intellect, and all those
social charms which can captivate the heart.  Speaking English, Spanish, and
French with equal fluency, the distinguished of all countries gathered around
her, and were alike fascinated with her beauty, her amiability, and' her sparkling intelligence.  " Her beauty was delicate and fair, from her English ancestry; whilst her grace was all Spanish, and her wit all French." t
It will be remembered that one of Eugenie's aunts had married a cousin, an
English gentleman, who subsequently became a banker in Paris.  Soon after the
accession of Louis Napoleon to power, EugLnie wtith the title of Countess de
Teba, accompanying her mother the Countess de Montijo, visited the French
metropolis.
Instantly, the young Spanish beauty attracted attention and admiration.
* "L'Imperatrice Eugenie Marie de Guzman, Cointesse de Teba, n&e le 5 mai, 1826." -lanuel
du Voyageur, par K. Baedeker.
t Italy and the War of.1859, by Julie de Marguerittes, p. 99.
65




514                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
She was introducec  to the court, and at once was recognized as one of its
most conspicuous ornaments.  She had been religiously educated, scrupulously
conforming her conduct to the doctrines and the rites of the Catholic Church,
in whose communion she had been born, and in whose tenets she had been
thoroughly instructed.  Her character had ever been that of an earnest and
devout Christian.  "There is not one well-authenticated adventure which can
be told to her disadvantage." *
The emperor met her, admired her, and, as he cultivated her acquaintance,
found her religious sentiments and her whole character in harmony with his
own.  On the 22d of January, 1853, the emperor, in the following cormmunication to the Senate, announced that the Countess de Teba was to share with
him the throne.
"GENTLErEN, -  I yield myself to  the wish so often manifested by the
country in announcing to you my marriage.  The union which I contract is
not in  accord with  the  traditions of the  ancient policy.  In  that is its
advanta:lge.
"France, by her successive revolutions, is always rudely separated from  the
rest of Europe.  Every sensible government should seek to re-introduce her
to the bosom of the old monarchies; but this result will be much more surely
attained by a policy just and frank, and by loyalty of transactions, than  by
royal alliances, which create false security, and often substitute the interest of
families for the national interest.  Moreover, the examples of the past have
left upon the minds of the people superstitious impressions.  They have not
forgotten, that, for seventy years, foreign princesses have ascended the steps
of the throne only to see their race dispersed and proscribed by war or by
revolution.  One woman only has seemed to bring happiness to France, and
to live, more than others, in the memory of the people; and that woman, the
modest and excellent wife of General Bonaparte, was not of royal blood.
"We must, however, admit that the marriage, in 1810, of Napoleon I. with
Maria Louisa, was a grand event.  It was a pledge for the future, a true satisfaction  to  the national pride, since the ancient and illustrious house of
Austria, with which we had so long waged war, was seen to solicit an alliance
with the eleeted chief of a new empire.  IUnder the last reign, on the contrary, did not the self-love of the country suffer, when the heir of the crown
solicited in vain, during many years, the alliance of a royal house, and obtained, at last, a princess, accomplished, undoubtedly, but only in the secondary ranks, and of another religion.t
* Julie de Marguerittes, p. 99.
t This is an allusion to the efforts Louis Philippe made to secure a royal alliance for his son,
the Duke of Orleans. All the old monarchies in Europe contemptuously rejected the application of the Citizen King.
"The times were far distant," says Alison, " when the lhand of the heir-apparent of France
was an object of ambition to all the crowned heads of Europe. It was deemecd a fortunate
move when the son of the Citizen King obtained the daughter of a third-rate German prince.
The vision of a Prussian or an Austrian princess —the daughter, of the Archduke Charles,
or of the royal house of Brandenburg - had melted into thin air; and the young prince, with




MAREIAGE OF THE EMPEROR.                                  515
When, in the face of ancient Europe, oiie is borne by the force of a new
principle to the height of the ancient dynasties, it is not in endeavoring to
give antiquity to his heraldry, and in seeking to introduce himself, at whatever cost, into the family of kings, that one can make himself accepted.  It is
much more in ever remembering his origin, in maintaining his appropriate
character, and in taking frankly, in the face of Europe, the position of a newcomier (parvenu), -  a glorious title when one attains it by the fiee suffiages
of a great people.
" Thus obliged to turn aside from  the precedents followed until this day,
my marriage becomes but a private affair.  There remains only the choice of
the person.  The one who has become the object of my preference is of
elevated birth.  French in heart by edpcation and by the recollection of the
blood shed by her father in the cause of the empire, she has, as a Spaniard,
the advantage of not having in France a family to whom  it might be necessary to give honors and dignities.  Endowed with all qualities of mind,
she will be the ornament of the throne, as, in the day of danger, she will
become one of its most courageous supports.  Catholic and pious, she will
address the same prayers to Heaven with me for the happiness of France.*
By her grace and her goodness, she will, I firmly hope, endeavor to revive,
in the same position, the virtues of the Empress Josephine.
"I come then, gentlemen, to  say to France, that I have preferred the
woman whom  I love and whom  I respect, to one who is unknown, whose
alliance would have advantages mingled with sacrifices.  Without testifying
disdain for any one, I yield to my inclinations, after having  consulted my
reason and my convictions.  In fine, by placing in dependence the qualities
of the heart, domestic happiness above dynastic prejudices and the calculations of ambition, I shall not be less strong, because I shall be more fiee.
"Soon, in relairing to Notre Dame, I shall present the empress to  the
people and to the army.  The  confidence they have in me assures me of
their sympathy.  And you, gentlemen, on knowing her whom I have chosen,
will agree, that, on this occasion, again I have been guided by Providence." t
The marriage-ceremony between the emperor and the Countess of Teba
was celebrated at the Tuileries on the 29th of January, 1853.  The next day,
every amiable anrd attractive quality, underwent the penalty of his father's doubtful title to the
throne."
The bride finally obtained for him was the Princess Helen Louisa Elizabeth, daughter of
Frederic Louis, Grand.Duke of Mecklenberg-Schwerin. She had been educated in the Lutheran
faith.' It will be remembered that Louis Napoleon said in his speech at Marseilles, on the 26th
of September, 1852, when laying the corner-stone of a cathedral, "Everywhere indeed, where
I can, I exert myself to enforce and to propagate religious ideas, the most sublime of all, since
they guide in prosperity and console in adversity. My government, I say it with pride, is perhaps the only one which has sustained religion for itself. It sustains it, not as a political instrument, not to please a party, but solely through conviction and through love of the good
which it inspires as of the truths which it teaches." -La Politique Ilmpeiiale de l'Empelreolr
Naploleobn III., p. 157.
t La Politique Imp.riale de l'Empereur Napoldon III.




516                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
which was Sunday, the religious ceremonies took place with great splendor
at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  The capacious edifice was crowded to its
utmost capacity with probably as brilliant an assembly as was ever convened
on earth.  The Archblshop, of Paris officiated, bringing into requisition all
the pomp of the Catholic service. The emperor and empress sat upon thrones
elevated in front of the altar.  The most exquisite music modern art could
furnish entranced the ear. A vast array of ecclesiastics assisted iii the ceremonies.  The Senate, the army, the navy, the  nunicipal authorities, the
diplomatic corps, find the great cities of France, all were represented.  A
dazzling array of female elegance and beauty added to the brilliancy of the
scene..  Nothing was wanting to invest the occasion with splendor and
solemnity.
The emperor signalized his marriage by granting amnesty to nearly five
thousand persons who were in banishment for political offences.  The empress has proved to be all that France could desire, nobly following in the
footsteps of Josephine.  Her grace, beauty, and accomplishments have made
her the pride of the Tuileries.  A  sincere Christian, devotedly attached to
the recognized Christian faith of France, —the faith in which she was born
and educated,- her influence in the court has ever been ennobling and purifying. In more than one scene of danger, she has proved herself the possessor
of that heroism which sheds additional lustre upon her exalted station.  In
the grand receptions at the I'uileries, all eyes are fixed upon her with admiration; and it is the testimony of every one who is honored with her acquaintance, that in her character are combined, in an unusual degree, the virtues of
a wife, of a mother, and of an empress.
At the time of her marriage, the city of Paris voted a very large sum  for
the purchase of diamonids for the empress.  She accepted the magnificent
gift, but devoted it to the foundation of a charitable institution for the
education of young girls belonging to the workingsclasses.* 
A fortnight after the marriage, on the 14th of February, 1853, the emperor,
in his speech at the opening of the legislative session, gave the following
account of the state of the empire:"MESSIEURrS LES SENATEURS, MIESSIEURS LES DEPUTES,- A  year ago;
I assembled you in this hall to inaugurate the constitution promulgated in
virtue of the powers which the people had conferred upon me.  Since that
time, tranquillity has not been disturbed.  The lawj in resuming its empire,
has permitted many men who had been struck by its necessary rigor to leturn
to their firesides.  The national wealth has increased to such a point, that
the personal property, whose value can each day be appreciated, has advanced
four thousand million  of francs.  Renewed activity is developed in all
branches of industry.  The same results are in progress in Algiers, where
our arms have attained signal success. The form  of government has been
modified legally, and without commotion, by the free suffrage of the people.
Grand public works have been undertaken, without creating any tax, and
Italy and the War of 1859, by Julie de Marguerittes, p. 101.




THE CARES OF EMPIRE.                            517
without loan. Peace has been maintained without weakness. All the powers
have recognized the new government. France has now institutions' which
can defend themselves, and whose stability does not depend upon the life of
a single man.
"These results have not cost great efforts, because they were in accordance
with the spirit and the interests of all. To those who do not recognize their
importance, I would say, that scarcely fourteen months have passed since
France was exposed to the perils of anarchy. To those who regret that a
wider field has not been given to liberty, I reply, Liberty has never aided in
founding a desirable political edifice: it crowns it when it has been consolidated by time.
" Let us also not forget, that if the immense majority of the country has
confidence in the present, and faith in the future, still there always remain
incorrigible individuals, who, forgetful of their own experience, of their past
terrors, of their disappointments, obstinately persist in paying no attention 
to the national will, unscrupulously deny the reality of facts, and, in the midst
of a sea which every day becomes more and more calm, call for tempests
which would surely ingulf them the first.
"The occult proceedings of the different parties serve no purpose but to
prove their powerlessness; and the government, instead of being disturbed
by them, only devotes itself more to the wise administratidn of the affairs
of France and to the tranquillization of Europe.  With this double end in
view, it has adopted the fixed resolve to diminish the expenses of the armaments, and to devote to useful applications all the resources of the country;
to maintain honestly international relations; in fine, to prove to the most
incredulous, that, when France expresses the formal intention to remain at
peace, she must be believed: for she is sufficiently strong not to fear; consequently, need not attempt to deceive.
"You will see, gentlemen, by the budget which will be presented, that our
financial position has never been better during the last twenty years, and that
the public revenues have increased beyond all precedent. Nevertheless, the
effective force of the army, which, during the last year, has beenl reduced
thirty thousand men, will be immediately reduced twenty thousand more.
" Most of the laws which will be presented to you will be found within the
range of ordinary exigencies.  This is one of the most favorable indications
of our situation. The people are happy when the government has no occasion to resort to extraordinary measures.
"Let us thank Providence  for the cordial protection accorded to,our
efforts; let us persevere" in this path of firmness and of moderation, and
thus preclude all re-action; let us rely ever upon God and upon ourselves;
and let us not doubt that we shall soon see this grand country pacified, prosperous at home, and honored abroad." *
There was quite a general apprehension in England, that Louis Napoleon,
the nephew of the exile of St. Helena, would "-avenge Waterloo."  It was
* La Politique Imperiale exposee par les Discours et Proclamations de l'Empereur Napoleon
III., p. 177.




518:                 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
known that this was the burning desire of very many of the French people.
A steam-fleet could swiftly cross the Channel, and land the armies of France
upon the shores of England. Catholic Ireland would, not improbably, welcome
the eagles of Catholic France, and seize upon the opportunity to strike for
independence. British troops had been quartered in Paris. The pride of the
French army was roused to take up its quarters in the parks of London. The
alarm in England was great. The journals in Great Britain and on the Continent were filled with rumors of the contemplated invasion. All the assurances of the emperor that he contemplated no such measure were unavailing,
as it was generally supposed that he could do nothing to render himself so
popular in France, as to attempt, at least, to send an army to London. It was
supposed that such a movement against the hereditary foe of France would
rouse the enthusiasm of the whole French nation. But the Emperor Napoleon I., dying at St. Helena, had, with his last breath, dictated a message to his
son and heir, imploring him to cultivate only the arts of peace. A few
extracts from the words of the emperor, uttered upon his dying bed, will be
read with interest, as showing the spirit which then animated him, and which
has been so cordially embraced, and so zealously carried into practice, by his
heir, the present emperor.
Count Montholon entered the wretched apartment of the hovel where the
exiled emperor'was dying. It was three o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th
of April, 1821. The face of the emperor was flushed, and his eye beamed
with peculiar lustre.
" My mind has been roused," said he, "in talking with General Bertrand
about what my executors should say to my son when they see him. I wish,
in a few words, to give you'a summary of the counsels which I bequeath to
my son. Write"-   The emperor then rapidly dictated the extraordinary
letter from which we make the following extracts:
" My son should not think of avenging my death. Let the remembrance
of what I have cone never leave his mind. The aim of all his efforts should
be to reign by peace. I saved the revolution which was about to perish. I
have implanted new ideas in France and in Europe. Let my son bring into
blossom  all I have sown; let him  develop all the elements of prosperity
enclosed in the soil of France; and by these means he may yet be a great
sovereign.
" The Bourbons will not maintain their position after my death. A re-action in my favor will take place everywhere, even in England. This re-action
will be a fine inheritance for my son. It is possible that the English, in order
to efface the remembrance of their persecutions, will favor my son's return to
France.
"Let not my son ever mount the throne by the aid of foreign influence
His aim should not be to fulfil a desire to reign, but to deserve the approbation
of posterity. My son will arrive after a time of civil troubles. He has but
one party to fear,- that of the Duke of Orleans: this party has been germinating for a long time. Let him despise all parties, and see only the mass of
the people. France is the country where the chiefs of parties have the least




THE CARES OF EMPIRE.                            519
influence.  To rest for support on them  is to build on sand. Great things
can be done in France, only by having the support of the cmass of the, peojple.
The Bourbons can only rely for support on the nobles and the priests: I, on
the contrary, relied on the whole mass of the people, without exception.  I
set the example of a government which favored the interests of all. I did
not gov-ern by the help of, or solely for, either the nobles, the priests, the
citizens, or tradesmen: I governed for the whole community, for the whole
family of the French nation.
"Religious ideas have more influence than certain narrow-minded philosophers are willing to believe: they are capable of rendering great services
to humanity. By standing well with the pope, an influence is still maintained
over the consciences of a hundred millions of men.
"If you are permitted to return to France, you will still find many who
have remained faithful to my memory. The best monuplents which they
could raise to me would be to make a collection of all the ideas which I
expressed in the Council of State for the administration of the empire; to
collect all my instructions to my ministers; and to make a list of the public
works which I undertook, and of all the monuments which I raised in France
and Italy. In what I have said in the Council of State, a distinction must
be made between the measures good only for the moment and those whose
application is eternally true.
" Let my son often read and reflect on history: this is the only true philosophy. But all that you say to him, or all that he learns, will be of little use
to him if he has not in the depths of his heart that sacred fire, and love of
good, which alone can effect great things.  I will hope, however, that he will
be worthy of his destiny." *
On other- occasions, he said, in the same strain, —
" Europe never ceased to make war upon France, her principles, and upon
me. WVe were compelled to destroy to save ourselves from destruction.  The
coalition always existed, openly or secretly, avowed or denied. It was permanent: it only rested with the allies to give us peace. For ourselves, we were
worn out. As to myself, is it supposed that I am insensible.to the charms of
repose and security when honor does not require it otherwise?
"Liberal ideas flourish in Great Britain, they enlighten America, and they
are nationalized in France; and this may be called the tripod whence issues
the light of the world. Liberal opinions will rule the universe: they will
become the faith, the religion, the morality, of all nations; and, in spite of all
that may be advanced to the contrary, this memorable era will be inseparably
connected with my name: for, after all, it cannot be denied that I kindled the
torch, and consecrated the principle; and now persecution renders me the
messiah.
"The Bourbons are greatly deceived if they believe themselves firmly
seated on the throne of Hugh Capet. I do not know whether I shall ever
again see Paris; but what I know is, that the French people will one day
* Abbott's Life of Napoleon, vol. ii. pp. 639-641.




520                      LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
break the sceptre which the enemies of France have confided to Louis
XVIII.
"My son will reign if the popular masses are permitted to act without
control.  The crown will belong to the Duke of Orleans if those who are
called Liberals gain the victory over the people; but then, sooner or later,
the people will discover that they have been deceived, and that there is no
guaranty for their true interests except under the reign of my dynasty, because
it is the work of their creation.
"I did not usurp the crown; I picked it from  the gutter: the people
placed it on myhead.  I was king of the people, as the Bourbons are kings
of the nobles, under whatever color they may disguise the banner of their
ancestors.
"In spite of all the libels, I have no fear whatever about my fame.  Posterity will do me justice: the good I have done will be compared with the
faults I have committed.  I have framed, and carried into effect, a code of
laws which will bear my name to the most distant posterity.  I have always
been of opinion that the sovereignty lay in the people: in fact, the imperial
government was a kind of republic.  Called to the head of it by the voice of
the nation, my maxim was, the career open to talents, without distinction of
birth or fortune.
"I always desired peace, and a sincere peace with England. I wished to
fill up the abyss of revolutions, and to reconstruct, without shaking, the
European edifice, to the advantage of all, by employing kings to bestow on
Continental Europe the blessings of constitutions, -a blessing which your
country [England] as well as mine only acquired at the price of a fearful commotion.  I repeat, that I always desired peace: I fought only to
obtain it.
"No doubt, faults Were committed. But who is exempt from faults?  The
citizen, in the quiet tenor of his easy life, has his moments of weakness and
strength: and it is required that men grown old in the midst of the hazards
of war, who have had constantly to contend with all kinds of difficulties,
should never have been inferior to themselves at any moment; should have
always exactly hit the mark." *
Such was the spirit of the exile of St. Helena.  Such were the principles
which lay at the foundations of the empire as established by Napoleon I.,
and which are recognized as the bases of the empire restored by Napoleon
III.
Louis Napoleon was thoroughly inspired with the spirit of peace. It was
his great ambition to develop the industrial energies of France, and to fill the
empire with prosperous and happy homes. Thus all his efforts were directed
to discouraging the spirit of war, and to the promotion of the arts of peace.
There were those in England who appreciated this disposition, and felt grateful to the emperor that he was not disposed to introduce to Europe the
ravages and the woes which inevitably accompany the sweep of armies. On
* Abbott's Life of Napoleon, passim.




THE CARES OF EMPIRE.                                  521
the 28th  of March, 1853, a deputation from  the higher trades In London
called upon the emperor, at the Tuileries, with expressions of congratulation
and confidence.  The emperor, in reply to their address, said, 
"I am  deeply touched by this manifestation.  It fortifies me in the confidence which I -have always reposed in the good sense of the English nation.
During my long sojourn in England, I have admired the liberty which she
enjoys, thanks to the  perfection  of her institutions.   Nevertheless, for a
moment during the last year, I feared that England had adopted erroneous
views respecting the true state of France and her sentiments towards Great
Britain. 
"But one does not long deceive the good faith of a great people; and
this approach which you make to me is a brilliant proof of it.' Since I
have been in power, my efforts have been constantly directed to the development of the prosperity of France.  I know  her interests: they are not
different from those of all other civilized nations.  With you I desire peace;
and, to strengthen it, I wish, as do you, to draw closer the ties which unite
onr two countries." *
By universal admission, the reign  of the emperor has been marked by a
degree of sagacity, energy, and harmony, in the administration of affairs, both
domestic and foreign, never before surpassed in France, even in the'days of
the first Napoleon.  The ceaseless activity of the sovereign pervades every
branch of the national interests.  He has little time for luxury, for recreation,
for repose.  AI his energies are consecrated, with zeal rarely equalled, to promoting the prosperity of France at home, and her influence and honor abroad.
Paris has been almost new created; and is now, beyond all comparison, the
most beautiful and attractive city in the world.  All the public monuments
have been repaired and renovated.  The churches have laid aside the dingy
aspect of past ages, and have assumed an air of new freshness and beauty.
MIagnificent avenues have been thrown open.  Narrow alleys have been transformed into wide and well-ventilated streets.  Decayed and tottering buildilgs have given place to the finest structures in architectural attractions and
internal conveniences which modern art can rear.  Tenement-houses in large
numbers, and of admirable arrangement, have been constructed for the poor.
Napoleon III. has done vastly more, in his short reign of now but about sixteen  years, for the embellishment of Paris, and for the promotion  of the
comfort, prosperity, and happiness of its inhabitants, than was accomplished
by Louis XVIII., Charles X., and Louis Philippe, in all the united years of
their sovereignties.t
* La Politique Imperialc de l'Empereur Napoleon III., p. 177.
t Foreigners are sometimes surprised that French people seem so willing to leave the affairs
of government unquestioned in the hands of the emperor. " One reason for this,  says Smucker,
"is the confidence which the great majority of the French nation actually fee in the sagacity
and security of the imperial government, and a desire to enjoy a continuance of the favorable
results which the policy aind labors of Louis Napoleon Jlave already obtained for France. It is
undoubtedly true, that in regard to physical advantages, such as commerce, agriculture, arts,
sciences, and education, France was never more prosperous and flourishing than she has been
under the second empire; and it is natural that the French people should desire a permanence
66




522                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
In the emperol's address to the senators and deputies on the 16th of February, 1854, at the opening of' the legislative session, he said, in reference to the
famine which had afflicted France,"It is a remarkable fact, which has profoundly affected me, that, during this
rigorous winter, not an accusation has been directed against the government.
The people have with resignation submitted to sufferings which they were
sufficiently just to impute to circumstances alone,- a new proof of their confidence in me, and of their conviction that the welfare of the people is, before
every thing else, the object of my constant thoughts." *
The harvest had fallen short about twenty-five millions of bushels (ten
millions of hectolitres), of a value, as estimated, of three hundred millions of
francs, in quantity sufficient to freight four thousand ships.  Thei government
wisely decided that it was in vain for it to undertake to purchase from  all
quarters of the globe these millions of bushels to sell them again in all the
markets of France.  There were insuperable objections to such an attempt.
The plan was consequently adopted to encourage commerce to bring forth all
its resources for the majestic enterprise; and the tax upon grain was immediately struck off that'it might be admitted free.  The government pushed
forward with new vigor large public works to employ the poor, and opened
a liberal system of credit to encourage private individuals and corporations to
embark in enterprises which would give employment and support to those
who must otherwise have starved.
The 15th of August, the birthday of Napoleon the I., the founder of the
empire, had for some time been celebrated by the French people with great
enthusiasm.  Thisfete, in 1854, found Napoleon III. at Bayonne. In response
to felicitations addressed  to him  by the Bishop of Bayonne, the emperor
said,"MONsEIGNEUR, -Usage has ordained that there should be one day in the
year in which all the nation should celebrate the fete of the sovereign.  In
the presence of this general manifestation, and the prayers which all France
aiddresses to Heaven, it is the duty of the sovereign, in his turn, to examine
himself; that he may ascertain if he has done every thing in. his power to
merit this concert of homage and of prayers.  It is his duty, especially, to
cast himself at the foot of the altar, to implore of Heaven, through the intercession of its sacred ministers, to bless his efforts, to enlighten his conscience,
and to give him  ever the ability to promote the good and to combat the
evil.
" My presence at Bayonne to-day is a fact which I state with pleasure.  It
proves that France, calm and happy, has none of those fears which oblige the
chief of the State to be always armed, and always upon the watch in the
of this fortunate state of affairs. It is true that the ancient parties which are hostile to the
emperor still' exist. The Legitimists, the Orleans party, and the Red Republicans, are not yet
extinct; but it is very evident that their influence is insignificant, either separately or combined,
when compared with the overwhelming power of the partisans, the patrons, and the employees of
the imperial government."- Life of Napoleon II., by Samuel iM. Simtcker, LL.D., p. 247.
* La Politique Imperiale de l'Empereur Napol6on III., p. 189.




THE CARES OF EMPIRE.                               523
capital.  It proves that France can be engaged in a foreign war  without its
interior life ceasing to be free and well regulated.
"I thank you, monseigneur, for the prayers which you address to Heaven
for me.  But will you also please to implore its protection upon our armies?
for to pray for those who combat, as for those who suffer, is still to pray for
me."
* Allusion is here made to the Crimean War, which was in progress, and of which we shall
speak in a subsequent chapter.




CHAPTER XXX.
THE EASTERN QUESTION.
Rise of the Turkish Power.- Conquest of Greece. - Peril of Christendom.- Rise of Russia.
- Her Territory, Population, Military Power. - Poland. - Moldavia and Wallachia. - Circassia. - The Dardanelles. - The Bosphorus. - Geography of those Regions. - Russian
Ambition. - Grecian Revolt. - Count Capo d'Istria. - King Otho. - Battle of Navarino.
-Anxiety of England. - Remarkable Sayings of Napoleon I. -Visit of Nicholas to the
Court of Queen Victoria. -Probable Results.
HE great question which for nearly half a century has agitated
all the courts of Europe is, " What shall be cone with Turkey?"
The subject is generally discussed under the title of " The East1   ern Question."  It is one of the marvels of history, that a band
of half-civilized robbers, emerging frnm the plains of Northern
Asia, should have captured the finest provinces of the Old World,
trampling great nations beneath their feet; and should have grasped and held,
in defiance of all the powers of Christendom, not only the whole of Asia Minor,
-where Christianity was first planted, - but also large portions of Europe.
About the middle of the sixth century, a band of Scythian Tartars, from
the Altai Mountains, commenced their conquests.  Gradually subjugating and
absorbing other tribes, in the course of a few centuries they overran all of
Egypt and Asia Minor, and established one of the most energetic and bloody
military despotisms earth has ever known.
Early in the fourteenth century, the Turks could raise a more powerful army
than any other nation. They resolved to bring all Christendom  under their
sway.  In the year 1453, Mohammed II., with a land-force of three hundred
thousand men and with six hundred vessels, laid siege to Constantinople.  For
fifty-three days, the storm of war beat upon the doomed city; then the Turks,
rushing through the breach with gleaming cimeters, in a few hours cut clown
sixty thousand of the helpless inhabitants.
Thus fell the Greek Empire. The Crescent waved proudly over the city of
Constantine; and the whole of the Peloponnesus was subject to the Moslem
sway.  The conqueror, boasting that he would grain his horse from  the altar
of St. Peter's, in Rome, crossed the Adriatic, and took Otranto; and nothing
but the sudden death of Ajohammed saved Italy from the doom of Greece.
But the Moslem sweep was still onward.  For three centuries, the Valley of
the Danube was the arena of almost incessant conflicts between the Christian
and the Turk. The Moslem banners were borne triumphlantly to the gates of
524




THE EASTERN QUESTION.                          525
Vienna.  The power of the Turk had become so great, that all Christendom
trembled. But about two hundred years ago, the Austrian ambassador at the
Ottoman Porte wrote to the emperor, Ferdinand II., -
" When I compare the power of the Turk with our- own, I confess the consideration fills me with anxiety and dismay. A strong conviction forces itself
on my mind, that we cannot long resist the destruction which awaits us. The
Turks possess immense wealth, strength unbroken, a perfect knowledge of the
art of war, patience under every difficulty, union, order, frugality, and a constant state of preparation.
"On our side are exhausted finances and universal luxury. Our national
spirit broken by repeated defeats, mutinous soldiers, mercenary officers, licentiousness, intemperance, and a total want of military discipline, fill up the
dismal catalogue.
"Is it possible to doubt how such an unequal conflict must terminate?  The
enemy's forces, being at present directed against Persia, only suspend our fate.
After subduing that power, the all-6onquering Mussulman will rush upon us
with undivided strength, and overwhelm at once Europe as well as Germany."
Such were the general apprehensions of all thinking men, respecting the
encroachments of Turkey, but about two hundred years ago. But another
gigantic power gradually arose in the north of Europe, which began to press
resistlessly down upon the Turkish frontiers. Let us look a moment at the
Russian power as it now exists. It is generally estimated that the emperor
Alexander II. reigns over a population of about eighty millions. The army
of Russia numbers between eight hundred thousand and a million of men.
In the war with Poland a few years ago, it was promptly increased to nearly
fourteen hundred thousand. These troops are proverbially regardless of danger. In the recent struggle at Sevastopol, all the united energies of France,
England, Sardinia, and Turkey, were expended against Russia alone; and yet
it was long doultful upon whose banners victory would alight.
The territory of Russia occupies one-seventh of the habitable globe, extending from the Baltic Sea, across the whole breadth of Europe and of Asia, to
Iehring's Straits; and from the eternal ices of the north pole down to the
sunny clime of the pomegranate and the fig. For nearly two centuries, this
gigantic power has been advancing in the march of territorial greatness with
strides never equalled. Poland was coveted by Russia. She took it. The
Poles despairingly rose in resistance. The troops of the czar, with the rush 
of the tornado, swept the doomed kingdom. There was but one shriek, - so
shrill, that it startled Europe, and, piercing the storms of the Atlantic, echoed
along our shores, - and Poland was no more.
North of the Danube, and near its mouth, there are the provinces o M3oldavia and Wallachia. In salubrity of crimate, and fertility of soil, they are
regarded as among the most attractive regions on the globe. The provinces
embrace about fifty thousand square miles, and contain a population of
about three millions, - nearly all members of the Greek Church. Russia embraced.her opportunity, and se'ized the provinces.  Without then formally
annexing them to her empire, she maintained political ascendency there.
There is a large promontory jutting out fiom the north into the Black Sea,




526                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
called the Crimea. It contains fifteen thousand square miles. Turkey, by
the right of conquest, had for a long time held this province. Russia wanted
it; for at Sevastopol there was a magnificent harbor for the Euxine fleet. She
took it. Turkey remonstrated and threatened.  The czar wasted no words in
the argument, but simply pointed to his troops and his fleet. The hint sufficed.
On the eastern shores of the Black Sea, between its waves and the Caspian,
lies Circassia,- a wild and'mountainous region, filled with gloomy ravines and
inaccessible crags. It is the cradle of the Caucasian race. Russia, having
obtained possession of the western and northern shores of the Euxine, turned
her wistful eyes to the eastern shore. Her troops were soon there. The
hardy mountaineers fought with bravery which elicited the admiration of the
world. Army after army of Russians was cut up in these Thermopyle defiles;
but fresh thousands were incessanty poured into the doomed country, and
now the Russian flag floats almost undisputed over the whole territory.
And why is Russia so anxious to take possession of this wild and uncultivated region?  Because through Circassia lies the road to Persia and the
Indies. Persia can be easily subdued. A Russian fleet can then float undisturbed upon the Caspian; and the Hither and the Farther Incies can then be
controlled by Russia. With Roman ambition, Russia seeks the conquest of
new worlds; and England trembles lest Calcutta should become but one
of the outposts of her conquering rival.
It is now the great object of Russian ambition to gain possession of Constantinople, which would give her command of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.
Let us briefly refresh our minds with the geography of those regions. At
the mouth of the strait usually called the Hellespont, which connects the M[editerranean Sea with the Sea of Marmora, there are four strong Turkish forts,
named the Dardanelles: hence the straits themselves are sometimes called by
the same name. Through these serpentine straits, which are thirty miles long
and from half a mile to a mile and a half in width, and whose crags and bluffs
may be lined with batteries which no fleet can possibly pass, you ascend to
the Sea of 1Marmora.
This is a vast inland body of water, one hundred and eighty miles in
length, and sixty miles in breadth.  Crossing this sea to its northern shore,
you enter the beautiful Straits of the Bosphorus. But a short distance up
these straits, on the European side as you ascend them from the Sea of Marmora, sits enthroned upon the hills, in peerless beauty of situation, the city
of Constantinople, with its domes, minarets, and pinnacles glowing like a
fairy vision.  On the north of the city, a beautiful bay, called the Golden
Horn, opens to the west, which constitutes one of the finest harbors in the
world. 4A  small river flows into it at its head, through a warm, fertile,
picturesque region, appropriately naned the "Valley of Sweet Waters."
The Straits of the Bosphorus, which connect the Sea of Marmora with the
Black Sea, are about fifteen miles long, and of an average width of perhaps
half a mile.  It is the uncontradicted testimony of tourists from  all lands,
that the scenery of the Bosphorus, in natural and artistic loveliness,. in all
the combined elements of the beautiful, the picturesque, the sublime, stands
pre-eminent and unrivalled.




THE EASTERN QUESTION.                               527
These straits conduct to the Euxine, or Black Sea, -  a vast inland ocean,
extending in length, from west to east, seven hundred miles, and in breadth
three hundred  miles.  Its immense- reservoir receives the floods of the
majestic Russian rivers, -  the Dreiper, the Dneister, and the Don.  Through
these rivers, navigation is opened to the almost boundless realms of the
Russian Empire.
This brief sketch reveals the infinite importance of the Dardanelles and
the Bosphorus to Russia. This majestic empire, three times as large as the
United States in extent of territory, and with more than twice its population,
has no easy access to the ocean.*  It is shut out, a large portion of the year,
from all the benefits of commerce.  Its only seaports are on the Baltic, far
away amidst the ices of the north. Unless Russia can obtain an open door
to outside commerce through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, the nation
is hopelessly impeded in its progress, and can but slowly rescue its benighted
millions from comparative barbarism.
The Bosphorus and the Dardanelles are, in reality, the only gate for the
commerce of nearly the entire of Russia. All her great navigable rivers flow
into the Black Sea, and thence, through the Bosphorus, the Marmora, and the
Hellespont, into the Mediterranean.  And yet Russia cannot send a boatload of corn along that magnificent avenue of the world's -commerce without
bowing her'flag to all the Turkish forts which frown upon its banks.
Consequently, for a long period it has been constantly the object of Russian
diplomacy and ambition to obtain possession of Constantinople, which would
give her the command of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.  It has been
equally the object of the other leading nations of Europe to prevent this consummation; as the acquisition of Constantinople would give Russia power
which all united Europe could scarcely withstand.
The revolt of Greece, in her heroic and finally successful attempt to throw
off the Turkish yoke, was generally understood to be instigated by Russian
influence: and though the Emperor Alexander, as one of the leading members of the Holy Alliance, positively denied that he had contributed any aid
to this attempt of the people to escape from  the rule, however oppressive,
of their sovereigns, still Alexander Ypsilanti, who first unfurled the banner of
Grecian revolt, was an officer of the Russian army; and he assured the Greeks
of the secret promise of the czar to aid them in their heroic endeavor.t  The
Turkish Government, it is certain, gave no credence to the  denial of the
Russian emperor.  As the czar looked eagerly down from  his palaces in
Moscow, and saw army after army of the Turks cut up,- the resources of the
Ottoman Empire exhausted, its fleet annihilated, and finally Greece itself forever severed firom the Turkish sway, he felt, and all Europe felt, that Russia had taken a long stride towards the possession of the Dardanelles.
3 According to Johnson's American Atlas, the United States contain three million square
miles; while Russia embraces over four millions in Europe, and five millions in Asia.
t AI. do Chateaubriand, in an account which he gives of a confidential interview with the
czar, declared that Alexander said to him that " nothing could be more for his interests and for
those of his subjects " than to aid the Greeks against the Turks; but that he discerned in the
m ovement " the revolutionary mask, and from that moment kept aloof." - Chatetabriandc, Co:agres
de'Veronne, i. 222.




528                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
And when, subsequently, Count Capo d'Istria, an  aide-de-camp  of the
Russian czar, formerly his secretary of war and his bosom  friend, was made
president of Greece, and by the appointment of the Emperor of Russia. (for
he was permitted  to make the appointment),* no one could question  the
Success of Russian diplomacy; and when, subsequently, after the assassination of Count Capo d'Istria, Otho -  a boy of seventeen, second son of the
Ting of Bavaria -  was by the allied powers imposed as king upon the Greeks,
who were found, in their state of semi-barbarism, utterly incapable of a
republic, the miniature realm  had neither fhe disposition nor the power to
impede the encroachments of the Russians upon the Turks.
The success of Russia in weakening Turkey by the liberation of Greece
was bitterly deplored by England and France, though, by the force of circumstances, they had been compelled to aid in the enterprise.  The mercilessness
of the Turk in the war of extermination which he was waging against the
Greeks, - putting all to the sword but boys and maidens; selling the girls as
slaves, and dragging them into his harems; compelling the boys to accept the
Moslem faith, and forling them into his armies, -these outrages so shocked
Christendorm, that the humanity of the people demanded interposition.  The
combined fleets of England, France, and Russia, almost by accident, encounteredl t!le Turkish fleet in the Bay of Navalino.  It was an hour of intense
exasperation.  A spark fired the train; and, in an outburst of resistless passion, the whole Turkish fleet was blown into the air.
It wais on the afternoon of the 20th of October, 1827.  The Allies had in
all twenty-three vessels, carrying 1,324 guns.'The Turkish fleet consisted
of seventy-nine vessels, armed with 2,240 guns, besides a formidable array of
batteries on the shore.  Still the allied fleet, having the superiority in sails
of the line, were superior in strength.  The battle lasted four hours.  The
Turks fought with their characteristic desperation.  As night closed over the
terrific conflict, nearly the whole Turkish fleet was burnt, sunk, or blown to
fiagments; and seven thousand of their crew, torn by shot and shell, had
disappeared beneath the waves.   History has rarely recorded a scene of
devastation so awful.  The fleet of the Allies had also been very roughly
handled.   Their loss in killed and wounded, though never fully reported,
was severe. 
But no sooner was the hasty deed done, the "untoward event," as the
diplomatists termed it, ere it was bitterly regretted.  England and France
had aided the czar in crippling the energies of the Turk, and thus had facili- 
tated the advance of Russia towards Constantinople.  The battle of Navarino liberated Greece, and humbled the Turk as he had not been humbled for
four hundred years. Since that hour, the Crescent has been constantly on the
wave.   The dilapidated battlements of Ottoman  power are  crumbling.
Turkey, so long the terror of Europe, can no longer stand alone. Its name
is doubtless soon to be added to the list of the ruins of empires.t
* Alison, vol. vii. p. 171.
t " The territory of this old dilapidated empire is seven or eight times as large as that of
France. The territories of ancient and mighty kingdoms are embraced in it, - Macedonia,
Thessaly, Thrace, Dacia, the whole of Asia Minor, Syria, Phccnice, Palestine, Armenia,'IMeso



THE EASTERN  QUESTION.                               529
"The Dardanelles," said the Emperor Alexanderl I., " are the keys of my
house.  Let me get them, and my power is irresistible."  "The possession
of Constantinople," said Napoleon I., "gives Russia the dominion  of the
world." 
Let Russia obtain possession of Constantinople and the Dardanelles, and
she is apparently invulnerable.  The majestic empire frowns down upon
Europe fiom  its inaccessible position, prepared to launch forth its hordes
upon any province it may wish to invade.  The Black Sea becomes a Russian
harbor, which no foe can penetrate; its shores, her navy-yard, unapproachable
by foreign fleet or army.  And this vast power, sweeping  across the whole
breadth of Asia as well as of Europe, can press down upon the plains of
India, till her trading factories shall supply those vast territories, and till
English goods, and finally English men, are driven out of Asia.
The anxiety with which England contemplates these encroachments of
Russia may be  inferred from   the following extract from  "The London
Quarterly Review:")"The possession of-the Dardanelles would give to Russia the means of
creating and organizing an almost unlimited marine.  It would enable her
to prepare in the Black Sea an armament of any extent, without its being
possible for any power in Europe to interrupt her proceedings, or even to
watch or discover her designs.  Our naval officers of the highest authority
have declared that an effective blockade of the Dardanelles cannot be maintained throughout the year.
"Even supposing, therefore, that we could maintain permanently in those
seas a fleet capable of encountering that of Russia, it is obvious, that, in the
event of war, it would be in the power of Russia to throw the whole weight
of her disposable forces on any point in the Mediterranean, without any
probability of our being able to prevent it; and the power of thus issuing
at any moment would enable het to command the Mediterranean Sea for a
limited time, whenever it might please her to do so.
"IHer whole southern empire would be defended by a single impregnable
fortress.  The road to India would be open to her, with all Asia at her back.
The finest materials in the world for an army destined to serve in the East
would be at her disposal.  Our power to overawe her in Europe would be
gone; and, by even a demonstration against India, she could augment our
potamia, Egypt, Lybia, Carthage. In all these vast regions, it has a population of about thirtysix millions.
"But its spacious African possessions are, for the most part, vast deserts of sand. Egypt is
rather a weakness than a strength. Arabia and Kurdistan are hardly subject to government.
The Danubian provinces are nearly independent.  All European Turkey is following in the
same track. The revolted island, Crete, cannot be subdued. Asica l/ inor alone is TlrkeQ?. All
the rest is weakness, not strength.
"I could show you whole villages in ruins, inhabited only by storks and owls. The public
debt is rapidly increasing. The finances are getting hopelessly involved. Mlisovernment is
everywhere using up the Turkish race. It has gone beyond redemption. England cannot save
it. It will not need Russia to destroy it: it is slowly destroying itself' It is gravitating
downward with the silent certainty of a great law of Nature."- Constantinople, Co(responodent of
the New-York Tribune, April, 1868.
67




530                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
national expenditures by millions annually, and render the government of the
country difficult beyond all calculation."
Such is the view which England takes of the subject we are now contemplating. So great was the desire of the Empress Catharine for the possession
of Constantinople, that she christened her youngest grandson Constantine,
hoping that he would march to the conquest of the capital after which he
was named. Meneval, private secretary of Napoleon I., records, that, in one
of the interviews of Napoleon with Alexander I., he overheard the czar offer to
co-operate with the emperor in all his plans if Napoleon would consent that
Russia should take Constantinople.  The French emperor replied, after a
moment's hesitation, "Constantinople,-never!  It is the empire of the
world." *
Napoleon said to Las Casas at St. Ifelena, "Russia has a vast superiority
over the rest of Europe in regard to the immense powers she can call up for
the purpose of invasion, together with the physical advantages of her situation, - under the pole, and backed by eternal bulwarks of ice, which, in case of
need, will render her inaccessible. Russia can only be attacked during onethird or one-fourth of the year; while she can, throughout the whole twelve
months, maintain attacks upon us.
"Who can avoid shuddering at the thought of shch a vast mass, unassailable either on the flanks or in the rear, descending upon us with impunity? 
if triumflhant, overwhelming every thing in its course; or, if defeated, retiring
amidst the cold and desolation that may be called its forces of reserve, and
possessing every facility of issuing forth again at a future opportunity.
"Should there arise an emperor of Rtssia, valiant, impetuous, and intelligent, -in a word, a czar with a beard upon his chin, - Europe is his own.
He may commence his operations upon the German territory at one hundred
leagues from the two capitals, Berlin and Viennh, whose sovereigns are his
only obstacles. He secures the alliance of one by force, and, with his aid,
subdues the other with a single stroke. He then finds himself in the heart
of Germany, amidst the princes of the second rank, most of whom are either
his relations or dependants. He may then march triumphantly to Paris to
proclaim himself the new liberator."
Napoleon then added, after measuring with a pair of compasses the distances on the map, "Constantinople is from its situation calculated to be the
centre and seat of universal dominion."t
Dr. O'Meara records, that in an'interview with the emperor at St. Helena, on
the 14th of February, 1817, O'Meara asked if it were true that Alexander
of Russia had intended to seize Constantinople. Napoleon replied, -
"All his thoughts are directed to the conquest of Turkey.  We have had
many discussions about it. At first, I was pleased with his proposals, because
I thought that it would enlighten the world to drive those brutes, the Turks,
out of Europe; but when I reflected upon the consequences, and saw what
a tremendous weight of power it would give to Russia, on account of the
* Meneval, Vie privee do Napoeon.
t Napoleon at St. Helena, John S. C. Abbott, p. 451.




THE EASTERN QUESTION.                                   531
number of Greeks in the Turkish dominiops who would naturally join the
Russians, I refused to consent to it, especially as Alexander wanted to get
Constantinople, which I would not allow, as it would destroy the equilibrium
of power in Europe." *
Again, on the 27th of May, the conversation turned upon Russia and the
East.  " In the course of a few years," said the emperor to O'Meara, "Russia
will have Constantinople, the greatest part of Turkey, and all Greece.  This
I hold to be as certain  as if it had already taken place.  Almost all the
cajoling and flattery which Alexander practised towards me was to gain my
consent to effect this object. In the natural course of things, in a few years,
Turkey must fall to Russia.  The powers it would injure, and who could'oppose it, are England, France, Prussia, and Austria.  Now, as to Austria,
it will be very easy for Russia to engage her assistance by giving her Servia
and other provinces bordering upon  the Austrian  dominions.   The only
hypothesis that France and England may ever be allied with sincerity will
be in order to prevent this.  But even this alliance would not avail.  France,
England, and Prussia, united, cannot prevent it: Russia and Austria can at
any time effect it.
"Once mistress of Constantinople, Russia gets all the commerce of the
Mediterranean, becomes a great naval power, marches off to India an army
of seventy thousand good soldiers; and God knows what may happen.  All
this I foresaw.  I see into futurity farther than others; and I wanted to establish a barrier against those barbarians by re-establishing the kingdom  of Poland, and putting Poniatowski at the head of it as king; but your imbecilles
of ministers would not consent.  A  hundred years hence I shall be praised
(encense);  and  Europe, especially  England, will lament that I did  not
succeed." t
" I do not desire Constantinople," said the Czar Nicholas.  "My empire is
already too large.  But I know that I or my successors must have it.  You
might as well arrest a stream in its descent from a mountain, as the Russians
in their advance to the Hellespont." +
* Napoleon at St. Helena, Abbott, p. 534.
We have the authority of the Emperor Alexander, that Napoleon said to him at Tilsit,
"I lay no stress upon the evacuation of Wallachia and Moldavia by your troops: you may
protract it if you desire. It is impossible any longer to endure the presence of the Turks in
Europe. You are at liberty to chase them  into Asia. But observe only, I rely upon it that
Constantinople is not to fall into the hands of any European power," - Mlleoires d'uln fIoumme
d'Etat (Prince Hardenbutr), t. ix. p. 432.
t The solicitude with which Napoleon regarded the encroachments of Russia upon Turkey
may be inferred from the following instructions given to General Marmont in a letter written
from Tilsit on the 8th of July, 1807: "Set to work as vigorously as possible to obtain, by
officers whom you shall send forward with that view, or in any other way, and address directly
to the emperor, in order that he may know by confidential officers, both geographically and
civilly, all the information you can acquire regarding Bosnia, Macedonia, Thrace, Albania, &c.,
-what is the amount of the Greek population; what are the resources in clothing, provisions,
or money, those provinces would furnish to any European power which might possess them;
in fine, what revenue could be drawn from them at the moment of their occupation; for the
principles of their occupation are at present without any foundation."
t Schnitzler, ii. 247.




532                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
In June, 1844, Nicholas, the Emperor of Russia, made a visit to the court
of Queen Victoria.  He came in all the pomp of an Oriental monarch.  The
queen received him with a ma.nificent series of entertainments in Windsor
Castle.  The czar gracefully distributed twenty-five thousand dollars' worth
of jewelry among the ladies of the.British court.  The presence of this sovereign, who was said to be the handsomest man in the world, his majestic
stature, his classical features, the grace and dignity of his bearing, and the
charm of his address, combined with the recognition that he was the absolute
monarch of eighty millions of people, shed lustre even over the stately halls
of Windsor Castle.
In the midst of this blaze of magnificence, the monarch wished to conceal
fiom the world the object of his visit. It was afterwards revealed, through
the memorandum of Count Nesselrode, that his object was to induce England
and Austria to unite with him in driving the Turks out of Europe, and in
dividing the magnificent inheritance between them, - truly a princely inheritance; for Turkey in Europe is twice as large as the Island of Great Britain,
and contains a population of fourteen millions, only three millions of whom
are Mohammedans.
Russia was to incorporate with her dominions the three splendid provinces
of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Bulgaria, which would give her the entire
command of the mouths of the Danube; the czar was also to be permitted
to establish nominally a Greek power in Roumelia, but under Russian protection, with Constantinople as its capital.  This was, of course, surrendering
Constantinople to Russia.
Austria, in consideration of her assent to this arrangement, was to receive
the fertile and beautiful provinces of Servia and Bothnia, which were adjoining to her possessions on the south of the Danube, a territory of great fertility,
enjoying the lovely clime of Italy.  Austria was also to be permitted so to
extend her southern frontier as to embrace nearly the whole eastern coast of
the Adriatic Sea.
England was to have the Island of Cyprus.  This gem  of tlre eastern
Mediterranean is one hundred and forty-six miles long, and sixty-three miles
broad. From its picturesque beauty of landscape, its fertility of soil, and its
delicious climate, it has been called an earthly paradise.  WTith this island
for a naval depOt, England was also to have the whole of Egypt. This would:give her command of the canal which was about to be constructed, connecting the M3editerranean with the Red Sea.
France was at this time under the reign of Louis Philippe, and was so little
regarded by' the other powers, that it was not deemed necessary even to
approach her upon the subject.  Keenly France felt the dishonor of her low
estate. Never was there a more ambitious bribe presented to ambitious
courts.  Why did not England and Austria yield?  Because the arrangement
would make Russia so vast in territory, population, and all the elements of
naval and military power, as to constitute her the undisputed monarch of the
Eastern world.*
* Alison, vol. viii. p. 41.




THE EASTERN QUESTION.                           533
It is so essential to the civilization of Russia that she should have some
southern maritime port which will give her access to commerce, that it is not
easy for Americans, who have no personal interest in the question, to withhold
their sympathy from her in her endeavor to open a gateway fiom her vast
territories through the Dardanelles.  When France, England, Sardinia, alnd
Turkey combined, in the late Crimean War, to batter down the Russian fortress at Sevastopol, and to burn the Russian fleet, that Russia mi'ht be restricted to her northern wilds, the popular instinct on this side of the Atlantic
was probably with the Russian banners.          "
What title-deed, Russia asks, can the Turk show to the city of Constantine?  None but the dripping cimeter. The annals of war can tell no sadder
tale than the rush of the barbarian Turk into Christian Greece. lie came,
a merciless robber with gory hand, plundering and burning, butchering the
parents, dragging maidens to his harem, and by the thrust of the sword compelling Christian boys to adopt the Moslem  faith and fight in the Turkish
armies.
But the star of the Moslem has passed its zenith, and is fast sinking. The
Ottoman Porte is a sick man dying; and the effects of the dead must be
surrendered to the living. There are fifteen millions of Christians, members
of the Greek Church in Turkey, subject to the Moslem yoke. Though the
patriarch at Constantinople is nominally the head of this commlunion, the
Czar of Russia is in reality its pope.  These Christians have been fearfully
oppressed.  The patriarch was compelled to pay one-half of his income to
the sultan.  The Christians were not permitted to build any new churches,
or even to repair the old, without a special license, which it was exceedingly
difficult to obtain.  They could have neither steeples nor bells to their
churches; were prohibited from wearing the Turkish costume, that by their
dress they might be recognized as belonging to the despised sect of Christians;
and they were exposed to such indignities, that they generally found it expedient to attend public worship at night.*
This Christian population gives the czar great moral power in Turkey.  lie
claims the right to protect them as brother Christians, members of the church
of which he is virtually the spiritual head.  Notwithstancing the remonstrances of diplomacy, the sympathies of Christendom  are with him in that
claim.  But diplomacy says that Russian ascendency in Turkey must be
arrested, at whatever cost. Thus we see tlhe unnatural alliance of Christian
nations endeavoring to uphold Turkey, the worst of all despotisms, and uniting the Cross with the Crescent to arrest the advances of a Christian power.
This brief statement of the Eastern Question is important to the ffill understanding of the Crimean campaign, which will be the subject of the next
chapter.
Encyclopoedia Americana, art. "Greek'Church."




CHAPTER XXXI.
THE CRIMEAN  WAR.
Question of the Shrines.- Measures of the French Government.- Arrogance of Russia.The Ultimatum of the Czar.- Its lRejection. - Cordial Co-operation of France and England.
- Efforts of the French Emperor for Peace.- The Vienna Note. - Letter from Napoleon to
Nicholas.-Embarrassments of Austria and Prussia. -Diplomatic Relations suspended.WVar declared. - Addresses of Napoleon. - Sinope. - Expedition to the Crimea. - Battle of
Alma. - Despatches of Marshal St. Arnaud. - His Death. - Grief of the Emperor. - His
Letter to the Marchioness.
Tis estimated that a million of men, workmen and soldiers,
perished in the War of the Crimea.*  It is hardly exaggerai    o N tion to say that it clothed Europe in mourning.  The wealth
/ expended was almost beyond calculation.  The real cause of
/  the war has been explained in the last chapter. The immediate
occasion of it was as follows:For a long titae, the members of the Roman-Catholic Church, and the members of the Greek Church in Turkey, had contended for the possession of
the holy places in Palestine.  By a treaty concluded between France and the
Porte in 1740, certain privileges were guaranteed to the members of the
RPoman-Catholic Church; but gradually the members of the Greek Church,
who were far more numerous, and who were supported by the ever-watchful
care of. the czar, had lade such encroachments upon the rights of the Latins,
that, in the year 1850, the Latins found themselves excluded from nine of the
most venerated  sanctuaries.   Under these  circumstances, the fathers of
the Latin Church made an earnest appeal to France to enforce the fulfilment
of the treaty of 1740, which had been so seriously violated.t
The French Government, then a republic under the presidency of Louis
Napoleon, thus addressed, sent, in May, 1850, General Aupick, an ambassador
to the Porte, to remind the sultan of the treaty, and to obtain for the Latins
the restitution of those sanctuaries which had thus been wrested from thelr;
but the sultan, fearing to offend the Emperor of Russia, after the delay of
several months, at the close of the year, returned an evasive answer.
In 1851, the Marquis dc  Lavalette succeeded General Aupick as ambassador
at the Ottoman Porte.  Through him  the French Government suggested
that a commission should be formed, composed of French and Greeks, to
* The Invasion of the Crimea, Kinglake, vol. i. p. 26.
t L'Expedition de Crimee, pa* le Baron de Bazancourt, tom. i. p. 14.
534




THE CRIMEAN WAR.                              535
settle the question by friendly conference. To this the sultan assented; but
the Czar Nicholas immediately interposed, and sent an autograph-letter to the
sultan, so menacing in its tone, that he dissolved the commission after it had
held several sessions.
The French ambassador then suggested a commission, to be composed
exclusively of Turks.  To such a magnanimous offer there could be no refusal.  The French claim was so clear, that the most prejudiced could not
refrain fiom admitting it. This commission promptly decided that the Latins
were entitled to the privileges which they demanded.  The sultan accordingly
issued a proclamation restoring to the Latins the rights which had been
wrested from them.
This should have settled the question; but Nicholas, the Emperor of
Russia, again interposed, and sent a remonstrance so threatening in its aspect,
that the sultan, intimidated, promptly issued another firman, revoking the
concessions to which he had just acknowledged that the Latins were entitled,
and ratifying the enbroachments of the Greeks.  Of course, France could
not, without dishonor, submit to such an act of injustice.  Still the French
Government, sympathizing with the sultan in his embarrassment, menaced by
so strong a foe, adopted a conciliatory policy; and for some time the question
remained involved in the mazes of diplomacy.
The simple question of the shrines was one which did not, probably, deeply
interest the Turkish Government; for it was merely a conflict between two
Christian sects within its borders: but, in the view  of these contending
Christians, it was a question of momentous consequence.  Russia supported
the Greeks, France the Latins.  The sultan flared to give Russia any occasion,
or even pretence, for war.  But France under Napoleon III. was not a power
to be treated, like Fralee under Louis Philippe, with indignity; and could
not submit to have its acknowledged rights and treaty obligations wantonly
trampled upon. Thus the Porte, ruled by fear, temporized and vacillated.
The question now began to attract the attention of England.*  The cabinet
of St. James probably cared but little for the religious dispute; but the political aspect of the affair interested England intensely.  If Russia succeeded in
provoking a war with the sultan, Turkey, unaided, could present no effectual
resistance; and the fleet of the czar would be soon anchored in the Bospho-.
rus, and the Russian troops would be quartered in the palaces and mosques
of Constantinople.  England was also interested* in preventing France from
acquiring too great an influence in Turkey.  Should the czar attack the
sultan, and France come to the rescue of the Porte, French influence would
dominate in the Levant.  It was, therefore, not safe for England to allow
France alone tobecome the protector of Turkey.
After several unavailing attempts at reconciliation, England suggested to
France the idea of treating directly with Russia.t  It was a wise and an
ingenuous suggestion, as it liberated the Turkish Government from  very
embarrassing responsibility in a question in which it had but little personal
* "C'est a ce moment qu'apparait 1'Angleterre. Elle n'est pas mediatrise, elle regarde, elle
examine*" - L'Expdition de Crimee, par le Baron de Bazancourt, tom. i. p. 17.
t Idem, p. 17.




536                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
concern. France accepted the counsel of England, and opened direct communications with the court at St. Petersburg.  But, in the mean time, Russia,
imperious and reckless, sent an army corps to invade the Turkish Danubian
principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.  The czar did not then venture to
annex those provinces to his empire, but assumed the right of protecting by
military force the Christians there, who composed the greater part of the
population.,
This act of invasion terminated the religious question; and the more important political question now arose. France, anxious to avoid war, still persevered in her course of moderation. It was clear that Russia was impelled
only by the desire to make new encroachments upon Turkey.
Following this menace of armed invasion, Nicholas sent, on the 28th of
February, 1853, Prince Mentschikoff on an extraordinary embassy to Constantinople, -to extort a treaty-engagement from  the Porte, by which the Greek
Church throughout all Turkey, numbering, as we have said, about fifteen
millions, should be placed under the protection of Russia.  The ambassador
was an exceedingly haughty and overbearing man. In consequence of these
qualities, he was selected as peculiarly fitted for a mission of menace and
intimidation.  He entered  Constantinople with the pomp of a monarch,
accompanied by a numerous retinue, and supported by a fleet.  He called
with his nhole embassy upon the grand vizier; but contemptuously refused to
call upon Fuad Effendi, the minister for foreign affairs at the Porte.  According to established etiquette, it was his duty to make the call: the neglect was
a gross insult, and was intended to be so regarded.  The minister resigned.
The divan was greatly alarmed.. Active military preparations were going on
ih Russia; and the independence of Turkey was threatened.
The sultan appealed to England and France for protection, and entreated
them to send their fleets for the support of the Turkish Government. England declined. France so far responded to the appeal as to despatch a naval
force to the Levant. England was deceived by the false protestations of Russia, that she was contemplating no hostile movement against Turkey.  The
French emperor was not deceived. Russia had now   completed, in Bessarabia, preparations for the passage of one hundred and twenty thousand men
across the Pruth.  Battalions were marching to the south from all directions.*
Such was the posture of affairs when Lord Stratford de Redcliffe arrived at
Constantinople as British ambassador; almost immediately followed by M. de
Lacour, minister from France. Lord Stratford instantly comprehended the
situation. The three ambassadors from Russia, France, and England, met in
conference.  Russia nade demands through her ambassador for a protectorate over the whole Greek population of Turkey, their clergy, and their
churches.  Both France and England thought Turkey could not, consistently
with self-respect, grant such exactions, and that the grant would prove fatal
to the existence of the Turkish Government.t  The sultan rejected the pro* The Invasion of the Crimea, Kinglake, vol. i. p. 87.
t " It was plain, that for the sultan to yield thus much would be to make the czar a partaker
of his sovereignty. This seemed clear to men of all nations except the Russians themselves." -
Kinglake, vol. i. p. 109.




THE CRIMEAN WAR.                               537
posals; and Mentschikoff demanded his passports, and withdrew. This was
the latter part of May, 1853.
The ultimatum of Nicholas was, that the Porte should not only surrender to
Russia the administration of the religious interests of the Greeks, but that
Russia should hold Moldavia and Wallachia, two of the provinces of Turkey,
as a pledge that the treaty, or contract, should be faithfully observedc.  Russia,
possessing these principalities, and already absolute sovereign of the Black
Sea, would then have but to reach forth her hand, and seize the Dardanelles,
whenever she should see fit to do so. The claim of the czar to a protectorate
over the Christians in Turkey was equivalent to a claim  on the part of the
pope to a protectorate over the Catholics in the United States.  The refusal
of the Porte to accede to the humiliating terms Russia wished to exact *as
sustained by both France and England.
The question with regard to the holy places had now entirely disappeared.
The departure of Mentschikoff was regarded as the sure prelude to a declaration of war. Austria and Prussia associated themselves in diplomatic sympathy with France and England.  These four powers united in the endeavor to.prevent a war which seemed inevitable.  The squadrons of France and England were now riding at anchor near the mouth of the Dardanelles, prepared
for any emergency.  France proposed to the four powers that they should
meet in conference.  They met by their ambassadors at Vienna, at the residence of the Austrian minister, Count Buol.t
The ultimatum  presented to the'Porte by Russia was discussed and
rejected. Many other plans were brought forward, examined, and laid aside.
Prolosals were made to Russia, and counter-propositions were returned; but
no satisfactory basis of settlement could be found. Lord Stratford, according
to Mr. Kinglake, urged, on his own responsibility, the following terms of
concession upon the Porte:"Taking the complaints of Russia according to their avowed meaning, the
English ambassador faithfully strove to remove every trace of the foundation
on which they rested; and, having caused the Porte to issue firmans perpetuating all the accustomed priivileges of the Greek  Cthurch, he proposed that
copies of these firmnans should be sent to the court of St. Petersburg, together
with a courteous note from  the Porte to Count Nesselrode (the Russian
minister), distinctly assuring the chancellor that the firmans confirmed the
privileges of the Greek Church in perpetuity, and virtually, therefore, engaging that the grants should never be revokel." +
Since the Turkish Government admitted that it was bound by treaty obligations with France to protect the Latins in privileges which the Greeks had
wrested from them, these terms, it would seem, could be regarded in no other
light than as an insult to France; but should Turlkey, Russia, and England
unite in enforcing a settlement upon this basis, France would be placed
in a very embarrassing position. It is, indeed, possible that this might have: L'Expedition de Crimde, par le Baron de Bazancourt, vol. i. p. 26.
t Idem, p. 26.
$ The Invasion of the Crimea, by A. 5W. Kinglake, vol. i. p. 226.
68




538                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
been the object at which Lord Stratford aimed.  His extraordinary proposition was submitted to the congress of the four powers assembled in Vienna,
and by them was rejected. 
A plan was drawn up soon after in Paris, attributed, without contradiction,
to the pen of the Emperor Napoleon III.  This proposal attained much
celebrity under the title of the " Vienna Note."  It assumed the form  of a
proposition, which Austria, as mediator, suggested should be presented by
the Porte  to  the Emperor of Russia.  The  intelligent reader can judge
whether it suggested a conciliatory and honorable settlement of the difficulty.
The essentials of the plan were as follows —'"If, at every epoch, the emperors of Russia have testified their active,
solicitude for the maintenance of the immunities and privileges of the Greek
Church in the Ottoman Empire, the sultans have never refused to consecrate
them  anew by solemn acts which attest their'ancient and constant interest in
the welare of their Christian subjects.
"His Majesty the Sultan  Abdul-Meldjid, now  reigning, animated by the
same disposition, and wishing to give to his Majesty the Emperor of Russia
a personal testimony of his sincere fiiendship, and cherishing entire confidence in the eminent qualities of his august friend and ally, has taken into
serious consideration  the representations which  his Highness the Prince
Mentschikoff has presented to the Sublime Porte.
"The undersigned has received, in consequence, the order to declare that
the government of his Majesty the Sultan will remain faithful to the letter
and the spirit of the treaties of.atinarcd i and of Aclrianople, relative to the
protection of Christian worship i and that his J1ajesty regards it as a point
of honor, ever to mzaintain and to protect from  all harm, now  and in the
future, the enjoyment of the spiritual privileges which have been accorded by
the au#gust ancestors of his JfIjesty to the Orthodox Church in the East, and
which have been maintained and confirmed by him; and also that he will
grant to the Greek worship  all the advantages conceded to other Christian
sects by convention or by special agreement." *
It will be seen by the above, that the substance of the emperor's proposition was, that the sultan should faithfully observe the treaties into which he
had entered, and that he would impartially protect all Christians within his
realms, of whatever denomination.t
It would seem  that this note met wvith  the approval of the cabinet of
Queen Victoria.  It was accepted and adopted by the ambassadors of the
four powers in session at Vienna.  The Emperor Nicholas was consulted; and
* L'Expedition de Crimde, Causes de la Guerre d'Orient, par le Baron de Bazancourt,
tom. i. p. 29.
t Kinglake says, in that peculiar spirit of misrepresentation and prejudice which seems to
pervade almost every page of his narrative, "And here it ought to be marked, that, at this
moment, the French emperor did nothing to thwart the restoration of tranquillity. IHe perhaps
believed, that if a note, which had originated in Paris, were to become the basis of a settlement,
he might found on this circumstance a claim to the glory of having pacified Europe, and, in that
wholesome way, miglht achieve that sort of conspicuousness which he loved and needed." - The
invasioz of the Crimiea, vol. i. p. 228.




THE CRIMEAN WAR.                               539
he declared the terms acceptable to Russia.  It was then presented to the
sultan, and the acceptance was pressed " with all the moral weight which the
four powers could give to their unanimous award." *  The sultan certainly
Lwould have adopted the note but for the opposition of Lord Stratford, the
British minister at Constantinople.  We cannot but infer, from the narrative
of Mr. Kinglake, that Lord Stratford's opposition was founded on pique in.
not having been consulted.
"The governments of the four powers," writes hir. Itinglake, " and their
representatives assembled at Vienna, fondly imagined that they could settle
the dispute, and restore tranquillity to Europe, without consulting Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.  They framed and despatched the note without learning
what his opinion of it was...   The one man who was judge of what
ought or ought not to be conceded by the Turks was Lord Stratford; and it
is plain that any statesmen who forgot him  in their reckoning must have
been imperfect in their notion of political dynamics." t
Thus it would seem, that, but for this pique of a single individual, - that
of " this strong-willed Englishman,"'  - the conciliatory and reasonable terms
presented by the Emperor of the French would have been accepted by the
sultan. Thus all the immeasurable woes of the Crimean War, with its sacrifice
of a million of lives and hundreds of millions of wealth, would have been
averted. Upon apparently such trivial influences are the most momentous
issues of earth suspended.
Lord Stratford, in his despatches to the British Government, professed that
"he scrupulously abstained from expressing any private opinion of his on the
note while it was under consideration at the Porte."  But Mr. Kinglake says,
"It cannot be doubted that Lord Stratford's opinion was opposed to that of
his government.  It is not to be believed, that, even if he strove to do so,
Lord Stratford could hide his real thoughts from the Turkish ministers.
There was that in his very presence which disclosed his volition. For if the
thin, disciplined lips moved in obedience to constituted authorities, men
who knew how to read the meaning of his brow, and the light which kindled
beneath, would gather that the ambassador's thought concerning the home
governments of the five great powers of Europe was little else than an angry'quos ego.'" ~
Thus influenced, the Porte, on the 19th of August, declined to accept the
note, unless certain alterations were made.  The Emperor of Russia refused
to accept the note with the alterations. Thus the Emperor of France was
disappointed in his efforts to avert the horrors of war. In urging the adoption of the note, "Europe," writes Kinglake, "was in the wrong, and Lord.
Stratford and the Turks were in the right."  It is not probable that history
will ratify this verdict.ll
IKinglake, vol. i. p. 227.  Idem, p. 228. a    $ Idem, p. 229.   ~ Vtem, p. 230.
I) "Welcome or unwelcome, the truth must be told. A huge obstacle to the maintenance of
peace in Europe was raised up by the temper of the English people. The English desired war;
and perhaps it ought to be acknowledged that there were many to whom war, for the sake of
war, was no longer a hateful thought."- The Invasion of the Crimea, by A. IV. Kinglake, vol. i.
p. 262.




540                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The alterations demanded by the sultan seemed so trivial or unreasonable,
that the ambassadors of the four powers were disposed to insist that the Porte
should accept the note without the proposed modifications.  In the mean
time, however, the Turkish Government had informed Russia of its rejection,
of the note unless amended.  This gave Russia a new advantage.  The four
powers had presented terms of settlement which they declared to be just.
The czar had accepted them; the sultan had rejected them.
On the 7th of September, the ambassadors in session at Vienna, who were
about to insist upon the acceptance of the note by the sultan, encountered a
new embarrassment.  The Emperor Nicholas, emboldened by this action of
the sultan in rejecting the terms which had been proposed, sent in response a
despatch to Vienna, containing such comments upon his interpretation of the
significance of the note, that the powers could no longer insist that the Porte
should present it with such an interpretation.*
Nicholas was still reluctant to enter upon a war which threatened to assume
such gigantic proportions. In all Europe, he could not find an ally. Every
government was against him. IHe therefore issued a circular to all the ambassadors of foreign courts at St. Petersburg, stating that Russia would not take
the offensive, but would content herself with retaining the principalities
which she had seized until Turkey should give her satisfaction.
Russia, therefore, still held military possession of the' Turkish principalities.
Turkey, regarding this as a hostile act, issued a declaration, that, if the Russian
troops were not withdrawn within fifteen days, war would be understood as
declared. The troops were not withdrawn; and on the 23d of October, the
fifteen days having expired, Russia and Turkey were in a state of war.
It now became necessary that there should be some decisive action on the
part of France and England. They must either withdraw  entirely from
the field, or advance with fleet and army to the support of the sultan. No cooperative measures were as yet agreed upon by these two powers, except
that the English and French fleets ascended to Constantinople.
The czar was now thoroughly roused. The Russian fleet was at Sevastopol,
on the northern shore of the Euxine.  On the southern shore, at the distance
of nearly three hundred miles, the Turkish fleet was at anchor in the Bay of
Sinope. On the 30th of November, the Russian fleet, consisting of six sail of
the line, entered the bay. The Turks opened fire.  The battle was brief, terrific, and awfully destructive of life. Every Turkish vessel but one was sunk
by the vastly superior force of the Russians; and four thousand of their crew
perished. Less than four hundred escaped, and nearly all of these were
wounded.t
The Emperor of France was greatly chagrined that such a disaster should
have taken place almost within sound of the guns of the French and
British squadrons. In England, the popular indignation was even more intense than in France; but still the Ftench Emperor was anxious, if possible, to
arrest the progress of the war. Instead of urging measures of fierce retaliation,
* Kinglake, vol. i. p. 231. Also le Baron de Bazaucourt, torn. i. p. 29.
t Eastern Papers, part ii. p. 305.




THE CRIMEAN WAR                               541
he proposed to give notice to Russia, "that France and England were resolved
to prevent the repetition of the affair at Sinope; and that every Russian ship
thenceforward met in the Euxine would be requested, and if necessary constrained, to return to Sevastopol; and that any act of aggression afterwards
attempted against the Ottoman territory or flag. would be repelled by force." *
The English cabinet concurred in this measure. On the 12th of January,
1854, the fleets of France and England entered the Euxine.  The ambassadors
of the four powers drew up another note, to which the Ottoman Porte was
constrained to give its assent; and now all the authority of the four powers
was to be called into requisition to press its acceptance upon the czar..But
Nicholas was inexorable. His passions were so roused, that he refused to listen to any measures of conciliation. All hope of a peaceful termination of the
difficulties seemed to have vanished.  Still, the Emperor of France, at this late
hour, made yet another effort to save Europe fiom the awful conflict. In the
following autograph-letter directed to the czar, he earnestly appealed to his
sense of justice and humanity to avert the threatened strife:"PALACE OF THE TUILERIES, Jan. 29, 1854.
"SIRE, — The difference which has arisen" between your Majesty and the
Ottoman Porte has reached a point so serious, that I deem  it a duty myself
to explain directly to your Majesty the part which France has taken in this
question, and the means by which, it seems to me, the dangers which menace
Europe may be averted.
"The note which your Majesty has recently delivered to our government
and to that of Queen Victoria assumes that the system  of pressure, adopted
front the beginning by the two maritime powers, has alone envenomed the
question. It would, on the contrary, it seems to me, have continued a question of the cabinet, if the occupation of the principalities had not suddenly
transferred it fiom the domain of discussion into that of facts. Nevertheless, the troops of your Majesty having once entered Wallachia, we still endeavored to indace the Porte not to regard the occupation as a cause of war;
thus manifesting our extreme desire for conciliation.
"After being myself in concert with England, Austria, and Prussia, I transmitted to your Majesty a note designed to give common satisfaction. Your
Majesty accepted it.t  But scarcely were we informed of this good news, when
your M3ajesty's minister, by explanatory commentaries, destroyed the conciliating effect of the note, and thus prevented us from insisting at Constantinople
upon its adoption pure and simple.
"The Porte, on its side, had also proposed to the project of the note modifications which the four powers represented at Vienna did not find unacceptable. They did not receive the assent of your Majesty.  Then the Porte,
wounded in its dignity, menaced in its independence, involved in debt by the
efforts already made to oppose an army to the forces of your Majesty, chose
rather to declare war than to remain in that state of uncertainty and abasement.
* Eastern Papers, part ii. p. 30Z.
t This was " the Vienna Note " referred to above, which was adopted by the four powers, and
sent to Nicholas, but which the sultan, by the advice of Lord Stratford, rejected.




542'         LIFE OF NAPOLEON'III.
"The Porte implored our aid: its cause appeared to us just. The English
and French squadrons received orders to cast anchor in the Bosphorus.
"Our attitude in respect to Turkey was protective, but passive. We did
not incite to war..We endeavored incessantly to proclaim, in the ears of the
sultan, counsels of peace and of moderation, persuaded that these were the
means by which to arrive at agreement; and the four powers again undertook
to submit to your Majesty new propositions.
"Your Majesty, on your part, exhibiting that calmness which springs from
the consciousness of strength, limited yourself to repel on the left banks of
the Danube, as in Asia, the attacks of the Turks, and, with moderation worthy
of the chief of a great empire, declared that you would stand upon the defensive. Until then, we were, I must say, interested spectators, but simple spectators, of the strife, when the affair of Sinope came to force us to take a
position more decisive.
" France and England had not deemed it proper to send troops to disembark for the aid of Turkey. Their flags were not then engaged in the
conflicts which had taken place on the land; but upon the sea it was very
different. They had at the entrance of the Bosphorus three thousand pieces
of cannon, whose presence proclaimed sufficiently loud to Turkey that the
two first maritime powers would not permit the Porte to be attacked upon
the sea. The affair at Sinope was for us as wounding as it was unexpected;
for it was of little importance whether the Turks had wished or not to pass
munitions of war over the Russian territory. In point of fact, Russian ships
had attacked Turkish vessels in the waters of Turkey, and while tranquilly at
anchor in a Turkish port. They have destroyed this Turkish fleet, notwithstanding the assurance given not to wage an aggressive war, and notwithstcnding the neighborhood of our squadrons. It was no longer our policy which
received a check: it was our military honor. These cannon-shots of Sinope
have re-echoed grievously in the hearts of all those in England and in France
who cherish a lively sentiment of national dignity. They have exclaimed
with common accord,'Wherever our cannon can be heard, our allies ought
to be respected.'
" Hence the order was given to our squadrons to enter the Black Sea, and
to prevent, by force if necessary, the recurrence of a similar event; hence the
united notification sent to the cabinet of St. Petersburg, to announce to it,
that, if we would prevent the Turks from waging an aggressive war upon
territory belonging to Russia, we must also protect Turkish territory from the
ravages of Russian troops. As to the Russian fleet, in interclicting it the
navigation of the Black Sea, we place it under different conditions; for it is
necessary, during the continuance of the war, to preserve a pledge which may
be an equivalent for that portion of the Turkish territory which Russia has
occupied, and which pledge may thus facilitate the conclusion of peace by
becoming the title for an equitable exchange.
"Behold, sire, the true succession and train of events! It is clear that they
have reached a point which must lead promptly to a definite agreement or to
a decided rupture. Your Majesty has given so many proofs. of your solicitude
for the repose of Europe, you have contributed so'powerfully by your benefi



THE CRIMEAN WAR.                                543
cent influence against the spirit of disorder, that I cannot doubt of your decision
in the alternative which presents itself to your choice. If your Majesty desires
as much as I do a pacific conclusion, what can be more simple than to declare
that an armistice will be signed immediately, that affairs will resume their
diplomatic course, that all hostility will cease, and that all the belligerent
forces will retire from the places which they have occupied through motives
of war?
" Thus the Russian troops will abandon the principalities, and our squadrons will leave tbe Black Sea.  Your Majesty, preferring to treat directly
with Turkey, will name an ambassador who will negotiate with a plenipotentiary of the sultan, - an agreement which will be submitted to a conference
of the four powers. Let your Majesty adopt this plan, upon which the Queen
of England is in perfect accord with me, and tranquillity is re-established,
and everybody satisfied. There is truly nothing in this plan which is not.worthy of your Majesty, nothing which can wound your honor. But if, through
a motive difficult to comprehend, your Majesty opposes a refusal, then France,
and also England, will be obliged to submit to the fortune of arms and to
the hazards of war that which could now be decided by reason and justice.
" Let not your Majesty think that the least animosity enters into my heart.
It experiences no other sentiments than those expressed by your Majesty
yourself, in your letter of the 17th of January, 1853, when you wrote to me,'Our relations ought to be sincerely friendly, to repose upon the same intentions, - the maintenance of order, the love of peace, respect for treaties, and
reciprocal good will.' This programme is worthy of the sovereign who has
traced it; and I do not hesitate to affirm that I shall remain faithful to it.
"I pray your Majesty to believe in the sincerity of my regard; and it'is
with these sentiments that I am, sire,
"Of your Majesty the good friend,
" NAPOLEON." *
The Russian czar turned a deaf ear to this appeal, and soon, in token of
his severe displeasure, withdrew his ambassadors fiom Paris and from London.
France and England followed his example, and recalled their ministers from
St. Petersburg. Thus, on the 21st of February, 1854, though war was not
declared, diplomatic relations between Russia and the Western powers ceased.
Still all parties were slow in engaging in active hostilities; and yet all were
active in preparation for the great struggle.  Austria, assuming rather the
position of mediator, proposed that France and England should summon
Russia to withdraw from  the principalities; and, if she refused to comply,
they should declare war.  Austria promised to support this summons, as also
did Prussia.t  Thus affairs lingered.  Each party seemed to hesitate in precipitating the strife.
* (Euvres de Napoleon III., tom. troisibme, pp. 373-376.
t The following was the form of Austria's proposition of the 22dc of February, conveyed to
both France and England: " If England and France will fix a term for the evacuation of the
principalities, the expiration of which shall be the signal for hostilities, the cabinet of Vienna
will support the summons." -Eastern Papers, part vii. p. 53.




544                      LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
About a month after Napoleon had written his friendly letter to the Czar
Nicholas, the French legislative session was opened on the 2d of March,
1854. The emperor, in his message to the united senators and deputies on
that occasion, said, -
"Last year, in my opening discourse, I promised to make every effort in
my power to maintain peace, and to tranquillize Europe. I have kept my
word. In order to avoid a conflict, I have gone as far as honor would permit
me to go. Europe now knows beyond all doubt, that, if France draw the
sword, it is because she is compelled to do so. She knows that France has
no idea of aggrandizement: she wishes only to resist dangerous encroachments. Also I love to proclaim loudly that the time for conquests is passed
beyond return: for it is no longer in extending territorial limits that a
nation can hereafter be honored and powerful; it is in placing itself at the
head of generous ideas, and in causing the principles of law and justice everywhere to prevail.
"Thus you see the results of a policy without selfishness and without
reserve. Behold England, that ancient rival, who binds with us the bonds
of an alliance daily more intimate, because the ideas which we advocate are
at the same time those cherished by the English people! Germany, whom
the remembrance of ancient wars rendered still more defiant5 and who on
that account has given, for the last forty years, perhaps too many proofs of
deference to the policy of the cabinet of St. Petersburg, has already recovered
independence in her conduct, and looks, freely to see on which side her true
interests may be found. Austria in particular, which cannot regard with
indifference the events which are approaching, enters into our alliance, and
comes thus to confirm  the character of morality, and the justice of the war
we are about to undertake.
"Behold the true state of the question in which we are now engaged!
Europe, engrossed by domestic troubles for forty years, and, moreover, assured
by the moderation of the Emperor Alexander in 1815, as by that of his
successor until this day, seemed unconscious of the danger with which it was
menaced by that colossal power, which, by its successive encroachments,
embraced the north and the south, and which possesses almost exclusively
two inland seas, from which it is easy for its armies and its fleets to launch
forth upon our civilization. It required only the claim, without foundation,
for Constantinople, to awake slumbering Europe.
"'We have seen in effect, in the East, in the midst of profound peace, a
sovereign suddenly demanding of his more feeble neighbor new privileges;
and, because he did not obtain them, he invades two of his provinces.  That
fact alone should place arms in the hands of those who revolt at iniquity.
But we have also other reasons for supporting Turkey. France has as much
interest as, and perhaps more than, England, that the influence of Russia should
not extend indefinitely upon Constantinople: for to reign at Constanltinople
is to reign over the Mediterranean.; and none of you gentlemen, I think, will
say that England alone has grand interests in that sea, which washes three
hundred leagues of our coasts. Moreover, this policy does not date from




THE CRIMEAN WAR.                               545
yesterday: for many ages, every national government in France has sustained
it. I shall not abandon it.
"Let no one, then, any longer say to us,' What do you intend to do at
Constantinople?' We go there, with England, to defend the cause of the
sultan, and also to protect the rights of Christians; we go there to defend the
freedom of the seas and our just influence in the Mediterranean; we go there,
with Germany, to aid to preserve the rank from which some wish to cause her
to descend, to assure her frontiers against the preponderance of a neighbor too
powerful; we go there, in fine, with all those who wish for the triumph of
law, of justice, and of civilization.
" Under these solemn circumstances, gentlemen, as in all those in which I
shall be obliged to make an appeal to the country, I am sure of your support;
for I have always found in you the generous sentiments which animate the
nation. Thus strong in that support, in the nobleness of the cause, in the sincerity of our alliances, and relying especially upon the protection of God, I
hope to arrive soon at a peace which it will not be in the power of any one
person to disturb with impunity." *
France and England, in accordance with the suggestion  of Austria to
which we have referred, each sent a summons to Russia, declaring, that if the
czar did not, within six days after receiving the summons, send an answer
engaging to withdraw his troops from the principalities before the 30th of
April, the refusal would be regarded as a declaration of war. Prussia, in a
very earnest appeal to the czar, "urged the Russian Government to consider
the dangers to which the peace of the world would be exposed by a refusal,
and declared that the responsibility of the war which might be the consequence of that refusal would rest with the czar." t
The Russian minister, Count Nesselrode, informed the consuls of France
and England -for it will be remembered that their ambassadors had been
withdrawn -that the emperor did not think fit to send any answer to their
notes. This refusal was given on the 19th of March, 1854.  On the 27th of
March, the Emperor Napoleon  announced to the Senate and Legislative
Corps that the decision of the cabinet of St. Petersburg had placed France
and Russia in a state of war.  On the same day, the Queen of England made
a similar announcement to the British Parliament.  The queen assigned as
the cause of the war, her obligations to protect an ally whose integrity and
independence were essential to the peace of Europe, the sympathies of her
people for the cause of right against injustice, and the desire to save Europe
from  the preponderance of a power which had violated the faith of treaties.+
It was not until the 11th of April that the Emperor of Russia issued his
declaration of war. IIe stated that the summons which he had received from
France and England rendered it no longer possible for him  to yield with
honor. In his manifesto to the Russian people, he saicd,* (Euvres de Napoleon III., tom. iii. pp. 284-286.  t Eastern Papers, part vii. p. 72.
\ Kinglake, vol. i. p. 297.
69




546                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
" Russia fights not for the things of this world, but for the faith.  England
and France have ranged  themselves by the  side of the enemies of Christianity, against Russia fighting for the Orthodox faith: but Russia will not
alter her divine mission; and, if enemies invade her fiontiers, we are ready
to meet them  with the firmness which our ancestors have bequeathed to us.
Are we not now the same Russian nation of whose deeds of valor the memorable events of 1812 bear witness?  May the Almighty assist us to prove
this by deeds! and in this trust, taking up arms for our persecuted brethren
professing the Christian faith, we will exclaim with the whole of Russia, with
one heart,'0  Lord our Saviour! whom  have we to fear?  May God arise,
and may his enemies be scattered!'"
On the 24th of March, four days after the czar had rejected the summons.of France and England, the Russian troops crossed the Danube at three
points, and commenced the invasion of Turkey.  It was not until the 10tlh of
April that France and England entered into a formal alliance for the prosecution of the war.*  Neither Austria. nor Prussia joined the confederacy.
Francis Joseph of Austria and the Emperor Nicholas were warm  personal
fiiends.  They had held several private interviews during the negotiations;
and it is not improbable that the youthful king, vanquished by the personal
ascendency of Nicholas, had promised not to  draw the sword  a.gainst him.
The King of Prussia, and Nicholas, were brothers-in-law.  This consideration
was sufficient to  make the King  of Prussia reluctant to send his armies
against the czar.  Besides, the main conflict was evidently to be waged far
away on the solitary shores of the Euxine Sea.  Troops and all the matteriel
of war could be conveyed there only by water.  Neither Austria nor.Prussia
was a maritime power.  This consideration, perhaps, gave some plausibility
to their excuse for standing aloof when actual hostilities commenced.
It is not our design to give even an abstract of the varying incidents of
the Crimean War, but only to record those events which reflect light upon the
conduct and character of the Emperor of the French.  Early in July, the
allies sent a naval and a land force to the Baltic.  The emperor, in the follow* In the following terms, the alliance was concluded between France and England:"Article 1.- The high contracting parties engage to do what they can to secure the re-establishment of peace between Russia and the Sublime Porte on solid and durable bases, and to
guarantee Europe against the return of those deplorable complications which now threaten the
general peace.
"Art. 2. -The integrity of the Ottoman Empire being violated by the occupation of the
provinces of loldavia and Wallachia, and by other movements of the'Russian troops, their
Majesties the Emperor of the French and the Queen of the united realm of Great Britain and
of Ireland have agreed upon the most appropriate measures to liberate the territory of the sultan from foreign invasion, and to obtain the object specified in Art. 1.
"Art. 3. - Whatever events may happen in consequence of the execution of the present convention, the high contracting parties bind themselves not to accept of any overture or any
proposition tending to a cessation of hostilities, and not to enter into any arrangement with the
imperial court of Russia, without having previously deliberated together in common.
"Art. 4.- Animated by the desire to maintain the European equilibrium, and not pursuing
any interested end, the high contracting powers agree not to draw any private advantage from the
events which may occur (aoucun avantctge particulier des eveiemenets qui pourront se procluire)." -
L'Expedition de Crimee, par le Baron de Bazancourt, t. i. p. 4.




THE CRIMEAN WAR.                              547
ing terms, on the 12th of July, addressed the French troops as they embarked
at Boulogne: —
"SoLDIERS,-Russia having compelled us to war, France has armed five
hundred thousand of her children. England has placed on foot considerable
forces. To-day, our fleets and our armies, united in the same cause, are about
to dominate in the Baltic as in the Black Sea. I have chosen you to bear
our eagles into the regions of the North. English vessels are to transport
you (fact unique in history); which proves the intimate alliance of two great
people, and the firm resolution of the two governments not to recoil before
any sacrifice in order to defend the feeble, the liberties of Europe, and
national honor.
"Go, my children! Europe, attentive, will offer, openly or in secret, her
prayers for your triumph. The country, proud of a conflict in which she
menaces only the aggressor, will accompany you with her fervent prayers.
And I, detained by imperious duties far from the scene of conflict, -I shall
have my eyes upon you; and soon, in seeing you return, I shall be able to
say,'They are the worthy sons of the conquerors of Austerlitz, of Eylau,
of Friedland, of Moscow.' Go! May God protect you! "
On the 1st of August, the emperor addressed the following letter to his
minister of war. It shows the solicitude with which he watched over the
welfare of the French troops.
C IMONSIEUR LE MARECHAL, — I call your attention to the sad accidents
which are yearly renewed at the same period, when obliged to effect the movement of troops during the season of excessive heat. If they had occurred
notwithstanding all precautions had been taken, no one could be blamed;
but if through excess of zeal, and in order to execute to the letter a general
order given fiom  a distance, the health, and even the life, of the soldiers, are
imperilled, I wish that the chiefs should be severely censured.  I will not
cite examples; but, in many military divisions, the generals have not, perhaps, as they should have done, taken upon themselves to execute with
prudence and circumspection the orders emanating from  the minister of
war.
"In time of war, when the chief of a corps arrives at the appointed hour
upon a designated spot, he should be warmly praised, even though he have lost
one-half of his command upon the route; for then the military interest dominates over all things else. But, in time of peace, the first duty of a commander is to take care of his soldiers, and scrupulously to avoid every thing
which can needlessly endanger their lives. I pray you, therefore, to address
to the commanders of the military divisions a circular which will remind
them  of the precautions which should be taken to prevent, so far as possible,
the recurrence of similar disasters; and may God, Monsieur le Marechal, have
you in his holy keeping!                                     " NAPOLEON."
"WRITTEN AT BIARRITZ THE 1ST OF AUGUST, 1854."




548                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Soon after this, the emperor issued the following proclamation to the Army
of the East, which was soon read to them in the midst of enthusiastic shouts
of "Vive 1'Empereur " -
"PALACE OF THE TUILERIES, Aug. 20, 1854.
"SOLDIERS AND SAILORS OF THE ARMY OF THE EAST,-YOU have not
yet f6ught, and yet you have obtained brilliant success. Your presence and
that of the English troops has been sufficient to compel the enemy to repass
the Danube, and the Russian ships remain ignobly in their ports. You have
not yet fought; and yet already have you struggled courageously against
death. A pestilence, fearful though transient, has not been able to repress
your ardor. France, and the sovereign she has chosen, cannot witness such
energy and such self-denial without profound emotion, and without rousing
every effort to come to your aid.
"The first consul said in 1799, in a proclamation to his army,'The first
quality of a soldier is firmness in enduring fatigues and privations: courage
is but the second.' The first you have already shown. Who will dispute
your claim to the second?  Also our enemies, extending from Finland to the
Caucasus, seek with anxiety to learn upon what point France and England
will direct their blows, which they foresee must be decisive; for right, justice,
military inspiration, are on our side.
"Already Bomarsund and two thousand prisoners have fallen into our
hands.. Soldiers,, you will follow the example of the Army of Egypt.  The
conquerors of the Pyramids and of Mount Tabor had, like you, to combat
disciplined soldiers and pestilence; but, notwithstanding the plague and the
efforts of three armies, they returned in honor to their country.
"Soldiers, have confidence in your commander-in-chief and in me. I watch
over you; and I hope, with the aid of God, soon to see your sufferings diminished and your glory augmented.  Soldiers, till we meet again, aue revoir!
" NAPOLEON."
A large army of reserve, or rather of recruits, was assembled at Boulogne
and its vicinity, from which detachments were sent to the seat of war as
needed. The emperor himself took the temporary command of these troops,
and, in doing so, issued the following characteristic address: —
"BOULOGNE, Sept. 2, 1854.
"SoLDIERS, -In assuming the command of this Army of the North, one
division of which has recently obtained renown in the Baltic, I ought even
now to address you in terms of commendation; for during two months you
have supported cheerfully the fatigues and the privations inseparable fiom
such an agglomeration of troops.
"The formation of camps is the best apprenticeship of war; for it is the
faithful image of it: but it will be of no profit unless there is explained to the
comprehension of all the reason of the movements to be executed. A numerous army is compelled to scatter itself in order to live, that it may not exhaust
the resources of a country; and, nevertheless, it must be able to rally itself




THE  CRIMEAN WAR.                             549
promptly upon any field of battle. Here is found one of the first difficulties
in'a great gathering of troops.
"'Every army,' said the emperor,'whose different divisions cannot be
united in twenty-four hours upon any given point, is badly placed.'
"Ours occupies a triangle, of which St. Omer is the summit, and the base
of which extends from Ambleteuse to Montreuil.  The triangle has a base of
eight leagues, and a height of twelve; and all the troops can be concentrated
in twenty-four hours upon any point of the triangle. These movements can
be accomplished with facility if the soldier is habituated to marching; if he
carries easily his provisions and his ammunition; if each corps commander
maintains severe discipline on the route; if the different columns which converge by various roads have well reconnoitred the ground, and never fail to
be within supporting distance of each other; in fine, if any part of the army
does not impede the march of another part, notwithstanding the immense
embarrassment of so vast a number of horses and wagons. When the troops
arrive at the indicated place, it is necessary that they should understand their
positions, fortify themselves militarily, and bivouac.
" You see, then, what you are now called to put into practice. Without,
then, speaking of combats, or of manoeuvres of tactics, you see how every
thing is linked together in the art of war, and how the most simple detail
may contribute to the general success.
" Soldiers, the experienced chiefs whom I have placed at your head, and
the devotion which animates you, will render the command of the Army of
the North easy to me. You will be worthy of my confidence; and, should
circumstances require it, you will be ready to respond to the appeal of the
country.                                                     " NAPOLEON."
At the end of four weeks, the emperor left these troops for a season, and
thus addressed them on his departure:"BOULOGNE, Sept. 30, 1854.
"SOLDIERS, - I leave you, but soon again to return to judge for myself
of your progress and of your perseverance.
"The creation of the Camp of the North, you know, has had for its object
to bring our troops near the shore, that they may more easily be united
with those of England, so as to be transported wherever the honor of the
two countries may require. It has been created to show  to Europe, that,
without stripping any point in the interior, we can easily assemble nearly a
hundred thousand men from Cherbourg to St. Omer. It has been created to
accustom you to military exercises, to marches, to fatigue; and believe me,
that nothing can equal for the soldier this life in common and in the open
air, which teaches you to know each other, and how to resist the intemperance of the seasons..^
"Undoubtedly, the sojourn in camp will be rigorous during the winter; but
I rely upon the efforts of each one to render it profitable to all. The country,
moreover, claims from each of us active co-operation.  Some protect Greece
against the deadly influence of Russia; others maintain at Rome the inde



550                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
pendence of the holy father; others strengthen and extend our dominion in
Africa; others, in fine, plant, perhaps this very day, our eagles upon the walls
of Sevastopol. Now, you who are animated by such noble examples, and
whose comrades have just rendered themselves illustrious by the capture of
Bomarsund, -you will be so much the more capable of contributing your part
in the coinmoh enterprise, since you will have obtained experience in the
works of war.
" The classic soil which you tread beneath your feet has already formed its
heroes. This column, erected by our fathers, recalls glorious remembrances;
and the statue which surmounts it seems, as by a      providential design, to
indicate the route to be pursued. Behold that statue of the emperor! It
supports itself upon the west, and menaces the east. There lies the danger
to modern civilization. On our side is the rampart to defend it.  Soldiers,
you will be worthy of our noble mission."
Early in September, the allies landed about sixty thousand men upon the
peninsula of the Crimea for an attack upon the immense arsenal and naval
depot of Russia at Sevastopol. The French army consisted of 1,446 officers,
28,058 soldiers, 2,904 horses or mules, and 133 pieces of cannon. 172 vessels
of all kinds - ships of the line, frigates, corvettes, and steamboats -had transported this immense force, with an ample supply of provisions, and munitions
of war. The English army consisted of 27,000 combatants.  Of these,
22,600 were infantry, 3,100 artillery and engineers, and 1,100 cavalry. There
was also a Turkish division of 7,000 men.*
After the landing, the spectacle was magnificent. The fleet majestically
swept along the shores; while the troops, in all the pomp and pageantry of
war, marched near the water, under the protection of the guns of the fleet.
The weather was perfect, with an unclouded sky, a baldmy breeze; while
around there were spread all the richest beauties of a serene, autumnal landscape. A  short march brought them  to the River Alma. Upon heights
strongly fortified, on the opposite banks, the Russian general, Mentschikoff,
had posted forty thousand men with well-appointed batteries. The position
was so strong, that. Mentschikoff seems not to have entertained a doubt that
he should then and there utterly destroy the allied force.
The works were stormed in a terrible battle of four hours' duration. The
French rushed upon the ramparts of the foe with their characteristic impetuosity and abandon, shouting, " Vive l'Empereur! "  The British troops pressed
forward with the calm and resistless momentum of a lava flood. No military
combination can be created more formidable than the union of French ardor
with British invincibility. It was a bloody day,- a cay to give joy to the
heart of the demon of war. The rank and file of each of the armies, French,
English, Turkish, and Russian, were composed mainly of boys and yoLing
men of frqm eighteen:'to twenty-five years of age. These unlettered peasants,
thus brought together to slaughter each other, had but little conception of
the merits of the question, which could now only be settled by their blood.
* L'Expedition de Crimee, par le Baron de Bazancourt, vol. i. p. 193




THE CRIMEAN WAR.                                  551
For four hours, the horrid tempest of battle raged, with  its tumult, its
carnage, its woe.  The Russians were then seen in full retreat; but 4,628
of the poor Russian boys had been struck down, nearly 2,000 of them  dead,
and the remainder torn and bleeding, -many in lingering agony to die.*
Nothing can more clearly show the desperate valor of the assault than that
the Russians should have lost so severely when fighting behind their ramparts.
As the French commander-in-chief, Marshal St. Arnaud, beheld fiom  an
adjacent eminence the impetuosity with which the French  troops rushed
forward, sweeping like ocean-tides over and around bulwarks and ramparts,
he rubbed his hands with delight, exclaiming,"O  the brave soldiers!  0  the worthy sons of Austerlitz and of Friedland!"t
The allies did not gain a bloodless victory.  Their loss in  killed  and
wounded amounted to 3,334.  Of these, 1,351 belonged to the French armny,
and 1,983 to the British.  As the Russians sullenly retired, the allied troops
remained for a short time to bury the dead, to care for the wounded, and to
gather materials for the continuation of their march.+
In the night immediately after the battle, the French marshal, St. Arnaud,
sent the following despatch to the emperor:"The cannon of your Majesty has spoken.  We have gained a complete victory.  It is a grand day, sire, to add to the military annals of France; and
your Majesty will have still another name to add to the victories which adorn
the flag of the French army."
In a brief address to the army, the marshal wrote, " Soldiers, France and
the emperor will be satisfied with you. At Alma, you have proved to the
Russians that you were the worthy sons of the conquerors of Eylau and of
Moscow."
To his wife the marchioness he wrote, "Victory, victory, my  dearlybeloved Louisa! Yesterday, the 20th, I completely beat the Russians.  I have
captured the most formidable positions, defended by more than forty thousand
men, who are thoroughly vanquished.  But nothing can resist Frenlch impetuosity and English order and solidity.  Adieu, my Louisa!  May God protect
us!"
It would seem that the French marshal was eager to press forward in pursuit of the routed foe with rapidity; which Lord Raglan (in command of the
British troops) did not approve of, or for which he was not prepared. Perhaps
a more fiery and impetuous soul never dwelt in a human frame than that which
* Russian report, published in l'Invalide Russe.    t L'Expedition de Crimee, vol. i. p. 223.; The emperor chanced to see a letter from De Barbes, who was imprisoned at Belle Isle, in
which letter Barbes expressed great joy at the success which was accompanying the French arms.
The emperor sent the.document to the minister of the interior, with the following note:" ST. CLOUD, Oct. 3, 1854.
" MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,- The following extract of a letter from Barb6s has been communicated to
me. A prisoner who preserves, notwithstanding long sufferings, such patriotic sentiments, cannot, under
my reign, iemain in prison. Cause him, then, immediately to be set at liberty, and without conditions.
NAPOLEON."
(Euvres de Napoleon III., t. iii. p. 399.




552                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
occupied the body of St. Arnaud. After the delay of a day, he wrote to his
brother on the 22d, "The English are not yet ready; and I am detained here
as at Baltchick, as at Old Fort. It is true, however, that they have more
wounded than I have, and that they are farther from the sea."
In his journal, we read, under the same date, the impatient words, " What
slowness in our movements! One cannot successfully wage war in this style.
The weather is admirable; and I cannot profit by it. I am enraged." *
Soon after this, the fiery marshal, who was already a very sick man, and
much exhausted by the campaign, was seized with the cholera, and died. The
emperor, in anticipation of the event, had sent a despatch to General Canrobert, investing him with the command, should the health of the marshal render
it necessary for him to abandon it.. We have not space here to enter into the
details of the death of this eminent man.  Upon his dying bed, he surrendered
the command to General Canrobert, saying to him, "From to-day, you will
take the command. I abandon it with the less regret, since I can place it in
your hands."
He then dictated a few words of adieu to his soldiers, saying, —
"Your general-in-chief, conquered by a cruel malady, against which he has
vainly contended, sees with profound grief that circumstances impose upon
him the imperious duty of resigning the command, since his health no longer
affords him strength to bear the burden. Soldiers, you will sympathize with
me; for the misfortune which has struck me is immense, irreparable, and
perhaps without example."
His last words were, "O the emperor! O my poor Louisa!"  The emperor, as he inquired into all the minutest details of his death, could not
restrain the tears which frequently flooded his eyes.  "I have, indeed," said
he to General Yusuf, "lost a devoted friend."  To the bereaved marchioness
he wrote the following letter of condolence:"SAINT CLOUD, OCt. 16, 1854.
"MADAME THE MARCHIONESS,- No one, you know, can share more deeply
than I do the grief which oppresses you. The marshal had associated himself
with my cause from the day in which, leaving Africa to take the portfolio of
the minister of war, he co-operated to establish order and authority in the
country.  He had associated his name with the military glories of France
from the cay in which, deciding to land upon the Crimea, notwithstanding
timid advice, he gained (with Lord Raglan) the battle of Alma, and opened to
our army the road to Sevastopol.
"I have, then, lost in him a friend devoted in the most painful trials, as
France has lost in him a soldier always ready to serve her in the moment of
danger.  Undoubtedly, so many titles to the public gratitude and to my own
are powerless to solace such grief as yours; and I limit myself to assuring you
that I cherish for you and for the family of the marshal the sentiments with
which he has inspired me.  Receive, madame the marchioness, the sincere
expression of it.                                           " NAPOLEON."
* L'Expedition de Crimee jusqu' la Prise de Sevastopol, par le Baron de Bazancourt,
Charge de Mission en Crime'e, tom. i. p. 261.




THE CRIMEAN WAR.                             553
By the direction of the emperor, the Council of State immediately presented
the project of law by which an annuity of twenty thousand fiancs was voted
as a national recompense to Madame the Marchioness of St. Arnaud.
The allied troops now advanced rapidly towards Sevastopol, and commenced
the world-renowned siege of that series of fortresses which had been pronounced impregnable. All that modern art, and military skill, and reckless
courage, could confer, were enlisted alike in the attack and in the defence.
WVhen we consider the destructive power of the modern enginery of w:ar, the
military scientific ability of the contending parties, and the grandeur of the
powers engaged in the strife, it must be admitted that such a conflict earth
had never witnessed before. The sea was covered with the contending fleets:
the land was crowded with the struggling armies. On both sides, the bullet,
the sword, and the cholera were busy. As thousands of the dead were placed
beneath the sod, other thousands were sent forward to take their places. For
more than a year, this tempest of war raged and roared incessantly around
the crags and massive bastions of Sevastopol.
TO




CHAPTER XXXII.
A CONQUERED PEACE.
Battle of Inkerman. - Co-operation of the Allies. - The Emperor's Address to the Legislative
Corps. - The Imperial Visit to England. - Views expressed by " The London Times." -
The Return to France. - Attempt at Assassination. — The Visit of Victoria to France.
- Address to the Legislative Corps.- Last Scenes at Sevastopol. - Rejoicings in Paris.Birth of the Prince Imperial. - Congratulations and Responses. -The Treaty of Peace. -
Genius of Napoleon III. - The Conspiracy of Orsini. - Opening the Boulevard of Sevastopol. - Inauguration of the Works at Cherbourg. - Speech at Rennes.
HE night of the 4th of November, 1854, was, in the Crimea,
clouded and dark. A heavy fog buried in its gloom  the armies
struggling around Sevastopol.  Early in the morning of the
5th, before the dawn of day, the Russians, in immense force,
issued from their works, and fell upon the English division of
the allied troops encamped upon the Plateau of Inkerman. To
distract attention, feigned attacks were also made in the darkness upon other
points; but the great weight of the sortie was to fall with crushing and
annihilating force upon the English troops.
Suddenly, immense columns of Russians plunged  into the British caml,
where the soldiers were quietly sleeping in their tents.  The dense masses of
the enemy rushed on from several directions, discharging volleys of musketry,
and sweeping the encampment with grape and canister.  The outposts were
driven in so hurriedly, that they had scarcely opportunity to fire a gun.  The
English officers and soldiers sprang to arms, and with the courage and coolness characteristic of British troops, half dressed, in the darkness, and the
fog, and the pouring rain, speedily formed in battle array, and, almost as
immovable as the granite cliffs around, received the onset of the foe.
An indescribable scene of confusion ensued.  In the darkness, vast masses
of men were hurling themselves upon each other; and, as the attack was
made at several points, no one could tell where the weight of the assault
would fall.  The shoutings of the officers, the rushings to and fro of the
bewildered, soldiers, the deafening roar of cannon, and the rattle of musketry,
while the missiles of war were strewing the ground with the mutilated and the
dead, all together presented a scene of tumult and of terror such as even
veteran soldiers have rarely witnessed. 
The second division of the French army, under General Bosquet, occupied
a position next adjoining that of the English lines, which were attacked at
554




A CONQUERED PEACE.                            555
three different points. General Bosquet, hearing the uproar, sprang upon his
horse, and ordered the alarm to be beat. The French troops were instantly
under arms. General Canrobert also, the French comrnander-in-chief, being
informed of the attack, immediately despatched officers of his staff to all the
different positions of his army, to have the troops ready for instant action.
But these officers found that the orders had everywhere been anticipated by
the vigilant local commanders. In the mean time, General Canrobert rode
forward to ascertain in person the nature of the attack.
General Bosquet, by a certain military instinct which he seemed to possess,
judging that the main attack would be made upon the Plateau of Inkerman,
set off cautiously through the dense fog, with two battalions, four companies
of chasseurs ce piec, and two batteries, to the aid of his English fiiends.
He soon met two English generals, - Brown and Cathcart, - and, riding up
to them, informed them of his apprehension that a concentrated attack was
being made by the enemy on the Plateau of Inkerman, and offered them the
aid of the troops he had with him, stating also that he was ready to bring up
additional re-enforcements. These officers did not seem  to apprehend any
danger. They courteously thanked the general for his zeal, but said, 
"Our own reserves are sufficient to meet all emergencies.  However, we
will thank you if you will strengthen a little our right in the rear of the
English redoubt." *
General Bosquet promptly posted two of his battalions as requested, and,
still feeling disquieted, rode forward on a personal reconnoissance.  The fog
now lifted a little; and the dawning day exposed a large body of the enemy
near at hahd, who immediately opened fire from  their batteries, which was
vigorously returned. Still General Bosquet was of the opinion that this was
merely a feint; and he said to Colonel Steel, an English officer whom he soon
encountered, "Go to Inkerman: it is at Inkerman that the great conflict is
to take place."
Soon after this, a group of English officers were seen coming at their
utmost speed from the Plain of Inkerman.  Colonel Steel, who had set off
in that direction, was returning with them, his horse covered with foam.
While the other officers pressed forward towards the headquarters of General
Raglan, Colonel Steel rode up to General Bosquet, and said to him,"The great attack is at Inkerman.  The English are crushed by the everincreasing masses of the enemy.  On every side, the Russian troops appear;
fresh columns replacing those which are repelled, and filling the plateau with
their compact masses.  The Duke of Cambridge and his valiant guards are
fighting in despair. There is not a moment to be lost."
"I know it! " exclaimed General Bosquet. "Go, say to our allies that the
French will arrive on the full run."
Immediately General Bosquet ordered the chief of his staff, Colonel de
Cissey, to go as quickly as possible, and direct General Bourbaki to throw the
whole of his command, with fixed bayonets, upon the left flank of the Russians; but already General Bourbaki had ascertained the gravity of the
* Le Baron de Bazancourt, vol. i. p. 58.




556                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
situation, and the imperious necessity of arresting by an audacious attack the
advance of the enemy. Colonel de Cissey found the battalions of Bourbaki
already in movement, rushing down the declivity towards the plateau. The
French troops were now arriving in large numbers, and with great enthusiasm,
to the support of their allies.
The English fought against the overpowering throng of their assailants
with heroic and indomitable courage. It was about eight o'clock when the
troops, commanded by General Bourbaki, precipitated themselves upon the
field of conflict, and when the French batteries opened their fire.  The
ground over which these French troops rushed was covered with the dead
bodies of the English and the Russians, showing tow terrible had been the
struggle. On every side were seen tents overturned and torn into shreds by
shot and shell; fragments of uniform, muskets, and arms of all kinds, t'rampled
into the blood-stained mire. Even the wounded had been forgotten in the
terribleness of the conflict; and they lay upon the field in the midst of the
dying and the dead.
As General Bourbaki's division, in strong battle array, led by their heroic
commander, rushed upon the plain to the aid of their English friends with
the elan ever characteristic of French troops, the sight was so sublime and so
inspiring, that the whole English army for a moment ceased to fight, and,
swinging their arms in the air, greeted their allies with a hurrah which rose
above the din of the battle. The French responded with reiterated cries of
"Vive l'Empereur! " as they pressed on to the charge. But there was equal
valor, equal military skill, equal desperation, upon all sides. It is in vain to
attempt to describe the strife, as, hour after hour in the surging billows of
battle, the harvest of death was reaped.  Twice the French were driven
back by overpowering numbers. Twice they renewed the charge, trampling
the Russians, retiring before them, beneath their feet. The French troops,
who were greatly outnumbered, were near being crushed, when General
Bosquet brought re-enforcements to their aid. General Canrobert also led
forward all his reserves, and, in consultation with General Raglan, sent them
where most needed.
Still the Russians came pouring on, column after column, as though the
whole Russian army was concentrating upon that one point. Many of the
English troops had expended all their ammunition, and were sullenly retiring.
Lord Raglan, as he contemplated the field, shook his head, and said sadly, but
with calmness which never left him, 
"I think that we are very sick." *
"Not very, my lord, let us hope," said General Canrobert.
In fact, the Russians had obtained possession of the English works on the
left, and had entered into their batteries. But just then General Forey came
up with a body of French troops, and by a vigorous assault compelled the
foe to retire. General Canrobert stood upon an eminence, watching the fluctuations of the battle. A shell burst over his head, and at the same time a
bullet struck him in the side. He had his wound dressed upon the spot, and
still remained at his post of observation.
* Le Baron de Bazancourt, vol. i. p. 75.




A CONQUERED PEACE.                            557
The assault of the Russians was terrible, repeated, endless, like the surf
cashing upon the shore, retiring, and ever returning. The plateau upon which
the battle was fought was narrow, confined, unequal, surrounded by hills
which revealed continually the approach of new masses of the enemy. The
conflict, in its inextricable maze, raged for seven hours. There were innurmerable acts of heroism, personal hand-to-hand conflicts, retreats and rallyings,
bloody repulses, followed by onsets of renewed desperation. The Afiican
Zouaves signalized themselves on this day. General Bosquet galloped along
their ranks, reminding them of their past achievements; and as he shouted,
"Come on, my brave Zouaves, show yourselves the children of fire! " they leaped
forward with the ferocity, the strength, and almost the agility, of the tigers in
their native jungles. At length, the Russians, being crowded into a narrow
space by the gathering forces of the allies, and with their ranks ploughed
through and through by  ever-accumulating batteries, were thrown into
disorder.  The allies charged them  with desperation. There was a brief
scene of awful slaughter, when the Russians retired with their thinned and
bleeding ranks, and the battle of Inkerman was ended. It was a memorable
victory for the allies, but a victory which sent anguish to thousands of homes
in England and in France, as well as in Russia.
The English army, which on the Plateau of Inkerman counted sixteen
thousand five hundred bayonets, lost in killed and wounded two thousand
five hundred and eighty men. Forty-one of these were officers, including three
general officers. Lord Raglan, immediately after the termination of the battle,
met General Bosquet. Riding up to him, he took his hand, and said, " In the
name of England, I thank you."  The Duke of Cambridge soon arrived. His
countenance was impressed with the deepest sadness. He had fought like a
common soldier at the head of his guards. The generals complimented him
upon his bravery. "All my friends," said he bitterly, "are dead, all my
brothers in arms, all those with whom I lived; and it is not my fault that I
have not died with them."  Saying this, he showed his garments pierced by
bullets.*
The Queen of England sent a graceful message of thanks to the French
army. General Canrobert presented this gratifying testimonial to his troops.
The emperor, in a letter of congratulation to General Canrobert, dated Palace
of St. Cloud, Nov. 24, 1854, said, -
"Express in my name to the army all my satisfaction for the courage
which it has exhibited, for its energy in supporting fatigues and privations,
and for its ardent cordiality towards our allies. Thank the generals, the
officers, the soldiers, for their valiant conduct.  Say to them  that I sympathize with them intensely in their trials, the cruel losses which they have
experienced; and that it will be my most constant endeavor to alleviate the
bitterness of these sorrows."
A few weeks after this, on the 26th of December, the legislative session
was opened. The emperor, in his address, congratulated the nation upon the
unanimity with which France was prosecuting the war, upon the readiness
* Le Baron de Bazancourt, vol. i. p. 110.




558                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
with which even more than the necessary funds were voted, and upon the
constantly-increasing sympathy of the other powers of Europe with the allies.
" War," said the emperor, " involves cruel sacrifices. Nevertheless, all considerations urge me to push it with vigor; and, in that view, I rely upon your
concurrence.  The army, to-day, consists of five hundred and eighty-one
thousand soldiers, and one hundred and thirteen thousand horses. The
marine has sixty-two thousand sailors embarked.  It is indispensable to
maintain this effective force. But, in order to fill the vacancies occasioned by
the annual discharges and the war, I shall ask of you, as in the last year, for
a levy of one hundred and forty thousand men.
"You will see with pleasure.that our revenues have not diminished. Industrial activity sustains itself. All the great works of public utility are
continued. The war which is in progress, circumscribed by moderation and
justice, while causing all hearts to palpitate, so little disturbs general interests, that soon, from the different parts of the globe, there will be collected
here all the products of peace.  Strangers' cannot fail to be impressed in
witnessing the spectacle of a country, which, relying upon divine protection,
sustains with energy a war at six hundred leagues from  its frontiers, and
which develops with the same ardor its interior riches, - a country in which
war does not prevent agriculture and manufactures from prospering, the arts
friom flourishing, and in which the genius of the nation reveals itself in every
thing which can contribute to the glory of France." *
With the utmost cordiality, the Legislature responded to the views of the
emperor, and, with scarcely a dissenting voice, voted the supplies. A large
committee communicated to the emperor this vote, together with warm
expressions of the confidence of the Legislative Corps.
In the month of April, 1855, while the Crimean War was still in progress,
Napoleon and Eugenie visited Queen Victoria in her own dominions. The
imperial couple were everywhere received in England with the mhost cordial
demonstrations of regard. Not a dissenting voice was heard to disturb the
enthusiasm with which they were greeted. The palaces of Victoria blazed
with regal fetes in their honor. The addresses to the emperor were friendly
and flattering in the extreme. His reception was alike enthusiastic by the
court and by the populace. In the streets of Dover, where he landed on
the 16th of April, and in the castle of Windsor, where the imperial couple
were received the next day, the welcome was alike spontaneous and hearty.
One sentence from the speech of the Lord Mayor of Windsor will show the
character of the whole address:"We are sensible, sire, that to the wisdom and vigor of your Imperial Majesty's counsels, and to your unceasing endeavors to promote the true interests
of the powerful and generous nation which Providence has committed to your
care, may be attributed that prosperity and happiness which your country
now enjoys."
"The London Times" of that date gives the following account of the reception which England gave to her distinguished guest:* La Politique Imperiale de 1'Empereur Napoleon III., p. 205.




A CONQUTERED PEACE.                            559
"They were the associations connected with Napoleon the Third - the remembrance of his deeds, and the knowledge of his worth-which pressed along
his progress the millions who this week have given to the world an imperishable testimony of their appreciation, their amply-founded appreciation, of fortitude in troubles, energy in action, courage amidst dangers, and clemency amid
triumphs.
"They honored the wisdom  and probity which occupied a mighty throne,
and honored the thousand princely qualities which had won it; they honored the great man who had retrieved the prosperity and the power of France;
they honored the good sovereign whose chief care is the welfare of his people:
and in the greeting offered to Napoleon, we may truly add, there was a love
for the nation which he had restored to its legitimate place amongst the
powers of the earth at a moment most critical to its destinies, and to which
he had given back, with the suddenness of enchantment, all its internal prosperity, after convulsions which made the most sanguine despair of its future.
Given back!  he has opened for it a new career of unprecedented success."
The addresses from the various corporations and public bodies breathed the
same generous and friendly spirit. We cannot forget that it was the heir of
the exile of St. Helena whom England was thus honoring, - the man who had
inherited the crown of Napoleon I., who had imbibed his principles, and who
had re-established the empire upon the same moral and political foundations
which Napoleon I. had laid. On the 17th of April, a banquet was offered to
their Majesties by the city of London. In the emperor's response to the very
complimentary address of the lord mayor, he said, —
"As for me, I have preserved on the throne, for the people of England, the
sentiments of esteem and sympathy which I professed in exile, when I enjoyed
here the hospitality of the Queen; and, if I have conformed my conduct to my
convictions, it is because the interests of the hation which elected me, as well
as those of general civilization, constrain me to do so."
Upon the emperor's return to France, he was received, on his route and in.the metropolis, with ever-increasing homage and affection. On the 28th of
April, there was a very desperate attempt made for his assassination by a man
named Pianori, who does not seem to have had any accomplices.  The emperor was riding upon horseback near the Barriere de l'Ftoile, the empress accompanying him in the carriage. The assassin approached very near his intended
victim, and fired twice at him with a revolver. One shot grazed the emperor's
hat. The assassin was instantly seized, and afterwards executed. The emperor was the first to ride to the carriage to inform the empress that he was
unharmed. The Senate, in a body, called upon the emperor with their congratulations for his escape. In his reply, the emperor said, -
"I thank the Senate for the kind wishes it has expressed to me. I do not
fear the attempt of assassins. There are existences which are the instruments
of the decrees of Providence.  So long as I shall not have accomplished my
mission, I incur no danger."
A few months after the excursion of the emperor and empress to England,
Queen Victoria, and her illustrious consort Prince Albert, returned the visit.
They were received in the palaces of France, and by the thronging population




560                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
of Paris, with a splendor of hospitality and an enthusiasm  of greeting which
could not have been surpassed.  These friendly visits between the sovereigns
of nations which had so long been in antagonism constitute one of the memorable events in the history of ages.
Paris is admirably adapted for festive occasions. Never before did its majestic avenues blaze with so much splendor. It was the wise policy of the Emperor of the French which secured this interchange of friendship and hospitality.
There was a new session of the Legislative Corps on the 2d of July.  The
emperor, in his opening speech, said, 
"Unhappily, the conferences of Vienna have been powerless in securing
peace.  Have we failed in moderation in the settlement of the conditions?
I do not fear to examine the question before you. It is but about a year since
the war commenced.  Already, France and England have saved Turkey,
gained two battles, forced Russia to evacuate the principalities, and to exhaust
her resources to defend the Crimea.  We have also in our favor the adhesion
of Austria, and the moral approbation of the rest of Europe.
"The admirable devotion of the army and of the navy will soon, I hope,
secure a favorable result. It is for you to give me the means to continue the
struggle. (At that moment the whole Legislative Corps rose, and responded as
one man,' Yes, yes!') The country has already shown what were its resources,
and its confidence in me.  It offered me, several months ago, seventeen hundred million francs (three hundred and forty million dollars) more than I asked
of it.  A part will suffice to sustain its military honor and its rights as a great
nation.
"I had resolved to go and place myself in the midst of that valiant army,
where the presence of the sovereign could not but produce a happy effect.
A witness of the heroic efforts of our soldiers, I should have bden proud to be
able to direct them.  But grave'questions, agitated abroad, are still remaining
in suspense; and the circumstances in which we are placed have demanded
at home new  and important measures.  I have therefore with grief abandoned the project." *
Still the incessant battle around the ramparts of Sevastopol raged week
after week, month after month.  Russia brought all her mightiest energies into
action. The strength of England, France, Sardinia, and Turkey, combined, was
tasked to the utmost in the struggle with the colossal power of the North.
On the night of the 3d of September, 1855, a very solemn council of war
was held by the officers of the allied army at Sevastopol.  The Russians had
a fort called the Malakoff, on a very commanding site.  All the resources of
modern military art had been exhausted in strengthening its works.  The
capture of that fort would give the allies command of the city. It was not
certain that the fort could be carried at all; and it was certain that its capture
could only be achieved at the sacrifice of a great loss of life.
* "If the emperor abandoned with grief the thought of his voyage to the Crimea, it was with
grief still more profound, with infinite sadness, that the army, which awaited the arrival of
its sovereign with so much impatience and enthusiasm, learned that it was necessar:y for him to
renounce that hope." - L'Expedition de Crimee, For le Baron de Eazancourt, totn. ii. 275.




A CONQUERED PEACE.                             561
The French troops had worked their way, through parallels, to points within thirty yards of the counterscarp, -so near, that their daily loss in the
trenches was one hundred and fifty men.
It was unanimously voted to make the attack.  The 8th of September was
fixed upon as the decisive day. Indeed, the attack was in reality to commence on the 5th; for then, all along the extended lines, the fire from  every
battery was to be opened with the utmost vigor.  This was to be continued,.by day and by night, until the 8th, that the enemy's works might be shattered,
his strength exhausted, and that his attention might be so distracted that he
could not judge at what hour or upon what point the final assault would be
made.
Even the attempt to describe the terrible picture of heroism  and of death
which was then unrolled causes the heart to beat quickly with emotion.  The
last hours of Sevastopol were sounded. How sublime was its death!  On
both sides, the most heroic courage was displayed.  Both armies, in fervent
prayer, implored divine assistance; and then, hour after hour, these children
of a common Father, animated by no individual hostility, strewed the sod
with their slain. Alas for man!
At the earliest dawn of the 5th, the terrible drama was opened. Every
battery of the allies commenced its fire: every gun of the Russians responded. Such a tempest of war never burst upon this world before, ani
probably never will again.  The military resources of five nations were
exerted to the utmost upon a spot but a few leagues in circuit. The warcloud speedily enveloped the whole field of conflict, pierced by incessant
lightning-flashes and an interminable thunder-roar.  The arena presented the.aspect of the crater of a vast volcano in violent eruption.  Night and day,
the bombardment was continued. At midnight of the 5th, the whole scene
was illumined by the flames of a Russian frigate in the harbor, which had
been set on fire by an exploding shell. In the report of the Russian general
Gortschakoff, he says, in allusion to this attack, -
"This infernal fire, directed against the embrasures and the merlons, indicated clearly the intention of the enemy to dismount our pieces, to destroy
our works, and then to assault the place."
Early on the morning of the 8th, General Bosquet, who was in command
of the French forces in fiont of the Malakoff, issued to his troops the following order: —
"To-day you are to give the finishing stroke, the final blow, with that
strong hand so well known to the enemy, in wresting from his strong line of
defence the Malakoff; while our comrades of the English army and of the
first corps commence the assault of the Grand Redan and of the central
bastion.
"It is a general assault, army against army. It is an immense and memorable victory which is to crown the young eagles of France.  Forward, my
children! For us Malakoff and Sevastopol! Vive l'Empereur!"
The troops defiled in silence along their trenches, taking the utmost 1precautions to veil their movements from the enemy.  Still the operation could
not be entirely concealed. Prince Gortschakoff, from the Heights of Inker71




562                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
man, sent word to the officers in command at the Malakoff, that movements
were in progress in the trenches of the enemy which indicated an attack.
All the watches of the French generals commanding the divisions were set
by that of the general-in-chief. Precisely at mid-day, each officer exclaimed
to his division, impatiently awaiting the signal, 
" Soldiers, forward! Vive l'Empereur! "
The French battle-cry of "Vive l'Empereur" burst again and again, with
almdst fienzied enthusiasm, from  thousands of lips.  Soldiers and officern
were blended in the sudden, impetuous rush. General {McMahon's division
was but thirty yards from the Malakoff.  A part of his troops aimed for the
salient of the redoubt; others struck the left face of the bastion.  Another
division was launched against the grand curtain which connected the bastion
with the Little Redan; and still another was thrown upon the Little Redan
itself.
The first rush, so sudden, impetuous, unexpected,- the assailants emerging
from almost midnight obscurity of dust and smoke, while the thunders of
battie shook the hills, - was a perfect success.  Speedily the Russians recovered fiom the shock; and then ensued, for six long hours, as fierce and
bloody a strife as man can wage with man.
Nirght came.  The battle was ended.  The banners of France floated
proudly over the Malakoff. Sevastopol could no longer be held by the Rtssians. A strange silence ensued.  The wind died away, and darkness settled
down over'the exhausted armies.  Suddenly the heavens glowed for a
moment, as if from  the most vivid lightning's flash.  A  fearful explosion
ensued, and another and another and another.  Flames burst forth in all
directions.  The Russians were blowing up their forts and magazines, and(
setting fire to every thing that would burn. It was a fearful night.  Through
all the hours, the work of destruction continued.  The dying and the dead
lay in heaps together. Both parties were fearful of surprise, and in vigilant
watch occupied their posts with swords drawn and bayonets fixed.  The
allies, in the darkness, could not pursue the Russians; for everywhere ramparts
frowned before them, and the whole expanse seemed but a series of mines to
blow them into the air.
The light of the morning revealed a melancholy spectacle of devastation
and misery.  Nothing remained of Sevastopol but a smouldering pile of
ruins. The Russian columns had crossed the bay on the bridge and by steamboats, and could be seen in long lines in the distance, winding over the hills.
A few steamers were still plying in the harbor; but of the majestic Russian
fleet nothing was visible but the tops of its masts, disappearing far away over
the rotundity of the sea.  Sevastopol was abandoned.
The cannon of the Invalides announced to the inhabitants of Paris the gl-ad
tidings of the great victory. The city blazed that evening with illuminations
and fireworks and every other demonstration of joy.  On the 13th of September, the Te Dezum was performed in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The
emperor and the whole court attended, and bowed together before the throne
of God in expression of thanksgiving for the taking of Sevastopol.
"I come here," said the emperor to the archbishop, who met him with




A CONQUEEED PEACE.                              563
words of greeting, "to give thanks to Heaven for the success it has accorded
to our arms.  It gives me pleasure to acknowledge, at, notwithstandin' the
skill of the generals and the courage of the soldiers, nothing can succeed
without the protection of Providence."
As the Russian troops retreated, with their despoiled, shattered, and bleeding ranks, into the interior of their vast realms, and the snows of winter
swept the fields, there was a lull in the storm of war.  It was manifest to all
Europe that Russia could not continue the conflict, and that peace must, ere
long, be concluded. Austria assumed the office of mediator; and, after a considerable interchange of diplomatic correspondence, arrangements were lmade
for a convention, to be held in Paris, to deliberate upon a treaty of reconciliation.
On the 16th of March, 1856, the empress gave birth to her first and only
child. The young prince imperial received the baptismal name of Napoleon
Eugene Louis Jean Joseph.   This event gave great joy to France.  It
promised to secure an undisputed line of succession, and thus to save France
from insurrection and the conflict of parties.  From  all parts of the realmn,
congratulations were addressed to the emperor.  In the emperor's response to
the congratulations of the Senate, on the 17th of March, he said,"The Senate has shared my joy in learning that Heaven has given me a
son; and you have hailed as a propitious event the birth of a child of France.
When an heir is born who is destined to perpetuate a national system, that
child is not only the scion of a family, but he is also, in truth, the son of the
whole country; and that name indicates his duties.  If this were true under
the ancient monarchy, how much more is it so now, when the sovereign is
the elect of the nation, the first citizen of the country, and the representative
of the interests of all!"
In his response to the congratulationsof the Legislative Corps, the emperor
said, "I have been deeply moved by the manifestation of your feelings at the
birth of the son whom  Providence has so kindly granted me. You have
hailed him as the hope, so eagerly entertained, of the perpetuity of a system
which is regarded as the surest guaranty of the general interests of the
country. But the unanimous acclamations which surround his cradle do not
prevent me from reflecting on the destiny of those who have been born in
the same place and under similar circumstances.  If I hope that his lot may
be more happy, it is, in the first place, because, confiding in Providence, I cannot doubt its protection when seeing it raise up, by a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances, all that which Providence was pleased to cast down
forty years ago; as if it had wished to strengthen by martyrdom  and by
suffering a new dynasty springing from the ranks of the people."
By common accord, Paris had been chosen as the seat of the congress to
deliberate' upon terms of peace.  France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia,
Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey were represented in this important convention.
The first session was held on the 25th of February; and the first act of the
congress was to decree an armistice, which was to continue until the end of
* Aperyu de l'Histoire de France, par K. Baedeker.




564                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
March.  Thus the thunders of cannon were not to blend their voices with the
deliberations of peace.*
On the 30th of March, the arduous labors of the plenipotentiaries were
terminated, and the articles of peace were signed. These articles secured the
neutralization of the Black Sea, - the only path for the Russian fleet to Constantinople.  The Russian forts and arsenals on the shores of the Black Sea
were to be destroyed.  The Danubian principalities were to be so organized
as to present a barrier to the further encroachments of Russia.  Russia
renounced all pretension to interfere in the internal administration of Turkey.
The navigation of the Danube was declared free to all nations; and certain
immunities and privileges were secured to the Christian subjects of the
Porte.
The Empress Eugenie had expressed the desire to preserve the quill with
which the treaty was signed. An eagle's quill was therefore selected, and
was elegantly mounted in gold and gems.t  To each signature there was
applied the private seal of the plenipotentiary.  This formality occupied
nearly two hours.
The moment the last signature was affixed, a telegraphic signal indicated
the glorious consummation to those who were in waiting at the Invalides.
Immediately a salute of one hundred and one guns proclaimed, in tones of
thunder, the glad tidings to exultant and rejoicing Paris.
Couriers were despatched to all the courts represented, to submit the
treaty to the ratification of their respective sovereigns.  The plenipotentiaries
then, in a body, repaired to the Palace of the Tuileries, where they were honored with a reception by the emperor.
It was the genius of Napoleon which selected the Crimea as the field for
this great conflict.  While others urged an advance by the way of the Baltic,
or a march upon Moscow, his military sagacity chose Sevastopol as the
decisive point of attack.  The two great naval powers could easily convey
their troops, and munitions of war, to that place by water; and the Turks
would be, there, almost at home. On the contrary, Russia would be compelled
to transport her troops and supplies more than a thousand miles from Petersburg or Moscow, over almost a wilderness country, where there were no railways, no canals, and no roads even, which an army, with its vast train of
artillery and baggage-wagons, could easily traverse.
It is generally admitted that French influence predominated throughout the
campaign; that the French army struck the heaviest blows during the siege;
and that it was the gallantry of the French troops which was mainly illustrated in the final and decisive conflict around the redoubts of the MalakofF.
We state this historic fact without any disparagement to the British troops:
braver troops can nowhere be found. We state this without any disparagement to the British Government: its co-operation was cordial, energetic, and
magnanimous, from the commencement to the close of the campaign. But
peculiar circumstances, united with thle comprehensive genius and the military
* Le Baron de Bazancourt.
t Public and Private History of Louis Napoleon, by Samuel M. Smucker, LL.D., p. 195.




A CONQUERED PEACE.                             565
sagacity of the Emperor of the French, gave to France the crowning glory in
the conflict.
Louis Philippe was called "the Target King," in consequence of the
incessant attempts made for his assassination.  He could never venture out
but at the peril of his life; and more than once, on a flte-day, it was deemed
unsafe for him to show himself in the streets, and he was constrained to seek
refuge in the interior of his palace. Louis Napoleon, on the contrary, seems
to adopt no precautions whatever against such' attempts.  He freely Iloves
about the streets of Paris; takes his daily ride in an open carriage along the
magnificent avenue of the Champs Elysees to the Bois de Boulogne; and on
a winter's day he may be seen mingling with the thousands of skaters upon
the spacious lake.  So great is the reverence for his person, that no one would
approach indecorously near him, or accost him with unbecoming familiarity.
Still no man can be in power without having bitter enemies. There are
those who have sought the life of the emperor; and a few attempts have been
made for his assassination.  The most memorable of these was the desperate
and sanguinary endeavor of Orsini, an Italian refugee, who was willing to
tear in pieces, with his murderous engines, scores of'citizens, gentlemen and
ladies, who were crowding the avenues to the opera, if he could thus reach
one single life,-and that victim whom he sought, the elected sovereign of a
nation of forty millions of people.
Orsini was one of the most desperate of Italian revolutionists.  When but
twenty years of age, he was implicated in a conspiracy, for which he was
sentenced to imprisonment for life. The general amnesty which was granted
by Pope Pius IX. restored him  to liberty.  But again, in 1853, his restless
spirit involved him in a conspiracy; and he was expelled by the Sardinian
Government from Italy. Repairing to London, he associated himself with
M3azzini and other prominent European revolutionists who had taken refuge
there.
Considering Louis Napoleon as the great obstacle to the success of the
insurrectionists in Italy, and to a general revolution throughout Europe, he
went to Paris under a feigned name, resolved upon the assassination of the
emperoT. Three accomplices were associated with him, —Pieri, Rubio, and
Gomez. On the evening of the 14th of January, 1858, as the emperor and
empress were approaching the grand opera in their carriage, a dense crowd
beeing around, the conspirators threw beneath the carriage several bombs, or
hand-grenades, of terrific power, ingeniously constructed so as to burst by the
concussion of the fall.
The explosion was deadly in its effects. A large number were killed, and
many more wounded. The emperor and empress almost miraculously escaped
unharmed. The empless manifested, in the midst of the scene of tumult and
horror, a spirit of calmness and heroism worthy of her exalted position. The
carriage was shattered; the dying and the dead were strewed around; she
knew not but that her husband was mortally wounded; the street was filled
with clamor and consternation: but the empress forgot herself in her solicitude for the emperor. And when some one endeavored to open the door of
the carriage, she, supposing it to be an assassin, threw herself before her




566                      _LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
husband to shield his life with her own.  Orsini and Pieri were behealded:
Gomez was sentenced to hard labor for life. Through the intercession of the
empress, the life of Rubio was spared.*
Five days after this, on the 19th of January, the emperor attended the
opening of the legislative session. In his address to the senators and representatives, in brief allusion to this attempt at assassination, he said, 
"God sometimes permits the death of the just; but he never permits the
triumph of the cause which has instigated the crime.  Thus these attempts
can neither disturb my security in the present, nor my trust in the future.  If
I live, the empire lives with me. If I fall, the empire will be strengthened even
by my death; for the indignation of the people and of the army would be a
new support for the throne of my son. Let us contemplate the future, then,
with confidence; calmly devoting ourselves without anxiety to our labors
every day for the promotion of the prosperity  and the grandeur of the
country. May God protect France! "
On the 5th of April, 1858, the emperor attended the inauguration of the
magnificent Boulevard of Sevastopol, which was just then completed in Paris.
In his remarks upon this occasion, he said, -
" When succeeding generations shall traverse our grand city, not only will
they acquire a taste for the beautiful from  the spectacle of those works of
art, but, in reading the names inscribed upon our bridges and our streets, they
will recall to themselves the glory of our armies from Pivoli to Sevastopol.
All these grand results I owe to the co-operation of the Legislative Corps, who,
renouncing all provincial selfishness, have learned that a coulntry like France
should have a capital worthy of herself, and have not hesitated to grant the
sums which the government has solicited.  I owe them  also to the enlightened co-operation of the municipal council.  But especially do I owe their
prompt and judicious execution to the intelligent.  magistrate whoim  I have
placed at the head of the department of the Seine; who, while maintaining
in the finances of the city an order worthy of all praise, has been able in so
short a time to complete enterprises so numerous, and that in the midst of
obstacles incessantly arising from the spirit of routine and disparagemnent."
In August of this year, the grand military and marine arsenals and naval
depot at Cherbourg were completed. The inauguration of these works was
attended with great pomp.  Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were present
as invited guests, and also many of the most illustrious personages in civil
and military life from  all the countries of Europe.  A dinner was given, in
honor of the royal guests fiom  England, on board the French  ship "La
Bretagne."  The emperor offered the following sentiment: 
" I drink to the health of her Majesty the Queen of England, to that of
the prince who shares her throne, and to the royal family.  In offering this
toast, in their presence, on board the French flag-ship in the port of Cherbourg, I am happy to express the sentiments which animate us towards them.
Indeed, facts speak for themselves; and they prove that hostile passions,
fostered by certain untoward circumstances, have not been able to disturb
* Appleton's Encyclopaedia, art. "Orsini."




A CONQUERnED PEACE.,                          567
either the fiiendship which exists between the two crowns, or the desire of
the two peoples to remain in peace. I cherish also the firm hope, that, should
any one wish to awaken the animosities and the passions of another epoch,
they would be stranded before the good sense of the public, as the waves
break to pieces before the dike which at this moment protects from  the
violence of the sea the squadrons of the two empires."
Returning fiom  Cherbourg, the emperor and empress, on. the 20th of
August, were entertained at a dinner given them by the city of RIennes, and
by deputations from all parts of ancient Bretagne.  In the address of the
emperor, he said, -
" If France is not entirely homogeneous in her nature, she is unanimous in
her sentiments. She wishes for a government sufficiently stable to avert all
danger of new commotions; sufficiently enlightened to promote true progress
and the development of human faculties; sufficiently just to call around it
all upright men, whatever may have been their political antecedents; sufficiently conscientious to declare loudly that it protects the Catholic religion,
while accepting, in full, liberty of worship; in fine, a government sufficiently
strong in its support at home to cause it to be respected as it should be in
the councils of Europe: and it is because, chosen by the nation, I represent
these ideas, that I have everywhere seen the people hastening to meet me,
and to encourage me by their demonstrations."




CHAPTER XXXIII.
MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.
Effect of the French Revolution of 1848.- The Uprising in Italy.- The Battle of Novara. -
Austrian Influence in Italy. - Speech of Napoleon III. to the Legislative Corps. - Sympathy
between Napoleon III. and Victor Emanuel. —Austrian Invasion of Sardinia. — Prompt
Action of France. - Proclamations of the Emperor. - His Journey to Sardinia. - Enthusiastic Reception. - The Battles of Magenta and Solferino. - Intervention of England and
Prussia. - Necessity of relinquishing the Liberation of Italy.
H    successful revolution in France, in overthrowing the Orleans
throne, and in re-establishing the empire based upon universal
suffrage, roused intensely the revolutionary element all over
Europe.  Every province in Italy was instantly thrown into
commotion.  The desire was universal to escape from Austrian
domination, and to secure Italian independence.
Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia, was the only ruler upon the Italian
peninsula who had any semblance of authority uncontrolled by Austria: but
the court of Vienna kept a watchful eye upon him; and he could not venture
to introduce into his government any reforms, which, by their example, might
endanger the absolutism  of Austria.  But, now that the people were roused
to the utmost enthusiasm  by the successful revolution in France, Charles
Albert felt emboldened to more decisive action.  In his early youth, he iadl
fought by the side of the patriots of 1833; andit had long been his desire to
drive the Austrians out of Italy.  Cautiously he commenced  introducing
reforms similar to those which Pius IX. was conferring upon the Papal States.
On the 30th of October, 1848, the official "Gazette" of Turin announced that
henceforth criminal trials were to be public; that a report of the debates
would be published; that the mayors and magistrates would be elected by tlco
people; that there would be the annual convocation of a sort of congress
called extraordinary councillors; and that the rigorous censorship of the
press would be greatly mitigated.  Schools also were established, and additional freedom  of worship granted.  These concessions, which the Liberln
party had long desired, created unbounded joy.  Charles Albert was greeted
wherever he appeared with shouts of applause.  For several nights, Turin
blazed with illuminations. The King of Sardinia was acting in harmony withr
Pius IX., and from  time to time communicated to the French Government
his resolve to march to the assistance of the pope, should it be necessary to
defend him from the Austrians.*
* D'Haussonville. Histoire Diplomatique de la France, 1830-1848, t. ii. pp. 251, 252.
568




MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                               569
Everywhere throughout Italy this revolutionary movement was active, and
for a time very successful in Sicily, at Naples, in Lombardy, in all the Venetian
States, and in every duchy of the Peninsula. But soon Austria marshalled
her armies, and in a series of terrible battles swept all Italy with billows of
fire and blood.  One dying wail floated away upon the breeze, and Italy was
again in apparently hopeless servitude.  Charles Albert, as he fled from the
disastrous field of Novara on the 22d of March, 1849, said to General Durando, -
" This is my last day. I have sacrificed myself to the Italian cause.  For
it I have exposed my life, that of my children, and my throne.  I have failed
in my object.  Since I in vain sought death, I will give myself up as a last
sacrifice to my country.  I lay down my crown, and abdicate in favor of
Victor Emanuel."
The noble old king soon died of a broken heart.  His son inherited his
father's principles as well as his crown.  He was, however, compelled, before
he was permitted to ascend the throne, to yield to all the terms which Austria
imposed.*,
There was no nation in Europe, excepting the new-born republic in France,
in sympathy with these peoples struggling against the dynasties; but the
infant French Republic, which had just burst from its chrysalis mausoleum,
had no strength of wing for a foreign flight.  The British Government gave
all its moral support to Austria.  The sympathies of the British people were
strongly in favor of the Italian Liberals; but the British Government, though
in favor of reform, was decidedly opposed to the revolutionary movement.
A writer in " The Edinburgh Review" says, in reference to this struggle, -
"It is utterly repugnant to the first principles of British policy, and to
every page of our history, to lend encouragement to the separation of nationalities from  other empires, which we fiercely resist when it threatens to dismember our own." t
The tenacity with which Austria clung to her Italian provinces may be
inferred from the fact, that in addition to these kingdoms and duchies, affording such brilliant estates to the members of the royal family, the crown of
Austria derived a direct annual revenue from those provinces of about twenty
million dollars. This was not only exclusive of the voluptuous extravagance
of the vice-regal courts, which they were compelled to support, but also of the
enormous expense of the Austrian troops garrisoned in these provinces to
~hold them in subjection.
Count Cavour, in a memorandum sent to the British Government in 1859,
says, -
* "After the necessary formalities at Turin in confirmation of his resolution, the king, )bent
with premature age, sorrow, despair, perhaps remorse, retired to Oporto, where he died of what
is called a broken heart; his mind having preyed on his constitution, and brought on early
death." - Italy and the War of 1859, p. 28.
t Alison asserts, that the British cabinet, anxious " to leave no pretext for French interference,
interposed covertly, but most efficiently, in support of the insurgents."  Though the conduct of
the British cabinet was vacillating, we do not think facts sustain this assertion. - See Aliso?,
vol. viii. p. 402.
72




570                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.' "The true cause oT the deep discontent of the Lombardo-Venetians is the
being rtiled and domineered over by foreigners,- by a nation with which they
have no aiialogy of race, of habits, of tastes, of language.  The humblest
citizen finds himself brought into contact, for the slightest reasons, with public functionaries whom  he neither likes nor respects; and the feelings of
repugnance and antipathy toward the government have become universal.
"Austria is an' old man of the mountain,' seated upon the shoulders of Italy
day and night,-an incubus, a terror, an intolerable burden.  Italy, gagged
and blinded, totters along with this terrible old man astride her neck, goading
her to desperation, yet guiding all her movements."
Austria reigns in pure absolutism.  There is nothing which the emperor so
much dreads as the clamor for constitutional rights, which often assails the
throne fiorn some of the nations which compose his conglonerated realm.
The attempt at revolution in 1849 was thoroughly crushed throughout all
Italy.  In the one kingdom of Sardinia alone did there remain the semblance
of independence.  Austria demanded of Sardinia two hundred million francs
as an indemnity for the expenses of the war, the occupation of the fortress of
Alessandria by a joint force of Austrian and Sardinian troops, the occupation
of the country between the Sesia and the Ticino by twenty thousand Austrian
troops, and the disbanding of a large part of the Sardinian forces.*
The French Empire under Napoleon III. was becoming consolidated.
Tlhat empire, founded by universal suffrage, was in sympathy with popular
rights everywhere, and in antagonism  to dynastic despotism.  England foresaw, that, should there be another Italian outbreak, not only the symlpathies
of France, but the armies of France, would be enlisted in behalf of the Italians.
This was a political necessity for France; for the restored empire, based upon
the principle of popular rights (which had givgn the first empire its vigor),
stood alone ifi Europe, fiowned upon by all the feudal dynasties which surrounded it. France could hope for a cordial ally only in regenerated Italy.t
Should France join the Italian peoples, and thus establish an independent
kingdom in Italy, the two monarchies would be, in closeness of alliance, as one
power. This would be equivalent to the addition of twenty-six millions to
the population of France, and would give her an allied army which could bid
defiance to all Europe.  England, therefore, proposed to Austria, as the means
of avoiding this calamity, that she should surrender Lombardo-Venetia to independence, allowing her to choose her own sovereign; and, in consideration o,f
this surrender, the kingdom should pay Austria an annual tribute of five mil-.
lion.dollars.  The reply of Austria virtually was, "When England surrenders
Ireland, Austria will surrender Venetia."
Under these circumstances, Europe listened anxiously to every word which
came from the lips of the Emperor of the French.  It was manifest that there
* Ann. Reg., 1849, p. 284.
t " So jealous was England of the power of France, that the Prince Regent (afterwards George
IV.), at the conclusion of the treaty of 1815, insisted upon Austria keeping the Lombardo-Venetian provinces, in order that the Alpine gates of Italy might be shut against the French by the
interjection of a first-rate European power between them and Middle and Southern Italy." -
Italy and the WIcr of 1859, p. 58.




MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                               71
must be a strong bond of union between Sardinia and France.  Sardinia was
the only constitutional kingdom in Italy.  The troops of the two nations had
been very cordially united in the terrible struggle beneath the walls of Sevastopol.  The emperor's cousin, Prince Napoleon (son of Jerome), had recently
married the Princess Clotilde, eldest daughter of Victor Emanuel.  Influenced
by such considerations, the emperor was not disposed to allow Austria to
crush the only government in Italy which was in sympathy with France.  In
the emperor's address at the opening of the legislative session in 1859, he
said, 
"France, as you know, has, during the last six years, seen her welfare promoted, her riches increased, her internal dissensions diminished, her prestige reestablished; and yet there rises at intervals, in the midst of this geneval calmness and prosperity, a vague inquietude, an under-current of agitation, which,
without any definite cause, seizes upon certain minds, and disturbs public
confidence.
"To-day, it is my duty to explain anew that which seems to have been forgotten. What has been constantly my policy? To re-assure Europe; to restore
France to her true rank; to cement closely our alliance with England; to regulate, with the Continental powers of Europe, the degree of my intimacy, in conformity with our views and the nature of their procedures in regard to France.
"It is thus, that, upon the eve of my third election, I made at Bordeaux
this declaration,'The empire is peace' (l'empire, c'est lac pcaix); wishing
thus to prove, that, if the heir of the Emperor Napoleon ascended the throne,
he would not commence an era of conquests, but would inaugurate a system
of peace, which could only be disturbed for the promotion of grand national
interests.
"As to the alliafce of France and England, I have used all my endeavors
to consolidate it; and I have found upon the other side of the Channel a happy
reciprocity of sentiments on the part of the Queen of Great Britain, as on the
part of statesmen of all opinions.
"Since the conclusion of peace, my relations with the Emperor of Russia
have assumed the character of the most sincere cordiality, because we have
been in accord uponf all the points in litigation.
"I have equally to congratulate myself upon nVy relations with Prussia,
which have not ceased to be animated by mutual kindliness.. "The cabinet of Vienna and mine, on the contrary, - I say it wRh regret,
— find themselves frequently in disagreement upon fundamental questions;
and a strong spirit of conciliation is necessary to attain a solution of them.
Thus the reconstruction of the Danubian principalities has not been achieved
until after numerous difficulties, which have been prejudicial to the full satisfaction of their legitimate desires; and, if any one asks me what interest
France has in those remote countries which the Danube waters, I reply, that
the interest of France is everywlere where there is a cause just and civilizing
to be made to prevail.*
* "On the fertile plains whtered by the Ticino, the Po, and the Mincio, two people faced each
other. The conquered did not comprehend even the language of their conquerors, and protested




572                       LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"In this state of affairs, it is nothing extraordinary that France should draw
closer towards Piedmont, who has been so devoted during the war, so faithful
to our policy during peace.  The happy union  of my well-beloved cousin,
Prince Napoleon, with the daughter of King Victor Emanuel, is not, then, one
of those isolated facts for which it is necessary to seek a recondite meaning,
but the natural consequence of the community of interests of the two countries and the friendship of the two sovereigns.",
It soon became evident that a good understanding was springing up
between the new French Empire and Sardinia, or rather between Napoleon
and Victor Emanuel.  Europe was alarmed in anticipation of a war which
would rouse the revolutionary element in every kingdom.   Austria was
pouring large masses of men into Italy, led by her ablest generals.  Five
thousand laborers were employed to finish, with the utmost rapidity, three
immense new  forts at Venice.  Sardinia watched  these proceedings with
an anxious eye.  Count Cavour, the illustrious prime minister of Victor
Emanuel, called for a loan of ten million dollars. In the debate which took
place upon this question in the Sardinian Chambers, the count said, -
"Austria has lately assumed a menacing attitude towards us.  Sle has
increased her military stores at Placentia.t   She has collected very large
forces on our frontiers.  Therefore the necessity arises for us to look at the
means for the defence of the State.  The English alliance has been the constant care of our whole political life. We have always considered England
as the impregnable asylum  of liberty.  The cries of suffering coming fiom
Bologna and Naples reach the banks of the Thames.  The tears and groans
of Milan are intercepted by the Austrians; but the cause of liberty, justice,
and civilization, will always triumph.  As for England, Lord Derby will not
tarnish his glory in making himself the accomplice of those who condemn
the Italians to perpetual servitude.  Our policy is not defiant.  We will not
excite to war; neither will we lower our voice when Austria arms herself
and threatens us." +
Sardinia was disappointed in the course England  pursued.  No  aid or
sympathy came from that government.  Still the British cabinet interposed
its friendly offices to prevent the contest.  Lord Cowley visited Vienna on a
mission of peace.  His mission was undertaken with the cordial approval of
the French Government. 
While these negotiations were in progress, Austria was still gathering her
by conspiracies and insurrections against their oppressors. The conquerors joined to all the
pride of conquest defiance of the future. The one party imposed government: the other submitted to it. The Italians were the disinherited of Italy. The intelligent classes protested
against this contempt of themselves and of the national spirit: but these legitimate resistances to
Austrian domination only caused an augmentation of rigors; and hatred increased with servitude."
-La France, Rome, et l'Italie, par A. de la Gueronniere, p. 26.
* La Politique Imperiale, pp. 289-293.
t Placentia, a town in the Duchy of Parma, which Austria had held by military occupation
for several years.
t Italy and the War of 1859, p. 206.




MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                            573
troops on the frontiers of Sardinia in evident preparation for war.  Sardinia
also began to arm in self-defence. Austria, apparently eager to precipitate
the strife, haughtily demanded that Sardinia should disband the troops she
was raising, and place her armies on a peact-footing.  Victor Emanuel replied in the following manifesto addressed to the Sardinian army:"SOLDIERS- Austria, which increases its armies on our frontiers, threatens
to invade our territory, because liberty here reigns with order; because not
force, but concord and affection between people and sovereign, here rule the
State; because the cries of suffering, oppressed Italy, here find a hearing.
Austria dares to intimate to us, armed only in self-defence, that we are to
lay down our arms, and put ourselves in her power.  The outrageous intimation called for a worthy reply. I have disdainfully rejected it.
"Soldiers, I announce this to you, certain that you will take to yourselves the outrage offered to your king, to the nation. The announcement
I give to you is the announcement of war. To arms, then, soldiers!"
Victor Emanuel would never have ventured to utter such bold words,
were it not that he was fully assured of the support of the Emperor of the
French.  In confirmation of this, the "Moniteur" soon declared that the
emperor "had promised the King of Sardinia to defend him  against any
aggressive act on the part of Austria.  He has promised this, and nothing
more; and it is well known he keeps his word."
By the middle of April, Austria had collected an army of two hundred
and thirty thousand men on the frontiers of Sardinia.  Thus prepared to
strike sudden and heavy blows, Austria again ordered Sardinia to disarm;
giving her three days to comply with the proposition. Victor Emanuel disregarded the summons. Napoleon, through his minister at Vienna, informed
Francis Joseph that "France could not look with indifference upon the
invasion of Sardinia by the Austrian troops."
At the end of the three days, the Austrian legions crossed the Ticino at
several points, and commenced a rapid march for Turin, the Sardinian capital.
It was the evident design of Austria to overwhelm  the Sardinian arml,.&
seize upon the capital, before the French troops could arrive. Napoleon
immediately issued the following proclamation. It was dated Palace of the
Tuileries, May 3, 1859.
" FRENCHMEN,    Austria, in causing her army to enter the territory of the
King of Sardinia, our ally, declares war against us.  She violates, thus,
treaties, justice, and menaces our frontiers.  All the great powers have
protested against this aggression.  Piedmont having accepted conditions
which ought to secure peace, we are led to inquire, WVhat can be the reason
for this sudden invasion?  Is it that Austria has brought nmatters to this
extremity, -that she must either rule up to the Alps, or Italy must be fiee
to the shores of the Adriatic?
"Hitherto moderation has been the rule of my conduct; now energy
becomes my first duty. Let France arm, and say resolutely to Europe,'I




574                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
desire not conquest, but I desire to maintain, without feebleness, my national
and traditional policy. I observe treaties upon condition that they are not
violated  against me. I respect the territories and the rights of neutral
powers; but I boldly avow nfy sympathies with a people whose history is
blended with ours, and who groan under foreign oppression.'
"France has shown her abhorrence bf anarchy.  She has conferred upon
me power sufficient to reduce t.o impotence the fomenters of disorder, the
incorrigible men of the old parties who are seen incessantly to connive with
our enemies. But she has not, on that account, abdicated her mission as a
civilizer. Her natural allies have been always those who seek the amelioration of humanity; and, when she draws the sword, it is not to subjugate, but
to liberate.
"The object of this war is, then, to restore Italy to herself, and not to
impose upon her a change of masters; and we shall have on our fiontiers a
fiiendly people, who will owe to us their independence.
"We do not go to Italy to promote disorder, or to disturb the power of
the pope, whom we have placed upon his throne, but to rescue Italy from
that foreign domination which weighs so heavily upon the whole Peninsula,
to contribute to establish order upon legitimate interests satisfied.
"We go, in fine, upon that classic soil renowned through so many Victories,
to search out the footsteps of our fathers. God grant that we may be worthy
of them! I go immediately to place myself at the head of the army. I leave
in France the empress and my son: aided by the experience and the intelligence of the youngest brother of the emperor,* she will be able to rise to the
height of her mission.                              q
"I confide them  to the valor of the armies which remain in France to
watch over our frontiers as well as to protect the domestic hearth; I confide
them to the patriotism of the National Guard; I confide them, in fine, to the
whole people, who will surround them with that love and devotion of which
I receive every day so many proofs.
"Courage, then, and union! Our country is about to show to the world
that it has not degenerated.  Providence will bless our efforts; for sacred in
the eyes of God is the cause which is founded upon justice, humanity, love
of country and of independence."
The sudden and impetuous movement of Austria took France and all
Europe by surprise. It was not supposed that Francis Joseph would venture
so arrogantly to wrest the subject fiom the domain of diplomacy, and ilunge
it into'the hazards of war. Never was the quiet, noiseless energ:y of the
Emperor of the French more signally manifested than on this occasion.. Ilmmediately he provided, by various decrees, for the interior admlinistration of
the empire during his absence, while the troops were set in motion for Italy
in every direction.  They generally crossed the Alps by two routes,- that
of Chamberry and of Grenoble.
Several regiments of the Imperial Guard left on the 9th of May. As each
* Jerome Bonaparte, formerly King of Westphalia.




ii~~  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ —----- -----
~ ~   ~i~!i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ —----......








MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                            575
regiment stopped at the Tuileries to receive its flag, -for all the flags of the
guard are kept at the palace wheli the regiments are nof on duty, — the
emperor, empress, and the imperial prince, came out to salute them. The
emperor shook hands with the colonels, bade them  God speed, and assured
them that he would soon join them upon the plains of Italy.
A touching incident occurred on Saturday as one of the regiments of the
guard approached the Tuileries. The cantiniere of this regiment, on coming
up opposite the palace, inquired if it were not there that the secretary of her
Majesty the empress was to be found. On receiving an affirmative reply, she
stepped out of the ranks, leading by the hand a little girl of six or eight years,
and, entering the bureau, exclaimed, -
"Gentlemen, I leave you my child.  Conduct her to the empress. I know
that she will take good care of her until I return from Austria."
She was not mistaken; for, as soon as her Majesty was informed of the
circumstance, she sent for the child, and at once gave orders that she should
be well taken care of till her mother came back fi'om the war.* 
At five o'clock in the evening of the 10th of May, the privy council and
the council of ministers were assembled at the Palace of the Tuileries.  An
imposing body of the guard was drawn up in the courtyard, which is separated from the Carrofsel by but an iron railing.  A large number of carriages
were also in waiting in the courtyard.  Soon after five o'clock, the emperor
appeared coming out from the central portal of the palace, the empress leaning upon his arm, and followed by several gentlemen and ladies of the court.
The emperor was in a simple travelling-dress, with a close cap.  His appearance caused a general outburst of "Vive'Empereur! " fiom  the soldiers
and the people who crowded the court and its surroundings. Handing the
empress into the carriage, the emperor took his seat by her side. The other
carriages were speedily filled with the military household of the emperor, and
the cortege passed out beneath the triumphal arch of the Carrousel.  Though
the eyes of the empress were evidently swollen with weeping, the emperor
appeared calm and smiling.
The carriages proceeded slowly along through the thronged streets, followed
but not surrounded by the guard. The workmen of Paris had nearly all
abandoned their shops that they might bid the emperor adieu.   The
carriages passed along the Rue de Rivoli, the Rue St. Antoine, to the Place
of the Bastille.  The sidewalks, the windows, and the roofs of the houses,
were crowded with spectators; and the greeting with which the emperor
everywhere was met was enthusiastic in the highest degree.  The streets
were hung with flags, and garlanded with flowers. Everywhere shouts arose
of " Vive l'Empereu! " " Victoire! " " Dieu vous garde! "  The empress
with one hand clasped fondly the hand of the emperor: she could not conceal
the tears which flooded her eyes.  The people could freely approach their
sovereign; and, as the carriage passed slowly along,.many came up, and
affectionately addressed their Majesties.
When they arrived at the Place de la Bastille, the crowd was found to be
* Italy and the War of 1859, p. 322.




576       -                LIFE.OF NAPOLEON III.
immense.   The workmen, in their enthusiasm, endeavored to remove the
horses, that they might triumphantly draw  the carriage themselves.  The
emperor, with manifest emotion, addressed them, saying, -
"My friends, do not delay me.  Time is precious." *
They immediately desisted, but with deafening shouts of "Vive l'Empereur!"  The carriage was now entirely surrounded by the multitude.  The
pathetic and the ludicrous were blended in the remarks which were addressed
to their Majesties.  One said, "Do not forget us if you want any more
soldiers."  Another exclaimed, "Sire, you have victory in your eyes."  A
woman, noticing the tears which freely coursed down the cheeks of the
empress, with true womanly sympathy said, "Don't cry! he will soon come
back again;" while a sturdy man, leaning his head into the carriage, added,
"Don't cry, don't cry!  We will take care of you and the boy."
At the Lyons Station, the emperor's staff, the cabinet ministers, and many
others, were awaiting his arrival. Dr. Conneau, who had so faithfully kept
his promise to Queen Hortense, that he would never forsake her son, was
there, in company with his son, a lad of twelve years, to accompany the
emperor as a surgeon. The daughter of Victor Emanuel -Princess Clotilde,
who had married Prince Napoleon — was also at the station, there to take
leave of her husband, who was to share in the perils of the expedition in
defence of the crown of her father.
These were sad partings; and the waiting-room was filled with sobs and
tears as mothers, wives, sisters, and friends bade adieu to those whom  they
loved.  The ravages of the war were dreadful; and, in not a few cases, these
friends there separated never to meet on earth again.  The hour of departure
had arrived.  The emperor embraced the empress, took special leave of a few
friends, and entered the car amidst deafening shouts of enthusiasm.
"All was ready.  M1. Pattenotte, the chief director of the train, went up
to the step of the imperial car, and asked if he might give the signal to
depart.  The emperor answered in the affirmative.'Now, sire,' said M.
Pattenotte,'I take my leave, with prayers for your IMjesty's safety,:nd with
the ardent wish that I may soon be called upon to give the signal to stop to
the car that brings your Majesty back triumphant to the capital.' Ancd so,
amidst the shouts of the multitude, which echoed far along the road, the car
bearing the fortunes of France left the capital." t
At about eleven o'clock the next morning, the emperor reached Marseilles.
Crossing the city in the midst of an ovation almost equal to an ancient
Roman  triumph, he immediately embarlked on board the imperial yacht
bearing the name of his honored mother, "La Reine Hortense; " andl at two
o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, the 12th, entered the port of Genoa.
" The emperor, standing in his carriage, his eyes full of emotion which he did not atteml)t
to repress, made frequent signs that he wished to speak; but each moment the shouts were
redoubled: and his Majesty was convinced on that day, that a great people can, in a sinlle hour,
pay its debt of gratitude to him who is devoted to its happiness and its glory, and that, as a
political writer has said with justice as concise as brilliant,'he is the Louis XIV. of the ldealocracy.' "-  capoleon III. en Italie, par Jules Ricard, p. 9.
t Italy and the War of the Italians, p. 325.




MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                          577
It was a festal clay in Genoa; and all the city was on the alert to receive,
with every demonstration of love and gratitude, the powerful emperor who
was hastening to rescue them from servitude to the Austrian.
The ladies of the city were out in their most attractive attire. The houses
were magnificently decorated with flags, pennons, and garlands of flowers.
In some of the streets the banners were so thick, that the sky could scarcely
be seen between them. The windows were hung in many places with the
richest pieces of tapestry. The emperor had been expected at eleven o'clock;
and multitudes had been anxiously watching the ocean as it faded away in
the distant horizon. About one o'clock, three little specks appeared upon the
blue waves of the Mediterranean.  Hundreds of telescopes and eye-glasses
were directed to them. Soon a gun from the light-house battery announced
that the imperial yacht was in sight; and ere long, to all eyes, the three dots
assumed the shape of two majestic French war-frigates and the imperial
yacht.
The harbor of Genoa was filled with vessels and boats of every variety of
size and shape, all crowded with spectators, and gayly decorated. The boats
arranged themselves in two compact rows along the route the steamers were
to pass. As the little squadron entered the harbor, peal after peal of thundering salutes from ships and batteries filled the air, and echoed along the hills.
The sun of Austerlitz shone on that day with all possible splendor. The
yacht cast anchor; and the emperor, accompanied by Prince de Carignan,
Count Cavour, and others, entered a royal barge to be conveyed to the shore.
The applause was now incessant, and enthusiastic in the highest degree. The
barge was gorgeously decorated with flowers, the tricolor, - white, red, and
blue. Even the path of the barge, as it was rowed along between the lines
of boats, seemed to be but one bed of flowers. The barge landed at the
arsenal; and the emperor was conveyed to the palace through the streets
thronged, and tumultuous with joy.  Every window presented a crowd of
faces, and every spot of ground was covered by the excited and applauding
masses. At night, the whole city was illuminated; the terraces, rising one
above another, presenting a very gorgeous display. The emperor"occupied
the Doria Palace.
Upon the day of his arrival at Genoa, the Marquise de Villamarina, wife
of the Sardinian minister at Paris, presented the empress with an immense
bouquet, sent to her with great care by the ladies of Genoa. The following
address, signed by the most distinguished ladies of the city, accompanied the
gift -
" The ladies of Genoa entreat your Majesty, who so nobly partakes in the
magnanimous feelings of the emperor, to accept these flowers, which they
would  have strewn upon your path had you accompanied your august
husband on his entrance into Genoa. May these flowers be the symbols of
the immortal wreaths of victory which history will twine around the brow
of Napoleon III., and which he will bequeath to his son as the most precious
ornament of the imperial diadeni!"
During the absence of the emperor, the empress presided at Paris as regent.
All the acts of the government were headed with the words, "Eugenie
is




578                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Empress of the French, Regent of the Empire by delegation from  his
Imperial Majesty Napoleon III."
The emperor immediately issued the following address to the army of
Italy.  It was dated Genoa, May 12, 1858:
"SOLDIERS,- I come to place myself at your head to conduct you to
combat. We are about to aid in the struggle of a people demanding independence, and to rescue them  from  foreign domination. It is a sacred
cause, which has the sympathies of the civilized world.
"I have no need to stimulate your ardor. Each halting-place will recall to
you a victory.  In the sacred way of ancient Rome, inscriptions were
engraved upon marble to recall to the people its exalted deeds. So now, in
passing by Mondovi, Marengo, Lodi, Castigliore, Arcola, Rivoli, you will
march along another sacred way in the midst of these glorious souvenirs.
"Preserve, then, that severe discipline which is the honor of the army.
Here do not forget that there is no enemy but those who fight against you.
In battle remain compact, and do not abandon your ranks to rush forward.
Guard against too great impetuosity: it is the only thing which I fear.
"The new arms of precision are not dangerous, except in the distance. They
do not prevent the bayonet from being, as heretofore, the terrible arm of the
French infantry.
"Soldiers, do your duty, and let us put our confidence in God.  The
country expects much of you. Already, from  one end of France to the
other, words of happy augury are resounding. The new Army of Italy will
be worthy of its older sister.                              " NAPOLEON."
The Emperor of Austria had about three hundred and seventy thousand
men in the field, without counting the garrisons in the Venetian territory.*
At six o'clock in the morning of the 13th of May, Victor Emanuel met Napoleon at Genoa; and the emperor, with him, left for Alexandria.  The French
army was rapidly arriving by four different routes, and concentrating. The
Austrians were pressing on towards Turin.  The Sardinians were retiring
before them.
It is not my intention here to give an account of the campaign. I can only
briefly record the results. The energy of the emperor inspired every movement. His care embraced the minutest details. The French and Sardinian
armies were soon brought into co-operation. They met the foe at Montebello, at Palestro, and routed them. with great carnage. After a series of very
stubborn and sanguinary conflicts, the Austrians were dciven back across the
Ticino, out of Sardinia, into Lombardy. The Franco-Sardinian army impetuously pursued. The foe was again encountered in great strength upon the
Plains of Magenta. It was the 4th of June. At the close of this day of
blood, the Austrians retreated from the field; having lost twenty thousand
men in killed and wounded. It was but about twelve miles from Magenta to
Milan, the capital of Lombardy.  The Milanese awaited impatiently the
* Napoleon III. en Italie, p. 95.




MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                          579
result of the battle. So rigorous was the Austrian rule, that they did not
dare to manifest their feelings until they were sure that their oppressors were
vanquished; but, so soon as they saw the disordered masses of the Austrian
army rushing through their streets, they rose with enthusiasm, established a
provisional government, and sent a deputation to Napoleon, welcoming him as
their liberator., On the 8th of June, Napoleon and Victor Emanuel entered the city of
Milan on horseback, side by side. They were received with the liveliest
demonstrations of joy. The emperor issued the two following proclamations,
one to the Army of Italy, and the other to the Italian people. They were
both dated Milan, June 8, 1859.
" SOLDIERS, —But one month ago, trusting in the efforts of diplomacy, I
still hoped for peace; when suddenly the invasion of Piedmont by the
Austrian troops called us to arms. Ve were not ready; men, horses, military stores, provisions, were wanting; and we were obliged, in order to succor
our allies, to debouch in haste by small parties beyond the Alps, in the
presence of a redoubtable enemy abundantly prepared.
"The danger was great: the energy of the nation and your courage have
supplied every thing. France has recovered her ancient virtue; and united
in the same object, as in a single sentiment, she has shown to the powers her
resources, and the strength of her patriotism. It is but ten days since operations commenced, and already Piedmont is delivered from its invaders.
"The allied army has engaged in four successful combats, and has gained
one decisive victory, which has opened to it the gates of the capital of Lombardy. You have disabled (mis hors dce combat) more than thirty-five thousand Austrians, taken seventeen cannon, two flags, eight thousand prisoners.
But all is'not yet finished. We have still more struggles to sustain, more
obstacles to surmount.
"I rely upon you. Courage, then, brave soldiers of the Army of Italy!
From the heights of heaven, your fathers contemplate you with pride."
This was followed by the following proclamation to the Italians:"The fortune of war has led me to-day into the capital of Lombardy. I
will tell you why I am here. When Austria unjustly attacked Piedmont,
I resolved to support my ally, the King of Sardinia. The honor and the
interests of France rendered this my duty. Your enemies, who are mine,
have endeavored to diminish the universal sympathy which there was in
Europe for your cause, in circulating the report that I was making war only
through personal ambition, or to aggrandize the territory of France. If there
are men who do not comprehend their epoch, I am not of that number.
"In the enlightened state of public opinion, one is greater to-day through
the moral influence which he exercises than by sterile conquests; and that
moral influence I seek with pride, in endeavoring to restore to liberty one of
the most beautiful portions of Europe. Your welcome has already proved to
me that you have understood me.




580                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" I do not come here, with a preconceived system, to depose sovereigns, nor
to impose upon you my will. My army will occupy itself with but two
things,- to combat your enemies, and to maintain internal order. It will not
present any obstacle to the free manifestation of your legitimate wishes.
Providence sometimes favors peoples, as individuals, in giving opportunity
suddenly to become great; but it is upon condition that they know how to
profit by it. Profit, then, by the fortune which is offered you. 
"Your desire for independence, so long expressed, so often disappointed,
will be realized if you show yourselves worthy. Unite, then, in a single
object,- the liberation of your country.  Organize yourselves militarily.
Rally around the flag of King Victor Emanuel, who has already so nobly
shown you the path of honor. Remember, that, without discipline, there
cannot be an army. Animated by the sacred fire of patriotism, be soldiers
to-day: to-morrow you will be the free citizens of a great country.
A' NAPOLEON."
The Provisional Government established at Milan on the 6th of June, two
days before the emperor's entrance into the metropolis, had voted the annexation of Lombardy to Piedmont. The presence upon the field of battle of
both Napoleon and Victor Emanuel with the allied army inspired the troops
with redoubled zeal. Francis Joseph, the Austrian emperor, found it necessary, in order to revive the waning courage of his soldiers, also to take the
command in person. Energetically he pushed forward new levies, and called
in all his reserves. His troops had been driven out of Lombardy, and had
crossed the Mincio into Venetia. The allied army was vigorously pursuing.
Francis Joseph, having concentrated a force of about two hundred thousand
men, suddenly recrossed the Mincio in the night of the 23d of June, hoping
to strike the allied army by surprise at nine o'clock in the morning of the
24th. The emperor was fully apprised of this movement, and learned the
precise situation of all the divisions of the hostile army, by means of a
balloon.
The whole allied force was put in motion at two o'clock in the morning of
the 24th. The emperor had decided to strike by surprise those who were
seeking to take him by surprise. Each division of the allied army had' its
route carefully marked out. The heads of these advancing columns of the
two armies soon met on the Plains of Solferino. The shock was terrible. All
the day long, the battle raged over a field fifteen miles in extent. Nearly
half a million of men grappled upon that field in the death-struggle. The
centre of the Austrians was pierced; and, at the close of the afternoon, the
Austrians, everywhere routed, were in full retreat. A violent tempest then
rose, with floods of rain and pealing thunder. The war of the elements
blended with the roar of the battle of man's passions. With great precision
of aim, and rapidity of fire, the French and Sardinian batteries swept the
retiring ranks of the foe, strewing the ground with the dying and the dead.
It is said that the Emperor of Austria, as he stood that evening upon an
* Napoleon III. en Italie, p. 95.




MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                             581
eminence and saw the utter discomfiture of his army, wept bitterly.  To both
parties, to the victors and the vanquished, it was a day of fearful carnage.
The French stated their loss, in killed and wounded, to be 11,246: the Austrians announced theirs at 22,285.*
The allied troops had left their bivouac at half-past two o'clock in the
morning; and they did not again encamp until nine o'clock at night.  Thus
they were, for eighteen consecutive hours, either on the march, or engaged in
battle.  The emperor was on horseback all day, directing the movements,
and often on the most hotly-contested points of the field. The loss of the
Austrians was so severe, that it was manifest to all Europe that France and
Sardinia, rallying to their aid the revolutionary forces of Italy, could speedily
drive Austrian influence out of the whole Peninsula.
Sardinia and Lombardy were liberated.  Austria had retreated into Venetia, and had taken refuge in the renowned fortresses of the Quadrilateral, at
Peschiera, Mantua, Verona, and Legnano.  The people of all the fragmentary
States of Italy rose against the governments which the treaties of 1815 had
imposed upon them.  The duchies of Parma, Modcena, Tuscany, expelled
their rulers; and the young men, with boundless enthusiasm, rallied around
the tricolored banner, shouting, "United Italy! "  The blasts of Garibaldi's
bugles were echoing through the Apennines.  All the kingdom  of Naples
was roused; and Ferdinand, appropriately termed "Bomba" from the patriot
towns he had shelled, was himself bombarded.  The execrable treaties of
1815 were being scattered to the winds.  To add to the terror of the dynasties, there was hurrying to and fro, and the uplifting of the tricolored banners
of the old empire in Hungary and in Poland.  All Europe was in a state of
ferment.
Abraham  Lincoln said that the United States could not exist half slave
and half fiee. There is an irrepressible conflict between the two systems.  It
is equally true that Europe cannot exist with half her nations constitutional
monarchies, based upon the equal rights of all men, -the peasant and the
prince,- and the other half feudal despotisms, founded upon the exclusive
privileges of the nobles.
The old Bourbon re'gine in France was the ripened system  of aristocratic
usurpation.  The empire introduced by Napoleon was the announcement to
Europe of equality, the equal political rights of all men.  Between the two
systems there is, of necessity, the most deadly hostility. The wars of the
allies against Napoleon I. were simply the wars which these two antagonistic
systems engendered.t
Austria represents the principles of absolute power and priestly dominion.
France  represents the strong governmental authority delegated by pure
democracy, through the voice of universal suffrage. It is this principle which
* Napoleon III. en Italic, leux Mois de Campagne, par Jules Ricard, p. 118.
t " Who has sustained the contest which the French democracy had provoked? Naturally,
that which was the most powerful of all aristocracies, - the most rich, the most skilful. The
English aristocracy, with a great man, Pitt, at its head, struggled against French democracy with
Napoleon, its great man. It was the English aristocracy which sustained the conflict with Napoleon."- Speech of jI. Thiers in the French Chambers; Moniteur, Dec. 24, 1839.




582                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
explains the power of the re-established empire.  Upon the banners of the
empire, wherever they were borne by the first Napoleon, there was inscribed,
"Equal Rights for all Men."  Wherever that banner was unfurled in Italy, in
France, in Spail, in Saxony, in Bavaria, in Wurtemberg, it was recognized as
the banner of the people.  All the despotic thrones of Europe combined to
crush this system, which else would crush them.  With the overthrow  of
Napoleon I. by the combined dynasties, all the other governments in sympathy with the spirit of the French Revolution fell also.  The old feudal despotisms were triumphant.  At Waterloo, the genius of republican equality was
trampled in the dust, and the  spirit of aristocratic privilege held the field
undisputed.
But nothing is ever settled in this world until it is settled right.  As soon as
the people of France had recovered from the.exhaustion of their utter defeat,
again they drove from their realm the old feudal despotism, and, with unanimity quite unparalleled in the history of nations, re-established the republican
empire.  And we have here in Italy, after the lapse of half a century, essentially a repetition (with, of course, many complications) of the struggles of the
spirit of the first French empire with the dynasties.  The French  cannon
which thundered at Magenta and Solferino spoke the same language which
thrilled Italian hearts from the batteries of Napoleon I. at Lodi and Arcola.
Not only was Austria terrified and frenzied by the march of the FrancoSardinian army, but all dynastic Europe was alarmed.  Tile spirit of Napoleon I. had burst the tomb, and was again riding forth, conquering and to conquer.  Where would it stop?  If Italy were regenerated, Italy and France
became essentially one.  Hungary and Poland were  demanding  liberation.
Ireland was restless.  The dynasties were panic-stricken.  In hot haste, a
coalition was being formed.  Prussia and England both threatened to join
Austria, if France did not immediately call back her armies, and desist from
the attempt to liberate Venetia.  There was no alternative.  France  must
either abandon the poor Venetians to their fate, or meet the armies of England
and Prussia united with those of Austria, and thus plunge all Europe into one
of the most desolating wars earth ever witnessed.
As Napoleon III. rode over the fields of Magenta and Solferino after the
battles, he was overwhelmed  by the  aspect of misery which met his eye.
Nearly forty thousand men were lying upon each of those fields, either wounded or dead.*  His engineers reported that the Quadrilateral fortresses could
be taken, but that it would require the lives of fifty thousand French soldiers,
and probably as many more Austrians.
* Fifty-nine years before, the Emperor Napoleon I., at but a few leagues fiom Solferino, had
been similarly affected by the aspect of the miseries of the battle-field.
"Upon the field of Marengo, having scattered all his enemies like chaff before him, with the
smoke of the conflict still darkening the air and the groans of the dying swelling upon his ear,
laying aside all the formalities of state, with heartfelt feeling and earnestness Napoleon wrote to
the Emperor of Austria. This extraordinary epistle was thus commenced:"' SIRE,- It is on the field of battle, amidst the sufferings of a multitude of wounded, and
surrounded by fifteen thousand corpses, that I beseech your Majesty to listen to the voice of
humanity, and not to suffer two brave nations to cut each other's throats for interests not their
own. It is my part to press this upon your Majesty, being upon the very theatre of war. Your
Majesty's heart cannot feel it as keenly as does mine.' "-Abbott's Life of Napoleon, vol. i. p. 328.




MAGENTA AND SOLFERINO.                            583
There were also, as we have mentioned, menaces reaching him that other
powers were about to come to the rescue of Austria. The disaffected peoples
were everywhere about to rise: the dynasties were preparing for the struggle
against them, as in the days of the first Napoleon. Thus all Europe would
soon be in the convulsions of war, every country presenting its blood-stained
fields of Magenta and Solferino, and all, perhaps, to end, as in the wars against
Napoleon I., in riveting anew the chains of despotism.  It was clear to his
mind that he could not go on, and liberate Venetia, without arraying dynastic
Europe against him.  This would compel him, in self-defence, to accept the
aid of the disaffected peoples, and thus to rally the revolutionary spirit all over
Europe.
Surrounded by the dead and dying, with groans of agony filling his ear, the
vision appalled him. With frankness quite unusual in diplomacy, he stated
these reasons for not continuing the endeavor to make Italy free to the Adriatic; and consented to the peace of Villafranca, which still left Venetia in the
hands of Austria.
I have not space to speak of the re-organization of the kingdom  of Italy.
Venetia was left out, with every Venetian heart burning with grief and despairt
In this conflict, the sympathies of the British Government were, as always,
with the dynasties. Hungary was just rising to shake off the yoke of Austria,
taking advantage of her embroilment with Venetia, when the French armies
were withdrawn from Italy, and the doom of Hungary was sealed. There is
true pathos in the entreating tones in which Kossuth, in his celebrated speech
on the 20th of May, 1859, the lord mayor being in the chair, implored the
British Government not to intervene in behalf of Austria.
"Now, my lord," said he, "I do not remember to have heard one single
official or semi-official declaration, that, if her Majesty's government were not
to remain neutral, they would side with Sardinia and France against Austria;
but I       have heard many declarations forcibly leading to the inference, that the
alternative was either neutrality or the support of Austria.
"We have been told, that, if a French fleet should enter the Adriatic, it
might be the interest of England to oppose it; that, if Trieste were to be
attacked, it might be the interest of England to defend it: nay, the inspired
ministerial candidate for the West Riding of Yorkshire even told the electors
that it might be for the interest of England to protect Venice. From what?
Of course, from the great misfortune of being emancipated from Austria.
"I love," says the noble Iungarian, "my fatherland more than myself, more
than any thing on earth; and, inspired by this love, I ask one boon - only one
boon —from England; and that is, that she should not support Austria.
England has not interfered for liberty: let her not interfere for the worst of
despotisms, - Austria."
To this cry the cabinet of St. James turned a deaf ear, and gave its moral
support, while threatening to give its material support, to Austria against
France and Sardinia. The armies of France and Sardinia were thus arrested
in their career of liberation. Venetians and Htugarians still groaned in their
chains.  Father Gavazzi pleaded eloquently, but in vain, with England, in
behalf of Italy.




584                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
"W e fight now," he said, in a letter dated Aug. 4, 1860, "for the sole purpose of uniting all Italy under the constitutional sceptre of Victor Emanuel.
Let Englishmen repudiate the idea that there is any thing republican in the
present movement; since the most ardent advocates of republicanism  have
sacrificed their views to the great cause of our independence, unity, and constitutional liberties.  Be sure, that, if there is no intervention in our fightings,
we shall arrive to crown in the capital our dear Victor Emanuel as the constitutional king of one Italy."
A writer in an English review, speaking of this struggle, says, "Upon the
whole, the educated classes of this country, though  they knew  that much
oppression was implied in autocratic sway, desired to see the democratic
movement stayed throughout the world, at whatever cost."*
The thoughtful reader will here inquire, - first, Did the emperor do right or
wrong in aiding Sardinia against Austria? second, Did he co right or wrong
in not continuing the war, and in consenting to peace, still leaving Venetia
under.Austrian rule?  There can be but little doubt respecting the verdict
which impartial history will give to these two questions.
* Lord Normanby wrote a pamphlet upon this question, entitled " The English Cabinet, Italy,
and the Congress."  It was translated into French by M. C. F. Audley, and republished in Paris.
In that pamphlet, Lord Normanby quotes with approbation from a work then recently published,
entitled " The English Nation," the following sentences:"At the commencement of this year, England saw the expedition to Italy with such extreme
displeasure, as to lead one, at the moment, to suppose that she intended to oppose it by force.
The ministry of Lord Derby was overthrown by a majority of ten votes. That which succeeded
it never ceased to express the most intense sympathy for the Italian cause. It went even farther
than the Emperor of the French, who had become the armed champion of that cause. Thus we
see a flagrant contradiction in English policy."  I quote from the French translation, - Le Cabinet Anglais, I'Italie, et le Congres, par Lord Normanby, p. 22.




CHAPTER XXXIV.
PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.
The Peril of Austria. - Threatened Intervention of the Great Powers. - Reasons for the Peace
of Villafranca. -Interview between the two Emperors. -Napoleon's Address to his Army.
-His Return to Firance. -Address to the Great Bodies of the State.- The Banquet at the
Louvre.- Perplexities of the Italian Question. -Plan of a Confederation.- Opposition
of the Pope. - The Vote for Italian Unity. - Additional Embarrassments. - Napoleon's
Letter to Victor Emanuel. - His Letter to the Pope. - Agitation throughout Europe -
Inflexibility of the Papal Government. - Vast Difficulties of the Italian Question.
HE Austrians had been routed in every battle.  Their soldiers,
l cowering behind the fortresses of the Quadrilateral, were disheartened.  The Franco-Sardinian army, flushed with victory,
was pressing them at all points.  New levies of French troops
were crossing the Alps.  The fleets of France had entered the
Adriatic, and were preparing to blow to pieces the Austrian
batteries in Venice.  Though it was known that the Austrians would fight
desperately behind their massive walls of earth and masonry, and that the
struggle would yet be fearfully sanguinary, the final result could not be
doubted, unless other powers should interfere to rivet anew the chains upon
Italy.
Such was the state of affairs, presenting the full assurance that Italy would
soon be free to the Adriatic, when England and Prussia threatened to intervene in behalf of Austria, unless Napoleon withdrew  his conquering army.
Under these circumstances, Napoleon decided himself to present to Francis
Joseph propositions for peace; while with great frankness he announced to
France and to Europe the reasons which impelled him to this decision.
The following recital we give upon the authority of th.e "Independance
Beige."  The emperor, on the  8th of July, was at his headquatters, near
Verona, his mind manifestly all engrossed with anxious thought. At seven
o'clock in the evening, the emperor sent for General Fleury, and said to him,
in the presence of King Victor Emanuel, 
"My dear general, I am  in want at this moment of a military diplomatist.  I need a man gentle, conciliating, and amiable.  I have thought of you.
Here is a letter for the Emperor of Austria.  You will take it to Verona.
Read it.  Imbue yourself with its spirit.  I ask for a suspension of arms.
It is important that the emperor, Francis Joseph; should give his assent. I
rely upon your intelligence to develop the ideas which are in germ in this
letter."
74                                            585




586                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
He  then  gave  General Fleury several explanations, to which Victor
Emanuel added his approval.  The general took a carriage, and accompanied
by his aide, Captain Verdiire, set out for Verona.  Though it was distant
but a few miles, so much difficulty was encountered in passing through the
advance-posts of the Austrians, that Verona was not reached until half-past
ten in the evening. Francis Joseph had retired, and was soundly sleeping;
but he was summoned from his bed by the importance of a letter fiom the
Emperor of the French. IIe hastily dressed, and General Fleury was introduced.  As Francis Joseph read the letter, surprise  and emotion were
pictured upon his countenance.
"Your communication," said he, "is very important; so much so, that I
must take time to reflect upon it. Remain here until to-morrow morning.
At eight o'clock, I will give you my answer."
" I am at the orders of your Majesty," General Fleury replied.  "Nevertheless, I solicit permission to submit a few considerations, which will explain to your Majesty the application of the emperor."
General Fleury then urged the acceptance of the proposition which had
been made to him. He represented that the armies were so closely in contact, that blood must soon again flow; and that the mediation by other powers,
which was contemplated, would come too late to avert a conflict.  Francis
Joseph listened attentively, and replied,"The considerations you suggest are just.  I will think of them.  To-morrow morning you shall have my answer."
The general was provided with lodgings, as the guest of the Austrian
emperor, that night; and at eight o'clock the next morning he was again
called into the royal presence.  After a long conversation, Francis Joseph
retired into another apartment, and soon returned with his answer, contained
in a letter addressed to the Emperor of the French. In three hours, it was
placed in th6 hands of Napoleon at Valeggio.
The Emperor of Austria assented to a truce; and the next day commissioners from both parties met at Villafranca to decide upon its terms and its
duration.
The pride of the Emperor of the French probably revolted from  accepting
a treaty dictated to him  by England, Prussia, and Russia. With characteristic self-respect, he preferred to settle the difficulty with his imperial antagonist, without the intervention of those ancient dynasties.  The " Moniteur"
of the 11th of July, with its usual spirit of courtesy and conciliation, made
the following announcement, which, of course, reflected the views of the
emperor: -
"Communications were interchanged between the three great neutral
powers, in view  of entering into an alliance to offer their mediation to the
belligerents.  The first act of this mediation would tend to the conclusion of
an armistice; but, notwithstanding the rapidity of telegraphic communications, there could not have-been an agreement between the cabinets to secure
this result for several days.' And yet our fleet was just ready to open its
attack upon Venice; and a new struggle of our armies before Verona was
momentarily to be expected.




THE PEACE 0F VILLAFRANCA.                                587
"Under these circumstances, the emperor, always faithful to the sentiments
of moderation which have ever directed his policy, solicitous, moreover, above
all things else, to prevent the useless effusion of blood, has not hesitated to
ascertain directly the dispositions of the Emperor Francis Joseph, in the
thought, that, if these dispositions were conformed to his own, it would be
a sacred duty for the two sovereigns to suspend, for the,present, hostilities
which now could have no object, through the fact of approaching mediation.
"The Emperor of Austria having manifested similar views, commissioners
named by each party have met to arrange the terms of an armistice, which
has been definitely decided upon.  To-morrow  there will be an interview
at Villafranca between the Emperor of the  French and  the Emperor of
Austria."
Francis Joseph was much displeased with the conduct of the other three
powers.  In heart, they were with him in the desire to hold Italy in subjection, in accordance with the treaties of 1815; and yet they had refused to
enter into an alliance with him to aid in crushing Sardinia, by which alone
the end could be attained.  Under these circumstances, the two emperors
met, resolved to settle the question without asking or accepting counsel fiom
the other powers.*
At nine o'clock in the morning of Monday, the 11th of July, the Emperor
of the French arrived on horseback at Villafranca.  He was accompanied by
his entire staff, his military household, and was followed by a squadron of the
hundred guards (cent-gcardes), and by another regiment of the guides of the
guard.  The imperial cortege halted for a moment upon the grand place of
Villafranca.  Then an orderly officer appeared upon the full gallop, coming
along the Verona Road.  Hat in hand, he announced to Napoleon that the
Emperor Francis Joseph and his suite were near by, and would soon arrive.
Immediately the imperial cortege set out again upon the gallop.  Soon the
escorts met.  The two emperors, leaving their retinues behind, rode forward
and saluted each other.  Napoleon presented his hand to Francis Joseph,
which the latter took, and cordially pressed.  After the interchange of a few
friendly words, the emperors, side by side, - Napoleon upon the right, Francis
Joseph upon the left, -  rode back to Villafranca.t
* "The Emperor Napoleon III., who has always exhibited before Europe an attitude firm and
resolute, and who has raised up France from the secondary position in which the feeble policy
of the governments of 1830'and 1848 had placed her, neither could nor would, in 1859, accept
a solution proposed by a congress. At the head of the French army, he had conquered the
right to speak alone in the name of the interests of France and Italy. And all the cabinets
of Europe were compelled to remain neutral on the 11th of July, 1859, as they had decided to
be on the 1st of January of the same year." - Napoleon III. en Italie, par Jules Ricard, p. 145.
t An eye-witness thus describes the appearance of the Austrian emperor: " Francis Joseph
was accompanied by Field-iMarshal Baron de Hess and his orderly-officers. He wore the uniform
of a general of cavalry in undress (en petite tenue), composed of a short sky-blue jacket, with
pantaloons of the same color. The heir of Hapsburg has the features which characterize his
race. He is tall, of fair complexion, and much resembles his brother Maximilian, whom we have
seen in Paris. Like him, he has thick lips, a curly beard, bushy whiskers, and large blue eyes.
He appeared to me much agitated." - M. Leonce Dlupont, Correspondant da Journal de Pays.




588                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
In a small villa belonging to M. Carlo Gaudini Morelli, where the Emperor
of Austria had passed the night, just before the day so disastrous to him,- of
Solferino,-there was a parlor, modestly furnished with two sofas, a few chairs,
and a square table. At this table, these two sovereigns, occupying positions
of responsibility and power so extraordinary, sat alone for an hour, deciding
the fate of Italy and of Europe.  They held the destinies of the two hundred
millions of Europe in their hands. It requires the grasp of a divine mind to
comprehend the issues of the decisions of that hour. If they decided upon
war, all those millions would spring to arms, and billows of blood and woe
would surge over the nations. Should they decide upon peace, the gathering
war-cloud would be dispelled, and the arts of industry, uninterrupted, would
enrich and bless the peoples. As the Emperor of the French sat at that
table that peaceful summer's day, conscious that the fate of Europe was thus
placed at his disposal, we wonder not that he felt that he was but an instrument in the hands of God, almost miraculously raised up for the accomplishment of His mysterious designs.
There the two emperors sat alone. No living being witnessed their interview. They had entered the villa of M. Morelli, politically enemies; their
armies facing each other with loaded cannon and bristling bayonets. The
retinues of the two emperors were blended upon the Place of Villafranca,
conversing in a friendly manner with each other, and awaiting with intensest
interest the result of the interview  between the two sovereigns. When
Napoleon and Francis Joseph were seen coming out in manifest agreement and
friendship, an electric thrill instantly touched the hearts of the officers of the
two nations. The sovereigns introduced to each other their military households. Francis Joseph shook hands with Marshal Vaillant, and with Generals
Martinprey and Fleury, and congratulated them with much cordiality upon
the valor of their officers and their soldiers. After a brief interchange of
these public testimonials of friendship, the two sovereigns mounted their
horses, and took leave of each other. At half-past eleven o'clock, the Emperor Napoleon III. had re-entered Valeggio.*
The emperor immediately summoned a council at his headquarters. The
King of Sardinia and Prince Napoleon assisted. In the afternoon, the prince
was sent on a private mission to Francis Joseph at Verona, from which' he
returned at half-past ten o'clock in the evening. The announcement was
then made that peace was concluded in all' its principal bases, though the
details were still to be arranged. 
It is' reported that Prince Napoleon found Francis Joseph in a state of
profound melancholy. The prince was instructed to insist upon the independence of the duchies of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany. With great reluctance, the Austrian emperor yielded this point. As he finally gave his assent,
he said, " Prince, I hope that it may never be your doom  to sign a similar
treaty." t
The next day, the 12th. of July, Napoleon III. issued the following proclamation from his headquarters at Valeggio:.* Napoleon III. en Italic, deux Mois de Campagne, par Jules Ricard, p. 150.
t Idem, p. 151.




THE PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.                                  589
"SOLTDIERS, -The  bases of peace are concluded  with  the Emperor of
Austria.  The principal end of the war is attained.  Italy, for the first time,
is about to become a nation. A confederation of all the States of Italy, under
the honorary presidency of the holy father, will re-unite in one cluster the
members of the same family. Venetia remains, it is true, under the sceptre
of Austria: it will be, nevertheless, an Italian province, constituting a part
of the confederation.
"The re-union of Lombardy with Piedmont creates for us, on this side of
the Alps, a powerful ally, who will owe to us his independence.  The governments remaining outside of the movement, or confirmed in their possessions,
will comprehend the necessity of salutary reforms.  A  general amnesty will
cause all traces of civil discord to disappear. Italy, hereafter mistress of her
destinies, will no longer have occasion to blame any one but herself if she do
not steadily progress in order and liberty.
"You will soon return to France.  The country will receive with transport
those soldiers who have borne so high  the glory of our arms at Montebello,
at Turbigo, at Magenta, at Solferino; who  in  two months have  liberated
Piedmont and Lombardy; and who  have  only been  arrested  because the
struggle was about to assume proportions which were not in conformity with
the interests which France had in this formidable war." *
The guns of the Invalides announced the glorious event to  Paris.  The
city blazed  with  illuminations, and  the  Te Deum  resounded  in  all the
churches.  The journals of Europe, almost without dissent, not only expressed
admiration  in view  of the military ability the  emperor had displayed, but
commended also the wisdom  and the moderation he had manifested  in concluding peace.t On the 13th, the emperor left Desenzano by rail for Paris.
* La Politique Imperiale, pp. 301, 302.
t " The London Morning Post," commenting upon this treaty, says, " If the emperor had
been influenced by ambitious views, he would not have adopted that course which gave so much
satisfaction to Europe. It is very doubtful whether the French army would have encountered
any check. He had only to push forward, and the four fortresses would have successively fallen
into his hands, and the fragments of the Austrian army would have been compelled to seek
refuge in Germany. The emperor, then, would have been regarded as the first captain of his
age, and would have been the most influential sovereign of Continental Europe; but, in thus
doing, he would merely have covered himself with military glory, and he would not have assured
the destinies of Italy any more than he has now done."
"The London Morning Chronicle" said, "There is no doubt, that, if the conqueror of
Magenta and Solferino had wished still more to humiliate his enemies, he might easily have done
so. Although Francis Joseph had still enormous forces at his disposition, it must be remembered that these forces were still inferior to those of his adversary. It may be said that Austria
was prostrate, with the sword of France at her throat; and France pardoned her. The generous sovereign did not seek the ruin of Austria, but the deliverance of Italy."
" The London Times," after discussing all the chances of success for France, closed the article
by saying, "If, then, the emperor desired to put an end to the war, it could not have been
because he found a conflict with Austria beyond his power, beyond that of his army and of
his people. There were no victories which yet remained to be achieved which equalled those
he had already attained."
"Le Journal Frangais de St. Petersbourg " says, in reference to the conditions of peace,
"They give to France great satisfaction. Austria abandons the territory of Lombardy; the




590                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON ITT.
He stopped a short time at Breschia to visit the hospitals; and entered Milan,
the capital of Lombardy, at five o'clock in the afternoon.  With Victor
Emanuel by his side, he was received with. the most extraordinary outburst
of popular enthusiasm. As he continued his journey towards France, the
people crowded into every little village, into every great city, from leagues
around, to greet the liberator of Italy. At several places, he stopped' to visit
the hospitals; and many were the words of kindness and the graceful deeds
of benevolence which were witnessed at the bedsides of the wounded
soldiers.
On Sunday, the 17th of July, at ten o'clock in the morning, the imperial
carriage entered the park of the Palace of St. Cloud.  Here the empress and
the prince imperial awaited the return of the husband and the father.  The
emperor had been absent but sixty-seven days. In that time, he had rescued
a kingdom from foreign invasion, had conquered Lombardy, had gained two
of the most sanguinary battles of modern days, and had concluded a peace
glorious for France and regenerating Italy.  At twelve o'clock, the imperial
family attended mass in the chapel of the chateau.  At one o'clock, the
emperor received his ministers.*
Italy, and the general voice of Europe, alike recognized that Napoleon was
the liberator of Italy; and not only applauded him  for what he had done,
but also for stopping when he did, thus -saving Europe from  a general war.
But there were not wanting a few so ungenerous, unjust, and unreasonable as
to condemn the emperor for the carnage of Solferino and Magenta, which
rescued Sardinia and Lombardy; and also to condemn him for not pressing
on for the rescue of Venetia, to the still greater carnage which must have
ensued beneath the walls of the Quadrilateral, and which would have caused
all Europe to run red with blood.
Two days after the emperor's return, on Tuesday the 19th, he addressed the
great bodies of the State at St. Cloud.  His discourse, brief and all-comprehensive as usual, contained the following sentiments:"When, after a prosperous campaign  of two months, the French and
Sardinian army arrived beneath the walls of Verona, the struggle had
inevitably changed its nature both in its military and political aspects.  I
was fatally obliged to attack in front an enemy intrenched behind great
fortresses, protected against diversion upon his flanks by the neutrality of the
territories which surrounded him: and, in commencing the long and sterile
war of sieges, I found Europe before me in arms, ready, it might be, to dispute
our success; it might be, to aggravate our reverses.
"Nevertheless, the difficulty of the enterprise would not have shaken my
resolution if the means had not been out of proportion with the results to
be expected.  It would have been necessary to resolve boldly to break
through the barriers presented by neutral territories, and then to accept the
self-love of Austria is respected; the right of conquest on the part of France is acknowledged.
It is from the Emperor Napoleon, and not from Francis Joseph, that Sardinia will receive the
aggrandizement of her territory. The influence of force and of diplomatic skill have provided
for her career. Peace is made without intervention. The sovereigns of France and Austria
owe it to themselves alone."
* Napol6on III. en Italie, p. 164.




THE PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.                            591
struggle upon the Rhine as well as upon the Adige.*  It would have been
necessary for us to avail ourselves everywhere, openly, of the resources of
revolution.  It would have been necessary to shed still more of that precious
blood which had already too freely flown.  In a word, to triumph, it would
have been necessary to risk that which it is not permitted for a sovereign to
put at hazard, except for the independence of his country.
"If I arrested my steps, it was not in consequence of weariness or exhaustion, nor from an abandonment of the noble cause which I wished to serve, but
because, in my heart, something spoke louder still, - the interests of France.
"Can you, then, believe that it did not cost me something to put a check
upon the ardor of my soldiers, who, flushed with victory, asked only to press
forward?
" Can you believe that it did not cost me something to strike off openly,
before Europe, from my programme, the territory which extends from the
Mincio to the Adriatic?
"Can you believe that it did not cost me something to see in honest hearts
noble illusions destroyed, patriotic hopes dispelled?
"In order to serve Italian independence, I have made war against the will
of Europe. As soon as the destinies of my country were imperilled, I made
peace.
" Can it now be said that our efforts and our sacrifices have been in mere
waste?  No! As I said in adieu to my soldiers, we have a right to be proud
of our short campaign.  In four combats and two battles, a numerous army,
which yields not to any organization in bravery, has been vanquished.  The
King of Piedmont, of oM  called the' Guardian of the Alps,' has seen his
country delivered from invasion, and the frontiers of his States extended from
the Tessino to the Mincio.  The idea of Italian nationality is admitted by
those who have most strenuously contended against it.  All the sovereigns
of the Peninsula comprehend, at length, the imperious necessity for salutary
reforms.
"Thus, after having given a new proof of the military power of France, the
peace which I have concluded will be fruitful in happy results (the future
will more fully reveal them  every day) for the happiness of Italy, the influence of France, the repose of Europe." t
It was a question anxiously discussed, whether it were better that the liberated States of Italy should organize themselves into a confederation of independent States somewhat after the model of the German Confederation, or
whether they should be formed into a consolidated kingdom  like that of
France.  While the emperor was willing to leave the decision to the Italians
themselves, still it was his avowed judgment that they had better commence
* " Mantua, Peschiera, and Legnano would have fallen into our hands as the simple consequence of a third battle upon the Adige: but Verona, the bulwark of Austrian power, we
could not perfectly invest without violating the territory of the Tyrol; that is to say, without
giving to Germany, re-united upon the Rhine, the right to declare,'I am attacked.' To invest
Verona, the Emperor Napoleon III. said, was to accept the struggle upon the Rhine as upon
the Adige."-Napoleon III. en Italie, p. 130.
t La Politique Imperiale, p. 304.




592                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
with a confederacy, until they should become somewhat accustomed to acting
together, and until local jealousies and rivalries (which were then very strong)
should be appeased.*
Lamartine very earnestly and eloquently advocated this view.  It is probably now the general sentiment of well-informed and thoughtful men, that it
4vould have been better for Italy if the plan of the emperor had been adopted.
The very great difficulty of the Roman Question would thus have been
averted.  In one of the "Entretiens de Litterature," Lamartine reviews the
political life and writings of the celebrated Count de Maistre, — one of the
most eminent of the Piedmontese diplomatists, - with whom Lamartine was
intimately acquainted.  He shows, by quoting from De Maistre's despatches,
that he, also, was in favor of Italian confederation, rather than of Italian unity.
Lord Normanby, in treating upon this subject, says, "It is worthy of remark
that the Emperor Napoleon and M. de Lamartine stood upon the same platform as to the future of Italy.  They both were of opinion that confederation,
not unity, was essential for Italy.  When two eminent men, who were but little accustomed to act in harmony, were of the same opinion, it is well to recall
to mind that these two men understood Italy better than any one else; and
they have neither flattered nor cajoled her." t
The emperor proposed at Villafranca a confederation of independent States,
whose central capital should be Rome, and over whose congress the pope
should preside as president. +  The pope, disgusted and enraged by the treatment he had received from the Revolutionary party, had thoroughly renounced
his liberal opinions, and had again surrendered his mind to Austrian domination.  He was now opposing all reform, and was casting a very jealous eye
upon the Emperor of the French, who was so effectually aiding in the emancipation of Italy from  both civil and religious despotism.  The emperor had
rescued the pope from Revolutionary outrage, and had replace dhim upon his
throne.  He was not a little disappointed that the pope should manifest such
ingratitude, and that he should give his influence to the support of the despotisms of the old regimes.
Soon after the peace, the emperor wrote a letter to the pope, urging him to
grant of his own accord, without waiting for the exigencies of revolt, those
reforms which Europe, for thirty years, had been so imperiously demanding.
"I entreat your Holiness," wrote the emperor, "to listen to the voice of a
devoted son of the Church, but who comprehends the necessities of his epoch,
and who perceives that brutal force is not sufficient to resolve questions and
to remove difficulties.  I see in the decisions of your Holiness either the germ
of a future of glory and of tranquillity, or the sure continuance of a state of
violence and calamity." 
It was the emperor's earnest desire to reconcile regenerated Italy witl the
* Several years before, Lord Brougham had expressed his opinion against the attempt to consolidcte Italy into one nation. In a very able pamphlet which he published upon the afifirs of
Austria and Italy, he writes, " Italy has never been one country, one nation. In reality, the
unity of its different States has never continued for the space of a single hour."
I Le Cabinet Anglais, l'Italie, et le Congres, par Lord Normanby, p. 29.: La France, Rome, et l'Italie, par A. de la Gueronniere, p. 30.  ~ Idem, p. 35.




THE PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.                             593
pope. But the priestly court of Rome had no comprehension of the true state
of affairs.  It opposed all reforms.  The Austrian princes of all the States of
Central Italy had fled; and the populations were preparing for their new organizations, either of a confederacy, or of annexation to the kingdom of Piedmont.
Thus the Papal States would be left by themselves, - in Italy, but not of Italy.
The emperor deemed it a matter of the utmost importance that the temporal
sovereignty of the pope should be maintained. There were nearly two hundred millions of people who recognized him  as their spiritual head.  He
swayed a sceptre of moral power unequalled by that of any other monarch in
Europe. It was not consistent with the interests of Europe' that Victor Emanuel, or Francis Joseph, or any other sovereign, should be permitted to annex
the papal territory to his dominions, and thus compel the holy father to become his subject.*  The Roman  Question became the most difficult and
the most perplexing which had yet engrossed the mind of the emperor.  He
gave to it his most anxious thoughts. The pope, surrounded by none but
ecclesiastical advisers, and very much under their control, rejected all counsel
which weakened in the slightest degree his old and absolute power.  Austria,
Spain, Naples, Sardinia, concurred in the suggestions of the emperor; but the
pope would not yield.
Still there was a very strong influence excited in France and in other parts
of Europe by the devotees of the old regime, ecclesiastical and political, which
was bitterly opposed to the liberal policy of Napoleon, and which sustained
the pope in his stubborn adhesion to absolutism. Numerous deputations from
France, composed of members of the party of the ancien regime, visited the
pope with expressions of sympathy and words of encouragement, declaring
that they regarded their allegiance to the holy father as superior to that which
they owed their own government. Thus the emperor was bitterly assailed by
two parties, -by the one, for his attempt to maintain the independence of the
pope; by the other, for his endeavor to induce the pope to accept of those
reforms which were demanded by the spirit of the nineteenth century.
Thus matters remained, with ever-increasing agitation, for many months.
Sicily, Naples, and the duchies had driven out their old governments, and
established independence. The question of a federal confederacy, or a consolidated unity, was presented to the decision of these emancipated States, by
popular sovereignty.  Every male above the age of twenty-one was allowed
to vote.  The result was very decidedly in favor of Italian unity.  In Tus* " In a political point of view, it is necessary that the chief of two hundred millions of Catholics should not belong to any person; that he should not be subordinate to any power; and that
the august hand which governs souls, not being bound by any dependence, should be able to raise
itself above all human passions. If the pope were not an independent sovereign, he would be a
Frenchman, an Austrian, a Spaniard, an Italian; and the title of his nationality would take from
him his character of universal pontiff. The holy see would be nothing but the support of a
throne at Paris, at Vienna, or at Madrid.' - Le Pape et le Congres, p. 7.
"The spiritual power whose seat is at Rome cannot be displaced without disturbing the
political power, not only in the Catholic States, but in all the Christian States. It is important
to England, to Russia, and to Prussia, as to France and Austria, that the august representative of Catholic unity should neither be constrained, humiliated, nor subordinated." -Ibid.,
p. 8.
76




594                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
cany, the vote stood, for unity, 366,571; for a confederacy, 14,925.  In Romagna,-a province about forty-five miles in length, and thirty in breadth,
which had broken away from  the Papal States, -the vote stood, for united
Italy, 200,659; for the confederation, 224. The result was, that four-fifths of
the population voted for annexation to Piedmont under Victor Emanuel.
Thus all Italy became united.as one kingdom, excepting Venetia and the
Papal States.
These Papal States were thirteen in number, small, embracing together
about seventeen thousand square miles, and containing a population estimate(d,
in 1853, at a little over three millions.  They had two seaports, —Civita
Vecchia on the Mediterranean, and Ancona on the Adriatic.  When the
result of the vote was presented to Victor Emanuel, he said,"I accept the solemn vote, ald henceforth will be proud to call them  my
people. In uniting to my ancestral provinces not only the States of Tuscany,
Modena, Parma, but also Romagna, which has already separated itself from
the Papal Gqvernment, I do not intend to fail in my deep devotedness to the
head of the Church."
The provinces of Savoy and Nice formerly belonged to France, being upon
the French side of the Alps.  The inhabitants spoke the French language,
and were French in character.  By the treaties of 1815, these provinces were
wrested from France.  The question was submitted to them, to be decided
by popular suffrage, whether they would return  to France, or would be
incorporated with the kingdom  of Italy.  With scarcely a dissenting voice,
they voted to return to.France.*
Italy, thus regenerated, and united in nearly all its provinces, was restive.
Rtome, the Eternal City, seemed the natural capital of the Peninsula; but to
Italy it was now in a foreign land.  Venetia was in a state of ever-increasing
excitement. The Venetians were of one mind in their desire to be re-united
to their countrymen, whose language they spoke, and with whom  they were
assimilated in religious and social sympathies.  Very many began to blame
Napoleon for the peace of Villafranca, by which Venetia was left in the
hands of Austria.  Many of the Italians, thoughtlessly or ungratefully, forgot
all that the emperor had done for them, while denouncing him that he had
not made Italy " free to the Adriatic."  They were beginning to gatheretheir
armies to wrest Venetia from Austria.  The emperor had sincerely desired to
accomplish this.  He had relinquished the attempt only that he might save
humanity from  the woes of a general European war. His sympathies were
with Venetia and Italy; but he was disposed punctiliously to respect his
treaty obligations with Francis Joseph, and to lend neither moral nor material support to the encouragement of insurrection in Venetia.  Under these
circumstances, the emperor wrote a letter to Victor Emanuel, King  of
* " When, on the 10th of December, national confidence replaced power in the hands of the
heir of the empire, the clergy united in this popular manifestation. It was under the banner of
their churches that the rural populations marched to the ballot-box. Entire France then presented the spectacle of which we have recently received a testimony, when, from the summits of
the Alps to the shores of the Mediterranean, Nice and Savoy have shouted acclaim to their
new country." - La France, Rome, et l'Italie, par A. de la Guzronniere.




THE PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.                                595
emancipated Italy. It was dated Palace of St. Cloud, Oct. 20, 1859, and
expressed the following views: -
" In my opinion, the following are the essential conditions of Italian regeneration:
"Italy  should  be composed of several independent States united by a
federal tie.*
"Each of these States should adopt a system  of particular representation
and of salutary reforms.
"The confederation should then consecrate the principle of Italian nationality. It should have but one flag, one system of custom-houses, and one
currency.
"The central director should be at Rome. It should be formed by representatives appointed by the sovereigns, from a list proposed by the Chambers,
in order that, in that kind of diet, the influence of reigning families suspected
of partiality for Austria might be balanced by the element proceeding from
election.
"In awarding to the holy father the honorary presidency of the confederation, the religious sentiment of Catholic Europe is satisfied; the moral infltence of the pope in all Italy is increased, and that will enable him to make
concessions conformed to the legitimate desires of the populations.
"Now, this plan, which I had formed, at the conclusion of peace, can still
be realized, if your Majesty  exerts his influence in its favor.  Moreover,
important steps have already been taken in that direction.
"The cession of Lombardy with a limited debt is a fact accomplished.
"Austria has renounced her right of garrison at Placentia, Ferrara, and
Commacchio.
"The right of the sovereigns has been reserved, it is true; but the independence of Central Italy has been  equally guaranteed, since all idea of
foreign intervention has been formally renounced.
" In fine, Venetia is about to become a province purely Italian.
"The true interest of your Majesty, as that of the Peninsula, is to second
me in the development of this plan, that there may be obtained from  it the
best consequences: for it ought not to be forgotten that I am bound by
treaty; and I cannot, in the congress whicj is about to be opened, depart
from  my engagements.  The course France must pursue is marked out in
advance.
* "The emperor's programme was made public. Not having been able to obtain the protectorate of Europe for Italy, he proposed a federation of all the independent States, of which
Rome should be the centre, and the pope the chief. We, who have had the honor to exhibit this
programme, know better than any one else with what sarcasms and abuse it was received by
that party whose influence directed the Vatican. At Rome and at Paris, there was a rivalry of
violence. The Italian Question was denied; the inviolability of Austrian right was affirmed;
and, in the name of the pope, every thing was repelled which could associate him with the regeneration of the nationality whose cause his illustrious predecessors had associated with the grandeur of the Church. Subsequently, eyes were opened; and the idea of Italian federation, under
the presidency of the pope, commanded the support of those who had repelled it with the most
energy and the least reflection." -La France, Rome, et l'Italie, par A. de la Gueronniere, p. 31.




596                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" Let us demand that Parma and Plaisance should be united with Piedmont; for that territory is strategically indispensable to her.
"Let us demand that the duchies of Parma should be called to Modena.
"That Tuscany, perhaps somewhat enlarged, should be restored to the
Grand Duke Ferdinand.
"That a system of wise liberty should be adopted in all the States of Italy.
"That Austria should separate herself frankly from an incessant cause of
embarrassment for the future; and that she should consent to complete the
nationality of Venetia, not only in creating a representation and a separate
administration, but also an Italian army.
"Let us demand that the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera should be
recognized as federal fortresses.
" In fine, let a confederation, based upon the real wants as well as the
traditions of the Peninsula, and upon the exclusion of all foreign influence,
assure the completion of Italian independence.
" I shall neglect nothing to secure this great result. Your Majesty may be
assured of that. My sentiments will not vary; and, so long as the interests
of France are not opposed, I shall be always happy to serve the cause for
which we have fought together.                           "NAPOLEON."
The Italian Question still continued to agitate all the cabinets of Europe.
It was full of complications. The religious bearings of the question were
immense, touching the sympathies of two hundred millions of Catholics; and
those interests could not be ignored. Austria, proud, yet humiliated, was
very sensitive.
The great object of the emperor was to secure as much liberty for Italy as
would be consistent with internal order, and which would not shock the sensibilities of Catholic Europe, nor rouse the alarmed dynasties to an armed
coalition.  As to the religious question, the emperor, like his uncle, Napoleon I., was a sincere believer in the divine origin of Christianity. He
regarded Christianity as essential to the prosperity of nations and to the wellbeing of humanity; and, while recognizing fully freedom  of conscience in
worship, he still accepted Catholicism  as the form of Christianity espoused
by the overwhelming majority of the French people, and thus calling for the
fostering care of the government. A congress of the great powers was about
to be convened to deliberate upon these momentous questions. In that congress, Napoleon III. would be the only monarch, if we except Victor Emanuel,
who was in sympathy with the principles of popular liberty which the French
Revolution evoked.
The pope, irritated by democratic outrage and by the loss of Romagna,
was growing cold towards his benefactor, and, yielding to the counsels of his
ecclesiastics, was daily manifesting more sympathy with Austria and with the
principles of Austrian absolutism. Under these circumstances, the emperor
wrote a letter to the pope, which was dated Palace of the Tuileries, Dec. 31,
1859, and contained the following views:"VERY HOLY FATHER, —  One of my most anxious cares, during as since
the war, has been the situation of the States of the Church; and, surely,




THE PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.                             597
among the powerful reasons which indhced me so promptly to conclude a
peace must be included the fear of seeing revolution assume continually
greater proportions.  Facts have an inexorable logic; and notwithstanding
my devotion to the holy see, notwithstanding the presence of my troops at
Rome, I could not escape a certain responsibility for the results of national
movements provoked in Italy by the struggle against Austria.
"Peace once concluded, I hastened to write to your Majesty, to submit to
him  the ideas most suitable, in my judgment, to secure the pacification of
Romagna; and I still think, that if, at that time, your Majesty had assented to
an administrative separation of these provinces, and to the appointment of a
lay governor, they would have remained under his authority. Unfortunately,
that has not taken place; and I find myself powerless to arrest the establishment of a new regime.*
"Now  the congress is about to be assembled.  The powers cannot disregard the incontestable rights of the holy see upon the legations.  Nevertheless, it is probable that they will be of the opinion not to have recourse to
violence to compel their submission; for, if this submission were attained by
the aid of foreign forces, it would still be necessary to hold military possession of the legations for a long time.  This occupation would keep alive the
hostility and the hatred of a large portion of the Italian people, as also the
jealousy of the great powers: it would thus perpetuate a state of irritation,
uneasiness, and dread.
"What, then, remains to be done? for this uncertainty cannot last forever.
"After a careful examination of the difficulties and the dangers which
different combinations present, I say with sincere regret, however painful
the solution may be, that it seems to me to be most conformed to the
interests of the holy father that he should make the sacrifice of the revolted
provinces. If the holy father, for the sake of the repose of Europe, should
renounce these provinces, which for fifty years have created so much embarrassment in his government, and should he, in exchange, demand of the
powers a guaranty for the possession of the rest, I do not doubt of the
immediate  return of order.  Then the holy father will secure to grateful
Italy peace for a long series of years, and to the holy see the tranquil possession of the States of the Church.
"Your Holiness, I love to think, will not misunderstand the sentiments
which animate me. You will comprehend the difficulty of my situation. You
will interpret with benevolence the frankness of my language, in recalling to
mind all that I have done for the Catholic religion and for its august chief.
* "Romagna, under the empire of Napoleon I., had been a part of the kingdom of Italy.
The allies, by the treaties of 1815, transferred the province to the pope. The people, however,
were so restive, that they were only kept in subjection by the occupation of the territory by
Austrian troops. When the French flag was seen descending the Alps, hastening to the relief
of Sardinia, or Piedmont as it is also called, the Austrian troops were withdrawn to march
against the Franco-Sardinian army. The pope's legate did not dare to remain without their
support. The Pontifical Government was immediately overthrown, and the inhabitants of
Romagna joined Sardinia." -Le Pape et le Congres, Paris, 1859.




598                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
" In thanking your Holiness for the apostolical benediction which you have
sent to the empress, to the prince imperial, and to me, I renew to you the
profound veneration
"Of the devoted son of your Holiness,
" NAPOLEON."
The pope was inflexible, and would not listen to any terms of conciliation.
The emperor, still persevering in his endeavor to settle this most perplexing
of questions, presented another combination, having first obtained its approval by all the Catholic courts. This plan was briefly the organization of
an army corps, without any intervention  either by France or Austria, which
should maintain order in Rome; a revenue to support the expenses of the
pontifical court presented by the  Catholic powers; and the promulgation,
throughout the States of the Church, of those reforms to which the holy
father had already given his approbation.   The response of the pontifical
court was prompt and decisive, and was communicated by Cardinal Antonelli in the following terms:"The holy see will not adhere to any protocol which does not guarantee
the restoration of Romagna; it persists in postponing, until that restoration,
the introduction of the reforms assented to by the holy father; it is its inflexible determination never to accept any guaranty for the States wjlich remain
under its dominion, because, in its eyes, that would recognize a difference
between these States and those which have been wrested from  her." X
The plan of the Emperor Napoleon for the pacification of Italy was from
the commencement clearly conceived, and earnestly urged upon the cabinets
of Europe. There was irreconcilable hostility between Italy and Austria. It
was, therefore, necessary to seek for the elements of pacification outside of
these two powers.  Hence France invited the Congress of Paris in 1856.
Supporting itself upon the authority of a great example of the intervention
of the powers to regulate questions which menaced the 4geace of Europe,
France demanded, upon terms which all the other powers of Europe pronounced to be just and reasonable, reconciliation between Austria, and the
humiliated, restless, and struggling States of Italy.  Few  now, in the light
of subsequent events, will question the wisdom of the plan of confederation
* "Thus the court of Rome had refused every thing.  It had pushed aside the vicariate
over Romagna, as an injury to its sovereignty, which sovereignty no longer existed in that
province. It had declined the collective guaranty of the Catholic powers for the integrity of
the territory which remained to it after the war. It had rejected, almost as a humiliation, the
offer of a pious tribute conferred by all the princes who recognized the sovereignty of the holy
father. It had repelled the proposition of a guard furnished by all the nations faithful to the
holy see.
" There is in resignation a sort of austere virtue which ennobles misfortune, and commands
respect; but resignation did not enter into the heart of the counsellors of Pius IX. At the
moment in which he protested against the idea of a revenue offered by the Catholic sovereigns,
the Pontifical Government solicited individual contributions, and organized everywhere the
collection of the pence of St. Peter. At the moment when the pope declined soldiers to be
placed at his disposal by the devotion of the princes, he enrolled partisans." - La France, Rome,
et l'Italie, par A de Gueonniere, p. 46.




THE PEACE OF VILLAFRANCA.                               599
which the emperor proposed.  Had it been adopted, the Italian war, with all
its blood and misery, would have been avoided.  In all probability, it would
have averted the conflict between Prussia and Austria; for Prussia would
scarcely have ventured to attack her formidable rival, had she not relied upon
Italian co-operation; and Europe would now be rescued from  those complications of the Italian Question which so seriously menace its repose.
The emperor asked, in the nArme of the peace of Europe, that the Emperor
of Austria should renounce, not his rights of sovereignty in Italy, but the
control, permanent and general, which he exercised over the whole of the
Peninsula by virtue of his treaties with the princes of the several States.
Napoleon wished that these princes, endowed by the Congress of Vienna, in
1815, with a nominal independence, should cease to be the feudatories or the
lieutenants of Austria, that their governments might become truly national
and independent.*  Thus to the domination of Austria, which  had  now
become impossible, there would succeed the supremacy of Europe, which
would guarantee to Italy its enfranchisement.  These States thus becoming
independent, being united in a confederation, would render Italy a power in
the world, would accustom the Italians to act in harmony, and would pave
the way for a more consolidated union in the future.t
But the pope and  his ecclesiastical advisers deliberately preferred the
domination of Austria to the reforms proposed by France.  The despatches
which passed between the different governments at this time, and the innumerable pamphlets which were published, indicate the intense sensitiveness,
not only of the governments, but of the public mind.  No one but Napoleon
had any definite plan to propose.  All the rest seemed to content themselves
with objections, and, bewildered by the apparently inexplicable complications
of the subject, left the all-engrossing question to be shaped by the hazard of
circumstances, or to be settled, as Garibaldi expressed it, "by iron and by
blood."
* " The domination of Austria over Italy was not limited by the territorial possession of
Lombardy and of Venetia; but it extended even to the moral dependence of the kingdom of
Naples, of the grand duchy of Tuscany, of the duchy of Modena, of the duchies of Parma
and Plaisance. A secret article of the treaty, signed July, 1815, stipulates that 
"' His Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies will not admit any changes which are not in
harmony with monarchical institutions, and with the principles adopted by his imperial Majesty
and King for the interior government of his Italian provinces.'
"Also a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was concluded between the Emperor of
Austria and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. There was also a treaty of alliance, signed the 24th
of December, 1847, with the Duke of Modena, conceding to the Emperor of Austria the right
to march the imperial troops into the territory of Mrodena, and to garrison its fortresses, when-.
ever this should be demanded by the interests of the common defence and military precautions."
- La Guerre, par E1mile de Girardin, p. 23.
t La France, Rome, et l'Italie, par A. de la Gueronniere, p. 29.




CHAPTER XXXV.
MESSAGES AND DIPLOMACY.
Address to the Legislative Corps. -Deputation from Savoy.- Expedition to Syria.- Journey
to Algiers. - Opening of the Legislative Corps.- Inauguration of the "Boulevard Malesherbes." - Letter on the Affairs of Italy. - Inauguration of the "Boulevard Prince Eugene."- Address to the Legislative Corps. - Discourse upon the World's Exposition at
London. - Letter upon Algeria.
N the emperor's address to the Legislative Corps on the 1st of
N 11X    March, 1860, after alluding to the friendly relations then exist-!S o^ ^  ing between France and all the European governments, and the
gI /1-\ ~consequent great reduction of the army, he. submitted a series
of measures to facilitate production, to promote cheapness of
living, to secure the welfare of those who labor, and to multiply
commercial relations. Among these measures were the suppression of prohibitory tariffs, which excluded from  French markets many productions of
foreign lands; the formation of a treaty of commerce with England essentially
upon the principle of free trade; and the improvement of all the means of
internal communication  and transportation.  In  conclusion, the emperor
said, -
" In submitting to you a faithful picture of our political'and commercial
situation, I have wished to inspire you with full confidence in the future.
The protection of Providence will not be wanting for a pacific enterprise
which has for its end the prosperity of the greatest number. Let us continue,
then, firmly in our course of progress, without allowing ourselves to be
arrested, either by the murmurs of selfishness, or by the clamors of party, or
by unjust suspicions.
"France menaces no one.  She desires to develop in peace, in the fulness
of her independence, the immense resources which Heaven has conferred
upon her.  And she cannot indulge in jealous irritability; since, in the state
of civilization at which we have arrived, there is daily manifested more
clearly this truth, which consoles and assures humanity, - that, the more rich
and prosperous any country becomes, the more it contributes to the riches and
prosperity of other nations."
On the 21st of March, 1860, a deputation from  Savoy had an interview
with the emperor in the Palace of the Tuileries. Napoleon thus addressed
them: "I thank you for the sentiments which you have expressed to me,
and I receive you with pleasure. The King of Sardinia having acceded to
600




MESSAGES AND DIPLOMACY.                        601
the principle of the union of Savoy and of the county of Nice to France, I
can, without failing in any international duty, testify to you my sympathy,
and accept the expression of your wishes. The circumstances under which
this rectification of our frontiers has been effected are so unusual, that, in
responding to legitimate interests, no principle is wounded, and consequently
no dangerous precedent is established.
"Indeed, it is neither by conquest nor by insurrection that Savoy and Nice
will be re-united to France, but by the free consent of the legitimate sovereign, supported by popular adhesion. Thus all that there is in Europe which
does not cling to the antagonistic spirit of another epoch regards as natural
and equitable this annexation of territory. The response made to the communications addressed by my government to the powers represented in the
Congress of Vienna authorizes a reasonable hope that the subject will receive
from them a favorable examination."
During the summer of 1860, there were in Turkey terrible insurrections;of the Mohammedan population against the Christians, and large numbers of
the Christian population were brutally massacred. As the sultan avowed his
inability to protect these his Christian subjects, Napoleon promptly sent an
army for their defence. He thus addressed the troops in the camp at Chalons on the eve of their departure, the 7th of August, 1860:"SOLDIERS,-You are about to leave for Syria; and France implores
blessings upon an expedition which has but one object,- that of causing the
triumph of the rights of justice and humanity. You do not go to make war
upon any power whatever; but you go to aid the sultan to force back to obedience subjects blinded by the fanaticism of another age. Upon this distant land,
rich in grand memories, you will do your duty; and you will show yourselves
the worthy children of those heroes who have borne gloriously in that country the banner of Christ.  You do not go in large numbers; but your
courage and your prestige will make up for that; for everywhere, to-day,
where the flag of France is seen to pass, the nations know that a grand cause
precedes it, and a grand people follow it."
In the month of September, the emperor visited Algiers. As he passed
through Marseilles, accompanied to that spot by the empress, they both were
greeted with a very enthusiastic reception. In the emperor's response, he
said, -
"The demonstrations, so unanimous, of attachment which we have received
since the commencement of our journey, profoundly move me; but they do
not elate me: for my only merit has been entire faith in divine protection,
and in the patriotism and good sense of the French people."
On the 17th, the emperor landed at Algiers. At a banquet there offered
him, he presented the following views:"{My first thought, in placing my foot upon the soil of Africa, turned to the
army, whose courage and perseverance have accomplished the conquest of
this vast territory. But the God of armies does not send to a people the
76




602                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
scourge of war, except as chastisement or as redemption.  In our hands, conquest can only be redemption; and our first duty is to occupy ourselves with
the welfare of three millions of Arabs whom the fate of arms has caused to
pass under our domination.
"Providence calls upon us to diffuse over this territory the benefits of
civilization. But what is this civilization?  It is to account welfare (bien-etre)
for something, the life of man for much, and moral improvement as the most
important of all. -Thus to elevate the Arabs to the dignity of free men; to
diffuse instruction among them while respecting their religion; to ameliorate
their condition by causing the earth to produce those treasures which Providence has buried there, and which a bad government has left sterile, -  such
is our mission: we shall not fail in it."
Thus closed the year 1860. France was prospered at home, and respected
abroad.  Under the imperial regime, all arts and industries were flourishing.
It may be safely said that there could not be found, in the Old World or in the
N'ew, a nation more unanimously satisfied with its government, more contented, tranquil, and happy.  There was still, of course, opposition.  There
were Bourbonists, Orleanists, Socialists, and extreme Republicans, who would
gladly, each in its own interests, overthrow the government; but the masses
of the people, in overwhelning majority, were the devoted advocates of the
republican empire.  I say, republican empire; for it was an empire to promote the rights of the people, and' not to sustain the exclusive privileges of
any class.*
In the emperor's address at the opening of the Legislative Corps on the 4th
of February, 1861, he said, -
"As to the exterior, I strive to prove in my relations with foreign powers
that France sincerely desires peace; that, without renouncing legitimate influence, she does not pretend to interfere at all where her interests are not at
stake; in fine, that, if she have sympathies for every thing which is noble and
grand, she does not hesitate to condemn every thing which violates the rights
of nations and justice.  ~
"Events difficult to have foreseen have complicated in Italy a situation
already so embarrassing.  My government, in harmony with its allies, has
thought that the best means of allaying the greatest dangers was to have
recourse to the principle of non-intervention, which leaves each country
master of its destinies, localizes questions, and prevents them  filom  degenerating into European conflicts.
"Surely I am  not ignorant that this system  has the inconvenience of
appearing to authorize many grievous excesses; and extreme opinions prefer,
some that France should take part in all revolutions, others that- she should
place herself at the head of a general re-action.
"I shall not allow myself to be turned from my path by any of these opposing influences.  It is sufficient for the grandeur of the country to maintain
" That every utterance of the public suffrage in France has hitherto invariably led to a full,
emphatic, and, to a great extent, spontaneous confirmation of the vote by which the supreme
power in the first instance came into the hands of Prince Louis Napoleon, it seems impossible
to deny."-London Times, Aug. 13, 1867.




MESSAGES AND DIPLOMACY.                           603
her right where it is incontestable, to defend her honor where it is attacked,
to lend her support where it is implored in favor of a just cause.
" It is my firm resolution not to enter into any conflict in which the cause
of France shall not be based upon right and justice.  What, then, have we
to fear?  Can a nation united and compact, numbering forty million souls,
fear either that it may be dragged into conflicts the object of which it does
not approve, or that it can be provoked by any menace whatever?  Let us
contemplate the future with calmness; and in the full consciousness of our
strength, as of our loyal intentions, let us devote ourselves, without exaggerated anxieties, to the development of those germs of prosperity which Providence has placed in our hands."
On the 13th of August, 1861, the new "'Boulevard Malesherbes" was
inaugurated. The emperor made the following remarks in his speech upon
the occasion: -
" The embellishments of the capital, when finished, excite general admiration;
but, during their execution, they often provoke criticisms and complaints. It
is impossible, in such enterprises, not transiently to injure some interests.
It is, nevertheless, the duty of the administration to prosecute them without
turning aside from the end to be attained. You know what that end is, - to
give activity to labor, new life to the manufactures and commerce of Paris,
in separating them from the obstacles which impede their progress; to protect the classes who are least favored; to oppose the rise in the price of
provisions.
" To attain the first of these results, government has taken an important
step; and you will learn with pleasure, that, since the treaty of commerce with
England, the exportation of articles from Paris has already almost doubled.
As to the administration of city affairs, in removing the wall for collecting
city dues to the fortifications, in connecting by large avenues the extremities
with the centre, the tendency is to equalize in this vast enclosure the price
of every thing.
"Again I congratulate the city upon the measures which have been
adopted to ameliorate the lot of the most numerous class. Thus water will
be furnished at a cheaper rate; lodgings at less than two hundred and fifty
francs will be exempt from taxation; bread-making is so organized, that, in
case of famine, bread shall not exceed a certain price; efforts are made to
diminish the price of meats, not only by allowing no- monopoly, but also by
creating a special market, which will better guarantee the interests of the
consumer; in fine, churches, schools, and institutions of charity, are everywhere multiplied."
The affairs of Italy were daily becoming more and more complicated and
menacing. The emperor expressed his views very fully upon this question
in the following letter to the minister of foreign affairs. It was dated Palace
of the Tuileries, May 20, 1862.
" MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE, - Since I have been at the head of the government in France, my policy has always been the same in reference to Italy, -




604                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
to favor the national aspirations, to induce the pope to become the support
of them rather than the adversary; in a word, to consecrate the alliance of
religion and liberty.
" Since the year 1849, in which the expedition to Rome was decided upon,
all my letters, all my discourses, all my despatches to my ministers, have
invariably manifested this tendency; and, following circumstances, I have
sustained them with profound conviction, whether at the head of a limited
power as President of the Republic, or as the head of a victorious army upon
the banks of the Mincio.
"My efforts, I confess, are now broken to pieces against resistances of all
kinds, in presence of two parties diametrically opposed, absolute in their
hatreds as in their convictions, deaf to counsels inspired by the single desire
of good. Is this a reason no longer to persevere, and to abandon a cause
great in the eyes of all, and which ought to be fruitful in benefits for
humanity?
" It is important that the Roman Question should receive a definite solution;
for it is not only in Italy that it troubles the mind: everywhere it produces
the same moral disorder, because it relates to that which man has most at
heart, - religious and political faith.
"Each party substitutes for the true principles of equity and justice its
exclusive opinion. Thus some, forgetting the recognized rights of a power
which has continued for ten centuries, proclaim, without regard to a consecration so ancient, the forfeiture of the pope.  Others, careless of the claims of
the legitimate rights of the people, condemn, without scruple, a part of Italy
to immobility and eternal oppression. Thus the one party disposes of a
power still existing as if it were overthrown, and the other party disposes of
people who demand to live as if they were dead.
" Still it is the duty of statesmen to study the means of reconciling two
causes which passions alone present as irreconcilable.  Even in case of
failure, the attempt will not be without a certain glory; and, in any event,
there is an advantage in declaring loudly the end towards which we tend.
"That end is to arrive at a combination by which the pope will adopt that
which is grand in the thought of a people who aspire to become a nation;
and, on the other hand, that the people should recognize that which is salutary
in a power whose influence extends over the whole world.
"At the first view, in considering the prejudices and the animosities
equally, one despairs of a favorable result. But if, after having examined to the
bottom of affairs, we appeal to reason and common sense, we love to persuade
ourselves that truth, that divine light, will, in the end, pervade all minds, and
show clearly the supreme and vital interest which invites, which obliges, the
parties of the two opposing causes to listen to each other, and to be reconciled.
"Italy, as a new State, has against her all those who cling to the traditions
of the past. As a State which has called revolution to her aid, she inspires
with suspicion all the men of order.  They doubt her ability to repress
anarchical tendencies, and hesitate to believe that a society can strengthen
itself with the same elements which have overturned so many others. In




MESSAGES AND DIPLOMACY.                          605
fine, she has at her gates a formidable enemy, whose arms and ill-will,
easy to be understood, will still, for a long time, constitute an imminent
danger.
"These antagonisms, already so serious, will become still more so in supporting themselves upon the interests of the Catholic faith. The religious
question aggravates the situation very much, and multiplies the adversaries
of the new order of things established beyond the Alps. A little while ago,
it was the Absolutist party alone which was opposed to it. To-day, the
greater part of the Catholic populations of Europe are its enemies; and this
hostility embarrasses not only the benevolent intentions of governments
attached by their faith to the holy see, but it arrests the favorable dispositions
of Protestant or schismatic governments, who have also a considerable fraction of their subjects of the same faith. Thus everywhere it is the religious
idea which chills the public sentiment for Italy. Her reconciliation with the
pope would greatly smooth down these obstacles, and relieve her of millions
of adversaries.
"On the other hand, the holy see has an equal interest, if not a stronger
one, in this reconciliation; for, if the holy see has zealous supporters among
all fervent Catholics, it has against it all the Liberal party in Europe. It is
regarded, as in politics, the representative of the prejudices of the ancient
regimee; and by Italy it is deemed the enemy of her independence, the most
devoted partisan of re-action.  Thus the holy see is surrounded by the
most excited adherents of the fallen dynasties; and this support is not calculated to augment in its favor the sympathies of the peoples who have overthrown these dynasties.
"Nevertheless, this state of things injures less the sovereign than the chief
of religion.  In those Catholic countries where modern ideas have great
influence, men even the most sincerely attached to their faith find their consciences troubled, and doubts entering their minds, uncertain whether they
can reconcile their political convictions with those religious principles which
seem to condemn modern civilization. If this situation, full of perils, should
be prolonged, political dissent would be in danger of introducing regrettable
dissent into the Christian faith.
"The interests of the holy see, as also those of religion, require, then, that
the pope should be reconciled with Italy; for that will be to be reconciled
with modern ideas, to retain within the bosom of the Church two hundred
millions, of Catholics, and to give to religion a new lustre, in exhibiting the
faith as favoring the progress of humanity.
" But upon what foundation can a work so desirable be established?  The
pope, brought back to a correct appreciation of the true state of affairs, will
comprehend the necessity of accepting all that which connects him again
with Italy; and Italy, yielding to the counsels of a wise policy, will not refuse
to adopt those guaranties which are necessary for the independence of the
sovereign pontiff and for the free exercise of his power.
"This double end will be attained by a combination, which, maintaining
the pope master of himself, shall break do*wn the barriers which now separate
his States fiom the rest of Italy. That he may be master of himself, inde



606                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
pendence must be assured to him, and his power must be accepted freely by
his subjects.  It is to be hoped that it will be so on the one side, when the
Italian Government shall engage, in co-operation with France, to recognize
the States of the Church and their admitted boundaries; and on the other,
when the government of the holy see, coming back from  ancient traditions,
shall consecrate the privileges of the municipalities and of the provinces in
such a manner, that they shall, so to speak, administ er themselves; for then
the power of the pope, soaring in a sphere elevated above the secondary
interests of society, shall extricate itself from  that responsibility, always
weighty, and which a strong government alone can support.
" These general indications are not an ultimatum which I have the pretension to impose upon the two parties at disagreement, but the bases of a
policy which I think it a duty to seek to promote by our legitimate influence
and our disinterested counsels.
"Whereupon I pray that God may have you in his holy keeping.
" NAPOLEON.
On the 7th of December, 1862, the truly magnificent " Boulevard Prince
Eugene" was inaugurated.  In the emperor's discourse upon the occasion,
he said, —
"To transform the capital, in rendering it larger and more beautiful, is not
merely to erect more buildings than have been torn down, to furnish labor
with an increased number of diverse trades: it is to introduce everywhere
habits of order and the love of the beautiful.
" These spacious streets, these architectural mansions, these gardens open
to all, these  artistic monuments, in augmenting  comforts, improve the
taste; and when it is remembered that by the side of these vast works you
also promote public assistance, multiply religious edifices, and buildings
devoted to education, there is due to you an infinite debt of gratitude for
accomplishing so many useful things, without compromising in any respect
the prosperous state of the finances of the city.
" It is, as you know, my constant endeavor to search out means to remedy
the transient depression of employment, and to promote the comfort of the
laboring-classes.  The question of the public supply of food has recently
engaged my particular attention. The last discussion in the Council of State
was upon the question of introducing certain useful reforms into the bakers'
shops.
"I must also thank you for your concurrence in a work due to the suggestion of the empress, and which, placing capital at the command of honest and
industrious artisans, falsifies the old proverb, that'one never lends but to the
rich.' If, as I hope, this institution succeed, it will be consoling to think
that a good reputation is veritable property, offering its advantages and its
securities.
"The works of peace recommend themselves the more, since there is
attached to them  the glorious souvenirs of our history.  Therefore have I
wished that the new boulevard which traverses one of the most industrious
faubourgs should bear the name of Prince Eugene,-that child of Paris, who,




MESSAGES AND DIPLOMACY.                         607
at the age of fourteen, was orderly-officer of General Hoche; who was one of
the heroes of the retreat from Russia; and who, rather than abandon France
and the emperor, refused the crown of Italy which the allied sovereigns
offered him.
" I cannot tell you how much I have been touched by the spontaneous
movement of the population which has given the name of my mother to one
of the neighboring boulevards; but I cannot accept the designation. Names
inscribed upon marble ought not to be the exclusive privilege of my fiamily.
It belongs to all those who have rendered service to the country. Thus the
new avenue of communication which replaces the Canal St. Martin will hereafter be called' Boulevard Richard Lenoir.'
"Although there already exists a small street Richard Lenoir I desire to
bring into still stronger light the name of that man, who, a simple workman
of the Faubourg St. Antoine, became one of the first manufacturers of
France; whom the emperor decorated with his own hand, for the immense
improvement he made in the manufacture "of cotton; and who employed a
fortune, nobly acquired, for the support of workmen during days of adversity,
and to arm them when it was necessary to repel foreign invasion.
"Let us occupy ourselves, then, with every thing which can, at the same
time, ameliorate the material condition of the people, and which can elevate
their moral state. Let us ever place before their eyes a noble end to be
attained, and the example of those who have conquered fortune by labor,
esteem by probity, glory by courage."
On the 12th of January, 1863, the emperor addressed the Legislative Corps
at the opening of its last session. After briefly alluding to the friendly
relations of the empire with foreign nations, the emperor spoke as follows
of the state of home-affairs during the preceding five years: —
"I have wished on the one hand, by a complete amnesty, to efface as far as
possible the remembrance of our civil discords; and, on the other, to increase
the importance of the great bodies of the State (corps cZe l'Eta). I have
called you to take a more direct part in the progress of affairs; I have surrounded your deliberations with all the guaranties which liberty of discussion could claim; I have renounced a prerogative judged till then indispensable, in order that the Legislative Corps might control the expenses in a
more absolute manner, and to give more solidity to the bases upon which
public credit reposes. To relieve expenses, the army and navy have been
considerably diminished. The floating debt has been reduced; and, by the
success of the conversion of the rentes, a very important step has been
taken towards the unification of the debt.
"The indirect revenue has continually increased, from  the simple fact of
increase of the general prosperity; and the situation of the empire would be
flourishing, were it not that the war in America has come to dry up the
most fruitful sources of our industry.
"The stagnation of business has created, at many points, suffering which
calls for our deepest solicitude; and a grant will be asked of you for the
assistance of those who support with resignation misfortunes which we have




608                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
no power to terminate. Nevertheless, I have endeavored to send across the
Atlantic counsels inspired by sincere sympathy; but the great maritime
powers have not seen fit to join me. I have postponed until a more propitious
epoch the offer of mediation, which had for its object only to arrest the effusion of blood, and to prevent the exhaustion of a country whose future cannot be indifferent to us." *
In the year 1862, there was a Universal Exposition of the world's industry
at London.  The industry of France was very splendidly displayed upon this
occasion. In the following terms, on the 25th of*January, 1863, the emperor,
in the Palace of Industry, expressed his thanks to those who had thus
honored their native land: 
"MESSIEURS,-  You have worthily represented France in a foreign land.
I thank you for it; for these universal expositions are not simple bazaars, but
brilliant manifestations of the force and genius of the peoples. The state of
society is revealed by the greater or less advancement of the diverse elements
which compose it; and, as all progress marches abreast, the examination of
any one of the multiplied products of intelligence suffices for the appreciation
of the civilization of the country to which it belongs.  It is not, then, a
matter of indifference to the character of France to exhibit in the view of
Europe the products of our industry; in fact, they alone testify to our moral
and political condition.
"I congratulate you upon your energy and your perseverance to rival a
nation which is in advance of us in certain branches of industry.  And here,
at last, we see realized that formidable invasion of the British soil so long
predicted.  You have crossed the Channel.  You have boldly established
yourselves in the capital of England.  You have courageously contended
with the veterans of industry. This campaign has not been without glory;
and I come to-day to give you the recompense due to the brave.
" This kind of war, which makes no victims, has much merit.  It stimulates
a noble emulation; promotes those commercial treaties which bring peoples
together, and cause national prejudices to disappear without diminishing love
of country.  From these material exchanges there springs up an exchange
still more precious,- that of ideas.
"If foreigners can envy us for many useful things, we also have much to
learn from them.  In England, indeed, you must have been impressed with
that unrestricted liberty, free in the manifestations of all opinions as in the
* "The Assembly, with entire unanimity, adopted the draught of a law opening a credit of five
million francs in behalf of the working-men in the manufacturing districts which had been
especially affected by the American war. In some departments, the sufferings of these men
were very severe. In that of the Seine Iferieure, the number of laborers who had been thrown
out of wolk was estimated at one hundred and thirty thousand. Private charity co-operated
with the legislature; and, on Jan. 26, two million francs had already been absorbed.  The
resignation and patriotic attitude of the working-men were generally commended; and, on May 4,
the legislature voted a new credit of one million two hundred thousand francs in their
behalf." - American Annual Cyclopcedia, art. "France."




MESSAGES AND DIPLOMACY.                           609
development of all interests. You have renarked the perfect order maintained in the midst of the animation of discussion and the perils of competition. It is because English liberty always respects the principal bases upon
which society and power repose. Thus it does not destroy: it ameliorates.
It carries in its hand, not the torch which kindles conflagrations, but the
light which illuminates; and, in private enterprises, individual action, exercised with indefatigable ardor, releases the government from being the sole
promoter of the vital forces of a nation.  Thus, instead of regulating every
thing, it leaves to each one the responsibility of his acts.
"Such are the conditions upon which there exist in England this marvellous
activity and this absolute independence.  France will also attain it when we
shall have consolidated the indispensable bases for the establishment of entire
liberty. Let us labor, then, with all our diligence, to imitate examples so
profitable. Imbue your'selves incessantly with sound political and commercial
doctrines; unite yourselves in one thought of preservation; and inspire
individuals with energetic spontaneity for every thing that is beautiful and
useful. Such is your task. Mine will be to take constantly the wise progress of public opinion as the measure of ameliorations, and to clear away
all administrative hinderances from  the direction  in which  you  should
advance."
It seems, that, in the view of the emperor, there was some disposition manifested in Algiers to trespass upon the rights of the native inhabitants.  This
called forth a letter from his pen, addressed to the Governor of Algiers.  It
was dated at the' Palace of the Tuileries, Feb. 6, 1863. In this letter, the
emperor wrote, -
"When the Restauration made the conquest of Algiers, it promised the
Arabs to respect their religion and their property.  This solemn engagement
still exists for us; and I consider it a point of honor to execute, as I did in the
case of Abd-el-Kader, whatever there may be great and noble in the governments which have preceded me.
"Besides, even when justice does not demand it, it seems to me indispensable for the repose and the prosperity of Algeria to consolidate the property
in the hands of those who hold it. How, indeed, can weehope for the pacification of a country, when almost the whole of the population is disquieted
respecting its possessions?
"The land of Africa is sufficiently large, the resources to be developed there
are sufficiently numerous, for each one to find scope for the exercise of all his
activity, following his nature, his taste, his needs. For the natives, there are
the rearing of horses, of cattle, and the rude culture of the soil; for European intelligence and activity, there are the working of the forests and of
the mines, drainage, irrigation, the introduction of improved modes of agriculture, and the establishment of those manufactures which always precede
or accompany the progress of agriculture.
" For the local government, there are the care of the general interests, the
development of moral welfare by education, and of material well-being by
77




610                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
public works. To it belongs thb duty of suppressing useless regulations, and
of securing for individual transactions the most entire liberty.
" Such are the measures to be resolutely pursued; for, I repeat it, Algeria is
not a colony, properly speaking, but an Arabian realm. The natives have,
like the colonists, an equal right to my protection; and I am as much the
Emperor of the Arabs as I am Emperor of the French."




CHAPTER XXXVI.
LIBERATION OF VENETIA.
State of the Italian Question.- The Sympathies of France. - Letter of Napoleon III. to the
Sovereigns of Europe.   Speech to the Legislative Corps. - Rejection by England. - Response of the Continental Sovereigns. - Schleswig and Holstein. - Plans of Bismar. -
Diplomatic Measures. - Alarm of England. -Napoleon's Reply to the Proposition for a
Congress. - The War. - Its Results. - Venetia liberated. - The Roman Question.
HE  great struggle for Italian liberation, which was terminated
by the peace of Villafranca, took place in the summer of 1859.
All the provinces of Italy, excepting Venetia and tte Papal
States, had become united in the kingdom  of Italy, not by a
confederacy, as Napoleon had recommended, but by centralization and unity.*  The Papal States were nominally independent,
though order was preserved at Rome by the presence, in the city, of a strong
French garrison.
Venetia remained in'the hands of Austria, governed by a viceroy appointed
by the court of Vienna.  This little kingdom, whose luxurious court was at
Venice, embraced a territory of about nine thousand square miles, and contained a population of about two and a half millions.  Austria, deeply humiliated by the results of the war, grasped with more tenacity than ever the
only Italian province which remained to her.  To prevent the possibility of
an uprising in Venetia, she sent all the Italian soldiers which she conscripted
from  Venetia far away to the northern frontiers of Austria, to watch the
Prussians, and.to hold the restive Hungarians in subjection.  The fortresses
6f the Quadrilateral, and all the strongholds in Venetia, she garrisoned with
German  soldiers, who, speaking  a different language, could  not become
acquainted with the Italian people; and who, obedient to military discipline,
would, without reluctance, bombard the cities or fire upon the inhabitants of
Venetia.  Seventy thousand German troops were stationed in the fortresses
of this subjugated province.  Austria, ever ready for war, had an army of
* "The emperor never had the intention to impose his will upon the Italians. He has always
been decided to leave them to act in entire liberty. He has given them his views with sincerity,
that he might be useful to them. He said to them,'In my judgment, it would be best that you
should'unite yourselves in a confederation.' But to render his advice less commanding, more
disinterested, he added,' If you follow my advice, it will be a gratification to me; but, if you do
not follow it, I shall not impose it upon you. I shall never employ force against you.' "
Question Italienne, par S. A. I. Myr. le Prince Nlapoleon, p. 120.
611




612                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
nine hundred thousand men in the field. Venetia, bound hand and foot,
could not move a limb in a struggle for liberation. The united Italian States,
though greatly embarrassed in their finances, had an army of two hundred
thousand men. By great exertions, it was thought that this army could be
increased to four hundred and fifty thousand.
This was but half of the Austrian force. Thus Italy was entirely at the
mercy of Austria but for two considerations. Francis Joseph had entered
into treaty obligations not again to invade Italy: should he violate this
pledge, all the passes of the Alps would be crowded with the soldiers of
indignant France, hastening to the rescue of the Italians. But France was
also pledged, not only not to encourage the Italians to assail the Austrians,
but, should Italy commence an aggressive war, not to render her any
assistance.
Still the inhabitants of united Italy, exulting in their new-born nationality,.were exceedingly restless in seeing Venetia, one of their finest provinces,
remaining in the hands of Austria. All over the Peninsula, the cry arose for
the liberation of Venetia. Not many months passed ere it was evident to all
Europe that the Italians were preparing to send an army into Venetia to
encourage and support an insurrection there, with the hope of wresting Venetia from Austria, and re-annexing it to Italy. No aid could be hoped for
from France; for it was well known that the emperor respected treaties. But
should any other of the great powers attack Austria at the same time with
Italy, or should there be a popular uprising in Poland or Hungary, the forces
of Austria would be so divided that Venetia might very probably break fromr
her chains.
By the treaties of Vienna in 1815, France had been*robbed of her emperor,
of her principles of popular rights, of large portions of her territory, and had
been garrisoned by foreign troops. All the popular governments in sympathy
with France had been overthrown. Those treaties were hateful to France.
She had broken from them; she had aided a large part of Italy to break from
them. The sympathies of France were with all those peoples who were
struggling for that constitutional liberty of which the treaties of 1815 had
deprived them. All Europe was at thi ttime in a state.of agitation.  Poland
was in insurrection; Germany and Denmark were assuming hostile attitudes
for the possession of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein; Italy was
threatening to march for the liberation of Venetia. These warlike portents
induced all the powers to keep up immense standing armies. Under these
circumstances, the Emperor of France wrote the following letter* addressed to
the sovereigns of Europe. It was dated Palace of the Tuileries, Nov. 4,
1863.
"In presence of events which every day arise, and become urgent, I deem
it indispensablef without reserve to the sovereigns to whom
the destinies of peoples are confided.
" Whenever severe shocks have shaken the bases and displaced the limits
of States, solemn transactions have taken place to arrange the new elements,
and to consecrate by revision the accomplished transformations.  Such was
tle object of the treaty of Westphalia in the seventeenth century, and of the




THE LIBERATION OF VENETIA.                               613
negotiations at Vienna in 1815.  It is on this latter foundation that now
reposes the political edifice of Europe; and yet, as you are aware, it is
crumbling away on all sides.
"If the situation of the different countries be attentively considered, it is
impossible not to admit that the treaties of Vienna, upon almost all points,
are destroyed, modified, misunderstood, or menaced.  Hence duties without
rule, rights, without title, and pretensions without restraint.  The danger is
so much the more formidable, because the improvements brought about by
civilization, which have bound nations together by the identity of material
interests, would render war more destructive.
"This is a subject for serious reflection.  Let us not wait, before deciding
on our course, for sudden and irresistible events to disturb our judgment, and
carry us away, despite ourselves, in opposite directions.
"I therefore propose to you to regulate the present, and secure the future,
in a congress.
" Called to the throne by Providence and the will of the French people, but
trained in the school of adversity, it is, perhaps, less permitted to me than to
any other to ignore the rights of sovereigns and the legitimate aspirations
of the people.
"Therefore I am  ready, without any preconceived system, to bring to an
international council the spirit of moderation and justice, the usual portion
of those who have endured so many various trials.
" If I take the initiative in such an overture, I do not yield to an impulse
of vanity; but, as I am  the sovereign to whom  ambitious projects are most
attributed, I have it at heart to prove, by this fiank and loyal step, that my
sole object is to arrive without a shock at the pacification of Europe.  If this
proposition be favorably received, I pray you to accept Paris as the place of
meeting.*
"In case the princes, allies and friends of France, should think proper to
heighten by their presence the authority of the deliberations, I shall be proud
to  offer them  my cordial hospitality.   Europe would  see, perhaps, some
advantage in the capital from  which the signal for subversion has so often
been given becoming the seat of the conferences destined to lay the basis of
a general pacification.
"I seize this occasion, &c.,                       "NAPOLEON." *
The next day, Nov. 5, the emperor attended the opening of the newlyelected Legislative Corps.t  In his address, after alluding to the very prosper* La Politique Imperiale, p. 399.
t " The election took place on May 31 and June 1 with the greatest order. In Paris, the
Opposition gained a signal triumph. Eight of its nine candidates were elected: six of the
elected candidates had a very large majority, while that of Thiers was only twelve hundred.
In the departments, the candidates of the government were almost everywhere successful Altogether, of the two hundred and eighty-three deputies elected, thirty-four.were candidates of
the Opposition. Of these thirty-four, several, as the Marquis of Andelarre, the Vicomte of
Grouchy, Ancel, Flichou, M. de Chambrun, had been government candidates in 1857, and had
forfeited the patronage of the government by their vote on the Roman Question. They still
wished, however, to be regarded as warm  supporters of the Napoleonic dynasty." - American
Annual Cyclopaedia, 1863, p. 418.




614                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
ous internal state of the empire, he turned to the political questions which
were then agitating Europe, and said, -
"The treaties of 1815 have ceased to exist. The force of things has overthrown them, or tends to overthrow them, almost everywhere. They have
been broken in Greece, in Belgium, in France, in Italy, as upon the Danube.
Germany is in agitation to change them; England has generally modified
them by the cession of the Ionian Islands; and Russia tramples them  under
foot at Warsaw.
" In the midst of these successive violations of the fundamental European
pact, ardent passions are excited; and in the south, as in the north, powerful
interests demand a solution. What, then, can be more legitimate or more
useful than to invite the powers of Europe to a congress in which self-interest (les amours propres) and resistance would disappear before a supreme
arbitration?  What can be more conformed to the ideas of the time, to the
wishes of the greater number, than to speak to the conscience and the reason
of the statesmen of every country, and say to them, -
"'Have not the prejudices and the rancor which- divide us lasted long
enough?  Shall the jealous rivalry of the great powers unceasingly impede
the progress of civilization?  Are we still to maintain mutual distrust by
exaggerated armaments?  Must our most precious resources be indefinitely
exhausted by a vain display of our forces?  Must we eternally maintain a
state of things which is neither peace with its security, nor war with its fortunate chances? Let us no longer attach a fictitious importance to the subversive
spirit of extreme parties, by opposing ourselves, on narrow calculations, to the
legitimate aspirations of peoples. Let us have the courage to substitute for a
state of things sickly and precarious a situation solid and regular, should it
even cost us sacrifices. Let-us meet without preconceived opinions, without
exclusive ambition, animated by the single thought of establishing'an order
of things founded, for the future, on the well-understood interests of sovereigns and peoples.'
" This appeal, I am happy to believe, will be listened to by all. A refusal
would suggest secret projects which shun the light. But, even should the
proposal not be unanimously agreqd to, it would secure the immense advantage of having pointed out to Europe where the danger lies, and where-is
safety.  Two paths are open: the one conducts to progress by conciliation
and peace;.the other, sooner or later, leads fatally to war, from obstinacy in
maintaining a course which sinks beneath us.
"Such is the language, gentlemen, which I propose to address to Europe.
Approved by you, sanctioned by public assent, it cannot fail to be listened to,
since I speak in the name of France."
The appeal of the emperor, in behalf of a congress to settle national difficulties Ty deliberation iather than by the sword, was addressed to the fifteen
leading sovereigns of Europe. England received the proposition very coldly;
and after asking various questions as to the subjects to be discussed, and the
force, moral or physical, with which the decisions of the congress would be
sustained, closed by a courteous but peremptory refusal to take any part in




THE LIBERATION OF VENETIA.                           615
its deliberations.* The final reply, from Earl Russell, dated the 28th of
November, 1863, closed the correspondence with the following words: -
";Not being able, therefore, to discern the likelihood of those beneficial
consequences.vhich the Emperor of the French promised himself when proposing a congress, her Majesty's Government, following their own strong
convictions, after mature deliberation, feel themselves unable to accept his
Imperial Majesty's invitation."
Austria also interposed many objections to the congress; strangely assuming, in the questions which she asked, that it depended upon the Emperor
Napoleon, and not upon the assembled congress, to decide what questions
should be discussed, and what measures should be adopted.  The Emperor of
Austria, in his reply, dated Nov. 15, affirmed that the treaties of 1815 had
been and still were regarded by Austria as the public law  of Europe;
and, while assenting to the importance of a congress to settle the political
questions which were then menacing the repose of Europe, declared his
unwillingness to take part in such an assembly, until informed, with some
accuracy, of the bases, and programme of the deliberations to be introduced.
The Emperor of Russia, Alexander II., warmly approved of the proposition
of Napoleon, for whom he seems, notwithstanding the Crimean War, to have
formed a sincere attachment.  His reply contained the  following sentiments: -
"In describing the profounduneasiness of Europe, and the utility of an
understanding among the sovereigns to whom  is confided the destiny of the
nations, your Majesty expresses a thought which has always been mine. All
the acts of my reign attest my desire to substitute relations of confidence and
concord in the place of that state of armed peace which weighs so heavily
upon the peoples.  My most ardent desire is to spare my people sacrifices
which their patriotism accepts, but from which their prosperity suffers. Nothing could better hasten this moment than a general settlement of the questions which agitate Europe. A loyal understanding between the sovereigns
has always appeared desirable to me.  I.should be happy if the proposition
emitted by your Majesty were to lead to it."
The King of Prussia, William I., declared his readiness to participate in a
congress whose object should be to effect such modifications as might be
deemed necessary in the treaties of 1815. Without interposing any cavilling
objections, he very sensibly suggested that the ministers of the various countries represented should prepare such propositions as they might desire to
submit to the deliberations of the congress.
The King of Italy, Victor Emanuel, with great cordiality responded to the
invitation of Napoleon. His reply was dated Nov. 22. In it he says, 
"A  permanent struggle has been established in Europe between public
opinion and the posture of affairs as created by the treaties of 1815. Hence
* "The reception of the proposal of the emperor, in England, was generally unfavorable.
England could not expect any territorial aggrandizement from the congress, but only the loss
of her European dependencies, and, in particular, Gibraltar. The press almost unanimously
discouraged the participation in a congress." - American Annual Cyclopcedia, 1863, p. 390.




616                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
has arisen a sickly state of things, which will increase, unless European order
is placed upon the basis of the principles of nationality and of liberty, which
are the very essence of the life of modern nations.
" In presence of a situation so dangerous to the progress of Civilization and
the peace of the world, your imperial Majesty has become the interpreter of
a general sentiment, by proposing a congress to settle the rights of sovereigns
as well as those of nations.
" I adhere with pleasure to the proposal of your Majesty. My concurrence
and that of my people are assured to the realization of this project, which
will mark a great progress in the history of mankind. As soon as the international conferences take place, I shall take part in person, or at least send a
representative."
The King of Portugal, who had married one of the daughters of Victor
Emanuel, responded to the invitation in very hearty terms of acceptance. In
his reply, dated Nov. 18, 1863, he says," It is an agreeable duty to me to announce to your Imperial Majesty that
I adhere without hesitation to your conciliatory proposition, and that I
subscribe with all my heart to the sentiments which have inspired it.
"A congress before war, with the view of averting war, is, in my opinion, a
noble thought of progress.  Whatever may be the issue, to France will
always belong the glory of having laid the foundation of this new and highly
philosophical principle." 
In very similar terms, the youthful King of Greece gave his adhesion to the
proposed congress.  This sovereign, George I., was but eighteen years of
age. He was the second son of Christian IX., King of Denmark; and he
had been called to the throne of Greece by the voice of popular suffrage.
In his response, dated Nov. 26, he says, -
"This appeal to conciliation, which your Majesty has just made in the
interests of European order, has been inspired by views too generous and too
elevated not to find in me the most sympathetic reception. The noble
thought which predominates therein could not be better enhanced than by
the frank language and the judicious considerations with which your Majesty
has accompanied your proposition.  The common works to which your
Majesty invites the chiefs of the European States would be, beyond dispute,
one of the greatest onward movements of the day. Its success would realize
wishes long since formed by the friends of humanity and by the noblest
minds."
The kings of Belgium, of the Netherlands, of Denmark, all responded in
a similar strain. The queen of Spain very cordially gave her assent to the
views of the emperor of the -French.  The Swiss Confederation, in a very
frank and friendly reply, said, "We can only therefore accept with eagerness the overture your Majesty has deigned to make."   The kings of
Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Hanover, expressed their approval of the
project. The pope was very prompt in giving the measure his assent; and
even the sultan was cordial in his concurrence, declaring his readiness to
attend the congress in person, if the other sovereigns would do the same.
After receiving all the replies, M. Drouyn de l'Huys, the French minister,




THE LIBERATION OF VENETIA.                       617
addressed a new circular to the heads of all the diplomatic missions of
France in Europe, giving a summary of the several replies, and stating, in
conclusion, -
"The refusal of England has, unfortunately, rendered impossible the first
result we had hoped for from the appeal of the emperor to Europe. There
now remains the second hypothesis, -the limited congress. Its realization
depends upon the will of the sovereigns.  After the refusal of the British
cabinet, we might consider our duty accomplished, and henceforth, in the
events which may arise, only take into account out'own convenience and our
own particular interests; but we prefer to recognize the favorable dispositions which have been displayed towards us, and to remind the sovereigns
who have associated themselves with our intentions, that we are ready to
enter frankly with them upon the path of a common understanding.
"When a general congress was in question, the emperor could not, without
changing the part he had traced out for himself, draw up a programme, or
arrange with some of the powers in order to submit afterwards to the others
a plan prepared beforehand, and commence thus with a negotiation distinct
from the deliberations in which hel.had decided to present himself, without
preconceived ideas, and free from special engagements."
Thus terminated the year 1863.  The refusal of England rendered a
general congress impossible; and the question of a limited congress the
emperor was not disposed to urge. The failure of the enterprise must have
been a severe disappointment to Napoleon, who had hoped that the congress
might usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for Europe, enabling all the
kingdoms to disband their startding armies, and to employ these millions of
hands in the arts of industry. We perceive the tone of a saddened spirit in 
a brief response which the emperor made soon after, on the 14th of January,
1864, to Cardinal Bonnechose, Archbishop of Rouen: —' "EMINENCE,  You are right in saying that the honors of the world are
heavy burdens which Providence imposes upon us. Providence in its justice
has wished to augment duties in proportion to dignities. Thus I often ask
myself if good fortune has not as many tribulations as adversity: but, in
both cases, our guide and support is faith, -religious faith and political faith;
that is to say, confidence in God, and the consciousness of a mission to
accomplish. This mission you have appreciated, with the attachment which
you have ever manifested to me; and you have defined it with the experience
of a magistrate and of a priest, who has clearly seen where one is led by the
abandonment of all principle, all rule, all faith.
"Therefore must you be astonished, as am  I, to see, after so short an
interval, men who have scarcely escaped shipwreck calling again to their aid
the winds and the tempests. God too visibly protects France to permit the
Genius of Evil again to come to agitate her. The circle of our constitution
has been widely traced.  Every honest man can move within it at ease,
since each one has permission to express his thought, to influence the acts of
government, an~d to take his just part in public affairs.
78




618                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"I thank you for the justice which you render to the religious sentiments
of the empress. It is the happy privilege of woman to remain a stranger to
affairs of state, that she may surrender herself entirely to the generous impulses of the heart; that she may offer consolations to the unfortunate, and
encouragement to every thing that is noble and sacred.
"My son, whom the benedictions of the Church protect, will early learn
his duties as a Christian, as a citizen, and as a prince; and he will continue
towards his country, as towards the friends of his father, to acquit a debt of
gratitude and affection."
Early in the month of January, the police discovered a conspiracy for the
assassination of the emperor. To the honor of France, no Frenchman was
engaged in it. The assassins consisted of four Italians, - Greco, Imperatori,
Trabuco, and Scagloni. They entered France at Mulhouse, and were followed
by the police to Paris. It seems that they were desperate men, and intended
to make sure work. At their residences were found a large quantity of
English gunpowder, four poniards, four revolvers, four air-guns, percussioncaps and fuses, and eight hand-grenades, such as the assassin Orsini had used.
Greco made full confession, and gave all the details of the plot. Not much
confidence can be reposed in the veracity of an assassin.  The statement
given by Greco did not obtain full credence; and yet it is not easy to conceive
what motive he could have had falsely to implicate others. He declared
that he, and his accomplices had, by appointment of Mazzini, met him  in
Septemnber at Lugano; that, for some time previous, they had been in correspondence with him; that they arranged with him  that they should go to
Paris to assassinate the emperor; that he gave them four hand-0grenades
which he had brought from England, four which he had caused to be made in
Genoa, also four revolvers and Sfour poniards; that Mazzini also gave them
four thousand francs (eight hundred dollars); telling them  that he would go
to London and await the result of the attempt there, and that he would then
send them more money.
Mazzini emphatically denied all complicity with the assassins. He was a
restless, impetuous man; and though a violent revolutionist, and quite destitute
of judgment, we can more easily believe that Greco fabricated the whole
story, or that he had been deceived by some one assuming the name and
representing the person of Mazzini, than that Mazzini could have taken part
in a crime so vile and cowardly. He was, however, included in the indictment, and, being found guilty by default, was condemned to perpetual exile
from France.*  Greco aud Trabuco were condemned to transportation for
life. Imperatori and Scaglori were sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment.t
On the 1st of February, 1864, the Legislative Corps presented the emperor
with an address in response to his message at the opening of the session.
The address was adopted with great unanimity. The Opposition, though
exceedingly small in numbers, was composed of men of much ability, - such
men as Jules Favre, Jules Simon, Thiers, Rmile Olivier. Their impassioned
words of opposition crossed the Channel and the Atlantic, and produced in
* Italy and the War of 1859, p. 282.  t Annual Encyclopnedia, p. 384.




THE LIBERATION OF VENETIA.                       619
foreign lands a deeper impression than the quiet and emphatic vote of
approval of nine-tenths of the Assembly. In this address, the Corps Legislatif, having first stated that the people of France were profoundly attached
to the institutions of the empire, and that they recognized with gratitude the
resolution of the emperor to anticipate public opinion in promoting industrial and commercial liberty, added, in allusion to the rejected proposition for
a congress,"France, on whom you have bestowed splendor and glory, is grateful to
you for not having committed her treasures and the blood of her children in
causes in which her honor and interests are not -at' stake. Leave without
regret, sire, the few unjust prejudices against accepting your loyal and pacific
propositions. Noble and sound ideas make way in the world, and take root
in the hearts of the peoples.  Await calmly the effect of your generous
words. France, homogeneous, compact, strong, and confident in you, fears no
aggression, and now has no other ambition than to assure her repose, and
develop her material welfare by labor and peace, and her moral welfare by the
sincere and gradual practice of civil and political liberties."
The perplexing affairs of Italy still engrossed much of the attention of the
emperor. On the 15th of September, 1864, a very important convention was
concluded between France and Italy. The articles, as published in the
official gazette of the kingdom of Italy, were as follows."Article 1. Italy engages not to attack the present territory of the holy
father, and to prevent, even by force, every attack upon the said territory
coming from without.
" Art. 2. France will withdraw her troops from the Pontifical States gradually, and in proportion as the army of the holy father shall be organized. The
evacuation shall, nevertheless, be accomplished within the space of two years.
"Art. 3. The Italian Government engages to raise no protest against the
organization of a papal army, even if composed of foreign Catholic volunteers, sufficing to maintain the authority of the holy father, and tranquillity,
as well in the interior as upon the frontier of his States; provided that this
force shall not degenerate into a meaws of attack against the Italian Government.
"Art. 4. Italy declares herself ready to enter into an arrangement to take
under her charge a proportionate part of the debt of the former States of
the Church."
It was also agreed that the capital of united Italy should be removed fiom
Turin to the very beautiful and more central city of Florence, the worldrenowned metropolis of the grand duchy of Tuscany. Neither France nor
Italy was pledged to any course in the event of a revolution breaking out
spontaneously at Rome, -the people rising against the government.
On the 15th of February, 1865, the emperor opened the Legislative Session
at the Palace of the Louvre. In this address he said, -
" At the period of our "last meeting, I hoped to see the difficulties which
menaced the repose of Europe removed by a congress. It has been other



620                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
wise. I regret it: for the sword often cuts questions without solving them;
and the only basis of durable peace is the satisfaction given by the assent of
sovereigns to the true interests of the peoples.
"In view of the conflict which has arisen upon the shores of the Baltic,
my government, being in sympathy with Denmark, and also cherishing the
kindest feelings towards Germany, has observed the strictest neutrality.
Called in a conference to express our opinion, we have limited ourselves to the
expression of the principle of the nationalities, and the right of the peoples to
be consulted respecting their own destiny. Our language, in conformity
with the reserved attitude'which we intend to maintain, has been moderate
and friendly towards both parties.
"In the centre of Europe, the action of France ought to be exercised more
resolutely. I have wished to render possible the solution of a difficult problem. The convention of the 15th of September, disentangled from passionate interpretations, consecrates two great principles, — the strengthening of
the new State of Italy, and the independence of the holy see. The provisional and precarious state which excited so many fears is about to disappear.
It is no longer separate members of the Italian country, seeking to attach
themselves by feeble ties to a little State situated at the foot of the Alps:
it is a great country, which, elevating itself above local prejudices, and scorning thoughtless impulses, boldly transports its capital to the heart of the
Peninsula, and places it in the midst of the Apennines as in an impregnable
citadel.
"By that act of patriotism, Italy constitutes herself definitively, and at the
same time reconciles herself with Catholicity. She engages to respect the
independence of the holy see, to protect the frontiers of the Roman States;
and thus permits us to withdraw our troops. The pontifical territory, efficaciously guaranteed, is placed under the safeguard of a treaty which solemnly
binds the two governments.  The convention is not, then, an arm of war, but
a work of peace and conciliation.
" Let us devote ourselves, without uneasiness, to the works of peace. The
intervals between the sessions is employed in seeking the means to augment
the moral and material welfare of the people; and every useful and true idea is
sure to be welcomed by me, and to be adopted by you. Let us examine, then,
together, the measures suitable to promote the prosperity of the empire."
Italy was now, beyond all doubt, preparing for war for the liberation of
Venetia. The whole Peninsula resounded with the bugle-blast and the drumbeat.  Every ship-yard and every arsenal rang with the blows of the hammer
and the anvil. The students of the universities - a numerous class - were
all aroused, eager for the war. It was evident that they were sanguine of
success.
The ground of this hope was a secret alliance into which Italy had entered
with Prussia, - that very Prussia, which, but a few months before, had joined
her menace with that of England to prevent the liberation of Venetia. Prussia, with a population of eighteen millions, had an Area of one hundred and
eight tlousand square miles.  Austria was twice as large, with a population




THE LIBERATION OF VENETIA.                       621
twice as numerous. Prussia was thus but one of the second-rate kingdoms of
Europe: An ambitious and unscrupulous man of grtat ability, Count Bismark, rose in Prussia, who easily persuaded the king to embark in the enterprise of lifting up Prussia into a first-class power. This could only be done
by an increase both of population and territory. The measures adopted for
this end are among the most curious in the annals of diplomacy and war.
We can tell the story but in brief, omitting all but the essential points.
Adjoining Prussia on the north-west were two duchies, called Schleswig and
Holstein. Each was about the size of the State of Delaware; and their united
population was about one million. Pushing up into the peninsula formed by
the German Ocean and the Baltic Sea, with the River Elbe at their base, they
presented admirable opportunities for commerce.
These duchies belonged to Denmark. They were both under the governorship of the same duke, whose title was received and transmitted by
hereditary descent.  Upon the death of Frederic VII. of Denmark, his
successor, Christian IX., claimed the dukedom of the two duchies.  On the
other hand, Duke, Frederic, of Schleswig-Holstein, contested this claim.
Though, by the fundamental law of the duchies, the two were inseparably
connected, Holstein' belonged to the Germanic Confederacy, and Schleswig
did not. It thus became a German question. By the treaty of London of
May 8, 1852, the leading nations of Europe were pledged to "the integrity
of the Danish monarchy."  Thus all Europe was involved in the dispute.
The inhabitants of the duchies were in favor of Duke Frederic. After a
slight struggle, the duchies, by the aid of Austria and Prussia, were wrested
from the feeble kingdom of Denmark, an'd declared to be independent under
their hereditary duke, Frederic.
This was the first act of the programme. Now several persons arose,
claiming these duchies by the right of inheritance. One was the Grand Duke
of Oldenburg, brother-in-law of Alexander II. of Russia; another was the
Prince of Hesse, also brother-in-law of the czar; and, to the surprise of all,
the King of Prussia himself appeared as a claimant. There were now five
claimants; and the question was submitted to the syndics of the crown of
Prussia assembled at Berlin.
They rendered their extraordinary decision in July, 1865, declaring that
the King of Denmark was the legitimate heir, but that the duchies now
belonged to Austria and Prussia by the right of conquest.
Untilthis time, Austria had laid no claim to the duchies. They were at
quite a distance from the Austrian territory, and separated from it by other
States. William  of Prussia, or rather Count Bismark, thought that Francis
Joseph of Austria would readily sell, for a due consideration, his share in a
property which was of but little value to him, and to which he had not before
supposed that he had any claim. Prussia, accordingly, offered Austria sixty
million dollars for the relinquishment of her title.
Austria refused. She did not wish to see the compact, warlike, ambitious
Prussian kingdom rendered more formidable. She would only consent that
Prussia should, for the present, hold Schleswig, while Austria held Holstein.
A temporary arrangement to this effect was entered into between the two




622                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
powers at what was called the Convention of Gastein, held on the 14th of
August, 1865.       *
In the mean time, Prussia was secretly preparing to seize both of the
duchies by military occupation: but the eighteen millions of Prussia, without
the aid of any ally,,could hardly hope to cope with the thirty-six millions of
Austria; and there was not a single nation in Europe in sympathy with
Prussia in the unscrupulous measures which Count Bismark was adopting.
Under these circumstances, the sagacious and wily Prussian minister sent
a confidential message to Victor Emanuel, that Prussia, with her whole military strength, was about to attack Austria upon the north, that she might
seize the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and that this would furnish Italy
an admirable opportunity to attack Austria on the south, and thus to liberate
Venetia. Italy eagerly accepted the suggestion. But for the aid which Italy
was thus led to furnish, Prussia would scarcely have entered upon the
enterprise. A few months of busy preparation passed away, when Prussia,
having marshalled her utmost strength in perfect fighting order, demanded
both of the duchies. Human effrontery has seldom gone farther than in the
alleged reason for this claim. It was affirmed that Austria was granting
Holstein too free a government, which rendered Schleswig restless, and
endangered the peace of Europe.
"King William," said Bismark, "is grievously affected to see developed
under the, egis of the Austrian eagle tendencies revolutionary, and hostile
to all the thrones. He therefore declares that friendly relations no longer
exist between Prussia and Austria."  This declaration was soon followed by
another, announcing the resolution of Prussia " to pursue with firmness the
annexation of the duchies, so desirable in all points of view."
Austria had not been unmindful of the measures in progress. She had an
army of nine hundred thousand men in the field. Prussia, having mobilized
her whole force, had six hundred thousand men beneath her banners. Italy
could bring into the field four hundred and fifty thousand. This would give
Prussia and Italy, in their alliance, more than a million of soldiers to meet the
shock of war.
The Austrian force would be necessarily much divided,-half on the north,
half on the south. Hungary was watching her opportunity to rise, and throw
off the Austrian yoke. Strong garrisons were requisite to hold the Hungarians quiet. An outbreak in Hungary would be surely followed by one in
Poland. ~ This would bring the armies of Russia into the arena. There was
thus danger that the whole of Europe would again be involved in cruel
war.
It was under these circumstances that the Emperor of the French had
proposed a congress, that the manifold complications might be settled by
arbitration rather than by the sword. The British Government declined the
proposition.  Thus the plan of a general congress was thwarted.  The
Emperor of the French, who has ever been the earnest, unvarying, consistent
advocate of peace, which alone could render France, as well as the other
peoples of Europe, rich, prosperous, and happy, was keenly disappointed at
this result.




THE LIBERATION OF VENETIA.                      623
" I have proposed a congress," he said, " and urged it to save Europe from
the horrors of war. The proposal has been rejected; I shall not renew it:
but I hold myself in readiness to join in any congress when it shall be
desired by the bther powers."
As the menaces of war grew more and more imminent and terrible, and
as the piospect became clear, even to dim vision and to dull intellects, that
there was danger that all Europe might be wrapped in conflagration, even
England, in her maritime security, became alarmed. She now regretted that
she had not heeded the foresight of Napoleon, and that she had not supported
his proposition for a cong'ress. In the appalling emergency, Lord Cowley was
hurriedly sent with a despatch from Lord Clarendon to the Emperor of the
French, with the announcement that England was now ready to unite with
France in calling a congress. Lord Cowley reported the following as Napoleon's reply, - a reply which shows how deeply his spirit had been wounded
by the conduct of the British Government: —
"In 1859, England refused to assist me in achieving the liberation of Italy,
and, by her coalition with Germany, compelled me to stop short, leaving the
work undone.
"When, in 1864, I proposed a congress for the purpose of removing the
endless complications whicl I foresaw would result from the Danish war,
it was still England that opposed my project, and did her utmost to make it
abortive.  
"Now she wants peace, even at the price of the congress which she then
rejected. I will, however, assure her Majesty that I am ready to do all I can
to prevent war; but, as the most favorable opportunity for doing this has
passed, I can no longer take upon myself the responsibility for any event
that may occur."
It was too late. The armies were on the move. Two millions of men,
along lines hundreds of leagues in extent, armed with the most formidable
weapons of modern warfare, were rushing against each other; and all Europe
looked on appalled.
At a concerted signal, Prussia plunged her columns into the Austrian provinces on the north; while an Italian army, four hundred thousand strong, made
its impetuous onset from the south into Venetia. For forty days, the storm
of war raged almost without intermission. The scene cannot be described.
One more awful, earth never witnessed. The dimensions of the woes which
ensued no mortal mind can gauge. Never before were military operations
of such magnitude conducted in so short a period. War was declarect on
the 18th of June, 1866; the troops then being in motion. In Venetia, on
the 24th, the Italians were driver back with great slaughter from the field
of Custozza.
But, in the mean time, the Prussian armies were sweeping onward like fire
upon the prairies. Fighting at every step, and wading, as it were, ankle-deep
in blood, with perfect organization, and the terrible needle-gun, they overran
kingdoms, dukedoms, and principalities, almost faster than the telegraph could
announce their conquests. Their advance columns were in sight of Vienna.
Francis Joseph, in terror, was compelled to abandon Venetia, that he might




624                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
recall his armies there for the protection of his own capital. Too proud to
surrender Venetia to Italy, he gave it to Napoleon, that the Emperor of the
French, in possession of the magnificent estate, might be able to secure the
peace, which, before blood began to flow, he had attempted to secure by a
congress. But it was too late for compromise: Austria had chosen war, and
was now at the mercy of the victor.
Napoleon, with characteristic magnanimity, surrendered Venetia to Italy.
Prussia held with a vigorous grasp all the countries she had overrun,- Schleswig, Holstein, the kingdom of Hanover, the kingdom of Saxony, the magnificent dukedom of the same name, large parts of Bohemia, Silesia, Bavaria,
and numerous other minor dukedoms and principalities.
With a disposition to cover up these vast conquests with the verbiage of
diplomacy, it is evident that they are all simply annexed to the Prussian
Empire; in fact, there was no longer a Germany. About eight millions of
the old confederacy remained with Austria.  All the other States were
absorbed by Prussia. In about forty days, Bismark had doubled the territory,
and doubled the population, of the Prussian kingdom.
It was thus that Venetia was added to Italy. Prussia had not the effrontery to claim any debt of gratitude for her agency in the transfer. The whole
peninsula is now united in one kingdom, with the exception of the Roman
States. The Italian people, much to the embarrassment of Victor Emanuel,
demand the dethronement of the pope and the seizure of his States, that
Rome may become the capital of Italy.'Victor Emanuel is bound by treaty
to resist such act of aggression. It is important that the pope should be
independent. " There is no possible independence for the pope," says Thiers,
"but in the temporal sovereignty." If the pope is driven from his little
domain, what monarch shall be permitted to give him refuge,    annex him as
a subject, with his moral power over two hundred millions of men? It is
the most difficult question in European  diplomacy.  The peace-loving
Emperor of the French again proposes that the leading powers of Europe,
Catholic and Protestant, should meet in conference to settle the question
amicably by reason, and not brutally by iron and by blood. It remains for
Europe to decide whether the question shall be adjusted by diplomacy, or by
the sword.
Prince Napoleon, in a very able speech pronounced before the Senate on
the 1st of March, 1861, presents the following solution, which may perhaps
be in harmony with the views of the emperor: —
"'here remains, gentlemen, the question of the abdication of the papal
power..I recognize the necessity of a certain independence in the spiritual
chief, — that he ought not to be the subject of any sovereign whatever.
Hence the difficulty of settling the question in respect to Rome. Still it does
not appear to me insoluble. We can here only sketch the great features of
the solution.
" Rome - this is the problem: it is to leave the pope an incontestable
spiritual sovereign, with that liberty of action which assures his temporal
independence. That does not seem to me impossible.
"Cast your eyes upon a plan of Rome. The Tiber dividing that city,




THE LIBERATION OF VENETIA.                         625
upon the right bank you see the Catholic city, the Vatican, St. Peter's. Upon
the left bank you see the city of the ancient Cosars; you see Mount Aventine; indeed, all the grand souvenirs of Imperial Rome.  On the right bank
is the Rome in which the most vital part of Catholicism  has, in modern
times, taken refuge. There might be a possibility, I will not say to force the
pope, but to induce him to comprehend the necessity of restricting himself
there.  There may be a possibility of guaranteeing to him  his temporal
independence in those limits.  Catholic countries might assure him  an
income suitable to the splendor of religion, and might furnish him with a
garrison.     *
"You cannot make any thing human immutable; but it is evident that an
income from the Catholic community, when guaranteed by all the Catholic
powers, would be as secure as any thing can, be. It would be ever, more
than now, the revenue of the holy see. I think that the independence of the
pope might thus exist, surrounded by higher and more honorable sanctions.
There might be left to him  a mixed and special jurisdiction in contested
cases. He could have his flag. All of the houses in that part of the city
which I have indicated could be assigned to him  in property (en toute
propriete).
"History gives us an example of this neutrality in Washington, that
federal city which has so long been the object of the respect of the whole
American continent.  You will thus have an oasis of Catholicism  in the
midst of the tempests of the world. This may be regarded as a chimera;
but how many things treated at first as chimeras have been realized! "*
The Emperor of the French solicits a congress of all the European powers,
that the difficult question may be settled in friendly discussion, and that thus
Europe may be saved from the horrors of a religious war. If there be any
better plan than this to meet the perils which now menace Europe, it has not,
as yet, been proposed.
* Question Italienne. Discours prononce au Senat, par S. A. I. M. le Prince Napoleon, dans
la Seance du l-emai, 1861, pp. 151, 152.
79




CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE MEXICAN  QUESTION.
Revolutions in Mexico. - The American Expedition. -The Alliance of Spain, France, and
England. - Object of the Alliance. - The Squadron at Vera Cruz. - Disappointment of
the Allies.- Discordant Views. - Withdrawal of England and Spain. - Peril of the French
Troops. - Repulse at Puebla. - Struggles and Victories. -Triumphal Entry to the City of
Mexico.- The Empire established.- The Archduke Maximilian chosen Emperor.- The
Delegation at Miramar.
HE Honorable Thomas Corwin, American minister at Mexico,
i   in a despatch to Secretary Seward, under date of June 22,
1861, stated, "In  the last forty years, Mexico has passed
eJ       through thirty-six different forms of government; has had
seventy-three presidents."   Seventy-three presidents in forty
years is an average of nearly two a year. For forty years, Mexico had been in a state of anarchy. There was no law or order. There was no
recognized government to be called upon for the payment of national debts,
or for the redress of individual grievances. America, England, France, Spain,
Italy, had all heavy claims upon Mexico for pecuniary losses, and for outrages
inflicted upon their citizens; but there was no recognized authority in the
land. There were eight millions of semi-civilized people there, -Indians,
Spaniards, negroes, and mixed breeds, with countless chieftains, each contending for the supremacy. There was no hope, in the minds of intelligent
men, of the establishment of any stable government; for there was no one
man or party sufficiently prominent to secure the support of the majority.
Under these circumstances, the United-States Government decided to
collect its own debt, and redress its own grievances; constituting itself judge,
jury, and executive officer. It fitted out a powerful expedition, battered
down the fortifications of Vera Cruz, marched resistlessly to the " halls of the
Montezumas," and took payment for all that was due to the government or
individuals, principal and interest, to the perfect satisfaction of all the
creditors.
The success of the Americans influenced other nations to follow  their
example.  Spain had heavy claims against Mexico. How just they were, it
is impossible to ascertain. There was no auditor appointed to examine the
account. Mexico was full of robbers; and the robbed set a high value upon
their lost property.  England also had claims upon Mexico, not only for
outrages committed against subjects resident there, but for property taken
626




THE MEXICAN  QUESTION.                               627
from them to the amount of six million dollars. France had claims to the
amount of fifteen million dollars.  We cannot here enter into the examination of the validity of those claims.
Spain suggested  to France and England that they should imitate the
energetic and successful example of the United States, and send out an
expedition to collect their debts, and to put a stop to the outrages inflicted
upon foreign residents in that war-scourged land. The plan proposed by
Spain was accepted.  Each of the three allied powers agreed to send an
equal naval force, and a land-force proportioned to the number of its subjects
resident in Mexico.  According to the most accurate statistics which could be
obtained, there were ten thousand Spaniards in Mexico, two thousand French,
and six hundred English.*
In the month of October, 1861, the treaty was signed in London between
England, France, and Spain.  The Queen of England announced that the
object of the expedition was to obtain satisfaction for outrages upon resident
foreigners. The Queen of Spain stated that the end at which they aimed
was to obtain reparation for wrongs, and to prevent the repetition of conduct
which had outraged humanity and scandalized the world.  The Emperor of
the French  announced to the Legislative Corps that "the measures of an
unscrupulous government have obliged us to unite with Spain and England
to protect our subjects, and to repress attempts against humanity and the
rights of nations." t
From the above, it would appear that there were two objects in view: one
was to obtain reparation for wrongs, and the other was to prevent the repetition of such wrongs.  The measures for the  accomplishment of the first
object were simple, and very clearly marked out.  The allied fleet was to
take possession of the Mexican ports, and collect the revenue.  One half was
to be paid to the Mexican Government, if there were any such to be found;
and the other half was to be appropriated to the liquidation of the debts
until they were paid.  There seems not to have been any definite plan
adopted to prevent the repetition of the outrages complained of. There was,
however, an understanding that efforts should be made to rescue the country
from  anarchy by endeavoring to promote reconciliation between the domestic
factions, and thus to assist in organizing some stable authority without
imposing upon the Mexicans any form of government. 
* There were about four hundred Americans in Mexico. Though we had recently persuaded
Mexico to sell us California and Mesilla for some twenty-five millions of dollars, eight millions
of which we withheld to pay ourselves the debt which it was said that Mexico owed us, still we
had run up another little bill to the amount of ten million dollars. To secure this debt, President
Buchanan had suggested that we take military possession of the vast provinces of Sonora and
Chihuahua. Nothing is easier than for the United States to collect debts against Mexico. A
slight change in our boundary-lines, which Mexico has no power to resist, adds territory of imperial extent to our domains. The United States were invited to join in the expedition of the
allied powers. The United States declined..The United States can so easily collect her own
debts, that she needs no assistance in the operation. Intelligent Mexicans understood this
clearly. There was no power they dreaded so much as the United States. 
t La Politique Imperiale, p. 358.
t When the Italians learned of the contemplated enterprise, they brought forward some




628                          LIFE  OF NAPOLEON  III.
In the mean time, there were at the courts of England and France very
intelligent Mexicans, such as Seior Almonte and General Miranion, urging
that Mexico would be in a hopeless state of anarchy unless some European
power came to her aid.  Civil war was then commencing in America.  There
were but few  in Europe who imagined that the North  could  conquer the
rebellious South.  It was the openly avowed object of the slaveholders to
annex the whole of Mexico to their domain, and to re-establish slavery there.
They intended th    t          t  thus to create mt ost extensive and powerful slaveholding
oligarchy upon  which the  sun  ever shone.*   Scarcely  any  Southern man
doubted  the success of this enterprise.  Many very intelligent men of the
North believed it inevitable.t  It is not surprising that Europe was deceived.
These views were urged very prominently by distinguished Mexicans at the
court of France, -  that there was no redemption for Mexico but in foreign
intervention; and that this intervention was earnestly desired by the majority
of the people, and by nearly all the most intelligent and wealthy  citizens.+
France had just intervened very successfully for Italy.  The hope of regenerating Mexico, and of giving her, in place of the anarchy which had desolated
the country for forty years, a government like that of France, of Italy, and
of Brazil, appeared to France a humane and philanthropic object, worthy of
her highest ambition.
There was, undoubtedly, at that time, a strong monarchical party in Mexico;
bu t it could easily be swept away by the popular cry against foreign intervention.  Mexico was intensely Roman Catholic in its religion: the monarchical party was generally the High-Church party.  England -  a Protestant,
money-making nation -  sought mainly to collect her debts, and to protect her
subjects; Spain, intolerantly Catholic, wished to support the Church; France,
ever ready to fight for an idea, was ambitious of regenerating a people.  The
French minister, M. Thuvenal, in one of his despatches said,"W}e  do not wish  to interfere with the internal policy of Mexico; but
we think that the presence of our forces there will give moral support to the
monarchical feeling which we believe to exist, and that there will be a chance
for the establishment of a new  and regenerated government." ~
claims which they wished to place in the hands of the British Government as collecting lawyer.
Her Majesty's cabinet declined the employment. It was, however, suggested to the Italian
Government, that it might send a vessel with the joint expedition. No vessel was sent. -Notes
in Mexico, by Charles Lempriere.
* General Almonte, as he left this country to intercede for European intervention, said to a
friend of the writer, " Unless we can persuade some European power to aid us in establishiing
some stable government, it is inevitable that the whole of Mexico must be swallowed up by the
United States. Rather than see that done, I should prefer to have the entire territory sunk
beneath the sea."
t The Spanish minister for foreign affairs stated to the Spanish Cortes on the 11th of June,
1861, " The Mexican expedition is a necessity, not only because it is earnestly solicited by the
Mexicans residing in Europe, and especially by those in Parisbut because there also exists in
those regions a republic which threatens the Mexicans with absorption. The object is, therefore,
the maintenance of the integrity of the Mexican territory."
I: Notes in Mexico in 1861, 1862, by Charles Lempriere, D.C.L., p. 401.
~ The Secretary of State of the United States, in a circular dated March 2, 1862, said, " The
President has relied upon the assurance given his government by the allies, that they were in




THE MEXICAN QUESTION.                             629
On the 6th of January, 1862, the Spanish fleet anchored off Vera Cruz, and
was soon after joined by the fleets of the other two powers. Already, dissension had sprung up between the allies. England had failed to furnish the
quota of land-force agreed upon.  Spain landed six thousand three hundred
men; France, two thousand eight hundred men; England, eight hundred.
Benito Juarez, a native Indian, a man of some culture, considerable ability,
and many excellences of character, was then President of the Mexican
Republic.  General Miramon and Serfor Almonte were the leaders of the
monarchical party. The allies had been taught by the agents of the monarchical party who had visited Europe that the Mexican people would rise
and welcome them with enthusiasm  as the liberators of their country from
anarchy, as the Italian people rose and welcomed the soldiers of France.  In
this the allies were bitterly  disappointed.  The Mexicans met them  as
invaders, as tax-gatherers.  The national pride was touched.  The allies
had invaded Mexico avowedly to collect money and to redress grievances,
not as disinterested friends to redeem  a nation.  Though no opposition was
attelmpted at Vera Cruz, there were very few voices of friendly greeting to
be heard.
In the joint proclamation of the allies, issued to the Mexicans on the 10th,
it was said, " The faith of treaties, broken by various successive governments,
the personal security of our countrymen, constantly threatened, have rendered
necessary this expedition. The three nations we represent offer the hand of
friendship to a people upon whom Providence has lavished its best gifts, who
are consuming their strength and vitality in civil wars and perpetual convulsions. You, and you alone, does it concern, to re-organize yourselves upon a
firm and solid basis. Yours will be the work of regeneration; and all will
have contributed towards it, -some with their opinions, others with their
talents.  The evil is great, the remedy urgent."
There was no response to this appeal.  Embarrassments pervaded the
councils of the allies. It was found that the sickly climate would not allow
the troops to remain upon the coast. They marched forward with the consent
of Juarez, who had no force to resist them, to Jalapa and Orizaba, - two
important towns a short distance in the interior. It is not easy to ascertain
with accuracy the character of the deliberations and of the varying plans of
the allies. It is manifest that there was no harmony of views, and that
diversities of opinion became daily more serious.  It is, however, evident that
one of the prominent questions which arose was, what form  of government
they should encourage the Mexicans to adopt.
For forty years, Mexico had struggled in vain, through convulsions and
blood, to establish a stable government.  It was assumed by all that such a
people, so ignorant, superstitious, and disunited, could not sustain republican
forms.  In this view, England, France, and Spain, of course, liarmonized.
pursuit of no political object, but simply the redress of their grievances. He entertains no
doubt of the sincerity of the allies; in short, he has cause to believe that the allies are unanimous in declaring that the revolution proposed to Mexico is solely prompted by certain Mexican
citizens who are now in Europe." - American Annual Cyclolpedia, 1862, p. 584.




630                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Monarchical institutions were deemed essential.  The government of Juarez
was considered but the unstable reign of an hour.  France was in favor of an
empire.  The Mexicans looked back with pride to the empire of the 3Montezumas.  The most flourishing and powerful government in South America was
the  empire of Brazil.  The liberty-loving people in France, with almost
entire unanimity, had re-established the empire; rejecting a republic, as
unsuited to their position, their associations, and their habits.  A large portion of the Mexican people had already attempted to found an empire under
Iturbide; but, like every other attempt for the last forty years, it had failed.
But who should be the sovereign?  It was thought, that, if a native chief
were selected, it would excite more animosity among rival claimants than if a
foreign prince were chosen; and it would be very difficult to decide wlich
of the many Mexican chieftains should be invested with the honor.
The Spaniards wished for a Bourbon prince.  The French could not assent
to a Bourbon, but were willing to renounce all claims of their own, and accept
an Austrian prince. It was the Latin race to which the French and Spanish
belonged. The English were of a different race, in origin, language, manners,
and forms of religion.
Protestant England could not present an acceptable prince to Catholic
Mexico.  Thus England, to her chagrin, found herself engaged in an enterprise which promised to result in making the magnificent realms of MIexico
virtually an appendage to France or Spain.*  England consequently resolved
to withdraw as soon as possible. This would leave the enterprise in the
hands of France and Spain, —a giant and a pygmy.  The Spanish leaders
were so impressed with the conviction that their influence would be small
after England had withdrawn, that they also resolved to watch their opportunity to follow her example.  Spain has fallen so low, that not one American
in a hundred can tell who is her sovereign; while France has attained such
prominence, that there is not one in a hundred who does not know who is the
Emperor of the French.
Such was the result of the diplomacy of several months. The energies of
the allied army were now paralyzed.  France wished to press forward vigorously in pursuit of the double end of redress for the past, and security for the
future.  The two other powers threw obstacles in the way, and temporized.
On the 15th of February, 1862, a conference was held in the little village
of Soledad with Seilor Doblado, chief minister of the Juarez Government.
The allies had assumed that there was no government in Mexico; that the
country was in a state of entire anarchy; and that, as there was no govern* "We now understand the origin of the whole affair. The monarchy, with the Archduke
Maximilian for emperor, was the idea of certain Mexican refugees, members of the re-actionary
or clerical party in Mexico, and partisans of Marquez and other ruffians, whose misdeeds have
been among the principal causes of our intervention. If Ferdinand Maximilian goes to Mexico,
he will find his most active friends among the men who have shot) tortured, and robbed, until
Europe has at last lost all patience."- London Times, May 27, 1862.
Subsequent events proved the above statement to be essentially correct. But the extreme
Church party, finding that Maximilian would not carry out their intolerant views, turned
against him. The pope, even, withheld his moral support.




THE MEXICAN QUESTION.                           631
ment which could be held responsible for national debts, or which could be held
answerable for outrages, or which could protect life and property, it had
become a necessity for the allies to protect their own interests by armed
invasion of a governmentless and lawless country. But, by the conference at
Soledad, they were drawn into the recognition of the government of Juarez.
In consequence of the want of co-operation among the allies, Doblado
succeeded in obtaining a postponement of military operations until the 15th
of April. This gave the Mexicans time to collect and organize their forces,
and also to call to their aid the terrible vomito, which rapidly thinned the
ranks of the unacclimated foreigners.
This "Convention of Soledad " postponing prompt and energetic action,
Sir Charles Wyke signed in behalf of England, General Prim in behalf of
Spain; but the French admiral was terribly chagrined, remonstrated, and
refused to be governed by it. Thus the feud between the allies grew more
open, intense, and soon increased to almost personal antagonism. They could
no longer live together in peace. The English withdrew to Cordova. The
Spaniards retired to Orizaba. Each party now acted for itself.
By the original treaty, signed in October, 1861, in London, the allied parties
were bound to act in concert. None were to have the right to bargain for
special advantages.?  But now, either honorably or dishonorably, - we are
not prepared, in view of the peculiar complication of affairs, to say which, 
Sir Charles Wyke in behalf of England, and General Prim in behalf of Spain,
entered into a private arrangement for the settlement of their claims.  Then
they, early in April, marched their troops back to their ships, and returned
to Europe. A few thousand French soldiers were thus left alone in Mexico.
The Mexicans were much animated.  Juarez appealed to all parties to
unite, and drive out the invaders. Troops flocked to his standard, - gaunt,
famished, desperate men, who from  the cradle had been inured to arms.
Fifty thousand men soon surrounded the French. Nothing remained for the
government of France but to withdraw its troops, deceived, baffled, humiliated, or to send immediate re-enforcements to the feeble band, which, struggling against disease and a vastly outnumbering foe, was in danger of being
utterly destroyed.
Derision it is hard to bear. While the Opposition in the French Chambers
launched their bitterest invectives against the government, it was voted by a
large majority immediately to send re-enforcements to the beleaguered troops.
The French troops fell back to a strong position at Chiquihuite, and awaited
their re-enforcements. At length, General Lorencez arrived with additional
troops, and superseded Admiral de la Graviere, who had previously been in
command. General Almonte, who had been in Europe urging the establishment of a monarchy in Mexico, and proposing that Prince Maximilian,
Archduke of Austria, a very gallant young man, brother of the Emperor of
Austria, should be invited to take the throne,t returned to Mexico. He
endeavored to rally the Imperial party, which he had assured the courts of
* Notes in Mexico, Charles Lempriere, p. 349.
t American Annual Encyclopedia, 1862, p. 584.




632                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
Europe was composed of nearly all tie mosk intelligent men and friends of
order in the nation. With great emphasis he had declared that the empire,
could it but once be established, would be hailed with unspeakable joy by
the masses of the people.
About one hundred and twenty-five miles from Vera Cruz, upon the direct
route to the city of Mexico, lies Puebla, a city containing about eighty thousand inhabitants. It is but seventy-five miles from Puebla to the capital. Its
streets swarmed with Catholic priests, and it was one of the central points of
the extreme Catholic party.  Bullock, in his account of Mexico, says, -
" The churches of Milan, Genoa, and Rome, are built in better taste; but in
expensive interior decorations, the quantity and value of the ornaments of
the altar, they are far surpassed by the churches of Puebla."
Juarez had confiscated a large portion of the vast property of the Church.
This had been sold as national property.  He had thus incurred the intense
hostility of the priests and of the High-Church party.  They hoped that
an army from Catholic France would espouse their cause, and restore their
property.  General Almonte assured the French that the citizens of Puebla
would rise as one man  to welcome them, and would hail them as the saviors
of their country.
But Juarez, with his soldiers, held  the place by a strong grasp.   The
French, instead of finding  open gates and cordial greeting, were met with
bristling bayonets and discharges of artillery.  They were driven back, and
were compelled to retreat fifty miles, - to Orizaba. Count Lorencez issued an
order of the day containing the following sentences. It was dated May 21, 1862.
"SOLDIERS AND MARINERS, -  You wvere told a hundred times that the
city of Puebla called you with anxiety, and that the inhabitants would rush
to embrace you, and crown you with flowers. You presented  yourselves
before  Puebla With confidence inspired by this deceptive announcement.
The city was found enclosed by barricades, and commanded by a fort, where
every means of defence had been accumulated.  Your field-artillery was not
sufficient to open a breach in the breastworks; and for that there would have
been required  siege material.   You have been  deceived, as well as his
Majesty the emperor.  You have been obliged to defend yourselves even
against those who have sympathies for you.  But deceived France will know
how  to recognize her error; for your sovereign is too great to do wrong.
He himself has said,'Justice everywhere accompanies the French flag.' *
* "We believe that the design of the Emperor Napoleon was inspired by a real desire to
raise the condition of Mexico, and that he used the best means he could command for that purpose. When the project was first made known in 1862, the anarchy of Mexico had lasted for a
generation. The civil war that was raging exceeded, in atrocity, any thing that has been seen
even in a Spanish republic. Not only were native Mexicans ruthlessly plundered and murdered,
but the lives and property of foreign settlers and merchants were not safe.  The injuries
inflicted on British subjects provoked our long-suffering government to send a squadron to the
coast; and the emperor had a sufficient justification for his acts in similar outrages on French
subjects.
"The influence of the French occupation, so long as it lasted, was beneficial to society. If




THE MEXICAN  QUESTION.                              633
The French army waited at Orizaba for still more re-enforcements.  They
were fifty miles from  their ships.  They could  not live upon the coast.
Swarms of guerillas menaced their communications.  Juarez was extremely
anxious to destroy therd before their re-enforcements could arrive.  He sent
two of his ablest generals -  Zaragossa and Orazeba-  with a large force to
surround and capture them.*  The Mexican generals took command of the
adjacent heights, and sent a summons to the French to surrender.  The
tone of the summons reflected great credit upon the intelligence and the
humanity of General Zaragossa.
" I have reason to believe," said he, "that you, and the officers of the division
under your command, have sent a protest to the Emperor of the French
against the conduct of Minister Saligni for having brought about an expedition against a people, which, up to the present time, have been the best friends
of the French nation.. This circumstance, and the knowledge of the difficult
position of the French army, as well as the desire to afford it an honorable
retreat, have decided me to propose a capitulation to you, the principal basis
of which shall be the evacuation of the Republic within a time agreed upon.
I believe that my government will not question this new manifestation for
peace, because, without transcending my powers, I may avoid the shedding
of the blood of the sons of two nations, whom only error and intrigue could
cause to appear together as enemies."
Count Lorencez replied, that the government had not invested him  with
political powers, and that, consequently, it was impossible for him to enter into
the negotiation proposed.  Preparations were immediately made for a combined attack by Zaragossa and Ortega upon the French at an early hour the
next morning.  The French were so weak, and the Mexicans so strong, that
Zaragossallad no doubt of success.
It was a moonless night; but the stars shone serenely out of the tropical
sky down upon the Mexicans, quietly sleeping upon the greensward of the
hillsides.  One hour after midnight, the French crept noiselessly from  their
lines, and rushed upon the foe.  The Mexicans, utterly bewildered by the
impetuosity of the assault and by the skilful tactics of the veteran French
generals, after a feeble resistance broke, and fled in panic indescribable.
An awful hour ensued of war's most pitiless tempest.  Who can describe,
who can imagine, such a midnight scene? —the thunder-peal of batteries,
the lightning-flashes of the guns, the shouts of onset, the wild cry of the
fugitives, the tumult, terror, carnage, and gloom of night.
"The night was pitch-dark," says General Ortega; "and I used my voice in
just and regular administration could have pacified Mexico, it would have been pacified by the
French. Never, perhaps, since Europeans have set foot in the country, has there been a government more anxious.to do good than that which the French established; never, since the country
was lost to the crown of Spain, has any thing existed so like settled government."- London
Times, May 29, 1867.
* Juarez proclaimed that those Mexicans who took sides with the French in favor of the
empire should be punished as traitors. General Robles, a Mexican officer, was captured, tried
by court-martial, and instantly shot almost within sight of the French camp.- American Annual
Cyclopcdia, 1862, p. 583.




634                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
that dreadful and fatal confusion as a banner to my soldiers."  In the darkness, one of the French soldiers followed that clarion-voice, and, with a lunge
of his bayonet, pierced General Ortega nearly through at the shoulder. The
Mexicans, having lost nearly five thousand in killed,and wounded according
to the French estimate, fled in hopeless disorganization.*
Still the Mexicans were so vastly superior in numbers, that this midnight
rout was but a temporary check. At some distance from the disastrous field,
their scattered forces were rendezvoused; and again they presented a bold
front for battle. The situation of the French was alarming. A  stormy
ocean, five thousand miles in breadth, separated them from their homes. The
vomito upon the coast was more to be dreaded than any other foe. Their
line of communication with Vera Cruz was incessantly assailed by guerillas,
who perpetrated savage barbarities upon all who fell into their power. The
Emper or of the French, in an address to the Corps Legislative, said, -
"England and Spain have thought fit to withdraw  their troops from
Mexico, and a small French corps of seven thousand men has remained to
continue alone the operations commenced in common. That body of men,
notwithstanding its very moderate number, will not fail in its mission of
civilization, but will issue victoriously, we are quite convinced, from the trials
which may await it. But, whatever may be our confidence in its ultimate
success, prudence always commands us to place ourselves in a position to
provide against all eventualities of war. It is with that object that the government applies itself to the legislative body, before the session terminates,
for the credits necessary to convey, according as they may be required, such
re-enforcements in men and stores as may be found indispensable." t
From  June until October, there were no battles. The French were not
strong enough to assume the offensive, and the Mexicans did not fenture to
attack them behind their intrenchments. The little army, however, suffered
fearfully from the vomito; and the guerillas so annoyed their trains, that they
were often almost starved.  Early in October, General Forey arrived with
thirty-five thousand troops.  The Mexicans had, in the mean time, vastly
strengthened their position at Puebla.  General Forey had received the
following instructions from the emperor. The letter was dated Fontainebleau,
July 3, 1862.
"MY DEAR GENERAL, - At the moment when you are on the point of
setting out for Mexico, charged with political and military powers, I think it
useful to let you know my ideas. This is the line of conduct you will have
to follow:
"1. To issue, on your arrival, a proclamation, the principal points of which
will be indicated to you.
" 2. To welcome with the utmost cordiality all Mexicans who offer themselves to you.
"3. To side with the quarrels of no party; to declare that every thing is
* American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1862, p. 584.
t La Politique Imperiale.




THE MEXICAN QUESTION.                           635
provisional, so long as the Mexican nation has not pronounced itself; and to
show great deference for religion, but to re-assure, at the same time, the
holders of national property.
" 4. To feed, pay, and arm, according to your means, the auxiliary Mexican
troops, and to make them play a principal part in the battles.
"5. To maintain among your troops and among the auxiliaries the severest
discipline; to repress vigorously any act or word insulting to the Mexicans;
for you must not forget their proud nature. To secure the success of the
undertaking, the disposition of the people must be conciliated above all
things.
" When you shall have reached the city of Mexico, it would be desirable for
the principal persons of all parties who have embraced our cause to come to
an understanding with you, with the view of organizing a provisional government. That government will submit to the Mexican people the question of
the political system  to be definitively established. An assembly will afterwards be elected according to Mexican law.
" The object to be attained is, not to impose upon the Mexicans a form of
government which they dislike, but to aid them in their endeavors to establish, according to their inclinations, a government which may have some
chance of stability, and which can secure to' France the redress of the grievances of which she has had to complain. It is obvious, that, if they prefer a
monarchy, it is the interest of France to support them in that view.
" There will not be wanting people who will ask you why we go to lavish
men and money to found a regular government in Mexico.
" In the present state of civilization of the world, the prosperity of America
is not a matter of indifference to Europe; for it is she who feeds our manufactories, and gives life to our commerce.  We have an interest in the
government of the United States being powerful and prosperous, but not
that she should take possession of the whole Gulf of Mexico, thence command
the Antilles as well as South America, and be the sole disburser of the
products of the New World. We now see by sad experience how precarious
is the fate of an industry which is reduced to seeking its chief raw material
in a single market, to all the vicissitudes of which it has to submit.*
"If, on the other hand, Mexico maintain her independence and the integrity of her territory, if a stable government be there constituted with the
assistance of France, we shall have restored to the Latin race on the other
side of the Atlantic all its strength and prestige; we shall have guaranteed
security to our West-India colonies and to those of Spain; we shall have
established our beneficent influence in the centre of America; and that influence, by presenting immense openings for our commerce, will procure us the
raw materials indispensable to our industry. Mexico thus regenerated will
always be well disposed toward us, not only from  gratitude, but also because
her interests will be in harmony with ours, and because she will find a powerfil support in her friendly relations with the European powers.
* The civil war in the United States was then raging; and, as a consequence, in a single
department of France one hundred and thirty thousand workmen were thrown out of employment, and had to be supported by governmental charity.




636                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
" At present, therefore, our military honor engaged, the necessities of our
policy, the interests of our industry and commerce, all combine to make it our
duty to march upon Mlexico, to plant our flag boldly there, and to establish
either a monarchy, - if not incompatible with the national feeling, - or, at all
events, a government which may promise some stability.
" NAPOLEON."
General Forey marched upon the well-manned ramparts at Puebla, and was
repulsed with heavy loss. To add to his calamities, the small-pox broke out
among his troops; and, as a still additional disaster, the United States began
to manifest strong opposition to the French expedition, and gave all its
moral support to the Republican party. The government proposed to loan
Juarez and his party a sum of eleven millions of dollars for five years; the
Mexicans pledging as security the entire public domain, and the residue of
the church-property, in value estimated at one hundred millions of dollars.*
The spirit of the people and of the government of the United Sates, at this
time, is probably faithfully reflected in the following extract from an article
in " The New-Yorlk Herald: "
"We call upon the Senate to take up the new Mexican treaty, and ratify
it without delay. If we would appear honorable and dignified in the eyes
of other nations, we must do so at once. The people of America are warmly
in favor of the Mexicans, and are ready to give them every support in their
heroic struggle for the preservation of republican institutions. Congress
should second these noble views of our people, andconfirm the new treaty at
once, so that the French may be hurled out of Mexico, and the nationality
of that country be henceforth respected by all the nations of the world."
There were about two thousand Frenchmen established in the city of
Mexico, engaged in various branches of business. They, as well as nearly
all the other foreigners in the city, were in warm sympathy with the invaders.
They could see no hope of a stable government in Mexico but in the success
of the expedition. There was also in the capital a strong Imperial party of
Mexicans. The Republicans formed clubs to mob and drive out all foreigners.
The Americans residing in Mexico were the most obnoxious of all foreigners.
Our armies had marched triumphantly into their streets; we had wrested
fiom them vast tracts of territory; and, at that time, one Colonel Beller, with
a band of American "filibusters," was invading, in the lust of conquest, the
Province of Chihuahua, "to extend the area of freedom" by spreading slavery
over the free soil of Mexico. Republicans and Imperialists alike feared the
absorbing capacities of the United States; and still more did they fear the
Confederate States, should they prove triurnphant.
The cry resounded through the streets of Mexico, "Death to foreigners!"
Juarez protected the imperilled strangers. To a deputation who called upon
him with the demand that all foreigners should be driven from the land, he
replied, 
"If you wish to show your patriotism, go down to Orizaba, and expel those
Notes in Mexico: Lempriere, p. 390.




THE MEXICAN QUESTION.                             637
who have invaded your country; but do not interfere with peaceful citizens."
The Imperial party had long existed.  For thirty years it had been struggling for a monarchy, as the only hope for semi-civilized Mexico. It embraced
most of the men of intelligence and wealth.  We read in "The Napoleon
Dynasty," by the Berkeley Men, -
"During his residence on the Delaware, Joseph Bonaparte met with an
incident wlich surprised as much as it must have affected him.  A deputation from Mexico came to offer him the Mexican crown.
"Joseph declined, urging them by all means to establish a republic instead
of a monarchy.'I do not think,' he said,'that the throne you wish to raise
can make you happy. Every day I pass in this hospitable land proves more
clearly to me the excellence of republican institutions for America. Keep
them as a precious gift from Heaven.  Settle your internal commotion. Follow the example of the United States, and seek among your fellow-citizens
a man more capable than I am  f  tin  t    r         rt of acting te great part of Washington. "
This was like saying to the dying man, " Get well;" or to the hopelessly
impoverished, "Be rich." Ignorant, convulsed Mexico had for forty years strug'gled in vain to establish a republic. Dreary years of anarchy ensued. When
General Scott marched to "the halls of the Montezumas," and so efficiently
avenge(d the wrongs and collected the debts of the United States, we are
told that a delegation of prominent Mexicans called upon him, and entreated
him to assume the supreme command.  The general declined the unwelcome
task. YWe are told that one of the sons of Louis Philippe had also been
applied to, during the reign of his father,,to accept the Mexican crown. IHe,
also, was unwilling to assume the responsibility.
This party now turned their attention to Prince Maximilian, a very popular
and noble young man, about thirty years of age, and brother of the Emperor
of Austria.
About the middle of February, the French again advanced towards Puebla
in their march for the Mexican capital.  Their army consisted of twenty-eight
thousand men.  The Mexican force, occupying strong positions on the route,
was estimated at eighty thousand.  The struggle was desperate and bloody.
French valor and discipline prevailed.  Fifteen thousand prisoners fell into
the hands of the French at Puebla.  Six thousand of them  readily entered
into the French service.
On the 10th of June, General Forey entered the city of Mexico with his
triumphant columns. All attached to the Republican party had fled. The
Imperialists remained.  From  other parts of Mexico the Imperialists had
gathered.* They received the French with great enthusiasm. The foreign
population joined heartily in the ovation. They felt that dreary years of
* The Honorable Thomas Corwin, American minister at Mexico, stated, in a letter which
went the rounds of the American newspapers, " The establishment of an empire is, in reality,
the wish of the great majority of Mexicans.  The protest of this government (the United
States) would have been looked on as a violation of the principle of self-government.'By
what right,' France can say,'do you force upon the Mexicans a republic which they detest, and
prevent them from choosing an empire which they prefer'"




638                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
anarchy and wretchedness were now coming to an end. The populace, ignorant, excitable, and ready to echo any triumphant cry, joined in the general
acclaim. There were no dissenting voices. The whole city of Mexico rose,
as with one voice, to welcome the French.
It now  appeared as though the representations made by Almonte and
Miramon were correct; and that nearly the whole Mexican nation, as soon
as it dared to utter its voice, was eager to welcome the French as its
liberators. General Forey issued a manifesto, stating that the object of the
expedition was not merely to obtain redress of grievances, but also to assist
the Mexicans to establish any stable government which they might choose," a government," he said, " which shall practise, above all, justice, probity, and
good faith in its foreign relations, and liberty at home, but liberty, as it
should be understood, walking in the path of order, with respect for religion,
property, and family.
" I invoke," he added, " the co-operation of all minds. I invite all parties
to lay down their arms, and employ their efforts in future, not in destroying,
but in constructing. I proclaim forgetfulness of the past; a complete amnesty
to all who adhere in good faith to the government which the nation, in the
full enjoyment of its liberty, may choose."
A  provisional government was organized. A  superior council was composed of thirty-five of the most distinguished Mexican citizens. This council
chose three executive officers, called the Regency. These three were Generals
Almonte and Salas and the Archbishop of Mexico. This provisional government assembled with great solemnity on the 25th of June, and chose two
hundred and fifteen persons who were to constitute the Assembly of Notables.
This Assembly met on the 10th of July, and, by a vote of two hundred and
thirteen to two, declared in favor of an imperial government. They then
proceeded to the choice of an emperor, and chose Ferdinand Maximilian,
Archduke of Austria.*
Napoleon was with deep solicitude watching all these proceedings. True to
his principles of universal suffrage, he wished the people of Mexico, and not
the Notables alone, to decide upon the form of government. He had written
with emphasis to General Forey, "to submit to the Mexican people the question of the form of political rule which should be definitively established."
This was the essential point in his view, -that the people were to choose
their form  of government. He accordingly immediately wrote to General
Forey, through M. Drouyn de l'Huys, the French minister of foreign affairs,"We can only consider the vote of this Assembly as a first indication of
the inclinations of the country.  The Assembly recommends to its fellowcitizens the adoption of monarchical institutions.  It is now the part of the
Provisional Government to collect these suffrages in such a manner, that no
doubt shall hang over this expression of the will of the country. I shall not
* "If the French accounts may be believed," says the writer of an able article upon this
subject in " The American Annual Cyclopxdia," " the decision of the Assembly was received
with tumultuous joy by all classes of Mexicans; the prospect of a stable government under a
European prince, supported by European bayonets, being in every respect preferable to the long
rule of anarchy under which the country had groaned."




THE MEXICAN QUESTION.                               639
indicate to you the method of securing this indispensable result: it must be
found in the institutions of the country and its local customs." *
But, before this letter reached Mexico, the Mexican commission, consisting
of nine of the most prominent citizens, four of whom were then in Europe,
had proceeded in a body to Trieste, where they had an interview with Maximilian at his Castle of Miramar.  This prince, thus invited to the imperial
thronie, was born on the 6th of July, 1832.  Six years before this interview,
he had married the very beautiful and universally beloved Carlota, daughter
of Leopold, King of Belgium.  The archduke held the position of viceadmiral in the Austrian navy, and was then Governor-General of LombardVenice.  His frank and genial manners rendered him  exceedingly popular:
and he was regarded as the most liberal, in his views, of all the Austrian
princes; being cordially in favor of constitutional liberty.t
The president of the deputation, Sefior Gutierrez de Estrada, in a very
earnest appeal to Maximilian, expressed the following sentiments:"The Mexican nation, scarcely restored to its liberty by the beneficial
influence of a powerful and magnanimous monarch, sends us to present ourselves to your Imperial Highness, the object and centre, to-day, of its present
wishes and most flattering hopes.
"We will not speak, prince, of our tribulations and our misfortunes, known
by every one, and which have been extended so far, that the name of Mexico
has become synonymous with desolation and ruin.  Our country has passed
nearly half a century in that sad existence, full of unprofitable suffering and
intolerable shame.
"Mexico, again master of her destinies, and taught by the experience of
past errors, now makes a supreme effort to regain herself. Mexico promises
herself much, prince, from the institutions which governed her for the space
of three centuries, and which left us, when they disappeared, a splendid
legacy, which we did not know how to preserve under a republic.
" But, if that faith in monarchical institutions is great and profound, it
cannot be complete if these institutions are not personified in a prince
endowed with the high gifts which Heaven has dealt out to you with a prodigal hand.
" We, who are but the feeble interpreters of the hopes and the prayers of
a whole nation, come to present in that nation's name to your Imperial Highness the crown of the Mexican Empire, which the people offer you, prince,
fieely and spontaneously, by a solemn decree of the Notables, already ratified
by many provinces, and which soon will be, as every one says, by the entire
nation. 
* American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1862, p. 637.        t Idem, p. 636.
4 "I have visited Mazatlan, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, the city of
Mexico, Puebla, Orizaba, Cordova, and Vera Cruz.  With the exception of Zacatecas and
Vera Cruz, a large majority in those places were in favor of the empire. That Guadalajara,
Guanajuata, Puebla, and Orizaba were strongly in support of the empire, was never doubted.
I have thus mentioned nearly all of the large cities of Mexico. When the emperor and empress
entered the country, they were greeted with unbounded enthusiasm. Many who witnessed that
entrance have frequently remarked, that no one could have doubted that the majority were for
the empire."- Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, one of his Majesty's Legal Advisers, p. 278.




640                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
"M3ay the aurora of happier times shine forth for Mexico, after so much
suffering! and may we have the incomparable happiness of being able to
announce to the Mexicans the good news which they are so anxiously desiring! -good news not only for us, but also for France, whose name to-clday is
as inseparable from  our history as it will be from our gratitude; good news
for England and Spain, who commenced this great work at the convention in
London, after having been the first to recognize its justice and to proclaim
its imperative necessity."
The vote of the Assembly of Notables, establishing the empire, and choosing
Maximilian emperor, was then presented to him, engrossed on parchment, and
enclosed in the handle of a sceptre of solid gold. The prince, in his reply,
said, -
"I am profoundly grateful for the wishes expressed by the Assembly of
Notables, and that you are charged to communicate the same to me. However noble the task may be of securing the independence and prosperity of
Mexico on a solid foundation and with free institutions, I do not fail to agree
with his Majesty the Emperor of the French, whose glorious initiative has
made possible the regeneration of your beautiful country, that the monarchy
could not be re-established there on a pIerfectly legitimate and solid basis,
unless the whole nation, expressing freely its will, would wish to ratify the
wishes of the capital: so that, upon the result of the generality of the votes
of the whole country, I nmust make depend the acceptance of the throne
which is offered me. Carry back with you these frank declarations, and act
in such a manner that it may be possible for the nation to declare what form
of government it desires."
The Mexican deputation returned to their own land; but it was found
impossible, in the anarchical state of the country, to hold an election which
would call forth the suffrages of the whole people. The territory of the
realm covered an area larger than France, Spain, and Austria combined. A
population of but eight millions were sparsely scattered over this vast region.
Of these eight millions, but few over a million had any European blood in
their veins: the remainder were negroes, Indians, and mixed breeds. The
vast majority of these could neither read nor write, and could scarcely comprehend the difference between a president and an emperor. In addition to
this, though the French held the city of Mexico, and partially controlled an
extent of country about six hundred miles long by one hundred and fifty
broad, the remainder of the vast realm could not be reached by any protective
force.  Juarez had established his headquarters at San Luis Potosi.  His
guerillas were sweeping the country in every direction, - degraded, semi-savage men, perpetrating all conceivable.atrocities. Consequently, it was found
impossible to obtain a popular vote which should fairly represent the people
throughout the length andbreadth of the realm.
The vote was, however, taken, wherever French influence could protect the
polls; and, with almost entire unanimity, it was for the empire. Wherever
Juarez held control, no vote was allowed to be taken.
A new deputation was now appointed to convey this result to Maximilian
at his beautiful Palace of Miramar, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The




THE MEXICAN QUESTION.                         641
deputation consisted of five distinguished Mexicans.  Estrada was again
president of the delegation.  Quite a number of Mexicans accompanied
the delegation to Trieste to give additional solemnity to the imposing scene.
It was a serene and lovely Sunday morning, April 10, 1864. The beautiful
grounds around the palace were thrown open, as usual on Sundays, for the
recreation of the people. The double attraction of a lovely spring-morning,
and of the brilliant spectacle of gorgeous carriages and decorated nobles
which was to be witnessed at the palace, seemed to have drawn all the
inhabitants of Trieste to the garden, the park, and the lawn.
At ten o'clock, the Mexican delegation, in four gorgeous carriages, preceded
by a mounted'escort, and followed by a long retinue of carriages containing
persons of distinction, proceeded to the grand entrance of the palace. They
were received by the grand master, and conducted through thewaiting-room,
the library, and the blue-room, to the hall of reception.
The Archduke Maximilian there received them, with the Archduchess
Carlota standing on his left. They stood before a table coveie'd with magnificent tapestry. The archduchess particularly attracted the attention of the
whole audience. Her commanding fsrm, her exquisite beauty, her beaming
countenance, and her superb apparel, all united to make her appear like an
enchantress, a being of poetical imagination. Ladies of honor, and nobles
of high rank, occupied positions in the room. After a momernt's silence,
Estrada, as President of the Mexican deputation, addressed Maximilian as
follows: 
"PRINCE, -The Mexican deputation have the pleasure of finding themselves
again in your august presence. Our happiness is comprete in informing you,
in the name of the regency of the empire, that the vote of the Notables, by
which you have been designated for the crown of Mexico, is now ratified by
the enthusiastic adhesion of an immense majority of the country, by the
municipal authorities, and by the town corporations. Thus consecrated, that
unanimous proclamation has become, by its moral importance and by its
numerical strength, truly a national vote."
Such was the character of the whole address. The prince, in.his response,
said, -
"Now I can comply with the conditional promise which I made you six
months ago, and declare here, as I solemnly do declare, that, with the help of
the Almighty, Iacceptfrom the hand of the Mexican nation the crown which
it offers me. Mexico, following the traditions of that new continent, full of
vigor, and hopes for the future, has used the right which it possesses of
choosing the form of government in conformity with its wishes and necessities.
"Great is the undertaking which is confided to me; but I do not doubt
that I shall complete it, relying as I do upon divine help and the co-operation of all good MIexicans. Lastly, I ought to announce to you, that, before
departing for my new country, I shall be detained only by the time necessary
to visit the Holy City to receive from the venerable pontiff the blessings so
81




642                    LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
precious for every sovereign, but doubly important to me, who have been
called upon to found a new empire.
"I will conclude, gentlemen, again assuring you that my government will
never forget the obligation which it owes to the illustrious monarch whose
friendly assistance has made the regeneration  of our beautiful country
possible."
Two dignitaries of the church were present in their canonical robes, who
administered the following oath of office:"I Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, swear to God, by the holy evangelists,
that I will try to promote, through all the means within my power, the welfare and prosperity of the nation, to defend its independence, and to preserve
the whole of its territory."
The flag of Mexico was then unfurled over the Palace of Miramar. The
Austrian frigate "Bellona" gave forth its thundering salutes, which echoed
over the waves of the Adriatic, and which were repeated by the cannon on
the Castle of Trieste and by the French frigate "Themis."  In the mean
time, all repaired to the chapel of the castle to conclude the solemnities of
the day by the grand Te Deum.




CHAPTER XXXVIII.
MAXIMILIAN AND HIS THRONE.
Character of Maximilian.-Character of Carlota. -Departure from Trieste.-Words of
Adieu. - Arrival in Mexico. - Enthusiastic Greeting. - Triumphal Journey to the Capital.
-Administrative Measures. -Apparent Popularity of the Empire. -Hostility of the
United States. - Departure of Carlota for Europe. - Her Insanity.
T is the undeviating testimony of all who knew the Archduke
lMaximilian, that he was a warm-hearted, genial, unaffected
i j  -manv, who won the love of all who approached him. He was
thoroughly educated; speaking German, English, Hungarian,
Slavonic, French, Italian, and Spanish.  The ablest teachers
Europe could afford had instructed him in mathematical, classical, and theological science.  He was tireless in the pursuit of knowledge:
and, enjoying to an eminent degree the advantages of travel, he had feasted
his mind with all the treasures of art to be found in the galleries of Continental Europe; had visited the sacred places of the Holy Land, the sublime
creations of ancient Egypt; and in South America, a guest in the palace of the
Emperor of Brazil, had admired the glories of the New World. Indeed, it is
not improbable, that, in witnessing the civilizing influence of the empire of
Brazil, in South America, he had been led to hope that an empire might
rescue Mexico from its barbarism and wretchedness.
In the court of his cousin Queen Victoria, and in the Palaces of the Tuileries and St. Cloud, Maximilian had been received with brotherly affection.
His father, Francis Charles, Archduke of Austria, and his mother, the Archduchess Frederica Sophia, —a lady of rare endowments of person, mind, and
heart, -still live to weep dyer the untimely death of their son. The intellectual tastes and activity of Maximilian are evinced in the fact, that, young as
he was, and busy as his life had been, he had published-not for sale, but for
circulation among his friends - nine volumes.  These works were, "Italy,"
"Sicily," "Lisbon and Madeira," " Spain," "Albania and Algiers," " Voyage
to Bazil," "Aphorisms," " Objects of the Navy," and "The Austrian Navy."
He had also written a volume of poems.
Maximilian was a young man of unblemished purity of morals, and a conscientious observer of the tenets of the church in which he was born and
died. His form was imperial; he being six feet two inches high, and finely
proportioned.  Large, mild blue eyes, a very fair complexion, and an animated, smiling countenance, testified to the urbanity and kindliness of his
643




644                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
disposition. In 1859, he was appointed by his brother, the Emperor of Austria, Governor-General of Lombard-Venice. -He won, as no other prince
ever did before, the love. of that people. The affection with which he was
regarded may be inferred from the following extract from one of the journals
of Trieste, of the date of the 10th of April, 1864, bidding adieu to the prince
as he sailed for the New World:"SIRE,- The word adieu resounds in every heart, and is on the lips of all
the good citizens of this city. You have given all your heart to this people,
who love you as a father loves his son, - with all the power of his soul. There
is no heart that does not treasure your qualities and those of your august
companion.  He who has been an excellent prince will be an excellent
sovereign. Mexico has just extricated herself from sad discord. The task
undertaken by Ferdinand Maximilian is difficult, arduous, great. He will
know how to accomplish it.
" Adieu, then, in the name of all the people of Trieste! May the heavens
be propitious for you! and may they promote the accomplishment of your
ardent desires, making the country prosper that has selected you to preside
over its destinies! You carry with you the benedictions of a people who will
never forget you in their hearts. May the hand of God guide you! May the
work of your Majesty be holy'and blessed! "
Carlota, the spouse of Maximilian, was the daughter of Leopold I., King
of Belgium. Her father was a man of high scholarly attainments, one of the
noblest of men and the best of sovereigns. The first wife of Leopold was
the lamented Princess Charlotte, daughter of George IV. of England. His
second wife, whom he married in 1832, was Louise Maria, daughter of Louis
Philippe, King of the French. Carlota was the daughter of Louise Maria.
Her father died in 1865, after Carlota had gone to Mexico; and now her
brother, Leopold II., is King of Belgium. Her father was a Protestant, her
mother a Catholic. She inherited from both father and mother a very superior mind; speaking fluently French, German, Spanish, English, and Italian.
There was, perhaps, never a more affectionate union than that of Maximilian
and Carlota.
" She sought the welfare of Italy while there, rather than parties, balls, and
fashionable entertainments.  The poor of the cities where she visited and
where she resided will bear ample evidence to her generosity.  She was
always kind to those around her.
"She seemed ever watchful for the progress and improvement of Mexico,
the advancement of education, and the protecting care of the poor and
needy.  The same generosity which she exhibited in Europe was made
manifest in the New World to even a greater degree. She has been often
observed walking through the mud in order to visit the poor in the hospitals,
and also others who were needy in their own desolate homes. She established schools, and visited them in person. If she visited a town only for an
hou, the first inquiry made by her was as to the condition of the schools.
She examined the scholars in their lessons, gave them  kind advice, and not




MAXIMILIAN AND HIS THRONE.                             645
unfrequently pieces of money to encourage them in their studies. Never, in
the history of Mexico, was the number of beggars so small in the capital
as during her presence there.  The poor never had another such friend in
all Mexico." *
On the 14th of April, Maximilian and Carlota embarked for the New
World. Maximilian was now thirty-two years of age, Carlota but twenty-four.
The hum of business was hushed, as all Trieste, in its gala-dress and beneath
a serene and cloudless sky, was gathered to witness the departure.  It was a
gorgeous scene, worthy of a more full description than we can here bestow
upon it.  There were six steamers in the bay awaiting the embarkation.  At
two o'clock, the newly-chosen emperor and empress, arm  in arm, descended
the marble steps of their beautiful palace to the sea.  The roar of cannon
and the peal of musical bands filled the air. A beautiful boat, canopied with
purple and gold, bore them to the steamer "Novara.".As they reached the
deck, the Austrian banner fell, and the flag of Mexico was raised in its stead.t
After a brief stop at Naples, and another at Rome, the little squadron, on
the 28th of May, reached Vera Cruz.  The emperor immediately issued a
proclamation containing the following sentiments:" MExICANs, -  You have desired my presence.  Your noble nation, by a
voluntary majority, has chosen me to watch henceforth over your destinies.
I gladly respond to this call.  Painful as it has been to me to bid farewell
forever to my own, my native country, I have done so; being convinced that
the Almighty has pointed out to me, through you, the noble mission of devoting all my strength and heart to a people, who, tired of war and disastrous
contests, sincerely wish for peace and prosperity.
" The confidence which animates you and me will be crowned by a brilliant
success if we always remain united to defend valiantly the great principles
which are the true and lasting bases of modern States, -  the principles of
inviolable and immutable justice; equality before the law; an open road to
every one to every career and social position; complete personal liberty well
defined, having in it the protection of the individual and property; the
improvement of national riches; the advancement of agriculture; the establishment of ways of communication for an extensive commerce; and, finally,
the free development of intelligence in all that relates to the public interest.
"The civilizing flag of France raised to such a high position by her noble
emperor, to whom  you owe the regeneration of order and peace, represents
* Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, pp. 41, 42.
t Upon leaving Trieste, Maximilian wrote an affectionate letter to the mayor, Dr. Charles
Pozenta, in which he said, "In the moments of parting, full of confidence in the assistance of
Heaven to place me at the head of a distant empire, I cannot do less than send a sad and last
adieu to the dear and beautiful city of Trieste.
"It will always be grateful to me to know that my garden of Miramar is visited by the inhabitants of Trieste; and I wish that it may be open for that purpose whenever circumstances will
admit it. I desire that the poor may preserve a memorial of my affections. I have placed the
sum of twenty thousand florins, so that the interest thereon may be distributed every year, on
Christmas Eve, among the poor families of the city; which distribution will be made by the city
council." - Ibid., p. 33.




646                        LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
the same principles.  The enviable task belongs to the empress to consecrate
to the country all the noble sentiments of Christian virtue and the mildness
of a tender mother.  Let us unite to carry out a common object; let us
forget past sorrows; let us bury party hatred; and the aurora of peace and
of deserved happiness will radiantly beam forth again over the new empire.
"MAXIMILIAN." *
A committee composed of the city authorities, led by General Almonte,
received Maximilian and Carlota with enthusiastic expressions of joy.  In its
congratulatory address, the committee said, -
"SIRE,-Truly will the day be ever memorable on which your Imperial
Highness reached Mexico as the desired savior to establish the empire.  No
one can fail to recognize the benign hand of Providence in the admirable
events which have prepared the regeneration of this beautiful and desolated
country, opening up an enviable future under the benign sceptre of your
Imperial Majesty.  May God bless the noble purpose which guides your
Imperial Majesty in favor of the Mexicans, and crown with the most complete success your grand, civilizing, and Christian undertaking! "
The mayor of the city, Seior Velasquez de Leon, in presenting the committee to the Empress Carlota, said, 
" Your Majesty will please condescend to receive the most sincere congratulation and tle most perfect homage from the authorities and inhabitants of
this district.  The Mexicans, madam, who expect so much from  the good
influence of your Majesty in favor of all that is noble and great, -  of all
that bears relation to the elevated sentiments of religion and of country, -
bless the moment in which your Majesty reached the soil, and proclaim  in
one voice,'Long live the Empress! "
The empress briefly responded in Spanish. Mass was performed in presence
of their Majesties and of the committee; at the close of which, Maximilian
said, "I wish, in future, that there be no distinction made between those who
are Indians and those who are not.  All are Mexicans, and have equal right
to my solicitude."
As they landed in small boats, the president of the council, D. Salvador
Carrau, presented Maximilian with the keys of the city on a silver waiter,
at the same time congratulating him  upon his arrival.  After a brief and
very happy reply, their Majesties entered an dpen carriage, and followed lby
* "It is inconceivable that one who stood so near the Austrian throne, who had abundant
wealth, a noble home, and was, moreover, happily united to the daughter of a Europeaii sovereign, should have chosen to,o forth and establish his rule over so degenerate a race. Instead
of Vienna and Miramar, w:.h the honors due to the most exalted rank, he accepted the office
of coercing several millions of savage half-breeds, or of Spaniards whose degeneracy has
brought them lower than the aboriginal barbarians of the soil. Bat, whatever the weakness of
accepting the sovereignty, it must be admitted that Maximilian has acted nobly while wielding
it. He has labored incessantly at the hopeless task of restoring order. Had Mexico stood
alone, it might have been that the valor or good fortune of Maximilian might have prevailed;
but the sympathy of the United States, and the direct influence of-their govrnment, have done
every thing for the cause of Juarez." - London Times, May 29, 1867.




MAXIMILIAN AND HIS THRONE.                         647
a very splendid cortege in other carriages, on horseback and on foot, were
conducted through the principal streets of the city. They were received
with apparently universal enthusiasm: not a voice or indication of dissent
was either heard or seen.
Triumphal arches, gayly decorated and with appropriate mottoes, spanned
the streets. The windows were garlanded with flowers, and filled with smiling,faces. The populace were inspired by the hope that the long and dreary
years of anarchy were now to come to an end, and that they were to enjoy a
stable government, which would give them the blessings of useful industry
and of peace. Their enthusiastic huzzas almost drowned the music of the
ban'ds.
It was not deemed safe, in consequence of the vonzito, to remain long in
the city. Their Majesties were placed in a royal car, with their suite and
escort in other cars,.and were conveyed through Soledad to Cordova, where
they arrived at two o'clock in the morning. This little city, containing about
five thousand inhabitants, is fifty miles from Vera Cruz. Notwithstanding
the lateness of the hour, the city was alive with excitement in anticipation
of the arrival, and blazed with illuminations.  The late arrival was in
consequence of the breaking of an axle-tree of the car in which their
Majesties rode.
The president of the town council, and other city officers, met them with
a congratulatory address, and presented to Maximilian the key of the city.
At nine o'clock the next morning, the royal party attended a solemn Te
Deum and mass.
The emperor and empress dined with the city authorities that day; and, in
the evening, the whole city expressed its gladness in illuminations and fireworks and music.
The next morning, at eight o'clock, the royal party left for Orizaba,
distant about twenty miles, on the road to the capital. Their journey was
an ovation.  Their Majesties were met all along the road with banners,
flowers, music, and apparently the most cordial acclamations of the people.
At Orizaba the emperor said, in response to the congratulatory address of
the municipal prefect, 
"The love with which our new country greets us, profoundly moves us;
and we think it a happy sign of an agreeable future.  If all unite with us in
the sole end of promoting the lasting greatness and prosperity of our country,
Providence will crown our efforts; and, a~ the empire flourishes, the divers
departments and cities will commence real progress. May it please God to
hear our prayers, and to give the empire the era of peace which it so much
requires to advance in greatness and prosperity! The benefit of really fiee
institutions, an order of things regulated and lasting, united to the developed
material interests which will offer you the means of easy communication,
will assure you at last the complete development of the extraordinary riches
with which Providence has favored your'land above all the rest of the earth."
In leaving Orizaba, the populace, in their enthusiasm, endeavored to take
the mules fiom the carriage, that they might draw the emperor and empress
with their hands. But Maximilian was unwilling to accept such homage;




648                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
and the people, with good will and hearty shouts of acclaim, yielded the
point. The ladies presented the empress with a ring; which she placed upon
her finger, saying that she should ever preserve it as a sweet recollection of
her visit to Orizaba.
After attending mass, and visiting the schools, the hospital, and  the
shipping, the curate of a neighboring Indian village presented two finelooking Indian girls to their Majesties; saying in his address, in the Aztec
language, -
" Our honorable emperor, here you have these poor Indians, your childrien,
who have come to salute you. By that you know that your coming much
pleases their hearts; for in it they see, as it were, a rainbow which dispels
the clouds of discord which appear to have gathered in our kingdom. The
Almighty sent you: it is he who gives you power to save us. Here is this
flower: see in it the sign of our love."
The flower thus presented was a bouquet, very beautifully woven with
palm-leaves, in the shape of a fan, blending the hues of red, white, and green,
the colors of the Mexican flag. The two Indian girls presented the empress
with a basket, a handkerchief, and a turtle-dove. The people were much
surprised at the simplicity of the royal personages, and at the attention
which they devoted to the poorest and the most humble.
At eight o'clock the next morning, the imperial pair left for Puebla.
Their departure was accompanied with the booming of artillery, the ringing
of bells, and the peal of musical bands. Their volunteer escort, for some
distance, consisted of thousands, in carriages, on horseback, and on foot.
The road was spanned with arches, wreathed with the gorgeous flowers of
the tropics. They entered Puebla at ten o'clock on the morning of June 5.
"The road to Puebla was one continued bower of flowers, flags, banners, and
poetical verses: it was a chain of ovations."*
Their reception in Puebla was apparently as enthusiastic and cordial as it
was in the power of the citizens to make it. They were greeted with music
and chiming-bells and the voices of cannon, with triumphal arches, processions, addresses, and all possible pomp of military and religious solemnities.
Here they remained two days, receiving the applauses of the people, and
showering around them benefits.
The 7th of June was the birthday of Carlota. It was celebrated by attending solemn mass in the cathedral in the morning. An immense audience
was present, while praises were chafited to the Almighty by the bishop
and the choir.  At seven o'clock, a banquet was provided in the palace,
which was attended by about sixty of the most prominent personages.  At
ten o'clock, a magnificent ball was given in honor of their Majesties. Carlota,
with characteristic benevolence, commemorated the day by sending to the
mayor of the city seven thousand dollars for the poor.  The following letter
accompanied the gift: —
"SEonR PREFECT,- It is very pleasing to me to find myself in Puebla on
the first anniversary of my birthday, which I have passed far from  my old
* Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, p. 122.




MAXIMILIAN AND HIS THRONE.                            649
country. Such a day is for every one a season of reflection; and these days
would be sad to me, if the care, attentions, and proofs of affection, of which'I have been the object in this city, did not cause me to recollect that I am
in my new country, among my people. Surrounded by friends, and accompanied by my dear husband, I have no time to be sad.  And I give thanmks
to God because he has conducted me here; presenting unto him  fervent
prayers for the happiness of this country, which is mine.  United to Mexico
long ago by sympathy, I am to-day united to it by stronger bonds, and at the
same time sweeter, - those of gratitude.
"I wish, Sefior Prefect, that the poor of this city may participate in the
pleasure which I have experienced among you.  I send you seven thousand
dollars of my own private funds, which is to be dedicated to the rebuilding
of the house of charity, the ruinous state of which made me feel sad yesterday; so that the unfortunate ones who have found themselves deprived of
shelter may return to inhabit it.
"Senor Prefect, assure my compatriots of Puebla that they possess, and
always will possess, my affections.                             "CARLOTA."
The next day, at noon, they again took their carriages, and resumed their
journey for the capital. Stopping occasionally to gratify the curiosity of the
people, and everywhere  hailed with  apparently unanimous acclaim, they
reached Guadalupe, but one league from  the capital, at two o'clock in the
afternoon of the 11th of June.  They immediately repaired to the renowned
cathedral, where prayers and thanksgivings were offered, accompanied by all
the pomp of the Roman-Catholic ritual.  Iere, in the densely-crowded
cathedral, the city authorities from the capital met them.  Senor Bocanegra,
Political Prefect of Mexico, speaking in behalf of himself and his associates,
addressed the royal pair in the following terms of welcome -
"SIRE, — We present ourselves full of grateful pleasure, with our souls
overflowing with joy, before our beloved sovereigns, to congratulate them
upon their pleasant arrival at the gate of the city, in which is erected the
throne which has been raised by the Mexicans for themn.  Words fail me to
manifest our gratitude; for you have, in compassion for our misfortunes,
abandoned another throne,* riches, country, parents, brothers, and friends,
and condescended to come and try to make us happy, and save us from  the
evils which were causing us to disappear from the catalogue of nations. Your
Majesties only knew through statements and papers the will of the peop)le
who applauded you; and now, to-day, you see that you are not deceived,
and  that, fiom  the shores of Vera Cruz to the gate of the capital, all
applaud their sovereigns with an unbounded enthusiasm."
A  deputation of ladies from  the capital addressed  Carlota in a similar
strain of warm-hearted greeting.  We have not space to quote their words,
* Before accepting the throne of Mexico, it was necessary for Maximilian to renounce all his
hereditary rights of succession to the throne of Austria   The death of his older lrothler
Francis Joseph, without an heir, would have transferred the crown of the empire to Maximilian.
82




650                        LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
full of affectionate and grateful welcome.  The, next day was Sunday, the
12th of June.  After attending mass, their Majesties' proceeded one league
to the city.
An immense throng met them  at the station, and received them with an
enthusiasm  of greeting which could not have been surpassed.  The whole
city seemed to be gathered there to escort them, first to the cathedral, to give
thanks for their safe arrival; and then to the palace which had been provided
for their home.  Banners, triumphal arches festooned with orange-blossoms,
and houses garlanded with flowers, everywhere  met the eye.   Gorgeous
coaches crowded with the first families of the city, and horsemen in brilliant
uniform, and with  their steeds  caparisoned with  the  most'picturesque
trappings of silver and gold, joined in the congratulatory procession.  The
air was filled with all the tumultuous utterings of joy. The enthusiasm of
the welcome cannot be described.' No  one who witnessed it doubted its
sincerity.  It must have been  sincere.  The few  leaders opposed to  the
empire had fled, and joined  Juarez.  The populace, fickle, excitable, and
opinionless as children, were delighted with the pageant, and rejoiced in the
prospect of tranquillity.*
This continued and apparently unanimous expression of the affection and
gratitude of the people inspired Maximilian and Carlota with the full conviction that the invitation to the throne, which had been so urgently presented
them, came from the hearts of the Mexican people.  For a time, Maximilian
thought he had no further need of foreign aid, except in the way of loans to
replenish an utterly bankrupt treasury.  It is said that he was even desirous
that the French  troops should  be withdrawn, since their presence might
wound the pride of the Mexicans; but he soon learned, that in so vast a
territory, so long torn by civil strife, peopled by a race so ignorant and semibarbarous, with so many chieftains ambitious and unscrupulous grasping at
power, there was ample room for the risings of antagonism.t
The Juarez party, few, disorganized, dispersed, and without funds, had
apparently lelted away, like a dissolving cloud, in the north.  The emperor
immediately devoted himself with great energy to the administration of the
affairs of his realm.  His first principle was, that all persons, of whatever
race or color, were to be equal before the law. A general decree of amnesty
was passed for all political prisoners. A particular hour was appointed every
week in which he would listen personally to complaints.  The elevation and
happiness of the people seemed to be the one great object of his aims. " Long
* Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, one of his Majesty's Legal Advisers, p. 130.
t " The country, though apparently subdued, was full of the elements of disturbance and
impending trodble.  Guerilla bands infested every State where there was opportunity for
plunder. Cities, which had received Maximilian during his imperial progress with acclamations,
gave vent to unqualified expressions of hostility when he had taken his departure. Added to
this was the total bankruptcy of the government, and the difficulty of raising funds to carry out
its administrative projects. As long as it might be upheld by foreign bayonets, the empire
seemed destined to have permanence, and even strength; but, in the event of the withdrawal of
the French troops, no one ventured to predict how long it would last." - American Aninal
Cyclopcedia, 1864, p. 529.




MAXIMILIAN  AND HIS THRONE.                               651
live," shouted an enthusiastic Mexican, "the  President of the  Empire!"
Maximilian smiled, and said that he had no objection to that title, though lie
imagined that it would be somewhat criticised in Europe. His salary was
fixed by the regency at a million and a half of dollars.  At his suggestion, it
was reduced to half a million.  He issued a decree, that all who would lay
down their arms, and  return to  private life, could  do so without being
questioned; that every one might freely express his opinion upon all official
acts.
The hostility of the government and people of the United States to the
empire in Mexico caused the emperor much solicitude.*   This opposition
loudly demanded that the Emperor of the French should lend no more support to the throne of Maximilian.  To add to his embarrassment, the extreme Church party, disappointed that Maximilian did not restore their church
property by wresting it from those who' had purchased it of the government,
and that he insisted upon maintaining entire fieedom of conscience and of
worship, turned against him.  The ignorant populace were very fickle, and
were ever ready to shout hosannas to the conqueror of the hour, whoever
he might be.t
The Atnerican people, strongly attached  to republican  institutions, and
regarding the Mexican invasion  as a wanton  attempt to force an imperial
government upon an unwilling people, gave all their sympathies to Juarez
and his party.  Quite a strong American force was stationed at Brownville,
on the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras, on the Mexican fiontier, which was
occupied by the imperial troops. An unpleasant correspondence, containing
mutual recriminations, arose between the commander of the French squadron
and General Weitzel.  The following extract from  one of General Weitzel's
letters will show the character of this correspondence; and it certainly
expresses the prevailing sentiments of the American people at that time:"You complain that my officers and'men  affiliate with the Liberals, and
welcome them.  This is not strange.  The Liberals claim  that they fight for
their fieedom: their cause, then, is one that has awakened  the warmest
sympathies in every American breast.  It would be as impossible for me to
* "On the 4th of April, 1864, a resolution passed the United-States House of Representatives,
by a unanimous vote, declaring the opposition of that body to a recognition of the Mexican Empire. Secretary Seward, in transmitting this resolution to Mr. Dayton, American minister in
Paris, said,' It is hardly necessary to say that this resolution truly interprets the unanimous
sentiment of the people of the United States in regard to Mexico.'" - American Annual Cyclopcedia, 1864, p. 228.
t "The fact that the Liberals conquered the Imperialists is no proof that -the former are
supported by a majority of the people. Any one acquainted with the history of Mexico will
well understand how that may be. No party can long remain in power in that country. Out
of the whole population of Mexico, there is not a million who have any thing' to say about the
affairs of government. The common soldier knows not the difference between an empire and a
republic. I went to Mexico in 1867, strongly impressed with the idea that the Liberal party
was far in the majority; and I must confess, that, against my wish, I have had that opinion
shaken.  That the majority of the wealthy people were in favor of the empire, I think no wellinformed and unbiassed man will deny' -Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Iall, one of his
Majesty's Legal Advisers.




Q52                         LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
prevent this, even if I felt so disposed, as it would be to stop the motion of
the earth; but I do not feel so disposed.  During our late war, the officers
and men of French and English men-of-war lying in ports in our military
possession affiliated continually and exclusively with our enemies, as at New
Orleans and Norfolk; and yet it was not thought necessary to communicate
with them  on the subject.  They were permitted to choose their own associates."
On Nov. 13, 1865, the constitutional term  of service of President Jutarez
terminated.  In the distracted state of the country, it was impossible to hold
a new election.  According to the constitution, General Ortega, president
of the supreme court, was entitled to the presidency until there could be
another election.  Juarez and his friends thought that a change of leaders at
that moment would prove disastrous.  Appealing to the law of necessity as
justification, Juarez issued a decree depriving Ortega of his constitutional
claim, and extending his own presidential term until a new election should
be held.
General Ortega vehemently protested against this bold act of usurpation,
declaring the "dictatorship of Juarez illegal, arbitrary, unjust, an insult to
the Mexican people."  Affairs were now  in a hopeless state of "confusion.
France, threatened with war by the United States,.was disposed to withdraw,
and abandon the enterprise, as England and Spain had done.  The expedition had already cost her, according to French  official returns, one hundred
and thirty-five million dollars.  By disease, and war's ravages, France had lost
over eleven thousand men.  Maximilian was in great trouble.  In his vast
empire beyond the lines of his army, there was nothing but anarchy.  He
could place but little dependence  upon  the  loyalty  of the  fickle-minded
Mexicans.  The very men who at one hour would be shouting "Vive l'Empereur! " the next hour might be found heading a band of guerillas to attack his
trains. The priests had turned against his liberal policy: the pope was displeased by his want of exclusive devotion to the Catholic Church. He wished
to fill his cabinet with Mexican officers; but in all Mexico. he could not find
a financier capable of conducting a bankrupt treasury.  It was clear that
France must abandon him, or be drawn into a war with the United States.
Mexico was impoverished.  Maximilian had no means of raising money to
pay his soldiers.  The guerilla bands, everywhere sweeping the country, lived
by plunder.*  It is often said, that, in this sad world of ours, sorrows go in
* " No reverses seemed to intimidate the guerilla bands. A party of four hundred seized the
Vera-Cruz Railroad at Tejeira, a few miles from" Orizaba.  The trains were stopped, and the
passengers taken some three miles from the station, where the Spanish, Mexican, German, and
American travellers were released; while the French, civil and military, were put to death after
several hours of dreadful torture.' The Journal' of Orizaba says, 
"' It appears that the French seized by the guerillas were fourteen, - five officers, seven sergeants and soldiers, and two civilians. All have suffered a most horrible death, preceded by1
some hours of agony. The pen will not describe the barbarous outrages committed on these
unfortunate men; and decency imposes complete silence. After suffering the fate of Abelard,
and remaining in that condition for some time, they were riddled by stabs, and then cut to
pieces.'" -American Annual Cyclol(ecdia, 1865, p. 558.




MAXIMILIAN AND HIP THRONE.                       653
troops.. To add to the afflictions of Maximilian and Carlota, they received
the intelligence of the death of her father, Leopold I., King of Belgium, who
died in December, 1865. To them both it was a great grief. A better father
never lived.
Under these circumstances, Carlota, the youthful empress, undertook a
voyage to Europe as a confidential agent of her husband at the courts of
France and of Rome. As she took leave of her fiiends, she asked for their
prayers, saying, "I shall need them."  Her husband accompanied her some
distance on her way to Vera Cruz; and there they took a tearful leave of
each other, little supposing that they never were to meet in this world
again. Anxious for her husband, whom  she almost adored, alarmed by the
menacing attitude which the United-States Government w s assuming against
him, and unsuccessful in her mission'(for Napoleon could not listen to her
entreaties to furnish her husband with funds and troops without exposing
France to the peril of war with the United States), her mind sank beneath
the load; and poor Carlota became hopelessly insane.
The sad intelligence reached Maximilian on the 8th of October, 1866.
Crushed by the blow, he immediately repaired to a country-house at
Chapultepec, and surrendered himself to uncontrollable grief. For ten days,
he confined himself closely to his room, scarcely seeing any one.  There
seemed nothing now before him in the future but misfortune and woe.




CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.
Gathering Gloom.- Guerillas.- Insanity of Carlota. -Menacing Attitude of the United
States. - Withdrawal of French Troops. - Proclamation of Marshal Bazaine. - Statement
of Napoleon III. - Heroic Resolve of Maximilian.- His Call for a Congress. - Besieged
in Queretaro. - Treachery of Lopez. - Capture of the Emperor. - Scenes in Prison. -
Trial.-Execution. - The Results in Mexico.
was still confidently asserted that the great majority of the
N Mexican nation was in favor of the empire.  Maximilian was
well aware that a minority, well armed, could overawe and
silence a large majority.  He had no wish to remain in Mexico,
unless it were clearly the wish of the nation.
He had been persuaded that such was the wish before he
would accept the crown. He now, in these days of gathering gloom, began
to apprehend that he might have been deceived. Under these circumstances,
he issued the following proclamation:
"MEXICANS, -Circumstances of great magnitude relating to the welfare
of our country, and which increase in strength by our domestic difficulties,
have produced in our mind the conviction that we ought to reconsider the
power confided to us.
" Our Council of Ministers by us convoked have given as their opinion that
the welfare of Mexico still requires our presence at the head of affairs; and
we have considered it our duty to accede to their request.  We announced
at the same time our intention to convoke a national congress on the most
ample and liberal basis, where all political parties can participate.
"This congress shall decide whether the empire shall continue in the
future; and, in case of assent, shall assist in framing the fundamental laws to
consolidate the public institutions of the country.  To obtain this result, our
councillors are at present engaged in devising the necessary means, and at
the same time in arranging matters in such a manner that all parties may
assist in an establishment upon that basis.
"In the mean time, Mexicans, counting upon you all, without excluding
any political class, we shall continue with courage and constancy the work
of regeneration which you have placed in the charge of your countrymen.
" MAXIIMILIAN.'*
* "When the sagacious ruler of France saw, that, while no good could be done in Mexico, he
was endangering his friendly relations with the United States, he courageously decided to with654




THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.                         655
The distracted state of the country and the antagonism  of the hostile
parties rendered it impossible to convene this congress.  On the  16th of
December, 1865, the French Government were informed that fiiendly relations between France and the United States would be placed in "imminent
jeopardy" if France did not " desist from the prosecution of armed intervention in Mexico," and that the United States would not recognize Maximilian
even if the French troops were withdrawn from  Mexico.  Marshal Bazaine,
who had succeeded to the command of the French troops, in the following
farewell proclamation announced their withdrawal.  This was in February,
1866.
"In a few days, the French  troops'will leave Mexico.  During the four
years which they have passed in this beautiful city, they have had no reason
to complain of any lack of sympathy between them and the inhabitants of
this city.  In the name, then, of the French army under my command, at the
sametime acting from feelings of personal regard, I, the marshal of France,
commander-in-chief, take leave of you. Our common voice is for the happiness of the chivalric Mexican nation.  All our efforts have tended to the
establishment of peace in the interior. Rest assured, in this moment of
separation, that our mission has never had any other object, and that it has
never entered into the intention of France to impose upon you any form  of
government contrary to your wishes."
The attitude assumed by the Ucnited States undoubtedly had a powerful
influence upon this decision. It would have been very unwise to plunge into
a war with the United States for the sake of attempting to rescue from a
state of anarchy eight millions of half-civilized Mexicans; but there was
another reason, independent of a war with the United States, which was
amply sufficient to induce this withdrawal.
The emperor found that the Mexican agents who had pleaded so earnestly
for his intervention had deceived him, though perhaps unintentionally. He
found the state of disorganization, ignorance, and debasement in Mexico far
greater than he had expected.  He had supposed that nearly all the intelligent men were earnest in their desire for foreign aid.  It was thought that
Juarez himself would gratefully co-operate in the measure, is apparently the
only possible way of rescuing  his country fiom  weary years of misery.
Maximilian, immediately upon his arrival, sent to Juarez and the Republican
draw his army, and abandon his laudable efforts to open Mexico to the commerce of the world.
Every form of persuasion was exhausted to induce the doomed Maximilian to throw away his
mock sceptre, and return to his stricken wife and cheerless palace at Miramar; but in vain. The
chief ground of his refusal was noble, and will embalm his memory. lie staid, and lie struggled to save from the vengeance of a barbarous government the handful of men who had bravely
clung to his desperate fortunes. Alas that so much courage and devotion should only whet
the fury of his merciless assassins! Maximilian has been wantonly murdered. The sentiments
of this humane age have been cruelly lacerated, and an outrage has been committed against tlie
United States that calls for punishment. The people of this country gave all their sympathy to
the so-called Republican faction, and the remonstrances of our government have restored it to
power; and the only guerdon we asked was mercy for Maximilian, whose misfortunes had condoned his errors. His death is not merely an act of inhumanity, but of ingratitude. It is
not only a crime, but an insult." -Mr. Henry Wickoff, in " The New-York Times."




656                     LIFE  OF NAPOLEON III.
leaders a very friendly letter, inviting them  to a conference in the city of
Mexico, assuring them of protection, that they might discuss together the
plans best to be adopted to restore peace to the country; but Juarez and
his leaders returned a contemptuous refusal.*
It will be remembered that Count Lorencez, surprised by the stubborn
resistance which his troops encountered before the walls of Puebla, said in
a proclamation to the troops, after the battle, -
"You were told a hundred times that the city of Puebla called you with
anxiety, and that the inhabitants would rush to embrace you, and crown you
with flowers. You have been deceived, as well as his Majesty the emperor:
but deceived  France will know'hdw  to recognize her error; for your
sovereign is too great to do wrong. He himself has said,'Justice everywhere accompanies the French flag.'"
In the summons which General Zaragossa sent to Count Lorencez for a
capitulation at Orizaba, it will be remembered that the Mexican general
said, -
"I have reason to believe that you, and the officers of the division under
your command, have sent a protest to the Emperor of the French against
the conduct of Minister Saligni, for having brought an expedition against a
people, which, up to the present time, have been the best friends of the
French nation."
In accordance with these views, it was now apparent that France was
expending money and treasure in a hopeless enterprise, - an enterprise
which perhaps might have resulted differently, could the United States lhave
given it their cordial support. But the emperor has never cast the blame of
the failure upon the hostile action of the Government of the United States.
In his address at the opening of the French Chambers on the 14th of
February, 1867, hd said, -
" In another part of the globe, we have been obliged to employ force for
the redress of legitimate grievances; and we have endeavored to raise an
ancient empire. The happy results at first obtained were compromised By
an inauspicious occurrence of circumstances.  The guiding idea of the
Mexican expedition was an elevated one.  To regenerate a people, and
implant among them ideas of order and progress; to open vast outlets to
our commerce, and leave the recollection of services rendered to mark our
path, -such was my desire and yours.  But, as soon as the extent of our
sacrifices appeared to me to exceed the interests which had called us across
the ocean, I spontaneously determined upon the recall of our army corps."
On the 6th of February, 1866, the French troops left the city of Mexico.
Maximilian was earnestly entreated to accompany them. He wished to do
so. His stricken wife claimed his attention. There was nothing for him in
beggared Mexico but toil and trouble. But, with magnanimity characteristic
of the man, he felt that he could not abandon those fiiends who had rallied
around him in Mexico, unless he could claim for them some pledge of protection. He sent a message to Juarez, promising to leave the country with all
* American Annual Cyclopmsdia, 1867, p. 503.




THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.                    657
his European supporters if a general amnesty should be granted to those
Mexicans who had espoused the cause of the empire. Juarez, the slave of
his ferocious partisans, spurned the application.*  As they captured the
officers, foreign or Mexican, who had fought in the imperial cause, they were
immediately shot.
Under these circumstances, Maximilian resolved to remain, and share the
fate of his fiiends. In addition to the pleadings of a sick and suffering wife,
there was every consideration -dignity, wealth, and position- to draw him
back  to Europe.  The beautiful castle of Miramar, with its library, its
gardens, its enchanting scenery, awaited him. The powerful Emperor of the
French was his bosom-friend; the Queen of England was his cousin; the
Emperor of Austria, his brother; the King of Belgium, the brother of his
bride. All the wealth heart could desire was at his disposal; and there was
not a court in Europe in which he would not be received as an honored guest.
All this Maximilian renournced to remain in  convulsed and war-scathed
Mexico, to share in the almost hopeless fortunes of his friends.
Maximilian still believed that the majority of the nation, could its voice
be heard, was in favor of the empire. He thought it not improbable, that,
upon the withdrawal of the foreign troops, the native population, no longer
influenced  by the  popular cry against "foreign  invasion," would  more
unanimously rally in favor of the empire. He therefore again urged that a
convention should be called of representative men, without any distinction
of party, to deliberate upon the state of affairs, and to decide by vote what
form  of government the interests of Mexico required. He published a
document, urging this, on the 2d of March.
"bly prevailing thought," he said, "continues to be the calling of a congress, which I always thought to be the only means of founding the future
on a durable basis, and to form a point of cohesion where may be united all
the parties which now cause the ruin of our unfortunate country.
"A congress elected by the nation, a real expression of the majority, with
full powers to work, and a complete liberty to deliberate, is the only possible
means of terminating the civil war, and of stopping the efusion, of blood
so prolonged. As sovereign and chief, called by the nation, I shall submit
with pleasure to their will, having the most ardent desire to terminate
promptly this desolating struggle."
The only reply Juarez and his party made to this proposition was to shoot
all the leading Imperialists they could capture. "They have responded to
me," said Maximilian sadly, "by ordering loyal and distinguished citizens to
be executed; they have repulsed the fiaternal hand which was extended;
they have worked as blind partisans who know no other means of governing
but the sword." t
The leading cities of Mexico, the capital, Vera Cruz, Puebla, and several
smaller places, were still in the hands of the Imperialists. Juarez had established his headquarters and his court at San Luis Potosi.  He had captured
* American Annual Cyclopndia, 1867, p. 499.
t Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, p. 172.
83




658                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
his rival Ortega, and was holding him  a close prisoner. There was a force
of about eight thousand Imperialists, under two Mexican generals,- Miramon
and Mejia, - in Queretaro, about one hundred and seventy miles north-west
fiom the city of Mexico. A Republican force of about thirty thousand, under
General Escobedo, was sent to besiege' them. Maximilian, with a force of
about eighteen hunldred men, repaired to Queretaro to the aid of his friends.
About ten o'clock in the mo1rning of the 19th of February, he entered
Qleretaro.  His reception was grand and imposing. He was greeted as ever
with  the  most enthusiastic  demonstrations of confidence, gratitude, and
affection.*
On the 14th of March, the Liberals made a desperate attack upon Queretaro,
and were repelled.  The emperor shunned no danger, but was ever at the
point where his presence was most needed. On the 22d, General Marquez
was sent by Maximilian, with a thousand mounted men, to the city of Mexico,
to obtain re-enforcements.   ctrgquez did not return.  Thus Maximilian was
enfeebled, not strengthened. On the 14th of April, the emperor found himself with but six thousand men, surrounded by thirty thousand. There had
been several fierce battles, in all of which the emperor's forces were victorious.
But the overpowering numbers of the enemy prevented Maximilian from
deriving any special advantage from the transient victories. The whole force
of the emperor in Qu'eretaro consisted of Mexicans, with the exception of
about two hundred foreigners.t
Famine began to gnaw the vitals of the besieged. There was no hope for
them but in a desperate attempt to cut their way through the beleaguered
lines. Preparations were made for the sortie at twelve o'clock in the morning of the 16th of May. In making preparations for this bold enterprise, the
emperor was busy all the night of the 14th, and until one o'clock in the
morning of the 15th. He then retired for a little rest.
An officer of his staff —General Lopez, one in whom  the emperor had
reposed unlimited confidence- turned traitor.  About two o'clock in the
morning, Lopez silently crept out of his quarters, and, threading his way
through the dark and silent streets, met by appointment a small party of the
advance guard of Escobedo. He conducted them  into the city through a
breach in the wall, which was left unguarded. He led them  along until he
placed them  in command of one of the most important posts of the city,
ordering the Imperial troops there to other positions. Thus he proceeded in
the darkness, leading bodies of the enenmy to other points, till the troops of
Escobedo were placed in possession of all the posts under the control of
Lopez.
The night was dark; the loyalty of Lopez was not doubted; and the dress
of the two armies was so similar, that no one suspected the movement. At
half-past three o'clock, nearly half of the city was placed in possession of
Escobedo. Then suddenly they commenced ringing all the bells violently.
There was great bewilderment.  No one knew what it meant. The emperor
was asleep in the Convent of La Cruz. An adjutant 6f Lopez   Yablouski,
who was in the treasonable plot, and who yet did not wish any harm to the
* Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, p. 169.  t Ibid.




THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.                    659
emperor - hastened to the convent, and entering tht room of Don Jose Blasio.
the emperor's secretary, said to him, "The enemy are in the garden! "  Blasic
hastened to the room of the emperor with the alarming intelligence.
A few of the friends of Maximilian hurriedly assembled in his room, when
it was found that the convent was in possession of the enemy, and that the
Imperial troops were withdrawn. They succeeded, however, in the darkness,
in leaving the convent; and the emperor was proceeding on foot to another
part of the city, when the traitor L6pez rode up, and exclaimed in accents
of affected grief and surprise, "All is lost! See, the enemy is upon us! Your
Majesty must enter this house: there is no other way to save yourself."
The emperor refused to hide, and ordered all the force which could be
mustered to be assembled at the hill El Cerro. The emperor's horse was
now brought to him; but Maximilian declined mounting as long as his
companions, General Castillo and others, were on foot.  They proceeded, the
unsuspected traitor Lopez with them, to El Cerro, where they found about.
a hundred and fifty men gathered.  Soon the " Regiment of the Empress"
reached the hill. General Mendez also endeavored to join the emperor; but
his troops were surrounded by the foe, and were mercilessly slaughtered.
The general himself was taken captive, and immediately shot.
General Miramon, alarmed by the ringing of the bells, rushed into the
streets; when he found himself surrounded by troops, whom he supposed to
be his own men.  He told them  he was General Miramon.  An officer
immediately fired at him, and the ball struck his cheek. A running fight
ensued; but the general, weak fiom the loss of blood, was soon seized, bound
with ropes, and dragged to the Convent of Terrecitas.
The emperor stood with his little band upon the hill.  Two batteries
of the enemy opened fire upon him.  Maximilian saw that his case was
hopeless. In that dark and despairing hour, he courted death. All his noble
aspirations were blighted.  His wife, grief-stricken, was crazed.  Capture
would expose him to insult and death.  "Oh for some friendly shell! " he
exclaimed; but tle missiles of death upon the field of battle seem ever to
avoid those who would welcome tliem.
Colonel Gonzales soon arrived with his regiment, and reported that Miramon was wounded and captured. The emperor then held a brief conference
with Generals Castillo and Mejia, inquiring if it were possible to break the
lines of the enemy. General Mejia surveyed with his glass the positions of
the foe who surrounded them, and said, 
" Sire, it is impossible; but, if your Majesty orders it, we will try. For my
part, I am ready to die."
After a moment's reflection, the emperor ordered a white flag to be raised.
The firing soon ceased. A squadron of Escobedo's cavalry rode up; and the
officer demanded with coarse and profane epithets where the emperor was.
iMaximilian stepped out, and said, "I am he."  The surrender of the emperor
and of all his officers was demanded. Maximilian replied,"If you require anybody's life, take mine; but do not harm  my officers.
I am willing to die if you require it; but intercede with General Escobedo
for the life of my officers."




660                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III..General Escobedo sooiarrived; and the captive emperor was placed in the
same room which he had previously ocpupied in the Convent of La Cruz.
This apartment was like the cell of a prison, with brick floor and plastered
walls.  Here the captive remained four days, suffering much fiom  sickness,
the result of fatigue and toil.  Six of his officers were confined in the samne
convent.  His enemies had no sense of magnanimity. To blight his character, they forged in his name a miserable proclamation.  On the fifth day, they
were all removed to the Convent of Terrecitas. Here they remained seven
days; when they were taken to the Convent of Capuchinas, where all the
officers of the Imperial army were imprisoned.*
This convent is an enormous structure, upon which, through generations,
vast labor has been expended. In its massive and gloomy walls it resembles
those castles of feudal times which served alike for a p1ison, a fortress, and a
palace. The emperor's room was about eighteen feet square and twenty feet
high.  It had one door and one window, both opening into the corridor,
through which alone light and air could enter.  An iron bedstead, two pine
tables, and a few chairs, constituted all of the furniture. Generals Miramon
and Mejia were in rooms near by. The three captives were allowed to visit
each other, and to sit together in the corridor.
An American jurist, Mr. Frederic Hall, by request of the emperor, called
upon him to assist as his legal counsel. Mr. Hall was first introduced to the
apartment of the  emperor on Wednesday morning, May 29.  In  this
interview, the emperor said to him, —
" I came to'Mexico with the sincere belief that I was called by the will of
a majority of the people.  I told the Mexican deputation, when they first
visited me in the fall of 1863, that I could not accept the thlone until satisfied that the majority-would sanction it.  The deputation said that they
believed that the majority were in favor of my coming.  The evidence was
inadequate to convince me.  When the deputation appeared the second time,
in the following April, they presented proof which left no doubt upon, my
mind. My consent to accept the crown was based upon that belief.  When
I arrived at Vera Cruz, and witnessed the demonstration in my favor, which
demonstration continued until I reached the capital of the nation, I was more
convinced than ever of the truth of the statement made by the Mexican,
deputation.  I never in  all Europe saw  a sovereign received with su.ch
enthusiasm as greeted us." t
Benito Juarez, who, in opposition to Ortega, was claiming the office of
President of the Republic, ordered a court-martial to be immediately convened to try Maximilian and the Mexican generals Miiramon and Mejia.  The
court consisted of seven Mexican oficers, and two law-officers to conduct
the accusation. The president of the court held merely the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and the remaining six were captains.  All legal minds will proba* "I asked the emperor if he thought he would have been able to sally out of Queretaro if
he had not been sold by Lopez. He replied,' Yes.' lie believed that he would have been successful in reaching Vera Cruz. He observed that he had at that time five thousand men in
Queretaro. He did not seem to have any doubt that he would have fought his way througlh." -
Life of Maximilian 1., by Frederic. Hall, p. 210.      t Ibid.




THE OVERTHROV OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.    661
bly assent to the statement, that the trial was a farce. The doom was decreed
before the  trial commenced.   Eleven  charges were brought against the
emperor: first, that he had been the principal instrument of the French
intervention; second, that he had aided that intervention without any other
title thai the armed force of the French, and the few votes which he pretended to call the national will; third, that he had voluntarily accepted the
responsibilities of a usurper; fourth, that he had disposed of the lives, rights,
and interests of the Mexican people; fifth, that he had made war against the
Mexican Republic; sixth, that he had invited foreigners to enlist undle  his
flag; seventh, hat he had commanded prisoners, without regard to their  ank,
to be executed; eighth, that he had audaciously assumed that the president
had abandoned the Mexican territory; ninth, that he had attempted to maintain his title of emperor after the French had withdrawn; tenth, that, having
abdicated the title of emperor, he had abdicated only when he would. have
been conquered; eleventh, that he had pretended to be entitled to the consideration due to a sovereign, when he was no sovereign.*
The defence consisted of a protest, which simply stated the facts in the case,
-that a commission from Mexico had sought him out in his home at Miramar,
and had informed him  that the people of Mexico had voted to re-establish
the empire, and had chosen him emperor; that he, anxious for proof that this
was the unbiassed wish of the Mexican nation, had declined accepting the
crown until the question could be fairly submitted to the whole Mexican
people by universal suffrage; that subsequently the Mexican Assembly of
Notables presented him with documents which fully satisfied his mind that it
was the wish of the great majority of the Mexican people that he should accept
the crown; that, thus influenced, he had for two years administered the government of Mexico, recognized as its lawful sovereign by the nations of Europe.
On the 13th of June, the court-martial met in the Iturbide Theatre.  About
fifteen hundred spectators crowded the house.  The court occupied the stage.
Three stools were placed for the accused. The two Mexican generals -  Miramon and Mejia -  were on the stage.  The emperor did not appear in court.
"If they intend to convict me," said he, " they will do it, whether I am present
or absent."  
Just after midnight of the 14th of June, after a trial of two days, the
court declared Maximilian, and also his two generals, Miramon and Mejia,
* One of the Liberal journals of Vera Cruz, "La Sociedad," of May 25, 1866, which was
opposed to the emperor, says, "Before the Emperor Maximilian arrived in this country, when
the Assembly of Notables in the capital proclaimed the monarchy, and elected him the arbiter
of the destinies of Mexico, he wished to know the will of the entire country, or at least of the
localities occupied by the French Mexican army; and a call was made on the inhabitants of
those localities, the only object of which was to know the true opinion of the Mexicans.
" In fact, in each locality, a declaration was made which was subscribed by thousands of citizens; and among them certainly very few figured who were not in feeling favorable to the new
order of things.
"The Archduke Maximilian, in viewof these acts, - which we cannot deny were numerous, -
accepted the imperial crown which the Mexican deputation, who were sent for that purpose,
offered him at Miramar.
" We believe ourselves obliged to confess, that, if aiiy ruler ever had reason to believe himself really
called by the people, the Emperor Maximilian had in the highest degree."




662                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
guilty, and condemned them to be shot.  Escobedo, the general in command at Queretaro, approved of the verdict, and ordered them to be shot
at three o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, - the 16th. A very earnest
appeal was made by the counsel of Maximilian to Juarez for a pardon for the
three condemned persons. Hie replied, "The petitions cannot be acceded to."
IHe, however, consented to postpone the execution for three cays, - from Sunday the 16th to Wednesday the 19th, —"that the condemned may have the
necessary time to arrange their business."
On the 15th, the emperor was informed, incorrectly, that authentic informatiolhad just reached Queretaro that the Empress Carlota had died. Maximilian immediately wrote to his friend Baron Largo, the Austrian charge
d'ctaires, whom Escobedo had ordered away from Queretaro,"I lave just learned that my poor wife has died; and though the news
affects my heart, yet on the other hand, under the present circumstances, it is
a consolation. I have but one wish on'earth; that is, that my body may be
buried next to that of my poor wife. I intrust you with this as the representative of Austria. I ask that my legal heirs take the same care of those
who surrounded me, and of my servants, as though the empress and I had
lived."
The next day, the 16th, the first appointed day for his execution, and when
he supposed that he was about to be led out to be shot, he took from his
finger his marriage-ring, and gave it to his physician, requesting him to carry
it to his mother, the archduchess, in Vienna. Upon receiving news of the
reprieve, he again placed the ring upon his finger.  The next day, the 17th,
he wrote again to Baron Largo as follows:- 
"DEAR BARON, -I have nothing to look for in this world.  My last
wishes are limited to my mortal remains, which soon will be free from suffering, and under the care of those who outlive me. My physician, Dr. Batch,
will have my body transported to'Vera Cruz. Two servants, Gull and Tudas,
will be the only ones who will accompany him. I have given orders that my
body be carried to Vera Cruz without any pomp. I await death calmly, and
I equally wish to enjoy calmness in the coffin. So arrange it, dear baron,
that Dr. Basch and my two servants be transported to Europe in one of the
two war-vessels.
"I wish to be bused by the side of my poor wife. If the report of the
death of my poor wife has no foundation, my body should be deposited in
some place until the empress may meet me through death. Have, likewise,
the goodness to do all you can to have the widow of my faithful companionin-arms, Miramon, go to Europe in one of the two war-vessels. I rely the
more upon this wish being complied with, inasmuch as I have recommended
her to place herself under my mother at Vienna.
"Again I give you my most cordial thanks for all the inconveniences which
I cause you; and am, with the greatest good will,
" Yours,                  " MAXIMILIAN." *
* "While he was sitting up in bed one day, the name of Lopez came up in conversation.
The wife of Prince Salm Salm was present, who remarked to me,' What do you think!- a few




THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.                      663
Again the Prussian minister, on the 18th, made an attempt to move the
compassion of the Juarez Government. He sent the following telegram to
the government late in the evening of Tuesday the 18th:"Having reached Queretaro to-day, I am sure that the three persons condemned on the 14th died morally last Sunday, and that the world so estimates it, as they had made every disposition to die, and expected every
instant, for an hour, to be carried to the place where they were to receive
death, before it was possible to communicate to them  the order suspendiing
the act.
"The humane customs of our epoch do not permit, that, after having
suffered that horrible punishment, they should be made to die the second
time to-morrow.
"In the name, then, of humanity and Heaven, I conjure you to order their
lives not to be taken; and I repeat to you again, that I am sure that my
sovereign his Majesty the King of Prussia, and all the monarchs of Europe
united by the ties of blood with the imprisoned prince, -  namely, his brother
the Emperor of Austria, his cousin the Queen of the British Empire, his
brother-in-law the King of the Belgians, and his cousins the Queen of Spain
and the Kings of Italy and Sweden,- will easily understand how to give his
Excellency Senor D. Benito Juarez all the requisite securities that none of the
three prisoners will ever return o the Mexican territory.
"A. V. MAGNUS."
The reply was instantly telegraphed back, that. President Juarez did not
deem it possible to pardon Maximilian.
The English, the Austrian, the Prussian Governments, and all the other
European powers who had been represented at the court of Mexico, exerted
themselves to the utmost to save the life of the deceived and betrayed prince.
The American Government, conscious that its interposition had delivered
Maximilian into the hands of his enemies, solicited as a personal favor that
the life of the unfortunate emperor might be spared.  But it was all in vain.
The exultant barbarians, flushed with victory, bade defiance to the sympathies
of the civilized world, and clamored for his blood.
In the afternoon of the day before his execution, Maximilian sent the
following telegram to President Juarez:- 
"I desire that you may spare the lives of D. Miguel Miramon and D.
Thomas Mejia, who day before yesterday suffered all the tortures and bitterness of death; as I manifested, on being taken prisoner, that I should be the
only victim."
days ago, his Majesty heard that some man was in pursuit of Lopez to kill him; and his Majesty
sent a person to inform Lopez of the fact, and to be on his guard.' I looked at the emperor, and
observed,'Did your Majesty do that?' He smiled, blushed a little, and answered,'Yes, I did.'
I then said that was more than I could have done to a man that had sacrificed me. He made
some remark to the effect that he supposed but few persons would have done it." - Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, p. 210.




664                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
The emperor passed a restless night, having a troubled sleep of but two
or three hours. At a little past three o'clock, he rose anc dressed. At four,
the priest came, and the emperor engaged in a season of devotion. Again he
gave his marriage-ring to Dr. Basch, to be given to his mother, still under the
impression that the empress was dead. He then wrote the following letter
to President Juarez: - 
*'A~~~~~~~~ "QUERETARO, June 19, 1867.
"SENOR BENITO JUAREZ,  About to receive death in consequence of
having wished to prove whether new political institutions could succeed in
putting an end to the bloody civil war which has devastated for so many
years this unfortunate country, I shall lose my life with pleasure if its sacrifice can contribute to the peace and prosperity of my new country.
"Fully persuaded that nothing solid can be founded on a soil drenched
in blood and agitated by violent commotions, I conjure you in the most
solemn manner, and with the true sincerity of the moments in which I find
myself, that my blood may be the last to be spilt; that the same perseverance
which I was pleased to recognize and esteem in the midst of prosperity -
that with which you have defended the cause which has just triumphed -
may consecrate that blood to the'most noble task of reconciling the minds
of the people, and of founding in a stable and durable manner the peace and
tranquillity of this unfortunate country.               "MAxIMILIAN."
At half-past six on the morning of Wednesday, the 19th, three carriiages
stood before the door of the convent to convey the condemned to their
execution. As Maximilian came out, he looked up at the serene skies, and
said, -
"What beautiful, clear heavens! It is such as I desired for the hour of
death."  Maximilian and Father Soria, a priest, entered the first carriage; his
two companions, the others. The emperor was dressed in a black frock-coat,
vest, and pants, and wore a wide-brimmed hat. Five mounted men with a
company of infantry preceded the carriages as a military guard. A battalion
of infantry flanked each side of the road, parallel with the vehicles. In the
rear there followed a guard of two hundred and fifty mounted men.
Slowly this funereal procession moved about a mile and a quarter north-west
of the city to a bleak hillside where were the crumbling remains of the stone
wall of a fort.
" While the cortege advanced to the place of execution, the faces of the
surrounding multitude were pictured with sorrow. Crowds upon crowds
rushed along, mournfully looking at the victims for the sacrifice, shedding
tears, offering up prayers, and holding up the cross as the true emblem of
consolation.  Could one have dropped suddenly from  the clouds among
that gathered concourse, he would have thought that a whole nation was in
mourning. If ever there were proof of true affection from a whole people
for living man, it was then." *
* Life of Maximilian I., by Frederic Hall, oneof his Majesty's Legal Advisers, p. 297.




THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE OF MAXIMILIAN.                      665
In about twenty minutes, they reached the place of death. Maximilian
stepped out of the carriage, and gave his handkerchief and hat to his servant,
to be conveyed to his mother and brother; then, with a firm  step, he
advanced to the spot designated for him  to take his stand.  About three
thousand soldiers enclosed the ground on three sides, with the crumbling,
wall occupying the rear.  His companions also took their places. 
With deep emotion, the victims embraced each other; the emperor saying'We shall meet in heaven."  He then said to Miramon, "Brave men are
respected by sovereigns: permit me to give you the place of honor."  Thus
saying, he gave General Miramon the central post, while the emperor took
his stand upon the left. Three days before, when he had expected to die on
the 16th, he gave Lieutenant-Colonel Margain seven twenty-dollar goldpieces with his profile upon them, to be presented, one to each of his seven
executioners.  The victims had each the privilege of making a farewell
address. The emperor said,"Persons of my rank and birth are brought into the world either to insure
the welfare of the people or to die as martyrs.  I did not come to Mexico
from  motives of ambition: I came at the earnest entreaty of those who
desired the welfare of our country.  Mexicans, I pray that my blood may be
the last to be shed for our unhappy country; and may it insure the, happiness
of the nation! Mexicans, long live Mexico!"
General Mejia said nothing. General Miramon said a few words. The
emperor then placed his hand upon his breast, and, fixing his eyes upon his
executioners, said, " Fire!"  At each victim the soldiers fired simultaneously.
The two generals were instantly killed.  Four balls pierced the emperor;
three entering the left breast, and one the right.  Three of the balls passed
through his body, and came out at the shoulder. Maximilian reeled, and fell.
Still clearly retaining consciousness, he exclaimed faintly, yet so as to be
distinctly heard by those near him,, "lombre/ Ibrnobre!" ("O0 man! O
man! ")  Some at a little greater distance thought that the words he uttered
were, " Poor Carlota! "  This is not probable, as he supposed Carlota to be
dead. A  soldier immediately advanced, and fired a ball into his stomach.
A spasm showed that he felt the wound. Another advanced, and sent a ball
through his heart; and there lay Maximilian upon the sod, motionless in gory
death.
Thus terminated this sad tragedy, one of the most melancholy in the
records of this gorrow-stricken world.  Well might the dying Maximilian
exclaim, "0 man! O man!"  Of all the woes which have desolated this
globe since our race began to inhabit it, there are none to be dompared
with those which man inflicts upon his brother man.*  The lifeless body was
* On the 20th of June, but one day after the execution of Maximilian, the correspondent of
"The New-York Times " wrote as follows from the city of Mexico: "Blood, blood, blood 
Nothing but executions, imprisonments, and extortions have thus far marked the new era
which has dawned upon Mexico by the destruction of the empire, and over which so many
promising prophecies were made. Eighteen hundred men, strangers and Mexicans, hate been
shot at Queretaro since the capitulation of that city. Not an evening has come, or a niorning
broken, but the clang of rifles is heard at the different public squares. Whenever we hear
84




666                       LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
tnken back to the convent.  A few friends gathered to gaze upon the pallid,
blood-stained corpse.  Some Mexican physicians of but little skill undertook
the process of embalming the remains; for European physicians were not
allowed to perform  that office.   Baron Magnus, the  Prussian minister,
implored the government that the remains might be surrendered to him, that,
in accordance with the will of the deceased, they might be conveyed in an
Austrian ship to his mother and his brothers in Austria.
Juarez replied, through his minister, "The government of the Republic
believes, that, for various considerations, it cannot permit the mortal remains
of the archduke to be carried to Europe."
Then Dr. Basch solicited very earnestly that the remains might be confided to him; saying, "As private physician to the deceased Archduke
Maximilian, I was charged by him  to carry his body to Europe, with the
object of delivering it to his family."  Juarez replied, " The President of the
Republic has determined, that, for various and grave considerations, the petition cannot be acceded to."
At length, the Austrian admiral Tegethoff arrived in the war-steamer
"Elizabeth."  He was permitted to pass to the capital.  There he solicited,
in the name of the mother of the archduke and of his brother the Emperor
of Austria, permission of the Republic to carry to his friends the remains of
the Archduke Maximilian.  Again Juarez refused to comply with the request,
stating that he had already refused a similar application " from Baron Largo
charge d'ajjfaires oi Austria near Maximilian, from Baron Magnus, Prussian
minister, and fiomn Dr. Basch, physician of the archduke;" and that, before
deciding whether he would surrender the body, he must have for consideration "either an official document from  the government of Austria, or an
express one from the family of the archduke."  More than two months passed
away, when another Austrian frigate brought the request to Juarez in due
form. It stated that"His royal apostolic Majesty has the very natural desire that the mortal
remains of his unfortunate brother may find their last repose beneath the
vault that covers the ashes of the princes belonging to the house of Austria
The father, the mother, and the remaining brothers of the august deceased
share in this desire with an equal earnestness, as likewise do all the members
of the imperial family."
The request was then  complied with.  On the 10th of November, the
remains were escorted, by a Mexican force of a hundred men, from  the city
of Mexico to Vera Cruz.  After many religious solemnities, and all possible
demonstrations of respect, the body was received on board the Austrian
steamer "Novara," - the same steamer which had conveyed Maximilian and
Carlota, blooming with health and radiant with joy, on their mission for the
regeneration of an empire in ruins.
these reports, at eventide or sunrise, we know that some uncondemned Frenchmen, Germans, or'Mexicans, are being pierced through and through by bullets. No trial allowed; but death,
death, blood, blood, are demanded by this so-called liberal government. No foreigner can live
here.  The persecutions upon all of them, Americans as well as others, have begun in
earnest.'Leave the country, we don't want you here,' are the greetings given to all foreign
residents."




THE OVERTHROW  OF THE THRONE.OF MAXIMILIAN.                  667
Thus the plan of rescuing Mexico from  anarchy, and of giving it an
honorable place among the nations of the earth, by re-establishing the
empire, utterly failed. What has been the result?  The correspondent of
" The New-York Times," writing from the city of Mexico in May, 1868, gives
the following picture of the present state of affairs in that wretched nation.
The view is abundantly confirmed by the correspondents of " The New-York
Herald " and "The New-York World."
"At last, the state of the country has fallen back into its normal condition
of anarchy and bloodshed.  Commerce, internal and external, is now dead
beyond redemption; security to life and property there is none; the courts
are a farce; the prosecution of all public improvements has ceased; the
mines  are but partially worked; agriculture has been  almost entirely
abandoned; money is scarce; credit and confidence are lost; all foreign
capital is being rapidly removed from the country, -native capital buried
beyond the reach of discovery; while starvation, murder, and robbery stalk
broadcast over the land. There is nothing but revolution, - revolution here,
revolution there, revolution everywhere."
The editor of " The Times," commenting upon these facts, says, " We would
that we could see some hope for civilization, civil order, constitutional government, and regulated freedom, in Mexico! We would that we could see
some sign of that magnificent country emerging from the anarchy under
which it has been desolated ever since it broke the Spanish yoke! We should
not be very particular about forms, methods, or agents, so long as any one
of them gave promise of securing the ends for which governments are established.
"It was universally supposed in Europe, that, after our government had
expelled the French invaders, we would ourselves step in, and attempt the
work we had forbidden them from carrying on. The English were anxious
that we sliould do so. The French were not unwilling; and there was no
one who had the least desire to interfere with us. But we found the business
unadvisable on our own account. We had difficulties enough of our own,
and could  not afford  external complications of an equally troublesome
character."
The opposition of the ltnited States probably prevented the success of
the intervention of the Emperor of the French. Under these circumstances,
no other European power will think of aiding Mexico to establish a stable
government. The United States, embarrassed by the perplexing questions
resulting from the civil war, and the conferring of the. rights of citizenship
upon nearly four million slaves, cannot assume the control of eight million
superstitious, ignorant, half-civilized Mexicans.  We cannot receive them
into our Union; we cannot govern them outside of the Union. It is to be
feared that there are still before Mexico gloomy years of revolutions and
anarchy.




CHAPTER XL.
THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRE.
The International Exposition. - The Royal Guests. - Influence of the Exposition. - The Emperor's Address to the Commissioners. - Letter to the Minister of the Interior. - Aims of
the Emperor. - His " Life of Julius Csar." - The Prosperity of France. - Freedom of Debate.-Decree of Jan. 19, 1867.-Efforts to create Stable Institutions. - The Constitutions of England, America, and France. - Prosperity of France under the Empire.
N  the 1st of April, 1867, the great International Exposition
was opened in Paris by the emperor and empress in person. It
was by far the most memorable event of the kind in the world's
history.  The emperor, by autograph-letters, had invited all the
reigning princes of Europe, many of Asia and Africa, and the
President of the United States, to visit the Exposition.* Irenaeus, the distinguished editor of." The New-York Observer," wrote from
Paris, under date of June, 1867, as follows:"Such a confluence of crowned heads, such a constellation of crowns, such
a council of sovereigns, probably the world never saw  at any one place
before. And what is more remarkable still is the fact, that peace, not war,
nor even peace at the end of war, brings them together. They come to a
feast of peace, to see the arts of peace, to enjoy the hospitalities of a city
that opens its gates to the whole world to come in and study the things
which make for peace.
" It is the greatest triumph yet achieved by the hephew of his uncle, by
the third of the Napoleons.  A few years ago, he was an exile, and then a
prisoner.  To-day, he is the emperor of a mighty people; and the emperors
of the earth, the proudest kings, the Oriental monarchs, whose etiquette for
untold, ages has forbidden them  to leave their dominions, now flock to his
capital and palace, and lay their tribute of respect at his imperial feet.  And
this distinction, unequalled by that of any sovereign preceding him, Louis
Napoleon has won Without the sword; and not a drop of human blood mingles
with the sacrifices of this great festival.  He early proclaimed the empire to
be peace. To this policy he has, with few changes, steadily adhered; developing the resources, embellishing the cities, stimulating the industry, and improving the condition, of France, until he has brought her into such a state,
* American Annual Cyclopmdia, p. 320.
668




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THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRE.                         669
that he invites the world to come and see her greatness and her beauty
assembled in Paris, her capital."
The Emperors of Russia and Austria, the King of Prussia, the Sultan of
Turkey, the Viceroy of Egypt, the brother of the Tycoon of Japan, honored
the occasion with their presence. The influence upon the peace of the world
of this friendly meeting of the sovereigns can scarcely be exaggerated. It
must have inspired them all with renewed desires to develop those industrial
resources of their own countries which peace alone can foster. At the close
of this, the greatest of all the festivals of earth, the emperor received the foreign commissioners of the Exposition, and, in response to their congratulatory
address, said, 
"Like you, we shall ever remember with pleasure this great international
festival. As representatives of the principle of labor in all parts of the world,
you have been able to acquire the conviction that all civilized nations now
tend to form a single family. I thank you for the wishes you express for the
empress and my son. They also share my gratitude for your exertions, my
sympathy for your persons, and my wishes for the peace of the world."
In July of this year, elections took place for the councils-general.  The
strong hold which the government had upon the affections of the nation may
be inferred from the fact, that, out of six hundred elections, the Opposition
secured but twenty-one.*              6
The great object of the emperor has been to render France rich, prosperous,
and happy.  War impoverishes.  Surrounded as France is by ambitious
dynasties, the only way to secure peace has been to be prepared for war.
Thus the military organization of France has ever been regarded by the
emperor as a peace measure, - as one of the essential means of securing that
peace without which there can be no prosperity. In accordance with these
views, the emperor has been unceasing in his devotion to internal improvements; and there is no dountry in Europe., which has made such progress
during the last sixteen years as France has made in every thing which tends;to enrich a nation.  On the 15th of August, the emperor addressed a letter to
the minister of the interior, containing the following sentiments:"I have already given instruction to the minister of public works to
pursue the examination and prepare the concession of new lines of railway.
He will at the same time seek the means of improving our canals and the
navigation of our rivers, which are modifying counterpoises to railroad
monopoly. But our efforts must not be confined to this alone. The agricultural commission has demonstrated in an evident manner that the construction of a complete network of parish roads is an essential condition of the
prosperity of the country, and of the well-being of those rural populations
who have always shown me so much devotion.
" Pre-occupied with the realization of this project, I had instructed you to
examine, in concert with the minister of finance, ar series of measures which
might permit our completing within ten years the network of parish-roads,
by the triple concurrence of the communes, the departments, and the
state."
* Annual Cyclopedia, 1867, p. 320.




670                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
A new session of the Chambers was opened on the 18th of November. The
emperor in his address said, -
"The Universal Exposition, which nearly all the sovereigns of Europe have
attended, and where the representatives of the laboring-classes of all countries have met, has drawn closer the ties of fraternity between the nations.
It has disappeared; but its traces will leave a deep impression upon our
age: for if, after having majestically risen, the Exposition has only shone with
momentary brilliancy, it has destroyed forever a past of prejudices and of
errors.  The shackles of labor and of intelligence, the barriers between the
different peoples as well as the different classes, international hatreds, -  these
are what the Exposition has cast behind."
In allusion to the great change which had taken place in Germany, the
emperor said, 
"Notwithstanding the declaration of my government, which has never
varied in its pacific attitude, the belief has been spread that any modification
in the internal system  of Germany must become a cause of conflict.  It is
necessary to accept frankly the changes that have taken place on the other
side of the Rhine; to proclaim, that, so long as our interests and our dignity
shall not be threatened, we will not interfere in the transformations effected
by the wish of the populations.  The disquiet that has been displayed is
difficult to explain at a period in which France has offered to the world the
most imposing spectacle of conciliation and peace."
Such is the position of France at the present time. The empire of N:apoleon is established in the affections of the French people, not.only by the
souvenirs of the past, but by sixteen years of such peace and prosperity as
France never enjoyed before. France has taken a position second to that
of no other nation upon the continent of Europe, in influence, wealth, and
power. By general admission, Louis Napoleon is the ablest of all the sovereigns who now guide the destinies of the nations.  Tireless in industry,
frugal in his habits, and with a mind furnished and disciplined by long years
of intensest study, the Emperor of the French is making it his high ambition
to promote the moral and physical welfare of the French people. With
enlarged views of policy, and a noble spirit of humanity, he desires also that
other nations should be enriched and ennobled. "In the state of civilization
to which we have arrived," says the emperor, "this truth, which consoles and
assures humanity, is every day more clear,- that the richer and more prosperous any one country is, the more it contributes to the riches and prosperity
of others."
It is surprising that the emperor, while carrying so heavy a burden of care,
can find time for the pursuits of literature. "The Life of Julius Caesar," which
has been written amidst all the toils of empire, is a monument of laborious
research, and will ever occupy a high position among the contributions to
historical knowledge.  The emperor in this work attempts to prove - and few
will question the success of his attempt - that Caesar was the representative,
not of aristocratic privilege, but of the popular cause. It was this devotion
to the interests of the whole people, and not to that of an exclusive class,
which gave him his popularity, his power, his renown. It is for this that the
emperor honors Caesar.




THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRE.                        671
"Let us not," says he, "continually seek little passions in great souls.  The
success of superior men (and it is a consoling thought) is clue rather to the
loftiness of their sentiments than to the speculations.of selfishness and cunning. This success depends much more upon their skill in taking advantage
of circumstances; than upon that presumption which is blind enough to
believe itself c   e f capable of creating events which are in the hands of God alone.
Certainly Caesar had faith in his destiny, and confidence in his genius. But
faith is an instinct, not a calculation; and genius foresees the future without
understanding its mysterious progress."
In speaking of his object in writing the work, the emperor says, "The
object is to prove, that when Providence raises up such men as Caesar,
Charlemagne, Napoleon, it is to mark out to the people the path which they
should follow, to stamp with the seal of their genius a new era, and to
accomplish in a feW years the labors of many centuries.
" In fine, neither the death of Caesar nor the captivity of St. Helena has
been able to destroy so as to prevent the return of the two popular causes
overthrown by a league disguising itself under the mask of liberty.  Brutus,
in killing Cssar, plunged Rome into the horrors of civil war. He did not
prevent the reign of Augustus; but he rendered possible the reigns of Nero
and Caligula.  The ostracism  of Napoleon, by conspiring Europe, has not
prevented the resuscitation of the empire; and yet how far are we from those
great questions resolved, those passions appeased, those legitimate satisfactions granted to the people, by the first empire!
"Thus, every day since 1815, we have seen Vrerified this prophecy of the
captive of St. Helena, -'low many struggles must there be, how much blood
shed, how many years mutst elapse, before the benefits which IZwished to confer
upon humanity can be realized!'"
The German war, which we have briefly described, astonished Europe and
the world. On the 14th of February, 1867, Napoleon opened the French
Chambers, as usual, with an address. On that occasion, he thus expressed his
views in relation to that event:
"Since your last session, serious events have arisen in Europe. Although
they may have astonished the world by their rapidity and by the importance
of their results, it appears, that, according to the anticipation of the first
emperor, there was a fatality in their fulfilment. Napoleon said at St.
Helena, -
"'One of my great ideas has been the agglomeration and concentration. of
the same nations, geographically considered, who have been scattered piecemeal by revolutions and policy. This agglomeration will take place sooner
or later by the force of circumstances. The impulse is given; and I do not
think, that, after my'fall and the disappearance of my system, there will be
any other great equilibrium possible than the agglomeration and confederation
of great nations.'
" The transformations which have taken place'in Italy and Germany pave
the way for the realization of this vast programme of the union of the
European States in one sole confederation.  The spectacle of the efforts
made by the neighboring nations to assemble their members, scattered abroad




672                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
for so many centuries, cannot cause disquiet in such a country as ours, all the
parts of which are irrevocably bound up with each other, and form  a
homogeneous and indestructible body.
"We have been impartial witnesses of the struggle which has been waged
on the other side of the Rihine. In presence of these, conflicts, the country
strongly manifested its wish to keep aloof from it. Not only did I defer to
this wish, but I used every effort to hasten the conclusion of peace. I did
not arm a single additional soldier; I did not move forward a single regiment: and yet the voice of France had influence enough to arrest the conqueror at the gates of Vienna.  Our mediation effected an arrangement
between the belligerents, which, leaving to Prussia the fruit of her successes,
maintained the integrity of the Austrian territory with the exception of a
single province, and, by the cession of Venetia, completed,talian independence.
"France is respected abroad.  The army has displayed its valor: but the
conditions of war, being changed, require the increase of our defensive forces;
and we must organize ourselves in such a manner as to be invulnerable.  The
bill upon this subject, which has been studied with the greatest care, lightens
the burden of conscription in time of peace, offers considerable resources in
time of war, and redistributes burdens between all in a fair proportion, and
thus satisfies Ihe principle of equality. It possesses all the importance of an
institution of the country, and, I feel convinced, will be accepted with patriotism. The influence of a nation depends upon the number of men it is able
to put under arms.:
"Do not forget that neighboring States impose upon themselves far heavier
sacrifices for the effective constitution of their armies, and have their eyes
fixed upon us to judge, by our resolutions, whether the influence of France
shall increase or diminish throughout the world. Let us constantly keep our
national flag at the same height. It is the most certain means of preserving
peace, and that peace must be rendered fertile by alleviating misery and
increasing general prosperity.
"  Heavy trials have assailed us in the course of the last year.  Inundations
and epidemics have desolated some of our departments. Benevolence has
assuaged individual suffering, and credits will be asked of you to repair the
disasters caused to public property. Notwithstanding these partial calamities,
the progress qf general prosperity has not relaxed. During the'last financial
period, the indirect revenue has increased by fifty million francs, and foreign
commerce by upwards of one million. The general improvement of our
finances will soon allow us to give satisfaction upon a large scale to agricultural and economic interests, brought to light by the inquiry opened in all
parts of the country. Our attention must then be turned to the reduction
of certain burdens which weigh too heavily upon the landed  property,
and which prevent the speedy completion of the channels of interior navigation of our ports, our railways, and especially of the cross-roads, — the
indispensable, agents for the effective distribution of the produce of the soil."
In reference to popular education, and its results in allowing the safe
expansion of liberty, the emperor said, —




THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRE.                        673
"Bills upon primary education and upon co-operative societies were submitted to you last session; and I do not doubt that you will approve the
arrangements they set forth. They will improve the moral and material
condition of the rural population, and of the working-classes in our great
cities. Each year thus opens a new horizon to our mediation and our efforts.
Our task at this moment is to form the public manners to the practice of
more liberal institutions.  Hitherto, in France,* liberty  has only been
ephemeral. It has not been able to take root in the soil, because abuse has
immediately followed use, and the nation preferred to limit the exercise of
its rights rather than to endure disorder in ideas as in things. It is worthy
of you and me to make a broader application of these great principles, which
constitute the glory of France. Their development will not, as formerly,
endanger the necessary prestige of authority. Power is now firmly based;
and ardent passions, the sole obstacle to the expansion of our liberties, will
become extinguished in the immensity of universal suffrage. I have full confidence in the good sense and the patriotism of the people; and strong in
the right which I hold from them, strong in my conscience, which is solely
desirous of good, I invite you to march with me with a firm step in the
path of civilization."
It will probably be the testimony of every intelligent and well-informed
man, that there is no country where, at the present time, property and life are
more secure than in France; where justice is more impartially, promptly, and
economically administered; where crime is less frequent; where the people
are more united in support of the government; and where the general condition of the community is more contented, prosperous, and happy. Paris is
the most attractive metropolis in the world. Its police regulations are unsurpassed by those of any other city. Its streets are crowded by those who seek
enjoyment from all parts of Europe, America, and even from Asia. Equality
of rights and the fraternity of man are here recognized in a high degree.
France, after having been tossed for ages upon the sea of insurrections and
revolutions, enjoys under the'reign of Napoleon III. almost uninterrupted
tranquillity, with scarcely an attempt at insurrection or even a riot. While
the United States have been scathed by one of the most awful civil wars
which ever desolated any land; while England has been agitated by the
fiercest political convulsions, the people struggling for rights which they have
never been able to secure, -the overwhelming majority of the _French people,
the nation as a body, has rallied around the emperor of its choice as its
protector and its friend, and has enjoyed perfect internal peace. There is
not a sovereign in the world, under whatever title he may reign, who is with'
more unanimity sustained by the popular voice than is the Emperor of the
French. There is no country where the individual has both more liberty to do
right, and less liberty to do wrong, than in France.
No one who reads the reports of the proceedings in the Legislative Corps,
accurately published for the perusal of all France, will question the freedom
with which the measures of the government are assailed by its opponents.
Neither upon the floor of the United-States Congress, nor from the benches
85




674                     LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
of the Opposition in the British Parliament, have there ever been uttered
more merciless denunciations than are uttered in the French Chamber of
Deputies. These facts show the freedom  with which the measures of the
government are attacked in the legislative bodies. But it is to be remembered that those very  able men  who manifest such hostility to  the
empire, and who often speak with vehemence which arrests the attention
of foreign nations, are the leaders of small antagonistic parties. They do not
represent the people of France.
On the 19th of January, 1867, the emperor issued a decree, accompanied by
an explanatory letter addressed to the Minister of State, containing the
following sentiments: 
" For some years past, thee question has been asked, whether our institutions
have attained their limit of improvement, or whether new improvements are
to be realized. Up to the present time, you have had to strive courageously
in order to repel inopportune demands, and to leave with me the initiative
of useful reforms when the time should arrive. And now I believe that it is
possible to give to the institutions of the empire all the development of which
they are capable, and to the public liberties a new extension, without compromising the power which the nation has intrusted to me.
"The plan which I have traced out to myself consists in correcting the
imperfections which time has revealed, and in admitting that progress which
is compatible with our habits; for to govern is to profit by the experience
which has been acquired, and to foresee the wants of the future.
" The object of the decree of the 24th of November, 1860, was to associate
the Senate and the Corps Legislatif more directly with the policy of the
government; but the debate on the address has not led to the results
which were to *be expected from it. It has sometimes needlessly excited
public opinion, given rise to sterile discussions, and occasioned a loss of time
most precious for the affairs of the country; and I believe, that, without any
diminution of the prerogatives of the deliberative powers, the address may
be replaced by the privilege, prudently regulated, of putting questions to the
government.
"Another modification has appeared to me necessary in the relations of
the government toward the great bodies of the State. I have considered,
that by sending the ministers to the Senate and to the Corps Legislatif, to
take part in certain debates, by virtue of a special commission, I should better
utilize the strength of the government, without deviating from  the terms of
the constitution, which admits no solidarity among the ministers, and makes
them dependent only upon the chief of the State.
" But the reforms which it is fitting to adopt must not stop there. A law
will be proposed for assigning the jurisdiction over offences against the press
law, exclusively to the correctional tribunals, and thus suppress the discretionary power of the government. It is equally necessary to regulate legislatively the rights of assembly, while restraining it within the limits which
public safety demands.
"I said last year, that my government wished to walk upon ground consoli



THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRE.                       675
dated, and capable of sustaining power and liberty. By the measure I have
just pointed out, my words become realized. I do not shake the ground
which fifteen years of calm and prosperity have consolidated: but I increase
the strength by rendering my relations with the great public powers more
intimate; by securing to the citizens, by law, fresh guaranties; by completing
the crowning of the edifice erected by the national will."
From the commencement of the reign of Napoleon III., the avowed object
of the government has been to extend popular liberty just so fast as it could
be done consistently with the public safety. The action of the government
has ever been in accordance with these avowals.
Another unceasing object of the emperor has been to build up institutions
in France, so that the government might repose upon the stability of institutions, and not upon the ephemeral life of a single man. To the attainment
of this all-important end, the emperor has consecrated his most unwearied
endeavors. The constitution, with its clearly-defined limits and obligations,
the imperial throne, the Council of State, the Senate, the Corps Legislatif, and
the Arrondissement Councils and Councils Municipal, are abiding organizations
stable, yet pliable, which may bless France for ages. It is not probable that
the death of the emperor would now cause any fatal shock. Though his
unquestioned ability is so remarkable, that every cabinet in Europe would be
sensibly affected by his removal, still the institutions he has conferred upon
France are so well consolidated, and their adaptation to promote the happiness of France so clearly proved by experience, that, even should the
Bourbonists or Orleanists succeed in placing upon the throne one of their
candidates, - which is improbable in the extreme, - the constitution, now in
such successful operation, would probably not meet with any radical change.
Napoleon I. established the empire upon its democratic foundation of equal
rights for all men, thus taking a step even in advance of the United States;
for our fundamental principle, practically, if not avowed, was "equal rights
for all white men." The empire thus established - a throne surrounded by
republican and democratic institutions —was hailed with enthusiasm  by
almost the whole population of France.
Foreign dynasties, unrelentingly hostile to its democratic principles, combined for its overthrow. In a series of long and bloody wars, in which all
the feudal thrones of Europe were allied against the French Empire, it was
finally overwhelmed, and upon its ruins foreign armies erected anew in
France the old throne of aristocratic privilege.
But, just as soon as the French people were again able to make their power
felt, they demolished the Bourbon throne, and then tore down its slight
modification in the Orleans throne, and, with great unanimity and enthusiasm, reconstructed the democratic empire of Napoleon. Providence had,
through the long discipline of suffering, prepared one of the most extraordinary of men for the crisis, who now for sixteen years has consecrated all his
vast abilities and his tireless energies in consolidating these institutions, so
that France may be saved from future convulsions. Would any one learn
the result, let him look at France, one of the most contented, prosperous




676                      LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
nations on the continent of Europe; let him look at Paris, a city which
stands without a rival.
It is not necessary that all governments should be founded upon the same
model.  France has been a monarchy for centuries.  The people are accustomed to monarchical forms, and attached to them  by all the associations of
their past history.  The Roman-Catholic system  of Christianity, which is
embraced by nine-tenths of the population of France, favors monarchical
institutions.  France is surrounded by powerful monarchies, and cannot be
cordially welcomed into that fraternity of nations, unless in some degree in
harmony with them in governmental regime.  Unfortunately for Republicanism, particularly French Red-Republicanism, it has assumed the attitude of
antagonism to all other forms of government whatever. It has boldly proclaimed its desire to overthrow every other government, to demolish every
throne, and upon the ruins of revolutionized Europe, regardless of the wishes
of the majority of the people, to establish republics.  Thus Republicanism
is not only not in accordance with the manners, the customs, the taste, the
inclinations, of the French people, but, if adopted, would sever France from the
sympathies of the surrounding governments.
The empire of Napoleon meets these difficulties.  By an imperial throne,
it places France in harmony and in sympathy with the great powers which
encircle it. By planting that throne upon universal suffrage, b  ssurrounding
it with republican institutions, and by having the whole nation, through the
voice of universal suffrage, represented  in the Legislative Corps, without
whose assent no law can be passed, the rights of the people are effectually
secured. There is no earthly government which is perfect, which is not more
or less liable to abuse.  Nearly eight millions of French voters have declared
that they consider the empire as the best government for France.* They never
assume that it is the only good government, or that it is the best government for other nations.  And were the question this day propounded to
the whole French people, to be decided by universal suffrage, whether the
empire should be retained, or whether they would raise again the Bourbon
throne or the Orleans throne, or would attempt the establishment of a
republic under any of the various forms proposed by the discordant and
antagonistic leaders of moderate Republicanism, Socialism, Red-Republicanism,
and ultra Democrats, there can be but little doubt as to what the decision
would be.  Those, then, who admit that the people have a right to choose
their own institutions, ought to respect the institutions which the people have
chosen.
In America, the people choose a republic; it is adapted to our position, to
our customs, to our inclinations: and republican forms in the United States
* " The Emperor Napoleon III. was invested with almost absolute power by the vote of an
immense majority of the French people. Napoleon has taken the people's liberties merely for
safe custody. Not only did he profess himself ready at any time to make restitution upon a
proper application, but he has recently expressed his anxiety to anticipate all demands; and
measures which were hailed as liberal were actually proposed by himself.  There has been
hitherto nothing but a partial and almost personal opposition, - factious and even querulous in
the press and the Chambers." -London Times, Aug. 13, 1867.




THE RESULTS OF THE EMPIRE.                      677
have developed a very wealthy, intelligent, and powerful nation. Still it
was found in our late civil war that there were millions of Americans
opposed to our government, who were willing to deluge the land in blood in
their attempts to demolish it.
In England, it is not at all probable that a popular vote could be carried to
exchange their monarchy for either the republic of the United States or for
the empire of France.  Under the'British monarchy, as rich, intelligent, and
powerful a nation has risen as this world has ever known. The British people
unquestionably prefer their monarchy to any other form of government.
It is very certain that the French have no wish to exchange their empire
for either of the governments of England or America. France, in her
schools of learning, in her arts of elegance and industry, in her wealth and
power, in the comfort and contentment of her population, does not stand
abashed in the presence of any nation upon the globe. If London and New
York can teach some lessons of wisdom to Paris, Paris can also teach them
some useful lessons in return.
These three great nations, which are peculiarly brought into social and
commercial relations with each other, could do much towards the elevation
of humanity and the harmony of the world by cherishing, each for the institutions of the others, sentiments of respect and sincere good will. We
are not surprised when the Chinese assume that theirs is the Celestial Empire,
and that all others are " outside barbarians."  We simply smile at the folly;
and, when it becomes annoying by action, we chastise the insolence.
But America, France, and England constitute a peculiar brotherhood
among the nations. They are constantly interchanging friendly visits. And
it should not be forgotten that France receives more visits than she returns.
Americans and Englishmen crowd the avenues, the boulevards, the woods, of
Boulogne. They find there, under the reign of the emperor, sources of social
and intellectual enjoyment which they can find nowhere else. They fieely
saunter through the halls of the Louvre, visit without charge the magnificent
trophies of science and art which adorn the city, and listen delighted to the free
lectures from the most highly cultivated men upon all branches of human
knowledge.
The American ambassador is received with honor at the French court:
every utterance of the government breathes the spirit of respect and friendly
feelings for America. Our president, whatever may be his failings, and our
institutions, however unfortunate under peculiar circumstances may be their
workings, are ever treated by the French press with courtesy. Our distinguished families are welcomed as guests to  the hospitalities of the
Tuileries. Thus does the Republican Empire of France, based upon universal
suffrage, present the hand of friendship to the Democratic Republic of
America, based also upon the same foundation.
If it be possible for spoken words and documents and administrative acts
to prove any thing, they prove that the Emperor of the French earnestly
seeks not only the prosperity and happiness of the French people, but also
the welfare of the whole brotherhood of man. The Bourbonist, the Orleanist,
the Socialist, the Red-Republican, may each be sincere in the belief that his




678                    LIFE OF NAPOLEON III.
views would be more conducive to that great end; but no impartial man
can read the foregoing narrative, and doubt that the emperor is sincere also
in his conviction that the empire is, for the present at least, the best government for France. And, since he is sustained in this belief by nearly EIGHT
MILLIONS of the voters of France, it cannot be arrogant to say that their
decision merits the respect and the friendly recognition of the whole civilized
world; and no man can deny, that, during all the centuries which have
passed away, France has never enjoyed sixteen years of such tranquillity,
prosperity, and happiness as have been enjoyed during the sixteen years of
the reign of the Emperor Napoleon III.




INDEX.
ABBOTT'S "Life of Napoleon,' extracts from, 481 n.,   Austerlitz, Bridge of, conflict at, 79; sword of, 169,
500 n.                                                  188; sun of, 363.
Abd-el-Kader, 503, 504.                                 Austria and the Austrians, 45, 46, 47, 67, 68, 376, 377,
Abdul-Medjid, 538.- See also Crimean War.                 379, 383, 581. - See Crimean War, Denmark, EastAberdeen, Lord, 277, 278, 503.                            ern Question, Holy Alliance, Italy.
Abrantes, Duchess, remarks on Hortense, 19.             Avezzana, 383 n.
Abric, Madame, 271, 272.                                Aymar, Gen., 136 n., 329.
Adelaide, Princess, 300 n.
Affr6, Archbishop of Paris, 346.                        Baden, Grand Duke of, 36.
African Zouaves, 557.                                   Baden, Duchess of. -See Beauharnais, S.
Aladenize, Lieut., 168, 170.                            Banquets to discuss political affairs, 292 and n.;
Albert, M., 308, 320.                                     the Mammoth Banquet. - See Louis Philippe.
Albert, Prince, 421, 559, 560, 566, 567.                Barb6s, A., 163, 320, 321, 333, 551 n.
Alexander I., 544; the Eastern Question, 527, 529,   Barillon, M., 182, 183.
530; ambition to conquer Turkey, 530, 531 and n.    Baroche, M., 462, 463.
Alexander II., 525, 615.                                Barrot, F., 181, 182, 188, 362, 363, 403.
Alison, A., extracts from " History of Europe," &c.,   Barrot, 0., 259, 261, 293, 294, 301, 352, 353.
29 n., 42, 46, 49, 55, 61, 63, 76 n., 79, 87, 91, 95, 104,   Barthe, M., 351.
116, 122, 135, 136, 147, 148, 149, 152, 157, 158, 186,  Basch, Dr., 662, 664, 666.
187, 196, 197, 312, 315, 317 n., 320 and n., 326, 341,   Bauchart, M., 478.
342 n., 346, 348 and n., 354 n., 358, 359, 361 and n.,   Baudinet, Capt., 438.
364 n., 371 n., 379, 383 n., 397 n., 400, 402 n., 404 n.,   Baume, 335.
409 n., 414, 415 n., 416, 417 n., 425 n., 426 n., 427, 446   Baylen, Duke of, 256.
n., 447 n., 453 n., 454 n., 457, 475 n., 502 n., 514 n.,   Bazaine, Marshal, 655.
569 n.                                                Bazancourt, Baron, extracts from " Crimde," 546 n.,
Algiers, 501 and n., 502 and n., 504, 516, 609, 610.      552 n., 557 n., 560 n.
Alibaud, assassin, 156.                                 Baze, M., his arrest, 442, 443.
Alma, battle of. - See Crimean War.                     Beauharnais, I milie. - See Louis Bonaparte.
Almonte, Gen., 628 and n., 629, 631, 632, 638, 646.     Beauharnais, Eugene, Prince, 18, 34, 35, 606, 607; as
Amelia, Princess, 291.                                    a carpenter, 19; first interview with Bonaparte,
Aucel, 613 n.                                             19; marriage, 34, 38; his resemblance to Louis
Andelarre, Marquis of, 613 n.                             Napoleon, 199; deepens the bed of the Po, 251.
Angers, David d', 335.                                  Beauharnais, Stephanie, Duchess of Baden, 33,34, 39.
Angouleme, Due d', 53, 84.                              Beauharnais, Viscount, A. de, marriage and execuAnnellini, 383, 384.                                      tion of, 17,18.
Antoinette (Marie), 17, 172.                            B6deau, Gen., 342; his arrest, 441, 442.
Antonelli, Cardinal, 598.                               Bedford, Duke of, 70.
Antony, 335.                                            Belgium journals against Louis Napoleon, 486.
Arago, M., 238, 259, 308, 320.                          tBeller, Col., 636.
Arc de Triomphe de P'Itoile, 157, 158.                  Belmontet, the poet, 96, 104.
Arcola, 578, 582.                                       Belouino, Paul, extracts from " Coup dlttat," 399 n.,
Arenemberg, 36.                                           435, 436 n., 444 n., 447, 449 n., 452 n., 454 n., 457 n.,
Armand, L., 115.                                          462 n.
Army, 430; secret meeting of general officers, 426,427.   Beranger, 57, 59, 226, 227, 246.
Artillery. - See Napoleon III., Literary Works.         Berkeley Men, extracts from, 25, 40.
Artois, Count d'. - See Charles X.                      Berri, Duke of, his assassination, 53, 83-85; characAugsburg College, Louis Napoleon's present to, 38.        ter of, 82, 83.
Aumale, Duc d', 503.                                    Berri, Duchess of, history and adventures of, 82-89,
Aupick, Gen., 534.                                        121.
679




680                                              INDEX.
Berryer, M., extracts from his speech at trial of   Buchanan, President, 627 m., 628, 629 n.
Louis Napoleon, 179-181, 186.                         Bucher, 329.
Berthoud, 270.                                          Bugeaud, Marshal, 301 and n., 302 and n., 379.
Bertrand, Abbd, 27, 34, 35; Gen., 165, 188, 196, 518.    Bullock, extract from, 632.
Bismark, Count. - See Denmark.                          Buol, Count, Austrian minister, 537.
Bixio, his duel with Thiers. - See Thiers.
Blanc, L., 47, 308, 311, 316, 318 n., 320, 321, 331, 349   Cabarras, Count, 513.
and n., 358, 371 n.; "Manifesto of the Society of   Cabet, 321.
the Revolution to the People," 508; extracts, 475   Cambridge, Duke of, 555, 557.
n., 477 n.                                            Cambronne, Gen., 390 and n.
Blanqui, 318, 349 and n., 320, 321, 333.                Campo Franco, Count, 89.
Blessington, Countess, 150, 280 and n.; description   Canino, Prince of, President of the Revolutionary
of Queen Hortense, 35; opinion of Prince Louis          Assembly, Rome, 376, 378.
Napoleon, 198, 199.                                   Canova, 39.
Bocanegra, Sefor, political prefect of Mexico, 649.    Canrobert, Gen., 453, 478, 552, 555, 556, 557.
Boirier, M., assassin, 156.                             Capo d'Istria, Count, 528.
Bonaparte, Caroline, 147.                               Carbonari, the. - See Italy.
Bonaparte family, the, hold a secret meeting, 62;   Carigan, Prince de, 577.
banished from France, 119 n., 161; decree of ban-   Carlist party. -See Legitimists.
ishment abrogated, 325, 355; proposal to renew it,   Carlota, Empress, 639, 641, 656; education, charac327, 328, 331, 366 n.- See also Republic, French;       ter, 644; celebration of her birthday, charity, 648,
and Senate decrees.                                     649; grief at her father's death, her unsuccessful
Bonaparte, Jerome, 322, 324, 446.                         mission to the French court, her insanity, 653;
Bonaparte, Joseph, 46, 75, 188; protest of, in favor of   incorrect rumor of her death, 662, 664.
Napoleon II., 75, 76; statue of Bonaparte, 160,161;   Carnot, M., 231, 315, 420.
Mexican crown offered to, 637; death and career   Caroline, Princess, 53.
of, 250-256. - See also Senate decrees.               Carrau, S., 646.
Bonaparte, Louis. - See Louis Bonaparte.                Carre, F., argument in the trial of Louis Napoleon,
Bonaparte, Pierre, 324, 350, 357.                         178, 179.
Bonaparte, name of, exposed to obloquy, 33.             Carrel, M., views of, 93.
Bonchamp, Gen. and Madame, 390, 391.                    Carrelet, Gen., 453.
Bonjean, M., 332.                                       Cassagnac, Gen., 427.
Bonnechose, Cardinal, 617, 618.                         Castellon, Franc, 247-249.
Bordeaux, Duke of, or Henry V., 52,94,304, 407, 408,   Castiglione, 578.
410,485 and n., 489,490; nature of his claim, efforts   Castillo, Gen., 659.
in his behalf, 53-55, 69, 82-89; remonstrance   Castlereagh, Lord, 43.
against Louis Napoleon, 508, 509.                     Catherine, Empress, her desire to possess ConstanBorghese, Prince, 40.                                     tinople, 530.
Borgo, Pozzodi, 63.                                     Cathcart, Lord, 43, 555.
Bosphorus, Straits of the, their geography, and im-   Caudine Forks, 256 and n.
portance to Russia, 526, 527.                         Caussidiere, 349, 371 n.
Bosquet, Gen., 554, 555, 556, 557, 561.                 Cavaignac, Gen., appointed dictator, 343; the insurBoujon, M., 84.                                           gents, 346; defends Napoleon, character, 439;
Boulogne, 166-183.                                        arrest, 440.-See also 322, 341, 342 and n., 346, 347,
Bourbaki, Gen., 555, 556.                                 348, 366 and n., 376, 377, 378, 379, 417, 420, 425, 503,
Bourbons, fears of, 33, 35, 36; expulsion of, 41, 52;     and Republic, French.
hostility towards, 51-53; they consider the Duke   Cavour, Count, 570, 572.
of Bordeaux legitimate sovereign, 53; European   Cayla, Countess of, account of, her influence over
dynasties decide not to attempt restoring the, 85;      Louis XVIII., 49, 50.
their law of proscription against the Bonaparte   CentralAmerica, invitation to Louis Napoleon, 247;
family, 161. - See also 75, 105, 109, 288, 291 n., 311,  Isthmus-of-Panama Question, 247, 249.
312, 351, 373, 398 n., 400 n., 406, 420, 438, 443-446,   Chalons, Bishop of, 394, 395.
449 n., 485, 489, 490, 518, 519, 520, 581, 602, 675, 676,   Chalons, Plains of, army upon the, 42.
677, and Bordeaux, Duke of.                           Chambord, Count de, or Duke of Bordeaux. —See
Bourmont, Marshal, 86.                                    Bordeaux, Duke of.
Bourrienne, memoir of Napoleon I., 20, 21.              Chambrun, 613 n.
Boville, M., 432, 433; his stratagem  to secure the   Champs Plysdes, circus of, grand celebration in,
printing of the president's proclamations, 437.         427-429.
Brazil, 630.                                            Changarnier, Gen., 319,366,386,402 n., 414 and n., 416
Brea, Gen., heroic conduct of, shot by insurgents,        n., 425, 486 n.; character and ambition, &c., 406,
character, 344, 345.                                    407 and n., 409 and n., 410; his arrest, 438, 439.Briffaut, M., 336.                                        See also Napoleon III.
Broglie, Duke of, 399.                                  Charlemagne, 671.
Brougham, Lord, 592 n.; on the Holy Alliance, 48.    Charles I. of England, 212.
Brown, Gen., 555.                                       Charles II. of England, 204, 205.
Broylie, M. de, upon the condition of France, 155,   Charles IV., 252.
156.                                                  Charles VII., 419.




INDEX.                                                 681
Charles X., or Count d'Artois, 75,82,117,118,119,408       Vienna note, Sultan  rejects it, 538-540; battle
n., 430, 475 and n., 521; assumes the crown, alarm       in the Bay of Sinope between Turks and Rusat liberal ideas, orders suppression of certain jour-    sians, Nicholas refuses to listen to conciliatory
nals and pamphlets, 50; strife, 51; battles against,     measures, and Napoleon appeals to him to avert
flight of the royal family, expulsion of, abdicates,    further strife, 540-543; cessation of diplomatic re52, 53; in Scotland, still thinks his grandson will    lations between Russia and the Western powers,
be king, his children, 53; salary of, 401; expedition   Austria as mediator, 543; war declared, Austria
to Algiers, 502, 503; in Bohemia, death, 162.           and Prussia do not join the confederacy, 545, 546;
Charles Albert of Sardinia, desires to expel the          alliance between France and England, 546 n.;
Austrians  from  Italy, introduces reforms, his          allied troops land upon the Crimea, battle of the
sympathy with Pius IX., 568; his flight from No-        Alma, retreat of the Russians, 550; allied troops
vara, abdicates in favor of Victor Emanuel II.,          attempt the siege of Sevastopol, battle of Inkerhis death, 569.                                         man, 553-557; allied army hold a council of war,
Charles Albert, Prince of Carigan, 48.                    loss of French troops in the trenches, 560, 561; batCharles Felix, 48; joins the Austrian army, 48, 49.       tie of the Malakoff, Sevastopol abandoned by the
Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. - See Napoleon          Russians, 561, 562; Austria as mediator, arrangeIII..ments for a treaty of reconciliation, 563; treaty of
Charlotte Augusta, Princess, 486.                         peace, French influence and French army in the
Charlotte, Princess, 644.                                  siege, 564, 565.
Charres, Col., his arrest, 442.                          Cuynat, M., 121.
Chartist movement, 324.
Chartres, Bishop of, attends the  dying Due de   Damesne, Gen., 342, 344.
Berri, 83, 84; Duc de, 306. - See Helen, Duchess   Dardanelles, the, their geography, &c., 526, 527.
of Orleans.                                            Darn, M., 443.
Chateaubriand, extract from  "M6moires d'outre   Davoust, Marshal, 390 n.
Tombe," 56, 57; his arrest, &c., 81; visits Napo-   Dayton, Mr., 651 n.
leon at Arenemberg, 74, 81.- See also 55, 60, 94,   Decazes, Duke, 174.
172, 173, 213, 227, 503, 509, 527 n.                  Delessert, B., 121, 219.
Cherbourg, works at. - See Napoleon III.                Demagogues, 414.
Christian IX. of Denmark, 616, 621.                     Demarle, M., commandant of Fortress of Ham, 185,
Circassia. - See Eastern Question.                        275, 276.
Cissey, Col. de, 555, 556.                              Democrats, extreme, 484, 507, 676.
"City of Edinburgh," steamer, 166, 171,                 Denmark, Schleswig, and Holstein, Bismark's plans,
Civita Vecchia, 379.                         *            claimants, diplomatic measures, Austria, Prussia,
Clancarty, Lord, 43.                                      and England, Napoleon's congress, war, Venetia,
Clausel, Marshal, 77.                                      621-624.
Clement, M., 351.                                       Derby, Lord, 572,584 n.
Clotilde, Princess, 571, 572, 576.                      De Tocqueville, 353.
Cochelet, Mademoiselle, 113.                            D'Hilliers, Gen., 414.
Code Napoleon, 46, 47, 101, 466.                   -    Dickens, C., 131.
Colonna, Chiara, 374 n.                                 Dijon, inauguration of a railroad at, 416, 417
Communists, 311, 337, 398, 484.                         Doblado, Sefior, 630.
Conneau, Dr., 132, 167, 183,184,322, 576; his devotion   D'Orsay, Count, 150, 199, 280 n., 281.
to Napoleon, 264-270, 274-276; his arrest, 276, 277.   Douglas, Lady.- See Hamilton, Duchess of.
Consalvi, Cardinal, 43.                                 Drouyn de l'Huys, E., 616, 617.
Constant, B., 59, 213 n.; the Carbonari, 47.            Drouyn, Madame, 493.
Constantinople, 526, 527.-See also Eastern Ques-   Duchatel, M., 257, 258, 261, 293, 296, 297, 301.
tion.                                                 Ducos, Madame, 493.
Cormenin, M., 230, 231.                                 Dufaure, M., g55, 446.
Corneille, 393.                                         Dufour, Gen., 37.
Cornwallis, Lord, 255.                                  Dulac, Gen., 454.
Corsica, Department of. - See Republic, French.         Dumoulin, M..- See L'Advocat.
Corwin, IIon. Thomas, 637 n.                            Dumouriez, Gen., 289.
Coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon, 431-455; ratification   Dupin, Chas., 276, 306, 307, 407 n., 443, 498.
of, 456-473; remarks upon, &c., 458-461, 464.-   Dupin, guard at the Fortress of Ham, 269.
For works relating to, see 432 n.                     Dupont de l'Eure, 308, 319.
" Courier des,lecteurs," 159.                         Dupont, L., Francis Joseph, and Maximilian, 587 n.
Courtais, Gen., 319.                                    Duprat, P., 332.
Courtigis, Gen., 454.                                   Dulpuytren, surgeon, 84.
Cowley, Lord, 572, 623.                                 Durando, Gen., 569.
Cremieux, MI., 308, 329.                                Duroc, or Duke of Friuli. -See Hortense.
Creton, M., 486 n.'             Duvivier, Gen., 342.
Crimean War, the, loss in, question of the shrines,
measures of the French Government, 534, 535; ar-   Eagles of France, 109-111, 115, 368, 487-489, 492.rogance and ultimatum  of Nicholas, co-operation         See also Labedoyere, Col.
of France and England, England, France, Austria,   Eastern Question, rise of Turkish power, fall of the
and Prussia reject the ultimatum, 535-537; the           Greek empire, 524; peril of Christendom, power
86




682                                               INDEX.
of Russia, Moldavia, and Wallachia, 525; Russia   Francis Charles, Archduke of Austria, 643.
takes the Crimea, conquers Circassia, and seeks   Francis Joseph of Austria, 546, 573, 589 n., 594, 599
conquest of new worlds, 526,527; revolt of Greece,       and n., 612; the campaign in Italy, 574, 578, 580,
cruelty of the Turks, battle of Navarino, Turks          581, 585-588; Schleswig and Holstein, 621.
defeated by the allies, England, France, and Rus-   Frederick, Duke, 621.
sia, 527, 528; England's fear of Russia, 529, 530;   Frederica, Sophia, Archduchess, 643.
Bonaparte's prophecy, 531; Nicholas tries by a   Fresneau, M.., 331.
bribe to induce England and Austria to help him    Friuli, Duke of. - See Hortense.
drive the Turks out of Europe, France not asked,   Fuad Effendi 536.
532; American sympathy for the Russians, barbarity of the Turks, oppression of the Christians,   Gallatin, A., 127.
diplomacy, 533. - See Alexander I., Crimean War.   Gallic cock, the, 109.
Scole Polytechnique, students of the, 58, 77.            Gallix and Guy, extracts from Histoire, &c., 36, 159,
Egalite, Philippe. - See Louis Philippe Joseph.            160, 246, 311 n., 312, 366 n., 371 n., 403, 408 n., 412
Eglinton, Earl of, 150, 324 n.                             n., 413 n., 443 n., 450 n., 454 n., 460, 461, 476 n., 486
Elbeuf, workmen of. - See Napoleon III.                    n., 493, 497 and n., 506, 510 and 511 n.
Elizabeth of England, 204, 205.                          Garde Mobile, 314, 341.
Ilysee Palace, 366 and n.                               Garella, M 247.
Empire, the, re-establishment of, 494-511.               Garibaldi, 381, 383 n., 581, 599.
Encyclopaedia Americana, extract from, 43.               Gavazzi,  ather, 583, 584.
England, 53, 204-210, 211-213, 486, 570 and n., 571,   G lis, Madame de, 286, 28, 290
572; regarding Algiers, 502, 503.- See also Cri- George I. of Greece, 616.
mean War, Denmark, Eastern Question, Italy,   Gerard, Marshal, 174.
Maximilian of Mexico, Napoleon III.                    Germans, the, Napoleon's desire to unite, 44.
Escobedo, Gen., 658, 659.                                Girardin, imile, 303, 599 n.
Espinasse, M., 478.                                      Glandives, Baron de, 55.
Eug6ne, Prince, Boulevard, inauguration of the, 606,   Gomez 565 566.
607.
607.^'~~~~~~~~ Gonzales, Gen., 659.
Eugenie, Empress, birth and childhood, introduc-   Gonzales,  e                C.,433 n.,
tion at court, character, 513-516; incident re-          oot                   o
452.
lated of, 575; marriage, 514-517; charity, 516;   Gortscakoff, Gen., 561, 562.
visits Queen Victoria, 558, 559; gives birth to a   Gourgaud, Gen., 165.
son, 563; she preserves the quill with which the   Gouse, 3.
treaty of peace between the allied powers and    G            e,   dmiral de la, 631.
Russia was signed, 564; escape from  assassina-   Gravine,                  e l, 612
Gravisne, F., 512.
tion, and heroism, 565, 566; her clemency, 566;   Gre, assassin, 618.
emotion at parting from  her husband, regent in    Greece, Crimean War.-See Eastern  uestion.
his absence, 575-578, 590; religious sentiments of,   Gregory  V    377
Gregory XVI., 377.
618; Paris Exposition, 638.                                       
Europe in a state of ferment, 581, 582                   Grouchy, Viscount of, 613 n.
Europe in a state of ferment, 581,  582        oGueronniere, A. -de la, extracts from, 572 n., 594 n.,
Europe, sovereigns of, their respective replies to
Napoleon's appeal, 614-616.Gin, M., 39
Guinard, M., 394.
Evreux, Count of, 366 n.
Evreux, Count of, 306 n.                                 Guizot, M., 52, 54, 211, 257, 293, 296, 297, 298, 301,
Exposition, International. - See Napoleon III.             466 n.
466 n.
Fallaux, M., 342 n.                                      Gutierrez de Estrada, Seior, on Mexico, 639,640,641.
Famine, 522.                                             Guy, M.-See Gallix, M.
Faucher, L., 338.
Favre, Jules, 328, 333 and n., 336,'618.                 Hall, F., extracts from " Life of Maximilian," 639
Ferdinand, King, the hoary debauchee, 46, 252; joins       n., 645 n., 651 n., 660 n., 662 and 663 n., 664.
the Austrian army, 48.                                 Ham, Fortress of, description of, 184, 185.
Ferdinand II. of the Two Sicilies, 525, 581, 599 n.      Hamilton, Duchess of, or Douglas, Lady, 280 and n.;
Ferronnays, F. de la, 485 n.                               anecdote of her when Maria, Princess of Baden, 39;
Fialin, M., Viscount Persigni, 104,114,167, 322,323 n.,    Duke of, 149.
477, 493; defends Napoleon, 133; at Napoleon's   Hauranne, D', 302.
trial, 182.                                            H:elen, Louisa Elizabeth, Duchess of Orleans, 297;
Field of Mars, imposing ceremony in the, 30.               appointed regent, 303, 304; her fear of the mob,
Fieschi, assassin, 154, 173, 504.                          304, 305; her heroism, and flight to Claremont with
Fl.ury, Baron, remarks on Hortense, 32.                   her sons Duc de Chartres and Count de Paris, 305Fleury, Gen., 585, 586, 588..         310, 515 n.
Flocon, M., 308, 333 n.                                  Henry IV., 388, 476.
Foreigners, rage against, 314.                           Henry V., 329.- See Bordeaux, Duke of.
Forey, Gen., 556, 634-636, 637, 638.                     Hesse, Prince of,-621.
Forte, Marquis de la, incident during the battle of   Hodde, L. de la, 312.
1848, 34S.                                             Holstein, 612.- See Denmark.
France, invasion of, 42; failure of attempt at revolu-   Holy Alliance, the, treat- signed by Russia, Austria,
tion in, 47. - See Crimean War, Eastern Question,        and Prussia, 48; attack and overthrow Naples and
Maximilian of Mexico.                                    Sardinia, 48, 49, 63.




INDEX.                                                 683
Hortense, Queen, as a seamstress, 19; person and           Tuscany, peace concluded, re-union of Lombardy
character of, 19, 34, 35,132; Bonaparte's attachment    with Piedmont, 587-589; plan of confederation,
for, her attachment for Duroc, unhappy marriage         opposition of the pope, vote for Italian unity,
with Louis Bonaparte, 20-22, 25; charge against,        Savoy and Nice return to France, Rome and Veseparation from  her husband, displeases Bona-          netia, 591-594; the Romagna, inflexibility of the
parte, 25, 26; heroic conduct, grief, presides at the   papal government, the pope preferring dominaImperial Palace, 29; expelled from Paris, her exile     tion to reform, 597, 598, 599 n.; state of the Italian
under title of Duchess St. Leu, 33-36; partial rec-     Question, cry for the liberation of Venetia, sympaonciliation with her husband, 37, 39; devotion to       thies of France, 611, 612; convention with France,
her son, throws herself upon the generosity of          619; secret alliance with Prussia, 620.-See also
Louis Philippe, 67-70; in England, 70; in Are-          Charles Albert of Sardinia, Napoleon III., Roman
nemberg, 71; letters, 97; her mother's marriage-        Question, Victor Emanuel II.
ring, 107; intercedes with Louis Philippe for her   Iturbide, 630.
son, 121; death, burial-place, 132, 133; Dr. Conneau, 183.- See also Napoleon III.                    Jacobins, 427, 453 n., 456. - See Republican party.
H6tel de Ville, 79.                                     James II. of England, 206-208.
Hubaut, commissary, 440.                                Joinville, Prince de, 153, 154, 190, 191, 192, 196, 329,
Hugo, Victor, 338; Louis Napoleon and Gen. Cavai-         420, 486 n.
gnac, 366 n.; appeals to the people, 447; the Napo-   Josephine, Empress, early life and marriage, 17;
leonic party, 463 n.; manifesto- of the proscribed      return to Martinique, to France, arrest and liberademocratic Socialists of France resident at Jersey,     tion, 18; marriage with Bonaparte, 19; regarding
508.                                                     Hortense, fear of divorce, 21; letters to Hortense,
Hungary, excitement in, 581, 582, 583.                    24, 27, 28; regarding Hortense's children, 25; death,
29; colossal statue of, 194; virtues of, 514, 515.
Imperatori, assassin, 618.                               Juarez, B., President of the Mexican Republic, 629,
Indies, the, 526.                                          631, 632, 633, 636, 637, 640,655; United States' symInkerman, battle of. - See Crimean War.                    pathy for, 646 n., 651; deprives Ortega of his conInnocent III., 206.                                        stitutional claim, and extends his own presidential
Insurrections, 81.- See also Italy, Paris, Poland,         term, 652; holds Ortega a prisoner, 658.- See also
Republic (French), Socialists, and the names of         Maximilian of Mexico.
the different sovereigns.                             Juba, conspiracy of, 160.
Ionian and Tyrian Seas, unity by a canal, 251.          Julia, Queen, 254.
Ireland, Catholic, 518; excitement in, 532.             Julius Caesar, life of. - See Napoleon III.
Irenweus on the Paris Exposition, 668, 669.
Irving, W., 131.                                        Kann, Dr. Sumner. - See Pius IX.
Isambert, M., 356.                                      Kent, Chancellor, 131.
Issale, 276.                                            Kinglake, A. W., 487 n.; extracts from  "The CriItalians, the, Napoleon's desire to unite, 44, 65-6.7.    mea," 536 n., 537, 538 n., 539 and n.
Italy, insurrections, 41, 47, 62, 63; kingdoms over-   Kirkpatrick, Carlota, 512, 513; Henriqueta or Counthrown, Italians desire union, 43-46; Napoleon's    tess Cabarras, ib.; Maria, see Palafox, Countess;
views, the Carbonari, 44, 45, 46, 47; failure of first  Mr., 512.
efforts against treaties of 1815, 49; commotion upon
the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty, 62; address   Labedoyere, Col., 109, 110, 111 and n.; the eagle,
from the Revolutionary party, the patriots retreat      109.
before the Atstrians, 67, 68; desire for escape   Lachasse de Verigny, Gen., assassination of, 154.
from  Austrian domination, revolutionary move-   L'Advocat, M., and Dumoulin, M., 54, 55.
ment, 568, 569; British opposition, cause of discon-   Lafayette, 52, 54, 58, 59, 75, 76 n., 77, 79, 93, 151, 152,
tent of the Lombardo-Venetians, 569,570; Austria's       160; joins the Carbonari, 47; dissatisfied with
tyranny, 570, 572; England to Austria, and reply,        Louis Philippe, 78.
Sardinia, 570, 571; hopes in England disappointed,   Lafitte, M., 54, 55, 77, 78, 80.
Austria's demand rejected, and her design of seiz-   Lagrange, M., 298; arrest, 442.
ing upon the Sardinian capital, 572, 573, 574; ar-   Laity, M., publishes "Prince Napoleon" at Strasrival of Napoleon's army, 576; French and Sar-          burg, and is arrested, 133,135; Prince Napoleon
dinian armies defeat the Austrians in the battles       writes to, 133, 144.
of Montebello, Palestro, and Magenta, 578; Napo-   Lamarquc, Gen., 76-78, 80; bloody conflict at the
leon's proclamation to the Milanese, provisional        funeral of, 78.
government annexes Lombardyto Piedmont, Aus-   Lamartine, 229-234, 259, 292 n., 298, 306, 308, 311,312,
trians driven out of Lombardy, 579, 580; battle of       313, 314, 318, 319, 320, 321, 326, 333 n., 337, 342, 352,
Solferino and defeat of the Austrians, Sardinia and     353, 354 and n., 358, 414, 415, 592.
Lombardy liberated, people of the several States   LamoriciSre, Gen., 302, 342, 344, 425, 486 n., 503; his
rise against their governments, 580, 581; England       arrest, 441, 442.
and Prussia meditate helping Austria, 582, 583, 585;   Landamann, M., 136.
Napoleon consents to the peace of Villafranca,   Landor, W. S., upon Louis Napoleon, 280, 281.
leaving Venetia to the Austrians, 583, 585, 586;   Lannac, M. de, 335.
reasons for peace, 583-588; England in regard to,   Laplace in Fortress of Ham, 269, 276.
584 n.; interview  between Francis Joseph and   Largo, Baron, 666.- See also Maximilian of Mexico.
iNapoleon, independence of Parma, Modena, and   Las Casas, 165, 530; extract from, 44, 45.




684                                                INDEX.
Lascazes, M. de, 259.              -the National Guard, abdicates in  favor of his
Lavalette; Marquis de, 534.                                 son, disguise, flight and  refuge in  Claremont,
Lebas, M., 35.                                              301-305; his government, 312; his wealth, avarice,
Label, M., 120.                                             and efforts against Louis Napoleon's government,
Leblond, M., 353.                                           401, 475-477 and n.; warfare with Algiers, 503;
Lebobe, M., 411 n.                                          his efforts to secure a royal alliance for his son,
Le Clerc, Gen. V. E., 40.                                   514 and n., 515 n.; his salary, 401; death, &c., 407
Le Clerc, M., 336.                                          and n., 211, 408 n., 430, 486, 487, 521.
Lecomte, Capt., 279, 280.                                 Louis Philippe Joseph, or Philippe Egalit6, character
Legitimists, 53, 54, 75, 76, 81, 82, 89,102, 292,300,336,   and execution, 288-290.
371, 388, 395, 398, 403, 407, 408 and n., 409 n., 414,   Louis XIV., 207,208.
427, 485,509, 522 n.                                    Louis XV., 366 n.
Lempribre, C., extract, 627, 628 n.                       Louis XVI., 366 n., 385.
Leon, Senior V. de, 646.                                  Louis XVII., 511 n.
Leopold I. of Belgium, 486 and n., 644; his death,   Louis XVIII., 49, 53, 84, 85, 110, 408 n., 430, 475, 511
653.                                                     n., 520, 521; character, 49; Countess de Cayla, 49,
Leopold II. of Belgium, 644.                                50; death, 50.
Lerat, M., 438, 439.                                     Louise Maria, wife of Lepold I., 644.
Leroux, P., 321.                                          Lourmel, Col. de, 454.
" Letters from London," extracts from, 148, 149.         Louvel, assassin, 83, 85.
Levasseur, Gen., 453, 454.                               Louvre, the, held by the royal troops, 79.
Liberal party. - See Republican party.                   Ludre, M. de, 354, 355.
Lincoln, A., 369, 581.
Lobau, Gen., 59.                                          McMahon, Gen., 562.
Lodi, 578, 582.                                           Magenta, battle of, 582, 589 and n.- See also Italy.
Lombard, M., 114, 183.                                    Magnan, Gen., 427, 429, 437, 445, 446, 449 n., 453 and
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, 45.- See also Italy.             n., 454, 493; Mademoiselle, 493.
Lombardy, crown of, 255 n., 256.                          Magnus, A. V., Prussian minister, 666. - See also
London Exposition, 427-429, 608, 609.                       Maximilian of Mexico.
Londonderry, Marquis of, 42, 342 n.                       Malakoff, battle of the. - See Crimean War.
Lopez.- See Maximilian of Mexico.                         Manuel, M., a leader of the Carbonari, 47.
Lorencez, Gen., 631, 632.                                 Marat, 152.
Louis Bonaparte, attachment to Emilie Beauharnais,   Marchal, M., 330, 331.
and disappointment, 20, 21; character, 21, 25, 26,   Marcoletta, M. de, 256.
38 n.; marriage with Hortense, and separation, 22,   Marengo, 578.
25; paralysis, vindicates Hortense, 25; abdicates,   Margain, Lieut.-Col., 665.
a wanderer, 33; new domestic troubles, his title   Maria, Christina, Queen, 513.
of Count St. Leu, 38 n., 75; victim of dejection, 75;   Maria, Doiia, Queen. - See Portugal.
writes upon his son's arrest, 173 n., 250; dying   Maria Louisa, 514; abandons Bonaparte, 28; prisdesire to see his son, 257-262; death and wishes,         oner in Austria, 29, 45.
279. - See also Hortense.                               Maria, Princess of Baden. —See Hamilton, DuchLouis Philippe, sixth Duke of Orleans, adherence to,        ess.
54; character, 54, 55, 102 n., 291, 292; appointed   Maria, M., 320, 338, 339,342 n.
lieutenant-general, fear and anxiety, proclamation,   Market-women of Paris, ball to the, 492, 493.
58, 59, 69, 159; menaces of the Republicans, his   Marmont, Gen., 52, 531 n.
opinions, 59, 60; enthronement, treaties of 1815,   Marquez, Gen., 658.
regarded as arresting the revolution, &c.,61, 63;   Marrast, the editor, 297, 298 n., 308, 351, 356, 365.
called usurper, 69; title disputed, efforts to de-   Marseilles, bloody revolt at, 348; infernal machine
throne him, insurrections, 76-81; desertion of            at, 504.
old friends, 78; his system, 81; at death-bed of   Marseillaise Hymn, 51, 58, 294, 298.
Due de Berri, treatment of Duchess de Berri, 84,   Martinprey, Gen., 588.
86, 89; his unpopularity, 100, 102, 121; his course   Marulaz, Gen., 454.
in regard to Louis Napoleon, 121, 122, 135, 258, 259,   Mary, Duchess of Parma, 53.
261; Lafayette's power and dismissal, 151, 152;   Mastai, Cardinal. - See Pius IX.
makes arrests, attempted assassination of, 152-   Mauguin, Capt., 77,344; President of the Provisional
154, 156, 157; prisoner in his own palace, Arc de         Government, 58; shot by the insurgents, 345.
l'Ftoile, sympathy with the dynasties, 157-159;   Maupas, minister of police, 433, 437, 438, 439, 448.
consents to the removal of Bonaparte's remains,   Maximilian of Bavaria, 34, 38.
and renders homage to them, 164,194,196; arrests   Maximilian of Mexico, 630 n., 631, 637; chosen emBonapartists, and severity to Bonaparte family,           peror, 638, 640-642; birth and marriage, 639; char172, 279 n.; childhood and youth, exile, 288, 289,    acter and person, 639, 643, 644; his publications,
290, 291; visits King of Sicily and marries Princess      643; departure with Carlota from Trieste, 644,645;
Amelia, becomes king of France, 291; receives            their arrival in Mexico, and enthusiastic reception
sobriquet of "The Target-King," 292, 565; mam-    in  the different cities, 645-650; United  States
moth  banquet, 292-294; public feeling against,    against, 646 n; renounces his right to the Ausinsurrection, 294-310;  dismisses his  ministers,    trian throne, 649 n.; apparent popularity of the
296, 297; organizes a new ministry, insulted by           empire, expressions of hostility, the Juarez party,




INDEX.                                                 685
650 and n.; his administration, he reduces his          sentiments of the president of the Mexican comown salary, hostility of United-States Government       mission, &c., 638-640; delegation  at Miramar,
and people, American force on the Rio Grande,           &c. 640-642.- See Maximilian, Emperor.
church party against, 651 and n.; France disposed   Meygret, C., 493.
to withdraw, and her reason, guerilla bands, his   Mignet, M., 55, 59.
great anxiety, 652 and n.; Carlota's unsuccessful   Mignon, l'Abb6 J. H., the pope, 377 n.
mission to Napoleon, his grief at tihe insanity of   Miramon, Gen., 628, 629, 638, 658, 659, 661.- See
Carlota, 653; issues a proclamation, French troops      also Maximilian of Mexico.
withdraw  from  Mexico to prevent war with the   Miranboli, conspiracy of, 160.
United States, and for another reason, Napoleon's   Modena, 45.- See also Italy.
reason for his course, 655 and n., 656; refuses to   Moderate party, 358, 399, 427.
abandon his friends by leaving Mexico, as Juarez   Mohammed II., 524.
will not grant general amnesty to supporters of   Moldavia.- See Crimean War, Eastern Question.
the empire, wishes to call a congress, the Juarez   Mole, Count, 137 n., 297, 410, 426.
party shoot Imperialists, 656, 657; his army re-   Mondovi, 578.
pulses the Liberals, treachery of Lopez, 658, 659;   Montaignards, 449 n.
capture of, his prisons, his interview with Mr. F.   Montalembert, M., 399, 407 n.
Hall, Juarez calls a court-martial to try the em-   Montebello, battle of, 589. - See also Italy.
peror and Generals Miramon and Mejia, 659, 660;   Montebello, Duke of, 135, 136 and n.
eleven charges brought against him, his defence,   Montenegro, M. de, 256.
trial, found guilty with Miramon and Mejia, and   Montholon, Count, 167, 181, 184, 200, 265, 274, 275,
all condemned to be shot, Juarez refuses pardon,        322, 500 n., 518; sentence of imprisonment, 183;
informed incorrectly that the empress is dead, and      Countess, 186.
writes his last wishes to the Baron Largo, 661, 662;   Montijo, Count, 513; Countess, see Palafox, Counthe Prussian minister intercedes for him to Juarez,     tess.
who refuses pardon, other governments, especially   Montpellier, workmen's ball at, 499, 500.
the American, intercede, he entreats Juarez to   Montpensier, Duke of, 297, 301, 302, 303, 486 n.
pardon Miramon and Mejia, sends his marriage-   Montrose, Duke of, 149.
ring to his mother, and writes to Juarez, journey   Morelli, C. G., 588.
to place of execution, 663, 664; scene before the   Morny, le Comte de, 432, 437, 438, 443, 449 n.; apexecution, Miramon and Mejia shot dead instantly,       pointed minister of the interior, 433.
Maximilian shot several times, four refusals of   Morse, S. F. B., on Louis Napoleon, 65-67, 127
Juarez to petitions that his remains be conveyed   Mortier, Marshal, assassination of, 154.
to his family, Juarez grants the fifth petition, and   Mortigny, AM., 100.
the body is conveyed to Europe, 665, 666; perse-   Motterouge, Col., 454.
cutions and anarchy after his death, 665-667; the   Municipal Guard, 295.
United States and Napoleon III., 667.                 Murat, J.,46; L. N., 324, 366 n.
Mazas, prison of, 439, 443.
Mazzini, dictator in Rome, 383 and n., 384, 565, 618;   Naples taken by the Holy Allies, 48; conquest, Lazon the Socialists, 484, 485 n.                          zaroni, &c., 251, 252.- See also Italy.
Medici, the, 401.                                       Napoleon I., 76,91,92,93, 102, 109, 366 n., 582 and n.;
Mejia, Gen.,658, 659, 661. -See also Maximilian of        comes into notice, marriage with Josephine, reMexico.                                                 garding Hortense's marriage, 19, 21; grief at the
Mendez, Gen., 659.                                        death of Napoleon Charles, 23; regards favoraMeneval, 530.                                             bly  Hortense's children, blames Hortense and
Mentschikoff, Prince, 536, 537, 550.                      Louis, 25, 26, 27; allied armies march against,
Metternich, Prince, 135; incident related of, 43.         Elba, first official act, chosen chief magistrate, 29,
Meunier, assassin, 156.                                   30; re-inauguration, prepares to assault the allied
Meurthe, M. Bonlay de la, on Louis Napoleon, 257 n.       armies, 30, 31; abdication, prediction, farewell to
Mexican Question, revolutions, American expedition,       Hortense, 32; at St. Helena, 37,40; death, relations
robbers, 626; alliance of Spain, France, and Eng-       with  Pauline Bonaparte, 40; allusions to  and
land, and its object, 627; United States declines       name of, 43, 44, 45, 55; generosity to the Orleans
interfering, 627 n.; object of the slaveholders,    family, 68; anniversary of his death, 70; memory
religion of Mexico, monarchical party, 628; dis-        of and honors to, 100, 101,157, 158, 159-161,163-165,
sension between the allies, squadron at Vera Cruz,      189-197 and n.; statue of, column erected to, 101,
failure of attempts to form a government, discord-      169 n.; arrival of his remains, and ceremonies, 189ant views, withdrawal of Spain and England,             197; his mathematical studies, 238-240; taking leave
convention of Soledad, 629-631; re-enforcement of    of his Old Guard, 367, 368; his design regarding
the French troops, 631,634; Napoleon's design, 632      Algiers, 502; his marriages, 514; upon peace, 518n.; Mexicans repulsed at Puebla, 633; the vomito        521.- See also Abbott, Senate decrees.
and guerillas, 631, 634; extract from an address of   Napoleon II., 32, 55, 75, 76; in consumption, 54; capNapoleon, and his instructions to Gen. Forey, 634-      tive in Vienna, 55, 90; death and character, 89, 90;
636; French repulsed at Puebla, small-pox, United       his claims advocated, 159, 160.
States in sympathy with the Mexicans, 636; op-  Napoleon HI., parentage and childhood, 24-28; anposite parties, foreigners, &c., battle of Puebla,      ecdotes of, 27, 31, 36, 37, 39, 125-132, 149, 366-368;
French triumph, 636-638; Provisional Government,    presentation to Bonaparte's army and people, 30;
Maximilian chosen emperor, Napoleon's desire,           love for his uncle and brother, 31-33,38, 39; edu



686                                              INDEX.
cation and studies, 35, 36, 37, 38, 49, 70; title of    revision of the constitution, 409-412 and n., 416 and
Duke St. Leu, joins Swiss soldiers, 37; his chari-      n., 418; Gen. Changarnier's assumption of power,
ties, 38,71, 98, 477; in Arenemberg, 38, 39; in Rome,   and fall, 413, 414; the army in his hands, Assem41; joins the Carbonari, 46; expelled from  the         bly's indignation and obstinacy, he forms a new
Papal States, joins the Italian insurgents, 62, 63;     ministry, 414-417; the Republic a failure, 418;
illness, 67, 68, 70 n.; a price upon his head, returns  message at the last session of the Assembly, 420to Paris, a fugitive, 68; in England, Canton  of        424; restricted electoral law, he is an interdicted
Thurgovia confers/upon him  right of citizenship,       candidate, 425; a coup d'etat about to take place,
70, 71 n.; visit to Josephine's tomb, 71; return to     members of the Assembly favorable to him, 426Arenemberg, and occupations there, 71-74; his           430; the coup d'etat, dissolves the Assembly, arprogress and name, 92-94; declines the Polish           rests all leaders of factions likely to incite the popucrown, devotes himself to literary labors, 94-100;      lace, and organizes a police-force, decree, appeal,
Queen Dona Maria, 97, 98; plan adopted by, 104;         and proclamation, 433-446; his coolness and recepleaves Arenemberg, 107; at Strasburg, conspiracy,       tion at the tlys6e, 446,447; insurrection, 447-454 and
arrested, trial, prisons, 109-121; in Paris, 121; ban-  n., 456-458, 465; ratification of the coup d'6tat, 461ished without trial to United States, where he          464; re-elected president, constitution, 465-473; instudies American institutions, 121-125; lying re-       ternal improvements, 474; requires the Orleans
ports contradicted, 129-132, 133; exile in America,     family to sell all their property in the Republic,
131, 132; faith in destiny, 126, 559; returns to        476; slanders of the press and its censorship,
Arenemberg to see his dying mother, his love for        choice of the legislative corps, and address, 480her, 132, 133; his hopes in the throne, 134, 135;       484; hostility of the British Government to, restoradecides to leave Switzerland to prevent a conflict,    tion of the eagles to the banners of France, general
135-137; in England, literary labors, habits, and       desire for the restoration of the empire, 486-489,
places of resort, &c., 138-146,148-151; his name in     495-511; visit to Strasburg, 491, 492; ball upon
France, enemies, 138; justification of his efforts,     anniversary of Bonaparte's birth, election for the
repels accusation, 161, 162, 163; in Boulogne, ad-      general councils, 492, 493; prosperity of France,
dress to his soldiers, 166-169; arrested, sent to       494, 495, 511, 516, 517; tour to the southern departHam, and then to Paris, and imprisoned, 171, 172;       ments, releases Abd-el-Kader, 497-504; attempt to
trial, imprisonment for life, confined in the Fortress  assassinate him, return to Paris, 504-506; senate
of Ham, 174-184; protest upon the arms of the Em-       declare him emperor, wrath of his enemies, ratifiperor, 188, 189; his emotions upon the reception of     cation by the people, 507-509; his title, 510, 511 n.;
his uncle's remains, 197, 198; his protest to the       marriage, fear of him in England, 517, 518; birthgovernment, 200, 201; sympathy evinced for, 202,        day fete, 522, 523; the Eastern Question, 529, 530,
203, 213, 214, 247; answers Lamartine's assault,        531 and n.; draws up the Vienna Note, 538; mes229-234; declines invitation to America, 247; views     sage relative to the Crimean War, 544, 545; asks
upon the Nicaragua Canal, 248, 249, 250, 256; trib-     for supplies for the Army of the East, visits Engute to the memory of Joseph Bonaparte, 251-256;         land with Eugenie, 557-559; attempt for his assasefforts for his release, 256 and n., 257; his petitions  sination, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert return
to the government to be allowed to visit his dying      his visit, 559, 560; abandons the project of joining
father refused, 257-262; plans and disguise for es-     his army, 560 and n.; his joy at the taking of Secape, success, 264-273; embarks for England, 273;       vastopol, and at the birth of his son, 562, 563; reDr. Conneau's stratagem, 274-276; his endeavors in      ception after the treaty of peace, his selection of
England to visit his father also disappointed, 277-     the battle-field, failure of attempts to assassinate
279; English friends, 280, 281 and n.; hears that       him, 564-566; Boulevard of Sevastopol, works at
Louis Philippe's throne has crumbled, 287, 311 n.,      Cherbourg, 566, 567; good understanding between
312; hastens to Paris, writes to government, and        him and Victor Emanuel, promises to defend Vicreturns to London, 322, 323; his friends organize,      tor Emanuel against Austria, 571-574; before his
323; constable in London, 324 and n.; popularity        departure for Italy, reception at Genoa, 574-576
and excitement in the National Assembly concern-        and n., 577 (for the Italian campaign, see Italy);
ing, 325,327-333; entitled to a seat in the Assembly,   principles of France under his rule, reasons for not
333; resignation, 337; representative in the Assem-     continuing the Italian campaign, 581-584, 585-588;
bly, excitement in the Assembly, and attacks upon       return from  and recognized as the liberator of
him, which he answers, 350-358; his manifesto, 359-     Italy, 590; his proposition of the Italian States
361 and n.; Barrot responds to articles against, 362,   forming a confederacy, &c., opposed by the pope,
363; elected President of the Republic, 364,365; his    592, 598, 599; perplexity of the Roman Question,
residence, 366 and n.; his antagonism to the Assem-     Victor Emanuel and Pius IX., 593, 595- 598; sugbly, 370; Socialists' warfare against, 371 and n., 372;  gests improvements, deputation from  Savoy, 600,
accused of leaning towards the Revolutionary party      601; expedition to Syria, journey to Algiers, 601,
in Rome, defends himself, 378, 379; wields execu-       602; his views on the Roman Question, inaugurative power, measures against the Roman insur-           tion of the Boulevard Prince Eugene, 603-607;
gents, 379-384; disperses a Paris mob, proclama-        World's Exposition in London, 630, 609; upon
tion, 386, 387; at Elbeuf, Fixin, and Rpernay, 393-     Algiers, 609, 610; appeal to the European sover395; checks the abuses of the Roman cardinals, 395,     cigns in behalf of a congress to settle national diffi396; affection of the people for, 397, 398, 406; sal-    culties, and result, 613-617; conspiracy for his asary, 401-403, 415; liberality and tour through the      sassination, his proposed congress, 619, 620; opens
provinces, 403-406: enthusiasm  of his troops at        the International Exposition, invites the reigning
Satory, 408, 409; plots against and petition for        princes of Europe, President of the United States,




INDEX.                                                  687
and dthers, 668; royal guests at the Exposition,   Oldenburg, Grand Duke of, 621.
elections for the councils-general, his great object,   Olivier, E., 618.
letter upon public works, &c., influence of the Ex-   O'Meara. Dr., 502, 530, 531.
position, the change in Germany, 669,670; position    Orazeba, Gen., 633.
of France under the emperor, " Life of Julius Cas-   Orleanists, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 75, 288, 309, 336, 352, 398
sar," and extracts from  it, his views in relation to     and n., 400 n., 403, 406, 407, 408 n., 414, 420, 427,
the German war, his views upon popular educa-             438, 443-446, 449 n., 475, 509, 518, 520, 522 n., 602,
tion, 670-674; decree of Jan. 19, 1867, efforts to ex-    675, 676, 677.
tend popular liberty and create stable institutions,   Orleans, Duke of, eldest son of Louis Philippe, 297,
foreign dynasties, 674, 675; the empire the best          303, 304 n.; sixth Duke of (see Louis Philippe);
government for France, and prosperity under it,           Duchess of, 56, 57, 84; family, the, 476, 477, 486,
the Constitutions of America, England, and France,        487.
sincerity of the emperor's views, 676-678; charac-   Orsini, assassin, 565, 566.
ter, 138, 148, 149, 185, 211, 477, 479, 521 and n., 565;   Ortega, Gen., 633, 634, 652.- See also Juarez, B.
letters, 38, 39, 64, 65, 69, 96, 97, 106, 107, 112, 113,   Oudinot, C. H., Lieutenant-Marshal, Duke of Reg116, 118, 119, 123, 124, 133, 134, 136, 137, 186, 187,    gio, 182, 308.
188, 199, 203, 227, 238-241, 258, 259, 278, 279, 280,   Oudinot, N. C. V., Gen., 379, 380, 382, 383, 384, 444.
330, 332, 333, 335, 337, 595-598, 609, 610; speeches
and  addresses, 108, 109, 114, 122, 351, 354, 355,   Pages, G., 81, 308, 318 n., 320.
388-390, 392-394, 404, 405, 406, 411, 412, 416, 417,   Palafox, Countess, or Countess Montijo, formerly
419, 420, 427-429, 510, 511, 547-550, 567, 578, 590,      Maria Kirkpatrick, 512, 513; Count of, ib.
591, 600; literary works, his writings, 95-100;   Palais Royal, sacking of, 305, 312.
"Political Reveries,"  72-74;  "Considerations,   Palestine, contention for the holy places in, 534-536.
Political and  Military, upon  Switzerland," 95   Palestro, battle of. - See Italy.
and n., 96; "Idc es  Napolioniennes," 138-146,   Paris, surrender of, 29; houses of, 79, 452; in a state
146 n., 147, 148; "Project of a Constitution," 96;        of siege, 80; in danger of starvation, 312, 313;
"Manual of Artillery," &c., 99  and n., 100;              slaughter in the streets of, 299, 300; the headquar"Governments in General," 139-146; " Napoleon-            ters of insurrection, 398; the best-governed city,
ist Idea," 150, 151; translation of " The Ideal " of      432; success of the " coup d'etat" in, 456; its wedSchiller, 173; literary labors, political, scientific,    ding-gift to Eugenie, 516; Napoleon III. improves,
and historical writings, &c., 203-248; "Historical        521; rejoicings over Sevastopol, 562, 563; the seat
Fragments," 203-210; "Analysis of the  Sugar              of Congress to debate upon terms of peace, 563,
Question," 217-227; "Project of Law  upon the             564; the most attractive metropolis, 673, 675.
Recruitment of the Army,". 235-237; " Extinction   Paris, Count of, 288, 297, 303, 310, 407, 410, 509.
of Pauperism," 241-245; " The Past and Future   Parma, 45.- See also Italy.
of Artillery," 246; "The Canal of Nicaragua,"   Parquin, Gen., 113, 117, 167, 181, 183.
282-287. -  See  also  Crimean  War, Denmark,   Pasquier, Duke, 174.
Hugo, V., Italy, Maximilian of Mexico, Mexican   Pattenotte, M., 576.
Question, Morse, S. F. B., Republic, French, Ro-   Pauline Bonaparte, 39-41.
man Question, Thiers.                                  Peel, Sir R., 277.
Napoleon, Charles, birth and death, 22, 23.               P6rier, C., 69.
Napoleon, Eugene, Louis Jean Joseph, Prince, 563.    Perrot, Gen., 414.
Napoleon, Louis, 24, 33; character, 33; in Florence,   Persigny, Viscount of (see Fialin, M.); Countess of,
36; joins the Carbonari, 46; marriage, joins Italian      493.
insurgents, death, 62, 63.                              Persil, M., 174.
Napoleon, Prince, 322, 323, 324, 325, 350, 355-357,372,   Petit, Gen., 368.
373, 401, 571, 572, 576, 588.                           Petri, Lieut., 115.
Napoleon, the name, 36.                                   Philosophy, French, 17.
Napoleonic system, 108.                                   Pianori, assassin, 559.
Napoleonist or Imperial party, 54, 55, 75, 76,135,418.   Piat, Gen., 349.
National Guard, 52, 78, 79, 293, 294, 295, 296, 302, 303,   Piedmont fortresses, 49.- See also Italy.
312, 337, 341, 342, 343, 492.                          Pieri, 565, 566.
Navarino, battle of. - See Eastern Question.              Pietri, M., prefect of police, 493.
Nemours, Duke of, 153, 154, 301, 302, 304, 305, 306,   Pitt, 581 n.
308, 309, 310, 329.                                    Pius IX., formerly Cardinal Mastai, 380,381, 395, 396,
Nervaux, C. de, 110.                                        565, 568, 574, 596, 624, 625, 630 n.; parentage and
Nesselrode, Count, 532, 545.                                youth, character, 374 and n., 375; takes the name
Neuilly, Chateau of, destruction of, 312.                   Dr. S. Kann, 376; fugitive at Gaeta, 379; replaced
Neumayer, Gen., 409.                                        on his throne, 412.- See also Italy, Roman QuesNey, Marshal, 115, 172; Col., 395, 396.                     tion.
Nicaragua, Canal of, 246, 248, 256, 282-287.              Plegnier, Lieut., 118.
Nicholas, Czar, 531; visits Queen Victoria, his ap-   Plichon, 613 n.
pearance, 532.- See also Crimean War, Eastern   Poggioli, 257, 259.
Question.                                               Poland, insurrection in, 94; crown offered to Louis
Noizot,;., 394.                                           Napoleon, 94 and n.; excitement in, 581, 582; fall
Normanby, Lord, extract, 584, 592.                          of, 525, 612. - See also Eastern Question.
Novara, battle of. - See Italy.                           Polignac, Prince, 50.




688                                              INDEX.
Polish refugees, 98, 325.                                  tion of the, 395; war of the Assembly against the
Politeness of the French, 493.                             president, 396-410; bill on universal suffrage, 400,
Pompadour, Madame, 366 n.                                  401; adjournment, and appointment of a commitPoniatowski. 531.                                         tee to watch the president, 401; opening of the
Porte, St. Martin, headquarters of insurrectionists,      Assembly. -For further account, see Napoleon III.
79.                                                   Republican empire of France, 91.
Portugal, Liberal party wish to marry their queen,   Republican  party, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 75, 76, 79,
Dofia Maria, to Louis Napoleon, &c., 97, 98;            80, 81,100,102,135,147, 292, 300, 308, 311, 312, 314,
King of, 616.                                           316, 318, 319, 320, 351, 369, 377, 391, 398 and n., 400,
Pozenta, Dr. C., the Emperor Maximilian to, 645 n.        408 n., 414, 420, 443-446, 447, 451, 484, 509, 522 n.,
Press, the, 81, 147, 155, 480, 481.                       602, 676, 677.
Prim, Gen., 631.                                        Revolution of 1830 consummated, 61; of 1848, 568
Proudhon, 321, 348, 371 and n.                            (see also Louis Philippe, and Republic, French);
Provisional governments, 32, 52, 57, 58, 308, 309, 311.    " Revolution, The," a journal, 159.
-See also Republic, French.                           Revolutionary Committee, 509 n.; crusade, 398, 399;
Prussia, Count Bismark's measures, 621, 622.- See         league (see Socialists); spirit, 373.
also Crimean War, Denmark, Holy Alliance, and   Reybell, Gen., 454.
Italy.                                                Rhine, the, advance of the French frontier to, 503.
Puebla, 632, 633, 636; battle of, 636, 637.             Ricard, J., extract from  " Napoleon III. en Italic,"
Pujol, 338, 339, 340, 341.                                587 n.
Puygellier, Col., 169.                                  Rivoli, 578.
Robespierre, execution of, 18, 152, 401.
Quadrilateral, fortresses of the, 581, 585.             Robles, Gen., 633 n.
Querelles, Lieut., 115, 119.                            Rochejacquelin, M. de la, 420.
Roger, M., his arrest, 442.
Raffi, Col., assassination of, 154.                     Rollin, L., 293, 308, 311, 315, 316, 317, 318 and n., 319,
Iaglan, Lord, 551, 552, 556, 557.                         320, 332, 333 and n., 358, 384, 385, 420; complicity
Raspail, 320, 321, 358, 420.                              in the revolution of 1848, 349 n.; manifesto of the
Rebillot, 367.                                            Revolutionary Committee of London, 507, 508.
Recamier, Madame, 509; visit to Arenemberg, ex-   Roman-Catholic Church, fervor of its members, 377
tract from her memoirs, 74.                             n., 567.
Refugees, French, 507-509.                              Roman Question, insurrection in Rome, assassinaReichstadt, Duke of, or Napoleon II. -See Napo-           tion of Rossi, 373, 374; persecution of the pope,
leon II.                                                his flight, 374-376; Revolutionary Assembly, 376;
Reign of terror, 18, 19; incident of the, 288-290.        battle at Civita Vecchia, 380; the Neapolitans, the
Remusat, 417 n.                                           Triumvirate, 382,383; Revolutionary party's measRenaudin, M., 17.                                         ures and anticipations, hostilities renewed, Rome
Renault, B., extracts from, 191 n., 214 n., 257 n.,    surrenders to the French, and the Triumvirate
261, 262 n., 266 n.                                     fly, 383, 384; re-establishment of papal authority,
Republic, French, establishment of, 309; troubles         and indignation in France, 384, 385, 386 and n.;
and insurrections, 312-333, 341-349, 386; Provis-       pope not returning, three cardinals introduce the
ional Government, 311; workshops, National As-          despotism  of the old regime, 395; Louis Naposembly called, 314, 319; its announcements, efforts,    leon's allusions to the, 412, 421, 422; Napoleon's
316,317 and n.; non-sympathy of rural population        speech upon the, 624, 625.- See also Napoleon
with Revolutionist party, 317; Provisional Govern-      III.; Republic, French.
ernment surrenders to National Assembly, 320;   Rossi, Count, 373 and n., 374 n., 376; his assassinafear of Napoleon, members of Bonaparte fam-             tion, 374.
ily in the Assembly, 322-324; Napoleonic enthusi-   Rostolan, Gen., 395.
asml, which  government endeavors to  repress,   Roth, E., extracts, 326 n., 349 n., 357, 361, 362 and n.,
325-333; stormy Napoleonic debates, workshops           370 n., 408 n., 413, 414 n., 451 n., 452 n., 453 n., 460
closed, and demonstrations following, 335-340; bat-     n., 461 n.
tie, 342-347; Gen. Cavaignac dictator, Executive   Rothschild's palace plundered and burned, 312.
Commission resigns, 343; cruelty during the battle,   Rousseau, M., 364.
and loss, 345, 347, 348; sublime instance of Chris-   Rubio, 565, 566.
tian heroism, and  pleasing incident, 346, 348;   Rumieu, M., 493.
bloody revolt at Marseilles, 348; causes of the in-   Russell, Earl, 615.
surrection, Bonaparte family, formation of a con-   Russia and the Russians, 42, 139, 140.-See also
stitution, 348, 349 and n.; Napoleon again chosen,      Crimean War, Eastern Question, Holy Alliance.
he declines, then accepts, 349, 350; debates upon
the constitution, &c., 352-357; new  constitution,   Saffi, 383, 384.
contest between Gen. Cavaignac and  Napoleon   Salas, Gen.,638.
for the  presidency, 358-364; Napoleon elected,   Salic law, 53.
364, 365; character of the new constitution, trouble,   Saligni, Minister, 633.
and appeal to civil war, 369, 370 and n., 371; de-   Salm Salm, Prince, wife of, 662, 663 n.
bate and movements upon the Roman Question,   Sardinia, 46; insurrection in, 47, 48; taken by the
377, 378; indignation against the government, and        Holy Allies, 48, 49.- See also Eastern Question,
call for an insurrection, 384, 385; unenviable posi-     Italy.




INDEX.                                                   689
3avary, re-inauguration of Napoleon I., 30.               Tascher, J. R. - See Josephine, Empress.
Scagloni, assassin, 618.                                 Teba.- See Palafox.
Schaller, A. de, 114.                                    Tegethoff, Admiral, 666.
Schleswig, 612. - See also Denmark.                      Thayer, M., 411 n.
Scott, Sir W., 40.                                       Thelin, valet of Louis Napoleon, 185,186; devotion
Secret societies, 421; measures against, 155,156; or-       of, 264-273, 276, 277.
ganize for an insurrection, 447, 448; La Societ6   Thibaudeau, 231.
des Families, or la Soci6t6 des Saisons, 162, 163.     Thibaulet, Lieut., 121.
Sedition, 152-157.                                       Thiers, A., 52, 54, 55, 58, 59, 66 n., 136, 163, 259,
Senate decrees conferring the crown upon Napoleon           293, 301, 302, 306, 312, 393, 399, 400, 401, 407
I. and his heirs, 90, 91.                                 n., 410, 414, 417 n., 426, 581 n., 624, duel be:
Sevastopol, 525 (see also Crimean War); Boulevard          tween M. Bixio and him, 401; his endeavor to
of (see Napoleon HI.).                                    overthrow  the Republic, 407; his arrest and reSeward, Secretary, 651 n.                                   lease, 440, 441.
Simon, J., 618.                                           Thomas, Col., 327, 336, 345, 356, 357.
Sinope, battle in the Bay of. - See Crimean War.          Thorigny, M. de, 437, 438.
Sismondi, 227* 228 and n.                                 Thouvet, citizen, 335, 354, 355.
Smucker, S., extracts, 326 n., 336 n., 359 n., 398 n.,,400   Thuvenal, M., 628.
n., 407 n., 409 n., 416 n., 521, 522 n.                 Trabuco, assassin, 618.
Socialists, insurrections, demonstrations, &c., 317,   Treaties of 1815. -See Vienna, Congress of.
318, 320, 321, 337, 342 n., 348 and n., 349, 358, 369,   Trdlat, N., 342.
371, 385, 386, 388, 398 and n., 399, 400 n., 402,   Tribune, the, 159.
403 and n., 405, 406, 408 n., 416, 420, 426, 427,   Tuileries, 312; held by the royal troops, 79.
452, 453 n., 456, 457 and n.; they form a revolution-   Turgot, M., 411 n., 446.
ary league, 484 and n., 504, 507, 509, 602, 676, 677.   Turkey, the territory of, 528, 529 n.; insurrections in,
"Societ6, La, des Families." - See Secret Societies.        601 (see also Crimean War, Eastern Question);
Solferino, 582, 589 and n.; battle of, see Italy.           in Europe, provinces of, 532.
Soria, Father, Maximilian's confessor, 664.               Tuscany, 45; the Grand Duke refuses admittance to
Sorval, Commandant, 454.                                    Louis Napoleon, 278. - See also Italy.
Soult, Marshal, 31, 79, 80, 196, 257, 293.                Tyrian Sea. - See Ionian and Tyrian Seas.
Spain, 630; receives Joseph Bonaparte as king, 252
(see also Mexican Question); queen of, 616.            Uminski Gen. 77.
Spaniards, Napoleon's desire to unite the, 44.           United States, 139, 480, 581.- See also Maximilian
Spaur, Count, 376.                                          of Mexico, and Mexican Question.
St. Arnaud, Marshal, 432, 433, 448, 454; in the
Crimean War, 551, 552; death from  cholera, 552;   Vaillant, Marshal, 588.
Napoleon writes a letter of condolence to his wid-   Vatry, M. de, 259.
ow, 552; Marchioness of, 551, 552, 553.                Vaudrey, Col., 102 and n., 103 and n., 111, 113, 114
St. Aulaire, Count, 278.                                   115, 117, 118, 120, his disapproval of Louis NapoSt. George, M. de., 437.                                   leon's plan, 107; his arrest, 118.
St. Hilaire, E. M. de., 347 n. 366 n., 386 n.            Vendee, La, battle of, 390, 391.
St. Just, 152.                                           Venetia. -See Denmark, Italy.
St. Leu, Count (see Louis Bonaparte); Duchess   Verdiure, Capt., 586.
of (see Hortense); Duke of (see Napoleon III.)    Versailles, Palace of, 312.
St. Mdri, cloister of, confict at, 79, 80                Vdsinier, Pierre, extracts from " L'Histoire du NouStael, Madame de, 28.                                       veau Cdsar," 325 n., 331 n., 335 and n., 336, 342 n.,
States of the Church, 45, 46.                              343, 350 n., 354 and n.
Steel, Col., 555.                                        Victor Emanuel I., 46.
Stern, D., extract from, 338, 339.'   Victor Emanuel II., 569, 572, 590, 594, 600, 615,
Stettin, Baron, 66.                                        616; his rejection of Austria's demand, 573; the
Stewart, Rev. C. S., on Louis Napoleon, 129-132.           campaign in Italy, 578, 579, 580, 584, 585, 586, 588;
Strasburg, garrison in, &c., 104-107; scuffle at, 117-     Schleswig and Holstein, 622, 624. - See also Italy,
119, 120, 122.                                           Napoleon III.
Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, British ambassador to   Victoria, Queen, 538, 557, 558, 559, 560, 566, 567, 571,
Constantinople, 536, 537, 539, 541 n.                    627.
Stuart, Sir Charles, or Marquis of Londonderry, 42,   Veillard, 330, 350.
43.                                                    Vienna, Congress of, 42-45; those present at, 43,
Suffrage;universal, 359, 398, 399, 400, 401, 418, 424,     49; treaties of 1815, 316, 490, 581, 612, 613, 614, 615;
432, 464, 570, 581, 582, 676, 677.                       " Vienna Note." -See Napoleon III.
Sugar Question. -See  Napoleon  III., Literary   Vignerte, 325.
Works.                                                 Villafranca, peace of, 583.
Swiss Government in regard to Louis Napoleon, 135-   Villamarine, Marquis of, 577.
138; French Republic's sentiments towards, 316.        Villeneuve, H. de, 123.
Vitet, 444.
Taillandier, Col., 117, 118.                             Voirol, Gen., 107, 115, 116, 117 and n., 118, 120;
Talleyrand, 43, 55.                                        made captive, 116.
Target-King, the. -See Louis Philippe.                   Voisin, Col., 322.
87




690                                              INDEX.
Warnier, Dr. A., extract from, 501 n.                    William mI., Prince of Orange, 205-211, 212.
Warsaw, capture of, 94.                                 Witts, the, 401.
Washington, G., 369.                                     Wyke, Sir C., 631.
Waterloo, 517, 582.
Weitzel, Gen., 651, 652.                                 Yablonski, Adjutant, 658, 659.
Wellington, Duke of, 42, 43, 281.                        Ypsilanti, A., 527.
Westphalia, treaty of, 612.                              Yusuf,Gen., 552.
Wickoff, Henry, on Maximilian of Mexico, 654, 655 n.
Wiesbaden, Congress of, 407, 408.                        Zaragossa, Gen., 633, 656.
William of Prussia, 615, 621, 622.
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