The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-31 00:00:00

WHAT M. HENRI ROCHEFORT SAYS.

M. Henri Rochefort has published the following
preface to a new edition of his Lanterne :
More pubbshing in my own country, for which they were
written, these pages which am eared •oroad, where for more
than a year. day by day, I kept a journal of our Ignominy—a
memorial of the iniquities of the Empire—l have to humi-
liate ni) self before the public, and to ask them to pardon me.
All the most abject among the seven Wilting who voted
t• old" on the plebbelte, have accused me of violence I
have reread the proof copies of my pamphlet. I compare
the horrors through which the empire dragged us with their
result, and I hardly know how to excuse myself for not
having been more violent. These wretches ought to have
been called neither intriguer. 11cr trickster., nor
robbers, I should have searched the albums of Japan
to discover titling tortures for them, and the diction-
aries. of nrcromaticy to hod imprecations against them.
The Empire never was a government. The weary sitting of
drinker. In the Tuileries never was a reign, though it
lasted twenty year. "No, scoundrel. mver will you become
histories]," said Victor Hugo. Nothing will remain of all
these moral and political obscenities, except • species of
pollution which will curs te our garments ; • sort of
chemical precipitate ; an amalgam of despotism and infamy.
I have asked mj self whether it was patriotic to place once
more beneath the mes of the nation the daily progress
of the malady which so long undermined U. I decided
that I ought to do so, became the world ought not to
suppose that thirty-eight millions of human beings could
have lived for twenty years with a bandlge over their
eyes. When in after years the tucanirering expedition,
which is now termed the Empire, Is read, it will be said,
" What ! the French supported builerque for twenty-four
hours ! men called serious allowed this pantaloon to
attach to their breasts crones of honour ! What when this
wretched humbug pretended to start to put himself at the
head of an army which he pretended was to free Italy, the
people of Parts harnessed themselves to his carriage
Impossible " When future genentions refuse to believe
that such things could have happened, it will be consoling
for the historian to reply, " They are true; read the
'CI Ailments,' read Nepo'eon le Petit,' read 'La lanternet
and you will see that even then public Indignation escaped
through the lingers of the police, and went to foreign lands to
recruit soldiers for the real France." There were coward.,
and there were men who despaired ; hut there wore
also othen who watched for the propithms hone, and
whore speeches and whose pens enlarged the hole through
which at length issued the Republic. No one can suppose
that I am working in this relate an occasion to prove that
I was in the right against the years of prison and the thou-
sands of francs of floes, which so often proved that I was In
the wrong. In reading my essay you will ree that many of
my prophecies have been accomplished. Ido not pride my-
self on this. ILI a lower empire there were only three ways
in which It could fall-1 By a military revolution. 2 By a
popular tosurrection. 3 By • foreign invialon. In pro-
phesying all these I could not fall to be right. With hi.
usual foresight Napoleon chose the last 111, the most cruel
for us, but the best for him. Ile alone will not auger by the
siege. This thlrd-rate actor was without the courage to play
In the last his part 1,1 groparor Ile who pave np our cauotry
I. ruin wrote the other day to an English officer stupidly com-
plaining that we had fallen into • complete anarchy. lite
uncle, Napoleon 1., who wa, little leu of • bandit than he,
at least knew how to veil his effrontery in phrases like
this—" Let my ashes repose by the banks of the Seine,
among the people I have loved so well. The nephew
is reduced to calumniate the nation which he had en-
deavound to stupify, like those criminals who, In toe
deck, shake their eats at their victims, and shout—" The
wretch, just as I was going to strangle her, she erns wicked
enough to shout for aid." Thus tido pretender who the
Ilornys, the Persian., and the Troplongs helped to pasture
in the Tuileries, was without those qualities which his trade
rendered necessary. When these panderers who held him
In a leading string loosened the curd and allowed him to
walk alone, he showed that he had never ceased to be a—
brute. In going over the acts of this drama, which are
marked in my volume, I have found the names of
many of too,, magistrate, who had accepted of
Napoleon 111, the dignity of gaoler, but who are still
In the possession of brilliant j positions. Like M.
Royer, who although ridiculed in the " Cht,lments," Is
now one of the tint magistrates of the Republic, ninny
judges, disgraced by having registered pestilential verdicts,
cling to their chairs, and cry out, "Dishonour me, but do
not displace me." Had I been the master, I should on the
6th of November have offered the Prussians to hand them
over all the magistrates In exchange for • few baskets of
potato.. Unfortunately all I could do has been to leave them
in office, and to withdraw from It mnelf.
Dec ln. II Egli! RocrieFori: