The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-13 00:00:00

JUNE 13, 1857.

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Histoire de la Chute du Roi Louis Philippe, de la
Republique de 1848, et du Rei tablissement de
r Empire. By M. A. Granier de Cassagnac,

Deputy in the Legislative Body. Paris :

Plon.
Or the many able writers who, according to
the French phrase, have " given in their ad-
hesion " to the Bonapartist cause in France,
none is more distinguished, more zealous,
more vigorous, or more effective than M. Gra-
nier de Cassagnac ; and we may say for him
what can be said of very few indeed of the
" adhesionists," that he did not wait for the
triumph of Imperialism to make his pronun-
ciamento for it, but undertook, with extraordi-
nary energy and boldness, the advocacy of it
in the press, at a time when its chances of
success seemed, to all but the very fervent,
faint indeed, and when, consequently, he had
to brave the fierce hostility of adverse parties,
and run the risk of being imprisoned, exiled,
perhaps shot off-hand, in the event of those
parties, or any one of them, being triumphant.
It is, therefore, natural that to this powerful,
brilliant, and courageous penman the task of
writing the definitive history of the circum-
stances which preceded, the causes which
occasioned, and the manner in which was
effected, the establishment of the second Em-
pire, should have been confided by the Impe-
rial Government ; and that it should have
aided him by placing at his disposal details of
facts either imperfectly known or not known
at all, together with its explanations respecting
or versions of those accomplished in the face
of the public, and its estimate of the men,
great and small, who in them played a part.
The task has been executed with much skill ;
and, whilst M. Granier de Cassagnac may with
just pride regard it as one of his greatest lite-
rary efforts, the Emperor and his admirers
may present it with confidence to contempo-
raries and posterity as the best apology for
the Coup d'Etat that has been or perhaps can
be made.

The work consists of two volumes ; but, as
the first one is occupied with an account of
the fall of Louis Philippe, of the Provisional
Government of the Republic, and of the dic-
tatorship of General Cavaignac, we turn at
once to the second and more important volume,
which treats of the events that occurred from
the appearance of Louis Napoleon on the poli-
tical stage until his elevation to the Imperial
Throne, and of the politicians with whom he
came in contact.

Louis Napoleon's introduction to the scene
in 1848, and that great personage himself, are
thus described :

In the midst of the general and blind confidence of the
old parties, the candidateship for the Presidency of the
Republic of Prince Louis Napoleon broke forth all at
once in workshops and in fields, spontaneously and irre•
sistibly.
As under Philip Augustus, as under Charles VIE., as in
1792, and as at all epochs at which the greatness of a peril
moved society to its centre, the nation en masse rose and
intervened. Rustic wisdom triumphed over the science of
statesmen and philosophers, and the hand of Providence
was displayed in the humility of the means employed to
preserve civilisation.

•
• • • •
Assuredly all the members of the Emperor's family
were animated by sentiments worthy of their name; but
Louis Napoleon alone had manifested an immovable
faith in the monarchical destinies providentially reserved
to his race. The sons of Lucien and Jerome might
usefully and honourably serve the Republic; Louis Napo.
Leon alone could, according to the duties the people might
impose on him, restrain or replace it. It was then not a
republican the more whcm the electors of four departments
summoned from exile. There were already enough, if the
Republic were destined to live, and too many if it were
destined to die. They summoned a Prince per-onifying
both the ideas which opened the revolution of 1789, and
the ppslar monarchy which closed and organised it.
Chief of the Imperial family and heir of the Empire by
the Senatus Consultum of an XII., Prince Louis Napoleon
owed much less to his title, than to the convictions and
labours of all his life, this spontaneous testimony of the
confidence of the people. As chill, adolescent, and man,
he had always entertained a profound faith in the power of
principles united to the prestige cf his name. This faith
had resisted exile, the scuffs of parties, and captivity. It
constituted his character and personality in the midst of
his own family, and his title in the eyes of France.

Thus then, according to the historian, the
bulk of the French nation was evidently Im-
perialist, and looked to Louis Napoleon be.