The Express.
London, England, 1864-06-06 00:00:00

Moms of the present liking for the Emperor NA-
POLEON, which numbers of Englishmen, especially
travelling Englishmen, feel, without any reference
to the origin, the nature, or the conditions of his
government, is undoubtedly dne to the Escmores
evident friendly good-will towards the nation and
society in the midst of which some of the best
years of his own life were spent. Not that,
as all the world knows, he is the first French sove-
reign (nor in all probability the last) who has been
among us as a private gentleman before ascending
a throne. But it so happens that during his resi-
dence in the parish of St. James', the Prince NAPO-
LEON was by his tastes, his habits, and his
intimacies, familiarly acquainted with a larger
variety of " life," and particularly of what is called
" life in London," than his illustrious predecessors
and followers in exile have encountered. Club
life, military life, sporting life, theatrical life,
literary life, refugee life—in all of these, and
some more, the Patric; in whose high future few
but himself believed, except as they might believe
in the chances of a comet, moved easily, silently,
observantly, and made friends, and left well-
wishers behind, whose kindly recollections are
not likely to be chilled by a reverse of
fortune so surpriaing as the Second Empire.
Nor has the Emperor of the FRENCH hesitated to
turn to the best account his varied and peculiar
English experiences. While as ruler, as chief of
a dynasty and of the State, he has with singular
sagacity contrived to make a pedestal of English
policy and a lever of English power ; while he
has at once sought and practised the English
alliance, and shown himself prepared to act with-
out it, or even against it, whenever he had a policy
of his own to carry out, or French prejudices and
interests to consult exclusively, he has lost no occa-
sion of manifesting the frankest and most decided
personal preference for English life and manners,
he has made English visitors welcome to his
capital, and at home there, by all manner of
gracious attentions and hospitalities, and, more
than any other French sovereign, he has, by the
summary abolition of absurd restrictions, promoted
and facilitated to the utmost of his power the
daily increasing intercourse between the popula-
tions of the two countries. It may, no doubt, be
said that under any other government the inter-
course between France and England must have
become cheaper, speedier, and therefore more
habitual and more popular, by the mere opera-
tion of the railway and telegraphic system,
and that passports were doomed when the journey
from London to Paris became an affair of ten
hours and a half. We are not so sure of this.
In a country so centralized, so enmeshed in forms
and regulation., so functionarised and gendarmed
as France it needed perhaps the commanding will
of a government unhampered by interested mino-
rities to bring into operation the conquests of com-
mon sense and the victories of science and pro-
gress. It may be doubted whether M. Tulsa;
for example, would have released Englishmen
from passports ; we know he would have been tha
but of statesmen to throw open the porta of
France to English industry and commerce. What-
ever may be the immediate balance of results as
between France and England of the