The Express.
London, England, 1865-05-29 00:00:00

[STAMPED, • Id: ADDITIONAL.]

—a--
DISGRACE OF PRINCE NAPOLEON.
The Moniker of Saturday' contains the following
undated letter from the Emperor Napoleon to
Prince Napoleon :
"Monsieur and dear Cousin,—l cannot re-
frain from informing you of the painful im-
pression I have experienced on reading your
speech at Ajaccio. In leaving you, during my ab-
sence, with the Empress and my son, as Vice Presi-
dent of the Privy Council, I meant to give you a
proof of my friendship and my confidence, and I
hoped that your presence, your conduct, and your
language would testify to the union which reigns in
our family. But the political programme which you
place under the aegis of' the EmPerm can only serve
the enemies of my government. To judgments which
I cannot admit, you add sentiments of hatred which
belong no longer to-our day. To.apply the ideal of
the Emperor to the present time it is necessary to
have pawed through the 'tern trials of responsibility
and power. And, beside" are we really capable,
pigmies as we are, of appreciating at ita just value
the grand historical figure of Napoleon ? As
in 'tending before a colonial statue, we -en-
able to view the rebel* al once. We only me the
aide which strikes our sigbi ; hence the ineompleto-
nese of the reproduction and the divergent)" of opi-
nions. But what is clear to th" eyes of every one
is, that, to prevent anarchy th hien% orinda—that
tormideble enemy of true liberly4.-the Emperor had
established, first in his flashily seed afterwards in his
government, that severe discipline which admitted
but one will and one action. I mined henceforth
deviate from the same rule of conduct. Whereon,
Monsieur and dear cousin, I pray God to have
you in His holy keeping. * /Caroms."
Own oak owe amansromentr.)
PAR A, Baronme Emma.
Thera is an end of the " cousin." 1 reject as en
invention not worth a thought the suggestion that
the schism in the Imperial family is what the fancy
call a " cross." There can be no reasonable doubt
that the Emperor and the first prince of the blood
are at daggers drawn. No tight came could have
induced so cautions a man as the Emperor to indite
and make patio in the Monsieur that bitter explo-
Lion of anger and disappointment.: " In leaving you
during my absence,with the Empress and my son,as
Vim-President of the Privy Council, I wished to give
you a proof of my friendship and my confid eine, and I
did hope that your presence, 'your conduct, and
your language would testify, to the union which
reigns in our family." This language evidently
implies that the " hope and confidence were mis-
placed, that the "conduct and language" of Prince
Napoleon have, in the Emperor's eyes, proved him
unworthy of his place in the. Privy Council, and
that "disunion" in the Imperial family now pre-
' mils to such a degree that a *die proclamation of
I the painful fact, has become a "tate necessity. It
is not in the Emperor's letter} that the world will
And the causes of this grave dissension. His
Majesty condescends to no particulars. He says
in a general way that 'Prince Napoleon's
political programme is one which Gan only serve
the enemies of bile goveriunent ; but his Majesty
specifies no one doctrine to *hick be Abject*. I
think it not difficult to supply the blank in the'
indictment.. It cannot be the invectives against
Austria that excited the ire of the conqueror of
Selferise; neither is it to be ree.sonably ;unposed
that an ores aught upon the temporal piliver,
though going farther than the conventionalities of
official language world pare* am be supremely
disagreeable to the sovereign who wrote the letter
to Edgsr Ney, and signed the convention of
September lb. Indefinite aspirations for the
liberty of the press, liberty of public meet-
ing, and perfect freedom of election, expressed
by a Prince who, before he was made Vice-Presi-
dent of the Privy Council. was well known to be
au advocate for all those liberties, can 'calmly be
a subject of deadly quarrel with the author of the
constitution of 18b2-.-contemplated at some future
time as the "crowning of his edifice." None of
these things can have excited the Emperor's ire to
such a boiling point as is indicated by his letter.
The one greet and unpardonable crime of
Prince Napoleon is that at this delicate crisis
the Mexican question he glorified the Mon-
roe dootrite, and declared that Napoleon I.
had foreseen it with acquiescence. Here is where
the thee pinches. The Emperor is bent upon
maintaining Maximilian in Mexico, and he sees
that the country is almost unanimously disinclined
to support him in this the greatest mistake of his
life. One has only to read M. O'cuin's report on
the budget to see that even the packed majority in
the Corps Legialatif is not prepared for the sacri-
fices of men and money which France must inevi-
tably be called upon to support, unlesa the
last French soldier speedily turns his
Lack on Mexico. Prince Napoleon rejoices
in the discomfiture of the South, and feels
persuaded that the consequence of the restoration
of the unity of the United States must be the im-
possibility of a prolonged French occupation of
Mexico without a fearful war. It is on this ac-
count that the Emperor classes his cousin with
the "enemies" of his government As to the prin-
ciples which the Emperor lays down, as those on
which he is prepared to govern at the present day,
I shall be much mistaken if the world is not sue-
prised and shocked at them. Thy are those
of pure despotism. He says roundly that the
first Emperor esthblished in his own family and his
own government That severe discipline which admits
but of "one will" and of "one action. Hence-
forth he means not to deviate from that rule of
conduct. There is a remarkable inconsistency in
the promulgation for practical purposes of this
monstrous doctrine. A moment before, when wish-
ing to reprove Prince Napoleon for presuming to
pronounce an historical judgment upon the career of
Napoleon 1., he was modest enough to class himself
with his cousin as • " pigmy" utterly incapable of
extending his vision at one time over the whole
surface of such a " colossal statue." But immedi-
ately after be assumes, as a matter of course, that
he, Napoleon 111., is entitled to imitate the founder
of his dynasty in all bin most tyrannical acts.
Prince Napoleon has lost no time in making a
reply to his Imperial Majesty's censure, which must
add considerably to the embarrassment of the situ-
ation. The Prone, which has beta exclusively fa•
voured with the doenment, publishes the following
letter, addressed by the Prince to the Emperor :
emeateasee of your lisieefes letter el May 23,
mid Ws publication is the ifooniair el this merefaii, I resign
the virfaereekkaey of the Privy Oeusail„ mai also the pre
ekkeary of the Usivenal Fahibides of 1867.
Aare" We, the hawse of the prof mai and reepietfel
eatedialat with white I assn
Of you Majesty,
The Willi devoted serfs,
Ilaromos (num:).

Pekin RO7ll. May V. 1864 1
The Temps says that the Inaperor's letter was
brought to Paris by a spinal sooner • it
adds—writing, however, without knowing of Moos
Napoleon's answer—that he purpoees leaving Frame
for his property is Bwitstriand.
The resignation of the Vioe-Prenidenqp of the
Privy Council seemed to me inevitable, beemine the
Zasperer plainly declares hie comic's "eenduca"
unworthy of the post. But the resignation of the
presideecy of the Universal ashibilion, with which
PricerNapolemes name was favourably connected
in 1.8844 indicates rancour and a complete breath.
It is h lily probable that between this and 1867
Prime 's ideas may have made gnat way
in Prence.
„The
.Boorse was heavy. with little change is

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