The Express.
London, England, 1859-07-23 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(TROY 0171 01111

PARIS, Finny Evaamto.

The St. Cloud manifesto, which throws so little
light on the great subject of the Italian question,
will be forgotten long ere the proverbial nine days
have elapsed. The question itself remains, visible,
palpable, not looming in the distance, but coming
upon us with strides more and more rapid. Reflect-
ing men seem to like it less the more they see of it.
They who are unwilling to believe the worst, await
some further disclosure or explanation. "We do
not know all," they say. "It is impossible that one
si habits as Napoleon 111. should wittingly have
aimed this blow at his own prestige, that he should
deliberately have tied this political knot (he poems,-
log all the while other means of solution), unless he
foresaw some mode of separating it short of a
return to the sword, and this time the sword drawn
against an indignant people rising in defence of
their rights." These persons indulge a vague hope
that the Emperor may have reserved to himself a
sort of loop-bole in the way of discretionary powers
in the ultimate settlement of the conditions of peace'
at present unknown to the public ; that he may have
reserved to himself the right of exercising those
powers in favour of Italian freedom widely or the
reverse, according to the greater or lesser degree in
which public opinion shall be expressed.
This optimism does not extend either to the re-
publican party, or to thaw serious but moderate
lovers of freedom whose experience of the past
teaches them to look beneath the surface of things.
In the eyes of the former, the diminution of
the imperial prestige assumes the proportions of an
established reality, and, as may be easily supposed,
is not a source of any very deep affliction. This
party viewed with unmitigated satisfaction the in-
dignation expressed with so little reserve in the
Faubourg St. Antoine at the announcement of the
_ .

peace, manifested as we know by the tearing down
of the proclamation, and other acts of violence,
which was followed by domiciliary visits, and by
the disappearance "during our pleasure" of sundry
individuals among the proletairee of the industrious
but turbulent quarter in question.
The moderate liberals, though strongly opposed to
the imperial regime, do not at present see their way
to any mere satisfactory order of things, and
between anarchy and Napoleonism choose the
latter. The effect of the peace of Villafranca upon
these men has been to shake whatever faith they
had in the political ability, resolution, and unity of
purpose of Napoleon 111. In their opinion he has,
throughout these transactions, acted the part, not, as
M. Troplong insinuated, of a " polaigue prudent
autant gulabile general," but of a spoilt and wilful
child, who plays with a gaudy toy till he grow.
weary of it and then dashes it in pieces. They feel
that confidence cannot be inspired by one who
wields so tremendous a power as does the French
Emperor, unless his judgment be cool, unvacillating,
and superior to mere passing influences. And what
claim, they ask, do recent events show Napoleon
111. to have established to such a character ?

In support of this view of the question I will here
record an opinion as to the sudden abandonment
of the war which I heard expressed by a person
whom (seeing that, albeit the ignobile valgus in
France will probably never be allowed to peruse
this number of your journal, it will be none the lees
curiously scanned in official quarters) I must not,
however remotely, indicate. Suffice it that the
authority, as far u the views expressed go, is most
reliable. Napoleon, says " the party " in question,
had during two months met with an amount of
success and good luck quite out of all human calcu-
lation, wholly unl.roked for by him (whatever his
faith in " his star ") and whereat his generals abso-
lutely stood aghast in astonishment. It did really
seem u if some superior power were present with
him, scattering confusion in the councils of the
opposite camp, and disposing in hie favour events
which, under ordinary circumstsnees, would have
been fraught with destruction to him. Arrived
in presence of the Quadrilateral, a reaction
mental and bodily took place in him. He is 62 ;
his health is shaky ; though excitement keeps him
up for a long time, he cannot go on for ever opposing
nature. The flame which burns the brightest goes
out the soonest ; and Napoleon, with all his boasted
Dutch phlegm, is no exception to the general law.
In short, he was simply tired of the bu.inese, and,
being tired, thought the occasion favourable for
backing out of it. He had, at a very small com-
parative cost, earned the right to sport the laurels
of a " conquering hero" in Paris. It was unneces-
sary to take anybody's advice—even that of his sub-
ordinate officer the King of Sardinia. Nobody
could oppose his will, not even the king aforesaid.
He was as absolutely muter of his own actions as
he was of the 200,000 soldier, encamped around
him, and whom by a word be could either burl at
the walls of yonder frowning fortresses or march