The Express.
London, England, 1858-01-16 00:00:00

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LONDON. 8427111D47, JANUARY 16.

Thm can be only one feeling in this country
regarding the atrocious attempt on the life of the Ex-
PEAUR of the FILIENCII. There are two points of view
in which this miserable act may be regarded—its cow_
ardly baseness and its excessive folly. The destruction
of the intended victim was attempted by the discharge,
from a safe distance and a hidden position, of hollow
projectiles, variously described as hand-grenades or
!hell', was f!'7"tain t 9 bt :lienaea",
as it has been attended, with wounds and
less of life to many innocent spectators.
It is eminently characteristic of the cowardly
ferocity of the vile attempt that its success wall
calculated to involve the destruction not of the
EMPEROR only bat of the Emetics/0-0f that beau-
tiful and frank-hearted lady, whose grace and gaiety
have done so much to win the affections of a gallant
people, softening the rigidity of power, and tem-
pering the sternness of usurpation.
. .

11• are about the last people in the world likely
to be accused of any undue sympathy with the Em-
peror NAPOLEON: he his had few more bitter op-
ponents of his usurpation—no more steady foes of
his habitual neglect of constitutional franchises
—co more free-spoken critics of those oc-
casional excesses of high-handed power which
hare been the most tuavries acts of his
reign. Bat to talk of Louts NAPOLEON as •
tyrant and an °pruner, in the same seine in
which FERDINAND end LOP= are tyrants and op-
pressors, is the mere madness of malignity. The
EWE-me u: wv i azzi CFI whatever may have been
his sins against the Repablic, has been twice over
the deliberate choice of France. Ile has seen
and thought much ; no present occupier of a
European throne has had such wide and varied
experience of men and things. On the whole,
his role has been an enlightened one. Externally,
he has entirely abandoned the traditions of the first
Empire, and embraced the alliance with England in I
a spirit of frankness and sincerity which ham, we fear,
been more cordially responded to by the English
people than by the English Cabinet. Internally,
by the development of agriculture and finance
he has singularly augmented the prosperity
of his subjects and the stability of his rule. Its
affords to France that which above all things France
at present desideretes—a firm and organised Govern-
ment, readily lending itself to every development of
material progress, and principally unwise in this, that
It ignores the necessity of free discussion and a free
literature for the most intellectual and communica-
tive people in Europe.
And this brings us to the folly of this most absurd
attempt. Suppose it had succeeded, what would
have been the result? A great misfortune
for Europe—a still greater for France. LOUIS
NAPOLEON is shot : BA bien ! apres, what
is to come in his place ? Was not this man a
necessary result of the absolute failure of all other
men and all other systems in France? When the
Revolution of Contempt had been followed by the
Republic or Surprise, and that again by the Reaction
of Disgust—what remained ? Paris wanted •
Republic, but France did not ; and France, when ft
came to universal suffrage, was some 5,000,000 votes
stronger than Paris. By something like that mejo-
rity France declared that she would have no Re-
public, but this BONAPARTE. If France could be polled
to-morrow, she would say nearly the same. What,
then, is to come of it if this man falls? A Re-
public ? Yes, if Paris can be despot over Prance ;
not otherwise. The BOURBONS Yes, if you can
cancel history, and revoke the judgment of two re-
volutions. The ORLEANISTS? Improbable in the
extreme. There is little chance that the descendants
of the King whose sordid corruption of 18 years
precipitated the Revolution of Disgust can be al-
lowed to occupy the throne their ancestor desecrated,
by the permission of the people he deceived. The
Paris populace have not yet forgotten the flight of
Mr. Stara in his street cab ; France has not for-
gotten the profound immorality and the tortuous in-
trigues of that vulgar autocracy which humbled the
pride,
and tarnished the honour, till it perished in the
contempt of a gallant nation. Republic, Borasoss,
Oateasters—all alike iniposeible—Vhat Le there ex-
cept universal anarchy that could have been inaugu-
rated by the success of last Thursday's attempt P
To the great satisfaction of every well-wisher to
the prosperity of France and the peace of Europe the
mad enterprise has failed, and its failure has natu-
rally and deservedly brought a fresh accession of po-
pularity and power to its intended victim. With that
admirable self-possession and high personal courage
which in moments of extreme danger he has never
failed to show,th• EMPEROR entered the Opera-house,
accompanied by the EMPRESS, as though nothing
had occurred--stayed out the performance, and
returned to the Tuileries at midnight, through
streets bright with spontaneous illuminations, and
amid the unbought plaudits of a vast concourse
of that excitable sad ardent people, with whom he
probably was never so genuine an object of sincere
and enthusiastic admiration as at that moment.
Can a word more be wanting to show the folly as
well as wickedness of tkis cowardly and villanees
attempt ? Its success would have involved anarchy;
Its failure has simply resulted in an immediate increase

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