The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-27 00:00:00

THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON 111.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—I am ono of the million, and the name which,
in obedience to your very proper rule, is appended to this
letter, I am content and desirous should remain unknown.
Nor do I seek to intrude upon my countrymen the opi-
nions of an obscure individual, nor--believing as Ido
that mine are shared by many of my order—do I flatter
myself that I am better qualified than others to give them
expression.

But humble as I am, I feel deeply ashamed as an Eng-
lishman of the tardy recognition by the people of this
country (misled by obstinate and malicious calumniators)
of a brave, wise, and great max.
Brave ! Aye, may it not be said of him as of that
staunch soldier, whose statue France but yesterday was
raising to his well-earned pedestal of glory--" Among
the brave, the bravest ?" If not Louis Napoleon, who
was ever brave ? And are we the sons of little men
Are we so infatuated with our shopkeeping prosperity,
so degraded by the luxury of these piping times of peace,
so infected by the maudlin cant of anti-take-your-own
part societies, that we have ceased to honour the brave ?
No ! by the names of oar dead heroes, by the blood of
our living veterans, no !
Bravo is he to a fault, this third (since he pleases to be
Napoleon. Rash, say you ? Be it even so ;
third) but,
sir, the height of rashness may he under some cir-
cumstances the height of sagacity, and the French—
valiant every mother's son of them—do not
troons. When, with a handful of followers (and a tame
eagle was it ? true or false, who cares ? let us learn that
part of the story of the valets de chambre)—when,
almost unattended, he threw himself for the second time
an adventurer upon that France which he was destined to
govern, who said he was a mad-brained fool ? Why,
we all said so. I among the rest, knowing no better.
Who suspected that among the subjects of the crowned
humbug who then swayed the sceptre of that fair land,
reigning by corruption, the heir of the empire could
count his adherents by millions '? When, seduced, as
we said, by the mere splendour of a name, (for we could
not gainsay the splendour) or directed, as it is high time
we begin to understand, by the finger of Providence, the
French nation called upon this man virtually to reign
over them. Said we, then, that the French nation had
stultified itself ? It was rash to say that of a nation,
but we did say so. I, with the rest of the million, said
so, following the press which followed the leading jour.
nal, which said so, and has gone on saying that, and
worse, ever since. Folly, sir, folly and• perversity,
which it is time should end ; or if an editor or two must
needs persist in waging this stupid and malignant war
against the man whom France delights to honour, let
them slander and snarl as they list. Let the dogs bay
the moon, but let not the people of England howl with
them.

Brave is he, this Napoleon, and wise and great l What
man in these three kingdoms, or for that matter in all
Europe, with a head not brainless, a mind not perverted by
party feeling, or wedded to prejudice, and a tongue free to
speak his thought, will deny the wisdom which, from
his first act of government to the present hour, has cha-
racterised the ruler of France ? Yes, nobly, indeed, has he
lived down the calumnious assaults of the English press.
He might have fallen in what history would then have
called a vain-glorious enterprise, lie might hare failed in

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what would then have beim f --,,lstigMatind'qui,.2.-trous
attempt against the fiber a, of his %witty Ilils taincey
a traitor ?), and such faiile.asi hi iihti aliAltl-•,
have perished with him. '4lohetalosidia449boi.,. ' fiding in his high mission, Artnaginjo:4aiglity -t ~ pose
on-
and in the favour of Heaven (lesohe,legraa--Vt,ettambre
account for it in another wise);lie hairg-aniaished and
enchained the monster anarchy, asserted his own great-
ness, and saved an empire ! For which, let every honest
Frenchmen give humble and hearty thanks to the King
of Kings, and to Napoleon his servant !
But if brave, and wise, and great, how account for it
that he came upon his enemies furtively in the night sea-
son ? why does he gag the press and circumscribe the
liberty of speech and action of his subjects, and other-
wise govern after a fashion which England (whose Con-
stitution is the perfection of human wisdom) calls un-
constitutional ? Can there be wisdom which is not our
wisdom, or a constitution at all which is not a constitu-
tion after our model ? Above all, why did he break his
oath and slaughter unoffending people ?
So runs the indictment, I think, Mr. Editdr, for so In
effect, though endlessly varied in form and repeated ad
nauseam, it may be collected from any two or three of
the disingenuous leading articles fulminated against the
French Emperor by the Times, and servilely echoed by
so many of our journals. The same Times, in order to
damage an illustrious man of another kidney the other
day by means of its precious correspondent (who was in
and out like a dog at a fair, between two hostile camps,
and contrived to send from each his military bulletin
enlivened by scandal), raked up a cock-and•bull story
about his robbing an orchard or some such matter in his
youth. Did the Times demolish Kossuth ? Shall the
Times make us all eat dirt about Louis Napoleon ?
Sir, I know that I have by no means the task before
me of convincing you that the reigning Napoleon is no
rascal upstart, but an illustrious monarch—the MAN in-
deed of his time. You have wisely and fearlessly ad-
mitted and asserted his merits. It is commonly sup-
posed, however, that because the majority of our plea
persevere in assailing him so unscrupulously, the majority
of the British people are silly enough to side with them.
I trust not—l believe not. Many there be, doubtless,
who, once possessed with an idea however fallacious,
can but with the utmost pain and difficulty get themselves
disabused thereof ; but many there must be—many I
know there are—who, like me, chose to judge for them-
selves, and laugh at the idle tirades of rabid journalists,
who, having a bone of their own to pick with Louis
Napoleon' must be expected to growl some deal over it.
For he did put down the press —therefore the press
must put him down (that is the formula as I take it.)
He did restrain liberty, did he ? Does he ? Does he per-
mit any number of men who are fond of plotting and
like to play with deadly weapons to congregate when
and where they have a mind, and say and do what they
have a mind, and teach other men and children that
propriete c'est le vol, if they think so ? No, my dear
madam, he does not permit all that ; and many an
honest old lady in fair France, and many a bearded man
too, who, loving political liberty, loves yet the more th
liberty to keep his own life and property from invasion
by other freemen, is thankful from the bottom of his
heart that it is even so and not otherwise. When we
shall have seen this England of ours within the compass
of a long lifetime twice a republic, twice an empire, and
thrice a kingdom, when we have a brace of Pretenders,
each with numerous partisans and no end of republicans
moderate and the reverse, when another rump Parlia-
ment plots against another protector, when that time
comes—if it ever comes, which Heaven forefend !—then
will soldiers be arrayed in London-streets and cannon
thunder through them ! The thing has happened, and
should it happen again, it will behove people who do not
mean fighting to keep out of the way. Alas ! even then
a strong shot may carry its billet to a wrong address,
and spill innocent blood upon some hearth which no one
wished to desolate ! I only hope that the Prince of
that day, if such day ever be—will have some mercy for
his foes, and especially if there be among them any fiery
old Generals who have served their country well, and
may, for aught we know, serve her again, but who have
pluck enough and influence enough to turn the coming
scrimmage to a battle, and aggravate the bloodshed to
hecatombs—l hope, I say, the Prince will have so
much consideration for these worthies that he will carry
them off—in their nightcaps, or otherwise as it may
happen—before the row begins, aceommodating them in
the Queen's Bench, or elsewhere, out of harm's way
until it is over.

Listen to Burke, (that is, if Burke said so, for I quote
at second hand)—" Men must have a certain fund of
moderation to qualify them for freedom, else it becomes
noxious to themselves and a perfect nuisance to every-
body else." There, Monsieur Ledru Rollin ! or Mon-
sieur Proudhon ! Put that in your pipe and smoke it !
But, about the oath ? A fearful thing is perjury, and
a fearful deal of it there must have been in France dur-
ing all that scene-shifting which could not go on with-
out an awful amount of swearing among the lieges.
But let us be candid. Is there such a thing as keeping
the word of promise to the ear and breaking it to the
hope ? because if there be, then the reverse is also pos-
sible. If I promise my friend to stand by hint, whatever
betide, and we have to cross a brook with a plank for a
bridge a foot wide, shall I literally keep my word with
him ? because if we insist upon continuing check by jowl,
one or both must tipple over. I think the less we say
about swearing the better for all parties. Did Louis
Napoleon swear to be the tool of the Assembly or the
servant of France ? Let France herself answer.
Sir, the Emperor Napoleon has resided long enough
in this country, and is familiar enough with our institu-
tions to know that the sovereign has the pleasantest
berth who reigns over a free and happy people, who
have not many among them disposed to go to logger.
heads with the rest about the propriety of his continuing,
or of anybody's continuing to govern them at all, among
whom the stump orator may bawl from sunrise to sun-
set, or the converse, about rights of man and the rest of
it, and no dagger start from its sheath, no barricade rise
at his bidding ! And if it were possible by Napoleonic
Decree to endow every Frenchman with the " certain
fund of moderation," I venture to say for his Imperial
Majesty that his subjects would soon be all free as heart
could wish.
Aye ! he belongs not solely to France, this great man !
We have partly had the making of him, and may be
proud of it. But he is no blind theorist, and knowing
amongst other things that it's ill preaching to an empty
belly, so first giving his starving population of ouvrters
a good feed, he afterwards treats them to a lecture on
political economy, and leaves digestion and conviction
to progress together,
Let him come ; let him revisit us, this magnanimous
and mighty Prince, aforetime an almost lonely exile ! I
do not blame our nobility who ignored him then. Pro-
priety and respect for the de facto reigning family re-
quired them to stand aloof from a rival aspirant. The
same propriety now requires that we do honour—Queen,
Nobility, and people—to the chosen of our neighbour
nation--personal considerations and attachments not-
withstanding. Nothing can be more natural, and no
greater compliment can he pay us than to come among
us, as I ardently hope he soon will, and introduce to
Court and people the lovely consort he has taken to his
right manly and imperial heart. All honour to thee,
Napoleon, if only for that honest, defiant, and truly
majestic deed ! Happy augury for the liberty of a people
whose Sovereign dares himself be free ! Happy Napo-
leon ! Who would not run the gauntlet through a double
file of musketeers and barricade-men as long as Oxford-
street, beard any number of swaggering representatives,
and offend any number of able editors to make the woman
he loves an Empress ?