The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " SAT URDAY. REVIEW" ON THE INFLUENCE
OF THE FRENCH EMPEROR.—The growth of the
French Emperor's influence in Europe will here-
after be deemed one of the most remarkable events
in modern history, just as his accession to the
throne will be remembered as the beginning of the
movement which is changing the whole face of the
Continent. When we recollect the storm of not
unmerited invective in the middle of which his reign
commenced, the suspicion with which a new Napo-
leon was regarded by every Foreign-office in Europe,
and the apparent strength of the coalition that on
his first diplomatic blunder might readily have been
formed against him, one cannot help confessing that
he has had a startling success. The manner in
which he has triumphed over a sea of difficulties has
been due to a combination of causes, most of which
reflect credit on his ability and his character as a
statesman. The first thing in his favour was the
fact that his rule, prejudicial as it has been:to the in-
tellectual and political life of the French educated
classes, was soon accepted by the mass of the French
people as a rule suited to the wants of the day. The
reaction imposed upon France after the Revolution,
first of all by the military tyranny of the great Napo-
leon, and next by the successive class Governments
which took its place, was unnaturally violent. The
'Empire has been probably successful because it is a
sort of mean between the government of the upper and
middle orders and a pure and unbridled democracy.
All sections of the country, except the educated or
the ambitious, gained something by the compromise.
The wealthy, at the price of the political liberties
of the country, secured order, and the prospect at
the same time that the material resources of the
nation would be intelligently developed. The army
could not be dissatisfied with a regime which pro-
mised them prestige, and which was too dependent
on their allegiance, to treat them with indifference
and neglect. The lower orders were drawn by a
strong class instinct to sympathise with a Sovereign
who was allied with popular aspirations of every
description upon the Continent, who lost no oppor-
tunity of acknowledging with pride that he was a
nevus home, and who was certain to consult their
interests before consulting the interests of any other
part of the community. Accordingly the Second
Empire was a success. For the first time since the
battle of Waterloo, France was again one and in-
divisible, and any French Government which is
thoroughly strong at home is sure, thanks to the
restlessness and the vanity of the French people, to
be strong abroad. When Napoleon 111. had once
seated himself firmly in his saddle, France and her
rider became for the rest of the Continent a sort of
formidable Centaur, horseman and horse animated
by one will and one ambition ; and from this mo-
ment the first great step was accomplished towards
rendering the diplomatic influence of the French
Foreign Office almost paramount in Europe. The
second element in the success of the French Empire
has been undoubtedly the rare political intelligence
of the Emperor. He started with the advantage
of knowing the Continent very well. He was
familiar with the real strength of every European
Power, and with the latent forces on which he could
rely all over the world in case he should be brought
into collision with this or with that Executive.
These latent popular forces he neither underrated,
as a partisan of old political systems might have
done, nor overrated, as he would have done had he
been a fanatic bent at all hazards upon carrying out
a revolutionary idea. Napoleon 111. has •

sympathies, which occasionally break out in his
words and actions, but he was not and is not an
enthusiast. If he had been a Kossuth, or a Victor
Hugo, he would have over-estimated the power of
democracy ; if he had been a violent anti-Catholic,
he would have miscalculated the vitality still re-
maining in the:Papacy ; if he had been an ordinary
thinker of any colour or any school, he could not
have justly weighed and balanced the relative
strength of opposite parties in France, Italy, and
Germany. The chief foreign danger that first
alarmed him was the danger of a fresh Euro-
pean coalition directed against himself. By a
series of clever strokes he managed in turn to
isolate each member of this possible coalition, and
to break up the body into fragments which never
can again be pieced together. He has alienated
Russia from Austria, Austria from Prussia, and all
of them from England. The result is that none of
the Powers are more intimately allied among them-
selves than each of them at any moment might be
with France. Nobody now, not even England,
has any natural allies. The era of ententes cordiales
and of natural alliances between European Courts
is over, and that it is over is due to the sagacity and
perseverance of the Emperor of the French. Side
by side with this sagacity and patience the French
Emperor has known how and when to display a
magnanimity which may or may not be genuine,
but which has had, in the eyes of those who do not
know him, the appearance of reality. What general
sentiments he has chosen to give vent to have usually
been in accordance with the liberal opinions of the
age. In contrast to the traditional and selfish
theories of French diplomatists, he has not shown
any jealousy of the greatness or prosperity of other
countries. Provided that France is strong, he assures
the public at large that he has no wish to see either
Italy or Germany weak, and the public at large are
beginning to believe him. And there have been
occasions on which, under circumstances of strong
provocation or temptation, he has kept his temper,
and made France keep hers. We can all
recollect the time when Englishmen were
rather surprised that Napoleon 111. did not
exhibit the least desire to benefit by Eng-
land's embarrassment at the time of the Indian
mutiny. Nor was his conduct towards England, at
the date of the Conspiracy Bill, otherwise than cre-
ditable. Any one who knew England saw plainly
that the line adopted by the Parliament of the day,
unsympathetic as it seemed, was the only line that
could safely or constitutionally have been adopted.
But few foreigners do know England, and it would
have been a serious matter for the peace of the
world if, at an hour of so much agitation and ex-
citement in France, the French had not been under
the guidance of a far-seeing and calculating states-
man. When the Confederate Commissioners were
seized on board the Trent steam packet by Captain
Wilkes, the Emperor of the French acted with the
same impartiality. It would have been very easy
for a wild Anglophobist, who preferred gratifying
his malice to upholding the sound principles of ma-
ritime law, to have fanned the controversy between
the United States and Lord Palmerston's Govern-
ment into a blaze, and then to have taken advan-
tage of the difference for his own ends. Napoleon
111, did nothing of the kind, and willingly exposed
himself, through his friendliness and his moderation,
to the insane criticisms of the Marquis De Boissy
school. A similar and equally characteristic pro-
ceeding was his behaviour to the young Sovereign
of Belgium upon the death of the veteran King
Leopold. A censorious world had been prophesying
that France was only waiting for this golden oppor-
tunity to getup a Belgian agitation, and to enlarge her
own frontiers. The Emperor answered all these
surmises and misgivings by being himself the first to
telegraph to Brussels his recognition of the new
monarch. All these things are doubtless capable of
being explained in two opposite ways. One may
contend that Louis N apoleon, in spite of all his fair
speeches, is a conspirator and an intriguer, who acts
honestly at times because he is clever enough to per-
ceive that honesty is his best policy. His friendly
conduct to England may be accounted for by the
fact that an army of volunteers has suddenly made its
appearance upon this side of the Channel. His atti-
tude about the affair of the Trent, in like fashion,
might be set down to his anxiety that the Confede-
rate States should win their independence, which was
stronger than his presumable wish to embroil Eng-
land and America. And this is actually the tone in
which a number of clear-sighted and shrewd critics
still talk of him. But the general world never con-
tinues to go on inventing invidious hypothesis of
this kind when a simpler and more charitable hypo-
thesis will do. It is easier to interpret a monarch's
actions on the assumption that, like his fellow-
creatures, he is a mixed character, with good and
bad impulses ;- and that, though ambitious and
scheming, he is open to be moved by generous sen-
timent, and by a desire to use his powers and oppor-
tunities for the advantage of mankind. _Notwith-
standing the ambition and the intrigues of which
Napoleon 111. is admitted to be capable, the verdict
of Europe is going in his favour, against those who
accuse him of being a fiend in human shape. Rooted
distrust of his political morality was the last barrier
that stood between him and European influence,
and, after a long probation, this barrier too has al-
most given way. •
ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES. - The internal Go-
vernment of the States repeat in their organiza-
tion the mechanism of the Federal Govern-
ment. The Executive Power is confided to a
Governor, elected in some States for one year, in
others for two, and in several for four years. He
commands the militia, sees to the execution of the
laws, and, with the concurrence of the Legislature,
takes the necessary steps to carry out the decisions
of Congress, in all that affects his State. He is
the channel of correspondence with the Central
Power at Washington. The Legislative Power
consists of a Chamber of Representatives and a
Senate, elected by the same voters who send mem-
bers to Congress. In nearly all the States the
elector is simply a citizen of 21 years of age, who
has resided for a certain period in the State. There
are exceptions, however, for in some the right to
vote rests on a property qualification and the pay-
ment of certain taxes ; and in Virginia it is expressly
stated that the elector must possess a furnished
house. Whether the freed negroes shall possess
votes has been left to the action of the individual
States, but as the number of Representatives the
State returns to Congress depends on the
number of the voters, it is the interest of
each State to admit them to the suf-
frage, though prejudice may rebel against
it. The Judicial Power is also exercised by
a Supreme Court, Circuit Court, and District
Courts, which must not be confounded with the
Federal tribunals of the same name. They confine
themselves to the affairs of their own State. In
the State of New York, the State of Ohio, Indiana,
Alabama, Mississippi, and many others, the Judges
are appointed directly by the people, and only for a
certain number of years. Dr. Evans proceeds to
enumerate to what the States who constitute the,
Union mutually engage themselves. Ist. Not
to conclude any treaty, and not to form any con-
federation of any kind whatever without the
consent of Congress representing the Union.
2nd. Not to create any impost or levy any rate
in opposition to treaties concluded by the Congress
of the United States with a King, Prince, or foreign
State. 3rd. Not to maintain in times of peace more
ships of war than judged indispensable by Congress
for the defence of its shores and commerce, and not
to maintain more men under arms than considered
necessary by Congress for the defence of its own
territory. That each State should have a well-armed,
well-drilled militia, and depots furnished with suit-
able quantitiesof cannon, small arms, and munitions
of war. 4th. Not to engage in any war without con-
sent of Congress except in the case of imminent inva-
sion, or an invasion already effected which has not
given time for consultation and advice of Congress,
not to deliver " letters of marque" or arm vessels
against another power, until war has been declared
against such power by the United States ; in short,
to conform for its defence to the rules established
by Congress. Such are the principal concessions
which the different States have made in order to
constitute a Federal Compact, and our readers can
form their own conclusions how far these were vio-
lated by the South in forming their Confederacy.
Having finished our notice of this chapter, we
cannot conclude without a word about the author.
Dr. Thomas W. Evans is one of those Americans
who have done so much in their private capacities
to advance the interests of their country. Indeed
his action takes a higher flight and embraces the
welfare of mankind. By science, energy, and
labour he made his fortune, and he expends freely
the funds he realised as well as his energy and
labour on science. There are few subjects more
dry to the ordinary mind, and even repulsive, than
sanatory inquiries ; scarcely one which requires more
knowledge and work, and not one which tends more
to benefit mankind. During the great struggle the
United States organised a sanitary commission
with branches scattered over the world. One was
established in London, another in Paris, and
volumes of instructive matter were published and
freely circulated by the boards. Dr. Evans, at his
own charge in bringing his own talents to bear, as
well as his extensive knowledge and experience,
seconded the efforts of this commission in a manner
so effectual as almost to eclipse the organised
board. Thirty thousand copies of medical and other
works, written and compiled by himself with the
greatest labour and research, were given away by
this gentleman. It is almost impossible to speak
too highly of wealth, time, and talents thus devoted.
The same labour might have produced a more
brilliant and striking result,
but hardly one more
useful. Although long a resident in the gayest and