The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-11 00:00:00

THE EMPEROR AND THE ELECTIONS.

(From the Times.)
According to the opinion of those astute persons
who have a gift for seeing further in'o a millstone
that their neighbours, the check which the Empe-
ror has apparently suffered at Paris was a check of
his own seeking. As in chess-playing, a pawn has
been sacrificed to secure a better opening and a
clearer board. Now, in the game of politics we
believe to a certain extent in the power of finesse,
but in this instance the present loss, however the
ilioniteur may endeavour to disguise it, is so capital
—the future and hypothetical gain so remote, that
we cannot without great difficulty admit this expla-
nation as the true one. The idea is that the Bour-

geoisie'of Paris had waxed inso'ent with prosperity,
and that they had already forgotten the severe
schooling of Februaty and June, 1848. It had be-
c )me necessary to remind them that the volcano was
still bubbling and seething beneath their feet, and
might once more at any moment overflow and scatter
ruin all around. Louis Napoleon—so it is asserted
—tried and hardened as he has been in the rough
school of early privation—of exile—of captivity—is
not a man to throw away a crown without a strug-
gle, nor to drift down upon the cold shores of ca-
lamity without exhausting every effort to bold what
he has gained. Royalty in his person will not
flicker out over a game of whist at St. Cloud, nor
slink away from the Tuileries in the presence of a
shouting mob. What he has won that will he re-

tun. Proud of the position he has earned, of the
dynasty he reprezent, of the energy he has dis-
played, he will not trifle with France, nor shall
France trifle with one who bears hii name. Before

having recourse, however, to extreme measures, he
deemed it right to give a solemn warning to those
who are coquetting with th it own de,truction al
well as with his ruin. The c'tizens of l'ers must be

reminded that the spirit of anarchyhas been scotched,
not killed, and that the sunshine of popular fa-
vi ur can in brief space recall it upon the scene in all
the awful fulness of its portentous shape. There-
fore it we s that Louis Napoleon allowed the electoral
urns of Paris for once to overflow with the waters
of bitterness. The Parisians may be averse to his
person, they may dislike h's rule, hut what will
the alternative he when Medea's caldron is placed
once more upon the, smouldering ashes, and the
old forms of society are cast in, with the expecta-
tion—so often disappointed—that out of the per-
tur hation and hubbub France will come forth again
vigorous and refreshed in all the graceful majesty
of second youth ?
Therefore, his friends say, it is that the stein
showman has for a brief space invited attention to
the drama which has been played out in Paris and
in France during the last ten years. But ten years
back—in the last days of Louis Philippe—the dis-
play of magnificence, of wealth, of luxury which
might have been seen in Paris could not have been
equall3d in any other city in the world. The long
avenues of shops were resplendent with all the ele-
gant and costly devices upon which the Parisian
artisan could expend his ingenuity. The brilliancy
of the equipages and the general luxury of dress, of
houses, of fureitu e, was beyond all preCedent.
Visitor s from all corners of Europe flocked to Paris,
and, nometter from whatsource their revenues were
derived, at Paris they were spent. If in the Paris
of 1847 there was to be found the extreme of po-
verty as well as the extreme of wealth, the
one was but the natural consequence of the other.
A. pistol-shot fired one evening in February, 1848,
on the Boulevard, from opposite the Rue des Ca-
pucines, dispelled that dream. All that wealth, all
that magnificence, all that luxury faded away, and
in a brief space, in the place of these were seen on
every side, terror, benkrUptcy, and ruin. The
puls ttion of civil life was stopped ; the heart of
France, for the time, had ceased to beat ; but soon
came the hot summer-tide of June, when from
their garrets and cellars in damp and distant quar-
ters of the city came forth combatants of whose
existence society in its ordinary condition is not
aware, to do battle against the first elements of
tradition. The houses on the Boulevards and in
the principal quarters were riddled with bullets—
at various points the cannon had involved the city
in more complete destruction—the chief spots
where the deadliest grapples had taken place were
red with blood and reeking like shambles. Through-
out tt:e short nights of that burning season the
troops bivouacked on the Boulevards and in the
public places—their camp-fires alight, their guns
with light_ci matches in the midst of them. Paris
had been conquered from enemie,,, but the enemies
wee Rarisians, and the conqueror was General
Caveigeac, the candidate who has just dereeted M.
Thibaut, and thus won a more peaceful victory,
but th s time not from the people, but from the
Court.
Louis Napoleon, we are told, has thought it
right that the Parisians should be reminded of
these things as well as of that unquiet time which
intervened between the barricades of June and his
own seizure of supreme power. Few Parisians w'r,o
lived through that period, and whose fortunes
were involved in the maintenance of order, will
forget the daily fears and nightly alarms which agi-
tated Paris while the contest was pending between
the candidates for the Presidency, and then between
the President and the Chamber. So violent was
the exasperati:m of extreme terror that the Presi-
dent could ventnre in the dead hour of the night to
seize the principals tat e,men and generals of France,
and spirit them away like children who had mis-
behaved themselves, and to confine them in various
places of seAtision unt 1 time had brJught reflec-
tion, and reflection repentance. Again French
troops fin d upon the French people with an
animosity as fierce as any they could have disp'ayed
in the presence of their country's deadliest foes. So
things went on for awhile, until at last it was found
that, however unjustifiable were the means by
by which the strong man had possessed himself of
power, he knew how to use it when gained.
It is now said—although we believe it not—that
Louis Napoleon has courted, or at least connived at
his own recent defeat, in order to remind the Pari-
sians of what they must look for if they cast a
shadow of doubt upon the stability of his power.
The friends of rash experiment and disorder count
for so many in Paris ;—shall that experiment be
tried ?—shall that disorder be courted 'I The parti-
sans for change show no contemptible minority of
the middling classes of Paris,—shallthe Bourgeoisie
ever the first to provoke the contest, ever the first
to fly from the contest they have provoked, be suf-
fered to plunge France once more into anarchy
that their discontent may find expression ? Such is
the thought attributed totheFrenchEmperor ; but
in that interpretation of the recent electoral votes
at Paris we do not agree. We believe that the
Emperor is now engaged in a contest precisely
similar to the one which his uncle waged through-
out his tenure of power with the Republican and
Dynastic sections of the French Bourgeoisie. As
long as lie can retain his hold upon the feelings of
the general population and can secure the obedi-
ence of the army, a check like the present is but a
momentary vexation, which will be soon forgotten
by the nation, or cancelled by himself. Let Louis
Napoleon, however, meet with any serious reverse,
either in his domestic policy or his military enter-
' prises, and be will feel the want of a more healthy
support than his Legislature affords him. One of
I the most pitiable chapters in the history of the
fGreat Emperor is the one which recites his dealings
after Waterloo with that Assembly which, in the
fulness of his power, had never approached his
throne but with bated breath and base adulation.

DESTRUCTION Of RAILWAY GATES BY A LUGGAGE
TRAIN.—On Tuesday night a luggage train, on the War.
rington and Stockport Railway, coming from Mithches-
ter, smashed the road gates on the lire crossing the
Knutsford-road, in Latchford. The gates had been left
so as to leave the road open, and the person whose duty
it was to take care of the gate., we undereta d, had gone
to sleep without giving the signal that the gates-on the
line were shut. No accident beyond breaking the gates
occurred.
How TO CHECKMATE ItTUTINY.—TIIO events Which
have recently occurred in the Est in6re than make
good all the arguments we Lava used from time to
•time for the introduction and use of the Cot
revolver. Had officers and Europeans in India been
armed with a brace of Colt's six shooters, confidence
would have been inspired and deeds of valour
more numerous. We would strongly urge upon
officers now going out, and the authorities at home, the
advantages which would accrue from arming art;llery,
iafan ry, and cavalry, net only for personal defence, but
to ta'ie the advantage of, an arm without drawback,
which every other description of weapon poSsesses in
Comparison with the Efficient Colt.—United Service
Gezeite,