Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-04-20


childhood he must have been accustomed to
hear innumerable anecdotes tending to sow the
seeds of an unscrupulous ambition in his nature.
His uncle was to him as Mahomet, and proph-
ct of revolution, founder of dynasty, the in
carnation of principle pretending to be dem
ocratc, but transparently absolutist. Glancing
at his life before the Strasbourg invasion, we
may remark that when banished from Italy, he
applied to Louis Philippe for permission TO serve
even as common soldier in the army of France.
The wary King of the French answered by or
derng him to quit the kingdom. He at once
came to England, and remained there until Au-
gust 1881. We were then passing through
the Reform Bill crisis, and Louis Napoleon had
an opportunity of noting the working of the
British Constitution. He then went again to
Switzerland and commenced military studies as
fresh as volunteer at the military school of
Thun. He was presented with the right of CON-
munial citizenship by the Canton of Thurgovia; !;
in return for which honor, he presented the Can
ton with (what will our readers guess y two
six-pounders, with trains and equipages COM
plete. From first to last in his career, we are
made to think of the salvos of artillery that an
nounced his birth.
AT this period, he employed his pen in writ
ing his Political Reveries, and his Political and
Military Reflections upon Switzerland These
works are worthy of n passing notice, as show
ing how early he had begun to systematic his
thinking. In the presence Of the grave facts of
his career, we cannot take the light tone of the
sarcastic; but in reading the following passage
from his essay, our readers will perhaps think
that the work which contains it was rightly call
ed the authors "Reveres" He says, "The
first wants of a nation are independence, liberty,
stability, the supremacy of merit, and the enjoy
ments of life equally diffused The best form
of government would be that under which eve-
ry abuse Of power might in any case be correct
ed; under which, without social disturbance,
without effuson of blood, not only the laws, but
the head of the State, might be susceptible of
change: for one generation has no right to SUBJ
ject to its laws generations to come" All thro'
his writings are interspersed vague platitudes of
political morality; everything, however, being
subordinated TO the idea of Emperor" He
says, in his "Reveres" "The three bodies of
the State should be, the people, the Legislative
body, and the Emperor" Upon this last polit-
ical term he had clearer views than on the words
9" liberty" abuse of power" or" people" En-
peror" and the first personal pronoun were OBJ
viously synonymous in his vocabulary. Of his
Essay in Switzerland, we may say, that it at
tests industry and pains on the part of the writ
er, and indicates considerable mental activity
1t is the production of an exercised intellect, and
these volumes give us abundant proofs that he
has never received sufficient credit from the
world on the score of his understanding. Is it
that the world can ADORE only success. No;
but because his projects were so intensely per-
sona, his objects so wild, and his means so RI
diculous, that whatever ability he ispayed with
Ia,; doJ nf ;te
ing draw backs He had visibly set his fortunes
on a cast, and determined to be Emperor or
nothing
Such being the man, he resolved now to hurl
Louis Philippe from his throne, and occupy it
by himself. For his period of assault he chose
the 30th of October, 1886. He has himself, in
long letter to his mother, to be found in these
volumes, and worthy of perusal, narrated the
event. How he addressed the soldiers-how he
displayed the eagle of Austertz--how he pro-
claimed, Frenchmen, everything that is estab-
lished without your authority is illegitimate"--
how a few soldiers cried, Vire PEmpereur-how
after wavering, the troops obeyed their officers,
after some of them had desired to bayonet him
ARE narrated at full length, with the garrulity
of sef-importance. This escapade of his was
visited with singular clemency. It's gravest chas-
tisement was the ridicule of Paris. Louis Phil
ippe displayed great forbearance and magnanim-
ity under the circumstances. The young adven-
turer was sent off at once to the United States
where we enter on the next period of his
eventfu story.
Q. He visited both North and South America,
and corresponded with his mother--his letters
to her exhibiting good feeling and fial respect
But all through there runs the under current of
Napoleonism. They are dashed also with a
great deal of what, to our English taste, looks
like affected sentmentaism, Of that French
school of writer's of whom Chateaubriand, is the
type. We doubt whether any Stuart, from 1850
to their family extinction, brooded so constant
ly on the fortunes Of his family and its chance
of resurrection, as did Louis Napoleon. Even
the foreign scenery of South America did not
distract his mind from the grand object of his
life The intensity of his family passioil-a de-
termination to arrive at supreme power--is WIS.,
ibe through all his letters--on the genuineness
of which there does not appear any strong
grounds for throwing doubt. They are not nu-
merous, and they are in harmony with all that
passed in the early and later parts of his career.
While he was travelling in the New World, his
character and his descent at Strasbourg became
subjects of discussion in Paris and it was whis-
pered that Lafayette looked on him with some
favor, and that the hgh-soued Republican Jour-
nast Armand Carre did not show himself per-