Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1852-10-22
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iNUMBER,24S
SELECTls.fY ARIETY.3.
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Napoleon the Little. %,

F4
Under this title, Victor Hugo has Just published
at London by far the most unsparing criticism and
the bitterest assault yet made upon the ruler Of
France. 1t is volume 400 pages, divided into
nine books. From the first of these, entitled the
Man, the Courier des Etds Unis publishes an ex-
tract, of which The Philadelphia Ledger translates
portion It is ut once most brilliant species of
lnvectve, and profession Of faith in the eternal
vitality of Liberty:'tI iUt.zeM .S iHTJa
Let us set forth this triumph of order let us
depict this Government, vigorous settled; squared
strong, having on its side crowd of small young
men who have more ambition than pairs of boots:
parasites and miserable beggars, sustained on the
| exchange by Fould, the Jew, and in the Church by
Montalembert, the Catholic; esteemed by women
who wish to be girls, and by men who wish to be
projects; sustanedby coalition of prostitution,
giving fetes, making Cardinals, wearing a white
cravat, and with an opera hat under the ann
| with gloves like fresh butter as Morny new warn
ished as Maupas, fresh brushed as Persigny; rich,
elegant, clean, gilded, brushed, joyous, born in
sea of blood. s''t St'2.
eyes, there will be waking up.
.F"Yes, men will come out of this torpor, which,
for such people, is shame and when France shall
wake up, when it shall get its eyes open, when it
shall see whati has got before it and at its side, it
will recoi, this France with torrible shudder be-
| fore the monstrous crime which has presumed to
espouse her in the darkness, and whose bed she
has sharec - :. =; ~ =, ( ,5s 5 l't ~
Then the last hour will sound. sisI,f ilf5
!" The skeptics smile and insist on saying, Hope
nothing. This regime, we believe, is the shame
Of France So be it. This shame is quoted on
Change. 10 Hope nothing. You poets and
dreamers if you hope. Look around you, The
tribune the press, intelligence, speech, thought,
everything which was liberty has Disappeared
Yesterday it moved it acted, it lived-today, it is
petrihed. Well, then !lpeople. are? content, they
adapt themselves to this petrfaction, they turn it
to account, they cary on their business and live in
it as usual Society continues, and !niulitudes OF
honest men find things well enough as they are
Why do you wish for change? Why do you wish
to bring this state of things to an end !? Do not
deceive yourselves This is soid this is substan-
tial, this is the present and the, future,
'fWeare in Russia. The NeYa is frozen over
Houses are built upon it. Heavy carriages pass on
its surface. 1t is no longer water, tits rock. Pas
river. city is rapidly built streets are laid out
shops are opened-they buy, they sell, they eat,
they drink, they light a fire on this water They
can indulge in everything. Fear nothing, do wha!
you please, laugh and dance, it is rlner than the
solid earth. Hurra for Winter? Hnrra for ice?--
1t is here for eternity. Look at the sky. ltis day?
1t is midnight A dim and pallid ray glimmers on
| the snow-you would say that the sun was dying.
emo, thou dost not dye, o Liberty? One of
these days, at a moment when it is least expected,
at the very hour when thou art most completely
forgotten, thou wilt rise again? All! dazzling spec
tacle! Thy sun-like face will at once emerge from
the horizon and illuminate the sky. Over all this
snow, over all this ice this white and stffened
plain over this wafer, now solid block, over this
shameful winter thou wilt launch thy golden beams
thy brilliant and burning rays? Light! Life!-
Heat. And then listen -
''Do you hear that dull sound? Do you hear
that deep and frghtful cracking? 1t is the break
ing up of the ice? 1t is the Neya which flows
gain. 1t is the living water, joyful and terrible.
which lifts up the dead and hideous ice and breaks
itinto pieces. It was granite, do you say? 1t
breaks like piece of glass. 1t is breaking up,
tell you.' Itstruth which returns, lis progress
which recommends, it is humanity which takes up
its march, and which floats off, drives forward,
hurries on, strikes. dashes, crushes and browns,
like the miserable furnishings Of down fallen how
el, not only the new empire of: Louis Bonaparte,
but all the structures and all .e, ancient
eternal despotism. Look at it as it passes away
1t is about to disappear forever. You will never
see it more, This book, halfsubmerged, is the old
code of iniquity-th;s stool which is engulfed, is
the throne, and this which is swept away is the
scaffold .S4i5-iF 70 nUilUiis23ta1 EsHEglls
ID "For rthisstupendous deluge, for this supreme vic
tory of life over death, what iswanting? One of
thy beams, o Sun! One of. thy rays, o Liberty!'