Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1853-06-04

Ii LOUIS NAPoLEoN SnoULDs DIE. The con-.
ficting accounts rom Paris in reference to the
Emperor's health naturally suggests The question,
what would besecnsequence if Re was to die If
the assertions o the 50 called republicans are to
be believed, Louis Napoleon IS the victim of a
chronic disease, which, in less than year, will
certainly carry him off. If the declarations of the
Bonapartists are to be credited, there is nothing
the matter with his majesty, nor has been, except
few announcement boils. We shall not pretend to
decide between the two opinions, as we neither
the Emperors valet nor physician, and have be-
sides not the least inclination to be either even
the Emperor himself.
If Louis Napoleon should die at an early day,
there would, we fear, be wild work, notwithstand-
ing his pretty Empress. and senGtus consuttuna
about the succession. There are, in truth, but two
real powers in France, the army and the people,
though there are any number of factions, and any
quantity of pretended powers. In England, not
only the declared laws of the realm, but a thou
sand customs and prescriptions, exercise an infu-
ence, which, though moral entirely is greater than
any other. In the United States, reverence not
merely for the Federal Constitutions and for the
State constitutions also, but for law and order gen.
orally, constitutes power mightier than even the
passing will of the people. But in France there
remain no customs, laws, constitutions, which
command respect, which have hold upon the
public mind. ...,.
IF in England the monarch dies, the heir quiet
ly succeeds. If we lose a President here the Vice
President steps into his place, and not voice is
lifted against it. For both in England and here
the Constitution is reverenced more than the man;
both in England and here obedience to law is each
citizens fundamental notion of his public duty.
But in France, ever since the ruin of the old mon
archy, there has been nothing to stop universal IL
cense on the fall of dynasty except the brute
force of the army, or the moral force of the peo-
substantially nugatory, both because it has not been
intelligent, and because it has no means of enforc
ing its wishes. There is to believe that the
government of Louis Philippe, and even the re-
public of Lamartine, were never acceptable to the
mass of the French people. But the Parisians sus-
tanned those governments, and the rural popula
ton submitted because they could not help it and
hence both governments continued until the army
turned against them, when they fell; but only to
make way for new usurpations. Thus the army
after all is practically the only real power in France
Louis Napoleon, by appealing to the popular vote,
has obtained for his dynasty quasi sanction by
the people; but it is plain that, if he was to lose
the support OF the army, the enthusiasm of the
people for his name could do him no good He
would, in fact, sink like stone
While the Emperor lives, the fidelity OF the ar
my is possible. If he could live for thirty years,
and retain the aid of the army, he might by gra-
dually extending liberty, do much tor France. But
the first is nearly as impossible physically as the
two latter morally. Louis Napoleon, in the Or
binary of events, must die long before the
French could become accustomed to his institutions
good as they might be, so as to reverence them in
the sense in which the English and Americans rev.
erence their institutions. He will die probably even
before any heir he may have can attain majority
The great officers of the army will not, we may
rest assured, submit to be ruled by boy there
will, as under similar circumstances in imperial
Rome, be general scramble; and that command
er will attain the purple who is most popular with
the troops and most unscrupulous
This will be the result, when the Emperor dies,
if the army remains opposed to the people. But
if the army goes over temporarily to the side of
the people, as it has so often done before, then
there will be fourth, fifth, or sixth attempt at
republic In the end, possibly, of these at
tempts may succeed permanently, though we doubt
it. What France wants, before she can become re-
publican really, is the habit of selfgovernment,
which she can only obtain through free municipal
tiles, local elections, and the spread of sound pot-
zeal views. These only be had gradually. But
while her present system of Capitalization contin-
u"s, she will be governed absolutely let who will
reign at Paris and whether she is called empire,
kingdom. republic.