The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-05-13

serviceable kind. His talents are ordinary,
but his perseverance,, tenacity, power Of dis
stimulation, and inhexibilty Of will, ure extra
ordinary. He is a memorable and most in
structive example that great achievements are
within the reach ofa very moderate intellect,
when that intellect is concentrated upon a
single object, and linked with unbending and
undaunted resolution. Moreover, his mental
endowments, through neither varied nor COM
prehensive, are very vigorous. He is natur-
ally shrewd, secret g. impenetruble, He has
the invaluable faculty of silence. He has,
too, been n patient and wide observer. He
has studied politics in Switzerland, in Ameri- |
ca, and in England; he has devoted his mind
to that one subject. He is, too, deep think
er. He ponders much; which few Frenchmen
do. His six years captivity in Ham matnr-
ed and strengthened, by silent meditation,
whatever natural capacities he may have poss-
essed. He writes well and speaks well; and
all his writings and speeches, even where
they betray the narrow limits oehs knowledge, |
indicate an eminently thoughtful mind. He |
has brooded over the history, politics and So
cial condition of France, till on these sub :
jects he is probably one of the best informed
men in the country, though, like most of his
countrymen, welded to many absurd and i'm
practicable crotchets, which better knowl-
edge of political economy would explode.
1t is certain, also, that whatever he does
and says is his own. He acts and speaks for
himself, without reference and without assis-
tance. He listens to every one, asks advice
from no one, gives his interlocutors no idea
-bo,b boir nptS boy rno do hp
least impression upon him, but resolves his
plans in the gloomy recesses of his own brain,
and brings them forth matured, homogeneous, |
and unexpected. The minutest details Of the |
coup d'etdt were arranged by himself All
those from Changarnier and Theirs down to
Faucher, who have endeavored to lead, drive,
or govern him, have all been batfed, outwit-
ted, and cast aside. When he rose at the ta-
BILE at Bordeaux to make his recent celebrated
speech, he observed to his Minister on Foreign
A fairs, who sat next TO him-''Now | am 60
ing to astonish you not little" When he
announced his intention of visiting Abdel
Kader at Amboise, General st. Amund ex-
pressed his hope that Louis Napoleon would
not think of liberating him, made long
speech, expostory of all the evils that would
result from such piece ofQuixotic generosi-
,y, and quilted the President quite satisfied
that he had succeeded in banshng any such
scheme from his thoughts. Nor was it till he
actually heard Louis Napoleon announcing to
his captive his approaching freedom, that he
was aware how much good argument he had
thrown away. Whatever, therefore, OF sa-
gacty or wisdom is displayed in the language
| or conduct of the new Emperor, must be cred
| tied to himself alone.
But we shall greatly and dangerously mis-
| conceive Louis Napoleon, if we regard him
as man of shrewdncss, reflection and CAL
culation only. The most prominent feature
of his character is wild, irregular roman
sQue maginaton-whi often overrides all his
reasoning and reflective faculties, and spurs
him on to actions and attempts which seem
insane if they fail and the acme of splendid
audacity if they succeed. The abortions Of
Starsbourg and Boulogne, and coup d'etat of
last December, were equally the dictates-a-
like the legitimate. progcny-of thei same
mental peculiarity. He believes, too, in his
"star. "-He is even binder and rasher fa-
ltalst than his uncle. From early childhood
he believed himself destined to restore the
Dynasty of the Buonapartists, aud the old
glories of the Empire. He brooded over this
imagined destiny during long years of exile,
and in the weary days and nights of his i'm
prisonment, till it acquired in his fancy the
solidity and dimensions of an ordained fact
He twice attempted to pluck the pear before
it was ripe. His ludcrous failure in no de-
gree discouraged MIN, or shook his conviction
of ultimate success. He only waited for an
other opportunity, and prepared for it with
more sedulous diligence and caution. He
"bided his time;" the time came: he struck
and won. After such success-a'ter having
risen in four years from being an impoverish
ed exile to being Emperor of rance-afte
having played the bodest stroke known
in modern history--aher having discounted
deceived, and overpowered the cleverest, th'
most popular, the most eminent, and the mos
experienced men in France--we may well be
lieve that his faith in his "destiny" is con
frmed and rooted almost TO the pitch of mon
omania, and that no future achievements, NJ
further pinnacle of greatness, will seen
wild or impossible to him after Past so e
yenttul, marvellous, and demorazing.
Another pecuarity of his character is, tha
he never abandons an idea or project he ha
once entertained. IL he meets dificultie
and opposition he dissmulates or postpones
he never really yields or changes. Cole
patient, and inscrutable, he waits an
watches, and returns to his purpose when tn
favorable moment has arrived. History afford
few examples of such a pertnacious, endul
ing, relentless, inexorable will. This, of itsel
is species of greatness of the most tormida
Bile kind If, then, to this delineation we ad
that, reserved and silent as he is, he has tn
art of attracting warmly to him those VIII
have been long about him, and who have live
intimately with him; that, like most fata
: lists, he wholly inscriptions and unhestatin
as to his agents and his means; and that
= entertalns and has deliberately matured Il
most extensive, deeplaid, and magnfice
schemes of foreign policy, we have eShaust'