Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-05-12


Are you to visit London as an Emperor or as a
General2 Others who have been EmperUrs and
have visited it before you, and have re-
ceived, as you will receive, triumphal ovations.-
will you visit Trafalgar-square, Waterloo. place,
Waterloo bridge, the Waterloo monument There
Nicholas was received by the Aldermen. Will you
20 to the brewery of Perkins? There lIaynau was
received by the Workmen. Are you coming TO
talk about the Crimea? Have a care! The sub
iect is one of deep mourning. The disaster OF Sc
~vastopol opened tho sides Of England even more
than those Of France. The French army is in its
death throes-the English army is dead, n TACT,
which-if we may credit those who admire your
tortune-has made one of your historians say
I've revenge Waterloo without having wilied 1T
NAPOLEON III. has done more harm to England 10y
one year of alliance, than Napoleon |. 10y fifteen
years Of war; Your friends no longer say Napo-
leon the Great. Why is this?
Yes, you have such adulators, Emperor OF the
hour! It is a strange thing--that wlSieh they call
our destiny. Words fail US, and we are supplied
with the thought that you yourself may have ar
rived at the belief that YOU are somebody that
you consider your horrible tragedy asvory serious
and that you will create a mighty ode2t on Europe
by appearing before the English people, in your
new character-silent, happy and luguIrious-
clouded y a fog of crimes, crowned by an lmpe-
rial sort of mysterious infumy, and bearing on
your forehead all those dark deeds that belong to
the jurisdiction of the thunderbolt.
And the aSSlZeS, Clr. OD, bneSe VcTTlDle CNIlcH-
ces! You will hear them. Why do you come
here? -,
Take any Of those who, for various reasons will
welcome YOU: take the most enthusiastic, and most
intoxicated; take the Englishman--Alderman min
lister, lord-who is most loud merging ''hurrah for
the Emperor" take him and ask him this simple
question: "What would the people of England
do to a man, who, being in power, under some tt
tie or anothcr-as a minister, for instance, land
you were such a one, Sir, would, on the pretence
Of having sworn, before men and God, fidelity to
the Constitution, take England by the throat-de-
stroy the Parliament-upset legislation-cast the
incorruptible members of the House into the cells
of Millbank and Newgate-annihilate Westmins-
ter-turn the Woolsack into a guardhouse- expel
the Judges--tie the hands of Justice--gag the
press-break up the printing ~ofhces-strangle the
papers-cover London with guns and bayonets-
empty the Bank into the pockets of his soldiers
take the houses by storm-cut the threats of men
aud women, old and young-transform Hyde Park
into n ditch of nightly urders-bomba the city
the Strand, Regent-street, Clearinghouse, twenty
wards of London, twenty counties OF England
cucumber the streets with the cOrpses of passers-
by-fll the cemeteries and hospitals-spread dark
ness, silence and death around who would, in
short, suppress by one blow, freedom, right, the
law and the nations life What would repeat,
what would the English people do to such a man ?
Why, before the question had time to be fully ut,
tered, the very soil of this land would throw OFT
and dress the ladder of the scahold. Yes, the
scaGold!
Once more-stop away from this land. Think,
moreover, of the imprudence to whi,h you will ex-
pose the Government-yOur host. Paris has sud
den cruptions-the years 1889, 1880, 1913 speak
aloud. What guarantees to be offered to the Eng
lish people, who set, and Justly, a high price on
the friendship of France? what guarantees can
the British Government be offered, that a revolu-
ton shall not burst forth behind your heels-that
the scenery will not change suddenly--that that
old gamc-dis.urbcr, the Faubourg Saint Antoine
will not awake and kick down the Empire, and
that the English Government will not at once, at a
single vibration of the electric telegraph, find it
self treating at st. James and banqueting every
where-not his Majesty the Emperor of the French
but the pale and trembling culprit accused 10y
France and the Republic not Napoleon of the
moment, but Napoleon of the pillory
April 8, 1855. VICTOR HUGO.