New-York daily tribune., 1856-03-29

80 ranged WITH much I1sF clu lD tfu'i Pi"PS''''-0'
decorated the saloon Forty years ago the
Congress Of Vienna sat within sight OF this banquet
hall to settle the destinies Of Europe foreIer In
eeine Metteruicb, or Castleresgh, or Wellington
seeing in vision its walls decorated with those
minpling symbols and resOunding with shouts II
honor Of tie putative son of Louis BonaParte.
Within Gun. shot Of the place lies the body OF the
poor Duke de Reich.tsdt, Who was hardly suffered
10 k1oy who be was while be lived, till MS pre-
mature death took load of the dull breast of abso
Iutism. and whose lawful succession as Napoleon
H., is DOW acknowledged by the recognition OF tae
title OF his successor. Wha! could seem more
dead than the NapOleonic dynasty then And
what i. more informed with life aud full of strength
than il is now
1t is but little more than forty years since
Walter Scott expressing the intensity of the dread
and hatred Napoleon had excited in the British
heart, ssid in bis haste that he should have been
put to death as a noxious animal or felon For
more than twenty years England had bent all
her corporal and mental energies to the task Of de-
sratipg and chas.isng the French Revolution
Hundreds of millions of money, aud tens Of thou
sands of lives had been lsvi.bed in the crusade and
il seemed at last successful. The wicked Genius
had been seized, imprisoned in the fatal casket
sealed with the sgnet OF Solomon and cast lnto the
sea, to trouble the world no more. And 10 the
casket has been fshed up and opened, and the
Imperial Shadow rules over Europe from behind
the throne which owes sll its pageantry and power
70 the magic of bis name. And England has taken
bis successor (his, whose empty title she would
never allow, even in courtesy y to her bosom, and
kissed him on either cheek, and bound her Garter
below bis knee. and followed him to the war which
his necessities required, and is about to acquesce
in the peace which his needs now demand How
the ghost of the Conqueror of Austertz must
"laugh and shake bis ears " in the Elysean Fields,
in thus posthumously trampling over his enemies
and ruling the nations from his urn
Now, We have not yet imbibed the admiration Of
the First Napoleon which reverend biographer OF
his feels it TO be his divine mission to spread
abroad. We do not admire the way in which he
showed either his love of peace or bis democratic
tendencies We pray to be delivered from all such
blessings. But he did great work for mankind in
the blows he dealt to their idols and perhaps there
in their stead. The deifcation Of such monsters as
Tiberius and Domitian no doubt helped more than
ANYTHING else to destroy the prestige of Paganism
and to open the way to purer religion. SO the
admission of the seedy special policeman OF the
10th Of April into the innermost sanctuary OF Des-
potism must help to disperse what of the divinity
that hedges kings is left and which has much to
l.. -. l.. ,h ucb Ha has haan a mn pY
traordinary adyenturer, 10 be sure. If not the
Child of Destiny, he is at any rate her Nephew.
But can he put his finger on the restless wheel OF
Fortune and bid it stand still for him' Can he
stay the wings of Time as he sweeps empires and
institutions into nothingness' Where will he aud
his dynasty be in forty years from this day 1t
matters not much whether the baby-clothes of the
imperial infant, which even now We hear is at
hand impatient for the spies, will be those
trimmed with white or with blue. 1t will be all
one forty years hence, and for long time before,
whether il be Prince or Princess whose birth the
cannon Of the Inyalidcs will announce TO listening
Paris Greater changes will have been seen within
that time than those we now moralize over.
This assumption of the Headshp of Europe BY
this dubious BoDaparte andits allowance by all the
great Powers, ia one of the strangest phenomena Of
this phenomenal age His audaciy, his talent, (for
the wretch must have talent and his luck have all
conspred to put the rudder of that Continent, for
the time into his hand. But il is more than he can
do were he ten times his uncle to keep the ship of
the rocks. This very portent is oninous, with
"fear Of change perplexing monsrchs, even while
they tremble before it. Our great grandchildren,
who will be reading history in the year Of grace
1856, will have mightier changes in the condition
of Europe to ponder upon than any We know OF.
And if of Europe, will there be nothing to give
them pause in century Of American history
VIII the whirgg of time have no reyenges to bring
about for US, too Slavery does not seem more in
solent, nor seem mo,e firmly fixed now ia America
than the BOurbOns did in France hundred years
ego. And where are they now The old ideas of
feudality and absOlutism were as firmly established
Oh the Continent as those Of the Slave domination
are here. And the ideas Of civil liberty and per-
sor al rights were not much better understood in
England then than are the responsibilities OF
this country in the matter Of Slavery now. In one
ssy or another Slavery must have come to an end
before century is at an end Its effects may still
be felt, and there will remain much to be done to
edify the commonwealth Alright; but it is hardly
possible that such black anomaly can dsrken our
land for another hundred years-unless barbarism
returns to possess lie ancient reign, the wolf has
ginia settlers drove him away. But Slavery is