San Andreas independent., 1858-09-04
The conversation proceeded

acknowledge the sovereignty of the people and
to bow passively to universal suffrage. You
must have, as member of the whole, clear
notion of your intended initiative; you must
have, beyond your worship of universal suf-
frage, political creed
"Louis Bonaparte looked little embar-
rassed; but after moments silence, My
creed, said he, is the Empire. Was it not the
Empire that raised the French nation to the
summit of greatness and glory? am con-
vinced that the destiny of the Empire rests on
the national will
90 But the Empire involves, suppose, the
hereditary principle?'
"'Yes'
And how is it possible to reconcile the
principle of the sovereignty of the people with
the hereditary principle? These are contra
dictory terms. The latter is the negation of
the former"
A Democrat, said Louis Blanc, is of
necessity opposed to any hereditary form
OF Governmentw whatever. The sovereignty
of the people is not, as principle, to be
confined to given period How could
the present generation be allowed to con-
fscate the right Of all the generations to
come? A compact of that sort is in it's
very essence null and void" He eproceeds: /:
g l had leave for three days stay. They
were spent in marshalling all the various top
les that had reference either to the general
state of affairs or the particular situation of
the prisoner.
Among the circumstances present to my
memory there is one which think worth men
toning, as it serves to bring out into stronger
relief the hard disposition that was evnced by
his subsequent conduct. One afternoon he
was telling me the particulars of his failure at
Boulogne, when on a sudden his voice seemed
to falter; he stopped, struggled a moment to
repress sob, and burst into tears.
+" The next day we went out to take walk
over the narrow rampant assigned to his mel
ancholy promenade, which was watched, of
course, on all sides by sentinels. Methinks
see him still, his head reclining, walking with
slow steps, and speaking in low voice, as if
fearful lest the wind should bear every word
he uttered to the gaoler The conversation
now was about the History of the Roman
Emperors as written in a book, which Louis
Bonaparte admired very much on account of
the partiality shown by the author for those
tyrants whom Tacitus branded with everlast-
ing infamy. In Louis Bonaparte's opinion
Tacitus was in the wrong and the modern au-
thor in the right. l had not read the book so
warmly praised, but was not at loss to guess
the secret reason why Louis Bonaparte praised
it. So took the opposite side of the question
in somewhat excited manner, which called
forth on his part a recommendation little an
ticipated. Pray speak low,' he whispered,
and, turning round, he pointed to a man who
distance, without losing sight of u.s. Louis
Bonaparte does not remember now, certainly.
but do, that he ayailed himself of the oppor-
tunity to expatiate on the wretchedness of
that policy which needs a dark army of spies,
takes root in the filthiest recesses of human
nature, and glories in the very degradation of
ofits agents"
Louis Blanc's time was nearly at an end.
He determined to give his prisoned friend
some good advice, and says it was COM
municated thus:
My visit, drawing near its close, l thought
it my duty to make last appeal both to his
reason and to his heart; l said to him:
60 Remember, the Empire was the Emperor
Can the Emperor rise again The march of
time has made for US a new condition of life.
The France of our days is no longer the France
of fifty years since. The idea of labor has out
stepped the passion of battles. Other aspira-
tions and other wants call for other institu-
tions and other heroes. People have ceased
placing their ambition in b!indly putting on a
uniform to go to kill and die. The question is
no longer to rule and amaze men, but to rem
der them good and happy. No. no; Napoleon,
should he rise again, would not repeat himself
Could any one achieve with his name, what
he, in our days, could not do with his genius
Were the Empire to revive it would only be
in the shape of bloody meteor. Under the
sway of your uncle despotism was at least
wrapt up in the purple mantle of military glo-
ry, and even this could not so well hide from
the nation the direful skeleton, but she became
Mortified. Remember that France let Napo-
leon fall because his power had grown too
heavy to be borne any longer. Had he not
been abandoned by France he would never
have met his doom at Waterloo Remember
how he died; remember where he died -
Whether it be absolutely impossible to bap-
tise in blood a new monarchy, and to maintain
it for time by surrounding Paris with SOL
diers, by smuggling spies everywhere, by gag
ging the press, by immersing France in the
abject worship of the cashbox, and by restor-
ing their WORKOUT liveres to senators and val
cts, is more than | will venture to say. But
what would a sceptre be worth held upon such |
conditions2 Believe me, there is really moth I
ing acceptable in France but Republic, pro-
vlded it be true to its principles, because the |
Republic is the only fit Government for a ma
ton in whose mind the revolutionary teach
ing of half a century has riveted the principle +
Of equality The Republic is the necessary