The New York herald., 1865-03-05

Louis Nepoleon's Now Doosx-Dynastio
Delusions OF tho Emperor. ,-
The many who will persist inregarding Louis
Napoleon as merely an Emperor, In the com-
mon sense Of the word, do him far less than
justice and take their observations Of his CHAR
acter from q standpoint which must forever
prevent their forming true appreciation Of his
motives and the probable outcome Of his acts.
He is essentially philosopher who speculates
in systems Of government; literary man who,
happily or unhappily for himself, has obtained
power to test the various dynastic theories
which he has formed during dreamy life, by
the arbitrament of fleets, armies, edicts and
schemes Of financial the moral and material
resources Of . powerful but tickle people. To
the subjects Of government as q science, and
the perpetnation Of dynasties as an art, he
would seem from his earliest days to have do
voted all the energies of plodding but not
brilliant intellect-an intellect In which we find
the infdelity and audacity which marked the
France of twenty years before his birth, curl
study Of the lessons ofhistory, and touchingly
credulous acquiesoence in whatever may ap-
pear to be the necessities which those lessons
would impose.
That faith In the "Napoleonic star" which,
with the stronger Uncle, was in great part
theatrical assumption, designed to give conf
dence to his followers in times Of peril, would
seem to have been accepted by the weaker
Nephew as religious TRUTH truth both his
torical and philosophic, on the sufficient basis
of which permanent imperial dynasty for
France may with safety be constructed. For
this theory he seeks support in the analogies Of
history-his retrospection continually studying
and reproducing the motives and maxims of
his Uncle, as in the volume entitled "Napoleonic
Ideas; !" and his slow intellect never seem
ing to tire Of analysing the lives Of Julius
Cesar and Charlemagne, as the two great
military and imperial characters in whose de-
signs and successes may be found the closest
parallels to the achievements Of the elder Ma
poleon. For the written results Of his researches
into the history and times of Charlemagne, Pa
Yisian rumor says we may have yet some years
TO wait; but already we know there is in press
q "History of Cesar" from Louis Napoleons
pen-the design Of this last imperial literary
effort being. as wo imagine, to prove: That as
the First Napoleon was, In his oonquests and
final fate, rather close counterpart of the First
Cesar, 50 in the Second Napoleon we may ex-
pect to see revived the peaceful glories, ire
sistible sway, artistic and material progress and
consolidating influences Of the Augastan era.
For this conjecture as 10 the object and in
tended moral Of the forthcoming work, we have
no other ground than q pretty accurate study
Of Louis Napoleon's character and just csti-
mate of the circumstances under which he
writes Occupying the most perplexing and
unstable throne in Europe, . prey to physical
maladies and devoured by desire to perpetu-
ate his dynasty in the person Of his son, the
French imperial KHerater flies to his pen, at
once as relief from expressing cares and
as an instrument which may be made useful in
giving popularity to his ideas. That the views
which, we doubt not, his edition Of Cesar will
be found tc contain are plausible on their face,
Is not to be denied. As the Roman conqueror
laid the foundations Of his greatness by victo-
riously carrying the eagles Of his country over
France, Spain, Germany and Britain, while at
home oil was mutiny and chaos in the expiring
republic Of the municipality Of Rome, SO the
elder Napoleon dazzled the eyes Of France by
his successes in Italy and elsewhere, at period
when the democratic government in Paris had
become the very incarnation Of oppression
without purpose and imbecility from which
there could be no appeal.
In the manner Of their obtaining imperial
power-for Cesar had long held It in fact
though assassinated under suspicion Of desr-
ing to assume Il in title-thcre Is the strictest
possible analogy between the histories Of the
first Roman and the first French emperors.
Both were first GLASS military oonquerors, and
both poor statesmen; both had achieved
triumphs abroad while chaos ruled at home;
both were called upon to return and assume
the direction Of affairs by tho all but unanimous
cry Of people who could nowhere else see
any hope Of stability; both committed the mis-
take Of believing themselves the creators and
not the creatures Of the circumstances by which
they found themselves surrounded; and both
paid the penalty Of their lives-Cesar, the
more happy, under sudden blows, and Napo-
leon in the long exile Of St Helena-for having
failed TO realize that the time In which each
lived was not the proper time for the expert
ment Of personal aggrandzcment which each
attempted.
Different epochs and conditions Of society
call for and produce new forms Of government
Rome had originally been governed by kings
Of whom Tarquinius Superbus was the last
Then camo four hundred years Of so-called
republican government, which was just termi
mating, utterly SfFete and exhausted, wheI
Cesar stepped 6pon the stage. Il was not re
/! public In saI true sense. tbs municipsliS