The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-05-25
Oh A RLES TON.
FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 25, 1866.
LOUIS NAPOLEON.

The long silence is broken at last. The
oracle has given an utterance; brief to be
sure, but pregnant with meaning. For weeks
the whole civilized world has been straining
its eyes to the utmost, in the vain endeayor to
scan the silent Emperor's ambiguous counte-
nance, and deduce therefrom assurances of
hope for his support of one policy or another,
according to the particular predictions of
the scrutinizer. The telegraph yesterday
morning announced that "NApoLEoN, in o
speech, said I detest the treaties of 1915,
which it is now sought to make the sole basis
of our foreign policy"
This response has very little of the ambig-
uous or oracular about it. There may be a
hidden meaning beneath the mere surface
sense of these ominous words but we have
no occasion for resorting to it; there being
war, bloodshed and slaughter enor sh in the
plain words, as they stand, to shake all Eu-
rope to its foundation. We did not expect so
full and explicit an answer from NAPOLEON
on the very threshold of the opening war,
Kings, Emperors, and diplomatists are not
usually so inge luous. 1t has generally been
thought necessary to cover the real motives
and designs with some plausible excuse. The
Emperor of the French must feel himself and
his position very strong, when he can afford
to dispenae with this ordinary diplomatic
mask
The Emperor has on previous occasion
shown that he detests "the treaties of 1875 )"
viz: at the Congress of Villafranca. But we
do not think he had then reached his present
exalted degree of imperial candor. He did
not assign this antipathy to "the treaties of
1915" as the reason of his alliance with the
King of Sardinia. The London Times is very
angry with NAPOLEON, because he refuses to
come forward and command the European
peace. What right the Thunderer has to lec-
ture his Imperial majesty, We are not told.
A great deal might be said in support of
the policy just announced by LOUIS NAPo-
LEON; we might show that redistribution
of peoples aud provinces on the. European
Continent, was demanded by the best inter-
ests of civilization and progress,--and for the
greater advance of the mental, moral and
material prosperity Of the humaa race The
treaties of 1915 are the result of the first
French Revolution, and the wars to which it
gave rise, covering period Of II years, from
l789 to l866,)-the lifetime of two genera
tions This may not appear to be avery ap-
preoiable fraction in the lifetime of nation.
But it should be remembered, that these II
years must not be measured by any preceding
period Of similar extont. They cover an epoch
of the worlds greatest intellectual activity.
When TENNYsoN sung
'Beter fifty years OF Europe than cycle Of cathay,
he spoke of precisely this period, and point
edly terms the preceding ages of intellectual
torpor "cycles of Cathay." There is notf-
ing very surprising to our mind, therefore,
that an arbitrary arrangement of kingdoms,
peoples, and Provinces ,-"compromised" into
the present Map by o long and bloody war,
and innumerable tricks of diplomacy,-should
no longer meet the demands of the age.
MARTIN LUTHER gave the first blast, that
woke the sleeping nations. His sturdy figure
looms up in the universal darkness Of the CEN
turies, producing the same dread and confu-
sion, chance ray of the monday sun creates
among host of bats, for ages undisturbed.
The feudal system then received fatal thrust,
but fingered on for nearly three hundred
years, till BoNApARTE gave the coup de grace.
A long protracted and sanguinary struggle
preceded this final asettlement." 1t was by
his sword the "Uncle" made himself master
of the situation,-master of Europe, in fact.
The "Nephew' now appears the greater of
the two; for at this momenthe holds the des-
tinies of Continent in his hand. And this
Office of Grand Arbiter he acquired for him
self, not as others before him have done by
war and bloodshed, but by force of character
and --. policy.
But all this presupposes an absence of self
ishnesS, which we are not disposed to impute
to LOUIS NAPOLEON. The glory of the Bo-
NApARrE dynasty and the aggrandizement of
France are one and inseparable, certainly so
at this time.) The real question before US,
then, is what are tho advantages, or some of
them, that may accrue To France from Eu-
ropean War ut this time? Such war, it is to
be borne in mind, must not be sought or com.
menced by FraRcc. She shall "permit" it
only, and at the proper moment step in as ar
bitter or peacemaker. The boundaries of
T.