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

orooie HIS given an utteranCe, brlef to be
sure, but pregnant with meaning. For weeks
the whole civilized world has been straining
its eyes to the utmost, in the vain endeavor to
scan the silent Emperor's ambiguous counte-
nance, and deduee 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 chat "NAPoLEoN, in q
speech, said: detest tho treaties of 1915,
which il IL now sought to make the sole basis
of our foreign poliey."t
This response has very little of the ambig-
uous or oracuiar 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 enough in the
plain words, as they stand, to shake all Eu-
rope to its foundation. We did not expect 30
full and exploit an answer from NAPOLEON
on the very threshold of the opening war,
Kings, Emperors, and diplomatists are not
usually so ingenious. 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 dispense with this ordinary diplomatic
mask. -.. ..-
The Emperor has on q previous occasion
shown that he detests ''the treaties of 1915 :"
viz mt 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 s'the treaties of
1915" as the reason of his alliance with the
King of Sardinia. The London Times is yery
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
creator advance of the mental, moral and
material prosperity of the human race. The
treaties Of 1915 are the result of the first
French Revolution, and the wars to which it
gave rise, covering period of IT years, from
1889 to ls66,)-the lifetime of two genera.
tons. This may not appear to be very ap-
preciable fraction in the lifetime of a nation.
But it should be remembered, that these IT
years must not be measured by any preceding
period of similar extont. They cover an epoch
OF tho worlds greatest intellectual activity.
When TENNYsoN sung
"Better hiy years OF Europe than cycle of cathay"
he spoke of precisely this period, and point
edly terms the preceding ages of intellectual
torpor "cyoles of Cathay." There is notr-
ing very surprising to our mind, therefore,
that an arbitrary arrangement of kingdoms,
peoples, and provinees,- -"eompromised into
the present Map by a long and bloody war,
andinnumerable tricks of diplomacy
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.
turtles, 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 a 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 "settlement." 1t was by
his sword the "Uncle" made himself master
of the situations ,--master of Europe, in fact.
The "Nephew' now appears the greater Of
the two; for at this moment he 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
vsS and bloodshed, but by force of character
and ----~~-- policy. ....
But all this presupposos an absence of self
ishness, which we are not disposed to imputt
to LOUIS NAPOLEON. The glory of the Bo
NApARTE dynasty and the aggrandizement o
France are one and inseparable, certainly 81
at this time.) The real question before us
then, is what are the advantages, or some O
them, that may accrue to France from Eu
ropean War at this time Suoh war, it is t
be borne in mind, must not be sought or com
menoed by France. She shall "permit"
only, and at the proper moment step in as 81
bitter or peaoemaker. The boundaries &
France were fixed in 1915, as we find thor
to-day, with one exception only, viz: whe
the present Emperor took in piece of ane,