The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-17
SPIRIT OF TEE PRESS.
e dltorIaI Opinions of the Leading rm Journals
Unon Current Topics Complied Every
Doy for the Evening Telegraph
PRINCE NAPOLEON.


iestv of France went off at tangent to AJacclo,
and there uttered his warning against the
blunder of subjugating Mexico and offending
the United States, the oracle known as
Prince Napoleon has been seldom heard
aloud IL would be wonderful, however, If
Bonaparte could do as the Bourbons have
DONE and pass through long silence without
learning great deal and forgetting nothing
Prince Plon-Plon, though content to seem an
appendage to the Empire, is not mere ap-
purtenance of its Emperor. AS the Bona
partes 90, he is the best, and
among Frenchmen eligible for rule and
for public affairs, his position, character,
and talents make him extraordinary. His
sagacity at times has rendered him very talr
time-piece to the empire, only the mlnEte-
hand was too fast. He impersonates as much
of conscience as can be entertained IN Dloou
relation to a French dynasty. The Prince Is
thinker, q student, man OF some reverles
and few deeds He careers about France
now and then like lame and lazy eagle.
Seemingly he is Bonaparte out OF WORK. or
an imperial cadet growing grey, though as
vet but forty-seven years OF age, ana, as ne
himself SAYS almost the youngest member OF
The French Senate. The Prince has eccentri-
cities, tastes, and accomplishments; he is an
orator, and, more than that he is states
man. Were the Emperor, who may now be
point of death, perhaps the royal opportunity
would arrive for this unemployed Bonaparte
"a task Of Regency in connection with
oueen who is attached to her confessor, and
who is supposed not to know how to govern.
We differ with those who treat the Princes
late speech as inadequate to the sensation it
created. 1t was made to body OF cSnscript
fopies to whom the Prince had the frankness,
we will not say the boldness, to utter truths
L III fl,a ial altr,r,S nf
his Majesty are familiar, but stimulating
truths nevertheless. He argued in the face of
some of their own fears that the Senatus Con-
sultum was not an experiment, and announced
that though liberty may be for q while
eclipsed, it is the light to which all civilized
nations tend; and perhaps it was with covert
Sarcasm that he hoped he might class France
with civilized nations. He said that after
Napoleons return from Elba he was
thorough convert to constitutional principles
as, indeed, he should have been if he was not.
,s'You will ruin pretenders," he said, ''by
granting liberty, but give them chance if you
withhold it," and then the Prince uttered a
sentiment which reminds us of his love of the
fine arts:-'Liberty is cosmopolitan, it is
human, it is like the beautiful in its unity"
Opposition, he thinks, is the salt which gives
SAVIOR to political food A witty statesman
once said that you may do anything with
bayonets but sit down upon them; and the
Prince adds:-"You may do anything with
despotism except make it last !" He objects
TO a ptebiscituma, believing that the Govern
ment has been more effective and expeditions
In Senatus Consultum. He construes the
amnesty as certain pledge for the future.
He desires to see the Senate stripped of its
excrescence of power and made a proper
legislative body. Not being accustomed
to deal tenderly with what he condemns,
the Prince considers the institution of the
Senatus Consultum as something ridiculous
and the fact that the Senate may act legisla-
lively during six months prorogation of the
Corps Legislatif, and even vote the budget
as simply monstrous. ''This power is fright
ful, calmly observes the Prince. He proceeds
TO say that the Senate's exclusive privilege to
discuss the CONSTITUTIONAL plainly violated
IN the late interpolation of 116 deputies
ought to be abolished. He desires an increase
IN the number of deputies, and wants to see
the clrcumscriptions fixed otherwise than by
imperial Decree to the ruin of gerrymander-
ing. Furthermore he thinks the Mayors
Should be elected by Municipal Councils, and
quotes from talk he had with a peasant in
proof. ''By and by, he says, ''when, as in
evitably must be the case, you come to dis
cuss the repeal of the law of Public Safety, of
Article rs of the Constitution of the year
VIII, of the administration of the city of
Paris, of the relations between Church and
State, and new laws on primary and gratui-
tous instruction, liberty of superior instruc-
lion, decentralization, individual liberty, and
real economy, then the great battle will
come" Thus much for the Princes pros
pectus of reform, to which few Frenchmen
will object on grounds of liberality. The
Princes best sentence is, we think, directed
at the Emperor, and the phantom of RESPONSE.
bility. ''The Emperors responsibility is
something vague and superior, high up in
clouds and mists-I will not attempt to define
it; ADLER men than have renounced the task.
As have already said, his responsibility may
show itself at given moment by invoking q
pte6sSCltuna. But, besides this the Emperors
responsibility is generous. | quite under
stand the feeling which leads him to cling to
this responsibility. 1t is something superb,
but not very palpable, and not very useful.
Here Is fine cynicism, delicate as the blade
OF Saladin, and proof positive that while the
Prinee can philosophically amuse himself al
the expense of the empire, he knows how
whlle giving support to his dynasty, to retain
the incest shades of his individuality.
Since 1871, France has had eight Constitu.
lions, and the last of them is now invaded b,
the PRONUNCIATION of the Senatus Consultum
Viewing the failures of the other Consti
tutions, the Senators who share most III,
imperial doubts question whether thew will
be more successful this time Prince Nano
leon, who adds to his interest in his famil,
something of personal independence and faiti
in the future, demands for France such n re
form of the Constitution as will place it he
yond the risk of timid and tardy tinkerino
In word, he would have France Hberalize
in her representative system to the level {
England, and the Empire of authority tran,
...Ao Ala Nf fr