New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-21
AN ANNIVEPS4PY

On the 2lst of October 1S43, Prince Louis
Bonaparte wrote from his prison in the Fortress
of Ham a memorable confession of his polti-
cal faith, in which occurred these words:
"Sprung from family that has owed its ele-
ovation to the national suffrage, should belle
"my origin, my nature, and what 10 more, the
dictates of common sense, did not admit the
sovereignty of the people as the fundamental
"basis of all political organization" We are
tempted to wonder what the Emperor thinks
to-day of the dogma so confidently stated by
tho ill-starred adventurer of tweDty-six years
ago. Gloomy in spirit and shattered in con-
sttutiOn, he may not improbably sigh to recall
"the wild puIsation that he felt before the strife
When he had his days before him and the tumut OF his
llfe."
Waiting to crown the edifice of a reOrganlzed
and regenerated France, he may probably wish
that the building had been framed more in ac-
cOrdance with the ideas of the democratic theo-
list who had, 1T may safely be averred, deeper
hold on the hearts of his cOuntrymen than the
faded and melancholy Emperor of to-day.
The Imperial regime has certainly been free
alike from the torpid inaction which character
lied the government of the ctizen-king, and
the chaotic strife of parties which proved the
ruin of the Republic that followed. 1t has
done nearly everything which strong and in
telligent Executive could be expected to do
but the political education of the people
remains pretty much as 1t found
it. Eighteen years of Imperialism have
developed the material resources of France In
way that neither BourbOns Orleansts, nor
Republicans had exhibited any capacity for
following. But the much-needed clement OF
civil stability seems as far out OF reach as
ever, and the work of half generation might
not improbably be swept away in the removal
of tho man who has devised it. The
nephew of the Emperor" said he, writing
from New-York in 1887, "must not be mistaken
"for an ordinary adventurer." POsterity is now,
at least, in very little danger of making any
such blunder but posterity may not unreaOn-
ably inquire, with the Count of Paris: what
have you done with the people OF
FranceYn When In nearly every other
country I'm Europe every year sees
fresh concessions of popular rights,
and fresh advances in the path of self-govern-
ment, why is it that this great and generous
nation should still be deprived Of its birth
right, and should only be trusted in spirit of
full definition of the imperial system as the
"hierachy in democracy-a pyramidal colossus,
"large in the base and exalted in the head"
looks well enough in theory, and may possibly
still commend itself to certain school OF
political innovators. Practically, however, the
pyramid has fatal perversity of becoming
inverted, by reason it may be presumed of the
superior weight of the head, and so one fine
day it comes to share the usual fate of body
which is made to rest upon its apex.
The Emperor will, practically leave no sue
cessor He has governed by the force of his
individual ability, and that is seldom heredi-
tary. Even admitting his son to possess 1t, 1t
is almost impossible that he can be In posi-
ton to show it before no is called to take his
fathers place Such an event would leave the
dcstnics Of France in the hands # the Repub-
LEANS Even now the movements of this party
are watched with more interest than the meas
ures of the Emperor himself. 1t is useless to
speculate on the purpOrt of the visit OF
Jules FavIe, Gambetta, and Bancel to London.
The fact that it has become the subject of
much speculation, and no little uneasiness, is a
sufficiently suggestive one. The fact may also
be noted that the triumvirate is in its way
party to which it belongs Fayre, the veteran
orator and man of letters, has long been at the
head of the thoughtful and scholarly opponents
of the second Empire. Bancel is type of the
irreconcable sOcalistic animosity to the dy-
nasty Of Napoleon. Such as he only remember
the revolution of July as having inaugurated q
change which was all too moderate, and the
coup deiat as an INCAPABLE wrong. GAM
BETA is the elected of the new generation, and
represents its opinions and aspirations. To
him the Emperor is less the man of the I'd
December than the impeachment in the path of
freedom to q young and invigOrated France.
Twenty-six years ago it was such men who
turned to the inmate of the Fort of Ham as
the hope and salvation of their country. To-
day they represent a party whose policy is
identified with his downfall, and are bent on
a mission which, whatever else it imports,
bodies at least no good to the occupant of the
imperial throne.
III i.