The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-14

himself as well as to his people to admit of
any control. His military genius was so in
dlspensable in the great struggle of the demo-
cratic and aristocratic principles that to buy
the services of this genius at the price Of
present liberty seemed to he not only a
mighty advantageous bargain but a tho
roughly patriotic deed. And it would have
been so, perhaps, if Napoleon had been
the only son of Letizia Ramolino. and if
she had been able to develop in her children
the consciousness that there is greater merit
IN serving an idea than in serving a person
OF a name. He was not. however. the only
son, and the notions he possessed we're Just
the reverse of those which were wanted To
glonfy the name of Bonaparte became the
chief business of France His numerous
brothers and sisters wanted thrones; and the
struggle of democratic republic against the
principles of an aristocratical and monarchi-
cal world was changed into the fight of an
upstart family with all that history had
worked out and men had learned almost to
worship, under the names of Legitimacy and
divine right. Such a contest would not
have been of long duration if the mar
yellous abilities of its leader had not
been supported by some sophistical formulfe
powerful enough to command the mind of
a whole nation Blind as the people may
have been, they would soon have seen the
truth, had it not been artfully hidden under
some vital principle of the age. And the
great and long-continued success of Napoleon
is to be attributed far more to his personifca
ton of democracy dressed in purple, than
either to his genius the absence of talent
and skill in his adversares.
The subsequent progress of this principle
it is which regulates political events in France
for the most part Bequeathed by the revo-
luton, established by Napoleon, and con-
stantly strengthened by the natural course of
things during our century, this principle pro-
duced within fifty years more changes of gov
ernmental systems in France than other ma
tions have seen during the whole of their ex-
istence. We disapprove it as bad thing for
France herself, we dislike it as a very trou-
blesome thing for Europe, but we very sell
dom take the pains to look for explanations
OF the fact Should we attempt the search
and make it in a somewhat abstract, indie
pendent way, we should find that all the poll
tical changes in France since 1914 were
natural result of the circum-
stance that that country arrived at the
development of democracy before it arrived
at political liberty; and that the safe course
for nations seems to be the reverse one. e.,
that a free people democratizes itself not
that democratic one secures its freedom. If
France had been happy enough to meet, dur
ing the nine capital changes it has undergone
since 1914, single ruler able to understand
first place by pointing it out, and in the
second by frank grant of the whole stock of
liberal institutions which the age has worked
out, that man would have been blessed dur
ing his life, and at his death would probably
have been canonized. None of them, how
ever, were able to do so. They came accom-
panied by the ghost of divine right,
which long before had perished on the scat
fold, or with old arbitrary tendencies
h11ft al L.,
and therefore destitute even of the attractions
of external splendor. Another came with
bills drawn upon the old Bank of Glory which
had long ago stopped payment without any
means OF his own to pay those bills, and with
name which could do much only in case it
were thoroughly uncompromised. Even the
best intentioned men of those who came to
power-private men who had no other right
to ltthan the choice of Paris, won by a reputa-
ton for high integrity and wisdom-did not
assume authority without selfish views, though
of better kind. Each of them wanted to
put in practice some cherished theory which
he had partly invented himself, partly bor-
rowed from his friends-theories which might
have seemed good to a small knot of studioUs
men IN garret, but of which the mass of the
people needed no more than very brief ex-
perience. The enthusiastical theorists could
not hold the power they had gained for more
than few weeks.
Under such frequent changes of govern
mental principles, as well as of governmental
forms, no citizen can achieve a satisfactory
political education. He is kept in a constant
whirl of ideas and sensations, which leave
him no time for deep and quiet consideration
Constantly engaged in getting rid of what he
does not want, of what has proved unsatis-
factory, he has no sufficient time to consider
and decide upon what he does want Mean
while, practical and private life imperatively
requires its share of attention, and the man
finishes by resigning all care for politics ask
ing only one thing-''Don't tell me some old
story which | know, and for the telling of
which l have already paid" And as there is
hardly a single story which he has not heard,
to satisfy him becomes a difficult thing
Possible variations can be found only
in the form of telling; and by-and-
by the form becomes the
capital consideration. Everything begins to
be judged, not according to its real value,
but according to some accidental impressions
it has made. The last prorogation of the
Corps Legislatif would not have provoked 50
much discomfort if it had not been communi-
Gated to the deputies out of M. Schneider's
carriage window. Nobody seems inclined to
dwell upon the question whether the proro-
cation is constitutional, necessary, or practi-
cally advisable, but everybody talks about the
way in which the measure was announced;
every one speaks of the impossibility of such
a thing in England: quite forgetting that 1T IS
impossible in this country not because an
English Minister would be unable to speak
from a carriage window, but because members
of Parliament would not run to the window
of his carriage
All this is quite natural; and though Napo-
leon III had the best intentions in the world
he would neither be trusted by the French