The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-02
HEALTH OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON

HEALTH OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.
From the NJ Y WorH.
The disquieting apprehensions respecting
the illness of the French Emperor, which
have lately filled Paris with CONSERVATION,
and spread anxiety through every European
capital, are allayed by an authentic statement
that his indisposition was not really serious,
and that he has so far recovered from it as to
be able to give his attention to affairs of
state. This reassuring news relieves the fears
of Europe for the time being; but it cannot
etface the painful impression that the tran
quillity of France, and perhaps the peace of
the world, hangs by so frail a thread as the
life of a man whose physical vigor is supposed
to be drained almost to the point of exhaus-
ton. The age of the Emperor is not so ad-
vanced that it should cause every transient
illness to be regarded as the forerunner
OF fatal change. He is but one year
older than Gladstone; he is there years
younger than Disraeli; and everybody thinks
of these statesmen as still in the prime of a
vigorous activity. But Napoleon has been
man of pleasure, as well as of study, labor,
and business; and there is an impression that
exhausing passions have sapped his constitu-
ton. BE this as it may, his sagacity and in
tellectual force seem OF late years to have de-
serted him. Since the Prussian war and the
ill-starred Mexican expedition, there has been
a great decline of his prestige and the elec-
tons of this year show that his influence tot
ters in all the cities and large towns of
France. He has taken the elections to heart,
and initiated changes which hold out the hope
of government that will express the collec-
tive sense Of the nation rather than the per-
sonal will of an individual ruler If he should
be cut off i'll the midst of this experiment,
with his former system q confessed failure
and the new system not yet established, 1t IS
probable that France would founder through
a terrible period of revolution and anarchy,
of which no man is wise enough to predict the
issue.
The alarm which has attended the recent
illness of the Emperor supplies one Of the
strongest arguments which this age has fur
nished against what is called personal govern
ment. There have been few instances in
modern history of the government of nation
by the will of single individual, so success
full, and on the whole beneficial as the
government of France by Napoleon the Third,
during the first twelve years of his reign. The
first twelve years of his illustrious uncle as
First Consul and Emperor were indeed more
splendid and dazzling but the material
prosperity of France has never been more
remarkable than under the present Emperor
But brief period of prosperity, to be fol-
lowed by an era of confusion and calamity,
does not realize the ideal of good govern
ment. Prosperity that cannot propagate
itself, that makes no provision for its own
perpetuity, seems rather an accident in the
life of a nation than the legitimate fruit of
settled system. But the prosperity that at
tends personal government is generally of this
transient, accidental character. The two
most splendid reigns in the French annals
that of Charlemagne and that of the first Ma
poleon-were followed by periods of distrac-
tion and humiliation Great men at the head
of nation are exceptions in the worlds his
tory; and even great men succeed in govern
ment only by embodying the spirit of the age
and giving effect to the wishes of the nation
over which they rule The essence of political
greatness consists in a quick and intuitive
perception of the wants and aspirations of
the people, and in the ability to de-
wise measures for satisfying the ma
tional cravings. A man of great genius
may sometimes govern people more
wisely than they could have governed them
selves, because he sees with clearness what
they only grope after vaguely, and is able to
reach at once, by stroke of ready sagacity
conclusions which they would have arrived at
insperfeetly, after much hesitation and de-
bate. But the misfortune is, that nation
which has ruler to think for it loses by dis
use the faculty of thinking and planning for
itself; and if that ruler has not an equally
able successor, the capacity for good govern
is the rare gift of Providence; and the
habits and training which fit a people for
| self-poyernment are not the gift of a sud
! den emergency but the slow growth of
| time II is better that the business of
! government should be somewhat rudely per-
| formed under system that secures Its
! own perpetuity, than that nation should
! enioy transient flashes of prosperity to he
succeeded by periods Of imbeclhty or tur-
! Lulence.
There has never been time, since the first
| French Revolution, when the sudden death
of any man in England or the United States
| would have endangered the safety, or even
the tranquility, of either nation. Pitt had
greater ascendancy over England than any
other statesman of his time; but he was out
! Of Office for several years before his death,
and il was after his death and without his AID
that ENGLAND made the colossal exertions by
which Napoleon was dethroned and sent into
exile. Even Washington was never necessary
to the success of our great experiment. Oh Tree
government He was not active In orlSlhat-
! ING our Constitution, and was drawn by the
persuasion of others to consent 10 DO mem
| ber of the convention that framed IL. In
that body he merely acted the dunno part OF
presiding officer, contributing not an idea
! nor suggestion He was wise put not
! brilliant President, and was so lar from
being fertile in ideas or measures that ne
originated nothing during hls elght years
administration and made no other contrlbu-
ton to the success of the Government than
the prestige of his great name. England and
the United States have lost many statesmen
| who v5ara daa,,ly and sincerafy mOurned; but