, 1869-07-20

an important enough part in politics for one to
think that the Emperor has chosen him to be
the receiver of one of those programme-letterS
of one of those manifestoes which the Head Of
the State writes from time to time to one of his
Ministers or to a parsonage to whom he cOntideS
an important mission.
Let us take things, therefore, for what they
are. NJ. de Mackau took the liberty of impart-
ing to the Emperor his impressions on the 81
t"uation the Emperor has replied by those
generalities to which those persons are confined
whose letters are always objects of curiosity,
and M. de Mackau has not failed to get credit
out of this reply with his political friends.
AS there was in the Imperial letter a phrase
which might apply to the rumours at present in
circulation, the personages whose position is
supposed to be shaken, and who seized joyfuIIy
on a Measuring symptom in that phrase, ardently
desired that the Imperial letter should not
merely be known to the ha6itufs of the Imperial
circle, and the Emperor graciouSly granted per-
mission for a letter being printed which had al
ready been shown to 50 many people.
1t would be somewhat puerile, therefore,, to
comment on this letter as one would do with a
manifesto or a speech from the throne. The
Emperor gives his adhesion to the opinion eX-
pressed by NJ. de Mackau, that a Government
ought not to yield either to pressure, impulse,
or rioting. The Emperor must have hesitated
all the less to a~cQuiesce in this maxim as We
have had no riOting, as he has never been sup
posed to yield to impulse, and as no pressure
has been exercised on his Government. When
the Emperor went out in Paris a few days ago
he was able to convince himself of the real ma
ture and of the little gravity of the demonstra-
tons, which people in vain tried to make a
public danger. The Emperor was able to see
that, while calling for the development Of public
liberties and in interpreting their wishes by
their votes, Paris did not manifest any hostility
either to his person or his dynasty.
What the Emperor has not written to NJ. de
Mackau and did not need to write, because he
has written it in all his works and p~ractised in
all his conduct, is that he takes into account the
least movement Of public opinion, and that be
attentiycly follows the direction mems minds
take in order never to find himself in cOntradlc-
ton to the national will. If the reforms of the
23rd of November and the 10th Of January
were surprises for the great mass Of the nation,
and were combated by the advisers of the SOW
ereign as premature or inOpp0rtune, does not
that prove in a peremptory way that Napoleon
III. is more attentive than any one to the least
manifestation of public opinion, and that midi
cations which his Ministers disregard are sutlici-
emit for him to take important determinations.
When the elections of 1868 determined q
change of Ministry and a modification in the
representation of the Government before the
Chambers when the amendment of the Forty
five had as a consequence the reform OF the
10th of January, whom can you make believe
that the elections of 1869 have in the eyes OF
such a politician as Napoleon III. no Importance
and no Specification ? 1t would be forgetting the
examples of the past, and it would be insulting
the Emperor.
We hold it to be certain that the wishes of
the people, of which the general elections have
been the manifestation, will not remain unheard,