The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-11-26

Tao Octhroned Emperor or france. i
History, in reproducing itself, as 1t some
times does with marvellous exactitude Of
detail, still finds new forms adapted to each
epoch. The splendid captivity of Napoleon
Ill. at the palatial residence of Will
helmshohe-which some have ventured to
call the Versailles of Germany-irre-
sistibly reminds us of the detention Of tho
first Emperor OF his name during the period
that preceded his exile to Elba. and afterward
to st. Helena. But the SURROUNDINGS and cir.
cumstances OF the time are greatly modified.
Napoleon !. came into power riding high upon
the tidal wave of popular commotion that fol-
lowed the great moral and political earth
quake of 1892, which shook down the feudal
system and the throne of Louis XVI. estab-
lished the first French republic and assembled
the National Convention. This preliminary
shock to the old settled monarchical scheme of
Europe came on the 4th of May, 1889, when
the States General, after a sleep that seemed
like death, Of one hundred and seventy five
years, was summoned to meet at Versailles.
In less than four years from that date the
supremacy Of the Bourbons had been over
thrown, and the gentle monarch whose hard
fate it was to expiate the offences Of his pre-
decessors had been guillotined In six years
more chaos had settled into government and
Napoleon was appointed First Consul. Ere
five years had been added to the last the same
man, covered with both civic and mill
tary glory, had been proclaimed Emperor
Of France. Thus, between May 4, 1889, and
May Is, 1904 lapse of about fifteen years
the whole face Of European politics had been
transformed, and an obscure lieutenant OF
artillery had risen to the proudest eminencs
in the world, not as its greatest living soldier
merely, but as its most iustrious and most
powerful crowned head
Some Of the circumstances that preceded
the rise of Napoleon III. resembed those just
narrated, but the starting point of the latter
monarch was far more exalted and advan-
tageous. Even in exile and poverty he was
prince, with the halo Of the Napoleonic glory
lowering about him. No long and perilous
services in the field and no dazzling achieve
ments in council were required Of him. He
was elected to the French Assembly, and after
wards to the Presidency of the republic, on the
prestige of his family name in 184S, and from
that position to the coup Getdt Of December 2,
2 1852, he had but step to make with all
the hopes Of the army, the Church and the
moneyed classes centring upon him as ''the
saviour Of society,"" From the hour when he
became, indeed, the ruler of France he fol-
lowed, as nearly as the altered time and the
more educated minds of men would permit the
ssNapeleonic ideas" of which his uncle had
been the originator, and which he had person
ally endeavored to explain in his celebrated
work ON the 'Idees Napoleonennes." The
very life and soul Of these was the enforcement
of the Napoleonic code as the basis of French
social organization under the new regime, and
the most succinct and striking defence Of that
able combination of ancient and modern law we
derive from the language of the first Emperor
himself It embraces, moreover, an exposi-
ton of the principles and aims Of the
Napoleonic government and reasons for its
downfall which, by here and there trans
posing terms, will throw light upon the catas-
trophe that has overwhelmed it in 1870 as it
did in 1916. The great soldiers view Of
Washington viii also be found singularly appo-
site to the opinions Of Napoleon I'LL concern
ing America, as uttered the other day through
the columns of the HERALD.
My one code, said Napoleon to his friend
Las Cases, at st. Helena, has done more
good in France than the mass of all the laws
that preceSN me. Under my reign crimes
were rapidly decreasing, while among our
neighbors, the English, they increased in
frightful manner. And that is enough to pro-
nounce definitely on the respective adminstra-
TONS
This positive assertion of Napoleon is amply
borne out by the full and exact statistics given
by Montvereau in his Situation de PAngle-
terre," from which we extract the following
concise tabular statement
Inhabf- Condemned Inhd0i- Condemned
Yecr. tdnts. to Death. tGnts TO Death.
ISL " 100000 3s2 100000 e,4oo
The reader will be impressed by the aston
ishing decrease of COMBINATIONS in France,
especially when he contrasts it with the heavy
increase Of her population in ten years, while
in England, on the other hand, with but q
single million added 10 her numerical total