Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1870-09-07
JUSTICE TO LOUIS AA1o1Eos
At LAST. u I

IT.
that fraud and crime, whether In high
or low places Is sure In the long run
to be overtaken by punishment. For
the last twenty years the world has
been forced to witness the humiliating
spectacle Of an inscriptions, bad man
directing the destinies Of q great and
noble nation, and aiming ut universal
supremacy. Countenanced BY Great
Britain aud other interested powers
Louis Napoleon knew no bounds to
his ambition. His wild fancy believed
that he could make OF Paris the center
Of the modern world, and Of himself
Its dictator. When the rebellion broke
out In the United States this bold ad-
yenturer labored necessarily to destroy
the Union, constantly urging upon
England the recognition Of the Con-
federacy, and hoping to convert the
Gulf Of Mexico into q French lake,
with Louisiana and Texas as the new
transatlantic acquisitions Of a Latin
empire. The unfortunate and gifted
Prince who served rs the instrument
In this design was shot; his bereared
widow became stark mad; the Bona
parte legions were driven in shame
and ignominy from Mexico, as they
have now been from Alsace; and the
hero Of Boulogne and Strasburg, who
lately capped the climax Of the ludic-
rous by threatening to let loose upon
the crowned heads Of Europe the pcsti-
lence Of republican connections, saw
his prestige extinguished in the wicked
attempt to destroy the only powerful
republic ON earth. As from the outset
Of his career, the ridiculous Is mixed
up with the sublime In all his doings
to the very last. As he approaches his
dissolution the ridiculous seems to get
the better Of the sublime, and Don
Quixotte himself IS eclipsed In the
baptism OF fire Of the Prince Imperial,
and In the shrieks Of agony Of Eugenie
as she anticipated the arrival Of; the
Prussians at the gates Of Paris. What
would have been thought Of Lincoln
II, after our Bull Run, he had, like
Eugene, rent the air with cries
Of desperation, and filled the hearts
Of the people with fear and dismay,
giving place to revolutionary fury?
The fact Is that Louis Napoleon and
Eugene, and young Loulszhe Of the
baptism Of flre-have trifled with
France In war as in peace, aiming
rather at m~elodramatic, theatrical
effects. than at solid blows for the ma
tional welfare. The coup d'etGt was
followed by n series Of conps de heater
like the Crimean and Mexican, and
finally the Prussian wars, all intended
to divert the attention of Frenchmen
from their abject political condition,
and to dazzle the impossible imagi-
nation Of that enthusiastic people.
The ple6iscitam was another Of these
theatrical displays but 1t revealed
the implacable antagonism Of the en-
lightened classes against Bonapartlsm,
and made IL manifest to the Emperor
that he WAS supported only by the be-
nighted and uuintelllgeut part Of his
subjects. Hence feeling himself most
weak in the flush Of victory, he was
urged OIL to this last desperate adven-
ture. The plebiseitam was q moral
Waterloo, goading him to despair;
and he rushed to arms to recover In
the clash of battle the prestige he had
lost In the arena OF politics. The first
result Is the disastrous defeat at Hage-
nau; the last his abdication aud the
exile from France Of all the Bona
parties. 1t Is satisfactory to remember
that ever since 1851 Bonapartc has
never. ceased on this side Of the At
lantic to be held up to the scorn Of
mankind. Long before his conspiracy
against the integrity Of the Union,
American publicists branded him as a
malefactor, filter for the gallows than
for the throne !; and while the English
Parliament and press bowed before
him in abject subscrviency, the truth
about him was told In unmistakable
terms by public men and Journalists Of
the republic he sought to destroy. 1t
Is remarkable, too, that the most truth
loving Of all races, the German, has
been selected to castigate and to lay
low the great demoralizer and impos-
ter Of the age. Thus finally the justice
Of Heaven Is indicated to men, and
fraud and folly receive the punishment
that Is their due.