The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-08-12
The Imperial Baby.

w
the truth of the startling tidings, tel,
egraphed on Wednesday night, that the
Prince Imperial had arrived in London
in charge OF Mr.. Smith, the confidential
agent of the Emperor, who also had in bis
keeping the valuables Of the Empress, and
the famous Brunswick diamonds Who this
Smith may be is as uncertain as what are
these famous Brunswick diamonds. This
Smith cannot be the ubiquitous John Smith,
and if not that Smith, what manner of Smith
is he who is entrusted with jewels far more
valuable, in the eyes Of Eugene, than those
of the mother of the Gracchi? The Empe-
TOR Napoleon has in London both fair
weather and foul weather friends Poole, the
tailor, for instance, who hoisted the Impe-
rial eagle after the days OF the coup dftat,
might well enough repeat the disinterested
kindness which he showed to Napoleon after
the Boulogne fasco. There was no need to
fall back on Smith, a name ominous OF the
dull morning when Louis Philippe, the MIR.
Smith OF that period, arrived safely in Lon
don. And what are these Brunswick dia-
monds? From the days of Henry the Lion,
the Dukes of Brunswick have been the foes
of France The Duchy was absorbed with
the Kingdom Of Westphalia by Napoleon l.,
in 1906, but there was DO hint Of diamonds
And surely the Black Brunswickers, who
lost their Duke at Quatre Bras and fought
so gallantly at Waterloo, had no legacy Of
diamonds to bequeath to their fallen enemy
Perhaps the telegraphers mean the Pitt or
Orleans diamonds; and perhaps there is no
Prince Imperial in London, no confidential
agent Smith, and no diamonds of the En-
press.
This, indeed, is the only solution Of tho
difficulty which gallant French and gallant
Germans can be willing to accept After
the flowery talk about weeping veterans and
baptisms OF fire, to send tour Louis" with
hot haste, to perfdious Albion, would be q
thing &C which all the world would wonder.
1t would, indeed, be convincing proof,
once more, that somebody blundered. {"
What could justify so extraordinary a pro-
ceeding? The Empress, whatever her ma
ternal anxieties, knows that the dlminutive
Louis, in any event, will not be called upon
to endure the ignominies heaped upon the
Dauphin in the great Revolution, nor the
luxurious excesses which killed the Duke OF
Reichstadt. Louis would be as safe with
the Prussians in Paris as when he picked
up the historic bullet and made the veterans
blubber King William would not interfere
with his marbles, nor curb the curvetting OF
his hobby-horse. And it is hard to see what
could have induced the phlegmatic Napoleon
to dispatch his heir to an asylum beyond the
channel If the Emperor intends to abdi-
cate, that abdication must be in favor OF his
son, and that son would never be recalled
from England to occupy the French throne.
Bourbon or Orleans, or the tri-color, would
fill the vacant chair. Nor, if the Emperor
dies an Emperor, would it be forgotten that
the Prince Imperial had abandoned France
when France was most in danger, Has Na-
poleon given up the fight; has he lost cour-
age and lost heart, and made up his mind
that the conquest of France is certain? This
he cannot have done. The "Reds' have
been busily at work impressing upon the
peasantry the idea that the war was a war OF
the rich and titled-a war OF ambition, and
not war of defence. And the result is,
that the vacillating Olivier ministry falls
without struggle, and new ministry is
every member Of which, from
Palikao down, is staunch Bonapartist-a
French bitter-ender. The Emperor has no
reason to despair; and, in public estimation,
all the faults of his reign would be as moth
ing in comparison with the crime OF packing
off his son, with trunk full of diamonds,
on the first approach OF danger. The peo-
pie expect their Emperor and their Prince
Imperial to stand by them To the last, and
the desertion of either they would never for
give.
The whole affair is so monstrous, 80 alb
surd, that it can only be explained in one OF
two ways. Either the Emperor Napoleon is
q lunatic, or the whole story of Louis and
Smith and the diamonds is a pitiless hoax.
We prefer to believe the latter.