Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-10-25
The Two Napoleons.

France was sacrificed in 1914, and
again in 1915, to a man of astonish-
ing genius, who had usurped her gov
ernment, conducted her to the most
dazzling heights of glory, made her
the first nation in the world, and
after having beaten every country in
Europe, one after the other, succumb-
ed at last to coalition Of the nations
he had separately subdued. The
contest, stretching from 1900 to 1915,
proved, in the end. that the most
warlike nation in Europe, led by one
of the five great exceptional military
geniuses of the world-the natural
successor, in virtue of the strength Of
his character and the resources of
his mind, Of Alexander, Hannibal,
Caesar, and Frederick,-could not
permanently re-e8tabli8h the empire
of Augustus or of Charlemagne.
TIE time for such dominion was
palpably forever past; and France,
after occupying every great capital
on the continent of Europe, twice
submitted to the occupation of Paris
by the Allied Powers, and twice sub
mitted to the degradation of having
the geographical limits of her SOW
ereignty, the form of her government,
and the family by which the functions
Of that government were to be exer-
cised, decided upon by her invaders
and conqueror8. After 1915 it might
| be supposed she would never dream
of q second Napoleon, for such a per-
son does not rise more than once in
five hundred years. Even if, in 1848,
a man Of similar temper and genius
had by miracle appeared, it would
have been for her interest not to in
trust him with the supreme control
of her affairs, for she had been taught,
by the bittcrest Of all experiences,
that the greatest man who had risen
in Europe since Caesar, had merely
swept her through a swift career of
intoxicating glory in order to plunge
her, at last, into the lowest depths OF
military and civil abasement. Louis
the Sixteenth, in 1889, was paIpably
a greater King, and France a nation
more influential in Europe, than was
Louis the Eighteenth, i'll 1916, gov
erning a France garrisoned with for
eign troops.
Leaving out of view, therefore, the
inevitable accompaniments of the
Napoleonic despotism, the fettered
press, the mute legislature, the ob8e-
ouious tribunals, the population deci-
mated by conscription, the nation it
self treated like besieged garrison,
it might be supposed that there was
nothing in the Napoleonic GLORY" to
tempt France again to run the risk
of the humiliation which that glory
inevitably entails. But France is
a country SO much ruled BY the imag.
ination, and the GrSt Napoleon had
stamped on the national imagination
so vivid an impress Of his greatness
that twenty years ago the great body
of the French people passively sur
rendered their rights aud liberties t(
the charlatan who simply bears hi.
name. and whom scandal denies to be
connected with him by any tie O
blood. The contrast between these
two emperors only makes this las
act of national selfsurrender more
surprising and more indefensible.
The face of the first Napoleon wa:
the perfection Of manly beauty. The
face of the third Napoleon is not only
homely but vulgar, and in expression
suggests a queer cross between Mep
histophcles and Punch. The mind 0
the first Napoleon was of the frs
order Of human intellccts, preserving
in cases where his passions did no
disturb its action, rare harmony be
tween the observing and the origina
ting powers, and so fertile and rapii
that what he did bore after all but ;
small proportion to what he conceived
) The mind Of the third Napoleon be
longs to the strictly initiative class
: is hard, slow, uncreative, ana liabl
to be paralyzed in unexpected emer
gencies, Illuminating rather than medi
} tative, and specially distinguished on
= ly by the dogged tenacity with whie
} it cling8 to few fixed ideas,--th
t mind, in short, of a plotter rather
: than q thinker, Nobody was eve
ten minutes with the uncle withou
I carrying away an impression of hi
/ extraordinary genius, but the nephey
before his elevation to power, had n
a justice done to what ability he haC
D but was considered to be, in DR.. Johr
: sons phrase, "a barren rascal" |
: England he passed for a good fello'
t enough, but was thought to be dulle
:, than the ordinary country gentlema
with whom he rode to hounds. "Loui
d Napoleon" Brougham once blurte
;, out at a dinner table, "i8 an ass
n "Yes," Palmerston added, eve
| more emphatically, ''a-ass! y
r In strength OF body the first MAJ
n oleon was almost as remarkable {
Y for strength of mind. So unaccuston
e ed was he to sickness that it is suI
a posed his hesitation to follow up h
t. victories at Borodino and Dresde
e by resolute employment of his T
/ serves, was owing to a slight i
it disposition from which he suffered
both battles, and which rendered hi
,e for the time comparatively timi
% The third Napoleon was somethir
Is of valetudinarian when he becau
1t by the grace of God, and the vi
:" of the French people, Emperor
the French" and he has been mo-
of or less "sick man" from that periC
ID to the day when he ignominious
ID laid down his sword 4" at the fee
s. Of the tough old Prussian King. III
e, autocracy Of the first Napoleon W
n the legitimate result of his pla
superiority of mind and character
of his tireless energy of will al
o. thought. The poorest history whi
e records the disasters and trump
le of his reign strikes the imaginati'
* as having in it some of the great e
/ :. ments of an epic poem, somethi
or gigantesquc, which distinguishes
from other historias The autocra