The New York herald., 1870-09-27
Tho Fau Of tho Second EmpIro-A Brief
J. Historical Parallel.

conflict with an adversary wnOm Dut yester.
| day she affected to despise. Her naughty
Emperor captive; her fierce armies, hitherto
renowned in every quarter of the globe,
prisoners Of war, dispersed or cooped up ip
beleaguered cities; her people frantic with
indignation, yet conflicting in counsel deficient
in discipline and oppressed with forebodings
of fresh disaster that each succeeding day but
justifies more and more.
To what, ask statesmen and earnest thinkers
shall we attribute this profound reverse-this
apparent breaking up of the whole machinery
OF great people, whose genius in times gone
by-nay, within the memory of generation
not yet extinct-has plumed its pinions to the
loftest flights of human achievement in peace
and in war alike; has taught our modern age
a new military science and new code of
laws; has with Cuvier traced the construction
of the mysteries of life, and with Leverrier
starred the outer bounds of space with fresh
worlds by mathematical necessity. In elo-
quence, In literature, in art and in the love
and the theory Of national freedom, France
has been tutor, model and guide to sur
rounding nations, even within hundred
years. What, then, has come upon her, that
she taints aud falls in the very noontide of her
apparent opulence and power? The query is
solemn one, and the answer If we be right
may prove instructive. History is precept
teaching by example, and history continually
repeating itself, at intervals Of greater or
less duration, only varies her examples ac-
cording to the complexion of the times, but
never falls away from her one fundamental
axiom, that nations, in order to remain
great must, in the broad sense, continue
virtuous
In the first eighty years of the second GEN.
tury OF the Christian era the fairest and most
cultivated portion of the earth was embraced
by the Roman empire The great conquests
achieved by the republic had been retained by
the Emperors; yet under the emasculating sway
Of succession of polite but voluptuous princes
the sturdy enthusiasm, the manly independence
and the exalted patriotism which had made
Rome the head and front of nations from the
days Of Romuus until those Of Caesar, faded
out. There had been brilliant and even
glorious episodes intervening but at last the
wisdom and moderation of Augustus could not
compensate for the corruption of manners and
the decline Of masculine vigor which were
conspicuous while the Antonines were on the
throne. lrrehgon was then the height Of
fashion, while, to use the language of one
whose pen was welded by the hand of a con-
summate artist, ''the labor Of an Industrious
and ingenious people was variously but in
cessantly employed in the service of the rich.
IN their dress, their table. their houses and
their furniture, the favortes of fortune united
every refinement of conveniency, of elegance
and OF splendor, whatever could soothe their
pride or crafty their sensuaity." Had this
remained the only effect there might have been
compensation in the fact that thus to some
extent, at least the taxes lifted from the poor
were redistributed among them through the
operations of industry. But the greed for
wealth, the thirst for sensual enjoyment, the
passion for display unchecked in so selfish an
age gradually undermined public probty and
virtue. High mertal gifts and requirements
lost their pre-eminence in the presence
of a multitude dazzled by the glitter
of gems and Intoxicated with public
debaucheries. The cynical sneer of the
old tyrant 'sp0Dem Ell ctrcenses' (bread
and public shows was a sufficient recipe for
the government of thoughtless masses, who
accepted jiugling rhymsters for poets, noisy
sophists for orators, and 'captious critics,
commentators and .compilers' for writer's of
taste and vigor. But, while this process of
decay was sapping the basis of Roman civili-
zation, Odin, the Mahomet of the North, was
preparing regenerative force in the recesses
of Scandinavia and Pomerania. The Indo-
Teutonic tribes, which had swept in vast,
resistless tide over Western Asia and East
ernmost Europea tide which the great Me
buhr sells us will yet be renewed in our own
day-were gathering for their overwhelming
irruption into the South. Their chief seat
| and point of assemblage during the age of
the Antonnes was in the plains of Prussia,
where they awaited the summons which was
precipitate them upon the decayed cviliza-
tion that lay on either side of the Alps and
the Apprentices. At length, in the reigns of
| Valerian and Gallienus, the mysterious i'm
pulse was given that bore them to the banks
of the Borysthenes and the Danube, and after
| ward to the borders of Italy, whittier they
were preceded by vanguard branch of
the Suevi-the Allemanni-ancestors of the
modern Germans, who were soon to carry fire
and sword into the Lombard plains, and thence
well nigh to the ramparts of Rome itself
| This was in A. D. 259. But these were only
preliminary skirmshes. The final crash was
not to come until one hundred and thirty
six years later, when the genius of Rome,
| which had found refuge under the La
barun, or sacred ensign of Constantine the
Great, expired with the death Of the i'm
perial Theodosus. The weak and wretched