Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-11-10
NAPOLEON III.
Additional Interviews with the
Prisoner of fWfIheImshOhe.


Writing from Wilhelmshohe on Octo-
ber II. a London Times correspondent
supplies the account of an audience ac-
corded him by Napoleon Ill:
had the pleasure OF conversation
to-day with the Emperor, since my ar
rival at Wilhelmshohe, and repeated TO
him the principal points of information
impaired TO me by the Prussian Com
missioner The reply of the Emperor
was, that there could be no prospect of
peace, near or remote, on the basis of
ceding to Prussia single foot of French
territory, and no government in France
could attach its signature to such a
treaty and remain in power single day.
The Emperor, to whose presence | had
not the least difficulty in penetrating, is
looking in remarkably good health,
though he has been suffering for day
or two past from slight attack of gout,
brought on, no doubt, by marked
change in the weather, which is to-day
cold and rainy. The high and exposed
situation of Wilhelmshohe is such as to
render the winters very severe, and |
should be inclined to think that pro-
longed sojourn at this place would be
very trying to any one unaccustomed to
the rigors of a northern climate, and par
tieularly to temperament like his. lie
seems TO think little and care less about his |
own personal comfort, every thought
being evidently pre-occupied with un-
happy France, now, alasl further re-
moved than ever from peace and tram
guilty The Emperor, in spite Of the |
food of abuse and calumny heaped upon |
him by the French Republican press, is |
resolved to say nothing, or do nothing of
nature to engender fresh complications |
or throw obstacles in the way of the de-
fense of France. He spoke in warm
terms of the numerous proofs of the |
kindly sympathy entertained for him in |
England, which he is in the constant |
habit of receiving from every quarter of
the United Kingdom, and alluded also,
with sad smile, to the dastardy attacks |
made upon him, prisoner, by too many
of his own countrymen, who, one would
suppose whatever their opinions, might |
at least show some respect for the great |
misfortune of the man who has in the |
past done so much for the honor and
prosperity of France" The correspond
ent also quotes letter from NJ Pietri,
pronouncing NJ Max Polls list of the
Emperors foreign investments pure
invention.
BoURBAKIs STORY.
He also says: The Emperor told me
that the story of General Bourbaki's
having been requested to conduct the
Prince Imperial to Metz, there to be pro-
claimed Emperor under the title of Ma
poleon ", is mere invention from be-
ginning to end; and he further declared
his conviction that the person instru-
mental in bringing General Bourbaki
from Metz was Prussian agent, who
employed an ingenious pretext to see
what was the real condition of affairs
within the fortress.
A correspondent of the Daily Tele-
graph has also had an interview with the
ex-Emperor. He writes:
Napoleon III was seated before a
desk incumbered with documents, books
and newspapers. The apartment he
uses as a study is small square room,
not unlike the cabinet he occupied at
the Tuileries. Though laboring under
severe cold, attended by slight attack
of gout, the Emperor looked in every
respect as well as when last saw him at
St. Cloud in July last-just three days
before M. de Grammonts declaration in
the French Senate, which preluded the
present calamitous war. At that time,
however-much as his enemies may now
accuse him of being solely responsible
for plunging France into the conflict
whose result has proved so disastrous
-, onI 10
scientiously aver my conviction
that Napoleon had come to no such
resolution as that which has been
attributed to him. / reminded him to.
day that he had spoken to me at st.
Cloud of the Hohenzollern incident
which he had regarded as entirely "Gn-
ished;" and that he had referred to the
projects of ualegiaturG, which would
enable him, he hoped, TO obtain some
weeks of rest and recreation, after the
labors and excitements of the recent
plebiscite eyes" said the Emperor,
with sigh, "Ehomnie propose, mais Dieu
dispose. / had no wish to make war, but
fatality willed that it should be so; pub
lie opinion was aroused in its favor, and
was obliged to acquiesce in the popular
wish. You see TO what it has brought
us" His Majesty then spoke OF the
disasters of the campaign, eliminating
in the final blow inflicted upon France at
Sedan and he declared that surrender
was the only means of preventing total
massacre of the army. On these points
there is little to be said to-day which has
not already been said over and over
again; and the Emperor confidently re-
lies upon the verdict Of history to exone-
rate him from all the charges now heaped
upon his head by excited detractors, who,
for the most part, base their animadver-
sions upon mere hearsay.
cALUMNIEs.
He alluded, indeed, but without bit
terness, to the numberless calumnies of
which he is the object in many parts of .
France-calumnies which he is now pow
erless to refute, and of which only few
stray waits gathered here and there from
the newspapers received at Wilhelms-
hobe, ever fall under his notice. One of
these was paragraph in the Independ- !
ence Beige, copied from French jour !
nal, stating that NJ. Delesyaux formerly
President Of the Sixth Chamber Of Cor
N \ III