New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-29
THE EMPEROR'S BLUNDERS.

No ruler with a reputation for astuteness
has ever done so little to deserve 1t as the
Emperor Napoleon. In the course OF ms
career he has achieved one brilliant success
the overthrow of the Republic and the estab-
lishment of the Empire on basis OF murder.
He has played one clever trick-that of the
plebiscitum but as this was only the intro
duction to the scheme of war, we must wait
for the final result before we pronounce it
success or a failure. In the other great events
of his reign he has made mistakes so serious
that it is wonder how he has escaped de-
struction. His first movement after Selling
the throne was to divert his subjects by war
with Russia. And what was the result of that
war; 1t proved the gallantry of the French
army, which needed no proof; it involved
France in frightful loss of men and money;
it left Russia practically as formidable as ever.
Sebastopol was captured, but at cost
thousand times greater than it was worth.
Russia was temporarily crippled in her navy.
and lost a little strip of territory; but she was
not Inundated, and at the end of the war
Europe felt that the Car was stronger than
any one of the Powers allied against him.
The Italian war was undertaken for the pur-
pose of humiliating Austria and at the same
time fixing French ascendency in Italy. 1t
resulted in the creation of powerful Italian
Kingdom which is perpetual menace to
France, for Victor Emanuel, far from being a
creature of the Tuileries, is more than half
inclined to be an open enemy. Napoleon has
earned the lasting hatred of Italians by sup
porting the Pope in Rome, and the displeasure
of the Pope and the clergy by cOnsenting to
the Obliteration of the States of the Church.
He made Italy formidable, and now finds that
he has not friend in the whole peninsula.
But this is not the worst. Having weakened
Austria he gave Prussia the coveted OppOru-
nifty to strike a blow, and to his dismay saw
the face of Germany suddenly changed, and a
tremendous and threatening power rising at
his very door. He had not been astute enough
to perceive that his most dangerous rival was
not Vienna. but Berlin; he had not cOmpre-
hended the character of the Prussian statesmen,
or OWNED the strength of the Prussian arms,
or seen that while Austria was made up of
hostile and incOngruous elements, the rival
German State must inevitably rise to power
by the aggregation of kindred populations.
The pet scheme of France was to get posses
sion of the Prussian provinces on the left
bank of the Rhine; yet, In his blindness,
Napoleon smoothed the way for Prussia to
make herself the greatest power in Europe.
The war of 1866 showed him his blunder, but
he saw at the same time that Prussia was too
strong then to be attacked.
Meanwhile he had turned his attention to-
wards America. He threw away the friendship
of the United States by marked favors to the
Southern Confederacy, and when our hands
were full, he occupied Mexico, and with much
rhetoric about the unity of the Latin race es-
tablished an empire as illegitimate as his own.
This was the greatest of all his blunders.
Turned out of the country by order of Mr..
Secretary Seward, he saw his Latin empire
tumble to pieces, and the unfortunate prince
whom he had placed on the throne shot
like traitor. The Mexican adventure was
not only disaster but disgrace. Hardly re-
covered from this. fresh humiliation awaited