The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-16
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF TIE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT TOPICS s--ooMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
PRINCE NApoLEoNs MANIFESTO.

Napoleon (Jerome), who INDUCED up to the
time of the war in q certain sort of Cade
liberalism, who coquetted from the citadel of
imperialism with the camp of the opposition,
who PLAYED with the skill of the consummate
actor, and with something of that superficial
feeling which alone makes acting endurable,
the doubled parts of democrat and prince,
gaining popularity in the one and million
year in the other, has at last come out full
fledged imperialist. He has written from
London long and virulent letter in which
he roundly abuses M. Jules Favre, as respon-
sible for all the woes of France. The selec-
tion of an antagonist shows that the old dis
cretion which so amused the army In the
Crimea aud in Italy has not yet deserted the
prudent Prince Plon Plon. He has looked
over the entire field and has selected what
seemed to him the least dangerous antago-
mist. Had his Highness been in that
tourney at Ashby he could never have re-
sisted the suggestion of the crowd, "Touch
the Hospitaller's shield. He has the least
sure seat" He has nothing but kind words
for the German conquerors, for Bismarck and
for Moltke. He treats with gingerly respect
NJ. Theirs, "who accepted the perhaps in
evitable preliminaries of Versailles and the
Assembly which ratified them" But as it
seemed probable 8 fortnight ago that M.
Favre would not long remain member of
the Government, and as that conscientious
and self-denying statesman had performed
bis sad and difficult task with such unfinch-
ing steadiness as to call upon himself great
portion of the unpopularity which has natu-
rally come to the Government whose fatal
lot it has been to make peace in the ruin of
France, this judicious exile selects him as the
target of an attack upon the Government
and the cause of the Republic.
We had almost forgotten the existence of
the stout prince. The war began in such
hustle and hurry that when it was declared
he was on pleasure trip to Norway, and so
had no time to collect his sluggish wits to
announce a policy. 1t was finished so soon
that he had no opportunity to organize an
army of tourists such as he had formerly
headed with such success and diversion.
Since then he has fitted about in Italy and
Switzerland, too silent for o living man, and
too corpulent for a ghost. But at last, in
London, he gives tongue, and every line of
his letter shows the Oorsican oeroe and bitter
ness. 1t is not difficult to imagine the mo-
tives which have driven him to this
unusual effort. 1t is gall and worm
wood to him to speak in defense of the
Emperor. He has never concealed the con-
tempt with which he regards him, as O sham
and fraud in name, in pretension, and in
every relation. He feels it as burning
wrong that he, with his genuine Italian blood
and Napoleonic profile, should be subordinate
to this Dutch changeling. But he has been
forced to curb his scorn and accept the gifts
that fortune has bestowed by the Imperial
hand. He would not admit that the gentle
man in the Tuileries was his cousin, but he
could not forget that through him the Palais
Royal was his home, and place was his on
the steps of the throne After few months
of exile he began to realize what it meant to
have lost his princedom. 1t was very plea
SAINT while in Paris to talk democracy to the
Al. Q 4. Al
ness of life after all was to touch the million
of the Imperial dotation. Joseph II, who was
better democrat himself than palace we'll
could harbor, said one day, ''The trade live
by is that of royalist." Our eloquent radi-
cal, Napoleon Jerome, has evidently come to
the same conclusion. He sees his hopes of
future ease, and the chance of the crown,
which is only removed from him by the mar
row span of the little Montijo's life, fading
away in the stubborn disinclination of France
to recall her fallen tyrant. He sees there is a
possibility of the Republic surviving the in
trigues of secret enemies and the madness OF
open friends. He sees the old monarchical
parties plotting for the throne, as if the
Bonapartes no longer existed. He launches
this Illumination against the head of the Re-
publican party in the Cabinet Snd the coun-
try, artfully charging upon him and his col
leagues the whole train of disasters which the
Empire precipitated upon France.
Prince Napoleon is too clever q man to
believe one word of this arraignment. He
charges M. Fsvre with repeated capitula-
tions What has he to say of the figure
which the empire cut at Sedan? BE says the
Emperor could have obtained better terms
from Germany than those actually granted
Then why did he skulk from all responsibility
when Bismarck received him, saying he sur
rendered only himself-that his wife at Paris
was now the head of the frm The Prince
denounces the grandiloquence of the promise!
of defense made by the Government of Sep
tember This sounds strangely from the
mouth of champion of that grotesque en-
pire which went to war with q comedian Z
equipment of tinsel and fanfaronade. Thii
scurrilous manifesto is only intended to i'm
press the rural Masses among whom both
the Napoleons found their blindest adhe
rents 1t is as easy as it is disingeuuou'
to persuade the unthinking peasantr,
that under the Emperor they had peace ant
under the republic they have had war, and
that this wicked III. Favre is the cause o
it all.
The Prince concludes by the unfailin
panaces Of his hOr-s-giye US a plebiscitum
1t has been manipulated so often by dishc
nest bands into a semblance of unanimou
support, that the Bonapartes rely upon it 0
implicitly as Mr. Weller relied upon an alb
He thinks this is the game which viii circun
vent all opposition, and although he appeal
to dread the Republic most of all, he does M
close without vicious little dig at his br
ther.pretenders He wishes it distinctly a.
preeiased that the hope Of the country
1'not in a principle which is the negation
modern society; in white flag which Franz
no longer remembers; in the negation
universal suffrage; in the white terror su