Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-01-17
LOUIS .r.fPOLBO.r.

The telegraph, Friday morning, announc-
ed the death of Charles Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte, the ex-Emperor of France.
Like his great prototype and predecessor,
Napoleon called ''the Great" he died in
exile, but unlike him, not in captivity.
The life of the ex-Emperor, in America
and England, his unsuccessful attempts to
recover the throne of France, his election
10 and administration of the presidency of
that unhappy country, the coup de etat of
the I'd Of December, 1851, his election as
Emperor and his subsequent career to the
period of his downfall at Sedan, are too
well known to require more than this brief
summarization. The contrast of twenty
years in his life has been great. Then
firmly seated in power, striking the first
blow of the historic second of December,
with Theirs, by his orders, prisoner. The
twenty years pass and Napoleon, after hav-
ing filled leading part in shaping the des-
TIMES OF nations, passes away stranger
in q strange land, and away from the
France for which every fibre of his being
was yearning while the whilom prisoner
seems confirmed in power as his lawful, if
not legitimate, successor as ruler of France.
The contrast Is suggestive of the vanity of
human ambition as well as the instability
of human power and greatness, and Theirs
will do we'll to apply the lesson. The death
of Louis Napoleon at this time, as was the
case with the first Bonaparte, will serve
rather to prevent than promote or create
political complications in France. What
might have been the case three years ago,
II Is unnecessary to contemplate. Louis
Napoleon is dead and great no more, but
those who surnamed him "the Little" in
his life time were wide of the mark. New
er was there a greater msnomer, never
was an appellation wider of the mark. To
be sure his career in America and England,
and his escapades at Boulogne and Stras-
bourg were calculated to convey anything
but favorable impression ~ his abilities
and courage. But his course afterwards
proved him to be OF mastery mind and of
superior administrative abilities and, but
for his terrible mistake in underestimate
ing the power and resources of Prussia, he
would, up to the hour of his death, have
been In a condition almost to dictate the
politics of Europe. Made the heir of the
French throne by the death of his cousin
the Duke of Reichstadt, son of the first
Napoleon, in 1882, under the statute OF
France established in 1904, his every
thought and action was tinctured by this
thought and the idea that the French peo-
pie were ready TO receive him as they did
Napoleon on his return from Elba. AT
Strasbourg and at Boulogne he was receiy-
ed, as 1t were with derision and he wilted
before the storm. His great failing-the
falling as well of other great men In this
and all countries-here showed itself as at
Solferino and latterly at Sedan. lie show
ed that while he could plan and mature
and SET In operation great and heroic ac-
lions, his temperament, through sluggish.
ness perhaps, was not fitted for the final
crisis OF danger or for the turning point be.
tween victory and disastrous rout. 9th err
wise, in our judgment, he was great man
as the world estimates q eatness Great In
natural abilities, great In his literary and
legal requirements, great in craftsmanship
and great as wise and beneficent ruler
Whatever may be the right, either legally
constitutionally or morally, in his coup d,
stat Of the I'd Of December, 1851, II must bt
confessed that 1t was comprehensively, a,
we'll as infinitely and, for the result aimed
at, wisely conceived, planned and executed
Perhaps from his standpoint 1t may hav,
been honest, too. Called by the voice o
France to the Presidency of the Republic
receiving the free unbought suffrages of thu
manila ha baVa fIfura
France, by change in the form of govern
ment, which In his mind, imbrued as |
was with the idea that he was the natura
and statutory heir to the empire, that justi