Litchfield enquirer., 1873-01-16
NAPOLEON lll.

regarding the late emperor there would be but very little to say. He was weak man vainly trying to seem strong; cun- ming man, yainly trying to seem wise. The one quality in which he was great was persistence. Inheriting an imperial name he worked year after year, in sea- son and out of season, to make his nomi- nal sovereignty real one. Finally his plots, treasons, perjuries, and murders bore fruit, and he succeeded to the throne of his great uncle. For many years his weakness passed current for strength; his cunning, for wisdom; till at last, in the day of trial, he was found utterly incapa- ble, his empire mere shell. When he ceased to be an emperor he went back to his old trade as plotter, and would have conspired against the French republic every day of his life had that life reached to the next century His death removes cause of disturbance to the republic, which, if not dangerous, was at least troublesome.
 The cable informs us that the ex-Em- press is broken down with grief Part of that loudly proclaimed sorrow is no doubt sincere; part is mere imperial stage-busi- ness. We have always been at loss to conceive how pious, pure people could es- teem woman who sold her beauty to a proiigate for crown; how any amount of civil and religious ceremonies could make that seem marriage which was on ly prostitution. Perhaps she has re- pented since-certainly her husband gave her ample reason-but the result of re- pentance in this, as in almost every simi- lar case, has been bigotry not piety. So gross and notorious, indeed, is Eugenie's blgotry that it is a matter of general con- graduation that it will now injure few, whereas it might have tortured nation. It is to be hoped that with the emperor will die the principle of Cesarism he rep resented. Had the first Napoleon been driven from the throne by the French themselves instead of by foreigners, there would probably have been no imperial restoration. It was the consciousness that it was France rather than Napoleon that was being punished at St. Helena l which made the restoration of his dynas- ty seem an act of justice, vindication of national independence against outside dictation. This sentiment and the remi- niscences of wonderful military achieve ments brought the French army and na- ton under the imperial yoke. Twenty years of despotism disenchanted the peo- pie; Sedan disenchanted the army; and we doubt whether any more Napoleons will ever trouble France. Casarism. how ever, is much wider and more danger ons thing than Napoleonism. The for me. is the general principle of which the latter is only an individual Application. Macaulay has sketched briefly and forci- ply the change wrought in the govern ments of continental Europe by the intro dudion of standing armies, which made the sovereign too strong in every instance for both nobles and people. The great problem now before the French Assembly is tle putting such checks upon the ex- ecuive authority as will make it no long CT dangerous to liberty. Give president of these United States standing army of half million, with no State governments or aate militia to interfere with his cen tralzed power, and people totally un- usel to self-control, and his road to die tatership or empire would be very easy one Such is the precise position in which every French 4executive-king, emperor or president himself. Nothing will eva reconcile liberty with such a condi- tiol of things except the strictest limita- tiols of executive power, the growth of a true republican spirit in army and people, and the diffusion of general intelligence. ". believe the Thiers government is pav- ing the way for real republic in France, ani we cannot but rejoice in the removal of one stumbling block in the way of his success.