Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-01-16
THE RUTLAND HERALD
SATURDAY, JANUARY Il, 1878
Louis Napoleon.

louis Napoleon.
The Telegraph, yesterday morning,
announced the death of Charles Low
Napoleon Bonaparte, the ex-Empe.oi u
France. Like his great prot,g0ype anu
predecessor, Napoleon calleo inc
Great" he died in c>lle, but unlike HIM,
not in cantivify The life of the eX
Fmneror, in America and England, his
unsuccessful attempts to recover the
throne of France, his election to and adj
ministration 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 having filled leading
part in shaping the destinies OF nations,
passes away q stranger in strange land,
and away from the France for which
every fibre of his being was yearnlng,
while the whilom prisoner seems con-
firmed in power as his lawful, if not
legitimate, successor as ruler of France.
The contrast is suggestive of the vanity
of human ambition as we'll as the insta-
bility Of human power and greatness,
and Theirs will do well to apply the les
son. 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 Compli-
cations in France. What might have
been the case three years ago, it is I'M
necessary to contemplate. Louis Napol-
con is dead and great no more, but those
who surnamed him 'the Little in his
life time, were wide of the mark. Never
was there a greater misnomer, never was
an appellation wider of the mark. To
be sure his career in America and Eng
land, and his escapades at Boulogne and
anything but favorable impression of
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 mis-
take in Understanding 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 people were ready
to receive him as they did Napoleon on
his return from Elba. At Strasbourg
and at Boulogne he was received, as it
were with derision and he Wilted before
the storm. Ills great failing-the fail
ing as well Of other great men in this
and all countries-here showed itself as
at Solferino and latterly at Sedan. He
showed that while he could plan and
mature and set in operation great and
heroic actions, his temperament, through
sluggishness perhaps, was not fitted for
the final crisis of danger or for the turn
ing point between victory and disastrous
rout. Otherwise, in our Judgment, he
was a great man as the world estimates
greatness. Great in natural abilities,
great in his literary and legal acquire
ments, great in craftsmanship and great
as a wise and benefcent ruler What
ever may be the right, either legally, con-
stitutionally or morally, in his coup de
>tat Of the % of December, 1851, it must
be confessed that it was comprehensive
ly, as well as infinitely and, for the re-
suit aimed at, wisely conceived, planned
and executed. Perhaps from his stand
point it may have been honest too
Called by the voice of France to the
Presidency of the Republic, receiving
the free unboughtsuffrages of thepeople,
he may have seen future for France by
a change in the form of government,
which in his mind, imbrucd as it was
with the idea that he was the natural
and statutory heir to the empire, that
justified his course. Be this as it may,
the logic Of events, as well as the consid-
crate judgment of mankind, has demon
strated that for France, as France and it's
people, he was a judicious, sagacious
and good ruler. With him and the en-
pire, France enjoyed a period of undis-
turbed quiet and prosperity, for which
she, at least, owes him a debt of graft
tude. 1t will be many a year ere she
sees it again.