The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-16
The Napoleon Obsequics-France and
tho Materials for . BonsParte Res


direction.
The question oftenest asked in relation
to France since the death of the ex-Em-
peror has been, Is the Empire also dead2 1t
has been answered af6rmatvely with conf
dence and negatively with tenacity For the
present the yeas seem to have it. We look In
! vain in this post-miraculous age for signs and
omens in the heavens to tell us of the future.
When the Christian faith was proclaimed
o voice was said to have been heard along the
| shores of the Egean Sea and out to the pillars
of Hercules crying 'The great god Pan Is
dead for evermore |" Be that as it may, it is
| only to favored ears that such cry was
heard when the exile of Chiselhurst breathed
the last of his breath. Time, the great umpire,
must decide whether the Empire of the Bona
parties is dead for evermore; whether the star
of Austerlitz has gone back to its place among
the myths Of the interested fatalists and
hangers-on and the sickly sentimentalists,
male and female. We can decide one thing,
namely, that the aforesaid star has been most
inconstant in its rays.
Yesterday the exile was buried. temporarily
with all the circumstance which his condition
since Sedan would permit. The heir to his
house, with others of the Bonapartes and
Bunapartists, followed the body to its resting
place. Watching with wide open eyes as the
cortege passed were some thirty thousand
English curiosity seekers and sympathizers
There was no funeral sermon preached by o
priest over the coffin; all that was done in the
mere fact of the funeral itself Impressive it
stick; there were ex-princely mourners, old
military protkgks of the Empire, and, we are
gravely told, q body of Paris workmen bearing
immortelles It is pity this last satire was
not omitted but the ways of q family of sou
distant fatalists and professional saviours Of
their country are hard to understand.
Whether they were of those whom Haussmann
kept at work building houses lest they should
turn their hands to pulling down thrones we
are not informed; but their Identification
! with the blue-bloused curriers' of Belleville OF
the Faubourgs is necessary before we can
procession of him they styled "Badinguet, "
in spite of threat or concession There were
French spies present, too it is said, to give a
finishing touch to this dramatic spectacle OF
the end, indeed, of the Lower Empire. We
need not now quarrel over his titles to re-
spect or to detestation, or whether he will be
known better to history as the Man of Deem
Der or the Man Of Sedan. The eyes that
watched him so attentively when he held
France in handouts, or when he amused it
with catchword or the glitter Of a court;
when he went out amid cries Of ''On to
Berlin - only to arrive at Wilhelmsh0he, even
when he lived at Chiselhurst, will turn quickly
away from the coffin which contains
all of Wondering mortality that is left of him.
He has played his part-comedian at Stras-
burg, Boulogne and Ham; tragedian in the
days when he took Paris by the throat in the
night time and shed blood like water, with
the words, sou on erfc,de mes ordres; sensa-
tional star when he reared the dazzling spec
tacle of his Empire with its title "Cest Ia
paia;" comedian again when he baptized his
boy in fire amid the weeping guardsmen
traSedian again in spite of himself when
France went down before German bayonets,
and walking gentleman" then up to the
morning when the curtain fell. The attentive
eyes leave him behind that curtain, for it is
his pail.
"What is the outlook for his house?" the
questioning eyes will ask. Now and then they
will set to peering among old dusty records
for names, and into various corners of the
world where those the names represent are to
be found. This work finished they will scan
all France itself The busy brain behind the
eyes will then begin its forecasts. There
is, firstly, pale boy, not over strong
who is woolwich cadet, the only
son of the deceased. He will be
the first imperialist pretender. There is
the e1-Empress, whom we already hear of as
regent pretender. Then follows q curious
pair, each claiming to be the legitimate de-
scendant of Jerome Bonaparte, the brother Of
the man who first lifted the name of Bonaparte
above the crowd. These are Jerome's grand
| son by his marriage with Elizabeth Pat
terson, the injured beauty Of Baltimore,
and Jerome's son by his marriage with
the Princess of Wurtemburg. In another
part of the HERALD will be found the
story of the former, who, like his grandmother
lives in the hope that all is not over yet with
the Empire. The querulous old lady in the
boarding house in Baltimore, with oil her
pique and infatuation, is not more curious in
her stubborn faith than many dreamer be-
fore her time. She has held to it now through
nearly seventy years, and if she has not
achieved her expectations, she has seen most
Of her enemies go where they could injure her
no more. She threatens to live them
all down, and if she only reaches
that point of her lstrange ambition she may
take courage enough to die happy There are