The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-04-30

The Will or Napoleon IH.-sPower
Is q Heavy Burden"
Our special dispatches from London bring
us the terms of the will of Napoleon III, the
ex-Emperor of the French, who died at CHS
elhurst, in England, last January. His per-
sonal property is sworn to as under six
hundred thousand dollars, and this is
said to be reducible by debts to
half that amount Truly this is not an
imperial fortunes but there are a great
many ways Of disposing of property, SO that it
will not turn up in last testaments. 1t may
or may not be that this sum is all Napoleon
saved from the wreck Of his fortunes. The
public will care very little whether it is
or not On three hundred thousand dol
lars as capital widow and her son can
in England lead life far above poverty. It
is more at any rate for the boy, cursed to have
the golden dream of empire forever before his
eyes, than his father possessed when he lived
in Hoboken. And it is probably not all.
But the interest in the document registered
at Doctors Commons, London, does not
cease with the statement of the sum be-
queathed, or even in the fact that the ex-Em-
press Eugene is the sole legatee. 1t runs
back eight years with the date alone, and
brings before us the days when Napoleon, in
the full tide Of his power, sat down to write
words for the smiles, the cynicisms of history.
On April "a, 1866, he wrote and signed the
will Europe was then at peace, and the
Emperor could then scarcely see the edge
of the black cloud that mounted afterwards
upon his horizon. De Morny was dead, but
even the Emperor could not tell how much
he had lost. The first of his great mistakes
the expedition to Mexico-then looked like
success. Macmillan was nine months upon
the imperial throne of the Montezumas.
Bazaine was fighting with every assurance of
victory there. If the cloud showed above the
horizons rim it was only the gilded edge that
met his view. The Schleswig- Holstein war was
ended. 1t was nearly twelve months from the
capture of Duppel, and Prussia and Austria
were SO friendly that King William and EN-
peror Francis Joseph were arranging to meet
at Caylsbad for friendly talk. Sadowa did
The Southern rebellion had been crushed by
the surrender of Lee and although Abraham
Lincoln had been assassinated ten days be-
fore, the news had yet to break upon Europe.
There was one circumstance, however, con-
nected with the day on which the will was
drawn that will not fail to suggest itself to his
tory. Three days previously Napoleon had two
imperial visitors at the Tuileries, whose faces
were not lit with that joy which emperors as
sumo when they meet each other. These
were His Imperial Majesty the Gar Alexan-
der H., Autocrat of all the Russias, and his
but little said that day, and the two
imperial visitors soon proceeded on their
journey to the south The Russian EN-
peror's eldest son and heir, the Czarovitch
Nicholas, was sick unto death at Nice and
the mournful parents were fastening thither
to clasp their boy before he died. Napoleon,
with what light we have of his character,
despite his loud-toned trust in destiny, we
know to have been q man of INDIGESTION in
supreme moments, and subject at all times to
melancholy forebodings, which he did his best
to conceal On Monday, the Gath Of April,
the heir to the throne of all the
Russias was taken quietly away from
life and its prospective imperial crown.
The news of death was flashed to
Paris that same day, and then it was the Man
of December, in oil the glory of his empire,
sat down to write the will of the Man of
Sedan The Prince Imperial delicate boy
just entering his tenth year, was playing in the
garden Of the Tuileries, innocent Of the fact
that q pen was tracing out for him, not the
path Of glory of q future emperor, but the
devious way Of weak pretender. Such are
the sardonics Of history. While death was
palled above one imperial house Napoleon III.
was writing the hollow elegy of his own.
It was not very elaborate piece of COM
position. It touched the springs of family
pride and had glmmer in it from the sun of
Austerlitz, although the ray fell coldly upon
the rock Of st. Helena. For the rest it was
naked Of ornament. and men will say that it
was hypocritical where it speaks of heaven.
He addressed it 'to the high authorities
of State, to the people and army of
France" The Empress was to be Regent,
his son Gust nine years old) possessed
qualities of disposition and judgment which
will render him worthy of his high destinies.
What are those destinies now? Then the
Emperor wrote some bare words of advice to
the boy who is cadet at Woolwich to-day.
He was meyer to forget the motto of the head
of the family, Everything for the French
people," He was to read and ponder over
the words of the prisoner of st. Helena. The
prisoner of Ham felt that he could not afford
tomention his own long dungeon vigil; the
finger pointed only to the one figurs-that
upon the lonely South Atlantic ro.s. He was.
'.when circumstances permitted" to war for