, 1874-04-15
NAPOLEONISM IN FRANCE.
From the Daily News.)

1t seems clear enough now to almost every Eng
fshman, as to a great many Frenchmen, that Be-
napartism on the whole did France a great deal
more harm than good. To US therefore, whose
mere sympathies and sentiments are entirely dis
engaged, and to whom it is a matter Of no per-
sonal concern whatever whether this name or that,
this system or that, shall prevail in France, cit
seems obvious that Frenchmen ought not to like
or tolerate Bonapartism. But this is Judging
wholly by the dry light of facts; and if all peo'
pies arrange their politics on such principles OF
evidence, there could hardly be such things as
political parties. To many foreign observers, and
to not a few at home, a reaction to Ioryism IN
England seems almost as irrational as a reaction
to Bonapartism would be in France. Mr.. Dis
raeli in Downing-street appears nearly as unin-
t~elligible q phenomenon as the young Prince
Louis Napoleon would be in a restored Iuileries.
The truth is, that until political action is govern
ed by far higher principles and clearer convic-
tons than at present, there will always be people
everywhere ready to accept that which harm0-
nizes with their own preiudices, and glorifies their
owninstincts, rather than to estimate practically its
substantial aud national results. There may be
even still some Frenchmen who feel more thank
full to Napoleon III. because he tried to make
France the ruler of Europe than hostile to his
memory because he failed in his attempt. There
are a good many among the trading classes in cities
who think that twenty years of enforced quiet at
home, of the " Reds" kept down, of ever busy and
ingenious Fashion, of great public works every
whore, Of broad new streets, and that superficial
sham of prosperity which consists in the rapid
passing Of money from hand to hand, which doubt
less has its believers in London as we'll as Paris
there are a good many, it cannot be questioned,
who think all this was well worth the chance even
Of a Sedan. In many a French city some great
new work, some boulevard, or a%queduct, or park,
or other such desirable improvements, was con
structed by the Second Empire where, during the
memory of man, nothing in the nature OF a great
piece of work had ever been done before. The
work, of course, bore in some way the name OF
Napoleon. The war came, and the Dtcheance,
and the Republic, and the name OF the improve
ment was changed to suit the new condition OF
things. But in towns where the Prussians never
came-and, after all, the foreign occupation
only covered a comparatively small triangle or
the ~counry-the elder residents remember that
the work was done by the Empire, and bore Ma
poleon's name. Perhaps that selfish and prac-
teal memory represents Bonapartism to them.
They think Of that, and not OF the 2nd OF Decem-
Der, or Of Grayelotte, or Of Metz.
Whatever chance the Empire ever had was
founded on this sort Of double appeal. 1t appeal
ed to national vain glory and to selfish personal
interests. With that recklesaly illogical pretcn-
sion which only political parties can venture to
try, it appealed at once to those who love war
like supremacy, and those who love peace at any
DrlCO, In George SAND 5 'JouTlal OF IL 1 ldNelIGI
during the War" published some 3 years ago, the
GREAT authoress, who it is needless to say, is q
staunch Republican, remarks sadly on the comment
which she Heard from the lips of an old peasant
who was told of one of Gambetta's appeals to the
people to keep up the resistance even to the death.
8 Does he think he can catch flies with vinegar 2"
was the stolidly scornful answer with which the
veteran Jacques Bonhomme met this appeal to the
devotion Of his district. Enlist and go to the
FIGHT for the mere sake of being killed-truly Il
notion worthy of n wild Republican like " that
Monsieur Gambetta! - 1t is quite probable that
the man who made this reply and his class are
not Bonapartists now. 1t is probable that they
still remember how, at the last Pl6blSclte, the En-
piro promised them peace, and gave them war.
But it is clear that no one could expect them to
decide between political parties either on purely
rational or purely patriotic grounds; and the
Bonapartists at Chiselhurst may well regard as
possible the coming Of a crisis when the Empire
would offer peace and ou~ietness with better assur-
ance than any other party. All this, of course,
is no excuse, for Imperialism it is indeed, on the
contrary, rather its condemnation. 1t IS merely
saying that it has still to live, as 1t always lived
on appeals to the lower feelings. Neither does
it necessarily promise to Bonapartism any clearer
hope for the future. Every year that a Republic
endures anyhow, makes for Republicanism and
for the Republicans. But it takes the proceedings
-. of to-day out of the category OF purely sentimental
land meaningless ceremOnlals, like the private
81 toasts to the Stuarts which some ancient English
and Scottish families kept up long after the last
representative of the lost cause had muddled his