New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-04-04
THE BONAPARTISTS
THEIR PRESENT POLITICAL POWER.


CANS
tpRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TBIDCSE.l
PARIS, March ls.-The Chiselhurst play is a sue
cess, surprising the antcipations of collaborating
authors and performers The young Napoleonc
Star who filled the first role, if not yet lord OF the
ascendant is rising. The speech he spoke as Rouher
prayed him. from the stump of the Imperial THRONE
will have already reached you. If perused WIN re-
spect to the candidates position to the immaculate
audience and to the larger public to whom IL was
addressed over its shoulders, the speech appears
very model of electoneering oratory. Ii is perhaps
inst those passages which at first glance strike some
of US as most impertinent, that are the
most ingenious such those where he lands
the noble Qualities of his father, and respectfully
complimentIng the Sword" of the Duke of Magenta
for its actual transient protection of order, assimI
lates MacNIahOn's gores and misfoTtunes with
those of the martyr hero of Sedan. If, as dutiful
son. il was becoming as hereditary candidate 1t was
necessary, that he should say something of his
father. it is most desirable to modify the legend of
Sedan it is essentially important that the future
pre- tensions of the candidate should not be put IN
opposition to the present provisional Chief of State
but should rather be commended to his indugent
tolerance, that is, fostering protection
The cenxal fact in the celebration of the majority
of the Prince is that the interrecnum is ended that
morally and in strict legality the eghteen-yearold
lad is now Emperor of the French by hereditary
right lin pariibus, only awaiting the providential
moment Ito be elevated 10 the throne, after
solemn election by the clergy and the people" His
canddature implies his imperial rights, for he is
eligible at is instead Of 81. solely by virtue of the
imperial family ordnance instituted by Napoleon
III. The central point in his ROuher manifesto
speech is the submission of the hereditary right to
the sanction of an unrestricted popular vote, the
Ay1i ic staft
moment that with characteristic political sagacity,
the royahst majority of the Committee of Thirty,
after more than three months of deberatiOn, are
ready to report the draft Of electoral law which,
if they were paid for it from the old civil list,
could not promise better service to the Chisehurst
Pretender. 1t was published last Thursday, rs
if for prologue to the Chselhurst Play.
Principally by two provisions, one of which
fixes the majority Of the electors at p instead OF Il
years and the other excessively prolongs the pre-
liminary period Of local domicile, the immediate
effect of the bill, hf it becomes law, would be to
deprive nearly 100000 third of the adult
male population, of the elective franchise. If such
law be passed. and many think that it will be, it
Will be voted by scant majority of an Assembly
whose authority for existing is derived from the
universal suffrage they abrogate; who, at the time
of their election. did not pretend nor by their cleo
ton intended, to be invested with cOnstitu-
tonal power, much less with power to destroy the
one existing, substantial constituent element of
Frcnch political society Declared law by an ex-
cessivo assumption of power the part of the
royaiSt majority against whose unsuccessful in
tricueS and persistent aspirations the country at
every opportunity offered persistent protests, such
unjust enactments wanting all moral authority, can
have only that binding force which q weak admin
istratiOn with help of magistrates, projects, and
gendarmes impar to its inherent feebleness. 1t
will be an essentially revolutionary law and be held
by political parties whom it oiends and by the
three million Frenchmen whom it insults as justif
cation of revolutionary resistance when occasion
offers good chance
The Il deputies of the Bonapartist group in the
Assembly. which three years ago confirmed The depo
sitiOn of Napoleon Ill, have returned from Chisel
hurst highly contented, and resumed their seats at
Versailles beside their royalist partners of NJ. de
Broge's majority. They cannot openly vote for the
Electoral law bat none more DESTROYS that it
should pass 1t is natural to suppose that the Duke
de BrOge does not like them for partners-nOt be-
cause thoy do not have good hand, bat because
they are not fools and arc likely to play the cards
he throws into their hands to their gain. And that
stinging sarcasm of Theirs always rankles: You
will be the proteg6 of the Empire" At present be is
as well the protector of its rising fortunes, and
probably as much from the natural character of the
suppOsitiOu from whatever negotiation has been
attempted may still be going on, has arisen much
loose Of late efforts to enlist many of the
Loft Center into the ministerial ranks as would
enable him to dispense with the embarrassing but
thus far necessary aid of the Imperals auxilaTies
which their chief, Rouher, only temporarily lends
him, and at high wages. Judging from actual ap-
pearances, Left Center and Right viii fail to con-
meet.
But there is another hypothesis Whatever I'M
complimentary opinions some of us may entertain of
NJ. de BrOglies general intellectual quality, politi-
cal sagacity, moral integrity, and self-cOncet we
must admit that he is far from being idiot. and is
fond of ministerial Office. 1t requires great char
ity to believe that no his favorite hobby-horse
phrase peril social with the sincerity Of fear of the
old revolutionary wrath that overlook some of his
ancestors-the democratic sentiment which he in
stlnctively feels must, when it is poured out,
bring all the Broglie kind down to the vulgar level
Can be- then that looking to Orleanist constu-
tional monarchy with himself for Prime Minister he
is effectively rowing toward the new Empire, with
perhaps the chance of finding high Office even on
that shOref person not nearly so likely to be
utterly ill-nformed as many intelligent informants
constantly are narrated to me at coffee three even
ings ago an interesting little anecdote which runs
follows: NJ y says to BrOghe, But at the rate and
in the style you going on with the old means of
the Empire, you preparing the advent of Napo-
leon w., you drifting to the Imperial end"
well" replies Broglie to N. X, 81 would prefer
that to bong shot by Communards."
To-day the Chselhurst play, with its pretty stage,
ingenious mise scene beautiful chief actress and
imperial star actor packed applausive audience, and
the rest of it, occupies larger range of mental
yision-let alone of partisan yisiOnares-than il