New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-19
" ROTHER.S PROGRI NINE.

NJ. Rouher has emerged from the modest re-
serve which kept him so long from acknowl-
edgng his position in the Bonapartlst con-
sIiracy. Nobody has forgotten his indignant
and categorical denial few months ago that
he directed the B0napartst Committee or that
he was aware of its existence. He now states,
As a mere matter of course, i'll the debate on
the annulment of NJ. Bourgoing's election, that
he is the President of that Committee; and
when people express surprise at this singular
eilrontery, he calmly says he was thinking OF
some other Committee when he made his
famous denial. He makes this statement, as he
made all the rest, on his honor and conscience.
He has an honor and conscience more elastic
than an inhatonist's platform. He was always
put forward by the late Emperor when any
especially shameless Justification was to he set
before the country, and he always delivered
his lesson with marvellous sincerity and glib
ness He had no more scrupIcs about matters
of principle than about matters of fact. He
favored the Ultramontanes because this pleased
the Empress and did not offend the Emperor,
but smngly avowed himself at a certain
stormy meeting of the Cabinet, as neither
"Catholic nor Protestant" No." said Min
lister Duruy, "you are nothing but an Au-
"vergnats Victor Hugo gave Il graphic picture
of him in one of the poems N his celebrated
"Chastiscments" He describes NJ. Rouhcr in
his steady progress up from ignoblc poverty /;
the howell where he slept, " exhaling from his
d" hole the odor OF wet dog; his success of
indirection, and his final blooming out as a
congenial servant of the uSIIlpcr AID supporter
of the coup d'etat. There must have been
some smiling in the Chamber when this s!ifty
apoogst of the Empire laid such heavy bur
,lcns on his honor and conscience.
He certainly succeeded in creating "A scnsa-
ton by his last demonstration in the Chamber,
and probably satisfied his associates, who all
seem to think their cause can only he advanced
by constant and scandalOus noise. He attempted
to make point with the MOnarchSts by COM
pairing his fidelity to Napoleon Ill. with that
which they cherished toward their dethroned
soyereigns. But every noble nose on the Right
curved dcrisively upward at the idea of COM
pairing the iail-bird of Ham with Charles Y.
and Louis Philippe. They felt that a line
must be drawn somewhere, and they drew it
some distance this side of Bonapartes. The
Left was no more edited with his speech
than the Oreanistand Legitimist gentlemen.
NJ. Gambetta resorted to plagiarism to
express his contempt. He said, 1.-THE
blood of the I'd of December chokes you -
a "Reminiscences of the last hours of Robespierre
in the Constituent, when having lost his voice
with excitement among his triumphant enc
mics. one of them shouted, "The blood of Dan
"ton chokes theen 1t is probable that the
slaughter of the I'd of December sits as lightly
on the conscience of Rouher as broken oaths
on the conscience of his master He is not to
be put down by any references to the coup
d'etat He is wonderfully adroit, fluent, I'M
scrupulous politician, and he will not cease
working for the restoration of the Napoeonic
dynasty as long as he imasines he can profit
by it, now or in the future.
The recent debate is of some importance as
showing what the Government of the Repub-
lie and the Bonapartist faction propose to do.
The first question was asked by NJ. Duval, and
N. Buffet replied that the Government consid-