Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-06-28
FRENCH IMPERIALISM STAG
GERED.

who was the claimant of the throne I
of France, has inflicted a stunning
blow upon that unreasonable faction |
which desires to make the imperial |
crown hereditary in the house of |
Bonaparte. To us this claim based |
upon hereditary descent seems one
of the most astounding pieces of
arrogance and audacity that history
records. The very principle upon
which the first Napoleon acceded to
power was the denial of all heredi-
taIy dynastic claims; "Ja eayTiere
ouUerte GIr tdlens," Office thrown
open to ability was the principle
proclaimed for all from the throne
to the workman's bench, and no
man ever owed his advancement to
his own personal ability so distinctly
as Napoleon /. Nevertheless he
had scarcely been settled on the
throne before he commenced q series
of devices which purposed to con-
vert his throne into an hereditary
appanage and his family into an
imperial dynasty. Marriages which
had been previously contracted
both by the Emperor himself and
by his brothers were annulled and
alliances with royal families con-
tracted. Vast sums Of money were
devoted to the purpose of founding
an hereditary military aristocracy
to supplant the successors of the
Crusaders, and when at last legit-
innate heir was born to the Emperor
he was endowed with the title
which was known as that of the
heir apparent of Charlemagne-
liking of the Romans" The throne
and dynasty of the Napoleons were
Frustrated by the disaster of Water
loo, and while abdicating a title
which was no longer his, he con-
ferred il upon his son, who never
wore it, but died at eighteen in the
house of his fathers enemies after
learning to denounce his fathers
career as a tissue of crime. Thus
ends the first effort at at hereditary
descent in the BoDaparte family.
In the course of time, however, a
dissolute adventurer, nominally a
deseendent of Napoleon's father and
mother, not of Napoleon himself,
and in reality, as most men believe,
having no drop of the blood of the
Bonapartes in his vein, by craft and
crime makes himself Emperor under
the title of Napoleon III. He too
had son whom he fondly hoped
to make his successor, but he too
lost his throne and died in exile be-
fore his son was of age, leaving the
boy to assume the barren title of
Napoleon ". This title he bore
without territory or funds to sup
port it in the land of the hereditary
enemies of France, and died a week
or two ago a member of that ma
TONS army, his body mangled by
the Zulus' assegais. A second sig
nal failure of hereditary claim.
The audacious faction, however,
which hopes to obtain power and
pelf in the name of the Napoleon
dynasty has not Withdrawn its bra
zen front from the political arena,
but is digging into the forgotten
pedigrees of the old Bonapartes for
another claimant, and they have
even produced will signed by the
poor boy who died in Zulu-land
passing over the nearest heir, Prince
Joseph, to his son Victor, and con-
ferring on him the imperial sceptre
(which he never held himself.
Meanwhile France is prospecting
under its now well established re-
public and looks with wonder and
disdain on the documents by which
Woolwich cadet undertakes to
dispose of the destinies of forty mil
lions of French citizens without
their consent asked or obtained.
Unmitigated ridicule and laughter
would be the worlds response to
claims so fantastic, but for sympa-
thy with the hereaved and heart
stricken lady at Chislehurst, whose
! sorrows throw a veil over the base
lessness of her long cherished aspi-
ratiOns now crushed forever.