New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-03
THE LATE PRINCE NAPOLEON.
PUBLIC FEELING IN ENGLAND.

lFRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.
LONDON, June 21.-lt was late on Thursday night
when intelligence of the death of Louis Napoleon
reached the newspaper offices of London. There
was Just time to write a hurried comment on ii
before the great journals went to press. The fact
was known in the House of Commons. and ques-
ton was put in order to give Colonel Stanley, the
Minister of War; an opportunity of expressing his
regret at the occurrence. Some of the papers did
not get their special dispatches from the Cape
in season for their regular issue Friday morn
ing. 1t would obviously be a mistake to attach
much value to anything said in such circumstances
But twenty-four hours have since elapsed. There
has been time for reflection and time to collect the
opinion of the pablo. What the papers say to-day
may fairly be taken as expressing the general feel
ing Of the English upper and middle classes, and
the general sense of those political writer's who are
IN the habit of commenting on public events.
L am sorry to say 1t, but these deliberate ex-
pIessi0ns seem to me something very like
an outburst of sentimental 1uukeyism. The
Prince Is spoken of in terms which prove
once more how deep, how ineradcable among the
classes have mentioned, is the worship of Princes
QHaRd meme. won't ask you to read all the pass
ages | have collected. Samples from one journal
will suffice. " Through the length and breadth of
the land there passed yesterday morning" says tins
trucst sympathy at the melancholy tidings which
had just arrived from the Cape, and which an
nOunced that the chyalroUs young Prince who had
made our African quarrel his own-thus generously
acknowledging his debt to British hospitality-had
been cut Off by Zulu ambuscadc" Further
are told how in his mothers eyes this "prinCely
| boy represented all the greatness OF the
past and all tho cOmpensations of the
future y; how "he was France for herr;
how /" the Imperial boy has thus prematurely and
p0thetically fallen in our distant quarrel" how
grievous It Is that this heir of the Napoleons
| should fall victim to the cruel cunning of the
savage ," and how-since Providence must be bias
phemed TO account for such catastrophe" in the
| omnscent will Of Heaven must be found the sOlu-
tiOn Of these Ovcrthrows of human affection and
defeats of careful calculation sentence or two
later the share of Divine Will In the matter is lin
tied by the remark that 1t "a Zulu savage who
struck down this Imperial lad in blind ignO-
rance of the noble victim whom he smote";
and It is no longer the Christian Jehovah
who launches his thunderbolts but the % hand of
Destiny which strikes without motive and without
mercy.o This seems pagan view of the doctrine
OF Special Providenccs; which latter would be
cOngenial TO the occasion. Surely need not name
! the Journal in which these illusions appear.
| There is perhaps but one such I'm the word-but
one journal capable of this excited and inflated
rhetoric, with its unpleasant suggestions of the
Channel passage and the empty flask.
! In more moderate and decent language you hear
similar notions expressed in private, and you must,
fear take il to be true that Peterborough Court
| friends with their largest circulation In the
world,r eel o in their own way general exclama-
| ton of exaggerated regret. Other journals
phrase it sobcrly and decorously, and be-
4
dolence pour IN upon the Empress at
ChseIhurstj from the Queen, from the Prince and
Princess of Wales from all that is royal and fash
ionable in England strong force of special re-
porters is on duty at Camden House, aud the
minutest incidents of woe are eagerly telegraphed
to London and published at great length. and find
profitable market. The first man you meet in the
street compOscs his face to expression of grief
he stops to remark, 'What sad news it is" As you
sit down to dinner IN the evening, ripple OF audi
bic sorrow runs round tho table, and tribute TO
the sad fate of the departed Prince precedeS
for moment tine discussion of the last
piece of society scandal. The soup would grow
cold but for the tears that dropped into it, If
You hesitate to join in the dirgc your fair neighbor
regards you with horror which is only in part
abated when you humby ask her to explain why it
is that the fountains of grief thus let loose.
Why is 1t, indeedG If YOU stand aloof and try
politely to athOm the of all this lamenta-
tion Won get various answers but not much salts
faction "Are you not sorry for the poor young
man and for hls motherT cries the young lady to
whom YOU appeal. "By all means" say. 81 am sorry
for every young man who gets himself killed III
this foolish war; and for his mother. But why
should be more sorry for this last than Tor the
2 800 who have persisted before him In the same
quarrel To winch | can get no reply except that
in such sad ci rcumstances ought not to bring Ill
politics.
Unhappiy, politics are of the essence OF the
whole business Our friend who composcs his
editorials on that uneasy ship does not hit the truth
when he says the Prince is France. While he lived
he was the most dangerous enemy France had.
His death simplifes the political situation in
France As no other single event could have
done. II breaks asunder the Bonapartist faction.
If consolidates the Republic which that faction
stroye 10 destroy Only yesterday its oudest cham
Mon NJ Paul de CassagnGc. proclaimed IN the tIl6-
une of the National Assembly that lie voted Tor the
return of the Chambers to Paris simply because lie
hoped it might prove disaster to the Republic. In
the general interests of free speech, 1t may DC nee
essary To tolerate the lnsolent cynlcism OF NJ Faul
de Cassagnac, but / know Of no interest dear to
Republican requiring of him profession OF regret
that the head of clique thus openly ayowing itself
traitorous has been laid low.
To the boy himself. no man had any manner OF
auimosity. But then neither would England be
moumipg for him were he merely the well-bred,
well-,aught, well-meaning young man whom one
used 70 meet at Woolgioh and III smart London
bouses The mourning is not for the boy but for
the Prince for the Pretender TO the throne of
France. and in that can take no part They talk
Of his going to South Africa in order to repay the
hospitality that England had shown him. This was
think. his own phrase in the letter published when
ne set out. / don't doubt he persuaded himself
that his motives were generOus-nGy, that really