Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-08
SEN .oR'S CONVERSATIONS
WITH DISTINGUISHED PERSONS DURING
TIE SECOND EMPIRE. FROM
1860 TO 1868.
IAnnletnn,s Journal for MAY

Iapptetouo may J
"a recent work from the English press,
entitled Conversations with Distinguished
Persons during the Second Empire, from
1860 to 1863" by the late Nassau William
Senior, affords a mine of material of an
historic and personal character. These
volumes are supplementary to two preced-
ing journals published in 1878, bearing
somewhat similar title. Mr.. Senior was
Master in Chancery, Professor of Political
Economy, a corresponding member of the
Institute of France, and author of numer-
Gus treatises and essays. He had, it seems,
unusual opportunities for intimacy with his
famous French contemporaries, which in
clude such distinguished persons as Theirs,
Guizot, Prince Napoleon, Barrot, Changar-
nier, Renan, Madame Cornu, Lamartine,
Montaembert, Trochu and numerous other
persons of political or social Importance,
among which were the Confederate Slidell
and the American Minister Dayton. The
conversations largely relate to the history
of France in her domestic perplexities and
foreign ENVIRONMENTS, from August, 1860,
to May, 1868, shortly after which time Mr..
Senior contracted the illness that terniin-
ated in his death in the following year.
His journals have been edited by his
daughter, Mrs. M. G. nj. Simpson. "Their
style and matter" remarks the SATURDAY.
Reuiea0, g display the highest point of per-
lection in branch of literature which he
may almost be said to have invented. Only
long practice combined with natural apti.
tude rendered it possible to report, in good
English and with substantial accuracy
which is proved by internal evidence. long
conversations conducted in French. In es-
timating the value of the statements and
opinions which Mr. Senior has recorded, it
is necessary to remember that they were all
intended for future publication. The in
terlocutors trusted, with good reason, in
MIR. Seniors discretion that they would not
be compromised with the Government or
with contemporaries whom they might
criticise but they knew that they were
speaking to more or less remote public
audience, and that Mr.. Seniors long head
was, as Mrs. Thrale said of Boswell, equiv.
alent to shorthand. The only doubt which
could arise as to Mr.. Seniors accuracy and
fidelity might be suggested by the vigor,
the fullness and the occasional brilliancy of
the different speakers 1t is true that al
most all Mr.. Seniors Partisan friends, diff
fering widely among themselves, agreed in
hatred and protested contempt for Celui-ci,
as they designated the Emperor Some of
them foretold his overthrow through the
errors of his domestic administration, and
many as the result of his foreign policy
but they were all equally certain that his
power would be of short duration. A war
with Prussia was a contingency which was
often mentioned as probable, but it seems
not to have occurred to any distinguished
Frenchman that France might possibly be
defeated. Again and again Mr. Senior was
assured that the Church, the army, the
middle class, and the workmen were Bit
terly hostile to the Empire yet, seven
years after the latest conversation recorded,
seven million of Frenchmen, forming an
overwhelming majority of the total num-
Der of votes, supported the Emperor against
all the sections OF the opposition. A ruin
ously unsuccessful war, which had been in
its origin wholly unnecessary, fulfilled by
an accident the Vaccinations in which it
had never been included as one of the
probable causes of the fall of the Empire
In the first series of extracts that follow
we have brought together from different
parts of the two volumes, but from differ
ent speakers, numerous opinions, predic-
tions and anecdotes referring to the late
Emperor.