New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-01
NEwYoRK DAILY TRIBUNE SUNDAY JANUARY

ss. talk through ns i %sr a's r. Tm she
oblique paths. His GOODNESS toward certain pei
sons his marks Of liking toward Others have little
significance, and as to his esteem, nobody has IL
lie divides the world into the useful and the use
less The most honest and loyal If useless has
no weight in his scales. But an arrant scoundrel
like Iaussmann, if entcrprsing and knowing how
TO make himself useful will be well received and
protected by him. He viii take account Of his
vices and crimes he will press his hand and beam
kindly upon him. This is we think remark
ably judicial estimate Of Louis Napoeon's chaTac,
ter. and appalling as the portrait must be I" all
who possess moral sensbty, it is assurcdly not
drawn by the hand Of an enemy nor IS
any trait set down In malice. NJ. dc
Wei Castel explains mystery According to
him the Emperor had the character that would be
properly attributed to devil OF the intellectual
type lie was in fact a human Mcphlstophelcs,
caring nothing at all for ethical considerations,
attracted as much nay more,oy sooundrels as by
ness to himself alone and by his very abnormaii-
ties. by the points wherein he differed from his
kind. circumscrbed In his capacities and disabled
for the tremendous part his vanity marked out
for him His absolute lack of morality was the
efficient cause OF his ruin for it made him care
less Il the corruption and fraud which,, during
the whole Of his reign, had been eating into the
heart OF his G"yernmcnt and which parayzrd 10
at the crucial moment and so deliyered him up
nm easy prey to Germany. NJ de Viel Castcl has
some further remarks upon this singular man.
He says: The Emperor Is not communicative
lie remains sometimes for days so to say, without
seems patient MS n god. because he believes IN his
own Immortality. Calm and profoundly dissem,
bling even for those most intimately connected
with him, his soul seems rs rigid as his lace.
Moreover he does not esteem men enough 10 raise
any one to his confidence: industrious worker nc
has his tools but has no companions
This too is well thought ana
goes TO the mark Perha;s few of
the familiar faces watched by those inscrutabe
eyes saw deeper into the mysteries they were
bat NJ 10
Secretary General OF the Imperial Museums, who
pursued his Pepysian labors so quietly through
all the corruption and storm and stress OF the
iniauitous, fashy, profoundly rotten system i'm
posed upon France by Louis Napoleon.
As time passed and the crooked policy OF the
Emperor alienated one Government after another,
the downright, straightforward old noble, who
was n mere loolSer-on, grew more deeply concerned
for the outcome Three months before he passes
from the scene altogether he writes the last words
Of his memoirs, and they arc full of gloom ana
dark forebodng. The Emperor he says. has
always the same conspiratOr's policy nc knows
no other his Government is a workshop OF con-
spiracies against all the other Governments. ne
has arrived at such point that his pledges ana
his treaties are no longer regarded as binding Wee
are lost, and everything that was young about the
Emperor is become old, and whatever was I'M
coruDtcd four years ago is altogether corrupt
now"
In these words closes memoir which throws
a lurd light upon the Third Empire, exposes the
infamics and vices and frivolities Of Paris and
Imperial society as they have never been exposed
before holds up scorn the creeping, supple CROWD
of l,navcs who swarmed about the parvenu COURT
and at the same time makes plain the grim ana
deeply suggestive truth that the causes oil trench
corruption lie much further back than tnc Enipire,
while tho native ficklcness and lnfdellty OF thc
race render it difficult not only to govern pub 10
civilize and the most utterly hopeless eXempiar
for all other nations and peoples.