The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-01-17

feudai arlstocrats were cut OF, the church
property was connscated, the barriers VI
all private property were broken oo""'
and much OF st con6scated TO the 0la'e'
and all reverence for law and order was
drivon ont of the minds OF the French
rao,Ie Tho disorders that have broken
out In France from time to time SINCE
then are as much due to this destruction
OF ALI reverence for authority as TO any
other causeg When state OF anarchy
and blood had lasted in France Few
years all orders OF society prayed for
some escape from II. but none was forth-
coming until the strong man appeared IN
the person of Napoleon Bonaparte. Recol-
lections Of the hideous ten years past,
and that natural reverence for force and
power which Is in all mems minds, maze
the French people welcome this mighty
man as the Moses who was TO lead them
out of their wilderness. He fully JUSTIFIED
all their expectations. He restored law
and order he established the banished re-
lglon of the French, and, If he had been
content to play the part of simple bene-
factor of the French people. he would
probably-almost certainly-have started
France upon an upward career tha'
would. In time. have been worthy OF inc
penius of her people and of those pro-
digious sources Of national prosperity and
happiness with which she aboundS'
Napoleon was not naturally a bad man
at heart. 1t Il impossible TO read the
contemporary accounts of him by those
,yho we're his intimatos without pereeiV-
ing that he was originally klhuN III no
nature. affectiOnate to those he was ioho
NJ and very loyal to his friends Ihese
imn,ilses became very much Diuhted IN
tho course of his career, but he mani
fested distinct traces of them In the last
voars Of H. when, inferred upon the
island Of st. Helena. he knew that ne
vas lost to the world, and was, there
fore without motive to act otherwise than
naturally.
But those who would understand Ma
poleon's public career and influence upon
the destinies of France must never lorsoI
that he WAS bred soldier almost from
the time he was out of his swaddilhs
clothes. His earliest recollections were
oc despotic authority and implicit oDedl-
ence When ne was suddenly MADE d'c-
tailor OF France he had never known an
hour when he was not either opeyihs
orders or giving orders. The whoie cast
OF his mind and nature, therefore, was
i'm the direction of government coIhihd"u-
ing and the citizen obeying. To his NINA
formed under military disciplne-SoV-
eminent was everything, the citizen hoth-
ing. All good emanated from government
and the citizen was lucky or unlucky ac-
cordingly as he could or could not secure
Government douCers. He reconstructed
government i'm France upon TINS iued'
Whilst he held the sceptre Frenchmeh
we're taught TO look to the Emperor as
the source of all that they should ever
have that was worth having. The I'M
nerial catcckIsm made every boy and girl
saw 70 the vicar or cure after vespers, III
their tiny voices. as a commandment OF
God and The Church: 1--WE specially owe
TO our Emperor, Napoleon the First, love,
regpect. obedience, fidelity, military SER
vice and tributes, ordained for the pres r.
walton of the Empire and his throne
For God has raised him up Tor US III
times of peril. that he might restore pun
H., worship and the holy religion Ct our
fathers and be its protector.
He discouraged private education, anu
did all he could to bring the young Tor
Instruction 10 schools established by the
government, whose teachers We're all APP
pointed by the government, AMI where
the whole tenor Of instruction was that
the citizen was to look up 10 has govern
ment as the source of his well-bein2, and
thae has remained the system 20 lnis Gay.
If Napoleon could have re(gncd forever
his system might have woS<:d out fer
the advantage of Frenchme}. But 4 pc
Rod came to his power. and hen France
saw her whole population edGcated ard
bred to look up to government for every
thing, although the person Of the scV-
ereign, the primary object of their 10y
erence. was gone. But the warp If the
mind for government as the source of
good could not be lost merely because a
particular individual was no longer at
the head of the government. The waip
and bent was to be permanent, though
the great artisan had departed and was
no longer able to see the development of
his work France is. therefore, to-day
a great nation Of Socialists es.rcined
somewhat for the present by c0nseTva-
tive influences, but going on more and
more from day to day towards me So
cialists goal. under the irresistible i'm
pulses OF causes put into operation by the
greatest Frenchman that ever lived TO
work out a destruction for France from
which he would have recoiled, Rad as
he was, rather than to have had his die
tator's power at such price.
The resignation of President Casimir-
Perier is the bow of a conservative to the
advancing tide of Socialism. Ii means
that the President thinks the Republic
lost Is he mistaken or not?
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DEMORALIZING SPECTACLE.