Evening star., 1899-04-13
TITLE OF NAPOLEON ILL.,"
story of How the Little Emperor Got
His AppeIlatfOn.

From the London Post.
Whatever may be the immediate chances
of a Bonapartist restoration in France,
there is no doubt that the present repre-
sentative of the Napoleons is taking the
situation seriously. 1t is even reported that
a proclamation to the French people signed
Napoleon w." is in print, ready to be
posted IN Paris at the psychological mo-
ment. and the very name suggests strange
recollections, especially on the twenty-sixth
anniversary of the death of Napoleon Ill.
There has always been some mystery as to
why that particular Napoleon was called
"the third for it was by the merest fic-
ton that the Due de Reichstadt, son of the
great Bonaparte, can be considered to have
reigned. The traditional story of how the
numeral first came to be thought of was
originally related, within a month after
Louis Napoleon had become emperor, by
Lord Cowley, our ambassador in Paris, to
Lord Malmesbury, our foreign secretary.
1t was that the prefect of Bourges. where
the prince president slept the first night of
his progress in provincial France in the
autumn of 1852, had given instructions that
the people were to shout ''Vive Napoleonl"
but he wrote "Vive Napoleon!!r' and the
crowd took the three marks of exclamation
as the Roman numeral III, and shouted ac-
cordingly.
One of the band of conspirators who sur
rounded Louis Napoleon at and after the
coup d'etat wanted in later days, however,
Us
and in his posthumously published Me
moirs' the once-notorious Due de Persigny
declared that it was he who on his own
count gave the necessary order to the pre-
feet.
There is a train," he began leaving
Paris for Bourges in an hour. Take care to
catch It Resume your duties without see
ing any one here and without letting soul
know your secret instructions. These in
structions are L'empirei Nive Pempereurr
and let US not make a mistake. The Duo
de Reichstadt never reigned, but he was
proclaimed emperor by his father. Render,
then, this homage to the memory of a great
man; announce the nephew Napoleon
III. l have already told you to summon
all the municipalities of your department.
Set in hand. without losing moment flags
inscribed 'Vive rEmpereur!' on one side
and 'Vive Napoleon III" on the other. Place
the same inscription on the triumphant
arches under which the prince will pass.
Preserve the utmost secrecy in these prepa-
rations and when the day comes telegraph
to me from hour to hour all that occurs"
Persigny's story, however. IS little more
than a tureid amplifcation of the post
script of a letter written to Malmesbury
during the prince presidents progress by
Walewski. then French ambassador in Lon
don. in which 1t was said: THE prince pro-
ceeds from triumph to triumph. At his de-
parture from Paris they cried 'Nive Napo-
leon" and few 'Vive rempereurr On his
return there will be a unanimous chorus
Of .Eive rempereur! and 'Vive Napoleon
1II"" Persigny admitted in his Me
moirs," indeed that when il served him he
was an unscrupulous liar, and It is far
easier to believe the story told by Lord
CoWley.
In view of the possibility of the arrival
of Napoleon w. and especially If.
is limited. with the sympathy of the Rus
sian court, ii is striking to recall that the
French official opinion of 1852 was that Rus
sia was attempting to persuade Great Bri-
tain to object to the numeral, in order to
sow dissension between the two western
nations. But there was more substantial
reason for the annoyance felt by the l3ri-
tiSh government at the assumption of the
numeral. in which was thought to lurll a
threat of revenge for Waterloo, and which
was not removed until Louis Napoleon him
self, after some heated negotiations, con-
sented to insert in his speech to the great
bodies of the state at st. Cloud on Deem
Der /, 1852, accepting the imperial crown,
the following explanatory para graph
Il take from this day, with the crown
the name of Napoleon Ill because the logic
of the people bestowed it upon me in their
acclamations, because the senate has legal
ton has ratified it. Thus then. because
the title of Napoleon III is not one of those
dynaStic and Superannuated pretensiOns
which seem to be an insult to good sense
and to truth, IL Is the homage rendered to
a government which is legitimate and to
modern history. My reign does not date
from 1915; it dates from this very moment
when you have announced to ME the suf-
frageS of the nation.''
Our government at once recognized the
empire, consequent upon this declaration,
and the numeral passed into history; but
that portion of the French chronicle was
ago, when lie neveu de son oncle' died
defeated and broken exile on British soil.