The Washington herald., 1914-11-29
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their horses in the Seine. For the third
time. too-ls14, 1915, 1ST0-a Napoleon had
left France smaller than he found her.
Democracy ReIgns.
The downfall of the second empire
taught a new generation of the French
| the lesson their grandsires had received
| from the wreck of the first-whither the
! path of military CONQUEST ever leads.
And neither princes nor dukes nor mar.
shals stayed to settle the account they
| had opened None but the same humble
patient. toiling, thrifty common people
| who had poured out their blood on the
! leaden altar Of war now poured out theiT
| savings TO ransom their captive mother
| land, and they sent the ,"onQueror away
| with a thousand million dollars of thei1
| hard earnings. In that hour Of stern
! reckoning the French masses learned the
awful cost of the glory of arms and the
| simple truth that only they who have tc
| pay the bills ought to have the power to
| incur the debt.
For fourscore years the little people OF
! France IN their self-distrust had been
| looking to the great people to save them
and free them; but the Mirabeaus and
! the Lafayettes. the Dantons and the
Robespierres, the Bona apartists, the Bour-
bOns and the Orleanists had shown them
selves helpless when the test came. II
was only when all the great people had
| failed that the little people falteringly
turned to themselves. They composed no
preambles and made no declarations;
| they issued no bill OF rights and framed
| no constitution; but the reign OF the
French democracy has long outlived that
Of any dynasty since the Bourbons went
into bankruptcy in 17s9.
Meanwhile the Orleanists are crownless
wanderers. "a the four Bourbon crowns
OF France. Naples. Parma and Spain.
only the spanish diadem remains, and
uneasy, indeed lies the head that wears
it. All the crowns that the sons and
daughters of Letitia Bonaparte gathered
unto themselves in five years, more in
! number than any other royal family ever
A traveller OF 4olO could have crossed
Europe from north to south, from east to
west from the Mediterranean to the
Baltic, from the Atlantic to the Ionian
Bonapartes. But after 100 years not an
acre Of sovereignty was left them, and
the only living Bonaparte who had held
high place in any government was that
grandson of the disinherited Betsy Pater-
son who had sat in the Cabinet Of Pres
ident of the American Republic.
The family name Is kept alive only in
the descent from Jerome. Joseph had
guished in the wilds of Africa. where
the young Prince Imperial Of Napoleon
III and Eugene. while recounting to his
british comrades the Italian campaign
spear in his heart. Like fAiglon. this
heir and hope OF the second of the Bona
partist emperors was buried in a foreign
UNIFORM. leaving Eugenie. his widowed
and childless mother, to bear alone the
crown of sorrow which is the sole legacy
Of the Napoleonic race.
With the death OF the Prince Imperial
the succession passed to the blood OF
Jerome. whose son Napoleon, but more
Familiarity known as "Plon Plon," mar
ried to the daughter of the great Vic
tor Emmanuel, became the Bonapartist
pretender until he died in 1891 His dying
wish was that his body might rest in
the Invalides, failing which honor, he
requested that he be entombed in the
the mouth Of the Bay OF Ajaccio, where
the wind and wave of the sea would
be emblematic of my life, its agitations
and torments" But "Plon .Pion' was
denied a grave anywhere i'm the soil Of
the republic, as his two sons have been
refused a roof beneath the French flag
The younger of these, Louis Napoleon,
while his elder brother. Victor Napoleon
has maintained the pretendership from
Brussels with ever-diminishing serious
ness. Until the opening Of the year 1914
neither brother had a son, and there was
no young Bonaparte in Europe to pre-
serve the name. But now Victor has q
son BY his wife, the Princess Clementine
daughter Of Leopold, late King of the
Belgians, and on him will fall the fading
shadow of the imperial throne.
By right Of birth, however. the Balti-
more branch should take precedence Of
the Wurtemberger branch, from which
the Brussels pretender descends and the
present Jerome Napoleon Charles Bona
parte of Washington should be the head
Of the House of Bonaparte. This sen of
the late Col. Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte