The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-16

predicament. If he refused his consent the Swedish might elect the Archduchess Elizabeths husband. the Duke of Olden- burg, who had also been suggested. On the other hand he had every reason to distrust the loyalty of Bernadotte. But if he consented to his elevation, the marshals wife. Desiree Clary. would get crown at last, and he said to the can didate: "Go, and let our destinies be accomplished" The ex-sergeant of ma rines went forth. therefore, with the Elm peror's blessing and a large gift of money besides. to found a royal house which should long outlast that of the Bona partes.
 Almost immediately on his arrival at Stockholm the new Crown Prince was invested by the King with a large share of power and soon turned upon France and his old commander. He was anx- ious to show the world that he had thrown off the yoke of the Emperor and prove to his new subjects that in ceasing to be a Frenchman he had be- come more Swede than the Swedes. The courts of England and Russia hastened to flater his abounding conceit and the Czar thoughtfu1ly sent him a fine lot of Russian furs to keep the Gascon Prince warm in his icy realm. Napoleon kept a suspicious eye on him, but Des- free. who refused to stay away from Paris even to enjoy her new royal sta tion. went to her old sweetheart. the Emperor and persuaded him to be pa tient with her husband.
 Russia having lately taken Finland from Sweden, the Grown Prince began a campaign to repair that loss He pro- posed to take Norway from the Grown of Denmark, but Napoleon would not consent to any attack on his Danish ally and suggested that if Sweden joined him against Russia he would help her to recover Finland. The Emperor, how ever, in his purpose to close tighter the ports of the Baltic to British goods took Swedish Pomerania and thereby gave crown prince.
 Revolt of the People
 The continental system had now openly embroiled Napoleon with the Pope. the Czar, the Swedes and with his brother, Louis, while 1t had done more than all else to embitter the various peoples of Europe against him. Its en- tire structure. which for years he had been laboriously rearing was rockin g on It's foundations and threatening to bury him and his throne beneath its wreckage.
 The empire was not menaced at home but from abroad. The people within tte wide- flung borders dwelt in peace fl not in prosperity. They never gave the Empefor moment or uneaSiness "Hhs / he sat on the throne and they never forsook him as long as he held aloft a standard. For IS years his great realm remained as tranquil within as England or the United States.
 Nor did he hold his people in subjec- tion with his sword. Under the orders ' of the incompetent and corrupt Direc- tory he had turned his guns on a re- Dellious population at the steps of the Church of St. Koch, in 1796. but from the day of his own rise to power to the cannon except at a1ine foes He ruled by the force of justice and wisdom and thu vanity of glory Victor Hugo once sait that the two greatest things of the 19tf century was Napoleon and liberty. Al long as France had the former it wal content without the latter.
 Every door, every window was taxed e-d the youth of the land were drafted into the army to die on distant fields