Year: 1879

We direct attention to our long cable
despatch from Paris consisting mainly of
extracts from leading French journals.
These articles SO pulsate with the French
political lite of the moment and so vividly
feeling and personal passions that
the American public is entitled to


Ne them while they are yet fresh. These


(tracts are from three journals--Le Figaro,
La france and lie Pays. The article in
Figaro OF Saturday is a grave and enlight-
ened estimate OF the consequences to the i'm
perial party of the sudden death of Prince
Louis Napoleon, conceived in spirit of
judicious moderation and supported by
great force of argument. The judgment 1t
expresses is that the active role of Bonapart-
ism - suspended, and that the personnel
of the party having no longer common
centre of union in devoted and loyal at
tachment to the young Prince, whom all
acknowledged as the lineal heir of the
dynasty will be cleft into jealous fac
tions and disintegrate. This tendency is
so inevitable on the face of the situa-
ton that Figaro set it forth on the
evening of the day when the news of the
Princes death was received Reflection
and observation had confirmed this view on
Saturday, when the striking editorial was
published, and it receives strong corrob-
grafton from what took place yesterday,
when M. Rouher. heretofore the ac-
cepted and trusted leader Of the inn
perialists, announced his intention
to withdraw from politics. And yet this
inference may need to be taken with some
reserve, in view OF the article which ap-
peared yesterday in L Orlre, the organ of
M. Rouher, recognizing the title of Prince
Bonaparte as the chief Of the Napoleonic
! dynasty.


But it is probably of no real consequences
who is regarded as the political heir Of the
deceased Prince, in whose grave are
entombed all reasonable hopes of
revival of the Empire. Figaro reasons
that only TWO principles of govern
ment are possible-either q legitimate
hereditary monarchy, the product OF
the race, temperament and traditions
of the nation where it exists, and SO firmly
established in the affections of the people
|
than the necessity of raising revenue or
the maintenance Of military force; either
monarchy thus intrenched in national
feeling or else universal suffrage applied to
all national exigencies as means
of declaring the national will. In
France the real and legal situation
may be regarded as firmly established
and as no longer subject to disturbing
doubts. The elections of 1877 were incon-
testably equivalent to plf6iscite. They
were regarded by the people as establish
ing, and did in tact establish, the
Republic as the permanent govern
ment Of France. There are the strongest
reasons for supposing that the popular
will has not changed, and even while the
Prince Imperial was yet alive Bonapartism
was gaining no strength. His death is
staggering blow to the hopes of the party,
tending to subvert it's unity and split it
into factions, besides depriving it of that
great bond of loyalty which existed in the
chivalrous devotion of the party to
young Prince who was an object
of interest to the whole world and re-
ceived the generous homage OF all adherents
of the fallen dynasty. The grace Of youth,
the prestige of great name, the possi-
bilities of political changes in nation so
impulsive and mercurial as the French and
the long life which might be expected for
so young Prince, giving him the advan-
tage of distant contingencies and possible
revolutions, made him the centre and pivot
of great hopes. All the romance and
chivalry departed from the Bonapartist
cause with the news of his untimely death
1t was frequent saying Of the illustrious
founder of the dynasty that Inauguration
rules the world" there is now no longer an
interesting object having power to excite
the Imagination and stir the enthusiasm of
the imperialist party. 1t is o body without
head, and seems destined to dissolution.
1t would be interesting to compare the
steady success of republicanism in the
United States with its ftful changes and
long eclipses in the nation which was our
chief ally in our struggle for independence.
1t was by the generous aid of France that
the American Republic was established.
Louis XVI doubtless cared nothing tor the
form of our government; he simply desired
to see England stripped of the most valuable
of her transatlantic possessions. But the
French people sympathized strongly with
Lafayette, and there can be no doubt that
enthusiasm for the new Republic operated
as a powerful incentive to the French Revo-
/ luton and was one of the main reasons
why that great upheaval resulted in re-
public. lhe splendor Of the first Napoleon's
military victories enabled him to found
an empire on the ruins OF the French Re-
public, for there is nothing which appeals
so seductively to national pride as the eclat
of brilliant military success Admiration
of military heroes il the besetting danger Of