Year: 1876

An Extract Isos& Impressions aud so,sre-


mrs.


One of the last things written by
George Sand was a .1sScesto,a in the Temps
called (" Impressions and Souvenirs, in
which occurs a remarkable sketch of Ma
poleon III, which nuns thus: " When !
read in thejournals yesterday that the
state of the sick man at Chiselhurst was
serious felt that he was dead Was nc
not already dead at Sedan? For three
years past Napoleon had ceased to exist
Events had no more effect upon him than
the voltaic pile on a corpse. His liberal
tendencies of the last hour were, in the
situation in which he was placed, illus
sions uncontrolled by reason. The war
with Prussia, however, was not an
illusion he could not snut out from IL
eyes the spectre of defeat zvificll y





Dumas Ills said that in surrendering his
army he thought he should save his army
and France. This illusion was madness
and was only possible to dying man,
whose soul, floating hither and thither,
was incapable of either cowardice or
heroism, and could no longer distinguish
the dream from the reality. Besides, any
one who as an unpreiudiced observer bad
carefully studied the whole life of this
fatal man would have assured himself
new to say, but old in history-that GER
tain historical personages were not free
agents, and did not exist in the general
acceptation of the term. Napoleon III.
has been treated as a chimerical man.
And this is correct if it means that his
brain was filled with chimera; more
correct still if it means a problematical
being, net 10 be analysed. ] will tell
you my personal impression of the man.
In the days of his imprisonment at Ham
he wrote great deal, was young man
without energy, always haunted by Wis
ion conceived in MS infancy and encOur-
aged by those who surrounded him-a
vision 10 whose pressure he submitted
with a feeling of lassitude and resigna-
ton no real instruction, great deal of
intelligence, the rudiments and even the
scintillations of genius, rather literary
than philosophical, rather philosophical
than political. Bad health. vitality tot
tering, unequal, suspended at times. No
bitterness about him, no rancor, little
anger, too contemplatiye to be passion
ate; amiable, loving, made TO be loved
in private life, disinterested himself, and
yet (see what contrastsD capable OF the
greatest political crimes, because his no
tions OF human law differed entirely from
ours. When | saw him, when | spoke to
him at the Elysee twice in the same
week, / was completely deceived by him,
and believing myself tricked, | refused
to see him again. However, l continued
to write to him, when | thought | could
save n victim, to pass comment on his
answers, and to watch all his acts. | be
came convinced that he did not wish to
deceive any one, and that he deceived
every one and himself He believed in
what he said, but looked upon himselfas
invested with mission for which he had
neither physical energy nor the moral
force He adopted every idea which was
suggested to him in the form of an ora
Gle. Let us try it, he would say, and if
it be impossible, go to something else.
With the aid of enjoying absolute power
this illusion of playing heads or tails
with events became mOnomania, and
his quiet and patient fatalism assumed
the appearance of force and skill. He
was an honest man who allowed himself
to be borne in triumph by ambitious and
unscrupulous people. He considered
himself the instrument of providence,
when he was only the instrument of
chance He ordered hisimnerial mantle,
and while the workwomen were embroid-
ering it with beads, he still said to those
who were urging him on that he would
not betray the republic. He was hisown
dupe to the last moment"