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 Life of 
 
 Napoleon III 
 
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LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 NAPOLEON III. 
 
 BY 
 
 PASCOE GRENFELL HILL, R.N., B.A. 
 
 RECTOR OF S. EDMUND THE KING AND MARTYR. 
 
 " This is that joy in which my soul is strong, 
 That there is not a man among you all 
 Who can reproach me that I used my power 
 To do him an injustice . . . taking note 
 That I had not to do with easy times." — Henry Taylor. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 EDWARD MOXON, SON & CO., DOVER STREET. 
 
 1869. 
 
LONDON : 
 SWIFT AND CO., K-IWQ STEEET, EKGENT STREET, W. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter I. Early years and Exile, 1808 — 1838 . 1 
 
 II. Captivity at Ham, 1840—1846 . , , 18 
 
 III. Presidency of the Eepublic, 1848 . . 37 
 
 IV, The Coup-d'Etat, 1851 70 
 
 V. The Empire proclaimed at Paris, 1852 99 
 
 VI. Marriage of the Emperor ; Crimean 
 War; Paris Exhibition; Birth of 
 
 the Prince Imperial, 1853—1858 . 127 
 
 VII. Campaign of Italy, 1859 156 
 
 ,, VIII. The Emperor and the People . . . 194 
 
 Index 205 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Eauly Yeabs and Exile. 
 
 1808—1838. 
 
 ^' Je voudrais faire mieux connaitre VEmpereur a voire 
 nation ; " so writes M. I'Abbe Isidore MuUois, 
 premier Chapelain de la maison de TEmpereur, 
 in a letter now before me. — It is very well ; 
 but how can I contribute to make the Emperor 
 better known to the British nation ? I cannot, 
 — '* as others use," — compose a five-volume, or 
 even a three -volume, work. A single sentence 
 from the pen of M. Mullois re-assures me : — 
 '* La hrievete est aujourd'hui une des premieres 
 conditions du succes." A short summary, then, 
 of the. chief events in the career of Louis 
 Napoleon may be acceptable to the English 
 
 4 
 
 reader ; who will not forget that, while under 
 former sovereigns all treaties of peace and amity 
 between France and England have been false 
 
 B 
 
2 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 and hollow, our two nations throughout the 
 reign of Napoleon III. have been true and fast 
 allies both in peace and war. This we are 
 bound to acknowledge with gratitude to the 
 Almighty, ''who hath taught us by His Holy 
 Word that the hearts of kings are in His rule 
 and governance." 
 
 Charles Louis Napoleon,* son of the King of 
 Holland, Louis Bonaparte, and of Hortense Beau- 
 harnais, daughter of the Empress Josephine, was 
 born at Paris, in the Palace of the Tuileries, on 
 the 20th of Aprils 1808. His name was the first 
 inscribed in the Imperial Eegister of successional 
 rights, deposited in the archives of the senate. 
 Only one other name was ever written in it : that 
 of the King of Eome, born on the 20th of March, 
 1811. Of these two princes, heirs of royalty, and 
 born amidst national rejoicings, one was destined 
 to die at an early age, an exile from the land of 
 his birth ; the other, preserved by Providence 
 through many years of banishment or captivity, 
 is now Emperor of the French. 
 
 ■'A letter addressed by Napoleon I. to Queen 
 
 -'' His name was put forth as *' Louis Napoleon," at the 
 election for the Presidency of the Eepublic, in 1848. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 3 
 
 Hortense, during the infancy of the Prince, con- 
 cludes with this sentence : fespere qu'il sera digne 
 des destinees qui VattendentJ' More than thirty 
 years of trial and endurance were to elapse between 
 the expression of the above wish and the arrival 
 of him in whose favour it was formed at the 
 Imperial dignity. The political changes which, 
 during that interval, passed over the face of Europe, 
 afford matter for much variety of opinion. Few 
 will be inclined to dispute that, in England, the 
 public sentiment has undergone considerable 
 modijS-cation respecting the policy which resulted 
 in the treaties of 1815. And it is beyond all 
 controversy that, even at that epoch, the events 
 which have given it celebrity met, from minds of 
 keen penetration, a judgment wholly adverse to 
 that of their contemporaries generally. ^ I will cite, 
 as an example, the single instance of Eobert Hall, 
 whose high mental and moral qualifications are 
 universally acknowledged : — 
 
 '*0n the return of the Bourbons to France, a 
 gentleman called upon Mr. Hall, in the expecta- 
 tion that he would express himself in terms of the 
 utmost delight at that signal event. Mr. Hall said, 
 ''l am sorry for it, sir. The cause of knowledge, 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 science, freedom, and pure religion on the Conti- 
 nent, will be thrown back half a century.' A few 
 years afterwards, on an allusion being made to the 
 battle of Waterloo, Mr. Hall remarked: ^ That 
 battle and its results appeared to me to put back 
 the clock of the world six degrees.' "* 
 
 Hortense, who inherited from the Empress 
 Josephine a mild and amiable disposition, was also 
 endued with rare fortitude of character, which 
 the vicissitudes of her fortune afforded ample 
 occasion to display. Prance, after the disastrous 
 campaigns of 1814 and 1815, against the allied 
 powers of Europe, was in the occupation of 
 foreign armies ; and the Napoleon dynasty lay 
 under the ban of a proscription which lasted 
 thirty-three years. Hortense and her children, ex- 
 pelled from their country, sought among strangers 
 a refuge almost everywhere denied. The Prince 
 Louis had at that time scarcely completed his 
 seventh year : it was with reason that he wrote, 
 not long since: "I was bred in the school of 
 adversity." Repulsed from the Grand-Duchy of 
 Baden ; finding Savoy too insecure a residence ; 
 
 * Works of Eobert Hall. Edited by Olintlius Gregory, 
 Vol. vi. Appendix. Note A. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 5 
 
 the fugitives took the road to Bavaria, where they 
 obtained at length a resting-place for several 
 years at Augsburg. 
 
 During their stay in that city the young princes 
 were educated in exercises calculated to strengthen 
 the faculties both of body and mind ; and it can 
 scarcely be doubted that such early training tended 
 to produce, in Louis Napoleon, the energy of 
 character which has since surprised Europe. 
 Already he gave proofs of that persevering appli- 
 cation to the study of science and letters which, 
 he has continued through life. 
 
 In 1824, Hortense removed, with her children, 
 from Bavaria into Switzerland, and purchased the 
 Chateau of Arenenberg, in the Canton of Thlir- 
 :gau, or Thurgovia. This canton is situate in the 
 valley of the Thun, and bounded towards the 
 north by the lake of Constance and the river 
 Ehine. Amid the solitudes of the Swiss lakes 
 and mountains, the young Prince, during the 
 opening years of manhood, nurtured the high aims 
 and resolves which have, under Providence, raised 
 him to so distinguished a rank among sovereigns. 
 Here, too, he displayed that early predilection for 
 the profession of arms which subsequent events have 
 
6 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 SO eminently developed. In his library, books on 
 military subjects held a chief place. The neigh- 
 bouring camp at Thnn, where the Swiss Eepubhc 
 assembles the militia of her various cantons, gave 
 him an opportunity of making practical acquaint- 
 ance with the details of the military art. One who 
 knew him well at that time writes : *^ He applied 
 himself with ardour to all parts of a soldier's 
 duty ; toiling and faring as the private, working 
 with spade and barrow; climbing, with a knapsack 
 on his back, the steepest glaciers ; and the 
 activity of his spirit led him to prefer always the 
 most arduous adventure." 
 
 It was at the camp of Thun that intelligence 
 reached the Prince of the Eevolution at Paris, of 
 July, 1830. The news brought to him at first a 
 gleam of hope, as opening a prospect of return to 
 his country. This hope, however, soon faded; 
 the proscription that hung over all who bore his 
 name remaining as strict as ever. The National 
 Assembly which raised the Duke of Orleans to the 
 throne of France, and passed a decree banishing 
 for ever all descendants of the elder branch of the 
 Bourbons, appended to that decree a clause per- 
 petuating equally the exclusion of all the Bona- 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 7 
 
 parte family. In regard to Hortense, this sen- 
 tence might seem the more harsh, inasmuch as, 
 owing to her good offices, the first Emperor had 
 not only permitted Louis Philippe's mother and 
 her sister to reside in Prance, but accorded a con- 
 siderable sum of money for their maintenance 
 there. 
 
 , In the autumn of 1830, many members of the 
 Bonaparte family assembled at Kome, in order to 
 confer on the change in the political aspect of 
 affairs which had taken place on the Continent. 
 To this conference Hortense repaired with her 
 two sons. Their presence exciting some jealousy 
 on the part of the Koman Government, the Prince 
 Louis was, after a while, removed from the city, and 
 tejoined his brother at Florence. Early in the year 
 1831 an insurrection of the Papal States broke 
 out, and spread speedily through all the Legations. 
 The brothers threw themselves with ardour into 
 the movement : raised and organised bands 
 of soldiers, and defeated those of the Pope in 
 several slight encounters. The chiefs of the 
 insurrection, however, through deficiency of mili- 
 tary experience, committed the error of extending 
 too much, instead of concentrating, the action of 
 
8 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 their forces. Their successes were checked, and 
 the Vatican was relieved from its fears, by the 
 intervention of Austria, with assent of the French 
 Government. The elder of the two brothers, 
 Napoleon Louis, succumbed to an attack of internal 
 inflammation, at Forli, on the 27th of March, 1831. 
 Louis Napoleon, ill at Ancona, and in danger of 
 capture by the Austrians, who now occupied Italy, 
 was rescued by his mother, who hastened to his 
 aid, and, eluding the vigilance of the Austrian 
 police, succeeded in conveying him, disguised as 
 a domestic, to Cannes, in France, and thence, 
 towards the end of April, to Paris. 
 
 Their arrival in the capital caused so much 
 uneasiness, if not alarm, at the Court, and the 
 order issued for their departure, early in May, was 
 so peremptory, that Louis Napoleon, still suffering 
 from the effects of fever, was carried, wrapped in 
 blankets, beyond the gates of the city which he 
 has since done iso much to improve and em- 
 bellish. 
 
 The exiles betook themselves to England, and, 
 after remaining there a few months, returned to 
 Arenenberg. Switzerland shewed her feeling in 
 regard to her guests by bestowing on the Prince 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 9 
 
 the honorary grade of citizen, and the rank of 
 captain of artillery in the regiment of Bern. On 
 his part, he testified his interest in the country of 
 his adoption by the publication of a pamphlet, 
 entitled : " Considerations Politiques et Militaires sur 
 la Suisse: " a work which brought its author into 
 communication with a master-spirit of his day, 
 Chateaubriand. Though chiefly of local interest, 
 the following passages, extracted from it, will 
 hardly need an excuse to the reader. 
 
 ** Considerations on the Civil and Military 
 Position of Switzerland. 
 
 " Previously to the French Eevolution of 1789, 
 the Helvetian Eepublic, as we learn by the testi- 
 mony of contemporary writers, underwent more 
 oppression from an aristocracy than even those 
 nations of Europe who were subject to monarchical 
 government. The privileges and the abuses of 
 power had reached, in Switzerland, their highest 
 point. There were sovereign cantons, and subject 
 cantons; dominant cities, and subjugate pro- 
 vinces. The lands were placed under the control 
 of bailiffs (land-voghts), whose sway was arbitrary 
 and absolute. 
 
10 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 '' In 1798, when the French entered the terri- 
 tory, they abolished all those cantonal sovereign-^ 
 ties; and established in their stead a single central 
 power, similar to that which existed in France. 
 Doubtless the French brought, together with the 
 scourge of war, certain principles and systems, 
 destined to develope themselves, at a later period, 
 in a reconstruction of national . strength and 
 stability. But the temporary calamities incident 
 on their invasion had so exasperated the minds 
 of the people that they preferred a state of political 
 subserviency to a liberty introduced by the hideous 
 forms of violence and strife. 
 , **In 1801, amid the various important events 
 which took place in France, Napoleon alone, then 
 
 First Consul, directed his attention to the condi- 
 tion of Switzerland. His wish was that the 
 guardians of the Alps should frame a Constitution 
 for themselves ; and, by the Treaty of Luneville 
 (9th February, 1801J, he assured to them the 
 right to adopt the kind of government which 
 might best suit them. During the next three 
 years the Swiss made trial of four or five diffe- 
 rent constitutions ; while, in the disturbances 
 that attended these changes, the old aristocratic 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. H 
 
 principle still regained ground, at every step more 
 and more menacing to the general liberty. . . 
 The Helvetian Government solicited and obtained 
 the intervention of Napoleon ; and, in conse- 
 quence, the 'Act of Mediation' was signed, which, 
 besides pacifying the rage of civil discord, con- 
 ferred other important benefits on the country. 
 It guaranteed the sovereignty of the people; 
 abolished^ the predominance of one canton over 
 another; and made of subjects fellow-citizens. 
 The * Act of Mediation '* was therefore a boon to 
 Switzerland, for it healed her wounds and secured 
 
 * [The preamble to the *'Acte de Mediation," written by 
 Napoleon (November; 1802), is remarkably characteristic in 
 its terseness and vigour of expression: — "Habitants de 
 I'Helvetie. . . . Vous vous etes disputes trois ans, sans 
 Yons entendre. Si Ton vous abandonne plus longtemps ai 
 vons^memes, vous vous tuerez trois ans, sans vous entendre 
 davantage. Votre histoire prouve d'ailleurs que vos guerres 
 intestines n'ont jamais pu se terminer que par I'intervention 
 amicale de la France. 
 
 *' II est vrai que j'avais pris le parti de ne me meler en rien 
 de vos affaires ; j'avais vu constamment vos differents gou- 
 vernements me demander des conseils, et ne pas les siiivre, 
 et quelquefois abuser de mon nom selon leurs interets et leurs 
 passions. Mais je ne puis ni ne dois rester insensible aux 
 malheurs auquels vous etes en proie. Je reviens sur ma; 
 resolution. Je serai le mediateur de vos differends ; maia 
 ma mediation sera efficace, telle qu'il convient -au grand 
 peuple au nom duquel je parle.'*] 
 
12 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 her liberties. Prom its date, until the year 1814, 
 the „ Republic enjoyed uninterrupted internal tran- 
 quillity, in her alliance with France. 
 
 *'But the disasters of Napoleon reyived every- 
 where the dormant pretensions of the privileged 
 classes. Just as the Confederation of the Ehine 
 abandoned its protector, so Switzerland, betrayed 
 by her leaders, prostrated herself before the foreign 
 sovereigns, to whom she hastened to open her 
 gates. The hordes of the North passed trium- 
 phant by the fields of Sempach and Morgarten. 
 The trace which they left of their passage was the 
 violation of those liberties which Napoleon had 
 assured to Switzerland. The aristocracy resumed 
 its sway in the larger cantons ; the people lost 
 their rights ; the union of all was weakened. Yes, 
 it was in the name of liberty that the sovereigns 
 dethroned Napoleon ; yet their victory was no less 
 the triumph of aristocracy over democracy ; of 
 legitimacy over the sovereignty of the people ; of 
 privilege and oppression over equality and inde- 
 pendence : the year 1815 was for Switzerland, as 
 for so many other nations, a retrogression fatal to 
 freedom.* 
 
 * '' Une reaction liberticide." 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 13 
 
 "After the lapse of fifteen years, in July, 1830, 
 France called to remembrance what she had lost, 
 and what she might hope to regain. She arose, — 
 and the noise made in bursting her fetters startled 
 the nations from their slumbers. The country- 
 men of William Tell, among the restj recalled to 
 mind that they had rights to vindicate. Switzer- 
 land was indeed a republic, possessing the sem- 
 blance of self-government, but, in reality, under 
 the sway of the Holy Alliance. *Our elections,' 
 said its inhabitants, ' are not general ; our press, 
 not free ; publicity denied in the courts of law, 
 in the Legislative Council, in the Assembly of the 
 Diet." 
 
 By the death of the, King of Eome, which 
 occurred at the palace of Schoenbrunn, in Austria, 
 July 22, 1832, soon after the completion of his 
 twenty-first year, Louis Napoleon became heir 
 of the Emperor; and, after weighing the obliga- 
 tions imposed by that title, prepared to vindicate 
 the claims which he held it to confer. He was 
 well informed, in his retirement, as to the state 
 of affairs in France. Under the outward form of 
 popular government, the Court maintained, in 
 
14 LIFE OF N^APOLEON III. 
 
 the representative chamber, a constant majority, 
 through corrupt influences. The reigning family, 
 treated with shght regard by the great European 
 powers, sought to indemnify itself by unscrupulous 
 intrigues for the aggrandisement of its own mem- 
 bers. The army, turbulent and disaffected, vented 
 its discontent in terms more military than elegant. 
 From such symptoms the Prince foresaw and pre- 
 dicted that the downfall of the Orleans dynasty 
 was inevitable. 
 
 , The undertaking in which this conviction led 
 him to embark has been generally condemned, and 
 by no one more strongly than by himself, as pre- 
 mature, and having tended to compromise the 
 welfare of France by plunging it into revolution- 
 ary commotion. Yet we, who know how little 
 was required, but a few years later, to overthrow 
 the throne of Louis Philippe, cannot pronounce 
 the enterprise of Strasbourg, on the 30th of October; 
 1836, to have been so utterly wild and imprac- 
 ticable as at the time it was reputed to be. Its 
 result was disastrous to those engaged in it. The 
 troops whom the Prince first addressed, the 4th 
 regiment of a,rtillery, under command of Colonel 
 Vaudrey, declared, indeed, in his favour, with 
 
^IFE OF NAPOLEON III. 15 
 
 shouts of *'Vive Napoleon," and '^ Vive TEmpe- 
 yeur:" but this ardour was checked by adroit 
 management of two other officers, who persuaded 
 the garrison that they were imposed on by some 
 mere pretender to the name of Napoleon. He 
 was made prisoner ; conveyed, under charge of 
 gendarmes, on the 11th of November, to Paris ; 
 thence, after two hours' stay in the capital, to 
 Lorient, in Brittany. 
 
 . On the 21st of November the Prince sailed from 
 that port, under an order from the French Govern- 
 ment, for America : the intercession of his mother 
 having obtained that he should not be put on his 
 trial. 
 
 He wrote thus to her on the occasion : '' I. see, 
 in the step that you have taken, all the tenderness 
 of your affection. You have thought on the risk 
 which I incurred, but you have not sufficiently 
 considered my honour, which obliges me to share 
 the lot of my companions in misfortune. It has 
 grieved me much to abandon those whom I have 
 drawn on to their ruin ; when my presence and 
 testimony might have been of service to influence 
 the jury in their favour. I have written to the 
 King, entreating him to take a leiiient view of 
 
16 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 their case." — They were set at liberty while 
 Louis Napoleon was on his passage to New York. 
 Early in the following year, as he prepared to 
 take a tour through the United States, the intelU- 
 gence reached him of his mother's dangerous ill- 
 ness, which rendered necessary a severe surgical 
 operation. — '' If it should fail," she wrote to him, 
 "receive in this letter my last blessing. — We shall 
 meet, doubt it not, in a better world. In this, I 
 leave little to regret but thy love, which has been 
 to me the chief charm of life. To lessen thy 
 sorrow, think that thy kindness and affection have 
 made thy mother as happy as it was possible for 
 her to be on earth. Think, too, of all my love for 
 thee, and be comforted. — Above all, be assured 
 that we shall meet again : that hope is too con- 
 soling, too necessary for us, not to be true. I 
 press thee to my heart, my beloved ! — I am quite 
 calm, quite resigned: I trust that we may see 
 each other yet once more even in this world. — 
 The will of God be done ! 
 
 ''Thy tender mother, 
 
 *' 3rcl April, 1837." *' HoKTENSE. 
 
 On receipt of this letter, the Prince hastened 
 back to Switzerland; and arrived at Arenenberg 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 17 
 
 in time to receive her last farewell, A little while 
 before the Queen expired she requested all the 
 members of her household to be assembled in her 
 chamber, that she might clasp each one by the 
 hand. During a short delirium her words seemed 
 to indicate that her mind wandered back to the 
 last days of the Empire, and the scenes in which 
 she had borne a part at Paris in 1815. She 
 revived, to recognise those around her, made an 
 effort to embrace her son, and breathed her last : 
 (5th October, 1837.) 
 
 Shortly afterwards, the Government of Louis 
 Philippe demanded the expulsion of Louis Napo- 
 leon from Switzerland. The gallant Eepublic 
 refused compliance, and long negotiations ensued ; 
 the contention becoming at last so serious that 
 France made preparation for war on her neigh- 
 bour. This would have been an unmitigated 
 calamity ; to prevent which the Prince addressed, 
 on the 22nd of September, a letter to the Swiss 
 Diet, announcing his voluntary determination to 
 withdraw from the country. In the following 
 month he quitted Switzerland, and accepted the 
 hospitality of Great Britain; landing on our 
 shores on the 14th of October, 1838. 
 
 ri 
 
18 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Captivity at Ham. 
 
 1840—1846. 
 
 Pkince Louis Napoleon was received with sympathy 
 in England, and met a hospitable welcome in 
 aristocratic circles. It will hardly be denied that 
 he has, in return, shewn unvaryingly, by acts as 
 well as words, a hearty and cordial desire to stand 
 well with those whose friendship cheered his ad- 
 versity. During his residence at London (14th 
 October, 1838, to 6th August, 1840) he did not 
 intermit his habits of study ; spending frequently 
 the morning from six o'clock till noon in literary 
 labour. Whatever else may be in question re- 
 specting him, there is one point at least on which 
 the most sceptical will scarcely hint a doubt : the 
 Emperor has been a hard student. His ''Life of 
 C£esar " is alone a sufficient proof to the world of 
 that fact. None need apprehend being accused 
 of flattery in affirming it to be a work of extensive 
 research, deep thought, and vigorous style. I 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 19 
 
 subjoin a list, though an incomplete one, of his 
 earlier publications ; premising only, as to the 
 Manual of Artillery, that even in this day of 
 recent improvement in that arm it is still cited as 
 an authority, and that to its writer is due the 
 germ of that terrific invention in modern warfare, 
 the rifled cannon. 
 
 List of Works. 
 
 Political Keflections . . . 1832 
 
 Considerations, &c., on Switzerland 1833 
 
 The Napoleonic Ideas. . . 1839 
 
 Historical Fragments . . . 1841 
 
 Analysis of the Sugar Question . 1842 
 
 The [projected] Nicaragua Canal . 1844 
 
 On the Extinction of Pauperism . ] 844 
 
 Artillery Past and Future . . 1846 
 
 To notice all the productions of his pen that 
 appeared from time to time in periodical publica- 
 tions would, to adopt a phrase usual in works of 
 that class, "• exceed our limits." The mention of 
 a few titles may suffice to shew that they embraced 
 topics of chief pubHc interest in their day : " The 
 Slave Trader '' The Electoral System ;" ''Military 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Organisation;'' ''The Recruiting System in France;'' 
 ** The Clergy and the State;" &c., &c., &c. 
 
 Amid his literary occupations, the Prince turned 
 a watchful eye on the course of political events 
 across the channel, and the changes which seemed 
 impending in France. There were indeed in that 
 country statesmen, of high repute for sagacity, who 
 proclaimed loudly their confidence that the order 
 of things there established was fixed on as firm 
 a basis as human afi'airs can have, and as secure 
 from sudden and violent change. Thus M. Ville- 
 main, Minister of Pubhc Instruction, on the 7th 
 of January, 1840, moving an address from the 
 Chamber of Deputies to King Louis Philippe, 
 concluded his speech in the following words : — 
 
 ''During ten years France has sought, amid 
 all the perils of revolution, two inestimable bless- 
 ings ; a national dynasty, and a parHamentary 
 government. That dynasty, Sire, is your own : 
 that government is the one founded on the charter 
 of 1830. . . The cause of constitutional monarchy 
 may reckon on our faithful adherence. In vain 
 do insensate spirits yet meditate disturbance. 
 France guarantees that the efi'orts of faction shall 
 henceforth be powerless. The reason and the will 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 21 
 
 of the nation watch over the throne which they 
 have erected ; your rights are indissolubly Hnked 
 with ours ; and the glory of your crown adds to 
 the greatness of our country." 
 
 Similar sentiments and principles were main- 
 tained by a still more distinguished advocate, 
 M. Guizot. That they were not shared however 
 by the nation generally, was indicated by a 
 measure which followed, a few months later, for 
 which no plausible motive can be assigned except 
 the desire of conciliating popular favour. The 
 same assembly which had voted the perpetual 
 exclusion of the Napoleon family from France, 
 now, with no slight vacillation, passed a decree 
 that the body of the great Emperor should be 
 brought, with the highest ceremonial honours, to 
 its final resting-place at Paris. Various opinions 
 have been expressed respecting the policy of Louis 
 Philippe in sending his son, the Prince de Join- 
 ville, on such a mission. It would be of little use 
 to inquire whether it was an act of royal poHcy 
 or impolicy, or neither, but simply a concession to 
 national feeling, which the will of the monarch 
 would have been impotent to resist. 
 
 On the 12th of May, 1840, M. de Kemusat, 
 
22 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Minister of the Interior, proposed to the French 
 Chamber of Deputies, amid general acclamations, 
 a measm^e for removing the mortal remains of the 
 Emperor Napoleon from the Island of St. Helena 
 to the banks of the Seine. The minister pro- 
 ceeded : ''1/ flit Empereur et Roi : il fut souverdiii 
 legitime de noire pcu/s.'' 
 
 The tribute thus rendered to his memory was ac- 
 companied by circumstances which could not but 
 be painful to all surviving members of his family. 
 A privilege was denied to them which is not re- 
 fused to the poorest in the land, that of following 
 a relative to the grave. Napoleon I. was to be borne 
 to his tomb unattended by any of his lineage : and 
 his arms were delivered up to Louis Philippe. 
 
 Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain, made 
 an energetic remonstrance against the surrender 
 of Napoleon's sword to the Bourbons : and the 
 Prince Louis, while seconding the protest, in a 
 letter addressed to The Times, scarcely dissembles 
 his intention to push the matter beyond mere 
 words. "I concur," he writes, ^' in the protest 
 of my uncle Joseph, from the depth of my heart. 
 General Bertrand, in delivering up the arms of 
 the head of my family to King Louis Philippe, 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 23 
 
 has been the victim of a deplorable delusion. The 
 sword of AusterHtz should never be placed in the 
 hands of enemies to our house. They may expel 
 us from our country, confiscate our property, and 
 shew themselves generous only towards our dead : 
 all this we can endure, and without a murmur, 
 but to deprive the heirs of the Emperor of the 
 sole heritage which fortune has left them, is to 
 violate their most sacred rights, and force the 
 oppressed to say to the oppressor, at no distant 
 day: ' Eender back that which you have usurped.' " 
 The irritated feelings of Louis Napoleon, at 
 this juncture, led him to undertake a second enter- 
 prise, which could not be justified either by sound 
 principle or policy; being calculated to retard, 
 instead of accelerating, the declaration of the 
 national will in his favour. The expedition to 
 Boulogne (6th August, 1840) although counting 
 among its adherents statesmen of capacity, as 
 Persigny ; warriors of experience, as Montholon ; 
 had never, from the outset, a prospect of success. 
 Its issue was even more disastrous than that of 
 the preceding attempt at Strasbourg. Two of the 
 Prince's friends fell at his side, and he was con- 
 veyed a prisoner, slightly wounded in the arm, to 
 
24 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 the citadel at Boulogne. Shortly afterwards he 
 was transferred, with the companions of his 
 misadventure, to the foi*tress of Ham, near Saint 
 Quentin, towards the Belgian frontier ; and finally 
 to Paris, where, with eighteen fellow prisoners, he 
 was put on trial, on the 28th of September, before 
 the Chamber of Peers. 
 
 The following passages are extracted from the 
 speech of M. de Berryer, the eloquent counsel 
 engaged for the defence of the accused : 
 
 '' A minister of the king has lately declared, 
 ' Napoleon was the lawful sovereign of our countiy/ 
 And would you deny to this young prince, — rash, 
 presumptuous, as you will, but marked by the high 
 spirit of his race, — the right to say within him- 
 self: 'That name, which raises the hope of victory, 
 and spreads the terror of defeat, is mine to bear 
 to the frontier. I am the heir, the adopted son 
 of the Emperor. This funeral procession which 
 they prepare in his honour, it is mine to lead.' 
 
 "For, what do you pretend? The arms that 
 are to be placed on the tomb of the hero, do you 
 dispute their possession with his heir ? Ah ! 
 believe me, it was without premeditation that, 
 young and ardent, the Prince exclaimed : ' I will 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 25 
 
 go — I will head the train of mourners — I will 
 place the sword of the Emperor on his tomb before 
 assembled France.' 
 
 "If there was crime in this proceeding, the 
 fault rests with you, who, by solemn acts of your 
 Government, gave the provocation ; you, who 
 decreed forfeiture of his rights, of his rank, even 
 of his name and title as nephew of the Emperor ; 
 while your very proscription tended to foster the 
 conviction of those rights. If there has been a 
 crime, it is you, I repeat, who have instigated it. 
 
 *' And what will you do to him ? Will you hurl 
 him afar to some desert rock, that a second tomb 
 of Saint Helena mav contain other illustrious 
 relics ? Will you pronounce a sentence of degra- 
 dation on him ? No ! an assembly of Frenchmen 
 will never pass a sentence of degradation on that 
 name. — It is impossible." 
 
 This speech, exhibiting perhaps some inflation 
 of style, by license of forensic oratory, produced 
 as little effect as probably was expected from it. 
 The sentence passed on the Prince, on the 6th of 
 October, was that of imprisonment for life in one 
 of the fortresses of the kingdom. 
 
 He was taken back then to the old fort of Ham ; 
 
26 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 having, as companions in captivity, Count Mon- 
 tholon, condemned to twenty years, and Dr. 
 Conneau,''' to five years, of detention. The future 
 sovereign of the Tuileries was put in possession 
 of three small barrack- rooms, in a very comfort- 
 less state of dilapidation. After some delay, the 
 Government devoted about five and twenty pounds 
 (600 francs) to the necessary repair of the apart- 
 ments. Dignified and mild in demeanour, the 
 Prince acquired the sympathy of all around him. 
 The soldiers loved to watch him taking his daily 
 walk on the terrace of the fortress, or cultivating 
 his bit of garden. From time to time the cry 
 of ''Vive Napoleon!" would arise; and it was 
 deemed prudent to make a frequent change of the 
 troops in garrison. 
 
 The captive was also an object of interest to 
 the inhabitants of the village of Ham, who came 
 constantly at the hour of his walk, to salute him 
 with their acclamations. 
 
 Among the graver employments of his prison 
 hours was the composition of his ''Extinction of 
 Pauperism : " an inquiry into means for amelio- 
 rating the condition of the masses. He also sent 
 
 ■^ Since pli^^sician-iu-cliicf to the Emperor. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 27 
 
 jnto the world from his prison the work entitled 
 ''Analysis of the Sugar question," pubHshed in 
 1842, the object of which was to benefit the 
 agriculturist. When in after life a statesman 
 expressed to Louis Napoleon surprise at the extent 
 of the information possessed by him on many 
 various subjects, the reply was: *'I studied six 
 years in the university of Ham." The Bishop of 
 Amiens, in whose diocese the fort is situated, 
 visited the captive ; and, naturally, spoke words 
 of condolence. ''Monseigneur," the Prince would 
 reply, ''I thank you for your good and kind 
 words ; but you must not think me too much to 
 be pitied. I have need of time and solitude, to 
 prepare me for the work to which I am destined 
 by Providence ; for, prisoner though you see me, I 
 shall one day govern France." There appears no 
 reason to cast a shade of doubt on the sincerity- 
 of that reliance on Providence which Napoleon III. 
 has unvaryingly professed, and which was so' 
 strong as to communicate itself to the sharers in 
 his captivity. One of these, on being asked, 
 latterly: '' Did not your days pass wearily in that 
 old fortress ? " answered : '' Not at all ; we were 
 always with the Prince, and his conviction that he 
 
28 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 should one day reign was so powerful that we all 
 partook in it : we lived upon hope." 
 
 The imprisonment of Louis Napoleon had en- 
 dured five years and nine months, when afflicting 
 intelligence came to him from Italy. His aged 
 father was dying, in the city of Florence, ^nd 
 wished, before his death, to embrace once more 
 the only child that remained to him on the 
 earth. 
 
 The Prince solicited permission to attend the 
 death-bed of his father ; and offered his word 
 of honour to return afterwards to his prison 
 life. The Government of Louis Philippe refused to 
 accede to his request unless on conditions impos- 
 sible for him to accept. Then it was that, stung 
 to the heart, he determined to escape, and pro- 
 ceeded to carry his design into effect with equal 
 dexterity and success. 
 
 The chief agents in the enterprise were Charles 
 Thelin, his faithful valet, and Dr. Conneau. 
 Thelin having license occasionally to quit and to 
 re-enter the citadel, it was arranged that he 
 should ask permission from the governor to go 
 to the neighbouring town of Saint Quentin, in 
 order to purchase some necessary articles, and 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 29 
 
 that, on his leaving the fort, the Prince should 
 make his exit at the same time, in the diguise of 
 a workman. 
 
 This plan offered two advantages : first, it would 
 enable Thelin, who was to lead with him the 
 Prince's dog Ham, to divert attention from the 
 pretended workman, by the noisy gambols of 
 the animal, a well-known favourite of the garri- 
 son : secondly, it gave Thelin an opportunity of 
 calling to himself, on some ready pretext, any one 
 who, believing the Prince to be really a workman, 
 might be disposed to address him. 
 
 Monday, the 25th of May^ 1846, was the day 
 fixed on for carrying out the project. Louis 
 Napoleon rose at a very early hour, and it is 
 hardly necessary to say that his simple toilet 
 preparations were speedily despatched. He put 
 on first a suit of plain clothes, such as might be 
 worn by a commercial traveller or clerk : over 
 these, a blouse and pantaloons, much the worse 
 for wear. A black wig, a shabby cap, and a blue 
 apron, completed the costume. The time ap- 
 pointed for action now drew near, and he sat down 
 to breakfast as composedly as on ordinary occa- 
 sions. The repast over, he put a pair of sahots on 
 
30 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 his feet, and a short clay pipe, sufficiently black- 
 ened with tobacco smoke, into his mouth ; and, 
 having remarked that the workmen, in passing 
 to and fro, carried frequently planks on their 
 shoulders, he drew out one of the shelves from his 
 book-case, and so disposed it on his shoulder as 
 to afford a screen, on occasion, for one side of his 
 face. 
 
 At a quarter before seven, Thelin collected the 
 workmen who were about, into an inner room, 
 where he invited them to drink. Having effected 
 this useful diversion, he hastened to inform the 
 Prince that not a moment was to be lost. At the 
 foot of the staircase leading from his apartments 
 were stationed two guards, Dupin and Issale by 
 name. Thelin, to neutralise the vigilance of one 
 at least, drew Issale aside under pretence of hav- 
 ing some interesting piece of intelligence to 
 impart ; and contrived to place him so that his 
 back was turned to the next passer-by. The Prince 
 now nimbly descended the stairs, holding his plank 
 vertically, and directing its point straight at 
 Dupin, so as to compel him to turn away his head, 
 and prevent his observing features which he 
 would too surely have recognised. In the court 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 31 
 
 beyond, a locksmith's apprentice, who followed 
 at a few steps behind, quickened his pace, in order 
 to overtake the supposed workman, with the ap- 
 parent intention of speaking to him. Thelin, 
 however, called the lad and sent him back, on 
 some errand, to re-ascend the stairs. 
 
 It seemed next to an impossibility that the 
 prisoner, whose personal appearance had so long 
 been a subject of watchful observance to those 
 concerned in his safe keeping, and who had at 
 every few yards to encounter some one interested 
 in the detection of his disguise, should yet escape 
 discovery. 
 
 As he passed the first sentry, the Prince let his 
 pipe fall on the ground, and stooped, with much 
 deliberation, to pick it up and replace it in his 
 mouth ; the soldier meanwhile watching this pro- 
 cedure with a mechanical look of attention, and 
 then resuming his measured march. A little further 
 on was the canteen, by which the path lay to the 
 outer gate of the fortress. Here were groups of 
 soldiers, some on duty, some basking idly in the 
 sun. The officer of the guard was occupied in 
 reading a letter. The superintendent of the works 
 was likewise engaged in examination of papers, 
 
32 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 and did not even lift an eye on the loorhman who 
 brushed closely by him. 
 
 Between the inner and outer drawbridges of 
 the citadel a greater risk of discovery occurred. 
 Two carpenters approached the Prince, on the side 
 which was unprotected by his plank ; and, as they 
 advanced, raised their voices in expressions of 
 surprise at seeing one of their own calling at work 
 there whom they did not know. The only ex- 
 pedient to which he could recur was to shift the 
 position of his plank, as if tired of its weight, 
 from one shoulder to the other, so as to intercept 
 their view. They continued, however, to approach 
 the object of their curiosity, till, when within a 
 few yards, to his great relief, he heard one say 
 to the other: '^Ah! cest Berthoud.'^' Yes, ''it 
 was Berthoud : '* so they thought ; and this 
 mistake of theirs saved him from the danger 
 which threatened to overthrow his hopes of liberty 
 on the verge of their fulfilment. 
 
 At the outer gate of the fort Thelin managed 
 to attract to himself the notice of the porter. A 
 sergeant of the guard fixed his glance steadily on 
 the Prince, who bore the scrutiny without being 
 disconcerted : the wicket was unbarred, and he 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 33 
 
 passed from the walls of his prison into the open 
 highway. 
 
 Here Louis Napoleon took at once the road to 
 Saint Quentin, while Thelin went in a different 
 direction to procure a carriage. At the first con- 
 venient opportunity, the Prince hid the plank, that 
 had done him so good service, in a corn-field ; 
 threw his sahots into a ditch; discarded his blouse; 
 and replaced his old cap by a smarter one edged 
 with gold lace. Thelin soon overtook him with 
 the carriage, and the five leagues to Saint Quentin 
 were accomplished without impediment. Fresh 
 horses having been obtained, the travellers pro- 
 ceeded safely to Valenciennes, where they arrived 
 at half-past two in the afternoon. Here, for the 
 first time, the passport question was raised, and 
 Thelin exhibited one which he had received from 
 an English courier. That of the Prince was not 
 demanded. 
 
 To return now to the prison of Ham, and the 
 events which were taking place there. Dr. Conneau 
 had engaged to conceal as long as possible the 
 flight of his friend. '' My aim," writes the doctor, 
 *' was to secure him twenty-four hours' start of 
 the orders that would be immediately issued on 
 
34 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 his escape becoming known. I began by closing, 
 with great care and caution, the door of his bed- 
 room, wishing to give the impression that he was 
 indisposed and must not be disturbed. In order to 
 prolong the delusion to the uttermost, I placed 
 between the bed-clothes a sort of mannikin, which 
 I had dressed up, with its head — or the nearest 
 resemblance to one that I could construct — dis- 
 posed carefully on the pillow. In the adjoining 
 room I kept up a very large fire, though the day 
 was one of summer heat ; thus raising the tem- 
 perature of the apartment to a height suitable 
 only for an invalid ; all this to induce the belief 
 that the illness of my patient was something 
 serious. 
 
 ** About eight o'clock some violet plants were 
 brought by a messenger, whom I directed to pre- 
 pare flower-pots with earth for their reception, but 
 forbade him to enter the Prince's chamber. 
 
 ''The commandant of the fort now called to 
 inquire after the state of his health : and, about 
 noon, made his second appearance. 
 
 '' ' The Prince,' I said, ' is more calm.' 
 
 '' Thus the day wore on smoothly, until, at a 
 quarter-past seven in the evening, the worthy 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 35 
 
 commandant entered the little ante-chamber in 
 which I was seated, rather flurried in his manner, 
 and with a look somewhat scared. 
 
 '' ' Commandant/ I said, ' the Prince is going 
 on favourably.' 
 
 '* *If he be really ill,' he cried, *I must see him, 
 I must speak to him.' 
 
 ** On this I went into the bedroom and called 
 the Prince by name, who naturally did not reply. 
 I returned on tiptoe, my finger on my lips, as a 
 sign that the patient was still asleep. The com- 
 mandant could by no means comprehend to his 
 satisfaction this prolonged slumber, and took a 
 seat, saying : * He is not going to sleep always ; 
 I will wait here till he wakes.' Presently the 
 evening drum beat, and the commandant started 
 up. * That must wake him, if anything will :' he 
 cried, bending his body forward in a listening 
 attitude. * I think I hear him stir :' he added, 
 entering the bedchamber. 
 
 * Oh ! for goodness sake,' I interposed, ' go no 
 nearer; you will be sorry if you do.' 
 
 **The commandant persisted in approaching 
 close to the bed, where, to his amazement, he 
 beheld — the mannikin, 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LIFE OE NAPOLEON III. 
 
 a i 
 
 The Prince is gone/ said he, turning sharply 
 round. 
 
 '' ' Yes/ 
 
 ' ' ' When did he go ?' 
 
 " * At seven o'clock this morning.' 
 
 '' At first the worthy officer seemed thunder- 
 struck. I must do him the justice, however, to 
 say that he never addressed a word of blame or 
 reproach to me ; but, after the first shock, sub- 
 mitted, with the coolness of a veteran, to the blow 
 which shattered all the hopes he might have en- 
 tertained of promotion for eminent service. 
 
 '' ' Well,' he remarked, / a pretty trick you have 
 played on me. But you have done your duty, and 
 I have done mine, and will do it to the end.' So 
 saying, he posted away, to give orders for imme- 
 diate pursuit of the fugitives." 
 
 But they were already far beyond apprehen- 
 sion of re-capture. Having crossed the Belgian 
 frontier, the path to Brussels was open to them. 
 From Brussels, the prisoners of Ham passed to 
 Ostend, and from Ostend to England. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 37 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 The Presidency. 
 
 1848—1851. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, no longer a captive, was yet not 
 free to take his intended journey into Italy. The 
 Austrian ambassador at London would not be 
 persuaded to sign his passport, and the Continen- 
 tal Powers of Europe, refusing him a passage 
 through their territories, prevented his attendance 
 at the deathbed of his father. 
 
 In England the Prince met as hearty a welcome 
 as he had experienced during his former visit to 
 our island. His mode of daily life too among us 
 was, in all important points, unchanged, and such 
 as to gain the respect and goodwill of those with 
 whom he associated. Much of his time was ap- 
 plied to preparation for the press of works having 
 in view objects of political interest and public 
 utility. I have given, in a preceding chapter, 
 some extracts from his earliest pubHcation: ''Con- 
 siderations Folitiques et Militaires siir la Suisse.'* It 
 
38 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 seems not out of place to present here a short 
 specimen of the more matured powers of his pen, 
 in an essay entitled *' La Traite des Negres.'* 
 ** On the African Slave Trade. 
 
 *' Honour to the philanthropist who, having 
 put forth a sublime and noble idea, directs it, by 
 a prudent application, to the benefit of the human 
 race ; but let us beware of the theorist who, more 
 showy than solid, pursues such an idea regardless 
 of adverse results, and, while embracing the world 
 in his schemes of benevolence, inflicts injury on 
 his fellow-creatures. 
 
 ** The distinctive characteristic of such persons 
 is to be passionately affected by sufferings the 
 most remote from them. Their fervour augments 
 in direct proportion to the square of the distance 
 at which the object of their sympathy is placed. 
 Cold to the misery of the overworn French 
 labourer, who lives under the shadow of their own 
 roofs, let some tale of wrong reach them from the 
 antipodes, oh ! then all the feelings of the soul 
 are excited to the highest pitch. Persons who 
 endure distress on the other side of the globe 
 appear far more worthy of compassion than those 
 who pine and languish in our native land. Still 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 39 
 
 we would applaud and prize their exertions, if 
 they tended to the good of any human being, 
 since all men are brothers. Unhappily the effect 
 is quite the contrary way. 
 
 ** To take the facts of the case before us. The 
 pubhc sentiment of Europe was roused to indig- 
 nation against slavery and the slave-trade. This 
 sentiment, no less just than popular, has been 
 seized on by would-be philanthropists, who aggra- 
 vated the evil denounced, by the measures pro- 
 posed for its remedy. And this is easy of proof. 
 The burning plains of America are to a great 
 extent cultivated by negroes. The African tribes 
 are necessary to the climate ; slavery compels 
 them to labour ; and their numbers are annually 
 recruited by the slave-trade. A religious feeling, 
 worthy of all praise, prompted Europe, moved by 
 the woes of a whole race, to exclaim : ' Away 
 with the slave trade ! Away with slavery !' 
 
 " To this cry the European races who inhabit 
 America responded : ' Emancipation is to us the 
 synonym of pillage, ruin, death ; for the slaves 
 are our property, we have purchased them ; if you 
 would have their liberty, you must pay us 
 its price ; and, if you set them free all at once, 
 
40 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 they will murder us. We, as well as they, are 
 your brothers, and claim equallyryour protection.' 
 
 '' ' Be it so,' was the rejoinder ; ' let slavery then 
 endure for the present, but abolish the traffic which 
 adds constantly to the number of its victims ; let 
 us have the right of search.' And what has been 
 the consequence ? The slave-trade, being of im- 
 perative necessity to many parts of America while 
 slavery exists there, must exist also. So long as 
 the demand continues, it is impossibb to exclude 
 the supply. The slave-trade is carried on, on 
 fully as largo a scale as before, but as a contra- 
 band instead of a legal commerce. The wretched 
 negroes, intead of being piled, scores upon scores, 
 are now heaped, hundreds upon hundreds, in the 
 slavers ; and if a chase occur, many of them are 
 thrown overboard, to evade the penalties affixed to 
 the traffic by European Governments. 
 
 ''In support of this statement, it may suffice 
 to cite, out of a hundred cases, one that oc- 
 curred on the coast of Brazil in 1836, and 
 was well known to all the French squadron on 
 that station. An English corvette, observing a 
 vessel which bore all the appearance of a slaver, 
 gave chase. The vessel in question, having made 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 41 
 
 all sail in order to escape, but in vain, as her 
 pursuer gained rapidly upon her, was seen to 
 throw overboard a large number of casks. One of 
 these floating near to the cruiser was hauled on 
 board, and, when opened on deck, was found to 
 contain a live negro ! It was the same with all 
 the other casks. Thus the laws of the philanthro- 
 pists had the eflfect of converting slave -dealers into 
 murderers. Nor is the above an isolated instance. 
 It is stated that the number of slaves im- 
 ported annually into Brazil is greater now than 
 it was antecedently to the treaties for the suppres- 
 sion of the traflSc. The right of search therefore 
 has rendered no service to the cause of humanity. 
 The negroes are far greater sufferers than before, 
 and so long as slavery itself exists the result will 
 be the same. 
 
 '' What then remains to be done ? I answer, if 
 the question of the abolition of slavery had been 
 taken up by Governments wishing sincerely the 
 welfare both of the white and the black races, 
 they would have proceeded to train and prepare the 
 slaves in their colonies, by a gradual appren- 
 ticeship, for the transition from forced to free 
 labour. The Governments of Europe, thus acting 
 
42 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 in concert, might have succeeded in persuading 
 those of America to folio w their example ; whereas 
 at present the Government of Brazil may ask 
 Prance : * By what right do you hinder me from 
 importing slaves while you have slaves in your 
 own colonies ] ' 
 
 " Slavery itself once destroyed, the slave-trade 
 must of necessity perish by the same blow ; and 
 the claims of humanity would be satisfied. 
 Whereas, up to the present day, while we are busy 
 in sowing hatred between master and slave, the 
 commerce in human flesh continues, and becomes 
 all the more atrocious the more we attempt to 
 repress it. 
 
 " Further, that very attempt supplies a ground 
 of quarrel to England, who is ready to go to war 
 for the right of search ; and to sacrifice the lives 
 of thousands of Englishmen and Frenchmen in 
 the so-called interests of humanity. 
 
 ** Let us repeat that, while a true clear-sighted 
 philanthropy is among the noblest qualities of. 
 human nature, so a false and perverted philan- 
 thropy is among the errors most detrimental to 
 mankind. 
 
 ''I cannot conclude better than in the noble 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 43 
 
 words of M. Villemain, uttered before he became 
 a minister of State : ' II faut que la verite soil une 
 chose Men precieuse en ellememe ; puisque les erreurs 
 gSnereiises des times piires sont presque aussi fatales a 
 Vhumanite que le crime, qui est une erreur des me- 
 chants,' " 
 
 In the beginning of 1848, the political discon- 
 tent, which had been constantly on the increase 
 in France for several years, reached its highest 
 point. It was founded mainly on two grounds : 
 first, the narrowness of the electoral constituency, 
 which restricted the privilege of voting to about 
 one-tenth of the adult population ; secondly, the 
 exorbitant amount of patronage held by the 
 Court, which enabled it to command large majo- 
 rities in the Chamber of Eepresentatives. No 
 rhetorical flourishes in the mouths of popular 
 orators, vaunting the union of ** Constitutional 
 Monarchy and Parliamentary Government," could 
 reconcile the nation to such a system, or retard 
 its overthrow.* 
 
 * On the 10th of January, 1848, six weeks only before the 
 deposition of the Bourbons, the Chamber of Peers voted an 
 address to the King, which concluded in the following words : , 
 ** In a Constitutional Monarchy, the union of the groat powers 
 of the State overcomes every obstacle, and guarantees the moral 
 
44 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 On a sudden, a startling report rang through 
 Europe. The throne of Louis Philippe had fallen, 
 — fallen through its o\^n inherent weakness, one 
 scarce knew how, — and a repubhc was erected in 
 its stead (24th February, 1848). The fact is that 
 Louis Philippe and his dynasty had never taken 
 root in the heart of France. He had been elected 
 king impromptu^ by some two or three hundred 
 deputies, who professed to act ''in the name of 
 the nation," but who had no more commission to. 
 proclaim a king than my courteous readers have 
 to nominate a pope. The nation had never 
 heartily confirmed the choice. At length the 
 storm that had long been gathering burst forth 
 in the revolution of February, and the Orleans 
 monarchy vanished like ''the fabric of a vision." 
 
 The moment seemed now to have arrived when 
 Louis Napoleon, after so many years of exile, 
 might hope to tread the soil of France as a free 
 man. He hastened to Paris. The newly sprung 
 
 and material interests of the country. By that union, Sire, 
 we will maintain social order in all its conditions. Our 
 charter of 1830, transmitted by us to future generations as 
 an inviolable deposit, will secure to them the most valuable 
 inheritance which nations can receive, the alliance of order 
 and liberty." 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 45 
 
 Provisional Government, consisting of Messrs. 
 Ledru-Eollin, Lamartine, Louis Blanc, and 
 others, shewed already signs of instinctive appre- 
 hension regarding him, and intimated that his 
 presence might prove a ** source of embarrassment" 
 to them in the grand designs which they medi- 
 tated. He accordingly returned to London. 
 
 The good- will and suffrages of his fellow- citizens 
 followed him thither, when the tumult and con- 
 fusion attendant on the outbreak of the revolution 
 had in some degree subsided. His name, indeed, 
 was unheard at the general elections for members 
 of the National Assembly, holden on the 23rd 
 and 24th of April. The Assembly was opened for 
 its first sitting on the 5th of May. The partial^oi 
 supplementary elections, caused by double returns 
 or resignations, took place on the 4th of June 
 following, when eleven new members were chosen 
 for the Department of the Seine (Paris). The 
 result was not officially known until the 8th of 
 June; and the name of Louis Napoleon Bona- 
 parte was little expected to appear in the list. 
 The announcement of his election was received 
 with shouts of enthusiasm by the crowds assem- 
 bled at the Hotel de Ville. Simultaneously, the 
 
46 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Prince was chosen a representative of the people 
 at the '* elections partielles*' for the Departments of 
 the Yonne and the Charente-Inferieure ; and, on 
 the 18th of the same month, for Corsica. 
 
 The official returns give the following figures : 
 *' 4th June — Charente-Inferieure: 
 
 Number of Voters 65,179 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 23,022 votes. 
 ,, Seine — Number of Voters 248,392 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 84,420 votes. 
 ,, Yonne — Number of Voters 57,571 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 14,621 votes. 
 18th— Corse— Number of Voters 39,330 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 37,036 votes." 
 Following close on the election of the Prince 
 came the rumour of his expected entry into Paris. 
 One present at the time* records that, from the 
 10th to the 12th of June, ** the people thronged 
 the avenues to the Assembly, all pronouncing but 
 one name, that of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte." 
 On the other hand, the apprehensions of the re- 
 publican party became now seriously aroused. 
 On the 12th, on occasion of a sudden report of 
 fire-arms near to the hall of assembly, M. de 
 
 -;- Lord Normanby. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 47 
 
 Lamartine, springing to the parliamentary tribune, 
 announced *' une occurrence fatale :'* — *' the blood," 
 said he, ** which had never flowed in the pure 
 cause of the republic, has now been shed on behalf 
 of military fanaticism, for those shots have been 
 fired with the cry of * Vive Napoleon ! ' " The 
 speaker therefore proposed that the Assembly 
 should at once vote by acclamation the exclusion 
 and exile of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. This 
 coup-de-thedtre of Lamartine produced an effect 
 contrary to that which he intended, as it turned out 
 that the firing heard was the accidental discharge 
 of a pocket-pistol by a national guard, which had 
 injured no one but himself. The discussion of the 
 question relative to the exclusion of the Prince was 
 adjourned to the following day, when his right 
 to take his seat was affirmed by a very large 
 majority. On the morning of the same day 
 a telegraphic message had been written at the 
 Ministry of the Interior, enjoining on all prefets 
 and souS'prefets, throughout France, the arrest of 
 the Prince : — **Le Ministre de I'lnterieur aux 
 prefets et sous-prefets. Par ordre de la Commis- 
 sion du Pouvoir Executif faites arreter Charles 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, s'il est signale, dans 
 
48 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 votre Departement. Transmettez partout les 
 ordres necessaires." 
 
 On the 15th the President of the National 
 Assembly read to its members a letter addressed 
 to him on the previous day by Louis Napoleon : 
 
 '* London, 14th June, 1848. 
 
 ^'M. le President, 
 
 *' On the point of departing to occupy my post, I 
 learn that my election has been the pretext for 
 deplorable errors and excesses. I never sought 
 the honour of being a representative of the people ; 
 knowing the unjust suspicions of which I am the 
 object. Still less do I now seek power. If the 
 people impose duties on me, I shall hiow how to fulfil 
 them. But I disavow all those who would impute 
 to me projects of ambition which I do not enter- 
 tain. My name is a symbol of order, of nation- 
 ality, of glory ; and it would be with the keenest 
 regret that I should see it used to increase the 
 troubles and distractions of my country. 
 
 "• Have the goodness, M. le President, to make 
 this communication known to my colleagues. 
 
 '*Eeceive the assurance of my distinguished 
 consideration. 
 
 ^' Louis Napoleon Bonaparte." 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III, - 49 
 
 A sentence in this letter, " si le peuple in impose 
 des devoirSy je saurai les remplir" gave great offence 
 to the Assembly ; who took it to imply ulterior 
 views of an ambitious kind. General Cavaignac, 
 who had rarely spoken except on topics connected 
 with his profession, now added to the prevailing 
 excitement caused by the reading of the above 
 document. Eising in his place, he drew attention, 
 with much w^armth, to the circumstance that in 
 the letter no reference was made to the Eepublic : 
 '* le mot de la Repuhlique ny est jamais prononce,'' 
 ''Upon this," writes Lord Normanby, who was a 
 witness of the scene, *' there arose such cries, 
 there spread such universal agitation, as Ihadhardly 
 ever before witnessed even within those walls." 
 The storm thus raised was on the succeeding 
 day (the 16th) quelled almost as suddenly, by a 
 second letter, received by the President from the 
 Prince, formally resigning his office of representa- 
 tive. 
 
 '' London, 15th June. 
 
 ''M. le President, 
 
 **Iwas proud to have been elected represen- 
 tative of the people, at Paris, and at three other 
 departments. It was, in my eyes, an ample com- 
 
 E 
 
50 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 pensation for thirty years of exile and six- of 
 captivity. But the injurious suspicions to which 
 my election has given rise, the disturbances of 
 which it has been the pretext, the hostile spirit of 
 the present executive power, compel me to forego 
 an honour supposed to have been obtained through 
 intrigue. I desire order, above all things, and 
 the maintenance of a republic wise, powerful, in- 
 telligent ; and since, involuntarily, I favour dis- 
 order, I place my resignation in your hands, not 
 without deep regret. 
 
 ** Eeceive the assurance of my distinguished 
 consideration. 
 
 '' Louis Napoleon Bonaparte." 
 
 The feelings of the French people were more 
 clearly pronounced in favour of the Prince, as the 
 incapacity of the self-elected " Provisional" chiefs 
 and the disastrous effects of their misrule became 
 more and more oppressive. Tumultuous scenes 
 and indecent altercations, of daily occurrence 
 within the National Assembly, gave fresh impulse 
 to the spirits of anarchy and disorder beyond its 
 precinct. These broke out during the last week 
 of June in a fierce insurrection, which overspread 
 speedily the whole city of Paris. 
 
LIFE or NAPOLEON III. 51 
 
 A vivid description of the insurrection is given 
 
 by two writers, most opposed to each other in 
 
 general opinions, who were alike eye-witnesses of, 
 
 and to some extent partakers in, the events which 
 
 they narrate : the Marquis of Normanby (EngHsh 
 
 ambassador at Paris), and *^ Citizen Loais Blanc." 
 
 Without taking from either any statement at all 
 
 of a controvertible character, we may accept their 
 
 concurrent testimony as to the furious nature of 
 
 the civil warfare which raged in the French 
 
 » 
 metropohs. 
 
 '' On Friday, the 23rd,'^ writes M. Louis Blanc,='= 
 **a compact column, which had formed in the 
 Place de la Bastille, fell like an avalanche on the 
 Porte Saint Denis, where the first engagement 
 took place. But already, whilst the National Guard 
 were slowly assembling in the aristocratic quarters 
 of the town, the populous streets bristled with 
 barricades. . . . 
 
 ''Whether the insurrection might not have 
 been prevented from the first; whether barri- 
 cades need have been left for boys to con- 
 struct ; whether, in short. General Cavaignac, 
 by letting the insurrection pass, reserved to 
 
 * '* Historical Revelations," by Louis Blanc. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 himself the sinister honour of suppressing it, — 
 these are questions for History to solve. For the 
 present, I will only state this fact, that at four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, on the 23rd of June, in 
 the Faubourg St. Marceau, although it was in full 
 insurrection, the circulation was still" free; and 
 that it would have been perfectly easy for either 
 the civil or the military authorities to ascertain 
 that many of the barricades were guarded by men 
 incompletely armed, and utterly without ammu- 
 nition of any kind. 
 
 ** The indomitable energy of the insurgents was 
 astounding. The regular troops and National 
 Guards fought well, as Frenchmen always fight ; 
 but those who were least liable to suspicion of 
 sympathy with the insurgents confessed that their 
 prodigious resolution and audacity would have 
 sufficed, under an able general, for the conquest of 
 the world ! Besides, thanks to M. Marie, the 
 ateliers nationaux had received a military organisa- 
 tion, and had been divided into brigades, squad- 
 rons, companies, comprising the men of the same 
 arrondissement, of the same quarter, of the same 
 street; and, in a war of barricades, in which every 
 man resolved to fight and die at his own door, for 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 53 
 
 the bread of his own household, such an organi- 
 sation lent a certain ensemble to the resistance, 
 though the resistance was a local one. 
 
 ** Overwhelming as the forces of the Govern- 
 ment appeared, the end was still doubtful. In the 
 Pauboarg du Temple, where General Cavaignac 
 had reconnoitred the fortresses, the fight assumed 
 gigantic proportions. At the attack of the barri- 
 cade Saint Maure, the troops suffered terrible loss, 
 and were repulsed. When the darkness of night 
 enveloped the streets, the insurgents were com- 
 pletely masters of that portion .of the city. 
 
 ^* Terrible was the night, a night of expectation 
 and grief ! On the following morning [Saturday,] 
 the heavy guns began to thunder against the 
 Faubourg, without gaining the least advantage 
 over the insurgents ; while the troops advanced, 
 retreated, and advanced again, with alternate 
 wrath and discouragement. Until Sunday even- 
 ing (the 25th) the blood of countrymen and 
 fellow-citizens was flowing in disastrous rivalry. 
 What was most lamentable of all was the inexo- 
 rable fury of the fight between the working men 
 and the Garde Mobile,— between fathers on one 
 side and sons on the other. Everybody knows 
 
54 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 now that, when the insurrection began, the Garde 
 Mobile was more disposed to join than to- 
 attack the insurgents. But it had been so per- 
 tinaciously asserted that the insurrection was 
 against the Eepublic, that one more terrible 
 misunderstanding was added to the history of 
 civil conflicts. 
 
 ''Let us pass to the Assembly. During all 
 these hours of devastation, the Assembly sat en 
 permanence, distracted by alternate hopes and 
 alarms. . . . Once, and once only, the whole 
 danger of the situation was laid bare with studied, 
 exaggeration. This was when M. Pascal Duprat 
 proposed to declare a state of siege, and to confer 
 the dictatorship on General Cavaignac. 'No 
 dictatorship ! ' exclaimed M. Larabit, clinging to 
 the tribune, and demanding to be heard in the 
 midst of the uproar. M. Bastide came forward 
 and said : ' Make haste — in an hour the Hotel de 
 Ville will be taken ! ' Thereupon the state of 
 siege is voted, and the dictatorship placed in the 
 hands of General Cavaignac. In the name of the 
 Eepublic, the subversion of all republican prin- 
 ciples was voted by acclamation. 
 
 "I do but sketch the dark outline of this dis- 
 
LIFE or NAPOLEON III. 55 
 
 astrous insurrection ; but I may add a few details 
 which will be found interesting. 
 
 ** That night passed without any fresh attack 
 by the troops ; it was not until the following 
 (Monday) morning, about eight or nine o'clock, 
 that the Faubourg du Temple was completely 
 invested. The insurgents beat a retreat, but did 
 not cease to fire until they had expended their 
 last cartridge. At five o'clock in the evening, 
 La Villette was taken : that was the end of the 
 bloody tragedy. 
 
 **An eye-witness assured me that, after that 
 final struggle, a National Guard shot a man for 
 the simple reason that he wore a red comforter 
 round his throat. 
 
 *' After the victory, the reprisals were terrible. 
 Prisoners huddled together in the vaults beneath 
 the terrace, in the garden of the Tuileries which 
 faces the Seine, were shot at random through the 
 air-holes in the wall : others were shot in masses 
 in the Plaine de Grenelle; in the Cemetery of 
 Mont Parnasse ; in the quarries of Montmartre ; 
 in the Cloister of Saint Benoit ; in the Court of the 
 Hotel de Cluny. Wretched men whom General 
 Cavaignac, in his proclamation of the 23rd of 
 
56 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 June, had addressed in these words : ' Come to 
 us, the Eepublic opens her arms to you : ' were 
 dragged before councils of war, to be judged by 
 the men they had fought : and the vanquished, 
 whom General Cavaignac had promised not to 
 treat as victims, were dispatched en masse without 
 trial. In short, a horrible and humiliating terror 
 spread over the devastated city for many days. 
 
 . . . ''About 15,000 citizens were arrested after 
 the events of June ; 4,348 were sentenced to 
 transportation without trial, as a * measure of 
 general safety.' " 
 
 The narrative of Lord Normanby, dififer as he 
 might from M. Louis Blanc in his estimate of the 
 causes which led to the " Insurrection of June," 
 shews equally with the above its fierce and obsti- 
 nate character. I proceed to make some extracts 
 from his lordship's Journal, entitled : " A Year of 
 Ee volution." 
 
 *' June 24, 1848. (Saturday). 
 
 " 8.30 A.M. 
 
 " I have just returned from the early morning 
 sitting of the Assembly. The report made, upon 
 the opening of the sitting, as to the events of the 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 57 
 
 night, was anything but re-assuring. There has 
 been a suspension of arms on the part of the 
 Government, apparently acquiesced in by the 
 insurgents, till after daybreak ; but the latter had 
 skilfully availed themselves of the interval in 
 strengthening many of their positions and multi- 
 plying their defences. There seemed to me intense 
 anxiety in the haggard looks of the deputies I 
 found there. It was at once proposed and carried 
 that Paris should be placed in a state of siege, 
 and all the executive powers given to General 
 Cavaignac alone. There having been some hesita- 
 tion as to the mode of doing this, and much con- 
 sequent tumult, M. Bastide obtained a moment's 
 silence, and appealed to their patriotic feelings, 
 adding : * If you hesitate, in an hour the Hotel 
 de Ville may be taken.' 
 
 '* 11.30 A.M. The attack upon the Hotel de 
 Ville has been repulsed; but General Duvivier, 
 badly wounded, now calls loudly for reinforce- 
 ments, or else he cannot answer for the result, if 
 the attack be renewed ; and indeed the insufficient 
 number of troops to deal with so vast an insurrec- 
 tion becomes everywhere apparent. . . It is said 
 that there never was such hard fighting in 
 
58 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 France upon any former occasion of popular out- 
 break. 
 
 '* 7 P.M. Some casualties, both of general 
 officers and of representatives, excite much sensa- 
 tion. Generals Bedeau and Dumesne arc both 
 badly wounded. The latter, after taking the 
 Pantheon, which had for some time offered the 
 most desperate resistance, in an attempt to push 
 his advantage and carry a barricade behind it, 
 was shot in the leg and obliged to give up his 
 command to General Brea. 
 
 '' 10 P.M. The President has just announced 
 that he has received a report from General Brea, 
 that the insurrection has ceased to exist on the 
 left bank of the Seine. 
 
 *' June 25. (Sunday.) 
 
 ** During the night the insurgents had gained 
 much ground ; had constructed many new barri- 
 cades ; and, though driven from every position 
 on the south of the Seine, had occupied the whole 
 of the north-east of Paris, having their right at 
 Montmartre, and extending to the left over the 
 whole of the Faubourg Saint Antoine. . . The 
 Government express great confidence in the 
 certainty of the result, with the amount of forces 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 59 
 
 they have at their disposal; but the position 
 occupied by the insurgents has been made so 
 strong with barricades, and they possess so 
 completely all the sympathies of those bad 
 quarters, and therefore have every window in their 
 favour, that there must still be a frightful loss of 
 life, unless the Government have force enough to 
 take the barricades also in the rear. 
 
 ** The army have had a frightful loss of officers, 
 as the marksmen from the windows almost always 
 picked them out : but this has exasperated to 
 the highest degree the soldiers of the line, who 
 are determined to make a terrible example of those 
 who still hold the barricades. Many persons of 
 my acquaintance in society have suffered in the 
 ranks of the National Guard, and some of the 
 most respectable shopkeepers in Paris, known to all 
 its frequenters as living in Eue de la Paix and the 
 adjacent streets, have been killed. I trust that we 
 may now anticipate the defeat of this attempt to 
 establish a Republique Rouge, But peace, when 
 restored to this unhappy city, will have been pur- 
 chased at an awful price of human suffering and 
 misery. To say nothing of the immediate ruin 
 of hundreds of the middle classes, who were 
 
60 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 struggling against accumulating difficulties, and 
 whom this blow will finish for ever, what is to 
 become of the many thousands whose state, 
 nearly approaching starvation, induced them to 
 follow the counsels of desperate men ? Those who 
 escape the immediate consequence of their guilt 
 will find their condition more hopeless than ever. 
 ** 6 P.M. Last night I mentioned a report was read 
 from General Brea, to the effect that the insurrec- 
 tion had been completely subdued on the left bank 
 of the Seine. An account has now been brought to 
 me which I cannot doubt is true, of his cruel and 
 barbarous murder at the Barriere of Fontainebleau. 
 Having imprudently yielded to an invitation on 
 the part of these perfidious monsters to come 
 within the enormous barricade .that was still 
 garrisoned and defended by numbers, the General, 
 over-anxious upon the instant to realize the 
 assurance he had already given to the Government 
 that the insurrection no longer existed in that 
 part of the town, was induced to trust that, if he 
 entered their fortified works, accompanied only by 
 his aide-de-camp, they would be disposed to 
 listen to him. Inveigled into a side -building, 
 which they used as a head-quarter, they secured 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 61 
 
 him and the ofldcers of his stafif, subjected him to 
 every species of insult, and then murdered him 
 in cold blood. When the barricade was carried 
 by storm, he was- found by the soldiers, who were 
 much attached to him, not only dead, but a 
 shapeless trunk ; his arms, his legs, and lastly 
 his head, haying been cut off. 
 
 '' June 26, (Monday), 1 p.m. 
 *'If anything could have been rejected at once 
 as incredible, it would have been that which I 
 have just heard upon authority which marks it as 
 indisputably true. The Archbishop of Paris, re- 
 vered and beloved by all who knew him, had 
 volunteered a charitable pilgrimage into the last 
 stronghold of the insurgents, to stop, by his 
 presence and influence, the further effusion of 
 blood. The holy messenger of peace upon earth 
 and good-will towards men has been slain,* by 
 those who, it was found, had inscribed on their 
 yet unfurled banners : ' Vainqueurs, le pillage ; — 
 vaincus, Vincendie.' 
 
 I *> 
 
 It is to the credit of Lord Normanby's sagacity 
 
 * On Sunday, the 25th. 
 
62 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 that he had foretold, previously to the outbreak of 
 June, the ruinous consequences which were to be 
 apprehended from the conduct of the men then in 
 power. Thus we read in his journal, under the 
 date of June 16 : ''I have watched the conduct of 
 those who are now in power, for the last four 
 months. Whatever may be the exceptional qua- 
 lities and personal distinctions of certain indivi- 
 duals, as a body of public men I believe that they 
 do not possess any one redeeming quality ; nor, 
 if they remain, could I foresee any other check or 
 limit to the mischief they are capable of doing 
 except their of&cial incapacity and parliamentaiy 
 weakness." 
 
 The insurrection was subdued in the streets of 
 Paris, but discord presided within the National 
 Assembly : the various parties into which it was 
 divided, as legitimists, socialists, Orleanists, red 
 republicans, &c., &c., assailed one another with 
 still increasing acrimony and tumult. Meantime 
 the act of self-denial on the part of Louis Napoleon, 
 in resigning his post of representative, was far 
 from diminishing the public feeling in his favour. 
 The sort of persecution to which he had been 
 subject, from successive Governments, seemed 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 63 
 
 but to identify his cause still more with that of 
 the people. 
 
 The 17th of September was the day fixed for the 
 second set of '* elections partielles," to supply the 
 further vacancies caused by deaths, resignations, 
 and double elections. The four departments 
 which had previously returned the Prince re- 
 elected him with largely increased majorities, and 
 with the addition of another department, the 
 Moselle. 
 
 *' Elections Partielles of September, 1848. 
 17th September — Charente Inferieure : 
 
 Number of Voters 47,332 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 39,820 votes. 
 „ Seine— Number of Voters 247,242 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 110,752 votes. 
 ,, Yonne — Number of Voters 50,445 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 42,086 votes. 
 „ Corse — Number of Voters 32,968 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 30,193 votes. 
 „ Moselle— Number of Voters 36,489 
 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 17,813votes." 
 
 It was now clear that the electors would allow 
 no obstacle to interfere with the attainment of their 
 
64 1;IFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 object. Accordingly, at the sitting of the 26th of 
 September, the President of the National Assembly 
 proclaimed to its members the admission among 
 them of '* Citizen Louis Napoleon Bonaparte." 
 On that day '* he came quietly in at a side-door," 
 writes Lord Normanby, ** and took his seat (at 
 first unperceived) on a back bench, during a dull 
 speech, which his presence tended to shorten." 
 
 On the 5th of October, Louis Napoleon wrote 
 to inform the President of the Assembly that, 
 having been chosen by five Departments, he pre- 
 ferred to sit for Paris, as his birth-place. 
 
 The election of a President of the Kepublic, by 
 universal suffrage, now approached. It was ap- 
 pointed to take place on the 10th of December ; 
 and, as the time drew near, it became apparent 
 that no other candidate than the Prince had any 
 chance of success. Not but that the struggle 
 against him was severe. All the influence of the 
 Government was employed ; all arts were used by 
 his opponents, — misrepresentation, calumny, and 
 even ridicule, — to discredit his candidature. Such 
 weapons, however, were without effect on the 
 temper of the people. In all parts of France, far 
 and near, the same spirit was manifested. The 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 65 
 
 workmen in the cities pressed in crowds to record 
 their votes in his favour. The impulse once given 
 overthrew every impediment in its path. Men of 
 wit and learning, political economists, and other 
 philosophers, who dream that their vocation is to 
 guide the course - of the world, strove in vain to 
 arrest the progress of the movement. The popu- 
 lations of the country were even more decided in 
 , sentiment than those of the towns. Everywhere 
 the peasantry remained impassible to the argu- 
 ments addressed to them : they listened to all that 
 they were told, said little in reply, and took their 
 own way. The result of the election was one to 
 which the history of the world had presented no 
 parallel. Nearly six millions of men, or, to give 
 the exact figures, according to the official re- 
 turns, — 5,587,759, — placed the name of Louis 
 Napoleon in the electoral urn. So that it may be 
 said, without hyperbole, that he was borne to the 
 supreme dignity of the State on the universal 
 shout of France. 
 
 On the 20th of December, at an ordinary sitting 
 of the Assembly, General Cavaignac resigned his 
 temporary dictatorship, in a few appropriate 
 words. The Prince-President, Louis Napoleon 
 
 F 
 
66 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Bonaparte, read an address of equal breyity. A 
 great political transfer of authority was thus ac- 
 compUshed; and followed by an incident, very 
 small in itself, yet worthy of note, as indicative 
 of character in the persons concerned. '* Louis 
 Napoleon, after descending from the tribune at 
 which he had read his address, walked to a back- 
 bench where the General had retired, and in the 
 most becoming manner held out his hand to him : 
 Cavaignac took it, but never got up, and turned 
 away his head to his next neighbour. There was 
 mucn gentle kindness, and no ostentation, in the 
 manner in which he approached Cavaignac, which 
 contrasted favourably with the rudeness of the 
 other." * 
 
 '' Nations," it has been said, '* have no grati- 
 tude." It is hard, however, to believe that the 
 French nation, looking back to the state of their 
 country immediately prior to the elevation of 
 Louis Napoleon to the Presidency, can feel other- 
 wise than deeply grateful for having been rescued 
 from the sufferings to which they were a prey, and 
 the worse calamities that threatened them. In- 
 dustry languished in the cities for want of employ- 
 
 ''• " A Year of Eevolution." Lord Normanby. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 67 
 
 ment ; capital was banished by want of confidence ; 
 commerce was extinguished; agriculture depressed 
 under heavy imposts. The wages of the labourer 
 were detained in the savings-banks {caisses de re- 
 traite) while national workshops were opened, in 
 which men were paid for doing nothing. The press 
 poured forth hideous publications, as the Pere Du- 
 chene, the Journal de la Canaille, titles revived 
 from the reign of terror : and language was used 
 at the clubs stimulating to the wildest excesses. 
 
 It is not pretended that the accession of the 
 Prince to the Presidency of the Eepublic could 
 at once remedy the ills of the country, and raise 
 France to a state of prosperity. His path was 
 beset by difficulties. During three years he strove 
 with untiring energy to ameliorate the condition of 
 society, and succeeded to a considerable extent in 
 restoring peace, reviving confidence, and repress- 
 ing the turbulence of demagogues. Still, his 
 powers were limited by many restraints which 
 checked his most earnest efforts for the public 
 benefit. The *^Eed Republicans," as the party 
 in the Assembly were called, attempted to thwart 
 his measures at every step, and even muttered 
 threats of impeachment against him. Those 
 
 F 2 
 
68 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 years of continued struggle (from December 1848 
 to December 1851) against the forces of anarchy, 
 formed, we may well believe, not the least arduous 
 portion of his career. 
 
 The state of parties in the National Assembly^ 
 towards the close of that period, is aptly described 
 in a journal of the day, Le Pouvoir. It may be 
 remarked that there was too much truth in the 
 picture to please those who sat for it, and they in 
 consequence inflicted on the journalist a fine of 
 five thousand francs : 
 
 '' It is a fact clear and evident, that order and 
 tranquillity prevail far more outside of the National 
 Assembly than within its walls. If there be a spot 
 where strife and confusion reign triumphant, it is 
 in the Legislative Sanctuary. What district is 
 there, or what city, in which such furious menaces 
 are hurled from one to another as in the Palace 
 Bourbon ? There is none ; and, if any such could 
 be found, much less would suffice to put that city 
 or that district in a state of siege. 
 
 '' Does any one suppose that a nation can go 
 on with impunity feeding in itself a perpetual 
 furnace of civil discord ? We think not, and the 
 history of the last sixty years is before our eyes. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 69 
 
 to shew us that, whenever our country has been 
 set on flame, the torch has been applied by de- 
 Hberative Assembhes. 
 
 ** The Constituent Assembly was considered to 
 have reached, in its fall, the utmost limit of degra- 
 dation to which a deliberative body could descend; 
 but the present Assembly appears determined to 
 pass that limit and sink to a still lower depth. 
 
 ** All its acts seem to be premonitonj of approach- 
 ing dissolution.'' 
 
70 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Coup-d'Btat. 
 December 2, 1851. 
 
 " Ye drive me close upon the rocks, 
 And of my cargo you're the vilest bales, 
 So overboard with you." 
 
 Philip van Artevelde, Act ii. Sc. 5. 
 
 Patience, like all other human virtues, has its 
 limits. The chaotic confusion of the National 
 Assembly, as described at the conclusion of the 
 foregoing chapter, was suflScient to exhaust the 
 patience both of the nation and its Chief. On 
 this point no better testimony can be desired than 
 that given in the Assembly itself, by one of the 
 most distinguished among its members, and one 
 of the last who would be suspected of any undue 
 leaning towards the Napoleon family. M. Monta- 
 lambert in his speech of the 10th of February, 
 1851, said : *' He did not come forward as the 
 advocate or the friend of the President, but as a 
 mere witness ; and he declared with his hand on 
 his heart, that Louis Napoleon had faithfully 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 71 
 
 accomplislied the mission he had received, of 
 restoring society, re-establishing order, and re- 
 pressing demagogues. The same men who now 
 so violently attacked Louis Napoleon, placed 
 themselves openly under his aegis after the 10th 
 of December." 
 
 On the occasion of opening a railway from 
 Dijon to Tonnerre, in the following May, the 
 President of the Eepublic, at a banquet given in 
 his honour at the Hotel de Ville of Dijon, 
 declared: '^ The Assembly has given me its co- 
 operation in every measure of repression, but has 
 failed me in all the measures which I have devised 
 for the welfare of the people." 
 
 Such a condition of things could not continue 
 long. The rival factions in the State spent their 
 time in little better than dissensions, intrigues, 
 and recriminations, 
 
 ** And of their vain contest appeared no end," 
 
 unless civil warfare and national ruin. Each 
 made in turn its advances to the Prince-Pre- 
 sident; hoping, through alliance with him, to 
 obtain a triumph over its antagonists. He lis- 
 tened to their overtures, but forebore to connect 
 himself with either of the parties, whose natural 
 
72 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 jealousies tended to paralyse the action of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Much has been said and written as to the 
 *' illegality " of the step taken by him to rescue 
 France from ruin. It was surely a time for appli- 
 cation of the principle : Salufi popiili suprema lex 
 esto, France was a prey to the flame of civil 
 discord, of which the National Assembly was the 
 great central focus, when Louis Napoleon stepped 
 forth, at considerable personal risk, to save the 
 country. It must at least be confessed that the 
 country was neither backward nor niggardly in 
 acknowledging its obligations ; saluting him on 
 all sides as its preserver, and applauding loudly 
 the firmness and courage manifested by the 
 President. Fortified by the adhesion of six 
 millions of Frenchmen, who had given their 
 suffrages in his favour, he resolved to make his 
 appeal to the good sense, patriotism, and free will 
 of the whole people. 
 
 The coup -d'etat, if we may construe the act 
 into words, with some familiarity of expression, 
 spoke thus to the members of the Legislative 
 Assembly: '* Gentlemen, France suffers, and you 
 pass your hours in talk. You will neither do 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 73 
 
 any good yourselves, nor permit others to do any. 
 And yet you are well paid for your attendance.* 
 It is time to ask the French people, (the com- 
 mon master of us all,) whether it is its will 
 that this abuse should continue or cease; to 
 pronounce a verdict on your conduct and on 
 mine,*' 
 
 The question thus raised was resolved on not a 
 day too soon. His adversaries had already taken 
 measures manifestly hostile to the office and 
 person of the Prince. On the 5th of November, 
 a day of note both in English and French Fasti, 
 a bill {projet'de-loi) was passed which defined the 
 process of impeaching the President of the Ee- 
 public, and described the regulations to be observed 
 on his trial : — '* If the accusation be admitted, 
 the National Assembly issues a decree convoking 
 the High Court of Justice ; designates the town 
 in which it will hold its sittings ; and nominates 
 the Commissioners charged to conduct the prose- 
 cution. They enter immediately on the exercise 
 of their duties. The accused immediately ceases his 
 functions/' (Chap. iii. Art. 16.) 
 
 This was the last measure of any importance 
 
 ••' Eacli member received twenty-live francs per diem. 
 
74 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 ever submitted to the Assembly. It would seem 
 that, having accomplished this feat of legislation, 
 they were content to repose for a while under their 
 laurels. On the other hand, the Prince-President 
 was not asleep. It may at least, without rashness, 
 be assumed that he was fully awake on the night 
 of the 1st of December ensuing; for on that 
 night it was that he prepared the addresses to the 
 French people, which, at day-break on the 2nd of 
 December, 1851, met the eyes of the Parisians, 
 covering the walls of their city. 
 
 ** Appeal to the People. 
 
 ** Frenchmen ! 
 
 *'The existing state of affairs can be endured 
 no longer. Every passing day adds to the dangers 
 which menace our country. 
 
 " The Assembly, which ought to be the firmest 
 support of order, has become a hot-bed of sedition. 
 Three hundred patriotic members have striven in 
 vain to arrest its fatal tendencies. Instead of 
 framing measures for the general interest, it forges 
 weapons of civil war ; it attacks the power which 
 I hold directly from the people ; it encourages 
 every evil passion, and imperils the tranquillity of 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 75 
 
 France. I have dissolved it, and make the whole 
 people judge between me and it, 
 
 '' The Constitution/^' as you are aware, was 
 made with the object of weakening beforehand the 
 powers which you entrusted to me. Six millions 
 of votesf were a strong protest against it ; yet I 
 have adhered strictly to all its provisions. 
 
 «< Provocations, calumnies, outrages, have found 
 me passive. But now that the basis of the com- 
 pact is no longer respected by those who appeal 
 to it so incessantly ; when the men who have 
 already destroyed two monarchies would bind my 
 hands, in order that they may subvert the Eepublic, 
 it is my duty to frustrate their treacherous pro- 
 jects, maintain the Eepublic, and save the country 
 by appealing to the sole sovereign whom I acknow- 
 ledge in France, the People. 
 
 '^I make, therefore, my loyal appeal to the 
 whole nation, and I say : ' If it be your will 
 that the present state of disturbance continue, 
 choose another to fill my place, for I will no 
 
 * It was this Constitution, (voted by the National 
 Assembly in November, 1848) of which the Due de Broglie 
 said: ^* G'est un ceuvre qui a recule les limit es de la stupidite 
 hamaineJ" 
 
 \ In December, 1848. 
 
76 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 longer retain a power which is ineffectual for 
 good, while it renders me responsible for acts 
 of others beyond my control ; which ties me to the 
 helm, while I see the ship drifting into the abyss.' 
 
 ''If, on the contrary, you have still confidence 
 in me, give me means to accomplish the grand 
 mission which I hold from you. 
 
 " That mission is to close the era of revolutions, 
 by satisfying the just wishes of the people, and 
 protecting them from subversive passions. Above 
 all, it consists in creating institutions which may 
 survive their founders, and furnish at length the 
 
 basis of something durable. 
 
 ***** 
 
 '* Thus, for the first time since the year 1804, 
 you will vote with a full cognizance of the cause, 
 knowing for whom and for what. If I fail to obtain 
 the majority of your votes, my duty wiU be to 
 convoke a new Assembly, and surrender the ofiBce 
 which I have received from you. 
 
 " If you are of opinion that the cause of which 
 my name is the symbol, namely, France regene- 
 rated by the Eevolution of '89, and organised by 
 the Emperor, is still your own, proclaim it by 
 ratifying the power which I ask. ^ 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 77 
 
 '' In that case, France and Europe will be pre- 
 served from anarchy, obstacles will be removed, 
 rivalries disappear ; for all will respect, in the 
 verdict of the people, the decree of Providence. 
 
 *' Louis Napoleon Bonapabte. 
 
 *' December 2nd, 1851." 
 
 The plan of the coup d' etat had been arranged 
 in all its details during the fifteen days immedi- 
 ately preceding it. The President imparted his 
 views to but three persons : Marshal Saint 
 Arnaud, the Minister of War ; M. de Morny, a 
 representative of the people ; and M. de Maupas' 
 Prefect of Police. They all partook his sentiments 
 relative to the formidable and pressing danger 
 which menaced the whole fabric of society ; and 
 they assured him at once of their utmost assist- 
 ance in support of the steps to be taken for re- 
 pression of the evil. De Morny undertook the 
 reponsibility of the political movement, as Minister 
 of the Interior ; Saint Arnaud, the conduct of the 
 military operations; De Maupas, the action of 
 the police. It was absolutely necessary to the 
 success of a scheme rarely equalled in difficulty, 
 boldness, and importance, that its principal 
 measures should be carried into effect nearly 
 
78 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 at the same time : the arrest of the hostile party- 
 leaders, civil and military ; the promulgation of 
 the official appeals to the people ; the occupation of 
 the House of Assembly, and distribution of troops 
 at different points of the city, where their services 
 might be required. 
 
 At eleven o'clock on the night of the 1st of 
 December, the printers employed at the Govern- 
 ment Press {Imprimerie Nationale) received a sum- 
 mons to attend at that establishment on an affair 
 of urgency. As the bell tolled the hour of 
 midnight, a company of gendarmes {gendarmerie 
 mobile) under the immediate orders of Colonel de 
 Beville, an officer of the staff of the President, 
 arrived at the Imprimerie and took possession of 
 the premises, allowing no one to enter or depart 
 from them. These precautions taken, the printers 
 were set at work on the documents required ; and 
 the impressions when complete were conveyed to 
 the office of the Prefect of Police. 
 
 Between three and four o'clock on the morn- 
 ing of the 2nd, forty commissaries of police, with 
 a large number of picked men of that force, drawn 
 gradually from different points during the night, 
 were assembled at the Prefecture, and distributed 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 79 
 
 in detached groups in various parts of the build- 
 ing. They appear to have been under the impres- 
 sion that they were thus called together on account 
 of some plot which had been discovered among the 
 refugees in London. At five o'clock the commis- 
 saries descended one by one into the cabinet of 
 the Prefect, and there received from him, in a 
 very few words, full confidence as to the work 
 which they were required to perform. The arrests 
 were to be effected at a quarter after six, and the 
 police agents were to be at the doors of the 
 persons designated at five minutes after the hour. 
 All departed full of ardour to accomplish the task 
 assigned to them. 
 
 The persons marked for arrest and temporary 
 restraint were in total number, seventy-eight : 
 viz. eighteen representatives of the people (most 
 of whom were known to be engaged in conspiracy 
 against the authority of the President) and sixty 
 heads of secret societies, barricade chiefs, and ring- 
 leaders of the rabble, ready to execute the orders of 
 any faction for the sake of riot and plunder. It 
 was not to be expected that persons of either class 
 would submit to be disarmed and rendered innocuous 
 without offering every resistance in their power. 
 
80 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Curious and characteristic were several of the 
 incidents which occurred in connection with these 
 arrests. The most important of all, that of 
 General Changarnier (Ex-Commander-in-Chief of 
 the army of Paris,) was entrusted to two officers 
 remarkable for energy, aided by fifteen men of 
 the police, thirty of the republican guard, and ten 
 cavalry. At five minutes past six punctually, 
 the commissary rang the bell of the General's 
 house. No. 3, Eue du Faubourg Saint Honore. 
 A voice from within asked : " Qui est Id?'' 
 
 '' OuvreZy on veut vous parhr.'' 
 
 The porter was not, however, to be taken un- 
 awares, and refused to open the gate. The agent 
 nearest to the wicket then received a whispered 
 direction to hold the man in conversation, so to 
 prevent his ascending the stairs to put his master 
 on his guard, while the commissary found means 
 of access for himself and his followers to the 
 courtyard of the house through an adjoining 
 shop. Immediately afterwards the sound of 
 alarum-bells was heard, communicating with the 
 bedroom of the General. At the same moment 
 that the police entered his chamber, Changarnier 
 opened the door of an inner apartment, and 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 81 
 
 appeared en chemise and barefoot, holding a pistol 
 in each hand. The commissary seized the 
 weapons: **What do you mean, General? Do 
 you defend your life before it is attacked ? " On 
 this, Changarnier gave up his pistols, saying: 
 <*I will dress myself, and be with you presently." 
 In the carriage on the way to the prison Mazas,* 
 he remarked : ** The President was sure of being 
 re-elected without a coup-d'etat; he is taking a 
 great deal of unnecessary trouble ; when he gets 
 himself involved in a foreign war, he will be glad 
 to send for me to command his army." 
 
 The arrest of Cavaignac offered no graver 
 obstacles than the foregoing. The commissary 
 of police, having obtained admission into his 
 residence. No. 17, Eue du Holder, inquired, 
 ** Which are the apartments occupied by General 
 Cavaignac ? " 
 
 " He is not at home," replied the porter. 
 
 **0h! but I know that he is at home, and I 
 must speak to him." 
 
 " But you call too early, — he is asleep." 
 
 A knock at the door of the General's bedroom 
 drew forth the question d' usage, '' Qui est Id?'' 
 
 * Near to tlie Pont d'Austerlitz. 
 
 
 
82 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 '* Au nom de la hi, oiivrez.'' ^ 
 
 *' J^ 7i'ouvre pas.*' 
 
 *'Then," said the commissary, ''I will break 
 into the room.'* 
 
 At this threat the General opened the door, and 
 was greeted with the announcement : " You are 
 my prisoner, — all resistance will be vain, — my 
 measures are taken, in virtue of a warrant for 
 your apprehension, which I will read to you," 
 
 Cavaignac here grew very excited, struck his 
 fists violently on a marble table which happened 
 to stand near him, and vented some highly abu- 
 sive language. On being recommended to mode- 
 rate his tone, he fixed his eyes keenly on the 
 commissary : 
 
 ** You, — you dare to arrest me ? I will have 
 your names." 
 
 '^We have no wish to conceal them, — but that 
 is not our present affair. "Will you be so good as 
 to dress yourself, and accompany us ? '* 
 
 On the way Cavaignac appeared plunged in deep 
 reflection ; interrupted only once, to put the ques- 
 tion : " Am I the only person arrested ? " 
 
 " General, I have no information to communi- 
 cate on that point." 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 83 
 
 " Whither, then, are you conveying me ? *' 
 
 ^^ToMazas." 
 
 General Bedeau occupied a large mansion, 50, 
 Eue de TUniversite. He was at first as one struck 
 dumb by the unexpected and early visit of the 
 police ; but, recovering himself, began to declaim 
 loudly against their " violation of the law and the 
 constitution." 
 
 '' Take notice," he said, " that I am a represen- 
 tative of the people, vice-president of the Assembly; 
 a soldier, too, of the Eepublic, who have shed 
 my blood and risked my life in its cause." 
 
 The commissary replied that he also was pre- 
 pared, on his part, to sacrifice his life in the dis- 
 charge of duty; — ^that he was there not to dis- 
 cuss his orders, but to perform them. 
 
 At the last. General Bedeau, persisting obsti- 
 nately in the refusal to quit his chamber, was 
 carried out by force, vociferating : ** Treason ! To 
 arms ! See how they treat a representative of the 
 people. They dare to lay hands on the vice-pre- 
 sident of the National Assembly ! " At the prison, 
 he attempted to harangue a company of the garde 
 republicaine, who turned a deaf ear to him. 
 
 Charles Lagrange, residing at 27, Eue Casimir 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Periei*, was awakened by shrill cries of a female 
 servant, startled at seeing her master's domicile 
 invaded by an armed force. After having pro- 
 tested against the compulsion used, he submitted 
 to it with military coolness; remarking, several 
 times: ^^ Le coup est liar di, mais c'est hien joue." 
 '' A bold stroke, but well played." On arriving at 
 the prison, he met Lamoriciere, and said : '' Eh, 
 bien ! mon general, nous voulions le mettre 
 dedans; mais c'est lui qui nous y met : — ma foil 
 c'est bienjoue! " 
 
 M. Greppo, the noted socialist, who lodged at 
 No. 15, Eue de Ponthieu, was found to have a 
 little arsenal of arms and munitions of war be- 
 neath his bolster : a huge battle-axe, freshly 
 sharpened ; two daggers ; a loaded pistol ; and a 
 superb honnet rouge, or cap of liberty, quite new. 
 Notwithstanding such martial preparations, the 
 abrupt entry of the police completely prostrated 
 M. Greppo. Mdme. Greppo, evidently a woman of 
 stronger mind than her husband, exerted herself, 
 in animated terms, to raise his drooping courage : 
 ** Is it possible," the lady asked, *' that a man can 
 have so Jittle resolution as to let himself be taken 
 without resistance ? " " How could he resist ? " 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III, 85 
 
 asked a spectator of the scene : '* M. Greppo was 
 seized by a (bodily) derangement,* over which he 
 had no control." 
 
 When the commissary of police entered the 
 chamber of M. Thiers, that statesman was fast 
 asleep. On being aroused, he started up in a 
 sitting posture, and, drawing aside the curtains of 
 crimson damask, lined with white muslin, inquired 
 what was the matter. 
 
 ** I am come to perform a duty, and to make a 
 search : but be composed, no violence is intended 
 to your person." 
 
 This assurance was very much needed by M. 
 Thiers, who was in a state of great trepidation. 
 *' What are you going to do," he asked : '' do you 
 know that I am a representative of the people ? " 
 
 '^ Yes, I am aware of that fact ; but I have only 
 to execute the orders which I have received." 
 
 ** But the act in which you are engaged may 
 conduct you to the scaffold." 
 
 '' Nothing shall deter me from the performance 
 of my duty.*' 
 
 "But this is a coup-d'etat," 
 
 * "Monsieur Greppo fut saisi d'un derangement auquel il 
 dut satisfaire." — Granier de Cassagnac. 
 
86 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 "Monsieur, I have no instruction to debate 
 these questions with you ; and your intelligence 
 on such subjects is doubtless far superior to mine. 
 Pray have the goodness to rise and perform your 
 toilet;* 
 
 No papers of any political importance were 
 found in the apartment of M. Thiers ; which he 
 accounted for by saying that, for several years 
 past, he had transmitted all documents of such a 
 kind to England. He shewed signs of much 
 anxiety at quitting his house ; and, on arrival at 
 the prison, all firmness forsook him. By the will 
 of the President, and out of regard due to the 
 eminent historian of the Consulate and the Empire, 
 M. Thiers was released from further restraint, per- 
 mitted to return, provisionally, to his own house, 
 and, six days afterwards (8th December), conducted 
 to Germany. 
 
 While the above persons were arrested, others, 
 of far more dangerous character, were also seized 
 without difficulty in their beds, and placed in safe 
 custody. These were members of secret seditious 
 clubs and societies, the daring implacable enemies 
 of all order, whose main objects were pillage and 
 massacre. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 87 
 
 By a combination between the prefect of police 
 and the minister of war, these arrests were 
 arranged to precede by a quarter of an hour the 
 arrival of the troops at their appointed stations. 
 
 At half past six precisely, M. de Morny, with 
 an escort of 250 chasseurs de Vincennes, estab- 
 lished himself at the Ministers d Vlnterieur, con- 
 veying thither to M. de Thorigny a letter of thanks 
 for his past valuable services, and informing him, 
 on the part of the President, of the decisive course 
 on which he had resolved. 
 
 At the same time a company of the 42nd regi- 
 ment of the line, under command of Colonel 
 Espinasse, had obtained full possession of the 
 Chamber of Assembly. A number of representa- 
 tives, who, hearing of the arrest of their col- 
 leagues, hastened to the chamber, found its doors 
 guarded by soldiery, who repelled them at the 
 point of the bayonet. 
 
 At seven o'clock, the addresses to the people, 
 which had been prepared during the night, issued 
 from the prefecture of the police : the *' Appeal to 
 the French people" (already given at page 74); 
 a Decree abolishing the Assembly; and the foUow- 
 • ' ing '' Proclamation to the Army :" 
 
88 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 '* Soldiers, 
 
 ** Be proud of your mission. You will save the 
 country ; for it is on you that I rely, not to violate 
 the laws, but to enforce the supreme law of all, 
 the national sovereignty, of which I am the legal 
 representative. 
 
 '' You have long suffered, Uke me, from obstacles 
 raised to hinder both the measures which I would 
 have carried out for your benefit, and the demon- 
 strations that you wished to make in my favour. 
 Those obstacles are overthrown. The Assembly 
 has ceased to impugn the authority conferred on 
 me by the whole nation, — has ceased to exist. 
 
 " I appeal now fairly to the people and to the 
 army, and I say to them : * Either give me the 
 power to do that which your interest requires, or 
 choose another to fill my place.' 
 
 **In 1830, as in 1848, you were treated like a 
 conquered people. After having branded your 
 heroic disinterestedness, they disdained to ask 
 your votes or to consult your wishes. You are, 
 nevertheless, the flower of the nation. Now, at 
 this solemn crisis, it is my desire that the army 
 make its voice heard. 
 
 ''Vote, then, with freedom, as citizens; but 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 89 
 
 forget not, as soldiers, that implicit obedience to 
 the orders of the Head of the Government is the 
 strict duty of the army, from the general to the 
 private. It is for me, who am responsible for my 
 actions before the people and before posterity, to 
 take such measures as seem indispensable for the 
 public good, 
 
 ** On your part, remain firm and unshaken 
 within the rules of discipline and honour. By 
 your imposing attitude, protect the country in a 
 calm deliberate declaration of its will. Be ready 
 to repress every attempt against the free exercise 
 of the sovereignty of the people. 
 
 '' Soldiers ! I speak not to you of the recollec- 
 tions which my name excites. They are engraven 
 on your hearts. Your history is mine : we have 
 been companions in the past in glory and suffer- 
 ing : in the future we shall be associated in aim 
 and purpose for the repose and grandeur of 
 
 France. 
 
 ** Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 ** Palace of the Elysee, 
 2?ici December f 1851." 
 
 The response of the army to this address was 
 enthusiastic and unanimous. At ten o'clock on 
 
90 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 the morning of the 2nd, the President, mounting 
 his horse, traversed the ranks of his troops, to 
 the shout, a thousand times repeated, of " Vive 
 
 Napoleon!'' 
 
 About one o'clock in the afternoon, some two 
 hundred deputies, belonging chiefly to the Legiti- 
 mist and Orleanist parties, assembled at the mairie 
 of the 10th arrondissement, presided over by two of 
 their late vice-presidents. They proceeded to vote 
 the President of the Eepublic " guilty of high 
 treason,^' and ** deprived of all authority." This 
 decree, though passed by fewer than one-third in 
 number of the ex-representatives, was supported 
 by plentiful harangues. " There were," writes an 
 auditor, " speeches in the room, speeches outside 
 in the court, speeches from the windows, speeches 
 from the tables, speeches from chairs." 
 
 M. de Morny, meanwhile, hearing of these pro- 
 ceedings, thought proper to put a stop to them. 
 By his direction, General Forey despatched a 
 company of chasseurs-d-pied, accompanied by a 
 strong force of pohce ; whose arrival on the scene 
 produced a speedy change in the aspect of affairs. 
 The soldiers, headed by their officers, sword in 
 hand, appeared at the door of the apartment. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 91 
 
 After a pause, the vice-president, Benoist-d'Azy, 
 addressed them as having come to receive orders 
 from the meeting, informed them of the decree 
 which had just passed, and bade them retire. 
 On this, the commissaries of police entered the 
 apartment, and stated that they were come, not 
 to place themselves under the orders of the As- 
 sembly, but to take into custody all its members 
 who refused to disperse at once. Benoist-d'Azy 
 replied : " We are here the sole representatives of 
 law and right. "We will not disperse, nor will we 
 leave this chamber except under constraint. Seize 
 us and convey us to prison." " All, all," exclaimed 
 the other members. After considerable expostula- 
 tion, without any effect, the commissaries, in order 
 to bring matters to an issue, took the two vice- 
 presidents by the collar, and led them off. The 
 whole body then rose and followed, arm-in-arm, 
 two-and-two, across the city, to the barracks of the 
 Quai d'Orsay, where they were shut up for the 
 night. 
 
 It would have been unreasonable to expect that 
 the coup 'd'etat could be accomplished without en- 
 countering opposition. Such opposition, however, 
 was in no degree that of the people. The honest 
 
92 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 industrious working classes were all in favour of 
 the movement, and returned, in heart and voice, 
 a general echo to the words of Lagrange: '^c'est 
 hienjoue,*' Blood indeed was shed, and lives were 
 sacrificed in civil conflict; a frightful calamity 
 under any circumstances, though, on this occa- 
 sion, far less in extent than some persons, for 
 purposes of their own, have been willing to repre- 
 sent it. 
 
 On the 4th of December, the President pub- 
 lished a decree calling on the people to exercise 
 the right of universal suffrage, and declare whether 
 they would entrust to him the power to frame a 
 new constitution. By the terms of this decree^ 
 *^ every Frenchman aged twenty-one years, and 
 in enjoyment of his civil and political privileges, 
 is called to vote: the suffrage to take place by 
 secret ballot, by '*yes" or '*no," by a voting- 
 paper, either written or printed."* 
 
 On the same day a lamentable event occurred 
 in the boulevards of Paris. Armed agitators and 
 
 * A few days later (8tli December) the President issued 
 another proclamation to the French people, in which this 
 sentence occurs : '* If I have not your confidence, if your 
 ideas are changed, there is no need to shed precious blood : 
 you have but to place in the urn a contrary vote." 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 93 
 
 demagogues, among whom were members of the 
 late Assembly, carrying drawn swords, had 
 mingled with the lowest class of the populace, 
 inciting them to insurrection. Barricades of for- 
 midable description were raised, and desperately 
 defended ; though carried at last by the valour of 
 the troops, not without considerable loss of Hfe 
 on both sides. 
 
 The conduct of the soldiers, in the trying cir- 
 cumstances under which they were placed on this 
 occasion, has been highly praised by some, and 
 by others as sharply condemned. It is stated that 
 shots were fired on them from windows and bal- 
 conies, overlooking the principal barricade, and 
 that they retaliated without discriminating the 
 particular houses from which the shots proceeded, 
 so that the innocent suffered with the guilty. 
 Deplorable indeed it is that a single innocent life 
 should have been thus sacrificed : it will scarcely 
 be pretended, however, that the blood of soldiers 
 shed in the fulfilment of their duty is less pre- 
 cious than that of other persons. It appears from 
 every account that the acts of the insurgents were 
 plainly those of men whose object was plunder 
 and violence ; and that the French nation at large 
 
94 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 sympathised with the army in its stern repression 
 of the marauders. / 
 
 It would be useless, however, to attempt to 
 bring into harmony the violently conflicting 
 opinions which have been expressed respecting 
 the conduct of the President and his adherents at 
 the crisis in question. I would rather recur to 
 the testimony of the same illustrious French 
 royalist whom I cited at the commencement of 
 this chapter as an unimpeachable witness. M. de 
 Montalembert, in a letter which appeared in the 
 Univers, thus states the grounds of the vote 
 which he intends to give in favour of the Presi- 
 dent, in response to his appeal to the nation : 
 " To vote against Louis Napoleon would be to 
 declare in favour of a socialist revolution, the only 
 thing which can at present succeed the existing 
 Government. It would be to call the dictatorship 
 of the Eeds to displace the dictatorship of a Prince 
 who has, during the last three years, rendered in- 
 comparable service to the cause of order and of 
 Catholicism. Ifc would be, — taking the hypothesis 
 most favourable and least probable, — to re-estab- 
 lish the Babel known by the name of the National 
 Assembly, and which would certainly be power- 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 95 
 
 less in the formidable crisis that now pre- 
 vails. 
 
 *' But to vote for Louis Napoleon is not to 
 approve of all that he has done : it is to choose 
 between him and the total ruin of Prance. It is 
 not to say that his government is that which we 
 prefer to every other : it is simply to say that we 
 prefer a prince who has given such proofs of re- 
 solution and ability to those persons who are now 
 shewing their principles of murder and pillage. It 
 is to arm the temporal power, the only power at 
 present possible, with the force necessary to put 
 down the army of crime, and protect our churches, 
 our hearths, our wives and daughters, from the 
 greed and violence of those who respect nothing. 
 If Louis Napoleon were a man unknown, I would 
 undoubtedly hesitate to confer on him such a 
 power and such a responsibility: but I seek in 
 vain elsewhere for a system able to guarantee to 
 us the preservation and development of the bene- 
 fits which marked his government. I see only 
 the gaping gulf of victorious socialism.'' 
 
 It may here be remarked, as one of the earliest 
 and most striking proofs of reviving public confi- 
 dence, through the events of the 2nd of December, 
 
96 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 that the five per cent, stock, which on the 1st 
 of December stood at 91fr. 60c., rose by steady 
 advance to lOOfr. 90c. on the 16th of the same 
 month. In other words, the wealth of the nation, 
 pnbUc and private, received in a fortnight an in- 
 crease of nearly one-tenth. 
 
 On the 20th and 21st of December the balloting 
 took place, throughout France, on the proposition 
 submitted to the nation for its acceptance or rejec- 
 tion : '* The French people wills the maintenance 
 of the authority of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and 
 delegates to him the powers necessary to frame a 
 constitution." 
 
 The nation answered in the affirmative by the 
 voices of seven and a half millions of men. A 
 consultative commission, composed of former re-, 
 presentatives of the people, under the presidency 
 M. Baroche, waited on Louis Napoleon, at the 
 Palace of the Elysee, at eight o'clock on the even- 
 ing of the 31st December, 1851, to report officially 
 the result of the ballot. 
 
 Ayes . . . 7,473,431 
 Noes . . . 641,351 
 
 The Prince then addressed the members of the 
 commission as follows : — 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 97 
 
 *' France has responded to my frank appeal, and 
 has recognised that I have in no instance departed 
 from the law except to restore right. More than 
 seven millions of votes have just pronounced an 
 indemnity and justification of an act which had 
 no other object than to spare France, and pro- 
 bably Europe, years of trouble and calamity. I 
 thank you for having stated officially the extent 
 to which this manifestation has been national 
 and spontaneous. 
 
 '' If I congratulate myself on this immense 
 adhesion, it is not through pride, but because it 
 assures me freedom to speak and act as becomes 
 the chief of a great nation like ours. 
 
 ** I appreciate all the greatness of my mission, 
 nor do I dissemble its grave difficulties. But with 
 a heart right, and with the concurrence of all good 
 men, who, like yourselves, will aid me with their 
 intelligence, and support me by their patriotism ; 
 with the tried devotedness of our brave army; 
 above all, with that Divine protection, the con- 
 tinuance of which it is my intention, on the 
 morrow, solemnly to invoke ; I trust to render 
 myself worthy of the confidence which the people 
 still repose in me. I trust to secure the pros- 
 
 H 
 
98 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 perity of France, by establishing institutions 
 which may correspond ahke to the democratic 
 instincts of the nation, and to the desire uni- 
 versally expressed for a strong and respected 
 Government. 
 
 **In effect, to meet the exigencies of the time 
 by a system reconstructive of authority, without 
 wounding the principle of equality, without closing 
 any door to improvement, will be to lay the 
 foundations of the only edifice capable of uphold- 
 ing hereafter a wise and beneficent liberty." 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 The Empire proclaimed at Paris. 
 
 2nd December, 1852. 
 
 At the commencement of the year 1852, the 
 Prince President, supported firmly by the voice 
 of the people, was free to pursue the plans which 
 he had formed for the re-establishment of peace 
 
 r 
 
 and social order. France, too, breathed freely, 
 dehvered from the ruin into which the rage and 
 tumult of civil discord had been precipitating her. 
 On the 14th of January, Louis Napoleon promul- 
 gated a new Constitution. 
 
 " Preamble of the Constitution. 
 
 "Palace of tlie Tuileries, 14th January, 1852. 
 
 ** Louis Napoleon, President of the Eepublic. 
 '* Frenchmen, 
 *' When, in my proclamation of the 2nd of 
 December, I expressed to you frankly, according 
 to my view, the vital conditions of power in 
 Prance, I was far from pretending, as is so com- 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 mon in our days, to substitute the private theory 
 of an individual for the experience of ages. On 
 the contrary, I sought, in exploring the past, to 
 discern the examples best worthy of imitation; 
 the men who had furnished, and the benetits 
 which had followed, them. 
 
 '' Thus, I held it reasonable to prefer the pre- 
 cepts of genius to the specious dogmas of men of 
 abstract ideas. I took for a model the political 
 institutions which, at the commencement of this 
 century, under circumstances nearly similar to the 
 present, supported the tottering fabric of society, 
 and raised France to a high pitch of prosperity 
 and greatness. I took for a model institutions 
 which, instead of vanishing at the first breath of 
 popular clamour, succumbed only to the force of 
 combined Europe arrayed against us. In a word, 
 I said within myself : * Since France, for the last 
 fifty years, has moved and had her being in virtue 
 of the administrative, military, judicial, financial, 
 religious, organisations of the Consulate and the 
 Empire, why not adopt also the political institu- 
 tions of that epoch ? Issue of the same mind, 
 they should partake the same impress of nation- 
 ality and practical utility.' 
 
lilFE OF NAPOLEON III. 101 
 
 *' In effect, as I recalled to you in my procla- 
 mation, our actual condition of society (it is impor- 
 tant to state the fact plainly) is no other than 
 France regenerated by the revolution of 1789, and 
 re-organised by the Emperor. There remains 
 nothing of the ancient regime but great recollec- 
 tions and great benefits : all that was then orga- 
 nised was destroyed by the revolution ; and all 
 that has been organised since, and exists still, is 
 the work of Napoleon. * * * 
 
 *'We may affirm, then, that the frame of our 
 social edifice is the work of the Emperor; and 
 has survived his fall, and three revolutions. Why 
 should not political institutions which had the 
 same origin have equal durability ? My convic- 
 tion on the point has been long formed ; and I 
 therefore submit to your judgment the principal 
 bases of a Constitution taken from that of the 
 year VIII. Approved by you, they wiU become 
 the foundation of our political Constitution. 
 
 *' Let us examine their spirit. 
 
 ** In our country, during a monarchial era of 
 eight hundred years, the central power has been 
 constantly acquiring strength. Royalty crushed 
 the great vassals ; revolutions themselves removed 
 
102 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 hindrances to the speedy and uniform exercise of 
 authority. In this country of centralization, 
 pubHc opinion has incessantly referred all matters 
 to the chief of the State, whether for good or 
 ill. To write, therefore^ at the head of a charter, 
 that such chief is irrespbnsible, is to thwart public 
 sentiment, and set up a fiction thrice swept away 
 already amid the din of revolutions. 
 
 " The present Constitution, on the contrary, 
 proclaims that the Chief whom you have chosen 
 is responsible to you : that he retains at all times 
 the right of appeal to your sovereign judgment, to 
 the end that, on grave occasions, you may either 
 withdraw or confirm your confidence in him. 
 
 " Being thus responsible, it is but just that his 
 right of action should be free and unfettered. 
 Hence the necessity that his ministers, able and 
 valuable auxiliaries to his thought, should no 
 longer form a responsible council, a solid knot of 
 colleagues, a daily obstacle to the direct will of 
 the Chief of the State ; the expression, too, of a 
 policy emanating from the Chambers, and thereby 
 subject to frequent variations, which render im- 
 possible all continuous purpose, all application of 
 a regular system. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 103 
 
 *' Nevertheless, the higher placed, the more in- 
 dependent a man is, and the greater the confidence 
 reposed in him by the people-, the more his need 
 of faithful and enlightened counsels. Hence the 
 ^^reation of a Council of State, to be in future a 
 itrue council of government, first wheel in the 
 \nachinery of our new organisation ; composed of 
 men of proved ability, engaged in framing mea- 
 sures of law in special committees ; discussing 
 them afterwards in general assembly, with closed 
 doors, without oratorical display ; and, finally, pre- 
 senting them to the acceptance of the Legislative 
 ^Body. 
 
 *'Thus, power is free in its movement, en- 
 lightened in its progress. 
 
 " We have next to consider the control exercised 
 by the Chambers. 
 
 ** One Chamber, which takes the name of the 
 Legislative Body, passes laws and imposes taxes. 
 Jts members are chosen by universal suffrage, 
 singly, not by list ; the people thus electing their 
 representatives separately, will the more readily 
 appreciate the merits of each. This Chamber will 
 not number more than about two hundred and 
 ^sixty deputies. Thus a first security will be 
 
104 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 afforded for calmness in debate; since we have 
 but too often seen the ardour and agitation of the 
 passions increase in an assembly in proportion to 
 the number of its members. 
 
 " The report of their proceedings, published for 
 the information of the nation, will no longer be 
 entrusted, as heretofore, to the party-spirit of 
 different journals : one report only will be allowed^ 
 published under the official , authority of the 
 President of the Chamber. 
 
 ** The Legislative Body discusses freely the 
 measures laid before it ; adopts or rejects them ; 
 but without the power of extemporising amend- 
 ments, such as derange frequently the whole eco- 
 nomy of a system, and defeat its main object. 
 /Still less does this Chamber possess the initiative 
 of parliamentary measures ; a source of grave 
 abuses, permitting any private member to obstruct 
 all the proposals of Government, and present in 
 their stead the most crude and shallow projects. 
 
 ''Another Assembly takes the name of Senate. 
 It will be composed of such elements as, in every 
 country, exercise a legitimate influence: talent, 
 fortune, an illustrious name, public services. The 
 Senate is not, as the Chamber of Peers was, a pale 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III, 105 
 
 reflex of the Chamber of Deputies : repeating the 
 same discussions, after the lapse of a few days, in 
 another tone. It is the depository of the national 
 compact, and of constitutional liberty; and it is 
 in reference solely to the great principles on which 
 our social condition is based that the Senate 
 examines the laws, and proposes new ones to the 
 
 I 
 
 Executive power. It intervenes to resolve any 
 grave difficulty which may arise, in absence of the 
 Legislative Body ; to explain the text of the Con- 
 i stitution, and enforce its provisions ; to annul all 
 illegal and arbitrary acts. * * * 
 
 "The Senate will not be, as the Chamber of 
 Peers was, transformed into a court of justice, but 
 will preserve its character of supreme moderator ; 
 since political bodies always lose favour where the 
 legislative sanctuary is converted into a criminal 
 tribunal. The impartiality of the judge is too 
 often called in question, and he suffers in 
 popular opinion, which goes sometimes so far 
 as to deem him the instrument of party malice 
 and hate. A high court of justice, selected 
 from the chief magistracy, having for jurors 
 members of the councils-general throughout 
 France, will alone repress attacks upon the 
 
106 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Chief of the Government and the safety of the 
 public. 
 
 *' The Emperor told his Council of State : * A 
 Constitution is the worh of time ; one cannot leave too 
 large a margin for improvements.' And thus our 
 present Constitution has fixed nothing absolutely 
 except that which it was impossible to leave un- 
 settled. It has not circumscribed by an impass- 
 able line the destinies of a great people ; but has 
 left sufficient room for changes to allow, in a time 
 of crisis, other means of preservation than the 
 disastrous expedient of revolution. 
 
 *' The Senate has the power, in conjunction with 
 the Government, of modifying all but the essential 
 parts of the Constitution. As to its primary bases, 
 sanctioned by your suffrages, no change can take 
 effect until it have received your assent. 
 
 ** Such are the ideas, such the principles which 
 I am authorised by you to carry into force. May 
 this Constitution give calm and prosperous days 
 to our country! May it prevent the return of 
 those intestine conflicts in which victory, however 
 justly won, is always dearly purchased ! May the 
 sanction which you have given to my efforts receive 
 the blessing of Heaven! Then peace will be 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 107 
 
 assured at home and abroad, then will my wishes 
 be fulfilled, my mission accomplished ! 
 
 *' Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.'* 
 
 "CONSTITUTION 
 
 " Made in virtue of powers delegated by the French 
 people to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, by vote of 
 20th and 21st December, 1851. 
 
 "L 
 
 ''Art. 1. The Constitution recognises, confirms, 
 and guarantees, the great principles proclaimed in 
 1789, as the foundation of the public rights of 
 Frenchmen. 
 
 "11. The Government of the Eepublic. 
 
 " Art. 2. The Government of the French Ee- 
 public* is confided for ten years to the Prince 
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the present President. 
 of the Eepublic. 
 
 "Art. 3. The President of the Eepublic governs 
 through the medium of Ministers, a Council of 
 State, the Senate, and the Legislative Body. 
 
 * [Many of these articles necessarily underwent consider- 
 able modifications, consequent on the re- establishment of the 
 Empire.] 
 
108 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 "Art. 4. The Legislative power is exercised by 
 the President of the Kepubhc, the Senate, and the 
 Legislative Body. 
 
 ** III. The President op the Kepublic. 
 
 *' Art. 5. The President of the Eepublic is re,-, 
 sponsible to the French people ; to whom he has 
 at all times the right of appeal. 
 
 " Art. 6. The President of the Eepublic is the 
 Chief of the State, and commander of the military 
 and naval forces; he declareswar, concludes treaties 
 of peace, alliance, and commerce ; nominates to 
 all of&ces, issues regulations and decrees necessary 
 for the execution of the laws. 
 
 ** Art. 7. Justice is administered in his name. 
 
 " Art. 8. He alone initiates laws. 
 
 ** Art. 9. He has the prerogative of pardon. 
 
 ** Art. 10. He sanctions and promulgates the 
 laws, and the acts of the Senate. 
 
 ** Art. 11. He represents annually, by a message 
 to the Senate and the Legislative Body, the state 
 of affairs within the Eepublic. 
 
 *^Art. 12. He has the right to declare any 
 department or departments in a state of siege; 
 under proviso of reporting the case to the Senate 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 109 
 
 with the least possible delay. The consequences 
 resulting from a state of siege are regulated by 
 law. 
 
 " Art. 13. The Ministers depend solely on the 
 Chief of the State. They are not responsible, 
 except each in his particular department, for the 
 action of Government : they have no conjoint 
 authority. The Senate alone is empowered to 
 place them under accusation. 
 
 **Art. 14. The Ministers, the members of the 
 Senate, of the Legislative Body, and of the 
 Council of State ; the officers of the army and 
 navy; the magistrates, and all public function- 
 aries ; take the following oath : * I swear to be 
 obedient to the Constitution, and faithful to the 
 President.' 
 
 *'Art. 15. A vote of the Senate shall fix the 
 
 sum payable annually to the President. 
 
 ***** 
 
 *'IV. The Senate. 
 
 " Art. 19. The number of the senators shall 
 [not exceed one hundred and fifty : for the current 
 year, it is fixed at eighty. 
 
 "Art. 20. The Senate is composed : 1st, of the 
 
110 LIFE OE NAPOLEON III. 
 
 cardinals, marshals, and admirals ; 2nd, of citi- 
 zens whom the President may judge proper to 
 elevate to the senatorial dignity. 
 
 **Art. 21. The senators are irremovable and 
 for life. 
 
 '* Art, 22. The senators perform their functions 
 gratuitously ; the President of the Eepublic may, 
 however, grant to members of the Senate, in con- 
 sideration of their services and circumstances of 
 private fortune, a yearly pension not exceeding 
 thirty thousand francs. 
 
 " Art. 23. The President and the Vice-presi- 
 dents of the Senate are nominated by the Pre- 
 sident of the Eepublic, and selected from among 
 the senators. They are appointed from year to 
 year. The salary of the President of the Senate 
 is fixed by a decree* 
 
 " Art. 24. The President of the Eepublic con- 
 vokes and prorogues the Senate ; and fixes the 
 duration of its sessions by a decree. Its sittings 
 are not public. 
 
 ''Art. 25. The Senate is the guardian of the 
 national compact and of the public liberties. No 
 law can be promulgated without having been sub- 
 mitted to it. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. Ill 
 
 " Art. 26. The Senate will oppose the promul- 
 gation : 1st, of laws contrary and hostile to the 
 Constitution, to religion or morality, to the free- 
 dom of worship, to individual liberty, to equality 
 of citizens before the law, to the rights of property, 
 to the independence of the magistracy; 2nd, of 
 laws which might tend to compromise the safety 
 
 of our territory: 
 
 « * # « « 41 
 
 ''V. The Legislative Body. 
 
 ** Art. 34. Its election takes place on the basis 
 of population. 
 
 ."Art. 35. There shall be one deputy to the 
 Legislative Body for every thirty-five thousand 
 
 electors. 
 
 / " Art. 36. The deputies are chosen by universal 
 
 suffrage; and singly, not by list.* 
 
 " Art. 37. They receive no payment. 
 
 "Art. 38. They are elected for six years. 
 
 "Art. 39. The Legislative Body discusses and 
 votes laws and imposts. 
 
 " Art. 40. Every amendment adopted by the 
 committees charged to examine projects of law, 
 
 * *' Sans scrutin de liste." 
 
112 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 shall be sent back by the President of the Legis- 
 lative Body to the Council of State. Unless 
 approved by the Council of State, the amendment 
 cannot be submitted to deliberation in the Legis- 
 lative Body. 
 
 "• Art. 41. The ordinary sessions of the Legisla- 
 tive Body last three months ; its sittings are 
 public, but, at the request of five members, it 
 may resolve itself into a secret committee. 
 
 *^ Art. 42." The reports of the proceedings of 
 the Legislative Body, whether in the journals or 
 in any other channel of publication, shall consist 
 merely of the minutes drawn up at the close of 
 each sitting, under direction of the President of 
 the Chamber. 
 
 '^Art, 43. The President and Vice-presidents 
 of the Legislative Body are nominated by the 
 President of the Republic for one year: and 
 selected from among the deputies. The salary 
 of the President of the Legislative Body is fixed 
 by a decree. 
 
 '' Art. 44. The Ministers cannot be members of 
 the Legislative Body. 
 
 * This article was modified by an Act of Government, 2nd 
 February, 1861. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 113 
 
 ** Art. 45. The right of petition is exercised 
 only towards the Senate : no petition can be 
 addressed to the Legislative Body. 
 
 ''Art. 46. The President of the Eepublic con- 
 vokes, adjourns, prorogues, dissolves the Legisla- 
 tive Body. In case of dissolution, the President 
 of the Eepublic is bound to call another within 
 the term of six months. 
 
 '' VI. The Council of State. 
 
 ''Art. 47. The number of counsellors of State, 
 for ordinary service, is from forty to fifty. 
 
 " Art. 48. They are nominated by the President 
 of the Eepublic, and removable by him, 
 
 " Art. 49. The Council of State is presided 
 over by the President of the Eepublic, or, in his 
 absence, by the person whom he may designate 
 as Vice-president of the Council of State. 
 
 " Art. 50. The Council of State is charged, 
 under direction of the President of the Eepublic, 
 with the preparation of projects of law and the 
 regulations of public administration: also, with 
 the solution of any difficulties which may arise in 
 matters of administration. 
 
 "Art. 51. The Council of State, on the part of 
 
 I 
 
114 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 the Government, maintains discussion on projects 
 of law, before the Senate and the Legislative Body. 
 The President of the Eepublic designates those 
 counsellors who are to speak in the name of the 
 Government. 
 
 *^ Art. 52. The salary of each counsellor of State 
 is twenty-five thousand francs. 
 / ''Art. 53. The Ministers have place, rank, and 
 ' voice in deliberation in the Council of State. 
 
 '' Vil. The High Coukt of Justice. 
 
 ''Art. 54. A High Court of Justice will judge, 
 without appeal or suit for reversal {sans appel ni 
 recours en cassation) all persons accused of crimes, 
 conspiracies, attempts, against the President of 
 the Eepublic or the security internal and external 
 of the State. It can be convened only by virtue 
 of a decree from the President of the Eepublic. 
 
 "Art. 55, The organisation of this high court 
 
 shall be determined by the Senate. 
 
 ^ * ^ 
 
 " Louis Napoleon. 
 
 "Palace of the Tuileries. 
 14:th January J 1852. 
 
 " Keeper of the Seals, 
 " Minister of Justice, 
 
 *'E. EOUPIER." 
 
LIFE or NAPOLEON III. 115 
 
 It would scarcely be profitable to notice the 
 various comments of which the above Constitu- 
 tion has been the subject. It is apparent to all 
 that under its working France has, by favour of 
 Providence, advanced in wealth and prosperity, 
 and has attained her present pitch of honour and 
 eminence in Europe. Among the more important 
 modifications which the Constitution of January 
 1852 has received in later years are : free publica- 
 tion of the debates, both in the Senate and the 
 Legislative Body ; admission of the Ministers, ex- 
 officio, to seats in the Chambers, and the right of 
 questioning them there ; extension of the privilege 
 of amendments to the Legislative Body; relin- 
 quishment, on the part of the Chief of the State, 
 of the power of opening supplementary or extra- 
 ordinary credits during the prorogation of the 
 Chambers ; finally, the liberty of the press and 
 the right of public meeting. 
 
 The abolition of the National Assembly by Louis 
 Napoleon, on the plea that it spent its time in 
 talking instead of working, — a reproach, it must 
 be confessed, not entirely peculiar to that body, 
 but laid sometimes to the charge of deliberative 
 assemblies in other countries,— implied a pledge 
 
 I 2 
 
116 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 that he would proceed on a different course, and 
 substitute deeds for words. In redeeming this 
 pledge, his efforts were especially directed to the 
 relief and benefit of the poor and suffering classes. 
 In evidence of this, it will suffice to mention the 
 bare titles (not regarding closely the order of date) 
 of various laws originated and institutions founded 
 by him : 
 
 1. Law for improving the dwellings of the 
 
 working classes. 
 
 2. Loan Societies. (Institution de Credit Fonder.) 
 
 3. Societes de Secours llutuels, or Mutual Aid 
 
 Societies, to make provision for their 
 members in sickness, and for their widows 
 and orphans. 
 
 4. Eetiring Fund for the poorer assistant 
 
 clergy (les desservans les plus pauvres.) 
 
 5. Asylum for Incurables at Vesinet. 
 
 6. Convalescent Institution at Vincennes. 
 
 7. Eefuges for Old Age. 
 
 8. Orphanages. 
 
 9. Maternity Societies: to provide attendance 
 
 on poor women at their houses, during 
 childbirth. 
 
 10. Organisation of public baths and lavatories. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 117 
 
 Among the decrees issued by the President, 
 there is one for the observance of Sunday rest in 
 all public works. The French clergy attest that 
 the example set by the Government on this point 
 has exercised a degree of salutary effect towards 
 the repression of labour on the Lord's day 
 throughout the land. 
 
 It is note-worthy that Louis Napoleon did not 
 confine himself to devising measures of utility to 
 the public, but lent also in many cases the aid of 
 his own personal direction and supervision. To 
 take a single instance : in the heart of France, 
 situate between Orleans, Bourges, and Blois, there 
 existed a large extent of barren and almost desert 
 territory, called La Sologne. Its condition, sur- 
 rounded on all sides by fertile lands, had long 
 been a scandal to the nation, and a source of 
 misery to the wretched inhabitants of the district. 
 On the 21st of April the President repaired 
 thither in person, to examine for himself into the 
 evil, and to apply if possible an efficacious remedy. 
 I give the result in the words of M. MuUois : 
 '' Le President, apres avoir tout examine, distribue 
 de I'argent, de bons conseils, et de bons exemples : 
 des canaux sont creuses, des routes sont tracees : 
 
118 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 le pays se transforme de jour en jour, et Ton voit 
 les plus belles recoltes remplacer la bruyere ou 
 des touffes d'un bois chetif. La sante et I'aisance 
 remplacent la fievre et la misere." 
 
 The plebiscite of December, 1851, some account 
 of which has been given in the preceding chapter, 
 had extended by a term of ten years the period 
 for which the Prince was elected to the Presidency 
 of the Eepublic. The word *' Eepublic " has, 
 however, but little charm for the French people ; 
 to whom it recalls too sad images of woe and 
 crime. 
 
 On the other hand, ''The Empire " is a name 
 associated with many a high and honourable 
 recollection dear to the mind of every Frenchman. 
 ^^ Nous voidons un Empire!" ^^11 nous faut un 
 Empereur / " '* Vive Napoleon Empereur I " Such 
 were the cries which met the ear in the capital 
 and were re-echoed from the remotest corners of 
 the country. 
 
 On the 14th of September, 1852, the Prince 
 commenced a journey through the provincial 
 parts of France, which afforded a full opportunity 
 to verify the dispositions of the people towards 
 him. In the towns through which he passed, 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 119 
 
 multitudes assembled to see him from many 
 leagues round, and, in default of hotels, bivou- 
 acked in the public squares. On all sides 
 Imperial emblems and inscriptions appeared, as 
 **Ave, Caesar Imperator." ^^At every point of 
 my passage, from Paris to Lyons," said the 
 President, in an address to the inhabitants of the 
 
 latter city, ^' the cry of 'Vive L'Empereur' has 
 been raised." 
 
 In his speech to the Bordeaux Chamber of 
 Commerce, on the 9th of October, he thus sums 
 up the impressions made on him in the course of 
 his journey : — 
 
 *' Its object," he said, ''as you know, was to 
 acquaint myself by personal observation with our 
 beautiful provinces, and to investigate their wants. 
 It has given rise, however, to a result far more 
 important. 
 
 '* In fact, and I say it with a candour as far 
 removed from pride as from false modesty, never 
 has any people manifested more plainly, more 
 spontaneously, more unanimously, its desire to 
 free itself from solicitude as to the future by con- 
 centrating the power that concerns it into one 
 and the same hand. It is that the nation now 
 
120 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 knows the fallacy of the hopes by which it has 
 been deluded, and the reality of the dangers that 
 menaced it. It knows that, in 1852, society was 
 rushing to its ruin, each party consoling itself 
 beforehand for the general shipwreck, in the 
 hope of planting its own banner on the floating 
 fragments. It bears me good will for having 
 saved the vessel by uphfting only the banner of 
 France. 
 
 "Disabused of absurd theories, the people have 
 acquired the conviction that those pretended 
 reformers were mere dreamers ; for there was 
 always disproportion and inconsistency between 
 the means at their disposal and the results which 
 they promised. The nation now surrounds me 
 with its sympathies because I am not of the tribe 
 of ideologists. That which the country requires 
 is, not the application of any new-fangled system, 
 but, above aU, confidence in the present, security 
 for the future. 
 
 "And for this reason France desires a return 
 to the Empire. 
 
 " There is, however, one apprehension which I 
 feel bound to allay. Certain persons in a spirit of 
 mistrust, say : * The Empire is war.' I say, on 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 121 
 
 the contrary : ' The Empire is peace !' It is 
 peace, because France wishes it, and when France 
 is satisfied the world is tranquil. 
 
 '* Glory is indeed transmissive by inheritance, 
 but not so war. Have the Princes who valued 
 themselves, and justly, on being grand- 
 children of Louis XIV. recommenced his wars ? 
 War is not waged for pleasure, but from neces- 
 sity, and, at the present epoch of transition, 
 when by the side of so many elements 
 of prosperity there spring so many causes of 
 death, it may well be said : woe to the man 
 who shall first give to Europe the signal of 
 a collision, the consequences of which none could 
 calculate. 
 
 *' Yet I admit that I have, as the Emperor had, 
 many conquests to achieve. I have, like him, to 
 win over to peace and reconciliation rival factions ; 
 and to bring back into the main popular current 
 the hostile derivatives which now lose themselves 
 without profit to any. 
 
 " I would recover to religion, to virtue, to 
 comfort, that part of our populations which in a 
 land of faith and belief scarcely knows the pre- 
 cepts of Christ ; and, in the bosom of the most 
 
122 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 fertile cotintry in the world, hardly enjoys the 
 first necessaries of existence. 
 
 **We have immense uncultivated tracts to 
 reclaim, roads to open, harbours to clear, rivers 
 to render navigable, canals to finish, our network 
 of railways to complete. Opposite to Marseilles 
 there is a vast kingdom to be assimilated to 
 France. There remains yet to be organised a 
 system of steam communication which may 
 approximate all the great commercial ports on 
 our western coast to the continent of America. 
 In a word, we have on every side ruins to 
 repair, false gods to overthrow, truths to make 
 triumph. 
 
 '* Such is my idea of an empire, if an empire 
 we are to have. 
 
 *' Such are the conquests to which I aspire; 
 and all you who surround me, all who desire with 
 me the welfare or our common country, you are 
 my soldiers." 
 
 Louis Na>poleon came back to Paris about the 
 middle of October, having been absent just a 
 month. The preparations made to celebrate his 
 return to the capital were on the most magnificent 
 scale ; and he re-entered the city amid acclama- 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 123 
 
 tions of many hundred thousand voices, and cries 
 of " Vive TEmpereur ! " 
 
 The voting for the Empire commenced on the 
 21st of November ; on the following proposition 
 as framed by the Senate : *' The people desires 
 the re-establishment of the Imperial dynasty in 
 the person of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, with the 
 succession to his direct descendants, natural and 
 legitimate, or adopted ; and gives him the right 
 to regulate the order of succession to the throne 
 in the Bonaparte family." 
 
 It resulted that France demanded the re- 
 storation of the Bonaparte dynasty by a large 
 majority. 
 
 Ayes 7,824,189 
 
 Noes 253,145 
 
 Majority .... 7,571,044 
 
 On the 1st of December, the members of the 
 Senate and of the Legislative Body repaired to 
 Saint Cloud, to announce to the President of the 
 Eepubhc that he had been elected Emperor of 
 France. The following sentences occur in the 
 speech read by M. Billault, President of the 
 Legislative Body, in presenting the report: *^ Your 
 
124 LIFE OF NAPOLEON HI. 
 
 wish, Sire, is accomplishsd, a general, free, and 
 secret ballot has been subjected to a strict ex- 
 amination before the eyes of all. Summing 
 eight millions of votes, it gives to the legitimacy 
 of your government the widest base on which any 
 government in the world has ever been estab- 
 lished. From one end of the country to the 
 other, hastening to salute the man of their hopes 
 and of their choice, our people have sufficiently 
 proclaimed to the world that you are their 
 Emperor, the Emperor elected by the people. Take 
 then, Sire, from the hands of France, that illus- 
 trious crown which she offers to you : never has 
 a royal brow worn one more legitimate or more 
 popular." 
 
 On the next day, the 2nd of December, 
 1852, the Emperor quitted Saint Cloud about 
 noon. He wore the full uniform of a General of 
 Division, with the grand cordon of the Legion of 
 Honour; and proceeded on horseback to the Palace 
 of the Tuileries, the hereditary residence of the 
 sovereigns of France. No notice had been given, 
 nor preparation made for his official reception and 
 the inauguration of the Empire. The people 
 however thronged around him. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 125 
 
 The Moniteur of the same date contained a 
 proclamation of amnesty for all purely political 
 offences ; on the sole condition of abstaining for 
 the future from hostile acts against the existing 
 Government : ** The Emperor requires no more, 
 and good sense as well as the exigencies of society 
 can ask no less. The dearest wish of his majesty 
 is to see effaced all traces of former divisions ; and 
 retain of the past only the memory of services 
 rendered. It shall not be the fault of the Prince who 
 has been so lately crowned by the country, if any 
 one of her children be longer severed from her." 
 A general remission was at the same time granted 
 of fines and other legal penalties : and all persons 
 detained in the public prisons, excepting those 
 charged with crimes of grave moral delinquency, 
 were restored to liberty. 
 
 On the following morning (the 3rd) the Emperor 
 visited the two chief Hospitals of Paris ; the 
 Hotel-Dieu, and the Val-de-Grace. He went 
 through all the wards of the sick, and spoke with 
 kind interest to the patients ; and handed at 
 parting, to the director of each establishment, a 
 contribution to its funds of 10,000 francs. 
 
 It should not be omitted that, between his 
 
126 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 visits to the two hospitals, the Emperor walked to 
 the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, where, after a 
 disuse of half a centiiry, the noble hymn was 
 again upraised, 
 
 i( 
 
 DOMINE, SALVUM FAC ImPERATOREM. 
 
 n 
 
( 127 ) 
 
 CHAPTEH VI. 
 
 Marriage of the Emperor (1853)— War in the Criraea— Birth 
 of the Prince Imperial (1856)— Providential Preservation 
 of the Emperor and Empress. 
 
 1853—1858. 
 
 The close of the year 1852 had seen Louis 
 Napoleon raised to the Imperial dignity, amid 
 the general applause of the French people. 
 
 On the 22nd of January, 1853, the Emperor 
 convened the great bodies of the State : the 
 Senate, the Deputies, and the State- Council : at 
 the Palace of the Tuileries ; and, having taken his 
 seat on the throne, announced to them that he 
 had contracted a matrimonial engagement. 
 
 *'I comply," said he, ''with the wish so often 
 expressed by the nation, in coming to announce 
 to yoii my approaching marriage. 
 
 ''The alliance which I form, is not in accord- 
 ance with the traditions of ancient policy. That 
 constitutes one of its advantages. 
 
 " France, by her successive revolutions, has 
 always separated herself abruptly from the rest of 
 
128 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Europe : it should be the object of every prudent 
 Government to bring her back within the pale of 
 the old monarchies. But this object is far more 
 likely to be attained by a frank openness, and 
 strict good faith in all transactions, than by those 
 royal alliances which create a false sense of secu- 
 rity, and substitute often the interests of a family 
 for those of a nation. Besides, the examples of 
 the past have implanted a belief, — a superstition, 
 it may be, — in the mind of the people ; who can- 
 not forget that, during the last seventy years, 
 foreign princesses have ascended the throne but 
 to see their race dispersed and proscribed by war 
 or by revolution. One woman alone has seemed 
 to bring prosperity, and to live above the rest in 
 the memory of the people : and that woman, the 
 good and unassuming wife of General Bonaparte, 
 was not of blood royal. * * * 
 
 *' Thus impelled to depart from precedents 
 hitherto followed, my marriage takes merely a 
 private character. It remained only to make 
 choice of the person. The object of my preference 
 is of illustrious birth : French in heart, in educa- 
 tion, and in the memory of blood shed by her 
 father for the cause of the Empire, she possesses, 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 129 
 
 as a Spaniard, the advantage of not having, in 
 Prance, relations on whom it would be necessary 
 to confer honours and dignities. Endued with 
 every mental excellence, she will be the ornament 
 of the throne, and, should the hour of danger 
 arrive, one of its firmest supports. Catholic, and 
 pious, she will address to Heaven the same prayers 
 which I offer for the weal of France. Benevolent 
 and good, she will, it is my firm trust, with the 
 position, revive the virtues, of the Empress Jose- 
 phine. 
 
 *^I address myself therefore to France, and say: 
 I have chosen a wife whom I love and respect 
 rather than one unknown to me, whose espousal 
 would have brought gain alloyed by sacrifices. 
 Disdaining no other alliance, I follow in this the 
 bent of my inclination, after consulting on it my 
 reason and my judgment. In a word, by prefer- 
 ring independence of choice, the qualities of heart, 
 and domestic happiness, to prejudices of dynasty 
 and calculations of ambition, my state will be not 
 less firm, it will be more free. 
 
 *' I hope soon to present the Empress at Notre 
 Dame to the people and to the army. The con- 
 fidence which they repose in me assures their 
 
 K 
 
130 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 sympathy towards the person of my choice. And 
 you, gentlemen, on learning to know her, will 
 acknowledge that, on this occasion also, I have 
 been guided by Providence." 
 
 The civil marriage between **his Majesty 
 Napoleon III., Emperor of the French, by the 
 grace of God and the national will, and her 
 Excellency Mademoiselle Eugenie de Montijo, 
 Countess-Duchess of Teba, took place at the 
 Palace of the Tuileries, on the 29th of January. 
 On the following day the ecclesiastical ceremony 
 was celebrated in the metropolitan church of Notre 
 Dame. 
 
 The marriage of the Emperor has been, from 
 the first, extremely popular among all orders of 
 the community in France. Napoleon himself is 
 not greeted with heartier acclamatioji than the 
 lovely lady who shares his throne : 
 
 " A treasure-house of weal to France and him."* 
 
 In the Empress Eugenie, personal beauty and 
 grace are heightened by the goodness and kind- 
 ness expressed in every word and look, and still 
 more in the thousand acts of charity which form 
 
 # '' St. Clement's Eve." 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 131 
 
 the chief occupation and pleasure of her Hfe. It 
 may suffice to relate one act of the kind : — the 
 city of Paris had voted a sum of 600,000 francs, 
 intended for the purchase of a necklace, as a pre- 
 sent to the bride of Napoleon III. on the celebra- 
 tion of their marriage. The Empress, in her 
 acceptance of the gift, converted it into an offer- 
 ing for the foundation, in the French metropolis, 
 of an Asylum for Female Orphans. The object of 
 this institution is to assure to poor girls, bereaved 
 of their parents, a provision for life by honest 
 service, with an education suited to their condi- 
 tion, and not beyond it. 
 
 During the year 1853 the minds of men 
 throughout Europe were kept in suspense and 
 agitation through the aggressive conduct of 
 Russia towards the Porte. The Czar Nicholas, 
 indeed, so far from making any secret of his 
 designs to seize the territory of the Sultan, pro- 
 posed to England a share in the spoils of *'the 
 sick man," as the price of complicity in the trans- 
 action. The ideas of the Czar in reference to 
 the affair are best conveyed in his own words, 
 addressed to the British envoy at St. Petersburg 
 (Sir H. G. Seymour) on the 11th of January, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 1853 : " Tenez, nous avons sur les bras un homme 
 malade, — un homme grayement malade, — ce sera, 
 je voiis le dis franchement, un grand malheur si, 
 un de ces jours, il devait nous ecliapper, surtout 
 avant que toutes les dispositions necessaires fussent 
 
 prises." 
 
 On a subsequent occasion (22nd February) the 
 Emperor Nicholas explained more particularly his 
 views as to the proposed division of the inheri- 
 tance, ''when the sick man died." — ''The Princi- 
 palities are," he said, "in fact an independent 
 State, under my protection : this might so con- 
 tinue. Servia might receive the same form of 
 government. So again with Bulgaria. As to 
 Egypt, I quite understand the importance to Eng- 
 land of that territory. I can then only say that, 
 if, in the event of a distribution of the Ottoman 
 succession, on the fall of the Empire, you should 
 take possession of Egypt, I shall have no objec- 
 tion to offer. I would say the same of Candia : 
 that island might suit you, and I do not know 
 why it should not become an English possession." 
 
 The peculiar danger to the repose of Europe, 
 arising from the ambitious projects of Eussia, 
 drew the serious attention of England and France. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 133 
 
 In the words of M. Drouyn de I'Huys, to the 
 French ambassador at Constantinople : *^ His Im- 
 perial Majesty's Government, in accordance with 
 that of her Britannic Majesty, think the situation 
 too menacing not to be narrowly watched." The 
 united efforts of the two Western powers were 
 energetically but vainly directed to turn the 
 Kussian Government from its purpose. A succes- 
 sion of menaces, together with the vast military 
 and naval armaments which for months had been 
 preparing on the very confines of Turkey, left no 
 doubt as to the resolve of the Czar to resort to 
 actual hostilities. 
 
 . On the 2nd of July, an army under command of 
 Prince Gortschakoff invaded Moldavia and Wal- 
 lachia, provinces of the Ottoman Empire, under 
 pretext of obtaining a *' material guarantee" for 
 satisfaction of any and all demands on the Porte. 
 In thus occupying the Principalities, Eussia 
 violated both the territory of the Sultan and the 
 special treaty signed by all the Great Powers of 
 Europe, regarding that portion of his dominions. 
 Nevertheless, Prince Gortschakoff, in a proclama- 
 tion which he issued at the moment of his 
 crossing the Pruth, the river-boundary between 
 
134 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 the Eussian and Ottoman empires, claimed credit, 
 on the part of his august master, for the virtue of 
 magnanimity, in contenting himself, provisionally, 
 with the Danubian provinces. '' In his magnani- 
 mity, in his constant care to maintain peace in the 
 East, as well as in Europe, the Emperor will avoid 
 an aggressive war against Turkey, as long as his 
 dignity and the interests of his empire will permit him 
 to do so." 
 
 Threatening as the attitude of Eussia had now 
 become, the great Powers of Europe employed 
 their joint influence to avert the effusion of blood. 
 The French Emperor had from the first thrown 
 the whole weight of his Government on the side of 
 peace and public right ; and thus effected a closer 
 union of purpose between the cabinets of England 
 and France than ever before existed. Austria and 
 Prussia were consequently drawn to associate 
 themselves in the same spirit for the common 
 cause. A thorough harmony prevailed between 
 the four great Powers. Concurring entirely in 
 their aim to dissuade Turkey from considering 
 the invasion of her territory a case of war, 
 they were at the same time no less unani- 
 mous in their determination to resist to the 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 135 
 
 uttermost the unjust and violent pretensions of 
 Eussia. 
 
 Meantime the rod of Gortschakoff pressed 
 heavily on Moldo-Wallachia. Not satisfied with 
 levying forced contributions on its inhabitants, he 
 compelled youths of the best families, on the plea 
 of their disaffection to his yoke, to serve in the 
 ranks of the Eussian army. Notwithstanding, it 
 was not till the 5th of October that the Porte 
 published a formal declaration of war against the 
 invader. 
 
 On the 31st of the same month. Count Nessel- 
 rode. Chancellor of the Eussian Empire, in a 
 diplomatic note addressed to its ministers at the 
 Courts of Europe, wrote as follows : '' We do not 
 yet abandon the resolutions announced from the 
 beginning, in our circular of the 2nd of July. At 
 that period, his Majesty declared that, in tempo- 
 rarily occupying the Principalities, as a material 
 guarantee, calculated to insure him the satisfaction 
 which he demands, he did not wish to push 
 further the measures of coercion, and would avoid 
 an offensive war as long as his dignity and his 
 interests would permit him. At the present time, 
 and in spite of the new provocation which has now 
 
136 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 been addressed to him, the intentions of my 
 august master remain the same." 
 
 An event occurred in the following month which 
 took at once the question at issue out of the 
 sphere of diplomacy, and removed all hope of its 
 peaceful solution. On the 27th of November, the 
 Russian Admiral Nachinoff, cruising in the Black 
 Sea with two ships of the line and a brig, 
 observed a Turkish squadron, consisting of seven 
 frigates and some sloops, at anchor in the bay of 
 Sinopc, on the coast of Asia Minor ; and des- 
 patched the brig to convey the intelligence to 
 Sebastopol. On receipt of the notice, four sail of 
 the line, with several smaller vessels, left that port 
 to reinforce the Eussian Admiral. The effective 
 strength of the two squadrons now stood as 
 follows : 
 
 Turkish. Russian. 
 
 7 Frigates. 6 Ships of the line, of 
 
 2 Sloops. which 3 were three- 
 
 1 Steamer. deckers, carrying 120 
 
 guns. 
 
 2 Frigates. 
 
 3 Steamers. 
 
 On the 30th, the Russians entered the harbour 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 137 
 
 of Sinope, with a favourable wind, and summoned 
 the Turks to an immediate surrender. The Turks 
 fought, however, with the courage of desperation, 
 having no hope left of life, but determined to die 
 with honour. The Eussians kept up an incessant 
 fire for three hours, and did not slacken it when 
 their foe was incapable of further resistance. 
 They turned their artillery also on the town of 
 Sinope and its defenceless inhabitants, numbering 
 from eight to ten thousand. The lives sacrificed 
 were reckoned at 4,500. A stearaer which had 
 been despatched by signal from the Turkish 
 Admiral, at the commencement of the attack, 
 evaded several Eussian vessels sent in pursuit of 
 her, and carried the tidings to Constantinople. 
 All the other vessels of the Turkish squadron were 
 either sunk or set on fire. The Eussians left the 
 shores of the bay covered with the dead and the 
 dying ; the town a mass of half-burnt ruins, 
 forsaken by all but those unable to fly ; and 
 retreated to their harbour of Sebastopol, glorying 
 in the massacre of Sinope as if they had obtained 
 a victory over some antagonist of equal 
 strength. 
 
 The Czar, in an autograph letter to Prince 
 
138 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Mentschikoff, congratulated his navy on an achieve- 
 ment worthy of their flag : '' The victory of Sinope 
 proves evidently that our Black Sea fleet has 
 shewn itself worthy of its destination. With 
 hearty joy I request you to communicate to my 
 brave seamen that I thank them for the success of 
 the Eussian flag on behalf of the glory and honour 
 of Russia." 
 
 Very different was the manner in which the 
 affair was regarded by other nations. Lord 
 Clarendon, then Foreign Secretary, wrote to our 
 Minister at Saint Petersburg : ^* The feelings of 
 horror which this dreadful carnage could not but 
 create, have been general throughout all ranks and 
 classes of Her Majesty's subjects in this country." 
 ** To prevent the recurrence of disasters such as 
 that of Sinope," Count Nesselrode was informed, 
 **the combined fleet will require, and, if necessary, 
 compel, Russian ships of war to return to Sebas- 
 topol, or the nearest port." The English and 
 French fleets, which, relying too credulously, as 
 the event proved, on the Czar's reiterated promise 
 that he would not pursue an offensive warfare 
 against Turkey, had remained at anchor in the 
 Bosphorus, entered now the Black Sea, and suf- 
 
XIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 139 
 
 fered not a single Kussian man-of-war to navigate 
 its waters. 
 
 On the 29th of January, 1854, the Emperor 
 Napoleon, as a last attempt at pacification, 
 addressed the following letter to the Czar. It 
 presents a concise summary of the causes which 
 led to the campaign of the Crimea. 
 
 '* To the Czar of Eussia. 
 '* Sire, 
 
 *' The difference that has arisen between your 
 
 Majesty and the Ottoman Porte has reached so 
 
 serious a point that I feel it my duty to explain 
 
 directly to your Majesty the part which Prance 
 
 has taken in the question, and the measures 
 
 which, according to my view, may yet avert the 
 
 dangers that threaten the peace of Europe. 
 
 '* The note which your Majesty has just 
 addressed to my Government and to that of Queen 
 Victoria tends to convey the impression that a 
 system of pressure adopted from the first by the 
 two maritime powers has alone envenomed the 
 question at issue. 
 
 ^' That question, on the contrary, it seems to 
 me, would still have remained one of treaty if the 
 occupation of the Principalities had not at once 
 
140 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 removed it from the region of discussion to that 
 of facts. 
 
 " Notwithstanding, your Majesty having once 
 entered Wallachia, we still urged on the Porte not 
 to consider such occupation a case of war, testify- 
 ing thus our extreme desire for conciliation. In 
 concert with England, Austria, and Prussia, I 
 proposed to your Majesty a note^ intended to 
 give satisfaction to all parties. Your Majesty 
 accepted it. 
 
 '* But scarcely had this good news reached us 
 when your minister, by explanatory comments, 
 destroyed all its conciliatory effect, and prevented 
 us thereby from pressing its implicit and absolute 
 adoption at Constantinople. On the other side, 
 the Porte had proposed certain modifications to 
 the note, which the four Powers represented at 
 Vienna considered to be unobjectionable : they 
 did not meet the approval of your Majesty. 
 
 '' Then it was that the Porte, wounded in its 
 dignity, menaced in its independence, straitened 
 through its efforts already made in raising an 
 army to oppose that of your Majesty, declared war, 
 as preferable to remaining in such a state of 
 uncertainty and degradation. Our aid was invoked ; 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 141 
 
 we deemed the cause a just one ; the Enghsh and 
 French squadrons received the order to anchor 
 within the Bosphorus. 
 
 ** Our attitude towards Turkey was protective 
 but passive. We gave no encouragement to war. 
 We poured incessantly into the ears of the Sultan 
 counsels of peace and moderation, persuaded that 
 such were the true means of arriving at an agree- 
 ment ; and the four Powers concerted new propo- 
 sitions to be submitted to your Majesty. 
 
 " Your Majesty, meantime, with the calm which 
 springs from the consciousness of strength, con- 
 fined yourself to repelling, on the left bank of the 
 Danube, and in Asia, the assaults of the Turks, 
 and, with a moderation worthy the chief of a 
 great empire, proclaimed your intention to remain 
 on the defensive. 
 
 ''Up to this point then, it is right to say, we 
 were interested spectators, but spectators merely, 
 of the contest, when the affair of Sinope came to 
 compel us to a more decided part. 
 
 ''France and England had not judged it 
 expedient to land troops in aid of Turkey. Their 
 flag, therefore, was not concerned in any conflict 
 which tooK place on shore. But at sea it was 
 
142 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 widely different. Three thousand cannon were at 
 the mouth of the Bosphorus, whose presence there 
 spoke aloud to Turkey that the two principal 
 maritime Powers would not permit her to be 
 attacked by sea. The event of Sinope was as 
 wounding to us as it was unexpected : for it is of 
 little importance whether or not the Turks intended 
 to pass munitions of war into Russian territory. 
 
 '' In point of fact, Eussian ships of the line 
 attacked Turkish vessels of smaller size in Turkish 
 waters, at anchor peacefully in a Turkish port : 
 destroyed them in spite of the promise given to 
 refrain from aggressive warfare, and in spite of the 
 proximity of our squadrons. It was no longer 
 our policy that received a blow, it was our martial 
 honour. The cannon-shot fired at Sinope re- 
 sounded sadly on the hearts of all who, in England 
 and in France, felt keenly for the national dignity : 
 all, with one accord, cried: ''Wherever our cannon 
 can reach, our allies should be respected." 
 
 '' Hence came the order to our squadrons to 
 enter the Black Sea, and to hinder, by force if 
 needed, the recurrence of a similar disaster. 
 Hence, too, the joint note sent to the Cabinet of 
 Saint Petersburg, declaring that, if we prevented 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 143 
 
 the Turks from waging an aggressive warfare on 
 coasts belonging to Eussia, we would protect them 
 revictualling their forces on their own shores. 
 
 *'With regard to our interdicting the navigation 
 of the Black Sea to the Eussian fleet, we put that 
 upon a different condition: because it was of 
 importance to us that, while the war lasted, we 
 should hold a guarantee which might be equivalent 
 to your occupation of the Turkish territory, and 
 facilitate the conclusion of peace by affording the 
 title of a desirable exchange. 
 
 '' Such, Sire, are the facts of the case in their 
 true order and sequence. It is clear that, having 
 arrived at such a point, they must speedily bring 
 on a definitive agreement or a decided rupture. 
 
 *' Your Majesty has given so many proofs of 
 your solicitude for the tranquillity of Europe ; you 
 have aided so powerfully, by your beneficial influ- 
 ence, in opposing the spirit of disorder ; that I 
 cannot doubt the resolution which you will take 
 in the alternative that presents itself to your 
 choice. 
 
 '' If your Majesty desires a pacific result as much 
 as I do, what more easy than to declare that an 
 armistice shall immediately be signed, that affairs 
 
144 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 shall resume their diplomatic course, all hostility 
 cease, all the belligerent forces retire from the 
 positions taken up by them for warlike purposes ? 
 
 ''Then would the Eussian troops withdraw 
 from the Principahties : our squadrons from the 
 Black Sea. If your Majesty should prefer to 
 treat directly with Turkey, you would nominate 
 an ambassador, who would negotiate with a pleni- 
 potentiary of the Sultan a convention to be 
 submitted to a conference of the four Powers. 
 
 '' Let your Majesty but adopt this plan, on 
 which the Queen of England and I are perfectly 
 in accord, tranquillity is re-established, and the 
 world is satisfied. There is, in truth, nothing in 
 this proposal that is unworthy of your Majesty, 
 nothing which can wound your honour. But if, 
 from a motive difficult to comprehend, your 
 Majesty should return a refusal, then Prance as 
 well as England would be obliged to leave 
 to the arbitrement of arms and the chances of 
 war that which might be decided at once by reason 
 and justice. 
 
 ''Let not your Majesty suppose that the 
 slightest animosity prevails in my heart : it 
 experiences no other sentiments than those ex- 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 145 
 
 pressed by your Majesty in your letter of the 
 17th of January, 1853, wherein you wrote to me : 
 *Our relations ought to be sincerely amicable, 
 based on the same intentions : the maintenance 
 of order, love of peace, respect to treaties, and 
 mutual good-wilL'* This programme is worthy 
 of the sovereign who traced it, and I do not 
 hesitate to say that I, on my part, have remained 
 faithful to it. 
 
 *^ I pray your Majesty to believe in the sincerity 
 of the sentiments which I profess, and with 
 which I am, 
 
 '' Sire, 
 '* Your good friend, 
 
 '* Napoleon. 
 
 " January 29, 1854." 
 
 To this letter, so conciliatory in its tenor, the 
 Czar returned a positive refusal to accede to the 
 proposed arrangement. All means of persuasion 
 having been exhausted. Prance and England, 
 acting in concert, declared war against Eussia on 
 
 * *' Nos relations doivent etre sincerement amicales, 
 reposer sur les memes intentions : maintien de I'ordre, 
 amour de la paix, respect aux traites, et bienveillance 
 reciproque." 
 
146 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 the same day, March 27th, 1854. Thus, after a state 
 of peace which had lasted for forty years between 
 the great European powers, the first note of con- 
 flict was sounded. The result, it is well known, 
 was to prove, after a struggle of unexampled fierce- 
 ness, that France and England possessed strength 
 to repel and chastise the insatiable ambition of 
 the Czar, aiming at the seizure of Constantinople 
 as a sure step to supremacy in Europe. The 
 success of the allied powers was not, however, 
 achieved until the best blood of both nations had 
 been poured out like water, and mourning brought 
 to hearths and homes of every rank and class 
 throughout our land. 
 
 Louis Napoleon declared more than once his 
 resolve to proceed to the seat of war in the East, 
 and put himself at the head of his troops before 
 Sebastopol; but political exigencies over-ruled 
 this intention of engaging personally in the 
 campaign. It was at a later period, in the war 
 undertaken by France for the defence of Sardinia, 
 in 1859, that the Emperor gave the world ample 
 opportunity to judge of his capacity as a mihtary 
 commander. 
 
 While on the topic of the war in the Crimea of 
 
LIFE OP NAPOLEON III, 147 
 
 1854-55, it is curious to recall the fact that, full 
 a thousand years before, the Eussians were abso- 
 lute masters of the Black Sea ; a nation of pirates 
 on a large scale. Having commenced their 
 existence as a nation at Novogorod, and extended 
 their frontier to the Baltic on the west, and as 
 far south as Kiow (or Kieff,) they made their 
 first attempt, in two hundred large canoes, to 
 pillage Constantinople in the year 865. The 
 alarm of the Greek Emperor, Michael III. was 
 excessive, and relieved only by a providential 
 storm, which scattered the unseaworthy flotilla of 
 his assailants. Levesque, the historian of Eussia, 
 furnishes some details respecting this expedition. 
 The Emperor Michael had quitted his capital with 
 an armed force, to make war on some Arab enemies. 
 ' ' II regoit un courier du gouverneur de Constanti- 
 nople, qui lui apprend que les Eusses approchent 
 sur deux cents vaisseaux, et que la ville est 
 menacee. L'Empereur retourne sur ses pas avec 
 son armee, mais quelque diligence qu'il puisse 
 faire, il trouve que les Eusses ont deja ravage les 
 bords de la mer noire, que les rives du bosphore 
 de Thrace ont ete livrees au feu et a la flamme, 
 et que la flotte ennemie ferme I'entree de Con- 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 stantinople. Ce ne fut qu'avec des difficultes 
 extremes qu'il parvint a se jeter dans la ville. 
 . . . Henreusement line tempete disperse la flotte 
 ennemie ; Oskhold, le chef de cette expedition, 
 demande en meme temps la paix et le bapteme, et 
 retourne a Kief.'"'' 
 
 Thus, at the very epoch when the Danes and 
 other pirates of the North Sea were ravaging the 
 coasts of Britain, the Eussians, after a similar 
 fashion, were wasting with fire and sword the 
 shores of the Euxine. Towards the close of the 
 fourteenth century, the Mogul conquerors over- 
 spread those regions, and seemed to have blotted 
 out the Eussian name. But on the collapse of 
 the Mogul empire in Europe, the Eussian power, 
 which had been kept down but not extinguished, 
 sprang up into fresh life in its first cradle, Novo- 
 gorod, and has since, as we know too well, 
 advanced its fortresses into the heart of Europe, 
 destroyed the kingdom of Poland, and depressed 
 its other neighbours, Sweden and Denmark. 
 
 The enormous expenditure attendant on a 
 campaign such as that undertaken by France and 
 England against the common foe, though a minor 
 
 * Histoire de Russie, vol. i. p. 75. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III, 149 
 
 item in the amount of human suflfering, the tears, 
 and the bloodshed, which are the cost of war,. 
 forms yet no insignificant portion of its penalties. 
 To meet the occasion, Louis Napoleon adopted a 
 mode which had no precedent in the history of 
 financial policy, the success of which exceeded 
 the most sanguine expectation. Instead of em- 
 ploying, as usual in such cases, the agency of 
 capitalists and contractors for a national loan, 
 the Emperor made his a^ppeal directly to the 
 people, who responded to the call by bringing 
 willingly far more than he required. The first 
 amount asked was five hundred million francs : 
 the people brought more than four times that 
 amount. Later, the Government asked a supple- 
 mentary loan of three hundred million francs, or 
 twelve millions sterling : the people brought 
 nearly five thousand million francs, or two 
 hundred millions sterling.* 
 
 '■' Even tlie above proportions have been greatly exceeded 
 since. In the month of August, 1868, an official circular 
 from the Minister of Finance conveyed some details to the 
 subscribers to a loan just then effected. The summary is 
 given in an article in The Times of the 25th of that month : 
 " The amount of money required by the French Minister of 
 Finance was rather more than eighteen millions sterling. 
 Instead of eighteen millions sterling, it became more than 
 
150 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Amid the war that raged in the Crimea, the 
 arts of peaceful industry were still remembered 
 by nations thus engaged in deadly strife. The 
 Great Exhibition at Paris, in the Spring of 1855, 
 gathered together at one view the various works 
 of hmnan skill and the national products of 
 different climes from all quarters of the globe. 
 The speech made by the Emperor of the French 
 at the close of the Exhibition, to an auditory of 
 sixty thousand persons, advocated strongly the 
 restoration of peace. '* The Exhibition now about 
 to close offers to the world a great spectacle. It is 
 during a war of serious character that, from all 
 points of the globe, persons the most distinguished 
 in science, arts, and industry, have come to Paris 
 to exhibit the result of their toils. This assem- 
 blage, under such circumstances, is due, I rejoice 
 to believe, to the general conviction that the war 
 in which we are engaged is menacing to those 
 only who provoked it ; that it has been carried on 
 in the interest of all, and that Europe sees in it 
 no prognostic of peril, but rather a guarantee of 
 security and independence. 
 
 six hundred millions sterling ; thirty-four times as much as 
 was required." 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 151 
 
 ** Nevertheless, in view of the many wonders 
 displayed before our eyes, the first impression 
 produced is a desire for peace. Peace alone, in 
 fact, can develope still farther these remarkable 
 fruits of the human intelligence. You will 
 naturally wish with me, that such a peace may 
 be prompt and durable. But that it may be 
 durable, it is necessary that it resolve distinctly 
 the question for which the war was undertaken. 
 That it may be prompt, it is indispensable that 
 Europe declare herself for one side or for the 
 other; since, without the pressure of public 
 opinion, the contest between the great powers 
 threatens to be prolonged ;, whereas, on the 
 contrary, if Europe decide to pronounce who is 
 right or who is wrong, it will be a great step 
 towards the desired solution. At the present 
 epoch of civilization, the successes of armies, 
 however brilliant, are but passing triumphs ; it is 
 always public opinion which obtains the final 
 victory." 
 
 After the close of the Exhibition, the Emperor, 
 in an address to the French Legislature, alluded 
 in the following terms to the visit of Queen 
 Victoria to Paris : '' The Queen of Great Britain, 
 
152 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 wishing to confer on our country a mark of her 
 confidence and esteem, and to render our relations 
 more intimate, has visited France. The enthu- 
 siastic welcome which she received must have 
 proved to her how deep were the sentiments that 
 her presence inspired, and how calculated to 
 fortify the alliance between the two nations/' 
 
 The Empress Eugenie, on the 16th of March, 
 1856, gave birth to a son. The heir to the 
 Imperial throne of France, received the baptismal 
 names. Napoleon Louis Eugene. 
 
 On the 14th of January, 1858, an attempt at 
 assassination, as foul and dastardly as any recorded 
 in the annals of crime, occurred in the streets of 
 Paris. The chief conspirator, an Italian named 
 Orsini, had hired three other Italians, ruffians of 
 lower grade than himself, to join him in carrying 
 out his project. They were provided each with 
 a shell charged with fulminating powder; and 
 took their stand, on the eve of the 14th, at the 
 door of the Opera, between eight and nine o'clock, 
 the hour at which it was known that the Emperor 
 and Empress of the French were expected to visit 
 the theatre. Suspicions had arisen in the minds 
 of the police, and one of the assassins was arrested 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 153 
 
 at the private entrance of the building just a quarter 
 of an hour before the arrival of their Majesties. 
 Scarcely had their carriage reached the spot when 
 three shells thrown under it, in rapid succession, 
 burst, with a terrific noise and stifling smoke, 
 into a tempest of iron fragments, dealing wounds 
 and death among the hundreds assembled around. 
 General Eoquet, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor, 
 was wounded severely, within the carriage, 
 by the explosion, and countless injuries were 
 inflicted on attendants and by-standers. ^ In the 
 midst of the scene of confusion and terror, the 
 Emperor and Empress maintained a calm self- 
 possession worthy of them. They inquired into 
 the extent of the mischief done, from which they 
 had been so marvellously protected, and into the 
 cases and condition of the sufferers; and then 
 entered the theatre for a while, to assure the public 
 by their presence of their providential preserva- 
 tion and safety. On the morrow they visited the 
 wounded in the hospitals, and traversed the 
 Boulevards of the city without any escort, greeted 
 everywhere by the warmest acclamations. 
 
 Orsini, the chief of the assassins, struck by one 
 of his own projectiles, was tracked by the blood 
 
154 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 falling from his wound, to a cafe, and there 
 arrested/'' 
 
 On the 17th of January, at the opening of the 
 Legislative Chambers, the Emperor, in his speech 
 to them, referred to the recent outrage : ^* I can- 
 not conclude without speaking to you of the late 
 criminal attempt, and rendering thanks to heaven 
 for the protection so visibly afforded to the 
 Empress and me. I lament that so many 
 victims should have been sacrificed in order to 
 assail a single life. Such conspiracies bring with 
 them, however, more than one useful lesson. 1. 
 The faction which resorts to means so desperate 
 proves thereby its own weakness and impotence. 
 2. Never has an assassination, even if successful 
 in its immediate object, advantaged those who 
 armed the hand of the assassin. Neither the 
 blow which struck Caesar, nor that which slew 
 Henry IV. profited the authors of those murders. 
 God permits sometimes the just to fall, but He 
 never suffers the cause of the assassin to triumph. 
 Thus, such attempts can shake neither my con- 
 fidence in the present nor my faith in the future : 
 
 * He was executed with one of his accomplices ; two 
 were sentenced to penal servitude for life. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 155 
 
 if I live, the Empire lives on with me; and 
 should I fall, the Empire would survive, and be 
 strengthened even by my death, since the indig- 
 nation of the people and of the army would be a 
 fresh support to the throne of my son. 
 
 " Let us then face the future with confidence ; 
 and, without disquieting apprehensions, apply 
 ourselves to our wonted labours for the welfare 
 and greatness of the country. Bieu 'protege la 
 Fraiuey 
 
( 156 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 The Campaign of Italy. 
 1859. 
 
 A GREAT demonstration of public feeling took place 
 on the departure of the Emperor Napoleon III. 
 for the Italian Campaign. *'It was at five 
 o'clock," an eye-witness* relates, '' on a summer 
 evening (May 10, 1859) that the Emperor quitted 
 the Tuileries, after having attended with his 
 household a religious service in the chapel of the 
 palace. He was in an open carriage, in military 
 undress, and accompanied solely by the Empress; 
 his brilliant staff having preceded him to the 
 ' Gare de Lyon,' the Paris railway station for 
 Marseilles. The people, who had long waited 
 impatiently for his appearance, filled the streets, 
 windows, balconies, and even house-tops. His 
 carriage proceeded at a walking pace, often brought 
 to a stand-still by the crowd. It was no longer a 
 
 * M. Mullois. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 157 
 
 shout, but a thunder of acclamation, with stamp- 
 ing of feet, clapping of hands, waving of hats. 
 Many a hearty grasp of the hand was exchanged 
 between the Emperor and those of the throng 
 who succeeded in forcing their way to the first 
 rank. Even the women and children took part 
 in the demonstration, and threw garlands of 
 flowers into the carriage with cries of : Que Bieii 
 vous protege ! The Emperor rose frequently from 
 his seat to acknowledge these hearty farewells, 
 and was visibly affected, though his countenance 
 retained its habitual calm expression. The 
 Empress at his side could not restrain her tears, 
 while, from time to time, with her gracious manner 
 and sweet smile, she thanked the people for their 
 outburst of loyal affection. If any diversity of 
 opinion existed elsewhere on the policy of the 
 Italian campaign, it seemed certain that between 
 sovereign and people there was but one heart and 
 one mind on the subject. * Sire,' exclaimed a 
 workman, * if you want soldiers, you have but to 
 speak the word, we are all ready.' " 
 
 The causes which made the war of Italy a 
 national necessity for Sardinia and France, even 
 after their assent to the conditions proposed by a 
 
158 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Congress of the great powers for preserving the 
 peace of Europe, are explained in a letter from 
 Count Cavour to Count Buol, and in a proclama- 
 tion from the Emperor Napoleon to the French 
 people. 
 
 Letter from Count Cavour, Sardinian Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs, to Count Buol, Chief Minister 
 of Austria. 
 
 '' Turin, April 26, 1859. 
 
 ** Monsieur le Comte, 
 
 '^ Baron Kellersberg placed in my hands on fche 
 23rd inst., at half-past six in the evening, the 
 letter which your Excellency has done me 
 the honour to address to me, dated the 19th 
 of this month, in the name of the Imperial 
 Government, requiring me to reply, by a simple 
 ' Yes ' or ' No,' to the invitation conveyed to us 
 to reduce our army to a peace footing, and to 
 disband the bodies of troops formed of Itahan 
 volunteers: adding that if at the expiration 
 of three days your Excellency should have 
 received no reply, or if the reply received should 
 not be satisfactory, his Majesty the Emperor of 
 Austria has determined to resort to arms, in order 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 159 
 
 to impose by force those measures which form the 
 object of his communication. 
 
 ** The question of the disarmament of Sardinia, 
 which constitutes the base of the demand made by 
 your Excellency, has been the subject of numerous 
 negotiations between the great powers and the 
 Government of his Majesty. These negotiations 
 have resulted in a proposition drawn up by 
 England, to which France, Prussia, and Eussia, 
 have given assent. Sardinia has accepted it with- 
 out reserve or qualification. 
 
 *' As your Excellency cannot be ignorant either 
 of the proposition made or of Sardinia's reply to 
 it, I can add nothing to your knowledge of the 
 dispositions of the King's Government relative to 
 the difficulties which hindered the re-assembling 
 of the Congress. 
 
 " The conduct of Sardinia in this conjuncture 
 has been appreciated by Europe, Whatever may 
 be the consequences resulting from it, the King, 
 my august master, is convinced that the respon- 
 sibility of them will recoil on those who were the 
 first to arm ; who have rejected the proposition 
 drawn up by one of the great powers, and recog- 
 nised as just and reasonable by the others ; and 
 
160 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 who now substitute for it a threatening sum- 
 mons. 
 
 '* I avail myself of this occasion, &c., 
 
 ^'C. Cavour." 
 
 '^ To the French People. 
 
 '' Palace of the Tuileries. 
 '' 3 May, 1859." 
 
 ** Frenchmen, 
 
 '^ Austria, by invading the territory of our 
 ahy the King of Sardinia, declares war against us ; 
 setting at nought treaties and justice, and menacing 
 our frontiers. All the great powers have protested 
 against this aggression. 
 
 '' Since Piedmont has accepted every condition 
 proposed for the preservation of peace, we may 
 naturally ask, what inducement can have led to 
 this sudden invasion ? It is simply this : — 
 Austria has pushed matters to such an extremity 
 that either her dominion must extend to the Alps, 
 or Italy must be free to the Adriatic. The 
 smallest portion of that country which retains its 
 independence is a peril to her sway. 
 
 " Hitherto, moderation has been the guide of 
 my conduct : energy becomes now my chief duty. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 161 
 
 " Let France arm, and say resolutely to 
 Europe : * I wish for no foreign conquest, but I 
 desire to maintain firmly my national policy : I 
 observe the faith of treaties towards others, pro- 
 vided they be not violated against myself : I respect 
 the territory and the rights of neutral powers, but 
 avow openly my sympathy for a people whose 
 history blends itself with my own, and who groan 
 beneath the yoke of the stranger.' 
 
 '' France has testified her abhorrence of anarchy. 
 Her will has bestowed on me a power sufficiently 
 strong to reduce to impotence the promoters of 
 disorder, and the incorrigible partisans of effete 
 factions, whom we see in continual correspondence 
 with our enemies. But France has not therefoi^e 
 renounced her part in the work of civilization. 
 Her natural allies have ever been found in the 
 ranks of those who seek the amelioration of man- 
 kind, and when France draws the sword it is not 
 to enslave, but to enfranchise. 
 
 '* The object, then, of this war is not to give 
 
 Italy a change of masters, but to restore her to 
 
 herself, and thus we shall have on our frontiers a 
 
 friendly power, indebted to us for independence. 
 
 " We go to that classic land, ennobled to us by 
 
 M 
 
162 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 SO many victories, to retrace there the footsteps of 
 our fathers. May we but prove ourselves worthy 
 of them. 
 
 '' I go shortly to place myself at the head of the 
 army. I leave in France the Empress and my 
 son. Aided by the counsels and experience of the 
 Emperor's last surviving brother,* she will shew 
 herself equal to the greatness of her mission. I 
 confide them to the valour of that army which will 
 remain in Prance for the safety of our frontiers 
 and the protection of the domestic hearth : I con- 
 fide them to the loyalty of the National Guard ; to 
 the entire nation ; who will surround them with 
 that affection and devotion of which I receive daily 
 so many proofs. 
 
 '' Courage, then, and concord ! The world shall 
 see yet again that our country has not degene- 
 rated. Providence will bless our efforts, for the 
 cause must be holy in the sight of Heaven, which 
 rests on justice, humanity, love of country and of 
 independence. 
 
 '* Napoleon." 
 
 The train appointed to carry the Emperor and 
 his suite left Paris at a quarter after six ; the 
 
 '^ Prince Jerome. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 163 
 
 Empress accompanying him as far as to Mon- 
 tereau, about twenty leagues from the capital. 
 From Montereau the train proceeded with scarcely 
 a halt, and reached Marseilles about noon on the 
 day following. The Emperor went from the 
 station direct to the port, and embarked at once on 
 board the Imperial yacht La Reine Hortense, which 
 waited to convey him to the army of Italy. 
 About 2 o'clock, p.m., the vessel was clear of the 
 harbour, and soon after noon next day (12 May) 
 entered the port of Genoa. 
 
 The scene witnessed there, on the arrival of La 
 Reine Hortense, is described as a spectacle rarely 
 parallelled. Eight hundred vessels of various 
 nations lay at anchor, and among them English, 
 French, Sardinian men-of-war, with yards manned, 
 and dressed in flags. English ** Hurrahs ! " 
 mingled with the shouts of ** Evviva la Francia /" 
 " Evviva Napoleone ! " The spacious and beautiful 
 harbour was covered with boats, each one bringing 
 its freight of flower- wreaths. '' Les fleurs 
 pleuvaient ;" it was said : nosegays were showered 
 in such profusion as to form a flying arch over the 
 boat which conveyed the Emperor to the landing- 
 place ; while, the weather being perfectly calm, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 all brilliant colours of flowers and flags were 
 reflected in the still clear waters, as in a mirror. 
 One thing was particularly noticed in the rejoic- 
 ings at the landing of Napoleon III. in Italy : not 
 a shade of doubt mingled with the universal 
 exultaifcion. ■< The same confidence appeared in all 
 ranks, that the union of the Italian and French 
 arms would achieve results as triumphant as, in 
 
 the event, they proved to be. 
 
 The Emperor was received on shore by the 
 Prince of Carignano ; Count Cavour, President of 
 the Council ; Eegnaud de Saint- Jean d'Angely, 
 Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard ; and 
 by them conducted to the Palazzo Eeale, where', at 
 an early hour on the following morning, King 
 Victor Emmanuel arrived to welcome his potent 
 ally. Most of that day was given to conferences 
 with the Commissaries- General, in regard to 
 arrangements to be adopted for the subsistence of 
 the troops during the approaching- operations in 
 the field. 
 
 On the morrow, 14 May, the Emperor proceeded 
 to join the main body of his army at Alessandria, 
 the principal stronghold of Piedmont, and its 
 central depot for provisions and munitions of war. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 165 
 
 Four French corps-d'arm^e were now assembled 
 around this fortress : the 1st and 2nd, under com- 
 mand of Marshal Baraguey d' HiUiers and General 
 Mac-Mahon, had come by sea, from Marseilles and 
 Toulon to Genoa : the 3rd and 4th, under Marshal 
 Canrobert and General Niel, had entered Piedmont 
 through the passes of the Alps. The 5th corps, 
 commanded by Prince Napoleon, remained at 
 Genoa. The above five corps-d'armee, with the 
 Imperial Guard, numbered about 125,000 men. 
 The Sardinian army, about 55,000, raised the 
 total of the allied forces to 180,000. 
 
 The Emperor fixed his head-quarters at Ales- 
 sandria as his base of operations, till enabled to 
 decide on the final dispositions for a movement in 
 advance : and proceeded immediately to a study 
 of the surrounding country, visiting assiduously 
 every point of importance. In order to follow the 
 plan of strategy on which he resolved, it is indis- 
 pensable to take a view of the position occupied by 
 the Austrian forces on his arrival in Italy. They 
 had begun to cross the river Ticino, the barrier 
 that separates Lombardy and Piedmont, on the 
 26th of April, and, though their movements were 
 not rapid, accomplished in a few days, without 
 
166 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 meeting impediment, the transport of five Austrian 
 corps-d*armee into Sardinian territory. Consider- 
 able vacillation seems to have prevailed in their 
 subsequent councils, since, instead of pushing for- 
 ward to attain any definite object, they wasted 
 time in "marchings and counter-marchings." 
 It is probable that their first intention was an 
 advance on Turin ; but that the arrival of French 
 troops at Alessandria, exposing the Austrians to 
 the danger of a flank attack on their road to the 
 capital of Sardinia, induced them to change their 
 plans, and retrace their steps towards the Ticino. 
 By their slowness and indecision they deprived 
 themselves of any advantage which might have 
 arisen from being earliest in the field and striking 
 the first blow. On the other hand, no time was 
 lost by the Emperor in affording Sardinia the 
 moral support of an allied power marching to her 
 succour. On the 30th of April, the head of 
 Canrobert's columns entered Turin. Shortly 
 afterwards the French legions were concentrated 
 round Alessandria in sufficient force to make a 
 stand against all assailants. 
 
 At the middle of May, the right extremity of the 
 line held by the aUied armies was formed by the 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 167 
 
 1st division of the 1st corps-d'armee, under com- 
 mand of General Forey. It was stationed near to 
 the village of Montebello, a field already celebrated 
 in the military annals of France, being the same 
 on which, sixty years before, (9 June, 1800), 
 Lannes won his title of Duke of Montebello, by a 
 victory over the Austrians. About five miles 
 beyond, is another village, Casteggio,* in rear of 
 which a strong Austrian detachment was posted ; 
 and, as the hostile forces were daily extending 
 themselves towards each other< in that direction, 
 it was evident that a collision at some point must 
 speedily ensue. On the 20th of May, about noon, 
 a large body of Austrians advanced upon Casteggio, 
 and took possession of the village in overwhelming 
 force, after a valiant defence by some Sardinian 
 cavalry stationed there. The Sardinians fell back 
 in good order on Montebello, which they likewise 
 defended for a considerable time, till, yielding to 
 superior numbers, they retreated on the French 
 division. General Forey, who on the first alarm 
 supposed it to be a mere reconnaissance, or explor- 
 ing party, soon discovered, beyond a doubt, that 
 
 '•' Once a Eoman military station of importance, reduced 
 to ashes by Hannibal. 
 
168 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 the offensive movement was of a serious character, 
 finding himseK in presence of two strong hostile 
 columns advancing on his outposts. These posts 
 had been recently strengthened by order of the 
 Emperor, in anticipation of such an attack. It 
 partook nevertheless, in some degree, the nature 
 of a surprise. Forey, collecting hastily a few 
 battalions and a battery of artillery, made every 
 possible effort, seconded vigorously by charges 
 from the Piedmontese cavalry, to hold his antago- 
 nists in check until reinforcements could arrive 
 from his division. A short time brought up other 
 French troops, and the conflict now raged in that 
 close hand-to-hand fighting by which, as military 
 authorities agree, after all that manoeuvring can 
 do, the fate of battles is usually decided. The 
 furious and repeated rushes of the French pre- 
 vailed over the obstinate valour of their opponents : 
 the Austrians, notwithstanding their superiority 
 of numbers, gave way. Every step, however, was 
 marked by carnage and destruction. The crops 
 of rye and other grain, which at that time grew 
 high in the fields, concealed bands of Tyrolese 
 marksmen and skirmishers ; who, as the advance 
 of the French trampled under foot the corn, rose 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 169 
 
 to sight, seeming to realise the old fable of armed 
 men springing out of the earth. The Austrians, 
 finally, were repelled to the village of Montebello 
 where they renewed the combat still more fiercely. 
 Every window poured its volleys ; every house 
 was turned into a fortress ; they were carried, one 
 by one, frequently not until the last defender had 
 fallen. At length, the Austrians were driven 
 from the village, but at its further extremity en- 
 trenched themselves for a final stand at a cemetery, 
 planting cannon on a rising- ground, to command 
 the road. Here ensued the most sanguinary 
 struggle of the day. Porey, gathering his troops 
 from all the streets and lanes of the place, poured 
 them in an irresistible flood over the low walls of 
 the cemetery, and carried this last position at the 
 point of the bayonet, with shouts of *' Vive 
 r Empereur ! " The Austrians retreated in disorder 
 to Casteggio, which they evacuated soon after- 
 wards. The combat had lasted from noon till 
 half-past six. 
 
 At six o'clock on the following morning, (the 
 21st) the Emperor left Alessandria, accompanied 
 by Generals Forey and Martimprey ; Larrey, the 
 Surgeon-in-chief ; the Abbe Laine, and another 
 
170 LIFE OF NAPOLEON IH. 
 
 chaplain ; to visit the field of Montebello, and 
 bring help and sympathy to the wounded. A 
 French writer'*' tells us : ''II trouva chacun a son 
 poste, aumoniers et chirurgiens, ceux-ci parlant a 
 Tame des mourants, ceux-la cherchant a ramener 
 la vie parmi les victimes que le combat avait frappe. 
 . . . C'etait un spectacle touchant de voir ces mal- 
 heureux se soulever sur leur lit de souffrance, et 
 oublier de douloureuses blessures pour acclamer 
 leur Empereur." 
 
 It appears that a large proportion of the 
 Austrian force engaged in the combat of Monte- 
 bello were young recruits ill qualified to cope with 
 the French veterans — les vieux d'Afrique. ** Of 
 about 200 prisoners captured by the French," one 
 present on the occasion reports, '' there were 
 scarcely a dozen who had reached the age of 
 twenty-five ; many were mere boys ; one, the son 
 of an Austrian count, had entered the service only 
 twenty days before, and seemed little pleased with 
 his debut. The field of battle was strewn with 
 dead, mown down by rows. The corn-crops, 
 which on the previous day had been standing 
 full and ripening for the harvest, on the morning 
 
 •'^ M. de Bazancourt. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 171 
 
 after the combat were crushed and trodden down, 
 covered with gory flakes, dried and blackened in 
 the sun. Caps, collars, vests, pieces of cloth, 
 stained with blood, lay on every side. I stumbled 
 on two bodies which had heep. quite hid under 
 * ' long grass ; one, a lad of about fifteen years ; he 
 wore suspended by a ribbon round his neck the 
 miniature of an aged female, probably of his 
 mother." " I had the fortune," another writer 
 relates, '' to lay hands on a stripHng who fought 
 like a young tiger : I knocked up a musket that 
 was levelled at him, and seized him by the collar, 
 to prevent further unpleasant consequences. 
 * Yield, boy : ' I cried ; whereon he handed me 
 his sword, but, though I saved his life^ he would 
 not thank me for it." 
 
 The success of Montebello, flattering to the 
 military prowess of the French, afi'orded them no 
 sufficient encouragement to a direct attack on the 
 main body of the Austrians. Count Gyulai, their 
 Commander-in-Chief, having received reinforce- 
 ments which raised his numbers to about 200,000 
 men, held a position at the close of the month of 
 May, in the angle formed by the confluence of the 
 Ticino with the Po near to the town of Pavia, 
 
172 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 which presented almost insuperable obstacles to 
 an assailant. The Emperor resolved therefore, 
 instead of attacking, to turn it. 
 
 In order to conceal his design, he massed 
 French and Sardinian troops on his right, under 
 command of King Victor Emmanuel, to make a 
 demonstration against the Austrian encampments. 
 At the same time, the Empetor prepared to carry 
 his army by the left towards Novara. Two severe 
 combats which ensued, on the 30th and 31st May, 
 at Palestro, resulting in favour of the allies, tended 
 to confirm the impression that their chief efforts 
 were directed to that quarter. Meanwhile, the 
 main army of the French, by sudden and rapid 
 marches, had reached Novara, and taken up there 
 the same ground on which King Charles Albert 
 had battled, ten years before (23 March, 1849, J 
 for the freedom of Italy. 
 
 The town of Novara is about fifty miles E.N.E. 
 from Tunis; on the high road, which, leading 
 from that capital to Milan, crosses the Ticino by 
 the bridge of Buffalora, and passes through 
 Magenta, a village two miles on the left or Lom- 
 bard side of the river. The object of the strategic 
 movement so ably planned and boldly executed by 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 173 
 
 the Emperor was to secure the passage of the 
 Ticino for his army, concentrate it at Magenta, 
 and advance upon Milan. 
 
 By his direction, on the 2nd June, the voltigeurs, 
 or light division, of the Guard, xmder command of 
 General Camon, accompanied by a battery of 
 artillery and a squadron of cavalry, proceeded to 
 throw three pontoon bridges across the Ticino, 
 opposite to Turbigo, a village of Lombardy situate 
 about seven miles above Buffalora. This work 
 was accomplished without difficulty, aud was in- 
 tended for the passage of the 2nd corps d'armee 
 (Mac-Mahon) the next day. 
 
 On the 3rd, accordingly, that corps advanced 
 from Novara, and crossing the Ticino on the 
 same afternoon, established itself firmly at 
 Turbigo. The Emperor, who was present to 
 witness the success of the movement, and the 
 repulse of an Austrian column which had come 
 from Milan to oppose the progress of the French, 
 returned at 5 p.m. to Novara. 
 
 Our narrative brings us now to the 4th of June, 
 the day on which the great contest was to be 
 decided, its stake being the domination of the 
 Austrians in Lombardy. On the morning of that 
 
174 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 memorable day, the Emperor, having under his 
 immediate command the Grenadier division of the 
 Imperial Guard, about 5,000 in number, with five 
 batteries of artillery and two squadrons of light- 
 horse, crossed the bridge of Buffalora, occupying 
 thus the centre of approaching operations ; the 
 point, that is, at which battle was first joined and 
 towards which all its lines converged. The 3rd 
 and 4th corps d'armee (Canrobert and Niel) 
 received orders to follow in support of the Guard, 
 and to pass the river at the same point. The 
 corps of Mac-Mahon was to march at the same 
 time from Turbigo on Buffalora and Magenta. 
 Difficulties, however, arising chiefly from the bad 
 state of the roads, delayed the execution of these 
 combinations ; and Canrobert and Niel were unable 
 to reach the scene of action until the evening of 
 the day. When the Grenadiers crossed the bridge 
 with much precaution, towards the hour of noon, 
 it was impossible for them to foretell what amount 
 of resistance they might have to encounter on 
 their further advance : all was calm and still 
 around, and nothing indicated the vicinity of a 
 foe. The country before them presented a view 
 of corn-fields and vineyards, interspersed with 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 175 
 
 groves of mulberry and other trees ; a fair and 
 peaceful scene, soon to be shaken by the cries of 
 war, the tramp of battalions, and the roar of 
 artillery. For, on the crests of some neighbour- 
 ing heights, Austrian troops began to appear 
 from time to time, and the movements which took 
 place among them at various points seemed to 
 shew that they were in considerable force. Distant 
 interchange of shots ensued between the skir- 
 mishers on either side, and the Emperor remained 
 anxiously waiting some sign of the approach of 
 Mac-Mahon. 
 
 That General had left Turbigo at 10 a.m., in 
 two columns : the first, headed by himself, 
 directed on the right to Buffalora, which he 
 calculated on reaching in two hours and half: 
 the second, under General Espinasse, by a 
 different route to Magenta. About one o'clock, a 
 sharp fire of musketry, followed by a rapid dis- 
 charge of cannon, was heard near the village of 
 Buffalora. General Mac-Mahon was arriving there. 
 The Emperor ordered an immediate advance 
 in that direction. Two brigades of the Guard, 
 commanded by Generals Cler and Wimpfiien, 
 rushed impetuously forward, and carried several 
 
176 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 formidable positions occupied by the enemy. The 
 further progress of the French was however 
 arrested by the continually increasing number of 
 their opponents. Austrian bayonets glittered on 
 all sides, threatening to overwhelm the Emperor's 
 comparatively small band ; and it was only by the 
 most determined efforts that he could stand his 
 ground and maintain command of the bridge. 
 At this crisis, the cannon of Mac-Mahon suddenly 
 ceased. 
 
 In order to throw light on events at this time 
 in progress, it is necessary to recur to the ope- 
 rations of the Austrian army under Count Gyulai. 
 He had become aware, on the night of the 2nd of 
 June, of the manoeuvres of the French, and, 
 re-crossing the Ticino near to Pavia, in all haste 
 pushed forward by forced marches towards 
 Magenta. They were part of his troops which 
 now attacked the French at the bridge : but his 
 main army was directed to occupy Magenta. 
 Mac-Mahon, as he drew near to Buffalora, per- 
 ceived that he had in front of him the Austrians 
 in very superior force. Their heavy masses 
 covered the country between Buffalora and 
 Magenta; and came on with manifest intention 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 177 
 
 of interposing betwixt the two columns of the 
 French corps, and thus cutting off the division 
 of Espinasse from the rest of the army. Mac- 
 Mahon suspended, in consequence, his forward 
 movement, in order to give time for the junction 
 of his two columns ; and this explains the cessa- 
 tion of firing already mentioned. An officer of his 
 staff was dispatched to General Espinasse, who 
 promised to operate the proposed junction within 
 an hour. But he had difficulties of his own to 
 contend against, finding also the enemy on his 
 path. The hour elapsed, and Mac-Mahon, in- 
 tolerant of prolonged suspense, accompanied by 
 a few officers of his staff and a platoon of light 
 horse, by a sudden impulse, galloped off across 
 country at full speed. They dashed over hedges 
 and ditches, through thickets where the horses 
 had to breast their way by sheer force. In mid 
 course they burst upon a party of Tyrolese 
 skirmishers, ambushed in some corn. The marks- 
 men, amazed at the irruption of wild horsemen, 
 instead of using their rifles, held them up with 
 their bonnets on the muzzles, in token of sur- 
 render. The riders, without paying them the 
 least regard, pursued their headlong race ; and, 
 
 N 
 
178 LIFE OP NAPOLEON III. 
 
 a little further on, were charged by a small de- 
 tachment of uhlans, (lancers) whom they en- 
 countered by drawing the sabre, but not the rein, 
 never slackening speed nor deviating from their 
 course for a single instant, until they reached 
 General Espinasse. A few words sufficed between 
 the two Generals, to give and receive the necessary 
 instructions. The last direction of Mac-Mahon, 
 as he turned to gallop back to his division, Avas 
 '' Hdtez vous, surtout." 
 
 Meanwhile, the state of affairs at the bridge was 
 becoming more and more critical. Eegnaud de 
 Saint-Jean-d'Angely, and the Grenadiers of the 
 Guard, fighting under the eye of the Emperor, 
 displayed the utmost energy and resolution, but 
 were nearly exhausted in the struggle against 
 numbers. It was four o'clock, and the corps 
 d'armee of Marshal Canrobert had not yet 
 appeared. But the cannon of Mac-Mahon began 
 now to thunder again. His columns had com- 
 pleted their junction, and, presenting a compact 
 front, were marching anew upon Magenta. The 
 Austrian army opposed the most strenuous resist- 
 ance to their advance. The nature of the 
 country, wooded and laid out in vineyards, being 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 179 
 
 unfavourable to the use of artillery, and prevent- 
 ing the formation of a regular line of battle, the 
 contest was carried on in a succession of deadly 
 encounters with the rifle and the bayonet. An 
 eye-witness* writes to an English journal : ** The 
 frightful scene of carnage on all the ground, 
 which the Austrians defended inch by inch but 
 had to leave at last, is like the remains of a 
 great rag-fair : shakoes, knapsacks, muskets, 
 shoes, cloaks, tunics, linen, all stained with blood, 
 and speaking of the obstinate resistance even now 
 when the greater part of the wounded have been 
 removed and the dead mostly buried. Of how 
 many dramas of heroism and ferocity, of how 
 many tragedies of woes and misery, must this 
 have been the scene ! *' — Finally, the French 
 succeeded in pressing back the Austrians along 
 their whole line, and in cutting their way with 
 the bayonet to the village of Magenta, which both 
 sides felt to be the key of the position. Here 
 the conflict raged with redoubled fury in the close 
 narrow streets ; the cries and shouts of the com- 
 batants mingling with the rattle of musketry and 
 the roar of cannon. At length the Austrians 
 
 * Correspondent of The Times. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 were driven out of the place, leaving 6,000 
 prisoners and four pieces of artillery in the hands 
 of the victors. 
 
 The corps of Canrobert and Niel had by this 
 time joined the Emperor, and the fate of the day 
 could no longer be doubted. Their opponents, 
 beaten back at all points, were in full and hasty 
 retreat, leaving the French, at eight o'clock, 
 undisputed masters of the field. 
 
 The Battle of Magenta cannot be classed in the 
 number of sterile victories. Its immediate effect 
 was to free Piedmont from her invaders, and to 
 open to the conquerors the gates of Milan. On 
 the morning of the 8th of June, the Emperor of 
 the French and the King of Sardinia made their 
 entry together into the capital of Lombardy. 
 At half-past seven a.m., the sovereigns, with their 
 
 staffs, met at the Vercellina gate, in front of the 
 triumphal arch, '' Arco della Pace," which forms 
 the entrance to the fine military square, Fiazzh 
 d'Armi. Here Marshal Eegnaud de Saint-Jean 
 d'Angely, with the Imperial Guard drawn up in 
 line of battle, awaited their arrival. Great pre- 
 parations had been made by the inhabitants of 
 the city to give a worthy reception to the liberators 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 181 
 
 of Lombardy. But they had not been expected 
 before eleven in the forenoon ; and the houses 
 whose roofs and balconies displayed the united 
 banners of France and Sardinia were still closed 
 at the early hour when Napoleon III. and Victor 
 Emmanuel, attended by a single squadron of the 
 Guard, rode into Milan. The following proclama- 
 tion was published on the same day. 
 
 '* Itahans ! 
 
 "The fortune of war having brought me into 
 the capital of Lombardy, it remains for me to 
 inform you why I am here. 
 
 ''When Austria unjustly attacked Piedmont, I 
 resolved to support my ally the King of Sardinia. 
 The honour and interests of France imposed this 
 duty on me. Your enemies, who are mine also, 
 have endeavoured to diminish the universal sym- 
 pathy with which Europe regards your cause, by 
 representing that I make war from personal ambi- 
 jtion, or to extend the territory of France. If 
 there are persons who so misunderstand their 
 epoch, I am not of the number. In the present 
 enlightened state of public opinion, greatness is 
 to be achieved far more by moral influence than 
 by barren victories : and it is that moral influence 
 
182 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 r 
 
 at which I aim, in contributing, with pride, to 
 render free one of the finest countries in Europe. 
 ** The welcome which yon have already accorded 
 me is a sufficient proof that you have not mis- 
 construed my motives. I come with no precon- 
 certed plan to displace other sovereigns, or to 
 establish my own authority : my army will have 
 but two occupations ; to combat your enemies, and 
 to aid in the maintenance of internal order ; it will 
 offer no impediment to the free and just develop- 
 ment of your wishes. The favour of Providence 
 opens sometimes before nations, as before indi- 
 viduals, a way of rising suddenly to greatness, 
 but only on condition that they know how to 
 profit by such opportunity. Take advantage of 
 that which presents itself to you. Your desire 
 for independence, so long expressed, so often 
 deceived, will now be fulfilled, if you shew your- 
 selves worthy of it. Unite your efforts in one 
 sole aim, the emancipation of your country. 
 Range yourselves under military organisation. 
 Haste to join the banner of the King Victor 
 Emmanuel, whose example has already so nobly 
 guided you on the path to honour. Remember 
 that, Avithout discipline, there is no army; and, 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 183 
 
 animated by the sacred fire of patriotism, be 
 
 soldiers, — only soldiers, — to day : to-morrow you 
 
 will be free citizens of a great nation. 
 
 *' Napoleon. 
 ** Imperial Head- Quarters, 
 
 '' Milan, Sth June, 1859." 
 
 Much as Napoleon III. had accomplished with 
 the allied forces under his command, in victories 
 in the field, and in the occupation of the capital, 
 much still remained to be done to complete the 
 final expulsion of the Austrians from Italy. A 
 portion of their retreating forces, in crossing the 
 plain of Lombardy towards the line of the Mincio, 
 the boundary stream between Italian and Austrian 
 territory, turned to make a stand at Melegnano, 
 a town four leagues S.E. from Milan, about mid- 
 way between that city and Lodi. They occupied 
 the place in strength, with the object of protecting 
 the passage of their main army across the river 
 Adda. On the 8th of June, Marshal Baraguey 
 d'Hilliers received the order to attack their posi- 
 tion with the 1st corps ; taking also with him the 
 2nd corps, commanded by Marshal Mac-Mahon. 
 On the evening of that day, the Austrians, after a 
 gallant resistance on their part of three hours, 
 
184 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III* 
 
 were driven from the town with severe loss, 
 leaving about 2,000 prisoners, of whom 1,200 
 were wounded, in the hands of their antagonists. 
 The losses of the French, in killed and wounded, 
 are stated in the official report of Baraguey 
 d'Hilliers as 943, of whom 69 were officers. 
 
 After two days' rest in and near Milan, the 
 French and Sardinians were again in motion, 
 to follow up their enemy in his retreat on the 
 Mincio. On the morning of the 11th of June, the 
 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th corps d'armee commenced 
 their march in that direction ; the troops of Victor 
 Emmanuel taking a more northerly route towards 
 the same destination. On the 12th the Emperor 
 followed, with the Imperial Guard as the reserve. 
 He had decided that the army should march by 
 Brescia, though the route lay through a tract 
 hilly and rugged in many places, and, in its more 
 cultivated portions, crossed by frequent canals of 
 irrigation and considerable water-courses. In 
 choosing this intricate line of march the Emperor 
 observed the policy which had before guided his 
 operations, of turning, rather than attacking, 
 fortified posts held by his adversary. The French 
 army reached Brescia from Milan in eight days 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 185 
 
 (on the 18th June), without having encountered 
 any opposition. The Emperor was welcomed by 
 the inhabitants of the city with hearty acclama- 
 tions, and fixed his head-quarters there during 
 the 19th and 20th. His troops required such a 
 term of repose from their fatigues ; . and he em- 
 ployed the interval in summoning (on the even- 
 ing of the 19th) the chiefs of the several corps, 
 together with the commanding officers of the 
 engineers and artillery, to a council of war, 
 
 '^The conjuncture was one which called for 
 anxious deliberation. The success which had 
 hitherto attended the French and Sardinian troops 
 impressed them indeed with confidence of future 
 victory ; and a courageous energy pervaded all 
 ranks, increasing as their foe continued to retire 
 before them. But that foe had already received 
 large reinforcements from the garrisons of Man- 
 tua, Peschiera, and Verona ; and was falling back 
 on the resources of a mighty empire ; while the 
 aUies, on the contrary, were daily departing farther 
 from their original base of operations and sources 
 of supply. It was not likely that the Austrians 
 would abandon Lombardy without striking another 
 blow for so fair a land ; and they might be ex- 
 
186 LIFE or NAPOLEON III. 
 
 pected to concentrate their forces for a decisive 
 effort. On the three days' march from Brescia to 
 the Mincio, much of the road lay over vast plains, 
 as those near Montechiaro and Castiglione ; bare 
 of all obstacles to the operations of cavalry, an 
 arm hitherto little brought into action during the 
 campaign, and on which Austria placed great 
 reliance. Was it not probable that she would 
 select this as a field for another battle, which 
 any hour might bring on ? On the 23rd of June, 
 however, when approaching the river, the Emperor 
 received certain intelligence that the whole Aus- 
 trian army had crossed it two days previously; 
 thus forsaking formidable positions afforded by 
 the range of heights extending parallel to its 
 right bank, from the Lago di Garda in a S.E. 
 direction as far as to Volta. There remained no 
 vestige of warlike array along the borders of the 
 Mincio ; the eye discerned only the low line of 
 trees marking the course of the stream, and the 
 blue mist rising from the sedgy banks : 
 
 Propter aquam tardis ingens iibi fiuctibus errat 
 Minciiis, et tenera praetexit arundine ripas/'' 
 
 But the scene was quickly to undergo a terrible 
 
 * Virg. Georg. lib. iii. v. 14. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 187 
 
 change. It had been doubted whether the 
 Austrian^ would dispute the passage of the river 
 by their pursuers, or retire further within shelter 
 of their famed '* Quadrilateral," guarded at its 
 four angles by the almost impregnable fortresses of 
 Peschiera, Verona, Mantua, and Legnano. But it 
 was little anticipated that, having once crossed the 
 stream, they would retrace their steps and resume 
 the offensive on Italian soil. Such, however, was 
 the plan which they adopted. On the night of 
 the 23rd they re-crossed the Mincio, and pro- 
 ceeded to re-occupy the heights which they had 
 abandoned on the 21st. At the same hour, the 
 allied armies, from the opposite side, were advanc- 
 ing to occupy the same heights. The adverse 
 hosts were thus approaching to a collision, each 
 equally unaware of the movement of the other. 
 The Emperor, to spare his troops the inconve- 
 nience of toiling through the torrid heat of a mid- 
 summer day, had issued orders to the several 
 corps of his army to commence their march two 
 hours after midnight. .The Sardinians, who 
 formed the northern extremity of the allied Une at 
 Lonato, near to the Lago di Garda, began their 
 march at an early hour, in the direction of 
 
188 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 Peschiera and Pozzolongo. They encountered the 
 Austrian advanced posts, and drove them in ; but 
 were in turn obUged to retire before a superior 
 force. Keinforcements coming up on both sides 
 maintained a series of combats with alternate 
 success, resulting finally to the advantage of the 
 Sardinians. 
 
 The 1st French corps d'armee, under command 
 of Baraguey d'Hilliers, advancing at 2 a.m. on 
 Solferino, in the centre of the line, soon became 
 engaged "with the light troops of the enemy ; and, 
 having succeeded, after various severe combats, in 
 making its way to the foot of the Solferino hill, 
 found the Austrians established strongly there, in 
 the village, and in the fortified heights which 
 overlook it. 
 
 At the same time, the 2nd corps (Mac-Mahon), 
 encountering in its progress large masses of 
 Austrian troops, was precluded, by the necessity 
 of repelling their attacks, from proceeding to the 
 support of the 1st corps. The 3rd and 4th, 
 (Canrobert and Niel), too far asunder from each 
 other for mutual support, were in like manner 
 severally engaged against strong hostile columns. 
 
 Thus, along a battle front extending twelve 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 189 
 
 miles, the morning of the 24th broke on 300,000 
 men closing in deadly conflict. 
 
 The Emperor was at Montechiaro. He had 
 despatched the infantry of the Guard to Castig- 
 lione, at five o'clock, and fixed a later hour for the 
 departure of the cavalry. At half past five, two 
 horsemen, arriving at full speed, galloped into the 
 encampment. They were aides-de-camp of the 
 Marshals Baraguey d' Hilliers and Mac-Mahon, 
 sent to inform the Emperor that they had joined 
 battle with the Austrians, who covered the hill of 
 Solferino and adjacent heights, and extended to 
 a considerable distance both on the right and left. 
 The Emperor, in consequence, accelerated the de- 
 parture of the cavalry, and repaired with his staff 
 to Castiglione. From its summit he was enabled 
 to obtain a general view of the battle-field. The 
 survey determined him, without hesitation, at 
 that early stage of the battle, to bring his reserve 
 into action. Proceeding to Marshal Mac-Mahon, 
 he placed at his disposal the- cavalry of the Guard, 
 and then hastened on to the centre, where 
 Baraguey d'Hilliers had sustained for several 
 hours an unequal contest against the main force 
 of the Austrian army. The veteran Marshal, 
 
190 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 whose head was blanched by the campaigns of 
 forty years, mingled in the thickest of the fray, 
 encouraging and leading his troops, by voice and 
 example, to the charge. French and Austrians 
 by turns gave or gained ground, but with no 
 decisive result. When one regiment retired, 
 shattered and exhausted, another filled immedi- 
 ately its place, and the combat was renewed with 
 fresh fury. No quarter was given, or asked, 
 during that terrible struggle, nor had the officers 
 always the power to restrain the soldiers from 
 wreaking their rage on the wounded and fallen. 
 The French, worn out by the heat and fatigue, 
 and decimated by a heavy fire, gained ground 
 with much difficulty against forces incessantly 
 renewed. While the event of the strife hung thus 
 doubtful, a shout rising from all the French ranks 
 announced the arrival of the Emperor. The 
 presence of their Commander-in-chief inspired the 
 troops with an ardour which overcame all obstacles ; 
 and the orders which he issued exercised a speedy 
 influence on the fortunes of the day. After 
 examining the strength of the situation occupied 
 by the enemy, whose shot and shell fell fast and 
 thick around him, the Emperor ordered the 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 191 
 
 advance of the 3rd division of the 1st corps, under 
 command of General Forey, and supported it by 
 the light division of the Imperial Guard ; direct- 
 ing at the same moment a battery of artillery of 
 the Guard to take a position close to the hostile 
 entrenchments. This manoeuvre decided the 
 success of the attack on the centre, and the gain 
 of the battle. The divisions of the 1st corps 
 dashed forward and seized the village and cemetery; 
 while the Guard, climbing the steep height above, 
 possessed themselves of the ancient fortifications 
 and tower which command the site. The 
 Austrians offered still a brave resistance at various 
 points, incited by the presence of their Emperor 
 Francis Joseph, who, from a hill behind Solferino, 
 witnessed the result of the conflict. The heights 
 were successively carried, and, at the close of the 
 day, the Austrians finally retreated from the 
 position, under a fire of artillery from the French, 
 leaving in their hands 1500 prisoners, 14 pieces 
 of cannon, and 2 colours. 
 
 The Austrians, after their defeat at Solferino, 
 abandoned entirely the line of the Mincio ; and 
 on the 1st of July the whole of the allied armies 
 had passed to the left side of that river. In the 
 
192 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 midst, however, of these uninterrupted successes, 
 Europe was surprised suddenly to hear that an 
 interview had taken place between the two 
 Emperors at Villafranca, and that an armistice was 
 agreed upon. This was soon followed by a treaty 
 of peace, signed at Villafranca on the 11th of July. 
 The Emperor Napoleon has himself assigned as a 
 main reason for the conduct which he thus 
 adopted, that to have pushed his triumphs further 
 against Austria would have provoked a collision 
 with the whole Germanic Confederation, and put 
 him under the necessity of "accepting a combat 
 on the Rhine." To this he added, in his reply to 
 the address of congratulation from the diplomatic 
 body at Paris on the 19th of July : '' Europe was 
 in general so unjust towards me at the commence- 
 ment of the war, that I was happy to be able to 
 conclude peace as soon as the honour and 
 interests of France were satisfied." 
 
 On the whole, it will be generally admitted that 
 France had sufficient grounds to be contented 
 with the measure of success that crowned her 
 efforts in the campaign of 1859. Seven years 
 later, the Italians exulted in the complete attain- 
 ment of the objects for which the war was under- 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. L93 
 
 taken. Of the two alternatives proposed at its 
 commencement : *' whether Austria should extend 
 her despotism as far as to the Alps, or Italy be 
 free to the Adriatic :" the latter has finally 
 prevailed. 
 
 o 
 
( 194 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Emperob and the People. 
 
 "Look for your friends among the commons ever." 
 
 Philip Van Artevelde, Act i. sc. 4. 
 
 The Emperor has said: "My friends are found 
 not only in palaces, but also beneath roofs of 
 thatch, and in the cottages of the poor." The 
 attachment of all ranks is obviously essential to a 
 sovereign whose rule is based upon the national 
 will ; and France has never been deficient in 
 testifying, by proofs stronger than mere words 
 could convey, whenever occasion required, her 
 affection towards the " Chief of her choice."* 
 It is quite impossible that Napoleon III. could 
 have retained for twenty years and upwards so 
 unvarying a hold on the hearts and minds of 
 Frenchmen, except through their conviction of 
 
 u 
 
 There are links that must break in the chain which hath 
 
 hound us, 
 Then turn thee and call on the Chief of thy choice." 
 
 " Xajwleons Fan-irell,'' Byron. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 195 
 
 his being more than even a wise ruler and brave 
 leader : — 
 
 *' Plus que brave soldat, plus que grand capitaine," 
 
 a just also and a beneficent sovereign. 
 
 It may be presumed that no one will pretend to 
 account for the constancy of attachment shewn 
 by the French people to Louis Napoleon on the 
 hypothesis that the temper of the popular masses 
 is less fickle in France than in other countries. 
 I am tempted to adduce an instance to the con- 
 trary. There is in Paris a particular quarter 
 which has never been renowned for submission to 
 lawful , authority ; and has at times evinced a 
 decided bias to revolt ; the Faubourg Saint 
 Antoine. Its population, however, is not of a 
 criminal, but rather of an industrial character; 
 inured to hard work, rough in manners and 
 usages. It happened that the Prince Louis 
 I^apoleon, during the time of his Presidency, 
 rode one morning through the main street of the 
 Faubourg, on his road to Vincennes. He was 
 recognised. Groups of sinister and hostile vis- 
 ages collected around his path, and, increasing in 
 numbers, awaited his return. As their demeanour 
 bore, no good augury, a message was speedily 
 
 2 
 
196 LIFE OF NAPOIiEON III. 
 
 conveyed to Vincennes to the effect that, in con- 
 sequence of the threatening aspect of afiairs, it 
 would be prudent to avoid the Faubourg Saint 
 Antoine, and re-enter Paris by some other way. 
 The Prince, however, had a different apprehension 
 of the conduct which became him. Keturning in 
 the evening, at the hour previously appointed, as 
 he approached the formidable Faubourg, he 
 desired his escort to remain at a long distance 
 behind him, and rode alone at a slow pace into 
 the midst of the quarter, over the very ground 
 which had been reddened, a few months before, 
 by the blood of the Archbishop of Paris. The 
 assemblage maintained at first an ominous silence : 
 gradually, however, the confidence of the Prince 
 produced the effect which a display .of cpoLcourage 
 usually has on the multitude: ',' Aumoins, il n'apas 
 peur, celui-Jd.'' '* Tiens, cest mi gaillard avec lequel 
 il ne ferait pas hon hadiner: " such were the remarks 
 heard, with others more emphatic than elegant. 
 At length, as if moved by a single sudden impulse, 
 the vast crowd burst forth into a shout loud and 
 prolonged : *' Vive M. le President 
 
 It is true that the sentiments expressed in other 
 countries of Europe have, at various times, re- 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 197 
 
 sponded but ill to those held generally in France 
 respecting Louis Napoleon. The suspicion and 
 distrust which foreign Governments have cast on 
 his policy, and their misconstruction of his motives, 
 have drawn from him remonstrance and reproof on 
 more than one occasion. Thus, in a letter dated 
 St. Cloud, 29th of July, 1860, to Count Persigny, 
 the French Ambassador at London, we find the 
 following sentence: " Au nom du ciel, que les 
 hommes eminents places a la tete duGouvernement 
 Anglais laissent de cote des jalousies mesquines 
 et des defiances injustes. Entendons-nous loyale- 
 ment, comme d'honnetes gens que nous sommes, 
 et non comme des larrons qui veulent se duper 
 recip^quement." 
 
 In addition to the heavier toils and cares which 
 attend high office, its possessor is exposed, by a 
 rule which admits no exception, to the cavils and 
 misrepresentations of prejudice and jealousy. '*The 
 honours of this world," the Emperor wrote, not 
 long since, to a French cardinal,* '*are a heavy bur- 
 den imposed on us by Providence, who injustice 
 augments our duties in proportion to our dignities. 
 Thus, I often ask myself if in prosperity our 
 
 * Cardinal Bonnechose. 
 
198 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 troubles are not as great as in adversity. Our guide 
 and support is faith, religious faith and political, in 
 other words, confidence in God, and consciousness 
 of a mission to accomplish." *^ Notre guide et 
 notre soutien, c'est la foi, la foi religieuse, et la foi 
 politique : c'est a dire, la confiance en Dieu, et la 
 conscience d'une mission a accomplir." 
 
 In reviewing the eventful career of Napoleon 
 III. we perceive most prominently at every stage 
 of it, as well in his prison at Ham and as on his 
 throne at the Tuileries, alike in the vicissitudes 
 of peace and war, the same constant expression 
 of trust in Providence, the same acknowledgment 
 of the '' Sovereign Commander of all the world," 
 who decrees the issue of battles, the establishmefit 
 or downfall of dynasties. On the eve of his 
 departure on his Italian campaign, in 1859, the 
 Emperor thus addressed his chaplains assembled 
 at the Tuileries : ** Priez pour moi ; j'ai une belle 
 et brave armee, mais je compte encore plus sur le 
 secours de Dieu, et de vos prieres."" It was an 
 example worthy the head of a Christian nation, 
 when, on intelligence of the capture of Sebastopol, 
 he repaired to the Cathedral Church of Notre 
 
 * MuUois. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 199 
 
 Dame de Paris (13 Septembel*, 1855), to render 
 thanks to the only Giver of all victory. Being 
 met at the door by the Archbishop, Napoleon III. 
 declared : ''I am come here, Monseigneur, to 
 thank heaven for the triumph granted to our 
 arms, for I am glad to acknowledge that in spite 
 of the skill of generals, and the valour of soldiers, 
 nothing can succeed without the protection of 
 Providence." **Je viens ici, Monseigneur, 
 remercier le ciel du triomphe qu'il a accorde a 
 nos armes, car je me plais a reconnaitre que, 
 malgre I'habilite des generaux et le courage des 
 soldats, rien ne pent reussir sans la protection de 
 la Providence." It has been justly remarked : 
 *' L'Empereur a si souvent rencontre la Providence 
 sur son chemin dans la vie qu'il ne lui a pas ete 
 possible de la meconnaitre." There are, of course, 
 and have ever been, persons w^ho scoff at the 
 belief in the Almighty Euler and Disposer of 
 events, and who hold, with the *' Roi philosophe " 
 of Prussia, that '' le bon Dieu est toujours du cote 
 des gros bataillons," but no one truly great or wise 
 can bie of their number : 
 
 ** For of siicli doctrine never was there scliool, 
 Save the heart of thofooL'' 
 
200 LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 
 
 In referring his title to empire, under Pro- 
 vidence as supreme, to the national will as 
 declared in his favour by the free and general 
 suffrage of the French people, Louis Napoleon 
 adhered, as in other points of his career, to the 
 model of his early aspirations, in the character 
 and actions of Napoleon I. The time has long 
 gone by when that name excited in England the 
 wildest feelings and bitterest expressions of 
 national antipathy. At a Social Science Congress 
 held at Liverpool in October, 1858, Earl Eussell, 
 then Lord John Eussell, spoke in the following 
 terms respecting the founder of the Napoleon 
 dynasty. The orator, it will be seen, warms into 
 eloquence on his theme : 
 
 '' At the beginning of the present century, the 
 First Consul of France had attained the fame of 
 a great military commander. In his wonderful 
 Itahan campaigns he had defeated the most 
 experienced generals of Austria. He had recently 
 seized the reins of power which had fallen from 
 the feeble hands of his predecessor. He had 
 subdued and tamed the remnants of the Jacobin 
 faction, which was still thirsting for blood. He 
 had opened the ports of France to the partisans 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 201 
 
 of the ancient monarchy, who were still panting 
 for a restoration. It ivas his aim to restore peace to 
 society, to give to religion her altars, to replace justice 
 in her sanctuary. In the midst of these labours 
 he determined to bestow on France a simple and 
 enlightened code of laws. For this purpose he 
 assembled a Council, in which the learned 
 civilians of the days of Louis XVI. sat by the 
 side of the able lawyers of the regicide conven- 
 tion. There, after the morning inspection of his 
 troops, he would sit from twelve o'clock at noon 
 till five in the afternoon, never inattentive, never 
 weary, marking out clearly, without passion and 
 without prejudice, the best foundation on which 
 property, marriage, commerce, in short, all the 
 . complicated relations of life itself, were thereafter 
 to repose. In discussion, the opinion of the 
 ablest civilian, and not that of the military 
 dictator, generally prevailed. When the work 
 had been for some time proceeded with, it was 
 sent to all the legal tribunals of France, with a 
 request that any remarks which the Judges might 
 have to make should be transmitted to Paris. 
 Thus debated, discussed, draughted, corrected, 
 augmented and revised, the Code Napoleon, in its 
 
202 LIFE OF NAPOLiEON III. 
 
 different portions, was^ published, at intervals 
 extending over seven years, as the law of 
 France. 
 
 '' And now, what is the result ? The splendid 
 victories of Napoleon, the rush of armies, the 
 roar of cannon, the masterly decision, the instant 
 obedience, have passed away. The pride of 
 empire, the kings waiting in the ante- chamber, 
 the sway of a mighty will from Eome to Ham- 
 burgh, from the Manzanares to the Elbe, has 
 vanished like the baseless fabric of a vision. But 
 the transactions between man and man, the trial 
 of the offender, the adjudication of property 
 throughout the French Empire, are still regulated, 
 
 and probably will long be regulated, by the statutes 
 of the immortal legislator." 
 
 It will be generally acknowledged that higher 
 praise has seldom been bestowed by man on man 
 than the above eulogy pronounced by Earl Russell 
 on the First Great Napoleon. Napoleon III., 
 following the example of his predecessor, has 
 rescued France, (to cite the phrase of M. de 
 Montalembert)* from ''the gaping gulf of victo- 
 rious sociahsm." No other might than that of 
 
 ''' See ante, p. 95. 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON III. 203 
 
 God can thus, in the crisis of danger, endue an 
 individual with powers, not given in the ordinary- 
 course of Providence, to raise a nation from 
 anarchy and abasement to independence and 
 honour. 
 
 <( 
 
 A nobler aim, a purer law, 
 
 Nor priest, nor bard, nor sage, has taught." 
 
 [Index. 
 
( 205 ) 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 African Slave Trade, essay on, by Louis Napoleon, 38. 
 Archbishop of Paris, murder of, 61. 
 
 B. 
 
 Ballot, for the Presidency of the Eepublic, 65 ; — for the 
 
 same with extended powers, 96 ; — ^for re -establishment 
 
 of the Imperial dynasty, 123. 
 Baraguey d'Hilliers, Marshal, commanding the 1st Corj^s 
 
 d'armee ; his perilous position at the battle of Solferino, 
 
 190. 
 Berryer, M. de, speech of, in defence of Louis Napoleon, on 
 
 his trial before the Chamber of Peers, 24. 
 Billault, M., speech of, on reporting to Louis Napoleon his 
 
 election as Emperor, 123. 
 BoNNECHosE, Cardinal, saying addressed to, by the Emperor, 
 
 197. 
 Bordeaux, speech of Louis Napoleon to the Chamber of 
 
 Commerce, 119. 
 Boulogne, expedition to, 23. 
 Brea, General, murder of, 60. 
 Broglie, Due de, his opinion of the Constitution made by 
 
 the National Assembly, November, 1848, 75. 
 BuFFALORA, bridge of, held against superior numbers," by a 
 
 division of the Guard, under command of the Emperor 
 
 176. 
 
206 INDEX. 
 
 c. 
 
 Cavour, letter of, to Count Buol, Chief Minister of Austria, 
 
 158. 
 CoNNEAu, Dr., stratagem of, to conceal the escape of Louis 
 
 Napoleon from the fortress of Ham, 33, et seq, 
 ** Considerations on the Civil and Military Position of 
 
 Switzerland" : a pamphlet by Louis Napoleon, 9. 
 Constitution of 1852, taken from that of " I'An VIII.," 
 
 preamble of, 99 ;— text of, 107 ;— modifications which it 
 
 has received, 115. 
 Coup d'Etat, meaning of the step, 72 ; — its plan, 77, et seq, ; 
 
 — its execution, 80, et seq. ; — influence on the public 
 
 funds, 96. 
 
 D. 
 
 Drouyn de l'Huys, message of, to the French Ambassador 
 at Constantinople, 133. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eugenie, Empress, popularity of, 130. 
 Exhibition, International, at Paris, 150. 
 
 F. 
 
 France, state of, prior to the accession of Prince Louis 
 Napoleon to the Presidency of the Kepublic, 67. 
 
 G. 
 
 Genoa, landing of the Emperor at, 163; — enthusiasm of the 
 Italians, ih. 
 
 Gyulai, Count, Commander-in-chief of the Austrian army, 
 vacillation of, 166; — occupies a strongly fortified 
 position near Pavia, 171 ; — his forced march to oppose 
 the advance of the French army on Magenta, 176. 
 
INDEX. 207 
 
 H. 
 
 Hall, Eev. Robert, on the restoration of the Bourbons, 3 '; 
 
 — on the battle of Waterloo, 4. 
 Ham, captivity at, 26, et seq. ; — escape from the fortress, 
 
 28, et seq. 
 HoRTENSE, Queen, an exile, with her family, from France, 
 
 4 ; — her last letter to her son, 16 ; — her dying farewells, 
 
 17. 
 
 I. 
 
 "Insurrection of June," narrated by Louis Blanc, 51, ct 
 seq. ; — by Lord Normanby, 56, et seq. 
 
 Lamartike, a. de, a member of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment, 45 ; — his futile cowp de theatre in the National 
 Assembly, 47. 
 
 Letter from Queen Hortense to Louis Napoleon, 16. 
 
 Louis Napoleon to the President of the 
 
 National Assembly, 48, 49 ; — to the Czar of Russia, 139- 
 Count Cavour to Count Buol, 158. 
 
 Literature, application of Louis Napoleon to, 18; — list of 
 
 his early works, 19. 
 Loans, National, 149. 
 Louis Philippe, not elected to the throne by the voice of the 
 
 people, 44 ; suddenness of his downfall, ib. 
 
 M. 
 
 Mac-Mahon, General, Commanding the 2nd corps cVcmnee, 
 defeats the attempt of the Austrians to cut off the 
 division Espinasse, 177. 
 
 Magenta, battle of, 178 ;— obstinacy of the conflict, 179 ; 
 not to be classed among sterile victories, 180. 
 
208 INDEX. 
 
 Melegnano, combat of, 183. 
 
 Milan, entrance of the allies into, 180 ; — their departure to 
 
 follow the retreating Austrians, 184. 
 MiNcio, river, the Austrian army retires across it, 186 ; — 
 
 repasses the stream by night, 187 ; — encounters the 
 
 allied armies on the bordering range of hills, 188; — 
 
 battle of Solferino, 189, et seq. 
 MoNTALEMBERT, M. de, letter of, to The Univers, stating the 
 
 grounds of his vote for Louis Napoleon subsequently to 
 
 the coup d'etat y 94. 
 MoNTEBELLO, combat of 167; — fierceness of the contest, 
 
 168 ; — the Austrians finally repulsed by the allies, under 
 
 command of General Forey, 169. 
 
 N. 
 
 Napoleon III., birth of, 2; — an exile at seven years of 
 age, 4 ; — his boyhood passed at Augsburg, 5 ; — 
 early education and discipline, ih. ; — his mother buys 
 the chateau of Arenenberg in Switzerland, ih. ; — his 
 instruction in military service at the Swiss camp of 
 Thun, 6 ; — goes to Bome, and takes j)art in the insur- 
 rection in the Papal States in 1831, 7 ; — on its failure, 
 proceeds, by way of Cannes, to Paris, 8 ; — quits that 
 city by command of King Louis Philippe, and makes 
 his first visit to England, ib, ; — returns, a few months 
 after, to Arenenberg, ih. ; — receives the grade of Captain 
 of Artillery in the regiment of Bern, 9 ; publishes 
 " Considerations Politiques et Militaires sur la Suisse," 
 ih. et seq. : — by the death of the King of Eome, becomes 
 heir of Napoleon L, 13 ;— enterprise of Strasburg, 14 ; — 
 is carried prisoner to Paris, thence to the port of Lorient, 
 15 ;— sails, by order of the French Government, to the 
 United States of America, ib. : — recalled, the following 
 year, to Arenenberg, by the fatal ilhiess of his mother, 
 16;— her dying farewells, 17 ;_the government of 
 
INDEX. 209 
 
 Louis Philippe demands his expulsion from Switzer- 
 land, ib. ;— he retires voluntarily into England, ih. ; — his 
 application to literature, 11 ;^list of his early works, 
 19 ; — ^his letter to The Times, protesting against the 
 surrender of the arms of Napoleon I. to the Bourbons, 
 22; — expedition to Boulogne, 23 ; — disastrous issue of 
 the adventure to those engaged in it, ib. ; — ^placed on his 
 trial before the Chamber of Peers at Paris, 24 ; — sen- 
 tenced to imprisonment for life, 25 ; — captivity during 
 six years at Ham, 26, et seq. ; — escape from the fortress, 
 29, etseq. ; — returns, by way of Belgium, to England, 36 ; 
 — his essay on the African Slave Trade, 38, et seq. ; — 
 repairs to Paris, on the fall of the Orleans dynasty, 44 ; 
 — his presence excites apprehensions in the Provisional 
 Government, and he returns to London, 45 ; — elected a 
 member of the National Assembly by four depart- 
 ments, 46 ; — his letter to the President of the 
 Assembly, 48 ; — second letter, resigning his post of 
 representative, 49 ; — re-elected by five Departments 
 with increased majorities, 63 ; — takes his seat in the 
 Assembly, 26th September, 64 ; — elected President of 
 the Repubhc, 10th December, 65 ; — anarchy and strife 
 of factions within the National Assembly, 67, et seq. ; — 
 their growing hostility to his person and office, 71 ; — 
 they decree the method of procedure for his suspension, 
 73 J — he resolves on an appeal to the nation, 74 ; — his 
 address " To the People," ib. et seq. ; — plan of the coup 
 tVetatf 77 ; — its execution, 80 ; — proclamation to the 
 army, 88 ; — result of the national ballot, in support of 
 his authority, 96 ; — preamble of a new Constitution, 99, 
 et seq. ; — text of the Constitution, 107, et seq. ; — institu- 
 tions for the relief of the poor and suffering classes, 
 
 116 • his journey in the provincial parts of France 
 
 118 J general voice throughout the country for restora- 
 tion of the Empire, 119 ; — his speech to the Chamber 
 
210 INDEX. 
 
 of Commerce at Bordeaux, ib. et seq. ;— elected Emperor 
 by eight millions (7,824,189) of votes, 123 ;— his mar- 
 riage, 127 ; — his union of policy with Great Britain, in 
 opposing Eussian aggression, 134; — his letter to the 
 Czar, deprecating a resort to the arbitrement of arms, 
 139 ;_speech at the close of the Paris Exhibition, 150 ; 
 birth of the Prince Imperial, 152 ; — speech on the 
 Orsini plot, 154 ; — popular demonstration on his depar- 
 ture for the campaign of Italy, 156 ; — his proclamation 
 to the French people on the invasion of Sardinia by 
 Austria, 160; — lands at Genoa, 163; — enthusiasm of 
 the Italians, ih. ; — his sudden and rapid march to Novara, 
 172 ; — advance on Magenta, ib. ; — holds the bridge of 
 Buffalora against superior numbers, 176; — battle of 
 Magenta, 178 ; — enters Milan with the King of Sar- 
 dinia, 180 ; — proclamation to the Italian people, 181 ; — 
 follows the retreating Austrians to the Mincio, 184 ; — 
 battle of Solferino, 189, et seq. ; — directs the decisive 
 attack on the Austrian centre, 191 ; — signs treaty of 
 peace at Villa Franca, 192 ; — reasons for it, ib, ; — con- 
 stancy of attachment proved by the French people 
 towards Napoleon III. accounted for, 194 ; — parallel 
 between Napoleon III. and Napoleon I., 200, 202. 
 National Assembly, election of its members, 45 ; — partial 
 elections, 46, 63 ; — scenes of tumult within its walls, 
 50, 62 ; — described as a furnace of civil discord, by the 
 journal Le Pouvoir^ 68 ; — payment of its members, 73 ; 
 — passes a decree to provide for the suspension of the 
 President of the' Kepublic, ib. ; — he dissolves it, 75 ; — 
 two hundred of its members, refusing to disperse, are 
 removed by the pohce and shut up for the night, 90, 91. 
 NoRMANBY, Marquis of, ambassador at Paris, his narrative 
 of the " Insurrection of June,'" 56, et seq. ; — sagacity of, 
 in predicting the mischief that would ensue from the 
 incapacity of the Provisional Government, 62 ; — his 
 
INDEX. 211 
 
 account of the transfer of autliority from General 
 Cavaignac to Louis Napoleon, 66. 
 NovARA, sudden and rapid march of the French thither, 172 ; 
 — advance on Magenta, ib. 
 
 O. 
 Orsini, plot of, its character and catastrophe, 152, et seq. 
 
 P. 
 
 Poor and suffering Classes, institutions for relief of, 116. 
 
 Prince Imperial, birth of, 152. 
 
 Proclamations, by Louis Napoleon : to the French people on 
 the dissolution of the National Assembly, 74 ; — to the 
 army, on the same occasion, 88 ; — to the French people, 
 on the invasion of Sardinia by Austria, 160; — to the 
 Italian people, on the entrance of the allies into 
 Milan, 181. 
 
 EussELL, Earl, his eulogy on Napoleon L, 200, et seq. 
 
 EussiA, ambitious x3rojects of, 131, et seq.; — invasion of the 
 Danubian Principalities, 133 ; — massacre at Sinope, 136, 
 137 ; — interdicted from navigating the Black Sea, 138 ; 
 war declared against, by England and France, 145 ; — 
 fierceness of the struggle, 146 ; — first attempt made by 
 the Eussians, a thousand years since, to capture Con- 
 stantinople, 147. 
 
 S. 
 
 SiNOPE, massacre at, 136, 137. 
 
 Solferino, battle of, 189, et seq. ; — deadly and doubtful cha- 
 racter of the struggle, 190 ; decided by the successful 
 attack on the Austrian centre, 191. 
 
 Sologne, La, reclamation of waste lands at, 117. 
 
 Speech of M. de Berryer on the trial of Louis Napoleon 
 before the Chamber of Peers, 24. 
 
212 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Speech of Louis Napoleon, to the Bordeaux Chamber of 
 Commerce, 119. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, on re-election to the Presidency 
 
 of the Eepublic, 97. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, to the great bodies of the State, 
 
 on his marriage, 127. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, on the close of the Paris Exhibi- 
 tion, 152. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, on the Orsini plot, 154. 
 
 M. Billault, reporting to the President his election 
 
 as Emperor, 123. 
 
 Earl Kussell on Napoleon L, 200. 
 
 U. 
 
 UxNivERs, letter from M. de Montalembert to the, 94. 
 
 V. 
 
 Villa Franca, Treaty of Peace signed at, 192 ; — reasons for 
 
 it, ib. 
 
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