OCR Text |
Show " AF'OI.KU . lo perusing eoi.ll r.iii-' telet-iain-hit; i'ioijly Lao le d up by j.n.;iit -d eornt'-p-'iid' lit-, I ei 1 i,..t but i' ii-aik iiie spirit of aninio-iiv wh'eh i- i'.e.'.l airaiii-t Napoleon 111. lYrliups this 'li.-io.-ili"ii of corre-poii lenls, springs fern the stroll'.' liiea.-tn es ail",!' d ly ih'j Emperor again.it the-e gentlemen of the quill. J 11 reviewinc the pat life of Napoleon Napo-leon dining his ini-umbaniy on the ib rone of Franc, one can not but alter in his: mind the fiist unfavorable judge-merit judge-merit he might have formed of that man, and discern something el-e than the ul'eged despot i.-m, tyranny and viiidieiivene,-,.s be is so much ac -used of. ljel'oie his covjt tl' itvt, Napo leon saw very well that a republic could not last long in France. The character of the people was too boisterous, bois-terous, lacking that certain wisdom and stability kj nece.-nary for the maintenance main-tenance of an independent government. govern-ment. There were alto so many ambitious am-bitious politicians who wero aiming for the po-s.Ossinn of the Frmch throne, 1 hat lie conceived it no harm to associate asso-ciate his personal ambition to theirs, an'f play the great game of "win all or loose all ;" hence his feiirncd idiocy in his epeifli at the Chambers, then bin coi'7-i d' rtat and the imprisonment of his competitors, and the horror-striking horror-striking of a boisterous populace. One may say that he could have spared the shedding of HO much blood. Indeed it is so, and thn action will remain for ever as a stain on his name. Hut 1 may say in his fivor, that the ofllcerH in command of the tioops ovei reached his intentions in I heir zeal, and brought by their injudicious conduct, Maine and f-hamo on the r new ma-ti-r. i republic, in Franco could not last long, for the extremes in puli'io.il bin t oin are too great; and whoever Would 1 1 ill !'; to olilaill ill,! i'l'eii'leneV would have t'l give up bit io I in aboit 1 1 uie or be, i-oiiip Hi d I 1 1 e-01 1 I o bar h ue a uri, neee-t-ary lo ki" i lie: oini--lie patty fioin ini-f-lii' 1. N.i po'eon on the lino c uii'lei -loml at U'-e bi-;.o bi-;.o i I mil, and concluded that the alv.i lion ol lie; na:ioti cleiend'-d ou t hi nil I, l li.'Mil' dill o m i ii of I ho e poll l if, i I'.iel HUH. I le cololuitliet d by I he. e j 1 1 1 in of the leader , and I lie oreani Z.tt .u.l ' -i p-Hici: i 1 - - . el ': - ' - ism. The continual opposition lit; had to sustain against those expulsed leaders, lead-ers, who were flooding the nation with revolutionary tracts, printed in Belgium and Switzerland, compelled the Emperor Empe-ror to curtail the freedom of the press, the gathering of people on the boulevards, boule-vards, and the holding of any kind of meetings without the sanction of the mayor of the city and the presence of the police. Extremes were met by extremes. The fierc ness and unwise conductor the liberals made of Napoleon Napo-leon what he is, and forced him to do things incompatible wiih his true character, char-acter, lie has been accused of being ambitious ; so lie is, so are many of his countrymen, so are all the French people ; hence it is not a personal foible, foi-ble, it is a national propensity ; only he had, himself, a natural shrewdness, firmness, and a strong will, added to a certain amount of stabilitj, which th; French are so much in iack of. His indomitable will has burst asunder all barriers to satisfy bis ambition. lie aimed to be a king; circumstances forced him to be a despot. He aimed to be a great man and leave a great name to posterity, worthy of notice j he has succeeded in part, so far; ana if fortune favors him in this last conflict, con-flict, he will have attained the acme of his first desires. It is astonishing to see how much the mind of that man has b en employed during the few years of his reign. Amidst stiife and oppes.tion, lie enriched en-riched his nati m, and improved every opportunity to do good and to benefit his people. There is not a city iu France, of first and second class, that docs not bear some marks of his attention. atten-tion. Wiih peace and plenty, a liberal commerce and encouragement of home manufactures, the people have been blessed. II s greatest, improvements were directed to the capital the great city of Paris. Fornieily composed of a conglomeration of smad, dingy, inegu-lar inegu-lar hou-cs ; some miserable, dirty and unhealthy hovels, 'he streets winding, snake like, without regard to stiaight lines; the ol ui! ble paveineii;, the stagnating filth and the sickening emanations ema-nations coll'iast greatly wi;'n 1 lie Palis of to-day, vi;h her palace.-, large streets, We'l-pavcd sidewalk-, boj.e-vards boj.e-vards planted with beautiful shade trees, water 'o.ks wa-hiiu' the everyday every-day accumulation of li th in luge sewers, htiilses having the appearance of palaces and of a pleasin,' uni oi mi y; and added to this, an inllux of commerce. com-merce. The visitor can see the sti iking contrast of the pa-t with the present; while Napoleon's woi k - ut Chei I ouri; have uiatle that place one of the strongest strong-est maritime seaports in the woild. In our age we are too apt to blame the acts of the man because we alow ourselves to be governed by public opinion. We uocu-e Napoleon of tyranny, but we do not question if the efforts are without, cau-e. We draw a hasty judgment, and the pievaihng opinion is lhat he is a bad man. Napoleon Napo-leon is ambitiou- the disposition of all French men; but he is not wicked. I'h rough despotic rule he has saved the nation from anarchy and from neighboring inereession Had not that man b uiu l the extremists with an iron Land. HYance would bare offered offer-ed to tin' world the sail spectacle of a second Mexico. Instead of being one of the first nations of Europe, she would have been a prey to revolutionary revolution-ary strife, reduced to ini-eiy an 1 ruin. At present its philosophers and scientific scien-tific men are as stars shining amid the constellations of human intelligence. The French nation could not have, and did imt de-ervc, a better king than Napoleon III. ShicW'l iu polities, he was well able to meet shrewdni ss fi'oni abioal; and, however foolish may appear the alleged e.ni-e of the pi c.-i nt si i uggle, one may be a sup tl lh.it eaeh pally has I cell for years preparing 'or the iii dhet; the bomb had to btiist uier or As lo the so-c died reports fom the seat of war, very lilile n-lial.iiityc.il be placed upon thein, for no correspondents, corres-pondents, e i n to ! lie l'.n 'is j mi nal-, are allowed within too Pencil atniy. Oct I Iltsi-tNUACii. |