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ture opposition. And we heard an illustri- | would a parliament during the last twenty ous (Whig) English statesman, after a po- years have acted more wisely, or nobly, or litical experience of fifty years, aver that of beneficially than the Emperor has done? all the French rulers he had had to deal It may well be questioned. Perhaps even with, the Emperor was unquestionably the it may be confidently denied. Probably it most truthful and reliable. would not have been so daringly extravagant; but the Emperor's wild expenditure we have already carried to the debit side of his account. It might not have been more warlike, but its wars would have been less defensible. It would certainly not have undertaken the disastrous Mexican expedition, but it would not improbably have embarked in a Polish crusade, just as futile and far less promising. It might, perhaps, not have forced on the Crimean war, quite certainly it never would have dreamed of anything so Quixotic or unselfish as the Italian one. What it might have done in the Roman affair it is hard to say; probably its action would have been still more ungenerous than the Emperor's has been. For we must remember that it was the French republic which crushed by violence the Roman one, against the avowed sympathies of the then President, and replaced the ecclesiastical tyrant on his deserted throne. And the Emperor has twice attempted, and once at least with apparent sincerity, to withdraw his troops. It may well be doubted whether

But we must not allow our attention to be diverted from the precise thesis before us. We are not dealing with the character of Louis Napoleon, properly so called, nor with the sentence which history will pass on his virtues and misdeeds. We are endeavouring merely to draw up a balance-sheet of the good and the evil which, when all is realized and all accounts made up, he will be found to have wrought to Europe and to France. Whether, therefore, regarded from this point of view, his suppression of parliamentary government and his conversion of a republic into an autocracy, should be carried to the debtor or creditor side of the account, is independent of the moral features of the transaction. Admitting this limitation of the inquiry, however, it is urged that he suppressed or fettered all freedom of speech and writing (freedom of individual action never was complete in France, and has not been much, if at all, curtailed by the Emperor), and that neither intellect nor true progress can flourish where liberty is thus gagged. The bare allega- a Parisian parliament would have done tion is in a great measure undeniable. There remains the question, what is the measure of mischief wrought by the admitted facts? And, first, as to the extinction or paralysis of parliament. We will not enter on the vexed questions whether parliamentary institutions are suitable for France; whether the Frenchmen of to-day are ripe for them; whether they can be made to work satisfac-ment. torily in concert with such a centralized But the Emperor has gagged the press ; bureaucracy as exists, and as seems about and that in English eyes is a heinous wrong, the most permanent thing that does exist, and in the latitude of England would be a in that country. But how far was parlia- grievous evil. But even here the facts mentary government a blessing to the na- should be scrutinized with something of jution while it lasted? It cultivated a high dicial fulness, calmness, and impartiality. and racy sort of eloquence; so far it was a He has subjected the journals no doubt to a valuable school and a fascinating arena of rigid and arbitrary control, has been perdisplay. It stimulated the political interest emptory, dogmatic, suspicious, narrow and of the people, and operated as a most effi- severe, has checked all vigorous language, cient educator in public affairs. So far it and silenced as far as he could all hostile was a good, but, as with ourselves, far from opinion. Culpa sua, culpa maxima sua. an unalloyed good; for factions grew under Nevertheless he left books and first-class the stimulus, and factions are rarely patri- reviews wholly unfettered, unless by liability otic, and are usually inspired by the mean- to ordinary legal prosecution, — seldom or est and fiercest personal ambitions. Fac- never by the way, we believe, actually tions led to corruption almost as lavish and resorted to in their case. And the Revue shameless as that which flourishes under im- des Deux Mondes, and Lanfrey's life of the perialism. The history of parliamentaryism first Napoleon, have shown what could be under the Orleanists is scarcely one on which published under this immunity. In the Frenchmen can look back with unmixed next place, journals have always had a dispride. The question to be determined isturbing and dangerous influence in France,

more. On the whole, therefore, we are inclined, if not to give a verdict of acquittal on this indictment, at least to pass a lenient and hesitating sentence. As to the inauguration of that more enlightened commercial policy which has already done so much for France, we know that a liberal parliament never would have entertained it for a mo

and more than one formidable rising might be traced to their exciting language; and the French radical newspapers of the hour, as well as the Irish national ones, are at hand to show us the lengths of incendiarism, falsehood, invective, and misguidance to which they will go when unfettered by the arm of power. Thirdly, so well is this tendency and this influence of French journalism known, that there never has been a Government in France which has not dealt with newspaper writing in a fashion which we in this country should have deemed unwise or unwarrantable. Were there no press prosecutions under Louis Philippe ? Were there no coercive laws put in execution by M. Guizot? The Emperor has done what they did; only he has done it more effectually, more harshly, and more systematically; and now M. Rochefort and his collaborateurs are doing all that in them lies to justify the unrelenting course he has pursued. On the whole we question whether, comparing the Imperial with the old monarchical régime, under this clause of the indictment we can say much more than "not proven," as far as actual mischief is concerned. For the habitual mis-statements and falsifications published in official and semi-official journals, no condemnation can be too sweeping. But alas! who in France is clear enough to cast the first stone?

who has written under four régimes, is the Victor Hugo of the Restoration still, with his faults perhaps a little exaggerated, his colouring a little daubier and coarser, and neither his passions nor his vigour much tamed by age. Edmund About is not worse than Balzac, nor much less able; and George Sand at sixty is scarcely more indecent than George Sand at twenty, though unquestionably a far meaner writer than she who once gave us Consuelo.

But that the morals of the Imperial circle and the general tone of thought and sentiment current at the Tuileries have been an evil example to the nation, and have exercised a pernicious influence over the social morality of France, is, we fear, a matter about which no doubt exists. The court of Louis Philippe was eminently respectable, if dull and bourgeois. That of Charles X. was stupidly bigoted rather than specially sinful. The present Emperor reached the throne with his craving for pleasure whetted by a life of comparative hardship and privation; and matched with a pleasure-loving wife, and surrounded by pleasure-loving followers still hungrier than himself, he rushed into the very extreme of inordinate indulgence and vulgar splendour, and for a time gave such full scope to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," as scandalized even the not very strict notions of high society in Paris. As to the general alleged decline in the Much of this has now passed away, but the tone and substance of literary productions mischief which it wrought remains. The under the Imperial régime, both in intel- gaudy voluptuousness and the unmeasured lectual and moral characteristics, that is extravagance of the court fostered two of another subject altogether, and can scarcely the most noxious and persistent propensibe traceable to any fetters on liberty of ties of the nation, its intense materialism expression. We do not think that the tone and its passion for sensual indulgence. of such political writings as have appeared, The lavish expenditure of which the Tuileindicates deterioration in thought or justice ries set the fashion demoralized all classes. of sentiment rather the reverse. How The imaginations of both readers and writfar the increasing degeneracy in the whole ers of fiction, of military men and nobles, tone and colouring of lighter literature is of men of business and common tradesmen, connected with the looser morals of the revelled in visions of boundless luxury and Empire and the court, is a different and a sudden affluence, of wild waste and gordifficult question, on which perhaps an out-geous magnificence. The millionnaire besider is scarcely competent to pronounce. If we might venture to offer an opinion we should be inclined to say that the deterioration, which cannot be denied, has been progressive for the last thirty years under every form of government, and has consisted not certainly in declining ability, nor in more daring voluptuousness, but in an icier and coarser cynicism, and in a more prevailing and eager craving for extravagant and unnatural sensations. Dumas fils is hardly more indecorous than Dumas père, and while unhealthier in tone displays a far higher order of intelligence. Victor Hugo,

came the hero of the time; the Bourse was the battlefield where victory was to be won, not by adding productively to the nation's wealth, but by despoiling others of their means; speculation superseded or obscured steady industry, and the jeunesse dorée of the empire sought at once excitement and renown in a mad rivalry as to who should scamper through a noble fortune most speedily and most insanely. The popular novels of the day teem with pictures of this mean form of imbecile vanity: no one has painted it more vividly than M. About in his Madelon. Meanwhile this excessive

and irrational expenditure raised the price enormously of all the luxuries and of many of the necessaries of life; it has become more and more difficult to live honestly; to the honest with fixed and limited incomes it has become very difficult to live at all. Strange sad stories are told of the low straits that all, especially the upper classes and the pleasure-hunters, are reduced to to keep afloat: strange stories of the costly luxury in which ladies of rank and position insist upon indulging; sad stories of the means by which alone that cost can be defrayed. Probably this exasperation of the national passion for material splendour and material enjoyment will be found in the end to be the worst legacy which the Empire has bequeathed to France, and the heaviest sin to be placed to the debit side of the Imperial régime.*

loans which he introduced, and which is believed to have been his own design, has furnished the peasantry always a hoarding class with a ready and secure investment for their savings. Formerly they invested these solely in the purchase of land, which yielded a very low interest and cost extravagantly dear.* Now they lend to the Government and obtain four or five per cent. for their money; and naturally are interested in the stability of the dynasty which is thus at once their enricher and their debtor.

The elasticity of the revenue is a fair indication of the prosperity of a nation. Now, though we believe no new taxes have been imposed, the ordinary revenue has risen from 1,360 millions of francs in 1850 to 1,722 millions in 1869.

The Emperor early perceived the importance of railway enterprise for developing the resources of the country, and he fostered it by what were regarded as inordinately liberal concessions. The result has answered his expectations. Thus :

Railroads open for traffic in France.
In 1848.
1,830 kilometres
1849.
,, 1860.
,, 1867.

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2,222

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9,076

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14,382

15,856

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1868. The general commerce of France has augmented at a surprising rate. The increase has been fourfold in the last twenty

years.

In estimating the benefits to Europe and to France with which the Emperor may be fairly credited, we will begin, as before, with the pecuniary part of the account. It has been his steady aim, ever since his accession, to enrich his nation by encouraging its enterprise and developing its resources, to turn active minds from politics by concentrating their attention on the pursuit of material wealth, and to make men rich in order to compensate them for not being free. He has followed this obvious line of policy with his usual sagacity and persistency as far as was compatible with his other, and often scarcely reconcilable, desire for the establishment of his influence over the affairs of Europe; though it is certain that he has often marred his purposes and defeated his primary object, by the sense of insecurity which his dark and intriguing disposition has spread through the political world, rendering the tranquillity and confidence so necessary to com- Years mercial undertakings often deplorably and fatally precarious. Still his success has been remarkable; - France has grown 1848 rapidly rich under his reign, and producers, at least, have benefited largely by the rise 1867 of prices in nearly all home articles, while the wages of the working classes have been very considerably enhanced by lavish expenditure and artificial employment. The future, no doubt, has been recklessly sacrificed to the present; and loans instead of 1847 taxes have supplied the means of Imperial 1848 extravagance. But the system of open

Total value of merchandise imported into and exported from France, distinguishing the value of imports for consumption and of French produce, exported in each of the years 1847-48 and 1867-68 :—

1847

1868

Years

1867

IMPORTS.

Total imports

Francs

1,342,800,000

861,900,000

4,030,800,000
4,258,200,000

EXPORTS.

Total exports

Francs

1,270,700,000
1,153,000,000

3,934,200,000 Perhaps the support of the Pope and the occa- 1868 8,720,900,000 sional deference to the clerical party might be added; but neither the extent nor the practical operation of these egarements are easy to measure, and we are by no means clear that a parliamentary govern ment might not have offended in the same direction.

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. 2,825,900,000 2,789,900,000

* The average price of land has fallen considerably in France during the Empire. - Enquete agricole – Rapport officiel, par M. de Morny.

The Emperor is well known to be far ahead of his countrymen in his views of commercial policy. He is at heart a Freetrader; they are in the main Protectionists. But he has had the nerve to force upon them to a considerable extent his own enlightened notions. The Commercial Treaty between England and France, now so much impugned by malcontents on both sides of the Channel, could never have been negotiated under either the Bourbons, or the Orleanists, or a Republic. Yet observe how trade has thriven under its auspices.

wider dominion both in Asia and the West; had seen her incorporating neighbour after neighbour in defiance of resistance and of right, like a vast boa-constrictor first lubricating them with diplomatic slime, then crushing them in the close embrace of her " protection," then swallowing them by the slow process of absorption. Finland, Bessarabia, the Crimea, Trans-Caucasia, were already seized and annexed. The turn of Denmark and Turkey was coming, and then all Europe would be enfolded in her grasp. From this fate the Crimean war delivered us. The power of the Colossus was broken up for a long period to come, and her indiTotal value of imports and exports of mer-rect influence on the position of Austria, chandise from and to France in each of the Prussia, and the minor German States enyears 1858-9, 1867-8:

UNITED KINGDOM.

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tirely ceased. For the last fourteen years she has concentrated her efforts on internal improvements, and has exercised scarcely any perceptible control abroad, and the difference has been felt in every country and city from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. The Continent has been relieved from an 10,901,410 12,861,449 undefined, but a most sensible oppression, as well as from a future danger.

We have debited Louis Napoleon with the entire cost of the Crimean war. It is but fair, therefore, that he should be credited with the whole benefit, immediate and secondary, which Europe has reaped from that fearful episode of slaughter and waste. It cannot be denied that ever since the overthrow of the first Napoleon, to which she largely contributed, Russia has exercised a growing and a baneful influence on the politics of central and southern Europe. She was everywhere the mainstay and bulwark of oppression - the unfailing hope of despots in the last resort, in their tyrannical enterprises and in their hour of danger. She had lain like an incubus upon the progress of the Continent towards a freer and a happier day. She had been the soul of the Holy Alliance. She had been always ready to step forward and trample out the first sparks of liberty and the budding hopes of patriots. She had replaced Hungary under the yoke of Austria when Austria herself had proved unequal to the task, and she had been the reserve power in the back-ground which had indirectly enabled Austria to keep down the everseething ferment of Italian independence. Moreover she was able to dictate to despotic monarchs as well as to protect them. Her power was known to be great and was believed to be irresistible. She was moreover grasping as well as oppressive. For forty years Europe had watched with anxiety the steady and stealthy steps of the great aggressor towards ever wider and

For the liberation of Italy, its independence of foreign domination, and its erection into a united kingdom, the Emperor is, we think, entitled to the full credit. It is true that he did not accomplish or even design or foresee the whole that has taken place. It is true that events travelled faster and further than he intended, and in some measure exceeded and even traversed his views. Still it remains true that he and he only made the liberation of the peninsula possible, and achieved the first great step towards its attained completion. He drove the Austrians out of Lombardy. He opened the way to the obvious further operation, the junction of the Emilian Provinces with Piedmont. He permitted the Garibaldian adventure.

He obtained Venetia from Austria and handed it over to the king who had so signally failed to win it by his own power. Without his intervention in 1859, the Italian people could have done nothing for themselves. Native insurrection had failed repeatedly, and foreign aid was clearly indispensable. Italy was made by Magenta and Solferino; Magenta and Solferino were the Emperor's own deed, and, we may add, without the previous achievement of the Crimean war, Magenta and Solferino never would have been attempted, or would have had a very different result. Moreover, it must be remembered that the Italian war of independence is due not to France, but to the personal volition of the Emperor. Every Orleanist statesman blamed him, and the great majority of

French politicians of all classes deemed the with a military capacity almost miraculous emancipation and unification of the penin- in its instinctive insight, and an iron will sula an injury to French interests and a that overcame for many years every conblunder in French policy. Under Louis flicting volition, he had no other genuine Philippe or Charles X., under any parlia-qualification for rule or sway over men or mentary system, probably under any repub- States. His contempt for the rights and lic, no such Quixotic piece of generosity

would have been adventured.

feelings of those with whom he had to deal was perpetually exasperating hostility which England, too, as well as Italy, has been no military genius less wonderful than his undeniably a debtor to the good-will of the could have suppressed. His ignorance and Emperor. He regards this country with insolence, no less than his ambition, were respect, perhaps even with a certain grati- for ever precipitating him into blunders tude for the long refuge it afforded him, and which undid in a day the achievements of for the friendly and frank reception it gave the most astonishing victories. He had to that national decision in his favour, which thousands of dazzled devotees; probably sanctioned or at least condoned the fore- not one truly attached friend. He fascistalling action of the coup d'état. He nated the imaginations of men: he never appreciates our institutions and understands won their love. He had no generosity, no our strength also better than most of his sense of justice, no capability of affection. countrymen. More than once has he stood He grasped at the fame and credit that beour friend when our language or proceed- longed to others, just as greedily and ings had irritated the morbid susceptibilities meanly as at the possessions and acquisiof Frenchmen, once certainly (after the tions of others. His falsity was, probably, Orsini attempt) he saved the anger and something quite unequalled: his heartlessjealousy of the hotter spirits in the army ness the same. Perhaps so completely bad from bringing on a war; and bas, as a rule, a man, one so unscrupulously cruel, so adhered steadily and even anxiously to the utterly without one redeeming moral trait, English alliance, when probably any other and, as we said, so vulgar to the very core Government would have relinquished it. of his nature, never gained supreme power It would be wrong for us to withhold our in Europe. His nephew has always been frank expression of appreciation of the services he has thus rendered to this country as well as to his own; and the practical value of the service is not diminished even if we admit that egotism and policy and not kindly feeling was the prominent inducement to the course pursued.

Nor ought we to be less candid in admitting his radical superiority to his uncle in many, perhaps in most, essential points of character. We say this, not because he has stood our friend when the first Napoleon was our most malignant foe; it is that we are at last beginning really to understand what manner of man his predecessor was. Thanks partly to the Napoleon correspondence and to M. Lanfrey's highminded and equitable analysis of its disclosures, we see the great conqueror of the age in his true colours, as probably the very worst, and assuredly the very vulgarest, of all the men of genius who have figured in the Western world. Endowed

the master of those passions of which his overbearing uncle was the helpless slave, and finally the unpitied victim. He has always been able to judge and measure obstacles and opposition; to calculate costs, to recognize the unattainable, to wait, to recede, and to forego. His uncle had flashes of insight; he has had patience of thought. His political intellect is far truer and profounder, and immeasurably more enlightened by culture and reflection; his mistakes have nearly always been miscalculations, not mad ungovernable desires. He has understood his age, his country, his capacities and his position, as his uncle never could be taught to do. Hence, he has lasted already some years longer; he has on the whole been a fertilizing rather than a desolating influence; and he will probably be found to have left a more enduring mark upon the map of Europe, if not upon the general character of his time.

W. R. G.

CHANTREY's tablet, executed on the order of Dr. Booth, to the memory of Kirke White, is to be removed from the old church of All Saints, Cambridge, now in the course of demolition, to

the chapel of St. John's College. On Thursday the Cambridge vestry, in compliance with the wishes of the families of White and Booth, passed a resolution to that effect.

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