BOOK IX. a kindly and sympathetic nature. They were the produce of a mind that was abreast of the time, and that had been copiously fed with lessons of experience mastered in close contact with all classes of various communities. The decree offering a reward of 50,000 francs for any practical application of the voltaic battery to heating, lighting, mechanism, or medicine may be taken as indicating the wide range of the Prince President's observation of men and things. An American writer of authority in the 'Overland Monthly' for March 1873 remarked of Prince Louis Napoleon: 'He was more extensively and more thoroughly educated than any other prince who ever ascended a throne. He spoke French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian like a native. He was a good classical scholar, profound in mathematics and physics, and in mechanics both skilled and inventive. 'When at liberty, both during youth and manhood, he was a diligent and a systematic student; and he might well, with a grim humour, have applied what Broderick said in the Senate of the United States of his youthful apprenticeship as a stone-cutter to his six years' imprisonment at Ham: "It was an occupation which devoted him to thought, while it debarred him from conversation." The soundness of this eulogy might be proved by a critical and analytical examination of the decrees, only the more important of which have been here described. CHAPTER IV. THE MEETING OF THE STATE BODIES. THE elections to the Corps Législatif took place on The opening ceremony, which was one of great magnificence, took place in the Hall of Marshals in the palace of the Tuileries. This noble hall, draped with crimson hangings, the galleries filled with the wives and daughters of the Diplomatic Corps and the great functionaries of State, the floor crowded with diplomatists, Senators, and Deputies in their glittering costumes; and, dominating the scene, the lofty canopy over the Prince President's raised state chair, near which stood that of the ex-King Jerome, President of the Senate-suggested a right royal ceremony. There was nothing of Republican simplicity or severity here, and as the ambassadors from foreign Powers looked upon the magnificent scene they must have felt that it betokened a further change in the institutions of the country. Had they glanced from the hall into the Court of Honour below, the two hundred carriages which had brought this brilliant company to the Tuileries would have confirmed this impression. It must have become conviction when the sound of cannon reverberated through the hall, and the drums presently beat to arms, and, preceded and surrounded by a brilliant military staff and a not less imposing household, the Prince President entered, saluting in his kindly, polished СНАР. BOOK IX. way those of the company whom he recognised to the right and left of the clear path by which he was led with punctilious ceremonial to the estrade and the chair of State. Quiet, composed, self-contained, the Prince requested the company to be seated; and then, unfolding a paper, as he would open a despatch in his cabinet, he read his speech in that clear, deep, sonorous voice which penetrated the most spacious chamber, so that the most distant listener could hear without the least effort. The Prince gave the following account of his stewardship of the fortunes of the State : 'The dictatorship which the people entrusted to me ceases to-day. Public affairs are about to resume their regular course. It is with a sentiment of real satisfaction that I come here to proclaim that the Constitution is in operation; for my constant care has been not only to re-establish order, but to render it permanent by giving to France institutions in harmony with her wants. You will remember that only a few months ago, the more I confined myself within the narrow limits of my prerogatives, the more severe were the restrictions sought to be put upon me, in order to deprive me of all power of initiative. Often discouraged, I admit that I thought of giving up a power so persistently disputed. I held on because I saw that there was only anarchy to take my place. On all sides passions, eager to destroy and incapable of creating, were rife. There was neither an institution nor a man to be relied upon. Nowhere could an uncontested right, a practical system, or an organisation of any kind be discerned. 'When, through the assistance of a few men of courage, and, above all, the energetic attitude of the army, all these perils were swept away in a few hours, my first care was to ask the people for institutions. Society had too long been like a pyramid resting on its apex; I replaced it upon its base. Universal suffrage, the only source of power under such circumstances, was immediately re-established; authority reassumed the ascendant-in short, France having adopted the principal features of the Constitution which I submitted to her, I was enabled to create political bodies the influence and prestige of which will be great, because their respective functions have been carefully regulated. Only those political institutions endure in which the power of each body is equitably regulated and defined. This is the only means of establishing a beneficent and useful liberty. Examples are not far to seek. Why, in 1814, were men pleased to see a Parliamentary régime inaugurated, in spite of our reverses? Because the Emperor (let us not shrink from the avowal) had been led, through war, to a too absolute exercise of power. Why, on the contrary, in 1851, did France applaud the fall of this same Parliamentary system? Because the Chambers had abused the influences which had been conferred upon them, and, desiring to dominate everything, destroyed the general equilibrium. In fine, why has France not protested against the restrictions which have been put on the liberty of the press,' and on individual liberty? It is 1 A decree, dated February 18, 1852, established the following stringent press regulations: 'No paper may be established without Government authority. 'Political newspapers published in foreign countries will not be allowed to circulate in France without Government authority. 'Persons introducing or distributing a foreign paper without such authority are to be punished with imprisonment varying from one month to one year, and a fine of from 100 francs to 5,000 francs. 'The caution-money of a paper All publication of a 'The stamp duties imposed on vention. CHAP. IV. BOOK IX. because the first had degenerated into license, and because the second, instead of being the orderly exercise of individual right, had, by odious excesses, threatened the rights of all. "This extreme danger, for, democracies especially, of seeing crude institutions destroy the State and liberty, was justly appreciated by our fathers half a century ago, when, on emerging from the revolutionary turmoil, after vain experiments with all kinds of régimes, they proclaimed the Constitution of the year VIII., which has served as model for that of 1852. Undoubtedly it does not sanction those forms of liberty to the abuse of which we had become accustomed, but it consecrates very solid liberties. On the morrow of revolutions the first right necessary to a people does not consist in an uncontrolled use of the platform and the press; it is that of choosing the Government which they desire. The French nation has just given to the world, perhaps for the first time, the imposing spectacle of a great people freely electing its own form of government. 'The chief who stands before you represents an expression of the popular will: and what do I see before me? Two Chambers, one elected under the most liberal electoral law in the world; the other, appointed by me, it is true, but independent, because its members are irremovable. Around me you remark men of acknowledged patriotism and power, who will be always ready to support me with their counsel, and to enlighten me on the wants of the country. This Constitution, which comes A journal may be suppressed without previous condemnation by decree of the Executive. 'It is forbidden to publish reports of trials for press offences. The courts may prohibit publication of other trials. The prefect designates the journal in which judicial advertisements must be inserted.' This law was relaxed under the Empire. |