The life of the Emperor Napoleon has been threatened. It
was known that the Emperor was to be at the Theatre Italien on Saturday evening; and as the carriages drew up, a young man standing at the entrance of the theatre tired a small pistol at one of the carriages—one containing a party of ladies, the Emperor being in another. The man proved to be a poor fool, who had made him- self conspicuous in the annals of Parisian swindling and Parisian 6meutes ; but this time the assassin is treated in the way that we treat the creatures—as mad. In Paris they avoid the excitement of a public trial; with us it is usually found that juries readily adopt the presumption of insanity. The cheers with which the Em- peror was hailed on showing himself in the theatre prove how glad
the Parisians are to be spared the consequences of his removal; just as their extreme rejoicings at the Sebastopol victory prove th to have become attached toile policy which he has so powerfu set in successful motion. But it is felt that the sumps for France, politically as well as strategically, depends mainly tipon himself ; and while the ultimate announcement of Dr. Connean is awaited with solicitude, at the bestl3ellemarre might have consigned France to a minority—with no certainty that " the best" would really be secured.
The incident is a warning, first, that we must not count upon the immortality of arrangements which have any mortal man for their author; and secondly, that if Napoleon the Third desires his power to survive him, he must well employ his time in rooting the Imperial institutions into the affections, the habits, and the mate- rial interests of the people. It is consistent with his sagacity that the warning should have been anticipated by his own designs; but Bellemarre played the part of that officer whom the great Sultan appointed to parade his camp, bearing aloft the potentate's shirt as a banner, and proelaiminq, aloud, that, for all his glories and his power, " Saladin must die." And that Saladin is among those who have never died !
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