HITLER AND LOUIS NAPOLEON
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
SIR,—The account of Field-Marshal Goering's floral reception of the Fuehrer at Berlin station on Sunday night is a reminder to anyone familiar with the history of that day of the rejoicings at the coup d'etat by which Louis Napoleon engineered his own election as President for life on December 1st, 1851. This was a prelude to his seizure of the Imperial crown twelve months later.
On January 1st, 1852, a service of thanksgiving was organised in Notre Dame. My grandfather, Nassau Senior, conversa- tionalist and economist, was in Paris, and gives the following account of the occasion.
"Thursday, 7anuary 1st, 1852.—At II this morning I went to Notre-Dame to hear the Te Deum ' in honour of Louis Napo- leon's success. The vast cathedral, all in a blaze with wax candles (the papers say that there were 12,000 in the nave), hung with banners and crowded with spectators, was an imposing sight. A fog little inferior to the densest that London can show covered Paris and filled the church, increasing the apparent size by the obscurity. I was in the ministerial gallery, but too late to get a front row, so that I could not distinguish the President's coun- tenance either as he entered or as he sat or knelt under a canopy in the middle of the transept. I was sorry not to be able to see how a man looks who is publicly returning thanks to God for having been allowed to commit an atrocious crime. Those who were nearer said that he was tres-digne et recueilli. As he entered and went out cries of Wive Napoleon! ' were raised, and ran along the galleries, but seemed faint and few. Not one person in twenty joined in them."
Louis Napoleon's excuse for his action was the preservation of France from Socialism.—Yours faithfully,
AMY ST. LOE STRACHEY.
39 St. Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, S.W. 3.
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