THE EMPIRE DYING HARD. T HE Empire, if it is going
to die, at all events dies hard. The last straw of the pile of calamity now accumulated on the Emperor,—the straw that would put the finish- ing-stroke to the endurance of most men in his position, if it does not put it to his,—is the reflection which must now be forced on him that not only he, but in all probability his dynasty, would have had an excellent chance, if he had not launched this boomerang-thunderbolt which has struck back with such fatal force on his own throne. To commit a terrible blunder is often the fate of the shrewdest rulers ; but to commit a terrible blunder when there was no urgent need for action at all, except in his own imagination, when to have done nothing was so easy, and at the same time far less perilous than he supposed,—far less perilous than the course actually pursued,—must be indeed an unbearable burden to a long-headed, forecasting, hesitating mind like that of the Emperor, to whom all decisive action is a bitter travail of the soul. Yet must it not now be clear to him, as it is to all of us,—that he, like ourselves, far over-estimated the perils of his own dynasty and far under-estimated its chances with France ? Who could have dreamt that the Empire could have borne disgrace and failure so terrible as it is actually enduring, without vanishing away like a smoke We all,—the Emperor included,—supposed the scales of national opinion to be so evenly balanced that an additional straw in the adverse scale would make that which bore the fortunes of the Napoleons at once kick the beam. Yet here we see the Emperor heaving with his own Imperial hands mighty ton-weights into the adverse scale, without as yet absolutely sealing the fate of his dynasty ; for the balance still quivers in the air, the equipoise appears to be only just attained, and it is hardly yet certain whether the third dramatic catastrophe of the war, this second defeat of MacMahon, crowning the calamities of the Vosges and of Metz, will put the finishing-touch to the destruction of the make of the Emperor a maniac of remorse ? Guardian, and then judge how far a people widely pervaded But how are we to account for this strange phenomenon ? It by these feelings are likely to turn their disgust for the seems certain that the scientific analogy we have just referred Empire to account in the shape of hearty resolve to set up to the vast amount of heat, not measurable by any change in • ything better in its place. The Empire seems to have the thermometer, requisite to liquefy a lump of ice, is strictly effectually sucked the life out of Republicanism before it came applicable to the slow dissolution of the Empire; that there has to its own death-struggle. been very little manifestation of any former attachment to it,— Then, how should there be any enthusiasm for an heredi- very little evidence that anything is lost to it which formerly it tary monarchy, when once Napoleonism has failed ? Only a had—only an immense and unaccountable reluctance, as it were, Napoleon could, without ridicule, assume the title of to disappear and liquefy,—a secret store of solidifying power Emperor ; and the title of King has no recent associations in which, though it has never been manifested, is none the less France which give it any meaning, except that of a less dig- difficult to subdue. The peasantry of the Champagne districts nified, less powerful, and generally shackled emperor. The are said, indeed, to have received the Emperor and the Prince French are now used to the sickly glitter and grandeur of an Imperial with some enthusiasm, in spite of the misfortunes of empire, and to persuade them to take with the least enthusiasm the Empire. But if we may trust one of the most trustworthy to the diminished importance of an Orleanist King, you would of English witnesses—the correspondent of the Guardian,— require a very real personal attachment to, and confidence in, the Gardes Mobiles are almost universally filled with unutter- some one person,—an attachment and confidence which does able contempt and disgust for the Empire ; in Paris the not really exist. The Empire has had enough historical and Emperor's own servants are compelled to disown all allegiance dynastic attraction about it for the French people, to outshine to his decrees, in order to save his authority from formal any interest which the discredited house of Orleans could have attack ; the regular troops of the line are reported for France, and now that it is itself discredited, for France to to be utterly disheartened by contempt for his policy in mili- fall back on an Orleanist succession would be about as welcome tary affairs ; and, in a word, the great problem is, not what to her as it would be to the Parisians to return to lighting should kill the Empire, but what can possibly be the Paris by oil lamps on the ground that the gas had become secret why the vital spark lingers in it so long ? And poor and smoky. If the Empire has undermined the popu- no doubt a great part of the explanation lies in the utter larity of the Republic, it has still more effectually under- absence of any popular alternative. The apathy that has mined the popularity of an Orleans throne.
settled over France seems to have entirely destroyed the In a word, we fear we say only the truth when we say of old enthusiasm for a Republic. The peasantry and the the Empire that its glitter has so far dazzled the French, as to middle-classes fear that a republic means an arena for render anything less glittering utterly vapid to them, while it political jealousies, rivalries, and plots. The working-men, has also drained the country of all Republican idealism. It has who probably prefer it, are more interested just now in taught the people that their power is dangerous to themselves, social and economic problems than in political ; the Army that politics, like all other earnest pursuits in life, are vanity ; itself, though it despises the Imperial commander, seems to that wealth and pleasure are the only lasting advantages ; that be perfectly indifferent about the political future of the State. glory is a meteor, that morality is a superstition, and equality It has found no great favourite, no brilliant leader whom it a dream. How can we expect that a weary and satiated would like to elevate to power. And apathy like this always shrinking from the Empire should mean an honest and earnest tells in favour of the existing state of things. You cannot preference for anything else ?
well either empty or level a throne without some idea of an alternative. Especially in the midst of a great storm, no one would depose even an incompetent captain without having some notion of one more competent to put in his place. The A DISTINGUISHED statesman, being asked whether he old metaphysicians used to account for a good many things by thought the actual condition of Ireland, as contrasted a principle which they called " want of sufficient reason why with that of England and Scotland, could fairly be attributed it should be otherwise,"—in other words, of any reason for a to English misrule, replied, " Say rather to her unhappy change. That seems to us to go a good way to explain the history." The distinction was real and important. The misrule tenacity of the Empire. The French political imagination is of Ireland, with all its oppressions and consequent sufferings barren of any conception of a popular alternative. " Liberty, of the oppressed, has been the consequence, no less than the equality, fraternity," no longer fire the pulses of the French. cause, of Ireland's history, and of the conditions under which The Orleanists have a party, but no root in the nation. And that history has been formed, generation after generation. It there is not a name in France which has a quarter of the is true of nations, as of individuals, that some are prosperous, familiarity in French ears which still belongs to the name of some unfortunate, beyond any reasons derived from the good Napoleon. Napoleon may have proved a blunder, but what or bad conduct of either. No one who looks at the history of blunder would be less fatal ? And how is a people to raise a England, past or present, and compares it with the history of any cry of "Long live a probability of sordething better "? other nation, can fail to feel the force of Milton's assertion But it is not by any means solely for want of a popular name that it is God's manner to think first of His Englishmen ; yet as the representative of any alternative government, that the he must be a mere Pharisee of the Pharisees who can suppose Empire lingers as it does. The truth is, that the Empire, like that it is because we are better than other nations. The chief some of those trees which are said to drain away the nourish- horrors of war—foreign invasion, the march of great armies, mg qualities of the soil from their whole neighbourhood, even their battles, and the desolation of our homes, not only by Imperial influence. The Empire, it is now clear, like a lump of when they are sickly or dying themselves, has drained all ice, needed a great deal more heat to melt than was indicated other forms of government of their attraction for France. It by its superficial temperature. Apparently, it was within a has had the art to borrow a certain democratic tone from degree, say a fraction of a degree, of dissolution ; but here for Republicanism, and by its repeated ple'biscites, has utterly nut- six weeks the very furnaces of hell,—there is no sign, we fear, seated the country with the democratic idea. The correspondent of their being purgatorial,—have been applied to it, and even of the Guardian, towhom we have before alluded, bears evidence, now the ice, though dangerous and leaky, is not yet half-way strongly confirmed from other quarters, to the vehement dis- to a liquid form. Had the Emperor not taken the Hohen- gust which is now entertained for the bare notion of a pie- zollern candidature so seriously, but only used his then biscite by many of the very classes who in 1848 would have vast political influence to defeat it, would he not be certainly been enthusiastic for a Republic. The Empire has reigning in perfect safety, and though full of anxieties managed to travesty democracy so as to take all the heart out for his son, still with far more of real probability of of any popular cry for a republic. Its republican side has his succession, than all the various reversioners together been its hollowest side, and yet a very conspicuous side. If could now reasonably make up ? This, at all events, is the the people, who are the sole depositories of power under the reasonable inference from what has happened. When a thread republican form of government, have so often given in apparently on the point of breaking is found still unbroken their ostentatious adhesion to the very form of government after huge strains have been made upon it, we have a right to whence this ruin has fallen upon France, how is the State to suppose, that even though it break now, it had far more fibre. be purified by going back to the people ? Whatever else the and wire in it than we had suspected. So it seems to us to Empire has done, it has effectually sickened the people with be with the Empire. Its fibre was thought to be frailer than themselves ; and when that is so, how can one expect any the gossamer. Yet its strength is not exhausted, after a hearty popular voice to speak out at all ? Read the accounts draught upon it which might have proved almost fatal to an of the utter flippancy, levity, and epicureanism which pervade old and popular constitution. Is not this alone enough to the camp of Mobiles at St. Maur in the last Paris letter of the make of the Emperor a maniac of remorse ? Guardian, and then judge how far a people widely pervaded But how are we to account for this strange phenomenon ? It by these feelings are likely to turn their disgust for the seems certain that the scientific analogy we have just referred Empire to account in the shape of hearty resolve to set up to the vast amount of heat, not measurable by any change in • ything better in its place. The Empire seems to have the thermometer, requisite to liquefy a lump of ice, is strictly effectually sucked the life out of Republicanism before it came applicable to the slow dissolution of the Empire; that there has to its own death-struggle. been very little manifestation of any former attachment to it,— Then, how should there be any enthusiasm for an heredi- very little evidence that anything is lost to it which formerly it tary monarchy, when once Napoleonism has failed ? Only a had—only an immense and unaccountable reluctance, as it were, Napoleon could, without ridicule, assume the title of to disappear and liquefy,—a secret store of solidifying power Emperor ; and the title of King has no recent associations in which, though it has never been manifested, is none the less France which give it any meaning, except that of a less dig- difficult to subdue. The peasantry of the Champagne districts nified, less powerful, and generally shackled emperor. The are said, indeed, to have received the Emperor and the Prince French are now used to the sickly glitter and grandeur of an Imperial with some enthusiasm, in spite of the misfortunes of empire, and to persuade them to take with the least enthusiasm the Empire. But if we may trust one of the most trustworthy to the diminished importance of an Orleanist King, you would of English witnesses—the correspondent of the Guardian,— require a very real personal attachment to, and confidence in, the Gardes Mobiles are almost universally filled with unutter- some one person,—an attachment and confidence which does able contempt and disgust for the Empire ; in Paris the not really exist. The Empire has had enough historical and Emperor's own servants are compelled to disown all allegiance dynastic attraction about it for the French people, to outshine to his decrees, in order to save his authority from formal any interest which the discredited house of Orleans could have attack ; the regular troops of the line are reported for France, and now that it is itself discredited, for France to to be utterly disheartened by contempt for his policy in mili- fall back on an Orleanist succession would be about as welcome tary affairs ; and, in a word, the great problem is, not what to her as it would be to the Parisians to return to lighting should kill the Empire, but what can possibly be the Paris by oil lamps on the ground that the gas had become secret why the vital spark lingers in it so long ? And poor and smoky. If the Empire has undermined the popu- no doubt a great part of the explanation lies in the utter larity of the Republic, it has still more effectually under- absence of any popular alternative. The apathy that has mined the popularity of an Orleans throne.
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