The speech addressed 17 she Emperor of the French to
his Imperial Guard on their return to Parrs secanc to ho n sign that he neither anticipates peace nor dreads a continuance of the _war. His terse and pregnant sentences are an exact contrast to the feeble and attenuated special-pleadings of the pamphlet which has recently been put forth, it was supposed with the Im- perial sanction. The brochure stands in the equivocal position to be accepted if it proved useful, repudiated if it were a failure—which it is. Indeed, it is probable that the Emperor had very little share in its production. It is one thing to per- mit, and another to countenance. To put forward a plausible peace " feeler " at present, could do no great harm to the projects of Napoleon the Third ; but the straw thrown up might be use- ful whichever way it should have floated. There would even be an advantage to a warlike policy in any attempt to • peace- _ adVocacy which Would be at once fairly plausible and decidedly feeble. S -pamphlet pleading for • reconciliation with Russia without her yielding a single inch of the ground demanded from her, and proposing' to avow that France -had better retract be- cause she has selfishly gained all that the contest is likely to yield her, could excite no synipethy even from the pert of the French nation which_ is adverse to the Emperor ; but it oould ex- Peso the- selfish-lingering feeling of certain Orleanist parties who chiefly represent the Peace statesmanship of France. If it had succeeded, it would have indicated a new duty for the Emperor ; having failed, it gives'him a sanction for pursuing the course in which- he continues. -- And he continues assured by certain attained successes. Al- though it may be -true that France—that is, educated Paris— yet hesitates entirely to sympathize with his projects, it would seem that he has succeeded in identifying the pride and pomp of France with his own pretensions. -He has reconstituted the Im- perial Guard ; he has been enabled to welcome back the eagles invested with new lustre by victories ; he has made for himaelf the opportunity. of delivering at once to the assembled soldiery and an assembled people his declaration that France requires at the present time a numerous and experienced army inured to the hardships of a soldier's life, strengthened with . experience in war, and ready to -march whithersoever necessity may require. The Imperial Guard of the present Napoleon exceeds in numbers and completeness the Imperial Guard of which the First Napoleon was so proud. It is the pick of-the French army ; its master has succeeded in reuniting the traditions of the Old Guard and of the First Napoleon with the present army and the present Napoleon. Unquestionably, while addressing those troops of veterans fresh from victory, Napoleon the -Third was ntaster of the situation. The sentences carefully chosen, uttered with.the emphatic meaning of a public address, with the voice of power, have constituted a manifesto to Europe, as they must almost compel the acclaim of France by appealing to the deep-seated and ever-ready mili- tary instincts of that nation.
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