rous. - The debates on the address, those splendid efforts
of the French Opposition to sow without losing time in the nevertheless necessary drudgery of the plough, were nearly over when, on Saturday, the Duke de Morny rose amidst a certain éclat. Hulf-brother of the Emperor, Presi- dent of the Chamber, divot of the Imperial House, three- fold millionaire, M. de Morny has, besides these claims to attention, a character all his own. Accused almost publicly of "concussion "—an offence so frequent in France that it has produced a word for which we have no English equivalent— sharing in all the discredit and all the mushroom prosperity of the Imperial entourage, suspected of alliance with Mii4s, and known to be lii with St. Petersburg, M. de Morny is, nevertheless, not hated by the freemen left in France. He is what his brother also is, but never appears to be, Beauhar- nais to the core, that is, a type Frenchman, who has only to question himself to understand his countrymen ; he never insults opponents, he never lacks the shrewd, almost wise, good nature which was the characteristic of Eugene, and he is believed to be at heart strongly convinced that France must one day be free. Then he is the personal confidant of the Emperor, hears his chat as well as his speeches, knows what he really wishes as well as what he says, and is believed on two or three occasions of late to have played the part of his good genius. No wonder that there was excitement when this man summing up. a debate on foreign policy declared that the idea of universal war was " grand and seducing," and when perceiving the excitement he had caused, he explained his words by these tremendous phrases, " Do we not all wish to see great nationalities reconstituted ? I will suppose for a moment some hon. member to have the power, merely by raising his finger, to modify the chart of Europe—to restore Venetia to Italy, to withdraw the Lebanon Christians from the Turkish yoke, to give to the Holy Father a position worthy of the head of the Roman Catholic religion, to deliver Rome to the Romans and to recall our troops, who are, after all, foreigners to them—would any one of you hesitate to do so ? . . . Allow me to explain. To appeal to nationalities, to re-establish the independence of peoples, to throw Italy upon Austria, to raise Hungary, to reconstitute Poland, all these form a policy that is not devoid of grandeur; and, if a gun was fired in Europe against France, it is, perhaps, the very policy that I should recommend to my country and my Sow), reign." It is true he went on to point out the need which France certainly has of peace, and to use the new argument which Bonapartism has itself made real, that the peasantry hold the debt, and a fall in the funds produces, therefore, "misfortune, even ruin, to the whole of society." It is true that he advocated alliance with Russia as the "logical" conse- quence of a wish for peace, and that he repudiated amend- ments which seemed to point towards active intervention.
But the two sentences we have quoted are held to reveal the secret thoughts of his master, and had not the Germans on the same day commenced their rush across the Eider, Europe would be ringing with comment on the Duke de Horny.
His speech proves that the dreamer who governs France so strongly has forgotten none of his dreams, that he would if opportunity served complete the restoration of Italy, revolutionize Austria, fight with Russia, destroy the Turkish dominion in the Levant as well as in Europe—he says him- self that the borders of the Mediterranean are all, for politics, European—carry out, in short, all the ideas which make up the programme of the New Revolution. Moreover, though opportunity does not now serve, though he is aware that France craves peace, and that he has bound her over to tran- quillity by his open loans, still, if war came, it is into this campaign over a world that the struggle should be turned. The Emperor has had enough of little wars, and threatens that the next struggle, whenever or wherever it comes, shall be for the redistribution of the European map.
In those few sentences lie the secret of the latent or open terror with which Europe regards Napoleon. All other poli- tical force is measurable, his alone cannot be calculated, for he appeals at once to bayonets and ideas. He is the master of sixty legions, but enormous as their power may be, politi- cians can calculate its impact when in motion almost as accurately as artillerists can calculate the force of a pro- jectile. But he is also the head of the nationalities, and their force is beyond the range evgn of conjecture. He has as yet summoned only one, but with that one a great mili- tary monarchy was defeated in a month, and the distribution of power in Europe has been sensibly affected. Suppose he summoned all ! There is not a statesman in Europe who will venture on a public opinion as to the result, and it is in this vagueness, this habitual appeal to latent as well as overt forces, that the strength of the Emperor consists. That strength may be described as Bonapartists describe it, grasp of imperial ideas, and there is truth in the description. But it is only a half-truth, for it leaves out of sight the Jacobin recklessness in the use of the means by which ideas may be secured. A war of propagandism is the blow which the Conservatives of Europe habitually expect at the hands of French republicans, but what Red programme ever yet equalled this ? " War to the throne, peace to the cottage," was a wide idea; but would evert St. Just have dared to menace Austria, Turkey, Russia and the Catholic world with revo- lution all at once ? Hungary ! Poland ! Rome Syria! it is not Mazzini or Garibaldi who is pronouncing these ominous words, but the confidant of the ruler of France, who declares that if a shot is fired on France he will pronounce these words. Strike, and he fires the European magazine. The monarchies of Europe are menaced not only with a mag- nificent army, not only with the strength of the only coherent nation in Europe except England, but with the Power which even when unsupported by this nation and those bayonets they can with such difficulty repress. " The coalesced Kings of Europe threaten us ; we hurl at their feet as our gage of battle—an idea "—it is Danton on a throne who talks, and if there be a figure at which Europe may reasonably stand aghast it is Danton on a throne—a man who, wielding the full power of an ancient organization, is ready, if pressed, to use it to upset all that is ancient in the world. Yet it is such a figure dreaming such ideas to whom the passion of the German people, the madness of German rulers has given an opportunity. And it is the one Sovereign out of whose inheritance half the aspirations of the Revolution must be satisfied who has given the signal which authorizes the lighting of the fuse.
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