BOOKS.
NAPOLEON III.*
Ma. ARCHIBALD FORBES'S _We of Napoleon M. is not a work of original research or profound judgment. It does but recapitulate the familiar episodes of the Emperor's tragic career with impartial accuracy. The style never rises above the level of respectable journalism, and Mr. Forbes is as remote from the rhetoric of Kinglake as from the authority of Maupas. But he has used his authorities with some skill, and though at times he looks at the Emperor's failings with too lenient an eye, he has generally a just appreciation of a difficult period. The period is difficult because we are still too near to disengage our view from prejudice, and because Napoleon III. has been described and criticised by the most violent of partisans. On the one hand, no hero of the Sunday-school was ever so noble as the Prince imagined by M. de Cassagnac ; on the other, no bandit was ever so miserably lost to the sense of virtue as "the disfeathered owl" of Victor Hugo, or as M. Rochefort's "lodger of the Tuileries." Strangely enough, Mr. Forbes quotes neither Victor Hugo nor M. de Cassagnac ; yet the truth lies some- where between their incompatible presentments. Napoleon III., in fact, was neither saint nor scoundrel ; he was merely that most dangerous of all men, a weakling bent upon the accom- plishment of great deeds, a respectable xdile disgracing the uniform of a Commander-in-Chief.
Throughout his career he was the victim of the name he bore. Whether or no he had the birthright to bear it, his character and achievements never made good the claim. None the less, the Emperor's praise was always on his tongue, the Emperor's example was always a guide to his tottering steps. Even the fiasco of Strasbourg was committed in the name of the hero who won Austerlitz, and the foolish eagle that fluttered at Boulogne was intended for the symbol of Napoleon the Great. As his imagined descent persuaded him to attempt deeds too high for his courage or his intelligence, so also it made him an object of suspicion and even of terror. The greater part of his life was spent in exile or in prison, merely because his title was a danger to the State, and when at last the Revolution of '43 called him to Paris, he came as one deprived by circumstances of military knowledge or political experience. But he bore the name of the First Consul, wherefore it seemed fitting that be should be the first President of the new Republic. More- over, an ignorance of affairs might have been counterbalanced by his notorious industry. He had studied not only his uncle's career, but the Constitution of America, and he had beguiled the solitude of Ham with the composition of political pamph- lets. Nor was his return to France in any sense an invasion. In occupying the Presidential chair he merely obeyed the mandate of the people, and possibly it was in good faith that he took the oath "to remain faithful to the democratic • The Life of Napoleon HI. By Archibald Forbes, LL.D. London: Chatta and Wicda,. LI2al
Republic, and to defend the Constitution." Even the coup d'etat carried out by his advisers, though a political crime of the vilest kind, was to some extent condoned by the plebiscite which confirmed it. But no sooner was Napoleon III. firmly established upon the Emperor's throne than he proved himself pitiably unworthy the duties and the position thrust upon him.
In 1851 France needed what she always needs, the security of a continuous government, and this security the Emperor's name might have given her. But the third Napoleon, whose talents were eminently peaceful, and who might have made an admir- able Chairman of a County Council, was seduced at the outset by a military ambition. That he conferred a positive and lasting benefit upon Paris there is no doubt. He designed boulevards, and if in them he destroyed the charm of the older Paris, he at any rate got rid of the possibility of barricades ; he made streets which, if dull and mechanical, were airy and con- venient; he took an intelligent interest in drainage and in the supply of water. Being an absolute ruler, he found no obstacles in the path of reform, and had he been content to interest his people in their own improve- ment, he might have secured peace and avoided Sedan. But the desire of war was irresistible ; he was determined to emulate his uncle's triumph, and thus insolently to court death and ruin. "How shall you rule the French people ?" a friend once asked him. "By giving it a war every four ears" was the cynical reply ; and to his own undoing he was faithful to his creed. His first venture—the Crimea—brought lint little glory, if it preserved him from disgrace. By the Italian campaign he won the contempt of Cavour, the dis- respect of his people, the execration of Italy. The Mexican War was an act of political turpitude which not even im- potence could condone, and the defeat of 1870 brought eternal disgrace upon the name which had fired his ambition and shaped his policy.
Yet for a while he was the least fettered ruler in Europe, and bad not sickness weakened his faculties, and Emile 011ivier's dream of a liberal Empire created a band of eloquent, implacable foes, he might have avoided the final disaster and preserved his throne. But a throne held on so hazardous a tenure is never worth preserving, and it was doubtless fortunate for France that her Emperor capitulated to the assured policy and the well-trained arms of Germany. From the very moment that the monstrous Lebceaf declared that the Army was ready to the last gaiter-button, the doom of France was certain. What could a restless optimism achieve against the determination of Bismarck and the informed strategy of Moltke ? Yet though the doom was certain, its advent was none the less tragic, and there is nothing in history so piteous as the impotent campaign which ended at Sedan. The tale has been told a hundred times, but we are content, indeed, to have Mr. Forbes's version. For it is in the last chapters that he is at his best. Here he seems to describe events of which he was an eye- witness ; and he is impressive by the very simplicity of his narrative. The picture of the powerless Emperor, without a plan, without soldiers, without the faintest hope of victory, with nothing certain in the world but defeat and an ever- increasing malady, is worth drawing and is well drawn. France, with her eternal buoyancy, long ago recovered ; and the generation which has grown up since the war is forgetting the ancient cry of revenge. But for the Emperor, for his family, for the ideas which he represented, naught was left save ruin and extinction. His boulevards and his streets remain a silent testimony to his love of Paris ; the gaiety of his Court is a fable for the novelists; but with him was destroyed the possibility of a regime like that of the Third Empire. Though France may need and may find many another dictator, she will never again trust her destinies to a man of the type of Napoleon IIL
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