France in the Nineteenth Century

disapproved the usurpation of the prince president. The national approval as expressed in this plébiscite was overwhelming. Each peasant and artisan se

a crushing blow struck at Red Republicanism, Communis

vise the constitution. The republican constitution of 1850 was in the main re-adopted, but with one important alteration.

universal suffrage vote of yes or no, in answer to some question put by the Government to the nation. The qu

so still and unmoved, smoking his cigar, that his cousin, Madame Baiocchi, rushing

at Fontainebleau in 1814. The next heir to the imperial dignities (Lucien Bonaparte having refused anything of the kind for himself or for his family) was Jér?me Napoleon, familiarly called Plon-Plon. He was the only son of Jér?me Bonaparte and the Princess Catherine of Würtemberg. But Prince Napoleon, though clever, was wilful

trasburg he was no longer considered an eligible suitor either for Princess Mathilde or another cousin who had been named for him, a princess of Baden. Prin

y considered was the Princess Adéla?de of Hohenlohe. She was daughter of Queen Victoria's half-sister Feodora; and to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, as heads of the family, the matter was referred. A recent memoir-writer tells us of seeing the queen at Windsor when the matter was under discussion. Th

can consul at a port in southern Spain. He had a particularly charming daughter, who made a brilliant Spanish marriage, her husband being the Count de Teba (or Marquis de

ere left under the guardianship of their very charming mother. The el

ere as a pretty, sprightly little girl, much given to independence, and something of a tom boy,-a cha

adame de Teba to his friends as a singularly charming

y talents, and giving an air of originality to all she says and does, she unites in a most bewitching manner the Andalusian grace and frankness to a French facility in her manners and a genuine English thoroughness in her knowledge and accomplishments. She knows the chief modern languages well, and feels their different chara

years later, writing to his nephew, sp

cut up in the wars, having lost an eye and been maimed in a leg and hand. Some years after, in Madrid, I was invited to the house of his widow, Madame de Montijo, one of the leaders of ton. She received me

ndor, Madame de Montijo was addre

er was king of Spain, and his eye had been put out at the battle of Salamanca.

ster to the Duke of Alva, and who spent the winters of 1850, 1851, and 1852 in the French capital. Mademoiselle Eugénie had conceived a romantic admiration for the young prince who at Strasburg and Boulogne

e élysée, at Fontainebleau, and at Compiègne. Mademoiselle de Montijo was a superb horsewoman, and riding was the emperor's especial personal

t, that in one of their rides he asked her, with strange frankness, if she had ever been in love with any man. She answer

e Lano. La Cour de L'

e emperor's family, it was not favored by his min

e cause; and when he knew it, he said quietly: "To-morrow no one will dare to insult you again." There is also a story, which seems to rest on good authority, that a few weeks before this, at Compiègne, he had pl

errold, Life o

the Duc de Morny waited on Madame de Montijo with a lette

lysée, which was given to them, and prep

erwards Eugénie de Monti

n official announcement

y war or revolution. One woman alone appears to have brought with her good fortune, and lives, more than the rest, in the memory of the people; and this woman, the wife of General Bonaparte, was not of royal blood. We must admit this much, however. In 1810 the marriage of Napoleon I. with Marie Louise was a great event. It was a bond for the future, and a real gratification to the national pride.... But when, in the face of ancient Europe, one is carried by the force of a new principle to the level of the old dynasties, it is not by affecting an ancient descent and endeavoring at any price to enter the family of kings, that one compels recognition. It is rather by remembering one's origin; it is by preserving one's own character, and assuming frankly towards Europe the position of a parvenu,-a glorious title when one rises by the suffrag

drawn from the hiding-place where they had lain since Louis Philippe's time, and were reset

de Montijo knows better the character of France than any princess who could have been fetched from a German principality. She combines by her birth the energy of the Scot

r a diamond necklace as a wedding present. Very gracefully she declined th

ed by Prince Napoleon and his sister, the Princess Mathilde, who introduced her into the salon, where the emperor, with his uncle, King Jér?me, surrounded by a glittering throng of cardinals, marshals, admirals, and great officers of State, stood ready to

ooked, said a beholder, "the imperial beauty of a poet's vision." The emperor was in a general's uniform. He wore the collar of the Legion of Ho

re a cantata, composed by Auber for the occasion, was sung. The empress, robed in lace and glittering in

ne bie

iel est

i qui l'

on de so

tnot

autifu

skies eve

formed h

ay of su

ster of the Ceremonies conducted the bride,

mperor had repaired to the élysée, where, in the chapel, he and the empress had heard mass, and after making their confession, had

ral were opened to admit the bridal procession, a broad path of light gleamed from the door up to the altar, adding additional brilliancy to the glittering scene. Up the long aisle the emperor led his bride, flashing with the light of jewels, among them the unlucky regent diamond, which

more than four thousand unfortunate persons still exiled or impri

of Eugénie de Montijo, she and her gay circle had swept away a charming young girl, beautiful and accomplished, my dear young friend, into their career of fashionable dissipation. Now Eugénie is on a throne, and the other a voluntary recluse in a co

Saturday Re

him an enigma may have been one of her charms. With the impetuosity of her disposition and the intrepidity that had characterized her girlhood, she found it hard to submit to the restraints of her position, and the emperor had occasion frequently to remonstrate with her on her indifference to etiquette and public opinion. It was not until after her visit to Windsor in 1855 that she could be induced to establish court rules at the Tuileries, and to prescribe for herself and others

2: Pierr

phine. Sometimes she was even sorely embarrassed to find arguments in favor of her protégés. "Ah, mon Dieu!" she cried once, when pleading

re. She was constantly anxious lest he should suffer from overwork; and her little select evening par

ious of their power to charm will fail to exercise it. In the case of an empress,-young, lively, of an independent and adventurous spirit, and very beautiful,-all who approached her thought better

ave felt a certain distrust of Frenchwomen; and considering the ingratitude she often met with from those she

us and false friend may be judged from a speech she made when remonstrated with for countenancing and encouraging a project, favored by the empress, of making a promenade in the forest of Fontainebleau with her court-ladies in skirts which, like those in the old Scotch ballad,

e profession of royalty. The career for which she had formed herself was that of a very charming woman; and one secret of her fascination was the sincerity of the interest she took in those around her. She loved to study character, to see into men's s

he allude to her school-days in England. He speaks of her as a member of one of the most distinguished families in Spain, extols her father's attachment to the house of Bonaparte, and tells how she and her sister were placed at the Sacré C?ur, near Paris, declaring that "she acquired, we may say, the French before the Spanish language." He goes on to speak of her, not as the leader of a giddy circle of fashion in Madrid, as Washington Irving describes her, but as the thoughtful, studious young girl, with a precocious

sed of men and women all more or less adventurers. It was the court of the nouveaux riches and of a mushroom aristocracy. There were pri

eror's fault or his misfortune, is still undecided; but, with one or two exceptions, he was able to attach to himself only keen-witted adventurers and mediocre men. Among the women, not on

n calm, polished, socially amiable, and so clever that Guizot once said to him: "My dear Morny, you are the only man who could overtu

he had led a disreputable life, and was not a man of great intellect, but he was presumed to be devoted to his old comrade. His friendship, however, had not alway

anks, and had done good service in Algeria. In the emperor's last days of failing health he loved to keep Fleury beside him; but the empress was jealous of her husband's friend, and used her

d minister of war, in spite of having b

oncerns, and Fould was a man who understood burea

rny, Persigny, Saint-Arnaud, Fleury, Rouher, and Fould-were always around their master, givi

on the emperor's bounty led to a perpetual and reckless waste of money. The empress frequently remonstrated with her husband in regard to his lavish largesses and too generous expenditure. Contrary to what has been generally supposed, she

, but to most persons who supported it, it was a speculation. Adherents had therefore

is, and all kinds of useful enterprises in the provinces. Work was plenty; money flowed freely; the empire was everywhere popular. But the government of France was the government of one man; and if anything happened to that one man, where would be the g

eighbors. With respect to England, those who knew him best asserted earnestly that he had always been in sympathy with the country that had sheltered him in exile. Count Walewski, whom he sent over as ambassador to London, was very popular there. He attended the funeral of the Duke of Wellington in his official capacity, and in return for this courtesy England restored to the French emperor his uncl

untry, in 1831. It is not to this day certain that his brother did not die by a Carbonaro's knife, rather than by the measles. Be t

s by a Sardinian army under General La Marmora, by the Turkish troops under Omar Pasha, and by an Egyptian contingent; but as we are now engaged on the personal history of the emperor and empress, I will rather here tell how Napoleon III., having formed a camp of one hundred thousand soldiers at Boulogne, on the very ground

3,

Boulogne and St. Omer. I need not tell your Highness how pleased I should be to see you, and how happy I should be to show you my soldiers. I am convinced, moreover, that personal ties will strengthen the

I pray God to have y

OLE

it, and Baron Stockmar predicted much advantage from it, "inasmuch," he said, "as the good or evil destiny of the pres

endance on Prince Albert, wrote to a friend that tears stood in the emperor's eyes when he rece

e him, and is much gayer than he is generally represented. The visit cannot fail to be a source of great gratification to him.... I have had two long talks with him, in which he spoke very se

in his letter, t

occupation, to his amazement, I could not keep him company. He told me that one of the deepest impressions ever made on him was, when having gone from France to Rio Janeiro and thence to the United

the prince te

heard.... He was brought up in the German fashion in Germany,-a training which has developed a German turn of mind. As to all modern pol

on this occasion, thus tell

lerymen, matches in hand, stood ready to fire the great guns the moment she made the harbor, the sailors standing up in the prow of the yacht, the prince, in a blazing uniform, left alone on

him the queen's hope that they should see him in England,

haracter, in a subsequent memorandu

war, which seemed to have made a deep impression upon him, and appeared to me to be not without significance with reference to his own life. His court and household are strictly kept and in good order, more English than French. The gentlemen composing his entourage are not distinguished by birth, m

ck of information as to the histor

to have thought much and deeply on politics, yet more like an amateur politician, mixing many very sound and very crude notions together. He admires English institutions, and regrets the absen

e working of the English government and the queen'

received extracts made from them, and indeed appeared to have little time or inclination generally to read. When I observed to him that the queen would not be content without seeing the whole of the diplomatic correspondence, he replied that he found a full

emperor's bad entourage; his personal government, assisted only by private confidential relations with irresponsible persons;

cipation in the government, and reduced them to the mere position of spectators, they grow impatient, like a crowd at a display of fireworks, whenever there is any cessation in the display. Still, he appears the only man who has any hold on France, relying on the name of Napoleon. He said to the Duke o

at of war, but was urged by every one about him to remain at home. All kinds of good reasons were put forward for this advice, but probably not the one subsequently advanced by one of his generals after the campaign of Italy in

yacht. They met with a hearty national greeting on their way to London. In London itself crowds lined the streets. "It was," says an eye-witness, "one bewildering triumph, in which it was estimated that a million of people t

Burlington Arcade, to get the latest news from revolutionary France; now he was the guest of the English people, on his way through cheering crowds to Windsor Castle, where the queen wa

ss. We presented the princes and our children (Vicky, with very alarmed eyes, making very low courtesies). The emperor embraced Bertie, and then he went upstairs, Albert leading the empress, who, in the m

to have charmed the queen. "He is," she records in her journal, "so

no greater danger for him there," she adds, "than in Paris. She said she was seldom alarmed for him except when he went out quite alone of a morning.... She is full of courage

ining all the beautiful toilet prepared for the occasion had not arrived. The emperor suggested to his wife to retire to rest on the plea of fatigue after the journey, but she d

ays before, and the queen had looked sorrowfully after her as she drove away, with shabby post-horses, to her residence near Richmond. The emperor beg

was much admired. That evening there was a State ball at Windsor Castle, and the queen danced a quadrille with the emperor. The queen wrote that evening in her journal: "How strange to think that I-the granddaughter of George II

rfect thing I have ever seen, so gentle and graceful and kind

matists, which lasted so very long that the queen herself knocked at the door and remind

ed to the queen that he had now sworn fidelity t

mperor was shot at by a Carbonaro only a few days after

him by the Lord Mayor. At Windsor he read his speech (in Engl

s, and in such a crowd there was every chance for a pistol-shot from some French or Italian refugee. "I own I felt an

rds she

ty would be fatal.... I am glad to have known this extraordinary man, whom it is certainly not possible not to like when you live with him, and not, even to a considerable extent, to admire.... I believe him capable of kindness

arch 16, 1856. A few hours after his birth he was christened Napoleon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph. Pope Pius IX. was his godfather,

ll political offenders. The emperor became godfather and the empress godmother to all legitimate children born in France upon their son's birthday, and finally the little pri

peculation; the general mania for gain that went on around him. There had also been terrible inundations in France, and a bad harvest. Many things also that disgusted and disquieted the emperor were going on among the pe

ere is a letter he wrote to Prince Albert, ac

hat he may have the rare qualities of your children. The sympathy shown on the late occasion by the English people is another bond between the two countrie

nd their court in letters to his friends. "The empress," he says, "is of astonishing beauty, with a slight, elegant figure, and dressing with much taste and richness, but without ostentation. She is ve

y playfellow, Madame Cornu, saw him after twelve years' separation,

g of the sombre sternness of his uncle, neither his imperial demeanor nor his deliberate attitude. He is a quite simple and somewhat small man, whose always tranquil countenance gives a strong impression of amiability. He never gets angry, say the people round him. He is always polite.... He suffers from a want of men of ability to uphold him. He cannot make use of men of independent character, who insist on having their own notions, as the direction of affairs of State must be concentrated in his hands. Greater liberty ought to be conceded in a regulated state

ather looked with a face radiant with pride and joy, Vo

pline was left to his mother, and it was popularly thought that she was much less wrapped up in the child than his father was. His especial talent was for drawing and sculpture. Some of his sketches, of whi

cause they communicated with those of the empress in the Pavillon de Flore, by a narro

a large room with models of new inventions, which were a great delight to him and to his son. He was f

only too some chosen friend, generally Fleury, gave him his arm, but he always walked in silence. In the afternoon he would

space in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine with flowers, and protected it by no railing, the flowers would very speedily be destroyed

e, but he made it a rule never to criticise or discuss livi

outside of it; and as to money matters, even Persigny and Fleury-one the friend of the emperor for five-and-twenty years, a

R MAXI