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NAPOLEON III
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See also:NAPOLEON III . [See also: In 1817 she bought the See also:castle of Arenenberg, in the See also:canton of Turgau, on a wooded See also: But his confidence was unshaken, and in the See also:woods of Arenenberg the romantic-minded See also:friends who remained faithful to him still honoured him as emperor. And now the See also:government of Louis Philippe, by an evil See also:inspiration, began to See also:act in such a way as to make him popular. In 1838 it caused his See also:partisan Lieutenant Laity to be condemned by the Court of Peers to five years' imprisonment for a pamphlet which he had written to justify the Strassburg affair; then it demanded the See also:expulsion of the prince from Switzerland, and when the Swiss government resisted, threatened See also:war. Having allowed the See also:July monarch to commit himself, Louis Napoleon at the last moment See also:left Switzerland voluntarily. All this served to encourage the mystical adventurer. In See also:London, where he had taken up his See also:abode, together with Arese, Fialin (says See also:Persigny), See also:Doctor Conneau and Vaudrey, he was at first well received in society, being on friendly terms with See also:Count d'Orsay and Disraeli, and frequenting the See also:salon of See also:Lady See also:Blessington. He met with various adventures, being See also:present at the famous See also:tournament given by See also:Lord See also:Eglinton, and yielded to the See also:charm of his passionate admirer See also:Miss See also:Howard. But it was a studious See also:life, as well as the life of a See also:dandy, that he led at Carlton See also:House See also:Terrace. Not for a See also:minute did he forget his See also:mission: " Would you believe it," the See also:duke of See also:Wellington wrote of him, " this young man will not have it said that he is not going to be emperor of the French. The unfortunate affair of Strassburg has in no way shaken this See also:strange conviction, and his See also:chief thoughts are of what he will do when he is on the See also:throne." He was in fact evolving his See also:programme of government, and in 1839 wrote and published his See also:book: See also:Des Ickes napoleoniennes, a curious mixture of Bonapartism, See also:socialism and pacificism, which he represented as the tradition of the First Empire. He also followed attentively the fluctuations of French opinion. Since 1838 the See also:Napoleonic propaganda had made enormous progress. Not only did certain See also:newspapers, such as the Capitole and the See also:Journal du See also:Commerce, and clubs, such as the Culottes de peau carry it on zealously; but the See also:diplomatic humiliation of France in the affair of Mehemet All (q.v.) in 184o, with the outburst of patriotism which accompanied it, followed by the concessions made by the government to public opinion, such as, for example, the bringing back of the ashes of Napoleon I., all helped to revive revolutionary and Napoleonic memories.
The pretender, again thinking that the moment had come, formed a fresh conspiracy. With a little See also:band of fifty-six followers he attempted to provoke a rising of the 42nd regiment of the See also:line at See also:Boulogne, hoping afterwards to draw General Magnan to See also:Lille and See also: Italy shared in the agitation. He had already met some of the conspirators at Arenenberg, and it is practically established that he now joined the associations of the See also:Carbonari. Following the See also:advice of his friend the Count Arese and of Menotti, he and his brother were among the revolutionaries who in February 1831 attempted a rising in Romagna and the expulsion of the See also:pope from Rome. They distinguished themselves at Civita Castellana, a little See also:town which they took; but the Austrians arrived in force, and during the See also:retreat Napoleon Louis, the elder son, took See also:cold, followed by See also:measles, of which he died. Hortense hurried to the spot and took steps which enabled her to See also:save her second son from the See also:Austrian prisons. He escaped into France, where his mother, on the plea of his illness, obtained permission from Louis Philippe for him to stay in Paris. But he intrigued with the republicans, and Casimir–See also:Perier insisted on the departure of both mother and son. In May 1831 they went to London, and afterwards returned to Arenenberg. For a time he thought of responding to the appeal of some of the See also:Polish revolutionaries, but See also:Warsaw succumbed (See also:September 1831) before he could set out. Moreover the plans of this young and visionary enfant du siecle were becoming more definite. The duke of See also:Reichstadt died in 1832. His See also:uncle, See also:Joseph, and his father, Louis, showing no See also:desire to claim the See also:inheritance promised them by the constitution of the See also:year XII., Louis Napoleon henceforth considered himself as the accredited representative of the family. Those who came in contact with him noticed a transformation in his character; he tried to hide his natural sensibility under an impassive exterior, and concealed his See also:political ambitions. He became indeed " doux entete " (See also:gentle but obstinate) as his mother called him, persistent in his ideas and always ready to return to them, though at the same time yielding and See also:drawing, back before the force of circumstances. He endeavoured to define his ideas, and in 1833 published his Reveries politiques, suivies d'un projet de constitution, and Considerations politiques et militaires sur la Suisse; in 1836, as a See also:captain, in the Swiss service, he published a See also:Manuel d'artillerie, in See also:order to win popularity with the French See also:army. A phrase of See also:Montesquieu, placed at the See also:head of this work, sums up the views of the young theorist: " The people, possessing the supreme See also:power, should do for itself all that it is able to do; what it cannot do well, it must do through its elected representatives." The supreme authority entrusted to the elect of the people was always his essential idea. But the problem was how to realize it. Louis Napoleon could feel vaguely the state of public opinion in France, the longing for glory from which it suffered, and the deep-rooted discord between the nation and the king, Louis Philippe, who though sprung from the See also:national revolution against the treaties of 1815, was yet a partisan of See also:peace at any See also:price. Both See also:Chateaubriand and See also:Carrel had praised the prince's first writings. Bonapartists and republicans found See also:common ground in the glorious tradition sung by See also:Beranger. A military conspiracy like those of Berton or the sergeants had been disregarded, even after 183o. He was condemned to detention for life in a fortress, his friend Aladenize being deported, and Montholon, Parquin, Lombard and Fialin being each condemned to detention for twenty years. On the 15th of See also:December, the very See also:day that Napoleon's ashes were deposited at the Invalides, he was taken to the fortress of See also:Ham. The See also:country seemed to forget him; Lamartine alone foretold that the honours paid to Napoleon I. would See also:shed lustre on his nephew. His See also:prison at Ham was unhealthy, and physical inactivity was painful to the prince, but on the whole the regime imposed upon him was mild, and his captivity was lightened by Alexandrine Vergeot, " to belle sabotiere," or Mdlle Badinguet (he was later nicknamed Badinguet by the republicans). His more intellectual friends, such as Mme Cornu, also came to visit him and assisted him in his studies. He corresponded with Louis See also:Blanc, See also:George See also:Sand and See also:Proudhon, and collaborated with the journalists of the Left, Degeorge, Peauger and Souplet. For six years he worked very hard " at this University of Ham," as he said. He wrote some Fragments historiques, studies on the See also:sugar-question, on the construction of a See also:canal through See also:Nicaragua, and on the recruiting of the army, and finally, in the Progres du Pas-de-See also:Calais, a See also:series of articles on social questions which were later embodied in his Extinction du pauperisme (1844). But the same persistent idea underlay all his efforts. " The more closely the See also:body is confined," he wrote, " the more the mind is disposed to indulge in flights of See also:imagination, and to consider the possibility of executing projects of which a more active existence would never perhaps have left it the leisure to think." On the 25th of May 1846 he escaped to London, giving as the See also:reason for his decision the dangerous illness of his father. On the 27th of July his father died, before he could accomplish a See also:journey undertaken in spite of the refusal of a passport by the representative of See also:Tuscany. He was again well received in London, and he " made up for his six years of See also:isolation by a furious pursuit of See also:pleasure." The duke of See also:Brunswick and the banker Ferrere interested them-selves in his future, and gave him See also:money, as did also Miss Howard, whom he later made comtesse de See also:Beauregard, after restoring to her several millions. He was still full of plans and new ideas, always with the same end in view; and for this reason, in spite of his various enterprises, which were sometimes ridiculous, some-times unpleasant in their consequences, and his unscrupulousness as to the men and means he employed, he always had a See also:kind of greatness. He always retained his faith in his See also:star. " They will come to me without any effort of my own," he said to See also:Taglioni the dancer; and again to Lady See also:Douglas, who was counselling resignation, he replied, " Though See also:fortune has twice betrayed me, yet my destiny will none the less surely be fulfilled. I wait." He was not to wait much longer. As he well perceived, the popularity of his name, the vague " See also:legend " of a Napoleon who was at once a democrat, a soldier and a revolutionary See also:hero, was his only strength. But by his abortive efforts he had not yet been able to win over this immense force of tradition and turn it to his own purposes. The events which occurred from 1848 to 1852 enabled him to do so. He behaved with extraordinary skill, displaying in the See also:heat of the conflict all the abilities of an experienced conspirator, knowing, " like the See also:snail, how to draw in his horns as soon as he met with an obstacle " (See also:Thiers), but supple, resourceful and unscrupulous as to the choice of men and means in his obstinate struggle for power. At the first symptoms of revolutionary disturbance he returned to France; on the 25th of February he offered his services to the Provisional Government, but, on being requested by it to depart at once, resigned himself to this course. But Persigny, Mocquard and all his friends devoted themselves to an energetic propaganda in the See also:press, by pictures and by songs. After the 15th of May had already shaken the strength of the young See also:republic, he was elected in See also:June 1848 by four departments, See also:Seine, See also:Yonne, See also:Charente-Inferieure and See also:Corsica. In spite of the opposition of the executive See also:committee, the See also:Assembly ratified his See also:election. But he had learnt to wait. He sent in his resignation from London, merely See also:hazard-See also:ing this appeal: " If the people impose duties on me, I shall know how to fulfil them." This time events worked in his favour; the See also:industrial insurrection of June made the See also:middle classes and the See also:mass of the rural See also:population look for a saviour, while it turned the industrial population towards Bonapartism, out of hatred for the republican See also:bourgeois. The See also:Legitimists seemed impossible, and the people turned instinctively towards a Bonaparte. On the 26th of September he was re-elected by the same departments; on the i rth of October the law decreeing the banishment of the Bonapartes was abrogated; on the 26th he made a speech in the Assembly defending his position as a pretender, and cut such a sorry figure that Antony See also:Thouret contemptuously withdrew the See also:amendment by which he had intended to See also:bar him from rising to the See also:presidency. Thus he was able to be a See also:candidate for this formidable power, which had just been defined by the Constituent Assembly and entrusted to the choice of the people, " to See also:Providence," as Lamartine said. In contrast to See also:Cavaignac he was the candidate of the advanced parties, but also of the monarchists, who reckoned on doing what they liked with him, and of the Catholics, who gave him their votes on See also:condition of his restoring the temporal power to Rome and handing over education to the See also: " The name of Napoleon," he said on this occasion, " is in itself a programme; it stands for order, authority, See also:religion and the welfare of the people in See also:internal affairs, and in See also:foreign affairs for the national dignity." In spite of this alarming assertion of his personal policy, he still remained in See also:harmony with the Assembly (the Legislative Assembly, elected on the 28th of May 1849) in order to carry out " a Roman expedition at See also:home," i.e. to clear the See also:administration of all republicans, put down the press, suspend the right of holding meetings and, above all, to See also:hand over education to the Church (law of the 15th of March 185o). But the machiavellian pretender, daily growing more skilful at manceuvring between different classes and parties, knew where to stop and how to keep up a show of See also:democracy. When the Assembly, by the law of the 31st of May 1850, restricted universal See also:suffrage and reduced the number of the See also:electors from 9 to 6 millions, he was able to throw upon it the whole responsibility for this coup d'etat bourgeois. " I cannot understand how you, the offspring of universal suffrage, can defend the restricted suffrage," said his friend Mme Cornu. " You do not understand," he replied, " I am preparing the ruin of the Assembly." " But you will perish with it," she answered. " On the contrary, when the Assembly is See also:hanging over the precipice, I shall cut the rope." In fact, while trying to See also:compass the destruction of the republican See also:movement of the Left, he was taking careful steps to gain over all classes. " Prince, altesse, See also:monsieur, monseigneur, citoyen " (he was called by all these names indifferently at the Elysee), he appeared as the candidate of the most incompatible interests, flattering the See also:clergy by his compliments and formal visits, distributing cigars and sausages to the soldiers, promising the prosperous bourgeoisie " order in the See also:street " and business, while he posed as the " father of the workers," and won the See also:hearts of the peasants. At his See also:side were his accomplices, men ready for anything, whose only hopes were bound up with his fortunes, such as See also:Morny and Rouher; his paid publicists, such as Romieu the originator of the " red spectre "; his cudgel-bearers, the " Ratapoils " immortalized by See also:Daumier, who terrorized the republicans. From the Elysee by means of the mass of officials whom they had at their command, the conspirators extended their activities throughout the whole country. He next entered upon that struggle with the Assembly, now discredited, which was to reveal to all the See also:necessity for a change, and a change in his favour. In See also:January 1851 he deprived See also:Changarnier of his command of the garrison of Paris. " The Empire has come," said Thiers. The pretender would have preferred, however, that it should be brought about legally, the first step being his re-election in 1852. The Constitution forbade his re-election; therefore the Constitution must be revised. On the 19th of July the Assembly threw out the proposal for revision, thus See also:signing its own death-See also:warrant, and the coup d'etat was resolved upon. He prepared for it systematically. The See also:cabinet of the 26th of October 1851 gave the ministry for war to his creature Saint-See also:Arnaud. All the conspirators were at their posts—Maupas at the prefecture of See also:police, Magnan at the head of the troops in Paris. At the Elysee, Morny, adulterine son of Hortense, a hero of the See also:Bourse and successful gambler, supported his See also:half-brother by his See also:energy and counsels. The ministry proposed to abrogate the electoral law of 185o, and restore universal suffrage; the Assembly by refusing made itself still more unpopular. By proposing to allow the president of the Assembly to See also:call in armed force, the questors revealed the Assembly's plans for defence, and gave the Elysee a weapon against it (" donnent See also:barre contre elle a 1'Elysee "). The proposition was rejected (See also:November 17), but Louis-Napoleon saw that it was time to act. On the 2nd of December he carried out his coup d'etat. But affairs See also:developed in a way which disappointed him. By dismissing the Assembly, by offering the people " a strong government," and re-establishing " a France regenerated by the Revolution of '89 and organized by the emperor," he had hoped for universal See also:applause. But both in Paris and the provinces he met with the resistance of the Republicans, who had re-organized in view of the elections of 1852. He struck at them by mixed commissions, deportations and the whole range of police measures. The decrets-lois of the year 1852 enabled him to prepare the way for the new institutions. On the 1st of December 1852 he became in name what he was already in See also:deed, and was proclaimed Emperor of the French. He was then 44 years old. " The impassibility of his See also:face and his lifeless glance" showed observers that he was still the obstinate dreamer that he had been in youth, absorbed in his Idea. His unshaken conviction of his mission made him conscious of the responsibility which rested on him, but hid from him the hopeless defect in the coup d'etat. To carry out his conviction, he had still only a timid will, working through See also:petty expedients; but here again his confidence in the future made him bold. In a people politically decimated and wearied, he was able to develop freely all the Napoleonic ideals. Rarely has a man been able to carry out his See also:system so completely, though perhaps in these first years he had to take more disciplinary measures than he had intended against the Reds, and granted more favours than was fitting to the Catholics, his See also:allies in December 1848 and December 1858. The aim which the emperor had in view was, by a concentration of power which should make him " the beneficent See also:motive forceof the whole social order " (constitution of the 14th of January 1852; administrative centralization; subordination of the elected assemblies; See also:control of the machinery of universal suffrage) to unite all classes in " one great national party " attached to the See also:dynasty. His success, from 1852 to 1856, was almost complete. The nation was submissive, and a few scattered plots alone showed that republican ideas persisted among the masses. As " restorer of the overthrown altars," he won over the " men in See also:black," among them See also:Veuillot, editor-in-chief of l' Univers, and allowed them to get the University into their hands. By the aid of former See also:Orleanists, such as Billault, See also:Fould and Morny, and Saint-Simonians such as Talabot and the Pereires, he satisfied the industrial classes, extended See also:credit, developed means of communication, and gave a strong impetus to the business of the nation. By various measures, such as subsidies, charitable gifts and See also:foundations, he endeavoured to show that " the idea of improving the See also:lot of those who suffer and struggle against the difficulties of life was constantly present in his mind." His was the government of cheap See also:bread, great public works and holidays. The imperial court was brilliant. The emperor, having failed to obtain the hand of a See also:Vasa or See also:Hohenzollern, married, on the 29th of January 1853, See also:Eugenie de Montijo, comtesse de Teba, aged twenty-six and at the height of her beauty.
France was " satisfied " in the midst of order, prosperity and peace. But a glorious peace was required; it must not be said that " France is bored," as Lamartine had said when the Napoleonic legend began to spread. The foreign policy of the See also:Catholic party, by the question of the See also:Holy Places and the See also:Crimean War (1853–1856), gave him the opportunity of winning the glory which he desired, and the See also:British See also:alliance enabled him to take advantage of it. In the See also:spring of 1855, as a definite success was still slow to come, he contemplated for a time taking the See also:lead of the expedition in person, but his advisers dissuaded him from doing so, for fear of a revolution. In January 1856 he had the See also:good fortune to win a diplomatic triumph over the new See also:tsar, See also: It was at Paris (February 25–March 30) that the conditions of peace were settled. The emperor was now at the height of his power. He appeared to the people as the avenger of 184o and 1815, and the See also:birth to him of a son, See also:Eugene Louis See also:Jean Joseph, on the 16th of March 1856, assured the future of the dynasty. It was then that, strong in " the esteem and admiration with which he was surrounded," and " foreseeing a future full of See also:hope for France," he dreamed of realizing the Napoleonic ideal in its entirety. This See also:disciple of the German philologists, this crowned Carbonaro, the friend of the archaeologists and historians who were to help him to write the Histoire de Cesar, dreamed of developing the policy of nationalism, and of assisting the peoples of all countries to enfranchise themselves. From 1856 to 1858 he devoted his See also:attention to the Rumanian See also:nationality, and supported Alexander See also:Cuza. But it was above all the deliverance of Italy which haunted his imagination. By this enterprise, which his whole tradition imposed upon him, he reckoned to flatter the amour-propre of his subjects, and rally to him the liberals and even the republicans, with their See also:passion for propagandism. But the Catholics feared that the Italian national movement, when once started, would See also:entail the downfall of the papacy; and in opposition to the emperor's Italian advisers, Arese and Prince See also:Jerome Napoleon, they pitted the empress, who was frivolous and capricious, but an ardent Catholic. Napoleon III. was under his wife's See also:influence, and could not openly combat her resistance. It was the Italian See also:Orsini who, by attempting to assassinate him as a traitor to the Italian nation on the 14th of January 1858, gave him an opportunity to impose his will indirectly by convincing his wife that in the interests of his own See also:security he must " do something for Italy." Events followed each other in See also:quick See also:succession, and now began the difficulties in which the Empire was to be irrevocably involved. Not only did the Italian enterprise lead to strained relations with Great See also:Britain, the alliance with whom had been the emperor's chief support in Europe, and compromised its credit; but the claims of parties and classes again began to be heard at home. The Italian war aroused the opposition of the Catholics. After See also:Magenta (June 4, 1859), it was the fears of the Catholics and the messages of the empress which, even more than the threats of Prussia, checked him in his triumph and forced him into the See also:armistice of Villafranca (July If, 1859). But the spread of the Italian revolution and the movement for See also:annexation forced him again to intervene. He appealed to the Left against the Catholics, by the See also:amnesty of the 17th of April 1859. His consent to the annexation of the Central Italian states, in See also:exchange for See also:Savoy and See also:Nice (Treaty of See also:Turin, March 24, 186o) exposed him to violent attacks on the See also:part of the ultramontanes, whose slave he had practically been since 1848. At the same time, the free-See also:trade treaty with Great Britain (January 5, 186o) aroused a movement against him among the industrial bourgeoisie. Thus at the end of 186o, the very time when he had'hoped that his personal policy was to rally See also:round him once for all the whole of France, and assure the future of his dynasty, he saw, on the contrary, that it was turning against him his strongest sup-porters. He became alarmed at the responsibilities which he saw would fall upon him, and imagined that by an appearance of reform he would be able to shift on to others the responsibility for any errors he might commit. Hence the decrees of the 24th of November 186o (right of address, ministers without See also:portfolio) and the letter of the 14th of November 1861 (See also:financial reform). From this time onward, in face of a growing opposition, anxiety for the future of his regime occupied the first See also:place in the emperor's thoughts, and paralysed his initiative. Placed between his Italian counsellors and the empress, he was ever of two minds. His plans for remodelling Europe had a certain generosity and grandeur; but internal difficulties forced him into endless manoeuvre and temporization, which led to his ruin. Thus in October 1862, after See also:Garibaldi's attack on Rome, the clerical coterie of the Tuileries triumphed. But the replacing of M. Thouvenel by M. Drouin de Lhuys did not satisfy the more violent Catholics, who in May 1863 joined the See also:united opposition. See also:Thirty-five opposers of the government were appointed, Re-publicans, Orleanists, Legitimists or Catholics. The emperor dismissed Persigny, and summoned moderate reformers such as See also:Duruy and Belie. But he was still possessed with the idea of settling his throne on a See also:firm basis, and uniting all France in some glorious enterprise which should appeal to all parties equally, and " See also:group them under the See also:mantle of imperial glory." From January to June 1863 he sought this appearance of glory in See also:Poland, but only succeeded in embroiling himself with See also:Russia. Then, after See also:Syria and See also:China, it was the " great inspiration of his reign," the See also:establishment of a Catholic and Latin empire in See also:Mexico, See also:enthusiasm for which he tried in vain from 1863 to 1867 to communicate to the French. But while the strength of France was wasting away at See also:Puebla or Mexico, See also:Bismarck was See also:founding German unity. In August 1864 the emperor, held back by French public opinion, which was favourable to Prussia, and by his idea of nationality, allowed Prussia and See also:Austria to seize the duchies of See also:Schleswig and See also:Holstein. After his failure in Poland and Mexico and in face of the alarming presence of See also:Germany, only one alliance remained possible for Napoleon III., namely with Italy. He obtained this by the convention of the 15th of September 1864 (involving the withdrawal of the French troops from Rome). But the Catholic party redoubled its violence, and the pope sent out the encyclical Quanta Cura and the See also:Syllabus, especially directed against France. In vain the emperor sought in German affairs a definitive See also:solution of the Italian question. At See also:Biarritz he prepared with Bismarck the Franco-Prussian alliance of April 1866; and hoped to become, to his greater glory, arbiter in the tremendous conflict which was about to begin. But suddenly, while he was trying to rouse public opinion against the treaties of 181s, the See also:news of the See also:battle of See also:Koniggratz came as a See also:bolt from the See also:blue to ruin his hopes. French interests called for an immediate intervention. But the emperor was ill, weary and aged by the life of pleasure which he led side by side with his life of work (as is proved by the letters to Mdlle Bellanger) ; he was suffering from a first attack ofhis See also:bladder complaint. He knew, moreover, the insufficiency of his troops. After days of terrible suffering, he resigned himself to the annexation by Prussia of See also:northern Germany. " Now," said M Drouin de Lhuys, " we have nothing left but to weep." Henceforth the brilliant See also:dream, a moment realized, the realization of which he had thought durable, was at an end. The Empire had still an uncertain and troubled brilliancy at the See also:Exhibition of 1867. But Berezowski's See also:pistol shot, which accentuated the estrangement from the tsar, and the news of the death of See also:Maximilian at See also:Queretaro, cast a gloom over the later fetes. In the interior the industrial and socialist movement, born of the new industrial development, added fresh strength to the Republican and Liberal opposition. The moderate Imperialists See also:felt that some concessions must be made to public opinion. In opposition to the absolutist " See also:vice-emperor " Rouher, whose influence over Napoleon had become stronger and stronger since the death of Morny, Emile 011ivier grouped the Third Party. Anxious, changeable and distraught, the emperor made the Liberal concessions of the 19th of January 1867 (right of See also:interpellation), and then, when 011ivier thought that his triumph was near, he exalted Rouher (July) and did not See also: " To do away with the See also:risk of a Revolution," " to place order and liberty upon a firm footing," " to ensure the transmission of the See also:crown to his son," Napoleon III. again sought the approbation of the nation. He obtained it with brilliant success, for the last time, by 7,358,786 votes against 1,571,939, and his work now seemed to be consolidated. A few weeks later it crumbled irrevocably. Since 1866 he had been pursuing an elusive appearance of glory. Since 1866 France was calling for " revenge." He felt that he could only rally the people to him by procuring them the See also:satisfaction of their national See also:pride. Hence the mishaps and imprudences of which Bismarck made such an insulting use. Hence the negotiations of See also:Nikolsburg, the " See also:note ,d'aubergiste " (innkeeper's See also:bill) claiming the left See also:bank of the See also:Rhine, which was so scornfully rejected; hence the See also:plan for the invasion of See also:Belgium (August 1866), the See also:Luxemburg affair (March 1867), from which M. de Moustier's See also:diplomacy effected such a skilful retreat; hence the final folly which led this government into the war with Prussia (July 1870). The war was from the first doomed to disaster. It might perhaps have been averted if France had had any allies. But Austria, a possible ally, could only join France if satisfied as regards Italy; and since Garibaldi had threatened Rome (Mentana, 1867), Napoleon III., yielding to the anger of the Catholics, had again sent troops to Rome. Negotiations had taken place in 1869. The emperor, bound by the Catholics, had refused to withdraw his troops. It was as a distant but inevitable consequence of his agreement of December 1848 with the Catholic party that in 1870 the emperor found himself without an ally.
His energy was now completely exhausted. Successive attacks of See also: On the and of September, Napoleon III. surrendered with 8o,000 men, and on the 4th of September the Empire See also:fell. He was taken as a prisoner to the castle of WilhelmshOhe, near See also:Cassel, where he stayed till the end of the war. After the intrigues of Bazaine, of Bismarck, and of the empress, the Germans having held negotiations with the Republic, he was de facto deposed. On the 1st of March the assembly of See also:Bordeaux confirmed this deposition, and declared him " responsible for the ruin, invasion and dismemberment of France." Restored to liberty, he retired with his wife and son to See also:Chislehurst in See also:England. Unwilling even. now to despair of the future, he still sought to rally his friends for a fresh propaganda. He had at his service publicists such as Cassa.gnac, J. Amigues and Hugelmann. He himself also wrote unsigned See also:pamphlets justifying the See also:campaign of 187o. It may be noted that, true to his ideas, he did not attempt to throw upon others the responsibility which he had always claimed for himself. He dreamed of his son's future. But he no longer occupied himself with any definite plans. He interested himself in See also:pensions for workmen and economical stoves. At the end of 1872 his disease became more acute, and a surgical operation became necessary. He died on the 9th of January 1873, leaving his son in the See also:charge of the empress and of Rouher. The young prince was educated at See also:Woolwich from 1872 to 1875, and in 1879 took part in the See also:English expedition against the Zulus in See also:South See also:Africa, in which he was killed. By his death vanished all hope of renewing the extraordinary fortune which for twenty years placed the descendant of the great emperor, the Carbonaro and dreamer, at once obstinate and hesitating, on the throne of France. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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