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Leader (1850-1860), 31st July 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 6, CONTINENTAL NOTES. In the spring, it may...

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      Letters From Paris. [From Our Own Corres...

      g irls who adorned the rustic cars , displayed their enthusiasm according to order , but in their own way . Yes ! they did throw their bouquets at the President , as they paired in order before him ; but what the Government journals don't tell us is , that they made a sly game of throwing them at the President's face : the fun was who could hit him on the nose ! The popular enthusiasm is reduced by examination to the enthusiasm of the soldiers . The nine regiments of infantry filed past the President shouting Vive Napoleon ; a company of the 17 th light infantry cried Vive _VEmpereur ; the artillery came next—the commanders making some show of respect—the privates keeping strict silence . Then came the cuirassiers and the lancers , who , as usual , indulged in loud acclamations .

      Such is the truth , the real truth , ( la virile vraie , ) as M . de Lasteyrie once said in the Assembly in noticing the falsehoods of the Government . Certain significant facts , which the journals carefully abstained from relating , have to be mentioned . First , immediately after the passage of the President through Chalons and Nancy , a great number of arrests were effected ; for the purpose , it would seem , of moderating the counter-enthusiasm of certain citizens . At Strasbourg there were several arrests , notably that of M . Genin , a respected merchant in that city . Another fact I may relate is as follows : —Among the official rejoicings there was a mat de cocagne ( greasy pole ) erected . This is nothing more than a very lofty pole , well greased with soap and . tallow to make its ascent difficult ; and on the top is a large crown stuffed with watches , jewels , money , silk handkerchiefs , & c , the prize of the winner . A young man who had g ot to the top of the pole shouted out Vive la Republique , as he plucked away the fo ulard which was hanging from the summit of the poll . The shout was caught up by the whole crowd .

      Louis Bonaparte remained only two days at Strasbourg . He crossed the Rhine into the Grand Duchy of . Baden , on a visit to his cousin , the Princess Stephanie . Whereupon rumours of marriage , quite unfounded . It was asserted : hat the President had gone into Baden to have an interview with a young Princess of the ancient house of Wasa . The fact is , that he went into Baden chiefly in order to establish a precedent . He was anxious to assert his right to leave the national territory . The precedent Avill allow him , on his approaching journey into the south , to go as far as Rome , where he proposes to obtain the benediction of the Pope .

      Apropos of this trip into Baden , the Moniteur published the following fiction ;— " The Prince President lias resolved to remain at Strasbourg two or three days longer than he had intended , in order to testify to the population of Alsace his gratitude for the warm reception they have given him . " Now , he did nothing of the sort , for he went into Baden . On Friday the President returned to Paris . He made his solemn entry after the ceremonial prescribed for the entry of Kings . He advanced one stop more towards the secret aim of his ambition . The announcement of his return roused the whole city . The faubourgs of St . Denis and St . Martin , and the Boulevards , were crowded with a dense mass of people . The clergy wore in waiting , and all the public functionaries . The entire army of Paris , to the ; number of 40 , 000 men , was ranged in two lines from the ; railway terminus ) to the Arc de Triomphe de _VlUoUe . The President ' s entry was hailed by ringing of the church bells and by Halutcs of cannon . As he left , the station , ( trie's of Vive Napoleon proceeded from a number of persons present . At the Porte St . Denis the cortege was received with an icy silence , as also throughout the Boulevard Bonne Nouvellc . At the corner of this Boulevard Poissonniore , u group of Decembrail lards shouted Vive V Kmpere . ur ; on the Boulevard des Italiens some cries of Vive Napoleon were uttered by a knot of waiters of the Cafe Torloni . Louis Bonaparte passed through Paris , without halting , on his way to St . ( 'loud , there to lay his laurels at the feet of the presiding Goddess of the place .

      The title of " Highness , " bestowed upon the President by the official journals , in their reports of the entry into Paris , has been remarked . _Everybody _usks , h hat sort of Highness ! Is it Royal Highness?—is it Imperial Highness ? lOvery one discerns another link in the chain that leads to the Kmpire . Besides , the Imperial Household is now complete ; all the officer ) _« ro distributed . M . Beville has been appointed Pn ' fet da Palais , and M . Merle Kous-prefet of tbn nai < l J ' a / . ais . I have in former letters mentioned the names of the other officers of the Household of the future lCmpcror . Thero is , after all , no reason to bo mirprised at Bonaparte ' s _lujBuming the title of Hig hness : be has already made all liia adherents Counts and Barons . The Moniteur luw not _rcgiuUsrod any of . those nominations which arc

      Letters From Paris. [From Our Own Corres...

      done in a corner ( sous le manteau de la eheminee ) , but they are not the less public . It is thus that the first stone of the new buildings of the Louvre , which has just been laid , bears an inscription to the effect that it has been laid by the Comte de Casabianca . What is hidden from men is confided to the earth ! It was so with the secret of Midas . On Sunday last , this first stone was laid . The ceremony was marked by no incident . M . de Casabianca made the only speech , in which the following passage was remarked : '— " You know the destination of the buildings whose foundations we are laying . The same enceinte is destined to contain the residence of the Chief of the State , three Ministries , the telegraphs , the national printing-office , and an _imposing military force . " Thus the most active and most energetic forces of Government will be concentrated in the hands of the man to whom France has , by an unanimous vote , confided the trust of her destinies , and who , watching ceaselessly for her repose and for her prosperity , will be able to transmit in an instant to the most remote provinces the expression of Ms sovereign loill . This address raises Bonaparte at once to the rank of Sovereign . France is henceforth nothing . She is asleep . It is Bonaparte who watches for her . France is no longer Sovereign . Bonaparte is Sovereign in her place . ht in dif

      You see it is always the same fixed thoug - ferent guises . As to the concentration in the Tuileries of the seat of government , the ministries , the telegraph , and the national printing-office , this idea is stolen from M . Emile de Girardin , who , as long ago as 1838 , drew up a plan of reconstruction of the Tuileries for the purpose . In 1848 , M . de Girardin lost no time in showing this plan to M . Persigny and to Louis Bonaparte , and in expatiating on its importance . The latter find a malicious pleasure , no doubt , in now adopting the plan , the more so , that such a concentration at the Tuileries of all the springs of administration , becomes a very formidable instrument of despotism . M . de Girardin unwittingly forged a whip to scourge his own country ! There begins to be a good deal of talk about the forthcoming fete of August 15 , as if it were to be the sale of the empire . But the rumour deserves no credit . The veto of the Emperor of Russia still threatens , and the Princess of Lieven was unable to raise it . The whole fete will be limited to a distribution of eagles to what remains of the national guard , purged by Bonaparte . It will be a pale copy of the fete of the 15 th of May . The progress to the south is also much discussed . Bonaparte is determined to undertake it in spite of his entourage . The authorities have received orders to prepare the ground . The journals are full of government puffs . Every town , we are to believe , is to have its railway , its canal , & c . All the munificent expectations of a budget of 1800 millionp of francs , are presented to the dazzled eyes of the _constituencies . For instance , Marseilles , among other towns , is promised a grand scheme of irrigation , for cleansing , and improving the sanitary condition of , the port . The arrival of the President at Bordeaux is announced for September 5 th , at Marseilles for the 20 th , and at Lyons for the 27 th of the same month . Meanwhile , a , modification of the Ministry is spoken of . MM .

      Magne and Fould are to return to office , the former to the Public Works , the latter to Finance . Persigny is to become Minister of State , MM . Casabianca and Lefebrc _Durufle to give up their Ministerial portfolios , and retire upon the dignity of Senators . The departmental elections begin to occupy some attention . The provincial journals publish numerous lists of candidates . Among the opposition a general compromise of opinions is observable . The Government , on the other hand , lets slip no opportunity of intrigue . At Cherbourg , the _sous-prefet lately addressed a note to the Journal de Cherbourg combating the election of a certain candidate , with an order to the newspaper to publish his note without rectification or commentary of any kind , inducing the public to believe that the note proceeded from the editorial direction of the paper . As this fact might possibly appear strange to you , on the part of a government , ho " popular" as Bonaparte ' s , I give you the notification in question , word for word : — " The . _sous-prefet of Cherbourg , by the terms of Art . 1 !) of the Decree of February 17 , 1852 , requires of M . _licctuif , Kditor and Proprietor of tins Journal de Cherbourg , to insert , by way of notification , at the bead of the number of his journal , to appear on Sunday the IKth instant , the following article , which must neither bis followed nor preceded by any comments , not even by this present , requisition . " Now , what was this article tho Sous-piefet demanded to have inserted without comment ? It was simply a false imputation to get , rid of a legitimist candidate . Such are the means employed by the Government to perpetuate the existing _regime , and as such means succeed , noodles bow their heads , and salute the perpetrator us a beneficent _gcuiua . I hope that your English

      Letters From Paris. [From Our Own Corres...

      readers , at least , will refuse to bend the head before success obtained by means like these . The press , or what remains of it , is visited with continual warnings . The sous-prefet of Noyou has gone so far as to forbid a newspaper of that town to speak disparag ingly of Marie Antoinette . What can that signify , you _^ _jj say ? Don't you see , I reply , the pretension of Louis Bonaparte to be the grand-nephew of the Queen or France ? When the Emperor Napoleon married Marie Louise , he rubbed his hands , and said to his entourage with a chuckle , " Now , __ then , I am the nephew of Louis : XVI . " So that Louis Bonaparte , the nephew of his uncle , as he is called in France , is also the grand-nephew of Louis XVI , and Marie Antoinette . But one thingis now wanting to the President ; it is to have the-Crown upon his brow , whether royal or imperial , matters little . The petitioning has begun again in good earnest . A rather noticeable affair has taken place in connexion with the movement . Petitions for the reestablishment of the Empire are in active circulation in the Charente . A certain M . Brunet , a retired officer , living at Angouleme , endeavoured , it seems , to prevent the petitions receiving adhesions . A " communicated" note appeared in the Angouleme journals , blaming this interference of M . Brunet , and a judicial inquiry has been commenced against him . Those who refuse to sign are prosecuted : then everybody will sign ; but will Bonaparte be carried to the throne by popular acclamations ? I leave to the next revolution to answer the question . S .

      722 The Leader. [Saturday,

      722 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      Continental Notes. In The Spring, It May...

      CONTINENTAL NOTES . In the spring , it may be remembered , we alluded morethan once to a series of notes exchanged between Russia ,. Prussia , and Austria , on the possible and probable reestablishment of the Napoleonic Empire in France . The upshot of these notes of the three great powers was , that they might conditionally tolerate , as a government de facto , an elective Empire ; but that any attempt at reviving an hereditary usurpation in denial of the paramount rights of the house of Bourbon , would not only not obtain their recognition , but encounter their emphatic resistance—first , in the shape of a protest addressed to Franceherself and to all the European powers , and then in such . " ulterior measures" as , after due conference , they might think fit to take . They disavowed any interference with the independence of France as to her internal government _,, but the hereditary rig ht to the throne being an international as well as a national principle , they were resolved _,, if that right should be usurped , to defend it , —recognising ; no other dynasty than the Bourbons , and no other claimant than the Comte de Chambord . The Morning Chronicle of Wednesday last published , exclusively , an analysis of this treaty , dated May 20 , 1852 , and signed , ratified , and _exchanged between Russia , Austria , and Prussia . This convention , like the treaty of the 26 th of September , 1815 , ia placed by the three Sovereigns under the invocation of the most holy and undivided Trinity . Their Majesties the Emperor of Austria , the King of Prussia , and the Emperor of Russia , considering—That the basis of European order is hereditary right ' ,, that in that respect there is a joint responsibility and interest ( solidaritS ) between all European States ; considering ; also that , as regards France , the House of Bourbon personifies and represents the hereditary right , and that the present head of that house i 3 the Comto do Chambord ; That the exercised b Louis Napoleon Bona

      power y M . - parte is a power de facto , which cannot oven prop itself up with the pretended right of the Emperor Napoleon , since the latter voluntarily renounced , by the first article of the treaty of Fontainebleau , " for himself , his successors , and descendants , as well as for each member of hisfamily , all tho rights of sovereignty and domination , as well ovor tho _^ French nation and tho kingdom oi' Italy , as over any other country ;" That , according to tho rules of international right , the violation of tho treaty of Fontaincbloau by tho Emperor Napoleon , while it released tho Powers from the engagements taken by them with respect to him , did not releasehim from his renunciation , for himself and his descendants ,, of tho crown of France ; That , moreover , tho very origin of tho present power of tho President of tho French Republic is tho negation of hereditary right ; all these motivesand for others which it it *

      For , many useless to enumerate , tho subscribers to tho presen t convention consider it their duty to determine beforehand , and ! by common accord , tho conduct which they ought to hold in tho event that one or other of tho eventualities above * enumerated should present themselves . In tho oaso that the . Prince- Louis _Jionaparto , present _^ President of tho French ' Republic , should get hiniKoll ' elected b y universal _suUVago as Emperor for life , tho . Powers will not recognise that new form of elective power till after explanations shall have been demanded froiri Prince Louis Bonaparte , as to the _hciiho and meaning oi his now title , and after ho shall have taken an engagement —first , to respect the treaties ; secondly , not to endeavour to extend tho territorial limits of Franco ; and , thirdly _,, formally to renounce all pretension to the continuation of founding of a dynasty . In the caHo that the Prince Louis Bonaparte should declare himself hereditary Emperor , the _Powers will not * reoognimrtheiiew Kmperor , and will address to the _Frencli Government , as well as to all tho other European Governments , a protest founded on tho principles of pubh <" law and on the letter of tho treaties . They will afterward * commit , according to the circumstances , as to the ulterior measures which they may think it _nocoHHary to take . 1 _*> tho _cuso that a popular or _niilitary _movement should ov « r-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071852/page/6/