Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
NAPOLEON III
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: NAN-NEW
del.icio.us it!
|
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: |