Republic attained high and deserved "Under Napoleon the Third, people promotion. Had the Empire lasted, he say, 'It is the fault of the Spanish would probably have remained a colonel woman.'" to the day of his death.

"Well, sire, not only the people, but every one is deeply indignant and disgusted with the consequences of this unfortunate (Mexican) war. They say it is the fault of "The fault of whom?" demanded the capital. the emperor.

"Sire," stammered M. Hyrvoix, "in the time of Louis the Sixteenth people said, It is the fault of the Austrian woman.'

through their quadrilles. The royal ter having laughed to scorn his pretenmatron of thirty-five executed every sions as a diplomatist when the duke step as her dancing-master had taught was at Vienna." And he added, " I can her, and with none of the listlessness understand, though I fail to approve, that was supposed to be the correct De Gramont's personal irritation, but thing.' I was standing close to Canro- cannot account for Ollivier's, and he bert, who was in attendance on the em- seems as pugnacious as the other. peror. After watching the queen for a Nevertheless, I repeat, the whole of few minutes, he turned to the lady on this will blow over; William is too wise his arm, and spoke: Pardi, elle danse a man to go to war on such a pretext, comme ses soldats se battent," en veux- and the emperor is too ill not to want tu, en voilà;" et correcte jusqu'à la peace. I wish the empress would leave fin.' There never was a greater ad- him alone." Most writers who have mirer of the English soldier than Can- dealt with this period have regarded robert." Ollivier's attitude as the reverse of that described by Lord Lyons, who, however, could scarcely have been mistaken.

It has hitherto been the generally accepted belief that the actual decision to go to war with Germany was come to at the Cabinet Council which was held on On this same day, the 5th of July, the 14th of July as the result of the two ministerial councils were held at communications from Benedetti, and Saint-Cloud, at both of which the emafter the emperor had returned to the peror presided. Apart from the author, council-chamber from an interview with there is a certain amount of evidence the empress, and, in answer to his final that when the latter of those councils anxious question as to the preparedness rose the emperor's sentiments were of the army, had received Leboeuf's still in favor of peace. But he is able confident assurance as to the last sol- to strengthen this evidence, indirectly dier's last gaiter-button. But the author it is true, but in a very significant way. of "The Englishman in Paris" traverses this impression, and expresses his conviction "that war was decided upon between the imperial couple" so early as between the fifth and sixth of the month. And certainly it seems that he adduces fair reason for the belief he holds. He narrates that early in the afternoon of the former day Lord Lyons, driving into the courtyard of the British Embassy, beckoned him in, and that he had a ten-minutes' interview with the ambassador. He brought away the impression that, although the Duc de Gramont and M. Emile Ollivier chose to bluster in face of the Hohenzollern candidature, there was little or no fear of war, because the emperor was decid-empress, and indeed it was only after edly inclined to peace. Lord Lyons had just returned from an interview with the foreign minister, and expressed himself to the effect that the Duc de Gramont was the last person who ought to conduct the negotiations. "There is," his lordship had remarked, "too much personal animosity between him and Bismarck, owing mainly to the lat

It is of course well known that Napoleon the Third had for years been suffering acutely from the painful and debilitating disorder which ultimately caused his death. So worn was he by it that, in the author's words, "he was weary, body and soul, and but for his wife and son he would, perhaps willingly, have abdicated.” About the beginning of the month his condition had become so grave that a consultation of the leading French specialists was held, resulting in the unanimous opinion that an immediate operation was absolutely necessary. The professional report to this effect was, however, the author states, not communicated to the

the emperor's death that the document was found at Camden Place. The consultation was kept a secret, but the author knew of it from Dr. Ricord, who was one of the specialists composing it and the author's intimate friend. In favor of the view that the emperor was looking forward to an immediate operation, and that therefore it was ex

tremely improbable that he should be met Joseph Ferrari, the intimate of desirous of war, he adduces the follow- Emile Ollivier's brothers, and so a ing incident. "On the evening of the likely man to have exclusive informa5th of July, while the second council tion. "It is all over," said Ferrari, of ministers was being held, the em-"and unless a miracle happens we'll peror sent one of his aides-de-camp to have war in less than a fortnight. Wait my house for the exact address of Mr. for another hour, and then you'll see Prescott Hewett,1 the eminent English the effect of De Gramont's answer to surgeon. I was not at home, and on Cochery's interpellation in the Chammy return an hour later sent the ad- ber." “But,” remarked the author, dress by telegraph to Saint-Cloud. I" about this time I was positively ashave since learnt that on the same sured, and on the best authority, that the night a telegram was sent to London emperor was absolutely opposed to any inquiring of Mr. Hewett when it would but a pacific remonstrance." "Your be convenient for him to hold a consul- information was perfectly correct," retation in Paris, and that an appointment plied Ferrari," and as late as ten o'clock was made." It has to be said that this last night, at the termination of the summons might obviously have resulted second council of ministers, his sentifrom a desire on the emperor's part to ments underwent no change. Immedihave the opinion of an eminent and ately after that, the empress had a independent foreign surgeon as to conversation with the emperor, which I whether he would be able to endure the know for certain lasted till one o'clock fatigue and exertion of a campaign. in the morning. The result of this Mr. Hewett did visit the illustrious pa- conversation is the answer the text of tient, but not until after he had been which you will see directly, and which some time in the field, and had suffered is tantamount to a challenge to Prussia. severely in body and mind. His condi- Mark my words, the empress will not tion in both respects is thus reported in cease from troubling until she has a letter from an eye-witness to the au-driven France into a war with the only thor. "The emperor is in a very bad great Protestant power on the Contistate; after Saarbrück Lebrun and Le-nent. . . It is the empress who will bœuf had virtually to lift him off his prove the ruin of France!" How well horse. The prince imperial, who had informed was Ferrari as to the tone of been by his side all the time, looked the ministerial answer to Cochery's invery distressed, for his father had terpellation its specific terms show. scarcely spoken to him during the en- "We do not believe" (so spoke De gagement. But after they got into the Gramont in the Chamber) "that recarriage the emperor put his arm round spect for the rights of a neighboring his neck and kissed him on the cheeks, people obliges us to endure patiently while two large tears rolled down his that a foreign power, by placing one of own. I noticed that the emperor had her own princes upon the throne of scarcely strength to walk the dozen Charles the Fifth, should disturb to our yards to his carriage." prejudice the existing balance of power in Europe, and endanger the interests and honor of France. This contingency we hope will not occur. But if it should be otherwise, we all know, gentlemen, strong in your support and in that of the nation, how to do our duty without fear and without hesitation.”

But to follow the thread of the author's evidence that Napoleon 'verted or was perverted from peace to war during the night between the 5th and 6th of July. On the morning of the latter day there was a third council of ministers, for the purpose of framing the answer to M. Cochery's interpella- The author pays a well-merited tribtion regarding the Hohenzollern candi-ute to the strong good sense and high dature. The same afternoon the author statesmanship of Lord Lyons in his re

1 The late Sir Prescott G. Hewett, Bart.

lations with the empress. While the Italian and Austrian ambassadors

6

stooped almost to seem her creatures, | of saving to her son the crown which and flattered her amour-propre by con- she knew to rest precariously on her stantly appealing to her, the representa- husband's head; and he holds that the tive of Great Britain courteously but Republicans considered that the war steadfastly declined to be drawn out by which she favored would serve their the empress in regard to diplomatic turn nearly as well as peace, since war affairs. He paid the due tribute of would give them the opportunity to derespect to the woman and the sover-nounce the iniquity of standing armies, eign, but he tacitly refrained from re- and the phases of it would expose that garding her as a participant in the corruption and deterioration of the affairs of international politics, and in French army of which they were well his quiet manner had little respect for aware. That the Republicans were prethose of his colleagues who were swayed pared to go to great lengths for the by her influence. "I do not know," he subversion of the Empire is no doubt writes, "whether Lord Lyons will leave true; but it must be said that the author behind any Memoirs,' '1 but if he does discloses an animus which weakens the we shall probably get not only nothing force of his arguments when he allows but the truth, but the whole truth with himself to write that "this is tantamount regard to the share of the empress in to an indictment (against the Republidetermining the war; and we shall find cans) of having deliberately contributed that the war was not decided upon be- to the temporary ruin of their country tween the imperial couple between the for political purposes, and such I intend 14th and 15th of July, '70, but between it to be." That aspersion goes to water the 5th and 6th." If the author is when the heroic defence of Republican right (and he speaks with show of au- France after the revolution of the 4th of thority), the emperor, far from being September is remembered. zealous for war, was in regard to that enterprise the creature at once and the victim of his imperious consort. On the information of one who was scarcely ever at this time away from the side of Napoleon, he describes that unfortunate man as racked with anxiety, not as to the issues of war, which he thought himself able to prevent up to the night of the 5th of July, but as to the consequences of peace. For he realized that the Republican minority, strengthened by recent accessions and by the ominous result of the plébiscite, was striving, not to spur the emperor on to war, but to make him keep a peace which it would have vituperated as humiliating to France, seizing on the opening to deride the Empire as too feeble or too pusillanimous to guard the national honor. And the empress unwillingly played into the hand of the minority. Her the author represents as urging on the war with Germany with the intent 1 Lord Lyons predeceased Sir Richard Wallace, but there is internal evidence that the latter wrote his "Recollections" during the lifetime of that nobleman, and he presumably did not give himself the trouble to revise them in regard to such pas

sages as the above,

Before the emperor left Paris for the seat of war, the reaction from the wild ebullitions of the earlier moments had already manifested itself to the keen observation of the author. Shrewd and sometimes cynical men, even of the imperial entourage, were allowing themselves to speak their minds. The author cites some utterances of a connection of his by marriage, who is described as a frequent and welcome guest at the Tuileries, and who may safely be identified as General Castelnau. This personage frankly owned that, but for his fine voice and skill in leading the cotillon, he would probably never have risen beyond the rank of captain. Records of service were never looked into as a criterion for promotion. "A clever answer to a question by the emperor, a handsome face and pleasing manners, are sufficient to establish a reputation at the Château. The officials take particular care not to rectify those impulsive judgments of the emperor and empress, because they know that careful enquiries into the merits of candidates would hurt their own protégés. All the favorites burn with jealousy of each

it. But, writes the author, the empress encouraged it to her utmost. "I fail to see," he states that she said to our sovereign, "that he would be exposed to greater dangers there than elsewhere." It was, he continues, the prospect of the regency, not of the glory that her consort might earn, that appealed to the empress, for she had no more sympathy with the object of that war than with that of the contest against Austria in 1859. During the absence of the emperor in the field in the latter year the regency was vested in her; and her coterie of both sexes openly discounted the political effect of every victory. Austria, according to them, would be granted peace at the cost of few sacrifices, for she was a Conservative and Catholic power, and therefore did not deserve abject humiliation. And the author asserts it as a positive fact within his own knowledge that "the emperor was actually compelled to suspend operations after Solferino, because the minister for war had ceased to send reinforcements and ammunition by order of the regent." Eugénie's regency of 1865, during the emperor's absence in Algeria, while not in itself disastrous, the author characterizes as fraught with disastrous consequences for the future. It gave the empress the political importance she had been coveting for years; and henceforth she was habitually present at the councils of ministers, who did not fail to inform her of matters which have been solely for the ear of the head of the State. Ollivier in this respect repudiated the precedent set by his predecessors, and avoided informing the empress on State affairs. It was, says the author, an open secret that the regent was determined, on the first French victory, to dismiss Ollivier and his Cabinet. No French victory came, but fast on the heels of the first French disasters Ollivier was succeeded by the more facile Palikao.

other; and this jealousy will now lead to disastrous results, because the emperor will find it as difficult to comply with as to refuse their individual extravagant demands." Colonel Stoffel, it is well known, was reprimanded by Leboeuf for writing so strongly from Berlin of the magnificent efficiency of the Prussian army, because the minister and his lighthearted companions objected to be harassed in their frivolities by mistrust on the emperor's part of their soldierly capacity. "Nous l'avons eu, votre Rhin allemand . . . Où le père a passé, passera bien l'enfant, was their creed, and they continued to dance, flirt, and intrigue for gilded places. "There are no bad regiments, only bad colonels,' said the first Napoleon; in the opinion of those gentlemen, there were no bad colonels, (xcept perhaps those who did not constantly jingle their spurs on the carpeted floors of the empress's boudoir and the parqueted arena of the empress's ballroom. And she applauded the vaporings of those misguided men. "Le courage fait tout " had been the motto for nearly a score of years at the Tuileries. It did a good deal in the comedies à la Marivaux, in the Boccaccian charades that had been enacted there during that time; she had yet to learn that it would avail little or nothing in the Homeric struggle which was impending." The author indirectly but unmistakably conveys the impression that the empress was urgent for her husband to take the field in person, notwithstanding his wretched state of health, because of her eagerness for the regency; in his own words, "the empress always showed herself exceedingly anxious to exercise the functions of regent." According to him, this desire was manifested so early as the Crimean war period. It is matter of history that the emperor more than once expressed his intention of taking the command of his army on the Chersonese. His ministers strongly dissuaded him; similar advice It was also immediately after the recame from high officers in the field; verses at the Spicheren and Wörth, on Lord Clarendon quietly but strongly the 6th of August, that, according to the combated the project; and Queen Victo- author and in his own words, "the enria, to whom the idea was broached dur-tourage of the empress began to think ing her visit to Paris, threw cold water on of saving the empire by sacrificing, if