Napoleon Iii Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 1808-1873

It was with this end in view that he co-operated with the party of order in the expedition to Rome for the destruction of the Roman republic and the restoration of the pope (March 31, and afterwards in all the reactionary measures against the press and the clubs, and for the destruction of the Reds. But in opposi tion to the party of order, he defined his own personal policy. "The name of Napoleon," he said on this occasion, "is in itself a programme; it stands for order, authority, religion and the welfare of the people in internal affairs, and in foreign affairs for the national dignity." In spite of this alarming assertion of his personal policy, he still remained in harmony with the Assembly (the Legislative Assembly, elected on May 28, 1849) in order to carry out "a Roman expedition at home," i.e., to clear the administration of all republicans, put down the press, suspend the right of holding meetings and, above all, to hand over education to the Church. But he knew where to stop and how to keep up a show of democ racy. When the Assembly, by the law of May 31, 1850, restricted universal Suffrage and reduced the number of the electors from 9 to 6 millions, he was able to throw upon it the whole responsibility for this coup d'etat bourgeois.

In fact, while trying to compass the destruction of the repub lican movement of the Left, he was taking careful steps to win classes. At his side were his accomplices, men ready for anything, whose only hopes were bound up with his fortunes, such as Morny and Rouher ; his paid publicists, such as Romieu, the originator of the "red spectre"; his cudgel-bearers, the "Ratapoils" immortalized by Daumier, who terrorized the republicans.

Coup

next entered upon that struggle with the Assembly, now discredited, which was to reveal to all the neces sity for a change, and a change in his favour. In January 1851 he deprived Changarnier of his command of the garrison of Paris. "The Empire has come," said Thieri. 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 signing its own death-warrant, and the coup d'etat was resolved upon. He prepared for it systematically. The cabinet of Oct. 26, 1851 gave the ministry for war to his creature Saint Arnaud. All the conspirators were at their posts—Maupas at the prefecture of police, Magnan at the head of the troops in Paris. At the Elysee, Morny, adulterine son of Hortense, a hero of the Bourse and successful gambler, supported his half-brother by his energy and counsels. The ministry proposed to abrogate the electoral law of 1850, and restore universal suffrage; the Assembly by refusing made itself still more unpopular. By proposing to

allow the president of the Assembly to call in armed force, the questors revealed the Assembly's plans for defence, and gave the Elysee a weapon against it ("donnent barre contre elle a l'Elysee"). The proposition was rejected (November 7), but Louis-Napoleon saw that it was time to act. On Dec. 2 he carried out his coup d'etat.

Proclamation as Emperor.

But affairs 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 em peror," he had hoped for universal applause. But both in Paris and the provinces he met with the resistance of the Republicans, who had reorganized 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 Dec. 2, 1852 he became in name what he was already in deed, and was proclaimed Emperor of the French.

The aim which the emperor had in view was, by a concentration of power which should make him "the beneficent motive force of the whole social order" (constitution of the 14th of January 1852; administrative centralization; subordination of the elected assemblies; control of the machinery of universal suffrage) to unite all classes in "one great national party" attached to the 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 black," among them Veuillot, editor-in-chief of l'Univers, and allowed them to get the University into their hands. By the aid of former Orleanists, such as Billault, Fould and Morny, and Saint-Simonians such as Talabot and the Pereires, he satisfied the industrial classes, extended credit, developed means of communi cation, and gave a strong impetus to the business of the nation. By various measures, such as subsidies, charitable gifts and foundations, he endeavoured to show that "the idea of improv ing the lot of those who suffer and struggle against the difficulties of life was constantly present in his mind." His was the govern ment of cheap bread, great public works and holidays. The im perial court was brilliant. The emperor, having failed to obtain the hand of a Vasa or Hohenzollern, married, on Jan. 29, 1853, Eugenie de Montijo, comtesse de Teba, aged twenty-six and at the height of her beauty.