Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/837

 NAPOLEON.

missions. It is well known that the prince urged the emperor to inau- gurate a liberal policj, and it is understood that, after the message of 1869, announcing the Senatus- Consultum which revived ministe- rial responsibility and the system of parliamentary government, he recommended that the members of the cabinet should be replaced by new men, who would thoroughly carry out the new policy. Prince Napoleon has travelled much, and made many voyages in his steam yacht the Jerome Napoleon to dis- tant parts of the world. He has often visited England, Corsica, Algeria, and Italy ; and in 1861 he went to America while the civO war was raging, and formed the acquaintance of President Lincoln, of Mr. Seward, and of several of the Federal and Confederate gene- rals. In June, 1863, he visited Egypt, in order to ascertain from personal observation the prog^ress that was being made with the canal across the Isthmus of Suez, and in the following year he delivered a speech in which he spoke in most hopeful and flattering terms of M. de Lesseps* celebrated scheme, and of the company that had been formed for carrying it out. In 1868 he visited, it is believed with a political object. Southern Ger- many, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, the Danubian Principalities, and Turkey in Europe. On war being declared with Prussia, in July, 1870, Prince Napoleon implored his cousin, to appoint him to a military com- mand. The emperor, however, de- clined to do so, on the plea that he might render more efficient service to France by accepting a confiden- tial mission to Italy, where he could bring his personal influence to bear on his father-in-law. King Victor Emmanuel. Accordingly he pro- ceeded to Florence, but failed to obtain the co-operation of Italy. These latter facts are stated on the authority of a justificatory pam- phlet pi/blished by Prince Napo-

leon in 1871, under the title of "La V6rit4.'' After the fall of th^ empire he spent some months in Brussels and in other continental cities, but ultimately he fixed his residence in England. In Sept. 1872, he ventured to Prance on a visit to M. Kichard, an ex-Minister of the Empire, but on the 12th of that month he was banished from France, but after May 24, 1873, he obtained permission to return. Subsequently Prince Napoleon claimed to be the chief representa- tive of his family, and endeavoured, though without success, to organise a party of his own in opposition to the adherents of the Empress Eugenie and the Prince Imperial. The Volonte NationaUf the org^an of Prince Napoleon, published the fol- lowing extraordinary declaration. May 13, 1875 :— "If the son of Napo- leon m. were to die. Prince Napo- leon would never seek to restore the Empire for his own benefit. aim at the restoration of Prince Napoleon, or his nephew, would probably end in the St. Martin's Canal. It would be the end of the country. Moreover, we have never doubted that France, even if di- rectly consulted, would energeti- cally pronounce in favour of the Republican form, the most com- patible with the very principle of Universal Suffrage." At the gene- ral election of Feb. 20, 1876, Prince Napoleon came forward as a candi- date in the arrondissement of Ajaccio, ag^dnst M. Bouher, with a profession of his political faith, in which he said: — "The form of government is not in question : it exists; I accept it fnuikly/' and which concluded thus: — "Choose between the son of Jerome, nephew of Napoleon I., and a stranger to your ishmd." He was earnestly opposed by the leaders of the Bonapartist party and by the Prince Imperial, who addressed to M. Franceschini Pietro a letter in which he exhorted his friends to support M. Bouher.
 * * • A third Empire, which mig^ht