The emeute has probably hastened the publication of a pamphlet,
believed to be by the Emperor, but at all events republished in the Malheur, upon the title of Napoleon to the throne. It is a mere Est of the number of votes by which Napoleon I. was called to the Consulate, to the Consulatefor life and the throne, and Napoleon III. to the four years' presidency, to the ten years' presidency, and the Imperial crown ; and the object of its publication is unintelligible. Frenchmen have not forgotten these votes, even if they have repented them. The pamphlet contains no declaration of policy, no expression of the Emperor's wishes, nothing, except the asser- tion of what nobody denies, that the majority of the adult males in France did elect him Emperor. There is, however, one signifi- cant remark, that every plebiscitum has increased the power of the Napoleons. Is the Emperor, perchance, about to seek still greater powers than those he now wields, power, for example, to issue laws without the aid of his somewhat disputatious Legisla- ture?
Previous page
