In France, it is said that President Bonaparte has now
defini- tively made up his mind to "the Empire "; but what France her- self has to say on that point is not so easily defined, since she is gagged. And not only gagged, but, we verily believe, perplexed, rather wearied, and'altogether uncertainof her own mind. It is necessary to pass some time in the country, quietly noting the unstudied traits of the intimate feeling of the people, in its own countenance and its own heart, before you attain to any conception of its sentiments. Men who once opposed the ac- tual regime, have become, so to speak, passively resigned to it, from having acquired a thorough doubt as to the honesty and ca- pacity of all existing parties. Louis Napoleon stands, like Lord Derby, by favour of omnilateral opposition. Meanwhile, the Go- vernment really corrupts very few, and does not impose on any. Everybody knows it for what it is,—a terrible knowledge! But nobody is disposed to upset it in favour of any other regime. It is like a disease in a thoroughly worn-out patient, which the phy- sician will not cure lest he leave the field open for a worse. The existing lull of political strife is not unprofitable to the country, which is making prodigious strides in material wellbeing and in accumulation of wealth ; and while he can "save society" by his empirical violenees—while he can prevent riot, hateful to trade— Louis Napoleon may retain his place. But that it is a hard struggle, appears in the undisguised contest to which he is committed with words. Writing alarms him ; but he cannot evade it. The Times assails him from the Hill of Lnd, with historical parallelisms of France and the Lower Empire; and he cannot abstain from answering in his Government Gazette ! La Presse questions the right of Le Pays to say that the 2d of December prevented disorder in May, or that France is a nation of cutthroats to be put down by anticipatory cutthroats; and La Presse is " warned," as a prelude to its suppression : so that all Louis Napoleon's tact and talent for passive silence cannot restrain him from contest with Emile de Girardin, the clever and vigorous adventurer who is aft but the Warwick of Paris. Louis Napoleon has great nerve in total abstinence of expression ; but the un- ceasing twirl of his moustache with finger and thumb betrays the restlessness behind that mask, and-the Times and the Prase pro- voke him out of his reserve. It is a hard struggle ; and he hastens to the Empire as the worried gamester precipitates the game, to learn his fate.
