[Born in Paris, 1773. Died at Claremont, in England, 1850. Aged 77.]
A monarch who ascended the throne of France on the neck of one
Revolution, and was hurled from it by the heel of another. A king who
had borne adversity bravely in his youth, yet was unequal to sustain
prosperity in his age. The most remarkable example of the proverb that
“a Bourbon learns nothing, and forgets nothing.” If any Bourbon could
prove an exception to the rule, Louis Philippe must have been the man.
He had great sagacity; he had mixed for many years with all ranks and
conditions of men. He had acutely felt the want of the means of living.
He had been forced to earn his own bread by humble day labour. He had
travelled in America, resided in England, had read much, observed more.
Yet in 1848, after a reign of 18 years, he conducted himself towards the
French nation with a blind obstinacy and wilful disregard of
consequences, worthy of a sovereign who had been suckled in the lap of
despotism, and fed for ever afterwards upon obsequious flattery, and all
the other dainty diet of a Court. Louis Philippe had many good qualities
of heart. He was beloved by his wife and children, and was a true hero
at the domestic hearth. He had also a shrewd, active, well-informed
mind. Nor did he act without a principle in his dealing with his
subjects. But unfortunately his love for his family led him into foolish
schemes for their advancement, his shrewdness overreached itself, and
his principle of action was based upon a fallacy. He imagined that he
could satisfy his people with the very husk and rind of constitutional
government, and flatter them with the conviction that they were chewing
and enjoying the kernel. Corruption was hardly greater in the days of
the Regency, than towards the untimely close of the reign of Louis
Philippe, but the rottenness under the later Orleans was veiled beneath
forms demanded by the spirit of the age, and conceded by the King in a
spirit of mock complaisance and quiet irony. Few men have had greater
opportunity than the King of the Barricades. None have so desperately
disappointed hope and baffled expectation. The history of the House of
Orleans is full of instruction for all who bear the name: but no chapter
is so fraught with momentous interest to the living chief of the House
as that which tells the extraordinary and calamitous history of Louis
Philippe.
[From the Marble, by J. E. Jones, 1845.]
312*. LOUIS NAPOLEON. _Emperor of France._
[Born 1808. Still living.]
The third Emperor of the name, and not the least remarkable of his
extraordinary race. The opinions formed of the present Emperor of France
from his earlier history, have all been belied by his subsequent career.
He has been an exile, a prisoner, a wanderer, an outcast. When he has
ceased to be an object of suspicion, it was only to become a subject for
ridicule. Of all pretenders to thrones in Europe, he has been held the
least likely to obtain, by any change of circumstances or overthrow of
dynasties, supreme dominion. When kings, in their fear, have reckoned
over the names of those from whom danger might be expected, and have
exhausted the entire list by including all possible representatives of
peril, Louis Napoleon has not been in the number. He lived for years in
London, and on the 10th of April, 1848, when special constables were
enrolled for the preservation of menaced order, he sallied forth with
his neighbours, and performed street duty with the humblest. He was so
poor in England, that his goods were sold to pay his debts. Yet at this
hour the diadem binds his brow, and his foot is firmly planted upon the
summit of power in tranquillized France, and we all pray Heaven in the
interests of humanity, civilization, and peace, to maintain it there.
Since the accession of Napoleon III., all his exertions have been
directed to the development of the material resources of his country,
and to the upholding of that good understanding amongst nations which is
essential to the continuance of social prosperity. Europe lies under
great obligations to his sagacity, and England has cause to rejoice in
his friendship. When he married, he called himself a “_parvenu_.” His
wisdom, moderation, and good faith have attached him to the heart of
public opinion more closely than though, upon an insincere brow, he had
brought to his imperial throne the stamp of a hundred kings.
[From the marble by Barre, 1853.]
312A. LOUIS NAPOLEON. _Emperor of France._
[From the marble by J. E. Jones.]
312**. EUGÉNIE MARIE GUZMAN. _Empress of France._
[Born 1826. Still living.]
The wife of Napoleon III., before her marriage with whom she was
Countess Montijo of Teba.
THE GERMAN PORTRAITS.