least, would submit."

I have quoted this memorandum of Prince Albert's, because it points
out the perils which led to the downfall or the Empire,--the emperor's
bad _entourage_; his personal government, assisted only by private
confidential relations with irresponsible persons; his mixture of
crude and sensible ideas of government; his indolence; and his
tendency to let things slide out of his own hands.

"Upon the whole," concluded the prince, "my impression is that
neither in home nor foreign politics would the emperor naturally
take any violent step, but that he appears in distress for means
of governing, and is obliged to look about him from day to day.
Having deprived the people of any active participation in the
government, and reduced them to the mere position of spectators,
they grow impatient, like a crowd at a display of fireworks, whenever
there is any cessation in the display. Still, he appears the only
man who has any hold on France, relying on the name of Napoleon.
He said to the Duke of Newcastle:

'Former Governments have tried to reign by the support of one million
of the educated classes; I claim to lay hold of the other twenty-nine.'
He is decidedly benevolent, and anxious for the good of the people,
but has, like all rulers before him, a bad opinion of their political
capacity."

Strange to say, in the midst of war the Universal Exposition of
1855 took place in Paris. The winter was horribly severe, and the
armies in the Crimea suffered terribly. The emperor was extremely
desirous to go himself to the seat of war, but was urged by every
one about him to remain at home. All kinds of good reasons were
put forward for this advice, but probably not the one subsequently
advanced by one of his generals after the campaign of Italy in
1859. "It used to be said that the presence of the First Napoleon
with his army was worth a reinforcement of forty thousand men.
The army now feels that the presence of the Third Napoleon equals
the loss of about the same number."

We have seen that Queen Victoria had expressed a wish to welcome
the emperor and empress at Windsor Castle. It was on April 16,
1855, that the imperial pair reached England, and were received by
Prince Albert on board their yacht. They met with a hearty national
greeting on their way to London. In London itself crowds lined the
streets. "It was," says an eye-witness, "one bewildering triumph,
in which it was estimated that a million of people