to many of our readers to find how liberal and enlightened
were at least many of the aims of his administration, and how
enthusiastically he was supported by the people that have since found no
terms too strong to express their detestation. "Napoleon III," says M.
Duruy, "at the very moment that he took possession of the throne, had
promised that liberty should one day crown the new political edifice.
After Solferino, he endeavored to introduce her again into our
institutions. He began this work by the decree of the 24th of November,
1860, which associated the Corps Legislatif more directly with the
politics of the government. He continued it by the senatus-consulte of
the 2d of December, 1861, which deprived the Emperor of the power of
decreeing extraordinary credits in the intervals of the sessions; by the
letter of the 19th of January, 1867, which gave the ministers the right
of appearing before the Chambers, in order that they might at any moment
render an account of their acts to the nation; by the laws on the press,
which was restored to its natural privileges, and on the popular
assemblages, of which a few were useful and a great many detestable
(11th of May and 6th of June, 1868). Finally, at the period when,
abroad, the unfortunate issue of the expedition to Mexico, and the
menacing position assumed in Germany by Prussia, after her victory of
Sadowa over the Austrians; in the interior, the progress of public
intelligence, favored by the general prosperity, had developed stronger
desires for freedom which the elections of 1869 made evident, the
Emperor renounced his personal authority, and by the senatus-consulte of
the 20th of April, 1870, proposed to the French people the
transformation of the autocratic Empire into the liberal Empire. On the
8th of May, 7,300,000 citizens replied _yes_ to this question, against
1,500,000 who replied _no_."

Thus this dignified and candid historian does not hesitate to lay the
responsibility of the war of 1870-71, "most certainly, on the ministers,
the deputies, and the unreasoning folly of Paris." "Paris," says another
writer, an eye-witness, "was inflamed with a peculiar fever, and even
words changed their meaning. Workmen were maltreated on the Boulevard
des Italiens for having traversed it crying: '_Vive la Paix, vive la
Travail!_' ['Give us Peace! Hurrah for Labor!'] The courts themselves
interfered, and citizens were condemned to prison for having uttered
publicly this