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    March 22, 1856.] THE LEADER. 269

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    Continental Notes. Trance. A Son And Hei...

    those wishes in on e word , bestow on him a heart worthy of liis destiny and of his name . " It is said that the delivery was not effected without an operation , which left a scar on the infant ' s brow . His Highness Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte has fractured his toe , and in consequence of this accident was unable to be present at the Tuileries . The Pope being the godfather of the Prince , and the Queen of Sweden the godmother , the Prince has received in addition to the name 3 of Napoleon , Eugenie , and Louis , those of Jean Joseph . The Emperor has decided that he will be godfather and the Empress godmother of all the legitimate children born in France on the day of the 16 th of March .

    The Plenipotentiaries of the Congress presented an address ( Count Walewsld being the speaker ) , and received an acknowledgment couched in these terms : — " I thank the Congress for the well-wishes and congratulations addressed to me through you . I am happy that Providence has granted me a son at a moment when a new era of general reconciliation dawns upon Europe . I will bring him tip imbued with the idea that nations must not be egotistical , and that the peace of Europe depends upon the prosperity of each nation . "

    The Senate and Legislative corps waited on the Eniperor on Tuesday , to congratulate him on the birth of an heir . M . de Morny , the president , read the following address : — " Sire , —Providence has gifts in Store for those princes who devote themselves to the greatness and prosperity of their people . It has just proved this to your Majesty by a most striking favour . But this great joy which , it gives you by the birth of a son is also a happiness for the great family which gathers round you . Already France breathes more freely by the birth of this child , * she associates her future-with her destinies .

    " When lie shall reign over this Empire , which Grotius styled'the finest under the kingdom of heaven , the 19 th century , having reached its extreme period , will gather the fruits , the productive seed of which have been sown by our generation in the present . Africa , fostered by your powerful hand , will have become one of the Slightest gems of his Crown . The East and the West , which , have been seeking each other since the Crusades , and are only coming , in sight of each other now , will have connected their seas and coasts to let forth the improving tide of the ideas and riches of civilisation . Let the future Sovereign of our children follow in the steps of his august father ; let him call to mind a reign where the genius of government is guided by moderation of justice ; and . in this march , of humanity France will still be , as she is now , a regulator for Europe , a lever of progress , a torch of intellect .

    " Let us hail , then , this son of the Empire , the pledge of so many great destinies ; let us greet likewise , and thank his graceful mother . A wife already so endeared to you , will be dearer still to your heart by this consideration of maternity . " Allow the Senate , Sire , to place its homage for her at the foot of this throne , which she embellishes by her amiable qualities , and which she hag cemented by this happy birth . " The Emperor replied : — : " Monsieur le President du Senat , —The Senate shared my joy when it learnt that Heaven had granted me a son , and you have hailed as a happy event the birth of an Enfant de France . I purposely make use

    of this expression . In fact , the Emporor Napoleon , my uncle , who had applied to the new system created by the Revolution all that was great and noble in the therec / imtf , resumed that old denomination of' Enfunta de France . ' And , in truth , gentlemen , when au heir is born destined to perpetuate a national system , that child is not only the offspring of a family , but he is truly also the sou of the whole country , and the name indicates his duties . If this were true under the old monarchy , which more exclusively represented the privileged classes , with how muoh more reason ought it not to he bo to day , when the sovereign is the oloot of the nation , the first citizen of the country , and tho roprosonta , tivo of tho interests of all ?

    " I thank you for the good wishes " you have expressed fur this child of Franco and for tho Empress . " To the address of tho Legislative Corps , tho Emperor replied : ¦— " Monsieur lo President du Corps LogiBlatif , —Tho expression of your Bontiments on tho birth of th , Q son <\ vluch it has pleased Providonoe to grant me has touched mo nearly . You have welcomed in him the h . jpo , which it is flattoriug to entertain , of perpetuating a system which is hold to bo tho surest guarantee of the gonoralinterests of the country ; but tho unammous Reclamation !} which surround Iuh

    cradle do not prevent mo from reflecting upon tho futo of those born in tho same plaoo and undor siuailur oiroumfltunooH . Jf 1 hopo that his fnto mny bo a haippier o » o , it is that , fir « t of all , confiding in Providonco , 1 ounnot doubt of its 2 ° tootion when I hoo it roatoro again by an extraordinary combination of oirauniatanooB > vliat it wan ploatiod to overthrow forty yoara since , an if it -wtuhud to inuturo by martyrdom and misfortune a now dynasty iasuiug from the ranka of tho people Hinfcory has , moreover , losHons whioh I eaall not forgot . It tolls mo , on tho one hand , that

    we should never abuse the favours of fortune ; on the other , that a dynasty has only then a chance of stability when it remains faithful to its origin , and -when it occupies itself solely with the popular interests for which it was created . This child , whose birth is consecrated by the peace under preparation , by the blessing of the Holy Father , brought by electricity in aa hour after he saw the light . of day , and finally by the acclamations of the French people , whom the Emperor so much loved—this child , I say , will , I hope , be worthy of the destinies that await him . " I thank you , gentlemen , for the well-wishes you have expressed foe him and for the Empress . "

    The Council of State were addressed , in reply to their congratulations , as follows : — " M . le President du Conseil d'Etat , —The Council of State , that intimate Council of the Sovereign and of his Government , which is initiated to all his thoughts , and which associates itself with all his acts , wo aid , I was sure of it , take a lively participation iu the rejoicing of the present and in the hope of the future . None labour more than yourselves , gentlemen , towards the

    consolidation of that future . Strong in the grand traditions of the Council of State of the first Empire , you elaborate the laws which , while they consecrate the grand principles of the Revolution , pacify ' the country , consolidate the ruling power , curb factions , and prepare the peaceful reign of a wise liberty . I count , therefore , upon the' talent 3 and patriotism of which you . have already given me so many proofs to render easy to the child who has just been born the accomplishment of his future destinies . "

    A He Deum will be performed to-morrow ( Sunday ) in all the churches in France . Pan ' s has been brilliantly illuminated , and some of our English provincial towns have followed the example . A congratulatory address has been despatched from Edinburgh . The Paris market women—lesdam . es de la Halle—went to the Tuileries , on Tuesday , to congratulate the Emperor , who received them wifeh great courtesy , and led them himself to the apartments of the Paince , and presented the infant to

    them . The corporations of workmen have also manifested a desire to wait on the Emperor ; but he has postponed their visit till ' the period of baptism . The Imperial Courts of the various principal cities have sent in , or are now sending in , their addresses . Numerous pardons to military prisoners have been granted ; several pecuniary fines and imprisonments have been remitted ; and 803 pardons have been accorded to those culprits confined in the Eagnes who have exhibited signs of sincere repentance .

    The Emperor has repeated au offer , already made at the inavtguratdon of the Empire , to permit the return to France of all political exiles who will maka a declaration to submit loyally to the existing , form of Government . According to the statistics of the Monitewr , the number of persona exiled by the existing Government after the insurrection of June , 1848 , was 11 , 000 , which was reduced by Louis Napoleon , during his Presidency , to 306 . After the coup d ' etat , 11 , 201 persons were deported , but the number was afterwards brought down by pardons to 1 , 058 . The health of the Empress continues satisfactory : the milk fever has set in a regular and favourable manner , and is now subsiding . Prince Jerome is progressing towards recovery .

    By Imperial decree , dated March 10 , M . PhuI Dubois , surgeon-aceouchdur to the Empress , has been promoted to the grade of Commander of the Legion of Honour . The King of Sardinia , on hearing of the birth , sent M . Polenzo , his Minister of Foreign Affairs , to the French representative , to offer him his congratulations . It is a coincidence which cannot fail to challenge remark that the number of tho Monite . nr announcing the birth of an heir to the throne of the Bonapartos , contains a decree ordaining that all the monoy which still boars the clfigy of Liberty shall cease to bo currout coin .

    Somo reflections ou t . iis evt'ut , of a very grave and < miuou . s nature , aro offered by the Times ; for our contemporary , though willing < m < l desirous to boo the porpotuabion of the Napoleonic dywiBty , cannot shut his eyes to the lessons which French history plainly teaches . Tho " leading journal ' observes : — - " Not a little remarkable ia it to obsorvo that , from the accession of Loiiis XIV . to the present time , not n single King ov Govornor of Franco , though nono of thorn , with the exooptiou of Louis XVI 1 L , Uavo boon oUildloas , has boon succeeded at his demise by hia sou .

    Louis XIV . survived his son , lua grandson , and several of hid grout grandchildren , imd wafi ) Rucooedod ufcliwt by oho of tho younger ohildron of his grandson tho Duko of Burgundy . Lou in XV . survived his son , aud was suocoodocl by hira f raudwou , Louto XVI . Louifi XVI . loft a son boh mil him , but that bou poritihed in tlie filthy dungeon to which tho cruelty of tho torroritits lmd oonunorl him . Tho King ol Homo , to whom Ntipoloon fondly hoped to bequeath tho bouudloBs ompirc ho had won , dlod a colon ol in the Austrian sorvioo , Louia XVlll . was , « s wo liavo Bald . ohilcUosB . Tho Duko do JBorri foil' by tho hand

    of an assassin in the lifetime of Charles X and h ' sob , the Duke de Bordeaux , is an exile from the W which bis ancestors regarded as their own estate The eldest son of Louis Philippe perished bv «™ untimely accident , and his grandson and heir does not sit upon the throne of his grandfather . Thus then , it appears that , for upwards of two hundred years , in no one of the dynasties to which France has been subjected has the son s ucceeded to the throne of the father . Amid the shipwreck of so many dynasties , amid the overthrow of so many hopes amid the blasting of so many fair prospects of success ' it were presumptuous to anticipate for this last child of a reigning family that good fortune which has been

    denied to so many of his predecessors . Who does not remember the prophetic poem in which Beranger represents the son of the great Napoleon as warning the youthful Duke de Bordeaux of the snares and difficulties that surround the path of the future heir of the French diadem ? ' Fortune , ' writes the heir of the Empire to the heir of the restoration , ' stretches to you a hand , and smiles upon your birth . My first day also was fair . Kings adored me in my cradle ; and yet I am at Vienna . I slept upon laurels , and you are wrapt in purple : sceptres were my playthings , my head was bound with a crown , the Marshals swore fidelity to me—an oath which they have doubtless kept—and yet I am at Vienna . ' "

    A pamphlet , entitled " Les Conferences delB 56 et les Nationalite 3 , " from , the pen . of a Pole , M . Joseph . Reitzenheim , and recently published at Paris , contrasts the apa . thy of the French people with regard to the war—in some instances , their opposition to itwith the eagerness of the English . In France , observes the writer , the Government all along has had . to urge the people into action ; in England , the' people have had to urge the Government , and to change an administration which , they regarded as not in earnest . M . Beitzenheim contends that the material condition

    of France has prospered by the war , the merchant navy of the Mediterranean cities having greatly , increased , owing to the reduction of the Bussian ; Black Sea fleet ; and he explains the opposition of portions of the people to the English alliance to a fear of accepting that alliance without a certain reserve . The French are satisfied with the glory they have attained ; the English desire solid advantages . The writer repudiates the idea that the English ( whose courage he eulogises ) desire to continue the war for the mere sake of l'etrieving certain alleged slurs on their military reputation .

    A remarkable case has recently been tried at the Correctional Police Tribunal of Privas ( Ardeche ) . In . the neighbouring commune of Saint Symphorien , there has long existed amongst the population a body of Socialists . A farmer named Chabanel openly pronounced the opinions of the Socialists to be those o £ thieves , and refused to join them in the insurrectionary rising of the people in 1851 . A short time since , one of the Socialist party discovered that a fine branch had been cat off a walnut-tree belonging to him , and , upon investigation , it was ascertained that Chabanel was the culprit . This was considered by his enemies to be a favourable opportunity of doing him an injury ; they therefore , caused him to be tried by the muni

    cipal council of Saint Symphorien , instead of tho judicial authorities . When Chabanel was brought before the former body , it was decided by the majority of its members , although some of them were in favour of hanging , that he should bo fined the sum of 400 francs , one half of which was to be paid to the owner of the walnut-tree , and the other to go to the poor , If the culprit did not pay , he was to undergo the sentence of a long imprisonment and a heavy fine . This so troubled Chabanel that he fled to the village of Privas , whore he conferred with the authorities , who promptly took measures for proving to the municipal council of Saint Symphorion that it had no power whatever to condemn tho man . Ab , however , the thoft of the walnut-tree brauch was still unpunished , Chabauel was tried before the Privas Tribunal of

    Correctional Police , which deoided that , under all the circumstances , a fine of sixteen fronos would meet the ustice of tho case , and passod a sovero cousuro ou the municipality of Saint Symphorion , for what it had done .

    AUSTRIA . According to letters from QalaU , received by Mosurs . Charles Joyoo and Co ., it appears that towards tho end of February more than one hundred vessels , chiefly German , had corao up tho Danube , and that freights had declined considerably . At the dubo of tho latest advices from Sulina , the depth of Avutor ou tho bar wau about ton Venetian feet . The Austrian Govern meat in about to doopen tho channel , and to plaoo buoys , mooring-shipB , and a light ship at the entmnco of tho Sulina mouth .

    Tho treaty for tho milo and oonoesfiion of tho Aub trian railways in Italy to tho section of capitalist ! houdod by Moskiu ltothnohild has boeu definitively arranged . They aro to purchase two hundred am Hcvonty-throo English miles , wlnioh aro already com plotod , and to tindortako two hundred and twenty tliro ^ o mile » whioh remain to be oonatruotod , in addi tion to tho Central Italian lino . Tho total networl

    March 22, 1856.] The Leader. 269

    March 22 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 269

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22031856/page/5/