368 



FEANCE. 



WASHIXGTOJT, May 22, 1865. 



SIR: The Marquis de Montholon has handed to 

 me the copy of a despatch, dated the 28th April, ad- 

 dressed by M. Drouyu de Lliuys to M. de Geofroy, 

 charging him to express to the Government of the 

 United States the feelings with which the Emperor 

 and the French Government have been inspired by 

 the assassination of President Lincoln, the horror and 

 sympathy they have felt on learning that unexpected 

 catastrophe, and lastly, their great esteem for the 

 character and virtues of the deceased President. This 

 despatch bears the impress of a spirit of generosity 

 and of cordial sympathy toward the United States 

 which does honor to the ancient friendship of the two 

 nations, and which is on our part cordially recipro- 

 cated. Your recent despatch has also informed me of 

 what took place in the Senate and in the Legislative 

 body under the circumstances in question. I must 

 therefore request you to inform M. Drouyn de Lhuys 

 of the manner in which those manifestations of good 

 wishes have been received, and to tell him that they 

 will remain engraved in the grateful remembrance of 

 the Government and the people of the United Slates. 

 With that object you will please to leave with M. 

 Drouyn de Lhuys a copy of the present letter. 



I am, Ac., W. HUNTER. 



On May 1st, the Emperor embarked at Mar- 

 seilles for a protracted visit to Algeria. Imme- 

 diately on landing tie issued two remarkable 

 proclamations; one to the European settlers, 

 and the other to the Arabs. To the former he 

 said: 



Have faith in the future. Become attached to the 

 land which you cultivate as to a new fatherland, and 

 treat the Arabs, in the midst of whom you must 

 dwell, as fellow-countrymen. We must be the masters, 

 because we are the more civilized ; we must be gen- 

 erous, because we are the stronger. Let us, then, 

 justify unceasingly the glorious act of one of my pre- 

 decessors, who, in planting thirty-five years ago, on 

 the soil of Africa, the banner of France and the Cross, 

 unfurled at once the sign of civilization and the sym- 

 bol of peace and charity. 



In his address to the Arabs he remarked : 

 France came to Algeria in 1830, not to destroy the 

 Arab nationality, but to liberate the people from ages 

 of oppression. Nevertheless, you have fought against 

 your liberators. I honor vour sense of warlike dig- 

 nity, but God has decided. Recognize the decrees 

 of Providence. Like yourselves, our ancestors cour- 

 ageously resisted, and yet from their defeat dates 

 their regeneration. Your Prophet says : " God gives 

 power to whomsoever he will." I come to exercise 

 power in your interest. I have irrevocably assured 

 to you the proprietorship of the land you occupy. I 

 have honored your chiefs and respected your religion. 

 I wish to increase your well-being. Tell your mis- 

 taken brethren that 2,000,000 Arabs cannot resist 

 40,000,000 Frenchmen. I thank the great majority 

 for their fidelity. Great recollections and powerful 

 interests already unite you to the mother country, 

 and a military confraternity has been formed in the 

 Crimea, Italy, China, and Mexico. Place confidence, 

 then, in your destinies, almost united with those of 

 France, and acknowledge, with the Koran, that 

 "what God directs is wefi directed." 



The Emperor was received by many of the 

 Arabs with great enthusiasm, and on his return 

 to France prepared a treatise on the French 

 administration of Algeria, declaring some feat- 

 ures of it to have been mistakes, and ordering 

 the Governor-General to make some radical 

 changes in the future. 



An imperial decree, dated December 24, 1804, 

 but not published until January 3, 1865, ap- 



pointed Prince Napoleon a member and Vice- 

 president of the Privy Council. On May 15th, 

 Prince Napoleon made along speech at Ajaccio, 

 on the inauguration of a monument to Napo- 

 leon I., giving an eloquent biography of the 

 Bonapartes and a history of the life and acts of 

 the First Napoleon, which he described as a 

 complete programme of liberal policy. The 

 speech made a profound sensation in the political 

 world, but gave great offence to the Emperor ; 

 who addressed to his cousin the following let- 

 ter, dated September 23d : 



I cannot refrain from mentioning to you the painful 

 impression produced upon me bv reading your speech 

 at Ajaccio. By leaving you during my absence near 

 the Empress and my son, as Vice-President of the 

 Council of State, I wished to_ give you a proof of 

 friendship and confidence, hoping that your presence, 

 conduct, and discourse would testify to the union 

 reigning among our family. But the political pro- 

 gramme which you place under the <zgw of the Em- 

 peror can only be useful to the enemies of my Gov- 

 ernment, as furnishing ground for judgment that we 

 cannot admit. You express sentiments of hatred 

 and rancor which are no longer of our day. To be 

 able to apply to the present time the ideas of the 

 Emperor, it is necessary to have passed through the 

 severe trials and responsibility of power. Can we, 

 moreover, pigmies as we are, really estimate, at its 

 true value, the great historical figure of Napoleon? 

 Standing before a colossal statue, we are powerless 

 to take in the whole at a glance. We never see but 

 the side which strikes our view ; but that which is 

 clear to all the world is that to prevent anarchy, that 

 formidable enemjr of true liberty, the Emperor had 

 to establish, first in his family, and then in his Gov- 

 ernment, that severe discipline admitting but one 

 will and one action. I cannot henceforth deviate 

 from the same rule of conduct. 



Prince Napoleon replied to this letter by 

 tendering his resignation as Vice-President of 

 the Privy Council, and President of the Com- 

 mission of the Universal Exhibition. His res- 

 ignation was accepted. 



The rigorous legislation of France as regards 

 the liberty of the press was fully upheld in 1865, 

 and not only did the French papers continue to 

 suffer from it, but leading foreign papers like 

 the Independence Belge^ were subjected to it. 

 After having been several times seized, the 

 circulation of this paper in France was for a 

 time altogether prohibited. The Empress, on 

 the eve of the return of the Emperor from Al- 

 geria to France, closed the period of her regency 

 by a decree, dated June 8th, annulling the aver- 

 tissements given up to that time to the press. 

 On September 22d, the Minister of the Interior 

 addressed a circular to the prefects, in which 

 he urges them to peruse the provincial news- 

 papers with attention, and when they contain 

 serious errors to make known the real facts by 

 means of communiques. " This line of conduct/' 

 says the minister, "must be pursued persistently 

 in order to prove efficacious; but your inter- 

 ference must not degenerate either into abusive 

 communications or irritating polemics." 



On June 29th, an imperial decree was issued, 

 dissolving the municipal councils throughout 

 France and ordering new elections to take place 

 on July 22d. The Marquis de Lavalette, Min- 



