Arrived at this hazardous position, he sought to strengthen his hold on the French by reviving, whenever opportunity offered, the most agreeable souvenirs of his uncle’s rule; while, at the same time he incessantly disavowed all ambitious sentiments, and complained of the suspicion of them as an injury. He made a pilgrimage to Ham, and in the neighborhood of his former prison expressed his repentance of the attempts of Strasbourg and Boulogne. Having thus combatted the preparations which a few constitutionalists were inclined to make against a possible coup d’etat, he played with the parliament until December 2d, 1851, in the morning of which day, before sunrise, he swept into prison every statesman of Paris known for public spirit and ability, dissolved the assembly, seized the most distinguished generals, and proclaimed himself dictator. A number of officers who had served in Africa, were sent into the streets with picked regiments, to shoot down remorselessly all who should raise an arm for the constitution; and so, having by the aid of 100,000 soldiers completely subdued the capital, and possessed himself of all power, he offered himself to France for ten years’ election to the office of president. As no other candidate was allowed to come forward he of course was returned, and subsequently proclaimed a constitution, which gave him more power than any European monarch, except the Czar of Russia, pretends to exercise.
A decree was issued October 19th, summoning the Senate to meet on the 4th of November 1852, to consider the question of changing the form of government and reëstablishing the empire.
Prince Jerome Bonaparte presided and opened the session by briefly stating its object. A committee of ten was appointed which subsequently made a report, closing with the draft of a senatus consultum, declaring; ‘The Empire is reëstablished, and Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is Emperor, under the title of Napoleon III.’ Two decrees were immediately issued; the one convoking the French people, in its primary assemblies, to accept or reject the empire; and the second convoking the legislature for the purpose of verifying the regularity of the votes, and of counting them out and declaring the result. On the 1st of December, the vote was reported to be 7,864,189 for the empire, and 253,145 against it; 63,000 votes were canceled as illegal. There was no hesitation on the part of foreign powers to acknowledge the empire.
In March 1854, England and France announced to the world their intention of aiding Turkey in her struggle with Russia. The Queen’s declaration of war appeared in the Gazette on the 28th, and on the preceding day, at Paris, the Minister of State read to the legislative corps a Message from the Emperor, announcing ‘that the last resolution of the cabinet of St Petersburg had placed Russia in a state of war with respect to France—a war, the responsibility of which belonged entirely to the Russian government.’ The military operations of the commencement of this war have been described in the preceding pages. [See History of England—Reign of Victoria.]
HISTORY OF SPAIN.
About the opening of the fifth century, when Alaric, the terrible king of the Visigoths, had sacked and burned the City of the Seven Hills, his brother, Adolph, crossing the Pyrenees, penetrated into Spain, and founded, in that secluded province of the Roman Empire, a kingdom, of which the capital was Toledo—situated on a steep rock, which was washed on three sides by the waters of the Tagus.
The Gothic monarchy, thus established, lasted for three centuries, when Roderick, who wore the crown of Spain, ravished the daughter of a Count named Julian, and thus created an implacable foe. Boiling with resentment, and panting for vengeance, Count Julian crossed to Barbary, and invoked the aid of the adventurous Moors; and forthwith the sound of Moorish horns, and the neighing of war-steeds, and the waving of the Crescent, announced that a Saracenic host had invaded the sunny fields of Spain.
King Roderick encountered the Moors in several battles; and at length, in the summer of 711, a decisive conflict took place at Xeres. There the king and the flower of his chivalry perished; and the cities quietly yielding to the turbaned victors, a splendid Moorish monarchy was instituted under princes of the line of Omeyades. They exercised a temporal as well as spiritual authority, selected Cordova as their seat of empire, and adorned that city with magnificent palaces, colleges, libraries, hospitals, mosques, bridges, and fountains.
The vanquished Spaniards, so far from being harshly treated, enjoyed so much civil and religious liberty, that many remained in their native regions; and the Spanish women freely availed themselves of the invitation to intermarry with the conquerors. Such of the proud barons, indeed, as disdained to submit, escaped to neighboring countries; while others, departing from Andalusia, with its sunny skies and fair landscapes, moved northward, and formed themselves into petty states, at such mortal enmity with each other, and so exposed to the predatory incursions of the Arab cavalry, that the chieftains were under the necessity of keeping their followers in harness night and day.