TWOPENCE-HALFPENNY FOR THE EMPRESS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 416, 29 October 1856, Page 2

TWOPENCE-HALFPENNY FOR THE EMPRESS.

(Correspondent of Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper.')

The unfortunate man who first bi-oached the idea of elevating the empress and her child, in £he estimation of Frenchmen, at the slightest possible advance upon that sura for which the London mountebank was wont to raise an unhappy donkey—the unfortunate man, I repeat, who first promulgated this idea, must now be in Mazas, or very near Mazas. Some three weeks have passed since the walls of Paris were placarded with broad white posters, headed " Hommage a V Zmperatrice !" Crowds collected about these posters, and hundreds turned away with a sneer, as they discovered that the homage was to take the definite form of twentyfive centimes ; or might, by the very poor, be manifested in the humble guise of one single, solitary sou. This copper homage, it was believed, would reach a sum sufficient to make some splendid present to" the mother and child. It was even suggested that the estate of liarengo, then in the market, would be bought for the ■Bonaparte family, with tlie coppers of Najwleon the Third's grateful subjects. Of course people would rush to the mairies with the money especially as the homage of each subject might not exceed five sous. The offer of a ten souspiece would be considered disrespectful; the deposit of a franc, seditious. The sum was small, paltry, it must be owned—still, I am assured the people did not appear anxious to express their homage even on these most reasonable terms. They rather seemed disposed to exhibit their turn for sarcasm, and their taste for art, upon the margin of the imperial posters. Here, the Government was reminded that begging was contrary to law :—there, caricaturesit is impossible to describe appeared as a r'uhniiK' commentary on the text of the proclamation! Still the authorities proceeded with tlieir work of inscribing the names of all good citizens who valued their respect to'the empress and her lm tle King ot' Algeriaat twopence halfpenny. Ihe drummers of the national guard wore enlisted in the service; and proceeded from house-to house within their respective arrondiusements, askingat the door of each apartment for the twopenny-halfpenny homage. It became, I am teld, a race among the various

mayoralties, which should show the heaviest bag of coppers. At last, in the heat of the excitement, one of the mayors of arrondifisements, M. Moniu Jupy, issued a proclamation to tha effect that, in order to regulate the euthusiasin of the people— "afin de regularise* Vclan d?n,pevqple'' —he would no longer trpublg them to block up the avenues of the mairie, but would send round to their houses. This happy idea is worthy of an enthusiastic Bonapartist, it.must be confessed. As the subscription was failing:—as the mountain did not come to the mayor—tho mayor would graciously go to the mountain."

Monin Jupy's method of regulating the enthusiasm of the people has been caught up by the Nation'of Brussels, and turned to gbM account. This vivacious mayor is simply called another blackguard in the employ of M, Bonaparte. His machinery for regulating the popular enthusiasm in his district lias, however, turned but rather a sad affair. The workmen have, in many instances, resisted the appeal— offering regrets that the imperial mother and child should require their help. Thousands, however, have paid the tribute, as the price of peace under the evil eye of power j. or in deference to the entreaties of a patron, who feared that if his men abstained his establishment would suffer. For, it should be added,>^very subscriber was asked his name.

The vigour with which the municipal and other authorities carried on this war upon the half-pence of* the people created more ill-feeling, I firmly believe, than even the opposition journals of Belgium have described. Their opinion is confirmed by the proclamation which the prefect of police issued at last, bidding his men to forbear from forcing the population to subscribe. This warning came very late, but still in time ' to prevent the unpleasant scenes that might have taken place had the domiciliary visits of the government agents been persevered in. Even Bonapartists exclaimed against the meanness of the tribute—^for, after all, it is not expected to produce more than three thousand pounds. If Louis Napoleon really wished to obtain a sum of money by voluntary contributions, to make some handsome present to his^ wife, he should not have limited the subscriptions. Then he would have had all the traders, in Paris, who have profited by the splendid milinery of his court outrivalling one another in their cheque books. Bietry, the Buonapartisi; shawl manufacturer, and a host of other imperial tradesmen, would have been compelled to show for heavy amount; all who depend upon him, in any way, would have stretched a point to .figure well; and the result would have been an acceptable sum of money. Here he would have shown his strength; whereas'the two-penny-half-penny subsciption will be a copper monument of mean proportions, exhibit ting his weakness. The first policeman he had called out of the Rue de Rivoli would have told him that he was not popular among the working classes of Paris; and that an appeal to them would end only in disappointment and^jcohfusion. Yet, somehow, his acute Majelty" was persuaded to make this mistake; and the result has evidently been that during the last three weeks his consoi't has been the target Avhereat the coarse jests of the ateliers have been mercilessly aimed; while a new and fruitful subject has been ai/orded the Erench journals in Brussels, for the elaboration of absurdities and caricatures. !A few days since, the Belgian public was amused with the drawing of three or lour French soldiers, regulating the enthusiasm of the people With fixed bayonets, while the municipal authorities demanded their twopennyhalfpenny homage. And all for two or three thousand pounds—or, worse still, to feel the pulse of the working classes of Paris, when this pulse was as well known to every policeman as it can he now known to the Emperor himself. If he wished to create in the minds of the Parisians a prejudice against h)g.-..p.0n andheir, the Emperor could not better carry out his desire than by playing 'the''King with him,*in „ imitation of the baby'Ohambord and the infant king of Homo. Why, there cannot be a Bonapartist, even in the ranks of the Imperial guard, who does not-laugh, at the imperial enfant de troupe; there cannot be a man bearing the ribbon of the legion of honour, wlio does not feel inclined to throw it away as lie reads of the wretched mockery of honour played with it at the imperial child's cradle; nor can there be a wen re r of the military medal, fresh from the toil and danger of war, who does

not lessen tho value of his prize when he reads chat it dangles about a baby's neck as something for it to cut its teeth upon. Louis Napoleon has been sagacious as a diplomatist; but he has been a sadly awkward figure as a father. He has already tacked to his son a hundred epigrams, and as many nicknames. These are potent artillery against the creature of popularity. A nickname must havo ruined many a clever man. „