How Napoleon the Second Squandered.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 111, 18 July 1885, Page 5

How Napoleon the Second Squandered.

The corruption and profligacy which have been brought to light by the Commission appointed to investigate the private papers end correspondence of the Imperial Family which were found in the Tuileries after their flight are Bimply astounding. Between 1553 and 1855, Miss Howard, " the pretty horse-breaker," received upwards of £200,000 from the Emperor ; Mary Gwynne, another of his mistresses, received altogether £6,700 ; a lady whose name is only indicated by the letter "T" obtained £8,000 ; Marguerite Bellanger, who had also lived under the Emperor's protection, gratefully acknowledges the receipt of large amounts, but the exact sums are not specified ; and the Countess Emilie Campana, who bad befriended him to ths extent of £1,320 when he was a needy adventurer, was rewarded to the extent of £16,000 between 1851 and 1870. As much as £270,000 was sent at different times to the Countess de Montijo, in Spain, and the Empress received a private allowance of £4,000 a month. Under the general head of " munificence," the Emperor disbursed from first to last £5,600,000, and it has been ascertained that in the year 1866 he had deposited nearly a million sterling with the Barings's House, in London, so as to make provision for that exile which had to bo calculated upon as one of the contingencies of the future. In the memoirs which have just been published in Paris of M. Oscar Meding, who was the secret ambassador of King George of Hanover to the Court of the Tuileries between 1866 and 1870, the secret history i of the period in France and Germany has been brought to light for the first time, j and the full extent to which the French j Emperor was duped and played upon by the astute Bismarck becomes clearly apparent. ' The latter prevented France from co-opera-ting with Austria after the battle of Sadowa by promises of territorial compensation. Sometimes Belgium and sometimes a portion of Switzerland was held out as a bait. But the Prussian Chancellor preferred the suggestion of the former, knowing that if Napoleon the Third made any move in that direction it would embroil him with Great Britain. After the Luxembourg affair had been settled, the Emperor of the French directed all his efforts to form an alliance between France, Austria, and Italy, and to prevent Saxony, Wurtemburg, and Bavaria identifying themselves with the Northern Confederation. Unfortunately for himself, and perhaps for France, just as the Emperor of Austria was setting out on a visit to Paris, for the purpose of arranging the preliminaries of the alliance, news was received of his brother Maximilian having been shot by the troops of Juarez at Queratero, and Francis Joseph's feelings towards Napoleon 111. naturally underwent an unfavourable change in consequence.