But by what means was Louis Napoleon permitted to do even what the people liked to see done?  By no other means, but by flattering the principle of Democracy; he restored the universal suffrage; it is an execrable trick, to be sure—­it is a shadow given for reality; but still it proves that the democratic spirit is so consolidated in France, that even despotic ambition must flatter it.  Well, depend upon it, this democracy, which the victorious usurper feels himself constrained to flatter in the brightest moments of his triumph—­this democracy will either make out of Louis Napoleon a tool, which in spite of itself serves the democracy, or it will crush him.

France is the country of sudden changes, and of unthought of accidents.  I therefore will not presume to tell the events of its next week, but one alternative I dare to state:  Louis Napoleon either falls or maintains himself.  The fall of Louis Napoleon, even if brought about by the old monarchical parties, can have no other issue than a Republic—­a Republic more faithful to the community of freedom in Europe than all the former Revolutions have been.  Or if Louis Napoleon maintains himself, he can do so only either by relying upon the army, or by flattering the feelings and interests of the masses.  If he relies upon the army, he must give to it glory and profit, or, in other words, he must give to it war.  Well, a war of France, against whomsoever it be, or for whatever purposes, is the best possible chance for the success of a European Revolution.  Or if Louis Napoleon relies upon the feelings of the masses—­as indeed he appears willing to do—­in that case, in spite of himself, he becomes a tool in the hands of democracy; and if, by becoming such, he forsakes the allegiance of his masters—­the league of absolutistical powers—­well, he will either be forced to attack them, or be attacked by them.

So much for France; now as to ITALY.

Italy! the sunny garden of Europe, whose blossoms are blighted by the icy north wind from St. Petersburg—­Italy, that captured nightingale, placed under a fragrant bush of roses, beneath an ever blue sky!  Italy was always the battlefield of the contending principles, since, hundreds of years ago, the German emperors, the kings of Spain, and the kings of France, fought their private feuds, their bloody battles on her much coveted soil; and by their destructive influence, kept down all progress, and fostered every jealousy.  By the recollections of old, the spirit of liberty was nowhere so dangerous for European absolutism as in Italy.  And this spirit of republican liberty, this warlike genius of ancient Rome, was never extinguished between the Alps and the Faro.