Up A Tree

Mr. Emerson's deseription of the ïighway that ended in a squirrel;r?ck, and ran up a tree, is a very fair picture of the apparent course of Napoleonic Imperialism in France. Prince Jerome is the squirrel-track,and lie evidently meditates taking to the tree. He is the incontestable heir. If there be a Napoleonic dynasty, he is the representative. The Imperial politicians may deplore the fate that gives Imperialism to a man who will not be Emperor, but there is no help. Wlien Prince Jerome says he accepts the positura of heir, and also accepts the situation, he says, in effect, "I am the track into which the highway has dwindled, and I am going up the tree," The truth is, tliat the Prince is an elderly gentleman who loves his ease, and who wishes to take his ease in Paris. He sees that, in the present state of feeling in France, he could not assert his Napoleonic claims without a long and desperate contest, in which he would be probably worsted, and in which he would be certainly very uncomfortable. But, if he does not mean to assert them, he must say and prove it, or he would be forced from delightful Paris into uncomfortable exile. Possibly, also, he sees that the Bonaparte crown is now in the limbo where the Bourbon crown has long lain. Crowns are going out of fashion, and Imperial highways are running up trees. Prince Jerome evidently means to have all the fun and none of the trouble of being "the rightful Emperor oL