Paris and its vicinity were now in the hands of the usurper, supported by the army and police, and his enemies were in prison.  The Assembly was closed, as well as the higher Courts of Justice, and the Press was muzzled.  Constitutional liberty was at an end; a despot reigned unopposed.  Yet Louis Napoleon did not feel entirely at his ease.  Would the nation at the elections sustain the usurpation?  It was necessary to control the elections; and it is maintained by some historians that every effort to that end was made through the officials and the police.  Whether the elections were free or not, one thing astonished the civilized world,—­seven millions of votes were cast in favor of Louis Napoleon; and the cunning and patient usurper took possession of the Tuileries, re-elected President to serve for ten years.  Before the year closed, in December, 1852, he was proclaimed Emperor of the French by the vote and the will of the people.  The silent, dull, and heavy man had outwitted everybody; and he showed that he understood the French people better than all the collected statesmen and generals who had served under Louis Philippe with so much ability and distinction.

What shall we say of a nation that so ignominiously surrendered its liberties?  All we can say in extenuation is that it was powerless.  Such men as Guizot, Thiers, Cousin, Changarnier, Cavaignac, Mole, Broglie, Hugo, Villemain, Lamartine, Montalembert, would have prevented the fall of constitutional government if their hands had not been tied.  They were in prison or exiled.  Some twenty-five thousand people had been killed or transported within a few weeks after the coup d’etat, and fear seized the minds of those who were active in opposition, or suspected even of being hostile to the new government.  France, surprised, perplexed, affrighted, must needs carry on a war of despair, or succumb to the usurpation.  The army and the people alike were governed by terror.

But although France had lost her freedom, it was only for a time; and although Louis Napoleon ruled as an absolute monarch, his despotism, sadly humiliating to people of intelligence and patriotism, was not like that of Russia, or even like that of Prussia and Austria.  The great men of all parties were too numerous and powerful to be degraded or exiled.  They did not resist his government, and they held their tongues in the cafes and other assemblies where they were watched by spies; but they talked freely with one another in their homes, and simply kept aloof from him, refusing to hold office under him or to attend his court, waiting for their time.  They knew that his government was not permanent, and that the principles of the Revolution had not been disseminated and planted in vain, but would burst out in some place or other like a volcano, and blaze to heaven.  Men pass away, but principles are indestructible.