726 Ch. 1 8 • The Dominant Powers in the Age of Liberalism
Emperor Napoleon III was a small man with a prominent nose who
appeared lethargic. He reminded some people of a sphinx, and a contempo
rary of “a melancholy parrot.” An unimpressed visitor from the United States
described the French ruler as “a long-bodied, short-legged man, fiercely mus
tached, old, wrinkled, with eyes half closed, and such a deep, crafty, schem
ing expression about them!” Indeed, like his legendary uncle Napoleon
Bonaparte, Napoleon III consistently demonstrated considerable energy when
it came to behind-the-scenes intrigue and the pursuit of women.
During the Second Empire (1852-1870), wealthy businessmen became
the equivalent of an imperial aristocracy in France, money standing as the
measure of value that blue blood had been in the early modern period.
Enjoying access to the emperor, some of them lived in Parisian residences
and owned country houses that would have made eighteenth-century aris
tocrats drool with envy. The empress set the tone for Parisian fashion,
while critics condemned the “triumphant vulgarity and appalling material
ism” of the “imperial festival.”
Yet Napoleon III set out to pull the nation together. France was the only
European power with universal male suffrage, however distorted by gov
ernment pressure. The emperor promoted economic growth, encouraged
urban rebuilding projects (see Chapter 19), created institutions that pro
vided credit, and constructed more railways. Moreover, in 1859 Napoleon III
initiated the “liberal empire,” encouraging a series of reforms, including
authorizing a liberal trade treaty with Britain in 1860 and permitting the
legalization of strikes in 1864.
The Authoritarian EmpireNapoleon III ruled with the help of a handful of worldly, trusted cronies
who held ministries or who served on the Council of State. Ministers were
responsible to the emperor, who alone could propose legislation. The state
clamped down on the remnants of political opposition, maintained press
censorship, and sponsored “official” candidates in the elections held every
six years for the Legislative Body, the lower house of the National Assembly.
Hand-picked notables made up its upper chamber, the Senate. Napoleon
IIIs men built a Bonapartist party from the remnants of Orleanism, that
is, from those conservative bourgeois who had supported the July Monar
chy (1830—1848). They rallied to Napoleon III, who promoted economic
growth and promised to maintain social and political order. The French
state, more than its decentralized British counterpart, could buy political
support by dispensing patronage, through prefects, the most powerful
local officials.The Second Empire thus further centralized economic and
political power in France.
A good many Legitimists—that is, the supporters of the Bourbon royal
family and its exiled pretender, the count of Chambord—supported the
emperor. Like his uncle, Napoleon III had made peace with the Church.