mportance in his
day, he relaxed his severity to some extent, and at times at least
showed him the respect due to an ally. On other occasions he would
relapse into his original practice of violent and scornful attack--to
such a point, as is seen elsewhere, as to extort the vigorous protests
of Thackeray and Ruskin. "It is a tradition," it is said, "that when,
during the _entente cordiale_, the Emperor and Empress paid a visit to
Her Majesty in London, two cartoons were suggested at the _Punch_ Table
to celebrate the event. The first was heroic, representing Britannia
welcoming the nephew of the great Napoleon to her shores; the second, a
'brushed-up,' refugee-looking individual ringing at the front-door bell
of Buckingham Palace, with the legend 'Who would have thought it?' The
second was selected."

The Prince-President as "The Brummagem Bonaparte out for a Ride" (the
cartoon which helped to lose Thackeray to _Punch_), galloping a blind
horse at a precipice, was certainly in the spirit of English popular
feeling; and even the coronation of the prince made for a time but
little difference in _Punch's_ demeanour. But when the Russian
difficulty came in sight, and "the Crimean sun rose red," Napoleon III.
was treated with a certain measure of begrudged courtesy; and when the
war broke out, the tone was even cordial, and the sovereign of our
allies was actually represented as a not altogether undesirable
acquaintance. The close of the war, however, left matters much where
they were, for the peace, in spite of all rejoicings, was thought to
come too soon, in order to suit the convenience of the Emperor. Once
more he was distrusted in his Italian campaign. The sincerity of his
intimate letter to the Comte de Persigny, the French Ambassador to
England, was received with little credence, and John Bull replies to its
tenor thus:--

"What _has_ been _may_ recur. Should a Brummagem Caesar
Try a dash at John Bull, after conqu'ring the Gauls,
I intend he shall find the achievement a teaser,
What with Armstrongs, long Enfields, and stout wooden walls."

The visit of the Empress Eugenie to the Queen at Windsor Castle, and the
abolition of passports for Englishmen in France (which _Punch_ accepted
as a latch-key, "to come and go as he liked"), disposed the paper a
little more kindly towards the Emperor; but it was for the
Franco-Prussian War to bring out the full strength and the true
perspicuity of _Punch's_ judgment.