Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typ...os. Excerpt from book: ANOTHER RENAISSANCE 23 a disposition to find a scientific basis and an evolutionary reason for everything ? even the world's monetary systems. ( Nothing but the logical would hold, and the double standan seemed illogical. It was believed, also, that the double stanc ard had failed in practice, though with such diversity in de creed ratios it could hardly be otherwise. At this same perioc the world recognized an expansion of international feeling, du directly, perhaps, to the development of steam-power and t the discovery of the untold possibilities of electricity. Interna tional congresses began to be common. Besides the tical meetings towhich reference has lieen made, the Posta Congress in Paris, in 1863jfirst suggested by the Unitec States, is a notabljgxamplc. Therefllso4 as t.hn delegate of th United States reported, the question of uniform, coinage extensively discussed, " on the side." But while affairs were thusslowly working to bring about an international monetary conference, the French Emperor saw an opportunity to act with more dispatch and with greater glory to the French name. Louis Napoleon was in the zenith of his imperial power. The world has quite fully appreciated his weak points, not so his strong ones. Cold, calculating, silent as the grave, as ambitious and, upon occasion, as unscrupulous as any monarch who ever lived, he did not hesitate to play for the highest stakes. His timidity in the face of unfavorable conditions was no more remarkable than his desperate audacity when they seemed to favor him, and his faculty for quickly perceiving an opportune moment, generally with accuracy, was inherited from his celebrated uncle, and trained by constant use in early life, the dream of which was the throne of France. Before 1848, often in mean obscurit...Detailed info »« Brief info