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During the first half of his reign, Napoleon limited intellectual freedom, censored, the press, and exiled many writers, including Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame)!. After 1860, due to pressure from the liberals, he began to introduce liberal reforms and moderate his power!. In 'The Cambridge Illustrated History of France' colin Jones writes:

'As it turned out, a regime which shaped up to be drably authoritarian and socially backward-looking emerged as a period of dynamism and prosperity!. Historians still debate the extent to which the regime's successes were a personal achievement of 'Napoleon the Little'a s Victor Hugo dubbed him!. some major achievements can be laid at his door!. The transformation of Paris conducted by his appointee, Baron Huassmann, is a case in point!. It was, however, immensely lucky taht his coming to power conicided with a major turn-around in the economic situation!. Boosted by a gold boom based in Californian and Australian mines, world trade was thriving!. a period of low prices, which had lasted since 1817, ended in 1851, providing a stimulus to enterprise!. by the end of the Second empire in 1870, the value of industrial production had doubled!.'

of the later period of his reign, Colin Jones writes:

'The authoritarian days of the 1850s had given way to a period of experimentation and liberal reform!. Press consorship was relaxed, the ciruclation of Parisian newspapers, which had stood at 50,000 in 1830, reached 700,000 by 1868!. Laws on public meetings were progressively weakened too, and in 1864 the right to strike was authorized!. Radicalism grew steadily in the workplace - in the 1860s French workers were to form the largest national delegation to the First International!. 'Www@QuestionHome@Com

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