The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-09 00:00:00

THE LATE DUCHESS OF ORLEANS.

The will of the Duchess of Orleans has been
read with the interest due to the virtues of that
Princess, her terrible reverses, and the solemn tone
and grave significance of the document itself. After
discharging tbe. duties of religion and of personal
friendship the Duchess openly and earnestly com-
mits to her sons the political mission she had
received, and which was not idle in her own hands.
She prays that they may ever remain faithful to
the precepts of their childhood, and continue stead-
fast likewise in their political faith. they
observe it both by their constancy in adversity and
exile, and by theif firmness aria devoted patrio-
tism when the course of events shall call them
to their country. May France, restored to her
dignity and liberty—may constitutional France
reckon upon them to defend her honour, her gran-
deur, and her interests, and may she find once more
in them the wisdom of their grandfather and the
chivalrous qualities of their father. They should
ever bear in mind the political principles which
have made the glory of their house, which their
grandfather faithfully observed upon the throne,
and which their father, as his will and testament
bears witness, had ardently adopted." The Duchess,
therefore, transmits, with scrupulous fidelity, all
that she had received. She desires that not a whit

of the pretensions she could ever lawfully claim
shall die with her, and she sends the Count of Paris
into the world as much an aspirant to the throne
of France as James 111. and Prince Edward of the
Stuart dynasty were to that of these realms. If
this be questioned, and if a mere vulgar standard of
pity might suggest that the Duchess had done
better to adapt her desires to her actual condition, it
must be observed that the author of this will was
of that sex which is ever the more conservative
and tenacious of rights. Without the active
ambition and inventive enterprise of man, they
take their hold where they are, or where they have
been, and resolve, at all events, not to lose or give
way. On the other hand, they. who look out for
special Providenees in the affairs of States, and
who go so far as to thank Heaven for giving us a
Queen during the strange vicissitudes at home and
abroad during the last twenty years, will probably
see in the widowhood of the Duchess of Orleans
and the long minority of her sons a special pro-
vision for maintaining unimpaired the rights of the
younger and more constitutional branch of the
3ourbons.

The duty of maintaining such pretensions de-
pends mainly on the prospect of their success. Dis-
cretion here, as in many other cases, must be
allowed to dictate; and discretion implies an accu-
rate measure of probabilities and a sound judgment
as to the best means. The present repose of
France, and her amicable relations towards this
country, ought not to be molested for any slight
cause. Undoubtedly, peace and order incur some
danger from the existence of Pretenders with
nothing to do but to intrigue, to cherish differ-
ences, to welcome malcontents, to multiply adhe-
sions, and, in general, to do all the mischief in their
power to the established order of things. In this
country we have almost come to regard a Pre-
tender as simply a nuisance. We have no patience
for him, and should as soon think of Lord Palmer-
ston tampering with the allegiance of the Army,
as of any Prince agitating for the throne after a
regular Parliamentary deposition. But, if there
is one thing more evident than another throughout
these questions, it is that England is not France,
and must stretch all her measures of propriety
and wisdom very far indeed before she can ven-
ture to think for France. There could not pos-
sibly occur in this country such events as those
which have constituted the history of France for
the last ten years ; and an empire of the Napo-
leonic or Roman type could not exist for a day in
any place where ten Englishmen were the people
to be governed. Justice, morality, and truth, and
all that men call " order," have securities in this
country that are not known in France, or at least
have no political footing there. Public opinion and
an almost absolute freedom of speech secure a hear-
ing for every argument and a chance for every cause.
If a Sovereign, a Minister, a Goverment, a faction,
or a Parliament, do wrong, they are sure to hear of
it. The check comes immediately. As the speed
becomes excessive, or the orbit extravagant, the
break is applied. But opinion, knowing its power,
avoids those excesses which would put it out of
court. Thus it is that we avoid the use of violent
remedies, and have all we want within the four
corners of our Charter. In France, on the con-
trary, the same results are only to be obtained by
setting constitution against constitution, dynasty
against dynasty, Prince against Prince, the poten-
tat e in posse against the potentate in esse. The
Emperor has to fear, not an oligarchy,. not a class
of democratical reformers, but the Princes of an-
other dynasty ; and he has to fear, not for a certain
policy, certain Ministers, or certain measures, but
for himself. The "standing column" of the poet,
which fortune may kick down any day in her mad
freaks, is surmounted by no genius or divinity but
his own statue. That is the game of politics in
France. The counters there are not the men or
the measures we bandy about with as much indiffe-
rence as we do the pretensions of rival actors or
painters, but Monarchs and dynasties. It is by
the consent of the latter that such is the question.
They severally stand for principles. Louis Napo-
leon published his " ideas, and he stands for them.
The Duchess of Orleans has bequeathed the policy
of her father-in-law and her husband to her sons,
who are exhorted to preserve the tradition and
hand it down unimpaired. They can have no diffi-
culty in identifying the bequest. It is as distinct,
as notorious, as fully embodied in fact, as the jewels
and articles of furniture bequeathed in the same
•
will.

It would be wholly out of place, then, and
simply an impertinence, to criticise a proceeding
which in this country is impossible and would be
ridiculous. The mother who here left her sons a
solemn charge to contest a Throne held by the ab-
solute master of half a million armed men would
be thought rather a fury than one blessed with the
milk of human nature. No British mother, how-
ever, hesitates to inculcate an obstinate persever-
ance in the traditions of a family, in the religious
doctrines of her own friends and advisers, or in the
opinions of a faction, be they ever so incompatible
with peace or happiness. That is all the Duchess
of Orleans has done, though in her own way and
in the terms customary with her adopted country.
She has done what France expected of her, and she
would have forfeited the esteem of her foes as well
as of her friends had she betrayed her trust and
released her sons from their allegiance to their own
pretensions. The Emperor would be the last man
to expect such political abnegation. It is necessary
to the game; and certainly, when one comes to see
it in a proper light, it is for the interest of France.
What is to check the Emperor ? Not laws, for it
is he who makes them. Not the army, for it is he
who commands it. Not opinion, for he is its cen-
sor. Not the people of France, for he holds the
proxies of seven millions. He is checked only by
pretenders and by rival dynasties. Should he for-
get his duties—for even empire has its duties—he
is confronted everywhere with the awful image of
princely excellence, sustained under less tempta-
tion, in the person of an Orleans or an old Bourbon.
They are always ready to step in, and, if they have
sense, take care to live up to the mark. If he trips
and stumbles, they are famed for their sagacity.
Should an Emperor of the French ever reproduce
the scenes of Caprece, there will be some Prince
of Royal blood a very model of Republican sim-
plicity. The competition will be in conduct, and
the Crown will always wait the forward grasp of
the worthier. No Emperor can ever be insensible to
the argument of such a rivalry, and therein con-
sists the chief or only security for good government
in France. As her administration must be abso-
lute, it is only among the banished that she can
look for that " Opposition" so essential to our idea
of a good Parliamentary system. The Duchess of
Orleans, then, has only done what was due to
France, and even to the Emperor, as well as to her
own Sons. She has played her part in the game,
and had no other. Of course it is also part of the
came system that no Bourbon, elder or younger,
can be admitted on the soil of France, and that
every adherent must be an object of just suspicion
and constant suite That is not an agree-
able state:of things' ianheeer. for the watchers or for
the watched.
tthtealinet Flvreenach are more accustomed
to these relations
right to iive.a.s they please.—re,Taitsl.lave at least a

THE BALLOT MOVEMENT.--The treasurers of the
Ballot society have received from " A Retired Officer of
Artillery," who wishes himself thus announced, the sum
of DO, for the use of the society.
ALBUMEN, STARCH, AND GUM AS NUTRIMENTS.
—The illedical Times records some interesting experiments
by Dr. Hammond, concerning the nur:tive__and physiolo_
c. He found albu-
gical effects of albumen, starch, gum,
men in his urine on the 6th day after taking albumen exclu-
sively as food ; he also observed tha.t, under the same diet,
bodily temperature did not diminish , that he grew thinner;
that the quantity of fibrin© and albumen increased in his
blood : and that the proportion of azotised matters increased
in his urine. After 12 days, diarrhoea and abdominal and
cerebral pains forced him to discontinue the experiment.
Dr. Sequard, who tried the same diet, suffered chiefly from
vertigo and extreme weakness. During 10 days Dr. Ham-
mond lived exclusively on starch diet. He found that the
heat of the body increased ; that sugar appeared in the
urine ; that the albuminous principles of the blood
diminished, and the carbonaceous increased ; that the urine
contained less than its ordinary amount of azotised prin-
ciples. Dr. Hammond ruffered much during this experi-
ment from headache and pyrosis ; he became very weak, and
he lost more in weight than in the experiment with albu-
men. Dr. Hammond was notable to sustain an exclusively
gum diet more than four days, in consequence of the grca`t
loss of weight and of strength, the lowering of temperature,
and the general disturbance of the functions of the body
from which he suffered in consequence.