Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-03-05

stamp me recollection of the day on the minds of
the nation. The country was in whirl of excite
meRt. The Emperor's marriage was national
fse. The departments We'd with each other IN
fusome congratulations. The city of Paris offered
the bride d necklace worth 100000 francs. -Four
thousand prisoners were graciously restored to
liberty, and vague hints of more friendly treat
ment of the Orleans family were thrown out by
the court. Rumor was pregnant with prophecies
of the suspicious results of the marriage. Com
mercial men saw in ii guarantee of peace; respec-
table citizens, barrier to revolution; the arts, a
new era of fostering care; society. pledge of no.
nor, morality and virtue. France hailed with trans
ports an empress of plebeian blood; and even Eng
land applauded the monarch who had the courage
to obey the dictates of his feelings, and boast to
Europe that he was payrsRR.
All this excitement was created by the announce
ment that the little Frenchman who, five years be-
FORE had been cut by his arstocratic acquantances
and hesieged BY his tailor and beotmaker in his
lodgings in Jermyn street, had resolved to live like
his neighbors, and taken unto himself wife.
Few romances possess such a thrilling interest
as the biographies of the rulers of France during
the nineteenth century. He would be a bold wri-
ter, who would venture to portray such startling
vicisstudes in work of fiction. young Corsi-
rises from lieutenancy in the artillery to the
command of the army in Italy, and thence to the
Consulship and the Empire. For few years, the
world is at his feet Power, fame, money, popu-
larity, overwhelm him. A single reverse turns
the tide; he falls aud dies miserable captive on
barren rock. Louis XVIII was in the meridian
OF life when the revolution drove him from his ma
tive land. A helpless, imbecile wanderer through
Europe for many years-now recognised as king
by the Gar now ordered to leave the Russian ter
rtories in a week-expelled ANONYMOUSLY from
Warsaw and received with more pity than sympathy
In England-he had drunk the cup of sorrow to the
dregs before fortune replaced him the throne Of
France, and it was but just that he should die in
peace. Charles x bore in his youth no slight re-
semblance to the Regent whose lcentious pleasures
he shared. The revolution converted the debau-
chez into bgot Had he not become king, he
might have made good inquisitor. Raised from
the confessional to the throLe his dignity sat
awkwardly upon him; he tempted fate for six years.
and when folly, obstinacy and tyranny had wrought
their own cure, he embraced once more, with Gre
ditable equanimity, the calling for which nature
had designed him, and died in sackcloth at Edin-
burgh. On Louis Philippe, the trials of his youth
produced beneficial results He proved himself
good soldier a sound counsellor, and even a sue
cessful schoolmaster. A convenient forgetfulness
of principle crowned him the sscitizen king;" and
for eighteen years he enjoyed peace, prosperity,
aud the general esteem of the world These could
but delay the fatal blow; his time came, and his
last hours were passed in poverty at Claremont.-
Half of the career of Napoleon III. is spent. He
has travelled, and learnt much; he has suffered
want, Imprisonment and contumely; he is new
the pinnacle of greatness. Who shall prophetcal-
" complete the unfinished sketch