Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-04-20
VOL. 5.---NO. 81.
COURT SCANDALS.

The Sickles tragedy, with IFS subsequent
developments, says the Philadelphia Bulletin,
has startled good many people by the expo
| sure it has made OF the gross immortality that
exist in certain class OF people of whose
lives we usually see but the political side. 1t
is, perhaps, fortunate that there is not more
intimate knowledge among the people of the
private life of our public men; for what little
of popular respect they still retain would be
still further diminished. 1t is something to
be proud of that amid the general depravity
that has prevailed at Washington, our Presi-
dents have rarely created scandal by their
private lives and it may be also said with
some pride, that no man. however superior he
might be in intellect, could be elected Prcs-
dent of the United States, if he was notori-
ously loose in his morals.
In European countries, the heads of govern.
mcnt are rarely men of purity of character.
The kings of England, with very rare excep-
tions, have been grossly immoral, and Victo-
ria is almost the only British sovereign whose
virtue has never been suspected. Her hus-
band, too, has never created any scandal but
her cousin, the Duke of Cambridge, now head
of the army, is notoriously profiigafe. The
Russian Emperors and Empresses have been
celebrated as much for their immortality as
for any other qualities, though the present
Gar seems to be decided improvement, in
this respect, on his predecessors. The Ger
man Emperors, kings and petty princes have
the French, Spanish and italian monarchs,
they seem to have regaI ded iibertinism as one
of the sacred prerogatives OF the crown.
OF living continental sovereigns there are
very few who have escaped scandal. The
reigning Queen of Spain and the ex-Queen
Christina, if they were not royal ladies, would
not be received in any decent society. The
King of Sardinia. whose public life has been
so much commended, is, apd always has been,
a gross sensuaist, and the tales of his secret
amours are numerous and shocking. The
profigacy of the Bayarian royal family, and
especially of the eX-King LOUIS is we'll known.
The reigning family in France emulates in
immortality the Bourbon and Orleans families.
The emperor has not escaped scandal, even
since his marriage. His uncle, the old Prince
Jerome, has for some years had his mistress
living in the Palais Royal and there she would
have remained undisturbed, but that the young
princess Clotilde, on hearing of it, insisted
successfully on having her banished to distant
apartments in the palace. Jerome's daughter,
the Princess Mathilde, who is separated from
her Russian husband, Prince Demidoff, has
often given good reason for doubts TO her
purity. Her brother, Prince Napoleon, has
led scandalous life among the lorettes of
Paris, as we'll as among the ladies of the court
who have not stood highest as models of vir-
tue. His marriage to the Sandman princess
is not regarded as having destroyed his tasto
for his former mode of life.
There are but few courts on the continent of
Europe where the sovereigns and'their fami-
lies set an example of virtue to their people,
and the secret memoirs of these times, that
may appear fifty or hundred years hence, will
tell as shameful stories as do the memoirs of
the French, English and German courts OF
the last century. 1t is something for Ameri-
cans to congratulate themselves on, that, with
all the degeneracy observed in our Presidents
and leading public men, we have not got so
low as to tolerate in them such gross immortality
as prevails so generally in the reigning famii-
les and the courts of Europe.