The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-15
A Doomed r.n,I,y.

When HpSRy Nv. OF France-dear to ro-
nance a. the hero OF the white plume, aud
to history as the King who, most Of all Others,
succeeded in consolidating the Kingdom In to
that great empire which Is now the terror and
admiration of Europe-feli by the hand of an
assassin, he, apparently, left TO his postari,y
success sion which secured them boundiess
prosperity for the future. AZ IL to add anoth.
er chapter to the vanity OF human wished
fate seems to have settled IT that this very
posterity should be subjected to boundless
calamity. Their misfortun@s began within a
short time after his death His daughter
married the unfortunate CHARLES I. of Eng
land, and after seeing her husband perish on
the scafold, and her sons wanderers and al
most beggars upon the face OF the earth, she
sought refuge In the city Of her birth, In that
city where her father had Eeigned, one of the
greatest monarchs of the age. where she was
almost starved while living upon the mig
gardiy bounty Of the court Of which she had
herself been an ornament. There seemed 10
Dc no limit to the calamities OF her family
Her eldest son, it 10 true, was restored TO the
throne, but her daughter. one OF the most
beautiful aud sprightly women OF her age,
having married the Duke Of Orleans, died,
WAS universally believed, by poison. Her
younger son, under the title of JAMES IL, lost
the crown OF Great Britain, for himself and
his pos terity forever. 1t is true his daugh-
ters enjoyed 1t for short periods, but they left
no pos teriiy. The calamities of the unfor-
tuna,e house of SruAgr. until they termina-
ted by the death OF the last of them, the Car
dinal of York at Rome towards the end of the
last century, have been the subject of in
Vulnerable songs and romances, and the ge-
MUS Of ScoTr has thrown q halo around
them, which renders them immortal. The
STrAKTs, the most un fortunate OF royal fami-
lies, until within the last seventy years, were
the descendants of HENRY w, by one of his
daughters. Their history is not SO tragical as
that of the male branch, the BouRBoSs.
LoUIs XIV, the grandson Of HENRY ",
with all his failures, and all his misfortunes
in old age, wa. the greatest monarch that
ruled France, from the days OF CgARLg-
AAosE TO the days of the first NAPOLEON. We
are apt, in estimating a man, to look At the
shades of the picture, until we become in
sensible to the lights. In his old age, Lots
surrendered himself TO a designing, cold
blooded, bigoted old woman. He revoked the
Edict OF NASrz. He dragooned his Protes tant
subjects. He kindled a civil war in France.
terity that brought innumerable ills In its
train, and led TO the French revolution. He
appointed TALLARp, MARsrs, and yILLERor,
to command his armies, and they lost him all
the renown of his arms. These are the shades.
But look At what France was, when she came
In TO his hands by the death of MAzARIS, and
see what he made her. He found her dis
tracted with in ternal dissensons, bleeding at
every pore from the wars of the Fronde, fee
BILE at home, and despised abroad. He made
her the greatest among the nations of Europe.
Under his auspices she kept up standing
army of 100000 men. and sent 100 ships of the
line to sea He added Franche Compile, Rou-
sillon and Flanders, to the Empire. His arms
were victorious over the half of Western Eu-
rope. His Generals were the most renowned
since the days Of julius CESAR. TUREsuE and
CosDE were considered models, even by the
great NAPOLEON. Literature and the arts
fourished as they had never f1ourished before.
BossUEr and MAssILLoS Numbered in the pull
pit, while CoRNEILLg and MoLIERE convulsed
the theatre, alternately, with grief and
laughter. Even the very war which, but for
the obstinacy of their Allies, would have
brought EuaESE and MARLBOROUGH to Paris,
terminated in securing the throne Of Spain to
the grandson of the great French monarch
Ard of all the thrones which belonged to his
descendants, this is the last that is left
France and Naples are gone from the Bourbons
forever. How long Spain will stay behind it
is impossible to foresee. The others, fifty-five
In number, as we learn from paragraph go.
ing the rounds of the newspapers, are all
exiles.
NAPOLEON I. said Of the Bourbons, when
they were re-seated on the throne of France,
they have learned nothing, and forgotten
nothing" This had been said before of the
and it was eminently true of both.
Most Of us are apt to trace the qualities of
persons back to some ancestor,
more or less renowned. Can the astonishing
obstinacy, by which both the STUART and
BOURBON races Were distinguished, be traced
back TO their great ancestor, HENRY w? Can
il be that the indomitabie frmness which en-
lbled man, OF vast capacity and intuitiye
genius, to remain mistaken, in the midst OF
trials 10 which hardly any other man was ever
exposed, and at last TO triumph over them all, |
ieSenerated, in the narrow intellect of his re- !
mote descendants, into stupid pertnacity? p
And DO the BoURBoNs now, and did the STU |
ARTS formerly, owe all their misfortunes to |
, quality W hich had proved crown of glory |
% the ancestor from whom they derived It -
We know not, in sooth but in a late number |
II the qua terly Reuie.o, we find an extract
70 n a letter addressed to LOUIS PHILIPPE |
oon after his accession, by FERDINAND, liking !
3omba,) fatheU Of Francis IL, which is SO ex-
lctly like the language habitually employed |
~ JAMES H. on such occasions, that one might |
Utmost venture 10 swear they were of kin
LOUIS PHILIPPE had written to BoMBA advis-
ny him to initiate France, and relax the rigor
If his reign, for fear of being drawn into the
'ortex of revolution, symptoms of which had
Ippeared in Naples. In reply, BoxBA writes
Is follows
"LiDery is IA al to the House of Bourbon and.
ID Regards myself, am resolved to avoid at Ali
,tice, The tate OF Louis XVI. and CHARLES X NV
70 pie OBEY toice and bend the neck, but woes
ne should they ever raise them under The i'm
'uise ~ those dreams which sound so fine In the
lie In practice. With Gods keeping viii gave
10 my people. and government as
ion-st as they have 4 right TO but | will be
,ing aud always. NV people do not want TO
hlnk take npon myself the care of their well
are and their dignity; | have inherited many
IA grudSe-, many mad desires, all arising from
he ianl and weaknesses of the past must set !
his To rights, and | Can ouly do so by drawing
Loser to Austria without subjectng myself 10 her
III. We are not OF this century The Bour- !
ours are ancient, and if they were TO try TO
hape themselves according to the pattern Of the
Few dynaStes, II would be riditulou ewiIl
mi ate the HAPsBUKGs. Ii fortune plays US false.
'e Will at least be true to ourselves"
nnsc