The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-28
TIE COUNT DE CHAMBoRD.

FROM the London Spectator.
Of all eminent French personages, perhaps
the least known is the one who, as the half
of Europe believes, is about to be called to as
cend the throne of France. Fairly rich, very
unambitious, slightly indolent, and full of that
personal dignity rarely wanting in his house,
the Count de Chambord has led life of con-
sistent retirement, broken only by visits from
q few adherents, by occasional travel, and by
the publication of few letters provoked by
the incidents of the hour. Unhated, un-
feared, and unmatched, he has slipped out of
observation until his very appearance is to
the mass of European society absolutely un-
known. Till within the last few weeks it
would have been difficult to purchase like
ness of him in any capital of Europe except
Paris, and still more difficult to find a man
not Legitimist with a clear impression of
his personality. The sudden revival
ing inquiry, the Catholic Church is
interesting itself in his success,
kind of official photograph has been pub
lished, and sudden demand has tempted the
booksellers of Brussels to replace the cheap
edition of his letters published in 1860 by an
edition de luTe. There is not much to be
gathered either from the hkenesses or the
letters, but there is something, and that
something is not altogether unsatisfactory,
one of serenIty-serenity of very unusual,
and it may be of a very useful, kind. 1t is
difficult to study the letters or the face-and
we have, besides the official photograph, be-
fore us one much more unfavorable and one
of a much inferior kind-without believing
that the Count de Chambord is a man in
whom an absolute conviction, an immovable
faith in something, has produced mental
tranquility which, If not goodness, has many
of its effects. The ground-tone of the face
and of the letters, which latter cover more
than quarter of century, is unmistakable
it is pride of very lofty and, in one way,
very admirable kind, the pride which pro-
duces calm. Royalism is not merely the
essential quality of the Count de Chambord's
mind, it is the mind itself. Nothing is more
remarkable in the letters than their freedom
alike from animosities and from the mean
jealousies so common among French politi-
clans, or more evident than the origin of that
high calm. II am, " he thinks, ''the head of
the House of France, so certainly, so securely,
that rivalry is impossible, jealousy ridiculous,
vindictiveness waste of power" Who
'serves France serves me, the Count writes
to General Latour- -Maubeuge; and we believe
this feeling to be entirely unaffected, for the
Count on one occasion goes far out of his
way to record his approval of the conquest of
Algiers, an incident which was for him dis
throne, and on another to remind the Duke
de Reggie, Bonapartist, that he is the
worthy son s'of the illustrious father who
conquered at Friedland and at Wagram"
Orleanist, or Bonapartist, or Republican, the
Count judges every Frenchman as his sove-
reign, entitled, whatever such Frenchman
may think, to consider his approval the sub
ject's highest reward. That is very ditfe-
rent state of mind from that of the King who
in, CONDITIONED cohoo1 hoOlx in which
Napoleons conquests were related, and he
was described as the Kings Lieutenant
General. So complete Is the mans
conviction that he is de .1ure France,
that he feels an instructive gratitude to ene-
mics if they have served France, precisely
the emotion which seven months ago induced
him to order the Breton mobiles into the field
under Gambetta, who was, theoretically, from
his point of view, rebellious democrat.
'Save France, for it is mine" was his
thought, and to him Gambetta, while saving
France was no more obnoxious than a
clever counsel is to the client who personally
dislikes his opinions. His pledge to pardon
all, to employ ALL to have no party, is not
pledge of policy, but the expression of an
instinct, of a sense of inherent authority, of
feeling that any one born Frenchman who
enters his service is returning repentantly to
his duty, that he has right to command all,
his presence any meaning. He writes to the
Due de Nemours, rival prince; to the Duo
de Reggie, a Bonapartist; to
General de la Rochejaquelein, sworn
adberent, in precisely the same tone-that of
a Sovereign, above party or personality,
stating his views with simple directness, and
certain that, because they are his views, those
to whom he writes are honored by their COM
munication. This feeling, which underlies
every letter in this series, is SO intense that
it extends to the Church, which the Count
perpetually promises to protect-from above.
His authority is, in his judgment, as divine
as that of any priest, and Bishops, like other
men, must in all but spiritual things obey it.
This note, for example, of 29th May, 1857,
may be the note of devoted Catholic, but it
is certainly not the note of a man whose
policy will be wholly directed by the Church.
-''Nul doute que je ne sois dispose laissera
l'Eglise la liberte qui lui appartient ct qui lui
est necessaire pour le gouvernement ct Tad
ministration des chooses spirituelles, ct a
m'entendre constamment pour celia avec le
saint-pere. Mais de leur cote, les Eveques ct
tous les membres du clerge ne sauraient
eviter avec trop de soin de meier la politique
a rexercice de leur ministere sacre, ct de
simmiscer dams les affaires qui sont du res.
sort de l'autorite temporelle; ce qui n est pas
moins contraire a la dignite ct aux interets
de la religion elle-meme qu au bien de lEtat
"You sing mass, bat will govern" There
is a curious "reminiscences in that letter
of the old Bourbon tone towards the
Church, as there is in another
and later one not included in the
series before us, in which, as we distinctly
recollect, the Count maintained the freedom
of the State as against the Church with some
thing of acerbity. He, the King, is, in his
own iudpment as SACRED an institution as the