New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-01-14

go into perfunctory retirement, might show a
little less of the funky in their conduct
Why should it be thought necessary to turn
Canterbury Cathedral into Potters
Field And what a preposterous notion
that of requesting the London Theater
Managers not to play any French
plays for week! We believe, however, it
was the Prince of Wales who sent the request
and it was, to our thinking, very dog-in-the-
mangerish. Because he is minded to be viz
tuous, shall there be no cakes and ale? Shall
ginger not be hot IN the mouth because he Is
to go into strict retirement for weeki Now
we should think that, instead of stopping
Opera Bouffe, it ought to be played more
than ever till the founder of the Second
Empire and the grand encourager of
Opera Bouffe is safely gathered to such
ancestors as he had What better illustration
of the Grande Duchesse could be found than
is the scene we may imagine acting at Chlsel-
hurst as the various persOnages OF the ex-
imperial family assemble. We were thinking
of Moliere, but the characters are OF too "low-
"down" people to have tempted his fine
pen. Offenbach's libretto- writers would have
touched these people off. We wonder
how they met Did the Empress greet
the Prince Jerome with her taunts upon
his well-known cowardice7 Did the Princess
Mathilde, arriving late, ask whether anything
had been seen of ce cOch0n-ld, meaning the
same unfortunate Prince, and playfully using
that slang of the gutter which was the mode
at the Palais RoyaleP How did the wretched
Emile Olivier face the Empress, who always
treated him like a lackeyf and Pletrl, and
Benedict. and Paul Cassagnac;-w a
motley crew! If everybodys thumbs pncked
| when something wicked that way came, what
tbumb-pricking there must have been! The
DOOR Bonapartists are so few iii number, how
ever. that anybody is welcome, and doubtless
no questions are asked. "Open locks" cries
the galvanized corpse of the Empire, "open
clocks, whoever knOcksW
All this is well enough for Chiselhurst and
the French 6migr6s but what has England to
do with itf Whom has she left to honor if
she wastes her hOnOrs upon such dishonored
clay7 And what meaning can hOnors have,
| when they are showered alike upon the good
and the bad? The man who lies dead in
Chiselhurst was bad man. He did evil and
not good all the days of his life. He
Lord knows which of her many low
ers. This he could not help; but what
he could help was, the blackening still more
his silly mothers name by life that made OF
every opportunity for nobleness an opportunity
for ignobleness. He was perjured ruler; he
trod justice under foot he neglected his duties
to his people he plunged his country into
disgraceful war, and had not the courage to
make what little atonement he could for his
folly by the sacrifice of his own life !;
and he died as he had lived, either
stupidity unconscious Of the crimes he
had committed, or basely unrepentant OF
them, for he died and made no sign. Yet this
is the man for whom official England is now
in mourning, and to whom the Dean and
Chapter of England's chief Cathedral are said
to be minded to offer as q burial-place crypt
under the noble lantern that covers the re-
mains of Thomas Beckett!
ooh, noble England. dost thou lie 80 lowi
Are all thy glories conquests, honors, triumphs
shrunk to this little measure e.