New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-10-11
The Future of Royalty.

And nestle in his heart by night.
The Future of Royalty.
1t is hardly twenty six years yet since the
belief in the HOhenzollern seemed extinct
in Prussia. and now universal suffrage re-
turns nearly unbrOken majority OF loyal
lists. The disposition to make new dynasties
is no doubt extinct, but then that DISPOSE
ton tends TO protect rather than to assail
the caste which actually possess sovereign
power, the people, when they elect, turning
to the old race with an impulse which is. we
| confess, to us almost unintelligible. Only
one new family now occupies throne. and
50 to speak. adopted and absorbed by
the European family" and in all Europe,
with its room full of pretenders, there
is not q new man who can be fairly
said to be, even secretly, a pre-
tender to throne; not General, not a
statesman, not demagogue. Bismarck
for King is as impossible az CASTELAR,; Gam
Chambord; RicasOli as completely oIt OF
| running for that prize as Marshal Won
Moltke. For all that appears the caste may
endure, if it does not perish by decay, and
we do not remember time when the signs
of decay were less visible to ordinary eyes.
By all the laws of the psychologists, the
royal caste which intermarries much, which
| is at least as dissOlate as any aristocratic
group, ought to be losing its physical
Vitality, but it is not losing it at all.
The sovereigns. actual or potential,
of Europe would make a formidable
squadron of dragons. The Emperor
| OF Germany is, perhaps. the finest
man physically who has reigned since
Charlemagne. Any Colonel in the Guards
would accept his son as q most hopeful re-
cruit. His nephew, the Red Prince, is as
| formidable hussar as ever rode. The EN-
peror of Austria is as stately of presence as
an ideal king. The eldest Wittelbach is a
| wild rider, who delights in furious midnight
| galloping. The Prince of Wales, whose
pedigree stretches, if not to Odin, far past
| Egbert, rides as straight to hounds as
professional whip. The King of Italy, the
| cnronet of whose ancestor was closed be-
| fore Charemague died. is a very successful
! channels hunter. a good cavalry officer and
! a man for whom danger has an actual
| charm. His eldest son is as strong as him-
| self, and his younger son, Amadeo, a man
| of reckless personal gallantry. The eldest
| Romanotf is almost q gantic, and endures UNI
| complainingly fatigues which try the constl-
| tutiOns OF his aids-de-camp The BourbOns
| seem more worn, bat one of them, the Due
| d'Aumale, is the very type Of the cult
| waited but over stern General; Don Carlos
! is six feet one: another, Don Carlos soldier
| brother, is a Murat; third the Comte
d'Eu, is believed in Brazil to be General
of unusual capacity, and fourth served
with distinction throughout the Franco
German war. 1t is very we'll to write about
| cretins, but there is no evidence whatever
that the caste is cretin physically, and not
much that it is wearing out in mind. 1t is
| badly bred, no doubt, particularly IN Cath
| Ole countries, and has a certain liability to
brain disease, while it is mentally bothered
| by the clash between modern ideas and the
| ideas it is convenient for reigning caste to
hold; but if the whole OF it were shoveled
| into our own upper House, the peers. as
a body, would be ADLER than they are. Few
| of the royal families may be able to com.
pare with the great statesmen of the world,
| who are, with few exceptions, the picked
men of professions twenty or thirty times
| more numerous than the caste; but if we
| remember the Emperor Of Germany, his
eldest son, the Emperor OF Brazil, Arch
duke Albrecht. OF Austria, the late King
of Denmark, the Due dAumale and King
| Oscar, it seems useless to assert that the
caste is mentally worn out. They will
have strength if their people will let them
be, to go on being; and as yet there is no
proof quite beyond question that their
| people do not intend to let them be. that
| they are seriously prepared to supercede.
| them by other chiefs. On the contrary, the
evidence, though too slight as yet for con-
illusions, points to the theory that they.
these hereditary royalties. are the only
| chiefs largo populations will endure; that
| the alternatives lie between them and mere
officers selected almost by chance, and sent
back by popular jealousy very quickly into
| obscurity. In the whole series of republics
now covering both Americas outside Of Bra
| I'll there can not be said to be single
| figure occupying ANYTHING like the position
that, tor instance, Wellington occupied in
this country; not one who is an accepted
force, parsonage whose influence will
endure for life. OF course institutions can
be made to take the place of men, but the
| masses now assuming power may not be
| more willing than the influential classes who
| preceded them to build those institutions
! up. may, on the contrary, be much less will
| ing to take all the trouble and make all the
! sacrifices which impersOnal institutions in
volve. The popular notion that they will,
| may prove to be an assumption, resting
upon nothing better than the fact that for
some years past the artisans of cities have
| been very eager for more comfort, and much
| inclined to think that they can secure 1t oy
| changing certain political and social arrange.
ments, which they think stand III their way.
| The artisans OF the cities can not govern En-.
| rope, and it is by no means proved yet that II
their desire for more comfort Was aoated
| bv circumstances. as has been the ease
to some extent in Great Britain. they would
remain permanently DESTROYS OF a change.
! the first steps toward which would intensity
| all tie evils of their condition. May not.
| however, to exhaust the speculative posi-
! biiitie a movement break out within the
roya, caste itself. sort OF epidemic OF ali.
| .iica:ion. produced either by WEAKNESS or
| disconten: u. actual terror Of the throne:
WEAKNESS was the solution of monarchy
imagined many years ago by clever nov
eIist, who predicted that in the year
$500. or the:eabcut. single capitalist
| would be the owner and therefore
ruler OF the world. and that the Kings
would be .ampered by constitutional
etiuuettes till abdication would be pleas.
ant escape from an intolerable position:
and there is this to Justify his idea, that
thrones do 90 begging when their condi.
tons are unpleasant. Belgium was re.
fused. Greece was refused. Spain was re.
fused the latter under circumstances
| which made the refusal but little cradtabe
to the refuser. Leopold. of Coburg. re-.
fused Belgium for months because of her
constitution: Prince Alfred, of England. re-.
fused Greece, and Ferdinand, ex-King Of
Portugal, declined Spain, though, proba.
bly, the one man in Europe whom Span
iards would have cordially supported. But
the abdication of born king has vet
to occur, though the last King of Den
mark. who also possessed Schieswig- Ho,.