, 1874-10-17

OF reckless personal gallantry. Inc elueSC
RomanOf is almost gigantic, and endures IN
complainingly fatigues which try the constltu-
lions of his aide de-camps. The BOurbons
seem more worn, but one Of them, the Duo d
Aumale, is the very type of the cultivated, but
over-stern General Don Carlos is six feet
one another, Don Carlos's soldier-brother,
is q Murat a third. the Comte d'Eu, is believ-
ed in Brazil to be a General of unusual capa-
city and a fourth served with distinction
throughout the Franco.German war. 1t is
very we'll to write about crStins, but there is no
evidence whatever that the Caste is crstim ply
sically, and not much that it is wearing out IN
mind. 1t is badly bred, no doubt, particular
ly in Catholic countries, and has a certain liabi-
lily to brain disease, while it is mentally
bothered by the clash between modern ideas
and the ideas it is convenient for a relgnlng
caste to hold but if the whole of 1t were
shovelled into our own Upper House, the
Peers as q body would be ADLER than they are
Few OF the Royal Families may be able to
compare 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, Archduke Albrecht of
Austria, the late King of Denmark, the Duo
d'Aumale, 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 supersede them by
other Chiefs. On the contrary, the evidence
though too slight as yet for conclusions, points
to the theory that they, these Hereditary
Royalties, are the only chiefs large popula-
tons 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 Brazil, there cannot be said
to be a single figure occupying anything like
the position that, for instance, Wellington
occupied in this country not one who is an
accepted force, o 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 Wh0
preceded them to build those Institutions up,
may, on the contrary, be much less willing to
take all the trouble and make all the sacrifices
which impersonal institutions involve. 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 it, by changing certain politi-
cal and social arrangements which they think
stand in their way. The artisans of the cities
cannot govern Europe, and it is by no means
proved yet that if their desire for more com
fort were abated by circumstances, as has been
the case to some extent in Great Britain, they
would remain permanently DESTROYS Of a change
the first steps towards which would intensity
all the evils Of their condition,
May not, however, to exhaust the specula-
tive possibilities, a movement break out within
the Royal Caste itself, a sort of epidemic Of
Abdication, produced either by WEAKNESS, or
discomfort, or actual terror Of the throne :
WEAKNESS was the solution Of Monarchy
imagined many years ago by a clever novelist,
who predicted that in the year $500, or there
abouts, a single capitalist would be owner, and
therefore ruler of the world, aud that the
Kings would be hampered by constitutional
etiquettes, till dedication would be a pleasant
escape from an intolerable position and there
is this to justify his idea, that thrones do go
begging when their conditions are unpleasant.
Belgium was refused, Greece was refused, Spain
was refused,-the latter under circumstances
which made the refusal but little creditable to
the refuser. Leopold of Coburg refused Bel
oium for months henausa Of her Constitution