Morning journal and courier., 1885-05-15
The Modern French Nobility.

From. the Atlantic Monthly.]
 France is the country into which hitherto our young ladies have most frequently mar ried, so that the antiquity of her nobility is specially interesting to us. In the first place, strictly speaking, there is no longer such class in France, but as titles are still in use they have their value. The French them selves have long been con cerned in this mat ter. The Souvenirs de la Marquise de Gre quy,a spurious autobiography, but composed of authentic documents, gives catalogue of
 the old French families extant at the time of the revolution, by which it can be seen that several of the most ancient had already died out. The revolution, besides exterminatin some of the remaining ones, passed it's bloody hand over all patents of nobility, and abol- lshed titles Of every sort; the further to humble those who owned them and take away their very identity, sometimes after the conhscatlon of property, the former own CTS were compelled to keep the name of an estate, and drop family name more illus trious than any rank ,-as though the son of Prince Doria should be forced to call himself Valmontone, without title, and forbidden to use the name of Doria There was whole
 sale destruction of the archives and monu- ments recording the titles and pedigrees of ancient lines sometimes Intentionally, though more often accidentally, when the castles, religious houses, town halls in which they were kept were burned or razed. Napoleon on making himself emperor. created an aris-
 tocraey to reflect his pomp, and distributed
 the nicknames of prince and duke among
 men of the most plebean origin and surname
 The old French titles were not renewed or
 recognized. Such of their representatives as
 had fought for their country under Napoleon
 were not rewarded by being reinstated in
 thaI7 har tor oT,1y.
 ually lower title was conferred upon them, that they, too, might recollect that they owed
 everything to the new Caesar.
 At the restoration, although the old nobii-
 ity was allowed to resume it's former designa-
 tions policy did not admit of doing away
 with Napoleon's hierarchy. The dukes of
 Bassano, Piaeenza, etc., retained their stage
 names as properties, and when their less emi-
 nent comrades obtained the favor of Louis
 XVIII, or married some daughter of feudal
 race, the sham titles of the first empire were
 exchanged for genuine ones, and the off
 springs of these unions gave themselves the
 airs of descendants of crusaders. Bourbons
 and Orleans alike continued to create new
 nobles. Louis Philippe, the citizen king,
 condescended to make an Englishman Due de
 Stackpole.
 The long repatriation of the surviving em- igres or of their children favored all sorts of
 impostures. The Tichborne case has shown
 how easy it would be to maintain false claim if nobody had an interest in disputine it; and there stories of more than one clever servant who appropriated the papers and personal effects of master who had died obseurely in exile, returned to France after quarter of centurys absence, per sonated him, and received his possessions and titles. This fraud was successfully per petrated by the footman of an old lady of quality, who had died abroad. The ;mpu- dent varlet came back disguised as 8 woman, under his late nistress's name and obtained from the government pension and lodg ing at Versailles, which in those days was an asylum for persons of good position, as Hamp- ton court and Kensington palace now are. The pa1chments of many families having perished, and the government herald's offices having been abolished, made it difficult to establish or disprove claim. The rag for rank, which seems inherent in human nature, prompted people to grab at a title wherever they could lay hands upon one; man who had no nearer claim to being a count than his great aunt's having been countess wore his honors with angry contempt of those whose coronets had come brand new from the king. Then the second empire arose, with new crop of dignitaries, SO that man was termed a noble of yesterday or the day before yesterday, according as he owed his rank to the first or second of the preceding dynas- ties. One of Louis Philippe's batch, on hear ing of Louis Napoleon's latest novelty, ex- claimed, s'Why, then I belong to the ancien- ne noblesse ID