The Portland daily press., 1892-12-22
THE FRENCH PRETENDERs,


Were Georges Ernest Jean Marie Bou-
LANCER, ''le brav' General alive and in
good repute, the present misslt prove his
opportunity; for Frenchmen, as the great
Italian who knew them so we'll and ruled
them SO imperiously said of their race of
ancient kings, learn nothing and forget
nothing. In spite OF direful experience,
a military despotism would very likely
be welcome in France were successful
soldier at hand; for the disgust excited
by the Panama Canal scandals extends
beyond the men implicated to the form
of government itself. A fine wit has
said that republic, like the church, ex-
lists in spite of its ministers; but the
third French experiment in thatli bids
fair to give the lie to the epigram.
AS the successful soldier, thanks to
the twenty years of peace, is wanting,
the thoughts of men naturally turn to
the monarchical pretenders, to the Bona
parties and the Bourbons. Had the Prince
whom his adherents delighted to call
Napoleon ". returned in safety from
South Africa, he might now be a formi-
dable aspirant; for though there is some
suspicion that no Bonaparte blood ran
in either his veins or in those
of his father, he was undoubtedly
Beauharnais, family French from the
times of the Crusades. There is no
| doubt, to be sure, about the legitimacy
of his heir, the son of 'sPlon-Pon," who
is, besides, scion of one of the Oldest
princely houses in Europe, that of Sa-
voy; but the suspicion of cowardice at
tached to the father, and the children
have never been held in favor, for they
are more Italian than French.
The Bourbons remain the represen Ia
tives of the most ancient dynasty in the
Caucasian world; for though the elder
branch died out when ''HenriV.." Count
of Chambord, passed away childless at
Frohsdorff, the Count of Paris, the
grandson of Louis Philippe, is the I'M
doubted heir and descendant in direct
line of st. Louis and Hugh Capet, and
about him as head of the cadet line of
Bourbon, the Royalists and the Orlean-
lists will rally as one manor rather
about his son, for the Count of Paris has
formally resigned his pretensions in fav-
or of that young prince, the present
Duke OF Orleans.
The Orleans family, though burdened
with heavy faults in the past, has had
tolerably clean public record since
the time of the Citizen King,
and has been free from the obstinacy, the
bigotry and the antiquated PROPOSES
sions which marked the descendants OF
Louis XIV. Its chiefs have been intel
lectual men, good though not brilliant
soldiers and able administrators from
the days of Philippe the Regent. They
have been patriotic, too; and unlike the
elder branch of the Bourbons, have
never served in arms against France or
marched to Paris in the ranks of foreign
invaders. The Count of Paris, who
served for brief time in our civil war,
is well and approvingly known in this
country as in Europe. His son is said to
be an amiable youth, though he has as
yet displayed no shining qualities. The
party behind him is cautious, eonserva-
tive, wealthy, well-led, and though not
large now, may easily become SO if the
people tire of the Republic. So the
Duke of Orleans is more than a posi-
bility. There may be no more kings of
France; buta second king of the'French
is not an improbability.