Year: 1872

ROYAL PHRASES.


One of the misfortunes of the life of ana
chronisms and shams to which kings are
doomed in our days is that they are compelled
always to speak in false and affected phrases.
They cannot admit, even to themselves, that
they have lost the old mask and costume OF
divine right and paternal authority. If they
admitted this, they would cease, in many cases.
to have any excuse for existing. SO they still
talk of the mission which Heaven has cOnfided
to them of their care for their people; OF
their good and loyal subjects, just as If tins
was the sixteenth century, or their names
were Philip II. or Ivan the Terrible They
have become mere traditions and nothing
more, and can best preserve what dignity and
prestige is left them by absolute silence and
abStentOn from public affairs.


If kings in place have lost much of their
glamour. still more fororn is the condition of
those who have been discharged from service.
They still cherish the delusion that the divine
right to rule still belongs to them, and that
their people will go mourning until their
return but the figure they cut Ia about as
respectable as that of n cashiered officer who
loafS about bar-rOoms, and talks about his
honor and his sword, when Ls bon0r is a.
tattered as his Ovcrcoat, and his sword was
long ago sold by his pawnbroker- But with
all this the necessity Of occasional expression
remains, and these unhappy victims OF mece-
dent know no other way of talking than that
which they have learned from their ancestors,
with whom the swelling words had a certain
meaning Don Carlos and Queen Isabel talk
TO their rccacitrant Spain as if II were be
loved but rcbellious child. The eX-king of
Hanover still keeps mimic Court at
Hctzing, where his dethronement is as
studously ignored as his blindness
King Bomba rather lacks the requisite
style even for this comedy, but his restless
and intriguing Queen still insists on incon-
yenent royal honors wherever she goes. The
broken Jockey Of Chisclhurst hIs resumed
that excellent habit of silence which gained
him so absurd a reputation for wisdom some
years ago, and the Orleans aspirants have
learned enough in exile 10 make no preten
sions whatever to divine sanction. Both Bona
partists and Orleansts are seeking the throne
of France on political and personal grounds,
the former, of course, aftcr their KIND, by
meaucr and more clandestine measures, but
both equally free from medieval mysticism.
This is left to the finest specimen OF bric-a-
brac now existing outside of museum of
antiquities, to the gentleman who calls him


self Henry w. and whom the world calls
indif.crently the Duke of Bordeaux and Count
Of Chambord. He is not Il person of great
sagacity or dSCernment, and yet it Is scarcely
possible that even he can seriously look
at the world in the light which is
seen in his prOclamatiOns and manifestoes.
But of all the royal pretenders there is none
who speaks with such apparent earnestness
and conviction. The feature of his conduct
which indicates most sincerity is bis steady
refusal to enter into any compromise which
would bring about fusion between his own
partisans and those OF his cousin and heir,
the Count of Paris. He has 10 objection TO
the Orleanists joining him, but he positively
refuses to take one step to meet them.


From time to time he drops one of those
sententious phrases which men in his situa-
ton seem to think necessary. in which there
is nothing but words. The statement was re-
Gently published in Europe, and sent to this
country by Cable, that the Duke Of Bordeaux
in conversation with his private secretary had
announced himself as ready to die for the
welfare of France. Nothing could be idler
than this. II it were trne, he would manage
in some way to die. Having done nothing
worthy of death, he would of course, have
to commit har-kar to carry ont his
good intentions but if this slight moral diff
Guilty could be Obviated it would unquestiOn
ably be the best thing, judging from his own
point of view, that the patriotic King could
do for his country. II is admitted that the
chief disease of France at this moment lies in
her internal disscnsons, and one great intes-
tine fend would at once be removed by the
death of Henry V. When this happens, the
Count of Paris becomes Louis Philippe H.,
and tho long rivalry and feud between the
Elder and Cadet branch of the BOurbOns dis
appears by their consolidation in one person.
The descendant of Monsieur Of Orleans, of
PMlippe EgalitG and his son, becomes also
the legitimate representative of Henry ~. and
| of Louis XIV. The Spanish and Italian Bour


bons have certain pretonsiOns, it is true but
if treaties and family pacts are worth any
| thing, they long ago debarrcd themselves from