But actually that which alienated the French people from him was that he did not strike their imagination. He was not picturesque. Possibly he may have fancied that he could impress the people as George III had done, by his simplicity as "Farmer George." But that is not what they wanted. They had been dazzled by Napoleon—and they desired some one at their head who could sparkle and flash. No home-spun sovereign for them!
Note on the Noblesse.
Mr. Nassau W. Senior in his Conversations with Distinguished Persons, 1880, gives words spoken to him by M. de Circourt, that are true still, as in 1862.
"There are about 3000 families in Paris, noble, or received as noble, and they are almost omnipotent in society. In 1789 there were about 220,000 persons in France censés to be noble. At least nine-tenths of these families perished in the Revolution and became extinct, or sank into poverty so abject as to be now unknown. In my country, Lorraine, there were then about 250 families of recognized nobility. In 1815 only eleven were left; now there are only six.
"The creations by Napoleon, by the Restoration, by Louis Philippe, and by Celui-ci (Napoleon III) have not been enough to affect much the number. If there are now in France 22,000 nobles, it is the maximum; at three to a family, they form 7333 families, of whom about one-third or 2444, inhabit Paris."
And Prince Napoleon said: "There is no aristocracy except the aristocracy of office, which gives influence but no respect, and the small aristocracy of military and civil talent. Our officials, and generals, and orators, and littérateurs, are something while their office or their talent continues, but their influence is transient.
"As for titles, they are worth nothing, and birth—which has some little value in a few circles—is seldom authentic. Not one family in a hundred in the Faubourg has any right to the name which it bears."
