FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 391
France, as is her wont, has exhibited more varia tions than her compeer. Louis Philippe, whom I saw in the plenitude of power, abdicated his throne in the course of seven years, and retiring with his family to England, passed forth from the shades of Claremont, on the morning of September 2d, 1850, to the tomb ; having been preceded to the Spirit Land by his eldest son, the hope of his house and heart, and by the sister with whom his affections were so long faithfully gar nered. The empire seems both to prosper and rejoice under the strong sway of the third Napoleon, whose early discipline of adverse fortune has matured a sin gular self-command, and facility for the hazardous science of government.
Victoria still sits securely upon the throne of her ancestors, surrounded by more of domestic happiness than often appertains to so exalted a station. She folded her first nursling to her bosom but a few months after my arrival in England. Now, she is encircled by a group of eight healthful children, four daughters and four sons, between the oldest and the youngest of whom less than twelve and a half years intervene ; though with a precocity not unparalleled in courts, the Princess Royal is already an object of attraction to a foreign suitor.
Among those who cheered my ^sit to the pleasant lands beyond the sea, either by courtesies to a stranger, or the welcome of a friend, it would seem that the list of the departed is large, for an interval of twice seven years. Is it no so ?
From their high position have been swept the Duke
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