Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/24

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The Royal Family of France.

appeal to home readers of good faith in favour of an event which contemporary echoes all now acknowledge as a probable one at least: we mean, the approaching re-establishment of Monarchy in France. Considering what France was under her Kings, what she now is, and how many troubles she has had to endure at the hands of intriguers, the conclusion in its substance, in its nudity, in its complete entirety, accepted by all men able to read French History, is surely that France always was, is at heart, and should remain what Great Britain is, and rightly wishes to remain, i.e., a Constitutional Monarchy. Unless deliberately ignoring the History of France before 1792, surely no one will contend that a King on the Throne of France will prove a step in advance from complexity to simplicity in settling the internal and foreign difficulties of Europe, unable as we are, to do without France. As to political farceurs, suspicious minds and interested partisans of the Imperial or Republican confraternities, we do not expect to see them accept our views. Calamities never teach wisdom to fools. But cordially we acknowledge that those birds of passage, worshippers of the rising sun, who follow wherever the crowd leads, render it possible that the wise should avail themselves of the emergency. And this we mean and will endeavour to do to the best of our power.

Our political faith as based on French History is not disguised: and, following the example of H.R.H. the Comte de Paris, and other Princes of the Orleans family, we acknowledge that France should pledge her allegiance and life to her sole lawful or legitimate Sovereign, the Duke de Bordeaux and Comte de Chambord, Henri V., absent, but never forgotten. French Monarchists will have proved by their constancy that they are not mere worshippers of success, but faithful subjects of an exiled King. The rights of the royal exile of Frohsdorff are beyond cavil; and the object of all the veneration and demonstrations in his favour is himself worthy ot even more than that which is given him. The Comte de Chambord, blameless as a man as well as a Prince, is every inch of him the "Roy." Amidst the terrible events which have delivered up France to political quacks, he stands out as the champion of unalloyed patriotism enlightened by religion. He may never reign, for duplicity