Page:The Royal Family of France (Henry).djvu/72

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The Royal Family of France.

govern, while she has been signally wanting in the power of governifig herself. We only pity the masses of the peasantry—poor people with traditions of serfage in their veins, the prey to the rottenness of audacious quacks who pilfer from their electors' pockets while parading before the eyes of the latter the "cloud-compelling" Bismarck and the "standing menace" of Metz. Hence her history is a continuous series of reactions, every one of which has brought new trials and presented fresh problems to be solved by her rulers. Comfort will be found for the exiled, widowed and childless mother (one of the most afflicted personages in modern history) that through the undying hatreds, painful jealousies, and rivalries between Frenchmen, the present times of anxious politics and international disquietude, should her son have been recalled to France, he would have met with a heritage of thorns only, of which the honour and glory might have been brilliant, but the burden could not be light, nor, in all probability, the possession lasting.

After the Reign of Terror, of Absolutism, of tempest, the barque of Robert the Strong and of Saint Louis rode into port for the sixth time: "The French nation freely call to the Throne of France Louis-Stanislas-Xavier of France, brother to the last King, and after him the other members of the House of Bourbon, according to the former rule" (Senatus-consultum of April 6th, 1814).

We have now reached 1815; these great lessons should surely be turned to account. More enlightened as to their rights and as to their failings by the shortcomings of their forefathers, Frenchmen should have honoured their memory by making use of their experience. Benjamin Constant, a Tribune during Napoleon's consulship, said once: "We must study the future by looking back on the past, and drawing from it lessons of wisdom." The wicked ever prove far more logical, and will only engage men of a tried fealty in their ranks.

What is the moral of these terrible upheavings of the State, followed by beneficent Restorations? What do we always find hovering above the Revolutionary gulfs? The Royal Family and the legitimate Monarchy of France, to-day represented by the lawful King of the French nation and the sole rightful Sovereign, Henry V., Duke de Bordeaux and Count de Chambord. Henry V. (born September 29th, 1820) is the only son of the Duke de Berry