XXXIX. THE WIFE OF LAFAYETTE. THEY have in Europe a mysterious thing called rank, which exerts a powerful spell even over the minds of republicans, who neither approve nor understand it. We saw a proof of its power when the Prince of Wales visited New York some years ago. He was neither hand- some, nor gifted, nor wise, nor learned, nor anything else which, according to the imperfect light of reason, makes a fair claim to distinction. But how we crowded to catch a sight of him ! In all my varied and long experience of New York crowds and receptions, I never saw a popular movement that went down quite as deep as that. I saw aged ladies sitting in chairs upon the sidewalk hour after hour, waiting to see that youth go by — ladies whom no other pageant would have drawn from their homes. Almost every creature that could walk washout to see him. Mr. Gladstone is fifty times the man the Prince of Wales can ever be. Mr. Tennyson, Mr. Bright, George Eliot, Mr. Darwin, might be supposed to represent Eng- land better than he. But all of these eminent persons in a coach together would not have called forth a tenth part of the crowd that cheered the Prince of Wales from the Battery to Madison Square. There is a mystery in this which every one may explain according to his ability ; but the fact is so important that no one can understand history who does not bear it in mind. The importance of Lafayette in the Revolutionary War was chiefly due to the mighty prestige of his rank — not his (494)
