home endearments, which were to her the true
occupation and charm of life, there cannot exist a doubt.
Misfortune fell upon her house to strengthen her love and to
confirm her piety. Persecution, imprisonment, calamity that has
never been surpassed, and a dreadful end, which, in its
bitterness, has seldom been equalled, found and left her, a
meek but perfect heroine. One historian has told us, that as
'an affectionate daughter and a faithful wife, she preserved in
the two most corrupted courts of Europe the simplicity and
affections of domestic life.' It is sufficient to add, that she
ascended the scaffold enjoining her children to a scrupulous
discharge of duty, to forgive her murderers, to forget her
wrongs; and that her last words on earth were directed to the
beloved husband who had preceded her, whose spirit she was
eager to rejoin, yet whose bed, if we are to believe my Lord
Holland, she had oftener than once defiled."

And _The Times_ intimates elsewhere that Lord Holland is alone among
reputable authors in condemning the Queen. How _The Times_ regards
THOMAS JEFFERSON, we cannot tell, but certainly it is claimed by our
democracy that he was a witness with a character. Jefferson says of
Marie Antoinette:

"The King was now become a passive machine in the hands of the
National Assembly, and had he been left to himself, he would
have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should devise as
best for the nation. A wise constitution would have been
formed, hereditary in his line, himself placed at its head,
with powers so large, as to enable him to do all the good of
his station, and so limited, as to restrain him from its abuse.
This he would have faithfully administered, and more than this,
I do not believe, he ever wished. But he had a Queen of
absolute sway over his weak mind, and timid virtue, and of a
character, the reverse of his in all points. This angel, as
gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke, with some smartness
of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of
restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the
pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or
perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and
dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois, and others of
her _clique_, had been a sensible i