ss of
mind is, perhaps, of all faults in a monarch, the one most likely to
compromise the security of his dynasty.

The restoration of the Stuarts after Cromwell, was hailed with much
more enthusiasm in England than that of Louis the Eighteenth, after the
abdication of the Emperor Napoleon. Yet that enthusiasm was no pledge
that the people would bear from the descendants of the ill-fated
Charles the First--that most perfect of all gentlemen and meekest of
Christians--what they deprived him of not only his kingdom but his life
for attempting.

The house of Bourbon, like that of Stuart, has had its tragedy,
offering a fearful lesson to sovereigns and a terrific example to
subjects. It has had, also, its restoration; and, if report may be
credited, the parallel will not rest here: for there are those who
assert that as James was supplanted on the throne of England by a
relative while yet the legitimate and unoffending heir lived, so will
also the place of Charles the Tenth be filled by one between whom and
the crown stand two legitimate barriers. Time will tell how far the
predictions of ---- are just; but, _en attendant_, I never can believe
that ambition can so blind _one_ who possesses all that can render life
a scene of happiness to himself and of usefulness to others, to throw
away a positive good for the uncertain and unquiet possession of a
crown, bestowed by hands that to confer the dangerous gift must have
subverted a monarchy.

Pandora's box contained not more evils than the crown of France would
inflict on him on whose brow a revolution would place it. From that
hour let him bid adieu to peaceful slumber, to domestic happiness, to
well-merited confidence and esteem, all of which are now his own.
Popularity, never a stable possession in any country, is infinitely
less so in France, where the vivacity of perception of the people leads
them to discover grave faults where only slight errors exist, and where
a natural inconstancy, love of change, and a reckless impatience under
aught that offends them, prompt them to hurl down from the pedestal the
idol of yesterday to replace it by the idol of to-day.

I hear so much good of the Duc and Duchesse d'O---- that I feel a
lively interest in them, and heartily wish they may never be elevated
(unless by the natural demise of the legitimate heirs) to the dangerous
height to which ---- and others assert they will ultimately ascend.
Even in the contingency of a legitimat