ade the horses walk all the way from Frogmore that he
might be seen. On Saturday and Sunday the Terrace was thrown
open, and the latter day it was crowded by multitudes and a very
gay sight; there were sentinels on each side of the east front to
prevent people walking under the windows of the living-rooms, but
they might go where else they liked. The King went to Bagshot and
did not appear. All the late King's private drives through the
Park are also thrown open, but not to carriages. We went,
however, a long string of four carriages, to explore, and got
through the whole drive round by Virginia Water, the famous
fishing-pagoda, and saw all the penetralia of the late King,
whose ghost must have been indignant at seeing us (Sefton
particularly) scampering all about his most secret recesses. It
is an exceedingly enjoyable spot, and pretty, but has not so much
beauty as I expected.

Came here yesterday and found thirty-two people assembled. I rode
over the downs three or four miles (from Petworth), and never saw
so delightful a country to live in. There is an elasticity in the
air and turf which communicates itself to the spirits.

[Page Head: FRENCH DEMOCRACY.]

In the meantime the French Revolution has been proceeding rapidly
to its consummation, and the Duke of Orleans is King. Montrond,
who was at Stoke, thinks that France will gravitate towards a
republic, and principally for this reason, that there is an
unusual love of equality, and no disposition to profit by the
power of making _majorats_, therefore that there never can be
anything like an aristocracy. We are so accustomed to see the
regular working of our constitutional system, with all its parts
depending upon each other, and so closely interwoven, that we have
difficulty in believing that any monarchical Government can exist
which is founded on a basis so different. This is the great
political problem which is now to be solved. I think, however,
that in the present settlement it is not difficult to see the
elements of future contention and the working of a strong
democratical spirit. The Crown has been conferred on the Duke of
Orleans by the Chamber of Deputies alone, which, so far from
inviting the Chamber of Peers to discuss the question of
succession, has at the same time decreed a material alteration in
that Chamber itself. It has at a blow cut off all the Peers of
Villele's great promotion, which is an enormous act of authority,
although the measure