unquestioned heir, are
comparatively few. The relationships existing among the various
branches of a family are often extremely intricate and complicated.
Sometimes they become variously entangled with each other by
intermarriages; sometimes the claims arising under them are disturbed,
or modified, or confused by conquests and revolutions; and thus they
often become so hopelessly involved that no human sagacity can
classify or arrange them. The case of France at the present time[L] is
a striking illustration of this difficulty, there being in that
country no less than three sets of claimants who regard themselves
entitled to the supreme power--the representatives, namely, of the
Bourbon, the Orleans, and the Napoleon dynasties. Each one of the
great parties rests the claim which they severally advance in behalf
of their respective candidates more or less exclusively on rights
derived from their hereditary relationship to former rulers of the
kingdom, and there is no possible mode of settling the question
between them but by the test of power. Even if all concerned were
disposed to determine the controversy by a peaceful appeal to the
principles of the law of descent, as relating to the transmission of
governmental power, no principles could be found that would apply to
the case; or, rather, so numerous are the principles that would be
required to be taken into the account, and so involved and complicated
are the facts to which they must be applied, that any distinct
solution of the question on theoretical grounds would be utterly
impossible. There is, and there can be, no means of solving such a
question but power.

[Footnote L: January, 1852.]

In fact, the history of the smaller monarchies of ancient times is
comprised, sometimes for centuries almost exclusively, in narratives
of the intrigues, the contentions, and the bloody wars of rival
families, and rival branches of the same family, in asserting their
respective claims as inheritors to the possession of power. This truth
is strikingly illustrated in the events which occurred in Macedon
during the absence of Pyrrhus in Italy and Sicily, in connection with
the family of Lysimachus, and his successor in power there. These
events we shall now proceed to relate in their order.

At the time when Pyrrhus was driven from Macedon by Lysimachus,
previous to his going into Italy, Lysimachus was far advanced in age.
He was, in fact, at this time nearly seventy years old.