of
Saxe-Coburg. Mr. Ellis said all three were intelligent, and Princess
Victoria exceptionally so. What a tragedy it was--more so than that of
many an epic or drama--that the Princess Royal and the husband of her
choice, who had educated themselves and each other to take the reins of
the German Empire, and had drawn up so many Plans for the betterment of
the general conditions of the people, should, on their accession to
power, have met death standing on the steps of the throne; and that
only a powerless widow should have been left without much authority
over her masterful son. But my firm belief is that in many of the
excellent things that the Kaiser William has done for his people, he is
working on the plans that had been committed to writing by the Crown
Prince and Princess. Her father's memory was so dear to the Crown
Princess that anything he had suggested to her was cherished all her
life; and I do not doubt that these early lessons on the right relation
of human beings to each other--the social science which regards human
happiness as depending on justice and toleration--is even now bearing
fruit in the Fatherland. Shortsighted mortals see the immediate
failures, but in the larger eye of the Infinite and the Eternal there
is always progress towards better things from every honest attempt to
remedy injustice, and to increase knowledge.

I arranged for a week in Paris with my young friends, Rosa and Symonds
Clark, of Hazelwood, and we travelled as far as Paris with the Hare
family, who went on to the Tyrol. We enjoyed the week. Louis Napoleon
appeared then to be quite secure on his throne, and we saw the fetes
and illuminations for his birthday. What a day and night of rain it
was! But the thousands of people, joyful and good-humoured under
umbrellas or without them--gave us a favourable impression of Parisian
crowds. In London I had been with Mr. Cowan in the crush to the
theatre. It was contrary to his principles to book seats, and I never
was so frightened in my life. I thought a London crowd rough and
merciless. I was the only one of the party who could speak any French,
and I spoke it badly, and had great difficulty in following French
conversations; but we got into a hotel where no English was spoken, and
managed to pull through. But we did not know a soul, and I think we did
not learn so much from our week's sightseeing as we should have done if
Miss Katie Hare had stayed the week with us.

I then paid a v