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THE DUTY OF SOVEREIGNS. 



The schoolmaster has been abroad, lately — very lately ; and, if we 

 mistake not, the Spirit of the Age, in all the intellectual majesty of 

 moral warfare, has travelled, incognito, with him. He has visited 

 Kalisch and Tceplitz by appointment ; and he continued his predeter- 

 mined route to Vienna. The Schoolmaster made a call, too, on that 

 remnant of poor mortality, Charles the Tenth, of unhappy memory, ^ 

 at Prague. Wherever the Sage halted for the purpose of delivering a 

 lecture on moral government, there the Spirit of the Age was found to be 

 also. We may fairly pretend to a knowledge of the "cause" of these 

 visits ; and we cannot but feel deeply interested in the development of 

 their effects upon the entire population of christian as well as barbarian 

 Europe. The schoolmaster made his appearance in the capital of to-be- 

 restored Poland ! And in that devoted city, he perceived, with delight 

 not unmingled with surprise, that the Spirit of the Age had preceded 

 him ! Nevertheless, the slioolmaster delivered a very strotig and con- 

 vincing lecture on royal insanity, which the Calmuck war-hounds mis- 

 construed into a blow-up ! How stupid ! How vicious ! How male- 

 volent ! How strange a fatality accompanies practical wickedness, 

 whether in the guise of ignoble and brutal sovereignty or impotent state 

 pauperism ! 



It is related of Francis I. (by Pasquier, in his Researches, we think, 

 and deser%-es particular notice at this period of European historv, as 

 displaying a proper feeling in that monarch, in regard to one of the 

 greatest duties of a sovereign,) that the Seigneur de Talant, a gentleman 

 highly allied, having murdered one John de Manesto, long escaped the 

 punishment due to his crime, through his interest with the persons in 

 power. At length, the grandmother of the deceased went to Fontain- 

 Heau, and fell on her knees before the king as a suppliant. Francis 

 asking her what she wanted, "Justice, sire, justice!" she replied. 

 He immediately bid her rise, and addressing himself to the surrounding 

 courtiers, " By the faith of a gentleman (said he), it is not for this gentle- 

 woman, who desires nothing but what my duty to the public obligij 

 M.M.^1, B 



