New Dynasties 



" But I don't see why we should want to be princes or 

 the blood, and the effete descendants of some great man. 

 Dynasties have not ceased to be formed. Napoleon was a 

 much greater man than Alexander the Great ; and Berna- 

 dottewill leave a dynasty as long as the Ptolemies. Besides, 

 Louis Buonaparte iscoming up, and will play young Octavius 

 to his uncle's Caesar." 



" I hope he will succeed ; not because I know or care 

 anything about his politics, but because I should like to see 

 a real new dynasty formed, just to show people that they 

 remain precisely in the same state as when Saul was chosen 

 from the family of Kish to rule over Israel. Once, when I 

 was wandering through the royal crypts of Saint Denis, 

 and came to the massive portals (armed with bars of bronze 

 and complicated locks and bolts), where Napoleon had pre- 

 pared himself a last resting-place, I felt there was a want 

 of completeness in his not being there, and I felt sorry. I 

 have no sympathy with the man ; but I like the incident or 

 an emperor of half Europe being born in a country town or 

 a little island, and turning the whole world topsy-turvy. I 

 feel no disloyal indifference towards our excellent Queen 

 Victoria — whom, with all her progeny. Heaven preserve ! — 

 but if it could have happened without disadvantage to her, 

 and the dear little princes and princesses, I wish Richard 

 Cromwell had been a competent man, and reigned over 

 England ; and that the great Oliver had died with the crown 

 on the top of his bedstead. A change is a good thing now 

 and then. He had very near as good a right to be king as 

 Henry Tudor before he married the heiress of York. But 

 come ; the ferment of Napoleon's times has not settled 

 down yet, and we may have a chance before we die. 

 When the revolution comes, whoever, like Themistocles, 

 can always of a sudden say what is most fit to be said, 



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