Two Claimants to the Throne of France

TWO CLAIMANTS TO THE THRONE OF FRANCE.

BY T. Y. STANFORD, OGDEN.

The sudden death, on the sixteenth of February last, of the chief excutive of France, Francois Felix Faure, and the election of a successor, amid much uproar, in the person of Emile Loubet> precipitated a state of affairs which for a time threatened the peace if not the safety of that republic. Happily, however, the crisis passed without any calamitous results and the Third Republic still lives and moves a national entity of presumable soundness. To some thoughtful minds these periodical outbursts of illfeeling among the French against the present government are but the distant rumblings of an approaching storm that will ere long strike with irresistible force its institutions and dash them to pieces, and upon their ruins we will see the re-establishment of the monarchy. As to whether France will ever again welcome back a monarchial form of government only the future can tell. This much can be said, though, that just so long as the monarchists are the — formidable party that they are today with a thorough and active organization in every town and hamlet of any importance throughout France, and many influential newspapers subservient to their interest —just so long will the stability and might of the republic be in jeopardy. The monarchists represent the claims of two dynasties, the Bourbon and Bonaparte,and are consequently divided into two classes, or parties, distinguished by the names of Bourbons, or Orleanists, and Bonapartists.

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The present head of the house of Bourbon, and who hopes one day to wear the crown of his ancestors, is Prince Robert, Duke of Orleans, a young man of thirty-two. An exile from his country and people, he makes his home the most part of his time on the Isle of Wight, an English possession. The history of the Orleanist princes in banishment can not be said to be replete with any very stirring events. The only incidents worthy of mention are those relating to the Comte de Paris, father of Prince Rober, and his brother Duke de Chartres, coming in 1860 to the United States and serving under General McClellan in the War of the Rebellion; a published account of that great internecine struggle from the pen of the Comte de Paris; the tender of the service of the aforesaid princes to the government for the national defense at the time when the victorious forces of Germany were advancing on Paris, which tender was rejected; and the unification of the claims of the elder and younger branches of the house of Bourbon in the person of the Comte de Paris at Goritz, in 1873. When in 1871 the third republic was well on its way as the successor of the second empire, among some of the generous things that were done, was the removal of the ban of exilement against the Orleanist family, also the restoration of their property which was confiscated when they made their memorable flight from France in 1848. Their return to France, however, was not for long. One night, in Paris, the Comte de Paris gave a magnificent reception in honor of the birth of a son to the king and queen of Portugal, the queen being a prominent and admired member of the Orleanist family. At this reception was to be seen some of the best mentality of the political, military and religious circles of France. A well-known journalist connected with one of the great dailies in commenting on the event the following day, said that among other noticeable things he saw in that splendid gathering the material out of which could be formed a monarchial government, of surpassing brilliance.

These words cost the Orleanist princes France as a place in which to abide. The radicals, stern and unrelenting foes to imperialism, took them up and harped upon them long and loud. They assumed to see in this fete of the Comte de Paris a well disguised

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attempt to promote the imperialist cause. They demanded of the government that the law of 1871 granting permission to the Orleanist family to re-enter France be forthwith repealed. In the chamber of deputies and in the senate the proposition was debated pro and con with much persistence and rancor. Finally the government, reluctantly be it said, acceededto the demand of the radicals, the law was repealed, and once again was witnessed the pathetic spectacle of the descendants of the longest line of kings that ever ruled in France driven out to seek an asylum in an alien land. Before leaving France, forever as it proved to be, the Comte de Paris issued an address to his countrymen. It was couched in words

of sorrow, anger and warning. I herewith append the most salient portion of it, and for its obtainment, as well as for other information made use of in this article, I am indebted to a well written brochure on this subject by Charles Haumont:

"My enemies pursue in me the monarchist principle which has been confided to me by him who so nobly preserved it. They seek to separate from France the chief of the glorious family which has directed its destinies for nine centuries, and which, associated with the people in good and bad fortune alike, has established its greatness and prosperity." "The republic is afraid. In attacking me, it points me out. I have confidence in France. At the decisive hour, I shall be ready."

From France the Comte de Paris and family proceeded direct to the Isle of Wight. In Prince Victor Napoleon, born in 1862, son of Prince Napoleon and nephew of Napoleon III, reposes the heirship of the Napoleonic dynasty, a dynast which for its sudden and remarkable rise and the brilliancy of its record has no equal in all the history of reigning families. The succession passed to Prince Victor's side of the family with the extinction of the two reigning branches of this wonderful house. Strange to relate, this extinction transpired within half a century. With the death of the young Duke of Reichstadt, in 1832, ended the issue of Napoleon I, and the tragic fate of Prince Louis Napoleon in an African jungle, in 1879, witnessed the termination of the line of Napoleon III. The present heir lives in Brussels, Belgium, and leads a life exceptionally free from ostentation. Like the other claimant of

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the throne he encourages the belief that he will one day live and rule in Paris. Occasionally he issues a proclamation, circumspect in word and tone, to his supporters, and at times royally entertains visiting deputations of his sympathizing countrymen. Louis Napoleon reached the throne through the medium of the republic. First elected a deputy, then advanced to the presidency, and finally to the throne as Emperor of the French. This mode of procedure Prince Victor should adopt when he makes the attempt to restore the Napoleonic regime, so advises one wing of the Bonapartists —the party is divided into two wings —while the other wing insists that when the time is ripe he immediately place himself up-

on the throne as Napoleon V. Out of the Boulanger movement of 1888, the most noteworthy one inaugurated against the third republic since its incipiency, the monarchists especially the Bonapartists, confidently looked for results that would tend materially to the enhancement of their cause. It was said, and well authenticated, that Prince Napoleon was in league with General Boulanger. An ill-starred affair this movement demonstrated itself to be. Ushered into existence in a state of incompleteness and manifest weakness it lived, as it were, but a day and then suddenly expired. If General Boulanger had been endowed with anything like the masterful qualities which Napoleon the Great possessed, he might have succeeded in his ambitious design of overthrowing the republic. Woefully deficient in those qualities — he failed miserably failed. The republic met the situation with, strength and energy and gained a complete victory. The monarchial power in France suffered a signal defeat. The chief actor in this one of life's dramas, Boulanger, breathed his last —a sui- —on the grave of the woman with whom he had consorted for cide many years —his mistress. The monarchists in advocacy of their claim that the monarchical principle should dominate in France argue in brief thus: The republic has demonstrated a palpable weakness not only in one department of its government but in all. It has created numerous useless but expensive offices and filled them with men who look more to their own sordid interests than they do to the weal of the commonwealth. Scandals most unsavory and money speculations deplorable have been conspicuously rife. The labor question, a grave