We are not at all sure that it will.

age, the addresses presented to him on has faith in your Royal Highness. "You his birthday by the grandees and the are strengthened," say the Conservative Alfonsist clubs of Madrid are natural Club, "by misfortune;" while the memenough. The grandees of Spain, who bers of the Liberal Alfonsist Club actually exercise little influence over politics, but congratulate themselves upon their future possess immense estates, and retain much monarch's expulsion from his home: of their ancient pride, are naturally desir-"We feel deeply grateful to the provious of monarchy, and for the most part dential designs which have permitted prefer the monarchy of Isabella, which, your Royal Highness to strengthen your whatever its other failures, maintained reason and exercise your judgment upon them in their lands and dignities for more the spectacle of the wise and time-honthan a quarter of a century. The prop-oured institutions of free England, whose ertied classes, whether conservative or political ascendancy is recognized and liberal, share the same view, and as their deferred to both in the Old and in the candidate may yet succeed, there is noth- New World." As the grandees are not ing to surprise us in a slightly premature hungering for liberty as in England, or expression of their sentiments. Nor do the Liberal Club desirous of our aristowe wonder much at the grandiloquence cratic institutions, the thought in their of their addresses, the inordinate pride of addresses must be personal; they must nationality which gleams through them, have some degree of hope in their minds or even their apparent conviction that that an exile, which in common decency Spain is the greatest country in the world. they ought to have bemoaned, will bring Every nation has its patent fault of man- to their prince full compensation in addiner, and there is no more harm in the tional capacity for the throne. grandezza of the Spaniard than in the levity of the Frenchman, or the morgue Englishmen are very fond of talking which all foreigners alike attribute to our about the grand education to be obtained somewhat surly countrymen. Nobody is"in the school of adversity" a school so pretentious as a poor gentleman of which for all that they never voluntarily degree, especially when fortune is dan-enter-just as they are fond of talking gling before his eyes, and it is as a poor about the "bracing cold," which makes gentleman of degree who might, if things their tempers insupportable, but there would only go right again, become rich exists very little evidence that exile inand famous in a day, that the Spaniard creases the capacity of princes. In modis just now posing. The really note-ern times most restored princes have worthy points in the addresses are the been failures. They become indeed men undercurrent of distrust which they of the world, obtain a certain cosmopolevince, and the argument by which their itan varnish beneficial to their manners, authors strive to soothe this distrust to and sometimes acquire a useful pliability. their own minds. All the addresses, and but as rulers they cannot be said to have specially the address of the grandees, succeeded. Charles II., who endured read as if those who signed them doubted real hardships in exile, being sometimes in their hearts whether a Spanish Bour-puzzled to pick up daily cash, learned bon could be good for anything, and re-prudence indeed, and as he said, would assured themselves by reflecting that, yield anything rather than set out on after all, this particular Bourbon had his travels again," but he learned little tasted adversity and been bred up in ex-else, and had contracted a fatal facility in ile. The thought is expressed by the accepting doles from royal friends which nobles with almost cynical frankness. for years made England little more than "Your Royal Highness," writes their a province of France. James II., his scribe surely a man who does not be- brother, learned the same trick, turned lieve very strongly in pedigree-"has to to the creed of the country he resided in, thank Providence for the twofold bless-improved a natural taste for cruelty and ing of a royal birth and an exile's educa- despotism, and was consequently the last tion." You have experienced "the mis-of his race upon the throne. Had he fortune which is the touchstone of na- remained all his life in England he would tions and the taskmaster of princes." probably have been a harsh-tempered, "Heir," write the members of the popu- narrow-minded English gentleman, whom lar Alfonsist Club, "to a glorious name, other English gentlemen would have enand trained in the school of adversity, dured without very much strain upon which purifies all great natures," Spain their loyalty. Charles Edward had no

arts, goes back denationalized, with tastes, habits, and thoughts which belong to another climate. Charles II. would have made a rather superior French noble of Louis XIV.'s court, and James II. quite a useful procureur du roi, with a penchant for the sentence of breaking on a wheel. The Prince of the Asturias may turn out better than any of the Pretend

is no evidence in history that he will, and none in his answer to the addresses that he will play a rôle which might make his personal character unimportant. One can scarcely imagine a constitutional king of Spain, but a constitutional king who is Bourbon, who is not regarded by all Spaniards as head of his race, and who has so few statesmen among his followers, would be a phenomenon still more difficult to realize. Any government in Spain would be better than none, but if history may be trusted, the grandees in thanking Providence for their sovereign's whipping are a little premature.

opportunity to display his character as a Sovereign, but his history after Culloden shows that his nature had very little of the true grit in it, that sunshine suited him a good deal better than "the hard grey weather" which Kingsley, when he has not got a cold, sings hymns to. Louis XVIII. went back to France a Charles II. in all but viciousness, with much of his urbanity though of the delicious cour-ers hitherto restored from exile, but there tesy of Charles's apology for being "so unconscionable a time dying" Louis was incapable with some of his turn for saying good things, and just the sort of relation to Voltairianism that Charles had to the Catholic Church. His brother, Charles X., went back what he went forth - an incurable Bourbon, believing only in divine right, well-born men, and priests in their police capacity, and like our James II., was sent into exile for a second and last time. Louis Philippe, who had in exile taught French for bread, returned to France a wiser man indeed, wise with the wisdom of much experience, but cursed from his sufferings with a dread of the people, and from his poverty with a most unkingly passion for acquiring cash. If he could have trusted his freeholders with the suffrage, and left legacy-hunting and heiress-hunting alone, he might have lived and died a respected king of the French, and he owed both taints to his exile. As Egalité fils he had been a liberal, and he was heir of the most recklessly spendthrift family in Europe, a family that scattered gold like Mr. Disraeli's young duke. Ferdinand VII. went back to Spain convinced of two things, that nations must be terrorized, and that the best instruments of terror were the bullet and the menace of hell, and left a memory infamous among all save the populace of Madrid. Of the German sovereigns turned out by Napoleon, and restored after 1815, not one seems to have profited by exile, not one kept his word to his people, and not one departed from the role of German prince in which he had been brought up. Nor is it very natural to expect that a restored prince should have benefited very greatly by exile, except in regard to positive knowledge. If he is a man when he is turned out, he either becomes ulcerated, as Ferdinand did; or sick with longing for security and ease, as Louis Philippe did; or more a prince in the bad sense than ever, as Charles X. did. If, on the other hand, he is turned out while still impressionable, he usually, like the Stu

There is one example of an exile who ascended a throne which is sure to be thrown in our teeth, and that is Napoleon III. There can be no doubt that Louis Napoleon, from an early age, considered himself a sovereign by descent, that he lived years in exile, and that he displayed abilities of a very exceptional kind. But there is no certainty whatever that had he succeeded his uncie, he would not have done a good deal better. He would not have known so much, perhaps, certainly not so much of the politics of all Europe, but he would have known enough, he would have been early initiated into great affairs, and he would have been comparatively free from the three great weaknesses which destroyed him, his dread lest his son might not succeed him, which made half his professions dishonest; his weakness for coups de théâtre, which produced the Mexican tragedy; and his tolerance for rascals of the needy-adventurer type, who looked only to their own gain, and De Morny excepted, cared neither for him nor France. There are some faults usually found among kings which are extremely useful to their subjects, and one of them is the readiness with which they forget services which prove nothing but devotion. Frederick the Great would have been a more amiable man if he had not neglected all who served, or amused, or loved him while heir-apparent, but he

would not, if he had petted them, have built the Prussian monarchy. Had Louis Napoleon merely stared at the adventurers who helped him to a throne, he

would not have been so leniently treated by English opinion, but France might not have had to encounter Sedan or endure the Treaty of Frankfort.

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Pall Mall Gazette.

COLOUR IN FLOWERS NOT DUE TO INSECTS. - The doctrine that the conspicuous colours of flowers are entirely due to the necessity for cross-fertilisation by the agency of insects seems to be taking the world by storm. It is supported by Mr. Darwin and Sir John Lubbock. It could scarcely be put forward on better authority. Yet there are several facts with which it does not harmonize. For instance

1. Cultivation increases the size and colour of flowers quite independently of the existence or non-existence of insects.

or

Two very curious articles have been pub- | be accepted in its entirety; but, unfortunately, lished by a Shanghai native newspaper, the we have every reason to know that so far as Hwei-Pao, protesting against the construction England is concerned travelling by railway is of railways in the Chinese empire. The Hwei-" a very dangerous mode of locomotion." Pao is of opinion that the existence of railways in Europe is too recent to admit of a judg ment being formed as to their practical utility, and, moreover, that there is not sufficient business in China to render them profitable. The Chinese journal goes on to say that “tea and silk are the principal objects of commerce, and these have hitherto been forwarded to the treaty ports by river steamboats. A substitution of railways for steamboats would not effect any saving in point of time, and could not therefore, even from the point of view taken by the foreigners themselves, be of any service to China. Admitting that a little time was gained, the Chinese would not be benefited, for the goods would not be exported more rapidly. Thus the railways would only lead to an accumulation in the ports of vast quantities of goods which, as they could not be shipped off all at once, would fall considerably in price." The Hwei-Pao also says: "The accidents on the railwaylines are very numerous, caused by collisions, by the engines or tenders taking fire, by the trains running off the lines, or by the bridges giving way and the trains being precipitated into the rivers below. In other cases the carriages are injured by the great speed at which they are hurried along, and the accidents are so numerous that it is often impossible to ascertain the exact number of dead and wounded. All the foreign journals are full of details concerning these accidents. But, admitting that most of these casualties are preventable, and that the trains follow their regular course, they travel quicker than the thoroughbred horse, and the people walking on the lines would have no time to get out of their way. From this cause alone the number of fatal accidents would be enormous. In all countries where railways exist they are considered a very dangerous mode of locomotion, and, beyond those who have very urgent business to transact, no one thinks of using them." This latter statement cannot as yet

2. Double flowers in which the doubling arises from metamorphosis of stamens pistils are more showy than the single forms, yet insects can be of little use to them, since they are either partially or entirely barren. The double-blossomed cherry is brilliantly conspicuous, but it bears no fruit.

3. Such abortive flowers as the cultivated Guelder Rose and Hydrangea depend for their beauty upon the destruction of the reproductive organs. If their increased splendour is meant only as a lure to insects, it is surely an absurd failure.

4. The autumn colours of leaves and fruits can serve no such purpose, yet these are often as bright and conspicuous as the flowers of summer.

5. Fungi and lichens exhibit brilliant colours, which can have nothing to do with insectfertilization.

Do not these facts indicate that though insects may be attracted by conspicuous colours, and may have some influence in the maintenance of coloured species, there is yet a deeper and more permanent cause for the colour itself?

Nature.

F. T. MOTT.

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