VISITS OF FOREIGN PRINCES TO ENGLAND.

AMONGST the political novelties of the present day may be reckoned the interchange of personal visits, which now so frequently takes place, between the Queen of England and the sovereigns of other countries. The time is not distant when such visits would have been deemed both derogatory and dangerous; when emperors and kings could not trust each other, and when they were like so many Japanese Dairis, or Tibetan Grand Lamas, who must be seen. occasionally only, or by favoured eyes alone, lest they should become too common, and the vulgar should discover that they are men as well as themselves. The events of the late war did much towards robbing royalty of that false divinity that was supposed to "hedge" a king, for deposed and expatriated monarchs used to jostle each other and us in the streets of this metropolis; and since then, many of the potentates of Europe have had the wisdom, or at least the good sense, to comport themselves like mortals, and resign all pretensions to godlike attributes. Nothing is really lost by this apparent sacrifice, and something is gained by the exchange of that undefined or slavish sentiment-a mixture of fear and reverencewhich kings in past times inspired, for the cordial personal esteem and affection, which never fail to reward the prince who makes himself, as far as he can consistently with his rank and station, one of the people. The paying occasional visits by crowned heads to each other, instead of keeping up their acquaintance by the transmission of complimentary cards, or by proxies in the persons of their ministers, is another step in the same right direction; it tends not only to maintain a personal friendship between the sovereign and ourselves, but to establish a similar feeling in their subjects, and to keep at a greater distance that horrid scourge, international war.

It may have arisen, perhaps, from the circumstance that our sovereign is a lady, that so many visits of foreign potentates have been paid to this country, which, within a comparatively short space of time, has seen the rulers of Russia, Prussia, France, and Belgium, guests at the court of its Queen, who, on her part, has made a friendly call upon the King of France. None but generous and cordial feelings have sprung out of these reciprocations of friendly courtesy in France or England; national jealousies and old enmities were forgotten by both nations when they saw their sovereigns riding together in the same char-à-banc, lodging in the same house, partaking of the same meals, and appearing, in fact, as if they were not merely friends, but relations.

Why should not the success of the experiment reinforce the rea-
sons which recommend these mutual visits on the score of policy,
and make them general throughout the whole civilized world? The
dangers, as well as the inconveniences, of travelling diminish daily;
this consideration removes an objection which might possibly be
urged, when it is well known that a change of ruler often produces
a change of policy in the state, which might affect that of others.
A sovereign may now, indeed, slip out of an evening, take his seat in
a carriage on a continental railroad, whisk over the sea in a steam-
packet, be whirled up another railroad to London, lunch with her
Majesty, give a peep at the royal nursery, and be back to his own
court before even the courtiers had missed him, unless a place had
become vacant.

It is inconceivable how much misapprehension and prejudice is got rid of by these personal exhibitions. We have lately seen too many kings of France to be much frightened at one; but a certain degree of mysterious awe did hang about our idea of the Emperor of Russia. All this nonsensical feeling vanished, however, when we saw the Emperor Nicholas, with as little of the terrible in his aspect as could well be expected in a prince who has some Tartar blood in his veins. If the Emperor had fortunately been minded to pay his visit a few years earlier, when so much was said about his political voracity, and of his preparing to devour the whole world, many thousands of good pounds might have been saved to England which went to reward agents employed to discover the "designs of Russia ;” and perhaps many millions wasted in Affghanistan for no purpose whatever. There is still, in spite of his low estate, a good deal of the alarming in our notion of his Holiness the Pope. Let but the practice of paying visits among crowned heads become general, and no doubt the Pope will fall into it; his omitting to do so, indeed, will seem to exclude him from the class of sovereigns. If he should think it objectionable to appear here as Pope, he might travel incog. and be received by her Majesty as "the Rev. such a one." All the absurd prejudices against this personage would disappear the moment he was seen, and we are seriously of opinion that such a visit would be beneficial, by abating ill and uncharitable feelings on both sides.

If such are likely to be the results of the practice in Europe, they must be equally, if not more, salutary when oriental princes shall think fit to adopt it, for many mutual prejudices and errors require to be got rid of in the intercourse between the East and the West, which could not be so effectually or so expeditiously

extinguished as by reciprocal visits between the sovereigns of the
respective hemispheres. Hitherto, none of the Asiatics who have
travelled to Europe have been of the highest rank. Nothing in-
ferior to a Great Mogul, or a Runjeet Singh, or an Emperor
of China would answer the purpose of reconciling the Western
nations to those of the East; and there is little reason to doubt
that, if a sovereign of the rank of either would brave the petty perils
of an overland trip to England, he would not only make us wiser
than he found us, but go
back himself wiser than he came.
Take an Emperor of China for example. The present is, per-
haps, too old; but let us suppose his successor, a young mer-
curial man, declared his celestial will and pleasure to see with his
own eyes what kind of a country England was, and what sort of a
person was his sister, its queen. All the presidents of all the tri-
bunals would probably stare at each other, shake their tails and
moustaches, and mumble forth many monosyllabic protests against
the project; but as Confucius has not forbidden an Emperor of
China to perform a journey to England, it must be assumed that he
approved of it, and that argument would be quite enough to satisfy
the scruples of the most pertinacious mandarin, if backed by the will
of the son of Heaven. Away then he goes, through Tibet-his own
country-and soon reaches Calcutta. Here he will meet with
great attention, and probably the Governor-General (whoever he
may be) will pick out a few balls of the primest Company's opium
for his majesty's private solace, which will compose his stomach
during the journey by sea or by dak to Bombay, where the
emperor will find himself at home amongst Chinese merchants, who
will probably be able to replenish his stock of shark-fins, birds'
nests, sea-slugs, and other delicacies, and in a month he lands in
England. The time occupied since his departure from Pekin, we
may fairly conclude, will be sufficient to enable him to learn the
English language, for a person who has conquered such a tongue as
the Chinese will find English mere child's play. The mayor of the
port at which his majesty disembarks reads an address to him in
English, to which the emperor makes a suitable reply in the same
language, but the interpreter supposing it to be Chinese in a peculiar
dialect (as he does not understand it), petitions for a copy, but his
majesty places his hand upon his stomach (which the Chinese be-
lieve to be the seat of the affections), intimating that he has no
copy, as he spoke from his heart. The mayor, mistaking the action
of the emperor to denote hunger, immediately orders refreshment,
consisting of various soups, but, unfortunately, spoons being provided

instead of chop-sticks, his majesty can get none of the liquid into his mouth. Now here were mistakes on both sides, the subsequent explanation of the causes of which very much enlarges the sphere of the knowledge of all parties.

His majesty now takes his departure for London in a royal carriage, sent down expressly by the command of the Queen, who had been informed by one of the ministers, who had consulted an excellent Chinese scholar, who had told him, that the emperor could not travel by rail-road, as there was a text in the Le-ke, or ancient Book of Rights (the Chinese Magna Charta), which distinctly prohibited an emperor of China from riding in a coach without horses; a minister having once (from economical motives) harnessed a set of donkeys to the imperial carriage, which the vicious animals had kicked to pieces. This was another blunder, at which the emperor laughed heartily when informed of it. The royal carriage is brought to the door of the inn occupied by the emperor and suite; his mandarins are helping him up to the box, when they are told that his place is inside, below the very seat of the coachman; whereat the mandarins shrug their shoulders, shudder, and looking unutterable expressions of horror, declare it to be impossible that the exalted Shang-wang, with all his courtesy, can submit to such a degradation. "The highest place for the highest person," says the imperial minister who had it in charge to watch over the details of etiquette, citing Shoo-king, ch. 2, sec. 5. This being spoken in pure Chinese, is understood by the interpreter, who promptly and acutely quotes a well-known saying of Confucius, to the effect that, "When you visit a Tartar, you should not be so uncivil as to refuse to eat horseflesh," which is understood in the sense of our proverb, "When at Rome, do as they do at Rome;" and the mandarins bundle the emperor inside the carriage at once. His majesty is highly delighted with his journey and the enthusiasm manifested by the people, mistaking the turnpike-gates through which he passed for so many triumphal arches erected to his honour. The rectification of this misapprehension discovers to his imperial majesty a new and equitable mode of taxing his subjects.

The party arrives in London, the name of which his imperial majesty pronounces Lun-tun, and lun signifying "hell," and tun, destructive" or "fraudulent,” he conceives that it means (for all names in the Chinese language are significant) "a place of fraudulent hells," and his majesty is not altogether wrong in his conjecture. The interview between the queen and the emperor we forbear to

describe (by anticipation), since the description might to vulgar minds appear ludicrous. There are, undoubtedly, at first, many whimsical mistakes and contretemps, arising from a mutual forgetfulness on both sides that both were but varieties of the same human nature-the English courtiers having a kind of notion that their visitors were but animated and locomotive pieces of Chinaware, and the Chinese being still possessed with an uncontrollable belief that the English are really devils. In a few weeks, however, these mutual mistakes vanish, as the parties become respectively known to each other, and especially when the emperor's pronunciation of the English language becomes more intelligible. His majesty is soon reconciled to our manners; finds our eating and drinking by no means barbarous, and conceives a high opinion of the intellectual character of the people from their universal practice of smoking tobacco, every one from the nobleman to the lacquey, from the merchant to his errand-boy, having a pipe or cigar in his mouth. On the other hand, the deportment of his majesty wins all hearts; he is voted a gentleman at the west-end of the town, and a jolly fellow in the east; the ladies perceive, after all, something expressive in small eyes, and something manly in high cheek bones, whilst the hair of our men of fashion gradually deserts the brows and ears, and, lengthening behind, creeps serpent-like down the back in an elegant queue.

In short, both nations are the better for this visit. We cease to regard the Chinese, as we have hitherto done, as barbarians, who may be exterminated with impunity; they awake from a sort of dream, and find that the English are nearly as great a people as themselves. The effect produced upon the emperor himself, and upon the Government of China when he returns home, but this is too large a subject to be treated speculatively.