Is there not a tendency just now to forget the
proportions of things P We quite agree with those who think that the Dean of Westminster made a mistake in admitting Prince Louis Napoleon into the Pantheon under his charge; but surely it is too small a matter for Parliamentary debate and public meetings in St. James's Hall, and Mr. Swinburne's exaggerative lyrics and Mr. F. Harrison's perfervid rhetoric. The lad had no possible claim to lie there, any more than one or two others placed there before anybody cared about such things ; but when that has been said, all is said. To believe that the French people will mistake the Dean's blunder for an insult offered by Englishmen to France, or even by the English Court to the French Republic, is an exaggeration. French Republicans are too glad the Prince is dead to care where he is honoured, and do not expect Courts to forget dynastic sympathies or personal friendships, though the meeting of Thursday apparently did expect it. If the Bonapartes reach the throne again, they will be pleased to find the bust of Napoleon IV. in the Abbey ; and if they do not, its existence in the Abbey will speedily be forgotten. After all, that the last of the Napoleons should be commemorated by a statue in West- minster Abbey, is an example of the almost savage irony of fate. Suppose the first Emperor and Wellington attend the inauguration.
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