THE PERSONATION OF PRINCES.
0 NE of the special correspondents in Pekin told the world a few days ago what to us at least was new, that the Emperors of China are relieved of some of their burden of re- presentation by doubles trained to perform the part. Servants of the Palace, carefully picked, and possibly, it may be, related in an illegitimate way to the dynasty, are carefully told what to do, and on ceremonial occasions represent the Emperor. It has often been rumoured that a device of the same kind is used to protect the Sultan, and a tale of a similar sort is going the round of the Press about the German Emperor. His Majesty, it is said, wishes greatly to see the Paris Exhi- bition, and will see it; but as the risk is considerable he will be accompanied by detectives carefully got up to imitate him, who, when it is considered necessary, will deceive the crowd. We have not, of course, any means whatever of verifying either story, and all three may be pure inventions, but none of them is impossible or even improbable. Emperors of China must be bored to death by ceremonials and eager to shift them off on underlings, the Sultan has a horror of appearing in public, while William II. would, if we understand his character, like to do his Paris unseen and unsuspected. There is a trace of Haroun-al-Raschid about him. An accu- rate imitation of an individual so far as mere appearance is concerned is not very difficult, indeed in all European countries there are actors who make incomes by doing it, and in China, where the Emperor when seen in public is an impassive idol, it must be particularly easy. The heaviest objection we know of is that it must be rather a dangerous trick, as a man who could thoroughly imitate his Sovereign might be tempted, if a man of ability, to use his powers for treasonable purposes. Indeed, we rather wonder the fraud has never been attempted, as the prize to be attained would be so very great. No man, perhaps, could attempt it alone, but nobles or generals or priests who meant rebellion might use an instrument of the kind with, for a moment at all events, most startling results. Indeed, the idea has repeatedly occurred to plotters, though they have never that we can recall had the audacity to imitate an actually reigning Sovereign. Our own Yorkists set up a whole line of impostors, one of whom, known to us as Perkin Warbeck, pretended to be a son of Edward IV., and must have taken in some very great nobles. They were, no doubt, very willing to be taken in, as they wanted to continue the great tournament of aristocrats which we call the "Wars of the Roses," but it is difficult to believe that they were all parties to the fraud. The case of the false Dimitri, the most successful impostor who ever lived, is well known in history. Dimitri, a son of Ivan the Terrible, had been murdered by a Pretender who seized the throne, when in 1605 it occurred to some Polish priests that if this son could be personated he might be used as a most convenient tool. They trained a young monk for the part, which be performed so well that he was accepted by the Russian people as the veritable heir of Rtuik, and mount- ing the throne as Czar he reigned for many months, married a Polish Princess, and but for his obvious devo- tion to the Polish and Catholic as opposed to the Russian and Orthodox cause, might have died a reigning Czar. As it was, though no doubt suspected, he was murdered rather for his policy than for his imposture. It is possible that a very daring attempt of the same kind was made in the reign of Louis Xrir. At least, as we showed in 1873, by far the most reasonable explanation of the Man in the Iron Mask is that he was a person exactly like Louis
whom a group of Huguenot nobles intended to substitute fol the King. Louis was bound by the traitor who informed him not to bring on his soul the stain of bloodguiltiness ; but a. he knew that every one who saw the prisoner would instantly recognise the likeness, and as he dreaded a repetition of the attempt, the most jealous precautions were taken against his being seen even by the common soldiers, who all knew the King's face upon the coins. A trick of the kind, it will be remembered, took in Cardinal Richelieu, who, though a R,ohan and a courtier, paid the Countess de Lamothe great sums under the firm belief that she was Marie Antoinette. There is, however, no case in history of a Sovereign while reigning being thus counterfeited.
Considering the immensity of the stake that might be played for, especially in Asia, and the certainty that almost any man can be imitated by a particular variety of actor, and the frequency of successful imposture of the kind in private life, we cannot but wonder that of recent years the attempt has never been made—except in Mr. Hope's kingdom of Ruritania —and cast about for a sufficient reason. The fact that a Sovereign is so prominent a person is not quite adequate as an explanation. Kings are not really well brown except to a few, and one can conceive of those few being very willing to be silent. During the last months of the reign of the last King of Bavaria, even his Ministers would not have been sorry if they could have produced a person in whom Bavarians would believe, and who would leave themselves some reasonable security for their lives and fortunes. We can conceive of a bigoted party in China, tormented with a reforming Emperor, who would lend themselves very readily to such a plot, and keep it up for years ; nor if the Sultan suddenly began threatening his immediate entourage would the scheme be wholly outside credence. It might be safer than suiciding him. The grand obstacle, we fancy, would be to find an instrument competent to the part. Fifty actors would believe that they could personate a King's appearance, where not one would be sure that he could act as a King for months, or perhaps years. He would distrust his own adequacy, his own range of knowledge, especially of regal etiquettes, his own power of playing the King when not upon the public stage. He would expect to fail, and dread the revolt which would instantly follow detection. At least he would think it would follow, though it might not if he were popular, and that is the same thing. Few men have thought out their own behaviour as Kings, and the few who have, who, like Sir James Mackintosh, have day-dreamed continuously in Royal robes—he always thought of himself, we have read, when idle as Emperor of Constantinople, and pursued in imagination a continuous career—would not be the kind of men who lend themselves to fraud. If not too bold a game it would be too big a game to be played by a man who, under the conditions, must be essentially histrionic, and who would have not only to play the part, say, of the late Crown Prince of Austria, miraculously preserved from a traitorous plot, but to be a Hapsburg for years on years. The attempt will never be made, it is a mere dream of the fancy, but one would like to know if it were made what its mental effect on the plotter would gradually be. Would he be, as the pseudo-Dimitri was, only a feeble instrument in the hands of those who devised the scheme, or would he by degrees become a King, break loose from those who bound him—probably, if the scene were Asia, with disastrous consequences to them—and start upon a career of his own? The courtier who acts the Son of Heaven in China, if there is really such a person, must be sorely tempted some- times to sweep off a few heads, and reign in reality, if only for a few days. He would be found out pretty speedily we suppose, though until the soldiers were convinced the detectives would
not be pleasantly situated, but he might during his term make life in Pekin somewhat exciting. We Westerns think of an Emperor of China as a sort of glorified doll, but Kien Lung, who conquered Nepal and died in 1795, was as much a Sovereign as any Amurath of them all, and would not have minded the Tsung-li-Yamen much more than Abd-ul-Hamid
minds his divan. Imagine a determined reformer wielding the sceptre of China, and imagined by all Chinese outside the
Palace to be the true representative on earth of the heavenly powers. There would be fewer Chinese in China when he "ascended to higher regions."
Previous page
