The uneasiness felt in the French capital about the Duke
of BORDEAUX'S Visit to London, and the indiscreet fanaticism and numbers of the Royalists who have flocked across the Channel to do homage to the Prince who claims the throne fare divino, give an importance to the young gentleman's movements which they seemed scarcely to deserve. Some of the Paris journals, indeed, still laugh at the quasi-regal display, and none was more jocose than the Journal des Debats ; but suddenly that Ministerial print grows angry, and intimates that the Deputies and Peers who have attended the levees in Belgrave Square will be called to account, for that they have tendered allegiance to the Duke as King of France. But Peers and Deputies are not the only people who have come, nor yet gentlemen whose only remaining importance lies in the names they bear; for certain workpeople have sent a deputation, and three marketwomen are on their way to see the Chevalier—which proves that the Duke has interest in the French Billingsgate! What there can be so alarming in this silly parade of an effete noblesse and some absurd "operative conservative" nonsense, it puzzles us here in London to guess; but no doubt the French know best. If the Legitimists have any definite object in view—if they contemplate the dethronement of the able and influential Orleans family, to substitute the amiable and feeble son of a race identified with an unhappy past—it does not follow that they are formidable : excess of criminal intention may be excess of folly, but does not necessarily imply excess of danger. That the Legitimistshave definite objects, may be inferred from the numbers in which they have come, from their engaging a London paper to advertise the Prince's "levees," and from some indifferent French verses in the said journal, advising HENRI of France to bide his time. That the Duke himself had some hand in arranging the parade, may be gathered from the fact of his giving his friends the rendezvous. But on what basis hopes of any kind can be founded, it is difficult to surmise. The cause of mere Legitimacy has not strengthened since 1830; while the Prince has become a sort of alien, identified with other countries than France. Those wh3 could not keep him there are little likely to be able to force him back. The project is not so insane as if the Antiquarian Society were to propose to oust Queen VICTORIA and set up "the last of the PLANTAGENETS"; it may be some shades less futile than the coup-d'etat contemplated by Master SINZENNICH in favour of the STUARTS: but what redemption is there in being only as foolish as Prince NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, who spent his money to buy a lodging in a state prison ? It is indeed a pity that all young HENRY'S trouble should go for nothing—that he should bandy mild puns with Lady SHREWSBURY to show his courteous wit, hurry from factory to factory to show his appetite for knowledge and his intelligence, go about with a set smile to show his amiability, and ride a hunting to show that he has a right royal seat in the saddle : it is a pity that all this trouble in displaying qualifications should be wasted; but even greater and longer exertions have been made by young gentlemen or ladies, fruitlessly, to catch a wife or husband ; and France is not widowed yet. It is to be hoped that he will be given to understand that France has really not been transhipped into Belgrave Square for his inspection and acceptance, and that one eccentric journal does not represent the public opinion of England.
