The Crown Princess of Roumania has given birth to a
son, an event of much interest to the Kingdom, where the perman- ence of the dynasty is of importance, and of some interest to Englishmen. The heirs to the Crowns of Germany, Britain, Greece, Roumania, Hesse, and Saxe-Coburg are now all descendants of Queen Victoria ; and what with one marriage and another, the whole of the non-Catholic Monarchies of Europe, those of Turkey and Servia excepted, form a kind of family party. The fact is not of much political importance, as cousins and brothers-in-law can hate very hard; but it is curious to remark the permanent tendency of the clan to keep within itself. That has lasted long if, as is said, every reigning person in Europe, with the aforesaid exceptions, is in some way a descendant of Henry the Fowler, and would seem to militate against the idea that intermarriage causes degeneracy. Sovereign Houses rarely produce beauty, the Wittelsbache being a marked exception ; but the Heirs of Europe would not make a bad troop of dragoons.
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