Saxony has been greatly excited this week by a festival
intended to celebrate the eight-hundredth anniversary of the dynasty. The House of Wettin, which now reigns there, is supposed to have become sovereign in 1089, when its ancestor was recognised as Markgraf of Meissen. The belief is a little loyal, perhaps, but the Saxons entertain it heartily, and are most zealous in efforts to mark their liking for their rulers. Parliament has voted the King a present of Z150,000, and the upper classes and lower have joined to organise a vast pro- cession, to represent not only the warlike deeds of Saxony, but her industries. It came off on Wednesday, when twelve thousand men defiled through Dresden in representative costumes, the long array beginning with knights in armour, and ending with a group whose dresses suggested the brightest patterns in Dresden china. The festival was most successful as a spectacle, but its political interest consists in the strong popular feeling displayed towards the dynasty. The House of Wettin has produced no hero, and has not, on the whole, been a successful one, having lost by degrees about half its maximum territory ; but it has shared for ages in the life of the people, and is now part of themselves. The Emperor was present, and was warmly received by the people; but the King, now an elderly man of sixty-one, must have welcomed his master with mixed feelings. He is probably safer than he ever was, but the sense of independence must have passed away.
