NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Comte de Chambord died yesterday, at the age of sixty- three. He has been a Pretender all his life, and yet never a Pretender at all in the English acceptation of the word,—unless Ilia acceptance of the title of " King " in 1871 made him one. A more dignified spectator of political struggles never existed. He seemed to think himself necessary to France, and yet to feel quite sure that France was absolutely unconscious of her own need of him. "My personality is nothing," he said," my principle is everything ;" and his principle was that he would not give up a flag to gain a crown. There is something fascinating in the spectacle of so much disinterestedness at the heart of so much dignity. And we believe that in losing the Comte de Chambord, Europe has lost a kind of ideal,—the ideal character of that sort which, with an inordinate respect for its own hereditary posi- tion, combines the most absolute freedom from fussiness, and perfect indifference to power.
