WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE?
now capricious are the judgments.of Morality ! " One man may steal a horse while another must not look over the hedge." One may violate every set law, and still be exalted; and another, for the same faults, be " made an example." It is difficult to re- concile these caprices with any principle of justice. One divorcee shall be exiled from society, and die of a broken heart ; another shall be " received " everywhere, be the centre of a political co- terie, and bequeath honorary and accepted legacies to the most fastidious men of this very fastidious generation. Queen Chris- tina of Spain confesses, by a late marriage, that her numerous second family came into existence without that customary cere- monial ; but did she for that lose one particle of her fortune, her station, or dignity ? On the contrary, in the recent procession to open the Spanish Cortes, she was the truly regal object : Spain is swayed by the breath of her nostrils, and the highborn bend before her. If she came to England, would there be any refusal to receive her at Court? Scarcely. She might well say that she is no worse, now that she is married, than she was when, un- married to the father of her children, she was in fondled alliance with the diplomatic representatives of this most censorious nation.
On the other hand, look to another Spanish lady—Madame Lola Montez ; whose position near a throne is a matter of amaze- ment and scandal to all Europe. The nations cannot take their gaze off that impulsive lady : her eyes, her interviews with a sub- ject sovereign, her title, her house, her parasol, her dog, her yid- ters' book, are the objects of incessant remark and wonderment. Respectable people stare at her and talk in an under tone, as la- dies of our most decent middle class do at the theatres when cer- tain lawless beauties are too obtrusive. Why this disparity ? The difference can hardly be, that Queen Christina has bene- fited her country ; for it would not be easy to rake up a single patriotic action of her performance ; while shrewd suspicions have been thrown out that certain liberal manifestations in Ba- varia are due to the presence of the contemned and alien opera- dancer. It was not, therefore, any known Absolutism which dictated the refusal to " receive " the fair Andalusian in English society.
It is evident that, throughout Europe, besides those recognized as the principles of morality, there is some principle which in- fluences the formal sentences of morality : and it would be well to know what that is ; for then more than one Lai& might secure a good place in court processions and be the dispenser of honours. Perhaps the test is the possession of riches. As very large com- mercial firms never come within range of the bankrupt laws, and very abandoned rogues are beneath them, so very great persons do not come within the social laws, which also operate above the level of the very lowly, " Nice customs curtsey to great kings," and turn their backs upon the " whited sepulchres " of the streets. But yet that is not all the caprice. Queen Christina marries Munoz; while Serrano is dismissed from Court : Queen Christina is radiant with the jewellery of wealth and the smiles of triumph; her daughter is plain in person and dreary in countenance.
Queen Christina may be regarded as the link in a very curious chain. Let it begin with Prussia, outwardly at least the most decorous of governments, in politics and morals—the high for- malist and purist among constituted authorities in Europe ; to whom in those respects most legitimate Austria stands second ; the very legitimate Austria is allied with the Monarchy which has foresworn its creative Barricades ;• Louis Philippe, legitimated, is the bosom friend of Christina and the patron of her children though they bear the bar-sinister athwart their coats ; Muilos has been to Christina what Lola Montez may be elsewhere : so you have come by a regular gradation from precisionist Prussia to that kind of company in which you must classify the Andalu- sian—a regular chain from the throne of Prussia to the con- hoses of the opera. Where are you to draw the line and say that the "respectable " terminates—or begins ?
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