Such is the regimen in raising
Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe,
I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then
reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own
knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial.
The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their
lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand
miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding
days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The
Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was
the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of
government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was
a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph
of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England you know was in a
straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catherine, who
had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this
state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which
lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind
and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few
generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an
exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third
generation.
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