From The Spectator. to summon a representative of the national House of Vasa. But the only active preTHERE is something striking and pecul- tenders to great Crowns, the only men iar, as well as melancholy, about the posi- whose chances of reaching thrones are at tion of the lad who is now, while still under once considerable enough to affect Euroseventeen, the representative of Napoleon pean politics, and are denied, are the heirs I., though not his descendant, and the head of the houses which have reigned in Spain of the Bonaparte family. He is the young- and France. Carlos de Borbon is actually est of the ten or twelve Pretenders now fighting through agents for the "legitiexisting in Europe, he pretends to the mate" sovereignty of Spain, and might, greatest position, and unless he is singu- were his party to develop a great General larly self-controlled and able, he will be the within the regular army, or were a man of most completely ruined by the pretension. genius to win the tiara, attain his ambition Of the fourteen Thrones of Europe, thrones, for a time. The Prince of the Asturias, that is, in either actual or potential exist- the eldest son of Queen Isabella, though ence, seven may be said to be exempt from quiescent and little known, is of all men the annoyance of personal pretensions even alive perhaps the one who has the best casually recognised. The Romanoffs, in chance of dying King of Spain, being the spite of their strange family history, have one whom the Spanish army, if it has a no formidable cadet branch, and are not preference, favours most. The Comte de menaced by any individual of any other Chambord might have been declared King line. Since the death of the Cardinal of of France in 1870, and annually claims the York, the last Catholic Stuart, no pretender throne; the quiet Comte de Paris is his heir, of any sort has made out a claim to the as well as that of Louis Philippe; while the British Throne. The Hapsburgs are alone Prince Imperial represents a race but just in their Empire, and have never had among unseated, and a party but three years ago them an Orleans branch. The Hohenzol- possessed of power apparently unassailed. lerns built their own throne, and their So near is he to a throne, so strong is his direct line has never been broken, and their party in his own eyes, and so deep is the title to Prussia as it was in 1860 is not at- influence of training, that it would be vain tacked even in theory. The House of Or- to expect him not to "pretend,” and what ange has no personal foe, and the Belgian a life does that necessity for the Pretender title is disputed by a State - Holland involve! He is driven by a sort of fate to rather than by any individual. No one ex-be either a conspirator or a failure. No cept Victor Emanuel pretends to be King position tends to spoil the character like of Italy, and no one puts forward a claim that of a pretender. An heir can become to be the heir of Denmark. Among the a political personage like the Crown Prince, separate countries, indeed, only two can or lead society like the Prince of Wales, or be said to be seriously attacked, and of be himself merely, like the Prince of Orthese only one has a claim to be regarded ange, waiting until his turn arrive in pasas of the first rank. There are pretenders sive security; but a pretender, and espeenough to bits of kingdoms, "illegally," or cially a pretender claiming like the Napo"violently," or "irregularly" turned into leons, through the popular will as well as provinces; but their pretensions are heirship, must always be dreaming, always scarcely now claims to thrones, and are unsatisfied, always feeling that every career only put forward in occasional protesta- but conspiracy is utterly insipid. He occutions: Francis of Bourbon claims Naples, pies in a world-wide suit the position of and the Duke of Cumberland maintains Richard Carstone in "Jarndyce v. Jarnhis right to Hanover, and the Duke of dyce," the claimant who is only waiting a Augustenburg says the "sea-surrounded" decision which never comes in order to be Duchies should have passed from Frederick rich. The prize is so immense, so visible of Denmark to him, and Don Miguel de and yet so distant, that the mental strain Braganza claims Portugal, and a shadowy towards it must of itself interrupt or empersonage who emerges every five years or bitter education. Learning will not bring so alleges disconsolately, but quietly, that it, or exertion, or even capacity of itself. he ought to be King of Sweden. Oddly No man can say that any acquirement enough, his chance is, among minor pretend- would help Napoleon IV. to his throne, yet ers, perhaps the best, for if the line of what interest can any study, or pursuit, or Bernadotte failed, and Scandinavia shrank even habit have for him, unless it seems to from the terrible dangers the proclamation lead him there? An accident, an event, a of a Republic would entail upon her chil-surge of popular emotion, and he may dren, the Swedes might think it dignified mount the first of European thrones, at tain a position before which every other | tion from which they have been cast down. must in his eyes seem poor, and till he at- They were aristocrats while the Empire tains it life will be insipid. His duty must lasted, and they have not, like their rivals, seem to himself preparation, and yet the the bald-headed Dukes who mutter saruncertainty, an uncertainty he cannot but casms on M. Thiers, their pedigrees and recognize, must make the preparation their estates on which to fall back for contedious or unreal. The success of a pre-solation. Every interest will unite with tender is the rarest of events, indeed Louis | every prejudice to induce them to spur Napoleon's is almost the only instance in modern history except Charles Stuart's, for Gustavus Vasa did not "pretend" and Louis XVIII. was restored by foreign arms, and the temptation must be either towards the career of our own Charles Edward, that of a restless adventurer who, hoping for a throne, remained without cultivation, and when his hope died out found only in wine the means of keepiug alive; or the career of the ex-Emperor, the silent, audacious plotter, mastered by a fixed idea. The Prince Imperial - it seems he declines the higher titular dignity, remaining Prince till France shall summon him- may have the strength to avoid either course, to cultivate himself in patience until France repents, as the Comte de Paris has done, or live his life in quiet expectation, as the Comte de Provence did; but that is not the course his blood will induce, or his special position encourage him to pursue. His theory is not that of divine right, but of preferential claim to a popular election which must be rendered more possible by a search for popularity. He is surrounded, too, by men very different from either the Legitimists or the Orleanists, by adventurers, some of them, no doubt, respectable in their persistent fidelity, but many of them mere conspirators, and all of them feverishly anxious to regain the high social posi their chief into premature activity, and he THE AGE OF THE VAST SEQUOIAS. - Profes- | the history of their race. Bor Asa Gray, in delivering his address before the American Association at Iowa, naturally dwelt more especially on botany. He gave a valuable lecture, in which he pointed out the more remarkable features, botanically, of the American Continent, and as a matter of course he dilated on those singularly aged trees the Sequoias. Concerning them he asks, Have they played in former times and upon a larger stage a more imposing part, of which the present is but the epilogue? We cannot gaze high up the huge and venerable trunks, which one crosses the continent to behold, without wishing that these patriarchs of the grove were able, like the long-lived antediluvians of Scripture, to hand down to us, through a few generations, the traditions of centuries, and so tell us somewhat of Fifteen hundred an nual layers have been counted, or satisfactorily made out, upon one or two fallen trunks. It is probable that close to the heart of some of the living trees may be found the circle that records the year of our Saviour's nativity. A few gen. erations of such trees might carry the history a long way back. But the ground they stand upon, and the marks of very recent geological change and vicissitude in the region around, testify that not very many such generations can have flourished just here, at least in an unbroken series. When their site was covered by glaciers, these Sequoias must have occupied other stations, if, as there is reason to believe, they then existed in the land. Silliman's American Journal, October, 1872. The Christian Ethics of Dr. Wuttke, on its appearance in Germany, was at once warmly welcomed by all evangelical scholars. Notwithstanding its several German rivals, it still maintains its ground as the best ethical work on the Continent. The best journals of England and America have repeatedly declared that a work of this kind is greatly needed in English, and have called for its translation. This want, Professor Lacroix, at the suggestion of several eminent scholars, has supplied. Dr. Wuttke, the author of the work, is a thoroughly evangelical Lutheran. This work is a discussion of the relations and problems of human life in a positively scientific, and at the same time thoroughly Christian spirit. Its inspiring motive, as set forth by the author himself, is not fidelity to a sectarian creed, but “honest loyalty to the Gospel." On the recommendation of Dr. Tholuck, and after an inspection of advanced sheets of this version the Messrs. Clark of Edinburgh are bringing out an edition for England. We here subjoin brief extracts from testimonials of high authority. [From Neue Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, Berlin.] "As a whole the work is so excellent that Hengstenberg's well-known utterance, that it should be in the hands of every pastor, is fully justified." [From Prof. SACK's Theologische Aufästze, Bonn.] "A very thorough and very learned work, giving evidence of a penetrating insight and a Christian spirit in its author." [From the Bibliotheca Sacra.] "Dr. Wuttke's work is enriched with constant reference to the Scripture, and is deserving the attentive study of every theologian and pastor. It is a good sign for Germany that a second edition of such a book has been called for in so short a time." [From Methodist Quarterly Review.] "It is one of the best productions of the age, in its department." "SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION," BY S. S. HAMILL, A.M., Professor of Elocution and English Literature, Illinois Wesleyan University. For circulars showing the plan and superior advantages of the work, address the publishers. THE INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS, [Berean Adaptation. Used by over 500,000 Scholars.] SEND FOR A BEREAN CATALOGUE. Ten Dollars will supply 10 teachers with the S. S. Journal, and 100 scholars with the Lesson Leaf for one year. The new Sunday School-room, at 805 Broadway, has the largest collection and richest variety of Sunday School Appliances, both English and American, to be found in the United States. THE CONGREGATIONAL QUARTERLY 1873. EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS, Alonzo H. Quint, Christopher Cushing, Samuel Burnham. THE CONGREGATIONAL QUARTERLY Commences its Fifteenth Volume with the Year 1873. It will be devoted, as in the past, to the interests of the Congregational denomination. The January number contains a fine steel engraving of the late Dr. Lowell Mason, with a sketch of his life, by Rev. George B. Bacon, D. D.; also the following articles: "The Relation of Congregationalism to the Future," by Rev. Truman M. Post, D. D.; "The Church of England, Its Synods, Clergy and Laity," by Rev. Robert C. Jenkins, M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, Rector and Vicar of Lyminge, and Honorary Canon of Canterbury, England; "Relative Claims of our Western Colleges," by Pres. George F. Magoun, D. D.; " History of the Congregational House," with a cut of the edifice and ground plan; also, the usual amount of Necrology and Literary Review; with a hundred pages of statistical matter, giving the statistics of all the Congregational churches, with the name and Post Office address of every Congregational minister on the North American continent, For the first time the statistics of the Churches are arranged in the alphabetical order of the States. This one number will be worth the subscription price for the year, and yet the whole volume will be furnished, as heretofore, for $2.00. No pains or expense will be spared to make the QUARTERLY an honor to the Denomination. Its contributors are among the ablest thinkers, scholars and writers of the country, and its articles are always timely and interesting. In its Biographical, Historical, and Statistical departments, it has no superior, while its Literary Review is pronounced by competent judges as of rare excellence and fullness. ADDRESS, TERMS: Two DOLLARS A YEAR. THE CONGREGATIONAL QUARTERLY, 20 CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, Boston, Mass. BANK CHECKS AND POST OFFICE ORDERS, Designed for the QUARTERLY, should be made payable to the order of C. Cushing. |