DR. DORAN'S MONARCHS RETIRED FROM BUSINESS. *
Tins is a better book than so forced and flippant a title might lead one to suppose. The characteristic laxities of the author will of course be found in it. He is not more careful than heretofore in the choice of his facts ; only let them be funny, or telling, or serve to hang on a reflection that looks witty or profound, and he will not scrutinize the innate likelihood of the story or the credibility of the raconteur. He is equally lax about his authorities. In his life of Christina Queen of Sweden, he passes by Whitelocke's Embassy to Sweden, the most trustworthy authority on a part of the subject, for inferior and even anonymous writers. He is lax, or so lazy, that he continually contradicts himself in matters of fact. Having stated, truly enough, that the house of Lancaster "ruled in England." sixty-two years—from 1399 to 1461, he says within a page or two, that "the house of York held dominion over England only two years more than that of Lancaster," and then im mediately gives the right dates, 1461-1485, which show it to have been thirty-eight years less. He says the last and deposed King of Poland, Stanislaus Poniatowski, died in 1798; yet compels him to submit to the " indignity " of appearing at the coronation of Alexander, which did not take place till 1801. If these were casual slips they might not amount to much, but we fear in Dr. Doran's case it is merely one form of haste and looseness. The plan of the work, even in reference to its title, is pushed too far. Who cares about dry or apocryphal accounts of chief tains of the Heptarchy or Frankish " Kings " who retired or
were forced. into monasteries P The interest is even less with remoter peoples. But Dr. Doran is not satisfied with overlaying his subject in that way.; he often gives a sketchy coup d'oeil of the history of the empire in which his subjects have "retired from business," and whose private lives are to be done as fully as the materials will allow. The Roman, the Byzantine, the Russian empires, are so treated, and indeed England and France.
A. well-selected group of lives of monarchs, whom misfortune, caprice, infirmity, or philosophy, have compelled or induced to descend from a throne, would form an interesting and instructive work. An unavoidable drawback felt in Dr. Doran is, that the leading features of the more eminent monarchs are already fami liar through liistory, or in some cases—as the Emperor Charles the Fifth and. Napoleon Bonaparte—by separate accounts. However, there are still a good many of whom little is popularly known, at least in their retirement, especially since the Revolu tion of 1688. Even lit our days, how many sovereigns have had to leave off "business," not driven away by the wars and con quests ensuing upon the French Revolution, but compelled by their subjects or their own feelings ! Gustavus the Fourth of Sweden led the way, and, after latterly living in almost sordid poverty, died in absolute obscurity some twenty years ago. Charles the Tenth in 1830, Louis Philippe in 1848, are familiar to us all; and neither the elder nor the younger branch of the Bour bons was able to maintain itself for twenty years. The retired Em peror of Austria was of no more consequence off the throne than on it. William Frederick of Holland rather threw a respect ability into the part of "All for Love " ; which is more than can be said. of Ludwig of Bavaria. The late King of Sardinia heroically closed. a questionable career, but lived too short a time after the battle of Novara to furnish much material for gossip. As for the petty Peninsular or Transatlantic Princes who have "retired from business," their names are not worth the enumeration. One of the most interesting stories in the volumes is the life of James the Second. This may arise from the air of pious resignation he contrived to throw over his exiled state, or more truly perhaps from our associations with the English King. There is something touching in this natural weariness breaking through the assumed part.
"His impatience and disappointment betrayed themselves in his occasionally-expressed weariness of life. He was, after all, tired of the burden he had been condemned to carry; and he often brought tears into the eyes of the Queen, who reproached him for his eagerness to lay down his life, and bade him think of his children. It was then that testy human nature would break out in spite of self-discipline. 'My children,' he would say, 'God will provide for them and for you. But what am I, but a poor, weak man, who can do nothing without God, and with whom God will have nought to do. He can carry out his designs without me.'
• Monarchs Retired from Business. By Dr. Doran, Author of "Knights and their Days," Sic. Sic. Published by Bentley. " These venial outbreaks of impatience,--sometimos indulged in purposely, he said, that the Queen might accustom herself to the idea of his death,— were followed by closer study than usual of the ninth book of the treatise 'On the Love of God,' by Francis de Sales. The works of this author he read even oftener than he did the Scriptures. He founded his rule of life on the works of the Gentleman Saint,' who shared with Thomas-i-Kempis, Granata, and Rodriguez, the highest esteem of the Royal recluse. He submitted to another sort of discipline also, which was not without severity. It is alluded to in the 'Circular Letter from the Religious Convent of Chaillot.' In this the pious author states= We have seen, since his death, the iron chain and the discipline he made use of; but he so carefully hid his mortifieations, that the Queen did not find them out for a long time after, having found them (chain and whip) by chance in a closet which he had forgot to shut.'
" The chief amusements of the uncrowned pair consisted in visits paid to convents and similar religious communities, at a moderate distance from St. Germains. These visits were paid when some festival was celebrated ; and, the religious ceremony concluded, nothing pleased the King more thoroughly than to assemble an audience about him in some spacious hall of the establishment, and there recount to his hearers the history of his life and conversion. The tale was told frequently enough to vex the ears of those who were repeatedly called to listen to it ; and perhaps some of those who heard the old story smiled at the King's conclusion wherein he asserted, I have lost nothing. I have been a great sinner. Prosperity would have corrupted me ; I should have lived in disorder; or, if I had not left off sinning till old age had seized me, I should never have had time nor opportunity for entering into myself,. nor of making the necessary reflections on my wretched state and condition. God in his mercy has afflicted ine, and has given me time and grace to think on my salvation. I have never desired, on my own account, to be settled on my throne again.' "
The privations of the more respectable followers of James when disbanded., the courage they exhibited in the French service, and the neglect they received in return, are pretty well known. The less creditable doings of some of the heroic band are not so familiar, perhaps because the chief writers upon the subject are Jacobites.
"Other vexations, too, continued to annoy the ex-sovereign. The disbanded troops, lately in his service, were fast falling into evil ways, and achieving a very undesirable reputation. That some of them took to the road has been already mentioned, The route between St. Germaine and Paris was not safe because of them ; and they added murder to robbery when they met with resistance. One Irish Jacobite trooper, named Francis O'Neil, was broken alive upon the wheel, for the double crime of plunder and assassination. Two other ex-soldiers in James's service, Englishmen, lacked nerve to take their chance against stout travellers on the road ; but they practised the double profession above named in a quieter and more cowardly way. On pretence of being ill, they sent for a physician, and when the latter entered their apartment, they fell upon, stabbed, and robbed him. The law was stringently applied to these Jacobite ruffians, whose desperate crimes testify at once to their own utter destitution and the fallen condition of their sovereign. James and his consort sought for such comfort as they could find, under the disgrace brought upon them by their followers, by frequent visits to convents, adoration of relies, and constant attendance at sermons and the elevation of the host. These visits were of no avail ; the town of St. Germaine became almost uninhabitable through the sanguinary violence of the Jacobite brigands. No sober citizen dared venture abroad at night, even in the summer-time ; and to what extent pillage and murder were carried by the fierce and hungry partisans who had followed the standard of James, may be seen in the fact, that on one and the same day five Irish soldiers were broken alive' in St. Germans, for the crime of robbery and assassination by night, in the town or its vicinity."
Whether such a mere adventurer as Theodore King of Corsica, a sort of nine-days wonder of the last century, was worth introducing at all, may be questioned, but his closing scene furnishes a curious medley.
"In the year 1756, he 'took the benefit of the Insolvent Act'; and his schedule registered the kingdom of Corsica for the benefit of his creditors, and declared that he 'had no other estate or effects but in right of that kingdom.' He was liberated in December, but he took up his residence within the Liberty of the Fleet. Increased distress threatening him, he repaired to the Portuguese Ambassador, in South Audloy Street, near him old residence in Mount Street, to ask for aid. Without a penny in his pocket to pay for the conveyance, he engaged a chair ; and when he was set down at the Ambassador's, hie Excellency was not at home.' Perplexed in the extreme, he prevailed on the reluctant chairmen to carry him to No. Little Chapel Street, Soho, where lived an honest tailor, known to Theodore ; and in whose compassionate character he was not mistaken, for the poor fellow received the still poorer fellow who needed charity and obtained what he needed. The ex-King was in a state of inanition, and was indeed past recovery. He lay down on the humble bed of his friend the tailor, and died there the next day. A subscription was talked of to defray the expenses of the royal funeralS but an oilman, well-to-do, in Compton Street, Soho, whose name was Wright, and who was not without a particular vanity, declared that he was 'determined for once in his life to have the honour of burying a king.' He undertook to defray the expenses. They amounted only to 10/. lls. 2d.; • but the opulent oilman' would not pay more than eight guineas; and the bill of Mr. Hubbard, at the Four Coffins and Crown, in New Street, near Broad Street, Carnaby Market, St. James's, Westminster,' bears the unsatisfactory mark of balance due, 21. Ss. 2d.' "The body, after lying in such ' stute ' as could be got up for it, at the poor tailor's, was buried on the 15th December 1756. Three weeks later, Walpole writes to Mann, 'Your old royal guest, King Theodore, in gone to the place which, it is said, levels kings and beggars ; an unnecessary Journey for him, who had already fallen from the one to the other.' In September 1757, Walpole writes to the same correspondent at Florence—where Theodore was residing when the Corsican deputation offered to elect him king' I am putting up. a stone in St. Anne's Churchyard for your old friend, King Theodore ; in short, his history is too remarkable to be let perish. Mr. Bentley says that I am not only an antiquarian, but prepare materials for future antiquarians. You will laugh to hear, that when I sent the inscription to the Vestry, for the approbation of the Minister and Churchwardens, they demurred, and took some days to consider whether they should suffer him to be called King of Corsica. Happily, they have acknowledged his title ! Here is the inscription ; over it is a crown, exactly copied from his coin—' Near this place is interred,. Theodore, King of Corsica who died in this parish, December 11, 1756, immediately after leaving the King's Bench Prison, by the benefit of the Act of insolvency; in censesequence of which he registered his kingdom of Corsica for the UN of his creditors.
'The Grave, great teacher, to a level brings Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings. But Theodore this lesson teamed ere dead ; Fate poured its lessons on his living head. Bestowal a kingdom, and denied bun bread.'
" I would have served him,' adds the epitaph-writer, if a king, even in a gaol, could have been an honest man ".; and with this ffing' at the genus and the individual he dismisses the guinea."
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