With the vicissitudes and fortunes of an existing dynasty more interest will now be felt than can attach to the family and reign of Murat; for even your Buonapartes—yea, the greatest of them all, the despotic king-maker-must give way to more modern and recent rulers, not one of whom presents a more exciting and important history than the politic and far-sighted monarch who occupies the throne of our Gallic neighbours, part of whose Life and Times is described in the second of the present volumes, and which contains several elegant illustrative engravings. Still, with the leading events of this king's reign most persons are tolerably well acquainted; especially, of course, with those which have occurred since the "Three Days." We may, however, without repeating what is perfectly stale, direct attention to some of the early passages of his career, and also to a fact or two connected with his predecessors of the Orleans family, drawn from the narrative before us, which is concocted in a style intended to be popular, but which does not promise to give much that will evince particular research, or uncommon political sagacity.

For a long series of years the dukedom of Orleans was united to the crown: Louis the Twelfth, who was surnamed "Father of the People," being the most distinguished of the monarchs who enjoyed the double honours. The present family is sprung from "Monsieur," by whose marriage with a descendant of James the First of England the house of Orleans would now have had a nearer claim to the British crown than the reigning family, had it not been that all the descendants of James were carefully excluded, who were or should become Catholics. The character and fate of the father of Louis Philippe are too closely connected with the French revolution at the close of the last century to require any details with regard to that convulsion; but his selection of Madame Genlis as the tutor of his sons was not only an instance of apparent caprice, but must have had such an influence on the character and history of the King of the French as must always call for remark. Louis Philippe did not, however, evince a very early love of study, and had frequently to be punished by confinement for his devotion to amusement. But all along he gave proofs of being possessed of sterling qualities, moral as well as intellectual. Every means were adopted to imbue his mind with all kinds and branches of knowledge, even that of practical gardening. At certain times he, as well as his brothers, had to converse in German, at others in Italian, and at others again in English. He soon displayed an ardent love of liberty. He was, when a youth, charitable and compassionate, brave and courageous. Altogether his upbringing and younger years were characterized in a manner that afforded the highest promise; while his vicissitudes, in consequence of the whirlwind revolution, furnished a school not more strange in a romantic sense than later times have shown the

great benefits which he reaped in the course of his exile and wanderings. We shall now merely quote some particulars and anecdotes belonging to his years of adversity; and which will serve to hand down his history to posterity as one of the most remarkable that has occurred at times unparalleled for mighty events and the development of genius and talent::

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During one of his adventurous excursions in the Alps, attended by the faithful Baudoin, he presented himself at the hospitium of Saint Gothard it was on the 29th of August, in the year 1793. Having rang the bell gently, a Capuchin friar appeared at the casement, and said in Italian - Che volete ?'-What do you wish? 'I request,' replied the Duke of Orleans, some nourishment for my companion and myself.' 'My good young men, we do not admit foot-passengers here, particularly of your description.' 'But, reverend father, we will pay whatever you demand.' 'No, no, that little inn there is good enough for you,' added the Capuchin, pointing to a poor shed where some muleteers were partaking of alpine cheese; and closed the window.

"Driven from this humble asylum, the duke continued his wandering life, travelling through the country of the Grisons. He was not more fortunate at Gordona than he had been at Saint Gothard. His costume and his knapsack were the cause of his being denied the hospitality which he demanded. However, the weather being most inclement, and night having come on, the hostess reluctantly consented, after numerous entreaties, to give the travellers shelter, which consisted of a bed of straw spread in an out-house. Overcome by fatigue, and having no particular object in then continuing his journey, the prince accepted even this kindness with gratitude, and slept soundly until the break of day, when he was awoke by a monotonous sound of feet passing and repassing immediately by him. As soon as he was capable of clearly discerning objects around, he discovered, to his utter astonishment, a young man with a gun, on guard beside him. Enquiring from him the cause of this extraordinary precaution,' It was my aunt,' replied the peasant, who placed me here, with instructions to kill you if you attempted to rob us. My aunt, you must know, is a miser and mistrustful.' The Duke of Orleans smiled at the vain suspicion, released his garde-du-corps, paid his bill and took leave of his hostess.

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'Upon the banks of lake Lucerne he fell in with a French priest and a pedlar, earnestly disputing with a boatman about the charge of their passage across. The duke, discovering that the reverend voyager had no funds whatever, notwithstanding his own pinching poverty, undertook to pay for him. During the passage across the lake they engaged in conversation. The pedlar informed his companions that his name was Mauséda, his trade that of an optician, and his late residence the Palais-Royal; he spoke for some time of the Duke of Orleans, to whom he pretended to have sold spectacles and other articles of his manufacture; and at length, to the great embarrassment of the duke, assured them that he knew personally every member of the Orleans family. A close examination, however, proved this itinerant merchant to be merely a similar character to the duke's host at Coblentz.

"As for the priest, anxious to express his gratitude to the generous traveller who had defrayed his expenses, he entreated to be taken into his service as chaplain; but the situation and circumstances in which the noble exile found himself, did not admit of any addition to his suite. He laughed heartily at the proposal of the churchman, but at the same time expressed his warm admiration of that gratitude in which the proposal originated.

"It was during his wanderings in Switzerland that the duke received a letter from M. Montesquieu, offering him the situation of professor at the college of Reichenau. He was aware that M. Chabaud-Latour had quitted France, for the purpose of entering this establishment with the rank of professor; but not arriving at the appointed time, M. de Montesquieu solicited the appointment from M. Aloyse Jost, president of the college, for his young friend the Duke of Chartres.

"The prince had attained his twenty-second year when he was admitted at Reichenau, in the month of October, 1793; he had previously submitted to the most rigid examination, presenting himself under the name of Chabaud, without being recognized by any save M. Aloyse Jost himself, or exciting the least suspicion as to his real character; and he continued to teach geography, history, the French and English languages, together with mathematics, for the space of eight months. He not only succeeded in the discharge of his academic duties, but had the good fortune to inspire the inhabitants of Reichenau with such a high esteem for his virtues and abilities, that they appointed him their deputy to the assembly of Coire.

"It was at this moment that the chilling intelligence reached him of his father's tragic fate. Overwhelmed with affliction, he sought relief in change of scene, and carrying with him the esteem, and even affectionate regards, of his associates at Reichenau, he became once more a wanderer, his knapsack hanging from his shoulder, and a staff giving additional firmness to his steps.

"As he approached Bremgarten, Baudoin, who had preceded him from precautionary motives, was in waiting to inform him whether all was safe within the town. Accosting his master with a much more cheerful air than he had exhibited at Saint-Gothard-' You may enter boldly, Monseigneur,' said he,' we shall have a better supper here than those detestable Capuchins gave us, for I heard them turning the spit, and I smelt the savour of a chicken, much more agreeable fare than the cheese of the Alps.'

"The prince remained with M. de Montesquieu, under the assumed name of Corby, and with the title and rank of aide-de-camp, until some time in the year 1794. But can a prince ever remain concealed? In default of any knowledge of his personal appearance, and equally ignorant of his place of concealment, intrigue and falsehood are alive, and busy with his name. Whilst a small but steady party in France still dreamt of a constitutional monarchy under the Duke of Orleans, the German papers represented him as living ostentatiously, and indolently, in a palace erected for him by General Montesquieu, at Bremgarten. And yet the putative Corby, as well as his generous host, was without money; and both were necessitated to lead the most simple, quiet, and frugal lives!

"Relieved from the anxiety of watching over the safety of his sister,

who had quitted the Convent of Bremgarten, to seek an asylum in Hungary, with the Princess de Conti, her aunt, the Duke of Orleans came to the determination of leaving Switzerland. One day as he sat in a parlour adjoining that occupied by M. de Montesquieu, he overheard him arguing with some persons, whose conduct, on his generous host's account, he regarded with suspicion and fear. This conversation made him apprehensive lest the hospitality which he was then receiving, might even prove fatal to his friend; and, to obviate such a frightful termination of their connection, he at once decided upon repairing to Hamburg. Upon his arrival at this great mart of commerce, he experienced so much difficulty in recruiting his pecuniary resources, that he was obliged to forego his projected voyage across the seas; but so incapable of enduring inactivity, that he set out, once more, as a wanderer, resolving to visit the cheerless climate of northern Europe. A letter of credit, limited in extent, on a banker at Copenhagen, was sufficient for the expenses of an exile now taught to endure the severest privations. The banker at Copenhagen, to whose kind attention he had been particularly recommended, not as Duke of Orleans, but only as a Swiss traveller, procured passports for him from the king of Denmark, under the authority of which he was at liberty to take with him two companions, his steadfast friend Count Montjoie, and honest Baudoin, who had shared with his master all the sorrows and sufferings of a persecuted exile.

"The Scandinavian peninsula, possessing considerable interest, may be explored at a trifling expense, especially in the modest manner adopted by the prince in his wanderings; besides, it offered still greater inducements to him in other, and not unimportant respects-its great distance from the seat of war, and the small number of French emigrants who had taken refuge there, neutralizing, to some extent, the malevolence which pursued him.

"From Copenhagen he passed to Elsineur, and visited the castle of Kronenburg, which commands the port; in this state prison the unhappy Queen, Caroline-Matilda, was immured, whilst an unauthorized tribunal proceeded rigorously against the minister, Count Struensee, who fell a victim to the ambition and hatred of the Dowager Queen, Maria-Julia. He next visited the gardens of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, immortalized by the genius of Shakspeare, and familiarized to Frenchmen, by Ducis, and his inimitable interpreter, Talma. Crossing the sound at Helsinbourg, he first set foot upon the hospitable soil of Sweden, where the traveller, without distinction of rank or fortune, is sure of meeting with a kind reception.

"Having examined the institutions of the rich and commercial town of Gottenburg, the second in the kingdom, he ascended lake Wener, to see the splendid waterfalls of Goetha- Elf, and the Herculean works undertaken within the last two centuries at Trollhathan, to connect the gulf of Bothnia with the North Sea by means of a ship canal.

"Thence bending his course towards Norway, the traveller remained for a short period at Frederickshall, the scene of Charles XII.'s last moments, an event, one of the most impressive which history has bequeathed, of the vanity of carthly ambition, and a theme for future moral

ists. Proceeding to Christiania, he was there received in the most gracious manner by the inhabitants, although none possessed any knowledge of his objects, or even suspected his rank.

"M. Monod, afterwards lecturer at the reformed church in Paris, was then in Christiania, and fully appreciates the conduct of the prince. He has since been repeatedly heard to declare, that the more the virtuous and instructive life of this traveller was examined, the more exalted and exemplary it appeared. What must have been this kind man's astonishment, after the revolution of many eventful years, on returning to his native country, to recognize in the young French traveller of Christiania, conspicuous by his gentleness and modesty, a prince of the blood royal, and standing upon the very steps of the throne of France.

"The duke remained for some time at Christiania, living quietly and unrecognized, happy at escaping those suspicions, and that surveillance, which had pursued him so incessantly in his journeyings. On one occasion he was fully convinced he had been discovered. It is an established custom in that country, at the proper season, after having breakfasted in town to go into the country to pass the remainder of the day. At the conclusion of one of these excursions, and when the guests were about to return to Christiania, he heard the son of a banker, whose guest he was, exclaim, in a loud and somewhat playful tone-'The Duke of Orleans' carriage!' The well-known sounds startled him not a little-such an occurrence could not be accidental-he was, he must be known to some one present! Perceiving that the young Norwegian did not notice the embarrassment into which he had been thrown, he soon recovered his self-possession, and only thought of investigating the extraordinary circumstance. With a playful smile upon his countenance, he asked his young friend—' Pray, why do you call for the Duke of Orleans' carriage? what have you to do with him?' Nothing at all; only that whilst our family resided in Paris, every evening, as we were coming out of the opera, we heard the people vociferating on all sides, and with the most extravagant eagerness-' La voiture de Monseigneur le duc d'Orleans! les gens de son Altesse Royal!" I have been almost stunned with the noise; I shall never forget the transaction-the whole thing just occurred to me now, and, instead of simply calling for our carriage, I gave an humble imitation of the way they do things in Paris.'"

Such is a sample of the "Life and Times of Louis Philippe," by the author of the "Life and Campaigns of the Duke of Wellington." One sentence will explain the object and opinions of the person who has now undertaken to write "the most eventful life of modern times." "The life," it is said, "of a monarch so wise—a man so amiable-should not longer be withheld from the world; it abounds in practical lessons of virtue and policy." It remains, however, to be seen whether this writer is able to grapple with the "most eventful life," and to set its main features before the world in a satisfactory light, since the "Three Days," and during the period when Louis Philippe has not only been the sovereign but the government of the French nation, as is very generally believed. It