of the persistent perfidy wherewith
he has been retained for several years in bondage, in violation of the
express agreement of his captors. The whole collection is, in its
general effect, delusive and mischievous, the purpose being to exhibit
War as always glorious and France as uniformly triumphant. It is by
means like these that the business of shattering knee-joints and
multiplying orphans is kept in countenance.

Versailles is a striking monument of the selfish profligacy of
King-craft and the long-suffering patience of Nations. Hundreds of
thousands of laborers' children must have gone hungry to their straw
pallets in order that their needy parents might pay the inexorable taxes
levied to build this Palace. Yet after all it has stood mainly
uninhabited! Its immense extent and unequalled splendor require an
immeasurable profusion in its occupant, and the incomes even of kings
are not absolutely without limit. So Versailles, with six or eight other
Royal Palaces in and around Paris, has generally stood empty, entailing
on the country an enormous annual expense for its simple preservation.
And now, though France has outgrown Royalty, it knows not what to do
with its costly, spacious, glittering shells. A single Palace
(Rambouillet) standing furthest from Paris, was converted (under Louis
Philippe) into a gigantic storehouse for Wool, while its spacious Parks
and Gardens were wisely devoted to the breeding and sustenance of the
choicest Merino Sheep. The others mainly stand empty, and how to dispose
of them is a National perplexity. Some of them may be converted into
Hospitals, Insane Retreats, &c., others into Libraries or Galleries of
Art and Science; but Versailles is too far from Paris for aught but a
Retreat as aforesaid, and has cost so immense a sum that any use which
may be made of it will seem wasteful. I presume it could not be sold as
it stands for a tenth of its actual cost. Perhaps it will be best,
therefore, to convert all the others into direct uses and preserve this
for public inspection as a perpetual memorial of the reckless
prodigality and all-devouring pomp of Kings, and as a warning to Nations
never again to entrust their destinies to men who, from their very
education and the influences surrounding them through life, must be led
to consider the Toiling Millions as mainly created to pamper their
appetites, to gratify their pride, and to pave with their corpses their
road to extended dominion.