the unfavourable incidents of a
royal education. He overlooks the direct and indirect influences which
are brought to bear from the very cradle upon an hereditary Prince--the
sense of responsibility, the consciousness of a great position, the
familiarity with the gravest interests, a youth passed under the tuition
of the ablest masters, and above all that constant intercourse with the
finest intellects of the age, which secure for a future King a moral and
intellectual training unequalled in its excellence. The effect of that
training we see in our own Royal family, unfortunate as they have been
in the withdrawal at the most critical period of a father's control and
guidance. Of the Queen's daughters it is needless to speak. Her sons
are, by general admission, soldiers and sailors of more than average
professional ability. The Crown Prince of Germany, the late King of
Spain, the present heir of the House of France, Leopold II. of Belgium,
and King Humbert of Italy, are generally credited with high ability; and
more than one of them would take rank among the first statesmen of his
Kingdom. A Prince of fair abilities, with such a training and such
knowledge of the men with whom he is necessarily brought into contact,
has every means of knowing, at least as well as Parliament, who are the
most competent and most trustworthy statesmen to whom he can commit the
fortunes of his Kingdom. His continuous, experience of politics,
legislation, and government, his access, especially with regard to
foreign affairs, to wider and more impartial sources of information,
lend to his counsels an authority which no prudent or thoughtful
statesman will disregard. He looks at affairs from a higher point of
view, with a wider survey as a rule, and also with a calmer and more
unbiassed judgment.

Mr. Bagehot dwells at length on what may be called the fictitious value
of Constitutional Monarchy; and this he was evidently inclined to
exaggerate. The English people, he thought, are, as a rule, too ignorant
to understand what the Queen's Government really is--how completely it
is carried on in the Royal name by Parliamentary Ministers. For them the
law is really incarnate in the Sovereign; in yielding obedience to
magistrates and policemen, to common law and Parliamentary statutes, in
forbearing or resisting riot, they obey or uphold the Royal authority.
Were they aware that at each general election they choose their real and
effective rulers for