de us of our
follies, but to chant our undeserved praises. And alas, how much more
ridiculous, at certain times, he has made us appear--nay, be! With what
lecherous sweetness or ponderous grief he has put us to bed with our
wives or our ancestors, with what maudlin sentiment he has crooned over
us in our cradles! And how poor a show we present when poetry thus tries
to make our ordinary human doings appear so different from those of
other men! England set us that bad example; and, as usual, we followed
her. Only think how far more resplendent might have been her history had
the Court of St. James's continued and developed the institution of the
jester and let the laureateship go. If Pope could only have had the
teasing of Queen Anne, and Swift the goading of the earlier Georges; if
Johnson could have bumbled gruff wisdom into the ears of number three;
and, following upon these, could Sheridan, and Hook, and Carlyle, and
Sidney Smith (I pick up names almost at random) have had a really
assured position and full plenary indulgence as commentators on the
Court and aristocracy of the Regency, and of the early Victorian period
which culminated in that middleman's millennium, the Great Exhibition,
with its Crystal Palace so shoddily furnished to celebrate the
expurgation of art from industry. If only that could have been allowed,
think how England might have been standing now--honest in her faults as
in her virtues, a beacon light to the whole world. But there! it is no
use wishing such saving grace to a rival nation, when we are so out of
grace ourselves."

Prince Max paused for breath. "And then the whipping boy," he went on,
"think of him!"

"Yes, Max. I am thinking of him a good deal!" said the King, in a tone
wherein sarcasm and indulgence were pleasantly blended.

"You mean that I myself need the discipline?" smiled Max, "that my
political ideas are even worse than my morals? Well, here is what you
should do. Choose for me an exemplary young priest of the Established
Church, let him be gentle and comely to attract the hearts of women,
athletic and erudite to command the respect of men; and when I become a
cause of scandal or forget what is due to my position, let him be set to
stand in the old stocks at the doors of the Cathedral on a given day,
for a given number of hours; let it be announced in the Court Circular
that he is there to do penance for my sins, and let it be my privilege,
if penitent, to come in person