Burlington Free Press

SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE.

The following is an extract from a letter of Thomas Jefferson to his friend, formerly Governor of New Hampshire, giving an account of the European monarchs of his time and acquaintance. The opinions of the writer are expressed with much purity and elegance and with all that modesty and diffidence which formed so conspicuous a trait in Mr. Jefferson's character.

"Louis XVI was a fool to my own knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial." The king of Spain was a fool; of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding days. The king of Sardinia was a fool. All those were Bourbons. The queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was the king of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of government. The king of Prussia, successor to the Great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as mind. Gustavus of Sweden and Joseph of Austria were really crazy, and George of England, you know, was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine, who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this state, Bonaparte found Europe, and it was this state of its rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals have become without mind and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarchy after a few generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catharine, is yet an exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only the third generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the Book of Kings; from all of which the Lord deliver us."