VIVE LE ROI

While it is a very human impulse to join the ranks of the victors, there is a charm about lost causes which kept the canny Scot swearing for a century by Prince Charlie. And if it was revealed in the Middle Ages by the continued existence of a king of the Romans it is no less apparent now in the prolonged life of the French Royalist party. But the latest reports, that the fiery Camelots du Roi are in fact petit bourgeouis whose families have arisen since the Revolution is slightly disconcerting to one who has pictured them secretly trailing the rusty awords and moth-eaten pupple of their titled ancestors.

The vigor with which these nouveau aristocrats are supporting their cause, however, makes up for any lack of ancient prestige: M. Leon Daudet called upon his twenty thousand associates to begin a royalist revolution "tonight, from this moment, from the gate of Paris." Possibly the Duc d'Orleans, nominal King of France, who is now residing in England is not aware of this enthusiasm, for he has not yet crossed the Channel to claim his throne.

Unfortunately, the republic seems too well established in France to give the Royalists even a fighting chance. If anything the administration will pass into the hands of the extreme Left. England needs a king to maintain its existing form of government, since much of the power of the Commons rests upon its use and control of the royal prerogative; but in France a king could be no more useful, although certainly more expensive, than a president. One would certainly advise M. Daudet and his Camelots to foregather at Oxford, traditionally the home of lost causes.