and it seems to be thought that
by advising the Queen to take that great monarch's title, we shall
exercise a wholesome influence on the morals of our women. He
would quote Byron's
"Russia's mighty Empress
Behaved no better than a common sempstress;"
"there was an old-fashioned sacredness, which, however foolish
intrinsically, was still useful, in our title of 'The Queen'; nor
do we see the policy of adding a Supreme de Volaille to the bread
and wine of our Sacrament."
He chuckled over the indignation of the haute volee, when on the
visit to England of President Grant's daughter in 1872, Americans
in London sent out cards of invitation headed "To meet Miss Grant,"
as at a profane imitation of a practice hitherto confined to
royalties; laughing not at the legitimate American mimicry of
European consequence, but at the silly formalists in Society who
fumed over the imagined presumption. Consulted by an invalid as to
the charm of Ostend for a seaside residence, he limited it to
persons of gregarious habits; "the people are all driven down to
the beach like a flock of sheep in the morning, and in the evening
they are all driven back to their folds.
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