We should be sorry to believe that this Eastern legislator was a fool--the idea of an aristocracy of umbrellas is too philosophic to have originated in a nobody--and we have accordingly taken exceeding pains to find out the reason of this harsh restriction.

We think we have succeeded; but, while admiring the principle at which he aimed, and while cordially recognising in the Siamese potentate the only man before ourselves who had taken a real grasp of the umbrella, we must be allowed to point out how unphilosophically the great man acted in this particular.

His object, plainly, was to prevent any unworthy persons from bearing the sacred symbol of domestic virtues.

We cannot excuse his limiting these virtues to the circle of his court.

We must only remember that such was the feeling of the age in which he lived.