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Show The Extinction of Royal Families. The want of a direct heir to King Leopold of Belgium reminds us how in the course of time royal families lose their power and not unoften become be-come extinct. In Holland the illustrious illus-trious house of Orange which so distinguished dis-tinguished itself in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries now hangs upon up-on the slender thread of the life of Queen Wilhelmiua and her infant! child. The Bourbons of Prance, who I ruled for centuries, and the Bona- ! partes, whose brief meteorio career J startled the world, have both fallen I upon evil days. In Sweden the Vastn dynasty which numbered in its ranks such kings as Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII practically ceased to bo a century ago and was aucoeeded by Bernadolte the t A r i.l . . luuuuei oi cue presenr. reigning iami-ly. iami-ly. In England the once powerful Plao-taganets, Plao-taganets, the haughty Tudors and the unfortunate Stuarts have long; since passed away as distinct royal lines. In this connection it is a curious cu-rious fact that not so very mauy years ago a Plantageuet indirect line from Edward III was a sexton of a church ia Loudon, and that an Oliver Cromwell, Crom-well, a literal descendant of the great Protector, was a lawyer iu the same city and that the family is now ex-tinot. ex-tinot. The deoline and extinction of these and other royal families is easily so-counted so-counted or. In many cases revolutions revolu-tions deposed dynastios and set up others ; violent deaths in battle or by ftssasiuation also contributed their share. Then. too. ftxrnvn&nnr in liviDg, misrule, dissipated habits and frequent intermarriage naturally resulted re-sulted in lowered intellects, bodily weakness, and general uutitness. These causes will not beao prominent iu the future beoauss the people over whom kings now reign will not tolor-ate tolor-ate it. |