But France, complex, mobile, changeful as the sea, in riotous enjoyment of her new-found liberties, casts off a form of government as she would an ill-fitting garment.  She knows the value of tranquillity—­she had it for one thousand years!  The people, who have only breathed the upper air for a century—­the people, who were stifled under feudalism, stamped upon by Valois kings, riveted down by Richelieu, then prodded, outraged, and starved by Bourbons, have become a great nation.  Many-sided, resourceful, gifted, it matters not whether they have called the head of their government consul, emperor, king, or president.  They are a race of freemen, who can never again be enslaved by tyrannous system.

There may be in store for France new revolutions and fresh overturnings.  Not anchored, as is England, in an historic past which she reveres, and with a singularly gifted and emotional people who are the sport of the current of the hour, who can predict her future!  But whatever that future may be, no American can be indifferent to the fate of a nation to whom we owe so much.  Nor can we ever forget that in the hour of our direst extremity, and regardless of cost to herself, she helped us to establish our liberties, and to take our place among the great nations of the earth.

SOVEREIGNS AND RULERS OF FRANCE.

KINGS OF THE FRANKS

MEROVINGIAN LINE

A.D. 
Clovis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  496
Thierry, Clodomir, Clothaire, Childebert   511
Clothaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  559
Charibert, Gontran, Chilperic, Sigheben    561
Childebert  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  584
Theodebert, Thierry II., Clothaire III.    596
Dagobert  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  628
Clovis II., Sigheben II.  . . . . . . . .  638
Clothaire III., Chilperic II.   . . . . .  656
Thierry III., Dagobert II.  . . . . . . .  673
Clovis III.   . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  690
Childebert III.   . . . . . . . . . . . .  695
Dagobert III.   . . . . . . . . . . . . .  711
Chilperic III.  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  716
Thierry IV.   . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  720
Chilperic IV.   . . . . . . . . . . . . .  741

  CARLOVINGIAN LINE

Pepin   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  752
Charlemagne   . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  768
Louis (The Debonnaire)  . . . . . . . . .  814

  KINGS OF FRANCE

  AFTER DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE

Charles (The Bald)  . . . . . . . . . . .  843
Louis (The Stammerer) . . . . . . . . . .  877
Louis III. and Carloman . . . . . . . . .  879
Charles (The Fat) . . . . . . . . . . . .  884
Hugh  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  887
Charles (The Simple)  . . . . . . . . . .  898
Raoul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  923
Louis IV.   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  936
Lothaire  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  954
Louis V.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  986

  CAPETIAN LINE