It must be that for monarchists born and bred, an anointed head, whether covered by a silk hat or a straw bonnet, is circled by a _simulacrum_ of a crown, which dazzles the aim of the would-be regicide, they are so almost certain to miss, at long or short range. Alas there is no halo of sovereignty or "hedge of divinity" about our poor Presidents! It is, perhaps, because of this unsteadiness of nerve and aim, that Continental regicides are taking to sterner and surer means--believing that no thrice blessed crown can dazzle off dynamite, and that no most imperial "divinity" is bomb-proof. In July an act which was the shadow of a coming event, was passed by Parliament, and received the Royal assent. It provided that Prince Albert should be Regent in case that the Queen should die before her next lineal descendant should attain the age of eighteen years. In August the Queen prorogued Parliament for the first time since her marriage, and she brought her handsome husband to show to all the Lords and gentlemen--bravely attired in his Field-Marshal's uniform, with his Collars of the Garter and the Bath, and diamond Stars--and she had him seated only a little lower than herself and very near, in a splendid chair, gilded, carved, and velvet-cushioned. The Prince wrote to his father as a piece of good news, "The prorogation of Parliament passed off very quietly." He had had reason to fear that his right to sit in that lofty seat would be disputed--that the old Duke of Sussex might come hobbling up to the throne, calling out, "I object! I object!" But nothing of the kind happened. The Queen, by her wit and her courage, had circumvented all the royal old sticklers for precedence--who put etiquette before nature. The Queen's mother, and her uncle and aunt, the King and Queen of Belgium, were present,--so it was quite a family-party. The good Uncle Leopold was observed to smile benignly on both Victoria and Albert, as though well pleased with his work. The Queen was most magnificently attired with all her glories on, in the shape of diamonds and orders, and looked very proud and happy,--and yet there was a dreamy, half-troubled expression in her eyes at times, which was not usual, but which her mother understood. On this day, Prince Albert's _status_ was fixed. He had taken a ride with his wife, in the State-carriage, with the twelve cream-colored, long-tailed State horses, and the gorgeous footmen, and he had sat higher, and nearer the throne than any other man in the House of Lords, Prince or Peer. The next thing the Queen did for him was to make him a member of the Privy Council. But a little later, he had a higher promotion than that; for, on the 21st of November, the Princess Royal was born in Buckingham Palace, in the early afternoon.