It is a singular circumstance that so gallant a nation as the French should exclude women from the throne, while the ungallant English have a strong predilection for the government of queens. The ancient Franks preferred kings, on account of the continual wars in which they were engaged; and a good deal of difficulty having arisen concerning a succession to the crown, after the death of Lewis Hutin, it was solemnly and deliberately decreed that all females should be excluded; and this decree remains to the present day unreversed. Yet there is probably no country in the world where women exert such an active political influence as in France. Under the regency of Anne of Austria, they obtained an ascendency which they have never since lost. According to cardinal de Retz, a revolution in the heart of a woman at that time often produced a revolution in public affairs; and the profligate Louis the Fifteenth was notoriously governed by his mistresses. The Comtesse Champagne, when she presided at one of the Courts of Love, during the age of chivalry, solemnly decided that true love could not exist between a married pair; and it was the received maxim of those courts in Provence, that being married was no legitimate reason against returning the passion of a lover. To this day, the French have a singular code of morals upon this subject; yet those who know them well, say they are quite as good, if not a little better than their more decorous neighbors. It is difficult to make fair comparisons; and we gladly throw a gauze veil over the subject, _à la mode Française_. The French are very susceptible, but not characterized by depth of passion. The following anecdote may serve to illustrate the difference between them and the English: A Frenchman, by the most ardent professions, endeavored to gain the affections of a married woman in England; and she at length became so infatuated as to propose that they should escape to Scotland and secure the happiness of their future lives by marriage. The volatile lover excused himself as well as he could, and often laughed with his countrymen, when he told how much trouble he had to escape such excess of kindness.