_The Duke of Normandy._--The question relative to the late Duke of
Normandy being the individual who was Dauphin of France, the son of
Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, and who was said to have died in the
Temple, has never been as publicly and satisfactorily settled as it
deserves. The high station and unquestionable integrity of the
individuals of the Perceval family who instituted the inquiry, and in
the most open manner laid the results of that inquiry before the public,
constitute an unexceptionable guarantee for its genuineness and
authenticity. The acute perception and accurate memory of Madame Tussaud
carry great weight with them. She was asked by the writer of this
paragraph, if she thought the person calling himself the Duke of
Normandy was the same individual she had modelled when a child. Madame
Tussaud replied with great emphasis, "I would take my oath of it for he
had a peculiar formation on the neck which still remains. Besides
something transpired between us, which he referred to, which was never
likely to be mentioned to any one." The late Mr. Jeremy, the active and
highly intelligent magistrate who presided in the court of Greenwich,
and whose long experience adds value to his judgment, was of opinion
that there were no traces of the impostor discovered by him during
several scrutinising examinations which were held in his office, and
that the members of the old French nobility who were present treated him
with profound respect. He was supported through unknown channels, was
twice shot at, and refused permission by the French government, though
it was applied for by legal advocates of the highest standing, to bring
the question before the legal tribunals. At first the Emperor of Russia
and the King of Prussia, who knew that the Dauphin was alive, opposed
the Duke of Wellington's proposal to reinstate Louis XVIII. The Empress
Josephine is also said to have been aware, that the Dauphine did not die
in the Temple, and is reported to have said "Ah! legitimacy is nearer
than you suppose." It is an unsettled historical question worthy the
attention of the historian who has time to bestow on it.