Bonaparte, grandson of Lucien, Prince of Caninio, the brother of the Emperor Napoleon I.
Blanc died in 1881. In 1882 it was resolved to double the capital of this "bathing establishment." The fifteen million was raised to thirty million, divided up into 60,000 shares of 500 francs each, Blanc's heirs retaining about 52,000 shares in their own hands. As the original concession was for fifty years, and would expire in 1913, it was deemed advisable to approach the Prince of Monaco for an extension, and this was granted, as the shareholders complained, "on very hard terms." It was signed on January 16th, 1898, and by this agreement the company received a fresh concession for fifty years.
So profitable an affair is this Circle des Étrangers and Société des Bains de Mer, that the ordinary 5OO-franc shares rose at once to 4,770 francs.
An old Italian proverb was to this effect:
Monaco io sono
Un scoglio.
Del mio non ho
Quello d'altrui non taglio
Pur viver voglio.
That may be rendered, "I am Monaco, a mere rock; I have naught of my own, I take no goods of others; yet I must live."
This proverb is now as inappropriate as the legend on the coins; for Monaco lives and thrives on the plunder of those who go there to empty their money on the tables.
Les Spélunges, a rocky promontory, full of holes and cracks, like a petrified sponge, on which formerly shepherds pastured their goats, has become the
