THE GERMAN IMPERIAL FAMILY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1793, 19 March 1888, Page 3

THE GERMAN IMPERIAL FAMILY

Ia the coarse of an article on the late Bmperor and the Imperial family, the London "Times" says :— The Hohenzollerns, as a matter of fact, have no type of features, like the Bourbons, the Napoleons, or the Bapßbarga. Not a line indltates parity of race, ariatocraoy, or high intellectuality. And Prlnoe William has not been destined by Providence to introduce into the family line the stamp of refinement, the 'thoroughVed' look which is lacking from the ■**nperor to the remotest cousin of the ho- 8e of Hohecz^llern, The inner corrt^poQxfo to the exterior man. Prince Willla n hss the hanghty reserve of the English tqqq o f family and the rudeness of the Gorans ; moat of the faults and few of the ggod, o d qualities habitual to the yonth of el the? nation. His dreams cf glory are no aeoret, and he vaunts that soon he will have an op* postunlty of realising them at the expense of a nation he hates ferociously. It will be recollected that only last spring time, •t • banquet of officers when a guest asked him why he did not drink champagne he replied sharply, " 1 never drink French wines." Prince William is the representative of the war party In Germany- He longa to gather laurels as his grandfather has doae. His relations with Prince Biamarck are moat intlmats, and he receives wiilin&ly the Instructions of that statesman, for whom he has an nndisgalaed admiration. Destiny would haveeerved well the secret desirea of Prince Biemarck m removing the down Prince Frederick from the succession to the throne. The Chancellor wishes for no English Influence an Fatherland. It might end m Introducing a free Parliamant. There ia the danger that Bismarck dreads. The young Prince will abandon no prerogative of the Crown. Rather will he seek to 'strengthen the autocratic rale by grasping further privileges.

Prince William has expressed a great admiration for Louis XI V. and for Frederick the Groat, the monarch who said, " The State, It Ia I," and the Httle man who drilled bis eoldlera like'a aerge•at, and used his boots, like the famou3 Boron of Sheppy. The Prince la undoubtedly very popular throughout the German empire, and when he ascends the throne, $o which he has already been acclaimed by the popular voice, he will vorthily realise the expectations formed ftnong«t the people."

4 number of paintings by Hogarth and his ' father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill, have been Swionsly brought to light m an old houße at Crreenwiob, England. They were painted on, pamls m the wall, but a .butcher, who subse? quertly occupied the house, covered them over T»Uh a rich drab. Now the drab has been peeled off and revealed the pictures. A recent number of an American trade journal contains a report on New Zealand which uakes the extraordinary statement thai severe snowstorms had occured m the South Island and that snow was lying tea feet deep ia the bill country.