PRINCELY LIBERALITY.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 538, 29 June 1869, Page 4

PRINCELY LIBERALITY.

Some of the miscellaneous expenses charged in the Civil Service Estimates are of rather a strange character. It is a very good thing, no doubt, that Princes of the blood should see the world ; and, as the Duke of Edinburgh is a captain in the Navy, we make no particular objection to his making the modern grand tour — all round the world — in a frigate. But if he feels inclined to make presents, as a generous young man of high station would wish to do, it seems a pity to deprive him of the pleasure he would otherwise derive, by charging his gratitude to the national account. He is allowed L 15,000 a-year, and it must be very painful to him not to be permitted to behave like a gentleman at his own expense, but to see in the Estimates an item of L 3374 14s for "costs of presents and gratuities by H.R.H. Duke of Edinburgh at the Cape and Australia and during his present voyage in H.M,S, Galatea." At any rate, he might have been permitted to pay the odd fourteen shillings out of his own pocket. Prince Christian is such a favorite of the British people that, of course, no one can object to his passage from Dover to Calais, when he went to see his father, being charged to the public account. His wife, the Princess Helena, has only £6000 a year, and nobody knows exactly what the Prince's private means are, so we are disposed to act liberally, and trust that if ever the Prince takes a cab or rides in an omnibus he will carefully transmit a voucher for his fare to the Lords of the Treasury.