ENGLISH FEELING TOWARDS THE ROYAL FAMILY.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 752, 12 November 1870, Page 4

ENGLISH FEELING TOWARDS THE ROYAL FAMILY.

A very significant demonstration has taken place on the part of a portion of the English newspaper press not much given to admonish the highest personages in the realm. Towards the end of August her Majesty suddenly quitted Osborne for Balmoral. The Economist, commenting upon the flight of her Majesty from one extremity of the kingdom to another, twenty miles beyond railway communication, and the fact that this isolation of the head of the State necessitates a delay of three days in completing every despatch, adds: — " Tht intemiption to business is extreme, the hardship to individuals excessive, and except the etiquette of monarchy, it has literally no jostification. It may be said that her Majesty requires rest, but that, though a good argument as against London, is no argument against Windsor, where the Queen possesses spaces, solitude?, air, woods, and waters, as attractive as those of Balmoral. Suppose we add another constitutional fiction to the number already existing, and hold that the Sovereign always is either in London or Windsor, and if he is absent permit the Premier to assume that he is present, and to sign documents in his name — there

would be no harm dune to the country, which already holds the Premier and nut the Sovereign responsible, and none to the monarchy, for the wearer of ihe crown can always be present in London or Windsor at his pleasure. It would not be even an apparent step towards republicanism, while it would secure the first principle of popular institutions — that the welfare of the State is to override all considerations of etiquette, of individual comfort, or even of individual wellbeing." In the Times of the Bth instant there is a letter subscribed " Spectator," which, although purporting to be written at the Ministers, who, since Parliament rose, have been ruralising, has Borne passages which, had they been published fifty yeara ago, would have subjected the editor of it to the serveillance of the police at least. "Spectator" commences by calling the attention of the country to the more than human philosophy which is displayed by its rulers at tho present moment, and after briefly reviewing the affairs of the continent, proceeds as follows — " Iti*is while the ground, Sir, is thus shaking under our feet, that our rulers maintain their 'divine calm.' - I do not refer to the Supreme Head of the State. Private individuals like myself, after our first surprise, have begun to understand Jie impossibility of doing justice to the feelings of a person in so exalted a position. If we in our humble sphere had sons-in-law who were daily hazarding their lives in the most bloody of modem wars ; if our friends and allies of twenty years' standing were threatened with utter ruin; if above all we knew we might possibly be invited at a critical moment to aid in stanching a terrible bloodshed, and if a day's delay might be fatal to a single life — not to say hundreds and thousands of lives — we should not, Sir, be inclined to go as far as we possibly could from the scene of action. Even if no material inconvenience would be occasioned, we should fear that our friends might misunderstand iis, and think us unfeeling. But the wise man has said that the heart of a sovereign is inscrutable, and therefore when I read of the court being at Balmoral, and of princes going out deerstalking, I do but meditate upon the Windless of inferor mortals." The P all Mall Gazette backs up these remarks with the following : — " In regard to the head of the statej a ludicrously exaggerated importance seems to be attached in some quarters to the choice of a remote part of the kingdom as the residence of the court. In an emevgency the difficulty and delay of communication thus occasioned would not we presume, and certainly should not, be allowed to interfere with a prompt and decided line of policy, if the Ministers responsible to Parliament are agreed on it. A Minister who, in such a case, sacrificed the interests either of his own or other countries to a weak compliance with effete traditions and empty forms, would obviously have much to answer for." This is speaking out, but it has not produced any effect. And yet, in the face of Republicanism in France, and coming Republicanism in Spain, and probably Italy, Monarchy can hardly afford to be indifferent. The Prince of Wales is decidedly unpopular in London, and more than once in private circles have I heard a sons which has for its burthen, in place of "the Grecian Bend " or " The Roman Fall," "The Prince's Stagger," cause immense delight. This is not the sort of ballad which is generally considered complimentary to the hero.