PRINCE OF WALES' SCANDAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 266, 20 November 1879, Page 6

PRINCE OF WALES' SCANDAL

In our cablegrams some time since the latest scandal regarding the Prince of Wales was mentioned. Tbe London correspondent of the New York Times gives the following particular and wholesome advice about the matter:— I have it on tbe very best authority that the husband of the famous London beauty, Mrs Langtry, has commenced proceedings for divorce, and that (he Prince of Wales is mentioned in tbe ease. My informant declared he had seen the preliminary papers necessary to tbe first legal steps in such a suit. Now, without for a moment desiring to make the case worse than it is, or casting any more reflections upon the person and "personage" concerned, than the bare facts warrant, I would suggest tbat the injured feelings of Mr Langtry are developed at the very period when the lady's ascendency seems in danger of eclipse. Mrs Wheeler is now the beauty whom the fashionable reporters are followiog about. This ia how the society papers note the, royal doings at and off Dartmouth: " His Royal Highness takes it all very quietly, living chiefly with bis hands in the pockets of n blue yachting suit. The maidens of Dartmouth are dreadfully jealous of tbe pretly Mrs Wheeler, aod those wbo affect tbe seas are begining to show tbat tbey can be guilty of the siocerest flattery. The wonderful costume in which Mrs Wheeler yachts, and, when she condescends to go ashore, walks, has already become a tradition of tbe Dartmouth boudoir, and a sub* ject of discussion in the baths of Torquay." Mr Wheeler accompanies his wife, and probably if he wers to take a torn through the baths incognito he would be very much astonished, not lo say indignant, at tbe way in which certain ladies wbo bask in the smiles of the English Prince are spoken of. It is, of course, peculiarly hard that a commoner aod bis wife cannot ba seen with the Prince of Wales without scandal wagging its tongue againt the lady, but the husband should surely resent invitations to pßrtie. of oleiseure upon which tbe Princess of Wales does not smile her personal approval. The Pi ince is not more to blame than tbe msiguided married ladies who are honored with bis patronage; for be reads tbe newspapers and must know what is thought and said about society belles who go yachting when be does, who are invited to semi-swell bouses to meet him at aristocratic p.rtua where tbe Princess does not come. If all thia sort of business is innocent, if it is merely a pleasant interchange of social courtesies, then tbe Prince is damaging tbe reputations of respectable men and beautiful women, and what is of more concern to himself, he is falling in the esteem of the English people, who are moat anxious to hold him high in their love and admiration. He might be one of the most popular prince? that ever lived, and, should he succeed to the throne, one of the most revered of mon.rchs; but he runs the risk of being neither one nor tbe other. Why docs not some great good man solemnly warn him ? Doss be live in such a sacred atmosphere that Lord Beaconefield himself cannot lay bis band on the royal shoulder and bid the Prioce reflect ? Or has tbe old Earl cautioned bim in vain ? Should the Prince, by any s sriea of adverse circumstances, ever stand openly in a court of law convicted before the public ot a contemptuous disregard of bis bigh social duties, he would have as much chance of Bitting on tbe British throne as I shall. That portion of the English people wbich is intensely loyal is also intensely moral; it claims from royalty tbat it shall uphold tbe moral law, tbat it s ' i a ' 1 , at least in social life, assume a virtue if it does not possess it; aod, once the Prince convinces tbis great class that he is unworthy of tbeir allegiance, and his chances ot bearing the sceptre, or continuing to wield it if it be ia bis grasp, are at an end. It is not London opinion wbich governs England; it is the country tbat control. Parliament; it is the provinces where active loyalty and disloyalty are found, and tbe day has passed away when the provinces will continue to reverence where they cannot respect. Tue people will forget all the good be has done; tbey will

cease to remember all his good qualities the moment some great injudicious act destroys his popularity. I recall the sensation nine years ago, when ha stood in the witness-box in tha notorious Mordaunt divorce case. He cannot afford another such trial. It was fortunate for bim that Sergt. Ballantyne proved himself more of a courtier than a barrister; for he declined to exercise his privilege of cross examination. The painful incident of the heir to the throne being cited to deny oo oath tbat he had outraged domestic honour and sullied social friendly relations, was one which greatly afflicted the national conscience. The Press at tbe time took a firm, if kindly and loyal, tone in regard to the affiir, arguing, if I remember rightly, that it is not enough for a Prince of Wales in tbese days to be an example of manliness, not even enough to be pure and noble, but he moat, like Cajsar's wife, be above suspicion, and tbat a serious fall from this high estate must have grave and serious consequences.