THE MOST PRACTICAL PRINCESS IN EUROPE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5538, 27 December 1878, Page 3

THE MOST PRACTICAL PRINCESS IN EUROPE.

I am told that this coming mouth, when the Exhibition jury awards and prizes will be decided upon and distributed, is tha month for “ all the world and the rest of mankind,” as one of our Presidents said, to be back again in Paris. The soft youth known as Prince Henry of Holland will appear then with his bride. Princess Marie, daughter of the good Priuce Frederick of Prussia. This brings me to speak of the marriage of the Duke of Connaught to the Princess Louise, daughter of Prince Frederick and Princess ' Maria of Prussia. The princess is reputed to bo the most practical of"any in Europe. She keeps her accounts accurately, balances her books periodically, works on a sewing machine occasionally, and constantly indulges in . feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and comforting the afflicted. She iaoneof those very rare young ladies in Europe—and in America, for that matter—who appears to have an object in life. It is marvellous the largo number of ladles whose life ia a perfect blank as far as any aim is considered. The exception is so charming and so small that we are brought to regard the large body of female ciphers not at all from an exalted position—X mean that class who have no family or household cares, but who sit from one end of the year to the other with their hands in their laps and their heads “nowhere.” Of such is not the fair princess I speak of. She has founded an institution for the teaching and providing for the portionless daughters of poor members of the nobility, and I have good reason to know that her clients are neither few nor far between. This institution has none of the features of objection that mock poverty —the crime of Europe as well as of England, as Sydney Smith would say. It is now a selfsupporting establishment. The young ladies are skilled in the flue arts and some light industrial" ones, and the reaul I of their accomplishments are to be found in a liberal supply of dollars. I must say that these practical lessons have been taught by the mother, the Princess Maria of Prussia, but the daughter, has been quite an active co-operator. She has a forte in the fine arts, and that is in architectural designs and colors. Berlin is not ignorant of her utilitarian talent in this regard. The. family of her father, the Prince Frederick, has appeared but little at the Prussian Court, they preferring the country to the city. Their laroe mansion or chateau enabled them to havo tho young lady students alluded to always under one roof, and that of the founder of this ideal school, where the gracious surveillance of their moral and material education never wavered. Many of these young ladies in consequence have made excellent Court or aristocratic marriages, as it has been regarded as guaranty of their worth both as housewives and moral mothers—a fortune in wives rather than with them—to have been scholars of the Princess Maria, Thus the Duke of Connaught may be called a luoky man and Queen Victoria a happy mother. In this age, when the tongue of European scandal wags most woefully over Court and camp personal intrigue, such instances of the contrary are grateful to note.—Paris Correspondent Baltimore Sun,