THE PRINCE OF WALES’ FORTIETH BIRTHDAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2747, 12 January 1882, Page 2

THE PRINCE OF WALES’ FORTIETH BIRTHDAY.

The "World” observes that the commencement of his forty-first year confronts the Prince of Wales with fresh duties. The confidence and devotion of the English people lay upon him the burden of ever-increasing rosponsi-

bilities. Many things, physicians tell us, may be done without detriment to' the nerve-tissues and life-centres of the physical body while we are in the thirties, which will be punished heavily j if they are practised after the magical eighth lustrum has been fulfilled. Be-1 tween the moral and the material order of things there is a closely-syropathetic analogy. The man who has reached 40. has crossed the Rubicon of existence. He has touched his meridian. There still awaits him, in all probability, an ample future; but it is not a future with which he can presume to trifle. The Prince of Wales has now not only made the grand tour of the world, he has, in a sense, made the grand tour of life itself. Every moment, it has been said is travel,if rightly understood. The Prince has travelled everywhere, literally as well as metaphorically, and has seen everything. He has had extraordinary opportunities of review ingexistence in*all its departments and aspects., No source of pleasure, gratification, or experience has been closed to him. If he has been sated with sycophancy, he has not escaped criticism. No man, no prince, ever had deeper reason for gratitude on account of the generous consideration which he has received from those who will some day acknowledge him as king. The time has arrived when he can, and will, exhibit this gratitude in acts. ; He may be compared to a heir of a vast estate, who, after years, not of perpetual nomadism, but of frequent locomotion, elects to settle.down, and takes up ‘his abode in the home of his ancestors.. To the Prince of Wales, his ancestral home is in the position which belongs to him by right of birth, and which his .own great qualities have confirmed in' the affection and respect of the English people. ’ The position is; indeed, a splendid one already ; it may be made, however, more stately yet. No element which could conduce to its improvement is wanting. The,'Princeof Wales has a charming and universally-bbloved wife. He has a family of which the nation is proud. He has, last of all, the undiminished. devotion of every class in this country. The capital, social and political, which is thus placed at his disposal, so long as it is wisely managed can never be exhausted.; -* ■ >