MB. MICHIE'S LECTURE ON LOYALTY ROYALTY, AND THE PRINCE'S VISITS.

Southland Times, Issue 1105, 6 August 1869, Page 1

MB. MICHIE'S LECTURE ON LOYALTY ROYALTY, AND THE PRINCE'S VISITS.

The following very interesting leetun was recently delievered in Melboune b] the well known barrister, Mr Miehie :- Mr Miehie, in rising, was received witl a beartrr-"rd prolonged round of applause At the, jtset he said that he woulc endeavo- *to distinguish between i rational iryalty as exhibited towardi virtue at . talent, and that which arose from hal k of thought rather than i strong liking active principle. Thai Itjyalty bf sonie.sorfc still existed in amori« JyicfertSati colttniats had ;been dhown. b.j Its' being, so ? frequently referred io ie public addresses and afterwards speeches during a recent royal visit. The immediate object of the sentiment then was a young man between three and four and twenty years of age, descended from and ill some Sort the living, representative of a line of princeii, some illustrious add some rather the opposite, (applause) Of the talents or endowments of this yoang prince, even if it became him to discourse, lie was not in a position to speak with any degree of confidence. If we possessed no actual knowledge that Ms intellectual qualities were greatly above the average, there was no reason for. believing them to be much below it. Tills iriiich sgemed tolerably certain,- that 6ii the Dilke. of Edinburgh's first arrival here we knew little more of him than that he was the second son of the Queen, and a naval captain. Yet to welcome him there assembled on the first day of his landing something not far short of perhaps 50,000 souls. At the same time throughout the length and breadth of the land, the people were prepared with rejoicing to hail his coming when it should become his pleasure to appear among them. It was evident from this that loyalty might, at all events, be manifested in a great measure independently of any moral or intellectual qualities. It was this consideration that made the whole subject as perplexing as it was interesting to many minds. How came it that a simple gentlemanly young man, possessing the mysterious advantage of royal birth should drive a reflective, sober people, frantic with a desire to gaze on him? "What did they gaze on, and why did they gaze? (Laughter.) He asked this question because he thought that almost all must be distinctly conscious that they could not explain the interest they took in the Prince exactly as easily as they could account for the interest they might feel in some eminent man who had distinguished himself in any way. For instance, a Nelson gained a great naval victory, or a Wellington a land action changing the balance of power in Europe ; a Garibaldi by individual enthusiasm and 'bravery infused national life into his countrymen. The names of such men were in everybody's mouth and nothing was more natural than a desire to see those by whom such remarkable actions had been performed. So with a Gladstone or a Bright, men who swayed opinions in the greatest deliberative assembly in the world. All this was very easily comprehanded, but many people asked — some of our English critics among them — why should crowds gather together and almost choke themselves with dust, and raise triumphant arches, and go into general convulsions on account of one whose pre-eminence consisted in rank alone ? One was reminded in making such an inquiry of the barber's remark in Beaumarchais' Marriage of Vigaro — " What has your lordship done to earn all this ? You took the trouble to be born !" (Laughter.) Such questions as this had been put by our English critics as if the conduct upon which they were commenting was something peculiar to colonists, and unknown in the mother country. He proposed to show, before he inquired further, that what some Euglidhjournalists called the extravagance of our euthusiasm had been exceeded in England on like occasions. Who could forgot the popular euthusiasm at home on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales ?If English journalists were at a loss for parallels to some of our loyal demonstrations, they might be found scattered up and down in published memoirs and diaries of persons who had lived at courts.* What could be more ludicrous than the description Miss Burney gave in her journal of the excess of loyalty exhibited in the time of George 111 ? She narrated that when that sovereign went out to bathe in the sea at Weymouth, the people used to lie in wait for him and a second bathing machine went off with a band onboard playing 'Godsave the King.' (Laughter) while his majesty took his royal headers. Miss Burney also described another incident, during the Toyal sojourn at Weymouth. A deputa. tion, consisting of the mayor and town councillors, waited on Queen Charlotte to present an address, congratulating her on Ltie recent restoration of his Majesty's health. The mayor, as he approached to present the address, was whispered by a gold stick, or silver stick, or some other stick in waiting — (laughter) — not to forget that the presenters of the address must kneel on one knee whilst passing Her Majesty. Imagine the horror and consternation of the whole court when the Bight Worshipful the Mayor merely bowed stiffly and passed on. The gold stick pursued the offender, touched Him on the shoulder, and

f, whispered again savagely ; " You should have kneeled sir." "I could'nt," replied the man, "I have got a wooden leg." (Roars of laughter.) c After commenting upon incidents in the y Prince's course through this colony on ~ his visit, Mr Miehie proceeded to show k the evil results which ensued from the 5 - slavish adulation of kings, results mis--3 chievous both to them and to their a subjects. The exercise of uncontrolled 8 will, the gratification of every desire, too c frequently caused inonarchs to become in 1 fact tht most mean and vicious of human *> beings; T*he Stuarts he characterised as ? the rflosfc perfidious race, from the first to ? the last of ihdse whose Hatnes figure m 1 the History of Great Britain. Charles 3 I. was described, even by his panegyrist, • Clarendon, as an unprincipled man, ready 1 to sacrifice bis tools when they had I j served his purposes. Charles 11. obtained a ' { good deal, of popular favor in his time, but 1 i was equally worthless in character. "When he was dying, he said, "Don't let Nell starve," but never 1 thought of making a provision for her while he lived. The Pretender befooled all the poor Highlanders who clung to him. Georges 111. and IV. both wrought fearful mischief; the one through obstinacy, and the other through his licentiousness, G-eorge 111. persisted with the American war after all hope of. success was gone, and needlessly embittered the relations between the two countries, George TV. lied deliberately when he instructed his friend Mr Fox to contradict Mr Pitt's assertion in the House about his marriage with Mrs Fitzherbert. The "first gentlemen in Europe " was turned out of the betting ring as a defaulter. He would have disowned his lawful wife, and he suffered his mistress (Perdita Robinson) to die in indigence. He cast off Brummel, the companion of his pleasures, and thought no more of him than a cast-off old shoe. With such precedents, then, of princely bearing before their eyes, why should people who had any pretensions to knowledge of human uature be so put about as some of our citizens were the other day on reading that £3500 had been put on the Imperial estimates to bear the expense of the presents made by the Duke of Edinburgh when in Australia? (cheers.) When Captain Cook took out of his stock of glass beads, looking glasses and red cloth with which to win the affections of the savages of the South Sea Islands, who ever expected he was to bear the cost of them as well as distribute them ? (Laughter.) Still he must admit this £3500 looked too much as if Romeo had kept a book ledger, and had therein debited to Juliet the costs of any little presents he had made to her during his moonlight courtship, with the object of afterwards putting the value on old Capulet's estimates if the busmass should ever come to a marriage settlement. (Loud laughter.) He referred to the manner in which the satellites of kings relieved their feelings by ridiculing behind their backs those in whose presence they could hardly stand upright; and then stated that the king, and most especially an absolute king, must live and move and have his very being in an atmosphere of falsehood. A king might, in troublous times, have many courtiers, but he would have few friends. Let them consider how many royal families had fallen in their own generation. Where was now the family of Louis Philippe of France — where the exroyal family of Naples ? All Europe a few years back beheld the King of Hanover, the first cousin of our Queen, driven from his kingdom, and Bismarch was now coolly proceeding to appropriate his great income under the view that he and other exiles, whom Bismarck called reptiles, were using their wealth to inflame the German mind, through the Press, against the interests of Prussia. The lecturtr referred to the fate of Maximilian, and of the loss of his throne by King Otho of Greece ; and said that the last, but not the least, case which they must look at was the expulsion and flight of Isabella of Spain, the last of the poor Bourbons, as she was called. Americans of the United States, whom he had known in England, would sometimes quiz English loyalty, and delicately insinuate that in America there were no subjects — that every citizen there was a sovereign and entirely master of himself, which was, they said, the very essence of true liberty . There was a time, he confessed, when such representations made an impression on him, and even now it might perhaps be said that a republican form of government was the best which human reason ever invented, but the condition to accompany that remark was an important one, namely, that the community to live under such a government should be at once thoroughly wire, honest, and unselfish, and thoroughly free from all disturbing passions in the administra- i tion of that government. (Cheers.) He thoroughly believed that a disastrous effect had been for many years produced on the morality of English principles by the Boyal Marriage Act of 1777, passed at the suggestion of the proud, though short-sighted King George 111. under very discreditable circumstances, and with indecent haste, by one of the most contemptible Parliaments that ever sat within the ancieut chapel of St. (Stephen's. George 111. had conceded to him by that act an additional point of prerogative. He obtained a law which enacted that no descendant of the blood

of George 11., with the exception of those married into foreign families, should , have power to marry without the consent of the Sovereign, and any such marriage was by it declared void. The lecturer s*ave further particulars respecting this act, saying that under it George 111. became not only King of Great Britain and Ireland, and assumed the useless title of Elector of Hanover, but also supreme over the affections of all the members of his own family with the trifling exceptions named in the bill. He carried that act to suit his own merely personal feelings. Only a few years before the, Duke of Gloucester, . hiß brother, had*; married the Countess Dowager of "Waldegrave, who, however, was not exactly received at court, where she attended, as either Ilis wife or his mistress, but held a sort of suspended •' position, like Mahomet's c'oflin. That j was enough to outrage the king, but soon came another outrage of the same kind. In 1777 the Duke of Cumberland, another brother, announced his marriage with Mrs Horfcon, whom he at once ! recognised as tbe Duchess of Cumberland. She was the sister of that Colonel Lutrrell who took such an active part in the Wilkes affair, and Walpole is said to have asked if anything could have been more severe than to have seen the Royal circle thus punished through their own 1 instruments. The Duke of Gloucester, on his brother acknowledging Mrs Horton, at once acknowledged the countess as* his wife, and the Eoyal Marriage Act was then passed. Never, perhaps, had a law fallen more ostensibly short of what it was intended for. It was through the King's so-called paternal affection for his family that his son, the Prince of Wales, should have a goodly number of English concubines but not one English wife ; that his second son, the Duke of York, should be under the thraldom of Mrs Clarke and disgrace the high office be held of Command er-in Chief as never before or since it was disgraced, by allowing his clever and commercial mistress to sell commisions in his father's army, which thus provided means for filling the exchequer of a shameless and extravagant wanton. It was that act which burthened the State with the family of the Duke of Clarence and Mrs Jordan. The Duke of Cumberland was also such a treacherous profligate as made his name a by-word and a contempt. He (Mr Micbie) referred; at some length to the evils wrought by the act, and the necessity there was for its repeal, in order that the children of the Sovereign, more especially those who were not likely to occupy the throne, should marry according to their affections, pass gracefully into society, and thus by marriage consult not only their own inclinations, but, perhaps, make themselves independent of the British taxpayer. There was now, he said, a spirit of progress abroad which would not be scared from any question. Everything old and new was being weighed in utilitarian scales, and even highest rank was commencing to see that to be respected it must work. Almost daily they saw noblemen beginning to discover that if they could not maintain tbeir children they must put them to some form of honest industry. (Cheers.) The Duke of Argyle recently placed one of his younger sons in a wine merchant's house in Edinburgh, and what sensible man would think the worse of him if he only sold a good article, (laughter) and distinguished himself by introducing the best Australian vintages to the home markets. (Renewed laughter.) Another nobleman, Lord Claud Hamilton, had im vested in the stock of the Panama Steam Navigation Company, and it was to be hoped that he would be far more fortunate in his next selection. Even the Duke of Edinburgh was an investor and a shareholder in a gold mine in New Zealand, and should he ever taste of the intoxicating delights of receiving dividends, it would doubtless add much to his pleasant recollections of his visit to the southern hemisphere. But if, however, it should be his misfortune to be among the worsted, he would, doubtless, receive it as a little chastening of the spirit, that is j if the loss where not put on the esti- i mates (loud and continued applause) ; and he would experience a little of that j peculiar mining fortune which had made so many both wiser and soerer men. He (the lecturer) had sketched a few of ' the leading indications of the times, and from them he concluded that human affairs worked wholesome enough in the whole of the world. There was an advancement and ripeness of social, intellectual and moral progress, which had never been paralleled in the world's history. What were the mighty conquests of Alexanders or Caesars when compared with such noble progress in modern times, these days of the Suez canal and of the railway connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans — when the whizzing locomotive shot through tunnels hundreds of fathoms under those mighty barriers, the Alps, which, were almost insurmountable to the genius and perseverance of a Hannibal and a Napoleon ? Side by side with the mighty strides of modern science there were advancing social and moral reforms of equal greatness; when prejudice, ignorance, greed, and oppression were being swept away, and even that gigantic national wrong, the Irish Church, was now trembling and tottering in ruin. (Applauae.) Even the House of Lords itse If was taking homoeopathic doses of two

life peers a year. (Laughter and applause.) There was however yet another step in the direction of advance, and that was, Mr Childers commands the Channel fleet. It was said by some that despite the noble signs of advancement to which he had referred, there was a deadly war pending between the two greatest powers of the world, England and America. But he had faith in tbe spirit of moderation which was abroad, that it would do much to avert such a calamity ; and it was to be hoped that a Christian consideration for human lives, a regard for the interests of comvmeree, and a • recollection of the pernicious effects of high taxation, would all tend to avert what must be a dire calamity to the moral, social and political advancement of the times. But if these considerations did not prevail, he was not without hope that the evil would be folly and entirely averted ; for Sumner might deliver himself of speeches, and Napoleon might plot and intrigue, but this stood sure — Childers commanded the Channel fleet. (Loud applause,) From a perusal of the account given by the ' Times ' of a review of the Channel fleet, they would find that it was the first time within the knowledge of history in which the first Lord of the Admiralty commanded the fleet under his charge, in person, when on the open sea, and attended divine service on the deck of his own flag-ship. It was a noble omen of the time to see Lord High Admiral Childers take the sea and command his Channel fleet when the rumors of war disturbed the tranquillity of the world. It must be a source of gratification to Australians too, that this very effective Lord High Admiral had received his first political training in this colony. (Applause). In saying good night, he must apologise if, in the course of his remarks, he had given offence or had wounded the feelings of any one who thought differently from himself. He was not largely endowed with the feeling of veneration for those forms and usages which some respected, but he had not laughed at any of them except where it was out of his power to resist it. "What he would wish the most earnestly to impress on the young men of the Early Closing movement was, that all rank, no matter how exalted, was totally insignificant and unworthy of respect, if it was without moral character and worth. He would have them ever to remember that in all ranks of society, from the lowest to the highest, intellectual worth and integrity must rule and secure for their happy possessor honor and respect from his fellow men. He would also remind them that in the world everyone had his own honor and position in his control, and in his hands it lay for him to place himself in a position of honor or of shame.