The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1915. GERMAN CUMBERLAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1915. GERMAN CUMBERLAND.

The position of the Duke of Cumberland, as an English Duke, and yet an alien enemy allegedly lighting with the Germans against the country from which he derives his title—and probably a goodly pension or annuity—has made Britishers generally do a lot of thinking, and when this war is over and really British politicians have time to discuss tl}C matter they may well consider the question of cutting off a lot of the payments to foreign offshoots of the Royal House. Without a shadow of disloyalty in their composition there are many good people who hold that the British taxpayer might well be relieved of a great burden which the roll of perpetual pensions to these ungrateful foreigners means. A contemporary publishes a very interesting note regarding the Cumberland title and recalls that in 1837 there was only one life between the then Duke of Cumberland and the throne of England. George 111., at his death, left seven sons, of whom the lirst and third succeeded to the throne as George IV. and William TV. respecfollowed, in order, the Duke of York, died in 1827. These three sons died without issue. The fourth child was the Princess Charlotte, and then followed, in order, the Duke of Kent, two daughters, and the Dukes of Cumberland, Sussex and Cambridge. 'The Duke of Kept had died in 1820,but left a daughter, and when William IV. died in 1837 that daughter succeeded, taking precedence nob only of the Princess Charlotte, daughter of George 111., but also of the Dukes of Cumberland, Sussex and Cambridge, sons of George HI. The rule of the succession is that daughters are eligible for succession in order of their own seniority, but only after the youngest of the sons, but granddaughters descended from sons take precedence of both of the daughters and of the younger sons of the deceased sovereign. It was the life of Queen Victoria alone, therefore, that stood between the Duke of Cumberland and the throne, and the students of history may reflect, if he chooses, how profoundly the future of Britain was influenced by this fact. From the same source we gather that the Duke of Cumberland is not the only German Prince bearing a British title. On the death of Duke Ernest I. in 1884, Ernest, the elder brother of the Prince Consort became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernest Tidied in 1893, and in the ordinary course the succession would have passed to the Prince of Wales. He had renounced his right of succession to the dukedom, however, in 180.3, and so the Duke of Edinburgh succeeded. W in'll he died, in 1907. the succession passed to the son of the Duke of Albany. Prince Leopold, whose sympathies are said to he far more with Britain than with Germany. “So closely connected are the Royal families of Europe, however,” this writer says, “that the personal feelings of rulers are scarcely worth a moment’s consid- 1 oration in such a crisis as the present 1 one. In the case of a country like I Ronmania, it is true, the pronounced ' pro-German sympathies of the late 1 King wore said to have largely in- 1 flucnced the foreign policy, and pos- 1

sihly it will bo urged that the present King of Roumania is likely to he proBritish because his Queen is a daughter of the late Duke of Edinburgh.”