AN UNPOPULAR KING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 108, 25 April 1908, Page 3

AN UNPOPULAR KING

HOW LEOPOLD 11. HAS WIST HIS PEOPLE'S AFFECTION. HIS KKITALITY TO HIS-WIFE AND IJAUUIITKU. Urusels, February ±l. The negotiations being carried on between King Leopold and the Helgian Cabinet for turning over the Congo Flee State to .the JJelgiun Government have come to a cn-is, and this makes it interesting to know something of the Sovereign responsible lor what Europe has come to term the 'Congo honor.'—Express correspondent.

Tlk> iii'lgiait people have liuriny tin last few year* witnessed with sailing anil loiicern tin; t'Vur-dccUiiiiijj popular ily of their king.

For tin- lirsl twenty years of his reign I I lsii.i-155.51 l.i'd[i(ilil - ||; was adored by his people. His magnificent stature, his long aiiil characteristic beard, whenever M-en in public was always greeted with the most loyal cheers and the most respectful ileiiionstrations. in the Kin- the welfare of ihc coiintry and the welfare of the dvuastv were t-i'iitivil, and so deeplv eveii that <«> o.ne at that lime could separate the welfare ot the kingdom from lhat of th • royal family.

In the lir.st year, of his rei«n 1.-o I'UM 11. well merited; this popularity. He took immense interest in the nianasemeut of public affairs; he respected the constitution, and was the real Sjuvcr«S'i t>[ bis people. Even as a Crown nmcc lie had given signs uUris abililv to conduct tlii; business of the kingdom. He had, lor instance, noticed the vast possibilities of the harbor at Antwerp, and had wisely drawn the attention of .Belgian traders to thee possibilities. Hi* popularity lasted as lon.' as lie remained only Kng of the Belgians. Uul in ISSS U-0|..,1,l 11. also became Sovereign of the Congo tree State, and In- union ol («■>, crowns on one head I ■>•'- brought incalculable harm to lidK'l'i". In a man of the temperament of iMiig Leopold, natural autocratic tendencies were quickly encouraged by the I*l ol his being the absolute master o sonic thirty million people i,,, Africa. Slowly but surely the constitutional ■"■-naivli of llelgiuu, played second iid<llt' to the absolute monarch of the Congo Stale.

ills will was uncontrolled and al»i'K('t.v in i cause that it was not so in Belgium, ami he began tftact as ii it were 'Hie unpopularity aroused in tlclgium by the attempts t„ play (| le ;u , to( . rilt "'«'''''."»» isi'ly increased bv the dosl "' scandal* Hint sum, came to Ihe public knowledge. A King -at l«. ; ,si n cons-lituiioiiiil King -has no private life, and King Leopold has always shown a cmiou- desire to let the whole world know the irregularities of his life.

His conduct to his wife was deplorable, and a series ~f slights and insults culminated in his introducing to the Queen at a Court a woman of ipiiu- notorious reputation. The Queen left the royal residence and went to a villa at Spa, where she died, a few years afterwards—in lain—alone and abandoned. - A- a father, the King's record is as bad as ijs record as a husband. He lias three daughters—d'riucess Louise, divorced wife of Prince Philip of Saxe-Co-burg, Princess Stephanie, now Countess Umyay, and Princess Clementine.

To the tirst be acted with the most extraordinary lack of affection. Quite recently be refused to redeem the jewels which had been bequeathed bv the Queen to her eldest daughter, and which the creditors of Princc-s Louise had sold at auction. The King characteristically preferred scandal to a disbursement of a few thousand francs.

As to his second daughter, he forbadher to marry Count- Lonyay, and when she came to Spa to pray before the c'ciflin of her mother, the King bad her expelled from the castle and ordered out if the town. I'hK public affront has never, been forgotten in llolgiuui, and on,, might say that it lias been from that day that King Leopold's popularity altogether disappeared.

His relatiors with Princess Clementine have been netrly as bad. It is perhaps not generally known that lie prevented her from marrying a Vrinca whom she had loved for years. Prince Victor Xapoleon, the l!onaparti,-t pretcnvlcr to the Fi'encb throne.

U-opold 11. is now in liis seventytliird year, and his irresponsible life, which supplies hunVor to French journal ists ami writers o' l'aris revues, i- a -.niri-e of slnune ami humiliation to the lielgians. I'hev are not proud to b.' ruled l.y a King who is hated liy his children and who le: his wife die in neglect.

They fear that lie may attempt to arrange for one of the sons born in his comparatively recent morganatic marriage to succeed him on the throne, and they resent the fact that their Sovereign is so rarely i" his own country. He governs Belgium from Paris and the Riviera, merely paying Hying visits to Brussels, and'leaving again for France as quickly as possible. lie treats the Belgian Parliament as if he were an autocrat, and has little, if any, regard for the Const itution. Lastly Belgium blushes for the Congo. The martyrdom of the unhappy Congo native- Inis made Leopold a millionaire., but it has wrought incalculable moral harm to the Belgian people and to the. prestige of I heir country. It cannot be said too emphatically that Belgium is not responsible for the Congo, and that in this question Sovereign and people are m entire disagreement. despite the money he lias spent lavishlv lo secure support. lie has corrupted, with the Cingo gold, much that was good and pure in Belgium. He has bought the ■onsciences of oflioials and others. He has, in Belgium, played the role of a Sultan or a Shah. It is a curious instance of the evil ed'ecl. of ill-gotten gains that the gold dragged from the Congo natives _ should be a" vast organ of demoralisation in Europe. King U'opold is in ill-health, and lie is spending the evening of his days estranged liMin hio children and many ot his most loyal and most distinguished servants. , Numberless iulluenlial Belgians _ m cverv walk of life, politicians, artists, business people, ,-oldicrs. have abandoned him, and he is closing a life, which was begun under the happiest auspices, disliked and uiiesteeined. His onlv cousilatioii- lie '" the alloction of his young wife, and in the eounlless million- he has wrung from the Congo natives by the in|-rodiWe eruelty and remorseless greed of his olliciais.