WILFUL WILHELMINA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 75, 24 April 1909, Page 3

WILFUL WILHELMINA.

It is A curious fatality that the niost placid and contented people on the map should be ruled" by the most violently wilful sovereign that Europe has eee-i for many years (says Pearson's Weekly). Ever since her-childhood Wilhelmina of Holland lias hevu obstinate, self-willed, and impatient of all control. Her temper she may have inherited from ht'r father.

.Strange stories are told of how the Queen-Mother had actually to bribe her daughter with sweets and toys in order -to prevent her carrying; tales to the King that would have brought down his fury upon his wife's head.

The little Princess, from the day that the was able to appreciate anything, seemed to have realised the strained relations between her father and mother, and she traded on her knowledge with childish cruelty. When the old King died the child Queen's wings may be said to have been clipped for a, time, while most of the power passed into the hands of her mother* - ■••It-:

But Wilhelmina never forgot, and never allowed others to forget, that she was the Queen. Her attendants lived in constant fear of her anger. Oil one occasion she Hew into a passion at one of the ladies of the Court. Iu her annoyance the latter was criticising the Queen to a friend who had called at the Palace to see her. Unnoticed by either, Wilhelmina entered the room and overheard part of the con* versatiom Crimson with fury, she almost sprang at them, flinging aside a chair that stood in her way. The ladies started apart in terror. » • "Mademoiselle." she t-crearned iu an awful voice, "you are not permitted to entertain friends in my presence. Go, go, both of you, at once!" Later in the day the unfortunate ladies were informed that Her Majesty

.'•'permitted" thtsjp to retire from Court', a permission that was simply a command, and meant social extinction. The Queen did not always come oif best in her encounters, however. When she was sitting for her portrait to the late Professor Lenbaeh she lost her temper over some change that the artisf wished her to make in her costume, "Paint me as I am" she ordered sharply. The famous artist was just as highspirited as the Queen, and lie was unaccustomed to having; sitters ride roughshod over his art. He drew himself up haughtily. "Vour Majesty can command your own subjects," he told her; "but I am a Herman." Picking up his palette, he left the room. In 1808 Queen Emma laid down her Regency and Wilhelmiiia succeeded to complete power. There was an immediate change for the worse. She refused to recognise that she was, in effect, the paid servant or Holland; she refused to pay the customary round of visits to friendly Courts: *he refused to be guided by her Ministers: she refused to do anything except what happened to please her own headstrong self. Her councils with her Ministers seldom ended without a display of temper, and she offended her people bv her deter- * urination to marry a Herman j/rince. Her mother soon found that she could not, without loss of dignity, remain at Court, and after a more than usually violent scene «he went into retirement. There i? as yet no direct heir to th<? throne, and the Court doctors are emphatic that it is only her own violent and headstrong temper that has so far wrecked the high hopes of her subjects.