THE WORLD ON THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2061, 12 August 1875, Page 3

THE WORLD ON THE PRINCE OF WALES.

So for as dignity of-mien and r manner is concerned, the Prince of Wales has been ttnifbrmally influenced by the examples of his ancestors. He has neither exacted too niuch. nor has he beencontent with too .little. Familiar with his. intimates, genial an.d:affable: towards his friends, unassuming, but as becomes .an English gentleman and an English Prince, perfectly self-possessed in general . society, liis: Hoyal Highness 'has never been 'oblivious of what! should be accorded to i him "by others, or what others might on receiving from him. He has encouraged franknes; he has never given the slightest reason to; suppose that he would endure for a moment an indecorous liberty; To such an impertinence as, .'• Wales, ring 'thebell,'' therewould conic a rejoindier, couched, jii.the spirit of the celebrated reproof, "Order Mr Brummel's carriage.": An impression'prevails among a partially informed but numerous section of the community that the Prince has in an unworthy and even perilous degree broken through! the divinity which doth hedge a king. The notion is preposterous; it arises, so far as it can be said to have any origin at all, froni the fact that the heir apparent has, in the first^ place, had enough of confidence in his* own constitutional rank and in the,;constituticnal sentiments of Englishmen not to forego upoO occasions the cha.rms of a society not v cdaiposcd ofcourtiers; secondly that he has never Jacked the intelligence to perceive that un(Jcr the democratic influences , which sway our modern system, the reserve which it was once considered essential that the representatives of "our ancient monarchy should" maintain might, if phlegmaiifeally persisted, in, provoke a reaction against the principle of monarchy itself/ JTar upwards of fifteen years the Prinoe of Wales, has had .*. almost a monopoly of thp ricaitjous performance of the duties of "EugWsh Eoyalfcjr. In an age when publicity i 3 carried tt> a degree

hitherto unknown, he has, in .fulfilment of this critical role, been the most public man of the day. His most trivial actions have been scanned with microscopic closeness, and have been magnified for, good or evil with more than a microscopic power ..of exaggeration. He has had to satisfy by his presence, and to justify by his acts,. the monarchial instinct of the nation, and this while he has been a king without a kingdom, and a monarch without a revenue. It-is for f the English people to say how in the midst of this most severely trying ordeal the Prince of Wales has comported himself. They can judge who know, and the inhabitants of this empire know that by his indefatigable exertions, his imperturbablp goodhuraour, that alert übiquity'of which he is the embodiment, that perpetual motion of which he may be thought to have discovered the secret, the Prince 'of Wales has not merely given satisfaction to the country, but that he has largely, increased its material prosperity. It is due to him that for now more than a decade London has not been a capital absolutely without a court. The Prince of Wales owes no inconsiderate degree of popularity to the fact that he is believed to consume with a.Te.lish bread and cheese ■ and bitter ale for luncheon, when the «onm'P^gQe and r grouse af| joojfc forthcoming; nor is there, perhaps;?ahy; circumstance which more endeared him at the tlm'to the great heart of the nation than tip 1- probable authentic rumor that the ponce's recovery from his serious illnebsjras announced by a craving for a dnlujjht of the nation's beverage. That the Prince of Wa'cs, while never neglecting the duties of his station, and while .;dischargin#-.duties far more onerous than . would under * ordinary conditions have fallen to his lot, has been amenable to those considerations of social pleasure and personal enjoyment which are raisons d'etre with a majority of thejeuvesse doree of the period, has,, we make bold to-say, militated against his personal popularity. The World.