EARL BEACONSFIELD ON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCESS ALICE.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3120, 17 February 1879, Page 3

EARL BEACONSFIELD ON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCESS ALICE.

In announcing, in the House of Lords, tbe death of the Grand Duchess of Hesse, Earl Beaconsfield said :■— My lords, when last I had the honor of addressing your lordships, it was in the warm controversy of public life. I then had no idea that before we dispersed I should have again to appeal to your lordships. The subject to which I hare to refer on this occasion is one on which there will be unanimity ; but, alas, it is the unanimity of sorrow. My lords, you are too well aware that a great calamity has fallen on the ."Royal family of this realm. A Princess who loved us, though she left us, and who always revisited her fatherland with delight —one of those women the brightness of whose being adorned society and in' spired the circle in which she lived—has been removed from this world, to the anguish of her family, her friends, and her subject. Princess Alice—for I will Tenture to call her by that name, though she wore a crown —afforded one of the most striking contrasts that I can remember of richness of culture and rare

intelligence combined' with the most

pare and refined domestic sentiments. --(Hear, hear.) You, my lords, who Unow her life well, can recall those agonising hours when she attended the dying bed of her illustrious father, who had sketched out her studies and formed her tastes. You can recall,

too, the moment at which she attended her Royal brother at a time when the hopes of England seemed to depend on his life (hear, hear); and now you can remember too well how, when the whole of her family were striken by a malignant disease, she had been to them the angel of the house, till at last her own vital Jower was perhaps exhausted and she as fallen.* My lords, there is some thing wonderfully piteous in the immediate cause of her death. The physicians who permitted her to watch over her suffering family enjoined her under no circumstances whatever to be tempted into an embrace. Her admirable self-restraint guarded her through the crisis of this terrible complaint in safety. She remembered and observed the injunctions of her physicians. But it became her lot to break to her son, quite a youth, the death of his youngest sister, to whom he was devotedly attached. Tho boy was so overcome with misery that the agitated mother clasped him in ber arms, and thus she received the kiss of death. My lords, I hardly know an incident more pathetic. It is one by which poets might be inspired, and in which the professors of the arts, from tbe highest to the lowest branches, whether in painting, sculpture, or gems, might 'find a fitting subject of commemoration. (Hear, hear.) My Lords, it is impossible to depict at this moment the sufferings of the husband whom she has left behind, and of the children who were so devoted to her; but our duty is to offer our condolence to one whose happiness and whoso sorrows always excite and/ command the loyalty and affectionate respect of this House. Upon Her Majesty a great grief has fallen, which none but Her Majesty, none bat the Queen can so completely and acutely feel. Seventeen years ago Her Majesty experienced the crushing sorrow of her life, and then she was particularly sustained by tbe daughter whom she has now lost, who assisted her by her labors, and aided her by her presence and counsel. Her Majesty How feels that the cup of sorrow was not then exhausted. I feel it impossible to use any.language which could express the consolation we wish to extend to her in her sorrow. Her suffering is too fresh to allow of solace ; but, however exalted her position, I feel that she will be sustained by the consciousuess that she possesses the sympathy of the nation. (Hear, hear.) My Lords, with these feelings I beg to propose for your Lordships' acceptance the following motion: —"That a humble address be presented to Her Majesty to express the deep concern of this House at the great loss which Her Majesty has sustained by the death of Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland, second daughter of Her Majesty the Queen, and to condole with her on this melancholy occasion. To assure Her Majesty that this House will ever feel the warmest interest in whatever concerns Her Majesty's domestic relations, and to declare the ardent wishes of this House for the happiness of her house «nd of her family." (Hear, bear.)