THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8106, 29 March 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1906.

In connection with the approaching marriage of King Alfonso of Spain and the Princess Ena of Battenberg, the London Daily Telegraph remarks that English people will join with Spain in hoping that a new order is beginning, that the long, dark lane of misfortune has been trod to the end, and that sunshine and happiness lie round Ihe turning. King Alfonso has already captured the goodwill of Europe. He has high spirits, he is not trammelled by convention, he is courageous, he is in earnest. And now he has chosen his bride himself, not left the choice to his Ministers. If, in

obeying the inclination of his heart, he has found some difficul-f ties in the path, all those whose sympathies are with lovers will We heartily glad that they were not insurmountable, and will rejoice at his success. From the historical point of view his Royal courtship at Biarritz is full of interest, for nearly three hundred years have elapsed since last there was talk in England of a "Spanish Marriage." Possibly the superstitious may think the very name ill-omened. But they may speedily be reassurea. There is no sort of parallel between the present Spanish Marriage, devised, as there is every reason to believe, by Don Cupid himself, and that melanoholy political marriage and those repeated matrimonial intrigues which were «o profoundly unpopular in England in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The marriage between Qupen Mary and Prince Philip of Spain is one of the most tragio and pathetic events in English history, to those who can read the past with impartial and pitying eye. More than anything else it was the failure of this union, and; the departure of Philip from England, which turned the solitary, abandoned Queen, who craved for human affection, into a soured and narrow-minded bigot. The projeot of a political marriage between Mary Stuart and Don Carlos, the half-mad son of Philip, whom Philip himself later on put to death, threw Queen Elizabeth into a panic until it was abandoned. And;- again} the scheme on which James I. had set his heart, of marrying Charles to the Infanta Maria, was absolutely detested by the English people. It was so unpopular, indeed, that James did not venture to call Parliament together while negotiations were in progress, for London and the Commons were clamouring loudly for war. And so, when the project fell through, because Philip would not restore the Palatinate to James's BDn-iu-law, and Prince Charles- and "Steenie" returned from their amazing incognito tour in Spain without the wisely-reluctant Infanta, London illuminated for joy, and hooted the Spanish Ambassador in the Strand. No one can- wonder that these marriage projects weno> unpopular. Devised for purposes of State alone, to gain an ally or check a rival, they were pushed forward or thrust into the background, according to the changes of the political, game. England and Spain had then no cause to love one another. The fierce passions of the Reformation and counter-Reformation had not burnt themselves out. Religious toleration was neither offered nor accepted by Protestant or Catholic. The interests of the rising mercantile community of England were violently anti-Spanish. To be opposed to Spain, and eager for a Spanish war, was the popular test of English patriotism. "We reoall these past rancours," says the same paper, "only to show how far we have travelled since those days, how different are our present happy relations with the Spanish nation, and how cordially welcome is the prospeot of the marriage of King Alfonso to an English Princess."