REPUBLICANISM IN ENGLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1561, 6 July 1882, Page 3

REPUBLICANISM IN ENGLAND.

The following extract from the llrpublienn London, will show to what an extent the anti-monarchic feeling is spicading in England :—: — Politically and socially alikp, royalty has become a farce and a by-word in this country. " Respectable " people, it is true, drink the Queen's health at banquets and on similar festive occasions, x^but the ceremony is gone through in a manner, "as it is the proper tiiSg to do, don't you know," The sovt •jign herself is responsible for this in some degree. Her almost complete seclusion for many years lias led the people to see that royalty is, after all, not a necessary part of the body politic ; they see that it is but the gilt cross on St. Paul's Cathedral, the sweetstuff ornament on a cake. And a mighty clear cross, a dreadfully expensive sweetstufl ornament it is. Was not the whole Maclean trial a farce, a grim but unadulterated farce? Poor, hhabby, shiftless, vain, mad Maclean fired at the Queen simply because his morbid, inordinate vanity impelled him to seek notoriety at whatever cost. That he was not responsible for his actions everybody knew. But royalty in this country is so important, the safety of its members is so paramount a consideration, that the whole rusty machinery of high treason was brought out of the lumber room, and set in motion to consign Maclean either to the gallows or the asylum. How dreadfully the cumbrous old thing creaked ! Two judges, the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, the leader of the Oxford Circuit (briefed as a matter of etiquettee), Mr Smith, and an indescribable array of solicitors, &c, all set in battle order against the poor madman with his shifty vacant eyes and his shabby coat. An idiot firing a pistol at a stout old . lady was the cause of this tremendous display of butterfly crushing on wheels ; and if the whole business were not a farce, we should like to know how it can be fairly described. It was very to notice in the newspaper a "\ magniloquent description of the Queen's courage and presence of mind when the attempt was made ; and in another part of the same issue to be told that her Majesty was looking the other way, and knew nothing about the affair until Maclean had been secured and all the " danger " was over. Royalty in all its branches partakes of the ludicrous. The > Queen is the author of a wishy-washy book entitled "Leaves from "qur < Journal in the Highlands." The book 1 consists of domestic memoranda of the most jejune order, noting how Vicky ,got her feet wet, and Bertie tumbled /down, - and Albert shot two stage, and so fourth ' and so on. The notes were " edited #> by "Sir Arthur Helps, and we suppose itr was .f. f owing to his j3kill that whatever literary -trierit^heyrtay have is v due. But foolish ' people read' anything relating to the inner life of royalty with an enthusiasm, that is blind to thY triviality and absurdity of

the subject. Our royal family is very literary indeed. Besides the immortal work spoken of above, we have Princess Beatrice's book, sold at an ernormous price and in very large numbers. This volume consists solely of poetical selections framed in borders— floral and othorwise—designed by our last unmarried princess. It was amusing to note, when the book appeared, the desperate and ingenious attempts made by the press, in reviewing it, to appear enthusiastic and to conceal from the reader the real character of the work. It would not be fair to speak of the Marquis of Lome's metrical version of the Psalms, which commands a high price from buttermen and trunk makers on account of the thickness of the papor upon which it is printed. The marquis is only a distant relation of the royal family ; but his wife, the Princess Louise, is about to contribute to a religious periodical, the "Goody-Goody," a paper or papers on the subject of "Canada." We may soon expect to hear that the Prince of Wales will read a paper before the Social Science Association •' On the value of Soda and Brandy as a Morning Draught;" and Prince Leopold be reported as engaged upon an exhaustive treatise on "The Origin, Early History, and Development of the Tin Whistle." Even the juvenile branches of the family do not escape from the farcical atmosphere of royalty. The two young princes now upon a tour round the world are, of course, made much of by English flunkeys abroad. At one point a "buffalo hunt," in which the young heroes engaged, was organised ; but as the pure and unadulterated sport is attended with some danger, a tame buffalo was trotted out and butchered ! This is on a par with the royal bear hunt in Germany. After an exciting chase, the bear turned to bay, and, just as the royal huntsmen, ensconced in places of safety, were taking 'aim, the animal sat up on its hind legs, and began to dance. It was a tame, performing bear.