THE EMPRESS VICTORIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2510, 11 August 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE EMPRESS VICTORIA.

Altiioik.-t for a long time past the current of public opinion in Franco has sot in a direction altogether hostile to Great Britain yet nowhere have the conduct and character of the widowed Empress met with warinei-admirers or defenders than in Paris. Immediately after her elevation to the Imperial dignity, a French writer, the Marquis de l'osa, wrote a highly appreciative estimate of the Empress in the Paris ' Figaro,' from which we extract the following passages:—'' In a court where everything is ordered by rule, where the hierarchy predominates and etiquite is supreme, the Princcss' independence of mind was almost regarded as the spirt of revolt. In the midst of a, fashionable pietism which manifested itself continually, the attitude of the < Crown Princess resembled a false note ill a symphony Her liberal intelligence did rrot shrink from the discussion of any philosophical problem ; she was not afraid of novel theories, and did not be- ' lieve that a departure from orthodoxy would doom her to eternal .condemnation. She bad the courage of her friendships, and scandalised certain coteries by maintaining a correspondence with Dr Strauss. Her superiority made her many enemies among those who were jealous of it, and she was accused of governing ami Anglicising her husband. These were tho lying inventions of some who Ind endeavoured to establish an ascendency over • him and had failed. The simple and touching truth is this: The Crown Prince and Princess have always lived in an ex- - cmplary intimacy in their palace at Potsdam, voluntarily isolated from grandeur, in the midst of their children, and leadini! a closely domestic life, because it sufficed for them. i'Ycderick William has always manifested a tender affection for his wife, which nothing could alter. Ho has been, and still is, a model husband. : His sweetness of dispositou, the natural probity of manners, and his love of home, where he loved to (ind rest after tho often excessive fatigues of his official duties, made him a palcrfiunUits par cxecllcnec. H"5 seemed only happy when near his wife and his six children. With them be grew young a>ain. Ha enjoyed watching them, and vjry often mingled in their pastimes. That soldier, that commander of armies who has led his men to such slaughters, has the tenderest heart it is possible to imagine." After enlarging upon the implacable animosity which Prince Bismark is alleged to entertain against the two ]<Jm presses, and against the younger one more particularly, because he has never succeeded in bending her to his iron will, the Mir--quis de Posa proceeds,—" If the Flmperor Frederick William has been enabled to mount the throne, he owes it to the , : energy of his wife and to the care be stowed upon his case by the English doctor so cruelly maligned by his Germin colleagues. She and he have opposed themselves to an operation which would ■ probably have proved fatal. She has been altogether admirable. Fort to fort she has defended her husband and Ilia rights. Her feminine weakness has triumphed over all combinations and all ' ' objurgations. She has neither troubled _ • herself about politics, nor reasons of State, nor the competitions of vanity. ; She has weighed well her duty, has accepted, and never failed in it. Reason and sentiment, with her, have gone hand in hand. She has been heroic. The old Emperor and his Chancellor have ;;; hurled themselves in vain against the rampart of her unshaken will. Our < French pcasauts use a phrase by which i to depict those strong women who shrink from nothing for the protection of him whose name they bear. ' She would -s allow herself to be killed for the sake of • : her husband.' These words may well , ■; apply to the Empress Victoria. Ido not know that a mure beautiful eulogy could be addressed to her. Her sole desire has been for the restoration of her husband's health, and to give to Germany a sovereign worthy of the nation. By a strange contradiction, which it would be ' difficult to explain, while Germany turns savagely against the Empress Victoria, •< and holds her responsible for misfortunps which she alone has partly succeeded iu warding off, the French people feel for her nothing but sympathy and respect, ij the chivalrous blooi of the old Gauls which flows in our veins does not permit ,* v us to remain insensible to the sufferings of the Emperor and his noble minded . .7 wife. Compassion, has dominated every other sentiment, and we have not been able to witness without anguish that splendid conflict of courage with affliction. Standing face to face with implacable misfortune, confronting the intrigues of the palace, undergoing the wounds of • a maternal heart, and resisting the pertinacity of a merciless policy, we have seen one woman, erect, and always in - r the breach, defending with invincible valor him who she loves, for whom she is legitimately ambitious, never despairing. Jj§ on his behalf; and we offer up on her behalf those prayers which our admi- * 4i « ration stamps with By her devotion, her energy,Tlnd hergioat soul, she has deserved to have the Empire , and to save the Kmperor."