THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 210, 13 April 1877, Page 1

THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES.

F report speaks true, we are to be honoured in the colonies by a Royal visit. Another Prince of the reigning house designs to brave the perils of i <.c deep that he may bless with his presence the loyal settlers of the antipodes. This time it is the heir to the Crown who is >miug amongst us, and in proportion to the greater importance that attaches to his pencil

•will be, if possible, the fuss stirred up to greet him. It, however, is hardly possible that, any greater excitement can prevail than thafc occasioned in these latitudes by the first advent of the Duke of Edinburgh. Many persons, who have profited, by close upon ten years additional experience of life, will probably look back upon the enthusiasm, by which they were at that time inspired, with something of shainefacedness j recollecting the interest they took in all his Eoyal Highness wag reported to have said or done, in his personal

appearance, in his very clothes, and recalling how they scrambled for a place from whence to obtain a view of him, whom after narratives have convinced them was no great thing to see. Notwithstanding this, we shall have it all over again, a rushing to and fro of households, newspapers filled to repletion with done-to-death details of ceremonies and receptions that are the same all over the world; sickly speechifying of Corporations and public and vapidity all a bubble. We trust, however, that due precautions will be taken this time to prevent the soulless farce from being turned into a cruel tragedy. We should be sorry again to see a peaceable gentleman receive a severe hurt, and still more sorry were a people grown frantic, so that they are compared to heathen votaries gashing themselves in honour of their idols, again in their undiscerning fury to sacrifice an unfortunate maniac, who, after the manner of those suffering from his affliction, had been provoked to attempt the life of a prominent personage. We are not prejudiced against the Prince of Wales ; to the rumours -n hich circulate to his discredit we attach but little importance. It is true he comes of a suspicious race. The Georges, his fore-runners, were probably, taken all in all, as contemptible a line of individuals as ever breathed. They were, with one exception, only distinguished from one another by slight variations of brutality. The first was hardly human ; the second was sensual, and harsh, an unnatural father and son, and a faithless husband ; the fourth was grossest of the gross. The third alone was an exception, yet even he shone only by comparison, for although moral, he was pig-headed, unfeeling, and bigoted. But since their times tne Court has been purified. Her Majesty the Queen was educated under the care of a most wise and estimable lady, the late Duchess of Kent, her mother, and, although the generosity of her nature, and the effects of her training may have been in some degree cramned by the influence of the rationalist philosopher, whom some men style " Albert the Gond," she has ever continued to afford an admirable example of uprightness and benevolence in her high position. We, therefore, hope the best with reference to his Royal Highness, our future king ; nor have we seen any just reason, as yet, for supposing him to be of habits different from those in vogue amongst men of rank and fortune at the present day. He seems, it is true, of no very distinguished merit ; his talents are not remarkably brilliant, nor, apart from his exalted condition, is there anything- to mark him out from the crowd. The accidents of descent and birth have pitch-forked him into an elevated place to which otherwise he never could have attained, even were the throne open to ability, and surrounding circumstances will enable him to perform satisfactorily the duties required of him, as any man of ordinary understanding might do ; but we no more believe him to be at present a Prince Hal than we expect that he will hereafter develope into a King Henry V. There is no reason in the world then, why his Royal Highness should not be received with all due deference in any part of the dominions of the Queen, his mother, which it may seem good to him to visit. What we object to is the senseless uproar that is sure to attend upon his progress. The divinity of kingship has long since departed, or proved altogether a myth ; all appearance of devotion at its shrine must accordingly of necessity be a sham, and every sham is utterly contemptible. It is, therefore, to us a season of humiliation, when we are called upon to witness a general bowing down of the community at the feet of that, which each one of them in his heart believes to be an idol of clay. For this reason we trust that, while the visit of the Prince of Wales to these colonies may be attended with satisfaction to his Royal Highness, it may also be of short duration, so that we may be spared the prolonged contemplation of a world foaming up in a froth of emptiness. In our illustration, by the side of the Prince's portrait, will be found that of his fair and amiable wife.