The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-21 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE PRINCESS ALICE.

r The Queen and Royal Family at Windsor Castle
received early on Saturday morning the mournful in-
telligence from Darmstadt announcing the death of
the Princess Alice.

Frequent messages, since the commencement of her
Royal Highness's illness,had kept her Majesty informed
of the progress of the disease, the telegrams of Friday
evening giving a more cheering view of the case; but
during that night and the earlier hours of Saturday
there was a rapid change for the worse. The
next message received at Windsor Castle stated
that the Princess was sinking fast, and
there soon after followed another, bringing
the sad intelligence of the death of the Grand
Duchess, who peacefully expired at half-past seven
o'clock in her Hessian home at Darmstadt. Stricken
by the sudden bereavement and the loss of a favourite
daughter, the grief of her Majesty was immeasur-
able, and it was fortunate that in the hour of her
great trial the Prince and Princess of Wales,
Princess Beatrice, and Prince Leopold were at
hand to sustain and comfort their Royal
mother. The Prince and Princess of Wales and
Prince Leopold had come to the Castle on Friday
evening for the purpose of attending the memorial
service which was to be held on Saturday at
the Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore, upon the occasion
of the 17th anniversary of the death of the Prince Con-
sort. The Hon. and Very Rev. Gerald Wellesley,
Dean of Windsor, was to have officiated at this cere-
monial. The usual preparations were made, and
tickets were issued ; but at the last moment the Queen,
borne down by grief at the critical condition of
the Grand Duchess, and feeling that under the circum-
stances the service was one too painful to attend,
postponed the observance of the anniversary to a
more suitable moment. About ten o'clock the fatal
termination of her Royal Highness's illness became
known in Windsor, and the sympathy of the residents
for Her Majesty and the Royal Family was so pro-
found that as the melancholy news spread the trades-:
men partially closed their shops and places of business,
many of those in Eton following the example, while
part of the interior of the College Chapel was draped
in black. The Royal Standard floating above the
Windsor Town Hall, where the Tapestry Exhibition
is being held, was hung half-mast high, and festoons of
black crape wreathed about the flag trophies outside
the building. At the Castle the blinds opposite
the Grand Quadrangle were drawn down, and
all was hushed and quiet within the Palace,
under the influence of the great grief which had
fallen upon the Sovereign and her family—the muffled
knell of the b_ll of St. George's Chapel adding to the
feeling of gloom pervading the Castle and town,
although in the latter place it was market-day. In
the various towers of the palace, the residences of the
members of the Royal Household, and officials, the
window-blinds were drawn down, and the same ex-
pressions of mourning were exhibited at the houses of
the Military Knights in the Tower Ward, and else-
where within the precincts, the Princess Alice having
been greatly beloved in the town.

The Court Circular, after announcing the death of
the Princess Alice, says :—'The Queen, though over-
whelmed with sorrow by this heavy blow which has
fallen on this sad anniversary, has not suffered in
health."

The Times of Monday said :—" The second daughter
of the Queen, the late Princess was born at Bucking-
ham Palace on the 25th of April, 1843. The
history of the Princess before her marriage would
present no feature of importance if it were not
for the unremitting devotian with which she tended
her father in his last illness, now seventeen years ago.
From the moment that illness assumed a theatening
aspect she scarcely ever quitted his bedside, and in
the result her own health was greatly impaired. In
the beginning of her widowhood the Queen found
comfort and support in her second daughter, to
whose dutiful care, as we then remarked, the
nation may owe it that her Majesty bore her loss
with exemplary resignation, and a composure which
under Eo sudden and terrible a bereavement, could not
have been anticipated. In the course of the following
year, 1862, the Princess was married at Osborne-house
to Prince Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, the Queen
attending the ceremony in mourning. A few days
afterwards Prince Louis was authorised by Royal
Warrant from Her Majesty to assume the title of his
Royal Highness, and in the same year was nominated
a Knight of the Garter. Hesse-Darmstadt from
that time her home, is a small State, contain-
ing nearly a million inhabitants, mostly Pro-
testant ; and since the summer of 1877, when
her husband became Grand Duke, the Princess has
enjoyed more than the shadow of Royal power. In
the meantime she had acquired further titles to
esteem and affection both in her native and her
husband's country—in England by reason of the
promptitude with which she left her home for
Sandringham when the Prince of Wales was struck
down with the illness which so nearly proved fatal,
and in Germany by the graces of her character, her
unostentatious but ever active benevolence, and,
above all, the services which she rendered to the
sick and wounded during the Franco-German War,
Meanwhile, too, she had become the mother of a
large family, five daughters and two sons—Prin-
cess Victoria Alberta Elizabeth Matilda Mary, born
in 1863; Princess Elizabeth Alexandrine Louise Alice,
born in 1864; Princess Iretie Marie Louise Anna,
born in 1866; Prince Ernest Louis Charles Albert
William, born in 1868; Prince Frederick William
Augustus Victor Leupold Louis, born in 1870;
Princess Victoria Alice Helena Louise Beatrice, born
June 6, 1872; Princess Marie Victoria Feodore Leo-
poldine, born in 1874. The youngest princess died
from diphtheria on the 16th of November last; and it
was in nursing her children and her husband while
suffering from this disease that the Princess caught
the infection which has proved so suddenly fatal.

"The sorrow exalted in London by the announce-
ment was deep and general. The sad intelligence was
conveyed to the citizens of London by the Home
Secretary in the following communication to the Lord
Mayor :

Whitehall, December 14
"'My Lord,—lt is with great concern that I inform your
lordshipe
and),ostecElonesaseda(uthgehtePrrinofcehsser Amliacj
yf Gt
hree a(
It
aßer ie
nt a, i nw
hani
ci
id
Duchess of the death of her Royal Highness the Gran 4
i Ir I °est°
occurred at Darmstadt shortly before eight o'clock this
me'rnille to the
Faaa,,y.. great grief of her Majesty and the Royal
"'I request that
great your lordship will give directions for the
toning of the
ig , I have fhe bell of St. Paul's Cathedral.
obedient servant, honour to be, tin, lord, your lordship's
The Right Hon, 8.. ASSIIRTON CROSS.
‘.4
theMayor.'
Lord 1
The Lord Mayor read the I
Justice Room, and said thatl.er from his seat in the
her Majesty the Queen Might il this
a su cad bereavement
felt sympathy of her loyal Citizen: red of the heart-
was doubly sorrowful that the event should have
happened upon the anniversary of a d _
aY already asso-
ciated with grief and mourning in the R al c*
The letter of the Home Secretary was 'Y mole.
posted outside
the Mansion-house, where it waa. eagerlY read b
passers by; and, in obedience to the Lord Mayols
directions, the great bell of St. Paul's was tolled for
an hour during the afternoon. The performances at
the theatres, it is true were given as usual; but it is
understood that in the afternoon the managers corn.
municated with the Lord Chamberlain on the subject
and opened their doors only in the absence of instruc-
tions from his office, The Metropolitan Asylums

Board and all other public bodies which met on Saturday
afternoon passed resolutions expressive of their grief
at the event and their sympathy with the Queen in
her bereavement. The Royal ensign, half-mast high,
was exhibited on public buildings, on the shipping
in the Pool, and on St. Martin's Church (royal
parish).
"Nor, as may well be supposed, were these demon-
strations of sorrow and sympathy confined to London
(continues The Times). From the reports of our cor-
respondents in all parts of the kingdom the intelli-
gence appears to have created a deep impression. This
may have been more especially the case at Windsor,
where the Princess was well known, and where, on
the visits she has paid to England since her mar-
Hage, she invariably met with an enthusiastic wel-
come. In Newcastle-on-Tyne it seems as though
a personal loss has been sustained, When
shortly after the death of Prince Albert, the dread-
ful colliery accident at Hartley occurred, the Queen and
the Princess showed the most active sympathy witn the
buffeters, and that sympathy has never been forgotten
by the inhabitants of the north. The speeches made
at the annual distribution of prizes to the 3rd West
York Rifle Volunteers as in the case of many other
gatherings contained feeling illusions to the Princess's
death. In Edinburgh and Dublin every possible mark
of regret was to be perceived.

riage,

A deputation of British residents in California, accom•
panted by several members of Parliament, assembled at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury or
Saturday for the purpose of presenting to Lord Beaconsfield
an address and an ornamental silver casket as a token of the
subscriber's appreciation of his Lordship's conduct of affairs
during the recent crisis in Europe Among those present
were several members of Parliament. At the hour appointed
for the reaeption of the deputation,

Mr. Harrison, accompanied by Mr. Montagu Corry, C.B ,
entered the room and said that, instead of a very plesant he
had a very painful duty so perform. He had just received
the following letter from Lord Beaconsfield:—

"South Audley-street, Dee, 14.

"Dear Sir,—A terrible calamity has fallen upon the]
country. An English Princess—one of the most noble-
minded and mo,t gifted of women—endeared to the peopie 1
of this country by her rich intelligence and her life of per-
fect domestic bliss and duty, has fallen a victim t,) the]
terrible disease which had already rav,ged her hearth, and
which she met by her devotion to her children. I bad
looked forward to this morning as one of great pleasure.
bffording a charming contrast to the cares and struggles of
political life. But all is changed, and, though conscious nf
the inconvenience I am entailing upon some of my friends
this morning, I must ask you to postpone our meeting for a
while—a meeting by which I should have been no honoured
and gratified. "Yours faithfully,
" BEACONSFIELD."
All the members of the deputation concurring in the sug-
gestion that it should be left to Lord Beaconsfield to appoint
another day for the meeting.

lii this

• PULPIT REFERENCES.
In the various churches, and places of Nonconformist
worship reference was made to the sad event. At the
afternoon servica at ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, the Rev.
Canon Liddon preached from Amos iv. 12— "Prepare to
meet thy God, 0 Israel." In the course of his sermon,
which was a very eloquent and impressive one, the
Preacher, while speaking of the reverence due to great
ness of office and of character in human society, said it
was impossible for them to approach so near to the person of
the Sovereign without reminding themselves of the great
sorrow which had but yesterday darkened her life. Her
people would feel on that occasion, as they felt 17 years ago,
that the Queen's trouble was their own. They would associate
themselves with her by their sympathy and their prayers.
They would pray fervently that the evening of that life in
which the highest office had been adorn eel by qualities which in
the humblest of subjects would command an involuntary
reverence might be brightened by those consolations which
God alone could give ; for, in truth, it was character rather
than office—nay, much more thsn commanded
reverence Offic. was, in a sense, outside of him; character
wss himself. Apart from charac'er office rnigiit only invite
that senie of rev•-rence whirl' man paid to the wild
powers of nature; hut conspicuous goodness complied a
reverence wtich, wilt due allowance for tbe difference be-
tween a created object and the Creator, was akin to the love
of God. The congregation \V as very numerous. At the close
of the service the "Dead March" in Saul was played on toe
organ.