The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-04-26 00:00:00

711 t :c-Itourbtibge Obserint

SATURDAY, APRIL 26b, 1884.

ROYAL W EDDING S.

THE Queen's visit to Darmstadt for the pur-
pose of attending the marriage of her grand-
daughter calls to the memory of a cloud of
reminiscences ranging over a long period of
time, and surrounded with varying associa-
tions, no set of which would correspond to
any other. Very few—comparatively speak-
ing of course—newspaper readers of to-clay
can recollect the wedding of the Queen
herself, more than forty-four years ago.

The days of Lord Melbourne's Atinisiry
seem now more like a dream than a re-
membrance; strong men of that time are
now white with age. At the time of her
marriage the Queen was in her twenty-first
year, as also was the bridegroom, Prince
Albert of Saxe-Gotha. Louis Philippe, who
has been in thu grave of an exile more than
ft generation, was the powerful King of
France, his right there beinc, then none to
! dispute. The distribution of political
power on the Continent was as different
then as can well be imacrinecl. Neither
Itrtly nor Germany had ° practically an
existenm

Nearly eighteen years passed away, and
once more Queen* Victoria and-Prince.Albert
stood before the marriage altar, this time at
the wedding of their eldest daughter, the
Princess Royal of Great Britain to the
Crown Prince of Prussia. In the short
interval mighty changes had come over
European politics. In France the Orleanist
rule had been swept away, thus sharing the
fate of the Legitimist regime, each, accord-
ing to presunt appearances, with no hope of
revival. The Republic had been succeeded
by the Empire, and just at the time of the
Princess -Royal's marriage our relations with
the Empire were somewhat strained. The
French had charged the English nation with
harbouring in the British capital the as-
sassins of Europe, some of whom had a few
days previously made an attempt on the
Emperor's life. Undoubtedly it was a
stormy time, one requiring the greatest care
on the part of our statesmen. Lord
Palnierston was Prime Minister; but the
very suspicion of truckling to France drove
him speedily from office. The -bridegroom
of that day was the heir presumptive to a
throne which, in the time of the war with
Russia three years previously, had by its
vacillation earned for itself the blame which
always attaches to indecision. Prussia had
for the time degenerated into the position
of a second-rate Power, while France was
lording it over Europe. No one in that
brilliant throng in the Chapel Royal, St.
James's on the 25th January, 1858, could
have had an idea that in twelve brief years
the bridegroom would lead one of three vast.
German armies to the invasion of France,
take the Emperor into captivity, destory the
military prestige of /a graritle nation, -and
take from her some of her strongest
fortresses, and two of her fairest provinces,
besides compelling her to pay a war in-
demnity amounting to the enormous sam of
two hundred millions sterling of British
money.
Death next stepped upon the threshold
of the palace, and within a few months
carried off the Queen's mother and husband.
Meanwhile her Majesty's second daughter,
the good and amiable Princess Alice, had
been betrothed to Prince Louis of Hesse, the
present Grand Duke of that little Princi-
pality. Even death cannot be permitted in
this world to stop the course of the unalter-
able laws which govern its progress, and so
the beloved Princess was married very
quietly, a few months after the decease of
her father, and in the private chapel at
Osborne, her Majesty attending in the
deepest mourning. Within a year there
was a Royal wedding more public in its
character. It was that of the •Prince of.
Wales to the Princess Alexandra of Den-
mark. After a splendid reception to the
Princess in London, the wedding took place
in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, the Queen
being a spectator from her pew. The
marriage of Princess Helena to Prince
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein followed
too much the beaten track of precedent to
create much attention but the union of
Princess Louise with the Marquis of Lorne
was of interest to the people because it set
precedent aside, and a subject became the
son-in-law of the Sovereign. That was
thirteen years ago, and there the marriages
of the Queen's daughters ceased. Since
that time her three younger sons have
taken wives—the Dukes of Edinburgh,
Connaught, and Albany respectively. The
wedding of her Majesty's grandchild, the
eldest daughter of the lamented Princess
Alice, takes place under the shadow of a
bereavement which is not yet a month old.
But the postponement of the nuptials, while
it could not have been of the slightest service
to the dead, would have been productive of
inconvenience to the living; and there can
be no doubt that her Majesty has acted
wisely in giving her sanction to as little a
departure from the original arrangements
as possible. In the constant comisanionship
of.iher youngest child, let us hope that the
change of air and scene may .effect all the
good which her Majesty's physicians so con-
fidently expect from it.