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

Writing from Berlin on Sunday night, the corre-
spondent of the Daily Telegraph says :

"I guarantee the authenticity of the following details
derived from the highest authority. After the death of the
youngest child and during the illness of the Grand Duke, the
other children had been sent to Old Stadtschloss to be out of
the way of the infection. Princess Aliee had herself been
far from well for some time past, but went to the railway
station to see the Duchess of Edinburgh pass on her way from
Stutgart to London. At the station she felt the shivers
premonitory of fever, and on returning home took to her bed
at once. Next morning her doctors discovered the first
symptoms of diphtheria. The Grand Duke, though then
just declared out of danger, was still confined to his room
and in a state of great weakness, but was able to be with
her during the last days and until death ensued. He is
utterly broken down and prostrate. The Princess was not
allowed to see her children any more after the malady de-
clared itself. She suffered intensely, and was at her worst
on Friday afternoon; then she rallied, seemed better, and
was able to take nourishment, but suddenly collapsed into
total unconsciousness at two yesterday morning, and passed
away calmly at half-past seven precisely. With her to
the last as medical attendants were her own Dr. Barzt, as
well as Dr. Jenner, sent from Windsor by the queen, and
Jaeger called in from Munich.

"The grief of the Crown Princess and Prince Arthur upon
teceiving the cruel intelligence was of heartrending inten-
sity; they both and the Crown Prince wanted to start at
once for Darmstadt to be with the Grand Duke and children,
but the Emperor put his absolute veto on their project, at
the suggestion of Doctors Lauer and Wegner, who pro-
nounced that the risk of contagion was still too great to
permit of their going thither.

"The Emperor and Empress felt the shock acutely; they
went off in the early morning
.to the Crown Princess, and
rem dried with her all the morning. The Crown Princess's
devotion to Princess Alice was great: she was her favourite
sister, and they had manny tastes iu common; they had been
living together at Darmstadt during the last autumn
manceavres, and were to meet again at Windsor for the
Duke of Counaught's wedding, which I am assured will be
postponed till the termination of the Court mourning in
England Crowds of people of all classes thronged to the
Crown Prince's Palace yesterday to write their names
down.

"The Berlin press speaks with deep feeling of the sad
event, and pays a touching tribute of homage to the noble
qualities of the deceased Princess refetring especially to her
great intellectual capacities, which won for her the friend-
ship and reverence of such eminent authors as David Strauss
and Luise Buechner."
Writing from Paris on Sunday night, the Correspondent
of the Daily Telegraph says:—" The sad intelligence of the 1
death of the Princess Alice, as she was generally called, cast
a shadow over the small English colony in Paris The
bulletin that appeared in the French papers of yesterday
haatahroeackchedThl
imnotrnheinagftelernftoolinttelemihoepweitahntdheyestuathdeentex
of
coincidence of the death occuring on the anniversary of that
of the father, whom the deceased lady nursed with such
assiduity in his last illness, was much commented upon, and
genuine lkympathy was expressed for her Majesty by French-
men no less than by her own subjects. Several parties
which were to be given by English people here have been
postponed."

The Hes:lan newspapers appeared with a mourning border,
and they all published leaders In which they praised
the merits and virtues of the deceased Princess and
sin-
erely lamented the heavy loss which Hesse has sustained by
her premature death. The other German papers speak of
the Bad event in similar sympathetic terms.

The NationaZ Zeitung says :- -" The Princess who has thus
suddenly been taken away was a lady of no ordinary cha-
racter Her intellectual attainm,nts were of a high order.
She had an excellent t,lent for art, which, by a most cartful
training und,r the personal superintendence of toe Prince
Consort, had been admirably developed. Before all,
the Princess Alice brought from h. r paternal home a
scientific impulse, whida was shown in her zeal for
the promotion of education. Iler noble and humane
feelings are vouched for by the numerous charitable
and philanthropic institutions of which she was the
originator. She had an auimatel and stirring mind, which
did not admit prejudices, and she kept herself free from the
control of those who sought to establish a personal influence
from interested motives. Ihe late Princess has ever, in days
of national depression, given expression to the most sincere
patriotic sentiments. Her serious religious feelings did not
prevent her from enjoying the lasting friendship and respect
of David Frederic Strauss, the famous author of 'The Life of
Jesus.' The world owes to the intercourse of this famous
savant with what at that time was the Princely Court of
Darmstadt, one of his beat works, the Life of Voltaire.'
This work consists of lectures which Strauss read before the
Princess Alice and her Court. The late Grand Duchess was a
moat devoted mother, and it was in this connection that she
cultivated an intimate acquaintance with Louise Btichner,
the well-known authoress of many highly esteemed books
upon education. Her sound constitution, which at one time
permitted her to make all kinde of physical exertions, had
suffered for seine years. Tne sudden death of the Princess will
produce everywhere that she was known a deep and mourn-
at impression, particuhorly in Ilene, whose people were
attached by heartfelt admiration and affection to their
beloved Duchess, whom they were accustomed to see at the
bead of all noble undertakings. A rare and extraordinary
woman, she will live in the hearts of the people and the
history of her country. Her loss cannot be made good either
in that great and elevated sphere of activity which she created
for herself in public life, or in the quiet of the domestic
circle."

OTTAWA, Dec. 14.
An extra edition of the Canada Gazette, issued to-night
contains the following announcement :

"His Excellency the Governor-General and her
Royal Highness Princess Louise have received with
deep grief news of the death of her Royal Highness
Princess Alice Graud Duchess of Hesse.—By com-
mand,. "F. Vic WlivroN, Major R.A., Governor-
General's Secretary. Government-house, Dec. 14."

Desptaches tell that over Canada flags were flying
half-mast high, and profound regret at the event is
universally expressed. Great sympathy was evinced
towards the Queen and the Princess Louise in the
melancholy circumstance.

BOMBAY, Sunday.
Great sympathy is felt here with the Queen on
account of the death of the Princess Alice (says the
Correspondent of the Standard). People of all deno-
minations have, with one impulse, to•day offered
prayer for the bereaved mother, who is, to the mind of
Indians of every race and faith, the type of all that is
excellent and beat and happiest in domestic life.

PHILADELPHLk, Dec. 16.

News of the death of Princess Alice is received here
with many expressions of sorrow, and the newspapers
throughout the country generally express deep sym-
pathy with the Queen in her bereavement. The
British Consulates. and British vessels lying in
American ports universally displayed signs of mourn-
ing.

The Prince and Princess of Wales took leave of Her
Majesty on Monday morning, and quitted the Castle shortly
after ten o'clock for Marinoro gh House. In the Queen's
waiting-room, at the Windsor ntation, they were met by
Prince and Princess Christian, wh , had drive. fr, im turn-
b rland Lodge, in order to accompany their Royal Highnesses
to the metropolis. The day was dull, cold, and foggy, a
gloomy feeling pervading the Royal borough, the shops in
which were still partially closed from respect to the memory
of the Princess. The Prince of Wales, Prince Christian, and
Prince Leopold left London on Monday night for Darmstadt,

in order to attend, on behalf of Her Majesty, the obsequies
of the Princess. the Duke of Cambridge was laid up with
a severe attack of gout, and in consequence was unable to go
to Germany to attend the funeral.

The Duke of Edinburgh arrived at Spithead at five o'clock I
on Monday morning, in the ironclad he commands, the I
Black Prince, having goncluned his present term of foreign
service. The sad news of the death of his sister was com-
municated to his Royal Highness, who came into the harbour
in the Lively, despatch vessel, and proceeded to London by
an early train.

Telegrams from America state that in Monday's sitting of
the Senate, New York, the chaplain alluded in his opening
prayer to the death of the Princess Alice, and besought the
mercy of the Almighty for those who mourned for her.
Prayers for the Queen were said in all the churches in
Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto.

The chief Paris newspapers of all shades speak in terms of
sympathy of the death of Princess Alice (says the Paris
Correspondent of The Tim,es.) The Temps says :
" What must strike us foreigners most is to see the whole
nation joining in the mourning of the Royal Family. The
reason of this is that in England Royalty is a national
institu'ion and has long ceased to represent exclusively
the rallying point of a particular party, opinion, or in-
terest. Placed above the rivalries of politics the Royal
Family has won in respect what It has lot in persobal
and direct influence. Long ago other Royal families
in other countries might have won a situation similar to
that occupied by the English dynasty in the esteem and
affection of the English peo:de ; but they could never take
to the part of impartial execu-ors of the national will
Therefore it wag that, never having gained, whatever their
per•onal qualities, unanimous popular sympathy, they fell
like those Governments which are called into being by a
transient movement of public opinion, and which can only
last as long as the movement itself."

The Univers says :—" Although a Protestant, the Grand
Duchess warmly Interested herself in Catholic charities, and
showed many marks of kindness to the religious communi-
ties so numerous prior to the Culturkampf In the Grand
Duchy of Hesse. The churches in Darmstadt, Mayence,
Bingen, and other Catholic partihes were therefore full of
the faithful asking God to preserve their Sovereign The
mourning of her subjects will be sincere, for the Queen of
England's second daughter has left only good memories in
her new country.

The Dsrmstadt Correspondent of the Daily News writes
"In the Frankfort Journal, Dr. Buchner, husband of the
late Louisa Buchner, who was a well-known writer on edu-
cational reform, and erjoyed the most intimate relations
with the Grand Duchess. publishes an eloquent and touching
tribute to her memory. He alludes to the fact that the Princess
sat at the bedside of his dying wife and cheered her last moments
with the solicitude of the most devoted [Hem!, and enlarges
upon this warm sympathetic nature of the deceased as her
mist strikiug characteristic. Some days even before th.
Princess fell 111, she had a presentiment that she would die
on the anniversary other father's death, and looked forward
to her fate with Christian courage. Dr. Buchner adds that,
owing to the nsture of her illness, none of her family except
the Grand Duke was present during her last moments.
"On Tuesday evening at seven o'clock, according to the
programme, the body of her Royal H ghness was removed
from the ill-omened palace to the castle church, a structure
almost hidden in the irregular mass of buildings which
make up the old, grand ducal residence. A short service,
according to the English ritual preceded the removal,
and the body was received at the church by the '
Court clergy. The hearse, an elegant carriage with
slyer trappings and open sides, through which the sharp
winter wind played across the coffin, was drawn by four
horses, escorted by a squadron of cavalry, and flanked by
servants with flaming torches. Ti'e ceremony was simple,
solemn, and impressive. A considerable crowd collected
about the palace and along the streets; but it was more
sympathetic than curious, and greeted the cortdge in the '
most reverent manner."

The Times of Monday has the following leader upon the
death of the Princess Alice :

The whole nation feels genuine sorrow for the death
of the Princess Alice, the name by which the Grand
Duehess of Hesse Darmstadt will ever be best known
to the English people. For some days before her end
the worst fears had been spread by the bulletins from
the Ducal Court. Before her illness, it was known,
she had been weakened by the devotion with which
she had watched beside her husband and five of her
children, who had all been stricken down by the
mysterious and terrible disease which in recent years
has extinguished the light of so many English homes.
She was mourning for the death of one of those
children, the Princess Mary, who died only a
month ago. All the other sinfrerers`were on the way
to health, when it was announced that the bereast.
mother herself had been attacked by the malady from
which they were recovering. Her watching over them
had sown in her the seeds of a dangerous form of
diphtheria. The sending of the Queen's own physician
to Darmstadt and the gloom of his messages were a
preparation for the worst; and the general sorrow drew
little sharpness from surprise when it was announced
that on Saturday morning the Princess had passed
away. The solemnity of the event found a deeper
shadow in the day on which it happened. The
14th of December must ever bring back the saddest
of memories to the Royal Family. On that day,
seventeen years ago, the Prince Consort died, after
he had been nursed by the Princess Alice with a
tenderness which touched the deepest emotions of
every English family. He had been devotedly at-
tached to her, and the strength and simplicity of her
affection had made her the best of nurses in the hour
of death as she had been the best of daughters in the
brighter hours of life. It was understood that she had
been the chief comfort of her mother, the Queen, when
that terrible calamity cast a life-long shadow on a home
which yielded to none in the fervour of affection and the
virtues of domesticity. Ten years later the illness of
the Prince of Wales threatened the Royal Family
with another great sorrow, and the nation with a
political calamity which would have recalled the
death of the Princess Charlotte. Again did the
Princess Alice take her place by the side of:the
sufferer, nursing him with the same care as she had
bestowed on her father. Again did the 14th of
December come round, and with it came a curious
feeling of apprehension that the day would be
signalised by another affliction. But it brought life,
not death. It has come round once more, and this
time it has taken away the illustrious lady who was
the chief solace of her English home in the darkest
hours of its sorrow, and whose latest days of health
were passed in the relief of suffering.
_

The Princess ha a died a victim to the warmth of
her affections and her sense of duty. Sad as it is that
she should have been cut off in the very flower of life,
the Royal family will draw a consolation from the fact
that it was her very virtues which wasted her strength
unto the febleness of death. That memory will help,
also, to give the Princess an enduring place in the
affections of the English people. We are an eminently
home-loving race. The popularity of the Queen
springs from her store of domestic virtues even
more than from the union of political Qualities
which make her the mode of a Constitutional
Sovereign. The Princess Alice won the same kind
of favour because she had inherited the homely
devotion which is the cement of life, and beside
which all the more showy gifts seem but as dust and
ashes in the critical hours of existence. The humblest
of people felt that they had the kinship of nature
with a Princess who was a model of family virtue as a
daughter, a sister' a wife, and a mother. It is pos-
sible even for such warmth of feeling to shut itself
up within the bounds of home; but the Princess
Alice had no such narrowness of view. Her
abundant sympathies sought for objects of help in
the great unknown waste of human distress. She
had that rich store of pity which, even more than
duty, is the root of philanthropic zeal. The war be-
tween Germany and France naturally, therefore,
cast her great social influence and the example of
her personal aid into the service of the long trains
of wounded who came back from the most terrible
battle-fields of our time tp testify to the price at
which the nation was buying its unity. The German
people will not forget the quiet devotion with which
she attended to the wants of their stricken countrymen.
She was equally anxious to aid the poor and the suffer-
ing in her adopted State. But she had as much good
sense as zeal, and she knew that to give indiscrimixiately
would merely be to multiply and perpetuate the
most hopeless forms of pauperism. During her
visits to London, therefore, she practically studied
the working of the Charity Organization Com-
mittee. She also went to meetings of the poor
people, after she had carefully arranged that her rank
should be concealed. Only when she had left England
did they learn that the lady who had gone among
them and sympathetically asked them about their
necessities and ways of life was the danghter of the
Queen. Nothing leaves so deep a mark as personal
sympathy. Never is personal sympathy BO vividly
remembered as when it comes to the poor from what
seem to be the frosty solitudes of social rank. The
Princess, therefore, was all that the Prime Minister
says in the letter which we publish to-day. She was
indeed "one of the most noble-minded and gifted of
women." She was "endeared to the people of this
country by her rich intelligence and her life of perfect
idomestic bliss and duty."

Death is usually most pathetic when it comes to
youth. The sting of it seems to be peculiarly bitter
when it blights youth and domestic happiness at the
same time. Nor is it easy to forget the contrast be-
tween the promise which life brings to the members of
governing families and the common realities which
they know in the hour of premature departure. Born
into the family which is now the oldest and most
illustrious as well as the most stable of royal houses,
the Princess Alice had no further rank to gain, and she
I had to fear no political vicissitudes. She was ex-
ceptionally happy in her early home. She had merely
exchanged one form of domestic felicity for another
when she married and went to Germany. Down to the
time when her husband and her children fell ill her wed-
ded life had been marred only by one great cause of
sorrow—the loss of the child who was killed by a fall
only a minute after she had been playing with him.
Otherwise she had been fortunate both as a wife and a
mother. The centralizing of political power at Berlin
must have tended to increase rathan than lessen a
happiness which was nouriihed by domestic rather than
by political sympathies. Now all that greatness and
Ifelicity is swept away. Death is the commonest of all
things, and yet it can never be vulgarized. It always
finds a new form of pathos to suit the infinite variety
of human conditions, and it now excites the pity of
a whole nation in the fate of the Princess who lies
dead at Darmstadt. All such reflections, no doubt,
must seem cold and almost meaningless to the
members of her own family. No words can bring any
consolation to the home which has been made desolate.
But in after years the Grand Duke of Hesse Darm.
stadt and his children may remember the tribute
which is now paid to the wife and mother by the
people among whom she passed her earl!? years. His
grief and theirs excite the deepest sympathy. But the
first thoughts of Englishmen may naturally turn to the
Queen. She had hitherto had only one great bereave.
ment, although that was the mightiest within the
compass of sorrow. In other ways her household 11,4 d
been comparatively free from calamity. Her
children hai grown to manhood and womanhood;
and there have been few losses even among her
many grandchildren. All the sharper, however,
must now be the sorrow for the death of a beloved
daughter, and the blow is made heavier by the earl'
memories of the day on which it has come. One anni.,
versary will henceforth be consecrated to Her Maje-ty
:by the double calamity with which it is charged. The
nation is peculiarly able to sympathise with her grief
at the preseet time, for there is distress in many
households, and the area of want has been terribly
widened by the premature rigours of winter. Death I
has been very busy among rich and poor. War has:
already cast sorrow over some English homes, and:
anxiety through many more. Sorrow begets sympathy I
with sorrow, and all Her Majesty's subjects join in
the grief which has been ova over her household byl