The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-22 00:00:00

THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS
LOUISE.

Mr. Vernon Harcourt, M.P. for Oxford, in ad.
dressing the electors there the other evening, spoke of
the Approaching marriave of the Princess Louise to
the larquis of Lorne. Ile said It so happens that
the young nobleman who is fortunate enough to have
secured the affections of the Princess is a great per.
mooed friend, and, indeed, a relatien of my own. I
happened to be staying at the house of his parents at
the time the announcement f the fact—though then a

secret -was first made. I happen, consequ"ently, to
' it is as marriage of the purest affection; and
. that a matter so interesting, both in it.
p„a,•. Al and ifs historical importance, is one which
will secure 0 hearty sympathy and approval of the
Eeglis% peopL. That a daughter of the Royal
Family ebould be 1,0„ owed upon •subject of the Cnown
van e‘,nt se hit.t I -ye has not happened in the
ry of Lop 200 years. Ido not believe
' •,c is any n AD I I England who will regret that the
feu should v goided by a wise policy, and thus
have brought iteedi into a more close and immediate
relation with the people of this country."

The obsirre, says • —" It is expected that Parlia-
ment will be ak• to present the Prin •ess Louise, on
her marriage with the Marquis of Lorne, with the
same dowry as that granted to the Princess Helena on
her marriage to Prince Christian of Schleswig•Holstein,
namely, 1:30,000, and an annuity of 1'.6,000. Although
no precise date has yet been announced for the mar-
riage, it is understood that the nuptials will probably
take place about the first week in February. The
interesting ceremony will most likely be celebrated at
Windsor Castle.

The Times has the following leader on the subject of
the marriage
It is so et times irreverently asked whether there be re
finch a sentiment as Loyalty in this country, whefe It reside.,
atel in what it consists Tile truth is it exists In certain
forms and relations, ant has to he roused. We are a domestic
rather than • social race, and the interest we feel in the
dynasty is peculiarly domestic, For more than a century,
not to go further Ins k, the people of this island at least have
taken much about the same interest i n the inner life and
private arrsegements of the Royal Family as the small folk.
of a village or neighbourhood take in the character and
doings I the people at the great house. In • rural dile
trict a cottager who knows no other eistory could toll
ou all about the squire's family for a hundred years
back, whim they married, where they went, and how
they lived or filed. It Is jun so with the great Lady
of the British Manor, or Chief of the British Clan, as she may
be regarded north of the Tweed. All women who know airy.
thing at all, and a good many men too, errs give the names,
ages, presumed characters, person.] appearance, Incomes
and (aunties if they be Itarrl.d, of all the G leers children,
and all the Blood Royal. Mother, who retool " get off "
their owe daaghters as they would like, nevertheless feel a
genuine and tender Interest in her Majesty'. success In
matter of fact the Skivereign has one thing to de in com-
mon with everybody else in these Wands, and that is
to take care of those naturally dependent upon her
True, this has to be done in due subordination to higher
5851 larger claims ; but it has to be done, and never left
out of mind. Thus we are all more or lies in the
same case with the greatest pernonage In British so-
ciety, and can have a complete fellow-feeling for he;
on the questions which are sure to mine. It is not merely
the question of ending hems" for Princesses—the question
that excited such deep atid general concern at the clone of
the last century—but the fear of c =promising a dignity,
which is a political and sicred trust. Such a fear becomes
a scruple, and In the form of • scruple may easily beoome
unreasonnele and ridiculous our grandfathers lend to simile
St the scruple which cut off our ~filletSSeS from the moat
splendid sod substaetial positions at home to lauuch them
on the frail hopes and nominal honours of petty German
principalities But It in never easy to give up • traditional
etiquette, and the utmost to be expect, dot us is that we shall
see when it has died a natural death, and can ne longer be
observed We shall then find that if we seem to have lost
something we have reslly gained more.
It used to he thought a special Providence that the
divisions of the German race supplied • succession of Princes
and Princesses meet for It 'yet alliances. That °plan ea
happehefi to he justified to • large olefin{ by the domestic
result., though not always by the pefitical. The race mined-
late, well with our own, amid the nettersl tint of German
politics suited one Insular position. But the Germany of to-
day and the Continent of to-day are no longer what they
were In place of many S ivereign States, the mealiest of
which was as much • Sovereignity as the Weed, we see
Process of absorption and unification which cut only end in
one G:frman Empire. Whatever the result in our time, the
actual condition of Germany, rid still more of the rest of the
Continent, precludes the Ides of • sort of Ripsl canto from
which British 1t laity might perpetually recruit Itself without
enpromising tither its rank, cr Its petition. or Its creed
The British public will readily see thet it would be not only
very hard, but also very *Anne% to insist on thin rule for the
future. What, then, remains, and why is It not to be open
henceforth for any Sovereign to coming to any alliance
at home, with the recommendations usually insisted
on ? The objection hitherto alleged have been political,
and they belong t' a pant stlli more olnolete than petty
German novice 'gn des Hitherto it has been considered
d ingerous that there "boat be any hybrid clan. between
R. laity and the lueject. R ,yalty can deal with It iyalcy,
and subject with sulyect, and Bo long as there l• a strong
line of emanation there will be no chance of the subje,t
steppin r over the Hue. The jealousy of the subject also sur-
rounds with a fence •II the branches of • Royal Horne, an-I
checks any danger.. aspiration. So It has been hitherto
argued. Again, it has been dreaded lest Royalty shonlii
shower an undue proportion of its f ivoun upon subjects ex-
alted all endeared by • Roy al connexion. But ail these
fears and all these jealousies belong to the twig pant time
when the Crown had substabtisl and distinct politic.' power,
and also immense patronage at its disposal. in these
days, anybody presuming upon a coushnhip vdth the relent/1g
sovereign, and expecting extraordinary favours of any kind,
wonld gain nothing by that ambition but the hostility of all
classes Indeed, so great a jealousy would beset the man
who hail once betrayed any hopes of this kind that he
would be always and everywhere liable to continual
mininterpretatien. The more probable result in a state of
society like our.— so envious of undue ineninption and Co
vigilant against design—le that persons to this new nemd
rstik will inert In life with a certain degree of disqualle•l
Hon sod dissbility. They will themselves have to define ny
positive merit an undefined position, and thin they will lied
a work of time. They cannot but be prominent, and
therefore they cannot etc. pe cliservreien. Tinge, how-
ever, are considerations for those who make such al-
liances, and hardly concern the public A. for the great
objection of all. the dread of tampering with the succes-
sion by the creation of pretenders of • lower quality, that
has become historic—pre•bintoric one in iy rather eay. At
the Revolution ef 16,1 the problem of the succession became
very Imp ,rtant, as I.4l3llBMeSt was very naturally 5031,111 to
spare posterity the difficulties it had itself encountered.
R ither more than half a century ago the Impending deeds-
lion of the Royal Hoene revived a forgotten 81Allety, and Eng-
land had *van to provide for the proper renovation of
the Blood Roy at That work has been done with a saccena
beyond expectation. The Princess born, it may be
said, at the very lowest ebb of Royalty aa well as loyalty In
these Isles, la surrounded by tomer°nrs children awl grand-
children. Indeed, their number Is so treat and so increasing
that some people contemplate with misgiving the rim of a
Royal clana,geod for neither citizenship nor for the Crown. Of
coons the beat security &gaited such a danger is that sermon
as posaible they should merge their useless Royalty in the
rank of suhjects by sultaele alliances.
Bet whatever we may think of the pc-blew, Iler Majesty
has had to deal with it, to decide, nod to act. She Nut bed
tc give her consent or to refine, and has consented. We
canted doubt that the teem sity of a decision hetween COD-
biderations vary cogent In their way, but conflicting, wan •
severe trial, sons could feel more than Her Mee .sty what
was due to the batten and to the dynasty ; none more what
was due to • beloved child. But she had 10 10 what some
find imponslble. She had to decide She had to face bet
only criticism, but events, for, even after the most careful
consideration and the wisest decision, the result, nay, the
merest Itlay throw a colour of imprudence, or
worse, over the course adopted lii this case we entertain
no iniegivhsg. The husband of the Princess Leithe will prove
as harridans to the British Coriatitutli n and British libertlea
as the husband of Prince.' Alice to the North German Con-
federation The match is a novelty, to doubt, but we have
lived to see many such novelties. They only note the passage
of time, and moiled us that this Is a world of chnoge. In
this instance an etiquette that could plead only special
reasons has given way to honest iodine, true affection,
common sense, and, we believe, the common weal.

The mere fact says the Liverpool Albion that Mr. John
Bright is a colleague in the same Cabinet of the Dube
of Argyll, father of the Gleen'a future son-In-law, (Marquis
of Lorne ) that Mr. Childers and Mr. Lowe, saying nothing
of Mr. Gladstone, are colleagues of Lord Granville, nut-
aces to dispute of all the chimeras that were deemed, and
not unreasonably deemed, conclusive in a preceding gene-
ration Alto facilities for the aggrandisement of particular
families which marital admission into the Royal circle
might elf ird. P-littcal Intrigues from each privileges
are now impossible, and the at- cial consequences may
be left to take their course, lint n. no the leas is credit
due to the conelderatt n, and courage manifested by the
Q teen, in taking the step she has done of her own motion,
uninfluenced by .y political pressure of any kind whatever,
and urged solely by motives which soniniend themselves to
Universal approbation, quite apart tr,m the meritorious
private feelings al mother of the Princess Louise which
mewed', animate her In this particular instance.

THE MARQUIS OF LORNE AND THE ARGYLL TENANTRY.
Oa Thewlay evening the Marquis of Lorne enter-
tained at dinner in the Town-hall, Campbeltown, the
tenantry on the Argyll estsoe connected with that
district. About 130 sat down to dinner. The noble
Marquis presided, and pmpored the first twat, "The
Health of the Quern, and of the Prince and Princess
of Widen." Mr. Stewart, Chamberlain to the Duke
of Argyll, proposed "The Health of the Princess
Louise, wheh wa •ledged most entbninistically.
Lord Lorne, in responding to the toast, said :
My friends, the Princess Louie(' being told Iway to meet
you here to-day asked me to convey her thank, to you in
ease you drank her health For ray own pert! need hardly
tell you how dear three cheen you have given for her are to
me, giving me an earnest as they do of the welcome she will
receive Irons those among whom I trust. God permitting, the
may be allowed often In future years to live.
. _

The Marquis subserviently proposed "Prosperity to
Kintyre," tertarking that he had the unmet pleasure
in meeting with his father's tenants, and becoming se-
tptaint tl with their wants and interests. Other tones
followed, and much enthusiasm prevailed.