The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-06-28 00:00:00

of hlis studies at our own institution at Woolwich, achieving
his honours without fear or favour. He devoted him-
self to the study which had been the taste of his father
and the nurse of the great genius of his uncle. Then we
learned of his wish to share the toils and dangers of his com-
rades in South Africa—that Africa which has been so
strangely associated with St. Helena, the place of the exile
and death of his nude. All Is now ever—all the hopes and
fears of those to whom his existence was the rallying-point
for all the memories which gathered round the Im-
perial name. It might almost be Bald that all these
hopes and aspirations, that this "name at which the
world grew pate," have sunk beyond foreign seas
"to point a moral or adorn a tale." This is not
the place, nor is this the time, to dwell upon that
wider range of politics, nor to speak of the fortunes of
the family of Napoleon. At these moments, when the life-
less remains of the young Prince are travelling across the
sea, we had best fix our thoughts on the spirit which has
gone to God who gave it, and on her who now sits solitary,
who once was great among the nations. He is gone, and he has
left a stainless name behind, honoured and respected even
by his adversarlys. To his comrades and to you English
boys he has left the best of legacies, the example of a faith-
ful and earnest friend—the example of a pure life and of
clean lips, as I have been told by one who knew him well.
To the country which had sheltered him he gave what be
could, his service and his life. To him it was permitted to
die a soldier's death, which was denied to his father and to
his uncle, and he has been spared the life-long struggles and
temptations the thought of whfch drew tears of anguish from
his father as he was standing uver his baby couch; and for
her who now survives is there not a tender sympathy which
is good for us? Much people and of many lands are with
her as she awaits the coming of these remains, much people,
both of France and England, princely, noble, and humble.
Let us all remember that he was the only sou of his mother,
and she is a widow. The Dean then uttered a fervent prayer
for the .Emprass, and concluded with the benediction.

The Bishop of Manchester, in concluding his sermon at
Westminster Abbey in the evening, after appealing to the
congregation for them sympathy on behalf of the be-
reaved Empress, said :—What an unstable thing was
human life What fortunes had not that young Prince
cf twenty-three years passed through since the memor-
able day which dawned so darkly for his House, and when
he passed through his baptism of fire on the heights of
Saarbruek. To him (Dr. Fraser) it seemed always a pity
that he should have intermingled with this African affair,
with which he had no concern. Whether it was the instinct
of a chivalrous nature, or whether ic was as .he had been
assured by one who knew him at Woolwich that it was the
impulse of friendship, and to join old comrades between whom
and himself there was a strong mutual attachment—what
prompted him he could not say; bin he had fallen
not in the fierce height of the battle field where the soldier
loved best to die, but he had fallen a victim of a petty sur-
prise. They had no concern with the dynastic or political
consequences. They thought only of the mother and of the
rod, and the high rank of the twO made them the more
conspicuous objects for their pity. The mother had been
bereft of her last support, and left—oh I how lonely in the
world. He hoped they would find, even in the midst of
their deep national and personal interests a place of Byrn-
pathy for this lady.
The "Dead March in Saul" was played on the organ as
the vast congregation dispersed.

In St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday morning the Rev. J.
Davies, rector of Christ Church, lfaryltbone, whilst
exhorting his congregation, amongst which was the 3rd
L3ndon Volunteers, to cultivate the virtue of Christian
courage, remarked that we have to-day examples of
heroism not unworthy of the traditions of English
valour, and that that valour of our countrymen was
being put to severe tests by the physical courage of
savage foes. He added that a tribute of sorrow and sym-
pathy was claimed at this moment by that miserable death
of a high•spirited young prince which had abed a thrill ot
anguish through the universal heart of the nation. Such
Incidents showed that the courage of sacrifice needed to be
borne by mothers who offered their sons, as well as by sons
who offered themselves. We might well, however, grudge
such sacrifices in such a war.

At the Chapel Royal, Savoy, in the sermon in the morning,
preached by the Rev. Henry White, from Romans viii, 28,
the following allusion was made to the death of the Prince Im-
perial : "No one," the preach.r Lead, " ean contemplate the
vicissitudes ot life and their final issue for good without re-
membering the great sorrow which has desolated the heart
of one who has endeared herself to the homes and affections
of every English family in this nation. The Empress Eugene
has ever won the respect and love of the wintry of her adop-
tion ; but never has she attracted so swiftly and surely the
sympathies of the people as in this sad hour of her lonely
and crushing grief. There is no time nor place for the
entrance ot political considerations. Even those who may
have regarded the hopes and longings of her house with
distrust or dislike are seen to stan d uncovered, and to
bow the head before a calamity so sudden and so shock-
ing Our compassion yearns for one who loses home
and country and destiny by a stroke of mysterious be-
reavement. Tee Prince had become as one of our-
selves in loyalty to this country—in love of her sons,
in the earnestness, industry, and intelligence which
made him attractive as a student, a soldier, and a friend.
The death of the young is always touching and terrible; but
the sacrifice of one so blameless in life, so high in hope, so
loving in character, widens all hearts. That he should
have died in defence of our cause but makes his memory the
more sacred. For his widowed and childless mother, who
has now lost everything in losing her brave, good, and
gallant son, the sympathies of this English nation will be
poured forth abundantly."

The Rev. Pere Coppin, preaching at the French Chapel,
Leicester-sqoare, thus referred to the death of the Prince
Imperial "We ask your prayers for the late Prince Im-
perial and for his grief-stricken mother, who has thus
suffered such a fearful bereavement. We should bow with re-
spect before her boar. Tne God who holds in his bands
the fate of Empires and Sovereigns has just struck
one of those noble families a great blow. It does not
come within my province to say whether the death of
the Prince Ira been a misfortune for France or
not; but I will say that he was a good Christian, and always
attended regularly to his religious duties It is only be-
coming to suppress all party feeling before this great and
irreparable misfortune, and we should all unite to pray for
the soul of the unfortunate young Prince, and ask God to
support his niother under the terrible ordeal through which
she is now passing."