The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-09-18 00:00:00

DEATH OF A REMARKABLE INDIAN.
American papers notice the death, in Colorado on
August 27, of Ouray, chief of the Uncompahgre Utes.
He was probably between 55 and 60 years of age, and
is said to have been one of the most remarkable men
among the Indians of recent tunes. For many years
after his birth his tribe occupied a vast territory west
of the Rooky Mountains undisturbed by visits from
white men. Now, Utah and Colorada have been
carved out of it. Ouray in early life acquired, by inter-
course) with Mexican traders, a sufficient knowledge of
Spanish to be able to converse in it. Since the settle-
ment of Colorado began, he came into close relations
with many settlers, and was known as "the white man's
friend." Though the great bulk of his tribesmen re-
mained wedded to their traditional life he learnt some
of the methods of agriculture, established a farm of 60
acres, on which he raised good crops aud cattle, and built
a comfortable house, which he had well furnished. The
Governor of Colorado presented him with a handsome
carriage and horses, and a Mexican driver; and the
chief's magnificence astonished and rather troubled his
fellow-Indians. Ouray visited Washington three
times, and was always received with great courtesy
and attention. He was a boTi diplomist, and quickly
learnt the advantages of being able to communicate
by writing with the President and Chief of the Indian
Department; he even learnt how to sign the letters
which he caused to be written. His influence was
always employed in the interest of peace, notably
last year, when a collision with the White River Utes
was imminent on account of the murder of Meeker.
He visited Washington last winter to seek redress for
the grievances of which his people complained, and
appeared before the Committee of Congress on Indian
Affairs. Quite recently, he had been negotiating the
sale of a large portion of the Ute " reservation " in
Colorado to the State authorities; but his death will
probably place great difficulties in the way of com-
pleting this transaction.—Obituary of The Times.

BIRTH OF A SPANISH PRINCESS.
At Madrid, on Saturday last, the Queen of Spain
was safely delivered of a daughter, Since Friday
crowds had been standing all day in the Plaza
Oriente under the windows of the Palace, and when
towards nightfall the carriages of the Ministers and
Ambassadors began to arrive the concourse in-
creased, and even many persons of the upper classes,
including ladies, flocked on foot and in carriages to
learn the news. Demonstrations of loyalty and
expressions of sympathy were frequently heard, and
in all Madrid keen curiosity was evinced. At length
there was displayed from the Palace the white flagand
light that announced the birth of an infant. Tele-
graphic signals sent the news to every part of the
capital, and on a fine mdenlight night the public
buildings were lighted up and church bells pealed mer-
rily as gun after gun boomed the salute.

The infant daughter of the King of Spain was
christened on Tuesday in the chapel of the Royal
Palace at Madrid, by the Cardinal Primate and the
Patriarch of the Indies. Queen Isabella was the
godmother. The ceremony was one of great magnifi-
cence.

Th. Times comments upon the above event in a leader,
from which we make the following extract : _ _

"The young Queen of Spain, as the telegraph in-
forms us, has been delivered, not of an heir to the
throne, but of an heiress. The arrival of this 'little
stranger' cannot fail to be an auspicious event both
for the King her father and for the proud nation upon
whom this long-expected infant may one day
be called to reign ; but, as it lately happened
in Holland, and as it sometimes happens also
in the household of a nobleman or gentleman
in our own or any other country, the happiness
which the Princess has caused is not without some
alloy of natural, though not quite reasonable, dis-
appointment. The sex of the heir is not, or ought
not to be, smatter of the least consequence in Spain,
whatever it may be in Holland, where a female, though
entitled to inherit the Dutch Crown, is debarred from
succession to the Principality of Luxemberg, and the
succession of a female would therefore bring about a
partition of the Monarchy. In Spain, the Salic Law,
which only came in with Philip V., the first of the
Bourbons, in 1700, was set aside by his great-grandson,
Ferdinand VII., in 1830, in favour of his daughter
Isabella, and to the exclusion of his brother, the
first Don Carlos. With the exception of the present
Don Carlos, there is no man able or willing to dispute
the right of Alfonso's offspring to its father's king-
dom, irrespective of its sex. Any doubt that has been
started previous to its birth refers simply to its right
to assume the title usually given to the heir of the
Spanish Throne. Had the new-born been a boy, the
denomination of Prince of Asturias would have been
assigned to him as a matter of course; for the title of
Princess of Asturias which was allowed to King Alfonso's
elder sister Isabella, Countess of Girgenti, upon the
restoration of the dynasty, in 1874, when she was
heir presumptive, must needs be dropped at once, as
a new and nearer heir is at hand. But now, if the
younger Infanta were invested with the tith of
Princess of Asturias, she might have to lay it down in
the event of a new infant of the other sex following
from the same source, an event by no means unlikely
or even remote; for if her brother were, as he ought
to be, Prince of Asturias, there ought to be no other
Princess of Asturias than the Prince's consort.

"All these might seem matters of little conse-
quence in other countries, where mere words would
not be suffered to interfere with a right of succes-
sion which in normal times is as clearly defined in
Spain as it is settled with us. But this affair of
the princely title has been the cause of endless dis-
cussions, interesting perhaps, but unprofitable, and
the Prime Minister, Canovas del Castillo, has
had the annals of Spain diligently ransacked, with a
view to settle a variety of questions, as to when
the heir of Castile, or of All the Spains, began
to bear the title of Prince of Asturias, whether
that title was since 1388, when it first occurs, in-
variably sent down to every heir from generation to
generation, and whether it was ever given to a mere
heir or heiress presumptive who might have to be de-
prived of it on being superseded by a nearer heir.
All this seems to us of little moment, except as a
subjeat of mere historical erudition; for a precedent
in point was established recently in the case of the
Countess of Girgenti, the eldest daughter of Queen
Isabella 11., born in 1851, nearly six years before the
birth of her brother, King Alfonso. As the Infantalsa-
bella was as much heir presumptive of the Queen her
mother, as the new-born Infanta is now heir presump-
tive of the King her father, we find that soon
after her birth she took the title of Princess of Asturias,
which she kept till the birth of a male heir. It was
only, as we have said, upon the accession of Kinz
Alfonso that the Infanta Isabella, his sister, as nearest
to the throne, was again proclaimed Princess of
Asturias, to return now to her rank of mere Infants.
upon the appearance of her niece."