The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-05 00:00:00

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and princesses the Duke of Edinburgh on the right of
the Princess Albert of Prussia, while the Grand Duke
of Baden walked on her left Dr. Kogel, the
chief Court chaplain, began to deliver a short address
in a firm and earnest voice. He referred to the double
wedding three years ago, to the confirmation of Prince
Henry before he went to sea and to the golden feP
tival of the Emperor's wedded life, which had all
been cdebrated there. Then he referred to the earthly
hopes which were centred in the bridal pair, to the
interest taken in their union by the Queen of Eng-
land and other European Sovereigns, and to the joy
and confidence with which the event was regarded in
all Germany, but particularly in Schleswig-Holstein.
At the close Dr. Kiigel stepped forward to meet
the Prince and Princess, who advanced and joined
hands, and put the usual questions, to which Prince
William for his part responded clearly and con-
fidently. Rings were then exchanged, and at this
moment a signal was conveyed to the garden space in
front, and simultaneously the chapel shook with the
thunder of cannon proclaiming to all the city that the
solemn act was over. Again and again did the
artillery peal, and the sound did not seem altogether
out of harmony with the " Hallelujahs " of the choir
and organ, which burst forth as soon as the clergyman
had pronounced the Benediction and continued till
Prince William had quitted the chapel with his
wedded wife. The Emperor, in particular, was
deeply affected during the progress of the ceremony.
The religious ceremony thus being over. the Em-
peror and Empress, followed by all their Court and
guests, went from the chapel in the order in which
they had come to the Brandenburg and the Red
or Drap d'Or Chamber to present their congratu-
lations to the newly-married couple' and that being
done, back again flowed the crowd to the White
Saloon, blazing with crystal chandeliers, in order
to hold high Court and receive obeisance from
the magnates left behind in the chapel, who
were now marshalling themselves to file past the
throne (Defilir-Cour) and lay their homage at the
feet of their Majesties and the wedded pair. Having,
therefore, returned to the White or Throne Room,
the Emperor and Empress, with the ic,ing and Queen
of Saxony and Prince and Princess William of
Prussia, now took their stand beneath the golden
canopy, being flanked on the right and left by the
princes and princesses; their attendant dames and
cavaliers being behind. All being in readiness, the
Emperor gave the sign ; the door leading from the
chapel flew open, and silently begun to glide in a
ceaseless stream of titled and uniformed lords and
ladies,

The various ladies of the Diplomatic Carps came
first, who all curtseyed lowly twice over to the assem-
bled Court and silently disappeared, no one doing her
part more deftly in this respect than the Chiaese
Ambassadress. Then these are followed by the
Ambassadors and Ministers, with their various staffs.
When tho representatives of all the Powers have
passed, all but the Crown Prince sit down to behold
the rest of the waiting multitude pass by. Preceding
the Federal Council entered Field-Marshal von
Moltke, as first in rank among the high officials of the
Realm, after Prince Bismarck, and as he man his
bow the Emperor rose and returned the courtesy, as
also did all the Imperial House with marked friendli-
ness and respect.

It was with no slight apparent satisfaction, and al-
most an audible sigh of relief, that the brilliant throng
beneath and around the golden canopy beheld the last
of the courtiers make their salaam and disappear.
Then Game the banquet in the Hall of Knights. The
main banquetting board was called a table of cere-
mony, and assuredly no observer of the progress of
the feast would have felt inclined to quarrel with the
name. In the centre of the main or cross table sat
the newly-wedded pair, on the Princess's left being
the Emperor, the Queen of Saxony, the Crown Prince
of Sweden, and the German Crown Princes respec-
tively, while the Royal bridegroom was similarly
flanked by the Empress, the King of Saxony, the
Dowager Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein, and the
Prince of Wales, the other guests being distributed in
nicely-calculated order around. The tedious details
of the feast would only weary your readers; it is only
necessary to say that the health of the bride and
bridegroom was proposed by the Emperor.
Meanwhile, the White Saloon is becoming crowded
with the Diplomatic Corps and the other guests.
Here presently the Emperor and the bride and bride-
groom and the princes and princesses return, and take
their places under the golden canopy, and the tra-
ditional torch dance begins, which lasts late into the
night, and concludes this intricate wedding cere-
monial. I may add that daring the service in the
chapel, which did not last three-quarters of an hour,
two generals fainted from the heat.
As to the character and accomplishments of the
Royal bridegroom, I take the following extract
from a private communication to me on the subject
by one who has had ample opportunities of
judging :
" Prince William is a promising young gentleman.
The Hohenzollerns, as a family, are rather slow in
developing—slow but sure; and there is little to dis-
courage the hope that time, in his case too, may bring
out all the better and more prominent qualities of his
race. He is certainly not so tall and probably not
quite so vigorous and robust as his princely father was
at his age ; but still the physical type of his paternal
• ancestors undoubtedly predominates in him too. In
particular, apart from the face, which greatly re-
sembles that of his father in profile, Prince William
has inherited the proverbial large hand of the
Hohenzollerns, which palmistry has sought to con-
nect with their remarkable achievements in the sphere
of conquest from the days when Conrad fought his
way into the favour of Kaiser Red Beard and the
Wardership of Nurnberg Castle on till the forcible
annexation by his 23rd lineal descendant of Hanover,
Hesse-Cassel, Frankfort, Schleswig-Holstein, and
Alsace-Lorraine. You have doubtless heard of the
story told in point. When Prince William was
about nine months old he was presented by his
father to an assemblage of Berlin citizens, one of
whom facetiously took out his watch and held
it close to the Royal infant's ear. The latter, how-
ever, less amused by its ticking than attracted by
its jewelled brilliancy, clutched the chronometer
with his tiny fist, and kept a very tight grip of it
too. 'Ah! see,' said his princely father, smiling,
/ whatever a Hohenzollern once gets, into his grasp
he does not let go his hold of so readily.' Prince
William, though not altogether free from a certain
constitutional delicateness, is nevertheless a secure
rider and a vigorous oarsman; while from the ma-
ternal aids of his parentage he seems to have come
by a British love of sport and adventure. Captain
Marryat, in particular, is a great favourite of the
Prince, and he is doubtless as well acquainted with
the exploits of Midshipman Easy as with those of
the Great Elector. You will have seen from the
newspapers, however, that the booksellers of Berlin
have combined to present the Prince with a splendid
wedding gift in the shape of an extensive and ger-
geously-bound general library, and it is not doubted
that his Highness will appreciate this act of homage
as highly as he will prize the valuable stud of
horses to be given him by the province of Prussia.
It would be di i
fficult, it s well known, to find a
match anywhere for his Royal mother in respect
of varied intellectual accomplishments, and the Crown
Prince, too, his illustrious father, is adored for his
manliness, his good sense, his pacific nature, his noble
simplicity, his straightforwardness, and his winning
bonhomie- but while inheriting to some extent the
particular graces of both his parents, it would be, per-
haps, nearer the mark to say that in the general ten-
dency and constitution of his mind the young Prince
bears more resemblance to his Imperial grandfather
than to any other of his less remote ancestors. And
that in itself must be no slight gratification to the
themasgteedpaannd4hoirunoaturdiedanEmof
Perher'irs
gpreanopdlesionwhtohevieflv ill
e tutur
destinies. Above all things, the FrillPe's tastes are

military."
As to the bride, an intimate friend of the family
writes to me :

"Groat care was taken with the education of the
Princess, and hor noble father took a deep interest in
the development of his children's character and
abilities. An English lady stayed with the Princesses
several years to finish their education. Princess
Augusta Victoria is tall and elegant, and a certain
stateliness of manner is softened by great kindness
and courteousness in her address. The Princess is
blonde, with a fair complexion, and has very expres-
sive blue eyes."

The Presumptive Empress of Germany, Augusta Victoria
Amelia Louise Marie Constance, was born (the eldest of five
children) on the 2nd of October, 186 S, at Dolxig, a Silesian
estate of her parents, the °rand Duke and Grand Duchess of
Sohleswig-Hohitein-sonderburg-Augustenburg, and is Villa
about three months older than her husband_ Her mother,
the Grand Duchess Adelaide, still living, was the daughter
Ernst, Prince of llohenlohe-Langenburg (and therefore
the sister of Count Gleichen) who married Queen Vic-
toria's half-sister,. Feodora, and who, dying in 1860, was
pronounced by the Prince Consort to be a "thoroughly
good, noble, spotless, and honourable man," but whose
virtues did not prevent serious losses accruing to him from
the social convulsions of 1848 in Germany. As her father,
too, the Duke of Augustenburg, who had to suffer severely at
the hands of Prussia at the time of the Schleswig-Holstein
complication, the Princess Augusta Victoria comes of an an-
cestry whose property and privileges have been wofully cur-
tailed by modern political tendencies, to the extent, indeed, of
creating a penniless Princess and Prince with a long pedigree.
While wanting, too, in that dowry which might have
been her share but for the policy of Prince Bismarck joined
to the genius of Count Moltke, the Princess Victoria can
probably boast of more distinguished connections than any
other living German peeress. For, being the granddaughter
of queen Victoria's half-sister and the niece of one of Her
Majesty's sons-in-law (Prince Christian), as well as related
to the Royal House of Denmark—the younger branch of
her family, and a nursery of monarchs—the Princess
would thus be at no loss to claim kindred at all the
chief Courts in Europe. While thus, however, indirectly
connected with so many crowned heads, the Princess
Victoria is not without much humbler though equally
honourable relations, one of her aunts, the Princess
Henriette, being the wife of Dr. Esmarch, the celebrated
professor of surgery at Kiel. The little parish and mansion
of Dolzig, where the Princess Victoria was born, is near
Frankfort-on-the-Oder. Iler Highness was brought up in
strict retirement and simplicity suitable to the altered
circumstances of her family, and the result of her careful
education and social surroundings has been to make her
what her future subjects exultingly and justly boast her to
be, "a genuine German Princess."—Court Journal.

The Queen gave a banquet at Windsor Oastle on Monday
night in honour of the marriage of her grandson, Prince
Frederick William. Mr. Gladstone was unable to be pre-
sent—although he has nearly recovered from the effect of
his accident—and the Prince of Wales and the Duke of
Edinburgh had not returned from Berlin. Lord Beaconsfield
and the German Ambassador, as well as some of her
Majesty's Ministers, were among the guests.

The tenantry on the Royal estates of Birkhall, Abergeldie,
and Balmoral were entertained on Monday by the Queen in
honour of the Royal marriage at Berlin. Notwithstanding
the snow which covered the ground, a large number of
persons attended. A ball was held in a temporary structure
near the Castle, where the health of Iler Majesty and the
newly-wedded couple were pledged with Highland honours.
The Queen's Commissioner presided.

A magnificent spectacle was, says the Berlin Correspon-
dent of The Times, presented on Monday evening in the
Opera Rouse, when Quinault's heroic " Armide," in four
acts, was most effectively given as a gala performance
before all the title, wisdom, valour, beauty, and fashion
Tiow assembled in Berlin. Entry being attainable only by,
special invitation from the manager-general of the Royal
theatres, the house being most select and there Wall a dis-
play of uniforms and ball-room toilettes, the-dike of which
the capital has not seen in the same place for many a
day. It seemed as if all the brilliant crowd which on
Sunday witnessed the wedding ceremony had been

suddenly transferred from the chapel to the opera.
Quinault's opera was expensively put upon the stage
and was well acted, but, though worthy of being
closely followed, it was not the opera which the
Berliners had come to see, but the Prince and Princes. On
the young couple, with the Court, entering the grand box
opposite the stage, the baud broke forth with the National
Anthem, and the whole house, rising, cheered the royal
pair, who acknowledged the compliment with repeated
bows. At the close of the performance the audience
again cheered. On the drop-scene was a painted represen-
tation of the castle where the Princess was born, and of
the two palaces or mansions appointed as her summer and
winter residence in Potsdam.

Prince Christian, uncle of the Princess, has received from
the Emperor the high Order of the Black Eagle (equal to
the English Garter), been made a Prussian Gleneral, and
received the honorary command of a cavalry regiment.

On Tuesday the Prince and Princess William gave an
audience to the President and Vice-Presidents of the Ger-
man Parliament, who congratulated their Royal Highnesses
upon their marriage. President Gossler in his address said:
"Marriage is the source and foundation of all happiness.
This happiness and trust in God give the man and woman
strength to perform their part of usefulness successfully.
Your Royal Highnesses have a most noble example before
you in your grandparents, who in their trust in God and
their domestic happiness found strength to raise up the
Fatherland at a time when it was cast down." Prince
William thanked President Gossler for his congratulations,
and assured him that he would endeavour to walk in the
steps of his forefathers, and he hoped he should succeed.

The Berlin Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph,
writing on Tuesday night, says :
Prince Bismarck assisted on Sunday at the Civil Marriage
Act, and at the following dinner of ceremony, retiring after-
wards on the plea of weak health. At the defile, Count
Moltke, looking as fresh as ever, was the that to pass the
throne after the ladies, and to make his obeisance to bride-
groom and bride.
A charming anecdote remains to be told of the latter. It
having been suggested to her that of the hymn to be sung in
the chapel a verse shoultt be omitted on account of its refer-
ence to evil days, she objected, remarking that she and
Prince William neither expected nor desired to be always
bedded on roses, but were willing to bear whatever trials
might await them. Her commands were obeyed, and the
following verse was sung :—" If a hard lot doth await us.
Give us strength to bear it. Jesus; Grant that we, in worst
of days. No complaint of burdens raise.'

I must not forget to mention that the splendid chandelier
of rock crystal, in the room where the wedding breakfast, or
rather supper, took place, is the identical one under which
Luther stood at the Diet of Worms. The late king bought
it for £4,000.

The St. James's Gazette remarks on the marriage :—" The
marriage of the eldest son of the Crown Prince and Princess
of Germany with the Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-
Holstein has been celebrated with all befitting pomp; and it
seems to be a match thoroughly grateful to everybody in
Germany. In England, too, the marriage has far more
interest than the nuptials of foreign princes usually bave
for us; for both bride and bridegroom:l are oonnections of ours;
and there is something about the marriage which appeals
to romance and a certain sense of justice alike. The bride's
family, of which we have amongst us an honoured repre-
sentative in Prince Christian, suffered greatly in the making
at the German Empire. Its dignities—such as could be
taken from it at all—as well as its fortunes, were wrecked in
the process ; and on that account, as well as on others, it is
pleasing to see a daughter of the one house married to the
heir of the other. The union is of happy omen; and that it
prove happy in itself we must and do all hope, in England."