The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-17 00:00:00

THE ROYAL SILVER WEDDING.

The Silver Wedding of the Prince and Princess of
Wales has afforded not only the more private and
personal friends of their Royal Highnesses, but like-
wise various corporate bodies and the nation at large,
the opportunity of testifying the respect and attach-
ment which the Heir to the Throne and his fair Con-
sort have inspired during their now fairly long period
of happy union. As regards the former, a costly
present to the Princess was arranged for; while, as
regards the latter, it has been found difficult to restrain
generous loyalty within due and reasonable limits.
Even before the lamented demise of the aged German
Emperor, which cast a gloom over the auspicious
Royal Silver Wedding and led to the abandonment of
all demonstrative expressions of joy, was anticipated,
the good sense of the Prince, which he never
fails to exhibit on important occasions,
satisfied him that it would be a mistake
to allow the public to indulge in too costly
or ostentatious displays of affection to
the Royal Family, in the persons of himself
and the Princess, the year following the splendid and
imposing celebrations of the Jubilee. But the nation
has, these reasons notwithstanding, discovered ample
and significant methods of showing the regard in
which it holds the Royal Pair who were married five-
and-twenty years ago. Ever since the Tenth of
March, 1863, they have been before the public;
indeed, we may say that they have lived without
intermission in the public gaze. As a rule, (remarks
the London Evening Standard) the fierce light that
beats on the Throne falls aslant, and with much
milder radiance on the Heir Apparent. But, in
consequence of a melancholy event, only too
familiar to us all, their Royal Highnesses have for
years performed the greater part of those ceremonial,
social, and spectacular tasks that usually appertain
only to the Sovereign. There is no sphere of
national activity, national interest, or national
diversion in which the Prince of Wales
has not long been the most striking
and the most useful figure. Whether promoting the
foundation of such a work as the Imperial Institute,
lending an encouraging but not excessive patronage
to the national pastime of Racing, stimulating the
taste for music, the drama, and the arts, participating
as far as the Constitution will permit in the organisa-
tion of the Army and the development of the Navy,
or speaking \vial graceful good-humour at some Public
Banquet of a nonpolitical character, the Prince of
Wales, it must be confessed, has never fallen below
the occasion. On every occasion, moreover, on which
the presence of his fair Consort was possible, her
Royal Highness has gladdened the gathering with the
charm of her rare, indeed her unequalled, comeliness.
When men or women perform certain duties year
after year with unfailing punctuality, unflagging
spirit, and apparent ease, it is only natural that what
they do should at last be looked on as a matter of
course, and that.people,should end by assuming that
there is no burden, no difficulty, and no tax in the per-
formance. All that it ever occurs to most persons to
observe concerning the indefatigable and varied
energy of the Prince of Wales is that he must be very
strong, for he is always doing something or going
somewhere, and never seems tired. But they forget
that it is part of the vocation and the duty of the
Prince net to be tired, or at least never to seem
tired. 'Pile part his Royal Highness ostensibly plays
is so dignified, so agreeable, so eminent that lookers-
on are apt to think it a part rather of pleasure than of
business. How gladly, so they fancy, they would fill
the role. Even if we suppose, which is a very bold
supposition, that they would be capable of filling
it if they had the chance, we will engage to say that
they would soon discern that what they regard as a
life of diversion is an extremely hard life indeed. How
many enthusiastic but ignorant young people go
home from a theatre, after seeing a most beautifully
mounted and exquisitely acted play, and think how
delightful it would be if they could only tread the
boards in a leading part, wear all those gorgeous
robes, say all those magnificent things, and receive
all those loud-voiced plaudits. A week's experience
of an actor's or actress's life would cure them of the
delusion. In somewhat the same way, the folks who
fancy it is an easy and a delightful thing to be always
attending public dinners, public ceremonials, and
public merry-makings, would soon be undeceived if
they had to do so perpetually all the year round, and
year after year. Yet these things have to be done by
a Constitutional Prince; and how well and how
admirable they are done by the Prince of
Wales ! He never shows any sign of fatigue, of en 7111
of a sense of monotony and repetition in the part allotted
to him by his position. What he does he does with
alacrity, with cheerfulness, always with success. We
do not know that a single failure can be quoted on
his part. The part, and a very difficult part it often
is, that devolves on him has always been carefully
studied. Nothing is left to mere chance; though, no
doubt, due preparation is frequently seconded by
natural instinct and happy spontaneity. Even if
people cannot be convinced that his Royal Highness
"likes it," how fortunate it is that he has a taste, and
a taste that does not flag, for duties that would" cer-
tainly be often found irksome by less fortunate dis-
positions.
"He is the best politician in England." In such
words we once heard described the special peculiarity
of the Prince of Wales, and when it was somewhat
stupidly objected that he is forbidden to be a
politician at all, it was easily explained that it is for
that very reason he deserves the praises thus bestowed
on him. The Prince exercises very great influence
on public affairs precisely because no one can say
that he ever meddles with them. He exercises the
influence, so to speak, that a good and wise woman
exercises in spheres where she is supposed to have no
direct control. To know and understand men, to
apprehend the due proportion and relation of
things, to have tact always at command, never
to make a serious blunder, never to wound
delicate susceptibilities, to be in touch with all
persons and all classes, while standing apart
from and above them—this is no easy matter, and
would be utterly beyond the attainment of r-my
one who was not extremely politic. If any one
doubts the difficulty and the delicacy of
the position of the Prince of Wales,
let him cast his eye round Europe in search
of a personage who resembles the Prince of Wales
either in what he has to do or in the manner in which
he does it. Our Constitution is avowedly a peculiar one;
and in order that its extraordinarily delicate and almost
intangible machinery should work properly, it was ab-
solutely necessary that a new kind of Monarch and a
new kind of Heir to the Throne should, so to speak,
be developed by natural selection and the conditions
of the case. The Prince of Wales is the supreme pro-
duct of this demand; and during the twenty-five years
of his married life he has been growing and accommo-
dating himself more and ever more to the pecu-
liarities of his position. "That, in undergoing this
curious and useful development, he has lost none of
those other qualities that are valued by other crowned
heads and other Princes may be seen in the affec-
tionate and respectful welcome he invariable receives
in foreign countries and at foreign courts. At home
he is immensely popular, and abroad he invariably
makes England more popular by dint of his own popu-
larity. All Englishmen and Englishwomen sincerely
pray that the day may be far distant when he will have
to exchange his position for one yet more elevated;
but, if they do so, it is partly because, earnest as is
their prayer that the Queen may long preside over
the Realm and the Empire by reason of her own
virtues, they likewise feel that in her son and in the
consort of her son, her Majesty invariably finds
assistance at need in fulfilling her sovereign duties.
To praise the Princess is not so easy as to commend
the Prince, for the eulogiums that can, with propriety,
be passed on a good and fair woman are necessarily
more limited than those that may fairly be lavished
on a man active and influential. But, in mind and
heart, the English people never separate the two, and
in all the expressions of kindly feeling regarding the
Silver Wedding which have been received in the Royal
home at this moment under a cloud of mourning, the
merits and happiness of the Prince and Princess have
been associated.

The Prince and Princess of Wales celebrated their
silver wedding at Marlborough House on Saturday.
Her Majesty left Buckingham Palace at half-past
eleven o'clock, and paid a complimentary visit to their
Royal Highnesses, remaining about half-an-hour, and
subsequently the Prince and Princess of Wales
and their family lunched with her Majesty at
Buckingham Palace. During the afternoon, the Lord
Mayor and representatives from the City attended at
Marlborough House to present an address and a silver
model of the Imperial Institute. The Prince of Wales
briefly replied. In the evening her Majesty was
present at a banquet given by the Prince and Princess
of Wales at their residence, and afterwards drove to
Paddington, arriving at Windsor shortly before mid-
night. A large number of presentations were made
to the Prince and Princess of Wales.