The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-07-31 00:00:00

RETURN OF THE EMPRESS EUGENIE.

The Empress Eugt`nie landed on Tuesday at
Southampton, from which port she took her departure
on the 25th of March last on her melancholy mission
to Zululand, and is now once more in her quiet home
at Chislehurst. Her Majesty made her return voyage
from Natal in the Union Company's mail steamship
Trojan, Captain H. D. Travers, which arrived at
Plymouth late on Monday night. The vessel passed
Hurst Castle shortly after ten o'clock on Tuesday
morning, and the first welcome of the Empress on her
return to the land of her adoption was the arrival
alongside the Trojan, when off Yarmouth, of the Royal
yacht Alberta, with the Princess Beatrice, who went
on board and accompanied the Empress into the
Southampton waters, when her Royal 'Highness took
leave and returned in the Alberta to Osborne.
About half-past ten the small steamer Alexandra left
the Southampton Docks with a distinguished party
who had arrived from London to meet the Empress,
including the Duke and the Marchioness de Bassano,
the Duke and Duchess of Asturias, Prince Murat,
Madame d'Arcos, the Duke of Huescar, M. Pietri,
the Marquis de Javalquinte, Earl Cawder, Lord
Dorchester, Lady Evelyn Campbell, and Sir Lintorn
Simmons. The Duke and Duchess de Mouchy re-
mained on shore to welcome the Empress on landing.
Off Netley the Alexandra met the Trojan, and at
her own special desire the Empress at once exchanged
steamers, accompanied by her suite. The Empress
was received on board the Alexandra by Sir
Benjamin Phillips, who presented her with a
magnificent bouquet of Cape jessamine—and other
flowers. The Empress, thanking Sir Benjamin,
expressed her thorough appreciation of all that
had been done for her comfort by the captain
and officers of the Trojan, and her appreciation of the
arrangements for the voyage. Her Majesty embraced
the ladies who had come to meet her, and cordially
thanked the gentlemen, speaking to all in turn.
Before the Alexandra started for the shore, the Em-
Dress expressed to the chairman of the company her
desire that all the Trojan's passengers should accom-
pany her on the tender and travel with her by the
special train to London, but this desire was relin-
quished on Sir Benjamin explaining that such an
arrangement would necessarily occasion Her Majesty
considerable inconvenience and detention, while it
would not enhance the comfort or expedite the move-
ments of the passengers. As the Alexandra steamed
away froin the Trojan's side, the passengers all
gathered together to bid adieu to the Empress.

About twenty minutes past twelve the Alexandra
arrived in the docks, where many hundreds of persons
had assembled, and was speedily berthed at the
selected landing-place, alongside which the railway
carriages were drawn up on the dock quay. On pass-
ing the‘upgangway, covered with red cloth, the Empress
embraced the Duchess de Mouchy, who stood at its
head, and shook hands with the Duke, and then stepped
into the saloon carriage, bowing right and left in ac-
knowledgment of the greetings of the spectators. The
Union Company had arranged for a special train to con-
vey the Empress direct from Southampton to Chisle-
hurst, rid Clapham Junction, and when all was ready for
starting Her Majesty sent for Sir Benjamin Phillips
and again tendered him her thanks for the admirable
arrangements which had been made by the Union
Company throughout her voyages, and her apprecia-
tion of the kindnesses shown to her in her journey
through the colony. The train started from South-
ampton about five minutes to one for Chislehurst, where
it arrived at 3.40. There were only a few spectators
at the station, as it was not generally known when the
Empress would arrive.

Before leaving the Trojan, the Empress sent for
Captain Travers, and presented him with two photo-
graphs of herself and a handsome diamond breast-pin,
and also gave to each of the officers one of her photo-
graphs, in acknowledgment of their attentions during
the voyage.

HOW THE PRINCE IMPERIAL MET HIS
DEATH.

The Times of Wednesday published the following :—" Sir
Evelyn Wood presents his compliments to the Editor of
The Tzmts, and offers the accompanying statement for his
acceptance.—Steamship Trojan, July 26."

" ' Summary of the Zulu account of the death of the Prince
Imperial, as related to Sir Evelyn Wood by 18 Zulus who
took part in the attack on the reconnoitring party of the Ist
of June, 1879 :

'The attacking party numbered about forty, of
whom twelve followed the Prince, and either seven or
eight were concerned immediately in his death. The
Zulus, having nearly surrounded the party, fired and
rushed on them as they were in the act of mounting.
The Prince, not having succeeded in mounting, ran
alongside of his horse until it broke away from
him on the hither bank of the donga about 220
yards from the kraal where the party had off-
saddled. The Prince followed his horse into the donga
until closely pressed by his pursuers. He turned upon
them, in the words of the Zulus themselves, "like a
lion at bay." Struck by an assegai inside the left
shoulder, he rushed at his nearest opponent, who fled
out of the donga and got behind another Zulu, who
coming up fired at the Prince when only ten yards
from him. The Prince returned the fire with his
pistol and faced his now rapidly-increasing foes
until menaced from is right rear and struck by
another assegai. He regained the level spot on which
he had first stood in the donga, where he was speedily
surrounded. He then seized an assegai which had
been thrown at him, for in struggling with his terrified
horse his sword had fallen from its scabbard. He thus
defended himself against seven or eight Zulus, who
state they did not dare to close on him until, ex-
hausted, he sank down on his hips.

N.B.—The above facts were elicted from the
Zulus, who were examined separately on the scene of
the attack, and out of sight of one another.'"

The Times of Wednesday had a leader on the return
of the Empress, from which we make the following
extracts :

The return of the Empress Eugenie from her journey to
South Africa marks the close of a very melancholy episode
in recent history, and cannot fail to be permanently asso-
ciated with what must, at all events, be a turning point in
the course of French affairs. . . The vicissitudes of
Royal and dynastic life are vast and impressive, and
exercise a proportionate attraction over the imagination.
Rarely in history have these vicissitudes been more
vividly displayed than in the life of the Empress Eugenie.
She was suddenly and unexpectedly placed in one of the
most brilliant positions which a woman can occupy; and she
filled it for many years wills a singular grace, and dignity.
Her husband seemed destined to be the second founder of
the Napoleonic dynasty, and she possessed a son who gave
promise of being not unequal t& the great inheritance to
which he had been born. On a sudden this splendid posi-
tion was swept away, except in the affection and respect
of some devoted adherents; the Empress became an exile
and the Empire was abolished. The Emperor, who had
first created the position and then destroyed it, soon passed
away, and his wife had nothing left but the hopes which
gathered around her son. Btu, those hopes were high and
were by no means unfounded. The young Prince gave in-
creasing evidence of fine qualities, and the Bonapartist party
in France were, at all events, bold ad enterprising. Any-
thing might well seem possible for hiin—at least to his
mother; and for a large party in France the whole future
of their country centred round him. Impelled by these
hopes, he thought to qualify himself for his future posi-
tion by experiencing the dangers and difficulties of war; and
when he started to join our forces in Zululand, he seemed
taking the first step in what might have been a great career.
At all events, the whole of his mother's life was centred in
him and in his prospects, and he was followed in his cam-
paign with all the interest which attaches to a soldier prince.
Once more a crushing and sudden blow extinguished all these
hopes, and annihilated all that the Empress lived for. Apart
from her son, she could have no real Share in the great drama
In which she had played so prominent a part; and the sole
object of her existence was taken away from her. It is no
wonder she felt an irresistible impulse to unite herself
with him as far as possible in the last scenes of his life, and
to enable herself to realize with the utmost possible vivid-
ness the struggle which was the close of her son's life and of
her own, and which may prove to have involved the doom of
his dynasty. . . .
The Empress returns to us opportunely at a moment
when the controversies which have prevailed respecting
her son have been settled by what is on the whole a
satisfactory compromise. The feeling which occasioned the
vote in the House of Commons the other day against the
erection of the Prince's statue in Westminster Abbey arose from
no lack of regard to the Prince himself, but from the simple
fact that he was not enough of an Englishman to be properly
commemorated in the most English of our burying-places.
His statue will find a becoming home in St. George's Chapel,
Windsor, and will serve as a memorial, among other things,
of the generous friendship which Queen Victoria has main-
tained towards him and his family in their adversity. There
remains to the Empress only the sad consolation that she did
all she could for her son in his life, and that she has done all
that was possible to honour him in his death. The sympathy
felt for her is partly shown by the deep and enduring interest
Which is evidently felt by the public in all the details of the
Zulu war. French painters bestow their skill on illustrat-
ing its strange incidents, and it will maintain a permanent
hold over the popular imagination. The vicissitudes of our
own army may have the main share in creating this feeling.
But there can be no question that the tragic fate of the
Prince has a great part in it. A great drama seemed to be
, ended in that desperate struggle with a handful of ignorant
savages

THE BISHOP OF MANCHESTER AND
THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

Speaking at a luncheon given at Colne, East
Lancashire, on the occasion of a Church bazaar, the
Bishop of Manchester said he hoped the clergy gave
him credit for honest conviction and an earnest desire
to maintain the integrity of the Church of England in
-anything he might have said or. done in regard to the
Burials Bill or any other ecclesiastical question. Some
prophets of evil thought that the present Parliament
might make short work of the Church of England,
but he was not of that opinion. His opinion was that
the Church had only to place herself in the van of the
intelligence and progress of the nation to secure for
herself the intelligent support of the people of the
country. He did nt believe that the people of Eng-
land as a body were animated by any unkindly, still
less by any hostile feeling. towards the Church of Eng-
land, naturally as they might desire that any abuses
in her system should 'be cleared away and any anoma-
lies or anachronisms should be removed. He hoped
that all wise and true lovers of the Church were quite
prepared to do these things.