Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-29 00:00:00

PRINCE ALBERT'S PROMOTION.

Prince Albert has received the honour of promo-
tion, but the public will be as much mystified as
ourselves when it learns the rank to which the
Prince has been raised. His royal highness has
been promoted to be " Prince Consort." He is
made what he really is. This seems to convert his
royal highness, bodily, into a kind of identical pro-
position ; and the conversion into himself raises
in the mind a variety of puzzling questions as to
the consequences Nothing has been happier than
the married life of the Prince hitherto; what is to
happen after he is made officially "Prince Consort?"
We observe that persons who are appointed to
any office under the Crown kiss hands on the occa-
sion ; but although the order in Council was egreed
to at the meeting of Council on Thursday, it is
not reported in the Court circular that Prince
Albert kissed hands "on his appointment to be
Prince Consort." The leading journal accompanies
the first announcement of this intelligence with
an explanation that only increases the perplexity.
"No one can object," says the Time 3, "to the dis-
tinction which is thus conferred on the husband of
the Queen after seventeen years of married life."
But when we look to the capacities of the House
of Commons for objection, the assumption appears
too strong. People might naturally object to the
distinction, since it is a distinction without a
difference—unless, indeed there is to be a differ-
ence, and then every reasonable person might
object. Another explanation is still more
incomorehensible. " Suffice it to say, that
it makes Prince Albert legally, as he is already
actually, a member of the British royal family."
TY:4 almost compels us to ask in what relation yhe
stands to the royal children, if not " legally ?''
Some question had already been raised as to the
position of Prince Albert towards the heir-apparent,
as the Prince of Wales advances in years and takes
a more conspicuous place before the public The
position of Prince Albert in the order of precedence
had already been settled, and yet there was some-
thing indeterminate in his relations on public occa-
sions Perhaps that is now rendered more definite,
though the public understood it well enough before.
It is also explained, however, that hitherto Prince
Albert has had no recognised or reeognisible title
abroad, and ihathis being rna2e Prince Consort of the
United Kiogdotn—whatever that may mean—places
him in the " Royal" rank on the Continent, whereas
hitherto he has only stood in the " Serene" rank.
Her Majesty has then, certainly, transgressed no
bound of moderation, when, after a reign of
twenty years, she confers on her husband a title
which, without giving him any authority at home
assures to him a high and definite position
abroad. . . . His Royal Highness the Prince
Consort of the United Kingdom will be to us
pretty much the same as his Royal Highness the
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. But, in
spite of the poet, there is much in a name ; and,
if there be increased homage rendered to this new
title on the banks of the Spree or the Danube, the
English people will be happy to sanction and adopt
it," The Queen has, indeed, crowned the prover-
bial devotion of English wives ; for what ordinary
woman, even in this country, would thus actually
equip her husband for going oat " on the spree."—
Spectator.