The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-10 00:00:00

.Prince and Princess of Wales in

Sweden.

(From tile Vines' SJecial Corr•e.spondent)
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 3.
Yesterday the Prince and Princess of Wales, with
the principal members of their suite, attended Di-
vine eervi:e in the English chapel, a building of
very unprepossessing exterior, but within furnished
in all respects suitably. The congregation, for a
foreign city, was considerable, and the great majo-
lay of those present appeared to be regular church-
loers. Hundreds of spectators, however, waiting to
see their Royal Highnesses as they came and went,
stood in the avenue which leads from the Place of
Charles XIII , the principal boulevard in Stock.
holm, to the gardens in front of the two plain
houses that have been adapted internally to the
purposes of a religious edifice. For the practice, no
doubt, due canonical and political authority can be
pleaded, but to the ear of an English layman there
always seems to be an omission—a friend's name
wanting, as it were—when upon the Continent, in
a Church of England assembly, the prayer for the
Queen of England and her family is not offered up.
Nothing can be more proper than to show respect
for local authority—but in desiring and in acknow-
ledging good government abroad there is no impro-
priety, to say the least, in desiring and acknow.
ledging good government at home. In many fo-
reign countries the right of assembling for public
worship is, or has been in times past, only extended
to Englishmen because they are jEnglishmen, and
the omission in every such case of the prayer in
question is the more marked because Divine ser-
vice is usually held in the house of the British am-
bassador, and therefore of the English Sovereign
for the time being. In these days of synodical
judgments and attempted revival of Church disci-
pline the point is one which the episcopal bench
might very fairly consider. In Stockholm a new
English church is on the point of being erected,
which will not merely be more commodious
internally, but will possess some claims to
architectural beauty. Having accomplished—what
is necessarily a work of much difficulty abroad—
the procuring of funds for such an undertaking, it
is to be hoped that the chaplain will not relay his
admirable efforts, but will remember that in the pre-
sent day good church music is becoming as essential
a feature of the English service as worthy shrines
at which to assemble.
In the course of the afternoon their Royal High.
nesses paid a visit to the Freemason Orphan Asylum,
in which Prince Oscar,who is at the head, not merely
of charitable effort, but of progress of every kind in
Sweden, takes the deepest interest. Attended by
the members of their suite they afterwards drove in
open carriages for some time in the vicinity of
Stockholm, dining in the evening with the Royal
family at the palace. To-day was devoted altogether
to the second elk shooting expedition, which, just as
light was failing and expectations were dying away,
was crowned with success. The hunting party did
not get back to town till late, when the prince pro.
ceeded at once to liiriksdal. To.morrow morning,
at 10 o'clock, the special train which is to convey
their Royal Highnesses with the members of their
suite to Gottenburg, en route for Copenhagen, will
start from the terminus here. The distance, up-
wards of 200 miles, is ordinarily accomplished in
something under 112 hours, being an increase in
expedition of 21 hours from the time when the line
was opened a couple of years ago. In the case of
this special train it is expected that an additional
31 hours will be saved, thus accomplishing the land
portion of the journey in eight hours. Two remark

able features of the Swedish lines, which are under
Government control, is that they keep time at the
different stations to half a minute or so, and that a
list of all the places at which the train is appointed
to stop, with a reliable table of the amount of delay
in each case, is legibly printed and hung up in all
the compartments of the carriages composing the
train. Passengers and guards are thereby saved the
fuss and worry of questions at every station; and
persons given to the enjoyment of the good things of
this life can settle beforehand in their own minds
at which buffet they will leisurely descend, what
refreshments it will be possible to obtain within the
given interval, and may avoid that distressing
spectacle so often witnessed at English railway re-
freshment rooms, where the good man, struggling
with a bowl of scalding soup or coffee, is divided
between the wish to pay his money and get value
for it, and the necessity of complying with the
urgent summons of the bell.

The Royal yacht and the miniature squadron by
which she is accompanied are already lying at Got-
tenburg, so that the Prince will embark at once
upon his arrival there. Prince Oscar will accom-

pony their Royal Highnesses in the special train,
as will also Mr Hamilton and Mr Heneage of the
British Legation. After the embarkation,there will
probably be a delay of a couple of hours for dinner,
bat it is expected that, except in the case of very
bad weather, the yacht will put to sea the same
night.

And now that the Royal visit is on the eve of
ending, a simple act of justice must be performed
towards the Swedish Court and the Swedish nation.
This is to express, as far as it can be done in words,
the gratitude, amounting to enthusiasm, which the
members of the Royal party one and all feel at the
reception they have experienced in this country.
The visit was not one prearranged long beforehand,
cr in which even an immediate acceptance of the
invitation caTa!d be returned. The strictly private
nature of the stay in Denmark of their Royal High-
nesses at first induced a doubt whether in extend-
ing their journey as far as Sweden there might not
be something out of character with the family ex-
cursion originally planned. And after it had been
decided to proceed to Stockholm, there still re-
mained a qtzestion whether at so advanced a season
of the year it would be judicious for her Royal
Highness to undertake the voyage. Under all these
.circumstances of hesitation and delicacy, the King
proved the kindest and most considerate of
hosts. He left it to the Prince and Princess to
name the time most convenient to themselves, as
well as to fix the duration of their stay, and prac-
tically business of every kind has been relinquished
by his Majesty in favour of the single object of
contributing to the gratification of his guests, and
making their time pass as enjoyably as possible.
It has been the fashion to speak of the Court of
Sweden as a French Court, and naturally many of
the ideas and associations brought by Bernadotte to
the north of Europe have survived him. " A fter
the French," says the proverb, " the Swedes are the
most charming people in Europe." But to the French
grace of manner they have added the northern sin.
cerity, and whatever may have been the case in
bygone generations there can be no doubt that in
the present day it is the aim of the Swedish policy
to lay the foundation of a sere and cordial alliance

with England. With this object in view every
possible opportunity is taken of paying court to
Englishmen. The desire may be traced in a thou-

sand ways—rot merely in the welcome and often.
tions lavished upon the Prince and Princess of
___

Wales, gratifying as these must be to the British

nation, but in special acts of politeness shown to
Englishmen and particularly to members of the
British Legation; especially also in the anxiety
manifested that exact accounts of everything con-
nected with the royal visit should be forwarded to
England. The mercantile world may say, that after
all these are empty compliments, and that they
would prefer solid commercial advantages. The
Swedish Curt, to the full extent of its power, has
shown itself anxious to meet their views also.
Against the opposition of a strong Protectionist
PariY, and notwithstanding the fact that in a
countryi of limited population and wealth, a com-
b sorate quickening of consumption can hardly
e expected from diminished rates of duty, liberal
revisions and reduction of the tariffs have been
made, and unless the Board of Trade, as at present
constituted, should prove too strong for the rest of
the Ministry, further advances in the same
direction may be looked for. Within the
last couple of months even, a new law,
conceived in a very liberal spirit towards foreigners,
received the sanction of the King, and has been
promulgated with reference to the trade and in-
dustry of the kingdom. The railways will
naturally prove most efficient instruments in mak-