The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-11-05
THE PRINCE OF WALES AT THE TOMB OF
WASHINGTON.

His tory records few scenes more pregnant with
instruction than the visit of Homage paid by the
Prince of Wales to the tomb of Washing ton
Eighty five years ago the man who ventured to pre-
dict that before century should have rolled by the
heir to the British Crown would pay a voluntary
tribute of reverence to the last resting place of the
arch rebel who was then bidding bold defiance to
our armies, would have been indebted to his con-
demnaton as a maniac for his escape from the con-
dign punishment as traitor. The despot and his
myrmidons fancied in those days, that the world
was made for their exclusive enjoyment, and that
it needed but effort of their will bend its des-
TIMES according to their selfish fancy. They might
have imagined that some unexampled good fortune
might have secured for the remains of the nsurgent
general the shelter OF an unknown grave; could
they have had their wav, his bones would have
bleached and ratified in chains upon the loftiest gal
lows.
How would the obstinate and wrong headed old
monarch have greeted the prophecy that his own
great grandson would stand with uncovered head
before the sarcophagus which the mouldering dust
of the great rebel has converted into holy shrine?
What expressions of incredulous contemptwould he
have deemed strong enough to give utterance to his
feelings if any one had dared to foretell that the
federal provinces which had revoted against his
rule would, almost in the space of single genera
ton, grow into mighty nation, rivalling the mo-
ther country in all the arts of peace? To the men
of those comparatively recent times such presages
would have seemed mere idle raving; yet how brief
a space of time has sufficed to convert them into
mere statements of familiar truths.
When the noblest hero who had ever sprung up
among men buckled on the sword with which he
had vowed to conquer his country's freedom. he
took the field the champion of a comparatively
feeble brotherhood of struggling colonies; in the
ordinary course of nature his son might be
alive, vet already has the emancipated depepdency
grown into the foremost of modern empires and
receives its guest the heir to the English throne.
Is there not in this, encouragement for fatering pa
triots, whose hopes, long deferred, couded by
that heart-sckness which is too often the forerun.
no Of A Dnhla ffnr hort
may not be destined to receive equally speedy sat
isfaction; but for the persistent soldier of freedom
the victory, though it may be slow, is sure.
The Prince Of Wales, in bo,oing before the tomb of
Washington, makes silent confession that the day of
auocrats at end for the man to Dhose ashes he
does homage the living incarnation of the truth
that the 'cH of the people IS the only rightful source
of po,rer. We are quite conscious that such out
ward manifestations of respect for great principles
are not always followed by consistent actions. Kings
have before preluded atroccus crimes by So
lemn acts of DEVOTION just Italian brigands tell
their beads before they murder the wayfarer to Sc
cure his paltry store of gold. But still venture
to cherish the hope that young Prince tg1U bring
apay uih him from the spot Which derives from the
presence of the dust of Washington a consecration
sublime than could have been conferred upon 1t
By ecclesiastica rituals, enduring Impressions
,oho,e influence wM be perceptible throughout his
future career.
The sovereign of these kingdoms, it is true, po-
liticaly powerless according to the theory of the
crown wieds potent influence for good or i'll. If
England under Victoria, has witnessed growth
of social morality, which places it in noble contrast
with England under George the Fourth, the change
though attributable in some measure, no doubt, to
the spread OF enlightenment and the march of hu-
man progress, is also to be ascribed in slight de-
gree, to the fact that God-fearing and virtuous
woman sits upon the throne which was disgraced
by bloated libertine In the same manner the
popular sympathies Of the head of the State mgh ht
legtimately exercise wholesome influence upon
the tendencies of our legislation and approximate
the advent of that complete political equality,
without which there exist but a shadow of
freedom.
The tour of the Prince of Wales in the United
States will have placed him in possession of an un-
failing antidote to the monstrous faacies with re-
gard to the effect of Democratic institutions which
cluDg to with much pertinacty in the aristo-
cratic circles in which those of the Blood Royal
move. He has not only had his own eyes opened
but he has gained the means of convincing the few
honest noodles who cling to such opinions through
ignorance and of silencing the host of crafty poll
ticians who, knowing their rotteness profess them
to serve their own selfish ends. He has been in
land where the two grand bugbears of the English
aristocracy-manhood suffrage and the balot-ex-
ist in full operation, not as experimental novelties
but as tried and approved portions of the electoral
organization.
He will be able, and, as an honorable English
gentleman, trust he will be willing, to bear his
testimony that the extension of the franchise does
not produce anarchy, and that secret voting does
not lead either to wholesale bribery or to utter po-
ltical decentralization. He has dwelt in land where
no State church lays violent hands on the money
of conscientious dissenters in order to swell the in
of its ministers, but each man is free to give
his voluntary support to the teachers of the creed
which represents his own convictions. If he be
candid he will own that under such an organization
religion hourshes in full vigor, and finds check
to the full development of its wholesome influence
on human conduct. tory minister would find
himself sorely nonpussed in his conference with a
King whose mind has been enlightened by the
fruits of his own personal observation.
Moreover, the Prince of Wales has acquired
some good habits which he would never have
learned at home, and which we trust he will not be
induced to lay aside when he returns to his native
land. In the United States he has mingled on
footing of perfect equality with merchants, and
bankers, and literary and professional men. Can it
be imagined for moment that he will offer gra-
tuitous insult to his own countrymen of the same
classes by intimating to them that he deems them
unworthy of the intercourse which he has vouch-
safed to their Transatlantic cousins? We easily
imagine how refreshing it must have beer to our
heir apparent, to escape from the wearisome society
of high born nanity and find himself face to face
with genuine unsophisticated men; and we fervently
trust that no lack of courage will induce him to
hesitate to for himself at home so fruitful
source of pleasure.
Once break down the antiquated barriers which
shut out from courtly circles men who have earned
distinction In any honorable calling, and blow Of