Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-05-26
The Royal Family of England.

Yesterday was the birthday of Queen
Victoria. In reference to it, the New
Orleans Pic0yune says
The Queens children are:
l. The Princess Victoria, married in
1858 to the Prince Royal of Prussia, and
has four chldren-three sons and one
daughter.
2. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales,
who is married and has two sons.
3. Princess Alice, married in 1862 to
the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, and has
two daughters.
A. Prince Alfred, who by family COM
pact is to succeed to the sovereignty of
SAKE Gotha Cobourg, his father German
inheritance E
5. Princess Helena
6. Princess Louisa.
4 Prince Arthur ~
8. Prince Leopold.
9. Princess Beatrice
The youngest was born in April, 1857,
and is now nine years of age.
There is no likelihood with this fine,
large family, that so long as the English
crown is hereditary there will be any
occasion to go for an heir out of the line
of Victoria.
The lineage of the Queen herself is
right royal, through chain of descend
ants for eight hundred years, from Will
liam the Conqueror One step further
back would take us into morass, but
downwards the record is clean. She is
the heir of the Plantagenets, Tudors,
Stuarts, and the Guephs, the four
royal houses of England in order;
with the one flaw, that there is an elder
branch of the Stuart blood which the
people of England have excluded from
the right of reigning The connection
of the German Georges with the old royal
stock of England grew out of the marri-
age Of the daughter of James |. with the
Elector Frederick, of Bavaria, and of
her daughter Sophia with the Elector,
who became King of Hanover, the father
of George, VINO became George j. of
England But in order Of succession,
the descendants of Charles l. came be-
fore those of his sister, married in Ger
many, and Of these the eldest stock is
represented by the descendants of his
daughter Henrietta, married in France.
The head of that branch now is Victor
Emanuel, King of Italy.
1t follows, oddly enough, that if the
order of primogenitura had beeG strictly
followed in the inheritance of the British
crown, Victor Emanuel might have been
this day King of England, and in an
other generation a Bonaparte been the
legitimate successor We say, might
have been, because we do not know how
many female heirs have been excluded
in the Savoy line by the continental law
of excluding women.
1t is also notable that the German fam
(which, by marriage, brought the name
of Guelph into the royal house of Eng
land, claims descent also from William,
the Conqueror. Henry, the Lion, Of
Saxony, married an English princess,
the grand daughter of William, and from
her descended the Guelphs and Bruins
wicks who came back into England as
monarchs six hundred years afterwards.
IL there be anything in pure blood and
long descent through houses of kings |
and conquerors, the children of Victoria |
have a title TO all these distinctions and |
privileges above any other Englishman,
and have corresponding obligations to |
maintain III tlldl 10 tululdNtu III Nhc 4
proud sentiment: Roblesse obhge With |
the dissolute sons of George III, those
considerations had but little sway, and
the blood royal was feared to have degen-
Grated into a. very plobian puddle. II
lustrious descent only made vice more
notorious and its impunity more mis-
chievous Royal dukes were notorious
proAigates and cheats, and immense in
huence was needed TO protect one or
more Of them from the legal penalty for
crimes In this age, and with popular
50 far advanced, no society
would endure again a brood Of princes
such as were some of those who rioted
during the regency. There has been a
great change since, in the tone Of public
morals, which would make such exeesses
impossible under any queen; and the
Of pure morals and correctness
of manners pervading the court and
household of Queen Victoria have helped
to make vice unpopular and unfashiona-