Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-09-29

London, and in all public acts, even acts
as important as the swearing In of new
cabinet, have been performed at Windsor
"a place twice the distance of Versailles
| from Paris. Ancient tradition and good
railway service make Windsor tolerable
to politicians; but the Queen greatly pre-
| fers places at the extremity of the king
| dom-her marble residence at the Isle of
| Wight, her mountain home at the extrem-
| ity of Scotland-and she acts upon this
preference like any private noble. What
ever the urgency of national affairs, what
| ever the necessity for speed in official ac-
tion, whatever the desire of any cabinet
to consult its most experienced member,
the sovereign flies, whenever she desires
relief, to Osborne or to Balmoral; and her
Ministers, all men loaded with anxities,
all men to whom time is precious, all men
in the later maturity of life, have to waste
precious hours, and still more precious
strength, in railway journeys which
would exhaust the young. Business of
the last importance il astir in the two de.
partments, the Foreign Office and the
War Office, in which nothing can be done
without her Majesty's signature and her
Majesty's consent. And the Queen, who
has been staying for weeks at one ex-
tremity of her kingdom, flies suddenly to
point still more remote, place actually
further from London than Nice from Par
is, and there requires her Ministers, at
tendance. Every despatch is delayed
three ,ys, and the Premier, man of 81,
worn out with the labors of a most severe
session, is compelled to expend forty-eight
hours at time in a railway travelling to
and from a place so completely in the de-
sert, that it is twenty miles beyond rail-
way communication. The Interrupt
tion to business is extreme, the
hardships to individuals excessive, and
except the etiquette of monarchy, it has
literally no justification. No officer Of
state not sheltered by that etiquette would
be permitted so to interrupt the progress
of affairs 1t may be said that her Males
ty requires rest, but that, though good
argument as against London, is no argu
ment as against Windsor, where the
Queen possesses spaces, solitudes, air,
woods, waters, as attractive as those of
Balmoral. Nor indeed can we admit that
in the case of any great officer of state
health can be admitted az a final argu-
ment for choice of residence. 1t is only
an argument for taking leave, leave which,
under our system, the Sovereign does not
take. An etiquette which distinctly di-
minishes the efficiency, the comfort and
the rest of the entire Cabinet, is an eti-
quette which sooner or later is certain to
break down, and IA we DO not want it to
break down, it may be worth while
to consider whether it could not be met
by another etiquette as powerful as itself.
Suppose we add another constitutional
fiction to the numtr already existing. and
hold that the Sovereign always is either
in London or Windsor, and ii he is absent,
permit the Premier to assume that he is
present, and to sign documents in his
name-there would be no harm done to
the country, which already holds the
Premier and not the Sovereign response
ble, and none to the monarchy, for the
wearer of the crown can always be present
in London or Windsor at his pleasure. It
would not be even an apparent step to-
ward Republicanism, while it would Sc
cure the first principle of popular institu-
override all considerations of etiquette, of
individual comfort, or even Of individual
well being.