New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-24
TIE MARRIAGE or TIE DUKE or EDfN-
BURGH

BURGH
Tho royal marriage yesterday was celebrated
with universal expressions of rejoicing IN
the two great Empires. Ii IL not probable
that single Hodge in England or Ivan IN
Russia imagines the wedding of the Queens
son and the Cars daughter is going to
do him any good. But it is not to be de-
MED that mingled with the official parade and
pomp. which ia paid for out of the public
treasury. there is II great deal of sincere
sympathy with their royal families in their
festivities, among the common people
of these widely different countries. En-
gland, standing at the head of modern civil-
zati0n, and Russia, 40 recently admitted into
the circle of civilized nations that she can
hardly DO counted among them, have this
characteristic in common. that loyalty still
survives in both countries, IA yet but little
affected by the analytic spirit OF the age.
There is nothing like it elsewhere In Europe.
In Spain they engage and discharge their
kings with little more ceremony than their
coachmen. In France the people want no
king at ALL and even tho Conservatives, who
conspired to bring in a monarch. dropped HIM
when he began to talk nOnsense-which was
unreasonable The tirmest supporters and most
efficient champions which the King of Italy has
ever had, have been those liberal and prac-
teal statesmen who cared nothing for him OK
cept a. y convenient instrument and symbol
under which to fight the battle of the liberia
ton of Italy. Among the Germans there IL
still much genuine, superstitlOus loyalty. mixed
with the more liberal elements which have de-
stroyed a host of little despOtlsms to build up
the Empire But nowhere il the crown 30 re-
vered AZ IN England, tho country of Locke, and
Mill and Buckle the nursing mother OF al
modern liberties, and in Russia. where the
Autocrat is absolute master Of the bodies and
souls of his subjects.
There Is no significance in this marriage
except what it derives from the official pOmp
and this instructive movement of loyal sym
pathy among the populations. England Is not
wedding Russia. The two countries will he
as ready to fight if the soldiers of the Car
menace the Indian possessions of the English
Empress, or il their interests are found to
come into conflict upon the lower Danube, as
they have ever been in the past. The fact
that the Princess Royal of England was also
Crown Princess of Prussia did not prevent
her father-in-law from exprOpriatng the
blind King of Hanover when he wanted
his kingdom. although the act was
bitterly dispeasing to the dispossessed
monarch's English cousins. In fact, there has
grown up such densely ramified system of
intermarriages among the royal families of
Europe, that If ties of blood could keep SOW
ereigns from fighting, the Peace Society would
have nothing further to do. But the King of
Prussia, when he drove the Emperor of Aus
tria out of the German Confederation and
crushed his military power on the field Of
Sadowa was not restrained by the thought
that it was his nephew he was trying to de-
stroy The questions which now enter into
international relations are 80 fully I'M
derstoOd and discussed by the people
and their deputies that no merely fam
ily interests can now materially affect
them SO that the marriage yesterday will
have no more effect upon the politics Of the
world than that of any two well-born and
wealthy young people would have. 1t has not
| even the slightest interest which attaches to
the union of those of alien blOOd-fOr they
are both Germans. The Duke of Edinburgh
| is not English. and the few drops Of Russian
| blood in the veins of the Princess Maria Alex
androvDa can scarcely tinge the temperament
| derived from long line of TeutOnic ancestors.
|