The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-10-20
THE ExTRAvAGANr PRINCE.


THE DEBTS CONTRACTED BY THE PRIME OF
wALEs-THE QUEENS ASSISTANCE RE-
QUIRED-THE ASSERTED MoRTGAGING OF
wINSDoR CASTLE.
In Smalley's letter to the New York Tri-
bune, the following reference is made to the
debts of royal young blood of England:
"What is TRUTH" said jesting Plate, land
would not stay for an answer" For the truth
about the prince of Wales and his debts the
English public, not quite in a testing mood,
is still waiting, and the conflict of evil
dence is such that the longer it
waits the more it is puzzled. Two days ago
we had the positive assertion of the Daily
Telegraph that parliament was not to be
asked to pay, that the queen had not paid.
and that the prince had not in fact contract
ed any debts. l ventured to suggest
wholesome deniaiS with caution, and
have since looked into the other daily pa
pers and the weekly papers which come out
to-day for further confirmation or informa-
ton Of some kind about the matter. Never
was the discretion Ofthe London press more
remarkable The daily journals keep abso-
Lutte silence. Tortures would not extract
word from them. This is one of
those awful topics which it is not
decorous to discuss. Every London daily
is edited on the theory that none of its read
ers read any other papers: so they simply
ignore the question started by the Tele-
graph, judging, wisely, perhaps, that the
scandal of such an exposure as that made
by the World can best be healed over by
tactly agreeing that there is no scandal.
But now comes that terrible spoiled
child of the weekly press. Vanity Fair
with revelations of a still more shocking
nature than the others. The clever writer
whom take to be in fact the editor-who
does its weekly cigarettes, remarks in
his iaunty way that he sees the newspapers
are talking about the Prince of
Wales debts But the fact is, says he,
the prince has no debts, the queen having
paid them at rather heavy sacrifice. IL
was to enable her to raise money to pay
them that the bill passed last session was
brought ina bill authorizing her majesty
to dispose of her private real estate by will
or Otherwise-"for one or can not raise 960O.-
600 or so at a moments notice without Civ
ing good security" And, unless this out
spoken writer is misinformed, "Osborne and
Balmoral may
UNDERGO THE COMMON LOT
of estates, and their title deeds pass into a
conveyancer's chamber" Osborne and
BalmOral are two estates, one in the Isle of
Wight, the other in Scotland, on one or the
other of which the queen passes most of the
time she does not spend at Windsor. 1t is
not easy to believe that it was necessary to
raise money by mortgage on such properties.
Her msjesty's private fortune is commonly
reckoned at three or four millions
sterling, and 1t would be simpler to sell
pledge stocks, or, at any rate, TO choose
other real estate. All j can say is that the
author of these statements is more likely
than most persons to know the truth, and
more likely to tell il. The present account
is probably, to say the least of it, what is
believed in circles very near the prince. The
paragraph is dated, should add, Septem-
Der IA, three days before that of the
Daily Telegraph, though published two
days later. But it is followed by other
cigarettes of the 18th, 18th and 18th, so
that there was plenty of opportunity to COR
rect or cancel the first, had the writer de-
sired to. In none of the other week
lies can / discover any reference to
the debts, except in the Exam
liner, which remarks, satirically, that
the Daily Telegraph seems to
have been in mood to deny everything ex-
cept the existence of the individual, and
then grimly says: "We are not in position
TO corroberate the Daily Telegraph as to
whether the alleged debts have been con-
tracted. We are equally in the dark
whether or no they have been paid. But
we are glad to confirm the Daily Telegraph
on one point. There certainly
is very small mOdicum
of truth in the statement that the member
for Leicester has addressed his constituents
on the subject" The reticence and mystery
thus far practiced can not 90 on forever.
The truth will have to be told authoritative
", and the longer the authorities hesitate
about telling it, the worse will be the effect
should the truth happen TO be unfavorable
70 the prince or his advisers.