New-York tribune., 1875-09-24
THE NEYT KING or ENGLAND.

THE NEXT KING or ENGLAND.
Certain newspapers represent the English
people as troubled at the impending reign of a
King who has given no better promise than
the Prince of Wales. We doubt the depth of
the anxiety. Grumbling enough there may be
at princely prOfusiOn and general bad conduct
but the English people have long had a
way of keeping bad monarchs in tOlerable Or
der. A. nation which decapitated Charles l..
exiled James /. and survived the -Four Georges
has no occasion for alarm. The power of the
throne has been reduced to a minimum. The
opinions of any reigning monarch are likely to
be of no consequence Even the old threat
of running away to Hanover and of leaving the
throne vacant, is no longer available; while
of the least act of despOtlsm an English mon
arch is now legally incapable. Majesty can no
more even dream of cutting off obnoxious
heads, or of sending troublesome Members to
the Tower, OF of opposing the will of Parla-
ment When James H., in his hasty fight,
flung the great seal of England into the river,
he fancied that he had secured public con-
fusion worse cOnfOunded, but matters would
have gone on just the same even if the bauble
had not been recovered or replaced. The day
of great seals then went by, and it has never
returned.
Doubtless the personal character of a King
may be so bad as to cause the British people
much modification. Doubtless 1t may be of
unseemly example. But for nearly century
the Kings of England were persons of bad
morals. The two HanOvcrians were mistress
keepers, and Quartered their mistresses upon
the English treasury. George III. was an OBJ
stinate old fool. George w. was what we need
not describe. The last William was man of
no Importance. We do not see how the Prince
can well be worse than his predecessors.
A King of England fercey bent upon
enforcing his opinions about religion and
politics, unless they happen to be lib
eral ones, would always be in difficult
ties What Englishmen want upon the
throne is embodied indifference and an
unthnking fgurehead. Ruling is for min
isters and the Parliament. There is nothing
more lauehable in history than the last dcs-
perate efforts of George ILL., to retain the frag-
ments of royal power. He was very proud
man, and the consciousness of his own insig-
nificance in the State helped, we suspect, to
make him mad. He did not lik} 1t that no.
body should be afraid of him, and that no
body should reverence him except Old Bags,
otherwise called Lord EldOn and it
must be confessed that Fox, Sheridan,
Horne Tooke, and the French Revolution were
naturally too much for mind like Farmer
Georges. Yet he was in earnest. He was the
last of his line who believed in his own
royalty and divine right. His son and sue
cessor believed in nothing except coats, wine,
women, and perpetual lies, though he too
used to talk fol-de-rOl about the sacredness
of his coronation oath. Since then even pre-
tense of that sort has disappeared. The next
King of England will have no political or
religious opinions whatever; he will assent to
any bill which Parliament may be pleased to
pass, and what more could Parliament or
people possibly desirei
England enjoys whatever advantages mon
archy 80 extremely limited may afford. She
adheres to the forms and modes and shows of
q throne, but she is never deceived into re-
garding them as realities. So long as the vices
of her monarchs or their religious opinions do
not affect the prosperity and peace of the ma
ton for the worse, she will be tolerant and
even blind; any sexioV ilyRaiQp Of Ae1 Gbey.