West-Jersey pioneer., 1878-03-07
THE REIGNlNG SOVERINGS.

ing soverigns in Christendom, from the
Queen of England, to whom 25., 600, 900 of
human beings own allegiance, to the Prince
of Monaco, whom 5741 subjects acknow-
ledge as their liege lord. Of these princes
ten are nominally Roman Catholics, namely;
the Emperors of Austria and Brazil, the
Kings of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium,
Bavaria and Saxony, the Princes of Lich-
tenstein and Monaco. At least three of
these monarchs, however, are very far from
being on friendly terms with the Pope, the
King of Italy actually lying under sentence
Saxony, himself Catholic, rules over a
population almost exclusively Protestant.
The old maxim of German jurists, ecu
| jus domino ejus religo," has long wanted a
| foundation in fact. OF the remaining twen-
| ty-six princes, two belong to the Greek
| Church, though the Gear and the King of
the Heenes belong to different branches of
| it. The other twenty-four are Professionals
sixteen being Lutherans, four (including the
| German Emperor) belong to the "Evangel-
ical' confession, three to the reformed"
| Church, and one being the ''supreme head
| on EARTH of the Church Of England. But
| the vast majority of Queen Victorias sub
jects Q39, 9,000,000) are neither Protestants
nor Catholics, but Hindoos, while the Mo :
hammedans, 100000 in number, are
more numerous than the Protestants of all
| denominations in the Empire.
The oldest reigning sovereign is William,
completed his eightieth year on the 22d of
March, 1877; the youngest is Alfonso XII,
| OF Spain, who was twenty last birthday
| (2Sth of November, 1SS7). In this list we
ness can scarcely be considered any longer
| as sovereign, and in any case does not
belong to the royal caste or cousnhood of
reigning families. The average age of the
sovereigns now reigning is forty eight and
| a-half years. 1t may be added that four out
of the thirty six, to wit, the King of Bava-
ria, the Duke of Brunswick and the Princes
| of Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt and LicAenstein
are bachelors, though all happily provided
with heirs presumptive.
The titles borne by the ilustrious person
| ages are many and various. Five have in
modern times assumed the imperial style,
| the oldest of existing imperial titles being
| that of the Gar, whose predecessor, Peter
the Great, dubbed himself Emperor in 1892
| and was soon after generally acknowledged
at such. The Emperors of Austria, as
| such, date from 1906; the title of Emperor
of Brazil from 1929. The King of Prussia
has been styled German Emperor" since
1871, and the Queen of England has bsen
| proclaimed Empress of India.
The title of Dom Pedro II, by the way,
| which is that of constitutional Emperor
and Perpetual Protector of Brazil" is worth
nothing as one of the rare instances in mod
ern times in which the languages of heraldy
has made an effort to be in accordance with
fact. So the two Napoleons styled them
selves Emperors by the will Of the people as
we'll as the grace of God, and the first Napo
| leon even took at one time the curious des
| ignation of emperor by the Constitution
of the Republic" The old Kings of France
had several centuries before designated
themselves ''Kings by the grace of God ant
| the will Of the MOBILES"
The sovereigns not being emperors are
eleven in number, seven dating their titles
from the present century. It-is difficult to
say which Of these kingly titles in existence
is the oldest. Those of Denmark and Nor
way seem to run each other closely. Or
the other hand, our own sovereigns, though
in diplomatic documents they bear title
which only dates from 1901, are called by
the people they govern and by the rest o
the world, kings or queens of England, {
title dating from S2S, when it was first as
sumed by Egbert. Down to the reign O
Henry II, however, the sovereign seems tt
have been more commonly called the Kins
of the English. Harold II was king of th'
English and Lord of the Island of Britain. '
Four of the sovereigns above mentioned
bear titles originally bestowed by the Pope
the Emperor Francis Joseph being "Apos
tolc' King of Hungary, whatever that may
mean, Alfonso XII, the "Catholic" King
and the King of Portugal ''the Most Faith
ful'' King. The Queens title of "Defend
er of the FAITH was conferred on Henr,
VIII for an Indifferent theological treatis'
against Zone Martinus Elutherus," VIII
was officially proclaimed by the privy coun
Gil to have 'erred sore'' Those princes
who are not emperors and kings arr
''prnces," "dukes' or "grand dukes"
majority of them will probably have cease'
to exist as sovereigns before very long. In
deed, the claim of some of the Germa
princes to be regarded as independent sov
ereigns is somewhat doubtful. The variou
conventions concluded by Prussia wit
the various States which form the Empir
= have been coarsely termed 'treaties be
tween dog and it's fleas. ."-PaW Mall Ga
zette.
~