Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-01
TOPPLING OVER.

Things sometimes become "top-heavy'
and tumble over; such fate appears to be
possibility for the English royal family
This family does not earn its own living, and
yet it demands the means of living. Horses
carriages, hunting, balls, company, retfnate
of servants, snowy house, travel, fashion
able display, luxuriant fare must all be at
their command, and be there without any
effort of their own. Support, grandeur and
splendor must all be supplied to them, and
their return is simply nothing. The state
employs hundreds of officials where there is
good pay for services rendered to the country,
but none of these places are filled by princes
or princesses, for while they are sponges to
absorb, unlike sponges they give back no re-
turn. The queen had eight children; as they
grew up the country had to provide them
with incomes on their marriage. Ten grand
children are also on the way toward the
period when there also must be a main
tenance in some way provided for them. In ten
years time the British people will have ON their
hands forty unproductive members of the
royal family, all requiring to live "accord-
ing to their rank" and all looking to the
public purse for what is to supply their
aristocratic wants and to maintain their re-
gal state. Not one of the queens sons, it is
said, has displayed sufficient ability to en-
able any minister to put him in any place as
the best person to fill it. More than that is
muttered in quarters too aristocratic to ven
ture, in any but the most private and conf
Dental tones, "to speak evil of dignities;"
these say, with all reserve, that there is a
Ii tile too much royal spohging going on, by
visits being made which are very expensive
to the entertainers and are sometimes pro-
tracted to duration that is not without in
convenience. Among the middle class the
weight of supporting so useless a crowd of
hangers-on is producing no little discomfort
These people worship monarchy as an Afri-
can worships his fetish, but they are begin
ming to think they are paying little too
dear for their whistle. One of the prince
order of gentlemen, Victoria's son
Leopold, is about to marry Ger
man lady, and the queen sent to par
Lament a message desiring that an
income should be settled upon him to help
him to set up housekeeping. There has
been manifestations oil dlscontenI IN parma
ment before on similar occasions, but on this
occasion, which was some days ago, that feel
ing was more distinctly expressed than ever.
A number of the members refused to con-
form to the usual custom OF taking of hats
while the queens message was read, and
three of the cabinet ministers walked out Of
the house rather than vote for the allowance
asked for. When we consider that every
fresh marriage brings more grandchildren,
that the royal family is spreading and WIDEN
ing, and all doing nothing, that France Is
showing all Europe that governments can go
along very we'll without any monarch at all,
the signs of the times and the "top-heavi-
ness" of the royal family are indicative that
important changes are impending. The e1-
treme liberty party in England is growing
both in strength and influence, republican
sentiments are very common, discomfort with
the expense OF royalty is extending, and the
unfortunate proli6cness OF the royal stock
aggravates all else. Everything points to