Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-01-24
KING AND HIS HEIR.

New York Tribune.
The impending death of the King of
the Netherlands will involve a reproduc-
ton of the dynastic conditions which
prevailed in Spain for several years.
The heir to the throne will be child in
the royal nursery, now in her 9th year.
The mother, Queen Emma, will become
Regent, and the crown will be reserved
for the Princess Boyal when she shall
come of age. After the death of the
Prince of Orange, the last child by the
Kings first marriage, the Senators and
Deputies assembled at The Hague to
confirm the title of the baby Princess
Wilhelmine to the throne and to nomi-
nate the Queen as a candidate for Re-
gent in the event of the aged monarch's
sudden disappearance from the royal
boards, which he cannot be Justly said
to have either honored or graced. These
arrangements having been made four
years ago, the succession to the throne
and the conditions of the Regency are
already determined. With the exhauS-
tion of the direct line of Orange there
would have been dangerous rivalry
for the succession between the next of
kin of collateral branches, representing
German as well as Dutch blood, if Will
liam III had not married second time
in his old age and thereby provided an
heir to the throne, with young and
blooming Regent who promises to be
as capable and sensible an administra-
OF as the Queen mother in Spain.
The question of succession is render
ed complex, however, by the relations
of Luxembourg to the Netherlands. The
Grand Duchy is the southermost Prov
ince of Belgium, and since the Congress
of Vienna has been dependency of the
House of Orange. Napoleon Ill sought
to purchase the Province in 1867, and
would have been successful in his nego-
tiatiOns with William III if Prince Bis
marck had not threatened to oppose the
French scheme of aggression by force
of arms. War was averted by Europ-
can conference which decreed that Lux
emburg should remain neutral State
under the control of the King of the
Netherlands. Now, while King Will
liam LII is Duke of Luxembourg, his lit
tie daughter cannot succeed to the title,
since the Salic law applies to the Duchy.
The Regency will have, therefore, to
confirm the title of the male heir to the
Duchy whom the General Council Sc
lected four years ago. Prince Bismarck,
if any diffiulty arise, will be likely to
give notice to the Powers that Luxem-
burg is no longer European question,
but that the fortunes of the Duchy are
indissolubly united with those of the
Netherlands. The Chancellor coYets
Holland on the sea-board which nature
provided for Germany, but he is well
aware of the sturdy independence of the
Dutch character. He will probably con-
tent himself with the declaration that
Germany reserves the exclusive right of
with the affairs of the Meth
erlands and Luxembourg, if foreign in
terYentiOn be requisite from any quar-
ter.
The dying King is the third monarch
of the present dynasty, which was es-
tablished by the Congress of Vienna in
1915 after the expulsion of the French
from their Continental dependencies ac-
quired under Napoleon. Unfortunately,
he was the descendant of Catharine the
Great as well as of the Prince of Or
ange, and his long reign of forty years
has been disgraced by long series of
He owed his subjects repara-
ton for the infamous years of debauch-
cry which he passed at Loo, before and
after the death of Queen Sophie; and
they have cause to be grateful for his
final marriage and the birth of the
princess who relieves them from the
menace of foreign intervention in their
National affairs.
THE Attorney General of North Caro-
ina has been doing good work by ex-
posing the character of lynching, in his
report to the Governor of that State, and
oy recommending stringent measures to
that species of mob murder.
He shows that in one case of lynching
n that State an innocent man was kill,
ID by the very men who had committed
he crime with which they charged their
Tictim, and took that means of divert
ng the penalty from themselves. In
another case gang of criminals lynch
ID an innocent man in order to prevent
him from giving evidence concerning
heir crimes. Other cases are hardly
eSs revolving as showing the power
which this stupid resort to blind force
places in the hands of the lawless and