New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-10-18
THE PRINCE OF WALES.
a PECULIAR PosITIoN-How 1T rs FILLED
MR. BIGGAR AND II. r. HIN POLL
TICS AND SOCIETY.

sonality real and fabulous, is not unfamiliar on
your side of the Atlantic But if we come to think
of it. IL is very strange phenomenon. The only
way to realize its immensely is to conceive its crea-
ton to-day supposing that heretofore through the
history of England there had been no such In
stitution. A child is born in accidental circum-
stances and with chance connections that might
just as reasonably have fallen to the lot of some
other Entity. He grows from childhood to youth
into manhood. and through all the stages, with
increasing devotion and difference. he is made the
object Of reverential solicitude. All his wants
are provided for, even anticipated. He is the
first person TO be considered wherever he goes
Men who have won renown in Parliament, in the
camp in literature, doif their hats at his coming
and high-born ladies curtsey. 1t is all very
strange; but so is the rising of the sun and the
sequence of the moon We grow accustomed 10
everything. and take the Prince OF Wales ike
the Solar system, as a matter of course.
Reflection on the singularity OF his position,
leads to sincere admiration of the manner In which
the Prince of Wales fills it, Take it for all In
ALL there is no post in English public life so diff
fcult to fill. not only without reproach but with
success. Day and night the Prince lives under the
bulseye light of the lantern of a prying pub
lie. He is more talked about, written about, and
pulled about than any Englishman, except per
on level ground with his countrymen. If he is at
tackled or mirepresented he can hit back again.
The position of the Prince Of Wales imposes upon
him the impassivity of the target used in ordinary
rife practice. Whatever is said or written about
him, he can make no reply, and the happy result
which in the main follows upon this necessary
attitude suggests that it might with advantage
be more widely adopted. Probably In the dead,
unhappy night when the rain was the
roof and the Tranby Croft scandal was on
everybody's tongue, the Prince of Wales
had some bad quarters of an hour.
But whatever be felt OF suffered he made no sign.
To see him sitting in the chair on the bench in
court whilst the trial was proceeding. no one not
having prior knowledge of the fact. would have
guessed that he had the slightest personal interest
in the affair. There was danger Of his even over
doing the attitude of Indifference. But he escaped
IL and was exactly as smiling debonnaire and
courtly as If he were in his box at the theatre
watching the development Of some quite other
dramatic performance He has all the courage Of
his race and his long training has steelcd his
nerves.
1t would be so easy for the Prince Of Wales to
make mistakes that would ALLEVIATE from him the
affection which is now his in unstinted measure.
There plenty of presidents and a fatal fulness
of exemplars Take for example, his relation with
political life. 1t would not be possible for him
now as a Prince of Wales did at the beginning of
the century, form Parliamentary party and con-
troll votes in the House of Commons by cabals
Matched at Marlborough House. But he might, il
he were so disposed. in less occult ways NEEDLE in
politics. AS matter of fact. noteworthy and of
highest honor to the Prince, the outside public
have not the slightest idea to which side of
politics his mind is BIASED. They know all
about his private life. what he eats, and how
much, how he dresses, whom he talks TO, what
he does from the comparatively early hour at
which he rises TO the decidedly late one at which
he goes TO bed. But in all the gossip daily
poured forth about him there is never hint as
to whether he prefers the politics of Tory or
Liberal, the company of Lord Salisbury or Mr..
Gladstone. In country where every man in
whatever station Of life is keen politician this
Is a great thing to say for one in the position
of the Prince of Wales.
This absolute impartiality of attitude does not
arise from indifference to politics to the cur
rent of political warfare, The Prince is Peer
of Parliament, sits Duke of Cornwall. and
under that name figures in the division lists on
the rare occasions when he votes. When any
important debate is taking place in the House
he is sure to be found in his corner seat on the
front Cross Bench. an attentive listener Nor
the House of Lords. The present Parliament
has been so systematically free from heroic con-
flicts as to fall under the imputation of being
dull The Prince of Wales has accordingly
avoided its precincts. But in the last Parliament
there was no more familiar figure than his seated
in the Peers Gallery over the clock, with folded
hands irreproachably gloved, resting on the rail
before him as he leaned forward and watched
with keen interest the sometimes tumultuous
tcene. Thus he sat one afternoon in the spring
of the session of lS75. He had come down to
hear a speech with which his friend Mr.. Chap
lin, was known to be primed, The House was
crowded in every part, a number Of peers form
ing the Princes suite in the gallery, while the
lofty figure of Count Munster, German Ambas-
sador, lowered at the Princes right hand, divided
by the partition between the Peers Gallery ana
that set apart for distinguished strangers III was
o great occasion for Mr.. Chaplin who sat below
the gangway visibly pluming himself and almost
ludibly purring in anticipation of coming tiumph'
But few days earlier the eminent orator, who
Is now Minister of Agriculture. had the misfortune
TO incur the resentment of Mr.. Joseph ellis Big
gar All unknown to him, Joseph ellis was now
living in wait, and just as the Speaker was about
TO call on the orator of the evening, the Member
for Cavan rose and observed Mr.. Speaker, Sir.
/ believe there are strangers in the House" The
House Of Commons, tied and bound by its own
archaic regulations had appeal against the
whim of the indomitable Joey b. He had sped
strangers in due form and out they must 60. 30
they filed FORTH the Prince of Wales at the head
Of them, the proud English Peers following and
by another exit the envoy Of the most potent
sovereign of the Continent, representative of
nation still flushed with the overthrow OF France
all publicly and peremporily expelled at the rails
ing of the finger of an uneducated, obscure Irish
man, who, when not concerned with the affairs Of
the Imperial Parliament, was curing bacon at Bel
fast and selling it at enhanced prices in the Liver
pool market
The Prince of Wales bore this unparalleled in
LINN NH il Ill