New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-28
THE PRINCE OF WALES.
HIS DECLARATION IN THE HOUSE OF COM
MoNs-THE ATTITUDE OF THE PUBLIC.
London. June II.


II may be so. though the channel through which
this intelligence comes is one which is sometimes
muddy. But entirely is q strong word and would
be stronger still if sympathies were understood
to include approval Of his conduct in oil par
ticuas. and il this approval also were entire.
For, in the first place, the Prince himself does
not entirely approve his own conduct He has
apologized for it publicly. The language which
the Secretary Of State for War used on Monday
in the House Of Commons. in answering Mr.. Sum
mers meant an apology if il meant anything 10
is no light matter when the future King OF Eng
land authorizes Minister of the Crown TO say TO
the House of Commons that he sees he has COM
mitted an error of Judgment; an error in connec-
ton with of the greatest scandals of the time ;
with O scandal which became great because of the
Princes connection with it, The apology was
not. of course, offered to Mr. Summers. nor was it
addressed exclusively to the House of Commons
It was an act of contrition performed in the
presence of the thrtv-fve millions of people in
Great Britain who will some day be the Princes
subjects Of the hundreds of millions who people
her colonies and dependencies, and the rest OF
mankind. There is, perhaps no precedent for 1t;
certainly none in time.
It takes nothing from the effect of such an
act that il related nomnally 10 a breach of mill
tary discipline only. The general public would
readily have condoned the technical offence. In
deed. even from military point Of view. the
offence constructive rather than direct UnGer
the 4lst regulation of Her MajeSty's Army. il
became perhaps. the duty of Sir William Cum
ming. when his character as an officer and gentle
man had been impugned to submit his case within
o reasonable time TO his commanding officer.
say perhaps, because the regulation applies only
to cases where the conduct of an officer has been
publicly" impugned. 1t open 10 Sir William
Cumming TO say that his conduct had never been
publicly impugned, and Of course it open
20 the Prince 70 say So The very Of the al
legged offence lay in their combining prevent the
publicity which alone would have brought either
Of the offenders under the operation Of military
law.
The Prince. moreover, might say that the IAN
guage of this regulation had been strained in
order TO include him. Mr.. Stanhope did in effect
say lie pointed out to the House that if
anybody violated this ordinance, it was chiefly
Sir William Cumming, and that any offence COM
mitted by any other person could only have con-
sisted in Advising or pressing him not 10. submit
himself TO his commanding officer. In Ilr Stan
hopes mouth that is perfectly just observation.
II is not, however distinction which the gen.
eral British mind would have grasped readily.
If the Prince had attempted TO press such plea
in his own behalf, it would have been thought,
or would have been said that he was hair-spit-
ting. He took the holder course-the which
here is deemed the more honorable and manly
course. He considered the spirit and not the let
ter of the law. He recognized the fact that a
powerful section of the public had declared its
dissatisfaction with his conduct OF course he
wanted to conciate the people whose impatence
had proved uncomfortable So he left the refine
mcnts upon the military code to be practised by
others who could better afford TO say that he
would, had he chosen have been entitled TO take
advantage of them. For his part. he frankly
acknowledged his error. and the acknowledgment
was undoubtedly intended 20 cover, far as he
was concerned, the whole case, and the whole
of his conduct with reference TO it.
Nobody thinks the worse of him for apOlogizing,
nobody whose opinion is worth regarding IL
has always been held in England that the first
duty of gentleman who has done ANYBODY a
wrong. is to own it, and to make reparation for it,
Who can ever forget that scene in The New
comes where Give filings glass of claret in his
cousin Brians face for insulting his father. and
what happened thereupon. There are not many
pages even in Thackcray more touching than
those in which he describes how Colonel NewcOmc
took his boy next morning to apologize. I'VE
ought To be ashamed of doing wrong. We must
20 and ask his pardon" And they do, and
Thackeray mOralizes as his habit is and the Colo
mel tells his bOy that the trlest honor is the manly
confession of wrong. There is no better gentle
than Colonel Newcome with his GENTLE and
reverent spirit and his pure and generous heart.
1t does not follow that it was easy for the Prince
TO do what he has DONE ncr that any such pen
ance need have been exacted from him. He is
man of the world and he had to make public
confession that. at one of the most critical mo-
ments of his life. his worldly wisdom had failed
hat ho
of course. and long as the Queen lives. the
Prince of Wales is but a subject like the rest
Yet he is likely some dav to be the Sovereign of
this Kingdom and this future Sovereign has to
appear in sheet before single Estate of his
future Realm The Calderon of the future need
not take this sentence literally as the Calderon of
to-day took old Dietrch's not less rhetorical
statement about poor St. Elizabeth and Conrad
1t was rumored in London on Sunday that the
Prince had written letter to Mr. Stanlope to
be read to the House of Commons. The matter
may or may not have been considered. Probably |
u was not. 1t Is doubtful whether the Speaker !
would have allowed such letter 10 be read |
1t is certain that to write or read il would have
been an indiscretion and that nothing would have
been gained by such course which was not
gained more fully by the course actually adopted
Quite enough has been conceded as IL is IN the !
Radical camor, which seems TO me for the most |
part interested clamor. and not entirely nor !
even mainly an Outburst of genuine or natural |
indignation.
] should say the same thing of much other |
criticism on the Prince, Of a kind far more inn, |
portant than the merely Radical sputter A
great deal might be urged against him. and urged |
plausibly enough. But why is he attacked now |
and who they who attack him? will answer |
the last question first. The attack or at any |
rate, the criticism, the Prince comes from |
the most various quarters il is all but universal
The most serious and the most frivolous papers |
Join in it the most serious and the most frivolous
sections Of society-using the word in it's largest
sense-are for agreed The press has shown |
neither moderation discretion and the vic. |
lence of il is justified by the fact that there