New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-07-05
THE PRINCE OF WALES.
WHAT Mr.. COBB THINKS OF HlM-1S THERE
A REACTION?


London, June 3d.
AIR. Cobb may be taken as good enough
sample of the more Radical critics who think it
their duty 20 attack the Prince OF Wales on ac-
count of his connection with the baccarat case.
He is neither the best TOR the worst of his clique
No Doubt he has claims to respect on personal
grounds lie is q banker. and all bankers arc
respectable. lie is alSO--the combination Is IN
usual-a solicitor and some solicitors are respect
able. He sits In the House of Commons Tor the
Rugby division of Warwickshrc and county
member has usually solid qualities of character;
or used 70 have. When we come TO politics MI
Cobb is less respectable and less solid. He puts
himself down as having been for many years in
favor of Home Rule, not only for Ireland, but for
England Scotland and Wales. In short he is
one of those politicians whom in America we call
craul,S But as said be will do for sample
Is il not sad thing. queries Mr. Cobb, TO find
the Prince of Wales travelling about with counters
in order 10 play an illegal game? 1t might be
sad il it were true, but baccarat played in pri-
vate house is not an illegal game. But to Mr.
Cobb questions of legality and questions OF good
taste seem equally unimportant. His aim ap-
pears TO nc To say in the shortest space the great
est number of offensive things. Tie likens the
Prince TO q drunkard who carries about In his
portmanteau the brandy he might not he able to
get from his host, and to burglar who carries
about with him his implements of crime. AS the
drunkard carries his brandy, and as tue burglar
carries his tools, 80 the Prince Of Wales carries
lis miserable counters" Mr.. Cobb moreover,
can tell the Prince this, that II he had done in
railway carriage what he did at Tranby Croft he
would have been liable under the laws Of the
country to be arrested and tried as a rogue and
vagabond. Mr.. Cobb's legal studies might have
suggested TO him that the difference between play
ing baccarat In public place and i'll private
house makes just the difference between playing
O legal and an illegal gano But he is too angry
with the Prince 10 care for distinctions, legal or
other. The baccarat scandal lms. in Mr.. Cobh's
opinion. shaken society TO its foundations, and
shaken the monarchy of England TO an extent, he
oddly SAYS, which will not be forgotten or for
given for many years to come l seem to remem-
Der having read some similar prediction in Amer
lean print but of that later. Mr.. Cobb deserves
10 occupy our undivided attention while he occu-
pies it at all This is his peroroton
ave are not living in the days Of Charles
Second or George Fourth. and you may depend
upon it, when the hard-headed and soft-hearted
people of England hear the sound Of the sackbut
and the psntery and the dulcimer and all kinds
of music, and dare say among it the rattle of
bacearat counters they are not going to fall Gown
and worship the idoiatrOus golden image which
Northumberland the king has set up"
Mr. Cobb has fine ear. He can hear amid his
sackbuts and psateries the rattle OF leather count
ers bn a green baize cloth, and bis attention to
the facts Of the baccarat is as accurate as
his law II is not much wonder that he should
be one of the butts and bOres of the House of
Commons. Still, such as ne is, he is factor.
He counts for something in The manufacture OF
public opinion. No industry in This country is
more assiduously pursued, or returns larger in
tl,o itol; Vou may think
Mr.. Cobb contemplate but you will be wrong
lie represents constituency with registry of
nearly ten thousand voters He represents much
larger constituency of people who have jealous
and ignorant dislike of institutions they have had
no hand in forming a dislike of those who dissent
from them. in politics and religion; and dislike
of the Prince of Wales because he is Prince of
Wales. They make. perhaps O worse impression
on the spectator than they need. The spectator Is
apt to Judge by appearances, and he may not hold
the balance quite even between Mr. Cobb and the
Prince on whom Mr.. Cobb pours out the walls
of his wrath. The Prince has at least good
manners.
If there be, and there probably is. certain
reaction in the Prince of Wales's favor, Inc may
thank Mr.. Cobb for it, and those who think and
speak like Mr.. Cobb. Violence and mere vulgar
abuse are likely after while TO provoke rcoo-
ton 1t is a fortnight since the NoncOnformist
Conscience and the Conferences Of Primitive
Methodsts and the rest, began TO express their
dsapproval Of the Princes proceedings. They
had, when they began, the great majority OF peo'
pie OF all classes with them. The scandal or the
baccarat case has been gross. 1t was felt that
the Prince though in this particular case by
little fault Of his own had cut poor figure. lie
was criticised on various grounds, some Of them
just The critics were Of many kinds. and from
Utmost every rank jim life But there are always
on such occasions self-appointcd censors of public
and private morals, who overdo 1t. They overdld
it in this case In the classic phrase of an author
no longer so we'll remembered as he deserves to
be. Artemus Ward, they stopped over Dir. Cobb
stopped over. The press, even some of the more
sobcr-ninded papers, did likewise. The puddle
they made spread and spread till people grew tired
of standing mp TO their ankles in wet and dirt,
and to look about them for dry land and air free
from stencil. And then. quite suddenly, they asked
= why there had been such Ia row aud whether,
after all, the Prince of Wales was a worse man
today than he had been any time the last thirty
years.
The Prince of Wales has in fact. been before the
public as much as ANYBODY. and bis general way
of life has been well known. lie is shut out from
politics from the professionalism his military
duties are but nomination. all ordinary pur-
suits Ile was educated as most princes are euu-
Gated; very badly. that is. He was taught no
trade but royalty, and royalty in England Is
largely business OF ornament and ceremony
He liked to amuse himself. and did. Life without
emotions seemed TO him-and in that he is not
peculiar-a dreary affair Emotions are not to
be had FROM opening hospitals or holding levees
in behalf OF the queen or even 10 any high degree,
from State Balls or other such pageantries. The
Prince sought them elsewhere. Roughly speaking
his life might be divided into two parts-his public
duties and his private diversions. There are no
two opinions about the way he discharges his
uublic duties He does them punctilously we'll :;