The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-09-09

The Growing Embarrassmonts and Burden,
of Their Position.

of Their Position.
1t is matter perhaps OF little inpor
lance, but as observers interested in SO
cial as we'll as political history we rather
wonder how ''the royalties, as people
begin to call them, will settle them
selves down into European society
Their present position is hardly toler-
able Owing probably to some little no
ticed change in morals and to relaxa-
ton of tho rule against morganatic de-
scent being recognized, the princes of
the royal houses, the people to whom
you must speak standing, are becoming
numerous beyond all precedent. There
are literally scores of them, all equal by
birth, all claiming topmost places and
all more or less cut off from active ca
reers. They may be soldiers still if they
like, but they cannot be statesmen or
ambassadors or viceroys, much less mer
chants or captains of industry. They are
not permitted TO marry out Of their
own caste, there are no islands for them
to conquer, and they must not tako to
the new trade of agitation. They are
not even allowed to marry heiresses
without recommendations which are CALLING
to their pride. And what are they to do
for living?
The question is becoming pressing
one, for, rich as all royal houses are, ex-
cept our own, no family wealth will
suffice to maintain hundreds of families
all wanting to live with the wealthy
mobiles and all deprived of the means of
making money. The grand dukes of
Russia, the archdukes Of Austria, the
princes of our own country, are becom-
ing clans, burdensome to the stocks
from which they derive their grandeur,
and at a certain point. now by no means
distant, that fact will be officially recog-
nized. There are royalties even now,
who, in English eyes, would be account
ed poor men, and in the next generation
there will be royalties literally with
nothing, yet, if the present system con-
tinues, chiefs of society and observed,
as before this generation even kings
were not observed except at intervals.
What are they to do? We can see
nothing for 1t except for the dynas-
ties to let them go, to make rule
that royalty" shall only extend to,
say, the tenth person from the throne,
and that the remainder must sink back
among the people and win titles or rank
or fortune like everybody else. Their
pedigrees will help them somewhat
they spring from strong races, and they
may be, if they please, as we'll educated
as their neighbors. They can help one
another If they like, as Scotohmeu and
Jews do, and once lost in the COM
monalty the strange jealousy of them,
which now keeps them out of public
life, would speedily disappear. They
could adopt names as the nobles' SONS
do in business and gradually would
come to remember their pedigrees only
as sources Of family pride, and, let us
hope, as incentives to specially honor
able lives.
We are not Joking in the least or
writing what would be particularly
foolish satire. The maintenance Of poor
relations does actually press closely
and heavily ON most royal houses, and
in the next generation, If not in this,
will have to be met by some system Of
dropping the oollaterals. The people
will not maintain whole caste in idle
ness Tho roads to activity once SO wide,
ly open to all of royal descent are now
closed to them, and the family fortunes,
great as they are, are insufficient Cor
burden which increases so rapidly. Ad-
NIT that the Austrian income from
property reaches $500, 900 a year-a
very large admission-and still, if 60
archducal houses are to be kept up out
of it there will not be much left for the
sovereign to spend.
The royalties of Europe not actually
close to thrones will, we are convinced,
within 80 years be disestablished, and
we CONFESS to q curiosity to see the form
that painful process will take. Will our
children live to see the princes a noble
but unpaid caste, like the descendants
of Confucius, or will they see Haps-
burg taken into partnership by the
Rothsohilds OF descendant of George
III seeking fees as barrister or an oeu-
list? There is ''royalty"--a real one,
too--who cures peoples eyes even now
suppose his son takes pay for that
beneficial work? Seriously, the social
privileges which accompany descent
from kings must within one more gen.
GRAFTON be confined somehow to thin
ner and straighter line. London Spec
tator.