Southwest-sentinel., 1895-03-19
wAAr sAALL noYAlrIEs poi
The Growing Embnrrassmcnts aud Burdcpi
Of Their Position.


The Growing Embarrassmcnts aud Burdens
Of Their Position.
Il is a matter perhaps Of little impor-
tance, but as observers interested in so.
cial as we'll as political history we rather
wonder how 'the royalties, rs people
begin to call them, viii settle them
selves down into European society.
Their present position is hardly toler-
able. Owing probably to some little no.
tioed change in morals and to q relaxa-
tion Of the rule against morganatio de.
scent being recognized, the princes Of
the royal houses, the people 10 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 of from active ca
reers. They may be soldiers still II they
like, but they cannot be statesmen or
ambassadors or viceroys, much less mer-
chants on 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 take to
the now trade Of agitation. They are
not even allowed to marry heiresses
without renunciations which are CALLING
to their pride. And what are they to do
for a 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
oil wanting to live with tho wealthy
mobiles and all deprived of tho means Of
making money The grand dukes Of
Russia, the archdukes Of Austria, the
princes Of our own country, arc bscom-
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 it except for the dynas-
ties to let them go, to make rule
that royalty" shall only extend to,
say, the tenth person from tho throne,
and that the remainder must sink back
among the people ard win titles or rank
or fortune like everybody else Their
pedigrees will help them somewhat-
they spring from strong races, aud they
may be, if they please, as we'll educated
as thoir neighbors. They can help one
another if they like, as Scotchmen and
Jews do, and once lost in tho COM
monalty the strange jealousy of thom,
which now keeps them out of public
life, would speedily disappear. They
could adopt names ns the mobiles sons
do in business and gradually would
come to remember their pedigrees only
as sources Of family pride, aud, 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 docs 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 tho collaterals. Tho people
will not maintain whole caste in idle
ness. The 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 for a
burden which increases so rapidly. Ad-
NIT that the Austrian income from
property reaches 5000, coo a year a
very large admission-and still, if GO
archducal houses are to be kept up out
Of it there will not be much left for tho
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 a curiosity 20 sec tho form
that painful process viii take. Win our
children live to SEQ tho princes noblo
but unpaid caste, like the descendants
Of Confucius, or will they see a Haps-
burg taken into partnership by the
Rothschilds or q descendant Of George
III seeking fees as a barrister or an ocu-
list? There is a ''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 a descent
from kings must within ono moro gen
Grafton be confined somehow to a thin
ner and straighter line London Spec
tatOf.