The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-02
GREAT SUPPLY OF PRINCES.
THEIR SUPPORT Is SOMEWHAT
BURDENsOME.
Is Problem Europe Must Faces
what 10 Do With Their scions of

From the London Spectator.
..,o objection is possible on public
,-ornds TO the betrothal of the Princess
Srsr4 of Wales to Prince Karl of Den
-,ark and consequently we congratulate
che rovaI house on an event which gives
them pleasure That, as it seems to US.
is a more becoming expression Of the
general feeling at the recent announce
Tent than the torrent of gush in which
most of the newspapers have INDUCED.
The heart Of the nation is not deeply
stirred" there is no new "link' forged
between Great Britain and Denmark; and
the public is not delighted to hear that
the arrangement is a love match, for the
sirnple reason that il neither knows. nor
can know nor ought to know, whether that
statement is true. All that it really knows
is that there is about to be an addition
10 the already numerous class of mar
RED royalties, which threatens within the
next fifty years to create new caste Of
mobiles. whose position in Europe will be
socially most curious and anomalous.
The royal houses used to tend to die
out. but of late years they have multi
piled until their scions are now numbered
by scores, and in 1850 will probably be
more numerous than the whole body of
the British nobility. They have bene-
fted first of all, by the immense improve
ments in hygiene, which have made even
palaces healthy; they have been compeli-
ed by opinion, to give up forming tr-
regular connections-there is no maltresse
en- tire left in Europe-and they rear
their families with as much care as the
members of any other class. Consequent
" there will soon be in Europe a whole
castle of persons claiming to be the heads
of society," who are not mobiles, who have
no duties, who perform no work outside
the army and navy, and who will have
quite inadequate means of support.
Apart from occasional impediments of
creed not felt by all the families, they
can all marry each other; but though
they assert a technical equality, they are
not really equal, any more than British
peers are, who make of their equality
their title and distinction. There are old
royal families and new royal families
the Oldest. If mothers are considered s
close to their children as fathers, being
Cerdic who reigned in WesseX 400 years
ago-"great" royal families and little
royal families which, like our own, are
exceedingly rich-the richest was recent
~ the Catholic branch of the Hohenzol-
lerns-and royal families which, like our
own, are exceedingly poor. There are,
dottes, Obrenovitchs and Montenegrins,
are only three-quarters royal, being,
though sovereign, without the sixteen
ouarterlngs, and families only half royal,
because they spring from families grudg-
ingly admitted by the two or three crown
ed heads who settle such questions to be
admissible, but not quite admitted, into
the sacred circle of the "ebenburtig."
Old or new, however, powerful or feeble,
rich or poor, wholly royal or three-quar-
tiers royal or half royal, they all alike
claim precedence of the highest mobiles;
they all exact q punctilious and most in
convenient social Difference; and they all
do nothing, or, rather, to be fair, are for
hidden to do anything which might JUS
tify their excessive claims. They have
absolutely no place in politics; they re-
tain but two privileges, exemption from
arrest and from the obligation to fight
duels; and but for a very singular fact
would be absolutely forgotten. For some
reason not Ineligible, except upon Mrs.
Oliphant's theory that rank has mys-
teal influence upon opinion, the Euro
pean public chooses to be interested In
Inese personages, insists upon Iear IN y
what they are doing, and attributes to
their fittings about Europe-they are
bored to death, and consequently restless
an Importance which they do nothing
and can do nothing to deserve.
The existence of such a castle Will be
noted by the future historian as one OF
the least applicable social Phenomena OF
the ninteenth century, and 1t Is dlfncult
not to wonder, when one reads OF their
marriages, what the future OF their cnli-
dren and grandchildren will be-What
place. that is, a thousand or 100 royal
ties will take in the sOcity system OF the
world, which is we notice, beginning to
accord the highest position even to roy
alties in black skins, in yellow and In
brown. They will not, we fear, sink quiet
" into the mass of the community, for the
community will not so far forget them,
and the sovereigns have an idea that I'M
less they protect their relations, however
distant, their own claims, which they all
describe to themselves as pedigree claims,
will in some degree be shaken. They can
not become mere mobiles, and do the WORK
of mobiles, though the mediatized princes
are doing this. because the community
entertains a jealousy which keeps them
out of politics, parliament, or the civil
service, and they will not let themselves
die quietly out. On the contrary, they
nearly all marry, and many of them have
families as large as those OF curates or
Irish peers.
And at the same time they cannot re.
main as they are, for IL they do they will
De completely impoverished, and our
grandchildren may live and see villages
Iull of royal blood, just as there are said
TO be villages in Galicia where every
householder not a Jew or a foreigner is
OF undoubtedly noble strain. The iInpos-
slbility of maintaining entire clans of roy
alues, with their necessity for attend
ants and carriages and seclusion from the
nerd, will soon force the heads of the
great houses to alter their family laws
ana etiquettes, and even 1t may be the
constitutions of their states; and that al
teratlon can take only one line. The en-
perOr of Austria, the Emperor of Ger
many, the Emperor of Russia, the soVer-
elgn of Great Britain and the King OF
Italy must in the end agree to decree or
legislate that no person more than, six or
elsht of ten steps from throne shall be
accounted royal, shall be entitled by
Dlood TO any privilege, or shall be ac-
corded by the etiquette of courts any spe-
cIal right of precedence
II IS, we fancy, certain that the three
ehPerors and two kings could do this,
ana that their action would be effectual,
we minor princes and the communities
OF Europe at once following suit. They
could, in fact, reduce the royalties to the
position occupied in England by a few
tamllles-the Tollemaches of Helming
lam used to be one, and the Malets are
aInolher-who are entirely people"
though on the continent they would be
Iecogn1zed as exceptionally noble. OF
Sourse, such a decree, which ought, if 1t
Is 70 be perfectly effective to be Euro
Pean, would be accompanied by another
iegneVlng all the disinherited of all disa-
olltes, whether derived from law, GUS
tom or the etiquet of courts. The MEM
oers Of the caste would then be compell-
Su 70 fend for themselves, and either rise
III the professions, as the Duke of Ber-
WICK did,, or the cosmopolitan "Eugenio
eon Savoie" did or sink among the ruck
az John Orth." tried to do, or, like near
- ruined English mobiles, make the cap
TTuIe or great heiresses in England, the
Snted states or Spanish-America a pro-
liable profession. Disinherited princes
~ould nave great advantages in that ca
reer, as they would be considered so ro-
mantle ,rfv