Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-08-28
ANCIENT 6ALIC LAW.
IT PREVENTS WOMEN FROM BEING
QUEENS IN SOME COUNTRIES.

QUEENS IN SOME COUNTRIES.
No Other Law Has Caused So Much Blood
sl,ed-Through This Code the Kingdom,
of Hanover Lost Its Independence and
Was Absorbed by Prussia.
A relic Of prehistoric barbarism, Of
times when women were regarded as
Ioulless beings bit one smove superior
TO the brute creation, is t'lat Salic Law
which debars the fair sex from all riglts
Of succession to most Of the thrones Of
Europe. No one knows With any de,ree
Of certainty the origin Of this Law. al
though many theories and Arguments
have been advanced reeardi6ig it. vet
there is 10 law that has5ssen the cause
Of SO much biood4hsed and desolation
thre elGss 4IoofSl5 the TIE last 500 years.
Nearly all the historic wars that have
taken place in Europe since the days of
the first crusade may be attributed to
She existence of this law, and even in
the present century sanguinary struggles
have taken place on it's account. Great
Britain and Russia are the only two
countries where it has never secured any
foothold.
Spain. Portugal and Holland have
within the last 100 years erased the
law from their statute books, and have
benefited by the change, while since the
reign Of Maria Theresa and the seven
years. war it exists only in a modified
form i'll Austria, and, perhaps, not at
nil in the kingdom of Hungary.
But it is still in force in Denmark, in
Sweden, in Prussia and all the other
federal states of the German empire, as
well as in Belgium, Italy, Roumania,
Servia, Bulgaria and Greece, the ma
tional constitution of which, being of
more mushroom character and drawn
up by enlightened statesmen of the pres
ent century, might reasonably be ex-
pected to be more up to date and free
from such narrow medieval prejudices
and doctrines.
1t is precisely in the three countries
which are now ruled by women-Eng-
land, Holland and Spain - that the
greatest degree Of peace and prosperity
prevails, the three royal widows dis
playing far more common sense, en-
lightened craftsmanship and political
sagacity than any of their brother mon
archs
Under the circumstances it must be a
matter of regret that the Salic law
should debar number Of beautiful,
charming and clever p1incesses from
succeeding to thrones Thus there is
the pretty Princess Pauline of Wurttem-
berg, the only child of the present king
and a young girl whom it is no exag-
geration to describe as the national idol.
Yet, Notwithstanding the fact that all
the affection of the people is centered in
her, she is compelled by the Salic law
to stand aside and TO permit her fathers
crown to descend TO q distant cousin,
born and bred not in Wurttemberg, but
in Austria, and who, in addition to be-
ing regarded as foreigner, has the su-
preme disadvantage, in the eyes of the
LHtherans and. Protestants, constitute
ing the vast majority OF the NATION, OF
being a Catholic.
Although King Oscar of Norway is
one Of the most enlightened and accom-
plished of man, endowed with a char
acter that can only be described as I'M
blemished, he has not proved q success
full ruler.
The fact is that the king, in spite Of
all his talents and his projections, moral
and otherwise, is entirely wanting i'll
that personal magnetism, and, if I may
be permitted to coin the expression, that
public tact which distinguished his
homely, genial and by no means so in=
tellectual brother, King Charles Ky.
The latter had only one daughter,
Princess Louisa, who inherited his quail
tiles, and who, in spite of her plainness,
was, Just as much the idol Of both the
Norwegians and Swedes as Princess
Pauline of Wurttemberg is at Stuttgart.
Dsfer six feet high, and far from being
endowed with intellect above the aver.
age, she possesses the best temper in the
world and an inexhaustible fund OF
merriment and good humor, and a heart
as big as her laugh, which has been
compared to that of a horse \
Had she been permitted to succeed
her father as queen regent of Sweden
and Norway 1t is doubtful whether the
present conflict III the sister kingdom
would ever have arrived at the acute
STAGE and certainly the 10y atty to the
throne on both sides Of the border would
not have reached its present low ebo.
But, being debarred from her father
throne by the Salic law. she married the
crown prince Of Denmark, carrying out
of the country of her birth all the vast
wealth which she had inherited, partly
from her father, and partly, too, from
her Dutch grandpnc!e, which is estl-
mated at e5, 000, 00a,
1t is to the Sale law that the king
dom Of Hanover is indebted for the loss
Of its inaependenee and for its absorb
ton by Prussia, with al the disad
vantages which that entails, economic,
political and social. Had Queen Vic,
| toria not been barred by this statqt'
from succeeding to the chrome OF Han
over at the time when she ascended that
! Of Great Britain thera is DO doubt tAa
Hanover would have been enjoying al
the present moment the same CONNER
| cial prosperity and manifold advantage
which have fallen to the lot of the Eng
lish since TIE beginning Of the victorian
era.
But instead the Salic law made
necessary the separation Of the crown
| Of Hanover from that of England, ant
/ 70 f,ylt