New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1896-08-12
ANCIENT SA LIC La w.
ri PREVENTS WOMEN FROM BEING.
QUEENS IN SOME COUNTRIES.

NO OC0e1 Law n1o GAu80O so MUCH 13AO0O>s
shed-Through This Code tho Kinsiom
OF Hanover Lost It's Independence and.
Was Absorbed BY Prussia.
Arctic of prehistoric barbarism, Of
times when women were regarded as
soulless beings but one remove superior
to the brute creation, is that Salic law
which debars the fair sex from all rights
of succession to most Of the thrones Of
Europe. No one knows with any degree
of certainty the origin Of this law, al
though many theories and arguments
have been advanced regarding il, yet
there is no law that has been the cause
of SO much bloodshed and desolation
throughout the 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
the 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 modified
form in Austria, and, perhaps, not at
all 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
we'll 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.
It is precisely in the three countries
which are now ruled by women-Eng-
land, Holland and Spain that the
greatest degree of peaceeand 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. ..,M
Under the circumstances it must be q
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 conferred in
her, she is compelled by the Salic law
to stand aside and to permit her fathers
crown to descend to a distant cousin,
born and bred not in Wurttemberg, but
in Austria, and who, in addition to be-
ing regarded as a foreigner, has the su-
preme disadvantage, in the eyes of the
Luth Grams and Professionals, constitute
ing the vast majority of the nation, Of
being a Catholic. -.
4. Although King Oscar of Norway is
one Of the most enlightened and accom-
plished of man, endowed with char
acter that can only be described as I'M
blemished, he has not proved success
full ruler.
The fact is that the king, in spite Of
all his talents and his projections, moral
and otherwise, is entirely wanting in
that personal magnetism, and, if 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 XIV. z
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.
Over 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 heart
as big as her laugh, which has been
compared to that of horse.
Had she been permitted to succeed
her father as queen regent of Sweden
and Norway it is doubtful whe ther the
present conflict in 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 ;ebb.
But, being debarred from her fathers
throne by the Salic law, she married the
crown prince of Denmark, carrying out
of the country Of her birth all the vast
IL, .l,,- l.