Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-08-14
ANCIENT SALIC LAW.
1T PREVENTS WOMEN FROM BEING
QUEENS IN SOME COUNTRIES.


of Hanover Lost Its Independence and
Was Absorbed by Prussia.
A relic 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 it, yet
there is no law that has been the cause
of so much blOodshcd 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 its 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 Cf Maria Theresa and the seven
years war it exists only in modified
form i'll Austria, and, perhaps, not at
all in the kingdom of Hungary
But it is still in force in Denmark, in
Sweden, i'll 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 a
more mushroom character and drawn
I up by enlightened statesmen Of the pres
ent century, might reasonably be ex-
| pected to he more up to date and free
from such narrow medieval prcjudices
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-
lightencd craftsmanship and political
sagacity than any of their brother mon
archs.
Under the circumstances it must be q
matter of regret that the Salic law
should debar a number Of beautiful,
charming and clever p1inccsscs from
succeeding to thrones. Thus there is
the pretty Princess Pauline of Wurttcm-
berg the only child Of the present king
and a young girl whom it is no eXag-
gcratiCn to describe as the national idol.
Yet, Notwithstanding the fact that all
the affection of the people is conferred IN
her, she is compelled Iy the Salic law
to stand aside and to permit her fathers
crown to descend to Il distant cousin,
born and bred not i'll Wurttemborg, but
i'll Austria, and who, i'll addition to be-
ing regarded as foreigner, has the su-
prcmc disadvantage, in the eyes Of tho
Luthorans and Protostants, constitut-
ing the vast majority of the nation, Of
being Il Catholic.
Although King Oscar Of Norway is
one Of the most enlightened and accom-
phshcd Of man, endowed with a char
acter that can only be described as un-
blemished, he has not proved a success
full ruler.
The fact is that the king, in spite of
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.
The latter had only one daughter,
Princess Louisa, who inherited his quail
tiles, and who, in spite of her plalnness,
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
merrimont and good humor, and heart
as big as her laugh, which has been
compared to that of Il 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 DelnS debarreu from her father s
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 Eranduncle, which is esti-
mated at e5 600, 600
1t is to the Salic law that the king
dom of Hanover is indebted for the loss
Of its independence aud for its absorp-
tion by Prussia with all the disad-
vantages which thot entails, economic,
political and secial. Had Queen Vic
toria not been barred by this statute
from succeeding 10 the throne of Han
over at the time when size assembled that
of Great Britain There is no doubt that
Hanover would have been uioying at
the riroeDYf moment fltf c.-I.t.. e,1t,,t.v