The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1896-08-26
ANCIENT SALIC LAW.
IT PREVENTS WOMEN FROM BEING
QUEENS IN SOME COUNTRIES.

No Other Law Has Caused So Much Blood
shed-ThrouGh This Code the Kingdom
of Hanover Lost Its Independence and
Was Absorbed by Prussia.
A relic of prehistoric barbarism, of
times when women We're 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 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 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 Of 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, in Prussia and all the other
federal states of the German empire. as
well as in Belgium, Italy, Roumania,
Seryia, Bulgaria and Greece, the ma
tional constitution of which, being Of
more mushroom character aud drawn
up by enlightened statesmen of the pres
emit 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 Il
matter of regret that the Salio 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 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 eentered in
her, she is compelled by the Salic law
| to stand aside and to permit her fathers
| crown to descend to distant cousin,
born and bred not in Wurttemberg, but
in Austria, and who. in addition to be-
I ing regarded as foreigner, tiils the SUI
preme disadvantage, in the eyes of the
Lutherans and Professionals, constitut-
ing the vast majority of the nation, of
being Catholic
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 n 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.
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 humori and 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 it is doubtful wheth 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
wealth which she had inherited, partly
from her father. and partly, too, from
her Dutch granduncle, which is esti-
mated at Go, 900, 900.
1t Is to the Salic law that the king
dom Of Hanover is indebted for the loss
of its Independence aud for its absorb
ton by Prussia, with all the disad
vantages which that entails, economic.
political and social. Had Queen Vic
toria not been barred by this statute
from succeeding to the throne Of Han
over at the time when she assembled that
of Great Britain there is no doubt that
Hanover would have been enjoying at
the present moment the same CONNER
cial prosperity and manifold advantages
which have fallen to the lot of the Eng
lish since the beginning Of the Victorian
era
But instead the Salic law made
necessary the separation of the crown
Of Hanover from that Of England, and
it passed in 1887, not to Victoria. but
to the Duke Of Cumberland. His very
first act on succeeding to the throne was
to repeal the grant of all the popular
liberties conceded by hisyounger broth
er, the Duke Of Cambridge, who had
been acting as viceroy, and until 1886
Hanover, although free from the obliga-
ton of compulsory military service and
unhampered by any Prussian restric-
tions upon trade. remained hotbed OF
feudalism and one of the most retrogade
states in Europe. -Cincinnat Enquirer.
Mich in Little