The Irish standard., 1896-07-18

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putting on OF uniforms, the slaughter
Ing OF phea sants, the silly populations Of
mayors and town clerks, the feeding and
guzzling, the inventions OF new follies to
Kill time, and the utter WEAKNESS and
hateful ennui Of 1T all-these have never
been satirized or exposed with more mer-
CHESS vigor or more brilliant style.
Ouida has also her biting observations
on the poor foolish flunkeys who keep
this sort Of thing going, and who find the
greatest pleasure Of their existence in
hasking in the rays supposed to proceed
from some dull scion of royalty. She
mentions brilliant literary woman-we
have "a notion we can penetrate to her
personality-:-able, interesting, attract
i've, but who, the same moment she finds
herself in the same room with Queen
Victoria, becomes imbecile, and is as
much hypnotized as was Titania when
she fell in love with the long ears Of
Bottom.
The true point about royalty is, as
Ouida points out, that when 1t was real
men were justified in paying homage to
kings, they were the real leaders in war,
real rulers, usually brave, often taking
their lives In their hands, always respon-
sible for governing the country and for
leading their embattled hosts. Nova
days kings and queens are pretentious
and costly shaus, not one Of whom can
or does earn his or her keep. They have
in the foremost countries where they are
to be found no real political power, while
they exert pernicious, abominable in
fluence. It is really impossible, as Ouida
says, to feel any generation for dowdy
old lady in a waterproof toddling along
between two lines of guards. People pre-
tend to feel veneration, but it is only pre-
tense; and therefore the false sentiment
encourages the rank growth of hypoc-
risy, which is the worst element that
can exist in a nations life The brilliant
essayist also points out how intimately
royalty and war are associated, how roy
atty designedly keeps up militarism and
encourages it's too numerous scions to
hold high honorary posts in regiments
not because, as a rule, they pretend to
risk their carcasses in any real war,
but for the purpose of stimulating mill
tary feelings in the country.
There is one side of this question of
royalty which is not often referred to,
but on which Ouida dwells with no lit
tie power. We refer to the evil inf1u-
ence exerted by this now played-out and
rotten institution in royal people them
selves. We are constantly told by the
lying hack writer's in section of the
press Of the noble qualities of this or that
royal parsonage, while it may be safely
asserted that every European royal per-
son is a greedy, selfish individual-more
so, we mean, than is the average man or
woman. It is In the nature OF things
that It should be so when we remember
the way in which these royal people are
approached, aattered, cringed to, lied to
by the fools and knaves who crawl be-
fore them. But, after all, the real prob
lem lies In the existence Of these same
fools and knaves and the millions who
actively or passively support them. We
need a new republican crusade on be-
half of manliness, truth, self-respect,
the genuine virtues on which ultimately
any noble national life must rest. May
such crusade be forthcoming before
long 80, ~