The age-herald., 1898-01-11
THRONES f-BEGGlNi
Gladstone or Lord Derby Might Have eeen
 King of Greece.

From Tid-BtS.
 It is no mean distinction to have refused
 crown. There is probably not one man in
 a million who would decline a Kingdom if
 it were offered him. in spite of the restless.
 nights and fearful days that are commonly
 supposed to be the lot of a king. Even
 Cromwell is said to have refused the crown of England more from fear of others than from any other motive.
 But there have been many men since Cromwell who have refused to wear a mon arch's crown. Thirty-five years ago, when the throne of Greece was vacant, more than one great English statesman might have ruled over the destinies of that classic country, but the difficulties in the way were formidable. MT. Gladstone's name was freely mentioned in connection with the crown of Greece, though, as MT. Glad stone was member of the government at the time, the proposal never took definite shape.
 The late Lord Derby, however, who had strong sympathies with Greece, was of fered the crown and refused 1t, throwinfi away R50,000 a year and kingdom. lq was not the first time man had declined to sit on the throne of Greece, Prince Lec- bold, the father of the present king of the Belgians, having refused the crown when Greece was declared a kingdom, in 1880. Prince Leopolds reason for refusing the crown was that the proposed bounda-
  exclusion of~Crete especially influencing his decision.
 One of Queen victoria's sons, the Duke of Edinburgh, has also been offered the Grecian crown. He was appealed to in the sixties, at the time Lord Derby declined the crown, but was compelled to refuse the of fer, owing to the attitude of the powers, who strongly declared their opposition to Prince Alfred being crowned king of the Greeks. The throne was then offered to the present king, whose behalf it was accepted by his father, the king of Dem mark.
 The crown of Austria-Hungary was re- fused in the middle of the century by the Archduke Franz Karl, the father of the present emperor. King Ferdinand I abdi- cated in December. 1S4S, the throne then descending in the ordinary course to Arch duke Franz Karl, The archduke, however, declined the crown, which he handed over I to his son, who still wears it.
 Another crown which has been more than once refused is the crown of Roumania When Roumania was declared kingdom, | it was settled that the throne should de- Scend to Prince Leopold the eldest brother of the then reigning king. The prince, however, voluntarily yielded his rights to | the crown in favor of his son, Prince Will | helm, the renunciation being registered in | the senate in October, 1880. Prince Will helm remained heir apparent for eight years, but toward the end of 1888 he for mally refused to accept the crown, and his brother became heir apparent, being now l Prince of Roumania. The prince has since married Princess Marie, a granddaughter | of Queen Victoria.
 PIon-P1on.
 | !, Not many years ago a nephew of the | great Napoleon died in exile, after refusing | crown. Prince Napoleon, nicknamed 1 "Plon-Plon," son of a brother of Napoleon l Bonaparte, was invited to sit on the | throne of Roumania as the first king of | that country, but he declined the offer, be- I lieving at the time that he might ascend | the throne of France. So the bird in the | hand flew away, and the bird in the bush | was never caught. The man who had | hoped to be crowned king of France died out of that country in solitary exile. He had sacrificed one crown in the hope of re- | ceiving another, and lost both.
 | Early in the present century Ferdinand | VII. renounced the crown of Spain in favor | of his father, who,- again, refused it in | favor of Napoleon. The great conquerer | had to face nation in arms, however, and never took the throne. The story of Lord Beaconsfields golden | crown provides us with another instance, | though there was no throne with this | strange crown. The man in whose brain | the idea of crowning Lord Beaconsfield | originated is now dead, but as long as he | lived he never recovered from the blow of Lord Beaconsfield's refusal of his tribute 1 MT. Tracey Turnereilli received subscrip- 1 tions from 50,000 people toward his gold | laurel wreath, but in June, 1879, when he l formally offered the crown to his idol, 1t l was refused