The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-06-23
KINGS READY TO QUIT
European Monarchs Who Are Will
ing to Abdicate.
some No Longer In Touch with Their
Subjects and Others Threat
ened with Adverse
Legislatures.

No time since the eventful years of
1S4S-40, when the whole of Europe may
be said TO have been in open insurrec-
ton against the medievally autocrat-
&c tendencies of it's rulers, have there
been so many reigning sovereigns who
are declared to be on the point Of aban-
doning their thrones.
In 1S4S the monarchs were mostly
princes born in the previous century
and reared within the influence of its
traditions, utterly incapable, therefore,
of comprehending such new-fangled no.
tions as popular government and ma
tional constitutions.
Sooner than lend their names to any
such subversive ideas, which they re-
garded as synonymous with sanguin-
ary revolution of the character that
brought Louis XVI. and Marie An
toinette to the scaffold, they preferred
to sbdicate; and it was during these
two eventful years that the thrones of
Austria, SARDINIA, Bavaria, France and
Holland were vacated by their occu-
pants.
If to-day, half a century later, their
EuNCOSSOIS uGSllC III IL W dDNlCdlC, ~
is that they, too, have become firmly
convinced that popular legislation is in
compatible with good government
that is, as viewed from the throne.
Of the sovereigns reported to be on
the eve of abdication we have, in the
first place, King George Of the Hellenes,
who declares himself sick and tired of
his uncomfortable throne, and does not
hesitate to declare that, the very at
mosphere of Greece having ceased to be
congenial to him, he is anxious to sur
render as soon as possible his scepter
to his son Constantine.
He is no longer in touch with his SUBJ
jects, has no friends at Athens save vis-
itors from abroad, and Is constantly
forced by the somewhat disreputable
policy of the cabinets that succeed one
another with such rapidity in his do
minions to place himself in an awkward
and embarrassing position with regard
to those foreign courts to which he is
bound by ties of close relationship.
King Oscar is likewise talking of re-
signing his crown TO his eldest son. In
his case there is not one, but two parlia-
ments with which to contend, and as
that at Stockholm is always in direct
opposition to that at Christiania, he can
not content the one without offending
tho other, the result being that Norway
and Sweden are now, according to his
own assertions, on the point of civil
war.
He declares that he has done his best,
like King George of Greece, to 1.-Two up
to the terms of tha constitution by vir-
tue of which he holds his scepter, but
that it is absolutely impossible to do so
any longer, and that it is a question
with him either of violating the corona
lion oath or of stepping down and max
ing way for his son.
Then, too, there Is King Christian of
Denmark, who, at the age of 81, finds
himself face to face with a national leg
islature, in which the ultra-radicals and
socialists, hostile to the throne, possess
an overwhelming mapority, outnum-
bering the moderate liberals and the
infnitesimal conservative party COM
bined by three to one.
Broken by age and infrmity, shaken
by the illness of his strong-minded wife,
who has been his chief moral support
throughout his reign, and deprived,
too, of the powerful backing of his SON.
in-law, the late Emperor Alexandria of
Russia, he feels himself no longer
capable of coping with the situation,
and announces that he is about to make
way for his son.
To these three kings must be added
the name of King Humbert of Italy,
who is forced to submit to prime min
lister personally abhorrent both to him
self and to the queen, and to lend his
name to policy of which he disap-
proves at heart, but which accords with
the views of the legislature.
1t Is no secret that the whole of his
private fortune is already invested
abroad, in anticipation of his abandon
ment Of the Italian throne, and that
he finds more intolerable than ever a
situation which compels him to sur
round himself with people uncongenial
to him and to his consort, and to re-
main IN position toward the church
which is not only diametricaily opposed |
s~N~ AOAABiOuS lCOhhBp VI lhS
Queen and OF himself, but likewise |
places the reigning house of Italy in a
very awkward and embarrassing posi-
ton with regard to all the other courts
of the old world,
Had it not been for Queen Marie |
Amelie OF Portugal, a strong-minded |
woman like her Sother, the countess Of |
Paris, King Carlos would have long
since relinquished his throne to his son,
with his younger brother as regent, |
while King Charles of Roumania and |
the prince regent of Bavaria are each |
credited with being on the eve of max
Ing way for the next of kin.
Finally, there is Prince Ferdinand of |
Bulgaria, who has been strongly urged |
by his Russophile friends to abdicate,
they undertaking to have him reelected |
under Muscovite protection. But he |
has thus far refrained from yielding to |
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