The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-20
The New sovereign of England.

To the Editor of the Journal and C0urier
 Now that the end of the long reign Of
 the good Queen Victoria has come, the
 thoughts of all naturally turn to her
 successor. And the heartfelt sorrow for
 her loss Is intensified in those who know the character of the Prince of Wales. With many in this country he has the reputation of being "a good fellow" popular with a certain class, fond or
 sports, and not without capacity TOT work. But those who have more knowl- edge of his past career and Of his char acter cannot but feel deep forebodings on his accession to the throne Ine grief which her two eldest children have given to the good and deservedly hon. ored queen has been we'll known to many in England, and the faults and vices of the prince are not of a sort to be suddenly cured His dissolute courses, notwithstanding the patience and constancy of his excellent wife, have been continued till long past the
 age of youthful wildness. His passion for gambling is notorious. His share Tn the causes of the South African war is thought by those acquainted with the facts to have contributed much to the
 recent anxieties and anguish of his | mother. The fact of the questionable connection of the prince with Cecil Rhodes has long been known, though love and honor for the queen have led
 a loyal people to keep as quiet about It as was possible The evidences of 1t, however, are too strong to be gainsaid.
 Two or three illustrations of this evi-
 dence which have come to my own
 knowledge may be here given. In 1896, when Jameson's so-called trial was go- ing on in London, and Sir William Yer
 non Harcourt was pressing MT Cham berlain for an investigation of Cecil Rhodes connection with the raid, 1t was current opinion among many in | England that Rhodes was ruined man and that the South African company would be deprived of its charter But at that time, dining with friend in | Berlin, I met a prominent and widely known Englishman, who was to dine | the next day with Bismarck, and who l predicted that though Harcourt would | doubtless carry his point, Rhodes would | still escape his deserts; and he gave the | grounds of his belief. He mentioned | the number of shares of the stock of 1 the South African company which
 Rhodes had passed over to the Prince | of Wales and to the Duke of Fife and l told how their value had been manip- ulated, thus benefitting the prince to | the amount of millions of pounds. AL | though the Englishman who gave me ! this information commanded my respect and cnfidence, yet I hesitated to give | the story full credit, and thought that | he himself might have been misinform- l ed. Some ten months later, however, l Harcourt having succeeded in bringing Rhodes to investigation, a dispatch came to our Associated Press in nearly | the following words: "The investigation of MT Rhodes has been suddenly stop l ped, it having been found that two per- sons high in rank were so deeply impli- cated that 1t was thought unwise to prosecute the matter further" This seemed like confirmation of the story above mentioned. Still, later, an Amer ican friend was told by Q member Of parliament: "We had to stop that in vestigation of Rhodes for the fact was ] that he had turned over lot of money to the prince for his gambling debts, and we found that to continue the in- vestigation would smut Wales so that
 we must stop it."
 These three wholly independent lines
 of evidence converging to the one fact must, it should seem, establ that | fact beyond doubt This being the case and the consequent triumphant return | of Rhodes to South Africa assured, it was evident that another thing would soon became fact, viz, the South Afr can war; and, if possible, the destruc-