The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-05
THE WAYS OF
KINGS AND PRINCES
Some interesting Conclusions of
a leading Paper in
London.

LONDON, July zS.-The Spectator
has excited much comment by an arti-
Gle on Kings and Princes OF which the
following are extracts:
THE Princes ought, for example. to
be a rather rotten race and they are
not Most OF them-indeed, ali except
the Swedes and Servians-belong to
families which have lived in great lux
ury for 800 years and have in that pc
Rod been shown up time after time as
individuals of exceptional immortality.
and who have preferred intermarriage
to any method of seeking brides, and
thoroughly worn out They are not
worn out at all. They are rather good
lives, as actuaries count lives, and
would make a very fair troop of drag
ons, and are personally rather more
energetic, not to say more fussy. than
other people. With the exception OF
the Spanish Bourbons. they have
shown. and are showing. little signs of
feebleness, and even in that house the
unexplained faint in the blood seems TO
be working itself out"
This, as the Spectator points out, Is
at variance with the theories OF hered-
ity, as is also the fact that different
lines have produced rather more than
their share OF exceptional ability. It
instances the Hohenzollerns and the
Bourbons. who have produced at least
three first-class soldiers, and the Haps-
burgs and Romanoffs.
Moreover" it says, "all have mani
tested one singular power, as even the
comparatively undistinguished Guelphs
contrived through ages of storm and
stress to keep themselves at the top Of
the world. They have been helped,
doubtless, by advisers greater than
themselves. but the capacity TO profit
by advice is not a mark OF a decaying
race"
The Spectator goes on to say that the
princely families have also upset the
theory that as an animal can be bred
TO a certain point Of perfection. so
race of men, well fed, taught, exercis-
ed and employed, could be developed to
a point superior to any that mankind
has yet reached. Nevertheless. though
the conditions which should make such
a race are those under which princely
houses have been reared, they remain
very like other people. The Spectator
continues:
They are on the level, for the most
part, of competent English squires, but
no higher. Very few have been orig
inaI, and the men descendants of those
few. without exception, have slipped
back to the ordinary level"
From this theory the Spectator de-
duces that truly royal caste cannot
be bred according to the theories or
heredity. They ought to bear, 1t says,
definite stamp, and be an easily rec
ognizable type of mankind. Yet this is
not a case of personal hkenesses which
occasionally occur such that of the
Gar and the Prince of Wales. There
IS no more general similarity OF type
between those men than among MEM
bers of the House of Commons, where
accidental likenesses are very common.
Drir hsaa r. nHnfPGGiOnal CACneI
such az comes to soldiers and sailors,
Ali show a sense of superiority bred by
training and all are nervously sensi-
tive of their dignity. There the SINH
larity ends The Spectator declares:
Zone thing they are alike in is the
failure to exhibit genius in any of its
ordinary manifestations"