Holbrook argus., 1904-01-09
KINGS READY TO QUIT
European M0narchs Who Are Will
 ing to Abdicate.
Some No Longer in Touch with Their Subjects and Others Threat- ened With Adverse
 Legislatures.

 nc time since the eventful years oi 1S4s-1y. when the whole of Europe may be said 10 have been in open insurrec' ton against the medievaiiy autocrat- ic teuuencies of it's rulers. have there been sc many reigning sovereigns who doning tneir thrones.
 h. lS4S the mcnarchs were mostly princes born in the previous century and reared within the influence of its tradi,ion.., utlcriH incapable therefore ol uinprencn,l.ng such new angled no tions aa roruiar government and ma tionai constitutions.
 sooner than lend their names 10 any sucl. suJvcrgive ideas. which they re- gardcd Gs synonymous with Sanguin- ary revolution ot the character that brough l.nuis XVI. and Marie An. toinefte Ia the scaifold. tEry lreferred t. nnGicatr: and il was Gurng these two rveniiul years that he thrones of Austria. Sardina. Bavaria. France and Holland were vacated by their occu- pants.
 If to-day. half n century later. their successors desire in turn to abdicate, il is thai they. too, have become firmly convinced that popular Legislation is in- compatible with good rovernment- that is. as viewed from the 'lrnnr.
 or the Sovereigns repor,ed Io be on the eve oi publication we have. in the first riace. King George of inc liellenes. who declares himself sick and tired of his uEcorti .rtabIc thrcne. and does not hesitate to declare that. the very at- mosphere of Greece having ceased to be congenIdI ,o him, he is anxious 10 sur render as soon as possible his scepter to his son Constantine.
 He is 10 longer in touch with his sub jects. has no friends at Athens save vis- itors from abroad. and is constantly forced by the somewhat disreputabln policy of the cabinets that succeed one minions to place himself in an awkward and embarrassing position with regard tn those foreign courts tn which he is bound by ties of close rela lionship.
 King Oscar is likewise talking of re signing his crown to his eldest son. In hi, case there is not one. bI, two parlia- ments with which to contend, and as that at Stockholm is always in direct opposition to that at Christiaria, 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. HF
 He declares that he has done his best, like King George of Greece, to five 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 q question with him either of violating tie corona : tion oath or of stepping down and mak- 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 national leg islature, in which the radicals and socialists. hostile to the throne, possess an overwhelming mapority, outnum- bering the moderate liberals and the infinitesimal conservative party com bined by three to one.
 Broken by age and infirmity, 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, ard 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 ister personally abhorrent both to him. self and to the queen, and to lend his