The Irish standard., 1906-02-03
4 ROYAL PAUPER.
Rich In Worlds Goods, Poor in
Spirit as the Numblest.
The Saxon King a Noble Exam.
pie Of Silent Suffering.

The escapadeS of the Crown Princess
Of Saxony did not mar in the least the
sterling character and shining example
of the late King George. His life was
above the reproach of an migrate peo-
pie and Of the hostile press, and when.
after a short reign of two years, he
laid down life's burden ON the 18th
Of October 1904, he left regret in the
hearts of those who had wronged him
and a rich legacy of good deeds to the
ones who had remained faithful to him
during his unhappy reign.
King George was a man of active
mind and of great energy. During the
Franco-German war, while his elder
brother, Albert, then Crown-Prince,
won enduring fame as one of the
great military leaders, Prince George
also distinguished himself as the COM
mander of a Saxon Army Corps. For
many years, till his accession to the
throne, he took leading part in the
deliberations of the Upper Chamber
besides being devoted to art and
science. He was third son of King
man has not even courage to act,
wished for in this regard. Many a
commentary of Dante's Divina Com
media. The reighning house of Sax
ony has been Catholic since 1897, when,
after the death of John Sobieski, the
elector August the Strong was chosen
King of Poland, and the family has
remained since then true to the
Church, though the people of Saxony
are the most bitterly anti-Catholic in
all Germany. Saxony is the strong
religion mainly consists in hatred Of
and Inscriptions agitation against the
Catholic Church. The mass of the
people are Socialists, whence Saxony
is sometimes called, 1.-The red king
DOM"
The foremost Protestant preacher in
sovereign, says: The majority of the
Saxon people have refused to their
king that love and that confidence for
which he longed so much, and have
thereby caused him bitter and unmer-
tied grief, and done him great injus-
tice. He has been grievously sinned
against, partly through malice. and
partly through thoughtlessness." The
"Deutsche Tagezeitung," Berlin
paper, whose editor is a Protestant
Saxon, writes, King George has often
been charged in the press with re-
ligious bigotry. 1t Is true he was d
devout and enthusiastic member Of
his Church, and fulfilled his religious
obligations with great fidelity; but he
has never as has often been charged,
made aggressive propaganda, or vio-
lated the rights of the Evangelical
State Church. In this regard particu-
larly he was always so scrupulously
just that he avoided the least sus-
picion of Partially against the Evan
gelical Church. To find fault with
him for having been a loyal son Of
his Church is wholly unjustifiable.
Loyalty to ones religion always meets
with the sympathy of all faithful
Evangelical Christians"
The reign of King George was one
of continued physical and moral mar
tyrdom. On his accession to the
throne in 1902 he found the kingdom
honey-combed with Socialism, and,
crippled as he was by incessant ILL
ness, he no longer possessed the
strength to initiate the necessary re-
forms. He could not win the affec-
ton Of the people, but was distruste?,
disliked, and even insulted. At his
open grave the Berlin Post" outraged
the dead monarch in these brutal
words: 1.-THE difference of religion has
always prevented complete harmony
between the Catholic Court of SaXony
and the Protestant people. This an
tagenism naturally became all the
more sharp after the accession Of King
George, since to King Albert, who had
been a loyal but tolerant Catholic,
succeeded ruler who saw his model
in Louis the Pious. King George was
not man of that plain, unadorned
piety which might have compelled the
respect of even his Protestant sub
jects, but he was a demonstrative
Catholic, and filled with the zeal Of
the propaganda. How eager he was
on every occasion to make show Of
his Catholic faith in the midst of a
Protestant people is proved by the fact
that while he was still Crown Prince,
wherever he was called by military or
other duties into entirely Protestant
localities where there happened to be
q Catholic chapel, he at once ostenta-
tiously betook himself to this chapel
for prayer" King George. was all
through life loyal son of the Catho-
lie Church, distinguished by deep an!
earnest piety, a man Of prayer and a
weekly communicate. In May, 1859,
he married at Lisbon the Infanta Anna
Maria of Portugal, who died in 1884.
Their five children received an excel.
lent and thoroughly Catholic educa-