The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-05-30
is A RADICAL IN POLITICS.
Prime Minister knudsen of Norway
Declines Decoration by King
Edward.

Norway's prime minister. NJ Knud-
sen, has created what may be de-
scribed as a European sensation by
declining to accept the grand cross of
the Victorian Order conferred upon
him by King Edward on the occasion
of his recent visit to the court of Chris
tiania. For a prime minister to refuse
an honor of this nature from a foreign
sovereign paying a state visit to his
own ruler is absolutely without prece-
dent in the annals of diplomacy. True,
sometimes officials of minor rank have
declined such distinctions on occasions
of this kind, because the grade of the
order bestowed upon them was not
sufficiently high to accord with their
Ideas of their own Importance. But no
Such reasons prompted the Norwegian
prime minister If he declined the
honor offered to him by King Edward
! 1t was, as he explained it, because his
radical principles prevented him from
accepting any order of knighthood.
| Not the slightest bit of ribbon or in
! sigma of any order is ever to be seen
on the plain black evening dress which
constitutes his official costume at all
state and court functions, and in the
monarchical countries of continental
| Europe, where virtually every public
| man is decorated with one or more or
| ders, the appearance thus presented by
Premier Knudsen is very marked.
| Knudsen is an extremely capable
statesman, and his advanced radicalism
] in politics does not prevent his being
in addition to a trusted constitutional
| adviser, also a very warm personal
friend of his king and queen, who both
honor him for his strength of charac-
| ter. Edward VII was not i'm the least
offended by knudsen's refustl to accept
the Victorian Order and sent him in
the place thereof handsomely framed
portrait, with an extremely compl-
mentary autograph inscription.
Prince Is Reforming.
Prince Frederick Henry of Prussia,
eldest son of the late Prince Albert of
Prussia, regent of Brunswick and who
was deprived not long ago by the
kaiser of his command in the German
army, owing to the unsavory scandals |
in which he had become involved, is
evidently turning over q new leaf !
For his conversion to the Roman Cath |
Ole church is announced, following. it !
is said, preparation of several weeks /
for this change of creed. The emperor /
will have learned with mingled feelings |
of his kinsmans action. For. while, on
the one hand, he will resent the princes |
abandonment of that Lutheran church !
with which the fortunes of the reigning
house of Prussia are so strongly iden-
titled, he will. on the other hand feel
relieved by the establishment of any
new and efficacious check upon the
tendency of Frederick Henry to dis
grace his family Converts are always
particularly Jealous in religious mat
ters. and it may be that the princes
admission to the Roman Catholic
church means the Inauguration of
new and more honorable life
The prince is enormously rich, having
inherited not only third of the co..
ossal fortune of his immensely rich
father, but also some further millions
of dollars through the recent death Of
his grandfather, the old duke of Sake /
Altenberg. He must not be confound-
ed with his second brother Prince
Joachim Albert. who has not only been
dropped from the Prussian army, but |
banished from Prussia on ac-
count of his determination to we'd the |
somewhat notorious Baroness Lieben- |
berg. The princes father, the late re-
gent of Brunswick was a Lutheran of |
he most bigoted type, and the idea of |
his first-born becoming a convert to |
he Catholic church is enough TO make |
lin turn in his grave.
Other Converts to Catholicism.
The conversions of members of the |
eigning house of Prussia to Roman II
catholicism have been few and far be-
ween. The only instances, indeed, that H
can recall are those cf King Ottos
mother, Princess Marie of Prussia, /
Who became a convert to Catholicism |
Lfter her marriage to King Macmillan II
l of Bavaria, and Princess Anna of !
Prussia. the widow of the late Land
rave Frederick of Hesse. and who be-
anne a convert to Roman Catholicism :
n 1901 The Landgrave's second son. II
frederick Charles, is married to the
,aiser's sister Margaret, owner of the
ate Empress Frederick's chateau of II
near Homburg It used
o be asserted that the late Princess II
frederick Charles, mother of the
uchess of Connaught, and wife of the II
'erman commander, to whom Bazaine
Metz in 1870. had joined
he Catholic church, and similar stories
'ere current about Empress Augusta
But nothing was ever definitely known
bout the matter. and the fact remains
hat they were attended on their
eathbed by Lutheran clergymen and
'ere buried according to Lutheran
ltes.-St. Louis Globe Democrat