New-York tribune., 1909-03-28
STATE PROVIDES IN BAVARIA.

STATE PROVIDES IN BAVARIA.
There is only one country IN the world where
the state undertakes to provide for Impoverished
members Of the aristocracy as such. That Is
Bavaria. An ancient law enacts that an annual
allowance shall be granted by the government TO
impoverished mobiles. 1t had almost become OBJ
soIete and for long time one had ever
dreamed OF taking advantage OF its provisions.
when suddenly few years ago young Count
LerchenfeId who during the course of his law
studies had unearthed this particular statute.
applied to the national treasury for an allowance
under It's provisions stating that he with
out resources I'm consequence OF his having quar-
relied with his father money matters. The
state was forced TO comply with his request.
But although the matter led to a great outcry
in the Bavarian press owing 70. the fact that the
elder Count Lerchenfeld was a minister pleni-
potentiary and one of the greatest land owners
in Germany while his reputed to be
wild and extravagant scapegrace, no attempt was
made to repeal the law. which still remains on
the statute books of the kingdom of Bavaria.
In Spain and Italy the government has en-
deavored to put stop to the spectacle presented
by destitution and pauperism among people Of
rank by imposing so heavy tax upon the In
heritance of titles of the aristocracy that 1t is
only the welI-to-do who can afford TO defray the
satisfy the claims of the treasury in the mat
ter are debarred by law from adopting the titles
of their parents and ancestors. which become
dormant and if not revived lapse altogether
after a certain number OF generations These
measures have the effect Of virtually restricting
the of nobiliary titles TO persons possessed Of
sufficient wealth to maintain them with ade-
quate dignity and preventing their adoption by
paupers.
In Russia, where no steps have been taken
yet to deal with the problem of destitute
aristocracy, the penal settlements and jails are
crowded with and daughters Of the BARNES,
territorial nobility, ruined by the liberation Of
the serfs and driven by sheer want to crime 1t
is to a similar cause that must attribute the
large number of soshi and samurai (former two
sworded nobIes) in Japanese jails.
In England the peerage is not badly off in
this respect, owing to the fact that the In
heritance of titles is restricted to the eldest
son. and usually goes with entaied landed prop
erty. But the baronetcy figures very largely In
warehouses and Jails, especially in the Antip
odes, where at moment less than
bakers dozen of these hereditary knights were
doing time" for serious and petty offences.
Many Of the mobiles of the Old World, on being
reduced by one cause another to want. seek
refuge on this side of the Atlantic in the hope
of retrieving their shattered fortunes either by
a rich marriage or by hard work. For ten who
succeed ninety fall by the wayside, being
fitted by birth and education for the fierce COM
petition In the battle for life, and the best that
can happen to them in such instances is de-
portation to the land of their birth. There, at
least, they have nowadays some prospect of
being cared for by people of their own caste
which. while it has lost it's odtime statutory
prerogatives, still retains its moral obligations
which may be summed up in that grand old
Breton proverb, ''Noblesse obIge"
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