OCR Text |
Show A WORD FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES. Tho T'rince of a!i' had so conducted con-ducted biaisL'it' of late u.s to Lave al-Qicst al-Qicst liwd down the evil rejmiaiion of liU earlier year.i. IVrhaps no living man suffered more from hasty and irresponsible irre-sponsible judgment than the heir apparent ap-parent to the Uritinh throne. It has been the fashion of men on both sides (if the water to shrug their shoulders at the mention of bis name. Vet, of the many accusations made against hiui, not a single one, so far as we know, has been proved. The only chartre that ever took definite Miape was that made iu the case of Lady Mordaunt, and his innocence in that case seems to have been established. The method of reasoning used by the public in such cases is, that where much is charged a part must be true. If that principle is to be accepted, no one is safe. r if one is accused, so-i so-i ciety will discount the accusation and I believe a fourth of it. Tho only tan-! tan-! gible indictment brought against the prince is that be has more llesh than is necessary and that his appearance is somewhat gross. As an ollet to this, it is certainly true that he performs bis duties with precision and conscientiousness, consci-entiousness, that his manners are good and his behaviour affable. A variety of circumstances, over which he could have no control, have borne severely upon the prince since his lather's death. As we have said, his appearance is rather against him. fie has had something of tlic fame of Prince Hal, with none of that beauty and youthful spirit which makes folly delightful in the eyes of the people. Even in Shakspcare'a day, a prince who was short, fat and bald would have found it difficult to be popular. It would have been better for such a person, even then, to be circumspect in his walk and conversation. Now-a-days kings have fallen upon hard times in England, and a prince who unites a plain exterior to a reputation for "fast" living need not expect to hear many good things of himself. The prince is, we believe, a good dancer, for which, of course, ho is liked by the ladies; princes, however, aro always liked by tlie ladies. But he has never been a bold hunter, preferring unpopularity, unpop-ularity, apparently, to a broken neck. The rnen at the universities did not admire his cri.ket, and at the recent llurlingham pigeon-shooting he scored very badly. it has been the prince s misfortune to be the scapegoat of much of the vexation vex-ation at the long seclusion of the queen. But apart from tho queen's unpopularity, unpopular-ity, Kn-land has for years been in a very bad humor upon general grounds. Sho has entered upon one of her eras of dissatisfaction. It was the misfor-tuneof misfor-tuneof the prince lo attain his majority just at that time when England was beginning to be eonsjious of a loss of influence iu the world's councils. Then came our war and our triumph, with its inevitable impulse to democracy. democ-racy. Had the prince bceu a marvel i of goodness and cleverness, he might ' not have excited a spark ofenthusiasm. But he was apparently a very ordinary young man and by reputation a "fast" one; he was moreover the san of a mother with whom the nation was vexed, and as England was, iu general, in a very bad humor, the poor young man got nothing but hard words. All the world took up the cry, and Albert Edward, for whom the many million tongues of the English church plead weekly, the child of many prayers, bc-oumo bc-oumo tho miuvain sne.L nf' t.h-worl. A. lr. A'Dcning Pvt. |