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Show The Queen of Holland. AT THIS WRITING Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Marii, queen of ; Holland, lies in a critical condition. condi-tion. The young queen, since her accession, ac-cession, has proved herself so lovable, gracious, and, withal, so sensible It j is little wonder that she has found a warm place in the hearts of her subjects sub-jects and that they are offering prayers in their homes and .'their churches for her recovery. Should she die it would be a national calamity in many ways. Since Wilhelmina became queen nearly near-ly four years ago her life has been a-troubled a-troubled one. "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Her marriage to Prince . Henry has not been conductive conduc-tive to her happiness. Though the stories of his misconduct may be greatly great-ly exaggerated, there is little doubt that he has been brutally indifferent, grossly extravagant, and given to excesses ex-cesses of various kinds and all this to such an extent as to provoke angry criticism from the public, not only in Holland, but elsewhere on the continent. conti-nent. That the queen should have passed so quickly from a bright and happy girlhood into such domestic in felicity to satisfy considerations of politics pol-itics and the succession is pitiable. What she might have accomplished as queen may now never be known, but she has at least commended herself to her subjects' affection. In the event of the queen's death grave consequences may ensue which will not only be of serious concern to ropean complications, says the Chicago Tribune. Wilhelmina is the fourth sovereign sov-ereign the Youse of Orange has given to the Netherlands since it was made a kingdom in 1S15 by the congress of Vienna. Her predecessors were Wil-lem Wil-lem I, who abdicated in 1840; his son, Willem II, who reigned nine years and left the throne to his heir, Willem III, who reigned forty-one years and died i in 18P0. In default of male heirs the crown, according to ?fce constitution of the Netherlands, passed to Wilhelmina. I Though she is not absolutely the last of her race, she is the last of the house ' of Orange legally entitled to the crown. The other heirs . are German princes whose claim is derived through the female fe-male line. The next heir is the Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst, who succeeded to the throne of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenoeh last year after the death of the Grand Duke Carl Alexander, his grandfather, his father having died eight years ago. He would inherit through his grandmother, grand-mother, the late Grand Duchess Sophia, daughter of Willem II of the Nether lands and aunt of Wilhelmina. Wilhelm Wil-helm Ernst is in his 26th year, unmarried, unmar-ried, and rich not only by reason of a handsome civil list, but because of a i large private fortune inherited from j the Grand Duchess Sophia. As he is a bachelor and has neither brother nor sister. Prince Albrecht of Prussia regent re-gent of Brunswick, would be the next heir. He is a son of the late Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, who was daughter of Willem I. Like the Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst, he is rich. It is the succession, in case of the queen's death, which is giving the Dutch people serious concern. They naturally apprehend that a prince brought up and educated in Germany-would Germany-would always consult the German emperor, em-peror, and that the latter would use every means to Germanize HollanJ and ultimately add it to the Germanic dominions, do-minions, which has long been the ambition am-bition of the German imperial family. This would not only increase German influence in Europe, but would give Germany possesion of Java and the other Dutch colonies, thus greatly increasing in-creasing its influence in the far east. Whether the other European powers would look on unconcernedly at such aggrandizement as this is a problem which may soon demand settlement in case of Queen Wilhelmina's death. |