There is always an alarm set up in some quarter or another about German influence; and nothing ever comes of it. For a whole generation there has been railing at the German party in Russia: there used to be dismal shakes of the head here about “a little German Prince,” when the Princess Charlotte was marrying; and about “a little German Princess,” when the Duchess of Kent was educating the Princess Victoria; and again about him who filled the post to which Prince Leopold was destined: we have heard evil bodings for Portugal, and even for France in the days of the Orleans rule, on account of their German matrimonial connections; yet each country is as much itself as it ever was. Each absorbs and transmutes the foreign element it takes up; and, in this way, the Prince of Wales is English, and his bride is Danish, not the less for the father of the one and the mother of the other having come from Saxe Coburg and Hesse Cassel. The Scandinavian connection will be peculiarly welcome to Englishmen, from the deep affinity which a thousand years have not extinguished. We should have hailed an amiable and sensible young lady from any Protestant country; but, if we had been offered the choice of her birthplace, it would doubtless have been one of the northern kingdoms, from which the maritime element of our national character, with all its perdurable virtues, was derived.
This being happily settled, we contemplate the young people in their first days of happiness, and with an anxious forecast into the future.
I need say nothing of the perils of the position of an Heir Apparent to such a throne. The snares in the path of Princes are an old and well-worn topic for moralists and true loyalists. It is enough to say that we are all willing to accept, without remonstrance, an earlier marriage for a young Prince, unattached to any profession, than we could pretend to approve in other cases. There are unquestionable evils in a very early marriage, but they may be the lesser of two orders of evils; and this is our conclusion now. A home, and a system of domestic interests, is of supreme importance to a young man who will one day be burdened with the toils and cares of sovereignty, but who has, in his prime years, nothing that it is necessary for him to do, and no engrossing taste which involves exercise and discipline of the intellect. Our Prince is of an affectionate and kindly temper,—no student,—and following no profession. The prime necessity for him therefore is a home of his own, with its special duties and its expanding interests. Under his peculiar circumstances, it is well that he is to have this resource so early.
It will be of inestimable value to him, and to the nation, if out of this home should come the influence which will place him under training for the great work of his life. Some of us feel that the year of mourning which is approaching its close would have been best sanctified by diligent work, rather than by the restless wandering which looks too much like a formed habit in the young Prince;—by an attendance on his mother, which might have already put him in training for the sort of assistance which his father afforded her under the constant burden of her duties. To learn from travel is good; but it can only be after a fixed study at home. Recreation by sport is good; but it is recreation only when it succeeds to toil. If the new friend who is henceforth to be always by his side should influence him to work,—to work at anything whatever with all his might;—especially if she supports in him the dutiful and natural desire to understand public questions, to discharge his legislative functions, and to relieve the Queen of whatever business can be committed to his hands,—such influence will endear the young wife to the existing generation, and will deserve the gratitude of all that are to come.
Influence of one sort or another, for good or for evil, she cannot but have and exercise. It will make an incalculable difference to this country, and probably to all Europe, whether it tends in the direction of industry, self-culture, filial service, and the public interest, or in that of light amusement, intellectual indolence, and a life of mere waiting for a function which is an honour and blessing, or the contrary, precisely according to the preparation or the neglect of preparation for it. At this moment, when we are all full of sympathy for our Prince, we can wish nothing better than that he should work as other men work, in order to enjoy as other men enjoy, the rest and comfort and unspeakable blessedness of home,—a blessedness which the man of pleasure and the rover never know.
Thus we look forward for him. As for her,—she will hear on all hands of the brilliancy of her lot; and very brilliant, indeed, it is. While dreaming over it, and preparing herself for it, as no doubt she is, she probably thinks that no young girl ever had such a prospect. In its way, this is nearly true. Considering the advance that England has made in a century, the lot of Queen Charlotte cannot be regarded as comparable in solid grandeur to that of a Queen Consort of England henceforth. As for poor Caroline of Brunswick,—she was not her Prince’s choice, but was appointed by his father, who was humbly obeyed by her own parents; and there was that about her Prince of Wales which excludes all comparison between the fate of the two wives. The Princess Alexandra is going to marry one who is not ashamed of domestic affections,—a man who is not only affectionate to his widowed mother, but makes friends of his sisters. In the middle ranks, we should say that the lot of one so betrothed is in her own hands.
And why not in the highest rank of all?
Far be it from any one of us to say that it may not be. But we have before our eyes the history of so many Princes of Wales that it would not be natural to be very confident. The more constitutional government has advanced, the stronger has been the jealousy between the possessor of the throne and its heir. As the sway of parties has become more pronounced and more regularly organised, the split of the royal family between these parties has become a sort of assumed liability,—fatal at once to good government and to family peace and honour. I need not dwell upon it; and I refer to it only to point out that the present period is favourable to the denial of this liability, and to the endeavours of the Princess of