Prince Christian of Schleswig, a beggarly little German kinglet, who was allowed to marry the Princess Helena, a daughter of Queen Victoria, and a very good girl, is said to be rather wild in his ways, but his allowance, £10,000 a year from Parliament, has to satisfy him whether he likes it or not. But in 1869 Prince Christian and the Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz had occasion to journey from Dover to Calais, and the little German had the impudence to send a bill of sixty eight pounds expenses to Parliament, despite the fact that he received his allowance regularly. Professor Fawcett, a liberal member of Parliament, who brought in bills to abolish religious distinctions in Dublin University, and in favor of woman suffrage, demanded the items of the bill, and failing to get them, moved that the Prince Christian's bill be struck out of the estimates. To show what is thought of such unbridled extravagance—the fare being only about two pounds from Dover to Calais—I give the satire and comments of the Queen's Messenger of August 5, 1869, upon the matter. This paper is a weekly organ, published in London.
"Happily there are always two ways of looking at a question, else the following bill, which was presented last week to Parliament, might have suggested puzzling reflections:
DUE FROM BRITISH TAXPAYER TO BRITISH GOVERNMENT: For cost of presents made by Duke of Edinburgh during voyage to Cape and Australia, £3,374 14 0 For conveyance of Prince Christian and Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
from Dover to Calais,68 0 0 For royal present to Peter, king of Congo, as reward for act of Christian charity, 0 12 6 For luncheon to Prince William of Hesse, 13 0 0 For providing food for inhabitants of Cephalonia after the island had been injured by earthquake, 10 9 6 For rigging-out a pier at Antwerp for reception of Prince of Wales, 2 1 0 For robes, collars, and badges for certain persons who had received honor of knighthood, 1,000 0 0 For maintenance of Congo, pirate chief, at Ascension, 38 3 0 Cost of presents to King of Masaba, by Captain of H.M. ship Investigator, 2 0 4 ——— £4,509 0 4 Thus it costs 13l. to give a luncheon to Prince William of Hesse, and only 10l. to relieve an island full of people who are dying of famine. It requires 2l. to lay down red cloth for the Prince of Wales to walk on, and only 12s. 6d. to reward King Peter for an act of Christian charity. These are facts worth knowing. The only thing we regret is that Government should have withheld information as to the precise nature of the gift with which King Peter was gratified. Did this mighty Empire present him with six pairs of cotton socks, or request him to accept a gingham umbrella second-hand? And the King of Masaba, who figures anonymously, what did he get for 2l. 0s. 4d.? Was it a pair of boots and some pocket-handkerchiefs, or a few pots of Scotch marmalade and a dozen pints of Bass? As to the other items of the bill, it is so obviously right that the country should be made to pay 68l. every time Prince Christian crosses the Channel, that we can only wonder anybody should ever have thought otherwise, and moved, as Mr. Fawcett did, that the sum be struck out of the estimates. We live in strange times, forsooth, when a prince cannot charge the cost of his railway-tickets on to the national purse without being made the subject of unmannered comments!"
| DUE FROM BRITISH TAXPAYER TO BRITISH GOVERNMENT: | ||
| For cost of presents made by Duke of Edinburgh during voyageto Cape and Australia, | £3,374 14 0 | |
| For conveyance of Prince Christian and Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from Dover to Calais, | 68 0 0 | |
| For royal present to Peter, king of Congo, as reward for actof Christian charity, | 0 12 6 | |
| For luncheon to Prince William of Hesse, | 13 0 0 | |
| For providing food for inhabitants of Cephalonia after theisland had been injured by earthquake, | 10 9 6 | |
| For rigging-out a pier at Antwerp for reception of Prince ofWales, | 2 1 0 | |
| For robes, collars, and badges for certain persons who had receivedhonor of knighthood, | 1,000 0 0 | |
| For maintenance of Congo, pirate chief, at Ascension, | 38 3 0 | |
| Cost of presents to King of Masaba, by Captain of H.M. shipInvestigator, | 2 0 4 | |
| ——— | ||
| £4,509 0 4 | ||
LORD ARTHUR CLINTON.
And now having given as brief a resume as I possibly could of the salient characteristics of the "fast" young English aristocracy—having shown how extravagant, useless, dishonorable and unprincipled many of them are, I will close by mentioning that it is not long since the English journals were filled with the evidence on the trial of two young men who were arrested in London for dressing and appearing in public as females. They were frequently seen at the Opera, the race course, and in other public places, in company with Lord Arthur Clinton, a well-known young nobleman. Their apartments were searched, and waterfalls, chignons, puffs, and all the articles of the female toilet and female wearing apparel, were found in their possession. Brought before a magistrate, they manifested a strange and unmanly behavior, and bore without shame the details of the medical examination. Lord Clinton, in company with some other friends, had been paying their addresses to these hybrid creatures, and following in the footsteps of some of the disgusting court favorites, of which Juvenal and the Satirists of the Lower Empire speak, he was jealous of another young Lord, the cause being a rivalry for the affections of one of these hybrid things in a woman's clothes!
LORDS AND COMMONS.
