LIBEL ON THE PRINCE OF WALES.
A Sunday paper, which affects to consider itself the organ of the Court, has fallen into a libel through its excessive propensity to flunkeyism. The following is the libellous paragraph:—
"The Prince of Wales and the Shopman.—During one of the late Royal visits to the Dublin Exhibition the Royal children wandered about in the toy section of the building, while the Queen and Prince Albert were in other departments. The Prince of Wales showed a precocious tact in striking a bargain. He asked the price of an elaborate specimen of carving in bog-oak. The shopman in attendance, quite overwhelmed with the unexpected honour, answered distractedly, "a shilling"—the true price being about fifteen shillings. The Prince, with a promptitude worthy the future ruler of a great commercial nation, closed with the bargain at once, laid down his shilling, and walked off with his prize. This little incident will probably make the fortune of the exhibitor, who is constantly surrounded by groups of the curious, and preserves the shilling under a glass vase, only to be shown to the most favoured of the customers."
While transferring the above paragraph to our columns, we beg to protest against its truth, and to express our contempt for the awkward flunkeyism which endeavours to compliment the heir to the throne by imputing to him an act of what an American would call "smartness," and an Englishman would designate dishonesty. The imputation thrown upon the little Prince is that he took advantage of a shopman's mistake to obtain for a shilling what was worth fifteen, and this is clumsily described as a feat "worthy the future ruler of a great commercial nation." What great commercial principle is comprised in the act which has thus falsely, as we believe, been attributed to the Prince we are at a loss to perceive; but, if our contemporary carries on its commercial concerns in the spirit it seems so much to admire, we should decline having any dealings with it "in any shape or way" whatever.
We should like to know what the proprietors of the paper would say if a "smart" news-boy were to enter the office, asking the price of a quire of the journal, and on being told sixpence by mistake, he were to throw down that sum, and seizing up some ten shillings-worth of property, were to hurry away with it. Such an "incident" would more probably become the subject of a police charge than of a puffing paragraph.
An Imposing Sight.—The sight of your Bill—at nine-tenths at least of our "first-rate" Hotels.